FOR ALL THE BIKERS OUT THERE! GREAT WAY TO STRENGTHEN YOUR LEGS

A great exercise for building leg strength is the leg press, especially if a more demanding lift (such as the squat) places too much strain on your body. This is essentially a squat workout done while seated on a machine where you place your feet on a platform and push outward to raise a stack of weights.

You can do three sets of leg presses, performing 12 repetitions in the first set, then 10 in the second and then eight repetitions in the last, getting progressively heavier (10-15%) each time. Allow three minutes rest between sets.

If you haven't done the leg press before, you want to begin with a starting weight that will challenge but not overwhelm you. The principle is that you want to give your legs some work in the first set but not completely fry them, leaving yourself unable to complete the second and third set.

To determine the right starting weight for your exercise, a good rule of thumb is to start with an amount roughly equal to your body weight. If you can do this twelve times easily, bump up the weight by 10-15%. If it is already too difficult, trim it down by the same amount, making these adjustments until you get to that good starting point.

Happ exercising! 

Eatwell Plate

The "Eatwell Plate" is based on a healthy eating guidelines as stated above and the eight tips for healthy eating, as follows:

1. Base your meals on starchy foods
2. Eat lots of fruit and vegetables
3. Eat more fish
4. Cut down on saturated fat and sugar
5. Try to eat less salt - no more than 6g a day
6. Get active and try to be a healthy weight
7. Drink plenty of water
8. Dont skip breakfast

The "Eatwell plate" provides a pictorial representation of the healthy eating guidelines. This method is widely used, as it gives a clear, visual representation of the proportions of the food groups. 

Everyone is not the same so this is taken into consideration. Males generally need more energy than females, older people will need less energy than active teenagers, and physically active people will need more energy than those that lead a sedentary lifestyle.

THE IMPACT OF CULTURAL, SOCIAL AND PRACTICES ON DIETARY INTAKE AND ADVICE

Many religious adopt specific dietary practices e.g abstinence, fasting, food restriction or rules on food preparation which will influence an individual's food choice, below are some examples, and the dietary practices they follow.

Islam
Only consume Halal meat (has been slaughtered in a prescribed way according to Muslim religious practices).They do not consume pork and during the religious festival of Ramadan, they fast between sunrise and sunset.

Hindu
Generally follow a vegetarian or vegan diet. A vegetarian is an individual who (for ethical, moral or other personal reasons) chooses not to eat meat, fish, poultry or animal products. Vegetarians do eat eggs and diary products. A vegan follow a vegetarian diet and in addition does not eat dairy products and eggs.

Buddhist
Generally follow a vegetarian or vegan diet.

When offering dietary advice about healthy eating, these factors would have to be considered. It would involve looking at the " eatwell plate" and discussing what foods can be incorporated following healthy eating guidelines. Although fasting is not generally recommended for a prolonged period of time, If the religion dictates this, we can still offer advice on healthy eating during the times the fast can be broken.

SOCIAL CHANGES ON EATING HABITS

In our ever changing and developing society, dietary practices have changed due to many influences. These changes have not all been for the best in terms of the affect they have on our health.

Family
There are a higher percentage of families where both parents are working. This has an impact on the type of food consumed and patterns of food consumption within the family. More families are now resorting to convenience foods, which can be high in fat and refined sugars and of low nutrient density, as time for food preparation is limited.

Families are spending less time eating together. Members of the same family will " grab something qhick" and eat in front of the television. As a results, parents have less control over the quantity and quality of food their children are eating and the food tends to be of low nutritive value.

A television or computer provides a distraction when eating, therefore it is easier to over consume food as you are not thinking about what you are eating.

FOOD AVAILABILITY
If you walk down any high street you will notice a high proportion of fast food outlets. This presents individuals with a quick, tasty, although not necessarily nutritious, potion. When faced with such an abundance of choice, it is very tempting to go for the quick and easy option. School kids will opt for this as they walk home from school or at lunchtime. It can also be very tempting for people who have jut finished work and don't have the time or the inclination to cook a meal from scratch.

Supermarkets continually offer deals to encourage us to purchase the " large" size of a product. It may look like value for money but in really do we need it? or are we just going to consume more food than we actually need? As our society and many other societies around the world battle with the "obesity epidemic" it is clear that changing dietary practices have a major impact. 

Please try to take time out for some healthy eating and quality time with the family : )

Exercise Tips Press Ups 10mins work out

I come across alot of ladies who seem to be really afraid to try Full Press Ups. If you are wanting to build your upper body strength/tone, here is the best way to start, with this you will be able to do 5 Full Press Ups within 4 weeks! TRIED AND TESTED!

Ensure you have warmed up and had a good stretch. (especially upper body)

FIRST 2 WEEKS 4 to 5 times a week

Have a mat on the floor and plenty of room around you.The following instructions are for 3 quarter Press Ups:

Ensure the spine is neutral
Your legs follow through in a straight line
knees on the floor, maybe have a pillow underneath your knees to begin with
Rest the tips of your toes on the floor or have them in mid air
Arms need to be inline with the shoulders
hands can be hand width away from the shoulders but keeping them inline with the shoulders
Lower to the mat, (chest needs to be fist width off the floor)

If this is a struggle then go for as far down as you can go for the first 3 sessions

Slow and controlled movement
3 sets of 10

WEEK 3

By this point you will be feeling the difference in your strength in the upper body, if you have not yet tried a Full Press Up now is a good time to start.

Same as above but this time have the whole body from neck, through the spine, legs to the feet all need to be in line (neutral position).

First 2 Full Press Ups and the rest 8 complete as 3 quarter Press Ups.

Continue with 3 sets of 10 Press Ups.

WEEK 4

Now you should have enough strength in you upper half to be able to complete 5 Full Press Ups and the rest 5 as 3 quarter Press Ups, ( in all 3 sets) you may well find you can complete 6 or 7 Full Press Ups but you defiantly should have the strength to complete the 5 in each set.

More to come...

Common Belief's About Nutrition And Exercise

Strength Trainers and Extra Protein.
Whilst it is true that protein is responsible for laying down the basic building blocks of muscles, poor muscle building is unlikely to be due to any deficiency. A typical diet is more than adequate to supply needs. Since muscle itself only consists of 22% protein to put on 4kg of muscle per year requires less than 1kg of protein i.e 2.4g extra per day. Remember that a strength trainer will be eating more total calories anyway. So a daily intake of 15% of those calories will automatically increase protein intake.

Protein supplements may be beneficial for athletes with large build who are on heavy resistance training schedules. This makes protein requirements very high and difficult to meet from normal eating alone (e.g. a strength training athlete weighting 100kg may require as much as 150-180g protein per day). Protein supplements may also be beneficial for athletes on weight loss plan (they seem to help conserve lean tissue) or for vegetarian athletes to account for the incomplete digestion of the plant sources of protein they consume.

Carbohydrates are the only fuel used for exercise.
Fat is actually a major store of energy in the body and it is used mainly with carbohydrates in low intensity, longer duration exercise. At higher intensity and in anaerobic activities, carbohydrates in the form of glycogen will be used as the fuel since fat has low water solubility and cannot be metabolised quickly enough to keep up with the demand.

Through training, the body will become better at using fat as its energy source since the cause of fatigue or "hitting the wall" is depleted glycogen stores. If both glycogen and fat stores are low, the body will call upon its protein energy, hence diminishing protein stores in the muscles.

Hydration Before, During and After Training Sessions or Endurance Events.

To ensure peak performance it is essential you start completely hydrated. Sipping water throughout the day will ensure you maintain hydration levels. This may not sound practical for everyone but carrying a bottle of water, or having one sitting on our desk can prompt us to drink regularly.

Pre-exercise or event:
Aim to drink 500mls of water in the two hours leading up your session. This will allow for adequate hydration and urination.

During:
To ensure adequate hydration aim to drink 120-180mls every 15minutes, this is equivalent to  few gulps.

Post exercise or event
Aim to replace the fluid you have lost during the session plus half again to account for the thermal effect of exercise

The Role Of The Media

Physiology and Psychology Of Dieting

Acquiring an increased knowledge about food and it effect on our body is an important step in developing eating behaviours that maintain a high health status.

Unfortunately, when it comes to actually making choices about what to eat and when, knowledge is only one part of the influence on us and usually a very minor part at that. Far more important is cultural and socialogical environment we live in and the resultant pressures to conform to norms established and forcefully maintained by that culture through media images, advertising and marketing.

To put it brutally we live in a society and time where "thin" is valued and seen as attractive and desirable, while "fat" is perceived as the opposite. Developing from this is an inherent prejudice against over weight people leading to discrimination in all aspects of daily life.

Food inevitable dominates our live; we need to eat in order to survive. However the pressures to get thin are enormous and have led to the use and abuse of food as a controllable factor in an otherwise uncontrollable life.

Individuals eat (or dont eat) as a response to a whole range of life events, and to deal with the subsequent emotions and feelings. If the eating behaviour results in over eating and therefore a gain in weight, then the eating behaviour comes to be seen as the cause, rather than the symptom, of psychological distress. This is often translated into "if only I could get my eating under control and get thin then I would be happy and everything would be all right".

There are plenty of seemingly glamorous role models provided for us in the media in the form of ultra-slim, usually tall models, who are used to advertise designer clothes and an enormous range of other products. The clothes are specifically designed to look good on their particular frame, so it is hardly surprising that when we go to our high streets stores to try on copy (or even the real thing), they some how never look anywhere near as good. But of cause, if only we could lose weight to look just like the supermodels, then we would look good and feel good too. All we need is to lose a stone or two, particularly from our stomachs and thighs.

Whilst it is unarguably true that most of the pressure to confirm to an ideal body image is aimed at females, men also experience role models imagery in the media. However, most male role models tend to be athletes or film screen heroes. Whilst it may be just as unrealistic for most males to get to look like a top athlete as it is for females to try to look like a super model, at least the attempt to get there will encourage a healthy, active lifestyle.

Ask any Personal Trainer/ Exercise teacher what is the most common question they get asked and the answer will be " How can I make my bottom/tummy/thighs/hips smaller?" In other words, it is about the desire to change the body shape and look different.