Posted on

Wednesday, 9th November

A popular request i get a lot of the time is from 14 year old rugby players who want to “bulk up” for rugby.

First of all, 14 is a great age and the recommended earliest age for exercise.

Exercise in terms of weight training is not to be done at 100% flat out capacity with maximum intensity, weight training should be moderate at this age because your bones are still growing. You should start off light under supervision and add weight when the previous weight becomes really easy.

If you’re at a gym, a good programme to start off would be;

one set of everything first week, monday wednesday and friday

two sets of everything second week, same days

three sets of everything in the third week

8 repetitions per exercise and use a weight that tests you over the last couple of reps, but doesnt strain you too much, this is important to follow, NO STRAINING!!!

The exercises

Bench press

squat or leg press

upright rows

one arm dumbbell rowing

arm dips on bench

curls with dumbbells

Plank-aim for 10 seconds working up to 60 seconds over the next few weeks

Most people try to over-complicate things, and of course theres a million other exercises you can pluck out of any magazine, but for best results i would stick to those exercises over the first 4-6 weeks.

Take around one minute in between each set, you’re not there to sit around talking all day!

The first is all about conditioning your body to weight training, it can take a while and some pick it up quicker than others, and after all, you will have plenty of years ahead of you training, so theres no huge pressure to get it right in week one for example!!!

The other temptation is to want to copy others in the gym and want to put too much weight on, this is a big error and two things will happen, you will either get injured or get fed up with not being able to lift as much weight as others!!! This is a long term game and not a flash in the pan type of programme!!!

This is the first basic lesson on how to start off, if you start off properly you will be successful, if you don’t, its highly unlikely you will keep it up even in 3 months!!

More tomorrow!

Twitt
Posted on

Wednesday 2nd November

One of the biggest misconceptions about exercise is what you need to do, and what is considered enough!

There are a lot of people who dont do ANY exercise at all, and unfortunately never will, perhaps because they think that they “know better” somehow??!!

Then there’s the people who think that just walking is enough, they think that walking is the ultimate exercise, is the most enjoyable exercise and you would be a lunatic to do anything more than this!!! I agree that walking is a very good exercise indeed, but to say it covers all your body and health needs is at best misguided and to be frank, downright wrong!!!

Fitness is about so much more than having a walk, walking is part of it no doubt because its a great activity, but isn’t there so much more?!!!

Of course there is more and what about resistance training? Weight training of all kinds strengthens your joints, bones, tendons and ligaments, it tones your body and in particular muscle tone, it speeds up your metabolism because lean muscle tissue burns far more calories per 24 hours, for instance one pound of fat burns around 2 calories a day, one pound of lean muscle tissue can burn up to 50 calories a day.

Then there is walking as we have previously mentioned here and there are great walks all around us.

You can also take part in running on many of the great coastal paths around the county, and cycling gives you an opportunity to do the same routes, but a lot quicker and no strain on your joints! Swimming is a favourite for many and again doesn’t stress your joints and can become a serious part of an individual’s day, i know many whpo participate daily and absolutely love it.

Then there is stability, balance and endurance work which anyone who has ever trained with me, will know an awful lot about!!! This will solve any back trouble, hip weakness and most joints problems if done cautiously, and can apply to a pro athlete or an absolute beginner!!!

There are a million and one options so please don’t restrict yourself just to walking please!

Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday, 18th October

Warren Gatland admitted today he thought about cheating when it came to saturday’s disappointing loss, by faking an injury to one of the other props so Wales could achieve uncontested scrums. This would give a big advantage to wales, especially when it comes to the fact that they were already playing 14 versus fifteen, and the game would end up more evenly balanced, instead of being under constant pressure in the scrum!

For the sake of the spirit of the game, he didn’t resort to that but that are plenty of teams who would, without naming individual countries, but cheating has been a part of professional sport since the year dot!!

Drugs are the most well known form of cheating, and there are numerous sports such as athletics, cycling, american football, baseball etc that are rife with widespread drug taking unfortunately.

You may know yourself someone who takes drugs in order to get ahead in whatever field they are in. It could be recreationally taken steroids, it could ephedrine type products for sport, whatever it is, it comes down to one thing-CHEATING!!!

Performance enhancing drugs are not only illegal, but like the gatland comments, they are totally against the spirit of the game and sport in general.

Once you have resorted to them, you have given up your right to offer advice to others on performance, because you will not have played on a level playing field. You won’t know the hard work it takes to do it naturally, to suffer more, to recover more, to hit the sack earlier to recover, to have greater attention to detail in your food, to make every training session count etc etc.

To aspire to get to the top of any sport naturally is a very noble thing, and unfortunately becoming more and more difficult.

The good news is that it is possible to do it, as long as you make the use of the latest science and have a monumental work ethic.

 The other route is cheating, plain old fashioned cheating and that doesn’t impress anyone, and when you take the longer term health side effects into consideration, it can’t be worth it surely?!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Wednesday, October 12th

The issue of alcohol and training has never been emphasised more than with the current welsh rugby team.

When I spoke to sports coaches of all levels years ago, as well as sports stars of the 70’s, 80’s and 90’,  and suggested that sports teams needed to abstain from alcohol especially in times of sporting competition, I was ridiculed as being unreasonable and “the players had to have a drink for god sake”!!!

David Beckham at the time was abstaining and resulted in him being in his best shape and extending his career even after an horrendous injury.

It turns out years later that avoiding alcohol in tournament play and a while before that, is HAVING MASSIVE benefits.

Wales look fitter and sharper than anyone else.

They are more powerful than most teams and the last 20 minutes of their games is a strength for them now, instead of being a weakness like it used to be.

This will I believe give them an edge again for this Saturday and hopefully propel them to the final!

With your own training, you will surely see a massive difference when you abstain even for a couple of weeks?

Your body will get tighter, your energy levels will improve a lot, Sundays won’t be “hangover” day and you will feel far more lively, your performance will be hugely improved all week long, and your recovery will be far stronger in between sessions.

A big one is sleep.

Most people think that sleep is enhanced with alcohol but the opposite is in fact true, sleep can be destroyed through alcohol.

There are 120 sleep disorders and 80 are to do with alcohol, a mind blowing statistic so if you are having problems with sleep, this may be a good place to start?!!!!!

If you want maximum performance and want to look your best, the alcohol has to go. It’s a free country so your choice!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday 11th October

Obstacles to your year end targets for your health and fitness are often many, some you can something about, some you can’t.

In the can’t category are illnesses and injuries, both often fall at exactly the wrong time just when you have started getting a run of form in usually!! These happen from time to time and we just have to ride them out, resting completely in most cases but we know we will come back from them.

Then there’s unavoidable family issues that have to be sorted before you continue, but even here if you get up early enough in a day, of course you can still get some exercise in. Stress comes to all of us, and exercise will often be the best way of helping with that stress, and not alcohol or excess food as some do.

Some things you can do a lot about are missed workouts or bad time management. “Something came up” or “i had to nip into town” or “it was too cold, too wet or too hot” are not excuses that are going to cut it with anyone, and are exactly that-excuses!!!!

Your level of desire has more to do with being in shape, and this is how people who run into illness or injury usually come back very strong after it. They miss feeling fit and energetic, they miss being in shape and feeling their body a lot tighter, so they will usually do anything just to get back working out hard again.

If your level of desire is low and you simply think by joining a gym, you are somehow going to get in shape with no real plan, then you’re wasting your time.

The bottom line is that anything can be overcome and these seemingly impossible circumstances should be always seen as challenges and not insurmountable!!! Life will never be easy all the time, or even some of the time. Expect stress and a stress on your time too, just make sure you plan your workouts into your schedule, instead of finding ways not to do them!!!

Twitt