sculpt personal training

Get fit for the summer

This week, the sunshine has got us all at Sculpt looking forward to the hitting the beach, and whether the thought of donning your Speedos fills you with dread or delight, there’s something here for you.

1: Get outside.  Now summer is on the way, training outdoors can be much more enjoyable than sweating it out in the gym. You can achieve pretty much the same workout in your local park, or even your back garden, as you would in the gym. Just buy some portable equipment - stretch cords and a stability ball would suffice – and top up your tan while getting toned.

2: Move more.  Get the tube to work, sit down all day, tube it home, sit on the sofa….. Sound like you? Then get off your arse and get moving. It’s not rocket science; the more your move the more calories you burn so walk or cycle to work a couple of times a week.

3: Lift weights. You don’t have to want to look like Arnie  - lifting weights is the most effective way to change the shape of your body. To build muscle, aim for 4-5 sets of 6-10 reps of fairly heavy weights working major muscle groups. This is also  a great fat burner as it the more muscle you have, the higher your metabolic rate.

4: Plan and be consistent. Fail to plan and you’re planning to fail. Your body will adapt best to a regular routine – don’t do five sessions one week and one the next, your body doesn’t work that way. Aim for something more realistic, 3 or 4 sessions a week is ideal, and stick to it.

5: Cross train. Don’t let yourself go stale with the same old exercises. Your body is very good at adapting to hard work so shake things up every couple of months. You’ll be guaranteed to see the results.

6: Eat well and often. You can’t out-train a bad diet - unless your Usain Bolt and can break world records on a diet of McNuggets Without the correct fuel your body will not work properly so try to eat smaller meals 5 – 6 times each day and drink at least 1.5 litres of water to raise your metabolism.

7: Set a goal. Having something to aim for is great for motivation. Make sure it’s realistic; don’t enter a marathon if you cant run a mile! A bike trip with friends, for example, is a great way to combine socialising and exercise. Try the annual London to Brighton ride or, for the more serious cyclists, there’s London to Paris.

8:  Work the core. Sore back? Over 80% of us will experience back pain at some point in our lives. Training your core muscles will improve posture and leave you much less susceptible to injury, particularly lower back pain.

9: Enjoy yourself. If you don’t, you are much less likely to keep it up. If the thought of half an hour on the treadmill depresses you then do something else. Adrenaline sports such as free running, climbing, or surfing are exhilarating and challenging alternatives, not to mention a great way to impress your mates.

10: Invest in a personal trainer. We’ve all been there – it’s raining outside and the last thing you want to do is go for run. Well with a personal trainer on hand, you’ll never be able to slack off. A good personal trainer will get to you where you want to go faster than you could do by yourself and unleash your true potential.

David Jones

Owner and senior trainer of Sculpt Personal Training

www.sculpt.me.uk

Uncover your Abs

The elusive six-pack stomach is plastered everywhere you look these days with ripped abs being used to sell anything from aftershave to magazines, underwear to diet Coke.

The lean, defined mid section is often seen as the Holy Grail of masculinity, providing the ultimate sexual attraction.

The truth is that the six pack (rectus abdominus) is just one part of the core musculature that supports our posture and protects our spine and, like all other muscles, should not be over-trained. A strong stomach and a weak back can lead to imbalance and ultimately injury or lower back pain.

Follow the Sculpt Personal Training top tips for a lean, muscular stomach and achieve the beach ready stomach you’ve always dreamed of – get rid of flab-pack and welcome your six pack….

1. Don’t spot train

You can do 500 stomach crunches every day but still won’t see any definition if you have a layer of fat on your stomach. Instead focus your efforts on a training program that will burn the fat and reveal your hidden six pack.

2. Eat rubbish, look rubbish

Enjoy junk food and drinking binges?You can bet your stomach doesn’t, maintain a balanced healthy diet to strip away fat and uncover your abs.

3. Interval training

One of the most effective ways of burning body fat – run / swim / cycle / row at a high intensity for 1-2 minutes and then bring it down to a lower intensity for 1-2 minutes. Repeat 10 times for a fat blasting workout.

4: Quality not quantity

You’ll get much better results from challenging exercises completed with good posture. 10 well-performed crunches are better than 100 poorly performed ones.

5. Train the entire core

The stomach muscles work together with the rest of the core muscles so it’s important to train them all equally to get best results.

David Jones

Sculpt Personal Training

www.sculpt.me.uk

david@sculpt.me.uk

Streeeeeeeeetch yourself

Often skipped, skimped and overlooked - stretching is a vitally important component of any exercise programme.

Muscles perform best when they can function through their full range of movement. Unstretched and tight muscles cannot perform as well as loose supple ones no matter how hard you train them.

Muscles left unstretched over long periods of time can cause imbalances, adhesions, injury and in the worst cases - death (not really death)

Stretching is easy and quick if you do it right:

Static stretching: get the targeted muscle into a lengthened position until a gentle stretch is felt and hold the position for 20-30 seconds.

Foam rolling: you may have seen these in the gym and wondered what they are. They look like big foam rolling pins and work like a massage. Place the roller on or under the muscle needing a stretch and gently roll until you find a tender spot. Hold it on this point for 20-30 seconds.

Dynamic stretching: if you are doing power work or any explosive movements this is the one for you ie. Lunges to stretch the legs.

Just a couple of minutes a day will give improvements in flexibility - do it when you watch tv, before bed, on the tube? Maybe not on the tube….

Training tracks

Album:  Digitalism - Idealism

Seen me through many a session.

Exercise of the week

Cable lat pull downs are this weeks pick, they are a great alternative for people not strong enough to do pull ups. Use 2 handles to really challenge your back muscles.

Adding this exercise into your routine will improve your pulling strength.

Muscles used: latissimus dorsi, biceps, rhomboids

To perform you could either find a seated lat pull down machine or you could set it up yourself on a 2 pulley cable machine. Grasp the handle(s) with a wide grip and pull down to just below your chin.

Training Tracks

Soulwax - Most of the remixes.

Awesome - listen to it on www.spotify.com

Training Tracks

Music I recommend training to:

Album - Justice - A Cross the Universe.

Very high energy live album - get me going no matter how knackered I feel!

david@sculpt.me.uk

www.sculpt.me.uk

Exercise of the week: the plank

The plank is a core stabilisation exercise that can be performed just about anywhere. All you need is a flat surface large enough to stretch out in.

Adding the plank into your exercise routine will give you a strong, stable core which will protect you from injury and aid movement efficiency.

Muscles used: core- abdominal complex, hips and lower back.

To perform lie face down on a flat surface with your elbows and forearms under your chest.

Lift your body up onto your toes and forearms maintaining a flat back and tight abs.

See if you can hold the position for 30 seconds.

To progress hold for longer durations or decrease the stability eg. Put feet on a stability ball.

Exercise of the week

The pull up.

Muscles used: back,arms,chest,shoulders

Pull ups are a great upper body strength exercise involving most of the large muscle groups in the back.

To perform grab the bar with hands positioned slightly wider than the shoulders. Pull your body upwards maintaining a neutral spine and avoiding swinging the legs (cheating)

To progress increase reps or add a weight belt.

To regress use an assisted pull up machine.

exercise of the week

The Press Up.

Keeping it simple but effective - its everyones favourite (least favourite) chest strength exercise. Some people can do hundreds - some people can’t do a single one (naming no names) - the press up is very effective at building up chest strength and strength endurance.

Muscles Used:

Pec Major (chest)

Triceps (back of arms)

Anterior Deltoid (front of shoulder)

Core stabilisation muscles.

How to do it:

1: Get yourself into a plank position with arms extended - hands just outside the shoulders.

2: Keeping your back straight, lower your body towards the floor by flexing at the elbow.

3: Return to starting position by extending the arms

Make it harder:

- Increase reps.

- Decrease the stability by performing with hands on a stability ball or if you like to show off - do them one handed.

- Slower tempo

Make it easier:

- Complete with your knees on the floor.

david@sculpt.me.uk

www.sculpt.me.uk

training on the move

After taking a break in the south of france I was inspired to write a post about exercise options when you’ve got no facilities near you….

If you travel alot or, like me, feel you need to exercise even when on holiday (i’m an addict) you will find that lack of facilities / equipment / time can make it difficult to get a good workout.

Having experimented with many different travel workouts over the years I can share some tips:

1. Use your own body weight as resistance.

For this all you need is yourself and a small floor space. With these two things you can perform literally hundreds of different exercises targeting most muscles in your body.

Here is a very simple bodyweight workout that, completed with minimal rest in between exercises, will give you a good cardio workout whilst hitting all the major muscles in your body.

See if you can complete 2 x 20 repetitions of each exercise (do more or less reps to adjust difficulty)

- Press up (chest, shoulders, triceps and core muscles worked)

- Dips on a chair/bench (triceps)

- Squats (Glutes, Quads and Hamstrings worked)

- Crunch + oblique crunch (stomach muscles)

- Burpees (legs + core)

- Cobra (back)

2. Take some minimal equipment with you

eg. Stretch cords or a (deflated) swiss ball. These two pieces of equipment are very light and portable and will give you much more variety and often a greater challenge than having no equipment.

3. Use the great outdoors

You don’t have to go to a gym to train - some studies even prove it is more beneficial to train outdoors than in a gym.

david@sculpt.me.uk

www.sculpt.me.uk

exercise of the week

Single Leg Squats.

This is a great exercise for building leg strength and you can do it anywhere. Its pretty simple to perform too:

Stand on one leg with your stance foot facing forward + knee and hip in line with each other.

Squat down as if you were going to sit on a chair - be sure to keep your lower back straight - the lower you squat the harder it is.

Too easy? Add some weights. Still too easy? Try a no-leg squat.

Try 3 x 10 reps on each leg.

david@sculpt.me.uk

www.sculpt.me.uk