Introduction It is widely known that maintaining and building aerobic fitness is an important factor in staying healthy as we age.  I have written about it myself in blogs on aerobic training (click here) and its positive effects on keeping cardiovascular diseases at bay (click here).   The measure of fitness that less attention is paid to when it comes to its effect on our health is muscular strength.  That’s all changing, however, as the recent spate of articles in the mainstream media linking muscle strength to health and lifespan have shown.  This recent article fr ..read more

Introduction I treat all of my clients as individuals.  After all, that’s the whole point of a personal training programme.  However, I’m sure that prospective clients will be pleased to know that I work within a carefully planned structure, which gives us the best chance of making steady progress from day one.  Here’s an insight into what to expect from a personal training programme with The Complete Health Coach.  Before your first personal training session All prospective new clients can take advantage of a free health consultation I offer all prospective new clients a f ..read more

These 3 workouts will help you to build strength and endurance in all of the core muscles; the abdominals, the lower back, the side, and the obliques.  They are progressively more challenging from workout 1 to workout 3.  Make sure that you warm up first. Click here to pick up the key points of warm up from my previous blog.  Here are the list of recommended exercises for the  workouts. Watch the videos below for the technique demonstrations. Workout 1 Plank Crunches  Piston pumps Inverted plank Back raises Workout 2 Forearm plank Windscreen wipers Double crunches ..read more

Introduction These two high impact workouts include jumping exercises, and therefore will allow you to build leg strength and cardio fitness once you have built the foundations with the low and medium impact workouts.   Make sure that you warm up first. Click here to pick up the key points of wam up from my previous blog.  Here are the list of recommended exercises for the  workouts. Watch the videos below for the technique demonstrations. Workout 1 Pop squats Squat jacks Skater hops Split squats to standing Squat jumps Workout 2 This workout is more dynamic and more cha ..read more

Introduction These two low impact workouts do not include any jumping exercises, and therefore will allow you to build leg strength without risking any injury to muscles and joints. Make sure that you warm up first. Click here to pick up the key points of wam up from my previous blog.  Workout 1 Here is the list of recommended exercises for the foundation workout. Watch the video below for the technique demonstrations. Squats Forwards lunges Side taps from narrow squats Curtsey lunges Side lunges Start with 3 sets of each exercise. Each set should be 30 seconds.  The length of re ..read more

Introduction As I’ve written in previous blogs (click here), coronary heart disease is the biggest killer in the UK.  Not only that, there are 2.3 million people in the UK, who are living with coronary heart disease, including 500,000 who have been diagnosed with heart failure. Whether these 2.3 million people have had a cardiac emergency, such as a heart attack, or they have had a diagnosis of a cardiac condition like angina, rehabilitation and recovery can be a daunting prospect.  This is why it is so important for cardiac patients to work with a qualified cardiac rehabilitation ex ..read more

Introduction In the last blog (click here) I looked at the prevalence and development of coronary heart disease (CHD).  I stated that the modifiable CHD risk factors are: Being physically inactive Being overweight Having high blood pressure Having high blood cholesterol Having diabetes Smoking Drinking alcohol  Being stressed In this article I highlight some of the very strong evidence that, by engaging in regular exercise, we can tackle the first of those risk factors; being physically inactive. Being physically active is as protective against CHD as not smoking.Exercise affects C ..read more

Exercise is medicine.  Nowhere is this more true than in the area of coronary heart disease (CHD). The positive effects of regular exercise on moderating CHD risk are manyfold. Before we examine exactly how exercise can be beneficial (covered in the next blog) the focus of this article is to investigate and explain what CHD is and how it develops. Let’s first take a look at some of the facts and figures related to the incidence of disease. The prevalence of coronary heart disease in the UK Cardiovascular diseases are the UK’s biggest health problem.  According to the British Heart Fo ..read more

Introduction When I read up on how to live the healthiest life I often come across the term chronic inflammation.  The research suggests that this could be the root cause of several lifestyle diseases from coronary heart disease to leaky gut, arthritis, depression, dementia, and many cancers.  If this is the case, then reducing chronic inflammation in the body should be one of the keys to slowing and maybe reversing the development of these diseases.  The steps that we take to keep inflammation down are important lifestyle factors, but before we see what they are, let’s first de ..read more

A ..read more