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Tuesday, 18th June

Psychology plays a vital and all important role in everything we do.

If we think we can achieve something, then we are right.

If we think we really can’t achieve something, then we are also right.

That sounds stupid but nothing has ever been more true.

If you think you can do something, then your body and mind will do everything it can to do so. Your brain will send signals to your body to work a little harder, to engage yourself in a more positive way, and you will be likely to take constant action in order for you to get there. You will be building on positive stepping stones all the time, and you will take massive encouragement from your little successes along the way to create one big massive success!

You will hardly miss a workout, your supermarket shop will be full of good food, natural when possible and full of nutrients that will help your body become more energetic, and develop a level of vitality that you have never had before. You will make sure you hit the sack early most nights making sure you are well rested, and ready to give it another big effort the next day. Success is coming your way if you adopt such habits.

When you turn it the other and you never believe you can do anything, in fact you flat out believe you can’t do anything, then you will definitely go out of your way at times NOT to do things.

For instance, if you are wanting to get into great shape but believe there is no way you can do this, then you will practice unhelpful habits. You will start missing workouts, you will start putting junk into your shopping trolley as “one won’t really matter” when it always leads to several. You will be down on yourself frequently and this downward spiral will usually lead to you eventually quitting your programme, only to start it a few months later again and without success if you still keep the same negative belief system.

You can that whatever you believe to be true is where you are likely to head. Leave yourself one option and that’s the positive one!!

Twitt
Posted on

Monday, 17th June

Another monday hits us and as always hope you are prepared to hit it hard to start the week off on the right note!

Some base their most important workout on a monday, some just ease gently into it, some don’t have any kind of plan and just hope for the best (not recommended), some hit their highest intensity on a monday-whatever your situation AS LONG as you are exercising then you will be off to a flying start.

If you let your weekend go into a monday in terms of alcohol, overeating junk food and no exercise, then you are not serious about your health whatsoever, and you need to re-assess exactly what your goals are and set a realistic plan on how you’re going to achieve them!

Monday is always a great day to get your weights/strength work in, nothing raises your metabolism as effectively (and i am talking about weight training with little rest and with plenty of high energy cost movements no plodding slowly along!). I set a lot of strength workouts on mondays and thursdays with a nice three day gap in between, allowing for plenty of recovery in between.

A lot of my other workouts get set up for the tuesdays, wednesdays and fridays. This allows me to set up the fundamentals up for the week for people, and give a lot of variety in between, making sure we are fat burning every day and we are going to get higher and higher numbers almost on a week to week basis, which means we are constantly improving!

So you should be looking forward to a big monday, making the bigget possible statement for the week ahead!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Friday, 14th June

A common misconception with different training methods and different exercises is that you are only “supposed” to do certain movements based on your goals.

For example, if you are trying to lose body fat, trying to increase your speed, then you don’t need to do much weight training, and power exercises are totally not necessary!!

This is the big mistake that many people walk into.

Power and speed are very closely related, and you cannot have one without the other. This is why i always put these power movements in every programme, because of the strength it gives you all over. Bodyweight exercises for example involve total power. Your core has to take a lot of the strain and will deliver a lot of power throughout your body.

Boxing requires a lot of power, and this is one great discipline for getting you a lot faster and gets you shedding body fat quicker than just about anything else. Boxing is a great addition to your training programme for speed and power without a shadow of a doubt.

People used to say that weight training slowed you down, we now know that the opposite is in fact true! If done properly, weight training can revolutionalise your speed and power.

One of the best training techniques is sprinting, and if you have done it you will realise its all about power. Why do people sprint? Because they want to get quicker of course!

Power exercises should be embedded in your programme and never leave if you want to be stronger and faster in just about anything you want to do!!

Twitt
Posted on

Thursday, 13th June

The bad rap that carbohydrates have got over the last few years can be seen as totally unjustified.

You had the atkins diet some years ago banning “everything carb” related with the focus very much on protein only.

This fad lasted longer than most people thought, and at one time jacket potatoes were seen very much the enemy, and pasta was like the anti-christ!

Fortunately though, sanity prevailed and the atkins diet crashed and burned for many people, and some people had horrendous experiences from going through it.

Carbs can be a problem in weight gain if you eat too much of them and the wrong type. By the wrong type I mean the simple sugar version. White pasta for example contains a lot more sugar than wholegrain pasta does.

Brown rice will be better for you than white rice.

Wholemeal bread is a million times better for you than white bread and so on.

So the type of carbs you eat is all important in giving you the energy you need without all the simple sugars that will put weight on you.
Then the serving size becomes all important. Most people put weight on with carbs because they eat too much of them, plain and simple! Eat too much of anything and you will have a weight gain problem.

Your carb serving should be the size of your fist, so a plate full of pasta is overdoing it. This is why you should combine your pasta with a protein source, not only to bulk up your meal to keep you fuller for longer. Some vegetables chopped up will also will go very well with your meal, and give you endless benefits.

So please see that carbs are never the enemy, but it’s a matter of picking the right ones and in the right sensible
amount.

Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday, 11th June

The reason you are doing this is often forgotten, but this reason is often what will pick you up when you’re down, when you don’t feel like training that day or week, this reason will also help you shop better for food, not stray into eating junk food at times, and generally keep you on track.

Some people use a photograph of themselves when they were really in shape all those years ago, and sometimes stick it on the fridge to incentivize them to eat well, even when they have the strongest of urges not to!

Some people use a photograph of themselves carrying TOO MUCH weight! This can also help them get fired up so they don’t look like that ever again!

We need these little cue’s on often on a daily basis, so eating well really does become part of your daily life.
I always use the brushing teeth example. Ask yourself why you really clean your teeth and you will realize why you clean them every morning and every night before bed, these types of questions you need to ask yourself when it comes to exercising and eating well.

Ask yourself what it really means to you, how much you’re going to benefit from an improved healthy lifestyle, and how much better you’re going to look and feel from it?

Then ask yourself what it would mean to your lifestyle if you DID NOT adopt a healthy lifestyle? What would the negatives be? What would you lose in terms of the way you look and feel?!!
Whether it’s a diary you keep, or the photos you put on the fridge, the photos you have of yourself on your phone or computer, whether its your new years resolution you may actually achieve this year, or the life-changing decision you made to get healthy in the first place for WHATEVER reason, keep reminding yourself and you’re bound to keep improving!

Twitt