Posted on

Friday, 21st February

We concentrate on a bigger variety of training at the gym all the time, and that trend is very likely to continue with new ways of rising you to the highest level you can possibly be all the time.

The one thing you need to concentrate on doing is giving it your best effort, and adjusting to the new demands I put in front of you. I never ask anyone to do something I don’t think they can do, so have trust you are always going very much in the right direction.

If you go through the motions, you are likely to only get mediocre results and not develop in the way you really could.

If you focus on results, and give it your best every time, then the benefits you will get out of your training will be substantial and constantly surprise you in a pleasant way. Your body can respond to anything and this is why constant adjustment to your training programme is vital, and not something you should just think about
now and again.

If you hit outside work twice a week, then ignore it for the next two weeks then you are letting yourself down in terms of the progress you can get. If you finally get used to doing pull ups on the bar and you become good at deadlifts for example, and then you ignore them and only do lat pulldowns for your back instead, your body will notice this and dramatically slow down the results you have suddenly become used to.

The great thing about constantly being aware of the results you are getting is that you become totally aware of your eating too, you know that if you don’t eat well, then there is no way you can keep putting in meaningful efforts on your training, its impossible over the longer term.

Aim high and keep taking on new challenges!

Twitt
Posted on

Sunday, 15th February

I get a lot of rehab questions because I have helped a lot of people get back doing what they love doing, when perhaps they thought they could never do it again. Most people know we differentiate ourselves from every gym because we create intensive programmes that always account for any movement/injury/limitations the individual has.

If the person I am training asks me for advice, then I will of course give it. If they say that they cannot do a movement because it hurts, then I tell them definitely don’t do that movement until they can move freely without pain again.

If people ask me if I’m out somewhere in a supermarket for example for advice, they usually will make what they want of the advice, and find what best suits them out of my answer because they are usually looking for me to validate what they already think-they are shocked when I never do that.

Some people will tell me their pain goes away when they warm up, but comes back the next day. I tell them again, if something hurts when you do it, YOU DO NOT DO IT UNTIL THE PAIN GOES AWAY!!

If you are injured, or are having a lot of pain from exercise, then your exercise programme is SERIOUSLY wrong and DAMAGING your health.

You have to distinguish from what is normal and what is dangerous.

You should be in some discomfort at the end of set of weight training for example.

This shows you are advancing and pushing yourself.

You may get a 1-2 days of soreness after a particularly tough session now and again, but it doesn’t need to happen every time!
YOU SHOULD NEVER have prolonged muscle soreness or joint soreness though.

If you cant do an exercise normally, you have reduce your range of motion for example, then you are in trouble already.

The rule I always use is that I want to keep the individuals I train HEALTHY and free from injury, and to move in ways they never thought possible.

Please use common sense and work with someone who is used to doing rehab without hurting you!

Twitt
Posted on

Wednesday, 12th February

The ability to eat well in social settings is one of the biggest difficulties most people face.

Some people eat the likes of pizza, Indian/Chinese takeways, party food “just to be sociable”, this is what many of you have told me over the years. The same could be the said about the pressure to drink alcohol every single time you go out no matter what.

Absolutely nothing wrong with the occasional treat, it keeps you fresh and you shouldn’t have to feel you are on some kind of “diet”!

To make the change publicly to eating healthily in front of your friends, or at least not making “quite as bad” choices is a difficult path for some of you to follow.

It is though a powerful sign that you are prepared for people to see that you are on this healthy path, that you don’t want to eat the fast food on offer all the time, and usually people I train are pleasantly surprised how positive it goes down with their friends.

Changing your behaviour and associations with food and alcohol is always difficult, and people will have a few comments to say about your new choices in public, but apart from that initial change and surprise, after that others will almost expect you not to eat all the rubbish in future, even if they are piling in themselves!

To get into shape and the physical conditioning you want to really achieve, you have the change your lifestyle for good. There is no other way and everyone I know who has had the best results over the longer term has changed their lifestyle and will never go back to the way they were.

Nothing feels better than being fit and healthy, to being close to your optimum body fat levels, and being capable of regularly improving your performance levels.

Nothing can beat that!

Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday, 11th February

Everyone wants to practice things they are good at, what they excel in and its human nature to look at your strengths.

Our training should make us think what we are struggling on, what our weaknesses are, what we need to really improve. What our injuries, our past injuries or breakages when it comes to joints and bones? All these things need addresses before old age comes, because it gets even harder then but still great advancements can be done even then!

This is not a negative, its only going to improve what we like doing in the first place.

If we like to play rugby or football to the best of our ability for example, then working on our weaker areas will only enhance our performance.

Just being stronger with weights or just being better on the treadmill won’t guarantee a better sporting performance, it will help A LOT, but all the stuff we do in our training will give you all the little “add ons” that will make you the difference between okay at a sport, to excelling at it.

The top athletes are the ones who do the little things to improve, this what separates a great athlete from an average one.

You have every opportunity to use the latest science of training to take you wherever you want to be.

The only thing stopping you would be falling for the trap of doing the same old thing all the time. If you do the same old thing, you’re going get the same old results.

We are looking to get the very best out of you, so start searching where you can get even more from your training, more out of your nutrition, and how you can get an even more positive state of mind to see you through the ups and downs of getting into top shape!

Twitt
Posted on

Thursday, 6th February

If your results have been good in January, then you should see February as a continuation of the lifestyle habits you developed or rediscovered in January.

Lots of people ask what is the “true secret” or the “one thing” of getting into the shape you always wanted, and I have to tell them the same old answer. The “one” thing is EVERYTHING.

You can’t fool your body for long with the latest faddy diet, the latest exercise gimmick, or whatever comes on the market on a relentless basis. If I based my business on any of these, I would have been out of business in a few weeks or months at best, like all of these fads inevitably do.

If you are not eating healthily, if you are not exercising regularly, if you are not sleeping well, if you are not keep alcohol to once a week, then you are not going to get near the results you want, and please don’t let ANYONE tell you different!

February is time to try something new too, now your foundation is better, you can experiment more and hit new exercises. We always like to talk about exercise cost and this means the hardest exercises usually have the biggest energy cost, so try this month and approach your programme in a different way.

Moving on to the next phase of your training is vital, and this is only possible when you are doing everything right in the first place.

We have more people than ever exploring their limits on the physical potential.

This means new exercises, variations on older exercises and a higher training intensity again using all new and different strategies.

Time to make the step up.

Twitt