Tips
At Detox-fit we know that getting started can seem like a huge task. We are committed to getting you fit and healthy and are here to provide you with all the help you need. Our trainers develop specially designed training regimes to suit your needs and goals however there are some basic steps that you can take to help the process. Keeping fit isn't just about exercising, it's about changing the way you eat, understanding what your eating and understanding how to exercise properly. Your trainer will cover all of this with you but in the meantime you will find some useful information relating to your training regime and diet below.
Why Exercise?
Need to know
By definition, exercise is any movement produced by your skeletal muscles that results in energy expenditure – sounds technical – well yes and no. Exercise includes and structured activity, like going to the gym, but also lifestyle activities such as walking, shopping and gardening and the good news is that it doesn't have to leave you exhausted to do you any good! Exercise has many more benefits than the obvious one of increasing fitness. Regular exercise can aid in weight loss, reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease, lower your blood pressure and cholesterol, improve your joint function and help to maintain your bone health. For it to be beneficial you need to overload your body using a combination of intensity, frequency & duration, these combined equal the overall VOLUME of training which are essential when improving fitness. Don't worry if it all feels like learning latin backwards right now! Over the next few weeks our team will take you step by step through what you need to know and why, in a clear and easy to understand way.
| Training | Cardiovascular | Resistance | Flexibility |
| Frequency | 3-5 days/week | 2-3 days/weeks | 2-3 days/week |
| Intensity | 1-10 rating of Perceived Exertion or at least 55-65%HR Max | 8-16 reps | Comfortable but not noticeable |
| Duration | 20-60 mins | Intensity 1-3 sets of compound exercise | 10-30 secs x 3-4 stretches per muscle group |
Nice to Know
Health benefits can be achieved without any measurable improvements in fitness and there's a 'dose response continuum' to exercise. In less scientific terms 'the more you do, the bigger the reward'! However, significant health benefits can be achieved through just a little exercise. In terms of improving fitness, it seems that 3 cardiovascular (CV) sessions per week is ideal, with research showing that CV training in excess of four times a week results in no extra benefits over those gained by training 3 times per week. However, the risk of injury increases disproportionately. More good news with CV exercise – you do not need to complete it all in one block. Performing 2 x 15 minutes will result in virtually the same benefits as doing 1 x 30 minute session. If time for workout is limited, it's comforting to know that performing 1 set of your resistance exercises is almost as beneficial as performing 2-3 sets. The extra 20-30 minutes spent on the extra sets will result in only small additional gains.
Fun facts
- Only 20% of UK adults perform the recommended amount of exercise.
- At rest, we breathe at a rate of around 16 times per minute – that's up to 8 litres of air per minute and is enough to inflate two hot air balloons over a years! When exercising moderately this will double!
- Jogging just 1 mile 3 times per week will result in weight loss of approximately 2.4lb in a year for the average person! Even jogging slowly this will only take 30 minutes out of your week! Do more exercise than this and lose more weight!
- At rest, the average UK adult's heart runs at 70bpm, pumping 5 litres of blood around your body – in a year that's enough blood to fill several large swimming pools.
- If you stop training there will be a significant reduction in your CV fitness after 2 weeks, with up to a staggering 50% loss after 8 weeks – so once you've started – keep going!
Nutrition – why review it?
Need to know
A healthy diet is a balanced diet! It provides enough energy for your body to function as well as for any lifestyle activities you undertake. Foods from all the major food groups should be eaten as this will ensure that you provide your body with all of the essential nutrients it needs. The chart opposite reflects how a healthy diet should be composed and the table shows where you can get your vital nutrients from.
| Nutrient | Function | Sources |
| Carbohydrate | Main source of energy for working muscles | Bread, pasta, rice, cereals, potatoes, sugar, jam fruit, sweets |
| Protein | Used to replace/repair cells and build new tissue i.e muscle. | Fish, meat, tofu, quorn, dairy products, pulses. |
| Fat | Source of vitamins A,D,E & K, concentrated source of energy, protection and insulation. | Oil, butter, margarine, cheese, cream, pastry products, fried foods. |
| Vitamins & Minerals | Many essential functions including energy production & structural roles | Fruit, fruit juices, vegetables, milk, meats – almost all foods |
| Fibre | Intestinal health, aids digestion, helps regulate cholesterol. | Wholegrain products, oats, fruit, vegetables, pulses |
| Fluid (not strictly a nutrient!) | Temperature regulation, functioning of all living cells, joint and eye lubrication, waste removal. | Water, fruit juice, milk, fruit and vegetables, sports drinks |
Nice to know!
A good diet for active people should be composed of 55-65% carbohydrate, less than 20% fat and 10-20% protein. Ideally less than 5% of your calories should come from alcohol! However being healthy is not about 'living like a monk' – you need to include the foods you love in your diet and should never consider cutting out a complete food group! The age old message of 'everything in moderation' still applies! The average woman will need to consume 2000 kcal per day in order to maintain their weight whereas the average man will need 2500 kcal per day. These values will obviously change during periods of weight loss or gain.
Fun facts
- Average UK adults will comsume 78kg of potatoes, 26kg of sugar, 500 apples, 150 loaves of bread and 200 eggs in a year!
- The average person in the UK will need 1-2 litres of water per day to maintain optimal body functioning.
- The average elite cyclist consumes around 6500kcal per day – about 3 large Christmas dinners!
- The same cyclist competing in the Tour de France will need between 6000 and 9000 kcal per day!
- Margarine is one molecule away from being plastic!
Eating & Exercise
Need to know
Without a balanced diet, no other changes to your current diet will have any effect on your performance. But, once you have sorted out the balance of your daily intake of the main food groups, there are two main dietary tools that you you can 'play with' to improve your nutrition further – carbohydrate and fluid. You see, it is not only how much of these nutrients you consume but when you consume them. Consuming the correct amount of carbohydrate before, during and after exercise can enhance your workouts. The carbohydrate and fluid sores in your body are limited and are challenged during exercise therefore it is important to make sure that:
- they are as full as possible before beginning exercise
- you keep them topped up during your session.
- once you have finished, try to eat within an hour. You need to make sure that you re-stock them ready for the next session.
Nice to Know!
Failing to prepare is preparing to fail! If you want to get the most out of your training your pre exercise diet needs to be planned.
Simple Top Tips:
- Ideally, you should have a high carbohydrate meal 3-4 hours before exercise to stock up your carbohydrate stores, if this is not possible then remember that 'something is better than nothing'. (e.g. a bowl of cereal or a sports drink). You also need to be well hydrated before starting – beginning exercise in a dehydrated state will be detrimental to your performance.
- Unless your CV session is over 40 minutes long and if you have prepared well, drinking water throughout should ensure that you are able to maintain your performance. For longer sessions you need to provide fuel as well as fluid and drinking a carbohydrate-electrolyte solution is the easiest way to do this. In normal conditions, 00-1200ml of fluid per hour is recommended but you will need more in heat.
- For performance to be reproducible, using the past exercise period is crucial – in essence you are starting your preparation for your next workout immediately. You should try to consume about 50 grams of carbohydrate ASAP – 750ml sports drink or 4 tablespoons of raisins or 60g jelly sweets – as this will kickstart the refilling of your stores. Your first meal should be eaten within an hour and this too should be high in carbohydrates. You also need to rehydrate yourself fully.
Fun Facts
- According to a new study conducted by the Graduate Sports Science Institute, nearly half of exercisers arrive at the gym already dehydrated – researchers studied 300 gym users in the USA.
- Weighting yourself before and after exercise is a good way to find out how much fluid your have lost – 1 kg weight = 1 litre of fluid.
- For every litre of water lost, your heart has to beat 8 times per minute more in order to meet your body's requirements.
- The adult human body contains 2.5 million sweat glands!
- Drinking a well formulated carbohydrate-electrolyte drink during prolonged exercise can increase endurance performance by one third.
CV Training explained
Need to know
CV training (or cardiovascular training to use its full name), can take many forms including gym classes, running, cycling and swimming, all of which have the same aim – to improve your fitness. However, in order to do this you need to:
- work at the right intensity
- work for the right amount of time
The belief held by some people that simply joining a gym will help you get fit is, unfortunately, not true – you have to work out too! CV training is oftern referred to as 'endurance' or 'aerobic' training and involves you working for at least 20 minutes at 65-85% of your maximum Heart Rate (Hrmax). If you are just starting off down the road to fitness then a fast walk may be enough to get your Heart Rate to this level, whereas if you are further down the road then you will probably need to work harder to achieve this. However this type of training is not about how fast you go, it is about maintaining the right Heart Rate intensity and is person specific. Do not become complacent with this type of training to keep improving you need to push yourself – remember OVERLOAD! So, once you can manage the prescribed duration and intensity you need to increase it – if you don't you will stagnate – remember VOLUME!
Nice to Know!
Developing a good 'aerobic base' can be achieved through continuous exercise, but after 3-4 months of regular exercise fitness improvements will plateau. If you do not address this there will be little, if any, more improvements – even after another 6 months! Therefore, once you have developed a good base (your trainer will be able to advise you on this) you should think about introducing some higher intensity training sessions to your program. These will help you to push yourself further and develop the 'top end' of your fitness which would otherwise remain untouched. In essence, they allow you to perform a higher VOLUME of training which, as discussed earlier, is essential. To further improve you aerobic capacity you can introduce some 1:1 training sessions whereby you work at a higher intensity (85-90 HRMax) for 3-4 minutes and then use the same time period as a recovery phase – this should be repeated 4 times. Following on from this, you can increase the intensity once more. An example of this would be 1:2 training session whereby you work for 120 seconds at over 90% HRMax with 240 seconds as recovery – 2 sets x 4 reps should be performed. Your trainer will be able to give you more information on whether these sessions are appropriate for you and which work to rest ratio to use. You can use any piece of CV kit for these sessions but bikes, treamills or rowers are recommended. Remember that these sessions are high intensity and that you should have a rest or recovery day to follow.
Fun Facts
- Where is your heart? If you answered 'left chest', your wrong! The heart is found almost in the dead centre of the chest. The tip of the heart is shifted toward the left and hits the ribs during contraction. So, the rhythm is best detected on the left side.
- An average 40 minute step-aerobics class requires the same work-rate as running 5.3 miles per hour – which would you rather do?
- The word cardiac, in reference to the heart , come from the greek name Kardia. Aristotle believed that the heart was the seat of the soul and the centre of a man.
- Contrary to popular opinion, your maximum heart rate will not increase with training – what happens is that your HR at rest, and at given exercise intensity, decreases.
