Making Fitness Fun

As the weather finally decided to cheer up a bit the other day I took a group of people I was working with outdoors for a fitness session.  It had been a long day for them and they were feeling quite lethargic and not really in the mood for circuits or running in the park.


So we decided to play a game instead.  With Euro 2012 in full swing, football (soccer) was the obvious choice.


30-minutes later, they'd all had a great workout and a whole heap of fun.  No one asked about how many calories they'd burnt or if they could now justify a large evening meal.  They all simply went about the rest of their evening with a big smile on their face.


So, if you're ever struggling to find the energy to work out:


1) Find ways to get active that are fun and don't seem like exercise
Team sports, dancing, cycling to visit someone, even tasks around the house are simple options


2) Find fun people to get active with 
Many forms of exercise are simply more exciting when you're with someone else so look to include some workouts with friends or teams each week


Get sociable and get fast results!

Get Off-Road Running Ready

Over the last few months I've been writing a series of articles and workout plans for Women's Running Magazine.  I thought it might be useful to share some of the features with you here so you can incorporate some of the exercises or plans into your routine.


Enjoy!

Why some people can never lose the weight

Losing weight is straight forward. You eat a good diet and you work out regularly ensuring you are burning more calories than you care consuming and voila...weight loss will follow.

However, if I had a gold coin for every time someone has told me that they are different and they are the exception to the rule and that no matter how much they work out and eat salads, they are still fat - I'd be very wealthy. I've just been reading an article based on some new research that may just prove those people right. Maybe there are some people out there who have the fat gene and there's nothing hours in the gym can do about it.

Steven Blair, a professor of exercise science has discovered that genes and hormonal balance can have a huge impact on your weight and size. Here's a selection of his findings:

1. Some people have more fat cells
Some people could have as many as twice as many than then next person which would help to explain why they may struggle so much where other find it easy to shed extra weight. Fat cells never go, they can reduce in size but they are always there - waiting to be filled up.

2. The Fat Gene is real
Fatso - that's what the fat gene is called and those with the genes are 60% more likely to be obese than those without. This may explain why some people do so many sports and physical activities and eat and balanced diet and still have a lot of extra body weight.

3. Your mother's pregnancy sealed your fate
If your mum ate very unhealthily during her pregnancy, according to these findings, a sugary and fatty diet can cause havoc to you before you're even born if the womb has higher levels of glucose and free fatty acids floating around than it needs.

There's plenty more nuggets of research in this report which are worth a look but I'm a little skeptical. I'm willing to accept that you don't have to be thin to be fit - slightly overweight people can be fit to but just unable to shift that last 10 pounds. But I'm not convinced yet that fat can be blamed wholly on genes. Maybe this report will convince you?

To discover more on the 13 things you never knew about your weight, read the full article here.


Photograph by insecurity (flickr)

Free 1 Day Health & Fitness Guide

Thank you to the many people who have been emailing me this week about the 7 Day Fitness, Food & Relaxation Guide. It's always wonderful to hear about your aches and pains and I'm delighted so many of you have got stuck in already.  I'm going to keep the Guide up for another 7 days so if you haven't had a chance to get your copy, there's a little time left. Here's a few of your very kind comments - 

'Loving these daily tips - especially the trick for drinking 8 glasses of water. My home study is covered in stickies! Thanks'

'Hey Jeff, my thighs are aching this morning after all the exercises I did yesterday. I hope this means its working. When are you doing the next 7 days?'

'Just to let you know that I got my guide and started following it and its made me see how easy living healthily can be. I like the way you make it look so simple and it is. I'm going to try to stick at it.'

As it's the weekend, I thought it would be good to reproduce a day here in full for you to all get working on over the weekend. Hope you enjoy the tips.


Taken from 7 Day Fitness, Food & Relaxation Guide

1. FITNESS TIP

Get outside today and fit in an extra 30-minutes of fast walking. It could be one half-hour burst, three lots of 10-minutes or six short bursts of 5-minute activity. However you approach it, maintain good posture throughout, walk as fast as you can squeeze the bum and breathe deeply to flood your lungs, heart, muscles and brain with oxygen.

Excellent for great cardio workout if you keep the pace up, tones legs. Do it with the kids or pushing the pram.

2. RELAXATION TIP

Reach up to the sky taking a deep breath in as you do so. Stretch as high as you can while holding your breath and then lower your arms slowly behind the line of your body as you breath out slowly. Repeat three times.

3. NUTRITION TIP

Choose a food product you wouldn’t normally opt for and take it as part of a meal or a snack. It could be a new fruit or vegetable or a whole new meal choice. Just try something different and engage with how it makes you feel before, during and after you eat it.

Are you excited or nervous about trying something new?

Does it taste good?

Does it leave you feeling energised or regretful?

New Habit

Delegate something today. Just one thing. It could be anything, just find something on your list that you feel you ought not to be spending time on and find an alternative way to get the job done.

Motivation

Feeling in control is the key to success. Make a list of the main areas of your life (work, family, healthy, money) and then ask yourself if you are in control of each of them. If you feel any area is out of control, isolate what is required to happen to bring it back within your control and take immediate action to move forward in that area.

For more like this, get your copy of the 7 Day Fitness, Food & Relaxation Guide. Link on the left hand side of this blog.  New Guides coming soon!

Image by iirraa (Flickr)

Free 7 Day Fitness, Food, Relaxation Guide

Okay, here it is. 

The 7 Day Fitness, Food & Relaxation Guide that I compiled.

Like all the fitness tips on this blog, these tips will get you toned and sweating but there's more.

I've given you 7 days worth of food suggestions to increase your energy, balance your mood and get you feeling great. As if all that wasn't enough, I've also included relaxation tips that will help you unwind and some motivational words to see you through the programme.

I know this works, all I need from you is a commitment to follow the plan and I promise you that you'll feel energized, focused and tighter by the end.

All you need to do is sign up and the plan will be mailed to you straight away. The form is on the left hand side of this blog.

Good luck and enjoy.

Nice Legs!

I've been posting fitness tips for a few weeks now to get your bodies summer ready.
We've tackled:

1. bingo wings (flabby arms)
2. bum (butt, rear end, trunk)
3. waists(abs)

Today, it's all about getting trimmer thighs and toned & defined calves. As usual, these are very simple moves that make big changes to your body if you do them every other day. You ready?

Sumo Squat
For a lower body exercise that really targets your butt, saddlebags and inner thighs, try this one.


Stand upright with your feet wide and your toes pointed outwards
Lift your hands out to the front for balance
Bend at the hips to sit back and bend the knees at the same time
Lower your butt as far as you can without leaning too far forwards
Make sure you keep your knees directly above or just behind your toes at all times
Stand straight without locking your knees and repeat x 15

If you need to make this move tougher you can hold on to a pair of dumbbells between your legs or a bag of shopping!

Single leg calf raise
A brilliantly quick way to tone your calves


Stand straight and hook one foot behind the other ankle
You may need to balance against a wall as you rise up onto your toes
Lower the heel gently back to the ground and repeat x 15 before switching legs

Couldn't be easier, have a go and let me know what you think.

Is Wii Fit Worth All the Hype?

Since its launch, the Wii Fit has taken the US and UK by storm. Cynics have said its only useful to the VERY lazy who never workout anyway whilst others seem to rave about it. So, what if you put it to the test with various guinea pigs all of whom have different levels of fitness. Who'll still love it then? Well that's exactly what they did in this article.

Who got a good workout and would come back for more? Not who you'd think. Meet the guineapigs...

The multitasker mum who has no time to work out
The sweat hound who loves a bit of cardio
The yoga master who knows her shapes
The fitness professional
The couch potato...say no more

I could tell you know what the results were but it's a fun, short article so do try to read it if you get a moment. 

Read the full article here.

How To Get A Small Waist Part 2

I posted Part 1 of How To Get A Small Waist yesterday featuring 2 exercises to get your waist tighter and more defined. I hope you've had a chance to try them out.

Here are the final 2 exercises as promised and remember, don't forget the cardio. Do that in combination with these 4 moves and you'll get the quickest results. Here we go...

Scissor kicks

• Lie face up with your knees and hips at 90-degrees
  
• Straighten one leg and lower this foot towards the floor keeping your stomach tight and your back flat to the floor
  
• Just before this foot hits the floor, bring it back to the starting position
  
• Repeat on the other side
  
• Repeat x 15 each leg
  
• Be extra vigilant about your back staying on the floor
  

Reverse crunches

• Lie face up with your knees and hips at 90-degrees
  
• Tighten your lower abdominal muscles to bring your knees closer to your chest
  
• Your lower back will lift off the floor
  
• Lower your legs to the starting position but don't allow your knees to travel too far forwards
  
• Avoid any arcing of the spine by keeping your abs tight as your knees come forwards
  
• You should feel the pinch in your abs but don't be tempted to swing backwards and forwards.
  
• Repeat x 15
  

When is the perfect time to exercise?

What time of day is the best to exercise? For most of the people I know, finding time to exercise at all can be a challenge so I think restricting yourself to a particular time slot can be a real problem.

Let's get the myth out of the way first.

Morning Exercise is the Most Effective
Some people believe that working out first thing in the morning is best....but only if you're a morning person. If you aim to workout first thing but you know you’re terrible at getting out of bed then the pressure of missing your slot can leave you feeling miserable and dejected, often so much so that you don’t get around to exercising at all that day. Fat doesn't burn at twice the rate in the morning and muscles don't appear more pronounced then either.

As for the rest of the day..
Lunchtime Run
Others favour the lunch time workout because you get it done without having to get up at 6 and its over by the end of your working day. Its super convenient but time restrictive.

End of the Day / After Work
Probably the most common time of day for gym visits and many consider this the optimum time to exercise when everything else is done and out of the way. The only difficulty here is that for many people, ‘everything else’ is never done and so by the time they get around to thinking about their workout, it’s too late. There’s just time for something to eat and then bed.

The truth is that any workout is better than no workout and that an exercise session you can focus on without distraction will bring you greater results than any exercise session dictated by the hands of the clock. Here are a few tips to help you make the most out of your workout - whatever the time:

Morning workouts
When planning morning workouts, consider what you’re doing the night before. Obvious, but don't make it harder on yourself by going to bed really late as you'll only suffer when the alarm goes.

Make sure you drink some water and eat a little something before you exercise. Working out on an empty stomach does not bring optimum results. For the best early morning fat burn, eat a portion of fruit and drink a small cup of black coffee with a cup of water.

Lunchtime workouts
Squeezing these in can be difficult but is easier if you view a lunchtime session not as a distraction from your other commitments but as a way of setting yourself up to be more effective for the second half of the day.

Plan your morning snack, post workout snack and afternoon snack carefully on the days that you exercise as this will keep your energy levels high and save you time.

Evening workouts
If you plan to exercise in the evening you need to decide well in advance what time you want to be at the gym and then work backwards to establish when you need to finish work and how you need to structure your day in order to leave at that time. If you leave it too late, you'll end up having to leave it all together.

Time your evening session so that you can wind down afterwards. Ending your workout 90-120 minute before bedtime is great as the post-exercise cool-down matches the body cooling process prior to sleep so a quality workout will help you get a better sleep if you time it right.



Photograph by lyle58 (Flickr)

5 Things You Should Always Do in the Gym

Here are some great fitness tips for you to try today...

1. Warm up properly. The quality and effectiveness of your workout will be noticeably improved if your muscles are thoroughly warmed up. Spend 5-8 minutes at the beginning of your workout gradually increasing the intensity of your walking, running, cycling, rowing or cross training until you feel warm and are breathing heavily. The difference this makes cannot be stressed enough.

2. Stay hydrated. Even mild dehydration can lead to a reduction in your performance and your results. Drink a glass of water in advance of your workout. Sip water throughout your exercise routine and then have another glass when you’ve finished.

3. Breathe. Use your lung capacity to the fullest extent. The more oxygen you get to the working muscles, the harder you can exercise and the better your results will be. Be especially watchful when working on your abs - many people hold their breath - breathe.

4. Stay focused. If you’re distracted while you work out, you could be compromising your results. Keep focused on your exercise, the intensity of your workout, how you feel, what areas are working hardest and whether or not you could be pushing harder. Be honest - couldn't you run for another 5 mins? Monitor your performance constantly, challenge yourself with the level of intensity of your exercise and you’ll get the best possible results. Don't ever be the guy/girl who walks on the treadmill chatting on the cell phone.

5. Stretch. Exercise isn’t just about working hard it’s also important to balance your workout with some stretching to correct the imbalances that arise from modern living and to keep yourself injury free. Every workout should include a stretch to open up the chest and shoulders and one to loosen up the hamstrings. These are the areas that get tightest and that cause the most common injuries such as neck and back pain. Here's a great chest stretch to try in the gym next time.



Photograph by targophoto.com (Flickr)

Weekend is here - Wiggle those Hips

If you've been sitting at a desk all week, here's 4 quick and easy exercises to do to loosen you up and get you ready for the weekend. Well....

What are you waiting for - Wiggle Those Hips!



Photograph by acaben (Flickr)