Wednesday, 7th August

If you’re stuck in the same routine for the last few months, even last few years, then chances are that your results have come to a crashing halt some years ago, and your gym visits now are little more than going through the motions and nothing to get excited about anymore.

The fault is both with yourself and the people trying to help you at the gym. If you have been doing the same thing for years, then you have probably experienced extended absences from the gym, and exercise full stop.

You may stop and start regularly, always going back to what you know and never finding any kind of a good result.

You must change and you must change now if the following are NOT HAPPENING!!!

1 Your body is not improving at all.

2 You find the gym boring and have little incentive to go.

3 you have stopped eating well because you feel “what’s the point”!!

4 you don’t use your gym membership properly because your attendance is poor and
you get no help when you are there.

5 others comment on the weight you have put on

6 you get out of breath walking upstairs

7 you only do your “favourite” exercises

8 you can’t fit into your clothes anymore.

These are all signs things need to change RIGHT NOW and quit whatever you are doing, wherever you are doing it because nobody is caring a damn about you and your programme, meaning nobody is caring about your progress and your body and mind’s future wellness.

Change is as good as a rest too and you may find the change of scenery very empowering!

Please don’t treat your body as a second rate citizen, put it to the top of your list and stop putting up with gyms that frankly don’t give a damn!!

Tuesday, 6th August

Assuming you had a good Monday after following the advice to make sure you were well and truly back on track with your eating, then Tuesday should be looking even better for you.

The positivity after a good Monday can create a huge performance on Tuesday for you. Tuesday on average is the best performance of the week for many people I train. Traditionally Tuesday along with Monday is the busiest night of the week when it comes to gyms.

Tuesday traditionally may be considered “boring” when it comes to having fun and partying, but it is everything BUT in training terms and getting a massive performance out of yourself!

Tuesday is a pivotal day in deciding your physical fate for the week. Assuming you have had a great Monday, and then Tuesday is likely to be even better. Once you get a big Monday and Tuesday in, then the rest of the week can flow very well indeed!

Most people I know who train hard eat well too, or at least are inspired to eat well due to the effort they put into their training. Eating well and healthily goes hand in hand with good quality training and one without the other is not much good.

Put them together and you have double the results!

You must have certain standards or records you have in certain exercises you do, or running or cycling or whatever you do. Tuesday is the perfect day to get a big performance out of yourself. Whenever you set new records or standards for yourself, then your body will always be a big beneficiary and the big physical changes that come with it can happen in a shorter time than you think, AS LONG as you are eating well of course!

Tuesday has never looked so positive so try and make your own big impression on it today!

Friday, 2nd August

Catherine’s comment again that “everybody seems to be on protein shakes the days” is a very relevant one, because protein shakes seem to be very much in vogue at the moment and have been for a while.

The problem comes when something seems like the the all encompassing “saviour” and its all in a shake, which makes things a lot easier for many people.

You don’t have to cook anymore at certain times of day, you will feel full for a while longer than your traditional shake, which often contains simple sugars just to make the shake taste better.

Protein shakes actually work too! They will make you feel full, they will discourage snacking needlessly, and they will give some people stability when they are all over the place with their eating habits.

So these can be big positives for a lot of people in the busy lives we all seem to live these days.

The only problem comes when people go back to eating properly, and by that I mean proper food and real meals.

If you rely just on protein shakes, then you are not really learning how to eat properly for a lifetime, there are no learning processes such as which foods work well for you, and which foods are full of hidden sugars and fat but you don’t realize it yet.

I know people who take protein shakes for a few weeks, lose weight and then say they will never come off them, but I can assure you THEY DO! Then if you come off them and as I said eat real food, then the whole trap of losing weight and piling it all back on happens all over again!

Summing it, protein shakes can be a viable tool, but use them as a balance in your day and week, don’t let them become an overwhelming factor.

Protein shakes are a million times better than the charlatans who sell other powdered drinks and bars, such as herbalife, lighter life who create longer term misery, but there is no magic solution out there apart from eating sensibly and using portion control so you don’t overeat.

Everything must balance and you need to adopt a longer term sustainable plan.

Wednesday, 31st July

Two obsessions with people trying to lose weight that can be counter-productive, are how many calories you burn in each workout and how many calories you take in during the day.

Two examples of a workout can bring surprising results would be the following.

If you just do 300 calories of work on a stationery bike, and then you do 300 calories walking on a treadmill, then obviously this should lead to a 600 calorie workout.

If you worked out hard with weights with real intensity, and you did some boxing afterwards, you may only burn 400-500 calories.

So which one best? Both I have to say are very good for you!

In terms of OVERALL calorie burn, it is easy.

Aerobic only type of workouts such as the bike and treadmill will burn extra calories when you stop exercising for 12 extra hours.

Weight bearing and higher intensity exercise will burn calories when you stop exercising for a further 36-48 hours!!

So you can see which one gets your metabolism going higher and for longer.

The same with your food. You can eat a curry and a pint of lager a day only and take in 1200 calories.

If you take in a higher quality of food and drink, such as fruit, whole grains, vegetables, lean protein sources such as chicken, fish etc, then you can easily take in 1800 calories and still look far better, and feel better too!

So you can see its about the quality of your calorie burn, and your calorie intake will make ALL the difference!!!

Monday, 29th July

Due to various questions and requests I have had over the last couple of years writing this thing, I have decided to start uploading videos and showing some demonstrations on how to do certain exercises.

There is often a variety of ways to do the same exercise, and I wanted to take that doubt away from many of you on how exactly you need to be doing certain movements.

Then there has been a lot of questions about all the outside activities we do outside the gym.

I am talking about all the speed and agility we do with ladders, and what variations are best to use to get your speed improved greatly.

Then what are the benefits of running with parachutes and how to use them?

How do we use bungee ropes to their full benefit, and what combinations should you use?

Why do we use so much variety with those big tractor tyres?

What about those big girders weighing 60kg per hand?!!

What’s the correct way to sledgehammer? How high do you need to go, and which tyres do you smash them on?

What about the new Prowler 2 that everyone seems to be setting new records on? How beneficial is it and what exercises should you do on it?

What about the work on swiss balls? What are its true aims and what is the complete exercise range?

These questions are just the start so look forward to video guidance as soon as we can get it together!!