Bespoke personal trainer in a private gym in Alnwick
Today was a bit ugh, couldn’t get into the flow of it and was hyper aware of what I wasn’t getting right.
I think being a little bit tired and achy didn’t help. But it’s early in my year of this adventure so I’m not stressed.
I was particularly aware again of landing on my toes and a couple of times not getting the bar close enough.
I must admit to being a little relieved when I finished more in my comfort zone with dumbbell rows, bicep curls and sit ups!
Yes I said revolution because resolutions always seem to be about giving up something. I revolt against that and am commenting to learning something.
In particular it’s olympic lifting. Which will be the main focus of my training for the next year. I will still use dumbbells for joint stability as I’m a bendy stretchy person but more as an accessory and a lil wod here and there to stop my heart exploding.
I have an amazing coach who I will see once a month and he can tell me where I’m going wrong and then I follow the program in between.
Today was day 3 of my year of olympic lifting, at this stage we are keeping it pretty light while I think about technique.
Today I particularly was aware in snatch balance of my tendency to land more on toes than heels which I’m working on. Snatch pull I find particularly useful as I really get the feeling of it being close to my belly.
I closed up the session with some split squats and heavy step ups then a short street parking work out. All in all body was thoroughly tickled
Interestingly my heart rate had a decent boomf from the olympic lifting
Well, I did it, or at least I hit 85% success. But by god by the end was it a pain in the arse. So here are my takeaways.
The next challenge I am starting is to see if there is any difference between walking a lot and more high intensity exercise. I will be using my Polar watch to do this. Currently it is set at the highest level of activity goal and my aim from Jan 24 to the end of Dec 24 is to hit an average of 100 percent 5 days a week. You will note the added flexibility here! Two days where I can be more restful, and the other days can be averaged which allows for a quieter day after a much busier day. I regret not allowing for averages during the walking challenge as some days I would hit 25000 steps but STILL have to do the 15000 the next day, Which beat me up a few times!
All in all though it was a reasonable challenge and if you are looking for a simple way to get fitter, reduce blood pressure and maybe lose some weight I would definitely recommend giving it a go for a year, but make it an average of 15000 steps a day over 5 or 6 days a week to allow a little wiggle room!
If you would like to have personal training in a private gym in Alnwick Northumberland please get in touch.
The past couple of months I’ve been working on setting boundaries. I am really not very good at doing this and basically want everyone I care about to be happy. I think it’s not uncommon for mums to find themselves in this situation, especially if they have children with additional needs. My 3 children all had significant challenges growing up ranging from depression, autism (and the unwillingness of the world to be a kind place to autistic people) to cancer and an especially nasty cancer causing genetic disorder.
I always saw it as my role to smooth things over, to make their life easier when at times it was far from it. Which of course is the right thing to do, but then I kept doing it not only for them but for well anyone I loved. I continually put myself last and well I found myself exhausted. Bone tired exhausted, regularly doing things for other people that actually they could do for themselves. I was the person who would say yes to everyone and bend over backwards to make everyone’s life easier.
You will think this is ridiculous, but it wasn’t till I started working with a counsellor dealing with some of the issues I have from childhood trauma and some of the awful years where my children were suffering that I realised this was a problem. Somewhere in my psyche I have a belief that in order to be loved I need to look after everyone. That unless I am making sure they are happy they won’t love me. Perhaps it stems from being years of being bullied, perhaps later years and bad relationships. I honestly don’t know. But it’s there as a belief and it’s one that I’m working with.
I started with family boundaries, allowing people to do things for themselves that they were more than capable of. There are people in my life who have significant struggles not all of which they can manage on their own I still help with areas they need. But I was taking on a lot that they are more than capable of and that was primarily my fault. I hadn’t set the boundaries for myself and felt my input was vital. The reasons of childhood cancer etc are more than understandable. But still that’s where I found myself, taking over when people didn’t actually need it.
But finding myself waking up at 5 am and not stopping till 8 pm was becoming unsustainable and I was just making myself miserable.
At 50 I am in a process of re-finding myself and allowing myself to come first sometimes. I was not just put on this earth to look after everyone else and nothing more than that. I deserve to explore my own joy and ambitions. I deserve to have time to read a book, relax in a bath or see friends. Other people deserve the chance to try and sometimes fail on their own and by doing so grow in the way we all have to.
That is a work in progress, saying no sometimes, and backing off when it’s not really my place to take responsibility.
The next set of boundaries I have started to set are with work. I am a self employed personal trainer which means everything is my responsibility from advertising to looking after equipment, keeping records on clients, planning and of course delivering the session. Not to mention the actual delivery of the session. For every hour taught there is another 20 to 30 minutes spent on setting the room up, then tidying it up, note making and planning.
After a month of a great deal of cancellations and numerous evenings on the phone re-arranging appointments I was talking to my counsellor who suggested that was another boundary I should set. He was of course right. I needed work boundaries. Just as I could not be there for family 24/7 I needed to have some stability in my working life. I previously had taught classes which is a very different way of working and not reliant on an individual in the same way. The transition into working out of a home gym means I am learning as I go along and I had not at the outset stated clear guidelines.
All of my clients are genuinely lovely people and likely hadn’t even thought about the issues it causes when there are a lot of cancellations especially last minute.
Before becoming self employed I did not realise the frustration of turning work away because I believed I was fully booked to have so many cancellations you lose a full day of work. I am a great deal more considerate now of my fellow self employed friends.
There’s the added complication that unlike a hairdresser or a beauty therapist for example I can’t fit in a new client ad hoc. To be able to see everyone in a given week I can only have a finite number of clients. Occasional clients isn’t really a thing in this line of work.
Any new client I take on is going to want regular sessions be it weekly or fortnightly.
I also want my little business to be as successful as possible and to be able to help as many people as possible in a given week.
My new rules then for work were
1. Not replying to messages after 6.30 pm
2. Instituting cancellation terms. Fairly standard ones nothing exciting.
3. If anyone really is unreliable let them go as a client.
I emailed everyone with my new terms and I immediately lost a couple of clients. Strangely they were clients who already did everything I had outlined in the cancellation terms, which really took me aback.
With both setting boundaries with family and with work there was a similar reaction, some people totally understood it. Others took it personally when it wasn’t.
As someone who struggles with setting boundaries any negative reaction is very tough, which is very much a me thing. It felt especially with loved ones like it reinforced my fear that to be loved I need to be forever available.
With family and friends I chose to focus on the people who loved me anyway, who offered to help me because they knew I was flat out busy. Who loved me regardless for who I am not what I do, even when I am too tired to have anything to give.
With clients it is a little more simple, they come and go it’s the nature of the business and I will always respect the choice of anyone who has decided it is no longer for them. Even if I will miss them.
When setting boundaries we do not control how the other person will react. That is an aspect of the process we need to accept.
Their reaction is their own and they absolutely have a right to it, that doesn’t mean it was wrong to set the boundary, although you may question yourself.
Each of us has a finite amount of energy and time to give to family, friends and work. Accepting that and working with it long term is to the benefit of everyone. None of us is a great deal of use if we are totally burned out and overwhelmed.
Now I have boundaries in place, as much in my mind as anywhere else I feel genuinely lighter and more optimistic for the future. I feel less like I am running to stand still and more like I can start to plan things to look forward to. It is never an easy thing to do, but if your lines are so blurred you don’t ever have time to yourself, time to relax or be open to plans and feel as though you exist for everyone else you may need to do the same.
Remember
If you would like a female personal trainer in Alnwick Northumberland who is well versed in different types of training including working with health issues please get in touch.
I am also a qualified yoga teacher and Pilates instructor.
Some people excel at sport and athleticism from an early age, it is woven into their DNA. They take to any physical activity they try with ease and grace. The kind of people who won every race at sports day and captained every team. Then there’s those like me who were quite literally picked last for every team in PE, I swear to god if my classmates could have chosen the school bench over me they would. To be fair it would have probably done a better job at the time.
I was skinny, knock kneed, had an undiagnosed hypermobility spectrum disorder and the serious lack of muscle tone that goes with it. As is often the case when we are awful at something I avoided it like the plague, I don’t know if things have changed but in my day PE teachers had no interest in those without natural athleticism never mind the reasons why.
To be entirely honest my experiences at school with regard to fitness were not just negative they were actually traumatic. I was openly bullied for my lack of physicality and knock knees and viciously name called. I’m not sure though out of the laughter or the pity clap I would sometimes get coming in dead last for something…again which one was worse. I still won’t even so much as take part in a 5k race in public as a result, the idea of any type of competition fills me with horror to the point where I actually feel physically sick.
Why am I telling you this? It’s not for pity or sympathy, I am honestly quite fine. The past is the past. I want you to read this if you like me had no natural ability and let you know that it does not and never did exclude you from looking after yourself physically. No matter how rubbish you were at PE you can still benefit from various forms of movement. Heck you might even enjoy it. I certainly do, in fact I can’t imagine a life where I don’t get up and exercise pretty much every day. I am so grateful that I discovered first yoga and Pilates in my 20s which I found I actually quite naturally built for and being the antithesis of competitive sports allowed me to tune in with my body and learn to love moving it. It was this love of movement I took into CrossFit and strength training, the difference being in that situation I was pretty rubbish to begin with. However many years later of keeping at it I am actually
pretty strong and certainly fit.
That for me is the important aspect, being fit and healthy, being strong enough to squat down to the ground with a heavy back pack and stand back up, being able to walk briskly up hills without losing my breath, being limber enough to fold into my legs with no discomfort, being able to lift heavy suitcases over head for other passengers on trains. These are the things that matter to me. That and the sheer love of movement, oh heavens it is simply glorious to just move, there is a delight in using your body that is with language almost inexpressible. As though different movements all have their own flavor and to engage in more than one is like a banquet for the body. Plus as a result I honestly feel better at nearly 50 than I did my entire adult life.
Don’t let a perceived idea of not being athletic dictate to you that exercise isn’t for you, it is for everyone from those like my husband who are naturally talented in a particular field (running) and thrive in competition to those like myself who myself who had to work at it. In fact I think those of us who are not naturals potentially benefit even more as there are often underlying conditions that make us that way which are improved by movement.
Exercise is for all of us and is certainly one of the keys to health and longevity.
If you would like to work with a personal trainer in a quiet setting in Alnwick Northumberland get in touch!
And I would walk 15000 steps, and I would walk 15000 more…Just to be the one who walked 15000 steps a day or more. You are very welcome for the brain worm I’ve implanted, now lets get on.
As I mentioned in my post on Blue Zones aside from eating a diet devoid of processed food and high in vegetables plus fruit the centenarians moved a huge amount throughout their entire lives. In fact they on average only rest for 8 to 9 hours a day and that includes sleep, most of it is low intensity gardening, walking place to place with distances of 7 to 9 miles not being uncommon. Compare that to the UK where the average step count is a paltry 3000 to 4000 a day[1]
Movement throughout the day or Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) has a huge impact on weight, insulin sensitivity and metabolic health.[2] But I exercise I hear you cry, the question then is if we go to the gym a few times a week does that actually make up for spending the rest of the time sitting? Apparently not, if after a bout of exercise, the rest of the day is spent sitting or driving you are still losing out on your primary method of thermogenesis (calorie burning) and as a result are still at risk of a number of metabolic diseases[3]. In fact even in elite athletes sedeantary time outside of training leads to increased abdominal adiposity[4] leading the researchers to conclude
“These findings indicate that athletes with higher amounts of sedentary behaviour presented higher levels of total and trunk fatness, regardless of age, weekly training time, and residual mass. Therefore, even high moderate-to-vigorous physical activity levels do not mitigate the associations between sedentary behaviour and body fatness in highly trained athletes.”[5]
As the average age of the cohort researched was 22 this is a little concerning!
It’s not a huge surprise, then that as a nation we are getting bigger, and we are also in general getting sicker.
As hunter gatherers we would have averaged around 16 to 17000 steps a day, we would also have carried chopped and engaged in other physical activities, there are tribes who still live like this although they are becoming a rarity, when moving this much and this often-cardiovascular disease is rare[6] Perhaps it is not the type of exercise or movement we engage in that matters but how often we move, it will come as good news to those who don’t enjoy exercise that you don’t need to engage in vigorous activity either to benefit, you just need to move often. Although I would always recommend both strength training and mobility training for optimal aging.
In more recent times such as the 1950s women were estimated to burn around 1000 calories on top of their basal metabolic rate (the calories needed just to exist) through walking, cleaning, cycling and other activities.[7] While men depending upon their profession could burn more through their work and commute to and from work. Few people had cars, most lived close enough to their place of occupation to walk to and from work and children would be unlikely to get to school any other way than by foot.
Now I am not suggesting we relinquish cars, washing machines and all return to working as Shepherds (though it does sound pretty idyllic) but it is clear we move less than we ever have and the truth is it is not doing anyone any good.
I came to the realisation that I was not immune from this sedentary behaviour, I like to think I am relatively fit for my age, I strength train, use a stationary bike 4 or 5 times a week, CrossFit regularly, practice yoga and walk the dog. But the truth is that although I exercise daily and walk the dog on top the rest of the day I am sat down, I am working towards my PhD which is of course desk work and I now teach and train people primarily from home.
Like a lot of people then my movement has dropped. I want to stay as healthy as I can for as long as I can and do what I can to promote a long healthy life. I decided then mid October to walk a minimum of 15000 steps a day. This is based on research on postal workers that found 15000 steps was optimal for blood pressure reduction, cholesterol reduction and many other health benefits[8] I decided initially on a period of 9 months which would take me to my 50th birthday. I then changed that to a year. I believe that to fully appreciate the benefits of any change we have to commit to a reasonable period of time as these types of changes don’t happen quickly. I am particularly interested in changes to my blood pressure, since surgical menopause it sometimes creeps higher than I would like. Not high enough for a doctor to be concerned they reassure me, but outside of the bounds I would be comfortable with. According to the American College of Cardiology a higher step count is linked to lower blood pressure.[9] I would also like to see a reduction in cholesterol, on my last check my levels were at the upper end of ok.
The rules I set myself were as follows:-
I am currently at the end of 4 months and on average have exceeded my target with an average of 17000 to 18000 steps a day and within the 14 weeks have missed only one day.
That day was the day we were traveling on holiday and although I was at 11000 steps it was way too late when we arrived at our accommodation to try explore a new place. Still 1 day missed in 14 weeks is pretty good if you ask me. Things I have learned during this time trying to get over 15000 steps:-
I am leaving measuring blood pressure etc till much later in the experiment, I will be getting I believe a full MOT at 50 which will be a good time to check over all my health stats and as it will be 9 months since I started this experiment will be a good time to assess how I am doing!
If you are reading this, start tracking your day to day movement with phone, watch or pedometer and find out how active you are outside of formal exercise.
If you would like to work with a personal trainer in a quiet setting in Alnwick Northumberland get in touch!
[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-33154510
[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6058072/
[3] https://journals.lww.com/acsm-essr/Fulltext/2010/07000/Too_Much_Sitting__The_Population_Health_Science_of.3.aspx
[4] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02640414.2014.926382
[5] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02640414.2014.926382
[6] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42978-020-00091-0#:~:text=Male%20and%20female%20hunter%2Dgatherers,in%20the%20tribe%20%5B29%5D.
[7] https://metro.co.uk/2022/06/15/this-is-what-diets-and-lifestyles-were-like-in-the-1950s-16826401/
[8] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28138134/
[9] https://www.acc.org/latest-in-cardiology/articles/2020/03/18/15/42/step-it-up-higher-daily-step-counts-linked-with-lower-blood-pressure-acc-2020?fbclid=IwAR1Aoh0MT2d7VxdfDfubRKRL8RDAUTCfJBW_JcXFI2y8NAkOjYWt0kV6-2s
Sam Kelly Fitness 