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.

Is fat completely bad?

We all tend to look at fat as the complete bad guy whether for healthy reasons or weight loss. Fat has 9 calories per gram, which is a lot. According to the Irish Recommended Daily Intakes, fats are recommended as less than 30% of our daily caloric intake [less than 10% coming from saturated fats (which can raise the blood cholesterol levels)  the remaining percentage should come from sources of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated (at least one third) fats such as unsalted nuts and seeds, fish and vegetable oils].

We can't completely eliminate fats. They give essential fatty acid such as the linoleic acid responsible for omega 6 and omega 3 (e.g.:flaxseed). They are energy source and reserve, they serve as cushion for the protection of vital organs, insulation from thermal stress of cold environment, hunger depressor (helping you to feel satiated) and they are vitamin carriers (A, D, E, K) and they also help in the production of hormones. For those reasons, we all need a certain amount of body fat.

Fat can be divided into essential fat and storage fat. The essential body fat is needed for our bodily functions, keeping the organs healthy while the storage body fat is important for vitamins and also works as a protection for temperature changes. The amount of essential fat required for men would be around 3% while for women would be around 12% to 15%. Storage body fat for men and women is around 12%. Let's say a men has 3% of essential body fat and 12% of storage body fat... He has a total body fat of 15%.  Men and women that have a total body fat of less than 3% and 10% respectively are considered unhealthy being more prone to serious illness and chronic fatigue. Body fat is necessary for the reproductive system and women with total body fat too low can get amenorrhea (cessation of menstruation) and lower bone density putting you at risk for osteoporosis.

     On the other hand, a high percentage of total body fat can be associated to heart problems, diabetes type II, high blood pressure, etc. And if you tend to accumulate fat around the abs (apple shape) then you are even at a higher risk of developing those conditions mentioned above.

   The American Council on Exercise has classifies body fats into four types, namely athletes (6-13% for men, 16-20% for women); fitness (14-17% for men, 21-24% for women); acceptable (18-25% for men, 25-31% for women) and obese (25%+ for men, 32%+ for women).

  Active,  healthy athletic women would range between 18 to 20% body fat or even lower controlling with exercise and diet. For women that are not as active, their body fat percentage is higher. Women tend to store fat because our bodies are constantly preparing for a possible pregnancy. Also when people go through very limited low calories diets, the body doesn't have enough calories for proper body function and goes to starvation mode and starts to store fat as an emergency tool. Some body builders low levels of body fat such as  3 to 5% but they are constantly monitoring it as well as strict combination of physical activity and diet but they don't keep those extremely low percentage the whole year round.

Just bear in mind that even you should eat fats sparingly, prefer the monounsaturates or polyunsaturates [such as unsalted nuts and seeds, fish (especially oily fish, such as salmon, trout and herring, at least twice per week) and vegetable oils]. If you are to eat fried food, limit it to 1 to 2 times a week. Confectionary and high fat snacks should be limited to small amounts and not too frequently.

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!