The world is your playground - making outdoor exercise fun

If you’re a little bored with your current gym routine, summer is a great time of year to mix things up a little by getting outdoors. The world is a great gym and even better, membership is free. Try this little routine and get yourself a shot of vitamin D in the process:

Lamppost shuttles

Choose a fairly flat path or piece of road with no crossings that has lampposts equally spaced along it. After warming up thoroughly try the following:

·      Sprint to the first lamppost, walk back to the start

·      Sprint to the second lamppost, walk back just one

·      Sprint three lampposts, walk back

·      Rest for 30 seconds and repeat 2-6 times depending on how you feel

Park bench circuits

You can work every muscle just with a local park bench and a resistance band. Try this great little circuit for 30-60 seconds on each exercise depending on how fit you’re feeling:

·      Squats (bum to bench)

·      Press-ups (off the back is easier, off the bench is harder, feet on the bench is super-hard)

·      Step-ups (alternate legs to make it easier, do all on one leg then swap to make it harder)

·      Dynaband rows (close to your body)

·      Triceps dips (legs bent to make it easier, straight to make it tougher)

·      Dynaband rows (elbows out wide)

Hanging around

Children’s play area make for great training kit. Just be sure to let the kids use it first of course! If it’s free then try these challenging exercises:

·      Hangs – if pull-ups is too tough, just try holding the rail and hanging in mid-air. Work up until you can do 20-30 seconds.

·      Knee raises – once you’ve mastered the hang, holding your body as still as possible, draw one leg at a time up towards your chest doing 8-12 each side. You can progress by performing with both legs at the same time.

·      Swings – if you like monkeying around this is a great exercise for you. Swing from one bar to the next without letting your feet touch the floor if you can.

·      Pull-ups – there are so many variations here, close grip, wide grip, holds at the top, shifting your bodyweight left and right and many more. Aim to do 4-10 repetitions.

Here's me messing about with a few different pull-up variations;

Assisted with a band if you find pull-ups tough but want to be able to do them: http://youtu.be/mRV-vX3rh3c  

Pull-ups with a pull to one side to add some variety and work the core and upper body harder: http://youtu.be/DvUxsEvEzIk

 A more advanced version pulling to both sides in one rep: http://youtu.be/RszZO2Lj7yY

Step-climbing

Climbing stairs is a phenomenal way of keeping fit and burning calories. It’s great for toning your thighs, backside and core and keeping your heart in good shape. Try one of these options to suit you:

·      Walking up stairs – find a flight of steps with at least 20 steps. Aim to spend 5-10 minutes walking up and down with as little rest as you can.

·      Stair running – you can place both feet on each step to develop fast feet or take steps one or two at a time to develop leg power.

·      Step jumps – stand at the bottom of the steps and jump onto the first step then step back down. If you’re feeling confident you can try the second or third step.

If you'd like a simple exercise routine to tone your body, you can download my guide 'A Week in Balance'. As well as healthy recipes, you'll find a range of bodyweight exercises to tone all areas. Even better, there are three difficulty levels for each exercise so you can pick the one that feels right for you. Get your copy here for just £2, half of which goes to the Genetic Alliance UK charity. 

Bring me sunshine - how the yellow ball in the sky impacts your health

We all enjoy it when we wake up, peek through the curtains and discover that the sun is shining. Just what is it that makes catching a few rays so good for us? Here are seven great reasons:

1)   Sunlight boosts your stores of vitamin D, which works with calcium to give you healthy teeth and bones. What you may not know is that it also plays a role in keeping your eyes healthy and may help protect against heart disease, cancers, diabetes, arthritis and MS.

2)   Exposure to sun and heat improves your body’s ability to sweat efficiently, enabling you to stay cooler better. Effectively it helps you develop a better air conditioning system.

3)   Sunlight has also been shown to boost testosterone levels in men, which may help to improve muscle growth and increase your sex drive.

4)   It boosts your body’s natural defence mechanism; your immune system by improving the function of special cells whose job it is to protect your from illness.

5)   Sunshine increases levels of a substance known as Nitric Oxide within your body. This causes your blood vessels to widen and can lower blood pressure as a result.

6)   Ever wondered why you feel so happy and relaxed on sunny days? Well, one reason may be that it boosts levels of serotonin, a chemical in your brain known to elevate your mood and regulate your appetite. This may also be why we find it easier to eat lighter meals in the summer.

7)   It’ll help you remember everything you’ve just read! Exposure to sunlight has been shown to improve memory and help you get better sleep. Getting more of the latter also improves memory.

The clear message – be sure to get some sunshine as often as you can. Be sensible though; too much in one go on very hot days can lead to sunburn and may increase skin cancer risk in the long-term; as with all things it always comes back to balance. 

Balanced BBQ recipes for summer

Summer is still very much here and you might want to make the most of it with a barbecue for family and friends. Everybody loves cooking outdoors so I thought I’d put together some simple, healthy, quick, tasty recipes for barbecues and eating outdoors. All you need do is choose your favourite, invite a few friends over, get the food and drinks in and light the coals.

There’s something quite magical about cooking over a real fire, as if somehow you’re transported back in time thousands of years to an era when you hunted, scavenged and prepared your food on a daily basis. I don’t suggest you go that far these days and I certainly wouldn’t recommend barbecues on a regular basis as the process of cooking over a flame can increase cancer-causing substances in the foods. I’d also recommend using good quality meat for your outdoor meals, as there’s plenty of evidence that the cheap stuff increases health risks in the long term too. If you buy good stuff and treat yourself occasionally (which is probably all you can do given the not so great British weather), a barbecue can be a really tasty treat. Be sure to cook your meats thoroughly to manage the risks of food poisoning.

Here are three recipes you can use to make your next barbecue a balanced one:

Balance Kebabs

When imagining a kebab, most people picture some almost unidentifiable meat purchased at 3am after a night out. In truth though they can be an incredibly healthy addition to your diet. The word kebab simply means food cooked on a skewer.

Vegetarian option – load up a skewer with chunks of halloumi, red onion, courgette, cherry tomatoes and mixed peppers.

For the carnivores – either replace the halloumi or simply add cuts of lamb or beefsteak.

Balance mushroom burgers

Cook two large flat mushrooms with their stems removed (Portobello work well) and a burger of your choice. I opt for venison but you can be traditional and use beef or go vege with a bean burger. Once cooked, place the burger between the two mushrooms and add iceberg lettuce, a slice of beef tomato, smoked cheese and a little brown sauce.

Super sides

Not everything you have at a barbecue needs to be cooked on the grill. Here are two healthy sides you can use to add flavour and variety to your gathering.

Falafel and couscous tabouleh

Add a little Mediterranean feel to your occasion with this Lebanese classic. These days you can easily buy falafel and houmous in lots of places so there’s no need to make your own. Simply follow this recipe and it’ll be ready in no time.

·      25g couscous per person

·      1 tablespoon of olive oil

·      1 lemon juiced

·      A few bunches of parsley and coriander

·      1 or 2 spring onions

·      2 beetroot

·      2 beef tomatoes

·      Half a cucumber

·      Black pepper

·      1-2 packets of falafel

·      Houmous (you can buy different flavours to give your guests a bit of variety)

Cook the couscous as per the packet instructions; normally it takes just a few minutes. Chop the onions, beetroot, tomatoes, cucumber and herbs and mix the couscous in once cooked. In a different bowl mix the lemon juice with a little black pepper and olive oil and then add the couscous mix. Cut the falafel into smaller pieces and mix in. Serve in a bowl and place the houmous separately in a small dish.

Sweet potato wedges

 I use this easy-to-prepare potato wedges recipe all of the time. They taste great served hot or cold, with a little slat and pepper or with a tzatziki dip.

Take one medium-sized sweet potato (white potatoes are in fact just as healthy so you can switch if you’d like). Cut it into wedges leaving the skin on, put in a pan and cover with water then bring to the boil.

Drain the potatoes and place back in the pan to season with sea salt, black pepper and 1 clove of grated garlic. Mix gently then, using an oil bottle with a spray nozzle, squirt a couple of sprays of oil onto a baking sheet. Place the wedges on the sheet; spray the top of them with a little more oil then pop in a hot oven and cook till brown. Mine usually take around 20 minutes in a fan-assisted oven at 180 degrees Celsius. 

If you liked these recipes you may enjoy A Week in Balance, my seven-day recipe plan for every meal of the day and snack ideas too. For just £2 you can get your copy here. Half of all proceeds goes to help Genetic Alliance UK in their work supporting people with rare conditions. 

The great outdoors

With summer finally here for most of us, it’s time to take exercise outside. There’s a whole host of reasons why getting outdoors is good for you:

Sunlight – natural light increases your vitamin D levels and boosts your mood by raising levels of important hormones.

Nature – believe it or not some research has shown that being active in picturesque settings improves mood whereas the same activity in unpleasant surroundings can actually make it worse. You’ll know this feeling, there’s something about the greens of the grass and trees and (hopefully) the blue of the sky, the blaze of colours in autumn or at sunset.

Immune strength – being stuck in an air-conditioned office with fellow workers can increase the likelihood of picking up coughs and colds. As exercise boosts the immune system, a little walk outside may help strengthen your defences.

Smells good – the fragrances of nature, like fresh slowers, cut grass or the smell of rain leave us feeling relaxed and happier.

Feel energised – research has suggested that in as many as 90% of people, being in fresh air surrounded by nature increases how energetic we feel, and it’s cheaper than coffee!

Here are four exercises you can do to ensure your abs look in tiptop shape for a spot of sunbathing!

The front squat – squats actually activate your stomach muscles far more than sit-ups and adding a little weight to hold increases the challenge further.

Press-ups – another great exercise for the deep muscles of your core, as well as your chest, arms and shoulders too.

Side Plank – firm up those love handles with this simple exercise.

Back extensions – to ensure your entire middle is strong and toned and you look after your back, add this great exercise in to your workout.

Fancy exercising outdoors? Why not join our weekly balance boot camps.

Wenesday’s, 6-7pm, up on Clifton Downs (at the corner of Ivywell Road where it meets the Downs). If maps isn’t your thing, it’s about 250 yards up from where the ice cream van is always sat at the lookout point! :-) 

Want to know more? Get in touch.

Her are a few snaps from some of my own recent outdoor workouts!

balance on……the great outdoors

I’m sat writing this blog in a little holiday house on the Pembrokeshire coast in Wales. Out of the window I can see the sea, the sun shining down onto its tranquil waters through gaps in the cloud above that looks dark and heavy with rain.

I’ve just come back from a walk/run/play along the beautiful coastline. This morning I was up just after sunrise and typed out a few thousand words of my book, eager to make the most of the day with the deadline fast approaching at the end of this month!

Whilst I was out and about I got to thinking about what exactly it is that makes exercise outdoors so appealing. I’ve been writing about this topic recently for the book and it is something that fascinates me, why does an exercise session in nature feel so much easier and more enjoyable than one facing a wall in the corner of the gym?

I imagine there’s a myriad of reasons, different for everyone, but here are mine:

• Sunshine – ok so us Brits certainly won’t get this every time we exercise, but when we do it makes a massive difference. This morning was grey and paired with a constant drizzle, but when the sun finally shone through, my mood seemed to lift just like the clouds had done. Skipping across the rocks that led to the beach and down the grassy coastal paths as the surprisingly warm rays of October sunshine soaked me in their warmth made the whole experience more pleasant. And it isn’t necessarily the sun that really matters; it’s the natural light. These days many of us, myself included spend hours at a desk sat inside, and from now until March this means we won’t actually get to feel much natural light on our skin. Even a 20-minute walk at lunchtime could make a difference, and now is a beautiful time of year to get amongst nature, with the mix of green, gold, orange, purple, brown, red and yellow on show.

• The call of the wild – I don’t know about you, but as I jumped over big rocks, sprinted up steep grassy slopes, wove my way along muddy zig-zag paths surrounded by high-sided hedges, giving the impression I was moving twice as fast as I actually was, and played on the beach and in the sand dunes, I felt like an ancient warrior, at one with nature but with adrenaline coursing through my veins in the fight for survival. After reaching the highest summit I could find and looking down across the bay, I felt like the ruler of my kingdom, even though I was very out of breath and the sheep were looking at me like I was a little weird.

• Sensory awareness – it isn’t just the sights that make the countryside, or any green space for that matter, an enjoyable place to be. There’s a host of smells and sounds that heighten the senses, sending the olfactory and auditory nerves into overdrive. And it appears that the brain likes this as serotonin, dopamine and all the other substances that make us happy come flooding through. The sound of the sea is a particular favourite of mine and it appears that I’m not alone, with research from Exeter University suggesting that people find exercise near water more enjoyable. Equally the smell of cut grass, or of tress wet after a recent downpour, comes top of many lists, including mine. OK, so the countryside may also have one or two unpleasant sights and smells and research does show that these decrease mood, but the beauty of nature in most cases far outweighs these.

• Fresh air – the feel of a light breeze on your face is far preferable to the sensation that occurs when the air-con gets switched on in the office; it’s just not the same. People often talk of ‘fresh air’ and getting outside to ‘blow the cobwebs away’, it’s as if the wind literally rushes through your ears and nostrils and blows the bad thoughts of the day clean out the other side.

• Fun! There’s so much more temptation to play when we’re outside. The child in you just seems to want to come out and re-live your youth. In between jumping over things, sprinting flat out and climbing over rocks, here’s a little stone stack I built on the beach. :-)

There’s clearly something to this outdoorsy thing, as an ever-growing number of people have shunned the gym in recent years in favour of the natural gymnasium. These include: Boot Camp – go to any reasonably-sized park on a Saturday morning these days and you may catch a glimpse of people in coloured bibs being shouted at by a couple of people in army combats. The group environment, the lack of kit needed and the ready-made motivation appeal greatly to some and there are whole companies dedicated to just this style of training. · The Green Gym – this conservation project has become increasingly popular with exercise referral schemes for those with mild medical conditions. The physical nature of the gardening and landscaping work is ideal for a wide range of abilities, gives something back to the community and has a big social element to it. Some areas run Blue Gym schemes where the focus is on exercise in and around water. · Running, cycling and triathlon – these are among the fastest growing sports in the UK, with triathlon in particular booming in recent years. Why not try a tri if you want to break the monotony of the gym? You’ll find events for all levels across the UK. Sports - think beyond the traditional games of football, rugby and netball. These days you’ll find a host of sports accessible at all levels including baseball, rounders, hockey, lacrosse, volleyball, and orienteering. Reading through a piece of research recently, I was interested to discover a piece of research that had discovered that people said they were far more likely to repeat an exercise session if they did it outdoors compared to indoors. Maybe their elevated mood from all of that fresh air, and possibly a bit of sunshine if they were really lucky, helped them to enjoy it. I myself will be up early tomorrow for another trip to the beach, may do a run and then build a sand castle! Balance your life, balance your scales. Paul