Saturday, April 23, 2011

Fitness New #16 - Chocolate

Fitness News #16

 

Hi Guys and Gals,

 

How's Easter going? 

 

Chocolate

 

One of the challenges of Easter is all those fattening Easter Eggs you are given, but there's a solution, put them in a bag and give them to me, I'll make sure they are disposed of carefully  J

 

Some of you may of heard my chocolate joke "you can get your daily protein requirements from 14 boxes of chocolate".  Well, its actually true.  While what is in chocolate varies, an example is;

 

Aero Bubbles Easter Egg, Milk Chocolate, Nestle

 

Calories in 100g of Aero Easter Egg

Calories           538 cals

Carbohydrate 57.6g

Protein             6.6g

Fat                   30.8g

Fibre                2.2g

Source: http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/calories/calorie_counter/easter_eggs.htm

 

However what you get from chocolate depends very much on which chocolate you eat.  The range of nutrition varies considerably;

Fat                   10-35%

Carbs               20-70%

Sugars             0-65%

Dietary fibers 3-35%

Protein             3-22%

Calories per     100g 200-550

Source: http://www.cacaoweb.net/nutrition.html

 

And then they add sugar….

 

So does this mean we shouldn't eat chocolate?  No its not about denying what you love, its about understanding the beast and acting accordingly.  Taking control is about taking a number of simple steps;

  1. Which chocolates do you commonly eat
  2. What is the nutritional contents of those chocolates
  3. Was that a shock
  4. What other chocolates are there, that may interest you

Empowered with this information, you are now in a position to make choices when buying and consuming chocolates;

    • Which ones to buy
    • How much to eat
    • How often to eat chocolate
    • What are you going to sacrifice to balance your diet or
    • What extra exercise are you going to do

 

For the record, Lindt85 is my favourite, though I see it as an occasional food - enjoy

 

Outdoor Cycling

 

Woman's introduction to track riding – Saturday 2pm

Not on Easter weekend Saturday, Jessica will be back this coming Saturday

Info : http://www.dhbc.org.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2344

Contact: Jessica jnor7837@gmail.com

Guy's are on Monday and Wednesday nights.

 

Road Training

My club has an adventure ride every so often and we had one on Friday.  Riding up to Akuna Bay, we had a large group of cyclist and decided to split into 2 groups, a faster group and a slower group.  The weather was absolutely stunning, not hot, not cold, not windy.  Topped it off with breakfast at Narrabeen Lakes before riding back to Marrickville

 

Conversely on Sunday morning, I had my bike setup for Time Trailing and headed for Centennial Park and it was a bad decision.  Once in Centennial the heavens opened up and most of us just had summer gear on and we froze.  On the way home we were shivering, teeth were chattering.  Taking my shoes off, I couldn't feel my feet, it was straight into the shower, followed  by a bath.  By the time I got out of it, I had 15 minutes to get ready and ride up to Riverwood for the RPM class, this time with a tonne of winter clothing on.

 

Tomorrow is the Sunday training ride to Waterfall, I think I'll give it a miss…

 

Classes

 

Walker st, North Sydney – HELP, have you got a friend in the area, ask them to go to the class

 

Easter Monday, join me at  Fitness First, Newtown

 

Fitness First

Mon 25/04/11 5:00 PM           Newtown 5.00pm   (Fivedock cancelled)

Tue class cancelled

Wed 27/04/11 5:45 PM           N Strath Wed 5.45pm

Thu 28/04/11 6:00 AM           Walker Thu 6.00am

Fri 29/04/11 6:15 AM             Rock Fri 6.15am  - new permanent

Sat 30/04/11 8:15 AM            Rock HiPf Sat 8.15am is being covered by Wendie

This is Wendie's first class at Rockdale, come along and ride with Wendie.

 

YMCA

Mon class cancelled

Tue class cancelled

Check the timetable for alternate classes

 

Ask Mike

 

If you have any questions or things you would like to see in the newsletter, then let me know

 

See you at the Gym

 

Cheers Mike

 

 

Sleep Ride Eat Repeat

 

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Fwd: Fitness News #15

Hi, there's been some changes to the classes, due to Easter weekend.  The classes will be;

Fitness First
Thu 21/04/11 6:00 AM    Walker Thu 6.00am
Mon 25/04/11 5:00 PM    Newtown 5.00pm
No class on Saturday or Tuesday

YMCA
Sat 23/04/11 10:30 AM    Riverwood Sat 10.30am
No class on Monday or Tuesday


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Michael Clement <clementmi@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Apr 17, 2011 at 9:06 PM
Subject: Fitness News #15
To:


Fitness News #15

 

Hi Guys and Gals,

 

Well everyone seems to keeping up the good work, as winter starts to knock on the door, though the rain on Saturday kept a few away

 

Instructor Training

 

This weekend there was training for instructors, yours truly did 3 RPM classes on Saturday, after the mornings Hi Performance classes.  On Sunday I did Body Pump and CX3 which is a new core program that hasn't been released yet.  The new music that was used won't be made available to me until May 15th

 

Outdoor Cycling

 

Woman's introduction to track riding – Saturday 2pm

Third session was indoor as we don't use the velodrome when its raining.  The riders used bikes attached to mag trainers.  Eleri demonstrated how to ride a bike on rollers

Info : http://www.dhbc.org.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2344

Contact: Jessica jnor7837@gmail.com

Guy's are on Monday and Wednesday nights.

 

Road Racing

On Saturday I figured that Sundays road race would be cancelled for sure, but I was wrong so I rode over the start line, with 4 RPM's in my legs.  I wasn't expecting to set the world on fire.  The format was A vs B,  C vs D graded handicaps and E grade racing themselves.  Placed in A grade, we set of chasing B grade and by halfway they had a 40 second lead, a couple of laps later and it was down to 30 seconds.  Historically A grade had never caught B grade, but this time we had a chance.  Down to 2 riders, we were swapping turns each lap and the seconds were dropping, not every lap.  With 3 laps to go it was down to 14 seconds and we put everything into it, catching them with 200mtrs to go, but we were spent and they had the better of us.  End result for me 2nd in A grade, 4th on handicap.  Not so bad.

 

Exercise on Holiday

 

How many of your friends have gone on holiday only to come back looking like they haven't set foot in a gym in their lives.  But they were only away for 2 weeks, how could they have lost so much fitness.

 

Well the real crime while on holiday is actually the diet.  When you are at home you have control over what you eat, but on holiday the food is whatever is dished up to you and most commercial food is based on taste, presentation and cost.  The reality is that food can be made tasty at a low cost by using cheaper high calorie products.  If you buy prepared food that tastes really good, its pretty likely to be bad for you.  Alcohol is high up there too, we tend to drink more when we are on holiday.

 

OK, we don't want to loose that fitness while we are on holiday, so what can we do.  Well basically there are 3 basic options;

  1. Incidental exercise
  2. Local facilities
  3. Personal options

 

Incidental Exercise

This is activities provided by the purpose of holiday itself, for example;

  • Skiing
  • Bush walking
  • Swimming
  • Walking
  • Kayaking
  • Dancing

The benefit here is that you've done the deed without cutting into the holiday time as its built into the activity itself.

 

Local Facilities

Most hotels have some sort of gym, however there can be a wide variety in what they provide.  So what to do is take opportunity out of what you find, rather than entering the gym with a strict routine in mind.  The trick is to know a wide variety of exercises and know how to apply them to a variety of equipment

 

Local Gym.  Most gyms offer casual visits for a fee, typically $20.  Research the visiting location before you depart, send them an email if they don't have the info on their web page.

 

Bike hire.  Once again do the research prior.  Some cities have hire bikes that you just walk up to and use, such as Paris.

 

Running.  This kills two birds with one stone, you exercise and you get to explore your local surroundings.  This is my favourite , I've done things like head down a dirt road and found a small local village, cased out the local restaurants and found activities that I didn't know was available.  Often the hotel will have some running route suggestions.

 

BYO.  Perhaps running isn't your thing, or your not sure of the local safety.  No problems, all you need is your own body and perhaps something like an iPod loaded with your favourite yoga (or something else).  Even if you haven't got a video to follow, you can do some bodyweight exercises.  A colleague suggested;

- plank
- squats
- push ups
- jump squats
- lunges
- jump lunges
- dips
- reverse crunches
- oblique twists

iPod applications

 

Having been asked to write up about iPod applications for strength and exercise, I found a wealth of applications and reviews of those applications.

 

Loading your phone with lots of cool apps is in vogue nowadays, but not everyone, including yours truely has got into

 

What is an iPhone

An iPhone is a small portable computer with a touch screen.  It also makes phone calls.  It provides a huge benefit over a convention computer in that it is small, light and portable.  The iPod touch also caters for applications

 

What is an app

App is short for application.  An application is a computer program designed to run a phone.

 

Do I have to buy the iPhone, or can I buy another brand

Most of the applications have versions for andriod which is the computer system run on most other phones.  Microsoft have recently released a new computer system for phones and we can expect most of the applications to be available in the near future.

 

What do fitness apps do

What fitness apps do is almost limited by imagination, but in a nutshell they could acheive can be categorised as;

1. Provide a set of information about the activity.  This could be as simple as a list of things to do right thru to video presentations

2. Capture details on your activity. Typically recording what you have done, but can include  tracking your results.

3. Analyse those details.  Usually mapping the details against your goals and objectives

4. Refine what activity is to be done based on analysis of the results.

 

In plain English, you tell it about you, tell it what you want and it tells you what to do, refining that instruction as you log it's results.

 

Most applications are no where near as smart as the description above and most of the time we don't really need all those bells and whistles.

 

How much do applications cost

All but a few are either free or cost so little that it wasn't a concern.

 

 

Which application is for me

There are so many out there, that we are spoid for choice. In fact there are too many choices. I asked the question on a womans fitness forum and these were the ones they were using;

Livestrong - http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate/iphone-calorie-tracker/

Nike - http://www.apple.com/ipod/nike/

Gym Buddy - http://www.appstoreapps.com/2009/01/26/gym-buddy/

mapmyrun - http://www.mapmyrun.com/imapmy/

MyFitnessPal - http://www.myfitnesspal.com/iphone

Weightbot - http://tapbots.com/software/weightbot/

All Fitness - http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/all-in-fitness-700-exercises/id365497220?mt=8

couch to 5k! - http://www.c25k.com/

Run keeper - http://runkeeper.com/

 

What was apparent in the responses was how much they loved their applications.  In particular the respondant for Gym Buddy said;

[quote]

It is simple to use for basic stuff (including supersets), though if you want to get fancy you can delve deeper into it and set up plans with varying arrangements of exercises within a 'workout'. e.g. You might have 'Workout X' and within that you'd have plans for Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, etc in the cycle.

 

It has a decent enough library of exercises, but you can quickly define your own categories and include notes with each exercise and indidvidual set. (handy for tracking setup notes about machines at different places)

 

You can enter in cardio type stuff, and define your own fields so you could copy data from your bike compter/hrm into it e.g. time, distance, peak HR, avg power, etc. An app called fitphone looks nice as well, and can do GPS logging so that may be of interest - it also does other stuff much like GymBuddy, though I have never used it just perused screenshots.

 

Honestly: I'd suggest jailbreaking, drop Installous on, trial them and buy the one that works. I bought one because it was a simple log, except when Apple dropped the fullstop/decimal point from the default number keypad you suddenly coudn't enter in a half kilo weight - so it was useless, other ones are buggy as well. Trialled gymbuddy and it was great so I bought the full version.

[/quote]

 

Can I change applications

Of course you can simply install an new app and start using it.  However it is highly unlikely that you will be able to move your information from the old application to the new application, you will have to start again

 

Further reading

Top 5 fitness apps review: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-10304825-233.html

Health and fitness apps review: http://iphone-apps.toptenreviews.com/health-and-fitness/

 

Classes

 

Need your help with Walker st at North Sydney, the class is under attended.  If you have any friends who train at North Sydney, ask them to come.

 

Next weekend is Easter, come and join me at Newtown on Monday at 5pm.

 

Fitness First

Mon 18/04/11 5:45 PM           5Dock Mon 5.45pm

Tue 19/04/11 6:45 PM            Rock Tue 6.45pm

Wed 20/04/11 5:45 PM           N Strath Wed 5.45pm

Thu 21/04/11 6:00 AM           Walker Thu 6.00am

Sat 23/04/11 8:15 AM            Rock HiPf Sat 8.15am

Mon 25/04/11 5:00 PM           Newtown 5.00pm

 

YMCA

Mon 18/04/11 7:30 PM           Riverwood Mon 7.30pm

Tue 19/04/11 6:15 AM            Riverwood Tue 6.15am

 

Ask Mike

 

If you have any questions or things you would like to see in the newsletter, then let me know

 

See you at the Gym

 

Cheers Mike

 

 

Sleep Ride Eat Repeat

 




--
Michael Clement
clementmi@gmail.com
------------------------------------------------------
Sleep Ride Eat Repeat

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Fitness News #15

Fitness News #15

 

Hi Guys and Gals,

 

Well everyone seems to keeping up the good work, as winter starts to knock on the door, though the rain on Saturday kept a few away

 

Instructor Training

 

This weekend there was training for instructors, yours truly did 3 RPM classes on Saturday, after the mornings Hi Performance classes.  On Sunday I did Body Pump and CX3 which is a new core program that hasn't been released yet.  The new music that was used won't be made available to me until May 15th

 

Outdoor Cycling

 

Woman's introduction to track riding – Saturday 2pm

Third session was indoor as we don't use the velodrome when its raining.  The riders used bikes attached to mag trainers.  Eleri demonstrated how to ride a bike on rollers

Info : http://www.dhbc.org.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2344

Contact: Jessica jnor7837@gmail.com

Guy's are on Monday and Wednesday nights.

 

Road Racing

On Saturday I figured that Sundays road race would be cancelled for sure, but I was wrong so I rode over the start line, with 4 RPM's in my legs.  I wasn't expecting to set the world on fire.  The format was A vs B,  C vs D graded handicaps and E grade racing themselves.  Placed in A grade, we set of chasing B grade and by halfway they had a 40 second lead, a couple of laps later and it was down to 30 seconds.  Historically A grade had never caught B grade, but this time we had a chance.  Down to 2 riders, we were swapping turns each lap and the seconds were dropping, not every lap.  With 3 laps to go it was down to 14 seconds and we put everything into it, catching them with 200mtrs to go, but we were spent and they had the better of us.  End result for me 2nd in A grade, 4th on handicap.  Not so bad.

 

Exercise on Holiday

 

How many of your friends have gone on holiday only to come back looking like they haven't set foot in a gym in their lives.  But they were only away for 2 weeks, how could they have lost so much fitness.

 

Well the real crime while on holiday is actually the diet.  When you are at home you have control over what you eat, but on holiday the food is whatever is dished up to you and most commercial food is based on taste, presentation and cost.  The reality is that food can be made tasty at a low cost by using cheaper high calorie products.  If you buy prepared food that tastes really good, its pretty likely to be bad for you.  Alcohol is high up there too, we tend to drink more when we are on holiday.

 

OK, we don't want to loose that fitness while we are on holiday, so what can we do.  Well basically there are 3 basic options;

  1. Incidental exercise
  2. Local facilities
  3. Personal options

 

Incidental Exercise

This is activities provided by the purpose of holiday itself, for example;

  • Skiing
  • Bush walking
  • Swimming
  • Walking
  • Kayaking
  • Dancing

The benefit here is that you've done the deed without cutting into the holiday time as its built into the activity itself.

 

Local Facilities

Most hotels have some sort of gym, however there can be a wide variety in what they provide.  So what to do is take opportunity out of what you find, rather than entering the gym with a strict routine in mind.  The trick is to know a wide variety of exercises and know how to apply them to a variety of equipment

 

Local Gym.  Most gyms offer casual visits for a fee, typically $20.  Research the visiting location before you depart, send them an email if they don't have the info on their web page.

 

Bike hire.  Once again do the research prior.  Some cities have hire bikes that you just walk up to and use, such as Paris.

 

Running.  This kills two birds with one stone, you exercise and you get to explore your local surroundings.  This is my favourite , I've done things like head down a dirt road and found a small local village, cased out the local restaurants and found activities that I didn't know was available.  Often the hotel will have some running route suggestions.

 

BYO.  Perhaps running isn't your thing, or your not sure of the local safety.  No problems, all you need is your own body and perhaps something like an iPod loaded with your favourite yoga (or something else).  Even if you haven't got a video to follow, you can do some bodyweight exercises.  A colleague suggested;

- plank
- squats
- push ups
- jump squats
- lunges
- jump lunges
- dips
- reverse crunches
- oblique twists

iPod applications

 

Having been asked to write up about iPod applications for strength and exercise, I found a wealth of applications and reviews of those applications.

 

Loading your phone with lots of cool apps is in vogue nowadays, but not everyone, including yours truely has got into

 

What is an iPhone

An iPhone is a small portable computer with a touch screen.  It also makes phone calls.  It provides a huge benefit over a convention computer in that it is small, light and portable.  The iPod touch also caters for applications

 

What is an app

App is short for application.  An application is a computer program designed to run a phone.

 

Do I have to buy the iPhone, or can I buy another brand

Most of the applications have versions for andriod which is the computer system run on most other phones.  Microsoft have recently released a new computer system for phones and we can expect most of the applications to be available in the near future.

 

What do fitness apps do

What fitness apps do is almost limited by imagination, but in a nutshell they could acheive can be categorised as;

1. Provide a set of information about the activity.  This could be as simple as a list of things to do right thru to video presentations

2. Capture details on your activity. Typically recording what you have done, but can include  tracking your results.

3. Analyse those details.  Usually mapping the details against your goals and objectives

4. Refine what activity is to be done based on analysis of the results.

 

In plain English, you tell it about you, tell it what you want and it tells you what to do, refining that instruction as you log it's results.

 

Most applications are no where near as smart as the description above and most of the time we don't really need all those bells and whistles.

 

How much do applications cost

All but a few are either free or cost so little that it wasn't a concern.

 

 

Which application is for me

There are so many out there, that we are spoid for choice. In fact there are too many choices. I asked the question on a womans fitness forum and these were the ones they were using;

Livestrong - http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate/iphone-calorie-tracker/

Nike - http://www.apple.com/ipod/nike/

Gym Buddy - http://www.appstoreapps.com/2009/01/26/gym-buddy/

mapmyrun - http://www.mapmyrun.com/imapmy/

MyFitnessPal - http://www.myfitnesspal.com/iphone

Weightbot - http://tapbots.com/software/weightbot/

All Fitness - http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/all-in-fitness-700-exercises/id365497220?mt=8

couch to 5k! - http://www.c25k.com/

Run keeper - http://runkeeper.com/

 

What was apparent in the responses was how much they loved their applications.  In particular the respondant for Gym Buddy said;

[quote]

It is simple to use for basic stuff (including supersets), though if you want to get fancy you can delve deeper into it and set up plans with varying arrangements of exercises within a 'workout'. e.g. You might have 'Workout X' and within that you'd have plans for Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, etc in the cycle.

 

It has a decent enough library of exercises, but you can quickly define your own categories and include notes with each exercise and indidvidual set. (handy for tracking setup notes about machines at different places)

 

You can enter in cardio type stuff, and define your own fields so you could copy data from your bike compter/hrm into it e.g. time, distance, peak HR, avg power, etc. An app called fitphone looks nice as well, and can do GPS logging so that may be of interest - it also does other stuff much like GymBuddy, though I have never used it just perused screenshots.

 

Honestly: I'd suggest jailbreaking, drop Installous on, trial them and buy the one that works. I bought one because it was a simple log, except when Apple dropped the fullstop/decimal point from the default number keypad you suddenly coudn't enter in a half kilo weight - so it was useless, other ones are buggy as well. Trialled gymbuddy and it was great so I bought the full version.

[/quote]

 

Can I change applications

Of course you can simply install an new app and start using it.  However it is highly unlikely that you will be able to move your information from the old application to the new application, you will have to start again

 

Further reading

Top 5 fitness apps review: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-10304825-233.html

Health and fitness apps review: http://iphone-apps.toptenreviews.com/health-and-fitness/

 

Classes

 

Need your help with Walker st at North Sydney, the class is under attended.  If you have any friends who train at North Sydney, ask them to come.

 

Next weekend is Easter, come and join me at Newtown on Monday at 5pm.

 

Fitness First

Mon 18/04/11 5:45 PM           5Dock Mon 5.45pm

Tue 19/04/11 6:45 PM            Rock Tue 6.45pm

Wed 20/04/11 5:45 PM           N Strath Wed 5.45pm

Thu 21/04/11 6:00 AM           Walker Thu 6.00am

Sat 23/04/11 8:15 AM            Rock HiPf Sat 8.15am

Mon 25/04/11 5:00 PM           Newtown 5.00pm

 

YMCA

Mon 18/04/11 7:30 PM           Riverwood Mon 7.30pm

Tue 19/04/11 6:15 AM            Riverwood Tue 6.15am

 

Ask Mike

 

If you have any questions or things you would like to see in the newsletter, then let me know

 

See you at the Gym

 

Cheers Mike

 

 

Sleep Ride Eat Repeat

 

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Fitness News #14

Fitness News #14

 

Hi Guys and Gals,

 

Good to be back to all the classes.  Winter is starting to head our way and soon the temptation will be there at some point to give the gym the miss and this could be your folly, those who train thru winter will reap the rewards, resist the temptation!

 

Music

 

Many of the instructors including yours truly are booked for midday next Saturday for instructor training in the new release.  BUT even though we will be trained in the new music, we won't be receiving it for another month

 

Outdoor Cycling

 

Woman's introduction to track riding – Saturday 2pm

The second session was conducted by Jessica and other track riders Saturday 2pm.  Joanne our woman's track champion demonstrated starts.  Write up is here: http://www.dhbc.org.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2344

Contact is Jessica jnor7837@gmail.com

 

Guy's can also get into the action on Monday and Wednesday nights.

 

Track racing – Saturday 4pm

Those who hung around saw yours truly race, probably a bit crazy considering that I did High Performance in the morning.  Hey I did OK.  Write up here http://www.bicycles.net.au/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2250&start=903

 

Road training – Sunday 6.30am

Yes 6.30am actually exists on Sunday morning.   But your's truly has his sights on the NSW Team Time Trail championship and we have formed a team that went out training this morning and hit it reasonably hard,  so if I die on the stage on Monday night you can point and say 'na na na nana'

 

Bits and Pieces

 

Fat explained

Came upon this really interesting post written by Emma-Leigh.  Posted here;

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=123726731

 

In the industry we are in, and with such a focus on 'being lean', it is no surprise that everyone is curious as to what their BF is. However - in the female community on a whole, there is a gross distortion of what a persons BF usually is! So - on the request of a few members, I have put together this sticky to help.

Basic Definitions and Concepts in Body Composition
Body composition refers to the make up of lean tissue and fat tissue in the body. So:

  • Lean Tissue - Composed of muscle, bone, organs, glycogen, blood volume, water, hair, nerves and a few other bits and pieces.
  • Fat Tissue - Composed of different categories: essential fat, and storage fat.
  • Essential fat - Required for life and physiological functioning. This is fat stored/ that is part of nerves, bone marrow, the organs (heart, lungs, liver, spleen, kidneys, intestines) and also the muscles. There is thought to be ~ 8-12 % in females and ~ 3-5% in males. The extra 'fat' that is essential for females is thought to be due to our requirement for babies and hormones. It is essential RESERVE fat found in breast tissue, genital regions and *gasp* lower body stores.
  • Storage Fat - The 'cheese' factor. Generally divided into - VISCERAL fat (around organs and in the abdomen) and SUBCUTANEOUS fat (under the skin). In females, this is usually about 15% and males it is about 12%.



Measuring Body Fat %
There are many, many ways to find out your body fat percentage, and these all vary in accuracy and availability. Generally speaking - the more accurate the method, the more expensive and 'unobtainable' it is. Going from MOST accurate to LEAST accurate:

  • DEXA scan – This involves a full body x-ray like that used for bone density scans. It is very accurate (although there WILL be a variation between machines - so best to get it done on the same machine by the same technician). There IS also a radiation factor (something to consider if getting multiple scans).
  • Underwater/ Hydrostatic Weighing (also called water displacement) – An individual is submerged and weighed under water, with all the air blown out of their lungs and a percentage of fat and fat-free weight is calculated from body density. Very accurate when done professionally but not widely available.
  • The Bod Pod - Similar concept to underwater weight, but the individual is placed into a small chamber and the amount of air displaced is measured by sensors and calculated into a BF %. Also accurate, but not widely available.
  • Skin-fold measurements/ calipers – Folds of skin are measured with a caliper (pinching tool). The measurements are used in equations that link the thickness of skinfolds to percent body fat calculations. It can be done via '3 sites', '4 sites' and '7 sites'. The more measurements made, the more accurate the estimate. It is simple and available, but needs to be done by someone who is trained and there are wide variations in accuracy.
  • Bioelectrical Impedance (BIA) – These are scales or hand-held devises that run an electrical current through the body to determine water content. They vary in accuracy according to the specific device (some brands are better than others), the number of attachment points (foot and hand electrodes are more accurate than hand held or scale devises), and the user. Example: if you use a SCALE only - the electrical impulse takes the path of least resistance - so travels up one leg, and straight down the other. Thus, it basically measures LOWER body %. If you use a hand held device, it only measures UPPER body %. Similarly - As they are based on WATER content - fluctuations in hormones/ hydration throw values out. So - the best results are obtained first thing in the morning after emptying bladder/ bowels, with no alcohol consumed for 2 days prior, and no exercise the night before, and - hormone free.
  • Tape measure method - There are a number of formula based on several body measurements taken with a tape measure. It can be roughly accurate, but it does depend upon your ability to accurately measure as well as body shape/ type. Although LEAST accurate - it is especially useful for tracking yourself over time as it is readily available.



Body fat % in females
Generally speaking - most athletes range between 12-14% and 20%. Most fit females in the general community are 18-24%. Most every day females, well, usually above 24%. It is also important to note that a female who LOOKS thin does not necessarily mean she has a low body fat. This is the concept of 'skinny fat'. In females, the lowest values for body fat correspond to the essential fat content (about 8-12%). This level of fatness is extremely low (professional bodybuilder on stage low). And once a female reaches 12%, especially for prolonged periods, they will run into issues with health (lack of periods, decreased immune function, decreased recovery, decreased bone mass, etc).

Body Fat Categories for Women:
8-12% - Essential Fat
13-20% - Athletic Fat Levels
21-24% - Fitness Fat Levels
25-31% - Acceptable Fat Levels
>32% - Obese


Visual Estimates and why is it so inaccurate?
There are many reasons - firstly, people look different at different at the SAME body fat depending on where they hold their fat, and how much lean mass they have. Additionally, people make the mistake of comparing visual estimates in females and males - and, as discussed above, this is NOT correct... Essentially, you need to add on another 5-8% to a MALE estimate for an accurate guess for a female visual %. For example: a male 10% is roughly a female 15-17%. A male 3-5% is a female 8-12%.

It is also important to note that you need to look at the WHOLE person! So - in females, where UPPER BODY might be lean (eg: 10-12%), LOWER body may well still hold a LOT of fat (female stubborn fat) which will INCREASE their average bodyfat %.

Generally speaking - visual cues to look for in females:
- Upper back definition and shoulder/ delts usually come in first in females [mid to high teens]
- Abs separation and pec separation follows this [usually low to mid teens]
- Quad definition/ ham definition and Glute striations [single digit to low teens]
But NOTE: this is 'most' females (who have typical pear-body fat distribution) if an individual holds more fat in a MALE distribution (apple) then the cues will be different.

Some visuals to help:

front2.jpgimage.php?u=127&dateline=1166604335
^
The first is ~ 17% by DEXA scan. The second about 14% by DEXA.


 

 

Classes

 

The permanent at Market st has been taken off me,  this Friday's class is my last in the CBD for the foreseeable future, so if your in the City, this is the last chance to ride with me

 

Fitness First

Mon 11/04/11 5:45 PM           5Dock Mon 5.45pm

Tue 12/04/11 6:45 PM            Rock Tue 6.45pm

Wed 13/04/11 5:45 PM           N Strath Wed 5.45pm

Thu 14/04/11 6:00 AM           Walker Thu 6.00am

Fri 15/04/11 6:45 AM             Market Fri 6.45am – last class, come and join me

Sat 16/04/11 8:15 AM            Rock HiPf Sat 8.15am

 

YMCA

Tue 12/04/11 6:15 AM            Riverwood Tue 6.15am

 

Ask Mike

 

If you have any questions or things you would like to see in the newsletter, then let me know

 

See you at the Gym

 

Cheers Mike

 

 

Sleep Ride Eat Repeat

 

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Fitness News #13

Fitness News #13

 

Hi Guys and Gals,

 

After a week on cloud 9, I'm back on the ground.  Raced this morning in a criterion, which is a road race on a small circuit of road, where we do lots of laps.  No prizes for me this time

 

Music

 

The 2 week introduction of RPM#50 is complete, all classes this coming week will be back to their usual mix of songs from different releases.  If there's any particular songs your interested in hearing, then let me know

 

Women's Introduction to Velodrome Cycling Program

 

Lots of positive feedback I hear from last Tuesday's session. Check out the photo's

http://www.dhbc.org.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2344

 

There will be more sessions, if your interested, send an email to Jessica jnor7837@gmail.com

 

Bits and Pieces

 

Be a Man, purchase our product

The latest product from KFC, the Double Down http://www.kfc.com/doubledown/  Marketed as a snack, the advert implies you are a manly bloke who consumes 540 calories for a snack. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeWgtE7UCN8  Hey that's about the right number of calories for your entire dinner,  or about the same  as burnt in a RPM class. 

Critic's comments;

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/comments_blog/2010/04/kfc-double-down-sandwich-will-you-be-buying.html

 

Coffee good for your fitness

Many of us have coffee cards, typically the 10th coffee is free.  Well the coffee shop around from my work has coffee cards, where you get a free PT session after 6 coffee's.

 

Lycra

Where do I buy lycra at a reasonable price?  That was asked on Saturday.  Well I don't actually know the answer that well, I tend to purchase mine mail order from overseas, mainly from the following sites;

http://www.torpedo7.com.au

http://www.probikekit.com/

Budget clothes can be found here - http://www.cellbikes.com.au/

Some cyclists post on forums any bargains the come upon;

http://bicycles.net.au/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2978

http://bicycles.net.au/forums/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=8094

The problem with buying online is that you need to know your sizes really well and you need to understand the quality of what you are buying.  If you don't know those things, you need to purchase from a retail shop, which will provide the service you need.

 

Classes

 

New permanents at North Sydney (Walker st) and CBD (Market st).  Also a candidate appearance at Newtown.  See you at the gym

 

Mon 4/04/11 6:15 AM            Newtown Mon 6.15am

Mon 4/04/11 5:45 PM             5Dock Mon 5.45pm

Tue 5/04/11 6:45 PM              Rock Tue 6.45pm

Wed 6/04/11 5:45 PM             N Strath Wed 5.45pm

Thu 7/04/11 6:00 AM             Walker Thu 6.00am

Fri 8/04/11 6:45 AM               Market Fri 6.45am

Sat 9/04/11 8:15 AM              Rock HiPf Sat 8.15am

 

Ask Mike

 

If you have any questions or things you would like to see in the newsletter, then let me know

 

See you at the Gym

 

Cheers Mike

 

 

Sleep Ride Eat Repeat