Monday, 9th December

Milk as a recovery drink post exercise

Milk is a near –perfect recovery drink, in terms of both glycogen and muscle replenishment and rehydration. In research, milk has been proven to produce a more favourable hormonal environment immediately following exercise compared to a carbohydrate sports drink. This they suggest encourages protein anabolism during recovery, in other words encourages muscle growth and repair.

Canadian researchers have found that when male weight trainers who were new to the sport consumed skimmed milk as part of a 12 week resistance programme, it promoted greater hypertrophy (muscle gain) than isoenergetic soy or carb drinks. Another study with females who were on a 12 week resistance exercise course found they reduced body fat levels , increased lean mass and strength after consuming skimmed milk post exercise.

It is thought that milk somehow changes the metabolism of proteins in muscle and so enhances muscle adaptations to exercise.

A post recovery drink should be drunk as soon as possible after exercise. There is a two hour ‘window’ post exercise when glycogen storage is faster than at any other time at a rate of 150% the normal rate. Therefore drinking the milk at this time speeds glycogen (blood sugar levels) and muscle recovery.

For harder, longer training sessions, extra carbs might be needed. Researchers have found that eating a bowl of wholegrain cereal with milk was as effective as sports drinks, but it also promoted greater muscle protein synthesis compared to the sport drink.

Tuesday, 3rd December

From a training perspective, it’s the time of year when a lot of individuals put the training and eating well elements of their life on the backburner.

Going shopping physically or shopping from the armchair, getting presents for Christmas seems to take precedent, no matter what along with a number of other excuses.

“I have to go shopping, it can’t wait”!

“I will leave training till after christmas, I am too busy”

“It’s too cold to train”

“It’s too dark to train”

“I may as well make the most out of Christmas, because in January I am REALLY going to do it this time and get into my best ever shape”

“My friend has dropped off training so I will”

“I just DO NOT train at Christmas and that’s that”!

“It’s December and I am going to make the most of it, I am going to drink and eat as much as I want, one life I have!”

“I have been good all year, I am going to let it all hang out starting now and nobody’s going to stop me”

If any of these excuses sound familiar, then you may be guilty of falling for the same old story of getting out of shape in December, which can cause immense pain in early January, when a lot of repair work needs to be done again.

If you speak to anyone who trains throughout December for the first time, ask them was it worth it?
You will find they have never felt better, they actually fit their clothes Christmas time, and have a bit of what they fancy in food and drink terms as much as anyone else, but find they enjoy it more because they have put a lot of work in already and deserve their treats!

The feedback I get is that they hit January running and usually outperform in a month that most people are playing catch up, and struggling just to catch their breath.

They usually start the new year far more optimistic and their goals are much higher than ever before!!!

So whatever choices you make in December, after all it’s a free country, consider the two options and which outcome work for you best!

Friday, 29th November

Part two of the list we started yesterday

m. Exercise helps enormously with depression, which is a huge problem in society but rarely people admit. People need help and support and exercise and eating healthy plays a significant role in treatment now, after all nobody wants to be on pills all their life, and they want an escape route from this common condition if possible.

n. Exercise gives your social life a boost. When you workout or play sports, you tend to do it with other people, and you sometimes meet like-minded people that enhance your social experience.

o. Exercise proves that females are at least as fit as men, and in my personal experience of training a lot of individuals, most women I train now train harder than men-fact!

p. Exercise before the age of 20, along with good healthy eating limits the number of fat cells you can produce. This is biological fact and this is why exercising when you are younger determines a lot of conditions for your future. No exercise and fatty/sugary foods in your teens is a ticking time bomb that is already costing the NHS billions!

q. Exercises changes lives! Every single one of the transformations I have taken individuals through has changed them mentally and physically and all for the better! Every area of their lives improves!

r. Exercise gets you pregnant! I have trained women in the past who were told by their doctor in the past that they couldn’t/or were unlikely to get pregnant due to their weight and health, but once they made big changes to their lifestyle and health, quite often they fell pregnant straight away!

s. Exercise helps you help others. When you get healthier and feel much stronger and fitter, you tend to stop relying on others and want to help others achieve things in their life they may not have thought possible.

t. Exercise saves lives. Anyone who cant have an operation because they are too overweight will testify to this. Once the doctor tells you THAT YOU MUST LOSE WEIGHT just to have an operation, you take note and you get it done. Exercise benefits your health in all sorts of life-enhancing ways.

u. If you’re a parent, exercising will inspire your kids get healthy too. Sit on the settee, eat rubbish and be negative all the time and they will follow whatever you do. Setting a great example works.

v. Exercise helps you sleep better research shows in every study. Those who exercise will know this. There are 120 sleep disorders, 80 are linked to alcohol.

w. Exercise and weight bearing exercise gives you stronger bones and protects you into old age. Weight training/body weight exercises are the number one recommendation.

x. Exercise gives you natural highs! You don’t need drugs, just try to progress your programme so that your intensity
of exercise goes up, and then you will get the natural highs that many of you get anyway most days when you exercise.

y. Exercise teaches you discipline. The regime of eating healthy and working out regularly teaches you proper routines, and keeping them up can be a challenge. It’s the success of keeping it up that teaches you discipline that transcends into every area of your life.

z. Exercise and healthy eating gets you into shape without the aid of drugs or anything unnatural like weight loss powders which provide long term misery, which teaches you self-respect and respect for others. You know that this process can be very challenging, and overcoming all the self-doubts is hugely rewarding, this process is one of the most important of all.

Tuesday, 26th November

A nice story in the paper today about great rugby All black captain, Richie McCaw, was selected for under 19 trials and how his father in Christmas 1998, asked him if he wanted to become a full All black when he was older.

Naturally he said yes like all New Zealanders.

Then his father asked him if he wanted to become a “great all black”? And if he did to write it down on a napkin. McCaw was modest and nodded but just wrote G. A. B. on the napkin. He then took the napkin to his own notice board and hung it there to remind him. It meant little or nothing to anyone else who passed the board, but meant everything to him.

His father set him a target of 2004, but reached this lofty goal in 2001, ironically against Ireland winning 40-29, and last Sunday those teams shared one of the best ever games last Sunday, winning right at the death 24-22, and their win was largely down to the captaincy and calming influence under extreme pressure of McCaw, who has pretty much seen everything in his long career.

McCaw credits that napkin story with keeping his focus when it could have wavered. It was a big lesson in setting a goal and sticking to it, and actually WRITING THOSE GOALS DOWN.

Goals have been proven in studies at Harvard University to be 80% more achievable IF THEY ARE WRITTEN DOWN.

They found that they had students who would talk about their future goals by just talking about them, would in reality have only a 20% chance of being successful in those goals.

The ones in the studies who actually wrote the goals down, and in detail, were found to have an incredible 80% likelihood of achieving those goals when they left college.

When I ask everyone what they want to achieve from their programme, lots of people say “I want to lose weight”, “I want to get fitter” etc, but if you actually write your goals down in detail and what they mean to you, its only then they become much more real, attainable and then you can actually develop a step by step process to achieve them.

If you take the first step right now and write down what you really want, then you will then be able to develop a detailed plan with a TIME LIMIT and schedule it into your lifestyle. The time limit part is vital and means you actually get it done full stop!

More on this tomorrow with examples of successes.

Thursday, 21st November

So if you have had a good week so far, you need to be concentrating on having a big end to the week.

The training you don’t really feel like doing on a Monday will feel possible on a Thursday or Friday.

Your performance should be good if you’re attitude is up for it.

How about a time trial for a mile on the treadmill? What about 2500 metres on the rower? How about spinning for longer on the bikes and use a really fast gear, instead of the easiest gear?!!

I used to do this myself every week on a Friday evening at the same time, and gradually my time would come down. The result after around 2 months of doing something like this can be quite dramatic.

Also, it doesn’t really seem like your training for the sake of it and takes away the boredom factor.

If you are weight training for instance, start keeping some kind of journal to record your sets and weight lifted. This can be a very powerful tool, and lift your performance for good as you wont want to go back at all.

Putting a little bit of pressure on yourself to make small improvements every week is a good thing, and again over a 6-8 week period, you are likely to have made sizeable gains.

How about your running? Instead of keeping to easier, flat roads, how about targeting some hilly terrain for a change and this can work very well on a treadmill too.

How about all those medicine ball/wall ball exercises you see me giving everyone else but perhaps you have ducked and dived on for a while? They do work in a big way so all depends if you want the results or not!

How about getting outside and getting stuck into the fresh air work outside? It may be cold at first, but your lungs will soon get used to it, and most people get to crave it after a while. Those of you who work inside all day should DEFINITELY get outside, do some speed and agility work, hit the prowler, work with the sledge, hit some steps or flip some tyres for a change (a big one people avoid!).

It’s nearly the end of the week and the easiest time to make it happen!