The Benefits Of Taking The Stairs...

These 215 steps of the 'Escadaria Selarón' were an essential part of our leg day this time two years ago.

Here are the benefits of stair walking/sprinting:

Muscle Tone & Strength - The calves, the quads, the hamstrings and the glutes, that's all the muscles of the leg get a bloody good workout.

Full Body Workout - Although the bulk of the effort is shared by the legs, the pumping of the arms and shoulders help propel you upwards and forwards.

Fat Dynamite - Need we explain? Try climbing at least 100 steps a day and see what happens.

Cardiovascular Fitness - It's a great way to strengthen the heart and lungs. You'll find that after doing a few flights of stairs your chest will be beating like a drum (don't overdo it though).

Abbreviated Workout - Some brainy scientists have established that it provides fat burning and cardiovascular benefits three times faster than walking or running on flat ground.

Safer For Knees - Compared to running or walking on a flat surface, stairs are low impact. And as long as good technique is maintained, and there are no pre-existing issues it can be a much better alternative.

Bang For Your Buck - It's cheap as chips! Works your lower and upper body. Torches fat. Provides cardiovascular benefits. Saves time. Better for the knees. That's six for the price of one, or your unhealthy life back.

Challenge Yourself: lunge, hop, take two steps at a time, walk side ways, if your brave enough walk backwards or use weights (try piggybacking someone).

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Plyometric Exercises + Statics Holds = Plyostatics

Plyostatics is genius! A high intensity bodyweight training programme that's as good as if not better than Shaun T's 'Insanity Workout.'

Plyostatics is safe, effective and well put together. With this new regime you'll train for thirty minutes consecutively with no pausing. Sounds gruelling but the intensity is spread fully across the strength spectrum by utilising specific plyometric exercises followed immediately by static holds. So the body moves from explosive dynamic movements to active rest frequently during the 30 minutes, and as such one can safely maintain a sensible level of effective intensity.

We had the pleasure of interviewing the brains behind Plyostatics, Kristelle Sammons, during one of her exercise testing sessions with business partner Sean Mitchell.

Kristelle has been sporty all of her life, competed and won numerous figure competitions and worked with hundreds of clients as a personal trainer. It is this experience plus the knowledge she has acquired that forms the foundations of Plyostatics.

Private classes are currently being held in London, England but plans are in place for the system to be taught to personal trainers internationally and the release of online videos and DVDs are set for later this year.

To keep informed about the programme visit and bookmark plyostatics.com.

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Take The Stairs...

Earlier this year we took to hot stepping Rio de Janeiro's, 'Escadaria Selarón'.

Its creator, Jorge Selarón, the Chilean-born artist, covered the set of stairs in fragments of mainly blue, green and yellow tile matching the colours of the Brazilian flag.

It's doubtful that back in 1990 when he started the project he envisaged his tribute to his adopted country would become so iconic. It's probably more likely that he envisaged the holidaying writers of a blog, called GETfizzYcaL, making it's 215 steps an essential part of their leg day.

Because you are fighting more gravity than you would from running or walking on flat, stair walking and sprinting provide the following benefits:

Muscle Tone & Strength - The calves, the quads, the hamstrings and the glutes, that's all the muscles of the leg get a bloody good workout.

Full Body Workout - Although the bulk of the effort is shared by the legs, the pumping of the arms and shoulders help propel you upwards and forwards.

Fat Dynamite - Need we explain? Try climbing at least 100 steps a day and see what happens.

Cardiovascular Fitness - It's a great way to strengthen the heart and lungs. You'll find that after doing a few flights of stairs your chest will be beating like a drum (don't overdo it though).

Abbreviated Workout - Some brainy scientists have established that it provides fat burning and cardiovascular benefits three times faster than walking or running on flat ground.

Safer For Knees - Compared to running or walking on a flat surface, stairs are low impact. And as long as good technique is maintained, and there are no pre-existing issues it can be a much better alternative.

Bang For Your Buck - It's cheap as chips! Works your lower and upper body. Torches fat. Provides cardiovascular benefits. Saves time. Better for the knees. That's six for the price of one, or your unhealthy life back.

Challenge Yourself: lunge, hop, take two steps at a time, walk side ways, if your brave walk backwards or use weights (try piggybacking someone).

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Coffee Shop Reads No.3

We love the gym! We love lifting weights! But there is nothing more reassuring than knowing you can get as good a workout, if not in some cases better, by using mainly your own bodyweight.

Enter Mark Lauren. A highly decorated, super human being who has achieved much of his vast fitness achievements with the minimum of equipment. Mark is an accomplished triathlete, champion thai boxer, special ops combat controller and certified military physical training specialist.

Mark's philosophy that "You Are Your Own Gym" marries well with the military reality of having little if any fitness equipment. Mark has honed himself using his minimalist philosophy and he trains military charges the same way.

His years of intense training, experimenting and expertise have been distilled into a book called..."You Are Your Own Gym." Packed with a plethora of exercises from beginner to advanced level as well as nutritional advice, "You Are Your Own Gym" is a superb fitness companion.

Get it here!

Supersets & Giantsets...

A superset is where an exercise is immediately followed by another, and because there is no rest in between it is considered a single set.

Likewise a giantset is also considered a single set and consists of three or more exercises done back to back with no rest.

Supersets and giantsets are generally concentrated on the same bodypart. For example when working the chest one follows press ups with dips. This adds intensity to a workout without increasing the length of the workout. Handy if you are pressed for time or a stickler for having a healthy fitness-life balance.

Little Time For Exercise – Tip 1

The House Work Circuit

Vacuum (20 secs) (If you have a carpet use the vacuums brush for added resistance)

Dust (20 secs) (Discover your TV isn’t black and white)

Clean Cooking Pans (45 secs) (Dig out well set brown and fluorescent green paste formerly bolognaise)

Scrub the bathroom sink, walls, floor and pick out a year’s worth of pubic hair from the plug hole. (1minute)

To be done in a brisk, manic fashion with your favourite musical accompaniment.

Joking apart incorporating exercise into your already hectic and busy life means you don’t have to set so much time aside for it!!