NPC’s Ministry of Exercise

As many of you know doubt are aware many years ago we ran health, fitness and weight loss residential courses in the Scottish Highlands and along with the physical and mental elements of the programme we also looked at food – in particular, cooking.

We often found that a lot of the participants were very inexperienced with food preparation often simply turning to ready meals or other heavily manufactured food choices – this led us to look for a simple and straightforward method of teaching basic recipes.  Luckily for us Jamie Oliver was just launching his Ministry of Food project (click here to learn more) which was aimed at getting people to simply start cooking for themselves (very simple recipes) and then ‘pass it on’ to others that were in need of help. We thought it was a great idea – both in the simplicity of the meals in the book and also in relation to the pass it on component, effectively helping us with what they had just learnt.  At the time it never dawned on us that perhaps this sort of thing could and should be done in the fitness world – a sort of stripped back approach for those very new to exercise and with little in the way of equipment.

Welcome to what we will now call NPC’s Ministry of Exercise (MOE for short!)

We are very much aware that exercise can sometimes be a bewildering place for those that are just starting out – terms like Periodization / Intervals / HIIT / steady state / Fasted blah blah blah only confuse those people that have little or no experience.  Tap onto that a wide range of myths and conflicting advice and it’s no wonder so few people keep it up or worse still put off starting altogether.

Our thought is why? Why does it need to be such a confusing thing? Why not strip it back to basics so everyone can learn simple ways to exercise focusing on good form, safe execution and a gradual build up of fitness. Yes – this way won’t turn you into a cover model in 12 weeks or get you competing at the next Olympic Games BUT in the same way as the people in Jamie’s Ministry of Food programme did not want to become Michelin star chefs that’s not really the point. For a lot of people they just want to get a bit healthier, maybe tone up a little and improve their fitness so why not simplify it all whilst hopefully at the same time encouraging others they know to also start?

Our manifesto 🙂

1. To teach people a set of basic exercises that can be done anywhere – no equipment needed and at levels that COMPLETE beginners can feel comfortable with.
2. Give out a free 12 week exercise plan for them to follow
3. Show how to build on the initial exercises and put together simple programmes to help individuals move forward after the 1st block is completed.
4. Encourage these participants to get their friends started and help spread their new found knowledge – not only are people more likely to stick with something if their friends and family are doing but those new people in turn can show more new people and so on.

When I think back to the people we worked with back on the residential courses and the plans we put together for them there were similarities to the principles mentioned in our manifesto above, but looking back in retrospect even those plans were perhaps to advanced for some – simply too difficult or taxing in the early stages when they were just setting out by themselves. Moreover they were also trying to work through these plans by themselves – back then we had very little in the way of video chat etc so they were pretty much on their own

I now feel that if we’d built up their confidence with the simple exercises they learnt during the course – then encouraged them to carry those on for a longer period at home whilst at the same time getting friends and family involved by ‘passing it on’ we may have seen better adherence rates for a larger proportion of the people.

We can’t change those past programmes and circumstances but we can do something about helping people that want to get started now. Do you fit into the ‘putting it off’ category or do you know anyone that you think might like to give this a try with us? No cost – just a bit of simple advice, a 12 week plan and on going help to those that may be putting off starting to exercise for fear of it being too hard, too complicated or simply too daunting?

The plan is free of charge and you do not even need to be a member of NPC to start it. To make this available to as many people as possible we will post lots of exercise demo’s and tips on our YouTube page along with a free 12 week printed plan to follow along with at home.  The New Year seems a good time to start this and although there is no actual start date (we want people to join in whenever they can) we think lets get Christmas out of the way first 🙂

If you’d like to learn more about this or register your interest just drop us a line via the form below

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No time to exercise… ??

During my time working in fitness i’ve discovered there are quite a few barriers to exercise – one of the more common ones is the lack of time to dedicate to an effective training programme.  I won’t get into the ‘if you want it bad enough you’d make time’ debate that trainers often talk about – not because i don’t believe it but because i don’t think it is helpful in the early stages.  When a person is just starting out i feel the frequency of training if far more important than the duration – if you can sneak in just a few mins of exercise on a number of days it can help encourage better lifestyle choices AND help to make exercise part of your life – exactly what it needs to be if you want long term, sustainable results.

With that in mind i thought a few examples of the kinds of things you could try on a limited time ‘budget’ – these are some of the things i currently do regularly either as part of a bigger session or more often as they written below.  The goal with these 3 sessions is to get a lot of resistance movements (key to most toning / weight / strength goals) into 3 short sessions.  I get all these done in around 20 mins – they tick a large proportion of the boxes – fitness / strength training / power / toning so will work for most people.

Session 1 (click on exercise for demo)

Deadlift burpees + Standing front / side raise + Push press

This session is down as a tri-set – that simply means you do a set of each exercise in turn – so 1 x set deadlifts, then 1 x set front / side raise and finally 1 x set of push press – then have a rest and repeat – i do the following reps and sets:

 

1st set = 8 reps deadlift burpees / 12 reps front and side raise / 8 reps push press

2nd set = 7 reps deadlift burpees / 12 reps front and side raise / 7 reps push press

3rd set = 7 reps deadlift burpees / 12 reps front and side raise / 7 reps push press

4th set = 6 reps deadlift burpees / 12 reps front and side raise / 6 reps push press

Perform the above with weights that are suitable for your level – keep good form! rest around 1 min between each set but as short as you can between each exercise. As the reps go lower try and increase the weights – only if you can though.

Session 2

Single arm snatch + Double arm row + Straight arm pullover

As in session 1 this is a tri-set – this works upper body but the snatch adds an element of explosive lower body work – also great for getting heart rate up 🙂

I follow the exact same rep / set as in the first session so:

1st 8 x Single arm snatch (each side) 12 x Single arm row (each side) 8 x straight arm pullover

Then 7 / 12 / 7 for 2 sets – finally 6 / 12 6 for the last set – you can change these though – they are just the sort of rep range i like doing – tailor it to how you feel

Session 3

Squat + Cable burpees + Lunge walks

This is a much more lower body focused day – the cable burpees add the cardio element but done all together as the first 2 sessions it really makes you sweat – to keep things simple i have stuck with the same set / rep routines as the last 2 sessions.

Even though these sessions use resistance exercise don’t be fooled into thinking they can’t help improve other areas of fitness – if you have a heart rate monitor make sure you wear it so you can see just how hard your heart will be working during the sessions.

If you are looking to really make some additional improvement try adding the following 2 even shorter sessions to your week

Extra 1

Row for 1:30 at a very relaxed rate – sprint row for 30 secs – repeat for 5 sets – the 30 sec should feel VERY hard – if you have to stop at 20 secs or so that sis fine and kind of the point = total time 10 mins

Extra 2

Ride a bike at a slow / steady pace for 1 min – then increase resistance and pedal faster for 1 min – this is similar to the above row session but the hard 1 min will not be quite as intense – you must make sure you can finish the minute each set

Give these 3 to 5 short sessions 6 weeks and see how far you will have come – i promise you, done as described above you will see changes in your fitness and body shape – all from around an hour and a half out of the available 168 hours in each week 🙂

Any questions or comments – as ever get in touch 🙂

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