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Posts Tagged ‘procision fitness’
SUMMER SLIMMER 2010 - Outdoor fat loss program starting this April
Tuesday, April 13th, 2010
- 8 x early morning 45 minute bootcamp style outdoor training sessions in picturesque locations in and around Weymouth, delivered by one of only three Functional Training Specialists in the whole of Europe
- Full training program to complete outside of ‘bootcamp’ sessions
- Full diet complete with recipe ideas and example meal plans
- Email and telephone support as and when you need it
Tags: andy sloan, bootcamp weymouth, fat loss, fat loss weymouth, outdoor fitness weymouth, Personal trainer weymouth, procision fitness
Posted in Group Fitness | No Comments »
5 weeks into the Ironman project
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010
I’m currently just more than 5 weeks into the Ironman Project, in which I’ve cut my training volume by around 40%, played around with a few things, and am hoping to achieve a time 1 hour less than last years Ironman UK time. I have to say, even I’m a little suprised with just how well it’s all going thus far.
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In week 3’s testing session, I knocked 5 minutes off a bike: run brick session, with plenty of gas left in the tank. In week 4 I banged out a PB in the pool despite only having done 3 swim training sessions (other than the kick sessions I was doing previously due to shoulder operation). Most recently, at the end of week 5, for a 40 mile bike ride I increased my average speed by 1mp from 2 weeks previously, and a total of 2mph from the same session in week 2, which is more than a 10% increase in speed over 40 miles in just 6 weeks. Run times are also improving well, with average pace over 8 miles increasing by 20 seconds per mile within the last fortnight.
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As well as all this, the strength and conditioning is having a major impact in terms of injuries and various aches and pains. Staying in the aero position on the bike is much, much more comfortable for prolonged periods, with no ache whatsoever (I’d often get a little lower back ache from time to time before). There’s no knee pain during running (I used to get a little due to overpronation and tight ITB’s), and the shoulder is feeling strong once again.
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So, all in all, the program is still going extremely well, and I’m very excited about the next couple of months and the lead up firstly to Ironman Nice, and then to Ironman UK 5 weeks later. I’m also excited about releasing the details of the program to you just as soon as I’ve finished the guinea pig side of things. Until then, I thought I’d share just one workout with you, so check out the video, and I’ll write again soon.
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Stay strong.
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Andy
Tags: ironman triathlon training, procision fitness, strength training, Triathlon Training, triathlon weymouth
Posted in Triathlon Training, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Functional strength training for endurance athletes: Part 1
Sunday, March 21st, 2010
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Endurance athletes typically have a few things in common.
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Firstly, they love what they do, and knowing the fact that 99.9% of the population couldn’t imagine doing the sorts of races they do, whether its a Channel Swim, Ironman triathlon, mountain marathon, century ride or ultra distance run. Having the determination and dedication to complete and compete in these events is true testament to the human will, and something that only a small minority of people are capable of. The endurance athlete loves to push him/herself to the limit, overcoming barriers in training, and breaking down every wall that stands in their way on race day.
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They also love to train. Endurance athletes are quite happy to slog out 10, 20, 30 hours per week at their chosen sport, and make the sacrifice that is necessary to achieve their goal, whether it’s simply completing the course, or a top 5 finish. The training mindset of the endurance athlete is one that is strong, whatever the weather, against the odds, and willing to go the extra mile.
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However, like everyone, endurance athletes have flaws. The biggest that I can determine is that they (not everyone, but the vast majority) neglect strength training, or at least don’t perform the correct type of exercises in the gym. It is this similarity that is the focus of this article.
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Ask any endurance athlete out there why they aren’t performing strength and conditioning as an integral part of their plan, and I can guarantee that one or all of the following 3 points will come up:
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Strength training will make me heavy, slow and inflexible . . . .
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First off is the thought that performing strength training will make them heavier, sluggish and inflexible, and so strength training should be excluded from their training plan. There are a couple of things to address with this misconception. Firstly is the nature of the training that the athlete is associating with strength and conditioning. Often when people think of strength training, they think of traditional bodybuilding training, which is largely dysfunctional to the endurance athlete (although still seems to be advocated in a number of endurance sports training books). However, with a functional training program that has been designed in order to specifically enhance performance, you’re not going to get huge muscle mass gains, you won’t get any slower and you won’t get less flexible. In fact, you’ll actually become faster due to increases in strength, power, economy and movement patterns, you’ll get more flexible due to the integrated nature of the training, and as for getting bigger and slower? Nope. Regarding this, the first thing to mention is that the strength gains you’ll be getting are largely going to be down to improved neuromuscular performance, without a big increase in muscle size. Secondly, in general, endurance athletes are largely ectomorphs, who find it extremely hard to gain any significant muscle size. Those two things aside, the strength and power improvements you’ll gain will totally outweigh any added weight as you’ll be stronger, more powerful and more efficient at your event(s), thus making you a superior athlete and improving your performance greatly.
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I don’t have the time to train strength . . . .
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The second point is one of time. The endurance athlete spends so much time each week actually out on the road, in the pool or on the trail, that they believe there is no time left to perform strength training. To be fair, in their current regime, they’re probably right. But they shouldn’t be. There is time, and plenty of it. More so, it is a case of not being willing to ‘sacrifice’ a little swim, bike or run time in favour of 45 minutes strength training 2-3 times per week. The philosophy of the vast majority of endurance athletes is that in order to get better at swimming, cycling and running (or whatever your sport entails) the only and best way is to do more swimming, cycling and running.
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This is largely where overuse and overtraining injuries set in; that niggling hamstring injury that forces you to take a few days off every couple of weeks, that knee pain you get after mile 13 in your long run, the lower back ache when staying in the aero position on the bike for more than 5 minutes or when running up hill; the list goes on. In order to get better at your discipline, it’s NOT necessary to do it for longer, you just need to do it better. There’s no point rowing the boat harder if it’s pointing in the wrong direction.
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Strength and power training won’t help me as an endurance athlete . . . .
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My third point is the single greatest myth when it comes to training for the endurance athlete, and that is the fact that the endurance athlete feels that strength and power work will not improve performance in their endurance based event.
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During my recent mentorship at the Institute of Human Performance in Florida, Juan Carlos Santana explained this beautifully. Basically, believe it or not, endurance sports are ALL about POWER. The equation for power is work/time, So if an athlete runs a 3h30m marathon one year, then runs the same race the next year in 3h flat, she has become more powerful, as she has performed the same amount of work, in less time. The more functional power you have, the greater your stride length, swim stroke and cadence will be. Another equation for power is force x speed. If you’re stronger, you can generate more force, and as the equation states, power is dependent on strength and speed. So, you can see that it is absolutely necessary to develop functional power (it’s no good working on a 1 rep max power clean) as well as working on strength in addition to speed.
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By incorporating an appropriate and functional strength program into your training, you will improve also economy no end, meaning that movements require less effort, and so performance improves and injury risk reduces. Just think, in a 2 ½ hour run each foot will hit the ground around 13000 times. If it’s planting incorrectly, then that’s 13000 incorrect foot strikes in a single run. How many more times does your foot need to land poorly before your knee hurts, adductor pulls or achilles inflames? Not only this, but with incorrect movement patterns, comes power wastage, and if the body is not generating power from where it’s meant to, it’s got to find it from somewhere else. If however you’ve been (and still are) performing the right types of conditioning exercises, then you’ll minimize this and increase your power output and thus improve performance.
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An appropriate functional strength training program will give you the following key benefits:
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· Improved economy
· Reduced risk of injury
· Improved power output
· Improved neurological performance
· Improved lactate threshold
· Increased flexibility
· Increased functional strength
· Increased stride length
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From this article, you should now be thinking differently about the need for training strength for endurance sports success, and in part 2, I’ll be going into a little depth regarding just what a truly functional strength training program involves.
Tags: functional training, Personal trainer weymouth, procision fitness, strength training triathletes, triathlon fitness
Posted in Triathlon Training, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
2 Weeks into the Ironman Project
Sunday, March 7th, 2010
Well, today is one of my rest days in terms of training, so i thought I’d take the opportunity to let you now how the initial 2 weeks of training has gone on this new way of training that I’m ‘guinea pigging’ is going.
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In week 1 I trained for a total of just 7 hours, and in week 2 I racked up just 8, but ALREADY the results are starting to show! Now obviously I’m still not going to give away any specifics with regard tot he program, but I have to say that the extra rest I’m getting seems to be making a real difference. Despite working long days (3 days a week I’m up at 4.30m to train a client 30 miles away), I’m able to put a great amount of energy into every single session, no matter what time of day I’m training.
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This week I did a little testing session on the bike, and hit out a time that was slightly better than the same route, at the same sort of intensity, as I did at week 20 last year. As for running, I hammered out a hardcore session yesterday (I’d love to tell you the details but just can’t!!!), and knocked up a time that last year took me to week 12 to achieve. In terms of the swim, well that still sucks as the shoulder really isn’t up to it yet. Having said that, I’m just doing kick right now and having never put any focus whatsoever of kicking, it’s improving rapidly. Last year my swim times plateaued in training after hitting my time target for a 2.4 miler at about week 24. As soon as my shoulder is swim ready, it’ll probably take about 10-12 weeks until I’m hitting the same time as for last year. BUT, my feeling is that if this year I can do a little kicking rather than dragging two hairy anchors behind me, I still should be able to knock some time off last years IM swim. So right now I’m happy enough to kick kick kick!
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So you can see that right now, things are looking pretty good with training. Times are coming down, fitness levels are on the way up, and the training is time efficient and fun. Bonus.
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Until next time.
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Andy
Tags: andy sloan, ironman, procision fitness, triathlon weymouth
Posted in Triathlon Training | 1 Comment »
Triathletes, do we need to train so much?
Sunday, February 28th, 2010
Triathlon training at any level takes time, and lots of it. Professionals may train for up to 30-40 hours per week, and novices right up to age groupers will often put in between 4-25 hours per week depending on their circumstances. But is all this really necessary? Do we NEED to train for that long, or is alot of what we are doing, purely JUNK MILES? Is there a better way to train?
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I’ll be clear on something right now: The purpose of this post is not to try and change the way you train, or to rubbish any other method of training, rather, it is to encourage people to have an open mind when it comes to training for triathlon, and to let you know just what I’m up to right now in terms of training, following my week in Florida.
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During the mentorship program, in one of our final lectures, we got talking about swim training, and in particular, why it is that a sprint swimmer will put in so many hours and miles in the pool each week, when they are training for a race that lasts less than a minute. Do they really need to spend so long training? After all, a 100-400m track athlete doesn’t spend so long training, and we are all humans, so how is it beneficial for a sprint swimmer to train for so long? Would it not be more beneficial to have shorter, more focussed workouts, and more rest in order to allow proper recovery and reduce the risk of injury and over training? After all, how many swimmers (in particular children who are overtrained) develop shoulder, back and hip problems? I don’t know the exact figure, but it’s alot! We then spoke about marathon running, and again, is it really necessary to put in 40-80 miles a week, or would it be more beneficial to have shorter, more focussed workouts, with a bigger emphasis on recovery? After all, you make your improvements while you recover.
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We then touched on triathlon, and again the same things came up. Is it NECESSARY to do so many hours? Has ANYONE ever experimented with far less hours, but a much increased quality of training at the expense of junk miles? If you’re training for a long race, do you have to train for as long as the race (or at least each discipline) will take you? If you’re training for Ironman, that could mean putting in 2+ hour swims, 8+ hour bike rides and 5+ hour runs. No not every session, but you get the idea I’m sure. What I’m also sure of, is that there HAS to be a much better way to train. Step up Juan Carlos.
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At the end of the mentorship program, a few hours before we were flying back to the UK, I sat down with JC to get his thoughts on Ironman training, and in particular, to help me reduce my own Ironman training volume. Now, as well as the fact that I’m 100% sure that there are more effective methods of training for triathlon than are currently being utilised, I’m also recovering from a shoulder operation which has sidelined my swimming for 12 weeks, cycling for 8 weeks, and running for 11 weeks. On top of that, I work a long hours (much like you), and juggle a girlfriend, friends and family at the same time. Right now I have just 18 weeks to get into the best, injury free condition of my life in order to knock the 45-60 minutes off my Ironman time at IM France on June 27th (that’s my personal goal for the year).
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JC is a huge lover of all things sport and fitness, and was more than happy to look at my proposed training program, and after checking out my program, subsequently decided to slash my training hours by about 40%, and ‘play around’ with intensity a little, as well as introducing some pretty exciting new techniques. We then came up with a plan of attack. A structure was formed, followed by specific phases, and I spent much of the long flight home planning out each individual session. What we have come up with is something that has NEVER been tried, or at least documented, within the industry, and could well be something that will help triathletes all over the globe to achieve their goals in less time, with more recovery, and increased performance.
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What methods are we employing?
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Well…..there have to be some secrets right?! All I can tell you is that a couple of methods could, and probably will, raise a few eyebrows in the triathlon world, but both JC and I are extremely confident that what we have devised will work, and when it does, we are going to be ready to transform the way many triathletes go about their training, leaving you with more time, more energy, and better performance.
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From now, leading up to June 27th, I’ll be posting regularly on here letting you know how the training is going, the results I’m seeing and everything else….except of course the program! So keep your eyes on this area, and feel free to add your own comments Before you leave, checkout this video of myself and JC talking about the plan right here
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Wish us luck!
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Andy
Tags: andy sloan, functional training, ironman weymouth, jc santana, Personal trainer weymouth, procision fitness, triathlon dorset, triathlon weymouth
Posted in Triathlon Training, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Day 2 at IHP
Thursday, February 18th, 2010
Day 2 started with a workout with JC, we did 5 exercises in a circuit, with 30 seconds work and 15seconds rest for 40 minutes nonstop! This included ropes, stability balls, grip trainers, slings, hydraulic push pulls and a lot of effort! So we were all set up nicely for the day!
The first seminar of the day was a one where we discussed the biomechanics of the core musculature and the applied applications for a number of exercises and movement patterns. Carlos, explained also, the implications when we are trying to improve the performance of various movements for our clients.
Once we had finished this we had the privilege of being invited to watch the American Top Team training. For those of you who haven’t heard off the ATT, they are Mixed Martial Arts and Ultimate Fight Championship professional fighters. We observed a conditioning session and talked with the fighters after the session, gaining a great insight into some different ways to condition and train for different movements and fighting disciplines and styles.
Then we headed back to IHP and we discussed Body weight training circuits, both indoors and outdoors. Cesar, one of IHP’s top trainers, discussed the design of some awesome circuits for improving agility and body composition, which will be an invaluable reference tool for when we get back to the UK.
We finished the day with a brutal session of short but very intense sprints towing a 150lb tyre! Look out for pictures and videos soon!
Speak soon!
Andy
Tags: andy sloan, functional training, jc santana, Personal trainer weymouth, procision fitness
Posted in IHP Functional Training Mentorship with JC Santana | No Comments »
Weymouth Personal Trainer to help 100 people lose 1000lbs of fat for charity!
Friday, December 18th, 2009
The last few weeks I have been thinking of ways I can help as many people as possible to lose their excess Christmas poundage this January. I then came up with the idea that I should let 100 people enlist on an online version of my guaranteed results fat loss program for a fraction of the cost of personal training. It then dawned on me that not only should I do this, but rather than myself earn a single penny of it, I should donate all profits to charity! Wow!
So after much thought, planning and preparation, I have come up with this . . . . .
Starting January 4th, Procision Fitness, Weymouth and Dorset’s ONLY guaranteed results personal trainer, is going to help 100 people lose a total of 1000lbs of body fat, while also raising £1000 of cash for Julia’s House, an amazing local charity that helps children in Dorset suffereing from life limiting conditions.
The way I’m going to do it is by getting these 100 people (maybe you) to pay a £10 donation to charity, and try to lose 10lbs of body fat in 28 days (sign up via the big purple form on the homepage of www.procisionfitness.com). Once people have signed up, they (maybe you) get an email from me with a few more details about the program. Then, on January 1st, everyone recieves a copy of my Hit & Miss diet (the same as I use with my private fat loss clients), as well as further instructions. On January 4th the program begins. In the morning, these lucky 100 people will take some simple measurements (as per the instructions I send), and then begin their first workout.
Every single day, for 28 days, the 100 strong team will recieve an email directly from me with their days workout (provided via video uploads, photos and instruction so you can’t go wrong), nutritional help, advice on all things health, and more. Workouts take as little as 20 minutes per day, and require no specialist equipment, and the diet involves no magic supplements, starvation, calorie counting or anything like that.
At the end of the 28 days, so long as everyone has stuck to the program to the letter, each and every participant will have lost around 10lbs (typical results vary from 5-20lbs on this program), and will have raised at least £1000 for the Julia’s House.
So far as I’m aware, this is the first time this has ever happened here in the UK, and it’s set to be quite something. So if you are one of the millions who are looking to lose weight this new year, but don’t fancy private personal training, sign yourself up via the big purple box.
What are you waiting for?
Tags: andy sloan, fitness weymouth, Personal trainer weymouth, procision fitness
Posted in News | No Comments »
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