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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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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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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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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You can now join the North West Personal Training Manchester Facebook group.

Click here to log in to Facebook and Become a Fan Of Northwest Personal Training.

Tags: exercise, facebook, personal training
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As of Monday 4th January 2010 Liam Thompson of North West Personal Training Manchester will be moving to Fitness First on Lower Mosley St in Manchester City Centre. Fitness First is located on the 1st floor of the Premier Inn, next to St Peter’s Square Tram stop.

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Flexibility varies enormously from person to person, however a lack of flexibilty can seriously affect your posture and strength. Stretching is something that is often overlooked and we tend only to be concerned about our flexibility when we have issues such as stiff joints or when muscle shorten and become more susceptible to injury.

If we don’t stretch regularly (especially after exercise) then muscles have a tendancy to lose their flexibility. This means that when they are needed to perform an extreme movement, the muscle is less able to extend to the joints full range of movement and can lead to muscle tissue damage or tears.

Sports such as football (soccer) can be responsible for reduced flexibility in certain muscles. Footballers for example have notoriously tight hamstrings. This is known as adaptive shortening and this can also happen due to incorrect posture or due to immobilisations due to injury.

Benefits of Stretching and increased flexibility:

•Increased range of movement
•Reduction in muscle tension and increases in physical and mental relaxation
•Reduction in Lower back and spinal problems
•Decrease in muscle soreness after exercise (DOMS)
•Reduction in risk of sprain and muscle tears
•Better posture
•Improvements in coordination due to creating greater ease of movement

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