April 11, 2013
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Sunday, April 7, 2013
The Benefits of Active Recovery After Exercise
There are two types of exercise recovery – active and passive. Exercise recovery refers both to short-term recovery when you’re doing interval training and longer term recovery between workouts. Find out the advantages of each and how to apply them to your workouts.
Recovery not only refers to what you do after a workout, it also applies to interval training, workouts where you do alternating periods of intense exercise and recovery. Recovery between intervals can be passive or active. If it’s passive, you stand or sit between intervals or do light stretching exercises. If it’s an active recovery, you would continue to exercise at a sub-maximal intensity until the next active interval when you would again pick up the pace.
Active Recovery versus Passive Recovery: Which is Best?
When doing interval training, research suggests an active approach to recovery is best. When you exercise at a high intensity, lactate builds up in your muscles and bloodstream during the active intervals and your blood becomes more acidic. This acidity interferes with the ability of your muscles to contract, meaning you won’t be able to work as hard during the next active interval. This increase in acidity contributes to the burning sensation your get in your muscles when you work them intensely. Not only does it interfere with muscular contraction, it may psychologically keep you from putting forth your best effort during the next interval due to discomfort.
Research suggests that active recovery between exercise intervals seems to improve performance on the next interval. When you stay active between work intervals, it speeds up the removal of lactate and helps to reduce the acidity that hinders performance when you increase the intensity again.
Many experts don’t believe it’s lactate that causes the fatigue and burning you experience after intense exercise but the build-up of hydrogen ions that occurs along with the lactate. This increases acidity. One theory is that the hydrogen ions make contractile proteins within the muscles less sensitive to calcium so they can’t generate as much force.
Based on this, it’s more beneficial to exercise at a sub-maximal intensity between active intervals than to stop moving entirely. On the other hand, there is research suggesting that passive recovery between intervals delays time to exhaustion so you may be able to exercise a little longer before being overcome by fatigue.
Active versus Passive Recovery after a Workout
After completing a workout, it’s best to actively recover than to sit down. Not only does lower intensity activity help to reduce acidity and aid removal of lactate, it reduces venous pooling. During exercise, your muscles are actively pumping. This pushes on veins and increases blood flow back to the heart. If you stop suddenly, blood can “pool” in your veins and decrease blood return to your heart, leading to a drop in blood pressure or fainting. When you keep moving at a lower intensity, an active cool-down, you prevent sudden changes in blood pressure.
What about Recovery between Workouts?
After you’ve done a hard workout, should you take it easy the next day or do low-intensity activity? Although it makes sense that doing light activity might prevent delayed onset muscle soreness by increasing blood flow, there’s not a lot of evidence that it does. Still, some people feel better doing a light workout the next day, light jogging or stretching. Yoga is another good alternative for recovery days. Light exercise is best for a recovery day since your muscles need time to replenish glycogen stores. If you’ve done a resistance-training workout, your muscles also need time to repair.
Other Ways to Recover after a Workout
It’s important to replace lost fluids as quickly as possible. You can get a rough idea of how much fluid you’ve lost by weighing yourself before and after a workout. Eating a carbohydrate and protein meal within a one hour “window period” after exercise helps to speed amino acids to your muscles and replenish glycogen stores more quickly. It’s also important to get enough sleep. Lack of sleep raises cortisol levels. This interferes with recovery and increases your risk for infection by suppressing your immune system. If you do high-intensity workouts, sleep should be a priority.
The Bottom Line?
Keep these tips in mind when you’re doing interval workouts or taking a recovery day. Whether it’s passive or active, your body needs time to rest and recover.
�
References:
Canadian Journal of Applied Physiology, 1993, 18(1): 31-42, 10.1139/h93-004.
Med Sci Sports Exerc 2004; 36(2):302-308.
Sports Science Exchange. 87:15. (2002)
Exercise Physiology. Fifth Edition. McArdle, Katch and Katch. (2001)
�
Read the full article.Saturday, April 6, 2013
Farmer’s Market Pizza on Whole Wheat Dough
Farmer’s Market Pizza on Whole Wheat Dough
You will love this pizza made on whole wheat dough with seed and Parmesan seasoned crust; featuring a tomato, garlic, olive oil and herb base replacing traditional sauce; and piled high with the season’s fresh veggies from the local farmer’s market!
You will love this pizza made on whole wheat dough with seed and Parmesan seasoned crust; featuring a tomato, garlic, olive oil and herb base replacing traditional sauce; and piled high with the season’s fresh veggies from the local farmer’s market!
Ingredients
Dough:
1 ¾ cups whole wheat flour
2 Tbsp vital wheat gluten
1 Tbsp active dry yeast
½ tsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp olive oil
2/3 cup hot water
Pizza “sauce” base:
1 Tbsp olive oil
1-3 garlic cloves, pressed (to your taste)
1 tsp sesame seeds
1 tsp chia seeds
¼ cup fresh grated parmesan cheese
1 tsp dried oregano
1-2 Tbsp fresh minced basil (or substitute with 1 tsp dried)
2 plum tomatoes, sliced as thinly as you can
1 cup part skim milk mozzarella cheese, shredded
Various farmer’s market vegetables:
Broccoli florettes, diced
Red onion, diced
Red bell pepper, diced
Green bell pepper, diced
Yellow squash, thinly sliced and halved
Zucchini, shredded
Mushrooms, sliced
Directions:
Making the dough:
Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. By thoroughly combining the flour, gluten, yeast, salt, and sugar before adding the liquids, you reduce the kneading time necessary to make sure the yeast is totally incorporated in the dough. Add olive oil and hot water. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and knead for 5 minutes. Spray a medium to large sized bowl with cooking spray. Place dough in bowl, lightly spray top of dough and cover with plastic wrap. Place in the refrigerator and allow it to rise overnight 16-20 hours. (i.e. If I make my dough between 8-9pm, we can eat pizza the next day as early as lunch 12-1pm or for dinner between 5-6pm.) This may sound labor intensive, but it really only takes 15 minutes to mix and knead the dough.
Preparing the gourmet pizza:
Heat oven to 425. Place dough on a 12″-14” pizza pan sprayed with cooking spray (I use a 13” pizza baking stone) and roll out until the dough reaches the edge of the pan. The extra gluten helps the wheat dough rise higher and stretch without tearing better, but may make rolling the dough difficult. If so, simply pick up the dough, place the fist of one hand in the center of the dough and pull gently at the edges rotating the dough so it is stretched evenly. Return dough to the pan. Using a fork, prick the dough all over. This will help keep the pizza flat by preventing large bubbles forming in the dough during baking which may cause your toppings to slide around. Let the dough rest while you prepare the toppings.
Wash, slice, and dice vegetables. Brush dough with 1 Tbsp olive oil all the way to the edge of the crust. Press garlic over dough and spread evenly with a rubber spatula over the center of the dough, do not extend to the crust. Sprinkle the edge of the crust only with sesame and chia seeds. Sprinkle parmesan cheese over entire pizza dough, including to the edge of the crust. Your crust is now completely seasoned and you can begin to assemble the center portion of the pizza. Sprinkle the oregano and basil evenly over the center of the dough. In a thin layer, arrange the very thinly sliced tomatoes over the center of the dough. Sprinkle mozzarella over tomatoes, add remaining veggies.
Bake for 15 minutes. Let pizza rest for 3-5 minutes so cheese can settle. Cut into 8 slices and serve.
Thursday, April 4, 2013
7 Ways Your Diet Can Cause Weight Gain
7 Ways Your Diet Can Cause Weight Gain
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)