Posted on

Wednesday, 2nd April

The recovery of our members/athletes depends on a number of factors.

First of all, if you are beginning your exercise journey, then its always advisable to start gently. If you begin with more gentle training sessions, then you will need less recovery as you are breaking down less muscle tissue.

Once you begin training harder, you will be giving much more of an effort, so your recovery and how you handle it becomes much more important.

A really tough session will require you to put much more emphasis on eating really highly quality nutritious food. This will serious help you to replenish your energy levels and the broken down muscle tissue from your exercise session.

Then don’t forget, you will need to exercise a few times a week so you need to get ready for the next one.

This is why sleeping really well in the week becomes paramount.

Most people don’t realise that your body actually improves and repairs itself in your sleep. Its in your deep sleep that you really develop your biggest gains.

You can see a massive difference between those who eat and sleep well, compared to those who don’t pay attention to their food and always keep late nights.

I see a big difference between those who travel a lot for a living because eating on the road often means eating hotel food, petrol stations snacks etc which will do absolutely nothing for your performance in training (because you wont have the energy and wont feel up to it), and usually lead to weight gain.

This can become a vicious circle.

The equation to success is food and drink, training and eating, sounds simple but not many people get it right all the time.

This is what we are here for.

Twitt
Posted on

Monday, 31st March

Training with purpose is the most important state of mind you need to get into when you enter the gym.

If you are half-hearted, not know what you are doing, feel lost when you are in the exercise environment, then its worth you spending time with me and let me develop your programme from start to finish again.

Most if not all people, I go through it time and time again with them.

We all get stuck, we all feel as if we could go to another level but really don’t know how at times how to pull it off.

We all remember great workouts we have had recently, but we may have lost our mojo on how to get those great feelings back of exercising so well. We all have “purple patches” of exercise, its important not to let them slide into a distant memory.

Regular good periods of exercise and food will guarantee you success every time, and self-monitoring, as well as me doing it will only help you continue to succeed ALL of the time.

This is why exercise diaries can be so valuable and record how well we have progressed, and quite often exactly why we have done so well. A small little notebook is often kept by the most productive of athletes, because they want to keep their roadmap of success fresh in their minds!

You may train harder when you workout with your favourite training partner, you probably work quite a bit harder when you train with me, so its always productive when you create the right training environment.

Not knowing what you are doing, going through the motions, just watching the clock when you exercise is not acceptable to me and it should definitely not be acceptable for you! Keep changing your programme and continually consult me about it, because that’s what I do full stop!

Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday, 25th March

Our measurements keep on being one of the most important parts of our system.

If you don’t check everyone all of the time, then anyone can slide back and lead to a more destructive slide. The way I see as we do it once a month, any temporary spell of bad eating is stopped right in its tracks.

Lots of individuals “secret eat” usually to avoid stressful situations, or react to someone upsetting them regularly. This is a mechanism to deal with stress of any kind, which in turn leads to even more stress with the body fat and weight gain.

Then you beat yourself up about it because you know you shouldn’t have overeaten, then it becomes a vicious cycle.

Your self-esteem will keep on dropping until you arrest the decline by taking steps to change the way you eat, and avoiding the triggers that push you over the edge all the time into making bad choices, such as avoiding negative people or influences in your life.

This is why snacking healthily is important in between meals. If you just have three big meals, then the temptation to snack with chocolate or pastries can be huge because you have to long in between meals and your sugar levels can drop considerably, causing an urge for a quick fix, this can soon become a bad habit, and eventually be a way of life that’s highly destructive to your chances of sustainable body fat loss.

All of us have had bad measurements from time, some deeply upsetting, but it’s how we bounce back strongly from them that shapes our character, and makes our future health much more sustainable and likely to be very strong.

Twitt
Posted on

Monday, 24th March

A very real danger out there that gets swept under the carpet is the number of people calorie “restricting” and put themselves into starvation mode all in the name of looking “thinner”! These diets never ever work long term and cause misery all in the name of a “quick fix”.

The side effects both physically and emotionally are staggering.

From powder and shakes diets, with one meal a day thrown in, to so called fat burners and diets in the 1200 to 1400 calories a day (starvation mode and deeply damaging), they are trying to put your health at severe risk all in the name of ripping you off for a lot of money. Diets under 1200 calories a day are very dangerous, very damaging and your health is at risk full stop.

Most people who try to lose weight cut their calories far too quick and by too much and the side effects can sound like a horror story.

Many people who go through this according to the NHS, and other leading health organisations want you to know the real story on what happens and the very real side effects.

Just some:

Loss of strength and muscle mass/tone

Depression

Weakening bone density

Diminished energy and sex drive

Hormonal disruption, and lower testosterone in both men and women.

Most people who go through it look horrible afterwards, looking scrawny, have zero energy with no muscle tone. The weight
inevitably comes back on once you go through it every single time.

Most responsible health professionals will get you to lose weight slowly and steadily, 1-2 pounds a week is what most doctors recommend.

Please don’t become another victim of these scam artists who don’t care about the consequences for you and many others.

Twitt
Posted on

Monday, 24th March

A little known fact is that women recover quicker from their training than men.

The same with weight training or any other type of training.

Women produce more of the chemical that provides the energy to allow your muscles to work better, faster than men do.

Women also will experience less muscle soreness in the day after your workout, women will feel the soreness quicker but the pain and soreness will last more in the man.

This is what I have found over the years, in my experience a lot of men have had to have more time and rest in between workouts, while many of the women keep on coming back for more and recover quicker.

Another technical issue that separates men versus women reaction to exercise is that women will have a little more inflammation than men from a tough workout.

Your body then has to repair the broken down muscle tissue to build lean muscle tissue, and this is a great reason for your body to speed up its metabolism because it has to work hard in recovery.

This means your body will eventually burn more calories just resting 24 hours a day. When people talking about raising your metabolism, this would be a very good example so you are likely to stay leaner without working so hard for it in the future.

This is why strength training is so important for all of us to do, it sets us up to leaner, harder and strengthens our bones too.

Once your body does repair inside, the chances are that the same workout will not cause the same level of soreness again, and your body will become to crave strength work as the results start coming in fast.

Twitt