I was lucky enough to spend a week in Rio de Janeiro with Swisse - the official vitamin choice of Team GB - soaking up Brazilian culture and the excitement of the 2016 Olympic Games.

The Olympic Games represent health, fitness and dedication like nothing else and it was incredible to feel a part of them when in Rio.

Of course, the Olympics only last a couple of weeks in August, and the Paralympics a couple of weeks in September 2016, so not everyone will have the opportunity to experience them when visiting Rio de Janiero. Thankfully, there are lots of other things you can do if you want to experience a fit, healthy and inspiring trip to Rio...

Your heart rate (HR) is a useful measure of your activity level and training intensity when exercising. When your exercise intensity increases, your heart rate also increases to match the increased rate of energy expenditure and oxygen uptake. 

Heart rate can be expressed as the absolute number of beats per minute (bpm) or as a percentage of your maximum heart rate (% HRmax). 

Knowing your heart rate in bpm at any point in time may not be a very useful measure on it’s own. So, to put it in context, it’s a good idea to have some ideas of where you sit across other heart rate measures...

As you will know if you have explored other articles on my blog, I am really interested in the topic of food intolerance.

Over a year ago, I discovered through a food intolerance test that I don’t tolerate milk well. My first food intolerance test through York Test gave me no more information than that. 

However, knowing that food intolerance testing of this kind tests intolerance to proteins in foods, and knowing that there are several types of milk protein, I went on a quest to find out more. 

My next food intolerance test (and the one that I would recommend to anyone) from CNS revealed my ‘milk’ intolerance to be to casein specifically. 

Since then, I haven’t generally consumed dairy products, and in particular, I have avoided buying and drinking cow’s milk.

Within the last month, I have bought and drunk cow’s milk again for the first time in at least a year. 

Read on to find out why I did this, as well as learn more about dairy intolerance and what’s really in the milk that we as a population consume so much of...

I started writing a fitness blog when I made the decision to study for a degree, and I thought that starting a blog would be a great way to get back into the habit of writing and having a project to work on. 

I had no idea that it would become so much more than that. 

I’m now celebrating four years of writing The Blonde Ethos. (And running a massive giveaway to mark the milestone.. Read on!) 

In those four years, The Blonde Ethos has evolved massively, from a place to document my own balanced lifestyle and discovery of various workouts and products, to what I hope you find to be a valuable resource for health, nutrition and training. 

I’m really passionate about learning as much as I can about healthy living, and really, really passionate about passing my knowledge on to you, to help you find the same drive to learn about and better your body as I am lucky to have done. 

I want to keep The Blonde Ethos authentic, honest and backed by science and experience. I also want to keep it evolving, so please let me know what you would love to see more (or less!) of!

Good health is achieved from the optimisation of the elements in the ‘health triangle’; a trinity of nutrition, training and sleep. While all of these elements work together, even the best training routine and nutrition programme cannot compensate for insufficient rest from good quality sleep.

Sleep duration and quality can affect many things, including muscle recovery and building, weight loss and maintenance, hormone levels that influence your overall health, athletic performance, and cognition. 

So, here's what you need to know about sleep, as well as a definitive list of all the ways (according to both sceience and my own experience) that you can induce and improve your sleep.
 

I love the concept of heart rate training (more on that coming soon!) and since I tried Orangetheory last year, I’ve been on the look out for more fitness studios that offer heart rate training.

One such place is Speedflex. However, while I was drawn to this studio by my fascination with heart rate monitoring, I found that Speedflex had some far more unique qualities to be discovered...

It’s no secret that I’m fascinated by health monitoring and the increasingly amazing options for tracking our health and fitness that are coming about thanks to new tech.

Over two and a half years ago, I watched an episode of BBC Horizon called Monitor Me, which I think was a cataylst for my curiosity.

Since then, I have tried things like tracking my nutrient intake with MyFitnessPal and recording my activity and workouts with fitness trackers, but as I mentioned in my article on wearable tech, I struggle to find the value in using any devices over an extended period of time.

I think part of the reason that I was so fascinated by Monitor Me, was that everyone featured on the show was recording their data for really specific purposes; they knew what they were looking for in their data and they had a specific outcome in mind, be it weight-loss or better sporting performance. Plus, they were working with professionals in their field.

This kind of structure is something that I’ve lacked so far when toying with health and fitness tech, simply because I haven’t needed it.

Now, that has changed.

I’ve pushed my interest a little further and got involved with a clinical trial to see if self-monitoring can have a direct, positive effect on health.

There are a lot of collagen products appearing on the market within joint supplement formulations as well as supplements that come with the promise of younger looking skin. The latter especially appears in many perfectly-packaged forms from drinks to jellies.

I was intrigued as to whether there was any difference between the supplements on offer, in format, dosage and price. Most importantly though, I wanted to look into the evidence base to find out whether I could expect them to really work.

So, here's everything that I think you should know about collagen, plus reviews of some of your best supplement options

I’m super fascinated by health monitoring. I love the quantified self movement. I love that there is an ever evolving arm of science and technology that can help us to get a better handle on the state of our health.

Yet, I’ve never been enamoured by fitness trackers.

In fact, I would go as far as to say I am sick of fitness trackers, having acquired and forgotten about at least half a dozen already. 

When I find heard that DNA fitness and diet testing had emerged on the consumer market, I was 100% fascinated. I loved the concept of a plan based on my unique DNA. 

As you will likely have read, I have taken tests based on blood samples, but unlike DNA, these are fluid and changeable, where your DNA is fixed. I like this idea and it made me think that DNA testing could be more useful in the long-term. 

I was keen to know what my DNA could tell me, and whether it could help me further improve my health through fitness and diet. 

Has this feeling stuck around after speaking to some experts and trying a couple of DNA fitness tests for myself? Read on to find out...

My biggest question with compression clothing is always ‘what qualifies it to be labelled as a compression garment?’. The word ‘compression’ seems to get thrown around a lot in the activewear market and I always wonder quite how justified its use is. 

The problem is, there doesn’t seem to be any definitive answer to this question. So, being ever curious, I’ve spoken with brands, analysed product labels and descriptions, trawled through a number of research journals and scoured patents to try and find an answer myself.

I feel it’s so easy for people to be misled by brands referring to their products as compression garments, when the product is no more technical and has no more R+D behind it than a standard pair of running tights. 

So, I am urging you to question where you spend your money, and what your sportswear can actually do to help you improve. Whether you’re a bodybuilder, runner, cyclist or gymnast, here’s what you need to know:

We are becoming so much more aware of what we put into our bodies. We’re eating clean and using natural skincare. Yet, many of us are pumping ourselves full of synthetic hormones.

Hormones are chemical messengers that coordinate complex processes from growth and metabolism, to fertility. Your body relies on them completely to maintain a healthy, natural balance. 

Most contraceptive methods involve exposing your body to synthetic hormones through a tablet or some kind of implant. There are different hormones that can be used either alone, or in combination, to disrupt your natural hormonal balance to make you temporarily infertile.

Your period is a window into your health. Issues like your period disappearing (amenorrhea) or experiencing symptoms usually dismissed as 'pre-menstrual syndrome' can actually be indicators of your health on a wider scale. By masking these insights, you might even be putting your body at risk.

I’ve been taking ZMA supplements for a while now and would consider it to be one of the essentials within my regular stack of supplements.

If you want improved sleep and better muscle recovery, as well as a range of other benefits, you might like to try it too.

Zinc and magnesium are critical minerals that can be hard to achieve optimal doses of in a typical diet. ZMA is a really simple and effective way to ensure that you consume effective amounts of both.