If you wish to lose weight, join a gym. If you simply wish to shape up, join a gym. If you think you are the right weight, but aspire fitness, join a gym and if you have nothing else to do, while everyone else is busy in the gym, you too, might as well follow the herd.
In today's "Gymming" times, Latif Mohammed, a well known Fitness expert and Vice President - Operations, Talwalkars, tells Pooja Biraia, just why it is important for every individual to join a gym and how one can make the best use of the various facilities available in gyms across the country.
What makes for an ideal gym?
An ideal gym is the one that serves every person’s need, someone who wishes to lose weight, one who wishes to keep fit and simply tone up and for the bodybuilder and others. And for this a gym, must essentially have a place for a nutritionist who can provide the right diet tips for gymmers. And for the equipments, there must be enough treadmills, as cardio helps in weight loss as well as in stamina building, the right equipments for strength training and various free weights as weight training will help in building muscles and toning the body, along with weight loss. Moreover, the gym must be spacious and clean, and the trainers and managers must be friendly and approachable.
For a beginner, what should be the ideal ratio of cardio as against weights?
Both cardio and weight training are equally important. Weight training helps in burning a good amount of calories and helps the body in the repair of worn out muscle tissues. Also, by building and toning up of muscles, it also helps in furthering your body’s BMR rate. This shows that weight training has a double impact. Cardio greatly improves your stamina and helps in weight loss.
Hence, ideally, one should do alternate days of cardio and weight training so that the concentration is better on both. And along with alternating between cardio and weight training, one can add abdomen training as abdomen muscles also need to be toned.
It is believed that discontinuing the gym after having started, can lead to sudden weight gain. Comment.
Weight gain noticed after the discontinuation of the gym, has got to do more with a person’s psychology than the practice of gymming itself. The logic is simple: When you join a gym, you workout more, thereby burning calories, and in the desire to keep yourself fit, you tend to be watchful of what you eat. This way, you reach your weight goals and remain fit. However, once you stop working out in the gym, you tend to become complacent with your fitness and your food intake increases and workout decreases. Hence, less number of calories are burned. This in turn, leads to weight gain.
Hence, to maintain your fitness levels and weight, you need to be constantly involved in some kind of physical activity, even if it is not the gym. 45 minutes every day of brisk walk can compensate for the time spent on the treadmill and helps in body toning and muscle building. Push ups, squats and crunches at home, can also help.
Yoga that promises physical, mental and spiritual fitness. Should it be preferred over the gym?
Power Yoga certainly helps in weight loss and provides overall fitness, but when compared to the weight loss benefits that accrue as a result of weight training in a gym, Power Yoga remains behind. Moreover, weight training provides faster results in comparison to Yoga. Also, body toning can best be achieved through weight training than through Yoga. However, he benefits of yoga too, cannot be undermined. Hence I would suggest a combination of both, for total fitness. Three days power yoga plus three days of workout, should be ideal. Weight training helps the muscles, cardio helps the heart, strength training helps to build stamina and yoga helps the mind.
What is the best approach for those who wish to get rid of the abdominal fat?
Weight loss happens throughout the body, not just for any one part of the body. If you want to get rid of abdominal fat, your calories will have to be in check. Abdominal exercises only help in toning your abdominal muscles, but these exercises do not help you get rid of belly fat. To lose belly fat you will have to burn calories, and weight training and cardio will help you in achieving your goal.
So, the bottomline is to work out a little extra, than usual, and try and control fatty foods, this will help you achieve the right body size and your paunch will no longer be seen. Also, do crunches, push ups, squats, et al for a toned abdomen. Everyday a person should workout 45 minutes to one hour everyday.
What should be the optimal Nutrition – pre and post workout?
Before starting workout, an individual must have foods that provide complex carbohydrates and post workout the diet should mainly comprise of foods rich in proteins. But if a person takes a non vegetarian meal, then after a gap of three hours ideally, he must hit the gym, whereas if he takes a vegetarian meal, then a gap of two hours should be enough before he starts workout. Workout can be done anytime, either morning or evening, depending upon convenience. There is nothing scientific about what time one should preferably workout.
The intake of energy bars and drinks post workout
If the person aims towards body building then he must opt for energy drinks and bars, after workout, however, normally, these only act as supplements. If the diet of an individual is balanced and has enough of the required nutrients, then energy drinks are unnecessary. One can have foods that are rich sources of proteins like, eggs, fish, milk and milk products etc. Also I would recommend youngsters to opt for whey protein as an post-workout dietary supplement. Immediately after you come out of the gym, within half an hour of your workout, you must have proteins. Because after the workout, your body needs proteins to repair the worn out muscles and tissues.
Your tips on how one can make the best of his/her gym time
Put in a lot of effort and be serious about your physical fitness. While doing cardio, be sure to maintain your heart rate between 60 to 85% for maximum results. While doing weight training, stretch your body gradually and not too much in one go, for instance, 5 pounds today should go to doing 10 pounds in a month’s time. Gradually you need to increase your weights. Similarly, keep increasing your cardio speed gradually too. If you stick to the same levels and speed, your body will not show results. Have a balanced diet.
