Sugar Bowl Ski Academy/TRX with Douglas Brooks.

 Here PT  Douglas Brooks, Director of Athlete Conditioning for Sugar Bowl Ski Academy near Lake Tahoe, works with competitive skiers daily and knows what it takes to give them an edge. Here, he shares with us a TRX “triplex” he uses to increase the lower body strength and stability of his athletes. Start by doing 12 to 15 reps of each exercise for two to three sets. Also, these are somewhat advanced moves, so they should only be attempted by individuals who have mastered basic TRX movements.
This clip is brilliant for all you skiers out there. I have just learnt to ski after snowboarding for 5-years and training to me is important to allow good range of movement with stability within the whole body so we don't get those niggles/pains in the knees and hips we want to enjoy the feeling of the movement along with feeling strong within that movement. The TRX is just one of those pieces of equipment that can give you this. I love it and so do all of my clients in fact they ask to use it within there session, and who am I to say no. Training should be fun as well as seeing those all important results, Enjoy the movement.

PTA Global: In New Zealand for a ViPR Play out.

Here is PTA Global in New Zealand with the Vipr work out.
     I love this new bit of kit it works and is lots of fun made out of dense rubber you can be as rough as you like with it but without catching yourself on sharp edges. I have just acquired one (10kg) and have used it in one way or another in all my clients training sessions.
    You may be thinking its a piece of equipment for anyone under 30yrs but you would be wrong, wrong ,wrong last week a client and I had a great session with the Vipr and she is 72yrs young, As she said when she lifted it above her head, ' This will give me strength to lift my suitcase up onto a shelf on a train if I need too' she is an independent woman .
We must allow our training to give our bodies this dynamic strength with added stability. So movement training moves from the gym into our everyday life's.
 Now that makes sense, doesn't it?

PTA Global: On-the-Floor

This clip is from a great person /trainer, Rodney Corn.
    In this clip he is talking to another trainer about training. This may sound boring, but it is great to here what I call a traditional  body builder changing the way he thinks about training his clients and himself. It make me feel happy to see that we are wanting to see smiles on our clients and our own faces and make our training session enjoyable along with personal training results, high up on the want list.
 Keep moving people along with a smile on your face

Baz Luhrmann - Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen) take note

So I found this clip and I am so pleased as it says it all and the bit about move your body is so true. Enjoy and do a slow dance to this one. 

Long Live the North Wales team

    Sometimes I forget how import it is to have fun with friends/colleagues and how important my they are to me. I get wrapped up in the functional fitness world as great as it is and forget that we are not just body but mind and spirit as well and the balance is important to our health.

At Blackpool convention 

      This short little clip is from the Conwy 2010 Fitness Wales autumn tour it was taken at the end so we are looking a little bit worse for wear, after 4hours of aerobics with a bit of stretchy yoga , but after a second look scrap that last statement as I think the girls look really good. 

In this video clip is a few of us dedicated Aerobic Instructors, some teach children's  Fit Club, some teach adults in small local halls, some teach in leisure centres for very small amounts of money I my add which can make us feel under valued for the valuable work we do. Some take fall prevention classes and some of us including me teach good old fashion aerobics.

Each year I see the same faces and a few new ones, which I love as we have been attending these events for 15 years +, well some of us have and it reminds me that; yes I may pick up the latest aerobic move or a new to the market gadget for circuit, or find a great new piece of music/CD, but what really is the best thing about these conventions is seeing lots of great people you haven't seen for ages having a laugh, chatting about our work, and knowing that we are providing a service that keeps people healthy and fit, what ever the age or ability. 
So long live the North Wales health and fitness team, you truly do make a difference in lots of ways. 

Enjoying a pre dinner slurp 

Gil Hedley: Fascia and stretching: The Fuzz Speech

This is a great clip to remind us all the importance of that morning stretch or day time stretch or evening stretch. How many times do we see animals like a dog or cat wake up from a long sleep and before they do anything they stretch.......just like us!

   Most of the adult population including myself I hasten to add jump or flop out of bed quickly get dressed sit down, to breakfast sit down in the car to work sit down at the office sit down at lunch sit down in the car returning from work sit down for dinner sit down to watch a bit of TV. Sometimes we go to the gym or go for a long walk or just move, we may feel stiff or even in pain doing some movements.


See the clip below but be warned, a human body / fascia is shown in the demo, but I like it because he loves fascia and knows the importance of good movement in fascia or in his words the fuzz, long live a fuzz and my yours never fuzz up too much.

Sitting. Functional movement patterns

http://www.grayinstitute.com/webcast.aspx?newsletter=1&webcast=NLA09072010-B.flv

In this clip, my hero Gary Gray demonstrates some movement patterns to relieve the stiffness or even pain from long term sitting. 


In a perfect world we would not sit so much or as he rightly comments subject our children to hours and hours of sitting, either in the classroom or at home watching the television or on working on a computer. 


Our bodies are meant to move, so here he demonstrates  the 3 dimensional movement patterns that I use for my clients who may have to sit for long periods of time. Give them a go next time you have to sit a lot. 
Viva movement how ever big or small.