Animal Aid Christmas Fayre 2010

This year we ran a stall & did the annual xmas push-up contest.  For the first time at the event we had under 16's competing!  To read all about our day Click Here

Post Thankgiving damage control - you've got it wrong!

In my view many, many people go wrong after a festive event & Thanksgiving in the US is one of those.  Firstly you eat & drink too much during the day.  Then you get up the next day & go for damage control.  Even vegans & vegetarians who may shun the turkey still often tend to overeat, then go for the old "work it off" idea by really hitting the gym after the celebration.  I actually believe this is counter-productive!

What I actually suggest is that you stick to the plan!  That's right! If you have goals & you are on your way to an objective, then do not alter the plan due to one failed meal.  Rather like if you 'fall off the wagon' one evening, the next day you right back on.  Continue the plan!  One failed meal (however big) will not cause you to destroy all progress, but throwing away the system you are using to try & make up for a bad meal will cause yet another day off the plan, another failure!  Do not go & do extra exercise, do not starve yourself.  Eat your regular food, do your normal workout, return to a stable routine.  This is the secret to success in training.  There are no quick fixes in this game.  Whether you're trying to lose fat or gain muscle, it is rational training & diet done consistently that will get you the results over time.

Over the next few days you will receive many, many 'quick fix' ideas about how you can rev up your metabolism, cut that fat super-fast.  Ignore them, in fact those suggesting it probably do not even understand what it means to have a structured goal & a plan for fat loss or muscle gain.  If you get straight back to the routine today I can guarantee that one meal will not affect you in the grand scheme of things.  If you fall off the plan & try to 'catch up' I predict failure.  Lastly, if you don't have a plan, then I can guarantee failure.  Don't waste your time on the quick fix either, take some time formulate a plan to achieve your goals & start that instead of going for the quick fix option.  That way over the winter you will slowly, but steadily achieve your goals & by summer people will be asking you for your secret!

Space food

My friends (Hello Liz, Maz, Jaz & Lilly)
came back from Holidays a few weeks ago & bought me a pack of these!
They are space strawberries!  No, they don't come from space, but they are what astronauts take with them into space.  This packet only made it as far as Brighton though.
The ingredients were 100% strawberries & they were kind of desiccated & a little bitter.  To be honest they didn't taste too much like a strawberry as you & I think of them & I don't think I actually ever buy them given a choice...but it was weird having spaceman/lady food & seeing what they have to eat when they go into space as you never really think about munching in space.  Personally I'd think could you take something like sprouts....well seeds & mud as they'd survive take off, then the low gravity would surely make sprouts grow like crazy...wouldn't it?  (I really don't know much about growing stuff in space as I don't expect to be doing it any time soon :-), but for now it looks like bitter strawberries are the best you space adventurers have to look forward to :-)

We've been training wrong!

That's right!  ...at least according to some.
I don't usually single out people who say or do stupid things, but I read this advertisement for a new DVD & it got my blood boiling!

According to this you are all making a mistake working out those silly old biceps & hamstrings.  The secret is to avoid working any of those pesky big muscles & only work the smaller accessory (how the hell do you even do that?).
Apparently she's done 10 years of scientific work (yep, I believe that one!) & experience to make this 'discovery'.  According to her you will get 'bulky' if you work any major muscle directly (What!).  Oh yea, she also advocates no more than 3 pound weight should be lifted by women.
...& there was me thinking she was just making these women burn loads of calories with light, repetitive activity & then starving them...silly me!  Gwyneth Paltrow suffering thinning bones is obviously NOTHING to do with the fact she won't lift over 3 pounds of weight, starves herself with 'cleansing' & other extreme calorie restriction. 
The fact that many of us have helped cure thinning bones with sensible weight training, a decent diet & some sunshine must be a strange coincidence.  If only we'd starved our clients & insisted they never lift anything heavy then the condition would have corrected itself as we worked those accessory muscles (Yes that was sarcasm!).
I wouldn't recommend this one for your xmas stocking - buy a decent book or DVD that shows women they are every bit as able to lift as men &, on the whole, don't get 'too bulky' unless they are genetically inclined towards muscle mass building (& that can be corrected by mild dietary modification as a rule.

West Midland Vegan Festival

Just a quick post to let you know that there's a new page up about our day in Wolves at the festival at http://www.veganbodybuilding.org/wolves10.htm We had a great day with talks by me & one by Pat Reeves.  There was also a push-up contest on the day as well!

Special thanks has to go to Fitness Superstore for being the main sponsor at the push-up contest (go check them out if you need any exercise equipment)

Hemp Milk

This has recently come out in Waitrose supermarkets chain & health food stores, so as it was on offer I thought I'd get hold of some just to see what it was like.  First off it's not as high in protein as a soya milk (about half), so if you are desperate for protein this may not be for you, but it's still a reasonable source for most people.  On the plus side it does have some very healthy fats in it naturally & does taste quite nice (250ml gives you half the recommended daily omega 3 fatty acids!).  It is fairly sweet, not sickly sweet, but as I tend to drink unsweetened soya milk you notice the difference.  It works well on cereal & does ok in hot drinks.  I've not used it for cooking.
I found the taste pretty good with a kind of nutty taste.  You can drink it for the carton if you like without it needing to be flavoured, it doesn't have any bad after tastes.
The fat content may look higher than say soya milk (nearer the amounts found in whole milk), but this fat is Essential fatty acids (EFAs) & so they will likely be used for cell creation, repair & other metabolic processes so it should not stored as body fat.  This can be a useful additional source of health fats.
Personally I can down a litre no problems.  Certainly any athlete wanting to add muscle mass will need enough EFAs to build those extra muscle cells & this can be a convenient source of those fats, a reasonable protein source & less carbs than cows milk (around half - a bit more than unsweetened soya milk, but much less than either whole or skimmed cows milk).  If you're not interested in added muscle mass everyone still needs EFAs for maximum health, so adding this drink can really benefit anyone, especially if you've not been taking care of your EFA intake before (or don't like flax, hemp seeds or walnuts for example).
I'd try it if you can get hold of it as it could be a useful tool in your nutritional arsenal.

For more details go to Good Hemp Milk

Zen Physio Deep massage device

I've just started using using this new tool.  It's pretty heavy duty massage machine that I use for just a quick going over of tight areas (I'm a qualified massage therapist, so it's useful to add to my bag of  tricks).  You obviously have to have some idea when this is suitable to use.  It's especially good if you've got just some tight muscles (say you slept at an odd angle, tightened up from sitting for ages or have areas that naturally tighten up like the back etc).  The infra-red is quite subtle so don't expect a massive heating of the area (approx the same heating feeling as you'd get from a 1MHz ultra sound device I'd say).
Some people find it a little too vigorous especially over the organs, but others find it pretty handy for loosing them up a bit.  Basically if you like a harder style of massage you'll like this, if you like the softer approach then this may not be for you.
For the strength athlete it's role is to aid the relaxation of tight muscles, help reduce or improve DOMS.  Obviously do not use on any muscle that is damaged by an injury, so don't us on bruised or cut areas, or anywhere you suspect might be a muscle tear as it really won't help.  Do not use directly on bones either stick to soft tissue areas (although the exception is you can run it over the scapulae [shoulder blades] with no ill effect).
Who would I recommend it for?  Well anyone who gets tight muscles.  A massage will work better, but most of us can't afford a daily massage, but they can afford to use this daily if necessary.  With it's long handle & cable you can use it on your own.

 

Finally I didn't get anything for putting this up.  I bought the device & after using it for a while on both myself & other people thought some of you might find a review helpful.  There are a lot of similar devices out there, that I'm sure work just as well, but this one is certainly one I think could be useful.