Guest blogger - Mari

Hello everyone!

I am Monica’s Norwegian friend Mari.I have always sworn to myself that I would never in my life post something in a blog or blog about whatever. But, when I got the chance to write about training on Monica’s blog, I changed my mind as Monica has helped me a lot with my training and I wanted to share this with people. Personally I love sports and exercising; football, running, swimming, hiking,……you name it=) For the past year I have studied for my masters degree at the University of Leeds, and since it was only one year, there was a lot to do, and the days were quite busy. In the beginning, I was able to go to the gym for some classes and went running in Hyde Park. However, after Christmas it was crazy, and for over 2 months I could not find time to do any exercising at all. My back was hurting, I started getting cramps in my legs and my ass felt FLAT, and at night I had to sleep on my tummy to stop it from hurting!!!

Anyway, I got to know Monica when I moved to Leeds and realised she had a lot of experience in writing and planning training exercise programs, so I asked her for help and advice. I did not really know how much knowledge she had. She surprised me and gave me 3 perfect workout programs for my needs. I told Monica about my situation; that I needed to be able to work out, but not be dependent to go to any sports centers (to save time!). I told her the equipments I had at home, and she came up with three workouts not lasting for more than 1.5 in total, with strength and conditioning for the whole body. After a few weeks, I had less back pain, better sleep, (still a hurting ass, but it did not feel flat anymore=)). Below are some videos and pictures of some of the workouts.

PS: I am aware that my choice of footwear is not ideal on these first photos:)

My curl and press exercise

Halfway on my curl and press exercise

Front plank

And of course the lovely press ups!

I am now back in Norway, and have just started my new job. As my fitness level has now increased, I have decided that my next goal is to participate in Norway’s toughest marathon on the 2nd June 2012.

Monica has offered to help me make me get the most out of the preparation for the marathon and we have decided to share my journey here on the blog. Watch out for videos of exercises and pictures along the way.

See you later,

Mari =)

Lunch suggestion – Chicken and Egg Salad

As my friends and family probably know I am far from Gordon Ramsey in the kitchen. However as I moved out from mum and dad nest, and was unable to be spoiled with my mum’s lovely cooking I realised I had to start making an effort in the kitchen unless I wanted to live on spaghetti, mince and ketchup for the rest of my life! That was actually my “favourite” dish through my University life, and I know Will was pretty unimpressed the first time we had a meal together and I cooked my speciality for him! I still don’t understand why?:)

Anyway today I decided to mix together an easy Chicken and Egg Salad which is easy to prepare and takes hardly any time at all. The only things needed for 1 person are:

• A handful of lettuce

• 2-3 small cooked chicken fillets (I used Piri, Piri Chicken)

• ½ pepper

• 2 cooked eggs

• ¼ cucumber

• (I would have used sweetcorn as well, but realised after I started preparing it that I didn’t have any left)

This is how I did it:

1. Before you start chopping the vegetables, boil the eggs for 7-8 minutes (but this depends how hard you want them).

2. Whilst the eggs are boiling clean lettuce, pepper and cumber under water and chop the vegetables and chicken into small bits and mix together

3. Once the eggs are boiled, put them under cold water and peel off the skin. Cut the eggs into small pieces and mix with the rest of the salad



MMMM:)

Voila! Bon Appetit! Try it on day and see what you think:)

Website Recommendation - Brendan Chaplin

Hi guys,

As always I like to start the day reading the latest news on my previous mentor Brendan Chaplin's website. It is thanks to Brendan I got involved with Strength and Conditioning coaching and I learned a lot in a short period of time whilst working with Brendan. Brendan has got a lot of experience in the S&C industry and has worked and is still working with several great athletes.Today I thought the video he posted was a particular good one showing knee prevention/reduction exercises so I wanted to share the link to his website and the video here on my blog :

http://www.brendanchaplin.co.uk/bulletproof-knees-series-simple-stuff-that-works/



From next week my friend Mari will share her thoughts on how she got back into training and how she decided to start training for a Marathon for the first time! We will follow Mari's preparation and training her on the blog to see how she is doing. Something to look forward to!

This is me and Mari from a wedding earlier this year

Have a good Wednesday!

 

Tim James - THE IRONMAN

Today I wanted to praise one of my clients for completing two Ironman competitions in less than two months! For those of you who don’t know what the Ironman is, it is a competition for hardcore people where the following distances needs to be completed:  3.6 km swimming. 180km cycling and 42,1 kilometres of running! For most people this seems pretty insane as it requires a tremendous amount of endurance to even be able to think about giving this a go. I have treated Tim since February and I soon realised that he trains a lot more than the average person, he actually trains a lot more than most of the athletes I treat at the moment.

The first competition Tim entered was in Zurich, Switzerland in July. Tim completed the event in 12 hours 6 minutes and 57 seconds. This was Tim's first Iron Man competition and although he was pleased with the result (which he should be!) he got to experience firsthand the importance of good fluid replenishment... Without giving too much away I don't think flat coke is for you Tim?:) Unless you have done an event like this before it will always be difficult to know how your body react during the course of the day, which is why you sometimes have to get things wrong in order to get them right the next time. After all a very good performance and a great result!




People getting ready to jump into the water

  

Look a bit suspicious?:)



Well done!

Less than two months after the first event Tim was ready to attend a new Ironman event in Tenby (South WestWales). The course was slightly different, but the distances were pretty much the same 3.8km swim, 180km bike and 42.1 km run. This time Tim finished in 12 hours 50 minutes and 53 seconds and he managed to complete the run in just over 4 hours, great effort! You can check out all the results and read about the event here: http://ironmanwales.com/.
 

Still in good spirits:)

 

Sprint finish



Well deserved!!

 I think Tim has done really well and as far as I know this has not put him off attening similar events in the future! Well done Tim:)

Walk to Pen Y Fan (Brecon)

Hello!

Since I moved to Cardiff I have discovered some great places for riding my bike, but just outside Cardiff there are also several nice hills to visit if you want to. It has been a while since Will and I had a weekend off together so we decided to explore some of the areas around Cardiff by doing a walk up to Fan Y Bren followed by camping in Will’s new tent.



You can't see the top from here, but it is up there somewhere



Here we go..

We set off on Saturday morning and headed towards Pen Y Fan which is about 45 minutes away from where we live. Pen Y Fan is the highest point in Britain south of Snowdonia – 886 metres. We had never been here before, but the path up to the top was easy to follow so we couldn’t really go wrong. Initially I thought it looked fairly “easy” to get to the top, but I soon realised it was steeper than I expected several places, my gluteus and calves definetely got a hammering as I was trying to keep up with Will! Will is used to do a lot of mountain biking climbing so for him it was piece of cake, but my heart rate was definitely rising as we got closer to the top. The views on the way up were amazing.

Very windy so my hoodie had to come up:)

At the top we had to take a pictures to prove that we had actually been there  - 886 metres.

On the way down we decided to follow a slightly different route, but going downhill is definitely harder than uphill! The amount of eccentric work your quads needs to do in order to stop you from falling forwards is massive. Towards the end my quads were shaking, and my knees were also taking a pounding. Going downhill emphasises the importance of having strong quads to be able to control your knees and help you slow down.

After the walk we headed to a campsite just outside Brecon called. It was a really nice campsite, but unfortunately the weather was not the best. Will put up the tent quickly and sorted out the stove for us to cook some food. I had beef casserole which is normally not my favourite, but when you are so hungry you could eat your left arm anything tasted nice:)

Jamie Oliver in action:)

It has been several years since I last went camping, but listening to the rain pouring down on the tent is nice as long as you are dry and warm inside the sleeping bag. A nice weekend doing something different to what we normally do.

Hope everyone has had a nice bank holiday weekend:)

Adam Bitchell to the U-23 European Championship

Hi everyone

Today I just wanted to post a little post about Adam Bitchell, a 5km runner I have been treating since I moved to Cardiff in November. Adam is a UWIC athlete and is currently coached by the legendary Welsh runner James Thie! I soon realised that Adam was a very dedicated athlete who works hard to achieve his goals. Adam trains hard and also understands the importance of good recovery in order to keep fit and injury free, a great role model for other athletes! Adam competed in the 5km Europeans Trials in Bedford at the weekend, and after coming 4^th (3^rd British athlete) and having made the qualifying time already it was great news that Adam received the call yesterday that he had been selected to represent Great Britain at the European U- 23 Championship in Ostrava (Czech Republic) from the 14^th – 17th of July.

I wish Adam the very best of luck and hope he is able to give a good performance once again!

A little update from Cardiff

The last few weeks have been quite busy, but I was lucky to be able to go home to Norway for a little 6 day break as one of my friends from home was getting married. It was a great wedding, nice to see all my friends and family and have a little break from the daily routines. I came back to the UK late Tuesday night where my friend Oda came to meet me at the airport and drove back to Cardiff with me, very nice with some company in the car! Oda stayed to Saturday morning, but as I was working every night Oda had to come with me to work every night, what a nice friend!! (Don't worry, she knew I was working so she had the option:)

Oda:)

On the Wednesday night I went to Swansea to work for the Welsh team. The event was between Wales U23 vs Welsh Schools vs SW England U23 vs Harvard & Yale. Definetely the first time I have met anyone from the famous Universities Harvard and Yale, it was a good event on a nice stadium. Oda did a good job being the photographer and she loved the americans!:)

Someone seems to enjoy the event:)

On Thursday and Friday night I was working in the gym, and since Oda had to come with me I thought it was just fair to give her a tough gym session to show her how I do it here in Cardiff! Oda worked hard, but as Oda like to talk more than the average person I found it amusing and funny every time she said: “You are a tough coach Monica with a serious grin on her face” :)Well done Oda, you did a great job!

You seem to be enjoying the side plank?:)



I take it you are closing your eyes cause you are concentrating hard on the split lunge:)

 Even though I spent a lot of the time working, we managed to squeeze in a bit of sightseeing, shopping and a walking trip to show Oda some of the nice views of Cardiff.

First a drink in town

Then a stop outside the castle

   
 

   

On Saturday and Sunday I have been working at the U20/U23 European Trials in Bedford. We had a few very good results which is great! Well done guys and good luck in the Europeans!

My view on diets and a few simple guidelines to lose some unwanted pounds...

Am I a big fan of low fat, high protein, high fat or you name it diets??! Not really! I have not got a degree in nutrition, however I have taken several nutrition modules at University and I have always been interested in training, food, recovery strategies and how it all works together to optimise sports performance. Today I wanted to post a little blog about diet and nutrition for the general poublic. The reason why it is important to emphasize that it is for the general public and not for serious athletes  is because this can and will be very different depending on what sport you do and the goals you have. However I wanted to explain a few guidelines and try to make you understand a bit more how it works in a simple way.

I have several people asking me about food and nutrition advice on a daily basis. As you have probably gathered already I am not a big fan of strict diets when people are after long term weight loss. The reason why I have this view is I because I have seen time after time that most people can’t keep their regimes up over a long period of time and a lot of the time people end up putting on more weight than before they started. I believe that everyone can stay away from certain types of food and “treats” for a certain period, but I don’t think you should cut out something you like completely! This does of course not mean that you should eat crisps, chocolate, chips and coke every day, but you should still have a day now and then that you treat yourself. As long as you eat healthy on a daily basis, you can afford to treat yourself from time to time.

I don’t think that you need to count calories and become too obsessed about what you eat, I think it is more important to understand how it works with calories expenditure and intake. It is actually fairly “simple” if you want to lose weight and you don't need to be a math geni to figure it out (Trust me I am not!) We all need food to function on a daily basis even if we don’t do anything; this is called your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). Your BMR will vary depending on your age, sex, weight and height so this is different for everyone. You can easily calculate this on various calculators online to find out how much YOU need if you don’t do any exercise or activities. Bear in mind that you willl need more than this when you are active and do normal everyday actvities. If you exercise on top of this 3-4 days a week you will need even more on these days.

What I am trying to get across here is that:

It is about the amount of calories you take in and the amount of calories you burn that determines if you lose or gain weight

If you take in more calories than you burn, your body will go in “pluss” and this will be stored in your body. The same is the case if you burn calories than you take it, your body will go in minus hence you will lose weight when this happens over a period of time. This will vary from day to day which is why you can’t really see any difference on the scales until after weeks and months of being in plus or minus.

This was not meant to be very overcomplicated although it may seem like it, but the main message to get across is that you have to be patient if you want to lose weight (or put on weight). It is about changing your lifestyle and making healthy choices in your daily life and still has treats now and then.

Simplified you have 3 options if you want to lose weight:

1. You can start spending more than you use, which means moving and exercise more!
2. You can start eating less (healthier) and not exercise
3. Or you can of course do them both together, exercise/move more and at the same time make some changes to you diet which means that you don't necessarily eat a lot less, you just make some adjustment to make sure you eat healtier without starving yourself

I definetely know which one I would go for..

Who knows what his diet consisted of when he was at his peak!!!

Today I am focusing on the nutrition part of it and by doing small changes to your lifestyle this can and will make a massive difference to the result you get. There is no point in training like Arnold (Schwarzenegger) if you feed your body shi*t. Your body needs proper fuel to function well, just like your car. There are so many debates going on between nutrition specialist on how much you should eat of the various macronutrients (Carbohydates, Fat and Protein), but I think that it is very individual what people need depending on goals and needs, but I belive that having a diet that consists of a combination of the 3s (plus vitamins and minerals) will get you far.

Here are a few suggestions for you in order to make some healthy changes to your diet:
 

Add some fruits to your cereals to make it more interesting

1. Always eat breakfast

2. Eat several smaller meals during the day rather than two massive one

• Have a snack (example fruit) between meals in order to avoid your blood sugar getting to low as it is easy to eat “anything” you come across then


An apple a day keeps the doctor away

3. 5 A DAY- Try to eat fruit or vegetables during the day and include it in your main meals too



4. Chose a smaller plate as this is an easy way to reduce your portion size if you need to

5. Eat slow! Chew your food properly as it takes a while for your body to realise it is full!

6. Don’t eat a huge meal late at night if you are going to bed straight after

7. Cut down the sugar drinks and alcohol! Drinks are empty calories which is easy to "forget"

8. Drink plenty of water - 2 - 3 litre per day

If you stay active and exercise you will be surprised how much food and treats you can have and still maintain your weight! As I have always been a big fan of doing sports and training I will give you some simple tips in order to move more even if you don’t have access to a gym in the next blog post....

Until then, stay active and enjoy the rest of your weekend:)

VIDEO - Front Plank on swiss ball and Front Plank with side steps

Hi everyone,

I know it has been a while since my last update, but today I have been able to post a little demonstration of a good core exercise on the swiss ball and also the normal front plank with some side steps. Those of you who know me know that I think it is really important to add in some good core exercises as part of anyone's program and my view on this still hasn't changed. I have previously described several basic core exercises like the plank in different variations with pictures, but today I will let you have a look at a little film clip so you can see what I mean.

Front Plank on Swissball

• On this exercise you start in a plank position with your elbows on the ball and feet on the floor
• Make sure you embrace your core and that you keep like a straight line from top to bottom
• The small movements I do are done on purpose to challenge the core even more
• You can always start off by just holding this position and as you want to progress it you can start moving the ball around with your elbows, rememebr to do this controlled though!
• Start off by moving from 30 – 45 seconds, then rest on the floor for 45-60 seconds between your sets, and repeat 3 sets

Here we go :

Front Plank with Sidesteps

•  Start with your toes, elbows and forearms on the mat
•  Your toes should be placed shoulder width apart and your elbows shoulder be placed under your shoulder
•  Make sure your abdominals are pulled in and that your hips are parallel to the floor throughout the exercise
• When you are ready start taking a small step with your right toes towards the right side, step back into the middle and step out to the left side with your left toes
• Make sure you keep your hips stable and don’t let them rock from side to side while moving your legs
•  Keep moving from 30 – 45 seconds, then rest on the floor for 45 – 60 seconds between your sets, and repeat 3 sets

It may look easy, but give it a try and let me know what you think:)

Good luck :)

Some of my basic training principles

Today I decided to share a few of my basic training priciples. Over the last few years I have work alongside some really good strength and conditioning coaches (Brendan Chaplin is one of them!), which has defientely help me open my eyes and realise that some of the training you see in the "standard" health club or fitness centre is a completely waste of time. I will now list up what I consider to be good training/diet principles and give you a simple reason why I think that. Here we go:

1. Add in interval training as part of your cardiovascular training (CV)
• Because you will burn a lot more calories than if you go for a steady pace

• You will improve your fitness and constantly challenge your system

• It doesn’t have to last for hours – in fact a 20 minutes interval session can be more than enough to see improvement!

• It is more interesting than strolling along for hours

• An example of a good intervall session the Tabata interval - check it out on a previous blog post
2. Always make sure you can do quite a few reps with body weight exercises, before you start adding on resistance 

• No point in doing a poor bench press at 80 kg, if you can’t do press ups with good technique first!
• There are so many good exercises that you can do with your body weight, and in most cases they are functional and will make you use several big muscle groups and joint at the same time

Press ups are great!!

3. Choose multi joint exercises prior to single joint exercises (this is linked with my 2nd point)

• With this I mean to do exercises that uses several muscles and joint at the same time, rather than just isolating in a single curl exercise

• Focus on what type of exercises it is, rather than a separate muscle

• You can of course choose single joint as an assistant exercise, but overall I prefer to choose “bigger” exercise


Andy demonstating the deadlift

4. Choose free weight exercises before resistance machines if you know what you are doing!
• The amount of exercise you can do with dumbbells and barbells is endless!

• Free weight challenges your balance a lot more which is great!

• Free weights is more functional and you will see better results

• Always make sure you get help and advice from someone who is qualified in the field


The front squat is another good exercise!

5. Don’t forget to train your core!

• You may not realise, but if you do exercises like dead lifts and squats you are constantly working your core!

• Forget about the standard abdominal curl exercise – start of with static hold plank exercises – there are loads of progressions to these exercises, but start of with the basics

• A strong core will help you prevent lower back injuries and it is good for your posture

• Core exercises are not just for girls!! I have come across strong, and I mean very strong men who can’t hold their body up in a plank position for 5 seconds!! Core is for everyone- however if you do suffer from hypotension (high blood pressure) make sure you consult your doctor first as a static exercise will increase your blood pressure


"Straight arm arm situp" is tough, but very good - no painful abcurl here!

6. Variation is key for motivation and effort

• I know it is easy to get stuck into the same routine week in and week out, but try to vary your exercises and always look for progressions if you feel like you are stuck and are not getting anywhere (ask for help)

7. Always look for solutions rather than limitations

• Don’t let an injury affect you and get you down, find other ways to train than what you normally do until you are better

8. Be aware that muscles weigh more than fat if you are wanting to loose weight

• Look at how your clothes fit, rather than weighing yourself day in and day out (unless you do a sport where you need to be a certain weight class– MMA)

9. Always eat breakfast

• Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and it will stop you from snacking early morning

• Breakfast kick starts your body after a night sleep so it is important to get your body started early
• Food with high fiber content will make you feel fuller for longer, for example porridge

10. Women should always do resistance training alongside CV if wanting to “tone up and loose weight”

• Please understand that the stronger you are the more calories you will burn whilst resting!

Last but not least….
11. Look at training as something you do to be healthy and make sure you enjoy it!

• Training can be tough at times, but think about how great you feel after!

Good luck everyone:)