Reduce Post Workout Soreness

After working out with your Abu Dhabi Personal Trainer there is a good chance that you may be sore the next day! Waking up sore after a workout is something that anyone who has ever worked out can relate to! DOMS, delayed onset muscle soreness, is caused by microtraumas in your muscle fibres that are then repaired as part of the muscle growth process. Although there is no substitute for taking rest days, getting enough sleep and eating healthy, adding these simple recovery tools will help you avoid DOMS!

1. Wear compression tights after your workout as they will help speed up the recovery process. The compression helps to boost circulation and supports the muscles groups.

2. Roll out your muscles with a foam roller. Using a foam roller can help to ease muscle tightness and tension. Foam rolling can be painful but make sure that it is not unbearable!

3. Try local balms like Deep Heat or Tiger Balm. These balms have a cooling sensation on the skin when applied that reduces muscle pain.

4. Make sure you warm up properly, and that the muscles you are going to train are warm! Use bodyweight exercises or very light weights to warmup.

5. Drink some coffee! Scientists have suggested that caffeine can reduce soreness because it blocks the central nervous receptors that are related to pain.

6. Use active recovery to your advantage! Active recovery can help to reduce the inflammation and pain that comes with DOMS. Active recovery should be low0impact aerobic exercise that will increase the flow of blood around the body.

7. Eat blueberries! The positive effect of blueberries on reducing DOMS is likely due to the high amount of anthocyanins blueberries contain.

Do These Things Before and After a Workout to Get Better Results

More often than not, the one hour a day you spend sweating it out in the gym gets all of the credit, but it shouldn’t. Here at Abu Dhabi Personal Trainers we know the importance of the other 23 hours in the day. Unfortunately, the workout can actually be the easiest part of your fitness and health routine. While the one hour of training is important, our personal trainers encourage you to not neglect the other hours in the day. Smart pre and post workout routines, good nutrition and quality sleep are just as important as working out itself. Our personal trainers here in Abu Dhabi have come up with 8 things that you should definitely incorporate into your fitness routine if you want to maximize your results.

Before your workout:

1. Sleep
All of the magic happens when you’re asleep! Sleep is the time when your muscles recover and being well-rested means you will be more energized throughout the day and that your hunger hormones are kept in check! Our personal trainers recommend at least 7 hours of sleep every night.

2. Hydrate
It is extremely important that you stay hydrated when you are working out. Treat your body like a car, a car can’t run without oil just like the body can’t run without water. You should be sipping on water before, during, and after a workout. The exact water needs are different for everybody so listen to your body and always check the color of your urine, it should be a very light yellow, if it is dark it probably means you’re not hydrated enough.

3. Snack
Eating before a workout is not for everybody. Our personal trainers recommend you listen to your body, if you feel like you need some fuel for your workout have a small snack! You want to make sure you are not starving going into a workout but you also don’t want to feel full either. Try a banana before your next workout if you need a little more energy!

5. Warm-up
Never skip your warm-up! No matter how long your workout is going to be, our personal trainers not only recommend but insist that you always warm up! Warming up ensures that your body temperature is raised, your range of motion is increased and that your body is prepared for what you are about to do. Your warm up should consistent of low intensity stead state cardio for about 5 or 10 minutes and then dynamic stretches, which are essentially any stretches that aren’t held in place.

After your workout:

6. Stretch
Just as important as the warm up, it is crucial that you cool-down properly. A cool down will bring your body back to a resting position. Your cool down should include stretching the muscles you have just engaged in your workout. These stretches should be static in nature, that is, stretches that you hold in one place, these stretches should be held between 15 and 30 seconds each. Stretching will help to decrease soreness and help expedite your recovery process.

7. Refuel
A pre-workout snack is more optional than a post-workout snack. Refueling after working out is essential. After you work out your body has an anabolic window that lasts about 30 to 45 minutes, during this time your body looks for carbohydrates and protein to help replenish glycogen stores and rebuild your muscles.

8. Take a cool shower
Taking a cool, not cold, shower can help to decrease the inflammation after your workout and can help to expedite the healing process of your muscles. This ultimately will help to decrease the chances of you waking up sore the next morning.

Flatter, tighter and more toned tummy – 7 tips

The warmer months of summer are definitely here in Abu Dhabi! Are you feeling beach or pool confident? Regardless of the season, some of us just want a flatter belly and so our personal trainers here in Abu Dhabi have come up with 7 tips to help you achieve the tummy of your dreams!

1. Weights!

It is scientifically proven that strength training and lifting weights can help you to eliminate body fat overall, which will then result in a slimmer more toned tummy and a more trim waistline.

2. HIIT it and quit it!

Studies have shown that high intensity interval training (HIIT) can lead to more weight loss and specifically fat loss. HIIT has been proven to be effective in reducing belly fat. The quick results that one can see from HIIT training is due to the after burn effect which means your body will keep burning calories even when the workout is finished. Where you are running, spinning or doing a circuit workout make sure to incorporate times of high and times of low intensity.

3. De-Stress

Stress increases cortisol, and higher cortisol levels can cause your body to retain belly fat. Abu Dhabi Personal Trainers recommends that you schedule in some you time each week, whether that is a yoga class or a long bath to help de-stress.

4. Cooldown!

Much like stress, exercise can increase your cortisol levels. To avoid a spike in your cortisol level make sure you are properly cooling down after your workouts.

5. Abs are made in the kitchen

Unfortunately, you cannot out exercise a bad diet. Our personal trainers can help you work out for an hour of the day but unfortunately for you to see a trim tummy you will have to make sure what you are putting on your plate for the other 23 hours is healthy! Not all calories are created equal so make sure you speak to your personal trainer about what types of food you should be eating and what types of food you should be avoiding.

6. Fat Fighting Foods

Foods like blueberries, pineapple and papaya have been reported to help fight belly fat so make sure to include these in your daily diet!

7. Be who you are!

Make sure you are trying to change your body for you and that you know that you do not NEED to change your body! These tips can be helpful for living a healthier lifestyle but know that you look great no matter what size you are!

Quick and Unusual Tips on Diet and Health

Below are 7 useful but not commonly known tips on diet and health that we at Abu Dhabi Personal Trainers think you should know!

1. Always try and eat your food freshly cooked or use an oven if possible to re-heat your food. Did you know that a microwave heats your food by oscillating it at about a billion times a second damaging the nutrients, vitamins and minerals in the food.

2. The best time for you to have your post-workout protein shake or supplement is before you stop sweating! This is the best time to ensure that extra protein is used effectively! Abu Dhabi Personal Trainers’ recommends natural protein, not a whey-protein shake.

3. Be positive! Be positive about your workouts, your food and your life in general. Positive people are happier, healthier and achieve more than people who have a view the world in a negative light.

4. Abu Dhabi Personal Trainers’ general moto on diet ie: if it wasn’t here 10,000 years ago, don’t eat it….

5. Get more in tuned with your body and your emotions. This will help you avoid emotional eating which can be disastrous on your health and your waist! Any mind-body exercise will help with this like yoga, breathing exercises, stretching etc.

6. To ensure long term success in any health and fitness goals you need to have 3 things, without these 3 things succeeding will be made either more difficult or impossible. The three things are: 1: Your total movement. 2: The quality of your diet. 3: The quality of your rest/downtime/sleep.

7. Be patient! Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither with your dream body. Don’t be too harsh on yourself, enjoy the journey and have fun!

Good Luck with your health and fitness goals.

If you require any help or you’re looking for a personal trainer in Abu Dhabi then please get in touch. Our personal trainers and health coaches are extremely well qualified and will help you no matter what your goals are!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Oatmeal Cups

Chocolate and peanut butter protein oatmeal cups, does it get any better? Our personal trainers here in Abu Dhabi don’t think so! This recipe is definitely a favourite of ours! Rich and moist, you would have no idea that these muffins have no oil or butter! Our personal trainers recommend these healthy muffins as an easy breakfast option or perfect for a pre-workout snack!

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons chia seeds (soaked in 6 tablespoons water)

• 3 large ripe bananas, mashed

• 1 cup unsweetened nut milk of your choice (almond, cashew, coconut milk etc.)

• 1/4 cup peanut butter

• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup or honey

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1 scoop chocolate plant-based protein powder

• 3 cups oats

• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa or cacao powder

• 1 tablespoon baking powder

• Pinch of salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray muffin tin with cooking spray.
2. In a bowl, soak the chia seeds and water to make “chia eggs.” Alternatively, you could use 2 large eggs. Set aside.
3. In another bowl, mash the bananas with a fork. Add nut milk, peanut butter, maple syrup/honey and vanilla and stir until well mixed. Stir in “chia eggs”.
4. Add protein powder, oats, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Stir to combine.
5. Spoon mixture evenly into muffin tin, filling tins to the top.
6. Bake for 25 minutes.
7. Remove from oven and cool in pan on a wire rack. Come, remove from pan and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Why Diets Are A Good Thing & 3 Reasons Why You Might Want To Do One

Article reposted with permission from Liam O’Hagan. Article reposted from https://www.ohagancoaching.com/single-post/Why-Diets-Are-A-Good-Thing-3-Reasons-Why-You-Might-Want-To-Do-One

First off, if you’re one of my fellow personal trainers hear me out. I’m usually one of the trainers that goes against diets but today I had a sudden realization and kind of wanted to challenge my own current thought processes on this topic.

The idea for this came about when I got a notification about someone posting on my free Health & Fitness tips & advice group on Facebook (if you want to join click here). It was someone who was saying that ever since they stopped eating after a certain time they feel less bloated, has less digestive problems and it helps her to lose a little bit of weight/body fat.

Now, this is a myth and has been proven wrong so many times that you don’t have to stop eating at a certain time to lose fat/weight. But, before I replied just saying “this is a myth”, I looked at the bigger picture of what it had done for her and then realized well if it works for her, why would I tell her not do it?

Diets are now often demonized or loved depending on where you read them. (Good) fitness sites usually say that they’re bad and do more harm than good, whereas if you read the latest women’s magazine all they do is go on about the next big diet. And whilst I’d say I’m still against diets (or rather extreme ones), they do have some benefits that people can find valuable.

1. It Teaches Discipline.

One of the main things that people can get from diets is the discipline aspect. Let’s say if you’re on a diet and that diet tells you that you have to restrict something like sweets for it to work, a lot of people follow it for however long that they do the diet. Now, what they may or may not realize is that they now know that they don’t need that one thing and can live without it, so now they can say no to it just that little bit more the next time it’s offered.

I would say that’s a bit of a valuable thing when it comes to losing fat, wouldn’t you?

2. People Become More Aware.

This again kind of goes in line with the restriction thing and having to eat certain things when you’re on a diet. People might start to notice how their body reacts to eating certain things, take for example the ketogenic diet where you severely limit carbohydrates in order for your body to switch the main focus of using glucose (sugar) as energy and into ketones (fat). For some people this might work better for them rather than a normal diet, where they just restrict calories overall, because maybe their body is just better suited to running on fat as the main source of energy rather than sugar.

It’s because people forget when it comes to health, fitness & nutrition we’re all similar but yet so different it’s hard to say what works for everyone.

3. They Give People Guidance.

Most people when it comes to wanting to lose fat or change their body shape feel so confused and lost and I don’t blame them. So if they find something that they’ve seen has worked for other people then I’m sure most of us would try and emulate that for ourselves, right?

I’m not saying all diets give a great guidance but at least people get given some form of a plan to follow and that’s what most people want. Besides, if you follow a plan you’re bound to get some results, after all it’s better than following no plan and getting frustrated and angry about it.

When You Shouldn’t Do a Diet

Now there are certain things you should avoid when looking for when looking for a specific diet to follow to make sure you’re following something that isn’t going to damage your health:

When you feel tired and hungry all the time – whilst you should feel a little hungry on a diet (because you’re now eating less than you’re used to), you shouldn’t feel tired & hungry and you definitely shouldn’t feel it all the time. This would suggest that you’re not getting enough energy to get through the day, so either stop the diet or increase your food intake a little.

When they just sound crazy – think of the “baby food diet”, “the charcoal cleanse”, “the vision diet” (last one you eat with blue sunglasses on – weird I know). These diets are only ever made to get whoever created them famous by coming up with the most ridiculous thing that they can think of to get more publicity, whether it’s good or bad. It’s just common sense.
If they tell you to completely remove one macro-nutrient (carbs, fat, protein) – generally these diets just aren’t good for your health as all of the macro-nutrients serve a purpose in the body and without one of them you’ll struggle with certain functions. Whilst it’s fine to reduce some of them, it’s not a good idea to cut them out completely.
Avoid juice or any other cleanses – not only are they a waste of time and money it’s unnecessary to only consume kale laced smoothies for 3+ days or sticking a coffee enema up your butt (yes, this is a thing). Besides, you have a liver & kidney to do that for you, just feed them good food…

Conclusion

I usually recommend my clients to focus on lifestyle and behaviour change when it comes to food but if you want to get technical about it, then technically that is a diet of some sort. So ultimately we have to sacrifice some of our favourite “bad” foods to get in the shape we want.

Am I saying that all diets are bad? No. Am I saying you should follow a specific diet? No. I am telling you to do what works best for you, even if it’s against what I recommend. If I tell you not to go on a diet but you come to me 4 weeks later and say you achieved the results you wanted then I’m nothing but happy for you.

More Weights, Less Cardio!

In whatever routine you are doing, there should always be room to do both cardio and weights. But here are Abu Dhabi Personal Trainers we believe that your main focus and energy should be spent on the weights! While cardio is a great tool to help burn extra calories, it can be detrimental to your muscle building and muscle toning goals! Too much cardio can help you lose weight, but is not so great for sustaining and growing your muscles!

Our personal trainers also believe in the mantra of more weights, less cardio because doing weights can help change your body composition for the better! Think tighter and more toned looking bodies! Weights aren’t just good for building muscle but also good and helping you lose weight! Ultimately, it is your muscle mass that is going to give you that athletic toned shape you’re looking for. Without that muscle mass you’re only going to achieve a soft skinny-fat look.

So ladies, don’t be afraid to pick up the weights!! Your personal trainer can help guide you through weight and recommend the best program for you!