Healthy Fitness features

We’ll all be admiring the skill, dedication and fitness levels of the world’s leading athletes as they compete at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. But let’s not be passive observers, says personal trainer Jonathan Owen: we can all get motivated to get – and stay! – fit this summer.

This summer is a sports fan’s paradise, with football at Euro 2008 (albeit with no participating home nation team to support!), tennis at Wimbledon, Test Match cricket, Open Championship golf – and, of course, the ultimate test of sporting skill and endurance: the Olympic Games.

So there’ll be no shortage of sporting role models to inspire us to dig out those golf clubs or tennis rackets gathering dust at the back of the cupboard, or perhaps take up a new sport altogether. But once the major tournaments are over, how can we maintain our resolve to exercise regularly in the face of all the competing demands on our time and energy?

Advanced personal trainer Jonathan Owen offers his top 10 tips to motivate us to make this summer the season of sport and exercise.

• Take up a sport or exercise that you enjoy – the fun factor will keep you looking forward to it.
• Set realistic and specific goals for yourself – both short and long term. For example, “I want to lose weight and tone up” is too vague; your goal needs to be something like, “I want to lose 5kg in eight weeks so I can fit into my size 12 bikini on my holiday to Barbados”.
• Accept that there is a challenge ahead: write down all the benefits you’re feeling as you go through each week and get closer to your goal.
• Put a ‘before and after’ photo of yourself on the fridge – every time you reach for something you know you shouldn’t have you’ll be reminded of how far you’ve come and all the hard work and discipline it took to get you there!
• Get a fitness programme devised for you by a personal trainer who will know exactly what needs to be done to attain your desired goal. Write down everything you achieve so you can look back and see how far you’ve come.
• Change your exercise routine – run a different course, for example, and do some different sit-ups. As well as stopping you getting bored, you should see an improvement in your results, which will keep you motivated.
• Read health- and fitness-related magazines to learn new and different things about nutrition and training. Cut out realistic pictures of people’s bodies that you aspire to look like and put them up in places where you will see them every day!
• Organise regular workout sessions with family and friends – you can encourage each other and you’ll be more likely to go if you have someone to meet.
• Walk or run with your children and the family dog. Make it a regular activity – their enthusiasm, enjoyment and energy will spur you to keep going.
• Set up your iPod with the music that gets you pumped so you can ‘zone out’ and keep running when you feel the burn!

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Getting fit with ball games
With the World Cup to motivate us, it's a great time to get fit at home with some simple exercises that need no equipment other than a ball. So whether it's a golf ball, tennis ball or beach ball, personal coach Lucy Wyndham-Read has an exercise to suit all ages

Watch your back! Tips and exercises to help prevent problems
Low back pain will affect most people at some stage in their life and is one of the commonest causes of days lost from work. Alasdair R Wright, GP and sports medicine doctor, offers tips on reducing the risk of back injury, as well as some effective back-strengthening exercises

Prepare for summer: spring clean your medicine cabinet!
Before we're beset with the bites, stings, cuts and grazes that typically accompany outdoor activities, it's sensible to review the contents of the family medicine cabinet. GP Martin Bell offers advice on what to keep close to hand this summer

Simple exercises for healthy bones!
Bone health and risk of developing the degenerative bone disease osteoporosis are affected by age and lifestyle, as well as genes. Fortunately, it's never too late to start doing exercises that can help strengthen bone mass and density, says personal trainer Lucy Wyndham-Read.

'Let's Get Moving' to reduce bowel cancer risk
April is Bowel Cancer Awareness Month and the 2010 campaign is encouraging us to 'get moving' to reduce our risk of developing the disease. But what else can we do to maintain a healthy bowel and digestive system?

Exercises for a fitter digestive system!
To tie in with Bowel Cancer Awareness Month's 'Let's Get Moving' theme, personal fitness coach Lucy Wyndham-Read looks at what type of exercises are good (or bad) for our digestive system, and suggests a special new routine to try

Looking for an exciting new fitness challenge? Try triathlon!
The multisport triathlon is an increasingly popular choice for people of all ages and ability levels seeking an adventurous, fun and challenging way to keep fit. Personal trainer Lucy Wyndham-Read explains how to get started...

Scaling new heights of fitness!
Rock climbing requires more than having a good head for heights: it's an adventurous and challenging sport that gives you a full body workout. Personal trainer Lucy Wyndham-Read explores the fitness benefits...

All for one and one for all! The benefits of exercising in groups
Personal fitness coach Lucy-Wyndham-Read looks at the motivational, fitness and social benefits of training in groups, and offers tips to help get you started...

Invest in your future well-being with a health 'MOT'
We know that prevention is better than cure, yet many of us pay more attention to the condition of our car than our body! However, an annual lifestyle review can pay big dividends in terms of our future health, says Dr Alasdair R Wright.

A vision of good eye health...
Regular eye checks and a healthy lifestyle go hand in hand with healthy eyes, yet too often we overlook the health of our eyes until we start to experience vision problems. So what should we be doing to protect our eyes? Optometrist Karen Sparrow has some tips...

Winter warm-ups for safer exercising
When the temperature drops, it is important to warm up properly before exercising to help prevent injuries and increase flexibility, says personal trainer Lucy Wyndham-Read.

Have fun keeping active this winter!
Once winter sets in, it's tempting to toss the trainers in a cupboard and hibernate til spring. But as well as keeping you healthy, exercising on colder days can be invigorating and fun, says fitness coach Lucy Wyndham-Read.

Partner training
Sometimes keeping a consistent exercise routine can be hard work, it can be easy for training schedules to slip and other life activities to get in the way or be an excuse not to work out.

ACTIVITY TIPS
Activity tips

Expanding our health and fitness horizons
When we think of exercising today we generally think of western sports and games, football and rugby, tennis and swimming or just going to the local gym.We can broaden our exercise horizons so much by looking at different ethnic ways to stay fit and in good health. Have you ever thought about learning a different type of dance for example as a way to tone up?

All dive in for the Great North Swim!
The Great North Swim has proved hugely popular since its launch last year, with 5,000 entrants anticipated in 2009. If you're not among them, there are plenty of other incentives to get active through swimming — and even train for the next Great Swim!

Health and fitness tips for September
Health and fitness tips for September

QUARTER HOUR POWER
If you’re daunted by the task of starting a new diet or exercise routine, are easily distracted or find it hard to focus then taking the Quarter Hour Power approach – a new method for tailoring healthy living activities to your attention span – could be the perfect solution.

Retro Fun
The summer holidays give us so much more family time for fun and games.

Why not break the norm this summer? Try some different activities that may take you back to your childhood and summon a few laughs as well.

The great outdoors
Bored of your workouts in the gym or at home? Do you feel like you want more of a challenge whilst training and having fun?

Advice and tips to keep safe and stay healthy if you are going abroad this year
A number of things can help you get the most from your travel to hot countries. It is most important to stay cool and hydrated. Take lots of water with you ? don't rely on it being readily available. Only drink bottled water.

Health and fitness tips
Join that Pilate's class you've been thinking about. It's an excellent way to achieve a strong core, helps you to relax and make you more body aware..

Calling all parents!
It's coming up to the time of year many parents dread - the summer holidays!

Crank it up
The summer is finally here and the motivation to look and feel good seems more heightened. Holidays are approaching and the sense of having more time over weekends due to more light is now apparent, so how can we make the most of our time to exercise, have fun and spend quality time with our families? The thing that gets you about cycling is the amount of ground you can cover, all the sights you can see in just one workout can be so beautiful that longer times in the saddle can just fly by.

Health and fitness tips
Ditch the alcohol for one month, a pre-holiday cleanse! Notice how much more alert you feel alcohol can leave us having to burn off dead calories!

Swimming with the fitness tide
National initiatives such as Learn to Swim and Free Swimming are encouraging more people of all ages to start visiting their local pool. Personal trainer Lucy Wyndham-Read has some great workouts for you to try once you’ve taken the plunge…

Healthy lifestyle tips
Healthy lifestyle tips

Training with Weights - Celina Harding and Jason Anderson
When we think of weight-training, we automatically think of the local gym with lots of heavy equipment and burly men grunting their way through a workout.

Change 4 your Life?
Britain is heading towards an obesity epidemic, warn health officials, and only a ‘lifestyle revolution’ can reverse the trend. So will Change4Life be the campaign that finally persuades us to improve our diet and get more active?

Putting the fun into family fitness
Change4Life recommends 60 active minutes a day for every child but, as many parents know, persuading kids to exercise can be a challenge. Personal trainer Lucy Wyndham-Read has some fun games to get youngsters moving…

The wonders of the Heart (and how to look after it)
The heart is an amazing organ. It is really a specially designed muscle about the size of a fist and weighing about 250 grams that is divided into four chambers and which acts as an almost never-ending pump, pushing blood around our bodies.

Flagging running programme? Set some goals..
Lots of runners find that setting new goals fires up flagging fitness plans. It redefines what you want to get from your running, reminds you why you're dragging yourself through the park on yet another rainy Sunday, and breaks even marathons and ultra events into achievable steps of improvement.

Survival tips for marathon runners!
If you’re one of the brave souls running in this year's London Marathon, or perhaps taking part in another charity run, dietitian Azmina Govindji has some energy-boosting tips to help you stay the course!

Achieve your fitness goals!
Want to know how to achieve your fitness goals effectively? Then watch our webcast from goal setting expert Nick Jarvis, and ask him a question to get some great advice on how to achieve your goals in 2009

Goal-setting – a strategy for success!
Whether you want to weigh a few pounds less or find a job that pays a few pounds more, you can increase your chances of attaining your goals by having a proper strategy, says behaviour analyst Judi James.

Ski Fitness
The signs that winter is creeping in are everywhere and this change in weather historically prompts a mass exodus from the treadmills of your local health club to the ski slopes of Europe! In this little offering I would like to discuss the dynamics of skiing and the physiology of balance in order for us to better condition our often under-prepared bodies for the unpredictable mountain that lies ahead.

Pilates with expert Lynne Robinson
Lynne Robinson is a world renowned expert in pilates - with clients such as Hugh Grant, Pat Cash and the England Cricket Team. You too can now benefit from Lynnes' expertise with our Pilates exercise videos, for whatever your level of fitness.

Get motivated to get fit with a summer of sport!
We’ll all be admiring the skill, dedication and fitness levels of the world’s leading athletes as they compete at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. But let’s not be passive observers, says personal trainer Jonathan Owen: we can all get motivated to get – and stay! – fit this summer.

The burning question...
We've all been told for years about the dangers of too much tanning. But now experts are saying that too little sun can cause serious problems.

Have fun, get fit, feel free - it's Bike Week 2008!
On June 15, around 27,000 people will set off for the UK's largest charity bike ride from London to Brighton – a gruelling 54 miles. The rest of us, though, can join one of the many shorter rides on offer during Bike Week, and take up the challenge to ‘Have fun, get fit and feel free’!

On your bikes, kids!
As well as improving their fitness, cycling boosts children’s confidence, independence and self-esteem, say the campaign’s organisers.

Running back to fitness
Has your New Year's resolution to lose weight or exercise more begun to lose momentum? If so, don't lose heart: our fitness and nutrition experts have devised a simple running programme to get you back on track to a healthier lifestyle!

Boost your bone power!
It is an alarming fact that one in two women and one in five men over the age of 50 will suffer a broken bone as a result of osteoporosis at some point in their lives, yet there is much that we can do to build strong bones.

Animal Magic
Want to get fitter, healthier and more emotionally resilient? Get a pet. A growing body of studies confirms the health-boosting power of furry, scaly or feathered friends

3 treatments that make a difference
Millions of people visit complementary therapists for a variety of pains and problems, but can they really help? We weigh up the evidence for three of the most popular 'alternative' treatments

Living a normal life with Asthma
GP Martin Bell takes an in-depth look at asthma. Living a normal life is an achievable aim for most people with the condition, stresses Dr Bell - the secret lies in getting it under control.

How to get fit for summer
Fitness exercises advice adapted to you and to your specific needs

Living with high blood pressure
GP Martin Bell takes an in-depth look at high blood pressure or hypertension, a potentially life-threatening condition affecting many adults.

Fitness for life - exercise regimes for all ages
Exercise advice for all age groups, from children to older adults.

Overweight and inactive. Avoiding the negative spiral.
Lucy looks at some of the reasons for the obesity epidemic.