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Lean Legs

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Every girl dreams of having lean legs, the ‘thigh gap’ has become the most coveted accessory since the creation of Louis Vuitton knock off handbags. Thigh gaps are the new diamonds. Unfortunately for some (well many) having a thigh gap might mean jeopardizing all aspects of health and choosing to don a gaunt, skeleton like face. Simply put, it is not a good look! But while a thigh gap may not be right for your body shape this does not mean you can’t have a set of lean legs that Millie Mackintosh would be envious of. Losing weight from your lower body is not easy. Girls especially tend to carry extra weight around their bums, tums and thighs. The following is a list of reasons as to why you may not be shedding the pounds from these stubborn areas:

  1. You under-eat. Your body is capable of redistributing fat to different areas. If you starve yourself you are putting you body under immense stress. Fat can end up redistributed to your reproductive organs in order to protect them. An excellent example of this can be seen with amateur female fitness competitors where girls are super lean with great abs but turn around to display behinds with love handles and saggy bums.

  2. You do too much steady state cardio. All those long jogs can be extremely stressful on your body and cause muscle loss. As seen with those who under eat the stress can cause your body to hold fat around your reproductive organs and your tummy. The place to get your exercise done is in the weight room. This means squatting and dead-lifting. Exercises that involve leg raises with a weight around your ankle will not get you lean legs nor will the machines that you squeeze together with your thighs.

  3. Hormones – You are holding too much estrogen. This is probably the biggest culprit when it comes to girls trying to lose weight from their lower body. Estrogen will cause the body to hold on to fat on the lower half. Girls on the contraceptive pill are ingesting estrogen every single day. Not ideal for weight loss! On top of this because of the food we eat and the environments we live in we are constantly coming into contact with xenoestrogens and phytoestrogens. Both mimic the action of estrogen in cells and can alter hormonal activity. They cause us girls to gain weight in our lower bodies (in men think ‘man boobs’).

Challenge Accepted: BRP & Kathryn Thomas

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The Benefits Of Strength Training!

Sensible resistance training involves precise controlled movements for each major muscle group. Learn how this type of exercise can benefit you! Public health guidelines primarily focus on the promotion of physical activity and steady-state aerobic exercise, which enhances cardiorespiratory fitness and has some impact on body composition. However, research demonstrates that resistance exercise training has profound effects on the musculoskeletal system, contributes to the maintenance of functional abilities, and prevents osteoporosis, sarcopenia (loss of body mass), lower-back pain and other disabilities. More recent seminal research demonstrates that resistance training may positively affect risk factors such as insulin resistance, resting metabolic rate, glucose metabolism, blood pressure, body fat and gastrointestinal transit time, which are associated with diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Research also indicates that virtually all the benefits of resistance training are likely to be obtained in two 15-to-20 minute training sessions a week.Sensible resistance training involves precise controlled movements for each major muscle group and does not require the use of heavy resistance. Along with brief prescriptive steady-state aerobic exercise, resistance training should be a central component of public health promotion programs.

BENEFITS OF AN EFFECTIVE PROGRAM

HEALTH
Increases HDL – High Density Lipoprotein (good cholesterol) and decrease LDL – Low Density Lipoprotein (bad cholesterol).Reduces risk of diabetes and insulin needs.Lowers risk of cardiovascular disease.Lower high blood pressure.Lowers risk of breast cancer – reduces high estrogen levels linked to the disease.Decreases or minimizes risk of osteoporosis by building bone mass.Reduces symptoms of PMS (Premenstrual Syndrome)Reduces stress and anxiety. Decreases colds and illness.

STRENGTH
Increased muscle strength, power, endurance and size. Enhanced performance of everyday tasks. You will be able to do everyday tasks like lifting, carrying and walking up stairs with greater ease.

FLEXIBILITY
By working the muscles through a full range of motion, weight training can improve your overall body flexibility. Increased flexibility reduces the risk of muscle pulls and back pain.

LIKELIHOOD OF INJURY
Strong muscles, tendons and ligaments are less likely to give way under stress and are less likely to be injured. Increased bone density and strength reduces back and knee pain by building muscle around these areas.

BODY COMPOSITION
Boosted metabolism (which means burning more calories when at rest). Reduced body fat. Your overall weight may not change, but you will gain muscle and lose fat. Over time you should notice decreases in waist measurements and bodyfat measurement.

MUSCLE TONE
The conditioning effect will result in firmer and better-defined muscles.

POSTURE
The way you sit and stand are influenced by the health of a network of neck, shoulder, back, hip and abdominal muscles. Stronger muscles can help you stand and sit straighter and more comfortably. Improved balance and stability.

STATE OF MIND
As you begin to notice the positive physical changes in your body and develop a regular exercise routine your ability to handle stress effectively will improve. Weight training allows you to sleep better, i.e. fall asleep quicker and sleep deeper. Clinical studies have shown regular exercise to be one of the three best tools for effective stress management.

BASIC PRINCIPLES

TYPE OF LIFT
You need to tailor your workout to address specific body areas. For example, if you want bigger and stronger arms, you need to use exercises that target those particular muscles.
INTENSITY
The amount of effort, there are a number of ways to increase the intensity, most of them considered “Weider Principles”, cut down on rest times, super set, rest-pause, etc.
VOLUME
The quantity of your workouts or duration. You can increase or decrease the volume by either training more or less often per week or by training for longer or shorter periods of time. (see variety)
VARIETY
Switching around your workout routine, vary your workouts by changing exercises, the rep scheme or your training volume. Variety challenges your muscles and forces them to adapt with increased size and strength.
PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD
Gradually increasing your weights forces your muscles to grow stronger and larger.
REST
You need to rest between sets. If your goal is muscle size or endurance, rest for 30-60 seconds or so. If you want muscle strength, allow up to 2-4 minutes between sets.
RECOVERY
Muscle needs time to repair and grow after a workout. A good rule of thumb is to rest the muscle group for at least 48 hours to allow sufficient recovery time.

Juice Detox: Fat Loss Or Fat Gain

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Every September we all make ourselves the same promise… ‘Next summer I will be in shape’. Unhappy with having spent days on the beach covering up and vetoing any bikini shots from being posted on Facebook. The winter months go by and we postpone starting any sort of exercise or nutritional regime getting away with wearing baggy dresses and thick black tights. The fact that we live in Ireland means that winter coats are pretty much a necessity until about mid May when the leaving cert weather starts to kick in. The girls now want to organize a trip away… “Somewhere with a beach so we can get a tan”. Regretting the past few months having failed to fulfill that promise of getting shape, spending the time munching on rolls and pizza instead of taking the time to get bikini body ready we see no alternative but to look to a ‘quick fix’. Enter: The Juice Detox.

As a personal trainer and health coach I see too many girls coming to me with ruined metabolisms having crash dieted or followed starvation strategies in order to lose weight as quickly as possible. There are thousands of these sorts of diets out there and most of them are ridiculous but nothing makes less sense to me than a juice detox. The very idea of it being a detox is laughable. It is impossible to detox efficiently without the presence of amino acids and it is impossible to get SUFFICIENT amounts of ALL the amino acids from fruits, vegetables and other foods such as avocados or chia seeds.

Without wanting to get too scientific the liver has two phases of detoxification and the second one needs amino acids to function efficiently. During these detoxes there are no amino acids going into the body so toxins can only go through phase 1 of detoxification. These toxins are not converted into free radicals and without phase 2 being able to neutralize them the liver has no choice but to release them into the blood stream. This juice detox in its attempt to detox us has now in fact left us more toxic than before.

Will there be weight loss on a juice detox? Probably. Will it be true fat loss? Probably not! Toxins are released from the fat cells and passed through phase 1 but as we cannot continue to detox them we start to feel ill and they end up being reabsorbed and stored by the fat cells. Most of the weight lost will be water weight and if the juice detox is long enough the ‘detoxee’ will now probably have slowed down their metabolism. Just two days of severe under-eating can slow down your thyroid (the master of metabolism). If you choose to live on 4-5 juices a day you are on a severe calorie restrictive diet with the majority of your calories being in the form of fructose from fruit. It will be impossible to avoid damaging your metabolism especially if this is an activity you intend to engage in regularly or for longer then two/three days. The rebound weight gain seen after this kind of detox plan can leave you even fatter than you were in the first place. When you return to your original eating habits (which you will as a juice detox is unsustainable) your metabolism will no longer be able to handle the amount of calories you were once able to eat without gaining weight

Don’t be Afraid to Lift Weights

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Don’t be Afraid to Lift Weights……. For too long, women have been slaves to every cardio machine on the gym floor, spending hours on them believing that they are shedding the pounds by the minute. Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but¬ that is not what is happening. When it comes to health and fitness, we are all driven by results so in order for you to be able to achieve your desired results I want to share with you what I have learned through my own experiences. My goal is that by sharing my insights, you will be able to change your approach to both exercise and nutrition, and achieve awesome results. There is an ever-growing realisation that weight training is the most effective way for women to achieve a healthy, desirable, and sexy physique. It can be daunting to approach the weights section of a gym (“the testosterone zone”) but there is really nothing to be scared of. The reality is that there are more and more women in the weights section pumping iron. So if you want to transform your physique in the smartest, most effective, and rewarding way, I urge you to take the time to read this post. What You Need to Know….

  1. It is not all about cardio when it comes to fat loss. Doing too much cardio can actually have a negative impact on your metabolism and therefore hinder your fat loss goals. I am not saying there is no place for some cardio as part of an effective training programme, but you most definitely need to combine it some weight training if you want to see the fat start to melt and the muscle start to grow.

  2. Ladies, you will NOT get bulky from weight training. When we weight train, we develop lean muscle and lose body fat. This lean muscle takes up a lot less space in your body than fat does, so you will actually look smaller as a result of weight training (provided that you are following an appropriate nutrition plan – more on that later). Also, the more lean muscle you have, the higher your metabolism will be, meaning that your body becomes better at burning fat. So forget about looking bulky – you will look lean and feel strong.

  3. You will need some expert help and advice before you begin lifting any weights – do NOT start weight training without being taught how to weight train. It is essential that you learn how to move properly and that you know the right technique for every exercise. It’s all about a gradual approach – taking the time to learn the basics of movement and technique will be invaluable to you once you start adding weights to your exercises.

  4. When you start weight training, you will need to take a look at your nutrition. As the saying goes “you can’t out-train a bad diet”. If you don’t eat the right quantities of the right foods, you won’t develop lean muscle and you may actually slow down your metabolism, making fat loss more difficult. You will need to get advice and guidance with your nutrition so as to ensure you have the best plan to suit your goals, but all good nutritional plans will have an adequate mix of protein, good fats, and carbohydrates. Imagine your body as an engine and food as fuel – the engine simply won’t work without the right fuel. Most personal trainers will be able to give you guidance and advice on your nutrition.

  5. You will need to shift your focus from the weighing scales and instead start tracking your progress in a far more meaningful way. When tracking body composition changes, you need to monitor bodyfat measurements (most good personal trainers can measure your bodyfat levels). You can drop a lot of bodyfat without seeing any shift in numbers on the weighing scales – the reason being that as you weight train you gain lean muscle and lose bodyfat simultaneously, so your overall body weight on the scales may change very little. BUT, 5 pounds of muscle takes up a lot less space in your body than 5 pounds of fat – that is why your bodyfat measurement figures drop faster than your overall body weight, and why your clothes feel loser. So I strongly urge you to forget about the weighing scales and focus on the numbers that matter.

Xpose Article

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Magazines are flooded with ‘get your body bikini ready’ features, accounts of juice cleanse detoxes are rampant online and everyone seems to have the answer to shaping up in time for summer.In my experience, the only thing that really works long-term, outside of faddish diets and exercise trends, is good old-fashioned hard work and clean eating. It’s a tough pill to swallow as everyone wants the quick fix, but if you’re dedicated and passionate about getting in shape, it’s worth the slog.I started training at Body Rock Performance in Sandymount, a gym run by personal trainer Paul Moran, last summer in a bid to tone up before a holiday, and I haven’t looked back.The classes, which take place both indoors and outdoors, run for about an hour and consist of targeted interval training concentrating on specific muscles for each exercise. Interval training, which involves alternating periods of high-intensity exercise with rest, has been recognised as the most effective way to increase fitness. It also burns more calories over a short period of time than steady-state cardio and continues to burn calories after your workout.Each class at Body Rock is different, and often concentrates on specific areas – such as dreaded leg days, which consist of a lot of lunges and squats, or arms and abs, which involve a lot of weight exercises.To mix in a bit of cardio, Paul and Stephen sometimes use the dreaded ‘Prowler’, a weighted fitness sled often used in rugby training which will have your legs screaming within seconds. Periods of sprinting are also sometimes interspersed into the class to give an all-round workout that have you feeling fantastic, and more than a little relieved, once it’s over.Although training at Body Rock is far from easy, it is an incredibly effective, and dare I say, fun way to tone up. When I initially started taking the classes, it took just two weeks to see changes, and you can also get your body fat ratio measured at the gym so you can keep on top of your progress. In contrast to a lot of gyms, the atmosphere is fun, inclusive and good-natured, which spurs you on to work hard and see great results. You can also have your diet and nutrition analysed at Body Rock to see where you might be going wrong in that area, which is often the main hurdle people come up against in their bid to lose weight and get in shape. As an added bonus, you can try out your first session at Body Rock for free to see if it’s suited to you. Sarah McIntyre

Email info @brp.ie for more information. You can visit Body Rock’s Facebook page here.www.brp.ie

Your Christmas fitness wish list with Karl Henry

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Between Black Friday and the Toy Show, present buying for Christmas is first and foremost on a lot of people’s minds, and on this week’s Real Health, I thought, why not ask two of Ireland’s leading personal trainers what their wish list for Christmas would be?

John Belton of No. 17 Personal Training and Paul Moran from BodyRock Performance joined me with their recommendations for training-related gifts for friends and family.

There’s a few gadgets and gizmos on their list to aid in your running or gym work but I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by some of their wish list favourites that go beyond just health and fitness.

Go check out this episode of the Real health podcast with Karl Henry, Paul Moran & John Belton where we give you our top 10 fitness gift 🎁 ideas 💡 for this Christmas 🎄https://open.spotify.com/show/34V3reoPjzHBBlr4fS6PVQ

For more episodes and information from the Real Health podcast you can also go to: https://www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-real-health-podcast/

The Real Health podcast with Karl Henry in association with Laya Healthcare.

Listen to the show on the SoundCloud player or subscribe and rate via the following links:

iPhone users can subscribe and listen on Apple Podcasts.

Android users can subscribe and listen on Google Podcasts.

Or listen on SoundCloud

And we’re on Spotify

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To-Do List: SLEEP

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A common mistake made by people trying to improve their health and fitness is that by placing virtually all of their focus on their training and nutrition plans they actually miss the third and often most crucial element – sleep. In a world that often packs as many hours of activities and tasks into a day as possible, it’s no wonder that sleep is one of the first things people sacrifice. But did you know this sacrifice alone could be the one thing stopping you from reaching your goals? A lack of deep quality sleep plays havoc with our hormones, which can not only decrease our motivation and energy levels but can also increase our chances of gaining weight and make us age faster. If you’re trying to improve your health and fitness, hitting the sack is just as important as hitting the gym.

Our sleep cycles are regulated by our circadian rhythm, which is regulated by light and darkness. When it is light out, our bodies think we should be awake. When it is dark, our bodies want to go to sleep. There are two hormones directly involved in our sleep cycles, the same hormones that play a role in how our weight is gained and distributed – melatonin and cortisol.

Melatonin is our sleep hormone. Made in the brain by the pineal gland, then sent into the bloodstream during darkness, melatonin encourages our peaceful slumber. Melatonin levels hit their peak between 2am – 4am and then gradually ebb so that we can wake up and greet the day.

Cortisol works inversely with melatonin (when cortisol is high, melatonin is low and vice versa). Made in your adrenal glands (above your kidneys), your cortisol levels will be lowest at night when melatonin is doing its job, but will begin to rise early in the morning in order to help get you going when you wake up. Cortisol is also the hormone your body secretes when you get stressed. High stress levels mean high cortisol levels, and high cortisol levels mean (a) bad sleep (b) stored body fat in your belly.

Without a doubt, one of the most important things you can do for your body is sleep, especially if you are pursuing a health and fitness programme – let me elaborate by outlining some of the key benefits:

  1. It stops us over eating. Sufficient sleep helps your body to balance hunger hormones. Ghrelin is a hormone that signals your body to eat more. When you’re sleep deprived your body makes more of this hormone. Leptin is the hormone that tells your body it’s had enough food. Your body makes less leptin when you’re tired. Put the two together, and it’s no wonder sleep deprivation leads to overeating and weight gain.

  2. It prevents excess weight gain. Without adequate sleep our ability to properly use insulin (the fat storage hormone) becomes completely disrupted. When we become more insulin resistant, fats circulate in our blood and pump out more insulin. Excess insulin is eventually stored as fat. A quality sleeping pattern will help keep insulin levels regular and prevent fat storage. You also get stressed when you are tired and stress has a great ability to cause you to store fat (especially around your belly). When you experience stress, your body produces cortisol. Cortisol makes you more likely to store calories as fat no matter how well you are eating. Therefore, a poor sleep routine can result in your body treating a healthy diet like an unhealthy one.

  3. It keeps your brain focused<br />.Your brain functions differently without sleep. Sleep deprivation is a little like being drunk. When you are deprived of sleep you lack the mental clarity to make sound complex decisions, especially with regards to the foods you eat. This usually results in you making poor meal choices and consuming snacks you wouldn’t normally eat. Sufficient sleep also promotes mental and emotional health. These are very important factors when trying to improve food and exercise habits. A positive outlook and state of mind leads to better choices all day long, including exercise and healthy eating.

  4. You get a greater benefit from your workouts. Let’s be honest – sometimes just getting to the gym is an effort, but when you’re tired it’s even harder. What’s worse is the lack of effort you find yourself putting in once you’re there. If you are tired you are not going to be able to give your session 100%. Less than 100% effort means less than 100% reward. Don’t jeopardise your hard work because of a poor sleep pattern.

  5. It helps you recover. For years there has been research completed on the effects of over-training and how often we should exercise each week before it’s considered too much. But, there should also be a focus on under-recovering. Lack of sleep makes it harder for your body to recover from exercise by slowing down the production of growth hormone – your natural source of anti-aging and fat burning that also facilitates recovery. Sleep is when the body powers down so that it can restore, repair, and replenish.

The Body Achieves What The Mind Believes

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When you are contemplating making lifestyle changes to support your health and fitness goals it is really important to work on your mindset, because your mindset is a key driver of your behaviours, and it is your behaviours that will determine if you succeed or fail. Having the right attitude towards your exercise and nutrition programme will massively help you to stay focussed, to persevere when the going gets tough, and to achieve your desired results. These are some simple techniques that have proven helpful to people seeking to overhaul their behaviours.

  1. Firstly write down your motivation to lose weight/get fit. Keep asking yourself “why?” – why do I want to lose weight? Why do I want to get fit? Why do I want to get strong? It may be that your doctor has given you a warning about your health, it may be that you have a special occasion coming up that you want to look good for, it may be that you want to have the ability to run around and play with your kids without keeling over, it may be that you want to fit back into all your favourite clothes that are no longer fitting you, etc… There can be so many different reasons, but taking the time to really understand your “why” will hugely help you to stay more motivated, more focussed, and more inclined to make and maintain the required changes.
  2. Understand that changing behaviours is not easy, and that the habits we have developed over a lifetime are difficult to ‘break’ or ‘let go’. Habits are meant to be difficult to change – they are formed out of repetitive actions or behaviours that eventually slip into your daily routines without any thought. If you’ve been trying to beat an old habit and haven’t been successful, you may be wondering how long it should really take to kick it for good. A study of 96 people published in The European Journal of Social Psychology found it took on average 66 days to form a habit, such as eating fruit at lunch or running for 15 minutes a day. There are many ways to break a habit but one of the easiest is to replace it with more positive one. For example, if you’re trying to stop sweet cravings after dinner, try drinking a large glass of water and eating a piece of fruit before allowing yourself to give in. You may find that your cravings subside and you didn’t really need that chocolate anyway. Breaking bad habits/developing good habits requires mental strength, so understanding that any new exercise and nutrition programme is going to challenge you mentally as much as physically will ensure you keep a focus on your mind as well as on your body. Forewarned is forearmed…..
  3. Make a list of all the benefits you will experience as you lose weight/get fitter, and keep reminding yourself of those benefits. Stick the list in a visible place, maybe on the fridge door and show it to your family and friends, as they can be a great source of support. This will help you stay positive when things get tough, and will serve as a regular reminder of why you are on the journey you are on.
  4. Think about the changes you want to make and start setting yourself very specific goals. For example ‘I will eat breakfast every morning and bring a healthy packed lunch to work every day’, ‘I will go to the gym after work on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays’. Detail how you will achieve each goal and what pre-planning will be needed (go to supermarket to buy ingredients for breakfast and packed lunches, bring your gym gear to work on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays). If you simply have “I want to lose weight and get fit” as your only goal it will seem intangible, overwhelming and perhaps unattainable. If, however, you take the time to break down that overall goal into smaller, specific, more manageable goals, things won’t seem so impossible and you will become more focussed and optimistic about your likelihood of success – i.e. your mindset will be more positive.
  5. Self-monitoring is essential to the success of behavioural change. Having identified all the specific changes you want to make, keep a record of them. In terms of exercise and nutrition changes, keeping a food and activity diary is a good way to monitor how you are getting on. The simple fact of having to write down what you are doing/not doing will make you more clearly aware of how you are doing, and knowledge is power. Once you know what is/is not working it becomes easier to make changes. The research shows that we are more successful at changing behaviour if we self-monitor.
  6. Understand that relapses are a normal part of change – no matter how hard you try, you won’t be perfect all the time. So rather than feeling that you have failed and give up, look at what you can learn from a ‘bad day’ or ‘bad week’. Be kind to yourself, reflect on what you have already achieved and get back on track.

RTE Article: Sarah McIntyre

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Magazines are flooded with ‘get your body bikini ready’ features, accounts of juice cleanse detoxes are rampant online and everyone seems to have the answer to shaping up in time for summer.In my experience, the only thing that really works long-term, outside of faddish diets and exercise trends, is good old-fashioned hard work and clean eating. It’s a tough pill to swallow as everyone wants the quick fix, but if you’re dedicated and passionate about getting in shape, it’s worth the slog.I started training at Body Rock Performance in Sandymount, a gym run by personal trainer Paul Moran, last summer in a bid to tone up before a holiday, and I haven’t looked back.The classes, which take place both indoors and outdoors, run for about an hour and consist of targeted interval training concentrating on specific muscles for each exercise. Interval training, which involves alternating periods of high-intensity exercise with rest, has been recognised as the most effective way to increase fitness. It also burns more calories over a short period of time than steady-state cardio and continues to burn calories after your workout.Each class at Body Rock is different, and often concentrates on specific areas – such as dreaded leg days, which consist of a lot of lunges and squats, or arms and abs, which involve a lot of weight exercises.To mix in a bit of cardio, Paul and Stephen sometimes use the dreaded ‘Prowler’, a weighted fitness sled often used in rugby training which will have your legs screaming within seconds. Periods of sprinting are also sometimes interspersed into the class to give an all-round workout that have you feeling fantastic, and more than a little relieved, once it’s over.Although training at Body Rock is far from easy, it is an incredibly effective, and dare I say, fun way to tone up. When I initially started taking the classes, it took just two weeks to see changes, and you can also get your body fat ratio measured at the gym so you can keep on top of your progress. In contrast to a lot of gyms, the atmosphere is fun, inclusive and good-natured, which spurs you on to work hard and see great results. You can also have your diet and nutrition analysed at Body Rock to see where you might be going wrong in that area, which is often the main hurdle people come up against in their bid to lose weight and get in shape. As an added bonus, you can try out your first session at Body Rock for free to see if it’s suited to you. Sarah McIntyre

Email info @brp.ie for more information. You can visit Body Rock’s Facebook page here.www.brp.ie

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