Blog - Health & Fitness

Have you ever felt sick during a workout? Some hardcore bodybuilders think that you haven’t trained hard enough if you don’t feel sick after a heavy leg day. Also some CrossFit junkies say it’s completely normal to leave your pre-workout meal on the pavement after an all-out session. Really??

Of course, a certain amount of fatigue is normal and expected when you train. However, training until you puke works against your ultimate goal and will be counterproductive. As you get fitter, your limits will expand. You have to see that fine line between safely pushing through a hard workout and pushing so hard you throw-up. While you should challenge yourself, you should never train so hard that you vomit. By losing valuable nutrients you would lose much of the benefits of an awesome workout if you go too far, and muscle recovery would be impaired.

Why does it happen? If it isn’t the huge meal that you had too close to training, then most often, it is caused by the brain doing everything it can to ensure it has enough blood sugar (glucose) during periods of intense exercise. Securing that fuel may mean that the brain signals the stomach to empty its content so that the digestive system doesn’t use any of the glucose the brain needs to keep vital systems functioning.

How to prevent it?

- Avoid eating a large meal 90 minutes before a workout. Some people may need 2 hours. It really depends on your digestion rate.

- Know your limits, and listen to your body. You have to become aware of your individual signs and symptoms that you might be headed for a trip to the bathroom. You may feel dizzy, need to sit down in the middle of a workout, sick to your stomach, or have a blurred vision. These are all symptoms of overexertion.

- Stay hydrated. Proper fluid intakes are a must before and during workouts. It depends on your weight and workout intensity, but for the average person 4L of water is a good amount to aim for. Your urine should always be a pale yellow, almost clear color. If it’s not, you need to drink more water.

- If you have a trainer, you should keep an open line of communication. No matter how good he or she knows you, they can’t feel what you are feeling. Let them know how you’re doing throughout your workout.

There’s a certain trend I have observed in the gym over the course of years. The biggest pitfall for most people may be sticking to the same workout routine long after it’s outlived its usefulness. For some it’s a lack of imagination that keeps them doing the same basics in the same order. For others, a kind of inertia takes over, so they robotically do the same exercises for the same reps with the same weights, giving their muscles no new stress to adapt to. If you’re making continuous progress on a routine, you can stick with it. If you’re not, change it now.

So what shall you do about it? Quite often the problem is a lack of knowledge. Learn more exercises, and find what works for you! Get some help from a professional to make sure your form is correct. You’ll be surprised by all the variations different exercises may have.

Try the different machines in your gym. Sometimes just subtle differences in things like the placement of pulleys and hinges can make a big difference in how two similar machines work your muscles.

It’s not just exercise selection you can alter. A good idea would be to push up the intensity by increasing the number of sets per exercise, working in different rep ranges, changing exercise order or the workout order of your training split. Plus all the intensity booster techniques you can use – supersets, drop sets, rest pause, negatives etc.

Also make sure you mix it up when it comes to cardio. Do some HIIT, skipping, boxing and martial arts, dance or just use all the different machines in your gym. Reading a magazine on the recumbent bike or staying on the treadmill for extended periods most likely won’t bring you the desired physique.

Have your workouts got a bit boring lately?  Struggling with reaching adequate intensity? No wonder you feel lethargic if you have stopped seeing progress. Fancy a bit of oomph in your workouts? Let’s cover a few ways you can use supersets to leap over training roadblocks.

Supersetting is certainly a very effective way to boost training intensity. Supersets are simply two sets of different exercises performed one after another without resting in between. Virtually anybody can benefit from such workout boosters, especially to shock complacent muscles. Also when weight loss and fat burning is the primary goal, supersets come very handy to push up your heart rate during the workout and increase your post-exercise oxygen consumption hence boosting your metabolism during your well-deserved rest time.

- Antagonistic

Follow an exercise for one muscle or muscle group with one for its antagonist e.g. narrow-grip bench press + barbell curl; incline dumbbell press + incline dumbbell row; leg curl + leg extension.

- Pre-exhaust

Isolation exercise directly before doing a compound exercise for the same bodypart e.g. incline dumbbell flye + incline barbell press; leg extension + leg press; rear lateral raise + face pull.

- Compound

There’s no reason you can’t superset basic compound lifts like squat, deadlift, bench press, military press, dips. Occasionally combining basic lifts is a brutal way of training, as it thoroughly taxes your energy reserves, but that’s precisely why it’s an effective method to push your workouts to the next level.

- Synergism

To focus on a specific goal, you can superset two bodyparts that may or may not be antagonistic. For example, you can emphasise your outer limbs by alternating a set of forearms with one for calves, or you can superset chest with triceps for a “pushing “ workout, or back and shoulders for a width workout.

-Extension

Also sometimes called post-exhaust. In this effective and convenient way to superset, you follow one exercise with another for the same bodypart. It even makes sense using the same weight, provided that you’re stronger in the second exercise.  For example, do a set of dumbbell flyes and, when you reach failure, start doing dumbbell bench presses, thus extending your initial set beyond its point of failure. Or you could add another exercise and turn it into a triset, as demonstrated here in one of my “Deadly Intensity” videos.

How much and how often you should use supersets in your training routine – this largely depends on your lifting experience and the goals you’re training for. Without adequate lifting experience excessive use of supersets may lead to overtraining, especially when nutritional requirements aren’t met. It’s all about gradual progression when moving towards your fitness goals.

The trends are changing.  Actually I think they have changed a long time ago but it’s just now that the mainstream media is finally starting to catch on it. Gone are the days when the likes of Kate Moss and Victoria Beckham were most women’s idols of physique and general appearance. It’s all about curves. They just have to be in the right places. If you look at some women with amazing bodies like Jennifer Nicole Lee, Kelly Rowland and Nicole Scherzinger, do you really think they got fit by spending all their time on treadmill or reading a newspaper on a recumbent bike? Think again.

So why is it then, that when you come to your regular health club, you see all the girls in the cardio area working at low intensity, or barely moving at all – like walking on the treadmill while holding on?? Some are on the mats going through the motions with 1-2 kg dumbbells, or on the resistance machines, but you barely see any in the free weights area. I’m not talking about everyone here, but the general population. All I see is low-intensity cardio and some basic core exercises. Not enough weights and resistance training. Could it be that girls think that they don’t need to work that hard to get results? Is it the perception that lifting weights is a “man thing”? Or maybe they are still traumatised by the images of hardcore female bodybuilders from the 80s and think that they are going to turn out like that?

Personally I think it’s just the natural fear of the unknown. We usually choose things that are familiar to us and we are guided by habits. Also it may be a bit of  a “sheep factor”. What ever are the reasons for not taking advantage of free weights and high-intensity cardio, the bottom line is that this kind of training will increase your metabolism due to excess post-exercise calorie consumption (also called afterburn) and increased muscle tone over time. That means you can enjoy more food and you’re still burning a significant amount of calories while enjoying a relaxed evening at home! How great is that?

More and more women are realising it, and this trend is not going anywhere. If you don’t have enough experience with weight training, all it takes is a bit of learning at first, consistency with the programme, and the results will follow shortly. However, you have to take action first. If you need help to get you started, I have personal training or distance coaching programmes available to suit your goals and schedule. Feel free to get in touch!

Committed to your success,

Ru “The Sculptor” Wikmann

A lot of guys who dream to get big and strong look at bodybuilders or fitness models in magazines and say to themselves: "I want to be huge like that", "I want arms as big as this, "I'd love to be that ripped" etc. Women look at the photos of celebs and think “I’d love to look like this in a tight dress / bikini” etc. Is it really possible? And to what degree? That largely depends on the genetics your mom and dad have passed on to you.

There are so many variables involved. Let's discuss the most important ones.

- Satellite cells

Strong evidence suggests that the results you see in the gym are highly dependent on the efficacy of satellite cell-mediated myonuclear addition. Basically your muscles won't grow unless the satellite cells surrounding your muscle fibers donate their nuclei to your muscles so they can produce more genetic material to signal the cells to grow. Blessed individuals have more satellite cells that surround their muscle fibers, as well as a remarkable ability to expand their satellite cell pool via training.

- Hormonal profile

Testosterone, growth hormone, insulin etc. All of them will affect muscle growth / fat loss in different pathways, so proper function of endocrine system is essential.

- Myostatin

Myostatin is a protein produced in skeletal muscle cells that inhibits that inhibits muscle differentiation and growth. It normally restrains muscle growth, ensuring that muscles do not grow too large. Mutations that reduce the production of functional myostatin lead to an overgrowth of muscle tissue. Myostatin-related muscle hypertrophy has a pattern of inheritance known as incomplete autosomal dominance.

- Structure

What is the ratio of your clavicles (how wide your shoulders are) to your hips? This is very important to enhance that desired V-taper. How tall are you? Tall guys often have a tendency to look a bit lanky, whereas shorter guys can create that impression muscular thickness. How big your joints are? Muscles look fuller and rounder and can be more aesthetic with smaller joints.

- Length of muscle bellies

When the muscle belly is long with shorter tendons, the muscle could have a greater potential for growth, as well as it looks more aesthetically pleasing (think Phil Heath). However a shorter muscle belly could mean more explosive power and better athletic performance. The easiest muscle to measure is biceps. Flex your arm at 90 degrees angle and contract your biceps. The gap between your contracted biceps and your forearm will indicate the length of the muscle – the shorter the gap, the longer the muscle belly.

- Ratio of slow & fast twitch muscle fibres

Those with a higher percentage of fast twitch fibers will gain muscle mass more readily – think sprinters vs distance runners.

These are the main areas were genetics affect your physique. When it comes to fitness and athletic performance, there are other factors largely affected by genetics – strength, explosiveness, agility, balance, coordination etc.

However it should not serve as an excuse. We all have issues with genetics that we have to work around. Some of us are predisposed to carrying excess fat, some of us are lean but have stubborn areas of fat deposition, some struggle building muscle, and some are muscular but have weak body parts. Some of us have all of this combined, and nobody has perfect genetics! My list of genetic curses is endless, and having a bone condition as a kid set me back in a major way, but despite this I've managed to develop a quite respectable physique.

Also I have never had a client who didn't look better after a couple of months of training (or even weeks), assuming they stick with the program. All of them lose fat and gain some muscular shape.

The bottom line is - genetics make a difference, but intelligent training, adequate nutrition, and supplements can help you maximize what your parents gave you, as long as you’re consistent with your efforts.