How To Ramp Up Your Results For Summer Without Overdoing It!
Can you believe we are into the last 3 months of the year! If you haven’t started to panic to some degree about the descending timeline to the end of year, we’re sure my first sentence just gave you a bit of a scare, sorry about that.
For us here at FITA-U Performance Centre, the months leading into summer are always the busiest! People want to look and feel good when wearing their summer outfit, not to mention that we all know there needs to be some buffer created for the small amount of Christmas indulgence! But this urgency and sense of panic can sometimes have a negative affect.
We have personally seen and experienced what happens when you overdo it! If you think that by thrashing your body with 2 hours of training a day and eating nowhere near enough food will get you looking great for summer, then think again.
Our bodies are smart mechanisms and by doing above, you can put your body into a state of fight or flight. The added stress leads to release of the hormone cortisol, which makes you body work in the opposite direction by retaining body fat and loosing muscle mass. Not to mention the added stress from the upcoming festive season organising.
So what can you do to help ramp up your results? First foremost you need to look at your nutrition! Like the old saying goes ‘you can’t out train a bad diet’ so this is something you need to seriously address before even thinking about just upping the amount of training you do. Here are some simple things you can implement to help get your nutrition in the right place:
• First and foremost you should drink 33 ml of water for every kilo of bodyweight eg. if you weigh 65kg then you should be drinking 2.14 ltrs. (Note* if you are more than 10kg from your ideal healthy body weight then use replace you current bodyweight with your target weight in this equation)
• Eat 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of waking up and/or finishing a morning workout this will help to feel more satisfied and help you to make better food choices for the day
• Include a source of protein (20-30 grams) at every meal, smaller more regular means are much more beneficial to keep hunger levels down and to stabilize your blood sugar levels.
• Eat a 4-6 fist sizes of vegetables a day. Vegetables help clean the bad stuff out, replace the good stuff and keep you fuller for longer.
• Keep alcohol consumption to a maximum of 3-4 drinks per week. While alcohol is being metabolized, the breakdown of fats (lipolysis) is paused. This means that the calories from fats or even carbs you consume with the alcohol are more likely to be stored as fat, rather than being used as energy.
In regards to training, you do not need to do 2 hours of training a day to achieve awesome results. For one, not many people have that sort of spare time and also it’s just not necessary. One of the most common things we hear people or coach’s say/prescribe when body fat needs to be dropped is ”I need to do more cardio”, this is not always the right answer! Here are some simple things you can implement to help you get the maximum results from your training:
• Aim for a minimum of 8,000 steps a day and try to make it incidental. Although is sounds like a lot, especially if you are in a sedentary job, it actually isn’t that hard. Try parking your car a couple of blocks away or walk up to the shops to grab that missed item from shopping, you will be surprised how easy it adds up. If you don’t have a FitBit or TomTom watch, use the Health App on your phone.
• Perform quality strength training at least 3 times a week for 30-60 minutes.
• Keep track of your workouts and always try to improve even if it’s only by one rep or one second, this is called progressive overload and its what stops you from plateauing and getting bored.
• Make sure you are doing some form of recovery, yoga, float & sauna sessions or long walks are all great options.
So there you have it, there a few ways you can ramp up your results for summer without going overboard!
Written by Director & Head Coach, Ashley Carucci.
