Hip Hip Hooray

For those who train with me I imagine it's often an odd experience when getting to work with the lower body. From the swinging legs, hip and knee circles and back rolls during dynamic warm ups, to curtsy lunges and kettlebell squats - the affair can be multidirectional and unusual to say the least.

But there is good rhyme to my reasoning. 

The traditional way of working out the lower body are the Big 4 - squats, deadlifts, lunges and step ups. Whilst lunges and step ups at least simulate one-legged movements, all 4 tend to work with simple mono-planar movements (ie moving a resistance straight up and down). And look, that's a great thing when you're :

a) trying to build lots of muscle fast, and

b) don't tend to walk, run or move in more than one plane (ie only ever walk forwards, not sideways or with rapid changes in direction) 

It's this last point that stands out to me. Granted, the majority of our days and movement time is spent moving forwards in generally straight lines. It's not regularly that you see others on the street shuffling sideways or spinning routinely on one foot to get through their day. 

But circumstances in life aren't always routine - and it's best to have the capacity to overcome whatever comes your way, rather than assume nothing will ever deviate from the normal straight lines of daily existence. You may have to quickly sidestep an oncoming bicycle; or break into a run to catch a bus; or misbalance or trip on unstable ground and promptly feel yourself starting to fall. Not to mention the odd chance to run and play around in a park, swim, dance or do anything fun - which by general rule is hardly ever done with legs moving in straight lines!

Yes that's why it's important to get your hips moving and strengthened in as many different directions as possible: because they can and will move in those directions at some point consciously or not!

Keep up with your squats, deadlifts and step ups - but take additional steps to include:

* side lunges

* cross-over lunges

* TRX lunges with twist (opposite hand to the outside of the supporting foot)

* knee raises (or TRX mountain climbers)

* hip abduction and hip adduction movements

* speed skaters

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.