Welcome to our new UAE Fitness column on the UAE Sport Guide. Together The UAE Sport Guide and InnerFight have teamed up in attempt to increase the awareness of the people of the UAE on health and fitness issues. We are looking forward to sharing our views on matters relating to Fitness in the UAE and to create some discussion and break down some of the myths.
Passing through the supermarket I cannot help but notice and change in landscape is the month of December arrives. The supermarket chains are preparing for a season like no other, a season that seems to be increasingly fueled by chocolate manufacturers. The end of every gondola and the surrounding area of every checkout position are over populated with chocolates, sweets and treats for the season.
My mind starts to wander back over to sport. Sport something that is such a huge part of everyone’s life, the number of sports publications on sale are every increasing, the sports section in the new paper taking up an ever increasing share of the newspaper it self, not to mention sports dedicated newspapers which are becoming more of a norm as time moves on.
So where is the correlation here? How does this all work. On the one hand passion for sport is at an all time high but right in front of our eyes for the coming month we are going to have to grim and bare the temptations that are right in front of our eyes each time we visit our local grocery store. Quite a contrast!!
This time of year is a great time for all and should be enjoyed to the max. My advice however is to exercise control in what you do and how much you do it. Don’t turn your back on your ever increasing adoration of increased sport in your life and give into the temptations which give you short term satisfaction.
Make a plan, know what you are going to do when in December, when you are going to be active and when you are going to indulge. It sure helps to get that plan on paper, visit it everyday, measure yourself against it and follow it as your guide to success during the festive season. Make it something you are product of, something that engulfs both effort and reward and something that is going to keep you loyal to the sports you love whilst enjoying the some of the treats these confectionary companies are bringing to the market place!
Marcus
So you have had enough, the time has come. You want to be ripped, stripped or anything close to what you think is going to help you up your game as well as your hit rate. As a product its available in all good nutrition stores, comes as liquid, power or tablet. You take one look at the guy on the label and instead of it being his picture you start to dream that it’s a mirror and in the standard advertised text yes “this will be you in 8 weeks”. Are we really that desperate and gullible or do we want it that much that we reach for our pocket only to see zero difference in 8 weeks.
Come on guys lets have a reality check, lets not build our dreams on the concoction of marketers and a load of properties and ingredients that you cant even pronounce never mind understand. Why not try mixing these 3 ingredients together. 1. A low fat eating plan 2. A training session that pushes you to your limit and 3. A mental attitude that makes point 1 and 2 possible.
Of course we would all love to be able to walk into our local store, make a quick purchase and 8 weeks later be at a casting for Baywatch but it isn’t going to work like that so stop thinking it does. Draw on the great resources around you related to food, training programs and mental attitude, stick at it and the next thing you know you will have veins popping out from muscles you never knew you had, you may even be offering your abs to the local launderette who knows.
Marcus
Its one of the oldest sayings in the book “The children of today are the future” or something along those lines!! But what are we really doing to prepare these children for the future and for the world, as we want to see it.
Is our collective vision one of increased fast food outlets, more time spent in front of TV screens playing video games and a general decline in physical activity? For those who entered the world in the 70’s or before childhood memories largely revolve around simple outdoor games, which provided entertainment for hours. Quite a contrast of the current day child whose lives seem to be awash with technology that keeps them firmly pinned to the couch and sees them aggressively bombarded with advertising campaigns from the world’s most aggressive fast food chains.
In the early 90’s with the exception of some countries there was almost a global enforcement of a legal age of circa 16 that was imposed for the legal purchase of tobacco. This is coupled with pre existing laws with varying dates stipulating ages at which governments believe it is a suitable age for the public to purchase and consume alcohol.
On a local level I can not help but notice the increased volume of fast food billboards spread across the region, the vast numbers of adolescences that litter food courts in malls and the general feeling that a smart phone valued at $1,000 sells in a 10-1 ratio than that of a football valued at just $10. The increased levels of obesity and type 2 diabetes in our region is alarming to some but with the media environment that we are witnessing right now it should come as no surprise. As consumers both young and old we are playing into the hands of these companies and consuming everything they throw at us. One can only imagine the reaction if there was a legal age to purchase fast food of say 18!!! Well why shouldn’t there be?
If it wasn’t apparent before this small summary surely makes it clear that there needs to be action, but in a world where being a “cool kid” gets you popularity and the definition of “cool” is every changing, what can we all do for the adults of the future to help them mould a world that we can all be proud of.
Lets not over complicate things and stick to a 3 step approach.
The first step has to be “Lead by example”. It’s a well-known fact that children imitate what adults do! So get out there, get active, drop the fast food and search for your healthy lifestyle that’s waiting for you and then watch the children yearn for the happiness you have achieved through good health.
Education, education, education is often the sales pitch of politicians the world over as they fight for leadership of their country. Why? Because children don’t know what’s good and bad, they need to be taught, so teach them well, teach them the right things and make it simple, simple, simple. Healthy food and increased activity! Stick with those two ingredients and its hard to go wrong.
And finally get the kids active, enroll them into as many sports and physical activities as time will allow, train them to believe that activity is the norm, at the end of the day humans were designed to move!
Marcus
Pick up a fitness magazine and what do you find? Pages littered with adverts trying to sell us supplements? Yes often!!
Go to any major shopping mall and you cant miss the "Supplement" stores! Loads of big tubs of proteins with really fit guys on the label telling you what you will look like in 8 weeks!
Starting a fitness regime? Whats the first thing you do? Think about supplements!
I am getting an increasing amount of inquiries from people asking "What supplements should I be on?" Do they really expect a simple list of the worlds fitness solutions that are available in powder or liquid form at your local supplement store? I often wander.
So where should we be starting? Well its simple, lets have a look at what you are putting into the engine which is your body. What fuel are you trying to power yourself on. This has to be the first port of call. Would you put diesel in your petrol engine car? Didn't think so. If we want this highly complex machine of a human body that we have all been blessed with to function at its optimal then we have to find the right petrol for it.
A simple exercise to do is track your food for 3-4 days writing down every single thing that crosses your lips, be it liquid or solids, leave nothing off your tracker. On day 5 have a look through the list and you may get one or a number of surprises. Check for some basic things such as: How much water have I drunk? As a guide take your KG body weight and divide by 30, this gives you the number of litres of water you should have had a day. Next question, how much sugar have you had? The human body needs 5grams per day to complete its bodily functions!! Look into things like cups of tea, coffee, soft drinks, the frequency of your meals, the make up of your meals as far as carbohydrates, proteins and fats are concerned! Are there any patterns or is it just a sporadic picture of what was available when the hunger pains kicked in?
This is a test that I have done with a number of clients delivering reactions such as: "My water intake is too low", "Wow that's a lot of coffee I drink", "Gee I only really have 1 square meal a day"!! It provides us with simple action points that themselves lead to improved diet and well being. These small tweaks are free, simple and easy to make and will bring you results without even having to visit those supplement shops.
The dictionary definition of supplement is: "somethingaddedtocompleteathing,supplyadeficiency, or reinforce orextendawhole." Therefore wouldn't it be important to know what you are adding to, where the deficiency is or what you are trying to reinforce before we start to think about what we are going to buy in the form of supplements.
Of course if this is an exercise that you have already done and you have found deficiencies in your diets that can not be plugged with food then a visit to a supplement store may well be the option that you need to take. When it comes to buying supplements the best advice that I can give you is go natural and avoid putting synthetic ingredients into your body that may well do you more harm than good!
Marcus
“A resolve or determination: to make a firm resolution to do something” That is how the dictionary defines resolution!
There is always a lot of talk about resolutions toward the last few days of the year and in the first week of the new year. I want to address this topic towards the end of February as its a very interesting time when it comes to resolutions. Why? Because peoples resolutions may be at a number of different stages of success. Some may have fallen by the way side after the first week, some the second week, some as quick as a couple of days. Of course there are many people that are remaining true to their resolutions and have developed a new norm of life. So why the varying levels of success?
I want to provoke thoughts here on two levels. The will and the plan! And yes they are linked heavily. It starts with the will to give something up or to make permanent changes in your life, you have to want to do it, and really want to do it, not just think you want to do it!! It must therefore come from the heart and normally be backed up with reasons. As humans we often look for reasons to justify our actions and unfortunately when we are looking at giving things up that we may quite enjoy we often find more reasons not to than we do to! So get your will in order and make sure it comes from the heart.
The second point is the key to any success story. We have the goal but its not east to achieve it without a plan. Your plan for success is just the same as the map that takes you to your destination. Its all very well knowing the name of the place you are driving to but if you don't have a map your chances of getting there are dramatically reduced. So get your plan in place.
Sound easy? Well it is an it isn’t. Planning takes some effort, some time and a little bit of brain. One of these three may trouble the laymen! When you have your plan you should always write another one then if plan A fails plan B comes into action. Once you are armed with your plans then your chances of success shot dramatically up!
So if you made resolutions and failed, if you made resolutions and are finding them testing, or if you made resolutions and are still going strong with them the points of examination are just the same. Stay strong willed and keep two plans close to hand as you never know when you may need them!
The background is pretty simple. Marcus Smith loves to challenge himself mentally and physically. So he thought that running up the Jebel Hafeet mountain, Al Ain in July would be a nice test, coincidently his friend Jon Beeton was involved in his accident a few weeks before the planned July run so it was turned it into a fund raiser for him and raised a cool 35k.
Now to end the year and he thought that they would head back to Hafeet for Innerfights final event. Its an awesome test on many levels so we thought we would ask Marcus to expand on the event more in a video interview.
Click here to Watch our Video Interview
Ben Greenfield, originally from Washington USA, has fast become one of the world's leading authorities on advanced performance and health of the human body. Ben coaches and trains individuals for fat loss, muscle gain, and sports performance globally, working with executives, elite athletes, and weekend warriors to achieve their physical, mental and health goals. In 2008, Ben was nominated as the Personal Trainer of the Year by the National Strength and Conditioning Association. Ben holds graduate degrees in physiology and biomechanics, is a certified nutritionist and has over a decade of coaching professional, collegiate and recreational athletes from a wide variety of sports. As an athlete himself Ben competes each year in the world championships of Ironman triathlon, and is one of the top ranked amateur triathletes in the US.
Over the past two years, Greenfield has been developing his vast body of knowledge and research into a new seminar entitled "Become Superhuman", and will be presenting this seminar at a workshop in Dubai for the first time outside the United States. This interactive fitness, nutrition and lifestyle workshop delivers the seven crucial modules necessary for developing a superhuman body and mind: performance, fat loss, recovery, digestion, brain, sleep and hormonal balance. Participants in the "Become Superhuman" workshop will be given all the systems and components necessary to maximize physical performance, body appearance and mental function.
InnerFight founder Marcus Smith commented: "It's great to be able to get a world class authority such as Ben over in Dubai to hold this 2 day workshop. This is the first time someone of Ben's calibre will deliver something like this in the region and with our growing diabetes and obesity rates, this is for more than just for specialized athletes - this is for the general population to learn how to get the best out of their lives."
"99% of people live their lives at just a fraction of their physical and mental capacity," commented Greenfield, "The goal here is to teach people how to get their bodies to operate the way they're supposed to – and equip folks with the knowledge to do things like feel exactly how they want to feel when exercising, achieve any physical goals they set their mind to, experience unparalleled mental clarity at work and play, turn the body into a fat burning machine, digest foods and absorb nutrients with precision and efficiency, have great sex, uninterrupted, deep restorative sleep, and – perhaps most importantly – a long life with an extremely high quality of life."
The "Become Superhuman" workshop is anticipated to fill very quickly, but is currently open to anyone and will take place on May 11th and 12th at Evolve Gym. For complete details, contact winning@innerfight.com or 050-640 3556.
