Ask a Fitness Professional all your Fitness related questions! In this series, I’ll be answering all your fitness related questions in quick-fire fashion.
QUESTION #1
I am not losing weight even though I exercise and I diet…am I doing something wrong?
Start doing a food journal for a week. Take note of everything you eat and log them down somewhere (using your phone and take a photo journal is ok too!). At the end of the week, spare an hour to look through and calculate roughly how many calories you have been eating. Also start tracking the intensity of your workouts with a Fitbit or app which calculates the amount of calories burn per workout. This won’t be a very accurate measurement, but it’s a good way to track your progress nonetheless. This might sound tough, but most people neither eat as ‘clean’ nor train as hard as they think. Usually this is enough to solve the issue. For more details, you can check out my 3 Best Practical Steps for Weight Loss!
However, if you’ve done that and your diet and training are on point, you might want to consider whether you’re highly stressed out and not recovering well enough from your training. Studies have shown that “greater exposure to stressful conditions or psychological vulnerability to stress has led (people) to overreact to stressors in their daily lives, so they have had greater lifetime exposure to cortisol…(which) in turn may have caused them to accumulate abdominal fat.” In a nutshell, high levels of stress can lead to fat gain. So it might be time to try to find some ways to destress.
QUESTION #2
The gyms and fitness corners are closed, how can I still train and maintain my fitness?
This depends on your definition of fitness. Some people train to be stronger, grow bigger muscles and look more aesthetic. This would be very difficult as you don’t have the right or most effective tools for those goals. On the other hand, if you just want to maintain your fitness in the more general sense of the word, it is very possible. Do this by staying as active as possible. Go for walks, runs for your cardio, yoga for mobility/flexibility and do some bodyweight exercises or HIIT for your strength and muscular endurance.
If you want a full program to train your overall fitness that can be done without a gym, take a look at my article here on the FITTER Program. It has bodyweight options included!
QUESTION #3
What are some home fitness equipment that you recommend?
One of the main constraints of working out at home is the lack of pulling exercises that you can do. So my first recommendation would be to get something you can pull. This can be a pull-up bar, suspension trainer (like a TRX) or a dip bar, depending on your level of fitness.
If you already have that, my next recommendation would be a kettlebell. These are highly versatile tools and you can perform many different movements with it. You can do your basic squats, lunges, rows and presses if you’re a beginner. For more experienced trainees, there are many advanced movements possible such as swings, cleans and snatches.
If you want a full breakdown and recommendation of a home gym set-up. Click here for my article on building a home gym in Singapore.
QUESTION #4
I don’t have much motivation to train now. What can I do to stay motivated?
First off, I completely emphatize with you. Many people aren’t very motivated during this global pandemic. Alot of us are shut in at home, thrown out of our usual routines and some of us have even lost jobs. It’s very easy to succumb to the temptation of quitting. This is why we need discipline, to do what we need to do even if we don’t like it.
I want you to find a personal reason that you should be training. This might be because you want to grow old playing with your grandchildren or just wanting to be more confident about yourself. Whatever it is, make sure it deeply resounds with you, and remind yourself of it every time you don’t want to train.
My personal reason is that I want to be stronger. I not only want to survive but thrive in this pandemic and every run that I go on or repetition I do will help me become stronger and hopefully an inspiration to others.
QUESTION #5
How do I train to look like Chris Hemsworth in Extraction?
Long answer short…you can’t. Chris Hemsworth is 1.9m and about 100kg (when he filmed Thor). He has great body structure and is also paid millions of dollars to look the way he does. He also has access to the best nutrition, gyms and trainers to assist him. However, we can definitely try our best to aim for that Hollywood Physique. This usually consists of a big chest, broad shoulders, big biceps and defined abs. This calls for alot of hypertrophy based training which is difficult because most of us has no access to a gym and proper equipment.
If you are without access to a gym, try to do more push-ups, pull-ups, chin-ups and lots of core work. *Please try to get at least a pull up bar or suspension trainer guys! You want to try to get these muscles growing so you’ll need to work with a hypertrophy range of about 8 – 12 repetitions. Most importantly, you will also need to go on a diet (ala caloric deficit) if you want those abs to be visible.
If you have any fitness related questions you to get answered by a fitness professional, shoot me a comment or drop me a DM at my Instagram @Strongertmr! See y’all in the next episode and don’t forget to Train, Hustle & Grind.
