One Physique

Gym Instructor turns junk food addict

2009-05-21T14:04:00.003+01:00

This is a story that was only launched yesterday and had found this on Sky News. I was glad that not only is it me as a professional doing a similar experiment, but unfortunately for him he took it too far and he just couldn’t control it.

Its seems to be a big problem for him to gain the control back when he forced himself with the processed 'junk' food. Unfortunately with additives hidden away inside the food this is what it’s going to do and this is a big cause of obesity. Starting at just 12.5 stone and now 20 stone which is a huge difference! The instructor gave up his training and just had more cravings for food which led him to feel terrible and it doesn’t surprise me.

Its all easy for people to say "yeah you can stop eating all that, just head to the gym for a work out". Unfortunately its easier said than done, there are many people out there with difficulties in stopping this addiction. At One Physique we bring ourselves to the level of the client and understand their true difficulties, we don’t like throwing anyone into the deep end. If we can make a slight adaption to their current lifestyle, this could then create a great life change to the rest of their lives.

Luckily for me I managed to decide when enough was enough, but I did have the cravings come on; I couldn’t sleep very well, I was exhausted and tired just going up the stairs!

However I made that change and I adapted my lifestyle slowly and sensibly. People who jump into too much exercise and jump into the diet full on can cause problems on the insides as well as on the outside e.g loose skin. A lot of people who have loose skin tend to have been on fast acting diets where the body can only cope with the fat removal and therefore leaves out the skin.

So if you decide to lose weight, please decide on a good safe option. It’s not a good idea to try to lose as much as possible straight away, especially due to excess skin and in the end the weight can come back on (like a yo-yo diet). We should be looking at a way in which we can enjoy the food we have every day and lose weight sensibly. Believe me we can achieve the bodies we want but we have to take each step at a time, with good functional training we can also help it along as well.

If you want any more info on what we can do to help people make that first step then contact us at: info@onephysique.com

Online Personal Training Diary - Day 51

2009-05-20T18:20:00.014+01:00

The diary continues!

OK its been just 7 weeks and that's right I'm still sticking to the training plan. I also had a number of people notice it, especially a few clients of mine who kindly mentioned it. So in all its been excellent feedback!

This is what Ive noticed since the first day:

A reduction in body fat around the whole body
Craving for sugar has dramitcally dropped
Eating a good 3 meals a day
Good energy throught the whole day
Sleep has really improved
Increased Muscular mass - due to my specific aims
Not even tired or out of breath after sprinting up 2 long flights of stairs!
Able to achieve more in each new session
More range of functional movement and flexibility

Ok here are the latest pictures just 51 days after the launch of the Online Training Diary:

Now here's the differences from Day 1 to Day 51:

Unfortunate results from Steroid posioning

2009-04-22T15:55:00.005+01:00

I was reading the Newspaper (Daily Mail) this morning and I came across an upsetting article about a 17 year old called Matthew Dear who unfortunately died on Monday from Steroid poisioning. The thing that really got my attention was for his passion in wanting to join the Royal Marines and he was also lived locally only 20 minutes away from me. The article states that he was training for the Royal Marines for 5 years and was going sign up at 18 years old. He trained strictly and was not eating sugar and even refusing to take pain killers...however he took the Steroids pills for muscular growth and unfortunately he didnt know the problems of the drug that can occur.

It also took me a good 5 years to prepare myself for the Royal Marines selection, just like Matthew I trained hard, ate good food and instead of taking steroids I was on the protein powder. At that point in my life I didnt personally know much about steroids, so I was never put at any major risk with the Protein Powder. The article stats that the figures for last month "showed a 42 per cent rise in the number of under 18's admitted to hospital for steroid posioning in the last five years". I personally find that shocking and if thats only the under 18's then what about the over 18's ?? The article also stated that Matthew could have bought the pills on the black market possibly through a 17 and a 24 year-old... Its made me wonder how many other young people who are selling this drug and even taking it who do not know the true dangers to it.

Ive attached a clipping so you can read the article. My thoughts go out to Matthew and his family.

Manual Resistance Training

2009-04-20T14:20:00.006+01:00

Here is a really good way of achieveing strength without weights from the gym just through Manual Resistance Training. This is essentially done through a training partner or spotter so there's no equipment involved at all!

Here are some benefits:

No equipment is required to perform the exercises. Since no equipment is You dont have to wait to use any equipment
Many people can be trained at the same time
The resistance given can be changed so easily and toughest of strength exercises can be given.
Different types of muscular training can be incorporated e.g Muscular endurance, Hypertrophy and power
The speed of the resistance from the partner can also be controlled. The lifter's partner or the instructor can decide upon the speed of exercise during the raising phase.

So no need to go and use that bit of equipment, just head out with a friend and try some Manual Resistance Training!

A random trip to the farm..

2009-04-09T17:59:00.006+01:00

Last Friday, I had a great opportunity to take a trip over to Suffolk to visit a local dairy farmer, Keith Jefferson Smith, who specialises in producing raw milk. I felt that I needed to get a better understanding about raw milk, including its bi-products, e.g., clotted cream and butter, the different ways it is produced, and the farmer's personal views on Raw Milk in the UK. Keith is also known for setting up the first organic dairy farm in Scotland which did very well, and so another farm was set up in Suffolk.

Keith gave me a guided tour around the farm while he was telling me about the history of the land. I found out that the land was used to be owned by the HM Government who built a farm house so the prisoners could run their own farm and use their own produce to provide other prisons in the West Country with dairy products. At present, the farm provides milk for ex-offenders (those returning to the outside world).

I was then taken on another tour of the farm through the processes of the milk being produced. Keith's son, James, also runs the farm and raises a dairy herd of 450 Jersey cows. Each of the cows has its own name and are all treated very well. I personally remember when I was studying about the quality of food through Nutrition and was shown some footage of the way some farmers were keeping their live stock in such poor conditions. It does not only affect them by getting diseases but even by "passing the buck" onto us and giving us very poor quality food and drink, which can eventually lead us on to ill health. I was fortunate enough to try some fresh raw milk that had been produced only an hour before and it's the best milk I have ever tasted!

The cows graze on the grassy field during spring, summer, and autumn. However, as the grass doesn't grow as fast during winter, the cows' diet would then consist of hay and winter silage produced on the farm, or organic vegetables from local farms. Most commercial, pasteurised milk comes from herds of the Holstein cow, a modern breed that efficiently converts a diet of high-protein grain into huge quantities of milk. However, it is not the quantity but the quality and breeds, such as the Jersey and Guernsey that produce low yields of high-quality milk. This brings a huge result into providing a good healthy body with quality nutrients being used.

It has been shown through medical studies that raw milk is very good and can help resolve health-related problems. Contrary to what most people used to believe in, drinking raw milk does not make people sick as long as it is properly collected from cows that are fed with organic grass. Grass-fed milk has natural antibiotic properties that help protect the cow (and those lucky enough to drink it) from pathogenic bacteria. It also provides a beneficial fatty acid known as CLA, or Conjugated Linoleic Acid, which is known to possess countless health benefits. Compared with grass-fed cows’ milk, grain-fed cows have as little as one fifth the CLA in their milk.

kids and fitness

2009-04-02T21:47:00.001+01:00

The importance of exercise for children is obvious and compelling!

The more activity that young people have when they are developing the better! The growing childhood obesity crisis in this country which is due partly to the inactive lifestyle that children are leaving, and partly due to the amount of crap that they are putting in there mouths, is proof that children need to exercise more often then they are doing.

The benefits are impressive and long lasting:

* Healthy heart and lungs
* Stronger bone density
* Stronger muscles
* Reduced chances of childhood diseases; diabetes, asthma, arthritis (yes in kids)
* Increased energy levels
* Reduces stress levels
* Weight loss
* Improving a specific sport (football, rugby, basketball)

Most of all ITS FUN!!

Parents, uncles, aunties or big brother sisters, Get your kid’s down the park and out the house!

A dinner idea

2009-04-01T22:15:00.008+01:00

As ive started the new training and fat loss diary, I wanted to share with you a meal I made for myself tonight. As it was important to get the right quality proteins and essential fats. I chose to do a stuffed chicken fillet with honey, chopped bacon, spinach and a small bit of cheese. I also layered the chicken with spinach leaves and then placed a few slices of cheese on top.

It was very easy to make and it tastes great!

Give it a try..

Stuart Doyle - Online Training and fat loss Diary - Day 1

2009-03-31T15:32:00.010+01:00

So here is the offical start to my online training and fat loss diary.

Here's my current statistics.

Weight - 74kg

My circumferences:
Bicep - 29.5
Chest - 97.6
Hips - 93
Abdominals - 95.7

My Body Fat measurements:

Biceps - 5
Triceps - 3
Sub-scapular - 22 (just at the bottom of my scapula)
Suprailliac - 24 (on my left waist above the iliac crest)

Resting Heart Rate - 62/min

Blood Pressure -129/83

I have already done my session of training today which was a session of high intensity involving kettlebells, ladder drills with SAQ, medicine ball and body weight exercises. This was only a 45 minute session and was the perfect amount of time. I made sure I was giving 100% in the exercises giving myself a good time to breath before the next exercise began.

Please remember this was a high intensity type session, meaning you give it all your best all the way through for a short amount of time. Make sure you take an adequate amount of water prior and after your session, inlcuding a good nutrient dense meal (about 1 1/2 hrs before).

.

Organic Spelt Tortillas Recipe

2009-03-28T17:47:00.017Z

An excellent way to make a good homemade snack if you need to, but preferably I like to use it as a part of a main meal dish. The Organic Tortillas also provide healthy nutritional value from the spelt flour!

Makes 8 Organic Spelt tortillas

Ingredients

250g wholegrain organic spelt flour, plus extra for dusting
1 tsp fine or crushed sea salt
150ml water
1 tsp sunflower or a tiny serving of butter

1. Firstly mix together all of the above ingredients except the oil to form a rough dough.

Then knead the dough for a few minutes, until it is smooth and has lost its stickiness. Leave, the dough covered, for about half an hour - this relaxes the gluten and makes it easier to roll out. After divide the dough into eight balls, and mould each into a ball. With the spare extra flour, roll them out nice and thin - a couple of millimetres is ideal.

2. Put a large frying pan on medium heat and have ready a clean tea towel. When the pan is hot, drop in a tortilla and cook it for 30 seconds or so until the underside is patched with dark brown. Flip over and cook for another half minute, then wrap it in the tea towel while you cook the next one. Keep adding the tortillas to the tea towel as you cook them - this keeps the steam in as they cool, and keeps them soft. If you are not planning on eating them straight away, wrap in cling film or foil to stop them drying out. Re-heat in a low (100-150°C) oven, wrapped in foil, until just warm.

Now you can enjoy your healthy organic spelt Tortillas, I even put organic sausage and cheese in mine for a homemade snack today.

Enjoy!

Kettlebell Training

2009-03-27T13:52:00.010Z

A 'kettlebell' is a traditional Russian cast iron weight that looks like a cannonball with a handle. It is said to be the ultimate tool for extreme all-round fitness workout, and from my own personal experience, I found it to be an extremely good quality workout!

Unlike a conventional dumbbell or barbell, the Kettlebell's centre of mass is displaced from the handle. This means the weight constantly pulls against your hand and requires not only strength and co-ordination when exercising with it, but also the recruitment of other muscles throughout the body.

A good Kettlebell training session can certainly produce very effective results in terms of weight loss, toning, strength, flexibility and more importantly the functionality of your heart and lungs! It can be such a versatile tool with the fact that you can take the Kettlebells anywhere and do an all body workout all in a small room.

To find out more reasons as to why Kettlebells are such a good workout, then visit:

The One Physique's Kettlebell Page

Reducing and beating Stress to make a better healthy lifestyle

2009-03-26T12:22:00.009Z

What is stress?

Stress is our body’s way of reacting emotionally and physically to any kind of external pressures or demands. Although this kind of response may be beneficial at times, like when it provides the needed strength and energy in times of danger, too much stress or a prolonged state of stress is harmful to our body. Its that powerful thatit can even put on excess weight to the body.

One of the most important things to remember when handling stress is that everything has to start within us. We can never control what happens in our lives but we can always choose how to face the stressful situations. Here are some ideas that may help prevent or reduce stress.

Unfortunately as we are currently surviving an economic recession, alot of people are finding it hard to cope with.

Here are some tips to help:

• Think positively. Negative thoughts have never solved any problem! This is not healthy!

• Accept changes as part of life and learn to deal with them.

• Do something enjoyable at least once a day. This may take as little as 5 minutes of your time!

• Strengthen family ties and develop healthy relationships with friends and co-workers.

• Eat well and maintain a healthy lifestyle and a good functioning body. Join weekly yoga or dance classes, attend group exercises, or indulge in recreational activities that interest you. Having a healthy body is one sure way of protecting oneself against stressful situations.

• Be aware of the different factors that cause stress in your life and make every possible way to avoid them.

Lets take use of those tips and make it recession proof!

High intensity workouts burn more fat than low moderate exercise

2009-03-25T16:20:00.005Z

Through research, it has been proven that short high intensity workouts can actually burn fat far greater than it would from a long steady state exercise.

Last year in April 2008 at the University of South Wales in Sydney, Australia, an experiment was headed by Trapp et al. Throughout 15 weeks, high Intensity intermittent exercise (HIIE) was compared with steady state exercise (SSE) on forty-five of young women (training 3 times a week).

After the research, the following conclusion was drawn up:

"HIIE three times per week for 15 weeks compared with the same frequency of SSE exercise is associated with significant reductions in total body fat, subcutaneous leg and trunk fat… in young women.”

My Diary - Stuart Doyle

2009-03-22T10:39:00.007Z

The Background

As a Personal Trainer in Essex and London for One Physique, a client asked me if I have previously done a set of before and after photos of myself to show to my new and existing clients. I actually hadn’t and it got me thinking, so I decided to actually put it to the test. In order to do this, I needed to bring my body in a poor state so I could show true results. I therefore trained less and less, whilst reducing the quality of food intake. As a result, I started to gain weight (mainly stomach, sides and face), lose muscle mass, gain dark circles around the eyes, and I also noticed my energy levels dropping fast. I then made my schedule busier, making it awkward to eat and sleep at the right time and also reduced some quality time out. I wanted to put myself in the position of the average person who has a range of these factors affecting their body, so I can therefore show people that my training can help them get the results they really want.

By New Year, I stopped binging on the food and drink and slowly introduced better meals back into my lifestyle without much exercise. I didn’t want to jump start the body and eat a 100% healthy food plan but introduced the good food slowly, increasing more over the couple of months. I saw big improvements in my lifestyle, weight, and energy levels, and stress was also significantly reduced. I felt more focused with my work.

The pictures below were taken at the end of December 2008.

The Online Training Diary

Now that it’s March, I want to start a programme that incorporates a few short sessions of training a week and a good eating plan. I will also include a few other techniques to enable me to keep stress low and to improve my energy levels and sleep even more. To do this, I will be running an online diary on the One Physique blog to show you that it is achievable!

Throughout the course of my Personal Training, I will state briefly what exercises I have been doing, the particular types of food I am eating, amount of fluids, and other factors that lead to the improvement of the human body both internally and externally, particularly weight loss. You will also find more in depth statistics, showing other sets of true results.

Personal Goals

My personal goals are to reduce my body fat, increase muscle mass, and improve my energy levels. This will result in being more functional, thinking a lot clearer, and making my night’s sleep much better. I am very excited about taking on this challenge and will show you that these are all achievable.

Problems without professional guidance

Due to their busy and hectic lifestyles, a lot of people who go to the gym move about from different bits of equipment to the next without really knowing what they should be achieving, and more often than not, use incorrect techniques. This can dangerously cause more damage to the body by either injuring themselves or by purely over-training leading to many problems internally. This is why having a Personal Trainer is very beneficial. It will allow you to get and almost guarantee real results. For more information on the Personal Training that we offer, please email info@onephysique.com.

Purchasing meat from your local Butchers

2009-03-21T14:15:00.004Z

There has always been a war with supermarkets and local butchers, and unfortunately the butchers are losing out due to the sheer size of the supermarkets ruling every village in the country!

However, there are still strong signs that the butchers are in fact a lot better then the Super Markets especially in the United Kingdom.

Reasons why:

Price - The butchers offer very good prices on the meat they sell which are a lot cheaper than those in the supermarket!

Quality - There are many butchers in the country that are not organic certified, however a lot of their meats are free-range, meaning the animals were kept in good condition and were given good quality feed.

Size matters - The size and the thickness of the meat sold by the local butchers are a massive difference to the size of meat that one can purchase in the supermarket.

Taste - Another reason for the butchers to be better! There is a vast difference in taste, try it and see for yourself.

Freshness - The fact that your butchers are local and have to get in fresh meat all the time says something. Just think how fresh the meat is in the Supermarkets? They have to be cut, prepared, packed, and then distributed to all the Supermarkets around the country. Once it’s in the supermarket, the meat isn't always put out in the refrigerated sections straight away.

Better effect on the body - The quality again plays a big role in the way the body functions. Think of the 'you are what you eat' approach. Feed your body with poor quality meat and that means a poor quality body... that's the truth, I'm afraid.

Customer Service - I personally think you get a far greater customer service from your local butchers and you can build a far better relationship than you would with someone serving you over a till (especially with a queue of about 5 people behind you). I also get freebies thrown into my weekly shopping cart as I've already built this rapport with my local butcher. Get involved and you could end up with freebies!

Hopefully I’ve given some good factors into buying meat from your local butchers.

Remember, quality does really matter and it’s also at a better cost as well!

Welcome to the One Physique Blog

2009-03-20T18:49:00.002Z

Thanks for coming onto One Physique's Blog.

One Physique is a unique company offering Personal Training, Nutrition, Massage and so much more through 1-1 personal tuition or by a specialist service ran on the internet.

This blog will show you the new challenges we are going to be taking on, insights into the training we provide and giving techniques to improve your lifestyle.

Thanks and good luck !

Stuart Doyle

If you are interested in Personal Training then please look at our page which tells you more about what out fitness trainers offer - Personal Training - One Physique