Posted on

Thursday 15th September

14 weeks to Christmas and an ideal opportunity to put a sequence of events in place to make sure you’re in great shape by then.

Number one is that you have to WANT to do it. Of course everyone WANTS to be in shape, but how many of you are really willing to go through the kind of effort needed to do so?

I see so many people believe it or not asking for OTHER people to get into shape. If someone else has to ask for you to get into shape, then there is a sincere lack of will to do it in the first place.

If you have a lack of will, then what hope have you got?

The abundance of will and NEED to do something will be the driving force when times get tough.

For example, I was talking to the coach of an under-achieving rugby team the other day, and complained that they always start off well, falter big time mid-season and then fall away completely at the end of the year.

When I dug under the surface of the problem, the issues on why these performances were falling away soon became apparent.

The most amount of players they had out for training was in the summer months just before the season started, which explained their excellent start to the year, in fact 30-35 players.

Then when the bad weather came, it went down to 10 players believe it or not.

Then because of under preparation, they start losing and the turn out’s dwindle to sometimes 4-6 players!!!

Then you don’t have to guess too hard that the season more or less collapses due some heavy losses. The players who were then tempted to come back often just write that season off and promise to  come back the next season!!!

So does that team “want it” enough?

 Definitely not it seems.

You will find the most successful teams or individuals are the ones who practice the most, with most intensity and don’t have big gaps in terms of weeks or months in the time they train or play.

UP TO YOU!!! 14 WEEKS TO GO!!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Wednesday 14th September

Great things happen to happen to individuals who take action.

Those who hide and bury their heads under the sand will undoubtedly worsen their plight.

Okay, so once you have decided to take action, you will probably realise that you don’t have a whole lot of time to do it.

This is because life has become faster, people don’t have time anymore for things they used to take for granted.

Just look at most people’s days now, they still have to put their time into work but you are expected to do more in that time.

You are expected to do the job quicker and more accurately, and if you don’t like it, then with the current grim economic climate, then there’s usually someone right behind you prepared to take your job!!!

When you go to see the doctor, they say that they usually have 6 minutes for you according to research!

6 minutes is unbelievable so hopefully its not a complicated condition!!!!

We want to drive our more powerful cars quicker so we can get to places quicker, even if there’s speed cameras everywhere!!

We want to shop quicker, we have much more limited attention spans so pick shorter programmes, so hopefully you get the picture with all of this!!!

So when it comes to taking action in workout terms, your exercise session had BETTER be short but at the same time of course, you WANT AND NEED results!!!

So whenever i go through a session, i insist i give the absolutely best session i can!!! This means a high tempo and a lot of variety, including making sure each and every session is 100% safe!!! NOBODY has time to get injured these days!!

So wheneve you’re picking your workouts, make sure you make it count and give it your very best. Nobody has all day to train anymore so pick your time and hit it hard!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday 13th September

“The truth about drugs in football” last night was an eye opener for some on channel four, but it really wasn’t for those who play upper level sport.

From cocaine to anabolic steroids, authorities at the very top of the sport were not afraid to speak out at the problems facing football.

The most alarming and disgraceful  part of the programme was when we discovered that the football association (the FA) KNEW FULL WELL about failed drug tests and instead of imposing the mandatory 2 year ban minimum, they either gave a warning or just a 2 month ban.

Indeed, a scottish international was caught 3 times, and still only received a 7 month ban!!!

The investigation went to the very heart of the game, and discovered some life threatening methods of performance enhancement at chelsea for instance, and the discovery that 3  current internationals for england visit a mysterious clinic in berlin for dubious regular injections.

It stands to reason when you think of it. In the most well paid game in the world with ridiculous salaries and a game that is needing bigger and stronger players, the temptation to cheat must be huge with these players. When money is involved, cheating is bound to take place and there seems to be a systemic risk throughout the game.

One of the most alarming stories was the number of spoilt tests at various clubs.

This means that either players ducked out of the test, the test was inconclusive or not followed up, was dubious with readings causing great suspicion, or plain illegal results.

It said on the programme that SWANSEA CITY were the biggest culprits of “spoilt” tests, you would never guess on their physical performances, which have been sadly lacking this year. 15 SPOILT TESTS, I REPEAT 15 SPOILT TESTS!!!!

I have commented on numerous occasions about the lack of physicality from our local team, their out of date training methods and how rugby now leaves football behind in the way they train and in sports nutrition.

Football is currently a disgrace with their testing system and acceptance of positive tests, check out the programme online “the truth about drugs in football” and this will back all what i have said up to the hilt!!!

If football implemented a cycling type thorough testing system, the shock waves would be enormous!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Monday 12th September

Having an escape route to relieve life’s tensions has become even more important.

With life’s pressure’s getting bigger and bigger for most people, the escape route in exercise terms has never been so important!

I can think of many people who use exercise as the perfect route.

It could be a bike ride on a more obscure route, it could be a run in the woods, or it could be a simple walk anywhere.

What you find with these options for exericse is that you not only get a good fat burning workout in, you also get some “you time” when you can gather your thoughts and really unwind after the pressure of a hard day, or if you turn it around another way, you can exercise first thing in the morning which is the best preparation for a hard day to come, and seriously helps with the pressures of normal life to come!!!

Everyone has a favourite run or bike ride, or cycle or even swim becomes they become familiar with it.

I have a woman with five children i train who likes nothing better than walking up a really steep route to her friends house, and a walk that used to take her 40 minutes now only takes 20 minutes!!! What once was a pain in the you know what of a run has now become a quick easy walk which she now happens to do more often!!

The best part about the walk is the time out she gets when she can let off steam and think about what went right and what went wrong with her day! Some people use alcohol as this emotional crutch but many, many people i train now use their daily “escape route” as their must do every day.

Nothing better than getting rid of stress and losing  body fat the same time!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Friday 9th September

A reflective sunday coming up for many and i am talking about september 11th of course, the kind of day definitely when you remember exactly where you were on that day!!!

Ten years ago now and its a good day to remember where you were with your health and fitness!!!

Were you leaner, were you heavier, were you out of shape, were you at your fittest, did you always perform well then, were you in a rut you never thought you would get out of then?!!! All different situations and i will bet that things could have turned full circle by now if you haven’t been consistent with your training and eating, or certain things in life happen sometimes completely out of your control?!!!!

The bottom line is where are you now and what you have learned about yourself in the meantime. Why are you or why aren’t you in shape now? There’s a pathway to being in shape and staying in shape and did you stay on it or did you completely go off that path and have forgotten the way back since?

So ten years may have gone and you may be reflecting on what has happened in your life since back then!!!

The question is now are you going to use all of that positive and negative experience to good effect this time in determining the path you’re going to go on for the next ten years? If you don’t, then the last ten years of training will have been a waste of time if you can’t use it to your advantage?!!!

You should be a smarter trainer now, you should realise that faddy diets do not work, you should know the value of rest, you should know the value of changing your trainers regularly (every 6 months max), and the really good advice of having a really well thought out programme thats going to bring you results year in year out!!!!

Things change over the years, but the fundamentals never do, i mean the stuff you need to do every day to be successful!!!

Twitt