It is a common myth that there is one universal solution to achieving ideal personal health through nutrition and fitness. Some believe the keto diet is the universal solution to weight loss, some believe that running 5 KM a day is all you need to maintain peak fitness levels.
The truth is, there is no universal solution. What might work for one person may not work for another when factoring in body types, lifestyle choices/events and stress markers. Nutrition and personal training plans should be tailored accordingly. In this blog, we will cover three different kinds of people and what kinds of nutrition and personal training plans they should be following. We will look at:
- Athletes
- Bodybuilders
- Everyday people who are looking to shed body fat
1. Athletes
Many kids grow up dreaming of the idea that they could become professional athletes. Whether it be making that final buzzer-beating shot in the NBA finals or hitting that grand slam to secure a world series title, these are moments that every kid has dreamed of being in. Every kid, at one point or another, believed that they could be a professional athlete, but what does it take to get there? This is a question we will answer in this blog by looking at the necessary fitness and nutrition routines that professional athletes go through.
Obviously, a nutrition and training routine is dependent on the sport you are playing, this is because different sports require different kinds of muscle. For example, a sport like hockey will require you to have more bulk in your lower body muscles in order to retain stability on the ice and withstand physicality from opposing players, while in a sport like basketball, working out muscles such as the calves and biceps/triceps will help you jump higher and shoot the basketball faster and with more ease.
We will now look at two of the most popular sports in North America and take a more in-depth view into the proper nutrition and workout plans necessary to make it in the big leagues.
Basketball
In this sport, it is important to have the right balance of endurance and lean muscle. This is why it is important to incorporate cardio into your everyday workout, as running back and forth on the court throughout a basketball game can take its toll. Try and get at least 40 minutes of cardio into your workout, with a split of light jogging/incline walking to train your endurance and sprinting to improve your explosiveness and speed on the court. You will as well want to work on building up lean muscles in key areas, such as
- Quadriceps, Thighs and Glutes: Working on these muscles will help you pivot and crouch with more ease while defending an opposing player or while trying to use your footwork to get past a defender to the basket.
- Calves: Working on these muscles will help you jump higher and get you closer to the basket or over an opposing defender.
- Shoulders, Triceps and Biceps: Working on these muscles will help you raise your hands and contest shots from an opposing player with more ease, as well as improve your endurance in your upper body when you take 10 or 20 shots a game.
- Core Muscles: This is maybe the most important group to work on, with a strong core so you can remain stable while your legs do the brunt of the work powering your shots and keeping you in a crouch position when playing defence. Lack of core muscle can lead to lower back injuries as well.
- Plyometric Workouts: Workouts such as these will help improve your quickness, explosives, coordination and agility. These are important as they will help you explode to the basket faster around defenders or perform a quick step back for the three-point-shot to seal the game. Examples of these workouts include zig zags and agility ladder workouts.
It is important to note that these workouts include a lot of cardio and as a result, make you burn calories fast. That is why in order to maintain the muscle you build in the gym, it is important to have a diet that consists of a lot of lean protein such as chicken, eggs, beans and fish. You want to make sure that you are not burning more protein than what you are eating in order to bulk up the essential muscles needed to dominate on the court.
Baseball
The sport of baseball has two important components, offence and defence.
When a team is on offence, they are trying to run the bases as many times as possible, which is made possible by hitting the ball as hard as possible. This is why it is important to incorporate sprint training into your workout, as this will help you run as fast as possible from base to base. When a team is on defence, they are trying to catch the ball and beat the runner to the base they are running to. Incorporating both of these parts of the game, these are the muscles that are most used and therefore are important to work on in the gym with a trainer:
- Core: When swinging the bat, your knees are bent, and the middle section of your body is twisting. In order to stabilize this position and help get some of the power from your legs, it is important to have a strong core. As well, core strength is important for a pitcher, this is because when you pitch the ball, you are twisting your torso, and in order to stabilise your body and harness power from your legs, you need to have a strong core.
- Shoulders, forearms and wrists: These muscle groups are where a majority of the power in your swing comes from. It is simple, in order to be able to swing the bat with more power and get that grand slam that you need to win the game, you need to work out your shoulders, forearms and wrists.
- Hamstrings and Calves: The other important aspect of offence in baseball is running the bases. Hitting the ball with power is great, but if you cannot beat the ball to first base, then it does not mean much. This is why it is important to work out your leg muscles, such as your hamstrings and calves, as these muscles will give you more power in your run and help you get from base to base faster.
- Latissimus dorsi (Lats) and Triceps: When attempting to throw the ball to the base that the runner is attempting to beat you to, it is important to throw the ball fast and accurately. For this action, it is important to have strong lats and triceps. These muscles will give you the power needed to beat the runner and get them out.
The nutrition needed for baseball players is similar to that of any athlete. It is important to eat protein either before or after a workout in order to maintain and grow your muscles. It is not recommended to eat too much protein close to a game as they take a little longer to digest. Instead, easy-to-digest carbohydrates are better near game time, such as fruits, multigrain wheat products and vegetables
2. Bodybuilders
A majority of people who go to the gym regularly have the dream that one day, they could be a bodybuilder. They want perfectly toned arms, six-pack abs and the physique of a supermodel.
This can be done! It requires hard work, discipline and, most importantly, the knowledge of how to achieve that. We will walk you through how, with the right personal trainer, this is possible.
It is important to note that to get to the status of being a bodybuilder, the work needs to be done both in the gym and in the kitchen, not one or the other exclusively.
It is important to stay consistent with your workouts. If you can, try and go to the gym 5-7 times a week. Once you are there, it is important to hit every muscle group so that your physique is balanced and not bulky in one area of the body and small in another. The five most important muscle groups are.
- Legs
- Back
- Chest
- Arms/Shoulders
- Core
You must work out each of these groups at least once a week. It is important to have rest days at least twice a week as well, where instead of lifting heavy weights, you do cardio workouts. Having rest days gives your body time to recover and helps prevent injury. So an ideal workout schedule can look like this:
Day 1: Leg
Day 2: Chest
Day 3: Recovery/Rest day (cardio)
Day 4: Arms
Day 5: Recovery/Rest Day (cardio)
Day 6: Back and Core
Day 7: Shoulders
Now we will take a deeper look into what each workout should entail:
Leg Workouts
The four important muscles that you should be working your legs are: Quadriceps, hamstrings, calves and glutes. Although often neglected by some people, the legs are one of the most important muscle groups to work out as they help stabilize you when working out your upper body and can help prevent lower back injuries as well.
- Standing Calf Raises
- Seated Calf Raises
- Barbell Squat
- Lunges
- Hip Thrusts
- Deadlifts
- Hip Thrusts
- Squats and Deadlifts
Chest Workout
Working on your chest is important as it helps stabilize your shoulder joints as well as performing simple everyday movements. Here are some workouts you should incorporate into your chest workouts:
- Barbell Bench Press (Incline, Decline and Flat)
- Dumbbell Bench Press (Incline, Decline and Flat)
- Pec Fly
- Low to High Cable Fly
- Chest Dip
- Pushups
Back Workouts
The muscles in the back that you should workout are the latissimus dorsi (lats), rhomboids, trapezius (traps) and all the muscles residing in the lower back. These muscles are key to working out as they will give you great posture and, when done with proper form, prevent future injury.
- Barbell Deadlift
- Lat Pulldown
- Shrugs
- Back/Hyperextensions
- Pullups
- Dumbbell Rows
- Cable Rows
Arm Workouts
Working out your arms is the typical first form of exercise that people think about when they want to start working out. Having strong arms will help you lift more in general and will just simply make you significantly bigger and more toned as well. The main muscles in the arm you should be working out are your biceps, triceps, wrists and forearms.
- Bicep curls (dumbell or barbell)
- Tricep Pull down
- Skull Crusher
- Barbell reverse Bicep Curls
- Plate Pinch
- Dumbbell wrist curl
- Dumbbell Kickback
- Hammer Curls
Shoulder Workouts
Working out your shoulders is a good way to improve your posture and the sturdiness of your shoulder joints. This will help prevent common shoulder injuries. The main shoulder muscles you should be working on are the anterior deltoids, lateral deltoids and posterior deltoids (rear delts). Here are the workouts you should incorporate in your shoulder workouts:
- Dumbell/Barbell front raises
- Dumbell/Barbell Overhead shoulder Press
- Incline W Raises
- Seated Behind the Neck Barbell Raise
- Side Dumbell Lat Raises
- Military Press
- Dumbbell Incline Y raise
- Seated Dumbbell Rear Fly
- Dumbbell Rear Delt Pulls
Core
Working out your core is maybe the most important muscle group to workout. Having a strong core helps keep you stabilized in your proper workout forms for most types of exercises, helps prevent those tricky back injuries, and, of course, gives you the one thing every person desires: a six-pack. The areas of the abdominals/core that your workouts should focus on are the upper abdominals, the obliques and the transversus abdominis. Here are the exercises you should incorporate into your ab workout:
- Cable Crunches
- Russian Twists
- Side Bend
- Knee Raises
- Decline Crunches
- Weighted Planks
- Hanging Leg Raises
- Weighted Sit Ups
For all these different kinds of workouts, it is important always to have the perfect form, as having poor form can cause injury, this is why it is important to have a personal trainer who can teach you the proper forms and as well help design specific workouts that best suit your body. It is also important to always stretch before beginning a workout.
A bulking and cutting cycle is recommended for bodybuilders. With this cycle, you spend half the year trying to build bulk and muscle fast and half the year trimming down while maintaining the muscle built in the bulk cycle.
Bulk
When you bulk, it is important to eat more calories than burning. This is because your body needs extra calories to build and maintain muscle. Your diet should be very protein-heavy, and you should even consider taking supplements such as creatine that will help you maintain muscle mass. When bulking, your workouts should be structured so that you are doing fewer reps (about eight reps) and heavier weights.
Cutting
When you cut, you are attempting to maintain the muscle you built on your bulk while cutting some of the excess fat. You do this by having a calorie deficit (burning more calories than what you are eating). It is important to keep eating protein as you want to maintain your muscle. Your workouts should be structured inverse to how bulk workouts are (more reps, a bit less weight).
3. The everyday individual who wants to burn body fat
The final type of person we will look at is probably the most common type, the person who is looking to shed fat and feel more confident. You typically see them in the gym after new years for a few weeks, but slowly as the months go on, there are fewer and fewer of them. This is due to the fact that they will set unrealistic expectations and diets for themselves and get discouraged, but it doesn’t have to be this way.
With the right knowledge and help on their side, these kinds of people will no longer need extreme diets that set them up for failure. A personal trainer would help come up with a realistic diet and workout regime that achieves long-term results.
The most important concept for people trying to lose weight is simple: burn more calories than you are eating. This doesn’t mean you have to cut out all junk food and starve yourself. All this means is you have to manage your portions a bit better.
Having a way to track the calories you eat each day is also a helpful trick, whether that be preparing grocery lists ahead of time or using an app that tracks your calorie intake. A personal trainer can also be extremely helpful as they will guide you through this process with the best knowledge and expertise available.
Eating lots of fruits and vegetables is a good first step when trying to lose weight, as these foods can fill you up but are less caloric. It is also important to have a balanced diet that contains all the important nutrients such as proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals, fibre and, of course, water.
When trying to lose fat, it is important to have lots of cardio in your workouts, as this is a great way to burn calories quickly. This can be anything from running on the treadmill to playing sports. Working out all your muscles is another good way to lose calories and tone specific problem areas around your body.
For more information, book a free consultation with one of our personal trainers today. Our trainers are experienced, educated and properly equipped to help any kind of person achieve their fitness and health-related goals!
