Uncategorized

After 11 years working as a mobile personal trainer I am really excited to open my own personal training studio. It’s something I have always wanted to do and am delighted to finally be in a position to make it happen!

It’s in Pembury, just a 10 minute drive from Tunbridge Wells and Tonbridge. But also within 10 minutes or so of surrounding towns such as: Lamberhurst, Matfield, Brenchley, Paddock Wood, Five Oak Green, Tudeley, Horsmonden, Goudhurst, to name a few.

Of course Tunbridge Wells/Tonbridge have plenty of gyms you could sign up to if that’s you cup of tea. But (a) gyms are packed full of hundreds of people and fighting to use the equipment. And (b) if you don’t live in the centre of Tunbridge Wells or Tonbridge its actually quite time consuming to drive in, park, do your workout, shower, change etc. A 1 hour workout will easily eat up 2 hours of your day.

So if you would prefer (a) a short drive with easy on-site parking. And (b) to be able to train in a totally private home studio under the guidance of a fully qualified personal trainer with 11 years’ experience helping people to get fit and lose weight, this may be the option for you.

What Equipment Is There To Use?

I have a full range of fitness equipment from a variety of cardiovascular machines to different weights and resistance equipment. So no matter whether you are a beginner or an advanced exerciser, and no matter what you goal is, I can help.

More photos, information and details are available on my website, so please follow the link below to see that. But feel free to give me a call and arrange a time to come over, have a chat through what you are looking for and take a look at the studio and equipment without any pressure to sign up to anything. Hopefully hear from you soon!

Visit the personal training studio pembury page of my website here; Rob Bowman – Personal Training in Studio Pembury

Salads can be really boring, tasteless and basically ‘diet food.’ But they don’t have to be. Here are a couple of simple, but really tasty, healthy and low calorie recipes to try. If you’re idea of a salad is a chicken breast, tomato and lettuce you are (a) missing out and (b) never going to be able to eat that like forever. Give these 2 tasty, healthy and different salads a go.

1/ King prawn salad

(250 calories)

100 grams (3 ½ oz) king prawns/shrimps (small prawns if not)

1 large tomato, diced

80 grams (2 ¾ oz lettuce)

½ green pepper, de-seeded and diced

½ small onion, diced

½ tbsp cumin seeds

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

Salt and black pepper

Once you have put together the salad, dry-fry the cumin seeds until slightly browned. Sprinkle the dry-fried cumin seeds over the king prawn salad.

 

2/ Spiced Lemon Chicken Salad

(380 calories)

For chicken: (combine ingredients and cook chicken)

1 large chicken thigh piece (120 grams – 4oz)

1/2tsp Olive oil

½tsp dried oregano

1tsp paprika

¼tsp cayenne pepper

½tsp salt

For salad:

¼ cabbage finely shredded

½ large carrot, peeled and sliced into think batons

½ onion, finely sliced

¼ cucumber, cut into batons

1tbsp lemon juice

½ tbsp white wine vinegar

½ tsp extra virgin olive oil

¼  cucumber, peeled, seeded and sliced

½  tbsp chopped mint

1 tomato, cut into wedges

½  tbsp coriander leaves

½  tbsp basil

black pepper

Combine the lime juice, soy, ginger, star anise, fish sauce and honey in a pan. Cook for 2 minutes, leave to cool and combine with the rest.

Conclusion – 2 Tasty, Healthy and Different Salads

These are just 2 examples of how to jazz up a salad. Be adventurous with different vegetables, herbs and spices to give your salads more punch and flavour without adding any unnecessary and extras calories.  Give them a go, don’t just use the same boring and bland ingredients every time. Then you can enjoy your food as well as eating healthily.

 

 

 

Visit the main page of my website here; Complete Fitness 4 Life – PT Tunbridge Wells

We tend to think that anything natural is really good for our health and that’s that. But actually there are some foods, or rather some parts or forms of some foods that actually have the potential to do us a fair bit of damage if consumed in a high quantity. Here are 6 toxic health foods that you need to watch out for;

Tomatoes – The stems and leaves of tomatoes contain alkali poisons that can cause serious stomach upset. Unripe green tomatoes have the same effect.

Raw Cashews – Raw cashews contain urushiol, which is a chemical also found in poison ivy. High levels of urishiol could even prove fatal. Don’t worry, the cashews you buy in the supermarket aren’t actually raw (even if they say they are) as they are steamed to remove this chemical. You would have specifically order raw cashews for this to be a problem.

Raw Honey – Because it doesn’t go through a pasteurisation process raw honey often contains grayanotoxin. This can lead to dizziness, nausea and vomiting. So if you are set on eating raw honey make sure you keep the quantity consumed very small (a teaspoon) at a time.

Potatoes – Glycoalkaloids can be found it potatoes that are left too long before consuming. It is particularly found in the sprouts (if you leave them that long), so they are best thrown away at that point.

Rhubarb leaves – These contain oxalic acid which cause kidney stones. So don’t get any great ideas of throwing them into a smoothie or something!

Fruit Seeds – Apples seeds, cherry/apricot/peach pits all contain a type of hydrogen cyanide called prussic acid. Blending a whole apple and eating the seeds is unlikely to be enough to harm you, but even so I would remove the seeds before blending to avoid this prussic acid altogether.

Conclusion – 6 Toxic ‘Health Foods’

Eating natural and raw generally is better as its less ‘processed.’ But sometimes this can lead to dangers are cited above. So watch out and don’t take it too far!

Visit the main page of my website here; Complete Fitness 4 Life – Personal Trainers Tunbridge Wells.

Injuries are probably the most frustrating part about getting more active and exercising. You gather up the motivation and are doing really well, losing weight, getting fitter etc, then injury strikes.

It is incredibly demotivating if you feel you have gotten past those initial stages of exercise where it is really tough and unenjoyable. But then you fall foul of an injury when you are starting to get into exercise and enjoy it.

A lot of people use injuries as a reason to stop exercising altogether, deciding ‘exercise obviously isn’t for me.’ Or ‘my body is too old to cope with exercise now.’ Which isn’t true and is a real shame.

So how can you set yourself up to be injury free?

When you start exercising (particularly if you haven’t done so for quite a while) your body is under a lot more strain than it has been. The vast majority of injuries stem from muscle/s getting tighter and tighter over time. Eventually resulting in repetitive pain and/or a joint problem.

Think of your muscles like a string of elastic bands. When you exercise these get stretched, contracted and generally put under pressure. If you don’t take care of them properly they get knotted and tangled. (Just like an elastic band would if you tied a knot in it). Then over time they get more and more knotted and stretched and over time injuries occur as a result.
So warming up before and stretching after your workout is very important (see previous article I wrote – Warming Up and Stretching). But also it is important to work out the knots that occur in your muscles. This stops them getting tighter and tighter over time.

So regular sports massage would be a great solution. But if you can’t afford that the next best thing would be to invest in a foam roller. You can find them anywhere, e.g. amazon. It is basically a hard plastic/rubber tube with nodules on, see below;

The idea is you roll over the problem area so the foam roller digs into your muscles a bit. Just like a sports massage therapist would do if they gave you a massage. By doing this and putting pressure on the knots in your muscles, you will break the knots down and help to restore the muscles to their original and best state. Thereby the muscles can operate freely and without causing your body strain, which is what you want.

Conclusion – Top Injury Avoidance Tip

So if you can get a foam roller and use it regularly you will give your body a much better chance of staying injury free allowing yourself to exercise pain free!