Diet and Exercise. Support and Advice welcome.

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Get some protein in EVERY meal if you can - I eat meat or fish 3x a day and it really makes me feel satisfied with meals.

HBS x

greensalad

Does anyone do swimming for exercise?

I just joined the gym, which gives me a big Olympic size pool to enjoy! I don't mind cardio in the gym but I have bad knees and often get shin splints when I run, so I was thinking of focusing more on weights in the gym and doing swimming as my main cardio. I haven't swum properly in ages though, bit nervous (especially about getting in my costume!)

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I like to swim but it wrecks my flexibility. I tend to stretch in the pool as I do it, and in the sauna if I'm on my own

HBS x

WantToBeSE

Afternoon Everyone


I didn't make it to the gym today, as I had my Self-Assessment to do, my Tax credits to sort out, the food shopping to do and therapy to attend. So a busy day!


I wont be able to go tomorrow or Saturday either, as I am busy too...I wish there were more hours in the day! I miss it when I don't go.


Swimming is something that I don't do seriously, I just take the kids to the pool which generally doesn't involve any actual swimming
However, I think it'd be a great workout. One of my clients started swimming 3 times a week and although she hasn't lost any weight, she has lost inches of her and looks so much more muscly and nice.


Dinner tonight is veggie burgers (OK, not the healthiest I know, but they are packed full of veggies!) with salad. I think I am going to add some boiled eggs to the salad for some protein. I am definitely going to up my protein and see what happens.


How is everyone else doing?

JBD

greensalad wrote: »

Does anyone do swimming for exercise?

I just joined the gym, which gives me a big Olympic size pool to enjoy! I don't mind cardio in the gym but I have bad knees and often get shin splints when I run, so I was thinking of focusing more on weights in the gym and doing swimming as my main cardio. I haven't swum properly in ages though, bit nervous (especially about getting in my costume!)

Yes ,I swim 2 or 3 times a week. It has helped me a lot.
Don't be nervous though, everyone has to start somewhere. When I went back to swimming (nearly 3 years ago) I was really big ,wearing a horrible black size 20 cossie from Primarks. I could only manage 40 lengths and that nearly killed me.Now I do 100 lengths. You've just got to get in there and do it.
Incidentally, I'm really jealous of your 50m pool. Ours is only 25ms. Would love to swim longer lengths.

WantToBeSE

Evening All


I am off to the gym again tomorrow. I am having a bit of calf pain this evening though and am worried I may injure myself. Any advice? Maybe I need to warm up/ cool down for longer?


Had a glass of wine this evening and some choc raisins. But cant eat as much junk as I did before, so didn't finish them. I also don't like how it makes my body feel now, greasy and sluggish and bloated. So I wont be doing that again in a hurry.

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Make sure you stretch your quads and calves after your workout - loads of people miss them

HBS x

purpleshoes_2

WantToBeSE wrote: »

Evening All


I am off to the gym again tomorrow. I am having a bit of calf pain this evening though and am worried I may injure myself. Any advice? Maybe I need to warm up/ cool down for longer?


Had a glass of wine this evening and some choc raisins. But cant eat as much junk as I did before, so didn't finish them. I also don't like how it makes my body feel now, greasy and sluggish and bloated. So I wont be doing that again in a hurry.

If you are doing a gym based workout and walk on the treadmill, you dont need to do much of a warm up. The walking on the treadmill to start with will warm you up. You can do a warm up on cardio equipment, you could do a 5 min warm up on a rowing machine, start at something like 20 strokes per minute and get up to 30 by the end of minute 5 and job done. You could also do a warm up on an upright bike or the recumbent bike as well. Doesnt need to take more than 5 mins in total.

The stretches you do at the end will depend very much on what youve worked out during the workout.

When I workout or I teach classes (I have my gym level 2 and my ETM level 2) I tend to do a top to toe, so I'll do triceps, shoulders, chest, back, hamstrings, calves, sometimes hip flexors. If I do a quad stretch I'll tend to teach it giving people the option to hold onto a wall as balance can be an issue for many people.

If Im doing a class and the class has finished on the floor I'll do seated adductor stretch and I'll do the hamstring stretch lying down.

What I would say is, if you want advice on what to stretch and how long for, speak to one of the instructors at the gym. I see so many people in gyms walking around doing stretches (particularly static stretches before they work out) and you can see people dont always know what they are doing and tbh its better to know what you should be stretching, how long to hold the stretch for, whether you should develop the stretch or not, than just to do a few stretches thinking you have it covered when you might not.

purpleshoes_2

WantToBeSE wrote: »

Actually, that's a good idea about getting more protein, thanks HBS.
I am going to google protein sources, as the only one that I know is chicken!


On the days that I am not at the gym (Tues and Thurs) I could lay off the carbs so much and have a protein based lunch and breakfast. All I do is some light swimming on those days, so don't need the carb hit as much.

You dont really need the carb hit even on days when you are exercising hard. Ive spoken about this on other threads. As far as Im aware the eat well plate was designed after the war when food was still scarce and people were being encouraged to eat lots of starchy carbs such as potatoes. People were also a lot more active back then

We dont need to eat as many carbs as the govt suggests. If you google, you'll get some advice about when to eat protein and when to eat carbs after a workout, but many people who train hard eat much more protein than they do carbohydrates.

I was always wary of people who said that eating protein kept you fuller longer. Im doing a bootcamp just now and Ive to follow a paleo diet, also no alcohol. I was on holiday last week and it was all inclusive and there was junk there but I didnt touch it. I ate a lot of protein, I also ate fruit and veg. I didnt eat bread or pasta as Im not allowed it. I wasnt hungry in between meals. If I eat carbs I'll feel full for a while and then it will wear off a couple of hours later and I'll feel full again.

I would also get advice on your training programme. Gym instructors would be happy to do you a programme. I get mine reviewed every 6 weeks. The gym instructor who does my programme also knows what Im doing cardio wise and I get advice on when to have rest days and also the best combinations to do exercise in. If I do weights, I do cardio after, never the other way around.

You see a lot of people in gyms pounding away on cardio equipment and never really making progress. It does help when you do have a gym programme that someone can supervise and when you get it reviewed it gets harder each time so there is progression and its the progression that will get you fitter, build muscle and burn more calories.

Took me years of going to gyms to get advice on what I was doing, I used to just do classes and eat and hoped I was doing the right thing, I can see now that I wasnt.

purpleshoes_2

I looked back on the thread and see you have a gym programme made up. To answer the question about whether you should be doing HIIT, I would say yes, definitely. At the moment I lift weights and I do 4 HIIT classes a week, whether thats metafit, les mills grit, freestyle HIIT classes.

I dont do much else apart from the occasional swim. I tend to stay away from cardio equipment at the gym because I think you get better results with weights and with classes where you are pushed hard.

I do the odd spin class as well.