London’s premier corporate health & fitness seminars

“Exercise Delusions & Diet Confusions”

The Foundry Health and Fitness

Graeme Marsh at a previous corporate seminar

Drawing upon our slightly geeky passion for health and fitness research (Graeme Marsh and Dave Thomas), our unparallelled sporting excellence (Sarah Lindsay, Evelyn Stevenson, Fiona Pocock & Richard Thompson) and our experience of years working in the corporate environment (Helen Thomas) The Foundry has become renowned for the health and fitness presentations we give to businesses across London.

Our clients this year have included Whistles, Weil Gotshal Manges,  RBS, UBS and Innocent Drinks for the seminars “Building the Executive Athlete” and “Exercise Delusions & Diet Confusions”

UBS Liverpool StreetToday Fitness Industry ‘Statesman’ Graeme Marsh returned to the Liverpool Street offices of UBS, taking England Rugby player Fiona Pocock  with him to help dispel the many confusions and delusions about diet and exercise.

The event was attended by over 90 executives and the feedback so far has been excellent:

Hi Graeme,

I was present at the UBS talk today and just wanted to say thank you very much for the excellent talk.  It was really refreshing to hear someone debunking the corporate and media spin that this country suffers from to such a large extent.

A common theme at all these talks is bewilderment, as evidenced today by the huge number of questions directed at Graeme. The public at large are being bombarded with ever increasing volumes of nutrition and fitness dogma, often from those who lack the understanding (or what Ben Goldacre would call ‘intellectual horsepower’) to interpret evidence correctly.  Even more worrying are those who knowingly ignore, twist, cherry pick, or simply falsify ‘evidence’ in an attempt to sell a catchy concept, product, course, or pill to the end user.

If you are interested in The Foundry coming to your company to cut through the confusion please email Graeme directly at Graeme@foundryfit.com

Should your grandma be worried about cholesterol?

Cholesterol and heart disease is becoming somewhat of an obsession for me. With a big talk coming up in the next week at a major investment bank I know questions on the topic will be popular, particularly given the evidence and opinions I present.  I can often hear the intakes of breath and see eyebrows raising when I suggest why you shouldn’t be so worried about saturated fat or indeed your cholesterol being ‘slightly elevated’ and why you should be concerned if your doctor suggests a statin as a solution.

So, I was interested to hear that my grandmother was worries after her GP had recently expressed concern to see her cholesterol elevated. While I don’t have time for a diatribe on the whole diet/heart hypothesis and the complexity of the evidence surrounding heart disease, it is worth just exploring why the doctor would be worried.

I can understand why the public at large still believes cholesterol to be nothing more than an indicator of impending death.  It is drummed into us both directly and indirectly by products that line the shelves claiming to lower it (despite a stunning lack of evidence to show that consuming these products will actually have any impact on your life expectancy).  These products are often aimed at women, who seem more concerned about this issue despite the fact that there is very little reason for most women to be worried about their cholesterol level (heart disease is after all only one cause of death and doesn’t become the leading cause of death in women until after 85 years old).

Very few people realise that far from being a dangerous risk to health, such as cigarette smoke or air pollution that have both been shown to increase a woman’s risk of death, cholesterol is essential for a healthy life.  Without it we couldn’t manufacture vitamin D or bile acids, and it is critical for a range of functions; from nerve transmission to cell structure and formation. It is so important that if we don’t eat enough of it our body manufactures it to compensate. It’s worth mentioning that it is also an essential component of breast milk, which would seem strange if it were such a noxious disease-forming substance. Nature is rarely so errant.

Unfortunately, or indeed perhaps fortunately, it really isn’t as simple as a raised cholesterol level indicating impending doom. Firstly, we have to realise that heart disease (which is after all what all the fuss is about when it comes to cholesterol) should not be considered in the same context for men and women. Death rates are wildly skewed with women in the UK suffering a third of the amount of deaths from heart disease as men. It gets even more confusing when you consider that in study after study results have actually shown higher cholesterol to be linked to living longer in women and that a higher level may actually be healthier than a lower one. So, hold back on the Benecol and the Flora Pro-Active ladies, you may just find that eating butter isn’t so bad after all.

A study from the Lancet is one of many to conclude that older women with a lower cholesterol level may be at a greater risk of death. They found that those with a level of 4.0mmol had a death rate five times that of those with the highest levels of 7.0mmol.  Although this study was on a relatively small population group it’s not the only one that has failed to show that there is any real evidence for older women to worry about their cholesterol levels. The Framingham Heart study, which is the longest running study to look at heart disease, concluded that low cholesterol significantly increased risk of death in people over the age of 50 from all causes, while studies from Italy and Austria both concurred, finding that high cholesterol was actually associated with greater longevity and less cardiac events in older women. Disturbingly the Austrian study found lower cholesterol to be linked with increased death rates from cancer, liver disease, depression, and mental illness.

In fact, there is a surprising amount of evidence that runs contrary to what most of us believe, which is that even the most modest of increases in cholesterol levels is harmful and that we should all seek to obtain lower levels in order to improve our health. Despite this fact, cholesterol still remains the arch villain of heart health perhaps due in no small part to the ability of the pharmaceutical companies to produce drugs that are able to modify this apparent ‘risk factor’ so effectively (again with little efficacy in older women without existing heart disease).

So, at the tender age of 87, what does my grandmother have to fear about having an elevated cholesterol level? From the evidence it would seem not much and more to the point, how much harm can you do by telling someone that they should be worried about their health when in fact they may have no reason to be concerned at all? While we would all do well to reduce our risk of ill health, we cannot afford to look at these issues in such simplistic fashion. Risk factors are many and varied and the data is complex and often confusing. So, many people trust their doctors to be guided on what is and what isn’t ‘healthy’.

With cholesterol-lowering statin sales in the tens of billions of pounds per year worldwide and doctors bombarded by the PR from drug companies, it is perhaps no wonder that so much of this evidence goes unnoticed by the general population. Lets hope our health professionals speak from the evidence in the literature and not just from the propaganda that the statin manufacturers circulate.

If you are interested to know more about this topic you can find the links of the aforementioned studies below and an entertaining and thorough dissection of this topic in the books The Great Cholesterol Con By Dr Malcolm Kendrick and Trick and Treat by Barry Groves.

  • Tikhonoff V et al, “Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and mortality in older people,” Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2005; 53:2159-2164.
  • Forette et al Cholesterol as a Risk Factor for Mortality in Elderly Women. The Lancet Volume 333, Issue 8643, 22 April 1989, Pages 868-870
  • Ulmer H, Kelleher C, Diem G et al. Why Eve is not Adam: Prospective follow-up in 149,650 women and men of cholesterol and other risk factors related to cardiovascular and all-cause mortality. Journal of Women’s Health. 2004; 13(1):41-53.
  • Albert CM, Chae CU, Grodstein F et al. Prospective study of sudden cardiac death among women in the United States. Circulation. 2003; 107:2096-2101.

The Truth About Calorie Deficits

An article popped up on BBC Health this week that caught our eye at The Foundry.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14882832

It seems that those in the world of dietetics are finally realising that some of their advice may not be all it is cracked up to be. This is interesting given the amount of criticism ‘nutritionists’ have come in for over recent years for recommending such ‘radical’ approaches as reducing carbohydrate intake for weight loss or the suggestion that dietary fat may not actually be responsible for heart disease. The fact is that little in this article is of news to those of us who have been working on transforming body composition for many years now.

personal training city of london fat weight loss nutrition liverpool street

Is it really as simple as that?

For a long time now those in the seats of nutritional policy power have reinforced that to lose weight you simply have to create a calorie deficit of 500 calories a day and bingo, weight falls off, in a rather conveniently measurable 3500 calories (or the amount of energy in a pound of fat) a week.

Well of course, the real world tells us that it isn’t quite that simple and it seems that the British Dietetic Association may be starting to agree. Amusingly the article quotes Helen Bond from the BDA who says that “we recommend it, it’s what we are taught. But I don’t know what the scientific evidence for it is”. Well, score one for nutritionists vs. dieticians there. I can’t help but think that Ms Bond will cringe when she sees that quote in print, although I applaud her candid response. It seems that experience and instinct can precede scientific guidance after all. However, I cannot help but wonder how many more ‘established scientific guidelines’ currently trumpeted are as thinly supported by any actual evidence?

personal training city of london liverpool street weight loss

Do I need to include the chocolate brownie? I know I shouldn't have but it was my boss's birthday...

The fact is that studying diets is in itself is very difficult and any research needs to be carefully considered before applying it to the entire population. Drop out rates tend to be extremely high, in fact often 50% or more, skewing results to show the diet in question to be far more favourable than is actually the case. However, these drop out rates should tell us something; that many people lack the ability to stick the course at a diet, for a multitude of reasons. Diet studies tend to also rely on a hefty amount of self-reporting and subject adherence, another major problem. Housing and feeding large cohorts for a meaningful period of time is simply not achievable and any study that is reliant on self-reported data needs to be taken with a hefty pinch of salt (which is another topic where advice and evidence aren’t always congruent). Participants clearly over-estimate their activity levels and underestimate (or simply lie) about their food intake.

Of course, similar problems have been encountered when studying the effects of exercise on weight loss. Food intake is rarely controlled, drop out rates are high and, even when they aren’t, the ability of subjects to complete or maintain a meaningful intervention often makes for dismal reading. This has lead to many drawing erroneous and misleading conclusions that aren’t actually supported by the research, such as “exercise will make you fat” or other similar headline grabbing, but incorrect, statements.

Professor John Blundell (a brilliant but seemingly unknown researcher to those fitness experts who would write these assertions) has clearly demonstrated that, as with nutrition, the response to and effectiveness of exercise is highly individual. For an in depth and highly comprehensive review of the science of this area I’d highly recommend this paper: http://www.portalsaudebrasil.com/artigospsb/obes051.pdf. Those who tritely state that exercise doesn’t work for weight loss as it makes you eat more food would do well to read this and prepare to reconsider your viewpoint. For those of you who like to write these sort of statements without actually reading any kind of evidence I will quote directly and even bold the good bit for you:

“Physical activity has the potential to modulate appetite control by improving the sensitivity of the physiological satiety signalling system, by adjusting macronutrient preferences or food choices and by altering the hedonic response to food. There is evidence for all these actions. Concerning the impact of physical activity on energy balance, there exists a belief that physical activity drives up hunger and increases food intake, thereby rendering it futile as a method of weight control. There is, however, no evidence for such an immediate or automatic effect. Short (1–2 d)-term and medium (7–16 d)-term studies demonstrate that men and women can tolerate substantial negative energy balances of  ≤ 4 MJ energy cost/d when performing physical activity programmes.”

The article continues to discuss a new computer model of predicting weight loss from a Dr Kevin Hall, who for a PhD gives a rather loose summary of the paper saying “we tested it on about 100 people and it gave a good fit. It was pretty accurate”. Well I don’t know about you but with such precise and specific evidence like that I’m convinced. Or maybe not, as the author infers from this that weight loss will be identical in the short-term regardless of whether you cut dietary fat or carbohydrates.

So, we are right back to square one it seems and it is just about the calories?

Well, not exactly, as the preponderance of evidence would certainly not suggest that weight loss is the same on a low-fat or low-carbohydrate diet, in particular if you are insulin resistant. In fact several studies have found significant differences in weight loss when considered in relation to insulin resistance and carbohydrate/fat intake. This is an aside to altering protein levels, which has also been shown to have significant impact on body composition change, with higher protein levels proving more effective for weight loss. Of course, as we have established everyone reacts differently to diets, but my advice remains the same for the obese individual:

1. Begin to reduce carbohydrate intake, in particular refined and processed carbs such as pasta, bread, juice etc.

2. Begin to raise protein intake, eating some with each meal.

3. Start to exercise at a level that is sustainable, enjoyable, and achievable. This allows for progression, which can be highly motivating.

4. Increase daily non-exercise activity (believe it or not, many will reduce this when they start exercising, thereby nullifying many of the beneficial effects).

For now though, take solace as in the words of beardy counsellor Robin Williams: “It’s not your fault, it’s not your fault”. The powers that be have been lying to you.

Instead of focusing solely on managing your caloric intake you would do well to first work on managing your expectations of weight loss to avoid disappointment and despondency when things don’t happen quite as easily as many established ‘guidelines’ would have you believe. Hardened devotion to calories in vs. calories out seems the path to neurosis, obsessive behaviour patterns, and unrealistic expectations of weight loss and in turn a failure to maintain a successful diet approach.

As I have often said, the best diet is the one that you will actually keep to. While you are at it, most of you can stop worrying about your salt and your cholesterol too, but that really is another story.

A Day in the Life of….George the Intern

Several months ago, we received an email out the blue from one George Simkin, who had heard about Dave Thomas and The Foundry from a friend who surfs internet rugby forums. Flattering Dave’s ego aside, he wanted to know whether we were looking for an intern over the summer. Always keen to nurture anyone with enthusiasm in the fitness industry, we decided to give this George guy a chance to experience The Foundry from the inside…never truly knowing what to expect. It had disaster written all over it but we couldn’t have been more wrong!

Since George joined us at the end of July, he’s been an absolute joy to have as part of our team. Friendly, helpful and the best salesman in town, he can persuade even the most podiaphoebic of people to purchase a pair of Vibram Five Fingers!

We will all miss him when he returns up north and we hope to have him back over the university holidays and (if he’ll have us!) as a permanent member of the team once he finishes his studies.

If you or anyone you know may be interested in having an internship at one of the fastest growing private health and fitness businesses in central London, please contact me at helen@foundryfit.com.

And now it’s over to George…

—-

strength sports conditioning performance london liverpool street e1

George (left) with the rest of The Foundry crew at our Heavy Weekend

It’s just over a month into my internship here at The Foundry and about time people knew who the new fresh faced kid behind the desk is. My name is George, I’m two years into a three year BA in Sport up at Durham University and have a keen interest in just about all sports, particularly rugby.

I arrived to ‘the big smoke’ not really knowing what to expect or what was in store for me. But things got off to a good start by getting lost on my way to work on day one despite checking the route numerous times the night before.

Upon arrival I found a very professional looking shop and upon a tour of the facility, three very well equipped studios as well as the physio/massage rooms downstairs.

A quick demo of how to use the till and some of the programmes on the computer and I was ready to hold the (cardboard) fort alone. I soon got to meet many of the clients and trainers; everyone was incredibly nice and welcoming, from Dave’s (usually) gentle abuse to Graeme’s fashion tips.

Speaking with other friends who are doing internships, not only do I feel I have done fantastically well ending up in a place like The Foundry, but also in terms of what I have been doing on my internship. Over a month, I think I’ve only done two water runs and one coffee run – not bad! As part of my day to day responsibilities, I help to run the shop and manage the studios, but on top of this I have been helping out with various aspects of the business, which includes some really exciting concepts. Of course much of this information is Top Secret but let’s just say the next six months to year proves to be a very exciting time here at The Foundry.

Another significant part of work so far has been geared towards our hugely successful Heavy Weekend. We managed to pull off a 35 person adventure weekend in Oxford all without the brains and organisation of the company that is Helen. This event allowed me to meet and train with lots of exercise professionals (including a England International and British Lions rugby player) and ask them plenty of questions, which leads on nicely to my next point…

sports performance personal training city of london liverpool street

George takes advantage of all the free protein he can get

One of the most useful parts of this internship in terms of learning about training for me has been just this, asking questions. Whenever a trainer is free or waiting for their next client, it is a great time to corner them and ask something new with regards to training or diet.

A month down already, the internship in flying by. I am keeping in the black with commission on sales and money for expenses (travel and food), and with three floors of gym equipment at my disposal, I am also training hard and regularly while being strict on my diet. I’ve just started writing a few training programmes which helps me to put into practice what I’ve learned from the other trainers also get their feedback on what I’ve put together.

And just a final point, if anyone asks, I have many excuses for anyone who has seen the Friday funny climbing video of me falling off the wall…

Victory For The Foundry

city of london physiotherapy sports massage conditioning performance health

Foundry Studios and Victory Health & Performance announce new partnership to create London’s leading multi-disciplinary health and fitness business

Today Foundry Studios, one of central London’s leading health and fitness businesses, is delighted to announce that it has created a partnership with Victory Health & Performance, an interdisciplinary medical rehabilitation team, to manage and expand the rehabilitation offering at The Foundry, the private personal training facility based in the City of London.

This new partnership will create the most comprehensive health and fitness facility in central London, providing a wide range of services by some of the capital’s best specialists to local residents and businesses.

Having worked as a freelance physiotherapist and rehabilitation specialist at The Foundry since January 2011, Nell Mead, Director of Victory Health & Performance, will be cementing her role in the development and growth of the wider business, joining Foundry Studios as Rehabilitation Director.

Helen Thomas, Director of Foundry Studios, said:

“We are incredibly excited to partner with Victory Health & Performance and align our respective brands closer together. Nell is everything we could hope for in a business partner – an excellent clinician with a sound business outlook – and her Victory team is second to none. Clients at The Foundry have always been impressed by the effectiveness of her treatment and we are confident that this partnership offers both parties a great opportunity to create one the greatest private multi-disciplinary health and fitness businesses in London.”

Nell Mead, Director of Victory Health & Performance, said:

“When I met The Foundry’s directors it was immediately clear that our goals and values were highly compatible, and over the past few months we’ve forged an extremely mutually beneficial working relationship.  I’m delighted to have the opportunity to open a full-time medical rehabilitation facility at The Foundry and have lots of plans to introduce the best aspects of military medicine to the private sector.”

 

- ends -

For more information, please contact:

Helen Thomas, Director of Foundry Studios    07973 511 942

Nell Mead, Director of Victory Health & Performance    07939 523 060

 

Notes to Editors

Foundry Studios Ltd

The Foundry is a private health and fitness facility located in the City of London that offers a range of services including personal training, physiotherapy, osteopathy, nutritional advice, massage, body composition assessments, and structural balance and postural assessments.

Our team of experts run corporate seminars on a range of health and fitness issues including RBS, Weil Gotshal & Manges, Innocent Drinks and UBS. We also host seminars and talks for the general public with inspiring individuals in the health and fitness industry.

Our industry experts have contributed to health and fitness articles in Men’s Health, The Times and other leading publications.

For more information about The Foundry please see our website www.foundryfit.co.uk .

 

Victory Health & Performance Ltd

Victory Health & Performance is an interdisciplinary team of expert professionals working together in a range of complementary specialities including physiotherapy, performance psychology, massage and exercise rehabilitation. The majority of Victory’s team have considerable experience of working in the military sector where the interdisciplinary approach is considered the gold standard, much as it is in the highest levels of elite sport. Victory’s aim is to bring the highest standard of military-style medical rehabilitation to the private sector.

For more information about Victory Health & Performance please see our website www.victoryhealthandperformance.com

Placebo and Nocebo effect and the power of positive thinking…

Tyrone London

One of our particularly motivational trainers, Tyrone London.

The diet and fitness industry is sadly so deep in pseudo-science and marketing that for the ordinary member of the public, sorting the truth (or the fact) from the fiction is almost impossible unless they are able to spend time looking beyond the claims of many a snake oil seller or ‘revolutionary’ new diet plan. Could it be though, that the actual efficacy of these plans is in part due to the mindset of the individual carrying it out or the practitioner prescribing it, rather than the actual plan itself? Many a book/supplement/exercise device has been sold on the promise of new and powerful information, which is usually as old as the hills or backed by questionable science. All too often we obsess over the content of the training/diet/supplement plans we create when in fact the key factor may be our clients actual belief in the plan to actually work. I will be the first to admit that as a trainer I have had a few failures with clients, who despite hours spent pouring over their training programmes, diet plans, and food diaries ad nauseum, still haven’t produced the results I had hoped for. For someone known to be a touch obsessive/compulsive such as me, this sort of end product can be deeply vexing. Discontent with my own inadequacy as an explanation, I have gone in search of an answer. Might it be that those who fail to see great results while others thrive have predisposed themselves to failure through negative mindsets? Could my insistence on objectivity and honesty have swayed belief in the methods undertaken? Can thinking you are not losing weight actually stop you losing weight and vice versa?

In medicine this is known as the placebo and nocebo effect, both taken from latin meaning ‘I shall please’ and ‘I shall harm’ respectively, and they have been extensively studied (well the placebo far more than the nocebo at least, as a little thing called ethical approval stands in the way of deliberately trying to make people sick). Probably the best example of the placebo effect in relation to exercise is a study featured in the book ‘Bad Science’ by Ben Goldacre carried out on hotel workers in 2007 by Crum and Langer and if you haven’t already seen this study then prepare to be surprised. They took 84 female room attendants at seven different hotels and told one group that their daily work was in line with recommendations to improve health, even going to length to explain how. The other group got told nothing. Four weeks later the informed group (without actually changing their behaviour) perceived themselves to be fitter, and bizarrely they were. In fact, compared to the other group they had seen reductions in weight, blood pressure, BMI, waist-hip ratio, and body fat.

The arch nemesis of the placebo effect is called a nocebo and it has been discovered more through statistical analysis than the use of sham treatments. Ethical standards in health research make studying this effect difficult, you can’t set out to make people ill after all. However, studies have found instances where a group has been given information (such as a negative side effect of a drug or treatment) while another group hasn’t and in turn the group with that ‘negative’ information has experienced a far higher rate of actual negative outcomes. One study even found that women who believed themselves likely to die of heart disease were four times more likely to die than a group of women with exactly the same risk factors but without the fatalist viewpoint. It has also seen to be a strong effect in conditions like Parkinson’s disease as well. A slightly less depressing example of the nocebo effect is often seen with dentists, who many of us hold a pathological fear of and hence tend to twitch and perceive a pain response before the offending tooth has even been touched.

Could it be that these two effects are at work surreptitiously in the fitness industry, both reinforcing and undermining our work. Could it be that those with previous history of failing at weight loss or maintaining a healthy weight have low expectations of success and as such are setting themselves up for failure once again, a failure that even the best training and nutritional programme could not prevent? Similarly could it be that the success of some (heaven forbid all) of what we do could be down to the client’s level of belief in themselves and their trainer to succeed? This isn’t as much of a leap as we might think, given the prevalence of this effect already in the medical industry where modern imaging techniques allow researchers to observe the brain’s response to placebo treatments in vivo and have already demonstrated this.

The truth is that the most powerful tool of the modern fitness professional is not a convoluted training and nutritional approach that NASA themselves would be proud of. It lies instead in our ability to encourage and nurture change, positive thinking, and belief in our methods to produce results. Of course, a powerful argument is that the more science is involved, the more powerful this effect can be, and this may well be true although we lack any evidence to really prove this. All too often though the effect of peoples mindset on producing results is lost, where in cases of success the practitioner takes credit (as it must be their amazing ‘system’) and in cases of failure the client is often blamed (clearly they have been ‘cheating’ or not following the programme right?). Could this extend even further than weight loss into muscle gain? Can the ability to gain size, our reaction to supplements, our response to a training protocol differ so greatly between individuals based on previous history and belief levels? Time maybe to stop obsessing on methods and simplify, instead taking time to assess if our client has the fundamental belief in their ability to reach their goals as a lack of this will almost certainly ensure failure, even with the best training tools at their disposal.

How Tommo got Gilles Peterson Out of a Spin

We always love a good testimonial but this is a really pleasing recognition of the expertise and support of one of our phenomenal soft tissue experts Keith Littlewood from much respected and renowned DJ and broadcaster Gilles Peterson. Giles completed the London marathon yesterday in 4 hours 43 minutes and 9 seconds! It always helps having one of the best rehab and postural specialists in the business on your side. Many congratulations to Giles on his excellent achievement!

Gilles Peterson

“I had a distressed knee before the run – I’d damaged my left knee ligaments after my 18 mile training run 3 weeks ago… well I’d damaged them in February training up hills in Normandy but had been patched up every week by Keith at Balanced Body Mind… truth is without him I’d never have been ready in time… he saw me just after the Worldwide Awards and told me I needed a year to prepare for the marathon. I said that’s not possible and he got me on a disturbing diet and daily stretch routine that made me cry for the first 4 weeks.”

You can follow news about Gilles on his website: http://www.gillespetersonworldwide.com/gilles-peterson/