Posted on

30th march 2011

It’s the end of the month then and have you made the most of your winter’s training? Has it been a productive one or another missed opportunity?

The great thing about training and eating properly is that it doesnt always have to be a missed opportunity at all, you can always start back whenever you want, or indeed start for the first time no matter what age you are, that’s a fact and i have seen it many, many times.

The biggest thing that stops people exercising is perhaps fear of the unknown.

We all dont really want  do something we have never done before, or we think we won’t be that good at, or somehow we would be embarrassed to exercise in front of people which is totally understandable, or we sometimes think we won’t be as good as somebody else at it because we have low confidence levels always before we start.

The low confidence thing is hugely prominent in everyone i have ever started training. I have met some of the nicest people and the biggest egos too sometimes when starting an exercise programme with people. Without fail, and underneath all of that bluster and outward confidence of some, EVERYONE is really under confident when it comes to starting exercise, and don’t let anyone fool you otherwise.

The confidence levels WILL improve when it comes to your health and fitness programme, as long as your initial plan is safe and sound.

To me, fitness is all about improving slowly and steadily, and looking for ways it can improve your everyday life. Nobody i know has failed to improve his/her life by introducing exericise into their lives, ask around and you will probably experience the same answers and results.

If you are thinking of exercising but not sure if it will work for you, i can guarantee 100% it will work every time for you, as long as you are willing to give it some time and apply yourself to giving your best with your eating too, 100% guarantees are hard to find these days!!!!

Twitt
Posted on

29th March

 

Talking about back problems is a big reminder for most people about some low point in their lives when they weren’t so active, the problems it caused in real life and the actual pain they went through. Nobody wants to be known as the person who can’t join in things that most people consider normal, but that’s the reality of life for some.

Not being able to join in activities with your kids is tough mentally, and most people will do anything to get out of this spiral of despair.

A lot of people go through the stage of heat cream, ice sometimes and massage, often finding out that none of them were really the long term answer to a potentially life altering problem.

We talked about the swiss ball, the big ball you pump up you see around the place sometimes in gyms, houses etc but nobody really knows how to use it properly.

Simply sitting on it for 30 minutes watching a television programme can be big enough of an effort for many, as you learn to stabilise yourself for everyday life situations.

One of the favourites is sitting on your back, with legs over the ball and the ball right up against your bum, then roll you hips to the side. This will not only loosen your hips but loosen your back in a big way, and is often a great warm up to any workout. Try keeping your shoulders on the floor while you do it.

When keeping in the same position on your back, places your bottoms of your feet on the ball, hands by your side on floor and lift your bum off the floor using your feet, this is fantastic for your hamstrings/bum area and will develop serious strength in this area, which will again help your back!

The back, hips and hamstrings are all inter related as I said yesterday and remain very important areas to work, they may not immediately be visual improvements but will allow you to do everything better and with greater freedom, virtually eliminating typical aches and strains, and making you far more powerful and flexible and giving you a lifetime on pain free movement!

When it does fix your back problem, and I have no doubt it will, if from time to time your back stiffens up or gives you pain, then these moves will help you a lot to rectify the problem immediately. This ball is for a lifetime so lets give it a go, there are also many demonstrations online if you google swiss ball demonstrations. Will get videos on here one day!!!

Twitt
Posted on

March 14th

Another nice week of weather to get you into it, and make your summer promises you made to yourself happen.

Fat burning workouts need to keep happening, and forget staying on stepper’s in the gym for 2 hours to enable you to make that happen. It may say “fat burning” on the machine but it really doesn’t mean thats going to happen at all.

The myth that you need to do cardio to burn fat and use weights to build needs to exploded and kicked into touch for good. That way of thinking in unacceptable and will lead to mediocre results, even after a lot of time spent in the gym. Using resistance/weights in your programme is essential, vital, hugely important, whatever important term you want to use, you can use it so i can’t over estimate it!!!!

Everyone who wants to get into a programme always thinks bike, treadmill and stepper, and sometimes rower, and then settle on whatever they feel most comfortable on, and that usually means what they put the least amount of work into. Its common to walk into some gyms and see the same old people hogging the same old machines, nothing different ever gets tried!!! A sweat may be achieved but doing something different may be a swear word for some!!!

You know by now im a big advocate of working in a circuit style, and i don’t mean drop the weight so low that the workout becomes some kind of pathetic pandsy type of workout that you never get out of breath, this type of cop out is really no acceptable.

You need to work with weights that cause you discomfort especially when it comes to the  7th or 8th rep, so you are actually working hard, and not going through the motions, which is the worst way to train and guarantee mediocrity of the highest order!!!!

You need a good circuit in your life, think 6-8 exercises done for 3 sets and 8 reps per exercise, follow this and you’re going to be getting the results you really dreamed of!!

example-press ups or bench presses

arm dips using bench or chair

alternate squat thrusts

lateral raises

lat pulldowns

curls with dumbbells

plank-aim for one minute eventually

See how you get on and WORK HARD!!!

Keri

Twitt
Posted on

March 11th Supermarket shop

Hope you are having a stronger end to the week and if you are in the majority, you will be doing your weekly shop in the supermarket either today, yesterday or tomorrow.

Are you improving in this area or not? Do u visit only the healthy aisles of the supermarket or are you doing down every aisle such as the chocolate and crisps part, the ready meals part, the alcohol part, and savoury part etc?

The important parts of the supermarket remain the fruit and vegetables to start, depending on how it is laid out.

Here you can get your apples, oranges, blueberries, pears, bananas, broccoli, carrots, sweet potatoes, jacket potatoes, new potatoes, tomatoes, etc etc. These are the foods that need to be in your diet every single day to look after your body inside and out, fight disease and give you plenty of energy.

Next you probably come to the lean meats such as chicken, turkey, lean beef, lean steaks, lean mince etc, its important to make the right choices here. You can have some red meat, but don’t plan on eating it more than once a week, the health dangers have been well documented in the press lately again so a bit mof moderation is called for here. The lean meats though can form an excellent foundation for your diet.

You may next see some fish, im talking tuna, mackerel, haddock, trout, salmon is always a favourite of mine and you can get all of these either fresh or in a tin, nothing wrong with either in my book and depends on how much you have to spend.

How about some carbs? We mentioned potatoes earlier, but next we have brown rice, wild rice, wholegrain and wholewheat pasta, there are all types of spaghetti and variations (keep it to wholegrain if possible). While we are talking about wholegrain and wholewheat, you can and should apply this to everything and you know i mentioned wholewheat pancakes earlier in the week.

Bread is a big subject for many of you so lets keep it wholemeal if possible, the slower release of energy the better and you want to avoid white bread like the plague, full of bleach, sugar and other cooking agents that you really don’t want to be putting in your body.

Then there’s nuts such as brazils, almonds, cashews, walnuts, hazlenuts etc which are excellent along with dried fruit such as dates, apricots, raisins, figs, prunes which can work as excellent snacks or food sweeteners in a natural way!!

Hows that for a start and making your week go along without too many hiccups, more like plenty of energy and making sure you stay lean and energetic!!!

Twitt
Posted on

March 3rd 2011

March 3rd and its been a great week so far. We have had sunshine all week, meaning the possibility of a lot of outside sessions. The feeling of being outside is the best thing at all, the feeling of being more energetic leads to far more positivity in your life overall. Seeing the coastline on a sunny day lifts your whole spirit and gives fresh optimism even on days full of middle east tensions and economic uncertainty at home. You won’t get that same level of optimism on cloudy, drizzly dark days, some may but in the main most people do not.

A week like this full of crisp, sunny days can be the springboard into spring if you pardon the pun. If there was ever a motivating lift off for you all, this is the week just as the daffodils are coming out.

There’s no such thing as having failed before to get into shape, “you cannot do it” are the words of an irrational negative person, we need to come away from there. You are never too old, too overweight, too young, too insecure, too far away, there is NEVER AN ACCEPTABLE EXCUSE NOT to get into this thing and achieve heck of a a lot with your body, which in turn leads to a stronger and healthier mind, which prevents you slipping back into the situation you may be in right now!!!

You have accept that you’re not a robot, you’re never going to be perfect, you may never be an Olympic athlete but YOU CAN become the best version of you and you can do that by this summer for sure.

Don’t rely on someone or some organisation doing it for you either, because they can’t. You are perfectly capable of achieving all that you want to achieve and a whole lot more!!! In fact, you will gain so much more self-confidence if you DO IT YOURSELF, listen again, YOU CAN DO IT YOURSELF as long as you are given the right directions, the right food options and the right workouts

Lets get out there and do it and take advantage of the sun and make a massive difference to your body and mind all the way throughout march!!!

Twitt