PROBLEM #4 WEIGHTS ARE FOR BOYS

March 1, 2017

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Gemma Smith

Girls belong in the weights room just as much as the boys! Cardio is boring, running on a treadmill everyday or jumping on the stepper (or whatever its called) is such a waste of time. Sure you burn calories but where’s the fun stuff?? How do you know when you're progressing? 

Weights do not make women look like the hulk (a shot of T every now and then might but that’s for another day…….), they make us have some shape, they increase our strength, they build our immune system, and they’re way more enjoyable than the cardio room. They give us something other than body image to focus on. With cardio it's a case of am I leaner or am I not, or did the scale go down? With weights we can focus on lifting heavier and measure our progress that way rather than relying on how we look or what the scale says. 

I think most girls are just hesitant to go in because they think everyone is looking at them waiting for them to fail or they just have no idea how to use the equipment.

What I say to all of my girls is that everyone had to start at some point, and even the most experienced people are still learning and perfecting their technique every day. You just need to start, go in and pick up and dumbbell and swing it around, get the bar on your back and get a feel for it, just give everything a go! Be comfortable in your own skin to go in there and show them how it’s done.

Where do you start?

You can literally Google “how to train in the gym”  or “how to lift weights” and there are thousands of results – training programs, Youtube videos on exercise technique,  nutrition plans, macro recommendations – literally everything. Sure it’s a bit strange that I’m recommending you go and just Google a program and not try to sell you on training with me, but it is literally so easy to learn how to lift weights that you don’t need me (as amazing as I am………….).

The downside to ‘Googling’ all of this info is that there are literally thousands of programs and recommendations, how do you know which one is for you? (This is the part where you pay me to figure it all out).

You just want to keep it simple at the start, split squats, chin ups, push ups, step ups, etc. Keep it interesting and enjoyable so you want to train.

So, if you’re a cardio bunny and you’re reading this then stop the treadmill and go pick up a weight – you can thank me later! 

#teamthp

Tags:

health

strength training

girlgang

training

performance

Originally posted on www.totalhealthperformance.com.au

PCOS - What You Need to Know

January 11, 2016

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Gemma Smith

This one is a bit personal for me as I have PCOS.It’s been a little bit of a blessing when it comes to training – I can lift a decent amount of weight and I put on muscle just thinking about it. The down side is painful periods, weird hair grows (those of you that know me know that I have some pretty hairy arms), and difficulty losing weight when I don’t follow my own advice.

Seeing as it’s becoming so common to be overweight and have one of these conditions, I figured I’d give you my take on it all. I’ll mainly talk about PCOS, but anyone with Endometriosis can also follow the suggestions.

PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) is an insulin disorder. Yes, there are some other factors involved, but the main cause is excessively high insulin (blood sugar) levels caused by an overconsumption of carbohydrates.

Ultimately, to control your PCOS symptoms, you must control your blood sugar. Seeing as eating too many carbs causes you to have no control over your blood sugar then simply stop overeating on carbs.

For those of you who have no idea what the symptoms are or what you can expect if you have PCOS, here is a run down of what I’ve come across with myself and my clients:

• Overweight
• Elevated insulin (blood sugar) levels
• Hair growth in uncommon places – face, arms, stomach, etc.
• Painful and irregular periods
• Increased androgen (male sex hormones) production
• Fatigue
• Depression
• Cravings for carbs (ironically, what causes the issue in the first place is what you will actually crave. This is true for a lot of conditions – for example, individuals with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity will crave foods that contain gluten!!!)
• PMS

For myself and my clients, I have a very standard approach – Diet, Lifestyle and Supplementation.

I’ll break it into a few sections to make it easier to follow.

DIET

As I’ve already said, PCOS is an insulin disorder for overeating on carbohydrates. First thing to do is to cut the carbs that aren’t working for you:

• Fruit
• Bread
• Pasta
• Cereal
• Rice
• Potatoes
• All forms of sugar (yes, even fruit – that’s the first dot point anyway)
• Just google carbs and stop eating just about all of them for now

Add in protein – as a guide, start with 100g 3-5 times per day:

• Red meat – if you can stomach it
• Chicken
• Fish
• Turkey
• NO SOY (more on this down further)

Add in good fats – as a guide, have a serve of one of these options with every meal:

• Organic, unsalted butter
• Nuts
• Avocadoes
• Olive oil
• Coconut oil

LIFESTYLE

PCOS in an insulin disorder, however it is also a hormonal disorder. The hormones I’m talking about here are called xeno-estrogens or xeno-hormones. They are basically fake hormones, substances that mimic the effects of estrogen in the body and throw off the balance. They include:

• Chemical exposure
• Plastics
• Make up
• Moisturizers
• Shampoos and conditioners
• Sunblock
• Hairspray
• Perfumes
• And the list goes on and on and on……

You basically need to get rid off all types of exposure to these fake hormones that you have control over. For me, I work in a gym where they use cleaning products and have very little ventilation. I cant control that, but I can control everything else.  Control what you can, forget about what you cant.

A little note on soy products here – do not eat them. If you are a vegetarian, too bad, soy is not for you or for any human really. Soy mimics estrogen and will definitely give you short and long term issues. For example, a mother that was feeding her newborn child soy formula notices some pink spots in her nappy. Long story short – she took her to the doctors and they found that she was having a period. A newborn baby having a period – no this is not a typo. There are some forms of soy that aren’t too bad for you, but just steer clear!

SUPPLEMENTATION

These are just suggestions, I am not prescribing anything here. Here is what I do once diet and lifestyle are cleaned up:

Cod liver oil – sooths the lining of the uterus to control pain

Magnesium – stops the uterus from contracting by relaxing it so you can control pain

Inositol

Dim/Sulphorophane

So, just to recap:

1. Stop overeating on carbs
2. Get rid of all forms of xeno-estrogens/xeno-hormones that you are able to
3. Supplement only once diet and lifestyle are cleaned up

It really is that simple, you don’t need any fancy medications or any special ‘diet’. Some people will need a slightly different approach and may have to tweak a few things here and there, but the principles are the same.

If you have some more questions or have a specific issues that you need help on then feel free to ask via Facebook or send me through an email:

totalhealthep@outlook.com