Weekend fitness guide to getting the most out of your workout

Hello and welcome to another edition of the Lounge Fitness roundup. Every weekend, we bring you the best of our health and fitness stories from the week, stories that you might have missed reading the first time around. Here at Lounge, we take your Fitness journey very seriously, and so we try to bring you the best advice that will contribute towards your practice.

It’s no different this week. We have a story about a young ultracyclist, and her journey to find the optimum fitness levels before a race, a story about how to take good care of your legs—especially your knees—and one on how to create and a consistent progression of small but enduring fitness goals. So, let’s get started!

As far as ultrcycling races go, the Deccan Cliffhanger—as its name suggests—isn’t for the faint of heart. This tough route from Pune to Panjim is a gruelling 643km trek up and down the Western Ghats, with an elevation gain of nearly 6,000m. And teenager Niharica Reddy not only completed it, but she also stood first among all the women contestants.

In this story, writer Shail Desai speaks with Reddy and brings you the fitness preparation that she went through in order to ace the race. As we always say here in Lounge, the best way to get fit is to tailor it around a sport. Read more to find out.

When writer and fitness enthusiast Pulasta Dhar suffered a knee injury a couple of weeks ago, a sports official advised him to run uphill during his rehabilitation. Dhar knew about the fact that sports therapists usually consider running up an incline to be good for the health of the legs, but this time, he decided to find out why this is so.

In this story, Dhar talks about his deep dive into the subject, ranging from reading scientific papers to talking with physios. What emerges is a very useful story on why you should run at an upward incline, and also when you should do so. Don’t miss this excellent piece!

For a lot of fitness enthusiasts, sadly, the fitness journey is often about surface perfection: the broad chest, the six-pack abs, the toned arms. While the aesthetic beauty of a well-sculpted body is not to be sneezed at, what is more important is your actual fitness parameters: strength, mobility, stamina. 

In this excellent story, fitness and nutritional scientist Dr. Siddhant Bhargava, who is also a co-founder of Food Darzee, writes about the importance of being consistent. For him, this consistency comprises of setting small and reachable goals, and striving for constant progress. We all need to hear such advice every now and then, so you make sure you read this!