Workout tips

Circuits Hit that plateau? Try a circuit for the next two weeks. Instead of doing a set, resting, and then doing your second set move on to multiple exercises in a circuit, so that you don’t rest between exercises but do rest each muscle group. This will give you a good cardio workout while you do your strength training.    Limit your workouts Though the tendency of some people who really want to get a lot out of their workouts is to spend a lot of time at the gym, the truth is that after 30 or 40 minutes, the benefit isn’t as great. To go that long, you’d have to lower the intensity of the workout, and that means that you’re spending too much time working out. It’s better to work out at a higher intensity for a shorter amount of time.    High-intensity workouts If you’re just starting out with exercise, it’s best to take it slow. If you’re running or cycling, for example, build up your endurance for at least a month before you get into anything more intense. That means going at a rate where you can easily talk without being out of breath. However, once you have that base of endurance, step up the intensity to step up the effectiveness of the workout.

Pick a cardio exercise you enjoy It’s no fun to exercise if you hate it. And you won’t keep it up for very long. Pick something that you enjoy; the treadmill for jogging or hill walking, cycling or spinning for a more intense and instructed workout. Rowing and the stairmaster excellent for legs and glutes and the cross trainer for an all over non-impact workout. After the initial phase when you’re getting used to exercise, you’ll start to have a blast and look forward to it.    Muscle Building Slow lifting: Many people contract their muscles slowly and then release more quickly. But if you lift slowly in both directions, you are maximizing each move. Lift and lower to a 5-second count in each direction. Heavier weight: When you’re starting out, it’s best to start with lower weights so you can focus on good form. But once you’ve gotten your form down, it’s best to lift the heaviest weights you can lift while still keeping good form. Don’t sacrifice form for heavy weights — that is ineffective.    Compound exercises Try maximizing the time you spend in a workout by doing exercises that work out multiple muscle groups at once. With just a few exercises, you could get a full-body workout. Another benefit is that your muscles are working together functionally as they do in the real world, rather than alone. Some great compound exercises include squats, dead-lifts, good mornings, lunges, push-ups, bench presses, military presses, rows, pull-ups, dips, and more.

Carnival fun, Alive-style!

One of our Personal Trainers, Neil, manning the Alive stand with his trademark smile!

On Bank Holiday Monday 4th June, the Alive Team joined in with the fun and activities of the Hove Lions Carnival at Hove Park.  Thousands of local people attended the event, and luckily the heavens didn’t open up to drench us all!  We had a great time meeting local people and telling them all about Alive; many people were drawn to our stall by some fun posters designed by Joseph from our sales team, which put Alive’s own spin on spreading the news about our classes!
Truly “keeping it in the family”, we had Kate, the sister of our lovely receptionist Bryony, come down to do some wonderful face-painting for the children, and several mums and dads were surprised to hear we have a crèche!

Throughout the day, there were a host of attractions in the main arena, including a fitness demonstration from one of our competitors, dog shows and a bird of prey display!  To end the day, our very own Barry Randall took to the stage and got the crowd engaged in a fun and uplifting Zumba demonstration.

As always with Alive, fun was had by all … we can’t wait for next year!

Toby’s Tips

Toby’s Tips

As Toby has been on his holidays,  we asked Personal Trainer Matt Dunn to step in and give us his tip of the month!

Spring in your step!

As March draws to a close its hard to believe that summer hasn’t arrived early.  The spring weather has been unseasonably hot and Brighton and Hove seafront and beach has been busy with locals and tourists alike.  The sunny weather is an incentive for many to move up a gear with their exercise routine in order to look and feel their best for the summer.

Most people like familiarity and routine which can lead to a training plateau if you are in the habit of doing the same exercises every time you come to the gym.  If you want to stimulate change in your body then you have to approach your training differently – change the order of the exercises in your programme or substitute new exercises in place of familiar ones.  Speak to one of our personal trainers about designing a new programme in order to overcome an exercise plateau and maximise the results of your effort in the gym.

One of the best ways of introducing variety into your exercise routine is mixing classes in with your gym work.  As the evenings are getting lighter and the weather has been so warm and dry we have decided to take some of our classes outside onto Regency Square – weather and participants permitting!  If you are a class regular, why not try a completely new and different class or add a gym session into your weekly routine and use some of the equipment, you’ll be surprised at how the variety can promote positive change!

Brighton Marathon

Date: 15 April 2012

On April 15th 2012 Brighton is hosting its 3rd Marathon with people competing from all over the world.  We catch up with our very own PT and Marathon Man, Joe Addison who will be competing this year, first at Brighton and then in the London Marathon one week later.  There is a twist… Joe will be running barefoot!  Joe started training for the Marathon in 2008 and ran the London Marathon in 2009.  However due to knee problems switched to barefoot running and has already run 3 Marathons plus lots of shorter distances, shoeless for various charities.  Joe explained that when he was a ‘shoe’ runner, he used to suffer quite badly with runners knee and IT Band syndrome and his research led him to barefoot running.  Since he discovered barefoot running, he suffers much less aches and pains and is also faster over 5k, 10k and marathon distances and hasn’t looked back since!  This year Joe will be raising money for Macmillan cancer Care in memory of his Dad who passed away in 2010.  If you would like to sponsor Joe and support this very worthwhile charity then you can go to: www.justgiving.com/barefootaddison or text BFJA80 and the amount (eg £10).  Good Luck Joe!

Personal Training Benefits

Personal Training Benefits

The benefits of exercise are widely documented and using the gym is a great way of enjoying them.  Whether you are coming to the gym to improve your fitness, change your body shape, improve your energy or relieve some of the stress of modern life.  Personal training at Alive can make that experience more effective for you!

Using a personal trainer is a great way of helping you achieve your goals safely and effectively.  At Alive we have a team of highly experienced personal trainers available to support you in getting the most out of your time in the gym.

Our trainers offer a free consultation to find out about you so you can work together in a relaxed environment to discuss your goals and come up with a challenging realistic plan on how to achieve them whatever your current fitness level.  There is a wealth of conflicting information out there and ours trainers can work with you to tailor your training to suit your individual needs in an enjoyable and effective way.  We believe that if you are enjoying your exercise you will put more in and get more out of it!

Why not work with one of our personal trainers to get more from your gym sessions PLUS mention this newsletter and receive £5 off your first session! You can approach Toby, Matt or Jenny directly or ask at Reception for more information.

By Matt Dunn

Toby’s ‘Heartfelt’ Tip

The human soul, each of us will recognise its existence as well as its mystery. There is in each of us that infinite ability to be touched, to be inspired and overwhelmed by wonder. There is also in each of us a driving force that strives for significance, yearns for intimacy, longs to know and to be known. Such is the power of the human soul. Each man is an individual, made for a purpose, with the capacity to enjoy the miraculous experience of being human. We find personal well-being not through self-seeking but by giving of ourselves to others.

Spiritual fitness is achieved through exercising out capacity to care for and help another person. Too often we are victimised by cultural existence that our work be the sourse of our greatness and purpose. We are taught to measure our success by the money that we earn, the promotion that we achieve or the material goods that we possess. The health of our soul depends upon exercising our abilities in service to others. As we give ourselves away we find purpose and spiritual fitness.

A healthy soul needs to exercise a close loving relationship. Intimacy means being vulnerable to another person experiencing your true self. It means being entrusted with the same self-disclosure made by someone else. Intimacy is one soul touching another. It is the lover listening to and acknowledging his lovers deepest concern and feelings…

Happy Valentine

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Ski fit ready program by Jonathan

Skiing is a great and exciting hobby to have. However a week away skiing can often end in sore limbs and bruised bottoms. Skiing involves muscles you never knew you had. If you are planning on skiing this winter, our personal trainers have the means to prepare your body for the demands of skiing.  It a good idea to start this programme as soon as you can because you can’t practice skiing before you’re on the snow, not only that many of us ski only a few times a year, so we don’t have enough consistency to keep our bodies conditioned for it.

Get your body ready with this ski fit ready program by Jonathan.

Start on the x-trainer using the x-train aerobics program; choose the level that you like to work with for 10-20 min.

Next squats 2-4 sets of 8-15 reps

Lunges 2-4 sets of 8-12 reps

Chin up 2-3 sets of 8-15 reps

Dips 2-3 sets of 8-15 reps

Wobble board squats 2 sets of 8-20 reps

Gym ball wall squats and static hold 2 sets of 8-20 reps

Gym ball crunches

Floor crunches

Row machine or stepper for 10-30 min at moderate intensity

Finish with a good long stretch session.

Lets hit the slopes!