Author Archives: clubchf

Exercise of the Month – Stability Ball

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Stability Ball Roll In And Plank
This exercise is great for toning and strengthening your core.

Perform 15 pull ins and then hold the plank position (body extended) for 15 seconds

Step 1. Roll over the stability ball until your feet are resting on top of the ball.

Step 2. Hands should be directly below shoulders, with your body long and straight and your abdominal (stomach) muscles contracted.

Step 3. Bend at the hips and knees, bringing the ball up towards your chest in a slow and controlled motion, and then roll the ball back to the starting position. Repeat 15 times.

Step 4. Once 15 reps are done, hold your body in the extended position for 15 seconds, concentrating on keeping your core strong and your spine long, and straight. Take a 30 second rest then repeat 2-3 times.

Why not try our Exercise of the Month from February – The Plank

Caroline Riddall, Personal Trainer, Caversham Health & Fitness

We have some fantastic offers on personal training at Club CHF with our in-house personal trainers. Try our new PT Taster – 3 personal training sessions for £60

For more information call us on 0118 948 4849


Exercise of the Month – Prone Superman

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Start Position
Lie face down on the floor with your arms out stretched over your head, thumbs pointing up towards the ceiling. Position your legs hips width apart with your toes pointing away from your body so that your laces are positioned towards the floor. Make sure your eyes are looking at the floor with your chin slightly tucked under. You should feel that the back of your neck is elongated. Engage your inner unit and carefully rotate your pelvis so that your lower back has slightly flattened. If you feel any discomfort in your lower back, please place a cushion underneath your stomach, if the pain persists please stop this exercise and continue with lower intensity inner unit exercises (such as the 4-point horse stance).

Action
Take a diaphragmatic inhalation and as you exhale lift your right arm and left leg off the floor. Feel your right shoulder blade move down towards your spine and make sure your shoulder remains away from your ear. At the same time engage your glute muscle, feeling your bottom tighten. Lower your arm and leg back to the floor and repeat lifting the left arm and right leg. Continue lifting alternate arm and leg.

Breathing Pattern
Inhale: As you lower arm/leg to the floor
Exhale: As you lift arm/leg off the floor

Benefits
The prone superman is a safe and effective exercise for training the extensor muscles of the superficial back line. It is particularly useful for people who find spinal extension painful as this exercise strengthens the erector spinae, gluteals & hamstrings with little pressure placed on the inter-vertebral discs.

Lisa Fotheringham, Personal Trainer, Caversham Health & Fitness

Would you like more tips from Lisa? Book a Personal Training session with Lisa, packages start from only £20 a session.

Exercise 1 – Bulge 0

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CHF member Claire Richardson updates us on her progress with Personal Trainer Caroline and tells us all about her new found fondness for exercise…

Read Claire’s first blog - Winning the Battle of the Bulge

PT sessions with Caroline are well under way with another 8 to be booked.  Who’d have thought that I’d actually enjoy it?  It’s always struck me as something only those people with complete confidence in themselves with little or no concerns about how they look would do. You can’t hide at the back when it’s just you and the trainer!  You can’t keep your head down and hope you don’t get noticed.

So why do it then?  Because……

Before picture and measurements

Bicep – 39.5cm
Chest – 115cm
Hips – 127cm
Waist – 104cm
Thigh – 67cm

All my preconceived ideas of personal training have been well and truly shattered.  It’s not about someone shouting in your face telling you you’re not good enough or screaming at you to “drop and give me 20.”  Don’t get me wrong , I still get anxious before a session and question if I can do it as I know that I will be worked hard, and I certainly feel it at the end of the session!! However, instead of screaming at me or trying to make me feel like a failure, Caroline has helped me through it with nothing but support and encouragement.  I get 100% of her time during the session; we have a laugh, which certainly helps, and the cheesy music that’s played at the weekend’s means that the sessions have become a fun part of my week.

That’s not to say it hasn’t been tough or that I’ve found it easy getting off the sofa and getting myself down to the gym.  Every time I’ve thought I can’t do it, I’m not strong enough, I’ve not got it in me or I’m  too tired, with the right amount of pushing from Caroline I’ve managed to find the strength, or should that be sheer stubbornness, to dig a little deeper and push through and it’s starting to pay off.

Current pictures and measurements

Bicep – 36.5cm
Chest – 113cm
Hips – 123cm
Waist – 103.5cm
Thigh – 66cm

A Recent visit to the doctors has seen my blood pressure results come back normal, as was my Cholesterol, and with a 1% chance of being at risk of a heart attack I’m no longer on the tablets.  I’m delighted by this as I hate having to take pills!  My waist size has reduced and my BMI has gone down at least 6 points moving me into a new “category”.

Claire Richardson, Club CHF Member

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“Since first meeting Claire I have watched her confidence grow and grow and she has achieved so much in the time she has been coming to the gym. Her determination and desire to achieve her goals is really very admirable. It has been a real pleasure to work with her and I look forward to helping her continue on her journey.”
Caroline Riddall, Personal Trainer, Caversham Health & Fitness

Ask a member of the CHF Fitness Team about our Personal Training packages.

Exercise of the Month – The Deadlift

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Often misunderstood and given bad press, but if done correctly it can be an incredible tool in building muscle mass, strength, decreasing risk of injury and improving overall body conditioning.

Most people integrate Deadlifts in to their ‘Back’ day, but when done correctly will hit the hamstrings, quads, whole back, abs and shoulders. It forms one of the ‘Big 3’ Power Lifts and will compete with the Back Squat for most peoples’ strongest lifting effort.

How is it done?

The principle behind a Deadlift is easy, but in practise it’s not just as simple as merely picking up a barbell from the floor. When teaching the lift, I find that breaking the lift up into 3 parts is the easiest way to teach it.

The Set Up:

  • Stand facing a barbell (on the floor) with a shoulder width stance. The bar should be roughly half way over your feet with the shins fairly close.
  • Squatting down with your chest high, grasp the bar with an overhand or mixed grip. Your arms should be just beside your thighs with your triceps locked.
  • Ensure that your hips are sunk low and chest is forced as high as possible.

The Pull:

  • Once the set up is complete, you’re ready to pull. Perform the action by simultaneously driving your heels into the floor and driving your hips forward, pulling the bar up your shins. The bar should stay as close to your body as possible, ensuring that it travels in a straight line.
  • As the bar gets past your knees, squeeze your glutes to complete the lock out phase.

The Descent:

  • Keeping the chest as high as possible, reverse the motion down, maintaining the same level of tension in your body as you applied when lifting from the floor.

The single most important element of the lift is that you maintain your neutral spine, keeping your back flat. If this isn’t possible and you find your back rounding, it is heavily recommended that you focus on improving your flexibility before going heavy.

Andy Knight, Personal Trainer, Caversham Health & Fitness

Why not try the new Advanced Lifting class with instructor Ben, Wednesday evenings at 7.30pm
 

5 Days in the Life of a Personal Trainer

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In-house Personal Trainer Andy Knight gives us an insight into his week…

Sunday Personal Trainer Andy Knight
Today I trained Speed Deadlifts to help reinforce my technique after a period of time out of doing them, Walking Lunges, Romanian Deadlifts to strengthen the hamstrings and glutes, followed by a core circuit based around dumbbell snatches, swings and hanging leg raises.

A typical day’s eating at the moment looks like:

  1. Large bowl of natural muesli with milk, 3 whole eggs.
  2.  Pre Training: 1 scoop of whey protein, 1 scoop of maltodextrin, a banana
  3. Post Training: 1 scoop of whey protein, 1 scoop of maltodextrin, banana
  4. 4 slices of wholemeal bread, mackerel or tuna, salad with olive oil
  5. 2 scoops of whey protein mixed with ground oat powder, fruit
  6. Large balanced meal based around chicken/beef, a wholegrain carb source and veg
  7. Cottage cheese and peanut butter before bed.

This is never rigid and the food choices change because I’m a huge fan of variety within my diet. I’m not really aware of the calories that I consume on a daily basis either because I’m a fan of eating food, not numbers! I’m currently trying to regain some lost muscle mass after a period of hit and miss training with nagging injuries over the past 6 months or so.

No gym shift today!

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Monday
A rest day today, but I taught Strength and Tone in the morning after my first client of the day (one of my A* clients who’s making fantastic progress through his graft and hard work), which I use as a vigorous cardio workout for myself, using relatively light weights compared to what I normally would and reinforcing technique of movements such as Squats, Deadlifts and the Overhead Press with a light weight.

A busy shift in the gym from 2pm until closing saw me off nicely for the rest of the day. Phew!

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Tuesday
Training today was an upper body workout in the morning, doing Close Grip Bench Press, Overhand Pull Ups, Weighted Parallel Bar Dips, Machine Rows and face pulls.

My shift today was 2pm until close, in which time I had an induction to welcome a new member to the club, a personal training session and my regular Tuesday class, Spartan Training which is a vigorous cardio and conditioning workout for 45 minutes.

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WednesdayPersonal Trainer Andy Knight
A well earned rest day from training today! I’ve developed a bit of pain in my shoulder, so I’d be wise to not train through it. It’s more a case of listening to my body so no injuries creep up, especially as I’ve been on a 6am start where I taught Box Fit and had another hard working client afterwards.

At lunch time I put a few of our members through their paces in our Lunch Fit Core Cruncher!

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Thursday
My morning training consisted of Heavy Deadlifts, working up to a max number of reps with 85% of my 1RM, Deep Front Squats, Reverse Barbell Lunges using a Clean Grip and a little core circuit.

During my afternoon to evening gym shift I trained another one of my dedicated clients and put the killer into Killer Circuits!

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Andy Knight, Personal Trainer, Caversham Health & Fitness

Don’t forget to check out our fantastic offers on personal training with our in-house personal trainers. ‘Fast Track Your Fitness’  – 1 hour sessions from as little as £20!

Winning the Battle of the Bulge

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The daunting prospect of joining a gym is something many people struggle with, and many of us will make endless excuses not too. But Club CHF Member Claire Richardson tells us how gaining the courage to join the gym has helped turned her life around…

For many years I have been your typical yo-yo dieter who has occasionally “attempted” exercise.  One of the scariest words in the world to me was ‘gym’. Why? Well to me gyms were full of Lycra clad, matching outfit wearing, skinny people who were super fit and therefore definitely not a place for me at all. So you imagine my surprise when I actually found myself joining Club CHF back in March 2011. Talk about new and scary territory!

It was during a very low point in my life. I had been signed off work due to illness, I was at my heaviest tipping the scale at just over 20 Stone, my blood pressure was through the roof and my self-esteem nowhere to be seen. So why on earth was I going to put myself through such a thing? I still don’t know the answer even to this day but am extremely glad I did. You should have seen me on my first day. There I was, a bag of nerves, trying to hide underneath the biggest/baggiest t-shirt, black of course, I could find in the hope that no one would notice. But from the moment I walked through the doors I was made to feel part of the Club CHF family and like I had the same right to be there as everyone else. The Staff were more than welcoming and friendly and people actually smiled at me and said hello rather than sniggered at me.

I started off in the gym, doing my own thing and because I was off work I was able to come during the day when it was quiet. This was a great help as my confidence started to, slowly, build. After a while I got speaking to Caroline who was one of the trainers. She took the time to talk to me about what I wanted to achieve, why was I there, what were my goals etc. She helped me work out a gym routine to focus on the areas I wanted to work on (which was everywhere!). I would visit the gym a couple of times a week, collect my workout sheet from the drawer and do my thing and it was great to see a familiar and encouraging face. The biggest surprise, apart from the fact that no one was laughing at me, was the fact that I was actually enjoying it. Who knew exercise could be fun!

Having gotten to grips with the exercise it was time to overcome my biggest hurdle. Food. As I said, I was your typical yo-yo dieter and have pretty much tried every diet going. From slimming clubs to meal replacements, from starving myself to limiting myself to just one type of food diets. I enjoyed success when it came but fell hard every time the scales told me something I didn’t want to hear. Talk about getting upset when they said I had put 1lb in a week, devastating to a yo-yo dieter. So it was more than time to break the cycle and realise that food was not my enemy, it was not the be all and end all to life and I was in control of it, not the other way round. I worked with Caroline on my diet and we talked about foods to avoid, new foods to try, portion size and, most importantly for me, not denying myself something or beating myself up should I eat it. Everything in moderation.

After a couple of months things were falling into place and I started to add on the odd class. Starting with Salsa Aerobics, I then tried Yoga, followed by LBT which helps me focus on those three troublesome areas, and Zumba with Agnes which fast became my favourite class because I love to dance. As well as Caroline and the gym team, Agnes’s motivating and uplifting style showed me that exercise didn’t have to be torture. My weight started to drop, 1 Stone, 2 Stone and my body shape was changing as I started to find my size 22, 20 then 18 clothes becoming baggier.

I have now started an 8 week Personal Training programme with Caroline. It will certainly be a challenge, but it’s one I’m looking forward to and I know she’ll be right there motivating me and offering encouragement every step of the way. I’m going on holiday in April and my hope is to be able to fit into a size 14. I’m currently at a weight loss of over 3.5 Stone, I am almost off the blood pressure tablets and am beginning to, albeit with a bit of squeezing, get into a size 16 so I’ve still got a way to go but I know with Caroline’s help and the support from Club CHF I’ll get there!

Claire Richardson, Club CHF Member

Read Claire’s progress update – Exercise 1 – Bulge 0

Ask a member of the CHF Fitness Team about our Personal Training packages.

Exercise of the Month – The Plank

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‘One of the best, safest and most underestimated core exercises.’

One of the biggest advantages of the Plank is that it works the whole core in one hit. Unlike sit ups that target solely the abs, which can lead to instability in the core which also consists of lower back and pelvic floor muscles.

See the core as a corset of muscles that all need to be worked evenly to get best results in posture and strength.

To do the plank

  • set yourself in a press up position with your elbows and forearms in contact with the ground
  • posture up on the balls of your feet and level out your hips
  • make sure your back stays straight and in line with the rest of your body
  • you may need to keep lifting your hips to readjust as you fatigue

There are also advancements of the plank like doing it on the TRX, putting your elbows on a bosu or stability ball to take away balance and in turn create more muscle contractions to help correct your posture.

If you have any questions or need a demo don’t hesitate to ask the Club CHF fitness team.
Good luck and happy training!

Ben Wilson, Personal Trainer, Caversham Health & Fitness

Anytime membership only £21 per month*
Commit to get fit in 2012! Sign up for an ‘Anytime’ gym membership at Caversham Health & Fitness and your first 3 months are half price.

Call us on 0118 948 4849 to get started.

Exercise of the Month – The Sit Up

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Doing sit-ups is a quick way to get stronger abdominal muscles. However, they must be done properly to avoid any injury to your spine and the neck and head muscles. In addition, sit-ups are about using the abdominal region, therefore, you need to really make sure that you are not compensating by using other parts of your body to perform sit-ups as this decreases the effectiveness of the exercise and may cause injury to your body.

It’s not as harsh as it sounds – always focus on the abs and you are most of the way there!!

Sit upSit up

How to do sit-ups correctly!

Step 1: have your knees bent and the balls of your feet and heels placed flat on the ground.

Step 2: Place your hands on opposing shoulders, so that your arms are crossed over your chest, alternatively place your fingers on your temples with elbows out. This allows you a central rising point.

Step 3: Tighten your abdominal muscles by gently drawing in your belly button to your spine.

Step 4: Keeping your heels on the ground and your toes flat to the ground, slowly and gently lift your head first, chin off your chest, followed by your shoulder blades. Focus your eyes on your bent knees, all the while gently contracting the abdominal muscles. Pull up from the floor until you are at a 90 degree angle, or when the elbows are on, or past, the knees.

Step 5: Hold the position for a second. Slowly bring the torso back to the floor but try to keep it slightly elevated off the ground. This means not to place your back flat to the ground but to keep a slight, yet relaxed, arch.

Sit up

Tips:
If you’re having a hard time keeping the balls of your feet or heels on the ground, try asking a friend to hold them down.

You can also find a heavy object (such as a sofa or chair) and tucking your feet under it. This will give you support when attempting to bring yourself up.

If you’d like any advice on how to include the ‘exercise of the month’ into your workout routine just ask a member of the Club CHF fitness team.

Caroline Riddall, Personal Trainer, Caversham Health & Fitness

Anytime membership only £21 per month*
Commit to get fit in 2012! Sign up for an ‘Anytime’ gym membership at Caversham Health & Fitness and your first 3 months are half price.

Call us on 0118 948 4849 to get started.

Exercise of the Month – The Pull Up

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So you think you’re strong?
As well as a clear test of relative upper body strength, the Pull Up is the undisputed heavyweight champion of upper back builders! Every armed forces test and training facility uses the pull up as a staple indicator to the recruits’ and prospects’ strength levels for a good reason.

Gymnasts use pull ups to help maintain and build the strength in their upper body to aid them in performing spectacular bar manoeuvres and fighters use them to help control their opponent and prevent injury while they’re being push and pulled about at different angles.

So how many should I do?
Whether you’re looking to build muscle, strength or endurance, the load can be manipulated by adding weight or assisting yourself with a band or partner to decrease the load. Treat them as any other exercise, with reps ranging 3-5 for strength, 6-12 for strength/hypertrophy and 12+ for endurance.

To put things into perspective, the Royal Marine PRMC Test requires candidates to do 1 full pull up and the Navy SEALS require potential recruits to do a minimum of 8 full pull ups.

So how do I do them?

  • Grasp a pull up bar with an overhand grip, hands shoulder width apart.
  • Allow your body to ‘dead-hang’ from the bar, then shrug downwards with your shoulders to engage the scapular stabilizers and pull your upper back muscles into a downwards V.
  • Pulling your elbows down in towards your body, pull your bodyweight upwards, ensuring that the chin is higher than the bar.
  • Slowly lower the body and repeat.

If you’d like any advice on how to include the ‘exercise of the month’ into your workout routine just ask a member of the Club CHF fitness team.

Andy Knight, Personal Trainer, Caversham Health & Fitness

Join Caversham Health & Fitness today and enjoy FREE membership until 2012!
For more information call us on 0118 948 4849

Nordic Walking

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Nordic WalkingWhether your goal is to become more active, improve your fitness levels, lose weight, overcome a medical condition, train for a specific sport or challenge or you simply enjoy the great outdoors, Nordic Walking can provide it all!

Nordic walking is a great way to gently encourage full body movement whilst the poles help to reduce pressure on the knees and joints and help propel the walker along. It can also help to significantly improve the condition of your muscles, heart and lungs. It will boost your energy levels and help you to ward off medical conditions such as; Heart Disease and Strokes, High blood pressure, Stress and Anxiety to name a few.

By using the poles you use more muscles which significantly increases the amount of calories burned without making you feel you are pushing yourself too hard.

Nordic Walking uses most of the major muscles in the body and therefore helps to keep them in good condition. This gives you the added benefit of improved posture and a more toned physique too, it is particularly good for the upper body; especially the upper arms and the core.

You can not beat the feeling of being outside in the fresh air; it clears away the cobwebs and leaves you feeling refreshed and invigorated. So long as it is not pouring with rain or heavy snow we will be heading out every Tuesday at 9:30am.

I love Nordic Walking and so do my regular ‘Nordic Walkers’ so put on your jumper and come and join us.

Caroline Riddall, Fitness Manager, Caversham Health & Fitness

Nordic Walking Testimonial
“Having done a small amount of walking with poles in the past I was intrigued to find out how Nordic Walking would differ. Firstly Caroline introduced me to poles, teaching me how to hold them correctly, and how to swing my arms to build momentum when walking. After a short practice I quickly picked up the technique. Initially I was apprehensive about joining the class as I worried I might not be able to keep up with the pace, but I needn’t have been concerned as the pace was comfortable for everyone in the class. Half way through the walk we stopped to do some resistance exercises with the poles and by the end of the walk I could really feel the benefits to my upper arms. Nordic Walking really boosted my spirits and put me in a great frame of mind for the day!”
- Catherine