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

Are some gyms are reverting to girlie weights again ?

Depends on how low and how many reps.
In fact, bodybuilders who want to add bulk do high reps at lower weight.

Our pump class is for serious male and female lifters, but the sets last around 5 mins, with just 3 short breaks in the hour, so we only use max 20kg barbells for that (except for the Schwarzenegger clone who does 30kg+)

I also do a weekly session of much higher weights with 2-6 reps per set, to increase strength.

In BodyPump they used to set guides - like 15kg total for squats for women and 30kg for men or 8kg for chest track etc etc
but there has been rather a rash of women loading up the bar and then not doing all of the reps and doing them badly
Bodypump is 800 reps in 50 minutes of all the different muscle groups so is not HIIT, but its interesting that they are now emphasising technique and keeping going over loading up the weight

betsy I would definitley get your gait checked and some new trainers.

Bad trainers caused me all sorts of hip problems and soon resolved with the right shoes.

I'm super pleased I have reached halfway of a challenge at work which is 100 days 10k steps a day. In 50 days I've walked 209 miles.

I have recently started a vibe spinning class too and have dropped 1 insanity session to mix things up.

To the poster that is nervous about getting in to classes. I don't enjoy a gym, its not for everyone. But classes right now I'm loving. Its sociable and structured. I have found it wonderful!!

I have a very busy home life and I find it a great stress relief to enjoy and I don't have to think about things too much!!

Hungry I have done those things (gait and new trainers), plus temporarily stopped with the kicks in TKD that felt problematic and so far so good :) Not even a twinge of complaint from my hip. My trainers were extremely worn out, and bought when I was 50lbs or so heavier so it was a no-brainer really

Sounds like you're enjoying your fitness regime - the key is definitely in finding stuff that makes you happy.

I went to SweatShop a couple of years ago: they have a machine to check the gait and automatically produce appropriate shoe liners.
Cost was £40, well worth it. I just slip them into whatever trainers I'm wearing
(I have 25-30 pairs of Nikes)

Well done, Hungry 209 miles is fantastic. Do let us know when you complete the challenge.
Are you going to reward yourself then with some new trainers ?

I found I can't train at home; it's too boring and I need to get out.
I manage 45 mins on my own in the weights area at the gym, but otherwise it has to be classes for me.

I'm lucky that both my gyms run classes for serious exercisers.
Yesterday, for example, my XFit partner was a strapping 22-yr-old lad but we were very compatible.
Today, I've just finished our version of "pump", which is a very tough weights class intended for male & female bodybuilders / lifters.

Hi folks

Nice to see everyone doing so well!

I've a bit of an NSV to report:
In the pool today, I watched a youngster place his hands on the side of the pool and haul himself up onto the side – dead easy.

I wondered if I could do that - and I did! One moment I’m in four feet of water, the next I’m sitting on the side! I haven’t been able to do that since I was a lad.

Awesome bandw I love NSV like that.

bigchoc I hadn't even thought about a reward! But I feel my new habits are becoming 'cemented' so a treat of some new gear wouldn't go a miss!!

NSV managed 10 big girl push ups last night yehaaaa!!!! Upped my daily step target for next 25 days let's see if I can keep up!!!

Wow, so many NSVs. Well done everybody !

BreadandWine That's very motivatimg for you. Just "casually" do that move the next time you swim with your son.
Your exercise regime has clearly "Bent The Aging Curve" referred to in the OP.

Well done on the Big Girls, Hungry
You are obviously becoming stronger and fitter. Once you can do one set, you can soon do more.
Pressups strengthen your core, so they improve a lot of other exercises.

And you are walking miles which is great. Definitely start choosing trainers to celebrate the 100 days. It also gets you used to non-food rewards.
When you walk outside, do you add some faster walking or jogging intervals ?

Thanks for your exercise plan BigChoc - I've already done them all and find them manageable. Should I still continue doing 30DS alongside or are these exercises enough?

I'm looking forward to being able to do more, pushing myself harder...and seeing results!

Thank you again

Welcome, IceLemon Glad to hear you are exercising well.

Continue doing the exercises plus say 1 day of shred if you can manage it, each week. If you are not keen on shred, you can stop that, no problem.
Just make sure you have 1-2 days rest per week, when you do no exercise except for a gentle walk.
It's good you've found you enjoy swimming.

Your fitness should improve quite quickly in the first few months of training e.g. You'll note how much faster you can do the swim and running sprint intervals.
This will help improve your body composition and shape.

At this stage, we could increase your exercise intensity (not duration) every 2-4 weeks and vary the types of training.
Do post any time about what you have been doing or if you've any questions.

If you know why you're doing something, you're more likely to do it.

Here's an article in the NY Times that points to the research that tells us exactly why we need to push ourselves when we exercise.

It reinforces everything BC has been telling us, and will certainly give me more motivation when I wonder, as I sometimes do, "Do I really need to do that fourth set of press-ups (or another 2 minutes of plank - or whatever!).

And it will encourage me to add another set to my HIIT routine. I noticed today that it's taking me longer to get to that stage when your legs are protesting 'I don't want to do this any more!'

(Just realised that the article gives the rationale behind the success of HIIT!)

One last thing - looking back at my notes over the past couple of years, I've often mentioned just how good I've been feeling. I first noticed it after I'd reached my goal weight and I started 24hr fasting. In those days I actually felt euphoric after a fast. As time went on I just felt a complete feeling of well-being after fasting, which would last for the rest of the week.

So it's difficult to put into words just how well I'm feeling at this moment without going into hyperbolic mode!

I just feel so bloody good!

Yes, I remember reading this article. There are still some (pathetic) trainers saying HIIT is too scary and difficult for ordinary mortals.

Intensity really matters and HIIT enables us to do bursts of high intensity that we could not sustain for long steady state sessions.

Even non-exercisers can start HIIT with the "Couch to HIIT" routines I posted.
Obviously, each person must choose the type and intensity of exercise that they can do without over-straining joints, heart or lungs.

Everyone needs at least 1 complete rest day from training, plus additional days whenever they feel tired. Try to alternate different kinds of training or muscle groups on different days, to allow recovery.
Also, I recommend not exceeding 90 mins in any one day.
Really intensive routines, especially for beginners, might only take 10 mins that day.

Lovely to hear how good & fit you feel. You have trained very hard and deserve your great success.

To ramp up exercise, particularly in your case, I would recommend you try to increase the intensity of the sets, rather than their number.
So with HIIT sprints, do faster ones, but the same amount.
If ordinary pressups are easy, do diamond ones or weighted planks /pressups (stick a rucksac on your back)

For most people, I would say if you are exercising for less than an hour on a training day, you could optionally increase duration to 1 hour total training, instead of increasing intensity.

Runners !
How good are you ?
Want an idea of realistic goal times ?
This grades your level at any distance, wrt age and gender RunTime

Thanks, BC.

Not sure how I can go faster with my HIIT sprints! I go flat out as it is. I could reduce the rest periods, I suppose.

I don't find press ups easy, yet. I'm always mighty glad when I reach 20! Funnily enough I always find the second set the easiest. And I did 5 sets last night.

Still got the splint on my finger. For a few more days anyway .. It'll be interesting to see of I can still do my pull ups after a 2 month layoff.

Thanks for the run link - it tells me that my desire to run 10k in under 60 mins is a perfectly realistic goal :) I thought it was but it's nice to have it confirmed - removes the mental block.

When I run, I either do a short run (say 20-30mins) and HIIT sprints OR a longer run.

Have you got any hills locally B&W? Running uphill is seriously intense!

B&W Varying the range of intervals like this also increases fitness.
e.g. if you are doing 8 sets of 20 secs sprinting /10 secs recovery, change the middle four to 30 / 10 or to 90 / 30 or even 10 / 5.

Betsy How did your fun run go today?

You can do sub-60, Betsy
A few years ago, an old friend in her mid-50s, who was not particularly active, took up running and achieved this. It took her about 6 months training.
She's 5'2" , so despite short legs too.

I think Anglaise has only been running since September and she is aiming for sub-45 before her big 5-0
< But she is really exceptional !>

Runners - calories burned
Feed distance, time and weight into RunningCals

The race was awesome. There was a group of us and we kept together and ran in formation. Not hugely fast, but a respectable 32 mins as we kept pace with the slowest and crossed the finish line together. But faster than we were as a group 3 months ago!

Anglaise is exceptional, and with long, lean legs too! I'm aiming for sub 60min 10k by mid September (it's my green belt fitness TKD challenge). I'm envisioning long runs along the southwest coastal path in a couple of weeks...

My short chunky legs do not make for a natural runner, but I bloody love it.

Well done, Betsy. So nice for your group to finish together, too.

I hope you've had a couple of nourishing meals afterwards.

To reach 10k in September, here are 2 levels of training programs for 10k, each 8 weeks:
Easy10k
Faster10k
With all the other exercise you do, it's important not to overload your body. So, I suggest the Easy10k program, but on Tuesdays doing the 400m Intervals from the Faster10k.

That means: you run Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
On Wednesday and Sunday, the cross-training is your TaeKwando and strength training.

Obviously swap the days to fit TaeKwondo etc, but even if you follow your own program, try to keep the same rest and run sequence, i.e. run on 3 days, each followed by a non-run day.

Just popping in as I'm getting on the 5:2 wagon but also trying to combine it with exercise. I'm overweight, short, part time single mum (long story for another time!), full time corporate worker. I have done barely any exercise in 2 years and even then it was a 6 month addiction for the first time in 30+ years!!
Need to lose about 20kgs. The faster the better - if I see results I will keep at it.
I have joined a gym but am struggling to find time to get there as I have a small child and am alone with him hundreds of miles from F&F. How do working parents fit in exercise to their normal day?!

Anyone done the shred?
Anyone done c25k from a standing start recently and done all their running in a gym? (I'm overseas and running outside is not feasible)
Any tips for a newbie exerciser?!!

B&W Varying the range of intervals like this also increases fitness.
e.g. if you are doing 8 sets of 20 secs sprinting /10 secs recovery, change the middle four to 30 / 10 or to 90 / 30 or even 10 / 5.

Yikes! I do nothing like that! 3 sets of 30-35 seconds with a 30 second interval is my routine.

Thanks, BB, but I do my HIIT running round a 3x4mtr exercise pool, in 4 foot of water. I've tried jogging/running several times over the years and each time my knees protested and I gave up.

The run was immediately followed by steak and chips - my son's birthday meal of choice!

Exercise programmes are going to be disrupted by holidays somewhat but my weeks away will be filled with surfing, coastal path jogging and I expect I'll fit in some tkd practise on the beach too , the second holiday should be filled with hill walking days and I'll attempt some running there too.

Truth is I've already got up to 9k and I only stopped because I didn't want to achieve my challenge before I set it!