September is Heart Awareness Month

LOVE YOUR HEART THIS SEPTEMBER AND WIN WITH HEARTCHOICE OPTIMAL
The most important muscle in your body is actually the one you can’t see – your heart.  A healthy heart is essential for a healthy life.
The heart muscle uses more energy than any other organ in our bodies. CoQ10, an antioxidant found naturally in the body, is vital for optimal cardiovascular health and energy production, especially for people who lead active lifestyles. Simply explained, CoQ10 acts like a spark plug in the energy producing cells of the body.
Supplementing with 150mg CoQ10 has been shown to support and maintain healthy heart muscle function, healthy cholesterol levels, circulatory health, stamina and endurance.
HeartChoice Energiser (R172.95) and HeartChoice Optimal (R135.95) are available at selected pharmacies and retail outlets.

5 lucky readers stand the chance of winning a HeartChoice product hamper worth R300 each. Simply email info@fitnessmag.co.za with the answer to this question: What is one of the benefits of supplementing with CoQ10?

So get onto improving your heart, cholesterol and circulatory health as well as sustaining your energy and love your heart this September during Heart Awareness Month!

PRODUCT INFORMATION:
HeartChoice Optimal for Improved Heart Health
A healthy heart is essential for a healthy life. A deficiency of the vital compound, CoQ10 may lead to muscle cramps, weakness and fatigue. Unfortunately, the body’s ability to produce CoQ10 declines with age. Chronic disease, strenuous exercise and taking various medications like cholesterol lowering medication and hormone replacement therapy could also lower our CoQ10 levels.

New HeartChoice Optimal
HeartChoice Optimal is a unique combination of 150mg CoQ10, as well as Magnesium for regulating heart and muscle contraction and Resveratrol (the good stuff in red wine) known for its cholesterol lowering properties.
HeartChoice Optimal is available at selected pharmacies and retail outlets.

HeartChoice Energiser with CoQ10 for Active Lifestyles
CoQ10 is vital for optimal cardiovascular health and energy production, especially for people who lead active lifestyles. Simply explained, CoQ10 acts like a spark plug in the energy producing cells of the body.
Without adequate CoQ10, energy production declines and your cells can’t function properly. This can affect many different parts of your body, but particularly the organs that work the hardest, such as your heart, muscles, liver, kidneys and brain. Logically, individuals that use a large amount of energy by exercising will need more CoQ10 in order to produce that energy. CoQ10 also supports the body’s post-exercise recovery and helps protect against the free radical activity sometimes generated by aerobic exercise.

New HeartChoice Energiser
HeartChoice Energiser is now available and provides a unique combination of 150mg CoQ10 and 150 mg alpha lipoic acid, assisting with stamina, endurance and post-exercise recovery. HeartChoice Energiser helps give you optimal energy and supports cardiovascular health, so you can keep up your active lifestyle.
HeartChoice Energiser is available at selected pharmacies and retail outlets.

Information and prizes supplied by Sanofi Aventis
Visit: www.pharmachoice.co.za/coq10facts for more information

................................................................................

Fitness magazine Women’s Day competition

Win this Women’s Day with Fitness mag & Trichotin Hair Regenesis

The 9th August is National Women’s Day in South Africa. This public holiday commemorates the national march of women on this date in 1956. They were marching to petition against legislation that required Africans to carry the “pass”, the special identification documents that restricted an African’s freedom of movement during the apartheid era.

To celebrate the women of this country Fitness magazine and Trichotin Hair Regenesis are giving away R2,000 worth of hair improvement products. Luxurious hair is a reflection of a healthy and vibrant body. Like the rest of your body, your hair needs quality nutrients to revitalise and maintain it in peak condition. Trichotin Hair Regenesis, with anti-ageing properties, has been specifically formulated to supply the essential nutrients required for healthier hair and skin, while promoting overall well-being. Trichotin’s high-tech absorption and delivery system stimulates blood flow and oxygen delivery to the skin and scalp via increased capillary perfusion – thus amplifying delivery and increased availability of essential nutrients and vital oxygen. This process results in regeneration of damaged hair follicles and skin cells.

Benefits include:
● Reduces hair loss
● Stimulates stronger, healthier hair growth
● Improves skin clarity

To win simply email your name, contact number, delivery address and answer to the compeition question to info@fitnessmag.co.za.
Q: List one benefit of Trichotin Hair Regenesis?

Entries close on Friday 13 August 2010.
Winners will be notified via email.

For more information and a list of stockists visit www.trichotin.com.

................................................................................

Diet is Not Working

I have failed in losing weight. I’ve literally tried it all, just not for long. I have always tried a new routine for seven to eight weeks, but don’t see the results that I want. Recently I saw an article on the internet that says that you can lose weight by eating once a day, and I want to try it. Apparently it has worked for many people. Do you think I should be looking at all the past failures I have put myself through? How do I make sure I follow something that works for me?
Ookeditse via web

The Pro’s Respond

Hi Ookeditse,

To be successful at something often means that you will ‘fail’ until you find a winning formula. So don’t view your past ‘failures’ in a negative light as they were a necessary part of your future success!
To get into shape requires that you take an holistic approach that encompasses exercise, nutrition and motivation. They all play a role in achieving your goals. Following a sensible, well thought out nutrition plan will have far greater and lasting health benefits than a ‘quick fix’ one meal a day diet plan.
You will find all the motivation and advice you need in the pages of Fitness, where some of South Africa’s leading nutrition and fitness experts share their knowledge. Who better to learn from than those who practice what they preach? You will also find some useful tips by reading the questions and answers from previous issues of Fitness.

................................................................................

Love handles and menopause

How do I get rid of the cellulite and love handles around the stomach? I’m 47 years old and I’m going through menopause. Can this be the cause of it, can it be hormonal? I have always had a flat tummy, up until two years ago. What are the best exercises to get rid of this unwanted bulge?
Marisa via web

The Pro’s Respond

Hi Marisa,

Let me start out by stating three absolute facts:
1. Cellulite is no more than the physical manifestation of surplus body fat
2. Energy is neither created nor destroyed, but merely transformed from one form to another
3. Body fat is stored surplus energy

With the aforementioned in mind you will understand then that any excess body fat (cellulite in appearance or not) is created from an over consumption of calories (food energy). It’s as simple as that, whether we like it or not! If you have excess body fat then you have eaten excess calories through your diet. Basically our bodies have a daily energy requirement to sustain life. This we call our basal metabolic rate. Each of us has a different basal metabolic requirement dependent on genetic factors, level of muscle mass, age, activity levels, hormone levels, gender etc.
When we consume more calories (energy) than we each require our body has no option but to convert this excess energy into body fat (remembering that energy is neither created nor destroyed). Despite the fact that some of us are more fortunate, metabolism wise than others (perhaps due to age, hormonal levels etc. being in our favour), the long and short of it is that we will only store excess body fat if we are eating in excess of own body’s caloric requirements.
To get rid of this excess body fat, which you currently exhibit around your waist as “love handles” and stomach fat, requires that you eat fewer calories than your body requires, or burn more than you consume through physical activity to create a calorie deficit. Your body then has no choice but to tap into its stored energy reserves (body fat) as a means to fulfil its daily energy requirements.
Spot reduction, as in trying to target a specific area such as your stomach with specific exercises is not going to work in reducing body fat stores. Just like you can’t dictate to your car to draw fuel from the top left hand quarter of its petrol tank, you can’t force your body to preferentially tap into body fat stores in certain areas. Creating a calorie deficit through dieting and/or increasing energy expenditure through exercise will, over time result in body fat reduction throughout the entire body. This will (when overall body fat levels are eventually low enough) include those troublesome area we all have.
That is not to say you shouldn’t worry about training abs. Two or three sets each of crunches and leg raises twice a week should be sufficient to develop your muscles. The rest of your time in the gym should be spent combining cardio with basic compound movements targeting the major muscle groups (e.g. squats and leg press for legs, rows and pull downs for back, barbell and dumbbell pressing for chest and shoulders). These kinds of exercises will consume the most energy and have the most significant impact on your metabolism, as well as provide the stimulus required to develop and enhance muscle tone.
Train with passion

................................................................................

Too many Supplements?

Is it possible to take too many supplements? If one is taking a multi-vitamin, a calcium tablet, a chromium tablet, fat burners, CLA and a Venavine tablet daily is that considered too much? Will this one day affect my liver or stomach lining negatively? I keep reading about the benefits of all of the above, but am slightly concerned that it will cause damage later in life. What are your views?
Judy via web

The Pro’s Respond

ulti-vitamin, a calcium tablet, a chromium tablet, fat burners, CLA
Hi Judy,

Thanks for your question. I am sure this is something many supplement consumers often ponder over. I think the real concern should be taking too much of one supplement or particular ingredient rather than too many supplements in general. In other words, as long as you are not over dosing on one particular ingredient (e.g. vitamin A or D), then you can basically take as many different supplements as you want without compromising your health. In fact, provided your daily supplement regimen is well thought out and planned, then each additional supplement you take should provide an additional health or performance benefit.
When you eat a healthy, well balanced, mixed whole-food diet you are consuming literally hundreds of different nutrients. These different nutrients work synergistically to enhance health and build a healthy body, not stress the digestive tract or liver. The same therefore applies to a supplement plan. Each individual supplement should work to enhance body and health in some way and not stress your system.
Personally I supplement daily with a multi-vitamin, vitamin C and E, Chromium Picolinate, ZMA, EFAs, Glutamine, Creatine, BCAAs, protein powders, Glucosamine, MSM, Chondroitin… and the list goes on. As one of the most health conscious people you’ll ever meet, I can thus assure you that your supplement regimen provides little concern of “over-supplementation”.
I hope that re-assures you.

................................................................................

Supplementing and Breastfeeding

I have a four month old baby. I’m currently breastfeeding and plan continue to breastfeed him up to the age of one. I have started to train again, three days of resistance training and three days of cardio per week. What is safe and what should I avoid with regards to supplements. I would imagine a pure whey protein is okay, and to stay away from the fat burners and appetite suppressants etc?
Jo via web

The Pro’s Respond

Hi Jo,

Congratulations on the birth of your baby. I’m glad to see that you are already back in the gym. With that level of commitment it won’t be long before your body is back to its pre-pregnancy best!
As for supplementation, while breastfeeding, generally speaking you should have no problem with pure protein powders (e.g. whey protein), as well as MRPs (meal replacement powders). These products are typically formulated with whole food ingredients (e.g. dairy proteins, naturally derived carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals etc), all of which you would consume in your typical daily diet anyway.
In addition to pure protein powders and MRPs, you should have no problem with CLA, amino acids (e.g. BCAAs and glutamine powder), creatine, EFAs, vitamins (e.g. multi-vitamins, vitamin C, vitamin E etc) and minerals (e.g. zinc, magnesium, iron etc).
In fact, supplementing with essential fatty acids and an appropriate multi-vitamin should prove beneficial to both you and your baby.
You are quite correct; the supplements that you should ideally steer clear of are those that are stimulant based. These are generally your thermogenic fat burners and appetite suppressants.
Other than those, the only other kind of product or “supplement” that I can think of to steer clear of are those that are marketed to impact on your natural hormonal system (e.g. oestrogen blockers, testosterone boosters, thyroid enhancers etc).

As a final word of advice, if you are ever unsure of a certain product you’d be well advised to give the manufacturer a call and ask to speak to their technical manager. He/she should be in a position to provide any reassurance that you might need.

................................................................................

How may reps?

Hi Nicole! I love your new workout poster! It’s so simple to read and understand! I’m 23 and I’ve never been much of an athlete. I started going to the gym late last year to try and work off approximately 15 kg’s that I gained due to an under-active thyroid, which I was diagnosed with a couple of years ago. Is the “Body Blast Workout” on your first poster alone enough to do about three times a week along with cardio workouts in order to help me get toned and lose weight? I also wanted to know if about 3 sets of 12 – 15 reps sufficient of each each exercise?
Thanks again for the great workouts and an excellent column!

Nicole Answers

Thank you very much for your message!
Yes, this poster as well as a good cardio program and healthy eating plan will help you achieve your results. As you may have noticed, this poster is a full body workout. We have incorporated 1 exercise per body part. The exercises have been selected so that you may perform them either in the comfort of your home or at the gym. I’d suggest doing this program for approximately a month or so. As you progress and feel that the exercises are getting easier, you may want to change it up a little. You may want to try super-setting i.e. take the first two exercises and perform them one after the other with very little or no rest in between. In this case you would perform 1 set of 12 – 15 ball crunches and straight away perform 1 set of 12 – 15 chest press and then rest. Once you have completed 3 sets, move onto the next 2 exercises and continue down the poster. As you feel yourself getting comfortable with the exercises, you may want to slowly start adding new exercises or changing some of them. In order to achieve results, you need to continuously change your exercises and “shock” your body.
Performing 3 sets of 12 – 15 reps of each exercise is perfect.
Please remember, training is only a part of loosing weight, you need to ensure that you make as many healthy food choices as possible……
All the best and most importantly, ENJOY!

................................................................................

Personera Fitness Calendar

Fitness mag has launched a calendar!

The perfect addition to your Fitness lifestyle is the new, exclusive Fitness magazine themed calendar series. Created in conjunction with Personera, you can personalise your calendar and include all your important dates and pictures – downloaded from Facebook, with a few simple clicks of a button. Have all your favourite training and nutrition tips, various exercises and numerous motivational tips, with all your personal important dates and pics printed on a stunning pin up calendar. You choose what you want in it! Get it for R200 from www.personera.com.

How to order your personalised Fitness calendar:
1. Go to www.personera.com, and click “Get Started”.
2. Use your Facebook details to sign in.
3. From the dashboard, click on “Start New Project”.
4. Select the “Fitness Magazine” theme from the theme browser.
5. Select which month you want the 12-month calendar to start on and then click “Next”.
6. Choose which birthdays to add to the calendar (default is “all”), and add any custom events too. Click “Next”.
7. The calendar has a personalised photos page in the middle of it, so you can drag and drop your Facebook pics onto each spread, or try the “Autofill” option. Once complete proceed to “Preview”.
8. At the Preview page, you can view a preview of the first month of your calendar, subscribe to a monthly download that will be sent to your email, and pay for the professional version.
9. Click on “Order” to proceed to the order page where you can view your shopping cart and claim a discount voucher if you have one.
10. You can choose to pay via Credit Card or EFT. Clicking confirm will capture the order and generate a confirmation number.

................................................................................

Should girls lift heavy or light?

Hi Nicole, Firstly, I think you are a great inspiration for so many woman out there. As a goal, I have your magazine cut out against my wall at work right next to Ava Cowan. I am about to start my life-changing lifestyle. I eat 100% correctly, but it’s the training I’m not so sure of. I do one day cardio, the next day, weight training… now my question is: do I do heavy lifts or do I lift light? I’ve heard so many explanations in this regard. Currently I’m 1.6m and weigh 95kg. Everyone tells me I must not do heavy weights at all, because I will bulk up too much and not lose weight. Please help.
 

Nicole Answers

Thank you for your kind words. I find it extremely rewarding to know that I play a role, be it ever so small, in motivating people to improve themselves and reach their goals.

I am often asked this question. While it’s great that more and more ladies are finding their way into the once male-dominated weight section in the gym, it’s frustrating that many of them are still not getting the most out of their training. It’s unfortunate that, to this day, so many women shy away from lifting heavy weights in the fear of developing large masculine looking bodies.

Lifting relatively heavy weights, IS the best way for a woman to reshape her body and look trim and fit. No other form of exercise offers as much benefit.

Women won’t become masculine if they train with heavy weights, for one simple reason – they don’t have the hormonal and genetic make up to put on the amount of muscle that men can. It is the male sex hormone (testosterone), that is responsible for this muscle hypertrophy (growth). In fact oestrogen, the female sex hormone, actually fights against testosterone, ensuring that women don’t end up looking like their male counterparts.

There are so many benefits to lifting heavy weights. The main reason is that using heavier weights places more stress on your muscle tissue. This, in turn, causes your body to burn more calories in the recovery process while repairing tissue. This is why heavy weight training is so great for fat loss.
The biggest mistake I have seen people make is when a lady wants to lose body fat… and lands up doing a “bodybuilding-type” workout. You need to ensure you train accordingly; keeping your goals in mind. I’d recommend keeping your heart rate elevated as much as possible (i.e. supersetting) and maintaining a fairly high rep range (12 – 16 reps), if you are worried about “bulking”.

Women who include weight training into their workout will increase their muscle tissue. This means that when you step on to the scale, you will note an increase in your overall “weight.” This is due to the fact that muscle tissue weighs more than fat. As you increase your muscle tissue, your “weight” may increase. (Muscle is “thermogenic” and this means that it will help burn fat.)
The increase in weight is due to an increase in muscle tissue, not fat! And an increase in muscle tissue means that you will have an increase in your resting metabolism, which ultimately means you will be burning more calories at rest.

Above everything else, nutrition plays the most important role when trying to achieve fitness-related goals. At the end of the day, your body’s progress will be determined by the dietary equation “ENERGY IN, MINUS ENERGY OUT!”

................................................................................

Successful training at home

Hi Nicole, firstly I want to say that I think you are amazing. You’re such an inspiration! I need your advice please. I have a lot of supplement products, but I don’t have any gym equipment at home and I would prefer to train from home. How can I make it work? Is it impossible to lose 20kg in 3 months, and can I use all of the products simultaneously? Thanks for the advice and inspiration!

Nicole Answers

Home gyms have a lot going for them! You need a minimal amount of equipment and space to start. The convenience factor of being able to train before work, after work, when your child is asleep, pretty much whenever it suits you, is wonderful. Plus you won’t be troubled by other gym members hogging the equipment at busy times, boring you with idle chit-chat or prancing and posing.

There are so many exercises you can do at home. You don’t need to go to the gym in order to train and get a good workout. Exercises such as push ups, squats, lunges, standing calf raises etc. don’t require any equipment. You can find things around the house if you require weights such as tins of food to packets of dog / cat biscuits if need be.
With the right attitude and plan, you can achieve you fitness goals, what ever they might be. Whether it’s shaping and toning, losing weight, gaining muscle or just improving your health – it’s all possible. It just takes time, persistence and dedication. Anything is achievable if you put your mind to it…
Make sure you have a designated working area such as a garage, bedroom, even in the garden etc. and ensure you have enough room to move freely. Try keep the area as neat as possible. You may want to hang a couple of posters and play some of your favourite music, as atmosphere is always important.
Humans by nature are creatures of habit. You need to stick to your outlined routine for at least 6 weeks with intensity and confidence. Only then will your body adapt and you will start seeing results. You need to give yourself 60 to 90 minutes three or four days a week to work out and most importantly set a regular time to work out. This regularity is essential in establishing a good “mindset” and helps create a good routine. Sticking to a routine from the very beginning will help keep you disciplined and develop good habits.
As with anything in life, by doing things correctly, you will achieve good results. If you go in half heartedly you will not achieve the results you are looking for and sooner or later, without a good foundation, your inspired endeavours will fade.
There is no fast way to build muscle, get strong and lose fat. It all boils down to hard work, good food and a lot of time and dedication. There are no secrets!
You need to be realistic in terms of your weight loss. 20 kgs in 3 months is way too much to ask. I always say that if you can lose 1 kg a week it is a safe and realistic goal.

In terms of supplements, you may use them in conjunction with one another. Please remember that supplements are there to “supplement” your diet. You need to ensure you are eating healthily in order to get the results you want and for the supplements to be effective.

I hope this information helps.

................................................................................

Next Page »