GOOD NEWS FINSBURY PARK PUREGYM MEMBERS!...
All this week at the Finsbury Park Puregym I will be giving out FREE BDOYME bars to anyone who fills out one of our very short forms. Consisting of only one main question, asking what your fitness goal is. All you have to do is come to the front desk in the reception area and ask for Baz. BODYME bars are a Real-Food vegan Protein Snack Bars Made With Only A Few Simple Ingredients. Great as a pre or post workout snack! For more info send me an email at: [email protected] See you soon!
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Black Friday is over but the deals aren't over just yet.
In the spirit of sales and good deals. I will be giving 10 lucky people a free personal training session this week. All you have to do is email me at [email protected] before Sunday 1st December 2019 and you get yourself a free Personal training session. *you will need to be a PureGym member and have access to the Finsbury Park branch...or if you are not a member you will need to buy a day pass at the gym* Bring a bottle of water, towel and your best gym trainers :D Baz When I got to the age of 20, I had stopped playing semi-professional football and I was looking for a new sport. While living in Spain I stumbled across cross country running and 5km. I joined a club with a friend and every weekend I was taking part in competitions.
I returned to London and carried on my running training. My time for my first run was about 20mins almost exactly...after about 3 years of training I managed to bring my time down to 15min40secs for my all time P.B. With this new found speed I was able to come first in a few 5km competitions. So how did I get faster? -Interval running was a big one for me. I spent a lot of time practicing running at different speeds. Very fast to almost a sprint..to very slow, almost jogging...but I always tried not to walk during the interval training. -1km runs..I practiced exercises like 5-7 sets of my fastest 1km runs. This helped increase my speed endurance a lot. -Distance running...well not such a huge distance, but once or twice a week I would run a 10km and attempt to beat my P.B at 10km each time. -Technical work...I worked with some of the coaches from Dash Team London to improve my running technique. I learnt that the more effort you have to put in due to bad technique, the quicker you will tire out. Improve your technique and become a more efficient runner to save energy. -Repetition...I was consistent with my food, my training, my rest...I built up a good routine where I was eating well, I wasn't over eating, but eating just the right amount. I was training regularly and also giving my body time to rest and recover. -Start slow and build yourself up...I first had to learn that the most important thing was completing the distance, then from there I could think about completing each kilometre at roughly the same pace per kilometre and then from there I thought about increasing the speed on one km and keeping the rest at the same pace per km...then I increased that to 2 fast kms and 3 consistent kms etc etc I hope some of this info serves useful to you.. and good luck with your park runs! :D If you want to book a running technique assessment with dash team London the link is below: https://dashteamlondon.co.uk GOOD NEWS!...
All this week at the Finsbury Park Puregym I will be giving out FREE RXBARS to anyone who fills out one of our very short forms. Consisting of only one main question, asking what your fitness goal is. All you have to do is come to the front desk in the reception area and ask for Baz. RXBARS are a Real-Food Protein Snack Bar Made With Only A Few Simple Ingredients. Great as a pre or post workout snack! For more info send me an email at: [email protected] See you soon! Group training...I myself am a big fan of group training, and I even offer people the opportunity to split the cost of personal training with a friend.
Why is group training so beneficial? You always push yourself more with others around you who are working towards the same goal as you or who are there to support you. Group training makes you accountable to the group or so you should feel. When you yourself are held accountable you are more likely to push yourself and do better. The list is endless...so what options are available? Below are a list of 3 options available to people in London and the pros and cons The free option: Train with a friend Contact friends and family and follow a free workout you find on YouTube or online. If your an experienced fitness enthusiast maybe you already know a routine. Therefore you'll just have to find a friend. The pros: -You have a friend to train with for support (physical e.g. spotting, or mental e.g. a friend can help push you when you feel like giving up) -Its free -It's fun. It's always more fun to train with a good friend - Competitive. Sometimes training with a friend can become a little competitive, even if the competitiveness is mild and polite, it can be enough to keep pushing you and help you progress. The cons: -Neither of you are certified professionals. So there is the risk of injury and incorrect form. -Some friends can get a bit too comfortable and instead of pushing you forwards, they can be pulling you back. -You may not be at the same fitness stage or level, therefore if one person is more advanced than the other, it may either become boring for the person who has to slow down for the friend, or it may be too intense for the friend who has to keep up with the other. ITs always better to train with someone around the same level as you. -Time keeping and time management. Training with friends means no structured sessions or structure to the session, so you may not always get the best out of the session. You may end up spending too much time training or too little time training. Free-ish option: If you join a gym, the chances are your gym will hold classes. A lot of the time these are free classes. So it is not entirely free as you have to join the gym, however you don't need to pay an extra fee for attending the classes. The pros: -Work with a certified professional -Pick from your favourite classes -Structure to the class.30min to 1 hr session and most of the times you will find a class that fits with your schedule -Fun -Opportunity to make new friends and meet new people -Learn something new or over the year as the Teacher learns new technique for teaching the class, you the customer will reap the rewards of learning from your teacher. The cons: -Classes get filled easily and you may not be able to get a space -Too many customers and you may not get the attention you need to help progress or to correct your form -Class options may be limited; not all gyms will have the classes you like best -You may not get along with the people that go to the class Paid option: Train with a personal trainer: (Semi private personal training) -Focused session which will lead you to your fitness goals -Sessions can be adapted and planned to your liking and aims -Sharing a session with a friend can be fun and it can help you both reach your goals very quickly -Build a relationship with your friend; it can help to improve your relationship with your friend or if you want to make friends with someone, you could invite them to share a PT session (using 'lets split the cost' as an easy excuse) -Time; working with.a professional who dedicates their time to training people, means they will have more availability for sessions and to work around your schedule The cons: -Unbalanced group; if you and your friend are at different levels, it may be too difficult for one and too easy for the other -Cost; the price of sessions may too much for some -You may not like a specific trainer's personal training style ...These are just 3 group training options I wanted to share with you all! Baz Today I wanted to talk a little about nutrition and my personal view on nutrition and fitness. I also wanted to share my personal experiences, explain a bit about my relationship to food and how I generally eat week to week.
When it comes to nutrition I've never been one to take it to the extremes of only eating protein or restricting myself to some sort of high fat, low carb diet. Diets have never really interested me but I also have been lucky to have started playing sport from a young age and I've tended to always maintain (what I believe is) a good physique year round. I'm not saying diets don't work. They definitely work for some and they don't work for others. But I personally have never really restricted myself when it comes to food. I'll tell you a story; I used to compete in cross country running in Spain (during my year out at university) and I was at an age where I was insecure and felt I needed to be big and muscular to feel good about myself and receive validation from my peers. I went from about 75kg to 90kg over the course of a year or two- and to be fair a lot of the weight I had gained was muscle. I got to Spain and began competing in cross country running. As I am naturally good at endurance sports this I believed would be my forte and it was, however I would consistently finish in the top 10 so I was doing unbelievably well at that level for my age group, however I was not getting to 1st, 2nd or 3rd...so no medals. I was young and impatient and wanted to achieve in a day, what it took the fist place athletes, what I'm sure were years to accomplish. I tried training more, running harder and longer, but that only took me from 10th to 8th after 3months of intense training. One day I was speaking to one of my friends from the cross country team and he told me, I was very good, very talented but I was carrying too much weight for the sport. He suggested I try lose a few kg to try and do even better. This was the first time in my life I had dieted. And as I was young and didn't know any better, I just began eating less and less. I began skipping meals, eating smaller portions, trying to avoid eating out with friends, so I could reach my goal of being lighter again, and hopefully that would give me the chance to win some medals. It was horrible, I was constantly hungry, I did feel like I was achieving something when I did skip a meal and I was eating very little calories but I found it harder to train. But nevertheless I kept pushing myself and after about a month I lost the weight. I was at about 76kg. I went back and competed in my first cross country race since being that light, and I did better. I ran a little faster and came 7th. But I felt awful throughout the race, I'd never felt like I was struggling so much in a race. I was doing well in the race but I felt awful. The only way I can describe it is, that I felt unfit, even though I should have been at my peak with all the training I was doing. After the race, I continued dieting, I continued skipping meals and I continued to avoid eating out with friends. But after a few months of the dieting I started getting serious cravings, I started craving a lot of junk food for some reason and I've never really been the type to crave junk food, but I began having some biscuits here and there, chocolates...pretty much all the things I had denied myself. My body wanted. I went from some biscuits to a whole pack of biscuits...and then I would feel guilty and not eat the rest of the day. And then I would wake up starving, skip breakfast and eat some junk food like a McDonald's meal and a dessert. Whatever I was craving on the day...and then again I would feel guilty skip a meal and then repeat the following day...and slowly slowly it got worse, until most of the food I was eating was unhealthy food. Fizzy drinks, pizza, chocolates, crisps, biscuits. And I ended up feeling terrible. I ended up putting on weight, and was nearer to 90kg than 75kg, and this time it wasn't all muscle, I no longer had the 6 pack I was so used to seeing in the mirror. So I knew it had become serious and I had to stop once and for all. And bit by bit I had to reintroduce healthy foods into my diet and try to eat healthy meals again. I began by eating a pasta at least once a day, because as my body was used to bad carbs it was easier to eat some good carbs and then slowly come off all the other processed sugar, using pasta as my go to food when I was hungry. And once I had come off all the junk food I slowly went back to eating normal. A bit of an extreme story but that was my only experience with dieting. After that I've never skipped a meal and I've never tried to lose weight fast by not eating. I couldn't do it. If I'm hungry now I eat, but I try and eat well. I generally try and cook all my own meals, and if I feel like a piece of cake or a flapjack I will make it myself. It only takes 30mins or an hour to make and if I make a batch I can always keep the rest for the following days. I've learnt to love cooking, so I don't mind at all making things. I put my music on and get to work. Its quite therapeutic to be honest. I've also learnt over the years that if my nutrition is good, then my body will react to the training I do very well. So if that's a lot of cardio, I will drop weight, if its weights, I will gain muscle. Good nutrition I've learnt is the building blocks for sculpting the physique you want. If you eat well and train well, the results will come. So what do I eat? To be honest it changes from week to week depending on my schedule and how I feel, but I try to have breakfast, lunch and dinner. For breakfast I love a coffee (either an espresso or I make my own latte) and a bit of yoghurt & granola. I love it. I look forward to this breakfast everyday. I did try to add nuts and seeds and berries to it to make it healthier but this gave me a stomach ache. So I stopped. Once In a while I add a bit of honey. But I have a small portion of yoghurt and granola and it sets me up well for the day. Lunch is an interesting one. This is the part of the day where due to the nature of my job I never know what I'll be eating and when. So I try to eat healthy. I like a bit of carbs and some protein for lunch. I'm not much of a meat eater so at lunch I like proteins high in fat that will give me energy. I love things like sourdough bread mini baguette with eggs or cheese, some boiled kale or spinach and I add some chill flakes and a touch of olive oil- this is my absolute favourite thing to eat for lunch! The carbs from the bread give me the energy to keep going for the rest of the day and the protein will help my body recover from the work I put it through. If I don't eat this at lunch then it can be things like some pasta with fresh tomato and garlic, or roast potatoes with some spinach. Lunch is usually a bit of carbs, veg and protein. For dinner I like to come home and cook something nice. With Dinner I take my time and put more work and effort into it (but I enjoy the work) I like to make various dishes like chapati (handmade) and curry (usually veg) or I cook Italian food like parmigiana (which is like an aubergine bake) or a broccoli soup or I make a greek salad with pitta bread. Really whatever I feel like on the day. This stops me craving anything and I don't end up feeling like ordering food or wanting to eat out, because I make the things I really want. I also have to mention, apart from not really ever eating out, I don't really drink alcohol. If I do it will be a little bit once every 5 or 6 months. So overall my diet is generally rich in nutrients, although I do eat foods that provide no nutritious value here and there, it’s the nutritious food that makes up the majority of my diet... 'I lack the motivation to keep fit' ...'I haven't got the motivation to train like you'...'I can't be bothered to train today'...Throughout my life I have heard people say these things about exercise. I can honestly say I can NOT relate. Growing up I would smile politely and agree with friends when they made such statements but I knew I lying, so I could try to fit in. I've always loved fitness and I've never really lacked the motivation to train.
I say this not to rub anyone's face in it. Or to try and act as if I am somehow better than anyone...if anything the opposite is probably true. I have seen so many people with more talent and good genetics for sport lack the motivation to stay consistent with fitness. I've actually always believed that my lack of natural strength, flexibility and speed was what actually gave me an advantage over so many of my peers. I've always had to work twice as hard to reach my fitness goals. I have seen so many people who had never trained until in their 20s or 30s years, overtake me in terms of strength and speed. But this has never put me off. It motivated me even more. The way I learnt to look at it was, you have to enjoy the challenge of not being as naturally good as everyone else, and instead focus on training my mind. Turning my mind into a muscle and learning how to properly train it to help me in fitness. Some of you may be thinking, 'what the hell are you talking about'...what I mean is I used my mind to make up for my lack in physical strength and to try and figure out what I should be doing to catch up with everyone else in terms of fitness. Let me give you an example, I was not very good at sprinting and whenever I would go to the running track I would be at the back of the group in training. After weeks of being at the back I started to think, there must be a way I can try and catch up with everyone else. And there was...I had to first learn about myself. The disadvantages of my body type when it came to sprinting...and then I had to learn about the advantages my body type in sprinting. I had to learn about sprinting technique and drills to help me practice. I had to learn what muscles I needed to strengthen and what muscles needed to be lengthened (more flexible)...attention to detail is so important and so I really worked hard on each point. I enjoyed working on each individual skill. I enjoyed learning strengthening exercises related to sprinting and I enjoyed learning flexibility techniques related to sprinting. The great thing about not being as talented as the others is that you learn so much. And I'll say theis to you...don't overlook how fun it can be for us as humans to learn a new skill. Knowledge is power. You learn things others will overlook. And it can be almost like putting together a puzzle. I began looking into a sprinters nutrition and training regime, ideal bodyweight for competition and the correct clothing items for sprinting. I was never going to be a pro sprinter, that was far from my intention. All I wanted to do was improve, get better and keep up with the group more comfortably. I set myself a challenge and I wanted to see it through. I also knew at the end of it, I would gain the benefits of the extra training, because when you are motivated and training consistently, you lose some weight, gain some muscle and feel really good about yourself. You feel more confident, knowing you have a new skill and can join in certain activities comfortably with others. Your physical appearance changes too when you train consistently and this is an added bonus. Although this does all sound straightforward and logic I do want to remind you that real life is far from straightforward. I really had to push myself hard in training to get to a level of fitness where I could keep up with the others. Of course this can be physically demanding and 'painful' but you have to learn to push yourself to reap the rewards of training. And you don't have to go from 0 to 100. Learn to push yourself in your own time, bit by bit. At the beginning of your fitness journey Its better to train little and often, than to train once a week or once every two weeks. ...'but training is boring'...I've also heard this statement too, and I agree, there is some truth to this. Training can become boring, if it does, change up your routine a bit, introduce some new exercises or consider is this training method right for me? There are so many training methods that can help you achieve your goal you don't need to force yourself to stick with one. For example if you hate weights and weight training and find it boring but want to gain muscle, then look at the alternatives...for example bodyweight training - this can be very challenging but rewarding...TRX training... Rowing-which is a full body exercise that can be done powerfully in short bursts to help gain muscle... HIIT training- pick a muscle group and do HIIT exercises for that group of muscles...there are many methods to reach your goal. And that is one reason why each year I pick a new discipline, exercise routine or sport/s to complete or compete in. I set myself a goal. For example one year I set myself the goal of learning to squat over 100kg. By the end of the year I was able to squat 140kg...which to some may not sound like much, but for me it was a lot as I started squatting only 40kg, which I struggled on and could not even get very low with. Another year I chose to compete in a cycling race. I spent the year training all things related cycling, I changed my diet, I bought all the correct gear and learnt about how cyclist should train. At the end of the year I had gained all the rewards that would come with cycling fitness. I had lost some weight, gained some very powerful legs and my cardio had improved dramatically. I would say training is only as fun as you make it. If you set yourself challenges and try to learn new skills you can also make new friends as you enter these new disciplines. You meet new people who have a similar interest. And then you can make the whole experience a really fun one. So that's a little about how I have stayed motivated for so many years and how I will continue to motivate myself for many years to come... I hope some of this information comes in useful for you on your fitness journey til next time Baz :) Hey guys! I hope your having an amazing week and you are all smashing your fitness goals and targets!
...So I'm not much of a writer but over the past couple months I've been playing with the idea of starting my own fitness blog. I thought about the importance of sharing experiences in a group to help people and how it can motivate others, how it may provide people with information they may have not known otherwise and how it may even help people to get to know me (Baz) better. I can't promise I will write consistently but I will try my best when I have the time to keep this page updated with posts. The intention of this blog is to share with you all a bit about my fitness journey and my own personal journey, some tips and tricks I've learnt over the years, people I admire in this business and i'll share with you all some of my favourite health and fitness products. As this is my first blog post, I thought it be best to start right at the beginning and share with you all a bit about my journey and why I got into personal training. Many personal trainers (on instgram) will tell you the typical story of how they were really unfit or made fun of or played video games all day, ate junk food and then one day had a revelation and began training and became a bodybuilding world champion. This is most definitely not one of those stories or anything like it for that matter. If anything this story is closer to the opposite. I've always been into fitness, from a very young age, I've never been able to sit still, I've always loved running around and playing. And as I grew up my interest in this type of 'fun' drew me into sports. I gave everything a go in terms of sport, you name it, I've played it. I've always loved the thrill of competition. The butterflies in my stomach, the pressure of it all, putting your pride on the line in an attempt to beat a friend. I love it! Although I've never been talented at any sport and I've never found it easy to gain strength, flexibility or speed, I have always been good at copying exercise techniques. This one skill helped me to become one of the best football players in my area at a young age. I had none of the muscular development of the other boys my age, but I was very good at learning techniques. At a very young age I realised this and tried to use it to my advantage... You see my thought process was, if I am good technically then the only thing from stopping my turning pro... the physical aspect, which I can gain easily from training. I thought it would be easy! I began training...I began to gain some strength, some speed, even a bit of muscle. I thought this was it...I'm going to make it pro...that did not happen at all. haha by the age of 18 I could no longer play due to reoccurring injuries. I tore hamstrings, injured my knees, pulled muscles in my shoulders. I picked up loads of injuries. You name it, I had it. I had to stop playing football and I didn't know what to do. I had tried many times to play with my injuries, I tried to work in the gym to out-strengthen my injuries. None of it worked. If anything it just made it worse. At this young age, I had learnt a bit about training techniques from my sports science college course but not enough to effectively know how to strengthen and condition myself. So I stopped playing competitive football altogether and focused on my university studies like everyone else, having a good time and enjoying my 20s. But I'd always loved running around, I couldn't just sit still. Its like having ants in your pants and no matter how many times you wash them, they are always there. I couldn't just sit still. So throughout my university years I trained with one of my best friends. He wanted to lose weight. I couldn't gain any in those years (something I was always quite insecure about growing up- being called lanky was just soul destroying when you spent as many hours as I did in the gym) so our training relationship flourished unbelievably well. He didn't know much about training. I knew some of the exercises from college and uni studies and some of the exercises we used to do in football during pre-season (this is the time before the main season, when teams do a lot of physical fitness exercises) I started teaching him these, I didn't think anything of it. It was fun, training with my best friend and sharing my knowledge. I liked the feeling. Slowly, slowly my friend started losing weight (and a lot of it might I say!) and I started getting a bit stronger, a feeling I was really happy about. So I started reading up more about training techniques, correct form and how to avoid injuries. At this point in time training was part of my routine, so we signed up to a gym, we started going swimming, using some of the weight machines. The simpler things we had seen other people do. Sometimes we would go to the track near primrose hill. We associated weight loss with running. So we thought if we wanted to get lean then we should go running outdoors, and if we wanted to gain muscle then we should do the machines in the gym. We had no idea about any of the other things in the gym. Years past by and we kept training together, and more and more I was taking the role of the teacher and him the student. I did say I was always good at learning techniques. My friend of course naturally developed more strength than I did, but I didn't give up. I kept going. I wasn't far behind at all, and on certain exercises in which a lighter frame was an advantage, such as pull ups I was able to surpass him. Fast forward a few years, we are both regular gym goers. We train fairly regularly. But I now work at Watford Football club and I train at the club gym and he trains at home ( he created a type of home gym). For me these become some of the hardest years of my life...I'm away from my friends and family all the time, I'm in a bad relationship. And things become very negative very quickly. Add in a job in a high pressured environment, It just all became a disaster or at least that's how it felt and I quickly dropped my fitness regime as all my other problems began to take over. I began eating badly and drinking more. I quit Watford, ended the relationship I was in and I came back to London. I felt destroyed. Mentally I felt really low, I did not feel good about how things went or how I handled them.. but I will say I am ever so grateful to the fact that I have always come back to fitness as at times when I felt low, fitness has always been my saving grace. It always made me feel good about myself, more confident and happier about life. Throughout my life I felt like if I was in good shape, then I could take on anything. And that's what I began to do, I felt really fuelled up, I had motivation, something to prove now. I was training harder and smarter than I ever had in my life. I was researching, studying, training, applying all the training methods I learnt at Watford FC. I went from doing a few push ups to about 50 or 60 push ups in less than a few weeks. My 5km went from 23mins to 15mins40secs. I had so much pent up frustration and I was putting all that energy into training. I was training really hard. For what? I have no idea haha, but I felt good, I lost about 8-10kg in a short period, I was really lean and muscular. During this period I really began to take my training to a new level. I started looking at exercises from my university sports science books, I began looking at training exercises online. I bought books on training exercises to do at home and in the gym. Around this time I was working a part time job as a receptionist for a leisure company...so that was 3 days a week I was on shift. I felt so good I would run to work (which was 10km there and 10km back). During my breaks I would do press ups and squats in the staff room when nobody was around. Life had calmed down and fitness was a big part of my lifestyle now and I wanted to get back into a full time job in sports. I applied for many roles but I kept getting rejected. I couldn't figure it out. Everything I tried I got responses that started with "unfortunately on this occasion...". I stopped even opening emails by the end of it. But I felt good in myself, I felt fit, I felt ready to really go for something...a career in fitness...the only thing was I didn't know what exactly. I quit my part time job, it was too much of a mind numbing job I could no longer do, in my happier and healthier state. So I had some time on my hands, I met up with my best friend who I used to train with all those years ago, and we met up for a training session. We started talking... You know, I'm not sure if he knows this, but he is the very reason I became a personal trainer. I remember the day so well. We were talking and I told him what had happened. And he said to me, "why don't you work as a personal trainer, You would make a great PT. you helped me lose weight and become more confident and feel good about myself" And I remember thinking to myself...you know what that just makes perfect sense, I've spent most my life training and keeping fit,I've played lots of different sports, to different levels, I've spent years training my friend and helping him transform his body. I had some basic understanding of personal training...so I thought you know what f*ck it..'I'm going to be a PT! ' - I'm going to do a job that I enjoy and that makes me happy And that's how It began, I began studying, I began training, I took courses, and I began advertising my services and meeting clients... |
Health & Fitness with BazA space for me to share a bit about my own fitness journey, tips and tricks I've learnt over the years as a personal trainer and some of my favourite health and fitness products Archives
January 2020
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