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SWIMMING: THREE WAYS TO TRAIN SMARTER IN THE POOL

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Swimming. It’s the full body workout that blasts calories while virtually eliminating joint impact. Ramp up your efficiency in the pool with our top tips for getting the most out of your swim time.

The secret to keeping your workout fresh and exciting is to mix up your training with different swim strokes, training aids, interval training and water weights.

Here’s how…

Swap laps for drills

Want maximum efficiency? Forget straight laps and get your drill head on. Technique drills, speed drills – there’s a drill for everyone.If you plan ahead,with the right swimming drill, you could burn around 300 calories in as little as 25 minutes.

Need inspiration? Try this fat-burning drill and increase/decrease the rest time according to your fitness level:

  • Swim four lengths of freestyle with just 15 seconds rest after each length.
  • Next, move on to backstroke (or alternate backstroke with freestyle for 8 lengths), aiming to complete the entire 8 lengths in around 4 minutes.
  • To add some variety to your swim, perform the next four lengths with a kickboard, taking a minute per length.
  • After using the kickboard, swim freestyle with a pull-buoy for two minutes.
  • Next, alternate freestyle and backstroke for eight lengths once again, completing this in 4 minutes.
  • Finally, end on a high with two lengths of your favourite stroke, completed in one minute.

Kit bag essentials: Speedo Futura Biofuse Goggle (comfy and won’t steam up), Speedo Pace Swim Cap, Speedo Pinnacle Kickback suit, Speedo Pullbuoy.

Turbo-charge your water workout with resistance training

Incorporating resistance training into your swim can help improve strength and power. Better yet, it helps build lean muscle, increasing your resting metabolic rate so that your body burns more calories, even when you have your feet up (bonus!). One way to weave resistance training into your drills is to invest in a pair of hand paddles. The extra resistance created by having paddles strapped to your hands intensifies the demands on your upper body, providing a challenging and targeted swim session.  Advanced swimmer? Try upping the difficulty further by using a pullbuoy alongside your hand paddles. Tip: step up progressively to avoid loading the shoulders prematurely.

Resistance training for aqua fitness workouts

Want to add resistance training into your aqua fitness workout? Try using hand-held water weights as part of your training –simply hold them under the water (to create resistance) while performing exercises such as walking lunges, squats and high knees (jogging on the spot).

Alternatively, use them to improve upper body strength by targeting the triceps, biceps and shoulders during your aqua workout. Tip: if you’re new to fitness training, bypass the weights and start with body weight exercises such as high knees, squats and walking lunges.

Kit bag essentials: Speedo Tech Paddle, Speedo Pullbuoy.

Join the HIIT squad

High intensity interval training (HIIT) is a busy swimmer’s best friend, and allows you to get maximum bang for your swimming buck. Between 20 and 30-minutes of high intensity exercise, where you’re working for short bursts at close to maximum effort, has been scientifically proven to be an efficient way to burn fat and increase fitness. Best of all, unlike low-intensity steady state exercise (LISS), your body continues to burn fat long after you’ve finished exercising – for up to 24 hours afterwards.

The key is to ramp up your heart rate with intense intervals of effort. Try adding one of the following to your training plan:

  • Swim as fast as you can for 30 seconds, then rest for between 15 and 30 seconds before sprinting again. Repeat as many times as you can manage – aim for double figures
  • Non-swimming option Tread water (or run on the spot in the pool with your knees high), working as hard as possible for up to 30 seconds. Rest 10-15 seconds (you may need a longer rest, initially) and repeat. Advanced fitness levels may increase their exercise time to between 30 and 60 seconds, or raise arms above the head while treading water

Kit bag essentials: Speedo Water Bottle on poolside. Speedo Nose Clip for swim sprints.

Why swim?

Still need convincing to help you get in the pool? Just 30 minutes of steady swimming can burn between 200 – 350 calories, plus it only takes half an hour of swimming, once a week, to significantly improve your energy levels.

Great for toning up, swimming doesn’t work just one muscle group, but all of them. Better yet, 30 minutes of exercise in the water is the equivalent of approximately an hour’s land-based exercise. And you want to lose weight? Swimming burns around 3 calories a mile per pound of bodyweight – meaning that a woman weighing 150 pounds can burn approximately 450 calories for every mile swum. Nice!

Get started with our kitbag essentials:

Swim cap – try Speedo Moulded Silicone Cap

Goggles – try Speedo Merit Goggle

Swimming costume –try Speedo Monogram Muscleback

Water bottle – try Speedo Water Bottle

Nose clip – try Speedo Nose Clip

Check out our #NewYearNewSwim range now at Elverys Intersport, online and in store! http://bit.ly/204x6wI

 

CREATING A HOME GYM – YOUR 2016 FITNESS RESOLUTION

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The gym. It can be a tough place to go – it can be tough to motivate yourself to head along, it can be tough to find space for yourself, it can be intimidating in a number of ways. So if the gym doesn’t appeal to you and you think you need something different, what can you do?

Well, the good news is that you don’t even need to leave the house to reach your fitness goals. The ‘Home Gym’ is the answer to your prayers and is the perfect accompaniment to a busy lifestyle. Here we look at some of the reasons why working out at home is the perfect way to move your fitness to the next level.

You dictate what you need in your gym

Sometimes you can walk into a gym knowing exactly what you want to do and what machines you need – and sometimes those machines aren’t available for the hour or so you intend to spend there. It’s frustrating and it’s why having your own personal spinning class or treadmill ensures that you never have to wait for the equipment to be free. In many gyms, the equipment choices were made based on cost rather than effectiveness. At home, people have the option of using high-quality equipment that works for them.

 

Your home gym – where you are in charge!

We know more and more of how to train right, and what is good for us and how to achieve the right results. Having the correct form is hugely important when doing any exercises, especially weights, and having the time and space in your own home allows you time to get the correct posture and form to make sure that your exercises count every time. You don’t need to worry about anyone watching, are waiting for you to finish with the weights etc. It’s your gym, you’re the one in charge!

Home offers a place that fits your program

Do you go to the gym and end up spending as long finding a parking space, getting room in the changing room, finding equipment, talking to a friend or acquaintance, and at the end of your hour realising you’ve barely managed to get any real work done? Working out at home cuts out all of these issues and means that your workout is a straight up workout. You dictate the pace and intensity and distractions are cut to the bare minimum! At home, no one will disturb you while you are exercising. You’ll be able to remain focused and have a faster, more productive workout.

 

Tailor your workout

If you have a specific gym routine you can find it interrupted time and again by other patrons. With a home gym, as pointed out before, you won’t have these issues. You can plan a circuit for yourself – take your cardio on the treadmill, use a chair for your dips, press ups require no equipment, a medicine ball brings another host of possible exercises… all of a sudden with the minimum of fuss you have a huge range of circuits and exercises that you can put yourself through. It might be in your own house but it need not be boring.

Check out the massive reductions on the brilliant Elverys Intersport Home Gym sale now! http://bit.ly/1Vjgyyj

INTERSPORT AND PARKRUN JOIN FORCES!

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parkrun Ireland announce official partnership with Intersport UK & Ireland! ‪

parkrun Ireland, who deliver free timed runs at 40 locations around the country each weekend, is proud to announce that it has commenced a three year partnership with international sporting goods retailer Intersport.

Since the first parkrun in Ireland was established in the grounds of Malahide Castle in 2012, parkrun Ireland quickly developed into one of the country’s leading providers of grassroots physical activity.
Intersport is a retailer of performance sports equipment and apparel with more than 58 affiliated retailer stores in Ireland, and are a trusted source of expert advice to sports consumers.

Intersport’s mission ‘Sport to the People’, recognises its customers’ passion for sport and the essential role that the community plays within sport and physical activity.

Intersport’s investment will assist with the establishment of new parkrun events while supporting existing event teams with essential kit. Additionally, Intersport will be providing exclusive offers to parkrun Ireland’s rapidly expanding community, which currently stands at 75,000 registered participants and is growing fast.

The hugely successful RTÉ programme Operation Transformation, which helps get sedentary adults active, will this season include sessions that are capable of being completed at local parkrun events.

Operation Transformation camera crews will attend various parkruns around Ireland and feature some participants on the show.
parkrun Ireland’s Country Manager, Matt Shields said:
“parkrun Ireland and Intersport are kindred spirits that put local communities at the heart of everything they do. We are proud to be associated with an organisation that has a wide-reaching network of local independent retailers, which will provide a huge benefit to our rapidly growing community of parkrunners.”
“It’s crucial to parkrun Ireland that we only partner with organisations that share our passion for breaking down barriers and making it possible for everyone to take part in physical activity, and Intersport certainly share this vision.”

General Manager of Intersport UK & Ireland, Tom Foley added:
“parkrun has been a key player in promoting running as an accessible participation sport to the expanding community of runners throughout the UK and we are very happy to see this expand and grow in Ireland too. The parkrun model of local volunteers delivering weekly runs to people of all ages and abilities in their local community fits perfectly with the Intersport philosophy.

We are excited to see this partnership come to life and develop these running communities further together – encouraging more people to get their running shoes on.”
parkrun Ireland has been identified as a key initiative by Healthy Ireland as part of the National Physical Activity Plan, which it is expected to be published early in 2016.

parkrun Ireland is considered to have further potential for enhancing the health of communities all over Ireland and works in tandem with Sport Ireland, who support the establishment of new events through their network of Local Sports Partnerships, and with other key local stakeholders such as Athletics Ireland, local authorities and public agencies.
Healthy Ireland is about building mutually-reinforcing and integrated strategies to encourage, support and enable people to make better choices for themselves and their families.

parkrun Ireland and other Healthy Ireland supported initiatives aim to empower individuals and communities to take responsibility for their own health and wellbeing.

Get in gear for your parkrun Ireland participation this year with the new Brooks Adrenaline GTS 16