Excessive Exercise

The real deal:

• Muscles need time to heal. Engaging in weight/resistance training actually tears down muscle fibers and in response to the stress, they build back up bigger and stronger.
• Muscles should have at least 1-2 days rest before you work that particular muscle group again.
• Not allowing adequate recovery time can quickly lead to overtraining (excessive volume and/or intensity of training, resulting in fatigue).
• Overtraining can lead to training plateaus, loss of gains, mood disturbances, frequent injury/illness, weight loss, high blood pressure, and insomnia.

Tips for healthy exercise:

• Schedule rest days or take them when necessary.
• Work out regularly with a slower partner.
• Use year-long schedules with built-in down times.
• If you’re inured, stop exercising until you are rehabilitated and healed.
• Mix in low intensity and less distance with days of harder training.
• Crosstrain: engage in a variety of fitness activities.
• Set realistic short- and long-term goals.
• Know how much exercise is enough.

Beware of Bulging Biceps

What building muscle is all about:

• Muscle size is controlled by hormones and genetics.
• Typically, men possess 10-30 times more testosterone than women. Since this is the hormone that is responsible for muscle growth/size, it is harder for women to achieve the "big bulky" type of muscles that men have.
• Genetics controls the type of muscle fibers we have in our bodies. Those with more type II fibers have a higher potential for muscle growth.
• We cannot change the type of muscle fibers we have, that’s why it is important not to compare yourself to others and instead, accept and love what you were born with.

Spot-Reduction

Why sit-ups alone just won’t cut it:

• Regardless of location, there is no such thing as spot reduction.
• In order to reduce fat it is necessary to burn excess calories (cardiovascular exercise), increase lean muscle (resistance training to build/tone muscle) and reduce caloric intake (balanced nutritional plan).

Muscles Won’t Morph!

A simple anatomy lesson:

• Muscle and fat tissues are composed of different cellular material. You couldn’t turn an apple into an orange, could you?
• What we typically think of as physically visible fat (subcutaneous fat) is layered on top of muscle and beneath the skin.
• Muscles will, however, shrink (atrophy) if exercise ceases. This combined with no change in caloric intake will also cause the body to gain fat weight.
• Detrained muscle will actually return to equivalent levels quite quickly once retraining occurs. This is called "muscle memory."

This One’s Quite a Stretch

How to properly prepare your muscles to move:

• Imagine that your muscles are like taffy. When it is cold, if you try to stretch taffy out it is brittle and will break. When it is warm, the taffy is malleable and can be stretched out quite a bit. Your muscles work the same way. Stretching before your muscles are warm actually cools them down even more and can cause injury.
• Instead of stretching, warm up by taking a 5 minute brisk walk, and/or doing dynamic movements such as shoulder rolls, mini squats, squat and reach, or mimicking the movements you will be doing later in the workout without weight.
• Think dynamic, not static. Rather than just sitting or standing still and stretching, get your whole body moving and slowly progress to increasing ranges of motion. Make sure your movements include the muscle groups that you will be exercising in your workout.

The Protein Paradox

How protein stacks up:

• Amount of muscle growth is more directly related to caloric intake than protein intake.
• Our bodies can only accommodate so much protein. Once the limit is reached, excess protein is stored as fat or excreted. Thus, weight gain is usually attributed to fat gain!
• Americans already eat three times the recommended amount of protein in their regular diet.

So just how much protein do you need?

• Diet guidelines: 55-60% carbohydrates, 25-30% fat, 12-15% protein.
• It is important for those embarking on a weight training program to eat enough carbohydrates, as these are the body’s first source of fuel for energy. You will need this energy to get you through your program!
• One small chicken breast is the equivalent of 3 servings of protein, so only 2 small chicken breasts fulfills a day’s protein for a 19-30 year old woman, or 3 small chicken breasts for a man of the same age.
• When it comes to supplements, whether they are in the form of protein, creatine, etc., it is important to remember that those products are supplements, not a necessary part of your diet. You don’t need muscle enhancing supplements to achieve your goals; you will save money and keep your body naturally healthy by avoiding those products!
• Although a daily vitamin is recommended, you should be able to get all of your nutrients from the food you eat.

The Faux Freshman 15

This weight gain is mainly attributed to these things:

• Natural development in maturing bodies.
• Eating buffet-style at the dining commons can often lead to overeating and indulging in high calorie choices (less balance).
• The immense stress of starting a new life at school with different friends and support systems.
• And finally, the biggest contributor to freshman weight gain is… alcohol consumption: alcohol is comprised of useless calories devoid of nutritional value.

What YOU can do to stay healthy!

• Ignore falsities such as the "Freshman 15."
• Eat more green and orange vegetables, in addition to lots of fruit, and limit food with high amounts of fat.
• Stay active! Thirty to sixty minutes of physical activity a day can make you feel good inside and out. Exercise is also a great stress reliever.
• Talk to a dietitian- they’re free at Student Health and cost hundreds elsewhere. Call 893-3371 for a free and confidential appointment.
• Check out Counseling and Career Services for relaxation and stress relief techniques (they have comfy massage chairs). Call 893-4411.