The Benefits of Strength Training

Strength training involves using your own body-weight, weight machines at the gym, free weights or resistance bands to build up strength through increased resistance over time. When exercising for strength we would typically follow a reps and sets approach. Reps refers to the number of times you do an exercise without stopping for a break (end of the set). Sets refers to the number of times you perform the reps. For example you might do 5 sets of 5 reps for a strength training workout session. Typically we look at lower reps to build strength and the difficulty should be quite high in comparison to a lighter weight and higher reps for muscle building or endurance. What Are The Benefits of Strength Training?

● It’s the only way to choose how to change your body shape. With strength training you can target areas of your body where you would like to increase muscle mass. You can’t target fat, but you can target where you gain muscle. You can’t achieve this with cardio, such as running. You may be able to lose weight but you can’t choose where it comes from. ● You can achieve a lower body-fat percentage including strength training in your fitness regime, than training cardio alone. ● Increased metabolism. If you compare a kg of muscle in comparison to a kg of fat: the kg of muscle needs more calories to maintain it than a kg of fat. This means you will burn more calories at rest, than you would if you didn't have that muscle. ● Strengthens bones. Bones get stronger by applying resistance to them over time, studies have shown that older people are less likely to have osteoporosis if they have done strength training. According to Layne & Nelson(1999) 'Both aerobic and resistance training exercise can provide weight-bearing stimulus to bone, yet research indicates that resistance training may have a more profound site specific effect than aerobic exercise.' ● Less injury. Stronger muscles means you are less likely to get injured, suffer from poor posture or get aches and pains from simply not moving enough. It’s amazing how many people come to me with shoulder and back pain, simply because they haven’t done any (or very little)strengthening exercises in their adult life. ● Strength training helps with stability and can enable you to do other exercises such as running or team sports with less risk of pain from previous injuries ● Mental health. When you feel and look strong, it naturally lifts your mood. You might train with a personal trainer or a group of people so the social aspect is great for mental health too. ● Strength training not only strengthens our bones to prevent osteoporosis, but it also helps to lower your resting heart rate, this means a lower risk of heart problems in later life.

What Are the Benefits of Body-Weight Strength Training?

Body-weight strength training involves using your own weight as the resistance to build strength and muscle. Some common body-weight strength exercises are push-ups, glute-bridges and step downs. There are many exercises and variations to suit different levels.

Some benefits include:

● None or little equipment required

● You can workout anywhere- your living room, backyard ,local park, the beach… etc

● You can train outside, which is pretty great living in sunny Sydney!

● It can be less intimidating than going to a weights room at the gym

● It encourages weight-loss: as you are lifting your own body-weight, if you lose weight it becomes easier and you can do more

● You can build a more streamlined body shape or train for muscle - you get to choose

The key to strength training is to start off slowly and gradually move on to harder progressions or harder variations of exercises so you continue to reap the benefits. Add strength training to your exercise regime and stay consistent to look and feel stronger session by session.

Dave Mace is the Founder and Head Coach at Maximum Potential Calisthenics based in Jannali (and other areas in Sydney).

Simple Chilli and Sweet Potato Chips

I love Mexican, this is a regular in my house.

Ingredients

For the Potatoes:

•3 medium sweet potatoes

•2 tsp. garlic powder

•1 tsp. onion powder

•2 tbsp. buckwheat flour

•1 tbsp. olive oil

•Salt & pepper

For the Simple Chili:

•450g lean ground beef

•1 tbsp. chilli flakes

•1 can chopped tomatoes (400g)

•170ml water

For the Garnish:

•2 tbsp. coriander, chopped

1 avocado, mashed

The method

Heat the oven to 420F (215C).

Wash the potatoes and cut them into chips. Season the chopped potatoes with the garlic & onion powder, salt & pepper and sprinkle with buckwheat flour. Drizzle with olive oil and cover well by rubbing in.

Spread the potatoes on a baking tray, making sure they are not too close together. Bake in the oven for 40 mins, stirring halfway through.

In the meantime, heat a non-stick pan over a medium-high skillet and add the ground beef. Cook for about 2-3 mins and season with chilli flakes.

Add the chopped tomatoes, water and stir, reducing the heat to low. Simmer uncovered for about 20 mins, until most liquid evaporates.

To serve, divide the potatoes between plates and top with chilli, mashed avocado and sprinkle with coriander.

How Are Our Hormones Really Affecting Our Fat Loss Goals?

I want to tackle two areas in this article.

The first is, are our hormones making us gain weight? We have all said or at least know someone who has said that our contraceptive method has made us fat.

Here is the harsh truth that I know many will not want to hear.

Only consuming more energy (food) than you burn will make you gain fat! Energy balance, it’s the principle of fat loss. FACT!

BUT (phew there is a but)

Hormones can play a role in helping us consume that energy. I will explain.

The appetite hormones

We have what is called the “hunger hormone” AKA Ghrelin. This stimulates our appetite. Then we have Leptin. Leptin tells our brain we are full and promotes energy balance, we like leptin!!

These two hormones can be affected by lots of factors. Lack of sleep can make your hunger hormone (Ghrelin) for example sky rocket making you hungrier that day. We want to keep ghrelin low during a fat loss phase so eating a whole foods diet with lots of protein will keep you fuller for longer.

We want to be more leptin sensitive. We can do this by getting enough sleep, resistance training, avoid crash dieting, getting enough fibre and so on. Oh, wow look at that, balance and moderation!

Lady hormones

So, we are all aware of the hormone’s estrogen, progesterone and testosterone.

I will tackle each individually.

Estrogen – this increases in the first 14 days of our cycle (known as the Follicular phase) then decreases very quickly after ovulation around day 14. Let’s call Estrogen the nice hormone, we like estrogen. It keeps us on the straight and narrow and sane 😊 It also plays role in decreasing our appetite during the first 2 weeks of the cycle. If you are to start a diet for fat loss then this is when you want to do it.

Testosterone – We don’t have lots of this as its predominantly the male hormone but this is at its peak for us around ovulation. As this is when we have this highest chance of getting pregnant and testosterone improves our sex drive. Women who have PCOS can have 2-3 times more testosterone than women without and their cycle can be as long as 35 days compared the average 28 days of someone without PCOS. More testosterone can bring symptoms with it and women with PCOS hold body fat more central.

Progesterone – Let’s call this the horrid hormone. This rises from day 14 (luteal phase) right up to us getting our period. This causes the mood swings, can affect our sleep causing us to be irritable. We burn a higher number of calories in this phase, it can be up to 300 more. We also become more resistant to insulin which means we don’t tolerate carbohydrates as well but we crave them. Combine this with the affected sleep making our ghrelin hormones rise we end up consuming 500 calories on average a day more during this phase, hello weight gain!

So, you could say your hormones are helping you gain weight but its still energy balance that is what makes you gain fat. Understanding this can help you if you do suffer with the symptoms of the follicular phase.

As we head towards menopause these hormones decline and periods will stop eventually.

Is my pill/coil/implant etc. making you fat then?

Not directly, but it will be affecting your hormones and all the above will be happening! You can however hold a little more water with some contraception though which you will see on the scales.

It’s very different for everyone. Some are affected and some don’t even see any difference.

Exercise and the female cycle

The second thing I would like to discuss is training and exercise in relation to hormones.

Have you ever been to the gym and lifted a personal best only to find the following week you can’t lift it off the floor! Or done the best run of your life to two days later feeling like a slug?

It’s our menstrual cycle messing with us.

We mention above the Follicular phase and the Luteal phase.

Follicular phase – days 1-14 of our cycle. This is when out Estrogen is high and when we are at our strongest. This is when we should be doing our heavy lifting and HIIT sessions, we also get less muscle soreness during this time. Around day 14 (ovulation) out testosterone is high; we may get out best work out here!

The Luteal phase – days 14- 28 ish. Progesterone starts to rise and that yoga pose we were doing a week ago now seems impossible. Our balance and co-ordination are off, we can’t lift for shit and our works outs are just less satisfying. Planning the lighter exercises here would make sense.

I think once we know this and we understand where we are in our cycle then we can give ourselves a break, not beat ourselves up as much.

Take away – understand your cycle. If you are in a fat loss phase you can try and do your deficit in the first too weeks and then hit maintenance calories in the 2nd phase. You will still make progress. Its important to point out that we are all so different, some months we are good and others it hits us hard. If you suffer with PMS plan your training around this, don’t force yourself to do a workout that is possible not going to benefit you.

Its tough being a woman but we just have to get on with it!