personal trainer london Archives

Do you need a gym to workout?

November 26, 2015November 1, 2018 Alex Coombes1 Comment

In this new age of fitness we find ourselves needing to rely on the gym less and less. In most cases relying on the gym to keep you fit and healthy may actually be detrimental. It makes more sense to invest in convenience, knowledge and in someone who motivates you to do something that is going to actually help.

But what if “I don’t have any workout equipment”, “I live in a small flat” and “I don’t have the time to exercise”. All of these barriers can be broken down quickly and easily.

Knowledge is power
When you only have a small amount of space to train in you need to be extremely creative with the exercises and the way you put them together. Our trainers are all taught to “rule the tool”, this means, they create the exercises around what the body can and should be able to do.

Use small pieces of equipment
Stay away from the spin lock dumbbells you were thinking of buying from Argos. They’re a nightmare to store, they don’t look cool in the corner of your bedroom and do more harm than good when you keep stubbing your toes on them.

You don’t need heavy weights all you need is equipment that can manipulate your body into positions that will help you to break a sweat. All of the equipment we use in our sessions fit into a regular sized rucksack and weighs no more than 5 kg.

Find someone/something that motivates you
You’ve heard it all before, training with a partner or trainer is more enjoyable and so on … This doesn’t have to be someone to be there with you it could be someone you admire on Instagram, an event you’ve signed up for or even to impress that special someone.

Pay an expert
There’s nothing more demotivating than when your unreliable workout buddy cancels last minute. By booking a personal training session through our app, we can guarantee that one of our highly rated trainers will be there on time ready to get the most out of your workout. In the long run this will save you a lot of time and stop you from wasted money on unused gym memberships.

Why not download our app and let one of our experts show you how to workout at home.

Functional strength training – without the gym

October 28, 2015November 1, 2018 Alex CoombesLeave a comment

What is your max deadlift/bench/squat/bicep curl….??

As a trainer and sportsman I’m often expected to meet these questions with responses of mammoth figures. Seriously, my max bicep curl?? Um I don’t know… how much does my cup of coffee weigh in the morning?

My max deadlift could completely vary from around 150-180kg, squat 120-160kg and my bench from 85-100kg all dependant on circumstances. What variation of the lift I use, my mood, daily food intake, hours of sleep and sometimes even what music I listen to.

The truth is I really don’t know and to be honest I don’t care much either.

How often in a day are you expected to push hundreds of kilos away from your chest or pick up an unnecessarily heavy weight from the floor and put it down repeatedly? I bet this happens very few times in a day, year or even a lifetime.

Now I’m not saying that conventional strength training and weight lifting isn’t beneficial at all and by no means am I saying that sportsmen should leave this out of their programming. I just want to talk about what we at TruBe believe true functional strength is.

While training with good form (neutral spine, perfect joint alignment etc) is highly important when grooving basic movement patterns, we shouldn’t ignore the fact that our bodies still have the ability to perform exercises outside of these perfect movements. They can extend, flex and rotate at many joints in many different planes and positions.

In daily life your joints will be required to leave their ‘neutral’ positions many times and also during sporting situations whilst taking in large amounts of force. This is why it is not only important to train your neutral positions but to also get comfortable performing multidirectional exercises to help you to improve your strength, power, stability and therefore overall athleticism and functional ability.

You’d be kicking yourself if you picked up an injury in a position that your body should be able to deal with, but you didn’t train it because deadlifting is much more fun and your buddies said ‘do you even lift’ when you tried to include it in your bro workout. Seriously, leave your ego way behind when it comes to training. You will find you excel much more this way.

Try this quick functional legs workout using only your bodyweight:

10 reps on each exercise on each leg, take a 1 min rest then repeat 2 more times.

Side Lunges

Split Squat

Raised Single Leg Squats

Let us know how your legs are feeling after this circuit.

Ben Howard – London Personal Trainer

Book a session with me by downloading the app.

Hugo’s TruBe Transformation

August 28, 2015November 1, 2018 Alex CoombesLeave a comment

We are excited to announce that we are taking Hugo Taylor through an 8 week transformation. Hugo has completed two marathons over the last year and is now looking to convert his lean runner’s body into a defined muscular physique.

We have provided Hugo with a special TruBe 8 week Transformation pack. This includes specific nutritional advice and planning, a full 8 week training guide and exercise sessions that you can complete in your own home! You can follow Hugo’s progress and see his results by following us on Instagram, @TruBeApp.

But wait, we have some even more exciting news! You can also download your very own TruBe Transformation pack and join Hugo’s journey! This will be specifically designed around your training goal be it weight loss, building muscle, getting stronger or for an event.

This will be available for you to download, on the 13th of September, for FREE! However we are only offering this amazing pack to the first 100 sign ups. If you would like to be one of the exclusive few to receive one of these, signup below.