Exercise and Nutrition

You Need Fuel To Move

Let’s get into a bit of basic biology to understand how to body uses fuel. We will start with basic muscle structure before moving onto how the muscle uses fuel. The aim is help you with meal planning in relation to your goals, just dieting isn’t helpful, understanding nutrition in relation to movement starts to help you piece things together with ease to keep you in control.

Muscle is made up of individual fibres which are individually wrapped in Endomysium. Endomysium contains the vessels and nerves that supply the muscle fibres. The fibres are packaged in a bundle of 15-20 fibres wrapped in another substance called the perimysium which is also a connective tissue, this is known as the fasciculus. Fasciculus collectively build fasciculae which is the belly of skeletal muscle. Fasciculae is covered in a third connective tissue called epimysium. This merges into the fascia and tendon which attach muscle to bone.

Skeletal Muscle Microstructure- Oxygen and nutrients are delivered to the muscle via blood flow. Nutrients (fats, glucose, proteins and enzymes) are carried in a liquid called sarcoplasm which bathes the muscle fibres- this produces energy and allows for chemical reactions to occur.

Myofibrilla make up muscle fibers in their hundreds- these are surrounded by sarcolemma which allows nerves to connect. Mitochondria are interspersed between myofibrils providing sites for fats and glucose which allows mitochondria to produce energy which results in a muscle contraction.

Myofibrils within the sarcomere contain contractile called sarcomeres- this is known as the functioning unit of the cell where muscular contractions occur. The thick filament on the sarcomere is made up of contractile protein myosin and the thin filament made up of contractile protein actin.

See video

Sliding Filament Theory

This Video explains Sliding Filament Theory with some great visuals for those of you who are visual learners.

Sliding filament theory explains how the proteins which together with the connective tissue explain how muscle contractions happen. In the Sarcomere there is store of calcium called the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) calcium is what causes the muscle to contract and for sliding filament to happen. In sliding filament theory we have 2 proteins, these are called actin and myosin, calcium causes myosin binds to actin to pull itself along the actin filament (Pinterest exercise physiology and Pinterest Muscles and Movement) this causes a contraction which looks like the swelling of the muscle belly. If you pull your forearm toward your shoulder for a bicep curl you are contracting the belly of the bicep.

Following on from here the blood vessels of the bicep are filled and soaked in nutrients from the blood (glucose, fats, ad proteins) as above, if you are not fueled for movement you will fatigue quickly and reduce your potential to build/gain strength or muscle.

Nutrients

Nutrients come from food, glucose from carbohydrates which is energy providing stamina and endurance, fats as a secondary energy source as well protective mechanism that looks after the muscle fibres and organs, and proteins which repair damage done by exercise. To read or learn more about them visit our article Making Diet & Food Easy.

Diet and Exercise help support a healthy mind, sleep, rest, recovery and the achieving of personal goals, you don’t know need to become a Gym bro, Marathon runner, CrossFitter, Triathathlete or a Yoga mystic. Understanding the basic science of exercise and nutrition will go a long way to help you create an adaptable personalised well-being blueprint with ease so you can discern information in health and wellness that is relevant to you from that that isn’t.

I hope you enjoyed this article and took some useable knowledge from it to help you understand your biology and meet your needs in relation to your goals. Please leave a comment, press the heart button and share it to help more people take control of their health, well-being and fitness.

Samantha

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Muscles and Movement

Effective Exercise

is exercise that’s done to support the movement patterns you require. Biomechanics is the scientific study of movement or as the National Institute Of Health put it ‘the study of forces acting on and generated within the body and of the effects of these forces on the tissues, fluids, or materials used for diagnosis, treatment, or research purposes’.

Let’s unpack the meaning of this.

‘Forces acting on and generated within the body ‘ is describing the impact of movement within the body ‘the effects of these forces on tissues, fluids, or materials used for diagnosis, treatment or research purposes’ is describing how muscles and fluids respond to movement, this information can be used to diagnose exercise, treatment i.e. physio, massage therapy or drugs.

As Personal Trainers (PT’s) we specialise in movement patterns which are more commonly known as exercise. Movement patterns matters for a number of reasons:

• The support our ability to function

• They support our participation in every-day life

• They support our ability to self-care- especially as we age

• They support performance

• They support cognition- there is growing body of research there especially around age-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s and dementia

• They support sports performance- you don’t see rugby players training the same way as swimmers their function and performance need differ

Certain sports or recreational activities such as Cross-Fit, running, tri-athalon have high injury rates amongst amateurs as the intensity and requirement needs are often not coached for and therefore contrary muscular movements can contribute to a foot out of place, bad landing, gait issues, and compensatory muscle use rather than intentional practiced movements leading to higher risk of injury.

At Embrace Life UK we have stuck to fundamental principles on movement and exercise to help our clients understand how to achieve what they want in the safest way so they get to keep their gains. Sometimes that requires a number of contrary movements, for example we have trained military and firefighters who have to be able to run at a decent speed and often lift heavy loads, this causes contrary movement of squat and deadlift vs running, they are very different movement patterns and not complimentary in strength or endurance training. Focus is always on longevity and well-being thus reducing risk of injury. Injury can always occur, there are never guarantees just safer practices.

With this in mind no matter what level you think you train at consider how you move and what muscles are affected as primary targets and what muscles are affected as secondary supportive movers. Consider what you want to be able to do movement wise and what exercise supports the performance of that movement. Use our Pinterest board on Muscles and Movement to help you.

Final Note: You need to fuel for movement our Pinterest Board on Physiology will help you understand how muscles use fuel and therefore what you need to fuel muscles, new content is uploaded weekly on a Tuesday to help you build a full picture of exercise that would be targeted to suit your needs and performance desires. You can do this all yourself without need of weekly PT sessions and save yourself money as you get started, we do offer ad-hoc coaching if you do get stuck and would benefit from some further guidance you can book a zoom session with us and get answers to your questions there.

I hope you enjoyed this article and took some useable knowledge from it to help you understand your biology and meet your needs in relation to your goals. Please leave a comment, press the heart button and share it to help more people take control of their health, well-being and fitness.

Samantha

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Is There Targeted Exercise for Fat Loss?

Targeted Exercise for Fat Loss?

Straight out of the gate I am going to re-iterate the science, you can not target fat loss, our bodies just don’t work like that.

‘Spot reduction is a myth – we can’t control where our bodies lose fat. But we can achieve the results we’re seeking in specific areas by targeting overall fat loss.’ (Sydney Uni)

‘Spot reduction training, conducted in a mixed circuit-training format (triceps and abdomen inside an endurance training), seems to be efficient in promoting adipose tissue reduction in the subcutaneous abdominal region, but was not efficient on the triceps site.’ (National Library of Medicine)

‘Technically there is no way to selectively burn fat in a specific area. Similar to the idea that we can’t choose where we gain fat, as this depends on hormones, genetics, and gender, we cant target fat burning in the body. For example, performing abdominal exercises alone will results in less abdominal fat loss then performing whole body exercise, such as running. Thus, even though you target this region with a specific exercise it still comes down to how much energy is being burned that determines overall fat loss. That being said, when looking at specific fat deposits, such as visceral fat vs subcutaneous fat, there is evidence that performing both aerobic and/or resistance exercise results in greater loss of visceral fat compared to a diet alone.’ (Metafact)

Translated this means cardio and weights: aerobic exercises at moderate to high intensity like High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), shorter runs at quicker pace, speed walking etc… combined with lifting weights to encourage the breakdown of muscle tissue for repair and growth along with a supportive diet this can be achieved with free-weights, gym machine weights, kettlebells, resistance bands. It’s this concept that made things like cross-fit and HIIT training popular along with classes like body combat nd Les mills.

‘Aerobic exercise is a physical activity that uses your body’s large muscle groups, is rhythmic and repetitive. It increases your heart rate and how much oxygen your body uses. Examples of aerobic exercises include walking, cycling and swimming.’ (www.my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/7050-aerobic-exercise)

Anaerobic exercises is endurance based - long distance running/swimming/hiking/cycling etc…

You can however target muscle gain

And pair your nutrition up with exercise alongside managing other stress factors to promote lean muscle gains and lose body fat as a side-effect. The better question to ask would be? What is the best way to lose fat for both health and looks?

There are many factors involved in the realm of visceral fat- these factors are highlighted in Maslow’s foundation needs from his hierarchy (which you can read about here) principals, you can get help with from my Free Resources page and Shop page. It’s become really popular to talk about hormones and hormone im-balance especially related to age and in women. The best way however to know if you have a hormone issue is to ensure you are meeting your basic needs and your stress factors are not overwhelming. It’s not sexy but start at the beginning and learn properly and it will become sexy!

Targeting muscle gain

Muscle gain simplified has 2 components Exercise and Nutrition, genetic factors also need some consideration but you don’t have any jurisdiction here to change them so we won’t worry too much about them.

Currently it is advised if you are looking to target muscle gain to engage in hypertrophic training (weight /rep intense) and engaging in push/pull exercise for each muscle group once per week which amounts to 3-5 gym sessions 45-90 mins each. Doing this along-side a tailored diet with your macro-nutrients balanced in favour of lean muscle mass will start to create adaptations in your body that will give you both the look and strength you desire. Your quick fix 12-week programmes are built on this concept, but it’s not realistic for most people long term. Small steady changes in laying your foundation with nutrition and just getting extra movement into your days to start will reap instant benefits overall. You don’t have to go big/heavy or go home, you can start incrementally, and it’s best practice to do so, this is how we make habits and behaviour stick and how we learn what habits and behaviour need to change and plan for that to be a thing, setting up your environment to support those changes. This is serving both short and long-term goals.

If gym life is not your thing you can cover over-all fat loss with cardio-based training like swimming, walking, running, cycling, hiking, or cardio-based classes, along-side a diet that is balanced in favour of the fat/weight-loss goals. Even with underlying conditions these approaches will support overall health and aesthetic goals. It is advised to engage in free-weights or body-weight based exercise too for the resistance component especially as we age as it helps the muscles and bones stay strong.

‘HIIT-style and more aggressive forms of hybrid training like cross-fit are seen to be very effective at helping people expediate results but also have high injury rates and contribute to overall yo-yo effect training and dieting which is believed to be an unhealthier approach long-term.

.The truth is, any type of high-intensity exercise performed for a prolonged amount of time or done at too high a frequency puts you at risk of overuse injuries and overtraining syndrome. This isn’t exclusive to CrossFit at all. 

I believe that the combination of the very nature of CrossFit and the type of people who generally pursue it is what makes CrossFitters more susceptible to overuse and overtraining. 

While there’s no black-and-white definition of “overuse injuries,” it’s widely accepted that this type of injury occurs when prolonged stress on the musculoskeletal system eventually results in decreased performance, nagging pain, increased inflammation in a joint, or an identifiable injury such as a sprain or strain.  

One 2014 systematic review in the journal Sports Medicine1 calls for a universal definition of overuse injury that should “emphasize that overuse injuries are characterized by (1) a mechanism of gradual onset, and (2) an underlying pathogenesis of repetitive microtrauma.”

Considering the high-volume rep schemes and repetition of movement patterns in CrossFit—specifically overhead pressing and squatting movements—it shouldn’t come as a surprise that overuse injuries are a plague amongst CrossFitters. 

However, there’s no real data to support that overuse injuries are more common in CrossFit than in any other sport or physical activity.’ (www.garagegymreviews.com/is-crossfit-bad-for-you)

I hope you enjoyed this article and took some useable knowledge from it to help you understand your biology and meet your needs in relation to your goals. Please leave a comment, press the heart button and share it to help more people take control of their health, well-being and fitness.

Samantha

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The Mind Body Connection And Exercise

What Is Mind-Body Connection?

The mind body connection is defined by the influence the mind has upon the body and the body has upon the mind and is now scientifically accepted as being real according to the National Institute of Health and Psychology today, it is also a term widely used in health, fitness and well-being spaces to gain public attention to sell private practice based health serviced or products. For the purposes of this article I am going to stick to the relevance of mind body connection and exercise.

Mind-Body Exercise

‘Mind–body exercise is a form of multicomponent exercise that combines movement sequences, breathing control, and attention regulation, which is different from traditional physical exercise. It is also referred to as movement-based contemplative practice, or mindful movement, which emphasizes moving mindfully, commonly including Tai Chi Chuan (TCC), Qigong, and yoga. TCC is a form of mind–body exercise incorporating physical, cognitive, social, and meditative components. Qigong involves a set of relatively slow exercises through coordinated physical movements, breathing, and meditative state to cultivate one’s internal energy called “Qi” to achieve body healing, and Baduanjin (BDJ) is one of the most common forms of Qigong. Yoga is an ancient mind–body exercise which focuses on the present moment, consisting of physical postures (asanas), control of breath (pranayama), and the use of meditation (dyana), and the most common form is Hatha yoga. Compared with aerobic or resistance exercise, mind–body exercises are relatively low in intensity and slow in pace, particularly suitable for the elderly and groups with chronic diseases’ source credit

We can clearly see there is a connection between the mind and body when it comes movement, however when it comes to more traditional exercise like running, lifting weights, swimming, football, walking etc… we tend to become less focused on the movement and more focused on the aim or goal of the movement.

When I attended my Personal Training course we focused very much on exercise physiology, anatomy, and coaching the client, when I left and entered the real world of training and coaching clients I decided to learn more of my trade by training with a few lifetime body-builders to understand things like nutrition, muscle adaptation and mind-muscle connection. Cutting my teeth here as a Personal Trainer really helped me to understand training and exercise mindset as well as learn and experience the mind-muscle connection which is what training for physical adaptation is all about. Mind-body exercise connection can therefore be extended beyond a simple well-being and movement practice to improve performance. But how does this work?

Improving Performance

Performance is about awareness this is across the board, in exercise specifically the more aware and connected you feel to the movement and intensity of exercise being performed the more you can influence adaptation in the body, which is why body builders train in front of mirrors and will concentrate on the muscle they are using when lifting weights. It is then argued that having that extra layer of focus in training sessions helps increase desired muscle adaptations. This would be hard to prove scientifically to that extent, the research between mind-body connection in general supports that hypothesis.

Next time you go for a run, play a sport, train independently, join in a class or even go for walk focus on the movement you are performing, think about how it happens, what muscles are being used, how it feels, Does it feel good? Would you like to change or improve something? becoming mindful in this way over your physical movement can lead you to all sorts of interesting and exciting places so you can get joy from exercise and movement and get the added health benefit of that too.

I hope you enjoyed this article and took some useable knowledge from it to help you understand your biology and meet your needs in relation to your goals. Please leave a comment, press the heart button and share it to help more people take control of their health, well-being and fitness.

Samantha

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