Innovation

The health emergency associated with the spread of Covid-19 has strongly changed our habits and forced us, in spite of ourselves, to spend most of the day at home changing our habits regarding training and nutrition.

This gave rise to a physiological need to remain active even through home physical exercise, which, let’s remember, must from now on always be accompanied by proper nutrition. It should always be remembered that there are no general rules that apply to everyone, so it will be necessary to adapt the diet and the type of physical activity you intend to do.

The first question to ask yourself is: what is my goal?

Lose weight? Increase muscle mass? Define my muscles? Based on the answer, the recommended diet and type of training will be calibrated differently according to the goal we intend to pursue. Whatever the goal, nutrition is still the foundation to start from.

If our goal is to lose weight, we must take into account that without caloric deficit is not weight loss: that must be clear. A caloric deficit, i.e. intake of fewer calories than our body will use, can only be achieved by reducing caloric intake or increasing energy expenditure through training.

• If, on the other hand, we intend to stimulate the development of muscle mass, then we have to put ourselves in the exact opposite perspective.
• In this case, our body needs an energy surplus to build muscles, because a caloric deficit would only lead to a catabolic process and thus to the destruction of muscle mass.

We often make the mistake of thinking of exercise and nutrition as separate fields, when in fact they are closely related. In fact, it is not uncommon to decide to undergo very intense physical training by introducing a very low or insufficient calorie intake.

Well, in such cases, despite the enormous physical effort, the results will be very poor, because the caloric deficit will prevent the growth of muscles, which, on the other hand, require sufficient nutrients to support the anabolic stimulus. In this case, it is enough to change the type of diet and follow adequate training to achieve excellent results in a short time.

The second question we ask ourselves is: what kind of training?

The health emergency we are experiencing has forced us to stay at home for long periods of time and has forced us into a sedentary lifestyle that many of us are not used to. This created a need in each of us to try to stay active despite everything.

1. First of all, it should be taken into account that energy and macronutrient requirements will vary depending on the type of training we choose.
2. For example, 30 minutes of exercise bike or exercise bike is not comparable to 40 minutes of functional training.
3. So let’s try to understand what are the energy requirements and macronutrients that our body needs before and after training.
   • • Pre-workout food (ie before training) has the main function of enabling our body to face training in optimal condition. It will be necessary to provide the right nutrients that can support muscle activity.