300 bodyweight challenge

The 300 bodyweight challenge:
Here's a quick 300 rep bodyweight circuit to start the day for you, here goes, enjoy!

Prisoner squats x20
Press ups x20
Alternate lunge x20 (x10 each leg)
Close grip press ups x20
Burpees x20
Rest 2mins
Repeat (3 rounds in total)

7 tops tips for healthier and fitter living

More and more people these days are getting sedentary instead of physical jobs. Sitting in the office chairs all day long has become the norm for many of us. The stress, busyness and rush make us forget about regular food and stuff our stomachs with convenient pre-packaged fast food and sugary drinks, which don't do anything good for our bodies.

As a result of such crazy life rhythm, we rarely find time for exercises, gyms or balanced nutrition. As a matter of fact, it's one of the reasons why there are now more that 60% of U.S citizens that are overweight. However, it is possible to change your lifestyle and lose your weight if you are willing to.

These 7 day-to-day life tips provided below will help you to drop your extra pounds, become more energetic and healthier.

1. Drink More Water
Our bodies need a lot of water. Water removes waste from our organisms and carries various nutrients into all our organs and cells. Your body also loses water by using it for various processes within the body. For this reason you have to replace it and drink water more often than you are used to. Start your day with a glass of water in the morning. Drink a glass of water before any meal. Take a bottle of water with you when you go to work. Your body needs approximately 3-5 liters of water during one day. So don't hesitate to drink plenty of water wherever and whenever you can.

2. Eat Fruits and Drink Fruit Juices
Eating fruits and juices helps you eliminate toxins from your body. Eating a variety of fruits also helps you get enough fibre, vitamins and antioxidants, which is one of the main reasons why you should eat fresh fruits and drink natural fruit juices as often as possible. Fruit juices from supermarkets are often sweetened (with a LOT of sugar!). If you want to drink juices, try to make fresh juices yourself. If you think it takes too much of the time, then look for juices with labels that say 100% fruit juice, these are much healthier for your body as they contain many more vitamins.

3. Eat Lots of Vegetables and Vegetable Salads
When it comes to losing extra pounds, vegetables are a great choice. They are natural and contain different vitamins, minerals and tons of other useful chemicals known to provide benefits for your body. Vegetables are low in fat and calories, they help control blood glucose levels, reduce blood cholesterol and reduce the risk of colon and other cancers. All these features also help control your weight effectively. If you feel that eating vegetables alone isn't great choice for you, then make some salads. Mixing vegetables together gives you even more different vitamins and health benefits. There are tons of tasty, healthy salad recipes on the internet. You can also use you imagination to make some great salads.

4. Eat Only When You Are Hungry
How many times you've been to a party where you saw lots of different and tasty looking meals, which you were offered to try. Don't just eat it because you are offered to. Eat only when you want to. Many people also like snacking. In between meals or when have nothing to do. Quit snacking. Most snacks contain a lot of fat and calories. Replace your usual snacks with vegetables or fruits. These are healthy to your body and you'll never get fatter, only thinner.

5. Carry Healthy Food with You
Many of us work busy office jobs and don't have time to eat regularly. In this case, bring your own made food with you. Instead of bringing sandwiches with meat, take vegetable salads, carrots or chicken or turkey salads. Any low fat food will do. This way, you won't have to wait for a break to fill your stomach. It's also quite important to try to eat about 5 times a day, rather than 3 or 2. Eat in smaller quantities, but more often. This helps you to increase your metabolism.

6. Work Out When You Can
Working out in a gym is not only a great way to grow some muscles, but also to drop a few pounds. Exercising helps you burn your calories instead of storing them in your body as fat. Our bodies were made to be active, so exercising slowly and easily can actually help you get more energy and make you feel much better. At the end of the week, try to lose all the stress and burn your calories in a gym or having some kind of physical activity at home. If you have time, then try to do easy exercises everyday.

7. Don't Lie Down or Sit When You Can Move
Many of us like to watch TV lying on a couch or sitting in a comfortable chair. Of course, when you come home after hard working day, you're tired, and all you can think of, is a couch and a remote in your hand. But such laziness won't help you lose weight. Contrarily, it will make you grow some more pounds. So don't lie or sit, when you can walk and move. Instead of staring at TV, go ahead and work out in your garden for example, clean your garage, fix your car, go to walk in the local park or beach. Breathe fresh air and move more often. Not only does it help to reduce stress after work, but also ups your mood and makes you more energetic.


Remember that all these tips will help you to lose weight, but only if you are determined and are ready to devote some of your time. Don't expect to slim down 4 sizes after eating 5 carrots and drinking orange juice. 

Your body, just like many things in this world, needs time. So be patient. And if you will honestly use at least some of these tips, you are going to change your lifestyle, which in the end will lead you to a thinner and healthier body.

Fat Loss Workout Q&A

Recently a few clients have been asking about the best workouts for fat loss, so I fired across a few questions to the fat loss workout guru himself, Craig Ballantyne of Turbulence Training.

Mark: First, can you tell us the basics about Turbulence Training?
Craig: Turbulence Training is the result of years of study in the gym and in the research labs and library. From personal experience, I’ve found the best way to lose fat and get results in the least amount of 
time is to increase your training intensity. 
With the right workout, you can get more fat loss results in less workout time. Period. That is the one and only goal of this training program. A better body in fewer workout sessions, and shorter exercise bouts. That means:

a) Shorter interval workouts instead of long slow cardio workouts.


b) More challenging strength training exercises, such as advanced 
bodyweight exercises and some traditional strength training free 
weight exercises.

 If you have two hours to spend in the gym everyday, you can feel free to stick to the same relatively ineffective and inefficient program of long cardio and light weights. But if you are like most men and women and have 45 minutes (or less) on only three days of the week to workout, then Turbulence Training will work wonders for
 you. Male or female, almost everyone I see in traditional fitness centers
could benefit from increasing the challenge in their workout. And they can also benefit from getting in and out of the gym faster.
 So that's what led me to Turbulence Training. It's simple, no B.S, 
no-fluff, just-the-basics, results-oriented training. You don’t need fancy gym machines or even an expensive gym membership. If you have a bench, a ball and some dumbbells at home, you are set. 



Mark: OK, so it’s a training program that will melt body fat fast, 
but what makes it so effective? 


Craig: 
Most people are so darn hung-up on burning a specific number of
 calories on a cardio machine, that they don't care how long they spend in the gym. 

But big deal. If you burn X calories over 30 minutes in the gym doing cardio, but don't boost your post-exercise metabolism, you’re wasting the other 23.5 hours to burn a lot more calories.

That's what happens with slow, steady workouts that never change. 
Sure you burn a few calories in the gym, but there is no "turbulence" 
on the body to increase your metabolism outside of the gym.

 Instead, by using challenging strength training, and choosing intervals over monotonous cardio, research has shown that your post
 workout metabolism is significantly greater. And an increased metabolism for an entire 24 hour period is what gives people
results.

 It's like putting money in the bank. It makes you more money even
 while you sit at home or sleep! That's the power of a more 
challenging workout.

 And Turbulence Training workouts, and other "challenging" workouts
 are always exponentially more enjoyable than staring at a TV (or
 worse a wall) when "doing your time" on a cardio machine. You can
 get this great "metabolic turbulence" in a boot camp, with 
bodyweight, at home with dumbbells, or even in a busy gym. 

Nothing is more effective than Turbulence Training if you only have 
45 minutes, three times per week to workout. 

Click here for more information on Turbulence Training workouts. 



Mark: Can you explain why resistance training and bodyweight exercises are so effective for fat loss?
Craig: 
Strength training is just one key for fat loss, it is essential to
 maximise your metabolism, and it is absolutely, positively paramount to building the best body of your dreams. 

For those that doubt, start with bodyweight training. Not only is this method of strength training effective at helping you sculpt your body, but it is also empowering to your self-confidence and
100% applicable to your daily living.

Everything from carrying groceries to "seks" will be easier if you 
are stronger in the bodyweight exercises. Your mobility and stamina will increase, so that you will be able to carry your children to
 bed easier, you will be able to do yardwork with less fatigue, and you’ll literally improve your "zest for life" simply from mastering 
your bodyweight strength.

 All of these benefits without touching a single free weight...but 
if you do go with free weights, you'll take your fitness to an even
 greater level. 

Research from the 2001 meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine showed that female subjects boosted their post-exercise metabolism to a greater level when they did 8 reps per exercise, rather than 12 reps. 

So low rep, strength training is best for boosting metabolism. It will get you more results in less time because it will continue to work while you recover. Train hard & train safe!

Sincerely,


Craig Ballantyne,
CTT 
Certified Turbulence Trainer

Author, Turbulence Training



Click here to get your FREE Turbulence Training 10 minute workout:

Thanks Craig for the tips on training for fat loss. Having looked at Craig's website, read some of his material in Mens Health and looked at some of his training programs I definitely feel these plans will be the answer for the time-crunched people out there who are after a (quite) intense training regime purely focussed on fat loss. So if fat loss is your goal, this could be right up your street!   

Product Review: BikeFood Pure Energy Gel

I promised you some product reviews, so here's the first one. Recently I've been testing a new energy gel during some bike rides and on my longer runs, its from a British company called BikeFood. The Pure Energy Gel is part of their nutrition range which includes an energy drink, an energy bar and protein powder.

The gels are very simple, what I mean by that is they contain all natural ingredients, so have no artificial sweeteners or preservatives. Some energy gels are quite heavy and have a slight chemical or manufactured taste, however these gels are quite different. The flavour of the gels is natural honey with a hint of lemon, which provides a very palatable taste which I found to be very light and easy on the stomach.

As the name suggests, this product is aimed primarily at cyclists, but it works equally well for runners too. In fact, I've used the gels on some of my longer runs (up to 2 hours) and found it delivered a fast, sustained energy hit (about 30g of carbs per gel) which kept me fuelled for the next 40-45 minutes with no problems at all.

If you're after trying some new energy products and want to support a British company, check out the guys at BikeFood, you won't be disappointed!

Got a desk job? Get out of the office during lunch!

Do you have a desk job and desk bound all day? Feel distracted, overwhelmed and unproductive? The answer is to simply step away from your desk and, if possible, take your lunch break outside, away from the stuffy office environment.

Take a walk. Not only are you getting in some exercise and getting the blood pumping around the body, but the feeling of the outdoors (and hopefully some sun!) seems to ease many worries and gives you an enormous sense of wellbeing.

Studies have shown a marked increase in mood, wellbeing, creativity and productivity with short breaks. So, next time you're stuck in a rut, take a break from the office, take your lunch outdoors and feel the benefits with a turbo-charged afternoon of productivity. Go on, you know you want to!

Breakfast before your early morning run?

A few of my runners have asked if missing breakfast before going for a run is a big deal, well, here’s my response.

Some people feel they can get away with not eating anything before their morning run, but I guarantee that unless they are fuelling during their run, then they’re not getting in an optimal training session. Studies show that people who train without eating anything run at a slower pace AND it feels much harder than it should.

In saying that, it doesn’t have to be a full English breakfast. Something simple and light will suffice, perhaps some toast (with peanut butter), some Greek yoghurt, a small bowl of porridge or cereal, some fruit, a smoothie or even a few small bites of an energy bar; all washed down with a glass of water. Simple. 

Remember, by fuelling your run correctly you’ll feel better during your run, you’ll be getting in a much better workout and you’ll recover much quicker. Eating something is much better than eating nothing!

Herbalife sports nutrition

Herbalife 24 is the new range of sports nutrition from Herbalife, now being used by Barcelona FC, LA Galaxy FC, Reading FC and the new Worlds Strongest Man!

For more information or to order, contact Delme at www.completehealthandwealth.co.uk

Question: what do you do?

So, I had this question today from a member of the public. It was phrased something like, "I know you do sports massage, but what else?".

And this got me thinking, what do we do? If I had to catalogue our services and the locations where our clients come from, could I do it easily? It sounds a strange answer, but I'm not sure. You see, we've grown our services massively over the last few years and our clients come from all over the Vale of Glamorgan and beyond.

So to summarise, our services include:

Sports Massage
Sports Therapy
Nutritional Advice & Products
Running Coaching
Triathlon Coaching
Nordic Walking
Fitness Coaching

With clients from Newport, Cardiff, Penarth, Barry, Bridgend, Cowbridge, Porthcawl and Pontypridd (I'm sure I've missed a few!), including the Ulster rugby team (when they are in Wales playing the Cardiff Blues, the Ospreys or the Newport Gwent Dragons) and Cardiff City Football Club.

I think that about covers it!

Herbalife 24 is the new range of sports nutrition from Herbalife, now being used by Barcelona FC, LA Galaxy FC, Reading FC and the new Worlds Strongest Man!

For more information or to order, contact Delme at www.completehealthandwealth.co.uk

New for 2012!

2012 is going to be an exciting year for Vale Sports Therapy!

Not only are we going to continue to offer a first class sports massage service and our Learn To Run workshop to the Vale of Glamorgan, we're going to be bringing exciting new services to Cowbridge, Bridgend, Barry, Cardiff and Penarth!

In 2012 we're going to be adding sports coaching and fitness training plans to our repertoire, including running plans (10k, half marathon and marathon), triathlon coaching (including individual Ironman Wales training plans), cycling coaching (including fitness testing to calculate training zones) and core conditioning training.

If you want to boost your 2012 racing season need help with your training, contact Mark on 07947010276 for more information.

Herbalife 24

Herbalife 24 is the new range of sports nutrition from Herbalife, now being used by Barcelona FC, LA Galaxy FC, Reading FC and the new Worlds Strongest Man!

For more information or to order, contact Delme at www.completehealthandwealth.co.uk

Cardiff half marathon

I had 3 or 4 people running the Cardiff half marathon yesterday and I'm pleased to say they all had a great day! Admittedly they're all novices, so improvements are perhaps expected, but working with novices makes it so exciting. They're all short on time due to work and family commitments but work hard with the limited time they have to train, and it showed today. I'm really proud of all them, very well done guys!

European Long Distance Triathlon Champs

Well, here it is, the race report from the European Long Distance Triathlon Champs that was held on Sunday in Finland:

We arrived early (we, being the 4 RAF guys who had made the team) and had lots of time to recce the swim, bike and run courses. The swim looked very long, the bike looked pretty flat (and boring) whilst the run looked like the only interesting part of the race, sweeping around the lake through a slightly wooded area with gravel trails. We attended the race registration and race brief and to be honest, the organisation wasn’t great, this definitely wasn’t a WTC event!

Back to the race, morning arrived and we had a quick breakfast in the hotel before heading off to the transition area. The location of this race was actually very good, with an athletics stadium being used for T1/T2 which was only 5 minutes walk from our hotel, with the lake being adjacent to the stadium. After putting all our nutrition onto our bikes we headed down to the start area. The elite men and women went off first, with the age group men going next (us) and the age group women to follow.

We all jumped into the water and after a minute or two, the horn went and we were off. With less than 200 men in our wave start, there wasn’t the usual biff you get at the start of an Ironman race, I quickly found some open space and headed the 300m or so to the first turn buoy. After this turn, we essentially had to swim in a big rectangle finishing down a canal next to the stadium. The out leg seemed to take forever! I managed to find some feet to sit on for a while and settled in to a pace that I thought I could hold for 4k. We eventually got to the far turn bouy (maybe 1.8k into the swim leg), turned, swam another 200-300m and turned again for the return and final leg. We were now swimming into a bit of current and the sun was rising in front of us which made navigation a little difficult.

I was starting to feel a little tired now. The current was sapping my energy and the navigation meant sighting was harder, fortunately someone swam up to me, so I jumped on his feet and trusted he was sighting correctly. It seemed his sighting was spot on as we arrived at the mouth of the canal in fairly quick time, I knew it was another 300m or so to go, so decided to stay with my new friend and let him direct me into the exit point. It got a bit congested here and I got a smack round the head for my troubles, but all in all it was an uneventful swim – just what I was hoping for. I stood up, checked my watch and saw 1:06. I was particularly pleased with this as I was expecting to see 1:10 – 1:15. Good start!

Quickly into transition the wetsuit was off and I was ready to exit T2. As I grabbed my bike Marc P (an RAF team mate) came into T1, I was quite happy about this as I expected Marc to beat me out of the water, but as he is a better biker I knew he would catch me quite soon. Anyway, out on the bike I went, I settled into the aero position and started pushing on, knowing Marc would be chasing me hard! Once I settled down I started thinking about my nutrition, I looked down at my Speedfil bottle (fits on the down tube, with a tube coming up to bike cockpit) and realised it was half empty! It was leaking! Things like this can put you right off your game, but there’s no point in worrying about it. I knew I had plenty of nutrition on me and I could always pick up some more from the aid stations as my cast iron stomach can cope with most types of sports drinks and gels.

The bike was 6 laps of 20k (well, it was a little shorter than 20k as they cut off a little part of the course for safety reasons), and it was a bit boring. We biked out of town, onto some fast roads, then onto a motorway for a mile or so, then climbed up a long shallow climb, back down the motorway and into town again. Coupled with that a few dead-turns (which really slowed you down!) and quite a bit of wind, it was not the most exciting of routes.

Marc came past me at the end of the first lap (as expected), so I estimated he was putting about 1:30 into me on each lap. I was ok with that as I knew my run was strong enough to pull that back later on in the day. The laps ticked away, and apart from some Spanish pro’s and some Finnish age groupers drafting, it was a very clean bike race. I came towards T2 quite glad the bike leg was over, I checked my watch and saw a bike split of about 3:26, I was ok with that. It wasn’t great, but it was ok, and I had my strongest leg to come!

The run was 4 laps of 7.5k, so it would be easy to gauge your pace and spot other age groupers and see where they were in the race compared to you on each lap. I set out on the first lap with the intention of going easy. As I was approaching the first turn point (at 3.75k) I was very surprised that I hadn’t caught anyone! This wasn’t normal. Was everyone else really running that fast? Was I running slow? Too slow? I put this to the back of my mind and continued on.

As it turned out I shouldn’t have worried as I caught 9 people in the next 3.75k (including my team mate Marc). The pace felt easy and I completed the first lap in about 33 minutes. Now it got a little confusing, as there were quite a lot of people on the run course, you didn’t know if they were on their first lap or third lap. It didn’t really matter though, as I continued to run at my own pace, I felt good and people were coming back to me fairly quickly. The laps ticked away and I continued to sip my energy gels whilst taking water and coke from the aid stations, everything was going to plan.

I was now coming towards the end of the third lap and I could feel myself slowing down. It wasn’t quite the Ironman-shuffle, but I was definitely slowing. I started the fourth and final lap knowing that if I ran the last 7.5k in 40 minutes I would break 7 hours for the race. This was now my motivation. I didn’t care who I was passing (I stopping counting after passing 25 people), I just wanted to keep pushing on to break the 7 hour barrier. I got the final turn point and worked out I had 20 minutes to do the last leg in, this would be a tough ask. I was now very tired. I had walked the last 2 aid stations, taking on lots of water and coke, so to get back to the stadium and do a lap of the athletics track and finish in 7 hours was going to be hard, hard work.

I pushed on, I was now hurting. I wasn’t out of breath at all, just tired and my muscles didn’t want to respond to my brain telling them to move – faster! I could now see the stadium and hear the crowds. I guessed I had about another 5 or 6 minutes of pain to endure. Surely I could do that? Could I?

I was pushing again, pain filled my legs and lungs but its amazing how the crowds drive you on. I entered the stadium and saw 2 Finnish athletes in front of me. I had about 350m to go and there was no way I was going to let them beat me! I pushed again, passed the first guy, reached the second guy, he tried to react but he was spent, I was past him and driving on to the finish line. I looked at my watch with about 50m to go, I knew I was under 7 hours, it was instant relief! With the Finns behind me and 7 hours in the bag, I could coast to the finish line savouring the atmosphere.

I’ll blog more later about my post race feelings, my crazy taper strategy and my views on the whole GB representation, but needless to say, I was very pleased with my race. I came 11th in my age group and went sub 7 hours, I’ll take that! Many thanks to my family, friends, coach and sponsors for all your support, I know it’s a cliché, but without all your help I would never have made it to Finland to represent my country. That means a lot to me, so I thank you all.