Improve Your Posture & Prevent Pain With Stretches

Most of us spend way too much time sitting throughout the day. This leads to specific structural changes throughout the body, such as tight hip flexors, tight pecs and tight cervical extensors (the muscles in the back of your neck).

At a minimum, everyone should spend time stretching these muscle groups to help restore proper range of motion around joints. Neglecting these problem areas will almost inevitably lead to pain in your back, shoulders and neck.

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Don’t Follow The Same Exercise Programme If It’s Not Working Or Causing You Injuries!

Are you spending more time in the gym and getting worse results – or even worse getting hurt? The first goal of a well-designed training programme should be to not get hurt while training.

Everyone should work with a Personal Trainer at one point, even if only for a month or two, to learn proper exercise technique and programme-design strategies.

This investment will ensure that you’re exercising in a way to maximise your time and effort, while minimising your risk of injuries.

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Do You Need A Personal Trainer?

There’s a reason movie stars and financial moguls use personal trainers: The benefits of working with a personal trainer is one of the fastest, easiest, most successful ways to improve your health and fitness. In fact, the benefit of personal training has proved so effective that it has spread well beyond the realm of the rich and famous. Today, people of all fitness, age and economic levels use personal trainers – and from all over the world – to help make lifestyle changes those people couldn’t achieve by themselves.

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Adding Sufficient Sleep to Four Healthy Habits Further Lowers CVD Risk

Getting at least seven hours of sleep a night further lowers the risk of CVD events- on top of the lowered risk from following four traditional healthy habits according to a large, population-based study in the Netherlands published in the July 2, 2013 issue of the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.

The Monitoring Project on Risk Factors for Chronic Diseases (MORGEN) study looked at how adequate sleep might enhance the benefits of being physically active, eating a healthy diet, not smoking, and drinking alcohol in moderation.

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Are You Struggling To Find Time To Exercise?

Managing your time successfully is one of the most important things you must become good at if you want to shift stubborn body fat and get fit. If time constraints are controlling your health and the way you look then it can only be worthwhile to come up with a solution.

New habits can be formed in a matter of weeks and the quicker you can change your routine the quicker you will see results. We all get the same 24 hours in a day and it is up to you to get the most out of them.

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How To Change The Way You Look At Exercise

Our perceived lack of time dominates the reason why we put off exercising regularly. Below are a few ways to fit in exercise around a busy week.

Turn your commute into a workout
Set your alarm early
Do a lunch break workout
Do a workout at work
Take the kids with you
Workout at home whilst watching the TV
Use the stairs

When you do have time for exercise DON’T spend more time than necessary and aim for total burnout – especially if you feel like you need to make up for missed sessions. You should be able to warm up, stretch and do a full body workout within an hour. Any longer and it will probably be counterproductive.

It is important to realise that the frequency or duration of training sessions doesn’t guarantee positive outcomes. The workout quality is a much more accurate way to determine the speed of progress. If the design and intensity of your workout doesn’t match your body or your goal it is probably safe to say that you will never see the results you want.

The take-home message is that you DON’T need to spend hours and hours in the gym each week to gain results. And it doesn’t matter if you miss workouts from time to time due to time constraints. The main factor is to exercise properly when you do have time and to make the best of what time you do have.

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Change Your Mind-Set About Exercise!

For many people the thought of doing regular exercise to help them look and feel better puts them off because they have misconceptions about what is required to bring about positive changes. The ‘no gain without pain’ philosophy has fuelled gym members to quit early well before they have had chance to experience everlasting results.

This is what you get when you believe ‘more is better’ – you burn out or simply get fed up with feeling boxed in by the constraints of a time-consuming exercise regime.

Is there a solution? YES absolutely! But it will have to wait until next time…

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You Can Never Be Too Old To Benefit From Exercise

Top 10 Benefits Of Working Out taken from askmen.com

☞ Helps You Sleep Better
☞ Slows The Aging Process & Reduces The Risk Of Premature Death
☞ Builds And Maintains Healthy Muscles, Bones & Joints
☞ Strengthens And Boosts Your Immune System
☞ Improves Mental Acuity
☞ Improves Confidence
☞ Increases Energy And Endurance
☞ Improves Sexual Performance And Restores Libido
☞ Reduces Stress, Depression And Anxiety
☞ Reduces The Risk Of Many Diseases

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Do You Like The Gym?

Is the gym keeping you out of the gym?
Did you get your gym membership years ago and never use it because you don’t like your gym?

What you can do:
Look for a gym that appeals to you. If you hate busy gym environments look for a place to train that is more private without any distractions or hold ups from other gym members.

Many people find it difficult to gain maximum benefit from a gym membership because of their busy lifestyle. Look for a way to pay as you train.

You go to the gym, but you don’t get enough done.
This can be the case if you use the gym for socialising instead of exercising.

What you can do:
Try and perform your workout in a set time. Once you get it out-of-the-way, take as long as you want to socialise.

Hire a personal trainer to keep you on track and a lot more focused.

Don’t you feel like going anymore?
If you are finding it hard to go you may need to find a bigger reason to motivate yourself.

What you can do:
Picture the results you would like to achieve as a way of motivating yourself to go. Put a plan into action and work towards your goal step by step.

Change you workout routine. Try new exercises and different training variables to keep your workouts challenging and enjoyable.

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Some Really Simple Tips on Reducing Your Stress Levels

Reduce caffeine – caffeine increases cortisol levels, cortisol is released in response to stresses in the body. Cortisol suppresses the immune system and raises blood sugar levels – high cortisol levels is the last thing you need if you are trying to reduced body fat and lose weight.

Get quality sleep – sleep is essential for recovery, when you sleep your body is healing and detoxifying. Sleeping is the most anabolic thing you can do – meaning that it’s the most opposite thing to being stressed.

Find some ME time – set aside portions of your day where you can be alone and relax. Learn to switch off, a stressed mind = raised cortisol.

Listen to your body – recovering properly from workouts and finding an equal balance is important. Experiment with training volume and frequency to see what works best for your body.

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