Here’s my latest rant and another of those which is media
reported and/or fitness trainer led.

The number of times I’ve heard trainers and read articles
that say sitting on a stability ball is the best thing for you to do in order
to protect your back in the office environment.

Wrong, Wrong, Wrong!

Just check out the short audio below and everything will
become clearer on how the spine functions and what is the best way to protect
your spine in the office.

Until next time,

Train hard, train smart, make every rep count!

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 Sitting On Stability Balls Will Keep Your Back Safe!: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Here’s my newest fitness rant, and one which is one of the biggest problems with most personal trainers and most of the media.

It’s to do with Core Stability.

When this term first started getting some headlines back about 10 years ago lots of people jumped on the idea that they could train and help people work on their core stability.

During this time we saw the proliferation of Pilates as it moved from a niche training regime almost exclusively used in the dancing arena to a mass participation fitness class designed to give anyone who participated in a class a ‘dancers’ like body.

We also saw the popularisation of stability balls and balance objects. As well as classes and equipment that claimed to be training your core stability – like some of those infomercial products.

Well it just doesn’t happen like that, the biggest problem is the ’spin doctors’, those people who look at the research and think I can use this to promote x, y or z.

In the majority of cases the people who spin it don’t actually understand what the science behind it all means and to what extent that can be utilised by the general population.

I’m not going to go into a whole long description of what core stability actually is as that would probably require some 1000’s of words.

Suffice to say what most people mean when they are talking about core stability, can better be classified as core strength – subtle differences in the two but very important ones.

Hope you enjoy it.

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 Core Stability is not as simple as some say!!: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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In my last post I introduced the concept of EPOC and today I will tell you how to use it to get results

This is the key part that most people don’t know or understand and therefore do not utilise. The power that interval and resistance training can give you.

Imagine burning calories not only when you’re working out but for 24 hours after you stop. That is what happens in the body when you lift weights and do interval training.

So how does this differ from normal fat loss training. In most cases people (and some trainers) think that the best way to loose weight is to run, cross train, cycle etc. They get on the bit of cardio and workout all at the same speed for an hour.

Well in that hour the calorie consumption may have been 800 calories as opposed to only say 400 calories from doing intervals or lifting weights.

However it is the effect with in the body that is more important. The weights or interval training will set of a reaction of hormonal and physiological responses that will continue to burn fat hours after finishing the exercise where the steady pace running would only burn calories for another couple of hours.

Tomorrow I’ll describe more in depth about what each of the factors, Alwyn talks about, are.

If you want to take a closer look at ‘Afterburn’ then check it out at www.CoachCosgrove.com – he also has some great products for fitness professionals.

Until next time,
Train hard, train smart, make every rep count.

Alex

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