Thursday 12 December 2019

PWR's 2020 Healthy Workplace Programme


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Inspire and energise your workplace and team

    6-week workplace wellness programme January 2020

    NEW YEAR WORKPLACE RESTART 

    Now booking for January 2020, the PWR NEW YEAR WORKPLACE RESTART is a 6-week programme that introduces optimal health choices for your team to boost performance from the start of 2020.

    To maximise morale, performance and staff wellness, we provide 6 modular sessions of in-house education on topics surrounding healthy choices plus coaching of exercises that counter the negative effects of long hours of the sedentary posture at the desk. 
    • Postural exercises
    • Optimum Nutrition talks
    • Healthy Food tasting
    • Personal staff wellness questionnaires and goals
    • Weight management
    • Walking clubs and other initiatives
    Via our lifestyle questionnaire, each member of staff can set their personal goals for their health and fitness, and receive guidance from our professional lifestyle coach and personal trainer in charge of your programme.

    The end result, for your staff, is a movement towards optimum health, through their own choices and through food and drink options while at work. For your company, the results include a more energetic team with fewer absences and a growing element of teamwork, via the group settings, and ice breakers for new staff.
    .
    As a company, you can directly provide a healthy workplace which will directly improve performance, and add an extra dimension to your profile as an attractive employer.

    To talk about your company and what you need, call Paul  
    Healthy nutrition at work
    Workplace diets can have a significant effect on staff energy and wellness. The workplace culture can easily become one that is saturated by sugars and caffeine, cakes and biscuits, which have significant negative health effects.
    We aim to overhaul such a culture in order that your company benefits from highly nutritious foods and drinks, for both the well-being and productivity of your team.

    Our January 2020 NEW YEAR WORKPLACE RESTART is designed to inspire and invigorate your team after the festive season. The 6-session programme includes energising trials of super-healthy soups, fruit smoothies and juices, plus short, sharp and invigorating mini-workouts and postural classes, to refresh bodies and minds. 

    The programme will be tailored, planned and created with your specific numbers, requirements and available space in mind.
    The NEW YEAR OFFICE RESTART can be arranged for lunchtimes or your choice of time of day.
    To talk about your company and what you need, call Paul

    Sunday 1 September 2019

    Setting my health goals

    This is the first stage of getting yourself super fit and in optimum health.
    During your initial chat with Paul from www.pwrpersonaltraining.co.uk we will focus on these key questions:

    Write down the answer to these questions.

    What is your target?
    What do you want to look like and feel like?
    What do you want to achieve?
    When do you want this to happen?


    For example, I will list my goals. For each one, I will describe a date for completion, the importance of that goal, and my confidence that I will achieve it. I will also list my perceived barriers to achieving the targets. Once identified, I can then design the steps to hurdle those barriers or to work around them.

    Some may be longer term goals, some may be ongoing but some are more urgent.
    Key:
    Imp: Importance (1 = not very: 10 = Essential)
    Con: Confidence (1 = not very: 10 = Essential)
    Barriers:
    1. To lose the fat around my torso by the end of October 2019
    Imp: 10 Con: 5: Barriers: Time: Injuries: Dedication: Food choices (too many crisps)

    2. To sort my bad back out
    Imp: 10 Con: 5 Barriers: Choosing the right exercises that don't damage the back. Posture.

    3. To be able to run a comfortable 5km without knee pain
    Imp: 10 Con: 10 Barriers: Knee injuries: Back: commitment and dedication: Calf injury

    4. To tone/bulk up shoulders and arms
    Imp: 10 Con: 10 Barriers: Dedication and lack of sticking power to a training plan.

    Having written them down, I can now visualise the outcome. Having thought through the process, I can now start to form a plan to get to the goal. Once I have done this, and cleared the path to achieve the goals, I can now set off on the path, with a clear direction and intention. Setting a closing date gives me a finish line to aim for, at which point I will assess my progress, set new targets, set a new path, and restart a fresh.

    Tell me your goals! Let's find your path.
    Paul Richardson
    paul@pwrpersonaltraining.co.uk
    www.pwrpersonaltraining.co.uk

    After the school holidays

    For me, September sees a return to reality after a summer of reduced fitness and more evenings of, let's call it, self-indulgence. The kids are back at school and it is an ideal time to focus on your own health and fitness.

    Hoghton: Preston: Chorley: Blackburn
    To get you back into perfect health, Paul from PWR Personal Training, serving Hoghton, Preston, Chorley, Blackburn and the places in between, has an ideal one month package of TRAIN AT HOME coaching to get you back into great shape.

    After a full conversation about your health and exercise history, we will discuss your goals and your barriers to getting into shape. From low motivation, low energy, to a chronic lack of time.

    A PWR Personal Trainer ensures that you do the right things on a daily basis, and fits into your schedule with effective workouts. Lifestyle advice will help you to eat the right things and make the right choices in your daily life.

    Check us out at www.pwrpersonaltraining.co.uk and give Paul a call for a free, no obligation chat to discuss your goals. 

    I hope to hear from you soon,
    Paul Richardson




    Sunday 28 July 2019

    Dr.Berg for any ailment

    I like this guy. He offers insights into many health conditions and offers reading and evidence to support his experienced suggestions.

    Visit us at www.pwrpersonaltraining.co.uk and tell us your goals.



    Tuesday 23 July 2019

    Strains and aching muscles - tight calves

    An excellent article here on tight calves and the vicious cycle you can get into if you don't treat them right.
    In particular, if you are training too much, too quickly, the muscles will remind you of the fact. Fail to rest adequately and overuse muscles you haven't used for a while, and you are heading for injury.
    This article confirms this but offers advice on what to do should the worst happen, and you are injured.
    In this article, tight calves are discussed.
    Have I got tight calf muscles?
    The signs of tight calf muscles that the athlete might feel is a gradual tightening of the calf muscles over time, which can get worse when running or improve while running only to tighten up later. Palpating (feeling) the muscles may identify tight lumps bumps and areas of spasm where the muscle fibres have tightened up and will be painful and tender to touch.
    https://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net/sport-injuries/lower-leg/calf-pain/tight-calf-muscles

    Tuesday 18 June 2019

    You are your priority

    Is your own body your last priority? Why? What use are you to anyone when you're tired, bloated and unfit? The people around you want you to be the best you can be. They want to see a confident, happy you.
    You are the most important person in your life and of those around you.
    Start with YOU, and be the best you can be, for you, your family and your friends.
    Book a 20 minute, no-obligation, mini-consultation with Paul at PWR Personal Training, and plan the path to a healthy, energised and self-confident you.
    Do it for YOU!
    www.pwrpersonaltraining.co.uk


    Friday 14 June 2019

    38 years of age. What is happening to me?

    Unless you are very fortunate, something happens at age 38, in my experience of my own body, and that of my many middle aged clients. Something drastic happens at 38.
    Many a sportsman feels fit and strong well into their late 30s. Sir Tom Finney, Preston's most decorated sportsman of the 20th century, was the master of his trade right up to the age of 38. Injuries aside, Tom was a very fit footballer during the 1950s, who took Preston North End to dizzy heights to which they would never return. Even for Tom, 38 was the end. He retired in 1960, on virtually his 38th birthday having helped North End to 9th in the first division.
    Ryan Giggs, after 1,000 professional appearances, retired at the age of 40. Probably the fittest footballer of his generation, at 38, Giggs could sail past 24-year-old defenders as if they were museum exhibits. Even superfit Ryan saw and felt the end in sight.
    Like I said, something happens at 38. If the 30s can be described as a gradual deceleration in fitness, energy, joint integrity, stamina, speed and flexibility, the relatively brief, 24 month period from 38-40 is more like a free fall off a cliff, for the bodily functions.
    For those below that age, the over 38s will urge you to enjoy your body for all it is capable off. The sub-38 human body has a degree of elasticity, bouncebackability, recoil and vigour for more punishment.
    At 38, the airbag is deployed, and things come to a dramatic halt, often in the form of lumbar pain, knee clicking and a far less mobile neck. Where once you felt like an owl as you rotate happily left and right, at 38, the neck rotates with about as much response as that giant tortoise in the zoo.
    The zoo is a good picture to imagine in this. The children naturally gravitate towards the lemurs and the meercats, all frisky and busy, bobbing up and down and jostling for position amongst their posse. The 38 year old has long since paused at the window of the giant sloth hanging from a rope, the old urang-u-tang, slouched in amongst his vines, or the stationary giant rhinoceros chewing at a bag of grass. The 38 year old seeks like minded animals who feel the same pain. Seeing other creatures in more pain and similar states of immobility or enthusiasm is as cathartic and reflective as are the meercats and penguins exciting to the kids.
    Accepting this is the key to negotiating your way through the next stage of your body's timeline. At 38, the body gives fewer second chances. It doesn't bounce back quite as much. Eat too much at 24, burn it off in two days. Eat too much at 38 and beyond, expect to move up a belt notch tomorrow!
    Here at PWR Personal Training, we deal on a daily basis with this predicament. The first step is to accept, quickly that while your mind may not have changed overnight, the body is changing much faster.
    Making decisions about lifestyle is the key to moving smoothly into your 40s and beyond. Accepting the relative drop in metabolism must be matched by your intake, and that physical fitness has to work for you without leaving you stiff, knackered and sluggish for 48 hours after every workout!
    Learning new ways to eat, drink, exercise and recover is a hugely important process as you cross the 40 year barrier.
    The good thing is, you can feel absolutely brilliant at 40, and a simple plan, well followed, can create this sense of energy, vigour and performance that you'll be proud of. Here at PWR we deliver clear, well thought out, and body specific dietary guidelines and fitness plans, teaching you how to get the most out of your body, for the present and the long term. Well past 38.
    Its always a free, no-obligation mini-consultation available from Paul at PWR Personal Training, here in Preston, Chorley and Blackburn. Visit us at www.pwrpersonaltraining.co.uk and call for a chat.

    Thursday 16 May 2019

    Tennis & Fitness Class in Hoghton 2019

    Hoghton Tennis Club and PWR Fitness present TurboTennis.

    Tennis improvement and fitness class
    TurboTennis an up-tempo group practise session designed to allow you to visibly see and feel your improvements.
    Hitting techniques & movement drills
    This class involves lots of shots, movements and fitness drills that will give you a good workout and give you all the skills the play better tennis.
    This class is perfect for beginners and intermediates who want to keep improving their game.
    Fit for tennis
    Tennis is a physically demanding sport. It requires movements that do not always come naturally to the new player. In addition to learning techniques for all the shots, TurboTennis focuses on the movements and disciplines required to make you a tougher opponent!

    Fees
    TurboTennis fee is just £16 for a course of 4 consecutive classes.
    You will require an annual Hoghton tennis club membership (only £25). This membership includes one free trial class.
    Book a place
    Contact paul@pwrpersonaltraining.co.uk to book a place.
    Also visit www.pwrpersonaltraining.co.uk

    Tuesday 14 May 2019

    Staying in shape at 40 and beyond

    As a 43 year old fitness coach, I am fully aware of the significant changes that can start to happen to the body beyond the age where life is supposed to begin.
    Well, for anyone looking forward to their life beginning, don't wish away the years before you turn 40! Seriously, enjoy them!
    Ageing is inevitable. However, the speed at which our bodies decline is our business, with some fortunate genetics built in along the way. We CAN control much of it, if not all.
    In men, as Bob Dylan never said, 'hormonal instructions, they are a changing'. The retreat of the hair follicles - apart from around the ears and nose, where fresh blooms seem to bush overnight - and the accelerated proliferation of the abdominal fat, present the male with new issues to deal with. For the female, hormones are only going one way between 40 and 50, and the hormonal challenges presented for women can be absolutely overwhelming. For men the physical changes in the post 40s period can be described as slightly depressing and frustrating, for women, I hear it is more transformation and, often, metamorphosis. My wife and numerous female clients who are 'in the danger zone" will sadly and angrily offer countless snippets of evidence to support this.

    Although the over-40 probably doesn't feel it the day after their 40th birthday party, the perspective on one's fitness goals has changed.
    From the spritely perspective of unequivocal focus on body shape, tone and appearance, emerges the subtle but profound nuance of "make sure I don't die!". There may be a number of people who love to attend a high intensity group cycling class, and you will hear them telling you how great it is, but, by and large, the threat of keeling over at some point starts to occur to mere mortals, even if the results 'guarantee' you buns of steel, a flatter tummy and granite legs.

    With the advent of free jogging groups the world of jogging has taken over the fitness scene. The safety of these events has allowed more women and men to enjoy jogging, whilst the fashion of running gear is probably the biggest growth sector in the world of clothing, and what better place to show off your new shiny leggings. The winners are the sports therapists who are inundated with leg patients desperately needing patching up for their imminent charity 10km or longer.

    The biggest problem with the over-40 body is the drop in metabolism. The body relaxes itself very quickly after any exertion (we love a sit down!), and with declining muscle mass, there is simply less demand for energy from the body. But does the appetite decline? Does your dinner plate contain less food than it did 10 or 20 years ago? 
    The diet simply must adjust along with the declining metabolism. Even with an increase in daily exercise, the body isn't pumping like it did at 20. It is easy to get more than a little despondent. Try it! Its bloody difficult! Try losing weight through exercise alone. You feel hungrier as a result, and then what? 

    My advice, other than to book yourself onto a 40+ lifestyle and fitness overhaul programme with me, either in person here in Lancashire, or by distance/online, is to sort out your DIET first and foremost. This means planning literally everything. Take the time to completely review the food you buy and prepare. Have a plan for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. This takes concentration and focus to get going, but if you can establish a system, a shopping list, a routine, you will be healthier, more focused, feel fuller, more energised and able to concentrate better and make better decisions.

    That presents the ideal base on which to build your fitness. Start with the food
    See you out there.
    Paul
    Tell me your goals, and what's stopping you.