london fitness Archives | Page 4 of 5

Introducing Matt W, Professional Ballet Dancer and Personal Trainer

June 15, 2015November 1, 2018 Alex CoombesLeave a comment

Matt is one of our ambassador trainers with over 10 years experience as a professional ballet dancer. This experience combined with his fantastic knowledge of human movement makes him an expert in improving flexibility, strength and muscle tone using only your body-weight.

Why did you sign up as a TruBe personal trainer?
I love the flexibility of the app. It allows me to choose the hours when I want to train. It also gives me the opportunity to train clients in a variety of locations including outdoors.

What is your biggest client success story?

All of them are special and unique in there own way. I don’t just enjoy seeing the physical transformation in clients but also in the mental side. I had one particular client who became much more confident and outgoing after seeing the physical changes in their body.

What’s you’re favourite way to really finish off the end of a session?
You can’t beat a good circuit. Non stop work for 5 minutes switching between different body parts and different pieces of equipment.

What do you add your shake/smoothie to give you a boost?
Chia and hemp seeds are a nice addition to a smoothie.

What’s your favourite healthy rejuvenating post-workout meal?
EGGS EGGS EGGS in any form! Poached eggs with turkey bacon and avocado gives you everything you need after a heavy session. Complimented nicely with a true Italian espresso with some coconut oil.

What was your last health and fitness obstacle and how did you overcome it?

When I stopped dancing full time it was a big shock to the system. I needed something to fill that void. The gym used to be my stress relief from work and now the gym is my work. So trying to find a positive work life balance away from the gym has been quite a challenge.

What is your favourite instagram account you follow?
It has to be @RyanJTerry. He has a great physique and he is a great UK representative in worldwide competitions.

What is the best piece of advice you have received from a mentor?
Try not to overload yourself with too much stuff. Find out what you are good at and make yourself a master at that before you move onto adding to it. Perfect your business before adding extra things to it.

Where’s your favourite place to work out?
My hometown, Bognor Regis beach. It’s got everything you need. Fresh air, the sea and an outdoor gym. It really does rival muscle beach!

To book a session with Matt W, download the app and find him as one of our featured trainers.

Ten Reasons to Get a Personal Trainer

June 8, 2015November 1, 2018 Alex CoombesLeave a comment

Personal trainers have rapidly emerged as a key component to living a healthy lifestyle and reaching your fitness goals.

At times they are your best friend, shouting encouragement and pushing you to be your best. At other times they’re your worst enemy as they push you to do yet another set of burpees.

We believe having a personal trainer in your life adds a myriad of benefits to your training, so we’ve compiled a list of reasons why you might consider trying a personal trainer.

1. You struggle for training motivation

If you’re struggling to get your sessions done, you may be in need of a personal trainer. When you train with someone else, it not only motivates you to get to a session but you train harder during it.

2. Your routine has become stale

Always doing the same exercises in the gym? There’s nothing more demotivating than doing the same boring session every time you go to the gym. A personal trainer will provide new exercises to perform in different ways making every session exciting. You will find yourself looking forward to your training sessions instead of dreading them.

3. Your diet is unhealthy

We believe in the holistic approach to training, great food, hard training and the best rest and relaxation. If you find you are starting to incorporate unhealthy eating habits into your routine, it may be a sign you need the professional guidance and goal setting a personal trainer brings.

4. You aren’t seeing performance gains

Have your results slowed or plateaued? A personal trainer will help you to set new achievable goals with measurable benchmarks along the way. They will then help you to formulate a research lead strategy that will get you to each milestone.

5. You keep getting injured

Personal trainers ensure that you follow exercise programmes that doesn’t over-stress your body. Our trainers are trained to teach sessions that work in harmony with your body instead of against it.

6. You don’t have reliable training buddies

Training with friends is fun, and sharing sessions can be a beautiful thing. It is great to set goals together and motivate each other to do those hard sessions. However, if you find yourself regularly training solo, it may be time for a new fitness friend.

7. Your passion has dwindled

You know that feeling when you first fall in love with getting fit? We believe a key to maintaining a healthy lifestyle is constantly falling back in love with physical fitness. A personal trainer can bring new dimensions to your training to help you reach your goals.

8. You never have time to workout

When living a busy London life, regular exercise can sometimes fall by the wayside. If you find that you never have time for a workout, it may be that a pre-booked personal training session, at your home, will be the motivation you need to get out of bed.

9. You want to undertake a new challenge

Often we set goals for ourselves like running a marathon or entering a CrossFit event without really understanding the extreme physical stress we are about to put our bodies through. A personal trainer can help prepare you both mentally and physically for the challenges that lay ahead.

10. You’re stressed or depressed

If you are stressed or depressed the last thing you want to do is exercise. However regular exercise is a great way to lift your spirits. Having a pre booked personal trainer who is sympathetic towards your lifestyle will be able to adapt your session accordingly.

After a TruBe workout, we’re always thankful for our personal trainers who help us stretch ourselves further than we would on our own. Why not try TruBe by downloading the iPhone app and see if a personal trainer makes a difference to your fitness? Try a variety of different workouts with a range of our expert TruBe trainers.

Introducing Personal Trainer: Dana V

June 3, 2015November 1, 2018 Alex CoombesLeave a comment

One of our highly experienced personal trainers, Dana V, has been in the industry for more than 12 years. She is a national hurdle champion, has a degree in sport sciences and maintains a fantastic philosophy for fitness and life. Not to forget a mum to two adorable daughters.

Dana’s commitment to her client’s success is her top priority. She has a kind and gentle nature but that doesn’t mean she will let you getaway with those extra burpees. TruBe customer’s love her workouts and also enjoy her integration of Yoga training.

Who is your biggest client success story?
I trained a mother of two who lost 15 kg. She not only looked amazing but she could do six clean pull ups and established a personal best doing broad jump exercises.

What do you add your shake/smoothie to give you a boost?
I love adding raw cacao and chia seeds. It makes it a heavenly and beautiful smoothie.

What do you enjoy about being a part of the TruBe Team?
It makes you feel like a special agent who goes out into the world to help people achieve their goals. I just love being part of the TruBe community.

What was your last health and fitness obstacle and how did you overcome it?
After having two children I suffered from diastasis rectus, the separation of the abdominal muscle. It took a lot of work to repair it but I’m happy with the results.

Where is your favourite healthy date?
I love cooking new and healthy combinations for my family and friends.

What is your favourite instagram account you follow?
@Yogainspirations

What is your favourite piece of TruBe equipment?
Speed ladder and the gripper sandbag.

What is your favourite motivational quote?
“Stay original and true.”

What was your latest qualification?
Vinyasa Flow Yoga Teacher

What is the best piece of advice you have received from a mentor?
Always find time to breathe and connect with your inner self.

To book a session with Dana, download the app and find her as one of our featured trainers.

Part 2: How To Build Muscle Using Your Bodyweight: Lower Body-Workout

June 1, 2015November 1, 2018 Alex Coombes1 Comment

The next workout in our building muscle through bodyweight series is focused on the lower body. As we covered in part one, building muscle in the upper body places an emphasis on your chest, back, arms, shoulders and abdominal muscles. In this post, we’ll share techniques to build lower body muscle, which will help you to burn more fat whilst not exercising.

The most impactful way to build lower body muscle involves many variations of single leg exercises and powerful movements for a short period of time.

1. Pistol Squats: Three sets of six repetitions on each leg.

Simply put, the pistol squat is a one-legged squat. The aim is to get as close to the floor as you can (see picture above), holding the other leg out in front of the body.

If you are new to this exercise you may need to hold on to something, such as a suspension trainer or a wall, in order to maintain balance and alleviate body weight from the pushing leg. It is important to control the downward motion as much as possible to keep tension in all leg muscles for the whole movement.

2. One-Legged Suspension Trainer Lunges: Three sets of eight repetitions on each leg.

The goal of this exercise is to do a split squat with a suspension trainer. Add a partner to hold down your shoulders and make this exercise more challenging, or you can do a normal squat which will make it a bit easier.

3. 40-meter Sprints: Eight sets with 1 min. rest.

Sprinting with good form and powerful strides will build great quality, well-balanced muscle. When running, pull your knees to waist height to build valuable core muscle in lower abs and obliques. To ensure a powerful stride, push the floor behind you as hard as you can.

Now that you have two quick sessions to work both your upper and lower body, take advantage of the London summer weather and impress onlookers at your local park.

To build muscle, maximum effort is needed throughout the whole session, from every set to every single rep. If you struggle to do this on your own, download the TruBe app to book a personal trainer on demand in London.

Part 1: How to build muscle using your body weight: Upper-body workout

May 20, 2015July 22, 2017 Alex Coombes

One of the most common misconceptions of working out is that lifting heavy weights is the only way to build muscle. However, everyone from gymnasts to runners to breakdancers have been proving this wrong for years.

Heavy weights and machines are used to create muscle tension and while tension is needed to build lean muscle, you can lift your body weight through specific movements that maintain the tension along the full length of the muscle.

Try this upper-body workout in any London park. It has been design to build the chest, back, arms, shoulders and abdominal muscles.

Wide press ups – 40 repetitions in as little sets as possible

Wide press ups are a great way to create tension along the full length of the chest muscles. Try to complete the 40 reps in less than 4 sets, resting as little as you can in between sets.

Chin ups – Four sets of five repetitions

If this is too easy, try making the negative (downward motion of the chin up) as slow as you can.

To make it easier, try jumping up to the bar and then controlling your self down.

Suspension Trainer Pike ups – Three sets of 10 repetitions

This is a great way to build and define the abs. For variation and to train the obliques, try pulling your feet up to each side. By pulling your hips over your shoulders they will be under the perfect amount of tension to incite muscle growth.

If you are you unsure about any of the exercises, why not order a TruBe trainer to come to your local park and show you how!