Woodlands Fitness Centre

The Woodlands newsletter: Sunday 31st July 2022

Sunday 31st July 2022

Hi,

To lose body fat and maintain muscle at the same time - and to stay strong - you need to do the right kind of exercise and follow the right kind of diet.

Cutting calories will help you lose weight. But dieting alone can strip away muscle along with body fat. Research suggests that as much as 25 per cent of weight lost by dieters is from muscle. And that's not a good thing.

Losing muscle while on a calorie-reduced diet can hinder your performance in the gym by reducing strength and stamina.

It can also slow your metabolism, so you burn fewer calories during the day, making it harder to lose weight - and easier to gain it back.

The amount of muscle you have is the biggest contributor to your resting metabolism - the number of calories the body burns to carry out basic functions such as breathing, keeping your heart beating and growing and repairing cells.

Muscle burns more calories than fat, so the more you have, the higher your metabolic rate.

For more guidance, tips and information, please read the rest of our newsletter.

But first, here are our opening times, links to our website, some prices and more...


Gym Only memberships:

Joint/Student (per month):

12 months: £20
3 months: £23
1 month: £27

Single (per month):

For single prices, please check our special offers:
www.woodlandsfitnessrowsley.co.uk/special-offers

Student prices are only for students in full time education.


Unlimited Personal Training:

How would you like to have personal training every single time you attend Woodlands?

Well now you can!

Our Unlimited PT membership offers an appointment controlled personal training system where a personal trainer will train up to 6 members at any one time.

We offer a variety of group exercise sessions throughout the day to help you achieve you build fitness, strength, co-ordination and flexibility whilst burning fat.

Group sessions are strictly limited to 6 people:

* There are 36 group training sessions per week, including: Condition, Total, Upper, Lower, Core, Circuit and HIIT.

* We also offer '30m' groups: these 30 minute Classes Group training sessions are condensed versions of our normal 45 minute groups, designed to pack in high intensity exercise to push you to the next level and really make the most of your time here!

We have a 5.15pm Group on Monday, Wednesday and Friday!

We have added a second Group class to Sunday morning to accommodate the increasing demand

These shared personal training sessions are strictly limited to 6 people! This is to ensure you get a higher quality of coaching and support.

We always prefer an informal approach - so we will be maintaining the booking forms in the gym.

All bookings can be made in the gym, by phone, e-mail or via social media.

How you book in isn't important; we just care that you attend regularly.

Here is a list of our group training sessions:

www.woodlandsfitnessrowsley.co.uk/group-pt-timetable


Unlimited PT membership prices:

Joint/Student:

12 months: £30pm
3 months: £33pm
1 month: £37pm

Single:

For single prices, please check our special offers:
www.woodlandsfitnessrowsley.co.uk/special-offers


2 x 45membership:

This membership includes:

✔2 x 45 minute PT sessions per month (worth £23 each)
✔Unlimited SHARED PT sessions
✔Unlimited gym use
✔Calorie target setting advice
✔Nutritional support
✔Discounted additional personal training sessions

12 month: £43pm
3 month: £46
1 month: £49

The benefits of personal training outweigh your fears by a long shot and we can really help you achieve your goals. At Woodlands, we want to maximise your fitness experience.


Personal Training Packages:

The benefits of personal training outweigh your fears by a long shot and we can really help you achieve your goals. At Woodlands, we want to maximise your fitness experience.

30 mins:

3 weeks x 2 per week
6 x 30 mins: £72 (£89)

5 weeks x 2 per week
10 x 30 mins: £116 (£144)

45 mins:

3 weeks x 2 per week
6 x 45 mins: £95 (£120)

4 weeks x 2 per week
8 x 45 mins: £125 (£160)

60 mins:

4 weeks x 2 per week
8 x 60 mins: £156 (£178)

The price in brackets is for non-members.

All of our PT packages include:

Group PT membership.
Gym membership.
Calorie target setting advice.
Nutritional support.

All PT sessions must be used within time periods listed above.

We use time limits with our personal training packages to encourage frequent and consistent training. Packages can be designed to your individual needs.

At least 24 hours notice of cancellation is required for all appointments - just so we have sufficient time to rebook the slot. Notice of less than 24 hours will incur a full payment of the session fee. These are standard terms for all good PT's.

We can adjust the time limits in advance to take into account holidays, business trips, etc.

All of our PT packages include full gym, group personal training & classes membership.

Opening Hours:

Monday: 7.30am - 8.45pm
Tuesday: 8.30am - 8.45pm
Wednesday: 7.30am - 8.45pm
Thursday: 8.30am - 8.45pm
Friday: 7.30am - 8.00pm
Saturday: 8.00am - 2.00pm
Sunday 8.00am - 2.00pm

We always want to know what you think of the Woodlands Fitness Centre - the gym, prices, personal training, group personal training, and anything else.

Please speak to us at the gym, email any feedback and suggestions to the email address at the end of this newsletter.

Thanks,

GW


Strength Training For Fat Loss

Strength training with diet and cardio burns fat more than cardio and diet alone.

When it comes to fat loss, most people embark on a program of cardio and dieting. Strength training is just an afterthought. Strength training, however, can burn just as much, if not more, fat than cardio.

Why is it that people focus on cardio as their primary fat burner?

For one thing cardio does shrink you down. But it does just that: it shrinks down both your fat and muscle. You end skinny and soft. Bodybuilders, however, want to retain or even build muscle while burning off fat.

Why?

A larger engine burns more fuel. Larger muscles burn more calories and more fat.

Compare a Range Rover with a Mini. Which has the lowest MPG?

Why?

Because a larger engine burns more fuel. Larger muscles burn more calories and more fat.

While cardio burns calories and fat when you're performing it, high rep strength training has what is known as high EPOC or "Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption." This is a fancy term for saying how long your metabolism is elevated after exercise.

Studies show that a well-designed strength program can elevate your EPOC or metabolism for up to 38 hours after the workout. In other words, you continue to burn calories long after strength training. Whereas once you stop cardio, the calorie burning stops as well.

Strength training coupled with diet and cardio burns fat far more than cardio and diet alone. In bodybuilding terms, we call this "cutting up." Focus on free weights, compound and multiple compound lifts. Use isolation movements only to bring up lagging parts. Superset between upper and lower body movements through "mini-circuits"

Train each body part 3 times a week, but lower the overall volume by spreading the sets and exercises throughout the week

I hope all of the above makes sense but if you have any questions please come and ask me.


Five signs you need to take it easy

There are several factors that could lead to sub-par results in the gym. For example, those following a training program that is a little too generic in nature could lose ground on their training progress simply because their workout isn't optimal for their goal or body type.

Other reasons include inadequate nutrition, poor form or simply incorrect exercise selection.

But perhaps the most frustrating cause of poor results is over training, simply because the more you do the worse the cycle gets.

Overtraining syndrome is a condition that occurs when the body is pushed (through exercise) beyond its natural ability to recover. Importantly, it's not to be confused with mere tiredness, which is to be expected whenever you are engaged in a comprehensive workout regime.

How do you know when you are overtraining?

Mild overtraining syndrome is basically the same as having the flu: you feel rundown, and getting out of bed in the morning is tough. In extreme cases, when the body's requests for recovery continue to be ignored, long term neurological, hormonal and muscular symptoms could occur.

The balance between training hard and resting is always going to be a juggling act. It takes time to get to know your body and what its capable of. Once you learn to identify the signs of overtraining syndrome you'll be able to strategically reign back your training in order to recover and come back harder another day.

The top five signs to look out for:

1). Elevated Resting Heart Rate
2). Insomnia
3). Emotional Changes
4). Muscular Soreness
5). Poor Performance

Make sure you don't ask too much of your body and always allow for adequate rest.

1. Elevated Resting Heart Rate:

As a general practice in health and fitness it is useful to know your resting heart rate upon waking.

While the healthy range is 60-100 beats per minute, the fitter you get the lower your RHR will be. So much so that many athletes and fitness fanatics have a resting heart rate in the 40s when fully fit.

During periods of overtraining, you'll notice that your waking heart rate will be 10-15 beats per minute higher than usual. Interestingly, this will also be the case when your body is in the early stages of fighting off an illness, so anytime you detect an elevated heart rate take a rest and perhaps consider some countermeasures, like antioxidant supplements.

Also note that RHR can be affected by medication.

2. Insomnia:

Counter intuitively, knackering yourself out at the gym can actually make it harder to get to sleep.

If you are going to bed tired yet laying there unable to get to sleep and this coincides with an increase in training frequency or vigour, the chances are that you are over training.
Best practice is to take a few days away from the gym in order to recover and let your hormones and central nervous system restore their equilibrium. The supplement ZMA can also help improve your quality of sleep.

3. Emotional Changes:

Overtraining syndrome has influences far beyond the physical realm. Because of the tax on your hormones and the general strain on your system, it's not uncommon to encounter emotional changes such as a lack of motivation and lower self esteem. In advanced cases, even depression has been observed.

4. Muscular Soreness:

I'm not referring to typical post-workout muscle soreness here; it's completely natural to feel some soreness for a couple of days after training - especially when you are doing regular resistance training.

However, if your aches are lasting three to four days and beyond, it's probably a sign that your body has not adequately been able to recover and you need to consider taking a break in training.

You may also feel muscles ache that you haven't actually trained. For example, sufferers of overtraining syndrome often report feeling aches in their legs and hips, even when they haven't directly worked those areas in the gym.

5. Poor Performance:

Perhaps the easiest to spot indicator of overtraining is poor performance.
Generally speaking, all of your workouts should be tracked and documented.

There are two main reasons for this: firstly, it helps you determine whether you are making strength and performance gains; and secondly so that if you wish to recover a certain level of conditioning in the future you can recount the workouts that led up to it.

Whilst it's entirely possible to have an off day in the gym (your nutrition might be slightly wrong or you might be training at a sub optimal time of day), two or three bad workouts on the trot represents a big warning sign that its either time for a new training focus, a rest week, or both!

I hope all of the above makes sense but if you have any questions please come and ask me.


Recipe of the week: Chicken Pitta pocket

This is very possibly the shortest recipe we have ever posted.

Ingredients:

½ wholemeal pitta bread
25g cooked skinless chicken breast
¼ cucumber , cut into chunks
4 cherry tomatoes, halved

Method:

Fill the pitta half with the chicken breast, cucumber and cherry tomatoes.

That's it. If this recipe is too simple, then I suppose you could buy uncooked chicken breasts and then cook them.

Enjoy


Exercise of the week: Dumbbell floor press

Lie down on the floor with a dumbbell in each hand.

Bend at the elbows and hold the weights above you.

Press up and straighten your arms before pausing at the top of the rep and lowering slowly to the start position.

By restricting your range of movement this moves helps you build a bigger chest, minus the risk of shoulder injury from over extension.

Consider this your stepping stone to being a bench bro in the gym.

Choose a weight that allows you to maintain good technique throughout all sets and repetitions.

Do 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps.

I hope all of the above makes sense but if you have any questions please come and ask me.


Things to consider


Can You Lose Inches And Gain Weight?

Indeed you can. It all goes back to the fact that muscle is more dense than fat. Incorporating strength training or weight lifting into your routine could be the reason why this is happening.

Do Smith Machine Reverse Lunges:

Lunges are a great quad-building move, but lifters often fail to realise their full potential using free weights. Barbell lunges compromise balance, causing many gym-goers to use less resistance. With dumbbells, going heavy can tire your hands and forearms far more than your legs, meaning your legs don't always reach full exhaustion.

The solution is stationary Smith machine lunges, where 1) the machine helps balance the bar, and 2) you're not holding the weight in your hands but rather on your upper back.

Are You struggling with food addiction?

If you find yourself desperately craving food at all costs—and it's sabotaging your diet and exercise efforts—you could be dealing with a food addiction. This doesn't mean you're not motivated or "strong enough" to defeat your cravings and lose weight; you may have developed an emotional reliance on food.

If you are prone to binging or gorging, focus non-stop on food, have trouble functioning in your job or personal life, or suffer from anxiety, depression, or insomnia, reach out to a healthcare provider ASAP to be evaluated for food addiction. It's a type of eating disorder, and there is help available.

Try Rest/Pause sets:

These will require you to work extra hard and deal with discomfort, but they'll give you more size than any other method you can use. Pick a weight you can lift about 6 times in solid form.

Do your 6 reps, rest for 5-10 seconds and then resume the set with the same weight, trying to get an extra 2-4 reps.

If you suddenly discover that you have some guts, try to add a second 5-10 second pause and try to get another extra 2-4 reps.


Set Goals:

Maybe you want to fit into a smaller dress size, decrease your body fat percentage, cut your mile time, or set a new lifting PR.

Well, set a goal, map out a plan, and get to it! I always have clients set short-term (30-day) and long-term (3-6 months) goals.

With these goals in mind, we can map out the necessary plan of attack. That plan will help you stay focused and on the path to success.

Eat Beets Before a Workout

Finally decided to venture out to the gym? Snack on some beets before you hit the pavement.

A study published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics found that runners who ate baked beets before a 5K race ran 5 percent faster.

Researchers suspect this is because beets are high in nitrates, a natural chemical that increases endurance and lowers blood pressure.

Warm up:

Not warming up is a mistake many beginners make.

Before any session ensure that you warm up thoroughly and mobilise the areas that you will be using during the workout.

Furthermore, failure to warm up properly may increase the risk of injury.






Useless Facts

100% of lottery winners do gain weight.

Cheryl Grottick once played Russian Roulette with a fully loaded gun and won.

Bullet proof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers, and laser printers were all invented by women

A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

Some kids pee their name in snow. Tommy Birds pees his name in concrete.

A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.






The Woodlands Fitness Centre Ltd
A: Unit 27, Molyneux Business Park, Darley Dale, Derbyshire, DE4 2HJ
T: (01629) 733 123
E: woodlandsfitness@yahoo.co.uk
W: www.woodlandsfitnessrowsley.co.uk