Men's Fitness Facts 1- 10

In 2012 Chad Howse published an article titled “50 Facts About Men’s Fitness.  Over the next few days, I am going to share Chad’s list with you and add a few of my thoughts to what is a very good article.

Men are entirely different beasts to our female counterparts. We’re less likely to visit the doctor and exercise, and yet we suffer from more health problems and we die at a younger age. We’re stubborn animals that are made-up of some dramatically different hormones that our environment seems to be hard at work on diminishing.

Men also think differently to women. We train differently, and we should be eating in a different way. Where the fitness industry spends a lot of time focusing on women, we’re going to take a close look at us blokes. The statistics can be alarming but I have attempted to provide you with some sensible solutions as well.

1. Nutrition is the number one factor for maintaining great health and having a physique you can be proud of. It’s also the area where many of us slip up. Make no mistake about it, if you eat rubbish you’ll look like it too.  If you workout regularly, but maintain a bad diet, you’ll still look and feel bad.
2. The calories just don’t add up. Depending on your weight and intensity of training, an hour long workout can burn 700-800 calories. We then reward ourselves with 4 slices of pizza later than night and gain back 750 calories.  You can’t always think of calories in a 1 for 1, burned vs consumed sense, but we train 4 days a week and we eat 3-6 meals a day. If we have a bad diet we can’t expect to look great no matter how much we train.
3. No program will work if you won’t work hard.  Expecting insane results with little effort? You’ll be disappointed every time. If you want a great physique, hard work and some sacrifice is a prerequisite. You can also make a terrible program work if you’re willing to put the effort in.
4. Breakfast isn’t the most important meal of the day.  New studies are showing that our fat cells are most responsive to insulin spikes during the morning. This means that foods like carbs or dairy that spike our insulin levels are actually feeding our fat cells.  We’ve been told that breakfast is the most important meal of the day for years and years, but it may turn out to be the opposite for those trying to lose fat.  It is still vitally important that you eat a breakfast with good quality low GI carbohydrates, to replace the fuel stores your body has exhausted overnight, just don’t chow down on a traditional ‘Big Breakfast’ if you expect to trim the waistline!
5. Cardio isn’t the best way to burn fat.  Long bouts of cardio can result in us storing fat rather than burning it. A better alternative:
6. Sprints are the most effective form of fat loss and muscle building than cardio.  Sprints result in more fat cells recruited for energy use, and less muscle burned for the same. They also result Human Growth Hormone being released and don’t result in the release of cortisol – a powerful muscle and bone-burning stress hormone – that can come from longer bouts of cardio.
7. Two cups of coffee before a workout has been shown to speed up the lipid-burning process.  Caffeine can give us energy to workout harder, which is a huge benefit in my mind. Coffee is also high in antioxidants and two cups has been shown to speed up the fat burning process by bringing lipids (fats) into our bloodstream where they’re more easily used as fuel or energy.  So, all of that nonsense saying that coffee is bad for you isn’t always true. But you can obviously go overboard, which has a very negative effect.  Recent studies have shown that coffee, not the caffeine, will make the body more acidic and this can have a detrimental effect on a whole range of hormonal responses.  Contemporary thinking is that we should be doing as much as we can to create an alkaline environment in our bodies, thereby creating the best situation for self-healing.
8. We should do more pulling than pushing in our training.  Walk into a gym and you’ll most likely see guys working the ‘mirror muscles’, that is, those muscles that are seen in the mirror. The fact is that pulling more and developing bigger back muscles actually pulls our shoulders back, giving our chest and shoulders a broader look.  Not just for looks however, our back muscles are some of the biggest on our body and are involved in many of our pushing movements. If you want to build a v-shaped torso, and build athletic power and strength, work your back as much – if not more – than your mirror muscles.
9. We can increase our testosterone levels naturally.  Testosterone is the male hormone, its benefits are innumerable. Higher natural levels of testosterone result in a greater capacity for fat loss, greater sex drive, and greater tissue repair. By including dietary fats in the morning and before bed, we raise our testosterone levels in a natural way – one not accompanied by the drawbacks of steroids.  We are talking about “good fats” guys, not saturated fats and triglycerides!  Try this before bed and upon rising: 2 caps cod liver oil + vitamin rich butter fat + 3 Brazil nuts + 3 whole, cooked eggs. Don’t be tempted to use raw eggs as the egg white is encapsulated in an enzyme that prevents us from digesting the white.  Cooking the egg destroys that protective coating and the protein-rich white will be fully digested.  Wizz it all up in a blender and spread it over a slice of toasted wholemeal bread or ciabatta.
10. Men with sleep apnoea are more likely to have low testosterone, and treating sleep apnoea can help return it to normal.  However, if a man with sleep apnea is diagnosed with low testosterone alone, taking steroids can worsen sleep apnoea.

This is just a taster of what is to follow, check in again tomorrow for Facts 11 to 20.