I 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 love to get outdoors as much as possible and that desire hasn’t changed at all since my daughter came along two years ago. She loves the outdoors too which is great. She’s a huge fan of parks and playgrounds so at the weekends we’ll often head off somewhere where she can run about and have me chase after her. I find it a great way to stretch the legs and it's helped me with the light exercise element of my 30 Day Challenge at the weekends. We might walk or trek to a location, hang out, play, go up and down the same slide 100 times, and then make our way back home. We’re both usually pretty tired come evening time.
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.
Read MoreMy 30 day challenge is well under way; I’ve already detailed my exercise plan and outlined my nutrition goals. I now want to focus on the final part of my challenge, and it’s an area that’s often overlooked as part of a traditional health challenge – a healthy mind.
I’m sure this particular part of the challenge will look different for each individual but everybody will get some ideas from what I’m planning. Here’s a look at a few areas I’ll be focusing on over the 30 days in an effort to get my mind to as healthy a place as possible.
Read MoreI’ve documented the exercise plan for my challenge. I’m happy with the mix of resistance training and cardio. Exercise is critical to my success in this challenge however nutrition will play an equally important role. My old gym had a sign on the wall saying ‘You can’t out-exercise a bad diet’ and I think that sums up the relationship perfectly.
Read MoreIn my last video log I introduced my 30 day challenge. It’s time to put a bit of meat on the bones of that challenge in this blog. I’m a big believer in setting goals and challenges for yourself, in every aspect of life. I’m concentrating on a health challenge. My aim is to be as healthy as I can be for 30 days. You can look on this as a detox, as preparation for a sporting event like a race or a big match, or simply a way of adopting a healthier lifestyle. Whatever your own personal goals, I know you will gain a lot from following my lead.
Read MoreI’m a big believer in setting yourself a fitness challenge in order to keep you motivated to exercise. It’s important to have health and fitness goals to work towards. I completed my epic cycle around Ireland 4 weeks ago and I’ve been in limbo exercise wise since then as I’ve had no specific target to aim for.
Read MoreNew statistics released by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) reveal the true extent - and the real cost - of the UK’s work-related stress problem, and they make for grim reading. The statistics look at the nature of self-reported work-related illnesses, showing that many industry sectors are effectively losing a million or more working days a year as a result of stress, depression or anxiety.
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