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Friday, 23 July 2010
What does our health mean to us?
I have been in the fitness industry for over 10 years and come across many, many people wanting to get fit and healthy for a whole list of reasons – some want to run a marathon, others want to avoid illness and improve confidence, energy levels etc. But the one I find the most is people wanting to lose weight!
There is a certain obsession with weight – It can only take a friend to say, “Have you put on a couple of pounds” and your world has ended! Or, a friend could say, “You lost some weight?” and you feel great! I still do it myself – only a few weeks ago, a colleague tapped me on the stomach and said two words, “be careful”. That was enough for me to divorce my wife for the next 7 days and marry the spin bike!
How many times have we got on the scales and been scared to look down? How many times have we believed they must be broken!
How we look and feel has many emotional connections and attachments. Our 7 day residential boot camp looks at these relationships and how we can deal with them without them taking over our lives. We aim to help our ladies lose weight effectively and permanently without becoming obsessed about it. Health and fitness should be enjoyed as a lifestyle – not a chore or a need must activity! As soon as we think or say – I need to lose weight, almost installs a programme against our will – I don’t want to do it but I need to.
We offer our ladies the motivation to want to exercise and eat healthily – that way, the needs must is taken away from the equation.
Another reason Re-create Bootcamp can help is because it is a results driven programme which also gives drive, ambition and motivation to continue living a healthy life style!
Having helped 100s of ladies get to their health and fitness goals I firmly believe that our programme works every time because we make physical training fun whilst challenging!
I know how it feels to look down at them scales with my breath held tight... I also know how good all the ladies I have helped feel when they look down and see the fruits of their labour.
Let Re-create Boot Camp help you get to your health and fitness goals today.
Stuart
Head Instructor
www.recreatebootcamp.com
There is a certain obsession with weight – It can only take a friend to say, “Have you put on a couple of pounds” and your world has ended! Or, a friend could say, “You lost some weight?” and you feel great! I still do it myself – only a few weeks ago, a colleague tapped me on the stomach and said two words, “be careful”. That was enough for me to divorce my wife for the next 7 days and marry the spin bike!
How many times have we got on the scales and been scared to look down? How many times have we believed they must be broken!
How we look and feel has many emotional connections and attachments. Our 7 day residential boot camp looks at these relationships and how we can deal with them without them taking over our lives. We aim to help our ladies lose weight effectively and permanently without becoming obsessed about it. Health and fitness should be enjoyed as a lifestyle – not a chore or a need must activity! As soon as we think or say – I need to lose weight, almost installs a programme against our will – I don’t want to do it but I need to.
We offer our ladies the motivation to want to exercise and eat healthily – that way, the needs must is taken away from the equation.
Another reason Re-create Bootcamp can help is because it is a results driven programme which also gives drive, ambition and motivation to continue living a healthy life style!
Having helped 100s of ladies get to their health and fitness goals I firmly believe that our programme works every time because we make physical training fun whilst challenging!
I know how it feels to look down at them scales with my breath held tight... I also know how good all the ladies I have helped feel when they look down and see the fruits of their labour.
Let Re-create Boot Camp help you get to your health and fitness goals today.
Stuart
Head Instructor
www.recreatebootcamp.com
Tuesday, 1 September 2009
WHY FITNESS BOOTCAMPS WORK
Sorry its been a while since my last blog... I have been busy helping lots of people get to their health & fitness goals!
So... Do Bootcamps really work? the simple and true answer is damn right they work! A proper fitness bootcamp is usually based on military methods used to keep soldiers at their peak fitness for whatever the job throws at them. As an ex British Army Physical Training Instructor i have forst hand experience of how severe a soldiers job can get and having a top level of fitness is absolutely essential to their survival.
Training methods in the military have progressed with the times but the basics still apply... there is no 'fat burning zone' or 'legs, bums & tums' sessions... there has never been an empty promise with a military bootcamp instructor, your there to work, it's as simple as that!
The phrases, 'thrashed & beasted' are commonly used in the military and for good reason, soldiers are pushed to their physical limits during a training session. Now, why should a civilian go through this?
Because it works. If it didn't, it wouldnt be used in the military... Although civilian bootcamps are toned down slightly and made a little more fun, the hard work still applies. As a bootcamp instructor for civilians (mainly women wanting to lose weight) i keep as close to military methods as i can get away with, pushing my bootcampers to their breaking point... and then some!
Bootcamps generally use body weight as resistance to train against - so you have classic press ups, squats, leg raises and more... the body can move freely using this form of exercise rather than fixed resistance machines you find in a smelly, sweaty gym that hold joints in fixed plains of movement.
Training outdoors is a challenge in itself for bootcampers as they have to deal with what weather is thrown at them and of course the terrain they are training on. I believe training outdoors is miles ahead of training in a gym for a number of reasons - being in the fresh air is definately up at the top of my list (yes, even if it's raining) because it's refreshing!
Bootcamp sessions are very fast paced too so clients don't have much time to think about what it is they are actually doing! Especially with an ex military instructor screaming in their shell to push themselves harder. Bootcamps also work because there is a group of bootcampers training together - this almost instantaneously builds cameraderie between them (whether thats because they all can't believe what the hell they are doing or not, i don't know), buut a certain bond with each other ensues and they get each other through whatever is thrown at them - another military trait... You never leave a man (or woman) behind.
I aim to vary each of my bootcamp sessions so no two are ever the same -i pride myself on being able to do this - there are only so many things you can do on a treadmill in a gym or the bicep curl machine but on a bootcamp, anything goes; from stretcher races to playing dodgeball & from press ups to firemans carry's. No gym can compete with a proper, well executed bootcamp. I guarantee it!
I have to add, there are some compaines out there that sell themselves as 'bootcamps' and have mats laid out to lie on & non of their instructors have seen the inside of a military base... I like to call these, 'pretend bootcamps'.. the wannabies who wish they could be a proper bootcamp but can't so they call it bootcamp anyway... But not a real one! Well not in my eyes anyway!
I'm not being shallow, or unfair in that last comment - i think these 'pretend bootcamps' have their place but shouldnt be called a bootcamp, a more in line name would be, 'outdoor fitness class'... there is a BIG DIFFERENCE between the two!
In summary, bootcampers can burn in excess of 500 kcal on a proper bootcamp session, they do work because i have seen the evidence... they work because of people like me, someone who thrives to do the very best for his clients on every single session. i don't do it for the money, i don't do it because i love making peoples lives a misery, i don't do it to make me look cool or hard...
I do it because it works.
stusarmy
So... Do Bootcamps really work? the simple and true answer is damn right they work! A proper fitness bootcamp is usually based on military methods used to keep soldiers at their peak fitness for whatever the job throws at them. As an ex British Army Physical Training Instructor i have forst hand experience of how severe a soldiers job can get and having a top level of fitness is absolutely essential to their survival.
Training methods in the military have progressed with the times but the basics still apply... there is no 'fat burning zone' or 'legs, bums & tums' sessions... there has never been an empty promise with a military bootcamp instructor, your there to work, it's as simple as that!
The phrases, 'thrashed & beasted' are commonly used in the military and for good reason, soldiers are pushed to their physical limits during a training session. Now, why should a civilian go through this?
Because it works. If it didn't, it wouldnt be used in the military... Although civilian bootcamps are toned down slightly and made a little more fun, the hard work still applies. As a bootcamp instructor for civilians (mainly women wanting to lose weight) i keep as close to military methods as i can get away with, pushing my bootcampers to their breaking point... and then some!
Bootcamps generally use body weight as resistance to train against - so you have classic press ups, squats, leg raises and more... the body can move freely using this form of exercise rather than fixed resistance machines you find in a smelly, sweaty gym that hold joints in fixed plains of movement.
Training outdoors is a challenge in itself for bootcampers as they have to deal with what weather is thrown at them and of course the terrain they are training on. I believe training outdoors is miles ahead of training in a gym for a number of reasons - being in the fresh air is definately up at the top of my list (yes, even if it's raining) because it's refreshing!
Bootcamp sessions are very fast paced too so clients don't have much time to think about what it is they are actually doing! Especially with an ex military instructor screaming in their shell to push themselves harder. Bootcamps also work because there is a group of bootcampers training together - this almost instantaneously builds cameraderie between them (whether thats because they all can't believe what the hell they are doing or not, i don't know), buut a certain bond with each other ensues and they get each other through whatever is thrown at them - another military trait... You never leave a man (or woman) behind.
I aim to vary each of my bootcamp sessions so no two are ever the same -i pride myself on being able to do this - there are only so many things you can do on a treadmill in a gym or the bicep curl machine but on a bootcamp, anything goes; from stretcher races to playing dodgeball & from press ups to firemans carry's. No gym can compete with a proper, well executed bootcamp. I guarantee it!
I have to add, there are some compaines out there that sell themselves as 'bootcamps' and have mats laid out to lie on & non of their instructors have seen the inside of a military base... I like to call these, 'pretend bootcamps'.. the wannabies who wish they could be a proper bootcamp but can't so they call it bootcamp anyway... But not a real one! Well not in my eyes anyway!
I'm not being shallow, or unfair in that last comment - i think these 'pretend bootcamps' have their place but shouldnt be called a bootcamp, a more in line name would be, 'outdoor fitness class'... there is a BIG DIFFERENCE between the two!
In summary, bootcampers can burn in excess of 500 kcal on a proper bootcamp session, they do work because i have seen the evidence... they work because of people like me, someone who thrives to do the very best for his clients on every single session. i don't do it for the money, i don't do it because i love making peoples lives a misery, i don't do it to make me look cool or hard...
I do it because it works.
stusarmy
Thursday, 6 August 2009
KINESIOLOGY - THE HEALTH BUILDING SYSTEM
If you have read my previous blogs you will probably realise that I don't lie and secondly i will definately voice what i am thinking!
Having carried this damn hip injury for about 10 weeks now and conventional treatments not really improving it, ie. I still cannot run, i decided to try out the Kinesiologist at the clinic i work in, http://www.citytherapy.org/.
George is our Kinesiologist and i'l be honest, at first i didn't know what kinesiology was or indeed did and once i did get an idea, i found it hard to really open my mind up to how kinesiology works. It is basically a therapy that builds health, not only physically, but mentally & emotionally and executes this process through the muscles. Now, i know kinesiology does alot more than this, for example, George can test food intolerances in people and even find out which would be the best nutritonal supplement for someone to take! amazing eh!
My experience of George's field was not in foods, but in the muscles - and to speak in real basic terms, he speaks to my muscles through my subconscious mind so they will answer him without me having a hold on it!
George explained on our first session that he could reduce the discomfort in my hip by about 30% by the end of the session - Still being a sceptic but openminded all the same i thought, even if i get some pain relief its sold to me!
Now, the process is basically the locking 'off' and 'on' of the muscles in my arms. So, i sat on the bed with my arms straight and infront of me and George would simply ask me a question, well, not exactly me, but my body and then apply a light pressure to my forearms and if my arms locked - didn't move, my body agreed with what George said and if they softened - so George could move them down, my body didnt agree with what he asked!
I have to add at this point, that i couldnt cheat this process, no matter what he asked me, my muscles answered no matter what my brain was thinking which was weird but all the same amazing!
I thought the most amazing part of the session was when George was putting my hip through muscle tests of strength, to basically individualise all the muscles of my hip and put them right however i couldn't carry out a test on my psoas (hip flexor), as it felt weak & painful, so George simply tested my arm (as the psoas) asking if my arm could be tested as my psoas to which my arm agreed and stayed strong - As soon as George was testing my arm as Psoas i couldnt hold any strength in it which i thought was unbelievable - and believe me, i did try to hold it!
George was also able to lock onto emotional bonds with my injury that could be the reason my injury was not getting better - as he stated, hips are the support structure for our body and at the same time they move us forward - however, i could be emotionally tied to something in the past that wont allow me to move forward! when you think about it in this way, it could make sense! (if you can put a man on the moon, i suppose anything is possible!)
George has continued to amaze me with kinesiology through other various forms of speaking to my subconscious with a thing called body tesing where he will ask my body as a whole a question and my body will respond by leaning forwards or backwards - and again, it is uncontrollable which way you will tilt!
Although I am still struggling with my injury, my kinesiology process has not finished and i believe kinesiology has uncovered an underlying factor to continuous unsuccessful treatments and once these stresses have been removed, kinesiology and sports therapy should have me back on the road to my next race in Nov 09!
All in all, i would recommend kinesiology and in particular George as a kinesiologist to anyone suffering with chronic injury and i am sure you will be amazed with what it can achieve.
Afterall you can't put a price on health!
Stusarmy
Having carried this damn hip injury for about 10 weeks now and conventional treatments not really improving it, ie. I still cannot run, i decided to try out the Kinesiologist at the clinic i work in, http://www.citytherapy.org/.
George is our Kinesiologist and i'l be honest, at first i didn't know what kinesiology was or indeed did and once i did get an idea, i found it hard to really open my mind up to how kinesiology works. It is basically a therapy that builds health, not only physically, but mentally & emotionally and executes this process through the muscles. Now, i know kinesiology does alot more than this, for example, George can test food intolerances in people and even find out which would be the best nutritonal supplement for someone to take! amazing eh!
My experience of George's field was not in foods, but in the muscles - and to speak in real basic terms, he speaks to my muscles through my subconscious mind so they will answer him without me having a hold on it!
George explained on our first session that he could reduce the discomfort in my hip by about 30% by the end of the session - Still being a sceptic but openminded all the same i thought, even if i get some pain relief its sold to me!
Now, the process is basically the locking 'off' and 'on' of the muscles in my arms. So, i sat on the bed with my arms straight and infront of me and George would simply ask me a question, well, not exactly me, but my body and then apply a light pressure to my forearms and if my arms locked - didn't move, my body agreed with what George said and if they softened - so George could move them down, my body didnt agree with what he asked!
I have to add at this point, that i couldnt cheat this process, no matter what he asked me, my muscles answered no matter what my brain was thinking which was weird but all the same amazing!
I thought the most amazing part of the session was when George was putting my hip through muscle tests of strength, to basically individualise all the muscles of my hip and put them right however i couldn't carry out a test on my psoas (hip flexor), as it felt weak & painful, so George simply tested my arm (as the psoas) asking if my arm could be tested as my psoas to which my arm agreed and stayed strong - As soon as George was testing my arm as Psoas i couldnt hold any strength in it which i thought was unbelievable - and believe me, i did try to hold it!
George was also able to lock onto emotional bonds with my injury that could be the reason my injury was not getting better - as he stated, hips are the support structure for our body and at the same time they move us forward - however, i could be emotionally tied to something in the past that wont allow me to move forward! when you think about it in this way, it could make sense! (if you can put a man on the moon, i suppose anything is possible!)
George has continued to amaze me with kinesiology through other various forms of speaking to my subconscious with a thing called body tesing where he will ask my body as a whole a question and my body will respond by leaning forwards or backwards - and again, it is uncontrollable which way you will tilt!
Although I am still struggling with my injury, my kinesiology process has not finished and i believe kinesiology has uncovered an underlying factor to continuous unsuccessful treatments and once these stresses have been removed, kinesiology and sports therapy should have me back on the road to my next race in Nov 09!
All in all, i would recommend kinesiology and in particular George as a kinesiologist to anyone suffering with chronic injury and i am sure you will be amazed with what it can achieve.
Afterall you can't put a price on health!
Stusarmy
Saturday, 1 August 2009
THE WINNING MIND
When i decided to write this blog it was the intention to help people understand what it takes to succeed in our health & fitness aspirations - Not only this but enable people to have a positive mind in other apects of their lives!
Many years ago, a heavy weight champion boxer was defeated in a defending title fight, both the media and the public stated 'his day was done' and he should hang up his gloves! But what this fighter decided was he wasn't going to hang up his gloves and infact was going to reclaim his belt and world champion title. Not only did he think this - he stated 'He Will' get this title back in a rematch.
This fighter found what is known as his 'Inner Motivation' - something that will motivate him because he WANTED TO and not because he thought he needed to. He got out of bed every morning becuase the inner motivation for something he wanted drove him to it.
Not only this, he also worked on the techniques that worked for him and binned the ones that didn't and slowly built up consistent skills that was seeing results.
This particular fighter went back into the ring and indeed won back his title status! This same attitude can be applied to someone who wants to lose weight or someone who wants to be more defined - It needs to be dome because that person wants it to be done and not because they think they 'need to lose weight' etc!
It is amazing how many people i come into contact with on a daily basis who say to me during conversation, 'i need to go to the gym' or 'i need to go for a run' in the context that they dont really want to... This automatically makes physical activity a chore and not something to be enjoyed!
Enthusiam towards a goal for instance, losing a stone in weight, will begin to instill the winning mind - telling yourself you are going to lose that stone is self suggesting so YOU are in control of your own thought patterns and in this context; is a positive thought or statement, then anytime your mind wanders back into a negative thought process just channel in into the previous text - this will bring about your mind power! Which is what the boxer did throughout his training!
Although all of the above come from within, we can also take information for the winning mind from an expert in the field - ie. A personal trainer who will also give you external motivation for your winning mind. a Personal trainer will be dedicated to achieving your goal and will help toward your goal by setting realistic and achievable timelines and interim goals.
If we put the whole process together and continue down this path in all aspects of your life you will have a positive-mental attitude that will make you want to get out of bed in the morning and go for that run!
I will blog more in this psychological subject at a later date but in the mean time -
"It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult" -Seneca-
Many years ago, a heavy weight champion boxer was defeated in a defending title fight, both the media and the public stated 'his day was done' and he should hang up his gloves! But what this fighter decided was he wasn't going to hang up his gloves and infact was going to reclaim his belt and world champion title. Not only did he think this - he stated 'He Will' get this title back in a rematch.
This fighter found what is known as his 'Inner Motivation' - something that will motivate him because he WANTED TO and not because he thought he needed to. He got out of bed every morning becuase the inner motivation for something he wanted drove him to it.
Not only this, he also worked on the techniques that worked for him and binned the ones that didn't and slowly built up consistent skills that was seeing results.
This particular fighter went back into the ring and indeed won back his title status! This same attitude can be applied to someone who wants to lose weight or someone who wants to be more defined - It needs to be dome because that person wants it to be done and not because they think they 'need to lose weight' etc!
It is amazing how many people i come into contact with on a daily basis who say to me during conversation, 'i need to go to the gym' or 'i need to go for a run' in the context that they dont really want to... This automatically makes physical activity a chore and not something to be enjoyed!
Enthusiam towards a goal for instance, losing a stone in weight, will begin to instill the winning mind - telling yourself you are going to lose that stone is self suggesting so YOU are in control of your own thought patterns and in this context; is a positive thought or statement, then anytime your mind wanders back into a negative thought process just channel in into the previous text - this will bring about your mind power! Which is what the boxer did throughout his training!
Although all of the above come from within, we can also take information for the winning mind from an expert in the field - ie. A personal trainer who will also give you external motivation for your winning mind. a Personal trainer will be dedicated to achieving your goal and will help toward your goal by setting realistic and achievable timelines and interim goals.
If we put the whole process together and continue down this path in all aspects of your life you will have a positive-mental attitude that will make you want to get out of bed in the morning and go for that run!
I will blog more in this psychological subject at a later date but in the mean time -
"It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult" -Seneca-
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