Featured Post

90 Days & Beyond

To say that I have been under intense personal construction and refinement these past months is an understatement. The choice to "not ...

Friday, July 22, 2016

Days 38-39

Days 38-39 of 90 Day Nutrition/Fitness Challenge:

What is metabolism?  Metabolism is the process by which the body generates the energy it needs for maintenance, repair, growth of tissues, and for muscles contraction and movement.  The energy is obtained from the foods we eat.  However, the chemical energy stored in the food that we eat is not directly used to fuel our bodies, but rather it is used to generate adenosine triphosphate ("ATP").  Only a small amount of ATP is stored in the muscle cells.  The body must regenerate ATP once it is used through the process of metabolism.

Muscle is very active tissue and requires continuous energy supplies for ongoing cellular processes such as protein synthesis,  maintenance, and building.  It is estimated that a pound of muscle uses between 30-50 calories a day at rest to meet its metabolic requirements.  That's one pound a day at rest.  How many pounds of skeletal muscle do you have?  How active are you?  Exactly!  When muscle mass is increased so too is your metabolic rate increased, both during activity and at rest.  Conversely, when muscle mass is decreased, your metabolic rate is decreased as well at activity and at rest.  If you are not performing regular strength exercise, muscle mass decreases with age at about one-half pound of muscle every year of inactivity after the age of 25.  It is this reduction in muscle mass that research reveals that resting metabolism decreases approximately half a percent every year after age 25.  Endurance exercises increase metabolic rate only during the activity session and shortly following; however, strength exercises increase metabolic rate during and for a relatively long period following the workout.  No worries if inactivity has been your life thus far, as strength gains have shown to be made even in your 90s...so get moving!


Day 38 Reporting:
Workout/Yoga: Day Off this week...
Eating: Had 2 of my indulgences this week, but otherwise keeping at it....just missed some servings of produce.
Sleep: Not good....6 hours....

Day 39 Reporting:
Workout: Resistance Done ... Did the same workout as Monday but in the garage studio and with a progression: Did progressive/slow Squats & holds & Split Squats (since I'm not doing weights again yet...muscle is built on the eccentric or against gravity movements).  Did pulses along with the Deadlifts. Tried Kneeling Push Ups and that was painful...since I don't want to make healing take any longer than it has to, I abandoned Push Ups as I'm clearly not healed enough for that yet....Also didn't do Side Plank since I hurt my chest trying the Push Ups (frustrated but know it'll get better soon). Did 4 rounds of intense legs/butt though and that was good. 
Yoga: Day 3 of 8 week ;-) Happy Place again...body feels so much better with yoga!!!
Eating: Still rocking the vinegar but fell to 80/20 clean....I'll do better (argh!).
Sleep: squeaked out 7 hours.....

No comments:

Post a Comment