Pilates

I would like to introduce you to an exercise method that I stumbled upon a few years ago and couldn’t help but falling in love with it… Pilates!

Initially called "Contrology" by its creator Joseph Pilates and much later became known worldwide by his surname, this exercise method combines knowledge and skills from many different activities such as yoga, gymnastics, skiing, martial arts, dance, circus training and weight lifting, just to name a few.

Pilates is a method that requires body and mind connection and concentration on all details of each and every exercise performed in order to activate and control the right muscles while keeping proper body alignment.

Joseph Pilates teaching his method

The regular practice of Pilates can bring various benefits such as: preserves or improve bone density; improves muscle strength and tone, balance, flexibility, functionality, coordination, posture (reducing pain derived from bad posture) and increases core strength.

Pilates exercises can be adapted to different fitness levels and goals. As any other fitness activity, please consult your doctor to make sure it is suitable for you. If you haven’t tried Pilates yet… you should definitely give it a go. 

Ireland’s Fitness Party 2014

Ireland’s Fitness Party 2014 was one of the Health and Fitness events of the year in Dublin. It was organised by the Profi Fitness School .  It was a four day event (24-27 October, 2014) running through the bank holiday weekend. On Friday it was held in Goldstone Fitness in Dublin 12 and from Saturday to Monday it was held in St. Catherine’s Sports Centre in Dublin 8.  It featured great international instructors like Edyta Bartejczuk-Wolak, Kacper Wojcik, Luis Barbudo, Kasia Gasiarowska, Erle Liivak, Luciano Mottola, Heather Gordon, Nadia D'limi and Troy Dureh, just to name a few. The first day was all dedicated to cycling classes and a 2 hour marathon but unfortunately I wasn’t able to go. I did go to the last three days and they were great, full of different classes to try out (rip:60, dance classes, step classes, CrossFit, Reggaeton, circuit classes, H.I.I.T., pump and tone, fight club, different styles of pilates and yoga classes amongst others)

Me at Ireland's Fitness Party 2014

This event also introduced some different new trends in Fitness such as Piloxing (fusion of pilates, dance and boxing), KONGA, crazy jumping (a very fun class on the trampoline).

There was a variety of Exhibitors such as Dublin Holistic Centre, Fitness by Olena, Feel Joy Fitness & Dance Clothing, Smovey, XBody Ireland Ltd. (which really caught my attention as I got to try on the equipment and it is quite a challenging method of exercise using electric muscle stimulation).

There were more than 20 workshops about all things Health & Fitness. My favourites were Dawid Geler lecturing on Bodybuilding and also Oto Winkler’s Advanced Nutrition lecture. I found those workshops very inspiring and they gave me plenty of tips as a Fitness Instructor and Personal Trainer.

                No matter what age you were, as a Fitness Instructor, Personal Trainer trying to get more ideas or to collect CPD or simply a Fitness enthusiast, you would definitely have found something of interest at this Fitness event. I had great fun there and I am already looking forward to their next event! 

Vinyasa Flow Yoga Weekend with Claire Missingham

Me and Claire Missingham

I have always loved Yoga and I first got to know Claire Missingham when her DVDs were shown on TV. Needless to say I became a fan of her Yoga classes.  She is a very talented Yoga teacher based in London who has her own Yoga Teacher Training for those that want to become a Yoga teacher.  Two years later, to my surprise, while I was browsing the internet I found out she was coming to Dublin for a weekend in June to teach Yoga workshops. I couldn’t resist and booked myself a place.

It was all organized by My Yoga Body Studio, a charming sea-view Yoga studio located in a beautiful part of Dun Laoghaire. Both workshops ran for two hours and a half and I couldn’t believe how time flew by! It was such a fun weekend and Claire couldn’t be a better presenter. She is not only a great inspiring teacher who was so nice, kind and open to talk to everybody present, but she also has a great sense of humour making yoga even more joyful.

The first one, called “Sweet and Steady Vinyasa Flow”, involved Surya Namaskar (Sun Salutation) sequences, standing and balance asanas used in a fun and precise flow as in a choreography, counterposes, handstands as well as a relaxation part at the end. The second workshop, called “Get Down: Opening Hamstrings and Hips to Balance the Lower Three Chakras”, concentrated on the lower body and also core strength working on the lower three chakras with deep hip openers and reclined asanas among many other yoga positions.

I went to both workshops and I still can’t decide which one I preferred. This was an amazing and fun weekend that made me realise how much I miss having a regular Yoga practice. Many thanks to Claire Missingham for coming to Dublin to deliver such beautiful workshops and to My Yoga Body Studio team for making it happen. I hope there will be many more events like this one in Ireland. If you have the opportunity, don’t miss the chance to go to Claire Missingham’s workshops. I guarantee you will love them. For more information, check Claire’s website.

TRX/Kettlebell classes

Source: The Whole Way

I am running TRX/Kettlebell classes on Saturdays at 10:30 am in the Rush Fitness Health Club in St. Maurs GAA inRush, Dublin. The classes run for 45 minutes mixing TRX and Kettlebells. These exercises work the entire body and are great for improving your muscular strength, endurance, balance and cardio.

SPORTS AND FITNESS SHOW 2013

First of all, I would like to apologise for not writing in this blog for so long. Busy work (which is not a complaint at all!) mixed with family health problems have been keeping me away from writing.

            Changing the subject… This last weekend has been all about Fitness. The second ever Sports and Fitness Show in Ireland was held on the 2^nd and 3^rd of February 2013 in the RDS in Dublin. On both days, right at the entrance, you got a bag with the Irish Mail with lucozade sport, kellogg’s Nutri-Grain (Crunchy Oat Granola Choc Chip) and McVitie’s Breakfast (porridge oats biscuits with red berries).

            There were a lot of stands that were sports, fitness, nutrition and personal wellbeing related. Some giving free samples like the Vita Coco natural coconut water drink (traditional in Brazil and among world famous celebrities like Madonna. It is highly hydrating and energetic with vitamins and minerals and they showed three different flavours: original, pineapple and orange); Sumo giving samples of their calorie burning refreshments with 2 different flavours (Tropical and Summer fruits) and also The Foods of Athenry had many samples of their gluten free range.

There were many more stands such as the Nutriband (their products are supposed to make performance boosting nutrients be absorbed through the skin by wearing their patches), KT Ireland (treating and preventing sports injuries), Alkaline Healing Water (ionised water company that also had a stand in the previous edition of the Sport and Fitness Show), Aloe Vera Gel, Softball Leinster (promoting sports), International Paintball Group (promoting their various paintball centres in 6 countries), Clare Burren Marathon, White Collar Boxing (with a Boxing ring in the event showing boxing demos) and many more. Chuan Chom Thai Spa and Art of Therapeutic Thai massage giving free massage. Worth mentioning the Adventure West stand, besides their people being really nice and enthusiastic about their services, they had a zorbing ball/OGO right there at the event. There were charity stands for the Irish Paraolympic Athletes and for Autism.

            There were different classes/workshops scheduled and divided throughout the two days of the event. Some of them were:

• Capoeira - Master Mamaozinho was there giving demonstrations of Capoeira (Brazilian Martial Arts that works the whole body) and Frevo (One of many Brazilian type of dance);

• Zumba and Rip 60 (Great and fun popular classes delivered by the profifitness school that is always coming up with great Fitness Conferences with classes and workshops that count with many great Instructors from all over the world) Those two classes were also present in the first Sports and Fitness Show that happened in Dublin in 2011.

• Toe-ga (Great presentation and exercises demonstrations done with your toes to re-educate our feet to perform in a more natural way and shape that improves your technique for running, for instance).

Chi Balls

• Chi Ball class (Instructor Eddie showed us a great relaxing and different class using a Chi Ball created in Australia with Tai Chi, pilates, yoga and traditional Chinese medicine as some of its influences. There are many different Chi Balls each with a different colour and different scent and each one of them is supposed to help you to work a different physical/mind health issue. 

• Kettelbell class (a complete whole body exercise class also delivered by Eddie that showed us not only how to use kettlebells in a fitness class but also how to take it to a different level and make it a really advanced exercise performing 80 repetitions in less than 4 minutes (Eddie did it in 2 minutes and a half).

           

            Overall I would say the classes were very good but I felt there was less of a variety of classes being offered comparing to the other Sports and Fitness Show in 2011. A very positive side was that the classes didn’t run simultaneously like the 2011 event so you could do them all if you wanted. It makes me wonder when the next Sports and Fitness Show in Ireland will be and what other new trends will be shown. I can’t wait!

Some tips on hydration when exercising

If you fail in keeping yourself hydrated you can suffer from fatigue, lower your performance, lessen your endurance, etc. We all have heard that we should drink at least 8 glasses of water every day but when we exercise or practice sports we should drink water even more not to get dehydration, to help our body to function properly and to compensate the water we lost through sweating.

To know how much extra water you should drink, you should weight yourself before and after your workout. For every pound lost during exercising you should drink 500 ml of fluid. You should also drink water before (250 to 500ml 1 hour before exercise), during and after working out.

You can also have sports drinks but you will only really benefit from those if you do intense workouts for longer hours such as running for more than 1 hour. Sports drinks can help in that case cause they also have carbohydrates that will give you energy and also sodium which will help to absorb fluids. For the regular people on a light to moderate exercise routine water is better cause it is quickly absorbed by the body and has zero calories.

Remember to keep yourself hydrated throughout the day. In case you have any alcohol or drinks with caffeine (hopefully you will avoid them), try to drink at least one glass of water for every drink you have. 

Lifting Weights v Cardio while bulking up

In the gym, one of the questions that I get most from guys that are trying to bulk up is if doing cardio will ruin their attempt to build up muscles. If bulking up is your goal, you can still do cardio but it is important that your cardio comes after your resistance training because you need to have as much energy as possible for lifting weights since building muscles is your priority. You can also alternate between one day of resistance training and one day of cardio. Cardio exercises are still important to keep or improve your cardio fitness levels. 

Don’t forget, doing cardio for 5 minutes as a warm up is essential to prepare your body for the workout, raise the body temperature, prevent injuries and it will not compromise your resistance training at all. 

Don’t be ashamed of being a beginner!

It is important to tell your Fitness Instructor, that you are a beginner when you go to a class for the first time. No-one should be ashamed of being a beginner and before you know it you will be surprised on how much you have progressed and how much easier it is to follow the classes, if you do them regularly. Rememeber, everybody was a beginner once… even the fitness instructors. I would like to add that it is also important that Fitness instructors ask, before class, if there are any beginners, or people with injuries, pregnancies, diabetis, asthma, etc because those people require special cues and instructions to follow during the class.

Next time you go to a fitness class, don’t be shy! Tell the fitness instructor everything he or she needs to know so you can benefit from the classes with adequate instructions, avoiding injuries or making a medical condition worse. Just be proud of being there trying to get fit and healthier. Just enjoy and have fun!

Aerobic Classes

Date: Tuesdays


Time:  7pm


Location: Rush Fitness Health Club (in the St. Maurs GAA Complex)


Price: €5 for members or €8 for non-members

Call (01)8071359 to book a class

Aerobic moves, combined in fun choreographies, exercised to music for 45 minutes. No need to know how to dance.

 The classes suit all fitness levels. Some benefits of an aerobic session:

·        Improves well-being and fitness levels

·        Burns fat

·        Improves efficiency of heart and lungs

·        Helps to reduce blood pressure & cholesterol levels

·        Great fun while working out.

The importance of sleep to your healthy routine

Regular exercise and nutrition are crucial but a good nights sleep is very important too. If you are constantly sleep-deprived you can be sabotaging your healthy routine. Many hormones are produced and your organism as a whole rests and recovers while you sleep. It is also during that time that your muscles repair and grow, which is essential to get results from your workout.

Insomnia can happen due to medical causes (pain, respiratory problems, hyperthyroidism, etc) or the intake of certain substances (such as caffeine, alcohol, psycho-stimulants, anti-depressives) or due to psychiatric disorders (such as anxiety, mania, depression) or because of specific sleep disorders (sleep apnea, nocturnal myoclonus). Insomnia can be Initial (when the person finds it difficult to get to sleep) or terminal (when the person wakes up precociously early and cannot go back to sleep).

Lack of sleep can make you feel grumpy, easily irritated, tired, stressed, your energy levels get low, makes it difficult to concentrate, lowers your immune system, makes you prone to health problems such as high blood pressure and weight gain (hormones that control your appetite get altered when you don’t get enough sleep).

Some tips for a better sleep:
· Make sure your room is cosy, comfortable and as dark as possible.
· You should have a routine around the time you go to sleep.
· Always go to sleep at the same time.
· Use your bed to sleep (don’t watch TV, read or study on your bed).
· Write down all your commitments for the following day to avoid getting worried about them.
· Wake up always at the same time every day.
· Exercise regularly.
· Be more active during the day and leave the evenings for more relaxing activities.
· Avoid alcohol.
· Avoid coffee and other psycho-stimulators mainly in the afternoon and evenings.

You should try to get 7-8 hours of sleep every night. Consult your doctor to check if your lack of sleep has any specific cause and if so treat it. Exercise regularly to improve your sleep. Have a good sleep routine so you can see the results of your workout.

Expression & Movement Fitness Convention 3

The third edition of the Expression and Movement Fitness Convention was held at the Swan Leisure Centre in Dublin for three days (November 18th, 19th and 20th) and brought some international Instructors to Dublin, such as Luciano Mottola, Cesar Millan, Troy Dureh, Luis Barbudo, Karolina Libelt, to name a few.

Each day had a different purpose. The first day you could choose between two different workshops or two zumba classes. I chose to attend the two workshops because they were new to me. The first workshop was Power Stretch with Karolina Libelt. She explained different kinds of stretches, why you should do them and how to do them. She was astonished by the fact that stretching classes are not common to find in gyms here in Ireland. That always amazed me as well, because stretching is so important (see my previous blog entry). The second workshop was Assymetric step with Luciano Mottola teaching how to prepare an advanced step class with Assymetric moves that also has muscle balance in mind.

The second day was the aerobics day, with advanced step classes by Luciano Mottola and Cesar Millan. It appeared like they were dancing and the step was a mere accessory to complement the dance. Troy Dureh did an exciting Khai-Bo Freestyle Combat and a great hip-hop jam class, teaching us Michael Jackson’s choreographies such as Thriller.

The final day was designed as a body and mind day. It was more focused on different classes of pilates and an original Luis Barbudo’s body flow class (combining breathing exercises, pilates and yoga). There was also Cesar Millan’s Toning class where you worked with a variety of toning exercises, using weights and/or your own body weight. It was choreographed in such a way that you ended up doing many sets of different exercises, all disguised as a dance. Karolina Libelt’s Functional training focused mainly on lower body exercises with many varieties of squats, lunges and squat jumps. There was also a 120 minute Circuit Training Challenge (yes, you read right…120 minutes of circuit!) by the Profi Fitness School Team, with different stations such as abs exercises, arms (tubing), step, squats and lunges, suspension TRX, spinning, etc.

The weekend consisted of almost 20 hours of Fitness Classes and workshops distributed in those three days. It was a pity that the two Zumba classes happened at the same time as the workshops on Friday, but overall the Convention was very exciting and gave me plenty of new moves that could be incorporated into my Fitness Classes.

It is always important for Fitness Instructors to go to these Conventions so that we can update our knowledge, learn about new Fitness trends and improve our skills. I hope there will be many more Fitness Conventions here in Dublin in 2012.

Cardio Versus Resistance training

Many women are afraid to do any kind of resistance training (e.g. weights) because they think that they will get too bulky, like a body builder. I can safely say that you won’t bulk up unless that is your goal. The type of training used for hypertrophy (bulk) is very different from L.M.E (Local Muscular Endurance, i.e, toning).

Another important point is that women don’t have a high level of testosterone like men and that makes it more difficult for women to bulk up. That fear of getting too much muscle leads many women to neglect resistance training and stick to only cardio exercises.

Cardiovascular training (e.g. running, walking, swimming) is very important because it improves coronary circulation, lowers heart rate, helps to reduce blood pressure, improves circulation, strengthens the heart, improves cholesterol levels by reducing the LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol), burns calories, improves cardio respiratory system, increases oxygen carrying capacity of the blood and improves overall conditioning.

Resistance training (e.g. exercises with free weights, or machines, or body weight, etc) brings a series of benefits such as improvements in muscular strength, muscular endurance, prevents osteoporosis, improves circulation, burns calories, improves body composition (percentage of muscle mass, fat, etc), improves posture and body image, reduces back and neck pain, enhances performance, and improves quality of life. Thanks to resistance training, you will also find it easier to do routine tasks such as holding your kids or lifting things.

Muscle is more metabolic active than fat. By increasing your muscle mass, you will increase your metabolism and consequently you will burn more calories even while resting. The body has to work harder to maintain that new muscle mass, subsequently the body will burn more fat.

Resistance training has the advantage of burning calories for longer after you have finished your workout in comparison to cardio. The more muscle mass you have, the bigger will be your caloric expenditure. As we age we lose muscle mass and as a consequence it makes our metabolism slower. Therefore it is important to do some resistance training in order to maintain/improve muscle mass and metabolism.

If your goal is to lose weight you should combine cardio and resistance training, supported by a well balanced diet as part of your routine.

Last but not least... Don’t forget to stretch! Many people tend to skip the stretching part of fitness classes. People often feel that stretching is a time-waster or feel the important part of the class is over. However, it is essential to stretch after your workout, because you need to stretch your muscles back to their original length and because tight muscles can cause muscular imbalance, poor posture and injury. Stretching can improve your sports performance by improving your ROM (Range of Motion) around a joint or number of joints. It can also prevent injuries and reduce muscle aches caused by poor posture and/or over training. You should hold the stretch for at least 15-30 seconds to mild tension, maintaining your normal breathing. You should stretch all muscles involved in your workout.

Motivational Tips for working-out in winter months

During the winter months people usually seem to have more appetite and to get lazier with regard to exercise, which can result in gaining weight. 

Here are some tips to keep fit during the winter:

• Try to go to group classes because working out in groups tends to be more stimulating (for most people), competitive, improves team spirit and helps you in making new friendships.

• Having a buddy to work out with is also very positive because you can motivate each other.

• It is noticeable that gyms become very quiet once the cold temperature arrives. Try to exercise as much as possible without making excuses. If there is a day that you really cannot see yourself getting out of your house, then you should exercise at home. There are many choices of Fitness DVDs or Fitness TV-shows. You will feel the positive changes of working out and you can make it part of your routine.

• Choose a play-list of upbeat songs that you like and use it for your workouts or even for dancing around the house.

• Establish a goal that is real and achievable. Losing weight should be a long-term process. Don’t give up if you don’t lose much weight in a short-term period. It should all be about having a healthy diet and working out regularly so you can see positive results. Crash diets are not the answer because they only act to slow down your metabolism (We will leave that for another blog entry!)

• Keep track of your progress. When the winter comes, think about all those things you have accomplished so far by working out. Don’t make it all be in vain.

• Choose a place to work out that is close to your home or your work, to make it more accessible for you. If you choose a place that is far you will be more tempted to make excuses for not going.

• Go shopping! Getting new fitness gear may be an extra motivation for you to workout.

• Use a visualisation technique. Visualisation is used by many professional athletes from all over the world. Prepare yourself before you workout or anytime you want. Relax, close your eyes and imagine yourself achieving your goals. Make it as real as possible. You can try to visualise in your mind as if it were a movie scene. Whenever you go to exercise, play that movie again in your mind.

Remember, if you want to be fit for the summer or prepared for a beach vacation you need to be exercising long before that. Working out at the last minute will not make miracles. You need to work for it, to get results.

So why not start now!!!

RDS Dublin - Sports and Fitness Show 2011

For the first time ever a Sports and Fitness Show was held here in Ireland this November 2011. It happened in the RDS Industries Hall in Dublin and it lasted for three days (4^th to 6^th November). It had various stands related to fitness, health and nutrition. This event was opened not only for Fitness professionals but also for anyone interested in those topics.

Many fitness schools and clubs were there to promote their services and some of them also gave free classes:

• Euroeducation/Euroconvention gave great and enthusiastic classes such as Aerodance and the new trendy Reggaeton.
• Profifitness School also offered classes such as pump, step and new fitness trend ones such as Rip:60 and Zumba (Fantastic Brazilian Zumba Style). The Rip:60 class looks easy but it is really challenging because you use your body weight to do most of the exercises not to mention it also requires balance and it is great fun. It is a high calorie-burn workout that forces your body to stabilize and balance throughout the exercises so you engage more muscle and constantly engage your core with each move).
• Energie Fitness Clubs offered an original Kick, lift & Yoga class.
• Portobello Institute was also there to promote their fitness courses.
• Fitness West gave demonstrations of the Railyard product that is a Conditioning Course made of rails and platforms that provides a dynamic workout disguised as an indoor playground. It is used in schools in the US but adults can also use it. 
• Yoga Therapy Ireland was also promoting its courses and had many leaflets of how you can benefit from yoga to fight against various health conditions as well as leaflets with yoga sequences for athletes and great informative yoga magazines.

Many exhibitors distributed free samples such as:

·    A. Vogel: sports pack with samples of arnica gel (great to relief muscular aches, pains and stiffness, sprains, bruises and swellings after contusion), Molkosan Vitality (instant whey drink with fibre for health digestion), and many leaflets informing about diets and herbs that can be used for muscles and joints as well as herbal remedies for many health conditions.

·    Weight Loss Challenge (samples of energy bars),

·    Caveman (High protein beef snacks and a diversity of 100% natural juices),

·    Cherry Active (samples of Cherry Active Concentrate Cherry Juice that increases your Antioxidant Intake, quality sleep and rapid recovery of muscle function)

·    Irish Daily Mail had their newspaper and 2 cereal bars.

·    Rainforest Day Spa gave free skin analysis as well as other services with discounts.

It was also possible to buy their products right there at the show. Many had discounts.

It is great that they are holding Sports and Fitness shows here in Dublin. This type of event is so important to help us get updated on what is new out there with regard to classes and/or products. I was expecting it to be a bigger event but it is very understandable because it was the very first held here in Ireland. The only negative side for me was that some classes, from different fitness schools and clubs, were sometimes clashing with each other. Obviously you could not participate in both classes at the same time, which meant missing some classes. I can’t stress enough how good the classes were and it was a real shame not to be able to participate in all of them

Overall it was a good event and I hope there will be many more in the future here in Ireland.

If you want more information about the Sports and Fitness Show 2011, check their website.