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Strength for everything…….even golf!!

Its interesting watching golf’s ryder cup and not only because of the scorelines, and whether europe or USA are going to win.

The physical demands on golf are now far more demanding than they used to be.

In years gone past and not so long ago, the sight of an overweight golfer was all too regular down the fairways of the world. It all changed though when the fitter, stronger, leaner athletes started coming along and started dominating the landscape in a big way!

This trend was led of course by Tiger Woods and started busting the myths about strength training not mixing at all with golf. The facts are that Woods trains harder than most athletes and the results are there for all to see in the game.

This was followed by Sergio Garcia, the spaniard who took strength and fitness training to brand new levels, and a collection of some of the world’s most important golf titles followed quite quickly.

The list of titles in world golf is now shared by the fittest athletes and results mean that the training methods of these guys are proven to be right.

Not only are results coming thick and fast, but injury prevention is working really well too. The fitter and stronger you are in key areas, the less injuries you are likely to have and if you do get an injury, the quicker you are likely to recover.

You may hear a lot about core muscles on your body and they are important to golfers more than anybody.

Your stomach, lower back, hamstring and thighs have never been so important on the fairway for all sorts of movements, especially rotation on the fairway. Golfers who train the correct way also tend to hit the ball further, around 30-40 yards according to latest research.

There are all sorts of reasons to workout hard if you are a golfer, and the champions will all back it up!!

Twitt
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Confidence boosters

Every time i measure someone and they have showed they have made great progress, the confidence boost that gives cannot be measured easily. That inner pride and feeling that you have achieved something cannot be beaten.

We all need confidence boosters and none of us can operate very well unless we have some confidence in our ability.

Some of us are more confident than others but the great news is that i’ve seen people who would have all the talent in the world, yet would constantly put themselves down for seemingly no reason. The great news is that these people have often turned their confidence and self-esteem levels around dramatically! They have seemingly transformed into different people because they have brought belief into their lives because they have measured themselves at monthly intervals, and this has focused their minds.

If you are training on your own, ask a trusted friend to measure you once a month and make it easy. Get them to measure your waist and hips, and to weigh you on a reliable scale too. From this data, you should easily be able to tell whats working for you and whats not. This will also give you confidence and inspiration to not only keep up your training, but to add more and more ambition to your training and eating.

I promise you that once you prove to yourself that you can achieve big things with training properly and eating well, there will be no holding yourself back in terms of the transformation you’re capable of making to yourself!!

Use that trusted friend to confide in too, your inner worries and doubts whether you can still keep on improving, make sure though that you pick a friend that will boost you continuously. If you pick someone who is constantly on a downer, this will only drag you down too, so associating with like minded positive people can work wonders for you.

The best friends to have are the ones who truly have your wellbeing at heart, and if you can find them, then please hang on to them. They will pick you up when you are down, but be honest with you when perhaps you are not trying hard enough!!

Have a great day and lets keep praise coming into your life!!

Twitt
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Let’s get it on!!

The success or failure for most of you to get it on in terms of training is the reason why most of you are either successful or failing most of the time.

I did a group measurement today for a workplace session, and it was clear to me they didn’t achieve the big things they normally do. After further questionning, it  became clear that those who hadn’t had a great month were missing some of their normal workouts they did without me. It was clear that they had lost their momentum and missing workouts was becoming “too easy” again. Its always surprising to me how quickly people pick up bad habits and how things can change very quickly.

This is why constant monitoring is vital and doesn’t allow anyone to slide their way into medicority.

This is why i bang on about that dreaded word “consistency”! Its an old subject but maybe it should be a new subject for some of you because some of you may not be getting it?!!!

This is the most common problem i hear time and time again, missing workouts for various reasons, none of them more convincing than the last!

Most people who have jobs have a set job description to get through and if they don’t, they get reprimanded because they are not doing their job properly. If you are missing a couple of workouts a week more often than not, you should really look at yourself again to see how committed you are to your health and fitness programme.

The failure to be honest with yourself is a big hurdle to get hold of, and this is when a false sense of reality sets in. It is good to congratulate ourselves on big achievements and dangerous to congratulate ourselves when we reward ourselves for the slightest effort.

One rule i set for myself many years ago was that if i am feeling physically better year in year out, then i will have been successful. Simply allowing myself or others to get old before our time is not acceptable when we have a whole host of tools to really slow down the effects of old age, yes of course it can be done!!!

One thing i ask this week is to PLEASE make the effort on your own, DO your workouts, EAT good food, SLEEP well and DO your best. Not too much to ask if you want to be your best!!!

Twitt
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Monday energy rush!!!!!

Weekends away are always great, but they always leave you with crashed energy levels and a lack of desire for intense exercise.

We’ve talked about this before and you’re going to get the same answer out of me again! I only got back 12 noon today, but scheduled in clients from 3pm onwards for two reasons.

First of all, I didn’t want to let anyone down I train, and the second reason was I knew I was going to feel fantastic after I trained full stop. There’s nothing better than going from feeling lethargic to feeling amazing in the space of 30 minutes, I am serious about that and anyone who has done the same today after a heavier weekend than normal will know exactly what I’m talking about!

The scary thing is that most people let the heavy weekends become a lethargic life!! This brings a whole host of problems of course and that’s why the government today announced it was even considering plans to pay people to lose weight!! This how bad it has got and it shows people are not getting the message!!

This is the trick, getting people to believe that exercise and eating properly actually does make you feel better! You may be one who is reading this who doesn’t believe me either, or maybe you have forgotten how good it does feel!! Its time to remind yourself again or you’re going to face a pretty low energy life with lower expectations that you could really have, these are facts and the difference between leading a healthy lifestyle and living a life of not moving around much and too much time in the chip shop/take aways!!

People who put down a healthy lifestyle are the ones who have never tried it, I’m serious! Please do yourself a favour and feel how good I’m feeling right now, even after chasing a couple of kids around the weekend and not much sleep, I know I’m going to sleep well tonight and hopefully be fired up to have a great week of work!!

Its Monday, I am back feeling fantastic and its all down to living the lifestyle that will put so much energy in your life you wont believe it. Are you going to start or are you going to sit on your hands all your life?!!! Come on, lets do it!!

Twitt
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Fall of the machines, rise of your body!

The move from machines to more free-flowing methods of training has been remarkable in the last few years.

As anyone who has ever trained with me will know, I always emphasise the need to be able to support your own bodyweight/use your own bodyweight to achieve your goals and there are many, many ways to do this of course.

Machines can be limiting sometimes because of their limited range of motion, when perhaps sometimes the human body wants to figure out the exact movement for itself, and therefore get a much better workout in without the aches and strains that sometimes come from machines.

For me, I would rather be out there walking or running out in the wild countryside than be cooped up indoors on a treadmill, plus I like my body running in a natural movement than in a more artificial way in the gym/house.

I would rather be out on a proper bike in the outdoors than be stuck on a bike that doesn’t go anywhere. Riding a bike outdoors can be very exciting, you don’t get that inside and I think your body learns much more about balance when you have to handle all the twists and turns of the great outdoors.

I like all the stuff you can do in a house/gym involving medicine balls, fit balls, and exercises that make you use your own bodyweight and get you into different positions that you simply can’t do on machines.

I like working on unsteady surfaces to boost my own and a client’s balance and strength, if you’ve never done any of this, I’m telling you now that you are missing out big time and really denying your body of some wonderful results that will help you in every single area of your life.

The good news is that a lot of people have caught on to this way of training and that includes doctors and physiotherapists, the benefits have been proven by science and are now used from rehab programmes to professional sport programmes and everything in between.

If you’re one of those who are very bored with the same old stuff, get yourself away from all those boring machines, start burning more calories and fat with a different all over programme and literally the variety of programmes available are only limited by your imagination.

A change is as good as a rest so never be afraid to mix it all up.

Twitt