GB Personal Training News

If you have been dreaming of six pack abs and pumping out thousands of crunches a day in the hope of being beach ready then it’s time for a reality check. Here are my top 5 reasons why you’ll never get your ripped stomach:

1. Too much Sugar
Sugar is my number one reason why you’ll never get your 6 pack abs to show. If you want that cheese grater abs look then you must keep your blood sugar levels balanced to lose fat and this means cutting out your sugars.

Most foods nowadays contain sugar in one form or another and sometimes they are hard to spot. Here’s a tip, check the ingredients of your food and drink and look for anything ending in “ose”, these are sugars in disguise eg. sucrose, glucose, maltose etc. As a general rule most things that are not fresh will contain sugars of some kind because it’s a natural preservative.

2. Too many Sit ups
Cranking out a 1000 sit-ups every morning will not give you six pack abs. There are 2 reasons why sit-ups or crunches will not help.

Firstly, performing regular sit-ups will not burn fat from around your stomach, if it was to burn any calories, which it barely does, it would come off in layers from all over the body and not just from the stomach.

Secondly, sit-ups and crunches are ineffective, bad for your back and unnatural. To really target the abs you need to address them from a number of angles. The stomach takes loads from all directions and just exercising them in one way will not get you the results you want.

3. Doing long Cardio
If you are going out for long runs or spending hours plodding along on the treadmill each week to bring out those 6 pack abs then STOP right now. Research has shown that short bursts of high intensity cardio is far more effective than long boring cardio for blasting belly fat.

So if you want that washboard stomach you need to start working at a higher intensity and for shorter periods. So, running at a fast pace for 1 minute and then walking for 2 minutes is far more effective than 3 minutes of slow paced cardio.

4. Not strength training
If you are not performing full body strength training workouts then you really are missing out on your six pack abs potential. Strength training creates muscle tone which in turn raises your metabolism, which then burns more calories for you, even at rest!

Target all the large muscles of your body and hit as many muscles in one go as you can. Base all of your workouts around the squat and the deadlift. Forget about biceps and triceps and perform all your exercises standing up so your abs are constantly working. Believe me this will bring out your abs better than any sit up or crunch.

5. Too many Toxins
The gut is used as your natural dumping ground so anything that your body doesn’t like or understand often finds itself in the gut. Too much caffeine, drugs and medication, artificial food and drink additives, smoke toxins, alcohol, all find there own hiding place in the gut. So to avoid that bloated feeling and pooch belly you have to eradicate toxins from your life.

If you want more info on how to great your dream body then sign up for my free 21 day body transformation emails http://www.gbpersonaltraining.com

On such a beautiful day everyone was relieved that todays kettlebell session was going to be outside, and with a backdrop of  the “tower of London” it sure was a great spot.

Today was time for another 300 challenge. Following a warm-up and mobility exercises everybody completed the following kettlebell exercises in there own time against the clock:

• Swings - 100 reps
• High Pulls - 50 reps
• Forward Lunges - 50 reps
• Clean & Press - 50 reps
• Squats - 50 reps

Here are the finishing times:

Sahiqa - 11.38 (8kg you can’t avoid that 12 forever)

Celine (I don’t wanna be big) - 12.27

Kim - 14.56 (12kg,8kg and following a bike accident, a real trooper)

Helen - 15.07 (12kg Queen of the swingers)

Ann-Aurelie - 16.14 (12kg, they make um tough in France!)

Howie - 16.40 (16kg, first challenge with this weight, sterling work!)

We finished up with a cool down and some yoga stretches before farmers walking the kettlebells back to the office.

Thanks to Jo our camera-woman who was taking a session off before recommencing next week.

Great work gang!!!!!

You would think it would be easy to find a good quality sports massage therapist in North London but for months I have struggled. Finally I found Francine and realising her unique skills and ability I’ve been keen to recommend her services to all my clients, trainers and associates.

If you haven’t experienced the benefits of a good quality deep tissue sports massage then you really are missing out. Here’s why everyone should experience this kind of relaxing treatment:

• Stress Reduction
• Improve Posture 
• Better Sleep
• Reduced Anxiety and Depression
• Better Flexibility
• Pain Relief
• Improved Circulation
• Better Physical Performance

I personally try to get a massage once or twice every 2 weeks and if I miss a session I really notice the difference.

For more information on Francine and the services she offers please visit:

http://www.gbpersonaltraining.com/sports_massage.htm

There was only a small turn out yesterday for the half hour lunchtime kettlebell session at Dow Jones in Central London. Something told me that it was more than just summer holidays that kept people away, they must have somehow knew the shape of things to come!

I often set challenges for my kettlebell classes; it fires up the metabolism, adds variety and highlights just how fit people are getting.

Today we performed:

100 Swings, 50 High Pulls with overhead walks, 50 Squat thrusts with spiderman crawls, 50 Clean & Press’ with walking lunges, 50 Dynamic planks with bunny hops.

Howard: 17.56 (moaning as usual, but determined)

Jo: 19.04 (almost caught Howard at one stage)

Helen: 19.10 (Swinging a 12kg, 16’s coming)

Anne-Aurelie: 19.52 (Off to a quick start, do they have spiderman in France?)

Celine: 20.00 (Has missed a few recently but showed real grit)

Well done to you 5, the others will have a real shock when they show up on Tuesday.

Enjoy your weekends,

http://www.gbpersonaltraining.com

Kettlebells are certainly taking the UK by storm with more people discovering the benefits of short but intense workouts using this 200 year old fitness tool. Over the past 6 months the questions have been coming in thick and fast:

What size kettlebell should I use?

How do you perform the basic movements?

How can I put together a fat blasting kettlebell workout?

Well, to answer all these questions I have put together a kettlebell starter package.

I am offering:

• 1.5 hours of personalised kettlebell home coaching by me
• The correct sized kettlebell
• An interval timer to motivate and keep you on track
• Regular personalised emails detailing progressive kettlebell workouts

You can receive all this for only £195.

So if you are interested in discovering this new phenonenon of Kettlebell training send me over an email and book in your 1.5 hour session today.

To your good health,

Greg

info@gbpersonaltraining.com

I am pleased to annouce that 14 brave individuals have started on their 6 week kettlebell training quest and will soon be losing fat, increasing energy, strengthening their joints, improving posture and much more.

Each session lasts only 30 minutes but due to the intensity of kettlebell training and the way the exercises seamlessly move from one to the next no-one complains that a session is too short. Infact, research has proven that training intensely for any longer than 20-30 minutes is just unproductive. Humans are just not designed to maintain a high level of exertion for too long.

The course has started off, as always, with a heavy emphasis on stabilisation and perfecting a few of the basic movements. Flexibility is another important focus as most office workers suffer from bad posture due to tight muscles, especially hamstrings and hip flexors. 

All sessions involve an  increasing amount of cardiovascular training as rest periods are reduced and intensity is increased. It’s amazing how quickly peoples lung capacity improves just by using kettlebells and hardly moving their feet - great for people with knee and joint problems.

Things will only get better; posture improves, lungs breathe move steady, backs strengthen, the body tones and people start to smile. I have seen these amazing transformations in all my kettlebell classes and thats just after 12 sessions twice a week for only 30 minutes at a time.

Well done to all those at Morley that are taking part, you have taken the first step to what will be a very productive 6 weeks.

After 6 weeks (12 sessions) the beginners kettlebell class at Dow Jones has come to an end.

Wow, what a difference!! The reason why I love this job so much is seeing the results that people achieve in such a short period of time.

Everyone started the class surprised at how heavy the kettlebells were and pleading for lighter ones but to see them being swung around now its like a totally different group.

Everyone’s core strength has improved dramatically, holding planks for 1 minute at a time. Cardio levels are at a high, sustaining constant hard kettlebell work for 6 minutes without rest and recovery is good leaving everyone raring to go again after only 2 minutes rest.

Another beginners Kettlebell group is about to start soon and the current finished group will embark on a further 6 weeks of intermediate level kettlebell training.

I’m proud of everyone who has taken part, well done team I look forward to continuing with our kettlebell journey tomorrow lunchtime.

To everyones good health.

 Greg

For many years I have utilised and endorsed High-intensity interval training (HIIT) as an exercise strategy for getting better results in less time.

A HIIT session involves a warmup period, several short, maximum-intensity efforts separated by moderate recovery intervals, and a cooldown period. The period of total exercise including warm up and cool down typically lasts 15-20 minutes.

Scientific research now backs up this method of training and favours it over long distance cardio for:

1.  Burning fat more effectively

2. Maintaining, or building, muscle mass

3. Increasing the resting metabolic rate (RMR) for the following 24hrs

4. Improving maximal oxygen consumption (VO2 max)

Studies by Tabata, Tremblay, King, Hegerud

Kettlebell Training workouts, or bodyweight workouts are a great way to perform (HIIT) Workouts.

Lifes too short for long ineffective workouts so start HIIT training today.

With Kettlebell Snatching, blisters appear as a side effect from such a regular activity, this is both necessary and vital for your development. But none the less, the palms can become extremely sore and in some cases tears can appear on the palms of the victims. Such painful afflictions were seen on many a RKC in Denmark 2007, but this was due mostly to the inexperience of the individual, but largely because of the extreme high rep demands from the Kettlebell Snatch.

The Kettlebell Hard Style way just won’t get you the high numbers that so many competition athletes can achieve. If you have ever tried to reach the high numbers of Kettlebell Competition Lifters you’ll know that your limbs will give out way before your cardiovascular system lets you down. Have a fire extinguisher to hand as your hip flexors and forearms will need to be put out. An example of the level that is required for the 32kg Kettlebell Snatch is approx 250-300+ reps in 10min. (weight categories depending)

Two Kettlebell methods that we will discuss are the upward phase before lockout and the holding position in the downward phase.

Regular Kettlebell Snatch enthusiasts will usually use the up and over wrist method, with a slight pull to decelerate the Bell onto the top of the forearm. This is fine, but with the high rep demand and 10min duration this, during heavy training, won’t get you the numbers required for competition level. It’s inevitable that constant impact to the wrist will slow recovery and delay necessary Kettlebell training time.

What is required is the ‘Round the Wrist’ method. With a slight flick of the wrist the Kettlebell travels outward around the wrist resulting in less or even no impact to the forearm. It’s a sweeter way to perform the Snatch and gets you much added reps without fatiguing the forearm.

The real pain comes from the pinching of skin between the handle and palm when the Kettlebell is swung downward for a second rep. This can be avoided with a technique called the ‘Monkey Grip’.

The ‘Monkey Grip’ is achieved by holding the Kettlebell  handle by the very ends of the fingers. When the Kettlebell is over head in the ‘victory position’ it is given a little push upward and the resulting effect is the Kettlebell moves outward away from the body. It is then possible with timing and good judgement to catch the handle with the ‘Monkey Grip’ method. The Kettlebell lands comfortably and is turned thumb pointing back ready for a repeated swing. This method again allows for more reps by not pinching the skin and aggravating any blisters that may be present.
 
Happy Snatching

For more kettlebell tips sign up for my free weekly email at:

http://www.gbpersonaltraining.com/kettlebells.htm

I am pleased to announce that the Hampstead Ladies have embraced the most effective form of exercise for fat loss and started Kettlebell Training.

We are meeting every Tuesday and Friday at 2.15pm for a 30 minute intensive kettlebell training session. All equipment is provided, all that is necessary is some grit and determination.

Today was a fantastic introduction with us all taking full advantage of the glorious sunshine and exercising outside. If the weather continues like today then not only will everyone be dropping the pounds but getting a nice healthy glow at the same time too!!

 For further information on this and other kettlebell fitness classes then please contact me info@gbpersonaltraining.com