I frequently enhance my obesity support services by encouraging people to participate in 12 step programmes. Most people have heard of AA: in fact, numerous groups dealing with problems are modelled on the 12 step approach.
Overeaters anonymous is a great one.
Read More
If you are going to go on a Keto diet, and then bang on about how great it is, and how you are in ketosis, the very least you can do is to buy some Ketostix, wee on them, and show us that you are “burning fat”.
Read More
A cute little workout: 10 dumbbell snatches left, 10 right, 1 turkish get up L, 1 turkish get up R, 10 toes to bar. Amrap 12 minutes. I discovered I could use the door frame of the security gate. which added a few interesting challenges. The square shape gave my fingers and hand a “novel grip experience” and because there are bars coming off it, you have to control where your fingers go, otherwise you can smash them up.
Read More
The fitness:
The Crossfit workout Annie
50-40-30-20-10 double-unders. 50-40-30-20-10 abmat sit-ups.
Read More
Well its Saturday, and day 2 out of this training block of 3 days.
Todays workout is 12 minutes of :
10 burpees, 5 dumbbell push press L, 5 dumbbell push press R
This is nastily crafted as yesterday you had the push up grind. Today you will really want to drive your hips on the push press and you’ll probably want more of a sprawl on the burpee.
Still, super compensation, aside, it was surprisingly yuk!
Enjoy.
Todays Healthy Food Option
To add more variety to this blog, I’m inviting guests into share their favourite meals. First up is a Cajun chicken dish from Fresh Fitness foods.
Chicken – P: 27.83 | C: 0.73 | F: 3 | Kcal: 141.24
Broccoli – [ P: 2.52 | C: 3.2 | F: 2.42 | Kcal: 35.66
Rice – [ P: 2.8 | C: 26.5 | F: 0.75 | Kcal: 123.5 ]
Cajun Chicken Ingredients
Method
Roasted Broccoli Ingredients
Method
Zesty Rice Ingredients
Method
If you want to try Fresh Fitness Food go here https://www.freshfitnessfood.com/ then use the discounts GABDOU10 for 10% off and GABDOU for £50 off your first order.
Have a great weekend, stay active, eat healthily, see you tomorrow, and join the mailing list
Well, it looked ok, but may I introduce you to a bit of tasteless beef.
So, its 4 block of tasteless beef ( lovingly slow roasted for 3 hours: that was a waste of electricity), 3 blocks of potatoes at 150g, and some nice cabbage with a block of extra butter (between the 2 of us) chucked in, otherwise Kate won’t eat it.
looked ok, tasted of nothing.
TODAYS WORKOUT
This mornings workout was 20 box jumps (or step ups) 20 push ups, 400m run . As many rounds as possible in 15 minutes.
Join the mailing list and get hints and tips sent to you
The meal I’ll analyse today is my lovely Kate’s favourite meat which is roast lamb.
Voila
4 blocks of lamb, or 112g ( that’s the protein) , 3 blocks of potato (150g) and my hope that the odd bit of fat that I rubbed over the meat before roasting was about 4 x 1.5g . The zone diet assumes that all meat has some fat in it.
You’ll notice I’ve slung peas and green beans on my plate, but without really measuring them. I think “pile on the ( non starchy) veg”, but don’t let this take you away from measuring the more carb dense food!
POINTS TO NOTE: when you start to properly manage your weight 1) don’t hunt out weird exotic meals to make. Try and stick with stuff you know and can cook. 2) learn to portion control the important stuff. Dont obsess if you had too much spinach or 3 more fork fulls of cabbage! Learn to recognise the high calorie food. still include it! But manage it.
Todays car park workout was an ‘up down ladder”
Mark out a 10m shuttle run, get a suitably nice, or nasty dumbbell to snatch
On the way up dumbbell snatches 2-20 (2, 4, 6) , on the way down shuttle runs 10-1(10, 9, 8)
Disgusting
Effective exercise can generate powerful huge forces if they are initiated controlled and dominated by the hip.
Many untrained athletes have a muted hip which creates postures and mechanics that reduce power output, promotes postures and mechanics that are considered by many to be unsound.
In simple terms the Muted Hip Function (MHF) results from the legs compensating for the failed of the hip, in effect using leg extension to compensate for non existent hip extension.
According to the Crossfit Journal the causes and consequences of MHF include but are not limited to:
• structurally disadvantaged spinal posture
• low glute recruitment
• low hamstring recruitment
• pelvis abandoning the spine and chasing the legs
• centre of gravity shifting dramatically backward
• centre of balance shifting toward toes
• knee experiencing unsound shear force
• leg extension being the only productive effort
• hip extension not being possible with low hip angle
• pelvis rotating the wrong way
The cure is deliberate and focused training. Thats why you probably need a trainer like me. Why not join the mailing list a get useful information
It’s impossible to get fit without someone reminding you to “stretch your quads”. The quads, or quadriceps ( quad for four) run up the top of the front of your leg. Three of them go from the knee cap to below your hip. One goes across the knee and then across the hip. Here is a useful graphic from wikipedia
Stretching these muscles is important as they are the ones most likely to become short if you sit too much. We all sit too much.
Here is the standing quad stretch that I think everyone must have seen at some stage
But this is just the start of your quad journey. Get on a bed (or anything comfy) and kneel down
Put your hands behind you and lean back. Some may find this hard. Don’t worry, just keep on getting used to it. Just incase you get stuck, it maybe as well to have someone around to pull you back up again if you cannot get back up again.
Once you build your confidence, get a cushion pile and slowly take a cushion away each time you try
Eventually you’ll simply lie down. you’ll notice my hips are fairly high, so to be a quad stretching master, eventually you need to pull your hips down.
Unfortunately, you probably need to build this up to 3 minutes. If your ankles are very tight you may need a small roll (a towel) under them, as the initial stretch can be quite intense! Enjoy. Slowly build up your time and tolerance. In the early stages, it’s just about getting used to it.
Maybe the strongmen of old didn’t have access to weights. I say that as, many of the old fashioned “get fit at home” manuals and pamphlets, put push ups and push up variations at the core of their regimes. Maybe they assumed that their home based clients didn’t have a “bench”.
Not a totally insane assumption.
So, push ups or “dips” as Charles Atlas called them, belong in any home regime. I think they are often overlooked.
Charles Atlas does his “dip”between two chairs in order to get a bigger range of motion. according to his pamphlet its great for “Chest, Shoulders and Back. Excellent for preventing Lung and Chest troubles. Do the dipping exercise at least 100 times every day. Aim to do it 200 times daily if you are keen on getting a very big and powerful chest development. Do this by dipping 25 or more times, rest and relax a few moments and do them again. Rest and do them again.” Charles Atlas said he did 200 daily.
However, it isn’t as simple as just doing any type of push up. Notice from this video that you are aiming for a planche push up. Your shoulders go forward and your hands end up as near the hips as possible
Of course, this is achievable if you already have push ups. If you don’t work your progressions like mad