Posted on

Friday, 17th May

Apologies about the lack of posts the last couple of days, but again we have had security issues on the site, with people trying to log in illegally, but hopefully we are back to normal now!

That back to normal statement in exercise terms doesn’t and shouldn’t exist really, because your exercise programme should be a constantly moving project, and nothing should remain the same for long.

If you have been reading this for any length of time, then you will know that we are focused on results, and you should also know by now that you have to change the exercises and intensity of what you do often, not only for results but for variety too, which keeps everything fresh and exciting!

If you are sticking to just machines in your training, then the movements you are practicing are limiting you in all sorts of ways. Chances are that your body is moving in one plane of motion all the time, when it could be moving over the full 360 degrees in all sorts of different exercises if you are willing to be shown, and open your mind to a different and more rewarding way of training?!!!

Machines can be fine for certain movements,but i strongly encourage you to mix things up far more, and give yourself a richer experience when you train, and all the time you will be further along the path of not only getting much better results, but ENJOYING your training far more too!!!

It’s time you switched to ropes, medicine balls, wall balls, harnesses, bungees, agility ladders, hurdles, tyres, swiss balls, bosu balls and that’s JUST THE START!!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday, 14th May

Leaving yourself no other option but to succeed is crucial to your success, and a big secret to achieving for the long term too.

If you give yourself too many options sometimes, then you’re always going to struggle.

For instance, if you are planning to do a workout tonight, and you start going through your mind that “maybe” you should leave it tonight, “after all you have to get the shopping, cut the lawn, clean the kitchen etc”, then the workout can easily be left.

Then you may say lets do it tomorrow? Then what happens is that maybe someone has invited you out, invited you for a drink, for pizza or just to have a chat, then the workout suddenly gets moved to Thursday.

Then one of your children tells you that they have parents evening and you HAVE to go of course! Then it gets to Friday, and then you come out with the oldest excuse in the book, “no point in starting back on a Friday, I’ll start back next week”!!!

This is a great example of you not prioritizing your workouts enough, and you can see it wont take much for “other” things to take priority!!!

The basic message of this is to put your workouts as something you MUST do (recipe for success), rather something you plan to do AS LONG as something else doesn’t come up (recipe for failure).

Ask yourself would you miss an appointment with the doctor, dentist or solicitor? Your workouts need to be considered just as important, as you will be looking after your health and there’s nothing more important.

Prioritise your exercise today and you will automatically get much better results!

Twitt
Posted on

Friday, 10th May

If you’re tired of your week by friday, then today is the ideal time to try something different!

Throw what you planned to do in the bin, and do something you weren’t planning to do.

For example, if you are a big weight trainer, and like nothing more than benching big, working chest and arms on a friday, then you should be really changing it tonight to do something different.

You could try a spinning bike for a change, how about doing a heavy punch bag session, what about finding out how well the rowing machine can work you, or how about doing some speed work outside?

You may well avoid these exercises because you are comfortable with what you are doing right now, and maybe have done for years and years.

If this is the case, then all the more reason to change!

Most people are scared of change because they do not really know what’s going to happen.

I can assure though that if you do take my advice and change right now, you will benefit in all sorts of ways.

You will develop new all round fitness levels, your lung capacity will get better, you variety of workouts wil explode, and you will likely enjoy your training a lot more than previously!!

This method of changing things up will serve you well, and keep you from hitting training plateau’s that are all too common in most people’s training lives.

So friday is the perfect time to change it all up, be aggressive with your training again, feel rejuvenated and more optimistic about your future progress all in one go!!

Twitt
Posted on

Wednesday,1st May

The first of may is typically the day we all want to be in good shape by!

If you think way back to those dark, freezing wet winter nights, then the first of may was the time we all thought would be warm (it’s getting warmer anyway!), and we would be wearing less clothes,so we could really show off our hard work done in the winter.

I can verify the fact that many individuals are rightly proud of their progress throughout the winter, and are hitting new highs right now! There is nothing more exciting than being at the stage that they are now. Most of them have failed to get into shape for the summer, and were determined to achieve it this year through a series of well-planned efforts done on a consistent basis.

Then of course i appreciate there is the other side of the fence, and i appreciate the concerns, the worries of those who haven’t achieved what they wanted so far this year. There is no need to worry though because i’m here to help, and if you are willing to give it your best for let’s say 12 weeks, then there’s every chance you could be looking and feeling signifiantly better the end of july!!!

You need to commit to training 3-4 times a week, you need to strength train at least twice a week, you need to incrementally challenge yourself every week, you need to drnk alcohol in moderation (once a week max), you need to get to bed early most nights, and you need to stay positive when things don’t always go your way-perhaps the most underrated part out of all of these!!

So are yo ready? Decide right now and do it!!!!!!!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Monday, 29th April

Catherine asks me to post about the “insanity” workouts that are heavily advertised on satellite tv, and what did i think of them?

Here’s my thoughts based on what i have heard off others doing it, and what i have seen in the advertisements.

The people i know that have been through it are based into two camps i find.

Camp one is the minority in terms of numbers, but they say that it works well for them, but they are usually extremely fit people to begin with and usually involved heavily in sports. They do say though that they only do it 3 times a week maximum, because doing the 6 times a week schedule as recommended would “kill them”.

Camp two i find have tried it, enjoyed parts of it, but a large percentage of it they either cannot do, or have got injured attempting some of the movements. They find the schedule impossble at times to keep up with, and are often too sore the next day to keep up with the next workouts.

Both camps found that it remained part of their workout programme for a small amount of time, and the dvd’s were now hidden away in he cupboard, once they got back to conventional exercising.

My own opinion? First of all, i see a lot of jumping (plyometric) type of exercises which can destroy your joints and lead to injury, always a bad idea. I only recommend jumping exercises for teenagers mostly, and thats when they are involved in sports. They can create all sorts of problems for the average person.

Most professional trainers will introduce an exercise programme to you GENTLY, and this means gradually buildng you up. Insanity looks too much like a “get into it full steam ahead” type of workout that doesn’t care what type of shape you are in before you start it. Some of the exercises seem downright dangerous to me, but there are parts of it that are good in principle.

I would have a thorough checkup medically before you consider starting it, and i cannot imagine anyone really doing it long term due to the associated risks.

Of course they say people have great results on it, but this is due to the skills of the marketing people of the company proting insanity! These types of products have paid actors, who usually get out of shape deliberately (they take a photo at this stage), then start eating really well, don’t drink alcohol, get a tan suddenly and train like they have never trained before for 3-4 months!! Then they take the “after” photograph!

This goes on all the time so i wouldn’t trust the so called results section at all!!!

Anyway, its a free country so anyone can attempt this, but now you have my thoughts to allow you to make an informed decision!

Twitt