Keri McKibbin Personal Training

There are a few different types of people who train

1. Those who complain, they moan, they shout out loud about the fact that they aren’t in shape.

2. Those who train hard and smart, and get into good shape.

3. Those who exercise yet still moan and bitch about not being in shape.

I’m sure there are many on here in different groups, the one’s who complain will bitch about not going to the “right gym”, not having enough money to get into shape, not having enough time, they have read the latest men’s health “fashionable” magazine about how to get into shape in less than 10 minutes a day and it still didn’t work (most of those magazines are fashion magazines and full of faddy advice)! There are lots of excuses, lots of moaning to be done and if you are still on here and its not working for you, maybe you need to re-visit all the information on here because THE SOLUTION IS HERE!!

I”ve trained lots of different personalities and i’m at my all time lowest tolerance of people making excuses, i’m telling you straight! There is a way to train, there is an intensity to train at, there are certain fresh natural foods you should be eating, you shouldn’t be eating all man-made foods for instance, they are REALLY BAD NEWS for your body and you know it! I’ve met people who have joined gym’s for 5 minutes and apparently they have this wise guy attitude that they know it all, there are plenty of them. I have met people with the biggest ego’s in history, and i have learned to give all that crap right back at them and bring them back to basics, its the basics that work time after time after time after time after time after time after time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Do i make my point?!!!!!!!!

Let’s not put up with any of this rubbish anymore, all of you are intelligent enough to really do this once and for all, i know many of you personally and i have seen you reach amazing heights before, its time to do it again right now and i want you all to dig deep, re-hash that shopping list and quit visiting the rubbish isle’s of the supermarket, most of the supermarkets are filled with enough salt, sugar, saturated fat to sink many battleships!

Let’s get aggressive, you need to some times and really get stuck into this! Let’s do those inside workouts 3 times per week, you can do your walking, cycling, running etc another 3 times, if not why can’t you fit it in, what is more important than you getting in shape so you can help your family and friends even more, you will become a much more giving person so let’s really get that energy back in your life!!

Keri

Next week is an opportunity to finally get it right, get yourself out of the slumber of christmas and january, and finally reach the physical condition you’ve craved for all this time. Not only physically, but mentally too. You’ve always known its more than a diet, its more than an exercise programme, its the mind that in fact may be the most important part.

How long have you put up with faddy diets? What about those rubbish exercise equipment you have bought off satellite tv or a sports shop? Was it really a good investment or did that piece of equipment simply become anothe coat hanger?

Are you going to give yourself 12 weeks this time to get it right, to give yourself the opportunity to finally be in shape for summer? This is when the hard work starts, and this is the time when you outlast those who will be giving up their faddy programmes by valentine’s day!

Making this commitment for 12 weeks will also give you huge mental strength as previously mentioned to take on anything in life you want. If you develop self-discipline, and its all a matter of practice, you can apply that to life’s difficult challenges too. You’re going to develop a lot more energy too, and when you have that energy, you’re automatically going to feel a lot better too, it’s natural.

Are you fed up of being written off, and never letting your potential come to the fore? Are you fed up of people doubting whether you can get fit and healthy at all, this is the time to prove everyone wrong, and finally gets some huge compliments back in your life too, and they will continue if you manage to lay down a solid structure in your life, and theres no reason not to!

My first tip is to take a photograph of yourself this weekend, then again in 12 weeks, there should be a big difference, try and wear tighter fitting clothes as baggy t-shirts wont show your progress as well. Then measure your waist and hips, and write down your height in inhces, the goal is to get your waist under half your height in inches. You’re also going to keep a diary too, every day jotting down all your hopes and aspirations, and the reality of doing these 12 weeks, then after  the 12 weeks, you need to write a short essay on your experiences, and brutally honest as possible, and we will post those who want to post them, these will be valuable in helping others.

Plus you will get everyday help from me, and all the pointers and examples of exercise programmes to help you along.

More to come this week but this is an idea of what we need. Also, if you have any blood pressure issues etc, may be a good idea to get yourself checked out by your doctor, so he can check your progress out at the end, plus you can buy cheap bp machines in chemists these days. It is advisable to get your doctor’s approval before beginning any exercise programme. Safety is always my number one concern.

Speak soon,

Keri

How many people do you know that have climbed the ladder of success, but they have found out that when they have got to the top, they have been climbing the wrong wall. I have met a few, and they have been some of the unhappiest people i have ever met.

There was the story about the millionnaire business owner sitting in a restaurant with his protege, who became very successful himself. He had a large home, a parking place close the front door, and a brass nameplate on his office door. As they were back slapping each other on how well they had done, the business owner asked his protege “how he would define successs”? He replied he couldn’t really answer. Then, the business owner told him that being successful for most people was achieving and having the things that were important to them.

The protege then started to list all the things that were important to him and made him happy, he never mentioned his job. The boss then asked “well, you’re happy right?”, “well no” came the reply. And then the boss asked “well, you’re successful right?”, he didn’t have a reply. The protege just sat there thinking.

To cut a long story short, the protege quit his job two months later. The boss begged him to stay, but there was nothing he could do. He reminded his boss of the conversation he had, and thanked him for pushing him into doing something with his life that he actually loved, and was important to him.

He used to be in telecommunications, he now has a roofing company! He always loved working with wood and now he’s hammering shingles on roofs and building porches and guess what? He’s happy.

I have a post way back called Your drving force, look it up and you will be asked to list those things that really get you out of bed in the morning, those things that are really important to you and drive you on to achieve great things. Once you make a list, you will realise that being fit, strong and healthy is a major part of you achieving all of those things, and most importantly, being happy. It’s a good idea to fill it in, as the 12 week challenge starts next monday, and this will help you keep motivated and strong.

Give it a go,

Keri

Here’s a subject you have heard me bang on about a few times. So i’m not going to break the habit, let’s look at it again!

Eating well shouldn’t be that hard, you know if you eat an apple, a piece of chicken, a piece of fish, brown rice, a potato, a carrot, porridge etc, you know you are eating well and you’re not having any refined sugar. Are you still confused about eating well or do you need more education about eating well? I think all of us need to educate ourselves from time to time, and remind ourselves of what can really be destroying our fat loss plans!

Tracking sugar is the hardest thing for most people, and food companies go out of their way to hide it in your foods. Let’s face it, sugar tastes nice and can be addictive, and will sometimes totally put you off eating plainer, natural foods full of nutrients. You will naturally crave more of the sugary foods, so the food company will win all round, as they know you will come back every time for their sugar-laced products, and the products range from everything, from so called healther cereals, to sliced ham’s, to sugary drinks dressed up as orange juice.

So how do these food companies hide their sugar in the foods they produce? They have to list the ingredients that are the biggest portions of the product first, and work the way down to the smallest additive.  Sugar in its plainest form will be sugar or sucrose. Then it gets pretty sly on the sugary ingredients. Fructose, corn syrup, glucose, honey, cane juice crystals, rice syrup, molassses, caramel, cane sugar, fruit juice, inverted sugar are just a few of the ways addictive calories are added to your food and derail your diet, and your body’s performance!

Most cereals in the supermarket are great examples of these additives, and many of the most popular ones have some or all of these ingredients. They create your cravings for sugar, and this will transfer to other food groups too, before you know you will be ingesting an awful lot of needless sugar in just one day. Have you ever got used to eating like this and then you’ve been on it so long that you accuse anyone who eats plainer, more wholesesome foods as “boring”, i know i’ve been accused of that a few times!! Eating all of these sugary foods every day doesn’t make you the life and soul of the party either!! It’s time to get all this rubbish out of your life and right now if you want to make some serious progress and quickly, let’s sort it out now!!

The more sugar you take in, the more you’re going to want more. The average person in this country and the US takes in 20 to 25 teaspoons of sugar per day, directly or indirectly. This alone will add up to 40 pounds of body fat increase per year, so up to you?

The sooner you make your commitment to eating more natural foods the better, if it’s man made, you know it’s nearly always a disaster for your body! Think about it and let’s make it happen this week.

Keri

Snowed in for the first time in a long time today, so posting this a little earlier than planned! If you really want to maximise your fat burning, forget all those boring long distance runs that can stress your joints, try this one to jump start your metabolism!

If you are running for example, try and use lampposts as a guide for training intensity. You would jog slowly for one post, then sprint the next post, then jog the next, sprint the next one after and so on. Your efforts may only last a couple of minutes at a time to start with but this a great form of training for increasing your stamina, and really getting your fat burning underway.

If you on a treadmill in a gym, try running slow and steady for one minute, the sprint the next minute or certainly push it, slow for the next minute, sprint the next minute after that and so on. If you can work up to 20 minutes of this, you will be doing extremely well indeed!

If you are out cycling, try making your training intervals a bit longer, so you could still use landmarks, it’s just that they will be further spaced out. They could be 100 yards of sprinting on the bike, then 100 yards of steady pedalling, then you go for it again for 100 yards and so on. You can make the intervals any distance you want, depending on how you feel and which route you are on. Cycling is not always about long distances, and don’t forget, brit mark cavendish is one of the msot exciting riders, and he’s a sprinter who concentrates on the last couple of 100 metres in the tour de france (although he may have rode 100km before that!).

Ensure you have a good warm up before attempting any of these,  as they will stretch you over short periods and will be very intense. They can add great excitement to your workouts. To get up to this kind of workout, i would suggest you build up a base first to get some stamina levels and you don’t shock your system too quickly. You could even try using this system in a daily walk just to start off, it will work you hard, and break the monotony of the walk up.

All to be done when the snow goes of course!!

Keri

Ways to make sure you are not consuming extra calories would be the following;

1. Eating while you’re going things. If you eat while you are on the phone, on the computer or just watching TV, your normal (i’m full signals) feelings of knowing when you’re full are not recognized. This is an easy way of eating more calories than you should. A simple way of rectifying this is to go back to basics, eating by the kitchen table will focus yourself on the meal again, and you will not overeat, and your brain will recognise those all important “i’m full” signals.

2. Are you still in the low-fat culture. You may believe that foods are low in fat, so you can eat as much as you want of them. Portion control is still relevant to keep your calories sensible, and what about the extra calories in these so called low-fat meals. Remember what i always say about sugar, and that frosties are a “low-fat” food! Don’t just look at the saturated fat, check your sugar intake! No more than 40g of refined sugar a day please.

3. How big are your plates? I go in many different houses, and most of their plate sizes are different. If you serve your food on huge plates, your will most likely be overeating. Scale them down and buy some smaller plates. It will be tough for the first week but you will soon get used to your new portion size, which will be much healthier and help with fat-loss too!

4. Keep the excess christmas stuff out the way, or better still throw it out! We have all been there, it’s there in front of us so we pick on it all day long because “it’s there”! This continues into the new year because we are keeping our sugary taste buds satisfied for rich food. The sooner you throw it out in the rubbish and buy some good food in, the sooner you get back to normal and get back in shape (and feel better)!!

5. Use your taller glasses for orange/apple juice. I have a thick rounded glass in the house and believe it or not it’s a pint glass! It only looks like half a pint honestly! The taller glassed meanwhile can look good but contain less, plus remember to dillute those juices with water, which means you consume less sugar and calories.

Have a go at these and see if they help!

Keri

Jean brought up a very interesting point today, she said that she always took it that you needed to work for at least 20 minutes before she starting burning fat. In theory, she is right and your body will start burning it’s carbohydrate and simple sugars first, then after the 20 minutes stage depending on energy levels in the body, fat can then be used as a fuel source so that does work-in a perfect world.

What happens if nothing is going to plan that day, we need a quick workout and we can only fit in a 15 minute run, is it worth it? We can only do 20 press ups, 20 arm dips. 20 squats, and 70 squat thrusts, is it worth it? What if you can only get a 10 minute walk in with the dog as you have to go back to work, is it worth going even you put in a light jog? Is it worth going for 15 minute bike ride when we usually do 45 mins? Will we burn fat if we do any of these things?

The answer must be a resounding “yes”! Of course, we would spend a little more time warming up and getting into the workout, it’s not good to rush in and go 200% all the time! What i am saying is that any exercise is good, and i have had some of my best workouts in under 10 mins. Breaking 9 minutes for the first time whilst doing 2500 metres on a rowing machine nearly half killed me! Usain bolt does his best workouts in under 10 seconds! What about the guys and girls who do the run up the stairs every february in the empire state building in new york? There are 1575 stairs and the women’s record is 13 minutes 12 seconds, the men’s rec0rd is 9 minutes and thirty three seconds.

Do you think that any of these workouts/events burnt any body fat or not? Of course they did and often pushed our bodies to new levels of achievement and conditioning.

The key is you are pressed for time is to raise the intensity to suit the workout. For instance, if you are used to running for 30 minutes on a flat surface and that gives you an effort of 8 out of 10 then great. Do make a workout of 15 minutes much more intense, incorporate hills or interval training, do some sprints with minimal rest, in fact do anything that makes it harder and really try and take rest out of the equation.

P.S. To clear up my home workouts post yesterday, my example workout was exactly that, an example. For instance if your best test on your own was 20 press ups, 30 arm dips, 60 squat thrusts etc, your circuit you do 3 times should be half of that. Therefore, it would be 10 press ups, 15 arm dips and 30 squat thrusts. Effectively, you are halving your personal best totals but doing them a total of 3 times instead of once. This will make a very effective workout indeed. Any problems let me know.

I have used many equations to calculate the individual’s needs for working out inside, and the one that seems to work very well  indeed is the following;

This will serve you VERY well into 2010, and you can upgrade it once a month if you’re focused on progress.

Rule number one-Aim for 6-8 exercises in your circuit

Rule number two-aim for those exercises to work each body part

Rule number three-aim for three circuits of the workout

Rule number four-test yourself on each exercise first and write down your best efforts on each exercise

Rule number four-to get your magic number for each exercise, halve your best efforts, for example if you can do 20 press ups on your best efforts, your magic number on your press ups will be 10, because you will need to do them over THREE circuits, does that makes sense?

Rule number five-do each exercise non-stop and have a breather/sip of water after each circuit, or the fittest amongst you will work up to be able to do 3 circuits non-stop without a break (this may take some considerable time)

Rule number six-Do each exercise with perfect form, do each exercise SLOWLY and don’t cheat, or you won’t progress and you may get injured, i can’t stress this enough!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rule number seven-do this circuit at least twice a week but i like THREE times, typically monday, wednesday and friday, always at least 48 hours in between each workout

Rule number eight-upgrade and re-test your workout needs ONCE a month, we are focused on progress and not comfort zones!

Rule number nine-don’t be tempted to add on needless exercises and turn your workouts into marathons! keep it to 6-8 exercises that will really test you, once you go over this number, your ideal intensity is lost trust me!

Rule number ten-believe in this! Working with resistance can and will re-shape your body, raise your metabolism (the rate you  burn calories) for LONGER than your cycling and running, broken down muscle from resistance training burns lots of calories in the re-building stage, this is a massive secret in your programme so you need this workout AND your outside stuff (walking, running, cycling etc).

So, the plan in practice, test yourself on the following after a warm up

Hyper extensions

Squats

Press ups

Arm dips

Sit ups

Alternate squat thrusts

So if you can do 20 press ups in one go at your best, 10 arm dips, 10 sit ups, 20 alternate squat thrusts, 10 squats, and always keep your hyper extensions at 10

Your circuit done a total of 3 times should be

hyper extensions-10

squats-5

press ups-10

arm dips-5

sit ups-5

alternate squat thrusts-10

Do this 3 times per week (monday, wednesday, friday ideally)

Let me know how you get on!

Keri

*How to do the exercises

Hyper extensions-(lower back)

Lie flat out on stomach with hands right in front of you. When ready, raise arms and legs together slowly, so your whole body raises, then lower yourself slowly to really stretch and strengthen your lower back.

Squats (legs)

Often called the “king” of exercises, the squat not gives your legs a tremendous boost, but your stomach and lower back too. It also gets you breathing really well and can have a good effect on your heart and lungs once you get used to it and advance.

Stand with your feet shoulder width apart and a bar resting on your shoulders or dumbbells to your side. Keep your back straight and slowly squat down until your thighs are parallel to the floor. Push yourself back up to a standing position and repeat.

 Key points-never lean forward (you’ll strain your back) and keep looking up directly in front of you, never look down. Keep your feet straight and don’t let the weight come onto the balls of your feet. Keep the movement slow to be safe and have big results.

 Press ups (upper body)

Full press up

Place hands directly under your shoulders, keep fingers pointing forward and your upper body and legs straight.

Bend your arms to 90 degrees and lower your body gently, keeping your head still, your stomach will need to be tensed, which keeps your legs straight. Breathe in on the way down and out on the way up.

 Recommended to start-try press ups on knees

Keep arms directly under shoulders again, but this time keep your knees on the floor on mat, slowly lower your body, and back up slowly.

Arm dips (backs of arms)

Using any bench literally anywhere, lower yourself down slowly with your hands behind you with your knees bent, then come back up slowly. To make it harder, straighten your legs out, aim for as many as possible without straining yourself of course!

 Sit ups (stomach)

Lie on the floor with knees bent and your feet placed flat on the floor. Support with your head gently with your hands as if you were holding a baby. Tense your stomach and then start off by raising your torso forward, raising your head and shoulders slightly off the floor and push your lower back into the floor to extra feel on the movement. Hold it for one second and then lower yourself back to the floor, then repeat.

Alternate squat thrusts

A great exercise for aerobic conditioning that’s low on joint pressure which is always good. Get in a position as if you were in starting blocks going for a 100m sprint. Hold it there, and simply interchange your legs pushing them back and forth, with your knees nearly touching your elbows. Aim for as many as possible.