Toning Muscles But NOT Building Bulk

One of the most common question, or rather, trouble, amongst ladies with regards to exercising is the worry of building bulky muscles instead of slimming down. Well, to start with, it's really not easy to build bulk. If it's that easy, there wouldn't be guys out there buying supplements and visiting the gym every other day and working on those heavy metals... The simple principle to prevent your muscles from bulking, is that you shouldn't be using too much strength when carrying those weights or doing any exercising, 'cause as soon as that happens, you are most likely causing microscopic tear to your muscle fibers which will then heal itself to gain in size and mass as a natural response to ensure you can lift that amount the next time you do it again!

Of course, such advise is not detailed enough. The scientific advise will then be, in terms of frequency and intensity, to use only about 70% of your available strength, to perform 8 to 15 reps, 3 times a day.

70% of your available strength:

If you are working out in the gym, find out your maximal strength by challenging yourself to lift at least once or twice of the heaviest weight you can handle. (Tips: Don't start small, if not, muscle fatigue will most likely result in a lighter maximal than your true ability.) For eg. your maximal manageable weight is 10kg on a bicep curl machine, 70% of 10kg will mean you should only be using 7kg at the bicep curl machine each time you are at it.

Take note that your maximal weight changes as you gain strength with your muscle, you can readjust your maximal but do not add to the point that you start aching, if not, bulk will be built.

8 to 15 reps:

Take note that this is dependant on individual. If you are already feeling the strain after 8 reps, please do not continue. But if you only feel fatigue after 15, then carry on till 15. This discrepancy could be due to the errors that could have occured when you were measuring your maximal weight. The rule of the thumb is, do not cause damage to your muscle fibers. (Tips: It's not easy to tell how many reps could result in muscle fiber tear, so do some trial and error, the pain due to the tear usually comes in a day later or so.)

3 times a day:

It's not exactly practical to need to exercise 3 times a day, don't we have to work?? A shortcut to this will be to do all 3 times in a single gym session, intervening aerobic exercises (like running, rowing and cycling) in between sets to ensure circulation of oxygenated blood to all parts of the muscle to aid recovery for the next set. Again, rule of the thumb is, not to damage the muscle fiber.

The muscles that are toned will in turn burn more calories throughout the day to maintain themselves. Also, keep in mind that, your weight might not decrease but stay constant due to the fact that muscles are heavier than fats. So while the exercising helped to lose fats and the muscles help to prevent storage of calories, your muscles' mass will offset the decrease in weight from the fats. But it will also mean that you feel healthier and fitter!

Happy experimenting!

Exercise and Fertility

Thanks to "Med" for her question in my shoutbox, I am posting the answer here as knowledge for all who may be interested.

Med's question goes, "LadyRTC, I got two conflicting messages from "older" people. One camp says women should exercise to boost their fertility. The other says no. Do you know? But I think for men, exercises helps."

I did some research and found some articles talking about the relationship between exercise and infertility.

In a research by Derbyshire (2007), it was found that “reproductive abnormalities are more likely to be present in women at either ends of the energy spectrum (excessively high, or low energy intake). An inadequate energy intake coupled with intense levels of physical activity is known to suppress reproductive function in women.” Basically, it says that women who over-exercise (resulting in a loss of energy), have a higher possibility of being infertile.

In another article, it was reported that “women who are on either side of the weight spectrum, either too thin or too heavy, often have difficulty conceiving. For women who are too thin, either strict dieting or excessive exercise is often the cause of their infertility. For these women, gaining weight or reducing the volume of exercise may reverse infertility. For women who are overweight, obesity can exacerbate infertility. One study showed that weight loss alone reversed infertility. Weight loss may reduce the rate of miscarriage and improve the success of fertility treatment." (Jeffreys & Nordahl, 2002) So basically, obese women who are hoping to become pregnant, should try to lose some weight by exercising in order to become fertile again and women who are too thin, should try to regain some weight by healthy eating coupled with moderate exercising for a fit and healthy body to get fertile.

After reading these, I guess the ultimate answer to the relationship between exercise and fertility is that, moderation is key, be it exercising or your weight; Overexercising, obesity and underweight may result in infertility.

To find out more about what is considered “intense” and “light” exercising, read my other blog entry and take note of 60-70% of maximal heart rate for moderate exercising.

References:

Derbyshire, E. (2007) Taking it a step too far? Physical activity and infertility. Nutritionand Food Science, 37, 5, 313-318

Jeffreys, R. & Nordahl, K. (2002) Preconception, Prenatal, and Postpartum Exercise.Healthy Weight Journal, 16, 3, 36(3p)

Heart Rate Training Zones

To perform exercises effectively, you need to monitor your heart rate when exercising, as each heart rate zone will mean different exercise effects.

Below are a list of heart zones for different exercising effects. Before you go on to explore the different zones to decide on your needs, you'll need to understand what is maximum heart rate.

When we talk about maximum heart rate (MHR), we are talking about the highest number of times your heart can contract in one minute, beyond which, heart failure will occur. In order to find out this number, you are of course, not required to push yourself to the point of heart failure, there is an easier way to find out about that, which is by using this formula: 220 - Age.

For example, given that I'm 25 years old, my MHR will be 220-25=195 beats per minute.

1. Healthy Heart Zone (Warm up) --> 50 - 60% of maximum heart rate:

This is the easiest zone and probably the least tedious zone. Most suitable for people just starting on their exercise regime. It can also be used as a warm up for more serious walkers.

This zone has been shown to help decrease body fat, blood pressure and cholesterol. It also decreases the risk of degenerative diseases and has a low risk of injury. 85% of calories burned in this zone are fats!

2. Fitness Zone (Fat Burning) --> 60 - 70% of maximum heart rate:

This zone provides the same benefits as the healthy heart zone, but is more intense and burns more calories. The percent of fat calories burnt is still 85%, but is a necessary zone to pass through in order to do a gradual improvement to the next zone.

3. Aerobic Zone (Endurance Training) --> 70 - 80% of maximum heart rate:

The aerobic zone will improve your cardiovascular and respiratory system AND increase the size and strength of your heart, which will in turn improve the respiratory process, making your fat-burning capacity more efficient! Also, this is the zone whereby mitochondrias are increased and enlarged to increase your metabolism. But due to the intensity of the workout, only 50% of the burnt calories are fats, but of course, the amount of calories burnt is much more than when you work out at 60%, so the ultimate value of fat burnt is still about the same, with greater benefit of increase mitochondria.... definitely worth the effort for weight-losing!

4. Anaerobic Zone (Performance Training) --> 80 - 90% of maximum heart rate:

Benefits of this zone include an improved stamina and thus an improved cardiorespiratory system, also that your endurance will improve and you'll be able to last longer in higher intensed exercises like e.g. sprint for a longer period of time. This is a high intensity zone burning even more calories, but our of which only 15 % is from fat. But of course, it has the same effect of increasing and enlarging your mitochondrias which will in turn increase your metabolism.

5. Red Line (Maximum Effort) --> 90 - 100% of maximum heart rate:

Although this zone burns the highest amount of calories, it is very intense. Most people can only stay in this zone for short periods. You should only train in this zone if you are in very good shape and have been cleared by a physician to do so. Bearing in mind that the MHR is only a rough guide, for the fitter folks, it doesn't mean that upon reaching this zone, you'll conk out and die, for the less-fit folks, even before you reach this zone, you might have already conked out... so... do watch your body and listen to the cues yea... stop when necessary, it's not worth losing your life over a few kilos!

Calculate Maximal Heart Rate

To perform exercises effectively, you need to monitor your heart rate when exercising, as each heart rate zone will meant different exercise effects and each zones contributes differently to the increase in metabolism.

For example,
Healthy Heart Zone (Warm up) --- 50 - 60% of maximum heart rate (MHR)
Fitness Zone (Fat Burning) --- 60 - 70% of MHR
Aerobic Zone (Endurance Training) --- 70 - 80% of MHR
Anaerobic Zone (Performance Training) --- 80 - 90% of MHR
Red Line (Maximum Effort) --- 90 - 100% of MHR

(For details of what each heart rate zone, click here.)

So how do we calculate the MHR? No worries, as long as you have passed Primary 3 maths, you can do this without much problem.

Let's say we wanna increase our mitochondria, we need to exercise at the Anaerobic Zone of 80% of MHR, and assuming you are 25 years old.

Step 1: Subtract your age from 220 to find out your maximum heart rate
MHR --> 220-25 = 195 beats per minute

Step 2: Multiply your MHR by 80%
195 x 80% = 156 beats per minute

Viola! You should maintain the intensity of exercise once you reach your desired HR.

You can check your heart rate during a workout, but first slow down the pace a little so you can concentrate more. Gently place your index and middle finger on the inner part of your wrist. Now count how many beats in 10 seconds, then multiply the number by 6. Of course, there are effective electronic instruments around which can purchase to make this easier for you, like a watch that measures heart rate, but that's entirely up to you.