REST is BEST!

Hello again Bloggers!

We know it’s been a while since we’ve posted something for you, but we, just like all of you, were enjoying our mid-semester break!

Hopefully this blog post was worth the wait!

Come one, come all! Find out just how good it is for your body when you do… not much at all. This week’s entry is dedicated to my favourite days of the week – REST DAY!

We at HealthyU love a good rest day, especially after a busy week of exercise and uni, so we thought we would discuss WHY a rest day is important, HOW to get the most from your rest days and WHAT to eat on a rest day, as well as WHEN the best day to set as a rest day is.

To put it simply – REST IS BEST!

It is crucial to have a rest day amongst a busy work out schedule to promote a quick recovery and decrease the chances of extreme fatigue. Just like the consumption of proteins post-work out is important, a rest day is equally vital in your health and fitness journey for a very important reason – muscle repair!

If you are new to exercise, it is important to alternate your workouts so that you are easing into your program or routine. A good starting point would be a “Day on, day off” approach, where you would exercise one day and rest the following. Alternatively, if you feel that you are in a great work out routine at the moment, but like so many others you neglect the rest day, perhaps a two on one approach would be suitable to ensure that you take the necessary time to rest. My current workout plan is pretty simple. I go hard with some cardio on a Monday, do some weights training on a Tuesday and rest on a Wednesday. Thursday I’m back in for more weights training, Friday I’ll try a group fitness class or some circuit training (check out our WOW for some ideas) and will have Saturday reserved for rest as well!

For a basic run down of why you need a rest day, check out this quick link for a UK fitness site, complete with DIY therapy ideas for muscle fatigue or soreness.

http://www.ffnetwork.co.uk/fitnessfacts/recovery.php

Whatever kind of workout plan you decide to follow, it is first important to keep yours goals in mind. Sometimes the idea of the perfect body or losing a certain amount of weight by a deadline can cause our minds to go into overdrive, which will often lead to over doing it on the exercise front. The truth is, by doing this and skipping your rest days, you may think it will help you achieve results faster but it is actually slowing you down! After some time of over working the body, your muscles will actually start to deteriorate, decreasing your fitness and making it highly likely that you will ruin your progress and add that weight right back on!

Having a rest day every now and then will ensure two things:

1: You will repair your body and your strengths much easier and a lot quicker

2: You will continue to love exercising and fitness – because you lower the risk of hurting yourself!

“Your body builds itself when you are not working out. Most people who think that working out six days a week is an absolute must, think wrong! Your body needs time to recover and giving it just one Sunday to do that is not enough. It needs more than that.”

Find out more HERE: http://healthmeup.com/news-diet-fitness/importance-of-rest-days-in-a-workout-plan/3055

Once again, HealthyU bloggers, don’t be too alarmed if you are feeling sore after your workouts:

Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (or DOMS) is the feeling of muscular stiffness, soreness or fatigue that is often experienced for the first day or two after an extreme workout. Particularly painful if you are new to exercise – but here at HealthyU, WE LOVE DOMS!

Some quick and easy ways to get rid of DOMS are:

– Wait it out: Rest and recover for the next day

– Some light stretching or a walk on your rest day

– Try a Yoga class

DOMS is a really good indication of how hard you have pushed yourself throughout your workout, and is an adaptation process to a new or more intense routine. This soreness is a good thing though, as it leads to improved strength and stamina as your muscles recover and build. This is why we love rest days when DOMS kicks in!

To find out more about Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness: Check out this easy to read article on About.com: http://sportsmedicine.about.com/cs/injuries/a/doms.htm

Okay so now you know why a day of rest is important, but what are you going to eat on your 24 hours of relaxation. Well you may be thinking that you need to follow a strict diet and make sure you are eating correctly as to not lose all your progress.

Don’t worry; eating what you want on this day won’t really make that much of a difference as long as you have well timed meals that are still relatively healthy. However if you eat the right kind of meals you may in fact generate a positive effect for your body allowing you to recover more quickly (The Food Guru, 2012). On a rest day you body is dealing with the broken down muscle fibres and deleted energy stores that have been used throughout the week. So make sure you don’t skimp on any nutritional food and you will feel much better the next day (The Food Guru, 2012).

Now when planning meals for your rest day you need to take into account the amount proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. You want to eat carbohydrates such as whole wheat breads, pasta, brown rice, so as to restore you energy stores (Vaesa. J, 2010). Eating a lot of proteins is also very useful in helping the development of new muscles, along with some unsaturated fats you will be ready for exercise the very next day (Vaesa. J, 2010). So to help you with making a decision on what you will cook for your rest day meals I will provide a couple to help you out.

So one of the meals that I recommend for one of your day off meals is fried rice. This is the perfect meal to replace those calories that you burnt during you workouts containing a total of 605 per serving. The recipe that I will provide was even used by the cyclists participating in the Tour de France in 2010, so here it is (Megroz. G, 2012):

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon minced garlic (about 2 cloves)
• 2–3 green onions, diced or thinly sliced
• 3 eggs
• 2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
• COOKED 2 cups cooked rice
• COOKED 1 cup boneless chicken thighs (2–3 pieces)
• 1 cup frozen peas and corn

Directions:

1. Bring a lightly oiled sauted pan to medium/high heat.
2. Add the garlic and green onions and saute for about one minute.
3. In a small bowl, beat the eggs and soy sauce vigorously and pour into the hot pan. The pan should be hot enough to cause the eggs to fluff.
4. Stir the eggs to cook them quickly.
5. Add the rice and cooked chicken thighs and fry the mixture for five to six minutes.
6. Add the peas and corn and cook until the vegetables heat through and are vibrant in color.

Another recovery recipe that I recommend is definitely going to be something that you enjoy; Hot Chocolate!

That’s right, hot chocolate contains approximately the same amount of protein and carbohydrates as Gatorade and has been shown to work on a similar level in professional events, making it the perfect relaxation food while still improving your recovery. A great recipe is this one I found (Megroz. G, 2012):

Ingredients:

• 4 cups whole milk
• 11 ounces Bittersweet chocolate ~60-70%, Finely chopped
• 3 Tablespoons Confectioners’ Sugar

Directions:

1. Warm milk in medium sauce pan until steaming slightly, take care not to boil over.
2. Slowly whisk in chopped chocolate.
3. Whisking constantly reduce at a low simmer for 4-5 minutes
4. Whisk in Confectioners’ sugar to your desired sweetness.

Both of these recipes are from this website so go have a look at the others which they provide:

http://www.outsideonline.com/fitness/nutrition/The-Top-10-Recovery-Foods.html

Anyway that’s all for this blog post, remember to take care of yourself and always strive to be the HealthyU.

The Food Guru (2012) Rest Day Diet. Retrieved From:

http://foodguru802.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/rest-day-diet.html

Vaesa, J (2010) What to Eat on Recovery Days Between Workouts. Retrieved From: http://www.livestrong.com/article/334862-what-to-eat-on-recovery-days-between-workouts/

Megroz, G (2012) The Top 10 Recovery Foods. Retrieved From: http://www.outsideonline.com/fitness/nutrition/The-Top-10-Recovery-Foods.html

Related articles

• Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) – 9 Tips to Conquer DOMS and Maximize Your Workouts (comptaenligne.wordpress.com)
• Factors that Influence the Effectiveness of your Workout Recovery (drrobsite.wordpress.com)
• Muscle Fatigue (isouthchamp.wordpress.com)

WOW – What a Workout!

The Workout of the Week followed by a quick and easy protein filled meal.

Howdy Bloggers,

Welcome to HealthyU’s first workout of the week, or WOW, as we like to call it. This week’s workout will focus on a circuit that has been planned for a fast and effective full-body hit. Not only does it target arms, legs, tummy and back, but it can be done just about anywhere – all you will need is an open area, a flat wall and a chair or bench to lean on.

The circuit will consist of 3 rounds of the following exercises:

• Motion Plank – hands to elbows motion (10)
• Push-ups – on toes if possible (10)
• Hundreds – 60 seconds
• Tabletop extension – 10
• Triceps dip – 10
• Wall Squat – 60 seconds

The key to an ideal circuit session is to minimalize the rest period between each exercise and between each round. Try to aim for a 30 second rest between each individual activity, and about 1 minute between each round. By doing so you will also be able to actively improve your overall fitness and cardio ability.

Not sure how to do a certain exercise?

Let’s break it down.

Motion Plank:

Begin in a normal plank position, ensuring that your back is flat and that your butt does not lift during the motion. Draw your belly button flat to engage your abdominals and protect your back. The best starting position would be with your elbows on the ground. Bring yourself up from your elbows onto your hands one at a time, so that you are in push-up position and then return to your elbows. The entire motion should take 4 seconds, 1 second per movement. Repeat this until you have completed 10 reps. Remember that one full rep is up on to hands and back down to elbows.

Push-up:

A push-up should hopefully be pretty self-explanatory. Prepare by placing your hands shoulder width apart and bringing yourself up onto your hands and toes. Keeping your neck and back straight, one rep consists of bringing yourself closer to the ground, and pushing back up. Repeat until you have done 10 reps.

Hundreds:

For those of you familiar with Pilates, this exercise should be nothing new. Lie flat on your back with your belly button drawn in and your hips square. Bring your legs to a “tabletop” position, raised above you and bent so as to be parallel to the floor. Place your hands on your knees to prepare and draw your head and shoulders off the floor, slowly extending your legs as you do so. Bring your arms to your sides so that they are hovering slightly above the ground and begin your count. Hold for 60 seconds, bringing your hands to support your neck if it begins to strain. To release, bend your knees and lower your head gently, to avoid injury or strain.

Tabletop extension:

 

This exercise is great for lower-abs and leg muscles. Begin by lying flat on your back and drawing your belly button in to the floor. Return to tabletop position like in the previous exercise with your hands either by your sides or under your bottom. Slowly extend one leg until it is straight and barely off of the floor. Change legs, returning your leg to a bent position and extending the other. 1 rep is complete when both legs have been extended and returned to tabletop position. Continue until you have done 10 reps.

Triceps dip:

Brace yourself on the edge of the chair or bench with your knees bent in front of you. Lower yourself of the chair so that your hands support you. Bend your elbows and push yourself back up level with the chair. This is 1 triceps dip. Continue until you have completed 10.

Wall Squat:

Simply lean against a wall with your legs in front of you. Slide down the wall until you are sitting against it with your knees bent at 90 degrees and ensuring your tummy is flat so that your core muscles are engaged Hold this for 60 seconds. If you do not begin to feel your leg muscles working, drop the wall squat lower.

After 3 rounds of this circuit you should be feeling great! This is one of many circuits that I do on a weekly basis. It’s easy, effective and not at all time-consuming – plus, if you’re like me, you’ll love seeing these exercises being completed in less time as your body gets stronger. It’s the best sense of achievement!

Read about a HealthyU team member’s experience with this circuit:

Ellen

“I often do circuits when I’m at the gym, but the great thing about this circuit was I could do it from home. With no annoying machines to fiddle around with, or other gym goers getting in the way,  I was able to complete the circuit efficiently. What I liked about the workout is the first two exercises get your heart rate up and then the others are a good cool-down but they still make your muscles work hard. For me, the tricep dips were the hardest exercise, but Keira thinks the Hundreds exercise is one of the hardest to do. Overall, I enjoyed the workout and found it challenging enough that my muscles were fatigued and slightly sore the next day. To me, that’s a good sign of a worthwhile workout”

 

Following a workout such as this, it is important to have a stretch and get the right type of fuel into your body. One of the awesome green smoothies from our previously posted recipes would be great, but if you’re feeling like a proper meal, give this a try:

Chicken, and broccoli stir-fry, with a garlic and lemon dressing

All you will need is:

• 100g Diced Chicken
• 1 shrub of broccoli
• 1 whole tomato, diced
• 1 fresh chili
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 fresh lemon, or 1/3cup of lemon juice
• 2tsp of sweet chili sauce (optional)

Simply fry up the chicken in a pan until brown and nicely cooked. Add the crushed garlic, broccoli and diced chili and allow vegetables to cook for desired length of time (2 minutes is recommended). Add in the chopped tomato and toss through.

Once the tomato has appeared to shrink, reduce heat and the lemon juice. If wanted, add the chili sauce at this time as well. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

This stir-fry has a very fresh and slightly tangy flavor and is high in protein. In the photo below the stir-fry has been served with white quinoa, a low carb grain that is much healthier than rice or noodles.

This recipe is perfect for lunch or dinner after an active day.

Any comments, questions or feedback is greatly appreciated and make sure to check out our facebook page:

Until next time,

Keep Active and Eat Clean!

*Please note that the recipe and the work out routine provided in this blog does not need to be referenced as it has been composed by Keira from the HealthyU team, who works in the fitness industry and is familiar with Personal Training and Diet planning.

Related articles

• 4 Minute Plank Challenge {High plank to Elbow plank} (kamafitness.ca)
• At Home Workout Routine (livinghealthywithd.wordpress.com)
• Muscle Building – Fat Burning Workouts (loseweighthome.wordpress.com)