Massage – Thai style
Jul0
Massage is a wonderful tool to make sure your body recovers and restores from all the stresses you put it through every day. Over time, more and more wonderful massage types have reached the western world. I’ll try and cover the 14 types I know of over the next few weeks so I hope you’ll come back and/or add your own favourite massage therapists for each type!
First of all, Thai massage – one of my favourites. Involving a series of movements that you shouldn’t ... Read More
The Travelling Warrior
Jul0
Apart from the tips on how to eat when you are totally busy travelling around, be it for holiday or pleasure – it is obviously harder for us weak-willed individuals to work out whilst we are on the road. So here’s some ideas of things you CAN easily do, just send spouse and kids off to the buffet, whilst you buff your body!
In a hotel:
You really can do a ton of different exercises in a hotel, here’s a favourite selection of mine…find a radiostation you ... Read More
Simple stuff
Jul0
Many of you ask me for help with diets and particularly diets when you are travelling. It is a tough one, I know from experience, I spend enough time on the road myself!
For me the rule is simple, I try and stick with foods that are as close to natural as possible. No cakes, biscuits, muffins but bananas, bags of nuts or raisins or a mix of those two, salads and simple sandwiches if you must get something solid. In terms of drinks, green tea is fine, water obviously is perfect and ... Read More
Swim Equipment
Jun0
Swimming is a great activity and obviously for us on the Western Hemisphere, a very attractive one, now that summer has more or less arrived! For serious swimming, i.e. doing laps or swimming in open water at a reasonable pace, you can use a number of things that will be useful in your training.
Funnily enough I was reading a blog on another site recently about swimming where they started out with reminding people that you needed a swimsuit… that is going one too far I think, I ... Read More
Lose weight or else…
May0
Here’s one site I just came across that I just love – it’s hilarious.
The picture: you have tried everything to lose weight, you have sworn off food for life, you have bribed your husband/wife to only cook you healthy foods, you have tinkered with the scale to show that number you desperately want to see and/or you have set fire to your old wardrobe trying to kid yourself into one that is at least 2 dress sizes smaller…and none of it has worked.
The ... Read More
ALS – the rest of your life
May1
I write about health, fitness and sports – that is my passion and an intrinsical part of my life. I write about things you can do to train, to get the most out of your life, to stay healthy and most of all, to LIVE your life with passion and joy.
But occasionally I have to veer to another topic and look at the other side of health, fitness and feeling great – one of my sporting buddies, the fittest guy of the troop on the bike – just got diagnosed with ALS. ALS ... Read More
Listen to your body
May0
This week a close friend of mine ended up in hospital. Hospital staff called it a miracle he came through the door upright, usually people with his issue would have been carried through! Although he had needed a little push to get him to go, he went to the doctor after not feeling great for a while and will live a healthy life because he listened to his body…
I have always believed that at the end of the day – you know your own body best. Or at least, you should know it ... Read More
Healthy foods
May4
My last blog resulted in a number of comments and emails showing that you all do care about WHAT you eat, not just when or how much. In replying to some of you, I talked about food combinations, which can help you lose weight more quickly then just eating or leaving out one staple food item. For instance, if you are losing weight, you will need to make sure that despite the fact that it seems easy to cut out carbohydrates completely – this is not a good thing at all. You need ... Read More
Fuel your body
Apr4
What I have noticed, and definitely like to see, is that there is a growing awareness of the need to feed your body the fuel it needs to perform. I know, it’s been around forever – sportsnutrition is definitely not a new phenomenon and no, I am not so old that I have forgotten that! But even though I have been around in the sports world for 25 years (and a bit more), it strikes me that now, finally, even the average person is starting to understand that food does make a huge ... Read More
on the right path?
Apr2
Life is all about ups- and downs. Maintaining a healthy body and healthy mind is no different!
This weekend, I was trying out some fitness wear. When showing my choices to my patient shopping friend, the sales woman said to him “I hope I will look like her when I am as old as she is”…
I think I’ll take that as a compliment….
... Read More
Running, shoes and good advice
Mar1
Got an interesting question today from one of my frequent readers (I do have them it seems, quite nice to hear…) She has started to run and is enjoying it but just recently started to get an odd feeling in her groin after running. Nothing too painful, but just a twinge that is annoying.
Whenever you start running (or any new sport) it’s good to keep a check on yourself. I mean that in two different ways – 1. Don’t overdo it, build it up and go slow! and 2. ... Read More
Age
Mar0
Bet this title got your attention! ![]()
Age seems to be the new mass obsession. We have had smoking, and banned it – drinking, banned that too – coffee, diminished our intake but what to do about Aging? We seem to want to control everything these days, we seem to want to be healthy and look young until we are about to step into our coffins…but aren’t we ... Read More
Your best accessory
Mar0
Whether you are an Oscar winning actress, or simply someone like me – I can tell you exactly which accessory will always work and make you look your very best.
You don’t need expensive dresses, amazing bling-bling jewelry or even a goodlooking guy on your arm
.
The world’s best accessory is Self-Confidence. Hold your head high, back straight and you ... Read More
the importance of Protein
Feb0
There are tons of myths about protein and sports. For instance, that simply eating more protein will increase your muscles. Now – it would be nice if it worked like that but then again, when have you ever found something to be that easy? No, unfortunately, eating protein alone will not build all that nice toned muscle for you – you have to work at it yourself!
But protein is a very important nutrition source for muscles and you should look closely at your diet and ensure ... Read More
Trail riding
Feb0
If you are in an area where you can get up into the hills – GOOOOO! It’s so incredibly exhilarating to ride high over the ridges – even though the climb up to the ridge and the bit down again usually will take the most time and the easy riding on the top will only be a fragment of the journey
To find great trails, first find your local bikestore, ... Read More
In sickness….
Feb1
Here I am writing a blog about health… and end up talking about illness. However it’s the natural other side of being healthy and worth spending a few words on. And those words are “don’t let being sick stop you from being healthy!”. What I mean is that too often a slight cold, or even light flu does not mean you have to stop exercising (obviously you need to consider how sick you are! I am only talking about minor illnesses here). As with all things though, you ... Read More
You’re only as good as…. your equipment
Jan0
As regular readers know by now, I am all for exercising outdoors. I run outside, bike outside, ski, skate, do my weight sessions and stretches outside whenever I can. Part of my love of sports, is that I CAN do all these things outdoors, get some much needed oxygen into my system and feel that sense that I call “love of the universe” as a result.
But at times you are forced to go indoors – either because of (extreme) weather, or because you are travelling or you live ... Read More
Power of Positive Thinking
Jan3
I was watching a programme this week on TV, whilst on my treadmill of course
, which was claiming this wonderful new fitness movement. Basically, what it boiled down to was the fact that it combined a good solid exercise routine based on yoga moves, pilates and cardiovascular work-out elements with positive thinking. Well – I must say – I couldn’t agree more then ... Read More
Crosscountry Skiing
Jan0
Adding a bit of variety seems to be quite easy at the moment – the winter weather is throwing in all sorts of challenges and obstacles but at the same time – it makes it a great time to do something out of the ordinary. Ofcourse, you can continue your workouts as you did before indoors, but why not make the most of the cold weather (across a lot of the western hemisphere at least) and go out in the snow and on the ice?
Cross-Country skiiing – like many sports really ... Read More
Great set of stretches!
Dec0
Here’s for all of you who didn’t buy into my winter fun suggestions of earlier this week… a nice half an our stretch work-out you can do in the warmth of a fitness centre or even at home.
Start loosening up – just take a couple of deep breaths in, letting your stomach extend as you inhale. Exhale through your mouth.
Do all off the below about 20 times (either side for arm/leg movements) not forcing the pace, but letting it flow ... Read More