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When it comes to personal training all often focus on the main part of the workout and tend to ignore importance of preparing our body before and after the workout.

It is a common oversight to get straight into a workout without preparing your body for the strenuous requirements of the exercise routine. A warm up is a must-do element of any training process.

The essence of a warm up is to prepare muscle tissue and joints for the workout ahead. This will increase effectiveness of the workout and most importantly it will prevent injury. The following are the five reasons why a warm up is so important:

1. A warm up will increase your heart rate and breathing pattern closer to your workout rate;

2. A warm up will improve blood flow to the muscle and ensuring oxygen and nutrient supply required for a workout;

3. A warm up will increase temperature of your body and increase flexibility of your muscles;

4. A warm up will lubricate your joints and ensure they have optimal functionality during the workout;

5. A warm up prepares you mentally for the stress of the intense training activity.

While warming up it is important to ensure that all muscle and joint groups used in training are activated. A warm up can be done in many different ways. Some examples of warm up are walking and jogging. Going through some of the exercises planned for the main workout at the light pace and low resistance level can enhance the warm up process.

An effective warm up should include a light stretch of all of the muscle groups involved in the main workout. We can generally group stretches into two main groups: dynamic and static stretching. Dynamic stretches can be easily incorporated in the warm up cycle, as they can take the form of cyclic motion of the targeted muscle groups. Static stretching should only occur once a warm up is completed. It is very important to know that stretching before a warm up can result in muscle tissue tear, which is painful and will stop you from exercising for a while.

A warm up might take various length of time, depending on the individual needs and intensity of the planned workout. Typically a warm up will take between 5 and 20 minutes, with professional athletes taking even longer to warm up.

So before you start your gym or personal training, start moving, get your heart rate up and ensure your muscles and joints are ready for what is going to hit them.

Interval training (or High Intensity Interval Training - HIIT) consists of the number of repetitions of the high intensity and recovery (or lower intensity) components in a single workout. High intensity component needs to occur at the pace or resistance level at which oxygen supply to the muscle tissue is limited to ensure anaerobic metabolism occurs in the body. It is easy to recognise high intensity workout – you can only last up to few minutes before you require a recovery period. For example, a sprint run can only last for few hundred meters before it turns into a jog or a walk.

Recovery component in interval training is required to ensure oxygen intake and muscle rest to enable another set of high intensity exercise. Recovery component can be the same exercise as used in high intensity workout but at significantly lower resistance or intensity level. Recovery component could also consist of other exercises where body gets the chance to catch up with oxygen intake, and could be as simple as a walk or rest.

Interval training combined with other forms of training and a healthy diet will help you lose weight fast, improve your body shape and significantly improve your fitness.

While best practiced with a personal trainer or in a personal training environment, the following three workouts you can practice anywhere, in the gym, outdoors or at home without need for any fitness equipment. All you need is your own body weight, some furniture and possibly a set of stairs or a steep hill (if outdoors).

When should you visit your local physiotherapy clinic?

In 2011 I spent over nine months with an exercise related injury that resulted in sharp knee pain every time I tried to exercise. This knee pain got worse over time and my ability to keep fit was limited to the upper body workouts, usually swimming, push ups, chin ups and various kettlebell exercises. I was certainly unable to squat, lunge and run without experiencing the same knee pain the following day.

Prior to my injury, I spent couple of years training in a CrossFit box. During that time I generally kept injury free, until my knee started to play up. Since my injury occurred, CrossFit training was out of question.

I avoided going to the physiotherapist fearing the news that I might require arthroscopy to fix my knee pain. I was worried about cartilage damage as my knee was making a quite laudable grinding noise. After a discussion with my personal trainer, VeronikaPT, I decided to visit a well-known Sydney physiotherapy, Balance in Motion that specialises in lower limb physiotherapy and running injuries.

Nick, the physiotherapist established quite quickly that my knee worries were not related to any cartilage damage, but a significant tightness in my outer quad muscle. The outer quad muscle was very tight and the inner quad muscle was not very active - as a result my knee cap was being pulled up. The grinding noise was the knee cap friction against some fat matter that separates knee cap from the bones. Since that fat matter contained numerous nerve endings, and my knee cap was grinding against it, I was experiencing this knee pain.

Sound simple? Well, not so – the next thing I found out from Nick was that the root cause of my quad tightness was in my imbalance in my rib cage (?) and was related to my shoulder dislocation some 12 years ago. I was stunned that my sports physio could tell this all from a 30 minute appointment, few squats, some balancing on each leg and some touching and quad muscle assessment.

The most important discovery for me was that all my injuries in the last 10 years or so were on the same side of my body – and related to this rib cage imbalance. Basically, my whole body was compensating this very slight muscular tightness around my shoulder and ribs.

The solution was rather simple – some remedial massage, acupuncture and light exercises to correct my posture and relax my muscles.

My key points in this case are these:

· I have never paid a visit to a physiotherapy clinic to prevent an injury.

· Once I did so, it took less than half an hour to determine the cause of my knee pain and the root causes.

· It took less than four weeks to completely remove the problem, including my rib cage issues.

· I have lost several months without being able to exercise properly, sometimes experiencing a significant knee pain.

So to answer my opening question – physiotherapy should be seen as a preventative as well as remedial measure for anyone doing any fitness or sporting activity. Correcting the posture or muscular deficiencies and injuries should be seen as a priority no matter what level of fitness you are.

So in addition to the coaching from your personal trainer, regular remedial massage and physiotherapy should make up the basis of longevity in fitness and exercise.

1. Five sets of Tabata style interval training (Tabata means 20 sec high intensity, 10 sec rest, 8 times through)

• Tabata set 1: Push-ups (or knee push ups) (4 minutes)
• 1 minute rest
• Tabata set 2: Lunges (4 minutes)
• 1 minute rest
• Tabata set 3: Sit-ups (or abb crunches) (4 minutes)
• 1 minute rest
• Tabata set 4: Squats (4 minutes)
• 1 minute rest
• Tabata set 5: Dips (4 minutes)

2. Three sets of 21-15-9-5

• 21 Box jumps (or step-ups), 21 Burpies, 21 Mountain climbers
• 30 second rest
• 15 Box jumps (or step-ups), 15 Burpies, 15 Mountain climbers
• 30 second rest
• 9 Box jumps (or step-ups), 9 Burpies, 9 Mountain climbers
• 30 second rest
• 5 Box jumps (or step-ups), 5 Burpies, 5 Mountain climbers

3. 20 sets of hill or stair climbs at maximum pace (less if the hill section is long), with 20 squats at the top and a walk back as a recovery

And remember to ensure that high intensity sections have to be done at the maximum pace. Enjoy!

Ok guys, so we came up with this brilliant idea of how to get into an ultimate shape this summer, using our goodwill to go from approx. 18% body fat to 12% (this is when muscles really start to show). All the theories of weight loss/habit development/exercise psychology indicate that punitive and social methods offer the best results when it comes to achieving physical goals. You can do this on your own or join a group to make it more transparent, competitive and fun!

It basically works like this: you and your group of friends or exercise buddies commit to a 30 day challenge of eating well and working out in order to improve your body shape, fitness and health. You commit some money, establish your goals and a plan on how are you going to achieve these goals. Your group should also create a Facebook page dedicated to this challenge where your goals and plans should be shared.

The critical rule is that you take the photos of your food and post it on your group’s Facebook page. You also post your workouts and body measurements. The rules are that you lose $5 for every photo or post missed.

The pool of money gets split into two – one with the penalty money and the other with the remaining cash.

The winner is the participant who was closest to their set goal and they take the larger pool of money. The winner decides what they want to do with this cash. The other pool gets used for the group social activity – a dinner at a restaurant or drinks at the bar.

Example

PREPARATION (20 min max)

1. Write out your weight goals / body measurements to achieve in 30 days

2. Decide how you going to get there: for couple of us it is eating healthy (I have about million books on this) and exercise minimum of 30 min x 6 days per week. You can also watch this video for inspiration.

3. Create your Facebook page and upload your goals there.

4. Hand you $100 to the trusted member of your group, someone who is not going to rush to the ice cream shop. This is your entry fee.

EXECUTION (30 days)

Every Day

1. Upload photos of each meal / everything you eat. You can eat what you want, but apparently humans are embarrassed at posting photos of 12 donuts or 7 beers to share with their friends, so your subliminal mind starts to control what you actually eat, hence making it easier to stick to the plan

2. Record what type of exercise you have done for the day

Every Week

3. Post your body weight and measurements (Fridays)

4. Exchange ideas, theories and information with other game players

5. For those that live in the same city – work out together when you can

RULES

1. Penalty for missing uploading a photo of what you have eaten or skipping exercise, will result in $5 withdrawn from your account per day, there is no point in cheating as you are the only person really loosing!

2. The winner: person that beats their goal or gets closest to it

3. At the end there will be 2 kitties:

a. One with all the penalty money

b. The other one with the remaining participant’s money

4. Winner gets the larger Kitty and decides what should be done with it.

5. The remainder of money goes into a social event for all participants.

6. One person per day will be responsible to check that all the photos/results were uploaded by 9 pm sharp on the day.

WHAT DO YOU SAY??????????????????????? BE THERE OR BE SQUARE.

I often wondered what the components were of a balanced personal training plan. What training and support should I evaluate to ascertain the best fitness, body shape and healthy living?

For a start, a well-balanced exercise plan needs to, at the very least, evaluate the objectives you are trying to accomplish. Once you decide what you would like to achieve on your fitness journey, you'll need the following:

• a good blend of fitness routines designed for the desired impact

• a balanced diet plan to support the fitness activities

• a control of your bingeing.

The selection of fitness activities will probably be heavily influenced by what you are attempting to accomplish – lose weight, build tone of muscle, maintain the cardio wellbeing, improve sporting performance, and so on. Nevertheless, no matter what your objectives, a well-balanced exercise plan may involve one of the following:

• cardio activities, for example running, cycling, swimming, etc

• interval training to improve your anaerobic metabolism

• strength training

• yoga

• massage.

Each of these fitness methods has its own benefits so when practised in isolation often is not able to deliver effectively on the fitness plans. For instance, cardio training by itself will not assist in the rapid weight loss that many people expect when they jump on to an exercise bike or a treadmill at the gym or have a jog along the beach. How many individuals actually practise all of these fitness techniques?

Another piece of a complete fitness regime is the nutrition component. What food consumption is required to lose weight? What diet is well suited for muscle building or performance enhancement? How do we manage bingeing and remove harmful ingredients out of our consumption, for example cigarettes and excessive alcohol?

So where to start? You can begin by researching the web or some well written books about this subject.

However, usually the best outcome may be possible by using your gym or personal trainer and obtaining the program developed that will take into account your needs and may direct you towards your desired results. In so doing, you're going to be supported along your fitness journey and you'll have a more personalised program than what you can typically get over the web or through books.

Likewise, visiting a nutritional expert may well save a whole lot in effort and assist your current fitness needs through the development of a well-balanced diet plan that suits your requirements and body.

It takes merely a brief look at any major domestic airport terminal to grasp the size of the travelling business community is on the market. For some, a regular plane trip away from home is the normal element of their job schedule.

Getting away from home can often mean that you're away from the normal routines - your diet plan, social group and often from your typical fitness routine. In addition to long distance, you are subjected to air carrier, aircraft and restaurant food and air conditioned rooms. Maybe you have noticed lack of healthy or fresh food retailers within the airport terminals?

All of this results in a challenging setting to keep in shape and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Very often, consistent work travel is linked to reduction in fitness, an increase in weight and depressive disorder. It is indeed frequently verified in research that a healthier employee is more productive, along with incredibly strong links of staff health and fitness to the company’s bottom line. Nevertheless, many businesses are ignoring the effect of business traveling on the employees’ health (and overall performance). A good idea for corporate gifts perhaps?

However, a travelling employee’s much healthier life style will mean much better job fulfilment, greater efficiency and also over-all improved body and mind.

So here are several tips on how to maintain your appropriate diet while away from home on a business travel.

• Avoid flight terminal and airplane food. If possible pre-pack a typical morning meal if you're taking an earlier trip.

• Minimise restaurant and cafeteria meals and alcoholic beverages. While eating dinner out occasionally might be the only alternative, a stroll into a food store might get you some fresh foods and green vegetables for a salad along with a snack you can take at work during lunch break or at your hotel in the evening.

• Drink a great deal of water. Hotels and airplanes may dehydrate you, so further water intake is often a necessity.

• Avoid hotel mini-bar at any cost. Not just expensive, the mini-bar is loaded with lower nutritional value foods and usually detrimental drinks.

To maintain your fitness regime, you could try numerous options:

• If you are residing in a hotel with a gym or possibly a pool, you ought to make use of it.

• If you happen to be member of a health and fitness centre chain, such as Fitness First or similar, you can search for a gym near me and go for a training session.

• You can exercise in the garden (or inside) on your own, either having a walk or a run or perhaps do an interval training workout circuit.

• You may take an advantage of casual gym membership or pay-as-you-go gym and fitness companies and go to a gym, yoga class or maybe a bootcamp.

• If your finances allow, you can pre-arrange a personal training workout in the region where you are staying.

• And finally, where possible, sleep using hotel aircon off within your room and an open window. Fresh air could do magic for you.

Doing this takes a tiny amount of pre-planning a possible spend plus some determination to keep your wellbeing and fitness while away on job.

For the employers, wondering about corporate fitness will need to start out with employee care and often a travelling employee’s health could be increased by incorporating corporate gifts and healthy gift ideas made to assist them whenever away from home.

Fitpass supplies casual gym membership as well as pay-as-you go access to gyms, bootcamps, yoga classes as well as personal training in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Gold Coast and a few regional centres.