21 Apr benefits of veganism. part 3
Here we go...
24 Mar Benefits of veganism. Part 2
Hello! Welcome to 'Benefits of Veganism. Part 2'! In part 1 I briefly touched on the growing popularity of veganism and looked at the health benefits of adopting a plant-based diet. In part 2 I will focus on the benefits of a vegan diet in sport and exercise. On a global basis 1-17% of people identify as vegan which would mean that there would be 1-4 vegans in any group of about 20 people. It is then very likely that there is no longer any social group or sports team without a vegan person or athlete. Here are some athletes from various sporting disciplines that follow a vegan diet: Novack Djokovic (14-times Grand Slam winner) Serena Williams (23-times Grand Slam winner) Lewis Hamilton (7-times F1 World Champion) Fiona Oakes (5-times World Record holder, Ultra-Marathon running) Scott Jurek (Ultra-Maraton runner) Rich Roll (5-times Ultra Ironman triathlete) Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner (Most successful female mountaineer) ...
01 Mar Benefits of veganism. Part 1
Now for those who suffer from food allergies or food-related illnesses they've not got much choice but for everyone else there is a clear conscious decision to adopt a plant-based way of life. In this post I will discuss the health benefits of going plant-based and give a list of foods that everyone should eat everyday so even if you'd never even consider going vegan, at least you know to eat more fruit & veg! CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE Fruit, vegetables, whole-grains, legumes, seeds, soy and nuts are considered cardio protective due to high levels of fibre, folic acid, antioxidants, and phytochemicals. As a result vegans show lower cholesterol concentrations, lower blood pressure, decreased incidence and mortality rates of stroke and lower risk of mortality from coronary heart disease. CANCER Again fruit, vegetables and legumes are considered cancer protective because of high levels of fibre, vitamin C, phytochemicals, carotenoids and flavonoids. Due to their protective nature...
06 Jan Managing your mental-wellbeing
So it’s been nearly a year now since we entered the very first lockdown in 2020! I’m sure many of you will agree with me that it has been an absolute rollercoaster of lockdowns, home schooling, daily one hour of exercise, zoom PT sessions, being free again, then into tiers and going full circle back to full lockdown again. I have always been very open about my experiences with mental health and I will admit that the last announcements of Tier 4 and this new lockdown hit me pretty hard and probably at some point, even people who would consider themselves strong minded, have been affected over this past year in one way or another. It aways gets mentioned that exercise can have a massively positive impact on your mental health but I get the feeling that it is never really taken seriously and is always an afterthought and the emphasis is...
13 Dec Gym based training
At the start of the second lockdown in November I wrote an article about how to get the most out of your training at home. Now that the gyms are open again, I will focus on how you can optimise your training sessions back in the gym. So whether you've been training for years and are looking to take it to the next level or just starting out, hopefully this will help you! Firstly, principles stay the same. Whenever we train we always want to train the body through certain movement patterns; in my 'Training at Home' blog I wrote out a basic 2-day split. You can still use this split now you're back in the gym as it incorporates all natural body movements and targets all major muscle groups, the only thing we need to change is the rep range. The rep range that we decide to use is based upon...
23 Nov My first year as a Vegan
I'd just like to start this by saying you can eat what you like! Eating meat doesn't make you a bad person nor does being vegetarian or vegan make you a good person. I changed to a plant-based diet over a year ago and can honestly say it changed my life! I just wanted to share with you my journey over the past year and hopefully some helpful tips and tricks I have picked up so that whether you're thinking of becoming completely plant-based or just swapping for plant-based alternatives, your decision is a little bit easier. My first experience came from a client of mne. He had recently changed to a plant-based diet to help with his Triathlon training and as I didn't have much experience of working with anyone vegan I did my own research into this sort of diet. I wasn't in a great place mental health wise: I didn't...
05 Nov Training at Home
Training at home can be tricky and it might not seem like it but even with limited or no equipment, you can still make progress towards your physique goals. All it takes is a little bit of know how, thinking outside the box, and the want to get it done. For the majority of us the biggest challenge when training at home is that equipment can be very limited. However, I'm sure that if you looked hard enough you would be able to find some old dumbbells or a kettlebell that you have lying around. If not, resistance bands or even a TRX are great pieces of kit that you could use. Now, if for whatever reason you can't get hold of any equipment whatsoever, there are plenty of household objects you could use from; water bottles, the classic tins of beans to a backpack weighed down with books. In general, at home...