Summer Sports Shopping with Bryan Evans Fitness

Welcome to the window to an online world of great sports and fitness!!

Not only does bryanevansfitness.com offer you a range of fitness news, advice and resources, as well as information on the classes and services we provide, we can now link you directly to a great range of online fitness related shopping!!

Through our site you can visit a range of top named stores. Why not pamper yourself with Green People or the Body Shop, or purchase some up to date and on trend fitness wear from Plain Lazy, Gear Zone or JD Sports. For all you football fanatics the latest kit is available through Kitbag and for the ladies there is Sweaty Betty, Less Bounce and She Active. Get all your cycle gear from Evans Cycles or Halfords and for summer camping, hiking or walking Millet Sports can't be beaten.

If you visit any of the above named sites using the link from www.bryanevansfitness.com, and purchase items during your visit, we will enter you into a prize draw to win a range of treatments and/or classes of your choice from Bryan Evans Fitness, up to the value of £100. (classes held at Fitness First are excluded from this offer)

To enter you need to click on the relevant retailer link from our website, buy an item online and then email us with your name and contact details and to let us know what site you visited and when. Purchases up to and including the end of July will be entered into the prize draw. You can enter every time you make a purchase through the links on our site.

So enjoy an active summer with Bryan Evans Fitness!!

Bryan Evans Fitness - FITNESS NEWS

In This Month's Issue:

Avoiding injury

Environmentally Friendly Workouts

How Sick Britain Is Affecting The Economy

UCI World Cycling Championships launch new bike

Avoiding Injury

We are all familiar with the scenario, your training programme is going well, whether it is for personal goals or a marathon, and suddenly you pick up an injury. Without warning you are out of training for any time up to 6 weeks and can find yourself plagued by the same returning injury. How can you avoid this?

Firstly, identify what type of injury you have? Is it a chronic complaint, persistent or aching back, dodgy knee, weak ankle, or something that happened suddenly, you fell or sprained an ankle during a run, or maybe pulled a muscle when weight training.

Then you need to deal with the injury effectively. ALWAYS seek medical advice and follow it. If you need to rest, do so. Persisting with a training programme could exasperate your injury and leave you requiring more time out.

Sports Massage Therapy can help, regular sessions will help aid healing of the injury and restore the muscles. It will also help ease other muscles that may be over compensating for the injured ones. Bryan Evans Fitness (www.bryanevansfitness.com) offer Sports Massage Consultations and treatments, please contact us for further details.

So how to avoid injury in the first place?

• Warm up properly. Take your time and gradually increase the speed/level of your warm up. This will ensure your muscles are warmed up enough for your main workout.
• Pace Yourself. This applies to both weight and cardio training. In cardio training increase the intensityor duration of your exercise gradually, and ensure when weight training that you gradually increase theweights you are working with.
  
• Listen to your body. It is trying to tell you how you feel. Exercising when ill or fatigued may make you more prone to injury. It's ok to push yourself, but only within safe limits, only you know how you feel.
• Pay attention to form. The correct positioning will make strength training like weight lifting moreaffective and help to avoid injury.
  

Environmentally Friendly Exercise

1. Climate change and global warming are 'hot' topics these days (excuse the pun!) Fitness enthusiasts can also do their part.
2. Vary your workout. The energy consumed by powering treadmills and other electrical machines in gyms can be massive, not to mention factoring in the lights, televisions, and air conditioning!! Working outoutside sometimes will vary your routine (a varied routine is more likely to be sustained) and you can actually get out and enjoy some of the world you're trying to save!
3. Use body powered machines, such as rowers and spin bikes. For details of the spin classes available through Bryan Evans Fitness please visit www.bryanevansfitness.com.
4. Strength train using your body weight for resistance with squats, push ups, lunges, dips and step ups.
5. Use gym equipment at home that doesn't require electricity to generate power, such as weights,kettlebells, jump ropes and spin bikes.
6. Choose workout clothes and materials made from natural or organic fibres, you can ever get shoes made up of recycled materials. (visit www.buyorganic.com.au)
   Reuse – pass on old gym clothes to charity, check out recycling schemes for old shoes, such as Nike's(visit www.nike.com for more details)
   

For ways in which you can reduce your environmental impact in other areas of your life try WWF's footprint calculator at http://footprint.wwf.org.uk/

Sick Britain

We've heard all the headlines, obesity is on the increase, numbers of medical professionals, nurses and doctors are on the decrease, and the number of sick days being taken by employees is costing Britain £100 billion a year according to recently published reports.

So what can we do to ensure that our employees enjoy optimal health?

Research and experience has shown that employees who exercise during the working day benefit from improved health and well being, and feel more motivated in the afternoon after an energetic lunch hour spent exercising rather than sitting at their desks. Employers benefit by having more effective employees who take less sick leave.

Bryan Evans Fitness (www.bryanevansfitness.com) offer a range of local lunchtime classes which employees can experience. Even a brisk walk or a jog at lunchtime can help boost staff health and morale. Time is often a factor. Employees feel they cannot fit exercise and their lunch into a one hour lunch break. Flexibility over lunch hours, and maybe even an office shower, can help.
Communicating with your employees, not just about their physical but also their mental health can also help.

Employees who become sick and are not helped quickly enough, can all too easily find themselves on a downward spiral into long-term sickness and a life on benefits. It is common knowledge that stress is a major contributing factor, especially in the workplace. Exercise helps
relieve stress by releasing feel good endorphins. It's also hard to feel angry or stressed when you've been kick boxing or running for a good ten minutes! Sports Massage Therapy also helps promote a greater sense of well being and better sleep. Bryan Evans Fitness (www.bryanevansfitness.com) can offer a range of corporate benefits, including fitness testing, stretching classes, corporate massages and nutritonal advice.

Investing in your employee's health and fitness now equates to a long term in vestment in your business.

And finally....................

Here at Bryan Evans Fitness we've been avidly following the UCI Track Cycling World Championships 2008 held at Manchester's Velodrome and it was here that Wattbike recently launched their new indoor cycle, which is the first to be endorsed by British Cycling.
The Wattbike is a new generation of bike, incorporating an exercise bike, spinning bike, testing bike, competition bike and rehabilitation bike all in one. This means it can be used by everyone, from children, to atheltes to senior citizens.

Visit www.wattbike.com for more details.

Launch Of New Website

Launch Of New Website!

BRYAN EVANS FITNESS is pleased to announce the launch of our new and improved website. With more pages, and more detailed information, including a resource of exercises, virtual spin classes, personalised training programmes and further information on One to One Personal Training, Sports Massage Therapy, Spin/RPM and Spin Circuits, please do visit us at www.bryanevansfitness.com

Look out for further future additions to the site, including a virtual spin circuits class, feedback form and opportunity to add a review.

24 Hour Spinathon Raises £4,000 For Charity

Bryan Evans Fitness.com


Sore Muscles And Exhaustion, But A Real Sense Of Achievement

We are very pleased to announce that we have successfully completed our 24 Hour Spin-A-Thon in aid of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital!!

We started the event at 8.15am on Wednesday 23rd January, in the reception area of Fitness First gym, in Godalming. Armed with bananas, specially nutritionally formulated flapjacks, a wide range of music and lots of support we set off. Our aim, to cycle as far as we could within the 24 hours, and raise as much as possible for Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital. The three of us, comprising of the core team lead
by Bryan Evans, RPM qualified instructor, Petra Hammond and Charlie Gordon were joined by many participants throughout the day who rode with us from 8am right the way through the wee small hours of the night, supporting and encouraging us with their energy and enthusiasm.

It was the biggest challenge either of us have ever faced but it is with great pleasure (and a sense of pride) that we can confirm that Bryan Evans and Petra Hammond successfully completed the 24 Hour Spin-A-Thon at 8.15am on the morning of Thursday 24th January 2008.(Unfortunately Charlie Gordon had to withdraw from the challenge at 1am, after an admirable 17 hours.)

Whilst we are still waiting for money to come in from our many sponsors and supports, initial estimates show that we are on target to have raised over £3,000!

We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has helped
and supported us leading up to and throughout the event:

• Thanks to the staff of Godalming Fitness First, with special thanks to John Hamblen who allowed us to hold the event there in the first place, and donated a raffle prize, and to Anne Lloyd who provided first aid, moral support and general encouragement during the toughest period of the challenge - the night shift.

• Special thanks to everyone who participated, especially during the most anti social hours of the event. Your presence, energy and enthusiasm really motivated us and we could not have done this without you!

• Thanks to all of the customers of Fitness First who donated on the day, your donations totalled over £500.

• Thanks to www.loct.co.uk who provided corporate sponsorship for the event.

• Thanks to Charlotte of www.charlottehunter.co.uk who provided the scrumptious and much needed flapjacks and a range of other nutritional food to provide us with the energy we needed to go the distance. (You can get a copy of her recipe by signing up to her newsletter on her website.)
  

• Thanks to Gail and Dereck Drake and the customers of Milford Post Office for raising over £500 on our behalf, and especially to Gail and Dereck for participating in the spinathon from 11pm to 1am and then coming back for more at 7am!

• Thanks to Sal Worringham for raising over £300 and participating in 3 hours of the spinathon.

• Thanks to Karen Wilson for doing an amazing 6 hours during the toughest part of the event – 2am until 8am.

• Thank you to Marshalls Solicitors for their donation of £100.

• Thanks to Waitrose for donating raffle prizes.

• Thanks to Fitness First in Fleet for allowing us to borrow some of their spin bikes for the event.

We are now in the process of collecting in the pledged money. If you have pledged to sponsor us, you can donate by cash, cheque or postal order, made payable to Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity.

You can still sponsor us online at www.justgiving.com/spinchallenge.

Please also visit www.bryanevansfitness.com for pictures and further
details of our experience.

24 Hour Spin-A-Thon Challenge

Please click on the link to find out further information about my 24 hour spin-a-thon challenge to raise a minimum of £5,000 for Great Ormond Street Hospital, and sponsor us if you can!

Launch of www.bryanevansfitness.com

I'm very pleased to announce the launch of my new website:

www.bryanevansfitness.com.

Please do visit us.

There you will find further details of what training programmes, classes and fitness tips I offer, including 1:1 Personal Training, Sports Massage Therapy, Studio Cycle classes and Studio Cycle Circuits classes. You can also read client reviews, see pictures from the classes, read exercise and stretching tips and find out how you can benefit from Bryan Evans Fitness!

30 Minute workout

Abdominals
When it comes to having great abs, keeping in shape and maintaining a tight, toned midsection these are for you!!
The secret to flattering abs is good posture. Focus on these muscles while you perform the exercises. By contracting the abdominal muscles, pointing your tailbone towards the floor and keeping your shoulders back and your head and neck relaxed, you can look and feel taller and slimmer before you’ve even performed one sit-up. Ab exercises should target the rectus abdominus (the muscle extending the length of the front of the abdomen) and the internal and external obliques (the muscles extending along the sides of the abdomen at an angle).

1. Ab Crunches (for upper abdominals).
Lie on your back with hands crossed over your chest. Place your feet and hips on the floor, bend your knees towards your chest. To begin the exercise, lift torso slowly, lifting your shoulder blades and moving the ribs towards the your hips, crunching rib cage toward pelvis. Hold this position for two seconds, then lower to the starting position. Repeat.
2. Reverse Curl (for lower abdominals).
Begin in the same starting position used for the Ab crunches. Contract your abdominal muscles to lift your hips off the floor; bringing your knees towards your chest. Concentrate on using your abdominal muscles to lift your pelvis towards your lower rib cage. Again, hold this position for two seconds, before lowering your hips back to the floor. Repeat.
3. Diagonal Crunches (for oblique muscles).
The same starting position is used as as for the Ab crunches. Raise your shoulders off the floor, moving one shoulder (one side of chest) towards the opposite knee( left shoulder towards right knee). Hold this position for two seconds. Return your shoulder to the floor and repeat . Switch sides and repeat twelve to fifteen times. (Do not allow your elbow to touch your knee.)
For each exercise, aim for one to three sets of 12 - 15 repetitions, and rest for 30 seconds between sets.

Legs
To achieve well-shaped and toned legs, combine a regular cardiovascular workout with resistance exercises targeting specifically the upper and lower leg muscles, such as the thighs and calves. Lunges and squats are the ultimate lower body exercises, training every major muscle in the upper leg (which include the hamstrings and quadriceps) and calfs as well as the muscles in your behind(glutes) all at once.
1. Lunges (for quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, hip flexors and calf muscles).
Stand with your feet together. Slowly lower your body into a lunge position by stepping forward with your right leg and lowering your left leg. Keep your front knee and back knee at a 90-degree angle, maintaining your weight in your heels, slowly push back up to your starting position. Never lock your knees at the top and never let your knee bend past your toes. Keep your upper body tight and upright.
2. Squats (for thighs, hips, glutes, calves, shins and lower back).
Stand with feet shoulder-width apart; slowly lower your body until your thighs are parallel to the ground. Keep your weight in your heels, do not allow your knees to go over your toes but make sure your knees point in the direction of your toes. Push yourself up slowly until you reach your starting position. Keep your torso tight and upright throughout the exercise.
For each exercise, aim for one to three sets of 12 - 15 repetitions, and rest for one minute between sets.

Glutes
ButtBuns, backside, bum, derrierre... whatever you want to call it, everybody wants a firm and shapely one. This exercise targets the muscles that extend your hips - the hip flexors.

Straight Leg Reverse Lift
On your hands and knees, straighten your left leg, keeping right leg bent to support your weight along with your arms. Begin to lift your leg towards the ceiling, contracting your glutes/buttock muscles at the same time. Hold at the top for two seconds. Lower your leg and repeat. Switch sides.
For this exercise, aim for one to three sets of 12 - 15 repetitions, and rest for 30 seconds between sets.