Exercise isn’t just about how you look

Exercise not only makes you feel better about yourself, I exercise regularly and it makes me feel great afterwards. It helps out in everyday life, the fitter you are just from increasing your heart rate from day to day activities such as running for the bus and going up and down the stairs without running out of breath has a huge effect on your life. Airports can be daunting places if you don’t have much upper body strength, lifting your suitcase off the platform can be too much for those who don’t use their upper body enough. This is why it is important you get the balance between cardiovascular training and muscular strength training, looking good will therefore become a bonus.

Our bodies are designed to work quite vigorously and without regular movement nothing works properly. Think back before people had office jobs and microwaves were invented, people had to chase down their own dinner, dig for their own vegetables and climb tress for their fruit this has all changed now and for this reason it is essential you keep your body active.

There are many health benefits from regular exercise, osteoporosis is prevented, you will have much more energy, sleep better, depression is at a lower risk and it also slows the onset of dementia.

Keep active and let’s enjoy exercise, here at Breadsall Priory we have a huge range of classes available including

: Yoga

: Circuits

: Boot camp

: Hydro

: Legs Bums and Tums

: Stretch and relax                         

and many more!

Along with a well equipped gymnasium with fully qualified gym instructors and personal trainers on hand to offer you help and guidance.

Corey Hodgkinson

Tyre Flipping, Method To The Madness

At Breadsall Priory we love to keep up to date and different training methods, old and new and we love getting outdoors with our training. We have recently acquired Tractor tyres, heavy duty for that king of total body exercises, the tyre flip! A few people have questioned what exactly it is we are doing and why, not to mention what the benefits are, so let’s quickly discuss.

The tyre flip is basically using the same lifting technique as a dead lift, you stand toes to the tyre, bend the knees, send the hips back and take hold of the bottom of the tyre with an under hand grip (as opposed to the standard over hand grip in a barbell dead lift) then keeping a strong and neutral spine you drive up through the heels and stand tall, that’s you your dead lift, but with the tyre you keep lifting greater engaging your arms and as soon as the tyre is standing upright you push it down powerfully to the floor and then repeat. So the tyre flip engages just about every muscle in the body and recruits more muscle activation of the core, biceps and triceps than your standard dead lift.
Our trainers also use different adaptation to make the exercise more fun, Karl said ‘I like to perform the tyre flip and then jump into the center of the tractor tyre and back out, turn around and keep repeating, it gives a really good lower abdominal workout and pushes your agility and staying power’
whilst instructing in the Saturday morning bootcamp Corey explained how ‘the tyre flip is really good because it’s tough, you never have to worry about equipment getting damaged and because we have more than one tractor tyre I like to get people racing, because it’s so different to what they usually do they really focus and don’t think about how hard they’re working and when you bring in that element of competition people really dig deep and push hard’

The outdoor training is something to look forward to and will be available for those attending Bootcamp sessions or looking for one to one personal training.

Bosu Session

This session today focused on using the Bosu for the majority of the exercises. The Bosu is an excellent tool to use with all clients incorporating core stability to an exercise. The client performed squats, bicep curls and a shoulder press all standing on the Bosu. This made sure the client activated her core throughout the exercises to enable her to keep good technique and maintain posture throughout.

As well as standing on the Bosu performing exercises,  she also did ¾ press up with her hands holding onto the Bosu and a plank positioning her forearms on the bosu (see pic). Again with a press up this makes sure the core is engaged throughout and increasing the intensity to a basic plank. She also performed no crunches or stomach exercises during her session today yet because we used the Bosu to perform some basic exercise her core got a really good challenging workout.

 Bosu Crunch

I strongly recommend using a Bosu as part of your fitness program whether working as a Personal Trainer or training on your own. Get out there and try it!

Why not try the exercises shown on the link below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8mcHyfFvQI&noredirect=1

Foam rolling

We all experience after a heavy gym session DOMS, the satisfying yet some times problematic Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness, problematic in the sense that it can be hard to get back in the gym the next day if you’re feeling as stiff as a board. You may have notice in the gym the Foam Rollers and wondered what they are all about? Firstly roll away any tension and then stretch out the muscles. The idea is to teach your body how your muscles should sit and prevent any posture and subsequent joint problems says. You can use the rollers every day if needed and here are some roller basics

.

For tight thighs

Use the plank position and rest your thighs on the foam roller. Lift your toes so that all your bodyweight is on your elbows then shift one leg on top of the other so that a single thigh takes all the weight. Slowly roll up and down the thigh massaging any tight areas. Switch legs and repeat.

For a tight upper-back

Lie back on a foam roller placed around shoulder blade level. Keep your feet and bum in contact with the floor and your hands behind your head at all times. Tense your stomach as you slowly work the roller up and down your upper back.

For a tight chest

Use the plank position again and rest your right pectoral muscle on the roller. Hold your right arm out to the side and off the ground. Your weight should now largely be on the right side of your chest, use the length of the roller to massage the whole pectoral muscle.

You can always increase your attention to sore muscles by taking time out in the Jacuzzi after a gym session or booking in for a sports massage

 

Kettle bells: old kit, new tricks

New classes are on the way and one of those is Kettlercise, kettle bell training has been around for many years, believed to have been developed in Russia in the 1700s, but they are ever growing in popularity around the world, almost every new workout involves some element of kettle bells due to the great calorie burn and work load it puts on not just strength but also cardiovascular fitness. Kettle bells can be used for total body toning within classes using lighter bells as well as going heavy and being used to develop fearsome strength and muscle mass whilst maintaining low levels of body fat percentage. Kettle bells involve exercises to build strength and endurance, particularly in the lower back, legs, and shoulders, and increase grip strength. The basic movements, such as the swing, snatch, and the clean and jerk, engage the entire body at once, and translate to functional fitness for real world activities. It is also worth noting how well kettle bell training can be incorporated into circuit training along with other fundamental movements for a truly challenging gym session and because kettle bell training relies on continuous movement it makes for a very time efficient workout, as many trainers say ‘train smarter, not longer’

feel up for a challenge try this kettle bell routine and compare it to your usual routine, (using a kettle bell between 6-12kg aiming for 15 reps of each exercise)

kettle bell swing 15
high swing  15
snatch 15 (15 each arm)
press ups 15
hammer curl to shoulder press 15
weighted reach over toe touch 15

rest 2-3min
repeat 5 times

                                                         

workout by Karl O'Sullivan