Regeneration
The effect of social media on fitness
The birth of platforms such as Instagram and Facebook have had a huge impact on many things in today’s society. Many have been positive, like the ability to share good news stories and spread awareness about certain illnesses that come with some stigma, such as depression. Others may see a more negative side to it and believe it has just opened up another alleyway to bullying. Amongst all of this though, one of the biggest industries to thrive on it has been fitness.
The science behind muscle building
This is a tough one to write as I don’t like to over complicate muscle building or fat loss. Everyone can build muscle, and everyone can lose fat, therefore, how can it be that difficult?
In its simplest form, muscle building occurs when you train hard consistently and eat in a calorie surplus. You could tell the majority of the population to go away and lift weights in the 6-12 rep range for 6 months, with the aim to get stronger each week whilst eating in a surplus and the majority would come back with new muscle. You don’t have to explain to them the science behind it.
Stop losing muscle when you diet
There is absolutely no reason that you should be losing significant muscle mass when you decide to cut your calories and diet. I say ‘significant’ because depending on the severity of your diet, you may lose a small amount. However, this is usually when the said person Is dieting for a competition and extremely low body fat levels are needed. For the average joe who would just like to cut down so they can see their abs, there should be no reason why any muscle loss occurs.
How to decrease stress
Stress is something that we will all encounter at some point in our life. The degree of stress depends on a lot of things, and some people will feel the effects more than others unfortunately.
It can stem from a lot of places, some of the following being the most common:
What is a deload?
You may or may not have heard of the term deload in the fitness industry. Whether you have or not, by the end of this article you will know what one is, how to implement one, how to know if you actually need one and how often you need one.
So, what is a deload?
Does alcohol affect your training?
The short answer is yes, but this will largely depend on what you’re drinking, how often you are drinking it and the volume you consume.
We aren’t all professional athletes, I get it. Most of us enjoy going to the gym and having a training routine, but don’t want to shy away from the odd drink now and then. But how does having a drink affect our performance? Let’s look.
Are you doing these 3 things correctly?
When it comes to training, I have always educated people on 3 specific areas they must focus their success on if they want to continue to see progress in the gym. These three areas are Progression, Nutrition and Recovery.
Not building mass? Read this...
Let me start off by saying that I have been in your position, I know how you feel. I used to be that skinny guy who couldn’t build any mass and, if you’re reading this, I guess you are too.
The good news is that I’m not still that skinny guy who can’t build mass. I did in fact find the perfect way to add mass to my frame, and it's not no secret formula. You need to understand that when I’m talking about adding mass to your frame, it's not all going to be slabs of muscle. Most of it will be, but you can’t add those slabs without adding some fat, it's just the way it goes. With that said, you can certainly limit the amount of fat that is added through smart training and diet.
Are you a healthy lifter?
This may be a question that you haven’t asked yourself for a while, or even ever. I know we can all get carried away with wanting to hit certain numbers in the weight room and on the scale, I’ve been there. When doing this, it can be easy to forget to ask yourself if you are doing it in a healthy way.
What does make you a healthy lifter then? Well, there are a few things that anyone can do to make sure they are prioritizing their health alongside their training and none of them are secrets. Plus, they are relatively simple to incorporate into your routine. They are also variables you are very aware of, but they can easily be overlooked by more exciting goals you put in place.
Keeping Our Immune System Healthy
So then, the big question, can we ‘boost’ our immune system? The simple answer is sort of. If you’ve read my previous articles then you will appreciate that our immune systems are incredible networks of cells and molecules working in a very well practiced and balanced manner. They ensure harmful foreign bodies are abolished yet know to leave our bodies’ own tissue well alone. Most of the time anyway. In autoimmune diseases, the immune system is overactive and attacks the body itself so having an overzealous immune system is not a good thing. There is always talk, usually around winter when the coughs and colds set in, about what we can take in terms of supplements to boost our immune system. I’m going to be very honest here as I have a responsibility as a Doctor to do so. Although there is some evidence that things like Zinc, Vitamin C, Echinacea, and Boron may reduce severity of an illness once it hits, there is varying data and evidence when it comes to illness prevention. Therefore, instead of focusing on these supplements (I am personally taking Vitamin C and Echinacea right now), I would like to talk about the factors that we may be able to change. There are things we can do for sure, so let’s go through them.