Keri McKibbin Personal Training

The move and eat less way of doing things is always going to work isn’t it?

If you concentrated this week and moving around more than last week, pushing your workouts a little harder, trying new activities maybe, just doing more, plain and simple!

What about your eating, a key tactic i find is to control your portion size at each meal. I may have said eat less but i still recommend eating often, every 3-4 hours, it keeps your blood sugar levels steady and stops hunger pangs from ruling your life. So portion size is always important.

A good tactic would be to use smaller plates which will automatically get you used to less calories. Stick to the smaller plates and don’t be tempted to grab the big dinner plates, because this will be a good way of putting on weight, exactly what you don’t want!!

When looking at portion sizes, use your carb and protein portions wisely and look to have them the size of your fist, a rough but good guide when serving up your favourite dishes, another way of keeping your waist down long term.

This is a big week and it starts tomorrow for many of you, after the bank holiday so lets move around more and definitely eat less and smaller portions. This is a simple and forgotten strategy.

This may be one of the most important ways to stay lean and healthy, all sorts of research shows.

When we eat as a family, a couple or even on our own at set times, we are likely to be eating in a controlled manner, and are not as likely to overeat as we would be if we just grabbed some food on our own in no particular order and just “got on with it”. This can be especially true in stressful situations.

How many of us have just grabbed some food and eaten far more than planned, as we got in from rushing from somehere and just “went for it”! I KNOW I HAVE, more than once!

This is when a structure matters in our day, breakfast with kids is always great (i only get to do it on the weekend due to my very early starts), lunch is not often a possibility for most of you in the week but tea time certainly is.

The practice of eating together works on so many levels and these two important feeding times should be part of life.

It’s like drinking in the local pub, most of you will be drinking at a decent pace and not throwing those pints back in too much of a hurry. It’s anti-social to be falling around in any public place these days and being in control of yourself is something we are all looking to do.

If you compare that to drinking at home, you have no reason to control yourself at all, you can fall around the place and nobody’s going to know about it. Plus you can drink bottles of wine and cans of beer very cheaply too, at a fraction of the price in fact so “control” is not a word often used when drinking at home.

 I’m not saying that most people drink wildly every night at home, but hopefully you get my point that eating and drinking in more controlled atmsophere’s tend to make us think a bit more about what we’re eating and drinking, therefore leading to less calories and less potential to blow all the good work we are doing with our workouts?

Back to the eating at the table part as a family, its also a great time to introduce new foods to kids, new vegetables and new fruits, if they see you eating all good foods, they are likely to follow given time and if the new foods are introduced in a slightly more imaginative way.

Have a great weekend and hope everyone has put in some great workouts this week?!!!!!

There are endless ways to get fit this summer, so its up to you to do something about it!

A great way to get started is to sign up to an event of some kind. For example, you have a 10k coming up in mumbles in September along with other events through the summer. We had our mumbles triathlon at the end of april, and I know just how much this motivated those who took part, it puts fresh impetus in your training and allows you to shoot for goals you may not have thought possible.

Try and be like a kid this summer too, if you played rounders/baseball in school, why not now with your kids or grandkids of with anyone. For example, playing with a baseball bat encourages you to work your stomach in the swing motion, and quite a few swings can be the equivalent of 100 sit ups, but in a different motion of course (side to side). Also, the stop start running throughout the game will burn a lot of calories, plus you will probably have a lot of fun in the process!

If you’re down the beach, you can either swim in the sea or if swimming is not your thing, try wading through the water up to your waist, or for the very adventurous try running through the water, this can be extremely challenging so give it a go, a great workout!

You can combine your swimming with some cycling and running too the same day if your fitness is really good. It doesn’t have to be huge distances, for example our sprint triathlon in mumbles every year only lasts around an hour, and the record is 46 minutes so you can make it as long or as short as you want. Plus it can be a lot of fun so try it out!

If you’re not keen on the swimming, just try the cycling and running together, this can be  great buzz for your legs and take your fitness to another level.

Some ideas for you so let’s do it this bank holiday weekend!

So how’s your summer going? The 84 day challenge was intense, but many of you who followed it at least 50% of the time really did well, and lifted your standards to another level. This has to be a huge positive and will help give you the confidence and foundation to try new things in your exercise plan, and even higher standards with your eating maybe?

The impression I get off some of you though is that the summer has been like swimming through treacle at times.

Lets go through the excuses, sorry I mean “reasons”!

Its been too warm

Ive lost focus

Ive lost my drive

Ive lost my confidence again

I don’t have any time any more to be fit!

My training partner has quit

I have a bad shoulder/knee/elbow

ALL of these reasons/excuses can be overcome and you really don’t want it badly enough if you can’t see through any of these “obstacles”.

 Im not making light of any of this, but I do know a lot of people who overcome far greater things to exercise and eat well, and don’t get blasted with booze and sausages/bacon just because its warm and “I had to have a barbecue”!

Nothing wrong with a barbecue but everything doesn’t have to be like new year’s eve parties every time! Barbecuing can be a very healthy way of cooking, and it was interesting to see last weekend’s research on the news that sausages and bacon were the most likely cause of heart disease and blood pressure in most adults, out of all meats that is. Nothing wrong with them now and again but when they’re in your diet most days, its time to get a grip!

The other reasons like losing your confidence, drive, energy AND time can be sorted out surely. Isn’t it time you grabbed this summer by the horns and made this your greatest summer?!!!

If you tell me right now its not that easy, well lets talk about it and make your argument stand up! I bet it won’t to some scrutiny?!!

Most of you know all this stuff anyway, it really has been a case of implementing it, isn’t that the case?

When I first started this thing, I always banged on about being consistent, eating breakfast every day, snacking healthily, eating protein with most meals, drinking plenty of water through the day, exercising with purpose, sleeping well etc etc.

If you get all of these basics in most of the time, you’re going to be pretty good at this thing called health and fitness.

Lets keep it simple, do your best and keep giving some feedback, it is appreciated!

It doesn’t take a genius to work out that the last few days have been energy sapping to say the least.

Saturday and sunday in particular was very testing, and not the most motivating weather to get out there and train which means you need to adjust your training accordingly.

When its this warm, your recommended 8 out of 10 effort will naturally be a little less. Don’t expect to do the same things and try and cut back on your training duration too. Its not much fun being out there for hours on days like these.

It’s no excuse either to miss sessions either, all im saying is reduce your intensity in warm weather and take plenty of water onboard, this is the most important factor of the lot and dehydration and exercising too hard in the sun can literally kill you!

Its easy to miss sessions on account of the weather, its too warm, its too wet, its too cold, all of these are likely to happen in this country so dont fall for all of these excuses, all you have to do is adjust your training accordingly which really should not be too much of a problem.

The summer and warm weather is great for your eating too. Nobody likes to be eating big heavy dinners in weather like this, and salads seem to be making a welcome appearance at this time of year too! Automatically, you suddenly want to become lighter because you know in this weather, you will be wearing less clothes and you will be wanting to show off all the hard work some of you have put in during this long, cold winter!

The bottom line is still consistency for you, no need to miss workouts, no need for your fitness to drop and this keeps your motivation high too. Once you stop training, your enthusiasm to stay in shape will drop sharply so lets keep slamming in the workouts, just make sure you’re careful on the very warm days and take proper precautions!

The floyd Landis revelations that he ACTUALLY did use drugs for his tour de france win, and years before, was the startling news of this week.

The more shocking or perhaps not (depending on what you believe) was that he was part of a systematic drug doping programme at US postal (Lance Armstrong’s ultra-successful mutli-winning cycling team).

The problem with Landis’ revelation is that he has been a proven liar before.

When he won the tour, he was found to have doped, he denied this.

Then he spent $2 million on his defence and lied on oath stating he never took drugs.

He benefitted from his book “positively false”, stating again that he never took drugs.

So to confess this week is very puzzling and a bit late in the day to say the least.

He does go into great detail though and speaks of the doping programme and how intensive it was.

If you want some more details, have a look at david walsh’s article in the sunday times or timesonline.co.uk, its very good indeed and will let you make your own mind up.

One things for sure, lance armstrong remains the most tested athlete on the planet and still has not tested positive, thats a fact so no point slinging shots at him until theres evidence.

Many of armstrong’s ex-team mates have now tested positive though, tyler hamilton, roberto heras, landis, andreu and vaughters admitted EPO use, and i believe manuel beltran also got caught last year in his final year of racing.

Cycling has been a dirty sport for years, but the last few years it seems to have got cleaner, so here’s hoping for a better future.

Most sports use doping, its just that cycling seems more serious in its testing and banning of athletes especially over the last 4 years.

The sad thing is that there’s a scandal every year just before the tour de france, and this year is no different!

Whatever happens, landis is not going to come out of this good, but if the murky truth does come out one day, then it would have been worth it. If landis has been lying again, he loses any respect he may have had left and his life will remain in the gutter.

The scale of your efforts are always measured by what you did the week before.

There is always a good standard being set and if that dips, your health dips a little bit and your fitness dips too of course.

Fortunately to remain on an upward curve in your training, certain standards have to be met.

It used to be thought years ago that working at high intensity would put strain on the heart and increase blood pressure. The scientific evidence right now and the last few years says a lot different. The heart is a muscle and you are strengthening it every day by exercising hard, your blood pressure is actually being regulated and remains in a healthy range due to exercising hard. There have been numerous scientific studies to say that this is true and i myself have plenty of case studies to say this is true.

The stories about over doing it were mostly false, and simply down to people having a pre-existing heart condition before they started exercising or it was people who lived a very unhealthy lifestyle who did a run now and again, once a month or something like that and were not conditioned to do so, therefore putting their health at risk. I encourage everyone to start off slowly and make gradual improvements, this is always the way to go and safety and doing things right is always my number one goal.

There is nothing better than being very well conditioned and this is only achieved by exercising well and regularly. Also, eating the right foods and keeping your arteries as clear as possible. If you all the wrong foods, your arteries are likely to thicken inside (becoming “furry” is sometimes a term used) and also likely to minimise your blood flow, which is the worst thing to do especially when exercising.

Your heart likes a steady flow of blood to make sure it operates efficiently and exercising regularly and making sure you eat a wide array of healthy, natural foods will helps this enormously too.

It’s all about balance, its about doing the right things and not over-doing it. You will find though that if you workout regularly, you should be able to make constant improvements which can lead to you getting to an impressive level if you give it enough time. The one thing that spoils many people’s programme is that they have no patience and want results “yesterday”.

Give it some time and wonderful things will happen to you if you take the pressure off yourself and not set ridiculously short time limits on you achieving unrealistic targets. Remember 1-2 pounds a week off is recommended and don’t panic if you don’t lose every week, weight is not the only thing and not the most accurate measure of progress. Look more at how your clothes feel and how your fitness standards are coming along, as well as the way you feel of course.

Let’s keep it up and do all the right things to make sure you’re firing on all cylinders, inside and out!

Keri

Making the effort to get your programme going seems the biggest “effort” to most of you right now.

There are lots of different ways to get around this.

Why don’t you call an old friend, and ask them if they want to get fit, and you can support each other. Both of you will have times when you don’t feel like exercising or eating well, or both. This is when your friend becomes important, picking you up off the floor when your morale is also “on the floor”.

Many of us appear super-confident, super-motivated and super go getters. The realities are that i train many such people, but really are the pussy cats, the worriers, the self-doubters just like the rest of us. We are all worrying about the future, regretting sometimes about the past but we have to put it into context and condition ourselves to not worry about the things which are likely to drag us down every time.

That’s why i feel that scheduling in your workouts is hugely important and is far more important than your dental appointments, your doctors appointments, your appointment with your solicitor-YES IT REALLY IS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do these people promise you great health or do they just fix something that has gone wrong?

When you workout, are you investing in your future big time? Of course you are and you know it, i just don’t think you realise HOW IMPORTANT YOUR WORKOUTS REALLY ARE TO YOUR WELLBEING. I really believe this!

Shrugging your shoulders is not good enough when it comes to assessing your weekly performances and trying to hide the fact that physically, you havent made the most of your obvious attributes!

Making the leap from where you are now to where you really could be is all about scheduling it in, and you know it and taking care of business. Taking care of business means getting the job done, making those workouts count, getting in those extra couple of reps in when you feel like you can’t do any more.

Getting up that hill on the bike when it would be eaiser to walk the bike up is crucial to your development, you won’t get to this standard UNLESS you schedule in regular workouts and you know it.

Its the workouts you do when NOBODY is looking really counts and you know it. This is no programme for show offs with all the best gear, its about fighting to get to your personal best, and not talking a good game that gets you absolutely nowhere. This is the time for action, the time to scheduled workouts that you never miss and getting serious about your health and fitness, once and for all so lets do it!!!

52 week hero

Why do people like so many short cuts and so many easy but non-productive ways to do things?

I seriously think that the true hero’s are the ones who can train throughout the year, never miss a workout unless they are ill and always look for improvements and consistent progress.

Yes, these people ARE out there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I get questions all the time about the best training programme, whether the power plate vibration system is any good, whether the masai based trainers with the big heel’s are truly the answer, whether the vibration belt’s you put across your stomach really work, whether the latest gym opening is really going to work this time, whether the latest fitness dvd is any good, whether the 2 minutes a day workout can really change your life, whether the flimsy machines you see on the shopping channels are really any good?!!!!!!!!!!!!!

These are the questions I always get and they get the same answers.

If you show up 80% or more of the time, you WILL progress.

If you eat well 80% or more of the time, you WILL progress.

If you train with purpose 80% or more of the time, you WILL progress.

THIS IS IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why look for questions and answers and try and re-invent the wheel?

Cyril is back in good form, and yes he is a hero because he does show up consistently, and that mean he “gets it”!

Isn’t the time you don’t train for an extended period the least productive part of your year?

That time you give up again doesn’t really HAVE to happen does it? Do you really want to go backwards that much, because im telling you now that’s what’s going to happen unless you start showing up to your workouts, instead of making the same old excuses why you can’t train again.

A week off turns to a month off, and this can turn to the whole summer off! In my book, that’s not acceptable and all of those endless and big talk promises you made to yourself don’t count for nothing!!

That’s why this is called 52 week hero, that person who achieves that (allowing for the odd cold/illness, holiday etc) really is a hero in my book. When you think about it, how many people do you actually know who make that kind of commitment in their life.

Someone who achieves this deserves all the benefits they get, because they quietly beaver away at achieving the most important thing you can get, GREAT HEALTH!!

The time for talking a good game is over, its time to go for it and be your best once and for all!

The same old training all the time brings with it more limited results, and a lack of motivation because you will be doing the same old thing all the time.

If you’re out cycling today, then you may be just in the mood to get out there and coast it, no problem at all with that.

If you’re out to do something different and add something quickly to your fitness, i would look to challenge yourself a little more.

Easy ways to do this on a cycle path for instance, would be to pick off targets along the way. Paula Radcliffe for instance would aim to chase down targets or runners in front of her. If you see someone in front of you cycling, then try to chase them down and eventually pass them, then you can coast for a while.

When you get your breath and legs back, you can chase down the next one and so on. 20 minutes of this type of workouts will get you breathing very hard indeed!!

You can mix it up on the hills too, there must be some path or some succession of roads that you never thought you’d be able to cycle up? Well, let’s go and try it!!

I would start like this. Take your time more than normal on the flat, and do your best to get up the very steep hills, work up gradually of course and don’t take on the worst hill to start with!

The key to climbing hills on the bike is to stick to a pace that you can keep with. No point going off like mad and then blowing up 15 yards later, remember you’re not in the Tour De France and its not a race up the mountains.

You will get confidence from making gradual progress and the first time you take on a tough hill, that will be the worst feeling you’ll ever get because IT IS your first time. Every time you take that hill on after that, IT WILL FEEL BETTER AND EASIER. It’s all a question of practice and not quitting after the first time you do it because you didn’t achieve that much.

I’ve trained lots of people take on the most mammoth of hills, and they have lived to tell the tale! They developed great self belief from their accomplishments and they are proud to say that their cycling is now first-class and now literally no hill scares them, in fact some people go searching for them now!!!

Have a great day and an even better bike ride!