Winter is a time to build muscle bulk and guard against fat gain. So it pays to put some thought into your winter training routine.
Winter causes you to change your diet, your habits and your lifestyle. This means you need to change your workout routines accordingly. You may have been strutting your stuff in summer and even autumn, but winter is a time to knuckle down and build muscle mass to get you looking even better for next spring.
At the same time the ever present danger in winter is gaining excess weight in the form of fat. Warming winter foods can often be calorie traps and colder temperatures can keep you indoors when you really should be active. So to build muscle and keep weight down this winter you will need to change your workout routines, eat the right foods and use the appropriate supplements.
Building winter muscle
Winter is a great time to add more muscle to your frame. You will tend to eat more and to build muscle you need to be consuming more kilojoules than you are burning. Bulking up however is not an excuse to eat junk food. You need the right sort of energy and that means good quality protein without too much saturated fat attached to it. Eat plenty of
fish, chicken, lean meat, whey and cottage cheese. There are also plenty of mass gain formulas designed to give you the right types of nutrients for muscle growth (see
Winter workouts below). Equally as important as your diet though is your training routine.
Training to build muscle
The key to muscle building is to lift heavy weights with good form to the limit of your ability. Paul Mischel is GNC’s sports product development manager and an avid lifter himself. “The key to adding bulk over winter is to reduce the amount of intense aerobic exercise and focus primarily on resistance training,” he says. “Increase your weights and lower the number of reps. After one or two warm-up sets do 3-4 working sets with a rep range of 4-8. Build the routine around compound exercises such as dead lifts, squats, bench presses, chin ups, dips, clean and presses and barbell rows.” Mischel adds, “My big tip for bulking up is never go to the gym hungry. Make sure you’ve had a pre-workout meal of low GI carbohydrates, quality protein and good fats at least two hours beforehand. Sip on essential amino acids during your training and follow up with a meal of rapidly digested protein from a whey protein isolate shake with some added high GI carbohydrates. Try to train in the evening as your nervous system is better able to handle the stresses of heavy lifts compared to first thing in the morning.”
Keeping weight under control
When it is cold outside the temptation is to snuggle up and indulge in warming, feel-good foods. Unfortunately, they are usually starches and fats loaded with kilojoules. Tina Liondos is a personal trainer and nutrition consultant, she says, “When reaching out for comfort foods in winter, consider the healthy options. I like to have a warm bowl of oat porridge, sweetened up with a dash of xylitol and a pinch of cinnamon. Soup is also a great option and is quick and easy to make.” If you keep your muscle bulk at a good
level, this increased muscle mass will burn extra kilojoules for you. A kilo of muscle tissue burns 462 kilojoules of energy per day compared to just 21 kilojoules per
kilo of body fat. As well as building muscle though, to keep your weight down winter is also a time for cardio.
Keep up the cardio
Although the cooler temperatures make it increasingly hard to force yourself to exercise, you must make yourself do it. Cardio workouts burn kilojoules but they also keep your metabolism ticking over. Liondos says that to avoid gaining fat over winter women should try to do “at least three high intensity cardio sessions a week. They don’t need to be long, just intense, so try to work at about 70-80 per cent of your maximum heart rate
for about 20-30 minutes.” As well as your cardio workouts you can also use supplements that support your circulation like ginkgo, ginger, cayenne, fish oil, and coenzyme Q10.
The power of protein
“If you’re getting hungry between meals or craving sweets consider a slow release protein powder,” says Mischel. “This will help balance blood sugar levels and put your body into fatburning mode by suppressing insulin.” The latest research certainly supports this idea that protein is central to your weight control efforts. “Ghrelin” is a hunger hormone that signals to your brain that you are hungry. A recent study has compared the effect on ghrelin of either a high carbohydrate, high fat or high protein drink. While both the protein and carb drinks led to suppression of ghrelin, only the protein suppressed ghrelin activity for up to six hours. The carbohydrate suppressed ghrelin for three hours but over the next three hours the hormone levels shot back to higher than they were before the “meal” (J Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, online Jan 2008). Mischel offers some final advice on keeping winter kilos at bay. “I personally like to use a non-stimulant fat metaboliser during the cold months. Look for a product that contains methionine, choline and inositol to help the liver break down fats more effectively. Also,
keep up your intake of CLA [Conjugated Linoleic Acid] during winter as this fatty
acid specifically targets brown adipose tissue cells which are predominantly found around the gut area. Green tea with 90-125mg of the powerful EGCG catechins is also highly recommended for its thermogenic benefits. These are a must if you want to keep your six pack intact.”
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