Here is a discussion posted on linkedIn.com

Q. From Vasili Kastashchuk

How much exercise do you need in a week?

A. 45 minutes twice a week.
B. 30 minutes three or four days a week.
C. 60 minutes at least three or four days a week.D. 30 minutes at least four or five days a week.
E. It depends on your age and overall physical-fitness level.

Answer from Fit for You

To be effective, you would need to be more specific. I could write about this for ages, but must train my clients )

WHAT ARE YOUR INDIVIDUAL GOALS?

30mins walk 3 x per week, for instance, is too little for someone who requires to tone muscles and become stronger to lift or to increase posture

45 mins intensive would be too much for a 60yr old osteoporosis client who is also overweight, hasn’t exercised since teens, and may have other health issues

60mins gym sessions twice per day, at 4-6 slow rep to failure could/would actually reduce a marathon/triathlon ability

The above reasons are why you need to get a professional trainer to assess your current physical requirements, add your personal goals and work together to build a plan to see how much exercise in a week you’d need. And to re-assess and modify as the individual improves and/or the goals change.

The recommended guidelines have been too vague & lenient over the past 20yrs, and led people to believe that 3x 1hr sessions, or 30mins per day (of whatever) will get them fit. It won’t !

Of course any exercise will have a metabolic effect (change of calories burnt daily) on your body, and anyone who has been sedentary or exercising moderately and then changes to either more intense or longer exercise (even just different) will get the ‘Training Effect’ for a period of time, if it is cardio based it will be 8weeks approx until everything levels off (even lowering metabolism) and the exercise routine will need to be modified again

Exercise in isolation is not the best thing either, without the correct nutrition your success will limited, I’ve seen people do hours of running every week, and still they look awful, no-one has explained how important the nutrition is, rest also plays a big part. I personally have had a very stressful week without as much sleep as I need, so I have done less training over the last 6 days, does everyone think about those effects to the adrenal glands etc???

Most people who have not exercised since they were at school are not; strong, flexible, lean, fast, metabolic etc, etc as they should be to have a healthy life

To see the whole thread click here

http://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?view=&srchtype=discussedNews&gid=2308956&item=34737303&type=member&trk=EML_anet_qa_ttle-cnhOon0JumNFomgJt7dBpSBA

Please feel free to contact me through http://fitforyou.co.uk if you require more information

Lifting weights can help to boost your metabolism and build bone strength – and new research suggests that it may help to treat rheumatoid arthritis, too.

A study of 28 patients at Bangor and Gwynedd Hospital, which was funded by Arthritis Research UK, found that those who practised weight training saw improvements in physical function, such as walking.

Experts now believe that this type of exercise could play an important role alongside drug treatment, although it would not be appropriate for all patients.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a disease affecting the joints, but it also seriously reduces muscle mass and strength, even in patients whose disease is well managed.

Sufferers are often given mild home exercises to do to stop their joints stiffening and becoming painful.

The new study showed that physical function could be improved by 20 – 30 per cent due to weight training – and strength increased by nearly 120 per cent.

Study leader Dr Andrew Lemmey said the arthritis patients, who were mainly women in their 50s who had had the disease for up to a decade, responded well to the training.

A spokesman for Arthritis Research UK said: “Weight training, especially at this level, is not for everyone with rheumatoid arthritis, but for those who are very well-motivated and physically able, we have proved that it can dramatically improve muscle strength and tone.”

Fit for You response

At Fit for You, we have successfully worked with arthritis patients, and had very positive results in the rehabilitation.

We have used both weight training and nutritional advice to give our clients great benefits and also used these methods for people that have had knee and hip operations to remove osteoarthritic joints.

You can find out more by contacting us on 0191 3878588

Repeated 3 x

plus;
6 x 40k Good Mornings
6 x 60k Romanian Deadlift
6 x Swiss Ball, reverse Back Extensions

Repeated 3 x

Hams and low back fried!!!!

If you are wanting your legs to not only look great, but look balanced,then you have to pay attention to your hamstrings.

A lot of people concentrate too much on their quads, squatting, lunging, leg press etc this can lead to an imbalance of not only shape, but size and performance. If the quads are too developed an unequal pressure can be created at the knee, causing more wear on the cartilidge and or surrounding ligaments.

To get the legs balanced it’s a good thing to consider the ratio of strength between thigh and hamstring, the hamstring should be capable of 80% appx strength of the thigh. (i.e. If the thighs can handle 100k squat for 10, the hamstring should handle 80k for 10)

With the above taken in to consideration, and the exercise performed strictly, it is beneficial to pay attention to the tempo of the repetition. The firsty 3 exercises  (hamstring curls) performed above were using a tempo of 4sec’s for the negative (ecentric) and an explosive positive (concentric) movement. The next 3 exercises were performed using a tempo of 4 sec’s for the negative (ecentric) and 2 sec’s positive (concentric) movement.

The weight here is light, as we intend to build up the session intensity over a period of 6 weeks, and wanted to get the exercise correct, as the curls are unusual in performance, the deadlifts are potentially risky and work as pre-exhausters before the reverse back-extensions.

If you get weak quickly, or you want to make more of your session, you may benefit from stretching your hip flexors (psoas) as they may tighten during this routine, thereby reducing the dynamic power of the glutes and hams.

The most effective Personal Trainers in the North East. Filmed on location between Sept & Nov 2009 at some North East venues and at our studio.

Crunches – Obliques Static-Dynamic

Firstly anchor your feet (use radiator/settee) lie with your hip on a swiss ball, keep your spine in neutral, holding your arms straight by sides, behind head, or arms extended. Keep stomach contracted.

Ab blast, a video showing Hanging Knees to chest abdominal exercise.
Just one video of many that Fit for You have put together to teach you the correct way to train ab’s and get a toned stomach

Using a chin bar, hang with arms slightly flexed, breathe out as you contract stomach muscles bringing knees to elbows.

You can use a slight pushnoff the floor if you are just beginning, and once you’ve mastered the exercise without pushing off the floor, to make the exercise more challenging, you can simply slow the pace of negative action (lowering the legs) or harder still, slow the positive movement.

A video showing the Jack-Knives abdominal exercise, a great stomach flattener.

Just one video of many that Fit for You have put together to teach you the correct way to train ab’s and get a toned stomach

Using a Swiss Ball, place shins on ball & hands on floor in press-up position, keep a natural curve in low back.

Exhale as you contract your abdominals, keeping legs straight, draw legs towards chest, ending with your hips over your head and toes on the ball.

The difficulty can be increased by making the ball smaller, having just one leg on the ball the other suspended, and/or slowing the rep’

An excellent abdominal conditioner, better done as a skill exercise and under control.

An abs workout video showing the Forward Ball Roll abdominal exercise.

Just one video of many that Fit for You have put together to teach you the correct way to train ab’s and get a toned stomach

Start by kneeling, forearms on Swiss-ball, 90 degree angle at hips & shoulders, exhale & pull stomach in, open hip & shoulder angle . Go forward for 3sec’s, opening the angle at the shoulder and the hips evenly keeping the lumbar curve, hold 3sec’s and move back 3sec’s.

A video showing Hanging Knees to chest abdominal exercise.
Just one video of many that Fit for You have put together to teach you the correct way to train ab’s and get a toned stomach

Lie face up, knees slightly flexed, breathe out as you contract your abs raising body at the same time, keep arms vertical throughout the movement, ending with your head between shoulders at the top of the movement.
This exercise will make a great demand on your abdominal muscles as you progress with the weight, you can also use this in a circuit routine.
Look out for our circuits and general exercise routines

Note : If you experience any pain or discomfort in your back or groin, please stop and contact us or your local professional trainer

A lot of people know that you should warm-up before you exercise, but forget and what else you should do.

The Mobilisation is the start of your warm-up, you would at least, mobilise the body-parts you are going to exercise.

Taking each muscle group through their range of motion, starting very gently controlled at first, once each area is mobilised and you’ve assessed that you have no problems with those areas, and so avoid injury in your proposed exercise session, you can start to warm each area up, and start integrating movements into a full warm-up.