Are you a couch potato?

Have a few missed gym sessions turned into a few missed months? Have you been “WFH”? and this has turned your daily walks into a lazily glide to the home office and back? Perhaps you’ve always disliked the thought of exercise and have fallen into the habit of spending most of the day sitting or lying down. If this is the case, it could be that you’ve fallen into a sedentary lifestyle.

What exactly is a sedentary lifestyle?

Being sedentary is defined as being physically inactive. If you walk every day, have a regular training programme at the gym, exercise at home or are on your feet all day at work, then you would most likely be considered active. Sedentary tendencies include anything that doesn’t involve physical movement. Like if you drive or get the bus to work, sit at a computer for most of the day and are unable to make time for regularly exercise, then you are likely to be physically inactive or sedentary.

What are the risks to a sedentary lifestyle?

A sedentary lifestyle is often linked to a host of negative consequences and risks to your health.

These Include:

• Anxiety

• Depression

• Cardiovascular diseases

• Coronary heart disease

• Obesity

• Decreases in muscle mass

• Raised blood pressure

• Higher cholesterol levels

Whilst it is important to know and understand the risks of being sedentary, it is also vital to be aware of the benefits that an active lifestyle can provide. These include:

• Boost your mental wellbeing

• Improve your heart health

• Help you lose weight

• Support your immune system

And there are many more fantastic health benefits. While you may not suffer with health problems now, being physically active can help to support your body as you age, keeping you fit, healthy and happy.

So how can I avoid a sedentary lifestyle?

If you’ve fallen into a sedentary lifestyle, the idea of getting into a workout routine may seem daunting. However, there are some steps you can take to simply and effectively increase your activity levels:

• Perform some kind of physical activity every day, even if it’s very small. Anything is better than nothing, so if the idea of a full workout or a run seems intimidating at first, you can start with small stretches, short walks, or even dancing around your living room to get started
  

• Break up longer periods of not moving with movement, like standing as you make a coffee, or simply spend a couple of minutes stretching and moving. This all adds to your NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis), which is essentially all activity that isn’t planned.
  

• Mobility and flexibility are also important for your overall wellbeing and can be integrated into your day in gentle ways. Performing simple stretches and easy flow actions to keep your body moving.
  

• Don’t be afraid to get started at a gym. Sometimes it can really help to have a set location to work on your health, gyms will have all the equipment you need. It may feel intimidating, but it doesn’t need to be, everyone must start somewhere.
  

• Focus on consistency and forming active habits - it’s one of the best ways to make sure you’re getting the right amount of exercise every week. Making simple movements part of your weekly routine will help to keep you motivated, helping to form a lifestyle rather than trying to force yourself to exercise.

Any questions for Connor let us know

Contact us

Stretching, a waste of time?

“I’ve been stretching it” is still one of, if not, the most common phrases we hear in clinic when someone talks to us about an injury they are currently suffering from. For some reason there is a very apparent association between injury and stretching, especially when the injury is relatively new to the individual.

This could be due to the perception that stretching makes it ‘feel’ better or simply because it’s something that is socially engrained into society that we don’t do enough. The term stretching is frequently accompanied with “tightness”, another overused word in the fitness world, leading people to believe that they need to stretch in order to ‘reduce’ that feeling of being tight. However it isn’t always the best option.

And here is why:

A soft tissue injury such as a muscle strain is a trauma to an area of the body, which triggers an initial panic/protective response of locking up the surrounding structures. For the healing process to work more efficiently the brain and central nervous system first needs to understand the extend of the trauma and deal with it accordingly – it is very important you allow this process to happen. Continuously stressing the affected area with stretches will often contribute greater stress and additional aggravation to the already agitated and inflamed muscles. In short, stretching can be having a detrimental affect on soft tissue injury.

Book with Lloyd here

Our advice to anyone with an acute injury is to respect the healing process and facilitate only gentle manageable movements, determining load and range relative to pain/discomfort levels (i.e. full weight bearing for an ankle injury or total knee extension for a hamstring injury). Depending on the injury itself, we will often prescribe a checklist of things to complete during each phase before you move on to the next topic of progressions. For example, non-weight bearing isometrics all the way through to co-contraction and plyometrics. Positional isometrics are the best place to start to allow communication and information about the injury to be sent to the brain, as well as support the healing process of damaged tissue. If pain persists or remains particularly uncomfortable, we always recommend getting assessed by a medical professional before beginning any serious rehabilitation.

Feeling tight doesn’t always account for being inflexible or restricted over a joint. We suggest instead of using the muscles feeling as a measure, first ask yourself what area is tight and find out what position it needs to be in to determine maximum length. Then use this as a guide to first measure asymmetry when comparing left and right limbs, for example with the hamstrings you can perform the straight leg raise. Is there a clear and obvious difference between the two? Or is there a serious decrease in length compared to normative data (although normative data is not always important). Muscle length can also be determined by or restricted by load, for example, can the muscle deal with the load you are putting it under through various ranges. If so, stretching will do very little to help your bodies ability to tolerate load. Alternatively, the tightness you’re experiencing can also be down to muscles being over worked switched on for too long leading to fatigue. Stretching won’t prevent symptoms from coming back, adaptation of muscle strength through various ranges, during a regular and progressive training plan will be your best bet. Overall improving your bodies ability to withstand trauma and load.

In conclusion, This leads to an important note that Strength training > Stretching. However, strength is personal, it’s your capability to comfortably meet the physical demands of life. Being strong doesn’t mean you’re highly athletic or built to lift your own bodyweight above your head. Everybody should be strength training within the demands of what their body is capable and to a degree that matches their lifestyle. So, if you’re feeling ‘tight’ it’s not time to stretch, it’s time for you to get stronger.

My Gym Geek Journey Sophie

Welcome to our first blog written by one of our Peach Lab and one 2 one members Sophie.

I started my journey with Gym Geek in January. Before this I was always conscious of my weight and would do fad diets that I would stick to for a couple of weeks before going back to my bad habits. Clothes shopping was a big no for me and I would always wear baggy clothing, which in the summer was not comfortable at all. Going to a gym was something that petrified me. However, joining Gym Geek was the best thing I ever did. Everyone was so welcoming and supportive and went above and beyond to make me feel comfortable. Especially Suzi who without I would still be in a bad mindset with dieting and exercising. I started doing 2 group sessions a week and started to see some good results so I upgraded this to 3 group sessions a week. Although I was seeing results I wanted to push myself even further so upgraded again to personal training with Suzi. Best thing I ever did.

Learn more about peach lab

Any plan with Gym Geek includes weight\measurement checks. This really helped motivate me because you can see the results. Food…. Something I’ve always struggled with. The guys at Gym Geek encourage you to eat a normal diet, so no shakes or juices as long as you are in a deficit you can pretty much eat what you want. Perfect for a fussy eater like myself. My progress and food diary is checked weekly and the guys offer advise and guidance and encouragement if you’ve had a bad week. I’m now 2 stone lighter and I’ve entered a powerlifting competition which I would have never even considered if it was not for all the staff at Gym Geek!

Sophie Peach Lab Member