Indoor Sport Services Training Guide

Target Group: Anyone wishing to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight.

Introduction

Many people confuse being overweight with obesity. Being overweight may just mean that you weigh more than the average for your height. Often this can be explained by an unusually heavy bone structure or well-developed musculature.

Obesity on the other hand relates solely to the percentage of body fat deposited about the body. These fat deposits will result in body changes such as a bulging stomach or double chins. Women in particular will display drooping breasts and fat deposits on the thighs and both sexes will be subject to flat feet.

Obesity will increase the risk of disease, in particular respiratory and heart disease. It can also lead to conception and pregnancy problems as well as shorter life expectancy and higher mortality rates. High blood pressure, cirrhosis of the liver and diabetes are more common in obese people. In addition obesity will increase the risk of kidney disease, inflammation of the gall bladder, hernias, arthritis and varicose veins.

Weight Check

There are some simple checks to see whether you are overweight; perhaps the simplest is not to weigh yourself but to look at your profile in a mirror. Without pulling in your stomach check for bulges.

A doctor can calculate your percentage body fat by taking a series of measurements with callipers at different points of the body. Pinching yourself on the upper arm, thigh and midriff and seeing if there is more than 2.5cm is a good guide to being overweight.

As you get older, your body shape and make up will change and relying on the scales alone may not be enough. Use a tape to measure your waist, hips and chest to see if there is any increase. When you do use the scales, always use the same ones and at the same time of day, as your weight will fluctuate naturally.

Weight Reduction

Weight reduction is a health issue and it is therefore wise to consult your doctor before embarking on any drastic eating regime.

Psychologial Eating Disorders

Anorexia Nervosa is a serious eating disorder, which occurs most commonly in adolescent girls and young women. Dieting is taken to such an extreme that the person becomes emaciated and, the dangers to health, created by obesity, are replaced with another equally dangerous range of health risks if not treated.

Bulimia Nervosa is characterised by periods of binge eating followed by vomiting or purging the body through excessive fasting, use of enemas, laxatives, diuretics and compulsive exercising.

Compulsive eating is also a psychological problem where the sufferer becomes addicted to food, which often results from depression, frustration, boredom and loneliness.

If you suffer from any of the above eating disorders then you should seek medical advice.

Methods of Weight Reduction

There are two types of aids that are designed to help reduce weight. Active aids require the user to carry out physical activity, which burns calories. Passive aids claim to reduce weight without the need to exercise but these are of little use. For example muscle contractions caused by external electrical stimulation may improve muscle tone if you are particularly flabby but will not reduce weight. Vibrating belts do not break down fat. Although the user may find them relaxing, they do not burn calories. Reducing garments and saunas can lead to temporary weight loss due to sweating, but this loss will be replaced as soon as you take a drink.

Reducing weight will require an amount of self discipline if you are going to be successful. Going to health farms is expensive and they will only control your diet while you are there. For long term success it is up to you. Even your doctor will be able to do little to help unless the weight problem is as a result of a medical condition. If you do need support then a diet club is the best option but you will still have to do the work.

When deciding on an exercise activity, there are a few things to consider. If you are overweight there is already additional stress on muscle and joints. For this reason it is better to avoid activities that cause impact like running. Also it is better to look at activities that are non-weight bearing and this is why the Indoor Rower is ideal.

Start off gently and remember that initially it is better to finish feeling you could do more than being dead on your feet. Gradually increase the training volume as your fitness level improves and don't expect miracles. It took a long time for the fat to accumulate, it will not disappear overnight.

Anyone, whether they train or not, must balance their energy intake with energy expenditure in order to maintain their bodyweight. This is represented by the energy balance equation:

In reality this means that in an ideal situation where energy intake and expenditure are equal there is no excess energy stored from food and no use of the body's energy stores. If energy intake is greater than energy expenditure the body stores energy in the form of fat. If energy expenditure is greater than energy intake then the body uses stored energy to top up its requirements. It is this principle that people wishing to lose weight must capitalise on.

For weight management, long periods of low intensity exercise are recommended. However, during exercise, the body will use dietary fat before it uses stored fat, so to make your exercise effective, you will need to reduce the amount of fat in your diet.

A balanced diet is one where you match the energy intake through your diet with the energy output of your lifestyle. Energy is measured in calories and is provided by a combination of carbohydrates (glycogen) and fat. For each gram of glycogen we get just over four calories of energy and for each gram of fat we get nine calories. If you exercise at high intensity, you will burn more calories, but they may not be the ones you want to burn, and just counting calories may not take into account the energy source you are using.

To achieve and maintain your weight goals you need to have realistic expectations and not seek a quick fix. Many people have unrealistic expectations, want swift results and give up if these fail to occur. Here are just a few of the weight loss myths exposed:

• Crash diets do not work. Low calorie diets may result in a quick weight loss, but studies show this is usually temporary and that the body gets accustomed to a low calorie intake and slows down the metabolism. On return to a normal diet the metabolism will not be able to speed up sufficiently to burn off the extra food and will store it as fat.
• Skipping meals makes the body famished and causes overeating. It is better to space calorie intake over the course of a day. To lose weight it is best to eat 25% of calories at breakfast, 50% at lunch and 25% at dinner.
• Hard workouts are not the answer. In order to burn fat, slow down and exercise longer to get the body to use its own fat cells for fuel, rather than the glycogen stores in the muscles.

It is very important when dieting in order to lose weight that a sustainable lifestyle is created. Losing more than 1% body weight per week can be detrimental to health and is often caused by dehydration and not actual loss of body fat. In order to successfully lose weight, there are three areas that you need to pay equal attention to for a successful outcome. Two of these are a reduction in the calorific value of the food you eat and an increase in the calories burned via exercise, while the final element is the mental commitment needed to stick to the regime. All three elements are covered in detail within the Training Guide. The four stage programme illustrated in Table 6.1 increases the exercise duration to a maximum of 90 minutes. It is also worth looking at the weight training programme for rowers in Section 7 which, utilises low weights and high repetitions. It is high in energy costs and would be beneficial to anybody seeking to reduce their weight. Finally, make sure you read Section 9 : Sports Psychology. This contains important information on target setting and enforcing success along with a chart to fill in, laying out your goals. This process helps you to measure your successes and failures, and is highly motivating.

Before you start the programme you should take measurements of your waist, hips, chest, neck, biceps, wrists, thighs and calves. It will then be possible to tell if you are making progress towards your ideal body shape. The reason for doing this and not simply relying on your body weight as an indicator of your progress is that as you progress through your training you will increase your muscle bulk. Muscle weighs significantly more per unit volume than fat as it is denser so your weight may not appear to change, or may even go up, but in fact you are losing body fat, and your body shape will indicate this more clearly than your weight.