Thursday 15 July 2010

World Cup 2010, Mailbag & Office workers:The rules

Hello all,

Today's blog has 3 seperate headings. The first 2 headings are things I want to mention this week (World cup and mailbag) the last is the actual subject of todays' blog (Office workers: The rules)

World Cup 2010
I read somewhere on a Facebook status that said the world cup had been 'memorable'. Hmmmm? Yeah its been memorable for the wrong reasons. These are:

1) Adidas ruined the whole tournament with a sh*t ball! Why change a good ball anyway? It reminded my of the plastic "fly-aways" i had as a kid, they annoyed me then (even though i had immaculate skill/touch at a young age) and really annoyed me this world cup as i watched the ball bounce over players into touch. Well done Adidas...crap.

2) The vuvuzela.... argggggghhhhh! what an annoying drone. The whole atmosphere from a football crowd is the chanting/singing/celebration of noise from the fans... well, the South Africans suceeded in drowning out all that with a drone that is possibly the least pleasing sound ever created by man.

If this woman was sat next to me... i would have punched her in the face.


3) The diving. Im honestly embarrased now when i watch football, its a complete joke to watch the likes of Portugal, Brazil, Holland and others dive around pretending to be injured in the hope the referee will send someone off (which they usually do). Unbelievably, this world cup has made me hate someone more than Portuguese playmaker and full time cheat...Deco.

....And thats Arjen Robben. For me he is the new face of modern day football cheats.

Dutch 2012 olympic diving favourite, Arjen Robben


Absolutely disgraceful tactics, im not even going to say he is a great player, he is an out-an-out cheat and deserves no more credit than that.
4) The french dressing room revolution? Overpaid A-holes! Nothing better to say on that.

Memorable? more like very dissapointing


Mailbag
A bit of a joke inclusion today really, but it was to good not to share. You see occasionally i get the odd email from disgruntled folk airing views about the gym and its not ready, blah, blah, blah... so this a modified version of my latest email.

...Dear Mr Williams,

When will your gym be ready?... I really wanted to join your gym but it was taking too long, blah, blah, blah... Now i go to a gym with brand new machines and... (Drumroll) "they have Satellite TV in each of the 30+ treadmills so will be happy there"

Now i just love when someone complains about TV channels in the gyms. Its music to my ears, a chance for me to unleash hell and climb on my fitness pedestal and make someone feel terrible!

"Dear Complainer, It seems that by concentrating your efforts on satellite TV programs instead of actually doing some exercise, you will possibly never get the results you are after. We will never have tv monitors in out treadmills because my clients and future gym members will be educated to train effectively and not dilly-dally around gyms watching (Arabic subtitled) Jean claude Van damme re-runs, then complain to staff that they are still fat and cant get results. Best, Nathan".


Wanna Look like me? Stop watching the f*cking tv and DO WORK!
Onto today's main Blog subject...

Office Workers: The rules
The majority of the people I have trained over the past 5 years have been office workers, desk jockeys, biscuit bandits, meeting moles... (I made the last 2 up, but you get the picture?) These fascinating creatures walk into the gym 'stressed' with facts, figures, deadlines, dislike of their boss, etc... and it's my job to create a program that suits their needs.

So here is my guide for office workers/PTs training office workers who are looking to get in shape:

1) Earning your Carbs
Im willing to make this bold statement:

"If you spend the first 8/9 hours of the day sitting on your butt (and want to lose fat/get into shape) then you should limit your (starchy) carbohydrates intake in that period"

So shoot me down! Every person i get through here says "I eat Toast, Honey, Cereal, Yoghurt, Oatmeal for breakfast" Yeah great, but why take on all that energy then go and sit down for the day? Change your breakfast to a vegetable omelette with green tea and apple and drink plenty of water until lunchtime, then have a large salad... 2 meals with very little carbs = no insulin spike = no fat stored at work.

Better still, get up and train before work (really, gyms open at 6am!) and you can eat more liberally at breakfast, if you worked hard enough.

Earn you carbs. Sitting down for 8 hours updating your facebook status pretending to work does not qualify as working.


Breakfast is served... (In the words of Ari Gold) BOOM!

2) Sitting down
One of the rules i have with my clients is "If you sat down all day, then you aint sitting down for this hour". As an office worker, the exercises you choose must mostly be standing, energetic and corrective to office postures (see next point) to counter act your non-eventful working day.

My best tip would be to use supersets, tri-sets and giant sets (2, 3 and 4 exercises back-to-back) with a set rest time taken walking or on feet to keep the heart rate elevated. If you are training your office guys with machine based weights 3 sets x 12 reps with 90+ seconds rest - they will get nowhere in terms of results.

3) Hips and T-spine

 
The de-evolution of man.

I love this picture as it shows exactly what is going on with society today. Take a look at the guy on the right, im guessing at some point in the working day most of the office workers look like this. The result? Tight hips and forward posture. Solution... work extensively on Thoracic spine and hip mobility in each session, adding focused corrective sets or incorporate specific exercises into the warm up. Which leads to the next point.

4) Extra warm up time
Dont be afraid to extend your warm up time to 15-20 minutes for those who really need it. The days of 3 minute treadmill walk and shoulder shrug warm up are dead (well they are in our gym anyway). Some of my clients start off their RCC fitness careers with me doing 45-50 minute session of mostly 'warm up' exercises. Find the level you/your client is at and take it slow, dont be quick to move into resistance or challenging activities before fully warming the body up.

Office workers by their very nature/habits will need a thorough warm up targeting the Hips and T-spine. Cant think of anything to fill in the time? Review your PT course notes, you definately learned it at some point.

The RCC warm up looks like this:

- 2-5 minutes steady state heart-rate raiser (X trainer, Bike or Skipping...depending on client)
- 3-5 minutes Foam/PVC roller work
- 5-15 minutes Mobility work
- 5 minutes Corrective circuit/Activation work

Sometimes i look up at the clock after an effective, focused warm up with some of my rehab clients and 30+ minutes has gone. It doesn't matter, im confident that this strategy is the one that will take them to their goals... not the annihilation that some trainers assume is the answer.

 
5) High heel wearers
Beware! All office women/women in general spend a lot of time in high heels, which is great looking but can make the ankle weak and calves tight. Always check the condition of female office workers' lower body mobility before getting into any explosive jumping or heavy leg work.
Great to look at... but not so great on the ankle joint

By the way thanks to my brother Gavin for modelling the last picture, he has been really working hard on those legs for beach season, well done bro, the work has really paid off :)

6) Extra actitivies
I usually hear the occasional moan which goes something like:

"But i cant seem to lose weight, i try everything... blah, blah, blah"

Stop yourself right there and ask this question "How much work are you actually doing?" According to studies documented by http://www.precisionnutrition.com/ the magic number of hours for people who were in shape was 5. So if you go to the gym 3 x week and do nothing else, and eat a moderately healthy diet... the chances are you wont get anywhere. Up your activity levels to a MINIMUM of 5 hours a week, base each feeding around protein, vegetables and good fats (some carbs after training) and start to see the difference.

When my clients complain they are not get in shape, I simply ask if they hit their 5 hours a week? Most say they don't get to the 5 hours... so then i dont feel guilty about them not meeting their goals.

Just recently I have started a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu class which has added 4 hours of cardio to my week taking my activity to around 8 hours per week... (with no change in diet) the result has been an immediate drop in body fat and increase amount of aches and bruises.

 
They lured me in with this advert... and all i got was a good kicking!

Thats all for today, as usual if you liked this then please spread the word and 'share' on the Facebook button below or tell friends by actually speaking to them using the lost art of speech. Do you remember when people actually spoke to other people? I dont.

Please post a comment/question on today's blog and i will get back to you asap, thanks.

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