Below is Howard’s eight week programme for gaining muscle mass. It is based on a two-day split as follows:-
Monday – Legs, Chest and Biceps
Thursday – Back, Shoulders and Triceps Read the rest of this entry »
Eight Week Mass Programme (Howard Spary)
Posted May 21st, 2011 by Ruth Malone at 10:58 amWhy is water so important? (Kirsty Harvey)
Posted May 14th, 2011 by Ruth Malone at 8:43 pm
If you knew how important water was would you enjoy a simple glass of water more often?
In the first of a two-part blog, I’m going to cover the importance of water and why it pays to keep the body hydrated.
It’s hard to believe but we actually start our lives as 80-90% water, this slowly reduces down to 70% as adults, and further decreases as we age. That’s quite a lot of water filling up our cells and swimming around inside us. All of which makes it very important to ensure our bodies are suitably hydrated. Read the rest of this entry »
Supplement NOT Substitute (Howard Spary)
Posted March 5th, 2011 by Ruth Malone at 2:47 pmNow I appreciate that this is a topic that can, and probably will, stir up a hornet’s nest of debate. But I just want to talk about the basic concept of supplementation and who can benefit. Read the rest of this entry »
Thai crab toasties
Posted September 23rd, 2010 by Ruth Malone at 1:29 pm
Everyone needs a treat sometimes, especially my friend Peter Tapp… Here is something for your all to try.
Exercising portion control, by Howard Spary
Posted July 5th, 2010 by Ruth Malone at 4:01 pm
This will be a short blog as the message doesn’t need to be over-cooked. You will have heard it before, but to lose weight it’s critical that we learn to exercise portion control. Often people not only eat the wrong thing (such as hydrogenated fats and refined sugar) but they just eat too much. In fact, research shows that we have a habit of overestimating the amount of food we need by 25%.
Of course, you need to ensure you have a healthy balanced diet in the first place, because if you eat too much of anything, even healthy food, if you’re not burning it off it will ultimately be stored as body fat. When you think about daily calories never forget the simple mathematics: calories eaten that don’t get burnt through daily activities or exercise will be stored as fat.
How to build muscle by Howard Spary
Posted May 17th, 2010 by Ruth Malone at 5:37 pm
As a personal trainer I regularly get clients who want to build muscle. There are many different reasons for wanting to do this: building muscle can protect against, it can be used to increase your performance in sport, or it may simply be just to change the way you look.
I’ve worked for many years to build muscle myself the best piece of advice I can give is that I would never have been able to achieve this without proper nutrition. The old cliché “you are what you eat” has never been truer than when trying to build muscle.
75% of your overall gains will come down to what you eat. The other biggies are training and sleep.
Food to eat in the sunshine
Posted March 15th, 2010 by Ruth Malone at 8:04 am
After what has felt like a very long winter, the sun has managed to put in an appearance for few days and it’s making all the difference to me. My spirits are lifted, I feel more energetic and it feels like an reason to get back on track with any goals or plans which may have started to slip.
It also makes me want to eat differently and this morning I was reminded of one of my favourite meals (invented by my sister) which is perfect in the sun. One of the things I struggle to do is to get enough protein in my diet, and this is an excellent solution. Here’s the recipe:
Choices, choices,.. by Howard Spary
Posted January 14th, 2010 by Ruth Malone at 4:18 pm
The short version would read; choices determine who and what we are. However, I’d like to delve a little deeper.
The majority of us leads a stressful life. The pressures of balancing home and work life take their toll, with employers wanting their pound of flesh and the threat of redundancy ever present. We’re in an endless rush to get wherever we’re going and the need to cram as much as possible into each day seems to be the norm.
Perhaps, as we wind down from one year and begin the next, it’s time to stop, reflect and rethink our approach to things. Is this year going to be just like the last one? Are there things I wanted to achieve this year and haven’t? Have my priorities changed and do they need to?
Small change, big difference. By Howard Spary
Posted December 17th, 2009 by Ruth Malone at 2:43 pm
Don’t worry, this article isn’t about dieting. One school of thought says that diets don’t work. They can work in the short term to achieve a specific goal, but to manage your weight in the long term, it’s all about lifestyle changes. How many times have you heard someone say, “I want to lose weight?” Personally, I’ve heard it a lot.
