Posted on

Friday, 9th december

Before we go over more training methods, i would like to comment on all the feedback i had to last friday’s post of having a christmas party, enjoying the whole process but suffering terribly the next day from drinking too much alcohol!!!

Most people who have been through the process over the last week or so tell me it goes like this!

You go out on the party, drink far more than normal, have a great time, and then reality starts biting hard the very next morning!!!!

If you wake up early like me, you wake up with a vile headache and a feeling of sickness.

You need a walk to clear your head, but because of the amount of alcohol, it doesnt make the usual big difference!!!

Then you come back home and try and eat food, drink water and a coffee. Somehow this doesnt cut it this time!!!

Then you have lunch which helps a bit, and then with every meal the feeling gets a little better, but you cant wait to hit the sack the following night!!!! And early too!!

Then the next day, you expect good performance but even the next day after that you feel lousy, and getting your body to feel good is a conundrum of the highest complexity!!!

Then the next few days, you are so glad to get back to eating well, and getting your body used to exercise again, but you will notice that your body doesnt respond quite as prompty and as freely as usual!!! These feelings can go on all week long!!!

Most if not all of the feedback i have had is like this! This means that alcohol in excess SEVERELY AFFECTS PERFORMANCE and wrecks progress, and if you’re looking to keep on improving, or even FEEL normal, then heavy drinking over christmas has to be the LAST thing on your mind.

I’m glad i learned my lesson last week and dont intend repeating it any time soon!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Thursday, 8th December

The positive nature of the workout information this week is great but what allows it to happen is you being consistent, simple as that!

If you’re not eating well week in week out for a long period of time, then you are not likely to be up for these advanced workouts.

If you havent got some good training experience behind you, and you miss a week here, week there on your training, you are going to be unlikely to cope with the pace of these workouts.

If you drink alcohol more than once a week, you are going to struggle with these workouts, if you drink 3 or more times a week, you have no chance of coping with these workouts.

If you dont show responsibility by getting to bed early most nights, then you will struggle to recover and have the energy to train like this!!

Okay, glad we have got this out the way!!!

So i’d imagine you are focused by now, lets talk some more training!

So assuming you have managed to get used to training with very little breaks, and you are considerably fitter, lets move on!

Assuming you have been using lighter weights and easier exercises because of the fast paced workouts, its time to make the weights a little heavier, and make the choice of exercises a little harder.

Like the way you arrived at this stage in the first place, its a natural progression as long as you are doing the things outside the workout that we talked about at the start of this piece?

I cannot stresss enough that you shouldnt be doing these workouts unless you are advanced exerciser  and worked yourself up to this level!!!

So doing a press up will be easier than a ligh pec deck, a lunge or squat will be harder than moving your legs up and down when

on your side, a pull up on a chinning bar will be far harder than a light lat pullown.

So its down to what you can substitute your “easier” exercises for, so your workout becomes harder again!

More of this tomorrow!

Twitt
Posted on

Thursday, 8th December

As we talk about interval training, the next step up from that is non-stop training!!!

I should point out that this is not for the beginner who has just started training by any means, more for someone who has already been training for a while, and has achieved a good standard of fitness.

For example, if you started off doing a circuit such as this for 10 reps per exercise-

Press ups

arm dips

squats

sit ups

squat thrusts

So after you do this exercise, that would be it for most people, they would then rest, and wait to get their breath back before moving on with another circuit.

Those people who have followed this type of circuit will know that after a while, you will  not need the rest after the first circuit, and you will be able to move on to the next circuit straight away. Its at that point you may need a rest!

Then after a bit more experience, you may be able to move on to the third circuit even with no rest. This is when your fitness levels could be considered excelllent.

Then what after that?

If you are fit and conditioned enough, then you could start aiming to piece most workouts together as non-stop workouts, stopping very rarely indeed, only making sure you stop for sips of water, which are ultra-important and help cool your body down when doing a lot of high intensity training.

Most people  i know who have got to this stage, rarely want to train another way unless they have had a break from training for a few weeks, which will take quite a bit of time to get used to again of course.

If you train in more of a non-stop manner, however long that maybe (and its usually for 30 mins or less), you will burn more fat, gain more endurance, and generally be in the shape of your life!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday, 6th December

Following on from yesterday’s example on interval training, you soon will be convinced that this is the way to go. All the best sessions are forms of intervals when you think about it?

I have one client who is doing the moonwalk event in London next year, and is helping her friend to get through it too.

The problem has suddenly appeared with the friend of the person i train. She has run into shin splints, and can barely do much training at all, it also doesnt help she is around 4 stone overweight, which is compounding the problem of course.

Rather than keep on the same training methods they started, which consisted of lots and lots of walking on the flat, which always resulted in pain for the shins, i recommended working on hill sprints, and hill walking.

This has now transformed the situation from one of desperation to one of hope and big achievement next year!

Due to the severe nature of the hill, the sprints are making both of them work hard and really get out breath. Getting out of breath never really happened on the flat, therefore both of them are getting fitter and because you don’t need to spend as much time training, the shin splints injury is subsiding and the boredom has disappeared.

Any time you do interval training, you work hard for a short time, then you get a short rest, then work hard again  and so on until you cant  do much more.

This, as i said, can be applied to any form of training, whether its weights, cycling, running or even walking.

Lets face it, nobody can go 90-100% for long, so its important to have small breaks, and this will allow your body to go further and therefore get far better results than if you employed the boring, low intensity sessions that seem to last for hourse!!!

Interval and high intensity training gives you focus and much needed results every time if done correctly, try it sometime!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Monday, 5th December

So if you have already lost the battle of good eating in the run up to christmas, all is not lost!!

High calorie food can be addictive, as well as nights of heavy alcohol for some. This is exactly the time to do something about it then!!

One great way to bust all of this wide open is to get stuck into interval training.

In recent studies, students who completed 7 workouts over a 2 week period had amazing results through high-intensity interval workouts.

They upped aerobic capacity by 13%, fat burning capacity by 36%,  and boosted key aerobic enzymes by 25%!!!

The programme consisted of 10×4 minute high intensity cycling blasts, they went at 90% of capacity with 2 minutes rest in between each set. This is a lung buster of the highest order as many of you could imagine!!!

Long term studies confirm that high intensity cardiovascular workouts increase fat burning DRAMATICALLY compared to low intensity traditional work on bikes and treadmills.

Most people still perform the low intensity stuff because thats all they have ever known.

With the higher intensity workouts, you tend to use mainly carbs in the workout for fuel, but the rest of the day you set your body up for using fat as a fuel, which is ultra-important when it comes to the most important thing, getting rid of the fat!

So high intensity interval workouts ARE harder work, but they are SHORTER in duration and you can use a ton more variety in your workouts! I talk all the time about doing interval workouts with weight training and trying to attain more of a non-stop tempo.

This is the stuff that really gets you fit and healthy AND quickly!!!

The easiest way to start interval training is to walk one minute on treadmill, then run much faster than normal for a minute, then walk a minute, then run faster again for a minute and so on. You may find that ten minutes of this type of interval work is more than enough!!!

Its all about quality rather than quantity so give it a shot!!!

Twitt