Push Ups for Charity - the winner is...

Congratulations to Raffaele Faro, of Pazzo Restaurant here in Surry Hills!! Raffaele is the winner of the Next Generation Voucher for raising the most money in the Surry Hills group.

Not only did Raf manage to knock out 95 pushups in 90 seconds, but he raised a total of $1,250 in the process!!

Outstanding work from a dedicated (and obviously very fit!) man.


A special mention to Tim Michalas as well, who raised close to $1000 - a close second.

The total raised so far is now over $3,600 just from Surry Hills - and over $20k nationally (up to the 2nd December).

Well done again to all our participants and a big thanks to our sponsors. Let's make next year's Push Ups for Charity even bigger!

Lower body strengthening

Every man knows that he need to have a solid base of support – the occasional grounding so that he can stride forward into achieving in life. In terms of the physical body, our lower halves support and carry us around day to day, year by year. When something goes wrong with our legs, hips, lower back, knees or ankles, we surely know about it.

Your lower body needs strengthening exercises almost as much as your upper body – although it does get a good workout on a daily basis if you’re keeping an active lifestyle walking, taking stairs instead of elevators, cycling jogging or rowing.

Balanced lower body strength is essential if you want to remain injury free, mobile and fit for as long as possible. Exercises like squats, deadlifts, lunges, weighted step ups, leg presses and hamstring curls are excellent at developing a balanced lower body. You need to incorporate some heavy resistance to most of these exercises to overload the muscles, as they are used to moving your bodyweight regularly.

Start off with 2-3 circuits of 15 bodyweight-only squats; 15 deadlifts with a barbell or kettlebells; 8 lunges on each leg, holding dumbbells for added weight; then a few short 30 m laps jogging forward, backward, and shuffling sideways; before repeating the whole circuit. Build up the weights and speed of the movements week after week, adding an extra circuit to the routine once a week for challenge. Cross train with some walks and runs, hiking, cycling, rowing and stair climbing, and you’ll start reaping the fuel-burning benefits of bigger, beefier, better functioning lower body muscles. 

Push Ups for Charity!

Last Saturday 27^th November was the first-ever Push Ups for Charity (PUC) event here at Golds, raising funds for Make A Wish Foundation. With about 25 people in attendance and 15 keen push uppers, all aiming to bust out as many push ups in 90 seconds as they could – it was a great morning!

Push Uppers in action !

The PUC fundraiser was held around Australia with nearly 50 locations and around 700-800 participants all getting up and out there on Saturday to get fit, have some fun and give something to children with life-threatening illnesses. As a new charity event, it’s a fantastic way of raising funds and heart rates – and seriously, what other fundraiser could be over in just 90 seconds?? It was great stuff and happy to say we’ll need more people for next year when we run it!

In total here in Surry Hills we had 23 participants. Saturday was our main event, marked with speeches from both myself and Caz Lederman from Make a Wish, who told her very heartfelt story of how the charity has helped her niece. I think that helped inspire a few extra pushups when we ‘dropped and did 90 (seconds)” shortly after!

When all were done and the count was tallied, we’d completed over 1300 pushups, with preliminary reports that we’ve raised over $4000!

Whilst there were some notable performances (Mark Inwood best male 114, Lisa Aronson best female 57 on the toes!), Make A Wish foundation and the children they support were ultimately the winners.

Special mentions to Mark Inwood as well for convincing a number of his clients and even his Monday night Blitz class to participate! Francois Deacon for his event photography on the day, Leah Hanchard for helping with the materials and information packs for everyone, and Ian Barnett for a generous donation.

Caz Lederman from Make A Wish shares her story 

I’d like to see the next PUC be even bigger and better with more Gold’s members either doing a push up or 2 for charity, or getting in and sponsoring! There’s no restriction on entering and it’s certainly not a competition – heck even my mother got in on it having not done a push up in many years (I’m not at liberty to mention how many years, but she did manage 24 pushups!! We’ll be able to make a great donation to charity like this first event, and next time show that Surry Hills is THE best in Oz J

Fantastic work to all the participants, sponsors and donors !! You pulled out an enormous effort and should all be proud of yourselves.

Cutting out carbs

We can certainly advise a low-carbohydrate diet for faster weight loss than just a plain low-fat or low-calorie diet. But it pays to keep your carb choices, where you have them, as close to natural as possible. The best options are organic, and whole (unprocessed). You’ll get the energetic and mood-supporting benefits of some carb in your diet, without the high insulin, no fat burning response to more processed carbs.

There’s often a lot of rumours out there about carbohydrates (“carbs”) and their detrimental effect on weight loss. Namely, suggestions that cutting out carbs after a certain time in the afternoon or evening will help you accomplish quick weight reduction.

Whilst this is somewhat true, the idea of completely cutting out carbs from one’s diet has to be done cautiously.

Carbohydrates in your diet tend to require insulin to be released into the blood stream, depending on the type and quantity of carbs eaten. Insulin in turn switches off fat burning for as long as it’s present. To stay fat burning for longer, it would make sense to keep your insulin levels low – ie have no carbs.

Historically we encountered carbs only in things like fruits and berries, possibly milk and honey – until cultivation of cereal grains allowed us to eat grainy, starchy crops. So we’ve always had carbs in our diets, and we definitely need them for energy production in high intensity exercise, and for our normal brain function (since neural tissue can’t use fat as a fuel).

http://thepoordiabetic.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/carbohydrates1.jpg

Beginning exercise - the humble push-up

Before you even step foot in a gym, there's a vast history of movement and exercise that the human race engaged in without ever having seen a dumbbell. Man has used a variety of resistance exercises over the years to build strength, endurance and speed - often relying on only bodyweight.

One of the best developers of chest, triceps, shoulders and even core muscles is the humble push up. By focusing on proper form and technique, you can use this anywhere-exercise to develop better definition and size up top. It’s the ideal chest builder that you can begin to use now in time for summer. Or shaping up for some new clothes!

Begin on the ground, with hands underneath your shoulders, and body straight. Exhale as you push your body off the ground, so that only your toes and palms remain touching the floor. Your body should remain straight at all times between neck and feet (if you are working up to the strength to push your whole body, start on knees rather than toes).

Aim to build up to 10-15 push ups in a row, without touching the floor in between presses. As your strength grows, add another lot of 10-15 push ups after a short rest, working up to 3-4 “sets” of 15 repetitions.

Done on every second or third day, the humble push up can begin to create the proud chest, firm upper arms and widened shoulders we all look for as a mark of confidence and strength.

Summertime tips

With summer approaching it’s now the best time to be reminded of getting back into great shape!

You can decide to make changes to your nutrition, health, fitness and strength at any time and any age. There’s never a “too late” or “too old” – and “not enough time” really doesn’t hold much water either when you consider the amazing benefits to both productivity and reducing stress levels, that regular exercise can provide.

Here’s a couple of quick tips to get started:

1. Set a goal. It might be to fit back into old clothes, or to look good on the beach this summer. A visual goal makes an enormous difference, whilst a visual with a feeling attached (ie confidence, sex appeal, achievement, finally accomplished your goal) is all the more potent.
2. Find some way of reminding yourself about both every day. Whether it’s words on the fridge or a picture next to the bathroom mirror. Get visualising regularly to really forge ahead with the motivation.
3. Get support. Ask a friend in a similar situation if they have accomplished a big physical change before, or would like to. Working together with others is a powerful way of developing the new health habits that are required for lasting change. 

Supplements for Fat Loss

A while back I looked at what I called the three basic supplements to ensure you are getting all you can out of training:

1. A good multivitamin

2. Omega-3 (from fish preferably, or walnuts / flaxseeds / chia seeds)

3. Protein powder

My logic here is simple: give the body what it's made of to maximise what you're making of it.

In a world where we don't always eat right all the time, having supplements gives you a bit of extra 'insurance' - since the definition of an essential vitamin, mineral, amino acid or fatty acid is that you can't produce it yourself. And it's easier to eliminate any potential small excess rather than try to invent molecules to fill a deficit.

When it comes to supplements for weight loss, there's certainly a whole lot more to be wary of. The weight loss industry is rife with gimmicks, dodgy products, misleading information and fads. Whilst there are some things that definitely do work, it's important to be able to judge what is more likely to at the very least harm your wallet, if not your health.

Firstly I'll cover off some things to be wary of with any advertised weight loss product or system - then provide some ideas of product types that can help. Of course, exercise training plays a huge role in managing healthy weight reduction - so if you're ready to take that challenge contact us! 

Here's a couple of things to watch out for:

* "Diets" are not a long term good option for weight maintenance -behaviour and habit change is. If you start on a prescribed diet, use it as an opportunity to learn about how eating affects your energy, weight, moods and appetite. Set yourself up for life with better eating habits rather than relying on meal plans, and you'll be ahead of the game.

* Weight loss is not the goal - fat weight loss however, is. You lose fat with a combination of good diet and full-body exercise. You lose fat AND muscle when there is no exercise included, and/or very little protein in a diet. The more muscle you lose, the lower your metabolism drops, and the easier it is to regain fat weight.

* Weight loss comes from taking in fewer calories than you burn off in a day. There is almost no exception to this rule. Your options are to either burn off more through exercise and daily movement, or consume fewer calories. I'm afraid you just can't escape that law, no matter what a product or system tells you. Low carb, low fat, low GI - all these forms of diet work when they help you lower your total calorie intake.

* Fat burners do very little to nothing on their own without some attention to eating and moving. You can't take enough fat burners to make up for a bad diet, period. Also, remember their effects will be temporary at best - so are useless for long term weight management.

* Appetite suppressers - may work in the short term, and to varying degrees. Once again, you can't expect them to work if you pay no attention to diet and exercise, and they are not a long term solution.

* Get support. The more people you can work with - friends, family, health professionals, even yourself in the form of food and exercise logs - the better your results. Weight loss groups and centres can be great because they provide that environment of support and working together for a common goal. It's a powerful motivator for us!

* Record, record, record. In large scale studies, those who lost and kept the most weight off were those who kept the most reliable records. Food diaries, weight and girth measurements every 2-8 weeks - they're all good at keeping you accountable to your own best ally in the journey: yourself.

That being said, there's still room for some fat loss boosting supplements:

* The Basic 3. If nothing else, use a multi, fish oil, and protein supplement to make up for dietary shortfalls.

* Caffeine - used wisely, a little before exercise this can ramp up your exercise intensity to allow you to burn more calories or perform better.Green tea seems to be quite useful for fat burning specifically, with a form of caffeine that helps boost energy output, and antioxidants

* Carnitine - an amino acid necessary for fatty acid oxidation (read: fat burning). Supplementing extra increases your total capacity to burn fat. That won't have an effect though until you start doing something to burn fat (like exercise).

* Thermogenic formulas - designed to increase your rate of thermogenesis (body heat production) for short periods. Usually include a caffeine source like green tea or guarana, synephrine from bitter citrus like orange, and things like liver tonic herbs or cayenne pepper.

Whilst this isn't an exhaustive list, and if you ask me I probably have an opinion on a range of other supplements available, the point here is to emphasize:

Without attention to what you're eating, or how you're moving, there's often no point in forking out cash for weight loss gimmicks or supplements!

Form and function - the way we were

There's a move afoot to have more of your gym exercises more closely resembling natural human movements. And quite frankly, it's not such a bad way to get a quick, effective and all-over workout.

I mean, hands up here who has just gotten in after a long day tilling the soil? Or who has erected a barn in, oh say, even the last week? Or who hunted and gathered their family foods for the last week (and no, taking the Land Rover to Coles to rummage around the cold meats section is not included here)?

We don't tend to live as overall an active life as we used to. And hey look, that's not such a bad thing. Pretty much the main driver of technology like steam engines, electricity and computers was to cut down physical labour so we could spend more quality time with loved ones and leisure. Whether we avail ourselves of all this "free, extra time" is another story.

No, the human body was designed to produce a whole range of basic movements. Walk, run, jump, throw, hop, squat, push, pull, lunge, kick - these are all elements of movement that we traditionally combined regularly over a day just in the course of staying alive. Now we're more ruled by "sit", "push (mouse)" and "type".

It's a world with less effort - which is nice. But we can't deny what we were actually made to do. An unworked muscle is an unhappy muscle, and it's something that shows up years down the track after it's gone into hiding, producing toxic buildup from underusage and neglect. Diabetes, cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases all spring from disuse or misuse of tissues in the body.

So why not keep muscles happy? If they are meant to produce certain movements, and disuse leads to metabolic problems, why not just do what comes naturally?

This is a relatively new concept in making whole-body exercise more time efficient.

If I had you training every muscle used in a single throw, individually and using traditional body building isolation exercises, it would take me at least 45 minutes to successfully cover everything. Yet we learnt throwing way back in childhood. If we got to practice a few times with increasing resistance, we'd get to hit all of those muscles (and build up co-ordination) much faster and with less instruction.

Cutting down exercise time to more easily fit in with our busy schedules can come from adding one or two movements in a sequence, against resistance like bodyweight, rubber tubing or weights.

A dumbbell squat-press for example, will hit shoulders, chest, triceps, core, back, lower back, glutes, quads, hamstrings and calves all in one movement. A burpee combines a squat, a jump, a reach, a bend and a press - what better way to hit vast amounts of metabolically yearning muscle than that??

Getting your body to do what it was designed for, regularly, keeps your muscles primed and ready for whatever life throws at you. The more variety of moves you can do weekly - push, pull, squat, jump, throw... whatever - the more muscles you'll target and the better your metabolism will fare!

If you're thinking about cutting out your exercise session to fit more work time in your week - think again. Like your ancestors remember to get some full body, functional moves in each week and you can at least keep those muscles ticking over til when you've next got the time to do some more comprehensive exercise programs.

TRX 10/10/10 Challenge - not for the faint at heart!

Hi all,

Just wanted to share my attempt recently at the 10/10/10 challenge, a workout posted on the TRX community as the challenge of the month. And what a workout!!

Shoulders, core, arms, chest, quads, glutes, calves - you name it, it gets hit. And hard.

And let's not forget the old heart and lungs too!

Check it out :

TRX Leg Routine #1

This leg routine is excellent for working the deep hip muscles of rotation and flexion, to ensure powerful running or sports performance - or improve the condition and mobility of these often-tight muscles.

A few rounds of these and you'll be struggling to stay upright ! Excellent ... :)

TRX Leg routine #1

TRX videos

Starting to build up a collection of TRX videos to eventually post online when I figure out how to master iMovie (and my computer stops crashing midway!).

Here's the first - TRX Angels :)

What is it about moving home...

Let me just share a little about an experience that perhaps many of you have undertaken - moving home. 

To some a joy, to others a perennial nightmare, the recent experience I had moving provided an opportunity to enjoy some quality time lifting heavy objects. Yes indeed - not the most exciting of adventures, but it gave me some chance to think (once the army of boxes had eventually been both moved and dismantled at the destination - God love Kennards boxes...)

How cool is it what the human body can accomplish in space?? Four gangly limbs around a stubby central bit and a bulb sitting on a stalk plonked roughly somewhere on top. What kind of design is that, really? Sure we're used to it and take it for granted, but it's actually pretty incredible what we can do.

Take moving boxes. Gangly limb go bend, other gangly limbs squash heavy cube against stubby torso, and off the whole thing trots, covering a variety of terrain like level floors, steps, bric-a-brac and mazes of other boxes.

Push a trolley around. Stand in or just out of a truck and pass awkward objects from low to high, left to right. Gather something under one arm, grab onto a bag using the last 2 cm of your fingers and walk sideways into an elevator where you can stick your elbow out at an odd angle to press a button. 

I'm not even going to begin to analyse the muscle groups involved in even one of those activities. 

Suffice to say there's an awful lot that the human body accomplishes daily. And an amazing amount of stimulus that can be given to improve strength, balance, co-ordination, core control and flexibility incidentally, without even meaning to. All it takes is a little push, pull, lift and walk once in a while to target shoulders, chest, abs, legs, back, arms.

In the end, isn't it worth using the marvel of the human body for those challenges like moving, when we get to improve it a little without a second thought?

Imagining a dream

Hello my good people and welcome to another glorious week!

Today I thought I'd venture into the land of dreams. Not just those lovely ones that you get before being rudely awoken by the timed bedside light (absolute gold for those who have to wake before the sun - take note!). No, today I'm talking the kind of dreams which actually get you out of bed in the morning rather than keep you in there, clutching and dribbling on the pillow.

At the moment I'm daring to dream about finding a place of my own to live in. Not a grandiose dream in and of itself - although it is something I've longed to try for over a decade now. It's a passing dream as well, since I know that I will do it in the next few weeks since my roommates are moving cities. And I rationally know that when I start living on my own, the excitement will probably wear off after about the 3rd week and I realise that it is about twice as expensive as living with others.

All these things I kinda know already, in my mind.

But what gets me at the moment is the sheer excitement and anticipation that is building!! In the contemplation of being able to indulge in all the weird behaviours that living with others sometimes limits! (And no, just so you know, this more relates to the range of supplements and powders that I consume throughout the day ; the upside-down meditation for 15 mins daily ; and the 9:30 pm bedtime).

It is amazing how much buzz I get on a moment-to-moment basis at the moment just thinking that something long wished-for is within my reach - and it makes the planning all the more fun! I know there's a lot of hard work ahead... rejections perhaps, even disappointments. But I know that when I'm making my YouTube exercise videos from the comfort and privacy of my own little pad somewhere (and I emphasize it will probably be little..!) I know it will all be worthwhile.

In the same way I hope that I can inspire my own clients to feel when they begin training. 

In my mind, everyone is capable of amazing things, and achieving whatever goals they set out to reach. It's my job to help them realise this! I always say truly remarkable change can occur physically within 12-15 weeks - with pretty detailed attention to what you do, eat; how you sleep and how committed you are.

It's the dream that keeps all of these things alive - keeps you charging towards what you want to achieve, with that buzz that just keeps you smiling throughout the day knowing that the end result will all be worthwhile.

So get dreaming a little, and find some way to keep that dream alive on a daily basis, to empower you to eat right, hit the gym or the oval even though you know it might hurt a little. I promise you, the feeling you get when that dream becomes reality is worth every bit of the effort!

TRX basics video!

Hi all,

Just got the link to one of the videos I did covering some TRX basics - and introducing it as a piece of equipment.

Cheers!

TRX - king of the dinsosaurs ... or something like that

Welcome all to the new location for the Life Active blog! Since some movements with the blog hosting service please redirect your browsers (and peepers) to this new page!

What I would like to mention today is the source of a great new yellow-and-black delight in my world : bees! Oh wait, they're delightful but they've been in my world for a few decades now...

No I mean the TRX Suspension trainer!

I had heard about these things a few years back when someone who was working at Golds at the time told me I MUST try one. Such fervour was rarely seen in other gym employees over what sounded simply like some strapping that you attached to a tree and attempted to pull yourself up.

I thought about it infrequently for the next few years until during the recent Fitness Industry convention (FILEX) in late April this year. Filex was for me, a mind-blowing experience: 3 full days of seminars on topics ranging from treatment considerations for diabetes, running a "bulletproof" PT business, to changing attitudes towards fat loss and certain training movements. Against this backdrop, I attended a late afternoon session on Functional Proprioceptive training, which was presented by one of my new heroes - Fraser Quelch.

Fraser went through a completely new theory for how muscles get recruited and for what movements, that integrated whole-body position rather than models for muscular action based on looking at what cadavers did (and they don't really do that much, if you've ever had to look at one). Whereas a bit of our knowledge about muscle actions around joints comes from early studies on cadavers (imagine getting to do the whole "Let's work out what happens when I run an electric current through this slab of meat right here ... " - very Frankenstein-ish!), there is much more that can be learned with modern techniques of 3D motion analysis, biomechanics and EMG.

I won't go into the full detail of what I got out of the session - though "speed skaters" certainly came up - other than a few mentions of this T-Rex device that were occasionally mentioned. When I queried him afterwards about what it was (he was at this point surrounded by a veritable bevy of enthusiastic fitness professionals asking about the T-Rex) it was explained that it was a device that allowed you to use your own bodyweight to provide resistance, for any number of strengthening or fitness routines.

The fitness expo that was running at the same time as the convention had a display of the T-Rex's (I had to avoid eventually discard the notion that it was somehow related to a Tyrannosaurus, otherwise I never would have found the display. Very non-dinosaury as it was). They were unassuming looking creatures, dangling from an extended A-frame without so much as a noxiously-over-muscled arm or bright orange slice of beefcake to demonstrate them ... those who went to the expo will know what I'm talking about!

Suffice to say that within a minute of trying it out in the expo, under the tutelage of one of the exhibitors, I was sold! Whereas it was apparent how you could use it for arms, chest and back, I went straight to the curly question and asked how it could work one's legs... 4 minutes of puffing and aching later, I rocked up to the counter weak-kneed and bought one.

The rest as they say, is history!

I made a commitment that I would give it a thorough go, replacing all my workouts with TRX workouts for 3 weeks. Let me tell you, by the end of the first week I was already starting to feel the difference. Stronger core, check.

More movement and movement freedom through knees and ankles, check.

More flexibility through shoulders and chest, check.

Now five weeks on, I notice improvements in even strange areas, like lower trapezius, gluteus medius (side hips), quads, and especially ankles. By allowing you to reach angles and movements that are otherwise quite difficult with traditional weights, it has improved my joint stability, range of motion and general feeling of control and co-ordination all over!

Whilst it won't be the only piece of equipment I will use, it's now taken a rather permanent appearance in my weekly training - for both myself and clients.

I'll keep you posted on some more of the great results!

I've linked to the TRX blog here: http://community.fitnessanywhere.com/blog

TRX Cool Combo Warm Up: Squat, Row, Curl, Raise

Mardi Gras parade part II

Yes I know it's a while back now but am just now getting thoughts back together again!

I'll keep it brief :)

After the small matter of applying metallic gold body paint to every surface of our bodies (seriously, the only parts not covered were beneath underwear and that's it!) - a mere 3 hours in the make-up artists' workroom - it was off and out into the parade marshalling area for some dedicated pre-parade fun!

Or so we thought...

Apparently the gold paint, even sealed as it was by half a can of hairspray each (check out that carbon footprint!), was not to be touched by mere mortals. God-like we were whisked through the thronging marshalling area crowd - awash with colour, clamour, cleavage and costumery - but not allowed to touch another living or inanimate thing. Tough work when our shimmery forms were so appealing to the many photo-taking revellers that really make pre-parade so much fun normally!

So, left near our chariot (a converted table-top truck with wooden panelling and paintings of horses - really quite good actually!) we were to remain aloof from those who would come and look with their hands rather than their eyes. Yes we've all done that before.

The music pumped and the parade-goers partied to the warm-up routines of the different floats jammed into a Sydney backstreet near the parade start. So much fun to be had! It really is one of the best parts of being in the parade - soaking up all the atmosphere beforehand, with a few thousand others who have all dieted, worked out, sewed and body painted their way to fabulousness!

After another 3 hours of standing in costume (and working out every available move I could muster with my gilded 'discus') it was time to rev up the road onto the parade route. To the adulation of tens of thousands of spectators, we mounted our chariot and bunny-hopped onwards. We four golden Olympians (discus, javelin, bow and arrow and torch-bearer) stood toward the head of the massive Team Sydney float and attempted to do them honour with our masterful gesticulation with spray-painted replicas. What fun!! Look, suffice to say there's only SO many ways someone who's thrown maybe 2 discii in their life, can pretend to throw two taped-together plastic dinner plates - but you get my drift.

The crowd roared and cheered, the music swelled and the road to the finish line seemed to take a millennium. Amidst calls, whistles, shouts, the flurry of Team Sydney choreography around us - it was a sea of sights and sounds. What a rush being amongst it all, the attention of it all!! Cameras flashed, we lurched on and the night reached its crescendo as we passed Taylor Square - all hot and dripping with gold sweat!

I won't go into detail about the aftermath once we reached parade end, nor the aching feet or the gold paint in eyes - the elation of the evening was more than enough to keep me going for hours to come :)

Website update!

Look out on the Life Active website for new additions :

* Improving posture is as easy as One, Two, Three, Four


My method for helping anyone improve their posture by bringing attention to four simple points in the body. Forget gimmicks, straps, arduous hours in and out of heels - this is where it's at for more lift, better confidence and appeal!

In three parts, from sequential issues of DNA (Nov09, Dec09, Jan10) - read in order but allow yourself time to do the exercises in each before the next section.

www.lifeactive.com.au/articles/index.shtml  and follow the links at the bottom.

* April is all about Fitness!!


With the April DNA now out, I've concentrated on some myths and some insights into fitness. What is it? Why is it so desirable? How do I get me some??

All will be answered in a bit of a challenging magazine article.

For those not getting DNA, I'll post extracts soon. In the meantime, get in with some fitness basics and testing at:

www.lifeactive.com.au/articles/fitness tests.shtml

Mardi Gras season posting #1

Well what a crazy two weeks it’s been here in Sydney as the Mardi Gras season whisked upon us like some tumultuous technicolour tornado, whipping up a frenzy and leaving a wake of devastation (and underslept partygoers) in its wake.

This year seeing the Mardi Gras street parade and the MG after party separated by a week, brought many a raised eyebrow. And extra party or special event to attend! I actually quite enjoyed the idea of a “carnival” or “Festival” feel within the longer MG Festival. There was the opening ceremony (parade) culminating a week later with a closing party and official afterparty (Toybox).

Let me start with the parade J

Look, arguments over political meaning, relevance, cost, convenience blah blah aside – it still is one of the most colourful and fun events to grace the city streets in the year ! And with thousands of parade entrants rumbling down over a kilometer of parade route, in front of tens of thousands of crowd members (and hundreds of thousands of total viewers) – the gyms and parks of Sydney were al but jammed in the weeks leading up to the event. What a joy to behold! I sincerely hope they are all back there this week keeping up their good work (and their fabulous shapes!).

I got a chance this year again to be in the parade, as part of the Team Sydney float.

Team Sydney is the group of gay and lesbian sports and athletics clubs. Covering both social and competitive levels, it includes teams like the Wett Ones (swimming), Freezone (volleyball) and the Frontrunnners (running club). And look, I couldn’t be more in support of them! (Other than to be in one of the clubs which I should probably look into – ok so I was only introduced to TS this year officially!). A lot of people get scared off team sports and athletics in high school as they are made to feel awkward or uncomfortable – especially in competitive sports where sledging lends itself all sorts of nasty names and comments unfortunately flung across the field. That these guys have formed or joined the teams of Team Sydney is a great beacon to those who would like to be more active, but need more variety than just joining a gym or running around their neighbourhood park.

That besides the point – Team Sydney recruited 4 of us from Golds Gym Sydney to man the “chariot” in the 180-person strong tribute to sports and athletics throughout the ages. The brief – well, besides the costumes being very brief in initial planning! – was to have 4 golden “Greek Olympians” representing the ancient beginnings of formalized sports. There were 4 of us, two boys and two girls, each representing a particular activity: javelin, discus, archery and the Olympic torch run.

In the planning phases we were to be statues, imitating our particular sports in recognizable poses. Laurel wreaths were to be adorned, above glittering metallic gold bodies and classic “Greek style” skimpy clothing (the point was raised that Olympians used to train completely in the nude, however the idea to be completely accurate to form was immediately vetoed in favour of a more “family friendly” approach!).

With days to spare before the parade … each of the teams that were marching had organized their own co-ordinated dances and costumes to represent their own sports following on behind our “chariot” (a ute with wooden panels of horses and chariot wheels). Cheerleaders and flagbearers were to be followed up with Harlem Globetrotteresque basketballers. Our own little truck-top contingent was arranged to meet for full body painting on the afternoon before – hours of gold makeup application and preparation to ascend the parade route in gilded style …

Mardi Gras coming to Sydney!

Well it's only a few short (still heatstruck) days until the Mardi Gras parade in Sydney ... and what a kerfuffle! There's more people in the gyms, a lot more tourists out and about soaking up the sun and the atmosphere, and a definite buzz in the air!

Mind you, it might just be living within 100m of the parade route that means I'm probably more susceptible to the excitement...

So as a service to those in the parade, attending the parade or any of the numerous parties around this time  - straight or gay, boy or girl - here's a couple of tips to keep yourself fresh and fabulous in February :)

Mardi Gras 2010 YouTube Video

Plan
Know when your parties are on,  when work is on, and how much sleep and rest you can afford in between. Yes it is well known that after a big party weekend there is very little in the way of productive work done, but you still don't want to be ticking through your month like a zombie (even if it's a zombie in a Herringbone shirt).

Sleep and Rest
7-8 hours a night sleep please - at a minimum! Exercise, brain function, sanity, energy ... all these things will drop nastily the less sleep you have. Make up lost time in the sack (and by this, I'm counting sleeping hours...!) with naps, extra long sleeps before and after the party.
Rest I classify differently to sleep, and differently to sitting on a sidewalk aimlessly staring at things whilst you try to remember where you are. My version of rest is something you really enjoy doing that either relaxes you, takes your mind somewhere else enjoyable, or makes you laugh. I'm not even going to begin to outline the benefits of taking in some proper "rest" time. Just do it !

Exercise
Fancy me talking about exercise .. here of all places (!) Exercise in the weeks leading up to, and after the party will have you looking and feeling your best.
If you've been aiming to look good this season you will have been doing at least some cardio and resistance exercise for a few weeks - kudos to you! The good news is you get to keep it up! Have a day off exercise before the party (no such thing as lasting "party pump" I'm afraid -it's just muscle wasting waiting to happen) and maybe the day after - but no more than that.

If you manage to feel a bit hazy after your frivolity finishes, get thee back to the gym again tout de suite! You'll feel at least a hundred bucks after your first workout back, and back to normal again within a further one or two.

Food
I can't stress this enough - eat! Good food and drink will ensure you stay fuelled for your best performance yet.
* Eat often (every 3-4 waking hours)
* Something with even a small amount of protein (~10-20g) in it each time you eat (aids satiety, keeping you feeling satisfied, and helps keep your body's nitrogen balance up for muscle repair)
* Eat as close to natural foods as possible (fruits especially berries, nuts and seeds, salads, unprocessed meats, milk, grains)
* Keep meals small, especially close to bedtimes.

Drink
Water water everywhere, so no excuse not to drink! 8-12 glasses of fluid a day, and a little more when exercising (read: dancing on a float or in a party!) and when it's hot ... basically whenever you notice you sweat or pee more.

Have fun!
Having friends around, meeting new people and being part of an electric atmosphere - these are some of the best times  that life throws at you, so lap it up and enjoy every minute! I may rant sometimes but keeping bodily health up during this time is going to be the key to you having the very best time :)

Enough sleep!

Lately I've been noticing the big impact sleep has on daily living. Lack of sleep especially!

Life in Sydney is usually pretty darn great. Surry Hills in inner Sydney is wonderful - so close to everything, cafes, shops, nightlife - and work ! However it comes with a bit of a dark side (apart from the rowdy sportsgoers who regularly tramp down my street blind drunk after some random match that's concluded in the Telstra Stadium just nearby)...

Sydney over the last month or so - or could it be an eternity? - has been struck by the most horrendous humidity and night-time heat!

For new places where airconditioning (and the associated carbon "bigfoot"print) is a given, the evening slumber can be a well-moderated affair. Let me get this straight first of all: I actually do practice the mantra of quality sleep, by -

• Having a regular routine before bed that takes about 15 min (small serve yoghurt or protein powder in water, brush teeth, take supplements, light meditation/breathing exercises, set alarm clock and bedside light timer, close curtains, lie down).
• Keeping away from bright lights and TV for about the last hour before bed, and blocking out as much noise and light as possible in the bedroom overnight.
• Time my bedtime to allow for 7-8 hours sleep before having to wake up.
• Have a regular(ish) bedtime each night anyway.
• Not eat anything heavy or drink any alcohol or caffeine within the last few hours before bed.
• Generally not use the bedroom for anything but sleep and other bedtime-related activities... ie no work, checking emails, long reading sessions, weights workouts etc

This works for me and has done for years - normally after my little bedtime routine I put my head down on the pillow and am out within 30 seconds.

Case closed.

THEN comes the Sydney summer... 

No fan trained directly on one's person ; no bare-minimum pyjama set ; no extent of lying spread-eagled on top of all bedsheets, limbs placed strategically so as to minimise contact with anything that could be vaguely heat-producing ... can possibly take away the heat and icky humidity of a Sydney summer eve of late. 

And so gentle reader I have learned to experience what I hoped to never have to tolerate again (without it being self-inflicted ... January friends' birthday drinks, I'm looking at you) - long periods of being sinfully tired during the day. 

So as I pray for cooler evenings and the chance to not stick to the duvet - I bid you (..send portable airconditioners!!) - if your sleep is regularly poor, try a few of the tips above to help start improving it again. And pack light / shower often for your next trip to inner city Sydney.

Eyes wide shut

The last few weeks I've noticed in clients and in my own training something unusual. 

I'm always interested in getting the "right" movement for each exercise. Balancing both sides of your body and ensuring good muscle symmetry. Making sure your weight is resting evenly on either feet, or the sit bones for seated exercises, etc. There's so much movement possible at each joint and a fair whack of it is not really wanted. Strong stabiliser muscles do a world of good to improve the movement quality, and keep movements smooth and even... Until they fatigue. Then you get spine movement, twisting, uneven power and can do some serious throwing out of balance! Not only that, but your muscle gains may just be uneven.

I started closing my eyes for a few reps in exercises that don't require precarious balance (eg squats, bench press, shoulder press etc where the weight could fall). 

And voila! What a thing to actually experience!

All of a sudden you can block out the sights and distractions of the gym and really focus in on the correct muscles and joints! It is actually amazing what kind of feedback your joints and muscles give you, when you aren't taken up analyzing things visually. 

Movements just felt easier to control, and I could work on "feeling" the balance between left and right so much better. This whole world of opportunity arose - correcting form by analyzing it from the inside.

I've tried it now with a few clients, and continue to do at least half my sets at the moment with eyes shut (or at least trying to focus on the internal feeling -- let's just say it looks a little odd me working out with eyes closed, and it's not something that everyone should be doing!). The results are looking (feeling) good!

For the last few reps of a challenging free weight exercise, where normally I'll see the start of spinal/torso movement to compensate for a slightly weaker side - with "eyes shut" I can immediately notice an improvement in balance and movement quality. 

Pretty thrilled at the moment ! 

I will have to say though that it is not for everybody, nor for every exercise or rep. Total body co-ordination requires feedback from as many senses as possible - and vision is still our biggest by far when learning basic moves. 

But if you want to hone an exercise you're already pretty experienced at, give a few SAFE reps a go with your eyes shut, focusing on the muscles being worked on both sides. It'll add great quality to your workouts, and best of all help improve imbalances and muscle asymmetry.

Food of the week

Hi all,

Gotta say, fave thing to drink at the moment, especially in the Aussie summer heat, is a frozen berry smoothie.

I pack it full of berries (fresh or frozen) for their low-GI and high-antioxidant goodness: ideal after a hard workout or before a long work day. With some yoghurt, icecubes, splash of juice and some protein, it packs a world of nutrients into one cool, satisfying drink :)

This morning's shake post-cardio was:
* 3 tbsp probiotic yoghurt (low fat and low sugar)
* 1 dessertspoon of organic coconut oil
* 1/2 cup organic low-fat milk
* 1 cup frozen mixed berries (strawberries, blackberries, rasperries and blueberries)
* 10 ice cubes
* banana
* 2 tsp honey
* 1/2 cup water
* handful of dried Goji berries
* 1/2 scoop unflavoured Whey protein powder (myopure brand)
Blend on high for a minute to mix in all the ice and berries.

Not just packed with goodness and tissue-repairing vitamins and anthocyanins (the potent antioxidants that give berries their colour), the iciness helps you burn off a few extra calories too!

German researchers found that drinking 1/2 litre cold water could potentially use 24 cal, in raising the water's temperature to match the body's. Imagine what a few icecubes in your shake could do!

TV Presenting course

Wow what a week!! 

It's been a crazy time since my last post, with my TV Presenter's short course at NIDA (National Institute of Dramatic Arts) here in Sydney. And what a course it was !

The idea of the course was to introduce us to the practice of presenting for screen. I'm interested in taking the message of health to people through all sorts of means, so jumped at the chance to be pushed outside my comfort zone (something NIDA is famous for!) and getting used to the camera!

With a brilliant tutor, Faye deLanty from Channel 10's Totally Wild, and some lovely classmates, we spent the week getting over any shyness in front of the camera. Within the first hour of the first day, it was time to present to camera about ourselves, for 1-2 minutes! Talk about baptism of fire!

Through voice usage, being aware of body language and even working with live animals (!) I've now had the chance to record interviews, vox pops, spoken commercials, 4-min info segments, and improv pieces to camera ... an amazing set of experiences! Thanks Faye, Ro and Jo!

Fitting in work and my own training along with the full time class hours was a bit of a challenge .. for over 60 hours this week I've had to drop most socialising and writing - but back to it this week with a vengeance :-)

All in all, an amazing week and well worthwhile - check out NIDA's short courses if you are keen :) 

http://www.nida.com.au/

Now to get me a video camera so I can keep practicing and get some video blogs going !!

Workout format - January 2010

Hi guys!

This month I'll be putting to the test a new workout format I was at work developing in December - and the results so far have been great!!

I came up with this plan for working each body part by thinking how to best annihilate as many different muscle fibres as possible. Let's start with the exercise format - it's simple, straightforward but tough. It can be used with just about any major machine or exercise (with a few exceptions) and better with compound exercises than isolation.


1. Warm up set - 15 reps on your 15-20 RM (rep max - eg a 15RM is the weight that you can do 15 times with proper form, and not a rep more)
2. Add about 10% to the weight and do 12-15 reps to failure
3. Rest 60 sec
4. Select a weight about 40-50% of your 1RM (ie a bit under half what you could possibly lift once and once only). You will do about 15-20 reps with NO pauses or rests, over a 2 minute period. Yes, that's right : 2 minutes. Non stop. Keep the tension on, keep form up all the way. (this is the tricky part and will need some fine-tuning of your weight selection. The best effect is when you've picked just the right weight to only just be able to complete a rep at the 2 minute mark. Other than that your muscles should be screaming by then!)
5. Rest about 30 sec
6. Double the weight (or in the case of shoulders, a little less than double)
7. Fire through as many reps to failure as you can, using <1 sec concentric and about 2-3 sec eccentric (ie. a "power" rep). You should be able to do no more than about 6-8 if you've picked the right weights for steps 2 and 4 above.


The concept here is to fatigue all muscle fibre types, and get growth throughout the whole muscle.


In skeletal muscle we have three main types of muscle fibres - Type I, Type IIA and Type IIB. 


Type I tends to be burnt out with step 2 above, whilst the first set, then the power set at the end, target the Type II fibre types (the biggest and most powerful ones). Burning out all your weaker Type I fibres first allows you to just target the big guns and really hammer the big weight home, wreaking havoc inside the muscle.


Start off experimenting on machine weights till you get a clear understanding of what you can tolerate in the 2 minute sets.


There are a few exercises I wouldn't suggest doing this with - like a deadlift, bent over row or possibly squats - as you might end up fatiguing your back muscles before the target ones.


Control of weights over these times and at these intensities requires a lot of skill and commitment to form so only attempt a tri-set like this if you have the nerve and the experience.


Good luck!!