Ignorance is (not) Bliss!

Ignorance might normally mean bliss but when it comes to your body injuries or pain, it’s not. Ignoring an injury or a muscular pain is the worst thing one can do. Only to show up for a gym class because we have paid for it makes us ignore our body signals. We ignore the signs of muscular pain, tiredness, and further push ourselves to workout only to make things worse, further muscular damage, wear and tear, underperformance, no rest and therefore no recovery. When I ask my clients the reason for their below potential performance or dizziness the only reason I get to hear is “I am just a little tired today” and this I hear a little more than often. We all need a break from our daily routines and gym being a part of it can also be given a break. Yes, I say this in spite of being an instructor because I do not encourage Muscular damage or fatigue.

An injury or pain can be muscle related and that may restrict muscular mobility, movement, performance or flexibility. It can be related to the neck, the upper back, lower back, legs or even shoulders. A wrongly executed exercise, lack of or improper stretching routine post exercise, improper sleeping patterns, wrong footwear, stress, improper posture or even long working hours on the desk. Various such reasons can cause muscular strain and ignoring it and going for yet another strenuous workout further weakens the muscle and makes it injury prone. You rather take rest or make a trip to the doc than to the gym.

It’s completely ok and allowed to miss gym class, take a day off if you’re suffering from any such pain or tiredness. We miss gym class for a movie plan, dinner plan, for the sake of friends, then why not for your own body sake. You are no way being brave by showing up at the gym with pain or soreness. It’s only being foolish to ignore such signals because if not taken care in the initial stage it becomes even more difficult for it to heal and get rid of completely. Muscular stiffness / pain whatever you may call it, takes quite some time to heal but on the other side if not looked after it can very easily deteriorate further. It can lead to a tear which complicates conditions leading to no exercise at all. It’s always better to take a couple of days off from the gym, pamper yourself, go get a massage, rest, recover, and get back to routine rather than going on a total bed rest for a couple of months and return completely weak and out of shape. It’s just unfortunate as the process from here is lengthy and painful.

Apart from the muscular pain part there is one more factor that plays a very essential role in causing the body discomfort and fatigue, and that is Food. Improper eating habits can also lead to underperformance and weakness. Food is fuel to the body. Just like your car cannot run without fuel, your body cannot function without food. Dieting is one thing, starving is another. Eating right is extremely important not only after the workout but even BEFORE. We generally don’t give our pre-workout meals as much importance as it deserves and so most of the time we conveniently skip them. When you exercise you end up using most of your body fuel and so it is very important to refill rather, refuel. But none the less the body in the first place needs enough fuel to utilise and workout only then can it perform and make place for refill.

Look for the signs, recognise them and take it easy. No benefit is achieved by working out with a tired, painful, injured body as compared to a healthy, pain-free one. The "No pain, No gain" phrase does not apply here. So the next time you feel tired to go to the gym, give it a second thought.

Strike a Balance

Weight loss – check

Maintain weight lost – skipped

And so, weight gained –check

What does strike a balance tell you? What do the above mentioned stages suggest? We are all just busy trying out stunts to lose weight, achieve it and be happy. But have we thought of the next step? Have we given maintenance a thought? How hard can it be to maintain weight loss? Or rather how exactly can it be maintained?

Maintenance might really sound as a no big deal to most of you’ll and that’s why mostly skipped but actually it’s the second most difficult thing to achieve after weight loss. This in fact is one of the most frequently asked questions by my clients on the very first day of their workout routine.

Each time a client comes to me and has just begun to exercise, has the most expected question to ask. Will I put on weight if I stop gymming? Will aerobics make me put on weight if I discontinue it? And the answer to both the questions is NO. You cannot gain the weight lost because of a certain exercise type but yes you can if you omit the next step which is “maintenance”. The one important step each of us conveniently manages to leave out.

Weight gain cannot be activity specific. Just because you have put on weight after leaving a particular class whether aerobics or dance does not mean that that particular form is the culprit. The culprit is YOU! Weight gain is actually due to the sudden inactivity in your schedule, the sudden drop of BMR due to the inactive state. The logic is simple. We end up gaining weight when there is an imbalance in what we eat and how we burn it out, when the calorie consumption is greater than the calorie expenditure it leads to weight gain. It has nothing to do with any exercise routine or form. Let us see how.

Take for instance walking. Walking is considered to be the safest and simplest form of exercise. If you have been walking religiously for one hour everyday and one fine day decide to quit as you have reached your target weight and are feeling fit, or feeling bored and monotonous. The benefits and results of walking are not going to last for a lifetime. Your body from an active level has suddenly reached inactivity whereas your food consumption and your lifestyle remains the same. Your body will eventually stop burning calories as fast as it used to due to the drop in the metabolic rate, resulting into am imbalance which results into slow yet steady weight gain. Even the simplest form of exercise can lead to weight gain if not correctly managed. Then why blame the gym or any other form of exercise for that matter.

On the other hand weight loss cannot be maintained by plainly dieting or eating less. This in fact adversely affects the body. You need to strike a balance somehow. If you’re bored of the gym try another form of exercise, change your routine and do what you like doing or what you do best. If you’ve reached your ideal weight and want to go off the gym routine for a while don’t end up doing nothing at all. What needs to be avoided is complete inactivity which naturally happens as we are too proud and happy admiring the hard earned weight loss and dream figure. This is where maintenance comes into picture and trust me it is easy to achieve.

So, strike a balance, a balance between food and activity and you would have mastered maintenance. The amount of calories consumed need to be equal to the amount of calories expended. Eat right and burn it out correctly as well. It can’t get any simpler than this.

Fitness Resolutions – Make and Keep!

Towards the end of every single year we all make strong, promising Resolutions, specially the ones relating to “health and wellbeing”. To join a gym, exercise, correct our eating habits, wake up early go for a walk, take promises of not to touch or even look at sweets, fried, alcohol and what not. Just as we women cannot find anything sexy to wear for new years, nothing nice fits us is when we suddenly wish we had been working out for at least the last two months. All round the year we don’t give our health as much importance as we do during the year end. Only for that one evening.

But the question is, do resolutions really work? And the answer is No, not always.

It isn’t about being negative, just a harsh truth. For a “fitness” resolution to work out or be successful it requires goal setting. It cannot be a one day or a once in a year thing, it needs to be a habit, a lifestyle. Most of us treat a resolution as if it possesses some kind of magical powers. Just by making one, it will work. We are more interested in making a resolution than working on keeping it. That’s because it’s cool to have a resolution. That is what matters at the end of the day.

What is most surprising is that all those resolutions are fitness related and unfortunately also those which fail by February or March. We all make ambitious phone calls to the gyms and get ourselves enrolled; after all it’s a resolution. But what happens after that? One month, two months, three months maximum and we are back to normal just like the previous year. The gymming stops, eating habits change, discipline goes out of the window and our routine work takes over every promise ever made. Now, wait for next year. Wait for another resolution.

Sometimes people do stick to the promise made and do start a regime but just end up setting such a great goal that they feel overwhelmed by its size and complexity. I feel it’s better to break things down and make small manageable goals to keep up the motivation and the challenge.

So how exactly do we bring success to a resolution?

To keep up to any kind of fitness resolution it’s very important to list it down and make it visible to you on an everyday basis. This way you can keep reminding yourself about your target. Go and buy that dress which did not fit you this year and work on fitting into it next year. Ask your personal trainer to keep a track on you, your progress and keep reminding you of how badly you want to reach your dream weight, don’t go overboard with the resolution at first which might only results in pain and de-motivate you to go any further. Set small manageable goals, achieve them and set new ones. Share your goals and targets with your friends and family, this way you will get help and encouragement to achieve them and sometimes when you already have made it so loud you will end up sticking to it out of ego and proving yourself which will work in your favour and show you results. Choose activities that make you happy, no need to always opt and go for the stereotype.

So, like you see there is no such science involved in keeping a resolution or even making it work. It’s about setting a goal, making up your mind, being dedicated and committed to it. Don’t wait for an entire year to make a fitness related change or resolution. It can be made, followed and achieved at any given point.

So, Good Luck and a very Happy New Year!