Exercise Anywhere Anytime

Forgive me with the sparse posts over the last couple of weeks (and the next couple of weeks); I've been slammed.

This week, I was faced with the troubling decision of what exercise to do. Well, because I was in a place with no access to a gym, and because for some reason, God has not bestowed the powers to swim upon me. And it hit me again how hard it really is to give it your all when there is no gym to at least help you out.

So I was thinking about you all as I was going through this, and I realized how important those little decisions we make before we travel can affect our whole trip. For example, I was thinking "Should I or should I not take a skipping rope?", "Of course everywhere has a gym in the 21st century", "I would be able to work out outside".

These may seem like minute questions now, but when you're in the thick of it, you realize how important they are. You should always have an exercise plan when you travel, and also have a backup plan (plus a backup to your backup if necessary). So what did I do? I packed up my skipping rope, my sneakers, workout DVDs, wrote down some routines to try for a 45 minute workout, and looked for gyms in the area I was staying.

As you've probably figured, the last part didn't quite work out well (pun intended). And on some days, the weather was not conducive to outdoor workouts. But those workout DVDs, and the routines I planned out saved the day.

What is with this long lecture? This is just to remind you that as the holidays draw near, do not forget or underestimate any travel exercise decisions. They can be the difference between staying active this holiday season, or putting back on every pound you've worked so hard to lose this year.

Now, if you are on Instagram and have not followed me yet, you can find me at @eightsnweights. I'm constantly updating it with pictures of workouts or food.

Cheers Eights & Weights!

Nigerian Blog Awards 2012 Winner!

Dear readers,

First off, thank you for nominating and voting for Eights & Weights! We won the Judges' Choice for the Best Health and Fitness Blog at the Nigerian Blog Awards (see full list here). I appreciate the time it took you to vote.

Winning that made me get all sentimental so I wanted to take a moment to show my appreciation for all the Eights & Weights readers, the followers on Twitter, the fans on Facebook, those who tell their friends about us, and the followers on Instagram. You all rock, and you push and inspire me to work hard on my body and learn something new every day so I can come and tell you about it. Thank you for your support.

If you are currently not following Eights & Weights on any of those mediums and would like to, here is how you can find us:

Twitter: @eightsnweights

Facebook: Eights and Weights

Instagram: @eightsnweights

Have a fabulous week and remember that you only get as much from your body as you put into it :)

Cheers Eights & Weights!

Why Sitting on Your Ass Could Kill You

 

Spending all day sitting on your ass could literally expand the size of your ass. No, I'm not just talking about folks who don't exercise, but you who exercises and then sits for 3 hours in front of the TV. Yes, you.

People don’t need the experts to tell them that sitting around too much could give them a sore back or a spare tire. The conventional wisdom, though, is that if you watch your diet and get exercise at least a few times a week, you’ll effectively offset your sedentary time. A growing body of inactivity research, however, suggests that this advice makes scarcely more sense than the notion that you could counter a pack-a-day smoking habit by jogging. Exercise is not a perfect antidote for sitting. 

 

The posture of sitting itself probably isn’t worse than any other type of daytime physical inactivity, like lying on the couch watching “Wheel of Fortune.” But for most of us, when we’re awake and not moving, we’re sitting. This is your body on chairs: Electrical activity in the muscles drops, and the muscles go as silent as those of a dead horse, leading to a cascade of harmful metabolic effects. Your calorie-burning rate immediately plunges to about one per minute, a third of what it would be if you got up and walked. The risk of being obese shoots up within a single day, and the risk of developing  Type 2 Diabetes rises. The enzymes responsible for vacuuming up fat out of the bloodstream plunge.

Over a lifetime, the unhealthful effects of sitting add up. Alpa Patel, an epidemiologist at the American Cancer Society, tracked the health of 123,000 Americans between 1992 and 2006. The men in the study who spent six hours or more per day of their leisure time sitting had an overall death rate that was about 20 percent higher than the men who sat for three hours or less. The death rate for women who sat for more than six hours a day was about 40 percent higher. Patel estimates that on average, people who sit too much shave a few years off of their lives.

Sitting, it would seem, is an independent pathology. Being sedentary for nine hours a day at the office is bad for your health whether you go home and watch television afterward or hit the gym. It is bad whether you are morbidly obese or marathon-runner thin. Excessive sitting is a lethal activity.

The good news is that inactivity’s peril can be countered. Even the littlest stuff matters, like bending down to tie your shoes or walking down the hall to get a cup of tea. Every movement matters. The best advice anyone ever gave me about exercise was to get up at least every hour. It doesn't matter whether you are getting up to go to the bathroom or to get your mail. Get up off your ass so you can save your ass!

Cheers Eights & Weights!

Excerpts from the New York Times article "Is Sitting a Lethal Activity?" by James Vlahos.

Photo credit: theflycandypost.com

Understanding Your Abdominal Muscle Anatomy

Everyone talks about abs and how a six-pack makes you look sexy and toned. However, people don't always know how to target the abs. For strong toned ab muscles, you really need to focus on all the muscles in that region.

The rectus abdominis: The long vertical muscle we refer to as the six-pack.

The transverse abdominis: The horizontal muscle which runs around the torso.

The obliques:  The pair of diagonals which run down your sides (internal and external).

Knowing the various abs muscles helps us know how to target each. A lot of the floor crunches people do tend to target the rectus abdominus, but may not work the obliques or the transverse abdominus. It is important to do exercises that work all the ab muscles to get the complete look and feel.

Here is one exercise you can try for each today:

Rectus Abdominis

As you see in the image above, these muscles go all the way down to your pelvis, and so pelvic exercises work well here. One awesome one you can do is the bicycle. It's a crunch so it's not my favorite, but it really works you out.

Transverse Abdominis

You use this muscle when you suck your stomach in and hold it tight. So do exercises where you require your core to balance. One example is the single leg lift. Use one leg for balance and raise the second knee towards your abdomen, holding your abs tight.

Obliques

The obliques really require a lot of controlled twisting. Luckily, I wrote about this a few weeks ago with a video too! Check that out here and try the plank oblique.

In no time, you'd be an expert working out your whole abdominal region.

Cheers Eights & Weights!

Photo credit: Dailynews.com, Exercise.com

Sugar vs. Sweeteners: Which is Better for You?

With the way teams on Twitter are going, frankly, I'm surprised people haven't started #TeamSugar and #TeamSweetener yet. If you're not into social networking, you probably won't get that.

Anyway, when you are trying to lose weight or stay healthy, the age old question of "sugar vs. sweetener" always comes up. Is sugar all bad? Are sweeteners super healthy? Well, let's find out.

First off, it is important to understand that there are different kinds of sweeteners: Natural sweeteners vs. Artificial sweeteners.

Natural Sweeteners

As you've probably guessed, the word 'natural' doesn't always tell us what we need to know. Generally, products are called natural because they go through little or no processing. However, that is subject to interpretation as two products can be called natural but have very different effects on the body based on their nutrition content. 

Sometimes, people lean towards some brands of sweeteners because of their exotic names or origins. Some examples of natural sweeteners are honey, molasses, agave nectar, and maple syrup. The truth is that although they require less processing, natural sugars are not that different from regular sugar in the calorie content and in the nutrition value. However, the good thing is that they don't contain a bunch of preservatives or ingredients that make you scratch your head. See below for how natural sweeteners stand compared to sugar.

Artificial Sweeteners

If you don't really have a sweet tooth, it could be difficult getting used to artificial sweeteners because they tend to be much much sweeter than sugar. However, the awesome aspect of artificial sweeteners is that they usually contain little to no calories because they are not carbohydrates. Some examples are: Splenda, and Sweet n' Low.

On the other hand, it is important to be careful with artificial sweeteners because many studies have shown that they are possibly linked to various diseases, including certain types of cancer. How do artificial sweeteners stack up compared to sugar?

Cheers Eights & Weights!

Photo credit: healthland.time.com

Strength Training: Why is it Important?

Yesterday, I had a conversation with a gentleman about weight lifting. And as you know, every conversation leads me to think about Eights & Weights readers and what your perspective is. And so midway through our conversation, my mind had wondered on to how readers approach the two major sects of exercise: cardio and strength training. 

I talk to a lot of people from both sexes about exercise, and one thing is very clear: there are individuals from both sexes that have a misunderstanding about the need for a balance of cardio and strength training. A lot of males seem to focus too much on strength training but not on cardio, and a lot of females seem to focus too much on cardio and not enough on strength training. 

Let's talk a bit about why strength training is important and we can focus on cardio another day (although I think I've beat that topic down).

Age: Have you realized that when you do extreme cardio now you hurt yourself much easier than you did a few years ago? As we grow older, we lose muscle mass. What does muscle mass have to do with cardio? A whole lot. The strength from your muscles is what helps you propel, balance and push yourself as you swim, run, spin, etc. The stronger you are, the better you can perform (Note that I said 'stronger', not 'bigger').

Protection: Also, as you lose muscle, the muscle gets replaced with fat. So though you may not see the scale go up or down, it doesn't mean you are fine. If you are carrying a lot of fat and forcing your body to still move at a certain level, the impact of all those cardio exercises could go straight to your joints because your muscles are not strong enough to protect those joints. The more cardio you do, the stronger your muscles need to be.

Weight: That is not to say that muscle mass does not help to control weight. Building strong muscles helps the body burn fat because obviously, your muscles are constantly doing work and in turn, burning energy. Just do not rely on muscles alone to burn fat though, like a lot of men do. You need both.

Looks: I mean, we are all vain on here, right? You do know that a toned bottom looks better than a soggy bottom. You need to constantly firm up your muscles as you burn fat to look healthy, fit, and more confident. There is a reason we women are always doing squats and lunges...

Strength training is not just about weight lifting though. You don't have to be lifting a thousand pounds at the gym to be fit so don't be intimidated. Sometimes, your body weight is good enough to help strengthen particular muscles in your body. I actively support body-weight strength training exercises (i.e. pushups, donkey kicks, lunges, etc.) because you can literally do them anywhere. Any exercise you do to tone your muscles rather than simply burn fat is a strength training exercise.

Speaking of strength training exercises, have you tried the TribeSports challenge?

For links to some of our other strength training examples, click here.

Cheers Eights & Weights!

Photo credit: Gotthevibe.com

Chicken: To Skin or Not to Skin?

When I cook chicken that I didn't already buy skinless, I usually go through the motions of skinning the chicken. Yes, people have varying opinions of this is really necessary or not. My position is that it is not particularly necessary, but it definitely helps to reduce the temptation to eat the skin when I'm done cooking the chicken.

Okay, that just broke a lot of people's hearts, right? Well, here's a little fact to help you understand how many calories you are cutting down. Unlike other kinds of meat, most of the fat in chicken is in the skin. A 4oz regular chicken breast with skin has about 188 calories, and 3g of saturated fat. If you skinned that same chicken, it would have about 118 calories, and 0.4 grams of saturated fat. Multiply that to the amount you may actually be eating and you see how much of a difference that is!

So you're probably now wondering why I'm all for skinning it BEFORE you cook the chicken. Isn't it the same as just cooking it and then peeling it off? Plus, isn't it way easier that way? I'm not sure about you, but I don't always have the most control in the world when it comes to food, and so it's easier for me to avoid stuffing my face when the food is not on my plate or in my pot. I'm pretty sure some of you are the same. So I skin before I cook so I don't have to look at the juicy piece of skin and then will myself to not eat it.

Also, you may not know this, but the skin actually absorbs most of the spices when you cook the chicken. So peeling it off after you cook it sometimes means losing the flavor of what you just cooked. If you peel it off before, you allow the meat to absorb the spices.

Cheers Eights & Weights!