Don't rely on willpower!

Now that the Christmas cake and Christmas pudding (albeit paleo) is finished I can let out a sigh of relief (at the same time as a notch in my belt!)  and get back to eating clean.

Hands up, who else is desperately eating all the leftover Christmas chocolate, cake and pudding because throwing it away just seems wrong?

It's a catch 22: you don't want all the Christmas cheese, pies and nibbles in the house because you will be tempted to eat it but it is in the house so you have to eat it to get it out of the house!

If you are not careful this will become a recurring theme during 2014.

Christmas throws into clear perspective how a lot of people eat all the time.  

If you have read my blog before, then you should be aware that I don't advocate any diets ever and that detoxes are pointless - we have livers that do the job very effectively for us, you know!  So how can you make a huge change to the way you live without dieting and detoxing after Christmas?

It is really very, very simple!

Stop buying crap!

Because if it isn't in the house, you can't eat it!

Don't pretend you're doing your kids a favour by still getting them crisps and chocolate and cakes and sweets because you aren't!  You are setting them up for a life of rewarding a normal day with junk food.  

You are your own enabler!  

Stop using your kids as an excuse to buy foods you know are terrible for you!  Why would you make an effort to eat clean but feed your kids that crap still?  They seriously are not going to die by avoiding chocolate, crisps, biscuits and sweets!  In fact, you will be aiding their concentration, levelling out their energy, hormone and mood levels and making sure their adult bodies are built on strong bones, teeth, neural pathways and healthy habits!

Why on earth wouldn't you do that?

Kids do actually like real food, given half a chance!

Look around you at the supermarket next time you are there.  Pretty much everyone over the age of 50 looks ill.  Overweight or underweight, tired, in pain, losing their hair, the list goes on.  These things genuinely can be avoided with a change in nutrition and exercise!  Why would you set yourself up for a life of pain and discomfort?  Why would you knowingly leave that legacy to your kids?

If it isn't in the house, you can't eat it!

Don't torture yourself.  You wouldn't expect a smoker to be able to give up smoking still with a packet of cigarettes and a lighter in his pocket.  You wouldn't expect a heroin addict to stay clean with junk and a spoon in her pocket.  

How on earth do you expect to eat clean with junk and a spoon in the cupboard?

If it isn't in the house, you can't eat it!

My husband actually had to leave his place of work before he was able to successfully give up smoking - all his coworkers were enabling him to continue smoking.  At his new job, he is a non smoker and everyone sees him as that so no one asks him to join them for a sneaky ciggie.

Giving up smoking is hard.  Giving up heroin or cocaine is hard but at least there is some stigma attached to these substances - there is no stigma attached to toast or crisps or chocolate or an evening glass of wine or two.

AA won't expect you to use willpower to give up an alcohol dependency - AA won't ask you to give up alcohol with a bottle of vodka sitting in the cupboard.  It won't ask you to go the the pub every evening and sit with a glass of water, it will tell you to avoid situations and even people you know are going to put you right back to square one!  

So why would you think willpower alone can cure you of a sugar, junk food and processed meal addiction?

The diet industry teaches you to rely on will power to succeed and that industry then relies on your guaranteed failure in order to return to them for more terrible advice.  I'm telling you to forget willpower - only a very few, very strong-willed self-harmy types have that sort of willpower - most of us need to cheat!

So go ahead and cheat - stop buying the foods you know you shouldn't be eating!  

It really is that simple.  And it works!

For those of you who are unsure what you shouldn't be eating, here is a non-exhaustive list for you:

CUT COMPLETELY

• sugar (check labels on even savoury foods for added sugar)

CUT or at least LIMIT

• Flour (pastry, pasta, cakes, biscuits, pancakes, bread, pizza, crackers etc.)
• Alcohol
• Processed foods (ham, sausages, ready meals, take-aways etc.)
• Fizzy drinks (including diet varieties)
• Low fat yoghurts

If you must replace sugar, replace it with honey.

Replace wheat products, those made with flour with oats or extra vegetables.

Replace alcohol and fizzy drinks with fruit teas or watered down fruit juice.

Replace low fat yoghurts with Greek yoghurts and honey or fruit.

If you must have chocolate, get dark chocolate and gradually get darker.

For some of you, this will be an enormous shift in your eating habits - but that's ok.  You have been brainwashed by food companies to think the stuff they are selling you, the stuff they are literally killing you with, that makes them huge amounts of money, is really food when there is actually very little nutritional content in there at all.

Sugar and processed foods are dramatically increasing your risk of diabetes.  They are dramatically increasing your risk of heart disease and atheroscelrosis.  They are dramatically increasing your risk of certain cancers.  A lack of exercise is increasing your chances of heart disease, atherosclerosis and osteoperosis.

Is this what you want for yourself, for your families, for your children?

Make the change now!  And if you need a helping hand, there is loads of advice on this blog - if you want more, I have tailored programs for nutrition and fitness to help you. 

Now ditch the diets and cut the crap for 2014!

Why you shouldn't set goals

New Year, New You Part I

New Year is on it's way and this is when we like to make resolutions and set goals, in fact, just before I sat down to write this, I had begun writing out my New Year Goal Setting Sheets for my clients.  But in thinking carefully about this blog post, I have totally changed my mind!

There will be no specific goal-setting this year.

Here's why:

If you set goals, the process of achieving these very specific and time referenced goals  (if you like SMART goal-setting) becomes purely about achieving the goal and not about the journey itself.  This makes the journey purely about the end-game rather than an enjoyable expedition in itself.  You lose focus on the present and end up living in the what ifs and whens rather than the here and now.

If you set goals and don't achieve them, it's demoralising. 

Failed goals lead to a cycle of making promises to yourself that you can't or don't achieve, followed by a period of self-loathing and disappointment before new, unrealistic goals are set and so on.

Achieving goals is no better than failing to achieve as this simply leads to a cycle of desperation to constantly achieve, a necessity to achieve, that leads to stress and anxiety to reach targets that are rarely genuinely enjoyed as the feeling when they are achieved is more often one of relief than joy.

Don't think: my life will be great when I am a size 10 or my life can begin when I have lost 2 stone or if I could only fit into those trousers I'd be happy.  Start thinking about how you want to feel right now.

How do you honestly want to live right now?

How do you honestly want to feel right now? 

Proud?

Energised?

Healthy?

Fit?

Helpful?

Useful?

Strong?

Capable?

Notice I didn't include happy in that list.  I don't believe in seeking happiness either.  Happiness is a transitory feeling that comes from experiencing the other things in the list above.  You can't just feel happy in a vacuum.  Happiness comes from feeling proud, feeling loved, feeling strong, feeling friendly, feeling helpful etc.

Happiness is part of the journey, not a destination.

And goals are a destination and they come to an end.  

Finding how you want to feel and how you want to live and living that from day to day is much more productive because it means every day is an acknowledgement of the pleasure of doing rather than aiming.

Finding the mental strength and determination to remain on the path, to continue the journey even when you have strayed from that path, is a pleasurable experience.  It brings happiness.  

Finding the joy in practising for the sake of practising, commitment to a life process with no final destination, allows you to stop and smell the flowers; it means you can genuinely enjoy the process of living the life you want to lead.

So rather than making a load of new year's resolutions this year and a set of goals you may or may not achieve, have a go at deciding what sort of person you want to be, decide on the sort of life you want to lead and find the happiness in living it!

New Year, New You Part II

So, how can you live the life you want to live, how can you be the person you want to be?

I don't think it is about setting anything in stone.  People change: what is vitally important to you when you are 5 just doesn't feature in your teens.  What's important to a twenty-something just isn't to a forty-something.  You are allowed to change your world view, your impression of someone, your desires, thoughts and ideals and you are allowed to change these whenever you like.  Forcing yourself continually along a path you hate is daft, no?

You need to have a look at your life every day.  If you hate everything about it, you must do something.  You must be proactive and make one change.  That one change will lead to more changes, guaranteed!

If you are a little dissatisfied with your life, the answer is the same.  Do something!

If you love your life, then you are probably already doing something on a regular basis.

This is a health and fitness blog so my advice is this: one of the the most effective changes you can make, with unbelievably far-reaching ripples that stretch further than you could possibly imagine, is to make a change to your health and fitness.

If you exercise regularly, you become fitter, you breathe more easily, you sleep better, you have more energy.  You have tangible things to feel proud of when you see changes in your strength and flexibility and balance and posture and yes, your waist!

If you eat healthily (I'm talking cutting processed foods and alcohol and foods high in salt and sugar) you will see amazing changes in your moods, your hormonal responses, your sleep and your energy levels and yes, your waist!

If you decide that these changes (and there are no negative results of these changes) are changes you would like to live with on a daily basis, then you make these a life change - not a short term goal-related 'diet' or 'detox' that people tamper with after Christmas.

You can do this yourself or you can ask for help.  I can offer you help in the form of nutrition counselling, personal training or FitClub.

I have FitClub members, who come to me once a week for an hour, who in 12 weeks went from not being able to do any press ups at all to being able to complete more than 10 decline pressups in a go. These clients of mine make an effort to come to FitClub even when time constraints and work commitments mean this is difficult.  This is because these clients are not goal orientated, they are life-inspired!  They are enjoying leading a fit and healthy life right now and they are don't want to give it up!

So make the best New Year's resolution you have ever made and promise to live the life you want to live and be the person you want to be!

Why this PT says, 'You don't need a PT!'

Before I began my health and fitness journey in 2011, like a great number of people, I believed that I too could have the perfect figure if only I had a Personal Trainer, like all the film stars have.  Of course I could eat healthy and exercise if someone were telling me to!  It'd be easy!

But is it that simple?  

Now that I'm a Personal Trainer, I can tell my clients how to exercise and what to eat.  I can push them hard for the sessions they spend with me each week.

But is that enough?

Just saying you have a Personal Trainer is not enough.  You can't just talk the talk and expect to get ripped through osmosis.  You have to walk the walk.  You have to turn up.  You have to turn up and you have to work hard.  And you can't rely on one session a week to get you the 'toning' results everyone seems to be after - you need to put in some out of hours effort too.

You need to eat right - abs are, after all, made in the kitchen.  There simply aren't enough hours in the day to work off some of the meals and snacks you can eat in one sitting!

And if I have to nag you to turn up, then you aren't committed.  And if you aren't committed, then your health and fitness won't be sustained.

As a Personal Trainer, I make very good use of the skills I learnt when I was a teacher.

I am a facilitator - my aim as a teacher and now a PT, is to foster independent learning - in other words, my job as a Personal Trainer is to get you to believe in yourself.  To get you to love exercise and healthy eating so much that you are able to sustain it without my constant attention.  My job as a Personal Trainer is to get you to be amazed by the things you can do that you never imagined you were capable of and to get such a buzz from this that you keep on wanting to improve.  

When this happens, you see impromptu days off, that mean you can come to an extra class a week, as super-lucky!

When this happens you see unscheduled appointments, that you can't get out of and mean you have to miss a session, as genuinely frustrating!

When this happens, I don't need to nag you to turn up because you are committed!

You don't need a PT to get fit and healthy, you just need walk your talk!

NB: obviously I realise I'm talking myself out of a job here - so I'll just add the caveat that a PT has the knowledge and experience to help focus and personalise your exercises and the ability to push you hard so that you get much more out of each session than were you to work out on your own  = )

Phew.

Paleo Celebration Cake

How do I top the paleo celebration cake I made for my daughter, Liv's birthday this year?  That was the problem I faced for Zack's birthday today - I'm not the world's greatest cook and I'm a bit slapdash but the paleo rainbow cake I made for Liv I think was the best cake I've ever made!

I'm not sure I topped it with Zack's paleo celebration cake but it's not bad and tastes yummy!

Paleo Chocolate and Raspberry Checkerboard Cake

Ingredients:

For the raspberry sponge:

400g creamed coconut (aka coconut manna or coconut butter)
6-7 eggs
1 cups of honey
2 tsp baking powder
300g raspberries
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the Chocolate sponge:

400g creamed coconut (aka coconut manna or coconut butter)
6-7 eggs
1 cups of honey
2 tsp baking powder
200g dark chocolate, melted
1/2 cup cocoa powder

For both cakes, melt the coconut in hot water in the packet or in a bain marie if it comes in a jar.
Add the baking powder and one egg at a time, whisking each one in - it will seize to begin with but will loosen up eventually.  
Add the honey and mix in well.
Add the other ingredients.

Split mixture between two lined sandwich tins and bake at 170 degrees until the sponge bounces back and a skewer comes out clean.

Allow to cool for a few minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.  Allow to cool completely before cutting.

While the cakes are cooling, make the ganaches.

White chocolate ganache: (not strictly paleo but...)

200g white chocolate
25g butter or coconut oil
50ml coconut cream
50g creamed coconut

Melt chocolate with the coconut and butter or oil in a bain marie, add the coconut cream once melted, this should stiffen the mixture.

If the mixture separates, the addition of one egg yolk has enough lecithin in it to bring it back together.

Dark chocolate ganache:

400g dark chocolate
50 butter or coconut oil
130ml coconut cream
50g creamed coconut

Follow same process as for the white chocolate ganache.

Using cake rings or cutters, cut the cakes into concentric circles, 3 or 4 will do.

Use the white chocolate ganache to coat the inside one of the largest chocolate cake rings.
Place one of the second largest raspberry sponge rings inside the chocolate ring.
Coat the inside of this ring with white chocolate ganache.
Place one of the second smallest chocolate cake rings inside this one and coat the inside with white chocolate ganache.
Place one of the smallest raspberry sponge circles in the centre.
Coat the top of the cake you have constructed so far with white chocolate ganache.

Starting this time with one of the largest raspberry sponge rings, repeat the process.

Continue until you have used up all the cake rings.

Cover the entire cake with the dark chocolate ganache and smooth with a palette knife.

Top with fresh raspberries and add a ring of them at the base.

Paleo Celebration Cake

And that's this year's paleo celebration cake!

Paleo birthday breakfast

My big boy's birthday today. 
12 years old. 
Oh my God, where did the time go?







Anyway, what does a 12 year-old paleo boy want for his birhtday breakfast?  Why, wild boar of course!




I think this may be more what he had in mind...

But this is what he got, wild boar and kangaroo from 

The meat on the left is kangaroo steak and on the right is wild boar steak.

Both were delicious!  The kangaroo doesn't taste like anything I've tasted before but was delicious and the wild boar was similar to pork but with a sweeter flavour.

I think he liked it!

He's a bit of an Asterix nut so wild boar for breakfast made him very happy!

 

Love my paleo family!

Happy 12th birthday, Zackary!

Why your government sugaring the pill is actually killing you.

Even before I went on a health kick and became a Personal Trainer, I had a mistrust of processed sugar. Whilst my kids only gave up sugar totally once we decided to go paleo, I had always limited their intake.  Also, whilst I am by no means a great cook (awful, some might say) I do always cook from scratch so we have always limited our intake of added sugar in sauces and savoury processed foods.

A recent article in the Guardian makes me very glad we have avoided processed sugar, generally fructose, so much.

On the whole, the sugar that is added to fizzy drinks, cakes and other processed foods is high fructose corn syrup.

This processed fructose is literally poison!

This article in the Guardian puts the scientific spin on this.

In a nutshell, this article shows how dangerous fructose is and how the government and food giants are trying to use misunderstood terminology to put a positive spin on a very negative thing.

The European Food and Safety Agency states that sucrose is better for you than glucose because it has a lower glycemic index.

This is irrelevant.

Glycemic index measures the rise in blood glucose, not blood sucrose!

'Yes, fructose has a low glycaemic index of 19, because it doesn't increase blood glucose. It's fructose, for goodness sake. It increases blood fructose, which is way worse. Fructose causes seven times as much cell damage as does glucose, because it binds to cellular proteins seven times faster; and it releases 100 times the number of oxygen radicals (such as hydrogen peroxide, which kills everything in sight). Indeed, a 20oz soda results in a serum fructose concentration of six micromolar, enough to do major arterial and pancreatic damage. Glycaemic index is a canard; and fructose makes it so. Because fructose's poisonous effects have nothing to do with glycaemic index; they are beyond glycaemic index.'

• Robert Lustig
• The Guardian, Monday 21 October 2013

Glycemic index is not the issue - here's why:

'Glycaemic load is where it's at. This takes into account how much of a given food one must eat to obtain 50 grams of carbohydrate. The perfect example is carrots. Carrots have a high glycaemic index – if you consume 50 grams of carbohydrate in carrots, your blood sugar will rise pretty high. But you would have to eat 1.3lbs – 600 grams – of carrots to get 50 grams of carbohydrate. Highly unlikely. Any high-glycaemic-index food can become a low-glycaemic-load food if it's eaten with its inherent fibre. That means "real food". But fructose is made in a lab. It's anything but "real".'

• Robert Lustig
• The Guardian, Monday 21 October 2013

Here is why sucrose is so nasty and why the idea that something is safe, offering positive health benefits even, based on eroneous science is so dangerous.  

The food industry is fond of referring to a 1999 study showing that liver fat generation from oral fructose occurs at a very low rate (less than 5%). And that's true, if you're thin, insulin sensitive, fasting (and therefore glycogen-depleted), and given just fructose alone (which is poorly absorbed). Conversely, if you're obese, insulin resistant, well fed, and getting both fructose and glucose together (like a sizable percentage of the population), then fructose gets converted to fat at a much higher rate, approximating 30%. In other words, the toxicity of fructose depends on context.

• Robert Lustig
• The Guardian, Monday 21 October 2013

Here is the entire article.

Alongside planning your day comes planning your meals.

If you know what you need to get out of the freezer in advance, what ingredients you need to have ready and what you are eating for each meal, not only will you vastly reduce your food waste and food bill but you will be in control of your nutrition. 

This means you will be less likely to snack on undesirable choices because you won't have bought these items and you will be properly fuelled up regularly on healthy  foods and will be less likely to crave the unhealthy stuff.

Download this planner for free to help you.

I trim the edges and laminate in an A3 laminating pouch so I can reuse it each week - OHP pens work best because they don't smudge but can be wiped off easily with a damp cloth each week.

If you focus on cutting sugar, limiting flour and reducing processed foods, you will change your life - for real!

How many of us find it hard, if not impossible to motivate ourselves to make time to exercise?

How many of us start exercising regularly and then find it falls by the wayside when something 'more important' comes along or we have a 'busy' month?

Let's address that issue of 'busy' months.  If you are a grown up, you will find, I'm pretty certain, that every month is a busy one.  If you make a list of everything you have to do on a daily basis over the course of a week, you will find it very quickly becomes overwhelming.  Go on, have a go!  Write a list of everything you have to accomplish on a daily basis over the course of a week.  Then it's easy to see why exercise drops off or is non-existant.

Perhaps you do schedule time for exercise, but then along comes an important meeting at work you need to prepare for or a party to plan for or house maintenance or visiting a sick relative and then exercise falls down the list of priorities again.

How many of you go to an exercise class?  I bet you are less likely to skip that than if you schedule your own time to go to the gym or for a run or whatever it is you do.

Why is this?

Because timetables work.

You may think only the overly anal have timetables, only the obsessively neurotic plan their days and that may be a little bit true.  But people who plan, get things done!

Part of the reason exercise might fall by the wayside is if you have lists of other things to do.  I don't know about you but I can even put off procrastinating with effective prevarication and clever tangent creation.  I can make a 10 minute job last literally for weeks, months, sometimes even years! Genuinely!

How do I get round this?  I am learning.  It's a work in progress but at the moment, this technique allows me to fit everything I need to do into a day without ending up a physical wreck, without wasting time and without feeling like I have no time to myself.


I timetable my day.


I make sure that there are blocks of time that, as far as possible, are written in stone, but can, at a push, be moved around - so there is flexibility within rigid structure.

I work part time at the moment, to allow for the demands of a young family but this can still be done even if you work full time - you may just have to delegate more.  I plan a hour of housework a day, an hour of laundry and dinner cooking a day, an hour of exercise a day and an hour of writing work a day.  On top of these are hour slots for PT clients and kids' activities.  Hours can of course be added, when I have copy deadlines etc.

The reason for this is that I am naturally very chaotic and disorganised and I find it very hard to focus on any one job if I know I have plenty of time.  I need a deadline.  I need the panic that not having quite enough time gives me.  If I know I can potter abut all day doing housework, I will get very little done but when I know I only have an hour, I get a lot done.  When I know I can sit at my computer all day writing that copy or revising for an exam or whatever it is I need to do, I can easily get sidetracked by facebook or emails and my mind goes blank.

By scheduling a focused hour, I become super productive.

My main problem, when it comes to making sure I am organised enough to leave time for exercise, is laundry!

I have no problem putting it in the machine.

I have no problem hanging it out to dry.
I even have no difficulty folding it up and putting it in the laundry basket.
(I don't iron.  Ever.  I decided a long time ago that it was a waste of my life.  So I don't do it.  I fold very smooth and flat and be done with it and I have taught my eldest two how to iron their own school shirts; husband does his own.)

What I do have unbelievable difficulty with is putting the folded washing away!  I'm sure I can't be alone in this.  It piles up and up until the mountain of clean, beautifully-folded clothes topple over. 

So I have decided not to do it any more.  I will do the bits I can do - washing, drying, folding but then the rest, I will delegate: the kids will put it away.  Every day.  During the hour I have put aside for cooking dinner and laundry, I will fold and pile clothes and deliver to the kids to put away.  This works like a charm!  I no longer have piles of washing!

I am lucky that my kids are now old enough to do a decent job but you get the idea.  Hand on the jobs you can't do to make time for the job you need to do.

And that job is: take care of your health!  

And so we come to that little idea of other things becoming more important than exercising.  Really? Really?  Are you telling me that there are more important things that taking care of your joints so you are able to get up out of a chair without using handles when you're 60?  There are more important things than making sure your heart and lungs are functioning well enough to allow you to walk to the shops or play with your kids?  Really, you are telling me there are more important things than ensuring your bone density (especially women) doesn't deteriorate to the point of osteoporosis in later years? Really?

Come on!  Exercising daily makes you feel good!  It makes you look good and it cheers you up!  And if you are living in the UK in the autumn, you will know that a bit of daily cheer goes a bloody long way in these short, dark, gloomy days!  Exercising daily makes you feel powerful and in control.

There is not one workout you will EVER regret doing.  
Not ever!  

How many days have you already regretted not getting in shape?

Plan it.  
Schedule it.  
Organise your day to make room for your health and well-being!  

Why on Earth wouldn't you?

Junior Hero Academy are classes I run just for kids.  The little Junior Heroes that come to see me are AMAZING!

They never give up, they work really hard and they listen really carefully (generally more carefully than my grown up clients!)  This means they do the exercises I give them carefully and with great form, meaning they get the most out of each exercise and they vastly reduce any risk of injury.

I'm so proud of my little Junior Heroes!


Today I thought we'd have a go at developing a party piece for Christmas.  I said we were going to look at pistol squats.  We did some TRX pistol squats to get them used to it.  Then we got into the pistol squat from the bottom up.

I told them they would have to practise really hard between now and Christmas and that then they would have a great showing off thing to do to impress people.  In case you don't know what a pistol squat is, they are REALLY HARD!


Have a go - this is how you do them.  Stand on one foot with the other staying dead straight in front of you.

Keeping your heel on the ground, squat down until your bum nearly touches the ground but doesn't and make sure your leg is straight out in front of you.  Then get up again without putting your other leg on the ground!

So, I told the kids to have a go.

They only went and did it!  A little practice.  A few fallings over.  Then they went and did it!

XRSlide

It's easy for workouts to become stale and boring and this is when people tend to stop exercising or going to the gym - the same old thing day after day is dull.

This is why I'm a bit of an equipment junky - my husband swears you can achieve whatever you want with a bar bell.  It's true but it's also boring day in day out.  I like to swap and change and try out new things.

My latest favourite bit of kit is the XRSlide  that I was shown on a Functional Resistance Training course I recently attended.  The XRSlide is two innocent-looking pieces of shiny plastic with foam pads on one side but they are deceptively versatile and effective and will deliver a killer workout to even the fittest of you out there!  For only £25, I think they're a very versatile bargain!




It simulates the effects of a cross trainer and ab-wheel as well as other functional movements while adding an unstable element which forces you to engage your core muscles more than you would normally.  So a lunge, for example, is made more challenging with the addition of the slide. Like with suspension training, they really target your core abdominal muscles because you need to recruit these muscles big time to complete the exercises.

And, as you should know by now, we like any exercise that does more than it says on the tin, so anything that combines multi joint, multi-planar, multi muscle-group exercises is not only functionally great but also saves time!

If you are looking to mix things up a little, then these are a great addition to your exercising arsenal and like resistance bands, they they take up hardly any space, so you can take them anywhere.

Slow the exercise right down for a deep core workout, speed them up for a more metabolic, cardio workout or incorporate them into your daily routine for a bit of a change.

Be sure, clients of mine, we will be using these a lot!

Get your own pair for extra workouts on between PT sessions and have a go at these workouts with them:

Warm up with:

Skating Lunges - both feet on the XRSlide, move your feet backwards and forwards independently for one minute

 Jack Knives - both feet on the XRSlide, hands on the ground, move your feet backwards and forwards independently for 1 minute

Sled Push - with your hands on the pads and feet on the floor, push your hands along the floor.

Plank Pull - with your feet on the pads, in a straight arm plank position walk your hands along the floor, pulling your feet behind.

Upper Body:
One Arm Sliders - on your knees, core tight, push each arm out to the front and back independently for one minute.

Sliding press ups - on your knees, core tight, push both arms out to the side and back together for one minute.

Lower Body:
Lunges - with your feet on the sliders lunge either to the side or to the front and then back to the start position then swap legs.

Hamstring Hip Raise - lying on your back, with your feet on the sliders, push your legs out straight in front of you and lift your hips as high as you can.  Slide your fet backwards and forwards, keeping your hips as high as you can.

Abductor/Adductor Slide - with your knees on the sliders and your hands on the floor in front of you, slide your knees in and out.