Month: October 2019

Fitness Over 40

At Everybody’s Gym we help all ages, shapes and sizes get active. We always have lots of advice for any ages and goal but this blog is for the over 40s.

This is our advice…

1. Don’t skip the warmup

As we age, our muscles and tendons become less flexible and more subject to injury. A solid 10- to 15-minute warmup of light motion helps counteract that unavoidable truth. It’s time to start thinking of the warmup not as a thing you do before the workout, but rather the first part of the workout.

2. Try not to be too busy

Middle age is a demanding time. Kids, a spouse, a job, your community, and maybe a minute for a hobby conspire to leave very few hours in the day for you to spend on fitness. But you have to make it happen. Here are a couple of strong options:

  • Exercise early in the morning, before things go wrong with your day that could impinge on your workout time.
  • Make exercise a necessary part of your daily routine. For example, bicycle to work.
  • Exercise with your family to combine quality time with exercise.
  • Find a workout buddy who will harass you into showing up even when it’s hard.

3. focus on flexibility

Flexible muscles and resilient joints will prevent you from sustaining a sidelining injury you may not fully recover from. The best way to insure them is to build in a cooldown stretching routine lasting 10 to 20 minutes at the end of your workout. Stretching while muscles are warm is a flexibility-force multiplier. Take advantage of it.

4. Structured workouts

Those crazy workouts of our 20s are no good anymore. One-rep maxes, rounds in the right, lifting tractor tires like Rocky are still within our capacity, but we pay for them with soreness and injuries.

Instead, focus on medium-weight, medium-rep exercises with large ranges of motion. Good calls include:

  • kettlebells
  • barbell exercises
  • Flexibility training
  • cardiovascular training

These exercises produce exactly the kind of strength and flexibility your older body needs.

5. Mind what goes into your body

No, you don’t have to deprive yourself of all earthly delights to stay fit and healthy. But fueling your 40-plus bod with the right balance of whole grains, protein, veggies, and fruits can help keep you energized and strong. Be sure you’re getting enough of the right nutrients, whether from food, protein powders or supplements.

For any other advice come and see us at Everybody’s gym

01775 768500

Benifits to strength training

5 benifits of strength training

Benefit #1: Maintaining Muscle Tissue

Around when you turn 30 years old, growth hormones decrease dramatically in the body. Because of this, you could lose about 8-10% of your muscle tissue every decade. Muscles are the basis of your metabolism, so if your muscles decrease by 8-10%, your metabolism will also decrease by 8-10%.

By strength training twice per week you will change that 8-10% to ONLY 1-2% every decade. That means if you simply strength train twice per week, at age 80 you will be 5-10% less of the person you were when you were 30!!

Benefit #2: Increased Strength

Increased strength allows you to lift heavier objects. Shortly after beginning a strength training program, you will find that daily tasks seem much easier. This translates into your personal life on many levels. Think lifting a 10kg weight at the gym and then heading home to lift your 10kg shopping .

Benefit #3: Improved Bone Health

Strength training is effective in increasing bone density and strengthening tendons and ligaments. Developing strong bones reduces the risk of developing osteoporosis and decreases the risk of bone fractures.

Benefit #4: Controlled Body Fat

Building muscle actually helps to more effectively burn calories. Did you know that muscle burns three times the amount of calories that fat burns?! The more muscle tone you have, the higher your metabolism will become.

Benefit #5: Decreased Risk of Injury

Improving muscle strength decreases the risk of falling and other related injuries. Developing strong bones and muscles can help to reduce the severity of falls. Increased strength will also allow your body to be more resistant to injuries, and general aches and pains.

Now that you know some of the MANY benefits of strength training, let’s get to it! Please remember to always practice proper form when weight lifting. For more information, talk to one of our trainers.

Being inspired

We have had a plethora of great sports to watch right now. The Doha world athletics championship, the netball world cup and the rugby world cup etc….. It’s a great time to get inspired!

These competitions are about striving for excellence and working hard to do your absolute best. They are also a great opportunity for new role models to be created.

There is an increase in obesity, This is not news to physicians and doctors, but little seems to be happening to reverse the trend. In a society that is becoming increasingly technological and sedentary, most people do not have role models of physically active adults in their lives, they seldom walk anywhere due to time constraints and other aspects of life taking priority.

Lets use the great sporting activities which are currently being shown to create some new role models to help inspire health, well being and determination to meet and exceed goals.

Everybody’s gym team