Shaun Michael, Fitness Enthusiast, answers your most pressing questions about fitness.
Putting the fun in fitness, Fitness Enthusiast @seowie shares his views on how he stays focused on achieving his fitness goals.
How often should you train & should you always train intensely?
Perhaps 6-7 years ago when I first started consistently going to the gym, I used to push myself to failure with each set and trained incessantly everyday. However, these days I am a lot more methodical with my programming. I find that rest is equally important to making progress. I still train everyday but to varying intensities, peaking up to heavy and intense sessions once a month. The most important thing is to listen to your body!
For instance: Perhaps your Bench Press Max is 100kg. In this case, make use of online max reps calculators & program to estimate your RPE and working reps range, an example program would be:
Week 1: 70kg 3 Sets of 12, 36 Total Reps
Week 2: 80kg 4 Sets of 8, 32 Total Reps
Week 3: 90kg 5 Sets of 5, 25 Total Reps
Week 4: 95kg 6 Sets of 3, 18 Total Reps
How do I find what drives me to exercise?
This really depends on what you want to achieve; a nicer body, to get stronger, more athletic or just to keep fit. Personally, for me – fitness is something that I enjoy doing and I would do even if it wasn’t involved in my line of work.
How can I fit in fitness to my busy schedule?
As a full-time student and having started my own business, I know the difficulties and challenges with finding time to workout to accommodate a busy schedule. I am a firm believer in the power of daily habits. Start with simple fitness habits and routines. For instance, cutting out sugary drinks and doing 20 pullups every night before you shower. While you might think that these are really simple habits, however, in the long run, they definitely inculcate a better discipline towards fitness, and doing a little each day is better than doing nothing. After all, if you’re feeling good, you could even just go for more!
I can’t seem to stick to diets. How can I eat better to achieve my fitness goals how to lose weight?
(1) Cardio/HIIT - go for a cycle or a run! you can even do a bunch of supersets with weights, keep these workouts dynamic
(2) Drink lots of water - fills your stomach and curbs hunger pangs
(3) Caloric Deficit - I find eating a lot of vegetables (i.e celery, broccoli) really helps cause they are voluminous and don't have a lot of calories. also, have a good mix of slow-acting carbs (i.e beans, quinoa) to give you the energy to last through the day so you don't snack!
Which product on www.crazybadman.com do you like the best?
I like the vegan protein that CrazyBadman sells because the flavour is really unique and tastes surprisingly refreshing to me. It’s quite interesting to note the rising awareness and adoption towards a plant-based diet. It’s a flavour that has really grown on me.