Editor’s Corner
This month’s issue of FitITproNews kicks off with a guest editorial by Kurt Berckmans an IT professional who is currently the SharePoint Team Lead at Bayer in Rotselaar, Belgium. Kurt shares how he recently got back into doing triathalons again after a hiatus of more than 20 years and how it has helped him lose 35 kg of excess weight he had been carrying around in just 4 months–wow!!
Also in this issue are the following articles by our FitITproNews columnists:
- Robin Camp on how to choose a gym
- Rod Trent on the best wearables for runners
- Mark Nichols on when excuses become reasons
- Kris Lall on the food pyramid scheme
- Brian Dougal on sleep and how it relates to energy
We also welcome Kris Kane to our stable of columnists who shares how he likes to move it move it!
Don’t forge, if you have any comments or suggestions concerning the stuff in this week’s newsletter, email me at [email protected] and we’ll share your feedback in the Mailbag section of our next newsletter. And if you’re an IT professional who is also pursuing fitness or has had success in losing weight and you’d like to become one of our columnists you can reach out to me at [email protected].
In the meantime enjoy this week’s issue of FitITproNews!
Cheers!
Mitch Tulloch, Senior Editor
Mitch Tulloch is the Senior Editor of FitITproNews and a recovering fat IT pro who lost 50 lbs in midlife and is now on his way to becoming a fit IT pro. Mitch is a widely recognized expert on Windows Server and cloud technologies who has authored or been Series Editor of numerous books/ebooks from Microsoft Press. Mitch is also the Senior Editor of WServerNews and writes frequently for TechGenix.
NOTE: We’ve moved our newsletter!
Just a quick heads up to let you know that we are now archiving this newsletter on our TechGenix website, so going forward you will be able to find both the latest issue and back issues of FitITproNews here:
https://techgenix.com/newsletter-category/fititpronews/
Issues published prior to August 2019 and dating back to when this newsletter was launched in the Fall of 2017 can still be found in our old archive which is located here:
http://www.fititpronews.com/newsletters/archive/
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Disclaimer: I am not a certified fitness professional or nutritionist so take any suggestions made here “as is” with a grain of salt and a heaping supply of your own judgment. Please read our full disclaimer at the bottom of this newsletter.
Mailbag
Here’s a comment from reader Sarah Trammell about something columnist Brian Dougal mentioned in last month’s newsletter:
It was refreshing to read that one of your columnists likes to drink diet soda. I agree that Coke Zero is really good. I’m not sure if I’ve ever tried Pepsi Max. The Cherry Coke Zero flavor is really good as is Diet Dr. Pepper. I like Diet Mountain Dew as well. I know it has BVO (brominated vegetable oil), but I’ve read that in small amounts, it’s safe. I don’t drink it often. I’ve even tried Tab! Zevia is also really good.
Some people make it seem like you can’t be healthy if you indulge in soda (diet or otherwise) or other types of treats. I believe it needs to be in moderation, and I always try to be mindful of the number of calories I’m consuming so I don’t overdo it. Besides, any food in excess, even healthy ones, can become unhealthy. I enjoy treats like Snickers and Reese’s candy bars. I have a big container of candy corn right now that I’ll go through slowly.
For myself it’s Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream that I enjoy as a treat from time to time. Usually I scarf down a whole pint in one sitting 😛
Got feedback about anything in our newsletter? Email us at [email protected]
Getting back into triathaloning (Kurt Berckmans)
Kurt Berckmans an IT professional who is currently the SharePoint Team Lead at Bayer in Rotselaar, Belgium. Kurt says you can look into his professional life (“damn…that’s a long story”) via his LinkedIn profile (https://www.linkedin.com/in/kurtberckmans/) and as for his personal life he says (“I’m an open (face)book”) here on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/kurt.berckmans.5).
So imagine…in the early nineties (yes that’s the Jurassic Parc Era) one used to become top 10 on the EU Champs on triathlon…and the week after your world collapses.
What’s next is 16 years of sport-averse life.
One becomes a Conceptual thinker, dad, husband…mind manager.
On a professional side, one basically brings those keywords to life in my role as Team Lead Applications at Bayer. Keeping the slogan ‘may the bridges I burn lighten your path’ in mind, this is what I do for 3 years now as an independent consultant.
But meanwhile…you get a vision; you feel life the way it should be and in 2011 you pick up your healthy life again…and become…AN IRONMAN!
Guess what. that’s me! Let me be the one guiding all of you into believing ANYTHING is possible.
My Ironman adventure kicked off with 114kg of dry weight … and ended with a 79kg Ironman finish!
Yes, I’ve got the key, at least MY key and I want to share the inspirational, physical and mental bits and pieces that can bring anyone into not only believing dreams can come through, but actually chasing those dreams.
Follow me into preparation, gear-talk and motivation.
Talking about motivation, just look at the photo. That’s the way to finish Ironman number 1.
Exercise Tip: A meta tip on exercise tips (Mitch Tulloch)
Instead of describing how to perform a specific exercise this month, let me instead talk for a moment about how to evaluate the quality or merit of some exercise tip or advice you might read in a magazine or on a website or in some forum.
I call my approach for evaluating the effectiveness of fitness advice the “PRE method”. What I mean by this is that after reading some so-called expert’s opinion concerning an exercise or supplement or nutritional approach, you should then ask yourself three questions:
- What (P)ractice are they recommending?
- What (R)easons do they give for doing this?
- What (E)vidence do they offer to support their reasoning?
It will help if we look at some examples.
Let’s say you want to use biceps curls to build Schwarzenegger-style biceps. What’s the best way of doing this? Men’s Health Magazine says this:
How to Get More From Your Bicep Curls (Men’s Health)
https://www.menshealth.com/uk/building-muscle/a748583/dumbbell-bicep-curls/
Here’s the relevant excerpt:
Stand holding a dumbbell in each hand with your arms hanging by your sides. Ensure your elbows are close to your torso and your palms facing forward. Keeping your upper arms stationary, exhale as you curl the weights up to shoulder level while contracting your biceps. Use a thumb-less grip, advises Edgley. “Placing your thumb on the same side of the bar as your fingers increases peak contraction in the biceps at the top point of the movement,” he says. Hold the weight at shoulder height for a brief pause, then inhale as you slowly lower back to the start position.
The Practice recommended is to use a thumbless grip for the Reason that it “increases peak contraction in the biceps at the top point of the movement”. But what Evidence is given to back up this reasoning? None. Which makes me doubtful of the effectiveness of the practice being recommended.
Let’s look at another popular fitness site’s recommendations concerning this exercise:
How to Do a Proper Dumbbell Curl (LIVESTRONG)
https://www.livestrong.com/article/432105-how-to-do-a-proper-dumbbell-curl/
Here’s the relevant excerpt:
Correct Bicep Curl Form
Once you’ve selected your weights, it’s time to get your form down:
- Stand with your feet hip-width apart with a dumbbell in each hand. Bend your knees slightly, engage your core and maintain good upright posture.
- Position your arms so that your palms are facing forward. Hold onto the dumbbells, but don’t grip them so tightly that you feel strain in your forearms.
- Bending at the elbow, lift both dumbbells up toward your shoulders by flexing your bicep muscles. Lower the dumbbells the same way you raised them until your arms are fully extended in the same position you started in.
- Repeat eight to 12 repetitions without swinging your weights. In other words, rely on your muscles rather than momentum. If you find yourself needing to add momentum to lift, try using a slightly lighter dumbbell instead, as swinging can lead to injury.
There are several Practices being recommended here, such as positioning your arms so that your palms are facing forward. But no Reasons are given for any of these practices, and of course no Evidence is presented either. So I’ll basically ignore what they say here.
Let’s try another website:
Make Bicep Curls More Effective With This Simple Adjustment (STACK)
https://www.stack.com/a/make-bicep-curls-more-effective-with-this-simple-adjustment
Here’s the relevant excerpt:
The way most people do Biceps Curls is flat out wrong…
When you first learned how to curl, odds are you were told to keep your elbows to your sides so you don’t cheat. Otherwise, people have a tendency to swing the weights or even drive their elbows back so it’s easier to lift heavier weights…
Sorry to break it to you, but this isn’t the best way. And it all comes down to anatomy…
The brachialis sits toward the lower half of your upper arm, under the biceps brachii. It attaches to your humerus (upper arm bone) and the ulna bone of your forearm, and it’s the most powerful flexor of the elbow. Put simply, it helps to bend your elbow.
The biceps brachii is a two-headed muscle that attaches the radius bone of the forearm to the scapula, or shoulder blade. It’s also a flexor of the elbow, and it helps turn the forearm so your palm can face outward (i.e., supination), plus it helps you bring your upper arm forward and upward as if giving an upper cut (i.e., forward flexion of the shoulder)…
When you perform a Dumbbell Curl, Barbell Curl or Cable Curl with your elbows pinned to your sides, you work both the brachialis and biceps brachii. But it’s not possible to create maximal tension in the biceps brachii because of the lack of forward shoulder flexion…
I’ll let you read the rest of the article, but basically they say you should “keep your elbows pinned to your sides as you initiate the movement” and “bring your elbows forward a few inches and squeeze the heck out of your biceps” when you reach the upper end of your arm’s range of motion in the exercise. Now they’ve clearly described the Practice here, but the Reason they offer behind this practice is somewhat nebulous because they inserted what appears to be Evidence (anatomical descriptions of the brachialis and biceps brachii muscles) in the middle of their article. But just quoting some anatomical facts doesn’t qualify as evidence, especially since they basically leave it to the reader (you and me) to figure out the connection between the anatomy of the arm muscles and how to make the exercise more effective.
In short, none of these so-called recommendations or tips offers any real scientific basis for performing biceps curls effectively. And from my observations the more “sciencey” a fitness article sounds, the less helpful it actually is in most cases. Because the human body is a complex machine, more complex than any machine, really. There are too many dependent variables involved. In fact all the variables governing exercise form are dependent upon one another and upon other variables like health, mindset, nutrition, and so on.
So before you accept any exercise tip or article as the “right” way of doing some exercise or eating right or living right, ask yourself three questions to evaluate whether the article is worth its weight in salt or not.
How to choose a gym (Robin Camp)
Robin Camp works as tech support for an Orthodontic Practice Management Software company called New Horizons Software ( www.nhsoftware.com). As a professional photographer on the side, Robin does fashion, glamour weddings and more in his spare time (www.dancingwithlightphoto.com). You can also now find him working out on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/fitittech/.
Gyms used to be a luxury, ridiculously expensive and exclusive. Price drops, expanded hours and easier access have recently made them much more affordable and accessible to the general public with many gyms now having a base $10 month, $30-50 a year membership (~$2.15 a day, less than we spend on daily caffeine doses!)
When choosing a gym, most people consider a) vicinity b) price c) hours. These are all pretty self-explanatory, if it’s inaccessible to your budget and schedule it’s not going to work. However there are other things to consider.
Your goals: if your workout is primarily stretching and yoga, a CrossFit gym is not going to mesh with your goals or your workout style. Find a gym that caters to your goals and your style. Yes you can pound a square peg into a circular hole, but why waste your energy?
Take a tour during the time you would be able to work out and consider the following criteria.
A) Is it overly crowded? If it’s so busy you have to wait for equipment, can you afford the extra time for your workout, or do you want to keep looking for a quieter gym?
B) If you want access to a staff member, are they available for training or questions?
C) Does the staff immediately launch into a high pressure sales pitch to get you buy Personal training sessions instead of telling you how this machine works?
D) Some people prefer a very social gym where it’s considered OK for people to talk to you during a workout (BTW it’s not), some people are wearing their headphones for a reason and want to be left alone, do the gym members seem to respect this? For some of us an ideal gym is quiet except for the clank of the iron and the occasional grunt, no one talks, for others the gym is a social experience and this should be considered before signing up for a contract.
Look around, do you feel inspired or afraid? A gym should be somewhere you are going to be comfortable, some people respond to negative feedback and criticisms, others don’t, know yourself and decide whether the environment is going to be conductive to your goals and you sticking with your goals, if not, move on. Mr. Jones may be uncomfortable walking into a gym blasting out Eminem and being surrounded by meatheads, Mrs. Smith might find it exhilarating and that extra pump of energy that inspires her, the right gym atmosphere makes a huge difference.
To illustrate this, I started out my recent journey at Planet Fitness nearly 3 years ago. For approximately a year and a half it worked out fine, but as I progressed and started lifting heavy, staff members intervened and told me that I was being intimidating and not contributing to the atmosphere. In all fairness, they were correct, Planet Fitness provides a mainstream, low pressure noncompetitive environment, a loud sweaty guy squatting 405lbs did not make the grandmother one station over feel overly comfortable. So after having the talk, I started to look around, Planet Fitness had been a good start, now it was the time to move on. I found a gym, Crunch Fitness that didn’t frown on powerlifters and immediately started pushing myself harder in an environment that favored my training methods and goals. My PR’s went up quickly and I started looking forward to going to the gym rather than the dragging myself in because I “had to”.
E) READ THE CONTRACT! Some gyms will commit to your sign up price as long as you pay your bill on time, others slip in a 6 months at an awesome $10 a month and then it hits $99 a month. Know what you are getting into. Personally, the gym that commits to the sign up price is my general preference.
F) Lastly- look at the amenities, sometimes these are worth the price of the higher tier plans, whether it’s a shower so you don’t have to go home before work, cryotherapy, tanning, pools or classes. Be honest with yourself, ARE you actually going to use them? Or do they just sound like a good idea? Don’t throw away money, it flies fast enough on its own.
The best wearables for runners? (Rod Trent)
Professionally, Rod Trent is a PFE/STA for Microsoft, focusing on Azure Identity and Governance and EMS. Privately, Rod is dedicated to fitness through diet, running, and other activities, but also a TV and movie junkie. You can find Rod active on Twitter (http://twitter.com/rodtrent) and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/rodtrent/).
Is there a best gadget, wearable, or device specifically designed to capture data specifically for runners?
The short answer is yes. The longer answer is it depends. But the best answer is that it’s the one that you’ll actually use.
What I mean by that is there are hundreds of devices available these days that range from types of devices (watches, wristlets, technology infused shoes, finger rings, clip-on pods, etc.) to different price points (cheap, cost-worthy, and costly), but you have to decide which is right for you based on how much of the data it collects will help keep you focused, energized, challenged, and motivated.
Personally, I’m a Garmin snob. The wearable I use to keep me motivated is the new Fenix 6X. I’ve been part of the Garmin family for years. The amount of data Garmin devices collect is enormous and I regularly sift through the information to figure out if my fitness is still on track or if there are things I can do to continue my improvements. However, this crazy amount of data may not be right for you.
For some, step counts are good enough. In this case, you’ll find Fitbit devices fit best. For a bit more information including distance and other health aspects, Apple Watches work well. For those that want as much data and accuracy as possible, its back to Garmin, Suunto, or others that are generally considered “athlete” devices.
Again, its up to you. Find the device that will continually motivate you and that’s the one that you need. Don’t go whole-hog because your friend (or even me) says that Garmin is the crème de la crème. As time goes on, of course, you can always move up the ranks. If the Apple Watch worked great initially, but doesn’t fit your needs anymore, level-up. There are new versions of devices that release each year, so there will always be something else to keep you on track with your goals.
When excuses become reasons (Mark Nichols)
Mark Nichols is an IT professional that got started with VMS in 1984 and is now a Sales Engineer for a Global IT Software company and a CrossFit Level 1 Trainer with his local box.
I know this may be hard to imagine, but exercise fanatics wake up some mornings and don’t want to go to the gym. There are days when super-athletes like LeBron James and Serena Williams don’t want to work out. Well, maybe not them since they are not humans but freaks of nature, and they ALWAYS want to work out. But for mere mortals, it happens. Not wanting to work out has even happened to me. When I first got started, it happened every day.
I’m tired. I’m sore from yesterday’s workout. I have too much to do today. I need to save my energy for the event tomorrow night. I don’t have time. I don’t want to work out today. I can go tomorrow. The number of excuses for not taking care of your health TODAY is infinite. Some of them are legitimate. But after a while, those excuses become the cause of bad health. Before that happens, you have to find and know the reason for the choice you are making to take care of yourself. That reason must go beyond motivation and become a commitment. We have a poster at our gym that says, “Commitment means you do what you said you were going to do after the motivation has left.”
I am in one of those periods right now. I have a new job in a different field, and the learning curve looks like a broomstick leaning against a wall. I’ve been stressed and scrambling to keep up and make a good impression on my new boss. Classes, meetings, research, and the new workload have overwhelmed my schedule. For the first time in a couple of years, I’ve not wanted to go work out.
A job is one of the most important things we do in life. But is it the most important? As I have written previously, I believe my life depends on me eating right and working out, but doing well at my job is also essential. I am the one who will choose what I do.
Productivity consultants tell us that our calendar and our checkbook reveal our priorities. If something is a high enough priority, we schedule it and pay the price. This is illustrated by the antidote of the man who never had time to go to the doctor until he found out he had a serious disease. When faced with a life-threatening illness, he had plenty of time for medical treatments. If he had taken the time to take care of his health before he was sick, he would not have gotten the disease.
James Clear has written extensively about how to develop habits, and I highly recommend his work. Some of the key points I’ve learned are that motivation fails quickly as a reason to do something while creating a habit is the key to making a lifestyle change. If your excuses are becoming the reasons for failure, YOU have to make the change. And for change to work, it must become a habit. No one else can do it for you.
The food pyramid scheme (Kris Lall)
Kris Lall works as a product manager in the tech industry for an enterprise software manufacturer. As a youngster, Kris was consumed with soccer before technology came along. Now he’s consumed with both. You can find him on Twitter at the not-too-surprising handle @krisoccer.
Fitness is not just about exercising our bodies, it’s (obviously) also about what we put into our bodies. One could argue that what we put into our bodies is just as (or more?) important as physical activity and how we work the body. We can further break this down to the various consumables we put into our bodies — food, vitamins, and drugs. We can think of examples of good and bad of each of these. Food: Veggies good; Twinkies not so good.
Our understanding of which foods are good for us continues to evolve. For example, when I was only a lad, we studied the food group pyramid with the four food groups (milk, meat, fruits and vegetables, breads and cereals) and the foods that fit into each of these four categories. My teenage kids chuckle when I mention eating healthy and the four food groups, claiming that we’re beyond this way of looking at nutrition.
So what’s the latest from the nutrition experts? Well, the consensus seems to have more recently settled on six food groups — fruits, vegetables, grains, dairy, protein foods, oils — plus calories from food that don’t fit into the other categories. This includes our alcoholic beverages and coffee/tea (as important as these are, perhaps beer, wine, and coffee deserve their own food group!).
The goal is, of course, to consume the recommended quantity of various vitamins and nutrients that keep our bodies running optimally. While I rarely think in terms of the food groups themselves, my wife and I have made it a habit to invest in more healthy choices across the board when grocery shopping. We have been investing in organic foods: lower-fat meat (like bison), low-salt nuts, organic cereals with less sugar than mainstream brands, and healthier fruits and veggies, like mangoes and beets. Yep, beets.
I used to be a beet detractor, but then my wife baked some fresh (not from a can) blonde beets from a local organic farm, which overnight converted me into a beet promoter. Less commonly consumed fruits and vegetables may be more healthy than traditional options, like bananas and celery. Moreover, during the summer we grow a lot of our own vegetables, ostensibly the healthiest way to consume veggies.
Fat has gotten a bad rap over time, and oils are often associated with unhealthy fat. As the new and most interesting entrant to the updated food pyramid, healthy oils appear to be an important part of any diet, especially since much of the food we eat is eaten with or cooked in oil. Olive oil is said to be the most healthy, but healthy oil options abound for every cooking purpose: flaxseed oil, avocado oil, sesame seed oil. Just imagine the new flavors you can have by trying different oil types while at the same time practicing more healthy cooking.
IT folks interested in optimal health should think not only in terms of physical exercise, but also what they put in their bodies. The updated food pyramid with six groups provides guidance on ways to maintain a balanced diet. For those in search of more healthy food dishes and willing to try new flavors, their options are greater than ever.
For further info see the following sources:
https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/know-your-food-groups
https://healthyeating.sfgate.com/4-major-food-groups-4130.html
https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2017/09/26/back-basics-all-about-myplate-food-groups
https://www.everydayhealth.com/news/best-worst-oils-health/
Let’s talk about sleep and how it relates to energy (Brian Dougal)
Brian Dougal is an IT manager for Powder River Development, a father of five, a blitz-hobbyist, a table-top role player, and a health coach for the OptaVia Health Program. You can also find Brian on Instagram @dougalhealth.
Hey, IT Nerds, How’s your health? Let’s talk about Sleep and how it relates to energy.
Do you find you can’t get started without some kicker? How many cups of coffee do you need in the morning to get started? Or how many sodas? Maybe your lack of energy in the morning is not about the caffeine, but about how much sleep you get, or even the quality of your sleep.
Proper amounts of quality sleep is important for several reasons:
- Your body rebuilds worn out muscles. If you’re working out, this is your recovery time.
- Your body and mind use this time to react and respond to emotion and experiences you encountered during the day. Dreams help us to process some of these things.
- Short term memory is converted to long term store memory.
- You are fasting and burning fat during sleep. That’s why we often are a pound or so lighter first thing in the morning, and why it’s important to eat protein first thing when we get up.
- Your body has circadian rhythm, or an internal clock, and this is regulated while you sleep.
Experts recommend the following for the proper amount of sleep you should shoot for each night:
- Elder 65+ years: 7-8 hours
- Adult 18-64 years: 7-9 hours
- Teen: 14-17 years: 8-10 hours
- Youth: 6-13 years: 9-11 hours
- Child: 3-5 years: 10-13 hours
- Toddler: 1-2 years: 11-14 hours
- Infant: 4-11 months: 12-15 hours
- Newborn: 0-3 months: 14-17 hours (which is also the most boring time to have kids… So happy my twins are toddlers now.)
Keep in mind that these numbers are based on the collective average, your personal genetics may differ.
So you can see 7 is the adult minimum. Not 5, not 4. And going to bed at 10 but playing candy crush or collecting bitcoin fountains for two hours is not considered sleeping.
In fact, experts recommend you stop viewing screens an hour or two before bed, because the blue light that emits from screens boost attention, reaction times, and mood, which is the complete opposite of what you want when it’s time to hit the sack.
Sleep quality is also very important to consider.
A while back I went to my doctor. I told her that I was concerned because I didn’t have a lot of energy, and even after a night’s sleep I found myself dozing on the way to work, which is terrifying.
She had me do a sleep study and found that about 40 times per night if laying on my back, or 15-20 if on my side, I stopped breathing. This was due to being over 300 pounds, and also how far my jaw falls back when sleeping. So the VA Sleep Clinic gave me a C-PAP. I was hoping for one of those mouth pieces, but I have to tell you, the C-PAP is probably one of the best things I’ve ever done. I can’t sleep without it, wake rested, and don’t worry about crashing on my way to work.
What about your mattress? I know they can be spendy, but consider that we spend 1/3 of our life on that thing. And a good mattress can make all the difference between a good night sleep and a sore back. Consider budgeting for a good one if you’re still sleeping on the one you picked up on the side of the road during college.
Eating properly and getting sufficient quality sleep will really help out with the energy. When we eat high protein, moderate healthy fat, low sugar meals our body burns fat for energy, including during sleep. So make sure these areas of your life are in balance for optimal energy during work and workouts.
We’ll discuss Stress next month.
I like to move it move it! (Kris Kane)
Kris Kane is a North Yorkshire based personal trainer, martial arts instructor and general fitness enthusiast. You can find him on Instagram at @koachedbykris and also view him professionally on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/kris-kane.
When coaching clients I encourage them to think about different aspects outside of their training sessions that can also contribute to hitting their goals.
Your general activity levels can play a big role in creating the energy deficit required for fat loss, which is a common focus for sedentary workers. This can easily be done by monitoring and increasing your daily step count. Most of us that work in an office would normally only hit 4-5k steps per day but ramping this up can really make the difference over a week.
A good benchmark for an active person is generally 10k steps per day and there are a variety of ways this can be tracked:
Fitness bands — You don’t need a top of the range Apple Watch or Fitbit, anything with a step counter is enough for this (check out Amazon for some very affordable options).
Smart phones — Many modern smart phones have step counters built into them, you just have to remember to keep your phone on you!
Unable to track your steps? — It takes roughly around 10 minutes to walk a thousand steps so just getting in an extra walk or two for 30+ minutes a day will start to add up.
Although any form of step tracker comes with inaccuracies, it still gives you a general marker of current activity and a relative marker to improve on.
Why walking over cardio? Well, cardio is great for a workout and improving fitness etc but too intense a session can become counterproductive for fatloss. This is because excessive cardio can leave you feeling fatigued and so reduce your general activity further. It is also likely to increase your hunger levels, resulting in eating more, and it doesn’t take much food to eat back the calories burned from a training session. Walking is simply less taxing and something you can include in your daily routine.
Easy hacks to improve your overall activity could be a stroll to the shop instead of driving, taking the dog for a longer walk than normal, putting your headphones on and listening to your favourite music, or just getting some fresh air away from your desk at work.
An example from my routine that has helped is walking to work instead of driving. This takes about 25 minutes each way and adds approximately 5k steps a day topped up with a walk into the town at lunch time. It doesn’t impact the rest of my day or performance in the gym but on these days I can easily hit 10k steps. It also gives me chance to catch up with my favourite podcasts which I probably wouldn’t do otherwise.
Aside from the impact it will have on your fat loss goals, getting some fresh air is also great from a stress release/well-being perspective. It gives you chance to clear your head and valuable thinking time away from hectic life and I believe is a healthy habit to form as part of your routine.
If you don’t already track your steps, give it a go and challenge yourself to do some more!
Good luck with your training and if anyone has any questions or is interested in some online coaching, feel free to drop me an e-mail at [email protected]
Send us your feedback!
Got feedback about anything in this issue of FitITproNews? Email us at [email protected] today!
Inspirational quote
“In times of great stress or adversity, it’s always best to keep busy, to plow your anger and your energy into something positive.”
-Lee Iacocca-
The Toolbox
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Nativefier makes any web page a desktop application:
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Boostnote is a markdown editor for developers on Mac, Windows and Linux:
Brook is a cross-platform(Linux/MacOS/Windows/Android/iOS) proxy/vpn software: