Tag Archives: training

Exercise of the Month – The Sit Up

Posted on
Reply

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

Posted on
Reply

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

Motivation

Posted on
Reply

Personal Trainer Andy KnightSeveral times throughout my training career I’ve had to look back to why I started this game as a scrawny teen. Whether I was struggling with an injury, illness, busy lifestyle, family issues, basically anything that life throws at me, I’ve always scratched around the psychological basement that inspired and motivated me to keep moving forwards when I was on the borderline of making a commitment to change my lifestyle for the better.

What actually motivated me to train in the beginning is actually quite grey and fuzzy now; there is no pinpointed, specific area that I can call upon, rather it was more of a series of life events that made me stand up one day and get on with it. I can’t recall whether it was being fed up of being useless at sports in school, living through my dad’s struggle with heart disease, having an older brother that would pick on me for anything and everything, or just the fact that growing up in the 80’s meant that the fitness boom was just taking off and the likes of Sly and Arnie were getting a lot of publicity for their image.

I remember going for that first, breathless jog down to the detail of what I was wearing that day and even breaking through the front door in a heap, running up stairs to my bedroom and feebly attempting to do as many push ups and sit ups as I could. After a while, this all became too easy and I needed to take things to the next level so I saved up my pocket money so that I had enough to buy a 50kg weights set from Argos. I remember nagging my dad to help me carry them back with me on the bus and the nerves that I faced when walking up to the counter to ask for the weights set.

After fumbling my way through the little bit of paper that came with the set, again I found that I needed the next step. I needed to join a gym or eventually crash through my bedroom ceiling! By now I was hooked. I was starting to get positive comments, my body was changing, I was no longer the weakling during PE and I started to get known for being the one that kept in shape. I’d been bitten by the bug and I was constantly looking for new methods to keep improving in one way or another. I’d find motivation by gym based goals, intrinsic motives and living up to the pressure that I’d given myself of being the young lad that was in shape and started getting respect from peers that he’d never have thought he’d ever talk to. My social circle started changing and I felt better for recreating myself and started piling pressure on myself to keep moving forwards. I changed my eating habits, training schedule and turned down the temptations that a lot of modern day teenagers faced.

From what was a gentle jog to fill up time one evening had spiraled into a lifestyle and I wholeheartedly believe that I’ll be exercising until the day I no longer can. There have been days when injuries have made me think about throwing in the towel, but even at my lowest I’ve managed to dig a little bit deeper and find things that I can do, rather than what I can’t do. Before I knew it, all of the determination and disciplined that I’ve learned from making sure that I stay on top of my lifestyle had carried over into my work and personal life, giving me the drive to keep moving forwards rather than settling for what’s comfortable.

To summarise:

  • Find what made you want to train in the first place and relive the feelings that made you exercise in the first place. Do you want to run away, or move towards something?
  • What are you trying to achieve? Have you achieved it already? Are you ever going to reach your goals? An acronym that is often used when setting goals is one called SMART.
    • Specific: What do I want to achieve? (E.g. lift more weight.)
    • Measurable: How do I know when I’ve got there? How much weight do I want to lift?
    • Achievable: Am I ever going to be able to lift 300kg, or is 160kg more realistic?
    • Relevant: Do I really need to focus your time and energy into this pursuit?
    • Time Bound: Can I reach this goal in 3 months, or will 6 months be more realistic?
  • What do you want to achieve in the short, middle and long term? What short term goals will help you achieve your middle and long term goals?
  • Find out what your limitations to exercise are and what you can do to overcome them. For example, if you’re too busy with work to find time to exercise, then perhaps you could arrange your travel or home schedule to bring your training to you, etc.
  • Who do you look up to? Do they have what you want? How did they get to where they are today?
  • Do you feel bogged down with details because of the thousands of articles that you’ve read? Take a step back, go back to basics and find what works for YOU.
  • Are you prepared to look beyond the initial burst in progress and dig deep to find that bit of grit that will eventually lead you to your goals? If not, then read the article and the summary again and ask yourself why!

If you’d like any advice setting and achieving your fitness goals just ask a member of the Club CHF fitness team.

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!

Andy Knight, Personal Trainer, Caversham Health & Fitness

Beach Ready Summer Circuits

Posted on
Reply

Summer CircuitsFor some, summer conjures up thoughts hot sticky days and lazy warm summer evenings, relaxing times with lots of happiness and laughter. With summer 2011 just around the corner, I’m sure there are lots of you getting excited about planning your beach holiday, purchasing your new summer wardrobe and buying some fabulous new beachwear!

Yet for others, the thought of summer brings on nothing but stress and the whole “showing that little bit of extra flesh” can be quite daunting. I believe the main trigger for this is linked to how we view ourselves, internally and externally. How confident are we with the way we look? But, most importantly, it could just simply be that you just don’t feel “beach ready” and this is where I can help.

Every Saturday morning, throughout the summer months, I’ll be at Caversham Health and Fitness teaching a “Beach Ready Summer Circuits” class. This is a class specifically designed to get your body beach ready. The most important way to achieve this beach ready body is by changing your workout routine, this will prevent that weight loss plateau we all suffer from. Beach Ready Summer Circuits is one hour long and designed to help you reach your goals and target those problem areas. But, I’m a great believer in making my classes entertaining, hard work yet fun, as well as being a support for you to understand your needs and your own personal goals.

Circuit training is a total body workout that involves performing a series of different exercises for a set amount of time. With a mixture of both strength, and cardiovascular exercises, you can realise the benefits from both types of training.

The benefits of circuit training are:

  • Adapted to all fitness levels
  • Total overall body sculpting
  • Faster metabolism – resulting in more calories burned each day
  • Increased muscular strength
  • Increased cardiovascular fitness levels
  • Time efficient
  • Very sociable
  • Brilliant fun with lots of smiles, entertainment and laughter

Adding cardiovascular exercises between strength training, rather than resting, increases lean body mass (less fat = more lean muscle) which in turn creates a higher resting metabolism. This means that more calories are burned each day.

With the quick pace of the class, the constantly changing exercises, and a stress placed on the body, which is totally unique to circuit training, this is like no other training programme.

It is really important to remember that a circuits class can be personalised to your fitness levels. Whether you are a beginner or an athlete, it is adaptable on all levels.

For circuit class times see the CHF studio timetable

I hope to see you in the class soon.

Natalie Dance
CHF Instructor

A CHF Success Story…

Posted on
Reply

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!

Posted on
Reply

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!

18 Exercises

Posted on
Reply

Compound exercises are multi-joint movements that work several muscles or muscle groups at one time.

For healthy athletes who are trying to get the most out of a training program, compound exercises are generally preferred and recommended. There are many reasons to use compound exercises during your workout, including the following:

Using more muscle groups. . .

  • means more calories burned during exercise.
  • simulates real-world exercises and activities.
  • allows you to get a full body workout faster.
  • improves coordination, reaction time and balance.
  • improves joint stability and improves muscle balance across a joint.
  • decreases the risk of injury during sports.
  • keeps your heart rate up and provides cardiovascular benefits.
  • allows you to exercise longer with less muscle fatigue.
  • allows you to lift heavier loads and build more strength.

The exercises…

Lower body compound:

  • back squat
  • front squat
  • split squat
  • alternate lunge
  • step up
  • Olympic dead lift
  • Romanian dead lift (hips higher than Olympic dead lift)
  • Stiff legged dead lift

Upper body compound:

  • Close grip barbell bent over row
  • Wide grip barbell bent over row
  • Dumbbell single arm row
  • Chin up (pronated grip)
  • Pull up (supinated grip)
  • Barbell bench press
  • Overhead dumbbell press

Core:

  • Plank
  • Side plank
  • Deadbug

Work, *rest* and play

Posted on
Reply

Don't over-work yourself!

This post has nothing to do with mars bars but the tagline for said chocolate bar is pretty apt.  Like all things your training needs to be balanced.

As previously mentioned in ‘8 tips’ most peoples results would drastically improve if they upped the intensity of what they are doing in the gym; but you cannot work at a high intensity all of the times. The results of all the effort and hard work you put into your training actually occur when you are resting. Overtraining can actually be more detrimental to your health and well being as under training.

If you feel tired or ill then listen to your body. People tell themselves ’I’m okay, I’ll sweat it out’.  No you won’t, dear reader, you will give all your germs and lurgy to all you come into contact with, and train at 50% of your ability for a few weeks.  Whereas if you just took a week off and let your body recover when you return you can pick up pretty much from where you left off.

And when you are resting use that time to play!