Q&A: What to Do on The Days You Overeat and What Does the Perfect Warm Up Looks Like?

How is your week? Mine is really busy, because besides everything else I do, I have some finals at the University. But my hardest exam was today, so now I am free to focus just on training people and writing for my blog, and reading of course!

Thank you for all the wonderful messages you sent me the past week.

I decided to answer the questions about what to do on the days you overeat and what does the perfect warm up looks like.

Here is my opinion. I’d love to hear yours, so write it below in the comments.

Hello, Ines. I always warm up with 10-15 minutes on the treadmill. I was wondering if this is a good warm up and if it isn’t, what could I do instead?

For most people, a warm up is just a way to fluctuate your blood a little bit, before getting busy with your work sets. It doesn’t matter if you are gonna be walking on the treadmill and staring the space… the important thing is to rise up your pulse, right?

That’s what I thought back in the past, but not today!

Today I see a warm up, as a preparation for the real workout.

What would a good warm up look like, in my opinion:

1.Optimally short– you do not need to spend too much time warming up; doing a bunch of exercises; bending, stretching… after all do not forget that I am a fan of workouts that last between 40-50 minutes. If the warm up is too long, how would you expect to have time for your work sets?

Besides that if you over exaggerate the warm up, you might get tired before you actually start working out!

2.A warm up should assist, add to the movements, that you will incorporate in your workout on that particular day.

That means, that when you are gonna do some heavy squats, you could incorporate some body weights squats in your warm up.

If you do weighted lunges, Bulgarian squats and etc. you could do some body weight lunges or dynamic lunges in your warm up.

If you are gonna practice your jumping, incorporate some step- ups or jumps on a rope.

3.A good warm up, doesn’t drain you, but it prepares you, so you could feel ready to lift some heavy weights.

If you do not “dose” your warm up appropriately; if you do it too intense, you are pretty much gonna exhaust yourself, before you’ve even started lifting.

Don’t forget that a warm up is the prelude to your workout, and as such, you should start easier, and not give it all out, as if I am standing beside you, with a stop watch, counting the last seconds, before you complete the standards for the Olympics.

Personally, I love warming up by using a combination of dynamic stretching, resistance bands and body weight movements. Here are some examples of a warm up:

3 rounds:

10 resistance band, shoulder dislocations

10 resistance band stretches

20 mountain climbers

10 air squats with a band overhead

5 warm walks

Handstand holds

3 rounds:

10 shoulder dislocations with a band

10 band stretches

20 mountain climbers

10 lunges

10 push-ups

Handstand holds

3 rounds:

10 shoulder dislocations

10 band stretches

50 jumps on a rope

5 squats with a lunge after each squat

Side band Walks (10 each side)( check out HERE )

Handstand holds

Ines, I read your post about cheat days and your opinion about this kind of eating. Unfortunately, I still can’t go without having a cheat day. But I am having a problem. On a cheat day, I always overeat and on the next day I feel guilty. Then, I try to compensate for the overeating, by either not eating at all or by eating just fruits. The problem is that besides the guilt I feel, I am starving and I get in an enchanted circle, where I overeat, then starve. What would you advise me? What could I do on the next day, after a cheat day? How am I supposed to eat?

For those of you, who haven’t read my post about cheat days and my opinion about them, you can read it HERE.

It would be much better if you overate the day before, on the next day just eat as usual, according to the plan. Don’t skip meals, in order to lower the total amount of calories you eat; don’t decrease the food quantity, in order to lower the amount of calories you eat! Just eat as if yesterday nothing has happened! Free yourself from the feeling of guilt; don’t spend the whole day thinking about yesterday and throwing self- hatred!

Negative self talk doesn’t help you! In fact they just sharpen the problem and unnecessary exaggerate the situation! I will sincerely tell you that if you overeat for just one day, it won’t harm your physique, nor it will stop your progress!

But if you try to do wonders in order to expiate your guilt, chances are you are gonna dig yourself deeper and make the problem bigger than it was in reality! You will get in the enchanted circle of self- hatred, depressive moods, desire to quit, followed by binges! It doesn’t sound good even to read that, and what to say about being the main character in this scene?  I wouldn’t recommend it!

So if you happened to eat more last night, forget about the apple diet, the water diet, the oreo diet, the fruit diet and the starvation! I encourage you to join me for the usual breakfast of eggs and veggies and let’s get back on track!

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