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day 1

Day 1 of the 12 week challenge and are you making the most of your efforts to start off on a good footing?

Today in the news, is classed as “blue monday”, apparently today we are more depressed than ever, and the realities of christmas and early january are hitting us. Christmas is a long way off, summer is a long way off and things are supposed to be, well, depressing!

The perfect time then to get going and do your best over the next 12 weeks. For starters today, i would look to do a resistance based workout, for example an inside circuit would be a first class start today, wednesday and friday. Then i would look to do a cardiovascular workout tuesday and thursday, have saturday off to do what you want, and maybe do an activity you really enjoy on sunday. This schedule will depend on your fitness levels of course, and many of you won’t be able to train hard 6 times per week of course. Doing 3 inside workouts may be enough for you, but nothing stopping you doing 3 walks too on the other days?

Remember this is about changing your lifestyle, and if you’re already at a certain standard, it’s about raising that bar several more levels. It’s about paying more attention to your eating, it’s paying more attention to your workouts and actually doing them without fail, and really setting a higher standard for yourself so you can’t have the best quality of life possible, you have the power to do that.

From today, start writing down your workouts, and promise yourself that you’re going to try and beat this week’s levels next week. It’s all about making improvements from week to week, that means you are capable of making 12 big improvements by april as long as you’re consistent, and are motivated to bring huge benefits to your health and beyond.

There has been a lot of posts over the last few weeks, most of them are information you can use every day to get fitter, healthier and stronger mentally. It’s all here for you and feel free to ask questions along the way!

Keri

Twitt
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Don’t look back!

Tomorrow is your chance to get in the 12 week challenge, the chance to change your life around, and make things happen for yourself in a very good way, and others when you consider how much energy that can come into your life!

Here’s a way to think about it on whether you should take part of not. Do the “rocking chair test”!

Imagine yourself 80 years of age, on a rocking chair on some porch somewhere, reflecting on your life. You look back to this time on january 17th, 2010 and wonder should you really have gone for this challenge, to turn everything around, get fit and healthy, and stronger mentally than you have been for some time?! Chances are that you would have, as really you have nothing to lose, and everything to gain!!

It’s time not to be part of the crowd and follow like sheep, its time to take charge and do something very positive indeed with your life. Life will look very different indeed by mid-april if you really apply yourself and challenge yourself on how far you can go.

You are all invited, let’s do it and see you tomorrow for day one!

Keri

Twitt
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12 week challenge

The 12 week challenge starts this monday, 17th january.

Things to do

1 do your very best for 12 weeks to get in your best physical condition, both inside and out, no faddy diets and calories under 1200 calories per day (which is technically being malnourished).

2 to become mentally stronger, the discipline of eating and training well will automatically bring more mental strength and help you overcome life’s challenges

3 to take photographs of yourself from this weekend, and then at the end of week 12.

4 to take your waist measurement in inches, and then work out your height in inches, try to get your waist less than half your height in inches. This is a great sign of increased health and wellness, and that’s what we are looking for. Let us know your progress.

5 you are welcome to take other measurements of yourself, for example, neck, shoulders, chest, waist, hips, thigh, calf, bicep and forearm, as well as getting your blood pressure checked out.

6 try and keep a daily diary, and a list of your progress and accomlishments. This will act in the future as kind of a success map on how you got into great shape.

7 log in here daily for updates on your progress, help from like minded people and support from myself. Everything changes here every day in case you didn’t notice before!

8 list your goals from what you want out of this challenge in the next 12 weeks, and even what you hope this next 12 weeks will lead to. Perhaps, if you have lots to lose, it will increase your career chances, most employer’s now look for fit and healthy workers to contribute to their business/organisations. OR you may want to get into amazing shape for the summer or fix some health issues that you’ve been avoiding for sometime, whatever it is you can do it!

9 i want you at the end of the 12 weeks to write a brief essay on your experiences, the best ones i will post online and they will be extremely valuable for new members when they discover the highs and lows when trying to get into shape, we want the truth on here and members posting here have already been valuable.

10 if you need extra support, drag an extra member to do it, maybe a family member, work colleague etc, all the workouts and eating ideas are already on this blog, and literally more are appearing daily, so let’s throw the excuses out the window and really get it done in 2010!!

This goal setting question and answer may help you get focused

Personal record and goal setting

Name…………………………………………………………age…………………………….

What i want out of this programme…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

What do i know that i can improve on in health and fitness terms?………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

What’s stopped me reaching my goals before and how can i overcome these challenges?…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

How would it improve my life, and what would it mean if i was at my healthiest, both physically and mentally? First of all in the short term?………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

In 5 years?…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………for the rest of my life?…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

What if i don’t challenge myself and don’t try, how would it affect my life in the short term?………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

In 5 years?………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

For the rest of my life?…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

What are 2 things i can do immediately that will show i am committed to this programme, and i really want the best for myself?………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

This is a contract with myself showing that i am committed to making major changes in my life and demonstrates i can see things through once i put my mind to it

Signed………………………………………………………date………………………………..

 

Twitt
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“Fat burning workouts”? Or gimmicks on machines?

Chris has asked a good follow up question so I though I’d post this one too.

I am confused on fat loss programmes, the gym machines seem to have lots of different programmes on there, but I seem to find the “fat-burning” programme very easy and don’t even break into a sweat?

Here’s one of my favourite and least favourite subjects at the same time! It always makes me laugh when they put these ‘”fat burning” programmes on the machines. Are they suggesting that the rest of the programme don’t burn fat? Do they suggest that the rest of the programmes are for very specific purposes only? The reality is that this is a very gimmicky way of training so don’t listen to their claims, most of these so called programmes are to make the machine seem a little more interesting, and keep some variety in there. You can measure your heart rate during exercise, and I measure all my clients, but if you find that difficult, look to put a 8 or 9 out of 10 effort each time you train and you will be doing very well, now THAT is the intensity you really want to be reaching in your workout, not what some made up routine on a machine that doesn’t work you that hard in the first place.

I addressed some of this in my previous post “do I need to work over 20 minutes to burn fat?”. If you think about this logically, any exercise will burn fat and you don’t need to be working for hugely long periods of time to burn fat, it’s what you do and not how long you work for. The fat-burning programmes you speak of usually encourage you to work at low intensity for lengthy periods, that’s why you never get into a sweat as you say and you are being short-changed of a great workout potentially.

The good news is that you can make any programme a “fat-burning” programme, all you have to do is make the effort worthwhile and exercise with purpose. If you are not really pushing yourself, and simply doing the workout at a slow leisurely pace, you need to up the intensity to truly burn fat as they say. If you’re working on a treadmill, increase the speed, or increase the incline. If you are doing weights or resistance exercise, add the weight progressively to increase intensity, and cut your rest in between sets down, that’s why I encourage you to work in a circuit style as seen in previous posts. See my interval training post, that’s got some solid training ideas in there to truly burn fat and quickly.

You know deep down chris that those “fat-burning” workouts that seem to last for really long periods at low intensity don’t really work, are hugely boring, take most of your evening up, and you need to buckle down and make improvements if you really want the changes for the better you are obviously looking for.

I have posted lots of examples of workouts already, and hopefully you can see that the theme is relatively brief workouts, but done at a higher intensity. You don’t have to work yourself until you’re blue in the face, but you do need to work slightly out of any comfort zone you may be in right now. Look for constant improvements, keep a training journal over the next 12 weeks, and you may be surprised at what you’re doing in week 12, compared to week 1.

Try some outside workout, can’t beat the fresh air and you can get a different scenery each time!

Let me know how you get on!

Keri

Twitt
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Walking versus running

A good question has come through from Chris, someone who like many others, has been viewing the site and has finally posted! Question is

Which exercise is better, walking or running?

There is no straight answer to this one Chris as I like to look at the big picture. The easiest to answer is this. If someone is new to training or wants to get started running, it can be intimidating and downright hard to say the least, anyone who has done it can testify to this!

Also, you may have a problem with your knee/ankle/back, and if this is the case, then I would advise walking to start with, make sure you get a good set of running shoes (although you won’t be running) as all the best technology and support goes into running shoes, they don’t have to expensive either, there’s always pairs on sale at any sports shop and sometimes you can get an excellent pair for around £40. What you want to spend is up to you, but bear in mind they mostly last for around 500 miles so you need to change them regularly, that is the true secret.

They used to say I would be a cripple by the time I was 35, however I change my shoes every 8 weeks now through picton sports in Llanelli, and im feeling better than ever at recently turning 41. I change them so often because my running would be considered excessive by many, but it is a big part of my job! So having proper training shoes is absolutely vital, or you will invite injuries.

Back to the question of walking versus running. I would say that an average person usually finds running for any length of time to begin with too difficult, so walking quickly is achievable and will soon get most people out of breath. Then, I would move them on to hills to drive up the intensity of the workout and this again, can be very tough!

Then, I find as long as there are no prior injuries or knee complaints etc, a lot of individuals want to step it up and achieve some running targets. I start with maybe running for 20 yards, walking for 50 yards, running for 20, walking for 50 and son on. Over a 6 week period, it could easily become running for 150 yards, walking for 50 yards, running for 150 and so on. People progress at different rates depending on ability, motivation, dietary habits etc, but with some well thought out and progressive training, the results will be very good.

I would only attempt to run a maximum of twice a week to start, to get your joints used to the extra load (the pressure can be 3 times your body weight). When you get up to around 20 minutes of constant running on the flat, I would suggest trying to bring in interval training (see my recent post on that), sprints on flat and sprints up hills over shorter distances (see previous posts on training for sports). These forms of training not only relieve boredom, but they cam bring you some tremendous results.

I have some individuals who are very good walkers too and just love walking. They start off on flat of course, then they work on rolling hills, and then they work up to some very demanding hills and even mountains. I have had a couple of people walk/climb up some very  famous peaks in the world, so the sky’s the limit.

So back to the question which is better, I would say both are very good depending on personal preference. I would say that most have a desire to run, but I have some who hate running and love to cycle. I have some who love to swim. I have some who hate an audience and love to work inside with weights and body weight exercises. I am fully aware that many people have ailments that make running not very attractive. It is up to me to make sure they have a programme that they can still get into amazing shape with. Anyone who has trained with me will know after a good period of conditioning, I seek out the highest hills and some of the most demanding terrains. There’s plenty of them around the Llanelli, burry port and gower area’s so take your pick and see what you can do.

Another point, I would use the level of intensity as your guide to your workout. Think 1 as very easy, and 10 as working at your max. If you can get a 8 or 9 out of a walking workout, then that’s fantastic, and the same with running. It’s the effort you put in that counts and not necessarily if its walking or running. If you have an issue with your knees, choose non weight bearing such as cycling and swimming, walking may be okay too but running may be inviting trouble.

Up to you and let me know how you get on and good luck on the challenge next week!

Keri

Twitt