Posted on

Saturday, 19th April

Bumped into three individuals yesterday.

One has had two heart attacks by the time he was 35, now had a child and was unable to play with his child for any length of time because he would get out of breath. His partner confirmed this to be true.

The next has a severe bad back, and couldn’t stand for any length of time. She was a good sportswoman in her time, she is now 42. She couldn’t go anywhere anymore because of the embarrassment of not being able to walk far, and always needing to sit down. She had trouble keeping up with her kids and was depressed about her condition.

The third was 32 years of age, been a big drinker with the medals to prove it, and was suffering from very high blood pressure. He wouldn’t talk to anyone about it because he felt embarrassed, because his sporting past was so good, and he didn’t want his employer and his friends to find out about it.

They all asked for help due to their various ultimately unsuccessful ways of trying to solve these problems. All of these people could be classed a relatively young and in the prime of their lives.

They explained that they had been to gyms before, but the recurring theme of being shown around machines once, then they were left to their own devices. Their “programme” consisted of treadmill, bike, and rower IF they could do it.

They felt alone, and soon the feeling of hopelessness flooded their minds again, and led to them quitting their very limited “programme” almost before it started.

The big question has to be asked, all of these examples have been badly let down before and forgotten about in the “system”.

Their progress HAS NOT been followed up, their needs haven’t been considered, and proper care was not taken.

One of the most common questions we get is “do you look after us all of the time, EVEN after the first session?!! All of you who train with us now know we do of course we do. New members still ask us that question and we still have to keep giving the same answer of YES until they find out that we do ALL of the time. Yes we do measure all the time too, with several tests every month no matter what.

This will always make us the complete opposite of any other gym.

I like to answer it another way too, we like to DEVELOP everyone because you don’t really know how everyone will react to exercise, and ALL of you will improve and reach new standards and new highs and physical development, balance, coordination and mental concentration, plus significantly improving any health worries.

All of those three examples at the start can be helped enormously and their lives can be turned around, but a lot of care and attention must go into them first.

Twitt
Posted on

Thursday, 17th April

The results we keep having aren’t a coincidence, and it’s all our members feedback and reaction to our programmes that has led to it. We try to learn every single session, every single day and how and why everyone reacts differently to our huge variety of workouts now.

They are themselves a result of years of experience of the people we train giving us the feedback we need to tweak things and force a programme through even when the going gets tough.

Number one rule is to be cautious with everyone you train.

Push them only gradually in terms of intensity, and make sure you think that they are ready and capable of the next stage up.

Then always ask the person you train the next day how they feel.

If they can feel the workout the next day, then that’s good and if they enjoyed the workout then that’s even better.

Exercise sessions should be a small part of the big plan and where we want to be in one month’s time. Then it’s time to re-assess whether what we are doing is working or not, and this is why we always like to back it up with testing right across the board as you all know by now.

If your results are good, lets develop it some more and figure how we can make the results outstanding.

If your results are disappointing, let’s scrutinize what went wrong and change it around right then and there!
This system seems to be working very well and thanks for all of your continuing feedback!

Twitt
Posted on

Monday, 14th April

Monday morning should always give you fresh opportunity to improve, to move better and to renew your body after some of the excesses of the weekend, and face the weekend with fresh optimism and momentum.

There is a big chance of you improving on a Monday if you are regular exerciser, because a good programme will demand fresh progress out of you regularly.

Your body is perfectly able to improve and much more resilient than you think.

Certain conditions have to happen though to enable you to take fresh opportunities, and set yourself up for success.
You have to eat well 80% of the time to allow your body to be energized for your workouts, and to recover from them much more quickly.

You have to be on a progressive progamme that encourages you to take new challenges on. Working with someone who has a similar ability to you is always positive, and you know im going to do my best to get everything out of you anyway.

Getting everyone to move in different ways that are more beneficial can take some time but is always worth it.

Once you do this, no matter what the individual age is, the results always come faster and the person you are training can achieve much more sustainable results.

Everyone needs to “re-awaken” their body and remind themselves of how they used to move when they were at their very peak in life. Not only that, with the right type of training you are very likely to move even better, and with much more strength and speed!

Twitt
Posted on

Sunday, 13th April

We put so much emphasis on balance training because every single person needs it in their lives and I mean every day.

You need proper balance to even walk and run properly, you need it to perform every physical task, from carrying shopping , making food, doing the washing, taking part in sports, just about everything.

Most of you carry things one side, your school bag, groceries out of the supermarket, lifting in your job or at home, playing golf is ALL one sided for example (that’s why I see so many hip and back problems at the gym), even in cooking you are often bending and moving from side to side reaching for different things, the facts are we live an unbalanced life in terms of most of our physical movements if you really think about your daily life.

Some of you know you have poor balance, some of you will be unlucky enough to find it out unfortunately when you may have a fall of some kind or feel really unsteady and this can cause all sorts of problems.

It’s a simple fact that everyone is being far less active than they used to be, and balance and development of balance is going to be a big casualty.

One lesson of PE every week is not going to help kids get the amount of balance they need. How the government got away with getting rid of the double lesson PE is a national disgrace?!!

What happens when the child leaves school? Studies show that there are far less people playing team sports than ever before.

Adults slip easily in a lifestyle of inactivity because of the pull of computers, tablets and media. It’s easier to get anything done online these days, and it takes effort to exercise so its not much of a choice for some people.

So balance you will all know by now is something we concentrate an awful lot on, right from the start and all the way through our programme. We want you to move fundamentally better and pain free for the rest of your life. Assessing your balance on a regular basis should be an absolute priority for you.

Twitt
Posted on

Thursday, 10th April

After coming out of a long dark and wet winter, it’s vital you come into the spring as fresh as possible.

Many of you train 5-6 times a week with us, and this will usually mean that you are in great shape, that you have improved substantially over the winter and there’s a very strong chance that your fitness is at its all-time best.

Sometimes though we all hit a wall and we don’t know really what to do about it.

Our motivation goes down a bit, we can’t get a constantly good performance out of ourselves, and we wonder whether we can hit the heights anymore.

We may see people who we have been training with pull slightly ahead of us, and we may lose our enthusiasm to stay with them. This is a sign that you need to step back a bit.

A great answer to these problems is to train LESS for a while in terms of days.

Cutting back to three days a week for a month or so can make all the difference.

On your days off, try doing different things, enjoy yourself whatever you want to do, and you will give your mind a good rest from your programme.

The result from this type of approach is that you start enjoying your training much more again.

When you hit those three sessions a week, they tend to be of much higher quality again because you will realise again what you are really capable of.

You will start to make gains again and your body will thank you for getting off a schedule that you needed a break from.

I usually find that a month is usually enough, and then most of those who have cut back feel ready to step it up again and hit extra days again.

You can feel the rest has done them good, and most people go on to reach new personal highs in their next cycle of training.

Training in different cycles is very common with professional athletes, who find it an absolute must to peak for their events.

Training smart and taking days off when you need them will always keep you close to your peak, and keep you mentally fresh just when you need it.

Twitt