Final 2011 beach weekend is another big hit

SEPTEMBER's gloriously sunny weather was the perfect backdrop for the final Liberte Fitness Beach Weekend of the year at Holkham.
The beach weekends, held at the famous Norfolk beach, have been a real hit with Liberte members who are looking for a monthly summer treat to supplement their weekly park sessions.
The final weekend combined all the best bits of beach events held earlier in the summer - and next year they will be back and bigger than ever with hopefully a second location added.
For those who haven't been to one so far, make it a point of going to one in 2012. To give you a flavour of what they are like, Liberte members Alison Hall and Nikki Wright shared their views.
Alison, who usually works out in Nowton Park, Bury St Edmunds said: " The beach weekend was awesome. It was a good mix of training and nutritional advice plus a lot of good advice from Gareth about muscle groups and different types of training.
"Obviously there are some similarities to the park training sessions with regards to some exercises but you could not get a more contrasting landscape! It is an amazing place to train with the sand offering another level to the challenge.
"I loved every element of the weekend and met and made some fab new friends. The team games were brilliant fun and the running, while challening, was exhilarating.
"I couldn't fault the weekend apart from maybe it wasn't long enough and I didn't want it to end! My least favourite part was probably the yoga but only because I get so frustrated at being so inflexible! To sum up it was an awesome weekend spending time with great like minded folk soaking up loads of vitamin D. I left feeling revitalised, de-stressed and with an ache in my side from excessive laughter - I can't wait for 2012."
Nikki Wright, who is a regular at The Severals in Newmarket said: "It was fantastic, even better than before because Ed and I are fitter, our recovery from each section of exercises was much better, but it was good to be able to 'measure' that.
"I love the park sessions, especially at Bury St Edmunds as Newmarket is so flat and not so pretty! But the beach just rocks, especially if the sun is shining. Its good to train on sand, I feel it works you harder as the ground is even more uneven.
"I'm learning all the time from Paps, Gareth and Joe, the beach session just brings it home even more. Ed and I love the team games, but I especially love the yoga part, its very zen and ends the day(s) nicely."
So that's what two dedicated members think - if you 've never experienced the fun of doing Liberte on sand then make a date for 2012.

Life’s a beach for Liberte up at Incredible Holkham

Liberte Fitness’ first beach session was a resounding success on Saturday as Paps and Gareth took the training show on the road to Incredible Holkham.
Half a dozen fitness fans joined Liberte’s king and queen for a thrilling, fun, exhausting and Vitamin-D boosting day of beach antics.
I wasn’t really sure what to expect before the day – sure I knew that some of the exercises we use in the park would make an appearance – but could Gareth and Paps really stretch out the Liberte ethos over a whole day?
The good news is for those who weren’t there is that they did – with bells on.
Anyone who was there will testify that Liberte Beach Days are nothing like working out in the lush green parks of Bury St Edmunds, Newmarket and Norwich.
For a start, the change in terrain is instantly apparent – working out on sand is so different to working out on grass – of course, it’s all soft and makes for a soft landing, but there are hazards such as razor shells that you just don’t get in the park.
OK so the molehills and rabbit burrows weren’t a problem, but you really notice the wind on the beach which you don’t always get in the park. This is good, though, as sweat dries almost straight away and it really is embracing.
The other big difference is the colour – this may sound a bit strange, but replacing the greenery that provides a constant background to the Liberte workouts with miles of golden sand does take a little while to get used to.
So what of the day? Is it really just five or six Liberte sessions just tacked together? Well, no.
The day really did seem to evolve in segments, from an initial session focusing on abdominal work, to nutritional information, to the most gruelling sprinting sessions, to a taste of beach tabata, to Swedish handball. And that was all before lunch!
Gareth admitted that the sessions were devised to start tough and they certainly were. After a health breakfast of yoghurts, bananas and protein bars, we started with a range of exercises that made for a prolonged warm up.
It was really hard work in the sun, but it wasn’t just perspiration, we had education too, with dietary advice and information on what food we should be eating throughout the day and the reasons why we should be eating it.
I found this really interesting – and it does occur to you that the Liberte revolution is not simply confined to an hour of burpees and sit ups in the park. It really can be the start of an all round healthy lifestyle and, to be honest, after giving so much effort into doing the Liberte exercises, you feel you’re kind of cheating your body if you then start to pump it full of crap.
The initial session ended with Swedish handball which was great fun and extremely competitive (Martina never fails to amaze me with her determination!) and after a short break we went on a long jog down the sea. I’d never jogged for so long in my life without stopping, it was probably only six or seven minutes but it was tough running against the wind. I made sure I took time out to take in the beauty of Holkham, just as female horse rider rode through the shallow surf just metres away.
From then we started some sprints mixed with jogging. The key here was the recovery time. The sprint distances stayed roughly the same, but we had less time to recover – from around 90 seconds to start with, down to 60 and then down to 30.
The lesson here was to illustrate how different the body reacts to exercise – and it really did work. To start with it wasn’t too hard to sprint 30 metres every 90 seconds, but towards the end, we could do little more than break into a moderate jog!
Lunch was provided by celebrity chef Chris Coubrough and consisted of chicken, almonds, quinoa with a garlic dressing which gave us a perfect blast of protein.
After lunch was a yoga session which was new to me and I must admit I wasn’t that keen on, but the others seemed to love it. It was great seeing us all work out on the beach though and must have looked amazing to the bird watchers, walkers and dogs who gave us plenty of curious glances throughout the session!
Following a sports drink to boost protein, the day climaxed with some pairs boxing which was really tough, some team games, which included tug-of-war, something I haven’t done in 25 years, but which is fantastic (until you slip on the sand!) and some hilarious fire and manoeuvre drills - I'm just glad we ended up carrying little Bryony rather than King's Lynn beefcake Rory!
Big respect to Martina, Bryony, Janine, Rory and Georgie – you all helped to make the day and were all brilliant fun. Well done too to Gareth and Paps - I know that the Beach Days are the flagship of the Liberte brand and if the rest of them are only half as good as this, you’ll be on to a real winner.