Blog Hiatius

Yo, my blog is in hibernation for a couple of weeks! I'm busy writing articles for a number of publications, I assure you my English and indeed my writing skills have improved commensurately, if not my spelling.

Hopefully I'll be back in the new year.

dc

Just the other day I had a dietary epiphany! Something that I had been ignoring for so long has now become a central part to my daily food intake – Chillies! Ok, what’s so great about chillies, well they’re hot, but in addition: -

1. Increase your metabolism – Chillies have a thermogenic compound which increases the metabolism and thus helps burn fat. Tests have shown it to increase the metabolism by 23% for up to 3 hours after consumption.

2. Lowers Cholesterol – Recent tests have shown that Chillies also decrease cholesterol levels, though I’m not sure by how much so don’t stop exercising just yet!

3. Decreases Blood Sugar levels – Apparently research in 2006 suggests that after eating chillies, the amount of insulin required to lower the body’s blood sugar level after a meal was reduced by 60%.

Ok, what else...how about....

4. Reduces the spreading of stomach cancer;
5. Reduces the risk of prostrate cancer;
6. Clears a blocked nose.

Oh and let’s not forget that capsaicin, the active component in chillies is the active ingredient in pepper spray..so many wonderful benefits...

Back to haunt us....

Last nights' Kettlebell Class was a real eye-opener for me. We had a small class, and of the class 2 of those in attendance had seriously inhibited hip flexibility - this translated into an inability to maintain a straight back (as opposed to upright) during the Kettlebell Swing. As a means to try and increase their awareness of where their back was at, so to speak, I had them do squats facing and as close to a wall as they could. Both of the pupils also had weak abductors and this was extremely evident from the manner in which their knees tended to collapse inwards during the downward phase of the squat.

I sent them both home after the class with some homework to complete before the next class, chiefly consisting of lots of wall squats!

Anyway the above led me to consider that probably 70-75% of the irish nation cannot maintain a straight back if required, certainly not in a situation where they are flexing from the hips! So that rules out sitting down, picking up the shopping, driving etc. everytime somebody with poor back posture does any of these they are compounding their problem and making it worse! It truly boggles the mind that we would let this happen to us.

So how do we resolve this? Well, by becoming more aware of our back, and what it is doing as we go about are day to day lives, sounds ridiculous I know, and worse it's something which doesn't come naturally. Certainly in my own experience it was through introduction to deadlifts and squats that I became more aware of the importance of our hips and backs in day to day life and also more conscious of the position my back was in. Since I have discovered Kettlebells I have found my posture has not only improved dramatically but also my back strength and my hip flexibility and it just keeps getting better!

So, if you're reading this with a sore lower back, what are you waiting for?

GET KETTLEBELLING! (under instruction of course!!)

Road to Nowhere

Every evening I see the same old thing - walking. Women walking. Lots and lots of women walking. All shapes and sizes, some accompanied by husbands, friends and dogs, chatting away amiably as they go for their stroll. Walking seems great - increase the heart rate (a little) burn away some fat, maybe swing your arms while your at it, or even - use nordic walking sticks!

Anyone who is walking to lose weight or to tone their flabby body is wasting their time! Well OK maybe at the beginning of an exercise regime, if the participant has never exercised in their life then walking is a nice gentle start - however once the weight starts to drop away at the start the walker will relatively quickly reach a plateau which can only be crossed by changing the type, intensity and length of the work-out.

Now consider that most of the women in Ireland today who are walking have been doing so for some time, are they healthy? Certainly they may have a reasonable level of cardiovascular fitness, how about functional fitness? Can they lift their shopping of the ground correctly, can they get off the couch easily, run up stairs, climb a gate/wall/fence, play with their children/grandchildren without tiring out? POSSIBLY NOT!

One great way of increasing ones functional fitness, and when I say functional I mean the ability to carry out and live our everyday lives without physical impingement, is Kettlebell Training. Kettlebells focus on our core strength specifically the Posterior Chain, however there are also many moves which utilise not just the core but the whole body as a unit, anybody using Kettlebells will see significant fitness gains.

The fear which many women seem to have of Kettlebells is totally unfounded, as anyone reading this will know. This fear is partly fuelled by a media which is in one part obsessed with skinniness but on another level is all to quick to imply that women who use weights such as Kettlbells are overtly muscular and unfeminine, whereas generally this is far removed from the truth.

Women who use Kettlebells benefit from the following: -

• Increased lean muscle mass - though not excessive, remember women have 10% the amount of testosterone that men have!
• Decreased fatty tissue - after a while walking can actually lead to storage of fatty tissue!
• Increased flexibility!
• Increased levels of mobility.
• Increase in Strength, power, speed & endurance!

See how I put 4 benefits in the last bullet point, they are all terms which frighten off women.#

I don't know why!

Plyometrics

Yesterday I spent a pleasant afternoon with my other half's father, he's as good as a father in law at this stage. We had some good bonding time as we (he) put together two 20 inch plyometric boxes! I figured I'd have a 20 inch box and a 32 inch box, however having seen the 20 inch built up we figured that 32 inchs would be way too much for some of my clients, and that I'd probably need a box smaller than 20 inches! So we built another 20 inch! Perfect I reckon for group sessions.

Plyometric exercises promote high movement speed, fast twitch fibre recruitment and elastic tendon energy release; yet seem to be largely ignored by the Ben Dunnes and Jackie Skelly's of this world. Indeed the only gyms I have seen these in are CrossFit boxes and 1 gym which will go unamed in my hometown - however they only got these because the local GAA team required them for training! I think if you are playing any sport which requires sudden bursts of energy and instant energy you should consider plyometric exercises, these can range from a simple jump onto a box (or whatever is available) to more complicated rotational moves requiring medicine balls - such as the twister or medicine ball toss!

So you see, I'm not all about the Kettlebells!

dc

God I'm Bored.....

Like the title says - I'm bored, rigid...I've just finished typing up my web content for the new website and now I'm at a loose end. It's pissing rain so I don't feel like getting out on the bike - the sooner I move somewhere warm and sunny the better!

Squats

Personal Training client this afternoon. I think I'll have squat clinic with her today, that is squats for 35 odd minutes and then tabata squats at the end - just to really make it hurt! Cruel I know, but sometimes ya gotta be!

Speaking of squats, my daughter, who I'm picking up after I've finished with my client has perfect form - she is 2 yrs old! Not only can she squat but she can perform a number of yoga moves and is a genius! She does not take after my side of the family....

Nothing more to say today, I'm a personal trainer - what do you expect!?

the first of many..

Today I had a fantastic day! First thing this morning went out on the bike for an 85km spin. Have to say there is nothing quite like getting out into the fresh country air for a cycle, the smells, sights and sounds of the country are all amplified when travelling by bicycle - is it any wonder that it is/was the choice of transport for many of the worlds literary greats - mind you I suppose some of them, the dead ones, probably had no choice.

I digress. From a fitness point of view this spin was interesting, we should be taking it easy at this time of year yet for some reason we chose a route with some big enough bumps on it, normally this would not be a problem, but today I was on my fixie - obviously in a vain attempt to appear cool to my peers ("us" and "my peers" of course been Naas Cycling Club). Anyway as a result of the fixie and the bumpy spin my heart rate was all over the shop rather than in the preferred zone 1 "fat burning" zone! So, I got home knackered and ate all the food in the fridge - another by product of exercise there - appetite, the key here is to try and reconcile your appetite against the level of energy used during your workout, otherwise you'll just get FAT!

After I got home, took a drive over to Glendalough with the Shin and Roz! Had a coffee, Roz played with her cousin Mia and then we found a haunted castle - I'll save the rest of this story for Hallowe'en!