Posted on

Tuesday,4th June

Assuming you started the week off very well yesterday by having a very positive workout, then its surely time you became very serious about supporting that effort with some serious eating.

Apart from all the energy you need, you also need to consider how your “engine” is performing inside your body, after all if this was not happening then you would never even consider top quality workouts, especially in the hotter weather we are experiencing right now.

Are you taking enough fruit in?

Are you taking enough wholegrain carbs in with a slow energy release?

Are you taking regular intakes of protein which repairs all the breaking down of lean muscle that takes place during one of your tougher exercise sessions?

Are you eating regularly and really taking advantage of keeping your energy stores high at all times?

And how about the most important factor in all this talk about tough workouts and warm weather training-WATER!!!

If you are not taking regular sips of water throughout the day, then your body simply will noty cope with the extra hard workouts done in a much warmer temperature. This is the thing that I have to keep on to everyone about during a week like this!

If there is one thing you can do this week, please become much more aware of the need to stay hydrated. If you are already thirsty, then you are already dehydrated according to studies done over the last several years, so remember that thirst is NO GUIDE to hydration levels, and the temperature rise only makes that problem worse!!

So like we talked about yesterday, you should be celebrating all the nice weather AND the opportunity to exercise in it. The big thing to remember however, is to prepare properly and treat your body like a car engine or hopefully much better, and prime yourself ready to perform!

Don’t forget the sunscreen though, another forgotten tactic that should be a whole subject on its own!

Twitt
Posted on

Thursday, 30th May

The pain and frustration in coming back from injury or illness is always difficult.

Its times like these when you really appreciate what you were capable of in the recent past, and you will do anything to get back to where you were.

First of all, you may be tempted to come back too early, and what usually happens is that you re-injure the problem that stopped you in the first place, which adds to the frustration again!

You have to learn not to work through the pain, and allow your body to re-adjust in its own time, this is the tried and tested way to do things properly.

When coming back from illness, you must take it easy, and allow your body to get fully used to training again, meaning you should do far less than normal. You should only be training if you feel well enough, not rushing back into things.

If you take the following example into account, you will see what i mean.

Studies show that when a pro athlete takes a week off, it usually takes them one to two weeks to get back where they were. If they have four weeks off, then it can take four to eight weeks to get back to normal. This shows that you MUST take your time when returning from injury or illness, take advice if possible and look for guidance on your journey back to full health.

Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday, 28th May

Setting yourself targets is important in your overall development.

The targets in terms of numbers will change all the time, depending of course on exactly how much you keep on improving.

A good more general target you can set yourself every year is just as important, and sets up your mindset to achieve bigger things.

I try to get individuals to improve each and every year.

This is a big target i set myself and as long as i improve, even in a small way, i will know that i have been successful in that year’s progress.

Let’s it another way that may surpise you, like it did with me the very first time i heard it.

Let’s say an individual can run for 2 miles, and can cycle 5 miles sometimes, and does a little weight training twice a week with the same weights all the time. Let’s say this happens every week, and has done for the last 5 years.

The vital thing to take out of this example is that this fitness programme is the SAME all the time. It never changes one bit, the intensity never changes, an even the weights are always the same.

I have to say right now that the very fact that this individual is exercising, and this is a MASSIVE POSITIVE in health terms, and i encourage these habits very strongly!

However, this is an example of someone who never improves, who goes through the motions too much, and has remained in the same state of fitness for 5 whole years, when if he/she changed his/her programme much more regularly, then the physical improvements would have been drastically more impressive.

You can easily change your programme every 6 weeks, at the latest every 12 weeks, and really benefit from those even subtle changes you could make.

Time to re-evaluate what you are doing, study what could improve, and aim to improve each and every year, no matter how small that improvement would be. This is a simple goal for you every year, and one guaranteed to bring a level of success that you wouldn’t have otherwise.

Twitt
Posted on

Thursday, 23rd May

Great things happen when you actually “get it”!

Once you REALISE that there are no side-stepping issues, there is no ducking out of the fact that you will need to eat good natural foods, you will need to exercise 3-4 times a week, you will not be able to lose body fat at a good rate if you are not willing to give up drinking alcohol most nights (alcohol needs to come back down to one night a week only).

You have to be prepared to use up your energy stores every day through exercise,creating an calorie or energy deficit so you are actually burning body fat, instead of steadily putting it on.

You need to forget the saying that you can eat “whatever you want” just because you’re training! Its more important than ever to eat well when you train hard because you body needs all the good nutrients even more. Your body needs to recover quickly from the last session, and i take it you actually want to improve in the way you look and feel, rather than go through the motions?!!

You need to commit yourself and develop a mindset that you need to exercise for a lifetime, and not do it a month here, a month there! This will be a sure fire way to swim in mediocrity, and constantly disappoint yourself.

These are the things you need to do if you are serious about the way you want to look and feel, to have outstanding health, and to finally achieve the big goals you promised yourself probably a very long time ago.

Time is precious so do not waste it!

Twitt
Posted on

Thursday, 21st May

The big reason you are doing this is ultimately going to drive you on through the tougher times to come. Its easier to do anything when times are easy, when you have plenty of time on your hands, you have friends who want to do the same, and all the circumstances are in favour of you training regularly.

Then, as we talk about regularly on here, circumstances change, sometimes dramatically and there are suddenly a million reasons NOT to train.

Its at this exact time when you NEED your big reason to find the time to train, find the motivation to have a great
workout, find the reason to eat well when it would be far easier to have a takeaway or call in the petrol station for chocolate and some win even, after all you tell yourself that you “deserve it” because of all the stress you’re under!

So whatever reason that may be, you need to at least once a week consider why you are training this hard in the first place, why you are sacrificing other things at times to get your body into the shape you really want.

Did you start because someone told you that you had put on a lot of weight?

Did you start because you had to overcome a health issue?

Did you start to just feel better, you were sick of feeling lousy so finally you had to do something about it?

Did you start to get better at the sport you like?

Were you fed up of not being all you could be, and weren’t going to take it anymore?

Are you getting married in 6 months and you want to look your very best?

Have you just had a child and desperately want to lose the baby weight and get back into your clothes, and get your confidence and self-esteem back?

Are you burnt out from working too hard all your life, and its time after getting several warnings from your doctor to really sort your health and body out once and for all?

Whatever the reason why you started taking your health and fitness seriously, always have this big reason close on hand every time you feel sorry for yourself, how you cant find time for exercise and when doing some exercise really is the last thing on your mind.

Twitt