Archives

0800 040 7526

Archive for December, 2009

December 16th, 2009
Cancer gene idetified-but being fit and healthy helps

From BBC online news:

Scientists have unlocked the entire genetic code of two of the most common cancers – skin and lung – a move they say could revolutionise cancer care. Not only will the cancer maps pave the way for blood tests to spot tumours far earlier, they will also yield new drug targets, say the Wellcome Trust team. Scientists around the globe are now working to catalogue all the genes that go wrong in many types of human cancer. The UK is looking at breast cancer, Japan at liver and India at mouth. China is studying stomach cancer, and the US is looking at cancers of the brain, ovary and pancreas.

The International Cancer Genome Consortium scientists from the 10 countries involved say it will take them at least five years and many hundreds of thousands of dollars to complete this mammoth task. But once they have done this, patients will reap the benefits.Professor Michael Stratton, who is the UK lead, said: “These catalogues are going to change the way we think about individual cancers.

“By identifying all the cancer genes we will be able to develop new drugs that target the specific mutated genes and work out which patients will benefit from these novel treatments.

“We can envisage a time when following the removal of a cancer cataloguing it will become routine.”It could even be possible to develop MoT-style blood tests for healthy adults that can check for tell-tale DNA patterns suggestive of cancer.

Russian roulette-The scientists found the DNA code for a skin cancer called melanoma contained more than 30,000 errors almost entirely caused by too much sun exposure.

So the key message here is that the healthier we are the less chance we have of getting a deadly cancer, even if we are genetically predisposed to it. Stopping smoking can seem like a very daunting task, but it CAN be easy, I know this because I’ve done it! Picture this, I am a personal trainer in Windsor and Maidenhead, and after every client, whether I’m running with them, doing circuits, or resistance training, I need a cigarette after each session. I have one first thing in the morning, in the shower, would you believe. But then I was recommended the “Easy Way to Stop Smoking” by Allen Carr. This book changed my like, plus the life of my partner, her sister, and her mother, who all stopped with little difficulty after reading this book or going to the lecture. So give it a go, you have everything to gain and nothing to lose!

Posted in General News, Well-being | No Comments »
December 15th, 2009
Pre emptive approach to christmas with a Personal Trainer

Ok, so we all know that Christmas is now just around the corner, and that more than likely we will be going for it in the food and drink stakes. The average calorific horrific intake on Christmas day in Britain is 4000-5000 calories, or two days’ worth, so what we at Diets Don’t Work suggest is hiring on of our mean but supportive and charming personal trainers to pre-empt the onslaught. By embarking on a programme of resistance training and CV we can push your metabolic rate up higher so that you will be burning more calories (and more calories from fat too!) even while you are sitting watching the sound of music. Lean muscle needs more energy to maintain itself whether you are exercising or not and so burns more fuel, stopping you from getting too fat over the festive season. For more on this have a look at the energy systems fact sheet on out “The Knowledge” page on the website.

Even a little trot out on Christmas morning will help to get you through the trauma of all those Brussels sprouts. So if you need advice or motivation we can help now and in the new decade with a personal trainer in the Maidenhead, Windsor and Bracknell areas. Good luck and be good-you can still have fun too!

Posted in Nutrition | No Comments »
December 7th, 2009
Windsor-a Great Place for A Personal Trainer at Home or Outdoors

As providers of life changing (wherever possible!!) personal training at home we endeavour to get clients outdoors wherever possible; it’s good for morale, good for the soul and also you burn more calories in the great outdoors when it’s cold! I take many of my personal personal trainer clients in Windsor (ans Eton) outside, and the area has some very very scenic runs and areas for resistance training.

The Great Park has to rank as one of the most stunning areas in Berkshire and the Thames Valley, there’s a great route from Windsor town centre up to the copper horse (the hill is longer than it looks!) and back. The view of the castle front is most impressive on the way back. There is also a fabulous run from Eton (look out for Judy and I zooming along) along the Thames path, over the bypass and then back along the river past the leisure centre and over Eton bridge for home. Windsor also has the benefit of having some of the only decent hills in the area for proper personal trainer torture (interval hill running).

Eton has the Brocas field, looking over the Castle on the hill, and Eton field where you can have personal training and admire the Eton boys in all their regalia as you throw the kettle bells.

So if you need to make a positive move and get yourself into shape, in the new year or sooner, then a personal trainer in Windsor or Eton will not only give you the best possible chance of success, but it will also give you the opportunity to see some fantastic scenery at the same time!! For a list of trainers available in the area have a look at our meet the trainers page.

Posted in General News | No Comments »
December 2nd, 2009
Colds and exercise:stop your sniveling and get on with It

From The Times

February 7, 2009

Don’t skip that workout just because you have a cold. Keep going, in the long run you’ll feel better, research has shown.

You are sneezing, spluttering and have trouble breathing through your nose. Surely, your workouts should be put on hold until you feel better? Not according to American researchers who have been studying the results of exercising with a cold. Professor Leonard Kaminsky, an exercise scientist at Ball State University in Indiana, found that colds have little effect on athletic performance and that exercise doesn’t aggravate symptoms such as blocked nose and streaming eyes. A little sweating when you have a cold may even boost the activity of white blood cells that fight infection, Kaminsky says.

“A lot of people in our trials said that they felt OK exercising,” he says. “In some cases, they even felt better.”

Kaminsky and his team studied a group of men and women who agreed to be infected with the rhinovirus responsible for most colds. Two days after being infected, when the colds were at their heaviest, the subjects were asked to run on a treadmill while physiological tests were carried out. Like the healthy control group, cold-sufferers experienced no drop in lung function or capacity.

“I was surprised that their performance was not affected, even though they said that they felt more tired than usual,” Kaminsky says. He urges people with light colds to keep active, although those with more severe, feverish symptoms should listen to their bodies and proceed with caution.What do British experts think of his controversial advice? “It’s a bit of a misnomer that you should take to your bed when you have a cold. For most people, working out is fine,” says Louise Sutton, head of the Carnegie Centre for Sports Performance and Wellbeing at Leeds Metropolitan University. “My suggestion would be to apply the “below the neck” rule. If you have fever, sore muscles or joints, vomiting or a very productive cough – symptoms that exhibit themselves from the neck down – then you probably need to avoid exercise for at least a couple of days. If you just have a runny or blocked nose, watery eyes and a light, tickly cough then go ahead.”Indeed, keep moving and you might avoid the next cold altogether. Three years ago researchers found that women who exercised regularly – doing at least 45 minute of moderate activity on five days a week throughout a year-long study – were three times less likely to suffer a bout of the sniffles than their couch-potato counterparts. It seemed that activity strengthened the effect of immune cells that protect against viruses and bacteria that can cause infection.

However, while exercise does seem to boost immunity, it does so only to a point. Serious athletes or anyone in training for the London Marathon or another endurance event may find their defences are compromised as a result of longer or more intense workouts. Dr David Nieman, director of the Human Performance Laboratory at Appalachian State University, North Carolina, has carried out research into the effects of strenuous workouts or prolonged periods of heavy training. “If you are running or exercising continuously for 90 minutes or longer, there is a temporary downturn in immunity,” he says. “At that point, carbohydrate stores drop causing a spike in the hormones cortisol and epinephrine that inhibit the protective effects of neutrophils and lymphocytes leaving you vulnerable to bugs.”

Other studies at the Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen, have shown that there is a “window” of impaired immunity for the highly active. Marathon runners, for example, are more at risk of catching colds during the 72 hours after they finish the race.

Finding this balance can be difficult on your own, but part of the expertise that we offer at Diets Don’t Work Personal Training is the experience to tell when exercising might be counter productive. All of our block bookings of personal training in London, Windsor and Maidenhead include nutritional help and advice, so with good healthy nutrition and exercise you will be less likely to get a cold in the first place!

Posted in General News, Well-being | No Comments »

Archives

Archive for December, 2009

Cancer gene idetified-but being fit and healthy helps

Pre emptive approach to christmas with a Personal Trainer

Windsor-a Great Place for A Personal Trainer at Home or Outdoors

Colds and exercise:stop your sniveling and get on with It

Don’t skip that workout just because you have a cold. Keep going, in the long run you’ll feel better, research has shown.

Categories

Archives

What we do