Tuesday Tip: Pump(kin) it up! 🎃

Well it is Hallowe’en today so I kinda had to focus on the most famous (and only?) of hallowe’en vegetables! The pumpkin!

So they’re not just great for carving cool spooky lanterns, in fact their nutritional benefits are so good – they’re scary!

Not only is pumpkin really low calorie (only 26kcals in 100g), it also contains no saturated fats or cholesterol, and is rich in fibre, anti-oxidants and B vitamin. They are super high in vitamin A – a single serving giving you over 4 times your daily recommended amount of this vital vitamin. It’s great for eye health and for essential immune function – great to ward off those seasonal colds at this time of year.

It’s particularly good for helping you recover from your workouts. Pumpkins are high in vitamin C – which as well as boosting your immune system also helps the body produce collagen. This is vital for maintaining the structure of your bones and keeping them strong! It’s full of beta-carotene which is a fantastic natural anti-inflammatory, which will help reduce your post-workout recovery time! On top of that it’s also rich in potassium (it has more potassium than bananas). This helps to restore the body’s electrolyte balance after a heavy workout which means you will recover faster and keep those muscles functioning properly.

It doesn’t end with the flesh – the seeds are also brilliant too. They are also full of anti-inflammatory compounds and rich in healthy fats, protein and fibre and recent evidence suggests they can help with pelvic floor issues (having an impact via anabolic action on pelvic floor muscles and relaxing the bladder muscles and bladder overactivity. So sprinkle them over your brekkie or grab a handful for an on the go snack!

It’s such a versatile veg – you can use it in casseroles or stews, make a yummy soup, oven roast it, throw it in a curry, and you can use it in baking too – it makes a great egg or butter replacer in muffins and loaf cakes, and you can even make a pumpkin butter!🤗

The pumpkins sold for carving aren’t the best for cooking as they’re grown to have less ‘meat’. So if you’re buying purely to eat it’s worth going for other pumpkins or squashes, but the carving ones are still perfectly edible. So as you’re carving those pumpkins today save a bit of the flesh and try roasting it or throwing it in a casserole etc.

Happy Hallowe’en guys!

🎃👻

Xx

Tuesday Tip: Ice baths for recovery? 🧊

Common post workout recovery options include sports massage, active recovery and cold water immersion, with the latter gaining popularity as ice baths have become a must in “self-improvement/discipline” circles recently. Social media is full of celebrities and fitness personalities sharing their cold water immersion practices, with dedicated tubs/barrels etc.

But are they really any better than other recovery methods and could they even be hindering your recovery and strength gains?

Studies have shown that cold water immersion didn’t provide much benefit for strength related outcomes when compared to just resting or other methods of recovery such as massage. In fact it was less effective. Several studies have also found that ice baths can negatively impact muscle and strength adaptations. A recent overview of studies found that taking an ice bath immediately after a workout leads to less muscle growth than resistance training alone.

While taking an ice bath after your workout won’t completely prevent muscle growth, you might gain less muscle than if you didn’t. This is because the cold reduces muscle protein synthesis – the process the body goes through to build new muscle – by limiting blood flow to the muscles. If you decrease the amount of blood flowing to the muscles, you also reduce the availability of amino acids the body needs for muscle synthesis.

For competitive athletes, it may be a viable recovery option leading up to a competition in conjunction with adequate rest and food, particularly at time where fatigue needs to be quite low. So it may help give that extra push as far as feeling recovered goes and even slightly contribute to some performance increases. If you’re someone looking to increase muscle mass, cold water immersion should be used sparingly (e.g. only after very hard training sessions) as it can interfere with hypertrophy (muscle growth). Daily cold water immersion will not completely negate muscle growth, but may take away from your hard work in the gym, a trade-off that is not really worth the hassle as the recovery benefits don’t seem to be anything revolutionary . So the next time you see your favorite influencer present daily ice baths as a MUST DO for recovery and performance, remember that their claims are not really supported by the current scientific evidence.

Happy Tuesday 🤗

Xx