Construct Fitness

Olympic 2012 - The story so far

2008-12-10T02:34:00.000-08:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympic_games/7774617.stm

The Balance of Good Health

2008-12-08T05:55:00.000-08:00

Whats Included
Bread, Other Cereals, Potatoes

Food Groups
other cereals include breakfast cereals, pasta, Oats, noodles and cornmeal

How Much and What types
Eat plenty of these foods, including some at every meal. Choose wholegrain, brown or high fibre kinds whenever you can

Whats Included
Fruit and Vegetables

Food Groups
Fresh and frozen fruit and vegetables dried fruit and fresh fruit juice

How Much and What types
Eat plenty of these foods and choose as wide a variety as you can

Whats Included
Dairy foods

Food Groups
Milk, Cheese, Youghurt and fromage frais

How Much and What types
Eat moderate amounts of these foods. Choose lower fat alternatives when possible

Whats Included
Meat, Fish and alternatives

Food Groups
Meat, Poultry, Fish, Eggs, Nuts, beans and pulses

How Much and What types
Eat moderate amounts of these foods. Choose lower fat alternatives when possible

Whats Included
Foods Containing fat or sugar

Food Groups
"Magarine, butter, low - fat spread, cooking oils, salad dressings, cream, crisps, biscuits and sugar"

How Much and What types:
Eat these foods in small amounts or not very often

Weight Loss: Exercise Crucial Tool

2008-12-08T03:31:00.000-08:00

Exercise along with a healthy diet, helps reduce stress, improves your overall feeling of well bing and quality of life, helps you to sleep well and helps you to lose weight.

To reduce weight effectively it is important that the amount of energy you use up during daily activities (your energy expenditure) is greater than the amount of energy you take in (the food you eat). By engaging in exercise plays a crucial role in helping to increase energy expenditure (burn calories) and can help use up stored fat.

It will help to build muscle which speeds up your metabolic rate. This increases the amount of calories you burn even when your not engaged in physical activity. Increasing the metabolic rate will reduce the amount of fat in those problem areas like the stomach will help reduce the risk of developing high blood pressure, diabetes, reduces high cholesterol levels and reduces risk of heart attack and strokes DEFINITELY WORTH PAYING ATTENTION TO THAT.

The British Heart Foundation suggests that serveral short bouts of activity for example 3 X 10 miutes) is as effective as 30 continuous minutes.

life coach

2008-11-20T16:27:00.000-08:00

Haka

2008-11-20T14:46:00.001-08:00

Bull Dog

2008-11-20T14:38:00.000-08:00

Flexi - Bar Workout

2008-11-20T05:03:00.000-08:00

The Flexi Bar

2008-11-20T04:54:00.000-08:00

In my opinion a wonderful piece of equipment, great for home training so far. But need to test for longterm benefits:

Enter the Boys - Our Mission: The Evaluation of The Flexibar - useful or useless?????

Could potentially be a wonderful piece of equipment

Check out the below, tells you all about it.

http://www.flexi-bar.co.uk/RESOURCESINFORMATION/USINGTHEFLEXIBAREXERCISES/tabid/3381/List/1/Language/en-GB/Default.aspx#p1

Our review will follow shortly very shortly

Cardio-vascular activity suggestions

2008-11-17T09:46:00.000-08:00

You could try any of the following jogging, running, power walking, hill walking, depending on your individual goals and preferences. This type of aerobic exercise is also effective for burning calories and fat, getting your heart rate up and ultimately improving how efficiently your heart and lungs function.

Give it a go!!

Warming up & stretching

2008-11-17T04:45:00.000-08:00

I have to admit that i was on of those people who trained without sufficiently warming up. I would blame it on my eagerness just to get involved with my training session. But the reality is probably more likely to have been my laziness! So heres the thing to take note of and this applies to everybody’s training – it is critical to warm up properly before doing any kind of exercise in order to prepare the body for the challenges in the workout ahead.

Stretching is also very important, especially at the end of a workout to prevent the muscles from stiffening up too much and to try and reduce the amount of lactic acid building up in the muscles which can cause muscle soreness the next day. Doing a good warm up and stretches also helps to reduce the risk of injury. It also increases flexibility and will no doubt have a significant impact on your strength gains. So especially now with a bitterly cold winter looming, lets all make sure that we stretch and warmup before engaging in physical activity. And Lets do it properly!!

Agility Defined

2008-11-17T01:47:00.000-08:00

'Agility is the ability to move and change direction and position of the body quickly and effectively while under control.'
'The quality of being agile; the power of moving the limbs quickly and easily; nimbleness; activity; quickness of motion; as, strength and agility of body.'

Agility

2008-11-16T13:01:00.000-08:00

Strength Defined

2008-11-16T12:53:00.000-08:00

The quality or state of being strong; ability to do or to bear; capacity for exertion or endurance, whether physical, intellectual, or moral; force; vigor; power; as, strength of body or of the arm; strength of mind, of memory, or of judgment.Enduring the application of force without breaking or yielding.

Strength

2008-11-15T05:04:00.000-08:00

Eating & Recovery: protein after exercise or before?

2008-11-12T06:10:00.000-08:00

In a previous post I stated that suitable post exercise nutrition is vital to proficient recovery. This is very very important!! So please please take note!! But it is the notion that the impact of post exercise nutrition can be affected by when you eat, that is very interesting.

So I ask ‘when in relation to my training should I eat???’

I have always been of the impression that muscles are hungrier for refuelling after exercise than they are before, giving rise to a perception of a post-exercise gap. Depending on which of my friends you talk to this gap is between 30mins and 2hrs after training. However, more recent research has suggested that this opening may be wider than I had imagined.

Protein plays a specific role in enhancing recovery. All too often protein is overshadowed by another of the macronutrients ‘carbohydrate.’ But I am intrigued today by the effect of revitalise effect of protein.

So I am going to attempt to test this theory; protein prior to training vs. protein following training I am honestly expecting it surrender some unforeseen results. First I will set out the fundamental requirements of pre-exercise and post-exercise feeding strategies. But I am not going to bore you with that now you are going to have to keep tabs, to see the results!!
Anyway back to it, as I was saying an understanding of the role of protein will bring a progressive quality to any training program, speed up recovery and complement your body’s physiological adaptations. The additional protein will promote muscle adaptation during recovery from exercise in several ways:

Aid in the repair of exercise-induced damage to muscle fibres.
Promoting training-induced adaptations in muscle fibres (e.g., synthesis of new proteins that are involved in energy production and/or force generation).
Facilitating the replenishment of depleted energy stores.

Take a look at the article linked below. Nutrition for Muscle recovery!! It might answer a few questions and give you a few tips:

http://www.poweringmuscles.com/article.php?id=55

Drinking Session and its effects on performance

2008-11-10T02:26:00.000-08:00

I was out with clients yesterday evening and like any normal client evening, alcohol consumption was the nucleus of the evenings elaborate structure. As a result I must say that Today I am mostly feeling rubbish, my hangover has left me feeling less than basic. So now to the part where I tell you that I have learnt something.

As many of you may know Alcoholic drinks are high in calories, what you may not know is that it is not a constructive source of fuel during any form of exercise. A high alcohol intake the night before a workout will impair your performance. Mainly because of the hangover effect and the dehydration it causes.

I am paying heavily right now; I am currently contemplating my next course of action. Do I A) Go home and continue with my exploits of day so far, which involves mostly doing nothing or do I B) Man up and go to the gym and engage in the most incredible workout known to man.

If I do go to the gym, I want to try some interval training exercises that I found online at http://www.sportingperformance.co.uk/Intervaltraining.htm

Below is also a link to an interesting article on the very topic of drinking and training. Actually makes an interesting read. Who knows it might actually effect change and make you think twice before you get involved in a massive drinking session, with the glorified hope of a impeccable training session the day after. I suggest you take a look.

http://www.nsca-lift.org/perform/articles/04062.pdf

Food for Thought: Weight Loss

2008-11-08T07:05:00.001-08:00

Just something to think about

Weight Loss: Not Eating is Not the Answer!!

So what is???

Recovery: the Performance Enhancer

2008-11-06T07:21:00.000-08:00

The idea that training alone will make you stronger, faster or fitter could not be further from the truth. In fact the significant physical developments only demonstrate themselves after the exercise and/or training period has been completed. It is actually during your recovery that the physiological adaptations to your muscles and muscle systems transpire. The result; you actually are stronger, faster and fitter. Without sufficient recovery your training endeavours will have very limited effect, perhaps even detrimental consequences both physically and mentally, and recuperation for your next training session may be exceedingly difficult.

Looking at the very heart of success, which for me is that innate sense of satisfaction only experienced with the knowledge that your maximum energies have been consumed by a burning desire to achieve first rate performance. I can tell you now you will not even come remotely close to this unless you recognise and utilise the influence of recovery. Recovery is a true performance enhancer.

Within any training program, recovery is more than relaxing after a hard training session. Suitable post-exercise nutrition, maximising sleep quantity and quality, together with appropriate training program design and monitoring, are absolutely vital to ensuring first rate performance. Improving your recovery not only produces more performance benefits than any amount of increase in training intensity or volume, it also reduces your risk injury.

Ask yourself what you truly want to get out of the hours, days, weeks, months and years that you spend training. Because ‘the harder and more frequently you train, the more vital recovery becomes’.

Re Introduction to Nutrition

2008-11-04T13:30:00.000-08:00

The purpose of eating is to provide the body with the energy essential to sustain life. About 70 per cent of the energy you take in as food is used just to keep the essential processes going within the body – to keep your heart pumping, your liver and kidneys functioning and so on. Only about 30 per cent of all the food you eat is turned into ‘external energy’ to be used in conscious activities, such as walking, running and cycling.

Food is the mixture of nutrients that the body needs, not just for fitness and well-being but for life itself. It can all be considered in terms of the amount of energy it liberates when it is finally burned up by the body cells The Body’s energy supply, and the basic building blocks needed for its growth and maintenance, come from three main classes of food.

These are the macronutrients, the foods we must eat in considerable quantities each day.

Proteins
Fats
Carbohydrates.

If you are to eat a healthful diet, you must choose your macronutrients wisely. The problem with this is that most of us have been reared with ideas about food which now have to be modified or even overturned completely. We need to alter our eating habits in order to live longer.

Intrapersonal Relationship

2008-11-04T13:05:00.000-08:00

I am a person who gains a lot from the effectiveness of my work and my work ethic. A first-rate level of fitness for me reinforces the reasoning behind my endeavours and demonstrates the scope of my training competences. However more recently I have found that it also underpins my identity, my veracity and my sense of self. Being able to actually see my success has provided me with a new lease of life. An unexpected by-product of this has been the development of an intrapersonal relationship with myself.

There has been a considerable shift in my character in terms of my attitude towards personal integrity, one that has been character defining. With this ‘Intrapersonal relationship’ I have found that I have developed a more retrospective outlook, simultaneously I have built an amplified progressive position in terms of targets. But most importantly I am far more introspective; looking deeply into my performances and analysing my self on the axis of my aims.

The same drive to work hard, that pushes me to maintain this, now also acts as a barricade to resist to my previous habits. I have become more assertive when I need to be, but also I have learnt when to compromise, like knowing when the body needs to rest and recover. I will promote this self reflexive approach, and I intend to continue to create habits based on this principle. I have no doubt that taking the time to hone this attribute will increase my motivation; making me more constructive and ultimately more successful.

The ability too see oneself from other perspectives is an incredible tool, ignoring this, is only to ones own detriment as reflection can be very powerful.

The Building Blocks of Fitness

2008-11-03T12:38:00.000-08:00

Its funny how my view of health and fitness has changed over the last month. With just a little reading, my approach to training has developed and most definitely become more generative and innovative. Fitness to me has become a state of complete mental, physical and social well being accompanied with the ability to meet the demands of a physical task. It is the physical dimension of fitness that i have been looking at today. I am trying to build my fitness, block by block. These blocks being:

Strength – the extent to which muscles can exert force by contracting against resistance (e.g. holding or restraining an object or person)
Power – the ability to exert maximum muscular contraction instantly in an explosive burst of movements. The two components of power are strength and speed. (e.g. jumping or a sprint start)
Agility – the ability to perform a series of explosive power movements in rapid succession in opposing directions (e.g. Zigzag running or cutting movements)
Balance - the ability to control the body's position, either stationary (e.g. a handstand) or while moving (e.g. a gymnastics stunt)
Flexibility - the ability to achieve an extended range of motion without being impeded by excess tissue, i.e. fat or muscle (e.g. executing a leg split)
Core - This involves working the body’s core muscles in the abdominals and back. It is essential for improving posture and it can help to reduce lower back pain
Local Muscle Endurance – a single muscle's ability to perform sustained work (e.g. rowing or cycling)
Cardiovascular Endurance – the heart's ability to deliver blood to working muscles and their ability to use it (e.g. running long distances)
Strength Endurance – a muscle's ability to perform a maximum contraction time after time (e.g. continuous explosive rebounding through an entire basketball game)
Co-ordination - the ability to integrate the above listed components so that effective movements are achieved.

All that is left now is to ensure that i apply each of these blocks when constructing my training plans and using each of them when im training

Abdominal Development

2008-11-02T10:21:00.000-08:00

I am also looking at other factors that will help me to achieve the strong, toned washboard abdominal muscles:
The impact of nutrition is something that I believe can never be discounted. For this reason eating a reduced amount of fats, replacing these fats with complex carbs (like rice, pasta and potatoes) may help with the development of your strong and toned abdominals.
Regular, moderate, aerobic exercise (3-4 times per week) works best to burn fat that's already stored. Moderate because intense exercise burns glycogen not fat, so keep the intensity at about the level where you are beginning to puff a little.
I believe that building more muscle through weight training is helpful as well, since muscle burns fat just by being there and moving your body about.
· You should exercise the lower abs before the upper abs
· Do any twisting upper ab movements before straight upper ab ones.
· Twisting exercises work the obliques as well as the upper abs.,
· Exercise the abs with lower intensity and more frequently, rather than with high intensity and less frequently, as this will provide better abdominal tone.

Upper Ab Training

2008-11-02T10:16:00.000-08:00

For the upper abs:

Putting the thighs at a right angle to the torso to begin with means that the psoas can't pull it any further, so all of the stress is placed on the abs.

Ab crunches

Lying on your back put your knees up in the air so that your thighs are at a right angle to your torso, with your knees bent. If you like you can rest your feet on a chair. Put your hands either behind your head or gently touching the sides of your head.
Now, slowly raise your shoulders off the ground and try to touch your breastbone to your pelvis, breathing out as you go.
Although the actual movement will be very small (your upper torso should move through less than 30 degrees) you should try to go as high as possible. Only your spine should bend, your hips should not move/ Otherwise you are exercising the psoas and and your abs are not at the focus of your efforts.
Do these fairly slowly to avoid using momentum to help and to increase difficulty extend your hands out behind your head instead of keeping them at the side.

1/4 crunches

Same as an ab crunch except that you raise your shoulder up, instead of pulling them toward your pelvis

Cross-knee crunches

Same as an ab crunch except, but this time crunch diagonally so that you try to touch each shoulder to the opposite hip alternately. At the top position, one shoulder and one hip should be off the ground.

Pull down crunches

Drape a towel or rope around the bar of a pull down machine so that you pull the weight using it instead of the bar. Kneel facing the machine and grab hold of the towel and put your hands against your forehead. Kneel far enough away from the machine so that the cable comes down at a slight angle.

Lower Ab Exercises

2008-11-02T10:14:00.000-08:00

For the lower abs, in increasing order of difficulty:

Lying leg raises

Lie on your back with your hands, palms down under your buttocks. Raise your legs about 30cm (12") off the floor and hold them there. Now trying to use just your lower abs, raise your legs by another 15cm (6"). Do this by tilting the pelvis instead of lifting the legs with the psoas. Make sure your knees are slightly bent.

Reverse crunches

This exercise can be done on the ground or on an incline sit-up board. All you need is something behind your head to hold. If you use the incline board, use it with your feet lower than your head.
Lie on your back, hold a weight or a chair leg (if lying on the floor) or the foot bar (if using the sit-up board). Keep the knees slightly bent.
Pull your pelvis and legs up so that your knees are above your chest and then return to beginning position.

Vertical lying leg thrusts

Lie on your back; put your fists under your buttocks to form a cradle. Raise your legs in the air 20 – 30cm (10 – 12”) off the ground, knees slightly bent.
If you feel any strain on your lower back, bend your knees a little more. Raise your head and shoulders off the ground slightly if you can to help the abs stressed.
The exercise itself has four phases:
1. Raise your legs until your feet are above your pelvis; focus on contracting the abs.
2. Thrust your heels to the ceiling, breathe out, keep contracting the abs raising the pelvis out of the cradle of your fists.
3. Lower out of the thrust back to your fists, leaving your feet above your pelvis.
4. Lower your legs back to the initial position.

Hanging knee raises

You need a chin-up bar or something you can hang from for this. Grab the bar with both hands with a grip a bit wider than your shoulders, cross your ankles and bring your knees up to your chest (or as close as you can get). Your pelvis should rock slightly forward. Pause at the top of the movement for a second and then slowly lower your knees by relaxing your abs. Don't lower your legs all the way. Repeat the movement using just your abs to raise your knees.
Make sure that you don't start swinging. You want your abs to do the work, not momentum. It's important that you don't move your legs too far or your psoas muscle will be doing a lot of work and possibly causing back problems as in a sit-up.
Make sure your pelvis moves, your lower back stays neutral or slightly rounded, not arched, and that your abs are doing the work, not your hips.

Hanging leg raises

Just like knee raises except you keep your legs straight. This requires good hamstring and lower back flexibility

Upper Abs vs Lower Abs

2008-11-02T10:13:00.000-08:00

The abdominals are designed to perform one main task, to shorten the distance between your sternum and your pelvis. In general when exercising the abs, try to maintain the natural arch of you lower back. The lower back will round slightly as you perform the exercises. Don't fret about pressing your back into the ground. Sit-ups also grind vertebrae in your lower back. This is because to work the abs effectively you are trying to make the lower back round.
All Ab exercises stress the whole abdominal wall. However there are "clusters" of muscle separated by connective tissue (these make up the "six-pack"). You can focus on the lower ab clusters by moving the pelvis and the upper ab clusters by moving just the torso.

Physiology of the Abdominal Muscles

2008-11-02T10:11:00.000-08:00

The mid-section muscles consist of the rectus abdominis and the internal and external obliques.
The rectus abdominis is a long, flat band of muscle fibres extending vertically between the pubis and the cartilages of the fifth, sixth, and seventh ribs on the front part of your trunk.
There are three horizontal tendinous creases that give the muscle that “washboard” appearance on some individuals. The muscle is enclosed in a sheath formed by the aponeurosis (broad, flat, and thin connective tissues) of the other abdominal muscles.
The rectus abdominis flexes the spinal column, bringing the rib cage and/or the pelvis toward each other, and assists in sideward bending. The rectus abdominis is also actively involved in stabilizing the trunk when the head is raised in a supine (lying on back) position.
The external oblique muscles are the outermost fibres of the trunk, and are located on each side of the rectus abdominis.
The lower and middle attachments of the external obliques are to the anterior crest of the pelvis and from the ribs to the crest of the pubis. The external oblique muscle actually becomes the inguinal ligament. The fibres of this muscle run diagonally, forming a “V” shape, similar to putting your hands into your coat pocket.
Beneath the external oblique muscles, running at approximately right angles to them, are the internal oblique muscles which form an inverted “V” shape.
Both the external and internal oblique muscles are involved in flexing the rib cage and the pelvic bones together, sideward bending (lateral flexing) of the trunk, and rotating the trunk.
The external obliques are referred to as “opposite side” rotators. Due to the muscle fibres arrangement, when you rotate to the left, the external oblique fibres on your right side facilitate the movement and vice versa. On the other hand, the internal oblique muscles are “same side” rotators. Thus, if you rotate to the left, the left internal oblique muscles facilitate the movement and vice versa.
The deepest layer of abdominal muscles, the transversus abdominis, is not involved in movements of the trunk. Instead, this respiratory muscle plays an important function in forceful expiration of air from the lungs; as well as compression of the internal organs.
The hip flexors bring the legs and trunk toward each other. Full sit-ups involve the hip flexors, which may cause the lower back to arch and unwanted back pain, particularly in individuals with relatively weak abdominals.
Traditional sit-ups emphasize sitting up rather than merely pulling your sternum down to meet your pelvis. The action of the psoas muscles, which run from the lower back around to the front of the thighs, is to pull the thighs closer to the torso. This action is the major component in sitting up. Because of this, sit-ups primarily engage the psoas making them inefficient at exercising your abs, because the psoas work best when the legs are close to straight (as they are when doing sit-ups), so for most of the sit-up the psoas are doing most of the work and the abs are just stabilising.

Abdominals Overview

2008-11-02T09:56:00.000-08:00

The purpose of this article is to provide accurate, exercise guidelines for abdominal training. We all want to tone and strengthen our abdominal muscles and we all have our misconceptions about the correct exercises to do and the effect of our diet on this. Many of these exercises are inadequate and ineffective. Some exercises may actually lead to lower back pain, and do little to strengthen the abdominals.

What most of us including myself fail to realise is that our main goal of abdominal training should be to maximize the involvement of the abdominals, while minimizing the involvement of the hip flexors. If we are able to do this, we will most definitely tone and strengthen our abdominal muscles.

One thing that I am learning along this journey is to make sure you train your abdominals at least 3 – 5 days per week, If possible a daily workout would be far more effective and relatively simple to action at home. In practice, it actually makes sense to do some type of abdominal strengthening exercise on a daily basis to try and counteract the excessive tightening of your lower back muscles. Unlike other muscles, you rarely fatigue the abdominal muscles enough so that they need an additional day to recover. This is because you are always working with the weight of your torso, in a limited range of motion, as compared to other exercises which may challenge the muscles with progressively heavier resistance. In fact, the abdominals are very thin muscles compared to other muscles, such as the deltoids, hamstrings, biceps and quadriceps. So unless you are progressively overloading these muscles with additional external resistance, such as abdominal resistance machines, it is unlikely that the abs will become too thick, too big and fatigued to the point they an additional day to recover. The purpose of this article is to provide accurate, exercise guidelines for abdominal training. We all want to tone and strengthen our abdominal muscles and we all have our misconceptions about the correct exercises to do and the effect of our diet on this. Many of these exercises are inadequate and ineffective. Some exercises may actually lead to lower back pain, and do little to strengthen the abdominals.