Steve Haywood Health & Fitness

Steve Haywood is a qualified Personal Trainer (Member of the Register of Exercise Professionals No. R0035374) who took to personal training following a life-long love of walking and competitive running. Steve Haywood is a member of Otley AC & Wetherby AC and works at an NHS gym designed to aid drug rehabilitation.

The first things that need to be understood are the names used by instructors. One of any exercise eg one press up, is called a repetition. A multiple of an exercise eg 12 press ups, is called a set. So if you are instructed to do one set of 12 repetitions it would look like [...]

Walking is arguably the most natural thing we do, and we have been bipeds for tens of thousands of years. However, as most of us are aware, the modern world has gradually reduced the amount we walk. Transport, especially cars, mean that even on the shortest of journeys people have ceased to walk. Recognising this [...]

About a month ago I decided to enter this years Great North run and raise money for Candlelighters. This meant altering my mind set from leisurely jogging to a more constructive training programme, one that would get me round the half marathon in a reasonable time. I knew I would have to step up my [...]

I recently wrote an article about nature’s high. This was about how exercise can secrete feel-good chemistry in your body with even mild exercise. This is part of achieving what I have called “the positive cycle”. When training people and giving advice about exercise I believe it is a good method to give imagery to [...]

I have a confession to make, I have been on drugs for a very long time. Are you shocked? Well I’m not because until recently I didn’t even know and this article touches on why. Although research is continuing as you read this, it is increasingly accepted that exercise secretes more of natural substances in [...]

My work has recently brought me into contact with people in their late teens and early twenties. Speaking with them in general about their health I was surprised how many of them smoked, it was a good 80% of this particular group of adults. This has prompted me to write this article, firstly with some [...]

Up and down the country in various parks there is something going on every Saturday morning at 9am which I would recommend you take a look at, even better join in – ParkRun. My park is Hyde Park in Leeds and the event in every park is a 5k race or time trial or whatever [...]

I have trained and advised people regarding their running for some time now. For people looking to start running for the first time or for those who have just started there are always lots of questions and one of the most fundamental to crop up is “How do I train?” This may seem simplistic but [...]

I have been struggling with a right Achilles tendon problem for some years now which severely curtailed my training last year in particular. However, after some physio treatment and advice and an ongoing sports massage programme I have started to build my training and mileage up again, very tentatively. My wonderful Garmin is friend and [...]

In the sixties there was a band called the Swinging Blue Jeans who sang a song called “The Hippy Hippy Shake” which was also sung by the Beatles. This was during the era of flower power and the advent of the Hippy movement, which was based on a return and respect for nature (there are [...]