Personal Training

Personal Training Articles

Healthy holidays: Avoiding the bulge

This holiday season don’t be trendy – avoid the Seasonal Seven (the average weight in kilos that the New Zealander male gains between 1 December and 6 January). That’s one trend you don’t want to partake in!

Since the holidays are traditionally a time for entertaining and over indulgence you probably prefer not to think about health & fitness between these times. Don’t worry! The celebrations don’t have to be eliminated or avoided. You can have a great time while also maintaining your weight and your fitness regimen.

Moderation is the key to having a healthy holiday season. There are two typical approaches to the seasonal festivities:

1) Throw all healthy habits out the window and indulge in every guilty pleasure (feels great at the time sucks afterwards)

2) Starve and binge approach (for example, you eat nothing all day long to allow yourself to overindulge in party food. Never been a fan of this one) Of course, neither approach is successful at maintaining a healthy, fit lifestyle throughout the holiday season.

The key is found in moderation. With a moderate approach, both to what you eat (or don’t eat) and how much exercise you do (or don’t do), you can avoid packing on those extra kilos.

Here are some tips to help you during those chaotic holiday weeks:

Create a plan ahead of time. Create a plan for incorporating fitness and proper nutrition into your daily routine. Evaluate your holiday timetable and determine how much time you will realistically have available to allocate to working out and/or eating healthy meals.
Don’t put your fitness goals on hold until the New Year. If you can’t exercise as often during this time period as you normally do, adjust appropriately. Don’t use the excuse that since you don’t have time for your full workout you just won’t workout at all. Instead accept your limited availability and simply reduce the frequency and/or duration of your exercise.
On the day of a party, be sure to eat regularly all day long. If the party is in the evening, eat breakfast, lunch and a snack before hand (just as you would on any other day). Once you are at the party, go ahead and indulge in some of the fun, delicious foods. Since you have eaten meals earlier in the day, you probably will find that you aren’t tempted to go overboard and eat everything in sight. However, if you starve all day long attempting to save up all your calories for the party, you will be so famished by the time it begins that it will be difficult not to overeat.
Schedule your workouts. Mark them on the calendar and set-aside time to complete them. Consider them as important as any other appointment or event you have marked on your calendar.
Shorten your workouts & increase the intensity: On days that you really lack enthusiasm or simply do not have time for your complete exercise routine, commit to do just 20 minutes of exercise. Increase your intensity for a shorter duration.

Hopefully these tips will help you find a balance between staying fit and also enjoying the merriment of the season.

Remember, moderation is the key. Have a great holiday season!

Last Updated on Sunday, 27 November 2011 19:19

PDF

| Print |

E-mail

One body in Mint Condition - Priceless

Imagine you are sixteen years old and your parents give you your first car. They also give you simple instructions. There is one small hitch, you only get one car, you can never get another. Never! No trade-ins, no trade-ups. Nothing.

Ask yourself how would you maintain that car? My guess is you would be meticulous. Frequent oil changes, proper fuel, etc. Now imagine if your parents also told you that none of the replacement parts for this car would ever work as well as the original parts. Not only that, the replacement parts would be expensive to install and cause you to have decreased use of your car for the rest of the cars useful life? In other words, the car would continue to run but, not at the same speed and with the efficiency you were used to.

Core Conditioning – What is it?

“The Core” – The muscles in the abdomen, lower back and pelvis, that lie between the rib cage and the hips this is not just the mirror muscles (six pack).

The strength and coordination of these muscles is important not only for sports and fitness but also for daily life. For example, lifting a child, cleaning the car or even sitting up!

Those with healthy backs automatically (without thinking) contract their core muscles through most movements. A well trained core stabilises the spine and helps create a firm base of support for virtually all movement.

Posture is our Passion!

What makes us different will make you stand out in a crowd.

It affects everyone, every day in every way. Our lifestyles and work habits often are the cause of poor posture.

“Good posture will make you look healthier and attractive, and increase your ability function well through the day.

What are Kettlebells?

If you've never heard of kettlebells, you aren't alone. Although this piece of strength training equipment has been around for decades, only recently has it caught the attention of mainstream athletes and fitness trainers.
Kettlebells are bowling ball-sized cast iron weights with a single looped handle on top. Kettlebells range in weight from 1kg to over 50 kg’s. Common strength training aids in Eastern Europe, kettlebells are taking off around the world. Often called Russian Kettlebells, the story is that the KB was originally used to weigh produce (wool, wheat etc) at fairs in units of Poods (16kg). 16kg kettlebells are the standard size. After the business side of the county fair was finished the men would do feats of strength using the KB's to impress the ladies and as they were Ruskies, then drink vodka and sing sad songs.

Read more...

Last Updated on Sunday, 27 November 2011 19:08