Fit Girl About Town

How to prioritise your workouts when you’re short on time.

Joslyn — Wed, 22 May 2013 18:45:18 +0000

With the best laid plans, life gets in the way and you may not be able to squeeze in all the workouts you had so virtuously planned at the start of the week.

Here’s what NOT to do:

1 Don’t cram them all into one big session. You may end up overtraining, resulting in sickness or injury.

2 Don’t throw the towel in. Missing a session or two should not be the signal to give up on the rest of your training week.

3 Don’t worry about it. It’s done, the workout-opportunity is in the past. Your fitness is not going to fall apart if you miss a session or two, so think about your next session instead of dwelling on the session that never was.

The following guidelines will ensure you get the best out of your training week even when you have to skip a few sessions.

Don’t fuel burnout. It’s the end of a long day, you’ve been living off coffee trying to keep up with your deadlines and your to-do list has run off with someone else. As much as you would love to sweat it out and release some stress in a high-intensity class, what you really need is a little mental downtime. Exercise, is a stress, after all. In most cases a positive stress, but a stress nevertheless. A hard workout on top of a high-stress day will lead to burn out, leading to you not being able to work or work out. So when your nervous system has been overloaded it’s time for a little om-action. Yoga, pilates, a stretching or mobility class, will give you a little mental time out. Save the high-energy workout for another day.

High-intensity over long-distance. Your 5k race is coming up soon, you had a sprint session, and a long run in your schedule. Looks like you are only going to get to do one of the runs, so which one should you choose? Sprints should be your priority as they are anaerobic in nature and will improve your aerobic long runs. Anaerobic training has a positive impact on aerobic training but not the other way around. So doing more sprint sessions will make your long runs better. And whilst they are more intense, sprints take less time, so you end up quicker and with more time on your hands!

Resistance training over cardio. You are enjoying the physical results of your training, you are stronger, you look and feel better and you’re in this healthy-lifestyle thing for the long haul. You have a weights session and a cardio session scheduled in but can now only fit one of them into your week. Whilst the immediate after-effects of a cardio session have you buzzing with endorphins, the continued energy-burn long after your workout comes from a resistance session. Sure, you may not feel quite as wiped as you would after your cardio session but you will continue to burn energy for several hours after you are done. We’ll take that!

Clean Green Smoothie

Joslyn — Sun, 19 May 2013 19:08:07 +0000

What does it mean to eat clean? A diet devoid of processed, high sugar, nutrient-poor food. Even die-hard anti-greenists would be hard pushed to shun this healthy cocktail. Have it in the morning as a quickie breakfast option with a couple of boiled eggs or as a different way to down your greens at lunch or dinner.

This Clean Green Smoothie features some of the most nutrient-dense of the veggie family, kale, spinach and watercress, all high in bioflavonoids, special detoxifying antioxidants. Avocado adds a healthy dose of good fat to the mix as well as giving the drink a smoother taste. Apple juice, mint and lime juice add a sweet, fresh, kick to this powerful smoothie.

Ingredients:

A handful of kale
A handful of spinach
A handful of watercress
A handful of fresh mint
500ml of water
500ml of apple juice
1/2 an avocado
Juice of 1/2 a lime

Makes 4 servings

Blend all the ingredients together with a food processor or hand blender until smooth. Drink or refrigerate immediately. Smoothie can also be frozen.

We Own the Night – 10k Run – May 18th

Joslyn — Sun, 12 May 2013 16:20:21 +0000

This is an after-hours run like no other. 10 kilometres of light, sound and the unexpected.

Blaze through your city, then celebrate with thousands like you.

Whether you run for fun, fitness or something more – get your friends together and make the night yours.

Your journey to the finish line starts now. You can enter here: nike.com/weownthenightlondon

See you for the warm up!

The best time of day to work out

Joslyn — Sun, 12 May 2013 15:19:33 +0000

We are sure there is some study somewhere that tells you working out at 3:58pm on the 4th Tuesday of every month, is the optimal time to work out. But being a city dweller it’s likely that you squeeze your fitness in when you can. And guess what kind of time that is? It is the perfect time for you to work out because it is when you can work out. Glorious. Who knew it could be that simple? Mine fair felines, we do love to complicate the day-to-day.

So yes, the statement is as follows: The best time of the day for you to work out, is when you can work out.

A revelation, non? Imagine such common sense violating your very thoughts on fitness excellence. So if you have time to work out in the morning, do it. The afternoon, do it. The evening, do it. There are even 24-hour gyms open, if you feel the need to get some sprints in at midnight – never on my personal agenda just quietly but you catch my drift.

Image Credit: dotcomgiftshop.com

Welcome to the new look Fit Girl

Joslyn — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 16:08:18 +0000

So it’s been pretty quiet on the FG front for the last couple of months and, well, tadaaaa! Here we are, a new site and lots of exciting stuff on the horizon.

What about the old site? Well it still lives on a little section of this site if you ever want to refer to any old posts that you liked, or for some general nostalgia on the Fit Girl front.

Moving forward we are going to feature plenty of workouts, recipes, live-life-fit-and-fabulous info and our very own Fit Girls out and about doing their thing.

So kick back and enjoy!

Image credit: lifewithpenandpapers.blogspot.com