Goal setting is important in all walks of life. In work, sport, education, or in our personal lives, we all have things we aspire to become or be able to do. It doesn’t matter what our particular goals are, if we know what we want to achieve, then we can work out the steps we need to take to get there, and ultimately succeed.
When it comes to our health, fitness and wellbeing, we should have the same view – goals are essential. Whether you want that summer beach body or you are training for a particular sporting event, having that goal in mind keeps you going when circumstances get tough and you want to stop (it happens to us all).
When it comes to actually setting a goal, try and follow the SMART principle. SMART stands for:
SPECIFIC: What is your goal?
MEASURABLE: Can you track your progress?
ACHIEVABLE: Do you have the knowledge, time or guidance to reach your goal?
RELEVANT: Is your training in sync with what you want to achieve?
TIME: When do you want to reach your goal (be realistic with this one, patience and consistency are key – Nothing worth working for is achieved over night).
You can put the SMART principle into practice by choosing your overall long term goal. Then break that end result down into shorter term goals. These are the steps we go through to reach our main goal. Reaching these short term goals helps keep your motivation up because they can provide quick feedback on your progress and show that you are moving forward towards where you want to be.
Remember, when you are setting a goal, make it challenging, but achievable. Easy goals are boring, and impossible goals are demotivating.
Next time you’re going through the motions in the gym, take a second and ask yourself “what’s the point?”. If you haven’t got an answer, maybe it’s time to re-evaluate your goals and get back on track. Decide upon a goal, find your motivation and keep pushing towards it.
What is the purpose of Fat within foods?
It has one purpose and that is to help the body digest vitamins A, D, E and is an essential source of fatty acids of which the body cannot create itself.
In calorie strong point all fat is the same! Whether is saturated or unsaturated 1g of Fat is equal to 9 calories, like carbohydrates and Protein if too much of this is eaten it is stored as body Fat.
For a healthy lifestyle and diet you should be making a conscious effort to minimise your intake of Saturated and Trans fats, instead replace these with unsaturated fats.
This will help reduce your cholesterol and your risk of Heart Disease.
Examples of Food with high amounts of Saturated Fat: (Too much of these are what increases Cholesterol)
men shouldn’t have more than 30g of saturated fat a day
women shouldn’t have more than 20g of saturated fat a day
children should have less
Trans fats are often found in small amounts in Meat and Dairy foods, like Sat fats these can increase cholesterol.
The government daily guideline for Trans fats is no more than 5g a day for an adult, luckily there isn’t a large trace of such Fats in our foods in the UK.
As i said earlier if you want to bring down your Cholesterol and decrease your chance of Heart Disease your better having more Unsaturated fat rather than Saturated fat in your diet. These are primarily sound in Fish and Oils, they are commonly known as polyunsaturated or monounsaturated.
Examples of Foods which contain Unsaturated Fats are:
Olive oil, rapeseed oil, sunflower oil and other spreads
Avacardos
Certain nuts; Almonds, Brazil and Peanuts
Fish; mackerel, Kippers, Herring, Trout, Sardines, Salmon and Fresh Tuna
So watch your fat intake and what fats you’re eating! Something as simple as checking the Nutritional label on the back of the foods you buy will give you all the info you need!
Why is it important to build and strengthen your shoulder muscles?
Your shoulder is actually one of the least stable joints in your body and because of this you should make sure strengthening the shoulders (Deltoids) is part of your training regime.
There is one large muscle covering the shoulder socket with three heads these are:
Anterior Delt (front)
Lateral Delt (side)
Posterior Delt (back)
The rotator cuff is what stabilises the shoulder joint which has four smaller muscles which are:
subscapularis
supraspinatus
infraspinatus
teres minor
Strengthening these muscles will:
Improve posture
Strengthen the muscle surrounding the shoulder joint
Increase mobility
Decrease chances of injury due to instability
Improve everday tasks and activities
Where a lot of people go wrong who allready train is they neglect the back of the shoulder.
This can give instability, worsen your posture and lead to injury so below are some exercises for a well rounded shoulder workout:
Barbell Overhead press
Dumbbell Arnold press
Front raise
Lateral raise
Reverse fly
Upright row
Face cable pulls
So what’s your excuse?
Get training shoulders!
Alan Fitton-Head PT
DOMS stand for Delayed Onset Muscle Sorness. Why do we get this? It usually comes within 24 hours or 48 hours after a workout. Usually very common if you never trained before or been away from training for while, but even seasoned trainers can suffer with DOMS. This sometimes can put people off training if they have never experienced it before which I have in the past with new clients. But unfortunately if you never felt this specially at the beginning of training you probably not training hard or good enough. Don’t get me wrong you don’t need to feel DOMS after you’ve trained. But most likely you should feel them after a couple of training sessions. And if you have never felt delayed onset muscle soreness after training session and still not seeing results you’ve probably not training right or to your full potential to achieve the results you disire. For more help and info checkout what our Personal Training can do for you here
If you like myself and love running, you’ll always find that time in your day to put your trainers on and get out in the fresh air and smash some miles in. Tuning without a doubt is great for your fitness and burning calories, but most importantly getting your Endorphins (natural happy drug). But sometimes when we’re in are running zone ticking off 10k races and the odd half marathon or even a marathon. We start getting recurring injuries that stop are progress, put us some uncomfort and the worse having an effect on our loving passion as it’s not enjoyable anymore. At some stage we’ve all been there and then go and spend loads on physio‘ stock help your body to repair from injuries that had been caused by running. But in some case may mean a long lay off and that only brings on weight gain because of lack of calories being burnt and feeling down as no happy endorphins. We can help avoid this if we look at doing strength & conditioning. Most runners I talk to do none or little strength & conditioning training which always puzzles me on why not? As when you running and burning calories you breaking down muscle fibres and putting strain on your joints. All top athletes like Mo Farah do this training well all our Olympic athletes we look up to do this hence why they can put there body through so much Year in Year out. Also there is the nutrition side and recovery but there’s no underlining that strength & conditioning plays a big role on why they can starve through injuries as they constantly rebuilding muscle tissue and strengthening there tendons. So if you find you suffer with recurring injuries and not doing strength & conditioning I would highly recommend this type of training. More info on strength & conditioning training follow this link Strength & Conditioning
One of the most effective ways of losing weight is on a high protein diet, but how much should you be eating?
Most case studies on this subject online say on average between 0.8-1.5g per pound of bodyweight but from my experience it completely depends on your goal whether you’re dieting, maintaining or bulking.
If you’re dieting and you want to maintain as much muscle mass as possible id recommend on having your protein intake higher between 1-1.2 g per pound of bodyweight.
Example;
Say i weigh 180 pounds and i’m dieting so i choose i want to have an intake of 1 g of protein per pound of bodyweight, which will keep me fuller and assist holding onto as much muscle and strength as i can.
so to sum this up:
1g of Protein X 180 lbs Body Weight = 180g of Protein
Therefore for me to diet and keep hold of as much muscle as possible i need to be eating roughly 180g of protein a day because i’m on a caloric deficit, if my goals were to maintain weight of bulk i wouldn’t need as much protein as my body wouldn’t be losing fat and muscle from a calorie restriction.
Protein Supplements – Whey Protein/Diet Whey/Protein Bars
Note: I only recommend Protein supplements if you cannot get enough Protein through your diet alone, these are not a meal replacement and should only be used as a Supplement to assist your diet!
What are Carbs? They are sugars and starches which the body converts into Energy which then helps you function normally, you need a certain amount of carbs to maintain normal bodily functions.
If you starve the body you can experience fatigue, muscle cramps and a very tired/drained mental state. The body can survive of proteins and fats however this will eventually have a negative affect on your body.
You should be eating an amount of Carbohydrates to keep your body fuelled and working affectively.
There are two different types of carbs, Complex and Simple Carbs;
Simple Carbs: These are Processed carbs usually very high in sugar and often give you a quick influx of energy however doesn’t keep you full or energised for a long time, this is often where you get your “Sugar Rush” from.
Examples; sugar, white pasta and bread
Complex Carbs: These are slower digesting and will keep you fuller and energised for longer periods of time
Examples: unrefined grains, whole grain breads, rice and oats
How do you digest Carbs?
Your liver digests these into glucose, which then stimulates the production of insulin in the pancreas. The insulin functions to get the glucose into the body cells to be used as energy. Simple carbs create a higher level of insulin than complex carbs therefore the simple carbs are used faster where as the complex carbs are used slower resulting in longer lasting energy!
So in a nut shell the more complex carbs you eat the higher amount of energy your going to have for a longer period of time. However still with any type of carbohydrate if you eat more than what your body requires it is going to be stored as energy formally known as fat.
1. Gram of protein = 4 calories
2. Protein is one of your micronutrients your body needs.
3. Your body digests 30% of protein your body consumes
4. Muscle is made of protein. So we need to consume protein to help maintain and build muscle.
5. Protein in eggs is considered the best quality of protein we can consume.
Ok so you want to figure out how many calories you should be consuming.
First of all you need to figure out your Maintenance Calories this is the amount of calories you burn day in day out doing everyday tasks and normal bodily functions. If you eat this number or calories you will maintain the weight you have, example you will be burning 2500 calories and eating 2500 calories therefore Maintaining your weight.
We do this by multiplying your body weight in pounds by 14-17 somewhere between these numbers will give you your maintenance calories
example:
weight 170lbs x 14 = 2380
Weight 170lbs x 17 = 2890
so your maintenance calories is somewhere between 2380-2890
The numbers we multiply by depends on your activity level
14 – inactive
15 – lightly active
16 – moderately active
17 – very active
so you would begin tracking your calories and if your weight goes up or down with the calories you’ve set you adjust accordingly to Maintain.
Once you have this primary number you can then adjust this to adhere your goals;
Fat Loss: Minus between 3-500 calories
Weight Gain: Add between 3-500 calories
Depending how harsh you want to lose weight or gain weight depends how drastic you increase or decrease your calories.
One of the most effective ways of losing weight is on a high protein diet, but how much should you be eating?
What are Carbs? They are sugars and starches which the body converts into Energy which then helps you function normally, you need a certain amount of carbs to maintain normal bodily functions.
If you starve the body you can experience fatigue, muscle cramps and a very tired/drained mental state. The body can survive of proteins and fats however this will eventually have a negative affect on your body.
You should be eating an amount of Carbohydrates to keep your body fuelled and working affectively.
There are two different types of carbs, Complex and Simple Carbs;
Simple Carbs: These are Processed carbs usually very high in sugar and often give you a quick influx of energy however doesn’t keep you full or energised for a long time, this is often where you get your “Sugar Rush” from.
Examples; sugar, white pasta and bread
Complex Carbs: These are slower digesting and will keep you fuller and energised for longer periods of time
Examples: unrefined grains, whole grain breads, rice and oats
How do you digest Carbs?
Your liver digests these into glucose, which then stimulates the production of insulin in the pancreas. The insulin functions to get the glucose into the body cells to be used as energy. Simple carbs create a higher level of insulin than complex carbs therefore the simple carbs are used faster where as the complex carbs are used slower resulting in longer lasting energy!
So in a nut shell the more complex carbs you eat the higher amount of energy your going to have for a longer period of time. However still with any type of carbohydrate if you eat more than what your body requires it is going to be stored as energy formally known as fat.
Ok so you want to figure out how many calories you should be consuming.