Monthly article

Reasons to exercise
By Luisa Valenti

Through my experience as a Personal Trainer and working with a variety of people, I can generally guess what a client is going to ask me to help them achieve. More often than not, my client wants to feel and look good (usually the latter) This generally involves some form of cardiovascular work along with resistance training to achieve a tighter, firmer, slimmer body. Obviously I’m generalising slightly as I do have clients whose goals focus more on rehabilitation or specific training such as pre and post natal work.

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Anyway, my point being that looking good is great, but there are many other benefits to exercise and knowing and understanding these benefits will give you even more reason to workout, or perhaps give you just the reason you need to begin an exercise regime. Have a read through my reasons to exercise below and hopefully they will inspire you:

Exercise helps to ...

  • Prevent Type 2 diabetes, more information on diabetes in our July 2011 article.
  • Reduce high blood pressure
  • Control weight gain, to help with weight management have a read through out October 2010 article on ‘Balancing blood sugar’ and get some tips from our august 2010 article on interval training.
  • Improve blood circulation
  • Boast your immune system
  • Improve your posture, more information on posture in our September 2010 article.
  • Alleviate constipation
  • Help to maintain balance, essential as we go into later life.
  • Lift your mood, as endorphins are released when we exercise and they can alleviate depression and release stress. Read our October 2011 article on stress.
  • See you through a safe and healthy pregnancy, and a quicker recovery. For more information on Pre and Post Natal training read our March and June 2010 articles.
  • Control chromic inflammation
  • Alleviate physical and psychological symptoms of the menopause, for example exercise can help alleviate hot flushes and night sweats. For nutritional information on the menopause see our Jan 2011 article.
  • Reduce the risk osteoporosis. To maintain bone density you need to place demands on your skeleton, forces against gravity are good for preventing osteoporosis.
  • Detoxify the body, the lymphatic system is responsible for filtering out a yellowish fluid which accumulates bacteria and waste. Regular exercise is so crucial, as unlike your heart, your lymphatic system does not have a pump to shift this fluid around your body, it therefore relies on your bodies musculature movement to do so.
  • Reduce the risk of developing cancer. Many studies have shown that taking regular exercise (just a half hour walk a day) has shown to halve the risk of developing breast cancer. Bowel cancer is another very common form of cancer and half an hour of exercise a day can help to lower the risk of it developing by up to a quarter.
  • Improve sleep. 30 minutes of exercise during the day can help you sleep. Although avoid exercising near bedtime as it can be stimulating. Exercise also delays the production of melatonin, which is known to help with sleep.
  • Improve your sex life, exercise can help you have a good sex life well into your 80s. Research has shown that for those who are unfit, their sex life can often end 20 years earlier than for those who are fit.
  • Brain function. exercise can help you mentally, research in the last 10 years shows that your physical activity can help brain function, or cognition as it is more usually termed. Exercising at least twice a week for about 30 minutes can reduce your risk of dementia and alzheimer later in life. It is thought that exercise increases blood flow and oxygen to the brain, resulting in mental agility.
  • Anti ageing, exercise helps to slow down the clock, keeping your looking and feeling younger for longer. Interesting studies have been performed on identical twins, the twins who exercised regularly aged more slowly. This was indicated by the Telomeres, (a region of DNA that protects chromosomes from damage and shortens as we age) which were actually longer.
  • Prevent heart disease by exercising, as lack of physical activity has been strongly linked to this disease.

For more exercise benefits take a look at our July 2010 article.




Spinach Bake

This is one of my favourite recipes from the food doctor cookbook, great for those vegetarians, it is not one of the quickest recipes we have listed but its very tasty and high in protein.

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Ingredients
2 or 3 large tomatoes, sliced
1 medium onion, finely sliced
4 tbsp of oil
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
2 garlic cloves, chopped
300g (10oz) spinach, washed and coarsely shredded
4 eggs
2 tbsp live natural low-fat yoghurt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp chilli flakes, ground
1 crushed garlic clove, crushed
2 tbsp mixed pumpkin and sunflower seeds, ground

Method
Preheat oven to 200 c / 400 F / gas mark 6.

Put the tomatoes, onion , 2 tablespoons of olive oil and the vinegar in a roasting tin, season with freshly ground black pepper and roast until the onion is soft, about 45 minutes. Shake the tin occasionally to prevent burning. When cooked, roughly mash the vegetables together.

Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large saucepan, add the garlic and cook over a low heat for a minute. add the spinach and cook until it has wilted.

Beat the eggs, yoghurt, ground seeds, crushed garlic, ground pepper and ground chilli flakes together and make 3 omelettes.

Lightly oil a deep, round baking dish roughly the same size as the omelettes. Place one omelette into bottom, cover with a third of the spinach and half the tomatoes and repeat. Top with the third omelette and the rest of the spinach. Scatter feta cheese on top, but in the oven for 10 minutes or under a grill to brown and serve.



Monthly exercise

Sumo Squat



Start position


Middle position


End position


This exercise is great at targeting your inner thighs and glutes. The sumo squat can be performed anywhere and is easily modified for use with or without free weights.

Start with your feet just slightly wider than your hips and your toes turned out. As you squat make sure your knees stay in alignment with your toes, keep your weight on your heels throughout the exercise and maintain a straight posture. Squeeze your glutes and inner thighs as you come out of the squat and perform breaths on each repetition, inhaling on the way down while exhaling slowly on the way up.

This exercise can be performed as below using a dumbbell, kettlebell or even using a cable or bungey rope.




Lateral view


Sumo squat with kettlebell


Sumo squat with bungey rope