Fitness Health and Exercise- Work Experience

MMA- Strength and Conditioning session

First Section

This section of the session will be conducted in circuit style rotating onto next station on completion of Exercise. Exercise weight will be dependent on participant’s strength and participants will be paired together on each exercise if possible. Whilst a participant’s partner is waiting to use the Ring – Pushups they will skip. Whilst a participant is waiting to use the Tricep dip they will use the Battleropes.

Exercise	Repetitions
Bag slams	5 each shoulder
Squat Jump Plyometric	10
Ring – Pushups	5 each arm
Kettlebell- Turkish get up	10
Kettlebell- Swing	10
Weighted Leg Raise	10
Tricep Dip	10

The class will be allowed to rest 1-2 minutes between the first and second section.

Second Section

 

This Section will involve the entire class and involves exercises to train muscular endurance and cardio.

Crawl Variations

Bear crawl – Performed forwards and backwards across the room

Frog Jump – Performed forwards and backwards across the room

Crossovers- Performed Side to side twice

Lizard Crawls – Performed once across the room

Russian Twists with Thai Pad for 1 minute

Sprints- 50m x 10 on completion of each lap the participant will tag partner to go and wait for return to go again.

Russian Twists with Thai Pad for 1 minute

Planks- 1 minute duration

Stretch –Stretches will be Static held for a period of 10 seconds targeting the main muscle groups that were used in the sessio

Training Notes

Bag Slams

• Stand wider than shoulder width apart, keeping shoulders back, chest up, abdominals tight and maintaining a straight back with body weight displacement on the heel of the foot throughout the exercise. Breathing should be controlled and smooth and you should breath out on exertion
• Squat down pushing  the hips back and wrap hands around the base of the bag
• Extend hips and assist leverage using arms to place the bag on the shoulder. Arms will then be flexed.
• Extend arms, push hips back and rotate them to create power to slam the bag.

Squat Jump Plyometric

• In a crouched position with feet hip width apart and weight displacement focused on the balls of the feet. Breathing should be controlled and smooth and you should breath out on exertion
• Extend legs upwards and throw arms upwards to perform the jump
• Land with legs shoulder width apart with weight displacement focused on the heels and Squat down so that angle of the leg is at least 90 degrees.
• Extend legs and throw arms upwards to perform the second jump.

Ring Pushup

• Feet should be shoulder width apart and back should be kept straight with abdominals tight.
• Use an overhand grip for the rings.
• Begin with arms extended and bring body downwards flexing arms until they are at 90 degrees or more, trying to keep stability with the rings
• Extend the arms and repeat the Exercise.
• The exercise can be made more difficult by rotating the hands on extension and flexion.
• Breathing should be controlled and smooth and you should breath out on exertion

 

Kettlebell- Turkish get up

• Start lying on the ground, raise kettlebell with one arm upwards so that shoulder is close to the Jaw. The grip of the Kettlebell should be strong and firm and wrist should be firm and strong to prevent injury. The Kettlebell should be held close to the jaw and held straight throughout the exercise. Make sure arm doesn’t lock out. Head should be looking at Kettlebell at all times.
• Bring the knee that is on the same side as the arm holding the Kettlebell in towards the torso so that foot is flat on the floor.
• Position the opposite arm at an angle of 45 degrees and relatively close to the hip.
• Rotate body onto the elbow carefully so that weight is focussed on the elbow
• Extend arm so that bodyweight is focused on the hand and wrist and balances the body.
• extend hips upwards and raise opposite leg upwards
• Bring the leg in towards the body and tuck it behind the rest of the body flexing the leg so that it is at 90 degree and you are on the knee.
• From that position, drive upwards from the kettlebell leg, extend hips and push off opposite hand to be able to step forward and finish standing.
• The exercise should then be completed in reverse to get back to starting position.
• Breathing should be controlled and smooth and you should breath out on exertion

 

Kettlebell- swing

• Position legs just wider than shoulder width apart and making sure weight displacement is focused on the heels throughout the movement. Shoulders should be kept back, chest should be up as much as possible and back should be straight.
• Place the Kettlebell between the legs and grab the Kettlebell with one hand, pushing hips back and bending legs slightly.
• Make sure the arm is straight but not locked out and extend the hips and arm upwards so that the kettlebell is now moving. Back should be around 45 degrees when hips are pushed back.
• The kettlebell should be driven upwards to around shoulder height
• Let gravity take the kettlebell down, you should then be bending the legs and pushing hip backwards and let the kettlebell go behind the body. The kettlebell should just look like an extension of your arm.
• Extend the hips and use glutes to drive kettlebell upwards to repeat the exercise.
• Breathing should be controlled and smooth and you should breath out on exertion

 

Weighted Leg Raise

• The body should be completely straight(not locked out) throughout the movement
• Body should be completely flat on the ground with arms extended with the weight over the head.
• Bring straight arms and legs in together creating a V position slowly
• Return the body to initial position slowly

Tricep Dip

• Back should be kept as straight as possible and abdominals tight. Arms should be kept as tight in to the body as possible
• Grab Grips and position body, jump up.
• Start with arms extended and have legs at 45 degree angle
• Lower the body, pushing elbows directly behind you until they are at 45 degrees
• Raise the body by extending arms.

 

Motivation

I have decided to write about motivation as this will be one of the main focuses involved in my job as a personal trainer when I qualify. I will relate the topic to exercise and try to keep it short and precise. Enjoy.

What is motivation?

Motivation is the wants, needs and beliefs that drive a character to accomplish an action. There are four different aspects relating to motivation which are Physiological, behavioural, cognitive and social factors.

Abraham Maslow(1943) proposed the concept of human hierarchy of needs which can be related to  motivational theories.

Human Hierarchy of Needs

                                                                                                              

There are 2 types of motivation Intrinsic and extrinsic:

Intrinsic– Which comes from within the individual such as their belief, interest and enjoyment of tasks or goals they want to achieve.

Extrinsic– Performing an activity to achieve a certain outcome for example exercising to lose weight or studying to achieve good grades.

Science of motivation

There have been many studies concerned with motivation but I have chosen studies that have interested me and that can relate to exercise which are David Conroy’s experiment and Dan Pink’s Ted Talk.

At Penn state University David Conroy and colleagues conducted an experiment to measure motivation within students to exercise. They recruited 33 college students who were assessed over a 10 week period, they were fitted with pedometers to measure activity and asked them to rate every week their motivation to perform physical exercise. Results showed for the majority of the students that motivation fluxuates on a weekly basis because for most of us we have so many demands on our time such as work deadlines, social factors, sickness etc. Lapses in motivation become destructive and can impair us to perform physical activity. Amanda Hyde kinesiology graduate proposed that people like this can still be successful at incorporating physical activity into their life. She proposed that this can be done not by changing their lifestyle but changing the way they currently do things within that lifestyle such as instead of driving to work, walk or cycle to work, instead of walking upstairs you should run upstairs etc.

Dan pink talks about the surprising science of motivation. He talks about incentives and how businesses are run but the ideas involved can be contributed towards motivation for exercise.

 

Ideas and methods to get motivated for exercise

Everybody needs motivation in order to exercise because with a lack of it other things will prioritise themselves ahead of your need to exercise. This is the main aspect of this post that will hopefully give you ideas and help you become motivated to achieve your goals.

There are many motivators involved with exercise such as:

• Appearance
• Fitness
• Competence
• Social
• Enjoyment/Interest

The vast majority fail when it comes to exercise as they mainly focus on the appearance motivator and because they don’t see fast improvement of their appearance they quit. Appearance is a fixed motivator and that alone will not lead to long term commitment. You have to tap into the other motivators that were listed. Use fitness as a motivator by measuring how much fitter you are becoming e.g. you can do 5 more pushups than you could previously. Use competence as a motivator by realising that you are looking after yourself by doing this, you are becoming a good role model and through experience and knowledge of exercise you can help others to achieve their goals also. Use social as a motivator as through exercise, gym, classes you will meet new people, some of which may share the same goals as you. Tap into all these motivators and enjoyment and interest will follow.

Before you start an exercise regime:

• Be specific with what you want to achieve
• You should set a measurable overall goal
• You should set smaller measureable goals linked to overall goals
• Turn all negative thoughts and feelings into positive ones such as pain which is temporary but success lasts longer
• Do not think about exercising as over thinking leads to thinking of other things you could do instead.

Throughout the time you exercise you have to be honest with yourself by asking yourself questions such as “did I give 110% and if you didn’t how are you going to give it that much next time. Always remember what you are trying to achieve. If you notice that something is wrong or not working for you reassess the situation and correct it. To become successful and achieve your goals within Fitness and exercise  you have to focus on exercise, diet, sleep and motivation.

Hopefully you have enjoyed reading this. Become the best version of yourself.

 

Become the best version of yourself

“Become the best version of yourself” is the new motto I have adopted inspired by Elliot Hustle. It means that you should aspire to be the best you can physically, mentally and socially. Becoming the best you can be physically entails that you exercise right, eat right and sleep right.Becoming the best you can be mentally involves training your brain by learning as much as possible and always challenging yourself. Knowledge is power in everything you do and if you fail to prepare, prepare to fail. Becoming the best you can be socially is the ability to be a social person, doing as much as you can in the life you have been given. Enjoy yourself always but never at someone elses expense.

The motto also means that you should always be yourself and not someone/something your not. In this era there is very high influence from celebrity culture on our society and theres no way you can escape it. It is part of your daily routine, you are exposed to it constantly from TV, magazines, billboards, internet to even cereal boxes. It has a vice grip on fashion, diets, exercise regimes, relationships etc. Although it is difficult to ignore this culture, you need to concentrate on yourself, what works for you and what you enjoy rather than getting told what you like and dislike. Once you are able to seperate yourself from the culture, you can become the best version of yourself.

I hope you have enjoyed this and find it useful and hopefully apply it to your own life and constantly think how you can become the best version of yourself.

My next blog will be about Motivation to exercise and i will release that as soon as possible.

 

New focus, New ideas

I havent posted in a long time so to update you. I am no longer doing the open learning psychology degree course due to various reasons. I have now become very interested in physical fitness so I have applied and have been accepted to study HNC Fitness, Health and Exercise. I intend to expand my knowledge about the topic and gain the qualifications which will aid my aims to become a fitness instructor/personal trainer. The blog will now be mainly focussed on Fitness, Health and exercise but will still contain some aspect of psychology.

I will post atleast once a week and I hope i keep my readers engaged and willing to read the following weeks posts.

Thanks alot,

Matt Wallace

 

Gambling Addiction

Gambling is betting any amount of money on a uncertain outcome on a Win/Lose basis, it can range from betting on sport games to even relationships (how long the relationship will last) etc. Gambling addiction or compulsive gambling affects more than 15 million people in America alone, 3 million of which have been diagnosed as severe problem gamblers, gambling addicts or pathological gamblers. There are over 250,000 problem gamblers in the UK.

There are many symptoms to identifying a problem gambler.

These include

• Increasing the amount of time and money spent on gambling
• Constantly thinking about gambling in your free time
• Chasing losses, investing larger amounts of money to try and win back the smaller amounts.
• Continuing to gamble despite consequences such as debt, bills and other financial commitments.
• Feeling a sense of euphoria or happiness during the time in which the person is gambling.
• Borrowing money or finding other ways to obtain money to gamble.
• Denial of how much the person has lost and only mentioning winnings.

Problem gambling is a serious addiction which affects the sufferer physically, mentally and financially; it can also affect the sufferer socially with their relationships with others. It can lead to anxiety, depression and is known to lead people to contemplate suicide.

Reasons for gambling

The majority of the public ask the question “Why would you gamble?” and “When you win, why don’t you take the money and stop?”

Most people start gambling because of greed, the desire to possess more than the person needs or deserves. Money is very influential as it decides the financial quality of your life so it’s pretty obvious why someone would want to gain more money and some do this through gambling for that reason.  Some use it to escape the stresses of daily life.Others gamble because of a low self-esteem, gambling makes you feel better especially if you win and when you lose it affects the esteem level more bringing it lower and some continue gambling for the sense of that good feeling that it brought and so begins a cycle of a problem.

Many are lured into poker, there are various types of poker but the most popular is Texas Hold em. You receive 2 cards and there are four stages, pre flop, flop, the turn and the river. Each stage the person has a choice whether to make a bet to make others fold or to try and get more money, checking which is seeing the rest of the hand providing no one else bets and folding which is laying down your hands and you are out of that hand. This type of gambling provides choice and gives the gambler a sense of control, this is particularly inviting to the gamblers with low self-esteem which are living in a world they feel they have no control.

Adrenaline concept

The excitement of gambling also draws people in as when you gamble you release adrenaline into your system, it is secreted in your glands in your body when there are high levels of excitement or stress. The adrenaline puts you into a “fight or flight” mode when you are winning you will feel great and a overwhelming euphoria can ensue, most want to continue this feeling so play on. When you are losing the adrenaline will either make you flee or play on dependant on personality and willpower. When you are winning, history has taught us that human beings will always want more and it takes a great deal of willpower to resist playing on when you are on a “Winning” or “Lucky” streak.

You can read about the adrenaline at:

Click to access The-Adrenaline-Rush-Of-Winning-And-Losing-%28ebook%29.pdf

Online gambling 

Online gambling first occurred in 1996 when Wagerlogic finished its first licence ; Intercasino, since then there are now over 2000 sites operating taking real money wagers. According to statistics, Internet gambling has doubled every year since 1997 and in 2001 it was valued at 2bn. Many more people have started to gamble as they can do it from the convenience of their own home where people can keep their addiction secret. Casino sites lure people with “Welcome bonuses” which are on the vast majority of the sites. When you win, some sites have a waiting period to withdraw around about 5 days and within that time you can reverse the withdrawal and take back winnings to gamble with. That can create addiction. The number of compulsive gamblers in general has risen but those that are female have dramatically risen due to mainly online bingo. Women are targeted into the sites with influential colour schemes such as Barbie pink and have male pin ups, making the gambling seem fun, enjoyable and inviting.

You can read about the uprising of female gamblers at:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/17/women-gamblers-online-addiction

My Experience

I have a problem with online poker  and have lost a considerable amount. At first I was winning a considerable amount but then I suffered a bad beat which was a pair of Aces (best hand pre flop) vs a pair of 3’s (considered to be a bad hand pre flop for All-in) The person with 3’s hits another 3 and I suffer my first loss. From there it spiralled as I would invest more money to chase what I had lost and not been in the right frame of mind and luck not been on my side I would lose. I would constantly think about playing, lose much sleep playing late into the night and actually borrowing money off STL sites such as Wonga.com. It also affected me socially as I would avoid socialising to gamble more. The cycle would continue to the extent where I was in debt. It took its toll on me physically as I was tired every day, mentally as I got into a state of depression about the amount lost and stressed as well. I believe online gambling is far more dangerous than casino gambling this is because of my concept of “Fantasy money”. Fantasy money is the money you see on screen, you are not physically holding it or possessing it, it’s just figures on a screen that you wish to increase. The money is not in your account; it’s in the casino account in cyberspace. Therefore, there is little attachment to this money and the person may make decisions they wouldn’t do on the outside world with the money present such as the decision to go “All in” or “chase” cards which can result in heavy losses. The money on screen only develops meaning when it’s no longer there to gamble with and the realisation of reality occurs. In my opinion, I would suggest not to try gambling at all, no matter what your nature is as greed is a powerful emotion.

Gambling Help + recovery

Most of the gambling sites now have installed as they call them “safeguards” in which a player can set daily, weekly and monthly deposits but in my opinion a problem gambler would rarely use them. Most sites have installed the option of self-exclusion which means the gambler cannot access the site for a limited period of 6 months or more.

Recovery isnt always easy but finding things to occupy the time you would have otherwised gambled helps alot. Its relatively easy to quit but resisting slipping back into it requires will and determination.

http://www.gamcare.org.uk/    – gives support to addicts with 1 to 1 chats offering advice, it has forums which share the stories of other people also suffering. I would recommend Gamcare as it helped me through my ordeal. There are also many other sites and programmes targeted to deal with problem gambling.

Cognitive therapy is very useful to help problem gamblers with such things a four step programmes which help the addict change the way they think about gambling.

The British medical association wants gambling to be a recognised addiction in the NHS, and the money the gambling industry, through the Responsibility gambling trust, pays into treatment programmes – £3.6m in 2007 – raised to at least £10m annually.

You can read more about problem gambling at the following sites:

http://www.divisiononaddictions.org/html/publications/shafferinternetgambling.pdf

http://www.helpguide.org/mental/gambling_addiction.htm

Thank you for reading my post.

 

Schizophrenia and Stigma

Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder which affects the thought process, behaviour and emotion of the sufferer. It is estimated that it affects 7 per thousand in the adult population and there is around 24 million people worldwide that have been diagnosed with the mental illness. Most develop the illness in their late teens or 20’s with the onset of early symptoms.

 

Symptoms

There are many symptoms of the illness. “Positive” symptoms include delusions, hallucinations, racing thoughts. Delusions are most commonly a firm belief or experience which is not shared by general reality. This can lead to paranoia, thinking that people are out to harm you. Delusions of grandeur when they think they are someone famous or important and find it hard to be convinced otherwise. Hallucinations can come in many forms and can affect all your senses. It can be visual which is seeing things which others cannot, it can be auditory, hearing things that others cannot and can even be sense of smell or touch which can be affected. Thought disorder affects the way you think, ideas can be construed and not make any sense to others. As a result, communication with others can become difficult and may lead to isolation or loneliness. “Negative” symptoms are the lack of emotional responses and thought process. Symptoms include apathy, social withdrawal, need to be protected, inability to focus and can show little interest in things. Schizophrenia can also affect a lot of cognitive functions such as memory and attention.

Causes of Schizophrenia

There is not a definite cause for the illness but experts agree it’s a combination of the genes that the person inherits and the environment the person is exposed to.

Stigma

Schrizophrenia is not a split or multiple personality disorder, this is one of the leading misconceptions about the illness. Sufferers tend to be viewed by the public to have violent tendencies and are a danger to society. A limited number of sufferers are dangerous. The media publishes the strange and horrifying stories of crimes of violence committed by those with mental illnesses. This has scarred a social stigma about Schizophrenics been violent, dangerous and need to be controlled. There is fear in the unknown.  Most sufferers are not violent and the only danger they are to themselves as 40% of sufferers will try and commit suicide at least once. Some religious sects see people who suffer from mental illness and judge it as God’s punishment for previous sins of the person or family.

This video conveys the idea of the fear of the unknown.

Time has progressed and knowledge and understanding in mental health has developed compared to the views shared 100 years ago. In 1910, Winston Churchill wrote to the prime minister, Herbert Asquinth, he conveyed his contemporary attitudes arguing for the mass sterilisation of the people who suffer from mental illness. He warned that ” feeble-minded and insane classes” constituted “ a danger which is impossible to exaggerate” and that “the source from which the stream of madness is fed should be cut off and sealed up before another year has passed.”  This is no longer a view held in mainstream debate.

Medication and stabilisation of the illness

In the 1950’s Anti-Psychotic drugs were developed and have been proven to effectively deal with the “positive” symptoms of the illness. Most of the symptoms can be controlled by the drugs in a matter of days or weeks. It usually takes a few months to achieve a stable condition. However there are many side effects of the drugs can occur such as drowsiness, skin rashes, rapid heartbeat, sensitivity to the sun and other effects. These are minor effects. Major effects include restlessness, rigidity, muscle spasms, tremors and other effects. ECT- Electro convulsive treatment was developed in 1938 and has been refined over the years to make it safer and more humane. Patient is put to sleep, given a muscle relaxer and a small electric current is applied to the patients temples. This produces a seizure. (Andreasen, The Broken Brain, p. 264). This treatment is issued to those who do not respond properly to the drugs. Cognitive therapy has also proven very effective in combination with controlled drugs, talking the sufferer through their problems and showing them ways to deal with their illness themselves. For an example of cognitive therapy visit:

http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mentalhealthinfoforall/treatments/cbt.aspx

Unfortunately not everyone gets to have cognitive therapy, psychiatrists will often issue drugs before addressing anything else.

In conclusion, not enough education about the illness has been provided to the general public so 100 years on since Churchill’s letter, people still share the stigma towards Schizophrenics.

For more information on Schizophrenia Visit both sites:

http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/mh-sm/pubs/schizophrenia-schizophrenie/index-eng.php

http://www.schizophrenia.com/szfacts.htm

 

Phantom Limbs

After many weeks of deciding the theme of my blog, i have decided to choose neuroscience after watching a talk by V.S Ramachandran. Neuroscience is the indepth study of the brain and nervous system.

More information about phantom limbs can be found at http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/content/121/9/1603.full.pdf

Phantom limbs occur after a limb is amputated or loss due to an incident and the victim feels the sensation of the limb still been there. After the immediate loss of a limb, its found that between 90% and 98% experience a phantom limb. In 1948, Moser found that when the anaesthetic wore off on the patients and the patient was conscious, 75% felt the immediate phantom but the appearance in the remaining 25% of cases did not exist until a few days or weeks after the incident.

In most cases the phantom exists for a few days or weeks but in others it may persist for years or decades. Long term duration can be found in up to 30% of the patients who suffer the phantom limb according to Sunderland (1978)

V.S Ramachandran(2007) has reported that 50% of his patients that have phantom limbs say that they have the feeling they can move the phantom by doing such things as answering a telephone, pat the dog etc. The patients are not delusional as they are aware that the arm/leg is no longer there but it is a vivid sensory sensation for the patient. For the other half of patients, they cannot move it. They report the phantom limb as been in a paralyzed state, in a “clenched spasm” and is very painful. Ramachandran found that in the case studies of those patients the original arm was paralyzed due to peripheral nerve injury of the arm as the nerves were severed or cut due to the incident. The arm, in a paralyzed state, is put in a sling for several months then amputated and the pain the patient experience before continues onto the phantomb limb. This state of paralisis occurs when the arm is intact but paralyzed and the brain sends signals and commands to the arm telling it to move but on visual feedback to the brain it sees it can’t move and on repetition of the command and feedback, the brain goes into a state of learnt paralysis which then follows onto the phantom arm.

The continuous pain of the phantom arm/leg can have many effects of the victim such as depression and has even been known to lead people to suicide. V.S Ramachandran (2007) researched the effects of phantoms and his findings have led to a solution for many sufferers. He uses what he calles the “mirror box” which is a mirror seperated by cardboard then another mirror following. The patient puts the stump arm close to first mirror at a 90 degree angle and the other arm in the same position and asks the patient to move the hand of the phantom arm and the able arm. The mirror reflects the able arm to represent the phantom arm actually exists which sends the visual feedback to the brain to give the brain the impression its there and can move so it releases the phantom from paralyzed state and the patient is relieved from pain.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl2LwnaUA-k from 9.00

The simplicity of the solution is to be admired and mirror therapy is been used as a result of this research to help sufferers of phantom limbs.

 

Love at first sight

You sometimes hear of couples saying about when they first met that “It was love at first sight” and everything took off from there.

I am very sceptical of this claim as in my experience you have to get to know someone deep down on a personal level to fall in love with them. 

“Love” is a word that has been abused and used repeatedly throughout time so much that it has different meanings now. For example a woman saying “I love these shoes.” Obviously they do not actually love the shoes, they like the shoes but are showing enthusiasm about liking them. It tends to be used in younger couples (12-18) I have noticed perhaps because of a trend to show affection, most actually arent in love when they say it.

“Love at first sight” should be changed to lust at first sight, the couple see each other, they are attracted to each other, they want to be intimate with each other, they get to know each other, then they get to love each other.

In conclusion, the word “love” has many meanings now and has strayed away from its original definition. In my opinion, love at first sight does not exist.

 

 

Do chatup lines work and who actually uses them???

I work in a bar and I hear many examples of chatup lines but on few occasions witness them been put into practice and then even slimmer chances of them actually working. What I have witnessed is that it is mainly males that use them and they get used whilst waiting in the queue to purchase drinks and some examples I have personally heard are “Nice arms, feel mine.” , “Orite you saucy wench.” and my personal favourite “I’d love to f**k your face off.”

Until yesterday, I did not believe that females would ever use a chatup line but one was used on me whilst the girl was paying by card for her alcohol and she asked when i handed over the card machine “Do you want my pin or my phone number” and I responded with “both obviously.” That is why I thought of this question.

My personal opinion is that it takes a confident character to use the line and a attractive person to have any success with it.

 

Hello world!

This is a tester to see if the blog is in full effect then I will commit to writing on it properly and hopefully I will get a few followers.