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Tuesday, 26th November

A nice story in the paper today about great rugby All black captain, Richie McCaw, was selected for under 19 trials and how his father in Christmas 1998, asked him if he wanted to become a full All black when he was older.

Naturally he said yes like all New Zealanders.

Then his father asked him if he wanted to become a “great all black”? And if he did to write it down on a napkin. McCaw was modest and nodded but just wrote G. A. B. on the napkin. He then took the napkin to his own notice board and hung it there to remind him. It meant little or nothing to anyone else who passed the board, but meant everything to him.

His father set him a target of 2004, but reached this lofty goal in 2001, ironically against Ireland winning 40-29, and last Sunday those teams shared one of the best ever games last Sunday, winning right at the death 24-22, and their win was largely down to the captaincy and calming influence under extreme pressure of McCaw, who has pretty much seen everything in his long career.

McCaw credits that napkin story with keeping his focus when it could have wavered. It was a big lesson in setting a goal and sticking to it, and actually WRITING THOSE GOALS DOWN.

Goals have been proven in studies at Harvard University to be 80% more achievable IF THEY ARE WRITTEN DOWN.

They found that they had students who would talk about their future goals by just talking about them, would in reality have only a 20% chance of being successful in those goals.

The ones in the studies who actually wrote the goals down, and in detail, were found to have an incredible 80% likelihood of achieving those goals when they left college.

When I ask everyone what they want to achieve from their programme, lots of people say “I want to lose weight”, “I want to get fitter” etc, but if you actually write your goals down in detail and what they mean to you, its only then they become much more real, attainable and then you can actually develop a step by step process to achieve them.

If you take the first step right now and write down what you really want, then you will then be able to develop a detailed plan with a TIME LIMIT and schedule it into your lifestyle. The time limit part is vital and means you actually get it done full stop!

More on this tomorrow with examples of successes.

Twitt
Posted on

Sunday, 24th November

The importance of a proper well thought out schedule can never be underestimated. There’s a reason why individuals get into good shape and why many never do, there’s always an explanation and never let your conditioning levels depends on pot luck and guesswork because it ain’t going to work!!!

If you are not doing weight training a minimum of twice a week, then you need to re-think and re-write your schedule right now. You need to pick the biggest value exercises to you, have a plan that’s suitable for YOUR level of conditioning, and the ambitions you have in the future.

If you are doing mostly cardio (treadmill and bike for example), and you have no injuries to stop you doing anything else, then you should radically change your programme, and get stuck into all the different exercises and tools I have shown you in the past and keep showing you. This means picking the exercises with medicine balls and boxing maybe that are really uncomfortable for now.

The good news is though is that all of these exercises get easier, and you will always want to do them more because of the results you start getting.

If you keep on doing the same programme and are not happy with the results, then it would be and is absolutely madness to continue doing the same thing all the time.

The definition of madness in fact is doing the same thing all the time and expecting a different result!!

If you have any doubts about any of these, then I want to know about it straight away, and I will be more than happy to take you through the alternatives one more time, or many times as is the case with most people.

We keep on talking about the run up to Christmas, perhaps it should be about ripping up your current programme (if you’re not happy with the results you are getting), and trying something different, or LOTS OF different things that you either haven’t tried, or have put off training for “an easier life”!

No going through the motions and aim for constant improvements and gains, and this is a great time to hit your training more aggressively than ever and demand much greater results from yourself!!

www.kerimckibbin.co.uk

fitness@kerimckibbin.co.uk

tel 07968 980 808

Twitt
Posted on

Thursday, 21st November

So if you have had a good week so far, you need to be concentrating on having a big end to the week.

The training you don’t really feel like doing on a Monday will feel possible on a Thursday or Friday.

Your performance should be good if you’re attitude is up for it.

How about a time trial for a mile on the treadmill? What about 2500 metres on the rower? How about spinning for longer on the bikes and use a really fast gear, instead of the easiest gear?!!

I used to do this myself every week on a Friday evening at the same time, and gradually my time would come down. The result after around 2 months of doing something like this can be quite dramatic.

Also, it doesn’t really seem like your training for the sake of it and takes away the boredom factor.

If you are weight training for instance, start keeping some kind of journal to record your sets and weight lifted. This can be a very powerful tool, and lift your performance for good as you wont want to go back at all.

Putting a little bit of pressure on yourself to make small improvements every week is a good thing, and again over a 6-8 week period, you are likely to have made sizeable gains.

How about your running? Instead of keeping to easier, flat roads, how about targeting some hilly terrain for a change and this can work very well on a treadmill too.

How about all those medicine ball/wall ball exercises you see me giving everyone else but perhaps you have ducked and dived on for a while? They do work in a big way so all depends if you want the results or not!

How about getting outside and getting stuck into the fresh air work outside? It may be cold at first, but your lungs will soon get used to it, and most people get to crave it after a while. Those of you who work inside all day should DEFINITELY get outside, do some speed and agility work, hit the prowler, work with the sledge, hit some steps or flip some tyres for a change (a big one people avoid!).

It’s nearly the end of the week and the easiest time to make it happen!

Twitt
Posted on

Wednesday, 20th November

Post-workout snacks

Whether you are hungry or not, the quicker you eat food or drink after a workout, the quicker your body will recover. The enzymes responsible for making glycogen are most active immediately after your workout, leaving you with a 2-hour window to reload your muscle glycogen. Carbs are converted into glycogen one and a half times faster than normal during this post-exercise period.

Begin refueling with a high carb snack preferably with a high GI which will pass into your muscles much quicker than a low GI food.

You will have to watch portion sizes as eating too much carbohydrate will be stored as fat and not turned into glycogen. To help with recovery it’s a good idea to combine protein with carbohydrate for the post workout snack.

1. A couple of pieces of fresh fruit eg bananas, with milk.

2. 1 or 2 cartons of fruit yogurt such as Yeo Valley or Rachel’s.

3. A smoothie made with crushed fresh fruit whizzed in the blender with small handful of nuts.

4. A homemade milkshake. Use milk, yogurt and fruit such as bananas and strawberries for an excellent mixture of protein, carbs and antioxidants.

5. Tuna or cottage cheese sandwich. Choose wholemeal rolls, bagels, pitta or wraps.

6. A couple of rice cakes with jam and cottage cheese.

7. A handful of dried fruit and nuts.

Twitt
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