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.
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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