The urban styled ‘Street Gym’ courtesy of The Great Outdoor Gym Company now allows you to go down the park for your workout! No membership fees at all!

Best of all you get to experience the fresh air whilst your exercise, vital for a healthy body. You can even hire a personal trainer from the local area to help you out with your exercise regime.

Please check this website again in the near future for further up-to-date information on this fantastic new addition to Havering!

The Great Outdoor Gym Company are proud to announce our new website courtesy of TidyDesign.com

The website has redesigned the front end of our website as well as integrating a sales tool and community blog.

The Great Outdoor Gym Company owns the intellectual property and copyright on all its products and is looking to work with forward thinking partners who are interested in teaming up with us to sell and distribute them into a number of key markets.

We have just signed up our first partnership agreement for the local authority sector with well respected playground providers Park Leisure. They will be working with us to sell, distribute and install our products into local authorities throughout England.

• If you are passionate about fitness
• If you are passionate about safety standards
• If you want to help get the nation active

Then we want to hear from you.

We are looking for similar partners to work with us to distribute TGO products into the following sectors:

• Education (including schools, colleges and Universities)
• Housing (including new housing developments, social landlords)
• Hospitality (including hotels, resorts, health clubs)
• Private clubs (including sports and social clubs, private gyms)
• Health (including hospitals, PCT’s)
• Overseas

If you are serious about wanting to work with us and want to find out more then please ring us for a chat on +44 (0)20 7450 4854 or email us on info@tgogc.com

We look forward to hearing from you.

If you are trying to loose weight, did you know that one of the most effective ways to do this is actually through weight training rather then the more popular method of pure cardio work.

Unless you are training with a specific sport or event in mind, there is no need to push yourself through 2 hours of cardio per day. If you are merely trying to keep yourself healthy, then 30 minutes of exercise every day is enough, and when coupled with 3 weight-training sessions per week, you are ensuring that your body looked after.

Unlike fat, muscle is active tissue, it uses energy just to exist, and therefore if you are dieting and trying to loose weight, whatever the amount, if you train with weights and put on for example 1 pound of muscle, then your body will burn more calories per day doing nothing than it did before. However, if you were only doing cardio work, while you would be burning 300 or more calories per session, that it is, as soon as you leave the gym your body slows down and goes back to burning calories at its normal rate.

This fact is evident throughout the world of sports, where the participants are spending more and more time in the gym as well as practicing their chosen sport. Even the world or darts and snooker sees its professionals training on a regular basis with weights.

The most success is witnessed when these elements are coupled together, into a simple training programme that anyone can use.

The majority of people are active during the day, and with a few small changes to their lifestyle can soon find themselves getting their 30 minutes of daily cardio work without even realising it. Walking the children to school, taking the stairs instead of the lift of escalator, or even getting off the bus one stop earlier and walking the extra little bit. After all, it is much more fun to do your cardio work outside and in the fresh air than in the gym standing on a treadmill or biking and never actually getting anywhere, staring out of the window at the traffic or rows or parked cars.

Very few people actually enjoy going to the gym and working out, which is where the other benefit is to getting your cardio work done as you go about your day. It means that your 3 weekly visits can be that much shorter without being less effective. It is a statistical fact that training for too long in one go can actually be detrimental and your body stops burning fat, instead choosing to burn muscle. Something we all want to avoid whether we know why or not.

Training for 60 minutes at a time is ideal. Begin with a gently cardio warm up, not to tire you out, but to loosen your muscles and get the blood pumping, lessening the likelihood of injury. Follow this with 5 minutes of gentle stretching, working all the muscle groups, 1 stretch each for the smaller muscles and 2 stretches for the larger ones.

Then you can begin your training session, either alone or with a partner depending on what you are training and how you train. If training with ‘free weights’ it is always advised to train with a partner.

Depending on your goals, it is likely you will either be training your entire body in each session, and therefore doing one exercise each for the smaller body parts and maybe 2 exercises for larger ones, with each exercise consisting of 3 sets each one comprised of 10 – 15 repetitions. Meaning that you do each exercise 3 times (sets) repeating the movement 10 – 15 times each (reps) set. Or you could be training each body part just once per week, which means that you will only be training 2 or 3 different muscles each session. While the number of set and reps will remain relatively constant, you will be doing a great number of exercises for each muscle.

For example, someone training their whole body may train their chest with bench press and Flyes. (The movements and their names will all have been explained by the instructor who created the programme or in the material being used as reference should the programme be self implemented.) Whereas someone training each body part once a week may do Bench press, Flyes, Dips and either the pressing or Flye movement on an incline setting. Therefore working the chest muscles from a greater number of angles, and therefore placing the muscles under great stress.

The style of programme followed will depend entirely on the end goal and the experience of the person following it.
That first visit to the gym can be very intimidating, brining back memories of the first day at a new school, with all the kids staring at you, but this is not the case. The more you go to the gym the more you realise that while it may appear that people are looking at you and watching what you are doing, they aren’t. People are in their own world when they are there, focussing on the job at hand, so while their eyes may be in your direction, their mind is elsewhere.

Once you get over the initial fear of the gym, you will find that most people are very helpful, and if you cannot find an instructor, asking one of the muscle bearing trainers will be the next best place to ask. Normally they are all too please to be able to pass on their knowledge and show off their skills.

The next problem you will encounter is the age-old training dilemma of free weights vs. machines. What is best? The answer is both are best. It simply depends on you goals and also your strength. If you are looking to become a body builder, you will do most of your work with free weights because they help to develop your muscles more, and accentuate each muscle by using the stabiliser muscles also, allowing you to lift a greater weight, but you will certainly see bodybuilders, even the pro’s using machines to train also.

However, if becoming the next Mr Olympia isn’t your goal, rather you just want to keep in shape and improve your general fitness, you will find the majority of your training being done on machines, although as I said it depends on your natural strength, if you are a strong person, free weights would be the best choice.

It is not a sexist issue, but men tend to use free weights more often than women, simply because most men want to be able to show off, even when they just want to be healthy, they still want people to be able to see their in shape, and so free weights will help this for the reasons given above, but also because using free weights you can easily show off how much you are lifting.

A good routine for general fitness would be training with weights three times a week, training several body parts each session. Not too long ago, people would train their whole body each session, however research has shown that best results are gained when there is a good period of rest between training. Therefore training each body part once a week. Twice at the most, which is possible if training every day as some people choose to do.

A simple scheme would be training the same days each week, for example Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Begin each session with a short 5 – 10 minuets of gentle cardio, this is not done to burn any fat or tire you out, as you are doing your cardio during the day. The purpose of this is simply to warm your muscles up and get your heart pumping and ready for what is to come.

Following the warm up, you will need to do some stretching. Most gym have a space for stretching, usually the same place as the abb mats. There should be a poster on the wall showing all the different stretches. Begin by stretching all your muscles, the smaller ones such as biceps and triceps will only require one stretch each held for thirty seconds or so. Larger muscles such as chest and legs will require two or more different stretches, again held for thirty seconds.

Once the stretching is done, you are ready to begin the main training session. Do not forget to drink plenty of water as you train.

Monday will be the day to train your chest and triceps.

Begin with bench press, this will either be done on a machine or with the free weights, depending on your natural strength. This is done for 3 sets, of 12 – 15 reps each set following the pyramid training system, where you raise the weight each time, beginning with a weight that allows you to do 15 and increasing it so by the third set you can only manage 12. This ensures maximum training efficiency.

Following this, move onto the fly movement, this can be done in one of three ways, either with cables, a machine or with free weights. The best approach is to vary it, variety is the key to successful training, as the body can get used to the same routine and by changing the manner you complete the exercise is enough to keep the body guessing. Should you choose free weight flyes, you are then faced with another choice, and again it is best to do them all at different times, you can do the exercise on a flat bench, and inclined bench or a declined bench. Each different method works the chest muscles in a slightly different way.

The final exercise for your chest is also good for working your triceps, which are worked indirectly through every pushing exercise.

Dips, some gyms have a machine where you can have weight assistance, but every one will have a normal dip bar. Three sets are required on dips also, but each set is until failure, whether it is 5 reps or 15. Remember not to dip you upper arms beyond 90 degrees, otherwise you can damage the joints.

The final exercise would be one that works the triceps directly. As you only work triceps with one exercise, it is best to alternate between two. Triceps pushdowns are done using a cable machine, and are simply, pushing the weight down, pivoting only with your elbows, keeping them locked against your side as you do it. Of course this will all be explained to you by the instructor when you first join. The other classic triceps exercise is ‘Skull crushers’. You lie on your back on a bench, hold a barbell above your head, and bending at your elbow only, lower the bar to just above your forehead, before pushing it back up, stopping before your arm is completely straight, again remembering to keep your elbows stationary throughout the movement.

After you have finished your weight training, you need to ensure that you cool down properly, and the best way to do this is to end the workout the same way you started it. Pick a cardio machine, a different one to the one you began with, and do a gentle 5 minutes, to allow your heart rate to return to normal.

Once you have finished the cardio, return to the stretching area, and do the same stretching routine as before, but hold the stretches for a few second longer this time. Your muscles are filled with blood as you train, giving you the ‘pump’ that is often talked about, which is why you need to hold the stretches a few second longer at the end.

You have finished your first gym session, and after you have showered, it is always good to take on some carbohydrates, but only the good kind. Most gyms sell drinks at the reception. Ask for a carbohydrate rich drink this will ensure that your blood sugar levels are kept at a healthy level.

A healthy diet is the cornerstone of a healthy body. The simplest way to stay healthy is to eat a good diet and get regular exercise. By having a healthy diet it is easier to make any adjustments needed whatever the ultimate goal. If you want to lose weight you can cut your carbohydrate intake slightly, if you want to gain weight you raise your carbohydrate levels. The other key to maintaining a healthy lifestyle is to not be afraid of eating bad food. It is recommended by many professionals that you have one day per week where you forget about your diet and eat anything you want. It should be the same day each week for consistency, but what you eat depends entirely on what you feel like.

What is sometimes the hardest thing to convince yourself, especially if you have been overweight in the past and are now looking to maintain your new figure is that eating a chocolate bar or bag of crisps won’t make you fat. It is when you eat 6 bars or bags that you get fat.

Three square meals a day, each one containing carbohydrates from vegetables and potatoes or pasta, protein and some fat. People are too quick to remove fat from their diets in a bit to loose weight, with many of them not realising that fat is necessary to maintain your healthy body.

The public conception of dieting has been dramatically changed over recent years with the emergence of the ‘FAD’ diet, from Jenny Craig to Atkins, from the juice to the cabbage diet, they all promised and delivered the same thing. Instant results, with little or no thought being given to the damage being done, the stresses we were placing on our organs.

All it takes is 30 minutes of sweat producing exercise a day to improve your physical condition, this is the opening statement to many health and fitness based magazines and literature, and this is the truth. Contrary to current popular belief, working out with weights will not result in you developing the bulk of a strongman, and similarly with cardio training, you will not become as wiry as a marathon runner. Unless this is your goal.

For someone who is just looking to give their bodies a fine tune and improve their general health and condition, the best thing is to train with weights 3 times a week and try to get 30 – 45 minutes of cardio exercise a day. This may sound like a large commitment, but this does not mean that you will have to drag yourself to the gym every day, you can easily take your daily routine and turn it into a cardio workout. Rather than playing inside with your children, take them out for a bike ride, or take the dog along and go for a nature walk. If your children attend a school nearby, you could simply just walk them there every day, the two trips you will make each day will count as your cardio workout for that day, and by involving your children in these activities you are setting a better example for them as to how to live a healthy life without going to the extremes that are seemingly encouraged in modern society.

We have just unveiled our first Street Gym in the Strathclyde area.

The street gym is a free to use outdoor gym facility specially designed for young people to get active. The street gym is the perfect next step for teenagers who have outgrown the playground.

All the equipment passes the playground safety standard EN1176 so that this kind of facility can sit alongside playgrounds and in open spaces and parks without supervision. The street gym provides a positive space for young people and is the perfect compliment to existing leisure facilities.

It comes in three sizes Street Gym local, Street Gym Urban and Street Gym Metro and all are designed to offer the perfect blend of cardio, tone and chill equipment. The equipment mirrors an indoor gym with cross trainers, bikes, chest presses and lat pull downs. All the equipment is compliant with the indoor training standard EN957.

We have just launched our first Legacy Gym site in Kirklees,

Here at the Great Outdoor Gym Company, we want create a lasting sport and physical activity legacy for Britain. Our ambition is to get everyone more active by providing free and accesible gym facilities. With rising obesity levels and inactivity amongst older people the time is now to do this. The legacy gym ranges below create safe and inclusive outdoor gym spaces for the whole family.

This is low impact, resistance based equipment suitable for the whole family. You don’t have to be an Olympic athlete to benefit from it! Our gyms are for time-precious Mums and Dads, Grandparents and seniors with a-spring-in-their-step as well as younger members of the family too no matter what their ability. The Legacy gyms can even be used to create a playground for older people – see our recommended senior selection by clicking here.

Situated in a quiet serene leafy park, watch people using the gym on its opening day!