Posted on

Monday, 19th November

Five weeks tomorrow is christmas day, but the biggest mistake you can make is taking your foot off the gas, and “settling” for nominal effort in terms of workout efforts, settling into poor eating habits already way before christmas, and drinking alcohol much more, just because the “festive season” is almost upon us!!!

If you fall into any of these categories, then i urge you to re-think your habits right now and set yourself new targets for year end, rather than worrying about how much weight you are likely to put on!!!

You don’t have to make it complicated either.

Keep it simple by making your performances better.

For example, if you are running a mile in 11 minutes, then your aim over the next 5 weeks would be to bring that down to 10 minutes and 30 seconds, this would be a big achievement!

I would look at a 6 second reduction per WEEK, and you should be able to get there. Plus when you’re able to run that mile 30 seconds quicker over a 5 week period, then you are bound to be in better shape, your body fat will be less and you will get leaner.

The same can be applied with cycling, inside or out. 5-10 seconds off your time every week can make a big difference to the way you look. Not only that, but your view on food choices and drink choices will change too. Will you really want to blow all of that hard work christmas time? You will of course cheat on your diet but studies show that those who train with improvements in mind all the time, will usually eat a lot better than those who have given up, or lost complete interest in their training!!!

The basic message is train hard, look to continually improve by setting shorter term goals and the whole run-up to christmas will be far more productive for your body than usual!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Monday, 5th November

Benchmark workouts are a major consideration when it comes to all sorts of situations in your life.

Life isn’t always the same, things crop up, trips happen overseas, layoffs can happen for whatever reason, and the last thing you want to happen is not know where you are in physical and health terms full stop.

Easy ways off checking your health including buying a blood pressure machine, i like to do it every 4 weeks for everyone i train, sometimes more frequently for those who i am really concerned about.

In physical terms, you can measure your waist and hips once a month, you will need to be alarmed if your waist does go up, and then you can alter your diet and training programme to bring it back down.

The “benchmark workout” idea is one which i use every week on most people, and this lets us know straight away exactly where we are.

Someone i train who has been touring america for 3 months got his first workout in today. I put him on one of HIS benchmark workouts, and the results were quite staggering!

Bear in mind that this workout is one which he normally gets through without too much of a problem. It consists of around 300 press ups total in the workout split into 20’s at a time, some step sprints, some backward running up hills etc.

Today, he found it extremely tough indeed!

He has been used to doing 3 shows a day, which is demanding physically of course, but got used to the sugary cereals and breakfasts in the states, and the lack of genuinely plain, sugar free nutritious food that he was accustomed to has hurt his energy levels now he’s back to normal.

This has led to him becoming not so energetic now he is back home, and the benchmark workout reminded him exactly where he was!!!

If you don’t have standards you can measure against, then you will never know or appreciate where you are!!!

This is something to consider when you work out what level you want to be at!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Wednesday, October 31st

Halloween is certainly getting bigger in this country, if you have kids then hope you enjoy yourselves!!

Another story in the paper today about the benefits of exercise…………………….this time for the over 70’s and brain power!

How many times have you heard about the benefits about crossword puzzles making your brain sharper in old age, and most doctor’s considered crosswords as highly beneficial in terms of mental alertness alone.

The new study suggests that exercise greatly surpasses the benefits of crosswords, and the power of the mind is greatly increased when daily exercise is part of an individual’s liefstyle.

The power of exercise has often been undervalued and for much of the 20th century, doctor’s were often ignorant on its benefits across the board.

For example, from around 1950 to 1980, it was often thought and advised even that weight training would give you high blood pressure!! The opposite is true now.

Exercising could bring on a heart attack they said! We now know that there is no better way to get a STRONGER AND HEALTHIER heart, i think we all accept this now!

Exercise they said would wreck your joints, your bone density would simply wear away and if you wanted to have strong bones, then just relax and do not wear your body out!! Bone density we now know is made much STRONGER THROUGH WEIGHT TRAINING, your joints will only get stronger if you exercise smart and use proper footwear, these are medical facts and not heresay!!

With all the facts coming out about exercise all the time, there has never been a more exciting time to exercise and you have the big chance to reap all of these amazing benefits!!

Sure, exercise for all the benefits we DO know, but i am sure there will be MANY MORE BENEFITS to come over the years so get out there and do something today!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Monday, 29th October

We are coming up to november quickly and this means you have a whole month to get where you want to be by the start of decemember, and definitely the run up to christmas!

Everyone i know wants to be in shape by christmas, and they know all of the excess calories are going to hurt their bodies by the end of it, in terms of putting on weight and feeling stodgy and low on energy. Before we get to that stage, we have to start right now by eating and training to get as lean as possible!

The evenings are already a lot darker, so please use this month as a big positive and there’s absolutely no need to retreat into your shell because of the lack of light, its an opportunity to get your head down and work harder than you have ever done before!!!

Mondays are always the biggest opportunities to start off as you mean to go on, not to leave yourself down and fill your body with energy on the very day you need to make a statement for the rest of the week.

This is an excellent period to set new personal bests too, whether its in endurance or more metres covered on a rowing machine in a certain time for example, or you may just find yourself recovering quicker from each exercise, a sure-fire way of telling that you are getting much fitter. You will always have a favourite exercise so use this month as an opportunity to turn it something you are proud of, one exercise you’re able to do better than most other people, certainly better than you have done it before anyway.

When you set new personal bests, its usually guaranteed that you will see amazing physical benefits in all areas so use this as the perfect springboard for a fresh batch of improvements coming your way in november, which will set you up for a christmas in great shape!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Friday, 26th October

October 26th is the day before the clocks go back, and automatically things get darker from now on, and you may have noticed a lot colder!!!

This is the true test for me on an individual’s hunger to show up and really get into shape. Its much easier in the summer when things are mostly bright and sunny, but the dark, wet, cold nights can be something else to get over.

If you look at the situation quite a bit closer though, there is absolutely no reason for you to miss sessions and snuggle up on the settee every night feeling sorry for yourself! You will feel a lot more sorry for yourself if you pile a lot of weight on, when your self-esteem goes down and you become one of those people who say “i used to be fit and healthy…………..once upon a time!!!!

This statement is one of the saddest you will ever hear so let’s turn it around right now and not fall into that trap for one second!!!

Look at it another way, there are 8 whole weeks to christmas and nobody wants to look overweight and sluggish christmas time, especially with all the drinking and eating yet to come!!!

Use the winter evenings as an excuse to train, to put in the hard work in your baggy clothes, knowing when it comes to wearing your christmas dress or christmas suit, you know you have the opportunity to look incredibly better than you do right now!!!!

These are the choices you have right now in front of you, if you really think of it there aren’t many reasons you could use as an excuse!!!

I have had this discussion with everyone i train who are struggling at the changing of the seasons, and all of them without exception have ramped up the pressure on themselves to put in such great performances in the run-up to christmas!!!

Twitt