Tag Archives: tips

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.

Top Tips: Self Tanning

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People often ask me the best ways to keep their skin looking at its best for a spray tan.

So, to maintain a good fake-tan and super smooth skin my top tips are:

  • Exfoliate at home before applying fake tan -  if you exfoliate, the layer of dead skin will be very shallow meaning that your new tan will last alot longer.
  • Remove any hairs around 42 hours prior to your tan. That way you get smooth legs and bronzed skin without those little black dots!
  • Moisturise heavily at night is always a tan maintainer.  This will keep your skin fresh and vibrant and really prolonging the colour.

Or, why not let CHF take the stress out of self-tanning – CHF Beauty now offers the Sienna X spray tan, with up-keep products to keep your summer glow all year long…

Amy, Beauty Manager

Exercise – How to keep motivated

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Its the end of the week, and the working day may be dragging a bit.  The first thing on your mind is 5pm, going home and enjoying the weekend – and whilst downtime is great, how do you get through those tough patches when you need to keep motivated?

It’s not just in work where motivation can suffer – if you’re embarking on a fitness regime, with the weekend around the corner, it can be difficult to keep your mind on the job, and your body in the gym.

So this week Caversham Health and Fitness Personal Trainer Mark suggests 10 key points that could help you boost your motivation levels, and your fitness regime.

Top 10 tips on how to stay motivated

A lot of my clients mention the hardest thing to do when working towards their health and fitness goals is staying motivated, so here are 10 top tips to keep you inspired:

  • Never give up

If you fall off the wagon, so be it, it happens but get back on straight away. Don’t let one bad day or one bad week become anything more.

  • Don’t procrastinate

Should I go to the gym? Shouldn’t I? Should I? Shouldn’t I? Avoid wasting time thinking about it and ‘just do it’ – something is always going to be better than nothing.

  • Identify exactly what it is you want

Stop at nothing to achieve that. Set yourself specific goals with realistic deadline in order to measure your progress and celebrate your success.

  • Do the best with what you have

If you only have limited time to train make the most of that time, up the intensity if the duration is lessened.  If you are going away, take your kit. Go for a walk, go for a run do some body weight exercises.

  • Replace bad habits

We are all creatures of habit. Some of these habits serve us, some don’t.  If you don’t like where you are today then evaluate yesterdays habits that got you to this point. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is insane. Replace old habits that didn’t serve you with you ones that do. Remember: its never too late to be who you’ve always wanted to be.

  • Make consistent baby steps

The best approach to sustained lifestyle change is to make small changes each day towards your goal.  Always strive to be a little better than yesterday.

  • Test Yourself

There aren’t any failures on your journey only good and bad tests. Learn from both in order to find out what works best for you.

  • Social support and role modelling

Surround yourself with others who support your weight loss and healthy habits . By doing so you can leverage their knowledge, support and encouragement to help spur you on to even greater success and also help you through any rough patches you might be feeling.

  • Push yourself

Most people want to stay comfortable but if you wish to accomplish great things for yourself you must push yourself further than you have before. This requires discipline and that means doing the opposite of what you might feel like doing. By doing this you will be building your mental muscles as well as your physical ones.

  • Plan

Be prepared, planning is the key to success. Plans when you can shop, when you’ll need to take healthy snacks with you, plan your meals, plan your workouts. Get organised, get fit, get healthy, get happy!

  • Realise it’s up to YOU

Everyone can succeed in their fitness goals  – it just comes down to how badly you want it.

Now go and be the best you can be, better than yesterday and even better tomorrow!

A CHF Success Story…

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After seeing an unflattering photo of herself Lois decided it was time to take action…. and now with the help of Caversham Health and Fitness Lois Lee has lost two stone, is fighting fit and more beautiful than ever!

Here CHF find out more about her journery.

CHF: Hi Lois, thanks very much for sharing your story.  So what was your motivation for joining Caversham Health and Fitness?

LL: I joined in mid march after I saw a photo of myself. When I looked at it I wasn’t happy, I was very depressed in fact, so I joined ClubCHF.

Personal Trainer’s Tip: Take a ‘before’ photo at the start of your healthy lifestyle change to celebrate how far you’ve come when you look back and also spur you towards your ideal.

CHF: Why ClubCHF?

LL: I can’t drive so the location was perfect walking distance from work and home. I had in my mind what I wanted to do after researching on the internet. I looked at various bodybuilding websites for hints and tips. I was very organised, I even downloaded a spreadsheet of what exercises to do and for how long.

Personal Trainer’s Tip: It’s all about ‘Location, Location, Location!’ If you have to go pass a gym, you are more likely to stay motivated to go.

CHF: When did you start to see results?

LL: After about 6 weeks, they weren’t dramatic but I started to feel better and fitter, I wasn’t getting so out of breath and my trousers started to fit better. I became more determined. I made sure I came to the gym even if I didn’t enjoy it on the previous occasion.

Personal Trainer’s Tip: It’s important to remember that just as weight doesn’t go on in one week its unrealistic to expect to see visible results immediately.

CHF: So how did you stay motivated?

LL: After about 4 weeks I booked a Personal Training session with Mark, it was really good and focused me a little more and it was good to get an expert opinion on weight loss and toning. I was designed a kettle bell program and shown how to do press ups properly.  I also used the Swiss ball a lot.

I started to do the Body Combat once a week; it was really good for cardio and improved my asthma symptoms and general fitness. After three weeks I also started doing Circuits on Thursday.

Soon after the Personal Training I’d lost one stone!

Personal Trainer’s Tip: Coincidence?! Its important to keep things varied and interesting. So consider Personal Training or joining a class for a change of environment, focus and stimulus.

CHF: That’s great!  Did you measure your progress in other ways?

LL: I started to notice clothes were beginning to droop off me. I made a conscious decision not to weigh myself at the start for I thought I might get discouraged.  On Mark’s recommendation when my confidence had increased I started doing a weekly weigh-in every Monday after my session to gauge my progress.

Personal Trainer’s Tip: Don’t be a slave to the scales, you want to loose fat as opposed to weight per se. Muscle is heavier than fat so you may be putting on weight in the form of muscle that enables you to burn calories more effectively. Take notice of how your clothes fit (or not) to gauge your progress.

CHF: Do you think anything else contributed to your success?

LL: I started to keep a food diary after my first PT session. At the start I ensured I ate 3 main meals a day i.e. breakfast, lunch and dinner which I wasn’t doing before. Then I increased that to 5 small meals. Every Friday I’d treat myself to a lunch of my choice either an M&S burger or Subway but now I don’t always have it nor want it. At the weekend I’d allow myself some chocolate but I don’t even want it now either.

Personal Trainer’s Tip: You can’t out exercise a bad diet. Take note of what you are eating and drinking my keeping a food diary and you’ll be surprised at what it shows!

CHF: What advice would you give to others?

LL: Persevere, if you have a bad day or bad week (a Chinese takeaway or chocolate like I did many times!) start again tomorrow.

Personal Trainer’s Tip: Here! Here! Lois.  Try to abide by the 80/20 rule.   80% stick to your diet and exercise plan but 20% give yourself a little break – life is for living after all.

CHF: It sounds like you’ve had a great journey. What have you learnt?

LL: That it’s not just about weight loss but overall health and fitness and how you feel about yourself. It’s not a 12 week plan but a life style. I didn’t lose the weight all of a sudden. It was a gradual thing, I started really slowly and it took 6 months to get here.  I felt a bit lonely at some points and I found forums on the web really helped support what I was doing.

CHF: What next?

LL: Carry on doing what I’m doing! I love the kettle bell, it’s like no other exercise. It’s not cardio, not weights but everything in one. I also like the fact that not a lot of people know how to use them, that makes me feel a bit special – especially when I pick up the big 16kg one and people are looking at me.

CHF: How are you feeling now compared to when you started?

LL: I’m brimming with confidence physically and mentally, I feel I still have more to lose but in the meantime I’ve booked myself in for a massage with Kevin Mullen to celebrate. I’ve had so many positive comments. The reaction from family and friends has been fantastic. People are shocked, even people I don’t  know are commenting on how I’m  dropping weight like there’s no tomorrow. Just this week the doorman of one of our work buildings looked at me and asked ‘Where are you going?!’

Personal Trainer’s Tip: Keep it up Lois. Very well done! It’s people like yourself that make my job so worthwhile.

Don’t forget if you ever need support or advice with your fitness regime just ask a member of CHF staff who will be more than happy to help you.

Lois’ Weekly Workouts

Mon : Kettlebells

Tue: Bodycombat

Wed: Boxing circuits

Thurs:  Circuit training

Fri:  See how I feel, maybe a kettle bell workout

Sat: Book out a squash court and dance around for 45 mins

Sun:  rest

Lois’ Diet

Breakfast:  weetabix, shreddies, bran based cereal with fruit

Mid morning: Light yogurt

Lunch:  Salad with a source of protein (nuts and/or seeds/fish) and some fruit

Mid afternoon:  Banana

Dinner:  Either lean mince/ fish/ chicken/ with veggies sometimes potatoes

5 Tips to make this your best Summer ever!

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So the skies are clearer, the weather is warmer, and you’re thinking about cracking out your swimsuit, and this isn’t always a pleasant experience, and with the World Cup and Wimbledon it’s often easier to watch other people exercising than taking the plunge yourself.

Don’t forget that up until June 30th you can work towards getting yourself Beach Fit with Caversham Health and Fitness with our special programme -  and at CHF we’re committed to helping you maintain a healthier, more active lifestyle through out the year, and so here we’ve compiled 5 top tips that could reinvigorate your training and the rest of your summer!

5 Tips to make this your best Summer ever!

1.    Use compound movements – that is those that  work several muscle groups at once,  the more muscles you work the more calories you’ll burn. It also means that you can work more in less time – so you still have time to fit in a gym session and get back to watch the World Cup.

Use these big, muscle-building exercises to really torch those calories:
Chest:  Press Ups, Bench Press, Dips
Back:  Deadlifts, High Pulls, Chin Ups ( if you’re not quite ready to face the chin up bar just yet then you could use the Incline Pull instead)
Legs:  Squats, Lunges, Step Ups

2.    Select the right weight – most gym goers programs would be a great deal more beneficial if they selected the right weight. That is one that on the last few repetitions it’s getting progressively harder to maintain that perfect form Frazer, Vee, Mel or Rob demonstrated in your ‘Start to Train’.  If you get to the end of your set number of repetitions and you could have done more than you need to take that weight up again next set.

3.    Up the intensity, lessen the duration – most of us are time poor, leading busy lives and sometimes it can be hard to figure out how you can find that hour to make it to the gym. Here’s the good news – you don’t have to! Only got 40 minutes? Fine. Only got 30? That’s okay. 20 all you can manage. Come on in. 15? Now you’re pushing it! Whatever time you have –use it. But use it effectively. If you’re only doing half of your program, double the intensity. Something is always better than nothing and you’ll always feel better afterwards.

4.    Do things you enjoy – every piece of state of the art kit at Caversham Health and Fitness has the ability to help you achieve what you joined here to accomplish. Some you’ll like, some you won’t.  Just because someone in a fitness magazine lost two stone by running doesn’t mean you have to slave away on the running belt if you it doesn’t motivate you. Your body doesn’t really care how you move – as long as you move. Don’t like working out in the gym? Take part in classes. There is no right or wrong way to get healthy – just the right one for you. Let us help you find it and away you go!

5.    Follow the 80/20 rule – you don’t have to suddenly become hermit once you embark on your healthier lifestyle.  ‘Everything in moderation, including moderation’ somebody said whose name escapes me. For 80% of the time stick to your gym plan, make those healthier food choices, get the amount of sleep you know you need to function properly but 20% of the time let yourself off of the hook now and again to reap the rewards of all your hard work and effort.  That could mean having one day a week when you eat what you want, having that pudding at the restaurant. You’ve earned it. Then back to that 80%, don’t let that one day become a bad week or a bad month. Celebrate!

RPE – What?

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A common reason a lot of gym goers don’t achieve their goals is, simply, they aren’t working hard enough.  so the question is ‘how hard to work?’

This question we could dedicate a whole post to but lets keep it simple.  Use the talk test: think ‘paragraphs’, ’sentences’, ‘grunts’.

  • paragraphs – when warming up you should be able to hold a conversation comfortably i.e. chat about your day, the celebrity you most fancy, how much your boss perplexes you etc without too  much effort. this would be an RPE (rate of perceived exertion) of 5-6 out of 10.
  • sentences – this is when your work rate increases and its more challenging to wax lyrical about the above without having to stop for air. you might have broken out into a bit of a sweat and you know you are doing something. this would be an RPE of 6-7 out of 10.
  • grunts – this is when I know my really chatty clients are working at a rate that will dramatically improve their fitness ie they cant talk, well they can but not much. this would be an RPE of 7-9 out of 10.

So next time you’re on the cross trainer/the rower/the treadmill/ the stepper try the talk test. You can do this when running alone outside but ensure their aren’t too many people about or you might look a little ’special’, maybe try singing a verse of a song and see how far you get. Good luck!

Video:How to do the perfect Press Up

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Mark Willis, Personal Trainer, has pulled together a collection of short videos that demonstrate how to perform some of the core exercises that can be done at the gym or at home.

Here is how to do the perfect press up:

If you need any advice or guidance at any time, please ask a CHF instructor who will be more than happy to help you.

Get back on the exercise bus

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You were doing so well and then BANG! it all went horribly wrong, how can you get back to where you were ……and then some?

  • Start Again (at the beginning) – most of us tend to want to pick up from exactly where we left off and then get frustrated when we can’t run as fast or lift as much.  The body is a great adaptor but it will adapt both to progressive exercise (positive) and also sitting on the couch watching television eating pringles (not so positive) – so be realistic about things and just start again!  You’ll soon be back to where you were and then some.
  • Commit To It – his is the first step, but make that commitment not just to yourself but to your partner, friends, workmates, in your journal, blog, post it up somewhere prominent at home, by your computer even tell your pet and encourage others to encourage you. if you cannot do this it is likely that you will falter.  That’s the great thing about having a gym membership – you’ll have the CHF gym staff to encourage you too!
  • Do It For 30 Days – evidence suggests that it takes between 21 and 30 days to create a new habit (depending which research you read). commit to that month and then things should get a lot easier.
  • Do It At The Same Time Each Day – get structured. there will always be plenty of other things in your busy life that could draw you away from your goal so get specific. before work, lunchtime or straight after work are the best times to train. it doesn’t matter when it is. just do it. doing it at the same time each day will make it a much stronger habit.
  • Learn From Your Mistakes – there’s a reason for everything including why you stopped your exercise program. find out what it was and put things in place to stop it stopping you again. if not, it will happen again.
  • Celebrate Every Success – sometimes just getting to the gym is cause for celebration when if you had to wrestle with that or doing something else.   Celebrate often in the first few weeks, that extra rep or increase in speed, they all count towards that fitter, stronger, happier new you!

In the words of my trainers – JUST DO IT!

Motivational Quotes x 5 part 2

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Part 2 of our motivational quotes to inspire and get those cogs in the head turning. Print them out and stick them on your kitchen fridge (to help stop the snacking!) or beside your monitor, to get you through the working day.

  • Today knowledge has power. It controls access to opportunity and advancement. – Peter F. Drucker, 1909-2005, Austrian-born Management Consultant and Author
  • The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. – Albert Einstein, 1879-1955, German-born American Physicist
  • For every problem, there is one solution which is simple, neat and wrong. – H. L. Mencken, 1880-1956, American Journalist/Satirist/Critic
  • A little thought and a little kindness are often worth more than a great deal of money. – John Ruskin, 1819-1900, English Author/Poet/Artist
  • All growth depends upon activity. There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work. – Calvin Coolidge, 1872-1933, 30th President of the United States

Motivational Quotes x 5 part 1

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We all need that little bit of inspiration to keep us going at the gym, at home, through the work day. This will be a series that will share the best motivational quotes to help create that inspiration.

  • Life ought to be a struggle of desire toward adventures whose nobility will fertilize the soul. – Rebecca West, 1892-1983
  • Mistakes are the portals of discovery. – James Joyce, 1882-1941

  • The wisest men follow their own direction. – Euripides, 484 BC-406 BC
  • Courage is doing what you’re afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you’re scared. – Eddie Rickenbacker, 1890-1973
  • Against criticism a man can neither protest nor defend himself; he must act in spite of it, and then it will gradually yield to him. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749-1832

Enjoy!