Fitness

Raising the barre: Join Emma Barry Murphy’s 10-minute fitness class

Published

3 hours ago

September 11, 2024

Raising the barre: Join Emma Barry Murphy’s 10-minute fitness class

September is a time for new starts, returning to routines or even taking up something new.

The start of autumn can be overwhelming, with lots of change, but it is also the perfect time to get into – or back into – fitness regimens.

This doesn’t mean going from zero to 100 — we know it’s not sustainable in the long term. What is sustainable, however, is building from scratch with short and simple exercise routines.

Meet our fitness instructor

With a background in dance and ballet, Emma Barry Murphy has had a passion for movement since she was three. After moving from Cork to Dublin, she began to sample other activities, such as pilates and boxing, but she was drawn to barre, given how similar it was to ballet.

She qualified as a barre teacher in 2017 but did not begin teaching classes until 2019, starting with her colleagues at work.

Like many other fitness instructors, she transferred her classes online during the covid lockdowns, and continues to grow her content (@barrebyemma), while working full-time.

She also works as a brand ambassador for Lululemon and with Vogue Williams’ Bare by Vogue self-tan brand.

“I really need movement to satisfy my mental health. My day doesn’t feel right without it. For me, ten minutes is better than nothing,” says Emma Barry Murphy

Barry Murphy “prioritises” fitness and health. She makes a point of snacking on nuts or rice cakes and getting in a workout between calls or at the end of her working day.

Balance in everything is her mantra. She eats chocolate every day and has the odd alcoholic drink, but movement has always been part of her life. “It’s constantly scheduled into my week, no matter what. It’s been like this since I started dance.”

Barry Murphy says she can feel guilty when sitting down, especially as her job requires sitting at a desk all day. There are a few days when she doesn’t feel like exercising, and it’s more than getting physical exercise.

“I really need movement to satisfy my mental health. My day doesn’t feel right without it. For me, ten minutes is better than nothing,” she says.

When it comes to her favourite foods, it’s Asian salads with dumplings, noodles, and vegetables. She has recently got into fish after stopping for a few years. She tries not to eat much meat and supplements meals with protein shakes to ensure she is getting enough essential nutrients. Eggs are often her go-to for a quick, nutritious lunch. An easy dinner encompasses her love of Asian tastes. “For a quick healthy dinner, throw a lot of veg into a pan, and a lot of soy sauce. If you have chicken or prawns, anything like that is helpful.”

Feelgood fitness

Barry Murphy’s four-week challenge takes just ten minutes daily. Designed for all ages, fitness levels and strengths, participants get to work on their strength, stability, breathing, and fitness.

“Some might think it’s easy, but it’s supposed to be,” she says.

Each Friday until the end of the month, a new routine will be published in ‘Feelgood’ with an accompanying step-by-step video. Any equipment required can be found in your house. Simply practice the 10-minute workout daily for a week and continue with the following week’s routine.

It’s important not to see the exercise programme as a panacea, says Barry Murphy: “During the challenge, readers need to be aware that ten minutes of exercise daily will not fix everything. The basic principles of health and fitness still apply. You’re not going to lose [a lot of weight] – that comes down to the rest of your lifestyle.”

However, the programme will encourage “healthier habits by avoiding barriers such as equipment, too high an impact, or pressure”.

Barry Murphy says while it’s normal for our motivation to wax and wane, the incremental gains will pay off. “When you’re finished with the challenge, you can say to yourself, ‘Over the last four weeks, I made ten minutes for myself, ten minutes for movement. Can I increase that? Can I build a routine where I do longer workouts every second day?

“As well as the movement, the added discipline could encourage you to make healthier eating choices, such as reaching for a piece of fruit rather than a bag of crisps.” Emma Barry Murphy demonstrates the tabletop hover position

Emma Barry Murphy demonstrates the tabletop hover position

Ten-minute programme

Week one focuses on dynamic stretching and mobility, core and glute activation, and the demi-plié in first position.

Part 1: Dynamic stretching and mobility

Cat/Cow: Kneel on the floor in an all-fours position, keeping your knees below your hips. Put your hands on the floor in front, keeping them shoulder-width apart. Taking a deep inhale, lift your chest, tailbone, and eyeline while dropping your belly and relaxing your abs (cow). As you exhale, round your lower back, and tuck your chin to your chest. Draw your belly button to the spine, tilting your pelvis up (cat). Repeat three times.

Low runners lunge with rotation each side: On all fours again, step your left foot outside your hands into a low lunge stance. Your left leg should be in a 90-degree angle, keeping your knee above the ankle. Your back knee can be on or off the mat but make sure you feel a stretch in your hip. Turn your torso 180 degrees before turning back and repeating the routine with your right foot forward.

Emma Barry Murphy demonstrates the bird-dog position

Part 2: Core and glute activation

Tabletop hover: Lift the knees an inch off the floor as you exhale (draw the belly button to the spine and maintain a neutral pelvis). Drop the knees as you inhale, bracing the core. To start, aim for eight reps of each.

Bird-dog: Place your hands under your shoulders and knees under your hips. Extend your right leg behind you and reach your left arm out in front, parallel to the ground. Hold for two seconds, then repeat on the other side.

To start, aim for eight reps of each. Increase the reps when you feel more confident about your form and positioning. Emma Barry Murphy demonstrates the demi-plié

Emma Barry Murphy demonstrates the demi-plié

Part 3: Intro to the demi-plié in first position

Standing tall, maintaining a neutral pelvis with shoulders over your hips, rotate your legs into a ‘V’ position. Everyone’s degree of turnout will be different and your turnout is controlled by your outer glute muscles. You need to turn out from the tops of your legs, instead of your feet, and the rest of your legs follow suit.

From here, again, keeping a neutral pelvis, softly bend your knees while keeping your knees over your middle toes as you inhale (again, held back by your outer glute muscles). Keep your heels on the floor to start and straighten the legs to stand back up, squeezing your thighs and glutes and bracing your core as you exhale.

To start, aim for eight reps of each. Increase the reps when you feel more confident about your form and positioning.

See Emma Barry Murphy’s online video above to follow the class step by step.
We’ll have another routine next week, so stay tuned. The best of luck.

Fitness

I tried a 30-minute indoor cycling workout for runners — here’s what happened

Published

10 hours ago

September 10, 2024

Press Room

I tried a 30-minute indoor cycling workout for runners — here’s what happened

Running is my main sport, and my obsession runs deep, to the point that when I do any other kind of exercise, it’s done to support my running. I do yoga sessions to stretch after runs, strength workouts for runners to reduce my injury risk, and regular indoor cycling to add more cardio into my week, which I hope will make me a better runner.

When it comes to indoor cycling, I usually just jump on one of the best exercise bikes and pedal mindlessly for 30 to 45 minutes at an easy effort, usually while watching a TV show or riding through the virtual landscapes of Zwift.

However, while testing the Wattbike Proton, I found a variety of workouts designed for runners using the bike to support their running. I spoke to the man behind those workouts — Dr Barney Wainwright — to learn more about the benefits of indoor cycling for runners, and discovered that how you use the bike matters, in that you can make your rides more specific to running.

This is done by adjusting the setup of the bike and changing the way that you ride. To put this information into practice I tried one of the running-specific workouts in the Wattbike Hub app; here’s what I learned.

You spend a lot of time out of the saddle

One of the key things for runners to do on the bike is cycle while out of the saddle, so you’re in a more upright position. This enlists more of the muscles used in running, and in particular means that your glutes are more involved, because they can go to sleep when you’re sitting on the saddle.

I found cycling out of the saddle a bit awkward at first, and you need to increase the resistance on the bike to make it feel more natural. It also feels harder than cycling in the saddle, which is a good thing in that you are putting more force through the muscles you’re looking to train for running. Still, I had to be careful not to push too hard so the ride didn’t make me tired for my next run.

As a result, for my first workout, I just did short stints out of the saddle followed by longer periods back in the saddle. I’ll build up the time out of the saddle going forward so I can do it while keeping my effort fairly low.

Move the saddle forward and handlebars up

Changing your bike set up will help to support you in a more upright position. In particular, I found raising the handlebars was important for supporting my body in a comfortable way when I was cycling out of the saddle.

This is a benefit to doing indoor rides to support your running as opposed to outdoor rides — most exercise bikes allow for a wider range of adjustment around the saddle and handlebars than road or mountain bikes.

Get your knee bend right

Wainwright told me that one thing that non-cyclists tend to do on indoor bikes is have the saddle at the wrong height, which means their leg doesn’t straighten enough when pedaling. You don’t want your leg completely straight at the bottom of a pedal stroke, but you should aim for a knee angle of 150-degrees rather than being too cramped.

I checked my saddle position and did indeed find my knee was too bent when cycling, so I raised the saddle height. This created a more comfortable position for riding and also meant that I felt like I was using my calf muscles more on the ride. Normally, I feel like I’m just using my quads.

Don’t worry so much about cadence

Cadence is the number of revolutions your pedals make per minute when you’re riding. If you’re aiming to be a good cyclist, especially with long rides in mind, it’s usually best to have a high cadence of 80 to 100 rpm. That’s what I had usually been aiming for in my rides, even though it felt more natural to me to have a lower cadence.

With the cycling workout for runners, aiming for a high cadence is not emphasized so much, because you’re not aiming to be a good cyclist — you’re aiming to be a good runner. So a lower cadence at a higher resistance that requires more force from your muscles is a good thing. As a result, I stopped worrying about trying to spin the pedals faster.

It’s worth finding out your FTP

FTP is functional threshold power, a measure of fitness which is very important in cycling, because it’s used to determine the power zones you use in training. It’s essentially the maximum power you can put out for an hour, and the test usually used to determine your FTP is cycling flat out for a long period — 20 minutes is the most common.

In most workouts the intervals are set by percentage of FTP, so having an idea of yours is useful. Many exercise bikes and cycling apps will have FTP tests you can follow, or will estimate yours after a few rides. Zwift had an estimate of mine calculated from my rides, rather than one unpleasant test, and I used this for my cycling workout to ensure the intervals were set at the right effort level.

Fitness

The best new health and fitness features in the Apple Watch 10, including sleep apnea detection

Published

18 hours ago

September 10, 2024

Press Room

Apple

This week, Apple unveiled its latest slate of mobile tech, including the new Apple iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro Max, along with the all-new AirPods 4 and upgraded AirPods Max headphones. However, one of the most impressive items from Apple’s announcement is the revamped Apple Watch Series 10, launching on Sept. 20. The tenth-generation Apple Watch is thinner and lighter than previous models, with a bigger screen.

While there are tons of things to be excited about on the new wearable, some of our favorite things about the Apple Watch 10 are its new health and fitness features. A brand new AI engine powers new features like sleep apnea detection, along with more accurate crash and fall detection and exercise tracking.

Tap the button below to pre-order the latest Apple Watch now, or read on to learn more about these new health and fitness features.

Apple Watch 10 is adding sleep apnea detection

apple-watch-series-10-sleep-apnea-notifications-240909-inline-jpg-large.jpg — Apple

One of the most hyped features of the Apple Watch 10 is its new sleep apnea detection ability. This feature is still awaiting FDA clearance, but the brand said it’s expecting to roll it out in over 150 countries later this month.

Once it’s officially launched, the sleep apnea tracking feature will use the watch’s accelerometer to measure breathing disturbances, while simultaneously tracking your heart rate and wrist temperature. It will analyze and compile that data into a report every 30 days. If it detects signs of sleep apnea, it’ll send you an alert so that you can share the report with your doctor.

Studies say an estimated 80% of obstructive sleep apnea cases remain undiagnosed, so this new feature may play a big role in helping people get the diagnosis and treatment they need to sleep better and reduce their risk of the heart, kidney and metabolic health complications linked to the condition.

Apple Watch 10 adds fitness tracking upgrades for swimmers and runners

Users will also enjoy other cool health and fitness upgrades, like improved auto-detection of your activities, new performance metrics, and new features like offline maps for hiking. In an industry-first, the new smartwatch will be able to auto-detect when you’re running on a track, so you can strap on your Noah Lyles-inspired Adidas and start running laps without worrying that your watch will track it as a regular run. You’ll get all your lap count and lap-by-lap metrics without having to manually set it to track workout.

Swimmers get the same 50-meter water resistance as the Apple Watch 9, but you’ll now be able to use your water-resistant smartwatch to track strokes and count laps for you in the pool. Wear it on your next snorkeling trip, too: The Apple Watch 10 comes with a built-in Depth app that can measure down to six meters. It’ll also measure and display water temperature when you’re tracking a pool swim or open water swim workout.

The new Apple Watch 10 hits shelves on September 20, and prices start at $399. But you can preorder yours now.

Top features of the new Apple Watch Series 10:

Pending FDA clearance, the new Apple Watch will be able to detect signs of sleep apnea and generate a report of your sleep data to show your doctor.
The more powerful AI also has improved crash detection and fall detection.
Enjoy improved workout tracking like automatic track running detection for runners, stroke detection and lap counting for swimmers and more performance metrics for cyclists.
Hikers can now follow offline maps from their wrist.
A 30% larger screen with wide angle OLED technology offers a brighter, crisper display that you can see from all angles.
The Apple Watch 10 is thinner and lighter than previous models.

Fitness

Exercising Can Help You Have Healthier Belly Fat

Published

1 day ago

September 10, 2024

Press Room

Exercising Can Help You Have Healthier Belly Fat

TUESDAY, Sept. 10, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Annoyed that you still have a bit of tummy even though you work out all the time?

Exercise actually is helping you develop healthier belly fat tissue, a new study says.

That means that even if you don’t obtain six-pack abs, exercise is good for your long-term health, researchers said.

“Our findings indicate that in addition to being a means to expend calories, exercising regularly for several months to years seems to modify your fat tissue in ways that allows you to store your body fat more healthfully if or when you do experience some weight gain — as nearly everyone does as we get older,” said researcher Jeffrey Horowitz, a professor of movement science at the University of Michigan School of Kinesiology.

For the study, researchers compared two groups of people with obesity. One group of 16 people said they’d exercised at least four times a week for at least two years, while another group of 16 said they’d never regularly exercised.

Samples were taken from belly fat tissue just under the skin, which is considered the healthiest place for the body to store fat.

Fat stored under the skin is less likely to cause health problems compared to fat accumulating around or inside organs, researchers said.

People who regularly exercised had distinct differences in their fat tissue that increased their capacity to store fat under the skin, results show.

These include more blood vessels, increased levels of mitochondria and beneficial proteins, less collagen that interferes with metabolism, and fewer inflammatory cells, researchers said.

“What it means is that if or when people experience weight gain, this excess fat will be stored more ‘healthfully’ in this area under the skin, rather than in the fat tissue around their organs or an accumulation of fat in organs themselves, like the liver or heart,” Horowitz said in a university news release.

Follow-up lab experiments showed that cells drawn from the exercisers developed into tissue that stored fat more effectively, researchers added.

Researchers said further long-term study is needed to track people and see how fat tissue changes as they exercise over time.

The new study was published Sept. 10 in the journal Nature Metabolism.

More information

The Cleveland Clinic has more on types of body fat.

SOURCE: University of Michigan, news release, Sept. 10, 2024