About Aqsa Shaikh

Aqsa Shaikh believes in being fit and healthy herself. A certified professional trainer from K-11 Academy she used to work with a reputed gym before joining GOQii. According to her gym workouts provide temporary solutions to individuals. At GOQii she aims to work towards changing people’s habits and motivate them towards being healthy. Aqsa herself is a true believer of a healthy lifestyle and is excited about wanting to bring a positive change in people. Passionate about food, Aqsa works out three days a week which is a combination of cardio and freestyle workout. Her mantra in life is eating healthy; staying fit and live life to the fullest.

July 8, 2019 By Aqsa Shaikh 7 Comments

How Important is Cardio For Weight Loss?

You are well aware of the fact that you lose weight when you burn more calories irrespective of how much you eat. The best way to lose weight is to follow a combination of cardio, strength training and a healthy diet.

Cardio is one of the key components because:

You burn more calories at one time.
Getting your heart rate into your target heart rate zone means your blood is pumping, you’re breathing hard, and you’re sweating and burning calories.
You can easily add intensity to increase your calorie burn. With cardio, it’s easy to increase your calorie burn with small changes, for instance running or walking faster, jumping higher, climbing hills or trying new activities that your body isn’t used to.
It adds to your overall calorie deficit. Burning calories with exercise means you don’t have to cut as many calories from your diet.
You can do cardio most days of the week. With strength training, your muscles require rest to recover and grow stronger. Cardio can be done most days of the week without worrying about injury or over-training.

The Best Cardio Exercises

While you know that cardio is important for weight loss, which exercises are best and how much do you really need for weight loss?

The truth is, there really isn’t any best cardio exercise. The best activity is the one you’ll do on a regular basis. So, finding something you like is critical to reaching your weight loss goals. That said, some exercises offer more intensity than others.

Impact activities: Exercises that involve some impact, like walking, will usually boost your heart rate quicker than no-impact activities like swimming or cycling.
High impact activities: High impact, or exercises that involve running or jumping, will often burn more calories than lower impact things like walking.
Whole body activities: When you involve both the upper and lower body, such as an aerobic activity which is also is known as cross training, it’s often easier to get the heart rate up and burn more calories.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t bother with low impact exercise. Both types of activities offer opportunities to burn calories and doing both gives you a well-rounded cardiovascular endurance development.

To get an idea of just how much cardio can do for you, check out the following list of common exercises. Below is the number of calories burned for a 150-pound person in 30 minutes:

Step aerobics: 340 calories
Stationary bike: 238 calories
Swimming: 270 calories
Walking 4 mph: 170 calories
Running 5 mph: 270 calories
kickboxing: 400 calories

Everything from walking to kickboxing can burn a significant number of calories!

How Much Do You Need?

It’s tough to know exactly how much cardio we need for weight loss. The American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association recommend about 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity activity on most days of the week. But, the truth is how much cardio you need varies from person to person and depends on factors such as:

How many calories you eat
How hard you exercise
Metabolism, age and gender
Fitness levels
Body fat percentage and weight
Exercise schedule

That said, here are some tips for setting up an effective cardio program:

If you’re a beginner, start with 3 days of the cardio exercise of your choice, working at a level you can handle.
Add time each week to work your way up to 30 to 45 minutes of continuous exercise.
As you get stronger, try interval training once a week to help boost endurance and burn more calories.
Work your way up to 5 to 6 days of cardio and try to vary what you do and how hard you work.

It will help you lose weight but it is most effective when combined with strength training and a healthy, low-calorie diet and adequate rest.

How Much Do You Need To Build Muscle?

You may think you shouldn’t do cardio exercise if you’re trying to gain muscle. But, cardio isn’t just for weight loss. It also helps condition the heart and lungs and promotes health and well-being.

If your goal is to gain muscle, you won’t need tons of cardio. But, doing at least three 20-minute sessions a week won’t hurt your goals and will help you reap the benefits of cardio without burning too many calories.

These are some simple necessities for cardio in weight loss. After reading this, I am sure all your misconceptions about weight training and weight loss are cleared!

Want to know more or still have queries? Drop them in the comments below!

#BeTheForce

January 16, 2019 By Aqsa Shaikh Leave a Comment

10 Habits which can destroy your Health

Habits play an important role in our lives. From the time we wake up, till we hit the pillow at night most of the things that we do during the day are wrapped up in some form of habits. Of these habits some are towards keeping our self healthy and there are some habits which might be unnoticeable but yet very harmful for us. Let’s take a look at what these are……

1:- Having fruits along with meals:- We do get a good dose of carbohydrates in our regular meals and by adding extra carbohydrates, it will exceed the limit and lead to over intake of carbohydrates.

2:-Not having our meals on time:-We should always have our meals on time. Once you do that it helps us set up our body clock according to that specific meal time so that digestion and nutrient absorption happens at the same time every day and it won’t get distracted.

3:-Skipping breakfast or any other meals:-Skipping our meals and above all skipping breakfast is not a good idea. It may lead to muscle loss/fatigue/irritation as there might not be any energy and glucose for us to go on during a hectic day.

4:-Having a heavy dinner:-The calories and carbs which we have during dinner will not be utilized during the night time as we tend to sleep and unfortunately that is turned into fats and stored in our body.

5-Less water intake:-Less water intake may lead to dehydration and that can directly hit our immunity, which in turn can be the cause for many diseases. At least 2 to 3 liters of water in a day is must!

6:-Keeping a long gap between your meals:-We should never keep long gaps between our meals. Long gaps will lead to over eating our next meal and it will also slow down our BMR so that we eat more and that is the cause for weight gain.

7:-Chewing your food fast:-We should always take at least 20 minutes to complete a meal, as chewing fast will not help in absorption and breakdown the nutrients of the food that we consume.

8:-Having processed foods:- Having processed foods which contain sugar, white flour, corn flour, may risk us with water retention in our body and will also increase our salt intake because of the preservatives.

9:-Confusing thirst with hunger:-Sometimes when we feel thirsty we may confuse it with hunger and start eating an untimely meal, so it’s best to first feel, recognize and keep yourself hydrated so that we don’t feel hungry because of less water intake.

10:-Overeating:- Overeating can easily go unnoticed and this can cause problems like weight gain and obesity. This is often regarded as an eating disorder. If you are a binge eater, it’s time to make some changes. Controlling our portion is the best way to eat mindfully.

So sit back and think for a minute, are we performing any of these habits in our day to day life? If yes! Then don’t do it and bring on the positivity in your life!

September 4, 2015 By Aqsa Shaikh 16 Comments

Cold water vs Hot Water: Which is better?

After a tiring day, I always opt to drink water with no ice and more often than not people think I am crazy because largely when one tends to have cold water. But, honestly I am not crazy I have a strong reason for doing what I do.

Let us take a minute and close our eyes and picture the following situation: It is spring and you are standing on a wooden dock that extends into a high mountain lake. While the temperature in the air is fairly warm, the top layer of the lake has only recently melted and you can tell by the color of the crystal clear blue water that it is anything but warm. You close your eyes and dive in to in the lake.

What does your body do? What happens to your skin? Are you relaxed and open, or tight and constricted?

I am not sure how many actually know this fact that warm water opens your pores and makes your skin feel looser, while cold water closes your pores and constricts your skin. Guess what? Drinking cold water does the same thing to your digestive tract!

What Happens When You Drink Cold Water

– When you drink cold beverages your blood vessels shrink, your digestion becomes restricted and hydration is hindered.

– Instead of working to digest the food and absorb the nutrients to create energy, your body is expending energy to regulate your temperature. This can lead to water loss.

– Drinking cold water after a meal creates excess mucus in your body, which can lead to a decrease in immune system function, making it easier to catch colds and illnesses.

– If you eat food while drinking cold beverages or immediately after, the water temperature solidifies fats from the foods we’ve just eaten and the body in turn finds it hard to digest the unwanted fats from our bodies.

Some people say that drinking ice cold water is beneficial because it burns more calories. I argue that we do not want to make our digestive system work harder; we want to make things as easy on it as we can. There are many other ways to burn calories. And one of the best ways to burn calories is exercising.

Benefits to Drinking Warm Water

Here are some benefits to drinking water that is room temperature or warmer

– Faster + increased hydration

– Natural digestive enzymes are stimulated and therefore your digestion is enhanced

– Food breaks down more easily

– Your bowels move better (warm water with lemon in the morning is great for this)

– It purifies your blood and increases your bodies natural detoxification processes via your skin, kidneys and lymphatic system

Once you get into the habit of drinking water at room temperature or warm, you will notice a dramatic improvement in your digestion and the way your body feels while eating and after the meal. Some people have also reported reduction in sugar cravings.

So, the next time you eat out ask your server to “Hold the Ice!”

August 18, 2015 By Aqsa Shaikh Leave a Comment

Effects of Smoking on your Muscles

In my fitness carrier thus far, I have met many people with all kinds of obsessions. If I take the example of my closest friend who is a fitness and gym freak and wanted to develop muscles and also lose fats. But, he had this major misconception that cigarette smoking helps in fat loss and if he loses fats he will gain muscles automatically.

He then approached me to discuss the same and I started wondering? I wondered if fat loss was so simple why would people go for all kinds of diets and work outs ? They could just simply light a cigarette and lose those extra pounds in weeks. But, unfortunately this is not true.

Some people smoke to look cool or they are under the impression that this will help them to relieve stress and boost their happiness. But, the truth is that none of this happens and it only damages the lungs.

If you are a smoker not only that your lungs get damaged slowly and steadily smoking also affects your strength training? It also makes you lethargic. A smoker’s heart beats at an average 30 percent faster than that of a non-smoker this in turn significantly affects the outcome of any exercise that the smoker indulges in. Because, a smoker’s heart is working harder to achieve adequate circulation the individual uses more energy during his workouts.

This increase in heart rate and the resultant increase in blood pressure diminish blood flow and reduce the smoker’s overall performance while performing the same exercise routine as a non-smoker. When an individual’s exercise routine is designed to encourage muscle building, a smoker’s diminished performance will yield less muscle than that of a healthy non-smoker.

Testosterone level is also a thing which helps very much in muscle building. But, smoking may also damage the cells within the body which produces testosterones. Lack of testosterone levels will show a significant result in an individual’s muscle development. It can also sabotage one’s endurance level of your workouts and intensity of it. This may force you to cut down the workouts which will help you make progress in muscle building…

If you are planning to quit smoking there are many health benefits you will notice but, if you still want to continue it the result will be apparent to you sooner than later.