Posted on

19th april 2011

Blueberries, strawberries, cashews, almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, brazils, kiwi fruit, carrots, broccoli, apples, oranges are all great examples on how to deal with the colds, flu and sorts of illnesses sweeping the country at the moment.

All of these foods offer remarkable support for your immune system in all sorts of ways.

I would much rather take these foods in every day, than lower my immune system and accept the seemingly inevitable of colds flu etc and in general feeling run down, it doesn’t have to be that way if you eat a lot of fresh natural foods and exercise well throughout the week.

This is always a powerful combination is keeping your general feeling of wellbeing at its highest level.

Contrast that with individuals who consume alcohol most days, eat ready meals or low quality food, and eat little or no fruit and vegetables.

If you have been on both sides of those examples, I don’t need to tell you then how good it feels to be eating well every day and how energy giving it is to have good quality exercise in your life. These are facts, and everyone who lives this kind of healthy lifestyle will testify them to be true!!!

When you are exercising hard, you also need these foods to replace nutrients lost during exercise. Good quality foods are needed even more when engaged in tough physical efforts because you want your body to repair itself in a good way, and not feed it junk because as you break your body down by exercise, you want it built up with high quality nutrients and not low grade chemical junk found in low quality meals such as ready meals and all of their cheap copy cat products on the  market!

Its all fine to concentrate on looking lean and worry about the slightest weight gain but surely its far more important to look and feel good ON THE INSIDE?!!!

If you look after your insides and feed it with quality fresh and natural food, your body will look after you a thousand times more!!!

Give it a go!!!

Twitt
Posted on

18th April

If you are struggling with your back, your knees etc and you know you are not able to run right now, or for the foreseeable future, then there is an answer that can sort your problems out!!!

Power walking up hills can sometimes be a lot harder than running on the flat, and i have done a ton of it today already!

If you pick the very worst hills by your house, then you have a choice of the best venues for your great walking workouts. Power walking is not just going at some leisurely pace, and you claim to have had a great workout, thats not what it is at all. It is about having great workouts that can be as hard as any run or bike ride, all you need is the right attitude and the right intensity.

So say you have a 30 yard hill by your house, aim first of all to walk it as quickly as possible in one go, if you are out of breath and feel well worked, then this is the hill for you!! Then you should aim to do it multiple times with adequate rest in between each one, aiming for a maximum of around 8.

As the weeks go by and 8 is much more comfortable, start your backward walking, and aim for 8 backward power walks too, this will thoroughly fry your thighs, hamstrings and bum and you will be very well worked!!!

POWER walking is exactly that, walking with “power”, this is achieved by swinging your arms vigorously to achieve sufficent power in your legs, and encourages great momentum in your walking and therefore in overall speed. This gets your heart rate up very well and demands great gulps of air, meaning your lungs will be working very well.

Theres no excuse not to get out there so lets give it a go!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Friday April 15th 2011

The quest to get into shape doesn’t all finish with your workouts. If it does, then i have news for you, you are not reaching anywhere near your potential!!!

If you are on just a diet and not training at all, then you are so far short of your potential its untrue, and you need to get moving right now!!! Your “diet alone” method WILL NOT work medium or long term, it may work for a few weeks but you had buckle down and get training now, or face the frustration of yo yo dieting, which i think most of us have been through  at least one time in our lives, some of you several times unfortunately!!!!

If you are working out regularly, eating healthily and have problems with sleeping, i mean you only get a couple of hours a night, this will throw you off track too! Sleep is the third part of the triangle and to my mind, just as important as eating properly and training hard. When you dont sleep properly, you have no energy to train, you are more than likely irritable all the time and when you’re tired, there is no way you’re going to be in the mood to eat well. Your patience can be destroyed and fast food stops seem to make sense rather than go to all the effort of making fresh nutritious food all the way from scratch!!!!

Lets get this one right and you’re onto a winner, training well, eating well and hitting the sack on time especially in the week, i cannot overstate the importance of this, i really can’t and i know myself that when im hitting all three right, my performances are right out of the top drawer!!!!

If the talk of doing basics bore you, then fair enough, you’re not prepared to buckle down and get serious results. I like that word, buckling down really is the way to go and spells HARD WORK all the way. Make your choice and deep down you know what that must be!!!

Twitt
Posted on

April 14th 2011

Not recording your progress is a sure fire way to get complacent and end up go through the motions with you exercise. Even going through the motions will give you a level of health that is far superior to being idle and sitting on the settee every day and not being active.

The question is though are you happy with not being your best, or at least being in a good range. Most people I know don’t want to be “average or below”, most people aspire to be better and it’s a human need to want the best for yourself and your family.

It turns out to be true that the “best” you hope for always starts with a good level of health, otherwise its hard to muster up the energy and enthusiasm to simply get things done.

A lot of us would like to be able to come home from work, call in the chip shop, eat whatever we want, have a couple of beers or glasses of wine, not have to get up in the morning and somehow be in fantastic shape!!!!

In real life, that is some kind of fantasy that really is impossible to come true on any level. More likely that kind of lifestyle is going to make you struggle with your health and lead to health problems unfortunately later down the road.

So if you want to be better than mediocre, you had better start recording your progress! We talk about it all the time, if you can do 5 press ups in week one, and 30 press ups in week 6, then that is substantial progress and you are doing at least most things very well indeed!!

This focus that most people give for the first month to six weeks should be carried on throughout your journey in health and fitness, it really make all the difference and stop you from slipping back too much. Keeping a workouts journal will also give you the road map that you have undertaken from being perhaps overweight and out of shape, to becoming much leaner and well toned. Your workout history will show you this and all you have to do is keep following it and you will get to the same impressive destination!!!

Twitt
Posted on

13th April 2011

Making a statement that you are doing your best with your training, you are doing your best with your food is a lot harder than what usually what happens in practice.

The hardest thing i have to achieve with individuals is getting them to believe in themselves, and to develop confidence in themselves, if i can do this, then i know i have won the hardest battle and things should move along very quickly after this.

All the great coaches in sport and in  business pursue this quest all the time, and use different ways to do it.

Some people need a good shouting at, in fact they thrive on it.

Some people would crumble if you shouted at them, and their confidence would be lost forever, this is why every individual is different and needs to be handled with different degrees of care!

Telling someone that they will soon be capable of climbing any hill, any mountain and by climbing i mean running or walking hard! I am no expert in mountaineering and im not pretending to be, but i do know how to get up vicious hills and how to get others up the same challenging hills!!

It is all small steps, and you have to demonstrate to the individual that there is progress each and every week. If you focus on progress then you will already be in the fast lane of development. If you simply show up and go through the motions, your workouts will not only be very boring but unproductive too, and thats exactly the situation you don’t want to be in!!!

The positive nature of hill training can never be underestimated! Everyone who i have ever taken up hills always conquers their insecurities about their true ability and sometimes, a new and much more confident person is born from being able to conquer any hill in the area. You may also find that the same person will never run flat again, the prospect of hill running or walking can be addictive not only in the challenge factor, but the results in terms of fitness are always tremendous!!!

Get up there and give it a go as long as you have developed your fitness to a good standard! There must be a hill which you currently think is impossible, its to to crush your fears and surprise yourself so give yourself 6 weeks to conquer it, edging up further each workout, a little progress every week will lead to massive progress over 6 weeks so plan it and see how well you can do!!

Twitt