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Friday, 17th February

You are eating well most of the time, you are training okay and you think a lot about how you perform and look, but you may still not be sure that you are improving any more?!!

It may be tedious at times to check your progress, and maybe its time to look at things in a different light?

Every time you run, walk hard, swim hard, cycle hard, you have to realise that with every step forward, you ARE improving because things will be getting easier. You are bringing fresh oxygen into your cells, and your body will be functioning internally far better than it did first thing this morning, and a million times better than if you didn’t do any cardio at all, thats a fact!!!

Every time you eat well , you ARE improving and feeding your body like it derserves to be fed.

You didnt stop off in any one of the fast food places that a lot of people do these days. You did take the trouble to make food from scratch, instead of buying in ready made meals which are full of salt and every preservative under the sun!!! You are fulfilling your body’s potential to be much better and you’re not being one of the crowd that doesn’t care what they eat.

You drink water everyday to  IMPROVE, just think of it like that, if you don’t take enough water onboard, your body won’t function as well as you know it can, keeping hydrated is the single most important thing you can do for your body.

Every time you make your workout happen, you have reached your commitment for that day in terms of exercise.

Whether its struggling to get through traffic, struggling to juggle your time with everyday demands, whether its getting the focus together again to hit the numbers you know you’re capable in your big productive exercises, you finally got there and you will sleep with confidence that you can still improve, whatever your age!!!

EVERY DAY can be regarded as improvement if you look at this differently and keep things in prospective!!!

Twitt
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Thursday, 16th February, 2012

This week we have talked about not making excuses about lacking time to train, how we can really make the most of ten minutes when that’s all we have, and to make quality come first in assessment of our workouts, rather than “just working out for an hour” and that’s our benchmark and that’s it!!

Another not very time consuming tool that’s very powerful for the effort put in is self measurement.

How long does it take to measure your own waist and hips, or get someone else to do it for you?

I have talked about it many times before, if you measure yourself around once a month and see if you have come down a little bit in terms of inches, then you know you’re doing something right!

If an individual comes down 1-2 inches a month, then you would consider that great progress.

Inches off your waist are nearly always a better indication on how you’re doing than weight on the scales, which are often inaccurate due to a variety of reasons.

If you lose weight off your waist, then your clothes will feel much better, another tried and tested way to show progress.

Losing inches off your waist is one of the best ways to tell if you are fit and healthy, and to avoid serious disease.

Your waist size should always be a maximum of half your height in inches.

In other words and using simple maths, say you were 6 foot tall, that would be 72 inches since there are 12 inches in a foot of course.

So your waist should not be more than 36 inches and ideally a little smaller.

Medical science has proven that this is a very good formula for showing true health.

You secretly know too that if you are carrying too much weight on your stomach and hips, that you are not as healthy as you could be, that you will not be as confident as you could be for the summer, when you are likely to be wearing less clothes, that you are not as confident in visiting the doctor for a health check up and you won’t have as much energy as once had when you are in peak condition.

Do the waist test on yourself or get someone else to do it, and in general, you will be able to tell how much work you have to do!!!

Twitt
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Tuesday, 14th February

Valentine’s day is a big day for some of you, and its a day of vast 0ver-commercialism for others. You may either be preparing to go off your diet tonight, and you may be out of pocket after paying double money for your flowers, whatever you do, have a great evening and enjoy yourselves.

Valentine’s day is no excuse though to quit on your training, and please do not use that “lack of time” excuse, because its definitely not going to “wash” here!

No time for a run?

Not even 10 minutes?

If you swap your steady jog you were planning, then how about doing some interval running instead. You know the one, we have talked on here a lot about it, do a couple of minutes warm up run, then use lampposts as a guide for the intervals you need to train in.

You jog for one post, then sprint the next, jog one post, sprints the next and so on until you can’t do anymore. 10 minutes of this will be MORE than enough!!!

How about hitting a punch bag?

If you can manage 10 minutes on this great training tool, then you will be doing very well indeed. Even three times one minute rounds will be enough to get your heart pumping like never before, scratch the ten minutes, think THREE minutes!!! No excuses!

If you work in an office in a town or city, there must be a group of steps around the place. Just 5 minutes up and down steps can be like a 20 minute steady jog, and give your body a workout to remember, this is tough but over in a flash with a big bunch of benefits thrown in!

Bottom line is if you don’t train before you go out tonight, you won’t feel so energised, you will have to work harder tomorrow night, and you will be letting your commitment levels slide. Use time to your advantage by working out smart, instead of mindless boring long workouts control you!!

Twitt
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February 13th, 2012

Technique is often underplayed when it comes to exercise.

If you walk into any gym anywhere, you see a wide variety of versions of the same exercise.

A lot of boys and men like to do curls for arms for example, unfortunately due to the swinging in this exercise, it ends up as a back exercise instead of an ARMS exercise!!! I’m sure many of you have seen the same thing, the key is to drop the weight until you are not swinging your back, this will give your biceps a far better workout and ultimately this means results.

There is also a tendency to do exercises in rapid fashion.

This means that on leg exercises for example, you will be putting enormous strain on your knees, leading often to injuries that can be hard to reverse.

Lack of proper technique is often seen outside the gym too.

Cycling for instance is a prime example.  Incorrect seat height and handlebar height can hurt your knees and back, and make cycling thoroughly unpleasant.

Your seat height should be in line your hip, and you shouldn’t be bending over too much to use the handlebars, make it comfortable and you instantly become a more efficient and better cyclist overall.

Running is another example when a lot of people get it wrong, not using your arms for example when you run, and especially when you want to sprint wont allow you to run at top speed. Your leg speed is always dictated by your arm speed, so not using your arms in an efficient manner will stop you reach your running and sprinting potential.

The same can be said when you’re walking and especially uphill. If you swing your arms you will walk stronger, faster and with more purpose purely down to using good technique.

 These are little things that can make your training much more productive and enjoyable, and you don’t have to be a pro athlete only to enjoy them. Everyone can train like a pro by using a few simple strategies that works, and this means more results in the end!

Twitt
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Friday, 10th February

If you are exercising hard throughout this very cold period, then you ought to congratulate yourself because you are getting through the hardest time of year, this is the time for those of you who have the courage to “do”.

Not only in weather terms but you have managed to get through to February, which is longer than most of the population who often quit by now after the January surge in dieting and exercise. If you are active now, you have some serious momentum in your life.

Better times are coming with lighter nights, warmer days and even more inspiration for your training simply because “summer is coming”!

The spring and summer is the time when you really hoped you were in good shape. Most people at the end of the summer promise themselves that “next” year will be the summer they finally get into great shape,  and they will be proud to show their body off.

The reality is often quite different unfortunately.

It’s a good idea on a Friday to evaluate how you have been doing, and whether you have come close to achieving your goals? You should be able to know right now whether you have come up short, or have you over-achieved this week and actually taken yourself higher than you thought?!

If you can most fridays, deliver on the promises you made to yourself on a Monday morning, then being in shape is probably a reality for you and a healthy lifestyle an everyday reality that you enjoy.

Dieting on some crazy faddy diet is no fun, never has been and never will be. Plus they never work long term.

Living healthy by eating healthy and training sensibly and often has never been more enjoyable, given all the options we all have in front of us these days.

There is more known about exercise and nutrition these days than ever before, yet according to statistics, most of the population ignores all of this research and never gets active, and constantly fall for all the foods high in sugar and saturated fat, sad but true!

You will discover that living a healthy lifestyle is not being part of the crowd, but more of an individual journey that will develop more and more the further you travel, in age and in health terms.

Its Friday and lets be honest where you are at the end of the week.

Twitt