Sunday, 15th February

I get a lot of rehab questions because I have helped a lot of people get back doing what they love doing, when perhaps they thought they could never do it again. Most people know we differentiate ourselves from every gym because we create intensive programmes that always account for any movement/injury/limitations the individual has.

If the person I am training asks me for advice, then I will of course give it. If they say that they cannot do a movement because it hurts, then I tell them definitely don’t do that movement until they can move freely without pain again.

If people ask me if I’m out somewhere in a supermarket for example for advice, they usually will make what they want of the advice, and find what best suits them out of my answer because they are usually looking for me to validate what they already think-they are shocked when I never do that.

Some people will tell me their pain goes away when they warm up, but comes back the next day. I tell them again, if something hurts when you do it, YOU DO NOT DO IT UNTIL THE PAIN GOES AWAY!!

If you are injured, or are having a lot of pain from exercise, then your exercise programme is SERIOUSLY wrong and DAMAGING your health.

You have to distinguish from what is normal and what is dangerous.

You should be in some discomfort at the end of set of weight training for example.

This shows you are advancing and pushing yourself.

You may get a 1-2 days of soreness after a particularly tough session now and again, but it doesn’t need to happen every time!
YOU SHOULD NEVER have prolonged muscle soreness or joint soreness though.

If you cant do an exercise normally, you have reduce your range of motion for example, then you are in trouble already.

The rule I always use is that I want to keep the individuals I train HEALTHY and free from injury, and to move in ways they never thought possible.

Please use common sense and work with someone who is used to doing rehab without hurting you!

Thursday, 6th February

If your results have been good in January, then you should see February as a continuation of the lifestyle habits you developed or rediscovered in January.

Lots of people ask what is the “true secret” or the “one thing” of getting into the shape you always wanted, and I have to tell them the same old answer. The “one” thing is EVERYTHING.

You can’t fool your body for long with the latest faddy diet, the latest exercise gimmick, or whatever comes on the market on a relentless basis. If I based my business on any of these, I would have been out of business in a few weeks or months at best, like all of these fads inevitably do.

If you are not eating healthily, if you are not exercising regularly, if you are not sleeping well, if you are not keep alcohol to once a week, then you are not going to get near the results you want, and please don’t let ANYONE tell you different!

February is time to try something new too, now your foundation is better, you can experiment more and hit new exercises. We always like to talk about exercise cost and this means the hardest exercises usually have the biggest energy cost, so try this month and approach your programme in a different way.

Moving on to the next phase of your training is vital, and this is only possible when you are doing everything right in the first place.

We have more people than ever exploring their limits on the physical potential.

This means new exercises, variations on older exercises and a higher training intensity again using all new and different strategies.

Time to make the step up.

Thursday, 30th January

Working as a team is always better when it comes to your family’s eating habits.

I see both sides of the fence, I train a lot of teenagers and I train a lot of parents, and they can both blame each other for their eating habits.

Your parents buy the food, they make the food and they actually put the plate in front of the kids in most cases. So the parents decide everything?

According to latest statistics this is not true, more and more teenagers are heavily influencing the family shopping, whether in the supermarket or through online shopping for groceries.

Over 50% of teenage girls contribute heavily to the eating choices, and a third of boys will say loud and clear what the foods should be in the household.

It doesn’t stop in the supermarket, most parents when surveyed said the kids were most influential when it comes to choices for fast food, snacks when they are out and restaurant choices.

So when teenagers say they have no control of what their parents give them, research says that if they keep telling their parents that they really want, then well made tasty healthy food with a bit of imagination should become a reality, as the parent is likely to eventually cooperate for the benefit of everyone in the family.

So if you are a teenager who is looking to get fitter and healthy, you had better keep on to your parents. The parent will be confused because for years you may have told them that you want Mcdonalds or pizza, or fish and chips and they got used to providing those foods that made you happy.

So changing your choices takes a while for the whole family to sink in.

If you are the parent, then usually you have got used to those “little treats” too, as you usually will get stuck in yourself! So change for you may be hard too!!

This is why when the teenager suddenly discovers that they really would like to be fit, healthy and strong, the parent needs to be completely onboard and live a healthy lifestyle themselves.

Expecting your child to be eating good nutritious food, while you’re stuffing yourself big time on sugary and fatty foods sets a terrible example, and will lead to a much big struggle in your child being successful.

Work as a team and the whole thing is much more likely to work!

Wednesday, 22nd January

People always ask me always “what do I do AFTER I get fit?”.

However long it takes you to get fit and healthy again, you will find it’s very unlikely you will ever even WANT to go back to your old ways. When individuals become fit and healthy, often from a low base, they become changed people.

You will have developed a higher quality of life, you will have higher ambitions, you won’t have the same old cravings for sugary foods, and you will start having a lot more pleasure about being active.

If you are in a sound programme, then your new lifestyle will have become part of you, so you develop fresh enthusiasm for everything in life. You will become much more optimistic and you suddenly have a brand new body to enjoy too, and you’re going to want to use it as often as possible.

Training properly and smart, eating healthily is like discovering you have done something in your life for years the wrong way, and suddenly everything feels a LOT EASIER in your life.

Why would you ever go back from here and feeling great? This is what many of you tell me.

The best thing to do after you have reached your INITIAL goals is to immediately set NEW ones, this way you are always trying to improve and progress becomes a natural process for you.

Soon this will become your way of life and you won’t have to think about it anymore, it will be second nature.