Bored of your leg workout? Mix things up with these 5 leg exercise variations...

Variety is the spice of life as they say… and it’s a way to keep your workouts fun and engaging.

One of the body parts that can be a bit boring when it comes to training is legs - if you don’t mix it up that is. If you’re in a gym with mostly exercise machines (poor you), there’s only so much variation you can add to leg extensions and leg curls before you run out of ideas. Worry not though, we’ve got you covered with exercises that don’t need specialist kit, just things you’l find in 99% of the gyms around.

In this article we’re looking at leg variations. There’s 5 exercises here, complete with a video to show you how each one is performed. There’s a lot of challenge here when these are done right, so give them a go!

Double kettlebell front squats

Front squatting with kettlebells is a much easier grip to manage than with the barbell front squats, but you can achieve a lot of the same benefits from the exercise. It’s a perfect ‘gateway’ into front squatting before you have the necessary mobility to perform the barbell version.

The double kettlebell front squat starts in a version of the rack position, but it doesn’t require huge amount of much mobility across the shoulders and in the lat muscles. The kettlebell front rack allows you to brace the core and tap into the benefits of the exercise without needing to adopt a position you can’t easily reach.

Goblet squat

The goblet squat is a classic front squat pattern without the need to challenge mobility much. I like it as a beginner front squat and feel it challenges the core a lot as well, thanks to the odd-object nature of the weight in front of the body.

Given the movement is performed with a single kettlebell, the weight is light enough for anyone of any ability to perform the movement, allowing them to focus on perfect form before progressing to heavier versions of the front squat pattern.

Suggested volume: 4 sets of 10-12, twice per week. 

Bulgarian Split Squat Jumps

This is a classic way to add variety to the Bulgarian split squat. By adding this plyometric element to the exercise you make it explosive and powerful, adding to the sport-specific nature of it. It means you can add progressions to the exercise without adding too much weight.

This kind of power movement has a place in most training programmes, because developing explosive capacity is important in life, not just sport. The only time it would be a good idea to leave out is in the very early stages of a rehab programme.

Suggested volume: 3 sets of 10-12 per leg, once per week.

Dumbbell Box Step Ups

I love dumbbell box step ups because they’re the epitome of a functional exercise. It’s like walking up huge stairs whilst carrying a heavy load. Not only that, they force each side to work independently, so there’s no way one leg dominates the movement over the other leg.

Alongside the functional element of the lift, it has real sporting benefits, allowing you to jump off both legs, prevent injury and improve your speed. There’s a real core test here as well, so it’s indirect abdominal work - making for a super efficient exercise. Finally, lifting a medium weight for very high reps adds a cardio challenge here. There’s a lot of bang for not much buck.

Suggested volume: 4 sets of 20 per leg, once or twice per week.

Single Leg Deadlift

If you want to humble yourself, perform some medium-heavy single leg deadlifts under smooth control - there’s a good chance they’ll shock you! When executed off one leg with slow, controlled movement, the single leg deadlift is both functionally important (in terms of injury prevention) and physically challenging, so it enhances strength.

Single leg deadlifts are an exercise that is often forgotten because the regular deadlift is seen as a bigger, more glamorous exercise. Whilst that may be the case, the fundamentals such as single leg strength remain important so try adding them into your workouts.

Suggested volume: 3 sets of 10 per leg, twice per week.

Leg Variations - Final Thoughts

It’s important to mix up your training for a number of reasons - to keep it interesting, to keep challenging your body, to learn new skills, to create new neural pathways in the brain etc. Don’t ever allow yourself to get stuck in a training rut, because you’ll very quickly fall out of love with it all.

These are just five of literally hundreds of variations you can put into your leg workouts, so give them a go. Even if you don’t use these exercises, you can use the article as a base of inspiration to look for new body part training ideas. There’s plenty of them out there!

Professional training in East London with AdMac Fitness

If you want your health and fitness journey to be guided by the best personal training team in East London, get in touch with us at AdMac Fitness. We operate from our private personal training studio in Bow, E3. Contact us on 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

Exercise and the Cold - Getting Things Right

Exercising when it’s cold is a funny old beast. On one hand the cold can kill motivation, but on the other cold weather exercise can be an amazing thing to do for your body.

If you’re into outdoor exercise such as running, the cold can be a huge ally. It keeps your temperature lower for longer, which allows you to exercise without suffering from the ill-effects of the warmer weather. There is research that shows a clear link between lower temperatures and longer TTE (time to exhaustion) Cold exposure is also a known calorie burner, so there’s a suggestion it gives you more bang for your fat loss buck. Finally, getting outside in the fresh air when you’re spending extended periods of time indoors, away from the cold can have big mental health boosts.

That being said, exercising in the cold does come with its risks. The purpose of this blog post is to help you exercise in the cold whilst mitigating these risk factors and allowing you to maximise the benefits.

Gloves maybe necessary in the cold!

Cold weather exercise - what are the risks?

There are multiple studies telling us that although there are risks associated with cold weather exercise, providing the right precautions are taken it’s a perfectly safe activity. The important thing is you can’t be complacent with your preparation before outdoor exercise.

By identifying the risks, we can make sure we take precautions to avoid problems…

Problem: Injury risk increases in the cold

The risk of injury dramatically increases during cold weather. Research shows cold muscles require less force to become injured when cold than when warm.

Solution: Spend longer warming up ahead of explosive movements

If your planned session involves lots of dynamic work such as sprints, plyometrics, direction changes etc you need to ensure you go through a long, progressive warm up before you start to do the explosive work. If you haven’t ensured you are fully warmed up, your injury risk is very high.

Problem: Mobility is compromised in the cold, affecting technique

Mobility is impacted significantly by the cold weather. The reduction in blood flow to the soft tissues in the joints means they take longer to get and as such aren’t able to move as freely.

Solution: Be strategic in your session planning

If you know a session will be taken in a particularly cold environment, be sensible with what you do. Something like a stretching workout isn’t a good idea in the cold. Instead stick to workouts that won’t need you to work at end ranges of movement. Running, cycling, circuits etc are ideal.

Problem: Time is limited

If time is limited you have to make strategic decisions on what you’re able to do during your workout. There are certain things you cant compromise on though.

Solution: Go back to first principles

The first principle of exercise is ‘do no harm’. We’ve already established a workout in the cold comes with inherent safety risks, so we can’t skimp on warm up quality. You’re always better off sacrificing the high risk elements of a workout. Don’t rush the warm up and put yourself at a high risk of injury.

Cold weather workout guidelines…

To ensure your cold weather workout is as safe as it can be, follow the following guidelines…

1. Wrap up as warm as you can be. You can always take layers off when you get warm, but starting cold and getting warm is a much riskier approach.

2. Never compromise on your warm up quality. Even if it means sacrificing other elements of the session, never compromise on your warm up. Cold bodies are injured more easily than warm ones.

3. Plan your sessions with the conditions in mind. If you’re outside and it’s particularly cold, leave the dynamic, explosive work for another day. Better to miss a single session than risk injury and miss a whole lot more.

4. Don’t get too complicated. In the cold weather movement is compromised - don’t do anything that involves end-range of movement or high-skill. Stick to basic, hard work in the sessions and save the other stuff for more suitable weather.

5. Don’t be intimidated by the cold, just respect it. As I said at the top of the article, there are definite benefits to outdoor training, you just have to be safe. Respect the conditions, adapt to the conditions, but don’t fear them!

Professional training in East London with AdMac Fitness

If you want your health and fitness journey to be guided by the best personal training team in East London, get in touch with us at AdMac Fitness. We operate from our private personal training studio in Bow, E3. Contact us on 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

Core Strength or Core Stability? What's the Difference?

Two of the buzz phrases used in fitness since the 1990’s are ‘core strength’ and ‘core stability’. The two are used seemingly interchangeably, when there is in fact a big difference between the two.

Unfortunately many people (some personal trainers included) don’t understand the fundamental difference between core strength and core stability. That means they group all core exercises together, thinking that ‘any’ core exercise will cover all of the core training bases, when that’s simply not the case.

A poor core training programme can render a person without the correct physical capabilities, leaving them exposed to a much higher injury risk. Many back injuries and issues can be both prevented or cured with a comprehensive core training programme.

In this article we’re going to discuss the differences between core strength and core stability, giving you exercises to work on both and ensure you have a strong and functional core. This will improve you athletically and make you a stronger, more injury-resistant person.

Whilst I don’t want to make a promise I can’t keep, there’s a good chance you’ll be able to rid yourself of niggling back issues by including some of these exercises into your training too…

Core Strength vs Core Stability

Core strength is no different to any other kind of strength - it’s the ability to produce an amount of force through a given range of movement. For example, that might be your ability to rotate powerfully through the core on a sporting skill such as a tennis stroke or a golf swing.

Core stability is different - that’s the ability to resist unwanted motion that might force the spine out of alignment. For example during a front squat where as the spine is exposed to a load, poor core stability can allow the torso to collapse forward, forcing the lifter to take more of the load on their lower back.

Both are important abilities to have. If you lack core strength, you can’t generate force which doesn’t help you in the gym and with day to day life (lifting and carrying things, playing with your kids, playing sport). If you lack core stability, you expose your back to injuries during simple tasks such as getting in and out of cars, work injuries etc.

If you’ve ever met somebody who ‘put their back out’ doing something mundane such as gardening, picking up their kids etc, they probably lack and kind of core stability and need it improving otherwise these things will keep happening again and again. They’ll then just write themselves off as having a ‘bad back’, when that’s likely not the case - it’ll be a core issue.

If your core training isn’t working on both you core strength and your core stability, it’s not effective. Thousands of crunches are useless if you can’t resist even minor forces.

Working on core strength

Core strength is best trained like any other strength - with progressively more difficult exercises that replicate your needs and the planes of movement you’ll need to work in. For the vast majority of us, we need to work on three movements…

1. Core flexion

2. Core extension

3. Core rotation

Here's an exercise I like for each of them…

The Hollow Body Rock

This is a fundamental exercise in gymnastics. It flexes the core, but doesn’t repeatedly perform the movement so is safe for people with lower back issues. It’s an excellent way to engage the core and maintain a flexed position.

Swiss Ball Roll Out from Plank

I like this exercise because it combines the stability element of the Swiss ball plank with the extension element of the roll out. It’s an excellent, yet challenging exercise. This is an advanced exercise - if it’s too much, work with an ab roller and shorten your range of motion first.

Side Plank Thread the Needle

This exercise combines both side plank stability and rotational strength. It’s a challenging exercise, so only do this if you can hold a side plank. If you can’t hold a side plank, work on that first until you can manage 30 seconds of side plank holds alone.

Working on Core Stability

The Don of all things core is Dr Stuart McGill and his approach includes the ‘Big 3’ - these are core exercises he believes we should all be doing in order to protect out spine and improve core stability. There’s no need to improve on any of these, so here’s a short video explaining them all

1. Curl Ups

2. Side Planks

3. Bird Dog

That’s not where core strength/stability ends…

I couldn’t possibly go into all core exercises in a blog post - literally hundreds of books have been written on the subject, so it’d be silly of me to try to explain them all here.

The exercises I’ve shared here will be a solid core programme for the vast majority of us. These exercises should be complimented with lots of compound exercises such as front squats, kettlebell swing variations, presses, pulls, lunges, farmers walks etc. I’d also suggest you do single-sided work as well, because that is known to help core strength and stability.

Core strength and stability training - concluded

As a minimum, I’d make sure that you’re doing every exercise I’ve shared here every single week. You shouldn’t do them all in a single session (that would be super hard work for your core), but do a couple of them in each session, making sure you’ve done them all across the week.

If you train 4 times per week, maybe do the McGill Big 3 in two of those workouts, then the other exercises in the other two. That way you will have covered all of your core training bases across the week.

If you ever need our help with your core training, the AdMac Fitness team are always on hand!

If you’re in East London and would the AdMac Fitness personal trainers to train you, contact us on 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

AdMac Fitness: Arch 457 Robeson St, London E3 4JA

AdMac Fitness South Woodford: Unit 4 Marlborough Business Centre, 96 George Lane, South Woodford, London, E18 1AD

Hiding Your Exercise in Plain Sight!

At AdMac Fitness we’re big believers that exercise frequency is more important than exercise duration. You’re better off training in short, regular bursts than long, less frequent workouts. Here’s a practical example as to why…

Say you train for 2 hours, once per week. You’ve accumulated all of your benefits of the training in a short window. Instead, take that same amount of time and divide it over 4 days, with 30 minute workouts on 4 separate occasions.

• You’ve had 4 different endorphin hits, not 1

• You’ve managed 4 separate metabolism spikes, not 1

• You’ve improved circulation 4 times, not 1

• You’ve exercised your cardiovascular system 4 times, not 1

• You’ve engaged muscles 4 times, not 1

• You’ve strengthened connective tissues 4 times, not 1

At this point you might be thinking ‘I don’t have 4 days per week to train’ and that might be true - but there’s subtle ways you can train. You can hide your exercise in amongst other tasks. It’s much easier than you think and doesn’t detract from your productivity or your social life.

Use your commute to exercise

This is the obvious one - if you’ve got to travel to work, do it under your own steam where possible. Now I’m not suggesting you get your bike out to travel 50 miles per day (although good for you if you do), or to cycle whatever the weather, but when the weather is dry, why not either get on your bike, or walk/run?

If you live within 3 miles of work, you could walk it in 30 mins… easily hit your 10k steps target every day, improve your mental health and give yourself a clear separation time between work and home.

It’s a very achievable distance to run as well - a good runner will manage a 3 mile commute in 20-30 minutes, which is an excellent workout. If you were to do that 2-3 times per week with a couple of gym sessions thrown in for good measure, you’d be in fantastic shape!

For a cyclist, a 3 mile bike ride could be completed in around 10 minutes, meaning in certain parts of London it’d be quicker to ride your bike to work than it would be to drive or get the tube!

Make catching up with friends active

It’s easy to fall into a trap of assuming anything social has to include food, booze or a combination of the two! Whilst they’re all great, you could head out for a bike ride together, a long walk, a gym session or even something like roller blading!

Anything active helps and if you can do it with a friend then you can make sure that you are burning calories and staying social at the same time.

We’ve discussed before that walking burns around 75% of the calories that running does, so although it’s easy to dismiss walking as low intensity, the reality is it’s a great hidden calorie burner, plus a great way to stay in touch with friends.

You can even do this with a business meeting - in fact walking meetings are one of the more popular ways of meeting now. There’s thinking that suggests whilst walking we’re more creative, more relaxed and more willing to express opinions, thoughts and viewpoints.

Steve Jobs famously used to complete a lot of his meetings and interviews whilst walking. Maybe you can do it too!

Home workouts

Whilst these may feel a bit retro nowadays, there’s nothing wrong with reserving your stretching to your home. If you don’t need to workout at home a la 2020, we’d suggest you don’t but there’s absolutely a value in doing your stretching and mobility work in your living room.

A full stretching session can be performed within 30 minutes and has significant injury prevention, mobility improvement and relaxation benefits and there’s no need for it to be performed in any particular location or space.

Stretching is both important and incredibly beneficial to your health and fitness, so it’s important to not neglect it. Even a 30 minute dedicated stretching session will have passable mobility and flexibility benefits, so there’s value in doing them.

Exercise efficiency FTW

We’re all busy, but being busy needn’t be an excuse for missing out on exercise - our bodies and health depends on it. By using the tips in this article you may spot a few ways to fit exercise into your daily life, which means you’ll remain active without missing out on other aspects of life.

If you ever need our help though, the AdMac Fitness team are always on hand!

If you’re in East London and would the AdMac Fitness personal trainers to train you, contact us on 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

Protecting Your Shoulders... A User's Guide

Your shoulders are the joint with the widest range of motion in the body. It is able to move 360 degrees in rotation, 180 degrees up and down and can also move front to back and through elevation and depression. It’s able to do this because of a couple of important physiological structures…

1. It’s joint set up - it’s a ball and socket joint

2. It is acted upon by a lot of different muscles, ligaments and tendons

The trade off for a wide range of movement is an inherent lack of joint stability. In order to stabilise the shoulders we have to ensure that the muscles surrounding the joint are strong, well-balanced and are flexible enough to prevent shoulder impingement, which is a common shoulder complaint.

It’s not just lifting - modern life is a problem too!

Modern life sees us spend significant amounts of time in an internally-rotated shoulder position. This is where are shoulders are hunched forward and our pectorals become tight. The upper back isn’t engaged and becomes weaker.

This slouched posture is very common in offices - if you work in an office take a look around. Typing forces us to bring our shoulders around into internal rotation, so there’s a good chance you and a lot of your colleagues will be internally-rotated at the shoulder.

The other issue is driving - when your arms are holding a steering wheel it pulls the shoulders forward. This causes the chest to tighten as well.

As bad as all of this sounds, there’s a counter-balance measure to everything so you don’t need to worry - shoulder problems aren’t a certainty!

How exercise can cause or help the problem…

When the shoulders are internally rotated for an extended period of time, the chest becomes tight and the upper back becomes weak. This ‘pulls’ the shoulders forward and creates something called an ‘impingement’. Shoulder impingement is where the joint capsule is reduced in size, which causes the connective tissues to rub and become inflamed. This is a painful condition but it can be treated with corrective exercise.

If your upper body training plan isn’t balanced, shoulder impingement is very likely. So what do I mean by ‘balanced’?

A balanced upper training programme will see your shoulders work in mostly four different directions…

1. A vertical push (shoulder press for example)

2. A horizontal push (bench press or fly for example)

3. A vertical pull (pull up for example)

4. A horizontal pull (bent over row for example)

There’s additional exercises such as lat raises, then stability elements during exercises such as bicep curls, but largely those four movements will make up the bulk of the training.

If then, there’s too much pushing and not enough pulling, the chest and shoulders become tight, the upper back and rear deltoids become weak and the net result is the shoulders are pulled forward and shoulder impingement is a risk.

So how do we balance pushing and pulling?

It’s not as simple as do the same amount of pulling as you do pushing - because if you spend all day at a computer or driving, you’ve probably got a lot of chest tightness already going on. You’ll need to counterbalance this by doing a lot more pulling (especially horizontal) than pushing.

A good starting point would be 5:1 pulls to pushes. For every bench press or shoulder press rep, you’d do 5 reps of a pull. It could be something like this…

• Bench Press 4 x 8

• Single arm dumbbell row 4 x 10 (per side)

• Bent over row 4 x 10

• Pull ups 5 x 6

• TRX rows 4 x 10

This would have the effect of helping to strengthen the upper back and rear deltoids, which would help to retract the shoulders and open up the joint cavity, reducing the possibility of impingement.

Making the shoulders bullet proof…

The more pulls than pushes advice is a great starting point, but if we want to progress our shoulder strength further, we can do some direct shoulder work. We know from research that shoulder exercises involving external rotation have solid therapeutic benefits, both preventing and curing shoulder pain.

If you suffer from shoulder pain or feel as though your training isn’t well-balanced enough, you could probably do a lot worse than spend a bit of time each week working directly on your shoulder strength.

External rotations, stability exercises, face pulls and thoracic spine mobility drills will all be helpful in preventing potential problems and curing existing problems. Combine that with a lot of chest stretching and you’ll save yourself a lot of money in physio bills!

If you’re in East London and would the AdMac Fitness personal trainers to train you, contact us on 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

What Shoes Should I Wear for a Workout?

The days of wearing the same basic running trainers for every workout are over. As more advanced training methods have become popular, sports manufacturers have adapted and started to make shoes more suitable for the kinds of workouts people are doing nowadays.

When it comes to heavy squats, deadlifts, weightlifting movements and the like, flexible shoes with little rigidity and support just aren’t really suitable. They don’t provide the foot support because they’re too flexible, plus the mid-sole (the cushioned bit) is too soft, so you lose power on the heavy lifts because it compresses. Great for running, not great for heavy lifting.

What should you look for in a pair of workout shoes?

That depends on what kind of training you’re going to be doing, how your mobility is and what your personal preferences are. Each workout has a different requirement, so here’s a few points you should be considering…

Shoes for weightlifting

Weightlifting shoes have a very particular design, quite unique compared to other shoes. They have a perfectly flat sole to maximise ground contact. They have a hard midsole which doesn’t compress under weight, allowing you to lift more.

Weightlifting shoes have a raised heel. This varies from shoe to shoe, ranging from around 10mm to 22mm. This allows you to keep your torso upright during the olympic lifts and it also improves your squat depth and form.

The upper is stiff - usually made from leather or a authentic leather. If it’s made from a breathable fabric, it’ll usually have a thick strap across the foot to keep everything secure and tight.

Shoes for cross training

What do I mean by cross training? I don’t mean CrossFit as such, but something that includes elements of both weightlifting and cardio exercise.

Cross training shoes such as the Reebok Nano’s or the Nike Metcons have grown in popularity over the last decade or so. They combine features of both trainers and weightlifting shoes, making the perfect all-rounder.

Typically these shoes have a flat sole for maximum ground contact, but it’s a more flexible sole than that of a weightlifting shoe. It allows you to run and jump easier. There’s a slightly raised heel, but usually around the 5-10mm range. High enough to help with weightlifting, but low enough to not be a problem for general movement.

The upper is more breathable and flexible and doesn’t contain a lifting strap. They look like a firmer, more supportive trainer and they behave like one. If your workout consists of weight training and cardio, these are the types of shoes to go for.

Shoes for running and classes

If you’re a runner or you’re taking part in classes such as Pilates, Aerobics etc, then normal running style trainers are perfectly suitable.

A running shoe is padded and breathable, so comfort is front and centre of the design thinking. They have a soft mid-sole, which is designed to absorb impact and provide cushioning when running. This is perfect for running, not great for lifting heavy weights.

The soft upper is breathable and flexible, making movement easy. They’re not particularly supportive, but you don’t need a huge amount of support for running and classes. Running trainers have the benefit of being very light too, so they make high impact work such as HIIT classes easier.

The right shoes change the game…

If you have struggled to find the perfect footwear for your workout, hopefully this quick guide will steer you in the right direction. Footwear choice is ultimately personal, but my suggestion is that you look at your training shoes from an equipment point of view, not a fashion one.

Decide the kind of training you’re doing and make footwear choices accordingly. Buy shoes for the task, like you would in another other walk of life. You don’t use a hammer for a job that needs a screw driver would you?

The right footwear improves your workout performance, your fitness and reduces your chances of injury.

If you’re in East London and would the AdMac Fitness personal trainers to train you, contact us on 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

Why Instability Matters in Resistance Training

In almost any other context, instability is a bad thing. When it comes to fitness however, it’s a really useful addition! Throwing some instability into the mix is both useful and functional, helping you to develop real-world strength and joint stability.

By adding an element of instability into your training you improve strength, joint health, muscle engagement and athleticism. You also reduce your chance of injury.

What does instability mean in a fitness context?

When we talk about instability in fitness we mean exercises performed on an unstable base. We know from research that exercises performed with an element of instability can help increase muscle engagement compared to stable-surface training.

Instability can be provided in various forms, using different items of equipment to make the exercises more challenging.

The unstable element of the exercise can be added to the upper or lower body depending on the type of equipment you are using.

Applying instability to a workout

There are various ways you can add instability to your training. Here are a few of the more common ways…

Suspension Trainers

Suspension trainers are an excellent way to add instability to a workout. They are safe and easy to use for upper body, lower body and core exercises. They are light weight, easy to store and can be taken on the road with you, meaning you can train pretty much anywhere with one!

Common instability exercises with a TRX include Atomic Push Ups, Hamstring Curls, Planks. They all add an extra layer of difficulty because you need to engage additional stabiliser muscles to maintain control of the exercise.

Gymnastic Rings

Gymnastic rings are similar to suspension trainers but they’re better used for upper body and abdominal exercises. They are thicker and stronger than the suspension trainers, so are more capable of supporting your entire body weight comfortably.

The most common uses for gymnastic rings in the gym include pull ups, dips, muscle ups, push ups and the plank. If you’re an advanced exerciser you can incorporate more of the gymnastic style movements and exercises into your workout.

Swiss Ball

Swiss balls have been around in gyms for over 30 years - they’re the original instability training tool. They’ve been somewhat superseded by the suspension trainer in recent years, but that’s not to say they’re not useful. The main reason they’ve been seen less is purely down to versatility and practicality - there’s more you can do with a suspension trainer, plus they’re easier to move around.

Swiss balls are commonly used in place of a bench, so they are great for helping to increase core engagement in exercises such as bench press and shoulder press. They’re equally at home with core work for planks and the like.

Bosu Ball

The Bosu ball is basically a half-Swiss ball, with a stable plastic base supporting a half-ball. It is primarily used as a rehab tool, where physio’s and sports therapists use it to rebuild strength and stability in certain joints after injury. The half and half nature of it means you can adjust the way you use it, providing different levels of stability.

It’s most commonly used for ankle, knee and hip stability drills. It’s also regularly used for push ups and core work. It lacks the overall versatility of the others, but for its specific job of lower limb stability training it’s fantastic.

Benefits of Unstable Surface Training

Instability training increases muscle engagement, which helps to improve joint stability and health. By having strong and stable joint they’re more robust and less susceptible to injury.

The unstable surface training helps you to become more athletic too. In sports you won’t always be in a perfect position, so training on an unstable surface helps you with balance, correcting position and adjusting movements in real time.

The final benefit is real-world strength. On lots of weights machines strength is only trained in perfect alignment. For example a chest press movement is always governed by the machine, so you never need to correct your position. With instability training you’ll often need to correct your position mid-lift, which requires extra demands.

Staying safe with Unstable Surface Training

There’s a risk of injury with unstable surface training if you don’t do it right. Work at an appropriate level, so don’t try to do anything ridiculous such as standing on a Swiss ball doing shoulder presses - it might look impressive on YouTube, but there’s a great chance you’ll end up in casualty instead!

Safe approaches require a gradual build up, so start safe with basic exercises and light weights, then build yourself up to more challenging, demanding exercises over time.

If you’re in East London and would the AdMac Fitness personal trainers to train you, contact us on 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

Getting Creative in the Gym - Using Different Types of Resistance

Whether you like CrossFit or not, there’s a lot to learn from fundamental training philosophy of the sport. Greg Glassman, the founder of CrossFit came up with the now famous ‘Fitness in 100 words’ definition. In case you haven’t seen it, here it is…

The bit I’m focussing on today is the penultimate paragraph, in particular the bit that says… ‘mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy’…

When it comes to resistance training we can end up falling into a trap where we do the same combinations of exercises, rep ranges, weights and sets. Whilst there’s nothing wrong with that in the sense that any exercise is better than no exercise, by not adding variety you’re leaving lots of health, fitness and performance benefits on the table.

In this article we’re going to look at different types of resistance training, their advantages and disadvantages. Hopefully you’ll draw inspiration from it and mix up your training on the back of it.

I’m going to stay away from standard equipment such as barbells, dumbbells and kettlebells because they’re the obvious ways to strength train. Instead I’m going to suggest ways of strength training you may have overlooked.

Different types of resistance

Essentially your body knows four types of stimulus when it comes to resistance training…

1. Load (weight)

2. Volume (amount of reps)

3. Time under tension (how long it spends working against resistance)

4. Force (how much explosive power is used)

What is can’t tell is what type of equipment is used. It can’t tell the difference between a dumbbell, a kettlebell, a barbell, a tyre etc. It just knows the effect of the equipment, so mix things ups and see the benefits.

Here’s a range of new ideas for you to use…

Bodyweight

The ultimate in portable gym equipment - your body goes everywhere you go! Whether it’s simple bodyweight exercises or more advanced gymnastics, calisthenics or plyometrics, there’s a huge range of scope for bodyweight training.

Advantages

• Portable - your body goes everywhere

• Varied - there’s a lot of variety in body weight training

• Safe - there’s not much in the way of damage you can do to yourself

• Perfect for high rep work

• You don’t need much extra kit

Disadvantages

• Limited weight scope - hard to do heavy weight work

Weighted Vest

A forgotten-about method of adding resistance to training is by using a weighted vest. These are ideal because they’re easy to wear, adjustable and you can use them for either strength training or cardio. Whether you wear them for a walk, a run or a gym workout, they make every day exercises that bit tougher.

Advantages

• Easy to use - put it on and get busy

• Portable - can be thrown in the car, stored in a gym locker etc

• Adjustable - if you get an adjustable one you can tweak it for different exercises

• Varied use - you can use it for gym workouts, running, walking and even cycling

• Progressive - you can start with little weight and keep adding

Disadvantages

• Upper weight limit cap - you can’t ad weight forever, it’ll reach a point where there’s no more room to add weight!

• Can be fairly heavy to carry around, so it’s best being stored either at home or in the gym

Suspension Trainer

Since the TRX entered the market over a decade ago, the use of suspension trainers has boomed. Rightly so too - they’re the perfect portable gym, offering a wide range of exercises in a pocket-sized bag. Apart from being cheap, they’re portable and very useful. The perfect travelling gym, allowing you to exercise in parks, hotel rooms etc.

Advantages

• Varied - there’s lots of exercises you can do with a suspension trainer and you can also use it to make standard bodyweight exercises tougher

• Instability training - it can be used in place of a Swiss ball for instability

• Lightweight - it can be carried easily. Even taken on holiday without issue

• Progressive - suitable for complete beginners and experienced trainers alike

• Can offset weight for performing rehab exercises

Disadvantages

• Needs a place to be hung from

Tyres

Tyres are an excellent resistance training tool. They’re challenging, come in a variety of weights, they test grip, technique and muscular strength endurance. They’re also often free - farmers and tyre yards have to pay to dispose of them, so you may often be able to pick them up for nothing because you’re doing them a favour!

Advantages

• Heavy and challenging - they’re nothing like standard weight training equipment so will challenge you in new ways

• Offers excellent grip strength training

• Great crossover into lots of sports - a tyre flip requires power, explosiveness and great conditioning

• Can be used as a platform for exercises such as jumps, set ups, feet-elevated push ups etc

Disadvantages

• You need storage space

• They’re best used if you’ve got at least 5 metres of space to flip them in

Using Different Types of Resistance

Training is best when there’s different types of stimulus and challenges. Hopefully the ideas from this article will inspire you to look beyond your usual routines and rep ranges, offering your body a new approach to deal with!

Your fitness and physique will thank you for it!

If you’re in East London and would the AdMac Fitness personal trainers to train you, contact us on 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

Why Starting Running Might Not be a Good Idea...

This time of year is a busy one for the fitness industry. The kids are back to school and after a summer of indulgence, an enthusiasm for exercise begins to kick back in. In an attempt to shift the additional weight, a lot of people throw themselves back into an exercise regime.

Excellent news - we want everyone to be healthy.

The problem is, a lot of people start running and that might not be the best idea. Starting running without the correct build up will often lead to injury. It’s great for physio’s, but it’s not always the best news for runners!

If you’re one of these people who have started running and broken down with injury quickly, read on to understand what might have happened, why it has happened and what you can do to prevent it happening again in future…

Running - the low down

When we run, we significantly increase the impact of our bodyweight on our joints. When studied, researchers learned that the impact through our joints during running is around 4 times your bodyweight. In real terms, that means if you weigh 12 stone, with each running step you take you’re putting the equivalent of 48 stone through your feet, ankles, knees, hips and back.

Wow!

The revelation bears out into real life as well. When the incidence of running injury has been researched, the data collected by scientists shows anywhere between ~ 20% and ~80% of runners have suffered a running related injury. Although this seems like a huge difference, on a long enough timeline the likelihood of running injury increases, so it depends on the length of time over which the data was collected.

The point is running increases our risk of injury significantly.

But isn’t running a good thing?

Yes, but only if you’re prepared for it.

If you go from a long period of inactivity to running frequently, you’re likely to cause yourself an injury. Putting huge forces through your muscles, connective tissues and joints when they simply aren’t used to it is a disaster waiting to happen.

The old adage of ‘no pain, no gain’ is simply not appropriate when it comes to an injured runner. If something hurts, stop it! You don’t win any gold medals for hurting yourself!

Even if you’re a previous regular runner, build up to it sensibly and carefully using the tips in the next section…

How to build up to sensible running…

Despite the risks with running, there’s a way to build up to running sensibly. Here’s the best tips to make it easier and safer for you…

Get Stronger

All things being equal, a strong muscle is less injury prone and more able to generate force than a weaker one. It's also able to offer more stability to the relevant joints, helping to further prevent injury. The other benefit from strength training is that it doesn’t just impact the muscles - it helps to build strength in the connective tissues as well.

Ligaments, tendons and bones also become stronger and more robust through regular strength training.

Invest in better running shoes

If frequent injuries are part of your running experience, it may be time to invest in shoes that are better suited to running. It’s worth having a gait analysis done before you buy your next pair of running shoes because it may hold the key to injury prevention.

Companies spend huge amounts of money on their shoe technology every year, and research suggests it might be money well spent. There’s good evidence that motion-control shoes can reduce the frequency of lower limb injuries in runners, which may be a game changer for some.

Take your time and build up slowly

It’s important that you take the time to build up your running slowly and make it part of a suitable overall training programme. Unless you’re looking to compete as a runner, the chances are you want to be fit and healthy more than you want to be a runner - running is just the vehicle you’ve chosen to get you there!

Speak to our personal trainers at AdMac Fitness and see how they can fit running into an overall training plan. They’ll build workouts for you that help you to stay strong and injury-free, all the while improving your running.

You can run - just do it right with the help of the AdMac Fitness team…

Follow these tips and you’ll be able to run without issue. The days of running through injuries, or having your budding fitness journey stopped through running injuries are over! You’ll be able to reach your health and fitness goals without issue, with the help of our AdMac Fitness personal trainers.

If you’re in East London and would the AdMac Fitness personal trainers to train you, contact us on 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

Adding Complexes to Your Training

One of the best ways to increase workout intensity is by introducing exercise complexes into your workout. It’s an idea borrowed from weightlifting, where multiple exercises are strung together to create a longer, higher intensity rep.

It’s different from the superset, tri-set and giant sets of the bodybuilding world in that the exercises are performed in a single rep, rather than consecutive sets. For those who aren’t fully aware of what that means, here’s a basic explanation…

In a superset, two full sets of an exercise will be performed back to back without a rest in between. For example you could do a set of 10 push ups, followed immediately by a set of 10 pull ups.

In a complex, you’d perform a single rep consisting of a series of exercises. For example, it might be something like a squat into alternating lunges, or a deadlift into a bent over row.

If you use kettlebells, it could be a single arm swing, into a single arm clean, then into a single arm press.

Below is an example of three exercises being used in one rep….

Why use complexes in training?

There’s a few different reasons that complexes would be put in a workout ahead of supersets.

Mixing movements balances fatigue

A complex allows you to mix your movement patterns effectively, so you can complete multiple exercises in a single rep. For example, in you were performing a front squat into shoulder press complex, your upper body is resting whilst the legs are working and vice versa.

It allows you to maintain intensity for longer because you don’t tire out a single body part.

Complexes allow you to practice techniques

When you perform complexes, chances are you’re using a lighter weight than you usually would for a lift. For example, if you’re performing a deadlift, clean and front squat complex, you won’t be using your 1 rep max, (you wouldn’t manage the whole set if you were).

By using a lighter weight you can practice technique well, but still enjoy a high intensity workout.

Complexes keep things interesting

We can be guilty of repeating the same exercises and routines in our workouts and complexes give us a chance to mix things up. By throwing in new challenges we keep enthusiasm high, enhance workout intensity and give us something to work on.

The other argument is that it can ‘shock’ the body into new progress. There’s a debate about whether or not that’s an effective strategy, but anecdotally it’s an effective way to boost progress.

Complexes reduce injury risk

One of the main causes of injury from resistance training is movement repetition. By repeating the movement pattern time and again you can develop muscle imbalances, strength imbalances and the like. With the introduction of complexes you can reduce the stress on single areas of the body.

This is helpful from both an injury prevention and rehab point of view.

What kind of complexes can I use in my training?

This depends on your goals and your training ability. Some people have the skills, strength and mobility to perform weightlifting movements. If you can do those, great - the world’s your lobster! If you don’t have those and you’re not familiar with weightlifting technique, don’t worry - there’s plenty of other options!

Here’s a few to get started with…

Dumbbell Thurster - this is a squat into a shoulder press. Excellent exercise, trains most of the muscles in the body and can be used as both a strength and conditioning exercise…

Squat and Lunge complex - this is a way of increasing the time under tension of the legs, but they also strengthen the legs individually as well as together. An excellent muscle builder.

Burpee into Pull ups - this is a great exercise combo that is perfectly at home in a finisher or conditioning session. It’s high intensity, all body and can be manipulated from a sets or reps point of view.

Throw these complexes into your training and enjoy the challenge of new exercises, new techniques and new results! It makes training more efficient, more fun and in lots of ways, more effective!

If you’re in East London and would the AdMac Fitness personal trainers to train you, contact us on 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

The Kids Are Going Back to School... Protect Yourself!

It’s that time of year when the summer draws to a close. The nights get longer and the temperature begins to drop. Most importantly (for parents), it’s the time when kids go back to school and older kids go back to college and university…

… but why is that relevant to a health and fitness blog?!

It’s relevant because at the start of term, schools, colleges and universities are a bit of a bug factory. Hundreds, potentially thousands of people mixing for the first time in weeks and months. In close contact with one another, spreading different strains of bugs.

Add on top of that the disruption in summer routines, added fatigue from the extra learning, the extra parties and late nights amongst those in university and college. It’s a perfect storm for viruses to spread - in fact in uni there’s even something known as ‘fresher’s flu’, where students pick up a bug for all of the reasons mentioned above.

How to protect yourself from the school bugs…

We know that immunity has been high on the agenda for the last 18 months and a lot of the tried and trusted methods work. In this case though, there’s more to immunity than protecting yourself - you’ve got to create the best possible shield around you and your family.

By enhancing the immunity of your children too, you protect both them and yourself. If they have a strong and robust immune system, it will stop them picking up the bugs. If they don’t have them, they can’t bring them home and pass them on to you. It’s a case of creating a bigger protective shield around you and your family.

These evidence-based tips will help you improve your immunity as schools, colleges and universities return…

Immune boost nutritionally…

We know deep down that a healthy diet improves our immune systems. What we also know is that there are particular vitamins and minerals that support healthy immune function. In particular we know from research that Vitamins A and D are particularly useful when it comes to supporting immune function. This means we should look to increase or consumption of foods containing vitamin A, and making the most of the sunshine by getting outside to stimulate vitamin D production.

When the sunshine drops, or getting outside isn’t a viable option, take supplemental vitamin D3 to keep you healthy.

Vitamin A is found in the following foods…

• Eggs

• Oily fish

• Fortified low-fat spreads

• Milk and yoghurt

• Offal

It’s also a good idea to help support the rest of your nutritional health with a broad-spectrum multivitamin supplement, mostly because of the minerals which have been shown to boost immunity.

Get plenty of sleep

And overlooked but vital element of protecting immune function is sleep. There’s barely a physiological process that isn’t improved or enhanced with adequate sleep. What the research shows is that sleeping enough helps to regulate immune function via a few different mechanisms, including regulation of inflammatory markers.

You can ignore the advice of you have to sleep 8-10 hours per night - we’re not all built the same. Some people need as little as 7 hours to fully recover, others need more than that. You’ll know what adequate sleep is for you, but it’s important that you get enough sleep.

Making hygiene a priority

It’s a good idea to maintain the high standards of hygiene that have become normalised over the last few months. Regular use of hand sanitisers and the like is a good idea and the research backs this up. Keeping your hands clean, keeping your keyboard and other bits of kit clean - even keeping your phone clean can be helpful.

We don’t fully appreciate how long bugs can last on surfaces, so taking a few steps to make sure they’re killed off with help to reduce transmission and spread of infection. Other ideas include not sharing pens, pencils and the like. It might sound like overkill, but there is enough evidence now to suggest that it’s a good approach to take.

Exercise frequently… and well!

Exercise improving health is no secret and that isn’t about to change. A bit like sleep, there are no physiological processes that aren’t enhanced with a solid exercise regime backing them up.

By training at AdMac Fitness we’d guide you towards optimal health and fitness with the help of our expert personal trainers. We’re East London’s premier personal training studio, where you can be assured of excellent service and guidance from experienced and professional PTs.

If you’d like us to help you, contact us on 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

Training - How Much is Too Much?

The classic cliche when it comes to training is not wanting to do it… making any excuse to avoid getting up and getting some work done.

There’s another side of that coin though, the ones who love training and want to do it every day. That leads us to the question ‘how much training is too much?’ Is there such a thing? If there is, at what point do we know it, and how can we avoid it in the first place?

Let’s see what the science says…

What Factors Determine Rest and Recovery Requirements?

Training Load…

The first question to answer is one of training load - how much volume are you doing? Not all training demands a lot of your body. For example, you’d struggle to run a marathon every day, but a daily dog walk along a short, flat route isn’t going to take too much out of you.

Training load does place a lot of demand on your body. Even if the intensity isn’t particularly high, the overall load and volume adds up. Many bodybuilders don’t train at a high intensity, opting for volume over weight, which has been linked to hypertrophic gains. Although they may not be lifting to muscular failure, they’re repeating lots of repetitions and that needs recovery time.

Training Intensity…

The same goes for intensity - if you’re going all out doing a high intensity weight lifting workout, training your whole body with a high volume of heavy weight, high intensity lifts you’re going to need to recover for a while. You’re unlikely to be able to lift to your maximum for set after set, day after day.

Powerlifting training rarely has an athlete gasping for breath, but the sheer load of work done by the CNS (central nervous system) can cause a syndrome known as CNS Fatigue, which can take time to recover from depending on the severity of the case.

Training History…

The other factor is training history. Your body adapts to the demands placed upon it and therefore the longer your training history, the more likely you are to cope with higher volume and intensity. Muscle tissue, connective tissue and cardiovascular systems all adapt to training, so the more you do, the more you’ll be able to do.

There’s also a legacy benefit from training as well. The concept of ‘muscle memory’ has been debated for years, but there’s now evidence that suggests historical training benefits do exist, suggesting that if you’ve trained extensively in the past, you’ll be able to adapt to a higher training load quicker than someone without a training history.

How Do You Monitor Training Intensity?

The most accessible way for most people to monitor their training intensity is with a heart rate monitor. Most of them are pretty good, but the Polar heart rate monitor ranges tend to be the best - they usually score highest in accuracy test and are used by athletes, labs and sports scientists the world over. This one is a good multi-use monitor that will look at heart rate, calorie burn, steps, recovery rate etc. It’s a good way of keeping an eye on training intensity.

The other way is intrinsic. You’ll feel when you’re tired and need a break. This one isn’t an exact science, and with that in mind I’d always suggest you go with the heart rate monitor first (and as well), because there’s a tendency to give up before we need to. What I like about the heart rate monitor is that there’s no hiding place - it’ll tell you how hard you’re working, so you’ve got no excuse when it comes to giving up prematurely!

Maximising Recovery

More training means you’ll need better, deeper recovery. There’s a lot of products that will help with recovery, but the biggest impact you can make comes from a couple of things - maximising your sleep and ensuring you’re getting enough protein and carbohydrates to repair and refuel after training. High quality sleep and nutrition are the two bedrocks of recovery, so get these right and everything else will fall into place for you.

Your ability to train depends on your ability to recover, so the answer to the question ‘how much training is too much?’ is purely dependent on how well recovered you are. If you’re recovering well and balancing your training between high and low intensity work, there’s theoretically nothing wrong with training every day. Don’t try to push to a maximum every day, instead put a few ‘active recovery’ days where you still move, but at a low enough intensity to ensure you’re recovered fully.

The problem occurs when your training outstrips your ability to recover.

If you’re looking for personal training in East London, get in touch…

At AdMac Fitness we’re not about fads, fashions and short term fixes. We want you to succeed properly over the long term, so with our help and advice you can get your fitness back on track! If you’d like us to help you, contact us on 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

Snacks to Help You Lose Weight

Let’s make one thing abundantly clear from the start - fat loss is about calories in versus calories out. If you want to lose body fat, you absolutely have to be in a calorie deficit. It doesn't matter how this is achieved, but it has to be achieved in some way, lest you won’t be losing fat any time soon.

What we notice is that a lot of people eat well at meal times - they keep their protein intake high, their carbs appropriate to their activity levels and their overall calories on course. The issue comes from ‘hidden’ calories - their snacks.

If you’re not factoring in the snacks, even small additions can add up. A couple of daily snacks around the 250 calorie mark quickly adds up. Across the course of a week that adds an extra 3500 calories, which can be the difference between losing a lot of fat or staying exactly the same weight.

But there’s a conundrum…

Dieting is pretty hard work. It' makes you hungry, so it’s even more tempting to eat. in this case, snacking can be your best friend - as long as it’s done correctly. It’ll keep your hunger at bay and it’ll keep your fat loss goals on track by staying within your calorie target.

In this article, we’re going to look at a variety of snacking options and explain why they’re good choices.

Snacks to help you lose weight…

The following snacks are diet-friendly, health friendly and will help ease hunger whilst still helping you to achieve your weight loss goals…

Snack: Protein Shake (made with water)

Why it helps you to lose weight: Maintaining a good protein intake is essential at all times, but when trying to lose weight it takes on an even greater importance. Alongside the cell repair benefits, it also helps to keep you full, which staves off hunger. If it’s made with water it keeps the calories very low, and most protein powders contain vitamins and minerals so it’s an extra hit of those. It’s liquid so keeps you hydrated, which is another weight loss plus. For best results make your shake in a blender to make it extra smooth.

Finally, many protein shakes come in ‘sweet’ flavours, so you can make them more indulgent than they should be. Flavours such as After Eight, Birthday Cake, Chocolate fudge etc make them almost dessert like!

Snack: Chopped Vegetables (and a dip)

Why it helps you to lose weight: First of all, because it’s really low calorie (depending on the dip). It also helps you to increase your fibre intake, which helps to keep you full and makes you want to eat less later on. The huge vitamin and mineral hit increases your general health and wellbeing, plus the low sugar, low fat element of the chopped vegetables keep your mentally alert and stops you reaching for a sugar rush to perk you back up.

Go with chopped peppers, carrots, cucumber, celery and the like. For dips, look for low calorie hummus or yogurt-based dips.

Snack: Berries

Why it helps you to lose weight: Berries are low in calories and are very sweet, so they satisfy a sweet craving without tipping you into a calorie surplus. They’re also full of antioxidants and their vitamin profile is excellent, so they help with your wellbeing too. Another benefit is they’re high in fibre on account of their skin and seeds.

Berries also have a very high liquid content, so they blend very well and are ideal in smoothies. You can put a lot of berries in a smoothie and still not need to worry about your calorie intake.

Snack: Jerky

Why it helps you to lose weight: For those of you who like to follow a low carb diet approach, jerky is a great choice. It’s tasty, so feels like it should be a treat. It’s low calorie (depending on the brand - check the label) very high in protein and the fat content is generally low (again, check the label). By combining a winning trio of high protein, low carbs, low fat and low calories, it’s a great diet food option.

If you don’t eat beef, you can also look at turkey jerky. There’s even vegetarian and vegan options on the market as well now, so nobody is left out!

Snacks to help you lose weight - final thoughts

Snacking is there Achilles heel for many dieters, but by using these options you’ll keep your calories down and still benefit your health in numerous ways. It’s not easy being strict on yourself, but adding a little bit of pleasure into your diet makes the weight loss process so much easier.

The snacks in this list aren’t exactly chocolate, but they’re accessible, feel more indulgent than they are and all serve a purpose for both your health and weight loss goals.

If you’re looking for personal training in East London, get in touch…

At AdMac Fitness we’re not about fads, fashions and short term fixes. We want you to succeed properly over the long term, so with our help and advice you can get your fitness back on track! If you’d like us to help you, contact us on 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

How to do Cardio... When you HATE Cardio

To a lot of people, cardio is their idea of hell.

The thought of going for a run, a bike ride or a swim brings them out in a shiver. There’s a bunch of reasons for this - some find it boring, some find it really hard work, others simply just don’t get any enjoyment out of repeating the same movement patterns over and over again, for a long period of time.

The problem is though, cardiovascular exercise comes with a huge amount of benefit…

Benefits of Regular Exercise on Cardiovascular Risk Factors

This is a list of the more obvious (there are plenty of others not listed here) benefits of cardiovascular exercise. If you’re not doing cardio, you may be missing out on some of these…

• Increase in exercise tolerance

• Reduction in body weight

• Reduction in blood pressure

• Reduction in bad (LDL and total) cholesterol

• Increase in good (HDL) cholesterol

• Increase in insulin sensitivity

These benefits aren’t attached to one particular cardiovascular training approach either. It doesn’t matter if you’re a runner, a swimmer, a cyclist, a hill walker or a combination of them all, you’ll be benefitting from these health outcomes.

So how can you do cardio, without doing cardio?!

Cardiovascular exercise is basically any exercise practice that maintains an elevated heart rate for an extended period of time. The method you use to achieve this is almost irrelevant, so that’s the first step. Acknowledge that you don’t have to limit yourself to traditional cardio exercise - anything can count as cardio as long as it raises your heart rate for an extended period (minimum 20 minutes).

Here’s a few ideas on how to do cardio, without doing cardio…

Play a sport

I think of sport as ‘accidental’ cardio. Personally, I love football. When I play football, I think of it as playing football. The reality is though I’m getting an incredible cardiovascular workout in at the same time. An hour of 5 a side can easily see me burn 1000 calories and is a perfect example of HIIT (high intensity interval training).

Find a sport or activity you enjoy and take part in it. There’s no right or wrong - it could be a team sport, a dance class, an individual sport or whatever else!

Commute to work via bike

Similar to the example above, if you’re commuting to work by bike you’re likely to be thinking of it as a functional task - commuting, rather than exercise. It’s serving two purposes at the same time. Yes, you’re getting to work, but you’re also achieving a regular form of exercise.

If (like us) you live in London, it’s a no-brainer. It’s likely to be much quicker than driving, it’s certainly cheaper and you won’t have a nightmare trying to find a parking space! Not to mention the thousands of calories per month you’ll be burning.

Switch up your workout style

If you like to train with weights, mix things up a little bit. Drop the weight slightly, reduce the rest periods and watch your heart rate fly up. Your exercise selection is key here - if you train like a bodybuilder with an old-school split routine, it’ll be pretty hard to raise the heart rate for a long period of time. Instead, go whole-body and add in big compound and weightlifting based movements such as clean and press, thrusters, deadlifts, squats and the like.

Medium weights, high reps and reduces rest periods. A couple of workouts like that per week and you’ll really notice the effects!

Join our bootcamp classes!

If you want cardio with a difference, our bootcamp classes are the perfect solution. They’re resistance training based, so you won’t be heading out for a long run or ride! It’s just good quality resistance training that will get your heart rate up and your weight down!

We’re expanding the size of our space at the AdMac Fitness studio, so keep your eyes peeled for an announcement in the coming weeks. If you struggle to motivate yourself to do cardio, they’ll be the perfect solution for you.

How often will I need to do cardio?

This depends on your goals, but for most people a couple of good quality cardio sessions per week will provide you with a lot of the excellent health benefits. You don’t need to be heading out for hour long runs - just follow the advice in this blog post and you’ll be absolutely fine.

If you’d rather do a little bit every workout, that’s also fine - if you’re doing it more regularly you won’t have to go as long! The perfect way to fit this into your training schedule is to end each workout with a ‘finisher’ - a high intensity nd to a workout. We wrote a whole blog post on workout finishers here, so throw a few of these ideas into your training sessions and you’ll certainly improve your cardiovascular fitness!

Remember though, they’re usually pretty short (around 10 minutes), so you’ll have to do them frequently if you want the benefits! Oh, you’ll also have to do them hard! There’s no point in an easy finisher…

If you’re looking for personal training in East London, get in touch…

At AdMac Fitness we’re not about fads, fashions and short term fixes. We want you to succeed properly over the long term, so with our help and advice you can get your fitness back on track! If you’d like us to help you, contact us on 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

Rapid Cleanse - the Sensible Way

For England football fans, it’s been a summer of fun - a great performance from the team in the Euro 2020 championship saw us reach the final. Great news… but it comes at a price!

There’s a good chance that watching a match will be accompanied with a beer or 5. When the beer flows, there are usually a few bad choices that follow… mostly around food! A few beers in, kebabs, curries, chips, fried chicken etc become even more appealing. When you add 5 or 6 pints (around 250 calories each) to a takeaway (around 1000 calories), you’ll understand why a lot of people gain weight during a football tournament!

So how do you give your health a kick start? How do you get rid of the bloating, the water retention and the general lethargy following a few weeks’ worth of boozing and bad food choices?

In this article we’ll look at a mixture of lab and anecdotal evidence to help you feel better… fast.

The Solution to Pollution is… Dilution

One of the early pioneers in the modern health and fitness industry, Paul Chek uses this line a lot. His thinking is that many of us exist in a state of dehydration, which puts pressure on internal organs and reduces our ability to clear our toxins from our bodies.

On the back of a few weeks’ worth of boozing and bad food, there’s a good chance you’ll be pretty dehydrated. Salt, sugar, alcohol, caffeine are known diuretics, so do their bit to keep you dehydrated. You can kickstart the healing process by cleaning yourself with a lot of water consumption, which rehydrates the body.

Evidence suggests that water consumption helps the body effectively deal with toxins by supporting kidney function. Making sure you are fully hydrated doesn’t just help the kidneys however, it helps to improve the health and appearance of the skin and helps to improve general digestion.

Hypermineralisation…

This is the next step of the recovery is the increase in vitamin and mineral intake. By giving the body all of the support it needs to function, you’re providing an insurance policy. There’s strong evidence that vitamin supplementation can help to reduce the incidence of cardiovascular disease and with COVID-19 still so prevalent, it could be a good idea to take daily vitamin supplements.

The best way to increase vitamin and mineral intake it with dietary sources though. Consume massive amounts of fruit and vegetables, clean protein and water. That’ll certainly help you feel better!

Fasting…

Proponents of intermittent fasting claim that it helps to reduce inflammation, arguably down to the lack of foods that create inflammation. For a long time this was seen as an anecdotal benefit, but recent research has shown that fasting does actually help to reduce inflammation. A poor diet is one of the major causes of inflammation so by removing the foods that cause this inflammation, you help to improve how you are feeling.

Fasting also gives the digestive system a break and the reduction in calories consumed helps us to lose weight any weight gained with the boozing and bad food choices! Extra benefit.

Sleep…

The ultimate recovery tool is sleeping, which is seriously compromised when you drink excess alcohol or caffeine. A quick way to recover post alcohol binge is to sleep well. You do this by removing anything that will compromise the quality of your sleep, which goes beyond the obvious booze and coffee - staring at screens in bed won’t help at all either, so reduce your screen time to enhance your sleep.

This is NOT a detox!

Your body does a good job of detoxing - this is a step by step approach to help your body along the way by not re-toxing. It’s a good idea to follow these steps post the Euro’s celebrations, just to help your body fully recover! You’ll improve your physical and mental wellbeing, perhaps lose a bit of weight and make yourself feel better very quickly!

If you’re looking for personal training in East London, get in touch!

At AdMac Fitness we’re not about fads, fashions and short term fixes. We want you to succeed properly over the long term, so with our help and advice you can get your fitness back on track! If you’d like us to help you, contact us on 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

Single Limb Training - No Weak Links

One of the areas of training that has been getting a lot of attention over the last couple of years is single limb training. You’ll sometimes hear it being called isolateral training, and the purpose is to isolate each individual limb as part of an overall training programme.

The thinking is that if you isolate each limb during training, you make it strong because it is forced to work fully, developing strength.

When an exercise is performed unilaterally (both sides at the same time), there can be a tendency for the stronger side to dominate the movement - this is certainly the case with barbell exercises such as the bench press or squats, but it also happens on machines such as lat pulldowns, chest press, leg press etc.

If this happens over a long enough period of time it can create a significant strength imbalance between both sides, resulting in a higher injury risk.

Cross Over from Professional Sport to General Population

Single limb training isn’t anything new - it has been used in professional sport for decades. In sports where there is a great emphasis on a single limb such as jumping or throwing sports (athletes take off on the same leg, or throw with the same arm over and over again), single limb work has been predominant for years.

The big crossover came when strength and conditioning coaches such as Mike Boyle started to announce he was using single limb variations of training for not just his sports clients, but his general population clients too. He argued that it was more functional, less likely to result in injury and led to greater health and fitness gains across the board. It’s hard to argue with these points too, for a number of reasons…

1. Single limb work uses lighter weights to achieve the same training effect, which reduces injury risk

2. Single limb work means each body part has to work independently, improving general strength

3. Technique improves because there’s no compensatory movement patterns

The switch to single limb work is often the change your body needs and acts as a stimulus for wider training adaptions. We know from research that with single limb training you still benefit the opposite site of the body. Across multiple studies the same results occur, where even the non-trained side of the body benefits from strength improvements.

There’s also research that suggests using dumbbells results in better muscle recruitment and activation than barbells. The same can also be said for kettlebells. When assessed, single arm kettlebell swings were shown to achieve greater abdominal and back muscle activation and recruitment, which will translate to greater strength adaption. Interestingly, the single arm swing activated the sling patterns in the body, so when the swing was done with the right arm, the upper right limb and lower left limb were recruited, aiding stability and helping to prevent possible back issues.

Single Limb Training at AdMac Fitness

We pride ourselves with being abreast of the research and ensuring that the advice we give our personal training clients has justifiable evidence pointing towards its effectiveness. This is why when you work with an AdMac Fitness personal trainer, you’ll be taking part in effective workouts that will include single limb work where appropriate.

So next time in your session at AdMac Fitness, when your personal trainer reaches for the kettlebells or dumbbells and tells you you’re going to so something like single arm rows, single leg squats, alternating shoulder presses or the like, you know why!

If you’re looking for personal training in East London, get in touch!

At AdMac Fitness we’re not about fads, fashions and short term fixes. We want you to succeed properly over the long term, so with our help and advice you can get your fitness back on track! If you’d like us to help you, contact us on 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

How Important is Breakfast Really?

One of the oldest sayings in nutrition is that ‘breakfast is the most important meal of the day’, but have we ever put this to the test, or are we simply accepting it as a known truth? Is it merely a marketing claim or is there significant, strong evidence that points towards the claims being true?

We all have different breakfast habits - some people wake up absolutely staving and ready to eat a horse within minutes. Other people don’t need to eat for hours upon waking. Proponents of intermittent fasting will argue that this is not only a good way of approaching your nutrition, it’s in fact better than the traditional ‘early breakfast’ approach.

The problem with a lot of how we approach nutrition questions such as ‘is breakfast important?’ is that we look at them with a bias - such as weight loss.

When we ask the question, we’re doing so with too narrow a focus. When most people ask how important is breakfast, what they’re really asking ‘does eating breakfast help with weight loss?’ In this article we’re going to address the breakfast question from three different angles….

1. Does eating or avoiding breakfast help with weight loss?

2. Does eating or avoiding breakfast help with cognitive function?

3. Does eating or avoiding breakfast help with physical performance?

By looking at the same question through three different lenses, I hope be able to provide a better quality answer than ‘yes or no’.

Does eating or avoiding breakfast help with weight loss?

Regardless of the time or type of food we consume, weight loss is governed by energy balance - calories in versus calories out. Whether you eat breakfast or not, if you eat more energy than your body needs, you’ll put on weight. The reverse is also true.

What the weight loss and breakfast research shows is that there’s no clear and well-established link suggesting it’s either good or bad. You can find studies supporting both approaches - here’s one saying eating breakfast is good for weight loss and here’s one suggesting that eating breakfast is bad for weight loss. The best advice here is that do what suits you - if you’re hungry in the mornings, eat. If you’re not, don’t.

There is some thinking that says skipping breakfast certainly reduces overall calorie intake, but it may also reduce energy levels throughout the day, making you move less and therefore burn fewer calories, reducing weight loss. It’s a question of balance - if eating breakfast helps you feel more energised throughout the day, go for it. If not, maybe don’t.

I know that’s a pretty vague answer, but the key takeaway is that your weight loss isn’t purely determined by what you eat or don’t eat first thing in the morning. It’s down to energy balance and you can affect that at all different times of the day with your actions and food choices.

Does eating or avoiding breakfast help with cognitive function?

This is where things begin to become a bit clearer. We go from being able to make casual links between breakfast and an outcome to being able to test the effects of breakfast on cognitive capabilities. That being said, the brain is a pretty complex machine so results will vary!

What we’ve learned from looking at the data is that there are some elements of brain function that eating breakfast helps, almost without doubt. The big one is memory - eating breakfast has been shown to improve both short and long term memory in participants.

Other aspects of cognitive function that appear to be improved by eating breakfast include ‘executive functions’ - an umbrella term that covers working memory, flexible thinking, and self-control. This is interesting, because it links back to the weight loss point. If eating breakfast helps to improve self-control, it stands to reason that it will help those same people with making better food choices.

There’s differences in opinion about how different foods impact cognitive function in the mornings, with arguments about whether or not fat dominant foods, protein dominant foods and carbohydrate dominant foods are the best. In the absence of clear evidence, the AdMac Fitness suggestion is for you to experiments with all three and see what works for you.

Does eating or avoiding breakfast help with physical performance?

Here’s another area where the nuance makes for a difficult recommendation. Some people who have been intermittent fasters, or those who have become fat-adapted through long term ketogenic dieting for example, may struggle to train having eaten breakfast.

Other people may need some food in their system to help with their physical performance.

The reality is we’re all built differently and blanket advice doesn’t allow for nuance. What we do know is that when studied, a light breakfast (around 120 calories) appears to have a beneficial impact on performance. The research isn’t strong enough to suggest a light breakfast as advice as such, but the evidence points towards it helping.

For reference, 120 calories is roughly a large banana.

Further study suggests that skipping breakfast may reduce exercise capacity later on, suggesting that if you are a morning exerciser, you’ll need to eat something in the morning in order to maximise your ability to train. The evidence suggests that training whilst fasted will (for most people at least) reduce your exercise capacity, which has a knock-on effect on calorie burn and fitness improvements.

If we combine the advice across multiple different studies, perhaps a good bit of advice would be to eat a light (120 calorie) breakfast ahead of morning exercise in order to maximise training output. If you train later in the day, it’s not as important.

How Important is Breakfast Really? Final Thoughts…

Based on the evidence, breakfast is important if you’re an early trainer, or you’re going to do something that’s going to require a bit of brain power early in the morning! If either of those apply to you, eat something small, healthy and easy to digest.

When it comes to weight loss, it’s not that important - making sure you don’t overeat throughout the day is far more important than what or when you eat your first meal of the day.

Don’t obsess over the small things. Stick to what you know works for you and you won’t go far wrong!

If you’re looking for personal training in East London, get in touch!

At AdMac Fitness we’re not about fads, fashions and short term fixes. We want you to succeed properly over the long term, so with our help and advice you can get your fitness back on track! If you’d like us to help you, contact us on 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

A NEAT Way to Improve Your Fat Loss Results...

The vast majority of personal training at AdMac Fitness originally come to us because they want help losing weight. They see our results and want our expert personal trainers to guide their own fat loss journey.

We approach fat loss with our personal training clients in three ways…

1. Exercise

2. Diet

3. Lifestyle

Ultimately fat loss comes down to creating a calorie deficit so all of these elements have to work towards the same goal - helping to burn more calories than you consume.

We don’t have a one-size-fits-all approach to fat loss, because we’re all so different. A dietary approach that works for one won’t always work for somebody else because of factors such as time, access etc. This is why we approach it from a ‘coach the individual’ model. It’s our job to make sure your personal training is personal to you.

No two AdMac Fitness personal training clients will be on the same workout plans. There’ll be similarities, but weights, sets, reps and rest may be tweaked for a different outcome.

There is one element of fat loss though that we encourage all of our personal training clients to embrace and that’s something called Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis, also known as NEAT.

What’s Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis?

This is any calorie-burning activity that isn’t specifically exercise based. It could include anything such as walking the dog, doing housework, DIY, gardening and anything in between.

By promoting general non-exercise activity we increase calorie burn throughout the day. It’s actually an incredibly powerful fat burner - you don’t always need to be working at a very high intensity for the calories to be burned. In fact, this comparison study between running and walking showed that walking burns around 75% of the calories running does, highlighting exactly how effective NEAT can be for promoting fat loss.

If you can make your days more active, you’ll certainly accelerate your fat loss. You don’t even need to make drastic lifestyle changes.

Simple Ways to Increase Your Daily NEAT

None of these ideas are absurd, nor do they require a complete transformation of how we live our lives. They can be included around hobbies and daily tasks, with the upside being the additional daily calorie burn…

• Cycle to work: For an average person in reasonable conditions, they’ll burn between 500 and 1000 calories per hour whilst cycling depending on speed, wind resistance, incline etc. If your cycle commute is 30 minutes each way, that’s an around an extra 2500 calories per day burned.

• Walk to the shops: There’s two benefits here - the first one is that you’re walking, which is obviously great. The second one is that you are doing a weighted carry on the way back as you carry for shopping too! Depending on the distance, there’s a lot of extra calorie burn here!

• Head out for lunch: If you work at home or in an office, make a point of going out for lunch. Even if you carry a packed lunch with you and eat it when you get to a fixed destination, just make a point of including daily steps in your day.

• Get off the bus or tube a stop early: If you have to commute to work via public transport, jump off a stop early. It’s a good way of adding the extra steps into your day and it’s not even that big of a hassle - if anything it might be a nice stress-reliever after a tough day at work!

How Much Difference to my Fat Loss will Increasing my NEAT Really Make?

A massive one, in all honesty. If you can increase your NEAT by 300-500 calories per day (which is really quite easy to do - it’s about 10,000 steps per day and is possible by following the tips earlier), you’ll be burning an extra 2100 - 3500 calories per week. Across the course of a year that’s 766,500 - 1,277,500 calories.

OK, those numbers are crazy, so let’s put them into context.

In a single pound of fat there’s 4086 calories, so by getting your NEAT up and assuming you don’t consume any further calories, you can accelerate your fat loss by an extra 0.5 - 0.9LBS per week. If you were on a long term weight loss plan, increasing your NEAT could add a further 25 - 50LBS of fat loss across the course of a year, which is a remarkable number for such low-intensity activity.

If you’re looking for personal training in East London, get in touch!

At AdMac Fitness we’re not about fads, fashions and short term fixes. We want you to succeed properly over the long term, so with our help and advice you can get your fitness back on track! If you’d like us to help you, contact us on 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

Why We Track Your Progress at AdMac Fitness

Since we’ve been allowed to re-open and move our training back inside the studio, our AdMac Fitness personal training clients have been FLYING!

We’ve added new space, new equipment (new kettlebells, new squat rack etc) and have started to integrate them into training plans. The new training options, the new enthusiasm and our growing team of personal trainers has meant we’re back off to a flying start! It’s the best the gym has ever been and we couldn’t be happier or more proud of our clients!

This progress isn’t opinion either - it’s fact, which is the topic of today’s blog post… why we track your progress at AdMac Fitness.

There are lots of ways to measure progress when it comes to exercise, not all of them are as obvious as weight loss - in fact for many people, weight loss is a nice by-product of a process that makes them feel happier, healthier and generally fitter.

The important thing is that progress is being measured and we do it for a number of reasons…

It helps us as personal trainers to know we’re having the right impact…

Our job is ultimately to have a positive impact on your life. As a personal training client of AdMac Fitness, we’re interested in far more than your stats - yes, we want to track your weight loss, body fat loss etc, but we also want you to love your exercise with us. We want to know if it’s helping you mentally as well as physically. We want to be able to see tangible progress in your fitness, as well as your health.

By tracking your progress across a number of different factors, we can help you to see the bigger picture of how you are getting on. There is also credible research showing that this rewarding positive behaviour is motivational and will keep you working towards your bigger, longer term goals.

It’s difficult to always see your progress, because you’re with yourself all of the time and watch the progress as it happens. There’s the longer-term differences you’ll notice (clothes no longer fitting, belts need tightening etc), but day-to-day motivation is a little harder to spot. That’s one of the reasons we track your progress, so we can remind you of how far you have come with your training…

It helps us to keep on track of goals

By monitoring your progress on a regular basis, we can tell how close we are to achieving your goals, therefore helps us with our planning for each phase of your nutrition and training strategy.

Say for example you wanted to gain a certain amount of muscle before dieting and taking your body fat level back down. We might have set a target bodyweight to reach, at which point we’d switch track. By monitoring your progress, we’d know where you are in relation to each phase of the goal and therefore when we could switch things up.

You might have wanted to reach, say, 90kg for starting your diet. Unless we tracked it, we’d never know if you were close to the target weight or not! It means we can get ready for the next phase of training, so once you’d hit your goals we could immediately make the switch to the new training plan, with renewed focus.

Personal training works…

There is strong proof that personal training works (which we already knew), but what has become clear through the research is that it not only works, but it helps to change attitudes towards health living. By constantly reminding you of how well you are doing, the positive reinforcement from your trainer, coupled with the tangible proof of progress serves to motivate you further.

This can often be the trigger to enjoy exercise for many people. If you’ve spent your entire life feeling unmotivated or like a complete failure who can’t lose weight, then having a professional in your corner, supporting you and helping you to overcome obstacles can be utterly transformative.

This friendly approach is the reason we have so many successful AdMac Fitness clients. We’ve helped hundreds of people to change their attitude and enjoyment of health and fitness for good.

Maybe you could be another?

If you’re looking for personal training in East London, get in touch!

At AdMac Fitness we’re not about fads, fashions and short term fixes. We want you to succeed properly over the long term, so with our help and advice you can get your fitness back on track! If you’d like us to help you, contact us on 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

Hot Weather Training - Follow Our Advice!

After a cold few months the mercury is beginning to climb and the summer has finally made itself known. The mornings are lighter, the days are longer and after all of the time spent indoors, we’re finally at a point where the outside is where we’d rather be. For many of us, that includes our exercise - outside of our PT sessions we’re heading out to walk, to run and to cycle.

Whilst the warm weather is amazing, there are a few important things to remember if you’re going to make your outdoor workouts as effective and safe as they can possibly be. Follow our guide to warm weather training and make the most of the summer exercise…

Sweating and hydration - how much drinking is enough?!

The most obvious aspect of exercising in the heat is making sure you’re adequately hydrated. What we know from research on the topic is that generally speaking, the higher the intensity of exercise in hot weather, the more we sweat. That sounds obvious, until we look into the data more. Generally speaking, the fitter you are, the more acclimatised to the heat you are and the more able to work at higher intensities you are.

This means the fitter and more acclimatised to the heat you are, the more you’ll sweat and therefore you’ll need more hydration. So if you’re a regular runner for example, don’t think “I won’t need a drink - I’m pretty fit” - the evidence shows you’re more likely to need a drink than an unfit person who won’t be working as hard as you!

General sweating rates are around 1.5 litres per hour in untrained people and up to 3 litres per hour in fit people, so account for this when exercising. Do so by drinking before you train and topping up during your run or ride.

Wear sunscreen!

Again, another obvious one but we wouldn’t be doing our job if we didn’t mention it. Some people are worried that sweating reduces the effectiveness of their sunscreen, but what the data shows is that the effect isn’t as dramatic as people think.

In a study assessing factor 50 sunscreen applied for exercise, the research showed that even when sweating for 6 hours the sunscreen had only reduced to factor 30 protection, so is still a very effective block against the sun. This gives you peace of mind if you’re out for a long time, for example during a long bike ride or walk.

Apply the screen 15-30 minutes before exercise to allow it to soak into the skin properly. If you apply it then immediately work at a high intensity, you risk much of the screen being washed off.

Hydration - it’s more than just water!

The answer to every hydration question is usually ‘drink more water’, but it’s not quite as simple as that. When we sweat, we lose more than just liquid - we lose electrolytes as well, which are important minerals used in the contraction of muscles. That’s why we cramp during periods of high intensity exercise, because of lost minerals.

When rehydrating during exercise, it’s a wise idea to consume a drink containing electrolytes. There’s evidence to suggest they improve performance and also help to rehydrate more effectively than water alone, simply by optimising water absorption during exercise. This allows us to work at a higher intensity for longer, so are ideal if you’re looking to push for a PB!

Dress appropriately

This is more a practical tip than a performance one, but a few seconds checking the forecast before you head out is a way to save you a whole world of issues when you’re out. If you over-dress for the heat you’ll be stripping off layers quickly and you’ll have a lot of extra clothing to carry with you.

Also, focus on layers, not thickness. If you have multiple layers you can add and remove as you like. If you simply wear a thick layer with little on underneath, you give yourself no options!

Choice of materials is also important. Go for light weight, sweat-wicking materials that can help you stay comfortable in the higher temperatures. Materials such as cotton can absorb a lot of sweat, making you less comfortable, with clothes sticking to you as you get sweatier! These aren’t ideal for your fellow exercisers either, because they can begin to smell!

Exercise in the heat - final thoughts

We love outdoor exercise - in fact we did it over the winter thanks to the rules! But we want you to make sure you do things properly. Exercise safely, effectively and take into account our advice. Get outside and enjoy the best weather of the year in comfort! Take plenty of fluids, wear your sunscreen, drink isotonic drinks and make sure you dress appropriately for the conditions!

If you’re looking for personal training in East London, get in touch!

At AdMac Fitness we’re not about fads, fashions and short term fixes. We want you to succeed properly over the long term, so with our help and advice you can get your fitness back on track! If you’d like us to help you, contact us on 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!