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Fitness Team Q & A

Q) Should I continue to exercise whilst social distancing or self-isolating?

Answered by Elisa Davies

A) Yes, yes, yes!

The simple answer is yes but for one very important reason… mental health! Being away from our normal routine, work, friends, family and especially the gym is an experience that none of us have ever gone through before so we need to make sure we look after ourselves in this uncertain time and one way we can do that is to exercise.

There are many ways to keep exercising. It could be going out for one daily walk, run or cycle. Perhaps you prefer to make up your own home workouts to do in your front room or garden or you might even be using some free workouts online such as Joe Wicks, Oti Mabuse or even Les Mills on Demand.

Whatever it is keep active and keep exercising because you’ll notice a big change in your mood if you do!

You can find more useful resources on our website - https://www.sport.cam.ac.uk/news/staying-healthy-home

 

Q) I’m looking at investing in a piece of home gym equipment, I want it to target my whole body, I only have limited space; what should I get?

Answered by Lewis Wilson

If you only have a limited space and you want to target your whole body, I would recommend kettlebells, you can do so much with these. The opportunities are endless, you can use them to target every area, and because there are so many variations of exercises you can do with these, you won’t get bored! It also depends on how much money you are willing to invest, kettlebells are a midrange priced product, however if you wanted something cheaper than these, why not try a resistance band? A resistance band will give you extra resistance to your body weight exercises as well as being able to use these to help gain mobility and flexibility. Alternatively, you could get adjustable dumbbells, they require limited space just like the other equipment mentioned and are easier to manoeuvre for some exercises; these however are more expensive.

So, if you are looking for something small and compact, that you can do hundreds of exercises with, and want something not too expensive to start, personally I would recommend kettlebells. 

 

Q) How do I get a six pack?

Answered by Lewis Jones

Training your abdominal muscles doesn’t get you a six pack. If you can’t see your abdominal muscles at the moment then it doesn’t mean they aren’t there, the muscles are just hidden behind our body fat and in order to see them, we need to reduce the amount of body fat that we’re holding onto. Now, this is easier said than done as there are lots of opinions and much confusion on the subject, which ends up over complicating the whole process.

To get lean and reduce body fat, then we need to look at how many calories we take in and how many calories we burn. This is known as our energy balance and within this there are three outcomes.

Weight Gain

This is when we consume more calories than our bodies’ burn.

Maintenance

This is when we neither gain nor lose weight, our energy balance is evenly matched from both sides.

Weight Loss

This is when we burn more calories than we consume.

Therefore, if your goal is to lose weight so you can see you abs, focus on nutrition to see how many calories you’re consuming, this will allow you to see whether you’re eating appropriately for your goal.

A good app/website to use to track your daily food intake is www.myfitnesspal.com. The other side of this is if you are not very active, look to increase your exercise intensity/frequency and start to follow a programme where you’re progressing week on week.

 

Q) Should I do weights or cardio first?

Answered by Louis McCrae

A) This would totally depend on the goal. For instance, if you are a runner I would advise running whilst you are fresh at the start of a session, because weight training before will impede your performance. However if your goal is to gain strength and size, I would strongly recommend lifting first because ideally you want to lift the most weight possible for your given sets and reps, in order to get the desired adaptation. Any cardio beforehand will likely fatigue your muscles, and thus make it harder to achieve this goal.

 

Q) Do I have to do barbell squats to build strength and size in my legs?

Answered by Louis McCrae

A) Although barbell squats are an awesome exercise to increase leg size and strength, they are not essential. Choose an exercise you feel comfortable with first, which allows you to lift a substantial load, in order to recruit a large amount of muscle fibres and thus put the muscle under considerable tension. To build size around the thighs and lower legs, you will need a quad dominant exercise, then a hamstring and calf focused exercise. So if for example squats aren’t working for you, try a leg press. Then for hamstrings, either some form of hip hinging or hamstring curl exercise. Lastly to develop the calves, choose some form of heel raise exercise. Try 3 sets of 6-10 reps for each exercise, and perform this session 2-3 times a week. 

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