Poor Sleep Infographic...

Illustration: Evans Health Lab

Mike Evans is a world renowed Doctor who has the knack of making health and the science behind health palatable to the general public. 

He uses video and graphics (like the one above on poor sleep) to memorably illustrate the dos and don'ts, and the how's and how to's of keeping your body in good order. 

Checkout his website for more healthful knowledge.

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Chewing The Veggie Fat...

We spent yesterday training with Chaka Clarke's SpartanFam at Primrose Hill and chewed the veggie fat about health and spirituality over a raw vegan burger with Shaka Lish and freerunner Timothy Shieff at inSpiral Lounge afterwards!

inSpiral is situated at 250 Camden High Street, London, England and is a vegan cafe, music venue, organic bar and health store. It's well worth checking out. Non-veggies will be surprised at just how good the food is!

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Be Crucial...

When we were in Rio back in October last year we had the pleasure of briefly meeting Nina aka CJ Crucial, a slackliner and adventurer!

She's a beautiful character with an awesome spirit who is a touch on the crazy side (but in a good way)!

CJ traded in her slackline for a bike then biked around Brazil for over a year with no plans, no destination and no money. She just slacklined everywhere and slept in a tent wherever she felt like.

She's just started to document her nomadic life with a sprinkle of health and fitness motivations and insights over on her facebook page.

Visit it, like it and receive nothing but inspiration.

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We Heart Squats, Again...

We recently had our squat looked over by Sally Moss the lady behind Gubernatrix, Ladies Who Lift and Strength Ambassadors, and we are happy to say that a rediscovery of our love of squatting has occurred.

In fact we don't look too dissimilar to the happy, heavy breathing, tail wagging, deep-squatting dog in the video. His owner on the other hand...pshhh!

via: BoxRox

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Incite Fitness Presents Jefferson Agudelo...

Neill Timms of Incite Fitness is travelling the UK filming bar athletes and introducing them to the world via his 60 second series.

The video above is a recent episode featuring Jefferson Agudelo, who is wearing a very familiar t-shirt whilst shaking up the routine on the bars.

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Cassey Ho: Pilates Instructor & Blogilates Blogger...

Producing suggestive and risqué content is a ridiculously sure fire way for young, attractive female fitness bloggers and YouTubers to gain plenty of hits, likes and views. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that their audience consists of a large percentage of drooling male followers rather than loyal female fans.

Fitness blogger and YouTuber Cassey Ho of Blogilates fame is young, attractive and...female yet her huge and ever growing fan base is made up of predominantly women, which she estimates makes up 96% of her followers. Why? Her legions of loyal female fans seek inspiration not titillation.

The 25 year old delivers her pilates based content with a touch of her trademark chirpy style which takes nothing away from the substance of her work. Informative, motivational and friendly she's the healthy living ammo of choice to her currently 128,368 YouTube subscribers, 54,425 facebook likers and 26,907 twitter followers.

We owe our friend Justyna eternal high-fives and a few mango sorbets for pointing out that Cassey was in London for the Olympics courtesy of YouTube and that we should get in contact.

The winner of YouTube's Next Trainer and FITNESS Magazine's Best Healthy Living Blogger was unexpectedly down to earth and very easy going. Cassey's personality was as infectious on screen as it was in person and since meeting her we've been inspired by her passion and work ethic...and she's sold us on pilates. Froggers are a b**ch!

To follow Cassey visit Blogilates.com.

Cassey was filmed on location at Primrose Hill, Danceworks (Thanks to Athena) and University London Union (Thanks to Donna and Yasim).

Music - 'B W' by Micall Parknsun.

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Badoom, Badoom, Badoom...

Valentine's Day is just around the corner so get to work and find a mate! Here are five sites dedicated to fit and sporty singles. Click the links below and find THE ONE. The big day looms so hurry!

Fitness Singles, Fitness Dates, Fit Kiss, Active Singles, Fitness Personals

If We Owned A Gym We'd Want It To Look Like This...

Impressive timelapse footage of Clitheroe Crossfit, UK!

Getting Schooled...

A couple of weeks ago Housemate Heather and I bumped into Lemar AKA LMTGJ and his compadre Jeff whilst out training at Primrose Hill. It's the first time I've met peeps from youtube's bodyweight exercising fraternity and it was a pleasure!

These young fellas are a marvel, not just in the skills they possess but also in the focus and dedication they put into achieving them.

Last weekend I joined these dedicated scholars of the bar and their crew in session. Even with a small window of time to train their expert advice and pointers took me giant leaps and bounds in mastering the elusive muscle ups.

Here's a video of Lemar, on the bar cranking out muscle ups, dips and more...



With Lemar and Jeff schooling me watch this space for my muscle up vid!

The Ify One.

If We Owned A Gym We'd Want It To Look Like This...

Their tag line reads "Athletics By Nature" and the team at StrengthBox in Toronto, Canada do just that. This vid shows some genius exercises they do over there which resemble moves [insert name of your deity of choice] most likely intended our bodies to do.



For more info on and the thinking behind StrengthBox visit them here.

Marcus Bondi and Chums...

Marcus Bondi and chums regularly post videos of bodyweight exercises that require ridiculous strength (see below). Unlike other top bodyweight enthusiasts the Bondi crew exercise less pomposity and more humility. They choose to emphasise the importance of breaking moves down and practicing regularly rather than giving the impression that they were gifted by the Gods. Checkout Mr Bondi's tutorials at www.marcusbondi.com

The Big Picture...

“In real training there are long periods where nothing much seems to be happening and you have to keep faith with yourself. Sometimes you might feel that you are going backwards.

But you need to keep in mind the big picture. Have a goal, do sensible things to try to meet it and be consistent.”

The Gubernatrix One

Checkout more of her tips, advice and musings at Gubernatrix.co.uk

Scott Sonnon...

Having battled physical illnesses, learning disabilities and obesity in childhood, Scott Sonnon has become a world class personal trainer, martial art teacher and yoga guru.

He is the brains behind a unique fitness system called "Circular Strength Training" which has been adopted by celebrities, fitness enthusiasts, mixed martial artists, and apparently the U.S. Army.

Here's a video of Scott showing amazing flexibility and strength with some 'shake up the routine' exercises!



Checkout his website for some regular pearls and info on his courses and videos!

The Bar-barians are Coming...

For many it was the Ruff Ryders Thug Workout that inspired them to try to tame the bar and since then many pull-up purveyors have popped up on the likes of youtube. But a standout meticulous crew made up of bar technicians has to be the Bar-barians.



Two of their core members are Rick, who we came across on youtube through a shared love of Ninja Warriors. And Zeph, who had one of the first one arm pull-up vids we'd watched.

With their highly organised and professional approach (checkout their website, forum and blog) their influence grows globally and so does their crew.

If you want to join the Bar-barians their requirements at the time of writing are 40 dips, 20 pull-ups, 50 push ups and 5 muscle ups within 6 minutes.

Below is a Bar-barian requirement video from one of their lastest recruits - the aptly named LittleBeastM.



This was his go hard third attempt in the same day having miscounted reps on his first video and not liking his form in the second.

LittleBeastM's tenacity, deep focus and perfectionism has secured him a place at the table and he now deservedly can call himself a Bar-barian!

Bodyweight Training Progression and ConditioningDaniel

I like weight training but I have a particular love for bodyweight training and feel that its effectiveness is often underrated because of how one progresses and adds intensity.

With bodyweight training one needs to know a catalogue of increasingly complex moves or needs to exercise a little creativity to up the intensity and progress. The same does apply to weight training but often one simply increases the weight.

The best exercise to illustrate bodyweight variation/progression is the humble push-up. There are many variations of the push-up which should be explored.

Since the beginning of last year I’ve posted a few push-up variations - Push Chair Crunch Chair, Mighty Mouse Push-Up, Shapeshifters, Uneven Push-Ups, Dog-Pee Push-Ups, Washing Machines and Brokeback Mountys

And I’ve been meaning to post a vid showing the many push-up type exercises you can do but stumbled across ConditioningDaniel’s smartly put together collection.

He’s got 29 variations and my personal favourite is the Towel Push-up. Checkout the vid, make sure to favourite it and throw some of them push-ups into your workout armoury.

Hailing a Fellow Big Kid - Dawalli

As an impractical, unrealistic idealist I set myself truly ambitious goals. One which fuels my passion for fitness is the dream of playing soccer with not just my Grandkids but my Great-grandkids.

A ridiculous yet stubborn thought which I’m even more motivated to achieve when I see fellow big kids also preserving their youth.

Enter Dawalli a resident of South Korea by way of Canada and a new youtube friend. At 39 years young Dawalli makes pull-ups, muscle-ups and dips seem like…..erm…..child’s play!

Keep an eye on his channel and you’ll see he’s constantly adding more and more challenging moves to his repertoire.

This video below is one of his latest. The finesse of his execution belies the complexity of some of the moves. The low hanging, slow, running muscle ups are a masterpiece.

Sometime in the near future I’ll be visiting my Cousin-in laws family in Sinsa-Dong, Seoul so Dawalli if you are around there’s got to be a hook-up on the cards.

Studio Miletto and The Dumbell Snatch

The Dumbell Snatch is another full body workout that develops power, strength and agility from head to toe. Demonstrated expertly here by Miletto.

Start - Squat with the dumbell hanging from one arm and in between your legs. Keep your other hand out by your side for balance.

Middle - As you start to pull the dumbell up drive explosively through your heels. Using the momentum generated by your legs shrug the weight upwards and above your head.

Finish - Quickly sink back down into a squat to get under the weight. Rinse and repeat.

Miletto's youtube channel, Studio Miletto, is one I've peeked at on numerous occasions throughout the year. This gentleman's exercises aren't the bog standard you'd see in your local high street chain gym and for that reason fizzYcaL FITNESS salutes him.

femme fizzYcaL - Zuzana

I've had divebombers on my to-do list of workouts to post but stumbled across Zuzana's video and Ladies and Gents, especially Gents I can't top this! The divebomber is a great alternative to the standard push up and works your shoulders and entire chest.

For more of Zuzana and her workouuts and tips checkout her website http://www.bodyrock.tv/ and youtube channel.

RossTraining.com

When a person’s passion brims over the edges it’s inevitable they’ll motivate and inspire others. Ross Emanait is one such person and his website, blog and articles are worth delving into if you need a kick up the posterior.

Watchmecooking.Com

For recipes to fuel your muscles keep your eyes peeled for one of my best friends' sites coming soon.