Stretch

Immediately after exercise the first stage of your recovery should be a good stretch. Stretching after exercise helps restore the muscles to their pre-exercise length, bring back down core body temperature, help reduce soreness over the following days and as a bonus it feels good. Stretch all the major muscles of the chest, back, shoulders, and legs for 30 seconds each. If you need to improve the flexibility of a muscle repeat each stretch 3 times. You may have some muscular imbalances and this is where speaking with a specialist who can develop a prescription exercise programme for you will really help.

Recovery Drink

Next up should be a visit to the kitchen for a recovery drink, and no I dont mean a nice cup of tea. The ideal recovery drink should contain both carbohydrates and protein in certain quantities (3:1 if you’re interested). As luck would have it nature has provided us with a ready made perfectly balanced recovery drink……..milk. Whether you like it plain or flavoured it’s the perfect balance of protein, carbs, vitamins and fluid to help you recover from your exercise. 300-500ml should do the trick and it doesn’t matter if it’s skimmed, semi or full fat (theres actually much less difference than you may think, but that’s for another time)

Rest days

As I mentioned earlier it’s not actually whilst your exercise that your fitness increases but in the following days when you allow your body to rest. Exercise is just the signal we give to the body to ‘tell’ it to make changes to our biology and in the process get fitter.

The problem occurs when too much exercise is done too soon with too little rest. This doesn’t give the body enough time to adapt before the next session and so you’re exercising with fatigue still in the body. Its like going to get all four tyres changed but leaving before the mechanic has had chance to put the new tyre on the last wheel. The car may drive but the performance will be impaired and the chance of having an accident will be much greater.

As a rule of thumb 24 hours rest should be allowed in between exercise session of the same type. Running is a slightly different case because of the greater forces involved and 48 hours is a much safer time to wait. Rest is the fertiliser that lets the fruits of your training flourish.

Sleep

Most people need 7-8 hours of sleep. There are people who can get by on less, but 7 hours of sleep each evening is the minimum most people need to stay mentally and physically healthy. Habitually getting less than this can have serious health consequences. Sleep deprivation is used as a form of torture to mentally and physically break people.

Sleep is when your body goes through most of its healing and adaption process. So you actually get fitter whilst you sleep. A lack of sleep leads to a lower production of hormones that affect your health, mood and feelings of hunger.  These hormones include Growth Hormone, Serotonin, Ghrelin and Leptin.

Growth Hormone is vital to the adaption response after training, it tells the body to build muscle and burn fat. Its production is at its peak during deep sleep and so if you don’t get enough sleep all your efforts during workouts will go to waste.

Lack of sleep also reduces the production of the pleasure hormone Serotonin. If this is low then the body will crave pleasure giving foods such as sugar. What’s the point of burning all those calories on the treadmill only to put them back as biscuits because you’re tired?

When Ghrelin and Leptin hormones are reduced, your sense of hunger and fullness is out of balance too.  This leads to overeating which usually involves eating high calorie and unhealthy foods.

Imagine again the analogy of the tent pole with the lines. Only this time you’ve put the tent pole in the ground at a funny angle and instead of straitening it up before attaching the lines you’ve just left it. Some of the lines will now have to work harder than others and the load won’t be evenly distributed – eventually the poles coming down.

The image below shows all the major posture types with the far right being ideal posture. You can see the red plumb line runs through the ear, shoulder, elbow, hip, knee and ankle. With these joints aligned the forces in the body are evenly distributed and the chance of pain or injury minimised.

Your job is to maintain as close to this as possible whilst exercising. A full postural correction programme is beyond the scope of this article  and requires specialised assessment and correction by a personal trainer or physio therapist. However you can improve your posture by listening to your mum and just standing up straight as often as possible.

Bonus Tip 11 – Rest and Recovery

What is the Core and What does it do?

The term core is one of the most misunderstood and over used terms in the world of fitness – even amongst personal trainers! The core is essentially a group of interlinking muscles located in the abdomen, back, hips and shoulders with the job of stabilising you in an upright position. Individually the muscles aren’t particularly strong when compared to the leg or chest muscles but they do (or should have) great endurance. They are designed to keep us upright all day, every day, for our whole lives!

The problem comes when one or more of the core muscles lack the strength or endurance needed. Other muscles then have to take over the workload to keep you upright; however these muscles have their own work to do and so become over worked themselves. Pain, immobility and instability are the end results. If you then try to add training on top of an already overworked unstable system, then it’s only a matter of time before injury occurs.

The best analogy is that of a tent poll with the lines on all sides perfectly taught keeping the tent pole upright. None of the lines are particularly strong but working together and sharing the loads they can resists even the strongest of winds. Now imagine one or more of those lines are slack/weak. It will probably be ok if the wind doesn’t get up, but when it does that tents coming down and you’re getting wet!

How Can I Strengthen The Core?

Well I’m glad you asked! The most effective way to strengthen the cores isn’t endless situps or crunches but holding certain positions statically. The three best are Plank, Side Plank and Bridge.

Plank

Lay onto your front with your elbows resting under your shoulders and forearms on the floor. Curl your toes under and press them into the floor lifting your stomach, hips and legs off of the ground. The key is to keep your back straight and your stomach tight. If this version is too hard keep the knees on the floor and build up to the full plank. Aim to hold for 30 seconds and repeat 3 times. You can progress the exercise by lifting legs alternately for the 5 seconds each.

Side Plank

Lay on your side with your elbow under you shoulder and your forearm on the ground. Place one foot on top of the other. Make sure your body is completely straight and push down lifting your hips and legs off the floor. If this version is too hard keep your knees on the ground. Aim to hold for 30 seconds on each side and repeat 3 times. You can progress the exercise by lifting the top leg for 5 seconds repeatedly.

Bridge

Lay on your back with your feet pulled towards your back side and about 10cm apart. Using your backside muscles push your hips up to the ceiling until you have a straight line from your shoulder to your knee (like a ski slope). Concentrate on clenching your buttocks throughout, I tell my clients to image they’re holding a £50 note and someone wants to steal it. Aim to hold for 30 and repeat 3 times. You can progress the exercise by lifting legs alternately for the 30 seconds.

Tip 10 – Keep Good Posture

• You perform more work in a shorter amount of time.
• You increase your fitness quicker than with traditional training.
• You burn more body fat in the following 24hrs (even when you’re asleep).
• You build new lean muscle tissue.
• You will be psychologically more engaged and less bored.

Below are examples of interval training sessions for all the major pieces of cardio exercise equipment. Heart Rate (Hr) training zones have also been included if you plan to use a heart rate monitor.

Bike

Warm up: 5 min steady cycling at 60-70 rpm or 55-65% Hr

Intervals: 30 sec fast at 80-90 rpm or 75-85% Hr, 60 sec slow at 70-80 rpm or 60-70% Hr. Repeat 5-10 times

Warm down: 5-10 min at 60-70 rpm or 60-70% Hr

Treadmill

Warm up: 5 min walk + 5 min jog at 60-70% Hr

Intervals: 60 sec fast at 80-90% Hr, 60 sec slow at 60-70% Hr. Repeat 5-10 times

Warm down: 5 min jog + 5 min walk at 60-70% Hr

Rower

Warm up: 5 min row at 25 strokes per minute (SPM) or 60-70% Hr

Intervals: 30 sec fast at 30 spm or 80-90% Hr, 30 sec slow at 20-25 spm or 60-70% Hr. Repeat 5-10 times

Warm down: 5 min at 20 spm or 60-70% Hr

Cross Trainer

Warm up: 5 min at 60-70 strides per min (spm) or 60-70% Hr

Intervals: 20 sec as fast as possible, 10 sec slow. Repeat 8 times

Warm down: 5 min at 20 spm or 60-70% Hr

Have fun playing with different amounts of work and rest and also the relative speeds you do each one at. Don’t worry, if you’re working hard for 10-20 minutes going up and down in speed and intensity you’ll be gaining most of the benefits outlined above.

Tip 9 – Work Your Core

150 Minutes

150 minutes is the magic number for weekly exercise. This can be split down into smaller chunks and in fact it’s better if you do! The most practical way to do this is often 30 minutes 5 times per week. This can sound like quite a lot but it doesn’t all have to be hardcore exercise. You can have days that are harder and days that are easier but the important part is that you total 150 minutes over a week. This is where having a personal trainer develop you a programme with some variety can help to keep you interested.

Why 150 Minutes?

150 minutes has been found in the research to be the amount of exercise people with the lowest incidence of obesity, cancer, heart disease and diabetes habitually do. These people seem to be the fittest and healthiest in our society – it may be worth taking a leaf out of their book!

10%

10% is the recommended maximum weekly increase in distance or time. Increasing your exercise faster than this leads to a greater chance of getting injured. Allow your body time to adapt and improve and you’ll see improvements for weeks and months to come.

Tip 8 – Incorporate Intervals

This makes it even more important to remain hydrated during exercise whilst using your cardio exercise equipment. This then leaves the question of what and how much to drink to maintain hydration and maximise your exercise.

As a rule of thumb if your exercise lasts less than 60 minutes the best choice is plain and simple water. You won’t gain any additional benefits from drinking a fancy sports drink if your session is less than this. If you’re planning on exercising for longer the additional carbohydrate of a sports drink maybe warranted and you can very easily make your own:

DIY Sports Drink:

500ml fresh fruit juice (not squash)

500ml water

Pinch of salt

As for how much to drink it does depend on how much you sweat but sensible guidelines are 300-500ml in the hour before exercise, 200-300ml every 30 minutes of exercise and 300-500ml in the hour post exercise.

Of course being chronically dehydrated the rest of the time and just hydrating for exercise is a pointless task. Maintaining long term hydration will give you the maximum benefits. The simplest way to determine if you are dehydrated is the colour of your pee. You can compare to the chart below and see if you need to improve. Two things to bear in mind are if you’re taking a B vitamin supplement your pee will be bright yellow (you may think you’re dehydrated) and if you’ve eaten beetroot it will have a pink tinge. Pee and see!

1-3 = Good hydration – continue to consume fluids at your normal rate

4-8 = De-hydration – consume more non-alcoholic & non-caffeine fluids, especially before and after training

Tip 7 – Know Your Numbers

The reason for this is the different way your body works when walking or running along the pavement when compared to the treadmill. The biomechanics are pretty complicated but put simply setting your treadmill to a 1% gradient replicates walking or running outside on a perfectly flat surface.

So whatever your goals are for the treadmill ensure that the gradient is set for 1% minimum. Of course you can set it higher if you’d like to get better at going uphill or want a way to increase your fitness without running.

Tip 6 – Keep Hydrated

Forget the TV and try some working out music first. It will jazz-up your routine (excuse the pun), energise you and make it much more enjoyable. Music is not just fun, research has proven that playing music while exercising reduces your perception of effort and improves your performance. Another interesting finding from the research is that it doesn’t have to be banging dance music to motivate you. One of the strongest motivators is nostalgia. So maybe music from your youth or a great holiday, the idea is to disassociate your mind from what you’re doing.

There’s really no down side apart from the sound of you signing with your headphones on!

Step to the Beat

Try synchronising the beats of your songs with the exercise in your workout. This is how class instructions make the music follow the routine. However, don’t worry too much about getting technical with the beats.

Keep it simple. For instance, when you are on the treadmill, use a medium beat song for when you jog and an upbeat song for when you run. It’s a lot easier to run faster if you’re keeping to the beat of a song.

Tip 5 – Use 1% Treadmill Gradient

Most cardio machines can measure your heart rate in two ways, through hand readers on the machines that you hold on to, which are ok but not always practical or comfortable. The other is by linking to a strap that you wear around your chest. This is by far the best method of measuring heart rate.

But just knowing your heart rate is of little value to you without knowing what it means. As a simple summary your heart rate is directly related to your work rate i.e. the harder you work the higher your heart rate. Higher isn’t always better though especially if you’re just starting out and so using a heart rate monitor to maintain a certain level of intensity is a very shrewd move.

The best way to use heart rate is to work out some training zones – but don’t panic this is very simple as I’ll show below with an example.

First you need to know what your maximum heart rate is, so you calculate 220 minus your age. So for a 30 year old it would be 220 – 30 = 190 beats per minute. Using our 30 year old example we then simply work out percentages of this number as follows:

50% maximum heart rate is 190 x 0.5 = 95

60% maximum heart rate is 190 x 0.6 = 114

70% maximum heart rate is 190 x 0.7 = 113

80% maximum heart rate is 80 x 0.8 = 152

90% maximum heart rate is 190 x 0.9 = 171

100% maximum heart rate is 190

Now you’ve worked out your own percentages refer to the table below for what you’re trying to achieve and keep your heart rate in that zone – simple.

Tip 4 – Get a Workout Playlist