Posted on

21st June 2011

Mixing up your training is not only good for progress but good to keep you fresh.

Another good point is giving you more options when it would be easy enough to call it quits for the week!

If you pulled your calf, twisted your knee or hurt your arm, there IS another way to train as many of you are proving.

I won’t go over all the excuses i have heard over the years, but they still make me mad from time to time, make that ALL THE TIME!!!!!

My favourite or not so favourite one is the one that someone cant train because their “training partner” is not training anymore, so they can’t train anymore!!!! Have you heard anything so ridiculous in your life!!! But i have heard this a few too many times i can assure you! You DO NOT have to rely on someone else to exercise, you really don’t!!!!!!!!

So the bottom line is getting used to all sorts of training so your options become greater and greater. If your arm is a little sore, what’s to stop you cycling or running, although i will admit you do use your arms on both, in different ways but workouts are STILL possible wouldn’t you say!!!!

If your knee is bad, you can do weight training circuits that don’t hurt your knee obviously, just find out the exercises that don’t hurt so much!!!

Swimming is a good exercise if you have aches and pains, because like cycling, it is non-weight bearing and will actually help your body improve, instead of slowing recovery down like other forms of exercises can do.

Nothing wrong at all with walking too if you have a pull in your arm or upper body, the bottom line must ALWAYS be if it hurts, then DO NOT do it. If there is no pain and makes you feel good, then it will be fine and you always need to use this rule, the saying “no pain no gain” is absolute hogwash, train smart and thats means training carefully!!!!

Lots of options out there and that means no excuses!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Monday Continued

Chris L asks about his circuits on thursday’s post last week, is 3/4 enough or should he put some cycling and running in?

The truth is he should do both. Alsways remember when you are doing circuits, aim for 3 circuits of around 6-8 exercises per circuit, have a little water and aim to complete all 3 circuits as soon as you can, whilst still doing every exercise correctly and with good form, no point in cheating on every exercise and pulling your back out just so that you “can finish earlier”!!

As you have kids, try and hit the bike ride hard too, going flat out for 20 minutes rather than one long one done at  low to moderate intensity, which will not bring you the same kind of results, same principle with the running, aim for sprints or interval running to achieve maximum results in a very quick period of time, no point being out there plodding all day on a main road inhaling all the fumes. Pick some steep hills and bring your training to a swfit conclusion, but be prepared to put on ton of work in when you do go for it, and aim to improve every week, this should be easily achievable!!!

Stick to your plan of working at a higher intensity in your running, cycling and inside circuits, train with urgency and don’t hold anything back!!! Let me know how it goes!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Monday, June 20th

If you’re looking for your big start to the week, then you need a fundamentally good start to the week and it all begins with some solid eating plans!
 
 
Nothing wrong with up to 3 cups of tea or coffee a day, but you do need plenty of water on top of that, 8-10 glasses a day or around 1.5 litres if you are consuming by the bottle.
 
 
Breakfast is always going to work best when its a natural choice, weetabix are always fine, and porridge can be a great selection giving you a nice long steady supply of energy to start the day off. Dried fruit can be a great sweetener.
 
 
If you are having some fruit juice in the morning or at any other time, its always an excellent idea to dillute it as you wont be consuming as much sugar as a whole glass of juice, therefore saving on needless calories too.
 
 
Fruit is usually a matter of personal taste, some people like certain fruits and tend to stick on the same ones. Its always good to mix them up a bit so you get different nutrients, but the bottom line is that fruit of any kind should come in on a daily basis.
 
 
Vegetables are a must have in anyone’s day, a lot of people ignore these at their peril, because they provide a lot of what your body needs when it comes to supporting good health.  Again try to keep it varied and your body will feel all the better for it.
 
 
Your protein selections should be the lean choices, such as white meats and fish, and if you keep to this, you will feel full and your calories consumed will be relatively low, red meat is fine but only once a week.
 
 
One of the biggest mistakes people make with carbs is portion sizes, and if they are bigger than the size of your fist, then everything you eat will be putting on body fat rather than giving you energy.
 
 
Portion size for some people is one of the most difficult thing to change, but once you do get used to the smaller amounts, then your appetite gets smaller, and your ability to eat big meals goes down, which means a smaller and flatter stomach of course.
 
Put in a great workout today and add of all this great food, and you’re off to a flier early on in the week!!!
Twitt
Posted on

Thursday 16th June 2011

Progress and improvements don’t need to stop if you are injured as we have proved this week. Jean has clearly been able to improve herself this week with some attention to eating and not succumbing to the treats that most people have when they are not training.

The incentive to train hard and eat well is there when you are doing both hand in hand. As soon as you stop training, we somehow automatically become drawn to higher sugar content foods as well as foods high in saturated fats. This is an obvious recipe for disaster of course.

Then once we get back to training again, discipline usually kicks in and our food intake all of a sudden becomes sensible again. It seems madness to do this each time because its another version of yo-yo dieting, in other words your weight going up and down all the time, and every time you go through this process, your body becomes more resistant each time, so your body will find it harder and harder to get into shape, exactly what you DO NOT want!!!

This is why its always ideal to keep your weight, body fat and waist measurement within a tight range. It maybe within 7 pounds for your weight, within 2-3 inches for your waist and within 4% for your body fat.  Keeping within these ranges will mean you are successful short and long term.

This ensures higher standards are kept up even if it may be bit of pain to keep on measuring yourself.

This is why you should always look to your training on weekly basis, and not accept having terrible weeks here and there, unless you are ill of course, when its always a bad idea to try and train through it, unless it’s a minor cold.

Constant re-evaluation may seem over fussy but in reality it’s the best self-assessment tool you have, and will make sure you are ALWAYS in shape, never go on slippery slopes and you maintain the high standards you have set yourself!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Wednesday June 15th 2011

The best way to get in shape for now, and for life is to stop everyone scamming you out of your hard earned money and do the things you KNOW that will work.

I really think that some of latest diet books really think we are stupid, that we have too much money and we want to give it to them, or they may actually believe that some of their stuff actually works in a short term faddy type of way despite the longer term consequences?

Someone asked me about the dukan diet again this morning, you know the one which advocates mostly protein in your diet. The great news is that this diet DOES work to lose weight, just like the atkins diet works and its a simple principle they use. One gram of protein has around 4 calories just like one gram of carbs has. One gram of fat on the other hand has 9 calories.

So you can see if you eat mostly protein and not in huge quantities, you will be ingesting less calories every day and therefore be successful at losing weight. Also, protein in no bad thing and will make you feel full for around 4 hours at a time, which is a good thing.

The negatives only start some way into the diet.

 What happens when your energy levels eventually go down? Your training suffers due to your lack of energy and therefore endurance? What happens when you have problems going to the toilet (it had to be said) due to you eliminating certain food groups? Are you really never going to eat carbs ever again? And what happens if you do? Are you going to have some almighty splurge on bread and potatoes or chocolate and chips? Going mad on carbs because you haven’t eaten them for so long? Nobody i know has successfully eliminated carbs long term without any side effects!

So if you want to be healthier in losing weight, trying eating healthy proteins such as fish, chicken etc with plenty of vegetables, for lunch and evening meal, eat fruit in moderation as well as a small handful of nuts, drink more water for added fat loss and keep your carbs under control, its all about portion sizes the size of your fist, that includes rice, pasta, and potatoes, and wholemeal and wholegrain versions too.

Everything in moderation and a wide variety of foods, this is the best and most SUSTAINABLE way to lose body fat AND firm up!!!

Twitt