As a personal trainer I have been meaning to write this for a while now and only this week saw the debate about Sunbeds rear its ugly head again. And we are not talking about the head of the not-so-healthy health minister here.

Typically what happens in Ireland is a rallying call from the political ranks, a cry from the special groups combined with a frenzy of over-the-top horror stories leads to the driving of a complete ban.

It's ok - it ain't gonna get ya

In this case it is not a complete ban of sun-beds but a regulatory system in particular for using tanning beds under the age of 18 and with clear warnings. Good move – but let’s get a few things straight here.

Prudent sun exposure AND responsible indoor tanning is perfectly safe.

Ok it may seem a little strange to rent a video and then hop on the sun-bed or dive into some seedy parlour for a few minutes. But we are missing the bigger picture here.

I would even add it is crucial to our health here in Ireland. We should not be frightening people out of the power of sunlight.

In fact it is so important to health and fitness that we administer UVB Light Therapy in our clinic here in Maynooth.

Let’s get one thing straight here. We need sunlight.

We don’t get enough sun. Ireland lies on 50-55 degrees latitude meaning that sun exposure is minimal. Countless studies have demonstrated that those areas around the globe exposed to more sun experience less cancer!

Speaking of which let’s have a look at the connection between sunlight and cancer. In his book The UV Advantage , Michael Hollick (who just so happens to be as pale as a ghost) outlines some key fallacies that need to be considered.

Maybe not the best joke to play...

For one it is though that any and all sun exposure causes skin cancer. In essence though we can’t live without UVB rays (for production of vitamin D) nor do we understand fully the connection between non-melanoma and UVB/UVA.

Equally there is no evidence to suggest that regular moderate sun exposure causes melanoma (skin cancer). After a 1995 conference the FDA were ‘baffled’ with the link between persons who had melanomas not exposed to regular sun. This seems to point the way to the fact that the actual cause of melanoma is varied and not just rooted in ‘big-bad-sun’.

Why is it that melanomas often appear in areas not exposed to the sun? For instance they are rarely on the face or the hands. For men it is the chest, stomach and back and the women it is the legs.

Isn’t it strange that at present we spend far more time indoors working in our bat-cave offices than our forefathers yet have a steadily increasing rise in skin cancer rates? Is it wonder that they may have built up a GRADUAL resistance to the sun over the years working outside and keeping most of their body covered?

Tanned skin protects your skin. It could be argued that you run more of a risk staying out of the sun altogether. Independent research has demonstrated that those individuals who gain sun exposure ultimately are healthier due to the production of the ‘uber vitamin’ vitamin D.

Paraben Free or Cover Up

In our modern age it is the classic look. There is nothing ‘gradual’ about this. One day of sun = the next day of lobsters. Amongst the young this is a disaster and will lead to an increase in skin cancer risk.

But to state that the sun solely causes cancer is pure scare-mongering.

When are both sides of the argument actually going to be presented to us? Just like the vaccine debacle (remember that – yep – we are all still alive and well thanks).

Sun exposure may actually prevent skin cancer. That is why, if you do a search in the journals, there are literally hundreds of studies done in the Scandinavian countries who with their limited sunlight find a positive relationship between improved health and the use of artificial UVB Light Beds.

The risk in this case outweighs the benefits. Get out in the sun as much as possible. Get your ‘dose’ and then cover up. Look into clinics that provide a UVB Therapy service to get your Vitamin D levels raised. Look for paraben free sun lotions but whatever you do do not be scared of the sun. You may be missing out on one of nature’s most powerful healing agents.

Closing thought – our health messages are coming from the mouth of someone who is morbidly obese. Just ‘food’ for thought.

John Lark is a personal trainer in maynooth

Go to www.spherefitnessstudio.com and pick up your free diet plan today

This week in Maynooth was spent at Sphere Personal Training explaining to people that results come one of two routes. One is quick and short-lasting, the other is gradual and long-lasting.

There are two roads in health and fitness. One is the lock and load, fire it up and attack it with all you can for a short period of time. Results come fast but in 50% of the cases very short lived.

The other is a gradual transitioning of bad habits towards good habits. Out with the old, in with the new – so to speak. Results come slowly but in 100% of the cases stick, like a chirpy jingle.

I have a 14-Day Cleanse that you can download by heading to spherefitnessstudio.com/free and see for yourself. It requires 100% compliance. No questions, no moaning about this and that or ‘can I eat this’ and ‘what about skimmed milk?’. As part of my bootcamp in maynooth you receive all nutrition information like this

It is very explicit in what you need to do. It is what I have done for someone who needs to drop a lot of fat in 14-28 days – the healthy way. It works a treat.

Maybe you have a reunion or party coming up? Or need to just feel better with energy in abundance? What about trimming the waistline by a few inches?

This is my quick fix. My take-it-or-leave-it option. But it is exactly that – a quick fix and you had better be ready for sacrifice and stepping out of your comfort zone. It isn’t meant to be comfortable. It removes all the crap in your life quickly.

What happens when you have to stop it though? Have you anything to fall back on in terms of good habits like drinking 3-4 litres of water per day or having a substitute for wheat when you reach for the sandwich instead?

It is like building a house without cement on sand. No foundations or support. It is a disaster waiting to happen. Ironically this is how 99% of us start a diet plan.

If you are looking for results for the long term then the alternative route is a clear favourite and for me an easier sell.

You should enjoy the shift towards health. With each week and new habit you feel better. This energy and enthusiasm for life snowballs. The results come too albeit more slowly than 28 days.

The first week you decide to drink 3 litres of water every day (and no – I don’t care that this a lot of water. Drink it. See how you look and feel and get back to me).

Surprise, surprise you feel and look better. The next week you decide to cut out sugar. Again you feel even better. The next week you give wheat and alcohol the big heave-ho. Unsurprisingly the scales (which you haven’t looked at) have moved down.

But wait – I am not on a diet?

Exactly! In fact studies have shown that the more you consciously diet the more fat you retain!!!

You see the journey in this case is easy. There aren’t detours or rocky roads just a comfortable pace that you can live with.

Both roads are well travelled and who knows you may have travelled down both already. It is a period of reflection and self-discovery. What works for you and what doesn’t?

As a personal trainer in maynooth the best thing is to simply start exercising; begin one new nutritional habit and a lifestyle habit to attack. That is the limit of most people’s motivation.

But accept that results come more gradually. All my clients work with me for 12 weeks minimum. It is in this time that the individual can see results and enjoy the process.

Imagine the exact same person took the other road (the road more frequented) and dieted hard for two weeks, flew spectacularly off the rails after day 10, piled the weight on, stressed out for a couple of weeks without improving any habits before attacking it again, on and off for the next 8 weeks.

That isn’t enjoyable and not much is learnt. Both clients end up with the same results. One calm, collected and ready to move on living, the other bedraggled and still comfortably sat on the diet train.

So where are you? Make sure you are heading on the right road driving with your head and not your heart.

Head to Your Health Camp and Download Your Free Health Report

http://www.bootcampmaynooth.com

As a personal trainer in kilcock I stand by the following principles.

“Methods are many, principles are few, methods may change, and principles never do”

So as I read this week that a common range of fat burning pills have been removed from the market it comes as no surprise.

This is coupled with the whole supermarket shelves devoted to weight loss pills, potions and ‘drink your food tonics’.

Is it any wonder this is huge business?

Every magazine front cover is ladened with the same approach ‘Lose 10lbs in 10 days’ or ‘How I Lost my Baby Weight’. Really? Let’s come back down to Earth.

As a personal trainer, I have seen dramatic weight loss. It happens. I have seen 10lbs of fat drop in 10 days. But it takes something unique, special, sometimes a touch of ‘je ne sais quoi’ or hitting the bulls-eye with what the over-rising cause of the weight gain is. Most of the time it is just a case of hydrating properly and ‘alkalising’.

But let us not kid ourselves here – weight loss is a tough, drawn out process requiring an unflinching dedication to your goals and more importantly your behaviours that will match your end result. It is certainly not a quick fix or a band aid.

‘But I know Mary and she lost 212 lbs by drinking her own tears and eating low-carb bacon butties for breakfast, noon and night’

‘That’s great, but Mary is lying’

Let’s face it we all ‘stretch the boundaries of truth’. If a man ever says he lost a stone, half it then half it again and you will get the true figure.

Likewise, most of us bend the truth about ‘how much’ and ‘what’ we eat. Try this. Journal everything and I mean everything that you eat and drink for a week.

This is an enlightening experience for some. I had several clients come to me and say that ‘it is just too tough coming to terms with the sheer volume and quality of what I eat’.

Obviously it wasn’t that succinct. More to the tone of ‘I can’t believe I am eating all that rubbish’ or ‘that is why I am so fat’.

Be honest with yourself is the first step down this rock road. Now that is not to say that you pull out the whip after every After Eight Mint that you tuck away. But it does mean be honest with yourself.

No one cares whether you tucked away your second burger and chips. Seriously, no one cares. Repeat - no one cares. Unless you are me in which I do care and if you carry on eating that I will personally bring out the jaw wires and find out why you have established these habits.

There is no quick fix, only behaviours that you need to pick up and manage. If you can build a support team around you then great that is awesome. If you can find someone who you are personally accountable to then even better. You can really hit the jack-pot if you actually take your time on this journey and ‘enjoy the ride’.

Not one of my success stories have ever focused on ‘losing weight’. They focus on ‘building health’.

Sure they had that hurdle to overcome but now it comes down to ‘performance’ – just like an athlete. How much can they lift? How far can they run? How many press-ups can they perform? How many chin-ups can they do in a minute (and yes girls you can and should be able to chin-up).

Training with this mind-set enables you to focus on other things over than weight or ‘stuff to lose’. Can you imagine living your life like this? Well Newsflash you may still do or have done for years. Time to stop.

Our personal training company in maynooth gets the client to focus on how many walks you get in this week, how your ‘training’ is going, how far you ran in 20 minutes on Tuesday or how many lengths you covered on Friday morning. What about how much you are going to Bench Press or Deadlift the next time you hit the gym or how much water you have drunk or veggies you have eaten today.

The truth is there is no quick fix. Sure there are ways to get you to a goal quickly but you better be ready to put the work in and I don’t just mean ‘eat more veggies’.

What there is, from a guy who has been in the trenches for 10 years doing this, is ‘constancy of purpose’ and a focus on enjoying the journey.

If you can honestly tell me that ‘drinking your food’ or looking for pills that prevent you from absorbing fat is the way to go then drop me a line and we can discuss it. Actually, better not. Don’t waste your time. You are kidding yourself and deep down you know it.

Sphere Fitness are a personal training company in kilcock and maynooth

Go to http://www.spherefitnessstudio.com and download your free fat loss report

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I hate weight watchers and as a personal trainer I have seen many a victim of its folly. There you go, I said and used the dirty ‘h’ word, but it is true. In fact nothing turns my stomach more than seeing another points chart, low-fat cereal bar and neurotic, moody woman so pre-occupied with her points tally that she has forgotten to eat that day.

It stinks for weight loss and only this week I read that weight watchers now supports a common fast food chain placing it points system on the menu of burgers and fries.

Give me a break.

If you are looking to lose fat then go ahead, try weight watchers. I guarantee this. You WILL fail and equally IT IS NOT YOUR FAULT.

I mean what is it with this ‘walk of shame’ up to the scales only to be told that you haven’t lost anything.

‘Naughty You’

Immediately your guilt trip surmounts, cortisol levels rise and ironically you turn yourself into a fat storage machine!

How do I know this? Because since I began this profession I have been picking up the pieces. Explaining that the weight you lost that has now been ‘put back on’ was in fact muscle lost as well.

‘You shrunk your engine size by losing fat AND muscle – now it only needs a small amount of energy to run on. Consequently any more surplus energy you put into the engine will be stored as fat’

Your weight will go back on because you become obsessed with just that – weight. No emphasis on your health or even how much fat (which is toxic) you are losing.

Weight watchers is nothing more than a money-making machine with a ‘walk of shame’ to spur you into ‘keeping up with the rest of the group’.

Each week you learn that ‘fat is the enemy’ hence the plethora of pricely sugar-laden cereal bars and desserts that they have to offer and ‘low fat’ is good and that ‘your points budget is sacred’. Lets have a look at this a little closer.

Firstly, before you read this you may want to grab another one of those weight watcher’s brownies – 60 calories and no fat. Are you kidding me? They are 60 caloreies because there is nothing to them! They are dead food. In fact I would hasten a bet that a) they are just fuelling your sugar cravings and b) the body uses more energy trying to get rid of the toxins in the food than it actually provides you.

A points system breeds problems with your nutrition and lifestyle. By providing you with a budget or an allowance for the day you are setting yourself up for disaster.

Classic scenario is this – overweight Weight Watcher hastily wakes and skips breakfast knowing that lunch with work will HAVE to include a dessert and a few glasses of wine. Having done exactly that (notice how your thoughts inevitably become a reality???), you decide not to eat your dinner either, or just much away on a cup of tea and WW biscuit at only 0.25 points. Your water intake for the day has been at an all time low too – only 1 litre for the day. You activity for the day has been that of a sloth moving from car to office from office to home.

Can you see how ludicrous this is?

The individual is skipping breakfast and as we all know if you do this regularly you will make time for ill-health. Equally, skipping meals turns you into a fat storage machine. A point system also avoids the whole issue of QUALITY of food over QUANTITY OF FOOD.

This situation continues. Invariably, from looking at people’s food diaries for years, the weight loss comes quickly from this. You are literally starving yourself to death.

In fact studies have shown that those individuals who yo-yo diet, DIE EARLY. The reason being is that fat is a great storage place for all the toxins that have built up inside you from your environment and food and drink choices.

When you decide to lose weight over burning fat, you shuttle these toxic elements out of your fat stores into your blood streams allowing to wreak havoc elsewhere in your body – namely round your vital organs.

There is no where for this garbage of life to go if you decide to just lose the weight. So, when you stop your weight loss programme you pile the weight back on.

It is a vicious circle.

You need to emphasise fat loss. That way everything becomes metabolised and removed from the body in a safe and effective way. You burn fat and along with it the junk that it has been holding onto.

The most effective ways of doing this is to stop counting points and clean up your nutrition and lifestlye without becoming fanatical about it. Care about your food source, sweat every day, build muscle through resistance training

John Lark is a personal trainer in maynooth.

Go to yourhealthcamp.com to register your interest in his new line of health and fitness bootcamps in maynooth, kilcock, celbridge and leixlip

Disclaimer - Note this is opinion. If you are a member of weight watchers then awesome! Congratulations for taking action which we all know is the way forward. If you need help then drop me a line.

It can mean the difference between frustration and elation with your results.

In Chinese philosophy life exists in balance with a ‘yin’ and the ‘yang’. The Chinese apply various characteristics to

Yang including Fire, Sun, Male, Excess Active, Energy and Function. In contrast Yin includes the characteristics of Water Moon, Female, Deficient, Inactive, Matter and Form.

What’s interesting is we can apply this time honoured philiosphy to human movement.

Yang being our more intense forms of exercise such as weight training, sprinting, interval training and aggressive team sports.

In contrast yin would include more balanced forms of exercise such as yoga, stretching, walking, swimming, deep breathing, massage.

We all need balance. Most of us in all honesty leave pretty ‘yang’ or ‘fire’ lives. Our stress buttons are constantly ‘on’ and then participating in some intense form of conditioning may not be the best way to start a healthy lifestyle or a fat loss programme.

Don’t get me wrong, training with intensity is the best method to get the best results. When you train with focus and purpose and push your limits instead of sitting within them all the time you inevitably adapt and grow stronger.

In physical terms we change our body shape by becoming more toned and frm with a drop in body fat.

To begin with if you wish to ‘train’ you need to be able to handle the stress of it.
The foundation for you train must be in place. How good is your nutrition? Will it support it or hinder it? Will it give you the energy for you to make progress or will it throw a spanner in the works?

How about your sleep patterns? Are you getting enough sleep to actually recover from training?

What about your hydration levels? Are you drinking enough water?

How about your stress levels for the day? Can they handle even more stress that you will be putting onto it?

Training is intense, uncomfortable at times and a stressor to the body. You need to make sure your fiundations are in place before you push the throttle down.

Before you think about posting your backside to the couch to avoid ‘training’ up steps exercise to the plate and this requires minimal effort.

To begin with any helath programme from cancer patients to eleite level athletes will include some form of exercise.

Why? Because it creates balance.If you are training all the time then exercise comes as a balancer. If your foundations can not tolerate training due to yoru current nutritional habits, stress levels or other concerns then exercise is prescribed.

It is not uncommon for athletes to have an easy day of a light jog and some stretching. Some might exercise by hitting the sauna or a yoga class. Some might go for a walk or add in a cat-nap.

I prescribe exercise to all those beginning a health programme if I know (through testing) that they can’t tolerate an intense training schedule. This transition to a healthier state, which normally involves an increase in energy levels required via cleaning up of their diet, lasts 3-4 weeks – not long!

I recently trained a divorcee and as you can imagine he was keen to get in shape. He lost 14lbs of fat and gained 8 lbs of muscle in 8 weeks of which only 4 of that was spent ‘training’ (his photo is up on the site)

The rest of it was spent in the kitchen preparing and nourishing the body and hitting the gym, park and sauna/pool for ‘yin’ activities.

There is a place for both. Exercise for too long and not push the body and little will change. Yet the same is for training too. A good coach will know based on results and experience how far to push you and how to plan your training for optimal results. My 5 week yourhealtcamp.com in May is an excellent start to knowing the difference.

Find the balance between yang and yin and your body will reward you with health and vitality.

7-habits-of-successful-sports-nutrition-presentation

Thanks for attending the talk. Here are the slides as promised!

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BONUS

Download my Training Diary worth 19.97! If you are not assessing you are guessing! record everything in here from training to nutrition and lifestyle to make sure you are dead on track!

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Shame to say it – any monkey can take you through a workout providing you with entertaining variations on simple exercises, leaning on your ‘empathy’ buttons between sets and whilst draining your back pocket with very little in terms of hard and fast results to show for it.

The spectrum is getting wider and here is how to spot the right personal trainer.

1. They can deliver results

More often than not you will hear about a good personal trainer through a friend’s positive experience. This is a good start. It reveals a trust and standards that your friend is willing enough to share with you.

However, it can’t stop there. Your personal trainer or Dublin Personal Training company must be able to prove that they can match your needs and deliver the results you are after.

Where are the testimonials?

2. To this end they put their money where their mouth it

In this climate, offering a guarantee for personal training services reveals true professionalism. It reveals a company or an indivudual geared towards results rather than figures. They can back this up by guaranteeing their services 100%.

3. They truly walk the walk

Your trainer will be your coach. How can you respect him or her if they are a walking sign of ill-health or stink of coffee the minute you meet them? Personal training is not a hobby. It is a lifestyle. You will not meet a more passionate and determined group of practioners who can help you with your fitness goals.

In essence your personal trainer is not your ‘friend’, more your coach there to inspire and take you to levels you never thought were possible.

4. Their Application of Knowledge stretches beyond ‘counting reps’ and ‘barking orders’

There are plenty of opportunites for personal trainers to upskill and develop their knowledge base. A good personal training compnoay will be constantly doing this within the realms of functional medicine (therefore knowing the red flags to look for in what may be preventing cloients from losing body fat and achieving optimal health), functional anatomy, psychology, nutrition and lifestyle management.

This is then imparted directly to the client.

At Sphere our trainers intern and surround themselves with some of the sharpest minds in the health, well-being, nutrition and medical field. We learn of the best so that the best is delivered to the client.

There may even be the case where we need to call upon these experts to help you reach your goals quicker.

5. Your personal trainer can deliver a tried and tested system of delivering results

It takes years of hands on experience to truly understand the profession – not a weekend of training leaving with a certificate.
Personal training is our business. We have developed a system here at Sphere that delivers a tailored health and fitness experience.

From initial assessment stages and ascertaining your needs and goals, to a tailored nutrition and health programme and finally to the implementation of methods, including training, that we feel will yield the greatest results for you. This isn’t our hobby or part-time cash add on.

You will have a programme geared to you – not the remnants of a health and fitness magazine or ‘whatever your trainer feels like doing on the day’.

John Lark is a personal trainer in kildare, Ireland.

Visit his website - Sphere Fitness and downoad your free fat loss report

Discussions around the dinner table, at work, with relatives and now even with child revolve around ‘how much you weigh / have lost / put on’ etc.

Our subconscious is primed with images of slim celebrities who ‘look fabulous’ and ultimately as a culture we now model ourselves on these body types and images.

Time to take check and propose that all is not what it seems. In fact I would argue that what the scales demonstrate is very little in terms of what state of health, fitness and ‘looks’ you are in.

For example you can be fit but not necessarily very healthy. What do I mean by this? Well, as Barry Sears author of Toxic Fat argues, skinny people may not possess a genetic disposition to store body fat in visible areas (bums, legs and tums). They do however, possess the not-so-good ability to convert fatty acids into excess free radicals that wreak havoc upon us causing us to age early, fall ill, cannibalise muscle to be used as fuel and weaken our bones.

So ‘no’ the skinny bitch can’t eat anything she likes and not put on a pinch. It doesn’t work like that. I mean think of it like this? Do you honestly think that you can-not be effected by a diet of cigarettes, coffee, skipped meals and special K for breakfast? Delusional. Mad. Call it what you want.

So, what do the scales tell us? Ultimately they tell us our weight. But weight of what? We are made up of muscle, fat, water, a connective frame that includes bone, tendons ligaments etc etc.

And what about the skinny work collegue? How much inflammation is she dealing with on a deeper level? ( If you would like to know how then I suggest you take a live blood analysis consultation. You will see first hand how ‘clean’ your blood is and ultimately how healthy you are)

It is disheartening to see so many of us become hung up on our weight and what the scales say. Your weight can fluctuate throughout the day. No one knows the exact why this happens. Some scientists propose that it could be to do with your fluid levels. But imagine hopping on the scales after a gym session and seeing you lost 2lbs. Great. Later on in the day, the scales creep back up 2lbs. Disappointment sets in. You may even think about quitting.

Celebrities lose weight at an astronomical weight. 7lbs in 2 weeks. 4lbs in a day with the new ‘wraps’. 40lbs in 6 weeks was the best one I heard. What is actually happening?

Lean bodies with good levels of health determined by blood tests will possess 10% of their body weight as fat in males and between 14-16% in females. Visible muscle definition will be evident.

Who would you put in this class? Models? Fitness Professionals? Celebrities? The cast of Desperate Housewives?

Well, think again. Models possess very high levels of body fat, up in around the 20% range. How can this be? Their diets that force them to eat skinny i.e. below what they would need in terms of their daily calorific amount to maintain their weight coupled with a diet rich in cigarettes, alcohol, stress and zero exercise will force them to burn fat AND muscle.

They are sick and tired. The scales say one thing, their vicious mood swings, aging skin and lack of muscle tone says another.

What about the BMI and all these Liquid ‘Get Slim Quick Formulas? An Olympic rower around 16 stone and 6 foot 4 is categorised as ‘Obese’ by the BMI. It neglects to look at body a fat level which in all cases is below 10%. Try telling 4 time Olympic Gold Medallist, Steve Redgrave he is obese!

Equally the liquid get slim quick diets are a complete joke. How can sipping away for 2-3 meals a day on a cocktail of artificial colourings, sweeteners devoid of ALL nutrients be good for you?

Fat stores are depleted from our muscles and liver. But our muscles are also depleted as our bodies, like hunger starved dogs, search for their next source of energy – your muscles and the protein that is contained within.

Try and embrace how much body fat you are carrying over what the scales tell you. A skilled exercise physiologist will be able to measure your body fat levels. Better still, just aim to get healthier. Have you ever seen a healthy fat person?

Is it as easy as drinking your food? No. Is it as easy as relying solely on the scales? No. Keep focused on your body fat levels. Have them accurately taken and then set about meeting the challenge. The bikini body is about to be unravelled and the age of the ‘skinny fat’ will be long gone.

John Lark is a personal trainer in dublin.