Month: October 2009

Andre Agassi’s confession that he took crystal meth in 97 and got away with lying to testing officials took a little shine off the great man’s glare this week for many. Here you are talking about one of the greatest athletes of all time, on the most visible, one of the great champions, one of the few to do all the grand slams, and you would think he would be beyond a slagging off by anyone, but it seems this time he has gone beyond the line.

The reasons for confessing come handily with the release of the new book, his autobiography. He doesn’t need the money, he doesn’t need the attention, he is loved and adored by his fans and people outside tennis. Perhaps it was something “he had to do”, whatever the reasons, whilst not condoning drug use in any shape or form, the word is that it won’t deflect too much from the great man, his charity work in vegas is legendary, he’s supposed to be a great family man, the question will always be “why?”, and perhaps only the great man can answer that?

A litte background to the drug taking would be that agassi’s life was in a mess back then, relationship problems, the hollywood lifestyle, drinking, fell out of love with tennis etc etc. The story of how he came back from there is legendary. From being ranked 141 in the world, he climbed back to number one with the help of gil reyes, a legendary hard nosed vegas trainer who had him running running forwards, and backwards up 900 yard vegas sand dunes-until he was often vomitting!!!

His weight training was often legendary too, bench pressing 310 pounds, which is superb for not such a big guy, with previous lifestyle asnd fitness problems to say the least! The bottom line was that Agassi applied himself again to realise the champion potential he always had, which most of us saw all too briefly in his sole wimbledon win in 92.

His story is often inspirational, and unfortunately, this drug confession will only make his book that much more readable!! Will probably and go out and buy it myself today! If all this helps agassi come out and tell the kids in the world about all the horrible realities about crystal meth and all drugs, some good may come out of it?!

Keri

The government and its recommended exercise amounts

The government campaign to get the UK exercising more is admirable and to be commended. The suggestion that people exercise for 60 minutes per day or 5-6 times a week is somewhat unlikely for some though. Most people work though and many can’t be motivated to workout before work, its often dark by the time they come home, and often more excuses creep in such as it’s too wet, cold, icy, slippery, drizzly, etc, and throw in the fact that it’s too dangerous in some parts to walk the streets on your own during dark hours, and you have a lot of obstacles in people’s lives to never even approach the hour a day recommended.

The solution

Anyone who has ever trained with me, and if you follow this blog from time to time, will know that I recommend doing some resistance training (weight training/working against your own bodyweight) at least twice a week, and doing some cardiovascular work (walking/running/cycling/swimming etc) at least another twice or three times.

This is a formula that works every single time if followed every single week and with great consistency. The great news? Many if not all of these workouts never last more than 30-40 minutes. The key is intensity and working out with purpose, PLUS its far more manageable than the hour a day plan.

 I will go into much more detail in posts to come, but for now remember that there is another way, and its based on science. When you are follow a plan that many have followed before with often great success, you are assured of arriving at your desired destination feeling fantastic and knowing you have achieved something that will last with you for the rest of your life.

Keri

Eliminating junk food usually goes hand in hand with your exercise programme. You may know by now that fast food restaurants along with most pastries and processed foods contain high amounts of fat, salt and sugar, and usually bad sugars at that. If you’re looking for any kind of performance aims for the week, then you can forget about most of them if you ate a lot of the bad foods, because you’re not going to have much energy to play with, and you’re going to set your body up for putting on more body fat so keep on eating the good stuff.

Another way to get NO energy in your life, would be to avoid drinking water. 10 glasses of water will give MASSES of energy so your choice.

Don’t avoid high fibre foods. Not only does high fibre in your diet help in the reduction of cholesterol, it also makes fats less likely to be absorbed in your body.

Don’t avoid your strength work. The more lean muscle you have, the more your body burns calories, even at rest. Your muscles will become stronger, your bones become more dense, and your tendons and ligaments also become stronger.

You can’t reach the standard you expect of yourself unless you adopt these strategies full stop so let’s use them.

Keri

Arthur Llewellyn Jenkins Leading  furniture stores

Patricks with Rooms

Lewis Pies

John Francis estate agents

PAI Group

Vaughan sound

PA installations

Picton Sports

Childline

NSPCC

Ted Mckibbin’s Gym burry port

Steel Supply Western

Avenue Villa Dental Surgery

The Light Company, Swansea

Thelightcompany.co.uk

Justin Lewis.co.uk IT services

Mumbles, Marina, Cardigan nursing homes

Hand made wedding gifts

Tora IT

Peter Davison Tyres Pontyberem

Andew Vicari-international artist Monaco

Elgan Jones and sons Butchers Burry Port

Andrew Jones Yoga master New York

Zahra Sugaring llanelli

Dan Williams Professional surfing coach-Progress Surf Academy Llangennith and Caswell/langland

Mark Evans PGA Langland Bay golf club

Darren Griffiths PGA Carmarthen Golf club

Terry Griffiths Matchroom

Headlines

Move it

W D Jones Colourprint

IMEX

Nevil Williams,  Historical Author

Gerald Thomas & co accountants

FS Ley fruit and veg