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Wednesday, 18th January

With the weather a bit up and down, or mostly down this time of year, you have may have been faced with inside options most of the time this winter!!!

This is not always a bad thing and it will help hammer home the importance of strength training, using resistance works full stop for a million and one reasons.

I was dealing with an individual today who has had a snowboarding accident and badly damaged his shoulder.

You may think that strength training is out of the question in this case, but its never been more important for him.

We can still work the legs very hard, and this often helps bring a weak area up for most people because you can give it much more of a concentrated effort.

The shoulder has calmed down a lot now, so i have introduced some fantastic shoulder exercises. This gentleman can normally use 30 pound dumbbells for his shoulder work, i have stripped it down now right to 5 pound dumbbells! This allows me to concentrate on building up the strength of the tendons and ligaments around the shoulder, and very gradually build his strength up again.

You can never be over cautious in this type of situation, but its imperitive to get back the strength and integrity of that shoulder joint!

Contrast this with an elderly lady i train who is looking at the same five pound dumbbells, but using them in a lot of different exercises to develop her strength, and she is well into here 70’s. She is getting tremendous benefits in every area of her life now from being fitter, stronger and healthier!!!

I am not going to put an exclamation mark after that because i find these days my clients in the 70’s are usually stronger than most 40 year old’s i know, and thats no exaggeration!!!

I try to treat each and every person on their individual abilities, and not discriminate against anyone on their age in particular!!!

Whatever their age, strength training will remain paramount in my plans for them!!!

Twitt
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Tuesday, 17th January

“If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is compromise”.

Robert Fritz, author of The path of least resistance.

Most of you who have achieved something in life will have experienced someone trying to talk you out of it in the first place. I know i certainly have. It’s fantastic to prove people wrong, and i’m sure many of you have done that, and it’s always been a result of keeping your head down and working hard in the end, and deflecting negativity and doubt that others will try to inflict on you along the way.

Not only do people talk you out of doing things that are important to you, they will sometimes call you crazy for even thinking about it!!! This is the point you know that you are onto something really special and others are envious about your upcoming possible big success in life.

There will also be those who laugh at you and will try to bring you down to their level. I don’t have to tell you by now surely that these types of people are exactly the ones you should be IGNORING and whatever they tell you, i would advise the exact opposite!

The greatest danger for most of us is not that we will aim too high in our ambitions and come a cropper, but by far the biggest danger is AIMING TOO LOW and reaching those levels!

It takes guts to have lofty goals, and deep determination to carry out the necessary things to get there. This is why not many people reach where they want to be.

Once you set your goals, however high they may be, start expecting them to happen and start practicing the habits to get there. If you want great health, then you had better be eating as much natural fresh food as possible, as well as sleeping well, and in addition to proper well thought out training of course!

It all starts with belief, without it you will aiming too low and unfortunately likely to get there!

Change course now and shoot high!

Twitt
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Monday, January 16th

James Cameron, who directed one of my favourite series of films, the Terminator series and Titanic, has a great saying and it sums up what most people are trying to achieve in life, and i certainly take a lot from it.

“People call me a perfectionist, but i’m not. I’m a “rightist”, i do something until it’s right, and then i move on to the next thing”.

If you follow this advice you are unlikely ever to go wrong.

How many have started an exercise programme and gone about it the wrong way? Thinking there must be a short-cut every time and you could really eat”whatever you want”, and somehow cheat the system!!

 I have been there myself and it took me a while to figure out that you couldn’t cheat the system, that it really did take hard work and consistency, and you had to be very mindful of what you were eating every day.

Then i discovered that you couldn’t really drink every weekend, all weekend. I found out for the best results, that once a week in moderation was really the maximum i could do if i wanted to lose body fat. People will try and beat this system too, usually without much success.

I thought too that i could do without sleep, that i could somehow do without it and still have unbelievable energy levels. Guess what? That didn’t work either!! Now sleep is paramount to me, for my performance and my general health, if i don’t i suffer full stop!!!

The secret is that i encourage everyone to work at all these CONSTANTLY.

In certain cultures, they strive for constant and never-ending improvement, successful people in all walks of life tend to use this mantra, and have figured out long ago that if you don’t try to keep on improving that you will get left behind.

Whichever way you are eating and drinking, what methods you choose for training, promise yourself that you will do IT RIGHT, and you will keep on even if you don’t get it right to start with. Focus on self-improvement and see this week as a fresh opportunity to get better once again!

Twitt
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January 13th, 2012

If someone keeps telling you that you’re a failure, you perhaps need to consider how much time you spend with that negative person.

If however, you know you have just had a negative outcome to a particular challenge you have recently undertook, try dealing with it in a positive way for a change!!

You need to recognise you did the best you could with what knowledge and experience at that particular time. If someone roped you into a faddy weight loss class for example, and it failed, then don’t worry about, chances are that by now after reading this that you know that healthy food works, and you do not need to go back to such classes who offer very little knowledge (97% of dieters DO NOT WORK), and are just there to peddle their weight loss products and food!

Recognise that you are better for the experience no matter HOW MANY diets you have tried, being more experienced means you are even more likely now to stick to a sustainable path of sensible exercise and fresh natural foods.

Whatever negative health and fitness experience you have had, write down all the things you have learned from it all on a piece of paper, and take 5 minutes to do it and go for it, then write down another heading after it, WAYS TO DO IT BETTER NEXT TIME.

This will get you in the mindset that there are no failures or mini-disasters with your health and fitness, treat these situations as obstacles that you will find solutions for.

Review your progress lately, and you will likely find you had far more successes than failures, and gain confidence from that.

When you realise that failure is no big deal and is only temporary, get back to your original plan, get back down to basics again and you’re back in the game!! There will be ups and downs along the way, everyone has them, but as long as you are trying every week to do your best, you’re going to reach your big goals!

Twitt
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Thursday, 12th January

Im finding that people are now really blowing off the cobwebs in 2012, and are pushing on to new targets already.

I love getting in the first measurements in at the end of January to prove to people exactly how much progress they have made in the first month of 2012.

Having your progress assessed constantly is paramount in my book, and gives you fresh inspiration to push on to new targets for the month of February!

This January seen the best month ever for me in terms of client performance, and by that I mean my running, cycling, walking, at home, in the gym workouts have all surpassed expectations from more or less every individual.

This is what creates the adrenalin in my day and makes everything worthwhile.

I try to encourage everyone not to settle for decent results either. Of course, celebrate in the moment of good results but new targets have to set month to month, to ensure you have a great year with your health, and this ensures a fantastic quality of life!

So we have done an awful lot of talking this year, and how we are going to change things around once and for all.

The big question must be “are you the type to talk about things all year long, and waster another year, or are you the type to get things done, follow through on your promises, dare to imagine greater changes in your body and mind than you ever thought possible?””!!!!!

These are the brutal questions you should be asking yourself if you haven’t started yet, and what internally will drive you to get off your behind and get active!!!

Im here to help as usual in a truthful, tried and tested manner, even if that advice sometimes hurts your ego!!

Its 12th of January already, no time to waste in your quest for a physical transformation that will change your life!!!

Twitt