Posted on

Monday, 20th May

Monday is always a big measurement day for me, and i know i have quite a few lined up today.

For those who regularly go through it, you will know what i am talking about. For those of you who never chart your progress, here’s why you should immediately adopt the process.

First of all, how do you know how you are improving?

Second, even if you feel better and things you think are improving, how do you know how much?

Thirdly, even if you know all of these things, how do you know which exercises have contributed the most, and which exercises have contributed the least, and perhaps you have been wasting your time on some movements, and you could have spent your time much better on a far more efficient programme for yourself?

Chances are if you are not looking at these key indicators, then you are training at a facility that doesn’t care about your progress, doesn’t have the resources or expertise to monitor your progress, and just concentrates on how many direct debits they can get. Your progress IS REALLY NOT on their agenda.

What happens if your blood pressure is high?

What happens if you have palpatations from exercise?

What happens if you have a bad knee from certain movements, but don’t know any other way?

What happens if your body fat levels are at dangerous levels? What’s the best way to solve the problem and get some momentum in our health and fitness plan?

As i said, measurements are part of my training day, and i know all my clients highly value this way of doing things, because it answers a LOT of questions immediately.

Twitt
Posted on

Friday, 17th May

Apologies about the lack of posts the last couple of days, but again we have had security issues on the site, with people trying to log in illegally, but hopefully we are back to normal now!

That back to normal statement in exercise terms doesn’t and shouldn’t exist really, because your exercise programme should be a constantly moving project, and nothing should remain the same for long.

If you have been reading this for any length of time, then you will know that we are focused on results, and you should also know by now that you have to change the exercises and intensity of what you do often, not only for results but for variety too, which keeps everything fresh and exciting!

If you are sticking to just machines in your training, then the movements you are practicing are limiting you in all sorts of ways. Chances are that your body is moving in one plane of motion all the time, when it could be moving over the full 360 degrees in all sorts of different exercises if you are willing to be shown, and open your mind to a different and more rewarding way of training?!!!

Machines can be fine for certain movements,but i strongly encourage you to mix things up far more, and give yourself a richer experience when you train, and all the time you will be further along the path of not only getting much better results, but ENJOYING your training far more too!!!

It’s time you switched to ropes, medicine balls, wall balls, harnesses, bungees, agility ladders, hurdles, tyres, swiss balls, bosu balls and that’s JUST THE START!!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday, 14th May

Leaving yourself no other option but to succeed is crucial to your success, and a big secret to achieving for the long term too.

If you give yourself too many options sometimes, then you’re always going to struggle.

For instance, if you are planning to do a workout tonight, and you start going through your mind that “maybe” you should leave it tonight, “after all you have to get the shopping, cut the lawn, clean the kitchen etc”, then the workout can easily be left.

Then you may say lets do it tomorrow? Then what happens is that maybe someone has invited you out, invited you for a drink, for pizza or just to have a chat, then the workout suddenly gets moved to Thursday.

Then one of your children tells you that they have parents evening and you HAVE to go of course! Then it gets to Friday, and then you come out with the oldest excuse in the book, “no point in starting back on a Friday, I’ll start back next week”!!!

This is a great example of you not prioritizing your workouts enough, and you can see it wont take much for “other” things to take priority!!!

The basic message of this is to put your workouts as something you MUST do (recipe for success), rather something you plan to do AS LONG as something else doesn’t come up (recipe for failure).

Ask yourself would you miss an appointment with the doctor, dentist or solicitor? Your workouts need to be considered just as important, as you will be looking after your health and there’s nothing more important.

Prioritise your exercise today and you will automatically get much better results!

Twitt
Posted on

Wednesday, 8th May

After a long bank holiday, a big workout on a Tuesday and today, Wednesday is probably the last thing you feel like.

Deep down though, you know you HAVE to hit it hard today, to not only work the weekend out of your system, but to set the right tone for the rest of the week.

Did you notice that if you didn’t train at the weekend, your eating probably took a dip too, in other words you probably ate and drunk things that could be considered “less than healthy”!

The combination of healthy eating AND exercise should never be underestimated, and they both feed off each other.

You can’t really do one of them well without the other, and once you commit to doing both at the same time, then you’re telling your body that you’re are going to be committed to achieving big things with your health again.

So if its feeling like the week has hit Wednesday already in double quick time, then you would be right, and the race is on to get your body and health feeling back to normal.

A good way to do this is to hit as close as you can the numbers that you have been used to in your best workouts.

For example, if you are used to rowing 10 minutes or under over 2500 metres, then this will give you a barometer on how you are performing after a weekend of drinking and eating too much.

If you can run 2 miles in 16 minutes, then you will know that if suddenly you are struggling to break 17 minutes, then you are some way from feeling and performing at your best.

If your body fat is measured 2-3% more than normal at the end of the month, then you will know that you have to change your habits right now, to get back to the heights of where you have been before.

This is why all my training methods have a lot of measuring tools, both in performance and body analysis. Don’t leave anything to chance and keep aiming high through constantly monitoring yourself!

Twitt
Posted on

Friday, 26th April

Finally friday is here, and friday is always the day when many people start thinking about the weekend, and a great workout, sorry make that ANY kind of workout goes firmly on the back burner.

This is down to the state of mind rather than what your body is actually capable of.

If you are one of those who traditionally misses a friday workout, then you could be missing out on serious gains over the long term.

I find that friday is great for a one off type of workout for a variety of reasons.

First of all, if i typically schedule some people on a monday and thursday all over whole body weights programme, then tuesday and friday would work well as a core orientated session, with some outside speed an agility work thrown in too. Anyone who has done this type of session with me will know we have an extreme amount of variety involved in these type of sessions, they tend to be fun but still hard work and results giving.

So let’s say today is friday which it is, and you have one of these different fun sessions scheduled, then this should give you every reason to show up for your friday session every single time.

I think that’s a big reason for many people in gyms not showing up for their friday session and starting the weekend early, they are not being given entertaining sessions so they get bored, and have absolutely no incentive to complete their week of training. Indifference to training is criminal but usually the fault lies with the person giving out the fitness programme in the first place, and NOT with the customer who is paying their hard earned money to get into great shape AND has a right to be entertained in a fun way in terms of exercise presentation.

Have a great weekend!

Twitt