Posted on

Tuesday, 9th August

There’s a big difference between wishful thinking and being optimistic with your health and fitness.

If you are optimistic, then you are looking for progress but you are willing to put in a big effort to get it. You are actively working on getting what you want and you will look at the positives along the way. You will be hungry to know what works, what’s really going to help you and you will be prepared to put the work in no matter what, knowing good things will come of it eventually.

If you rely on wishful thinking, then you hope things somehow fall into place, although you aren’t prepared to do any work along the way so that can happen. You will happily pretend that you train although you may never show up, never eat healthy and you “hope” that it all will work out in the end. This approach always fails because there is no substance and no real plan.

Someone who works hard develops opportunities because they put in strong foundations through constant efforts. They put in the work even though it doesn’t offer guaranteed results to begin with, they know that by working hard good things will eventually happen. They have a sense of purpose and they believe their good workouts will eventually have a positive impact on their lives.

When you are optimistic, you are looking to make a positive contribution and this will always give you the momentum to keep on going.

Your body will always remember what you gave to it, in terms of good workouts and in healthy eating. Look after it by putting good stuff in, and it will look after you.

Be optimistic and give yourself the self-belief you really need, and be prepared to put the work in that comes with it and great things are bound to happen.

Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday, 2nd August

Once we start exercising, we all assume we can train normally forever, never have an injury, never have any aches and pains, and this type of thinking and lack of preparation causes many people to get derailed in their programme, leading to quitting your exercise plan sometimes not long after it has started.

Most people get pain every day not from well designed exercise plans, but everyday life and failure to be active.

If you are sitting around too much, then some kind of pain will eventually enter your life as your body is designed to move regularly, and not to be stationery. You need to get more active right now, in however small a way to start.

If you never stretch, then everything will feel a little tighter leading to pain and niggly injuries. Flexibility needs to be worked on and everyone is included in this.

If you don’t sleep well, then all that tossing and turning can lead to inadequate rest and you waking up already struggling, your body is not recovering properly and not fighting off fatigue properly. You will likely be irritable and pain be part of your life.

Forget about eating healthy so you can just look leaner, you should also eat healthy because your body needs to recover from exercise and everything else life throws at you, and give you the energy to be productive in your day. Healthy foods helps heal your body, and keep you out of pain.

An ever-increasing number come to us with severe back problems, these issues develop usually because you overdo things on one side and the other side becomes weak, or you may carry too much weight being a major cause, or a specific injury may have happened and you wonder how to get pain free again or your job may encourage back pain, i notice for example that hairdressers and dentists suffer in particular as they lean over people most of their day.

Most people have never heard of fascia, that cobweb like substance that’s all over our bodies protecting everything. By making sure we work on this daily, we make sure injuries heal quicker and most injuries never develop in the first place. Prevention is always better than anything else so make sure your programme is comprehensive, hits all areas of your health and looks after you both inside and outside of the gym.

Twitt
Posted on

Monday, 1st August

“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity.
The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.”-Winston Churchill.

How you think and approach your fitness journey mentally will dictate how well you do.

I have seen many individuals come into the gym with pre-set ideas and sometimes want to train how they want to. “I don’t want to do weights. it makes me bulky and big”-When i tell them that this is false and you must do weight training to change your body’s shape, increase your metabolism, increase your bone density and burn fat quicker, they need to listen, be open-minded and realise what they need to do.

If they decide it’s not for them and don’t want to listen to us, then i explain we only run our own programmes because we strongly believe this will be their best opportunity to reach their goals quicker and safer. If they still resist, we explain our gym is not the best place for them, and i can see that they are not really ready to change, and will continually keep making excuses until get mentally ready to change and be open to positive advice that will actually work.

We don’t allow anyone to mindlessly go on the treadmill because thats what they used to do in other gyms, and not try and help them to see there is far more to exercising than doing a “bit of this and a bit of that” with no plan.

Despite our many success stories with individuals after back surgery, we still get people telling us they think they can’t exercise even if they just have a bad back. So they go back to choosing a lifestyle that involves not moving a lot, which puts on weight and makes their back situation worse.

Limiting your beliefs will stop you reaching your full potential, and you need to actively change that if you are to be successful with your health and fitness.

Having so many role models, positive and encouraging people at our gym counts for a lot. Having someone working out next to you willing to help you, give you a pick me up just when you need it, telling you to stick with it is worth a lot to us.

We strongly encourage people to see the opportunity in everything they do, especially when the going gets tough, those toughest exercises are usually the ones that will help you the most.

Your body changes for good the moment you become more positive, be open to new ideas and the moment you discover a positive environment will give you the powerful, non-stop momentum that you’ve never had before.

Every day is a fresh opportunity for you to change for the better.

Twitt
Posted on

Thursday, 28th July

You will always miss all the shots you NEVER take is an old saying. Taking your “shot” every day is compulsory, seizing every opportunity makes great sense or at least you should make it compulsory in your life.

If you don’t have a go, then how are you going to succeed? How many times have you been in a group chat, an office, a workplace of any kind and all of you discussing what would have happened if you did this or that?

Don’t become a “coulda, woulda, shoulda” type of person, reflecting on past regrets and cursing the “perfect” set of circumstances never came to you so you could succeed.

Talking about it, and never getting around to taking action is something you need to get out of. Isn’t getting fit and healthy on most people’s to do lists but never gets done?

Commitment to taking action every day will bring you big and unexpected rewards.

Businesses never get anywhere if they JUST TALK about “possible” oil wells, they actually achieve things when they DRILL for oil. It may not mean a perfect hit first time, but if they keep trying knowing they are in the right area, chances are that good things will happen as long as they keep on going.

It’s the actual drilling that really dictates how far you have got, the results you have obtained and where you are.

You can do survey after survey, consultations on this on that, have endless meetings and put off yet more meetings into the future, it’s a way of life for many organisations/businesses etc. Most agree that this way of working never usually gets things done and destroys or dilutes great ideas and ambition.

Results matter-all of this always come from daily action, having a go even though you may not be 100% successful all of the time, eventually you will get it right.

Ready, fire, aim-in that order makes perfect sense.

Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday, 26th July

None of us will get fit at exactly the same rate, some will go slower, some faster depending on how much work they put into it, but EVERYONE is capable of getting fitter and healthier than they have ever done before.

If you show up and exercise a minimum of three times a week, then good things will happen for you, because you are exposing your body to the right amount of stimulus to improve.

If you aim long term to eat well 80% of the time, still enjoying occasional treats which is realistic, then your body will look after you and high energy levels will return to your life.

The main reason i find that individuals improve quicker than others is consistency of doing the right things. I find that it often doesn’t matter how physically gifted some people are, it’s the person that’s willing to work the hardest over a long period of time will always be the highest achiever.

The biggest enhancer of progress that can happen for you is realising that mindset is the secret link, your “x factor”, your most powerful weapon in all of this coming together.

Staying on course is often dictated by how focused you are and your willingness to do the simple things right time after time. After your initial “honeymoon” period of starting training, you will soon realise that staying on your programme brings some challenges, and the sooner you bring an achievable structure to your lifestyle the better.

Just like booking an appointment with the doctor or dentist, make time for your workouts three times a week. Find a time that nothing can get in the way of. Once you get used to training, you will be more productive in all areas of your life, for the time you invest in every training session will be rewarded many times over.

When you do your food shopping, make sure most of it is healthy, as everything you bring into your house will get eaten, bring multipack crisps or chocolate bars in and they WILL get eaten. Nothing wrong with treats here and there but the foundation of what you eat needs to be good. You can’t out-train a bad diet.

For your mind, reading positive books or media everyday helps a lot. The biggest thing of all is to surround yourself with positive people and influences. Avoid those who drag you down and put you off trying to better yourself. Trust opinions of those who are experienced and have a track record in what you are interested in-A much quicker way of seeking advice.

Stay consistent, stay positive and try your best to stay on the path you set yourself when you first dreamt up what you really want out of your health and fitness programme.

Twitt