Hams Fitness

Epsom Personal Trainer - 07742 952 208

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7228896.stm

Lift weights for a low impact health giving workout

Imagine your body as a series of links in a chain - if you have one weak link you simply wont perform as well as you could.

“You’re only as strong as your weakest link” - tis true.

Squash, golf, football and many others. They will all be improved if you pay attention to your body as a whole.

I trained a semi professional cyclist who had been struggling for two seasons to bump himself up the rankings. After just 2 months he had moved up an entire class and was keeping up with riders 10 years younger than him. Not bad for two half hour sessions a week.

Did I improve his cardiovascular conditioning - hell no -his bike riding was plenty of cardio training for him. I did pay particular attention to making certain parts of his body chain allot stronger.

The stronger I made him, the less effort each pedal stroke took away from him. He rode more efficiently and still had juice to spare at the end.

Getting stronger without getting bigger will make all sports people better. Try it and blow your current competition out the water.

Check out Awesome Ape for some great training information;

Awesome Ape for strength,toning, hard bodied, large bodied old school mixed with nu school body building and shaping

Here is an awesome article giving a different look at heart health through exercise - another reason not to do long steady state cardio for heart health;

CARDIO BUSTERS!

Be an Awesome Ape :)

Hoorah another mistaken belief. Time and time again I hear and see written questions and statements about “cardio”;

“How much cardio should I do?”

“I run for 45 minutes a day for cardio”

“You have to be on the crosstrainer for at least 30 mintes to burn any fat”

“I am in the fat burning zone on the treadmill”

PUUUHHLLEASE

Cardio= anything that raises your heart rate above a certain point, not mandatorily in the “cardio” section of the gym. Squat your bodyweight for 5 minutes as fast as you can and tell me it’s not cardio.

As for the length of “cardio” needed for health. Very little. Get your heart rate above 160 for 10 minutes and you’ll be as healthy as you’re ever going to be or have been. NOT EVERY DAY either - give it a rest let your heart heal.

Minimal impact cardio can be done with weighted exercises performed correctly with little rest. All the benefits of “cardio” and resistance training in one. No drawbacks.

One of my favourite sites and authors in this game is Dan John.

He is friendly, helpful and has a way with words. Most of all he is knowledgeable and shares that knowledge for FREE.

see here; Dan John website

The site is great if you want to lose fat, read about lifting heavy weights, love a good anecdote or to pick up some awesome tips.

I was talking with a friend not so long ago about the culture surrounding exercise, the blurring lines between exercise and sports training.

We concluded that you have two distinct types of personalities that exercise;

1) The “Go when I can be bothered” type, which means not very often, peer pressured into it.

2) The “It makes me feel so good I feel weird if I don’t go” crowd, which means addicted. Two very extreme approaches.

It seems people look at exercise as a means of pleasure or pain. Why not just look at it like sleeping, sure you can live without it but to function fully and be as amazing as the human can be, YOU NEED it.

A great book by a great author;

Exercise is no different, you can function and survive as a human without it - but why not thrive, with it.

With no more than 1 hour per week at the absolute maximum you can have all the benefits that exercise can bring and thrive. I promise.

Below is a link to a great author in the area of intelligent exercise for the purpose of health, function and thriving - whilst saving time. Any of his books will feed you more correct training knowledge than 90% of anything else out there.

Ellington Darden Books Page

Are you one of the many people that wonder why they haven’t experienced the full benefits of exercise despite going to the gym regularly?

Well perhaps that’s because most exercise advice/articles/books etc. rarely take into account all FOUR aspects of exercise which in turn leaves you, the health concious individual, in the dark. The sad part about all this is that the “experts” who freely hand out this advice, for the most part, know very little about what constitutes proper exercise.

What are the four aspects of exercise?

ONE - Cardio vascular/pulmonary health. The ability of the heart and lungs to function fully and support muscular movement without ill consequence. This can be achieved in any way that increases heart rate. It could be swimming, running, weight lifting or sex - what ever turns your heart on.

TWO - Skeletal health. The density of the bones and the health of the joints. Traditional “cardio” does this the world of hurt. Joints are repeatedly pounded and ground away. Continue this self harming activity too frequently and your knees and hips will wave you goodbye - “You’ll miss them when they’re gone” (Sunscreen Song). If you enjoy running for running sake, do it, enjoy, good for you, however, no more than once or twice a week - even that is pushing it. Oh and if you insist on doing it , try POSE running; it helps relieve the impact forces shocking your joints into submission.

THREE - Muscular tone, strength and amount. Sarcopenia is a very VERY serious issue that debilitates everyone as they age (I don’t mean old people, I mean anyone that ages, if your’e over 20 then take note). Yes YOU too. It is the wasting of muscular tissue that causes you to stoop, to be weak and frail, to have difficulty getting out of your chair, out of bed or off the floor - to live. Muscular mass and strength is THE most important aspect of exercise when age creeps in. If you do one thing for your health - body build, please don’t show me the shots of you in thongs oiled up though. Seriously, body building isn’t about getting bulbous muscles or looking slimy. It is about building the parts of your body that need building for your health.

FOUR - Flexibility, the ability of a joint and muscles to work together to move pain free through a full range of motion. Not too far, not too short. Ever watch your nan try and reach for the cupboard just over should height and see the strain it is? If you don’t use it, you lose it. That doesn’t quite cover it though, if you don’t use it and keep it strong, you lose it. This means you need to work your exercise through big, full ranges of motion.

What does this mean for your exercise? It means if you only ever jog or row or swim or lift weights and rest a lot then you need to up your game people. All you traditional cardio crowd, stop it, give your heart a break (it’s a muscle and needs rest too - did you know too much cardio causes scarring of cardiac muscle, that’s bad by the way, really bad long term.) and learn how to work hard for a change :), pick up a weight and thicken up your bones, strengthen your muscles and look better for it. If all you ever do is lift weights in the traditional sense, try cutting your rest periods down to 30 seconds and work through your workout faster with bigger ranges of motion - no half baked squats or curls (you know who you are).

I have adopted and developed various techniques that allow all four of the above criteria to be met, meaning I and my clients get all the benefits of all the above and NONE of the bad side effects. If you want to learn more or jump straight in then call or mail me;

07742 952 208 / admin@hamsfitness.com

Book in with your local Epsom Personal Trainer - ME :)