As an added incentive to get you involved, we ask you to post your photos of you doing any of the 'MoreFit Halloween Circuit' exercises on our Facebook page and tag yourself in. We will choose some winners to have a free 1-2-1 personal training session as a reward.
MoreFit Personal Training
Wednesday, 22 October 2014
Training: Halloween Circuit Training
As an added incentive to get you involved, we ask you to post your photos of you doing any of the 'MoreFit Halloween Circuit' exercises on our Facebook page and tag yourself in. We will choose some winners to have a free 1-2-1 personal training session as a reward.
Tuesday, 30 September 2014
Lifestyle: Stress and Exercise
Stress and exercise orientated for office workers
Ulli Ackermann
It has become quite a common habit for a lot of people in stressful jobs and after a stressful day, to compensate by going to the pub for a beer or two or to indulge in comfort eating. And while this may give short term relief by stimulation of the parasympathetic part of the nervous system which is responsible for slowing down and calming the body, it doesn’t target long term stress effects concerning excess adrenaline and cortisol.
Those two hormones, being also called “stress-hormones” are responsible for regulating blood flow, digestion, heart rate and more.
If they are in imbalance, serious health issues may occur sooner or later, be it cognitive symptoms like memory loss, poor judgement or anxiety, emotional symptoms like moodiness, a short temper or even depression as well as physical symptoms like unexplainable aches and pains, frequent colds or even loss of libido.
While research has found connections between stress and lower risks of terminal illness, be it cancer, heart disease or even dementia, studies have also shown that the released endorphins (the “happy-hormones”) help in reducing stress, managing sleep problems and that a strengthened body withstands the daily workload in a much more efficient way.
According to researchers at the Yale Stress Centre, physical activity can actually reverse damage caused by a stressful lifestyle. Stress atrophies the brain; it affects the hippocampus, which is the part of the brain responsible for memory storage. And while certain types of exercise emulate small dosages of stress to the human organism, the bodies physiological systems that are involved in a stress response have to communicate much closer than usual, all of which may be the real benefit of training regarding stress relief.
So, in a nutshell, if you are stressed, you should exercise, because:
It pumps up your endorphins.
Physical activity helps to bump up the production of your brain's feel-good neurotransmitters. Although it is often referred to as a runner's high, a set of sprints or a heavy weights session can contribute to this same feeling.
It's meditation in motion.
After an hour in the studio, some fast paced circuits or an effective interval session, you'll often find that you've forgotten the day's irritations and concentrated only on your body's movements. As you begin to regularly shed your daily tensions through movement and physical activity, you may find that this focus on a single task, and the resulting energy and optimism, can help you remain calm and clear in everything else you do.
It improves your mood.
Regular exercise may yield benefits in increased self-confidence and higher energy levels. It also lowers the symptoms associated with mild depression and anxiety. Itimproves your sleep, which is often disrupted by stress or worsened by existing conditions. All this can ease your stress levels and give you a sense of command over your body and your life that puts you back on track and improves life quality to new heights!
Thursday, 28 August 2014
Training: The Stroke Association Run, Hyde Park, 21st Sept 2014
Hi there guys.
At MoreFit we really strive to get all our clients results. We want you all to hit your targets and keep pushing the boundaries. Here's a great way to do something that you potentially haven't done before and have a fun day out at the same time.
This year we're again working with the Stroke Association hosting the warm up for the charity 5km run. We've been working with the Stroke Association now for 3 years.
We'd really like to see you take part in the 5km run. And run it as fast as you can.
The Stroke Association 2013 - Training by MoreFit PT |
The discounted entry forms are here. Please enter and get on board. £10 entry instead of £15. Click here for your discounted entry forms.
We'll be donating and raising money as group so feel free to do as little or as much as you like. You can get to the group fundraising page here following this link.
www.justgiving.com/MoreFit-London
We have created a simple 3 week training guide for beginner runners. If you would like to get a tailor-made program for advanced running then just speak to one of trainers or email info@morefit.co.uk for more info.
BEGINNERS 5km RUNNING GUIDE
3 week 5k training plan for the Stroke Association Resolution run 21st of September. The warm up will be done by MoreFit.
Well done guys for signing up. You are only 3 weeks from running at Hyde Park.
Long Runs: You should do your long runs at a comfortable, conversational pace. You should be able breathe easily and talk in complete sentences. Your easy runs should also be done at this effort. If you need to stop for a quick breath then fine. But consistent running is what it's about.
Don't worry if you have to stop. Just be honest with yourself and try and push as hard as possible.
Hydration.
Especially in hot weather make sure you're well hydrated. You need to be drinking 2-4 litres of water per day.
Nutrition
You should have enough glycogen (stored sugar) energy stores in your muscles and liver to run the 5 km as long as your nutrition is right.
After every run you should refuel your glycogen stores by eating portions of complex carbs such as sweet potatoes, millet, buckwheat, quinoa, porridge and yam. Your body stores the sugar from these sources very well.
Stay away from white starches (white pasta, white bread). Your body stores the sugar from these sources poorly.
YOUR 3 WEEK TRAINING SCHEDULE.
Take time to plan your days. If you're training in the studio then just swap the run to the following day. Consult your trainer so they can go easy on the leg training before run days.
WEEK 1: w/c Monday 1st Sept
Day 1: 18 min easy run
Day 2: Rest or strength training
Day 3: Rest or strength training
Day 4: 18 min Easy run
Day 5: Rest
Day 6: 23 min Long run
Day 7: 2 miles brisk walk or Rest
WEEK 2: w/c Monday 8th Sept
Day 1: Rest or strength training
Day 2: 23 mins easy run
Day 3: Rest or strength training
Day 4: 25 mins fast run
Day 5: Rest
Day 6: 25 mins interval run. 1 min fast 2 mins slow jog
Day 7: 2 miles brisk walk, Rest or strength training
WEEK 3: w/c Monday 15th Sept
Day 1: Rest or strength training
Day 2: 25 mins fast run
Day 3: Rest or strength training
Day 4: 25 mins easy run
Day 5: Rest
Day 6: Rest
Sunday 21st September, Hyde park
Meet at the Band stand close to the Serpentine cafe.
9.45am prompt start for warm up. Arrive at 9.30 am for registration.
Good apps to use for your run are:
Runkeeper
Runtastic
Map my Run is good if you don't want to run with a smartphone, just use a desktop to pre-plan your run
Enjoy!
Training: Endurance Hydration – The Basics
By Rachelle Healy
Many of our clients at MoreFit at some stage or another decide to enter an endurance event (2 hours or over).
On race day even the fittest people can suffer the consequences of a poor hydration and nutrition strategy. This article is focusing on hydration.
Even tho this is geared at Endurance, those of you taking part in the Hyde Park Run will benefit from hydration guidelines in this article.
As much as you prepare physically for events, hydration and nutrition are often the difference between crossing the finishing line well, crossing it in bits or not crossing it at all.
To give you an idea:
The RAAM route is around 30% longer than the Tour de France. Racers must complete the distance in roughly half the time allowed for the Tour. The Spinhalers completed in under 7.5 days with all riders finishing in great condition – considering!
Our team of 4 riders weighed between 67kg and107kg which meant each members requirements in terms of hydration, electrolytes and calorie consumption were very different and had to beindividulaised.
The team were racing in extreme conditions such as the desserts in Kansas and climbing the Rocky Mountains in extreme heat with a lack of shade or breeze. The protocols in place and monitoring our riders throughout was essential to the success of the trip and rider welfare.
It was vital we had a system in place, vital we monitored outcomes and adjusted accordingly and vital we were consistent in the execution of this. Basically what I’m trying to say is you just can’t ‘wing it’ on the day!
Hydration:
The average person sweats between 0.8 to 1.4 liters per hour during exercise, however you need to factor in other elements such as heat, humiditiy,wind factor, sunburn etc as these all affect hydration levels on the day. A .5% reduction in hydration will start to affect your performance.
When hydrating, water isn’t the only thing to think about, it is essential that you supplement with electrolytes as well.
Electrolytes are important because they are what your cells (especially nerve, heart, muscle) use to maintain voltages across their cell membranes and to carry electrical impulses (nerve impulses, muscle contractions) across themselves and to other cells. Your kidneys work to keep the electrolyte concentrations in your blood constant despite changes in your body. For example, when you exercise heavily, you lose electrolytes in your sweat, particularly sodium and potassium. These electrolytes must be replaced to keep the electrolyte concentrations of your body fluids constant.
The sodium and electrolyte concentration of one liter of sweat can range from 300 mg to 3600 mg depending on the individual, and varies by diet, sweating rate, hydration, and degree of heat acclimation Under-replacing your sodium and other electrolyte losses can lead to various problems including dehydration, muscular cramping, headaches, gastrointestinal upset, nausea, fluid retention and hyponatremia.
Throughout the Race Across America, the riders would sip an electrolyte solution on the bike so they were constantly topping up their electrolyte levels.
If the riders were doing a tough shift in the heat or with hills or both, we would also add a more concentrated electrolyte tablet to their intake to counteract the excess sweating and loss of electrolytes and monitor outcomes.
It is very important to sip little and often and not drink huge amounts in one go as your intestines can only process so much at any one time, otherwise the rest will just go through you.
We used the following as a guide for hydration and monitored outcomes:
- Average Athlete / Average Temperature: 2-0-25 oz/hr - approx 590-740 mls/hr
- Lighter Athletes / Cooler Temperature: 16-18oz/hr - approx 473-532mls/hr
- Heavier Athletes / Hotter Temperature:Intakes upwards of 28oz/hr – approx. 830mls/hr
Throughout RAAM, every 30 mins we took the riderstats – how many calories in, what type of calories– fat, protein, carbohydrate, how much fluid they drank and we recorded how often they peed and yes, what color it was, as that is a very good indication of if your body is dehydrated or not.
If their pee was dark, we would hydrate more in 250mls increments per hour with an electrolyte tablet/drink and monitor outcomes.
Other dehydration symptoms are to look out for are:
- Extreme thirst.
- Extreme irritability and confusion in adults.
- Very dry mouth, skin and mucous membranes.
- Little or no urination — any urine that is produced will be darker than normal.
- Sunken eyes
To avoid hyponatremia, fluid intake should not routinely exceed 28 oz/hr (830 ml/hr). The exceptions are heavier athletes, athletes exercising at extreme levels (prolonged periods at a high percentage of VO2Max), and athletes competing in severe environmental conditions.
During RAAM If the rider was peeing a lot, this was an indication that they didn’t have enough electrolytes in their system. Our first action was to increase their electrolyte intake and decrease their fluid intake to the minimum amount for the activity and conditions.
Again, we would monitor outcomes.
A sign the body is low in electrolytes is excesspee’ing and sloshing (nausea) feeling in the stomach.
Other symptoms of hyponatrimia are:
- Vomiting.
- Headache.
- Confusion.
- Loss of energy and fatigue.
- Restlessness and irritability.
- Muscle weakness, spasms or cramps.
- Seizures.
- Coma
Hypernatremia typically does not have many symptoms until your blood sodium levels are extremely high. Symptoms include dizziness when changing positions, vomiting and diarrhea. You can help lower your sodium levels by drinking plenty of water.
During the race we used both isotonic drinksolutions and Hypertonic solutions depending on what was required.
Isotonic drinks contain similar concentrations of salt and sugar as in the human body.
- They quickly replace fluids lost through sweat and supply a boost of carbohydrate.
- They are the preferred choice for most athletes, including middle and long-distance running or those involved in team sports. Hypertonic drinks contain a higher concentration of salt and sugar than the human body.
- They quickly replace fluids lost by sweating.
- Suitable for athletes who require fluid without a carbohydrate boost.
Unfortunately we didn’t have the means to do the electrolyte sweat test, however what we did get was an indication on how much fluid each rider would be losing and this helped us prepare for the race ensuring we had enough water in the support cars and an indication as too how many electrolyte supplements we would need to purchase for the 24/7 race.
Following this, we put in place rehydration protocolsto ensure our riders had optimal hydration. Weweighed our riders in only their underwear before and after each shift and then rehydrated as necessary.
For every pound of body weight lost we would replenish with 600mls of water + electrolyte solution.
We also ensured we used plenty of Himalayan Rock Salt when cooking their foods as it contains many trace elements and is a super electrolyte source.
In these extreme events, the priority was hydrationover sleep as you can exercise tired, but you can’t if severely dehydrated.
With dehydration, hyponatremia and hypernatremia you will find that if you’re monitoring outcomes and rectify the problem in the early stages through increasing/decreasing fluid intake or increasing electrolytes, the body adapts and the symptoms can disappear fairly quickly.
When planning for endurance events be it 2 hour or 24 hour + the more prepared you are, the more you monitor the more chance you have of finishing well.
If you are planning an endurance event and would like some help with hydration and nutrition, please get in touch with Rachelle at Morefit or email rachelle.healy@icloud.com.
Friday, 22 August 2014
Supplements: The Benefits of Vitamin D
By Anthony Masters
Why is Vitamin D important?
How much vitamin D do I need and how should I get it tested?
Thursday, 14 August 2014
Training: Knee Rehabilitation
Thursday, 7 August 2014
Training: Rounded Shoulders
Definitely in personal training we find that posture is one of the major limiting factors to our health and fitness.
Basically when shoulders appear further forward often accompanied by a hunching or bending forward of the upper spine and protracted neck.
Muscle imbalances and bad posture due to our lifestyle are the primary cause, but can be made worse by how we workout.
If we spend hours a day in front of the computer sitting at a desk, watching TV, driving etc in a hunched over/forward position with rounded shoulders our body will adapt to it, because our body can adapt almost all physical activities or positions we put ourselves in. This is especially prevelent people who have a desk jobs. They must be very careful and know the correct sitting techniques, choosing the correct chair and learning and utilising the correct stretching and exercises to stay mobile and pain free.
To fix rounded shoulders we need to stretch the overdeveloped muscles and strengthen the weak ones.
The tight and over-developed muscles are:
•Pec major/minor
•Anterior delts
•lats
•Internal rotators
First off stretching the chest, anterior deltoids, and internal rotators can all be accomplished by one simple easy stretch which is doorway stretch.
• Rhomboid major/minor
• Mid/Low Trapezius
• Deltoids
• External Rotators
Strengthening exercises are going to be targeting mainly the upper back. Exercise to be concentrating on are: bent over row, barbell row, inverted row, reverse dumbell flys, face pulls. also floor flatteners, dorsal raises, band pull aparts, dumbell external rotations.
About Okan Caylak
Okan is passionate about helping people transform their lives and reach a better quality of life through health and fitness.His goal is to inspire and educate you with the necessary tools you'll need to make to permanent and positive lifestyle change. Okan has an bachelor degree in Sports Science from Ege University Izmir/Turkey.He is a qualified PE teacher with background in playing and coaching competitive football and swimming.He is a REP level 3 personal trainer and He believes that if a workout doesn't challenge you, it wont change you.
Details: Ege University Bachelor degree in Sports Science, REP level 3 personal trainer, award in Circuit Instruction, award in teaching personal training outdoors, award in indoor Cycling, award in GP & Exercises Referral.