There’s several things goin on at Oxygen that I want you to consider and make a decision on.  This is a really important skill to develop -  to act decisively.

The first thing that springs to mind at the moment is the wet weather we’re experiencing. Plain and simple, it sucks. But that doesn’t mean it’s a good excuse NOT to train. If you’ve been around Oxygen Health & Fitness  long enough you’ll know our motto and if you’re fairly new to the scene you’ll get the message soon enough.

“In the rain, we still train.”

Make a decision to get over it, suck it up and commit to training. Here’s proof from yesterday that your Kiama Personal Trainer walks his walk.

The second thing to consider is this.

Not a day goes by that I don’t have someone ask me:

“How do I lose the muffin top/tuck-shop arms/last 5kg?”

“How can I burn body fat off my bum/thigh/stomach?”

“How can I get bla bla bla?”

The answer to 90% of people’s fitness, energy + weight loss dilemmas is………… Nutrition.

The Body Balance Challenge is a 90 Day Body Transformation program where you get access to both Group and Individual Nutrition coaching, complete done for you meal plans and grocery lists and all the information and motivation required to make DRAMATIC changes to your physique.  It starts Monday 30th April, you can get $1,300 cash for winning and for just $50 you can trial it out for the first week to see if it’s the right fit for you.

If you’re interested MAKE A DECISION and register for it.

The third thing to consider is the cooler weather ahead of us and how fashionable you want to be.  We’re taking orders now for the items below so if your’e interested MAKE A DECISION contact us to let us know which specific item you would like and what size.  Orders need to be placed and paid for by ANZAC DAY (next Wednesday).

Sleeve Striped Hoodie $50

Turtle Collared Top $50

Now is the time to…

Make a decision

We procrastinate too often;

re-considering, torturing ourselves with indecision

Governments do it by establishing boards of inquiries.

Golfers call it paralysis by analysis.

We think it’s better to think things through, then decide.

Correcting an error is less painful

than being trapped on the fence.

“One foot can’t stand on two boats”  Chinese proverb

Top 10 Nutrition Habits

    1.  Eat every 2 – 3 hours

• Increases metabolism plus limits fat storage

• Eating more often means less calories at each meal

• Burns more calories when you eat more often

    2.  Eat protein at every meal

• Helps achieve a high overall level of protein consumption to maintain lean muscle tissue and maximise strength gains

• Its the most THERMOGENIC macro-nutrient – the body has to burn more calories to digest and metabolise it

• Generally the most filling macro-nutrient helping to satisfy hunger and blood sugar hormones so you won’t overeat

    3.  Eat veges at each meal

• Rich source of carbohydrates, energy, vitamins, minerals, fibre and antioxidants

• 5 serves a day is ecommended so the best way to do that consistently is to get into the habit of eating veges at every meal.

4.  Eat Veges and Fruit with any meal, high glycaemic carbs after exercise

• High GI foods such as bread, pasta etc do a good job replenishing muscle fuel stores after exercise but at other times their heavy carbohydrate load results in too much fat storage (carbs that aren’t needed for immediate energy are converted to fat and generally get stored around the midsection)

• All veges and most fruit are Low GI so the carbohydrate they contain are less likely to be converted to stored fat

  5.  Eat healthy fats daily

• Polyunsaturated fats found in fish, flaxseed, walnuts that contain those omega 3 fatty acids.  They create healthier cells.

• Monounsaturated fats found in olive oil, almonds, cashews and peanut butter.

Stay tuned next week for the next 5 Nutrition Habits

Anyways, enough about food but the story is going somewhere I promise!

The weekend got me thinking about my birthday and the topic of age.  It’s amazing how many people I talk to who ask for my help, advice, opinion on something related to health and fitness.  What’s even more amazing is the number of people that ask my advice but then ignore the information or tell me what they think is the solution.  Even more amazing still is that the supposed solution is either exactly what they’ve done already to get them to where they are (WTF?) or so counterproductive they’ll likely to be worse off than they are now.

That’s one thing about age which can be a real barrier to your Kiama Fitness success.

Each year that passes it’s very easy to get set in your ways, think you know all there is to know and get so swamped with being busy that you lose focus.  When you’re not focused, important things like exercising consistently improving your nutrition and getting adequate recovery can slip down the priority list.

You should know by now how important all these things are and it’s all a product of learning.

Learning something new about health & fitness has to be a priority.  As a Kiama Personal Trainer with 12 years experience, I sure as hell don’t know everything there is to know about health & fitness.  So when I share with you the importance of mindset, preparation and planning, exercise programming or a great easy way to get tasty, nutritious food on your plate, make sure you’re open to learning something new because the success of your Kiama Fitness program depends on it.  Age is no barrier.

“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty”.  Henry Ford

One of the biggest problems you can come across with your diet is the sauces and dressing you add to food. Even if you’re taking the steps  to choose healthier, if you’re dousing your food with high calorie dressings, you’re hardly doing your health a favour. Many of these are going to be loaded with saturated fat, but they’re often filled with chemicals and sugar as well, forming a double whammy as far as your nutritious diet is concerned. They are going to do nothing to boost your rate of fat loss or stoke your metabolism which is why we need alternatives that add taste to food, enhanced metabolic effects and great nutrition as well. .There’s a few key ingredients that you should consider including: Mustard, White and Red Wine Vinegar and Lemon. Today’s Dressing contains three of those!

The health benefits of lemon are due to many nourishing elements like vitamin C, vitamin B, phosphorous, proteins, and carbohydrates present in it. Lemon is a fruit that contains flavonoid, a composite that holds antioxidant and anti-cancer properties. It helps to prevent diabetes, constipation, high blood pressure, skin care, fever, indigestion and many other health problems. Studies conducted at the American Urological Association highlight the fact that lemon juice can cure kidney stones by forming urinary citrate, which can prevent formation of crystals.

Lemon is used in the treatment of throat infections, indigestion, constipation, dental problems, fever, hair care, skin care, internal bleeding, rheumatism, burns, overweight, respiratory disorders, cholera and high blood pressure. Known for its therapeutic properties for generations, lemon helps to strengthen your immune system and cleanses your stomach. It is not only a blood purifier but also enables body to fight diseases. They can help to ward off further food cravings whilst keeping blood glucose levels more stable

So, as promised here is a metabolic dressing that boosts your rate of fat loss:

Creamy Dijon Herb Dressing

Ingredients:

* 4 Tablespoons of Greek Yoghurt
* 1/4 Cup White Wine Vinegar
* 1/4 Cup Water
* 2 Tablespoons of minced fresh Parsley
* 2 Tablespoons of Dijon Mustard
* 1 Tablespoon of fresh Lemon Juice
* 1 Garlic clove, minced
* 1 Tablespoon of dried Thyme
* Pinch of Black Pepper

Place all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth

Source: Metabolic Cooking – Dave Ruel

If you’re keen for some “Lemon” tonight come join me at the Blue Diamond Bar from 6pm onwards.

Learn to love intensity, not duration!

There is actually a tone of research that shows that steady-state aerobics doesen’t work for fat loss, and interval training does.  Let’s review some of it.

*  The landmark study on interval training pitted 20 weeks of endurance training against 15 weeks of interval training.  The energy cost of the endurance training equaled 28,661 calories, while the energy cost of the interval training came to 13,614 calories (less than half).  Yet the interval training group showed a nine times greater loss of fat than the endurance group.

*  In a study done in 2008, Australian researchers had 18 women perform 20 minutes of interval training three days a week: eight seconds of sprinting followed by 12 seconds of recovery.  The women lost an average of 5kg over 15 weeks, without dieting.  Similar groups performing 40 minutes of steady-state cycling three days a week actually gained a kilo of fat over the same period.

IT WORKS, BUT WHY?

One reason intervals are more effective is that they target more of your muscle.  During endurance exercise, you use a lot of slow-twitch muscle fibres and too few fast-twitch muscle fibres.  It’s those fast-twitch muscle fibres that give you firm muscles and fast-tracked results.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy heading out for a run occasionally, but I don’t do it for fat loss.  I do it because I enjoy it.  Think about this.  If you do a 30 minute walk at a steady-state, moderate pace, you’ll burn about 150 calories.  If you mix in eight 30-second sprints, you’ll burn closer to 200 calories.  But the biggest factor is that after an interval session, your metabolism can stay elevated for a full day, and you’ll end up burning two to three times the total calories you’d expect to burn through lover-intensity exercise.  That is the goal of our training programs at Oxygen.

It’s time to bury, for good, the myth that long, slow, steady-state cardio will burn fat.  No more spending hours and hours running long distances to burn fat.  Push your intensity up if you want to lose it!

Now, I know what you’re thinking – what about Saturday RUN SQUAD?  That’s longer distance steady state cardio.

Correct.

You can run because you like to run, but don’t run to accomplish your goal of losing fat.

Running is actually a very advanced exercise.  I mean it takes a pretty advanced exerciser to complete 1000 reps of a one legged  plyometric (jumping) exercise and they’d need to build up a good base level of strength.  Running for 1km is exactly that – 1000 reps of a plyometric exercise.  Running provides forces in the area of two to five times your body weight per foot contact.  So now we’re talking 1000 reps with two to five times your body weight on each rep.  Pretty advanced stuff hey?

Sixty five percent of all runners have to stop running and seek treatment due to overuse injuries.  But if someone has been working out consistently, building strength and is fit enough, then they can add some longer running sessions to their program.

“You can’t run to get fit, you need to be fit to run”  Diane Lee

Which brings me to my final point.  What is your goal?

If your goal is to complete an endurance event like City 2 Surf or Saddleback Smash, then by all means run.  Your training needs to include running, but you’d better make sure you’ve done some strength training too.  Over the next few months, we’ve got some great STRENGTH sessions for you at Oxygen that’ll get you ready for our City 2 Surf Saturday Training program.  In the meantime though, know that Interval Training is a smaller time commitment for better fat loss results and a stronger mental wellbeing.

Foam rolling is quickly becoming a staple in training programs worldwide. From elite athletes to weekend warriors, you can head into any of the best training facilities around and see people using a foam roller as part of their regimen. As with any new training modality, there are usually lots of questions regarding foam rolling or SMR (Self Myofascial Release) including:

• What are the benefits to be gained?
• Is it safe and effective?
• When is the most optimal time to do it?

The first question a fitness professional will often get though is “why am I doing this?”

If you’ve ever performed SMR on yourself, you know the first couple of times are generally quite uncomfortable! When you first start using a foam roller, you might not like it, because your muscles may feel a bit sore and the process may be a little tough to take the first few times becuase of knots or adhesions in your muscles. Keep in mind that if you do have some spots, this process will really help. Healthy tissue should not be painful, so if you have sore spots, it means you have adhesions or tightness that you need to get rid of. Your body will feel so much better when you’re using this tool consistently.

SMR offers many of the benefits of stretching and more. Muscles need to not only have strength but also optimal function through a full range of motion. While stretching will work to improve the length of the mscle, SMR and Massage work to cause increases in muscle length and the breakdown of soft tissue adhesions and scar tissue. There’s obviously overwhelmingly positive results to be gained from regular Massage Therapy, but from a financial and convenience point of view we can’t all be expected to do that on a frequent basis.

SMR on the foam roller offers an effective, inexpensive and convenient way to both reduce adhesion and scar tissue accumulation, and eliminate what’s already present on a daily basis. Just like stretching though or any other aspect of fitness for that matter, foam rolling doesnt yield marked inprovements overnight, you’ll need to be diligent and stck with it.

The following are some reasons you might want to include SMR/Foam Rolling Techniques into your training:

• Improved mobility and range of motion
• Reduction in scar tissue and ashesions
• Improved quality of movement
• Fill in the gaps between Deep Tissue Massage and Active Release Techniques from a Therapist

In the beginning you should go through the foam rolling rituals at least two days per week for about 10-15 minutes at a time. You may find it easier to make it a habit every night before you go to bed. Work on any given area for 1-2 minutes. If an area is particularly tight, spend longer on it. If an areas not as bad spend less time on it. The key is to spend the most time on the tightest tissues.

CLICK HERE FOR FOAM ROLLING RITUALS

Now I’m no religious guy, I don’t do verses, psalms or anything else like that. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that. If it floats your boat, great)

I do however, love a good quote, story and even some poetry especially if I can find a way to relate that back to health & fitness. I grabbed this poem from a guy who I totally respect. He’s a hard working coach, straight down the line and he has a great track record of getting the best out of people. (Some of whom haven’t exactly been the sharpest tools in the shed either.)

I’m of course talking about NRL Super Coach Wayne Bennett who is the most successful coach in the history of Rugby League. He has two books and I recommend both – even to people that have no interest in Rugby League.

This poem is really appropriate considering the Challenge Week we’re about to enter. It’s called The Man in the Mirror. Now Wayne didn’t write it, but over the past 22 years of his coaching career it’s been crucial in getting his players right mentally. It’s title has changed several times since it was first written back in 1934 by an American named Peter ‘Dale’ Wimbrow but the message is always the same…

When you get what you want in your struggle for self
And the world makes you king for a day,
Then go to your mirror and look at yourself
And se what that man has to say.

You can fool the whole world, down the pathway of years,
And get pats on your back as you pass.
But the final reward will be heartache and tears,
If you’ve cheated the man in the glass.

No excuses next week during Challenge Week.

Your Team mates don’t care for them but more importantly, the man (or woman) in the glass doesn’t either.

In case you missed it, check out this Challenge Week video to get FIRED UP!

As usual, it’s Anabolically supercharged, meaning it will activate all the right fat burning, muscle building hormones in your body so it’ll give you an energy boosting kickstart to your day that helps you achieve your health & fitness goals.  Plus it tastes great!

Dave’s Anabolic Blueberry Oatmeal

This great healthy receipe comes from Anabolic Cooking.

Another jewel of a fuel for ya!

If you’ve ever had nagging knee pain, you run a lot, if you struggle to get full range of motion from your squats and lunges, today’s video will help you improve your Kiama Fitness Program.

You’re gunna need a foam roller, a tennis ball and initially a little pain tolerance.  It’s like getting a massage.  If you leave it for months, then yeah, you’re gunna hurt a little bit.  But if you do it regularly, like anything, it does get easier and you’ll experience discomfort more than pain.

There are six areas of focus in this video:

1.  Quadriceps

2.  TFL

3.  ITB

If any of the first three are tight, you may experience knee pain especially laterally or on the outside.  Your squatting range of motion will also likely be reduced.

4.  Hamstrings

If these are tight you can experience a tight lower back and may even  by leaning too far forward when you squat.

5.  Calf

6.  Tibialis Anterior

If these two become tight, it’s likely affecting the range of motion in your ankle joint, your ability to plantar flex and dorsi flex your foot and adding stress to your achilles.  This will also effect your squatting range of motion.

I recommend regular massage (monthly), foam rolling (weekly) and stretching (daily) as a minimum.  You can contact two of our business associates Gerringong Physio or Kiama Massage for further help.