Water is so important; we need it to assist with millions of chemical reactions within the human body to keep the body in homeostasis. A lack of water can cause huge problems, without it for a few days could even cause death.  So why is this substance and macronutrient sometimes over looked by people and how can we use it to stay healthy, keep fit and feel rejuvenated?

There have been many studies into finding out how the balance of water in the body affects bio chemical mechanisms, one says “Dehydration can affect consciousness and can induce speech incoherence, extremity weakness, hypotonia of ocular globes, orthostatic hypotension and tachycardia. “ -European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2010) 64, 115–123; doi:10.1038/ejcn.2009.111;

This shows the magnitude of keeping your water levels at optimum.

How much water can you afford to lose?  If you have just a 2% drop in body weight water your aerobic capacity can drop by 10-20% and sports performance significantly impaired, which could be some of the reason that some days you feel that the exercise session you have completed feels easier one day and hard another even though it is at the exact same intensity.  A 4% drop can result in 20-30% drop in resistance training performance and continued exercise at this decrease in bodyweight water can lead to nausea, heat exhaustion, vomiting and possible diarrhoea.  The reactions get worse as you lose more water and at 12% you could be in a position of going into a coma and death from circulatory failure, these stats have been taken from Saltin 1973.

You obviously need water then!  So how can you get it?  There are many sources of water, including mineral water, Spring water, bottled water, tap water, filtered water, purified water, fruit, veg, and carbohydrates to a certain extent!   Dr. F. Batmanghelidj talks about in his book the bodies many crys for water that the earths water comprises of 98% salt water and 2% fresh water we actually can drink!

The best source that we can purchase in my view would be mineral or purified and without BPA’s (Bisphenol A) from the plastics which you can use specific bottles or glass bottles which you can buy that you could carry around with you during the day. Food, like melons, apples, oranges, courgettes are great sources too.

You should consume water throughout the day, how much depends on a few factors, but as a general guideline Paul Chek recommends drinking 0.033x bodyweight in kilograms, which will give you the amount in litres, that you need to consume; for example, my weight calculation would be 0.033 x 72 kg = 2.376litres of water per day to keep myself hydrated, but I would add personally that I only I am partake in vigorous activity where I am sweating profusely most days and lose a lot of body water.  Most individuals will need to drink around 1.2l per day and get the rest from their food as described in Human Nutriton- M.E. Barasi.  Some people suggest to count caffeinated drinks as part of their daily fluid intake, but when you over do it and have too much +300mg a day the diuretic affect will become an issue.  I suggest for each coffee you should drink 3 small glasses of water. I warn you that in a study of a major coffee chain four had more than 200mg in a single cup, with the strongest having more than 300mg, the Royal Society of Chemistry journal Food and Function reports.

Training and sports hydration

In my personal experience I have felt the pain of marathons and competitive races and sometimes got the right amount of liquid and electrolyte balance and other time have not.  There are many sports drinks out there in the market which include Hypotonic (Low carb concentration) Isotonic (equal carb and electrolyte- blood) Hyper tonic (high carb content) Glucose polymer drinks.  With these different products how do you choose which ones to use?

Before a training session/race the ACSM recommends that you consume around 500ml of water 2 hours before to allow for excretion of excess water and 125ml just before. You could also consume a small amount of hypotonic which has a low carb content but enough to give you a slight edge.

During exercise for around an hour of intense work, a hypotonic is probably best, but anything over an hour you may need something with slightly higher carb content like an Isotonic.

After exercise if you have worked extremely hard it may be suitable to have a hypertonic which would have a high carb content 40-80g per litre.

One of the problems with sports drinks is that they are expensive but you could make your own!  The products are all very similar and are easily made with products you probably already have.

To make a Hypotonic you can simply mix 20g sucrose to litre of warm water with a 1g of salt and good quality squash. For a Hypertonic you can mix 60g sucrose, 1g salt, 1litre of water and good quality squash.  When I say good quality you need to look at the back of the squash label, ideally the product should not have aspartame in it (Another blog subject!) and be made of organic fruit, you can buy these from decent health food shops.  I also said that you should include salt which is a according Chek is vital for the excretion of excess acidity in the cells of your body, a strong antihistamine and aid in prevention of muscle cramps to name a few benefits. When purchasing salt buy the best quality sea salt for its mineral balance in particular magnesium chloride, which has many benefits for digestion and hydration.

It’s a hard task getting it right sometimes but as long as you realise when you begin to get thirsty then you need to drink or eat something that has a good water content to stay hydrated.

All the best in health,

Warwick Wyatt

Nutrition is a funny beast, most of us want to have a leaner body and sometimes see others around us achieving such amazing results from little effort and either controlled calorie dieting, shake dieting (you know the brands!), the red and green diet and many others. But when you try them sometimes you have a decrease in body fat but a lot of the time it just feels too difficult to stick with it.

So I am posting this to tell you it doesn’t have to go that way, you can achieve better bodies, more sustainable energy and increased mental clarity. 

The system I use is called metabolic typing, and I have been using the system for a while now and I feel hugely better from implementing the changes.  It analyzes your fundamental homeostatic control mechanisms from a series of questions on a lengthy assessment that usually take an hour and a half, you are then provided a diet plan specific to your type, this is based on many years of research by Dr. Kelley from the United States.  In the 1960′s he compiled this data into forms and finally created a computer generated program, which William Wolcott has carried on the work. 

So what does the assessment analyze?  Well, it will take your information of physiological traits, Physical Traits and Diet related traits and use an algorithm to determine your dominance type. The ‘type’ could be; Sympathetic, Parasympathetic, Balanced, Fast oxidizer, Slow Oxidizer and Mixed.  These systems are known as the autonomic nervous system and the oxidative system. It also works out what endocrine type you are too, which allows us to advise on foods that may hinder your efforts for achieving optimal health. 

It goes without saying that to get healthier we need to eat clean, buy local grown veg, grass fed meat and wild caught fish, doing a few simple steps like these will massively change your wellbeing but to get a detailed program of not only what to eat but also how to live I fully advise getting your metabolic type assessed.

But just to help you get going on achieving the body and health you desire here are my top 5 basic tips

1. 1.            Eat plenty of non-starchy vegetables, they are low in sugars and high in fiber, which will give you energy over a longer period of time but also help with digestion and provide many vitamins. Did you also know that you can get all vitamins that are in fruit in vegetables too?
2. 2.            Eat high quality meat, eggs and fish to provide you with great profile of amino acids (The building blocks), which will help you, burn fat, increase muscle and tissue repair and improve sex life!
3. 3.            Prepare your meals every night for the next day or for 2 days, which will give you extra time to take that walk at your break time instead of rushing to get food or completely missing out on it!
4. 4.            Include fish oils in your diet, these will help the maintenance of triglycerides; improve mental clarity and joint function to name a few.  Try to have cold-water fish oils.
5. 5.            Think about your blood sugars, if you have a high glycemic food, why would your body decide to use it’s own fat stores as energy, check out this video for an amazing talk by Dr. Lustig.   http://youtu.be/dBnniua6-oM

Have a look at this interview with Paul McCambridge of Perfect Balance Personal Training.

You will learn about losing fat, why certain products could be potentially cancerous, how to eat to be healthy and great info and references on cholesterol on what we need it!

I have seen recently a few blogs on how to pick a personal trainer (which I will write my own version tomorrow)  and thought it may interest some of you of how to be the perfect personal training client.

I have trained well hundreds of people in the art of fitness training, and have had some brilliant experiences with them.  I’ve had times when I am ecstatic with their results and progress and other times down in the dumps from people not committing themselves.   Ive had clients achieve amazing lifestyle changes including getting  into the marines, losing 15% body fat, running marathons, beating personal bests and complete transformations.

So what makes the perfect client?  Well quite a number of things but here is my list of what I have experienced from the people that succeed with personal training guidance.

1. An eagerness to achieve.  Clients that come to me that are eager to get into some action and are ready to commit themselves always succeed.  Why?  Because that’s half the battle, you have to get psyched up to train, its not a half effort lifestyle change, it should be all in, this is the day that you decide to change for the better.
2. A great listener.  Clients that take in information and use it to benefit them get results. The trainer should obviously have experience and have tried what they are suggesting.
3. Don’t mind speaking their mind.  As a trainer, I want to know exactly how the weight feels, the intensity, tight spots, if it’s too easy, to hard, whatever you are experiencing I want to know about it.
4. They must enjoy exercise, not just the movements, but the intensity, the feel of hitting a new higher Heart rate, or level of fatigue.  And then realising that they have pushed themselves to the next level.
5. Understand the need for rest.  This is sometimes a forgotten component to fitness and people seem to think that more is better and hours on end training will help you improve your body composition, while this in some minor cases could be true, most of the time people will just be in a catabolic state and not be able to synthesise proteins and keep lean. Clients must have one or preferably two days off intense exercise.  If they need to move then go for a walk and breathe in some fresh air with some greenery around.
6. Adhere to the program that a personal trainer gives them.  Each client should have a program for them to complete without the trainer ( if not ask your trainer) this should be used to the frequency that has been declared by the PT and make sure that they ask the client if there are any problems.

Well there you have it, a few tips on being a great client.

Best,

Warwick

You may of tried one of our bootcamps or been to another one locally and found that they are hard work!  Yes indeed they are, but it’s not the only thing that you are getting from one of these workouts.  You will achieve many things, one of which will be fat loss mainly because of the multidirectional exercises that you will be doing to increase your heart rate and the variability of heart rate training that will test the energy systems differently.  Energy systems you say?  Yes our body’s have different ways of producing energy, the two basic terms are aerobic and anaerobic.  In the bootcamp session we train you to bounce between these systems to achieve he highest calorific burn but also an effect called Excess Post- exercise Oxygen Consumption (EPOC).  The science suggest if you work hard enough above the rate of anaerobic threshold you will burn fat up to 38 hours after( Schuenke MD, Mikat RP, McBride JM (March 2002), people nickname it the after burn.  During exercise at high intensities you will train the lactic acid to become more easily reproduced into glycogen in the liver so it can return back into the muscles to be used again.  EPOC happens because of the adaptations needed to return the body back to normal state after intense exercise, these are hormonal, synthesizing proteins, cellular repair and anabolism(building tissues).  So yes we do work you hard but it’s for a reason! To get you results.

In bootcamp style sessions we train your bodies to achieve a wide variety of bio-motor abilities.  We focus on multi directional movements so your fascia (Intra-muscular connective tissue) is trained via different angles so it can respond efficiently so you can move with the biggest range of movement possible.  These movements can help you in sport and in general life situations.  This in turn will improve your flexibility as the dynamic movements will test the stretch reflex and send signals to the central nervous system to allow the body to move deeper through movement as they get engrained after increased repetitions.

That’s not all; you get out of bootcamp sessions, you will gain friends, its been proven that according to the research, published in the latest issue of Archives of Internal Medicine journal, the people with a partner in the high support group lost the most weight at all the measurement periods. In addition, the people who had partners that shed at least 5 per cent of their body weight experienced a greater weight loss than those whose partner shifted less that 5 per cent.  So training with friends and or family really can help, in fact we have such a good vibe at our bootcamps that people call and text each other to find out how they are doing!

Get the bug, start coming to our sessions, get in contact for further info!

Warwick

07903 036 833

info@reinvntlifestyle.co.uk

When I changed from being employed to running my own company, I was trying to reinvent my lifestyle as most of my work had previously included huge bouts of driving long distances, resulting in laziness, poor posture, achy muscles, muscular imbalance, lower aerobic threshold, increased resting heart rate and probably a little extra fat.

In the past two years of getting back into personal training and getting to my fittest point, I still hadn’t put in a long walk, but it was time last week to go, so on the muddy shoes went, and got my 2 year old ready with my fiancee and off we went into the wilderness of the woods.  The clean air hit me straight away and a great feeling of freedom surrounded my consciousness.

So the first reason that I walk is to enjoy family time, it’s a superb way of interacting with loved ones as there are no distractions, especially if you go into the woods, local park or green area.  It’s all too easy to get caught up in daily life in the house or local town; get yourself out into nature!

The second reason is that walking is a great way of achieving a fat burning heart rate zone, usually of around 65% max heart rate. If you go for an hour walk then yo could use around 200-300 calories.  This shouldn’t be the only concept of your fat loss training regime but certainly part of it.

Thirdly, having a good walk is great for your postural muscles, starting with the foot.  You should try to land you heel first, then the outside of your foot and push off from your big toe.  It’s best if you are able to move your feet though! So try to have flexible soles so your feet can bend as needed.

While walking it may be of benefit to do some deep breathing to encourage the diaphragm to flatten and contract so your lungs can have maximum inflation.  You’ll be amazed of how much air you can get in when you let the belly push out as your Diaphragm drops down.  The flush of good oxygen into the blood will refresh your muscles with new nutrients and encourage lymphatic flow.  Deep breathing should be part of ALL stress reduction programs but also be included in daily routines too.

Start this week with a good trudge in the fields, woods, park of even local town or city.  Take a phone, but don’t look at it!  Just enjoy a simple walk. It’s good for you.

On Sunday July 24th 2011, we are supporting a charity called Muscle Help Foundation.  Become a Muscle Warrior for the day and help thousands of people with Muscle Dystrophy throughout the UK.

Myself and our trainers will be providing post stretching for as many runners as we can and also our Sports Masseurs will be giving free massages for those tired legs.

You can Run a 5 or 10 k, there is a 1k Wheelchair circuit and a 1k Fancy dress toddle.  Superhero is the theme for the toddle! How cute.

Please register by clicking the link below

Check out the E-flyer – Click the link below

Haileybury_Muscle_Warriors_24_July_2011_WEB

Is it a fad or the real deal to aid in strength, endurance, muscle gain, and fat loss?

Kettle bell training has been around for years, it has always been lurking in the background in most strength based gymnasiums. So why now has this become a craze? Well now researchers have found that exercising using these iron balls can increase your fitness levels and burn calories like wildfire. John Porcari Ph.D and Chad Schnettler Enlisted by the American council of exercise said “We estimated oxygen consumption and how many calories they were burning aerobically, and it was 13.6 calories per minute. But we also measured the blood lactate, so anaerobically they were burning another 6.6 calories per minute,” explains Porcari. “So they were burning at least 20.2 calories per minute, which is off the charts. That’s equivalent to running a 6-minute mile pace. The only other thing I could find that burns that many calories is cross-country skiing up hill at a fast pace.”

So what is the kettle bell? It basically is a round ball of Iron with a handle, sounds very rudimentary indeed, but its how this amazingly simple piece of kit can be used that makes the difference between this and other training principles. The fact that the handle is offset from the centre of mass of the object makes it easier to swing and keep fluidity when training. The use of the kettle bell can be adapted to many needs and because of its properties it can assist with shoulder strength, flexibility, and dynamic strength for sport.

How can this help you in your life? Well considering most of people’s daily routine is based around sitting, then using your posterior chain (Backside, back of thigh and back muscles) is extremely important to maintain or increase the functioning of your body. The beauty of training with techniques such as swings, dead lifts, rows is that you can start to utilise more muscles into a shorter amount of time compared with traditional techniques, giving you extra time in your life to enjoy. I promise you, if you start using kettle bells as part or your entire training regime you will see results.

If you are in the Hertfordshire area and looking to train with a personal trainer then the kettle bell training systems can be put in place to assist you achieving your goals.

Email me for more info

warwick@reinventlifestyle.co.uk

Warwick Wyatt