A Podcast Collection On High Intensity Training and Wellbeing, with Simon Shawcross
Here’s a collection of a selection of my podcasts over the years (from most recent to oldest). 14 December 2020, HITuni’s 21st Century Certifications! In this episode we meet Simon Shawcross, founder and director of HITuni, an e-learning provider that specializes in delivering courses on high intensity training (HIT) and evidence based fitness. Simon shares his passion for HIT and the positive impact that exercise has on people’s lives that has driven him to dedicate the last seven years to developing premium online certification-level courses for personal trainers, as well as a number of non-certification courses for those who want …
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The Rough Guide to Testosterone
This post is all about testosterone (T), we’ll look at what it is, what it does and where it comes from. We’ll cover the reasons that it is an important hormone for women as well as men and how low testosterone levels negatively impacts both sexes. We will detail some of the symptoms of low testosterone and what you can do about them. Then we will look at what the latest research reveals about the impact of exercise, both resistance training and aerobic, on acute and long-term levels of testosterone. By the end of the article, you’ll know a lot …
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17 Myokines You Need to Know About Today
Skeletal muscle tissue is made up of muscle fibers, connective tissue, blood vessels and nerves. Under the control of the somatic nervous system (SNS), skeletal muscle produces force, creates movement. Muscles get bigger and stronger if you exercise, smaller and weaker if you don’t…simple. This is the basic understanding of muscle that most of us have. There is however more benefit to exercising muscle tissue which we are not able to directly observe, and which science is only just beginning to reveal. It was my recent conversation with Doug McGuff, MD, that lit a fire under my desire to understand …
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Doctor Doug McGuff Talks Fitness and High Intensity Training For The Over-40s
Doug McGuff MD, is a family man who successfully combines a highly intense career as an emergency physician, with a passion for high intensity exercise. A long-time strength training enthusiast and advocate, he has written four books on exercise including co-authoring the best-selling Body by Science. A fifth book, The Primal Prescription details how to navigate the modern healthcare system and when possible, how to avoid it altogether. For over 20 years Dr. McGuff has also operated Ultimate Exercise a personal training facility in Seneca, helping to keep South Carolinians and enthusiasts from all over the globe in peak physical …
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Staying strong during flu season
News outlets are reporting that this season’s flu infection rates are now at epidemic levels in the US and will be within the next week in the UK too. It seems a good time to highlight what you can do to best protect yourself from infection, what to do if you do get sick and what this means for your workouts. Whilst the common cold and influenza are both forms of virus with some similar symptoms, influenza or flu is undoubtedly worse: with the likelihood of fever, body aches and exhaustion. This year it is the Influenza-A/H3N2 virus causing the …
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Genetics, DNA fitness and personal genetic tests: what’s possible?
In recent years there has been a growing number of companies offering DNA tests to consumers, some specifically focusing on the fitness impact of certain genes. The marketing hyperbole suggests that the purchaser will, with the results of their swab test, be able to tailor their workout routine specifically to their DNA for superior physical results. Frankly, I was ready to start writing this article completely dismissing the value of direct to consumer DNA testing for fitness and exercise prescription as it stands today. Researching the article got to me though. It is an intellectually exciting topic and too intriguing …
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Regular exercise won’t save you from the dangers of sitting
You’ve probably heard the phrase “sitting is the new smoking”. A strong and attention capturing statement indeed and one that implies a familiar activity has deleterious effects on our long-term health. Perhaps conjuring thoughts in the reader of diseases associated with smoking such as cancer and heart disease. One may also infer that sitting is addictive, that the comfortable looking armchair is luring us seductively to an early grave. I want to find out if there is any merit to this attention-grabbing headline and if so, what we can do to protect ourselves from the ravages of…sitting? What are …
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Resistance training can reverse ageing
In March this year, the BBC reported that a drug had been trialled in animals that could reverse certain aspects of ageing causing old mice “to restore their stamina, coat of fur and even some organ function.” Inspired by this, I wanted to understand more about how the ageing process works and if exercise can have a similar effect on the body; can exercise reverse ageing? What are senescent cells? This trial drug, a peptide worked by reducing the number of senescent cells in the mice. As we age, irreparable DNA damage begins to accumulate in cells, one of three …
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Fitness and fatness: can you be fat and fit, …or even slim and unfit?
Sometimes in order to save time and avoid mental strain we have a tendency to oversimplify. However, like many situations, over simplification to save time comes at the expense of accuracy and relevant nuance. The concept of being “fat, but fit” or “The Obesity Paradox” meets this criterion. Generally, being overweight or obese is bad for you. Obese individuals have a higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes than lean people. Likewise, being unfit is considered an independent risk factor for developing the same conditions. At first glance, our initial impression of those who are overweight …
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Physically Fit for Life Part 2: Resistance Training
In the last post, I covered the benefits of performing regular moderate intensity activity, specifically walking. As discussed in that post, walking is a form of exercise that helps to improve the first 7 factors on our list highlighting some of the most important benefits that can be attained through exercise. In this post I am going to address another type of exercise, one that can stimulate positive adaptations in the remaining 9 factors for being Physically Fit for Life, namely: Muscle tissue mass Strength, across your entire muscular system Bone mass density and the strength and integrity of your joints, …
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