Posted on

30th march 2011

It’s the end of the month then and have you made the most of your winter’s training? Has it been a productive one or another missed opportunity?

The great thing about training and eating properly is that it doesnt always have to be a missed opportunity at all, you can always start back whenever you want, or indeed start for the first time no matter what age you are, that’s a fact and i have seen it many, many times.

The biggest thing that stops people exercising is perhaps fear of the unknown.

We all dont really want  do something we have never done before, or we think we won’t be that good at, or somehow we would be embarrassed to exercise in front of people which is totally understandable, or we sometimes think we won’t be as good as somebody else at it because we have low confidence levels always before we start.

The low confidence thing is hugely prominent in everyone i have ever started training. I have met some of the nicest people and the biggest egos too sometimes when starting an exercise programme with people. Without fail, and underneath all of that bluster and outward confidence of some, EVERYONE is really under confident when it comes to starting exercise, and don’t let anyone fool you otherwise.

The confidence levels WILL improve when it comes to your health and fitness programme, as long as your initial plan is safe and sound.

To me, fitness is all about improving slowly and steadily, and looking for ways it can improve your everyday life. Nobody i know has failed to improve his/her life by introducing exericise into their lives, ask around and you will probably experience the same answers and results.

If you are thinking of exercising but not sure if it will work for you, i can guarantee 100% it will work every time for you, as long as you are willing to give it some time and apply yourself to giving your best with your eating too, 100% guarantees are hard to find these days!!!!

Twitt
Posted on

29th March

 

Talking about back problems is a big reminder for most people about some low point in their lives when they weren’t so active, the problems it caused in real life and the actual pain they went through. Nobody wants to be known as the person who can’t join in things that most people consider normal, but that’s the reality of life for some.

Not being able to join in activities with your kids is tough mentally, and most people will do anything to get out of this spiral of despair.

A lot of people go through the stage of heat cream, ice sometimes and massage, often finding out that none of them were really the long term answer to a potentially life altering problem.

We talked about the swiss ball, the big ball you pump up you see around the place sometimes in gyms, houses etc but nobody really knows how to use it properly.

Simply sitting on it for 30 minutes watching a television programme can be big enough of an effort for many, as you learn to stabilise yourself for everyday life situations.

One of the favourites is sitting on your back, with legs over the ball and the ball right up against your bum, then roll you hips to the side. This will not only loosen your hips but loosen your back in a big way, and is often a great warm up to any workout. Try keeping your shoulders on the floor while you do it.

When keeping in the same position on your back, places your bottoms of your feet on the ball, hands by your side on floor and lift your bum off the floor using your feet, this is fantastic for your hamstrings/bum area and will develop serious strength in this area, which will again help your back!

The back, hips and hamstrings are all inter related as I said yesterday and remain very important areas to work, they may not immediately be visual improvements but will allow you to do everything better and with greater freedom, virtually eliminating typical aches and strains, and making you far more powerful and flexible and giving you a lifetime on pain free movement!

When it does fix your back problem, and I have no doubt it will, if from time to time your back stiffens up or gives you pain, then these moves will help you a lot to rectify the problem immediately. This ball is for a lifetime so lets give it a go, there are also many demonstrations online if you google swiss ball demonstrations. Will get videos on here one day!!!

Twitt
Posted on

28th March 2011

Another fresh week and the clocks have gone forward at last!!! The weather is considerably warmer and brighter, and winter seems to have gone away. I have seen this situation before though and end of march and early april can still surprise us by being very cold, so we will wait and see!!! Anyway for now, things are good so hopefully you’re going to be making the most of it.

Not all of you are well of course as jean has said, she is suffering terribly with her chest infection that even has involved hospital visits like the one this saturday just gone. Nothing i can say can make it that much better right now, but all jean has to remember is that she can get back to health again, and when she does, it won’t be too long at all before she gets to being back out on her bike, or whatever she feels like doing. Health is number one, and she can make it happen!!!

Cyril is also struggling, this time with his back and i have been encouraging to blow up his swiss ball and do some exercises on it to relieve pressure on his back. The problem is that most people don’t realise that its not just your back is usually the problem, its your hips and your hamstrings that are all related.

For example, if your back is bad, usually you have limited mobility in your hips, and if you play some sport, your hamstrings will usually be tight too, causing strains and pulls in all of these regions, which can put you out of training for weeks, even months so its an issue that needs resolving.

The number one cause of back pain is weight around the trunk area, so carrying excess weight triggers off a whole host of problems that cannot be solved long term until you lose the weight. It sounds like a vicious circle but if you understand how your body works, it starts to sounds better because you will be attacking the problems head on and not repeat your mistakes!

More on how to get rid of the bad back, tighs hips and stiff hamstrings tomorrow!!!!

Twitt
Posted on

March 25th 2011

Okay, so we have covered your cycling and running over the last couple of posts, but hows your inside work/gym work going?

You know how it should be going and this doesn’t involve hanging around talking around to everyone while you “train”! Taking it easy on yourself is not acceptable unless there are extraordinary conditions, or you’re just starting out.

There are a few things and indeed, mistakes i see every time i’m in a gym.

Number one if you’re working out with weights (and everyone should!), there’s too much rest in between sets, sometimes even 5 minutes, this is a painfully slow and ineffective way to train and get into shape, i should correct that statement because you’re never going to get into shape training that slow. I would assume there’s far more talking going on than training, and this is always a bad sign!!!

Number two is training with too many people, by that i mean there’s sometimes two training together and thats great, but if theres three of you and you’re all friends and want to train together, it can’t work because you will have too much rest in between sets. You will struggle to get any intensity up, so keep it to yourself and one other if possible.

When you train and there’s just two of you, try to do one set, then your partner does the next, then immediately again you do the next and your partner goes straight away. Try to keep this up throughout the whole workout and you will be out of puff and had a very beneficial bout of exercise, which will automatically lead to fat loss and seriously toning up your body, which is what most people want of course.

Avoid the fancy exercises! By this i mean you should pick the exercises that have most benefits, and they are usually the toughest!!!! The basic exercises are usually the most beneficial because they make you expend a lot of energy each time, meaning you burn more calories, speed up your metabolic rate, in other words, 24 hours a day you will be burning more calories a day, more body fat every day and keeping your body closer to the fat burning machine you really dreamed of!!! Yes, it is possible!!

Have a great weekend and lets exercise with purpose, its all about results so lets do it!!

Twitt
Posted on

24th March 2011

We talked about cycling in a different way yesterday, lets talk about different ways of running today.

First of all, running on mindless flat roads is one of the most boring things I could think about doing, some people enjoy it but I like to make things a little more interesting and a lot more productive in terms of results!

Since we live in a pretty hilly country, there’s never a hill that far way fortunately, and sometimes vicious hills!!!

Hills will always get you working harder, going uphill works your legs better, makes your lung capacity push on to new levels, helps bring your body fat down quicker, gives you a greater sense of pride and achievement having completed them, gives you some great views when you get to the top and in general provide some great workouts!!!

This is why I head straight to them every time!!!

Another thing you have to look at. On sunny days, you will see plenty of people walking or running on flat roads. You won’t see many if any people running or walking hard up hills, those you do see working hard up hills will nearly always be in good shape.

If you want to look at where people in great shape train, go to the more obscure parts of the area, these people are never on show and never want an audience. They want a place where is quite but offers great challenges in terms of terrain. You feel great when you walk hard or run up a very steep hill or even mountain, there’s nothing like that feeling when you develop your potential from only being able to walk 10-20 minutes on the flat to being able to run up a mountain, it may sound far fetched to some of you but it is totally achievable, I can guarantee that!!!

So today, tomorrow or the weekend, by all means warm up on the flat roads or track, but head for the hills and experience a brand new set of results that will astound you in all sorts of ways!!

Twitt