Out and About - Winter 2021

Whats the point of excer cise?

Why does anyone exercise? There are many reasons why people take up an exercise routine, from health related to social pressures to specific targets to general desire to “feel better”, and all of them are good reasons. Many people don’t do enough on a day-to- day basis to keep their bodies in the best condition that they can have, and if we add to that a less than perfect diet that so many of us find ourselves eating it is no surprise that the general level of health is declining, even though the life expectancy has been increasing (at least until the pandemic). But taking up exercise is not an easy thing to do; many people find it an unattractive activity, and even more don’t know how to do it without injury, so people shy away from even starting, which adds to the general downward spiral of “ageing gracefully”, which is rarely graceful. In this article we describe three motivations for exercise, and how the people who have taken it up have achieved what they set out to. Marathon Man If you ever think about people who run marathons seriously you probably have the idea of a lean, long person who carries no excess weight so as to maximise their speed over the ground. What probably does not come to mind is weight training, but Mike knew better. Although he was already an accomplished, and fast, marathon runner he recognized that if he wanted to improve he needed to gain some strength without gaining weight, which would require a disciplined and targeted approach. Luckily for Mike his wife had recently started working out at Abstract Bodyworks Newbury, a personal training gym which is entirely focussed on providing exactly the correct kind of exercise to build strength and to allow the client to achieve their particular goal, if they have one. Mike had a goal - to run faster and recover faster - and he thought that this kind of training could help. After an initial consultation about exactly what Mike’s objectives were, he added our workouts into his running training. Mike commenced on a training program that helped him, in 2017, to become the fastest UK runner in his age group at the London Marathon. At that point he’d achieved one goal so took a break from strength training, but when a new goal presented itself, running the first London Marathon after Lockdown, Mike recognized his same strength needs and came back to us. When he returned he was still in great condition even though he had “declined”

back to his 2015 state. But this time he and we both knew what we had to do, so we set about helping him regain the strength he’d lost, while also losing the weight he’d gained, and the results speak for themselves, but we’d rather let Mike I restarted in April 2021 with the weights. It would give me a great chance of getting back to where I was strength-wise for the Virgin Money London Marathon race day - 3rd October 2021. My hunch was correct, and with one session a week I again reduced my body weight overall by about 3kg. This was achieved by a combination of increased muscle mass to 42% from 39.8%, and reduced body fat to 11% from 13.5%. To put this into context, average muscle mass for a man like me is 31.4% and fat 17.9%. So what happened in the race? For any endurance athlete, a combination of reduced weight and increased strength is bound to result in faster times, all other things being equal, and so it proved. Despite the stiff head wind during the second half of the race, I was able to run it faster than the first half and finished in 2H 59M 37S. As a result, I am the first British runner (aged over 70), to break three hours for this distance and only the 4th in the world. To sum up: the training regime at Abstract Bodyworks improved my strength, enhanced my resilience to injury, improved my body condition and importantly, gave me the mental strength to finish strongly at the end of the race. Looking After Others Not all the heros of the SARS-CoV-2 Lockdown work for the NHS - there are countless others who carried on with their essential activities throughout; one of those was Julia. Although she was in great condition for her age she felt things beginning to slide and realized she needed help - but like many people she HATED the idea of going to the gym. Luckily, Julia found Abstract Bodyworks and immediately took to the personal training that we provide. Her goal was continue to be fit enough to continue providing support to her clients, and over the past three years she has done just. Over three years she’s increased her strength by between 130%-157% across her body, and kept her physiological See advertisement opposite for details of how to book two free personal training sessions. Quote O&APX2021 do the talking: Mike’s words:

age flat - so she’s physiologically three years YOUNGER than when she started! And she’s even managed to convince her partner to begin exercising with us too, with similar results. Once again her words say it better than we can: Julia’s words For quite a while I had been thinking of different ways to improve my fitness as I really needed to tone up to continue providing the service I do for my elderly and challenged clients. I began doing home exercises but I never got into the habit of doing them regularly, and I wasn’t really sure if I was doing them correctly anyway! When I saw the advert for Abstract Bodyworks I was interested; private, personal training by professionals who do know what they are talking about, and on a schedule that I can fit into my working life. Add to that I can do the work outs in my everyday clothes and it sounded even more ideal! Since I started this training I know I am much stronger, much healthier, and more toned - and my clients are seeing the benefits too. What’s OUR Point? Pat & I took up this form of exercise in 2000 when we realized that age was catching up with us and we wanted to do something to increase our chances for a long and healthy life. After living in the USA for 20 years we returned to find we couldn’t do this kind of exercise anywhere, so we set up our own gym! Over the nine years we’ve been in business we’ve trained hundreds of people, each with their own reason for wanting to get fitter, and because we tailor the work outs to the individual, and we document everything we do so completely, we know exactly how we help. So our point is simple - fitness and health isn’t really optional but essential. If you have a goal - being able to play with the grandchildren or that extra round of golf, getting into that party dress or up the stairs, whatever it is you should use that objective to help you drive your exercise activities - if we can help we’d love to do that.

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