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What should your weekly schedule include for a rewarding fitness regime?
Firstly, your goal will determine the content, volume and intensity of your schedule but whether you are a Golfer, Runner, Boxer, General Keep Fit Gym goer or a Fat Loss Transformer, the general content will still require attention to similar areas.
Here is your skeleton guide to what you should focus on to reach complete Fitness!
Resistance Exercises:
To promote strength, stimulate, tone and preserve Muscle mass, prevent injury & burn calories.
Building Muscle Burning Fat!
Cardio Exercise:
To enhance the aerobic system and increase endurance. This is better done in Interval form as it saves time & provides better results.
Pick a suitable way, even bodyweight exercises!
Myofacial Release:
To assist mobility and flexibility and to increase Oxygen flow, preventing against injury in the process.
Cheaper than Massage & Physio!
Stretching:
To maintain and increase flexibility, maintain and improve performance and prevent against injuries.
Stay Athletic for as long as you can! Strength is nothing without Flexibility!
Nutrition:
To fuel your workouts, fuel your recovery and keep your metabolism firing on full. The timing and balance of your Nutrition is critical to your targets. Include as many unprocessed single ingredient foods in your weekly food plan.
Balance is Key!
Sleep:
A vital component for mental and physical recovery.
Aim for an average of 8 hours!
Hydration:
No dehydrated body will perform to its maximum ability no matter what the target for the training is. Sadly, alcohol and coffee are huge dehydrators.
Or eat hydrating foods & LIMIT Alcohol! Sorry…
For any help regarding any area of your fitness, contact me by email.
Foam rollers offer many of the same benefits as a sports massage, without the big price tag. The Grid is a lot more penetrative than your average cylindrical roller and can aid flexibility, reduce injuries and help to make your body more efficient in its sporting movement.
The Grid
The foam roller not only stretches muscles and tendons but it also breaks down soft tissue adhesions and scar tissue. By using your own body weight and a Grid foam roller you can perform a self-massage or myofascial release, break up trigger points and soothe tight fascia whilst increasing blood flow and circulation to the soft tissues.
How It Works
The superficial fascia is a soft connective tissue located just below the skin. It wraps and connects the muscles, bones, nerves and blood vessels of the body. Together, muscle and fascia make up what is called the myofascia system. For various reasons including a lack of use, not enough stretching, or injuries, the fascia and the underlying muscle tissue can become stuck together. This is called an adhesion and it results in restricted muscle movement. It also causes pain, soreness and reduced flexibility or range of motion.
Myofascial release is a body work technique in which a practitioner uses gentle, sustained pressure on the soft tissues while applying traction to the fascia. This technique results in softening and lengthening (release) of the fascia and breaking down scar tissue or adhesions between skin, muscles and bones.
Myofascial release has also been shown to relieve various muscle and joint pains such as IT band syndrome and shin splints as well as improving flexibility and range of motion. I have used these rollers a lot with Golfers, Tennis players and Runners, they have all seen the benefit after enduring the discomfort!
Foam rollers are inexpensive and with a bit of experimentation you can target just about any muscle group. My endorsed foam roller, the MWPT Grid Foam Roller, has a unique design and construction that provides a more targeted trigger point self massage.
Fine tune your body by using The MWPT Grid on the following areas as expertly demonstrated by my friends at Foxfit:
It will become apparent when rolling out which areas require more focus, The Grid has helped many of my clients to overcome Knee, Hip and Back issues, I use it myself, it certainly keeps me mobile!
Elongate your muscles, improve your mobility & range of motion, improve your sporting performance & most importantly reduce injury with a Grid today.
Available in store, cheaper than anywhere else online at £31.99!
Fat Loss Tip: Stay Hydrated, a dehydrated body will NOT burn Fat efficiently. For more information on Myofascial Release or Efficient Fat Loss, contact me today!
Following the huge interest in Horizon’s educational bio of the fad diets that I’m surrounded by daily, I thought I’d share a few really important points.
Point 1:
Most people that I encounter follow specific diets for the sole reason of losing weight, rather than general health, vanity is higher up in priority than longevity in life.
“Vanity Wins”
And sadly, as identified by Horizon, any weight that is lost by following many of these diets is mainly good weight, i.e muscle. Losing muscle creates a bad scenario for the dieter. Sure, in the first instance it looks good, the scale reading drops. But with every ounce of muscle you drop reduces your metabolism and in time, you get fatter! I have often referred to the results of this type of diet as a skinny fat body and these type of bodies look decently sized in clothing but awful at the beach!
“This is Skinny Fat!”
As a Fat Loss Professional who has helped clients to lose up to 20kg, Here are some relevant facts for successful dieting to produce lean physiques.
Dependant upon our activity, our body is designed to work best by eating a diet of Protein, Carbs and Fat. For general health your body requires all 3 nutrients. Any diet that creates too much of an imbalance in any one area will see your transformation plan doomed to failure after providing initial successes as well as severe health implications if that imbalance remains for too long.
“Add Chicken & Meat for balance”
The key elements for successful Fat Loss by priming your body to burn Fat are as follows:
1. Metabolism
If you are losing muscle during a diet then you are effectively reducing your body’s ability to burn fat. Your Metabolism will also decrease during an imbalanced diet. To the brain you are on a diet, to the body you are in a famine and the body adjusts to keep you alive for as long as possible. How is the best way to keep the metabolism firing? Eating regular meals and performing resistance training exercises.
“Same size body, hugely different Metabolism”
2. Hormonal System
Keep this happy and balanced and no longer will you hit those dietary plateaus that break the heart of the dieter. The 2 major players in this system are Insulin and Leptin. At the start of a diet they will be balanced and your body will burn fat and the dieter becomes excited at the prospect of regaining their body. However the body senses the fat reduction and Insulin levels rise and Leptin levels drop. Fat burning is now reduced and the dreaded plateau kicks in and the dieter becomes frustrated and gives up. Sound familiar?
Largely, dependant upon exercise timings, your diet should consist of Protein and Carb or Protein and Fat meals. Occasionally you will need to break this pattern to restore parity between Insulin and Leptin.
The biggest Fat losses that I have overseen have been done with Burger & Chips, Chocolate & Ice Cream included at least once each week. 20kg with that in the weekly diet isn’t bad. It beats the starvation plans that I get most people away from where they get NO Fat loss rewards!
“Imagine losing 4kg to 7kg each month with this in your diet!”
3. Exercise
This is where many people fall down, losing Fat is not about going jogging I’m afraid. Daily, I see people sweating it out on the cross trainer or treadmill for over an hour at a time, some of them every day, for zero results, ouch! I feel their pain! No physical alteration whatsoever aside bigger lungs!
20kg losses have been attained on 3 hours of exercise each week, combinations of 45 minute resistance workouts and 20 minute High Intensity Cardio workouts.
“She doesn’t look like this because she sweats on a Treadmill!”
4. Fasting Days
This subject draws a lot debate. Will you survive during a Fast Day? I think we’re all well stocked enough to make it through 24 hours without eating! Sure the first time you try it, it’s tough and people with suffering from certain medical conditions should check with their medical team before attempting one. Fast days will help you dispense with Fat at a great rate “IF” your plan is in place, they certainly won’t work if you pop them into your metabolism reducing starvation diets.
Many people I have worked with have taken on Fast days before, by skipping breakfast & lunch, eating dinner and going to bed! Let’s understand that by repeating that common formula that I encounter 2 days in a row and you have fasted for 24 hours and survived!
“Fasting can change your life”
Other Tips:
If you weigh in every day then accept that your weight will fluctuate. Weigh in ONCE a week, on the same day, at the same time.
Stay hydrated. Limit alcohol during your diet and Coffee. Drink plenty of water and herbal tea’s!
for more information on successful Fat Loss strategy, please contact me via email. You too could take 20 kg from your body!
