Metro Paper Article

It’s worth while trying to get a little extra exercise in leading up to Christmas, and start straight away, firstly to give yourself a little weight safety cushion, try to lose a few lbs. prior to Christmas as you know the Christmas delights can easily put several pounds on you. Secondly it’s worth while getting a head start on your mates, work colleagues who are planning to start exercising in the New Year. Thirdly, no doubt most people will be heading off on Xmas parties so inevitably booze and food will be the order of the night and those extra lbs. are waiting to be added, counter act this with a few good sessions aweek in the gym.
Let me give you an idea how much exercise one must do to clear these excess lbs.
1 x lbs. of fat = 3500 calories, 200 calories = 1.5 miles running approx. = 17.5 miles running to clear 1lbs of fat. Now on average most people will consume around 7000 calories on Christmas day alone, not taking into consideration the office party, Christmas eve, boxing day and New years, one could increase their body weight by upto half a stone over the festive period.
Christmas is a very busy time for most, not just at work, your expected to take part in Christmas jollies with colleagues and customers and create a magical time for family and friends. No wonder so many people get so stressed this time of year, however exercise is a great stress buster and especially aerobic exercise e.g. Running, Rowing, cycling, power walking and swimming. This type of exercise releases endorphins into the system known as the happy hormone. Endorphins are natural pain killing substances found in the human brain, these are released when exercising, which will give you the high or sense of euphoria that can actually help you feel more positive, not only that as you’ve just exercised the body is fully oxygenated and therefore helps with your energy level and helps you to deal with stress better.
If you already exercise on a regular basis and are fit but perhaps need to improve your routine, try the following: Vary your programmes, Try to have 3-4 different programmes on the go and rotate them, change the order in which you do you exercises. Try adding extra exercises between each routine. E.g. add some press-ups between your runs, do some swiss ball squats before you do the rower and sit-ups before you do the cross trainer. This will help to shock the body, stimulate the muscles and keep the body guessing.
Use a circuit style programme to improve your stamina, try doing as many reps as you can in 40 seconds on a strength machine and then 1 minute on a cardiovascular machine, repeat and then move on to the next.
Try setting yourself aerobic challenges to improve cardiovascular strength, power and speed.
Upright cycle 5km, fastest time
Treadmill fastest 2miles
Rower fastest 2000mtr
Perhaps you’re not fit and the gym environment doesn’t float your boat, there are still loads of healthy, easy activities to do. Let’s start with power walking, it’s cheap easy and you can do it just about anywhere. Get your trainers on and walk, start with 20 mins fast walking and gradually build that up, increasing by an extra 10 minutes per week, 4 times aweek.
When you get home, turn your living room into your personal gym and follow these simple but effective exercises.
Chair squats. Stand with your feet shoulders distance apart in front of your chair and lower your bottom until it just about touches and return to the standing position. Repeat 10 times and increase by 5 every week. This will tone your legs and bottom.
Box press-ups. Kneel on the floor and place your hands down on the floor in front of you until on all fours.
Bend your elbows allowing your chest to almost touch the floor and return to the start. Repeat 10 times and increase by 5 every week. This will tone chest, back and arms.
Stomach crunch. Lay on your back with you knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Place your hands on your thighs. Try to touch your knees with your hands by squeezing your tummy muscles. Repeat 10 times and increase by 5 every week. This will tone your abdominal muscles. If you live and work in London and use the tube, perhaps you could use the stairs instead of the escalators.
If you are planning some exercise Christmas day, start the day with a walk, or take out the new bike or roller blades rather than starting with champagne or in my house Baileys. This will help to blow away the cobwebs of Christmas Eve and kick-start your metabolism before you off load all those Christmas goodies.
Use Boxing Day as an opportunity to get away to the coast for a long walk, jog or cycle to freshen up and burn those extra calories.
Leading up to Christmas, this is always a quieter time in the gyms, so it’s a great opportunity for those who feel a little self-conscious to get familiar with this environment helping them to progress and improve their general health as well as those who are anticipating a high calorific festive season, again a good opportunity to lose a few pounds helping to fight back against the bulging waste band.
Another alternative is to Detox before Christmas.
Detox, well everyone’s doing it and I think there’s no better time to get your system cleansed before you unload all that Christmas stodge on the unsuspecting bowel. A detox can be used prior and post Christmas. There’s no real science to being good to yourself, your just giving your body what it needs and nothing else. Your body craves nutrition so that’s what you should provide the body with, nutrients. Try for 3-4 days, some may get headaches which are normally associated with withdrawal symptoms to chocolate or coffee (caffeine), alcohol etc. The body stores foreign substances and toxins in it’s fatty deposits, so, in many cases, people may be carrying upto 10 or more pounds (4.5kg) of unhealthy mucus-harbouring toxic waste. Ever wondered why your tired, have PMS, digestive disorders, headaches, joint pains, bad breath, allergies, constipation, poor memory, depression, insomnia, excess weight and so on. For a time, your body will struggle to protect itself from noxious toxins by trapping them in a ball of mucus or fat so that they are impeded from triggering adverse immune reactions. But this will only last temporarily. Before long, the toxins will seep into the blood stream and into the cell membranes, disturbing metabolic functions.

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The Benefits of Being Fit

THE BENEFITS OF BEING FIT
So what are the benefits to you keeping fit?
Why should you bother to read this, why subject yourself to the disciplines of exercise and food control.
LONGER LIFE
The majority of smokers in Europe die of heart-attacks or cancers. The other side of the coin is that those of us who do not smoke are highly unlikely to die of lung cancer, and those of us who keep fit are more likely to reach a ripe old age with strong hearts and less risk of suffering cancers. Of special interest to those of you who think you cannot stop smoking, a study found that fit smokers (ones that took regular exercise) were less likely to die than less fit smokers.
QUALITY OF LIFE
Nobody wants to live longer, let alone be ‘old’, if they are not enjoying life in the first place. If it means pain from Arthritis, Osteoporosis, Viral illnesses and so on, then what, you may wonder, is the advantage of a longer life? I would agree. However, by keeping fit and eating healthily you dramatically increase your chances of escaping such painful afflictions. Quality of life involves happiness, Self-confidence and good health. Fitness will increase your chance of enjoying all three.
SELF-MOTIVATION
Most people hate the thought of taking exercise, despite the knowledge that it is good for them. But many of these same folk, including me, still manage to keep fit because we know the penalties of lapsing into a sedentary, or semi-sedentary existence. Thinking about the benefits of keeping fit should be enough to provide the self-motivation needed to take regular exercise and eat correctly. But you need to keep reminding yourself of the benefits each time your natural laziness, or busy schedule, tempts you to give exercise a miss or to unwrap another chocolate bar.
GO FOR FRESH
Hundreds of studies show that those who eat the most fruits and vegetables are healthier and leaner than those who eat little of nature’s ultimate diet food.

 

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Progress

I was going to stop an obviously obese person in the street the other day and ask them, ‘why are you so fat’ I’m too polite and I’m not one for hospital food. However I’m sure he would have replied, ‘because I eat cheap fast food and don’t exercise. I know what my problem is and I know the solution, but I’m living my life the way I want to and you’ve got to die of something, haven’t you?

Anyway what do you so-called fitness experts know? Apparently 30 minutes of moderate exercise a day is not enough, you now expect us to walk 10,000 steps a-day, everyday. Do you know that’s 5-6 miles, depending on your stride length, every day? That’ll take me at least two hours! 40-odd miles a week! Sod that when it’s raining. And I’ll have to fork out £15 for a pedometer.

My kids, they’ve got off to a bad start since some schools don’t even have playing fields and there’s no after-school activity programme, either. That’s modern education for you. Now when I was a lad we used to walk or cycle 3 miles to school every day, sometimes on a Saturday if we had a football match and there was only one fat kid in each class. He was usually the rich one with loads of pocket money for sweets and his parents brought him to school by car. You can’t let youngsters cycle these days; too many cars on the roads taking children to school. Progress? Maybe we’re richer, but poorer, if you know what I mean.

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Heart to Heart

Q. I’ve been using a heart-rate monitor to exercise at 60% of my maximum heart rate (MHR). What
Would happen if I really went for it and hit 110%.
A. You can’t. “MHR is an absolute limit. You might not think so, though, because the heart rate formula-
220 beats per minute, minus your age – has a 10% margin of error. The only sure way to pin down the
number is to have your doctor administer a treadmill test to exhaustion. Once you know your max, you should train at 60-75 of it. You’ll see a modest effect on your fitness level at 60% and a good effect at 75%
but beyond that you’re wasting effort.

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Ease The Pressure

High blood pressure kills 60,000 people every year. So I’ve listed a few fact so to help avoid becoming one of them.

  • Swallow a glass of tomato juice, or better still 2. This contains lycopene and lutein, two phytochemicals with blood lowing properties.
  • Work stress isn’t all in your head – it’s in your circulatory system too. “Longterm stressful situations readjust the blood pressure upwards”.
  • Recent research has confirmed what has long been suspected-there is a strong link between salt intake and high blood pressure. No more than 3g aday is recommended. Check sodium levels in tin foods, packets of crisps and cold meats.
  • Regular, moderate exercise has been proved to reduce blood pressure by an average of 3.8 points systolic and 2.6 diastolic. Working at 70-80% of maximum heart rate for best effects.
  • Polyunsaturated fatty acids. Use sesame seed oil. Indian researchers have found that patients with blood pressure avr 166/101 have reduced to avr 134/85 in just 2 months.

 

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