Do You Weigh Yourself Everyday?

Posted on July 6, 2012 by Barnsley Personal Trainer

If you weigh yourself every day you’re going to see fluctuations in weight throughout the week (mainly due to daily water fluctuations). That’s normal and to be expected.

The solution? Never weigh yourself more than once a week. Anything more than that and you’re screwing yourself psychologically. The scale will more than certain differ and instead of staying focused on your fat loss plan and your goals your thoughts become consumed with a number.

So when should you weigh yourself? 

The key is to keep things as consistent as possible throughout the measuring process:


*Same scale

*Same day each week

*Same time of day

*Same circumstances



For example if you have a cheat day on the same day each week I recommend taking your scale reading on that day, first thing in the morning before eating or drinking anything.

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How To Burn Fat in 12 Minutes

Posted on July 4, 2012 by Barnsley Personal Trainer

For this kind of workout you need 3 exercises, choose exercises that are demanding but not beyond your level of fitness or expertise. The last thing you want is to compromise your safety and risk getting injured. Isolation exercises won’t be effective for this type of workout so don’t choose exercises like bicep curls or lateral raises. What you could do is incorporate isolation exercises into another exercise to make them more demanding e.g. lunge with a bicep curl or a squat with a lateral raise.

When you have chosen 3 exercises put them in order of hardest first to less demanding last.

Start the workout with the hardest exercise first. Just do one exercise at a time, there’s no need to count reps, perform the exercise for 20 seconds and rest 10 seconds before repeating another 7 times so it gives you 4 minutes worth of 20 seconds exercise followed by 10 seconds rest.

When you have done the first exercise using the approach above move on to the second most challenging exercise on your list and do the same, 20 seconds followed by 10 seconds rest x 8 (4 minutes). Then finally do the third exercise and do the same 20 seconds on and 10 seconds off protocol for 8 rounds like you did for the first 2 exercises.

This kind of workout will make you sweaty and boost your metabolism as long as you choose demanding exercises and resistance that challenge you.

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Why I Recommend You Give Up Coffee

Posted on July 2, 2012 by Barnsley Personal Trainer

I’ve been a long advocate of eliminating coffee and caffeine from the diet. Today I read one of the best articles I’ve ever read in layman’s terms about the effects of drinking coffee.

Here is a small mixture of studies on coffee. These studies did not clearly differentiate between coffee and decaf but as decaf is so popular the results would cover both (and decaf contains traces of caffeine regardless).

Coffee is associated with increased estrogen levels, which means an increase for breast and endometrial cancer.

Caffeine messes with your sleep cycle and raise blood pressure.


Caffeine blocks the action of adenosine – a brain chemical that promotes our natural sleep cycle.


Caffeine raises levels of stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol.


Caffeine makes it harder to control glucose levels (diabetes management).


Coffee has been associated with increased risk of stroke and rheumatoid arthritis.

Coffee significantly lowers your ability to absorb iron.


Coffee significantly lowers your ability to absorb zinc.


Coffee food intolerance in the UK doubled between 2003-2007 alone. These reactions include itchy skin, depression, migraine headaches, IBS, fatigue and joint pains. 
New figures released in April 2008 in the UK by Food Intolerance Tester YorkTest claims that the number of allergic reactions to the proteins found in coffee has risen by 3.3% since 2003, from 2% previously. The testing was conducted primarily on females, who made up 83 per cent of the 50,000 people studied, looking at consumer’s reactions to 113 different food types.

Read the full article here.

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Healthy Employees Healthy Business

Posted on June 29, 2012 by Barnsley Personal Trainer

A recent survey conducted by Cisco has revealed that although 90 per cent of employees believe that a healthier workforce will benefit their business, only 15 per cent felt that their company has made changes to improve health and wellbeing in light of forthcoming sports events this summer.

Read more at www.hrreview.co.uk

Corporate Wellness Packages are available at Barnsley Personal Training Gym.

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You Are What You Eat

Posted on June 27, 2012 by Barnsley Personal Trainer

The food you eat can either be the most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison.

If you keep good food in your fridge, you will eat good food.

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Are You Looking For Better Results From the Gym?

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Barnsley Personal Trainer

Are your sport and fitness levels suffering because you’re not eating properly? Or are your sport and fitness levels suffering because you’re not exercising properly?

Do you feel like you could give more? Do you feel like you should be fitter and look better?

We can show you how to exercise properly and help give you the results you need. Our programmes aren’t littered with useless time filler exercises that don’t work because every minute you spend training is valuable and should have a purpose.

You won’t need to rely on sugar filled energy drinks to pick you up. We teach how to get energy and endurance from eating a natural and practical diet.

Contact Pro Active for more information Continue reading →

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Choose One New Healthy Habit At A Time – Not 10 or 20

Posted on June 22, 2012 by Barnsley Personal Trainer

Small, simple changes can help you reap large results. Decide to do one small thing each day, such as drinking more water first thing in the morning or cutting down on artificially sweetened drinks. A few small daily steps can help you stick with new changes.

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Benefits Of Dumbbell Lunges

Posted on June 20, 2012 by Barnsley Personal Trainer

The lunge is an exercise that works six different muscle groups at once. With this one exercise you work your transverse abdominus, gluteus maximus, medius and minimus, quadriceps, hamstrings and obliques. To get a total lower-body workout, all you need is a small area and a set of dumbbells.

1. Stand with your torso upright holding two dumbbells in your hands by your sides. This will be your starting position.

2. Step forward with your left leg around two feet or so from the foot being left stationary behind and lower your upper body down, while keeping the torso upright and maintaining balance. Inhale as you go down.

3. Do not allow your knee to go forward beyond your toes as you come down, as this will put undue stress on the knee-joint. Make sure that you keep your front shin perpendicular to the ground.

4. Using mainly the heel of your foot, push up and go back to the starting position as you exhale.

Repeat the movement for the recommended amount of repetitions and then perform with the right leg.

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Fluoride: The Hard to Swallow Truth Documentary

Posted on June 18, 2012 by Barnsley Personal Trainer
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The Men Who Made Us Fat

Posted on June 15, 2012 by Barnsley Personal Trainer

There was an interesting documentary on last night about the food industry with lots of insights about how they manipulate us and how they have convinced us what we should eat. It covers the history of fructose in the food chain in America and the introduction of snacking here in Britain.

Its well worth watching, it can be seen on the BBC iPlayer here.

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