Victory for Men's Health
Half a lifetime ago, I fell in love with a young man who used to like telling me about health and fitness. Ever the observant girlfriend, I fairly soon noticed in his bedroom copies of popular magazine Men's Health: my amour's goal, it seemed, was to be a cover model.
A short while into our relationship, however, his words of wisdom dried up. This may have been because I began buying my own copies of Men's Health, reading them faster than he did (I had to sit through physics lessons; he at a couple of years older had an actual job) and then quoting the articles at him. He had nothing more to say. We didn't last long, and he never did become a cover model, which is a shame, as he had lovely abs.
Not being their target audience, I hadn't picked up a copy since then; but if you are a MH aficionado, you'll know that on a semi-regular basis, they set their journalists physical challenges, which they then have to complete and write about for the amusement and edification of their readership. The current such challenge is for two ectomorphic journalists, both coincidentally called Ed, to compete for the most impressive "transformation" with a personal trainer. In effect, the trainers are competing to make the greatest difference to their clients.
And this is how I came to meet Ed Reeves, or "Big Ed" as he is affectionately known to readers of MH. Ed has been working with top Foundry trainer and former Olympian Sarah Lindsay since the start of January, trying to pack on enough muscle in three months to beat "Little Ed" Vanstone, who is himself working with MH cover model and trainer Olly Foster.
Big Ed somehow bypassed our usual pre-training musculoskeletal assessment; but given that he has never trained before, and with a pretty dodgy starting posture and various underlying issues, it wasn't a huge surprise to anyone other than himself when he broke down and found himself being poked and prodded by me and by Victory's osteopath Ray Yong.
I'll not go into details of what we saw and found - medical confidentiality being pretty important to both me and Ray! - but suffice to say that we were both able to offer suggestions of diagnosis and treatment. Ray is a fan of acupuncture, and I'm a fan of the Sarah Key method; I think Ed would have been happy with either (and either would have been effective) but as Ray was heading home, I treated Ed myself. And he seems quite happy with the results!
Having said that, Ed was lucky to recover so quickly. If you are thinking of embarking on a new training regime, it really is sensible to get checked out beforehand. I don't just mean the usual GP checkup for blood pressure, though if you're seriously out of shape, of course that is important. But from an injury perspective, or rather from an injury avoidance perspective, it is worth getting a good pre-training musculoskeletal assessment with a therapist who is familiar with the demands of personal training and who will talk to your trainer. Our assessments help the Foundry's trainers to personalise their clients' programmes, adding in specific corrective exercises and avoiding anything that's likely to be detrimental. Most of our clients have relatively sedentary jobs, or jobs that involve repetitive movements - I've lost count of the clients I've described as "chair-shaped" over the past year - and corrective exercises, particularly using the back block as an "anti-sitting" device, really do make a difference and help them to avoid injury.
If you're thinking of starting a course of personal training, whether at The Foundry or elsewhere, it's worth getting yourself checked out. We're not the only option, but we're pretty experienced and we're happy to talk to your trainer - what have you got to lose? Contact us for your 30-minute MOT!
My diet's better than your diet
A guest post from Victory's resident performance nutrition therapist, Dr Justin Roberts.
Wherever I go, I am baffled by the sheer number of opinions out there. “This diet is better than that diet”; “this supplement will get faster results that the next one on the shelf at half the price” and so on. But the bottom line is that we are all individual, all physiologically and biochemically unique. Our individual digestive and metabolic processes influence how we break down and use the foods we eat. Our respective goals vary from person to person: Bob may be looking to lose weight, Jenny to gain muscle mass, Mary to simply improve health. In other words, your optimal approach to eating patterns, nutrients and intake will be completely different to that of Frank from Accounts (who's just told you about this awesome new diet he's trying...?), so any good nutrition programme should be individually tailored.
At Victory, each programme we run is designed to be individual in nature, specific to your unique objectives and goals. Whilst there are of course overlapping principles that apply to most of us, the aim of the nutrition consultation is to firstly assess your current health status, dietary practices, nutritional habits and personal goals. What is it that you wish to achieve? Underlying this is the key need to work closely with your general practitioner or medical consultant should specific conditions warrant this.
Before I even meet you, I'll ask you to complete a set of questionnaires designed to assess your background health, nutrition habits, related conditions, underlying concerns or symptoms, the foods you eat and the supplements you take. If you are an athlete, these will include questions about your sport, your training and performance practices and current objectives. Additionally, as part of the first consultation, I will analyse your diet to assess your current practice more objectively.
When I meet you, I will discuss your goals and objectives with you and produce a specific programme to help you achieve them. Typically, I will take some body composition measurements before you start the programme, so that we can assess the programme's effectiveness as you go through it. I can also help if you need any further diagnostic procedures or testing.
The aim of any applied nutrition programme should be:
1) To assess for any underlying medical conditions or concerns that may require additional support from your GP or medical consultant
2) To assess for potential nutrient deficiencies, dietary imbalances and wholefood requirements in conjunction with your overall goals
3) To provide a structured programme over a sensible time period, with regular assessment and monitoring, as well as personal support and motivation to help you achieve your goals
4) To provide on-going recommendations to adapt and tailor your programme specific to your situation and needs.
Essentially, I aim to offer you a top-quality, structured programme designed to help you achieve your health and fitness goals.
Things I can help you with:
Goals:
• Weight loss
• Increased muscle mass
• Improve energy, vitality and stamina
• Improved concentration and mental performance
• Improved peak performance at work
• Personal exercise and athletic performance
• Sports nutrition strategies for marathon and endurance events
• Sports nutrition strategies for power and strength sports
• Improve recovery and sleep
• Improve digestion and wellness
Health problems:
• Identification of any risk factors
• Tiredness and stress
• Poor quality sleep or recovery from exercise
• Poor concentration, lethargy
• High or low blood pressure
• Diabetes or blood sugar imbalances
• Skin related problems
• Weight gain
• Elevated cholesterol
Justin is available at Victory on Wednesday evenings. To book your appointment, please contact us here, or e-mail Sarah Harvey.
Blog for Victory
Hi, I'm Nell Mead. I'm a former Army physiotherapist and I specialise in sports medicine and back pain. This is my blog, where I write about issues that are on my mind. Some of these are about issues that are specific to particular injuries or medical conditions but I will also be updating you on events occurring inside Victory and in the wider world of medical rehabilitation. I also publish guest posts by Victory's other therapists whenever I can persuade them to sit still for long enough to write something!
When we're not writing, we're offering appointments at The Foundry in Liverpool Street. We'd love to see your comments on our posts - and we'd love to meet you even more, so do pop by and meet the team.