Week 5: A Week to Strengthen the Base

Hey everyone! I trust that you guys had a great week and are as enthusiastic to hear my progress.  As Friday rolls around, I am very eager to share my progress and some new stories. So lets dive right into it! 

Like the last few weeks, the general routine for me this week was constant. I was able to observe people working out, learn some new exercises and what muscle(s) they target, and how could these potentially lead to less stress. I was also able to workout with my site mentor when he had some free time.  However, what stood out this week was the talks I had with my site mentor.  These topics were basically from curiosities that I had and processes that I was confused about when working out on my own. 

The first topic I discussed was on what to eat before and after the workout. I asked my site mentor this question and he referred me to one of the other trainers there who he felt knew a lot on the subject. We then asked the other trainer and he was willing to explain it to me. Him and I sat down and discussed it further. He explained that one should eat carbohydrates and proteins before and after the workout.  He further elaborated that depending on the person, the ratio of carbs to proteins changes—usually the ratio is 4 carbs to 3 proteins.  He also recommended that one should eat an hour and a half before their workout and the carbohydrates consumed then should be slow digested carbohydrates.  After the workout, he recommended that one should again have carbs and proteins, but the carbs could be ones that are more easily digested.   

The second topic was on what types of exercises to burn more fat. My site mentor told me that I should not think of fat burning in that way. He told me burning fat does not occur on a hourly basis, but rather on a daily basis. If you use more calories than you consume daily, you  generally burn more fat.  He said relatively speaking certain exercises can help in the process of using calories throughout the day, but fat loss is based on daily caloric intake and expenditure not certain specific exercises. 

Moving on to what I did this week with my research. Last week, I had mentioned a trend that was occurring. My site mentor was not able to get the surveys out to many people who come in the morning and evenings. This was because many were in a rush to get in an out of the gym. This week he was able to send the surveys to more people. But the problem of people forgetting to finish the surveys was still there. This again limited my sample group this week to people who came in the afternoon. I asked if there was any way to mitigate that. He said it is difficult to make sure people fill out the survey. I then suggested that I come in earlier a few days. Potentially, physically being present could be an incentive for people to fill the survey out right after the workout. He thought that was a good start, so I plan on trying that next week. Despite the problem still existing, I was able to get six more people to take the survey this week.  I hope with this new idea, I am to get more people to complete the survey.

In the coming weeks, I hope to start planning on ways to gather a control group as. I also want to gather more data on the sample group to soon begin analyzing the data for trends.

Well, that’s all I have for this week! I trust I did not bore you with this long post. Tune in next week to see what new things I do! Until then…