Sunday 28 February 2010

'Core' Blimey.....

Evening!

Gym Ninja has designed an 'at home' core workout. Yep yep-she got her new cheapo 'size of a pea' stability (Swiss) ball and workout mat and got her reference books together and designed a programme that works her obliques, abs, erector spinae muscles...the whole shebang!

But first, allow Gym Ninja to educate those who are unaware, as to the many many layers that the 'core' exists of.....

*Go get your cup of tea/coffee/Maxi-Milk and get comfy*

So...your core is what would be left if someone ripped your head, arms and legs off.
Following so far?
Good.

It's made up of 3 layers (like the more expensive boxes of chocolates you may have received in the past that manage to cover up your abs in a nice hefty layer of blubber)..

1. Deep Muscle Layer
The Position Sense Muscles...

Movement of the spine and extremities can be split into two types of movements...Physiological and Accessory.
Physiological Movements are large motions of the body like picking stuff up off the floor/bending/lifting etc.
Accessory Movements occur within a joint: in the case of the core, this would be at each vertebral segment.  Each vertebral segment will bend, slide, shear or rotate on top of each other, and to control these accessory motions are small position sense muscles that cross from one vertebral segment to another..namely Rotatores, Intertransversarii and Interspinalis.   THIS is your deep muscle layer of the core.

2. Middle Muscle Layer
Inner Unit

Ok so you may have heard of this next layer. It consists of the Transversus Abdominis (TVA), Internal Obliques, Lumbar Multifidus, Diaphragm (yes really), and Pelvic Floor (who knew?). They work together to contract and create a non-compressible cylinder where the spine is stabilised. if this layer is 'faulty or weak' it can increase the chances of lower back dysfunction. Be told!

3. The Outer Muscle Layer
Outer Unit

I bet you reckon you know what this layer is eh? Huh? What's that? Rectus Abdominis, External Obliques and Erector Spinae? Yep, correct. But wait....you missed some of the outer final layer out. Yep you did! You also need to add to this list the Latissimus Dorsi (yes really!), the Gluteals (bum!) and Adductors (inner thighs).  Think of them as forming a muscular sling, like bandaging something up to support it.

These are the 3 layers of the core and your Personal Trainer (whoever he or she is) that you may hire to put together a programme for you, should be aware of, and train them all where possible.

You need to begin at the beginning  (duh) and progressively train the core muscles. Start on the floor and work the abs from many directions, targeting each area Don't forget to work your back too! Remember it forms part of the 3 layers! Just because you can't see it in the mirror doesn't mean it's not there. It forms part of the cylinder remember.  Once you have mastered the floor exercises, then make things harder. Train on an unstable surface, be it a wobble board, a Swiss Stability Ball, a BOSU Ball (half a ball!)...makes the core work even harder to stabilise itself.  Then.... get up! Stand up and work 'functionally' on your feet with cable wood chops etc in all three planes of movement.  This can progress over weeks so no need to rush. Mix and match if you wish? Just remember to seek medical advice if pregnant, or if you have a disk herniation,prolapse or bulge, or facet join syndrome.

Eyes all wide now? Did you think the human body was really as straight forward as a one layer Box of Dairy Milk?  See? Every day's a school day. Always learning!

BUT WAIT!

Gym Ninja does hope that her little Ninjarettes are aware that working the core does not necessarily equal the treasure at the end of the rainbow (ie a 6 pack). Nope. You need to work the core, and indeed working it will help work the muscles in the same way that training yoru arms and legs work those muscles. But, if you have a nice thick layer of fat covering it over, then how will you see them? Look at it this way if you cannot visualise what GN means....


If you lie in bed and have a duvet over your body, you cannot really see much other than your head poking out at the top.
This is how abs covered in fat look. You know something is under the duvet (fat) but you cannot tell what.

 If you lie in bed and cover your body with a cotton sheet, well it drapes over the outline of your body and anyone looking at you will be able to see where your torso, arms and legs are underneath the sheet.
This is how abs look when covered with a thin layer of abdominal fat. You can see the underlying structure.

So, maybe some of you are rather lazy and think if you just diet off the fat then you get the 6 pack, right?

WRONG!

That sheet has to fall onto something in order to outline it. If you have no muscle under the fat then you see nothing.

Now GN is off to work her core.  Go do the same ;-)

Gym Ninja

Saturday 27 February 2010

Wear the Body You Earn!

YAY!


Gym Ninja's first day off in 2 weeks thank GOODNESS!


So what did she do?
Headed to the gym of course for her usual Saturday Slaughter Session! Wooohooo!


Annoyingly, to begin with, Gym Ninja had to run the gauntlet of her smaller cat Hamish regurgitating fur cigars on the landing at 5.30am for the second morning running. Possibly this is due to the fact that, thanks to an incompetent carpet fitter who came to measure up the stairs and landing for a new carpet (& managed to bring a carpet too short for the space, leaving Gym Ninja with just underlay on the landing until Wednesday) this is obviously a lovely surface to vomit up fur balls onto? 


So, with broken sleep Gym Ninja hauled herself out of bed, with hair akin to Worsel Gummage, selected a 'go faster' gym outfit, and headed out of the door to the gym. (If ONLY GN could move that fast-but this is the abridged version of her morning. She did stop to eat a wheat-free pitta bread spread with Organic Almond Butter, plus shower etc). 


SPIN! 
Extreme Spin to be exact! An hour. Oh and who is that by the water fountain? Only the girl who has stood in temporarily and does a beasting of a Spin Class. YAY! There really is no point hauling oneself out of bed on a Saturday morning unless it's for a worthwhile class.  Turns out having chatted to her that she's a permanent fixture now which is good news as there hasn't been a really good replacement for Evil Instructor who was forced out months ago-way before Christmas. 


Oh...but wait?
Gym Ninja was still a bit sore from Thursdays German Volume Training.
Uh Oh.
This'll be tough!


So...within minutes Gym Ninja was sweating like the proverbial pig, her Worsel Gummage hair plastered to her head in an attractive soggy Worsel effect. Cute!   But today, Gym Ninja felt every second of that class. Her legs ached, her body was tired yet her mind was hellbent on continuing. You see, quitting a Spin Class is NOT an option. Never has been, never will be. So what tricks does GN do to keep her from quitting and to distract her from the time?  A few of these...

  • Imaging an argument she is saving up for the near future and replaying it in her head. Anger seriously makes any workout feel better! If you've ever had a horrendous day at work or been livid with a partner then headed to the gym for a workout then you will know what Gym Ninja means!
  • Concentrating on the others in the class. Today GN concentrated on the guy who has a complete lack of co-ordination when jumping. We go up, he sits down. We sit down, he stands up. This often gives Gym Ninja the smirks and is rather entertaining, however the humour doesn't last long on a tough ride!
  • Focusing on her latest goal: namely the Ultra-Fit Cover Model Competition & what kind of shape Gym Ninja will need to be in if she is to even stand a chance?
  • Guilt: Knowing if she doesn't work hard enough in Spin then she'll have to go do a run and that's just prolonging the agony...
So you see, plenty of methods of distracting yourself from whining in your head about how tough it is today. Try a few of these and see what works best for you? 

The class was interesting today. Stopped half way and all of the class sent out of the room to do a fast circuit of the running track, to allow the lactic acid to drain from the legs (oh and to make it even tougher when they got back on their bikes). By the end of the class, even Clippy was soggy!

Ahhh, endorphins! MARVELOUS! Gym Worsel dragged her soggy body across the gym floor, and down the spiral staircase into the changing rooms to towel off her hair like a dog after a bath, and to grap her skipping rope. Yep, GN brought her skipping rope with her. Time to finish herself off!!!!!!!

Once inside the weights area, Gym Ninja found a quiet area, set up her weights and then supersetted each lift for the upper body (luckily upper body,  as if it had been lower body today then Gym Ninja may not have been alive to tell the tale) with a few minutes skipping. AHHHHR! 
EG: Bent Over Dumbbell Row....skipping....dumbbell flyes....skipping.....Arnold Press.....skipping....and so on....until two different exercises had been completed for each muscle group.  It got to such a point that Gym Ninja could barely get her feet off the ground to allow the 5mm space for he rope to pass underneath them. 

QUICK! Maximuscle break!

A quick Promax Crisp bar was just enough to stop GN from falling over. This meant she had time to box off a few ab moves before stretching out, then quaffing her Maximuscle Promax shake. 

You know what GN needs after a workout like todays? Apart from decent refuelling nutrition in the form of the Maximuscle range (and if you haven't yet tried it then get clicking on the side links and see what you think-they offer a MONEY BACK GUARANTEE if not completely satisfied so you have nothing to lose other than love handles)...anyway, what GN needs after a workout like todays is... A slave to carry her to the showers.  

But Gym Ninja is so much happier having worked herself into the ground today. It has inspired her to shift her ar*e and get to Argos and buy a cheap (£5.99...or was it £4.99?) performing seal ball (aka Swiss Ball) so she can begin...
OPERATION AB ATTACK. 
aka
AB ANNIHILATION 
aka
IT HURTS TO BREATHE

Yep. Lazy Ninja is going to focus on her abs for a change! Let's see what a dedicated midsection programme can do eh?

On that note Gym Ninja is off to pump up a Swiss Ball. No rest for the vain.... ;-)

Gym Ninja x

Thursday 25 February 2010

Lean Clean Ultra-Fit machine

Yep.

Gym Ninja has a new 'focus'. The Ultra-Fit Cover Model competition.

The overall prize is a 4 night stay in Italy and being shot (not literally!) for the cover of Ultra-Fit magazine. You'll also get 6 months of USN supplements and also model a workout inside the Ultra-Fit magazine.

Runners up get 3  months of supplements, get to model inside the magazine and also win a private coaching session.

The finalists also get filmed for Fitness TV. Ooer!

Not bad eh? The benefit of competitions like this is that it focuses the mind. If you have a few days whereby the appeal to eat anything less than clean is overwhelming, then having something to aim for and to be accountable to it extremely helpful. After all, it was thanks to the Maximuscle Body of 2009 competition that Gym Ninja finally kicked her hardcore Haribo addiction & has not eaten one since!

Depending on what type of character you are, it may be all about the winning? But if you are similar in character to Gym Ninja, then the competition is with yourself! For instance, Gym Ninja didn't win the Maximuscle competition but that doesn't mean she regrets entering. NO! She loved entering that and will do so again this year. It's the competition you have with yourself that is so appealing..


  • Can your mind master your cravings and help you build the best possible you there ever was? 
  • How rewarding is the feeling of being in better shape NOW, when you are older than you have ever been (logically!)??
  • HOW amazing will you look on holiday this year if you are in 'cover mode'l shape?
  • Oh and how amazing will you FEEL eating so clean and exercising regularly?
Have you signed up yet? Gym Ninja was encouraged to participate by Tara (the tinker!) who is also entering the competition. See? We all need our motivational carrots!  Tara waggled that carrot in front of GN and Gym Ninja signed up.....not that you actually sign up. You just 'decide'...ahem.

So...GN managed to get back to the gym tonight. Cardio & legs, and also 'just in case', a skipping rope brought along for instant cardio! Can't have these Jay Walkers getting in the way of Gym Ninja's cardio workout now can we? Luckily Gym Ninja needn't have worried as the Monday Crush appears to be a Monday thing (hence the name).

Gym Ninja decided to do some German Volume Training...aka GVT. For legs! She set up on the incline Hammer Strength Leg Press, loaded on the 'big boy' weight plates and began her 10 sets of 10 reps, with an exactly timed 60 seconds rest between sets.  The guy on the next machine was such a fidgety bottom though! He'd bang out one set using momentum, then hop off, and trot around.  Repeat for sets. How obscure! He didn't look as if he was trying to get blood back into his legs, or work through the lactic acid build up. He just seemed like the kind of person you end up screaming at to 'stop waggling your leg' when they sit there, legs crossed, pen clicking in and out....grrr! 

After the 10 sets, Gym Ninja hauled herself over to look for a vacant isolation move for her quads..aka the Leg Extension. 3 x 12 reps would burn out the quads suitably. But no! All taken! AHHHR! So Gym Ninja had to instead grab a Bosu Ball and do static lunges, really emphasising the Quads, until her legs were all wibbly wobbly and floaty! SOme Romanian deadlifts and Frontal Plane Lunges with dumbbells was just enough to finish her off.  FAB! 

Re: Gym Ninja's 'baby' aka her Personal Training Business, things are starting to come together now in readiness. The logo is nearly finished, with the choice having been narrowed down to 2 preferred layouts. Her patient Graphic Designer Linky is biting her lip and tolerating Gym Ninja's odd  ways...for example:

Gym Ninja Classics include: 

"I've found the PERFECT shade of red for my logo-it's in a ball of wool at my Mum's house. I'll send you a piece of it!" 

"Could you just do the same round circle, but smaller and also an oval instead of a circle?"

"I like the red but I need it more red"


And so on.....

Now poor Linky is patiently waiting the arrival of a 7" strand of red wool through the post like some sort of 'Kabalah' junk mail....

So.....on that note, an overexcitable Gym Ninja is about to log off and get some more revision done. Tonight is Diabetes and Osteoporosis. Woooo!

Gym Ninja xx






Wednesday 24 February 2010

Injure the Ninja

Ow.
Gym Ninja hurts!

Possibly due to over zealous stretching of the neck muscles? Possibly due to over zealous corrective exercise? DEFINITELY exacerbated by hauling around the Blandmobile Company Car for hours at a time the past 2 days!  Regardless, Gym Ninja now has a very painful Trapezius and anterior deltoid. NO play time at the gym because of it either! AHHR!

EVEN WORSE, in some sort of karma-type sick trick, Gym Ninja has had to...and she can barely bring herself to confess....BUY Deep Heat muscle rub! What kind of cruel twist of fate is this?

Acutely aware of the ponginess of Deep Heat, Gym Ninja waited until she returned home for the day, and then slathered on the cream. Rub rub rub until it was well rubbed in. Dougal, Gym Ninja's biggest cat, came in, nose a-twitching, to see what was causing the ungodly stench. Oooh, it's Gym Ninja and her muscle rub. :-(

Oooh, that felt a tad better. OK..so maybe Gym Ninja now knows & appreciates why sometimes people have to use this muscle rub? After all......... AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHR!

Gym Ninja was ON FIRE!

No joke!

In a complete lack of awareness, Gym Ninja had squeezed on a third of the tube and now her skin was on fire. Great! Muscle soreness diminished. Skin burns heightened. Swap one pain for another why don't you?

So as you can imagine, Gym Ninja is not a joyous soul.

Not only that, she appears to be as thick as the stair carpet that, about 10 minutes post Deep Heat, she decided to rip up off the stairs to make way for the new carpet she has since discovered (courtesy of online banking) she cannot now afford! EEEK!

So, not only has she a sore muscular ache, she also has a burning skin sensation over her shoulder, a pongy Deep Heat scent radiating off her, a sickness at the pit of her stomach due to minus numbers in the old bank account and agitated muscle soreness due to a ripping of carpet action that was at best, foolhardly!!! Standing on the grippers didn't help either....who knew grippers are the carpet equivalent of crocodile teeth?

So....what to do?

Well, Gym Ninja has had to cancel her trip to Vegas in April before she'd even booked it. She has had to post stuff on eBay to try and raise funds. She's really going to have to focus on  planning a whole months worth of food shopping for March to keep costs low and cut down on waste. But does this mean non organic now seeing as organic costs so much?
NO!
Just because Gym Ninja is broke, she does not wish to stuff chemicals into her body! There are ways and means you know...ways and means...starting tonight with home made organic broccoli soup.
Thus follows Gym Ninja's  quick easy and cheap Soup Recipe:

Panic Organic Broke Broccoli Soup

Grab some great big chunks of organic broccoli, stalk and all!
Stuff them into a microwavable bowl.
Chuck in some crushed organic garlic cloves.
Boil up the kettle and mix up some Knorr Vegetable Stock (complete with chemicals as Gym Ninja has yet to source an organic vegetable stock!).
Tip radioactive vegetable stock onto broccoli and garlic and microwave for a few minutes.
Empty out the bowl into the blender.
Add half a cup of organic semi skimmed milk.
Blend.
Eat.

For dessert Gym Ninja will then mix up a scoop of Maximuscle Strawberry Promax Protein powder with 300mls of cold filtered water and copious handfuls of frozen mixed berries, fresh organic blueberries and raspberries. This will thicken the shake until it is almost a sorbet-like consistency. Gym Ninja will then spoon this into her mouth (having left a suitable time period following her Panic Organic Soup so as not to become water logged!).

Mmm. Actually this is non-sarcastic. both of those things are nice and tasty in Gym Ninja's opinion. No need to eat junk just because one is broke you know. For instance, at lunch time Gym Ninja dined on a tub of cottage cheese and an organic apple.  Wow. Jealous? You? Uh huh! ;-)

Oh and if you are also trying to save money then click on the Maximuscle link at the handy side bar to the right...as they have an offer on for Thermobol, the fat burner! You buy two bottles for just £54 instead of £71.98 (so you save £17.98). Worth buying if you use it often. They are also running an offer on a tub of Promax protein powder  with Viper Energy  Drinks for a bundle price of £39, saving you £18.98. The offers end on 1st March so order now if you use their stuff. Oh and whilst you are on their site there is a chance to win spondoolies by shooting a small video of how Maximuscle products helped you!

See?

You don't ALL have to be as broke as Gym Ninja!

On that note, Gym Ninja is off to look for brown money down the back of the sofa...every little helps apparently!

Toodle Pip!

Gym Ninja xx

Tuesday 23 February 2010

Monday Crush

OMG!

Who let everyone back in the gym on a Monday? Gym Ninja thought it was January all over again!!!!
In fact, the ONLY thing that made Gym Ninja realise it 'wasn't' January was the lack of thick smoggy Deep Heat scent.  Is Gym Ninja missing something?
Maybe a free show put on by touring Chippendales?
'Make Me A Star' reality show due to start filming at that exact gym?
Royalty visiting?

Either way, Gym Ninja could not find a treadmill available as they were all filled with people gripping for dear life onto the tops of the treadmill console, whilst dragging their bodies at a meandering walking pace..., and as she only planned on warming up, instead found herself hopped onto a X Trainer. Annoyingly enough, whether it was due to an earlier sports bra entanglement in the changing rooms that saw one sports bra latch onto the other one Gym Ninja wears (yes, why take 1 sports bra into the gym when you can wear two??), Gym Ninja now appeared to have a problem with her Polar Heart Rate Monitor. It just refused to pick up her heart rate, the blighter!

Ahhh, it's good to be back and moving again after only 2 workout sessions last week due to workload. The 4 hours plus return trip in the car to York today hadn't helped either!

Once ensconced in the relative perv-free zone of the women only gym, Gym Ninja began her dynamic warm up before moving on to work the upper body weights session. This was akin to running the gauntlet of Total Wipeout as attempts were made to avoid treading on supine bodies slumped motionless on the mats in the free weight area (WHY do that? WHY lie on the floor inches away from people using weights that may drop on your head??), whilst avoiding women randomly raising arms out to their sides with dumbbells waggling.   As has been the case of late, the air con in this section was off, so there were a lot of Sweaty Bettys!  As all the benches were taken, 'German tourist style' with sweat towels marking ownership as the women in question wandered about aimlessly, Gym Ninja grabbed a Swiss Ball, some dumbbells, and began a chest press exercise.

By now this area was getting packed, so GN decided the Lat Pulldown Machine would be her next port of call, well out of the way of the women thrashing around by the mirrors.  As GN then moved back to perform some shoulder moves, she just caught sight of a woman galloping away with GN's Swiss Ball held aloft...ahhhr! if it's not nailed down it goes! So, having commandeered another Swiss Ball from the special Swiss Ball 'tree', Gym Ninja was able to perform a corrective Posterior Deltoid movement lying prone on the Swiss Ball, squeezing together her shoulder blades and then pushing the weights straight up in a push movement to work the shoulders and wake up the lazy trapezius muscles she is currently sporting as this seasons fashion accessory!

OK...a treadmill is free! How about a 5 minute sprint to get the heart rate going? Yep-that's what Gym Ninja though too, so she grabbed the treadmill and pressed start.....whirrrrrr.....stop. Lights out. Dead treadmill.
WTF?
It was working moments ago! Now Gym Ninja's Polar Heart Rate Monitor was registering 199 bpm as she stood still. What IS going on? Does GN have some sort of electromagnetic disfunction going on right now?  A quick mirror check quashed her fear that maybe she was now sporting a static electricity afro...she wasn't...

Time for another chest exercise. Fed up with the territorial actions of women with benches/balls/weights, Gym Ninja grabbed a mat and positioned herself well out of the free weight area, in an empty floor space in the corner, away from the hustle and bustle of everyone. Press Ups! Yes, full press ups, and none of this box malarkey!

It was going SO well, until PLOP!
Out of nowhere, a Swiss Ball fell on her! Some woman had been carrying a Swiss Ball aloft and obviously either accidentally dropped it or been overcome with the need to bomb Gym Ninja as she did press ups....Damned evil Swiss Balls!

Gym Ninja turned around and whaddayaknow? The dead treadmill was now working perfectly for the next person on it. Must indeed be some sort of magnetic field GN is sporting...

Well, it wouldn't be a gym day if Gym Ninja didn't spot at least 5 women slumped dead on the floor, apparently 'working their abs'. OK people: a quick and easy fitness tip. If you wish to work your abs, you need to do more than lie on your back, motionless, on the floor. The gym is not a magical building. You do not carve muscular definition into your midsection merely by touching the floor.  Crossing one leg over the other knee and then remaining motionless is not working your obliques....but your mirror MUST be telling you this? You get the body you deserve! Earn it! We all have to! Nobody grows this shape naturally.
*Ping, up in the morning and a body like a Goddess!*
Sweat! Lift. Push. Pull. ENJOY the work that gets you the reward of an amazing body and increased fitness and energy levels. Nothing worth having comes easy.

After another check for available treadmills (must be a free Lotto ticket with every treadmill today in the gym as they are all taken STILL), Gym Ninja did her cardio on the X Trainer. Maybe tomorrow when the Chippendales/Prince Harry/Brad Pitt visit is NOT happening, will GN be able to get onto a treadmill for a run..?

See you then...
Gym Ninja xx

Friday 19 February 2010

Skip it!

Having over slept courtesy of an exhausting day yesterday, Gym Ninja was grateful she was working from home today.

Of course, as delightful as that sounds, it comes with it's own set of problems. Gym Ninja may spend most of her day seated as she drives, but at least she gets to see the outside world. Gym Ninja does not enjoy being cooped up in one place. Today was no exception.

Stress levels are reduced today you'll all be pleased to know. Looking back over the last two weeks now, Gym Ninja can see that her emotions were all over the place, and she may have taken them out on more than a few people in different ways. Apologies if one of those was you (unless you were the girl at the Sunglasses Store who accused Gym Ninja of lying to try and get a refund...Gym Ninja meant to be like that with you!)

Hmm..has Gym Ninja's font changed by the way? It looks a bit different...

Anyway...today Gym Ninja's body was crying out for movement, but instead she had to sit 'plop' in front of her computer and laptop (work laptop for work-home computer for revision!). It is DRIVING HER CRAZY! No wonder people who work in offices feel all lethargic and binge eat through boredom and tiredness. Gym Ninja didn't binge eat, but she was bored! 

So, having successfully made it to 5pm with only 2 calls off her MD at work (!), Gym Ninja switched the mobile off and grabbed her skipping rope. Time to move the body. 

With re-runs of Gladiators on the TV courtesy of Sky (well sometimes it is more motivating if you watch fitter people than you), Gym Ninja boxed off a 20 minute jump rope workout. Ooooh, that felt gooooooooood! Maybe GN could have skipped for longer? Well, Gn KNOWS she could have skipped for longer, but unfortunately time is, as ever, against her. Tomorrow is the weekend of the course remember. Still some writing up of programme prescription plus revision to do. 

Gym Ninja downloaded a mock nutrition exam off her online computer work earlier. The multiple choice went well (thank GOD!). Didn't even need to resort to the typical 'make a pretty pattern' with the multiple choice answer sheet (come ON! We all did it at some point!) Then came the Nutrition Case Study...OMG. HOW comedic was this? 

Well, 'comedic' was Gym Ninja's first response...and then she began to muse....Do people actually eat like this? In fact, maybe they do? Allow Gym Ninja to give an example of a day or two in the life of the Mock Nutritional Case Study Food Diary...

Day 1:
6-10am:  sugar puffs, milk, coffee (2 sugars)
10-12pm:  coffee, (2 sugars), 2 wafer chocolate bars, peanuts
2-5pm:  coke, glass water, crisps
5-9pm: 3 fried chicken thighs, french fries, coke, donut, 
9-12am: beer, small bag of pick N mix.

Day 2:
6-10am: Coco pops, milk, coffee (2 sugars)
10-12pm: Coke, boiled sweets, crisps, bacon roll
2-5pm: Red Bull, sweets
5-9pm: Hot Dog, 3 beers
9-12am: 4 vodka shots, 4 beers, doner kebab...

The food diary continued with NO fruit, veg, whole grains,...eeek! Just a one way ticket to an unhealthy lifestyle and premature death!  

This guy would be on a sugar rollercoaster. His body would be overwhelmed with sugar one minute, and then come crashing down the next. This would over stimulate the insulin and in the end, cause stress on the pancreas...leading to the body then getting insulin resistant (A pre-cursor of diabetes). of course, the guy would not realize this but he would constantly feel drained and then reach for the stimulants again (coffee, Red Bull, coke, sugary snacks). This constant sugar rush will also mean he stores the excesses eaten as adipose tissue (fat!). 

The processed meats and ready meals in his weekly food diary will fill his body with chemicals and toxins. This will cause bloating, allergies, reactions at cellular levels that we can only have nightmares about. The trans fats in these foods caused by hydrogenating polyunsaturated fats to make them more 'stable' and solid, will cause cell death and/or mutations that can lead to illness and cancers.  Not to mention the physical manifestation of a high fat diet. Pudgy man! 

The lack of fruit and vegetables deprives his body of valuable vitamins and minerals that help protect against disease, illness and release the locked in energy of what he eats. Like driving a car without spark plugs!  The processed meats will be pumped full of chemicals and will have all manner of added stuff given to the animals when they were alive (such as antibiotics, medications, growth hormones etc) which will then become PART OF HIM! 

More importantly...he's gonna feel OLDER than he is. He's gonna feel rough. He's not exactly going to look the part either! EEEK!


So, why are people so unaware of the dangers of eating like this? Do people realise that they literally ARE what they eat? Do they think feeling so tired and drained ALL the time is normal? Gym Ninja now feels motivated and inspired to help change people so they can FEEL better 'all over again'. It has given her renewed energy mentally to remind her WHY she is doing this hard work now. So she can help a few people in the future. 

Hey-do YOU keep a food diary? Maybe it's time to? Let's all do it together. Homework people!

Wish Gym Ninja luck for the weekend...*crossed fingers*

Gym Ninja x

Thursday 18 February 2010

Dud Pub.

Yes.
Busy busy busy Ninja.
Hence the lack of blog posts.

Still cramming for the exams at the weekend.
Still not enough time in the day.
Still stressed.

Oh and today, Gym Ninja was up at 5am and had to drive nearly 3 hours to reach the office for a monthly sales meeting. A sales meeting she'd prepped for, and yet 5 minutes before entering the Boardroom, had managed to have LOST her notes, couldn't recall her lies, and then had to blag eye ball to eye ball, excuses and reasons and facts *ahem* to her MD as to why sales were not forthcoming..
Cute!

Then of course, at lunch the MD decided that this month we didn't have to sit in his Boardroom eating junk (well, Gym Ninja brings her own healthy options whilst watching the others eat junk). Oh no. He wanted to take everyone to a 'really nice pub which serves great food'.

Now, sometimes people should be sued if what they say about food is incorrect. GN has NO clue why she though that a pub WOULD serve decent food? She HOPED that a simple menu that maybe had jacket potato, lean meat, fish or salad maybe in place?
PLEASE let it!

*Gym Ninja can sense you all shaking your heads and wondering why GN is so naive sometimes...? You, of course, were right.  This is how it went....*

1. Gym Ninja is stuffed into the back of the MDs BMW and driven to the secret location, aka 'pub from hell.'

2. Gym Ninja, her MD and two male colleagues walk in and get given a menu.

3. Gym Ninja looks around the pub and felt a bit sick.

4. Gym Ninja then peeps around a corner hoping that the dining area looks nicer than the tatty icky horrid main pub area.

5. Gym Ninja is disappointed.

6. Gym Nina tries not to lean on anything, brush against anything or touch anything.

7. Gym Ninja scans the worlds most unhealthy menu whilst trying to unstick her foot from the carpet (ewww)

8.  The 'healthiest' option (which should give you a clue as to how bad the menu was) that Gym Ninja ended up choosing was 'Gammon'.

Yes...gammon. Uhhr!  Gym Ninja managed to talk the pub into serving it with potatoes rather than chips though, and was told she'd also get veg. Her colleagues chose a variety of dishes that all constituted serious health risks on a plate.

The food arrived.

Gym Ninja's plate contained half a pig that took up 2/3 of the dinner plate. Next to the pig was half a pale red tomato remnant, 6 small new potatoes and a selection of pale murky green marbles which were supposed to be peas.

GN's MD had crispy fatty wedges served with half a baguette filled with cow. He covered this in 5 sachets of mustard.

Colleague 1 had the same fatty wedges served with half a baguette covered in radioactive melted orange cheese (Colleague 1 blatantly has a death wish). Onto this artery clogging chemical filled cheese baguette Colleague 1 squeezed 4 sachets of Mayonnaise onto it.

Colleague 2 chose the same as colleague 1.

Uhhr!

As Gym Ninja attempted to chew on a gammon so salty her  face started to turn inside out with dehydration, she had to fend off comments from her colleagues YET AGAIN about what kind of food she normally ate. Gym Ninja attempted to answer as she swallowed the tasteless, nutrient-free marbles....

Of course, thus followed the explanation about wanting to build her body from quality ingredients that give her health cells, tissues, organs, systems and body. She explained about the dangers of food additives and chemicals and why she tries to eat organic where possible.

"Huh-must make you a nightmare to dine out with eh? Spoils it for everyone I'd imagine!" Said Colleague 1 as he snorted up his mayo covered cheese nightmare.

Again, GN found herself 'justifying' her eating habits as the others listened, incredulous. Hmmm, this discussion happens every month! So GN tried to explain about things and why she had given up her addiction of sweets (to try and make them realise that these things don't just happen overnight and that changes are made gradually).

"I won't deny my son his sweets. He loves Haribo!" Announced Colleague 1.
"I cannot control what he eats if all his friends eat sweets!"

Gym Ninja stared at the guy...

"Your son is 3. Are you telling me that you cannot control what your 3 year old child does? Are you saying that if he wishes to eat sweets you are helpless to stop him? How about maybe NOT giving him the sweets and then he won't want any?"

The guy shook his head.

At this point Colleague 2, a guy in his 60s who is the healthier of the group, piped up suggesting that maybe the guy gives his child an apple cut into squares instead? Thank GOD someone sees sense!

Look-It's NOT about the weight. It really isn't. It is about health. Is it fair to deny a child 'treats?' Well, if your child isn't aware that they (sweets/biscuits/crisps/chocolate)  are 'treats' (and this is learned behaviour from you, the parent, as teh child is not born wanting sweets!) then why would the child think it is missing out? At 3 years old, you can teach the child what a treat is. A treat is a nice sweet or savoury food from nature that they will enjoy eating and it will do them good, and make them feel good. If you feed junk now, then do not be surprised that later down the line when things become a problem, and that your child by then will struggle to give the addiction up.  Do not think that because your child is not overweight that these foods are not harming them. Your child is brand new. Treat them as precious perfect gifts and try and keep them that way. Just an opinion, but maybe something you may wish to reflect on??

So...The day dragged on, made worse by the fact GN could feel the cheap toxin filled salty gammon ferment in her stomach as it battled to digest it. Of course GN nearly brought her meal back up when Colleague 1 announced that maybe she needed to 'chill and get yourself a boyfriend'.

GN glared at the guy but at this point he was well into his fantasy and started saying.."I bet you'd love a guy to treat you  rough eh? I bet you love it!"

See? Chemicals have addled the guys brain! Luckily for him that everyone was in the office or he'd have had those brains shoved up his....

Soooooooooooo

A day justifying healthy eating. A day spent in the office seeing colleagues who appear to expand width-ways every month she sees them. A day of looking at people wasting their full potential, feeding themselves with junk, and suffering as a result (cue lots of hobbling/exhausted faces/chats about illnesses etc) when, with just a few switches, they could feel so much better..There is NO need to change everything overnight. Maybe add a couple of pieces of fruit a day? Another serving of vegetables at the evening meal? A few glasses of water? See how that feels and then as you start to FEEL the improvements as well as see them, then be inspired to swap a few more things in your diet. It's not too late to make a change, so off you go....see what little thing you can change today?

Meanwhile, GN is off to drink 4 gallons of water to wash through the salty slab of pig she ate earlier....bleurrr.

Gym Ninja x

Monday 15 February 2010

"Here pussy pussy...."

AHHHHR!

Was there a SINGLE mood swing that Gym Ninja didn't experience today?

Perhaps going to sleep listening to a presentation pre-recorded on her iPhone about Digestion wasn't conducive to being 'normal' the next day?  That and her sudden 'Tourette's Style' need to play over arguments that haven't happened yet in her head, speaking out loud only her part of course!

Why?
Even worse, Gym Ninja lost the argument!!!!!!

So, with a heavy heart on a Monday morning and an argumentative invisible friend (!) Gym Ninja set out in the car (company Blandmobile rather than her own beloved Mini Cooper) for work. Off to Derby Hospital today.

At Derby, GN had an appointment with a guy who had blatantly had his sense of humour gland removed.  Wow. Not a smirk. Nothing. Miserable lump!  After the appointments (yes, she had two in the same hospital with different departments), Gym Ninja meandered through the corridors of the hospital, observing just how many sick people there are. Always a surprise, and yet why? It IS a hospital after all. Of course, again there are a startling amount of overweight staff. Staff who must see overweight people fall sick with illnesses brought on by their weight. Or do they not realise? Hmmmm.

So, Gym Ninja ate her sushi for lunch, and started to drive again. AHHHR the mood. Stress just won't leave GN alone right now. The rain didn't help either. Eventually, GN pulled into the motorway services. Keele Motorway Services on the M6. She grabbed her laptop, briefcase and diary and set up camp in the cafe at the Services to get some work done...

HOW noisy are Motorway cafes? The coffee machines sound like dragons & the odd music in the background make for difficult business phone calls if you have to explain why Dolly Parton is warbling away in the background. There were many odd faces too. Gym Ninja glanced outside the window to check if the Circus was parked up?
Nope.
Just oddballs...

*Sigh*

Depressed Ninja then headed to the shop, and as she walked through the corridor, there it was...

Microwavable cuddly Bagpuss to be precise. 
£9.99 on sale at WH Smiths at the Motorway Services
He was the only Bagpuss too. The rest were generic cuddly toys. 



Gym Ninja picked him up. He was a heavy blighter. Must be the beans in him that heat up when microwaved. Gym Ninja felt a bit happy. She liked Bagpuss but she is a grown woman and has no cuddly toys (being grown up and all!) so she put him back. & headed back to the car.

Gym Ninja started the car and drove off. Gym Ninja headed towards the exit and the stopped.
It was no good. 
She missed him already....
Gym Ninja got out of the car, headed back into the Services and BOUGHT Bagpuss! Oh that and 2 cans of diet Red Bull (to make it look like she hadn't just gone back in to buy a cuddly Bagpuss!)
JOY!
Bagpuss immediately bonded with Gym Ninja. 
See?


So off they headed into the sunset. Gym Ninja's mood had lifted. Suddenly she felt happier than she has done in days!

WAIT!

What was that smell?

Oh.

 Bagpuss stinks of lavender! Bugger!
Never mind though...maybe that was why she felt better?

After a leg workout at the gym (See? It IS a gym blog you know!) where Gym Ninja had decided to rock the military Army Ninja look in her khaki vest top and matching baseball cap, she ponced out of the gym, all absorbed in her new download 'Rated R' (by Rihanna-the moody so and so). 

"Hey baby I'm a rock star" Sang Gym Ninja aka Army Ninja, oblivious to the fact that her earphones had tangled around the exit turnstile.

YANK!

Army Ninja sprang back like a 'spaz'. Her ears nearly ripped off her head as the earphone cable dragged her straight back to the turnstile. 
Cool.
Not! 

Once home, Gym Ninja carefully microwaved Bagpuss and is now snuggling him. Yes, her troubles still loom large, yet how can you be sad when you have THIS to watch...?

Until tomorrow...

Gym Ninja & Bagpuss xx


Sunday 14 February 2010

Thank you

To all of those who have offered support & advice over Facebook and Twitter, Gym Ninja would like to thank you profusely.

To those who are unaware, Gym Ninja has been feeling overwhelmed lately (what is Gym Ninja saying? Of COURSE you are all aware as GN goes on about it constantly in this blog-sorry about that!) and it has all built up gradually until now, over the past few days, Gym Ninja has kind of lost the plot somewhat.

Not in a mental 'covering everything in tinfoil and only wearing custard yellow' kind of a way. More in a 'losing sight of the end goal' kind of a way... Trying to bottle up emotions and stresses is just never a good plan. There is only so long the lid can keep the contents from bubbling over. Gym Ninja has bubbled a few times this week. Then Gym Ninja feels a bit better. Then Gym Ninja supresses everything again, bubbles, feels better, supresses...and so the circle of stress continues. Possibly not the most fun time ever, nor fun for Gym Ninja's friends either. Sorry again about that! Normal service will be resumed at some point in the future....er....don't ask Gym Ninja for an exact day/date/year though eh?

So...Gym Ninja ensured that although her day today would be a Valentines Day free zone (!!) & full to bursting with study/revision/online tutorials/coursework, she would also make time for a workout. Remember, moving the body can often burn off a lot of the physical manifestations of stress, and distract the mind even momentarily...

 Just because life 'gets in the way', it does not mean you should abandon your fitness goals and regular workouts. At times like these we need to ensure we are in the best shape of our lives to cope with the additional pressures we are under.  So, Gym Ninja HAS To make sure that at least some of her workouts can be done even if pushed for time, and that healthy nutritious food and drink be ingested to ensure a strong body and immune system. Now is NOT the time to poison the body with nutrient-free junk food and/or alcohol.

However, Gym Ninja is off her food. What to do? Well, if you find yourself in a similar situation for whatever reason and your appetite dies a death, ensure you do not! Make time to pick nutrient-packed healthy natural foods. A small amount of these are better than nothing and will keep the body ticking over until the appetite returns. Gym Ninja is keeping protein levels high, ingesting complex carbs and fats for energy and of course supplementing with Promax protein powder mixed into porridge made with milk (for that feel-good factor).  Vitamin and mineral supplements are essential when eating is not as wide-ranging as it should be.  Oh and Gym Ninja is as ever, ensuring she does eat often (even if it isn't as much as she usually eats). It's not fair to take out her mental stresses on her body. What has her body ever done to her to deserve that eh? It's times like these that GN is using her Jack LaLanne Juicer to it's maximum. if yo cannot EAT the nutrients then drink them!

So...off to the Gym for an hour or so. Merely cardio and abs today though. Cardio to 'still the mind' and kick up the endorphins. Abs because Gym Ninja needs to work her abs!!! Once in the changing rooms, GN spotted this...

A jelly sweet cola bottle!
In the GYM changing rooms!
What next? A pie in the sunshowers? Spangles near the lockers? Chicken McNuggets in the sauna?

Why?

Gym Ninja pondered this whilst running (Fartlek training today with no pre-thought planned intervals as GN was too sketchy for that. Merely razzing up and down with the speed). Why spend time in the gym and then go and gobble some jelly sweets before you even leave the building?

Of course, Gym Ninja used to have a nasty evil sweet habit that she couldn't kick! Booze was eventually reduced to almost never. Chocolate Gym Ninja can take or leave (she once ate NO chocolate for 10 years!).  Cakes, pies and biscuits is something Gym Ninja NEVER eats anyway due to her wheat flour intolerance...but sweets? Mmmm, those lovely tangy fizzy Haribo that rot everything they come into contact with? Yep! Gym Ninja's Achilles Heel! Not a day would go by without some sort of sweet passing GN's lips. Yum! But it wasn't until she decided to enter the Maximuscle Body of 2009 competition that GN realised that in order to sort out her physique, she needed to sort out her addiction to those chemical and sugar laden (yummy) nasties! So...Gym Ninja quit. She now had a reason to quit as she had a GOAL. Maximuscle Body of 2009 and the best body she'd had!

Cold turkey!
Or cold Haribo.

NO sweets.
Cut down from a bag a day of whatever took her fancy to ABSOLUTELY zero! It is Gym Ninja's only way. She personally cannot possibly have them in moderation so had to cut them out completely.

Does she feel better now? HELL yeh!
Has she eaten ANY sweets since that day in May 2009 when she quit? No!
Was it hard? YES!
Has Gym Ninja been tempted t o eat them? YES!
But you know what? That moment eventually passes....now Gym Ninja doesn't have the energy spikes and dips she used to get from scoffing pure sugar! Now Gym Ninja has better abdominal definition (remarkable seeing as she rarely works her abs-but THIS will change Ninjarettes! GN will work her abs!!!). Oh and Gym Ninja has NO desire to eat sweets. The addiction (and that is what it is-a sugar addiction) has gone.

Hmmm..all of that from a cola bottle lying dead on the gym changing room floor.

So, maybe look at your addictions? See what you rely on at times of stress/boredom/lazy moments when you reach for the nearest thing. Are they really doing you good? Your body is made up of what you eat. Everything you eat and drink gets broken down by the body into its most basic chemical level and then these chemicals are used to rebuild and strengthen YOU!
Do you want to be made out of Haribo? You're gut will be made out of Haribo if you eat too many of them, mark GN's words!
Do you want to be made out of chocolate?
Vodka maybe? How strong will your body be to fight disease if you're fuelling up on Vodka? Huh?
How well do you think your immune system will be able to fight nasty bugs if it's partly made from chocolate?  How hot will your muscle tone be if your muscles are trying to rebuild out of substandard nutrients and proteins?
Yes, it's not strictly right OUT of chocolate in the chocolate form btw... Gym Ninja is simplifying it here, but effectively this is how it is.

So maybe today, you may want to stop and think for a second before absent mindedly snacking on that tube of Pringles crisps as you watch TV...??

Before Gym Ninja goes (what an odd blog today!), she'd like to suggest to anyone who is on Twitter, to follow  @RevRunWisdom. The guy from Run DMC? He is a wise guy! It's his tweets that often come at the right time to help Gym Ninja...

For instance...today as GN was in tears through stress and sadness, he tweeted this...


2 keys 4 those under xteme pressure:: #1) its ALWAYZ darkest b4 the light #2) Pressure is makin u in2 a diamon


See?

OK...so see you in the week Ninjarettes. Oh and a big thank you to @Ethel1977 and @martino_kernow for there support today. It meant a lot to Gym Ninja.

xx


Saturday 13 February 2010

Swim Spin! Blog post (Part 2)

The reason this is labelled Part Two (as technically it isn't part 2 of anything), is so you notice the 'Part 1' which was posted yesterday a few hours after my original post. Gym Ninja doesn't want anyone to miss it as it's about her participation in Race For Life (so go check it out if you missed it).

Ok, so GN should really be writing up her coursework but she has made a start on some so will take a break now to type this blog up.  

This morning Gym Ninja headed out to the gym for her usual Saturday Slaughter Session. MUCH needed due to the stress if you recall? However, despite enjoying the Spin Classes over the past few weeks as the guy was really ernest and likable, Gym Ninja knew she wouldn't get too hard a workout so instead decided to fatigue herself somewhat by doing her weights session first. Excellent fun! Upper body today. 

So off she went, warmed up with some Dynamic movement-specific stretches and then made a start. The shoulder wasn't quite as good today as it has been, so GN lightened the weights when it came to the Lying Lateral Raises so as not to aggravate the injury. Hmm, t'was a tad hot at the gym as the air con didn't seem to be working, so as she walked over to the water fountain, Gym Ninja nearly crashed into a woman who appeared to be attempting the World record Attempt at super-slow walking. At one point she was moving SO slowly across the gym floor that Gym Ninja thought she was stood still. These are the people who you get stuck behind when rushing somewhere on your lunch break!

Gym Ninja finished her upper body session just in time to go and grab her Diet Emerge Energy Drink (33p from Asda & tastes MUCH better than Diet Red Bull!)  and gel bike seat cover, then headed to the Spin Studio...

OMG..to Gym Ninja's delight (then HORROR as she realised she'd just fatigued herself with her workout session) it wasn't Spin Guy! It was the girl from a few weeks back who cycles you into the ground and then stomps on your head. EXCELLENT! This is fantastic as Gym Ninja needs a workout that pushes her incredibly hard and manages to push her past what she thought she could do. This woman is excellent at that!  Super Spin (as we shall now call her) came over to chat.
"Where's the other Guy?" Asked Gym Ninja
"Ahh, he was sacked as he was a bit 'intense'" said Super Spin, nodding. 
"Oh. he was Ok I thought although he did worry that I never seemed to be able to work up a sweat in his class.." Said Gym Ninja..

So..they began the class...Super Spin has a rule that if she talks she expects an answer and if no one replies then the workload doubles.  Sometimes answering didn't seem to be enough to stop the workload doubling and you know you've had a good warm up when you half die!!!!! 

Mid way through the session and Gym Ninja was sweating like a pig! Seriously sweating as in 'water rolling off the hair' that now hung in drenched rats tails across GN's head! Nice! Super Spin got off her bike to stomp around and motivate..she came over to Gym Ninja who must have soaked her as she turned her head to look..
"Not sweating are we?" cackled Super Spin, referencing the chat about the Spin Guy as she cranked up Gym Ninja's bike resistance another level.
AHHHHR! But who can hate someone who is that evil? Love it love it love it! (Well, assuming Gym Ninja had any spare energy at that point to love anything...) 

The class FLEW by! If this gym manages to lose this Spin teacher the they are crazy! She'll get that class heaving! Yeh she may kill a few in the process, but hell, it's worth the risk for the calorie burn!

Gym Ninja dragged herself out of the class...if it wasn't for the fact she was in gym gear you'd be mistaken for thinking she'd stepped out of the pool.  On the way out she bumped into an old regular 'Dangly Cross Man'.  You remember him don't you?

They started chatting about how good the spin session had been and Dangly asked Gym Ninja how the PT was going and had she started her business yet? How cute of him to remember? Gym Ninja explained that she wasn't finished until April and how tough it was trying to study and juggle full time work..and before she knew it she'd managed to press-gang the poor guy into being a client!

"Mates Rates Mind!" said Dangly a tad nervously as he edged away nervously...

Gym Ninja laughed, turned away and then .......  EEEEEEEK!
OMG! Whaaaaat?

Gym Ninja could NOT believe her eyes! What WAS that guy doing?  
All GN could see was a muscled guy standing still, doing a rapid shaking movement about hip level...you know the kind of movement Gym Ninja means? The kind of movement some guy should NOT be doing anywhere other than in the privacy of his own house in front of his computer no doubt!!!!!

PHEW!

A machine had been blocking Gym Ninja's view...the guy had a SHAKER bottle and was mixing up his protein shake. 

Seriously though guys-think about how you do that! 

Okey dokey. Gym Ninja needs to finish writing the programme for Mesocycle 1 and will research some ab work for her Mesocycle 2 (damned coursework) and then the rest of the night (!) is her own...

Toodle Pip

Gym Ninja xx

Friday 12 February 2010

Race For Life: Blog post part 1

Gym Ninja signed up for the Race For Life today.

Just the 5k mind, as Gym Ninja has dragged her sister into doing it with her and her sister does 'not' run. Not that this bothers Gym Ninja-after all, it's all in a good cause. But she doesn't particularly want to insist her sister does the 10k, only to then have to spend all day plodding around the course with her.
Oooh, that sounds a tad horrid no? But you know what Gym Ninja means. 5k is a compromise and who knows? Maybe Gym Ninja can get her sister to train for it so she can even run it?

So Gym Ninja thinks it's really important that we all try and raise funds for Cancer Research. Sadly, we all know someone who has been struck by cancer. Hopefully they may have survived? Some may have had a difficult battle and sadly lost. There are a few scars on Gym Ninja's heart, the most recent of which is the loss of her beloved Nanna who passed away in July of last year from Cancer of the Oesophagus. So Gym Ninja is running in memory of her Nanna, plus other family members and friends who have lost their battle with cancer-the cruelest disease of all.

One of the main reasons for Gym Ninja's sudden desire to change career and head back into health & fitness was her Nanna's illness. If it is at all possible to reduce or even remove in some cases, the risk of becoming a cancer statistic by healthy eating and regular exercise, then surely it's worth those minutes of working up a sweat or forgoing that tub of Pringles crisps?

Gym Ninja is determined to help people work exercise and healthy eating into their lives. Not only does it make you feel better and look better which has so many knock on effects in a beneficial way, but it helps reduce your chances of succumbing to cancer and other diseases. If you don't do it for yourself, then do it for your loved ones. Imagine how they would feel if you became ill? How would they cope if anything happened to you due to the increased risk of suffering illness brought on by your unhealthy lifestyle?

 Of course, not ALL cancers happen due to an unhealthy lifestyle. Look at Lance Armstrong? An athlete who worked his body hard and fed it all the right nutrients yet he still discovered he had advanced testicular cancer that had spread to his lungs and brain. Yet he fought it, and won! Read his Bio for true inspiration on those days when you feel too lazy to get out of bed and do a workout. We can learn a lot from Lance Armstrong...from every cancer survivor. From every single person who has fought this disease and won or lost their fight...

So, to my Nanna up there in heaven. I am doing this in your memory and to stop anyone else having to go through what you went through, and to prevent anyone else feeling the pain that I feel from losing you.

Please Sponsor Me and click on this Sponsor me now link

God Bless.

Gym Ninja

xx

Sorry sorry sorry!

BAD Ninja for leaving you yet again without a blog.

 Gym Ninja did warn you all that work pressures are leaving her with precious little time at the moment and this is still the case. Gym Ninja has been hit with a mega wave of stress so she is now going all-out to try and do some damage-limitation as stress can do some nasty things to one's body-things that if you are aware of them, will cause you even MORE stress fretting about!

Gym Ninja does not WANT to go catabolic and have her body tear up precious hard-earned muscle in a response to stress.

Gym Ninja does not WANT to have cortisol (the stress hormone) rage through her body, raising blood pressure and blood glucose, reducing immune response, playing havoc with skin collagen, and if long term exposure occurs, wrecking her memory/learning ability!! Oh and it encourages the body to store fat on the stomach too!

AHHR!

So Gym Ninja is stepping up her diet in terms of being sure to take her supplements, especially Vitamin C, Omega 3 to blunt the effects of cortisol, and also drinking her beloved Maximuscle Promax protein shakes to try and stop the body leaching it out of her muscles.  Gym Ninja is also ensuring she makes some vegetable and fruit juice combinations to further support her body at this stressful time. Gym Ninja has not had ONE cold or bout of flu this winter so has no intention of falling prey now due to lowered immune  levels!!!!!!

So today she is about to mix up the following organic produce...apple, kiwi, carrots and broccoli...

Broccoli is high in Vitamin C, K and A and has anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties
Kiwi has again, Vitamin C, plus a decent whack of potassium, Vitamin E and a small amount of vitamin A.
Apples contain many antioxidants (but Gym Ninja learned today that the apple seed are mildly poisonous! EEEK! Who knew?)
Carrots have betacarotene that the body can use to formulate other vitamins from, dietary fibre, antioxidents...and so on....

So it turned out a dirty shade of orange...a bit like if a child used orange poster paints, and then rinsed his brush in a water pot that had green poster paint water...mmm...tasted OK though! Gym Ninja feels a tad less stressed after drinking it too..psychosomatic perhaps?

Look what happened when Gym Ninja did a search on apples..she found this...

  
No mention of the poisonous pips on this though is there? At least the pips don't grow into a tree inside you (as once thought by a young Gym Ninja)...

OK...so that is enough moaning for now. Gym Ninja hopes to do a hardcore workout later that should also help dissipate the stress levels. Gym Ninja needs that endorphin high! Plus, her order of Promax Crisp protein bars (all chocolatey and yummy) are due to arrive. If you haven't tried them yet go click on the Maximuscle link and buy a box. You WON'T regret trying them!!!

Gym Ninja xx

Tuesday 9 February 2010

Gym is the Tonic!

www.tarafitness.com Before Gym Ninja starts today's blog, allow her to offer a Clown Watch update:

Clown Watch:
Hair is still 'essence of parrot' akin to hair of a clown. After much boosting of nerves, Gym Ninja bit the bullet & rang to ask her hairdresser to correct it. Hairdresser is off until Thursday.......Noooooooooooooooooooo!

So...today was all up & down, highs & lows, back to fronts and Parrot hair. Understand?
Nope?
OK, so essentially Gym Ninja is still distracted with 'other private goings on', but also distracted by her clown hair, aka Parrot Hair. But today's blog is NOT about hair of the clown you'll be pleased to hear. Today Gym Ninja fought back her fear of being seen with the clown hair, and went to the gym.

OK, so maybe she wasn't that brave. Maybe it was because she thought (thought being the operative word here) that she'd packed her baseball cap. But when she got into the changing rooms, no cap was found. It was instead, still sitting on the end of the stairs bannister at home. *Gulp*

Needing to run off the stress of the day, Gym Ninja again decided to get a push elsewhere and again did the iTrain workout of sprint intervals for half an hour. Gym Ninja really needs to upload more of her iTrain library into her iPhone or else she'll get mega bored of this running session with it's naff music. Luckily one is too busy sweating her eyeballs out to notice the music that much...so the job was done, endorphins were released and Gym Ninja even managed to ignore (for the most part anyway) the woman on the cross trainer in front of her who had so much 'bounce' going on that she feared her head may bang the ceiling at one point!

GN then started her weights session. T'was Upper Body today. The shoulder is virtually 100% back to normal, although Gym Ninja is still playing it carefully and not overloading too heavily on anything that may set it back a bit. Good Gym Ninja!

Gym Ninja really does need blinkers at the gym sometimes. As much as she was trying to focus on her ow training, she was distracted by a number of things.

SHOAL! Yep, The Shoal was in again everyone. A group of 4 young girls all moving in unison as one gaggle of girls. 1 did half-hearted moves on a piece of resistance equipment whilst the others sat on the surrounding equipment using them like chairs whilst watching the leader train. Then, they'd all swap places. Must take em days too finish a workout!

Of course it wouldn't be a day with a Y in it if there wasn't someone on the Chest press machine using the Easy Start Pedal as part of the exercise now would it? That goes without saying.  There were a few new moves though. One woman decided to always stand in the most awkward of places wherever anyone needed to get past. She positioned a Swiss Ball bang next to the free weight stack, and then just bounced up and down on it for a while. A bit like that 0898 advert (or whatever the dial prefix is nowadays) you see on late night satellite TV with a girl in a bikini bouncing on a space hopper mouthing "call me big boy!" She (the woman at the gym, not the one on the advert!) then grabbed some dumbbells, lay back on the ball and waggled them around for a while. Next, she stood up, grabbed a dumbbell inbetween her hands, raised them up above her head as if about to murder someone with it, and then nearly tipped backwards as the dumbbells lowered themselves without any control from her, behind her head in a sort of triceps extension. Cute! She followed this up with a tug-o-war using the high pulley cable machine & the rope attachment. Gym Ninja thins it again was supposed to be an attempt at a triceps move. It wasn't. If anything it would have worked her lats and maybe biceps...but mostly momentum.


Gym Ninja listened to the latest edition of the freebie Podcast, 'The FitCast'. You should really subscribe on iTunes to it if you haven't already as they discuss all the latest developments and tips in the fitness industry. Very informative it is too, if you can stop giggling at the bits where they make each other laugh.

After her workout and cool down stretches, Gym Ninja mixed up her Chocolate Maximuscle Promax protein powder to help maximise what she'd just done at the gym. God, Gym Ninja seriously misses Choc Mint flavour. Oh and she's not as of yet tried the powders now rebranded for women by the same company, called Maxitone. Gym Ninja is waiting for Tara to try that and then review them: you all know Tara and her blog now don't you? We're all chums together here after all. Shame Tara didn't steal Gym Ninja some freebies eh Tara? Shame on you! ;-)

Hmm, Gym Ninja needs to stock up on some stuff actually. She may as well pootle off to the Maximuscle website in a moment. Choc Mint Protein powder plus a tub of Creatamax 300 is a callin'! Must also have a mooch and see what offers are on special this month too.

Anyway, Gym Ninja digresses....Oooh talk of the devil, Tara has just sent Gym Ninja a link on Facebook..must go peruse it! Oh and seeing as GN doesn't have comments activated on her blog, maybe any kind readers who also want Gym Ninja to try some Maxitone freebies would suggest that on Tara's blog comments for her please? After all, Tara is a Maxitone Body of 2009 finalist and if anyone can nab a free water bottle it's her...

Mwahahahha! Sorry about that Tara!!!!

Ok, toodle pip. Clown Hair is making Gym Ninja feel 'funny'...

Gym Ninja Clown x