Expert Articles

Pregnancy is probably one of the most exciting events in a woman's life. When I found out that I was pregnant, I was over the moon, I was so excited and didn't know what to expect. Let me tell you now that my pregnancy journey was full of ups and downs, there were times when I questioned what is going on with me. I had back pain, pelvic pain, nausea and huge sugar cravings. The great news is that every pregnancy is different, one might have morning sickness throughout their pregnancy and others may not even experience it. I had morning sickness during my first trimester and it went away as soon as I hit the second trimester.   My aim for writing this article is to give tips on how to survive and stay healthy during pregnancy.

With annual events like the City to Surf, the Sydney Morning Herald Half Marathon and the Blackmores Sydney Running Festival on the calendar, there has never been a better time to start strength training in the Studio. Strength training is essential to runners as it increases muscle mass, joint health, power and speed, and decreases the likely hood of injury. In short, strength training can make you a stronger, faster and technically efficient runner, and should be a staple of every amateur and professional alike. The key to strength training for runners lies in the specificity of exercises and the timing and duration of training. When we speak of specificity, we are talking about implementing exercises that are going to benefit the client, specific to their output or chosen field.

As the hours roll by and the calendar days tick over, our population continues to age. With age comes change; change in posture, mobility, bone density, muscle mass, coordination and general motor function. The importance of strength training amongst our ageing population with particular reference to the elderly population has become more and more evident. Statistically, the frequency of falls and injuries increases from the 5th decade in life*. An increase in physical inactivity and insufficient weight-bearing exercise is linked to strength loss and muscle loss.

What is protein and why do we need it? Protein is essential to muscle growth, repair and development. Protein is made up of amino acids. There are 20 amino acids that link together to form peptides, which are then linked together to form proteins. There are a number of proteins that carry out a multitude of jobs in our bodies, however, our focus needs to be on making sure we are meeting all 20 amino acids, our nutritional building blocks. It is important to understand that we have a biological requirement for amino acids, not for protein. Our body produces 11 of these essential amino acids from chemicals already present in our body, so we only need to be looking to consuming the additional 9 that our body cannot produce, called essential amino acids.

It is a well-known fact that we reach for high carbohydrate/high sugar snacks when we are stressed and time poor (thank you increased cortisol levels!). Due to our continually busy lifestyles, having healthy foods on hand allows us to prepare nutritious meals quickly, or grab a quick and healthy snack when required. With these five simple fridge staples, you will have all you need to be able to put together a quick meal or a yummy, and most importantly, healthy snack in minutes.

Simply if I had only 1 hour a week to fit in exercise I would be weight training. Weight training is the foundation to body fat loss. Simple more muscle equals more energy burnt during exercise and normal daily life. Weight training will help to raise the metabolism. It will also help to maintain your muscle mass instead of if you were to just to cardio then you would more than likely lose your muscle mass, decreasing your metabolism. Also if you make your muscle mass less then you will make your storage of carbohydrate smaller increasing the chance of actually putting on fat.

Sugar is often the 'go to' blame when it comes to weight gain, but is there another mineral that has been overlooked?

We are constantly told that drinking 2-3litres of water every day is important. But why? As humans, we need water to survive. With the human body consisting of approximately 60% water, including the brain which is approximately 70% water, and the lungs roughly 90% water, it is crucial that you keep hydrated in order for the body to function at its optimum level.

 What exactly are volume foods? They're foods that are nutritionally (typically) dense while bei