Posted on

29th March

 

Talking about back problems is a big reminder for most people about some low point in their lives when they weren’t so active, the problems it caused in real life and the actual pain they went through. Nobody wants to be known as the person who can’t join in things that most people consider normal, but that’s the reality of life for some.

Not being able to join in activities with your kids is tough mentally, and most people will do anything to get out of this spiral of despair.

A lot of people go through the stage of heat cream, ice sometimes and massage, often finding out that none of them were really the long term answer to a potentially life altering problem.

We talked about the swiss ball, the big ball you pump up you see around the place sometimes in gyms, houses etc but nobody really knows how to use it properly.

Simply sitting on it for 30 minutes watching a television programme can be big enough of an effort for many, as you learn to stabilise yourself for everyday life situations.

One of the favourites is sitting on your back, with legs over the ball and the ball right up against your bum, then roll you hips to the side. This will not only loosen your hips but loosen your back in a big way, and is often a great warm up to any workout. Try keeping your shoulders on the floor while you do it.

When keeping in the same position on your back, places your bottoms of your feet on the ball, hands by your side on floor and lift your bum off the floor using your feet, this is fantastic for your hamstrings/bum area and will develop serious strength in this area, which will again help your back!

The back, hips and hamstrings are all inter related as I said yesterday and remain very important areas to work, they may not immediately be visual improvements but will allow you to do everything better and with greater freedom, virtually eliminating typical aches and strains, and making you far more powerful and flexible and giving you a lifetime on pain free movement!

When it does fix your back problem, and I have no doubt it will, if from time to time your back stiffens up or gives you pain, then these moves will help you a lot to rectify the problem immediately. This ball is for a lifetime so lets give it a go, there are also many demonstrations online if you google swiss ball demonstrations. Will get videos on here one day!!!

Twitt
Posted on

28th March 2011

Another fresh week and the clocks have gone forward at last!!! The weather is considerably warmer and brighter, and winter seems to have gone away. I have seen this situation before though and end of march and early april can still surprise us by being very cold, so we will wait and see!!! Anyway for now, things are good so hopefully you’re going to be making the most of it.

Not all of you are well of course as jean has said, she is suffering terribly with her chest infection that even has involved hospital visits like the one this saturday just gone. Nothing i can say can make it that much better right now, but all jean has to remember is that she can get back to health again, and when she does, it won’t be too long at all before she gets to being back out on her bike, or whatever she feels like doing. Health is number one, and she can make it happen!!!

Cyril is also struggling, this time with his back and i have been encouraging to blow up his swiss ball and do some exercises on it to relieve pressure on his back. The problem is that most people don’t realise that its not just your back is usually the problem, its your hips and your hamstrings that are all related.

For example, if your back is bad, usually you have limited mobility in your hips, and if you play some sport, your hamstrings will usually be tight too, causing strains and pulls in all of these regions, which can put you out of training for weeks, even months so its an issue that needs resolving.

The number one cause of back pain is weight around the trunk area, so carrying excess weight triggers off a whole host of problems that cannot be solved long term until you lose the weight. It sounds like a vicious circle but if you understand how your body works, it starts to sounds better because you will be attacking the problems head on and not repeat your mistakes!

More on how to get rid of the bad back, tighs hips and stiff hamstrings tomorrow!!!!

Twitt
Posted on

March 25th 2011

Okay, so we have covered your cycling and running over the last couple of posts, but hows your inside work/gym work going?

You know how it should be going and this doesn’t involve hanging around talking around to everyone while you “train”! Taking it easy on yourself is not acceptable unless there are extraordinary conditions, or you’re just starting out.

There are a few things and indeed, mistakes i see every time i’m in a gym.

Number one if you’re working out with weights (and everyone should!), there’s too much rest in between sets, sometimes even 5 minutes, this is a painfully slow and ineffective way to train and get into shape, i should correct that statement because you’re never going to get into shape training that slow. I would assume there’s far more talking going on than training, and this is always a bad sign!!!

Number two is training with too many people, by that i mean there’s sometimes two training together and thats great, but if theres three of you and you’re all friends and want to train together, it can’t work because you will have too much rest in between sets. You will struggle to get any intensity up, so keep it to yourself and one other if possible.

When you train and there’s just two of you, try to do one set, then your partner does the next, then immediately again you do the next and your partner goes straight away. Try to keep this up throughout the whole workout and you will be out of puff and had a very beneficial bout of exercise, which will automatically lead to fat loss and seriously toning up your body, which is what most people want of course.

Avoid the fancy exercises! By this i mean you should pick the exercises that have most benefits, and they are usually the toughest!!!! The basic exercises are usually the most beneficial because they make you expend a lot of energy each time, meaning you burn more calories, speed up your metabolic rate, in other words, 24 hours a day you will be burning more calories a day, more body fat every day and keeping your body closer to the fat burning machine you really dreamed of!!! Yes, it is possible!!

Have a great weekend and lets exercise with purpose, its all about results so lets do it!!

Twitt
Posted on

24th March 2011

We talked about cycling in a different way yesterday, lets talk about different ways of running today.

First of all, running on mindless flat roads is one of the most boring things I could think about doing, some people enjoy it but I like to make things a little more interesting and a lot more productive in terms of results!

Since we live in a pretty hilly country, there’s never a hill that far way fortunately, and sometimes vicious hills!!!

Hills will always get you working harder, going uphill works your legs better, makes your lung capacity push on to new levels, helps bring your body fat down quicker, gives you a greater sense of pride and achievement having completed them, gives you some great views when you get to the top and in general provide some great workouts!!!

This is why I head straight to them every time!!!

Another thing you have to look at. On sunny days, you will see plenty of people walking or running on flat roads. You won’t see many if any people running or walking hard up hills, those you do see working hard up hills will nearly always be in good shape.

If you want to look at where people in great shape train, go to the more obscure parts of the area, these people are never on show and never want an audience. They want a place where is quite but offers great challenges in terms of terrain. You feel great when you walk hard or run up a very steep hill or even mountain, there’s nothing like that feeling when you develop your potential from only being able to walk 10-20 minutes on the flat to being able to run up a mountain, it may sound far fetched to some of you but it is totally achievable, I can guarantee that!!!

So today, tomorrow or the weekend, by all means warm up on the flat roads or track, but head for the hills and experience a brand new set of results that will astound you in all sorts of ways!!

Twitt
Posted on

March 23rd 2011

If you are out on a bike regularly training, you might want to consider a slightly different approach.

A lot of riders go for the big heavy gears because they like to feel the power. Most riders have done this for many years, including myself by the way. The last few years though, I have changed my ways and encouraged many others to do the same.

If you have some kind of speedometer, then you should perhaps take a close look at it and in particular the revolutions per minute part, or RPM as its more commonly known as on your machine. You will also find these on all stationery bikes, and what I’m about to say will naturally apply to both stationery and more traditional bikes you will use outside of course.

Most of us when we cycle go for one steady pace and its usually between 60-70 RPM, some even as low as 40-50 I have found. This turns out to be a very ineffective way to ride a bike and can put greater strain on your joints, especially your knees, which is probably why you got on a bike for the first place, to reduce strain on your joints because of its non weight bearing benefits!

The first time you will try and ride at 80 RPM, it will shock you how many gears you will have to shift down on your bike! This is bad for the ego to start with, as you will have based your progress on the bike, especially a stationery bike, on the gear you were using, to shift down seems hard. Its time to forget about all of that because you will be working harder especially when trying to take extra oxygen in, getting less stress on your knees/joints in general and sweating quite a bit more.

If  you can manage to keep the same gear and somehow get 80 RPM, then that’s fantastic but you will obviously notice how you will be working so much harder, and you will be unable to keep it going as long, there really is going to be an amazing difference for you!!

You can also go up from 80 RPM but this is too much of a jump to start with.

Lance Armstrong was one of the most famous riders to use a higher cadence, which is what you are doing when hitting at least 80 RPM, and this way of working makes you work so much harder aerobically, you will be taking much more oxygen in.

The benefits are going to be huge so lets give it a go, and if you cant get there to start with, keep shifting gears down until you can!

Twitt