Surviving A Night Out On Killer Heels!

It’s Christmas party season and for the girls out there that means digging out the little party dress and the high heels and can mean coming to visit us at the studio with knee, ankle or lower back pain.

High heels may look great on but the damage they can do to your posture, lower back and lower limbs is pretty scary. The heels shift the position of your hips causing them to tilt forward put extra pressure on the muscles of your lower back and tightening the calves, the Achilles tendon, the hip flexors and the muscles and fascia of your feet.

But fear not! We are here to help you look fantastic at your Christmas party without the painful side effects…

Here is your High Heel Survival Stretch Programme!








The Arch Stretch
Wearing heels causes the muscles in the foot to shorten and tighten.
Applying downwards pressure whilst you roll the golfball along the foot can help to stretch out those tight muscles and release any knots that have formed.
It may hurt a bit but it’s worth it, a bit like wearing your heels!




Hip Flexor Stretch
Place knee on floor with the other foot out to the front. Tuck the hips forward, squeeze the buttocks and feel the stretch through the top of the thigh and into the hips.

Hold each stretch for about 20 seconds x 1-2 per day









Calf Stretch
Stand on the edge of a step.
Drop your heel toward the floor off the step, keeping the legs straight
Hold for about 20 seconds or until the tension eases off.


This simple programme will take you two minutes to complete but will relieve the painful effects of wearing high heels - I follow this all of the time and happily totter around in my heals on a Saturday night!!

Do Premier League Football Players Need Personal Trainers?

David Osgathorp investigates the recent injuries to Owen Hargreaves, the approach to rehab training and asks the question; Will Hargreaves play again?

Having gone through a number of knee injuries at a young age which resulted in me giving up competitive sport I always take an interest in players recovering from injury.

I was really pleased to see Owen Hargreaves back in the Manchester United starting line up 777 days after his previous start – a lucky omen possibly? Unfortunately that wasn’t to be and Hargreaves come-back appearance lasted just five minutes!
What was the reason? This is a guy that plays for Manchester United and England; he’s gone through the best possible exercise rehabilitation over the last few years. He plays for Sir Alex Ferguson who never risks any of his players unless he’s 100% confident that they are match fit and able to add something different to his star-studded team.

Hargreaves cost Manchester United £19million from Bayern Munich in 2007 and was England’s best player by a long way at 2006 World cup but over the last two years Hargreaves has spent his time competing on treadmill’s and with dumbbells and United’s Carrington training ground rather than getting stuck in to United’s opponents at Old Trafford. One of the fundamental principles of training is called Specific Adaption to Imposed Demand (SAID). That means if you want to get fit for football you need to play football, the only thing you get better at lifting dumbbells is lifting dumbbells!

His fitness programme will have been designed in this way with his specific needs in mind. Training would have included specific leg strengthening exercises, core conditioning, and specific stretch and post-training recovery techniques before going anywhere near the first team squad.

This isn’t your typical player recovering from injury though, apparently he was told by Richard Steadman, the Colorado based surgeon that his knees were in a worse state than any other professional footballer he had examined in 35 years! Which begs the question will he ever be able to compete at the top level again and will his knees be able to stand a full 90 minutes let alone a full premiership season?

Perhaps United need to look at a similar arrangement to the one Tottenham have with Ledley King, the captain who doesn’t train and instead, is wrapped in cotton wool between matches. The performances King has delivered for Spurs, and in particular during their march towards fourth place at the end of last season certainly warrant that approach.

What can be done?

In my opinion the main issue with football teams is that they don’t give players the one to one training they really need. They spend millions of pounds on acquiring players but very little or no investment in training them to their specific needs.
Hargreaves has spent the last two years working with the physiotherapy team and strength and conditioning specialists at Old Trafford to get him back to “match fitness”. He then joins up with the first team where they all work in the same way. All players warm up together in the same way, they all stretch in the same way, they all throw a few weights around the gym in the same way which is fine for 80% of all professional players but extremely detrimental to players coming back from long term injuries.

Hamstring injuries are very common amongst footballers. The hamstring muscles act as the brakes for a player when they change pace or direction on the pitch. Every footballer will stretch their hamstrings during a pre match warm-up. This is great from most people but for some players it can cause more issues.
If a player has developed long weak hamstrings and you then stretch these even further you’re only going to cause more problems. Hargreaves hasn’t played for two years, there’s a very strong possibility that his hamstrings are probably not the strongest!

Hargreaves is desperate to play again, United are desperate to get something out of their £19 million investment before he inevitably moves on or retires at the end of his contract but the truth is unless they take an individual approach to Hargreaves training he will probably never complete a full 90 minute session again.

Football is a team game, players want to play, if they can’t play they want to train together. They all need to be involved in the training ground banter and to feel part of a unit. Hargreaves has been on a painful and lonely journey over the last two years and it is understandable that for his own mental state he wants to back involved with the first team squad but I honestly believe that if he wants to play first team football again he needs to look at creating a unique training programme that works for him.

Homeopathy at All About You

We are always looking for ways to improve the service we deliver to our clients at All About You and we are pleased to announce that Louise Robinson has recently joined the team to offer homeopathy treatments.

Louise has kindly written an article for our blog and will also be delivering a free talk at the studio next Thursday 11th November 7:30pm - 8:30pm.

Why not try homeopathic remedies as an alternative treatment for seasonal bugs?

The damp and drizzle of a typically British autumn is well and truly upon us and as always there are an ever increasing number of seasonal bugs about!

Many people look for alternatives to conventional drugs to combat flu and other seasonal bugs. Parents have also become increasingly concerned about giving their children medications such as paracetamol and cough medicines, especially as increasing number of over-the-counter medications have become off limits for children.

Homeopathy is a system of medicine which is based on treating the individual with remedies that trigger the body’s natural system of healing. Remedies are prescribed on an individual’s experience of their symptoms, matching the most appropriate medicine to the patient.
Homeopathic medicines, known as remedies, are non-toxic and safe for use in babies and children, and research has shown that homeopathic remedies can be effective in the treatment of people with respiratory tract infections, otitis media infection and inflammation of the middle ear – commonly referred to as an ear infection and sinusitis.
Recurrent coughs and infections should been seen by a professional homeopath but homeopathic remedies can be used at home in acute short-lived conditions *. Many remedies, available over the counter, can be useful for treating many winter ailments and each has their own particular characteristics.
Homeopathic remedies commonly used in winter illnesses include:

Gelsemium: the number one homeopathic “flu” remedy! Symptoms are slow to come on, where there is much heaviness and drooping, fatigue, clammy skin, flushes of hot and cold, dizziness and congestion.

Belladonna: indicated where the symptoms have come on suddenly and there is heat, throbbing and pain, irritability, and symptoms worse from jarring. Children can be obstinate and may bite or hit.

Pulsatilla: has blocked painful sinuses, sticky mucus, patient feels better in the fresh air and has a changeable, clingy, tearful mood. Children will want to be carried.

Bryonia: the symptoms are slow to come on, there is much dryness and pains are worse from even the slightest movement. Firm pressure on the affected area is helpful. They are irritable and want to be left alone. Children may reject what they have just asked for.

Phosphorus: this is a hacking, tickling cough, often with sweating. The patient is worse at night and might ask for icy drinks or ice cream, which may be vomited up immediately. They may be hoarse and are better for affection and massage and worse for cold air.

Rhus tox: slow onset with high temperature and great restlessness, constantly changing position, muscles stiff and painful. Any draft or cold air will aggravate. There is a feeling of heat inside, but skin is cold to the touch. There is a desire to sip water.

Nux Vomica: throat feels rough and scraped, extending into the ear, with constricted feeling and hoarseness. Heavy feeling in stomach with nausea and vomiting. This patient is irritable and cannot bear noises, light or odours.


* Any ongoing health concerns should be discussed with a GP.

Come and hear more about how homeopathy could help you!

Louise Robinson and Melanie Tomsett from LM Homeopathy will be at All About You to talk about the benefits of Homeopathy and offer advice on any particular family health concerns on

Thursday 11th November 2010 from 7.30pm – 8.30pm

All About You Performance and Wellbeing, 3 Broadbent Close, Highgate, London N6 5JW


As numbers are limited please call to book your free place for the evening.

Contact

Louise Robinson BSc (Hons) LCHE RSHom

Tel: 07502 024 421

Email: louise@lmhomeopathy.com
www.lmhomeopathy.com

Walk away that waistline

Walk away that waistline!

By James Hutchison

Ever since the late 1970’s when Jim Fixx’s best selling book “The complete book of running”, hit the shelves, jogging and running has been seen by many as the best form of exercise (despite the author dropping dead a few years later whilst on his morning run), especially for weight loss. There is no doubt that running is a very effective form of aerobic exercise, which in turn can promote many health benefits to the runner. It is also true that most sports such as football, rugby, tennis etc. all require some level of running ability, be it short sharp sprints or a more endurance based jog.

However, in my experience as a health and fitness professional most of the clients I meet rarely play competitive sport (if they did I would base their programmes towards sports specific exercises anyway) and a high percentage feel sick at the thought of spending hours pounding away on the treadmill. There are also a significant amount of people who would be advised not to run due to knee, hip, ankle injury or general obesity issues. So it is safe to say that running isn’t for everyone.

The good news is that there are other ways of improving your physical fitness and losing weight. Walking is often the most under- rated activity when it comes to weight loss due to the perception that it is easy and ineffective. However, a brisk walk (getting slightly out of breath, not a poodle around the shops) for 30 minutes per day for an 80kg individual can burn approximately 1400 calories per week, this same walking rate for a 60kg individual would burn around 1100 calories per week.

So if you multiply this over the year it can burn up to 75,000 calories (for an 80kg individual) or 56,000 calories (for a 60kg individual), or to look it another way 21 lbs or 16 lbs of fat respectively. These statistics clearly show that an achievable target of a 30 minute brisk walk per day can be an effective weight loss tool, if accompanied by an adequate nutrition plan.

Another advantage that walking has over running is that it doesn’t have a counter productive effect to resistance training. One of the most efficient ways of losing weight and burning fat is too build lean muscle tissue. Building muscle mass not only makes the body more aesthetically pleasing, but makes the body more metabolically active which in turn burns fat more efficiently.

If an individual is attempting to build lean mass in the gym but then going for a long run the next day there is a high chance that the new muscle tissue is being broken down in this process. This would not happen during a brisk 30 minute walk as the body is not pushed to the same limits, in fact it has been shown that brisk walking itself can raise the bodies metabolic rate.


Starting your walking programme

 Get yourself a pedometer. A pedometer is a device that clips onto your waistband and counts how many steps you have taken. This handy piece of kit can act as a motivational tool as it allows you to keep an accurate record of how far you are walking each day, which can then be used to set progress targets. A 30 minute brisk walk will take approximately 3600 steps. You can buy a pedometer for around £10 from www.proactive-health.co.uk

 Get yourself some comfortable shoes. Walking for 30 minutes everyday is not a huge burden on an individual’s timetable, but if this walk was causing sore and blistering feet it would not take too long before 30 minutes in front of the television is a far more tempting use of time. So I recommend either some comfortable trainers, or some walking shoes. Check out these links for some ideas; www.sweatshop.co.uk or www.blacks.co.uk

 Find somewhere interesting to walk. There is a greater chance of you sticking to your new walking regime if you find interesting walks to go on. These do not have to be in rolling countryside or in areas of outstanding natural beauty, but it is easy to search online or go down to the local town hall to find information on walks in your local area. I am lucky enough to be based in the Highgate and Hampstead area in North London where there are hours of walks on the Heath. Check out www.innerlondonramblers.org.uk/walk-hampstead-health.html for more information.

So all that is left for you to do is to get yourself outside, start walking and get burn that excess fat. Remember though, every effective exercise programme should be accompanied by an adequate nutrition programme, this does not mean starving yourself or surviving on powdered foods or milkshakes, it means a diet that provides an optimum amount of nutritional value whilst at the same time promotes a slow and steady weight loss (or weight gain or maintenance depending on the individual dieter). For more information how to plan effective weight management programme contact me at the studio on james@aayou.co.uk .

Good luck!!

Reduce the stress and reduce the fat!

Cortisol is your body's primary stress hormone and is responsible for, among other things, the 'fight or flight' response that you've heard so much about.

It works this way; when a stressor affects you in day to day life, such as being cut up in traffic, arguing with a spouse, being under a tough deadline or being chased by a wild tiger, your adrenal glands on your kidneys secrete cortisol directly into the bloodstream where it causes us to release amino acids from our muscles, glucose from the liver and fatty acids from our fat cells into the bloodstream for use as 'emergency fuel' to help us fight or flee.


This would normally be fine, especially if those stressors are few and far between but that's not the case for most of us. Most people live in a continual state of stress where cortisol is being released time and time and time again leading to permanently elevated cortisol both in the bloodstream and in the cells themselves.

The trouble is, whilst short exposures of cortisol are useful and can be beneficial, long term they're incredibly destructive leading to:

- Increased appetite and food cravings
- Decreases in lean muscle mass
- Increased Anxiety and Depression
- Decreased libido
- Increase of PMS symptoms
- Increase in menopausal side-effects
- INCREASE IN BODY FAT


And the cortisol released will be stored primarily on your belly!


This means that if you're carrying any excess fat in your abdominal region that's stubborn to shift, you're more than likely to have chronically elevated cortisol causing the problem. It may not have anything to do with the total number of calories you're eating.


How do you reduce it?

Well, there are numerous ways in which we can re-establish normal cortisol levels in the body and start burning fat but the best are simply 'natural cures' that can be applied almost immediately and with very little expense.

In fact, the first one is absolutely free!

It's called SLEEP.

That's right; sleep is one of the most important factors in cortisol control as a lack of both quality and quantity of sleep leads to elevated cortisol and a depression of other important metabolic hormones. Fail to get enough sleep and at the right time and you'll be doomed to struggling with your body fat forever. Conversely, make even a few moderate sleep habit changes over the next few days and you'll start to see the fat shift.

Because cortisol is related to sleep and wake cycles and is triggered by light, you should aim to spend the last few hours before bed in a dimmed or dark room and aim to be in bed by 10pm and sleeping by 10.30pm.

It sounds too early, I know. Especially with late night TV and those emails you have to do before bed but hey, your hormones don't know about TV and email, they know stress. You want to lose fat? Then get to bed! In fact, bright TV's and bright computer screens are the last thing you want just before you hit the hay. They keep your cortisol pumping through both the light they emit and the potential for stress they evoke

Try identifying high-stress situations in advance and working out coping strategies to deal with them as they arise. Add exercise (though minimise aerobic exercise which releases more cortisol) and relaxation techniques and eat a clean and healthy diet and your cortisol levels will soon come under control.

Once they do you'll see the fat disappear faster than easier and with far less effort than ever before.

Start by getting some
good sleep for just 7 nights and see what happens.

Running Technique and It’s Importance in Avoiding Injury

Our new trainer Daniel Humphries has put together an article to assist you in your training for the Highgate 5K run, hopefully it helps.

Running to some people is not the most enjoyable form of exercise, me included, but it is important to consider a number of different factors when running. One of which has become more prevalent to elite sport-persons and the recreational runner is technique and the biomechanics of running.

The efficiency of your movement, will aid your ability to run and more importantly your ability to avoid injury. Elite athletes like sprinter Usain Bolt through to long distance runner Haile Gabrselassie have spent of lot time correcting their running techniques to make sure their body moves in the most efficient way to make them the best. Running technique or style can be described as the overall action of the body including body angle, arm swing, foot placement, rear leg lift and length of stride.

How Are We Causing Ourselves Injuries By Running Badly?

As we get older it becomes more and more important to consider our technique as we become more susceptible to repetitive strain injuries in our lower limbs. Our body’s ability to work as a shock absorber decreases with age, therefore the body is under greater stress particularly at our joints in our latter years.

Injuries to elite athletes are inevitable also to the recreational runner. Mike Antoniades a speed, conditioning and rehabilitation coach highlights some of the most common reasons for getting running injuries:

• Bouncing up and down too much
• Over striding
• Not using the hamstrings enough
• Landing on feet too heavily
• Breaking action on landing
• Not using arms
• Twist torso side to side while running
• The head and upper body are bent forward
• Jogging slower than they can walk

Other factors that may cause injury outside of technique can be:

• Structural weakness that individual athletes are born with, e.g. Leg length discrepancies and pronation.
• Postural weakness developed through training.
• Poor running surfaces.
• Muscle imbalance developed through training.
• Worn out running shoes and/or spikes, or, a change of shoe brand.
• Overtraining and/or lack of sufficient recovery.
• Chronic repetitions on hard, artificial running surfaces.

Most of these factors as trainers and participants we have control over and can make reasonable adjustments to our training to avoid the potential for injury. If we become biomechanically inefficient we are doing damage to ourselves and also not running effectively.

How You Probably Run Now!

There are a number of different techniques widely used by sport and fitness professionals. The most common being the heel-toe action. The heel-toe action is when the foot lands on the heel, rolls through the foot and pushes off the toes. This action is applied on the grounds of it being safe and efficient yet the neither is true. On closer examination, lower limb injuries have remained constant in runners for the past 30 years, this despite innovations in shoe technology.

If you are running with your heel hitting the floor first with the sole of your foot pointing upwards you are creating a massive amount of force through your body. The greater the speed you are running at, the greater the angle the foot is at, the greater the force generated. Running trainers are usually designed to take this into account and have highly cushioned heels. This design has been found to very inefficient and also work against the normal muscle and tendon functions particularly in the ankle.

On the opposite end is runners with a toe strike action. This is where first contact with the floor is made by the ball of your foot. This has a much longer stride with the leg generating a lot more speed and power through the calves in particular. This has a lot lower impact on the legs particularly at the ankle and knee joints. It is more common to see this technique to be used by sprinters or short distance runners. It is good for beginners to use this technique due to this lower impact and this allows for the muscle to fire in the appropriate order.

So How Should We Be Running?

One proposal for the correct running style is that of the Pose running style. This the medium between the two previous styles talked about. This is where the runner lands with a mid-foot strike pattern and a flexed knee stance with the torso leaning forwards slightly. There should be a vertical alignment from the hips through the knee to the heel in the supporting leg. Pose running has a much shorter stride length with more emphasis going into using gravity to generate power in the stride. This then generates less force through the heel, ankle, knee and hip joints. This technique is less likely to cause common running injuries like Achilles tendinitis, shin splints and calf injuries. This is due to the better shock absorption in the technique but also because the muscles are being used in a similar fashion to that of when you are walking.

If you need some help with your running style, just want to start exercising, or would like more information on what we do at All About You, then feel free to contact us at the studio - 020 8348 9706 or via email david@aayou.co.uk





(1) ARDENSE, R (2004) Reduced Eccentric Loading of the Knee with the Pose Running Method Reduced Eccentric Loading of the Knee with the Pose Running Method, Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise: Volume 36(2) February 2004 pp 272-277 [Accessed] http://www.posetech.com/library/dr-02-04-004.html


(2) SICCO A. BUS (2008) Ground Reaction Forces and Kinematics in
Distance Running in Older-Aged Men. Applied Science: Biodynamics. [Accessed] http://faculty.fullerton.edu/gnoffal/Courses/561%20Course/GRF%20running%20-%20Bus.pdf

(3) ANTONIADES, M (2009) Are You Running Properly? [Accessed] http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/health_and_fitness/4286146.stm

(4) BALK, M et al. (2009) Master the Art of Running: Raise Your Performance. Anova Books


(5) ENGLEBRACHT, R (1994) Injuries, Biomechanics and the Implications for the Coach. [Accessed] http://www.athleticscoaching.ca/UserFiles/File/Sport%20Science/Therapy,%20Recovery,%20&%20Restoration/Engelbrecht%20Injuries,%20Biomechanics%20&%20the%20Implications%20for%20The%20Coach.pdf

Why failure is what most dieters experience.

James Hutchison, senior trainer at the studio and in his final year of a Psychology degree has sent me this great article on why dieting won't work - have a read and leave us your comments...


The obesity epidemic is fast becoming a crisis in the United Kingdom. The term clinically obese is defined as, “a body mass index of 30 kg/m² or greater,” 1. In fact the NHS released statistics in 2009 that claimed 24% of adults in England were clinically obese, an increase of 15% since 1993 2.

This same report shows there is a 14% increase in raised waist circumference in adults across the same time scale. More alarming figures were released this summer by top market researchers Mintel showing that almost a quarter of women in the UK are wearing size 18 clothes or over 3, that equates to approximately 6.2 million people. So with obesity problems like this it is no surprise that the diet industry is big business. There are no official statistics for the amount of money spent on the UK diet industry, but estimates in the US quote figures of between $40-$100 billion 4. So for the industry to be making this kind of revenue they expect one thing, your failure.

If every person who put themselves on the (place generic diet brand here) diet actually kept the weight off, then there would be no need to sell the memberships, promote the books or champion the powders and potions that bring this miraculous weight loss.

Speaking as someone who has worked in the Health and Fitness industry for over ten years I can honestly say the clients of mine who have successfully lost weight and kept it off are those who do two things; first of all they work hard in raising their exercise levels, not only in the gym or in personal training sessions, but overall in their lifestyle. This could be exercising outside of the gym by taking up a sport, or just walking more often or cycling with the kids. Secondly, and most importantly they adopt a sensible balanced diet, which provides adequate nutrition and calorie intake to sustain their daily activities, but a regime that they can stick to without falling off the wagon every week due to treat deprived binges.

So, if the solution is so simple, why do so many dieters fail? I am going to answer this question from a psychological perspective rather than in the more traditional nutritional (regulate your blood sugar) sense. It would be common sense to assume that if a persons attitude towards a behaviour, lets say their attitude towards eating healthier, was positive, then they are likely to participate in that behaviour. However, it was shown years ago that the correlation between attitude and behaviour was as low as 0.30 5 (1 being a perfect correlation).

Over the years their have been many academic studies into attitude and behaviour change, one of the most significant was proposed by Ajzen & Fishbein; the theory of planned behaviour 6. This model has shown (with empirical evidence) that a person’s actions can be predicted accurately using knowledge of their attitudes towards the behaviour, subjective norms about the behaviour and perceived behavioural control. What this means when related to a person wishing to diet is their behaviour can be predicted more accurately by knowing their attitude towards dieting, what they believe other people will think of them if they do or do not diet, do they believe they can succeed if they diet and most importantly do they show intention to change.

Another theory has grown out of this model, mainly focusing on peoples intention to change. Gollwitzer has proposed the idea of Implementation Intentions 7, and has good empirical support to back it up, such as Sheeren & Orbell (2000) 8. The concept of Implementation Intentions can be summed up as plans to participate in a behaviour that a person will need to perform to achieve a goal. The implementation intentions will specify when, where and how the behaviours will be achieved, this will not just provide the person to time to evaluate their goals and think practically how to achieve them but also provides an emotional and psychological contract that they have signed.

So, my advice to those who are thinking of dieting is to look at the situation from a psychological perspective. Make sure before you go ahead with the latest fad diet in a glossy magazine that you choose an eating regime you believe you can stick to. Then take time to write down when you are going to start, where it is going to happen (such as more home cooked meals, avoiding certain restaurants, spending more time at the gym), and most importantly, how you are going to achieve this.

It is important to prepare meal plans and give yourself 3 or 4 small goals each week, such as drink more water, cut out chocolate, reduce salt intake etc. It is also so important to have this Implementation Intention on paper, if it is sitting as a word document on your lap top you are not going to see it. Print it out, put it up on the fridge or somewhere where you and those around you will see it regularly, and make sure you add your signature to it. If you do these small but significant tasks, it will greatly increase your chances of achieving your goals and avoiding the gut wrenching guilt of previous failures. Good luck!

For more information about the psychological perspective of weight loss and exercise goals, I will be holding a seminar at the studio in the near future. So please join the mailing list on the website www.aayou.co.uk to be kept up to date.

For more information on how to choose a nutrition plan that suits you, please browse the website or contact the studio on 0208 3489706 to book a consultation with one of our nutrition experts.

References
1: Smolin, L., & Grosvenor, M. (2003). Nutrition Science and Applications (4th Ed.) USA: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
2: Statistics on Obesity, Physical Activity and Diet: England, February 2009. Retrieved 18 August, 2010 from http://www.ic.nhs.uk/statistics-and-data-collections/health-and-lifestyles/obesity/statistics-on-obesity-physical-activity-and-diet:england-february-2009
3: Mintel Press release on UK dress sizes: England, August 2010. Retrieved 18 August 2010, from http://www.mintel.com/press-centre/press-releases/587/size-matters-a-quarter-of-uk-women-now-size-18-or-above
4: The diet business: Banking on failure: England, February 2003. Retrieved 18 August, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2725943.stm
5: Wicker, A.W. (1969). Attitudes versus actions. Cited in; Hogg, M,A. & Vaughan, G,M. (2005/2008). Social Psychology (5th ed.). Harlow: Prentice Hall

6: Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behaviour: cited in; Hewstone, M., Stroebe, W., & Jonas, K. (2008). Introduction to Social Psychology a European Perspective (4th ed). UK: Blackwell Publishers Ltd.

7. Gollwitzer, P.M. (1999). Implementation Intentions: Strong effects of simple plans. Cited in; Hewstone, M., Stroebe, W., & Jonas, K. (2008). Introduction to Social Psychology a European Perspective (4th ed). UK: Blackwell Publishers Ltd.

8. Sheeran, P., & Orbell, S. (2000). Using implementation Intentions to increase attendance for cervical cancer screening. Health Psychology, 19, 283-289.