My Blog
Dive into my blog for insights, tips, and advice to support your health and fitness journey.
Insights and Inspiration from My Blog
Dive into my blog for insights, tips, and advice to elevate your health and fitness journey.
Myth Buster: Does resistance training cause high blood pressure?
Myth Buster: Does resistance training cause high blood pressure? No! In fact strength training has been proven to help lower blood pressure. Blood pressure is a measure of the force that your heart us
Craig Blackman
8 Aug 2022
The importance of staying hydrated
Why is it important to stay hydrated? During the recent warmer weeks you have probably naturally been drinking more water however, staying hydrated is a daily necessity regardless of the temperature.
Craig Blackman
8 Aug 2022
BMI an outdated & inaccurate assessment of a healthy body weight
BMI or body mass index has been used for decades as the go to measurement for health. However, BMI does not take into account what the body is composed of, i.e muscle mass, bone density and overall bo
Craig Blackman
5 Aug 2022
Exercise & Illness
Exercise & Illness. To exercise or not? Exercise is good for you. We all know that. But what happens when you are ill or not feeling at your best? Should you continue to push through it, or should
Craig Blackman
28 Apr 2022
Rate of perceived exertion (RPE)
Do you know how hard you are working or how hard you should be working when you're exercising? The rate of perceived exertion or RPE for short is a simple tool that can tell you. Originally this numbe
Craig Blackman
28 Apr 2022
Myth Buster: Is a warmup really necessary?
Myth Buster: Is a warm up really necessary? Yes! If you are committed to a fitness regime but miss out the warmup, then you will be doing yourself a disservice as you are not going to get the results
Craig Blackman
28 Apr 2022
Menopause and exercise
In the UK, the average age a woman experiences menopause is 51, which means that women in their 40's are becoming peri-menopausal. 1/100 women under the age of 40 and 1/1000 women under the age of 30
Craig Blackman
29 Mar 2022
Myth Buster: Are low fat foods healthy?
Are low fat foods healthy? Not necessarily. It can be tempting when trying to lose weight to be lured in by the marketing strategies on the front of "low fat" foods however, these foods tend to be muc
Craig Blackman
29 Mar 2022
Getting back on track when you've fallen off the wagon
When you begin a weight loss journey, motivation is generally high. Your "why" is firmly in the forefront of your mind, and you have a drive to succeed. And for many, to begin with, it doesn't feel as
Craig Blackman
25 Mar 2022
Myth Buster: Is it possible to target fat loss to specific body parts?
Is it possible to target fat loss to specific body parts? No You can't lose weight in certain areas or spot-reduce. Fatiguing small muscles will not burn fat in that area. The fat
Craig Blackman
28 Feb 2022
Are you sabotaging your weight loss?
Are you unintentionally self-sabotaging your diet? Are you trying to lose weight without as much success as you would like? It can feel like you are doing all the right things: depriving yourself of t
Craig Blackman
28 Feb 2022
Why you should be lifting heavier weights
Muscles either shrink or grow They do not tone up If you want that firm look, then you're going to have to build some muscles. Have you ever heard the phrase "insanity is doing the same thing over and
Craig Blackman
28 Feb 2022
Myth Buster: Should I stretch before my workout?
Should I stretch before my workout? NO! Warming up is a must but, static stretching (where you hold the stretch) is a no. A warm up gets your body warm and your breathing and heart rate up. Stat
Craig Blackman
24 Jan 2022
Inflammation and the Body
Inflammation sends the body off balance, which is something that all of us should be concerned about. And as scientists investigate the cause of dangerous and deadly diseases, there is one common fact
Craig Blackman
24 Jan 2022
New Years resolutions
Set intentions not resolutions! When it comes to New Years resolutions , people tend to fall into one of two categories: You either think they're great. New start. New chapter. A go get em tiger kind
Craig Blackman
30 Dec 2021
The importance of sleep for health
Sleep It's a sad fact that when I talk to people about the importance of sleep, I am more often than not greeted with dismissive comments, rolls of the eyes, or promises to work on it with little inte
Craig Blackman
28 Dec 2021
Myth Buster: No pain no gain?
No pain no gain. If you're not sore after a workout it wasn't a good work out. Not the case! DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) can happen when you embark on a new exercise regime / change your exer
Craig Blackman
24 Dec 2021
Will lifting weights make me bulky?
I remember a conversation I had with a potential new client where she said to me, "I don't want to look muscly like you." For any of you reading this that don't know what I look like, I am not "big" o
Craig Blackman
26 Nov 2021
What are the benefits of lifting weights?
Lifting weights is not just about getting big muscles, there are lots of health benefits to be gained. Stronger bones & joints Nothing makes bones stronger than lifting weights. Weight bearing put
Craig Blackman
25 Nov 2021
Tips to avoid Christmas weight gain
Never fear, Christmas does not need to mean weight gain Let's be realistic. What are you hoping for over the Christmas period? If you are on a weight loss journey and you want to continue that trend,
Craig Blackman
24 Nov 2021
Myth Buster: Will ab exercises give me a flat stomach?
Will ab exercises give me a flat stomach? No. Ab exercises cannot burn tummy fat so will not give you a flat stomach. There is no nice way of saying this, so I'll just say it as it is. You could go an
Craig Blackman
15 Nov 2021
Myth Buster: Is running bad for your knees?
Is running bad for your knees? NO! Studies have shown that runners actually have lower rates of knee osteoarthritis than sedentary people. The impact that running provides helps to stimulate bone buil
Craig Blackman
1 Nov 2021
Protein - what it is & why you need it
I regularly get asked about protein. Questions around high protein diets crop up, and at the opposite end of the scale, concerns about eating too much protein. It's not just for bodybuilders, we all n
Craig Blackman
30 Oct 2021
Fat - what it is & why you need it
Just the word "fat" makes it sound like it's something that we shouldn't eat. However, fat is an important part of a healthy balanced diet. Low fat diets lead us to believe that fats should be avoided
Craig Blackman
29 Oct 2021
Carbohydrate - what it is & why you need it
I'm going to say it straight up,...carbs are not the devil. And carbs alone do not make you gain weight. Carbohydrates get a bad press; the problem is that we tend to lump all carbs together as one. A
Craig Blackman
28 Oct 2021
Myth Buster: Does muscle weigh more than fat?
Does muscle weigh more than fat? The short answer is NO ! 1Ib of fat weighs the same as 1Ib of muscle. The difference is the density. Here's an example - 1Ib of marshmallows is going to take up
Craig Blackman
1 Oct 2021
Why is goal setting in Personal Training so important?
He who fails to plan is planning to fail Sir Winston Churchill When we embark on a new exercise regime, motivation and enthusiasm are what gets us started, and keeps us going... to a point. However, m
Esther Fair
1 Oct 2021
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