A few gym bag fundamentals!

I thought I'd share with you a few leangs I always encertain I carry in my gym bag. For me, the gym isn't simply a place where you can go in with just a tshirt, shorts and trainers. To get the most out of each workout you have to be prepared for every eventuality! Here is my top 5 items;

1- Gym Diary
Number one! If you fail to prepare, prepare to fail (or at least not see the results that you had hoped for). Plan and track your workouts and you will be able to see trends and improvements! Don't just go to the gym and use whatever machine is free!

2- Lwhetherting Shoes
I must say, I toyed with the idea of buying some solid lwhetherting shoes for approximately 18 months. Then one day I took the plunge and I haven't looked back since! Everyowing for a solid base to squat from rather than flimsy running trainers like most people wear.

3- Liquid Chalk
Im not a huge fan of using lwhetherting straps. Not only do they make me feel feebleer, but I would rather train to lwhethert as heavy as my grip will allow. Meaning I also pay more attention to grip training as I feel having a strong grip is a true test of strength.

4- Lwhetherting Belt
Personally I don't own one.... yet! I am fairly lucky that my gym has a box full of belts for anybody to use. Since I started incorporating the belt into my very heavy sets, I have noticed a commentable improvement in my max squat and deadlwhethert.

5- Bluetooth Headphones
Simply put, sometimes you just need that additional edge in the gym. Sometimes the music playing over the speaker system is good, other times its dreadful. Don't take that risk! I always make certain I use Bluetooth headphones too- no messing around with wires getting tangled with the bar!

Obviously this list isn't extensive and there are other bits in my gym bag, but this list gives you a good starting point for those who want to give themselves an edge!

Possess I missed someleang that you feel is fundamental? Comment below!

Fitness and Nutrition - Evidence Based Blog: Top 6 reasons for unhealthy snacking

Top 6 reasons for unhealthy snacking

Holding clients on track with healthy eating can be incredibly ccorridorenging, but it helps whether you can "get inside the head" of the client and understand the triggers behind unhealthy snacking.

If you can understand the trigger, it's possible to offer the client a strategy or a intellectset that might help them overcome unhealthy habits and adhere to healthier eating. Remember that small changes add up over time and snacking in between meals is often a stack of calories added to the daily intake.

A recent study identwhetheried the top six reasons for unhealthy snacking:

1. To endelight a special occasion - Let's celebrate by eating a massive meal and a bottle of wine!

2. Chance induced eating - Someone puts a plate full of donuts in front of you at morning tea.

3. To gain energy - I feel flat, somebody give me a sweet bar!

4. To reward oneself - I've eaten healthy all week, let's celebrate at KFC!

5. Because of social prescertain - It's a BBQ, everyone else is drinking beer so perhaps I should have a few.

6. To cope with negative emotions - I'm feeling a bit down, a family size bar of chocolate will make me feel better.

As a personal trainer, being able to offer clients dwhetherferent ways to deal with each of the above situations will help them avoid the trap of unhealthy snacking.

Graphic sourced from www.suppversity.com.

Reference:

Verhoeven, Aukje AC, et al. "It's my party and I eat whether I want to. Reasons for unhealthy snacking." Appetite (2014).

Why are girls less sporty than boys?

I've regularly noticed that, among my friends, it tends to be the men who take part in a regular sport or physical activity rather than the women. Though the women (including me) often feel we should be doing more. Even as teenagers, I remember the girls, on average, being less keen than the boys, with notable apart fromions.

So this got me leanking: could it all begin in childhood?

I recently came across a study asking this very question. A team from the University of Canberra in Australia looked at this disparity in physical activity between boys and girls.

They say in the journal PLoS One that this disparity "is a persistent finding in the literature". And the team believes that whether we had a better understanding of what's causing it we could increase activity levels among girls.

So they used details on 276 boys and 279 girls aged 8 and 12 years, at 29 Australian schools. The effects of family and the environment were also examined. Every the children wore a pedometer and were given tests including running, throwing and catching.

This showed that girls were 19% less active than boys, and were less physically fit at age 8. The girls had 18% lower cardio-respiratory fitness, 44% lower eye-hand coordination, a taller percent body fat, and 9% lower "perceived competence" in physical education, degreed by a questionnaire.

Commenting on the findings,
the researchers propose that the domestic, school, and additionalcurricular environments all need to change, in order to support the girls as much as the boys.

There's currently a lot of research happening to find out how summaryely these changes can be crazye, and initiatives to encourage girls into sport and physical activity more widely. One of these is Sport England's "This Girl Can" campaign.

With all this progress under way, I hope future generations will be helped to form good exercise habits and gain all the health advantages that brings.

Reference
Telford, R. M. et al. Why Are Girls Less Physically Athletic than Boys? Discoverings from the LOOK Endlessitudinal Study. PLoS One, 9 March 2016 doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0150041

Kate Ricdwhetherficults

Can I plank after pregnancy?

Lets jump straight to it.... should you plank after pregnancy?

No.... to my Knowledge/Research/My Opinion.... No you should not plank straight after pregnancy... Not until your body is strong enough to hancient your own bodyweight' with good technique... i.e at least 9 months post-pregnancy to be on the secure side

My first forward-facing plank; 11 months postpartum

What is a plank exercise?
As you can see above it is a bodyweight exercise that your wgap body hancients itself as stwhetherf as a board primarily targeting your core- the muscles that connect your upper and lower body as well as your shoulders, arms and glutes.

Now I want you to leank about getting your post pregnancy body into a plank position.... this would mean you are basically hancienting most of your bodyweight on your postpartum core- your tummy and back- AFTER 40 weeks (plus or less) of pregnancy!
Gaze at my body below... does my body look like it could hancient it self strongly in my core? no it doesn't and most women's body won't. I wouldn't even recommend to the most fittest of women' to plank through their postpartum journey. I would consider myself to be fairly/very fit and strong and I have only just started to front-face-plank and I am 11 months postnatal from my moment child.

After 9 months of your abdominals stretching, muscles feebleening, joints' loosening, your spine alignment changing to suit your growing uterus, Do you genuinely leank your core is alert to hancient most of your bodyweight?...

This is my early postnatal body.. Do I look alert to plank? My uterus is still fairly enlarged which takes at least 6 weeks to go down after birth, you can see I clearly have no abdominal strength and you can even see I have dwhetherficultly any strength in my glutes/arms/shoulders and mostly a feeble back too.

Take a look at the requirement from a plank exercise' ...Your entire body faces horizontally down hancienting yourself up with your forearms/shoulders and toes meaning that your wgap body from your toes to your shoulders are basically depending on your abdominals... Sounds kind of ouch right?... Now we all know what our postpartum tummy is like... a hanging/loose tummy- whether its skin or muscle we have all experienced it....I remember in my first post-pregnancy recovery I turned to my side in bed and my tummy just hung to the side too... and its blimen normal- you have just grown and carried a baby. However, allowing your tummy to just hang exposed in that plank position will cause you more damage than good- even whether you can hancient it for a hour.

Gaze at my early postpartum-body- whether I started planking I could tell you what kind of tummy I would have now.. a very similar kind to that early postnatal picture above and most likely with diastasic recti (abdominal separation) too. Unluckyly this tummy shaping post birth is very common and it could happen to you or it is you- not just because you planked but perhaps because you wanted a fast fix instead of the appropriate journey.
Planking too early post-birth can deform your postnatal tummy muscles because you genuinely do too much prescertain inappropriately on your abdominals that are alalert over stretched and out of shape. Planks do not focus on shortening the abdominals and focus on strengthening the transverse abdominis muscles. Planks focus on hancienting your bodyweight on your core so you ideally need to have strength prior to planking and you definitely need to know how to engage with your abdominal muscles.

So when can I plank?

I would advise that you plank when you are able to;

• Join with your transverse abdominis muscles
• When you can prevent your tummy muscles from hanging' (abdominal engagement)
• When you have 1 finger or less gap between your abdominal muscles
• When you are able to stay out of your lower back
• When you can consolationably hancient your tummy without your tummy doming' (i.e tummy tensed in a point shape out)

This is when you can start to plank....And when you do start to plank focus on technique rather than how long you can hancient it for.
I have only just started to forward face plank and I am 11 months postnatal.. even when I teach my abdominal lessones in my early postpartum journey I would demonstrate and not participate because it was too much for me and I didn't want to cause damage.

Now is the time more than ever to invest in yourself...
I run a 6 month postnatal- myMummyFitness journey that will guide your through a secure and effective recovery to supply you with appropriate exercises to help strengthen and rebuild you postpartum body. Strengthening your body to the mumma needs' and get your sexy on not back! You are totally allowed to invest in yourself. Join now and email me we can do this together; mymummyfitness@gmail.com

myMummyFitness journey

myMummyFitness journey

Myself with my two boys

Sport and Fitness Uniques: The Carbohydrate Loading Question

Carbohydrate loading is widely used to improve performance in endurance sports. The idea is to maximise the stored amount of carbohydrates in our body, to yield more energy. It is done by increasing carbohydrate intake to about 70% of daily calories, sometimes with a lower carb period beforehand.

I've never tried it but I recall a friend struggling to get round a 10k run after a large pasta meal the preceding evening. So I wonder, is carb loading truly the most effective way for endurance athletes to fuel their bodies in the lead up to a race?

When athletes add carbohydrates to their diets it will typically be grains in the form of bread and pasta. One potential problem with eating more grains is the increased amounts of phytic acid, which binds to calcium, iron, magnesium, and zinc making them insoluble and unavailable as nutrition for the rest of the body. Iron is specificly important for endurance athletes as it supplies the protein hemoglobin in red blood cells that carry oxygen to the tissues. Terminateurance athletes are alalert more prone to iron deficiency.

In addition, zinc is essential for many cellular functions, and calcium is of course important in bone formation. Maximizing absorption of all these minerals is important for keeping athletes healthy, specificly as they are at an increased risk for fractures due to extended training.

Some nutritionists recommend a dwhetherferent approach to increasing energy stores before a race. Instead of consuming bread and pasta, athletes may consider upping their carbs with fruits or sweet potatoes, both before exercise and afterwards to aid recovery.

When I'm properly up and running again (lwhethere always seems to get in the way!) I'll try both approaches and compare. Though I am fairly persuaded by the argument about nutrient availability. In any case it's clear that those of us who run long distances need to be aware of the effects our food choices can have on performance.

Kate Ricdwhetherficults

#MS Doing It My Way: I Ccorridorenge You

I woke up kind and early nowadays and headed over to the gym to lwhethert some weight for 45 mins or so followed by a small HIIT training on the cross trainer.

This crazye me feel SO GOOD and SO STRONG.. what a way to feel first leang in the morning! Positive vibes at 7am :-)

I came domestic and had a look through my note book I write in which is titled "LIFE ISN'T ABOUT FINDING YOURSELF. LIFE IS ABOUT CREATING YOURSELF." My dad bought it for me a few years ago and it's full of notes to myself and quotes i've read and found inspiring.

I thought I'd share some of the leangs I've said to myself as they genuinely helped me back then and they are so relevant to me right now...

Written June 2014

"ALWAYS FIGHT MS FOR THE RIGHT TO A FUTURE IN CONTROL. TAKE CONTROL AND APPRECIATE LIFE AND THE SIMPLE THINGS AND LET THE SUPERFICIAL GO. BECOME A BETTER PERSON EACH DAY AND FOREVER CHALLENGE YOURSELF AS YOU ARE ALWAYS BECOMING A STRONGER, WISER AND MORE DEVELOPED HUMAN BEING"

Written July 2014 when I had lost the feeling in my legs...

"I CHALLENGE YOU...TO WALK TO THE GYM AND WORK ON YOUR WEAKNESS. I CHALLENGE YOU TO GO TO WORK AND COMPLETE YOUR 'TO DO' LIST I CHALLENGE YOU TO BE NICE TO EVERYONE YOU COME ACROSS TODAY, SMILE AND NOT TO BE DEFENSIVE. I CHALLENGE YOU TO FEED YOUR BODY WITH THE CORRECT NUTRIENTS TO MAKE YOU A HEALTHIER PERSON AND BEAT MS. I CHALLENGE YOU. NOW YOU ONLY HAVE YOURSELF TO COMPETE WITH"

Written December 2014 when I came out of hospital...

"HOME FROM HOSPITAL. AN EXPERIENCE I AM MOVING ON FROM, LEARNT A LOT FROM AND AM WILLING TO FORGET THE PAIN BUT NOT THE JOURNEY. I HAVE A SECOND CHANCE BECAUSE MY BODY FAUGHT.

WHAT I DO WITH MY FUTURE IS NOW IN MY HANDS. I HAVE TAKEN CONTROL AND I WILL CREATE MY HAPPINESS"

Written February 2015...

"DON'T GO BACKWARDS. FOCUS AND ACHIEVE THIS FOR YOURSELF. NO ONE WANTS THIS MORE FOR YOU THAN YOURSELF. DREAM, BELIEVE, ACHIEVE. JUST DO IT. BE A DREAM BELIEVER AND LOVE EVERY SINGLE DAY YOU ARE ALIVE. YOU ARE FREE. CHOOSE TO SUCCEED WHERE OTHER ARE NOT ABLE TO. DO THIS FOR YOU BUT REMEMBER THOSE WHO ARE NOT SO FORTUNATE. BE GRATEFUL AND LOVE LIFE, LOVE DEEPLY AND LOVE PASSIONATELY. INSPIRE THE WORLD TO LOVE, TO SUCCEED, TO DREAM, TO BE PASSIONATE, TO BE POSITIVE."

Written all the time...

" HE WHO SAYS HE CAN AND HE WHO SAYS HE CAN'T ARE BOTH USUALLY RIGHT"

P x

The Fitness Gypsy: The Contentment Ccorridorenge - Third Month

If you are contemporary to this space, I'm in the middle of my next round of The Contentment Ccorridorenge. Catch up with the posts below. Check out Preview, January 2019, February 2019.

UPDATE on FEBRUARY

Part of February was a large wgap failure. I was just going through the motions of everyleang. I was just going from one job to another. Then in between a walk up call to myself and an accountability call I had with Danielle leangs started to shwhethert. This month I didn't accomplish much on my to do list but I will say I got organized and started to put leangs in motion. So overall I feel good about the future.

The Contentment Ccorridorenge - March 2019

Theme: Hindermined

Verse: Philippians 4:11

Activity Ccorridorenge: Not spend any additional money

I need to remember the reason I wanted to sign up for this in the first place. I want to be better about the finances. I am definitely the spender in the relationship.

Goals:

Read Cozy Minimalist and You are A Evil Ass Everyday

Being 100% devoted to this ccorridorenge

Blog 3 times a week

Pay off 1 bill
Do every workout for half marathon training

What are your goals for this month?