Personal Trainer

Age means a natural reduction of the amount of muscle on our bodies, which means a reduction in our strength too. Of course, this means a change to your figure, but more importantly less strength also means decreased motor control and balance – which means higher chances of falling. Strength training can reduce your risk of injury in general by maintaining and improving your strength and coordination.

Age impacts our brain too as brain function declines. After 40, our brain function declines by about 5% per decade, and accelerates once we hit about 70. While there are no definite numbers, it has been repeatedly shown that those who maintain their fitness see markedly less decline in brain function.

When you’re starting strength exercise, or you’re going back to it after a break; there are a few things to keep in mind (regardless of your age):

• Start light. Don’t let your mind convince you that “some is good, so more must be better”. Start easier than you think you should. Gain confidence and skill before making things harder.

• Keep the intensity low. It’s always better to do less and to do it consistently, than it is to go all out too quickly or too often and hurt yourself.

• Work on mobility. The older you are, the more likely you are to have some kind of injury or postural deficiency which makes some positions harder for you to achieve. Keep working on your mobility.

In summary; you are never too old to improve your strength – it is inactivity that we should be wary of! www.fitbiztraining.co.uk

Sports Massage Therapy

snails and they first appeared on the planet 550 million years ago, equally at home in the tropics, desert or deep water.

The largest is the African snail with a record of 38cm long and the smallest is .8 of a millimetre.

Shelley has up to 14,000 little teeth that rasp bits of leaf off. They can take about a week to travel one kilometre, have a small lung to breath, and are deaf and almost blind despite their popping out eyes.

Their sexual habits are amazing. Hermaphrodite, they can circle each other for up to 6 -12 hours in a slime fest, and then when they are ready, they shoot love darts into each of their bodies. The mucus on the tip of the dart activates their spurm retaining systems to better aid conception. After

They have represented the Deadly Sin of Sloth in the past, and have been eaten in most cultures, even in Scotland during famines. Some cultures eat their eggs which are known as White Caviar. Shelley hates direct sunlight and their mucus trail, serving as a slimy path to slide on, works best at night when there is no sunlight to dry it up. They will often ride along another snail's slime path. During Winter they block the entrance to their little shell and hibernate underground. They live between 2-5 years but in captivity they can live up to 25 years!

A snail form Egypt lay dormant in a glass cabinet in the British Museum for over 100 years before it started moving again, living for a year and a half.

Whilst we generally hate them, they are a vital source of food to toads, birds, beetles, mice and hedgehogs.

Every Garden Advice show has a snail question. Recently the RHS did a large experiment using all sorts of physical barriers and none were proven to be effective!

My friend recently picked off over 100 from amongst his vegetables, and did this every night for a week. By the 7th day he could hardly find any- so perhaps the best method is to manually remove them. However, if you are thinking of chucking them into your least favourite neighbour’s garden think again. In 2010 Mrs Brooke won the British Amateur Scientist of the Year award by painting snails with nail polish, then carrying them into a nearby woodland. Most eventually retuned, proving they have some kind of homing device. She suggests a 300 foot buffer zone would be effective! There are other methods of reducing the Shelleys of this world. The Soil Association approve Ferric phosphate though the RSPB warns that it also includes other chemicals which aren’t good for worms.

There are the beer, yogurt and fruit traps, nematodes especially effective against slugs, or you could think about creating a lovely lettuce patch for them and so distracting them from the real vegetable patch.

Whatever your relationship with Shelley, they have lived on the Earth more than half billion years. That is something!

August tasks

• Irregular watering can lead to problems such as blossom end rot in tomatoes, so make sure to water well during dry spells.

• Weeds compete with veg for water and act as hosts for pests and diseases, so remove regularly.

slightly, to prevent them discolouring from contact with the soil.

• Celery & carrots - continue earthing up and take care when thinning out any late-sown carrot seedlings to prevent the scent released attracting carrot fly females.

• Check veg regularly for aphids. Make sure you understand the different requirements and threats to your vegetables. Take the correct precautions and your vegetables should survive the hot and dry month of August!