5:2 Exercise & Fitness Thread Number 2: Advice and information for those following 5:2 / IF (Intermittent Fasting)

[BigChocFrenzy]

Why Exercise ?

Maintaining a normal bodyweight and taking regular exercise are 2 major areas of life which we can address to improve our health.

Regular exercise helps reduce the risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, some cancers, osteoporosis, dementia, depression.

Increasing your % muscle and / or reducing your % body fat lowers the risk of death from all causes LowerRiskMuscle

Regular exercisers gain the greatest benefits over their lifetime and theyj can minimise biological aging, i.e. "Bend the Aging Curve BendAge

Fasted training

i.e. training on FDs, seems to increase the benefits of both training and IF.
Most experienced exercisers soon manage fasted training without loss of performance for session of up to 90 mins.

Hormesis

"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger"
Hormesis Mattson , BlackSwan and Hormesis is cutting edge science for nutrition and fitness.

Its principles are that alternating between "extremes" of feast and fast (5:2 / IF) or intense training and rest (HIIT), makes the body more resilient.

The intermittent stress of lifting an extreme weight or performing at high speed for a short period pushes the body to overcompensate and prepare for an even greater future challenge HormesisTrain , Hormesis-Edge , and AntiFragile The following recovery period avoids damage from over-stressing.

INEFFICIENT: Low-Medium Intensity Steady state Cardio

Steady state cardio is NOT necessary for fitness and should only be a small part of your weekly cardio, unless it is all you can manage to do.

Walking outdoors is beneficial psychologically, is easy on the knee joints and has some physical benefits.

However, at speeds of 5mph or faster, running will burn more calories per mile than walking Ref

Also low-moderate or steady state exercise tends to increase appetite, whereas intense exercise can suppress appetite for up to 15 hours.

BEST TYPES of Exercise

HIIT cardio and resistance training / weight lifting are recommended to boost the effect of 5:2/IF, to increase weight loss, reduce body fat, retain muscle and maintain TDEE / BMR.

Anyone who is not specialising in a sport at a high level should aim to do both HIIT cardio and lifting / resistance training.

FAST Exercise

Dr Mosely developed a Fast Exercise program to complement his 5:2 WOE FastExercise

He lists many HIIT and strength routines that only take a few minutes, but can make significantly improve metabolism and fat-burning capability FastExercises

HOW to Exercise

The cardio machines and the girlie pink dumbbells that gyms push are NOT adequate to significantly improve fitness or burn fat.

Whether you join a gym or train at home or in the park:

• Train as intensively as your time, health and fitness level allow.
• Do not remain in your comfort zone, or you will not improve.
• You are supposed to drip sweat and pant heavily !

However, a brisk 30 mins daily walk plus 5 mins hoop is better than nothing and if done regularly will bring some health benefits.

HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training)

HIIT is an exercise strategy which alternates brief intervals of high intensity exercise with less-intense recovery periods.
Examples:

• 20 seconds high intensity + 10 secs recovery
• 60 sec high + 30 sec low etc.

HIIT is very time-efficient, producing the greatest fitness benefit in the least time (the advantage of hormesis).

Scientists have proved that HIIT burns more fat than steady state lower intensity exercise and speeds up the metabolism, which helps burn more calories for up to 48 hrs.

HIIT also improves the insulin metabolism, which is very important for health.

HIIT reduces risk of heart problems more than doing lower intensity SteadyState , pp. 31-34.

HIIT increases both aerobic and anaerobic endurance

HIIT can be applied to cardio: e.g. cycling, running, skipping, jumping, mountain climbs or to bodyweight exercises, e.g. squatting, situps, burpees, pressups

Most gyms offer HIIT classes, e.g. spinning, circuit training, CrossFit, Tabata, Fartlek*(Fartlek = HIIT with irregular intervals)

RESISTANCE Training / LIFTING

Helps retain muscle mass during weight loss and hence to maintain TDEE.
You can lift at home, or in the gym weights area, or in a pump class.

It is best not to train the same muscle groups 2 days in succession, so have rest days, or cardio, or train different muscle groups on different days.
Try to build up to weight training for 30-60 mins twice per week.

Reps = the number of repetitions in a set of a particular lifting exercise
Sets are normally separated by brief rests E.g. you might do 3 sets each of 12 reps all of the same exercise.

WARNING
Do not lift massively heavy barbells, more than bodyweight, unless you are really fit with good technique.
Women who have given birth and / or are aged 40+ have a higher risk of pelvic floor / prolapse injuries when lifting heavy than young non-mums.

Press ups

• By far the best upper body exercise
• Keep attempting one full pressup rather than doing several dozen girlie ones with your knees on the floor.
• Once you can do one pressup, you will soon be able to build up to 5, then 10 etc.
• Tip: keep the abs rigid, so strong abs are as important as strong shoulders & arms
• Hand Release Pressups are good to build up strength for full ones
• Also build up via inclined pressups InclinedPress , see bottom of wiki page
• To increase the number of pushups IncreaseNum

ATG Arse To Grass bodyweight squat

• The best exercise for the large muscle group in bum and thighs.
• Basic principle: It is like having a pee on a public loo - get your bum down low and pointing to the rear, but not actually touching the seat.

-Lean back on your heels, so that weight is on them, not on your toes. -bring your arms forward

• keep your back straight, but angled slightly forward, not vertical.
• Go down as far as you can without knee pain.

Pullups

• Very few women can do full ones, but assisted ones build excellent muscle
• Work the same muscles with the much easier Australian pullup or imverted row InvertedRow

If you have access to dumbbells / barbells, then for maximum effect, work the large muscle groups:
squats bent-over rows (press button "female") Behind neckPress (press button "female") dead lift

To increase Strength Rather than Muscle Mass
Lift as heavy as you can, low reps, with 1 minute rest between sets e.g. 5 sets x 5 reps each, i.e. totalling 25 lifts.

To Build More Muscle
Lift lower (NOT Girlie) weight, do 3 sets x 8-20 reps, i.e. totalling 24-60 lifts.

AVOID OSTEOPOROSIS

To retain bone strength and avoid a painfully disabled old age, start now:
Ideally weight-bearing exercises that load the bone along its length of these types:

Impact exercise E.g. walking, running, jumping, skipping rope, step class, hitting a heavy punch bag.

Lifting: squats, press-ups, bench press, overhead press etc.

Squats are much better for osteoporosis than lunges, also for knees:
The weight in a squat is transmitted down along the spine, through the hip, and down along the bones of the leg, whereas in a lunge, it is transmitted across the shinbone and puts pressure on the knee joint.

Note: Cycling normally does NOT increase bone density, as it does not load bones along their length. Osteo

KETTLEBELLS Kettle
Beginners:
. Two-handed swing
. Sumo Deadlift
. Turkish Getup
. Swing
. Clean and Jerk
. Press

Improve your GRIP STRENGTH GripMen , BodyBuild

CALCULATORS:
Fast Fitness Calculators: 52FastExercise
Estimate your fitness age: FitAge
Estimate Vo2Max iTunes App: Vo2APP
Body Fat Calculator:BF
Healthy Body Fat Percentages at Different Ages: HealthyBF
TDEE with detailed activity times: TDEE

Hi baloostika
First, have a BIG drink of water, extra important with fasted training to be hydrated before you start and keep drinking during and afterwards.

For the heavy lifting sessions you are doing, 45-60 mins is plenty.
Concentrate hard, plan your time to complete all the sets for your chosen main muscle group (lower bod, upper bod, abs).
Any body parts not done, perform another day. Just add 10 mins cooldown / relaxation walk, if you want.
No need to do cardio afterwards, better on the days between lifting.

Try to plan in advance for the week ahead, so that you work all main muscle groups at least twice.

Thank u BCF for the water advise. I do all my trainings fasted everyday and eat at 12-1pm. My weight lifting routines and most of my workouts are between 60-90 minutes 5 days a week, I'm thinking od reducing my timings as I do feel weak these days, I'm sure I'm not eating enough to feed my workouts.
I do tabata boxing for 30 mins that's 7/5 rounds of 4 mins on alternate days and aerobics class or the elliptical for another 30 mins. That should be enough for my non training days I guess.
Enjoy ur day.

Baloostika I agree you should cut back a bit now, especially if you are also in a weight loss phase.

Don't lift any longer than 60 mins. Then nothing else that day.

On the alternate days, 30 mins HIIT boxing is sufficient, no need to do any extra cardio unless you still feel energetic.
Just relax in a sauna or have 20 mins walk outside. Or go home and read a good book.

Make sure you have 1-2 rest days per week, with no training whatsoever. These are the days when your muscles repair themselves and become stronger.

Most intense exercisers (including me) take a break every 2-3 months. I suggest 4-7 days holiday, no training. If you feel tired, you can start now.
People often find performance improves when they return.

Baloostika, BreadandWine, Betsy, Metella, Anglaise and everyone else exercising intensely:

Make sure you are eating enough to fuel muscle repair and build

You should be averaging TDEE on NFDs and having at least 25% TDEE on FDs (avoid under-eating on FDs).
If you are on maintenance, you do not need a weekly deficit, so you can build more muscle.

Everyone: drink water before, during and after training !

Some of us women with high activity levels have TDEEs above 2000. If that's you, then increase your FD allowance above 500.
My TDEE is 2400, so each week I eat 600+ on FD1 and then (because I'm on maintenance) 600-1000 on FD2. So I can eat well above TDEE at weekends.

We are strong women (and one bloke) and we deserve our food

Yes Ma'am! Bigchoc I've definitely noticed an increase in my eating recently since I upped my training levels. I'm listening to my body and going with it - it's mostly asking for really nutritious but calorific extras which is fine by me, and carb blowouts once a week it seems. As you know, my weight is down a little and my muscle mass is up.

I wake up thirsty a lot, especially after a decent bit of exercise the day before so I know I could be more hydrated. I am working on this, including daily pelvic floor exercises whenever I remember so I don't need to pee as often.

Clench!

Just an update after my earlier post. I'm going for increasing 2 of my intervals to 14kph per week, feeling good so far with it. Managed 4 big girl press-ups today as well, so going to build up the reps of those too.

So much for losing the splint! I'm to keep it on for 6-8 weeks!

This means no press-ups, pull-ups. Only one-handed kettlebell exercises!

On the bright side, my left arm is just a tad weaker than my right - should be able to correct that over the next couple of months!

I'm hoping I'll be able to swim in a couple of days - so at least I'll be able to do my HIIT. Might up my sets to 4 instead of 3.

Have to say I was once again very impressed by the good people of the NHS this morning!

The perfect opportunity to get some very impressive 1 handed press up/pull up practise in perhaps B&W!

That's good progress, Pleco

B&W I would still recommend a rest from training until the weekend.
All intense exercisers need a few days break every so often and this would be an appropriate time, when your body is in repair mode.

re Clenching since I think B&W, Betsy are the experts here to guide us:
Do you recommend the same actions as to stop a wee ?
How often do you do this ?

Hi BCF,

Yeah, to exercise your pelvic floor/root, imagine you are trying to stop yourself peeing. You should do this in time with your breath, so take a deep inhale, hold at the top then tighten the pelvic floor, visualising a closing or tightening from anus to deep abdominals, rippling forwards along your vagina - it may be a little arousing (I think you're a woman, aren't you? If not, there are different instructions :)), projecting energy upwards to the top of your head. Release on the exhale.

It's really good done lying on the floor with knees up and feet flat on the floor, or as part of a core workout, so holding your legs off the ground, for example.

Shouldn't be done if menstruating, as it creates blocks in the body, projecting energy up the wrong way - your menstruation energy shouldn't be pushed back up your body, if that makes sense?

Kundalini does a lot of root work.

That's how Kundalini teaches it

Thanks, BCF, I'll do that. I'm due back at the Splint Clinic next Monday morn, so I'll do nothing 'til then!

Feels slightly weird, though!

But, BB, you're a bit hardcore, you are!

Thanks, Pleco, very useful instructions for all women here (I am one, but 57, so post-meno)
Maybe B&W can tell any lurking chaps how he clenches.

Pelvic floor: I tend to try and hold the clench while breathing normally, as it's harder to do, then I count to see how long I can hold it for. As Plec says, it's sort of pulling up the whole of the area.

I'm doing it several times a day, whenever I'm lazing around with my laptop. It's helped that there's been that blog article on 'fallen fanjos' at the top of MN talk for a few days - nothing like the horror of that image to get tightening!

I used to have great pelvic floor strength and then all of a sudden last year it all changed - long after having babies . But, much like press ups, I'm definitely getting positive results from my efforts so maybe I'm reversing the effects. It's good news as it's hard to get toilet breaks at work but I need to keep hydrated too!

We blokes certainly have it a lot easier when it comes to bladder control. [phew]

Here's a blog post I've written on the subject.

I've been getting more and more into Twitter, lately - and there's a weekly hour of chat for veggies and vegans who run. Not surprisingly, there's a good deal of overlap between that and this thread.

Here's the sort of thing you're likely to find there.

Unfortunately, since it's US-based, it's not very convenient for us, being at 9.00pm EST, or 2am Monday morning (so it's OK for ATB). It is available for perusal later in the day if you search for #vegrunchat.

Hey everybody. [Smile]
What's ur take on aerobics classes, I don't do much step aerobics cos my knees are not too good, reason why I can't run as fast as I would ordinarily want ti .I try to fit in one or two classes a week after my strength or boxing workouts. It burns a lot of calories according to MFP. I like the classes as u jump, stretch, twist and turn, dance and all. I usually fit in 20-50mins most days as time permits.
Also, what impact does HIIT boxing (punching bag) have on body composition or muscle building?
Thanks for reading my long questions.

Baloostika Concentrate on doing the important exercises for your particular body at maximum intensity, then resting.
It is impossible for anyone to do every available class or sport.

The idea is, your body has high loading for maximum 60-90 mins on 5 or 6 days per week and then is allowed to repair / build muscle the rest of the time.

The lifting, HIIT and boxing you do are excellent and quite sufficient if done at high effort.

Boxing, like most martial arts, is superb exercise for the body. It builds strength, endurance, flexibility, also burns lots of calories.
If you punch a hard bag or pads, that also improves bone density, which helps avoid osteoporosis.

I would advise dropping step / aerobics, because it is for women who are below your fitness level. It takes time that would be better spent resting, or on a relaxing walk.

Merci BCF

Betsy You mentioned on the main thread that you are going for the next TaeKwanDo belt
[excited face !]
When is your test ?
What do you have to achieve ?
How are you training for it ?

bigchoc Test is two-and-a-bit weeks away. Orange belt. So I've 3 new forms learnt (patterns of moves) and their meanings, names of kicks and stuff in Korean, 6 step sparring patterns, improved all of my moves, steps, kicks and punches and getting to grips with spinning kicks, complete a personal fitness challenge (press ups - done - thank you!).

Aside from that our non-profit-making, volunteer run club ethos is also about sharing knowledge and helping others so I've been helping train up other women, promoting our club like mad (we are very young and small), helping others complete their running fitness challenge and training a few of us for a charity run. Every club has it's own style and we like to add 'flair' to our moves so that's been something to practise too.

So all of my exercise motivation comes from TKD: 2 classes per week, 2 runs (plus other stuff) per week, then one more unofficial class which is a group run and then practising our forms in the park and play with the awesome free outdoor gym stuff I mentioned before. The knuckle press ups I've started doing are because they strengthen your wrists for punches, and because they're pretty darn cool.

It's fair to say that this club has changed my life for the better , I've also been passing on an awful lot of stuff you've taught me on here too :)

Another taekwondo-er! How exciting! I've been going it for nearly 3 years and am a blue belt (ITF) Betsy! Like you, I do a lot of other exercise activities to improve my Tkd - Pilates for flexibility, weights for strength, kettle bells for cardio and strength. I used to run but twisted my knee very badly doing a side kick (poor technique!) and running always makes it hurt. I'm evangelical about TKD - I was entirely non sporty and fairly exercise averse, and now I do loads in my mission to get to black belt before I'm 50. I'm 47 next week so I have plenty of time as long I can stay injury free!

That's inspiring, Betsy, do keep us informed of your progress.
We'll all cheer your next shiny new belt

Welcome Corrie
Martial arts are super for fitness and it's great to have a fourth woman here who does one: Baloostika and I both do fitness boxing, i.e. we punch bags or pads, not bodies.

A black belt would be a massive achievement and so good for your morale before your 50th.
Is there another grade between your current blue and this ?

It's fascinating that TaeKwonDo has inspired you and Betsy to do all these other exercises, to improve your prowess.
For Baloostika and me, boxing is one part of our training routine, rather than something that drives us to do other exercises
This tkd sounds addictive !

Corrie! How exciting to have another TKD evangelist on the thread! I only started in January this year (I'm 38 so a late-comer to martial arts too) but I can't get enough - I would probably train every day if I could . Sorry to hear about your injury - I really notice if I haven't warmed up and stretched enough before I start kicking so really make sure I do, I'm sure the lovely young things can get away with it but we have to be more careful!

My mission is definitely black belt too - only about 10 belts to go ha ha! We do a mixture of WTF and ITF - so double the forms to learn!

By the way bigchoc I'm not allowed to hit humans yet - not for 2 more belts, so it's all pads and air for the moment. Apparently my 'kill face' is very convincing and my instructor already pities those who will grade to sparring level with me

Women, Shape, Strength

Top female trainer and lifting medalist Gubernatrix has a very interesting article about women's concerns about lifting and building muscle, whereas diet has much more effect on our physique
WomenLifting

Also 10 reasons why women shouldn't lift

And also WhyWomenLift