Push –Ups: Dead Straight Back We Say

Posted by Rose O'Donovan
Trainer at Fitness O2

This is my third tip to get the best out of your booty bootcamp experience with Fitness O2.  I’ll focus on the push-up, read on:

Push-ups are a simple body weight exercise taking in your core, back, shoulders, arms and chest – if from your knees you must maintain a straight line – start in the full push up position – hands on the floor underneath your shoulders, legs and back dead straight, now draw your shoulders over your wrists – so you are in a perfect push up position and lower yourself slowly to the floor, from there go to your knees – do not make a box, straight line and perform push ups – don’t fall in a crumbling heap keep practicing! Or you will be left behind and never have the arms and shoulders you so want for that backless dress/halter neck top/sleeveless number...

My 4^th tip in this series will focus on the Plank, stay tuned and please do provide me your thoughts in the comments below :-).

Fitness O2's Women Only Bootcamp is held at Safa Park in Dubai, UAE.
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Our Fuel System: Think Like a Car

Posted by Chris Williams
Personal Trainer at Fitness O2

We’ve all heard the analogy how our body can be compared to a motor car, we need to put good quality food or “fuel” into our bodies, and our metabolism, the engine, will makes us go through the use of our muscles.

Often people talk about what types of fuels (foods) we should be putting in this car to help it run better, but I want to look at ways we can burn, or use up some fuel  (calories) in a few clever and simple ways.

The second concept we can draw from is

“calories IN vs calories OUT”   

This basic ratio determines our current body weight and the direction it might move.  If “calories in” = “calories out” our body weight will remain unchanged at its current level.  If “calories in” > “calories out” our weight will move up.  How much will it move up? Well that depends on the difference between the two variables.

Going back to our body/car analogy, an hour long workout can be looked at as taking out the car on the highway and driving it for an hour Dubai - Abu Dhabi style, as long as you are working hard in the gym , bootcamp or other (which can be seen as the speed you are driving the car), you can burn anywhere from 250 to 600 calories during that hour depending on your body weight and work effort.  Even working out 3 times a week, ignoring everything else creates a caloric deficit of between 750 to 1800 calories.

1 pound of body weight is approx. 3500 calories! 

You see that even the larger person, working hard in the gym 3 times a week will still take 2 weeks to lose a pound.  The smaller person who doesn’t work that hard is going to take more then a month to shed a pound! 

This shows us that we need to look at both sides of the “calories in vs calories out” situation, and that

Exercise is only 50% or half of the equation!

Let’s look at this in a positive way though, that we still have a whole other opportunity with our diet to help us out!

Maybe you don’t have time for a workout everyday, a 1 hour drive on Sheikh Zayed Road? But maybe you can go to the store and back, that only takes 5 minutes.

Next time we will look at the “calories out” side of things and explore how we can burn some extra fuel a little bit at a time.  In the mean time take a look at what you are eating, even using smaller plates during meals can help control portion size.
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Personal Training Results

I was very pleased today when one of our trainers brought me some before and after data for one of his Personal Training clients in Dubai.  Over the course of almost 60 days, the improvements in some of the exercises is staggering, so we've compiled a chart to illustrate it better.

A massive increase in the front bridge and standing row exercises :).  Chris, we are so proud of you, thank you.

The Lunge: Pain is Just Temporary!

Posted by Rose O'Donovan
Trainer at Fitness O2

This is my second tip to get the best out of your booty bootcamp experience with Fitness O2.  I’ll focus on the lunge, and the pain factor (relax, read on).

Lunge – another functional exercise we perform every day and so fantastic for our hips, bottoms (this is booty right) thighs and if performed correctly your core and posture take a nice part of the loading of this exercise however if performed incorrectly it can cause some problems later but my biggest problem is AND yours is that if you show up to bootcamp and are buckled after 10 lunges on each leg or hop around the grass like a swarm of wasps stung your thighs what’s going to happen if we do 2 or 4 or 6 sets of lunges and then go off for a short run – you may run out the gate! And I only like seeing you leave through the gate once the 1 hour session is over :)!

So what I am talking about is endurance – have some muscular endurance in your legs –please ladies! Be able to perform lunges with your shoulders over your hips, your knees over your ankles, the movement goes down – not forward so your thigh muscles and glutes take the load – imagine there is a long needle through you spine and stay tall - pain is temporary! 

Lunging legs are amazing – so come with the ability to lunge and I will teach you travelling lunges, lateral lunges, transverse lunges, static lunges, reserves lunges and power lunges – we can do these in 5’s, 10,s 20,s 100’s – the stage is yours as are the jeans you will slink back in to!

My 3rd tip will be coming shortly, covering Push-Ups, stay tuned ladies.  In case you missed my first post of this series, focusing on the squat, please read it here. 


Picture via The Holistic Care under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

3 Fitness Gifts for your Mom on Mother's Day

If you are still wondering, or you did not get the chance yet to get your mom her gift on mother's day, Fitness and exercise related gifts will be the best way to show your love and appreciation to your mom on this day

Other than the unconditional love that you can give her, these gifts can draw a smile on her face for the next coming months

-       A cool exercise shoe. Whether she is into running, walking or "gyming", a cool shoe with colors that fit her current exercise apparel would be a great gift. Choose a shoe with a technology that supports her exercise routine, and if she is not into exercise yet, it will give her the kick start! Remember to get the exercise shoe one size bigger than her normal shoes.

-       A heart rate monitor. All moms are obsessed with calories, it will be good for her to learn about her fat burning zone as well as how many calories she burnt and what is her resting heart rate, it is so cool to the point that she might start using it the minute you set it up for her. Remember that it is water proof as well, swimming will be an option as well  

-       A personal training package. How about a trainer who comes to her, with a personalized training program specially made according to her needs? In this case results are guaranteed! And she will always thank you for it. But make sure you hire a qualified experienced trainer

Or… you can give her all 3 gifts in a nice fitness bag, you can add some socks and a towel to fill it up!

Happy Mother’s Day everybody :-)!

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[WOMEN] Baby Steps to Functional Fitness

Posted by Rose O'Donovan
Trainer at Fitness O2


Ladies, before you think or consider joining a boot camp – there are some simple steps (baby steps to fitness) that you need to take! – I call these baby steps to functional fitness.

Yes I am telling you – you need to be able to do 5 simple things before joining to get the most bang for your Dirham out of boot camps, make them less painful and definitely more enjoyable.

Before I tell you that, I need to tell you why I am saying this – think about it logically - you are sitting at your office desk all day or stuck at home doing school runs (hours sat in a car!) and all of a sudden you think  BOOTCAMP is the answer to all your prayers! This is the new weight loss regime that is going to do it - this is it! I’m signing up! And before you know it you are landed in Safa Park or some beach in front of a cool but firm instructor feeling totally out of your comfort zone and if the monster on your shoulder has started talking – you may start to think “I must be the biggest/slowest/most unfit person there is!” 

“Squat” you say what! Yes I said Squat! Of course you know how to do one of these – it’s NOT a leg buckling exercise that distorts all you natural movement and alignment of joints but that is what I mainly see in front of me.  So in order to make the best of your bootcamp workout, i thought of starting a series of How-To’s that help you do the movement RIGHT!

1.      Initialize the movement with your hips and NOT your knees keeping your chest up, back straight, knees over  your ankles,  legs parallel to the ground and at 90 degrees

2.       Learn and practice at home first

3.       Last but not least, if you would like some personal 121 Time with me, feel free to book yourself a Personal Training session.

Whatever you do, it is how much you put into it that matters:when you can do one properly I will get you to 15, 20, 25 and 30 properly at a time, then I will get you to do sumo squats, split squats, 1 legged squats, transverse squats and squat jumps – all fantastic beautiful exercises!! So you see I do not ask much in one good squat as a pre-requisite. 

I promise you a fantastic bootcamp experience, and what’s even more important, I’ll show you great results! Stay tuned for my second tip coming soon...

More information about Fitness O2's women only bootcamps in Dubai here.

When Bootcamps are Fun, Challenging, and Motivating...

When fitness is fun, but challenging and motivating at the same time, you are bound to see great results and a great experience.  This is exactly what one of our most loyal bootcampers, Charles Stephenson, a 5 time marathon runner, and a fitness fan for 20 years, had to say:

"I have been training and keeping fit now for over 20 years on and off, I have run 5 London marathons and really enjoy my fitness. Over the past 9 months I have been going to Fitness O2 Boot camps, the classes are great and are always fun for everyone despite your fitness levels. At first I was only going to give Boot camp a 1 month trial, as I am now 9 months in you can see how much it has grown on me and the results speak for themselves.

If you are willing to commit to all 3 sessions per week on a regular basis you will see huge results and rewards in your fitness levels, this will improve not only your look but also your quality of life as a whole. This brings me on to Zena, over the past I have worked with a number of personal trainers all who have different beliefs and methods, Zena is by far the best trainer I have worked with on a number of different levels, Zena is not only a great motivator but is also incredibly knowledgeable about fitness and the workings of the human body, she ensures that all the sessions are different, fun and enjoyable which is essential to a good class.

If you have never tried a Boot camp before I really do urge you to come along and see now effective they really are especially with Zena at the helm."

Thank you very much Charles for such a nice recommendation, we certainly look forward to keeping these bootcamp sessions challenging, motivating and fun at the same time! 

CHART: Box O2 Bootcamp Results - 160% Improvement

Box O2 Bootcamp (Dubai / Safa Park) 's February improvement results are out people, and here is a snapshot of 3 bootcampers' improvement results, one of which had a 160% improvement on their Push-Up test.  The other significant improvement is on the burpees (please forgive the typo in the chart (-: ) where one of the bootcampers achieved about 90% improvement!  Well done guys, and a big thank you to Chris, from the Fitness O2 team.


About Fitness O2's Box O2 Bootcamp, click here.

Bootcamper Achieves 37% Improvement - Wins Reebok Shoe

February's bootcamp session was just amazing, Safa Park's team trained very hard and achieved great results!  Our top performer was Mark, who achieved a 37% improvement on his assessment in just 12 sessions!

Amanda won top performer in terms of attendance as well: great team work and excellent performance!

Mark won a ZigTech Reebok shoe and Amanda won a RunTone Reebok shoe.

Congratulations and well done to the entire team at Safa Park, we are very proud of you :)... March is a new month, and new prizes await you!