muscle building Archives

November 8, 2021 By Tanmaya Patil 1 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 on fitness, check out Healthy Reads or tune in to LIVE sessions on GOQii PRO within the GOQii App, where you can get one-on-one guidance in real time by certified fitness experts.

#BeTheForce

August 9, 2021 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 about fitness, check out Healthy Reads or tune in to live classes on GOQii PRO, where our experts will guide you on the correct form and posture in real time while making sure that you are well motivated! You can book a class now from the GOQii App.

To get workouts and tips directly from your GOQii Coach, sign up for personalized coaching here: https://goqiiapp.page.link/bsr

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December 7, 2020 By Farhat Khan 6 Comments

Active Rest For Muscle Building

Yes, you heard it right. Rest is an essential part of any training program. Even when it comes to classes or work, we recognize that a few days leave can be recharging and renewing. Working out or for athletes, this can be harder to see as they may feel guilty for taking a day, a week or a month off their training plan. Whether you are training for a competition or feeling extra motivated, more is not always better. Rest days are just as important as exercise. In fact, a successful fitness regimen isn’t complete without rest days.

What is Active Rest?

In terms of Rest days, there are 2 types of rest days

Passive Rest
Active Rest

Passive rest means a day of total rest without any physical activity, whereas Active rest means including low-intensity exercise that promotes blood flow to the muscles, helping them to recover better and faster.

Active rest is the sweet spot between being idle and training intensely. The goal of Active rest is to help your body heal from exercising by reducing the likelihood of inflammation and soreness. It allows your body to recover and repair. On your Active rest day you need to be active enough to increase blood flow, but gentle enough to allow your muscles to heal.

Benefits of Active Rest

Whenever we use our muscles for exercising, our body turns glucose into Lactic acid; this is how our muscles get the energy to perform. Once our muscles stop working, the lactic acid our body remains in our muscles and causes that dreaded post-workout soreness. Active rest helps lactic acid move out of our muscles and dissolve into our bloodstream, so it’s not around to cause us pain afterward. The increased blood flow also makes it to our joints, reducing the chance of joint and muscle inflammation. It is essential for muscle growth. Exercise creates microscopic tears in your muscle tissues. But during rest, cells called fibroblasts repair it. This helps the tissue heal and grow, resulting in stronger muscles.

Active rest is also known to improve our mood and keep us from getting the post-workout blues, while also alleviating any fatigue. Plus, it’s great for our heart since it increases our heart rate and builds endurance.

Planning an Active Rest Day

An active rest day should include a different activity from your usual workout at the gym. You shouldn’t be working at maximum effort. Rather, go slow and don’t push yourself too hard.

Examples of active recovery exercises include:

Stretching: is a simple and effective way to maintain increased blood flow and relaxation.
Yoga: lengthens our muscles and tendons, aids in their recovery, and helps our body develop better mobility and flexibility.
Meditation: is a great way to rest and refresh your mind. If sitting still for extended periods isn’t for you, there are alternative ways of meditating that keep your body busy and your mind free, such as doing the dishes or knitting.
Swimming: is a low-impact exercise that’s easy on your joints and muscles.
Walking or Jogging: is one of the best forms of Active Rest. Walking or jogging at a leisurely pace can enhance blood flow and help with recovery.
Cycling: at a leisurely pace is an excellent way to get in an active recovery. It is low-impact and doesn’t put pressure on the joints. One can cycle either on a stationary bike or on a bicycle outdoors.
Myofascial release with a foam roller: Active rest doesn’t only include movement. One also can stretch and roll a foam roller over parts of your body and get many of the same benefits. If your muscles are sore, foam rolling can help relieve tightness, reduce inflammation, and increase your range of motion.

A Word of Precaution

Active rest day exercises are generally considered safe. During active recovery, make sure you aren’t working harder than about 50 percent of your maximum effort. This will give your body the chance it needs to rest. You may find that you feel less tight, sore, and even have more energy to exercise after active recovery. If you’re injured, in pain, or very fatigued, your body may need passive recovery which means total rest.

We hope this article helps you make the most of your workout and recovery. Do let us know your thoughts in the comments below. For more on muscle building, check out Healthy Reads or tune in to LIVE sessions by experts on GOQii Play.

Stay Active and #BeTheForce

November 2, 2020 By Sunita Arora Leave a Comment

Boost Testosterone Naturally With These 10 Foods

Testosterone is an androgen, a male sex hormone, though females need it too. After the age of 30, most men experience a gradual decline in testosterone. In an attempt to boost testosterone levels, some men switch to T-Booster Supplements. While 90% of the T-Booster supplements in the market claimed to boost testosterone, researchers found that less than 25% of the supplements had data to support their claims. Many of the T-Boosters also contained high doses of vitamins and minerals which is more than the tolerable limit and not good for health at all. As per the FDA, unlike drugs, supplements are not intended to treat, diagnose, prevent or cure diseases. The safest and most effective way to boost testosterone levels naturally is through Nutrition. Good levels of magnesium, zinc, omega-3 and vitamin D in diet can all help to sustain your healthy testosterone levels.

10 Foods To Boost Testosterone Naturally

If you have low levels of testosterone, then start including the foods listed below to boost testosterone levels.

Garlic: is called a cortisol reducer because it contains allicin which is very helpful in lowering cortisol levels. Cortisol is produced in the adrenal gland, where testosterone is produced as well. By reducing cortisol in your system adrenal gland, it helps to produce more testosterone effectively. Have 1-2 cloves of crushed garlic in the morning with water or honey and use garlic in cooking food regularly to improve your testosterone levels.
Pomegranate: is an old aged symbol for fertility, supporting heart health and is used to boost testosterone levels as well. Studies have shown consumption of pure pomegranate juice, around 300ml, increased testosterone levels significantly while lowering blood pressure and reducing stress with improved mood.
Almonds: A nutritional powerhouse for men’s health, almonds are loaded with healthy fats, vitamins and minerals that help support testosterone production. It contains high levels of minerals like Zinc, which is known to raise testosterone levels in people who are Zinc deficient. Have 5-6 soaked almonds daily to see changes.
Bananas: are the food factory of important vitamins and minerals that aid in the production of testosterone. They are rich in an enzyme called bromelain which boost testosterone levels and are excellent for maintaining energy levels. You can add Bananas in your diet in the form of shakes, smoothies, mix with oat’s porridge or curd, etc.
Spinach: is one of the most popular superfoods, which is rich in iron, magnesium and is an excellent testosterone booster. It has been known as one of the best testosterone boosting foods which is easily available during all the seasons. You can make spinach soup, smoothies or you can add spinach in your curries, sandwiches, etc.
Honey: contains boron which is kind of a natural mineral associated with helping testosterone levels, building strong bones and muscles. You can replace white sugar in your tea/milk/smoothie with honey. You can also add it to your porridge but make sure it is raw, organic honey and not the processed one.
Lemon: is a citrus fruit which is a great source for boosting testosterone levels. It also has vitamin A, which is required for the production of testosterone. You can have lemon water, add lemon in your salad, soups, etc. to improve testosterone more fruitfully.
Eggs: are packed with testosterone boosting nutrients because they provide a generous amount of high quality protein which is essential for maintaining adequate levels of testosterone. Eggs are also rich in good cholesterol, Vitamin D and omega-3 which boost testosterone levels and help in building muscle. Have 1-2 eggs with yolk in your diet daily to improve your testosterone levels.
Fish: Good quality of Salmon and Tuna work well to boost testosterone levels by 90%. They are super-rich in Vitamin D – which helps maintain sperm count and due to the good amount of omega-3, it boosts testosterone levels effectively. You can include these fatty fishes in your diet 2-3 times a week.
Ashwagandha: is a popular Ayurvedic herb, also called Indian Ginseng or Winter Cherry, It is a natural T-Booster that also helps men who are struggling with infertility. Studies have shown significant improvement in semen quality and also a drop in stress levels in the men taking Ashwagandha. Daily doses of 125mg of ashwagandha all the way up to 5g have shown benefits in clinical trials. But it may interact with your thyroid, blood sugar and blood pressure medications. So you should always consult a medical professional before starting it.

Before beginning to consume any of the foods listed here, please consult a doctor to check for allergies or any other issues these foods may cause. Changing your diet is one of the most effective ways to maintain healthy testosterone levels but physical activity, sleep quality and weight management are equally important.

If you lack sleep, you find it harder to exercise and easier to gain fat and if you gain weight, your testosterone production drops. If your weight is healthy you find it easier to exercise and get good sleep and if you lose weight, your testosterone levels can jump right back up to normal!

We hope this article helps you! For more information or guidance, check out LIVE sessions by our experts on GOQii Play.

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