David @ DHPT

The story of the tortoise and the hare, it's pretty much required reading for toddlers and young kids worldwide.  As we all know (if we can remember that far back), the tortoise wins the race due to its slow and steady pace and not giving up when things got tough.  While the hare essentially went hell for leather and blew out before getting to the finishing line. Does this sound familiar when it comes to your health and fitness?  Or the health and fitness of someone you know?  Massive push when summer rolls around and then back on the doughnuts and pies by February?  Great commitment to get into the suit or dress for a wedding and then let all of that good work go to waste after the photos have been taken? If it's sounding like you, don't stress.  It's a common issue facing people trying to reach fitness goals.  And if you reached your fitness goal and now hitting the gym every other day isn't something you particularly care about, cool, this blog isn'...

Last week I announced on my Facebook and Instagram pages that I was rebranding my personal and group fitness training business.  I thought, seeing as I have a bit of time on my hands at the moment with this lockdown, that I'd explain the reason why I decided to do this - in case anyone was interested. My new company branding 360 Degree Fitness was a company that I started from scratch.  I built it with the help and support of a great many people.  People who probably don't even know how much they supported me.  To those people - my clients, my suppliers, my friends and family, those random people who read my blog posts when I was writing terribly and wondered if I would ever find my own "voice" to write with, I want to say a huge thank you.  I truly appreciate every blog view, every time you liked a post on my social media accounts or share it with your friends and family.  You truly have no idea how much that has meant to me over the years.  ...

This week one of my training walks included an ascent of Mount Kaukau as part of the session for the day.   It wasn't a huge walk, especially compared to what we're going to be faced with on our Oxfam Trainwalk , but it was what I had planned to do for the day.  As far as how the walk went, I was very pleased with how I got through it.  The main reason I was happy was that some new things I incorporated into my mindset on this walk worked well for me.  The first little tactic was when the going got tough as I was climbing up the Johnsonville side of Mount Kaukau I simply started smiling.  Now, I'm sure this may have looked weird to anyone who saw it happen, but I don't really care about that, I just wanted to see what impact it might have on me mentally.  And I can report that it made things easier.  I struggled less with wanting to rest and definitely found it easier to keep moving up towards the summit. It makes sense really, studies have sho...

There are thousands of different training and nutrition programmes available in the fitness marketplace.  Dozens of gyms in each city around the world.  Hundreds of different personal and group fitness trainers in your city or town alone I would think.  So many people are understandably unsure when it comes to choosing one program, gym, nutrition or workout plan. I have trained a lot of clients over the years, and there is always one thing that has worked time and again.  It isn't sexy, it isn't fancy, it isn't complex.   It is consistency.   The clients who make the most gains in their health and fitness are the ones who turn up day after day, week after week, year after year.   These are the clients who succeed.  Yes, they have time off when recovering from injuries or illness.  Yes, they go away on holidays.  Yes, they have off days.  But the difference between them and the ones who don't get such great res...

All too often health and fitness are shown to us in films, TV, and articles as bulging muscles and toned waistlines.  We are led to believe that the goal of fitness is to be as aesthetically pleasing as possible to the opposite sex.  Sure, this can be a part of it depending on what your goals are, but there is so much more that is important about being physically fit.  Here are some of the reasons why you might want to think about getting a little healthier if you have let your fitness fall in your priority list over the years. 1: To keep up with your kids. Are you the parent who is always putting off joining in with your kids when they want to play rugby or netball down at the local park/school?  Is there always some pain which prevents you from taking them on walks through the bush or along the beach?  Is just the thought of going rockclimbing making your back hurt a little?  Getting a bit fitter and stronger may help with a few of these little niggle...

That is a confronting question to ask, I know.  But I think it's an important one nonetheless.  As we get older there's a tendency to slow down a little.  We tend to exercise less, or certainly with less purpose.  We enjoy those sweet or fatty foods a little more often than we did previously.  We're less active in general, we sit more, move less, and carry more weight than we used to. These things are understandable, as we get into our 30s and 40s, and older, we have families, full-time jobs, busy lives.  Fitness often just isn't a priority.  This a common trend for many people, and it's understandable to some extent.  But here's one thing for you to consider if you find yourself in this position.  We all pay for our health in one way or another, it is just where and how we pay for it that is the variable. Some people pay earlier, up front.  They join a gym, keep walking, watch what they eat (mostly), hire trainers.  They r...

Well, today is the final day of Bloguary and I have managed to successfully blog each and every day in February.  It has been a very rewarding process, I have found some days tough and some days have been easier, but overall I believe it has been worth it.  For the final day, I thought that I would share the ways in which Bloguary has been like a fitness journey.  So here we go... Some days are easy, some are hard... Like I mentioned above, some days were easy.  The blog posts not only came to mind quickly but the actual words flowed well once I got writing also.  This is similar to completing your workouts and eating to your plan each week.  Some days you will be on fire and things will happen easily and without stress.  Other days you will turn up at the gym and have to grind out a sub-par workout that was harder than it should have been.  This is OK, just turn up, put in the work, and the results will come.  It isn't always going to b...

Some people may not be aware of all the benefits that come with having a personal trainer.  They may also shy away from the rates that personal trainers charge (I'd like to think I am worth my hourly rate to be honest).  So here are 5 great reasons why you should hire a personal trainer. 1: We keep you safe... As a personal and group fitness trainer, I am a bit of a stickler for technique.  In fact, I am huge on it.  Great exercise technique not only makes exercises look good, but it keeps my clients safe as well.  There is nothing that scares me more than seeing people working out in a gym or local park and performing squats with knees caving in or push-ups with huge arches in their backs.  I can just see the injury potential.  To be honest, good technique is hard to judge for yourself, even if you are exercising in front of a mirror.  Having someone who can look at your technique from all angles is very useful, especially if you are not exp...

With the recent cold snap that has hit us, I thought that I would write today's blog post about keeping your motivation up over winter.  Winter, just the thought makes some people feel cold.  It also makes people think of things like sitting in front of a heater in a nice warm house, sleeping later in the mornings tightly tucked up in bed, and eating comfort foods to keep us warm. Unfortunately, while these things may be great to think about, they aren't always the best things for helping us to reach our health and fitness goals.  So how can we avoid the dropoff in our exercise habits that can come with the darker mornings and evenings of winter?  Well, here are a few tips to help you combat this. Firstly, you could get a workout partner.  To be honest, this is a tip that can serve many purposes no matter what time of year it is.  They help provide motivation, accountability, and energy when you aren't feeling like training on a particular day....

Health and fitness have a lot to do with our state of mind.  I'm sure you all by now are sick of me telling you of the mental health benefits of exercise so I won't go on about that today.  But I will approach the subject from a slightly different angle. As much as exercise and nutrition can impact our mental health, our thought patterns and emotions can also impact our health choices.  This may come as no surprise to you - the majority of people I would guess know about emotional eating but if we look a little more closely at our emotions then it can help us to work through these thoughts and feelings and not let them derail our healthy fitness and nutrition habits. First, let's take a look at eating.  It is always useful to see how emotions and stress play a part in our eating habits.  Take me for example, when I am stressed or feeling depressed, I tend to want to eat, and it isn't usually carrots and broccoli that I am craving!  This is useful in...

One of the best side benefits of training people out of my home gym is that I get to use it too, and whenever I want.  A home gym can remove some of the excuses that come up for why people don't get to their regular gym.  It's too busy, it's closed when I need it, it's raining outside (I have really heard this one), it's too long a drive to get there.  All of these excuses can be negated by having a dedicated training space in your own home. All you need to create a home gym is a little bit of free floor space.  I use our garage, but it could be a spare bedroom, a covered deck, or even your bedroom if you have enough space to move freely in it.  It doesn't matter as long as the space is clear of clutter and large enough to train safely.  So what do you need to buy to set up your gym?  Well, that depends on your goals, but the below products will suit most people and when put together with the right exercises will give most people a great workout...

This is an important question to ask yourself before you start a training program, or even part way through one as your thoughts around the subject may have changed.  What 'fit' means to me will undoubtedly be different from what it means to you.  To me, it means being able to keep up with my son, having the energy to pursue active hobbies, and being able to move heavy stuff as well. But what does it mean to you?  It might mean being able to run a 5k race for charity.  Or just to be able to do 10 full push-ups without stopping.  It might start out being to lose some weight but then morph into getting really strong once you are happy with your weight. The reasoning behind the answer to this question is just as important as the actual answer as this will be the driver which will push you to achieve the goal.  While the answer may not be important, it is still vital that you ask the question before beginning any training program.  Not only tha...

With the age of the smartphone in full swing, I thought that I'd use today's blog post to share with you the apps that I have on my phone.  Throughout the years these have changed as I have found better and more useful apps.  But the ones I have on my phone at the moment have been there for a while so they're solid, reliable, and useful.  Here they are. Firstly, we have an interval timer.  This one's pretty self- explanatory - it's a timer I use for my interval training workouts.  Well both mine and my clients, so I guess it's doubly useful for me.  The great thing about this timer is that it's very programmable.  You can change the work and rest times very easily, but it also has a warm-up timer before the workout begins.  You can save the various workouts in an easy to access dropdown menu so you can quickly change between timing protocols which is useful when you have back to back sessions and need to quickly access a different timer settin...

Life is busy, and it seems that it just keeps getting busier.  This can make focussing on eating healthy meals seem like a lot of hard work.  But there are things you can do to make it all a little easier on yourself. One thing we do in our house is visit the farmer's market each Sunday.  For one thing, this greatly reduces our fruit and vegetable cost.  It also helps us buy produce that is in season, rather than paying high prices at a supermarket for goods that are imported or out of season.   Having a regular trip planned like this means that there is nothing to think about - on Sunday, it is market day.  So we just get our produce bags and head out.  We usually buy the same items each week as we tend to cook a lot of the same meals which helps as well.   My wife and I also have a shared shopping list App on our phones which allows both of us to add items that we need to get, which makes our supermarket trips efficient also....

Gaining strength is a common reason why people join a gym.  Writing a good strength workout is not as simple as it might first seem. There are many different ways to split up a strength workout.  Each has its benefits and its drawbacks.  Each can work well for specific goals, but you need to know these costs/benefits before choosing a split.  Before we get into the main part of this blog post, let me say this, If you find a split that works for you and you are getting results then go nuts, you can't argue with results!  But for myself and my clients, I prefer to write full-body workouts where they are appropriate. You can split a program into body parts (often called the bodybuilder split) such as chest and shoulders on one day, legs on another day (never skip leg day!), and back and biceps on another day.  You can have a push day and a pull day (e.g. squats and bench press on a push day, deadlifts and cable rows on a pull day).  You c...

Often people will decide to get fit and jump straight into a gym membership, personal training package, or bootcamp program.  This is sometimes done without much thought about how each type of training will suit them.  They might go along with a friend or relative because they have raved about it for a while.  This can sometimes work, but it can also be the wrong setup for their personal needs.  So here are a few questions to ask yourself before joining a training program or gym. 1. What is my goal? Often this will be to lose weight, but what if you want to get really strong?  Or gain muscle mass?  These three goals have very different training and nutrition needs.  A personal trainer would be able to help you with all of these goals, but a bootcamp is not the best setup for gaining a whole lot of lean muscle - the training programs are not usually designed for this goal.   The same could be said for the strength goal - and I mean powerl...

Core exercises are important for many reasons.  The core is essential in most human movements.  It gets used in the following ways: transferring power through the body, stabilising us as we move, bracing and protecting us when moving heavy stuff around, and in many other situations too. I'm sure most of you know a few core exercises, they are fairly common knowledge really - planks, various crunches, medicine ball twists, and the like.  But if you're looking to add some extra options to your core training, here are some great exercises that I use with my clients to really get their cores firing. Pallof Press - This is a great exercise for working the anti-rotation element of your core - basically the act of preventing your body rotating.  You get a little bit of light chest and arm work with it too as a bonus.  It looks deceptively simple, but when you select the correct band, it will light up your core.  Give it a try next time you want to add some va...