Woodlands Fitness Centre

The Woodlands newsletter: Sunday 7th August 2022

Sunday 7th August 2022

Hi,

Self-deception is a very tricky subject to address.

If we truly saw everything as it really was all the time, we would be an extremely rare and enlightened individual.

Unfortunately, the reality for most of us is that our perceptions are filtered through our biases, experiences, fears, etc. When it comes to fitness, self-deception can cause a lot of frustration and distress.

From our point of view, we try as hard as we can (at least we think we do) and we just aren't seeing results! Some classic examples are that we believe our eating habits are excellent when in reality they are out of balance and contributing to weight gain instead of weight loss. Or someone believes they "just don't have time to workout".

We all fall into this trap of self-deception in one way or another.
So what do we do about it?

If you are finding yourself not achieving the fitness results you are looking for, the first thing to do is to take a moment to really examine your goals and the circumstances that you believe are preventing progress.

Slow down for a second, sit by yourself, and really look at your situation and ask "Am I truly NOT able to do this, or am I just making excuses to absolve myself from the responsibility of owning my life?"

I think you know what the answer will be about 99.9% of the time. This can be a painful process of self-discovery, but it also has the awesome effect of opening the door to real change.

Once you truthfully look at your situation and realise that you are what's stopping you from progressing, you now have the power to make the changes that are needed to move forward.

Then you will find new energy, new commitment, and a new confidence that you really can achieve your goals!

Seriously, you can!

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-exercise


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



How to Set a Weight Loss Goal (part 1)

How much weight do you need to lose?

First of all you need to decide on a reasonable target weight for you.

As a guideline, most slimming and weight loss professionals use Body Mass Index (BMI), which looks at a person's weight in relation to their height.

A BMI of less than 18.5 is considered to be underweight, 18.5 - 25 indicates a healthy weight, 25 - 30 is overweight and 30 or more is obese.

Quite simply, the higher your BMI, the greater your risk of health problems. You can find out your BMI with the wlr BMI Calculator.

Ideally, you should aim for a target weight that gives you a BMI in the healthy weight range of 18.5 - 25.

If you're already in this range, any goal you set won't be too far away. You'll probably start to feel your clothes getting looser within a couple of weeks. Great for your motivation!

If you want to lose a lot of weight, you're probably better off breaking your overall target into smaller goals.

Think about it this way, for each stone you lose you'll drop 1-2 sizes. So each stone is well worth losing. (One of the pleasures of dropping clothes sizes is it's so much easier to find your size on shop rails.)

If health is a main concern for you, another way of setting a goal is by percentage of body weight you want to lose.

Research shows that losing just 10 percent of excess weight will improve health significantly.

Make Your Goal SMART
There are several versions of this acronym, with subtle differences depending on the purpose of the goal.

This version works well for weight loss:

S - Significant (reaching this goal means a lot to you)

M - Motivational (you're excited about reaching the goal)

A - Achievable (you believe you can get to this goal)

R - Realistic (your goal is within the bounds of possibility and suitable for you)

T-Trackable (you can monitor your results to see if you're moving towards your goal)

Once you've decided on a realistic weight goal, you'll be able to work out how long it will take you to reach this.

How long will it take you to reach your target?

While it might be tempting to slash your calorie intake considerably in an effort to lose weight fast, you shouldn't aim to shift more than 1-2lbs a week - although you may lose slightly more than this when you first start slimming as your body gets rid of water as well as fat.

In the long term though, a weight loss of more than 2lb a week means you'll have to cut calories excessively - and ultimately, this will make it even harder to shift those pounds.

More next week...

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


Muscles don't just magically grow

As anyone who has ever gained even a little bit of muscle mass will tell you, your muscles don't just magically grow.

Soz.

So you can put away your wand.

You have to put in the work.

Of course, a great deal of the work is making sure you have a balanced diet and you're fitting all of your macronutrient and caloric needs. However, your diet won't matter if you never hit the gym and put the time in under the bar.

Exercising is the only way to build muscle - but how does muscle actually grow? What are the mechanics? In this discussion, we're going to talk about micro tears - what they are, how they happen and why they are necessary.

Our muscles aren't just made up of iron, blood and sweat - muscles are a series of fibers woven together to create a working machine. They aren't constructed of only one type of fiber, but 3 different types.

Human muscles are composed of fiber types I, IIA and IIB; or, more specifically, slow-twitch, fast-twitch and very fast-twitch. Type IIB is "high threshold', which means it is only recruited for the highest intensity exercise, i.e. high-rep, explosive exercises such as the exercises usually included in any hypertrophy-centric workout plan.
.

The "twitch' refers to the fibre's contraction speed, or time to peak power. As you may have guessed, slow-twitch fibres contract more slowly than fast-twitch fibres.

Your slow twitch muscles will be more recruited during endurance activities, steady state cardio or static holds, and your fast-twitch muscles will be recruited when doing bench press, squats, jumping, sprinting or doing a variety of Olympic lifts like snatches or cleans, as they require quick, sudden movements.

Your muscles aren't going to grow simply through their recruitment, or even a build up of lactic acid which causes your muscles to burn while you're pumping out higher rep sets. Your muscles will grow from the causation and reparation of micro tears.

If you damage your hands with an abrasive material every day, what happens? You build calluses in the spots of the abrasion. This is the body's response to damage, to get tougher in the places that are being damaged, and it's no different with your muscles.

When you exercise, you place a lot of stress on your muscles, which causes them to develop very small, microscopic tears in them. If you have ever had, or known someone who has had a torn pec, a torn hamstring, a torn ACL or bicep, this is not the same type of tear.

Major muscle tears are an injury that can have effects anywhere from ruining your workout to necessitating surgery. These micro tears are necessary for your muscles to grow, as without damage (a stimulus), there can be no response from the body.

The soreness you experience the day (or 3 days if it was leg day) after your workouts are due to all of the micro tears in your muscles, and act as assurance that you got a good workout in. These micro tears happen in every fibre of the muscle recruited for the exercise. So, in a standard workout, you'd be recruiting all 3, and thus all 3 types of fibres would experience micro tears.

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



Recipe of the week: Chicken shish kebabs

Ingredients:

6 chicken breasts, chopped into large chunks
2 each red, orange and green peppers , deseeded and chopped into large chunks
Warmed flatbreads , chopped
Tomato and lemon wedges, to serve

For the marinade and sauce:

2 garlic cloves , finely grated
300g natural or Greek yogurt
1 tbsp paprika
3 tbsp ketchup

Method:

Make the marinade by mixing all of the ingredients together in a large bowl. Spoon a third of the mixture into a smaller bowl, then cover and chill until needed. Stir the chicken into the marinade and set aside for 20 mins. Can be chilled for up to two days, covered.


If you're using wooden skewers, soak them in water for 1 hr before using. Alternately thread the peppers and chicken onto the skewers until you have 6-8 kebabs. You can do this in advance if you like, and chill the kebabs until needed.


Heat a barbecue to medium, or until a thin layer of coals has turned grey. Cook the kebabs for 10 mins, turning occasionally, until the chicken is charred and cooked through. Serve the kebabs with the reserved yogurt sauce, warmed flatbreads, chopped tomatoes and lemon wedges on the side.


Notes:

The kebabs can also be cooked indoors under a hot grill on a tray lined with foil for 15-20 mins.

Enjoy


Exercise of the week: Squat jump with floor touch

I often refer to these as "frog jumps" in my group sessions.

Bend your legs, keeping your knees wide apart and your heels in contact with the floor, to drop into a deep squat.

Place your hands lightly on the floor and pause for two seconds, then drive up off the floor powerfully, clapping your hands together overhead.

The two-second pause removes any rebounding effect to help you build greater strength in the deep squat position.

Do 3 sets of 15 reps.

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


Things to consider

Take your time:

Fast weight loss, such as losing 10 pounds in a week, is possible — but it's usually not worth it. In fact, it could be detrimental to your physical and mental health.

In reality, plans and programs that promise rapid weight loss or extreme results are best avoided.

If you're interested in losing weight, it's best to focus on improving your overall health through a sustainable and nourishing dietary and activity plan that involves getting enough calories from nutritious foods and participating in consistent physical activity.

We can help you adopt healthy habits so you can lose weight and keep it off. Your program will be customised to your goals and fitness needs. Get started today.

Use it lose it:

If you don't give your body a reason to hold on to muscle mass, your body will start using it for fuel.

This is a fact.

HIIT sessions are not enough.

Slow and steady:

Fast weight loss is possible, but trying to lose the most weight in the shortest time isn't healthy. It's also likely that you'll regain the weight as soon as you return to your normal dietary and lifestyle practices.


Are you doing intermittent fasting, but not eating right?

Intermittent fasting alone isn't a magic tool for weight loss.

You still need to be aware of what you're putting into your body. If you're not losing weight while intermittent fasting, you may still be consuming too many calories when you are eating.

You could still be eating too much, foods that are poor in nutrients, or low-calorie foods that aren't filling you up and leaving you feeling hungry all the time.

Try Clusters:

No method will boost strength as rapidly. Each cluster set has 4 to 6 total reps. Pick a weight you could normally lift for 3 good reps. Perform the set one rep at a time.

Do one rep, rack it and rest 10-12 seconds.

Do another rep, rest 10-12 seconds, and continue in this manner until you reach the point where you can't do another rep.

If you can do more than 6 reps, add more weight. Do 3 of these and you're golden when it comes to stimulating tons of strength gains. And because of the volume you'll get bigger, too.

Pay attention to serving sizes on labels:

Even if the label says only 100 calories, if you're eating double the serving size, then you need to double the caloric number as well.

Interval training is good:

Twice a week, instead of going at a steady pace for 30 minutes, go easy for 3 minutes and hard for 1 minute. Repeat this pattern 5-6x!

DIY Dressing:

A splash of olive oil and vinegar will also bring out the flavours of the dish and save you a few hundred calories along the way.

For a healthy, belly-blasting dressing when you're eating salad at home, try incorporating some apple cider vinegar or a squeeze of lemon.



Useless Facts

Cats urine glows under a black light.

Garvey "Gravy" Chambers runs until the Treadmill gets tired.

In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere.

Lorne Greene had one of his nipples bitten off by an alligator while he was host of "Lorne Greene's Wild Kingdom."

Leading hand sanitisers claim they can kill 99.99% of germs. Tom Andrews can kill 100% of whatever he wants.

Pamela Anderson Lee is Canada's Centennial Baby, being the first baby born on the centennial anniversary of Canada's independence.







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