Marketing Training

We like to encourage everyone involved in The Foundry to keep up their fitness training so we thought we’d share a little snapshot of what life is like for our marketing interns.  Poor old Jacques unfortunately agreed to train with Tyrone. Nice gurning!

Fitness from a SMART point of view

Review of Dave Thomas’s training seminar last night @ The Foundry.

Back to school

Just like many people I know, I’ve previously spent months going to a gym, doing the same workout I was given on my first induction, perhaps progressing perhaps not, and spending hundreds of my well earned pounds over a minimum 12 months with a minimal result. My enthusiasm and progress for the first 4 months was all undone through lack of motivation and laziness the rest of the time (and 8 months membership money down the drain!).

After last night’s seminar with Dave, if I’d known then what I know now, I would have seriously taken control of my fitness regime, saving me time and money in the long term. Sometimes a cheap gym membership is a false economy in comparison to investing a bit of money to gain the knowledge of a professional over a few sessions.

So how do you start building your own training programme? It sounds simple but the key thing is having a goal. You want to lose fat or become stronger, but how do you even start to approach this huge feat?

As with any business project it is incredibly important to have a SMART goal (as a management consultant who attended last night said “I always use SMART at work but never thought about applying it to my fitness regime”), :

S pecific
M easurable
A greed Upon/ A mbitious / A ttainable (this developed throughout the seminar!)
R ealistic
T imely

Once you have your goal, you can build your programme to achieve this, using smaller goals to help you progress to the main goal; a bit like the England football team breaking up their aim to win the World Cup (or so we hope!) into more manageable chunks and mini goals over the four year campaign. May I suggest goal no. 1 is “Learn how to pass the ball to each other”…

Everyone has different barriers to fitness but the main ones raised and discussed last night were:

• Lack of motivation
• Lifestyle
• Tiredness
• Lack of knowledge
• Time
• Injury
• Training by yourself

Dave covered a lot of ground on how to specifically overcome these challenges, choose the right goal for you and build a programme to achieve that goal, but I think the following were the main take home messages that everyone should know:

1. Pick a SMART goal
2. Consult an expert (book, internet or person); this will save you time and money in the long term
   Periodise your programme; break your SMART goal into more manageable mini goals
3. Chart your progress; nothing more motivating than seeing you’re reaching your target
4. Be flexible; something will always get in the way e.g. work, illness, holidays, life

We also discussed periodisation but that’s a BIG topic!

So, my next goal? Do a proper pull up within the next 2 weeks. As simple as that. I’ll let you know if I make it!

For anyone who might be interested in learning more about building your own training programme and want to consult the experts for advice, contact dave@foundryfit.com or drop into our personal training studios in Liverpool Street.

Are Antibiotics Responsible for our Health Problems?

Antiobiotics have played an enormous role in the advance of medicine and our understanding of human biochemistry since Louis Pasteur came along; however recent headlines about super resistant bacteria and antiobiotics available over the counter in China may have caught your attention and caused you to question whether it’s a mass medication using antibiotics is a good thing.

A recent study in the British Medical Journal highlighted the many problems of antibiotic prescription in primary health care. The study which was a meta-analysis included a review of 24 studies involving the use of antibiotics.

One of the main findings of the study stated ‘ studies reporting the quantity of antibiotic use found that larger duration of multiple courses were associated with higher rates of resistance.’ There was particular emphasis on findings for individuals who were prescribed antibiotics for a urinary or respiratory infection, where bacterial resistance developed to that antibiotic.

One of the many problems of sustained sporadic use of antibiotic prescription is that it kills all microbes in the body, whether they be good or bad.  Beneficial gut flora such as lactobacillus, clostridia and bifidobacterium and many others are necessary for an optimal digestive system and these microbes are wiped out following a course of antibiotics. The mucosal lining of the gut and respiratory passage which houses approximately 75% of the immune system and produces antibodies necessary for fighting invading bacteria and parasites, also becomes compromised.

Once compromised then other microbes, found on food, in the air and even from partners or pets can develop an imbalance between the beneficial and bad bacteria which is often termed a dysbiosis or dysbacteriosis. This often leaves the immune system compromised and if left long enough can be the cause problems with the gut, skin, mood, energy, muscle pains, arthritis and many other issues including elevated cholesterol levels.

I often see many clients with compromised immune systems and auto immune diseases such as uticaria, ulcerative colitis, celiac, colitis, chronic fatigue and many other conditions which can often be traced back to a dysfunctional digestive system. In 100% of all clients assessed findings of bacterial, parasite and fungal, (in many cases all 3) overgrowth have been recorded and this is usually coupled with suppressed immune system and low levels of stomach acid and digestive enzymes.

Therefore it’s worth knowing that there are other successful ways to treat these conditions by looking at dietary and lifestyle issues and potentially using botanical, anti-bacterial and parasite protocols based around diet, exsercise and lifestyle to build the immune system rather decimate it further.

If you would like to find out more about digestion, hormonal, energy or other body analysis please feel free to get in touch with me at Keith@foundryfit.com for your free consultation

Costelloe, C. Metcalfe, C. Lovering, A., Mant, D., and Hay, A.D. Effect of antibiotic prescribing in primary care on antimicrobial resistance in individuals patients: systematic review and meta analysis. British Medical Journal, BMJ 2010;340;c2096

Head Transplants… The New Way to Lose 3 Stone

You’ve probably seen them; late night infomercials for the ‘Mighty Ab-smasher’ and dubious before and after pictures on personal training websites where clients have not only shaved and oiled their torsos but also have conveniently developed new hair styles, discovered a lighting studio and professional photographer in 12 weeks and sometimes appear to have actually successfully had a head transplant. We use the same crappy lighting, let clients do whatever they want to their chest rugs and never, ever touch anything up.

Bob lost 10 lbs by putting a bag on his head.

As you may well have figured out by now; we’re not the narcissistic, quacky type here. We like our transformations to be about real people and real results without the hyperbole. There’s some good reasons for this: Firstly the truth will always out; secondly no one likes a pushy oversell filled with buzz words (as someone who has spent many years in sales and marketing roles I know this from painful experience) and finally, if we can’t deliver on what we promise we’ll be giving a lot of refunds. Also there is already far too much attention on the aesthetic in our industry without acknowledging many of the health, fitness and sporting achievements of our clients. You can hear from some of our amateur rugby clients about what really motivated them to train.

So we’ll let the ego-maniacs battle it out for title of the best of the best and we’ll plod along quite happily making hundreds of clients very happy with value for money, honesty and integrity. Nothing ultimately speaks better about the success of a company than its client retention and feedback in relation to its finances; The Foundry would appear to be in very rude health.

Today’s transformation is a good indication of what’s achievable in 10 weeks following a Biosignature Modulation Programme and Nutritional Consult once a week. We recommended a training programme for Mike, which he followed on his own as he was already a dedicated trainer, but his results were almost as impressive as many of our clients whom we train in conjunction with Biosignature programmes so well done Mike! What’s also important to note for the uninitiated is that despite there being a large body fat change and weight loss, there was a minimal difference in lean mass as Mike wanted to retain as much lean mass as possible. (Lean mass means muscle, water and bone). Bare this in mind when charting your body composition and DO NOT trust the scales alone!

10 week body tranformation

Before
Weight 83.5kg
Body Fat 18.6%
Lean Mass 68kg

After
Weight 77kg
Body Fat 12.3%
Lean Mass 67.5kg

If you’re interested in how you can make positive changes to your body composition, email Rhiannon@foundryfit.com today to book in a free consultation.

Eat Clean, Train Hard, Get the results you want.

One of Graeme Marsh’s hard working clients at The Foundry showing the effects of two months clean eating and hard training.

James has been training once a week with Graeme and twice a week on his own; following a 4 week body composition phase and a 4 week strength phase.  He has followed a ‘paleo’ approach to eating.

As Graeme would say, that’s some ‘Powerful work’

(Even more powerful is the Superstars Soundtrack!)