Exercise and the Importance of Resting

Rest - It's Part of the Exercise Program Too  

Getting rest after a workout helps optimize performance, both physically and mentally.  

You know this and may feel this at times, either as an avid athlete or fitness enthusiast.  Are you one of the many athletes who overtrain, feeling guilty if you take a day off?  Overtraining is a physical, behavioral, and emotional condition that occurs when the volume and intensity of an individual's exercise exceeds their recovery capacity.  If you don't take enough rest or provide it with proper nutrition, you could weaken your body.  

Without sufficient time to repair and replenish between intensive exercise, the body will continue to breakdown. Symptoms of overtraining often occur from a lack of recovery time. Signs of overtraining to watch out for are a feeling of depression, decreased immunity, decreased appetite, increasing joint pain, and when maintaining sports performance becomes largely difficult.

Building proper rest into your training program helps your body adapt to the stress of exercise.  Following aerobic exercise, rest to stabilize your metabolic rate.  Your metabolic rate can remain elevated from 1 hour to 12 hours after you exercise, depending on the intensity and duration.  During the recovery, replenish energy stores by eating within 30 to 45 minutes after you exercise.  For this specific time, the best ratio is a 2:1 carbohydrate to protein ratio. Repairing damaged tissues, and rehydrating muscle cells will greatly increase. It won't take long before you notice you also have time to balance your home, fitness and work goals.  Nutrition is crucial in supporting proper rest and supporting your fitness goals.

Zeke Samples, IFA, CSN, CPR, IDEA

Surreal Body Solutions, LLC

803.322.7649

www.SurrealBodySolutions.com 

& contributing health and exercise author

Personal Training | Nutrition | Supplements | Motivation

Fluids and Food: The How and When During Exercise

Most athletes know the importance of eating before exercise: Complex carbohydrates combined with protein within 60 minutes prior to exercising builds adequate glycogen storage for continued and energy enhanced training. 

The post-exercise meal can be just as important; it is critical to recovery and improves your ability to train consistently.  The first priority is to replace fluid loss. 
Two ways to approach this:

1: Don't drink much water during your training in order to see how much weight you lost during your training.  Then, estimate drinking 20-24 fl oz of water for every 1 lb of weight lost during your exercise.  This approach you will only need to do once, and then you can have an accurate number of ounces your body will need to maximize training.  Wonder why the guys walk around with a gallon jug of water?  Maybe they just workout really hard.. ha-ha.

2.  Continue to sip water throughout your workout. You can't go wrong sipping water continuously through training.  Don't wait until you are thirsty.  Thirst is your body telling you that you need to drink water.  Your workouts will finish stronger when your body has a continuous flow of water during exercise.

Post workout meals need to contain carbohydrates. Have some low glycemic fruit within 15 minutes of exercising to restore glycogen loss.  After a strenuous Surreal Body Solutions exercise routine, generally a 4:1 ratio of carbohydrates and protein is your best way to refuel.  While solid foods work just as well as a sports drink, a drink will be easier to digest making it easier to reach the right ratio and meet the 30-45 minute window of time to consume the post workout meal.

Zeke Samples, IFA, CSN, CPR, IDEA

Surreal Body Solutions, LLC

803.322.7649

www.SurrealBodySolutions.com 

& contributing health and exercise author

Happy Because of Exercise?

Can exercise make you happier? 

I am sure you think I am nuts because you are either a client of mine day-dreaming about one of our past workouts, or thinking about one of your own workouts remembering how either situation was not a joy-ride, nor was it 'happy'! I hear time and time again the comment: "..And I pay for this crap?!" 

:)
However bad the exercising moments may feel, the long-term result is priceless to the body.  Now, think back to the times when you came to a workout with me and felt tired when you arrived, and more energized when you left!  That is what we call experiencing a "runner's high" and/or "euphoria". Making exercise a regular habit has been known to promote optimal health, and for some that might mean increased happiness.  

The mood-boosting effects of exercise may be the result of the release and increases of endorphins in the brain. Several other chemicals including serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine are also enhanced and have been related with feeling less stressed. Exercise releases these chemicals naturally. 

Interestingly, researchers have found that light-to-moderate weight training or cardiovascular exercise doesn't produce endorphins, only heavy weights or training that incorporates sprinting or other anaerobic exertion.  When your body crosses over from an aerobic state to an anaerobic state, it's suddenly operating without enough oxygen to satisfy the muscles and cells; at this point, the "runner's high" occurs.

Exercise stimulates the production of disease-fighting proteins (known as antibodies) to combat sickness.  And besides the improved physical appearance, the overall feeling of doing something that can result in weight-loss and a toned figure, helps motivate and gives that sense of achievement to us.  There is also the shear enjoyment of participating in a sport or other activity you love. One thing is certain: there are many benefits of exercise. 

In Health, 

Zeke Samples - IFA, - IDEA Personal Trainer

Fitness and Wellness Author

Surrealbody@gmail.com

The Pre-Exercise Stretching Myth

Did you know pre-exercise stretching is generally unnecessary and likely counterproductive? Depending on how much water the person drank the day before to how generally active that person is, you will be amazed how many factors you either would never think about being important, indeed are. 

Warm-up routines, for example, an exercise that includes light stretching, jumping jacks, or frog hops can prepare the body for intensive activity without making the muscles vulnerable to overwork.  A gentle warm-up that takes less than a minute to stretch the quadriceps, hamstrings and calves can be valuable prior to cardiovascular exercise. Increasing the ranges of motion in the body will domino into enhancing the activities of daily life. 

Pre-exercise stretching (stretching via focusing on on bodypart at a time) all the time, may actually comunicate to the muscle to lose flexibility when they are overworked. Overstretching your muscle and then demanding a power activity from it, could restrict the power or force that it would have if it hadn't been stretched so intensely.  

Bottom Line: Perform a warm up routine first, as noted above, then spend more time on recovery stretching afterwards.

In Health, 

Zeke Samples - IFA, - IDEA

Surrealbody@gmail.com

The Pro5 Power Plate® : Now at Surreal Body Solutions !!

Introducing the Pro5 Power Plate® 

Our newest addition to the studio and one of the only Charlotte, NC locations that offer this level of pristine equipment in a professional personal training atmosphere.  

Power Plate® technology provides one of the most efficient and dynamic total-body workouts using the principals of Acceleration Training™ to stimulate the body's natural response to vibration.  These vibrations transmit waves of energy throughout the body, activating muscle contractions between 20-50 times per second, enhancing the overall performance in sessions as short as 30 minutes a day, 3 times a week.  This works up to 98% of muscle fibers, compared to less than 20% when performing exercise with traditional weight training equipment.  The result is a high-intensity exercise that increases strength, improves muscle tone and balance and helps reduce body fat.

Power Plate® Can Offer 

• 11% increase in weight loss versus 7% in exercise and nutrition alone
• 1.5% net increase in bone density
• 7.8% overall improvement in explosive strength endurance 
• 15% increase in flexibility

Sting Testimonial

 

Hilary Swank Testimonial

A Few Celebrity Testimonials:

                                                     

 

  

Clint Eastwood Testimonial

Courteney Cox Testimonial

More Video Testimonials: HERE

Contact me for a personalized consultation to discuss how I can meet your fitness goals and learn more about the ability of the Power Plate® to increase bone density, core balance, strength, energy, athletic performance, and much more. 

In Health, 

Zeke Samples - IFA, - IDEA Certified

Owner of SurrealBodySolutions

Contributing Author for www.FitAphrodite.com

surrealbody@gmail.com