How to Avoid Overdoing It When Restarting Your Fitness Routine

COVID-19 brought many changes to people’s routines, especially those having to do with fitness. With gyms closed and people from home, there has been doing a lot less moving and a lot more sitting. Now that we are entering stage 3, many of you may be itching to get back to the gym and exercising regularly. After this prolonged break, it is important to ease yourself back into a workout routine rather than jump right back in where you left off.

To avoid injury, take the following into consideration:

Increase gradually

Did you used to work out 5 days/week? Start with 2 days/week and each week add an extra day. This is especially relevant with weight lifting, assuming most people have been doing body weight or banded workouts from home. Lift less weight than you are used to and slowly ramp things back up.

Include a warm up and a cool down

A good warm up prepares your body for activity and helps loosen up your muscles. A cool down including deep stretching is also very necessary. Don’t skip these!

Listen to your body

Recognize the difference between being sore and being in pain. Adjust your intensity accordingly. Also ,don’t be too hard on yourself if you aren’t training at the level you were pre-quarantine. This can lead to a loss in motivation and feeling discouraged.

Remember to rest

Resting between workouts is imperative for recovery! It is also the least scheduled and under-utilized way to enhance performance. Down time allows the muscles to repair, rebuild and strengthen, as well as adapt to your new routine. Sleep, hydration, nutrition, stretching, foam rolling, ice, etc. are all important aspects of recovery.


If you're not feeling ready to head back to the gym just yet, sign up for our virtual training and stay in the comfort of your own home.

Maintaining Muscle Mass during COVID-19

Gyms are closed. You don’t have an at-home gym. Dumbbells are sold out online. How do you maintain the muscle mass you worked so hard to gain prior to the pandemic? Here are some tips:

• Slow down your movements. For example, if you are doing body weight squats, slow them down and add an isometric hold at the bottom of the squat.

• Increase your repetitions and work till failure. There is no one size fits all to the amount of reps that someone should be doing because everyone is at a different level. 

• Keep constant tension in your movement. For example, if you are doing a lunge, instead of fully straightening your legs to starting position, keep a slight bend in the legs and stay low.

• Elevate your feet. For example, put your legs up on the couch for a decline pushup. Maybe even work your way up to a handstand pushup with legs against the wall.

• Try single limb movements. For example, try a pistol squat or a one arm pushup.

• Use resistance bands. The thicker the band the more weight resistance.

• Increase your protein intake. If you have a hard time including protein at each meal, try a shake!

• Increase your frequency. If you usually trained 3x per week at the gym with weights, increase your workouts to 6x per week with body weight and bands.

Most importantly, don’t be too hard on yourself. These are difficult times both mentally and physically and it is important to give yourself a break. 

RESISTANCE TRAINING BASICS

We sat down with Benchmark Group Certified Trainer Nathaniel Ho to chat Resistance Training:

Resistance training is when muscles of the body are contracting under tension using weights, body weight or other equipment to help hypertrophy, strength, power and endurance depending on the individuals goals. To break it down hypertrophy is for maximal muscle growth focusing on higher volume (more repetitions). Strength focuses on increasing load (weight) placed on the muscles. Power focuses on both high force and velocity (how fast the weight is moved). Last but not least endurance is to help produce and maintain force production for longer periods of time.

When resistance training, it is very important to start off with compound movements. Compound movements are movements that involve multiple muscle groups at once. Some examples would be the squat, deadlift and bench press. The reason you should start with compound movements is because it allows the body to lift heavier weights while you still have the most energy. Always start with the toughest exercises first, then move on to the individual muscle groups later in the workout.

In addition, there are a lot of physical and mental health benefits that will come from resistance training. By improving muscle strength and tone, it can help your body protect joints from injury, maintain mobility and balance in everyday life, and help improve posture. It helps with weight management, the more muscle you gain the more calories you burn. It may help reduce or prevent cognitive decline when aging, control chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, osteoporosis and depression. Lastly, it will help improve sleep quality, self-confidence, body image and mood.

At the end of the day, resistance training can help improve the quality of life as a whole. Don’t be scared to go to the gym and hit the weights.

WHAT ARE COLD ROOM WORKOUTS, AND ARE THEY THE NEXT BIG THING?

It often feels like there’s a constant race to find the “next big thing” when it comes to holistic health and nutrition. One way to do that? Go completely against the grain.

This year, more people are starting to integrate cold workouts, or cold-room training into their routines. Why?  Exercising in a hot room is far less effective at increasing your metabolism than exercising in a cold room. Additionally, research shows that exercising in a cold room feels easier and you can do it for longer.  Cold Studios have been popping up like Brrrn in New York, where you work out in a 45-degree (7°C).  If you lose more weight, exercise better, and feel better [when it’s cold], then why aren’t we turning the thermostat down?” says co-founder and concept creator Jimmy Martin. To add to their experience, at the very end of class during the cool-down, infrared heat panels on the ceiling turn on to warm you while you stretch.

HOW IT WORKS

The cold can make you work harder, burn more calories, and burn more fat. This is based on a few true scientific claims. When you’re cold, your body works hard to warm you up, AKA, your metabolism revs up to compensate. It’s often referred to as “mild cold stress" - or as Michael Joyner, M.D., an endurance athlete and expert in human performance at the Mayo Clinic puts it; “In the cold, your body can regulate its temperature a little better, meaning you can often exercise farther or longer, so you can burn more calories.” In other words, use the frigid conditions to your advantage—but don’t expect your body to do the work for you.

This is not a cheat code, and working out in the cold will not result in calories dripping away as a faster rate.  Integrating cold into your workout is simply a more efficient use of your body's internal mechanism. Working just as hard, but working smarter.

If the threat of pulling muscles crosses your mind, know that has more to do with movement patterns and lubricating joints, not actual temperature, which is a pretty well-established argument.  All that said, heat does have at a major redeeming quality: recovery. At the end of some of your workouts, you should still strive to heat up your body or entered a heated space as studies show that warmth post workout can soothe pain and lower blood pressure. 

As far as trends go, fitness is an ever-evolving space and we're sure to see more of cold workouts as we enter 2020's warmer months.

Train low, race high strategy for endurance athletes.

There's a growing trend of endurance athletes switching to a low-carb, high-fat diet to avoid the energy crash pretty much every athlete experiences if they don't refuel mid-race. Not to be confused with altitude training (sleep low, train high).

Here’s the gist: Carbs are the most efficient form of fuel for our bodies. They can be digested and converted into energy much faster than other nutrients,

However, our muscles can only store around 2,500 calories of carbs at once, compared to the 50,000 calories of fat. You can teach your body to burn fat as a substrate by restricting your carb intake, which can help you avoid that sudden wall of exhaustion on a long training session caused by a depleted store of carbs.

How it works:

You train on a low-carb, high-fat (LCHF) diet for five to 10 days to teach your body to convert fat into fuel, explains Georgie Fear, R.D., author of Lean Habits For Lifelong Weight Loss.

Your daily diet will come from roughly 50 percent healthy fats, 25 percent carbs, and 25 percent protein. Then, one to three days before a race, you start carb-loading with 80 percent of your diet coming from (healthy!) low glycemic carbohydrates, 10 percent from fat, and 10 from protein. Your body has optimized to burning fat as a fuel, but it also remembers how to process carbs. The theory is that you gain the advantages of training on a low supply of carbs, but you avoid any effect on speed from the missing carbs. You even get an extra energy boost since carbs turn to fuel so quickly

One of the biggest parts of becoming a better, faster athlete, though, is figuring out which training and racing diet is right for you -- and an LCHF diet may or may not be right for you.

While there are huge weight loss and endurance training benefits to this eating plan, it can be a massive undertaking.  Test the process and see how it works for you. If, after two weeks of limiting your carbs, you still feel terrible and lethargic on your runs, tweak your plan considering a health professional's advise. Still feel exhausted? A LCHF diet may not be right for your body-and there's nothing wrong with that.

Should You Be Considering Cryotherapy as a Muscle Recovery Treatment?

Forms of Cryotherapy are commonly used following a high-intensity bout of exercise to speed recovery. But what is it? Cold-water immersion (CWI) or ice baths, ice or cold gel pack application, ice massage, cold-air therapy or any other local or general application of cold for therapeutic purposes, are all various forms of Cryo.

The question most people ask is, should you subject your body to such cold temperatures? Simply put, yes - The fundamental change induced by cold therapy drives a reduction in tissue temperature, which subsequently exerts positive effects on blood flow, cell swelling and tissue metabolism. Cold therapy causes core temperature reduction and cardiovascular and endocrine changes, which can lead to faster recovery.

Here are two immediate benefits:

Tissue Metabolism

Following exercise, stressed muscle fibers may have an increased energy demand as they restore ion gradients, repair structural damage and replace energy stores. Thus, reducing muscle energy demand by cooling may reduce the metabolic stress experienced by a muscle fiber and minimize the disparity between oxygen supply and demand. 

Blood Flow

Although reducing blood flow to stressed/fatigued muscles to enhance recovery seems counterintuitive, reducing blood flow is thought to decrease subsequent pain, functional impairment and the potential for secondary damage caused by inflammation.

The right treatment depends on the areas you wish to focus on and the physical degree of your workout, but the two most talked about forms of Cryo are Ice Baths (CWI) and the use of Cryogenic Chambers.  Cold Water Immersion has become popular among sportsmen and women to cool strained muscles in order to recover faster, compete again sooner and train harder.  While Cryogenic Chambers are a relatively new method of speeding up recovery and regarded by some elite athletes and coaches as a step forward, a superior treatment.  The latter typically consists of being exposed to extremely cold air (below -100°C) in a specialized chamber.

First-timers should try ice baths, typically lasting for 10 minutes. For more information on Cryogenic Chambers, consult your local physician about nearby locations and if it's the right method for you.

Jumpstart Your 2020 w/ Group Fitness

December for some, can be the most jam-packed, energy consuming time of year. Lots of opportunities to see family, reacquaint yourself with holiday festivities, and most of all feast.  It can be okay to indulge this season, but it's also important to stay on track when life gets as busy as it does heading into the new year. 

But why wait until January first to begin? We've put together a few reasons why Semi-Private fitness classes can help you achieve the best shape of your life.

More Personal Attention & Greater Focus

In smaller groups, trainers are able to give you more personal attention compared to much larger classes.  They'll be able to see, correct and encourage everyone in the class.

Tribe Ethos

Group mentality goes a long way. When people exercise together, they create relationships and friendships that can build into a family atmosphere. More so, an energetic fitness class with friends and family will keep you having fun each step of the way.

Motivation & Support

A group setting encourages while also helping you track your personal progress, while setting and achieving goals together can also be extremely helpful in self-motivating through a workout.  The group is there to get you through the challenges, wade through the obstacles and experience everything with you.

Accountability

Small group training sessions can hold you accountable for showing up and putting effort into the workout. That accountability is what will get you moving. Working hard, staying consistent and focusing on the process with your tribe will get you there every time.

Interview with Triathlete Lauryn Falcone

This month we sat down with Lauryn Falcone, a MD/PhD student, triathlete and a super woman we believe. She is currently studying medicine in West Virginia and almost finished her degree. During her years at school, Lauryn has also been training and competing in Triathlons and soon she will graduate as an MD, looking to do a fellowship and residency in Dermatology. Fitness and health has been her whole life, with influence from her parents who were both in the field and starting her sports career early on in life; beginning with her love for running. It was running that she first became passionate about running because she saw it as a sport she could do for the rest of her life.

Lauryn’s philosophy on health and wellness is that health is important to everyone for the same reasons sport and fitness are important for everyone. She believes that everyone can find their own enjoyment whether its running, yoga, walking, swimming or skating; there is a sport for everyone out there. 

Lauryn’s philosophy on health and wellness is that health is important to everyone for the same reasons sport and fitness are important for everyone. She believes that everyone can find their own enjoyment whether its running, yoga, walking, swimming or skating; there is a sport for everyone out there. 

Lauryn’s philosophy on health and wellness is that health is important to everyone for the same reasons sport and fitness are important for everyone. She believes that everyone can find their own enjoyment whether its running, yoga, walking, swimming or skating; there is a sport for everyone out there. 

She also mentioned that many diseases can be improved by simply being more active and eating better. There are so many benefits to being active that go beyond physical appearance and strength alone. 

Lauryn’s non negotiable when it comes to health and fitness is to never make excuses. Although she does encourage taking a break when you are sick or injured. 

She says “There’s always going to be an excuse there, you have to push yourself even if you don’t really want to. Most of the time I don’t want to do my workouts; I’m too busy or too tired, but there is always going to be an excuse. You have to push yourself even when you don’t really want to.” 

Her biggest piece of advice for aspiring MD students and athletes is not to give up. The road is really long and the learning really doesn’t end. At the beginning, it seems very daunting but when you look back she says, “ it flies by.”  Lauryn says the learning never ends because there will always be a moment in your career as a doctor where you will need further education, as new discoveries are made constantly. 

We asked her what she does before a big competition to calm her butterflies. She says she embraces them, and accepts them as normal. She uses that adrenaline to fuel her performance and drive her through what she does. She says its very normal to have these feelings before a big event, or a big assignment. It’s inevitable, so may as well accept it as part of the process and use it for better. 

When she prepares for a competition she typically will plan her goals and workouts to hit every week before the race. In terms of diet, she tends to stick to a varied diet by eating mostly everything and making sure she’s eating enough. She tries to be realistic with her diet and exercise plan considering she is an MD student as well. 

Her top five tips for training for a triathlon are: 

1.Get a coach— Especially if it’s your first season or triathlon, a coach can really help with a training plan, the sports psychology and support.

2. Find a training group or partners— If your getting up at early hours like 5am to train, its really helpful to have others to train with. This helps you stay accountable and perhaps even push yourself harder. 

3. Have a plan and be organized— Consider what environment your going to be racing in and try to practice in a similar environment. Make sure you have all the equipment you need to practice. 

4. Practice open water swimming— it’s very difficult, there’s a reason its first in the competition. Practice it and do not try to wing it, it’s easy to panic the day of when there’s hundreds of other racers beside you. 

5. Practice your transitions—Cleaning up your transitions can save a lot of time. Initially, when she was competing she would lose 30-40 additional seconds and that can add up to a loss when your racing. 

We asked Lauryn what her favourite brands are. She says for running she uses Salming. She runs exclusively in them and has for the last 3 years. “It’s a very minimalist, low drop shoe and I’ve set all my PR’s running in them.” For cycling she wears the Rudy Project and her gear is Louis Garneau. For swimming she loves the Xterra wet suits, she thinks they are great quality, super durable and they have a wet suit for every condition. 

Last but not least, we asked Lauryn what her best piece advice would be for her younger self. 

She says, “Try not to worry. I’ve spent so much time in my life worrying about things working out. A lot of people who push themselves feel this way. Be more in the moment, worry less about the future. Something greater will happen when you stop worrying. If it doesn’t work out, let it go and work out on it’s own. When I injured myself running it forced me to take up swimming. This lead me to learn to love an entirely new sport that opened up a door for me.” 

We hope you enjoyed this interview as much as we did! We were so inspired by this total boss lady, killing it both in the fitness and health world.