Second Day Soreness

This came up as a great question in the comment section and I wanted to re-post about it in case you missed it.  Feeling stiff and/or sore after a workout is quite common, especially when you are just starting out.  You mostly notice this soreness the next day or even worse, two days later.  There is usually one of two reactions that occurs when this soreness kicks in:

1. "I love this feeling!!  Feels like I've been hit by a bus but I love it!  Man, I know I had a great workout!"
OR
2. "What the heck happened?!?  I injured something!  I am never going to workout again!! What's wrong with my body??"

Why this soreness occurs
The scientific term for the soreness is DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness).  The intensity of the soreness increases in intensity over 24 hours post workout, peaking at 24-72 hours post workout (why you often feel the worst two days later) and then gradually subsides over 5 to 7 days.  During this time your muscles may feel sore to move and possibly even to touch.  You will feel as though you have a significantly reduced range of motion through the joint.  As for why it occurs, there are a few suggested reasons:

1. 
   
   minute tears in the muscle tissue,
   
   
   
2. 
   
   fluid buildup in surrounding tissues,
   
   
   
3. 
   
   muscle spasm, and/or
   
   
   
4. 
   
   overstretching and possible tearing of connective tissue.
   
   
   

The first possible cause seems to be the most widely accepted.  As we work out or participate in new activities that our body has not done for a while, we create tiny tears in the muscle which cause an inflammatory response.  It is this response that causes the stiffness and discomfort.

Reducing the pain and/or stiffness
While you may not be able to completely avoid the soreness there are some steps you can take after your next workout to hopefully reduce your discomfort.

1. Avoid heat or hot tubs immediately after your workout. The heat actually brings more inflammation to the area. You'll feel much better if when having your post-workout shower turn the water as cold as you can stand it and let it run over your legs (or body parts that you worked that day). The cold will actually reduce inflammation and hopefully decrease the soreness.
2. Stretch! While the research is torn on whether or not this actually helps with soreness, you may as well try it and see. It certainly won't hurt you :)
3. Force yourself to do the cardio the following day and the next too! As sore as you feel when you first start moving the best thing you can do is move and get the blood following to clean up the inflammation. I promise you that as much as the first 5 to 10 minutes may be uncomfortable, it will get better and you will feel much less stiff after. The more you sit, the stiffer and stiffer you will become.

I'm not feeling sore anymore...
If you are one of those people who LOVES the soreness post-workout, you will be disappointed to learn that every workout will not and should not make you sore the next few days.  DOMS is not an indication of how good of a workout you had.  I cannot stress this enough... DOMS is NOT and indication of your workout intensity!  As your body becomes use to working out and participating in the activities, the soreness will diminish or completely go away. 

You need to gauge your workout intensity DURING your workout.  If you are not giving 100% or you leave feeling like you could have done a lot more, chances are you need to increase your intensity.  But if you left feeling like you gave what you could to the workout or activity, you intensity was perfect.  It is certainly not our goal to make you feel like you've been hit by a bus for a week after seeing us!

Questions or comments, we would love to hear them!

In Health,
Jessica & Tristan Zapata

What You CAN Do - Part V

This is it, the final two steps for putting your weight loss plan all together.  You have had almost a month now to implement the previous 8 steps, how are you doing?  What do you find easy?  What do you struggle with?  Not everyone's struggles will be the same but just know that you can do it, one step at a time.  The last two steps bring everything it all together.

9. Creating A Plan
The old saying is true... "if you fail to plan, you plan to fail"!  You can have every intention to do the right thing but without making an actual plan it's easy to fall off the wagon.  Your plan needs to include prepping your food for the week or at least a few days and your workouts.  Whether it's signing up for classes, going to a training session, meeting a friend for a workout, etc.  Plan out your entire week and schedule when you are going to fit in your workouts and when you are going to fuel your body. 

Plan out what your meals are going to look like for the week.  What you are going to have for dinner each night and as well breakfast, lunches and snacks.  Grocery shop for the week and prep food by cutting up veggies and fruit, cooking lean meat and making a large pot of rice.

True, this may sound like a lot of work.  But truth be told, it should take less than a couple hours and it will make the rest of your week run much more smoothly!  We understand that sometimes life happens but if you have a plan in place you are much less likely to derail from it.  Try it out and see what happens...

10. Don't Beat Yourself Up!
As we just stated, life happens!  Sometimes even the best laid plans just don't happen that day.  The most important thing to remember is this does not mean to abandon everything!  Indulged too much on beverages and snacks one night?  Get right back on track the next morning.  Miss your workout, try and sneak in some activity that day (even if it's ten minutes, it's better than nothing).  Stressed out?  Do something for YOU (a hot bath, meditation, workout, etc). 

The point is, breaking one of the steps, even all the steps doesn't mean that all is lost.  We are our own worst critic and more often than not our own biggest obstacle!  It's time to push all those negative thoughts aside.  If you are honesty doing the best that you can at that moment, then give yourself a break.  Find happiness in your life and everything else will fall into place.  Go to sleep every night knowing that you did your best that day, maybe it wasn't perfect, but it was something.  And something is always better than nothing...

Time to put it all together now and start seeing the changes you are looking for.

Questions or comments, we would love to hear them!

In Health,
Jessica & Tristan Zapata

What You CAN Do - Part IV

Considering this blog has taken me a lot longer to write than I anticipated, you should have had a lot of time to put the first 6 steps into action.  How have you been doing?  Remember nothing worth doing is easy but the payoff is BIG.  Take small steps and see huge changes.

Now it's time to talk about how you should be monitoring these changes and why keeping a log could make a big difference!

7. Weigh Yourself Regularly
You've probably heard a lot of conflicting information on this one, everything from "Throw the scale away" to "Weigh yourself daily".  So which is it?  Recent research out of the University of Minnesota compared those who weighed themself daily to those whoe weighted themself weekly to those that didn't weight themself at all.  Daily weighers lost an average of 12 pounds, while weekly weighers lost an average of 6 pounds and non-weighers lost an average of 4 pounds.  Those that weighed themself daily lost double the weight of weekly weighers and triple the weight of non-weighers!!  The results speak for themself.

Why is this?  It appears to be easier for most people to make small corrections in their lifestyle and behaviours when their weight is not going in the direction they had hoped.  It gives us immediate feedback and gratification. 

Is daily weighing for everyone?  Absolutely NOT!  Daily weighing can be encouraging when seeing success but can be discouraging for those reaching a plateau or not getting the results they were hoping for.  Weekly/regular weigh-ins should be sufficient for most people.  Excessive weight gain is virtually impossible within a one week period, therefore if you weigh yourself on a weekly basis you should still be able to make changes if needed. 

8. Log Your Actions
Another thing that research has shown is that keeping a food and activity log helps with weight loss.  It really works on one simple premise... your awareness for what you are eating and doing becomes heightened.  A lot of our snacking is done on the go or while we are preoccupied with other things.  When you have to actually account for what you are putting in your mouth, you may choose to not actually eat it.  Or have a much smaller portion. 

Even better, let someone see the log.  Your trainer, a friend, your spouse, someone who knows what your goals are and is willing to be supportive. 

Your food log should contain the time of day you are eating, where you are and who you are with (ie. driving in your car by yourself; at home at the table with family, etc.), your mood (happy, tired, stressed, bored, etc.), what you are eating and how it is cooked and the amount (actual or guesstimate).  It should also contain everything you put in your mouth, including liquids. 

After a couple days start to look for trends and make changes.  Maybe you notice that you aren't eating enough vegetables, start adding them in.  Or maybe you notice that you always eat when bored after the kids are in bed or while studying for an exam.  The point is by logging you are able to tweak your diet and start to really see some weight loss changes.

Next up the importance of planning ahead and tips for stopping the negative self talk!

Questions or comments, we would love to hear them!

In Health,
Jessica & Tristan Zapata

What You CAN Do - Part III

Three of the first four tips were about what you needed to do more of - move more, sleep more and eat more often!  Now it's time to talk about what you need to do less of to be successful in transforming your body shape.

5. Reduce / Eliminate Alcohol Consumption
Sorry... I know you didn't want to hear it, but it's true!  If you are really truly serious about transforming your body and changing your shape the alcohol has to go.  I know you are already thinking... "Wait just one minute, alcohol in moderation is good for me! It's all over the news, it's full of antioxidents, heart healthy and brain healthy compounds!"  Ok, yes, there has been some research stating that as much as one to two drinks daily can be beneficial for your health.  However, none of these studies have been saying that alcohol, even in moderation, is good for you waistline.  And truth be told, it's not!

Why? Not only are most alcoholic drinks filled with empty calories and full of sugar but if alcohol is in your system, your body has no choice but to breakdown the alcohol first and foremost for energy and store all the rest.  What does that mean exactly?  If you drink a Jack and coke, the calories coming from alcohol (7 kcal per 1 g of alcohol), must be converted to useable energy and used before any of the calories coming from carbohydrates also found in that drink can be used.  Our body then stores the unused calories until later, and if we don't use them later, you guessed it, they go right into our fat stores!

When you decide that losing weight or reshaping your body is your number one focus, alcohol, for the most part, has to go!

6. Watch Your Portions
Venti, Supersize, Large, Grande... whatever you want to call it, our portions have gotten dramatically larger.  Restaurants are giving us larger servings, beverage containers have grown and even cookbook recipies claim to make less servings than the same recipie 20 years ago!  Even our plate sizes have increased dramatically (and not wanting to have an empty plate, we fill 'er up).  As you can imagine as we increase our potion sizes, we increase our caloric intake.  Just that alone can lead to weight gain but combine that with a sedentary lifestyle and the effect can be catastrophic!

Watching your portion size is something that you have to be very conscious of as the new supersized environment is all around us.  When going to a restaurant, ask for only a half order or have the waiter only bring half of it out and the remaining packed up in a doggy bag to go.  When given a choice of sizes order the smallest, chances are it will satisfy you, if not, you can always order more.  Repackage food when you get home from the grocery store. Buy small ziploc bags and place proper portions of snacks in them.  This not only makes it easy to grab and go but also limits the overindulging that can occur with the entire package.  Buy smaller plates to eat off of.  Your plates will look just as full and research shows this will trick your mind into thinking it has eaten enough. 

Be aware of not only what is going into your mouth but how much of it is.  You would be shocked by how big of an impact watching your portion size will have.  Just by making this change alone, you will lose weight guaranteed!

Coming up next, tips on monitoring your progress and the importance of keeping a log.

Questions or comments, we would love to hear them!

In Health,
Jessica & Tristan