Posted on

Tuesday, 6th May

Determining your best workout should be thought of in terms of what does it cost your body in energy terms. This is the real way that great things are going to happen for your body.

A lot of men tend to measure their workouts on how good it makes them look, or think it makes them look. For many men for example, they tend to make Friday night “chest and arms” night because the chance are that they are going out later and want to look their “best pumped up”!

We like to think that we have changed that thinking completely.

Many women think that as long as they hit the treadmill and spend endless hours on the bike, that the fat will be “stripped away” and they will get their “beach body” far quicker this way.

Weights many females think are for the “bulky look” and they really don’t need them, in fact many females never hit the weight room. It should be obvious by now that we train with huge variety, and mixing strength training up with everything else is the way to go.

Many of our women are stronger than many men in certain tests, and all of those women are getting leaner, would certainly never be classed as “bulky” and are reaching new standards of fitness on a weekly basis.

Energy cost of workouts are a good way to think about your efforts, and will have a direction relation to lowering your body fat, getting you leaner and sending your fitness levels through the roof!

The tyres, the prowler, sledgehammer work with little rest in between, has a lot more energy cost than doing curls and leg extensions with very light weights for example.

It may be nice doing a couple of light weights exercises, and chatting on the bike for half hour at low intensity, but your time in the gym should be as productive as possible. Your weight sessions should be high on energy cost too, just like the ones I keep showing all of you all the time, and all of you are doing very well on them.

Use your gym time wisely, and you will always deliver far more impressive results.

Twitt
Posted on

Monday, 5th May

Anyone who has gone fishing for crabs could probably never guess that this story could be related to getting into great shape, but here goes!

When fishermen go out trapping crabs, they bring them back to shore, and put them all in a big bucket of water.

All the crabs surprisingly stay in the bucket even though they could climb out as there is usually no top on the bucket.

The crabs are usually then left in an open bucket all night.

If one crab tries to get out of the bucket, the other crabs would pull him back down, and if he kept trying then the other crabs would pull one of his legs off so he would be made to stay in the bucket.

You would think that the other crabs once they see that one of the crabs can get out, they would want to get out too, but this is not the case. They were more interested in keeping everyone in the bucket.

This story relates very closely to human nature.

When anyone is doing something to improve themselves like exercising or eating healthy, there will always be those who want to drag that person back down and stop from them being successful.

Think of the times you are out when people give you a hard time for not having a few drinks, or they give you a hard time for eating healthy or they want you to do anything else apart from train? There are people within your circle who won’t want you to succeed, and you have to break out of this.

If you are trying now to make a drastic change for the better in your life, then you are probably experiencing these scenarios right now. Just think that you are one of the crabs trying to get out the bucket, but some of your friends will do anything to keep you stuck in there just like them!

It’s important to surround yourself with people who are going to support you no matter what, this is a key element for being successful.

I have seen it many times, someone I am training is really keen to change their body, but someone in their immediate circle is intent on stopping them adopting the habits that are going to let them be successful.

It could be not supporting them eat healthy by continuously eat junk in front of them, it could be putting them off making their exercise sessions by constantly giving them other options and saying things like “missing workouts here and there won’t matter”, or a general lack of support or kind words, even when that person may be doing amazing things! This lack of support WILL drag you down.

Ask which people are supporting you, and which ones are sucking the life and motivation out of you?

So you have to decide which one you are, the one trying to change everything and escape mediocrity or the one who really wants to stay with the rest of the crabs as the fisherman story goes!

Be conscious about the time you spend with negative people, if those people are giving you constant negative thoughts, then see these people as poison to your chances of being successful.

Surround yourself with as many positive supportive people as possible, it will make all the difference.

Twitt
Posted on

Monday, 28th April

For most of you who join our gym initially, the way we do things is 99.9% different to anywhere else you have been, to treat people as individuals is the only thing we know and it works best. We don’t do classes, we don’t give you a sheet to follow that has been photocopied hundreds of times, that never changes and you get bored of, and was never designed for you in the first place.

Everyone has a purpose, and has a unique capability of achieving it.

For many of you, you have begun lifting things you never thought possible, and running and moving in all sorts of different ways.

When you saw what went on outside of our place, and heard what went on inside, you maybe really wanted to try it, but never thought that you could possibly do it, or you didn’t want to be embarrassed when you eventually tried it.

That sense of confidence that many of you now possess cannot be bought, and the sense of a swagger in your step only comes from overcoming challenges that you thought impossible.

The best part about it all is that it doesn’t stop there, it continues and continues and never stops.

Overcoming and changing your body so much opens doors that you never thought existed.

You find that once you hit certain levels that you see others reaching, you not only want to go on and achieve much more, but you become an inspiration to others too.

Your family will view you as much more of an athlete and respect your achievements, you will go on to inspire others at the gym too who are only just starting out on their journey, and you will begin to set new horizons for yourself in all areas of achievement in your life.

Twitt
Posted on

Sunday 27th April

Best bit of advice I ever had was to make sure you get some sort of exercise in on the Sunday morning after a few drinks the night before.

If you don’t, you are likely to feel like rubbish all day on Sunday, and you don’t really recover until the Wednesday as the booze and excess food will sit on your stomach for a couple of days.

You may try to train it off on a Monday but in all likelihood you will still be feeling rough, be able to put in only a light session if at all, because you will want to hit the sack early after your first day back in work as your tiredness will hit a peak!

Then Tuesday you will want to put a big session in, you still feel exhausted but you do your best, and then have an early night, so it’s Wednesday before you are actually 100% again!

Starting your week mid-way through is always going to put you on the backfoot, so this morning is an ideal time to try and make up for a Saturday of excess. Monday then can be a great productive session and you are all set up to get a quality week’s training in!

Sunday should be your version of going to church for your body, feeling much better immediately and getting all the rubbish out of it.

Twitt
Posted on

Saturday, 26th April

When any individual starts training with us, it’s vital we collect the evidence of their current physical condition, their past medical problems, their current mental strength and willingness to change, and their current ability to move forward through a series of tests that we carry out on everyone no matter who they are.

It’s at this stage that EVERYONE goes on their own different path with us, and responds in all sorts of different ways.

I find that everyone will respond at a DIFFERENT rate, sometimes you have a super fast responder to exercise, sometimes you have someone who finds most things a little more difficult but the crucial and key thing I find is you HAVE to spend time with them finding this out.

You need to spend time with them finding out the best way to overcome any obstacles, and spend time with them adjusting their programme all the way making sure they always get a first class measurement at the end of the month.

Show urgency with everyone’s training and nutrition, and I find we always get a positive response in terms of an individual’s effort. The results from these efforts always speak for themselves in terms of the evidence we are able to gather from their workouts and their eating habits.

Much lower body fat, healthy blood pressure ranges, a strong heart, much better waist and hip measurements, healthier stronger bone density, much great movement ability, a much stronger back, much better balance and coordination are all pieces of the hard evidence we constantly collect.

Put all of this together with far greater mental strength, and you will find that anyone is capable of achieving a dramatic and life changing transformation no matter who they are.

Twitt