Fitness 1 by Coach KK

Keshav started on his fitness journey like most others do, with the aim to lose just a few inches off his waist, however little did he know that it would soon become just more than an hour that he spent in the gym trying out different workout programs. From having tried and failed at random workout programs that led to an endless pursuit of self-education and a hunger for knowledge, Keshav found his passion in helping others who are or at some point were, stuck in their respective fitness journeys. Over the past couple of years, he’s helped people reach their fitness goals be it losing weight, building muscle, increasing strength, becoming more flexible or simply improving endurance and stamina by educating, providing unique fitness programming and systematic communication with all his clients. Keshav takes only selected clients who have a desire to become fit and healthy, not just on the outside, making sure that every single client is coached personally and not through ass...

Every time we step on a weighting scale to check our weight, we see a number which shows us the total body weight. For the sake of this post, I'll be using the following equation:  Body Weight = Fat Weight + Lean Body Weight To know more about Lean Body Weight and Fat Weight click  here . In simple words, it is possible to lose body fat without losing body weight, with the assumption that the lean body weight also increases roughly by the same amount as body fat reduces. Now if the change in body fat (decrease) is unequal to the change in lean body weight (increase), body weight will change. This change in body weight will be dependent on the relative changes in either body fat or lean body weight or both. There can be several reasons for losing inches from the waist or a reduction in body fat without seeing any change in body weight. Some reasons are listed below: Reduction in body fat with a roughly equal increase in lean body mass. If you’re not doin...

Green Tea has gathered a lot of attention in recent years as a weight loss product. Is it really beneficial for weight reduction and losing those extra inches off your waist. Lets take a look. First of all, have you ever seen any green tea product in the market which has specifically mentioned on their packaging that consuming green tea reduces belly fat. Chances are that you won't find any brand that says so. If you do, please send me a picture of it as well. Now, I’m talking about regular green tea here, prepared in hot water and not the supplemental form that comes as a pill. Weight loss happens because of being in a calorie deficit i.e. consuming less calories than required for body weight maintenance. Most weight loss plans range from 2 - 6 months, which require complete dedication and consistency to successfully achieve a target weight. So, to answer this question, green tea prepared in hot water will not aid in belly fat reduction or weight loss or fat loss, if yo...

I get asked about the best “Indian” weight loss diet a lot these days. Here’s my answer for that question: Well, if there was such a thing as “The Best Indian Weight Loss Diet” wouldn't every Indian be on it. Who want to be overweight, fatigued, fat and unfit anyway. If the best weight loss diet actually existed everyone would be fit, toned, muscular and healthy. To put the entire weight loss philosophy into a simple equation, I would say: Weight Loss = Calorie Deficit i.e. consuming less calories than for weight maintenance Thats it. No hidden secrets, no false hopes and certainly no absurd food choices. If your unaware about your current calorie intake, calculate that first. It can be done using a food tracker app on the smart phone. MyFitnessPal is a good one. Then balance out for appropriate ratios of protein, carbs, fats and fiber. Reduce intake and be consistent. Drink plenty of water and follow a well balanced exercise program. This is as simple as it g...

For those of us, who swear by lifting a loaded barbell be it for achieving a personal fitness goal, preparing for a competition, or simply to look a little leaner and muscular, creatine is one supplemental product that catches our attention even before the session gets over. Now, I’m certainly not here to debate weather it should be in your monthly supplement shopping list, simply because not everyone will benefit from it, but is has become a staple complementing my post workout shake. If your already eating loads of red meat almost every day, creatine may or may not show any positive results for you. However, for some like me, who’s primarily getting in calories from a lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet, creatine can do wonders. So, what is creatine : In simple terms, creatine is a nitrogenous organic acid which is a naturally produced in the human body from L-arginine, glycine and methionine (amino acids). Chemically, creatine is represented as C4H9N3O2. Its primary function is to supp...

Reducing fat without losing muscle is quite tricky and if you're trying to do it for the first time, chances are its going to be really difficult. This is because there are lots of processes going on inside the body at any random time. Fat loss or even muscle gain is not like an ON-OFF switch that you shift from one goal to the other in an instant. Lots of bodybuilding and fitness enthusiasts take years figuring out how to manipulate certain dietary and exercise parameters so that they can preserve their hard earned muscle while on a fat loss diet. Following are certain general guidelines that can be helpful: Monitor your calorie, macro, water intake regularly. Calculating Current Macros and Calories Do not reduce or play with sodium intake. It can be quite unrewarding. Train hard, with a good split. This does not mean go nuts every time you're in the gym. Get enough deep quality sleep. Sometimes even twice a day, if you need it. Reduce calorie as and when needed. D...

The Deltoids a.k.a shoulders are probably that one group of muscles that get worked in a lot of exercises (although not to a significant degree as isolating them would). For example, doing the bench press (flat or incline) works the anterior or front delt. Horizontal rowing to chest as in cable or machine rows works the rear delts also. The deltoid muscles comprises of three heads i.e.  anterior (front) ,  lateral (side/middle)  and  posterior (rear) . If you look at the composition and growth potential of these three muscles on any advanced and competitive bodybuilder whose already in possession of those rounded shoulders you may notice that its the  Lateral (middle) debt  that brings out the developed and rounded look. The does not mean that the other two shoulder muscles don't have an impact but rather that, focusing on lateral shoulders exercises such as  lateral dumbbell/cable/machine raises  must be performed with slightly more volume th...

I’ve always struggled with getting deep quality sleep for the most part of my professional career, which is not quite as long as this statement makes it sound. This biggest contributor towards less sleep for me has been Stress . I tried all the random stuff I’d find online or as advice from all the so called experts (read friends/colleagues) like drinking hot milk, washing feet before sleeping, etc. which makes perfect sense now, as to why it didn't work for me. We usually fall asleep at night due to the melatonin levels that are at their peak after sunset. Cortisol a.k.a the stress hormone makes sure that melatonin does not do its job and hammers it down. The plus side of cortisol is that it wakes us up in the morning and is the most effective hormone when it comes to building muscle, even more than testosterone. Over the years I’ve come up with some strategies that’ve helped me cope with this issue and now on most days I sleep like I did 10 years ago although for slightly les...

Hi. Its been a while since I last posted. Without wasting any more time I want to dive into a topic that is some what controversial but outright confusing and misunderstood, especially by women. First of all to get the basics straight, weight loss = calorie deficit i.e. consuming less calories than maintenance levels for a specific period of time. Similarly, Sustained Weight Loss = Calorie Deficit + Exercise. Now, if you're one of those who specifically dislike exercise such as weight training, etc. and would prefer to be in a weight loss phase counting solely on reducing food intake, this post is not for you. However, if you're the kind that is ready to start on their weight loss plan and are willing to include some sort of exercise few times per week do read on as I'll be covering three points that I've come across in my career which cause the biggest hurdle for women aiming to lose weight and become fitter. Under-eating: Well, I just mentioned above the losing ...

Although its been more than a month since New Year's Eve and this post is late, most of you would have already jumped onto the weight loss wagon, but by its very nature losing weight or rather becoming fitter, stronger and leaner especially from the mid section, has never really been sustainable for some of us. With this post, we bring to you some of the most common misconceptions that people have about weight loss and how making some minor adjustments or little tweaks here and there can make this fitness journey of yours more simple, realistic and achievable this year. Weight Loss is not linear:  Well thats not entirely true, since there have been people following a weight loss diet who have managed to keep the needle of their weighing scale linearly move downwards each week, but these are certainly the exceptions rather than the majority. For most people, you're going to see some sort of a zig-zag trend with weight loss where the weight fluctuates over the short term. Th...

Continuing with our Muscle Theory series, while in the Part 1 we looked into some of the upper body muscles, in this post we will focus our attention on the muscles of the lower body starting from the glutes: 1. Gluteus Maximus: Origin:  Posterior ¼ of the crest of ilium, posterior surface of sacrum and coccyx near the ilium, and fascia of lumbar area. Insertion:  Oblique ridge on lateral surface of greater trochanter and iliotibial band of fasciae. Action:  Extension of hip, external rotation of hip, lower fibers which assist in adduction. Exercise/Movement:  Hip Thrust. 2. Rectus Femoris:  Origin: Anterior iliac spine of the ilium and groove (posterior) above the acetabulum. Insertion: Superior aspect of patella and patellar tendon to tibial tuberosity. Action: Flexion of hip, extension of knee. Exercise/Movement:  Leg Extension. 3. Vastus Lateralis: Origin: Intertrochanteric line, anterior and inferior borders of greater t...

This post is dedicated to some of the different muscles, their origins and insertions that we are primarily interested in when we train for Hypertrophy and/or Strength based on individual goals. Certain specific fibers organised into bands or bundles that may contract and produce bodily movement are called muscle tissue. Upon contraction, muscles pull both ends towards the middle or belly of the muscle. The points at which a muscle attaches are known as the origin and insertion of the muscle. A muscle may have one or more origin and/or insertion point. Origin is the proximal attachment, the least moveable or closest to the midline or centre of the body. While, insertion is the distal attachment, the most moveable or farthest from the midline or centre of the body. So, lets get started with the upper body muscles first and in a separate post we will look into the muscles of the lower body. 1. Trapezius (upper and middle): Origin: Upper: Base of skull, occipital protubera...

Lets face it. To look good and still fit into those old jeans, we have to exercise and eat right. While some people may find it easy and convenient to hop onto the treadmill and eat a salad for dinner, most of us do struggle adhering to our so called fitness programs. There can be many reasons due to which following a fitness based lifestyle can be difficult, following are just a few of them: Following a cookie-cutter program. Following someone else's program.  Implementing random suggestions into your own life style. Trying to do what others are doing. Trying to do too much. Lastly, doing too little.  Another aspect that gets ignored most of the time is the fact that weather the program being followed is correctly designed to begin with. In this post, I will go over some variables that you can manipulate to both check, if the fitness program you are following is correctly designed for you and how you can choose one from the hundreds available for free. It is wort...

Lemon with warm water has for long been considered as the secret ingredient for losing belly fat. I’ve heard of countless people resort to drinking water with lemon first thing in the morning with the intension of reducing their waist line, over the years. Now if this was to done to say, detoxify the body or increase Vitamin C intake I could understand. However, losing belly fat is just not one of the primary benefits of consumption of water+lemon either in the morning or at any other time of the day. If you are already in a calorie defici t and consuming lemon water, you would lose fat, however the fat loss is coming primarily from the lowered calorie intake and not the lemon water. Lemon water is a good source of Vitamin C which may boost immunity. If you consume lemon water first thing in the morning, it is going to do exactly what it should, supply the body with Vitamin C. Losing fat from any one specific area of the body usually does not happen. When on a fat loss program...

Sugar is a form of carbohydrate, not a good one but it still does its job when taken in the right amount and at the right time. Most people do tend to eat loads of sugar while exercising little to nothing. Eliminating sugar will do two things as follows: Reduce the amount of calories that come from sugar. Alter mood. Sugar is famously irresponsible in changing mood by elevating serotonin and dopamine. In addition, some people accustomed to consuming lots of sugar daily, feel a sudden loss of energy when they entirely remove it from their diets.Instead of completely avoiding sugar (unless its a medical issue that requires immediate attention), its better to reduce it slowly over a period of few days, to a bare minimum. Say for example, if the current daily sugar consumption is 100grams, reducing 20grams every day for the next 4 - 5 days is a much better option.For healthy adults, the best time to consume sugar is around the workout i.e. either before, in-between or after the w...

Most fitness enthusiasts make it a point to perform a short pre-workout ritual commonly known as the "Warm up" before moving onto their training session. This short duration activity is usually performed for few minutes and is lower in intensity and volume. Some common warm up techniques used by many are: Walking Light jogging     Running  Jumping jacks Arm Swings Hip Rotation The duration/repetition for each the above mentioned exercises performed is something which is  dependent more on the individuals "getting in the zone for training" capacity rather than a random arbitrary number which should be adhered to. Another variable here is the weather conditions in which the training is ought to be carried out. It takes much less effort to warm up the body and get ready both physically and mentally in the summers, in comparison to the winters. Following are some of the advantages of warming up before a training session: Increase in body temperature. ...

Whey protein in recent years has gathered so many followers and consumers that it is hard to ignore it any more. Up until the 1990's not many had heard about whey protein and little did people know that one day it would become a staple for many fitness enthusiasts. What separates whey protein from the rest of the supplements available is its marketing and distribution. While one may or may not find any other relevant supplement, whey protein would surely be available for purchase at any time of the year. Whey protein supplements come in many forms as follows: Whey Protein Concentrate : Contains high protein, moderate carbohydrates and fats. Whey Protein Isolate : Contains high protein, no carbohydrate and fats. Whey Protein Hydrolysate : Hight in protein, although marketed for its partially broken down amino acid structure to aid in digestion. Whey protein is generally marketed as a post workout supplement, which means consuming it immediately after a heavy weight train...

Personal fitness consulting and training has gained some popularity in recent years with more fitness enthusiasts looking out for hiring a trainer for helping and guiding them to achieve their respective fitness goals. Now weather personal fitness training is a lucrative career option is a whole other topic and deserves its own post, for this article my focus would be only towards aspects that you may or may not be aware of and that may prove to be beneficial while making the choice before hiring a trainer both online and in person. Academic Background : No matter how good looking, well built and fit a trainer is, an academic background can the most ignored aspect which one may consider before choosing a fitness professional. Having a graduation and/or post graduation degree is exercise science, nutrition, strength and conditioning, etc. makes the professional more aware about human anatomy, muscle structure, neuro-muscular functioning, human digestion, supplementation, injury pre...

Most individuals especially men desire a well built and muscular physique, with those perfectly rounded shoulders, tight core and arms which would stick to the circumference of their t-shirt. There are also some who don't really care for looks as such and focus primarily on either lifting or moving as much load as they possibly can. The first example above would relate to Hypertrophy and the second one to strength. Both have different training methods, different recovery strategies and different progression schemes. However, gaining either strength or increasing muscular hypertrophy are not mutually exclusive and both can be achieved by the same individual at varying rates. Training for hypertrophy may overtime also lead to an increased strength and similarly training for strength may overtime lead to increase in muscle mass, provided that diet, recovery and adherence are optimal. Strength can be defined as the force produced by the musculoskeletal system in response to an exter...