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Monday, 22nd July

It’s officially holiday season now for most as schools have just about finished for the summer, and many work places are going to be off soon, or more or less in shut down mode.

Personally, I have already had people who have been away and are now back from their holiday.

The biggest problem this week is the tiredness from the return journey to get themselves up for the exercise part, and to wean themselves off all the excess sugar and fat they had on holiday.

This week then is ultra-important for getting back into the habits you had before you went away.

In my experience, if you don’t get back into it this week in eating terms, then you are going to take a long time to get back to where you were before you went away.

Taste buds are always changed on holidays, and getting back to plainer foods is a real shock to the system this week, but if you don’t do it, then the next few weeks are going to be a big struggle for you. Just think that if you commit yourself to eating well just for this week after a holiday, then you will be back to your best sometimes in just two weeks. Either that or you will have the rest of the summer carrying all those extra pounds that you didn’t want, and you will be too afraid to take your top off in the sun!

This is why I try to impress upon you the importance of keeping a good structure in your eating, and how vital it is to get right back into that schedule again that you very likely lost on your holiday!

You will look and feel a whole lot better, and your performances in your workouts will soon again be top drawer!!!

Twitt
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Friday, 19th July

The hottest day of the year again, and this is a day to view your exercise sessions with extreme caution.

Definitely a day to take it easy, to work within yourself and to avoid training in the warmest time of the day, which is means early morning workouts, and evening workouts tend to work better.

If you get through what you planned to do, then that should be enough, don’t be tempted to go for records, stop when you think you have had enough, and stop immediately if you feel any light-headedness or dizziness, because this can be a sign that you are already dehydrated and you need to take action to remedy the situation immediately, before your decision making ability totally leaves you.

Sip water throughout the day, and you’re going to need a lot more during your workouts that’s for sure.

These are basic sensible guidelines for working out in extreme heat.

Seven days from now you will likely be back in much cooler conditions, and then you can go back to normal training intensity. Doing the right thing in these ultra-hot conditions will prepare you well for the more normal conditions to come.

Stay cool and enjoy the weather in the right way!

Twitt
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Thursday, 18th July

We talked this week about how to eat, what to eat and how often.

What we didn’t discuss is why and what this pattern of eating will achieve for you.

If you are heavily involved in sports performance, then you will be very keen to recover as soon as possible, and prepare properly before your upcoming workouts.

There are two states your body can be in.

Anabolic state is the one where your body is thriving, ready to grow and recover quickly. This is an ideal state to be in, and for those of you looking to perform at your best, and keep on improving at regular intervals.

Catabolic state is where your body is not energized at all, your lean muscle tissue breaks down, you feel weak at times, and you will suffer from inconsistent performances. It doesn’t take a genius to say that you need to avoid this state.

Eating every 3-4 hours not only keeps you fuller for longer, it keeps your energy levels high, keeps your metabolism going at an elevated rate, and gets you into the desired anabolic state.

Eating regular will keep you away from having big binges on food, stop you overeating at certain times due to longer periods without food, and generally let you have a very healthy relationship with food, and helping you stay in control of your nutrient intake.

So you can see that having a healthy, regular pattern of food intake will make you far closer in terms of the habits of pro athletes, and all of this will help you reach your potential FAR SOONER than if you had not taken your nutritional habits as seriously.

Having a professional approach will deliver the results you have always wanted but never knew how to get!

Twitt
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Tuesday, 16th July

If you’re struggling with your eating, then you’re only reaching half your potential.

If you’re in a serious training programme, looking to put on some muscle and perform to your capacity, then you had better start getting serious right now about food!

Breakfast will always be your most important meal of the day. Porridge, eggs, Weetabix, shredded wheat always work well.

Mid morning always needs a healthy snack to keep your blood sugar levels steady, keep you energized and stop you being too hungry lunch time! Some people have a protein shake and this can fill you up nicely.

Lunch time is a great time to fill up again, put some energy in as well as some good protein sources such as chicken, turkey, lean beef, tuna, salmon, mackerel, cottage cheese etc. If you get a chance to sit down, have the protein source with a jacket potato with some vegetables.

If you’re on the move a lot or in work, try wholemeal pitta bread or wholemeal bread. Don’t put too much spread on if possible.

Mid afternoon is a vital time to fill up on energy, fruit or a bowl of porridge can work well at this time with everything focused on your evening workout.

Evening meal will be ultra-important after the evening workout as your body needs to repair itself. So you need to make sure your protein source is good, have some good carbs such as brown rice, new potatoes, jacket potatoes, wholegrain pasta etc, these are the very best choices.

Make sure you have some veg with most meals as they are the nutrients that really look after you internally, and help your body function at its top potential. You also have to look at your general health and make sure you get a healthy supply of veg in every day goes a long way to making sure that happens.

Try and make sure you drink at least 1.5 to 2 litres of water a day, sip throughout the day and don’t just leave it to the evening when you train.

Eating every 3-4 hours is critical to you achieving what you want, and performing with the kind of energy that you are going to need for our ever-increasing workouts!

This needs to happen most days, as one good day here and there won’t make hardly any difference. Consistency is the name of the game and getting smaller, more regular meals is the biggest thing you need to get used to so you can start making fresh progress straight away!

Twitt
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Monday,15th July

With a slight cooling temperatures this morning (although temporary), it gives us a chance to see if training through the warm weather has had a positive effect on our fitness or not.

Those of you have got through the last two weeks and performed your usual workouts will have benefitted immensely from that effort and tonight you are very likely going to be able to put in a top performance tonight. The relief in temperature will give your body’s internal temperature a breather too, meaning you don’t get as hot internally when exercising as you would in extreme heat.

Warm weather training for around three months has long been used by professional athletes. California, Australia and Florida used to be the main destinations for training camps, along with Tenerife and Lanzarote becoming more and more popular very recently with the likes of Bradley Wiggins and Team Sky Cycling, along with the England rugby team.

Former rugby union and league player Jonathan Davies was asked yesterday about the league game in Warrington being brutally hot, he agreed but said it used to be far hotter in Papua New Guinea and Townsville in Australia, when temperatures frequently soared well over 100 degrees! He did say though that it took him many weeks to get used to it.

The lesson is that you can train in warm temperatures, but take your time to get used to it, drink plenty of water throughout the day, never do more than you think you can, don’t train any longer than usual (in fact train for less in terms of minutes) and always stop if you feel dizzy or unwell.

So if you have been sticking with it all, then you will find yourself in great condition going into this week, and achieved a period of warm weather training of your own in preparation for a renewed period of progress coming your way!

Twitt