muscle building Archives

September 7, 2020 By Binita Dhara Leave a Comment

Do You Really Need Protein Supplements Before and After Your Workout?

The current pandemic situation demands a good immune system. Along with working out and staying active, it is important to take good care of what we eat before and after a workout for energy and tissue repair respectively. Primarily, the go-to in this case is protein but do you get your protein from protein supplements or from natural sources? Which works better? Let’s find out!

What’s The Difference Between Natural Protein and Protein Supplements?

You can get energy from natural sources as well as protein supplements. Normally, natural foods like fruits, nuts, eggs, chicken, pulses and cereals contain carbohydrates, proteins and good fats which help us get energy for a workout. They also repair tissues. Supplements on the other hand contain amino acids, B vitamins, caffeine, creatine and artificial sweeteners – quality differs from brand to brand.

Who Needs Supplements?

Normally, protein supplements are required for those who perform heavy workouts like athletes, wrestlers and bodybuilders. When the protein requirement is not fulfilled by natural sources, then supplementation is required. Even the amount of protein requirement depends on the person and whether they want to lose or gain weight.

On the other hand, the amount of protein consumed should also be monitored because if it is not used up during the workout, it gets stored in the body as extra calories as 1g protein contains 4 kcal. The ideal protein consumption should be 1.2 to 1.7g per kilogram of body weight or 0.5 – 0.8g per pound of body weight.

There are 3 forms of protein:

Protein Isolates: This consists of only protein (90-95%) and has carbs and fat removed from it through processing. This is mainly made up of whey protein.
Protein Concentrate: is the combination of carbohydrate and fat (20-40%) and protein (20-40%). This is mainly made up of plant sources.
Protein Hydrolysates: This is further processed and breaks the protein into amino acids which makes it more easily absorbed in the body. But it has a big disadvantage – it increases the insulin level of blood mainly which is made from whey protein.

There are many forms of protein supplements available in the market which are derived from various other sources. Comparing the above, try avoiding plant sources as they don’t provide sufficient protein for muscle growth. Whey is easily absorbed and digested whereas casein takes time to get digested but it’s good to consume before sleep as it helps in recovery of muscles and egg protein is another good option as it is easily absorbed by the body.

Taking all of this into consideration, I would like to say that though it has several benefits, protein supplements also have major demerits such as the caffeine and creatine contents which affects blood pressure, creating cardiac issues by increasing heart rate, causing diarrhoea, a disturbed sleep cycle and gut intolerances, etc.

Do note that most of these “health drinks” aren’t regulated by the FDA for safety purposes. So, before you pick a protein supplement, read the ingredients on the label and pick one that fits your requirement. Honestly, what I feel is that it is best to fulfil the protein requirement through natural foods!

We hope this article helps you make a choice! Do let us know your thoughts in the comments below! For more articles on protein, check out Healthy Reads or tune in to LIVE sessions by experts on GOQii Play.

#BeTheForce

February 17, 2020 By Tanmaya Patil Leave a Comment

5 Muscle Building Mistakes Which Might Be Keeping You From Your Goal

If you’ve been looking at motivational posters on social media or your local gyms which have “go hard or go home” or “work until your muscles hurt” or “no gain without pain” or something to the effect of relating success to extreme weight training, then you’ve clearly been looking at the wrong posters. We come over so many cases where users claim that they’ve been at it in the gym for so long without ever achieving their desired result. In order to help you avoid the same fate, we’re sharing this article on muscle building mistakes!

Common Muscle Building Mistakes to Avoid

1. Prioritising Quantity Over Quality
We live in an age where we believe more is better. A gaze around the gym might show mindless addition of reps and set backed by piling unreasonably more plates (mostly on the leg press machine and rarely the squat rack if not for 1/100th partial rep squats). Most folks aiming to add muscle might believe training seven days a week must undeniably be better than three. What these people fail to realise is the foundation of quality muscle building still rests upon what it used to be about a hundred years ago – Getting stronger. Becoming stronger is neural training. The central nervous system demands its necessary share of rest before it is ready to tackle new challenges in your next workout. In the words of the Bodybuilding Legend Lee Haney: “Stimulate, not annihilate!”

Pro Tip: Build Movement Quality in a lift before gradually adding volume (sets and reps), before gradually adding weight.

2. Chasing The Pump
If you are a true meathead, you remember the first time you curled that lonely barbell in the gym and the immediate next thing you did was flex your arms before the nearest mirror. It’s okay if you did. Pursuit of the ‘pump’ or build-up of metabolic fluid as a result of high volume resistance training in a muscle has fascinated millions of people entering muscle building. The degree to which pump helps increase muscle size fades as quickly as the pump itself a few hours after training. Don’t get me wrong, metabolic and high rep training has its place, though making every exercise in your program a high rep per set one in order to feel the temporary pump at the expense of actually getting stronger (refer to point 1 above) would be a big miss.

Pro Tip: Focus more on documented progress in weight lifted and the volume for which it is lifted rather than an arbitrary goal like ‘feeling the pump’.

3. Pain is (the only way to) Gain
Most people wearing the ‘Pain is Gain’ t-shirts have a very myopic vision of their training years. Most of them belong to the late teens to late twenties. Fast forward ten years and they may soon begin to laugh at their idea of ‘balls-to-the-walls’ intensity every workout, week after week. As we age, especially as we enter 30s, training revolves more about recovery than making unending progress. Joints and connective tissue take a solid hit if we are really lifting seriously. As such, making every workout a masochistic fiesta can seriously hamper our joints’ ability to outperform them later.

Pro Tip: It’s okay if a workout didn’t leave you hurt and devastated. Try to make a majority of your workouts in a year energizing and your training longevity might increase by several years.

4. Taking Supplements Is Like Pressing A Switch
All of us know that someone who swears by his or her shelf full of powders and pills claiming to transform them into a machine. Supplements have their place in the life of serious strength and physique athlete. However, replacing natural, real food with doses of meal replacement drinks is a strategy that might fail to deliver real robust and healthy changes in your physique. Quality, natural and fresh nutritional food would always beat sole supplementation.

Pro Tip: Make a select handful of supplements such as Whey and Creatine Monohydrate a tool to fill in the gaps in your nutrition wherever or whenever you see it, rather than a staple in your diet.

5. I Need To Train Like A Pro
In the pursuit of ‘Big Guns’, an amateur might look up the internet for the training split of an eight time Mr. Olympia winner and begin to emulate it in his training. The efforts might soon begin to be outweighed by the stopping of gains through either injury or incorrect loading parameters and the trainee might soon end up in dire frustration before switching to an altogether new program, this time followed by a multiple ‘World’s Strongest Man’ title winner.

Many individuals fail to understand that it might take more than a decade of continual solid and consistent effort with the big lifts in order to come anywhere near being called a pro. And we aren’t even talking about ‘pharmaceutical aids’ yet.

Pro Tip: Aim for Health first, followed by getting stronger, followed by improvement in appearance whenever drawing out your training strategy or designing a muscle building program.

We hope this article helps you avoid these common muscle building mistakes and aids you in making the right choices. For more tips, muscle building mistakes to avoid and the dos and don’ts, check out expert LIVE sessions on GOQii Play within the GOQii app.

Do leave your thoughts in the comments below and let’s #LevelUp our muscle building game!

#BeTheForce

November 25, 2019 By Roopa Tandur 2 Comments

Strengthening Exercises You Need to Include in Your Routine

Strengthening exercises, as the name suggests, paints a picture of big muscles and heavyweights but that’s quite far from what it actually is. Strengthening Exercises have different aspects to them depending on the goal.

Strengthening Exercises involve complex movements and work on major muscle groups as well as secondary muscle groups. Any activity that makes the muscles work harder than usual, improves muscle strength, maintains bone density and strengthens them. In addition, it also improves balance, reduces joint pain and helps one lose weight.

Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need costly equipment or a gym membership to practice strengthening exercises. If your body is strong, you will be able to do any of your daily chores efficiently. Let’s begin!

Few Exercises You Can Practice

If you’ve not been able to visit the gym or get your workout today, try these strengthening exercises you can easily do at home!

You can perform Squats which are a great way to improve the strength of your quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, abdominals and calves. You can also perform lunges or reverse lunges which work primarily on quadriceps, the gluteus maximus, knee joints and other leg and core muscles.
When we talk about upper body, the first workout that comes to mind are pushups – which work your chest muscles, pectorals, shoulders, deltoids, back of your arms or triceps and abdominals. By adding triceps dips and pull ups, you can engage the supportive muscles of your upper body.
Planks, crunches, reverse crunches, leg raises and Russian twist are exercises which help you make your core muscles, obliques, abdominals, spinal erectors and upper back (scapular stabilizers) stronger. By strengthening your core muscles, your spine gets much stronger to bear the excessive load and to transfer the force from the lower body to the upper body and vice versa. Strong core muscles can help you function without any injuries.
Mountain Climbers and Burpees are workouts which help you train your whole body in one go. These workouts work your upper and lower body together and engage your core muscles as well. These are considered as compound workouts. Some of the muscle groups that get worked out include the spine range, hip muscles, quadriceps, calf muscles, ankle, rectus abdominis and obliques, etc.
Balancing workout – you walk, sit, stand – to do any work, you require great balance in your body. Some of the workouts you can perform to improve your balance include: standing on a single leg, balancing a stick on your fingers and walking on a single line. These balancing workouts help you prevent falls, walk safely, avoid twisting your legs, etc.
Flexibility Workout – Bhujangasana, front bending pigeon pose, glute stretch, Warrior Pose – these are some examples of the flexibility workout, which is again a major factor of your fitness level. Good flexibility has many physical benefits such as less injuries and pains. When your body muscles are loose, relaxed, and less tense, you’ll experience fewer aches and pains and the chances of developing cramps will be very less. It helps you to improve your posture as well.

Benefits of Strengthening Exercises

Makes you stronger, making it easier to perform daily chores especially when aging
Protects bone health and muscle mass by preventing loss of lean muscle mass post 30 years
Helps keep weight off by increasing resting metabolism even on the days we are not exercising
Helps better body mechanism by developing better balance, coordination and posture
Helps with lifestyle diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular disease and arthritis along with lifestyle changes
Boosts energy levels and improves mood

We hope this article helps you include strengthening exercises to your daily routine. To learn more exercises and workout routines, check out GOQii Play.

Before engaging in any physical activity or trying a workout, consult your doctor or physician.

#BeTheForce