Foam Roller benefits.

Could the Foam roller be the most beneficial piece of kit in your gym?

What is the foam roller?  First off the foam roller is a long cylindrical tool made of foam or rubber and often found laying around the stretch area.

So what can it do for you?

Reduce muscle soreness;  put simply the foam roller can be considered a form of self massage, softening tight muscles and breaking down trigger points (the sore spots within muscle).  This is especially beneficial in the legs and through the back.

Before Workout stetching; using the foam roller is great way of stretching muscles both before and after your workout.  Using beforehand will often allow for a greater range of motion through exercises within the workout.

After Workout Stretching; after a workout the foam roller can help remove lactic acid from the muscles reducing soreness and speeding up recovery.

De-stressing;  If you have been sat at the desk all day, there is nothing better then to relax and stretch out those tense muscles and allow the muscles and skeleton to re-align.

Injury Prevention; All of the above will contribute to healthy, strong muscles that are at less susceptible to injury.

So if your not doing it, its time to get foam rolling.

Stress and Weight loss

For many people weight loss is a difficult task to undertake, sustain and achieve. Many factors can contibute to how effectively you are able to achieve your weight loss goals, such as diet strategy, work and sleep patterns and desire.

However one factor often over looked is stress.  Stress can bring your weight loss to a grinding stop, despite your best efforts to eat and exercie effectively.  Elevated stress levels can cause an increase in the hormone "Cortisol".

Cortisol, among other effects will cause increased stores of abodminal fat, and suppression of the immune system exposing you to greater risk of illness.

Reducing stress levels is an essential part of reducing Cortisol levels and so increaing your ability to burn fat.

So take a look at your life and identify what stresses exist in your life and can you make necessary changes;

• Increase amount of sleep
• Decreasing Work stress levels
• Overcoming Illness
• Introducing a low GI diet
• take time for meditation, or stress relieving physical activty.

Hopefully you are able to identify what is causing stress in your life, if not perhaps discuss it with someone and see if they can identify your sources of stress and how to ddeal or resolve it.

Always remember

"Well in Mind, Well in Body"

Till next time,

Darren.

Protein Rich Diet

For many years, coaches and trainers have been extolling the virtues of a higher protein diet, not only for muscle building, but also for weight loss. However, many people in the mainstream medical community have disputed its effectiveness. Now there's a really good piece of research that supports this notion 100%.


The Research

Researchers at the university of Illinois compared 2 calorie restricted diets- one, a protein rich diet designed to contain higher than normal levels of Leucine, an essential amino acid, the other a higher carbohydrate diet based on the food pyramid.

The findings?  Although both diets contained the same amount of calories, those on the higher-protein diet lost more weight.  Researchers called this the metabolic advantage of a protein-rich diet.

The study looked at 2 levels of exercise;

• Walking 2-3 times per week for a total of less than 100 minutes

• Walking 5 times per week for 30 minutes, plus 2 30 minute weightlifting sessions per week. 

While both groups lost weight, the protein rich, high exercise group not only lost more weight, but almost 100% of the weight loss was fat.  In the high carbohydrate, high exercise group, up to 25-30% of the weight lost was muscle.


How it Works

While both diets lowered total calories, the protein rich diet showed a greater drop in total carbohydrate calories.  By lowering carbohydrate calories the body will quickly turn to fat stores as a fuel source to provide energy.

By maintaining (or raising) protein levels the bodies muscle volume shows little or no drop, so maintaining a higher metabolism (the rate at which the body burns calories fro fuel).


Making it Work for you

Aim to consume 1g of protein per 1lb of bodyweight to maintain total muscle mass, and at the same time, reduce daily carb intake by 50-100g (200-400 kcal).  Maintain this for at least 4 weeks.  If weight loss stops decrease carbohydrate intake by a further 50g.

Ensuring You Progress

I am often approached by gym users telling me they have been training for 9 months but have made little or no progress in the last 6 months and are ready to walk away from the gym, "what am I doing wrong?"

My response is "what have you been doing for the last 9 months?"

 I will get a list of exercises and an outline of this persons diet.

my next question "what have you changed in the last 9 months?"

"Nothing-it worked for the first 3 months"

Is this you?  Have you fallen into this trap?

Taking this very scenario, if you have not previously exercised, any exercise program is going to have an effect on you, however there will be a point at which your body is no longer challenged by this exercise program.

As you are no longer challenged by this program, your body has no requirement to change in order to overcome it.

Time to set yourself some new challenges, do 5mins more on the treadmill, increase your RPM on the bike, add 5kg onto the bar, do an extra 5 reps-whatever it takes to challenge the body again.

Once you complete this new challenge, raise the levels again as soon as possible and never get trapped at the same level again.

The same can be applied to diet, if you are no longer losing fat/weight drop another 200-300 kcal from your daily intake for the next 3-4weeks and changes should begin to occur again.

Keep challenging yourself, keep progressing,

Darren.

Training at Home

Strength training at home

Whether through choice or circumstance, many people don't have regular access to a gym. If this is your circumstance, don't despair - we'll show you how to get a quality workout in the comfort of your own home.

For various reasons, many people don't have access to a gym. Whether it's because of budget, schedule or distance, not having the resources of a gym can put a dent in your workout plans.

While most of us would like access to a gym, once you start thinking about it, there are loads of ways to stay in shape without joining a gym.

The key is to stop thinking along traditional lines.  Of course it would be easier if you could join a class or have a huge range of machines available to you, but even without them you can still have great workouts.

Whether you are looking for cardio workouts,  strength (resistance) workouts, or a mixture of the two this will guide you as to what you can do based from home with a minimal budget.

Cardio workouts at home

There are numerous options if you want a good cardio workout from your home. Some of the best options include:

Walking or running: All you need for this is a good pair of shoes. Research shows that walking or running three times a week for at least twenty minutes is a great base for overall conditioning, with either a brisk walk or easy jogging effective in getting your heart rate going sufficiently.

Other methods of achieving a good home-based cardio workout include:

• Stair climbing
• Skipping
• Mini-trampoline

For just a small investment you could have a home version of the cardio machines you see at a gym - a stationary bike or stepper for example.

These don't have to be expensive - there are always loads for sale in local newspapers, at garage sales, or on e-bay.

If you decide to take this route, be sure to check out anything before you buy it - quality varies widely, and a cheap useless machine is a frustrating waste of space.

The other consideration if you are buying equipment is the space in your house - it's easy to misjudge whether a piece of equipment will fit, so carefully measure the space you have available.

Alternatively you could put on your favourite music and dance, or use a fitness dvd of some kind (aerobics, yoga, Pilates etc). Again, you'll find a great selection available on amazon.

Resistance training at home

Resistance training  should be a core part of any exercise program, and it's easy to achieve. If you have the money and space, a barbell and dumbbell set along with a bench will allow you to do a whole range of resistance exercises for the whole body. Or try resistance bands and a swiss ball offer further exercise oppotunities.

If you have a little more space then purchasing a kettlebell and DVD package will give you a whole new home workout experience.

Finally, if you have absolutely no equipment, you can still get a good resistance workout using just your body weight - the following exercises would form the basis of an excellent workout:

• Squats
• Lunges
• Calf-raises
• Push-ups (or modified push ups)
• Wall push-ups/Counter height push-ups
• Chair triceps dip
• Curls (holding anything!)
• Abs bridge (two legs/one leg)
• Crunches

For further suggestions just visit youtube for many, many more ideas and suggestions.

The beauty of working out at home is that you can squeeze a workout into a busy daily schedule

So if lack of funds or opportunity is holding you back from working out, it's time to be imaginative. Once you start to look for ways to workout at home, it becomes easy.

If you are still unsure, have questions or would like professional guidance many Personal Trainers offer training at home and can create a highly effective and enjoyable workout to suit you.

HIIT Training

What is HIIT?  High Intensity Interval Training.

Are you fed up with long drawn out sessions on the treadmill or Cross Trainer bored of mile after mile of staring at the back of someones head?

If you are looking for fast results for fat burning and improved fitness than HIIT is going to be for you.

HIIT training will have you training at different intensities for predesigned times pushing your speed, heart rate and intensity higher than if you were to go slow and steady.

Effective HIIT training can be used for just 10mins at the start or end of your regular gym session, or as in some clubs a full class will be devoted it such as Spinning or Total Cardio.

An example of HIIT training on a bike would be as follows


1min @ 70RPM
1min @ 90RPM
1min @ 70RPM
1min @ 100RPM
1min @ 70RPM
1min @ 110RPM

So next time you are due to perform cardio training, try  10-15 minutes of maximum effort training and you  will feel like you have had a more demanding and effective workout than you have previously experienced.

Remeber maximum effort, maximum results.

Maintaining your health

It's reached that time of your again when people all around are feeling ill and run down.  This years surprisingly warm autumn and sudden cold snaps seem to have brought out more illness than before.

I myself am sat comfortably at work feeling well while my wife and daughter are both home spending money on kleenex.

When we feel unwell we head off to the chemist and buy up whole range of medicines and remedies to remove the symptoms.  Would it not be better to avoid illness and not have to rush to the chemist and spend days on the sofa feeling sorry for yourself.

How about being proactive and take measures to avoid illness.  How to do this?  Fill your shopping trolley with all the healthy foods you know are out there.

Here is the foods I am eating daily to support my health;
Whole Eggs
Spinach
Kale
Spring Greens
Sweetcorn
Carrots
Broccoli
Green Beans

In addition to the vitamin and mineral content I get from the above foods I also take a high strength multivitamin and Omega 3,6,9 to guarantee I maintain high levels in my immune system.

So fill up on those veggies and maybe never suffer again.