Eat and Exercise in Chicago

There are lots of Food Joints and Classy resto’s around Chicago. Chicagoans love to eat, no doubt but are they fit? The first response to anyone wanting to gain muscle is usually, “Are you eating enough?” And it’s asked for good reason: if you aren’t taking in enough calories, then no matter what you are doing in the gym your body simply won’t have the raw materials with which to lay down new slabs of muscle. So, are you eating enough? In order to determine this I encourage you to do a food log, if only for a few weeks. Livestrong.com’s Daily Plate application is one I encourage clients to use often because it’s free, easy to use, and has a feature that calculates your metabolic rate and determines approximately how many calories you will need based on your bodyweight and goals. If after a few weeks you feel you are still not getting in enough calories, then bump it up a bit on days that you train, but don’t add more than a couple hundred extra calories for now. Now that you are taking in enough calories, look at the ratio of protein/carbs/fats in your diet. I generally start people off at 40% protein, 30% fat, and 30% carbohydrates. For most people this will require upping the protein and dropping carbs. Most people I see take in up to 60% carbs without realizing it, and far too little protein. Looking again at protein, because it is such a crucial element in the diet of anyone looking to gain muscle, try to take in about 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight per day. That may seem like a lot, but if you eat a healthy breakfast and get good protein sources into your lunch and dinners, it shouldn’t be much of a struggle at all. And is having to eat more meat really that hard? Find a smart program like Personal Training Chicago or have one designed for you by a fitness professional like a Personal Trainer Chicago, that is either full-body (working all or most of your major muscles each workout) or that uses a push-pull, or upper-lower split template. Many people I see that have trouble putting on muscle are either following no program, not sticking to one, or following a bro-gram that has too much isolation work (biceps curls, leg extensions). Body-part split programs may work for you at some point, but if you are a ripped 135 lbs. then don’t bother with the specialized arm or quad work. There are many reasons for this, but basically you are putting in a lot of work for little or no return with isolation exercises. You’re investing too much energy in exercises that work too few muscle fibers. The basic idea here is to use a progressive, periodized program that features some variety in intensity and volume. You want enough of each to cause adaptation, but not so much that you peak or burn out too early in the program. You also want a system that rotates exercises so you avoid overuse injuries and hit your muscles from a variety of angles and movement patterns. Your program at this point should primarily have multi-joint exercises. Personal Trainers Chicago encourages those that work many muscles at once. Squats, lunges, chin-ups, and presses are good examples. Your smaller muscles will get plenty of work with just those exercises, and adding in more triceps pressdowns or biceps curls may hinder rather than help. In general, stick to no more than six exercises per session.