Over exercising?

Are you exercising faithfully but not seeing the changes that you want in your body image or your health? Did you know that you could be exercising too much? Too much exercise can actually hold you back from excelling physically and reaching your goals.

It’s hard to believe that exercising can be counterproductive in bringing about changes to your body and state of mind. After all, we exercise to relieve stress, we exercise to improve health and body composition, and we exercise because we know it’s good for us. How could all that exercise possibly be working against us?

Just like under exercising – not exercising enough, exercising too much (too frequently, too long, too hard, etc.) can be hard on the body. When you exercise, your body does one of two things: it ether re-builds or breaks down.

Re-building is your system's way of replenishing biochemicals as you use them. Every activity, from thinking to walking, uses up the chemicals in your body. If you are unable to re-build these chemicals at the rate they are used to support your lifestyle, then you are spending more time in a catabolic (broken down) state than in an anabolic (building) state. This deficit will eventually lead to illness, weight gain, depression, etc.

As good as exercising is, if you do too much of it, your body will break down instead of re-building itself.

The stresses of modern western society make it easy to spend the bulk of our time in a state of constant catabolism. We’re always on the go, emotionally stressed, drained of energy, deprived of sleep, or pissed off at the negative forces we face each day. One way of dealing with stress and everything else is exercise – and that's a perfect solution when done properly as part of an overall approach to stress management. But when you mix exercise like a strenuous spinning class or an hour on the treadmill with other stressors on the body, your system breaks down. By not managing your lifestyle, you’re not providing an environment that actually allows your body to re-build. By not giving your system a chance to re-build, you accelerate the process of aging while sabotaging your efforts to improve your body and health. This is why we see people going to the gym all the time, spending 6-8 hours per week exercising, but not loosing fat or gaining muscle as expected.

If you’re currently exercising or about to start:

• Get enough sleep, at least 7 hours per night, to support your biochemical regeneration.
• Cut your workouts into 30-45 minute sessions max. This includes your warm-up, cool down, etc.
• Be careful with classes like spinning, hour-long aerobics sessions, and other super strenuous activities. Some of these are very stressful on the system and can lead to catabolism.
• Try to do something relaxing every day; it can even be playing a recreational sport, as long as you enjoy it and have fun.

Training smartly is always fun and will keep you young and healthy for years to come.

Nutrition Success

Nutrition, an easy, yet powerful way to stay on track!

I'm going to give you two tips that, as far as I’m concerned, are by far the most important variables when it comes to your nutrition. Eating food that is good for you is simply not enough when it comes down to supporting your health and body through nutrition; you need to develop a system around those choices that will be the foundation for continual success.

Do these two things and you will never fail. If you don’t do these two things, then you’re setting yourself up for failure.

Can you guess what it is I’m about to tell you?

1. Pre-Plan – you should always know in advance what it is you’re going to eat the next day. If you really get a hang of this, then you should have an idea of what will be on the menu for the next couple days. You should know when you will eat, what you will be eating, and how much you will be eating. Failing to plan is planning to fail, as the old adage goes. Isn’t it silly that we plan our vacations months in advance – we know when and where we’re going, what hotel we’re staying at, what bathing suits we’re going to wear, etc.– yet we have no clue what we’re having for breakfast tomorrow morning.

This brings me to my second tip:

2. Pre-Cook – I can not stress this one enough. Cooking ahead of time is a non negotiable task if you want to succeed in the game of, “I need to get in shape”. How many times have you hit the snooze button one too many times and ended up running out of the house hungry? Bad things happen when you skip breakfast! Likewise, if you show up for an 8-hour shift at work without food for lunch, those cookies on your co-worker's desk will call your name and the vending machine will temp you with its fatty treats. I think you see where I’m going with this. Pre-cook so that you have smart food ready to go when you need it. Take care of your meal preparation in advance, either before going to bed, or in the morning before heading out of the house.

Wrap Up:

You see, when you pre-plan and pre-cook your food, you can't fail. You won’t skip meals because you’ll have your food with you. You won’t have to go for lunch with Judi and eat crappy restaurant food. You will stay on track with your health and body composition goals. It’s that simple.

Making excuses and complaining about not having enough time in the day pre-plan and pre-cook just don't cut it. I’ve had university students working full-time jobs follow through on this, as well as single mothers that work full time and take care of their kids. Anyone can do this, and so can you. The trick is to make time for pre-planning and pre- cooking once or twice a week, and be consistent with it. Remember, you’re in control of your life; don’t let your life control you.