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Understanding Vitamin C
Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid and ascorbate, is a vitamin found in various foods and sold as a dietary supplement. It also functions as an antioxidant. There is, however, some evidence that regular use may shorten the length of colds. It is unclear whether supplementation affects the risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, or dementia. It may be taken by mouth or by injection. The United States Institute of Medicine recommends against taking large doses.
Understanding Pre-Workouts
Pre-workout is a genre of bodybuilding supplements. It contains ingredients that are intended to give a sudden boost of energy. These supplements are over the counter and are used by mainly athletes to help aid in performance and recovery. Pre-workout supplements contain ingredients such as, beta alanine, creatine, amino acids, and L- Citrulline, that aid in muscle recovery after a strenuous workout. Pre-workout can be beneficial for performing strenuous exercises. Many supplement brands advertise products containing ingredients that are not proven safe or have a scientifically proven benefit. Some of the supplements being advertised can have little to no benefits and can cause unwanted side effects.
Understanding Whey Protein
Whey protein is a mixture of proteins isolated from whey, the liquid material created as a by-product of cheese production. The proteins consist of α-lactalbumin, β-lactoglobulin, serum albumin and immunoglobulins. Whey protein is commonly marketed as a dietary supplement, and various health claims have been attributed to it. An authoritative review published in 2010 concluded that the provided literature did not adequately support the proposed claims.
Understanding Creatine
Creatine is an organic compound with the nominal formula CNCH2CO2H. This species exists in various modifications in solution. Creatine is found in vertebrates where it facilitates recycling of adenosine triphosphate, the energy currency of the cell, primarily in muscle and brain tissue. Recycling is achieved by converting adenosine diphosphate back to ATP via donation of phosphate groups. Creatine also acts as a buffer. Studies in the 1920s showed that consumption of large amounts of creatine did not result in its excretion. This result pointed to the ability of the body to store creatine, which in turn suggested its use as a dietary supplement.
All about Push, Pull, Legs
You can spend a lot of time searching for the perfect workout split to suit your goals, when the reality is, there really isn’t one. That’s not to say however, that there isn’t one workout split that will suit the majority of lifters. The split I’m talking about is of course, push, pull legs.
Which style of training is best for fat-loss?
Fat loss is the goal for most of us in our fitness journeys. Across all ability levels, sports and training styles, most of us want to reduce our body-fat percentage, whether it's for health reasons, aesthetics or for our own happiness. If you're new to training often the goal is to lose fat to look more healthy, and even competitive athletes like Bodybuilders need to lose fat before they get on stage. Fighters need to lose fat to make weight for their competitions and others need to manage their body-fat in order to perform at their best. But what is the best way to reduce our body-fat? And what is the best way to assess successful loss of body-fat? There are methods of burning fat which work very quickly, but perhaps aren't fantastic in the long term, and methods which may take a long time but produce long-lasting results. Let's discuss...
How to optimise your recovery
Over the past few years I have seen a growing interest into the importance of recovery and training.
When I first started training (like many of you reading this I assume) I thought that more was better in the gym. If I do more reps, more sets and train twice a day then surely I must be building more muscle right? I wasn’t sleeping that bad and I was eating a tonne of calories so surely, surely I am gaining muscle? Well, guess what, in hindsight, I wasn’t and my physique hardly changed, but why? I wasn’t optimising my recovery properly. Sure, I had heard that saying ‘you grow when you rest’ but I didn’t really take note of how important it was.
Are you warming up correctly?
There is no doubt that warming up is boring. It's not the process that’s actually going to make you stronger, lose more fat or build any more muscle. But it can certainly contribute towards it.
You probably know if you are warming up correctly or not but just to clarify, coming in and doing 5 minutes on the treadmill and a few stretches isn’t really going to kick it. Sure, it is getting some blood pumping around the body, but it isn’t really benefiting you in anyway.
Should you track your workouts?
The need to track your workouts seems to be split right down the middle when it comes to deciding if it helps, hinders or does nothing at all in terms of helping you reach your goal faster and more effectively.
In this article I will discuss what exactly tracking your workouts may look like, the methods used to do so, the pros, cons and also help you decide if you should be tracking your own workouts.
So what does tracking your workout look like?
Time off. What really happens?
Time off, it happens to all of us. Whether it be because of an injury, holiday or an unforeseen circumstance, we all end up having it at some point in our life.
Time away from the weights used to be my worst nightmare. I had worked so hard to get to where I was, all the hours, sessions planned, meals prepped. Getting injured or going on holiday just felt like I had wasted all that effort and let’s be honest, our bodies lose what we have a lot faster than the time it takes to get it. Thankfully though, it’s not actually as fast as you may think.