Training for structural balance and a healthy body composition are great goals however to really take your health and fitness to the next level we need to start looking at having some performance targets.

Once you have started to lay the foundations of robust good health through implementing good basic habits you will have the resilience to start training your body in a more focused manner. This should start with a physical assessment to establish where you are starting from.

The clue is in the name – everything we do here at CoActive Health is underpinned by us striving for and maintaining robust good health.

With the end of lockdown in sight and the reopening of gyms around the corner there is plenty to look forward to. We are all very excited to have you back. In the meantime, here are some helpful tips on how to prepare for your comeback and what to expect upon return.

I’m sure by now you appreciate just how important quality sleep is to your health and general wellbeing. If you could bottle it then it would arguably be the greatest drug on earth!

In this article we explain the benefits of mobility training as well as sharing our favourite tools and techniques to help you achieve better mobility.

I have been asked by several clients recently about my views on the new Netflix documentary ‘Game Changers’. For those that are not familiar, it is a high production documentary produced by James Cameron about the benefits of a plant based diet – basically veganism.

In this article we take a look at recovery and why it’s important as well as discuss some strategies on how to measure and maximise your recovery.

In many of my consultations I find myself explaining why FAT is important for our bodies, explaining about different types of fat and convincing clients that eating fat as part of a balanced dietary intake will not make them fat. So, I thought I would write a short article to dispel any myths that still abound regarding dietary fat.

Your liver is the largest organ in your body weighing approximately 1.5kg and it performs around 200 vital functions in the body. It is important therefore to look after your liver if you want to maintain optimal health (not just in January when we have maybe overindulged?!) but actually throughout the year.

I don’t know about you but by the 1st of Jan my liver and kidneys are at a pretty low point and screaming out for some TLC. This gives us an excellent opportunity to reflect on how we might best support them in 2019!

When I started out in the fitness industry nearly 20 years ago I saw dramatic results with basic programs and simple dietary advice, the majority of clients seemed to respond very quickly to new habits and behaviours. Today the same advice simply doesn’t go far enough towards getting clients what they want. The big difference is stress.

Can you visualise what you want? I mean really see it, feel it, describe it, maybe even draw it? If you think about what you haven’t achieved in your life, could you describe it in detail, the impact, the benefits, the costs?

When you first start out on a journey of transformation, new habits, self-critiquing thoughts and mindful life choices feel alien and laboured. I am not going to dress it up, it’s hard work and something that needs focus and dedication to keep front of mind.

I recently took myself out of my comfort zone and went through the process of training for a gym photo shoot. Having based my training around strength for the past year it served as a good change up to go after a body composition goal.

For those new to us here at CoActive Health one of the most common questions we get is ‘where are your treadmills’? It’s a fair question seeing as the majority of gyms are saturated with cardiovascular equipment wheres we have a nice big open turfed space with a single assault bike and concept 2 rower in the corner.

Strength is the mother of all fitness qualities so it is very important to build a good foundation of strength regardless of your fitness goals. This phase consists of 2 workouts done alternately. Ideally this program should be performed 4 x a week.

A great nutritional strategy for many is to adopt a ketogenic diet. The name comes from the small energy compounds called ketones – which are an alternative fuel source when glucose is in short supply.

Strength is the mother of all fitness qualities so let’s take a look at phase 2. This phase consists of 2 workouts done alternately and ideally performed x4 a week.

With today’s growing diabetes rates becoming epidemic blood sugar management has become a major topic of interest. Imbalanced blood sugar levels are at the heart of many health issues from diabetes and obesity to heart disease. In this article, we are going to have a closer look at blood sugar management and how it affects your health.

Following on from structural balance we introduce phase one of strength training. This phase consists of 2 workouts done alternately. Ideally this program should be performed 4 x a week.

You’ve cleaned up your diet through cutting out pro inflammatory foods and basing your meals around single ingredient foods. With any luck, you should be experiencing better energy, digestion, sleep and performance in the gym. As discussed in part 1 of this series, a great deal of benefits can be gained from cleaning up our diet with a modified elimination diet.

I recently spent the weekend in the company of Wolfgang Unsöld, he is currently one of the most successful Personal Trainers and Strength Coaches in the world and is the founder of the Your Personal Strength Institute (YPSI) in Stuttgart, Germany.

Even I can bake these! They make an awesome replacement for bread and are extremely filling. What’s more flaxseeds are a good source of omega-3 fatty acids and can help with digestion and balancing hormones.

This is a full body workout designed to be performed twice a week for 3 weeks. We will often start personal training clients on a program like this as it addresses potential weak areas and provides great preparation for the more demanding sessions to come.

As you should be well aware despite what the latest bestselling diet book is trying to tell you, there is no ‘magic one size fits all’ diet for everybody. This is the reason you get such wildly opposing nutritional views from die hard veganism to exclusive carnivores.

We are constantly being bombarded with new diet and nutrition books however from the many that we have read in recent months ‘The Diet Myth’ by Tim Spector stands out for its interesting insights and quality.

This is a full body workout designed to be performed twice a week for 3 weeks. We will often start personal training clients on a program like this as it addresses potential weak areas and provides great preparation for the more demanding sessions to come.

Bone broths have been getting quite a bit of press of late for the potential health benefits.

Applied knowledge is power! Before looking ahead to 2018 we thought it would be a good idea to consolidate some of the lessons learnt over the course of 2017.

We are in the results business but we are also in the ‘people’ business. It’s important to have a life outside of the gym and this time of year for many it will involve social nights out and drinking. With this in mind we thought it a good idea to give our take on alcohol.

Christmas can be a tricky time of year for the goal orientated training population. On top of the ‘healthy’ stress of training comes inevitable social late nights out, alcohol and excess food. Although it is important to enjoy your life outside the gym there are a few points worth making to help better prepare you for the holiday season.

Typically in the past Intravenous Micronutrient Therapy was only used by the rich and famous, however it is now a common treatment broadly used by everyone worldwide. Whether you’re looking for an increased sense of wellbeing or an energy boost there is a cocktail of nourishing vitamins and minerals to suit all.

For most of us, the goal in life isn’t to own the biggest house, drive the most expensive car or go on the most exclusive holidays. It’s happiness. Some people are born with a happier disposition, where’s others tend to see the ‘glass as half empty’.

To achieve and maintain a healthy body weight the importance of controlling your blood sugars cannot be understated. Let’s look at what you can do…

We recently had the pleasure of hosting world renowned Functional Medicine Practitioner and body transformation expert Christian Maurice for his 3 day Level one seminar. Needless to say, it was a fascinating 3 days packed full of cutting edge information and practical advice on how best to transform your body.

Even though we are getting heavier and heavier as a western society, our calorie intake is actually getting less. In studies looking at hunter gatherer societies, in which no members of the tribes were overweight, they found that the average calorie consumption was 2800 per day. In our modern society we consume an average of 2000 calories per day. Yet we have significantly higher fat levels.

The concept of bioprint was developed by Charles Poliquin who was the first to make strong correlations with body fat measurements and corresponding blood hormone profiles.

Water is the single most critical nutrient for health, growth and development, it plays a vital role in balancing our bodies systems from digestion to respiration yet many people underestimate its importance.

It has been suggested that lack of quality sleep is the greatest obstacle to fat loss in the UK. (1) There is a direct correlation between weight gain and sleep quality or lack of.

Sometimes we can over complicate reasons for not reaching our goals faster so it pays to occasionally be reminded of the basics. It is vital we get these in place first and foremost!

Coach Wolfgang Unsöld is the founder and director of Your Personal Strength Institute in Stuttgart, Germany, a facility with some of the best equipment in Europe. In this article we share 3 lessons we learnt to improve your life from his 1 day hypertrophy, strength and fat loss seminar in southampton.

Ageing and getting older is a fact of life that we all must accept. However, the way in which we age and how healthy we stay can be manipulated. As science advances, we are learning more about the process of ageing and in doing so developing insights into how to stave off decline and stay youthful.

Here at CoActive we are a huge fan of chin ups, no other upper body exercise gives as much bang for your buck when it comes to building strength. A chin up with perfect technique is a full body movement requiring excellent core stability, great shoulder mobility and of course great elbow flexor and back strength.

To stay healthy and get the most out of your body every time you train it is important that you warm up correctly. Here at CoActive Health we divide the warm up into two categories – general and specific.

Romanian deadlift targets the lower back, glutes and hamstrings. It is a great compound lift that builds strength in the posterior chain and has awesome carryover to the full deadlift. We are a big fan of using this lift with personal training clients to really groove the hip hinge which is fundamental to lifting in the gym.

The program template that the personal trainers use here at CoActive Health is a little more detailed than the industry standard so we thought it would be beneficial to break it down and explain it.

We recently had the pleasure of hosting strength coach Tom Hibbert for a great seminar on ‘How to fix your clients squat’. The personal trainers at CoActive we’ve always been a big fan of squatting so any information on how we can improve our clients squat was always going to be of great interest to us. In this article we’ve outlined some of the key take home lessons that can help you to fix your squat too!

If you want to build more muscle, get leaner and of course, move better, mobility and flexibility training is essential.

If you want to build strong back and shoulders, develop muscle and improve your shoulder/elbow health, you better be thinking about hand positions when you train. Particularly on pulling exercises such as seated rows, Lat pulldowns and chin ups.

Modified Strongman training or MST consists of intense physical conditioning carried out in a group setting. Encompassing a huge variety of functional equipment, no other group exercise class comes close to matching the strength and anaerobic demands placed on its participants.

Last week world renowned strength coach Charles Poliquin taught his advanced program design course in Marbella Spain, here are a few of the lessons I learnt whilst there.

Semi private personal training entails one trainer looking after up to four members in a session. Members are given a bespoke programme to follow with the coach on hand to guide, motivate and record.

Not all personal trainers are equal! In this article we outline 4 points on what makes a great personal trainer.

Here at CoActive we are often asked why we have so many Thick Grip bars and Dumbells, there are many reasons for this but in this article we’ll share why thick grip training is so awesome.

Last weekend we had the pleasure of hosting world renowned strength coach Andre Benoit for 3 days here at CoActive Health. The weekend was a great learning experience for all personal trainers that attended and here are just a few of the gems of knowledge picked up by the CoActive team.