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Fall of the machines, rise of your body!

The move from machines to more free-flowing methods of training has been remarkable in the last few years.

As anyone who has ever trained with me will know, I always emphasise the need to be able to support your own bodyweight/use your own bodyweight to achieve your goals and there are many, many ways to do this of course.

Machines can be limiting sometimes because of their limited range of motion, when perhaps sometimes the human body wants to figure out the exact movement for itself, and therefore get a much better workout in without the aches and strains that sometimes come from machines.

For me, I would rather be out there walking or running out in the wild countryside than be cooped up indoors on a treadmill, plus I like my body running in a natural movement than in a more artificial way in the gym/house.

I would rather be out on a proper bike in the outdoors than be stuck on a bike that doesn’t go anywhere. Riding a bike outdoors can be very exciting, you don’t get that inside and I think your body learns much more about balance when you have to handle all the twists and turns of the great outdoors.

I like all the stuff you can do in a house/gym involving medicine balls, fit balls, and exercises that make you use your own bodyweight and get you into different positions that you simply can’t do on machines.

I like working on unsteady surfaces to boost my own and a client’s balance and strength, if you’ve never done any of this, I’m telling you now that you are missing out big time and really denying your body of some wonderful results that will help you in every single area of your life.

The good news is that a lot of people have caught on to this way of training and that includes doctors and physiotherapists, the benefits have been proven by science and are now used from rehab programmes to professional sport programmes and everything in between.

If you’re one of those who are very bored with the same old stuff, get yourself away from all those boring machines, start burning more calories and fat with a different all over programme and literally the variety of programmes available are only limited by your imagination.

A change is as good as a rest so never be afraid to mix it all up.

Twitt
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Making your mark in the sand

Making your mark right now is tough given the economic climate.

When things seem dark and depressing as I write this in the pouring rain, its easy to curl up in the corner and give in to everything and not even try.

This is what a lot of people will do this time of year especially when it comes to their health, even if they are not even active to begin with, so things continue going down the pan for them. This is a slippery slope that is desperately hard to get out.

Try this for an experiment though.

If you are inactive and don’t do anything really to move around much, this could change things around for you in an instant.

Promise yourself that tomorrow you will do some exercise. It may be a walk, a bike ride, or whatever but lets keep it simple as say a walk.

Plan on walking for 30 minutes and take a bottle of water with you.

Then, when you get back in the car or you get into the house, if you don’t feel 100% better in terms of wellbeing and increased energy, I owe you £50! Be honest about this as I don’t feel like selling the house to pay up!!

This is your first step.

Then, have your shower and promise yourself that you’re not going to spoil all of that good work and you’re going to put some good food to maximise that very good feeling you have.

This is your second step.

Then, after all of this, you promise to hit the sack earlier than normal that night and you have a good sleep. Then I promise you that you will wake up so much brighter the next day it won’t be true!

You add all of this up and you have had a great 24 hours and then you need to try it all over again the very next day, because IT IS possible to feel that good again.

Try this for one week and see if your mood changes, you are slightly more optimistic about your chances in life, you are more hopeful and you will be on the road to developing more self-confidence and self-esteem.

These are the early things you need to do ever so slowly to get you on the road to discovering how important your health and fitness is to your future success-IN EVERYTHING!!!

Let me know if I have to pay you £50 or not!!!!!!!!!!!!

Twitt
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Showing up IS success

Many or probably most of you have had real problems with your training on and off for many years.

The problems though tend to stem from you being “on and off” with your training.

How many of you have stories about how you “used” to be in shape, how you were always going to be in your best ever shape one last time, how you were going to rediscover your youth and feel like you did when you were 21 again?

These are familiar thoughts and while you may not have shouted it loud, you would be feeling those thoughts at certain times in your life with at first hope, and then maybe regret if you never did anything about it!

I see it all the time with people, they make romantic stories up on why they never really got into shape. They forget the one thing that will make them ultimately very successful. SIMPLY SHOWING UP!!

If i didnt show up and write this every day, i would soon make excuses until i never showed up, and this blog would collapse. Some days i feel like writing more than others, but once i get pushing the keyboard again, i realise i was trying to help people again, which is important to me and gives me great satisfaction.

If you dont show up for work when you’re supposed to, you dont get paid so its a must.

If you dont show up to the supermarket, you dont get food and you dont get fed, so this is a must if you want to eat!

If you dont wash every day, your personal hygiene will be a problem and people will stand a few feet away from you! Washing your body and brushing your teeth is a must!

So how about getting shape? How the heck are there all of these romantic stories you tell yourself? I hear many stories all the time. I quickly come to the point though these days as my patience is usually short with people who talk a good game.

Lets come straight to the point. If you show up all the time for your workouts and you eat well, then you WILL be in shape full stop and please lets not make it complicated. Please, please lets not do that!

Its quite hard to keep on thinking of more and more elaborate excuses, if you dont show up, you’re cheating yourself and you will not get into shape full stop!!!

Good luck and its about time you cut the mustard if you’re still not getting where you want to be!!

Twitt
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It’s all worth it!!!

Cyril has made a great post today about his peak flow metre test has almost doubled in performance since he was a stone heavier!! If you have had asthma problems in the past or have it now, you may be very familiar with this test.

This means he has made great strides and the results of training hard and eating well are not just restricted to the scale-as we all keep telling each other!! Cyril is a great example of someone who just gets out there and does it! There have times when cyril has wondered if its all been worth it, but with results like this and his obvious weight loss, he must be flying high today.

As soon as you realise that its not all about which gym you train at, which class you go to, which trainers you train in, which fahionable kit you wear, who you know, what people think about you, how much people may try to put you off, etc etc, thats exactly when you step forward and decide that particular moment to be somebody and get into very good shape!!

You will get a million people talking about, and you may sometimes think that certain people are somehow “better than you”! What rubbish, i used to think that myself and once i decided i was going to show some consistency, i started racing past the big heads around the place and starting putting them to shame. This is EXACTLY WHAT CYRIL HAS DONE and each and every one of you can do the same-AS LONG AS YOU PUT YOUR MIND TO IT!!

Life is full of big headed people, people who have all the gear and no idea, the “posers”, you know all about them. Im challenging you all to blow all of these out the water because they are always all talk and very little action.

I guarantee if you knuckle down this week and really try to achieve your goals again and use absolutely no excuse at all, NOT ONE, then you WILL feel 100 times better by friday knowing you are on path to real success and real results. It is possible andit is not saved for “certain people”. ANYBODY can do it and this means you!!

Let’s get some aggression and purpose going and get yourself in the right mood to achieve great things!!! No time to waste, every second counts so lets get your big plan into action, all it takes is doing your best each and every day, nobody expects you to be perfect, if you slip one day, just pick yourself up the next and so on!

Its time for action because its all worth it!!!

Twitt
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Don’t panic!

Debbie gives a great post yesterday about the time very recently when she put on half a stone during holidays, and perhaps in the past, she would have come home and carried on the weight gain because she would have found it very difficult indeed to get back to proper eating straight away.

Now she hasn’t panicked, she hasn’t gone out of control in eating terms, she hasn’t felt sorry for herself and not exercises, she hasn’t said “poor me” at all, she has simply got on with with, got on with what she knows to be true and has really started to get job done again. The end result of all of this should be sustainable body fat loss and the big thing already is the increased self-esteem she is clearly showing!

I know i go on about it all the time but i can’t help banging on about the need for fundamentals in your programme.

I read and hear about faddy diets all the time, and how they promise you that “this time its really going to work”! Chances are its really  not and this is why the people who peddle this false hope don’t last in business very long. I’m planning to still be in business for a long, long time yet and realise that if your plan isn’t sound, you’re not going to get results, you’re not going to successful and you’re going to flounder.

 I’ve seen many people come and go, a couple of individuals i’ve seen in the press over the last couple of years who have claimed to have trained hundreds of thousands of people over the last 3 years! Now either they have more time in the day that all human beings have, they have the biggest turnover rate of clients i have ever heard of, or they are plain old fashioned liars. Needless to say, their business is based in false claims and their business is no longer viable. You can probably testify to seeing these people come and go every couple of years.

I think its always important that your business is always capable of standing up to the closest of scrutiny and thats why i am pushing the same fundamentals out here every day. I know if i was debating with a doctor over this, the doctor would give his/her wholehearted approval because common sense and the last science never goes out of fashion.

Eating plenty of fruit and veg never goes out fashion and always brings results, same with lean proteins, good carbs, enough exercise and the right mix of resistance and aerobic work, making sure you have rest and sleep, as well as keeping as hydrated as possible throughout each and every day.

This is the way to do, other things will come and go but as long as you stay on the right path and you keep it simple, things will always look rosy for you all in terms of your health and fitness.

Twitt