Quinoa - power-food!

Quinoa (or Keen-wah as it's sometimes pronounced), is a carbohydrate alternative with a number of health benefits. Eating certain carbohydrates that are refined and sugary e.g. white bread, can cause havoc on your blood sugar levels. When tring to keep lean, people often reduce carbohydrate intake. Quinoa is a fantastic substitute, because once cooked it has the same consistency as cous cous. You can add this to salads, have this with fish or meat, or even as a snack on it's own.

Quinoa is actually a seed and comes with all the health benefits that seeds come with. These include essential fats and quality protein. Both of these are vital for steady blood sugar levels, maintining muscle definition and to aid fat loss.

Quinoa can found in the 'free-from' aisle in the supermarket or in health food shops. It is also easy to cook. I cook a batch and leave this in the fridge to add to meals as i go through the week.

Get some in your cupboard and feel the benefit.

Oli

PHA Training

Time for the Gym Team to get together for what we like to call staff training! This week was Paddy’s turn to put us through our paces. His training topic was PHA (peripheral heart action) training.  PHA training is a combination of weight training and cardio which results in a far greater energy expenditure per workout. By putting exercises in a certain order for example lower body, upper body, lower body, your cardiovascular system which consists of your heart, lungs and blood vessels, has to work extra hard to divert blood to your working muscles. After these resistance exercises we ended with 3 minutes of high intensity cardio! The two circuits that Paddy planned are detailed below.

Circuit 1                                                   Circuit 2

Dumbell Bench Press 8-12 Reps                 Romanian Deadlifts 8-12 Reps
Dumbell Squats 8-12 Reps                         Dumbell Shoulder Press 8-12 Reps
Lat Pulldown 8-12 Reps                             Dumbell Lunges 8-12 Reps
3 Mins on the Treadmill                             3 Mins on the Bike

As you can see from the circuits, it follows a specific layout of alternating upper and lower body, finishing off with 3 minutes of intense cardio.

We paired off Paddy and Dan, Oli and Joe. We all aimed to complete the circuit 3 times. Both circuits were different with circuit 1 focusing on the upper body, where circuit 2 really hit the legs hard. We all lifted heavy with no break inbetween exercises and then straight on to the cardio. The 3 minutes on the bike can only be described as painful! We were keeping our RPM above 100 the whole time with a resistance of 15. At this intensity your legs just cannot help to fill up with lactic acid and it’s up to you to push through this. But once you have finished one round its straight back to Romanian Deadlifts again with all this lactic acid still in your legs. At this time your heart is beating extremely hard and your metabolic rate is sky high! During this circuit Oli and Joe were extremely close to being ill due to pushing themselves extremely hard, especially on the bike. After 3 rounds Joe had to run outside to get some air. It was an intense circuit! Circuit 2 was different and focused more on the upper body, but the cardio section had a different feel to it aswell. The treadmill really tested the heart and lungs and your abillity to take in oxygen and redistribute it around the body.

All in all this was an extremely different training system that we all were not used to. This is great as you can never stop learning in this industry. We all have different strengths as Personal Trainers. I know a couple of us will try and intergrate this into our normal training regime. Do not do PHA training everyday as it will put too much of a strain on the body, 2-3 times a week will be plenty.                    

Please speak with one of us for more details on the programme!

Joe

Get rid of that Festive weight!

Research has shown that the average person puts on 1.8 pounds during the festive period, which is not a huge amount. The problem lies is that people will not shift this extra weight during the next couple of months. Follow these simple steps to combat this.

Drink water
For the majority of us, Christmas is spent nibbling cookies, cakes and all sorts of other unhealthy food. Therefore, once the festive season ends our bodies are filled with harmful toxins. To flush out these substances, drink lots of water.  You should aim to drink around three quarters to one full gallon of water in order to flush out these toxins. Drinking this much water will also kick start your metabolism.

Protein
Do you want to kick your sluggish post-Christmas metabolism into life to shed those post-Christmas pounds? Well, you’ll be please to hear that protein is the solution to your metabolism issues. For breakfast eat around 10 to 15 grams of protein in order to get your metabolism into gear at the start of the day. An egg on toast or some low-fat yoghurt with honey and nuts is a great breakfast if you want to shed that Christmas weight.


Green Tea
Green tea has a countless number of health benefits. There is no better time to start drinking green tea, and to keep drinking it throughout the year.  One of the main benefits of Green Tea is weight loss, as it rapidly increases your metabolsim.  The polyphenol found in green tea works to intensify levels of fat oxidation and the rate at which your body turns food into calories.

Make a plan
January is a time to Kick start a new fitness and nutrtion plan. But the real goal is to mantain this for the whole year and not just for a couple of months. This needs to become a lifestyle change. Here at TSC we have a team of committed and determined Personal Trainers, which between them have a wealth of knowlege. It is our job to help you start your Fitness Journey but also maintain it.

Welcome 2013

Tonbridge School Centre Personal Training. Challenge yourself today!