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Friday, 23rd March

Any of you who have been away for a short break or holiday, will have on thing in common if you are a regular exerciser and practice healthy eating.

It can be ENORMOUSLY difficult to get back into good eating after you have been away.

Most of the time you will either eat in the hotel, restaurant or café and for most of them unless you specifically ask, it will mean a ton of extra saturated fat, lots more salt in every day and no shortage of sugar!!!

This can send the calorific value of each meal you eat to stratospheric levels!

Everyone expects to put on a couple of pounds from such trips, but there is an even bigger danger that you do not even think about, but seems to get everyone when they return home.

By eating every meal which is much richer than normal, your taste buds can change very quickly and by the end of your stay, richer food soon becomes the norm for you.

So getting back to normal when you get home is a bigger task than you think.

Eating plain natural foods on a regular basis suddenly is much harder again! The plain porridge doesn’t taste as nice as usual, fruit seems “boring”, the vegetables you eat taste “different” compared to the ones cooked with a lot of salt on holiday, and unprocessed white meat and fish seems a harder dish to swallow than when you first went away.

So although we promise ourselves  that we will “get right back into it” when we get back, the reality is often very different, and the get right back into it turns into a 2-3 week delay in knuckling down to good eating!!!

The holiday pounds seem much harder to shift and exercising seems much harder than normal, not a great combination.

So if I get an “early warning” out to you and tell you how its going to be, you have more chance to prepare and make the first week you get back the “hard week” in terms of getting your taste buds used to the right kind of eating that you know is tried and tested, and get you dropping fat right away as well as getting you back to the standard of performance you had before you went away!!!

This early warning system can work so wherever you go this year, be prepared for the time it takes to get back to “normal”!!!

Twitt
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Thursday, 22nd March

Hopefully this week you have taken onboard the many different options you really have in getting fit, or if you are already have a decent level of fitness, then you are capable of substantially more!

The biggest danger to any good well thought out programme is being overly complacent.

Just because one workout programme has worked so well for you in the past, it doesn’t mean its going to do as well in the future if that is ALL you do.

If you go for a cycle a couple of times a week and that’s your entire fitness plan, then you should seriously think about doing a more rounded fitness plan.

Cycling is one of my favourite activities, but I’m not foolish enough to think that weight training, running, walking etc is not hugely important too.

Most of us know big guys who only lift weights and that’s it, taking long gaps in between sets. Whilst they may have impressive development from all of this, the horrible fact is that a 100 yard run down the road could put them seriously out of breath!!

Thos runners you see running on the main road all the time, on the same old route for the same old distances, at the same old pace, surely they can do better in terms of a more rounded programme?

Most people do not know that Paula Radcliffe for example, does regular weight training sessions a couple of times a week, as well as a lot of core stability work.

The same applies to Lance Armstrong of cycling fame, he used to do a substantial amount of strength work which means off the bike for longer periods than most people would have ever guessed.

So if you think “I’m a cyclist” or “I’m a runner” or “I’m a swimmer”, and think that to become good at one of those only involves doing that exact activity ALL THE TIME, then please think again, reassess your programme and look for more variety not just for the sake of it, but for the good of your body and for the improvement of your favourite chosen activity!!

Twitt
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Wednesday, 21st March

We talked about the value of training yesterday, and by that we meant “quality” training.

I have bumped into people today also who have talked about the importance of different types of training and activities, and how they will bring you yet more results.

This lady i train is suffering from shin splints, and i advised her to keep off the walking for the moment, even though she has a walking marathon in london in 8 weeks. She is now doing a variety of other work with me, so she gets in incredibly good shape, without straining herself.

She has become a very good cyclist in the meantime too, so her fitness levels have reached new highs even though she has an injury. On the weekend, i have told her to go to the pool and use a float again, and just use her legs to complete widths or even lengths. Anyone who has done all of this will find it incredibly tough, but will give a super workout that tests you to the limit without putting any undue strain on.

Another workout i have scheduled for her is underwater walking, which again is very difficult but will bring her some impressive fitness gains. There is ALWAYS a way around an injury, all you have to do is use your imagination and the sky’s the limit!!

Another person i saw today is a policeman, and he had to chase down a criminal this week for the first time in a while.

When he caught him, he had to wrestle and that means grappling with this criminal and using muscles he hadn’t used for a while. He found it okay if a little tiring at the time, but for a couple of days later he was incredibly stiff! Again this is down to challenging your body in a completely different way!!

 The great news is that your body will get huge benefits out of changing your programme around continuously, also it can be a lot more fun.

Give it a go and see how much you enjoy it!!!

Twitt
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Tuesday, 20th March

The number of exercises is definitely not important in your workout.

You could do 30 different exercises in your workout, yet perhaps you wouldn’t have worked out close to your potential. You could do just 4 exercises in your workout and you could have the biggest and best blast you have ever had!

It all comes down to how much you put into your workout, and good exercise selection DOES help.

If you pick the biggest and best exercises that require most effort, then you’re not going to go far wrong.

Some of the exercises invented around 50-100 years ago are often the best, and require the most work and effort. They are like the cabbage of exercises, you don’t really like it but you know its going to be good for you!

Most youngsters for example when it comes to packing on muscular size, will become obsessed with all the fancy machines and they think that in these machines lies the answer to looking like the incredible hulk!

 Nothing could be further from the truth and I often steer them away from these machines on to a tried and tested programme of 6-8 exercises, that if done regularly, will bring truly massive results!!!

When it comes to running, I try and get people away from long tedious run on concrete surfaces on to sprints up tough hills and nicer surfaces such as grass, and more demanding surfaces such as sand. The difference can be incredible!!!

When it comes to long boring swims, I set length targets designed to beat previous bests.

When it comes to cycles, I set specific courses, push for more interval training and get some hills thrown in, variety is the key here.

When you think variety and performance, you don’t have to do a ton of different exercises, its all about the effort you put in and the thought you put into your programme when you’re looking for superior results.

Twitt
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Monday, 19th March 2012

Another monday and you know that should mean a great workout to get you fully into your week, get you movitated and get you fired up for the monday to friday days that are essential for getting a good block of training in.

Whatever way you care to do it, just make sure you do. If you rely on a training partner, then make sure he or she turns up and that they are reliable and never let you down, a common training partner problem!!

If you have a certain ritual that you do before training that makes it a successful one, then please keep it up and keep it going.

You have more light than ever now this time of year, its around 645pm before it gets dark and its very light at 6am when you get up, you do not have any excuse now surely to get yourself going. Take all your excuses out of your life and i find the best way of doing that is exercising early before work, that gets the job done early and you will start the day in a very positive way!!!

Its a monday and hope you have planned things well. If you are working with weights tonight, then plan your other weights sessions for wednesday and friday to give your body a rest. Your cardio work can be done on tuesday, thursday and sunday ideally to make sure you make the most out of every session.

If you plan properly, then you will leave absolutely nothing to chance and you are pretty much guaranteed a good week!

Same with your food, plan to eat fresh and natural foods from monday to friday and have a big of what you fancy at the weekend. This will easily mean you eat well 80% of the time or even more, guaranteeing yet more results and big benefits.

Dont over-complicate it and make good things happen in your life, simplicity will always work for you!!!

Twitt