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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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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I recently attended a hypnotherapy session in Manchester to try and help me with some motivation in some areas of my life  after meeting one of the practitioners in my gym.

Manny helped one of my clients with a food phobi a few weeks ago and I was so impressed with the results regarding this and also my motivation results that  I’ve decided to recommened this service to anyine who needs help whether it is to quit smoking, increase motivation or help with anxiety issues.

Below is a liitle bit about what NOWaiting Hypnotherapy Manchester are and what they do.

Also please feel free check out their website (link above) for more info:

“NoWaiting, is the Manchester based clinical hypnotherapy and (Neuro Linguistic Programming) NLP
specialist proving a range of services for medical issues.

Whatever the concern maybe whether undergoing relationship problems or requiring rebuilding of confidence, it is our priority to provide a resolution to these.

NOWaitings Hypnotherapy practice is based in Manchester city centre and offers treatments to the standards of British Institute of Hypnotherapy.”

Tags: exercise, healthy eating, hypnotherapy, stop smoking, Weight Loss
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Whether you want to look good for your wedding or a beach holiday, or you find it a struggle comitting to long term fitness plan, hiring a personal trainer could be good for you. A good personal trainer can help you by providing structure, results, variety and motivation. Here at North West Personal Training we have a range of personal trainers qualified to help you reach your personal fitness goal in the quickest time possible.

We will normally start with an initial free fitness consultation to look your current fitness levels and health. from here we will look to define your fitness goals, whether it is tolose weight, improve your posture or simply increase your fitness levels.

This gives you an agreed starting point, and also a benchmark against which to measure your progress. A good personal training programme will be changed regularly, not only for variety, but also to allow for continued progression.

Having a regularly scheduled personal training session is excellent for keeping your motivation. Not only will you have someone else to report back to, you’ll also be taking part in a regulat, structured and realistic exercise programme specifically designed to deliver results in the shortest of time. The emphasis should be making exercise fun, so that you have the motivation to not only meet, but exceed your goals. The variety of exercises is almost endless, from mountain biking to Pilates, yoga to Boxercise, and can be conducted at work, at home, or at a gym. A typical programme will generally combine Aerobic (CV), resistance (weights) & flexibility to give you the workout that suits you best. With this much flexibility combined with the benefits of exercise (listed below), you can’t go wrong.

Some of the benefits of exercise are as follows:

Increased sense of well being

Better quality of Sleep

Improvement in muscle tone

Reduced body fat and weight loss

Psychological benefits, such as improved self image, confidence and self esteem.

Reduced risk of disease.

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One of the most common mistakes made in the gym is performing resistance reps too fast. In many cases this can mean that a set of 10 reps is completed in less than 30 seconds. One of the problems with this is that it fails to stimulate a hypertrophy (muscle growth) response as the muscle is not under tension for long enough.

It is commonly accepted among the fitness community that the optimal rep range for musclebuilding is 6-12 and this should take anything from 40-70 seconds to complete.  Assuming you are looking to complete 10 reps then this roughly equates to 6 seconds per rep.

We can split each rep into 3 phases and will use a bench press as an example.

The first action of a bench press is the lowering of the bar. This is known as the eccentric phase.  This is a phase that is often overlooked by both experienced trainers and people new to the gym. Often you will find that most people lower the bar letting gravity do most of the work, however this can reduce the effectiveness of the exercise. During an eccentric contraction the muscle being trained (in this case the pectoralis major) is lengthening but is still under tension. It is recommended that for muscle growth this action should take around 3 seconds to complete. This part of the excercise if done correctly is more likely to result is DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness).

The second phase here is the isometric phase. In the bench press this is when the bar is lowered to just above the chest. This should be held for around  1 second to help activate the maximum number of muscle fibres and to keep the muscle under tension.

The 3rd and final phase of the lift in the bench press is the concentric phase. This is when the bar is being pushed upward and the muscle in question is shortening (again the pectoralis major). This part of the lift should take about 2 seconds to complete giving us a total rep time of 6 seconds and if we are performing 10 reps a total set time of 60 seconds, which according to research is optimal for inducing muscle growth.

References
(1)Goldberg AL, Etlinger JD, Goldspink DF, Jablecki C. Mechanism of work-induced hypertrophy of skeletal muscle. Med Sci Sports, 1975 Fall;7(3):185-98.

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