How Investing In Facilities For Dog Owners Could Help Fight Obesity

According to a study by the University of Liverpool investing in facilities for dog owners may help to tackle physical inactivity in people who own dogs. With almost a quarter of UK households owning a dog, it's estimated that 40% of owners don't walk their dogs and less than 50% of UK adults manage to perform the government's recommended 2.5 hours of exercise a week. The study found that those who didn't live near a good quality area, where their dogs could be let off their leads and have access to dog waste bins, were less likely to walk their dogs. Also a lot of owners were unsure how much exercise their dogs even needed. Leading this study, Dr Carri Westgarth said, "with such a large proportion of people having a dog, it seems that better education, facilities and improved relationships with our pets could be a great way for a large portion of the population to feel encouraged to exercise." Lindsay Johnson from Cani-fit, whose company provides professional exercise training for both dogs and their owners said, "trail running is fantastic for fitness and strength and as a result of exercising with their dog, a strong bond forms-stronger than owners have seen before."

Lack of Exercise is Twice as Deadly as Obesity

According to a new study conducted by Cambridge University, lack of exercise is twice as deadly as being obese. A study of 3334,000 people from across Europe, with the average age of around 50, was conducted over a 12 year period. The researchers estimated that 337,000 of the 9.2 million deaths amongst men and women in Europe each year was caused by obesity but twice this number could be blamed on lack of physical activity. They discovered doing even small amounts of exercise a day, burning as little as 100 calories, such as a brisk walk for 20 minutes had major health benefits and reduced the risk of premature death. However the researchers still advised that we should still be doing more than this to fully get the health benefits that physical activity can offer such as reducing the risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity.

Sticking to Good Habits

Happy New Year to you all. Hope you all have started your training routines again or for the first time. It's so easy to have all these good intentions at the start of the new year and before the turkey left overs have finished, a lot of people have already given up and have fallen back into their old unhealthy routines. Why is this? There are a few factors that can contribute to giving up including injury, family/work commitments, boredom, cost and feeling it's all too much to take on. In this article I will help you understand the reasons why people give up and how you can over come this and still be keeping fit through to 2016 and beyond:- 1.) Don't take on too much- This is a biggie. People decide all at once that they want to join a gym 5 times a week, give up drinking, smoking and go on a diet all in one go. What do you think is going to happen? Burn out of course. If this sounds like you cut it down to 1 or 2 changes at a time. This will improve your chances of sticking to the regime 10 fold. Start to go to the gym 2- 3 times per week, then when you feel fit enough then add a class or two. Start to eat healthier, if you don't eat breakfast try a protein shake or have some wholegrain cereals or cut out all the fizzy drinks and sweets and replace with water and fruit. These small changes will add up and will help you to move forward and take on more things as you get fitter, rather than feeling overwhelmed and giving up completely. This will also reduce the risk of injury if you start off doing less in the gym, in order to allow your body to get used to your new routine. Remember quality over quantity. Doing a little bit is better than doing nothing at all and you can give yourself time to create a strong foundation to build upon and launch your healthier self. 2.) Boredom- It's easy to get bored and so always choose an activity that you enjoy already. If you love walking or running do that, if you prefer to work in a team and this gives you motivation than join a football or rugby team. Try something completely different to help stimulate both the mind and body. Try a new class that you've never done or try weight training if you always do cardio in the gym. Set yourself goals to help you to focus and check your progress. Give yourself a short term goal of 3 months, a mid term goal of 6 months and a long term goal of a year. In this way you can see your progress as time goes by and you have a plan in place to keep you on course. 3.) Cost- There are plenty of activities you can do which are either low cost or even free. Park Run is an organisation which runs 5K runs on Saturday mornings in local parks around the country and is completely free-check out www.parkrun.org.uk for further details and the nearest run to you. 4.) Family/work commitments- You need good time management for this one. Think of any time that you can make yourself available. What about getting up a little bit earlier to go for a morning run before work, or cycle to work instead of using the car or public transport, that way you can save pounds as you lose the other kind. Take a walk after lunch during your lunch break or run from work back home again. Why don't you take the family out for a bike ride, play football in the park or go for a walk or run. Park Run does a junior run as well on Sunday mornings for 4-14 year olds, so you can run with your child, keeping all of you fit. So you can see that following these tips can help you stick to your new good habits and kick those bad ones for good.

How to Avoid the Christmas Fat

This is the time of year when all that work done in the gym can come undone with all those Christmas festivities. But it doesn't have to be like this and you can still enjoy Christmas if you make a few alterations here and there. Below are my top 6 tips on keeping (fairly) healthy during this period. 1.) Don't allow Christmas to last too long:- enjoy yourself eat what you want (in moderation)but only for 3-4 days. Don't allow to stuff yourself for over a week, which can easily happen if you just sit there and eat on Christmas day and go through to the new year and beyond! 2)Eat some nuts:- Walnuts, cashews, Brazil nuts and almonds are all a great source of calcium, which helps build strong bones and teeth. The British Heart Foundation recommends we eat a handful a day and there's evidence that they can even reduce cholesterol. Just ensure they are the unsalted variety. 3) Get Dancing:- With the success of 'Strictly' there's never been a better time to go dancing. Ballroom, disco or salsa it doesn't matter what it is as long as you move that body. Depending on intensity and your weight you can burn over 400 calories dancing. If you're dancing you consume less booze and party food as well. Now the party season is here, why not take advantage and burn some extra calories on the dance floor. 4.) Don't overload the plate for your Christmas dinner-you want to leave room for pudding, and you will comfortably feel full not feel like an over-stuffed turkey! 5.) At parties and Christmas tea choose more natural foods such as sea food, lean meats and chicken/turkey rather than sausage rolls, spring rolls and pizza which are higher in carbohydrates and saturated fats and lower in good quality proteins. 6.) Stay Active- During the slump between Christmas and New Year's Day, why don't you keep active and go for a walk, jog or a bike ride to burn off some of that Christmas dinner, rather then sitting in front of the t.v. and going through yet another box of chocolates This will make it much easier to restart your fitness regime in the new year rather than having two weeks off and doing nothing. I wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy and healthy new year.

My Top 5 tips to looking great in that 'little black dress'

It's the party season and it's that time of year when ladies dust down their 'little black dresses' and attend those festive parties. However shock horror, you may not feel that confident as you've gained a few pounds since last year and you haven't stepped foot into a gym or dance studio for some time. But don't despair, there's still time to look great in that 'little black dress'. 1). Do squats-This exercise is the king of butt exercises, as it works all the muscles of the butt, making it more toned and uplifted. Not only that it hits the muscles in the legs too, so you can get toned legs at the same time doing just one exercise! Try doing 2 sets of 15-20 reps with or without weights and build up to 5 sets, with a 30 seconds rest in between. 2). Dead lifts-use either a bar-bell or dumbells, this works the lower back, glutes and hamstrings. Ensure you have a slight bend in your knees and slowly and with control bend at the hips, lengthening the spine and keeping the weights close to your body and go down as far as you can, breathing in. Breath out and keep your stomach muscles tight as you slowly return to a standing position. Do 2 sets of 15-20 reps and build up to 3 -5 sets. 3.) Plank-this Pilates exercise works the core muscles, helping to strengthen and tone the stomach muscles. Lay prone on the floor and lift yourself off the floor having your forearms supporting you and on the balls of your feet. Ensure you draw your belly button towards your spine, keep your stomach tight and remember to breath. Ensure your shoulders, hips, knees and ankles are in alignment. To make it easier rest one or both knees on the floor. Do 3 sets of 10 - 20 seconds. Progression will be increase the time spent in plank. 4). Push ups- If squats is the King of the lower body then this is the King of the upper body. This exercise hits the chest but also helps tone the shoulders and triceps. Who doesn't want toned and honed shoulders and arms when wearing that strapless dress. There are various levels the easier one is on your knees with your hips forward and in line with your shoulders. Hands are one and a half shoulder widths apart and hands are inline with the chest. Harder version is the same position but off your knees. The shoulders, hips, knees and ankles should be inline. Bend your arms until they are at a 90 degree angle, with elbows in line with shoulders and sticking out to the sides, then with control push yourself back up, ensuring you don't lock out your elbows and keeping your body in alignment. Aim to do 2 sets of 6-10 reps and progress to 15-20 reps of 3 sets as you get stronger. 5). Stand up straighter- posture is really important and if you ensure that your ears, shoulders, hips, knees are in alignment than you will instantly look slimmer and the bonus is that if your posture is good, there's less strain on your lower spine, therefore less chance of getting back pain. Try doing a mini circuit incorporating these exercises. Do them in this order:- Squats, Push ups, Dead lifts and planks. Do all exercises back to back and rest for 30 seconds before doing again. Do 3-4 circuits in total. Doing the exercises in a continuous pattern will help keep the heart rate up and burn body fat as it becomes an aerobic exercise. Try adding a sprint on the spot for 30 seconds as well to get your heart rate up even more and burn some extra body fat.

Activity Levels in Mums and their Children 'directly linked'.

Recent research conducted from Cambridge and Southampton universities have discovered that the more active a mother is, the more physically active her child is. The study examined 500 mums and their 4 year old children. They wore heart-rate monitors to measure their activity levels over a 7 day period. The research also discovered that many of these mothers' exercise levels fell way below the recommended levels and factors such as if they had a job and whether the child had any siblings, influenced the mother's activity levels. The researchers concluded that parents have an important role to play in developing healthy exercise habits early on in life and the more activity a mother did, the more active her child would be and it was likely that activity in one of the pair influenced activity in the other. The study also discovered that for every minute of moderate-to-vigorous activity a mother engaged in, her child was more likely to engage in 10% more of the same level of activity and for every hour that a mother was sedentary than their children would be sedentary for nearly 11 minutes.

How much exercise will you have to do to burn off that Big Mac?

Everything we eat consists of a certain amount of calories and each item of food contains different amounts. Depending on what type of food it is and how it is cooked decides how many calories each one contains. Our bodies need a certain amount of calories a day, on average men need 2,500 and women 2,000. If you exercise a lot you may find you need to consume more then this, however if you consume too much then what the body needs, then these extra calories will be converted into fat and stored. A lot of junk food 'restaurants' are now showing customers how many calories are in each of their foods, so customers can make an informed choice and hopefully start to think that these types of foods should be eaten sparingly instead of being a main part of the staple diet. Here I present a selection of some of our nation's favourite foods, how many calories they contain and also more importantly how much time needed to exercise to burn such meals off. Full English breakfast (698 calories) - you will need to walk the dog for 3 hrs 41 mins or swim for 2 hrs, 2 mins to convert these calories to energy. Fancy that bacon sandwich? Or McDonald's egg Mcmuffin that will be 280 and 290 calories respectively and you will need to swim for the best part of an hour to burn it all off! Fancy having a Gregg's steak bake for lunch? That's another 420 added to your daily calorie intake and you will have to do nearly 2 hours of gardening or 2 hrs, 13 mins, walking the dog. A pepperoni pizza will be 970 calories, that's the best part of half the total daily amount of calories for a woman! You're need to do 5 hrs , 7 mins of walking that dog or nearly 3 hrs of swimming to avoid it adding to those hips. Fancy a pint, than that will be 200 for a bitter and 158 for a shot of Jaegerbomb, have a few of those ....and you can do the math on how much exercise you will have to do to avoid storing these empty calories as fat....a hell of a lot! Of course all that drinking will make you hungry again and you will need to get yourself a take-away. That KFC box will set you back a whopping 1080, that includes the diet coke and you will have to do just over 3 hrs of swimming or 5 hrs , 40 mins walking that dog again. The classic Donner Kebab that will be 642 and will need 1 hr, 52 mins of swimming to burn off. Oh and that Big Mac, that contains 492 calories and that's before you add the milkshake(490) and large fries (510), that's a gut busting 1,492 calories! To burn that lot off you'll need to walk for 6 hours or cover 9.5 miles! These types of food are ok in moderation and can be part of a well balanced diet but as you can see if these foods are consumed too often than those calories will soon add up and get out of control and the only direction they will be heading for will be on you as fat! Food for thought?