Posted on

New Years Day

It’s time to explode some “myths” of training, and answer a range of questions I seem to get at regular intervals from a surprising amount of you.

MYTH NO1 “The best sign of a great workout is how exhausted I am, and how sore I am the next couple of days!”

Many people I meet regard a great workout with being totally exhausted and sore.

When people come down the gym for the first time, they assume that because they didn’t feel “sick”, that they weren’t training hard enough!

I always have to put them right on this straight away because “feeling sick and exhausted totally” is the exact opposite of what we are about.

I always tell clients that making them sick all over the car park would be easy.

I am FAR MORE interested in getting them stronger, more flexible, being more agile and balanced, and dramatically increasing their speed and endurance.

Being sick from training is one of the worst things you can do for your body, causing great internal distress that your body takes a long time to get over.

If you’re measuring your training progress on being exhausted, and you are doing a speed and agility session with me, then you’re quickly forgetting why you are doing the session in the first place.

Teaching people to run properly and move in multi-directions requires the individual to use their brain power, their reaction time, as well as physical effort.

Last of all, there isn’t one scientific paper out there that says you have to be dramatically sore after a workout to get maximum gains from it, not one! You may get sore now and again from changing your training around and using different muscles, and who wants to be sore all the time anyway!

Always remember that anyone can get you tired, but it requires a far more professional approach to get you much faster, stronger and much better conditioned for absolutely anything you want to do.

Twitt
Posted on

Monday, 30th December

So this time of year in the holidays is about making sure your exercise sessions go in, and then making them productive.

First of all, you will probably know by now that I like to avoid doing mindless cardio that doesn’t really make the most of your time at the gym.

That type of training should have disappeared in the 1980’s and 1990’s, but unfortunately I do hear of it happening still today. This is usually due to a lack of direction being shown in one’s exercise programme, or a “tell them to go on there for half an hour and forget about them” type of attitude.

Getting individuals to stay on a treadmill for long, slow periods, staying on the bike at a low intensity for long boring experiences, are what I would consider an insult to the person’s intelligence I was training. Doing “a bit of weights now and again” is not acceptable either, you should exercise with purpose and look for constant improvements every 1-2 weeks.

There’s far more productive ways to train and this is why we will never become a “go through the motions” type of gym, and definitely not a gym who concentrates on getting a direct debit out of you and hoping you never show up! This is why too that every bit of exercise we do in the gym is going to directly benefit you, rely on the latest science of training, and directly show on your body, and your heart strength when you get your regular in detail measurements.

This is why we retain most people who join too, and therefore don’t rely on the typical January rush, training should be a lifestyle change that is achievable, and not ripping you off on a 6-18 month contract where the only pounds disappearing will be from your pocket.

So if you’re looking for your cardio in a quick period of time, you need to focus and concentrate on targets that will regularly change for the better.

A simple way of looking at it is to look at these two examples.

Lets say in week one you can manage 5 minutes on the rowing machine in a particular training interval, and you’re really tired after that so you need plenty of rest before moving on to other things.

Then after week three, you’re up to 10 minutes on the rower, and you can do some boxing with me with no rest.

Then after week eight maybe, you’re into set specific metre challenges on the rower, you are doing walking or even running up on the railway bridge right next to the gym, and you hit the ropes hard, and THEN finish off with a flurry of punches with a boxing session with me.

This is only an example, and all different scenarios are possible, of course only working within that individual’s capability and I never overwork anyone past their boundaries in that particular session. Some people will be more capable than others of course, but every single person should be capable of SIGNIFICANT improvement at
regular intervals.

Now THIS IS PROGRESS and you’re starting to feel alive again! This is achievable at ANY AGE.

This is why the results are coming in thick and fast and this is why you should never accept mindless “programmes” that never consider you as an individual, and if you’re going to improve or not!!!

Trust in results.

Twitt
Posted on

Friday, 27th December

Following on from our last post about guidelines about training through the Christmas period, it’s important to write it down in layman’s terms.

This is because quite a lot of you have continued training throughout the holidays, and some of you even on Christmas and boxing days, some of you train these two big days every year, simply because you feel better you tell me, and we can all relate to that feeling that exercise gives us.

So let’s assume you are looking to keep some sort of decent condition over Christmas, it’s important to remember some key recommendations.

Most of you will not have much time to train as normal, with other commitments taking precedent so it’s vital you cut to the chase!

If you are doing a weights workout, you need to prioritize getting the most from your body.

If you usually pick 8-10 exercises for your session, then you need to just do what is necessary, and try to work your whole body in one session. Many people have gone away from working your whole body in one session, but going back to it will surprise you in terms of the effort required and the huge benefits it can give you again. Many people try to go straight on some kind of pro routine when a simple all over programme 2-3 times a week would be far more beneficial for them.

Just pick one exercise for your legs, chest, shoulders, back, arms (triceps/biceps) and core.

Pick an exercise that tests you quite hard and requires a lot of energy, for example bench press for chest, upright rows for shoulders, one arm dumbbell rowing for back, leg press for legs, dumbbells curls/bench dips for arms, etc, and some medicine ball work for core.

After a brief warm up on the bike, try 3 sets of 8 with a weight that’s going to test you. This will give you a short and very productive workout in less than half and hour.

Aim to take 45 seconds in between sets, or however long it takes you to get your breath back. You may have to use less weight than normal, but your heart and lungs will be having a great workout too, and as you get used to it over a few weeks, your lifting weight will gradually creep back up again.

You will be out of breath at times, your heart rate will be accelerated, and you will definitely break a sweat, in other words you will be getting the job done quickly.

Christmas is a great time for getting back to basics, and this simple plan will take you a long way into the new year too.

More on other simple training strategies to come, that you can use the rest of the week.

Twitt
Posted on

Sunday, 22nd December

There is a huge increase in most people’s eating and drinking this time of year, this is what most of you are experiencing right now with a couple of days left to christmas. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with enjoying yourself either, as most of us are going to do it anyway!

As you get further into the holidays, the vast majority of people who train will always train less, most likely not at all, and train with less intensity when they do make it to training that is, and in general lose the enthusiasm they have had to be active all year. There is a direct link between stopping training and your enthusiasm to be active again almost disappearing.

This is why most people never get around to starting exercising again.

This “pause” usually turns into a 2-4 week slump that many never come out of. The start back becomes 100 times harder seemingly, and the new year resolution you are likely to make is 97% of the time never going to happen in reality (according to recent surveys).

In terms of exercising, surveys showed in 2013 that most people who promise to get fit in their new year resolution, actually saw that dream collapse on January 28th. So 3-4 weeks seems the average life-span of many people’s get fit plan each year.

Keeping your exercise plan, however short you want to make it, will often make the difference between you carrying on exercising, or becoming one of the statistics that often has a stab at exercise, but never carries it on due to the hammering their body takes over the Christmas holiday period.

Condensing your workouts into much shorter workout intervals always makes sense, it saves you time, you get to feel better because you have exercised, and it never crosses your mind to quit exercising completely!

More tomorrow on this.

Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday, 10th December

If you are short of time due to the time of year, and most people usually are right now, then its vital that when you exercise, you REALLY make it count!

Going through the motions for an hour is not an option, challenging yourself to do the biggest “energy cost” exercises will be absolute key so you make the most of your valuable time.

Please don’t end up one of these individuals who spends endless hours of low intensity on the bike or treadmill. That type of exercise will do you good of course, but there’s a huge array of other options you need to get into that will deliver far better results for you.

For example, I always encourage people in the gym to stand up on the spin bike.

Simply starting by standing up for ten seconds in intervals, then sitting down for one minute, then, up for ten seconds again will put some intensity into the workout that you have never experienced before.

When you are able to stand up for 30 seconds, down for 30, up for 30 again etc, you know you will be doing very well and you will start hitting a very respectable level in spinning terms.

Plus this is far more fun than just cycling away endlessly using very little effort, and you will be far more likely to keep this activity up which is very important .

If you are weight training, don’t spend 5 minutes or so in between sets, try working on your lung capacity too and getting your heart rate up.

Weight training does not have to be just about strength. Weights can give you a much stronger heart and some added lung power, IF you cut down your rest in between sets.

Longer term targets for rest in between sets would be 45 seconds. You may have to reduce the weight you use initially, but you will eventually build that weight back up again as you progressively get fitter!

Twitt