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Tuesday, 3rd July

We looked at the importance of getting your eating right, and how it doesn’t have to cost the earth to do it either!

Cost is a barrier for most people at some stage in their lives, but due to competition, this cost issue has been helped a lot.

Another way of stressing how important eating is would be to remember why you are doing this thing after all!

When you first started, you must have had a vision of how you really wanted to be? The goal you really wanted in life, whether it was just good health, or fitting in clothes you haven’t done for five years for example!

Most of us will put on weight at certain stages in our lives, but all of us can come back from that stage if we really put our minds to it.

Carrying that vision of how we eventually want to look is vitally important in my view.

That vision should be an ever-present in our minds or we will frequently lose sight of why we are training hard, why we are eating so well all week long, why we are going out for a run in the pouring rain for example!

You have to keep your ambition high and whether its ten inches off your waist or two inches you need to lose, the focus has to be retained.

I have plenty of individuals who want to look their all time best for this year’s summer holiday. Looking good in your swimsuit has been an age old goal for most of us, but few of us really make it happen.

If we retain our best vision of ourselves, this means our workouts will become more intense, our foods  more natural and less sugary and fatty, we drink less alcohol and the whole process become much more inspiring and exciting!!

Twitt
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Monday, 2nd July

Heard the one about its too expensive to eat well and healthy? Well, i have too! Plenty of times!!! Too many times to mention in fact!

Well, statistics don’t necessarily back this one up!

Times have moved on and its heck of a long time since Tesco was the only game in town!

In llanelli, now there are far more choices and we do not have to put up with a lack of service or rudeness from any type of business anymore!

We have Aldi’s, Lidls, Morrisons and Asda of course, all offering extremely good value for money.

Due to the harsh economic climate, they are all going out of their way to become cheaper, especially on a lot of the basics.

Some people used to look down on aldi’s and lidl’s a few years ago, but when you actually try some of their fruit and vegetables, they are often much tastier than most of the bigger supermarkets. And the price difference can be substantial!

So if you are committed  to eating well and healthy, this may be the place for you!

If you say you havent got time to cook healthy, then a stir fry doesnt take long.

A great invention has been the slow cooker, which works big time in my house especially with three children!!! This is a great way of getting all your veg into your meals, and tasting absolutely fantastic too!!! You need to try it!!

Please don’t give the excuse of “whoever i live with cooks for me and i cant eat well”, because this is absolutely unacceptable!!!

Take charge now, use the so called “discount” supermarkets, in my book Aldi and Lidl blows away the big boys in terms of freshness and taste, so act on it now.

If you still say its too expensive, then how can you justify all the other junk thats usually in the trolley?!!!

Get your priorities straight and get eating well and right!!!

Twitt
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Friday, 29th June

The end of the week already and hopefully, you have have found it one of your most productive ones!

This summer so far has resulted in the lowest number of running sessions i have ever had-purely because of the weather!

This has made me much more inventive though, and by developing more and more programmes indoors to create fresh excitement and enthusiasm!

Anytime you create new programmes, you had better make sure that the new exercises had better work!!

There is a million gadgets and faddy exercise products on the market, and i have hopefully managed to navigate these choppy waters and come out the other side with some solid programmes that are guaranteed to bring some good results.

When measuring a good programme, i have to consider two very important factors.

The first will always be safety, if a programme doesn’t have caution at its heart, and the emphasis of proper form as its cornerstone, then the programme will fall flat on its face, because either injury to the exerciser or a lack of results will be certain to be the outcome!

The next vital element is intensity and “energy value” to the individual who is training.

If you have a scale of 1-10, 1 is sitting down and 10 is going absolutely flat out, then i tend to encourage people to work at least to a 7 or 8, and sometimes even a 9. This is a sensible and productive way to manage exercise programmes, where results are important but safety and long term development are always key considerations for me.

So you shouldn’t be put off by this weather one bit, you should open yourself up to new programmes, new ideas, and new ways of doing things full stop.

Time moves on and so does the way we exercise!

Twitt
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Thursday, 28th June

We always talk about how to get more out of yourself, and being the best version of yourself is something that most of us are aiming to get to at some stage.

All of this talk is fine, but can be more than a little off-putting for some individuals I have found.

Not everyone wants to be some kind of high-achiever that is focused on giving 200% every time he or she trains. In practice, that is not often possible anyway!

The way I get around this is to give people little and often exercise sessions.

If I told an individual that they had to constantly do a complicated exercise programme, then I know a number of individuals I train would shy away from that and find it very difficult in reality!

The approach to use is to give someone a fairly simple (but still very productive) exercise programme that lasts them around 20-25 minutes maximum.

Then to include no more than 6 exercises in their programme so things never become in any way complicated, or difficult to remember.

Most people have complicated lives as it is, the last thing they need is a headache when going through their workouts.

For example, cleaning your teeth is one of the most simple things you do, pretty straightforward for everyone you would hope.

The result from all that brushing?

Good mouth health and hygiene, your teeth and gums in good shape and when done twice a day, you tend not to have too many painful visits to the dentist!!

The same should be true about your exercise programme, keeping it simple encourages a lot more participation and regular exercise. Get the actual exercises right and your results will become strong.

No need to over-complicate unless you’re training for something very specific. To the average exercise, simplicity is always best!

Twitt
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Wednesday, 27th June

Heart strength has got to be your most vital reading whether you exercise regularly or not.

If you do not exercise in any way, your heart rate and strength is likely to be weaker than it could be and this is a negative factor when it comes to assessing overall health.

If you DO exercise, then you should know all about the massive benefits of having a strong and healthy heart.

Your heart is a muscle that needs to be trained and conditioned like every other muscle on your body.

If you do exercises that require larger amounts of oxygen, this is called “aerobic” types of exercise, or “cardio” as is often mentioned by people who go to the gym.

Aerobic by definition is defined as “with oxygen”, which shows how important this type of work is.

Running, power walking, swimming, cycling just to name a few could be described as the best examples of aerobic training or cardio as is much more trendy a term to use these days.

These types of exercises should be included prominently in anyone’s programme, and are highly beneficial.

Most people are unaware that you can achieve this state of training that requires high amounts of oxygen by weight training/strength training.

The trick is to keep the tempo of the workout quite high and this will get you working harder and you will need to take in deep gulps of oxygen throughout.

This is achieved usually through cutting your rest periods in between sets right down. For example, if you usually rest 3-5 minutes in between everything you do, then cutting it down to one minute would be a start and immediately get you working harder.

When you get to a decent level of fitness, try getting to a stage of picking 6-8 exercises in a row, and having NO rest in between. You will need to cut your weights down in terms of kilos/poundage, but the effect will be dramatic and terms of heart benefits.

I train most people using this philosophy now, and have done for  many, many years. The benefits across the board are huge, and will make sure your heart will be very strong and in tremendous health ready for anything!

Twitt