Top tip for improving your home workout; Warming Up

January 17th, 2012


Today we wanted to share with you the importance of warming up to ease you into exercise. When you have a treadmill or vibration plate at home it can be really tempting to use them for 10 minutes between feeding the cat, packing the school lunch and running out the door without giving yourself enough time to warm up and cool down. But this can be counter -productive.  Skipping a warm up will mean your body tires more easily in your work out and is the quickest way to a month on the sofa nursing an injury and your home fitness equipment becoming a rather large and expensive clothes hanger.

People who are unfit need to warm up the longest because it’s more of a shock for their muscles. For those new to exercise we suggest slowly warming up your muscles for ten minutes. The fitter you are your body becomes more efficient at responding to exercise so we suggest a three to five minute warm up would be fine for people who exercise regularly.

Warming up increases blood flow to your muscles. The blood delivers vital oxygen and nutrients to keep your muscles working hard when you are exercising so if you are properly warmed up you will be able to exercise for longer. A warm up also, quite literally, warms up your muscles, tendons and ligaments. Tendons connect muscles to bones and ligaments connect bones together. Warmer muscles, tendons and ligaments are more flexible and are therefore less likely to tear.

So just give yourself 3- 15 minutes extra to ease yourself into a workout and your body will reap the rewards.

Motivational Tips

January 12th, 2012
If you are anything like us, you have the dream of trading your post Christmas belly in for a slimmer more attractive model but not quite the will power to make it happen. Well we’ve stumbled across these great motivational tips and really wanted to share them. Just remember it’s never too late to begin and it’s never hopeless, we all just need a little bit of a pep talk now and then to get us started.
This week will focus on getting you started on achieving your goal and each week we will add new motivational tips to keep you focused along the way.
Ready…Set…Go!
Don’t worry you can stay on the sofa for this bit. All you need is a pencil and notepad and an idea of what you want to achieve.
The Goal: You need to come up with a goal that you really, really want to achieve. Not a pipe dream that you would be quite happy to leave under your pillow when you get up in the morning but a solid, important, goal that you feel determined to achieve.  Just pick one goal. Yes we officially give you permission to throw out all the other subsidiary goals like keeping your desk tidy at work. We don’t mind what your boss thinks of you. We are here to make sure you achieve your all consuming, number one, top priority, goal.
Be Specific: Write your goal down in a notepad and think about how you will know if you have achieved it. We at JTX Fitness have a tendency to have vague ambitions that continually change as we get closer to them..a very quick route to feeling very unmotivated.   So if you want to shed a few pounds make sure you are clear how many pounds you want to lose, how much you weigh now and by when.
Make sure your goal is healthy e.g. your target BMI should be between 18.5 and 25 or give yourself adequate time to train for that ultra marathon challenge you have been dreaming about.
Think of a reward: The idea of achieving your number one, top priority, goal should make you feel excited. But along the way you are bound to have a few slumps so we need an additional carrot to keep you going at the half way point. If you have a fitness goal, make sure the reward you chose isn’t counterproductive, like a big slice of chocolate cake. Why not treat yourself to a massage or day at the spa with a friend?
Tell everyone: Well maybe the woman in the queue for the Tesco’s checkout doesn’t need to know your ambition to swim a mile… but make sure you tell your friends and family your goals. Tell them how important they are and how you intend to achieve them. You will need them to give you a good talking to if you fall off the wagon and most importantly not tempt you to go down the pub rather than the gym when you have had such good intentions all day. If she’s willing, get your mum involved, there is nothing like a look from a disappointed parent to focus the mind, no matter how old you are.
Give yourself a daily reminder: Whether that’s a note on the fridge or an alarm on your phone. The quickest way to achieve a goal is by making it part of your life. Try to do something towards your goal for fifteen minutes a day.
Get started: It sounds really simple but getting started is often the hardest thing to do. Start small. Focus on a week at a time and feel good about being a week closer to your ambition than you used to be. Exercise releases endorphins into the body that help fight the winter blues. The more you exercise, the less down in the dumps you will be. Enjoy!

If you are anything like us, you have the dream of trading your post Christmas belly in for a slimmer more attractive model but not quite the will power to make it happen. Well we’ve stumbled across these great motivational tips and really wanted to share them. Just remember it’s never too late to begin and it’s never hopeless, we all just need a little bit of a pep talk now and then to get us started.

This week will focus on getting you started on achieving your goal and each week we will add new motivational tips to keep you focused along the way.

Ready…Set…Go!

Don’t worry you can stay on the sofa for this bit. All you need is a pencil and notepad and an idea of what you want to achieve.

The Goal: You need to come up with a goal that you really, really want to achieve. Not a pipe dream that you would be quite happy to leave under your pillow when you get up in the morning but a solid, important, goal that you feel determined to achieve.  Just pick one goal. Yes we officially give you permission to throw out all the other subsidiary goals like keeping your desk tidy at work. We don’t mind what your boss thinks of you. We are here to make sure you achieve your all consuming, number one, top priority, goal.

Be Specific: Write your goal down in a notepad and think about how you will know if you have achieved it. We at JTX Fitness have a tendency to have vague ambitions that continually change as we get closer to them..a very quick route to feeling very unmotivated.   So if you want to shed a few pounds make sure you are clear how many pounds you want to lose, how much you weigh now and by when.

Keep it healthy : If you want to lose weight your target BMI should be between 18.5 and 25. If you have a fitness goal give yourself adequate time to train for that ultra marathon challenge you have been dreaming about.

Think of a reward: The idea of achieving your number one, top priority, goal should make you feel excited. But along the way you are bound to have a few slumps so you’ll need an additional carrot to keep you going at the half way point. If you have a fitness goal, make sure the reward you chose isn’t counterproductive, like a big slice of chocolate cake. Why not treat yourself to a massage or day at the spa with a friend?

Tell everyone: Well maybe the woman in the queue for the Tesco’s checkout doesn’t need to know your ambition to swim a mile… but make sure you tell your friends and family your goals. Tell them how important they are and how you intend to achieve them. You will need them to give you a good talking to if you fall off the wagon and most importantly not tempt you to go down the pub rather than the gym when you have had such good intentions all day. If she’s willing, get your mum involved, there is nothing like a look from a disappointed parent to focus the mind, no matter how old you are.

Give yourself a daily reminder: Whether that’s a note on the fridge or an alarm on your phone. The quickest way to achieve a goal is by making it part of your life. Try to do something towards your goal for fifteen minutes a day.

Get started: It sounds really simple but getting started is often the hardest thing to do. Start small. Focus on a week at a time and feel good about being a week closer to your ambition than you used to be. Exercise releases endorphins into the body that help fight the winter blues. The more you exercise, the less down in the dumps you will be. Enjoy!

Top 5 UK Marathons

January 11th, 2012

If it was your New Year’s Resolution to run a marathon for the first time, you’ve told all your smirking friends you are doing it, you have spent your Christmas money on a treadmill and you’ve even been out for a January run; do your self a favour and give the extremely hard to get in to London Marathon the cold shoulder. Our list of smaller marathons are, unfortunately, still a gruelling 26 miles and 385 yards long but their locations will help you run with a spring in your step…

  • The Rutland Water Marathon: We just love this marathon which is set in a European Special Protection Area for over 20,000 birds and follows the trails around an a distractingly picturesque reservoir. November 2012.
  • The Duchy Marathon: Take advantage of Cornwall’s stunning sea views in this Redruth marathon with a really friendly atmosphere amongst the runners and hot pasties at the finish. Watch out for the hills though! 4 March 2012
  • The Brighton Marathon: We may be a little biased because we go along to support this marathon every year but we love the huge crowds who turn out to support and the wonderfully flat route along the sea front. 15 April 2012
  • Abingdon Marathon: This is marathon takes in the best of the Oxfordshire countryside whilst running along the Thames. The route is also pretty flat and finishes with a lap around the athletics track. Sunday 21 October 2012
  • The Edinburgh Marathon: With over 16,000 runners taking part, the Edinburgh marathon is fantastic spectacle in the historic streets. You can also enter a relay team with three of your mates, each of you running 6.5 miles – allowing you to achieve your New Years Resolution with a little less sweat . 27 May 2012

Please check all dates with the race organisers. We also recommend you consider our 5 top tips before entering a marathon;

  • Distance from friends and family; you want as many supporters along the route as possible.
  • Breath taking views; we generally find the more distractions on route the better.
  • Route; some routes not only cover the full distance but throw in a few mountains along the way too- cheeky.
  • Distance from your sofa; From our experience you will want to get to your comfy sofa as soon as possible after the event. You will also want to know the route well before the event so don’t give yourself the added hassle of travelling across the country for a look at it.
  • Enough time; We recommend you take at least 5months to train for a marathon (depending on your current fitness). If you enjoy training in the cold and wet, a marathon in spring is absolutely fine. If, like us, you find it easier to motivate yourself in the summer we recommend an autumn marathon.

Competition Winner

January 11th, 2012

Congratulations to Jenny Price for winning the JTX Fitness competition to win a JTX5000 vibration plate. We really hope it gets your 2012 off to a fantastic start. For all those people who didn’t win please do keep an eye on our blog, there are more competitions just round the corner….