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Fitho’s Outdoor Training Program is Your Ideal Fitness Buddy

Have tried joining a gym but paid the entire years fee and barely saw the inside of the gym. What you need are like-minded friends that will motivate you towards sticking to a fitness regime. Fitho’s outdoor training program is just the place that you will find these people that will help you get fitter while you enjoy the workout! Besides a lot of research have been confirming the fact that sweating it out in a group of like-minded people helps you burn more calories — here’s how:

We turn you into a regular

The most difficult part of a fitness routine is being regular. Every day you find a new excuse to skip the workout. Joining a group that is friendly and like-minded makes it easier for you to be accountable and stick to your commitment. It helps you be regular resulting in better attendance meaning higher calories burned!

We ensure you get the most out of the session

When you workout in a group you stop paying attention to the time. Your energy is channelized into focusing and completing the fun group activity at hand. Friendly banter while working out further helps time fly and before you know it the session is over! When you are working out alone most of us find it difficult to even complete 15 minutes before getting bored , giving up and getting on the phone!

We plan the sessions for you

Its difficult to put together a fun workout for yourself. Fitho’s group workouts take that responsibility away from you and in return give you one hour of a super fun and energetic workout session. Group workouts are always fun as every session is planned differently. This ensures that you get a complete body conditioning without making it mundane. Read more

Group Exercise Classes for Kids

As kids we remember most of our time spent outdoors just running, jumping and playing around. With the new technologies coming in the kids are being given many reasons to spend more time indoors sitting infront of the TV or playing with gadgets etc than spend it outdoors getting involved in some physical activities. This lifestyle change is gradually translating into increase in the number of young children that are obese in India and world over. Encouraging physical activity has become critically important for reversing the trend towards obesity. To establish healthy exercise routines in children, parents need to get involved. And this why we have created a special outdoor group exercise classes for the kids called Fitho’s junior bootcamp.

Fitho’s Junior boot camp consist of a 30-45 minute session where the children are taken through a series of aerobic exercises that help develop their immunity, improve breathing that will make the lungs stronger and heart beat faster, resulting in better blood circulation and a stronger healthier child. All this can be complemented with a diet to help optimize your child’s health and fitness. Boot camp for kids is not military style workout but a fun-exercises time-out where there kids will get to have fun, run around and be active. Fitho’s group exercise classes are conducted under expert supervision for better results through  improvement of motor functions in the body for a elevated fitness levels and general well being.

The Objective of Fitho’s junior group exercise classes:

• Keeping children at a healthy weight
• Helping children sleep better
• Improving a child’s mood and attitude
• Increasing self-confidence and self-image
• Combating laziness
• Keeping children free from sickness and disease
• Improving social interaction with other kids
• Making kids more coordinated and develop gross motor skills and fine motor skills·
• Developing muscle strength Read more

Best Post Workout Food Options

People often give importance to pre-workout meals to support the muscle growth and promote weight loss. But latest studies are giving more weightage to post work out diet as being the most important meal that can make or break your fitness.

Your body absorbs the maximum amount of food right after the workout. Your muscles absorb the food quickly in order to replenish the energy burnt and to repair the muscles tissues. Three most essential requirements of the body especially post the workout are protein for muscle repair and simple carbohydrates to replenish the glucose levels.  The carbohydrates eaten post workout will not be stored as body fat but infact will be instantly consumed by the body. Simple carbohydrates help spike the insulin levels that help the cells absorb the nutrient instantly.

An average person looking for general weight loss and fitness only requires 8-10 grams of protein post the workout. For serious muscle building an average person requires 20-22 grams. The actual percentage of protein is directly proportional to your weight. Please consult a professional dietician to get recommended protein for your body weight.

Non –Veg

Chicken Breasts: This body part of the chicken is the leanest (minimal fat content) and contains highest source of protein.  For every 100 grams of chicken breast you get 30 grams of protein. Best way to eat is grilling it with some fresh seasonal green vegetables. This will also comprise of a complete balanced meal and will contain essential vitamins & minerals.

Tuna: Every 100 grams of tuna tuna canned in water and drained provides an astonishing. 29.13 grams of high-quality protein. It can be best eaten as salad or with rice. It also contains essential minerals and vitamins that help boost the metabolism.

Salmon: It is high in protein, Vitamin D and Omega-3 fatty acids that support muscle formation and promote weight loss. Salmon also contains minerals such as iron, phosphorus, vitamins A and B, calcium and selenium. Eating salmon is very good for the heart as it lowers cholesterol, prevent the hardening of the arteries and make the arteries flexible.

Eggs: Whole eggs provide great protein content at 6 to 8 grams per egg, and are also rich in vitamins, zinc, iron and calcium making them one of the most complete muscle building foods out there. Eggs provide maximum amount of nutrition for the least amount of calories.

Vegetarian

Cottage cheese/Paneer: Is one of the best muscle-building foods you’ll find. Just one cup of cottage cheese can pack 28 grams of protein. The main health benefit is that cottage cheese is low in fat and carbs and very high in protein.

Broccoli: One cup of chopped and cooked broccoli (146 g) provides 46 calories, 4.6 g  of protein,. Broccoli is rich in cholesterol-reducing fiber , is a super source of chromium that helps regulate insulin and bloodsugar . It also has detox and antioxidant properties that help keep off infection and build immunity.

Pulses:30 gms of pulse or 1 cup of pulse contains 7 gms of protein in it. This almost meets the daily meal requirement of an average person looking for weight loss or general fitness. You can fresh sautéed vegetables and a chapatti to complete the vitamin, carbohydrate mineral and fibre dietary requirements to boost the metabolism.

Almonds: Almonds provide a good source of protein and fat, but it’s their vitamin E that is most beneficial to your muscles. The powerful antioxidant fights free radicals and helps you recover quicker from your workouts.

Water:Your body is 70 percent water and your muscle tissue is around 75 percent water. Keeping your muscles hydrated will help increase strength, increase energy levels and aid in proper digestion. A minimum of 7-9  glasses are recommended for best results.

 

Weight Loss for Overweight People

People struggling with excess weight or simply being over weight find it the most difficult to lose weight even though they know that all they need to do is eat healthy and exercise to lose weight. But despite that why are overweight people considered lazy? Maybe they are not as active as thin people but there is a definitive reason behind it.

As one starts putting on weight is gained it gets difficult to move the body with ease and the easiness that a fit man would experience. The weight is exercising pressure on all the joints in the body impairing agile movements. Carrying excess weight overtime can result in hormonal imbalance causing disorders like hypothyroid, diabetes, PCOS etc. Overweight people also find it maintain body balance . This might prevent them from participating in activities like jogging, running etc. For most over weight people exercise is very stressful for the body. Besides they suffer from high blood pressure, their joints are under pressure and they tend to get tired very easily.

Here are some easy ways to get you started on a weight loss plan with ease:

Managing Nutrition: The ideal way forward is by revising your daily nutrition intake. The idea is not to suddenly cut your calorie intake by half but to slowly start reducing the non-nutritional foods from the daily diet. The main point to be  calorie intake has to be reduced over a period of time yet as all these problems surface before a overweight person while losing weight, there are ways that you can start losing weight. Read more

How to Increase Muscle Mass

Simple fundamental of weight lifting and strength training can help you load on quick muscle mass and lose fat from the body. The basic logic behind using heavy weights is that it provides resistance to muscle which in return makes it bigger and stronger. But  simply pumping iron is not going to get you the muscle mass. Right nutrition is equally important for the muscle gain and development.

What happens when you lift weights? The tiny muscle fibers tear accelerating the process called muscle protein synthesis. This basically means the body uses available amino acids to repair muscles and avoid further damage. This is an on going process but every exercise session takes about 48 hours to actually show. So instead of pumping weights 7 days a week you can actually minimize it to about 3-4 days a week to see good results without over-working out your body.

Let us further explain what happens how energy is consumed during a workout session. While exercising our body takes energy from the glycogen reserves during the workouts. So more you workout your body ,the body is burning calories and using the energy reserve. After the workout the body naturally craves nutrition to replenish the used resources. So when you over train yourself then the reserves sometimes runs out of glycogen reserves. The body breaks down the protein in the muscles to get the glucose levels to normal affecting the muscle growth. This means over-working out might give you no muscle in return.

Proper diet with your exercise otherwise you might not gain the desired muscle mass. Everyone focuses on  protein, we agree they are important  but the body also requires carbohydrates to keep the glycogen levels intact, followed by fats for hormone functions. Muscle repair is not just for a few hours but continues for a longer period. Eat protein , carbohydrates and fats in through out the day to not get deficit of any nutrition.

Rest is important for the body as muscles recover during rest and require adequate time to recover and make up for the muscle wear and tear. If there is continuous muscle exertion and no rest given to the muscle then the muscle eats up its own reserves and the reverse happens. Instead of gaining muscle mass the body loses the muscle mass which is known as  catabolic state. This state also happens when you are fasting or eating very less and go without food for long time. Read more

Interval Training

Among the latest and most effective exercise routine for  fast fat loss, improving performance, raising fitness levels, increasing endurance or getting started on a regular fitness regime interval training has been the touted to most effective routine.

Short burst of high intensity training for a short period of time is known as Interval Training. You can do interval training with almost any kind of exercise. Interval training requires you to do a certain exercise with full power for a small duration and then rest for some time and repeat. For beginners Fitho recommends a 1:3 ratio. It means every exercise is done for 10 seconds, also called a set, which is then repeated three times for ten seconds each without giving a gap.

Interval training helps in burning fast calories and is highly effective for someone who is looking to get into shape fast. You can do interval training with sprinting, cycling training, high intensity interval training etc. Interval training is tough but effective in improving your performance. You can increase the intensity of the exercise according to your capacity and fitness levels. You can do 60 seconds of interval training which will test your guts and then rest. You could do skipping, squat jumps, sprinting etc for high intensity interval training which will quickly burn the energy reserves and then burn the fat in your body.

This mode of training is effective for beginners as well as regular fitness enthusiasts. Interval training increases the heart rate and builds enduarance and strength. It must be noted that a high intensity workout must be alternated with rest or moderate workout for recovery. Read more

Spinning for Weight Loss

Spinning is a popular group  stationary cycling session which promises to make your fitness goals a reality. Spinning involves different techniques like interval training, high intensity and variations in cycling for burning calories, building endurance and stamina and strength. Spinning is a hybrid form of stationary cycling that is conducted by an instructor to the beat of fast music.

Spinning is getting popular  as many find spinning a fun way to lose weight. But is spinning as effective for weight loss like other forms of exercise? Does it focus on overall body toning? Does it exercise every muscle of the body and support a complete body workout.

The basic position of the body is sitting and cycling all the time pedaling with a few variations to keep the sessions interesting while cycling to the music. Therefore spinning is mostly a lower body workout. The  leg muscles are worked while the upper body is neglected. It is an incomplete workout for those looking for an upper body toning or overall body muscle development. This routine burns quite a few calories at a moderate level of intensity but you could literally burn more calories and get a better toned body with running with same the effort put in a spinning session.

As every form of exercise has advantages and disadvantages the biggest plus point to spinning is that it is highly motivational  as it is a group training session which keeps you pushing harder to be more competitive. The cycles can be adjusted to ones comfort levels and the entire concept is a lot of fun. It is basically cardio exercise that  can be compared to running. The only difference being you engage your entire body while you run but here you only move your legs. Read more

Cross Training for Weight Loss

Cross training is one of the most popular fitness trends world-over. What is cross training and what makes it so popular? To put is simply cross training is a creative way to make your workout more beneficial and enjoyable by combining different forms of exercises. Your body has a tendency to get use to the same physical activity done over a period of time. This is phenomenon is also commonly referred to as hitting the “plateau”.

Cross Training beautifully cuts this plateau out of the way by working out different muscles of the body  at the same time adding variety, challenge, excitement to a workout routine resulting in more effective weight loss, better toned muscles and uniform development of the body.

Let us explain the benefits further. Doing same exercise repetitively can cause wear and tear of joints and leave other muscles without  any exercise causing unbalance in workouts and disproportionate muscle growth. We require full body workout to keep our muscles conditioned and reduce injury as well. Cross training benefits the body in improving flexibility and increasing general fitness levels.

What combination would you call a good cross training routine. Essentially six different types of exercise techniques like reistance training to, plyometric, strength training, interval training, resistance training, isometric are included in a  good cross training routine. Each of these forms of exercise have unique benefits and when combined can deliver some measurable results. Here is how each of these techniques work, what part of the body they work out and what are the main benefits of adding them to your exercise routine. Read more

Lose Weight Without Running & Lifting Weights

Most fitness experts and trainers recommend running or weight training for faster calorie burn, especially for people looking for weight loss and building muscles. Building muscles helps rev up metabolism for effective fat loss and faster burning of calories in the body even while you are resting.

But what if you don’t enjoy running or cant lift weights due to medical condition. Is there still a set of exercises that can help you lose weight? For those desperately seeking an exercise subsitute to help them lose weight then we are glad to introduce Plyometrics to you. Plyometrics are extremely effective to improve flexibility and strengthen muscles. Plyometrics work on the basic principal of  loading the muscles and then contracting them in rapid sequences. This movement adds strength and elasticity of the muscles and the tissues that surround them in order to develop more strength to perform any activity.

If your muscles have become weak and find it diffiult to do your workouts then plyometrics can take you out from this phase and power you for higher performance and athletic movements. Using muscle mechanism like stretching and contracting in rapid sequence allows the muscle to reach maximum force/power. Stretching the muscles just before contracting allows the muscle to increase its power. The muscle must contract within the shortest time to express this power which is the underlying factor of plyometrics. Stretching the muscle while in tension is known as esscentric contraction and concentric contraction is when the muscle shortens in length and develops tension for movement.

There are different forms of exercise that you can do according to your objective of muscle gain, muscle strengthening, weight loss etc. Many people are also stuck in the myth that a bigger body signifies more strength which is untrue. You could have the explosive strength with a lean body without much muscles in your body. Performing plyometric exercises can boost and produce powerful movements and increase performance. Read more

Diabetes Diet Plan

There are increasing number of people being diagnosed with diabetes caused by obesity also popularly known as Diabetes Type 2. Everyone knows that  the high blood sugar levels cause this problem. The most obvious management  for this is avoiding foods and beverages that have a high glycemic index and high glycemic load. Diabetes is a metabolic disorder where the body is unable to convert sugar into energy and there is insulin resistance where the body cant process sugar naturally.

The simplest and natural way to manage diabetes is through diet and exercise. What does this mean? It simply means that one needs to be more careful what they eat and ensure there is certain amount of exercise that is included in their daily routine.

Lets start with how to manage diabetes with diet. It is important to understand the difference between foods that quickly convert to provide energy and those slowly breakdown to convert into energy and don’t stress the blood sugar levels immediately. It is not only sugar that quickly breaks into energy in the body but also foods that have carbohydrates which have medium and high on glycemic index. We make it simple for you and have prepared a list of foods along with their glycemic index to help you choose better.

Eating in moderation helps in avoiding weight gain and accumulation of fat in the body. Stay as far as possible from unhealthy food for diabetics such as sweets, sugar, potatoes, sweet potatoes, packaged juice, white bread, pasta, sweetened cornflakes, fortified flour, fruits that are sweet, dates etc. These foods quickly breakdown in our body and increase the blood sugar levels. Instead add green leafy veggies, cruciferous vegetables, carrots, bitter gourd, garlic, bell pepper, lentils, fruits (citrus), oatmeal, brown rice etc to your diet that are low in glycemic index and help in keeping low blood sugar levels. Read more

Airtel Delhi Half Marathon 2011

The Airtel Delhi Half Marathon 2011 is scheduled for 27th of November. Every year thousands of people come and participate in this event. Delhi Half Marathon has become a national  annual event where people travel to the capital from around the world to especially participate in it.

Airtel Delhi Half Marathon  2011 –

Distance: 21.09 km;

Registration Fees: NA

Registration Date: NA

Now that the date of the marathon is officially out its time to start preparing for it. Are you running the 7 km run or attempting to complete  the 21.09 run this year.

If you haven’t decided but are looking to get some guidance on how to start training for the upcoming marathon then you can write to us on fitness@fitho.in.

Our Marathon Training Programs range from new runners (never run in your life) to advanced runners. Completely customized to each individual’s age, gender, physical ability & age. A comprehensive, professional approach towards training, improving performance and finally running the marathon.

Another important element of this training program is Diet. A team of certified nutritionists and dieticians work closely with individuals/groups training for marathon to ensure that diet compliments the physical training ensuring complete fitness required to achieve the end results.

Here are some tips to help you prepare for the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon

Running Tips, Run better- Part 1

Tips to run better- Part 2

Tips to run better- Part 3

Best Exercises for Abdominal Fat or Love Handles

After belly, thighs and arms and butt the other common weight gain area is your waist. Over a period of time weight starts to collect on the side of your stomach which is also known as “love handles” or “tyres”. All these terms are nothing but common slang for abdominal obesity.

Eating unhealthy food and no exercise is the most common cause of love handles. These tyres were mostly seen on women in the past but now more and more men seem to develop it in their late twenties & early thirties. Indians are genetically inclined to accumulate fat around their waist which is also linked to Type 2 diabetes and heart health.

The simplest way to check for abdominal fat is to measure your waist. Run a tape measure around your waist at about the level of your navel. Breathe minimally, and make sure not to pull the tape measure so tight that it depresses the skin. The average BMI  (Body mass Index) of an Indian woman ranges from 18-24.9 , a waist circumference greater than 34-35 inches is considered high risk to lifestyle diseases.

Another way to measure abdominal fat is by calculating the waist to hip ratio. This is done through simple calculation of taking the ratio of the waist and hip. The healthy range in women is less than .7 and men is less than 1.

The best way to lose weight is to exercise and watch what you eat. Ensure that your body is getting adqeuate nutrition to improve the metabolism. Do not resort to fad diets as they might show you weight loss in the short term but in the long term you put the weight back on besides depriving your body of important nutrition resulting in multiple deficiencies in future. For healthy weight loss consult a good professional weight loss expert to help you lose weight and get fit.

Here are a list of exercises that are very effective to lose abdominal fat or love handles:

Running: Love handles are fat accumulated on your sides. So it is more about burning the fat in the body. You can lose maximum fat by running or doing any cardio exercise. Running allows you to burn maximum fat in a workout other than boosting metabolism. So do running in variations and or push your self more for quicker results. Include sprinting, bounding,
German drills, etc in your plan. Burning maximum calories starts burning fat gradually from the body. Manage your diet and eat adequately according to your daily requirement to allow fat to burn faster.

Crunches: Love Handles are part of your core and require core to be worked to exercise the area and build some muscles underneath. Crunches are highly beneficical is strengthening your core for better balance in the body and provides strength for intense workouts. Do crunches on medicine ball and see the muscle gain.

Side Crunch: Working the obliques help in reducing the love handles on the side and side crunch is very effective for oblique muscles. Lie down on right side of your body with right arm over your chest. Crunch your left armpit towards the left hip and raise your legs while crunching. Repeat and do both sides.

Elbow to Knee Crunch: You could do elbow to knee crunch either standing or while lying down.Lie down on the floor with knees bent and arms over your chest. You have to touch your right elbow with the left knee and alternatively. While doing the exercise move your torso for the exercise. This works the rectus abdominis and obliques while the standing one works the entire mid section and hip flexors.

Side Bends: Stand straight with dumbbells in your hands by your side. Alternatively bend your side and stretch the other side holding for a few seconds and then do the other side. This execise stretches the love handles and improves blood flow in the area.

Burpees: It is a aerobic exercise which is a combination of a few exercises mixed together for greater fitness. To perform the exercise stand straight in the first step. Then get down to squat position. Third put your hands on the floor and throw both your legs back stretching your back and looking up in the air. In the fourth step bring back your legs to the sqaut position and lastlt jump up to starting position. Repeat. This exercise not only stretches the core and works the entire body but the faster version of it burns many calories too.

Russian Twist: Sit on the floor with your knees bent and hold your  arms straight in front of you and lean your back a little while your torso is at 45-degree. Brace your core and rotate to the side and as far as you want. Repeat for both sides and mind the posture. This exercise also helps build the muscles on the side and works the core. To make this exercise more intense hold a weight between your hands or lift your feet in the air and perform the exercise.

Wood chop: It is again one of the finest twist exercise which can be done with a object, cabel, dumbbell, bat, base ball bat etc. As you pull the weight across your body, you rotate your hips and bend forward slightly so the weight ends up slightly below your hip. Keep your torso, chest and head in line with your hips. Do it for both sides.

Does Sweating Result in Weight Loss

One of the most common myths in fitness is that sweating helps you lose weight and burn more fat. There are lot of weight loss companies that use the technology of steam/sauna baths to make you sweat for weight loss. In reality the weight loss experienced with high temperature is water weight lost through sweating.  Sweating is our body’s natural way of cooling the system. Whenever there is rise in temperature which could be due to physical activity or general increase in temperature we break  in to sweat.

Let us give you an example of what we mean by losing water weight. Start with weighing yourself. Then sit in a room, in the middle of summer, without a fan and ac. You will sweat a lot due to the heat. After one hour you go and weight yourself. You will see you have lost a few grams on the weighing scale. Now go and drink a litre of water and then weigh your self. You will see that the weighing scale is back to your original weight. A note that it is impossible to put on weight with drinking water as it has zero calories. So now you might be more wise before you sign for a spa weight loss program.

There are genetic and fitness reasons why some people sweat more than the others. For-eg men sweat more than women because women sweat at higher temperatures than men. Then fitter people tend to sweat lesser than non-fit people doing the same physical activity  and lastly overweight people tend to sweat the most is because fat acts like an insulator under the skin that raises the body temperature a lot faster. Read more

Ideal Weight Loss

If you were given a choice to lose weight how much would you want to lose and what should be your ideal weight loss.It would make life comfortable if you know that how much weight you could lose within a month and after x months you would reach a desired weight. Suppose you lose 4 kgs a month and by the end of 6 months you would be able to lose 24 kgs. You could actually calculate the expected weight loss and set the time limits according to your own choice. Read this article on ideal weight to set target for your weight loss.

There are some important points that you should keep in mind while planning your ideal weight loss.

Body Composition Analysis: This is the first step towards Ideal weight loss. Body composition analysis gives you a report which tells you about how much fat and muscle percentage is there in your body at different parts. BCA also tells you what your daily caloric requirement is and how many calories you require to maintain the same weight. It also tells how much visceral fat is present in the body. BCA also includes on the basis of your height and weight to be more precise and effective weight loss.

Once you have your BCA report it is time to start taking action. We understand that we have to eat a limited amount of calories per day as the body requires it whether we are at rest or work. It is advisable to not starve yourself as it makes weight loss difficult. Suppose if your daily caloric requirement is of 2000 calories then spread your meals through out the
day on the basis of this. You could break 500 calories for each meal which would be 1500 calories and the rest 500 calories you could distribute for your snacks, biscuits, mid meals etc.

Keep things in mind that don’t assume your daily calorie requirement and eat on an assumed basis. Choose healthy food options which are low in calories and not provide empty calories. Choose fruits, vegetables, whole grain cereals, legumes, dairy, lean meats, nuts and seeds etc. Follow the food pyramid for correct distribution of carbohydrates, protein, fats and
fiber. Read more

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