Friday, 27th May

Listening to what sometimes goes in your head every day is often self-defeating. We need to self-talk more and drum into ourselves what we are really capable of achieving.

Think of every day when you get up, bad news is all around. The actual news on TV is always awful. You get into work and there’s usually negative influences moaning and complaining about everything that’s wrong, and nothing is right.

Then society tells us to judge our progress with health by weight, which has been proven to be a poor overall barometer of our overall progress. Then many people tell us not to exercise, it’s a waste of time/too much work/not for you or just plain stupid, you can get all your exercise walking or in the garden somehow.

So if you are listening to most of the world around you, then you are bound to have your thoughts everyday swayed to the negative side.

You need to change the way you term things. Instead of HAVING to go to the gym, HAVING to take your kids to sports or school, HAVING to take a course at work, it makes me sad when people say they are HAVING to help people but don’t really like doing it.

Looking at things differently makes all the difference. We get to go to the gym WHEN MANY people are too sick to even go. We get to go to a job and improve ourselves, while so many are unemployed.

We get to raise our children even if they drive us nuts at times, many people we know can’t even have kids so make the most of them. It is possible to make a difference to everyone we meet in life just by acting a little better each time.

We get to use our gifts and talents to make a product, start a charity like Tom or provide a service that changes people’s lives. We get to eat three meals a day while millions of people are starving.

We get to work on projects, answer phone calls, serve customers, participate in meetings, design, create, share, sell, lead and suit up every day for whatever games life throws at us.
Yes there will be challenges and life isn’t easy but each day we wake up we get another opportunity to make today better than yesterday and tomorrow better than today.

We get to uplift, inspire, encourage, and impact others. We get to live this life. Let’s make the most of it by remembering that life is a gift not an obligation.

Thursday, 26th May

Going from a negative mindset, constantly putting yourself down, having no confidence, no self-esteem to one of thinking independently, much more positive, taking real action every day can seem like climbing the highest mountain, but changing the way you see the world is vital for your short and long term.

Be grateful for what you have. Nobody is perfect and pretty much all of you have progressed dramatically. Celebrate that life-changing positive experience you are going through! Remember what you were like when you started and how bad you felt? Your mind can only process one thought at a time, so focusing on what you are grateful for will make you act more positive and be more positive to others too.

2. I got in the habit of praising others long ago, instead of focusing on what they are doing wrong. Some of you don’t do the exact 100% version of an exercise to start with, simply because you are unable to because you haven’t practiced it much and are still learning. It’s always better to correct mistakes, then encourage others to do it right, and have patience until they do. Give 3 times as much praise as criticism. One big life lesson for me.

3. Start a success journal. Write down something every day that you did well, maybe even surprised you, and something that made you feel good and kept you in a great mood. Writing things down becomes a habit, and inspires you to try something good or great the next day and so on.

4. Focus on thing you CAN change, and let go of the things you can’t. Worrying about what might happen is a futile exercise because most of the time the things you worry about never happen. Don’t try and control everything, act positive, be positive and see the best in any situation.

5. When you are stressed out to the max, you feel like complaining about anything, and the whole world is wrong, nothing wrong with having a rant but please follow it with a solution. Anything can be overcome if you actively go out and change it. All of you are highly intelligent and know the right thing to do, and you have the solution well within your grasp.

All of these will become strong everyday habits and will become very powerful strategies. Start today and watch the positive change that comes into your life every day. This is a must do that will pay massive dividends.

Thursday, 26th May

Getting initial success is much easier than getting success long term.

The higher you climb, the harder it becomes, and this is why you need your mindset right and get rid of any “drag you down” thinking that will muddle your brain at exactly the wrong time. We work all the time on getting your mind right, raising your ambitions through appreciating your true talents and keep attempting things even if at first they don’t come off.

After initial success, there comes lots of things and people attempting to put you off. Lose some body fat? Great. Lose a lot of body fat and you will get even more resistance to it along the way. Create yourself a transformation? Then although many will shower with praise and congratulations, many will not because you be showing them exactly how to do it, and some don’t like that.

The physical process of creating your very own transformation is tough enough, but avoiding negative influences makes the job so much easier. Make sure the 5 people you associate with most are positive or you will have someone every or most days dragging you down little by little.

This is where you develop a tough skin. This is when you develop your mind to expect the occasional attack, the occasional jibe telling you “you have done well but don’t lose anymore”, “don’t bother with the gym, walking is just as good for you!”, “why not eat fast food and drink more, one life you have” Etc etc!

There will be many situations and people trying to throw you off track on your journey.

Anyone ever gone for promotion in a job here and been advised “not to go for it” even though you are really an excellent candidate, because they tell you management is somehow “evil” and you’d have to be an idiot to work there. Then you find out all sorts of people went for the job themselves!!

Getting into a daily habit of attempting more achievement and success is contagious and an excellent habit to get into. Most people admit that things in life could run a little better, but aren’t prepared to do anything about it.

If you take daily action every day, and do something that will get you closer to what you really want in life, then good things will start happening, i’m not talking in a week either, you need to give it consistent real action every day until the good stuff starts to happen no matter how long it takes.
There have been many times where i’ve tried something and it doesn’t come off, but i keep doing almost getting to the point of giving up because i believe in it full stop, and something makes me carry it on.

It’s around that exact point when the greatest successes come, RIGHT THERE!!! Then from that moment on, you realise it IS the carrying on, the sticking at it even when you felt like giving up that made ALL the difference.

Your power to be consistent, to carry on, to show grit and determination, to become a little bit better every day, even when you feel like giving up many times, is the mindset you need.

THAT is the true secret to get the kind of success you really want. That in a sentence is trait you must develop and everything starts going to a whole new level well beyond what you ever thought would happen or develop to!!!

Wednesday, 25th May

Here’s a massive transition in terms of terminology you need to make, and the sooner you make it the better.

Doing “cardio” is often seen as the “let’s finish off by burning the fat off” part.

Unfortunately, this is not true. The true fat burning is done in your strength training in workout 1, and all your movement exercises in workout 2, and whilst the air assault bike, rower, ski machine, etc are very valuable and DO burn fat, they alone are not responsible for your massive results. One pound of fat burns 2 calories a day, one pound of lean muscle tissue burns 35 calories day-that’s a powerful fact right there about developing lean muscle, talk about raising your metabolism!!!

ALL of your exercises matter. If you didn’t do strength work, then you wouldn’t re-shape your body, not be able to burn as much calories at rest or fight against osteoporosis. Our weights workouts get you out of breath too, that’s why we only rest 30 seconds in between sets, it challenges you in ALL ways.

If you didn’t do your running on the ladders up the hill, or with bulgarian bags up the hill, or hit the prowlers hard, hit the steps etc, you wouldn’t get so out of breath and you heart and lungs wouldn’t be in such great shape.

If you didn’t do all our movement work in workout 2, you again wouldn’t burn so much fat, you wouldn’t be so flexible and ready for anything in sports etc. You get fundamentally strong doing this workout in all ways, and it can be deeply exhausting to do.

We are proud of all our balance work, they add an amazing amount to your all round ability, make you so much stronger on your feet, hit your core so much harder, create a much stronger back, hips and hamstrings and take a lot of stress off your back full stop. You will never develop such a strong core without balance work.

Our programmes are designed to be all rounders, working every single area and keeping your progress going strong everywhere, instead of being just good at weights or cardio, you NEED EVERYTHING so let’s embrace it.

See our programmes as huge fat burning furnaces, building massive strength levels, amazing heart and lungs capacity and being much stronger on your feet AND OFF your feet. See your programme as getting you ready for ANYTHING, creating huge energy levels and giving you all your inner self-confidence back that you may have thought long gone.

Let’s do it!

Monday, 23rd May

The perfect set of circumstances allowing you to get into great shape………..never exist.

I’ve never met anyone who has all day to train.

I’ve never met anyone who suddenly had 3 months “free” to get into shape finally.

I’ve met anyone who has had one shot at getting fit and it worked first time without any problems at all.

Here’s more like of what our members face on a daily basis.

Very little sleep due to children up in the night.

Very little sleep due to night shifts.

Most members have kids, a job and the whole family too to look after, yet somehow find time to do their workouts 3 times a week.

Some members don’t always have babysitters to come down every day, instead they are encouraged to bring their kids WITH them. This has worked well over the years, and we had a 9 WEEK old baby at the gym last week.

Many members have 30 minutes to train and want to make the most of every moment due to work, kids etc. This is easily achievable and all we do is ramp up the intensity.

Many members are afraid to join due to anxiety issues, once they do join though they find there are MANY with the same issues and are working their way through them. We are a very positive and supportive environment for such challenges in life.

Some members work with very negative people, often being discouraged to go to the gym. This negativity can build up into jealousy as you succeed more and more, and constantly putting you off, but as you spend more time with us in the gym, they learn to spot these people for what they really are, and learn to stay positive and take action for themselves.

Some members have daily lives that are often huge challenges because they care for others 24 hours a day. Not only do they find a small slot to train with us, many are our best performers and always slam in huge workouts.

Some members say a blessing every day that they are still alive, can get out of the house and whatever is wrong with them, they appreciate what a workout can give them and how much value it adds to their life. This is one of my most humbling conversations i have regularly with certain people.
This is for all of you who struggle to leave the house, find it a huge struggle to get through the gym door, and to get through a barnstorming workout, never complain about it, act with unbelievable humility at all times, and say quietly you enjoyed your workouts you hope to see us tomorrow.

There is never a perfect time or set of circumstances, there is only today, this week so never quit and keep on showing up no matter what.