Geelong's Gym

We are absolutely delighted to announce that Annie Cramp, one of our Personal Trainers here at Geelong’s Gym, has just been awarded the 2010 Sustagen Sport Community Sports Trainer of the Year!

Annie, with a member of the St Joseph's Football Club, on game day.

Here’s just part of the reason why Annie, an Australian Sports Medicine accredited Personal Trainer, won this award:  “Annie, trainer at the St Joseph’s Football and Netball Club in Geelong, Victoria, understands that appropriate hydration and nutrition are not just an issue on game day, but something that needs to be constantly addressed, managed and encouraged at every training and recovery session.  She understands the importance in having up to date and accurate advice from industry professionals such as dieticians, physios and medicos to ensure that all players at the club are prepared for game day.”

Wow!  What an achievement.  We are so proud of her and wanted to acknowledge what a fantastic trainer she is and the awesome contribution she has made (and continues to make) here at the gym and out in the community, to help people have lives overflowing with health and fitness.

We are delighted to have her as such an integral part of our team (and one of our Team Leaders to boot!) – this award only acknowledges what we’ve known for a long time… her care and concern for her community is reflected in her every action and word.

Well done, Annie!

When did we lose our ABILITY to be active?

We used to go to the gym just to get fitter and stronger for a sport.  Then we used the gym to help with rehabilitation of injuries.  We discovered body shape could be altered through exercise.  And of course, we are constantly told to exercise consistently for better health and well being.

Isn't it great to see kids running around and enjoying the outdoors?!

But now it seems that gyms are playing a very important role, which we didn’t foresee, starting with children as young as 7 years…  Gyms are teaching children the importance of simply being active, something that we all took for granted when we were growing up.

I’m sure you remember how we all played outside with our neighbours, hung from trees, played games of footy, soccer and chasey.  Now it’s no longer safe or we live in a housing complex with no trees or there’s no open space to even think about playing a ball sport.  Children today have much fewer opportunities to test their bodies and understand the potential of their muscles.

How then, as adults, are they going to know how to exercise for health and well being?  How are they expected to know how to combat lifestyle diseases, like cardio-vascular disease and Type II Diabetes?

As for the ever-growing obesity epidemic…

Sobering, isn’t it?

So, going to the gym is all about re-abilitating ourselves into the world of activity.  It’s giving us back childhood opportunities to learn about how our bodies move.

How then, can the gym not be part of your life?

How well do you know yourself?  Below are 6 Exercise Types – have a read through and see what your relationship with exercise is really like and how you can improve that relationship.

1. Exercise Free Zone – you’re the kind of person who has never really participated in regular exercise before.  Beofre you’re going to exercise, you probably need to understand the health benefits to you and you’re going to need to see some fun in it.
2. Yeah But… – consistency is your biggest problem and you always have a good excuse why you haven’t exercised.  Finding someone to exercise with would help you immensely with your consistency and you need to set realistic goals which you can actually reach.
3. Hard Slog – you’ve got a whole lot of willpower because you know exercise is good for you, but you don’t really enjoy it.  You probably need to switch to a more interesting exercise regime, perhaps with more of a social element, and then you’ll actually enjoy staying fit and healthy.
4. Exercise Evangelist – most of us wish we were like you, because you love to exercise and you stick to your routine without fail.  Your problem is you need variety, otherwise you might get bored and potentially stop exercising altogether.  Try to add some new activities into your routine to keep it interesting.
5. Yesterday’s Hero – you used to exercise regularly, but now you do nothing.  Don’t expect too much from yourself straight away; start out slowly with some gentle exercise and before you know it you’ll be enthusiastic about it all over again.
6. Never Again – uh oh, you’ve had an injury or a bad experience with exercise and you swore you’d never go there again.  You need to look at what caused your bad experience and get your injury looked at.  Maybe you need to lower your expectations and start out with some gentle exercise to help rehabilitate your injury.

Information in this blog has been sourced from “The Sugar Daddy“ by Dr Adam Fraser and Christine Armarego.

We all know there are a whole lot of old wives’ tales out there covering just about everything, including water comsumption.  Here are just a couple:

• Drink more water and you’ll become much healthier
• Drink a glass of water before meals and you’ll eat less

A lovely glass of water can do wonders for your weight loss goal.

Well, guess what?  Sometimes the old wives actually know what they’re on about!

Dr Brenda Davy of Virginia Tech recently carried out the first randomised controlled 12 week trial studying the link between water consumption and weight loss.  After this trial, Dr Davy carried out a year long follow-up study and was able to come up with some fairly conclusive results…

• Prior to the trial, all participants consumed between 1800 and 2200 calories a day.
• During the trial, the women’s rations were reduced to 1200 calories and the men’s to 1500.
• The participants were divided into two groups – one group was told to drink half a litre of water before each of three daily meals; the other group was given no instructions on what to drink.
• After three months, the group that drank water before meals had lost about 7 kilos each, while those in the other group lost only 5 kilos.

Interestingly, the effects seem to be long lasting… in the subsequent 12 months the participants have been allowed to eat and drink what they like.  Those who had to drink water before meals stuck with the habit, because apparently they liked it.  They have continued to lose weight, while the others have actually put it back on!

So what have you got to lose, except your excess weight, of course!  It’s cheap, simple and, in contrast to so many other diet techniques, it actually seems to be enjoyable!

Information in this blog has been sourced from The Economist.

Maybe you don't need to go quite this far...

If you’re an employer, have you thought lately about the overall health of your employees and how it’s effecting their performance at work?

If you’re an employee, have you taken into account the state of your health when struggling to get through a day of work and meet your targets, dealines or goals?

You might think that as the owner of Geelong’s Gym all of my staff would be physically active… you’d be right, but they didn’t all come to me that way. 

Obviously all our Personal Trainers and Group Fitness Instructors are highly motivated people who have a passion for exercise, health and fitness.  But what about my Reception, Membership and Admin Teams?  Many of them, when they first started at Geelong’s Gym, included very little, if any, regular exercise in their day to day life.  But not anymore.

... or this...

If you work for me, I expect you to exercise regularly.  (And let’s face it, you don’t have much of an excuse when you work in a gym!!!)  Why?  Because I understand the value of exercise in creating and maintaining good health.  And I know if my team is healthy, fit and well they’re going to perform much better than someone who isn’t.

...but wouldn't you love all your employees to look this happy, engaged and energetic?

Recently, Right Management did a study called “Ready, get set… change“, where they surveyed 28,000 employees in 15 countries on the link between health and organisational performance.  Here are some of the things they found out:

• Organisations that promote employee health and wellbeing are 3.5 times more likely to encourage creativity and innovation.
• In companies where health and wellness was managed well, organisational performance increased more than 2.5 times compared with rival companies.
• When health and wellness were properly managed, the number of engaged employees increased nearly eight times.

(* Soure: MT Magazine)

So there you have it… overall health and wellness of employees is essential to high performance in the workplace.

In a previous post I talked about what a big issue Diabetes is in the world today.  Today, I want to follow on from that and talk about how you can manage and prevent diabetes (as well as many other health conditions).  And, drum roll please… EXERCISE is one of the best ways you can do it.

Manage your diabetes with regular walking.

Why?  Because, exercise improves the insulin sensitivity of your cells and, as a result, improves your blood glucose levels.  In a nut shell, everything runs much more smoothly when you exercise.

So here are some key exercise principles for managing and preventing diabetes:

• Make sure you move during the day – any opportunity you get to move should be grasped eagerly.
• Increase your lung fitness – how?  Get a little bit out of breath every day.
• Get rid of the glucose in your muscles and liver – combine interval training and resistance training to drain out the excess glucose.
• Build muscle – no, you don’t have to be The Incredible Hulk, but a little bit of muscle goes a long way.
• Stop before you get too sore – some soreness is good but don’t go overboard on your first go; try and build up gradually.
• Exercise regularly – short, daily bouts of exercise are much better for you than one long session a week.

Above all, remember what your purpose for exercising is… getting fit is far more important than getting thin, so don’t measure your success by how much weight you’ve lost!

Information in this blog has been sourced from “The Sugar Daddy“ by Dr Adam Fraser and Christine Armarego.

We’d like to introduce you to our yet to be named resident Skeleton. He’s a special part of our team who moves around the gym to where he’s most needed.

The resident Skeleton at Geelong's Gym helps promote good hygiene around the gym.

At the moment, he’s standing proudly at Reception providing a gentle reminder to those members who aren’t yet in the habit of bringing a workout towel with them.  And, of course, he does it with a warm, welcoming smile!

Clothed toga-style in a Geelong’s Gym workout towel, he promotes the importance of hygiene around the gym and being considerate to other members who have to use the weights and cardio equipment after you.

After all, a clean and healthy gym is a happy gym!

Physical inactivity is as hazardous to your health as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. This quote is by Lawrence Golding Ph.D. when he was Editor in Chief of the American College of Sports Medicine’s Health and Fitness Journal.

Wouldn't it be good to have that kind of flexibility at that age?!

Yes, I know, that’s a pretty bold statement.  But here are his reasons for making it:

• Hip fractures are associated with more deaths, permanent disability and medical institutional care costs than all other osteoporotic fractures combined.
• Even small increases in bone mass gained from endurance or resistance training can help prevent or delay the process of osteoporosis.
• Physical activity, including muscle-strengthening (resistance) exercise, appears to be protective against falling and fractures amoung the elderly due to increased muscle strength and balance.
• One in two women and one in eight men over 50 will have an osteoporosis-related fracture in their lifetime.
• An average of 24% of hip fractures in patients aged 50 and over die in the year following their fracture.

Exercise and increased physical activity are an intrinsic part of any comprehensive preventative or treatment regimen for osteoporosis.

And it’s never too late to start… research proves regular exercise, even initiated late in life, can help fight the effects of aging!  So get started NOW and don’t let your physical inactivity be hazardous to your health.

I’m sure we all know by now how special our frienships are, but did you know they are the key to greater health and wellness?

Yes, it’s true.  Studies show that having a positve support system around you when you’re pursuing optimum health and wellness actually increases your likelihood of sticking to new healthy habits and behaviours.  PLUS, it reduces stress, increases energy and improves your relationship!

Don't panic - exercising with friends doesn't mean you have to wear matching workout outfits!

Why is this?  Well, it’s largely because to make a significant change in our lives we need to change our mindset, attitude and behaviour first and a positive, strong support system can be a hugely helpful tool in making that happen.  And chances are, that what you’re struggling with is something they’re struggling with too, or have struggled with in the past, so you can actually support each other.  It doesn’t have to be a one way deal.

Friendship is such a powerful tool and it can be a negative influence just as much as a postive one.  For example, in 2003, Nicholas Christakis, a social scientist, and James Fowler, a political scientist, researched how relaitonships directly influence behaviour and therefore health and happiness.

Their study found that behaviours, either positive or negative, are highly influenced by the people around you.  For example, when they looked at the growing rate of obseity, this is what they found:

• Obesity radiates outwards from clusters of overweight people
• Having an obese spouse raises the risk of becoming obese by 37%; but, if a friend becomes obese the risk skyrockets by a shocking 171%!!!  Yikes!
• Lean individuals surrounded by obesity were rare.

Don’t worry though, there were also some positive findings.  Christakis and Fowler found that happy people have happy friends and each happy friend increased a person’s probability of being happy by 9%!

The simple conclusions is, people need people!  So if you’re trying to make some positive changes in your fitness, health and wellbeing (or even some other area of your life), gather your friends around you as a support team and I’m sure you will reach your goals much more easily than if you try to go it alone.

Sometimes (in fact quite a lot of the time) when people get older they do less exercise and less strength work because they think their bodies can’t handle as much any more.

Unfortunately, in making this decision they basically allow their bodies to deteriorate.  What do you mean?! I can hear you crying out.

Let me explain a bit more fully.

Firstly, all forms of aerobic/cardio exercise are beneficial for overall fitness and great for the heart and lungs and should definitely be maintained.  However, aerobic activity doesn’t seem to be able to stop the muscle shriveling that accompanies aging.

If you want a life full of strength and vitality, it's time to start a weights program!

In fact, a Danish study carried out in the 90s provided some startling results.  Male athletes with an average age of 69 who had been training for at least a dozen years were found, unsurprisingly, to be extremely fit.  But, and here’s the scary bit… they had no more muscle mass or strength than their peers who did no exercise at all!  Worse, they were steadily losing muscle.  Yikes!

An additional group of men were looked at who did weight lifting.  And here’s where the results get really interesting… Men in their late sixties who had been training with fairly heavy weights for a decade or more were not only stronger than swimmers or runners of the same age, they were actually stronger than the average 28 year old man.

Biopsies of the weight lifters’ muscles showed the mix of muscle fibres was essentially like that of younger men, a blend of both slow twitch and fast twitch fibres.  The other group of men, despite their fitness, had significantly reduced fast twitch fibres, i.e. the instant strength which allows you to dodge cars.

Please hear me in this, aerobic exercise is definitely important for a variety of health and fitness reasons.  But, top physiologists believe that by middle age weight training is at least as important as aerobic exercise.  And for the elderly it’s even more important as it deters the kind of injuries which most often cause an old body to fail.

So, if you’re in your middle or twilight years and aren’t doing any kind of weight or strength training, I can’t emphasise strongly enough how vital it is for you to start doing some NOW!  And if you’re not sure where to start, why not come on in to Geelong’s Gym and book an appointment with one of our qualified Personal Trainers who will put together a weights program suitable to your particular needs.