Winter Is Upon Us!

Winter Tips
Winter is well and truly with us, bringing with it the dreaded cold and Flu season! The stronger your immune system is the easier it will be to fight off any bugs or viruses.
By focusing on your nutrition and ensuring you’re eating a well rounded diet, drinking enough water (at least 2 litres a day) and getting enough moderate exercise, you will also improve the strength of your immune system.
For an added boost to your immune system, try a high dose of vitamin C and also look to include pro biotics into your eating plan.
These are best consumed with a meal but do not have a caffeine based drink 20 mins before or after. This can compromise the integrity of the supplement.

There are also some things you should try and avoid:

Stress!
Did you know when you are under excessive stress (especially emotional stress) you place extra pressure on your immune system?

Smoking!
You can really compromise and weaken your immune system even through passive smoking.

Touching your face!
Germs are most likely to enter the body through the corners of the eyes, the nasal passageways, the ear canals and the mouth. Keeping the hands clean (particularly underneath the fingernails) can help in the reduction of colds and flu, even allergies and sinus related problems.

TRAINING TIP OF THE WEEK

Many people enjoy walking or running on the treadmill and the benefits of this are numerous. Just by tweaking the way you train, you can make your time on the treadmill even better for you!

The lack of wind resistance makes work on the treadmill slightly easier than working outside. It’s thought that wind resistance can actually increase the workload by 2-3%! You can overcome this by increasing the elevation on your machine by one or two levels. This requires more muscle activation and you will also be working into your core stability muscles, improving bone density and increasing your cardio fitness and stamina.

Amy Casey-Fitness Professional @Sittingbourne