Posts Tagged ‘ Strength training ’

iCardioFiT: What is your Post-Workout Meal?


iCardioFiT: What’s your Post-Workout Meal?

            After posting yesterday evening, “What is your Pre-Workout Meal?” A few individuals asked me to post information about having a post workout meal!  Well here you go!

Recovery plays an important role during your exercise routine.  Post workout drinks and foods are an integral part affecting the replenishment of your glycogen stores within the muscle, the effects on muscle fatigue, and tissue repair that can allow you to train more effectively.  Many individuals not only lack a pre-workout plan but also a post-workout plan.  Proper nutrition is very important to maintain these glycogen stores so muscles will have plenty of time to rest and recover between exercise bouts.  If you are an athlete who needs to maximize your body’s performance while you’re exercising, you must replenish the nutrients lost via exercise through your dietary intake.

The best way to promote these glycogen stores is to consume carbohydrate rich foods.  (Uh Oh… did I just say Carbohydrates??)  For those who are trying to lose weight, you may be on a calorie (Carbohydrate) restricting diet, therefore hearing anything Carbohydrate is the last thing you want to hear.   For my endurance athletes and sports performance athletes… *** PAY ATTENTION!!! *** Research shows that combining protein with carbohydrate within 30 minutes of exercise nearly doubles the insulin response, which results in more stored glycogen within the muscle.  Translation:  Athletes who refueled with carbohydrate and protein post workout, had much greater muscle glycogen stores than those who only ate carbohydrate alone.  From a performance standpoint, the more fuel your body has to access within the muscle during a given competitive event or training session, the resulting side effect will be increased endurance and strength to better maximize performance and muscle efficiency to perform longer and harder.

Protein + Carbs

Protein + Carbs

Ok Reggie, how about if I don’t consider myself to be an athlete?  My goal is to strictly burn the body fat that I have on me!  Can I just stick to protein and veggies!?  … My answer Yes and No.  Let’s not forget that Vegetables and Fruit are also carbohydrates!  Do not be so consumed about the word carbohydrates, because the truth is that carbohydrates are the most effective and efficient source for energy when exercising!  The less you have in your diet, you may find your desire to exercise drastically decreased or lower than expected.  It’s also important to understand the effect it can have on building and maintaining muscle.  The combination of protein and carbs post workouts stops the breakdown of muscle and results in the maintenance and building of your lean mass!  For all my weight loss iCardioFiT exercisers out there, this increases your resting metabolism which allows you to burn more calories/day.

Got Questions? Let’s talk about it!

GeT FiT and Stay FiT with iCardioFiT! …

Comment and Subscribe!

Reggie Laroche

The Clinical Exercise Physiologist 

[Contact: Reggie Laroche — relaroche@yahoo.com — 954-205-9904 for Personal Training, Exercise and Nutrition consultations!!!!]

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2013
10/01
CATEGORY
Fitness
Nutrition
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Protein – What’s its role in your fitness plan!?


Protein – What’s the Role?

When patients, clients, and friends ask me about protein, there seems to be a lot of confusing information as to the purpose of increasing one’s intake of protein for muscle building, fat burning, and the use of protein throughout one’s exercise patterns.

So let’s say that you want to build some lean mass.  Muscles growth occurs when a stimulus or range of stimuli placed upon the muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bones is significant enough that it causes the muscles to adapt and change by increasing the size of muscle fibers as well as the amount of muscle fibers a motor unit can innervate/activate to increase an individual’s strength.  In other words, lifting heavy weights and performing resistance exercises is how you grow and strengthen your muscles.  Consuming protein alone will not get it done.

An important principle behind hypertrophy (increased your muscle size) is the concept of progressive overload meaning that with increased sets, weight, and repetitions, this effect will cause growth in muscles.

If you choose to swap out carbs for a diet high in protein, you will also increase your chance of success with weight loss according to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.  Why you ask?  Your body spends more energy processing dietary protein than carbs.  For everyone 100 calories of protein that you consume, 20-30% of those calories are burn by your body as opposed to 5-10% of those calories being burned by the body for 100 calories of carbs.

high-protein-diet optionswhey-protein-powder

These are some of the reasons why the feeling of satiety becomes more effective with protein than carbs or fats.  Because it takes our body’s longer to burn protein than carbs or fat, our body tends to absorb more of the nutrients in a high protein diet.  This allows the body to preserve its lean mass which allows individuals to have faster metabolism to aid in body fat loss when at rest.

How much protein do I need?            

For those that are wondering how much protein you should incorporate into your diet is dependent on the specific goal that you are reaching for.  According the American College of Sports Medicine, the recommended daily protein intake for athletes is 1.2 – 1.8 grams per kilogram of body weight to achieve increase muscle mass along with resistance training.  Individuals that are less active will require less protein (0.8-1.0 grams)

Protein Power Foods include:

–          Lean Meat, Fish, Poultry

–          Eggs (Egg Beaters/Egg Whites)

–          Nuts

–          Peanut Butter (Low Sodium)

–          Soy

–          Beans

–          Greek Yogurt

–          Quinoa

If you would like more specific information regarding your needs, consulting a Registered Dietician or Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics/Fitness professional can provide you with personalized guidance.

Stay FiT with iCardioFiT!

Reggie Laroche

The Clinical Exercise Physiologist

2013
09/28
CATEGORY
Fitness
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iCardio: Functional Exercise Training…For Men and Women


If you want to get more out of your exercise training, then I suggest that you start to exercise multiple muscle groups at the same time. The way to go about this is called FUNCTIONAL EXERCISE TRAINING!! Functional exercises are a great way to mix up your exercise routine because they train your muscles to work together simultaneously. iCardio Tip: (The more Muscle Groups you exercise at the same time, the more Calories you burn)

Due to fact that our bodies go through various movements throughout the course of the day, performing functional exercise will now make them easy. This will also allow you to perform your strength training routines with improved technique and control. Why you ask? This is because your bodies synergistic muscles (“stabilizers”) are now better adapted to activate while your muscles contract. Introducing these types of activities into your strength training regimen, will enable you to do more and with a lot less effort.

To all my Women out there; the common problem areas that affect most women is their Lower body. Most women want nice lean and tone looking legs. However, women want a great upper body too. So why not, target the most muscle groups that you can when exercising, like your Quads, Hamstrings, Butt, Calves and combing them with upper body and core exercises. So ladies, here are a few exercises that you can incorporate into your weekly exercise routine.

Walking Lunges with Arm Curls
Squat, Arm Curl, into an Overhead Press
Squat with a Side step

To my Male crowd; the typical male workout includes just upper body (ex. Chest, back, shoulders, and Arms). Come on now fellas, functional exercises are a great way to target those forgotten muscles. Instead of performing the same old free bench press, take two dumbbells and do the chest press on the stability ball. Believe me, if you take your usual routine and incorporate functional exercise days into regimen, an increase in strength, power, and agility will be seen. So here are a few exercises to incorporate into weekly exercise routine.

DB Chest Press on Stability ball
Single leg DB Row
DB Single Leg Lunge, Arm Curl, into an Overhead Press

My hope is that you find this information useful and that you can apply it to your healthy lifestyle. Please feel free to comment, share, and subscribe!!

Reggie Laroche

The Exercise Physiologist

2010
10/14
CATEGORY
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