To join our group training simply visit Group Training

When undertaking an exercise plan, the first step is to establish your goals. The next step is to assess the most sensible way to reach those goals.

I see so many typical weight loss gym goers training in the same manner as a body builder. Now this is fine if your goal is to look like a body builder, but is that your goal?

If the guy over in the corner is performing seated bicep curls to make his arms look bigger, does that mean you too should perform seated bicep curls? Is your goal to have big biceps? Do you want big arms? Or is there something more effective that you could be doing?

If your goal is to lose weight, there is no doubting how important resistance training is, but you should be trying to use as much muscle mass at the one time as you can handle.

The least effective exercises to lose weight would be machine weights. These machines tell your whole body to switch off apart from the muscle group that is moving the weight. Besides that, why do you need to sit down at the gym? Didn’t you sit down to eat breakfast, to get to work, at work, at lunch, to get home from work, whilst you had dinner and after dinner? I think you can see that you sit down enough, so when you get to the gym to carry out your weight loss training, please don’t sit down!

Here a few examples of simple exercise combinations to get the calories burning more effectively:

* Lunge bicep curl

* Squat cable row

* Step up side raise

* Deadlift bicep curl

* Kettlebell swing

* Squat press

* Dumbell chest press on a ball instead of a bench with a bar

There are so many combinations to choose from, so get creative with your training!

Troy Shipsey

Fitta Bodies Personal Training

Group Fitness Training Centennial Park, Sydney

Yesterday I listened to a radio interview with one of our favourite ex-Olympic swimmers who has gained a lot of excess weight since he stopped competing internationally.

The question was put to him how he had lost his weight recently, as he has lost approximately 5kg’s in as many weeks.

He said that he started to eat healthy, no more takeaway, very little alcohol and lots of fresh fruit and vegetables. He also said he has been exercising regularly.

So of course the radio DJ’s make some jokes, “what do you mean you are just eating well and working hard, but we don’t want to hear that, we want the majic pill we can take to lose weight”. 

Quite clearly they were joking on the surface, but the problem is, most people are still looking for that majic pill, in the form of a fad diet or funky new exercise program that will set the world on fire.

But, our swimmer said “no, honestly guys, you just have to eat healthy and find some form of exercise you enjoy doing and do it regularly. Consistency is the key!”

Wow, my favourite word in regards to reaching your goals, is “consistency” and here it was being spoken by the guy who is losing weight by doing it the real way.

It was awesome to hear and I hope everyone who was listening took notice and made some kind of decision to change their ways. 

Stop looking for the quick fix.

* Exercise the way you enjoy regularly. Try to do some form of exercise 5 – 6 days per week.

* Eat healthy. This means salad, vegetables, fruit, protein. Limit junk food and alcohol.

It really is that simple, health works from the inside out!

Troy Shipsey

Fitta Bodies Personal Training

Group Fitness Centennial Park, Sydney

To join our group training simply visit Group Training

Below is a whole bunch of FAQ’s that I was asked about how to get the most out of walking. The bulk of the answers were published in Good Health and Medicine magazine earlier this year.

How far?    You should be aiming to walk for a minimum 1 hour to really make a difference

How often?  5 – 7 days per week. Walking is not too stressful on the body, so it can be done everyday if time permits. Let’s face it, we spend the majority of our time sitting down, the least we can ask is to walk for an hour a day, everyday.

How fast? Everybody is different, the fitter you are, or the longer your legs, the quicker you will go, but a good rule of thumb is approximately 6km per hour. Obviously if you are starting out very unfit, you would be slower than this. If you walk at this pace, you will burn roughly 4 calories per kg of you bodyweight in an hour. The slower you walk, the less you burn, for example, if you walk at 3km per hour, you would burn roughly 2 calories per kg of your bodyweight. The upside to this is that if you are quite unfit, you are probably also overweight, so you will burn more calories as it is measured as a percentage of your bodyweight.

 Do you need to walk to:  
a) Get fit
b) Lose weight
Getting fit and weight loss go hand in hand, if you are walking fast enough to get fit, you are also walking fast enough to lose weight, the only differing factor is good nutrition to aid in weight loss.

Walking will only ever get you so far in regards to fitness and you will reach a level where your little feet can’t carry you any faster, at this point, you might want to consider jogging, cycling, boxercise or some other form of cardiovascular exercise.

Q.Key benefits of a walking program?  
A.  Walking is a great form of exercise that is far less stressful on the body that jogging or other high impact types of exercise. It can be done every day, it can be done anywhere and it can be done at any time of day. You don’t need any fancy equipment and you can do it with friends.

Q.Why do many people fail to achieve their fitness and weight goals through walking?  
A.  Quite often people don’t know how to gauge a good speed to walk at to improve fitness. A good rule of thumb is to make sure you are breaking a sweat and you’re breathing is getting so heavy, it is difficult to carry our a conversation. If you can’t get to this point through walking, you need to find a more difficult route ie. Hills or stairs. Alternatively, you may be fit enough to start jogging, providing you are injury free.

Q.Should you carry hand-weights when walking? Or wear a weighted backpack/ vest? If so, how heavy?
A. Carrying weights can help to burn a few more calories, but the risks may outweigh the benefits. Obviously the heavier you are, the more strain you will place on joints, so if you are a small build, you don’t really want to be adding weight to your frame and risk injuring knees, ankles or spine. If you are a heavier build, the last thing you should be doing is adding more weight to your frame as you are already placing undue stress on your joints with your own body weight. If you insist on adding weight to your body whist walking, the best option is a vest and the weight should be spread evenly front and back of the vest. That way you barely change your centre of gravity.

Q.Best walking technique tips?
A.  You should always walk tall, with good posture. Relax the shoulders, drawing your shoulder blades down and back. Keep your head up and your gaze forward, as looking down will encourage rounded shoulders. It is important not to overstride, the further your foot lands in front of the body, the more likelihood of getting shin splints. Try to focus on fast short steps rather than long strides. Bend the arms at approximately 90 degrees and swing the arms through a natural arc without rotating the torso excessively.

Q.What’s power waking as opposed to brisk walking?
A.  In my opinion, power walking is just a very focussed, fast walk, maintaining a consistent fast pace, pumping the arms more dramatically than a brisk walk.

Q.What difference will walking up hills make?
A. Walking up hills means you have to fight gravity. Your muscles will have to walk harder and your heart rate will increase dramatically due to the increased effort required.

Q.How useful is a pedometer? What difference will this make to fitness and weight loss? How many steps per day for a) fitness and b) weight loss? Do you need to do these incidental steps on top of dedicated walking workouts?
A.  Pedometers are useful if you think you are not walking enough. If you are getting out for a good hour walk everyday and you are living an active lifestyle, the pedometer may not be of much help, but it is very useful for someone who is just getting into exercise or someone who is concerned that there lifestyle is too sedentary. The basic recommendation is a minimum of 10,000 steps per day for good health, this includes incidental steps. But the more steps you do the better, so if you are focussed on weight loss, a 1 hour power walk plus 10,000 incidental steps is fantastic.

Q.Any useful gadgets for maintaining motivation to walk, aside from a pedometer?  
A. A heart rate monitor is a great tool to ensure you are walking at the correct intensity. An ipod is also great for taking your mind off the task at hand. Load on some fast music and it inspires you to walk faster and it makes the time go quicker as well.

Q.Essential walking gear?
A. Sunscreen and a hat are essential walking items, unless you are out at sunrise or sunset. Loose comfortable clothing and good shoes.

Q.What about walking shoes, how important are these? Things to look for in a walking shoe?
A. Walking shoes are extremely important. If you are not wearing the correct shoes for YOU, you are putting your joints at risk. If your feet aren’t striking the ground correctly and you strike the ground thousands of times every walk, you could be putting undue stress on your feet, ankles, knees, hips and spine. The best thing to look for in a shoe is a good shoe retailer. Only a real professional can fit the correct shoe for your foot, not just the shoe that looks the best or is the most expensive.

Q.Does walking with a friend, family or walking group help?
A. Finding a walking partner is a great idea. It is much easier to find motivation when you walk with a friend. The time will pass quicker and you can push each other to walk faster. If you are having trouble sticking to your regimen, walking with a friend will help you to keep your appointed exercise plans, as you won’t want to let your walking partner down.

Q.Anything else you feel is worth mentioning about walking?
A. Just do it, get out there and explore your city, your suburb, the bush, the mountains, the coast. Walking can be great fun and you can discover all sorts of new sights you didn’t know about previously. 

 

Troy Shipsey

Fitta Bodies Personal Training

Group Fitness Centennial Park, Sydney

To join our group training simply visit Group Training

There are many opinions on what ratio of carbs to protein to fat you should consume.

My preferred ratio is 50:30:20 of carbs to protein to fat.

So, if you have done your calculation from Calories Part 1 to work out your recommended daily consumption and if for example, you should be consuming 2267 to lose 1 kg body fat per fortnight, then you would work out your ratios as such:

• 2267 x 50% = 1133 Calories from Carbohydrates
• 2267 x 30% = 680 Calories from Protein
• 2267 x 20% = 453 Calories from Fat

Don’t forget to factor in your calories form alcohol as well.

Now it is much easier to work out your consumption based on grams of food rather than calories, so I will show you how to work that out below, it is very easy.

 
• There are 4 calories in 1 gram of Carbohydrate
• There are 4 calories in 1 gram of Protein
• There are 9 calories in 1 gram of Protein

Alcohol has roughly 1/2 to 1 calorie per ml, depending on which alcohol it is. That’s a lot considering a beer has around 375ml’s in it.

So to work out your daily consumption, you would work it out as such:

• 1133 divided by 4 = 283 grams of Carbohydrates per day
• 680 divided by 4 = 170 grams of protein per day
• 453 divided by 9 = 50 grams of fat per day

Remember, that as you lose weight, you will have to do your calculations again, otherwise you will be eating more than required.

Take me to Calories Part 1

Troy Shipsey

Fitta Bodies Personal Training

Group Fitness Centennial Park, Sydney

Stretching is a vital part of any fitness routine. Most injuries can be avoided with regular stretching of the correct muscles.

Let’s face it, when you injure yourself and take yourself off to the physio, what is the normal procedure? Massage on the affected area. Stimulation of the affected muscles. Stretches are administered for you to do until your next visit.

What if you just stretched regularly and prevented injury instead of treating the injury?

I like to stretch at night in front of the TV. You can either sit on the couch, or just sit on the floor and have a stretch. I try to do this at least 3 times per week.  

Below are some guidelines general to follow for increasing your flexibility. There is also a link to my stretch chart which shows many of the most important stretches.

* Stretch after every work out.

* Concentrate on the muscle you are stretching and move slowly into the stretch.

* Hold the stretch for 30 to 60 seconds and move further into the stretch on your exhale. Repeat 2 – 3 times for each muscle group if time permits.

* Make sure you feel the stretch but don’t over do it, stretching should not feel like agony.

* Always keep your body in the correct alignment during stretching, the descriptions next to the photos point out the main points.

 * Keep your abdominals drawn in, your back in neutral spine and your hips level.

*  Keep your shoulders relaxed and down, as hunching your shoulders will leave you with a tight and sore neck.

 As a general rule it’s fair to say that the less you like stretching the more you need to stretch. Pay attention to your body and it will tell you which your tight areas are. Even though we all prefer doing what we are good at, it makes sense to concentrate on stretches that are difficult for you as this is a sign that this particular muscle group needs to be lengthened. On the contrary if you don’t feel much when you are stretching a certain muscle (despite using the correct technique) it is usually a sign that it is lengthened already, this is usually the case with an opposing muscle to the tight one.

So try to get into a proper stretching routine, it is a very important part of exercising, which too often gets neglected.

Most aches and pains are related to muscle imbalances. Therefore, the more balanced our muscles are the better we feel. 

Click here to view our Stretch Chart It’s a fairly large file, so it may take a little while to open, but stick with it, it’s worth it!

Happy stretching!

Troy Shipsey

Fitta Bodies Personal Training

Group Training Centennial Park, Sydney

Firstly, Thank you to everyone who sponsored us. Your generosity helps us to raise over $2500.

I’ll give you a brief run down on what your donation bought from the Fitta Bodies Team.

As a lot of you know, I had a severe case of food poisoning 4 days before the event which saw me taken to hospital by ambulance, so the the week leading up to the event wasn’t optimal for me, as I couldn’t eat anything more than toast and crackers. I did eat some fruit and protein the day before the event though! The night before the event, I weighted 3.4kg’s less than I weighed just before the food poisoning.

We kicked off at 8:30am Friday morning. We were in great spirits…

The terrain is tough, but interesting and beautiful.

At 5pm we reached our support crew for dinner. Spaghetti bolognaise, mmm…did somebody forget to tell the support crew what I had thrown up last week (spaghetti bolognaise).  

Tom and Mary did an awesome job at making sure were were fed and then we were back out on the track by 6pm. This time with headlamps to guide the way. By 6:30pm, my spaghetti is back in my throat. It appears all the vomiting I did has damaged the sphincter at the base of my oesophagus! The night walk is tough, staring at the ground for 12 hours was never going to be easy, but we got through it. We kept each other awake with lots of mind games, generally involving old TV trivia. I spent the early hours of the morning with stomach cramps and reflux. Neither of which I have ever had in my life before. 

At 5am, we met our support crew Danny and Lisa, who had hot soup awaiting. I only wish I could have eaten it. I managed to squeeze in a half bowl and by 6:30am, we were on our way again. This was definitely the toughest check point to leave, especially for me. I was nearly physically done at this point, but my team mates kept me going. Everybody else is tired at this point, but physically ok.

The sunrise helped to lift spirits more than you could imagine. We seemed to have a new found energy.

Porridge at 11am was great fuel to keep us going for the next few hours, thanks Danny and Lisa!

It was around this time that Mark’s hamstring decided to blow. His knee is giving him a lot of grief and our walking pace slows down to accommodate. Thankfully there is a physio at the next checkpoint to help out a little with it. Nurofen is being taken by all of us except Frank now.

Lorena and Shikha had chicken and salad awaiting. Once again, I wish I could have enjoyed it, but my stomach is still turning circles. We push on to the next checkpoint and don our headlamps as the night sets in once again. We are now heading to the final checkpoint before the finish.

We arrive at the checkpoint to find Lorena and Shikha with hot chocolates and sandwiches. Shikha is so kind to give Frank and myself a calf massage and Lorena did the same for Gwen and Mark. True commitment that is! They also have some Zantac for my reflux. Thank goodness for that, after 23 hours of reflux, I finally start to feel better. I wish I had known about it before! Mark also manages to get some more physio treatment at this checkpoint, which seems to be helping a little.

We kick off the home stretch. We have 3km of bush tracks then 9km through the streets of Seaforth and Balmoral. We knock over the bush section easily, as spirits are high at the moment, knowing loved ones and a bed are only hours away. When we hit the streets, disaster struck. Frank’s knee has packed up completely…We walk the next 9km’s at snail pace. Frank is an absolute trooper, I think anybody else would have quit at this point, but he hobbled the final 9km’s using his walking pole for support. It started to spit rain at 6pm and it got somewhat heavier around 10pm, but nothing too bad.

We finally crossed the line around midnight Saturday night.

What an adventure! Please don’t anybody ever ask me to do it again. Ever!