Fitness

EQUIPMENT: GET PREPARED FOR YOUR WORKOUTS

Ready to invest in the minimal exercise equipment required in the following GLOW programmes? Whether exercising at the gym or working out from home, this list allows you the freedom to move your body with intention anytime & anywhere!

The complete checklist:

Loop bands
Power band
Exercise ball
Pilates ball
Yoga mat
Dumbbells

Everything you need to know when purchasing…

Loop Bands

3 varied strengths:
• Light
• Medium
• Heavy

Power Band

Light Power Band: Provide between 5 – 15lbs (2 – 7kg) of resistance and are usually 6mm in thickness. These resistance bands are perfect for performing high rep isolation exercises such as bicep curls and tricep pushdowns. These power bands can also be used to perform mobility exercises such as face pulls and external shoulder rotations, which makes them a perfect warm up tool.

Medium Power Band: (our personal favourite & a good place to start) typically provide between 20 – 35lbs (9 – 16kg) of resistance and are usually 13 – 15m in thickness. These resistance bands can be used to activate and engage both upper and lower body limbs through strength training exercises that utilize medium to high rep ranges.

Medium Heavy Power Band: typically provide between 30 – 50 lbs (13.6 – 22.6kg) of resistance and are usually 21-22mm in thickness. These resistance bands are typically used to perform compound exercises such as banded: squats, deadlifts, chest presses & rowing movements.

Exercise Ball

Depending on your height:
55cm (5’ – 5’5)
65cm (5’6 – 6’2)
75cm (<6’2)

Pilates Ball

20 – 25cm

Yoga/Exercise Mat

A good exercise mat will have four key features: grip, stability, comfort and durability.
Grip: Slipping of the hands, feet and forearms is the last thing you need when it comes to performing exercises correctly. Find a mat with a non-slip surface that allows confidence of movement
Stability: Look for a mat that will lie flat without curling at the corners that will not budge when performing an exercise.
Comfort: This is important, particularly if you plan to work out on unforgiving flooring like hardwood or tiles. There should be enough cushioning to allow you to do a few crunches without crippling your spine.

Dumbbells

How heavy should my dumbbells be?
It can be tricky to know what weight to pick for exercises, so we always want to you remember this:
1. The exercise should feel challenging, not impossible.
2. You should be able to complete the number of listed reps:
3. WITHOUT compromising your form at any point during the set.

Generally for beginners we would recommend going for a weight set of: 2kg, 4kg & 6kg

This gives you enough room to play and you can always step things up by adding in a few heavier pieces and even redoing the programme with heavier sets once your strength has increased.

However, if buying 3 sets is a bit of a big ask right now, a happy medium would be to go with a 4kg set and use your bands for the exercises that you require a lighter weight for. This gives you time to assess how much heavier you could go OR how much lighter you should go.

Where to purchase?
All major sporting outlets or online platforms in your preferred country.

5 REASONS TO INVEST IN YOURSELF PRE-PREGNANCY

When creating GLOW, our founder, Giorgina Slotar quite literally drew a circle divided into three equal parts. (Bear with us). The top part of the circle focused on pre-pregnancy, the next became pregnancy, and the final section was destined to be postpartum. These formed a cycle, with postpartum heading back into the pre-pregnancy phase again.

It all starts with you…

YOU are the pre-pregnancy phase. As the life source to yourself, you are the most important person to prioritise before going into the phases that follow. If you’re going to meet the demands of each phase (pregnancy and postpartum), you need to lay the right foundation during the pre-pregnancy phase.

Need a little more convincing? Here are our top five reasons to invest in pre-pregnancy:

Our three-prong approach sets us apart. It’s what makes GLOW different from the other apps focused only on pregnancy and postpartum. Don’t get us wrong, there are so many great ones out there. Sadly, we find they’re missing the crucial point of educating women on the importance of investing in and putting ourselves and our health first prior to considering a family. Why? When you do this, not only are you both mentally and physically preparing yourself for this next phase, but you are investing and creating your own internal support structure that will see you through your pregnancy and postpartum, too.

1. Your PRE baby health = your POST baby health

Investing in your pre-pregnancy health and wellness is essentially opening the most important savings account you’ll ever own… a health investment account!

Any sweat “equity” you invest pre-pregnancy builds a cardiovascular and strength blueprint for you to draw from in the coming stages. Think of each workout and nutritious meal as a deposit into this very important account. As you enter your postpartum journey, when you are ready to start your recovery journey, it’ll be more manageable as you get back into exercise. You’ll also be able to recover from exercise with ease and continue to build (yes, build) upon the health platform that you’ve already created pre-pregnancy. As for all of those deposits that you made pre-pregnancy, you don’t lose those either. They’re ready and waiting for you to cash in on postpartum to make the transition into motherhood so much easier as they are going to be your fallback in the weeks that you shouldn’t even be contemplating exercise.

Your sweat “equity” will make you less prone to soreness and injury, so the more exercise you do pre-pregnancy, the more memory you can bank and the easier it becomes to make deposits during pregnancy and beyond.

2. You increase your chances of conceiving

When you get into the best and healthiest shape prior to thinking about trying to conceive, it allows your body the chance to actually prioritize conception. Our bodies are creatures of survival and if you are unwell or even just simply not in your best health – it becomes your body’s first priority to deal with whatever stress it is under: illness, fatigue due to incorrect nutrition, lack of sleep and even over-training to name a few. So developing a healthy, balanced and sustainable approach is key.

3. You can create the healthiest home for your baby to develop in

Your little one’s foundation of health starts within his or her very first home – your womb. Creating a healthy home for your little one to grow in for the first 9 months of development is simply crucial. So even if getting into shape and health isn’t first on your list of personal priorities, it should be number one on your priority list for your future baby.

4. You are able to continue exercising throughout your pregnancy

We see it often with women that fall pregnant and have led pretty sedentary lives up until their pregnancy. They suddenly get a bee in their bonnet to “hit the gym” now that they are expecting, as they are worried about gaining too much weight throughout their pregnancy. This is a very important point to come to terms with: you can only continue to train at the level you were training at PRIOR to falling pregnant. Therefore, if you were not training prior to pregnancy, you should not train hard during. This doesn’t mean that you can’t do low-key exercises such as walking and supervised pilates, but you cannot suddenly start hitting the gym full steam ahead. If you have established a healthy exercise routine prior to pregnancy, providing you have no complications, you can train right up until the end at a maintenance level if you are comfortable and energetic enough!

*Maintenance level: No harder than you were training prior to pregnancy, while making the correct adjustments as you move through your trimesters. This is why the GLOW pregnancy programme is broken down into trimesters: to account for the changes your body goes through at each stage.

5. You will feel better about yourself during pregnancy, reducing your chances of postpartum depression

Being able to train throughout pregnancy will increase your mood, due to the positive release of endorphins. These will encourage healthier eating habits and enable greater control when it comes to gaining unnecessary weight throughout your pregnancy. This makes it easier to get your strength back postpartum, reducing your chances of postpartum depression, often linked to a mother’s lack of self-esteem post pregnancy due to changes in our bodies and a feeling of not knowing ourselves anymore.

Become the best version of yourself at every phase with GLOW

Ready to embrace your strength, enjoy greater health and prepare yourself for the greatest journey of all? It’s time to get GLOWing. Unlock your free trial now and join our all-inclusive community today.

4 THINGS TO STOP DOING FOR THE SAKE OF EXERCISE

1. Sacrificing sleep

This is not only detrimental, it’s counterproductive. Not enough rest = poor recovery, hormone disruption, inflammation, fatigue & mental stress. 

Conclusion: Less energy to actually perform at your best both in your daily life and during your workouts.

2. Skipping rest days

Rest days allow your muscles properly recover, keep your cortisol (stress hormone) in check & water retention at bay in order see results and come back stronger.

Conclusion: It’s also important to note the relevance of giving yourself a mental break! Life is about more than hitting the gym every day and your muscles!

3. Trying to out-exercise a bad diet

This is like being a hamster on a wheel. No matter how hard you run, you’ll still be in the same place. 

Conclusion: Focussing on nutrition first sets the stage for results, while providing the correct fuel to ensure more effective workouts. Your workouts are like the icing on the cake.

4. Exercising as a form of food punishment

Exercise and movement is a celebration of what your body can do, and not to be abused through the use of it as punishment for what you just ate.

Conclusion: Food is to be used as fuel to nourish and nurture that strength because you love your body, not the reverse.

Don’t know where to start? That’s why GLOW exists! Choose from any of our workout programmes that include 3 – 4 effective weekly workouts to meet you wherever you’re at and our comprehensive, customizable meal planner with 100+ simple, delicious & healthy recipes to choose from to help harness your exercise results with the correct nutrition!

Click here to start your free trial today!

WHY TO DO CARDIO AFTER WEIGHTS?

At GLOW it’s important to us that our workouts are as quick & efficient as possible. Why? Because we have found time and time again through working with 100s of women around the world that this is when working out becomes sustainable and when lasting results are found. As much we love working out, we’re aware that nobody enjoys long, drawn out and tedious hours spent doing so, nor do any of us have the time for them.

We believe in creating workouts to achieve maximum results in as little time as possible. In other words, workouts that give you the “biggest bang for your buck.”

So, let’s get stuck into why you will notice all of our cardio programmes specified for after the resistance part of the workout in your GLOW programmes (unless cardio has been added circuit-style into the workout itself or no cardio is specified for that workout.)

WHY DOING CARDIO AFTER WEIGHTS IS SO MUCH MORE EFFECTIVE:

1. Carbs are not the devil! Let’s put them to good use!

The primary energy source of energy that your body relies on to fuel resistance training efficiently are your fast acting, readily available glycogen (carbohydrate) stores within your muscles. When you do your resistance training first, you are able to utilize & deplete those stores, resulting in greater endurance for this section of your workout, while allowing you to build strength and lean muscle mass more effectively.

2. Hello stubborn fat stores!

Now, seeing that you have already depleted your glycogen stores with the first section of your workout, you get to put those stubborn, slower acting fat stores to good use. Your body will always use your fat stores last, meaning that when you save cardio for the end of your workout, a far greater percentage of fat burning takes place, while preserving your lean muscle “gains” as the gym junkies like to call them.

Think about burning fat like digging for gold. You have to get through layers of dirt and rock (muscle glycogen) before you can get to the gold. Doing cardio first is like digging for gold with a shovel. You’ll eventually see gold, but it will take a while. Doing resistance training first is like showing up to the same dig site with a digger loader. Enough said?

Doing cardio AFTER your weights could just be the time saving trick that you are looking for to help you burn fat faster, while preserving muscle tone to actually start seeing a change in your body. Trust us, once you make the switch, you’ll never look back!

Looking for quick, effective and guided workouts? The GLOW app offers a range of workout programmes to cater to every fitness level and stage of life. You also don’t need to have access to a gym and we are here to guide you every step of the way!

Click here to start your free trial.