Monday, 10th September

Your training should always be balanced each week over a seven day period, and you should plan what you’re going to do each workout.

For example, today is monday and typically would be a great time to put some weight training/resistance training in. This can be done through weights and dumbbells, or using your own bodyweight as resistance.

I encourage all over body workouts each time, so I would look to put my second weight session in on a thursday whichht gives you 72 hours to recover. Your muscles break down during the session, and build back up again and recover properly only when they have had enough rest.

48-72 hours is a great rest period enabling you to come firing on all cylinders.

A beginner would tend to do their weight training programme on a monday, wednesday and friday because the intensity of their workouts isn’t going to be so great, therefore needing less recovery time.

A beginner will also spend a lot of time just getting used to the new movements, usually using a lot less weight so this means less muscle tissue broken down, this is the big reason not so long a recovery is needed.

So monday, wednesday, friday if you’re just starting out, monday and thursday if you have much more experience and you’re familiar with training and the required exercise and intensity.

Then we look at the cardio side of things. Down at the gym in burry port, we use treadmills, rowers and bikes, but there’s so much more to cardio in my view.

I’m a big believer in the battling ropes, which anyone who has trained with me knows only too well! They are massive on lung capacity, shoulders. Arms, back, legs and most importantly, core! You only need around a minute on these ropes, and you are absolutely blasted so get used to them as soon as possible!

Then we like to use a lot of speed and agility techniques, as discussed late last week, so you can see you definitely DO NOT need to rely on traditional forms of cardio anymore!!

I would put these fun sessions in on a tuesday and friday, with wednesday off to recover and rest properly. Recuperation is vital and always an underrated part of your health and fitness programme.

The weekend can be your fun stuff outside, getting up walking or running even up mountains, and you have endless routes to try in terms of cycling.

There’s always swimming, longer walks in natural surroundings such as pembrey country park and exercise ideas are only limited by your imagination!

Tuesday, 26th June

We talked about the value of using the height/waist relation in measurement terms yesterday.

The value though gets magnified several times when you start making yourself accountable every four weeks.

Every four weeks is certainly enough time to make some good progress with your body, and your health in general.

If you have this four week timeframe permanently ingrained in your mind, then you will always think that little bit more about what you eat and drink.

You will become a little more guilty about missing workouts, and the effect of not exercising regularly.

Let’s face it, most of  us hate going to the doctor or nurse for a variety of reasons, but if we can get in the habit of self-testing, then this will alleviate some of the nervousness and embarrassment factors for sure.

Your monthly measurement can help you change your programme more regularly too.

If you do a measurement and you do not improve in any area, then either your training programme or eating regime needs to change, or more like both!

By making yourself accountable, the change will likely come a lot sooner and you will be on the road to progress that much sooner.

When you measure regular, you also become more enthusiastic. You will perform better and look for more little ways to improve yourself.

You will end up buing new clothes or at least fitting into your best clothes again because your dress size/waist size will come down considerably if you are on the right mix of good exercise form and excellent eating habits.

This is all about being repititive in a GOOD way!

The more your habits are consistent, the better your results full stop!

Keep measuring or get someone to do it for you, you will not look back trust me!!!

Sticker or quitter?

Not being repetitive here, but noting from some of your comments/emails etc, many of you are falling for this old chestnut time after time!

Here’s a big tip that works, every time!

STICK WITH YOUR PLAN LONG ENOUGH TO ALLOW THE CHANGES YOU’RE BRINGING INTO YOUR LIFE TO COME INTO EFFECT. Simply throwing the towel in is not acceptable, and then blaming other people for it is really not acceptable! If making excuses is a way of life for you, then you need to stop right now or things will happen in your life that you’re not comfortable with, and change will not happen, that’s for sure!

Stop hammering/tearing yourself down for what you didn’t do and start praising yourself on what YOU DID DO!

If you remember one thing out of this post tonight, this is the one.

If you have just come off your good eating habits, what good is feeling sorry and crying about it going to do, you know you should be developing to tools, mental and physical to come from there by now. This site is about building yourself up and giving yourself credit. Appreciate that you’re doing something, or a lot of things to improve yourself, and if you start the challenge on the 17th January, then you be testing your mental and physical strength for a longer period than maybe you have ever done before, see it as exciting and not daunting!

This is the time to get it right and really look after yourself, to develop habits that can and will last a lifetime, it’s always best to make things simple, so not tearing into yourself for eating badly for one day is going to help. Praising yourself for making good progress is very helpful, nobody’s perfect all the time or even most of the time. It’s about doing your best and that should always be good enough. If you can honestly look in the mirror and say most day’s you’ve done your best, then how can you beat that? Nothing wrong with treats either, as long as they are in moderation of course and not every day. Learn to love food, and don’t see it as “i’m either dieting”, or “i’m flat out bingeing”!

The in between state of moderation is your key to long term success, so if you go off the rails, who cares, just get back to normal the next day and really appreciate the fact that healthy food makes you feel good, perform well and as long as you give it some time, will make you proud of your achievements!