High Intensity Interval Training or HIIT is a form of workout in which you give all out, 100% effort through fast, intensive bursts of exercise, followed by shorter, sometimes active, recovery periods. Training in this way will get and maintain your heart rate up while burning more fat in less time than a typical workout.
Read MoreWho says you need a gym or proper workout equipment for a full body workout? Early last Saturday morning I met my personal trainer Philip Kavanagh from Limitless Functional Fitness and we went to the local playground (while the kids were still tucked up in bed) for an outdoor exercise session. There’s no fitness park or outdoor exercise stations near us but Phil assured me there’s plenty of bodyweight exercises that can be done in a playground giving you a great full-body workout.
Read MoreI spoke about the importance of warming up and stretching before commencing a workout in a recent article. This blog is all about the stretching and cooling down required after you’ve completed your workout.
Let’s look at the steps you should be including before and after every exercise session, no matter what the workout may be (resistance or cardio training):
- Warm up
- Pre workout stretching (warm up stretches)
- WORKOUT
- Cool down
- Post workout stretching (cool down stretches)
Read MoreMy 30 day challenge has come to an end. For the month of July I set myself goals in the areas of exercise, nutrition and mental health. The aim was to have the healthiest 30 days that I’d ever spent on the planet! What a great month it was. I didn’t hit all of my goals but I made a lot of improvements and learned so much from my efforts. I can tell you that even now, after completing the challenge, I still feel energised, invigorated and motivated in so many ways. I feel healthy, fit and happy not to mention the sense of achievement I feel for sticking with the challenge for the entire month.
Read MoreWarming up is critical to a better overall performance and reduces the risk of injury. It’s essential to a good workout. The safest way to exercise is to gradually raise the body’s temperature and loosen the muscles before starting into your full body workout. That’s what warm ups are designed to do. You can warm up with a light run, using the cross trainer, completing some jumping jacks or a combination of the above. Five minutes should be enough time to allocate to a warm up.
Read MoreI’ve had great intentions in recent years in terms of exercising and keeping fit. The motivation and dedication to get to the gym has been there which is great as that’s half the battle. Where I’ve been lacking is in the execution. I’ve been going to gyms on and off for years and making some steady progress in the beginning and then noticing a plateau or a drop off in improvements after a couple of weeks or months. I put my finger on the problem a while back in a previous blog post – I wasn’t pushing myself to get out of my comfort zone. I tasked myself with the goal of fixing that problem and I believe I have found the solution in recent months in the form of Functional Training classes.
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