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!