During these cold wet months it is all too tempting to close the curtains and snuggle under the duvet! Winter also has a tendency to make us reach for more fattening, comfort food, which combined with too much time sat on your bottom can see the pounds start to pile on!

This year, instead of getting fat, get fit! Going outside for a brisk walk or run will not only help you stay in shape, but it will increase your circulation and help you to stay warmer for longer! Exercise can help you to stay at a healthy weight or lose any excess weight and will keep your muscles strong and joints mobile. If you manage to get outside for your exercise you will increase the amount of daylight that you see which can help prevent the winter blues. Choosing group exercise can also help to keep you cheery as you meet up with friends or learn new skills.
Training outside will give you a huge boost and a rosy glow in your cheeks, but if you really can’t face the rain, then why not take advantage of some fun indoor activity? Being cold can increase stiffness and muscle aches, so why not try Bikram Yoga, a challenging 90 minute yoga class performed in around 40 degrees heat. The warmth helps your muscles to stretch and if you close your eyes you can pretend you are on the beach! Circuit or boxing style training is a sure fire way to burn huge amounts of calories and fat indoors, and this type of interval training can help to boost your metabolism.

If you don’t have time for classes, then don’t despair; you don’t have to spend hours slogging at the gym to stay fit. Short bursts of vigorous activity can have an amazing impact on your fitness levels and metabolism. Try performing circuits at home, mixing skipping, push ups, star jumps and burpees. It is hard work, but stick with it for 20 minutes and you will really benefit. It is also important to remember that general activity counts towards your calorie burn and general fitness so walk whenever possible and as fast as possible and always take the stairs, not lifts. Get yourself a pedometer and aim for 10,000 steps every day.

Exercising through the winter months can not only help you stay fit and toned, but moderate exercise can actually help to boost your immunity, helping you to prevent those seasonal bugs. (Although don’t push  too hard or too often though, as that can have an adverse effect, lowering your immunity and making you more susceptible to colds and flu.)

So, to stay fit, warm, healthy and happy until spring arrives, try to get outdoors every day to maximise your exposure to daylight, exercise to uplifting music (such as a Zumba class) to keep your spirits up and fat down, and make the most of seasonal foods such as sweet potato mash and homemade soups for a comforting but healthy diet.

On set in Fuerteventura

It is finally sinking in: I am pregnant! When I catch a glimpse of my silhouette, it’s not bloating that I see, but a baby! How very odd! As much as this pregnancy is desired and embraced, it is such a strange feeling to lose control of my body and see it change! My shape has remained pretty constant throughout the last 20 odd years of adulthood and my weight has remained within 2-3 kilos over the last 2 decades, so suddenly being a fair bit heavier and having three bumps on my torso is really very strange!

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to work in Fuerteventura filming a new ‘Pregnancy Pilates’ DVD, which was such a lovely experience: instead of worrying about whether my tummy was sticking out on camera, I was proudly displaying my new shape! I have just been sent the first edit to check the footage and ended up crying at my desk as I looked at the proof that in spite of everything (my age, endometriosis from a young age and a few miscarriages) I am now 20 weeks pregnant and going to be a mum! It feels like such magic that it is hard to explain.

I lost a pregnancy around a year ago, and had been planning to write about the experience; I was in touch with various magazines and websites and then had to call them with the bad news, so I have had something of a block about getting around to writing about pregnancy this time, but I really hope that for one thing I can help some people who may go through tough times and also that I can help mums cope with the changes in their body. Pregnancy is definitely not the time to get in shape, but all pregnant women should make time to stay as fit and well as possible. I really believe that Pilates is the single best thing you can do to stay strong, balanced and in control.

Personally I have dropped the running, and have been sticking to brisk walking most days if possible, along with Pilates and some pregnancy yoga, and I am feeling great! Now I can only hope that luck will stay on my side for the rest of my pregnancy……..

Our lifestyle and experience is etched deeply into our muscular system, and fears, pains and stress can really affect the way that our bodies function. Years of stress can fundamentally change how you breathe, years of worry can alter your posture and muscle balance, physical pain can affect the body long after the pain has passed, and emotional pain can manifest in a real, physical pain.

So, how can you prevent, or reverse these changes to get your body back in balance? Do Pilates! Joseph Pilates knew how trans-formative his exercises were because he changed his own body from weak, frail and out of balance (he suffered Polio, asthma and other ailments during his youth) into a strong physique which was used as a model for anatomical charts! He knew that improving posture, breath, strength and mobility was the key to a better body, and this has been proven by the method’s popularity almost 80 years later. Some of my own clients have been able to cancel knee surgery due to better movement,  regain their bodies after pregnancy, improve their performance in tennis and other sports, take control of back pain, reduce stress and anxiety on a long-term basis, improve their posture, recover from surgeries and improve their movement, confidence, sleep and life balance.

Why Pilates?

Pilates teaches you how to move efficiently and how your body should feel when it’s in balance. Each session will move your spine through it’s full (as nature intended) range of motion: flexion, extension and rotation. Pilates will teach you how your body feels when it is working correctly, and in time you will learn to recognise faulty movements that can cause injury. Many people find it almost impossible to ‘let-go’ of muscle tension, and this can exacerbate faulty movement patterns. However, with time and patience you can teach your body how to ‘switch-off’ certain muscles allowing tension to dissipate and the correct muscles to do their intended job.

My advice if you are new to Pilates is to find a great teacher. Any class with more than 10/12 people will not give you the desired effect, as your teacher needs to see how you are moving. Private classes are the ideal, but if this is too expensive then ask a friend to split sessions with you as very small groups of 2 or 3 can be as effective as private sessions. Another great route is to invest in 3 or 4 private sessions to learn the basics and then continue your practice in a class or with a DVD at home. Whichever route you take, whether you are old or young, overweight or underweight, recovering from illness or a full time athlete, Pilates can help your body to perform at its very best, helping you to find your inner grace and strength.

We all know that we should be moving our bodies more, but did you know that sitting down could be slowly killing you? A recent study published in the British Medical Journal Open concluded that “…In conclusion, the results of this study indicate that extended sitting time and television viewing may have the potential to reduce life expectancy…” http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/2/4/e000828.full?sid=46f88344-fd2f-4824-9796-978fea29d201The analyses indicated that population sitting for more than 3 hours a day could shorten your life by 2 years and watching TV for more than 2 hours could increase that by a further 1.38 years. So how many hours do you sit on your bum every day?

Many of us nowadays do indeed hit the gym, or head out for a jog 3 to 4 times every week, and you might have been lead to believe that this alone is enough to take care of your cardiovascular health improve your longevity. But, it has now been proven that it is not only the hour of exercise that you do each day, but what you do with the other 23 hours that also counts.

In the recent past, the majority of people were manually active for many hours each day: working in the fields, scrubbing the floors, man-handling laundry, walking to school or work with an evening of dancing for evening fun. Now we drive cars and tractors, use washing machines and microwaves, have pre-chopped, pre-peeled food delivered to the doorstep and watch dancing on the telly! Our modern, convenient lives have made us physically lazy and weak. We are slaves to our e mail and mobile phones and are often too mentally exhausted at the end of a long day sitting to do anything else but sit!

The negative effects of sitting:

A sedentary lifestyle increases your chances of disease such as diabetes, stroke and heart disease. Sitting causes the muscles on the front of your body tend to become short and tight and those on the rear of your body become elongated and weak causing postural defects such as inwardly rotated shoulders, a hunched upper back, stiff hips and lower back and weak abdominals. The result of this can be a bad back, neck and joint pain, premature aging and stiffness. Personally, my career changed in recent years from mostly very physical personal training (covering a minimum of 15,000 steps each day) to spending several hours each day desk-bound and typing. The result, a significant injury (shoulder) for the first time in my life and a back which now demands that I stretch it several times a day! The worrying thing is that just as your body will adapt positively to repeated exercises by becoming stronger or fitter, it will also adapt to the ‘sitting exercise’ by becoming weaker and fatter! Also, your muscles are designed to work like a blood pumping system. With each contraction they help to ‘squeeze’ the blood back to the heart from your lower body. If you are sedentary, you are losing this vital effect inhibiting good circulation.

Effective Solutions: 

If you spend most of your day sitting, then try to build in as many 5-10 minute blocks of movement each hour as possible. Park your car a block away from the office and walk 5 minutes. Get off the train or bus a stop early. Stand up for all telephone calls and lift and lower on tip-toe while you talk. Walk over to a colleague rather than sending a mail. Try using a bathroom on another floor so you have to go up and down stairs. NEVER use the elevator or lift. Walk the kids to school. Perform all of your resistance exercises standing (where possible), talk to your company about the possibility of standing meetings, or adaptable desks which can be raised for standing or lowered to sit. One of the fittest men on the planet, Ultra Runner Dean Karnazes told me that he built himself a special standing desk at home so that he never spend idle time sitting. (Check out his book ‘Run! 26.2 Stories of Blisters and Bliss’ to get you motivated). Another top motivational tip is to get yourself a pedometer to measure exactly how active/inactive you really are. (The British Heart Foundation recommends 10,000 steps per day to stay healthy. http://www.bhf.org.uk)

The key to health, fitness and longevity is really quite simple; move more and eat less! (she said heading straight out for a walk!)

Running

US Olympian Mechelle Lewis-Freeman specialises in 100m sprints and competed in the Beijing 4 x 100m relay.  This lady looks like she has springs under her feet! She has an amazing body and you can see the power in her every move. The type of explosive movement needed for sprints comes more naturally to some than others and will depend upon the proportion of fast and slow twitch muscle fibres in your body, but with the right training you can maximise your own potential to become faster and more powerful:

Mechelle’s speed drills:

• High knee running – drive your knees as high as you can whilst still moving forwards
• Jumping squats – start standing and jump forward landing in a squat and repeat as fast and high as possible
• Pumping arms – pump your arms as fast and hard as you can while you sprint
• Block starts – practice exploding out of the blocks using your arms
• Drive – practice coming from the blocks and keeping your head down as you dig in and gain maximum force forward

High knee drills

Olympian Mechelle Lewis-Freeman’s Top 10 Tips to improve Speed

1. Have a good strength and conditioning programme
2. Practice repetitive speed-work
3. Practice block-starts
4. Perform plyometric drills: squat jumps, hurdle hops, jumping lunges
5. Get your nutrition and hydration right and add supplements to ensure all nutrients are covered
6. Have a good team on your side such as a physio, coach and chiropractor
7. Work on flexibility with yoga and Pilates
8. Have a recovery programme including ice baths, massage and compression
9. REST!
10. Find a good mantra and repeat it every hour every day: “Impossible is nothing”

Cycling

Watt bikes provided the stationery bikes for the Powerade Academy and I must say that they are fantastic. If you, your club or even your kid’s school would like to understand or improve your riding then check out http://www.wattbikes.com

One such opportunity that I would’ve loved to have shared with my dear Dad came my way this weekend when I was invited along to the Powerade Sports Academy in London. As is usual in the media industry, it was pretty last minute, so I wasn’t too sure what was going to be involved, apart from the fact that I would get to interview Olympian Mitchell Watt who just won silver for his amazing long jump (watch this space for more on that) and that I would be working out a lot! Sounded good to me!

I arrived Sunday lunchtime, to find a sports field full of amazing fit bodies all decked out in Powerade kit with coaches & Olympians aplenty! Feeling slightly intimidated and concerned about my lack of ability I changed into my kit and jogged onto the field to join team ‘Rest of the World’ for our fitness assessment. Sounds pretty easy right? Well, let me tell you that sprinting a timed 200m, spinning at maximum effort to establish peak power and going through a strength and conditioning routine all with Olympic coaches is not exactly easy! But, it was a great team building exercise, a great motivator (who doesn’t want to go faster) and a great way to meet like-minded people from all over the world.

With Day 1 and the fitness tests under our belts, we all headed off to our digs, just in time to gather as a group and witness the world’s fastest man – Usain Bolt’s amazing 100m victory. Wow! It was at that moment that I looked around the room and felt that bolt (pardon the pun) of humility. I was struck by just how lucky I was to be invited to experience such great events, to meet so many wonderful people, to have a body that will gallantly try to do whatever I ask of it, and to have the good fortune to love my job!

Day 2 and with already slightly twangy hamstrings from the sprint drills, we set off nice and early for  a Pilates/Yoga class before breakfast. With everybody more comfortable together in the group by now there were plenty of giggles as tight bodies refused to cooperate or uncoordinated limbs flailed around and we were all in great spirits in time for breakfast. Our nutritionist for the academy was the wonderful  and gorgeous Beatriz Boullosa who is currently responsible for the Mexican Footballers nutrition. She gave a wonderful lecture about the importance of nutrition and hydration in sport and also organised delights such as cold mango and kiwi soup for breakfast!

With swimmer and bronze medal winner Brent Haydon

After breakfast the day really kicked off. My group started out with sprint training with ex Olympian Mechelle Lewis Freeman followed by swimming coaching with the wonderful Ben Titley (Head coach of British Olympic swimming team) where we were lucky enough to meet Canadian Brent Haydon who won bronze (and I held his medal! Wow!). After a super delicious nutritious lunch we then took our full bellies back out onto the field for training on sprint blocks with Mechelle. By this point it was becoming obvious that I am no athlete, and half way through the next session (endurance running) I must admit that I ducked out half way through the second set of 10 x 100m to run an interview with Mechelle. This was both fantastic as I learnt some great tips (that I will share with you later) and my legs had chance to recover before the cycle session! This final session of the day was probably my favourite, which surprised me as running is my favourite sport; however, the Watt bikes that we used under the expert eyes of pro cyclist Dean Downing were amazing! The feedback from these machines is incredible with displays of how much power is driving through each leg, and where in the pedal stroke power is lost. The fact that I was riding alongside all these wonderful athletes and incredible people made me feel slightly ashamed of my usual scale of effort, and in spite of having legs like jelly I decided to try and find that little bit extra inside (which athletes are so accomplished at finding) and surprised myself that I could actually keep going. I don’t think I have ever sweated so much in my life!

The amazing Watt bike

I learnt so much from my short time at the Powerade Sports Academy: firstly that sportspeople from all over the world are incredibly open, friendly and humble. Secondly that you can always find that little bit extra, thirdly that Powerade is definitely helpful when your legs turn to jelly! and last but not least I learnt so many tips on how to be a better sportsperson. These tips are too numerous to share here now, so I will come back and pass these on to you very soon.

One thing that I have noticed throughout each state though is that it is nigh on impossible to purchase ‘whole’ foods and labeling is really misleading. Take, for example, a packet of ‘Healthy Matcha Green Tea latte’ which promised to be super healthy and full of anti-oxidents. What it actually contained was: Fructose, non-dairy creamer, (coconut oil, corn syrup, sodium caseinate)……dipotasassium phosphate…mono & diglycerides…. blah, blah blah and then at the bottom of the list is Japanese Matcha tea! I have not been able to find a single yoghurt for breakfast that does not contain syrups, flavourings and other nasties and as for a white coffee – what is this non-dairy creamer stuff? I just want a simple shot of good old cow juice and all that is available is this – ‘water, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, corn syrup solids, corn syrup, sodium casinate , dipotassium phosphate, sugar, mono & diglycerides, silicon dioxide, sodium stearoyl lactylate, soy lecithin & artificial colours’. Phew! I find it really scary that most Americans seem to be ingesting this kind of chemical and non-food food on a daily basis. What does the body do with all this cr*p? I am intruiged and would love to know more.

In the mean time, I am starving so am heading out to a great restaurant on Ventura called ‘Good Earth’ which has organic, antibiotic free meat. From one extreme to the other: I guess that is the USA for you!

Already blown away by the awesome GUM shopping mall, the snow falling in Red Square and Bosco-style hospitality (vodka, champagne and endless delights of handmade chocolate truffles, caviar, prawns, fruits and more) I was on sensory overload and a trip around the Kremlin completed the dream (and almost made me want to get the history books out!)

At the launch of the new Bosco’s Sochi 2014 sports kit I had the opportunity to chat to a couple of Russian female Olympic athletes who confirmed that Rusian girls are as pre-occupied as us with weight, diet and appearance. It seems that attitude to sport is different though, with less gyms and studios, but more outdoor games such as skating and skiing. I spoke to ex-Olympic speed skater Svetlana Zhukova about exercise attitudes in Moscow and she said that traditionally if you went out for a run or a jog in Moscow, people would think you were crazy, however this is now starting to change as people become more interested in health.  Sports such as football are growing more popular, as well as traditional sports such as vault class and skilled aerobics. I asked whether the current craze for yoga has reached Russia, but she explained that the spiritual side of yoga would prevent that from happening; most Russians are Orthadox Christians and might see yoga as an alternative religion. When Zhukova was a young girl, the Moscow games inspired her to become a champion and she hopes that the Sochi 2014 games in Russia will inspire many young women to take up a new sport.

With regards to diet, a lot of the Russian food we sampled (and there was a lot!) was actually very healthy; plenty of fish, both grilled, smoked and pickled, lovely dark rye breads and of course Russian Borscht, a deep red beetroot soup which is very nourishing and very tasty! I am not sure about the health benefits of vodka, but in vodka’s defense I am sure that it is a lot better than some of the revolting sugary, chemical alco-pops that are popular here at home!

Moscow was a rare treat, and if like me you have always wanted to visit, then I highly recommend it. I only wish I could’ve stayed on and taken the train to Saint Petersburg as this is supposed to be another beautiful and fascinating city.

Here I am in my Bosco Winter games kit!

Bosco are coming to the UK! Opening in the shopping heaven that is Westfield Stratford in just a couple of weeks, in time to capture our sporting hearts in time for the Olympics! Talking of which – can you believe that there are only 128 days until London, the coolest city in the world opens it’s arms to the best athletes out there for a long summer of happy-sportyness! I can’t wait!

Moscow is all that I had hoped for and so much more! Flying in, my eyes were glued to the window, desperate for a first glimpse of such a controversial and historical place and I was not disappointed: miles and miles of flat, snow-covered land which at first glance looked totally uninhabited, but actually housed hundreds of small individual, boxy coloured homes with bare trees and long roads leading to and from. The airport was as austere as I had imagined, made more so by the falling snow. Once inside I loved watching a tiny, wee blonde Russian lady (airport worker) shout at a group of burly men whom she herded around as if she were 15 ft tall and wide! Girl-power Russian-style!

I am lucky enough to stay at The Ritz Carlton in Moscow, which has all the opulence and elegance that the name conjours up. I wasted no time in popping up onto my giant bed and scoffing the amazing strawberries from the welcome basket before heading out for a trip around GUM, (pronounced goom) which is easily the most gorgeous department store I have ever seen! (check it out on Wiki if you are interested). The shop on the ground floor has the most amaaazing range of food and is open 24 hours, 365 days a year! The range is vast, and as our host Timur Guguberidze explained, they cater for every taste and pocket: for example, if you need salt, you can spend £1 or £42, champagne for £20 or £20,000 yet  every shopper has the same incredible shopping experience. (unlike somewhere like Harrods which is expensive in general)  I enjoyed seeing the vast range of Vodka, which of course we sampled! (although being a total light-weight I had a very girly sip when everybody else ‘downed in one’!).

The GUM store is on Red Square, so after an amazing dinner (plus more vodka!) it was pretty special to walk out and see The Kremlin and Saint Basil’s Cathedral in the snowy evening light.

Our host for this occasion is Bosco – a HUGE company that you are unlikely to have heard of unless you are Russian. Their sportswear division is kitting out the Russian & Spanish Olympic teams (amongst others) in London, and I was invited along to today’s launch of their Winter 2014 games kit, which will be hosted in their nearby city of Sochi.

Right now though, dinner beckons so I need to hop down from my huge bed and into the luxury marble bathroom. This city has not finished with us yet!  Watch this space for more on my Moscow experience…..

What is CrossFit?

CrossFit is a strength and conditioning program designed to help people get fit, strong and toned. The programmes are constantly changing: there is a new ‘WOD’ (workout of the day) everyday, which concentrates on functional movements performed at high intensity to improve overall physical fitness, torching calories and toning the body. Our ‘WOD’ consisted of exercises such as burpees (owch!), squats, ab curls, pull-ups on the rings and press-ups and consisted of 20 reps of each, hard and fast before moving on to the next. I am happy to report that Team Jack won but looking at Christine Bleakley’s gorgeous slim figure, it was obvious that all CrossFitters are winners!

I asked Christine about her body and how she stays in such great shape:-

How was the Cross Fit workout for you?

CB: I really love it – I am still a little sore from the workout that we did yesterday, and I really love that feeling because it tells me that I really have done something.

CS: Why have you chosen Reebok CrossFit?

CB: I find it really works for me. I love those short, sharp bursts of exercise, and going back to some of the crazy things I have done such as the water skiing for Sport Relief, this was the type of exercise that got me in shape for that. I spent four to five months in really grueling, cold conditions where we had to literally crack through the ice before I could get out there, and this interval style of exercise where you push yourself really hard constantly prepared me to take that on. (Christine crossed the English Channel on water-skis in 2010). I am also always looking for new ways to stay fit as I tend to get bored easily so the fact that this is always changing really suits me.

CS: Is there a problem area that you specifically want to target?

CB: My problem area is my lower back, bum and top of my legs and I was talking to the CrossFit guys today about how to target this, and they were telling me that the kettle bells (which are used in many of the CrossFit workouts) are great for quickly toning that whole area.

CS: How about exercises for the arms? A lot of women are worried about their arms too……

CB: The kettle bells are also great for the arms, and the rings that we used today: I find that the ring pull-ups are just unbelievable for toning the arms and you see it the difference instantly. Push ups are brilliant as well.

CS: What about food? Do you watch your diet?

To be honest, that’s a lot of the reason why I exercise! I go through phases, but I am a real foodie and I love cooking and going out for dinner, that is what we love to do in our free time. There is nothing worse than a fussy eater to me: I was brought up in a proper Northern Irish home where you were given a big dinner and you eat it all! You are not done until the plate is cleared! I still have that kind of mentality, but I don’t mind because it makes me push myself more on the fitness side.

CS: What is your most hated exercise move?

CB: The burpee! I am not a big fan of the burpee, although having said that I know that it is the all over exercise and its really effective, which is why it is so tough! I also find press-ups hard, but the CrossFit guys have shown me how to moderate it: I go down on my hands and toes but come briefly onto my knees as I push back up and I can really feel that working.

Christine looks fabulous, and you can too! I love this workout http://www.reebok.com/en-GB/crossfit/empire-state-building-wod/empire-state-building-wod/?dvn=fitness but don’t be scared if it looks a little tough – it can be adapted to suit any age or fitness. If you take one thing from reading this, it should be that you only get back in life what you put in, so go hard, go fast and enjoy!

Go to http://www.reebok.com/fitness for more info…..