Tring Fitness Challenge

Setting goals for your physical exercise can be tricky. If the goals are too easy, you will lose interest and motivation very quickly. If they are too hard, you will be constantly underachieving, eventually get depressed and give up. So rather than just picking an event or a performance out of the ether and training blindly towards it, try using the SMARTER principles when setting your goals.

S – Specific – set goals that are specific to the things you want to achieve. Avoid ambiguity; make it clear what is required to achieve each goal.

M – Measurable – have some way of measuring whether or not the goal has been achieved. Whether it’s a performance measure like heart rate, time, power or something psychological like an increase in confidence and motivation. You won’t know if you’re making progress unless you can measure it somehow.

A – Agreed/Accepted – make sure you believe and accept that the goals you have set are the right ones to help you achieve what you want to achieve. Don’t do something because you’ve been told it’s what you need to do in order to get somewhere. Do it because you believe it is. You should be convinced that you are on the right track.

R – Realistic – everyone wants to be the champion in their chosen discipline, right? But come on – make you goals realistic otherwise you’ll never achieve them and risk regular disappointment.

T – Time-phased – have a clear time frame for achieving your goals so that you can achieve it, tick it off and move on to the next one.

E – Exciting – if it’s not fun, you won’t keep at it. So don’t set goals you know that you’re not going to enjoy working towards.

R – Recorded – keep a log or a training diary of your goals, how you went about achieving them and how much success (or otherwise) you had. This is very useful to refer to as you might be re-using them in the future.

The Instructors at Tring Martial Arts can work with you and help to produce your own goals, specific to what you want to achieve from your training. Call us on 0845 0948805 to find out more, or visit www.tringmartialarts.co.uk for more information.

People with bigger bums are much healthier than those with wobbly bellies, new research would suggest. According to Oxford University, fat that is stored in your bottom, rather than the stomach, reduces levels of LDL cholesterol and raises the ‘good’ HDL cholesterol that protects against hardening of the arteries. “Fat comes in good and bad forms” as Jimmy Bell explains (Head of Metabolic and Molecular Imaging at Hammersmith Hospital) “Fat stored around the bottom acts as a buffer, mopping up inflammatory fats that could have been dangerous elsewhere.” It is because the fat around the bum is broken down more slowly than that around the tummy that it produces less inflammatory cytokines – chemicals that have been linked to diabetes, heart disease and obesity. Burning off too much of your big bum isn’t always that good for you!

Come and work on your bottom here with us at Tring Martial Arts. Call us on 0845 0948805 for more information, or you can visit our website www.tringmartialarts.co.uk. 

There is no doubt that caffeine has a huge positive effect on sporting performance. Many studies have shown that by stimulating the brain and central nervous system, coffee before exercise can help fight fatigue during endurance activities. There is also some evidence to suggest that coffee can help to burn fat, which in turn conserves muscle carbohydrate, further boosting performance. However, the debate rages on about how much coffee is needed to achieve these sporting benefits. There are some studies that suggest 3mg per kilo of bodyweight where as others have stated 6mg or even 9mg. One of the biggest problems with the intake of coffee is that the side effects are varied and differ from person to person. Some of the more regular side effects are insomnia, a rapid or irregular heartbeat or anxiety. This continued argument has prompted scientists in Australia to investigate what the optimum caffeine dose is by doing a study with cyclists. 16 well trained bikers were asked to complete a 60-minute time trial under specific controls: 3mg of caffeine, 6mg of caffeine and then no caffeine. They were then timed to see how quickly they could complete each trial. Unsurprisingly, cyclists completed the trials where caffeine was taken quicker compared to when they took none. However, the Australian’s found that the increase in performance when drinking coffee was the same regardless of the dose taken. This study, regardless of its size, holds significant results. It shows that you don’t really need vast amounts of caffeine to get performance gains.

Do your own experiment - have a coffee in our reception area then join in with one of our brilliant classes. Call us on 0845 0948805 or visit www.tringmartialarts.co.uk to find out how.

Being slim is no longer the only answer to living a longer, healthier life. According to exercise scientist Steven Blair, you can be fat and fit, and it is actually better to be overweight and active than normal weight and sedentary in terms of risk of mortality. “Physical activity is the biggest public health problem of the 21^st century. Yet instead of paying attention to our sedentary lifestyles, we focus on fatness”. As a society we class overweight people today as unfit and unhealthy regardless of their physical activity. Physical activity is seen as a secondary consideration among some, and is only enhanced further by weight loss campaigns and the media. Physical activity has been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, some cancers and to even help delay cognitive decline. The solution is simple: 30 minutes exercise a day is all that is needed.

Be fit with us at Tring Martial Arts. We have just introduced a new type of Cage Fitness called CAGE RAGE! To find out more, call us on 0845 0948805 or visit www.tringmartialarts.co.uk for more information.

Being forced to watch Top Gear or Eastenders by your other half may seem like a painful and slow death, but according to recent research, this may well be closer to the truth than you think. A study published by the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that on average, every hour of TV watched after the age of 25 reduces your life-expectancy by 22 minutes! According to the study, people ages 25 and over in Australia watched a total of approximately 9 billion hours of TV in 2008. Without watching TV, the 2008 life expectancy at birth of men and women in Australia would have been 1.8 and 1.5 years longer than observed after the study. Further, a person who spends a lifetime average of 6 hours a day watching TV can expect to live 4.8 years less than someone who doesn’t watch TV. This is quite an unbelievable statistic but when the reasons behind it are broken down, it becomes a little more plausible. 6 hours of TV watching a day equates to nearly 13 years of solid sitting down over a 50 year period. If you really can’t live without The Apprentice or Emmerdale, try watching it standing up or doing some squats. Maybe try a cage fitness or kickboxing class whilst your Mr or Mrs is watching their program, find out how by visiting our site www.tringmartialarts.co.uk or call the Academy on 0845 0948805.

Everyone likes a bag of crisps for a snack when you’re hungry. Nutritionist Justin Lord puts your crispy favourites on a scale of one to bad.

1 Twiglets – the best snack you can have. Twiglets are packed with wholewheat, B vitamins and anti-inflammatory celery seed.

2 Walkers Sunbites – These are made using whole wheat, corn and oat flour, with very few flavour enhancers.

3 Monster Munch – They’re loaded with the controversial food additive MSG and full of sat-fat so approach with caution.

4 McCoys – As well as containing MSG, these McCoy’s are also high in inflammation causing omeda-6 oils.

5 Kettle Chips – At 12g of fat per bag, these are the worst you could pick up from a Newsagent.

Still tempted to snack? Then stick to oven baked tortilla chips or rice cakes, and try these skinny dips out as an accessory.

Beetroot and Walnut dip: 4 large cooked beetroot, 250g low-fat crème fraiche, 1tsp of pomegranate molasses, handful of walnuts (lightly chopped) and 10 mint leaves.

Artichoke and Ricotta dip: 60g fat-free mayonnaise, 110g low-fat live yoghurt, 50g ricotta, 60g chopped spring onion, 1 can artichoke hearts, chopped.

Avocado, yoghurt and mango dip: 2 ripe avocados, 1 mango (diced), 100g fat-free yoghurt, juice of half a lemon, handful or coriander, handful of walnuts and some chilli flakes.

Of course you are always allowed a treat or two if you’ve just put yourself through Cage Fitness! Call us to book a FREE TRIAL or to find out more - 0845 0948805 or visit www.tringmartialarts.co.uk. 

According to Men’s Health, there are a number of ways that you can increase your heart health. According to the World Health Organisation, there are close to half as many deaths from heart disease today compared with 40 years ago. Even more worrying, that today heart related illness is responsible for more premature deaths of British men than any other cause with 900,000 dying from heart disease across Europe each year. The major risk factors in heart disease haven’t changed over the years. Smoking remains the biggest preventable cause of heart disease, followed by obesity, alcohol and high cholesterol. This means that our prevention tactics also remain consistent - exercising and having a healthy diet. However, according to recent research there is also another reason to be vigilant with our hearts right now, and that’s the economic situation. A publication in The Lancet shows that with the 3% rise in unemployment, also comes a 2.7% rise in the number of heart attacks in men aged between 30 and 44. Men’s Health shows that the greatest defence is in fact psychological resilience. It is about feeling in control of your life and in turn, keeping your blood pressure low. Being careful with your finances, break down challenges into smaller more manageable pieces. There are, however, a number of quick fixes you can employ right now to help guard your heart’s health.

Make a Stand – Research shows that if you sit on your bottom for more than 6 hours a day, it’s bad for your heart. Sitting down causes subtle changes in your body’s chemistry which lead to an increase in cholesterol levels in your blood. So, if you can do it standing up – then you should, and that includes everything from talking on the phone and having a few drinks at the bar.

Exercise MORE, Not Just Harder – if you’re working out purely to increase your heart health, you need to increase the number of times a week you hit the gym, rather than how many reps you do per session. Exercise has a repeated acute effect on the heart, meaning that the benefits come faster the more you do it. So working hard on a Monday is brilliant, but as long as you don’t work so hard that it’s Thursday before you feel your legs can cope again.

Have a Meat-Free Monday – By cutting meat entirely you lower your weekly intake of saturated fat by 15%. A review of 48 studies found that cutting saturated fat cuts your risk of a having a heart attack by 14%. Be careful not to just replaced the meat with carbs – excess carbs reduce the elasticity of your arteries.

Find a Sanctuary – Whether it’s in the garden, on a golf course or in the middle of a bustling shopping centre, we all need one. Contrary to the popular belief, stress doesn’t directly cause a heart attack; it’s the way you deal with it that does (i.e. overeating, drinking or smoking).

Increase your Social Capital – Make new friends. See family more. Research from the Harvard University proves that being more social reduces your risk of heart disease by 53%.

We can help you with all of this, especially the exercise. Please call us 0845 0948805 or visit www.tringmartialarts.co.uk for more information.

Has your child got a birthday coming up soon? Stuck for a venue? Dreading the thought of 20+ children causing havoc in your home? Then look no further than Tring Martial Arts! Here at the Academy we welcome you and your party to a beautifully decorated school ready for the games and fun to begin. There is no need for you to do anything, we do everything for you! That’s right; you leave the mess for us. Each party is full of games and competitions designed specifically for your children to have fun whilst learning some basic Martial Arts skills. If this sounds like something you or your little angel would be interested in then please visit the website http://www.tringmartialarts.co.uk/index.php/birthday-parties or call one of the team on 0845 0948805 for more information.

For the vast majority of fitness fanatics, the idea of increasing metabolic rate is something that ticks most of their training boxes. Increasing the amount of fuel you burn on a daily basis means that your body is less likely to store that cheeky chocolate bar you had at lunch as fat.

The old analogy of treating the metabolism like a burning fire still stands true, but very few people have an understanding as to how this actually works. Add to this the fear instilled upon us by the media and hear-say and we have a lot of detrimental, almost fatal errors being made when people pursue this metabolic stimulation.

Breakfast and why it’s so important –

Many people say they don’t eat breakfast as it makes them hungry for the rest of the day. This is exactly the reason why you should eat it. Break-FAST is exactly what it means, breaking the fast. The metabolism has a baseline, what is called the Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). This is what we need to survive and is dictated by several factors. The most notable is the amount of active muscle tissue we have on the body (more muscle, faster metabolism). When we rest the body battles to find this baseline and slows the body’s systems down accordingly, when we sleep it does this very effectively.

If we wake at 7am, the body starts to move and systems become active hence why we now need fuel. The metabolism is slow and needs stimulation to elevate to its daily level. There are now 2 possible scenarios with 2 possible outcomes.

A)    You don’t eat breakfast:

If we don’t eat at this point the metabolic rate tries to slow down to preserve the body. In essence, the body switches into survival mode. It turns on fat storing mechanisms and it fears not acquiring food for some time. This means the next time the body eats it will try to preserve a large percentage of this as body fat.

The body now desperately needs a fuel source. It has nothing coming in so it will take the most accessible ‘reserve’ fuel we have. In most cases this will be protein.

USE IT OR LOSE IT!

The body is now malnourished. There are no nutrients available for its systems to work effectively. There has been no elevation of metabolism or stabilisation of blood sugar so the likelihood of the next meal on the agenda being riddled with high calorie dense unhealthy food is very high.

B)    Eat breakfast and burn fat:

Simply really, isn’t it? Eat breakfast, kick start your metabolism and give your body the opportunity to build muscle and burn fat.

When your Mum told you that breakfast was the most important meal of the day, guess what? She was right. We can help you with your nutrition too - call us on 0845 0948805 or visit www.TringMartialArts.com for more information.

CHIP IT – Rather than manually record the speed of your runs, let your shoes do it for you! Some trainer manufacturers now include a special space in the sole of the shoe for a chip to help track your progress.

LIGHTEN THE LOAD – The lighter your trainers, the less energy you will use. Even losing a small weight saving can help you run faster or more economically because your muscles don’t tire as easily.

GET TAILORED SUPPORT – wearing a shoe designed specially for your activity equals better performance. If your shoes don’t give you support where it’s really needed, your risk of injury sky rockets.

 We can help you with all aspects of your training. Give us a call on 0845 0948805 or visit our website www.TringMartialArts.com for more information.