Tennis is a physically demanding sport that requires a unique blend of speed, agility, power, endurance, and flexibility.

 In today's fast-paced world, where the pressures of work, family, and personal goals can be overwhelming, getting a good night's sleep can sometimes feel like an unattainable luxury.

Tennis is a sport that requires a combination of strength, agility, speed, endurance, and flexibility. While on-court practice and match play are essential for developing tennis skills, incorporating gym exercises into a player's training regimen can significantly enhance their physical capabilities, leading to improved performance on the court and reduced risk of injury.

Treadmills and cross trainers are two popular pieces of exercise equipment found in gyms and homes worldwide. Both are effective at providing cardiovascular workouts and improving overall fitness levels, but they have distinct differences in terms of design, functionality, and the type of workout they offer.

Staying motivated to continue exercising is a common challenge that many people face.

The winter holidays are a joyous time filled with festivities, family gatherings, and delicious food. However, it's also a season where many individuals find it challenging to maintain a healthy lifestyle. The combination of cold weather, tempting treats, and busy schedules can lead to neglecting our well-being. Let's In this article, we'll explore strategies to stay healthy during the winter holidays, incorporating three gym exercises for those who prefer indoor workouts, and two easy and nutritious recipes to keep your diet on track.

High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) has gained tremendous popularity in recent years as an effective and time-efficient workout regimen.

Evaluate Your Fitness Objectives

If you established your goals at the beginning of the year or earlier and are still following the same workout routine, it's time to evaluate any progress you've made and adjust your regimen accordingly.

Does HIIT Help With Weight Loss?

Yes, HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training) can be effective for weight loss. HIIT workouts typically involve short bursts of high-intensity exercise followed by periods of rest or low-intensity exercise, and they can help you burn more calories in a shorter amount of time compared to steady-state cardio exercise.

 What Are Triceps?

The triceps brachii, commonly referred to as the triceps, is a large muscle spanning the back of your upper arm. It has three heads, the medial head, lateral head, and long head, and attaches to both the shoulder blade and elbow joint.

Osteoporosis is a condition which causes the bones to become brittle and weak. In the early stages, there are little to no symptoms, which means you may not be aware you have this condition until it’s already progressed. 

Whether you’re an avid gym goer in need of a change or a complete novice looking to learn the lay of the land – group training could be the answer to your prayers!

What is mobility?

Mobility is simply a person’s ability to move. In professional ‘terms’, it is described as how well we can move our bodies (joints and muscles) freely through their full range of motion.

One of the key suggestions when aiming to eat healthier is planning your meals. Mapping out your meals with higher volume, lower-calorie options ensures that you never feel restricted and stay fuller for longer! Bulking up your meals with these 9 pantry staples means you always walk away feeling as energized as possible. 

We are all of course aware of the physical benefits that exercise provides us with. It tones up your limbs, strengthens your core, aids in keeping your heart strong, and can add years onto your life. But what about the benefits of exercise on how you feel, your brain development and overall health?

Yoga can reduce cortisol

Cortisol is the body’s primary “stress hormone”. It not only contributes to those familiar, unwelcome feelings of stress and anxiety, it also promotes the breakdown of tissue around the body, including muscle. When cortisol levels are chronically high, you can expect to feel terrible, and struggle immensely trying to gain mass.

There are many schools of thought when it comes to the term ‘sweat it out’. 

Get on the front foot with your children’s eating habits and start to pave the way. Healthy eating is a skill that must be taught. They’ve got to learn it from us.

If you’re a little bit unsure as to where to start, here are the four ‘P’s  for raising healthy kids and toddlers:

Luckily, there is a way of preventing dry eyes. But let us get a bit more familiar with the topic.

Below are 5 easy ways to make walking more enjoyable, more productive and drive long term results.

If you’ve ever set a big goal, you know that your excitement and enthusiasm are high and you can’t wait to get started. But over time, motivation naturally starts to decrease and day-to-day life becomes a distraction. But that’s no reason not to set goals in the first place. You just have to change your strategy.

The endorphin rush that comes with a workout, the accomplishment in improving strength or dropping a few kilos is hard to beat. It is motivating and inspiring and is often the driving force that keeps us going back for more.

For most, this healthy habit is something that enhances our quality of life, but for a subset of the population it becomes more sinister.

1. Carbohydrates

Eating carbs increases the level of tryptophan in your blood, which the body converts into serotonin – a sleep-inducing brain chemical that slows nerve impulses and promotes calm. While more research is needed, sleep researchers generally agree that including a carbohydrate, particularly slow-burning carbs (beans, pasta, quinoa, sweet potato) to your evening meal will help you sleep more soundly.

1. Fresh Fruit
Bananas: an excellent source of energy, Vitamin B6, potassium and fiber.
Apples: a great source of fiber, Vitamin C and help regulate blood sugar. They’re very satisfying, making them a perfect afternoon snack.
Blueberries: Blueberries are packed with Vitamin K, Manganese, Fiber and Vitamin C, and their antioxidant count is high.

When we are stressed, or experience stress there are changes in the brain and in the whole body. We experience the ‘stress response’ or ‘fight-flight’ response. When we are in danger or feel threatened our body gets ready and geared up to face up to it in the best possible way to survive. Our heart rate increases, muscles become tense, stress hormones are released and flood into the nervous system, fats and sugars release to create instant energy, the digestive system shuts down to save energy and the area of the brain which is used for clear decision making shuts down.

Here are some examples:

Playing with your kids and grand children

As we get older, many of us complain of stiff joints, immobility and tight muscles - not to mention just a lack of general cardiovascular fitness. All of these things create a barrier when it comes to carrying out our daily chores and activities, but we get by. We adapt, we figure out ways of making things easier. We take the elevator instead of the stairs, we park closer to the supermarket and we store things where they’re easily accessible.

Sleep
Alcohol may help you fall asleep quickly, but the quality of your sleep may not be so good. Those who drink close to bedtime don’t get enough rapid eye movement (REM) sleep where important processes of dreaming and restoration occur. This lack of sleep impairs muscle recovery and reduces energy, meaning your workouts the next day will suffer.

Here are six things you should never do before hitting the gym.

To Burn Calories- Standing

According to studies standing at a desk increases calorie burn by 20 percent compared to sitting. Why? When we sit, our muscles are not engaged, our digestive system slows and blood circulation is gradual. So if you find yourself chained to the desk most of the time, stand up every 20 minutes and go to the printer, get a drink of water, take a stretch or pace while talking on the phone.

Considering how crucial it is to our survival, we spend very little time thinking about the way we breathe. In fact, most of us generally only think about our breath when we’re short of it. But it’s a subject that could do with a little more attention. If we breathe the way our bodies were designed to, we can unlock real and lasting benefits for our workouts and our health.

When we think of athletes and active people, we certainly don’t think of exercise being dangerous to their health. It makes sense that active people would be healthier than sedentary ones. The truth is, exercise and strenuous physical activity can increase our oxygen consumption in order to meet our energy demands.

QUALITY VS. QUANTITY

For an ideal sleep you need to go through several stages. Two of these phases are particularly important: Deep sleep is the most restorative stage of sleep when the body repairs itself, and studies suggest the most damaging effects of sleep deprivation are from inadequate deep sleep.

While usually overlooked, good balance is an important factor for your overall health and injury prevention.  Poor balance can lead to falls and injury, especially for older people. By developing greater balance, you’ll improve your coordination and postural stability.

Including foods with protein in every meal and snack is essential for weight and fat loss. Protein containing foods help to make you feel fuller for longer period of time, preventing blood sugar spikes and dips.

Sometimes it’s all too easy to put health and fitness into the ‘goals to be achieved’ bucket and revisit at a time in your life when it feels like more of a priority.

When it comes to breaking a sweat, many people focus on bigger biceps and a trim waistline, but for some, that’s not enough motivation to get moving. Indeed, the phrase ‘exercise is medicine‘ is becoming increasingly recognized as a fundamental form of treatment for various lifestyle related diseases, including depression, diabetes, heart disease, asthma, some cancers, and hip fractures. Here are a few unexpected benefits of exercise that happen when you're active.

How did you spend your last 24 hours? How many hours did you spend sitting down compared to standing up? What type of movement did you do?

There are two main classifications of exercises: compound exercises and isolation exercises. In this post, we will cover exactly what a compound exercise is.

Hot chocolate, Netflix marathons, and warm duvets are just some of the finer comforts the cold weather brings. But a season linked to shorter days can influence how well you sleep. Here’s why cold weather makes it difficult to get out of bed in the mornings.

Our skeleton is also extremely efficient, despite supporting the weight of our entire body. The dry weight of a healthy human skeleton averages only around 7% of total body mass – so blaming excess weight on ‘big bones’ is not exactly an excuse!

Are you getting enough nutrients to power through your HIIT class or do you sometimes feel like you’re running on empty? Lookout for these 5 common signs you’re not eating enough to fuel your workout.

Starting a new training and eating regime often resembles the wheels of the bus. Everything is running smoothly until the wheels come off, motivation plummets and you have just finished the entire tub of Ben & Jerry’s. What next?

There is no denying that it’s more difficult to keep in shape during the winter months. With dark mornings and nights, freezing conditions, and snow and rain soaking our favorite running paths, it’s hard to get enthused about exercising or drinking cold green smoothies. So to help you out, we’ve compiled a few simple solutions for four of the most common winter weight mistakes we hear every day:

Before starting a personal training program you should take a fitness analysis which tests muscular strength, aerobic fitness, flexibility and body condition - and of course takes in great consideration your health problems if any.  The fitness analysis comprises the following.

Blood pressure check

It is important to test your blood pressure as high blood pressure increases your chances of strokes, coronary disease and kidney disease.

Body fat percentage check

Allows us to see what percentage of your body is made up of fat so we can get an understanding of how much muscle you have and how much fat we suggest you lose.

BMI test  Body mass index test

Estimates a healthy weight based on your height so you can get a rough idea of whether you are overweight and how overweight you are.

Different physical activities have differing energy requirements, as one might expect. However, these energy requirements rely on a variety of sources of fuel as well as bodily energy systems to supply their needs. Understanding your body’s needs and responses according to the type of physical activity you’re involved in largely determines your overall performance and success.

Take, for example, the 100 meter sprint and the marathon. The sprint is a brief high intensity event, whereas the marathon is a prolonged endurance test. Both burn up plenty of energy from different sources and by way of different bodily systems. Basic energy comes via the muscles in the form of Adenosine Triphosphate, or ATP. However, stored supplies of ATP for immediate use are limited and must be replenished and resynthesized from other sources via various metabolic paths depending on the intensity of the need.

The energy systems providing the metabolic paths are categorized as either immediate, short or long term and each is based on the resynthesis of ATP either from intramuscular phosphate PCr macronutrients, carbohydrates, lipids and protein or in some form of combination. These fuel sources use varying metabolic pathways in the regeneration of ATP.

Everyone needs a certain amount of protein in their diet and anyone involved in fitness training and body building will logically need more in a daily basis. One way to get an energy boost after working out while avoiding the dangers of high fat sources of protein, such as fatty meats, is by shaking up a shake based on protein powder alternatives or buy one of the hundreds brands in the market.

There are a number of such alternative sources of protein that are ideal for making shakes, including soy, egg and whey. All are high in protein and low in carbohydrates. All you need is a blender, 1-2 minutes and some imagination.

Let's say that you’re out and about doing errands and you suddenly see a girl or a boy, that catches your eye. You decide to take action there because those clips you’ve seen on “pick up” and mystery’s pick up technique tells you that you have 3 seconds to make a move or you end up hesitating. Amazingly she/he’s giving you all the “IOI’s” and “kino” and you end up number closing her/him.

Boom! Nice….

If you aren’t so bold the scenario could end up like this…You’ve succumb to one of the thousand adverts for various dating websites and you’ve set up an online dating profile. You eventually find a good match and you’ve scheduled a date/time and place.

Great Job!

So, while it may not look or feel like spring outside, it’s spring! The end of Spring when Summer should be teasing us. Bringing all the fun things you’d associate – holiday weekends, barbecues, weddings, evenings drinking outside….. all of which add up to bad news for your clean eating and training regime. We are all human though and the odd blow out is not going to have hugely detrimental effects to your overall goal if it is exactly that – occasional. If you eat cleanly and exercise regularly, nothing wrong with treating yourself every now and again. What is wrong though is allowing what should be a cheat “meal” to become a full –on blow out. So you have a glass of wine and a dessert at lunchtime…. This does not give you licence to finish the rest of the bottle over the course of the afternoon and then have a takeaway pizza for dinner and raid the biscuit tin for a midnight snack. Do not let treats become pig outs!

Improving power, or explosive strength and speed is a big deal in soccer. Ask a player what he feels he needs to work on and 9 out of 10 the answer will be: "get faster and more explosive"

And they are right, these qualities are definitely very important for a dominating performance in soccer and many other sports. Note: I am not a scientist, and I do not know much about research, so I would like to simply give you my personal take on this based on experience and logic.

This advice comes straight from the trenches. Theory is good, but it has to be backed by practice, in my opinion. I do a lot of work with association football (soccer) and my approach has proven effective over and over again: for myself as many others, applying the same strategies.

Pallof Press

The pallof press is the excellent anti-rotational exercise that puts great demand on the trunk to stop it rotating in a transverse plane. To perform, assume an athletic posture with knees bent, pelvis and lumbar (lower) spine neutral, and shoulders relaxed.

As you push the cable in front of you, focus on engaging the core, stopping the rotation of your trunk. Keep it as rigid as possible, hold for 2-5secs and pull back into your center.
You can perform the Pallof Press in various stances, kneeling, split stance on floor or off and lastly parallel.

Achieving optimal health and fitness can be challenging for even the most dedicated of us. But when applied each day, these top 5 rules for improved health and fitness can help you to attain more of it, forever:

There are many ideas and beliefs about when is the best time of the day to exercise. Many people like to get up and get it done first thing in the morning and others prefer to exercise late in the afternoon or evening.

Conventional wisdom has it that the older you get the less strength and mobility you have. This belief was strengthened in previous studies that showed people over the age of 40 typically lost 8% or more of their muscle mass with each decade, a process that accelerates after age 70. Of course, less muscle mass means less strength and mobility, which as you age leads to less independence. It has also been linked to premature mortality.

I’ve been slacking on the running front recently, but in a bid to get back into shape I’ve enlisted the help of personal trainer and ultra runner extraordinaire. Her sessions are NEVER easy but she’s been doing a lot of training recently. This means she’s got even more nasty little running tricks up her sleeve. Last week, in 90 degree heat may I add, she made me do this workout.

I nearly puked on three occasions and had to go straight to bed afterwards. It’s great for improving your overall fitness, run speed and working on pacing. The lamp post adds a touch of agility training and means you have to slow down and speed up again – making things that bit trickier. It’s also a bit of a mental challenge, you don’t think you can do it but you can (although if you really can’t maybe start by lowering the number of repeats and adding more next time).

What steps do you currently have in place to ensure you become healthier, stronger and fitter each day? There are many health habits we can implement to ensure we develop both physically and mentally and find that happier more confident place. Here are four very simple, yet highly effective, healthy decisions you can start to make immediately:

Eat more Thin Skinned Fruits

Eating more thin skinned fruits will provide us with an abundance of antioxidants and anti–inflammatory effects, especially useful for athletes and committed exercise enthusiasts to help speed up and improve recovery. 

From a standing position, bend at the hips and place your palms flat on the floor in a short Down Dog position. Make sure your fingers are spread wide and you're pressing firmly into the fingertips. Gaze at a spot on the floor slightly in front of you. Gently rock your weight forward as you push off the balls of the feet, trying to get space between your feet and the floor. Take small hops at first to get comfortable with having all your bodyweight in your hands.

No doubt you will have heard about interval training. There’s also quite a strong possibility that you haven’t yet tried it out. Horrible nightmare images of you sprinting every 30 second, gasping for breath? Visions of yourself pedalling on level 20 of your bike, legs burning and feeling like they’re probably going to drop off? Most people I speak to about interval training are put off because they think it involves sprinting like a madman, and they just don’t think they’re capable of holding out at that level of intensity, even for 30 seconds.

Running is a great cardio workout and improves your overall fitness, but did you know it can also help you live longer?

If you’re looking for an easy way to improve your results, the answer could be simpler than you think. Recruit a training buddy!

Here are a few benefits that you can enjoy when you work out with a friend instead of going alone.