The Opportunistic Omnivore
How important is animal protein to the human diet?
Clearly important enough to risk life & limb for…
GRAND OPENING!
Top Bizz-ness Experts recommend a ‘Soft Opening’ of a new product or service before a ‘Grand Opening Day’.
A ‘soft launch’ allows the organization to become more organised the first few weeks or months before the more publicised grand opening and gives the management & staff a chance to become familiar with the daily operations of their inventory, accounting, and customer service requirements.
Obviously, we don’t have a clue what they’re talking about! However, we do know that it’s taken us 2 years of hustle to get the gym up to the exacting standards that you guys expect from us. To that end, we’re extremely excited to announce..
Saturday the 11th of February 2012: Evolutionary Fitness Official-Grand-Opening Hard-Launch-Bonanza- Extravaganza…Day!!
The Outline as follows:
- 1100: Fun Fitness (‘Optional’ training; at least one eyebrow raised if skipped, possibly two if you don’t have a note…and remember your kit otherwise you’ll be doing it in your underpants…again!)
- 1205pm: Official Opening Ceremony (Our longest-serving client has requested a few minutes in order to deliver a short speech, but would like it known that ‘longest client’ is not to be confused with ‘oldest client!’)
- 1206pm: Drinks & nibbles (Baked and supplied by our delightful & highly talented clients…just don’t mention the Gluten)
We expect to wrap-up the event by around 1400 (which is when the local ‘Jamdani’ Indian Restaurant shuts so sneak out early…we’ll draw straws to see who has to stay & distract Laura!).
Seriously Guys, We Couldn’t Have Done it Without You,
Many Thanks & Enjoy Your New Facilities!
See You at the Grand Opening!
TEAM EF
In House Sports Massage Therapist
At Evolutionary Fitness, we are big believers in soft tissue work. Why?… Because it keeps nagging pains away, eliminates present ones and allows you to train hard. Whilst frequent use of the foam rollers, tennis/cricket/hockey balls….and the new addition ‘The Stick’, are of great benefit, there’s nothing quite like receiving a sports massage from an expert.
As such, we are delighted to announce that we now have our very own Sports Massage Therapist, Laura Donaldson.
Laura is looking forward to starting with us and had the following to say:
Hi guys
For those of you I haven’t met my name’s Laura and I am a sports massage therapist. I have provided regular sports massage for both Laura and Dave.
I am here to offer each of you a free 30 minute consultation and demonstration to talk about sports massage and how it can be of benefit to you.
While the physical and psychological benefits of participating in regular exercise at the gym are vast, any form of repetitive exercise can lead to a build up of tension in the muscles, ligaments and tendons. As well as causing pain, this excessive tension can also have a negative effect on the movement of joints resulting in decreased mobility and performance. Sports massage works by manually mobilizing these soft tissue structures to increase blood flow, enhance the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to muscles, break down adhesions (bands of painful, rigid tissue) and release tension.
Sports massage has a number of benefits including:
- General reduction of stress and tension and muscle soreness; helping you achieve your optimum performance
- Improved muscle flexibility and associated range of movement to assist you to achieving an effective lift position
- Increase the quality and quantity of training by reducing recovery time after exercise
- Prevention of injury – through regular monitoring of the condition of muscles and other soft tissues
- Enhancing posture
If you have a particular issue you want to discuss or are interested to find out how sports massage can be of benefit to you, please sign up for a free consultation. There will be sign up sheets in the gym.
For further information about sports massage please see my website.
I look forward to meeting you all soon.
Laura Donaldson
Secret Sugar
One of the ‘Red Tops’ had an article on the hidden sugar in so-called ‘Health’ drinks this week, but do you know how much sugar (carbohydrate) is hidden in your diet?
.
Part of the problem of tracking your carb intake is that sugar has more guises than the Scarlet Pimpernell!
Glucose, sucrose, fructose, lactose, maltose, amylose, cheerios to name a few (OK, that last one was to see if you were still paying attention!).
So what’s the remedy?
Well there’s more than one way to skin a cat but we find limiting our sources of carbohydrate to just vegetables is a deceptively simple means of tracking our carb intake (without painstakingly counting calories). At the same time we maximise the amount of vitamins, minerals and fibre we receive.
Not only does restricting carbohydrate to vegetables (with perhaps a little fruit thrown in the mix) ensure plenty of nutrient dense food, it makes over-eating a thing of the past. Try eating 20 cups of broccoli (the equivalent of 1 cup of pasta) and you’ll see why!
Of course eating 20 cups of broccoli is not our idea of fun, so we tend to include some starchier veg (e.g. butternut squash, sweet potato etc.) as well, especially after training.
What’s more, if you’ve had the good sense to smear some grass-fed butter onto your veg, you’ll also get Vitamin K2, Vitamin A, Vitamin E, B-Vitamins Omega-3, and tonnes of flavour into the bargain. Of course you’ll already be aware (because of all the useful advice from Government health agencies) that some vitamins (such as Vit E) actually require the presence of fat in the digestive tract in order to be absorbed.
Experts’ will argue that this isn’t a ‘balanced’ diet because we’ve removed “entire food groups” (grains, pulses & dairy) from our eating plan. This seems logical until you consider that humans thrived for millions of years before these ‘essential food groups’ were even created!
As for balance, you only have to type a typical day of eating meat, fish, seeds, nuts into any nutritional analysis software (Fitday, Nutritiondata etc.) to observe the sheer variety and density of micronutrients involved.
In short, you couldn’t possibly hope to achieve the same levels of vitamins and minerals from bread, pasta, cereal, beans, and pulses. If you’re still concerned that vegetables alone aren’t enough to sustain your blood-sugar, simply try it for a week and see. If, after a week or two, you still feel like you need more carbs to fuel your activity levels, then ramp them up gradually (some rice or potato after exercise may be enough). This way you learn about your own body’s needs and can observe exactly at what level you best operate, and at what point you start laying down fat.
Here’s a website for further reading on carbohydrate intake. Just remember, you need to find out what works for you (specifically what works for you now, not what worked for you when you were 21 or what worked for you when you were training for the London marathon!).
New Timetable
Well folks, it’s here! The new timetable is now live and ready to take bookings. You will see some exciting new changes and we look forward to getting stuck in on 1st February!
You will notice that the Group Training Classes have been divided into Level 1 and Level 2 classes to better cater for the diverse needs of our clients. We will be discussing the appropriate level for you over the next couple of weeks in person. However, in the mean time, please click on the link below and take a look at the Level 1 skills which must be completed as a pre-requisite for joining Level 2.
Online Schedule
In preparation for the new timetable commencing on the 1st February, we are busy making changes to the online schedule. As such, you will notice that the names of some of the classes have been changed for the remainder of January. Please ignore these changes for now and simply book in for the times you wish to attend. We appreciate your patience over the next couple of weeks whilst we finalise the changes and we very much look forward to starting the new timetable on the 1st February.
As always, if you have any questions or queries, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Exciting Announcements for February!
With Christmas and New Year well and truly behind us, we hope that calm and routine has descended upon everyone’s household!…..the kitchen cupboards are once again a caveman’s dream!……and you are back into the groove of your training schedule.
We have spent the week mobilising and blowing off those Christmas cobwebs, combined with plenty of myofascial release using the foam rollers, stick and tennis/cricket balls! Oooooooo’s and ahhhhhhhhhh’s all round!
Now as we look forward to 2012, we have lots to be excited about!…
Firstly, we are delighted to announce that from the 1st of February we will be seeing a lot more of Chris. Chris has been with us for a year now, and during this time, has become a much loved and valuable member of our team. His skills and knowledge continue to expand and I am pleased to say that he is no longer seen as ‘the good cop’! (Those who have attended his Thai boxing class on a Friday will know that he certainly can dish out the punishment… despite his innocent smile!). We look forward to benefiting from his coaching skills in more of our adult classes.
Concurrently, the 1st of February will see the introduction of a brand new timetable. Having analysed our current schedule, we feel that the biggest issue is with our athletes graduating from Ramp-Up and entering the group classes. There is always scaling options available for the newer participants, however, the introduction of a progressive schedule would ensure that each and every athlete’s needs are more closely catered for. As such, following the Ramp-Up, athletes will join the ‘Novice’ class. Participants will remain in this class until they are ready to join the ‘Intermediate’ class (this period could be anywhere from 3-9months, or longer, depending on the individual). Each athlete will benefit from a programme that is specific to their needs, and will enjoy the opportunity of working alongside athletes of a similar level.
We will also be introducing new classes into the timetable, including Kettlebell Classes (working solely with Kettlebells), Lifting Classes (focusing on powerlifting and Olympic Lifting with no metabolic conditioning), and Open Gym (where members can come down and work on personal goals and complete the workout of the day).
We very much look forward to the implementation of this new timetable which will be on our online booking schedule in the very near future…..keep an eye out!
Finally, we are extremely excited (slight understatement!) to announce that February will see the opening of our much anticipated changing rooms! The new facilities include male and female changing rooms with showers and toilets, and a treatment/personal training room (more information on the treatment room coming soon). To celebrate this occasion, we will be hosting a ‘Grand Opening Team Workout’ followed by drinks, more details of which will come very soon.
So a big start to what promises to be a big year!! As always, we thank you for your loyalty, support, dedication, commitment, love and laughter!
The Benefits of 1RM Training!
Rippetoe and Kilgore (2005 : 294), Starting Strength, 2nd Edition:
So, in response to 1RM training, the body adapts by getting better at producing high amounts of force, one rep at a time. It does this by adjusting the components of the system that produce the force: the nervous system, the neuromuscular system, and the muscles themselves, specifically the components of the muscle that actually produce the contraction.
There are other adaptations that are secondary to the main ones, but they all involve helping the body perform a brief, intense effort. Psychological adaptations enable the fear of the heavy weight to be overcome. The heart adapts by getting better at working with a huge load on the back, and the blood vessels adapt by becoming capable of responding to the demands of increased peak blood pressure. The tendons thicken to better transmit force, and the ligaments thicken and tighten to hold the joints together under the load. The skin under the bar gets thicker, the eyeballs get used to bugging out, and new words are learned that express the emotions of success/failure with a new PR squat.
Enough said!
The satisfaction of the journey
When looking back at my personal goals for 2011 a few interesting issues came up. My main goal of getting to the Crossfit Games 2011 was, on paper, unsuccessful. I failed to qualify for the Games, but in my quest to achieve this goal, I committed myself 100% to my training and nutrition, and pushed myself harder than ever before. I placed 14th in Europe.
Following the competition, I could identify my weaknesses and formulate a plan to address these…in my case…get stronger!
So although my goal was not achieved, my passion in striving for this goal meant that my journey was one of satisfaction, personal achievement, and discovery.
How did you fair in achieving your goals?… Was the journey of striving for them just as empowering as achieving the goal itself?…Was the goal so personal to you, that you did everything in your power to accomplish it?….What did you learn about yourself during your journey?…
Answering these questions, will help you to formulate your goals for the coming year. We have all heard of the importance of setting ‘SMART’ goals, but let’s click here to delve a little deeper.
In my opinion, making goals personal to you is the most important aspect of the journey. Is ‘losing two stone by the 1st March 2012′ the most important thing to you, at the sacrifice of all else, or are you setting this goal simply because you think you ‘should‘, or because ‘it would be nice’. Goals do not come without sacrifice, but the journey and the accomplishment is worth all the effort if the goal is important enough to you.
Take the time now, to formulate your goal(s) for 2012, knowing with absolute belief that you will do everything in your power to achieve it/them.
Write them down, put them somewhere you will see every day, and enjoy the journey!
Here’s to 2012!
Before we move forward, let us first look back.
As we come to the final day of 2011, and begin to set goals for the year ahead, we ask you to first take 10 minutes to reflect on the year past. Where were you at this time last year?…what were your hopes, dreams and aspirations?…have you achieved everything you set out to achieve?…
…look at your goals for 2011. Go through them one by one, and honestly analyse your success in achieving (or not) each one…do it now!
