Keri McKibbin Personal Training

Chris has asked a good follow up question so I though I’d post this one too.

I am confused on fat loss programmes, the gym machines seem to have lots of different programmes on there, but I seem to find the “fat-burning” programme very easy and don’t even break into a sweat?

Here’s one of my favourite and least favourite subjects at the same time! It always makes me laugh when they put these ‘”fat burning” programmes on the machines. Are they suggesting that the rest of the programme don’t burn fat? Do they suggest that the rest of the programmes are for very specific purposes only? The reality is that this is a very gimmicky way of training so don’t listen to their claims, most of these so called programmes are to make the machine seem a little more interesting, and keep some variety in there. You can measure your heart rate during exercise, and I measure all my clients, but if you find that difficult, look to put a 8 or 9 out of 10 effort each time you train and you will be doing very well, now THAT is the intensity you really want to be reaching in your workout, not what some made up routine on a machine that doesn’t work you that hard in the first place.

I addressed some of this in my previous post “do I need to work over 20 minutes to burn fat?”. If you think about this logically, any exercise will burn fat and you don’t need to be working for hugely long periods of time to burn fat, it’s what you do and not how long you work for. The fat-burning programmes you speak of usually encourage you to work at low intensity for lengthy periods, that’s why you never get into a sweat as you say and you are being short-changed of a great workout potentially.

The good news is that you can make any programme a “fat-burning” programme, all you have to do is make the effort worthwhile and exercise with purpose. If you are not really pushing yourself, and simply doing the workout at a slow leisurely pace, you need to up the intensity to truly burn fat as they say. If you’re working on a treadmill, increase the speed, or increase the incline. If you are doing weights or resistance exercise, add the weight progressively to increase intensity, and cut your rest in between sets down, that’s why I encourage you to work in a circuit style as seen in previous posts. See my interval training post, that’s got some solid training ideas in there to truly burn fat and quickly.

You know deep down chris that those “fat-burning” workouts that seem to last for really long periods at low intensity don’t really work, are hugely boring, take most of your evening up, and you need to buckle down and make improvements if you really want the changes for the better you are obviously looking for.

I have posted lots of examples of workouts already, and hopefully you can see that the theme is relatively brief workouts, but done at a higher intensity. You don’t have to work yourself until you’re blue in the face, but you do need to work slightly out of any comfort zone you may be in right now. Look for constant improvements, keep a training journal over the next 12 weeks, and you may be surprised at what you’re doing in week 12, compared to week 1.

Try some outside workout, can’t beat the fresh air and you can get a different scenery each time!

Let me know how you get on!

Keri

A good question has come through from Chris, someone who like many others, has been viewing the site and has finally posted! Question is

Which exercise is better, walking or running?

There is no straight answer to this one Chris as I like to look at the big picture. The easiest to answer is this. If someone is new to training or wants to get started running, it can be intimidating and downright hard to say the least, anyone who has done it can testify to this!

Also, you may have a problem with your knee/ankle/back, and if this is the case, then I would advise walking to start with, make sure you get a good set of running shoes (although you won’t be running) as all the best technology and support goes into running shoes, they don’t have to expensive either, there’s always pairs on sale at any sports shop and sometimes you can get an excellent pair for around £40. What you want to spend is up to you, but bear in mind they mostly last for around 500 miles so you need to change them regularly, that is the true secret.

They used to say I would be a cripple by the time I was 35, however I change my shoes every 8 weeks now through picton sports in Llanelli, and im feeling better than ever at recently turning 41. I change them so often because my running would be considered excessive by many, but it is a big part of my job! So having proper training shoes is absolutely vital, or you will invite injuries.

Back to the question of walking versus running. I would say that an average person usually finds running for any length of time to begin with too difficult, so walking quickly is achievable and will soon get most people out of breath. Then, I would move them on to hills to drive up the intensity of the workout and this again, can be very tough!

Then, I find as long as there are no prior injuries or knee complaints etc, a lot of individuals want to step it up and achieve some running targets. I start with maybe running for 20 yards, walking for 50 yards, running for 20, walking for 50 and son on. Over a 6 week period, it could easily become running for 150 yards, walking for 50 yards, running for 150 and so on. People progress at different rates depending on ability, motivation, dietary habits etc, but with some well thought out and progressive training, the results will be very good.

I would only attempt to run a maximum of twice a week to start, to get your joints used to the extra load (the pressure can be 3 times your body weight). When you get up to around 20 minutes of constant running on the flat, I would suggest trying to bring in interval training (see my recent post on that), sprints on flat and sprints up hills over shorter distances (see previous posts on training for sports). These forms of training not only relieve boredom, but they cam bring you some tremendous results.

I have some individuals who are very good walkers too and just love walking. They start off on flat of course, then they work on rolling hills, and then they work up to some very demanding hills and even mountains. I have had a couple of people walk/climb up some very  famous peaks in the world, so the sky’s the limit.

So back to the question which is better, I would say both are very good depending on personal preference. I would say that most have a desire to run, but I have some who hate running and love to cycle. I have some who love to swim. I have some who hate an audience and love to work inside with weights and body weight exercises. I am fully aware that many people have ailments that make running not very attractive. It is up to me to make sure they have a programme that they can still get into amazing shape with. Anyone who has trained with me will know after a good period of conditioning, I seek out the highest hills and some of the most demanding terrains. There’s plenty of them around the Llanelli, burry port and gower area’s so take your pick and see what you can do.

Another point, I would use the level of intensity as your guide to your workout. Think 1 as very easy, and 10 as working at your max. If you can get a 8 or 9 out of a walking workout, then that’s fantastic, and the same with running. It’s the effort you put in that counts and not necessarily if its walking or running. If you have an issue with your knees, choose non weight bearing such as cycling and swimming, walking may be okay too but running may be inviting trouble.

Up to you and let me know how you get on and good luck on the challenge next week!

Keri

Questions are coming in again so this is from Rhian who has just joined the site and wants advice on using the machines in the gym.

I have responding by telling her to build up gradually and the first month should be about building up slowly, and generally improving your general conditioning. It’s virtually impossible to go into a 6 day a week schedule if you haven’t done anything for some time. Your body will take time to get used to it’s new activities. Also, if you begin too quick, you are putting yourself at high risk of getting injured and will probably lose your enthusiasm very quickly.

So the perfect start for you rhian would be two resistance workouts per week, and two cardiovascular workouts (working heart and lungs more).

I have responded to your comments on my gym based workouts  posted some days ago, where you posted your question, and i have given guidance on using the machines you requested, such as the rower, exercise bike, stepper etc. I really think you should really make sure you form on the machines is first class before seriously upping your efforts on them. Proper form on ANY exercise is vital, and i cannot preach it enough.

So on a typical week, i would suggest this (i’m not exactly sure of your current physical condition but i’m playing it safe and taking it slow)

Monday and Thursday-start off with a 10 minute warm up on bike

Resistance workout

Chest press

Lat pulldowns

Lateral raises

Leg extensions

Leg curls

Tricep pushowns

Dumbbell curls

Aim for 8 repetitions on each exercise, start of just one set of each first week, two the second week and three the third week, keep it there then for a while and aim to increase the intensity of each exercise by adding a little more weight.

In your first 3 weeks, i would finish off with a rower for 5 minutes on the monday (noting your metres pulled), and finish off with the bike for 10 mins on the thursday, noting how many metres you have travelled, should be on the screen in front of you.

Tuesday and Friday

Your own personal triathlon

Depending on current ability and don’t be afraid to finish after 5 mins on each exercise, we all have to start/start back somewhere and the only way is up!

Start off with 10 minutes on bike

10 minutes on stepper/x trainer

Then 7 minutes on rower to finish

This should be more than enough to start with, try and increase intensity each week as you go along, but don’t push yourself too hard for the first 3 weeks. Go along at your own pace and the first month is never time for heroics!

Try and walk every other day on your own, especially the weekend, when there is more daylight and nothing better than fresh air!!

My own personal opinion would be that you could also use the home based workouts seen in my previous posts. They can be just as hard, sometimes even harder, you don’t have to travel from your house and they always get done. Some people on the other hand like going to the gym to get out of the house so totally up to you?

There are also endless outside workouts you can do and i have an endless list of those, so just ask.

The best thing about non-gym workouts is that they are free, you are only competing with yourself and you can tell us all about your progress on here, where others can help and encourage you, including me of course!

Any problems, let me know!

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

Had some emails in so i’m going to do a great gym circuit that works, and is very much using the same principles of the home workout, which really works too of course!

Select 6-8 exercises again, trying to work each body part in each circuit, and try to do a total of 3 circuits if your fitness allows. Take sips of water in between each circuit, and use good form in each exercise, no cheating or using too much weight for the sake of it!!

Use 8-10 reps for each exercise, and i like 12-15 reps on the leg exercises, you will get out of breath so scale down the weight you normally use, over the weeks that weight will go back up slowly as your fitness improves.

Bench press (chest)

One arm dumbbell rowing (back)

Upright rows (shoulders)

Leg press (legs)

Arm dips (using bench) (triceps)

Dumbbell curls (arms)

Sit ups (do as many as possible)

So basically, you will be using the same principles as the home circuit (see my previous posts), and if you really put a good effort in, you will get an excellent sweat and really get out of breath. Plus you will be breaking down muscle tissue, as you should now by now will raise your metabolism significantly (burn more calories 24 hours a day!).

Other examples would be

Pec deck

Lat pulldowns

Lateral raises

Leg extensions

Leg curls

Plank-Aim for 1 minute eventually (the gold standard)

Alternate squat thrusts-your best effort on each one, it’s a great exercise!

Your combination of circuits is only limited by your imagination. The bottom line is i repeat, DO EACH EXERCISE IN PROPER FORM, not simply so quick as just to finish it, or you won’t get the results you want!

I would do these circuits in the gym on a monday, wednesday and a friday (use the 48 hours in between each circuit to your advantage). These are over quickly but bring some big results to your body’s firmness and stamina levels. All good stuff!

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.

Training in the house

You should be looking at doing 3 workouts on your own if training in the house, and by that I mean working with resistance. That doesn’t have to be massive weights, or a stepper you never ever use, I’m talking about honest, simple exercises using your own bodyweight that work you very effectively indeed.

You need to pick 6-8 exercises when you are used to doing your home circuits, but even 4-5 exercises to start can be highly effective. The great thing about circuits too is that you are only limited by your imagination when designing your workouts. The goal is to work each body part in each workout and this is always easier than you think.

A press up for instance works not only your chest, but your shoulders, arms, back and legs even, and the all important core of your body (especially your lower back and stomach).

If you do a squat, it not only works your legs but your whole body in a way because of the energy demands it makes, your legs are your body’s biggest muscle group and therefore require most energy to work them, which in turn burns more calories. Also, when you develop your lean muscle tissue, your body demands more calories because one pound of lean muscle tissue burns up to 50 calories a day. One pound of fat for instance only burns two calories per day.

You can see that being leaner, and more shapely has many more benefits than you thought and starting a home fitness programme will very much get you on that track.

I’m going to give you plenty of options for your home circuits, and ones that are guaranteed to work every time, and get that all important metabolism going at a very quick rate, something a lot of you may not have experienced for a long time.

That’s 3 days a week covered (typically Monday, Wednesday and Friday), the other 2 days at least, I’m going to ask you to do some heart and lungs work (easiest way to describe it). This could be brisk walking, running, cycling, swimming, anything that gets your heart and lungs going. This again gets your metabolism going again, puts a lot of vital oxygen in your blood, and gets the all important process of fat-burning going again, just as the inside workouts do.

Again, the range of heart and lungs activities you do are only limited by your imagination and pick out your favourites. There are huge benefits though by mixing them up too. For example, you could do a cycle on a Sunday, and a swim on a Thursday? Or if you are running, mix your routes up to make it more fun, and combine longer routes with some shorter sprints, which really confuse the body and help you blast through plateaus.

Over the coming days, as I said, you will have lots of options thrown at you, if you are new to exercise, always make sure you get doctor’s approval before beginning any exercise programme. For the rest of you, no matter how experienced you are, it’s important to have a good structure in your exercise programme, once you have, you can then measure your progress. If you are improving most weeks or at least making a decent improvement every month, you will know your programme is working and this helps keep you motivated.

You will see a million faddy exercise gadgets and programmes, just like you will a million faddy diets, this one will work because the fundamentals of it are sound, based on science and tried and tested.

Keri.

After a weekend in london, its always great to have been away, but great to have arrived back too. The main point of this post is about the eternal question;

1. Shall i take my kit on holiday/weekend break?

2. Do i even think about taking my kit?

3. I always take my kit away!

You can possibly guess that i now always take my kit away, in the past, often i didn’t and paid the price when i came home. The “price” would be a wheezing chest, shortness of breath, weight gain and generally feeling not so good and sluggish. That is exactly the reason i take my kit away, i simply want to FEEL better when i come back, its that simple, and i really don’t want to be a few pounds heavier after just a couple of days away!

So the bottom line was i did two runs, both at 5.45am on saturday and sunday, only for 25 minutes and after a shower, i felt incredibly better after pounding oxford street when only the cleaners were around, and some coming home after a night out!! It was freezing in a pair of shorts but that feeling only lasted around 5 minutes, and it did have some strange looks!!

Another question you may ask, why are you so “boring” to run on a break? First of all, it’s part of my lifestyle and i want to feel better and well, as listed above, and isn’t it more boring to whinge about how many pounds you’ve put on after a trip, and complaining how bad you feel? Not exactly entertaining is it! I’ve been in both camps and i can assure you that feeling great is number one by a mile!! When you make the commitment to look after yourself, you take every opportunity to look and feel your best, i didn’t always have this mindset, but so glad i do now!

We all eat richer food on holiday, we may drink a bit/lot more. It needs to get worked out of our systems sometime or another, there’s no time like the present so let’s make it happen!

Keri

Ok, we have got through friday night, we have reduced our takeaways or not even had them at all!! What about today, i never really do fried breakfasts but what about you?

What about eating out lunch time, or the weekly visit to the chip shop?

What about the binge you usually do on a saturday, the extra beer, the extra wine, the extra starter, main course and dessert?!! Saturday night pizza anyone?!

What about all the extra stuff you do whilst you shop, “that won’t hurt, that doesn’t really matter, and there’s only 200 calories in this ready meal”!!

Once a week, the “cheat meal” doesn’t really matter as it will keep your sanity from the rigours of the week but i’m telling you now that as most of the people i have trained notice, once you eat well, you’re not so tempted to go mad ALL weekend because you will have negative side effects, like i said i suffer from wheezing from sugary/fatty food, and by sunday night i will feel like a 90 year old who has smoked all his life, if i have 3 days of eating badly, plus i can easily put on a few pounds, and then monday morning runs are not a great feeling at all, in fact they can be downright horrible and a massive struggle.

I encourage you this weekend to feel what it’s really like to cut down a little bit if you have an excess weekend, and let me know how good it feels on monday morning? Do you feel lighter, do your workouts feel better, are you motivated to do better because things are suddenly “easier”?!

Let’s work through this weekend by analysing each day, this is saturday so let’s see what happens!!

P.S. If you are in the supermarket, have a look in other people’s trolleys and look at the person pushing it, the trolley will be full of good or bad food, this will often tell you if that person is in shape or not! A fun game for you this weekend!

Have fun whatever you do!

Keri

Regular poster on here Cyril has asked some very important questions this week, and i think everyone needs to know the answers.

He asks “how much should i lose in the programmes posted here”?

The answer would be that the best way to think about it is in times of inches and body fat. We all have become slaves to the scales over the years, judging our success by a few pounds lost here and there, and when we put a few on, we shoot ourselves in the foot by “stress eating” again. It’s always better to look at your weight maybe once a week, or even once a month.

Once a month i measure clients and if you’re doing this at home, measure key things like your waist, or even better get someone to do it for you. Measure your waist and here’s a good test. If your waist is less than half your height in inches, then you are fit and healthy and likely to avoid serious disease, or at least improve your chances significantly!

For example, if Cyril was 5 ft 10 inches, that would be 70 inches. If his waist was 40 inches, he clearly needs to bring that down under 35 inches to really be close to his better health. If you were 5ft 4 inches, that would be 64 inches, so you would need to be 32 inch waist or below to be really healthy.

This is a simple guide to being healthy and takes all of 2 minutes, if that! Try this test and let me know how you get on. Waist to height ratio has a direct relationship to heart health so this is pretty important you check on this regular.

Plus this won’t play games with your mind! As long as your waist is coming down to the healthy range, then you are making good progress. Chances are too that your weight will eventually come down in relative terms! And you will feel MUCH, MUCH better!

The other question i was asked was about lack of motivation this time of year. The days are short, we are having an unbelievable amount of rain, wind and cold and it’s not even proper winter yet!!!

I would go back to one of my first posts under motivation. The DRIVING FORCE post was pretty powerful i think, and it will remind you of what you really want in life, what makes you do things and i will tell you one big thing i tell all my clients, this time of year IS THE TRUE SECRET of getting in shape. While others are giving up and saying “what’s the point”, here’s the time to absolutely put 200% effort in and really raise your standards!!

Another plus is that you won’t have the post christmas blues of ill health and being so overweight, you will have had a great run in to christmas and really be proud of yourself that for the first time in a long time, you managed to stick to something really worthwhile and you will reap the benefits before and after christmas, TRUST ME!!

Another SECRET for you, motivation doesn’t last!!! Strong structures do and that’s what i am encouraging. Nobody gets out of bed every day feeling amazing, but if you eat healthily, cut out the rubbish, don’t drink alcohol in the week, get to bed early, workout 4-5 times per week, the chances of you feeling amazing are SIGNIFICANTLY better!!

So in summing up, don’t see this time of year as a barrier, see it as another challenge that when you overcome it, YOU WILL GET HUGE AMOUNTS OF SELF-ESTEEM AND SELF-CONFIDENCE!! Please, please, please, try it out and let me know every day, every week until Christmas (5 weeks friday) how you get on, are you ready for this challenge and ready to change your life for good?!!!!

KERI