Why are women scared of the weight room?

For a lot of women starting out on a weight loss programme or just looking to get fit, the weight room is a place they avoid like a man avoids cleaning. On their quest to slim down, the worry of becoming a female Arnold Schwarzenegger keeps them as far away from pumping iron as possible. However, by doing this, women may be missing out on huge health, fitness and weight loss benefits.




Why do most women think that touching a weight will make them look like this?

 

Muscle, the fat burner

It’s been highlighted in some of the previous posts, that, muscle uses energy even when you’re not doing anything. So, it would make sense that, the more muscle you have, the more energy you burn throughout the day. To put it in simple terms, if two people did exactly the same amount of work during the day but one had slightly more muscle, then that person would use more energy during the day.

The problem comes when you start to do lots of cardio and lots of dieting. When you do this, as well as water and fat, you start to lose muscle, which isn’t good. So, even if you don’t want to be bursting out of your t-shirts any time soon, it’s essential to do some resistance work to minimise your muscle loss.

Muscle, the injury preventer

If you move, at all, you are at risk of injuring yourself, you only have to see how many “accident claim” adverts there are to realise that people are always slipping, tripping and falling over. So, if your muscles and connective tissues are more tissue paper than...than...well, something tougher than tissue paper, you might end up with a serious injury.

Weight training can toughen up those muscles and connective tissues (ligaments and tendons) and so reduce that risk of injury. So, hit the weights to avoid being the next person in that annoying accident claim advert.

I hate those injury lawyers adverts. Anyway, has anyone
ever actually slipped on a banana peel?



Muscle, the stabiliser

When you had your first bike it probably came with two little wheels on the side that stopped you falling off and wobbling all over the place. Your muscles do exactly the same thing and they are doing it all the time. When you move your muscles constantly make minor adjustments to keep you up right. If you want to know this processes actual name, it’s proprioception, just in case you were curious.

Simply then, if you start to waste away this muscle, you’re removing the stabilisers. Obviously you’re not going to start falling and stumbling like Babmi on ice, not now anyway. But as you get older, it will definitely become an issue.

Still scared of the weight room

The title of this post might point at just the weight room but muscle gain can also be built from exercises that don’t use weights. Resistance training that uses body weight is great because you can do it anywhere, although firing out some press-ups at the bus stop will draw strange looks from passers-by.

It was said at the beginning, weight training or resistance training will not make you bulk up into a muscle machine, which requires lots and lots of training and nutrition. It will though help you burn more fat and rescue the chances of you getting injured.

So, ladies, forget hiding away from the weight room or some resistance training.

Thanks for making it to the bottom. Please feel free to make comments on any of the posts. If you like what you’re reading then please subscribe to the blog. For daily health and fitness tips, links and more follow us on twitter at @FSLifestyle

Running my first race in the dark

Last Friday I ran my first race that took place in the dark, in the Skeleton Race in Loughborough. It was another great experience to add to the small number that I’ve already had in running. As well as being my first race in the dark it was also the first race I’ve don’t that didn’t take place in the morning so the preparation was completely new. (I did want to put some pictures in but it turns out that there wasn't anyone taking pictures that you can buy)

First things first, preparation

I really wasn’t sure what to do during the day; should I go for a gentle run in the morning? What should I eat, when should I eat? I think I could have done a little more research than I did but in the end I went for doing nothing in the day and pretty much ate as I normally would; I had couple of pieces of toast for breakfast, early lunch and then an early dinner. Even though I could have known a little more about what I should have been doing, I made a plan. I think this is important for everyone to do for every race, no matter what your ability. Remember; fail to plan, then plan to fail.

Committing a cardinal sin, again

If you’ve read some of my other posts (if not, then why not?) then you might have stumbled across my post about my last race and committing some of the “cardinal sins of road running”. Well, on Friday I committed a big one; I didn’t warm-up. To make it worse, it was a freezing evening, making injury a huge risk.

Once the race started I could feel how stiff my muscles were and it took them about a mile to warm-up. Even though I didn’t end up injured, I think, in fact I know, that I would have had a better time if I had warmed-up.

Head torches

The problem about running in the dark is that, well, it’s dark. Race rules said that all runners must carry a torch or wear a head torch (I opted for a pretty cheap head torch). Friday was the first time I had run with it (another slap on the wrists for me, I know) and let me tell you, it’s tough to run in the dark with a head torch that doesn’t offer much in the way of light and that bounces around your head.

When the race started there was, like you’d expect, lots of runners lined up ready to go. That meant that there were lots of head torches lighting up the way. After about a mile, there were less people around me, meaning less light, and after about 2 miles there was no one in sight in front or behind me......I was all alone.

Nearly getting lost

So, 2 miles down, I’m on my own and I’m coming up to a marshall. They shouted at me which way to go, I went in the direction I thought they said and they had to shout back that I’d gone the wrong way, I had to turn around and mumbled a few unpleasant words. After that my faith in the marshalls went right down. At each turn I started physically pointing and asking which turn I had to take.

I came to a turn at about 4 miles and the marshall shouted something but I wasn’t sure what it was. I headed down a path but wasn’t 100% it was the right way. The course was supposed to be marked out with glow sticks but I didn’t see one for a few minutes, I began to think the worst.

 As I started to think that I was lost, there was a moment where I think logic evaded me. It might have just been that I was tired and not the fact that I thought I had gone the wrong way and was lost. There was a single moment that I thought if I was lost then I would stay in the same spot and wait to be found, until I realised that I could just turn around I go back in the direction I had come in.

Coming across the finish

Turns out that I wasn’t lost and I hadn’t gone down the wrong path. The glow sticks started appearing again and I had started to gain on the person in front of me. I could see the finish up ahead to switched on the after-burners and tried to catch up the guy in front. I pushed as hard as I could but left it too late. I wasn’t too disappointed though as I had still come 9^th   (out of ~250), easily my highest finish in a race.

9^th place, lessons learnt and an enjoyable first race in the dark, all topped off with a toffee apple at the finish because it’s so close to Halloween.  

Is the Government doing enough to tackle obesity?

The number of obese and overweight people across the UK is incredible; nearly 70% of the population now fill this category. Yet the government does not appear to be facing up to this issue and trying to reduce the high numbers of deaths linked to obesity each year. Compare this to the number of deaths caused by things like drink driving or smoking and how much government money has gone into reducing these and it doesn’t look like we’ve been getting value for money.

Drink driving and speeding

Everyone has seen that drink driving advert with the barman playing all the different roles and playing out that other bloke’s life if he has another drink, I bet most people even know all the words (I know I do!). Or what about those adverts about speeding with the little girl saying “if you hit me at 30mph....” in that cute voice that makes you feel guilty about speeding. I haven’t got exact figures but I bet these campaigns weren’t cheap.

"....So, what's it going to be?"



So, given the effort by the government, you would think that this is a major contributor to the number of deaths in the UK each year, easily in the thousands. Yet, the total number is only in the low hundreds.

What about smoking?



This images are shocking, would you buy a McDonalds
if similar pictures were on their packets?



Smoking has long been a big problem in the UK and comes with lots of bad consequences, just like obesity. It accounts for around 80000-100000 deaths in the UK. To reduce this, the government seems to have done an awful lot; there have been TV adverts, there are those disgusting pictures of diseased lungs on cigarette packets and there is even a smoking ban in workplaces. This amount of effort to reduce the number of smokers is, no doubt, an expensive measure, a lot more money seems to be spent on this than has been spent on the issue of obesity.

I don’t want to get into a huge moral debate about what lives are more valuable than others nor am I saying that the money spent on these campaigns has been wasted.

So, what’s being done about obesity?

As I’ve already said, 70% of the UK’s population is now overweight or obese. That’s nearly 70% of the population that have an increased risk of coronary heart disease, strokes, type 2 diabetes and even some cancers. Over time, and even already, this will put a huge strain on the NHS.  Cardiovascular disease is the single largest killer in the UK and it has been proven through research time and time again that those that are physically fit reduce their risk. Why then, are the government not doing much to get Britain active?

On the official Number 10 website, the PM’s official page, not once does it mention reducing obesity as a priority. In terms of sport, the only priority seems to be hosting a successful Olympic games. Speaking of the Games, was this not supposed to be a springboard to get the UK into sport? I don’t think there has been any sort of surge in numbers taking part in sport or even more people interested in the Olympics.



The Change 4 Life campaign,
with the jelly baby people



I had thought that there was no government backed campaign to improve the health of the UK from exercise and a better diet. When doing some research though, I stumbled on the “Change for Life” campaign. Can you remember it? Their adverts have got what I think look like jelly baby people. I think the biggest testament to the success of this campaign is the fact that I, and probably you, could not even remember it, never mind any of the information it is giving.

I think it’s pretty clear that obesity is a big problem in the UK (no pun intended) and that something has to be done. What’s clearer is that the UK government is not delivering.

Thanks for making it to the bottom. Please feel free to make comments on any of the posts. If you like what you’re reading then please subscribe to the blog. For daily health and fitness tips, links and more follow us on twitter at @FSLifestyle

Commiting the cardinal sins of road racing

This Sunday I was in the Tamworth 10k, running my first race in over 6 months (You might have read my post about how my Pre-race Nerves ). After reading and preaching the do’s and do not’s of road racing, I couldn’t help but cross the line with disappointment. Knowing that I’d committed some of running’s cardinal sins.

The week before
It’s very, very easy to do what I did in the week leading up to the race. Do nothing. Hey, it’s taper time. All of the hard work has been done, I’ve put the training in and now’s the time to relax and not burn myself out before the race. I only managed to put in two runs in the week and the last one was on Tuesday, 5 days before the race. I hadn’t planned on not running again but if anything popped up I just gave up the run I had planned, thinking that it didn’t matter.

There is a lot of advice and research out there for tapering. There has been research saying that a 67% decrease in training is optimal, I’ve seen a study that showed a 90% decrease increased endurance and performance. What is agreed on in a lot of research though, is that the “do-nothing” approach to taper is non-beneficial. I knew this, but ignored it anyway, committing the first cardinal sin, not doing anything during taper.

The day before

An important thing in endurance events is energy; without any, you won’t be able to keep going. This is the basic idea behind the concept of “carbo-loading”. Carbohydrates are a quick releasing energy source that is used during endurance events, so if you take more in, you will have more to use during a race. Simple.

On the day before my race I had lots to do and had very little time to eat. This meant that I had no lunch or dinner and the only thing I ate between 5 o’clock and going to bed was a small tub (like one of those mini ones you get at the cinema, not a small tub that would feed 5) of vanilla ice cream, not the most nutritious of foods. And before this all I’d had was a banana and a piece of orange. Not eating the day before a race limits the energy available and so compromises performance. And so I had committed a second cardinal sin of road racing, not eating the day before.

The night before

There is some debate into the issue of sleep before competition, and for that reason I’m not going to call this a sin, but I got into bed after 12 o’clock the night before and I was up at 5am the next morning. I have seen in some places that performance may not be reduced by one night’s bad sleep and some places that say otherwise. I think it is down to the individual and all I can say is that, even if the lack of sleep didn’t affect my actual performance, it definitely played on my mind. Lack of sleep then may not be a cardinal sin, but it might take you off the road to success.

The race

So far, so bad, but still, I made it to the start line and my race performance was still mostly in my hands. I had warmed up well and lined up close to the front, ready to go. 5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1 – GO! And boy did I go and commit the ultimate of cardinal sins. I began running at a pace much faster than I had planned to run, more than a minute per mile quicker. And there it was, the third, and biggest cardinal sin, going off too fast.

Big finish! Not sure how, but
somehow, I got to the end

I was up with the race leaders for nearly 1km. At the time it felt like I couldn’t slow down but now I think it was more a case that I wouldn’t. I felt great, but that didn’t last. My chest and my stomach started to burn after only 2km and I was pretty sure I wouldn’t even finish. I had to slow right down and get recover a little. I eventually came over the line in 41:38, I had wanted to go under 40 minutes. The race was a good experience though and proves that knowing what to do and not to do in the build-up to and during a race is one thing, but getting them right on the day is another.

I committed three of the cardinal sins of road running. That’s not to say they are the only ones and I’m sure you have committed some of your own. Let us know which ones you have committed and if you suffered for it.

Thanks for making it to the bottom. Please feel free to make comments on any of the posts. If you like what you’re reading then please subscribe to the blog. For daily health and fitness tips, links and more follow us on twitter at @FSLifestyle

Pre-race nerves

Following a quiet summer and a tough few weeks of training, tomorrow I will be racing in the Tamworth 10k. This will the first time I have been in a race in around 6 months because of a knee injury that has kept me from pounding the pavements all summer. This will still only be my 7^th race and my first at this distance; I’m still pretty much a beginner.

Going into tomorrow though, I have to admit, I’m nervous. Nervous about a few things; about not finishing if my knee starts to play up, not getting the time I want, I’m even nervous about getting to the race because this is first time I’ll be travelling alone. The more I’m thinking about it, the more I’m getting nervous. To make things worse, I’m playing in a football match today (stupid I know and a problem easily fixed, don’t play, but I have to), so I’m definitely nervous about getting injured.

Have I been here before?

In the races I have done before, there were nerves, but different nerves then what I feel now. In my first race, a marathon, the nerves were definitely concerned with not making the distance, a problem I’m not envisaging for tomorrow. Then I’ve done 2 half marathons where my biggest concern shifted from finishing, to time; the runner’s biggest enemy. So far, my battles with time have always seen me triumph, beating the times that I have set for races. Tomorrow? Well, I think that could be a different story.

Stepping up

Over the last 6 weeks or so, things have gone a little quicker than they were going before. My legs have been turning over a little quicker and all of my runs have a little faster. I’ve thrown in a lot more sprint work and I think it is doing wonders. All this has done though, is raise my expectations. The time in my mind that I have set is at a quicker pace than my previous race times would predict. Am I setting myself up for a giant, thumping fall then, or am I preparing for one of my biggest personal highs of running so far?

Preparation

One of the best ways to get over nerves is to plan. As the old saying goes;

“Failed to prepare? Then prepare to fail”

Obviously the most important preparation is training; there is no point expecting to break records if you haven’t took the time to train, and train well. For me, I can’t change what training I’ve done now. All I can do is look over my training plan and see whether training has gone well (which it has) or not. One day before the race though, the things that need to be planned and prepared are the little things that make race day run smoother than Barry White on ice.

What am I having for breakfast in the morning? What time is the race? How long does it take to get there? What facilities are there? What’s the weather going to be like? What food or drink will I want before, during and after the race? These are just some of the questions that have to be answered beforehand. Once these are answered, you can relax a little and concentrate on running the race.

When all’s said and done

Tomorrow, like many other runners every weekend, I will emerge in one of two states. I can crash and end in defeat, beaten by father time. Or, I will rise and triumph. Whatever happens, I’m sure I will be back at the start line again. Ready take on time, other runners and those ever-present nerves.

Thanks for making it to the bottom. Please feel free to make comments on any of the posts. If you like what you’re reading then please subscribe to the blog. For daily health and fitness tips, links and more follow us on twitter at @FSLifestyle

Are there some people who will never care about their health?

We all know people that don’t exercise. We all know people who live their lives on a bad diet. Some of them are overweight and some are those ones that never put on weight no matter what they eat or how little they exercise. For the latter, it can be quite easy to think that because they are not overweight that they are relatively “healthy”. Fact is they are probably not. If your diet is poor and you’re not exercising, your health is suffering, regardless of the size of your belly.

Of these people that we all know who don’t exercise, ever, why is it that they cannot summon themselves of the sofa and out for a jog or down a local sports club or...just...well...anything. And what about those with a poor diet? Why don’t they put down that processed meal and eat something fresh or swap their takeaways for something that’s..... not a take-away? My question (a little like the title suggests) is; are there some people who will just never care about their health?

Some examples

Have a little think about some of the people you know who don’t exercise, do they fit into one of these? The bloke who used to play team sports until ~40 and hasn’t exercised since he finished? That person who never liked P.E. in school and has just never exercised, someone who is overweight and uses that as a reason why they can’t exercise or the office worker that says that they just haven’t got the time. 

What about the people whose diet reads with more Mc’s and ready’s than perhaps it should. We all know the mum without the time to make a dinner from scratch, the person who seems to always get a takeout or someone who would only ever get their 5-a-day in if banana milkshakes, cherry drops and strawberry ice cream counted.

Can they Change?

There are some people who yo-yo diet or that once a year might get into the gym. Forget those; we’re not interested, not today anyway. The people that we’re interested in are the ones that never do anything. Not a single thing.

Some people seem stubborn about not exercising and healthy eating. I’ve met more than one person who thinks it’s, and I quote, “sad” to lead a healthy life and that their unhealthy ways provide them with a much happier time on earth. Really? I’m not going to go and get the chez long and go all psychiatrist on you, but can anyone really say that a lifestyle is “sad” without ever trying it. I used to think that running seemed boring and, well to cut a long story short, I’m now out pounding the streets most days in the week.

Excuses

It’s not just stubbornness that is keeping some people unhealthy; there are a lot of excuses that people chuck about. Time, money, effort....the list could go on.  But would these people use these excuses if they knew some of the facts?

Just 15 minutes of low intensity exercise a day can increase your life expectancy by 3 years. 15 minutes!!! Who can’t find 15 minutes a day to live longer? And that’s just one benefit of exercise. I’m not going to list all of the benefits here but would people make more of an effort if this sort of information was out there? I don’t think they would.

Is all lost?

Are some people unreachable, beyond hope? Are there some in the bewilderment of healthy lives, cast away in a world of gluttony, slobbery and laziness? I’m going to leave it here for know and let you think. I want to hear your thoughts. Can anyone do anything to change things? Do things need to change? Let me know at the bottom.

Thanks for making it to the bottom. Please feel free to make comments on any of the posts. If you like what you’re reading then please subscribe to the blog. For daily health and fitness tips, links and more follow us on twitter at @FSLifestyle

Have you been inspired by the Ironman World Chamionships?

Did you see any of the Ironman World Championships on Saturday? Our Brit Chrissie Wellington delivered the goods in the women’s race for her 4^th title and Craig Alexandre took his 3^rd World title. The times were phenomenal and these guys show just what the human body is capable of.

The Best

Craig Alexandre crossed the line in Kona in a time of 8:03:56, 12 seconds quicker than the previous distance best. His spits were; swim 2.4M - 51:56, bike 112M - 4:24:05, run 26.2M - 2:44:03. Let’s just put these times into perspective;  in the Speedo Open Water Swim Series swimmers raced for 2.2 miles along the Thames, downstream. The winner finished in 00:45:06. For 2.4 miles this would have got a time of about 49 minutes, only 3 minutes quicker than Alexandre and they didn’t have to worry about a 112M bike and 26.2 run after.

Craig Alexandre crossing the line to take the win in08:03:56

Correct me if I’m wrong (which I might be) but I think the World Record for 100M bike time is 03:27:05. That pace would give a 112M time of around 03:51:40. That’s only around 30 minutes quicker than Alexandre’s effort and for those who know anything about cycling, things like course and conditions are very, very important – the slightest headwind makes a massive difference. I’m not saying that this world record was done in more favourable conditions or on an easier course because I don’t know. But, if it was, it again makes Alexandre’s time even better.

Finally, Alexandre’s marathon time of 02:44:03. If you know anything about marathon times I know you will already be impressed. In this year’s Berlin marathon, the fastest marathon on earth and against marathon specific trained athletes, Alexandre would have finished a hugely respectable 226^th. And that’s after he’s done an epic swim and a quad-busting cycle.



Chrissie Wellington - smiling, as always



Chrissie Wellingtons splits looked like this: swim - 1:01:03  bike - 4:56:53 run - 2:52:41. I could just as easily go through the ever-smiling Chrissie Wellington’s splits and show just how good they are but I won’t, you can just see for yourselves.

These figures are truly incredible. If you are an athlete or keep-fit enthusiast of any sort, you can’t look at those times without being in awe. The winners and top finishers of yesterday are inspirations, but so is everyone else who took part.

The Rest

First of all, I admit, I did not watch the whole race from start to finish without a break. That in itself would be an endurance event and if anyone out there managed it, well done, that is an achievement accomplishable only with training and dedication.

Of what I did see of the race, the part I enjoyed the most was the finish. Not the finish of the pro’s, but the finish of the people that were just happy to finish. Some of these people were amateur triathletes, some were just amateur athletes, and some were just ordinary people, some with a great story.

The person that was put in charge of welcoming and commentating on people over the finish line was great. He was enthusiastic and helped to make each person’s moment of triumph that little bit more special. As people crossed the line he addressed them by their name, cheered them on and called each an Ironman as they finished. He also shared a little bit of a back story of a few.

A couple of the stand-outs for me were a 71 year old man and a women that used to be overweight. The man was an Asian chap who clocked a respectable time of just over 14 hours. To be honest, I don’t think he cares about the time. He had this beaming smile as he crossed the line and was greeted with a huge cheer from the crowd.

I know that the women I mentioned used to be overweight because the commentator said so, not because I’ve got a biography of every finisher. I’m sorry that I can’t remember how much but the commentator said she had lost a lot of weight in training for the event and as she crossed the line she did this funky little foot shuffle.

If you’re reading this, first of all, thanks, but second, you can’t help but be inspired. I imagine that some people will see this and say, “well I couldn’t do that”. Fact is, you can. Most people could do this. The elderly Asian man and the overweight women didn’t have anything else except will and determination.

Whether you are an athlete that is stuck in the middle of the pack or someone that’s overweight or someone that’s clocked up a few years under your belt, this Ironman World Championship can’t help but motivate you. It has definitely put the thought in this writer’s mind about trying that little bit harder in training and even slighted tempting them to dabble into the world of triathlon.

Thanks for making it to the bottom. Please feel free to make comments on any of the posts. If you like what you’re reading then please subscribe to the blog. For daily health and fitness tips, links and more follow us on twitter at @FSLifestyle

Toning Trainers and Barefeet Running

Last week Reebok were fined $25 million because of false claims about their “toning” trainers http://bit.ly/nVBEvs. Then at the end of the week a small study was released claiming that more than half of the women studied showed no benefit from wearing barefoot running shoes http://nyti.ms/o792cP. So, I thought I’d shed some light on the situations and give you my thoughts about these two different types of products and whether they are worth your money.

“Toning” Trainers?

So far I’ve called them “toning” trainers but from here on out they shall be referred to as, “Rounded-Underneath’s-Bought-By-Idiots-Seeking-Health (or rubbish) trainers. Reebok seem to have muscled their way in to a market that has been about for a couple of years. These “rubbish” trainers have been around for a while, each with the same principle; by having a rounded, unstable sole the trainers are supposed to make your leg muscles work harder when you walk to keep you balanced. Reebok came in, put the fantastic body of Kelly Brook at the front of a big advertising campaign and have sold quite a few of these trainers. And I’m not surprised; the suggestion of a body like Kelly’s just by wearing a pair of trainers is an attractive offer for most women.

The Problem

Reebok have been fined because their claims of your muscles working harder have been false. However, even if their claims were true, I would still advise people to take steer clear of these “rubbish” trainers. The selling point of them is an age-old method of selling anything in the health and fitness sector – do less and get better results.

But let’s think about it, even if these trainers make your muscles work harder, when would you wear them, to work with your office wear? I don’t think your boss would be impressed with your new casual look? Would you wear them for all of your outside of work activities, when all your short journeys are taken by car? The point is most people would only wear these trainers at one specific time, their dedicated exercise time.

Swap exercise for walking?

So, you’ve started wearing the trainers and you’re going for some walks. Great, I’m not going to say anything bad about someone willing to try to exercise and improve the health and fitness. I will say though that it is naive to think that, because you’re wearing your brand-spanking-new-give-me-a-body-like-Kelly-Brook trainers, all you have to do is walk and you will give your muscles a workout.



"Wow, if I get some of these trainers, I could look like that?" Um, no!



Bottom line

You will not get a Kelly Brook bum (no pun on the subheading intended) by wearing these rubbish trainers. You will by exercising.

Barefoot shoes

In the running community barefoot running is growing in popularity. The theory goes that we are biologically wired to run barefooted. In however many 1000s years BC, man hunted and man’s advantage over beast was that man could run and run and run and run and.....you get the picture. Usain Bolt can run 100m in around 9.5 seconds. In the animal kingdom this is embarrassingly average.  Patrick Makau  ran the Berlin marathon in 2 hours 3 minutes and 38 seconds. Not many animals could match that. Humans were made to run and we have ran barefooted for thousands of years.

Man no like soft, cushioned foot thing

I've always thought my toes would be happier if they were
seperated and hugged, individually by my running shoes

Along came the commercial world and they said, when running cushion your feet, our trainers will save your joints. Trainers were built up and today you can buy all manner of shoe to make it feel like you’re running on pillows. The fad now though is switching back to minimalist. The reason is that this way your joints will be spared of huge forces and pressure. This happens as you switch from striking the ground with your heel, as you do in cushioned trainers, to striking the ground with the ball of your foot as you run.

Do they work?

The study that I linked to at the beginning looked only at the Vibram FiveFingers but most of these shoes follow the same principle; they are light and thin, offer little cushion and support and are basically there to stop you cutting your feet on the ground. In my opinion there are too many positive things coming out about these shoes for me to think they aren’t worth the hype. I haven’t tried them myself but I am very, very tempted to.

 In the study the half that continued to heel strike first when wearing the FiveFingers were doubling the impact compared to traditional trainers. But, those who switched to a forefront strike reduced the impact compared to traditional trainers.

One of the reasons why half of the women saw no benefit has been said to be that they made no effort to modify their form. A conscious effort may be needed to change your form and adjust to the minimalist shoe. It was suggested that the transition from traditional to minimalist shoe was slow and progressive to ensure that the correct form and technique developed.

Summary

So, let’s conclude. Reeboks “rubbish” trainers probably (maybe even definitely) won’t give you a bum like Kelly Brook. Minimalist shoes might not help you reduce the impact when running straight away but will do if you take the transition to these shoes slowly and make a conscious effort to change your form.

Thanks for making it to the bottom. Please feel free to make comments on any of the posts. If you like what you’re reading then please subscribe to the blog. For daily health and fitness tips, links and more follow us on twitter at @FSLifestyle

Ways to stay unfit and ruin your fitness plan

Are you happy with having a tyre around your stomach? Do you want your weight loss program to fail? Is your fitness training just too fun and giving you too much personal satisfaction? Then look no further, we have the definitive list of ways to make your programs fail.

Do the same type of exercise all of the time

Cross train to avoid injury? No thanks. Mix up training intensity to hit different physiological systems and different types of fitness? Nah, not us. Try a completely different sport/exercise program if you’re getting bored? Don’t think so. For us that want to fail, we’re going to do the same thing until we’re blue in the face. And then we’re going to do it some more.

Don’t match your diet to your personal aims

Want to lose weight? Get a huge fix of calories each day. Looking to gain muscle? Green leaf salad twice a day is plenty. Training more than once a day? Forget recovery food, train your starved muscles to the max. To make sure we fail we don’t need to bother thinking about what we eat in terms of our goals. We definitely don’t need advice from people who know better than us, advice is for wimps.

Never Warm-up

Who needs to get their heart rate up slowly? What’s the point of getting blood to the muscle’s where it’s needed before training/performance? Do your muscles need warming-up, stretched a little? Do they heck. Feel the ping as your cold, stiff muscles snap by going from nothing to all out max by missing a warm-up. Warm-ups take all of 5 minutes which is way too much time to take out of our incredibly busy lives.

Not warming-up? Why bother cooling-down

When we’re done, we’re done. There’s no point in helping the body recovery so it’s ready for next time. Help get rid of all that lactic acid that’s built up in the muscles? Start to repay that oxygen debt? Those things are for mugs. The next time we train/perform, our aching, tired and unrecovered muscles will be grateful for not doing a cool down.

Train in unsuitable clothes

Office suits are great for race-wear

Trainers that are suitable for your feet and for your exercise? Reflective clothing at night? Comfortable clothes that aren’t restrictive? Why bother? You can’t beat combinations like jeans and flip flops for cycling, your work suit for weight lifting and short skirts and heels for trail running.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggXmKPMaHMo

Thanks for making it to the bottom. Please feel free to make comments on any of the posts. If you like what you’re reading then please subscribe to the blog. For daily health and fitness tips, links and more follow us on twitter at @FSLifestyle

Honey, I blew up the kids

A lot has been written in the last few years about the way the way there are more obese children than there previously have been. Everyone has been bombarded with reasons and fingers have been cast at who is to blame. The hard fact is that, if you are overweight, your children are more likely to be overweight and if your kids become overweight, they are more likely to remain overweight throughout adulthood. The key is to do the right things early on in their lives. I’m sorry for the clichés and bad sayings but, a leopard never changes its spots and you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. If you have brought your children up in a certain way that has seen them put on weight then it will be very difficult to then try to convince them to change.

So, how old are we talking and what sort of things should you be doing?

Well, first of all I’m not saying anything radical or extreme like all 1 year olds should do sit-ups or new-borns should on a salad diet. There are certain things that you can do though.

Ditch the buggy

Once your child is 2 or 3 and are confident walkers, encourage them to walk as much as possible. Start to use any sort of push chair sparingly when you’re out and about. Walking is a fantastic, gentle exercise for your spawn of your loins, as well as yourself.

You can’t beat sleep

Sleep is vital for kids’ growth and development. A lack of sleep can also lead to eating more during the day. Try to get them into a routine of going to bed and waking up at the same time each day. Having a warm bath 90 minutes before bed can help soothe them into a peaceful night’s sleep without the need of counting sheep. Avoid them having anything sugary a couple of hours before bed as this can make kids hyper and less likely to settle into the land of nod.

Don’t use food as a reward

If you start to use food as a reward (all you “if you be good, we can go to McDonalds” parents, you know who you are) your kids will start to see these sorts of foods as treats and use them as their go-to food when they want something they enjoy. Next time they start to feel down, they’ll hit the junk food you gave them as a treat to try and cheer themselves up. Why not use a family day out as a treat or create a rewards and penalties chart and make them work up towards those football boots or bike that they want so much.

Let them watch Scooby Do and Lazy Town, not Charlie and Lola, apparently

The Department of Health has released a list of kids programmes which ranks the shows based upon how much physical activity is done by the main character, it’s great to see the hard-core issues being tackled. The group of Doctors, who were in all probability paid to do this, placed Scooby Do at the top of pile and Charlie and Lola were left slouching in last place. The full list is below;

1.       Sccoby Do

2.       Shaun the Sheep

3.       LazyTown

       4. Peppa Pig

       5.Bob the Builder

       6. Tom and Jerry

7. Dora the Explorer

8. Looney Tunes

9. sponge Bob Squarepants

10. In the Night Garden

11. Ben 10

12.  The Simpsons

13. Phineas and Ferb

       14. Sarah Jane Adventures

       15. Tracey Beaker

       16. Postman Pat

       17. iCarly

       18. Horrid Henry

       19. Garfield

       20.  Charlie and Lola

 

Before we get into anything serious here I just want to say how funny it is that a group of adults who have gone through years of medical training have sat around a computer discussing whether Peppa Pig is more active than Sponge Bob Squarepants.

The important thing here isn’t the order of said list (which is completely wrong, how is Shaun the Sheep more active than the forever running Tom and Jerry or the walking delivery man that is Postman Pat?). The important thing is why is there a list at all. Surely the message should be “try to cut down how much tele your children watch”, and not, “watch Scooby Do because he runs a lot”. Actually, isn’t this the same Scooby Do that constantly talks about eating and eats all manner of food without eer gaining weight? Sorry, again, that’s beside the point. It’s a struggle to work out how such a “study” (that term is used very, very loosely) gained funding, or publication. It offers nothing of any use to the public, parent’s behaviours will not be affected and it will do nothing to help get kids active. Why not promote kids watching sport on tele, or, crazier still, why not promote actual physical activity for kids. Watching Scooby Do will not help your kids 2-5 how to live a healthy lifestyle, having well-informed parents will. Why not publish a list of 20 alternate ways to entertain your child whilst you are doing the house work or whatever else you may need to get on with. Something like playing in the garden, a small enclosed trampoline?

So, turn off the tele (even if it is Scooby Do), ditch your buggy , help them get a full nights kip and stop using food as a reward and your kids will be on the right path to a healthy lifestyle.

Thanks for making it to the bottom. Please feel free to make comments on any of the posts. If you like what you’re reading then please subscribe to the blog. For daily health and fitness tips, links and more follow us on twitter at @FSLifestyle

Little Bit Extra

So, I’m sure wondering how I’ve been getting on has cost you some sleepless nights lately. Well, worry over, I’m about to tell you. After finally getting my girlfriend to come running with me, the next day she followed me on the bike as I did an interval run. All she was missing was a mega-phone and a spatula. I had the last laugh though as the ancient bike has the most uncomfortable seat in the history of bike seats and so she was struggling to walk afterwards due to a sore derriere.

Not sure if she is planning to do a triathlon or something but the next morning we hit the swimming baths. I’m not sure at what point you become serious at swimming training and switch to the Speedo. Whatever that point is, I’m not there, I’ll stick to the shorts. Swimming went well though and it was good to get a bit of cross training.

Saturday I had  a football match (we lost) and Sunday was a rest day. Monday I went for a tempo run and led me to a question. What is the etiquette for a runner when going past another runner? Casual nod? A smile? High five? I went past a few people on this run. As I saw them coming I thought I’d go with a smile and “alright?”. I thought that would be the most polite thing. As they past I flashed the smile and was about to open my mouth to speak, when I realised I was being blanked. Is that bad runner etiquette? Surely it is.

Anyway Tamworth 10k is the next race I’m entered in. Less than 3 weeks to go. By the weekend I’ll have a good idea for a target time.

Thanks for getting down to here.

Wierd Ways to a Better Body

Sorry for the longer than usual gap between the last post and this one. The reasons are because my last post was a Guest Post for the “me, exactly weightloss blog” by Erin Weem at http://meexactly.blogspot.com ( check it out, it’s very good) and then after that I have been away in Palma for a few days.

While I was in Palma, racking my brain as it crisped in the sun or another blog idea, a new blog topic literally fell from the sky. I was in one of those generic, foreign water parks with over-priced entrance, water slides, “dad pants” and at least 2/3 people slipping over on the wet floor. They had a Diving show that they were showing a few times throughout the day and I decided to go and have a watch. While I was in the queue before it started, two men were walking around in speedos. I agree, in normal circumstances, in a water park, men in speedos wouldn’t be so strange or noteworthy. However, these particular men had airbrushed bodies; tanned, waxed and toned to perfection. I am not trying to reveal a guy-crush across the platform of the world wide web. The point I want to raise is that this is something perhaps people would not think about, a sport like diving to get fit. I am not sure what training divers have to endure (if you do then please feel free to let the rest of us know in the comments) but it is obviously physically demanding enough to produce well toned bodies.

Would you normally think about diving as a way to keep fit? Or a way to lose weight? The guys doing the diving were great at what they did; they put on a great show and looked good technically, but the best thing was that they looked like they enjoyed it.

After the water park and the Diving show, I went to a diner show in the evening. And, low-and-behold, I was presented with another example of a weird way to keep fit. The “Pirates” show that I watched was full of dance, gymnastics and contortionists that were all incredibly fit and athletic. The dancing girls did high tempo routines that would tire most people; the gymnasts could bend and fold as if being shaped by someone doing origami and the contortionists had superhuman core strength. The  contortionists in particular really impressed me; what they could do obviously takes hours and hours of training each day. Again, the point is, these are three ways that you may not associate with fitness or first think of if you were to try and get fit/lose weight.

The contortionists at the Pirate Show looked incredibly toned and showed unbeleivable strength doing things like this

I’m not saying we should all go out and try diving/dancing/gymnastics/contortion, but why not? Or, why not something similar?

Little Bit Extra

So , what’s been going on with me?

Went on an easy 5 mile run on Tuesday morning. Does anyone else listen to podcasts and laugh out loud, only to get weir d looks from the people you go past? It happened quite a few times today.

Had a football match in the evening, won 4-2 playing with 10 men for the second half. Very tired afterwards so made sure I had a good stretch and a cold shower after the game.

Wednesday, something unbelievable happened. After over a year of trying, I finally got my girlfriend to come running with me. It helped show me the struggles some people might have if they try to get fit and how they might quit early on. My girlfriend really struggled and we had to stop a few times. We managed to go 2 miles altogether and I am really proud. I do empathise with people who might struggle now, despite all the best intentions. What I think it did as well was to show me how important a supporting friend is. She may well have stopped sooner if I wasn’t there encouraging and saying how well she was doing.

So, if you are the struggling new comer, ask a fitter friend to go with you, whatever activity you want to do. Or, if you’re that fitter friend, think about encouraging friends to start exercising, go with them and offer advice.

Hope this was a little better than last time, if not, you know where the blog stops and this starts, just look for the footsteps.