Do any of you ever feel "BIGGER" - like your weight loss, or toning, is going in the wrong direction? I've been so good, only missed one workout day in the past 2 weeks, eating decent, stopping at 7:30 PM, drinking lots of water, and today, I tried on a skirt that I swear was too snug! And on top of that - my caboose feels jiggly. What's the deal??
Do you ever feel BIGGER?
- Thread starter bernajo
- Start date
67firecracker
Cathlete
Oh yes! I've often said I feel like things fluff up before they fall off. I used to run all summer and would stop when the snow hit so I would then gain weight during the winter. Every spring the excess weight never bothered me until I started running again and then I swear every bump and lump grew!
In fact just two weeks ago I posted my regrets about my 'results' because I had completely cleaned up my diet and added more cardio and my thighs grew! Well now this week I've lost the excess and a little more! (Yippee!!!)
I've asked about this and noone seemed to share my observation but I'm convinced I fluff up before I lean out!
Also, I am very short waisted. I have only 1 finger space between my ribs and my hip bones. Usually in summer when I run I don't do alot of ab work but in winter when I do ab work I am thicker around my waist. I'm not sure it's supposed to be that way, is it?
Trish
In fact just two weeks ago I posted my regrets about my 'results' because I had completely cleaned up my diet and added more cardio and my thighs grew! Well now this week I've lost the excess and a little more! (Yippee!!!)
I've asked about this and noone seemed to share my observation but I'm convinced I fluff up before I lean out!
Also, I am very short waisted. I have only 1 finger space between my ribs and my hip bones. Usually in summer when I run I don't do alot of ab work but in winter when I do ab work I am thicker around my waist. I'm not sure it's supposed to be that way, is it?
Trish
So are you trying to tell me that I'm fluffing!!! And that I'll lose!! YYAAAYYY!!! I can only hope! I got so discouraged today. I thought, here I am working my butt off at the crack of dawn, and I'm goin gbackward. I started to fear it was the Gymstyle Workouts because I'd had a concern that the Legs workout would bulk me up, but I don't think that's it.
well, I'm not shortwaisted, but because I'm so pair shaped, my waist can easily look thick. I try not to do a lot of oblique work. Not a big worry, because none of the DVDs out these days seem to have a lot of it. I also started Lotte Berk's Hip Hugger Abs. Its a cheesy video, but it has helped my abs flatten and get a leaner as opposed to think look.
well, I'm not shortwaisted, but because I'm so pair shaped, my waist can easily look thick. I try not to do a lot of oblique work. Not a big worry, because none of the DVDs out these days seem to have a lot of it. I also started Lotte Berk's Hip Hugger Abs. Its a cheesy video, but it has helped my abs flatten and get a leaner as opposed to think look.
Yes that can sometimes happen it's also one of the reason why I recommend a rest week for those trying to lose weight. For some reason, during that week you'll maintain the *bigness* and then the week or two following the rest week when your really hitting the workouts hard, you'll shrink, and then maintain and then grow bigger again, but this time not as much as you actually lost some. And then you take another rest week, in the week or so following you shrink, grow, etc, I'm sure you get the picture. But for some reason taking it easy on your body for a week, slims you down. I'm not exactly sure why, I just get to see the results, and the numbers.
But I also think it has to do with the fat when you work a muscle to the point of exhaustion, it swells a little so if your doing this to your body every day, you are a bit swollen, so you are naturally bigger. This is just my guess, as I'm not a doctor, I do understand muscles but the body still has it's tricks it likes to pull and make us figure out.
Anyway good luck, and I hope you manage to shrink.
Kit
But I also think it has to do with the fat when you work a muscle to the point of exhaustion, it swells a little so if your doing this to your body every day, you are a bit swollen, so you are naturally bigger. This is just my guess, as I'm not a doctor, I do understand muscles but the body still has it's tricks it likes to pull and make us figure out.
Anyway good luck, and I hope you manage to shrink.
Kit
Thanks for the info Kit. So how often do you take rest weeks?
I take them at times - nothing structured - I just listen to my body. If I feel tired or I'm not interested in my workouts, I take a break for a good week. Do you recommend doing them on a more structured basis? Does yoga/stretching count as rest? It might be nice to focus on a week of just yoga.
Still sad that my "pear" is jigglin...
Joy
I take them at times - nothing structured - I just listen to my body. If I feel tired or I'm not interested in my workouts, I take a break for a good week. Do you recommend doing them on a more structured basis? Does yoga/stretching count as rest? It might be nice to focus on a week of just yoga.
Still sad that my "pear" is jigglin...
Joy
toastythemosty
Cathlete
O.k., my arms feel bigger...so that is good, right? I noticed my shirts are much tighter since I started working my upper body more. YEAH! No veins yet, but their coming!!!
I ate like a hog yesterday and the rest of me feels bigger too. No matter how hard I work out my legs, I can never seem to get rid of alittle dimple spot. I eat very clean so I don't get it either.
So KPC for me today and biking. I really got to stay focus and just give it all I got and not give up. I am literally going to have to hurt myself to get my legs to look the way I want them too. Just frustrated!
Charlotte~~
I ate like a hog yesterday and the rest of me feels bigger too. No matter how hard I work out my legs, I can never seem to get rid of alittle dimple spot. I eat very clean so I don't get it either.
So KPC for me today and biking. I really got to stay focus and just give it all I got and not give up. I am literally going to have to hurt myself to get my legs to look the way I want them too. Just frustrated!
Charlotte~~
futurefitnessdyanmo
Cathlete
Same thing happens to me too. This morning after my first attempt at GS legs, I was looking at my rear view and thinking my butt actually looks bigger and "fluffier" than last week - but I have been hitting the workouts harder this week. I've noticed this happens when I am working out more, so I tend to believe the fluff then lean theory...
I think everyone feels like this from time to time.And it all depends on what we decide to wear.Our mood can go down hill fast if we pick out clothes that are alittle tight in some areas.
I went to get my measurements taken yesterday for our uniforms and I pray to God,that the mirror the seamstress had there wasn't right.I didn't look to good.
But it only take a couple days of eating right and I feel slim again.Its weird how the mind works.
Lori
I went to get my measurements taken yesterday for our uniforms and I pray to God,that the mirror the seamstress had there wasn't right.I didn't look to good.
But it only take a couple days of eating right and I feel slim again.Its weird how the mind works.
Lori
Lynn M.
Cathlete
Hi-
I totally understand what you are talking about! I notice it after a particularly grueling lower body workout. My body will retain water and swell. I will even notice a few lb increase on the scale.
I've learned to minimize it by stretching more than usual, drinking extra water, and reducing my salt. ( well , the salt thing, kind of tough in that I am a total saltaholic!).
The good news is that after a few days the swelling goes away, and I do feel leaner and stronger!
Take care, Lynn M.
I totally understand what you are talking about! I notice it after a particularly grueling lower body workout. My body will retain water and swell. I will even notice a few lb increase on the scale.
I've learned to minimize it by stretching more than usual, drinking extra water, and reducing my salt. ( well , the salt thing, kind of tough in that I am a total saltaholic!).
The good news is that after a few days the swelling goes away, and I do feel leaner and stronger!
Take care, Lynn M.
Netta
Cathlete
This happens to me after long, hard bike rides (60 or 100 milers), with a lot of climbing. I think it's something about the muscles absorbing all the fluids and holding on for a few days. After a few days, I'm back to my normally plain squatty legs. I wonder if there is a name for this occurrence.
Jeanette
Jeanette
I usually try to take a rest week about every 4 to 5 weeks, as I don't miss workouts so my body has been working hard 6 days a week for 5 weeks I know it needs a break. And yes I always keep active on my rest week. I do mild exercising, and a lot of stretching I try to stay way from the weights and for aerobics I try to keep my heart rate down to my 60% working heart rate, so not to over stess my heart. As thats usually the one body part that we never give a break too. It works night and day and then we jump up and down making it work harder which is good for it, but it still needs a break from us jumping up and down to our max, 2 or 3 times every week or more. Yes in rest weeks stay active the couch is not part of the rest week, but just keep it light and allow your body to recover, and not have to constantly try to mend things that you keep unmending, as every day we put wear and tear on our bodies, just like we do on the tires of our cars. Just with our bodies we have an automatic fixer, but you still have got to allow time for this fixer to repair you. Or you just keep undoing things until you at the point it can't fix it fast enough and the next thing you know, is you hurt yourself and your in a whole lot of pain. If my 5 weeks have been really heard then I really do a light workout and a as much stretching as I can fit in, especally if I start to puff up a bit. If my 5 weeks haven't been so tough I still take a rest week but I don't take it all as easy as I would if I had worked really hard.
Listening to your body is good, as well as watching your body, but a seheduled rest week can do wonders as well. It just depends on how good of a listner you are. If you sometimes have a death ear to your body then scheduling one is usually the better then listening to your body.
So if your a good listener take them when you need to, or try to schedule one just to see how it works for you. As your might find the scheduled one catches right before you get tired and you have more energy or you might find that hte scheduled one is too soon. It just depends on you. Though I would say never go more then 8 weeks without a break. Even gold medalist take rest weeks between every 4 to 6 weeks. And some of Cathe's videos can pretty much equal the training that they do.
Kit
Listening to your body is good, as well as watching your body, but a seheduled rest week can do wonders as well. It just depends on how good of a listner you are. If you sometimes have a death ear to your body then scheduling one is usually the better then listening to your body.
So if your a good listener take them when you need to, or try to schedule one just to see how it works for you. As your might find the scheduled one catches right before you get tired and you have more energy or you might find that hte scheduled one is too soon. It just depends on you. Though I would say never go more then 8 weeks without a break. Even gold medalist take rest weeks between every 4 to 6 weeks. And some of Cathe's videos can pretty much equal the training that they do.
Kit
karenc1
Cathlete
Absolutely agree. This would happen to me when I was trying to drop 10 lbs in my late 20's. I would plateau for a couple weeks (and I'm already a slow loser--1-2 lbs per week) and all I would have to do is skip 2 or 3 days of workouts in a row and the weight loss would start again. Then I could go back to my weights/cardio. Always puzzled me but I thought that my body kind of was accustomed to my activity level and needed to be "jump started" again. /karen
Karen,
That could be it too and it's also part of the reason for a rest week, but allowing your body to rest for a few days, allows your body to repair and also drain out the fluild it's holding onto if you workout 5 to 6 times a week your body doesn't always have time to repair or drain out the fluild, as you retain fluild when you build new muscle fiber. The new fibers are new and they absorb everything trying to fit in with the old guys. Also when you work your muscles really hard they all take a huge drink. But if you bloat them too much they can actually explode. Like a ballon since it's one fiber you really don't feel much pain, and you may never even know it. And what your body tries to do every night you lay down and go to sleep is it runs around and starts to pump the water out of the fiber and then heal any mends or tears that happened during the day. As you do put wear and tear on your body, just doing normal things. But when you don't give it the time to mend everything, your mucles of course bloat more, you're at greater chance of tearing a lot more then a few threads here and there. It basically snowballs into a very uguly scene.
But in general if you dont drink enough water during your workout you will bloat, and if you work your muscles very intensively they will bloat from being thirsty and because your creating new muscle fiber, as well as the latic acid, the builds up in them, they try to grab the water to wash them selves out, and then your little fix it man runs around the pumps them out, but to do this you got to give them a break and not use them as intensively. Basically everything in your body is a cycle or on a clock. To get the best benifit and health you get to try and figure it out and then help it out.
And your right, a few days rest will help your body rest and then when you hit the workout again, it doesn't have a death grip on some of that fat cells in your body, and you can burn them up. As when you continusly work it 5 or 6 days a week it will in general say okay, I lost all this fat, I'm keepng this fat no matter what, as one day I may not get any fuel and I don't want to run out, and with all the work I'm doing I need that fuel. So it goes off and thinks this is the way it's going to be. When you suddently switch workouts to a lower intense one for 7 days it gives your body a false pretense that you aren't going to make it work so hard. So it goes around and losens it hold on the fat as your level of activity doesn't call for it to keep a death grip on it. And then on Monday when you back doing Cathe, those fat cells are free for your body to consume and burn up as your body no longer has that grip. So you usually burn a lot of fat the first two or three days, usually more then your normal fat burn, as it takes a cycle or two for your body to realize, you are back to intense and then it will run over and have good of a hold as it can with the fat you've stored in your body. This is also the reason why you should actually take 7 days off is to convence your body that your workouts are less of a calorie burner and it doesn't have to have such a high percentage of fat cells for that rainy day. Being less intense you need less calories which means less fat cells so it will take inventory and say, I just need those over there, and I'll hold onto those, those others are good but I don't need that much. And of course you take the operturnity to take it way the cells it's not worry about, and then you just continue to keep tricking it over and over again, until you loss that last pound of fat you want off your body.
There are a lot of reason to take a rest week, as it has a lof of benifits. And probably ones that scientists haven't found yet as well. Good luck and have a great workout.
Kit
That could be it too and it's also part of the reason for a rest week, but allowing your body to rest for a few days, allows your body to repair and also drain out the fluild it's holding onto if you workout 5 to 6 times a week your body doesn't always have time to repair or drain out the fluild, as you retain fluild when you build new muscle fiber. The new fibers are new and they absorb everything trying to fit in with the old guys. Also when you work your muscles really hard they all take a huge drink. But if you bloat them too much they can actually explode. Like a ballon since it's one fiber you really don't feel much pain, and you may never even know it. And what your body tries to do every night you lay down and go to sleep is it runs around and starts to pump the water out of the fiber and then heal any mends or tears that happened during the day. As you do put wear and tear on your body, just doing normal things. But when you don't give it the time to mend everything, your mucles of course bloat more, you're at greater chance of tearing a lot more then a few threads here and there. It basically snowballs into a very uguly scene.
But in general if you dont drink enough water during your workout you will bloat, and if you work your muscles very intensively they will bloat from being thirsty and because your creating new muscle fiber, as well as the latic acid, the builds up in them, they try to grab the water to wash them selves out, and then your little fix it man runs around the pumps them out, but to do this you got to give them a break and not use them as intensively. Basically everything in your body is a cycle or on a clock. To get the best benifit and health you get to try and figure it out and then help it out.
And your right, a few days rest will help your body rest and then when you hit the workout again, it doesn't have a death grip on some of that fat cells in your body, and you can burn them up. As when you continusly work it 5 or 6 days a week it will in general say okay, I lost all this fat, I'm keepng this fat no matter what, as one day I may not get any fuel and I don't want to run out, and with all the work I'm doing I need that fuel. So it goes off and thinks this is the way it's going to be. When you suddently switch workouts to a lower intense one for 7 days it gives your body a false pretense that you aren't going to make it work so hard. So it goes around and losens it hold on the fat as your level of activity doesn't call for it to keep a death grip on it. And then on Monday when you back doing Cathe, those fat cells are free for your body to consume and burn up as your body no longer has that grip. So you usually burn a lot of fat the first two or three days, usually more then your normal fat burn, as it takes a cycle or two for your body to realize, you are back to intense and then it will run over and have good of a hold as it can with the fat you've stored in your body. This is also the reason why you should actually take 7 days off is to convence your body that your workouts are less of a calorie burner and it doesn't have to have such a high percentage of fat cells for that rainy day. Being less intense you need less calories which means less fat cells so it will take inventory and say, I just need those over there, and I'll hold onto those, those others are good but I don't need that much. And of course you take the operturnity to take it way the cells it's not worry about, and then you just continue to keep tricking it over and over again, until you loss that last pound of fat you want off your body.
There are a lot of reason to take a rest week, as it has a lof of benifits. And probably ones that scientists haven't found yet as well. Good luck and have a great workout.
Kit
67firecracker
Cathlete
Wow Kit - that was beautiful!!!
Trish
Trish
Kit - A couple of questions - Do you receommend taking a rest week every 6 weeks? 8 weeks? What is a good rule of thumb?
Also, I plan to take 1 rest day each week for the next couple of months. Can I still do stretching or yoga (non-power) on this day, or should I not do anything at all?
Also, can you receommend a good recovery drink or suplement. I've heard of some people taking something before bed to help them recover during the night. Do you receommend or use this?
Thanks for sharing all of your wonderful information...
Joy
Also, I plan to take 1 rest day each week for the next couple of months. Can I still do stretching or yoga (non-power) on this day, or should I not do anything at all?
Also, can you receommend a good recovery drink or suplement. I've heard of some people taking something before bed to help them recover during the night. Do you receommend or use this?
Thanks for sharing all of your wonderful information...
Joy
dani21496
Cathlete
I've also heard that your muscles fill up with water when you workout hard. They absorb water before they repair themselves? Could this be the cause of feeling "bigger"? I agree with the rest week idea. I really think this works.
I stopped working out for a few weeks before my wedding. I was too busy. I was afraid I'd gain weight, but I actually dropped about 6 pounds.
This happened another time when I stopped working out so intensely and just stuck to Pilates for about 2 weeks. I lost 6 pounds doing this also.
Interesting!
I stopped working out for a few weeks before my wedding. I was too busy. I was afraid I'd gain weight, but I actually dropped about 6 pounds.
This happened another time when I stopped working out so intensely and just stuck to Pilates for about 2 weeks. I lost 6 pounds doing this also.
Interesting!
Hi Joy,
Oh yes, keep your body moving on a rest week and even a rest day, stretching is a great activity on your rest day. On rest day you want to take a break from working your muscles with weights or working your heart by jumping up and down with cardio. Even a nice slow to moderate pace walk is good on rest day. Basically something light or mild, or stretching. You are actually trying to give your body recovery time, so it can repair all the wear you did that week.
As for a rest week, I personally take on between every 4 or 5 weeks. As I found that schedule really works for my body. Basically you want to take a rest week before your muscles start feel tired and over worked. Which at first can be really hard to guessimate. And rest week does not mean sit down. Keep things in the light to moderate range, I love to do a lot of stretching that week I try to add it in on 3 different days. If you do cardio keep it low, 50 - 60% of your max heart rate, this should right before you break a sweat cardio, no real sweating. Unless your hot blooded then you'll have to take your pulse instead. As for weight training, I'd recommend droping the the heaviness of the weights in half or not use them at all. As you are trying to rest and trick your body into believing this is its new easy life, and allowing it to repair and drain all the acid and water out of the muscles, so you don't want to create much more if you can avoid it.
I usually add Yoga and light cardio on alternating days, and yes I still take my rest day on rest week and that I actually give myself the complete day off with no workout or stretching. Now with Cathe's StretchMax, I'm sure it will replace a day or two of the Yoga.
Also if you notice your not getting results, or it seems like your working and its just kind of hlah, it's a good time for a rest week.
What you'll have to do to start a rest week is to experiment, try a rest week at every 4 weeks, and if it seems like that is too soon, then try it every 5 or 6 weeks. Make sure your try it twice to see as not always the first time gives you the best impression. I don't recommend anyone going more then 8 weeks without a rest week. As I haven't meet anyone who could go over 8 weeks and not actually be going down hill in their workouts. If you notice your rotating your workouts more then you use to, it can also be time for a rest week, as it can show that your muscles are getting over trained or your wearing yourself out too fast and your switching for the rush, so you can keep going. Once you start taking rest weeks its a lot easier to find out what interval works for you. As your body gets that rest week and then you see what you can do when you come out of that rest week and you can actually see yourself going a bit down hill if you wait too long.
Another way I do rest weeks is I do one before I start a new rotation, this allow me to come in blasting on the new rotation and really seeing what it can do for me, as well as what I can really push to do myself. I also find that I feel like I really accomplished something as I do a rotation have a week off signaling I finished it, I'm done and and then I'm starting a whole new workout rotation and it's more like a goal and it feels great when you hit that rest week and know you did that rotation to the best of your ablity, and you can recover and hit the nest one as hard as you can, and break your plateaus. Ever since I started doing rest weeks and actually keep them on a schedule I have never plateaued for more then 2 weeks, and it's usually that last week before I hit rest week, rest week I stay the same as the last week and then I change once I start up again. It's almost like someone turned on the light swtich.
But really set up your rest week before you take it, have an idea what your goingto do, at least you don't have to do the day by day thing if that's not your style just make sure you got the basis covered. Long walks and stretching, or a light aerboics tape that you used when you first started exercising, as Cathe's tapes wouldn't excatly fit into the *light* cardio work. Just give yourself enough not to get bored, your still working but basically at half your level, and then go for it. Once you take one or two, you will see a change and you will feel the change as well as seeing yourself kind of drag a bit, and when you see that take note as to how many weeks you went before the drag happen and make sure to take your rest week the week before the next time around. So do take a rest break some where between 4 to 7 weeks, and then play around with your activies until you find ones that really re-energize you as well as keep the muscles moving and allow your body to repair, there are a ton out there. Walking, a nice slow bike ride, Yoga, Pilates, slow dancing, slow jazzerize, a nice long hour in the Sauna, a dip in the pool (without doing many laps but doesn't mean you can't do a nice light workout), a nice dip in the hot tube, and work with and against the current, etc.
Hope that helps,
Kit
Oh yes, keep your body moving on a rest week and even a rest day, stretching is a great activity on your rest day. On rest day you want to take a break from working your muscles with weights or working your heart by jumping up and down with cardio. Even a nice slow to moderate pace walk is good on rest day. Basically something light or mild, or stretching. You are actually trying to give your body recovery time, so it can repair all the wear you did that week.
As for a rest week, I personally take on between every 4 or 5 weeks. As I found that schedule really works for my body. Basically you want to take a rest week before your muscles start feel tired and over worked. Which at first can be really hard to guessimate. And rest week does not mean sit down. Keep things in the light to moderate range, I love to do a lot of stretching that week I try to add it in on 3 different days. If you do cardio keep it low, 50 - 60% of your max heart rate, this should right before you break a sweat cardio, no real sweating. Unless your hot blooded then you'll have to take your pulse instead. As for weight training, I'd recommend droping the the heaviness of the weights in half or not use them at all. As you are trying to rest and trick your body into believing this is its new easy life, and allowing it to repair and drain all the acid and water out of the muscles, so you don't want to create much more if you can avoid it.
I usually add Yoga and light cardio on alternating days, and yes I still take my rest day on rest week and that I actually give myself the complete day off with no workout or stretching. Now with Cathe's StretchMax, I'm sure it will replace a day or two of the Yoga.
Also if you notice your not getting results, or it seems like your working and its just kind of hlah, it's a good time for a rest week.
What you'll have to do to start a rest week is to experiment, try a rest week at every 4 weeks, and if it seems like that is too soon, then try it every 5 or 6 weeks. Make sure your try it twice to see as not always the first time gives you the best impression. I don't recommend anyone going more then 8 weeks without a rest week. As I haven't meet anyone who could go over 8 weeks and not actually be going down hill in their workouts. If you notice your rotating your workouts more then you use to, it can also be time for a rest week, as it can show that your muscles are getting over trained or your wearing yourself out too fast and your switching for the rush, so you can keep going. Once you start taking rest weeks its a lot easier to find out what interval works for you. As your body gets that rest week and then you see what you can do when you come out of that rest week and you can actually see yourself going a bit down hill if you wait too long.
Another way I do rest weeks is I do one before I start a new rotation, this allow me to come in blasting on the new rotation and really seeing what it can do for me, as well as what I can really push to do myself. I also find that I feel like I really accomplished something as I do a rotation have a week off signaling I finished it, I'm done and and then I'm starting a whole new workout rotation and it's more like a goal and it feels great when you hit that rest week and know you did that rotation to the best of your ablity, and you can recover and hit the nest one as hard as you can, and break your plateaus. Ever since I started doing rest weeks and actually keep them on a schedule I have never plateaued for more then 2 weeks, and it's usually that last week before I hit rest week, rest week I stay the same as the last week and then I change once I start up again. It's almost like someone turned on the light swtich.
But really set up your rest week before you take it, have an idea what your goingto do, at least you don't have to do the day by day thing if that's not your style just make sure you got the basis covered. Long walks and stretching, or a light aerboics tape that you used when you first started exercising, as Cathe's tapes wouldn't excatly fit into the *light* cardio work. Just give yourself enough not to get bored, your still working but basically at half your level, and then go for it. Once you take one or two, you will see a change and you will feel the change as well as seeing yourself kind of drag a bit, and when you see that take note as to how many weeks you went before the drag happen and make sure to take your rest week the week before the next time around. So do take a rest break some where between 4 to 7 weeks, and then play around with your activies until you find ones that really re-energize you as well as keep the muscles moving and allow your body to repair, there are a ton out there. Walking, a nice slow bike ride, Yoga, Pilates, slow dancing, slow jazzerize, a nice long hour in the Sauna, a dip in the pool (without doing many laps but doesn't mean you can't do a nice light workout), a nice dip in the hot tube, and work with and against the current, etc.
Hope that helps,
Kit
Yes your muscle fibers fill up with water, either when they are being newly made/created, when they are tring to get the latic acid out of themselve Ie trying to take a bath. And the water helps to dilute the acid and not make you so sore, but your puffy, also your muscles need the water to refresh and cool down. They are just like a pice of platic, you you bend or twist it back and forth quickly it gets hot. Try this with an expired credit card and bend it in half but not before it breaks then bend it the other way, and go back and forth like that as fast as you can, then touch the center of the fold. It wll be warm to very hot. Your muscle are just like that, or like your skin you sweat because your woking so hard, your muscles are trying too cool themselves as well and get rid of the yuck they are releasing so it can go out the sweat glands or threw one of the other *doors*. So yes there are many may uses for water and that is way everyone tells you to drink water when exercising as you can get dehydrated very easily. As everyone is using water and then the most important places don't get their fill because it's all used up. This is also the reason why you can stand on the scale 1 minute before working out and weight X and after the workout stand on the same scale and weight X + 5. Your drinking but everyting is still in absorbing mode and it takes time for it to stop and actually start to release the water and you finally go back to your *normal* weight. But if the recovery time isn't long enough you just keep that water and then your puffy, until you give your body time to get back on track. Usually you can un-puff in a day or two, but depending on how long your body held water, will depend on how much your little fix it person has to run around and fix. As if your puffy for a week or more your stressing those muscle fibers really hard, even if you don't feel it. As that's like eatting something and it really giving you a major ton of gas as well as making you feel as bloated as the Good Year Blimp, this is what is happening to your muscle fibers, just they don't have neves so you never feel it. And certain strands will have broke and all that has got to be repaired and made new again and it's just one huge continious cycle, that never ends, unless you take charge, and stop the cycle with rest days, rest weeks or chainging your routine from time to time.
And yes if you work out really intenstly you can send your body into perservation mode and it will hold onto everything it can get a hold of, and you won't lose a single ounce but when you stop, it relexes and you drop weight, as it's not trying to survive what your doing to it. Your being nice and it doesn't have to fight for it's health. If your not dropping and your doing something major intense workout, either take a rest week or try to add more food. I know sound strange but more good healthy food, can actually get it out of that mode and then you start to lose again. As it a lot of times feels that it doesn't have suginficant amount of fuel so it will conserve when ever you your workout is over. So during workout it burns like crazy because it has no choice, after workout it will stop burning so fast, usually you have so many hours after a workout that you'll burn extra calories becausse of the workout, your body will actually be trying to shut that down sooner then normal and it will actually lower it calorie burner so you don't burn as many calories doing your every day thing. Which in turn makes you not lose weight, so you are actually defeating your own purpose of having a really intense workout. As you burn calories really good during the workout, but after the workout it ls like your car can only go 20 miles an hour no matter what instead of the normal 55 miles an hour. So any calorie burning benifit, is gone.
I hope this helps explain things,
Kit
And yes if you work out really intenstly you can send your body into perservation mode and it will hold onto everything it can get a hold of, and you won't lose a single ounce but when you stop, it relexes and you drop weight, as it's not trying to survive what your doing to it. Your being nice and it doesn't have to fight for it's health. If your not dropping and your doing something major intense workout, either take a rest week or try to add more food. I know sound strange but more good healthy food, can actually get it out of that mode and then you start to lose again. As it a lot of times feels that it doesn't have suginficant amount of fuel so it will conserve when ever you your workout is over. So during workout it burns like crazy because it has no choice, after workout it will stop burning so fast, usually you have so many hours after a workout that you'll burn extra calories becausse of the workout, your body will actually be trying to shut that down sooner then normal and it will actually lower it calorie burner so you don't burn as many calories doing your every day thing. Which in turn makes you not lose weight, so you are actually defeating your own purpose of having a really intense workout. As you burn calories really good during the workout, but after the workout it ls like your car can only go 20 miles an hour no matter what instead of the normal 55 miles an hour. So any calorie burning benifit, is gone.
I hope this helps explain things,
Kit