In the modern world many of us spend a large part of our day seated. We go to work, sit at a desk in front of a computer, maybe we go to the gym or for a run. Then we go home and sit down with our family or friends, eat a meal and watch TV. During those 16 waking hours I would suggest that three quarters of them are spent in a chair. Over time our body will adapt to the position that we spend the most time in. When we are seated this leads to shortening of the…
Category: Health
Many who suffer from conditions that affect the digestive system choose to remove grains and gluten from their diet due to intolerance. However in recent years a popular trend is now to remove them from their diet regardless, in a new ‘clean eating wave’. This means no bread, pasta, cereal, rice or oats, regardless of whether they are wholegrain. The question on your lips must be is it healthy to completely remove a food group? To answer this question let us look at what these foods provide us with. Wholegrains are healthy right? Most…
In a recent article (entitled ‘Is Eating Little And Often Still Relevant?’), I posed the question of whether eating little and often offered all of the benefits that have been suggested by the health and fitness industry, as well as introducing the idea of ‘intermittent fasting’. To re-cap, intermittent fasting involves completely refraining from food and energy intake for a set period of time, or consuming a very low level of energy for a set period of time. Both of these protocols are then followed by a re-feed. Two popular protocols: The 5:2 diet involves 5 days of normal eating…
The Health and Fitness Industry has for a long time promoted the message that ‘small regular meals are the key to weight control, fat loss and even muscle gain. The theory behind this is that we constantly drip feed our muscles with fuel to keep our metabolism high, as our body increases energy expenditure in the time period following a meal in order to process the food that we have just eaten. The idea was that you can actually burn more calories by eating the same amount of food that you would eat in your 3 square meals but…
1. Squatting is bad for your knees. There are many who suggest that squatting (particularly when the movement is performed to full depth) is bad for your knees. They suggest that squatting below parallel puts excess strain on the patella tendon in the knee and if you are going to perform the movement that you should do half squats instead. Let me make this clear this is not true. The idea probably comes from the fact that when you squat down below parallel your quadriceps contract eccentrically and the patella tendon is stretched. Despite this, performing the movement with…
In this short article I am going introduce to a few food and drink items that are often criticised in some way, shape or form, but in actual fact can be beneficial for your training as well as your health. Whole Milk- Whole milk is often swapped in favour of semi-skimmed and is often thought to be a high fat food. However 100 millilitres of whole milk typically contains around 3.6 grams of fat, making it less than 4% fat. That makes it 96% fat free! In order for a food item to be considered low-fat it must contain no…
Most of us have heard the phrase ‘No Carbs before Marbs’, with the implication that Carbohydrate foods should be avoided if one is trying to lose weight. Whilst there may be some truth in this statement it is important that we understand some basic information about the much discussed macronutrient that is Carbohydrate before going any further. For you science geeks Carbohydrate molecules consist of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen atoms joined together in a chain, with there being two hydrogen atoms for every oxygen atom to give the general formula C H₂0. These chains can vary in length depending on…
Do you burn the candle at both ends? Quite often training hard in your sport or in the gym is quite often balanced with a hard working attitude in the rest of your life. This also applies to parties and social situations. Work Hard, Play Hard is a commonly heard phrase. But could lack of sleep be holding you back? Recovery from the your sport or gym session is just as important as the session itself. Think of the session being the stimulus for improvement, however this stimulus temporarily damages and weakens the body. It is the time…
We all know that we must eat. Consuming the right foods is essential for you to recover from your exercise and training bouts, and since it is during the recovery period that we actually improve our fitness you can see why fuelling yourself appropriately is essential. . Starting with the basics there are three macronutrients that we need in our diet, these are Carbohydrate, Protein and Fat. Carbohydrate Carbohydrate foods are the bodies’ primary source of energy, and are vital in fuelling high intensity exercise. One gram of carbohydrate contains approximately 4 kilocalories. Carbohydrates are composed of carbon, hydrogen and…
So we are into September and the weather is changing, there is a chill in the air and the leaves are starting to fall. But do not despair, whilst the weather is about to change it is the season for lots of tasty new foods! Autumn sees delicious and nutrient rich fruit such as apples, pears, plums and figs. Not to mention blackberries and elderberries. All of these fruits can be eaten on the go providing you with an abundance of vitamins and minerals to support your training and help stave off the almost inevitable autumn sniffles. They can also…