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 9th

A lot of people are confused when they burn body fat, and a common question is are you burning fat every time you sweat?

Sweating is your body’s own cooling system and a lot of people in good shape will sweat regularly, and their bodies will be used to regulating heat in the body, if someone for example trainins 5-6 a week, then their body is used to working out and their body’s internal system will sweat to cool it down, and regulate its internal temperature. So this is sweating in a good way and with someone very fit, it can take a lot of work to get this happening. When you think about it though, that individual is only very fit in the first place BECAUSE they exercise  with real intensity all the time, so they will be used to tougher, more intense workouts.

On the other hand then, you may have someone who is totally not conditioned very well, and will sweat at the slightest physical efforts. It may not take much to get someone out of shape sweating but it doesn’t then mean that they are suddenly burning lots of body fat straight away. There are other factors at play, and if that person has consumed a lot of food that day before training, they will be busy burning the excess calories before they even touch their body fat.

The bottom line never changes, whatever stage you are at, you should build your training up in terms of intensity and take some time to do it. As long as you are making small even subtle changes each week, then you will be on course for ultimate success.

So the sweating thing as a measure of burning fat is not always accurate and there are too many variables to take into consideration. However, if you have at least a couple of months training under your belt, you will sweat normally every time you train intensely and even more so when you have made progress from the week before, a harder workout will always test you,  make you sweat and always improve you in terms of reducing body fat, heart rate and making your body overall leaner and harder.

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
Posted on

March 2nd

Your progress doesn’t mean much unless it impacts your life in a positive way.

It also doesn’t matter much if you feel that nobody cares about your progress. Having someone interested in what you do is a very underrated factor in your progress and confidence.

This is why people join diet clubs and gyms, its nice for people to talk about their progress with like minded people.

The weekly weigh in’s with diet clubs are a ritual for some people, and the pat on the backs or lets pull your socks up attitude seems to work for some people.

I’m definitely in that line of work too, a serious part of my job is not only constantly analysing an individuals performance and pushing them onto new highs, its also about motivating the individual and pushing the right buttons, especially when things are not going their way.

You can do it another way. You could ask a friend to help you out and witness your progress. That could be from measuring your waist with a tape measure once a month, to witnessing your weigh in’s every week, or just once a month.

Having a friend you can trust to help you can be very valuable with your training too. If you have someone who will become a training partner of yours, then you can keep pushing each other to new heights. Perhaps on one day, you will not feel great and your training partner will be able to push you to get through the workout, then on another day you will feel top of the world, and you will be able to get the best out of your friend.

This is why its always good to share your progress, it matters heck of a lot more when you share success, unless you are a very private person and like the rewards of purely individual pursuits, and don’t need to share it with anyone else.

Whatever works for you, then use it and keep using it time after time. The only thing that matters is sustainable progress and you being in great health. You always have to think about your health and fitness programme and change your approach from time to time. Life never stays still and you have to change to keep up with it, but as long as you train a minimum of 3 times a week and eat well 80% of the time, you’re going to be doing well!

Twitt