Posted on

Tuesday, 19th November

Heading into Christmas is a sign to switch off for most people. This is the biggest mistake you can make for many reasons.

If you sink into this slumber before Christmas, imagine how hard it’s going to be getting rid of the Christmas excess?!!

One big attitude difference can be to work extra hard on your training before Christmas. If you’re going to be taking in extra calories, why not use them as a positive and see them as extra energy for more training, or more energy for more intense training.

Set higher targets and goals, aim to get out there more and be more active. Just don’t fall into the trap of doing less and less exercise coming up to Christmas and eating more food! This is a sure way of putting more weight on, and then compounding it by all the Christmas excesses. This is what MANY people do and it’s always painful to watch!

Motivation can seem to be better too if you have a plan. You know you’re going to have to train more in the next few weeks so plan for it, and don’t let it take you by surprise.

You know that its hard to train hard straight after Christmas, so don’t get into that horrible situation and simply be much more consistent from now on in the run in.

Your body fat will be better and you will fit into your clothes much better, your performances will be better in the gym and you’ll have the great feeling over being in control over everything before, during and after Christmas.

Remember that 80% of your success is simply showing up for your workouts, so getting your kit on in the first place will be the hardest thing you need to do, and the rest will be easy!

Keri

Twitt
Posted on

Friday, 15th November

Hitting a Friday for many people means hitting the alcohol, hitting a takeaway and totally NOT hitting any kind of workout. This can apply to those who exercise or those who never exercise at all.

The weekend for many last from Friday tea time all the way until sunday evening and there’s nothing that’s going to stop that!!!

There is absolutely nothing wrong with having a drink once a week, but when it comes to more than that, I have seen many, many people put on weight and not progress much at all. It can and will make that kind of a huge difference to you, and your performances usually, and when I do my usual monthly measurement, the results are usually not that impressive.

So once a week drinking alcohol should be your maximum IF you are committed to improving and progressing with your body full stop, no if’s and but’s!

If you are not eating well 80% of the time, as discussed in the past, then you are not going to be able to fuel your performances at the level required for fresh improvements. You need to change right now, and this is why eating badly all weekend (from Friday tea time until sunday night flat out) is NOT going to help you reduce body fat, build lean muscle tissue like you really wanted.

Always make a promise to yourself, if you drink and eat badly on Saturday night, then exercise first thing in the morning the very next day, this case a sunday morning. This will help enormously in getting the rubbish out of your body, and make you realize that eating badly ALL weekend won’t do anything good in terms of future results.

By all means have a bit of what you fancy, but there’s no need to trash it all weekend!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Thursday, 14th November

Its great too see so many of you are not tempted like a lot of people to take short cuts, and follow so many easy but non-productive ways to do things that will end up in failure.

I seriously think that the true hero’s are the ones who can train throughout the year, never miss a workout unless they are ill and always look for improvements and consistent progress, this is exactly the right philosophy to have!

These super-dedicated people ARE out there and you have proven the good effects that regular workouts and good food will have on your body.

I get questions all the time about the best training programme, whether the following fads like the power plate vibration system is any good, whether the masai based trainers with the big heel’s are truly the answer, whether the vibration belt’s you put across your stomach really work, whether the latest new gym opening is really going to work this time, whether the latest fitness dvd is any good, whether the 2 minutes a day workout can really change your life, whether the flimsy machines you see on the shopping channels are really any good?!!!!!!!!!!!!! You know how I am going to answer those.

These are the questions I always get and they get the same answers!

Forget all of those usual faddy false promises that faddy diets make too after Christmas, all they bring is long term misery because 97% of them fail and you put all the weight back on, and 5% more according to all leading scientific research into that “industry”!

If you show up 80% or more of the time for training, you WILL progress.

If you eat well and healthily 80% or more of the time, you WILL progress.

If you train with purpose 80% or more of the time, you WILL progress. You know this works and most of you have experienced great results.

Why look for questions and answers and try and re-invent the wheel when you know this will work very well for you-HARD WORK that is?!! There’s no way around it.

A week off can turn to a month off, and this can turn into a huge break. Lets not go there especially with Christmas coming up, NOW is the time to make the big physical improvements, and not after Christmas when you can hardly breathe because of the cold air and all the weight you have put on!

That’s why you can be a 52 week hero, that person who achieves that (allowing for the odd cold/illness, holiday etc) really is a hero in my book. When you think about it, how many people do you actually know who make that kind of commitment in their life to anything?

Someone who achieves this deserves all the benefits they get, because they quietly work at achieving at being the best they can be.

The time for talking a good game is over, its time to go for it for the next six weeks and do your best no matter what.

Twitt
Posted on

Friday, 8th November

It’s normally this time of year that things are starting to get really busy in terms of everyone’s individual commitments all the way up to Christmas.

I see some kids have exams starting one maths exam Monday, I know there’s a build up to the main exams before Christmas, and I know there’s plenty of exams after Christmas.

I know of many mother’s in the gym who are getting stressed by the run up to Christmas, school plays are happening in three weeks or so, and there’s plenty of other commitments.

Then you have the usual pile up of sporting commitments with games called off because of the non-stop rain. This adds to the stress of non stop games needing to be played. This can interfere a lot with everyone’s commitments and training.

The main point here is TIME or lack of it!!! This is why I have to convince people that even 20-30 minutes sessions are still very valuable, especially when you are time-crunched!

The goal should be to make time to exercise, however short. What matters really is what you do in that allotted time, and great workouts can easily be achieved.

What you need to have is a proper plan, set out over the week and implemented with commitment.

These are the most popular workouts I do this time of year so I will give you much more detail next week!

Twitt
Posted on

Thursday, 7th November

Making changes to your programme must happen from time to time, many successful athletes go on 12 weeks blocks of training, and then this is part of a 12 month plan when training changes every 12 weeks.

This is because they are usually competing in a certain athletic event, that allows them to peak for that event gradually, and afterwards they will taper their training to recover from all that effort.

The changes that you should make should be a lot simpler unless you compete in regular events of course.

For example, if you are sticking to the same programme week in week out, for the whole 12 months, then obviously you need to change because your progress may be stuck in low gear! You are probably bored, you go through the motions and exercise is something you probably “just do from time to time”, rather than something you enjoy and excel at.

I try to break it down to 4 week intervals when assessing an individual’s training through regular measurements. When you assess someone so regularly, you quickly get to know them very well. If they put on body fat over 4 weeks, then there is a significant problem straight away. Things need to change usually across the board and quickly. This arrests a potential longer term decline, and sorts the situation there and then.

This is a big reason why we measure every 4 weeks, and don’t let it drag on fearing bad news. Most people do well every measurement, but when you go the wrong way in terms of waist size and body fat, then its time to fix it right now and set your programme and dietary plan accordingly!

This is why we have stepped up the email support too. Constantly reminding individuals what is expected of them, and most importantly what they expect of THEMSELVES, is vital to make sure that RESULTS are the top priority, and going through the motions is totally unacceptable!!

www.kerimckibbin.co.uk

Twitt