Everyone needs to exercise.

It amazes me as a personal trainer, the amount of people I meet who do no exercise at all. They get out of bed, drive to work, sit at a desk, drive home from work then sit on the sofa and watch t.v, before going to bed. Does this sound like you? Most adults today spend the majority of their time sitting in front of a computer or a TV. Our increasingly sedentary lifestyle has led to obesity rates higher than this country has ever seen before. Even our children are battling obesity. Your children learn eating and lifestyle habits from you, so if your inactive you can expect your children to be also.

I’m sure for most of you guys who are stuck behind a desk all day, you probably think you don’t have time to workout, or your not overweight, so it doesn’t matter?*
Wrong!*

I’m sure most of you spend copious amounts of money and time protecting your computer form viruses, make sure its running smoothly and keeping at its optimal health. Yet you do nothing for yourselves?! Read on to find out why its important for us all to exercise and simple ways to do it.

What happens if I don’t workout?

Before the age of physical maturity at about 25 years, our body is continually growing and developing and during this phase muscles and the entire body stays strong even without specific exercise. After we reach the age of 30, we basically have two options available to us. We can either begin the long process of becoming weaker or we can work to maintain our strength for the rest of our life.

After this point, if the body does not receive the necessary stimulus to trigger muscle growth, a slow process of muscle wasting begins. This loss of muscle tissue hastens the degenerative processes and conditions that characterize the dreaded ageing process.

Muscles and the bones they are attached to become weaker, joints deteriorate without strong muscles to support and cushion them; the metabolism slows (the rate the body burns fuel) allowing body fat to accumulate; body shape and appearance change. All body systems weaken including the immune system leaving one exposed to life threatening disease and illness.

The really good news is that it does not matter how old you are when you start, 60 year old muscles respond to strength training and exercise in exactly the same way 20 year old muscles respond – they get stronger. It is easily possible to become 100 to 175 percent stronger, even stronger than you have ever been in your life.

“Being thin doesn’t automatically mean you’re not fat”

Doctors now think that the internal fat surrounding vital organs like the heart, liver or pancreas — invisible to the naked eye — could be as dangerous as the more obvious external fat that bulges underneath the skin.

“Being thin doesn’t automatically mean you’re not fat,” Dr. Jimmy Bell, a professor of molecular imaging at Imperial College, London. Since 1994, Bell and his team have scanned nearly 800 people with MRI machines to create “fat maps” showing where people store fat.

According to the data, people who maintain their weight through diet rather than exercise are likely to have major deposits of internal fat, even if they are otherwise slim.

Without a clear warning signal — like a rounder middle — doctors worry that thin people may be lulled into falsely assuming that because they’re not overweight, they’re healthy. Just because someone is lean doesn’t make them immune to diabetes or other risk factors for heart disease,

Even people with normal Body Mass Index scores — a standard obesity measure that divides your weight by the square of your height — can have surprising levels of fat deposits inside. They believe that internal fat disrupts the body’s communication systems. The fat enveloping internal organs might be sending the body mistaken chemical signals to store fat inside organs like the liver or pancreas. This could ultimately lead to insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, or heart disease.

The good news is that internal fat can be easily burned off through exercise or even by improving your diet. Even if you don’t see it on your bathroom scale, caloric restriction and physical exercise have an aggressive effect on visceral fat.

How to keep active:

At Work

• Walk to work if you can, or park as far away as possible and walk the rest.
• At lunch, go for a walk/jog or bike ride.
• Get a personal trainer to come to your office at lunch. That way your committed to working out.
• Have a gym near work? Go lift weights or ride the stationary bike on your lunch break.
• Instead of sending an email across the building, get up and walk to your co-workers office and talk in person.
• Take the stairs instead of the lift.
• Live close to work? Bike or walk instead of driving.
• Arrange for your office to have a group trainer visit at lunch times. Its great for team building, fills you with energy and will make your afternoon far more productive!
• Make an appointment in your diary to workout, the same as you would for a meeting and keep to it.

At Home

• Go for a walk/jog before or after work…or both! There are lots of ‘early bird’ classes and gyms open now.
• Work in the garden or mow the grass.
• While watching TV, lift some weights, do an exercise dvd, walk on a treadmill.
• Walk the dog–they need exercise too!
• Get a personal trainer to come to your own home either before you start work or when you finish.
• Play with the kids.
• Housework burns a huge amount of calories.

Spare Time

• Plan your holidays to be as active as possible i.e biking, hiking, backpacking, walking, swimming.
• Take your kids to the park for a picnic. Take a Frisbee, a football or other games and just have fun as a family!
• Go out with the family swimming.
• Turn the music up and dance in your living room!
• Like to golf? Walk instead of renting a cart.
• Join an adult sports team. Gym or just start working out with a friend.
• Get out and about where you live. Instead of spending weekends at home in front of the t.v, go out for a walk. Dorset has the most amazing countryside and beaches in the country. Make the most of it.

All it takes is a little creativity and a bit of effort to fit some extra activity into your day! Try to find things that you enjoy or that you can easily incorporate into your daily routine so that extra activity simply becomes a way of life. Give it a try.

Your office based workout.
Try this great little workout at your office, you only need a couple of meter’s space. Do only as much as you are able to and slowly build up to completing the reps and times. Listen to your body, if your feeling tired or unwell, stop.

1 minute skipping
30 sec. alternate squat thrusts
15 press ups
REPEAT X3

1 minute skipping
30 sec. squats – finish as low as you can, making sure the knee does not travel over the line of the toe.
30 sec. cycle crunches fast then 30 sec. slow – 1 leg in per second.
REPEAT X3

30 sec. burpee’s
30 sec. split squats (static lunges), (each leg)
1 minute plank
REPEAT X3

Followed by a whole body stretch for 5 minutes.

Remember folks, fitness should be fun, if its not, change it and find something you enjoy!

For further advice on Personal training, group classes or just general health and fitness questions, don’t hesitate to email me on charmaine@trainwithcharmaine.com or call 0782 444 6561.