Archives for December 2017

December 29, 2017 By Mohammed Tufail Qureshi 4 Comments

Get children active and keep them healthy

Being physically fit has many benefits. This is not true of adults alone but also true for children. I remember as a child I would love to play in the outdoors. Every day my friends and I would spend at least an hour playing all kinds of games from football to cricket to various other physically taxing games. But, today its sad that we hardly see kids playing in the outdoors.

Children of today’s generation are born with technology gadgets around them and by the time they are 5-6 years of age they are so hooked to these gadgets such as Ipads or laptop or mobile phone etc. Most are gaming addicts and are interested in indoor and cyber games than playing in the outdoors.

But, sitting at home in front of the computer or playing on the Ipad is not good for children. These have a bad effect on the child’s physical strength, growth and fitness. Children should play in the outdoors and exert themselves in physical activities for at least an hour (60 minutes) daily. This is the minimum that a parent should see to it that the child follows. And, you’ll soon discover all the easy and enjoyable ways to help your child meet this regime. Encourage your child to participate in activities that are age-appropriate, enjoyable and offer variety! ‘

Three types of physical activities are very important that every child must follow

1. Aerobic Activity
Aerobic activity should make up for most of your child’s 60 or more minutes of physical activity each day. This can include either moderate-intensity aerobic activity, such as brisk walking, or vigorous-intensity activity, such as running. Be sure to include vigorous-intensity aerobic activity at least 3 days per week.

2. Muscle Strengthening
Include muscle strengthening activities, such as gymnastics or push-ups, at least 3 days a week as part of your child’s 60 or more minutes.

3. Bone Strengthening
Bone-strengthening activities include jumping rope or running, at least 3 days a week as part of your child’s 60 or more minutes activities in the outdoors.

Tips to help kids get active

** Encourage walking to school and getting active as a family

** Get them to cycle or run instead of getting a ride

** Ask them to walk the dog with you

** Have them carry the groceries from the market

** Encourage them to dance to their favourite music

** Replace computer and TV time with something active

** Build active opportunities into daily classroom routines and encourage students to join a school sport team

** Take kids to the playground or to the park to play

** Reduce screen time

This will help them to achieve the physical fitness and stay fit which will help them throughout their life.

December 29, 2017 By Ranveer Allahbadia 6 Comments

Best fat loss exercise for Indian women.

In India, most women have only one fitness goal – WEIGHT LOSS

From my experience as a fitness coach, most young girls/women have similar goals – flat stomach or that thigh gap or those toned arms.

The biggest mistake women make in their fitness pursuit is that they are chasing “weight loss” when they really should be chasing “fat loss”.

Young girls and women have a very clear picture of their fitness targets. But, too many women are misinformed about the CORRECT way of achieving those targets.

KEY: CARDIO will not get you to your goals fast.

Losing WEIGHT by purely staving yourself and doing exhaustive cardio works, but neither is good for your overall well being, nor is it the most effective means of burning fat.

Let’s break it down. When you do any form of CARDIO exercise. Running, jogging, even some hipster cardio exercise like some form of dance or martial arts, you’re burning calories. You’re burning off the fat that is stored in your body and using it for energy.

So it is burning fat but, keep in mind that the fat burns only WHILE you’re doing that particular exercise. Once you go home, your body enters a period of rest and things are normal.

Now let’s consider what happens to your body during and after WEIGHT TRAINING. So weight training is like any other EXERCISE. In order to go through with it you need to exert your body. You need to spend calories.

While you’ve undergone resistance training, while you’ve done squats or push ups or a bicep curl, your muscles are made to fight against that resistance. In doing so, your muscles undergo a number of minute tears.

After your exercise, when you go home, and you’re resting, these tears in your muscles are repaired by your body. In order to repair them, your body spends calories, and continues to burn fat even when you’re on your couch, watching TV and even when you’re asleep.

SIMPLE CARDIO – Burn calories only while you exercise.

RESISTANCE TRAINING – You’re burning calories while you exercise AND you’re burning calories even after the exercise, while you’re chilling out at home.

The added advantage of resistance training is the lean muscle you put on in the long term. The more muscle you put on, as a woman, the more fat you’ll burn.

The other big issue I’ve seen in Inida, is that many women are afraid to take up weight training because they think they’ll end up looking like a “bulked up bodybuilder”. They don’t wanna get “Bulky”. You need to know that these overly bulky women have taken a LOT of steroid injections to make their bodies turn into THAT.

Many of them have used testosterone, the male hormone. The testosterone is what makes those women bulky and it’s also what makes mens’ muscles bigger.

Rest assured you won’t become like that UNLESS you take testosterone injections. As a woman, your natural biological make up will make you look beautiful always, it will make you look “girly”, unless YOU mess around with it.

Priyanka chopra, Bipasha Basu, Alia Bhatt. All these women lift weights and have been lifting weights for a long time. They aren’t bulky by any means.

If you still aren’t convinced about this, I urge you to at least try it out for a couple of months. Go to a good gym, get a good trainer, see the results for yourself. As a woman, especially if you’re someone who has never tried resisitance training, you owe it to your body to give it a shot. You have only one body, its time to maximize its potential.

THIS IS THE FASTEST WAY TO BURN FAT.

December 28, 2017 By Ranveer Allahbadia 2 Comments

Women and Weight Training

Most Indians associate the word ‘Gym’ with big muscles and this is the unfortunate truth about gyms in India. Gymming and weight training automatically gets you to picture a bulky man with veins popping out of his arm. I personally blame the media for this. But, it isn’t the 1980s anymore. The world has moved beyond this idea that gyms and weights are meant only for men.

As a fitness coach, and online influencer, the one thing I honestly believe is that woman all over the world should experiment with weight training or resistance training at some point. I am of the opinion that women benefit MUCH more from lifting weights than men ever will? Unfortunately, most women believe that weight training WILL make them bulky. But, it’s not as simple as that. Yes, I get that most women don’t want to look like female bodybuilders but, here’s what you need to know. Female bodybuilders (Insert picture) look the way they look because of injecting testosterone and steroids in their bloodstream.

The one scientific truth that women must be aware of is that weight training has different effect on male bodies and a different effect on female bodies.

Testosterone is the hormone that makes men manly. A part of being “manly” is having the ability to pack on muscle. And packing on muscle is enhanced with higher testosterone levels. That is also why the bulky bodybuilders you see on stage ‘look unnatural’ to some. They’ve injected themselves with heavy amounts of testosterone. But, if you’re a normal, everyday woman, you need to know this one thing – You DO NOT have as much testosterone as men do. This factor alone will prevent you from becoming bulky through weight training.

Most women have one common fitness goal – to lose weight. What most women don’t know is that there are slow ways to lose weight, and fast ways to lose weight. Conventional weight loss techniques like swimming, running or even something like zumba are just cardio exercises. They are primarily working your heart. So, while you’re doing the activity, you’re burning calories. This can be called an active burn of calories.

The biggest difference between weight training and these conventional methods of losing weight is that weight training is the most intense activity you can put your body through. It damages your muscles like no other activity. When you lift weights, you burn calories. But, the real charm of weight training for women, lies in the “after-burn effect”. Because of all the damage you’ve inflicted on to yourself through weights, your body continues burning calories 2-3 days after you’ve done the weight training. So you’re getting both the benefit of an active burn as well as a passive burn. And this form of damage and repair, if combined with a bit of cardio (running, swimming, zumba) will benefit you the most in terms of weight loss.

But, weight loss is a very short term goal. As a woman, you need to take a step back and understand what you’re becoming in the long term. The bitter truth is that women’s bodies disintegrate faster than male bodies. After the age of 25, women’s bones tend to become slightly more porous. They lose a bit of their density and strength. In this process, women also get more injury prone as they grow old. And strength training with dumbbells and weights can be the savior in this case as well. A good training programme, executed in your 20s, will pay off for the rest of your life. Long term strength training has been proven to benefit everything from women’s bone density to aging processes to strength and of course rapid weight loss.

This is what Indian women need to learn. Science is pointing in one direction. And as a 21^st century woman, it’s time to open up to new concepts. Forget what you’ve grown up seeing in the media and forget what you’ve been told by the society you live in. The only person you should be listening to is science. And science urges you to step into the weight room. You grow as an individual ONLY outside your comfort zone.

December 27, 2017 By GOQii Editor 1 Comment

“Simple lifestyle changes have helped me become positive and feel good about myself”

At 44 years of age, he was battling obesity and was also diagnosed with diabetes in May 2016. This was an alarm bell for Vijayakrishna Iyengar to take control of his lifestyle and change it for good. A few concentrated and dedicated efforts by him, his doctor and his personal coach have helped him walk the path of health. In about a year and a half, today he has lost 50 kgs and his blood sugar is controlled with proper diet and exercise. Let’s hear his story of positive lifestyle change in his own words

My life was carrying along. My daily exercise was just walking on the treadmill in the gym for an hour although I followed a strict diet. But, my biggest flaw was that I used to sleep only for 3-4 hours a day. The result of this bad lifestyle was I was obese and weighing 138 Kgs with a 48-inch waist size and my shirt size was also 48 inches. If this wasn’t enough, in June 2016, I was diagnosed with diabetes (252) and that is when the alarm bells rang and I was worried.

I had to rectify my habits and my lifestyle if I had to lead a medical free and healthy life. I immediately started with some activities on my own. I started going to the gym and walk on the treadmill. I was only resorting to cardio exercises and ignoring the other aspects of fitness. I had no guidance coming my way so I was not sure if I was doing the right thing.

I wanted to start doing the right things. I began with searching for a fitness band and came across many products. Then I came across GOQii. What I liked about GOQii is that it was just not a fitness band but the subscription included free personal coaching. The personal coach would guide you on fitness and nutrition.

GOQii went out of the way to ensure healthy habits are imbibed by the users. I found that very appealing and chose GOQii.

I am very fortunate to have got Falguni Kotak as my coach. Falguni, clearly understood my goals (weight reduction and to get fit) and started advising very relevant habits.

Earlier, when I had started going to the gym I was only focused on the treadmill but, she refined that and added strength exercises and core workouts. Also, she emphasized the importance of proper deep sleep and its advantages. Gradually, the habits set in. It’s not possible to change yourself in a day. With concentrated efforts and discipline, I am now able to sleep well for seven hours a day. Also, I do proper well-balanced cardio, strengthening and core workouts.

My water intake has improved and I regularly take at least two litres of water a day. All these positive habits helped me to sustain my efforts and make it a habit for a lifetime.

My strict diet (prescribed by my Doctor) followed with proper exercises helped me to reduce my weight (50 Kgs and both trousers & shirts reduced by 10 inches) and the habits imbibed because of Falguni & GOQii helps me to sustain that.

With these lifestyle changes for the better, I feel very good and positive about myself. My goal is now to reach a weight target of 75kgs.

I cannot think enough my coach and also GOQii. The best part of having been on GOQii is that I have earned karma points to be healthy. And, these points I have been donating to charity. So I am doing my bit for the society as well. Which otherwise we seldom do. I have been maintaining a streak of 211 days (of walking more than 12000 steps each day) and this helped me to earn good amount of Karma points.

Apart from being self-motivated and having a coach to further amplify that motivation, the other big motivating factor is earning Karma points. Whenever I walk someone who may be underprivileged or having health issues gets the right treatment or support for food or education. What else is required to get motivated to move on to be healthy?

Among the other brands who just sell the band, GOQii focusses on mind, body and soul through physical fitness, meditation, and Karma points. Apart from that the GOQii dedicated coach who understands the unique challenges of individuals and guides them properly to achieve their fitness goal. The personal touch and doing good to society at large makes GOQii the unique product and service.

What does the coach Falguni Kotak have to say about her player Vijayakrishna Iyengar?

Vijayakrishna was very determined and motivated when he came on board. I am really impressed by his sincerity. He always tried to do more than target step count and never missed his workout. In the last six months, along with cardio exercises, we also worked on doing core workouts and strength training. Now, he has also started slow jogging. Sleep duration and quality improved by avoiding electronic gadgets before bedtime and going to bed by 10:30 pm. I am sure he will achieve his goal to be in normal BMI soon. Seeing him motivated motivates me too.