Fitness for Kids - The Importance of Starting Early! by Kim Trevaskis

We all know that it is very important for physical activity to be introduced to children at a young age.  Worrying statistics of childhood obesity are constant headlines in the news and it is now widely understood that being overweight as a child is often a pre-cursor to being overweight or obese as an adult.  This is just one aspect of general wellbeing that can be improved by being physically active at a young age.  There are many others including improved:

 

• Physical Development
• Social Development
• Emotional Development

Physical Development

Motor development is a very important part of physical development in children.  This process starts with gross motor skills (running, jumping, kicking a ball, etc) and progresses to fine motor skills (writing, play dough, Lego, etc).  Generally skills that are practiced frequently and over time are likely to improve and to be recalled for a longer period of time.  Mastering one skill does not necessarily mean that another gross motor skill will improve at the same time.  For example, if you take a child to tennis lessons, it does not mean that they will automatically become a better swimmer too.  Therefore it is beneficial to children to be exposed to many different forms of activity that will improve their physical development.

Social Development

A child that regularly participates in organised physical activity will be learning how to relate to other children their own age and to their instructor, their authority figure.  Young children (3-5 year olds) are still learning to share and take turns.  By taking part in fun games that are incidentally physical activity, they will be exposed to situations that require them to take turns.  With positive and continued reinforcement by the instructor, they will see the benefits of this behaviour and with practice it will become a usual course of action.

Emotional Development

Children who experience improvement in their gross motor and fine motor skills will generally become more confident in their physical abilities and this will usually lead to increased self-esteem.  It is important for every child to hear positive feedback about their progression in activities.  The instructor can help each child feel these “wins” in each session.  A child who is familiar with winning will be better equipped to deal with those occasions when they don’t master a skill straight away or another child performs better than they do.

With all these benefits, it’s easy to see why becoming a Children’s Fitness Instructor is becoming one of the most popular areas of personal training.  It is a very rewarding field that gives Fitness Instructors and Personal Trainers the ability to really make a difference at an age that will set up children with a positive attitude to fitness for life!

Kim Trevaskis runs Mini Moves Instructor Accrediation for Fitnation and has a degree in Human Movement

Tech Savvy Health and Fitness for those on the go!

Keeping track of your workouts and eating habits is a must when trying get into shape or even simply stay fit and healthy. Thanks to advancements in technology and the abundance of mobile apps now available, this is becoming easier. So how can you best utilise technology to help improve your health and fitness - safely?

Firstly decide your goals, motivators, and weaknesses…now it’s time to look at which apps are right to help you. It’s important to remember, just like any exercise or trainer, what works for someone else may not be the right solution for you!

You will find that there are many free apps to get you started and if you don’t like the app you can simply delete it later. Some of the less expensive and free apps provide great support, so don’t automatically think the more expensive apps are the best. Many of the apps are also available as online, blackberry or android versions – so you don’t have to have an iphone or ipad.

For anyone trying to trim down, you’ve no doubt been advised to keep a food diary, which often proves harder than it sounds. Well adding a Food Diary app is the portable quick solution and many of them include calorie counters, here are just a few:

iFood diary - $1.19
Food Tracker Pro , Daily Eating Log - $2.49

Calorie Counter by MyNetDiary – Free
LoseIt - Free

Daily Burn – Free

There is a great range of running training apps and podcasts to get you started including Couch to 5K - $3.99,  Bridge to 10K $2.49, Interval Run $2.49 (combines C to 5K, gateway to 8k & one hour programs) – as apps or Podrunner podcasts – both of which are low-stress, goal-orientated, to get you  up and moving (jogging and walking) with some great success.

If you’ve really struggled getting started and staying with a running program, then one of these will help guide you to your goal distance in a realistic timeframe.

If you are already a keen runner, using your Polar Heart Monitor in conjunction with their polarpersonaltrainer.com site or Polar Protrainer software is a fantastic way to monitor your progress and stay motivated.

When it comes to workouts there are so many apps from those focused on specific areas such as abs or butt to those featuring complete workouts and exercise libraries. Some of the more comprehensive apps include:

Jillian Michaels – Free

Fitness Pro – Free

Six Pack Abs – Free (a big tick for this app for including important warnings)

101 Yoga Poses - Free,

All-in Fitness- $2.49

GymGoal - $4.99

iFitness - $2.49

THI Personal Trainer - $1.19

FitSync - $5.99.

With so many workout apps available, it is just about deciding on how you want to use it and searching for one that suits your needs.

However it’s important to remember that most apps carry only basic cautions and do not outline the impact of poor technique or when an exercise maybe contra-indicated. Your personal trainer can work with you to create safe workouts on these apps to use in-between sessions, ensuring you are to the utilising the correct exercises and technique to achieve your goals. Whilst these apps can provide a great resource they cannot assess your intensity, technique or limitations (yet!), so we strongly advise consulting your fitness professional for advice.

When used well some of the available apps can be an amazing resource to help trainers and clients to set goals, record then track progress and take them to the next level. For many of us those days between training sessions become a blur and we can’t remember exactly what extra exercise was done each day or if we included all the exercises we were meant to – using apps in conjunction with scheduled training sessions can certainly overcome those issues.

Please let us know about your favourite Health & Fitness apps or if you are a personal trainer, how you are using them with your clients.

Functional Training- Do it Right by Nadia Brandon-Black

Functional training is the new buzz word in the fitness industry. Everywhere you go trainers are pushing that they have the newest and best functional exercises with the latest crazy equipment that will help clients get results.  However, many of the best functional exercises can be done at home with minimal equipment. 

So what is Functional Training and Does it Work?

Functional training is a type of exercise that involves using exercises to mimic everyday movement patterns or particular sport skills.  Physiotherapists originally developed functional exercises as a way to rehabilitate their clients so they could return to their lives and jobs post injury.   The idea behind functional training is to train the movement pattern, not the muscle.  

Functional training is an excellent way to enhance your coordination, balance, muscle strength and endurance- no matter your age or your fitness level. It has also been proven to be great for preventing injury.  Traditional strength training really focused around machine based isolation exercises but the truth is that we rarely move in such a controlled manner in everyday life.  Hence the idea behind functional training is to use compound exercises to mimic the challenges of everyday tasks.  For example, basic body weight squats will be more effective in helping you pick something up off the floor as opposed to leg extensions as it more closely reflects the movement pattern required to perform the task. 

However since this training craze has hit, some personal trainers have really missed the point when it comes to functional training.  Functional training like any exercise should be graded according to the client’s level of ability, with a huge focus on maintaining the natural curves in the spine and developing good trunk stability.  The exercises should mimic tasks that are required in daily life.  Unfortunately some trainers are prescribing exercises that are completely unrelated to everyday tasks and that are at a level that is way too complex for their beginner client.   Instead of preparing their clients for the challenges that everyday tasks pose on their bodies, they are actually putting them at risk of back, shoulder and knee injuries. 

So the big thing to remember is functional training really does help to prepare our bodies for the demands of everyday life and age healthily, however like any exercise program it needs to be appropriate for your fitness level and your daily functional demands.    

The most complex looking exercises with the newest and brightest equipment doesn’t necessarily mean they are the best exercises for you!

Tips for Training Functionally and Safely

1. Maintain the neutral curve in your spine at all times
2. Grade your exercises according to your fitness level- start basic and progress slowly
3. Keep your exercises simple- it doesn’t need to be complicated with fancy equipment to be effective
4. Think about the physical tasks you have to perform from day to day and try to think of innovative ways to use exercise to mimic these movement patterns
5. Isolation exercises can still be useful if training a “weak link” in your movement pattern

10 Great Functional Exercises that can be done at home

• Body weight squats

• Single leg squats

• Lateral/side lunges
• Floor to waist lifts-focusing good body mechanics
• Waist to shoulder lifts-focusing on good body mechanics
• Step ups with bicep curls
• Standing theraband row
• Pull ups

• Push ups or wall push ups
• Agility weaves through cones (runs or walk)

Nadia Brandon-Black,  is Fitnation's Qld State Manager. Nadia has a Bachelor Applied Science in Human Movement(Hons) and is currently completing a Masters in Physiotherapy

Finding the Balance by Nadia Brandon-Black

Balance training is a type of exercise that aims to improve your balance and your proprioception-or your body’s awareness of where it is in space.  It is a type of training that is often left out of programs as we tend to focus on losing weight or improving cardiovascular fitness, but the truth is that it is no less important. Training your balance can significantly improve your sporting performance as well as reducing risk of injury with everyday tasks.  It can also play a huge role in decreasing the risk of falls as we get older. 

One of the keys to balance training is to get yourself familiar with your own centre of gravity and to improve your agility, flexibility and reaction time to help you to respond to external forces that may work to get you off balance. You might think that balance training should only be for older people, however research shows that balance components should be added to a program well before we start showing age related balance deficits. 

The good news is that it is easy to include some basic balance tasks in our everyday exercise programs without taking up too much time. Balance exercises should be included for everyone, not just older clients. You need to ensure that you include balance exercises that cater for both static and dynamic balance situations.  Static balance exercises are performed with you stationary and focus on improving base proprioception and building your awareness of your own centre of gravity. Dynamic balance training is performed using movement exercises that test your body’s ability to respond and react to external perturbations (or pushes) that might occur in everyday life.  

How Do we Maintain Balance?

Our body uses 3 main systems to maintain balance.  We use our somatosensory system (receptors in our joints and muscles) for 70%, our visual system for 20% and our vestibular system (based in the ear) for the final 10%.  It is our vestibular system that helps us to resolve any conflict between the other two systems.  Have you ever been sitting in traffic and the car next to you starts moving and you panic and think you are moving too?  This is just your visual system playing tricks on you.   Pain, injury or just getting older can cause a disruption to our somatosensory system.  You can check your own balance simply by timing yourself standing on one leg for 30 seconds and then the other leg.  Is there a difference? Can you stand on one leg for longer than the other without touching the ground?  If so it is common that the leg you stand on for a shorter period of time is the one that you may have sprained your ankle on or injured in some way and your balance has never gone back to normal.  People with neck or back pain have also been shown to have decreased balance ability as there are a lot of feedback receptors in the muscles that support our spine.  However the good news is that balance can be improved significantly with targeted exercise.

Balance Exercises:

Here are some simple yet effective balance exercises that you can add into your everyday gym program that will quickly help improve your body awareness.  You can perform a lot of the exercises below with either your eyes open (easier) or your eyes closed (harder).  Having your eyes closed means that your body does not have the visual system to rely on and hence your somatosensory (joint position sense) system has to work harder and thus improves faster.  Changing the base of support from a stable surface to an unstable surface can also help to further challenge your somatosensory system.   Here are some great balance exercises- try to include at least 2 to your program and complete them for 3 sets of 30 seconds. 

• Single leg stands on stable surface-eyes open/closed
• Singe leg stands on wobble board or a pillo
• Bosu ball throwing and catching-standing on a bosu ball throwing and catching a ball with your trainer
• Single leg squats
• Hopping
• Direction change agility running-cone figure of 8s
• Walking lunges
• Lateral lunges

Tandem walking-one foot in front of the other while moving head side to side

Including one or two of the above exercises in your daily program can help significantly reduce the risk of injury now and of falls later in life.  It can also help improve sporting performance, power output and prepare you for everyday tasks.   So remember to keep the balance!

 

Nadia Brandon-Black,  is Fitnation's Qld State Manager. Nadia has a Bachelor Applied Science in Human Movement(Hons) and is currently completing a Masters in Physiotherapy

Don’t Forget to Stretch!

Many clients do not understand the importance of stretching before or after training, and as part of post training recovery – so if your sessions don’t include stretching it is important to remind clients to make the time to do so.

Stretching plays a vital role in keeping muscles and joints strong and pliable so they are less susceptible to injury. In its most basic form, Stretching is a natural and instinctive activity. People often stretch instinctively after waking from sleep or after long periods of inactivity.

When done correctly stretching helps strengthen muscles, and in turn strong muscles are important to stretching safely and effectively. It is common for athletes to stretch before and after exercise in order to reduce injury and increase performance.

However. stretching can be hazardous when done incorrectly. There are many techniques for stretching in general, but depending on which muscle group is being stretched, some techniques may be ineffective or detrimental, even to the point of causing permanent damage to the tendons, ligaments and muscle fiber

GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF STRETCHING

When performing stretches it is important to follow the general principles listed below for maximal benefit and reduced risk of injury:

• Breathe slowly, deeply, evenly
• Do not stretch to the point where breathing is strained
• Stretching should never be painful
• Stretch only when muscles are warm
• Hold the stretch in a comfortable position
• Concentrate on relaxing the area being stretched
• Stretch before and after (and even during) an extended period of exercise
• Dynamic stretching should be used in a warm up rather than Static as static stretching can decrease muscle force by up to 30%, whilst dynamic does not have this effect*
• Stretching should progress from major joints to specific joints
• Flexibility training should be regular - at least 3 times/week
• Always maintain good posture whilst stretching
• Pregnant women should only do flexibility training under supervision
  
   

 

FACTORS EFFECTING FLEXIBILITY

Some of the common factors impacting flexibility include:

Heat - Heat increases the ROM and elasticity of muscle

Conversely, decreases in temperature can effect flexibility by up to 20%

Age - Stiffness is often associated with advancing age

Due to:         reduced activity levels

                   reduced elasticity of muscles

Gender: Females are generally more flexible than males. Mainly due to different training stimulus early on in life and different hormones within the body, particularly during pregnancy

Intervening Muscle & Fat: An individual’s excessive fat or muscular development may cause a hindrance to full range of motion at a joint.

Warming Up - Increases the flexibility of muscles by increasing the muscle temperature

If you are looking for extra stretches to include in training sessions or for specific areas, Click Here to find out more information on Flexibility & Stretches for Whole Body

*Journal of Australian Strength and Conditioning Volume 17-2

Project Fitnation

Fitnation started back in 1995, with the aim of delivering quality professional development services to the fitness industry. When nationally accredited qualifications were introduced in 2001, the Certificate III & IV in Fitness, we were one of the first providers to offer these fitness courses via flexible delivery methods. Fitnation has now been leading the way for over 15years and is known to be an innovator in the education of fitness professionals.

However, despite this dedication to Health and Fitness, recent figures indicate that Australia has one of the highest prevalence of overweight and obesity amongst developed countries and it is costing us dearly with the total direct cost of $21 billion, significantly higher than the previously estimated $10 billion.

As technology has progressed, many people are living a more sedentary lifestyle combined with poor dietary habits, both of which are major contributing factors to obesity– and these are something we can further help to address.

The Project Fitnation Blog will bring you articles and information to use as reference, incorporate into your daily life or training schedule – even possibly ignite your passion for Health & Fitness.

Let’s all work in making Australia not only a FitNation, but a Healthy, Fit & Strong Nation.

Reference:

Medical Journal Australia 2010 (http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/192_05_010310/col10841_fm.html)

Super-setting - benefits of resistance training as Cardiovascular Exercise by David Ball

Mainly used by advanced resistance trainers, super-setting applied appropriately can be used by more general clients to: save time during workouts, increase the intensity and assist with hypertrophy training.

Simply explained, super-setting is alternating two different exercises, one straight after the other, with little or no rest between sets. For example, a set of bicep curls followed by a set of tricep kickbacks in the rest time between each set.

Super-setting can be used by advanced trainers to achieve greater overload with methods such as pre-fatigue (a method where an isolation exercise is used to fatigue a larger muscle before the muscle is again used in a compound exercise), however this is not the only method of super-setting. Super-setting enables client to continue a workout, rather than waiting between sets for the desired rest period (resting for between 3-5minutes between sets during strength training is usually recommended). In super-setting the rest period is utilized to continue with the workout. This type of training may require using multiple pieces of equipment at the same time so that both exercises can be performed without breaks.

By completing the same amount of exercise in half the time, exercise intensity is increased, which will not only create a cardio effect but also resistance training benefits. With summer fast approaching this can be an ideal way to burn fat, as well as tone and increase muscle size to prepare those “beach bodies”. While cardiovascular activity is good for burning calories, the increased muscle size also helps to burn energy.

An active 88kg male will require approx 3500 calories per day to maintain his physique, whilst an overweight individual of the same weight will only require 2500 calories to maintain his weight (not that he would probably want to maintain his weight). Research has shown signification increases in BMR due to resistance training.

It is advisable that only those individuals with a good base level of fitness and resistance training experience try super-setting and cardio based resistance training, ensuring they correctly perform the exercises in a safe manor. For those with minimal experience, fatigue during the workout may cause technique to be compromised, and lead to injury.

Compound exercises are great with a cardio resistance training program as they use large muscle groups and therefore burn more energy. With this type of training it is very important to train complex movements first as they are easier to perform correctly before fatigue has set in.

Below is an example program including superset exercises from the upper and lower body together, encouraging the heart to work hard shifting blood from the upper to the lower body and back. For those first trying this type of training, it can be good to use machine weights as you’ll be less likely to perform incorrect technique or cause injury. Be aware of contraindications such as high or low blood pressure with this sort of workout.

Program

10-15minutes warm up

Use rower or cross trainer as they involves most of the body

Dynamic stretches

Chest, arms, back, abdominals, quadriceps, hamstrings, calves, shoulders

Super-sets

3 set of 10-15 reps, moderate speed of movement, 60%1RM.

Included Exercises

Squat

Lat pull down

Deadlift

Chest press

Lunges

Shoulder press

Leg press

Swissball Crunches

10 minute cool down

Use opposite machine to warm up

Stretches

Chest, arms, back, abdominals, quadriceps, hamstrings, calves, shoulders

This program can be modified by a qualified fitness trainer to suit individual goals and experience. Good luck with your training.

References

http://allnutritionals.com/calculators/daily_calorie_calculator.htm (25/10/2010)

Brett A. Dolezal., & J. A. Potteiger. (1998) Concurrent resistance and endurance

training influence basal metabolic rate in nondieting individuals. J Appl Physiol 85: pp695-700


David Ball is Fitnation Victorian State Manager and has a Bachelor of Exercise Science/Human Movement & a Bachelor of Psychology