7 Reasons Women Should Strength Train

February 18, 2013 by ·

Article by W10 trainer Rob Coles.  Check out Rob’s blog here>>

One thing we know is that maintaining adequate levels of muscle mass is one of the best ways to keep body fat at bay, particularly as we age. We also know that resistance training is the best way to build and maintain muscle. Yet despite this, far more women opt for a piece of cardio equipment (which we should point out, does the opposite!) instead of hitting the weight room.

So to encourage females who might be hesitant to do so, here are 7 reasons why women should strength train with weights:

You Will Get Stronger

Increasing your strength seems to be somewhat under valued amongst women, but by improving your strength levels you are essentially improving the size of your horsepower. This will make everyday life a little easier with daily tasks and routine exercise far less taxing and less likely to cause injury.

You Will Have Less Body Fat

Yes, you read that one correctly!  Strength training, unlike running and other slow cardio, builds muscle, and muscle burns more calories burned per day (increased basal metabolic rate). For each pound of muscle you gain your body will burn an additional 35-50 calories each day. Studies by Wayne Wescott, PHD, found that the average women who strength trains two to three time a week for two months will gain nearly 2 pounds of muscle and shed 3.5pounds of fat. We’ll leave you to do the math!

You Will Have Better Posture

A balanced strength training program will develop good structural balance, meaning that your muscles will be much better coordinated and balanced, which will result in much better correct posture.

You Will Reduce Your Risk Of Injury, Back Pain And Arthritis

A strength training program will not only make you stronger, it will also address any structural imbalances you may have as well as improving and maintaining mobility and flexibility.  By improving the strength of not only your muscles but also your connective tissues you will improve joint stability and help prevent injury.

You Will Decrease Your Risk Of Osteoporosis

Strength training can increase bone mineral density as well as enhance bone re-modeling. This, when combined with a balanced nutritional programme, can massively reduce the risk of osteoporosis; a very important consideration for females as they age.

You Will Get Sick Less

Strength training improves gene activity and your natural antioxidant network, leaving your immune system ready to tackle any viruses you may be exposed to.

You Will Be More Awesome

By combining all the points above you will not only look a hell of a lot better but you will feel better too! Both of which, in my opinion, will make you a far better (happier!) human being.

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Remember, don’t chase weight loss, chase fat loss.

Stay healthy and embrace those weights!

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Why W10 Trainer Rob is an Idiot….

November 29, 2012 by ·

Here’s the latest instalment of W10 trainer Rob’s blog:

Reason #1 why I’m an idiot is that I have been neglecting my soft tissue work.

Now I am usually a big proponant of practicing what I preach but lately my soft tissue work has fallen by the wayside and do you know what I’m feeling it. I ache all over, my mobility isn’t as good as it once was and I wake up stiff most mornings.

Things are about to change. I have set myself a goal to get back to my nimble old self by using the foam roller for 10 mins every day with a little bit of mobility work thrown in. I encourage everybody to get a foam roller at home and more importantly……use it! You will be amazed how much better you feel after a week or so of using it everyday, those little aches and pains will slowly become easier, your mobility starts to improve and your general sense of wellbeing elevates to euphoric levels…..okay that last one might be a reach but you will start to feel better about yourself.

For those who are new to the foam roller the best way to describing it is “a poor mans sports massage”. Now for those of you who have had a sports massage you will know that it can be a little painful (to say the least) and the same can be said about the foam roller. I urge you not to rush through the painful spots, this is where you need it most, and whilst initially you may want to punch me square in the face I promise you will be thanking me later down the line.

In my opinion the key areas to hit are the calves, IT band, quads, glutes (although a hockey ball will probably be better at getting into them), lower back and upper back. Obviously everyone is individual and carries tension in different areas but this is a good starting point and will give you a good idea of your “trouble spots” i.e. where the pain lies.

I urge everyone to give this a go over the next month and let me know how you get on.

Train smart and stay healthy.

Check out Robs blog here>>

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The Importance of Movement Prep

July 18, 2012 by ·

Most people will concede (often reluctantly) that warming up prior to training is important.  Yes it’s a very boring topic and we’d all rather walk it to the gym and just get on with it, but if you’re serious about staying healthy and getting results in the gym, you need to embrace the warm up.

Warming up has important physiological and psychological benefits.  Physiologically (body) a warm up will increase the heart rate,  loosens the joints and increases blood flow to the muscles. Psychologically (mind) it gives us five to ten minutes to prepare ourselves mentally for what we’re about to do.  For some people this is visualisation etc, for others its an opportunity to get the last of the chit-chat out of the system before they focus fully on their workout!

Previously a warm up might have consisted of  5-10 minutes of an increasing speed on a treadmill followed by a couple of token arm circles and a few cheeky leg swings (or worse, the old ‘arm across the chest stretch’ that nobody ever really needed to be doing).  Not any more, we need to be more savvy…..

The ‘Warm up’ has now been replaced with the rather ingeniously branded  ‘Movement Prep’ (MP).  MP is an approach which still provides us with the afore mentioned physiological and psychological benefits but prepares the body with a more focussed and more specific approach which will mobilise the joints, release soft tissue (muscles etc), stretch out any tight muscles, activate any underactive muscles, and get the body moving in the multiple patterns in which it is about to set forth.

Now there are many ways to go about movement prep, all of which will work for different populations and their differing goals.  Our approach at W10 is four-fold and we follow the following sequence:

  • Release
  • Inhibit
  • Activate
  • Integrate
Release
First off, we want to mobilise and realign soft tissue (muscles etc).  The goal here is to prepare the tissues for the stresses we’re about to put them under, release any tender points and scan for any potential trigger points (painful spots).  For this we use the foam roller – something you could liken to a massage therapist’s palm.
Our W10 current foam roller flow hits IT band (side of leg), vastus lateralis (front of thigh), VMO/Adductors (inside thigh), calves, hamstrings (back of thigh), glutes (backside), thoracic spine (upper back) and lats (under arm).

We follow the foam roller work with some trigger pointing which we do with hockey or cricket balls.  The goal here is to more specifically target any tender areas with the smaller (and thus more concentrated) surface area of the ball.  This could be described as being akin to the massage therapist’s elbow.
Typically we hit the glutes, plantar fascia (under side of the foot), calves and pecs (chest).
Note: Both foam rolling and trigger pointing are often sore.  Sore is fine (likely good), very painful is too much.
Inhibit
A lot of the people who train at our gym spend most of their day seated and their posture and muscular system reflects this.  People very often present with adaptively shortened and/or overactive muscles (often referred to as ‘strong’, although not always the case) which need to be stretched out or ‘inhibited’ so that they don’t take over during movement and allow their underactive counterparts get to do their bit (see below).
These muscles are typically the neck extensors (back of neck), upper traps (neck/shoulders), pecs (chest), lats, hip flexors (front of pelvis), hamstrings (behind the knee) and calf muscles and we inhibit these.  We do this by stretching them out.
Activate

Where there are overactive muscles there will be under active ones (often referred to as ‘weak’, although not always the case) .  The goal once we’ve inhibited the overactive, or strong, muscles is to activate their dormant, under active or weak, cousins so that when we come to move they have been awoken and are ready to take up their share of the slack.

These muscles often work in opposites so we often see underactive neck flexors (front of neck), rhomboids/scapular retractors (mid back), shoulder eternal rotators (back of shoulder), mid/lower traps (mid back), and glutes.

Integrate

Once we’ve released the soft tissue, inhibited the overactive muscles and activated the sluggish ones, we want to ingrate our re-wired system into movement or patterns in which it is going to be exposed, typically with bodyweight exercises.

The bottom line is that we don’t move as much or as well as we used to and a good quality warm up/MP is probably the difference between good structural health and effective workouts and otherwise.  And if you’re not doing it, you should be.

Everyone has different requirements but apply these principles and see how you get on.  You’ll get better results from your training and your joints will definitely thank you for it!

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Kick-start your Fat Loss & Fitness in December

November 29, 2011 by ·

It's a pretty safe bet that Sly was running those steps in December!

We’re now only two sleeps until we’re into December and all of the fun and excitement (and for some, the stress!) that the festive season brings with it.

What this means for most of us is that we’ve got about two, maybe three, productive weeks left in us before we down tools, kick back and enjoy some well earned down time.  Fair enough, we’ll be doing similar.  (We’re human, and we think we’ve earned it too!).

But here’s the thing.  You know you’re going to indulge at some point over the next few weeks, multiple times no doubt.  Christmas parties, client lunches, after works drinks, and of course what it’s all about Christmas and New Years celebrations.  (And no, you won’t possibly be able to ‘get out of’ any of it!)

So, it stands to reason that your fitness program can relax for a few weeks whilst you kick-back.  And for those with next years resolutions already in the bag, you can sit back, tucking gleefully away, safe in the knowledge that January is only around the corner.  Seems reasonable right?  We’d argue not quite.

Think of it another way……

If you’re already exercising, you’ve got three weeks to ‘bank’ some sessions so that you can afford to back off for a couple of weeks.  Psycologically speaking, you’ll enjoy your food (and drink!) more, and physiologically, your body will quite simply be better equipped to handle the excesses that you throw at it (you can in fact make the work for you – especially if you focus on lean tissue building and glycogen depleting weight training!).

And if you’re not currently exercising regularly, then you’ve got  a couple of weeks to dip your toe in and test the water before January 3rd comes around (the 1st is a Sunday, and health and fitness resoltions don’t tend to start on a Sunday!).  You can get the initial aches and pains out of the way, enjoy your festive treats, and you can then attack January and your new goals with increased vigour.  Sounds good to us.

With this in mind, we’re going to offer both movers and not yet movers an incentive not to write December off.  Between the 1st – 18th December 2011 we will be offering:

  • 10% off all 4-Session Bolt-Ons purchased by our existing All Access Members
  • 40% off all 15-day trials purchased by those whom might otherwise have left it until January

Thats right…..we’ve left you with little, or no, excuse not to adjust your thinking and make the most out of your exercise through December!

Ps. From the 1st January 2012 we will be increasing the cost of our All Access Memebership.  Existing members will never pay more than they do today, but all new memberships starting in January will be subject to the new increased rate – so get yourself signed up before the New Year!  

(Not the usual tact in January we know, but we’d prefer to do it before people join, rather than shortly afterwards.  It’s also our way of thanking our existing memebers in some small way for all the support that they’ve given us through this past year).

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Our view on ‘Core’ training in today’s ES

November 17, 2011 by ·

'Core' training isn't just about Plank holds and Sit-ups…..

Those who are familiar with our Results Based Fitness approach and goal specific programs will be aware of longstanding view on ‘core training’ and the overemphasis that’s been placed on specifically targeting the ‘core’ or the ‘abs’ – for both aesthetics and function!

Along with fat loss, ‘core’ strength is the thing that many people tell us is their goal.  The conversation always makes for an entertaining interaction, but we think we’re on to something here.  And our latest feature in the Evening Standard might be a sign that thinking is changing…..

It’s worth remembering that the ‘core’ training frenzy is the product of the findings of some research done on a small group of back pain patients in Australia, which the fitness industry picked up and ran a mock with.  First off, the research was done on six people (it might be a couple more or less, but six rings a bell – correct us if we’re out); probably not enough upon which to sensibly build a whole training ethos.  The subjects were in pain; these findings probably don’t apply to those of us not in pain in the first place.  And the research looked specifically at the contraction of a single muscle; not generally how the body functions!

It’s an in depth and complicated area, but the fact is that ‘core’ training is not just about the muscles of the trunk, and most people do not suffer from a ‘weakness’ in the core.  (There, we said it!).  Granted stability and coordination may be an issue, but strength of the deep abdominal muscles, rarely.  Yes, many people could do with following a decent overall strength training program, and lumbar-pelvic (lower back) mechanics are not what they should or could be, but all roads do not point to the deep lying muscles around the abs.

Lack of strength generally and too little or too much pelvic stability/mobility are certainly an issue, but the deep abdominal muscles are carrying the can when it’s not entirely their problem.  Tight hips and weak (or under-active) backside muscles? You’ll likely have back pain.  But it’s not specifically a ‘core’ issue.  Tight hamstrings? You’ll likely and have back pain.  Again though, this is not specifically a ‘core’ issue.  Lack of mid-back mobility coupled with overactive lower back muscles?  You’ll likely have back or neck pain.  But neither is this a ‘core’ issue!  I think we get the point…..

The ‘core’ extends to the mid/lower back muscles, the backside muscles, the lats, hamstrings and hip flexor muscles – in fact, anything that could impact on the pelvis might well be considered a ‘core’ muscle – and it’s simplistic to say that tightening the muscles around the abdominals will ‘strengthen the core’.  Done in the right way, it won’t do any harm and may well contribute to decreased pain and improved overall strength, but your ‘core’ program needs to incorporate many other muscles, trained in more dynamic ways than just doing holds on a mat.  Sure, train the abs, but don’t make ‘core’ training the focal point of your program.

Our top five ‘core’ training tips:

1. Limit spinal flexion

There’s a place for crunches, just not in everyones program, and not all of the time.

2. Address structural balance

Muscular balance, especially around the hips, is key.  Think backside and lower back for example, not just abs.

3. Balance mobility and stability

You don’t have to be posture perfect (we’ve never met one of those), but the right balance of mobility/stability, especially at the pelvis, is key.

4. Get strong(er)

It’s not a meathead thing, it applies to everyone. Strong and structurally balanced people don’t tend to suffer from a ‘weak core’.

5. Get lean

Core training will not bring about a six pack unless you’re lean.  You. Can. Not. Flex. Fat.

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