GB Personal Training Ltd

Health, Fitness & Wellbeing

21 Quick Actions That Will Radically Improve Your Health

By Greg Brookes

21 Quick Actions that Will Radically Improve Your Health

#1: Drink a Pint of Water as Soon as you Wake Up

We all know the importance of water, right?

We evolved from water. Our body is made up of approximately 70% water. We are basically a walking, talking, big mass of mostly water.

First thing in the morning your body is dehydrated from 7+ hours of no water. Drinking a pint of water before you do anything else will give your body the top up it needs to start the day.

In Dr. Batmanghelidj famous book “The Body’s Many Cries For Water“ he explains, in great detail, the importance of drinking water. He believes that often we are not hungry but thirsty as the body confuses signals for water.

Drinking 2 litres of water per day is a good starting point for most adults. Performance, concentration and sickness are all symptoms of dehydration. Your intestines will also squeeze and extract water from your feces if you are really dehydrated and nobody wants their body made up of that type of water, do they?

#2: Start a Workout Habit of 7 Minutes a Day

It doesn’t take long to form a new habit, usually in less than 30 days.

Don’t try to do too much too soon. Start by just developing an exercise habit rather than killing yourself at the gym.

Using my Daily 7 Minute Workouts is a great start:

1. Choose one movement pattern for each day of the week (Monday – Friday)

2. Movement Patterns include: Squatting, Pulling, Lunging, Pushing, Bending

3. Try to perform as many of that movement pattern as you can in 7 minutes

My advice would be to run through your 7 minute workout nice and early before breakfast. Early workouts work in tune with your hormonal system and leave you not thinking about exercise for the rest of the day.

Start your 7 minute exercise habit today and before long it will feel as natural as brushing your teeth!

#3: Ditch the Table Salt and Start Eating Real Sea Salt

The majority of people are still overloading themselves with processed salt.

Salt isn’t actually the problem, it’s the type of salt that matters. Did you know that human blood has the same salt content as sea salt?

Table salt is highly processed, often using chemicals, that leave it clean, white and absent of all those precious trace minerals. Most table salt resembles something you would find in a science lab rather than in nature.

There are lots of great unprocessed sea salt brands out there. Look for sea salt that is slightly grey in colour. My favourite is a French sea salt is called “Gros Sel de Guerande”.

Buy a good brand of sea salt and it will last you for months.

#4: Set Up an Organic Food Delivery

Eating seasonal food is important. The more local seasonal food your eat the less time it has spent in transit and the more nutrients the food will have. Fresh fruit and vegetables lose nutritional value from the moment they are picked.

To ensure you get the most seasonal and local food I recommend you sign up with a Local Organic Food delivery service like Riverford (the one I use) or Abel and Cole.

Organic Delivery is great because:

1. You get fresh fruit and vegetables delivered to your door weekly

2. You get to try some weird and wonderful foods that maybe you have never tried before

3. Organic food is not drenched in nasty pesticides and other chemicals

4. It actually works out cheaper than buying from the supermarket

5. It saves you time and effort of shopping each week

Set up an Organic food delivery today and you will be amazed at some of the great food you will be eating!

#5: Start to Breathe Deeply Through Your Belly Again!

Stress causes shallow breathing through the upper chest and neck. The more shallow you breathe, the more of a stress response you get.

Have you ever watched a baby breathe? They breathe deeply through their bellies right? As we get older and stress starts to creep into our lives we start to take that breathing from the belly and shift up and into the chest and neck.

Shallow breathing causes headaches, upper back and neck tension! As well as keeping you highly charged and your hormonal system on overdrive.

Learn to slow down your breathing and take your breath to your belly. Deep breathing through the diaphragm stimulates the “Parasympathetic Nervous System” and causes the body to relax.

1. Try taking 10 deep breaths counting to 5 on the IN breath and 5 on the OUT breathe

2. Push your belly OUT as you breathe IN and pull the belly IN as you breathe OUT

3. 2 thirds of your breath should come from your belly and 1 third from your chest

Take some time each day and learn to breathe deeply. It’s a wonderful stress reliever!

#6: Re-Assess Your Medication and Make Some Changes

The sale of Drugs, whether over the counter or via prescription is a multi-million pound industry. Many people are far to easily convinced to take drugs based on TV ads or Doctors recommendations.

The truth is, ALL drugs are poison to the body. It takes a lot of energy for the body to process drugs and most drugs have side effects.

If your are suffering from a sickness or disease then start to question what may be out of balance in your life. Are you stressed out, eating dead foods, dehydrated, lacking in quality sleep?

If you have been taking medication for a long time then book an appointment with your doctor to reassess your situation. Don’t just reach for the drugs every time you have a headache, backache, constipation etc. Start to question the source of the problem rather than addressing the symptoms every time.

#7: Eat More Living Food

If you want to bring life into your body then you need to eat live foods. Dead foods only equal a dead body!

So think about what foods you are eating. Do you eat fresh and seasonal foods (see action #4) or are you eating packaged and processed foods?

The fresher the food the better. Try steaming or eating some of your foods raw to get the maximum nutrition from them. Boiling vegetables only leaches all the vitamins and minerals out into the water. So if you do boil vegetables make sure you use the water to make soups and sauces.

#8: Get to Bed by 10:30pm, it’s When, Not How Much Sleep that Counts

The human being operates on what is called a circadian cycle.

We evolved from nature and have always been influenced by the fall and rise of the sun. In the mornings the hormone Cortisol is stimulated, this prepares the body for action. In the evenings Cortisol levels should be reduced and Anabolic hormones are released to stimulate tissue regrowth and repair during sleep.

If you go to bed too late then you miss out a large portion of the the Growth and Repair cycle which usually runs from around 10-2am. From 2am to 6am most repair is mental rather than physical.

We are creatures of the earth and need to work with our hormones rather than against them.

It’s not necessarily how much sleep you get that matters but more when you sleep that counts!

#9: Take Your Shoes off and Start Earthing

How often to you touch your bare feet on the grass or earth?

Earthing is based on the principle that we have lost our connection with the earth. If you think about it, do you ever walk around in bare feet anymore? Our ancestors used to have constant connection with the earth and this is something that has been lost today.

There is lots of research coming out now that shows positive reasons why we should all get out there and dance on the grass or paddle in streams.

Just connecting your body to the earth will give you lots of natural energy.

So get out there today for 5 minutes and get connected back with nature.

#10: Avoid Wheat for the Day, You Won’t Regret It

Wheat is a major problem and probably the most influential food action your could take today.

It’s not actually the wheat that is the problem but the wheat’s protein Gluten that is the real nasty. The sticky protein Gluten is a big irritant to most peoples gut.

Being Gluten intolerant doesn’t just mean having gut problems like wind and a bloated stomach. Gluten can also cause an auto immune response from Leaky Gut Syndrome resulting in: Arthritis, Headaches, Back Pains, Depression and more.

Gluten is everywhere so be careful. Common foods include: Breads, Pasta, Sauces, fillers in Sausages, and Cereals.

You can take a food sensitivity test to find out if you are Gluten sensitive or you can avoid Gluten for 30 days and see just how amazing you feel without it.

#11: Free Your Mind With 5 Minutes of Meditation

Stress is the number one killer. Meditation offers you a chance to take your mind away from the daily grind and be with yourself for a few minutes.

There are many ways to mediate, here are 2 of my favourite methods:

1. Sit quietly and breathe deeply through your belly. Concentrate on your breath as you breathe through your nose. Count each breath and see how high you can count.

2. Again sit or lie quietly and breathe through your belly. Concentrate your vision on an object about 10 feet in front of you. Keep your eyes relaxed and focus on that object ONLY.

If you do start to think about your worries and problems don’t give up just accept them and refocus on your meditation.

Start with 5 minutes and work up to 30 minutes per day.

#12: Avoid Drinking Caffeine in the Afternoon

Coffee and Tea both contain caffeine which adds extra stress to your body and mind.

The stress that caffeine causes effects your nervous system. With every cup of caffeine your adrenal glands release hormones that fire up your system and prepare it for action. As the system gets fired up glucose is released into the body to give it energy. This energy response all dates back to our survival days when we needed energy to fight or run from wild animals. We don’t usually need this energy anymore so it gets stored in the liver or in the fat cells for later.

The roller coaster that the blood sugar levels are put on due to caffeine intake and subsequent cortisol and insulin responses is very damaging to the body. Adrenal fatigue is all too common these days, as is Insulin Resistance and Diabetes.

Caffeine really does get on your nerves so take a break from it as much as you can, especially in the afternoons when you should be winding down.

#13: Choose BIG BANG Exercises and Save Time

If your goals are to improve your fitness and lose fat then you shouldn’t waste your time with small exercises.

Small exercises only target small muscle groups, like the biceps or triceps. To get a quicker response from your workout you need to focus on big exercises that hit large muscle groups.

Here’s my list of top 5 Big bang exercises:

1. The Lunge – a basic movement that not only works most muscles of the body but improves your balance and movement skills

2. The Row – pulling your hands towards you is excellent for recruiting most of the muscles in your back. Perform this exercise standing up and you will use the legs and core muscles too!

3. The Squat – uses most muscles in the body but in particular the buttocks and thighs

4. The Push Up – avoid the bench press and stick to the push up. The push Up targets the chest, triceps and core muscles and you can do them anywhere.

5. The Deadlift – again uses most of your 600 muscles but heavily works the back of the body so great for posture

Put these exercises together in a circuit in the same order as above and you have a quick and highly effective workout.

#14: Take a Walk in Nature

There is nothing more natural and uplifting than taking a walk in nature. If your mind is busy, you are feeling the pressures of the day, or you simply need a break from the office. Taking a quick stroll through a park, fields or woods, is great for the soul.

Walking in nature can offer you some active meditation. A time to let yourself go and reassess your situation. Remember we all come from nature so get out there and reconnect.

#15: Plan Out Your Meals for the Week

OK, don’t turn your nose up at this suggestion. A little planning can go a long way.

There is nothing worse than opening the cupboards and finding them bare. Empty cupboards usually means eating and drinking things that you know you shouldn’t.

Take 5 minutes and write down a list of meals for the week. Once you have your meals jotted down, split each meal up into ingredients required. You then have your shopping list for the week.

This is a simple technique that only has to be done once a week, but the time and aggravation it saves is well worth it. Also, once you have written down a few weekly lists you can combine them to save even more time.

#16: Follow the Rainbow Diet

It’s a fact that different coloured vegetables contain different nutrients.

Next time you are out grocery shopping try and choose as many variations of colours as you can find. The brighter and more colourful your shopping basket the better.

#17: Dream about What You Really Want

Do you know what you really want out of life? Have you ever taken the time to think about it?

Setting goals and taking control of your life is important for your overall happiness. There is something very intrinsically rewarding about achieving a goal. Generally the harder and longer a goal takes to achieve the more rewarding it will be.

The subconscious mind has a clever way of finding solutions for you but you have to set it a goal first. Dream big and don’t worry about how you will get there, just let your subconscious take care of it.

Here’s my proven goal setting technique:

1. Close your eyes and dream about what you want your life to be like in 5 years. How will it look and feel?

2. Now ask yourself what skills you need to achieve your dream? List them down.

3. Next work backwards and plan out your pathway to your dream. Where will you need to be in 3 years, 2 years, 1 year, 6 months, 3 month, 1 month, 1 week?

4. Write out your road-map and stick it on the wall. Tick off each week as you progress towards your 5 year dream.

This technique is highly effective. Don’t sweat over the small stuff, it will sort itself out. As I said before trust your subconscious to find a way. Take control of your life and you could be living your dream in only 5 years!

#18: Spend More Time Standing

For some people the idea of standing more often terrifies them but the truth is sitting down is not very good for our backs.

When we sit down huge amounts of pressure is transferred to the lower back, far more than when standing. It always amuses me when people say their back hurts and so they need to sit down. If you have a bad back you are better to either lie down or stand up.

I’m sure you know that we live in a sitting world. We sit going to work, at work, going home from work, and finally at home in the evening.

Try to spend more time on your feet. One simply technique to prevent prolonged sitting at work is to set a stopwatch on your computer. Every 50 minutes take the time to get up, move around, drink some water and look at something other than the computer screen. You will be amazed at how much more productive you will become by using this simple method.

#19: Turn the Lights Down and Chill Out in the Evening

Dig out those candles, dim the lights, and play some soft music. In the evening it’s time to relax and work with your hormones not against them.

I mentioned earlier how we are influenced hormonally by the sun and how these hormone levels change throughout the day. Well, in the evening we should be winding down and preparing to sleep. Bright lights and stimulating TV will activate the cortisol hormone. High cortisol levels should naturally occur in the morning when its time to wake up and get going, and not in the evenings.

So in the evenings try to avoid all stimulants, relax and wind down the right way.

#20: Limit Your Fruit Intake to 1 Piece Per Day

What? I know what you are thinking. Reduce fruit, I thought that was good for me?

Fruit is good for you but only in small doses. Fruit contains high amounts of sugar. I know it’s the natural sugar Fructose but it’s still sugar.

Sugar is the largest cause of obesity today. No its not fat, its sugar. Sugar consumption has drastically risen over the last 50 years and fat consumption has drastically dropped, but we are all in worse shape than ever. We have more gyms, medical practitioners and health carers than ever before but we still can’t stop the obesity epidemic. Stop sugar and it all goes away!

Here’s my quick guide to Fruit and Sugar:

1. Avoid all Sugars including syrups and artificial sweeteners (they are even worse than sugar).

2. All ingredients that end in “ose” are a sugar. For example: Sucrose, Glucose, Fructose, Maltose etc.

3. Limit fruit to one piece a day. Only eat seasonal fruit. Fruit is not a meal.

Fruit has changed a lot over the years. Our ancestors would have eaten fruit that was much smaller and more sour. They would have only eaten it when it was in season and usually to fatten up for the winter.

Be very very careful with fruit and sugar!

#21: Do Something Different

Remember the feeling you last had when you did something different? We are creatures of habit and although most habits keep us safe they don’t always challenge us.

Have some fun by changing a habit and doing something you haven’t done before. It can be as simple as taking a different route to work or waking up in the middle of the night and looking at the stars. The challenge is to experience something new.

Spend 5 minutes looking through Google for something new. Try a new sport, join a new club, start a new business, try a new hobby, reconnect with an old friend, go to the theatre, book a weekend break.

Life is short. It’s amazing what happens when you try something new. With new experiences come more new experiences. Without change you get the same results so get out there and explore.

 

How many of these Quick Actions will you take today?

Your Complete Health & Fitness Checklist

By Greg Brookes

The words Health and Fitness are often used interchangeably but is there a difference? Can a person be Fit but not healthy? Often we are too quick to judge health by external appearances.

Just because someone looks good in the mirror it does not make them healthy

Bodybuilders often struggle with bad digestive problems and constipation due to excessive protein consumption and supplementation. Cyclists can have serious mobility problems due to prolonged seated positions and ultimately muscle shortening.

cycling in flexion
Image by sjrowe53

Many Sportsmen and women consume excessive amounts of simple carbs that are damaging to both the body and the brain due to a process known as glycation. Many athletes suffer from the strains of competition resulting in depression, and peer pressure can lead to terrible unhappiness.

In my opinion you can have a good level of fitness but still be unhealthy. Organ health is far more important than muscular-skeletal health, the Paralympics is a superb example of this.

You can survive without a leg or an arm but see how far you get without your liver!

In order to live a happy and healthy life we need to look at our lives holistically. We need to combine not only the Physical but the Mental and Emotional too! I approach personal training from 3 Natural Angles: Movement, Nutrition and the Mind.

Here’s how it all breaks down:

Natural Stress

Are you managing your stress? Stress causes hormonal reactions in the body that literally over power everything from fat loss to sleep. When I work with clients my first priority is always Stress.

The body reacts to stress in the same way no matter what the simulant may be, whether it’s Physical Stress, Mental Stress, Emotional Stress, Chemical Stress etc. So whether you are worried about losing your job, drink too much coffee or work in an environment with lots of pollution the stress on your body is the same.

Stress accumulates until you can take no more and that’s when diseases starts to occur. Generally if you are slow to heal, suffer from lots of injuries, catch colds frequently or struggle to put on muscle mass you are suffering from stress related issues. Time to chill out!

Take Action:

The best way to combat stress is to address your largest cause of stress first. Put together a tick list of everything that stresses your out. Don’t forget all the different types of stress listed above. Arrange your list in order of biggest to smallest and then address each one. You will usually find that by addressing your biggest stresser first that things improve quite quickly!

Natural Values

Do you understand what really matters to you? Try to lead your life fighting your true values and you will lead a life of resistance and constant struggle.

When I first started as a Personal Trainer I thought that exercise had all the answers. Later I discovered that exercise was only one small part and that nutrition was far more important. Finally I realised that both exercise and nutrition don’t mean a thing unless you get the mind in order. Why do you think people make excuses to avoid exercise or eat well? Why do most diets and exercise programs only last for weeks or only a few months? The answer lies in our Values.

For many people they do not Value exercise or Nutrition as an important part of their Values. Your Values are at the centre of every decision you make. They are fundamental. So when an exercise or nutrition program is thrust upon people by the media then their is often a conflict of values. The only true way to succeed is to first discover your values and then live in accordance with them.

For example one of my core values is: Autonomy. I need to be in charge of my own time and govern how I spend it. If I go against this value and try working for someone else then I struggle. Another one of my Values is: Health. Unless I can exercise and eat well I’m not happy so arranging my schedule to allow for this is very important.

If your Values don’t include Health, Wellness or Fitness then you need to find someway to anchor health to one of your other values. For example if friendship is one of your values then spending time with friends hiking or cycling could be a solution. If adventure is a value then going on active holidays is also a good choice. If Education is a value then going on a cookery or language course could be a step in the right direction.

Take Action:

Take some time to think about what and who inspires you. Often the people that inspire us share the same value or values. Start making a list of these values. Be honest with yourself. Once you have a long list of values arrange them into order from strongest to weakest. Next compare your life to your most strongest values. How do they match up? If your life and values don’t match up their will always be an internal conflict. Start making some changes.

Natural Laws

The body is governed by natural laws inherent in all of us. Do you get to bed on time? Adjust your diet according to the seasons?

We have evolved to sleep and rise with the sun. Hormonal changes happen during the day that result in a cascade of reactions throughout the body. When we rise with the sun cortisol levels are at their highest. The morning should be action time. Our ancestors would have been up and hunting early. As we move through the day cortisol levels drop, until finally at night cortisol is at it’s lowest point before sleep. During sleep anabolic hormones are released to heal tissue damage.

The natural cycle of stimulation in the morning and relaxation in the afternoon and evening is frequently disrupted by stimulants like coffee or bright lights in the evening or late sleeping patterns.

Take Action:

Get to bed on time. Try to get head on pillow by 10:30pm. Wind down in the evening by reading and relaxing. Don’t watch TV in bed or minutes before sleep. Dim lights to reduce of stimulation

Natural Recovery

Most people don’t rest enough. They think they are resting while watching TV but this is often not the case. Rest and recovery affects all aspects of life, both body and mind. You should plan recovery periods into your life just the same as you plan active periods. If you exercise a lot then you need to rest a lot in order to recover. If you are stressed a lot then you need to rest, perform some mediation and free your mind more often.

If we look at Taoist Philosophy then exercise can be classed as the Yang and rest as Yin. Both must be of equal measure or there will be problems.

Take Action:

Work rest into your timetable. Consider meditation, tai chi, yoga, walking in nature, quietly reading, or having a regular massage.

symptoms of overtraining
Image by Hang in There

Natural Motivation

Are you doing what you want to do in life? Nothing enlivens the spirit more than achieving something you really want in life. Setting goals and having dreams is an important part of being happy. Once you set a clear goal and commit it to paper something special happens. That written down goal starts to communicate with your sub-conscious. It gives it something to work on. Sometimes we don’t have all the answers but once a goal is written down and thought about things start to happen.

Take Action:

A simple goal setting method is to think about the future. Dream about what you want in 5 years time. Imagine everything: how you look, feel and what your world will be like. Commit all this to paper.

Don’t think about constraints or ways of achieving your goals, just dream. Once your 5 year image is clear then you can work backwards. What skills will you need to get there? How much time commitment? Do you need more money? Break the 5 year plan up into manageable chunks. I like to think: 5 years, 3 years, 1 year, 6 months, 3 months, 1 month, and then weekly. Now you have your 5 year road map. You can plan every week month and year in order to achieve that 5 year plan.

Nothing feels better than knowing every day you are getting closer to your goal. That is a true feeling of happiness!

Natural Individuality

We are all different on the inside just as we are different on the outside. The idea that a “one diet fits all” is totally ridiculous. Many of us now suffer with food intolerance’s. Some people can tolerate Gluten others can’t. Some struggle with dairy and are lactose intolerance others aren’t. Some are totally allergic to foods like nuts. Some of us require more fat and protein in their diet and others require more carbs. Do you think a builder or manual laboured requires the same amount of protein as a journalist?

The climate also has a large part to play in the food and drink you eat. Generally we eat more fat and protein during the winter months and more salads (high in water content) and carbohydrates during the summer.

You can also look at your ancestry to get a better idea of the foods that may better suit you as an individual. According to Weston A Price those of use originating from close to the equator are more suited to carbohydrate based foods and those in much colder climates are suited better to Fat and Protein.

Take Action:

Discovering your own food and drink identity is about discovering what works best for you. Try foods and see what reaction you have to them. Do you feel energised? Full for longer periods? Do you have bloating or constipation? Finding your individual diet is about listening to your body and through a process of elimination discovering what is right for you.

Natural Food

Do you eat food that you have evolved to eat? Or are you eating processed, sugar enriched foods that have been designed to make people rich but you physically poor.

The healthier the food the healthier the body

Although the mind has advanced at an incredible rate the human digestive system is still fairly primitive. In essence we should only eat whole foods. Foods that come from nature. Foods that bring life into the body and not take it away.

Allergens are causing big problems today, as are stimulants like caffeine and sugar. My advice is to keep your nutrition simple and bare in mind your natural individuality.

Take Action:

Be very careful with the following foods:

Stimulants: Sugar, Caffeine and Alcohol all cause huge hormonal responses within the body. Give your nerves and blood sugar a break and keep these foods to a minimum.

Gluten: An alarming amount of people are intolerant of gluten causing problems from bloating and depression to a leaky gut and arthritis. Avoid all wheat from breads to pasta.

Dairy: Another allergen, many people lack the enzyme Lactase that is required to break down the milks sugar lactose. Anyway cows milk is meant for baby cows not humans.

Natural Drink

Are you jacked up on coffee, and energy drinks all day because you lack natural energy? Do you give your body what it really needs like 2 litres of clean water?

We come from nature, we are nature! Have you tried watering a plant with Coke or an energy drink? The only drink that we should be consuming is water. In the Body’s Many Cries for Water, Dr. Batmanaheldj discusses how we are often not hungry but thirsty, as we can extract water from foods and the signals are often confused.

Take Action:

Drink a minimum of 2 Litres of water a day. Glass bottled spring water is best, but if you can’t find this don’t deny yourself. In the UK a lot of the tap water is good enough to drink either filtered or not.

Natural Preparation

How do you prepare your food? Do you destroy it with microwaves or turn good fats rancid by overheating natural oils.

Eating whole live food is important but the way you prepare the food can have a drastic effect on the nutrients and how they get absorbed by your body.

Avoid Microwaves: microwaves work by rapidly oscillating the molecules of the food, this ultimately changes the molecule structure of the food and makes it unrecognisable to the body. There was an interesting recent study performed by a school girl who watered 2 identical plants one with cooled boiled water and the other from cooled microwaved water. Within days the plant watered by the microwaved water was starting to wilt and die.

Take Action:

Eat Raw: Raw food is always a good option, try to eat a good portion of your daily food raw.

Steam: I’m crazy about steaming food. Steaming preserves a lot of the nutrients and is far better than boiling.

Boiling: Boiling foods leaches most of the nutrients into the water. If you do boil then use the water for soups and stocks.

Fry: Shallow fry with stable fats like coconut oil, butter, lard, and ghee.

Slow Cook: Another of my favourite cooking methods. Buy a slow cooker and add your ingredients and leave for the day for a ready prepared meal after work

8 things you need to know about food preparation
Image by Oxfordian

Natural Origins

Do you know where your food comes from? The healthier the food the healthier it is for you. Do you think sick animals that have been filled with drugs make good building blocks for your body?

I’m a great believer in buying organic food. I know many argue that the nutrient value is the same but I have to disagree. Good foods come from good soils. Soils that are over used and destroyed with chemicals do not make a good foundation for food. Remember that the soil is alive. You can’t make healthy foods from dead soils.

I also don’t like to eat all my vegetable with a serving on chemicals sprayed all over them. Many think that washing the vegetables removes chemicals but these chemical are designed to withstand water otherwise rain would remove all the chemicals from the plants.

Natural Development

How did you develop as a child? Can you still move around like you used to? Are you limited in what you can and can’t do now?

From the moment babies are born they are working to develop stability. We all know how flexible babies are but they lack joint stabilisation strength. First the baby develops strength in the neck as they support their own head. Later they mange to push up from the prone position in order to look around. Next they start to roll from prone to supine. Later they crawl, squat, stand and finally walk. The whole process is a miracle.

Babies EARN their strength and stability we don’t give it to them

Now look at the way we train today. People ignore the stabilising muscles. Machines take stabilisation out of exercise, concentrating only on prime mover muscles that look good in the mirror but can’t stabilise a joint in daily life. Many people due to sedentary lifestyles lack even the fundamental stability that they earn as a child. It’s no surprise that people get injured during exercise.

For many clients I have to go back to the beginning. I have to teach people to earn their joint stability again. Many people can’t crawl, roll or squat anymore.

health and fitness checklist

Natural Movement

I like to keep movement simple. The body is designed to move economically. We don’t just push with our arms but our core muscles and legs too. For the majority of fitness purposes we want to utilise as many muscles as possible, this ensures maximum strength development, growth hormonal stimulation and energy expenditure.

Paul Chek was the first to popularise a form of movement patterning that ensured movements were performed naturally. When we look at the way the body has evolved certain movements become clear:

Squating: think about sitting onto the toilet or intro a chair. Ensure the thighs break parallel with the floor to achieve maximum glute engagement

Lunging: whenever you walk up steps or take long deep strides you are lunging. You can lunge in all directions forwards, backwards, sideways or diagonally

Deadlifting: if you correctly pick something up off the ground with a nice flat back then you are deadlifting

Pushing: you can either push things forwards in front of you or push them overhead

Pulling: similar to pushing, you can pull things in front of you closer or pull yourself upwards like when climbing a tree

The above movements can be made more difficult by adding rotation or by using one arm or leg. When you exercise it is usually a good idea to utilise all of the above movement patterns this way no muscle is left untouched and the body is balanced beautifully.

Natural Balance

How do you look in the mirror? Is your posture good? How much energy do you think a bad posture requires to maintain balance? Is it time you stretched out and stopped training only the front of your body.

In a world of chairs, desks, laptops and sofa’s, many of us have developed dreadful posture. The Kyphotic Upper Back is starting to get seen everywhere as the upper back continues to flex forwards and the head gravitates forwards to compensate.

What makes matters worse is that most people are addicted to forward flexion exercises like Crunches, Cycling Machines and Chest Exercises.

More time needs to be spent correcting the bad posture that gravity and a day of sitting causes. Here is a simple method you can try:

  • Ensure you divide all your workouts between equal Pushing and Pulling Movements
  • Squats and Press Ups are Pushing movements. Deadlifts and Rows are Pulling movements

Stretching can really feel good but you need to question how much you should stretch. Spending 10 minutes 3 times per week will never correct a tight muscle that is held in a shortened position due to sitting for 8 hours per day. In order to really make gains in stretching you need to treat stretching as a separate programme. Stretching for 3-4 times per day will yield much better results.

Stretching is highly neurological. You need to make corrections to the neurological system in order to make lasting change. PNF stretching is effective but only short term.

Take action:

Start to divide your workouts based on pushing and pulling patterns, this will ensure that you balance out your body equally. Stretch only tight areas but ensure you stretch more often and only the areas that require attention. Stretching every muscle the same will only increase your overall imbalance.

Natural Mobility

Do you suffer from back pain? Do you have bad knees? Do your shoulders hurt? The ability to move through all joints is fundamental for a pain free life.

Strength Coach Mike Boyle wrote an excellent article on a Joint by Joint approach to the body. As you look at the stack of joints from bottom to top you notice an interesting pattern:

  • Foot – Stable Joint
  • Ankle – Mobile Joint
  • Knee – Stable Joint
  • Hip – Stable & Mobile Joint
  • Lower Back (Lumbar Spine) – Stable Joint
  • Upper Back (Thoracic Spine) – Mobile Joint
  • Shoulder – Stable & Mobile Joint
  • Neck (Cervical Spine) – Mobile Joint

Notice how mobile joints and stable joints alternate? So the Foot and Knee stay stable while the Ankle provides all the movement. The Lower Back remains stable while the Hips and Upper Back move freely.

The above pattern is how things should work. But what happens if the Ankle is stiff from an injury or tightly laced footwear? What happens is the knee or foot is forced to be more mobile than it should be, and this causes problems. Knee problems are all too common due to a lack of ankle mobility. Lower back problems are due to a lack of hip and Upper back mobility. Shoulder problems are common due to lack of Upper back mobility.

Keeping the joints mobile that should be mobile is vital to avoid punishing all those joints that should just remain stable.

Take Action:

Spend time as often as possible working on the mobility of the joints that should be mobile: Ankles, Hips, Upper Back and Neck. Never work into pain just try to increase their range of movement.

Natural Workout

Do you exercise too much or too little? Are you exercising from the inside out? Is the exercise you perform right for you or some model in a magazine?

Exercise needs to begin at the centre. You need to provide your body with a stable platform. The stronger and more stable your Core muscles the less injuries you will receive and the more powerful and efficient you will be.

Here is a simple progression that I believe ever exerciser should go through:

  1. Develop your Inner Core Muscles – these muscles include the TVA (Transverse Abdominus), Pelvic Floor, Diaphragm, and Multifidus. Together these muscle form a compression chamber that keeps your spine safe and stable.
  2. Strengthen the Outer Core Muscles – these are the more popular muscles and include the Internal & External Obliques, Rectus Abdominus, Quadratus Lumborum, Latisimus Dorsi, Erector Spinae, Glutes. Once these are strong you have a stable platform for your limbs to work from.
  3. Start with Bodyweight through 3 Planes – next work through the fundamental movement patterns listed under Natural Movement. Make sure you address all 3 planes of movement: Forwards and Backwards (Sagittal), Side to Side (Frontal), and Rotational (Transverse).
  4. Begin with High Reps – connective tissue takes a lot longer to condition than muscle so take it easy at first. Keep the load low and the reps high. I would recommend 20 reps to start.
  5. Start to Add Load – finally you can start to load the Fundamental Movement Patterns and begin to lower the Reps. Spend 6 weeks at 20 reps, 4 weeks at 8 – 15 reps and 4 weeks at 1-8 reps

How much of this Health & Fitness checklist can you truly say you are doing right now?

Love to hear your comments below…..

10 Things You Need to Know About Juicing

By Greg Brookes

10 things about juicing

Last year I received a Juicer for my birthday.

I have to say that juicing vegetables was one of the best things I started doing in 2012.

Once my wife and I started drinking juiced vegetables we noticed a number of benefits:

  • Even more energy
  • Better Skin, my wife noticed this one especially
  • Better Hydration, extra water first thing is a good start to the day
  • Quicker workout recovery and healing time

I’m totally converted to juicing and believe that everyone should discover the benefits it has to offer.

Before you start, here are 10 things you need to know:

# 1 – Don’t Juice Fruit

Fruit has way too much sugar to be used for juicing. You can get a very quick high from juicing fruit as your sugar levels escalate but this puts heavy demands on your hormonal system. What starts out as a boost of energy will soon turn into an energy crash. Juicing fruit is a very quick way to pile on fat as your body stores excess sugar in your liver and fat cells. If you are diabetic or struggle with your insulin levels then juicing fruit is especially dangerous.

# 2 – Drink Immediately

Have you ever cut an apple in half and left it for 15 minutes? Goes brown right? This reaction is called oxidation, it’s the fruit reacting with oxygen. This is the reason why most foods are stored in air tight containers. So when you juice your vegetables make sure you consume the juice as quickly as possible to ensure you absorb all that goodness.

# 3 – Gets Absorbed Quickly

When you eat vegetables they take time to get absorbed into your blood stream. The fibre in all vegetables is the reason why absorption is slowed down. Now we definitely need fibre in out diets and it’s especially good for improving digestion so I would NEVER recommend replacing meal after meal with juices. But juicing vegetables will give you those important other nutrients quickly and effectively.

# 4 – Gives Digestion a Break

We all eat far too much for our needs. Having a juice now and again gives our digestive system a break and time to recover from digestion overload. Juicing is often used for cleansing as well as part of a fasting diet. The principles of fasting and cleansing are all based around giving the digestive system time to catch up and recover.

# 5 – Only Juice Organic

I know there are a lot of non-believers out there who don’t buy into Organic food but juicing should be one exception. Organic foods are not covered in chemicals that when juiced you are drinking. Toxic juice drinks will take more nutrients out of your body than you can put in. Plus, vegetables grown in good organic soil provide more nutrient dense veggies. Remember you are what you eat, carrots eat soil nutrients, just the way we eat carrots. Healthy soil is the source of all healthy foods including meats.

# 6 – Add Fat to Juices

If you are a fast oxidiser meaning you absorb carbohydrates (sugars) quickly then you may want to add a little fat to your juices to slow down the absorption. This is the case for me, so I add either some good quality flax oil, coconut oil (my favourite), hemp oil, or olive oil into my juices. By adding approximately a teaspoon of this fat I find it gives me a nice even energy release.

# 7 – Use the Vegetable Pulp

After you have juiced your vegetable you will be left with a considerable amount of pulp. The pulp still contains nutrients and lots of fibre. You can use this pulp to add to other meals like a vegetable hash with eggs, or save the carrot pulp for making Gluten Free Carrot Cake 🙂 If you don’t choose to use the pulp for cooking then at least use it for compost.

# 8 – Juice Early

I always drink my juices in the morning when I first wake. You can of course juice at any time but I like to have the intake of nutrients and energy first thing so I can use it throughout the day. I would not recommend juicing too late in the afternoon as additional energy is not what you want when the body should be winding down along with a decrease in cortisol levels.

# 9 – Don’t Peel

Always wash your vegetables before juicing and if you buy organic they will be covered in soil anyway so this is a must. If you are juicing lemons then I recommend you remove most of the peel because without doing this you get some serious zesty zing in your juice. Experiment for yourself but too much zest can be overpowering. If you do juice the zest make sure your lemons are not covered in wax as many are these days.

# 10 – Buy a Good Juicer

Now I’m no juicing machine expert but my wife did do some serious research before buying my juicer. Many juicers can be hard to clean and others do not extract that much juice from your vegetables. My juicer is amazing, we bought it from Amazon and it’s super easy to clean, very sturdy and generates loads of juice. Its not that expensive either.

The juicer I have is a Philips HR1861 Whole Fruit Juicer (affiliate link).

Finally if you a wondering what I like to juice then here is a list of my favourite ingredients I like to throw in my juicer, not all in one go though 🙂

  • Kale
  • Cucumber
  • Spinach
  • Celery
  • Carrot
  • Beetroot
  • Watercress
  • Lemon
  • Lime
  • Ginger

Oh and did I mention that these juices taste delicious, bonus!

(I mentioned above an affiliate link for my juicer. This means that if you purchase a juicer through that link I get a small commission at NO EXTRA cost to you. I have only included this link because I’m 100% happy with this product and would like you to experience the benefits of it too. Just wanted to be totally transparent with you.)

What are Your Juicing Experiences? Leave me a comment…