Well its that time of year again. Everybody is scrambling to get in shape for their swim suits and those lazy summer days on the beach. Or maybe it’s just for the lack of clothing that we wear as the weather heats up.

Whatever the reason, this is definitely the season to get in shape.

So here are my series of tips to get in shape for summer (life). They may sound like common sense, that is because they are, but I guess everybody just needs a little kick up the butt and a reminder now and then, or we’d all be in great shape all year round. It’s not that hard, just eat sensibly and move regulary.

So my first tip to you: Don’t skip your workouts!

Every person and every workout is different, but as a general rule of thumb, you would burn approximately 600 calories in 1 hour of my training.

So lets use this average figure of 600 calories per workout for my calculations.

I recommend training 5 days per week. This = 3000 calories burned per week.

If you want to burn 1 kg of fat, you have to burn approximately 7700 calories.

So without looking at nutrition in this tip, it would take 2 1/2 weeks to burn off 1 kg of fat without skipping any workouts.

Lets say you train 3 days per week, it will now take you 1 month to lose that kilo of fat.

Train 2 days per week and we are now looking at 6 weeks to lose that 1 kilo of fat.

This may sound silly, but some people only train once a week. They are looking at 3 months to lose 1 kg of fat.

So here’s your first tip to getting that body you want; Train regularly and don’t skip your workouts!

Now this tip is taking into consideration movement only, but I think we all know that it is what goes into our mouths that is critical to weight loss, so we will look at this in next week’s tip: Let’s get fit for summer Part 2.

Your in Fitness

Troy Shipsey

Everywhere I look these days, there is information about a “diet”. Any diet and every diet. This diet and that diet. Have you heard of this diet? Have you tried that diet? What do you think of this diet? I think I’m going to try that diet. So and so has got a great diet out. That other guy has got a new diet out. Thingy has come up with an entirely new diet. There is back log of getting product for that diet, so it must be awesome!

Give me a break! If each diet worked long term, then we wouldn’t have a million and one diet books on the shelf.

On the cover of a popular magazine I once saw Kirsty Alley and Oprah Winfrey and the headline was “The great diet showdown”. Is this how we should be thinking? Taking advice from two women who yo-yo with their weight more than anyone in the public eye!

We need to stop the diet mentality!

We need to realise that health is more about eating healthy food, not about being thin regardless of the path taken to get there!

In order to live a healthy life, you should eat a diet rich in fruit and vegetables (preferably organic if possible, but not essential). I also believe in eating fish, lean organic chicken & eggs and a little organic red meat.

If you want to eat junk food, save it for the weekend and eat it in moderation. Limit yourself to 2 junk food meals per weekend.

Remember that fruit and vegetables are carbohydrates, so this is not a carb free diet! It is a natural eating diet. No gimmicks here, just eating food in it’s natural form.

Try it, you will feel so much better, your energy levels will be higher, you will lose weight and you won’t feel bloated hours after a meal.

If we all just stopped looking for the quick fix or giving these stupid diets the time of day, we could all focus on eating for good long term health.

The only people who benefit long term from these diets are the guys who came up with the diets and sold a whole bunch of books and supplements to ingnorant people who want the quick fix.

I urge you to take control and think about the information you are being fed. Block out the con artists who want to take advantage and get rich from your desire to create “a healthy body”.

Try to eat as close to the natural form a food comes as possible and exercise regularly.

Yours in Health and Fitness

Troy Shipsey

As I have mentioned earlier, food is of the utmost importance in our lives.

Food is our fuel and without the correct fuel, we cannot expect to live long, fullfilling and diease free lives.

Food and water are the essence for survival, so the next time you think you don’t have time to prepare a healthy meal because other things are more important, remember this, food supplies the fuel to power your body, with the wrong fuel, you will get sick. Be it obesity, diabetes, A.D.D, irritable bowel syndrome, heart disease, cancer or something else, a weakened immune system through poor nutrition will result in something bad. Oh and on that note, let’s just remember that cancer is not caused through bad luck, contrary to popular belief.

But, despite all the information out there about how important food is, it just doesn’t sink in for the majority of people. In actual fact, most people take better care of their car than their body. So I have prepared a couple of little analogies which I use on my clients.

“Would you set out on a road trip up the coast without any fuel, oil or water in your car? NO?
Then why do you set out to take on the day’s challenges without putting the correct fuel and water into your body?”

“Perfume smells great, but put it in your petrol tank instead of petrol and your car won’t run properly.
Junk food tastes great, but put it in your mouth and your body won’t run properly!”
When you wake up feeling crap, thank about what you ate yesterday.

“Would you take your car to the mechanic for regular servicing and then pour methylated spirits into the fuel tank? NO?
Then why do you visit the gym regularly or even see your personal trainer but then put crappy food in your mouth?”

I think you get the message, please be aware of what goes in your mouth. I am not saying to eat alfalfa sprouts all day long, but it is really so easy to make healthy, tasty, nutritious food and just limit your junk food to weekends and takeaway dinners to once a week.

Troy Shispey

Fitta Bodies Personal Training

Group Training Centennial Park, Sydney

I am sure you are all aware of the impact that food has on our long term health. We are all made up of living cells. Those cells renew themselves from the food that we eat. Without the correct nourishment, our immune system will suffer and disease will set in. Think about the food you eat and what it is made from. Then think that those ingredients are what is making up your living cells. 

Now that you can think of food as a fuel for your body, not just something you eat every few hours, you might make a few changes to what goes in your mouth.

I believe a diet rich in vegetables and protein will help to promote a healthy body, in a healthy weight range without feeling bloated and tired.

Here are a few tips to incorporating more vegetables into your diet. When I refer to vegggies, this incorporates salad as well.

* When shopping, choose your favourite vegetables. It is quite often easier to buy carrots and brocoli because they are cheap and miss out on the more exotic veggies you really like because they cost a bit more, only to get out of the fruit shop and go and spend $4 on a coffee.

* Variety!

* Have a plate of cut veggie sticks on the fridge ready to snack on daily.

* Don’t overcook your veggies. Steam or stir fry them, they will have better flavour, colour and texture.

* Try a new veggie along side a familiar one.

* If you find something you don’t like, don’t eat it. Try something different next time.

* Don’t think of veggies as just an evening meal ingredient, tomato, mushroom and spinach are all great breakfast veggies. Mixed salad is easy to prepare in the morning to take to work. Veggie sticks are great as snacks.

Here are few tips to incorporate more protein into your diet

* Firstly make a list of all the protein foods you like to eat.

* Secondly write down beside the protein all the foods you like to accompany it.

* Thirdly write down what time of day you would prefer to eat that food.

* Now plan your week’s food plan and shopping list.

* Be sure to vary your diet. When you write down your accompanying foods, make sure you have several options for each protein.

Healthy eating and happy living go hand in hand, so eat well and enjoy life!

Troy Shipsey

Fitta Bodies Personal Training

Group Fitness Centennial Park, Sydney

With the growth of the health and fitness industry due to an ever growing obese population, there are so many underqualified and very under experienced personal trainers out there. It seems every second person is a personal trainer or does a bit of “personal training” on the side…

Even the education providers are advertising easier and faster ways to get qualified. Each one is trying to outdo the next by making it easier to get qualified just so the other college won’t get the business.

And so, the standard of education and experience gets lower and lower due to the increased competition of education providers. Maybe this increased competition should improve standards by advertising who can give you the most experience and highest qualifications to convince you to train with them, rather than who can get you in and out of the door the quickest. Which by the way is a bit of a joke really, because these days you don’t even have to get in the door, you can do the whole thing at home by copying your friends assignments and case studies (oops, I mean via correspondence or “distance learning”). I saw enough of this when I worked at Australias largest gym chain which is home to the largest population of inexperienced trainers around, they don’t even need the minimum qualificatiosn to work there!
It is making the industry somewhat of a joke.

So many times these day, I see a personal training session being conducted but I cannot tell who is the trainer and who is the client!

Here are a few things to think about when choosing a personal trainer;

* Are they fatter than you? I think this is the most important! Why go to a trainer to lose weight if they can’t even lose weight themselves.

* Do they practice what they preach? Do they drink plenty of filtered water and eat a diet rich in fruits, veggies, lean protein and nuts. Limiting junk food to treats on weekends. How can they tell you to do something yet not do it themselves?

* Do they chat to you about how drunk they got on the weekend? Or are they trying to convince you that alcohol should be strictly limited.

* Can they answer your health and fitness questions? And not fumble through it like they are making it up.

* How much experience do they have? How many people have they helped so far?

* What is their client retention like? Are they constantly looking for new clients all the time? This is a sure fire way to know how good a trainer is by whether their clients stick with them, people are pretty savvy these days and when they see a cowboy, they either move on to another trainer, or give up because they have lost faith in the industry.

* Do they try to put you onto the latest gimmick or fad diet to get you to your goals?

* Do they tell you what you want to hear to get you onboard rather than the truth?

* Do they focus on your form and technique, ensuring your safety? Or are they just counting the reps and minutes to the end of the session? Do they even know what the correct technique is, or are they just re-enacting something they saw another trianer do?

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

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

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