Woodlands Fitness Centre

The Woodlands Fitness Centre June 2015 Newsletter

Wednesday 10th June 2015

What's New?

Hi guys & girls,

Here we are in June, nearly halfway through the year.

So what is new? Last month I mentioned ongoing discussions regarding the future ownership of the club. I'm in discussions to bring in 2 business partners, a married couple called Mark and Erica with me staying on as a silent partner. These discussions are ongoing and at this stage nothing has changed. However, this has become such a surprisingly common topic of conversation and certain people seem to think they know what's going on without actually being privy to any actual information beyond what you guys actually know. Three cheers for uninformed reckon!

Mark and Erica have very ambitious plans for the club. Their priorities are the redecoration and upgrading of the club. I have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career - but these skills do not include painting and decorating!

Another of Mark and Erica's priorities is to improve the class/group personal training area, which will include a far superior floor. They will be looking to more effectively screen off this area from the remainder of the gym.

Mark and Erica have discussed a very significant investment in new equipment. We've always had our equipment built to order from the best British manufacturers. This is something they will be looking to continue. A lot of our members are very excited by the prospect of new equipment. At this stage I don't want to commit Mark and Erica to anything they aren't going to see through - but you guys can expect to see a few shiny new toys in the very near future, including a hack squat, which will be the only proper, full commercial hack squat in the area. The likes of Gibbles, Christmas Charles and numerous others have been pestering for new cable machines. Let's just say it's been discussed.

Mark and Erica are looking at new flooring options for the remainder of the gym and cardio room. I've always opted for the 6ft x 4ft stable mats because they're easy to lay, heavy duty and fit for purpose.

Back in 2010, I investigated the possibility of installing a vast mezzanine floor over the former studio and spinning area. By the time I'd calculated the mezzanine structure, electrics and lighting, air conditioning/air management systems, stud work, suspended ceiling, mirrors, new studio flooring etc, I didn't feel it was the right option for the club at that time. However, this is something Mark and Erica are very keen to investigate further and hopefully it's something they can make work.

We're all working towards and looking forward to a time in the VERY near future when we can tell you exactly what is happening and when it is happening. I just want to keep you guys as up to date as possible.

Instead of discussing what is new, why don't we discuss what is old? Every month I write these newsletters to try to help you guys out as much as possible. Every thing I write about diet and training is accurate. One thing I'm always keen to dispel is some of the common myths regarding female trainees.

I don't know about you, but I'm getting rather tired of all the stereotypical nonsense surrounding women and weight training.

Are deadlifts supposed to be a man's exercise? Will heavy weights make you big and bulky? Will you look like a female bodybuilder? No! Just no!

If you want to 'tone up' should you go for the 'burn' with high reps and just a little bit of weight? Nooooo!

A man's exercise? What actually is that? A man's exercise? Are women so incompetent and weak that they can't manage to conduct exercises with barbells and dumbbells? Higher reps to tone up? Big and bulky? Why is the fitness industry so full of such nonsense? And why do people continue to believe this nonsense?

Let's take a look at how a woman should train and at the same time dispel some of the common misconceptions regarding female trainees.

The word 'desirable' is subjective - but in general terms, it could be argued that a desirable female physique is one that can only be achieved through regular resistance training! But what about all the talk about weight training making women big and bulky? First, it is physiologically impossible for a woman to put on large amounts of muscle mass; your body's hormonal makeup is not one that will allow you to do so.

Muscle growth is largely dependant on the male growth hormone testosterone - so men are much more likely to bulk up. For women exercising in the correct range, resistance training will enhance muscle tone, giving a firmer shapelier figure.

I don't want this to be a discussion about creationism vs. evolution but when God made man on the 6th day I very doubt he intended for women to look like men (although to be fair there have been a few people I've been unsure about over the years), so he made the chemistry of each gender's respective bodies different. There's one point I'm always trying to really emphasise: no matter how hard you train, how often you train, how much protein you eat, etc, you're not going to even come close to the big, bulky physique of a bodybuilder.

A 'desirable' female physique is one that can only be achieved through resistance training.

There are some personal trainers, home workout DVDs and class types that encourage you to lift lighter weights and go for the burn. This is just crazy talk!

Do you know why this is crazy talk? Well let's first clarify a few things about muscle tone (muscle tone is another nonsense phrase but people know what it means and it's easier just to go along with it). There are two types of muscle tone:

1). Myogenic
2). neurogenic.

Myogenic refers to your muscle tone at rest. It is affected by the density of your muscles; the greater the density of your muscles, the harder and firmer you will appear. Heavy training increases your myogenic tone through the hypertrophy (growth) of the contractile proteins myosin and actin (myosin and actin are by far the most dense components of skeletal muscle).

Training in higher rep ranges promotes more sarcoplasmic (fluid) hypertrophy, which in turn yields a "softer" pumped look. If you want to be hard, firm, tight, etc, the latter is certainly not the way to go.

Neurogenic is the 'tone' that is expressed when movements or contractions occur. Again, lower rep training comes out on top as training with heavy loads will increase the sensitivity of alpha and gamma motor neurons, thus increasing neurogenic tone when conducting even the simplest of movements (i.e. walking, extending your arm to point, etc).

Training with heavy loads and low volume (sets x reps) is the best way to get hard and strong, but not big. Muscular hypertrophy is generally a response to a high volume work output. If you keep the sets and reps low with heavy training, you won't have to fear getting big.

Why is it commonly recommended that women train with light weights? Who knows! Maybe some trainers like to tell their clients what they want to hear. But not GW. He likes to tell you the way it is. Often through the medium of dance.

There is the typical stereotype that women are weak, fragile creatures who can't handle anything more than pushups on their knees and bicep curls with pink dumbbells. The belief that high-rep training increases muscle tone is 100% myth.

Your muscle fibres need energy to be reset to contract again. A dead body is out of ATP, the energy compound that relaxes the muscles. A high rep workout exhausts ATP in your muscle and leads to temporary hardness... The only way to make such 'tone' last is by training hard.

Forget the adductor machine, leg extensions and leg curls. If you want to achieve a hard body, you need to start training with heavier. By heavier, I'm not talking about you guys deadlifting 3 times your body weight. But you need to life heavy enough that you body responds to the training.

Big, compound movements like deadlifts and squats are vastly superior to machine, isolation-type movements for hardening up your thighs and butt as they allow you to use maximal weight while training a number of muscle groups simultaneously. Both the deadlift and squat are exceptional core exercises.

Another benefit obtained by performing multi-joint compound movements is increased confidence. With strength comes confidence. Also, there is nothing like claiming your ground in the gym by loading up the squat bar and proceeding to execute a few heavy, crisp repetitions. After all, the majority of the guys in gyms probably don't squat, and those of them that do most likely resort to using the smith machine and/or doing partial repetitions.

Know why? Because free squatting with a full range of motion is hard. It takes will power to get under that bar week after week and squat all the way down. Simply put, most people fear the squat and the deadlift (along with anything else challenging in life). So, when a guy has finished doing barbell curls in the squat rack (something we frown on down at Woodlands), put the bar up on the J-hooks where it belongs and show him what kind of woman you are!

Please don't think I'm telling you that you need to be able to lift "x" number of lbs to obtain a hard physique. Heavy is a relative term; 200kg is considered "light" to some guys - but the average gym goer would deem that same load unachievable. In fact, if I put 200kg on the squat bar and proceeded to attempt a repetition, I would be rewarded with destroyed knees.

It's not important that you move big weights; what is important is that you are selecting and lifting loads that are heavy for you. Over time, you will get stronger and the weight you can handle will increase. So, for you as a female trainee, a "heavy" load can be defined as a weight that you can lift in good form for 3-6 repetitions.

Women do not have the capacity to recruit as many motor units as men do. As such, they'll need 1-2 more reps to fully stimulate their muscles.

When training for strength, a man should use between 1 and 5 reps while a woman will benefit more from doing 3-6 reps. Also, most women will need to perform 1-2 more sets of an exercise to achieve the same degree of stimulation as a man, once again because of their lower motor unit activation." The weight training routine that we will outline next month is modelled around these recommendations.

If you want to achieve a lean, sexy, and hard physique you have to train heavy and train with multi-joint, compound movements like the squat and deadlift.

If you want help learning the big, compound movements to ensure that you are performing them properly and with impeccable form just come and ask a Woodlands staff member. We're all Level 3 personal trainers.

There are personal training special offers at the end of this newsletter.

3 Week Paleo detox

This is an article I've used a couple of times before and I'm using it again quite simply because it works. I've followed it closely and got results I've wanted as have a number of my personal training clients. It's simple and easy to follow. All it needs is perseverance.

It is incredibly frustrating when people refer to the Paleo Diet as "a fad diet". It's easy to understand why people do this (dismissing Paleo as a "fad" gives them an excuse to continue with unhealthy eating habits without feeling guilty). The Paleo diet is different from "fad diets" in several very significant ways.

Fad diets are typically short-term weight-loss plans that rely on tricks and gimmicks to disguise how they really work: an extreme reduction in calorie intake. They play on the psychological rollercoaster of self-hatred and desire for immediate results - people will ride a wave of short-term motivation until the dieter caves and goes off the diet, and then blames him/herself for "having no willpower" or "being lazy."

The Paleo is about comfortable and healthy long-term maintenance. Unlike fad diets, the Paleo diet helps you develop a healthy mindset about food - and you'll learn how to navigate realistic compromises between the chocolate cake all around you and the desire to take care of your body. That's not to say that you can't incorporate foods you feel you simply can't live without. So if you can't live your life without pasta, then treat yourself to it occasionally.

The Paleo diet emulates the diet of our hunter-gatherer ancestors. It includes whole, unprocessed foods that resemble what they look like in nature. This is the diet I've followed and I know it can lead to significant weight loss and major improvements in health.

The objective of this 3 Week Paleo detox to cleanse the body of all sugar and alcohol before gradually start adding elements back in to reset the body and stabilize hormones. This challenge will get rid of the cravings and clean out your system to help you restart the Paleo Diet. It will be a tough 3 week challenge - if you choose to accept it.

Following are the rules specifically laid out for each week...

Week 1:

No Sugar (including fruit), No Dairy, No grain, no legumes and definitely no alcohol! No sugar includes artificial sweeteners, stevia, honey, agave.

This is a list of what you can have:

Vegetables
All fish
Shellfish
Any game meat
Eggs
Lean meat/poultry.

Don't have any processed lunchmeat or bacon.

Fats:

As you are cutting out sugar and fruit you will need fat as energy (but don't overdo the fats):

Olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, almond oil, walnut oil, flaxseed oil, almonds, cashews, pecans, pine nuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, macadamia nuts, pistachios, sesame seeds and walnuts.

Week 2:

This week everything stays the same, but you can start reintroducing fruit every other day. You can also start adding back in sweet potato and squash. As for proteins you can add back in nitrate free bacon.

Acceptable legumes include sweet potato, pumpkin and squash.

Week 3:

This week is all about maintaining. You have now been strict Paleo for 2 solid weeks. The cravings should be subsiding or gone. You should feel pretty good! If you need energy add in a little more fat or protein. There are no more daily restrictions on fruit but your body should not want as much. On Saturday you can have a cheat meal - but be careful as any alcohol or sugar or grains will put your body in turmoil.

WOODLANDS SPECIAL OFFERS

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All sessions must be used within 4 weeks.

Buy 6 x 45 minute PT sessions and get 2 FREE

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Very Punny

A computer once beat me at chess - but it was no match for me at kick boxing.

For Sale: Parachute. Only used once, never opened.

Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.

I'd kill for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Borrow money from pessimists -- they don't expect it back.

Half the people you know are below average.

All those who believe in psycho kinesis, raise my hand.

Why do psychics have to ask you for your name?

Member of the month

The Woodlands Fitness at Peak Village is delighted to announce our very first Member of the Month award. After some deliberation between a few contenders, we decided to give the title to our very own Nikki "Christmas" Benfield.

Big Nik has earned the title for consistently putting in the time to train at Woodlands at least three times a week since he joined and for his impressive improvements in muscle tone and cardiovascular fitness.

Nikki has set the perfect example for the way dedication and commitment can lead to great results. Well done Nikki!


The Woodlands Fitness Centre Ltd
A: Unit 29, Peak Village Estate, Chatsworth Road, Rowsley (nr Matlock & Bakewell), Derbyshire, DE4 2JE
T: (01629) 733 123
E: woodlandsfitness@yahoo.co.uk
W: www.woodlandsfitnessrowsley.co.uk