The Foundry

Cycling In The City – Introduction

June 17, 2013 By Dave Thomas

The media somewhat disparagingly call them MAMILS (Middle Aged Men In Lycra) but the rise of cycling and triathlon as pastimes, replacing football and squash, is one of the big sporting commercial success stories of the last few years. Off the back of Olympic and Tour de France glory, British Cycling set a new record membership in 2012.

Whilst the sight of grown men shaving their legs (without really knowing why) and guzzling down energy drinks (without really knowing why) in the hope of emulating their professional idols creates a uniquely post-modern mid life crisis, as Weltschmerz anxiety reactions go it’s positively beneficial.

Foundry:City client Chris who came 20th out of 225 riders in 445 mile London-Edinburgh Rat Race

As with almost all exercise cycling is good for you. Numerous studies specifically looking at the sport have suggested it has beneficial effects on body fat, cardiovascular health and diabetes, particularly for beginners.^¹ Cycling is also a low-impact sport. Unlike running, 70% of your body weight goes through the saddle and handlebars which makes it a particularly good choice for those new to, or coming back to, exercise, especially if they’re carrying a little bit of extra padding.

Finally cycling, alongside walking and running as a form of travel, is one of the easiest forms of exercise to incorporate into daily life.

However, in the interest of balance, it should be highlighted that there are concerns about the effect of sitting in the saddle for prolonged periods, with links at the elite level to a loss of sensation in the genitals and lowered sperm counts. There are also obvious dangers to hurtling around on an exposed two wheeled vehicle, particularly on busy London roads; however several studies have demonstrated the health benefits of cycling outweigh the associated risks.^² In fact most risks could be cut dramatically by changes to cycling policy and infrastructure, as seen in Holland in the 1970s which has also demonstrated a clear cost benefit to the economy of increased cycling.^³ You can sign this petition here to ‘Get Britain Cycling‘.

Unsurprisingly we work with many clients at Foundry:City who cycle or compete in triathlons outside of work and who often do so as a popular way to raise funds for charity. Any fitness professional who ignores the meteoric rise of the competitive Mamil is turning away business from passionate people, hungry for knowledge and coaching, with the financial means to pay for it.

In this series of articles we will be profiling the following case studies of clients embarking on long distance cycle rides for charities and discussing their specific training and rehab requirements. In addition to training support, The Foundry is also making charitable donations to their chosen charities so we also hope to highlight these good causes.

Mike and Paul are cycling 300 miles across Europe for Right To Play, a global organisation that uses the transformation power of sport and games to educate and empower children facing adversity. http://www.justgiving.com/Setters300miles http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/PaulSimms
Tim is cycling from Paris to Geneva in September to support the Meningitis Trust after his son Alex contracted meningitis at the age of 10 months. http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/TimBoag

For most Foundry clients we look at cycling as a base line fitness activity and as such there are many ways we can help prevent injuries and increase bike strength and power through postural correction, dietary approaches and resistance training.

Whilst the neuro-muscular stimulus of cycling itself will be enough for many beginners to see rapid improvements, beyond this stage, we find strength and power training, and the addition of lean muscle mass, are essential for optimal cycling performance. The management of body mass and body fat is the other critical component; carrying excess weight comes with a huge physical cost in work. The more weight, the more drag, the less speed.

Cycling requires the best possible power to weight ratio. It is often said a rider capable of winning the Tour de France requires the ability to deliver over 6 watts per kilo on the final climb of a mountain stage.^⁴ There are clearly two ways to increase power-to-weight ratio. Either increase the power or reduce the weight.

In 2009, a study of club level cyclists, triathletes and mountain bikers gave participants either 2 extra sprint interval sessions a week, or a weight loss diet. At the end of the 10 weeks both groups improved peak and anaerobic power-to-weight ratios by about 10%, but neither method proved to be a superior approach.^⁵ Most surprising of all is that participants who did both sprint interval training and weight loss did not improve their power-to-weight ratio at all, the problem being that losing a significant amount of weight through calorie restriction prevented them from gaining any power through interval training.

So which approach is better? In our experience, despite this research, the answer is both, but not at the same time and weight loss should certainly not be at the expense of inadequate protein intake! In the next article in this series we will expand on this and highlight and discuss the training and nutrition which we use to support our cycling clients.

Paul demonstrating the strength, body composition and postural improvements which will have a direct transference to cycling performance.

If you’re thinking that personal training is not for you, or it’s too expensive, then do also consider how much money is wasted on gym memberships that don’t get used, and how a few sessions with a real professional could help you assess exactly what training and diet works for you personally – you’ll essentially be far healthier for life.

References

1 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1600-0838.2011.01299.x/abstract

2 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2920084/

3 http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/article3789794.ece

4 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18921784

5 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19568031

Filed Under: Blog, Fitness, Performance, Triathlon Tagged With: charity, City of London, cycling, dave thomas, fat loss, fitness, Liverpool Street, London, London Triathlon, mamils, meningitus trust, Personal Trainer, Personal Training, Posture, power, right to play, strength training, triathlon, Weight Loss

Our Evening With Barefoot Ted

May 25, 2011 By Helen Thomas

barefoot running vibram five fingers london liverpool street

Our sell-out crowd

Last night, The Foundry and London Trainer Network, sponsored by The Training Shop, hosted our sell out talk with barefoot running legend, Barefoot Ted (BFT). As well as being attended by CNN, Women’s Running and Men’s Running magazines and renowned barefoot proponents such as Primal Lifestyle and Barefoot Running UK and from the feedback we have received already, it’s clear to see that our audience of fitness enthusiasts, personal trainers and rehab specialists were inspired by his enthusiasm and knowledge on such a hot topic.

Renowned barefoot running legend from Christopher McDougall’s “Born To Run”, BFT talked about his barefoot experiences and shared some interesting studies on running techniques, as well as his tips on how to transition into barefoot running and get the most out of this experience.

liverpool street personal training london

BFT shows us what not to do

Although impossible to summarise all of his thoughts into this short blog post, we think it’s important to highlight his three key areas for successful barefoot running:

Listening – to the sound of your feet as you are running, and to your breathing
Cadence – focus on the movement and speed of your running pace to achieve the optimum flow of movement
Balance – ensure you stay over your feet while in motion

It’s interesting to note that BFT doesn’t think of running in terms of time or distance; it’s all about the experience – how running barefoot enables you to tune into your body and the environment around you.

So switch off that iPod, feel the soles of your feet against your ground and listen to your body…..

Thanks for yesterday, it was a great lecture and I would certainly like to hear from similar levelled people with an inspiring cause based on some good information and thought. Those like barefoot ted that challenge conventional wisdom are very welcome in my world.

Lee

Vibram Five Fingers Offer @ The Training Shop

personal trainer training london liverpool street

Spot the odd one out!

To help encourage any newly inspired barefoot running fans, all attendees to last night’s event can redeem the cost of their ticket against any purchase of Vibram Five Fingers at The Training Shop until the end of August 2011 PLUS one lucky participant of our feedback survey will win a copy of “Born To Run” signed and footprinted (!) by BFT himself.

And Finally…

We will be hosting more talks with other inspirational speakers who challenge conventions and make us view health and fitness in a new light. If there is anyone you would love to hear speak at one of our events, please let us know and contact Helen at helen@foundryfit.com.

Filed Under: Blog, Fitness, Performance Tagged With: 5 fingers, Barefoot Ted, City of London, fitness, Liverpool Street, London, Posture, Primal fitness, running, vibram 5 fingers, Vibram FiveFingers, Vibrams

Barefoot Ted is coming to town….

March 31, 2011 By Helen Thomas

Personal Training Vibrams London Training Shop

Barefoot Ted in action... huskies not a prerequisite

Are you a barefoot running enthusiast? Were you inspired by Christopher McDougall’s “Born To Run” to throw away the orthotics and get back to basics??

If you’re as big a fan of barefoot exercise as we are, then you MUST block out the evening of Tuesday 24 May in your diary.

That evening, we will be hosting a seminar with Barefoot Ted, THE barefoot running enthusiast and star of “Born To Run”, who will be talking first hand about his experiences and pass on golden nuggets of information about how to get the best out of barefoot running.

Tickets went on sale this afternoon and are already being snapped up! We are offering a THIRD off the ticket price for any tickets bought before Friday 8 April (yes, a THIRD!) – just £11 per ticket. PLUS any ticket purchases can be redeemed against any purchase of Vibram Five Fingers from The Training Shop until 31 July 2011.

So, if you’ve been inspired or are interested in getting into barefoot running, and want to get a pair of VFFs, buy your VFFs from us and learn from the maestro himself for FREE!!

Get your ticket now at BareFoot Ted Seminar before it’s too late!!

Filed Under: Fitness, Performance Tagged With: 5 fingers, City of London, fitness, Liverpool Street, London, Posture, Primal fitness, running, vibram 5 fingers, Vibram FiveFingers, Vibrams

Can your medical professional do this?

November 28, 2010 By Dave Thomas

Many of us know medical professionals who aren’t in the best of shape or perhaps partake a bit too much of the fermented vine or rolled tobacco. The inconsistency between what is known to be healthy and the personal practice of those in charge of our health has become a bit of a cliché. It’s not entirely deserved as I’m sure there are plenty of white coats out there bucking this perceived trend. One of which is our very own osteopath and strength coach Ricardo Davids, who we’ll get to later. (Make sure you check out the video below of his 80kg squat clean at the bottom of this post)

Ric's day job

Medi-bashing is an equally popular sport in the health and fitness industry as typically medical graduates cover very little about nutrition or exercise (this is the same in most of the western world: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/16/health/16chen.html) but it misses a vital point.

Your GP is a very reliable source of information for pathology but most medical professionals readily accept they are not an authority on diet or exercise (which is why we have had doctors, nurses and physios on our client list).

Despite this, people are still told by government guidelines and health authorities to speak to your GP about your diet or exercise…rather than those of us who do this stuff for a living. Whether or not your GP should set a better example is an argument for another day, but it’s not our job to knock the health or shape of other professionals who spend their lives trying to help people. Rather our philosophy is to set an example to our own clients who come seeking dietary or exercise advice.

This is why we firmly believe at The Foundry, Personal Training, London, that we must also be able to walk the walk. Whilst this doesn’t mean we all strive for some bodybuilding model of physical perfection, all of our therapists, trainers and health professionals work hard to maintain their own health and fitness, which helps motivate our clients and sets a good example. (Not to say we can’t enjoy ourselves a bit too, but only on Christmas…and birthdays….and weekends…and every other Tuesday…)

Our osteopath Ricardo Davids is an excellent example of this philosophy so we thought we’d post a brief video of him performing a squat clean with a measly 80kg. His ultimate goal is 106kg (1.5x body weight) so we’ll be posting regular updates showing this athletic journey with tips and training advice along the way.

So remember, if you have a leaky pipe, call a plumber, if you get sick your GP is a sensible first port of call, but if you want to be strong, lean, pain-free and healthy come and see the team here at The Foundry, London.

Filed Under: Blog, Fitness, Health, Performance Tagged With: Clean, diet, fitness, GP, Health, Liverpool Street, London, medical, Nutrition, Olympic Lifting, Osteo, osteopath, osteopathy, Personal Trainer, Personal Training, Posture, Power Clean, rehab, rehabilitation, Ric Davids, Ricardo Davids, Squat Clean

Relieve pain, anxiety and tension… just take a deep breath

September 29, 2010 By Keith Littlewood

There are many reasons why people have to stop exercising or competing at sport and injury is one of them. We often think that an injury is usually a symptom of overuse or trauma, or it occurred whilst bending over to pick something up. However there are major influencing factors and right at the top of the list is the way that you breathe.

primary and accessory respiratory muscles

Primary respiratory muscles

Breathing is the most important function to be completed on a minute to minute basis. If we don’t breath we die! The diaphragm and the intercostals muscles are the primary muscle of inspiration and if restricted the accessory muscles of inspiration can become overworked.

These days we spend more time sat down, promoting a shortening of the abdominal muscles and subsequent collapse of the chest. As the diaphragm now has to fight through the associated muscles, the central nervous system perceives the threat of restricted oxygen/uptake and Carbon dioxide extraction and instructs the accessory breathing muscles to activate. If a breathing pattern disorder exists, the accessory muscles of inspiration may become overused.

This can lead the head to move forward of its normal alignment, slackening off the tongue muscles and causing the individual to develop an inverted breathing pattern. Inverted breathing pattern symptoms are well documented and include increased anxiety levels, increased allergic response, changes to the pH levels of the blood to more alkaline, increased stress hormone production; not to mention the knock on effect to the posture and movement dysfunction causing tension and pain.

With these changes taking place, the body is placed in a fight or flight situation through activation of the sympathetic nervous system and the adrenal glands which can cause fatigue when constantly activated. As the body has to adjust to the postural changes, the viscera or internal organs drop creating further stress on respiration and digestion and changing the angle of the pelvis. So literally the way you breathe can affect the way you move, pain levels, weight gain and a host of conditions such as fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue; the list is extensive.

Women are at increased exposure to a breathing pattern dysfunction (BPD) due to chest size which can influence the position of the spine which can cause Foward Head Posture (FHP). These factors can cause a disruption to entire body mechanics. So the next time that you have pain in your back, hip, knee or foot it may be worth seeing someone who is skilled in releasing and changing breathing patterns.

There is a simple test that can provide you with an idea of what a breathing pattern dysfunction (one of several patterns) may look like:

Step One – Place a hand on your abdomen and a hand on your chest.

Step Two – Breathe in and observe where the patterns of movement occur.

The key areas of movement will give you an idea of how you breathe.

If you predominantly breathe using the diaphragm, the belly should move away from the spine with the chest rising in the last third of the movement.

If your chest, neck and shoulders activate early or have excessive elevation of the rib cage, you may have an inverted breathing pattern. You may also observe lack of movement in anterior/posterior and lateral movements of the ribcage which is indicative of breathing and thorax restriction.

To effectively release a BPD, you often need someone skilled at releasing the soft tissue and surrounding structures, such as a neuromuscular therapist or osteopath, however the following exercises can help to prevent such issues.

Poor posture can cause tight scalene muscles

The scalenes are typically considered accessory breathing muscles and may often be the cause of pain and restriction.

Scalene stretch

Stretching the anterior scalene can help to alleviate these issues and assist with improved breathing mechanics. Place your hands just above the collar bone and place some light pressure, whilst bending and turning your head away. You should feel a good stretch in the neck and up to the jaw.

The prone cobra is a great exercise that targets the back and front of the neck. It helps to prevent a FHP and creates strength and endurance for the back and neck muscles which are prone to lengthening and weakening with a breathing dysfunction.

Prone cobra exercise

Lay on your front. Raise your head then chest from the floor and turn your arms outwards. Keep your chin tucked. Initially try holding for 10 seconds for 10-15 repetitions for 1-2 sets. The target is for you to be able to hold this position for 3 minutes.

Performing resistance training properly with correct form and breathing is also very important. Just like with flexibility, if done properly it will improve the body’s function, but done badly it can hinder it. If you spend time flexing your abs in the mirror you will invariably develop an inverted breathing pattern.

Another way to develop a good breathing pattern is to lay on your back and take deep breaths in through your nose and out of your mouth. Place a purse or something similar on your belly to check that your diaphragm is working. As you breathe in the belly should move towards the ceiling. It’s also a great way to relax!

Keith will be running a 90minutes seminar looking at eating, moving and breathing properly in the near future. To book you place please email Rhiannon@foundryfit.com

Keith ‘Tommo’ Littlewood
BSc, CHEK III, NeuroMuscular Therapist
www.balancedbodymind.com
Get updates from Tommo

Look Better, Feel Better (Why not do both?)

September 24, 2010 By Dave Thomas

The following transformation comes from a client I have worked with for over 2 years, on and off. Paul’s original goal was to run a sub 40min 10km. The irony is we never hit this goal, despite being on target with a 42 minute practice run, because Paul sprained his ankle playing football…twice! So we decided he’d probably benefit from a bit more functional muscle.

Results

This first photo demonstrates that we have to keep invidual goals in mind when training clients. Seems a pretty obvious point for a personal trainer right but you’d be surprised how many clients in gyms all over are given stock programmes with little regard to the biomechanics, posture or structural imbalances of the client.

Whilst Paul packed on over 6 kg of lean mass and reduced his body fat by around 5% in 8 weeks with only one private session a week, (although he did do a few workouts himself) the most pleasing aspect for me was seeing the massive improvements in his posture.

3 months hanging from a pull up bar does wonders

We also made some excellent improvements to his physique and fitness. Paul is 6 foot 7 inches and had never tried any compound lifting before. Within 6 months he was deadlifting 180kg with a pronated grip and no straps; that’s a lot of weight to lift that far off the ground.

Lean as a bean

The tan comes free

Since then we have trained Paul for various goals including several sports specific ones. (Paul holds the second fastest male time on our Versa Climber Eiffel Tower Challenge)

As Paul’s injury record testifies, when he started training, his coordination defintely needed some fine tuning. Anyone who knows him will be very impressed with the following video (where we did an agility circuit for a bit of variety) showing the vast improvements in his movement and speed.

This is what Paul had to say:

Paul has said many things about us over the years, most of them actually quite nice, but I thought I’d just offer this short, simple testimonial:

Really fantastic. I’ll always keep training at The Foundry, as they’re flexible and understanding enough to fit a plan around you – rather than whatever crazy fitness trend happens to be doing the rounds at that very moment. With a great atmosphere which blends a perfect balance between friendliness and encouragement, you’d be silly not to try it out!‎

Paul, Director of Research at FC Business Intelligence and Chairman of eyeforpharma

Filed Under: Blog, Fitness, Transformations Tagged With: bodybuilding, dave thomas, fat loss, Liverpool Street, London, Personal Trainer, Personal Training, Posture, strength training, Weight Loss

Meet your New Best Friend

September 16, 2010 By Keith Littlewood

Part 5 – Meet your new friend

Over the past few days, I’ve given you an insight into specific boarding conditioning that should be turning you into one strong and stable hell raiser.

There are many other exercises that could be integrated into your yearly training plan, however I want to focus on a piece of kit that I think is invaluable for improving and maintaining range of motion and mobility of the muscles and joints.

Meet the foam roller, a simple chap and cheap to buy. This can be stuffed in your board bag with ease and weighs virtually nothing. In fact I’m so convinced of the rollers efforts to ease you into a better performance, I get all my clients to use one on a daily basis. You will learn to love the roller!

You can use the roller for two main purposes. The first is to reduce muscular tension often found as trigger points or tender points within muscles. The second is to mobilise joints, in particular the inter-vertebral joints of the spine.

Exercise 1 – Reducing muscular tension

You might ask why do I need to do this? Remember that early on we talked about posture and its relationship to optimal performance. The further you are away from good alignment, there exists more chance of reduced mechanical performance (how well you move) and the incidence of injury. The foam roller can help you identify any potential tender spots, which may have formed from repetitive movement, poor nutrition or psychological stress. The body is composed of tonic or stabilising muscles (prone to shortening/strengthen) and phasic or movement muscles (prone to lengthen/weaken). These can be dysfunctional for a variety of reasons.

Using a foam roller and reducing the neuromuscular tension prior to stretching has a much better effect on range of motion, than simply stretching alone.

The rectus femoris or thigh muscle is predominantly a tonic muscle that can cause your pelvis to tilt forwards (one of several muscles), which can change your centre of gravity and performance on the board.

Exercise 2 – The Release

Place the roller just above the knee with your arms straight down.
Avoid extending the back too much.
Roll up the thighs until you reach the top. Gents may need to stop a little earlier!
Get off the roller and replace above the knees. DO NOT ROLL DOWN the thighs.
IF this is quite comfortable, try completing on one leg at a time.
Repeat 2-4 times each side, pay attention to any tender spots.
If the tension does not subside you may be going too hard, apply pressure accordingly

The Stretch

You have probably stood up and lifted your heel to your backside to stretch out your thighs. This stretch is simply ineffective as it causes the pelvis to tilt further forwards.
Using a Swiss ball or Chalet sofa serves to stretch the muscle without the tilt associated with standing.

Place a ball against the wall.
The thigh that you are going to stretch is placed behind you with the shin on ball.
Place the other leg forwards on the sole of the foot.
Raise arm up in the air (same side as stretch) to add a multi dimensional stretch.
Now attempt to squeeze the glute or backside muscle on that side to increase the stretch. This may be very tight for you, so go gently to start!
Hold for five seconds then relax for five, complete 3-5 times.
Avoid leaning back.
Repeat on the other leg.
You may wish to try a ratio of 2:1 for a side that appears tighter.

If you’ve covered all the advice in this series of article, you’ll be well prepared to hit the slopes. Keep an eye out for our more advanced training for snow and ski later this year.

Here’s a snowboard and a ski video to get you motivated.

Pro Snowboarder Jeremy Jones Shredding the Backcountry from Teton Gravity Research on Vimeo.

Seth Morrison, K2 SKEEZE THE MOVIE 3 from Drew Lederer on Vimeo.

See you on the chairlift!

Filed Under: Blog, Performance, Snowsports, Sport Tagged With: CHEK, Fit for Snowboarding, fitness, Health, Keith Littlewood, Posture, Ski, Snowboard, Snowsports, Sport