If you travel a lot, or have traveled in the past for any length of time, you know how hard it can be to get a workout in, eat right and maintain or make progress in your fitness training when you are in and out of hotels.
The fitness center that most hotels claim they have are often not adequate and seem to be a stationary bike with no seat and maybe a battered, multi-station weight stack machine. Some hotels have deals with near by gyms that offer discounts or free passes, but you could be too busy to take advantage of those offers—or worse yet, you could be staying in a place that has no equipment at all.
This article will help you while you’re on the road and want to workout and eat right. There are training programs, nutritional advice and some exercises that don’t require special equipment except for what you can locate within and around your average hotel room or home.
Tips on planning your traveling workout
Of course, the more planned out your trip is, the easier it is to accommodate working out, but honestly, when you are traveling you often don’t have a fully laid out plan and have no idea what equipment you will have access to.
When ever you have a chance to workout, workout your total body. This is great because if you don’t have a chance to workout again for a couple of days, you’ve already worked everything. If you do have a chance to workout again within the next couple of days, you’ll benefit from this different training than your body is used to. Here’s a sample total body workout arrangement. When doing this, only take short, 30-60 second rests between sets. How many reps you get will depend on the exercise you use, but you should shoot for around 10 to 15 reps for each set.
5 sets chest, 5 sets back, 5 sets thighs, 3 sets shoulders, 2 sets biceps, 2 sets triceps, 2 sets calves, 3 sets abdominals
Your body is virtually motionless while you are traveling, so when you feel up to it, especially on days when you’ve been traveling for a long period of time, do some stretching to help loosen up. Resistance training may not be very productive after being motionless all day and stretching is easy to do, doesn’t need any special equipment and can really help to relax you. When you know you have a long trip coming up, begin to ramp up your current training schedule up to the date you leave.
You will want to start building up and working your body with more sets and using intensity techniques that begin to move towards overtraining. This way, when your trip comes, your body will need the break and the infrequent bodyweight training will help you recover and improve. If you travel often for business, the same strategy can be applied to you—for a couple of workouts right before you leave, make them extremely tough. Then on shorter trips, do a couple bodyweight workouts or just focus on stretching.
If your main goal is to lose fat, you can do fat-loss circuit training while you are traveling. This means basically doing cardio training in between sets of resistance training instead of taking a rest period of non-activity. This method is very powerful and gives you a strong metabolic response which gives your workout as much punch as possible. Here’s a sample of what a fat-loss circuit training workout looks like in action: 1 set chest30 seconds of cardio1 set chest30 seconds of cardio1 set back30 seconds of cardio1 set back30 seconds of cardioetc. In your hotel room, you have a number of options for cardio—you can pack a skipping rope, use stairs or a low bench or even just step-ups onto a stable, un-rolling chair in your room.
If you want to build muscle, do the total-body workout but use more challenging exercises that allow only eight to 12 reps per set. When you get right down to the heart of the matter—it doesn’t matter where you train, as long as you give your body a strong training stimulus, you’ll still be able to build muscle.
Nutritional advice for the traveler
When you travel, eating can be unpredictable. You just might not know what kind of food you’ll be eating, when or where on any given day. Here are some tips to keep your eating on track when you are traveling. Most of these are really just common sense, but it’s hard to watch what you eat when you travel, especially if you are with a group of people. The key to this is to do the best you can and not stress yourself out if you eat something you didn’t plan on. The stress is worse than the effect of doing it.
The more control you have over food choices, the better off you are. When you can choose, opt for healthier food without fancy sauces or fatty toppings. Stick to foods that are less processed and do your best to stay away from fast food as much as possible. If your hotel room has a fridge, you can stock your fridge with good food from a grocery store. If your room doesn’t have a fridge, do the best you can with non-perishable food items. Stick to foods that aren’t processed such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains.
Bring a protein supplement with you on your trip. This could be protein powders, ready-to-drink formulas or protein bars. You will likely find that while you travel, it’s tough to get enough protein without getting the fat that goes along with it. With a protein supplement, you have control over how much protein you get and what is in it this way. Don’t forget to take your vitamins. You should be taking at least a multi-vitamin and extra Vitamin C to keep your immune system strong, especially if you’ll be packed on a plane with others who could be sick).
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Showing posts with label diet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label diet. Show all posts
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Getting the Right Muscle Building Diet
Eating muscle building foods does help you get the edge and build muscles much faster than just eating normal foods. Muscle building foods that is refereed here is not some engineered freak food, it just carefully selected natural foods that contain high in protein that can help you accelerate your muscle building process. Building muscle is not as simple as just hopping into the gym, lift a few weights and you will get results. It requires much more than that. Number one, you need an excellent workout plan and then, you need a solid diet. Just imagine you are a homebuilder, even with the best tools and blue print, you cannot build if you do not have enough cement.
You get results from your workout when you rest, not when you are working out. During your workout, you are tearing your muscle in microscopic scale, and your muscles will recover and grow bigger when you feed them with muscle building foods like protein. You cannot get big muscles by just eating bread and beans. You need foods that contain complete amino acid profiles.
You have to include these power muscle building foods in all your meals. Consuming them bit by bit, spread throughout the day can increase the absorption rate of these foods in you body. Eating a large portion at once will not work because your body cannot absorb all the nutrients at once. Here are mini lists of muscle building foods that can help you build lean muscle that is rock solid in no time!
Muscle Building Foods 1
Beef is an all time favorite in a body builders diet. Roughly, 100 grams of beef contains 30 grams of high quality protein. These proteins are high BV protein, which means that, if you consume 100 grams of steak, 30 grams of protein will be absorbed by the body and utilized for protein synthesis. The steak, which contains the highest protein, is the Silverside lean. This is a good choice of steak because it also contains very low fat, 5 grams of fat only. There are many ways you can cook beef. The best way to do it is to roast it because this way of cooking uses very little oil. For a quick meal you can also buy beef strips and stir fry it with vegetables, onions and chili using olive oil.
Muscle Building Foods 2
Famous body building food number two is the all time favorite, eggs! Eggs are such a power food for building muscles because it the eggs whites contain no fat and although the egg yolk is high in cholesterol, it provides Omega 3, which is good fats. Eggs are also a source of protein, which contains a complete amino acid profile. Eggs are very easy to get, dirt cheap and convenient to bring around. One egg contains 6 grams of protein, 3 grams in the yolk and 3 grams in the white. There are tons of ways to cook eggs. The best way to cook eggs for dieting is to cook in hard boil or half boil, then eat it with a bit of soy sauce, this is good method of cooking because it contains low fat. To kick out of the boredom, make scrambled eggs with olive oil and chili.
Muscle Building Foods 3
Another fantastic lean source of protein is poultry. Chicken and turkey is a very good source of protein, low in fat, cheap and easily attainable. Although some parts of the chicken are high in fat, like the thigh, it is ok to eat it if you take the skin. 100 grams of chicken can give you 30 grams of high quality protein. The good thing about poultry is that it taste really good in sandwiches, salads, roast as well as stir fried.
Muscle Building Foods 4
When your parents say, eat your fish, they are right. Fish is also a powerful muscle building food because it is low in fat, high in protein and high in omega 3. Although fish is slightly more expensive that the other sources, having fish twice a week is good enough. The fishes that are high in protein are lobster, haddock, mullet and saithe. If you want convenience, go for tuna fish. Tuna fish is also very high in protein; a can of tuna can easily supply you with 30 grams of protein. Tuna have become a more desirable choice because it can be use with sandwiches, salads and other dishes. Tuna comes in handy cans than be ripped open. Some even comes in airtight packet so that you can carry it around.
Muscle Building Foods 5
Do not forget about milk and soy! This stuff is good stuff. Although they may appear as liquid, they are a good source of protein and when taken with meat, they compliment the amino acids supplied by the meat. 100 grams of tofu made from soy contains 8 grams of protein. One glass of low fat milk contains roughly 8 grams of protein. You have to be careful not to over do the milk because milk does contain lots of fat. Choose the low fat or the pasteurized version.
There you go, five choices of muscle building foods to fill up your menu. Make sure you include protein in all your meals, spread them out evenly in a day. Try to shot for 2.0 to 2.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight for positive nitrogen balance. This will give you optimum results along with intense weight training.
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You get results from your workout when you rest, not when you are working out. During your workout, you are tearing your muscle in microscopic scale, and your muscles will recover and grow bigger when you feed them with muscle building foods like protein. You cannot get big muscles by just eating bread and beans. You need foods that contain complete amino acid profiles.
You have to include these power muscle building foods in all your meals. Consuming them bit by bit, spread throughout the day can increase the absorption rate of these foods in you body. Eating a large portion at once will not work because your body cannot absorb all the nutrients at once. Here are mini lists of muscle building foods that can help you build lean muscle that is rock solid in no time!
Muscle Building Foods 1
Beef is an all time favorite in a body builders diet. Roughly, 100 grams of beef contains 30 grams of high quality protein. These proteins are high BV protein, which means that, if you consume 100 grams of steak, 30 grams of protein will be absorbed by the body and utilized for protein synthesis. The steak, which contains the highest protein, is the Silverside lean. This is a good choice of steak because it also contains very low fat, 5 grams of fat only. There are many ways you can cook beef. The best way to do it is to roast it because this way of cooking uses very little oil. For a quick meal you can also buy beef strips and stir fry it with vegetables, onions and chili using olive oil.
Muscle Building Foods 2
Famous body building food number two is the all time favorite, eggs! Eggs are such a power food for building muscles because it the eggs whites contain no fat and although the egg yolk is high in cholesterol, it provides Omega 3, which is good fats. Eggs are also a source of protein, which contains a complete amino acid profile. Eggs are very easy to get, dirt cheap and convenient to bring around. One egg contains 6 grams of protein, 3 grams in the yolk and 3 grams in the white. There are tons of ways to cook eggs. The best way to cook eggs for dieting is to cook in hard boil or half boil, then eat it with a bit of soy sauce, this is good method of cooking because it contains low fat. To kick out of the boredom, make scrambled eggs with olive oil and chili.
Muscle Building Foods 3
Another fantastic lean source of protein is poultry. Chicken and turkey is a very good source of protein, low in fat, cheap and easily attainable. Although some parts of the chicken are high in fat, like the thigh, it is ok to eat it if you take the skin. 100 grams of chicken can give you 30 grams of high quality protein. The good thing about poultry is that it taste really good in sandwiches, salads, roast as well as stir fried.
Muscle Building Foods 4
When your parents say, eat your fish, they are right. Fish is also a powerful muscle building food because it is low in fat, high in protein and high in omega 3. Although fish is slightly more expensive that the other sources, having fish twice a week is good enough. The fishes that are high in protein are lobster, haddock, mullet and saithe. If you want convenience, go for tuna fish. Tuna fish is also very high in protein; a can of tuna can easily supply you with 30 grams of protein. Tuna have become a more desirable choice because it can be use with sandwiches, salads and other dishes. Tuna comes in handy cans than be ripped open. Some even comes in airtight packet so that you can carry it around.
Muscle Building Foods 5
Do not forget about milk and soy! This stuff is good stuff. Although they may appear as liquid, they are a good source of protein and when taken with meat, they compliment the amino acids supplied by the meat. 100 grams of tofu made from soy contains 8 grams of protein. One glass of low fat milk contains roughly 8 grams of protein. You have to be careful not to over do the milk because milk does contain lots of fat. Choose the low fat or the pasteurized version.
There you go, five choices of muscle building foods to fill up your menu. Make sure you include protein in all your meals, spread them out evenly in a day. Try to shot for 2.0 to 2.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight for positive nitrogen balance. This will give you optimum results along with intense weight training.
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