Shapes Health Club

5 Things To Keep You In Shape Over Christmas

2009-11-25T13:46:00.002+08:00

Can you believe it’s nearly Christmas again?

Over Christmas it’s easy to get carried away and fall off the fitness wagon, but here are 5 things that will help you stay on track!

1) 1) Don’t punish yourself emotionally for going a little bit” off the rails”. Remember, fitness is supposed to be fun, otherwise you will be less likely to stick with it. There are certain times of the year that it is ok to let your hair down a little. Getting upset or angry with yourself as a result of enjoying time with friends and family is not good for you! So long as you are conscious of the food and exercise decisions you are making, just accept that there is a time and place to let your guard down and THIS IS ONE OF THOSE TIMES!

2) 2) Don’t punish yourself physically for going a little off the rails. The guilt that sometimes comes with eating that piece of mud-cake or getting that second (or third) serve of turkey with cranberry sauce is often lifted when you make a solid pact with yourself to do a 10km run tomorrow, followed by 100 sit ups and 50 push ups to burn it off! Forget it! Stick with your usual routine. Going extra hard to make up for indulgence is a recipe for disaster and injury!

3) 3) If you are too busy with friends and family, try to do some simple and quick exercises so that you’re not completely missing out. Something is better than nothing! Quick exercise routines can sometimes be EVEN BETTER than a full hour long workout session. You may find that you don’t have a whole hour to spend having a working out, but a quick 15 minute session may be more attainable when you’re busy. Fit it into your day four times, and you’ll find that the cumulative intensity of those four sessions is far greater than the intensity of one session that lasts an hour!

4) 4) Sit down and do a goal setting session BEFORE the silly season sees you off the rails. Once you’ve started the festivities, you may tend to be harder on yourself, so it is a good idea to prepare beforehand and be in control, knowing that you have a plan for success that includes a little festive fun!

5) 5) Try to plan activities that include a little exercise. Rather than going to dinner with friends, make it a picnic at a beautiful spot that requires a little walk to get to! Or organise a game of cricket over a cut lunch. Socialising can be a GREAT way to get your exercise in AND see your friends at the same time!

Magnesium Rich Foods

2009-08-09T23:07:00.002+08:00

If you're getting cramps you may want to try increasing your magnesium intake!

You may have read that you can take suppliments to increase your magnesium intake, but a simple way to do this is to eat more foods rich in magnesium. These include...

Artichokes

Barley, pearled, raw

Buckwheat flour

Oat Bran, raw

Wheat Flour, whole

Almonds

Brazil nuts

Cashews

Pine nuts

Beans, Black

Beans, navy

Beans, white

Cornmeal

Pumpkin Seeds

Soybeans

Spinach, canned

Spinach, cooked

Tomato, paste

Remember that while you are eating more magnesium rich foods, you still need to keep an eye on your calorie intake!

5 steps to getting into (or back into) Fitness

2009-06-18T15:12:00.000+08:00

5 steps to getting into (or back into) Fitness

Step1. Start Easy and keep it simple
Avoid injury from overtraining. Many people “drop out” due to an injury sustained whilst training too hard too fast. Try not to overwhelm yourself with loads of complex exercise routines. It’s better for your body AND your sanity to start with four simple compound exercises and easy cardio training.

Step2. Stay focused on your short term goal
The biggest part of the battle is internal. Give yourself a realistic long term goal and then break it down into achievable targets to get you past the hard times. Many find it uncomfortable to exert themselves and only exercising because they “have to” rather than “wanting to”. This is the first and hardest barrier to overcome, and keeping focused on a goal will help you past this stage. Most people find that once past this stage, the exercise is actually enjoyable, and they want to keep doing it.

Step3. Find a workout buddy
If you can find a workout buddy you will be more successful. A workout buddy is one of the best things for staying motivated. Your “buddy” will give you that little push or support you need on the times that you aren’t feeling up to it. Most of the time, you’ll feel 100 times better once you’ve started! A workout buddy doesn’t have to be a “best friend”. It can even be someone you met at the gym asking “so, you coming tomorrow”? At Shapes Health Club we’ve got an awesome café as you enter and leave the club, which makes it easy to sit around and chat with friends. Having a group of people to support you, makes fitness even more fun!

Step4. Modify your diet
One of the keys to success is a good diet. Make minor modifications to your existing diet, cutting out less healthy foods and replacing them with healthier foods and drinking more water! Use the 80% rule, only eating until you feel 80% full! This will increase your energy levels, make you feel better and tone up faster.

Step5: Get professional help
There are many reasons for getting the help of a professional. A qualified trainer will help to ensure that your workouts aren’t damaging your body. Your workouts will have a scientific structure, set up to get maximum results for the time you are investing. Motivation, motivation, motivation! A great trainer will provide you with the motivation you need to get you to the point where exercise becomes a part of your life. Remember, it’s not just about having a workout once or twice a week, it’s a whole new perspective on lifestyle!

Introduction to your friendly Electrolytes

2009-06-15T13:39:00.001+08:00

So what are electrolytes?
Electrolytes are the minerals Magnesium, Potassium, Calcium and Sodium. Our bodies require these electrolytes in the correct balance to function properly. The body manipulates the balance of these minerals inside and outside of muscle cells in order to make them contract and relax.

Why do electrolytes effect cramping?
Low levels of Electrolytes, such as Magnesium, can cause the muscles to function improperly – Contracting without the ability to relax, causing a “cramp”.

How do Electrolytes effect muscle recovery and energy levels?
During recovery, your body will deplete your electrolyte levels at a faster rate than normal, and having low levels can slow recovery, which will in turn hamper your energy levels and can cause extra muscle soreness. Deficiency in some minerals, such as potassium, can hamper the muscles ability to use glycogen, a sugar which is the muscles main source of energy – thus effecting performance and energy levels.

How do electrolyte imbalances occur?
An electrolyte imbalance can have many causes such as, sweating out through exercise, deficiency in the diet, urination, diarrhea, medication side effects and from problems with absorption. In any case, no matter how the deficiency is caused, it needs to be treated to maintain optimal energy levels and prevent cramps.

Avoid becoming a weigh-a-holic

2009-06-08T11:06:00.002+08:00

Many people aiming to get in shape fall into the trap of becoming a weigh-a-holic
While it is important to set yourself fitness goals, it is generally not so good to obsess about how many kilo’s you’ve lost day to day or even week to week.

In general, females can vary DRASTICLY in weight day to day through fluid retention, so this is a very “hazy” way of tracking your progress.

As you exercise, your body will build denser muscle and more capillaries to feed the muscle. It will increase bone density and tendon thickness. These things all contribute to increasing your weight, but in a healthy way.

As you become fitter and loose body fat, you will also be increasing your “lean tissue” mass. You could have lost a kilo of fat, but not see it in the scales as you could have put on a kilo of muscle!

Putting in so much effort, working your body till it hurts and trading your comfortable diet for a more healthy version takes a great deal of motivation. The danger of being a weigh-a-holic is that in spite of all your effort, you may see little to no change in the scales for some time, which can be a very de-motivating thing.

A far better method for tracking your improvement is via girth measurements. Simply take a length of measuring tape and go around a couple of easily recognizable places on your body, such as around the mid-section at the belly button, around the middle of your arm or around your thigh, just below the butt!
Tracking changes in these places on your body will give you a far better picture of your body’s improvement.

Increase metabolism with Weight Training

2009-06-03T13:16:00.001+08:00

Training your muscles with some "weight training" will increase your muscle density.

Denser muscles will give you a higher metabolism, so you can BURN more energy while you're doing NOTHING!! how cool is that?!

Try for "12 rep max's". Anywhere between 8-12 reps is optimal for "muscle hypertrophy".

2009-06-02T14:45:00.000+08:00

Q) Is it worth joining a gym if you can only work out late after work? And what about dinner, isn't it bad to eat late?

A) It is hard to juggle a healthy lifestyle and a hectic work schedule.
It would most deffinitely be worthwhile setting up a routine where you finish work and go directly to the gym. In fact, that is the way most people do it!
7:00pm - 8:00pm is a popular training spot for a great deal of people, who find it quite productive and worthwhile to work-out at a later time.

As for eating too late, don't worry about it so much. It's healthier to exercise well and eat a little later than to not exercise properly and eat at an earlier time. The particular time that you consume your food is a great deal less important than the quantity and QUALITY of the food you eat, so don't stress about it!

The key to eating later is to make sure that you have a snack (such as a portioin of yoghurt, a piece of fruit etc) in the early evening. After your workout, don't eat a HEAVY meal, a smaller meal will do, as you've already consumed your early evening snack!

At Shapes, we also offer early morning starts, so this may be another option for you? Our shower facilities are great (nice hot water) so you can leave directly from here for work.

2009-06-02T14:06:00.001+08:00

Winter is officially here! The best way to keep warm is with workouts! You’ll raise your core temperature for hours, which makes the chill a little easier to take!