Day 9: Water!!!!

Water

Today's workout is below but firstly I wanted to spend some time talking about water. Generally in whatever you read regarding fat loss or weight loss there are the cardio routines, the weights sessions, nutrition, calorie deficits. These are stressed to a very high degree. If you want to lose fat then you must follow various and differing opinions on the above some of which I will give you my own experiences in later posts.

However, very few articles ever mention water. This is possibly the most important and often most overlooked part of any fat loss program. Every process and metabolic pathway that takes place in the human body requires water. It is also required to flush out the toxins and other harmful waste products. If you have ever seen information in articles it usually mentions 8-10 glasses of water per day. Well in a recent article that I read it has been determined that this is the absolute minimum that you should be drinking per day and if you exercise regularly you should be drinking a lot more.

If you do not drink enough the effects are many and varied but needless to say if you are only partially dehydrated this will have a negative effect on your workouts and thus slow you from reaching your goal. It may also contribute to your tiredness as well as many other issues.

Many experts say that in order to work out how much you need to drink you need to know how active you are and a good measure of this are the number of calories you burn:

2000 calories burnt requires 2809 ml (~3 litres)
2500 calories burnt requires 3400 ml (~3.5 litres)
3000 calories burnt requires 3844 ml (~4 litres)

So as you can see if you have even a relatively low calorie intake you should be drinking a lot more than what is generally recommended. This is pure water over and above your tea / coffee, your workout drink etc. It takes dedication to make sure you drink enough just as it takes dedication to go to the gym each day and to eat healthily but it is probably the one thin that most people forget/

If you haven't been drinking enough then get yourself a good size water bottle and fill it 3 - 4 times per day and see the difference it makes. Combined with a good exercise program and nutrition plan it will make a big difference.



Another hard HIT workout, anything in red is an increase since the last HIT session:

Today's Routine

HIT Run (each interval is for 1 minute, each cycle is 4 minutes)

• Cycle 1: 6 kph, 12 kph, 14 kph, 16 kph
• Cycle 2: 6 kph, 13 kph, 15 kph, 17 kph
• Cycle 3: 6 kph, 13 kph, 15 kph, 17 kph
• Cycle 4: 6 kph, 13 kph, 15 kph, 17 kph
• Cycle 5: 6 kph, 12 kph, 14 kph, 16 kph, 16 kph (one final extra minute). The last 30 seconds I pushed it to 17 kph

Cycle (10 minutes)

• 5 minutes at effort level 6 keeping 100 - 105 rpms
• 5 minutes at effort level 10 keeping 90 - 100 rpms
  

Hand Bike (10 minutes)

• 10 minutes at effort level 8 maintaining a constant 70 rpms

Elliptical Cross Trainer (5 minutes)

I alternate this to work the calf muscles more, the 1st, 3rd and 5th minute are performed on your tip toes or ball of your foot.
5 minutes at effort level 12 maintaining 140 spm

Until tomorrow....