Posted on

March 25th 2011

Okay, so we have covered your cycling and running over the last couple of posts, but hows your inside work/gym work going?

You know how it should be going and this doesn’t involve hanging around talking around to everyone while you “train”! Taking it easy on yourself is not acceptable unless there are extraordinary conditions, or you’re just starting out.

There are a few things and indeed, mistakes i see every time i’m in a gym.

Number one if you’re working out with weights (and everyone should!), there’s too much rest in between sets, sometimes even 5 minutes, this is a painfully slow and ineffective way to train and get into shape, i should correct that statement because you’re never going to get into shape training that slow. I would assume there’s far more talking going on than training, and this is always a bad sign!!!

Number two is training with too many people, by that i mean there’s sometimes two training together and thats great, but if theres three of you and you’re all friends and want to train together, it can’t work because you will have too much rest in between sets. You will struggle to get any intensity up, so keep it to yourself and one other if possible.

When you train and there’s just two of you, try to do one set, then your partner does the next, then immediately again you do the next and your partner goes straight away. Try to keep this up throughout the whole workout and you will be out of puff and had a very beneficial bout of exercise, which will automatically lead to fat loss and seriously toning up your body, which is what most people want of course.

Avoid the fancy exercises! By this i mean you should pick the exercises that have most benefits, and they are usually the toughest!!!! The basic exercises are usually the most beneficial because they make you expend a lot of energy each time, meaning you burn more calories, speed up your metabolic rate, in other words, 24 hours a day you will be burning more calories a day, more body fat every day and keeping your body closer to the fat burning machine you really dreamed of!!! Yes, it is possible!!

Have a great weekend and lets exercise with purpose, its all about results so lets do it!!

Twitt
Posted on

24th March 2011

We talked about cycling in a different way yesterday, lets talk about different ways of running today.

First of all, running on mindless flat roads is one of the most boring things I could think about doing, some people enjoy it but I like to make things a little more interesting and a lot more productive in terms of results!

Since we live in a pretty hilly country, there’s never a hill that far way fortunately, and sometimes vicious hills!!!

Hills will always get you working harder, going uphill works your legs better, makes your lung capacity push on to new levels, helps bring your body fat down quicker, gives you a greater sense of pride and achievement having completed them, gives you some great views when you get to the top and in general provide some great workouts!!!

This is why I head straight to them every time!!!

Another thing you have to look at. On sunny days, you will see plenty of people walking or running on flat roads. You won’t see many if any people running or walking hard up hills, those you do see working hard up hills will nearly always be in good shape.

If you want to look at where people in great shape train, go to the more obscure parts of the area, these people are never on show and never want an audience. They want a place where is quite but offers great challenges in terms of terrain. You feel great when you walk hard or run up a very steep hill or even mountain, there’s nothing like that feeling when you develop your potential from only being able to walk 10-20 minutes on the flat to being able to run up a mountain, it may sound far fetched to some of you but it is totally achievable, I can guarantee that!!!

So today, tomorrow or the weekend, by all means warm up on the flat roads or track, but head for the hills and experience a brand new set of results that will astound you in all sorts of ways!!

Twitt
Posted on

March 23rd 2011

If you are out on a bike regularly training, you might want to consider a slightly different approach.

A lot of riders go for the big heavy gears because they like to feel the power. Most riders have done this for many years, including myself by the way. The last few years though, I have changed my ways and encouraged many others to do the same.

If you have some kind of speedometer, then you should perhaps take a close look at it and in particular the revolutions per minute part, or RPM as its more commonly known as on your machine. You will also find these on all stationery bikes, and what I’m about to say will naturally apply to both stationery and more traditional bikes you will use outside of course.

Most of us when we cycle go for one steady pace and its usually between 60-70 RPM, some even as low as 40-50 I have found. This turns out to be a very ineffective way to ride a bike and can put greater strain on your joints, especially your knees, which is probably why you got on a bike for the first place, to reduce strain on your joints because of its non weight bearing benefits!

The first time you will try and ride at 80 RPM, it will shock you how many gears you will have to shift down on your bike! This is bad for the ego to start with, as you will have based your progress on the bike, especially a stationery bike, on the gear you were using, to shift down seems hard. Its time to forget about all of that because you will be working harder especially when trying to take extra oxygen in, getting less stress on your knees/joints in general and sweating quite a bit more.

If  you can manage to keep the same gear and somehow get 80 RPM, then that’s fantastic but you will obviously notice how you will be working so much harder, and you will be unable to keep it going as long, there really is going to be an amazing difference for you!!

You can also go up from 80 RPM but this is too much of a jump to start with.

Lance Armstrong was one of the most famous riders to use a higher cadence, which is what you are doing when hitting at least 80 RPM, and this way of working makes you work so much harder aerobically, you will be taking much more oxygen in.

The benefits are going to be huge so lets give it a go, and if you cant get there to start with, keep shifting gears down until you can!

Twitt
Posted on

March 22nd

Are you still believing the “low fat” myth on all your shopping trips to the supermarket?

Lets get some facts straight, not all low fat foods are good for you, are low in calories or not going to put body fat on you.

There are plenty of good low fat options such as lean mince when you are about to make spaghetti Bolognese, that can work very well for you. There is low fat milk which takes out the saturated fat in the milk, there is even lower fat versions of chicken for example, so these straight forward examples can work very well for you.

Lets get to the other “low fat” options though!

What about low fat yoghurts? Often these yoghurts are full of sugar and chemicals to give you the sweetened version, which internally is not very good for you. You would be far better off having natural yoghurt with some proper fruit cut up, along with some nuts, a far better choice and far better for your insides.

One of the biggest guilty parties on the low fat claim is cereal boxes. Frosties as we all knoow are coated with lashings of sugar, and not at the top of anyone’s list of healthy cereals, but are marketed as “low fat” so people buy them and think they are somehow going to get into shape by eating them, nothing could be further from the truth.

When you read a label of different foods, you can usually spot the way they get around it. If you look at the carbohydrate part, look underneath and it says “of which sugars” which is the really dangerous part. If a substantial part are of which sugars in terms of carbohydrate, then the food is usually loaded with sugar and WILL NOT help you lose the body fat you want, will only help put it on!!

There are also plenty of times when fat is good of course, such as in fish like salmon, mackerel and trout, this fat is not saturated fat which is the totally unhealthy version. These are good fats your body needs to function really well and are classed as essential.

Also, the fats found in nuts are highly valuable and should be used for snacks, cashews, brazils, hazelnuts and almonds are all great examples of fats that are extremely good for you. They will be flagged up as high fat but as long as you keep these in moderation, such as a small handful per serving, you will be doing your body a lot of good!

Twitt
Posted on

March 18th 2011

Positivity is a massive mindset change for some, and a lifesaver for those who practice it daily.

Even under the most extreme conditions when its hard to think positive, its power cannot be understated. Thinking positive only doesn’t work though, you have to act positive to really make things happen in a big way.

The people in japan are under extreme pressure, and thinking positive is not exactly the first thing on their minds, but we are already starting to hear heroic stories about people who are doing extraordinary things through their actions and rescuing people. For example, you have 50 men trying to stabilise the troubled nuclear reactor from complete meltdown, as I write this, it is being reported that are having some success in what is being described as a suicide mission, this is incredible and an amazing story and hopefully the positivity will continue that will help everyone out.

On a seemingly far more trivial not, the consumer confidence index released by the nationwide building society today says that the index is down to record lows of 38, it was 48 last month, also a record low last month, to give you an indication of normal pre-recession levels, its usually around 100.

So thinking positive amongst all of this gloom and doom is tough, but the alternative is far worst. If you are negative about everything, then hate, frustration, anger and bitterness tend to be normal emotions for you and will send you into a negative spiral that is nearly impossible to get out and can be very self-destructive.

If you try to be positive about everything, then better emotions tend to fill your life. Hope, satisfaction, good spirits, optimism and the ability to give things a go tend to be everyday emotions in your life and can inspire you to take a chance when perhaps in the past you wouldn’t.

So you have a straight choice and for me there’s only one choice and that’s positive. Unfortunately, every single day you will bump into people who are always negative so don’t expect to have much company in your positive thoughts!!

This is why its hard for everyone to be successful in their training, eating and sleeping, it takes constant positivity, even in very tough economic times when people are losing jobs all around you.

Theres never been a more important time to be, act and stay positive if you’re out for your best quality of life!!!

Twitt