Ranveer Allahbadia, Author at GOQii

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.

April 5, 2017 By Ranveer Allahbadia 1 Comment

How many eggs can you eat in a day?

Firstly, forget everything you’ve read all your life. When it comes to controversial diet topics like this, people have their pre-conceived notions. So when a fitness blogger contradicts that opinion, people refuse to accept it. Therefore, I NEVER express my opinion. I only speak SCIENCE.

“EGG YOLKS INCREASE YOUR CHOLESTEROL”

Let’s consider the word cholesterol first. People throw around this word without actually even understanding the meaning of it. THE FIRST thing you need to know is that there are 2 kinds of Cholesterol- Good and Bad Cholesterol.

1)LDL

2)HDL

LDL is the BAD cholesterol – it causes heartdisease and it’s what people think of first when we say the words“High cholesterol”.

LDLcontributes to clogging your arteries and blood vessels

HDL is the good cholesterol. It’s the phoebe to LDL’s Ursula. And HDL actually contributes to reducing the clogging caused by LDL cholesterol.

Now coming to eggs. Eggs are an awesome source of HDL cholesterol. The FEARED “high cholesterol” egg is only going to help de-clog your arteries IF used smartly.

It’s giving you a lot of Phoebe. 70% of humans have no change in LDL or bad cholesterol levels even if they have 3-4 whole eggs a day.

The remaining 30% – diabetics, people with bad lifestyles and people who are genetically challenged respond badly.

So let’s get to the point. Should you be consuming whole eggs? Yes if you’re a normal human being without any major health issues. It should definitely be a part of your diet.

Eggs are such awesome protein sources, that they’re rated as the best natural protein in the world when it comes to being absorbed by your body.

All the proteins in the world are rated according to their “biological value” or BV.

Soya – 74

Beef – 80

Cow Milk – 91

Eggs – 100.

The BV scale is created using the humble whole egg as a reference. THAT is the power of the whole egg.

According to science, it’s the best food to put on muscle mass.

And if you do any form of exercise – yoga, pilates, Zumba but most importantly if you do resistance training, you aren’t a normal human being. Your body is being activated often, your muscles are getting damaged often and you need to refuel them with PROTEIN. That’s the only way you get stronger.

Whether I’m bulking up or cutting to get ripped, I make sure whole eggs are a part of my diet. As a male lifter, it helps naturally increase your testosterone levels which in turn help make you stronger.

Even if you’re a woman, eggs are super crucial. Every month you lose a bit of the iron content in your blood during your periods. And one of the best sources of iron is egg yolks!

So the ground rule is that if eggs settle well in your system, have at least a couple everyday.

But if you lift, how many should you be having? So this is where the topic becomes a bit subjective. This answer is different for different people.

My ideology is that I consume everything in moderation or how well it suits my body. Eggs are such a nutritionally dense food that I recommend lifters at least to have a minimum of 4 whole eggs a day. If you can, you should definitely try experimenting and going even further.

Some people tend to get acne or bloating with eggs, so if you fall in that category don’t be afraid. Don’t go mad with your eggs but at least see where you can eat eggs comfortably. Till the point where your body and your calorie cap is accepting it.

The ground rule – eggs are a damn superfood! Nutritionally dense, superb for building muscle & above all, so delicious.

December 20, 2016 By Ranveer Allahbadia Leave a Comment

My First 100 km- The lessons I learnt

A week ago, 100km was just a number in my head. A number that I had to overcome in 48 hours but a number that I WOULD overcome. I am a power lifter who enjoys the process of bodybuilding. I lift heavy barbells and dumbbells and I enjoy every bit of the big muscles I’ve created over the years.

I’d never taken part in marathons leave alone endurance walks. Hell, I never even took part in any 100m+ races in school. I’m a fitness blogger and I believe that fitness should not be limited to a single domain. What I believe is that the ultimate goal of fitness is becoming ‘THE BEST VERSION OF YOURSELF’. And, if your endurance stats don’t match up to your strength levels, you are stopping yourself from reaching that ultimate goal.

So with no prior endurance training experience, I readily agreed to challenge myself and signed up for the Oxfam 100km trail walk.

A bit of a pre story – I didn’t practice much for the trail walk. Endurance training is known to deplete your muscles in terms of size. My muscles are my brand and I couldn’t let go of them. So I chose a midway path and decided to go for 10-15km jogs every week. These jogs may or may not have helped me, I don’t know for sure.

In saying that, I do not recommend that you don’t practice for the walk. I have been a strength and fitness coach for 4-5 years. My body has reached a level of fitness where I was capable of executing the walk without much hassle. But, it may not be the same case for everyone.

After I completed the walk, I realized that practice IS crucial for an average person. Especially those for whom fitness isn’t the central theme of their life. Make sure you go for a few practice walks if you don’t want to end up injuring yourself!

Coming to what I learnt. The lessons –

Firstly, you need to understand the MAGNITUDE of a 100km. Most people who live in cities aren’t even used to walking 1km at a stretch.

The day before the walk, I had a word with a 53 year old lady who was participating with me. She told me that this was her 3rd trail walk and the biggest advice she gave me was “DO NOT GIVE UP”. I was told that the trail walk is entirely a mind game. And, as we progressed, I came to learn that exactly.

This was psychologically THE MOST testing activity I’ve ever done in my life. Most participants’ bodies break down at the 30 km mark. This largely happens due to non-practice and not realizing how your body reacts to an extreme strenuous activity.

Post 30km most end up having knee issues, ankle pain and blisters on their feet. Irrespective of your fitness levels, the game is to constantly fight off the pain you’re feeling, and move FORWARD. As I continued my walk, I realized that I’d never done something so grueling in my life.

There were some stretches in the trail walk that were SO intense, that I was almost sleepwalking. My mind had switched off entirely, it was the middle of the night, my hands were numb and frozen. But, my legs kept moving forward. My legs were the only entities active in my entire body.

And this was just ONE of the many testing moments.

Every trail had its own challenges. There was a trail that was an entirely upward climb. There was a trail conquered in lava-esque afternoon heat. There was a trail conquered on an open, ice-cold tar-road in the middle of the night. But, more than anything there were countless instances of pain and challenge. I can’t stress on how big the psychological aspect of the walk is. Training from an endurance standpoint will only get you so far. The real test was conquering the pain, the heat, the cold and your dead lower body.

What I honestly believe as a weight training coach is that weights do not only help you look good. Barbells and dumbbells are making you a STRONGER HUMAN BEING. Your muscles, your nervous system AND your grit is getting worked with every set you perform in the gym. My concern before the walk was “would I be too stiff or too bulky to complete the race.”

But, if anything, I believe that weight training played a role in helping me overcome the pain barrier. And, when we’re talking about a 100km trail walk, pain is your biggest enemy. There were countless fellow walkers with me who had to take breaks, had to rest at check points and had to get physiotherapy done on themselves. Of course I had instances like this. But, my instances were relatively fewer than my fellow conquerors.

This is where I feel like my elevated strength levels paid off. Despite not practicing much from an endurance standpoint, I was able to complete the entire walk in 36 hours. 12 short of the time limit. A great achievement for my first trail walk. But, this achievement was nowhere close to the REAL prize.

The trail walk showed me a new form of fitness. Yes, the endurance training is something new, from a physical perspective. Endurance walks like these make your mind and focus ROCK SOLID. 100km is not a number for me anymore. It’s a trophy.

When you actually overcome ONE HUNDRED kilometers, it is indeed a ‘Big Deal’. Your feet will be blistered up, your knees will be jammed solid, and your ankles will feel like they’re 150 years old, but your mind – Your mind will feel like its limits have been expanded.

The only way to expand your limits is to push yourself to their edges. And that was what this trail walk was for me. It was a test, a foe and most of all a teacher. Remember your biggest challenges are your biggest gurus. In my entire fitness-life, there hasn’t been a challenge of this magnitude. There hasn’t been an experience that has toughened me up so much.

This is the beauty of fitness. I am one step closer to being the BEST VERSION OF MYSELF – thank you for the opportunity GOQii and Oxfam India.