Love Yourself Healthy

Find time to Love Yourself Healthy

21/03/2019 by Beverley Addy Leave a Comment

This is Kostas Viazis, 35, Penistone – he is a married father of two girls aged three and one and has been sharing his top tips as part of our Love Yourself Healthy theme at Penistone Leisure Centre.

Kostas is one of our Volunteer Gym Instructors and is also available for Personal Training Sessions at Penistone Leisure Centre.

As a volunteer gym instructor with the leisure centre, he loves to help people understand how to work out and why they are doing what they are doing in the gym.

Today he has top tips for gym users when they’re outside the gym.

TOP TIP – FOOD

“Ninety percent of those who come to the gym want to lose a bit of weight and build strength,” said Kostas.

“My top tip for nutrition is to control sugar generally in their food and avoid these fast carbs with fat. That’s a bad combination,” he added.

His mantra is “Go brown rather than white – with bread and rice.” (“Unless if is your post training meal – you need some fast carbs there,” he added

He suggests separating your daily calorie intake into four or five meals to help digestion and provide constant fuel.

“A very big meal is sometimes enjoyable, but there is a limit on what our body can take in during as single digestion. Some of the rest might become fat and we don’t really want this to happen, do we?” said Kostas.

His favourite healthy meal is: Chicken fillet, with veg and rice.

“Nice and simple and you can eat as much veg as you like and stay healthy” said Kostas.

Kostas is available to book for Personal Training Sessions here at Penistone Leisure Centre. You can learn more about this by clicking here

TOP TIP

“Being a parent does make it more difficult to get to the gym,” said Kostas, as he has found out with his two girls, so he says you have to plan and make sure you find the times where you can fit a workout in as “your own health is important too”.

Let the leisure centre help you Love Yourself Healthy. No contract, simply take an induction (followed by your first session for free) to be able to use the gym whenever it’s open – click for opening times.

Request an induction online now – click here.

Are you loving yourself healthy yet?

07/03/2019 by Beverley Addy Leave a Comment

It’s week four of Love Yourself Healthy, here at Penistone Leisure Centre – have you found any new ways to Love Yourself Healthy yet?

Our voluntary gym instructor and personal trainer Kostas Viazis, 35, from Penistone – married father of two girls aged three and one – gets lots of cardio work outside of the gym with his hobbies of football, running, cycling and climbing, so he concentrates his gym workout on weights.

Last month Kostas told us he likes to use the leg press, to get warm and use some big calorie-burning muscles to start his weights workout, but this week he has a tip for those who want a cardio workout – and some cardio encouragement for who mainly want to do weights.

Kostas is one of our volunteer gym instructors.

CARDIO TIP

“I mostly prefer interval training on the treadmill, rather than a steady pace. I find it more interesting, challenging and I also get more time to spend with weights, since even a short high intensity interval training (HIIT) session could have some really good impact,” said Kostas.

“A lot of people want to do both cardio and weights, but it is really good to use the cardio to warm up even if you prefer weights. I recommend cardio to warm up even if you don’t care about it much. You need to raise your internal temperature 15pc that’s 1 degree to get your body ready – so even a few minutes of cardio can do this.”

TOP TIP

“I always say, you shouldn’t expect results straight away. Based on some studies, it takes about 26 days for results to start to show if you use the gym three or four days a week. So, I always say give it a month before you expect to see any difference. Be patient. Keep going. That’s the most important thing.”

Kostas is available to book for Personal Training Sessions in Penistone Leisure Centre Gym! Why not find out more, by clicking this link?

Request an induction online today – click here.

Let your legs support you as you Love Yourself Healthy

28/02/2019 by Beverley Addy Leave a Comment

Earlier this month we introduced Richard Metham, 36, who has been a gym instructor since he was 21 and volunteers at Penistone Leisure Centre as an instructor doing inductions and giving advice.

He says he likes to keep his workouts varied to increase motivation and earlier this month he reminded gym users not to let things become too easy in their workout and make steady progress – and he pointed us to one of his favourite exercises, the bicep curl.

This week he’s pointing us at another of his favourites –

LEG CURL/EXTENSION

“Strong legs are the platform that help you with other exercises. This machine isolates big muscles – hamstrings and quads. It is important to isolate the legs during your work out for attention. It gets the oxygen pumping and your levels up. Then you tire less quickly.

TOP TIP

“Do a range of muscle groups each workout. Even if you train with a group or a partner make sure you are actually working individually.”

Request an induction online today – click here.

Are you Loving Yourself Healthy?

21/02/2019 by Beverley Addy Leave a Comment

It’s week two of our Love Yourself Healthy campaign.

So it is time to meet another of our voluntary gym instructors and personal trainer Kostas Viazis, 35, from Penistone.

He is a married father of two girls aged three and one. When he isn’t working out, he plays football, runs, cycles and climbs

“It was exciting to learn about training yourself while qualifying as a gym instructor and personal trainer. I like to help other people to understand that it’s easier than they think it is to get fit and I love to encourage them.

“Many people that come to the gym have previous experiences of going to a gym. However in many cases they don’t really understand why they are doing what they are doing, or exactly how they nee to do it. I like to help them understand this,” said Kostas.

“To keep fit, I do a mix of cardio and weights, but I concentrate on weights in the gym, as I do lots of cardio outside of the centre,” said Kostas.

“Most people that come to the gym have similar goals – get fitter, stronger and feel better. A steady weekly schedule will definitely get them there.”

Kostas looks to his legs for the first of his favourite exercises.

LEG PRESS

“I like the leg press. It works three or four groups of muscles. It uses the front and back of the leg. It’s working hard. It’s great for warming up, then you can move on to something like the leg extension or the leg curl and isolate specific muscles.

“For the start I like to concentrate on the big muscles. The bigger the muscles the more calories you burn,” said Kostas.

TOP TIP

“After a certain age people should really look after their muscles and I try to share that with them,” said Kostas.

He reminds people that muscle work is important – recent studies have referred to the importance of maintaining muscle strength in later life.

“Keeping your muscle tone and working on that has been shown to enhance the quality of life and enable people to keep doing more things into older age,” said Kostas.

Follow this link to find out more about later life muscle strength – this includes links to the NHS guides to physical activity in later life.

Also find out how exercise helps you live longer – according to the BBC here

Request an induction online today – click here.

Love Yourself Healthy x

15/02/2019 by Beverley Addy Leave a Comment

Happy Valentine’s Day – As we hit Valentine’s Day this week our headline message is Love Yourself Healthy.

So, we have quizzed two of our voluntary gym instructors on their favourite exercises, food and general workout tips to give you some ideas on just how to Love Yourself Healthy and we will be sharing them over the next six weeks.

First up – meet our voluntary gym instructor Richard Metham, age 36, from Millhouse Green.

He has two daughters aged six and two and has been an instructor since he was 21, when he started at a gym in Sheffield.

He began using Penistone Leisure Centre as it gave him chance to work out away from his working environment as an instructor in other gyms and he’s used it ever since it reopened. He currently works as assistant manager for Penistone Grammar School leisure centre

Richard became an instructor as he likes to do things with the local community. His children have also reaped the benefits of the leisure centre with Swegway and skating sessions, so he likes to put something back. Outside of the gym, Richard keeps fit by walking his dog and his two children keep him busy ‘none stop’ now he has given up his regular 6-a-side football.

Richard said: “I like to change my routines. I work out Monday, Wednesday and Friday and I like to make each workout different. Variety is a key factor, changing things every so often, moving through different exercises for different muscle groups. You might concentrate on three or four for a number of months, but changing makes it more interesting and keeps you motivated.

“I like to say, ‘go heavy or go home’ when I’m working out. It’s not about the number of times you do something, it’s about the quality of your work out.”

So what does Richard like to do in his workout?

BICEP CURL

“It is just a favourite of mine. It’s a concentrated exercise. It gets muscles working. It works on a smaller muscle group. It gives you a get go. It’s one I always start on. The reason I start on it is an isolated exercise, but it hits major muscles. Then I move on to a larger muscle group, like the chest press or a back exercise. I like to start and finish on an arm exercise.”

For an alternative or complementary exercise to the bicep curl, try a tricep extension.

TOP TIP – “Steady progression and work at your own pace. If something starts to feel easy don’t ‘cheat it’ put the weights up or results will slow down,” said Richard.

Let the leisure centre help you Love Yourself Healthy. Join our gym with weights and cardio rooms – £2 day pass, £5 week pass, £17.50 month pass. No contract, simply take an induction (followed by your first session for free) to be able to use the gym whenever it’s open – click for opening times.

Request an induction on line today – click here.