BODYWORK FITNESS WITH LOUIE FECOU

Dec 7 2012 by LOUIE FECOU, Irvine Herald

Well hello to you, faithful readers and fitness fans, and welcome to another column from your friendly neighbourhood fitness instructor.

It’s turned very cold very quickly. Luckily all your regular fitness classes are still going strong right through December to keep you all warm in the evening.

Once I see the frost on the ground and the Christmas lights going on, I can’t help but start to resign myself to the fact that Christmas is on its way.

A quick visit to Glasgow to see the fabulous lights at George Square, complete this year with an ice rink, helter skelter and carousel sends my brain the message that it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

As an amendment to last week’s edition, the big health, fitness and diet special on community radio station, 3TFM is happening this Friday at 1pm on 103.1 FM.

I thought it was last week but it’s really this week so this week you can text in to the radio station and we can try and answer all your fitness questions.

Myself, host Ronnie McGhie and Slimming World’s Sarah Jennings will be on-hand to take your questions.

You can text your messages to the radio station directly on 07904 046117.

Or you can log on to Facebook and click Like on the 3TFM page and send a message to us that way.

It would be great to hear from some of you out there with your fitness and diet problems and we can also play a song for you too.

So, that’s this Friday gang at 1pm till 3pm.

Elsewhere this week in the Herald, you can see the terrific pictures from the health and fitness weekender that was held at St Matthew’s Academy in Saltcoats. The event was hosted by the irrepressible Katie Campbell, who was raising money for young Daniel Gilmour who requires funding for treatment of Neuroblastoma.

I was lucky enough to be invited along to take a couple of the sessions, Cardio40 and Zumba and I was pleased to go along and help out.

It was terrific to see so many people turning out to take part, I managed to get a crowd of C40 addicts along to join in too and they managed to do the circuit class, the body combat class, the C40 class and a bit of Zumba too! How they managed to keep the pace up I don’t know! I was exhausted just doing the two sessions.

Katie had laid out water, Jelly Babies, Jaffa Cakes and bowls of pasta to help keep everyone’s energy levels up. It was great fun and they raised a lot of money too.

With so many people taking the time to come along and support the event, I wondered why so many people still don’t do regular exercise.

A quick look on-line and I managed to find some of the best excuses why people don’t exercise.

First up was time. People claim they don’t have any time to do it. In our fast-paced world, time is now a commodity but surely it’s all about time management. If you find you have time to watch TV or read or go for a meal then you must have time to do a bit of exercise – sort those priorities out.

Another excuse is I am too tired to exercise. If that’s you then remember you will gain more energy when you exercise so it’s no excuse.

Some people won’t exercise because for one reason or another they hate the gym. That’s fair enough but with an incredible amount of fitness classes available everywhere, you don’t need a gym to keep fit!

Another classic is I can’t exercise as I have a bad back. Well, new research shows that exercise done the right way can greatly improve the core stability muscles that will prevent and help the back and improve posture.

And my favourite, I’m too fat to exercise. But let me assure you, you do not have to be fit to go to fitness classes. Any instructor worth their salt will be able to set you goals that are within your range of ability. So pick a class that suits you and go at your own pace. No one is judging you, everyone wants you to succeed. No excuses, folks, I’ve heard them all before.