City Matters Edition 034

CITYMATTERS.LONDON 24 - 30 May 2017 | Page 13
Wellness Matters
Getting
personal
HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT
PERSONAL TRAINER FOR YOU
Make friends with salad
City’s top 3 salad bars
SHOT
SHOT (simple, healthy, organic and tasty) was
founded by three friends who found it difficult to
find fast, easy food options that didn’t come with a
side of chemicals, preservatives and additives. Cue
a versatile menu of middle eastern-inspired salads,
hearty noodle soups and a couple of curries.
23 Bride Lane EC4Y
YOU’VE seen them at the gym; red-faced,
dripping in sweat, muscles shaking.
“How could they possibly do another burpee?”
you wonder while taking yet another breather to
check your phone, grab some water, or whatever
other excuse you can think of to stop exercising.
The answer is kitted out in the latest lycra
and standing over your exhausted neighbour
pushing for just 10 more reps, five more seconds,
one more kilo on the bar.
Brits are working out now more than ever, the
2017 State of the UK Fitness Industry Report
released earlier this month revealed that one in
seven of us are members of a gym, amounting to
more than 9.7million memberships.
But if you spend your workouts wandering
aimlessly between the leg press and the lat pulldown,
or, like one of 10 gym members, haven’t
actually set foot inside the place in a year, you
have to wonder what you’re actually getting out
of it?
Working out with a trainer increases your
fitness-goal success rate by 30%, according
to a study published in the Journal of Sports
Science & Medicine. Researchers found that the
influence of direct supervision during workouts
had a huge effect on the outcome of training.
But not all personal trainers are created
equal, nor is there a ‘one size fits all approach’
to training methods; miltary-style scare tactics
might work for your mates but send you running
scared. So how do you find the perfect fit?
“The best place to start is through
recommendations,” says RJ Argentin, a personal
trainer based in Shoreditch.
“Ask around to see if any of your friends have
had a good experience with a trainer and can
give you really honest feedback.”
RJ says that any good trainer should be able to
give you a detailed history of their qualifications,
as well as information from past clients beyond
written testimonials.
Most will have photographs and videos of
their training sessions, and you can even ask
to have a chat to their current clients to find
out what to expect. It’s also worth timing
your search right. “The busiest times are spring
and right after Christmas and New Years,” he
says.
“It’s hard to find a good trainer taking on
new clients right before summer so it might be
worth waiting until September or October to
start looking.”
But the most important thing is to set your
goals from the start. “Trainers usually have
different specialisations whether that’s weight
loss or recovering from an injury or building
strength, so make sure you know what you want
out of the sessions so you can find one in the
right field.”
A former professional break dancer, RJ
specialises in general fitness training, strength
and conditioning, as well as short-term Body
Transformation packages; a personalised
intensive diet and exercise programme that
has clients losing between 7kg and 12kg in six
weeks.
Generally, he’ll start clients off with a
trial session that includes a series of tests for
strength, mobility and co-ordination, a detailed
discussion about the client’s lifestyle, and their
fitness goals.
Realistic
“Once I have as much information as possible
we can set some realistic timeframes for
achieving those goals.”
If the aim is weightloss, RJ will likely send his
clients out running a couple of times a week in
addition to sessions in the gym. “If they can’t
run, I tell them to find some cardio they can do
– it’s the best thing for losing weight.”
For building strength it’s a combination of
HIIT and isometric training with weights,
though RJ is realistic. “Nobody likes burpees,”
he says. “I tend to get people doing alternating
push ups and mountain climbers because it
combines strength and cardio.
“The plank is also really effective because it’s
working your whole body; core, shoulders and
glutes in one move, and you can do it anywhere.”
tough it out: RJ Argentin
admits it can be hard
to find a good personal
trainer but that the
added benefits are huge
Simple Health Kitchen
Founded by a City-based personal trainer, Simple
Health Kitchen serves up your choice from 11
hearty salad bases, a flavour-packed slab of protein
and a range of colourful sauces that you can mix
and match into a tasty lunch box of nutritional
goodness.
73a Watling Street EC4M 9BJ
Vita Mojo
This healthy takeout chain takes the guesswork out
of ordering in, with custom made-to-order healthy
meals according to your nutritional and dietary
needs. Place your order via iPads instore or on the
Vita Mojo app, and create your own combinations,
specifying the portion sizes of various ingredients.
The app then calculates the price and a nutritional
breakdown of the meal so you know exactly what
you’re consuming.
22 Carter Lane EC4V 5AD
5 Steward Street E1 6FQ