Posted on

Thursday 29th September

We talked about about the unmissable meal of the day yesterday, and its importance in every area of your life, and especially for being in shape and staying there.

I have talked about this so much over the years that many of you may be sick of it by now, but if you did pick this habit up and now consume breakfast every day without fail,  maybe all of that keeping on was worth it in the end!!!

Another meal i like to talk about and force the point home is lunch. Compliance on this one is not so popular, and is the major reason why the individuals i see at 3pm onwards don’t perform as well as they could, IF they have missed lunch or had a very low nutrient, low energy lunch!

Since i like to get the best out everyone i train, its either going to be your eating or sleeping that explains a bad workout!

Its great to see in llanelli for instance, that even the cafe’s now are making fresh nutritious food for lunch.

Of course they still do the “all day breakfasts” but the healthy eating generation is slowly overcoming the fried bread boys!

You should be able to have fresh cooked chicken in any good cafe these days, if not find somewhere else!

You should be able to have fresh fish and vegetables too, there’s no excuse for it.

If you’re having a sandwich even, ask for it to be freshly made without butter, margarine or mayo and of course NO WHITE BREAD, trust me this is NOT too much to ask and will show you are committed to healthy eating. If they refuse, then they dont have a very good business as they are ignoring your repeat custom.

I wouldn’t have thought you would be reading this if you werent committed to healthy eating, so please consider your lunch time options if you are working out tea time, i see a massive difference in the same individual all the time depending on they have had lunch.

Your choice of course but you are interested in getting into shape?!!!!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Wednesday 28th September

If you have tried missing breakfast in the mistaken belief that you will lose weight, you will soon be in for a big surprise!!

The theory some people use is that they never feel up for breakfast anyway, so may as well save those calories and use them for mid-morning, or even start eating lunch time. Then they eat sometimes sparingly during the afternoon and then usually get home, and then it all goes off!

The person doing this kind of eating programme is usually so ravenous by evening time as they haven’t eaten all day, they usually go mad at 6-7pm!!!

If you’re making food yourself, you will be so hungry you will grab a cheese sandwich or something while you’re cooking!

Then you will always overeat when it comes to the food you are cooking, this is because your blood sugars are so low and you are desperate to get them up again, but probably too desperate and you want to eat a massive portion. Very rarely will you be satisfied with that first portion!! Your body can only handle a certain amount of food per meal, and any over the top portion will get deposited as body fat every time!!!

So the missing breakfast technique is complete folly, and will never work long term, you may have realised that by now!

There are scientific reasons for eating breakfast anyway!

Eating breakfast counts when you eat food within one hour of getting up.

This boosts your metabolism because you’re sending your body a message that it had better assimilate that food ASAP and this gets the fat burning process going nice and early!

This helps your metabolism (the rate your body burns calories) get into overdrive early on.

There have been a massive amount of studies that show that those people who eat breakfast daily always lose more body fat and are able to MAINTAIN a healthy level of body fat for the rest of their lives.

Your choice but you know common sense works!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday 27th September

Tuesday should hit you like a sledgehammer if you’re not involved in some kind of programme right now.

Theres no more time for procrastination surely!!!

12 weeks to go until christmas and what a perfect opportunity to get into really good shape.

I heard one girl i was training yesterday say that her friend was leaving her training now until after christmas. When i found out more about her friend, it became clear she was the type to start and finish her training very quickly, then have 3 months off, then start again for a few weeks, then “rest” again, and thats where the “start after christmas” comes from, and surely we know a lot of individuals like this, or maybe we have been one ourselves!!!!

No matter what has happened in the past, you need to forget about all of that and do whats right now.

There’s no time to “think about it” and talk a good game! If you want to do it then “do it”, and don’t talk about it anymore.

Avoid fancy machines in gyms, avoid easy aerobic/CV machines in the gym such as steppers if you other opportunities such as rowing machines. If something feels too easy, then its not going to bring you decent results full stop!

Vary your training, if press ups are old school for you, then mix them up with press ups with a medicine ball.

If you are fed up with sit ups and doing hundreds of them, then change it because its not working!! A few exercises with a medicine ball and swiss ball are the equivalent of thousands of sit ups, plus you won’t get a bad back, in fact you will be strengthening your back, how many exercises can give you that!!!

Dont just try and work your stomach, your lower back, hamstrings, thighs are just as important, this is your “core” that everyone talks about but not many people know much about or how to work!!!

12 weeks to christmas and there’s plenty for you to do before you get stuck into the mince pies. The good news is that you don’t have to spend half your life on the stepper wasting your time. If you want results, start thinking about your training and what you need to do!

Twitt
Posted on

Monday 26th September

Since i have had a few texts on my last post, i think i should expand my comments on the development of the fitness industry!!

Here’s the next thing that has collapsed in the fitness industry! Those gyms and gym owners (usually chains) who proclaim to their new members (new direct debits they only see it as!) that they have the most treadmills in town, the most bikes in town and the most steppers in town!!!! Bravo i say!!!! But this is the main reason on why they are going bankrupt in their droves!!

In the states, the likes of gold gym, planet fitness, 24 hour fitness etc etc, will have been opening around 50 gyms a year with massive capacity. 50 treadmills, bikes and steppers come at a huge cost in many ways.

They forgot the fact that although they could intitially attract massive membership, those members had to get in shape. Having lots and lots of treadmills doesnt really do it!!! Lots of bikes doesn’t either!!! This is brainless fitness with programmes designed by men in suits, who had brains for figures and not how to get people in shape!

They forgot the fact that treadmills can be hugely boring, hamster wheels to some in gym speak, and only gave part of a result!

So what happened is you had everyone on treadmills and bikes, the weight room got ignored and all the stuff that really gets you in incredible shape, the medicine balls, swiss balls, dumbbells, sprints, bodyweight exercises etc were usually ignored.

Then when people realised they got bored of treadmills, they abondoned them, AND the gym AND their membership!!! Proper training WAS NOT explained!!!

The gym then realises that in the states anyway, they were paying $300 thousand a month in hire fees for all of these machines, the bottom line wasnt coming in anymore!!! Guess what happens next? They reduce their membership and so the decline goes on, then the filing for bankruptcy happens….at record pace in the states.

The same has started in this country, with a couple of the most famous chains either bankrupt or on life support.

It doesnt give me any pleasure to report such a decline but there is better news!

In the USA, 8 out of the best 10 gyms voted for by all industry magazines are performance related gyms, by this i mean they actually GET YOU IN SHAPE!!!! Wow, what a concept, they actually give you GREAT SERVICE, Wow what a concept, they actually TELL YOU WHAT TO EAT, Wow what a concept!!!!

They work with weights, medicine balls, swiss balls, things that will actually get you in shape, who’d have thought it!!!!

And guess what, you havent got the 300k a month overhead!!!!

The bottom line is that you HAVE TO GET PEOPLE HEALTHY AND IN SHAPE, just having a gym card doesnt cut it anymore, people are willing to pay, but not for rubbish!!! Human beings are INDIVIDUALS, and not robots, they are not perfect and there is a different programme for every body.

Times are hard but i know a record number of people realising this, and you are most welcome to send your questions to fitness@kerimckibbin.co.uk

Twitt
Posted on

Friday 23rd September

Everyone wants to have things yesterday and fitness is definitely no different!!!

Everyone wants to cut corners too, and do things in the quickest possible time.

The great news is that i have been working in that world a long time now, and i try constantly to come up with new methods to meet ever increasing demands. If you want to stay in business, you WILL have to move with the times and more often than not, stay ahead of the curve and not behind it!!

So lets quickly cut to the chase!!!

Bear in mind its definitely not 1970, 1980 or even 1999 anymore and a lot has changed.

Weight training is still in for sure, and works every time. I have had numerous arguements about it before i start with someone, especially with women, but i always stick to my guns on this one!!!

Fads have come and gone, then come back again but most of them are exactly that “fads” have no place on a proper exercise programme and won’t work long term, and can often be dangerous.

You have a dangerous fad like cross fit out there right now, the basic concept is to combine really tough exercises together, and work over a very short period of time, half killing yourself and some people think its a great workout. The bad news is that you are likely to put your back out very quickly, your knees, ankles and just about everything else, BECAUSE OF THE ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS FORM/TECHNIQUE you use in this crazy system. Body mechanics go out the window and i strongly advise you to re-consider what you are doing if you’re involved in it!

Its called “cheating” in weight training circles, just to get a few more reps done, and its a cardinal sin. Youtube it and you will see how dangerous it is and i rest my case.

Circuit training is out completely too, moving around in a circle is another way of getting used to exercises (you’re going round and round doing the same exercises all the time), if not changed regularly. Circuit training is a fancy way of giving the instructor an easier time especially if he doesnt change the exercises regularly. Circuit training died in the 90’s so RIP and i used to do it myself but time moves on!

If you want to get in serious shape, try swiss ball’s used aggressively i mean, medicine balls, bosu balls, roller’s and many other non-conventional ways to get the job done, all done at a high tempo.

This should be underpinned by some good weight training and shorter duration interval cardio, but the options now are vast, and safer and more productive than all the fads of the last 3 decades that have come and gone!!!

Twitt