Category Archives: Exercise

September 16, 2019

10,000 STEPS A DAY: THE FACTS.

We have been told over and over again that 10,000 steps is a healthy and achievable daily goal. But why 10,000? It might surprise you to learn that the magic number is actually the relic of a 1960s Japanese marketing campaign for a pedometer. 

Public Health England recently released new guidelines suggesting that the ‘active 10’ – three speedy 10 minute walks per day – could be more advantageous than the 10,000 steps goal. 

If losing weight is your aim, it’s worth noting that while increasing your step count can lower your body fat, not all steps are created equal. The higher the intensity of the workout, the more significant your weight loss will be. Not only will you burn more calories overall, but metabolic rate increases and remains high for hours after.

Regardless of your goal, experts agree that you reap the rewards when you get your heart rate up. Research suggests it could reduce your risk of early death by 15%. 

To make your 10,000 steps go the extra mile, try alternating between walking and running and working inclines into your day.

September 2, 2019

STRONG TO THE CORE.

Thou shalt…

Focus on full body exercises:
A new study found that moves that recruit the deltoids and glutes create more ab activation then crunches. Plus, total body moves like deadlifts burn more fat.

Practice crocodile breathing:
This form of breathing engages your abs more. Lie on your front with your hands under your forehead. In this position, inhale through your nose, filling your abdomen (not chest), for five seconds, hold for one, then exhale for three. You can also try it while working out, exhaling during the exertion part of the move.

Do chest openers:
Exercises that work the back and open the front of the body will improve your core strength and posture by firing up your glutes and the muscles along your spine. And these moves tend to retract your head (which pokes forward most of the day, putting pressure on your midsection).

Thou shalt not…

Waste time doing tons of crunches:
Crunches aren’t worth it. They just don’t do much to work any part of the core except the rectus abdominis. Plus, if you sit and hunch at your desk all day, the last thing you need is more forward-bending movements.

Fret about marathon planks:
Holding a four-minute plank might be a cool challenge, but it doesn’t actually translate to every day life or sports. So what is the better choice? A variety of moves that work on stiffness, rotation and anti-rotation.

Skip unilateral moves:
One-limbed exercises are a brilliant way to increase core activation. They can be tough, so start with bodyweight options like a one-legged glute bridge, step-up or split squat. Using one limb means the core has to work overtime to make sure the body stays stable.

July 1, 2019

EXERCISING DURING THE HOT SUMMER MONTHS.

Exercising over a hot summer can be challenging as our bodies struggle to deal with the increased heat and humidity and keep cool. Usually, our bodies are warmer than the environment – when this changes as a result of rising temperatures or exercise, our muscles regulate heat by releasing sweat, which allows the body to cool down. This becomes dangerous both when we fail to replace the fluids lost in sweat, or when the body is unable to cool itself down and begins to store heat, increasing our core temperature and putting our internal organs and central nervous system at risk.The result of this can be heat exhaustion and, ultimately, heat stroke. 

To make sure you avoid these issues, there are several measures you can take to protect your body and ensure you remain safe and healthy while exercising in the summer.

1. Don’t push your body too hard
Exercising when it’s hot places your body under extra strain. It’s important to remain aware of this, paying close attention to how you’re feeling throughout your workout. Look out for any sign of light-headedness or weakness and reduce your intensity or stop training.

Understanding that you are not going to be setting any personal bests, or performing to your usual standard or intensity, is really important. Don’t push yourself too hard and make sure you take consistent breaks to allow your body to regulate its temperature.

2. Aim to exercise at a cooler part of the day
Exercising during the hottest part of the day is a bad idea, especially if you’re sensitive to the heat. Make the effort to either wake up early and squeeze a workout in before the day warms up or wait until later in the night once the heat of the day has started to dissipate. Not only will your workout be much more enjoyable, but you’ll be able to perform much better.

3. Wear the right clothing
Making sure you wear the right type of clothing can be incredibly helpful in keeping your cooler during your workout. Choose breathable, lightweight, and light-coloured workout gear that will allow your sweat to evaporate, and you to cool down effectively. 

4. Keep hydrated
One of the most important things you can do when exercising in the heat is make sure you are staying properly hydrated! Guidelines suggest that you should be drinking between six and eight glasses of water each day (the equivalent of around two litres).

5. Try a different kind of workout
If you’re struggling to keep up with your usual exercise regime, try out a different type of training that will allow your body greater opportunity to remain cool. For instance, if you’re a long-distance runner, try swapping your long runs for a shorter HIIT session or spinning class that will allow you to take on water and work out for shorter periods. 

Less aerobic-heavy classes such as yoga or Pilates are also a good option in the heat as your heart rate does not typically increase by a large margin, and your body temperature will remain fairly constant. The summer is also prime time for swimming – not only is swimming great exercise, but there is no better way to stay cool while working out, even if you do it outdoors.

June 17, 2019

HOW TO INSPIRE YOUR CHILDREN TO LOVE EXERCISE.

A number of recent studies show that a large number of children in the UK are not receiving enough daily activity, with only 1 in 3 kids being physically active every day. As technology develops and becomes more widespread, children are spending more time looking at screens, and less time moving their bodies.

Exercise has multiple benefits for children. Not only does it help them develop strong muscles and bones, maintain a healthy weight and decrease the risk of diseases like type 2 diabetes, but it aids mental developmental and health, increasing motivation, focus and learning.

Encouraging your child to be active and love exercise will set them up for life, equipping them with the skills and confidence necessary to stay active and healthy.

Here are just a few ways in which you can inspire your children to be active from a young age:  

Provide active toys
A good way to get kids moving when they are young is to provide fun, active toys they can play with. This could be something as simple as a ball, although there are plenty of options to choose from. Not only will this get them moving and having fun, but it will help them develop motor skills, hand-eye coordination and other vital abilities.

Lead by example
It has been shown that children who regularly see their parents enjoying sports and physical activity are more likely to do so themselves. If you treat your body with respect, your children will notice this and work to imitate you. Stay active yourself, and you’ll provide your children with a positive role-model, influencing what they see as normal and healthy.

Play with your child and exercise as a family 
Inspire your child to be active by taking the time to play with them and exercise as a family. Make activity enjoyable by taking them for a bike ride or walk in the park – add some fun with a little game or challenge. The opportunities are endless if you use your imagination. Make exercise and games a regular part of the week, and it will effortlessly become a habit for them.

Turn off the TV
Limit TV time and computer use. The general recommendation is no more than 1 to 2 hours of total screen time a day, including TV, videos, computers, and video games. Screens are not all bad and they have a time and a place, but they shouldn’t be used all the time. Free time can then be used for more physical activities.

Allow them to try different sports and activities 
One of the best ways in which you can inspire your children to love exercise and make a life-long habit of it, is to help them find a sport or activity that they absolutely love and are passionate about.

April 17, 2019

EXERCISE BURNS FAT – SO WHERE DOES THE FAT GO?

It’s no secret that fat loss is a modern obsession. Most of us have some, most of us want to lose some. Surprisingly, then, one of the most obvious questions raised by all this fat-fixating is never really addressed: when it leaves our bodies, where does the fat actually go?

If you’re unsure, you’re not alone. Some would believe that fat turns into muscle, or that it leaves the body via the colon, both of which are incorrect. Others may believe that fat is converted into energy and lost as heat (no doubt based on the “energy in equals energy out” assumption). Trouble is, this would disobey a fundamental law of chemical reactions, known as the conservation of matter (or mass), which states that the same amount of matter comes out of a reaction as goes into it. It doesn’t simply vanish.

Put simply, fat tissue is full of lipids – compounds that store energy. Even if those compounds are broken down and generate heat, you’re still left with the same number of atoms you started with.

So, where does the fat go?
When you begin to run low on fuel you produce a hormone that, when mixed with oxygen, breaks down fat in order to use its energy. When fat is metabolized, it needs to go somewhere. Once converted to carbon dioxide and water, over 80 percent of each measurement of fat leaves the body as CO2. The rest is released as sweat and urine.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean you can get rid of any unwanted jiggle by simply huffing and puffing on the couch. When you engage in any form of physical activity, however, your body’s metabolic rate is raised significantly. So a higher intensity workout will produce more huffing and puffing – more energy burned, more converted fat expelled.

Knowing that fat is actually leaving your body via your lungs might even make those extra reps a little easier to get through.

April 1, 2019

DOES EXERCISE REALLY IMPROVE BRAIN POWER?

Research suggests regular aerobic exercise can boost the size of the hippocampus, the core of the brain’s learning and memory systems.

When you exercise your body releases a lot of good things, including brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which is good for the health of brain cells.

The idea is that when you exercise you’re much more likely to cause the brain to make new brain cells.

This is backed up by a German study that showed how cycling while learning a foreign language helped people remember new words better.

March 4, 2019

WHAT DO PULSES DO THAT FULL-RANGE EXERCISES DON’T?

We’ve long known that when it comes to resistance training it’s fatigue, not load, that generates change within the muscle. 

We also know that maximising fatigue comes down to manipulating range of movement and repetition speed. New insights now clearly show that pulses are a great way to maximise fatigue when lifting light weights for higher repetitions. 

Example 1 – Squats:
Full-range squats, as you’d expect, fire up all the global muscles that drive your body away from the ground. This highlights how full-range squats are great for working the glute max, rectus femoris and the hamstrings.

With squat pulses there is a more isolated activation of the quadriceps muscles closer to the knee. The activation of these muscles is key for stabilisation.

Example 2 – Chest Press:
Full-range chest presses result in activation of the key push pattern muscle groups, the pec major and anterior deltoid. As soon as a pulse action is introduced there is a significant increase in the activation of lat dorsi, again acting as a stabiliser.

In Summary
These findings highlight how combining pulses with full-range exercises changes activation patterns and allows you to engage all the key target muscles. This is the secret to maximising fatigue and driving muscle change

January 1, 2019

FITNESS TRENDS FOR 2019.

1. Wearable Technology:
Wearable technology, such as smart watches, fitness trackers and heart monitors, has ranked in the top three trends every year since 2016. This looks set to stay for 2019 too!

2. Group Training:
Choosing to work out in groups (where ‘group’ is defined by more than five participants) is highly likely to stay at top of the trend list for this year. With the introduction of online group workouts, what could be easier!

3. HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training):
A HIIT workout involves short bursts of high-intensity bouts of exercise followed by a short period of rest. Despite taking a dip in previous years, experts predict this type of training will rank high in the list for 2019.

4. Fitness Programmes for Older Adults:
As the population ages, it’s only natural that fitness offerings would age along with us. These programmes emphasise and cater to the fitness needs of older generations. Which makes sense, considering exercising is a great way for people to maintain bone density and muscle mass as they age, plus reap the numerous other health benefits that come with being active.

December 17, 2018

REST DAYS.

Your muscles need recovery time to be able to repair, change and function properly before your next training session. Overworked muscles, damaged muscles and muscles that have worked hard will need some kind of downtime, but most of the time a good night’s sleep is all that is required.

You can train every day, provided you don’t hyperload the same muscle groups and don’t put the same pressure on them several days in a row. That in fact, is the best and the fastest way to make fitness part of your lifestyle.

The problem with complete rest days, blank days on the calendar where you virtually do no exercise whatsoever, is that your mind wanders and if you are not into fitness already, you have higher chances of dropping out and giving up. One day without training, can potentially be the last day of your entire fitness journey. One day can become two, then three then a week and then a month – once you stop, it is harder to get back into it.

If you’ve ever jogged, you know how much harder it is to start after a complete stop – it is always more preferable to slow down without losing momentum instead of taking a break. It is the same with regular exercise – it is always more preferable to slow down than do nothing for a day. Even if you do stretching, yoga, or a bit of light walking, it will still register in your mind as exercise and keep you tuned.

Whatever you do, don’t stop. There are other ways to rest your muscles and recover: get more sleep, stay hydrated and up your protein intake (before and post-workout). If you don’t overtrain to the point of muscle failure you won’t need to take complete days off so it is important that you stay on the level of training when you push yourself just enough to feel challenged but not so hard that it is painful to move the next day.

Most of us these days simply don’t move enough, we drive everywhere, we sit at our desks all the time and then we rest in front of the TV. Our lives are getting more stationary and it is more important than ever to introduce as much activity on a daily basis as possible and make it the norm.

Exercise becomes fun when it becomes enjoyable, but to get to that point you need to get used to it first. You can’t view it as being a chore you hate coming back to – this will just make you want to quit. Try to think of exercise as something you are slowly integrating into your lifestyle rather than another chore to add to your list of things ‘To Do’.

Everyone struggles in the beginning but those who see it through eventually get to the fun part of it, the enjoyable part when it becomes the way to rest from everyday tasks and feel a little more energised.

November 16, 2018

WHY WE LOSE MOTIVATION AND HOW TO GET IT BACK.

We all know that exercise is good for us so why aren’t we all super-fit already? Because no one can sustain their enthusiasm for exercise forever. Even the best of us can lose our motivation.

Our brains are reward driven. We eat a slice of cake and we feel good. There is an instant reward right there. When it comes to exercise, there is but a promise of reward at a later date, as it takes time to get fit and then even more work to stay that way. There are no guarantees just the possibility of getting fit and healthy if we work hard, somewhere down the road, perhaps. That’s why cake wins over a workout every time.

So what can we do? We must form positive associations with exercise. If we feel good before, during and after exercise the reluctance to do it again becomes less and less over time. Eventually, we are able to sustain our fitness and therefore our life-long goals.

Reduce the amount of pain

When we feel our motivation is slipping and we are losing any desire to exercise, we should reduce the amount of pain inflicted – even remove it completely. Remove the pain from the equation and the reluctance will lessen.

Task: Continue to exercise every day but significantly reduce the amount and/or the intensity of exercise until you no longer feel apprehensive about training.

Combine exercise with things you enjoy

That’s why so many of us listen to music when we exercise. We feel good when we listen to music we like and it helps us get through harder patches during our training session.

Training with others, people whose company we enjoy, has a similar effect. We can partner up with friends or family or a group of people with similar interests and exercise together. That way we focus on the social aspect of training and not on the struggle.

Task: Aim to make every training session a good experience.

Use an instant reward system

It takes time to see results in the mirror. Health benefits of exercise go fairly unnoticed throughout life – we tend to notice when things go wrong with our body but we rarely pay attention to it when we feel fine. So there is no instant reward for exercise unless we add some artificially.

Crossing out days in a calendar can be incredibly satisfying as we get to measure our progress. We can get a jar and add a marble to it for each workout completed with a goal to fill it up by the end of the year. We have to create a reward system that works for us, that’s instant, something we get on completion of our workouts to compensate for the pain.

Food can be a powerful motivator, too. We don’t have to reward ourselves with cake, that would be counterproductive, but we can schedule our training so our breakfast, lunch or dinner comes directly post-workout serving as a reward for our struggle. Eventually our brain connects the two and we form positive associations with the physical activity. 

Task: follow up exercise with an instant reward every single time to create positive associations.

 

Staying motivated comes down to how we see exercise and what we remember about our last training session. Was it fun? Was the pain tolerable? Was there an instant gratification after? Did we enjoy at least some part of it? If the answer to all these questions is “Yes” more often than “No”, having the motivation to exercise regularly will never again be a problem.