Tag: Glycogen

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Weight Loss Exercise

Train Hard Rest Well


As an aspiring athlete (I think anyone trying to get in better shape is an aspiring athlete), your need to recover from your workouts and let your body heal. Resting, not relaxation becomes critical. As you sleep your body recovers instead of just recovering from the food that we eat and the quiet times that we are not working out.

For people that live a quiet and mostly sedentary life resting tends to mean sleeping. Hopefully this was just a past life for you but one of the main things that people do in a couch potato lifestyle is just exist, you probably know what I mean, wake up groggy, coffee, maybe food, work, watch TV, eat lots of snacks and then sleep.

sleepingAs an active, health concious person a lot of this gets turned on its head. We wake up feeling more rested and before or after work we will workout and find different ways to fill our time. I always find though that I am questing for a better way to get the rest that I need.

Why Do We get Muscle Soreness?

I find that my main recovery problems are muscle soreness and muscle weakness after my workouts. There is a major food component in this but I wanted to deal with rest and recovery today only. After any kind of overload to our muscles they are broken down and we lose the glycogen and at the same time the stress on the muscles can cause some pain.

The main problem that you are dealing with when you have muscle soreness is lactic acid buildup in your muscles and the microtrauma to your muscle fibers. Everyone that has worked out has felt this and although it can be painful, you will recover in a few days after resting correctly.

Rest and Recovery after Exercise

There are a few ways to recover after a good workout of any kind, we it a cardio or a muscle workout.

1. Stretching – Stretching should not be done before working out as it can cause you to pull cold muscles. What I find works best is to warmup the muscles and do my workout and then after every workout I stretch all of my muscles for 5 to 10 minutes. This really is the minimum as it helps build flexibility and you are in much better shape when you are flexible.

2. Sleep – as we know sleep is really really important. I know that I need 8 hours of sleep a night and the more you workout the deeper your sleep will be. There are a few things that we can do to get better sleep. I find that having quiet time for the hour before I go to sleep helps, studies actually show that if you have no TV, computer, or iPhone then you will fall asleep easier and I have to agree even though I will usually listen to a podcast as I am falling asleep. Also the darker your room is the better you will sleep, and keep the temperature down in your room.

3. Baths – Having a warm bath after you have cooled off will work well for your muscles. Baths are very soothing and many people say that having a bath with epson salts will help soothe sore muscles even better.

4. Meditation – I am very bad for neglecting this but there are many great changes in your physiology that happen when you meditate on a regular basis. The act of meditation also puts your mind in a more sleeplike beta level which helps concentration and restfulness as well.

These are a few of the things that you can do to improve recovery after your workouts. Why not add some of your own in the comments below?

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Weight Loss Exercise

High Intensity Cardio Exercise



Should you do High Intensity Cardio Exercise or is walking good enough? Everyone has wondered at some point in time which cardio exercise is better. To put it in simple terms, both low and high intensity exercises will help you to burn off body fat. The question here is which is the most effective to burn off more body fat.

When scientists first discovered that during intensive exercises, your body burns glycogen, which is a form of stored carbohydrates that are stored in your liver and muscles for energy. During low intensity exercises, your body will burn a lot of fat.

What Burns More – Low Intensity or High Intensity Cardio Exercise

If your wondering whether or not it works, the answer is no because there are so many obese people still around. Even though they are working out with low intensity routines, it still makes you wonder how it can be.

High Intensity Cardio Exercise

High Intensity Cardio Exercise

The scientists were right when they said the human body burns more body fat during low intensity exercises like walking or swimming. During a high intensity exercise such as running, the body will burn a lot more calories. Even if some of the calories burnt are from glycogen, there are still many fat calories burned as well.

To put the icing on the cake, when your store of glycogen gets low, the carbohydrates from your food you eat will later get converted into glycogen to fill up the store and won’t be converted to body fat when they are left unused for energy.

High intensity cardio exercise will juice up your metabolism even after you have completed your workout. What this means, is that your body will continue to burn body fat hours after you have left the gym. This effect is nearly non existent in low intensity cardio or aerobic workout.

Accumulatively, your body will burn up more and more calories during and after you have finished a high intensity cardio exercise that it will with low intensity. You can inject high intensity exercises into your cardio workout by introducing some interval training. You can walk for 5 minutes or so, then break into some jogging for another 5 minutes or so. Then, walk briskly again until you have caught your breath and then sprint for a minute before you walk again. From this point, simply alternate your running and walking for the next 15 minutes until you are finished.

One of the best things about cardio is the more you do it, the more energy you’ll have. Cardio will help you to burn calories, although its more useful for keeping your energy levels high.

If you’ve never tried cardio before, you should give it a shot. If you like to exercise, you’ll find cardio the best way to boost your energy and keep in top shape. If you are just starting out, you’ll want to go slow and keep your cardio exercise in track – as it is very easy to over exert yourself.


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Weight Loss Exercise

Pre-competition meals


Many people are wondering what to eat when getting ready for competition so I thought this would be a good article on pre-competition meals.

For forty-eight hours prior to competition the athlete’s workouts must be canceled or markedly curtailed. This allows his muscles a couple of days to recover from the persistent training he has been doing. It allows that little extra bit of spring and kick to creep into the muscles, ready to burst forth at the moment of challenge.

Carbs and Glycogen in pre-competition meals

Another reason for tapering off the training program during this period is that of allowing the liver specifically and the body generally to replete their glycogen (synonymous with carbohydrate and starch) reserves. An adequate supply of available carbohydrate is invaluable in endurance events, first to provide ready calories for work consumption and second to protect against low blood sugar, which in turn may be associated with feelings of marked fatigue.

The diet is not otherwise altered until the pre-competition meals which is consumed three hours before competition. This period of time allows for absorption and digestion but does not extend long enough to allow hunger or starvation to ensue.

Pre competition meals

pre-competition meals

In the digestion and metabolism of protein, there is a residue of acid which can only be excreted by the kidneys. Carbon dioxide, the acid of fat and carbohydrate, can be blown off via the lungs. During exercise, effective kidney function ceases, preventing egress of acid by this route.

The athlete who eats a large steak (protein) prior to competition invites the onset of acidosis with all its unpleasant manifestations. For traditional yet stupid reasons, athletes are encouraged to wolf down rare meat, eggs, and milk before competition, when, in fact, they should be eliminated.

What should a pre-competition meal have in it

The pre-competition meal should be easily digestible since the implications of competing “on a full stomach” are well known. Fat in any form slows stomach emptying. Unless food passes from the stomach into the small intestine, no appreciable absorption can occur. Anxiety alone is sufficient to slow the stomach emptying. Since most athletes experience “butterflies in the stomach,” this should not be aggravated by eating fats. Fats should be kept to an absolute minimum in the pre-event meal.

Carbohydrate is the most readily available and quantitatively significant source of calories in athletics. Although fats and fatty acids are utilized, carbohydrates are pre-eminent. Moreover, their final breakdown products of carbon dioxide and water are readily excreted via the lungs and skin. They thus do not contribute to an acid load, which can only be excreted by the (non functioning) kidneys. Sugar, potatoes, bread, cereals, and honey are sources of starch commonly used by athletes.

During exercise, perspiration may be huge. Marathon runners lose eight to ten quarts of sweat during a race. Laborers while working at the Boulder Dam construction lost up to ten to fourteen quarts per day. Adequate hydration prior to competition is essential. The harmful effects of sweating off a few pounds to make a weight limit are now well recognized. As to the liquids in the pre-event meal, these should be readily absorbable and low in fat content, hence the need to restrict milk. They should not cause laxation, hence the need to restrict juices, particularly prune juice. Usually two or three glasses of fluid with the pre-event meal ensures adequate hydration.

Salt and pre-competition Meals

Salt supplies are important. If no salt is taken, the dangers of heat stroke and heat exhaustion are more likely, especially in warm weather. A practical and effective way to give salt is in bouillon. One bouillon cube dissolved in a cup of water is excellent. Salt tablets should not be taken just prior to competition because they may be very irritating to the stomach-and more so if the stomach is “nerved up” before the event. Another glass or two of water can be taken one to one and a half hours before competition.

These are the basics for most people for pre-competition meals and I hope you have learned lots to get ready.

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