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How Vegetarians can put on Muscles?

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PS : By bodybuilding, I don’t mean bodybuilder bodybuilding. Bodybuilding is simply putting on lean muscle and becoming a STRONGER individual. So ladies, this topic applies to you as well.

India has a population of over 500 million vegetarians. And, even though the other 800 million of us maybe enjoying our chicken once in a while, our diets are PRIMARILY vegetarian. We are possibly THE MOST vegetarian country in the world.

But, when you combine the worlds of muscle building and pure vegetarian food, the muscle-building game definitely becomes a little more difficult, but NOT impossible. If you’re smart about it there’s a way of building muscle without harming animals!

GROUND RULES THAT A VEGETARIAN BODYBUILDER MUST KNOW:-

1)You CAN BUILD MUSCLE with a pure vegetarian diet. Animal welfare for the win! Too many non-vegetarians in India keep dissing their vegetarian friends, WITHOUT being informed about the scientific aspects of dieting.

2)YOU NEED PROTEIN in your food to build muscle. And, standard Indian food is unfortunately very low in protein. Standard Indian meals (Roti, rice, subzi, dal) contain VERY little protein. Dal/Sprouts alone, WILL NOT help you put on muscle.

3)I don’t see GREAT vegetarian lifters or bodybuilders in this country, primarily due to either a lack of knowledge or wrong knowledge. So get educated about it first. It IS very possible. Get smarter to get STRONGER.

These are the introductory points. Let’s get straight to VEGETARIAN STRENGTH SCIENCE.

1st thing you need to understand is BODYBUILDING & STRENGTH BUILDING are primarily 2 dietary factors – Calories & Protein.

1st-your calories:Calorie levels vary depending on your height, weight, age and activity level. There’s no fixed number. If you want to get a rough estimate of how much you need, you can google a calorie calculator. If you don’t want to use too much math, you can go by a  rough estimate. Look at how your daily diet affects your weight. Keep a track of your numbers on the weighing scale & see how your weight responds to your diet.

MAINTENANCE CALORIE LEVEL:If on a particular day, you go above your MAINTENANCE calorie level, you’ll put on weight that day. If you stay below it, you will lose weight.

If your goal is to build LEAN muscle, your job is to stay JUST above your maintenance calorie level. This is the case for all vegetarians, UNLESS you’re overweight. If you’re overweight, your job is to stay just below your maintenance calories for most of the time. But at the same time, you NEED to hit your PROTEIN goal. More on protein later. 

How should you fill up these calories?

CONSUME a LOT of food.

Now this doesn’t mean that you go to your local general store and buy all the lays, maggi and coke. They’re high calorie but you need to fill your daily calories with CLEAN food.

As far as possible try filling this with protein rich vegetarian food. Don’t consume too much fat, but consume protein and good amounts of clean, complex carbohydrate (eg. Oats, sweet potato, wheat, brown rice).

The PROTEIN game

2nd Get educated about COUNTING YOUR PROTEIN. In order to build even the slightest form of muscle, the rough estimate that gymmers take is around 0.4 into your body weight in pounds.

So if you weigh 50 kg (110lbs), you need have AT LEAST 0.6×110 = 66g of protein

But, if you want GREAT results, you should be going for around at LEAST a gram of protein per pound of bodyweight. A 110lbs person should have 110g of protein. 

SMART FOOD SELECTION

One of the REAL downsides to being a vegetarian is that MOST vegetarian protein sources are considered “incomplete protein”.

Any protein derived from animals – Chicken, eggs, fish is a COMPLETE protein. When you break down a molecule of COMPLETE protein, it is made up of ALL the essential amino acids. Without getting too deep into the science of it – In order to build muscle optimally, you need to consume all 9 essential amino acids through your protein consumption.

Animal protein – Has all the essential amino acids: It’s a complete source of protein. Optimal for building muscle.

Plant protein – Does NOT have all the essential amino acids. It’s an incomplete source of protein. Different plant sources will give you different amino acid profiles.

To counter this, you need to VARY your protein sources. So have dals, beans, pulses, mushrooms, leafy veggies, tofu and nuts!

Also, your best friends as a vegetarian strength junkie are :-

1)Unprocessed Soya – THE ONLY Complete plant derived protein

2)Paneer – India’s biggest gift to the world of fitness.

DAIRY IS YOUR FRIEND

Amp up your intake of paneer cheese, milk, curd! The only issue is – with dairy, you’re also taking in a lot of fat, so you need to keep a tab on how your dairy intake is affecting your calorie intake. Having skimmed milk dairy products is a great way to counter this problem.

JUST KEEP AT IT

As much as I want to promote vegetarian bodybuilding, the truth of the matter is that in most cases, putting on muscle as a vegetarian is a slower process than it is for your meat fuelled counterparts. But in my experience, the harder you work for something, the sweeter the result is. In this article, I’ve only touched upon the basics you need to know as a vegetarian strength enthusiast.

Your job is to educate yourself further and keep at it with your exercise regime. Things will only work if YOU DO!

We trust this guide to vegetarian bodybuilding has fuelled your enthusiasm. How do you incorporate plant-based protein into your diet? Share your insights in the comments! For a deeper dive into nutrition explore more on Healthy Reads or reach out to our certified experts by subscribing to GOQii’s Personalised Health Coaching here.

#BeTheForce 

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Self Love can help achieve Health Goals

How many of us can take compliments gracefully? A compliment certainly makes one’s day and I am sure it is true for most of us. It feels so great when someone just tells you how beautiful/handsome or how good you look. Any kind of compliment rejoices one.

The strongest desire and a positive thought do replace the need for such complements, I strongly believe is SELF LOVE. It is that magical key ingredient that makes you reach your health goals easily. It can be weight loss, staying fit, gain muscle mass or sleep better.

What is SELF LOVE?

Self-love is about loving each quality within you, be it good or bad. You may be fat or thin, dark or fair; who cares, just live your dream. Self-approval is something that we all require. Remove the negativity and bring in positive thoughts about yourself. And above all, you should feel good about yourself.

How SELF-LOVE helps us achieve the health goals?

With this special ingredient called self-love health goals can be achieved easily. Yes, you heard me right. Health goals and self-love complement each other.

We all know the power of law of attraction when it comes to money, home or children. This law of attraction also works for achieving your health goals like weight loss, running a marathon, exercising daily or just drinking enough water.

Just bring in positive thoughts.

Negative thoughts camouflage your belief system thinking it to be true and manifest itself into reality. Insecurity, irresponsibility, fear, stress, anxiety, desperation to lose weight fast and inferiority complex cause obesity unknowingly.

Negative thoughts and comments from others also lead to decrease in confidence level and broken self-esteem. How much ever we diet or workout, we do not get the desired result unless the importance of law of attraction is understood and practiced.

Self-Analysis – Ask these questions to yourself

  • Does your belief work on what people say?
  • Do you need others to praise you?
  • Do you get upset when you don’t find the right size of clothes for yourself
  • Do you lack will power to start your most desired goals?
  • Do you face difficulty in chasing your dreams?
  • Do you feel bad when you can’t eat that sweet lying in your refrigerator?
  • Do you wish to run a marathon but hold on due to lack of stamina or an underlying heart problem?

If your answer is YES to most of the questions above, then we surely lack SELF LOVE.

Steps to follow and conquer the world.

Law of attraction steps to reach the goals: SELF LOVE

  1. Be patient and optimistic. This is the key towards great health.
  2. Eliminate negativity around you.
  3. Consistently eat healthy and exercise.
  4. Don’t feel guilty if you reveal to everyone that you are eating less and avoiding sweets. Simply say, I am trying to make healthy changes.
  5. Don’t read too many weight loss stories or ask anyone their story of weight loss. This will just make you desperate and negative.
  6. Dress/Suit up and don’t forget to praise yourself. When you say, ‘My tummy is too big or I have double chin’ you are insulting your body·
  7. Be confident when you socialise. You confidence can overcome all the flaws.
  8. Take out at least 30-45 mins every day for yourself in doing some recreational activity like exercising, reading, shopping etc.
  9. Meditation eliminates negative thoughts from mind. Try and indulge in it for 5-10 minutes.
  10. Always visualise yourself beautiful/ handsome, leaner, toned and very happy.
  11. Jot down your goals in Present Tense like: I am 65 kgs and look gorgeous with this weight, I am running every day to become thin (Not lose weight, lose is a negative word)

It is very important for us to understand that true happiness lies in self-love and self-approval, all the desired goals become easy to achieve then. You love yourself; the world will love you back. It is important to love yourself to achieve the desired health goals…..do not wait for other’s approval

 

 

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Strength Training for Runners: A Comprehensive Guide

Strength training

Dear marathoners/runners, I am sure this blog is going to catch your attention! Do read the article, and I would be happy to answer your questions!

Well, not just runners though! Whether you are a runner or cyclist or if you plan any endurance sport, strength training becomes very important. Everybody wants to be good at the sport they play, so this article will help give you some insights about various topics with regard to strength training.

 In this blog, I shall take you through four main aspects namely

  • What is an endurance sport?
  • Why is strength training and its importance for an endurance sport?
  • If strength training is important, how much is too much or how much is ideal?
  • Which exercises should be included in strength training protocol?

All I knew was running is endurance. I knew of more examples but what exactly is endurance I couldn’t really get through. It’s over time that I learnt what endurance training means. Endurance training uses your aerobic system as opposed to your anaerobic system.

Aerobic system:- Body uses oxygen to produces energy

Anaerobic system:- Body does not use oxygen to produce energy

So why is strength training important for any endurance sport?

I come across runners who say, “I run 5k, 10k and 21k which takes a lot of energy, why should I put exact PRESSURE on my body?”

Here are 3 benefits of doing strength training from runners’ perspective!

  • Your pace will improve, you can run faster!

Your speed matters a lot when it comes to any marathons! What determines your speed?

  • Stride length
  • Stride Frequency

If you are a runner, it is important for you to know that stride length means how long is your step and stride frequency relates to how many steps you take per minute/second.

So the technical formula here is,

 Speed= Stride length x Stride frequency.

But, what does this have to do with strength training? Well, to improve your speed/pace you have to take longer strides and of course faster strides

How to take longer strides?

  • Forcing your legs to the ground.

How to put more force?

  • For this, your legs should be strong.

How to make your legs stronger?

  • By doing strength training.

 So, this shows that strength training is required to help runners run faster!

(2)  With Strength training, your endurance will get better!

“How can strength training make endurance better? Endurance training will make endurance better right?” Well, the answer is that strength training and endurance training both are required and helps in increasing the endurance but the mechanism used is different.

Let me take you through some technicalities but in a way, you will understand. Are you aware of maximal aerobic capacity? Maximal aerobic capacity means the maximum rate of inhaling oxygen by your body during any exercise. Maximal aerobic capacity is also called as VO2max.

Your VO2max is made up of 2 components: Central and peripheral

Central component= Heart

Peripheral component= Muscle

  VO2max = Q x (a – Vo2 difference)

Here is the complete breakup

Q is the Cardiac output

The cardiac output means how much blood your heart is able to pump per minute. This covers your central component

(a – Vo2 difference) where a is arteries and v is veins and this means that the difference between the oxygen in your arteries and veins.

Smaller the difference, more the endurance!

In simple words, it is the ability of your body to extract the oxygen from the blood. This covers your peripheral component

The reason why I have discussed this in depth is, because endurance training works on the central component which is the heart but the peripheral component which are the muscles is ignored. To get the maximum endurance it is important for your peripheral component to be strong and strength training here helps. High repetitions (reps) helps in pumping your peripheral component.

Hence, to improve your endurance you should do strength training.

(3) Strength training helps reduce injury risks!

Runners, I am sure you can relate to this! More kms to run, more risk of injuries! When I say injuries here I am talking about overuse injuries.

What is overuse injuries?

  • Your muscles, tendons and bones have a restriction to work.
  • When you cross that restriction, you tend to injure your muscles, tendons and bones.
  • Then post injury either you take a break from your routine or you do some other exercises.

Once the injury is done, we cannot do much about it but as the old adage goes – ‘Prevention is better than cure! Strength training helps in increasing the tolerance of your tissues to work which reduces the risk of overuse injuries and helps you train better

If strength training is important, how much is too much or how much is ideal?

There are 3 main points here which everyone should understand. Strength training of runners completely depends upon,

  • Distance
  • The phase of training (current phases and upcoming phases)
  • Goal

 (1) Distance

  • Greater the distance to be covered, shorter is the strength training requirement.
  • For e.g., if you are running for 5k you need to do more strength training then someone who runs a 21k.
  • Goal strength training of a runner and the adaptability of the stress is completely different from all the other sports/events
  • A 5K runner needs about 65% of endurance training and 35% of strength training and for a runner who is planning to run 21k needs about 80% of endurance training and 20% of strength training.

Just because the proportion of strength training is less, it does not mean that we can skip it. As discussed above, strength training is equally important too.

(2) Phase of training (current phases and upcoming phases)

  • Training phase depends on your competition date
  • For example, your endurance training is lesser when your competition is about 3 months away which is the perfect time to concentrate on strength training.
  • Closer the competition, higher is the endurance training.

For example,

When competition is far away then do 2-4 sets 2-3 times per week

When competition is near then do 1-2 sets 1-2 times per week

Variations in between are always accepted.

(3) Goal

Every runner has a period where there are no marathons. This is called as “off-season”. You might be running very little so this gives you a chance to recover the lost muscle during the endurance period.

Most people are of the notion that strength training is only done to gain muscle mass or get those big biceps, chest and arms but that’s not true. I have mentioned above that strength training for everyone depends upon the goal they want to achieve.

Runners might be thinking that strength training will make them gain weight which will make it difficult for them to run but that’s not true at all. Protocol for runners’ strength training only depends upon their goal and not a generic plan which is followed.

When I talk about a goal for runners, during their off-season phase strength training can be done 3-4 times per week. Whenever the competition period comes near, strength training can be done 1-2 times per week and strength training will only be used to minimize muscle loss.

During endurance training, muscle loss is bound to happen but when you strength train the muscle loss will be reduced. The focus of adding strength training is, to only slow down the process of muscle loss or maintain muscle during the competition phase.

How does this muscle loss happen?

As I mentioned, your body has limited capacity to adapt to things. Either it can be endurance training or strength training. For an endurance athlete, adapting to endurance training is more important than strength training but a blend of both of these is important. Cardio and strength training are 2 opposite goals. While in cardio you burn muscles, strength training helps in building muscles. More endurance means more muscle loss, strength training helps in maintaining those muscles

Finally, which exercises should be included in strength training protocol?

I have been with athletes for a year now where I have seen that maximum of my athletes don’t train their legs or they avoid doing them. They often tell me that running in itself is a good exercise for legs so why should we add additional training?

Well, most of the runners have them but that’s not true. Runners have good endurance in their legs but that doesn’t mean that they are strong.

We have covered a lot of endurance and strength training. Now let me come to exercises that are important. Runners you don’t need to do lots of exercises but few major ones are important.

Focus on these lower body exercises first-

  • Level 1 Squats
  • Level 2 Lunges
  • Level 3 can be with deadlifts

Just as lower body exercises are a must, upper body exercises are also a must and should not be ignored. Well, your upper body counter-balances your lower body.

I am not sure if anybody has noticed but when you move your right leg ahead, your left arm goes ahead. If your upper body is not having enough strength then it can reduce the lower body force to coordinate with your upper body. Your lower body is definitely stronger than your upper body but if the imbalance increases, the performance of runners can be affected.

Focus on these upper body exercises first,

  • Level 1 pushups
  • Level 2 pull-ups
  • Head press

We hope this comprehensive guide empowers you to enhance your running performance through effective strength training. Share your thoughts or ask your questions in the comments below. For personalised guidance, speak to a certified expert by subscribing to GOQii’s Personalised Health Coaching here.

#BeTheForce

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5 Foods To Help You Prevent Wrinkles Naturally!

prevent wrinklesWrinkles! Those fine lines which tell you, “You’re getting old!” If you’re worried about them, you’re in the right place. Here, we’ll guide you on how you can prevent wrinkles naturally with food! 

Aging gracefully is a sign of maturity but wrinkles can mess with our confidence. When the skin begins losing its elasticity, wrinkles appear. Weak collagen (protein) can cause wrinkles and loss of elasticity in the skin. Collagen can lead to skin dryness which leads to wrinkles. This is a very natural process but with the help of healthy foods, we can postpone it naturally. 

5 Foods To Help Prevent Wrinkles 

  1. Aloe Vera: is rich in Malic acid which helps in improving skin elasticity. Just apply Aloe Vera gel on the face, leave it for 15-20 mins, let it dry and wash it off. Aloe Vera is also a natural sunscreen. One can consume Aloe Vera juice too.
  2. Green Leafy Vegetables (GLV): help the skin stay hydrated and healthy. Consuming GLV smoothies are a quick and easy way to absorb nutrients. Smoothies are another great way to incorporate GLVs in good quantities in our diet. Include spinach, kale, fenugreek leaves, coriander leaves, etc. daily
  3. Berries: Dark and bright, they give you loads of antioxidants which help in reducing free radicals formed by exposure to the sun, pollution and consumption of junk food. It’s always advisable to mix your berries and then eat them. Mixing berries will give you different kinds of antioxidants like anthocyanins, ellagic acids, resveratrol, etc. Example- Blueberry, Strawberry, and Blackberry mixed together.
  4. Fish: is rich in protein, omega 3 and potassium. Potassium prevents sodium retention. Sodium retention means the body just can’t let go of sodium, which holds on water. So we carry more water weight and many times get swelling. The dark circle under your eyes can be genetic or due to excess of sodium in the diet. Fish will help repair the damages which happen in the body and skin. Include fishes like Tuna, Rockfish, Cod, Halibut etc. in your diet. For vegetarians, you can have 1 mini banana instead of a fish.
  5. Rooibos Tea: or red bush tea is a native of Africa. It is a kind of herbal tea and a very good caffeine-free alternative for green tea or coffee. Polyphenols (antioxidants) are present in Rooibos tea which help protect premature aging of the skin and hydrate it as well! 

Apart from all of this, Water plays a very important role in hydrating the body. Water helps in maintaining ph. balance in our body, which is very important for your skin. Try to form a habit of sipping on water throughout the day. Even restricting alcohol (30ml to 90 ml/week), Caffeine (not more than 3cups/day), acidic foods, avoiding processed foods and stress will definitely help you increase collagen for that lovely, hydrated glowing skin.

We hope this article helps you. For more healthy tips, check out Healthy Reads or speak to your GOQii Coach directly by subscribing for Personalised Health Coaching here.

#BeTheForce 

From Terminal Illness To Complete Wellness! Ananda Mukherjee Health Story

As we observe World Cancer Day under the powerful theme ‘United by Unique’ (2025-2027)**, we are reminded that every individual’s journey with cancer is distinct, yet united by shared resilience, hope, and the collective fight against this disease. This theme places people at the centre of care and their stories at the heart of the […]