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Gym based workouts

Had some emails in so i’m going to do a great gym circuit that works, and is very much using the same principles of the home workout, which really works too of course!

Select 6-8 exercises again, trying to work each body part in each circuit, and try to do a total of 3 circuits if your fitness allows. Take sips of water in between each circuit, and use good form in each exercise, no cheating or using too much weight for the sake of it!!

Use 8-10 reps for each exercise, and i like 12-15 reps on the leg exercises, you will get out of breath so scale down the weight you normally use, over the weeks that weight will go back up slowly as your fitness improves.

Bench press (chest)

One arm dumbbell rowing (back)

Upright rows (shoulders)

Leg press (legs)

Arm dips (using bench) (triceps)

Dumbbell curls (arms)

Sit ups (do as many as possible)

So basically, you will be using the same principles as the home circuit (see my previous posts), and if you really put a good effort in, you will get an excellent sweat and really get out of breath. Plus you will be breaking down muscle tissue, as you should now by now will raise your metabolism significantly (burn more calories 24 hours a day!).

Other examples would be

Pec deck

Lat pulldowns

Lateral raises

Leg extensions

Leg curls

Plank-Aim for 1 minute eventually (the gold standard)

Alternate squat thrusts-your best effort on each one, it’s a great exercise!

Your combination of circuits is only limited by your imagination. The bottom line is i repeat, DO EACH EXERCISE IN PROPER FORM, not simply so quick as just to finish it, or you won’t get the results you want!

I would do these circuits in the gym on a monday, wednesday and a friday (use the 48 hours in between each circuit to your advantage). These are over quickly but bring some big results to your body’s firmness and stamina levels. All good stuff!

Keri

Twitt
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To train with asthma or not? Turning back the clock!

Simon, a new member now living in Chicago, has joined because he wants to get back into shape again, after many years of focusing on his career, and his family, having three children now, he wishes to return to the fitness of his youth. At 41 years young, he feels out of it, and in his own words, more than a little scared about taking the plunge into the commitment of being fit and healthy again.

Through his years of inactivity, he has increased his issues with asthma, and was wondering whether it was possible again to get into shape with this seemingly threatening condition (it is for many people). I suffered with this condition myself and have offered him some words of reassurance. If it wasn’t for exercise, my asthma would be still holding me back, and stop me doing a lot of things. When you cannot do things most people consider normal, your self-confidence is shot to bits, your self-esteem is crushed and a “limited” life of activity is no fun and very bad for morale. I now train many people with asthma, and they feel the same as me, if they DON’T exercise, they get the wheezing back and feel terrible, their workouts and good food are now the best medicine they can take, and there are no limitations left in their lives any more, even on the cold days like now!!

Simon is also wondering whether he can really do it again, he is 41 now and how will his body react? I have reasured him again and i have had individuals start training at 70 years of age, so he has a major headstart! He will be doing the 12 week challenge, and i will advise him to begin slowly, let his tendons and ligaments get used to exercise again, and give it time to adjust again. Then he can propel himself the former heights with a sound diet too. The lack of confidence he has now will disappear through the things he will accomplish, the self-esteem will come back and his children will have a great role model to look up to. He has two choices, either get into great shape or face the slow decline into old age, with the so called “limitations” that many people face in life.

 He wants an active life for himself and his kids, see how he gets on and watch for his posts, i know he needs encouragement and hopefully, he will help everyone else out too!

Keri

Twitt
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See your future

I like some of the comments being posted behind my posts by users of this site. They are positive, they are helpful, and full of real life experience. In a way, you are all practicing a very important habit, you are trying to see where you are going before you even get there, this is not nonsense or jumping the gun, it does really help to visualise your future, and the way you want to look.

Some of the ways you can do this is remember the way you used to be at your very best, dig out the old photo’s of when you looked great, or even in you don’t have them to hand, you can get inspired by someone else’s transformation and cut that photo out, on how you want to look. All you women do it all the time, you pick out a photo of a woman with the hair you want and take it to the hairdresser don’t you?

Using this site and being constantly reminded of what is possible will be proof to you every day that transformations are really possible. The new energetic healthy you is not that far away as long as you fully adopt a healthy lifestyle, and hit your workouts with purpose, and simply do not “go through the motions”! The more you imagine and visualise your future body, the stronger your mind will become, as well as the drive and determination you’re going to need to get there. Apart from good eating and good training, this will fuel your ultimate success more than anything.

Keri

Twitt
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Simple “under control” habits

Ways to make sure you are not consuming extra calories would be the following;

1. Eating while you’re going things. If you eat while you are on the phone, on the computer or just watching TV, your normal (i’m full signals) feelings of knowing when you’re full are not recognized. This is an easy way of eating more calories than you should. A simple way of rectifying this is to go back to basics, eating by the kitchen table will focus yourself on the meal again, and you will not overeat, and your brain will recognise those all important “i’m full” signals.

2. Are you still in the low-fat culture. You may believe that foods are low in fat, so you can eat as much as you want of them. Portion control is still relevant to keep your calories sensible, and what about the extra calories in these so called low-fat meals. Remember what i always say about sugar, and that frosties are a “low-fat” food! Don’t just look at the saturated fat, check your sugar intake! No more than 40g of refined sugar a day please.

3. How big are your plates? I go in many different houses, and most of their plate sizes are different. If you serve your food on huge plates, your will most likely be overeating. Scale them down and buy some smaller plates. It will be tough for the first week but you will soon get used to your new portion size, which will be much healthier and help with fat-loss too!

4. Keep the excess christmas stuff out the way, or better still throw it out! We have all been there, it’s there in front of us so we pick on it all day long because “it’s there”! This continues into the new year because we are keeping our sugary taste buds satisfied for rich food. The sooner you throw it out in the rubbish and buy some good food in, the sooner you get back to normal and get back in shape (and feel better)!!

5. Use your taller glasses for orange/apple juice. I have a thick rounded glass in the house and believe it or not it’s a pint glass! It only looks like half a pint honestly! The taller glassed meanwhile can look good but contain less, plus remember to dillute those juices with water, which means you consume less sugar and calories.

Have a go at these and see if they help!

Keri

Twitt
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New Year resolutions

New year’s eve is a great night to make promises and resolutions to yourself, if you are one of the 97%, those promises will fail according to statistics in the paper today. That’s why a lot of people don’t make any resolutions anymore. It seems that people are defeated even before they start.

Personally, I still make resolutions but they have changed over the years into more meaningful ones. Every year now and I want to help more and more people, and that’s what the idea of this blog is. More and more people are reading, and I’m getting more and more feedback thanks to people sharing their experiences.

This site is not about me, far from it, it’s about the people who ask for help, and I will do my best to help. Instead of responding to people I see out by lengthy text messages, or lengthy chats in a supermarket, that information is right here, and users feedback is vital. More people are registering, but most are afraid to post yet, it can be scary posting for the first time, but once you do it, you will enjoy it and learn a lot, AND benefit from the encouragement of others which is number one in my book.

My advice to you all is make those resolutions about being in your best ever shape, because this year you ARE going to do it, register, take part and I’m thinking of starting our challenge on the 17th January. Contrary to popular belief, I find this a good starting point because by the time everyone gets back to work, schools are back etc, this is the true time of year when people really feel like “getting back into it”!!

Happy new year and promise to make it your best!

Keri

Twitt