Posted on

March 23rd 2011

If you are out on a bike regularly training, you might want to consider a slightly different approach.

A lot of riders go for the big heavy gears because they like to feel the power. Most riders have done this for many years, including myself by the way. The last few years though, I have changed my ways and encouraged many others to do the same.

If you have some kind of speedometer, then you should perhaps take a close look at it and in particular the revolutions per minute part, or RPM as its more commonly known as on your machine. You will also find these on all stationery bikes, and what I’m about to say will naturally apply to both stationery and more traditional bikes you will use outside of course.

Most of us when we cycle go for one steady pace and its usually between 60-70 RPM, some even as low as 40-50 I have found. This turns out to be a very ineffective way to ride a bike and can put greater strain on your joints, especially your knees, which is probably why you got on a bike for the first place, to reduce strain on your joints because of its non weight bearing benefits!

The first time you will try and ride at 80 RPM, it will shock you how many gears you will have to shift down on your bike! This is bad for the ego to start with, as you will have based your progress on the bike, especially a stationery bike, on the gear you were using, to shift down seems hard. Its time to forget about all of that because you will be working harder especially when trying to take extra oxygen in, getting less stress on your knees/joints in general and sweating quite a bit more.

If  you can manage to keep the same gear and somehow get 80 RPM, then that’s fantastic but you will obviously notice how you will be working so much harder, and you will be unable to keep it going as long, there really is going to be an amazing difference for you!!

You can also go up from 80 RPM but this is too much of a jump to start with.

Lance Armstrong was one of the most famous riders to use a higher cadence, which is what you are doing when hitting at least 80 RPM, and this way of working makes you work so much harder aerobically, you will be taking much more oxygen in.

The benefits are going to be huge so lets give it a go, and if you cant get there to start with, keep shifting gears down until you can!

Twitt
Posted on

March 22nd

Are you still believing the “low fat” myth on all your shopping trips to the supermarket?

Lets get some facts straight, not all low fat foods are good for you, are low in calories or not going to put body fat on you.

There are plenty of good low fat options such as lean mince when you are about to make spaghetti Bolognese, that can work very well for you. There is low fat milk which takes out the saturated fat in the milk, there is even lower fat versions of chicken for example, so these straight forward examples can work very well for you.

Lets get to the other “low fat” options though!

What about low fat yoghurts? Often these yoghurts are full of sugar and chemicals to give you the sweetened version, which internally is not very good for you. You would be far better off having natural yoghurt with some proper fruit cut up, along with some nuts, a far better choice and far better for your insides.

One of the biggest guilty parties on the low fat claim is cereal boxes. Frosties as we all knoow are coated with lashings of sugar, and not at the top of anyone’s list of healthy cereals, but are marketed as “low fat” so people buy them and think they are somehow going to get into shape by eating them, nothing could be further from the truth.

When you read a label of different foods, you can usually spot the way they get around it. If you look at the carbohydrate part, look underneath and it says “of which sugars” which is the really dangerous part. If a substantial part are of which sugars in terms of carbohydrate, then the food is usually loaded with sugar and WILL NOT help you lose the body fat you want, will only help put it on!!

There are also plenty of times when fat is good of course, such as in fish like salmon, mackerel and trout, this fat is not saturated fat which is the totally unhealthy version. These are good fats your body needs to function really well and are classed as essential.

Also, the fats found in nuts are highly valuable and should be used for snacks, cashews, brazils, hazelnuts and almonds are all great examples of fats that are extremely good for you. They will be flagged up as high fat but as long as you keep these in moderation, such as a small handful per serving, you will be doing your body a lot of good!

Twitt
Posted on

21st March

A fresh week full of optimism and the chance to attract good things into your life.

If you get an absolute blaster of a monday in, you know as i’ve said many times before, you have a much greater chance of having a very good week. Nothing feels better than working out hard at the start of the week, and chances are you will not really feel like it at all to start with, especially maybe after a heavier weekend than planned. We have all been through it but today is the day to get your head down to work hard and set strong foundations down for the future.

This is the mantra a lot of business people i come into contact with daily, they now say that getting your head down and working harder than ever is the only way to get through this recession. If you do this, then the overall result of your efforts is likely to be a lot better even than you had hoped for. This is certainly my strategy and to embark on this you need a structure in your life that will set you up to be successful!!! Its like doing a job every day, week in week out, every week of the year for years, there are certain things you have to do or everything is going to fall apart.

Like we always talk about, you shouldnt have weeks when everything is unbalanced. You need to be doing your resistance work/weights EVERY week along with your cardio work (running, walking, biking, swimming for example) EVERY week, this is the balance you need for all types of reasons. This is what you need to be successfull full stop and the big question is how much are you going to apply yourself to it. If the answer is a lot, then you will be successful beyond your wildest dreams, im talking about applying yourself to do at least 4-5 times a week in training terms, and to your eating 5-6 times a week, concentrating on putting some good nutritious food into your body nearly all the time, still having time for the occasional treats, but treats should never form the foundation of your diet.

Do these things right now and this week, and then every week and things will fly for you!!

Twitt
Posted on

March 18th 2011

Positivity is a massive mindset change for some, and a lifesaver for those who practice it daily.

Even under the most extreme conditions when its hard to think positive, its power cannot be understated. Thinking positive only doesn’t work though, you have to act positive to really make things happen in a big way.

The people in japan are under extreme pressure, and thinking positive is not exactly the first thing on their minds, but we are already starting to hear heroic stories about people who are doing extraordinary things through their actions and rescuing people. For example, you have 50 men trying to stabilise the troubled nuclear reactor from complete meltdown, as I write this, it is being reported that are having some success in what is being described as a suicide mission, this is incredible and an amazing story and hopefully the positivity will continue that will help everyone out.

On a seemingly far more trivial not, the consumer confidence index released by the nationwide building society today says that the index is down to record lows of 38, it was 48 last month, also a record low last month, to give you an indication of normal pre-recession levels, its usually around 100.

So thinking positive amongst all of this gloom and doom is tough, but the alternative is far worst. If you are negative about everything, then hate, frustration, anger and bitterness tend to be normal emotions for you and will send you into a negative spiral that is nearly impossible to get out and can be very self-destructive.

If you try to be positive about everything, then better emotions tend to fill your life. Hope, satisfaction, good spirits, optimism and the ability to give things a go tend to be everyday emotions in your life and can inspire you to take a chance when perhaps in the past you wouldn’t.

So you have a straight choice and for me there’s only one choice and that’s positive. Unfortunately, every single day you will bump into people who are always negative so don’t expect to have much company in your positive thoughts!!

This is why its hard for everyone to be successful in their training, eating and sleeping, it takes constant positivity, even in very tough economic times when people are losing jobs all around you.

Theres never been a more important time to be, act and stay positive if you’re out for your best quality of life!!!

Twitt
Posted on

March 17th 2011

One of the best things you learn from staying fit and healthy is learning to cook from scratch.

Jean for example yesterday said how she is using more natural ingredients in her meals than ever, and reaping the benefits in terms of a lower heart rate, weight and fat loss, increased endurance and greater fitness and energy levels in general. Most people if not all would be thrilled with such impressive results.

You are using a simple formula when cooking from scratch.

When you read the ingredients label of a jar of sauce for example of tomato sauce that goes with spaghetti Bolognese, you will struggle to pronounce some of the chemical ingredients that have gone into the product, let alone understand them!

When you think about it, if someone asked you to eat or drink something you didn’t know how it would affect you, most of you would never eat it!!!

That same sauce we KNOW contains more sugar than you need for your body, it contains more SALT than you need for your body, it contains more saturated fat than you need in your body. So if you pose the question again put like that to most people, most of you would choose not to eat it.

The worrying thing about all of this is that the tomato sauce for Bolognese in a jar is FAR better for you than most ready meals you find in the freezer of most supermarkets!!! This is a worrying statement and if you go further into cheap takeaway establishments, then the truth about what you are consuming REALLY GETS UGLY!!!

I know a lot of you will feel rotten after a takeaway the night before due to the excess salt, sugar, saturated fat and MSG (monosodium glutamate often used with Chinese takeaways). Ironically, if you see Chinese food cooked properly by Chinese people, they never use MSG because they know how bad it is for you.

So you have a stark choice, keep loading up the chemicals in your body and feel and look rotten in so many different ways, OR start cooking your food from scratch and immediately start benefiting from health benefits right across the board, which will be very meaningful to your quality of life!!!

Twitt