The Hindu Business Line : 30-day fitness plan

I’m 23, 5 ft 3 inches tall, weigh 60 kg and am a software developer. As my job involves sitting in front of the computer all the time, I’ve started developing tyres around my stomach and am getting a fat behind. Could you suggest any exercises for these spots?

Jyothi

I’ve made an easy-to-follow monthly fitness plan for you. It has spot-jogging to burn fat and two exercises to tone your targeted spots.

Day 1 to 5: Spot-jogging 10 minutes @ 80 steps per minute.

Day 6 to 10: Spot-jogging 20 minutes.

Day 11 to 15: Spot-jogging 20 minutes + 20 abdominal crunches +20 butt-tighteners.

Day 16 to 20: Spot-jogging 20 minutes + 40 abdominal crunches + 40 butt-tighteners.

Day 21 to 25: Spot-jogging 20 minutes +60 abdominal crunches + 60 butt-tighteners.

Day 26 to 30: Spot-jogging 20 minutes + 80 abdominal crunches + 80 butt-tighteners.

Day 31 onwards: Spot-jogging 20 minutes + 100 abdominal crunches + 100 butt-tighteners.

Spot-jog with thick-heeled shoes on a cushion to prevent your ankle and knee joints from getting jarred.

Abdominal crunches: Lie on your back on the floor-mat, knees bent, feet flat on floor, hands behind your head. Raise your shoulders, then lower. Contract your abdominal muscles as you raise and lower.

Butt-tighteners: With half kg weights strapped on ankles, stand behind a chair, holding chair-back for balance. Keeping back and leg straight, extend leg back at an angle away from body. Repeat. Do other leg. (You can do this exercise in your office too.)

Abdominal compressions: You can do this exercise just before lunch at your office table. Push the chair a little away from the table. Sit on chair with feet on table. Raise feet off table, knees straight, and hold for 30 seconds. Repeat 3 times.

Avoid fat foods like whole milk, cream, icecream, butter, ghee, deep-fried snacks. Prefer raw salad over cooked sabzi. Drink one-and-a-half litres water daily. Within a month, you will tone up; in 3 months, you should have lost 3 kg. Aim for 55 kg.

I’m 5 ft 1 inch tall and weigh 37 kg. I desperately want to gain weight. Please suggest some simple techniques to gain weight.

Radha

Here’s an effective diet-plan for weight gain:

Morning nectar: 1 glass banana milkshake.

Breakfast boost: 2 slices buttered bread. 1 boiled egg/1 slice cheese. 1 cup tea/coffee.

Noon freshener: 1 glass lassi. 2 apples.

Lunch-in-leisure: 2 chappatis and 1 cup rice. 1 cup dal. 1 cup sabzi (greens thrice a week.). 1 cup non-vegetarian curry (3 pieces) or paneer (3-4 pieces). 1 glass warm water.

Tea-time treat: 1 glass tea/coffee brewed in milk. 12 grapes.

A dreamy dinner: same as lunch but without the non-vegetarian/paneer dish.

Please understand, your constitution needs a settled atmosphere and easy to digest foods. Some tips:

Eat at the same time every day.

Sit down and eat in calm circumstances and an even frame of mind.

Have well-cooked food, not raw salads.

Relax after a meal to allow your body to flow effortlessly into its digestive phase.

Being underweight points to a metabolism that’s too rapid and a restless (fidgety) temperament. So, you need to generally slow down and de-stress. Do the walking meditation — stroll under the morning or evening sun amicably at an easy pace until you relax fully and feel as if everything around you has slowed down.

Finally, prepare your system for a good night’s sleep by having a quiet, peaceful evening — read a good book or listen to soothing instrumental music. Follow these principles but measure their success by how good you feel rather than how much you weigh.

I read that to exercise twice a week is sufficient to keep healthy. Is it so?

S. Bhattacharya

You’d be surprised how rapidly unexercised muscles decondition! An exerciser who stops exercising loses all that marvellous conditioning s/he had gained in four days. If the body is completely immobile, the muscle loses about one-fifth of its natural strength. Plus the circulatory, respiratory, digestive and nervous systems become less efficient. Stamina decreases, so does immunity. The fact is: the body cannot store the conditioning it gains from exercise the way it can store fat, however we may wish otherwise! So, to answer your question, to exercise twice a week is not at all enough. To exercise on alternate days 3 times a week helps maintain an above-average level of physical fitness. And to exercise daily, moderately, is the best for optimal and good health.

When I go on a saltless diet, I lose weight very quickly. Do you recommend such a diet?

Manish Agarwal

No, I do not recommend a salt-free diet. Cutting out salt leads to loss of water in the body. So, you lose water, not fat. Sodium (salt) is an essential mineral. Deprived of sodium, muscles cramp and feel weak. Moreover, you should never do anything drastic. It only stresses the body, activates its physiological survival instincts where it becomes imbalanced. Always aim for a balanced diet. And exercise regularly.

The writer is co-author of the book ‘Fitness for Life’.

Mail your queries to life@thehindu.co.in

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