Category: Get Fit Blog

I have competed for 2 years in the novice woman’s figure category for international federation of bodybuilding NZ, taking 3^rd place in my first show I had to come back for more. Knowing what it took and what I had to do I came away with gold at Wellington Regionals and a silver placing at NZ Nationals. There is a lot of research and things to consider, take a look below if you are thinking about competing in a show. 

1. Why do you want to compete?

Ask yourself why you want to do a bodybuilding competition?  

2. Cost

Bodybuilding is a very expensive sport here are some estimates of what you will be looking at.  

• Trainer $60 per session 
• Posing coach $60 per session 
• Nutritionist $80 per session 
• Supplements $100 plus a month 
• Bikini Suit/Trunks all are custom made to fit your body $500 plus  

3. Time

Your life will consist of training, work, training, sleep, and repeat.  You will spend at least 4 hours if not more a day in the gym, as well as food prepping, trying get everyday life chores done, work and ensuring you get enough sleep.  

4. Will it affect your job or studies? 

Ask anyone who has competed, becoming a zombie really does exist. This can and will start to take a toll on you career or studies, you won’t even know its happening to you until you start to hear the comments from everyone around you.  

5. Have you done your research?

Do you know which category you want to compete in or which category best suits your body type, what federation do you want to represent? Do you know what they stand for or how long until you get to stage? 

There are multiple federations and all are different to each other, see which one you like best. 

6. Support

The battle of “I can’t do this, this is too hard, I’m too tired to train” will slowly start to creep in when calories become less and less. It is so important to have family and friends around who support you and understand and know how to pick you up. 

7. Coach/Trainer

Do your research on trainers. I recommend getting someone who has competed multiple times and also having someone who has done the same category you have chosen is beneficial.  

8. Do you know what a diet of a bodybuilder looks like when cutting down?

Get use to the taste of plain food, the endless amounts of chicken and fish with delicious broccoli and beans for every meal and oats in water for breakfast. Yum.  

9. Are you willing to sacrifice a lot of things to get to where you need to be for stage? 

Think it’s going to be easy? Think again! You will sacrifice drinking and nights out, you’ll have to give up a lot of the foods you love for 16 + weeks. You will no longer go out to social dinners with friends cause you can’t eat the food and sitting there watching them eat is just torture.  

 

Make sure to consider the above before competing.  This gives you an insight into what a preparation for a competition is like and the reality of the sport.  Competing isn’t made for everyone.   

If you want to know more about bodybuilding competitions, training or posing please contact me on: 027 222 7660 or sashatemaru@hotmail.com

Read more about me on my Personal Trainer page click here

 

While enjoying the beautiful weather that Wellington has to offer, the last thing you want to be worrying about when heading to the beach is cellulite.

Cellulite is the fat beneath the skin, making the skin look dimply and soft. Unfortunately women tend to suffer more from this than men do, we especially get it around our bums, thighs and hamstrings. Men don’t tend to get cellulite that often due to the fact that they have thicker skin which makes it harder to actually see the cellulite. The most common place a man gets cellulite tends to be their abdomens.    

What causes cellulite?

• Poor diet
• Fad dieting
• Slow metabolism
• Lack of physical activity
• Hormone changes
• Dehydration
• Total body fat

Tips to Fight Cellulite

Avoid Too Much Salt and Sugar
By eating a healthy diet, you can help reduce cellulite. Sugary foods gets stored in fat cells and causes them to expand. Limit your salt intake since sodium causes fluid retention, making cellulite appear even worse. Consume no more than 6 teaspoons of sugar each day, and stay away from foods containing more than 200 mg of sodium.

Drink Plenty of Water
Water helps flush out toxins that hide in the fat layers beneath the skin. Drink 8-10 glasses of water every day. Hydration also works to plump the skin and make it look less lumpy.

Regular Exercise
Ensure you are doing both cardio and weight training.  Cardio will help to strip the extra body fat off, and weight training will help to tone and tighten up the softer areas on your body.

Best Exercises to Fight Cellulite

1. Cardio
   Running is not only an awesome form of calorie-burning, heart-pumping cardio, it also doubles as a strength training workout for your lower body.

   Top Ride – this will help you build muscle and tone. The workout will focus on your glutes, hamstrings, thighs and calves. A 45min Top Ride class will also help you burn up to 500 calories!

2. Walking Lunges
   Targets your glutes, quads and hamstrings all at the same time
3. Plyometric Training 
   Fat burning workout and tones your body 

Squat jumps

Lunge jumps

Frog hops

Box jumps

4. Stiff Leg Deadlifts with Dumbbells/Barbell.
   Best exercise for your “butt smile” – the line where your glutes meet your hamstring

These are all tips and exercises that I follow myself and with great results!

For improved gains and faster results contact me for more advanced exercises such as Barbell Squats. Or if you would like some help and advice on reducing overall body fat please get in touch with me for a FREE consultation.

Email: sashatemaru@hotmail.com
Phone: 027 222 7660

Shoulders (deltoids) are often overlooked in training, especially by females.

Before I got started with a proper strength training plan, I only did cardio so I had very little muscle definition. But once I got started and saw the changes to my body I really began to enjoy training my shoulders. Not only for the overall look it gave me, but also because it helped with everyday tasks as I got stronger.

 Here are some benefits of shoulder training:

• Prehab

Growing and developing your strength and the muscles in your shoulders will prevent future injuries as you are improving the stabilising muscles whilst training them.

• Aesthetics

Growing your shoulders will make your waist look smaller – without doing 100 crunches!

Make sure to focus on endurance (high reps/low weight) deltoid exercises in the beginning months of your shoulder development as the deltoids are made up of many fibres, most of which are slow twitch fibres.

Training Tips

• Do not do fast or uncontrolled movements – our shoulder joints are delicate (weak at the start, but once you build up the strength the movements should feel a bit more stable). Support comes from regular exercises that help train those shoulder muscles.
• Make sure not to shrug your shoulders when doing any of these exercises and keep your neck relaxed.

Here are my top shoulder exercises to target the deltoids:

1. Lateral raises

Isolating the lateral deltoids – make sure the movement is originating in the shoulder. Keep your torso solid. Using a dumbbell in each hand raise them out to the sides, no higher than shoulder height. Have a slight bend in your elbow. Keep the weight light.

2. Shoulder press

Make sure your back is kept straight, if you have an arch in your back you will start to use other muscles, e.g. pectorals (chest). Best to start with a seated shoulder press – use the support of the seat to help balance you whilst pressing the weight above your head. Try the shoulder press machines or dumbbells.

3. Front raises

This can be done with a barbell weight plate, hold the plate at the 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock positions. Slowly raise the plate from your “thighs to your eyes”. You don’t want to go too much higher than shoulder level. Do not swing the weight or have more than a slight bend in your elbows.

4. Rear delt flys / Reverse flys

These are important for good posture (more for males – as they tend to train chest more than females so it will pull them back instead of rounding shoulders) and for a full rounded deltoid workout. Sitting with your chest against the vertical pad (facing the Pectoral Fly machine) place your arms at shoulder height out front, pull the handles (with arms remaining straight – with a slight bend in the elbow) outward and back – working the rear part of your shoulder.

If you haven’t already got a strength training plan then get in touch with one of our Fitness Consultants for a FREE workout programme, or contact our Personal Trainers for 1-on-1 training.

There is no time like today to get started!

Small changes add up over time and can often lead to big changes in lifestyle. So if you’re thinking about making some changes, make one right now—write it down and implement it immediately!

• Try a new recipe. Cooking healthy foods can be fun and it never has to be bland.
• Drink your water. Try to aim for 8 cups each day and you’ll feel the difference!
• Share your goals. Whether you post them online or share them with a friend, that way you’ll be held accountable.
• Create a motivational collage. Include pictures of your goal and reasons why you want to get there.
• Take a walk. Don’t worry about how long or far you go—just get out there!
• Check the nutrition facts before you go out to eat. That way, you can make an informed choice.
• Say the words ‘I can’ and ‘I will’ often. The word ‘I can’t’ will often translate directly into ‘I didn’t’, so try to replace your vocabulary with positively charged words. Set a positive intention for each day and believe that you can do it. A positive approach often leads to positive results.
• Be Goal-Driven. “I want a big bench press” is a lousy goal. “I want to bench press 120kgs” is better, but “I want to bench press 120kgs in 16 weeks” is best of all. See, for a goal to be effective it must be specific, and more importantly have a deadline.
  

   

Good luck and don’t give up. Remember – change doesn’t happen over night but with persistence it will happen.

Your glutes are the largest and strongest muscles in your body, and yet often overlooked in training.

Strengthening your glutes decreases your risk of back, hip and knee injuries as well as improving posture.

Furthermore, weak glutes may also contribute to pulled muscles in your hamstring or groin.

Here are my top exercises for building glutes!

	Squats These are a must-do move to build those glutes.  The most important part of this exercise is posture. Your squat form is influenced by your hip anatomy so everyone will squat a little bit differently.
	Lunges Another must-do move to tighten your glutes! If you want to make it harder try adding some dumbbells or adding in some pulses.
	Glute Bridge Keep your feet close to your butt, and then raising your hips nice and high – holding for two seconds at the top of the movement. Make sure you engage your glutes throughout the whole movement.
	Donkey Kick This works your lower back, core, legs and glutes! With every lift you tone all 3 glute muscles. Make sure to push through your heel to activate your glutes.

If you would like to get a “Building Glutes with Tessa” programme or some advice then contact Tessa today on Tessak.pt@gmail.com or 022 678 6244

Insulin is the Key to Unlock a Healthier Life

I’m going to let you in on an industry wide secret – Learn to improve your insulin sensitivity to reduce body fat, prevent diabetes and live a longer and energetic life.

“If there’s a single marker for life span, its insulin sensitivity” – Dr Ron Rosedale MD, author of the Rosedale Diet

 What is Insulin?

• Insulin is a hormone released by the pancreas primarily after you eat a carbohydrate rich meal.
• After carbohydrates are broken down and absorbed into the bloodstream, they increase your blood sugar level to which the Pancreas detects and releases insulin to process the blood sugar, also known as glucose, into fat and muscle cells.
• Insulin sensitivity is the ability to absorb this glucose into muscle and fat cells to be turned into energy.

 What is insulin sensitivity & resistance?

• Every single person’s insulin levels are on the continuum between insulin sensitivity and insulin resistance.
• Sensitivity refers to the ability to process glucose efficiently, and is the ideal situation we look to attain.
• Resistance is when the cells are less affected by insulin and can’t process the glucose well, leaving it to be converted and stored as fat.

 What can I do to improve my insulin sensitivity?

1. Manage your sugar intake
   Sugar spikes glucose levels (blood sugar) therefore it is crucial to tailor your own sugar intake to your individual insulin needs.

2. Eat more green leafy vegetables
   Vegetables are the best nutritional source of carbohydrates, and amongst a host of other essential functions, vegetables (such as broccoli, cauliflower and spinach) are high in fibre, and eaten alongside a balanced diet will improve insulin sensitivity.

3. Do Strength Training
   Exercise depletes your energy levels in the form of glucose during a workout. Weight Training is one of the most effective forms of improving insulin sensitivity because muscle consumes the majority of the energy transported in the blood. For every 10 percent increase in muscle mass, you get 11 percent reduction in insulin resistance.

Create fat burning, insulin sensitive, energetic life by following the Two Week Challenge today.

Learn more by contacting me for a complimentary consultation on 027 340 5219 or emailing max.barrow.27@gmail.com

Max

 

 

Keen to try out spin but not sure how you’ll go?

Want a great fat burning workout without the impact?

Looking for a class atmosphere with no coordination necessary?

Check out the introduction to our Top Ride class with Graham!

Date: Saturday, 25 July
Time: 10:30am

Spaces are limited
Sign up at reception or register online

Register Online 

You’ve worked all summer to get in shape, working towards looking your best on holiday or at the beach. Maybe you’ve set a New Year’s resolution to be a happier, healthier you. But as the weather turns and you find the sun going down by the time you leave work and you’re tempted to hit the snooze button in the morning, remember why you started and how far you’ve come. Being consistent is the key to success, so stay on track with your goals and you’ll reap the benefits in the warmer months! Here are 5 tips to stay motivated over winter. Because next summer is closer than you think.

• SWITCH UP YOUR ROUTINE
  Out with the old and in with the new! Spice up your current routine with something you’ve never tried before. Don’t be stuck behind a treadmill screen this winter, attend a class or include resistance training. For men – try switching from a muscle building plan to strength, go from machines to free weights or add supersets. For women – switch from bodyweight to dumbbells, try new machines upstairs or even ditch the cardio machines for HIIT! (High Intensity Interval Training).
• SET NEW GOALS
  Goal setting is important when it comes to exercise, and just because the weather is turning doesn’t mean they should be put on hold! Try reaching your main goal by setting smaller goals which will help you in the long run. This can be anything from attending the gym 3 times a week to pre packing lunches and making healthy choices at gatherings. A good way to start is to note down where you currently are in terms fitness, weight and strength and making a plan which has set dates and goals that you want to smash! 
• STRESS LESS
  Did you know that stress can lead to fat storage? Keep stress levels low and stay lean in the long run! De-stress with a cup of tea at the end of the day or try a yoga class. Exercise shouldn’t be a chore and once it becomes a healthy habit it’ll be something that you want to do. Being stress free should apply in all areas of life, appreciate the small things and don’t worry about things you can’t control. Nothing should make you stressed, angry, or unmotivated unless you give it permission.
• TRY NEW FOODS / SWITCH UP YOUR NUTRITION
  Winter produce may not be as exciting and colourful as summer berries, but there are still many healthy choices available. Try new flavours and combinations and stay inspired with your food during the colder months, work seasonal produce such as pomegranates, citrus fruits, purple grapes, and orange root vegetables into your meals. You’ll not only add colour to your plate, you’ll pack in some serious nutrition punch.
• TRAIN WITH A PARTNER
  Training with a partner will help spur you onto the next level, keep you accountable, motivate and provide healthy competition during your workout. Having someone there to help you push through your workout and keep you inspired is the best way to stay on track, workout with mates or enlist the help of a Personal Trainer! Training with a PT will be the best investment you make if you are serious about reaching your goals.

Get in touch with me if you need some help to switch up your routine this winter!

Jay Hawkins

027 828 8281 | jayhawkinspt@gmail.com

 

•  It is a metabolism killer!

Our body quickly adapts to slow cardio and becomes more efficient at converting and using energy. Consistently doing slow cardio will result in a decrease in our metabolic rate. While this does result in an increase in endurance, it is not good news for fat loss. The more we do this style of training the slower and slower our metabolism becomes making it harder and harder to lose weight. Our body will try to hang on to as much energy as possible while doing low priority exercises like slow jogging. It does this to preserve energy for use in emergencies. This means that over time, your hour long runs are becoming less and less effective at burning fat and more effective at wasting your time.

• It literally is a waste of your time!

The more slow cardio we do, the longer we have to do it, to burn the same amount of calories we would have previously. If you want to lose fat in the most time efficient manner, you need to become as efficient with our energy supply as possible. A great alternative to slow cardio in this case is High Intensity Interval Training, or HIIT cardio – see how this can benefit your training below!!

• Muscle loss

The worst side effect of all! As we stress our body with ‘slow cardio’ we start to experience increased cortisol levels. Cortisol is a hormone and one of its functions is to supply instant energy, but this can be a double edged sword. The release of cortisol can have positive effects (If you are being chased by a lion you don’t want to wait around for that chicken salad you just ate to digest before you have the energy to run!!)

What cortisol does is breakdown existing tissues (eg muscle and bone) to fuel us in emergencies. This may be great in the short term but detrimental to our health over long periods if our cortisol levels are always high. Constantly stressed individuals can expect reduced muscle mass, reduced bone density, reduced strength and energy and weight gain.

 *For the purpose of this article ‘slow cardio’ is defined as anything above walking speed e.g. jogging all the way up to about 75% of your maximal speed/effort.

 
Alternatives to slow cardio training:

HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training)

HIIT has the following benefits

• Faster weight loss results
• Raises metabolism for a considerable time after you finish exercising ( more calories burnt)
• Promotes the growth of lean muscle and increased bone density
• Time effective (can take as little as ten minutes)

Weight training

 Doing free weight exercises will help you achieve the following:

•  Tone your body
• Help to burn fat
• Give your body shape
• Look better naked

Get Nutrition Guidance

All the exercise in the world cannot fight off a broken diet. If you are exercising hard but are not seeing the changes in your body you would like then something is wrong. Getting some outside help will often add clarity and a direction to achieving your goals.

If you want to get in great shape and achieve the body you always wanted, then you have to try my 90 Day Challenge! Register your interest below or contact me directly for more information.

Register Online 

In my 90 day challenge (everything), diet, exercise and cardio is covered in an easy to follow programme to ensure you get the results you want. TRY IT RISK FREE – If after 60 days you have not achieved the goals we set I will give you your money back!

Check out one of my client’s amazing transformation below.

Sean Neal

sean.neal@innovativeresultspt.com

027 461 5108