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Thursday, 9th February

To continue about the importance of a strong healthy heart, its vital you start with a proper foundation in order to create it in the first place.

Number one is you need to exercise regularly and in general stay active.

Number two is you need to eat healthy at regular intervals, and in sensible portions.

Number three is that you need to avoid excess alcohol. Drinking a few times a week will especially put great strain on your heart, as well as other vital organs.

Number four is to avoid smoking, if you smoke you are doing the single most destructive thing against your body. You are destroying cells, ageing your body throughout and putting amazing strain on your most important muscle.

Number five is to try and cut down on stress. If you have a lot of worry in your life, self-induced or otherwise, you are putting strain eventually on your heart. It is no coincidence that exercise and eating well are the best for combating this stress.

Number six is sleep well. Sleep deprivation can literally affect everything you do. Hate to be like a broken record but all of the above helps you sleep better!

Number seven is stay positive. Being positive about life can be one of your best habits to develop, negative people are usually full of stress and never actually do anything for the greater good. If you stay positive, then you tend to take action and approach life in an optimistic way, one of the secrets of quality of life especially in old age research has shown.

Number eight is to show consistency in all of these keys to having a successful strong and healthy heart, don’t be a “flash in the pan” when it comes to your health or let a doctor tell you all of this when its too late. If you practice these most of the time, then you will reap huge benefits!!

Twitt
Posted on

Wednesday, 8th February

There’s not many better investments you can making a great effort to adopt an exercise programme.

Perhaps the most vital part of that programme will give you the huge benefit of a healthy and strong heart.

Try and get your resting heart rate measured at the start of your programme.

Then try and measure it periodically, to see if you are making progress or not.

If it isn’t coming down at all over a period of say 2-3 months, then you seriously need to consider what the heck you are doing with your programme, and if it is working for you or not!

I have seen quite a few individuals start off with me with heart rates over 100 beats per minute, and most of them now are in the 50’s or 60’s with a properly executed programme.

For your general information, the average resting heart rate for a healthy individual and im talking adults, would be 72 beats per minute. If you are above this, then you need to examine why and what you can do to bring it down.

This is why i advocate monthly measuring to monitor your progress as a whole, this will give you a range of information that you can read and react to.

If things aren’t going your way, you can put things right straight away, if things are going very well for you, you know you are on course and you will take great inspiration from all of this!

Heart performance is a pivotal part of my training plans and their intention.

We will talk a lot about this in the coming days and how you can maximise your performance, whilst still getting maximum benefits in health terms for your most important muscle, your heart of course!!!

Never has a subject been more relevant for you!

Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday, 7th February

Sometimes your biggest enemy can be the reliance too much on routine.

For example, if all you did in the gym or wherever you trained, was to work on the treadmill or bike, then your gains wouldn’t be as strong as they would by mixing your training right up.

If you don’t do your weights/resistance work, then you’re going to be missing out.

If you don’t workout aerobically, and this means working out with big gulps of oxygen, and getting your heart rate up quite a bit, then you’re also going to be missing out.

However, even if you every exercise under the  sun, and simply “go through the motions”, you are not likely to get very much at all out of your training programme.

When you get going on your workouts, please make sure you train with purpose, you’re not there to look good and show off, you’re not there to watch the clock and just last until an hour is gone, you’re not there so you can work to levels well beneath you, and you’re not there to stay in some kind of comfort zone.

Today is another day to prove to yourself that you’re still alive, that you have enough energy to test yourself physically to new limits, even if you have seen the wrong side of 50. Age is never a deciding factor either, in my experience it is training experience and conditioning that matters, and definitely not age.

I have many 60 something’s who could destroy 21 year old’s in terms of physical performance, and having a leaner and harder body. When you get older, it seems that we value our health much more sometimes due to our inactivity of the past.

The bottom line is that its never too late to do something about it, and discover the power of actually “doing it”!!

Twitt
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Monday, 6th February

This week coincides with a lot of measurements i normally take for the month of january in terms of individual progress.

Most have been pretty good, some outstanding and a minority not up to the usual standard.

There are reasons why people get different measurements, and the truth always comes out when explaining each one.

The bottom line is when you are measured every month or thereabouts, you automatically make yourself accountable, and this is usually when lifestyle habits are examined in detail.

Unless you take this approach, then progress can be regarded as a matter of luck rather than intention.

Intention is a big word because if your intent is always there, then your lifestyle habits will always be good most of the time. If you have no goals then there is little or no intent, and there is no pressure on you eating well, training well and keeping alcohol to a minimum.

Most if not all the welsh players in the game against ireland, have been full of intention for a long time now in advancing themselves as a creditable force on the world stage, in rugby terms.

In their case, it has meant increased commitment in training, getting more out of themselves than they ever thought.

In eating terms, they have had to be even more meticulous in the preparation and timing of each meal and snack. Eating to perform at your best in sports is a big industry and nothing would have been left to chance in this vital area.

Most of the time too, you will not get these players getting trashed on alcohol every week after a game. A lot of players don’t drink so much now, and some do not even drink at all!

These players are much more professional in their outlook, their intention and delivery of performance these days.

They get measured constantly too, and this helps a great deal with their power of intention, a much undervalued way of getting the very best out of yourself at all times!

Make yourself accountable and start coming on at a much faster rate!!1

Twitt
Posted on

Friday, 3rd February

I know i have posted on a lot of different issues regarding health and fitness, there are some i tend to mention more than others.

One of the ones that is very relevant to the month of february is the fact that today in the press, a story was focusing on people’s lack of success in terms of weight/fat loss since christmas, and the lack of success in terms of new year’s resolutions too.

In fact, some papers have christened this month as “FLABRUARY”!!!!

The vast majority of those questioned had failed miserably on their plans to get rid of the christmas weight, not only that but the weight from the previous year too!! People were feeling flat, disappointed, fed up and all the usual negative feelings that leave a lot of us disillusioned.

If you have been following this blog for a while, we always examine why people do not succeed in their “get in shape” plans.

We have gone through a million reasons by now, and we have come to the conclusion that success can only come from sustainable training efforts, sensible healthy eating in smaller portions and at regular intervals, drinking less alcohol, drinking enough water, sleeping well and having a bit of what you fancy occasionally so you don’t go totally mad!!

So expect to see stories such as these in the media all the time. There is no one faddy tactic that’s going to solve the puzzle for you, its a combination of different tried and tested factors that will make the difference in the long term, so being in shape never becomes a struggle again.

Working out for life sounds like a tall order for some, but why not treat every week and day as it comes, try to do your best when you become educated about food, try and not make excuses to exercise, try not to overdo it on the food or booze, try and hit the sack at a decent time in the week and try and stay positive at all times, even when roadblocks come up and test our patience to the full!

Forgot the marketing rubbish you hear daily and let’s put the foundations in place to be very successful with your health full stop!

Twitt