Should You Really Be Drinking Protein Shakes?

Feel Good Personal Training

Personal Training Services in Sevenoaks, Tunbridge Wells and Tonbridge

Should You Really Be Drinking Protein Shakes?

What is a Protein Shake?

To understand what a protein shake is made up of, and whether or not you should really be drinking it, we first have to look at where it comes from and how it is made. Whey is actually a by product of milk, milk is made up of two different forms of protein, a slow digesting form called Casein (which we will cover in a future article) and a fast digesting form called Whey. Whey can either be separated from the Casein in milk, or formed as a by product of the cheese making process.

Protein is further broken up into smaller forms, known as Amino Acids. There are 20 Amino Acids, 11 of these are known as non-essential, as the body can synthesize them itself, and 9 are known as essential Amino Acids, the body cannot produce these itself, therefore you have to be consuming them in your diet.  Whey protein is what is known as a “complete protein” as it contains all 9 essential amino acids, this alone makes it a great source of protein, especially for vegetarians who will find it harder getting all the essential Amino Acids from their diet.

“I don’t want to take protein shakes as I don’t want to look bulky”

 We hear this almost on a daily basis, especially with our women clients. Whey protein alone will not make you bulky! Yes it will aid in building or maintaining lean tissue (which is a good thing!), as will consuming any other form of protein, but the only way to get that bulky look for men is by consuming excess calories, a high carb intake and training heavy, often and consistently for a long period of time. Women won’t even need to worry about it, as long as they follow a reasonably sensible diet, their bodies just don’t have the hormone levels to achieve the big bulky look. So put that question out of your head right away.

The Health Benefits Of Protein Shakes

There are numerous positive health benefits consuming whey protein will have on your body, and researchers are constantly finding new and exciting reasons to start adding extra protein into your diet. Some of these include;

1.      Increase in lean muscle mass.

2.      Decrease in body fat.

3.      Promising findings have been published on the anti-cancer properties of whey protein.

4.      A significant reduction in total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol.

5.      An improved immune response to asthma.

6.      Significantly reduced blood pressure in patients with hypertension.

7.      A reduced risk of heart attacks and strokes.

8.      Better overall body composition.

OK, Now For The Side Effects…

In moderate doses there are generally NO adverse effects of consuming a whey protein shake! That’s right NONE!

So with all those benefits, why not try adding them into your diet today! Most of them on the market now are even very tasty, see what a difference it makes your body composition! For individually tailored exercise and nutrition plans, or one-to-one personal training in Sevenoaks, Tunbridge Wells and Tonbridge visit www.feelgoodpt.co.uk

www.onlinetransformation.co.uk

Online Personal Training

Online Personal Training 

Due to the huge success of our 12 week online training programmes we are pleased to lunch our new website. www.onlinetransformation.co.uk The New site has helped us to improve the service we can offer our one to one and online clients by providing you with a private log in area. You can access the client area on your, computer or on a mobile phone whilst in the gym or doing a food shop! The client area includes;

Video Library

Detailed videos explaining the exercises on your programme and how to do them safety and affectively. We aim to keep increasing the amount of exercises and stretching on the website. If you see a exercise you would like a video of let us know and we'll get in done for you!  

Recipe Ideas

Find a bunch of healthy meal ideas on the site for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. Each meal idea is complete with a recipe.

Measuring Results

Find detailed graphs that you can use to chart your results and track your progress by monitoring your body fat, weight, body measurements and fitness levels. 

Coming Soon

Programmes

We are pleased to say that soon you will be able to access your programmes online and download them onto your phone or computer. 

Educations Talks

We are pleased to say that soon we will start to create educational videos covering some of the most often asked questions in health and fitness. 

For more information about our 12 week online training programmes for just £49 please visit the site or get in touch. 

Dominic@feelgoodpt.co.uk

07757 345 764

www.onlinetransformation.co.uk

What is a diet?

Feel Good Personal Training

What is a diet? Everyone seems to be on one but so few are getting the results they so desperately want and need for their health.

The english dictionary defines diets as: the kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats. This bring me quite nicely onto my next point. I would like to share with you some recent figures released by the NHS on the average waist size. The average waste size in the 1950's was 27 inches, today its 34 inches. If that trend continues the averages waste size in 2050 will be 42 inches. This clearly shows that are community habitual eating patterns, diets and lifestyles are changing and we as a society are getting fatter. But yet everyone seems to be dieting and everything out there seems to be "healthy". Confusing or what eh! 

Forget dieting for now. I spend all of my time talking to clients, family and friends who are trying to lose weight and I would say that 99% of them aren't ready for a diet. Our lifestyles include everything that we are doing in our day to day lives. Our exercise, work, diet, activity levels and so. This together makes up our lifestyle. We can clearly see from the average waist size that the average lifestyle is making us fatter. Before you should even start to think about dieting you need to think about your lifestyle. The questions below should help you answer if your ready for a diet or not. 

1/ Am I in a regular exercise routine?

2/ Am I conscious of what I am eating and when?

3/ Do I cook my own meals?

4/ Am I conscious of the amount I drink? 14 units for women and 21 units for men. 

5/ Am I conscious of what a healthy meal is?

6/ Am I conscious of when I am eating unhealthily? 

7/ Are you sticking to a healthy lifestyle for 90% of the week?

8/ Is it easy to stick to what your currently doing?

If you answered no to any of these questions your probably not ready for a diet and should concentrate on the areas of your lifestyle that are stopping your from answering yes to this question. If you answered yes to all of these questions, your probably ready for a diet. Before you start a diet lets talk a little bit more about what a diet is and the rules of dieting. 

Dieting is sticking to a strict set of nutritional guidelines for a short period of time (1-3 Months) and then going back to adopting your healthy lifestyle you had before you started your diet. A lot of peoples downfall is that they try dieting continuously. There is a big difference between dieting for a short period of time and having a healthy lifestyle that you can stick to. I see a lot of people thinking a healthy lifestyle is a diet. 

Rules of dieting.

1. Don't stray away from your dieting guidelines
2. Don't expect results in two days and get dis motivated when you haven't got a 6 pack after a week. Change takes time.
3. Watch what your drinking, remember they contain marco nutrients too. 

There are lots of different types and style of diet out there that you can try. I would consult with a professional before doing so to ensure your on the best diet for you. But remember there is a big different between being on a diet and having a healthy lifestyle. If you don't have a healthy lifestyle your first steps should be to obtain on. Once you've done that and find it easy to manage then you'll be ready for some hardcore dieting. 

For more information on personal training in and around Sevenoaks, Tunbridge Wells and Tonbridge please get in touch.

07757 345 764 

Dominic@feelgoodpt.co.uk

www.feelgoodpt.co.uk 

Struggling to Lose Those Last Pounds Of Baby Weight?

Feel Good Personal Training

Personal Training Services in Sevenoaks, Tunbridge Wells and Tonbridge

Struggling to Lose Those Last Pounds Of Baby Weight?

Becoming pregnant is possibly the most monumental change your life will ever go through, it offers countless ecstatic and mind blowing emotional moments through your life, however during pregnancy your body also goes through many changes which many women would perceive as negative. One of the number one reasons clients come to see us is because they feel uncomfortable with themselves, particularly their stomach, after having a baby.   

Extra fat is stored around the stomach for 2 main reasons, one so that your skin can stretch to accommodate the extra growth, and to provide cushioning and protection for the uterus to keep your baby safe. There are also many other reasons you may store extra abdominal fat during pregnancy such as your bodies hormones (most notably estrogen), your genetic make up, stress and something simple as eating the wrong foods.

Now you don’t need to worry, here at Feel Good Personal Training we have established ourselves as pre and post natal experts in the Sevenoaks, Tunbridge Wells and Tonbridge areas, and there are numerous different ways to wipe that last bit of baby fat off, the problem is, even with other personal trainers, a general lack of knowledge on how best to go about this. Most people will be performing exercises that have very little effect on actually reducing bodyfat.

 So before we get into the main tips to remember, you first have to make sure your body is ready to exercise again. This usually takes 6 weeks after conception if you were lucky enough to conceive naturally or 8 weeks after a C section, but it is always better for you to double check with your GP first! 

Breastfeeding

Breastfeeding is a great natural way to reduce the size of your stomach and also bond with your baby at the same time.  Women who breastfeed actually burn more calories as they have to make the milk, some experts even speculate that the body causes this excess fat storage to aid in milk production. It also triggers contractions in the uterus to help it return to its previous size. 

Exercise your whole body.

One of the most common training myths is that you can selectively spot target fat loss, this is just not true, and can also be dangerous as it causes muscular imbalances. Contrary to popular belief just training your stomach is much less efficient at burning stomach fat than training your whole body is. Focus on big compound movements that will burn the most calories, now I’m not saying don’t train your core, there are many benefits to training it such as a greater efficiency in your other exercises, just focus on the bigger exercises first.

Weight and strength training.

Cardiovascular exercise has numerous benefits, but for prolonged weight loss and a better body shape, you really need to build some lean muscle! When you train your muscles with some form of resistance, they take energy from your fat stores to feed themselves.  And the more lean muscle mass you have, the higher your basal metabolic rate will be (the calories you burn whilst doing nothing). So you will be burning more calories constantly throughout the day. 

Eating the right foods and cutting out alcohol.

Now this is simple but I felt I had to include it in this article just due to the sheer number of people that neglect this! Eating processed junk food consistently, or even overeating clean food will cause you to gain weight! There’s no two ways about it, if you want lose weight you have to eat clean and burn more calories than you’re consuming.  I also know that you haven’t been able to drink all throughout your pregnancy, and there’s nothing wrong with letting your hair down with a little tipple every now and again, but the calories consumed in a glass of wine or a few bottles of beer in the evening soon add up, and with alcohol being your bodies preferred source of energy, all the energy in your meals surrounding you drinking and in the drinks themselves will be stored as fat. 

Stay motivated.

Remember following these tips for 2 weeks won’t make a difference, your body has been changing for the last 9 months, it will take time, patience and consistency to return to an even better shape than you were in before! Don’t let little slip ups get you down, they happen. Just pick yourself up and keep ploughing towards your goal. It will be worth it in the end! 

If you need any help in shifting that extra post natal weight, don’t hesitate to get in touch, we offer personal training at a time and location that suits you, and have a variety of online training packages. Visit www.feelgoodpt.co.uk or contact dominic@feelgoodpt.co.uk. Good luck in reaching your goals

  

Which Cereals Are Really Making You and Your Children Fat?

Feel Good Personal Training

Personal Training Services in Sevenoaks, Tunbridge Wells and Tonbridge

Which Cereals Are Really Making You and Your Children Fat?

Childhood obesity is one of the biggest problems our country is facing at the moment, obesity levels are skyrocketing and it’s only a short number of years away before the NHS just can’t handle the cost of treating the uncountable health impacts of being overweight. In fact just to scare you all a little more, the latest figures (2012/2013) show 18.9% of children in Year 6 (Age 10-11) and below are classified as obese! And a further 14.4% are overweight! That means that one third of our population below the age of 11 is overweight!

This rapid rise in obesity is in direct correlation to the amount of sugar consumed on a daily basis, we now consume on average an astonishing 93.5 grams of sugar per day! That’s about 23 teaspoons! Now all throughout my childhood and I’m sure it’s the same for you, I was told that eating cereals for breakfast was healthy for me, I’m not here to dispute that fact, but some of the cereals being sold, especially those touted as being “healthy”, contain a huge amount of sugar.

Eating these sugary cereals in the morning causes an immediate rise in the hormone insulin. This shuts off your fat burning capabilities and the feedback mechanism that tells your body to stop producing insulin is slightly delayed, causing your levels to crash to an even lower range than normal. This has numerous effects on your body;

1.      Causes your energy levels to drop dramatically.

2.      Reduces your attention span and cognitive function.

3.      Increases your appetite, encouraging you to snack on even more sugary products.

4.      Raises the levels of another hormone called cortisol, excessive cortisol can result in increased fat storage, depression, allergies, immune weakness, chronic fatigue syndrome and many other serious side effects.

So now hopefully you can see the effect that sugary cereals will have on you and your child throughout the day. I’m not telling you that all cereals are bad for you, far from it, a low sugar, high carbohydrate based breakfast will provide you with the energy to perform well until lunchtime without the crash associated with the more sugary products. To help you make a wise choice for yourself and your family, I have compiled a chart listing the amounts of sugar contained in some of our well known cereals, you will be shocked at how much the “healthy” cereals such as Special K and Muesli actually contain!

Cereal (100g)	Carbohydrates	Sugars	Tsp of Sugar
Bite Size Shredded Wheat	69.6	0.7	0.2
Scottish Porridge Oats	62	1.2	0.3
Weetabix	38.6	2.6	0.7
Rice Krispies	101.5	10	2.5
Corn Flakes	80	10	2.5
Kellogs All Bran	47.5	17.5	4.4
Special K Original	80	21.3	5.3
Weight Watchers Honey Almond Crisp	80	22.5	5.6
Alpen Swiss Style Muesli	66.9	23.1	5.8
Cheerios	75.9	24.5	6.1
Golden Grahams	80.1	25.1	6.3
Special K Red Berries	87.1	29	7.3
Crunchy Nut Corn Flakes	82.5	32.5	8.1
Jordans Country Crisp Strawberries	76.6	32.6	8.2
Coco Pops	85	35	8.8
Frosties	87	37	9.3

Feel Good Personal Training - Online training

Want personal training but costs to much?

Our 12 Week personalised exercise and nutritional programme is just £49 and could work for you!! 

Reach your goals through our 12 week plan. Have access to our online client area which includes lots of healthy meal ideas and recipes, body fat charts and our full video library explaining each exercise on your plan! 

Get in touch and transform your body today

07757 345 764 

Dominic@feelgoodpt.co.uk

www.feelgoodpt.co.uk

How to improve your flexibility

Feel Good Personal Training 

How to improve your flexibility 

Flexibility and stretching is one of the most overlooked and neglected forms of exercise for most people in the gym. Even though an improved flexibility can ward off injury, enhance your exercise capabilities and even increase muscle growth! So why is it so neglected? Especially as we age and lose our flexibility! The answer is that most trainees just want to lose weight, get their abs out or get big, they’re not interested in prolonging the time spent in the gym doing the so called “pansy” stretches. Little do they know that it will make them bigger, stronger and more efficient. Increasing flexibility is hard and it doesn’t happen overnight, as with anything you have to be consistent with it until you reach your desired goal.

Always Warm Up Before Stretching!

You must always warm up before stretching, whether this is a gentle jog or cycle to get loose or performing your workout beforehand, this will prevent injury and strain.

Perform Dynamic Stretching Before A Workout!

You should never perform any static stretching before a workout! Static stretching actually causes micro-tears in the muscle and weakens it, increasing your chance of injury! I’ve lost count of the times I’ve seen athletes, sports teams and regular gym users performing static stretching before a workout! Dynamic stretching includes motion and is meant to mimic and exaggerate the movements of exercise, it’s a much safer form of stretching.

Perform Static Stretching After A Workout!

Static stretching is the stretching most of you will be familiar with, it involvbes holding a stretch in a static position for a period of time (usually around 15 seconds) Static stretching is great for improving flexibility but you must remember to be completely warmed up and not to do it before a workout as it presents a large risk of injury to tight muscles.

Try PNF Stretching!

PNF, or proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation stretching, is the optimal stretching method when the goal is to increase range of motion, especially for short term results. PNF stretching is where you place a muscle into a position of stretch, then contract your target muscles for a short period of time (3-5 seconds), relax the muscles and continue the stretch even further. Imagine performing a chest stretch on a doorframe, once you have held the stretch, contract the chest muscles (by pushing your arm into the doorframe) for 3-5 seconds, relax and continue the stretch even further than before.

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