Fitness Q & A

Ger O’Sullivan answers your fitness queries…

In my twenty years’ experience both as a coach and as an athlete I have found people asking similar type questions relating to health and fitness. In this article we will be exploring some of these questions and providing advice and suggestions as to how you can improve your health and fitness. As the adage goes: “ your health is your wealth” and I feel this to be true now more so than ever. We are all living more hectic and increasingly demanding lives and the stresses and strains of modern-day living can cause our health and wellbeing to suffer. However, we are now probably much more aware and informed of the many issues that can impact negatively on our health and quality of life. I believe that small changes and a positive attitude towards our health and fitness can result in huge benefits that will enable us to live a longer, more active and healthy lifestyle.

Q1. After doing a workout in my local gym my muscles feel very tired and sore and sometimes appear red and blotchy for days. Have you any advice or tips that might help with this problem?
A1. This is a very common problem for people who use the gym a lot. It would appear to me that you are experiencing muscle ‘burn-out’ or muscle ‘fatigue’ very common for many people who spend a lot of time in the gym doing weight training or toning exercises. First of all I would suggest that you take a brake for a week or two to allow your muscles recuperate. Before any exercise it is vital that you do a proper warm up and some stretches. This prepares the muscles for the exercise and helps prevent injury and muscle damage. This is extremely important when weight training. Also no matter what type of fitness routine you are doing it’s critical that you seek professional advice. Get someone who knows what they are doing to assess your technique and posture. If the weights you are lifting are too heavy and you’re not adequately warned up and haven’t got a good stretching routine going; this could be causing some of the problems you are having. I would recommend that you drink at least two litres of water before and during the weight training routine. Afterward I would recommend you drink some sort of liquid that is high in protein. Another tip is to get a sports massage at least once a week and get the therapist to focus on the areas that are causing you concern. You could also massage the area yourself before and after the workout. I would recommend using a vitamin e cream, which, will help with the skins elasticity and help repair any damaged capillaries.

Q2. I am in my mid to late thirties and considerably over weight and find it hard to exercise for more than twenty minutes without getting significantly out of breath and exhausted…. have you any practical advice that might help? Also, I’m going on a once in a life time holiday this summer and really want to get fit and look well.
A2. Yes of course there is a great deal you can do to get fit and in shape and lose weight. I always advice clients to consult a medical doctor before beginning or significantly increasing an exercise programme. The first misconception out there is that you have to experience pain to get fit in other words “no pain no gain”. This is totally untrue and is in fact quite dangerous- before when we used to practice this adage, many people ended up with serious injuries that resulted in serious health problems.
The first thing I would say to anyone who is seriously over weight is to avoid high impact sports like running or physical contact sports that involve a high element of impact on the body and in particular impact on the joints. Always listen to your body and if something doesn’t feel right it probably isn’t best to continue at that level of training and intensity. A small amount of low impact exercise, like walking, cycling or swimming regularly is best.
Depending on how much over weight you are I would suggest losing a certain amount of body fat first as this will improve your body’s cardiovascular system (heart & lungs) and make it easier for you to breath more effectively when exercising. Maybe even consult a dietician or nutritionist and start addressing your eating patterns. We all need a certain amount of food to function and remember there are many hidden sugars in our foodstuffs today and we need to be more aware than ever about this. We only need about six spoons of sugar to function adequately each day and according to the Irish Institute of Food and Nutrition we unknowingly consume on average sixteen to twenty spoon fulls per day. This can cause all sorts of problems to the body and results in a rise in the blood sugar levels. Try to establish a healthy low fat diet- any health food shop could provide you with advice and recipes on the types of food you should be eating. Complex carbohydrates like rice, pasta, wholegrain breads with plenty of green vegetables and fruits like peaches, plumbs, apples and oranges. I would suggest avoid eating too many bananas when overweight as this has a high glycaemic index (numerical index that tells you how fast particular food triggers a rise in blood sugar levels). There are certain foods types that can also trigger respiratory problems that can be exacerbated when over weight. In order to get fit and burn calories your exercise routine for the next couple of weeks should consist of a twenty to thirty minute walk each day and if possible a short swim of between 150m to 400m every second day for the next four or five weeks. This will greatly improve your fitness levels and help with your breathing. I would also suggest that in time you consider joining a gym and doing some spinning (cycling) in doors or out doors depending on the weather. Spinning is also a great way of getting fit and will also improve you breathing. Once you start getting the weight down I would suggest doing some weight training (under supervision) to tighten and tone the body’s muscles and skin.
The important thing to remember in all of this is to avoid high impact or stressful exercises. Start getting a good diet going and include regular aerobic activities whereby you allow the body to get fit and burn fat. Fat burns more effectively when exercise is done aerobically (exercise that increases oxygen in the blood). Aerobic exercise is exercise that is done within your comfort zone. This is the type of exercise you need to do to lose weight and burn calories. It’s important to tackle this type of health and fitness problem with a mixture of diet; exercise and training routine in order to allow you body to cope with the demands more effectively.

Q3. I would like some advice about toning and strengthening my upper arms, as they tend to be a bit flabby and I want to start wearing short sleeve tee shirts and blouses.
A3. Every muscle in you body requires regular exercise and our upper arms or biceps are no different. I would suggest purchasing a set of dumb- bells ranging from 2.5kg to about 10kg. Eventually you can combine a walk with the weights, but first I would recommend you get used to them at home.
A simple exercise to do is called a bicep curl and you can do this by sitting on a chair holding the smallest weight and placing you elbow to the inside of your knee and slowly lower the weight making sure not to ‘lock’ out the arm completely. Start out by doing the exercise on each arm about ten times and begin to increase the repetition and weight slowly over the coming weeks. This will strengthen and tone both your bicep and deltoid muscles (back of upper arm) muscles.
Also, you might want to consider joining a gym and doing these same type exercises under instruction and guidance. After two or three weeks you can begin to incorporate this weight training, using one of the lighter weights with a walk. This will give you an excellent cardiovascular work out combined with a strengthening and toning exercise.

Q4. I enjoy a few glasses of wine and was wondering what sort of exercise I should do the morning or day after and if it is dangerous to exercise too strenuously? I normally drink between three and four glasses of red wine twice to three times a week.
A4. From time to time we all like to unwind and have a few drinks - perfectly normal! However, we do need to understand how alcohol affects our metabolism and the damage it can cause both physically and psychologically. I’m not suggesting for one minute that people stop drinking but that you just become more aware of what’s going on in your body and that exercise and alcohol together do not work and should be avoided. It may take up to 20 hours from when you stopped drinking for your body to process all the alcohol. Alcohol is a diuretic: it causes dehydration and dramatically alters the body’s ability to regulate temperature. It depletes levels of potassium, calcium and magnesium, causes fluid retention and triggers a higher concentration of lactic acid, which can lead to muscle fatigue and makes injury more likely. As if that wasn’t enough bad news, excessive intake also raise blood sugar levels. Exercise causes dehydration and it’s never a good idea to do the two within twenty -four hours of each other. However, like most of us we find that this is not always possible and that we sometimes mix the two.
There is however some simple steps you can take to reduce the negative affects alcohol can have on the body. On average it takes the liver two hours to break down a unit of alcohol (one 125ml 10% alc. glass of wine or 250ml 4% alc. Lager). There is an urban myth that a hangover can be “worked off ” by sweating it out of the body. This, unfortunately, is not true. Since alcohol gives a short-term sugar rush, it will leave you craving more. Ideally, avoid doing too much exercise before you go out drinking as this will result in the body becoming more dehydrated and take longer for the body’s metabolism to return to normal.
So what can you do to offset the alcohol? An hour or two before and if possible during a night out eat some complex carbohydrates such as rice or pasta and drink plenty of water before during and after. Water will help to dilute the alcohol, which causes dehydration and also helps regulate the body’s temperature and food like rice or pasta will help the body absorb the alcohol and thus reduce the hangover the following morning. Remember if you have four to six drinks, you will have guzzled 250-400 calories. Under normal circumstances, this would take anything up to an hour to work off however, after consuming alcohol this takes significantly longer and exercise will not speed this up. The liver’s efficiency to process the alcohol will not be increased.
If you were exercising the morning after I would suggest walking quickly or jog slowly for no more than thirty to forty minutes. Have two glasses of water before you exercise and if possible drink a sports drink such as Powerade to help restore some of the fluids that have been lost as a result of the alcohol in your bloodstream. And remember avoid doing anything too strenuous like aerobics or competitive activities as your co-ordination and movement will have been impaired.

Q5. I tend to sweat a great deal during and in particular after exercise and was wondering if this is normal?
A5. Sweating is a natural process and the body’s way of regulating temperature. The important thing to remember here is that when you exercise we increase our heart rate, which in turn speeds up the blood flow and causes the body’s temperature to rise. However, some of the things we need to be mindful of are the amounts of alcohol we consume and the type of foods we eat. As stated earlier alcohol is a diuretic and causes dehydration and dramatically alters the body’s ability to regulate temperature. Also too much spicy food and salt can have a dramatic affect on the body’s ability to regulate temperature. Avoid drinking alcohol before and after a strenuous workout. Keeping the body hydrated is so important and we generally as a population don’t drink enough water.
Water is a great way of hydrating the body and helps flush toxins out of the system. It doesn’t have to be mineral water - water from the tap is just as effective. Make sure that if exercising in a gym that there is adequate ventilation and that the air inside has a means of circulating so as not to cause stuffiness and clamminess. I would recommend that you make sure your clothes are breathable and are suitable for the type of exercise you are doing. The amount of people I know who wear non-breathable clothing is ridiculous and they wonder why they sweat so much and have trouble breathing no to mention getting colds and flues as a result. Also try having a cold shower after exercising: this is a great way to close the pores and reduce the body’s temperature. The famous cyclist, Sean Kelly always insisted on having at least two cold showers a day during his professional cycling career.
Once you have eliminated any medical reason for this excessive sweating the above mentioned should help reduce the problem. Always make sure you are comfortable both physically and psychologically and that you are not experiencing any undue stress as a result of your exercise routine. The above advice and tips should only be used as a guide and medical advice and regular consultations with your doctor and fitness instructor will help you plan and look after you most important asset: your body.

Contact Ger @ 086-3773173 or e-mail: gmosullivan@eircom.net
BA. (Hons) Dev. LMT. IMTA. NCTC. Certificate
Also available Sports Massage Therapy