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Wednesday 24th November 2010

If you remember your best ever week of training, you will remember you will have probably been very tired at the end of the week from the huge effort you would have put in. You will have also noticed that your body will have felt a whole lot tighter at the end of the week. This will have brought you a huge amount of satisfaction because you would have signifcantly improved yourself.

I don’t know about you but i find the week AFTER very tough sometimes. Your best ever week is unlikely to be followed by another mind-blowing week of training straight away, so this is why a proper programme is important to follow. Getting into shape and staying in shape is very much a matter of following routine and progressively OVER A PERIOD OF TIME. You won’t improve every week in a big way, but even tiny improvements will matter big time in the end as long as your nutritional needs are being met.

So if you look at a 10 week period, your first week may have been unbelievably good, the next may have been tough to get through, the next after that i guarantee will have been easier, and if you manage to keep these good weeks up for 10 weeks, you WILL SIGNIFICANTLY trasnform your body. I repeat, you will change your body in a way you thought not possible!!!

Let’s talk this through again, you need to be HUGELY CONSISTENT if you want this amazing progress and it is totally possible!! You don’t have to have these super person genetics, you don’t have to have any money, you don’t have to “know the right people”, there are no catches in this and im totally confident that anyone can pull this one off.

So when cyril posts regularly how well he is doing, or even if he is having a down week, he is still interested in improving himself and usually VERY consistent. This is such a more powerful secret to success than any fat loss pill, faddy diet, faddy piece of exercise equipment etc. Showing up as i keep saying is such a strong way to make sure you are improving all the time, and in my mind the most powerful get in shape tool you could ever use.

Being consistent means being successful full stop!!!

Twitt
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Monday 22nd, November 2010

Think of your proudest physical achivement and it could be anything.

It could be the sprint you won in school when you were 10 years of age, it could be the first time you swum a length, it could be the first time you completed a triathlon, it could be the first time you scored a goal or a try, it could be the time you got picked in the first team at school, it could be the first time you did a 5k after recovering from a heart attack, it  could be anything!!!

Like we talked about last week and the way you think and perform at certain ages, the WAY you think is often the problem and NOT your actual physical ability, whatever your age right now maybe.

There is a hill in pembrey that i know if i can’t get up in one go, i have lost a significant amount of fitness and have somehow let myself go! The remedy will not be to try and try again over that particular week to get up there in one go, it won’t work that way. I will analyse my food intake and work out how badly my eating was going.

Have i been taking in too many takeaways, too much chocolate, too many pastries and how about alcohol, have i been drinking a lot more than normal? These are all valid questions to be asking if im not performing!!!

How about my workouts in general? Have i got lazy on a sunday morning? Am i not running or cycling as much?

If all of that is worked out and i’m still not getting up the same hill in say, a month’s time, am i lacking drive? Don’t i want it anymore? Am i telling myself i’m getting old and can’t hack it anymore?

These are all valid questions i ask myself from time to time and you should be asking yourself too!! What exactly is the litmus test for you in terms of physical effort, and the one test you KNOW will tell you exactly what kind of shape you’re really in!! Come on, be honest with yourself and those great feats from yesteryear REALLY are possible again!! Ask yourself the questions i ask myself, then work a plan so that you can get to your best.

The ability to perform at your best levels will keep you in great shape, both in mind and body. To do this, you need WELL-DEFINED goals so dig deep, have a good think and really remember what level you want to get back to. Be ambitious, aim high and dont you dare be embarrassed to think big!!!

Twitt
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Friday 19th November 2010

The colder weather to come for the next week (as cyril says) is actually a wonderful training tool and you should definitely celebrate it!!

The reason?

Your  body has to work harder to get up to its core temperature. What this means is that your body likes and even needs to be at a certain temperature to maintain balance. If your body’s temperature goes up even slightly, there will be health issues. It’s like when you were a child, you often had your temperature measured and were prescribed medicine if it was too high. You would even be taken to hospital if your temperature was really high!! Your body cannot function properly unless it has a balanced core temperature full stop.

So your body has to burn more calories in colder weather just to maintain itself at proper levels. This will not happen of course if you just stay indoors in front of the fire!! You need to get outside and DO SOMETHING if you really want to benefit so plenty of fresh air should definitely be on the agenda for you not only in the summer but colder winters too. I wouldn’t recommend you go out in the ice of course as that would be dangerous. As long as you’re sensible and use some solid routes with good footing, you shouldn’t have a problem.

The effect the cold has on your body is called a “thermogenic” effect. You may have heard of this word when it comes to “Fat-burning” tablets often sold in health shops etc, even supermarkets.

They claim to strip fat off you, but the reality is often an accelerated heart rate which in turn burns more calories. This is in my view dangerous and many of these tablets have been taken off the market. I could name you at least two big companies in the states that have been sued for hundreds of millions of dollars. The negatives can be extremely worrying and nobody wants to be putting extra strain on their hearts, thats for sure so beware these bogus companies and their claims!!!!

So in summing up, you need to get out there and have some fresh air, this will be your own thermogenic effect on your body in a NATURAL WAY. If you ever needed another reason to get outside, this is just another one of many so lets not just talk about it, lets get out there and do it!!!!

Twitt
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Wednesday, 15th November

Use this opportunity to work even harder inside on your strength and resistance work. Some people buy a treadmill for indoors, what a waste of money when you get some cracking workouts inside.

If I want to keep it basic for myself and for everyone I train. I always think of working the whole body in one go to maximise the amount of energy and fat my body uses in the workout. If I wanted the easy option, I would isolate different body parts but I’ve discovered that’s the easy way out on so many different levels.

Right now, I’m all about discovering and proving which workout works best and it turns out those workouts tend to be like eating your greens as a kid. Those exercises that are best for you tend not be the easiest or even the ones you enjoy the most. They may be harder right now because they are very challenging and it may take your body getting to another level before you can do them without too much problem.

Anything that periodically takes you out of your comfort zone and drags you sometimes kicking and screaming to the next level is hugely positive for you. Don’t see it as a hardship though, see it as growth and an exciting time in your life.

If you’re one of these people who thinks your body declines after the age of 30, then im here right now to tell you that you’re wrong.

With a well-structured training and eating plan, you can literally improve each and every year, seriously I’ve seen that happen to everyone who takes their health seriously and takes action every week to look after their body.

The natural evolution for people who have such a great attitude is that so many good things happen when you attain very good health. Some people treat high energy levels, low levels of body fat and good levels of strength as NORMAL now. Most people however haven’t got that luxury so that’s why I’m urging your right now to take action and make health a huge priority in your life once again!!

38 days to Christmas so an excellent time to make it happen in a hurry starting today!!!

Twitt
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Keep your goals, change your approach

The goals you talked about at the start of the year should remain intact. If they have gone astray, then you need to change the way you approach your goals.

For instance, if your goal at the start of the year was to lose say 2 stone, and drop a couple of dress sizes, then how did you approach it? Did you really train a minimum 4-5 times per week? Did you eat well 6 days per week? Did you get to bed at a decent time every night in the week so you could keep your energy levels high for your workouts?

Also, when you did all of this, did you see real progress with your training? Did you get faster and stronger? Did things you found really hard at the start of the year suddenly become a lot easier as you got lighter and fitter? Did you get more energetic, did you become more positive in your outlook?

Did your self-confidence rise up to new levels, and what about your self-esteem, did you regain it even though at one time you may have thought you had lost it for good?

So 2010 could very well have been a stellar year for you? Or did it not really happen for you?!!

If it didnt work out the way you thought, then you can still keep optimistic goals, all you have to do is give yourself a reality check and get back to the basics that took you so far in the first place. If things come apart from the seams sometimes, don’t panic, re-evaluate what you’re doing and let’s get back to training with purpose, eating sensibly in healthy amounts, lets make sure your water comes in every day, throughout the day in small amounts, and you be back on the road to success in no time at all!!!

So whatever you chose to achieve way back in january, its not a lost cause at all, lets just re-focus and get back to the tried and tested things that really work for you!!

Twitt