Posted on

Wednesday, 26th September

As time goes by, technology allows us to do everything faster, more conveniently, and achieve a lot more in a record amount of time!

This has been proved to me yet again by two completely different training clients this week.

One is a 16 year old boy, who has already been training 5 years with me, and has gone from a very overweight young man, hating sport, to someone who has become very accomplished in exercise terms, is now very lean and pacy, and has reached national level in one of  his chosen sports, he plays three different sports now, and none of them rugby or foootball!!!

He has become very organised now, and now keeps training diaries and records of everything he does.

He told me the other day that he finds this whole process fascinating, purely because of the staggering progress he has made over the 5 years. He was shocked to see how he is training now, compared to the light and basic programme he had to start! He now realises that he can get in shape in a very quick period of time! He trains 5 times a week for 25 mins a time, and that’s it!!

This is how technology can work for you!

Then the other individual is someone who used to be fit and healthy, but now has several issues with his health and life in general.

He tried to get fit on his own, doing the same things he did when he was 20. It turns out he can’t do any of those things anymore, and he came to me in desperation, realising  even at 45 years of age, his body couldn’t move in any way like he used to, and he panicked about it!!

Six weeks on, he feels alive again! He is moving better, stronger, leaner and finally getting control of his diet, realising that whatever goes into his body will have a direct effect on the way he looks and feels!!

Best of all he says, exercising 4 times a week for 40 mins a time suits his lifestyle, and all the new moves and exercises are a tiny sacrifice to get him feeling young and healthy again.

Exercise doesn’t have to be all grunt, using your brain can make the whole process a lot more enjoyable and dramatically speed up your process!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday, 25th September

Good comment from jean last night about my piece yesterday on training.

Yes, you should (if fitness allows) aim  to work more in a non-stop fashion, and jean certainly knows the value of this!! This level of conditioning can be only achieved though after a lot of training and a lot of efforts already in the bank, in other words you only move on to this more advanced form of training when you feel ready, and this usually involves more traditional forms of training first, which will be slower in nature with much more rest.

Then there is the question, what happens if the session gets easy? It only becomes easy if you do the same thing all the time with the same amount of weight and reps. You can EASILY change this around and make things far harder for yourself, and that means far more beneficial too!!!

You change it in a couple of different ways. If you are doing a set of exercises, and its usually 6 with a maximum of 8, then how about substituting some or all of those exercises with viable alternative. Tricep pushdowns could become arm dips on a bench or vice versa.

Press ups could be substituted for bench presses, lateral raises could become front raises or upright rows even, so you can see the choices are bigger than you thought!

This will create an immediate effect for the good!

Then there is the rep rane, i always love 8 as a rep number, but nothing wrong with changing that to 10 or 12 now and again, to get a different stimulus that will only benefit your body.

Then when you need to change again, and your weights become very light, how about increasing your weight slightly, this will create an immediate difference in intensity levels, as long as you can do 8 reps minimum per exercise, if you go under this rep range, then the exercise doesn’t become anywhere near as effective!

Always aim for good intensity levels and never let your workouts become run of the mill!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Monday, 24th September

Here are some good rules to follow on your training, assuming you have some experience already, and not just starting off in your very first session (although i will go over that process soon in future posts).

1. Don’t get over-obsessed with lifting too much weight. Most people, especially males will be obsessed with how much they can bench press, how much their friends are lifting and so on. The reality is it doesn’t matter! All that matters is that you are improving regularly and you are using proper form when you perform each set, and don’t get carried away. You should feel the muscle working on every single exercise, i would go for 3 sets of 8 reps on each exercise. Doing 12-15 reps is only suitable for those with different goals and 3 sets of 8 works big time for nearly e veryone i know trust me!

2. Try resting for 45 seconds in between each set. This will enable you to keep your heart rate elevated, keep a great tempo going and is great to keep an aerobic effect, and if your lungs and heart are working well, then your heart is always going to be in great shape. You may have to drop the weight on each exercise until your conditioning rises to meet the extra challenge, but once you do, your body will adapt and you will slowly build the weight back up.

3. Use perfect form, i need to tell you again!!! If you don’t do every exercise in good form, you will suffer in many ways, you will develop a bad back, putting injury chances much higher in all areas, and your body simply won’t respond as well when you don’t use perfect form. Those who “cheat” on each exercise never get anywhere, or certainly don’t reach anywhere near their potential!!! Lighter weight done perfectly will benefit you 100 times more than using too much weight using terrible form!!

More tomorrow, there’s plenty more to come regarding doing everything the right way, saving you months and possibly years in your training journey!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Friday, 21st September

Finishing off the week well is just as important as starting it well!

This is when your balance in terms of your training week becomes all important.

I have this conversation all the time with people, what workouts to do and when, and this can make a huge difference to one’s improvements and the speed of progress.

For instance, i have the question “which exercise is the best one to  do?”, or “i don’t want to get too bulky from weights”, or “i go to spinning classes, isn’t that all i need?” or “we discussed in work the best exercise we should do and we decided it should be running”!!!!

Let’s get after these questions and answers straight away so you don’t make the same mistakes as these people may have done!

First of all, there is not ONE exercise that’s the best, or one exercise that will get you into shape quicker than anything else, it just can’t happen that way. The answer i give to these people is that EVERYTHING is need to get into great shape, and to work your body in as many ways as possible.

You need to do your weight training/resistance training AND your cardio (running/walking/cycling etc) AND your balance/core work involving bosu balls, swiss balls, balance pads, rollers etc. You can do some speed and agility work, rope exercise, the list is endless really and will definitely make sure you do not get bored, so you’re constantly moving on.

You WILL NOT get bulky from weights, it doesn’t happen unless you eat vast quantities of food and take steroids, so fear not.

Spinning is great fun, we do plenty of it in the gym, so i am a big fan, but its only PART of your programme. Using spinning exclusively will not get you into your best shape, use it wisely but only a small part of the big picture.

If you think running IS the best exercise, then what happens if you have a bad back? Or bad ankles or feet? Or you simply cannot run for whatever reason? I have taught many people to run properly but again, it’s only part of the big picture, and you should divide your efforts between lots of different forms of training.

This way, you get maximum results, maximum variety, never get bored and you consistenly get fitter, stronger and healthier!!

Twitt
Posted on

Thursday, 20th September

What a great subject contributors leighton and jean have brought up and discussed!

They talked about yesterday about the merits of fasting, and once again its getting popular, on some non-scientific notion that you clean your system out by fasting, and SOMEHOW, you get your body ready to drop weight quicker by the fact that your body is empty and will “therefore” take the new good food “better” and get the weight loss system moving quicker.

As a coincidence, a client of mine recently was given the hard sell on a cruise she has just come back on. I informed her that this method has no scientific proof, none whatsoever. I then asked her how much this so called seminar cost her? She said it was free but they did try to sell her drinks such as the ones you talked about, liquid meals and shakes that would somehow transform you into some kind of body beautiful!!!

The fasting and then shakes diet has never really gone away, and takes several different forms and they are all around us.

Number one on the list of shake diets is lighter life, number one as in giving you false claims about how it will affect you.

Sure that the birds of a feather star pauline quirke will have lost seven stone and well done to her. The problem begins when she starts to eat properly again, and the piling of the weight happened to her co-star in the same show, while she was following another faddy and dangerous diet. Hope it doesn’t happen to her but studies say that 97% of diets DO NOT WORK!!!!

You cannot live on 200-400 calories a day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is the fasting period am i right?!!

Then when you take the shakes onboard, they may claim that you are taking onboard a few hundred calories but please consider this!!!

The NHS and any doctor will tell you that any calories under 1200, thats TWELVE HUNDRED will be considered as being MALNOURISHED!!!!

Imagine spending up to £40o a month on shakes and bars, only to be putting your health in serious danger!!!

This subject gets me very angry as you can tell, but i hate to see individuals and groups having their lives DESTROYED by these illegal criminals in my eyes, and based on false claims and tall tales!!!

Make your decisions based on science and common sense and you will be on the right path!!!

Twitt