The Fitness Society

Great day for a few of us who braved the elements and did a Bray to Greystones hike yesterday!

Shout out to our resident hike expert for organising…

12 fitness thoughts/tips in no particular order:

1. Work on both your Conditioning and Strength. Develop an engine for your energy and a frame to carry that engine around.

2. Train in more than one direction. Your body is designed to move through numerous planes of motion - use them.

3. Effective exercise is a must have if you want to maximise the quantity and quality of your life.

4. As you get older, it’s both more important and slightly harder to move more. Prioritising it is so important.

5. Thinking “what can you gain” instead always of “what do you need to lose” when it comes to your fitness can be very empowering.

6. Whatever your age, you can still make physical improvements through exercise. Our most senior PT member trained on Thursday this week, after playing a couple of tennis matches. She is 80, and has more energy than many people half her age.

7. You’d be surprised at how many solid friendships are developed in gyms.

8. Think of your nutrition in terms of both fuel and enjoyment - not just enjoyment.

9. Create a training schedule that fits your life, not an athlete or Insta influencer. There’ll be periods you’ll be able to train harder, maximise those. There will be periods you’ll have a lot of other things going on. Stay consistent in those.

10. Make sure you warm up before training.

11. Don’t neglect recovery.

12. A solid program done consistently is far better than a perfect program done haphazardly.

4 Unexpected Benefits of Joining. a Gym:

1. Community: When you spend time in a room of like minded people working towards similiar goals, you’ll more than likely;
- at worst have good craic with them
- at best develop some great friendships

We’ve seen plenty of the second option happening over the years. Some really solid friendships and even a marriage developing in our small space.

2. Appreciation: As much for themselves as for the results they develop.

Appreciation that they have taken the time to focus on doing something challenging yet hugely beneficial for themselves (and the people in their lives).

Appreciation for taking a level of control and making positive things happen when at times it could be easier to let life chaos completely take over.

This more often than not bleeds into an increased confidence, in everything from work to social settings.

3. A Feeling of Increased Youthfulness - Whatever their Age:

Our oldest member is heading for 81. The vast majority are over 30. One thing is obvious, if someone gets stronger, more energetic, improves their posture, drops some weight etc and enjoys the process while doing it, they’ll feel younger in themselves.

Whatever their age.

4. Better Decision Making: Working out is like a “big rock” habit that can have an influence on so many others.

Obviously balance is important but train effectively and consistently and the likelihood is that you’ll start looking at things like your nutritional intake/sleep/hydration in a different manner.

We could keep going but speaking of decision making. If you’re sitting on the fence about starting to work out, decide to immediately and get going asap.

You can thank us when all the benefits start flooding in!!

He is a school principal, poet, performed at EP & is Dublin’s greatest hiker but surely up there as one of his best achievements to date is…

Winning our January Member of the Month Award (we’ve got some catching up to do!)!!

FairPlay

Thanks again for all the effort and craic over the years and keep up the great work!

“All behaviour makes sense with enough information” is a line I read recently.

There’s no where it makes more sense than in the fitness world.

The thing is there are so many reasons put out there for why you should train that it almost numbs out the benefits of it for a lot of people.

However, watching people who train regularly and seeing them make progress towards the things they want to achieve is massively motivating and encouraging.

Everyone from the woman in her late 20’s considering a career change, working on her fitness and down over 20lbs since getting going in January.

The solicitor in his 50’s with a young family who is keen to keep his blood pressure down and his 5 a side game up.

Or our PT member who is in her early 80’s and is maintaining her fitness for her tennis competitions (and doing brilliantly in the process).

I could go on and on but a good question one of our members asked recently was:
“Can you give me any example why your average person wouldn’t benefit from strength and conditioning training?”

I genuinely couldn’t.

If you’re struggling to get motivated to take action towards getting yourself going, take some time to consider the endless benefits getting stronger and fitter could bring to your own life.

Then put a plan together that fits your routine. Think about the times you want to train, locations that are potentially suitable to train in and the way you would like to workout.

And take action on it asap.

INVESTING IN YOUR OLD AGE (AND CURRENT!) CARE

“Investing in my old age care” was the response I got from a TFS member recently when he told me he was looking after his nephews instead of training on a Saturday morning.

Definitely something I can relate to!

Once a lot of people hit a certain age, I get a sense that they are training with one eye on what they were able to do 10 years ago and the other eye thinking about how they want to be able to move/live in 20 years time.

Unfortunately so many tend to overlook the endless benefits available when it comes to exercise and long term health.

Did you know that all types of exercise can benefit the brain (increasing the substances involved in neuroplasticity). It can also help by providing mental challenges and stimulation, something we enjoy doing often using exercises learned at Body Development or courses like Animal Flow and Zuu.

As we get older, sarcopenia (muscle wastage) starts to kick in. Meaning things like carrying shopping and even getting up from a chair or the ground can become harder over time. It can even make you more susceptible to not being able to open a jar when everyone is watching and even worse, start losing arm wrestles to your nephews. Or nieces.

Fortunately a well structured program can help offset the above, by sending the body a clear message to build and repair muscle. While also increasing bone density in the process.

Another issue that can come along with older age is hormonal health. Again the good news is that effective training can assist with the likes of releasing Growth Hormone, improving Insulin Sensitivity, and supporting Testosterone levels.

We could keep going with the ways that exercise can help you, but a big one is resilience. Which physically can show itself in the form of recovery from an injury to doing well in something like a Hyrox event to being strong and energetic enough to enjoy the time with the kids in your family or whoever else may be important to you.

That resilience can also come from the confidence of knowing that you regularly take the harder option by working out, knowing the benefits its bringing you.

Both short and long term…

Some texts we’ve received recently and what they mean for your health and fitness…

Quick take away. Find a place/method of working out that works for you, enjoy it, stick to it and you’ll be surprised at what it can bring to you.

If you’re looking for somewhere in Dublin City centre to train, send us a DM and we’ll let you know how we can help!

4 Books, 4 Reasons to Train…

If you’re someone who has already given up on your new year’s exercise goals, below are 4 short extracts giving reasons to change your mind.

Reasons that extend way beyond being able to tighten your belt again, or looking your best on the beach in the summer…

1. “The second pill is real, sort of. It’s called exercise. People who exercise live longer and have a lowered risk of high blood pressure, stroke, cardiovascular disease, depression, diabetes and metabolic syndrome. And they avoid dementia for longer.”

“If you want to avoid the common midlife trifecta of stress, belly weight gain and high blood sugar, you need to exercise.”
“The Telomere Effect” by Elizabeth Blackburn and Elissa Epel

2. “We are only beginning to understand all the myriad ways that exercise affects us. No part of our body is untouched.”

“In Denmark, men and women in the famed Copenhagen City Heart cut their risk of dying in half if they averaged at least 30 minutes of exercise a day.”
“Burn” by Herman Pontzer

3. “As well as strengthening bones, exercise boosts your immune system, nurtures hormones, lessens the risk of getting diabetes and a number of cancers, improves mood and even staves off senility. As has been noted a number of times, there’s is probably not a single organ or system in the body that does not benefits from exercise. If someone invented a pill that could do for us all that a moderate amount of exercise achieves, it would instantly become the most successful drug in history.”
“The Body” by Bill Bryson

“Exercise has also been shown to prevent age related cognitive decline by increasing blood flow to the brain, causing increases in the size of the prefrontal cortex and improvements in executive control, memory, and critical thinking.”
The Organized Mind by Daniel J. Levitin

Alongside the points above are everything from getting stronger, to moving better, improved body composition (looking better on the beach!), potentially becoming part of a community and much more.

If it’s the case you are determined to work on your fitness this year but are just unsure of where to start, shoot us a DM and we’ll let you know how we can help!