This week we are focusing on your upper body strength.  You may ask why you need to do exercises that give you a strong upper body but modern living, with assisted power on most domestic appliances, and even having power steering on most cars, means we use our upper body muscles far less than we used to. 
 

Many of us think we are doing enough activity by walking regularly, maybe adding a bit of swimming and even the occasional bike ride. It is true that your cardiovascular system will be well maintained and improved if you work hard enough and all that walking will ensure you have reasonable leg strength. 

That’s great, but imagine this:

You have just slipped outside the supermarket and ended up prostrate on the ground. Suddenly you realise that without a lot of help from several people rushing to your aid, you could not have managed to get back up again!  Why? Because your 'pushing' muscles of the chest and the back of the arms have, over time, become very weak. Or maybe you go to pick something up that is heavier than usual and you drop it mid-flow. That would be because your 'carrying' muscles of the shoulders and front of arms are very weak.

So, what can we do?  We need to adopt a whole-body approach to build and maintain our strength to enable us to keep up a good level of muscle-power for our everyday activities.

This week, let's test how strong your bicep muscle is (front of arm) as an indicator of upper body strength. 

Find a buddy to time you for 30 seconds as you take the test and then compare your result with the norms according to your age (see table below).  If you find you are below average then you need to follow the upper body exercises from weeks 1 - 4 of The 28-Day Immunity Plan Exercises, particularly the Shoulder Strengthener and the Press Ups to give you valuable exercises that will improve your upper body strength or for more of a challenging workout do the  Advanced Whole Body Strength Programme.  The second and fifth exercises offer a really great strength workout for your upper body.

This recipe originates from my Step-By-Step Low-Fat Cookbook published in 2005 which featured recipes created by Chef Dean Simpole-Clarke. Here we have updated the recipe to include kale in place of spinach which was used in the original recipe.

Baked Smoked Haddock with Kale, Tomato & Ginger

Serves 4
Per serving 191 calories 2g fat
Prep time 25 mins
Cooking time 35 minutes
 

Ingredients

3 baby leeks, finely chopped
150ml (1⁄4 pint) dry white wine
2 x 400g cans chopped tomatoes
1 x 2.5cm (1in) piece ginger, finely chopped (or 1teaspoon EasyGinger)
2 tsps vegetable bouillon stock powder
250g (8oz) fresh kale (or spinach)
4 smoked haddock fillets

1. Preheat the oven to 180C, 350F, Gas Mark 4.

2. Preheat a non-stick pan and spray with Fry Light rapeseed oil. Add the chopped leeks and dry-fry until soft. Add the wine, tomatoes, ginger and stock powder and simmer gently for 15 minutes until the sauce has reduced.

3. Chop the kale (or spinach) and place in the bottom of an ovenproof dish. Season the fish on both sides with black pepper and place on top of the kale/spinach.

4. Pour the sauce over the fish and cover with a piece of greaseproof paper.

5. Bake in the oven for 6–8 minutes until firm but not overcooked.

The simple and versatile tomato sauce used here is very low in fat. It is ideal for coating oven-baked fish or to use as a topping sauce for pasta.