Fighting Fatigue & Achieving the #KBBody!
Fighting Fatigue & Achieving the #KBBody!
Regardless of the discipline you do, the character traits of a #KBBody gal (Kettlebell Kickboxer) are always rooted in our endless goals. Fatigue can often stand in the way of those goals, cutting training time short, prohibiting maximum output and perhaps even keeping you from getting to the gym, playing with your kids or spending time with your family. Every KB gal knows the struggle between wanting to train and feeling tired. Luckily there are areas of fatigue we can control. While exhaustion comes from many places, such as overtraining and a lack or recovery time, life stress, lack of sleep. Fatigue can also culminate from dehydration, poor eating and bad nutritional planning and bad diets . If sports science has taught us anything, it has shown that training through fatigue will lead to a breakdown of the kinetic chain, stubborn injury, a decrease in performance and no real gains of growth and progress or weight loss. In fact fatigue can lead to fat storage! Luckily, sports science has also provided us with a clear prescription of rest, recovery and training ratios. Fatigue fighting foods and nutritional timing are a part of that formula. When coupled with the correct ration of rest and work, the right nutrition can help a martial artist tackle fatigue and reach any goal much faster.
FIT FACT: Working out on a program (a real program is a must!) will energize you!
BUT: not only do you need to have a weekly program, but the workouts have to be strategic in their motions, time intervals and duration!
Instead it is a calculated way to take in the right nutrients at the correct time. Fueling the body and aiding recovery before, during and after a long day or a hard training session. Starting the day off smart is vital. Just like the weather, your breakfast will set the tone for your levels of energy and fatigue throughout the day. First thing is first, do not skip the AM meal. Second, be smart about what that meal is. Make it a point to take in clean, whole foods within the first hour of waking up. Fruits are best in the morning on am empty stomach. If you combine a protein rich yogurt and berries, as an example the combination gives your body the stamina need to make it through a day of working and training. Other examples can include milk, almond milk, whole grains and eggs. Yogurt with (portion controlled almonds) is another great choice. Most people do not realize that one small pack of non-fat greek yogurt has 15 grams of protein, and, with the added almonds you will have a balanced protein and carbohydrate rich breakfast.
Through out the day, nothing fights fatigue better then clean eating. Processed foods, energy bars and a reliance on energy drinks for your fuel will lead any person, from a pro athlete to a kettle bell kickboxer to a physical breakdown. You need real food to live and sustain a high level of daily output. Real whole foods and produce should be the major component of your diet. Instead of grabbing a nutrition bar, try to have actual fruits, vegetables, grains and proteins. Making a habit out of fake foods will keep your body from reaching its full potential. Nutrient rich foods are the number one daily fatigue fighters, taking those out of the equation is not a healthy option. At least half of your meals through out the day should be composed of foods without labels. Buying vegetables, fruits, meat and fish are all easy ways to ensure a healthy whole food meal. The more labels you see on your food, the higher chance it is that they are processed, refined and packed with sodium. To get started on clean eating, pretend that you live on a farm for one week, and eat like it! Force yourself to make a salad, order a whole grain sandwich for lunch, snack on apples and berries, grill protein and vegetables for dinner. Then, watch your energy levels and mood through the week change to a higher level of productivity.
#KBBody FRUIT FACTS for Energy Rules:
- best in the am on an empty stomach
- best combined with dairy like natural yogurt
- keep at 5:1 ration 5: veggies & 1: fruits
- berries are best!
- an apple can help you stay full
Do not diet, instead follow a plan & a program! Instead adapt good solid nutrition that you can sustain! many of my celebrity clients are often concerned about cutting weight for an event or aesthetically looking super fit for a movie role. But, keep in mind that just cutting calories will not get you the body you want. Dieting without a purpose or game plan manifests fatigue and leaves you weak. you also can not achieve that strong, lean shape of a calorie deficit and poor nutritional foods. I typically give my clients the KB Body program, the workouts and nutrition guidelines are combined perfectly to build lean muscle. Notice that the KB Body and the KB Scorcher plans do not have any sort of ‘diet foods’ or fake foods. Instead the program teaches you to be smart about what you eat, and not over eating is a far better choice. Many people dig their own graves by starving themselves. In an active individual a restrictive diet, full of ‘diet’ foods will simply create plateaus on the training floor. Fatigue is a common sign of malnutrition, further leading to injury and a very serious energy breakdown. If you are looking to cut weight, lose weight and keep up your energy levels a program is vital to your success! Do it correctly with clean eating and meal timing. A diet defeats the purpose of a healthy and balanced lifestyle. A KB Body gal (or guy) needs to find the most healthy nutritional path and follow it as a lifestyle.
Hydrate for energy! Believe it or not, fatigue can often manifest itself from dehydration. After all, every system in our body depends on water. Amongst its many functions, water carries nutrients to our cells and flushes toxins out. Not drinking enough water can severally effect your performance and your daily energy output. First thing is first, do not replace water with any other liquid. Soda, energy drinks, coffee and juice are all different from your clear water bottle. Doctors recommend eight to nine cups of water a day for a healthy individual. If you are training in hot climates or simply training at a maximum output that prescription will change to a higher amount of fluid, approximately 13 cups of water a day. Carrying a water bottle with you everywhere is a sure fire way to stay hydrated. It might feel odd in the first week, but after you get used to it your body will naturally ask for water. Often individuals that are caught in daily dehydration do not feel thirsty. Once you start regularly drinking water through the day, your body will start to ask or it.
Planning to fight fatigue through the day is vital. Believe it or not, a business women or busy mom (or both:) who is a recreational athlete (works out several days a eek on a routine) and a professional athlete have one major thing in common; both must have a daily nutritional game plan. Without a daily game plan fatigue will more likely effect performance and daily life. If you know that your day will have a variety of business meetings, carry a bag of nuts with you for a fast snack. Similarly athletes who will be spending an entire day on the training floor must carry their mid day energy snacks with them, right next to their mouth piece. If you allow yourself to get caught up in the day with out taking in the proper foods, skipping meals and reaching starvation mode, energy for training and sustained output during training will be impossible. Carry your snacks like you do your work files and training gear, your energy will be better for it.
Finally, fatigue during an actual training session can be avoided by the pre-training meal BUT don’t make it a habit if you don’t need it. Secure your energy by taking in the correct combination of carbohydrates, a protein and fat through out the day. Do not cut any one food group. But as a pre-training tool a healthy pre-training snack can help ONLY if you need one. Do not just eat food because you feel you have to. If you are not hungry or don’t need it- DO NOT take in the calories. However if you feel like you are tanking mid-way in your workout, perhaps a pre-training snack can do! DO NOT have any type of sugary water unless you plan on endurance training for over 60 minutes (I write a full article on this, so search the Blog for more info on energy drink do’s & don’ts). If you do snack do not forget water with your snack, ideally eaten between 20-60 mins before you training. Your carbohydrate dominant snack will make sure you have the proper glycogen storage for optimal performance. Remember, your pre-training snack is made to fuel the entire sixty minutes, or more of your training session. Find something easy to digest, avoiding heavy foods and large quantities. A good estimate is a one hundred to two hundred calorie snack, no more! Ideal examples include all natural trail mix, apples and peanut butter, a banana with greek yogurt or a whole wheat bagel or my fav- a cold pressed veggie juice.
In the end, if you train smart, stay dedicated and set realistic goals your gains in health, body composition, fat loss, lean muscle, mobility, agility, flexibility, technique, strength can all be reached and even surpassed! Keep in mind that the only way to achieve is through a healthy balance of dedication, smart planning, rest, recovery, correct systemized workouts like those in the Body Series or Scorcher Series plans and proper nutrition as discussed in the KB Body book.
XoKb & Love you all and remember,
Your dedicated trainer & fellow kettlebell kickboxer Dasha Libin, MS, NASM-PES, NASE, MKC, M-KBIA