Posted on

Thursday, 7th February

Thinking about your programme in a healthy way is not only important, it will unburden you of unnecessary pressure.

If you just look around you, how many of your friends, work colleagues, family, people you sort of know etc are trying different ways to lose weight/get into shape?

Most of you can probably list 5 ways that people use or have used to lose weight. Most of them will be classed as unsuccessful or not sustainable.

This will often be classed as a waste of time and money.

Then there are all sorts of so called celebrities that people want to look like. This will involve using unhealthy methods to get there such as starving yourself, using a liquid shake diet, and generally putting a “particular look” much further ahead than one’s health!

If you use short term and often dangerous thinking to get into shape, then you need to re-think that strategy right now, and change it right now. Use HEALTH as your number one goal, and the rest of the way you WANT to look will happen in its own natural way.

How can you go wrong if you mostly eat good natural food every day?

How can you go wrong if you drink 1.5-2 litres of water a day, and drink alcohol just once a week?

How can you go wrong if you exercise a minimum of 3 times a week, and improve on a regular basis, however small?

These changes will lead to your clothes feeling better, you will have far more energy in your life, AND YOUR HEALTH will be in terrific shape!!!

Forget all the faddy things you often read in the papers and magazines, they are trying to sensationalise your most important subject-your health!!! If you’re sensible and use your common sense, you will always remain on the right track and achieve the big results you always wanted!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday, 5th February

The power of exercise can never be understated.

I hear strong anecdotal evidence of this all the time.

I was with one lady this morning who has been ill for a couple of weeks, yet today after her first session, she felt so inspired that she has already plannned the rest of the week’s workouts, and she feels fantastic purely because she feels energy coming back in her life for the first time since christmas!

Exercise clearly means a lot to her.

Without seeming like a sexist comment, how many of you have felt like doing the housework after exercising because of the abundance of energy you felt come through your body? I have met a ton of people who felt exactly like this.

How many of you have been a student of some sort, and done markedly better in exams and your studies in general after you discover exercise for the first time. There is more than anecdotal evidence on this, there is scientific evidence on this matter in schools and colleges up and down the country!

How many of you feel low in energy if YOU DO NOT do your workout?!!! I know i do for one!!!

How many of you feel a huge sense of accomplishment if you run up a hill for the first time, especially if you consider most of you probably couldnt even run 30 yards when you first started?!!! These signs and evidence of progress are huge for your self confidence and self esteem, and spur you on to go and achieve even more!!!

How many have you experienced the exercise “high” during your workout? This is very common especially when you are having a great session, and is very much part of why we train. Anything that tends to make us feel better we tend to do more of, this is why workouts should be a normal and regular part of our lives!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Wednesday, 30th January

Training diaries and records are vital for you unless you have a photographic memory and you can remember pretty much everything you do from session to session!

Some of the most successful individuals I know and train keep a record of everything, from their training to their 7 days eating typically.

The eating plans tend to be done once only every couple of months, or especially the sudden gaining of a little weight!!

The training record though would typically be kept in a little book, and some of these books can go on for years I have seen! The thinking behind it all is that you will have a roadmap on where you have been, and indeed where you intend to go from where you are now.

Also, if you have no plan, no past workout history, and you workout in a haphazard fashion, then your results are never likely to be as impressive as you would like.

Your body responds well to a good routine too.

For example, if you are doing 10 press ups for week one on a Monday and Thursday for example, then pushing that figure from 10 to 12 won’t seem that too much of a stretch.

The week after 12-15 won’t seem that bad, and the week after that, 15-18 won’t be a superhuman effort.

From these examples, its easy to see how people get to doing 25-30 press ups through this system of gradual progression.

The thought of going from 10 to 30 press ups in one go is frightening, and indeed pretty much impossible!!! Doing this gradually and in a methodical way is the ONLY way in my book.

The training diary lets you record this in black and white, and as I have always told you, when you write your goals down in black and white they are 80% more achievable!!

Your training diary is not only a practical way to record your progress, but is much more likely to see you achieving great things with your body and health in general!!

Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday, 29th January

According to the media today, the average length of a diet and exercise programme after christmas is now down to just one month!!!

This is sad statistic and everyone should be alarmed about it.

Reasons for quitting an exercise programme include losing interest in what they were doing, too cold to train, too wet to train and a general feeling it was a waste of time.

To me, i can actually sympathise with people who feel like this, because the exercise part is presented by most establishments IS BORING!!!

To me, if you are a big gym and presenting a programme, how do you expect your members to enjoy something that the other 3000 members are doing (apparently it takes 3000 members for these gyms to break even after taking into account rent, equipment etc!). General, boring, re-hashing of the same rubbish DOES NOT WORK and is not EXCITING for pretty much anyone with a brain!!! This is why most if not all of the big gyms (you can read the business pages in any newspaper every day to see how badly they are doing), DO NOT retain most of their members.

This is why you see their adverts outside or inside supermarkets all the time, 18 year olds selling you direct debits outside shops with no interest if you improve or not, all they want is your money.

So this is why according to the media today, peope lose interest and are about to quit or will quit by thursday at the latest.

The same goes for diet clubs, channel 4 did a big expose on weight watchers last night, and there is great alarm at the amount people spend on the diets over the years! Glad to see the authorities are finally catching up with these people who have cheated people out of their hard earned money over the years!!

My mission is to help people out, put them on the right path and retain individuals for years, and not just month on a contract you cannot get out of!!! You retain people by getting constant results, and this is what we should all strive for by making innovative and inventive programmes for everybody!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Monday, 28th January

When you are choosing which way to get fit, its vital to cut through the rubbish, the marketing, the false promises in the making, the methods or lack of them that have let you down every time in the past.

There is more terminology regarding exercise than ever before, in fact a mind boggling amount that only confuses most people.

Body sculpt, tabata, zumba, body bump, burn and tone, are just a few of the ways that certain places try to confuse you by presenting classes that are nothing new whatsoever, it actually boggles even my mind on how exotic sounding names of classes often just include rowing machines, squat thrusts and a couple of dumbbells.

Insult to intelligence are the words that come to mind to me anyway, and here’s why!!!

When i start off with someone for the first time, it takes me at least 3 sessions to see what exercises will work best for them, what may cause a problem for them, what they may be good at and what will give them the most benefits.

Simply throwing someone into a class that often has to take into account 25 different people’s abilities is something no trainer can do successfully. This is why so many people get injured during exercise, because there are so many different abilities in one class, people trying to keep up and often in pain, people in the middle and then you often have the show off’s at the top of the class (who tend to be the small minority).

So whichever way you choose to get into shape, i urge you to get properly assessed first, get a professional to check your movement out, your medical history, any limiting factors in your body, what you have done in the past that’s been positive and negative, work it all out and go into depth.

After you have done all of these things, then you are ready to start on a path of sustainable success.

Twitt