New Year’s Fitness Goals With Moore Fitness

Those New Year’s fitness goals are creeping up on us as we near the end of 2016, and the annual January fitness craze gets closer and closer. In anticipation of the New Year and all our personal fitness goals, we caught up with Katie Moore, of Moore Fitness @kmoore.dxb to find out a little more about the annual New Year’s fitness trend, to get some tips about how to prepare and start our fitness training programmes for the year ahead.

SSS: What is the Dubai fitness scene like as a personal trainer?

Katie: The Dubai fitness scene is great not only for clients but also for personal trainers, because there is such a mix of people here who all come with their own style and experiences of fitness. So you really can learn about all types of fitness from real pros, whether that’s lifting, calisthenics, functional / primal training, or African Dance even.

SSS: New Year’s fitness goals are about to set in. What would be your key piece of advice for people getting into 2017 training?

Katie: With all my clients when it comes to goal setting we always make sure the goal is specific and performance based. This is so important, because achieving a goal takes consistent hard work. If you are unable to track your progress then you will quickly become demotivated and feel like you are not making any progress, which makes it easy to give up.

For example, I had a client who wanted to tone her upper body and have nicely shaped arms, so we turned that into tangible goals – being able to do 10 full range motion press ups in one go for example. My client remained motivated because she kept increasing the number of reps she could do, which boosted her confidence and by the time she could do 10, she had the toned arms she was looking for! Another great way to motivate yourself is to set yourself the goal of competing in one of the many obstacle races held here in Dubai.

SSS: Are there any new fitness trends that we should get on board with for 2017?

Katie: So you have heard of the Paleo Diet (going back to cave man days style of eating.) Well the fitness principals I follow are from our ancestors too, and the principle is based on primal moves. It’s not a new trend but definitely one I would recommend.

SSS: Tell us more about the ‘primal moves’ – what are they exactly and why are they beneficial?

Katie: The first part involves assessing your body as it is: a mass of interconnected muscles and fascia. Therefore, to do a workout that just focuses on one muscle or group of muscles is not effective or efficient because it goes against how the body was designed to work. So instead, it is much better to take a holistic approach to training by focusing on entire movement patterns. If you think about your daily lives you are constantly performing movement patterns, bending down to pick up that heavy box, picking up a baby from one spot and twisting to pop them down, etc.

So if you use your workouts based on more universal movement patterns (rather than being too localised), then not only will you have the most effective workout, you will be training your body as it was designed to move, helping to improve the quality of your daily life. If I haven’t sold you on the principle based on these massive benefits, also remember the more muscles that are working, the more calories you are burning!

The 7 primal moves translated into a workout:

squat (barbell squat)

lunge (dumbbell walking lunge)

push (push up)

pull (pull up)

twist (cable wood chop)

bend (DB straight leg deadlift)

gait (running, the requirement to pull and push to propel the body forward)

There is a lot of research that has been done on this, with a great number of experts explaining the theory in more detail so please do look it up further. Paul Chek is one and for the more functional strength and conditioning side and Mike Boyle has a mass of really interesting research.

SSS: How can we adapt our workouts to outdoor training sessions?

Katie: The weather is perfect now and you really don’t need to go to a gym for your workout. You can see from the primal moves list that you can create a great workout for yourself outdoors. And if you need further inspiration I regularly post workouts on my Instagram to do outdoors.

SSS: What types of food should we supplement our workouts with?

Katie: What you are eating will be a major factor in the level of results that you see from your training. You want to make sure that you are eating heaps of veggies, and that you include good quality lean proteins, healthy fats and have carbohydrate-rich meals mainly on the days when you have had a killer training session. Also make sure that you are fully hydrated! I haven’t said anything new or fancy, but that’s the point, you should see it as a lifestyle choice, so you want it to be simple to follow and something you can stick to long term.

SSS: What’s a realistic timeline to start seeing results from our training?

Katie: There is no exact formula as to when you will start seeing results, but if you are eating a healthy diet, working out 3-5 times a week and getting the proper rest, then you should see noticeable changes in approximately 6-8 weeks.

Well there you have it! You’ve got plenty of tips to get you planning your New Year’s Fitness Goals before 2017 hits, and that’s not to say that you should only focus on fitness in January, this is an all-year-round practice, but everybody needs to start somewhere! Now that you’re armed with information, you’re going to need some workout gear to go with it. Here are some picks from sssports.com to wear for your next training session.

Nike pro indy cross back sports bra

Nike elevate elastika “just do it” tank top

Gymshark harlequin leggings

Nike free transform flyknit shoe

Nike dri-fit training version 2.0 t-shirt

Nike flex-repel short

Nike pro hypercool training tight

Nike train dynamic training shoe

Check out Katie’s fitness videos on Instagram for some ideas on your workout technique, and get your fitness goals all set for the New Year. Follow the Sun & Sand Sports Blog for all the latest updates on sports trends and sign up to the SSS newsletter to get everything delivered straight to your inbox.

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