Every day more and more people are turning to military style fitness boot camps in an effort to get fitter and lose weight. They may seem like good value for money but could they doing more harm than good?

In the UK the best known of these bootcamp providers is British Military Fitness (BMF), who run bootcamps is local parks nationwide. BMF have over 100 sessions every week in London alone and many more in major cities like Manchester and Birmingham. But are these boot camps giving you what you want and should you be signing up to them?

Dr Ralph Rogers who is a consultant in sports medicine at the London Orthopaedic Clinic, is worried that these type of bootcamps can result in injury to the participants, and in fact fail to achieve the results of weight loss and fitness that people are actually looking for.

According to Dr Rodgers in a recent interview with the Daily Mail  “Exercise needs to be done gradually, with proper supervision, otherwise there is a risk of injury. I would never recommend an overweight patient to do one of these military bootcamps. When you overload the body, the result is injury – anything from shin splints to back problems – and, in this kind of environment, people make things worse by trying to soldier on. Neither the psychological aspect of why someone is overweight or the nutritional aspect is addressed by a bootcamp. Even fit people can hurt themselves by being over zealous.”

Also in the same recent article in the Daily Mail Osteopath Paul Raw points out “I’ve seen a lot of ex-soldiers with bad backs because the idea of military-style training is to push yourself beyond your limit. This means the likelihood of eventual injury is high. It’s a British thing I think, to assume that exercise must equal pain.”

As a personal trainer here in Manchester we have work with many clients from many different backgrounds and walks of life. We recognise that every single person we see is different, with many different strengths and weaknesses. We also understand that bootcamp style training exercises such as making someone do loads of press ups when they can’t even do one correctly is a shortcut to lower back pain. Doing too many press ups can also cause the chest muscles to tighten up and cause both rounding of the shoulders and shoulder pain.

Normally there is only 1 instructor at these bootcamps for every 20 exercises so it is very obvious that clearly they cannot make sure that everyone is doing everything right.

Sit ups which are also commonly used a lot in these bootcamps are also one of the main culprits when it comes to developing lower back problems when exercising.

Our recommendation here at North West Personal Training is that if your trying to lose weight and get fit then the safest way to do so is by speaking to one of the professional trainers at your local gym and considering one to one personal trainining. Also make sure they are REPS qualified and are fully insured.

North West Personal Training is based at Fitness First in Manchester. Contact us now for a free consultation.

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By using a Personal Trainer you are guaranteed to get results. Here at Northwest Personal Training we are so confident of this one that we offer a money back guarantee and to date no one has taken us up on that one.  This is because Personal Trainers can take you to a level of training that you may not have though possible and push you to the upper limits of your abilities. We are also here to motivate you and to stop negative self talk as well as provide you with energy and motivation to help you reach your goals in next to no time at all.

As personal trainers we dont just write you a programme and count our your reps, our job is to provide you with a momorable training experience and making sure you exercise in a proper and safe matter using the correct movement patterns to ensure you get the most benefits from whatever exerice you are undertaking.

As a Personal Trainer based im Manchester, not only do i deliver exercise programmes, but i also have an understaning of both the physiological and phychological aspects, both of whioch are equally imprortant in helping you to achieve your goals and stick to your exercise routine.

As a Reps Level 3 Qualified Personal Trainer I can communicate with you on your own level and in a style that suits you. It is important to remember that during the personal training session, the focus should be on you the client, and your needs and goals.

Liam Thompson is a Personal Trainer based in Manchester, UK

Tags: exercise, personal training, Weight Loss
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The humble wall angel is  just one of the exercises that are designed to strengthen muscles that may be weakened by bad posture, especially if you work in an office and spend 8 hours a day sat at a desk.

The wall angel should be performed slowly, and gradually progressed. If it feels painful or uncomfortable, consult a physiotherapist or personal trainer before continuing.

How to do wall angels

• Stand against a wall with your feet shoulder width apart.
• Gently press your lower back against the wall.
• Keep the back of you elbows, forearms, and wrists against wall.
• Bring your arms up and down slowly in a small arc of motion while ensuring your elbows are always in contact with wall.
• Repeat this exercise 10 times.

Tags: Corrective Exercise, personal training
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One of the questions I am constantly being asked by clients is how do they know when they are in the fat burning zone and why it seems that the intensity is really low.

When training my clients at Fitness First in Manchester who want to lose weight I am not particularly interested in “Fat Burning” (well not totally). It is actually calorie burning that I concentrate on during my personal training sessions. While much has been made about the existence of a magical all consuming “fat burning zone,” it is actually one of the greatest myths when it comes to exercising and trying to lose weight.

The myth comes from the fact that when you are participating in lower intensity exercise, you are actually burning a higher percentage of calories from fat than from blood glucose (carbs). In theory this sounds great, but as most things that sound too good to be true there is usually a catch.

The first gap in the fat burning zone theory is that your body does not care how you burn the calories or what fuel was used in burning them. Your body gains or loses weight depending on whether or not you take in more calories than you burn or less calories than you burn. In other words, in order to lose weight, you must eat fewer calories than you use, because at the end of the day food is just fuel and body fat is just stored fuel that has not been burned.

Therefore, what we need to ask ourselves is:

Is it possible that we can burn more calories by deliberately reducing our intensity in the gym to make sure we stay in this magical “fat burning zone”?

The obvious answer to this is no, but how many people do we see in the gym walking, or on an exercise bike reading a book.  The simple truth is that you burn more calories by exercising for longer and at a higher intensity, not by slowing down.

The trick is to exercise at an intensity pace that challenges our bodies and, over time, increase the intensity as your fitness increases.

This will allow us to work harder over time and as a result burn more calories withing the same time frame in the gym. So getting fitter means you can work harder and you will lose more weight  faster.

The second problem with the fat burning zone theory is that even if it was true that it was more important to burn fat calories than total calories, the “fat burning zone” supporters would still be way off the mark.

Generally how this works is that when you reduce the intensity down to burn more fat you might burn 50% of your total calories from fat as opposed to maybe only 30% if you exercise at a higher intensity.

However, you also burn less calories in total; therefore you burn 50% of a lower amount of total calories!

To understand this a bit better take a look at the below figures for 30 min of cardio exercise for a person weighing 95kg:

Low intensity exercise 50% Fat burned
Total calories burned 120
Fat calories burned 60

High intensity exercise 30 %
Fat burned 30
Total calories burned 200
Fat calories burned 60

You can see that the higherintensity exercise wins on all counts,  both calories burned and the amount of calories from fat.

Tags: bodyfat, exercise, fat burning, personal training, Weight Loss
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I came across this motivational quote today on Twitter by Deepak Chopra and thought it was worth of sharing as it make perfect sense. Next time you want to quit the gym or can’t be bothered going read this:

‎”If you don’t see an immediate result to good or bad action, be patient and observe. No debt goes unpaid in the universe.” – Deepak Chopra 2010

Tags: Deepak Chopra, exercise, personal training
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Sports Scientists at Manchester Metropoiltan University claim to have discovered why women who often wear high heels can sometimes find it painful to wear flat shoes.

Scans of the calf muscles in a group of frequent heel wearers found muscle fibres were, on average, 13% shorter than in those who tended not to wear high heels at all.

The study which was undertaken for the Journal of Experimental Biology also discovered that high heels led to stiffer tendons in the calf.   To fight this researchers have suggested that wearers of high heel should also spend some time wearing flat shoes and stretch the calf muscles regularly

Professor M Narici, who led the study, said in the 1950′s office workers who wore high heels often complained that they found it painful to walk flat footed when they took their high heeled shoes off.

But until now no one has looked at what is actually happening in the muscle itself.

From a group of eighty females, the team took eleven volunteers who had regularly worn 2 inch heels for four years or more and who felt uncomfortable running in flat footed trainers.

MRI scan’s showed that there was no difference in the actual size of the calf muscles in the heel wearers compared with a group of females who wore flat shoes.

However an ultrasound scan revealed that the muscle fibres were indeed shorter in the females who wore heels.

 When the subjects were asked to lay on their front on an exercise mat, the scientists noticed that the angle of the heel in the high heel wearers was greater due to their shorter calf.

In the final part of the study, they found that the high-heel wearers’ tendons were also much thicker and stiffer than in those who just wore to flat shoes.

This causes discomfort when jogging on flat feet because the tendon cannot stretch enough, Professor Narici stated.

But do you need to give up your high heels altogether?

This study seems to back up what we have already know and our advice here at North West Personal Training Manchester is not to wear heels or flat shoes on a regular basis but to wear a variety of different heel heights to get the calf muscles working through the greatest range of movement. Stretching your calf muscles and achilles tendon after your workouts will also do wonder.

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Interval Training
High intensity intervals otherwise known as HIIT training can significantly increase fat burning. When your body is recovering, the aerobic system uses oxygen to convert stored carbohydrate / glucose into energy. Several studies have shown that interval training groups lose more stomach fat in half the workout time when compared with regular steady state cardio workout session.

Only eat whole foods
Eating less processed foods that are high in fats, sugars and refined carbohydrates and changing to more natural foods is a great way of lowering total calorie intake. When it comes to wholegrain foods, go for produce such as for quinoa, which contains more protein than any other natural grain making it great for vegetarians as well. Quinona is an excellent source of manganese, which is a great regulator of blood glucose levels.

Set achievable goals
Finding ways to trick yourself into making positive lifestyle changes such as buying new clothes that are too small for you, is a great way of focusing your mind on the goals ahead. The direction is less ‘don’t eat this’ (negative) and more ‘I’m going to look and feel great’ (positive). The added bonus to this method is that you both get insape and you get a brand new wardrobe at the same time.

Tags: bodyfat, diet, healthy eating, personal training, Weight Loss
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Timed Volume Training is a simple but highly effective way of training can be a great way to stimulate your muscles into growth especially if you have hit a plateau, even if you are just using basic kit or body weight exercises only.

Rather than focusing on the number of reps and sets you complete, this workout stipulates that you do chunks of a particular exercise with very little rest between each sets.

Basically, if you are doing chin ups or pull ups, you would perform sets of 3 reps for 15 minutes, with only a 10 seconds rest between each set.  As you start to grow tired and your muscle fatigue, you will require longer rest between sets. At this point increase the rest time to 20 seconds between sets and 30 seconds and so on until the 15 minutes has elapsed.

On Day 1 you should try do 15 minutes of a chest exercise, such as press ups, which are excellent for doing in this program and once you have finished that continue working out by performing 15 minutes of pull ups for your back.

Next you shoudl do 10 minutes of calves (calf raises) and abs (crunches), making sure you alternate between the two and then finish with ten minutes of biceps work such as bicep curls.

On the Day 2 you will start the routine by performing 15 minutes of quads work by doing squats or leg press for example.  After this perform 10 minutes of hamstring curls, ten minutes of shoulder presses and 10 minutes of tricep extensions.

You should aim to finish each session in around 45 minutes or less. Make sure you perform each workout two days per week, then increase to three and add a fourth session only when you fell yourself getting stronger and are finding it easier and also making sure you keep switching the exercises and increasing the weights if you need to.

Alternate between these two workouts, taking a day off after each cycle for the best results.

Tags: build muscle, hypertrophy, personal training
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According to a recent report in the Daily Mail women can burn up to 48,000 calories a year just by shopping.  That is the equivalent of just under 14lbs a year, with an average of 385 calories being used up per shopping spree. We are not advocating giving up the gym in favour of shopping but all the miles clocked up browsing the shelves can certainly help in your efforts to stay slim.

You can read the full article below:

• Shop till you Drop – Daily Mail Article

Tags: bodyfat, exercise, personal training, shopping, Weight Loss
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Stay super motivated and committed to a healthier lifestyle with North West Personal Training Manchester’s Introduction to Personal Training programme.

The aim of our Introduction to Personal Training is to set you on a path that will guarantee that you achieve the goals YOU have set YOURself.

Together we will identify what is important to you and what journey suits you best. Whether it is improving your sport, getting stronger, healthier or getting into shape, we will ensure that you are given the best possible start to your new found health and fitness regime.

How Much does it cost?
£70 (50% off our usual price)

What we will give you:

• 4 x 60 minute one on one personal training session with a REPS qualified personal trainer
• Help you set YOUR goals
• Perform a health check
• Full Posture analysis
• What, why and when analysis
• Set bit size, achievable goals
• Design a bespoke programme specific to YOUR goal
• Help you to stay motivated
• Make sure you have a sense of achievement from each session
• Acess to our state of the art gym while training with us
• Discounts on membership should you wish to use the gym on your own.

The key to achieving results is by building a habit and our Introduction to Personal Training will lay the foundations that will make your journey both highly successful and highly enjoyable.

Northwest Personal Training Manchester’s Introduction to Personal Training is the fitness programme that can change your life, for good and for the better.

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