Tag Archives: diet

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!

Diary of a Fitness Manager Getting Healthy – Entry 1

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I am about to embark on a voyage of nutrition and exercise! I have done this before but I have let my standards slip. About 5 years ago before I got into the health and fitness industry I was very over weight and extremely unfit: I weighed 17 stone and had a body fat of 40%. Over the course of a year I got my weight down to 10 ½ stone and body fat down to 12%. I was over the moon!

On the outside I may look healthy but my body fat levels have crept up and my exercise has crept down!  Currently 20% body fat and weigh 12St 4lbs.

So, I am looking to eat as naturally and as healthy as possible, which can be tough in our modern world with fast foods and processed everything!

I will be following a new exercise and eating plan based loosely around the Palaeolithic diet and the primal blueprint way of life:

  • Buy from companies that treat animals, workers and the environment with respect
  • When you go to the supermarket, choose foods that are in season
  • Buy food that is organic
  • Know what’s in your food
  • Read labels
  • Know what you buy
  • The average meal travels 1500 miles from the farm to the supermarket
  • Buy foods that are grown locally
  • Shop at farmers markets
  • Plant a garden (no matter how small)
  • Cook a meal with your family and eat together
  • Eat lean meats, vegetables, fruit and seeds
  • No proceed foods

So it begins, I am going to put in weekly diaries of how I am getting on good and bad! Put what foods I am eating, how I am feeling and what I am doing.

Wish me luck!

Jason Bushnell, Fitness Manager

Click here for Entry 2

3 Reasons to be Caffeine free

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The next time you order your daily ‘fix’, consider the effects of that legal high.

Weight Loss
•Caffeine elevates stress hormones. People tend to eat when feeling stressed and this thwarts their diet goals.
•Caffeine triggers hypoglycaemia and increases appetite. Weight loss diets are designed to achieve stable blood sugar without insulin spikes. Caffeine raises blood sugar, which can result in subsequent low blood sugar that drives people to eat high fat, refined carbohydrate foods to get a quick energy boost.
•Caffeine aggravates Insulin Resistance Syndrome. Obesity, high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol and cellular insensitivity to insulin are part of a syndrome that can lead to the development of Type 2 diabetes. Caffeine contributes to insulin resistance and impairs glucose tolerance. 41 million Americans are considered to be pre-diabetic and are advised to adapt healthy lifestyle and dietary habits to avoid progressing to type 2 diabetes.

Sleep & Mood Disturbance
Caffeine can interfere with sleep either by causing insomnia or by shortening the duration and depth of sleep. People metabolize caffeine at different rates and the sleep of some people can still be affected even though they last consumed caffeine 8 – 12 hours before sleep. Women on birth control pills and people taking pharmaceutical drugs metabolize caffeine much more slowly because caffeine and drugs both have to be detoxified in the liver. Anyone experiencing sleep problems should try eliminating caffeine from their diet as part of a program to restore restful sleep.
Anxiety, nervousness, irritability and impatience can all be aggravated by caffeine. Depression can result as a withdrawal symptom from an absence of caffeine in caffeine addicted individuals. People can be unaware of the effect of caffeine on their mood until family members of co-workers complain of their caffeine driven behaviour. People with mood disturbances may find that nutritional and herbal support during caffeine weaning will help rebalance their brain chemistry and relieve the symptoms of depression.

The Pursuit of Optimal Health
The ultimate reasons to live a caffeine-free life is to pursue optimal health. Ingesting a drug on a habitual daily basis simply doesn’t support that goal. Drugs are invaluable when they are needed to produce a result or relieve a symptom as quickly as possible. Caffeine is a great stimulant when you need it on an occasional basis. Driving late at night or instantly achieving alertness when sleep deprived are both excellent times to use caffeine as a drug. Opening the bronchial passages during an asthmatic attack is another good time to use caffeine for its short-term effect on the bronchia. However, health problems arise when caffeine becomes a crutch for maintaining a stress driven lifestyle on a daily basis. Bodies need a balance of rest and activity along with superior nutrition in order to maintain optimal health. The habitual consumption of caffeine thwarts the goal of optimal health and therefore, health educators and longevity specialists recommend that you reduce or eliminate caffeine from your diet in order to rebuild and maintain optimal health.