At Absolute Collagen, we’re all about feeling your absolute best - and that means taking care of yourself in every way possible.

Today we’re going to be delving a little deeper into the physical fitness side of life, with Maxine’s personal trainer and all round fitness expert, Paul. Paul has over 20 years of experience in the fitness industry and has been working with Maxine on her fitness journey for 15 years.

We asked you, our fabulous Absoluters, to send in your fitness and exercise questions for Paul and you didn’t disappoint! Read his answers to your great questions below.

What is the best way to strengthen my knees?

This depends on the type of damage or trauma that has happened to the knee. Broadly speaking, however, you want strong quads, hamstrings, glutes and calves - all the muscles around the knee - but most importantly you actually want to build strong abs, as this will control the overall stability of your body.

For instance, I heard from an Absoluter who wanted to build up her knee strength as she was a sprinter, and my advice to her was to follow strength training around these areas but with clear and realistic goals to hit each week. It’s important to do things in small steps in order to build strength.

Is it best to do cardio or weights for weight loss?

This is a difficult one to answer, because it’s actually a mixture of the two. However, broadly speaking, if you’re looking for results over a long period of time then probably weights, because you’re increasing your metabolism and your ability to exercise and burn calories. That doesn’t mean you shouldn't also be doing cardio, but if I just had to pick one, I’d say weights.

Is it important to track my fitness progress?

Yes, it is important to track progress. The easiest way to do this is to take your phone into the gym with you and set up a little spreadsheet of times to beat and goals to complete, and then just make a little note when you’ve done them. You might not think it’s important at the time, but the next time you come to do your workout, you’ll have something to beat, and over six or eight weeks you’ll see a definite upward curve that you’ll want to follow to track those improvements!

What should I eat before and after a workout?

Assuming the goal is weight loss, if you do a workout in the middle of the day you need to eat something to give you enough calories to do a really good workout - I’d recommend a piece of fruit, something with simple sugars.

Then, after your training session you want something that will repair the damage to the muscles, so you want to include something that is high in protein, and the rest of the meal should be green and healthy! Be sure to eat this within an hour of exercising, because your body will digest everything much more efficiently.

What is the best exercise for the over 40s?

The best kind of exercise for the over 40s is definitely weight training and resistance training. After our late 20s we lose muscle mass unless we do something about it, so if you’re working towards something concrete like improving your movement and increasing the amount of weight you can handle, you’ll be able to offset this naturally occurring muscle loss by speeding up your metabolism and keeping unwanted body fat off. The great news is that this can be done at home or at the gym equally well! However you choose to train, I’d say that weight training is definitely the way forward.

Do I need to exercise every day?

As with many things related to fitness, it depends on your personal goals and aims. Speaking specifically in regards to people who are 40+, though, remember you need more recovery time. If you’ve done something big like a 10k run one day, don’t push yourself too hard the next day - give your joints and muscles time to recover. So the short answer is no, you don’t need to exercise every day.

So there you have it - top exercise tips from the fitness expert. For more content from Paul and our other experts, be sure to check out our Facebook and Instagram pages, and share with us how you keep yourself feeling your absolute best!