The Health and Fitness Thread

[Richie Freebird]

Thanks Neil, Lamby and Ghostface. I think I'll go for a walk tonight then, and have a long bath (which I enjoy doing anyway, and did straight after training last night). I went on a half hour stroll at dinner time today and have been lugging semi heavy bits of kit around at work all day too, so I've been keeping somewhat active throughout the day.

 

It was kind of an abrupt ending to the training last night. With it being winter the team are currently doing circuit training and indoor football until it gets a bit lighter and the unlit pitch is trainable at night times. We played our game for around 50 minutes, at which point the manager declared "right lads, that's it for tonight". There was another team outside waiting to use the facility, so our lot just jumped in the cars and off we went. I'll focus more on a warm down at home next week.

 

My sister kindly provided me with a creatine drink when I was moaning about my legs later on last night. My friend also advised me to eat a steak for tea after training, so hopefully both of those factors contributed to lessening the stiffness / pain. As you can probably tell from my posts in here I'm still very much a novice at this fitness game. All advice is greatly appreciated guys, thank you.

[lambyUK]

This won't sound pleasant either, but I went through a spell of getting a cold bath after strenuous exercise too. It actually really helped for a while but as soon as the winter kicked in the thought of it became too much to go through with it. With my current injuries I think I may give it another go.

[Ghostface1982]

You can get specific pre and post workout shakes that supposedly help too. I eat a fair bit of protein anyway so I never bother but I know people who swear by them.

 

This won't sound pleasant either, but I went through a spell of getting a cold bath after strenuous exercise too. It actually really helped for a while but as soon as the winter kicked in the thought of it became too much to go through with it. With my current injuries I think I may give it another go.

I had a blast at an ice bath before. Wasn't pleasant. Edited January 16, 2014 by Ghostface1982

[Richie Freebird]

Crikey, that's an eye opener. I would have thought a cold bath would have had the complete opposite to the desired effect. I thought it would have just increased the tightness and promoted all kinds of cramp. I always thought the ice bath thing was more for "mind over matter" type training, to get you used to overcoming all kinds of different physical challenges through mental will power. I had no idea something like that would benefit muscle recovery.

 

Thanks again gents!

[neil]

I read something today that cold baths do nothing for muscle soreness after working out.

 

To be honest, I don't think you'll be able to avoid it. Warming down to me seems to be more about injury prevention. You're muscles will be sore because you've pushed them in a way they haven't been used before, so they have microtears and are now adapting, growing, and that's what hurts. If you do any activity you'll notice the first time you do it you'll be sore, if you keep on doing it you won't be. This is why when you are on a weightlifting program you increase the weight/reps/etc in order to stimulate that continued growth.

[Van Dammer]

To be honest, theres as much info that says ice baths and such are just as bad for you and actually damage your muscles long term as there is info that supports the idea that they are of benefit to you.

[lambyUK]

Personally I didn't do ice baths, but rather cold baths/cold showers. I would often get a warm bath eventually working my way down to cold.

 

I found them to work brilliantly. It seems a common staple amongst professional athletes too.

Edited January 16, 2014 by lambyUK

[Van Dammer]

It was very common yeah, I know quite a few football clubs have dropped them recently though after a few studies on the dangers of them and potential long term damage. The short term benefits are not in doubt though.

[Jonathan Ford]

I have nothing to add about ice baths, other than saying that there's no way on God's Earth that I'd get in one, but I can't speak highly enough of a warm down. Even on leg day, 5 gentle minutes on the cross trainer at the end of the session makes me feel a world better the next day - I can really tell if I skip it.

[lambyUK]

I personally don't know the science behind it, except that it helped me for a while. I'm only really talking about once a week and cold showers actually were quite refreshing during the summer. However, as Jon mentions above, the warm down and in fact warm up are the more important aspects.

[Richie Freebird]

Richie- your legs are going to be more sore tomorrow FYI

Spot on with this one Neil. I feel like a rusty old gate today.

 

What seems to be effected even more today though, is my stomach. We did about 50 sit ups as part of the circuit exercises on Tuesday, and I had no aches or tension at all in my stomach yesterday. I thought thar I'd simply got away with it without any aches, but today it's really quite tender!

[Scott Malbranque]

I'm on a 10x10 program the last two weeks and it absolutely kicks the bollox clean out of me.

Thought I was going to actually going to vomit this morning on the 8th set of deadlifts.

[Dil|kid]

To keep muscle stiffness/soreness to minimum you must warm down and stretch, invest in a protein shake with added BCAAs and I swear by zinc and magnesium tabs before bedtime too.

 

Zinc and magnesium, for me, is the greatest supp, and I sleep like a baby when taking them, again key for recovery.

[Rey_Piste]

Over the past couple of weeks with getting back on my diet and going to the gym regularly, I've lost about 9 pounds putting me closer to what I was before Christmas. I'm also planning on having a go at making these on Saturday. http://thefitnessrecipes.com/chocolate-pro...ut-butter-cups/

[lambyUK]

To keep muscle stiffness/soreness to minimum you must warm down and stretch, invest in a protein shake with added BCAAs and I swear by zinc and magnesium tabs before bedtime too.

 

Zinc and magnesium, for me, is the greatest supp, and I sleep like a baby when taking them, again key for recovery.

 

The problem with these protein shakes is that they are disgracefully priced and most of them contain sweeteners that can be really bad for you. Whilst it's time consuming I'd much rather try and get my protein directly from food.

 

I've been experimenting lately with eating a good chunk of protein after the gym (I go normally 2 times a week on top of football twice a week) and I have to say I've felt considerably better the following day.

 

I did a decent work out Monday night, came home and had admittedly a bizarre combination of Scrambled Eggs with wholemeal toast alongside a full tin of tuna steak with light mayo added to it.

 

Looking at these protein shakes you get about 40g or so of protein per shake. With a tin of tuna steak for example it can contain in a standard 150g (drained) tin 30g of protein alone. On top of three eggs and say a glass of milk, it's a decent amount of protein to add in natural inexpensive way.

Edited January 23, 2014 by lambyUK