MORE BALLS, PLEASE!
The Great British Summer means several things. Rain, obviously. Bad Eurobeat Number Ones. Drinking flat beer in the park. And Wimbledon, which combines two of the things – sport and rain – that define this country. During this tennis-centric fortnight the world’s elite players flock to SW19’s baize-smooth grass courts while us Average Joes hit our nearest questionable-quality public park equivalents only to never touch a racquet again for another year once championship point is over.

Well, it needn’t be this way as Wales is in possession of one of the premier tennis centres in Britain, in the shape of The David Lloyd Club. Part of the nationwide chain set up by the eponymous ex-pro and now respected coach, the Cardiff branch maintains the high standard that has become the group’s hallmark. Not only does it have seven top-notch outdoor courts so you catch a few rays if the sun does make a guest appearance, but it also has an equal number of indoor courts so working on your backhand isn’t weather-dependent if the summer is its usual soggy self. It’s not all about the tennis, though. There’s a raft of other facilities, including indoor and outdoor swimming pools, an extensive gym and over 50 communal classes, as well as a couple of restaurants to keep things nice and social. An all-round winner. Unlike Tim Henman.
www.davidlloyd.co.uk

TAKING THE STRAIN
Go into any gym across the land and you’d think there’d been an explosion in a Lycra factory because everyone is sporting so many different sorts of athletic slings and supports it could be mistaken for the latest must-have fashion accessory. The reasons for this are twofold. Firstly, we don’t exercise correctly, often ignoring the personal trainer mantra of always warming up and cooling down due to our lifestyle time-poverty and, secondly, more of us are exercising harder and longer than before in pursuit of the body buff.

To combat the sports injury epidemic the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, represented by Pr. John Fairclough and Professor Hechmi Toumi, in conjunction with Spire Cardiff Hospital recently opened a unique physiotherapy centre aiming to give the public access to the same treatment as Welsh athletes like Rhys Williams and former Olympic champion Colin Jackson. The clinic, which is the only one of its kind in Wales, uses state-of-the-art technology, developed by the aeronautic industry and previously only available in highly-specialised sports laboratories, to accurately diagnose chronic lower limb injuries and consequently provide effective treatment. Williams, one of the world’s top hurdlers, sees the benefits of the new clinic: “It’s a fantastic facility, not only for athletes like me, but also for anyone else who needs sports injury treatment.”
www.uwic.ac.uk

WHAT’S THE ALTERNATIVE?
If you’re injury-prone or simply sick of gym monotony, an alternative could be to learn a new discipline that’s easier on the limbs. With a wide range of options mushrooming up all over Wales, there’s something to suit everyone.

YOGA Probably the best-known alternative fitness regime and much maligned in the past, recently we’ve wised up to the fact it’s a rigorous exercise ethos. From the Sanskrit ‘root yuj’ meaning ‘to join’ or ‘to yoke’, yoga is a practice that not only makes the body strong and flexible, it also improves the functioning of the respiratory, circulatory, digestive and hormonal systems as well as easing life’s emotional stresses. All without risking damaging any gym-battered joints.

WATER POLO Whereas your ordinary common-or-garden landlocked polo is the sport of kings, water polo (despite Prince Willy being a prime exponent) has a more egalitarian feel. More importantly, like all H2O-based activities it’s undemanding on the body because it’s supported by the powerful bob of the pool, making injuries if not impossible – well, it does involve danger-inherent water – then, at least, limited. And the fact it’s a competitive sport means it’ll keep any wandering interest drilled.

CAPOEIRA This visually stunning martial art is ideal for anyone who has a liking for music and dance. Created in the 16th century by African slaves in Brazil, it was conceived as a way of disguising their fighting style from their captors by combining kicks and punches with dance, acrobatics and music. Nowadays, the emphasis is on demonstrating the skill rather than injuring an opponent, hence its body-weary friendliness.

“ What’s the best way to get fit?” Joe at Aspire Fitness enlightens us.

No matter what you are training for or what exercises you are using, there are a set of guidelines that should form the basis of any successful training program. If you follow these then you won’t go wrong.

1. Intensity - To increase intensity is to increase the effort. There are many different ways to do this but some examples are: when running increase your speed or run up hills and if you are weight training you can use more weights. The reason you do this is…

2. … to achieve progressive overload. As you exercise your body will adapt to what you are doing, so to keep progressing you need to keep your body adapting. If running, run further or faster. If weight training add more reps or weight.

3. Specificity - make your training specific to your goals. For example, if you play 5-a-side football you should concentrate on short bursts of speed and agility - there is no point making swimming the focus of your training!

4. Recovery - exercise is the catalyst for your body to change, but your body will only adapt when you are recovering from exercise. Without recovery time your body will not improve, worse still you stand a much greater chance of getting injured.

5. Regularity - you need to train often enough to get a training response, but not too often so that you don’t recover. There is no point going to the gym seven days in a row and then not going for a month.

For more information contact Aspire Fitness on 02920 235523, info@aspirefitness or www.aspirefitness.co.uk

CALLING IT QUITS
If your New Year’s resolution is to pack in the fags, you’re not alone. Of the UK’s 12 million smokers, three million attempt to quit each year but the bad news is only 3% manage to stay on the wagon long-term. As an ex-smoker, I know how hard kicking the habit to the curb is, because I’ve been off the nicotine for three years and I still get the occasional craving. If you want to take the sting out of stopping then smoking cessation programmes are becoming increasingly popular, primarily because they’re more likely to work. The late anti-smoking tsar Allen Carr’s much-vaunted course is probably the most famous. Spread over five hours of one day in groups of about twenty, it uses a psychotherapy/hypnotherapy double whammy approach and focuses on why smokers continue despite the obvious disadvantages as opposed to concentrating on why they should quit. It’s successful because it’s about cognitive behavioural therapy: changing your behaviour to change the way you think. The course costs £220 - private sessions are a couple of grand - which sounds a lot but is a mere drop in the ocean compared to how smoking dents your wallet over a lifetime - and this will actually prolong it - and if it doesn’t do the trick then there’s a money back guarantee to boot. For details of your local Allen Carr therapist log onto the website: www.allencarreasyway.com 10 WAYS TO BEAT THE WINTER BLUES
1. Don’t sheep-flock to the gym with the masses this January, take up a team sport instead. Try not to barf, but the camaraderie can be a real mood elevator
2. Take up a new interest. I know this sounds Simon Says simplistic, but sometimes simple is best
3. Lay off the drowning-your-sorrows approach, as alcohol is a potent depressant. You may feel a temporary lift but the high is soon goodbyed
4. Eat spicy food. The substance that makes chillies hot, capsicum, stimulates the release of feel-good endorphins in the brain. Think about it: have you ever seen a depressed Mexican?
5. Drink green tea. It contains high levels of antioxidants that help fight mild depression as well as protect against cancer and heart disease
6. Take vitamins. Zinc is especially effective at upping the brain’s good mood medicine, serotonin
7. Do a negativity edit. If you’ve got a whinger mate who’s always on the moan, limit the amount of time you spend together. Or, harsher still, hit the delete button
8. Change your routine. Experiment by chopping and changing the ingredients of your life to keep things fresh
9. Have a Thai massage. This is much more energising and rigorous than other forms of massage, literally extracting stress from the body
10. Remember winter doesn’t go on forever so enjoy some of its perks, like long walks on crisp, frosty days or having a Sunday roast in front of a crackling country pub fire

THE HEAT IS ON

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ways to keep your body ship-shape all summer long