We held a Q&A with Dr. Noah Akala, a medical practitioner who also is a football and fitness enthusiast, to answer some common questions and clear up some misconceptions that arise when people engage in physical training from a medical perspective, as well as to look at ways in which this translates to home-based training. In the first edition, we focused on getting started with a home-based routine and some adjustments people can make to their fitness routines.

In this second edition, now that many of us have adjusted to working and working out from home, or are slowly being deconfined and adjusting to training under the new normal, we do a follow-on deep dive with Dr. Akala to clear the air and get advice on a wide variety of issues which apply to training in general, still ensuring that we cover the home-based specificities. 

Now that most of us are in the second phase of adjusting to home-based training, or for some of us, finding our way back to training outside or at the gym under the new normal, how do you personally adapt your routine to maintain the necessary conditioning to be ready to play football again?

Football is an inherently aerobic sport made up of several short bursts of maximal exertion as opposed to the long steady effort of a marathon. To keep myself game ready, I do a lot of interval cardio and weight training. This best simulates the conditions of a football game and gets me good outcomes. I keep the weights heavy for this training and the movements explosive. Think of squat cleans, power snatches, overhead squats, romanian deadlifts and the like.

In Q&A 1, we looked at the importance of setting or sticking to routines for mental health; how big an impact does physical training have on this in this “second phase” of adjusting to confinement or finding our way through deconfinement? 

Fitness is an unforgiving partner. If you don’t pay attention to your fitness, your body can end up being pretty unkind to you. The routine of regular training isn’t just important for your overall fitness but more so for maintaining a healthy basal metabolic rate, that’s basically how hard your body is working to use up calories while you are at rest. 

Let’s get a little more technical:

It’s been reported that physical training results in the release of certain hormones in our bodies. What does this do for us and how long lasting is the impact after training?

Physical exertion prompts the release of endorphins which cause a euphoric feeling in athletes. This is why it often feels so good to finish a work out even if you were sour and grumpy at the beginning. Many mental health experts recommend physical exercise to their patients as a means of providing a natural positive high that’s good for you.

Could you comment on the concept of “overtraining” and how to achieve a good balance when trying to achieve set body and conditioning goals?

There is good pain and bad pain. Good pain is attributed to effort. Bad pain correlates to injury. If something hurts unnaturally, at the beginning of a session or while you’re going about your daily business unrelated to working out, then it’s likely you have an injury. Most injuries in athletes can be attributed to either poor form or overtraining. Exercise is good for you so it’s hard to imagine that there is such a thing as too much exercise. Limit your training sessions to a maximum of one hour a day for no more than three consecutive days with at least one day’s rest in between. Rest need not necessarily mean doing nothing; you could take the opportunity to work on your mobility and recovery by getting a deep tissue massage. Always remember to take as much water on your rest days as you do on your training days.

Many people that start or actively engage in physical training suffer from muscle soreness, which at times can be demotivating. Could you talk about this and how people can manage this? Does stretching help?

Muscle soreness is the sign of a good training session. Soreness not pain! This can be minimized by ensuring that you warm up appropriately before you work out to ready your body for the effort that lies ahead and similarly, taking mobility/flexibility training as serious as cardio/weight training. You need to spend at least 10 minutes warming down with mobility work to reduce post training soreness. Water helps a great deal as well. And deep, quality sleep.

There is a lot of focus on “weight loss” as a big motivator for many who engage in physical activity. This is still true when working from home and finding ourselves more sedentary than usual. Not many people, however, focus on body composition. What can you say about this?

Everybody wants a beach body! Who doesn’t? What many of us struggle to appreciate is that this can become an unhealthy obsession if not managed well. Individuals should focus on a healthy and quality life in which you can move in comfort to perform your daily tasks. You should be able to unload our groceries from your car or walk to work if public transport isn’t available or play with your child. A positive body image is the natural by-product of the pursuit of these goals. With a disciplined training regime and a quality diet over time, your body will shed unnecessary fat and put on lean muscle. Remember, all this takes time and is as a result of consistent effort. 

Based on human physiology and how the body works, what’s more effective at burning fat (both to lose weight and to get lean)? Building muscle or cardio? Although we covered this question in our fist Q&A, what are your recommendations as people have now settled in their home-based settings and new routines and might have plateaued in their progress? Do you have any recommendations on how to gradually change the muscle building-cardio ratio to continue effectively burning fat?

I know this may sound like a cliche but abs will always be made in the kitchen. You can’t out-train a bad diet. Cardio is important for your heart health which is the foundation of the healthy functioning of your body while weight training allows you to cope with the rigors of daily life. But to lose excess weight, you simply need to improve the quality and monitor the quantity of your diet. The first and best thing you could ever do is drop the sugar! Cut out the soft drinks, the pastries, the bread and watch the kilos melt away. Thrive on meat, nuts, seeds, vegetables and some fruit. This will meet your physiological needs while ensuring that your body is not exposed to the insulin spiking effect of sugar.

In the first Q&A, we looked at whether bodyweight exercises can build significant muscle mass or whether that is only achievable through weight training. Following on the previous question relative to fat burning, what are your recommendations to people looking to adjust their routine to continue building muscle mass in their home setting and avoiding the feared “plateau” effect?

Muscle growth is dependent on load. Load is not necessarily a function of weight but can be achieved through constantly varied movements. Try something different every week so that your body does not get accustomed to any one exercise. Try an overhead handstand push up with your feet against the wall to challenge your shoulders in a way you’ve never done before even while in a fully equipped gym. Go for tricep dips to give your arms some burn. Push ups with your feet level and again with your feet elevated against a chair. For your legs, alternate between a lunge programme and a squat programme, play around with rep schemes and frequency. This will keep the load varied on your muscles and will ensure progressive growth.

How big a role does genetics have in physical health and how can people take this into account when engaging in a training programme?

Phenotypically, there are three body types – endomorphs (short and stocky), mesomorphs (lean and muscular) and ectomorphs (tall and skinny). It’s important to understand your phenotypic body type in order to tailor your training and diet for optimal results. It doesn’t make sense for an ectomorph to get onto a caloric deficit diet while trying to put on muscle. Neither does it make sense for an endomorph to spend too much time pounding away on the treadmill. Understand your body type, accept that it is unique to you and allows you to live the life you do and work to improve and preserve it.

Looking ahead, at how the habits we develop now impact our future selves, what happens to muscle and bone mass with age and how much can this be changed by physical training?

Despite years of research and innovation, the fountain of youth remains an elusive pursuit for humanity. For a woman, the loss of bone density begins as oestrogen levels naturally decline towards the sunset years of her reproductive life. Diet and a regular weight training programme are instrumental for women to maintain a quality life during this period of their lives. The same for men. The loss in bone density may not be as profound but joint pains and aches are a reality with an ageing body. There are significant benefits to the quality of movement later on in life to be reaped from a culture of exercise. 

Any final tips or advice for people who may be considering starting a home-based training programme? 

Just start. Start where you are; start with what you have. Just start. It will be untidy in the beginning but it’ll come together with time. Don’t compare yourself with others. Focus on your journey.

And to those looking to improve their home-based routine?

Nothing beats consistency. Keep at it. It doesn’t get easier, you just get better. And as you do, seek out information from credible sources. It’s now readily available all over the internet. Keep a training journal, it will help you build a culture of discipline and help keep yourself accountable.

Any wise words on commitment and not giving up?

Commitment is an act not a word. So don’t talk about it, be about it.