Tuesday, 17th June

Most people will support you in your efforts to become fitter and healthier. You will have likely have had great results, and with this comes great momentum and you will automatically be feeling much better.

Now and again though, you will have the odd person that tries to put you off and bring you down, usually down to their own unhappiness and lack of direction in their own life.

A rude comment here and there can ruin a good mood. Don’t take it personally though as rude comments usually say more about the person making them than you.

Here are some of the comments I hear off people I train that were said to them over the years.

“Why do you have to train so seriously”

“You are so lucky to be in good shape”

“I don’t know how you stay so disciplined”

“Why can’t you just enjoy life more and forget about your training”

“You have lost too much weight, isn’t it time now you gave it up?”

“If you train that hard all the time, you will end up looking like a man”

“It’s not healthy to eat well all the time!”

“I can’t wait for you to stop training and eating healthy so you’re “normal” again!”

“Once you stop training, all the muscle will turn to fat”!

“You lost all your boobs when you lost weight””

“Why don’t you just walk a dog like most people do”

“You are obsessed, all this exercising can’t be good!

“A week or two from the gym isn’t going to kill you!”

How many of these statements from so called friends or work colleagues are supportive and positive? None of them of course!!

If you let negative people get under your skin like this, then you won’t keep on being successful like you are.

Use negativity and harsh comments as the fuel that’s going to drive you on further and further to new heights! Appreciate the progress you have made, and think of the positivity that has brought into your life.

You aren’t striving to meet the standards that others set for you, it’s all about you creating your OWN standards, and never allowing others stop you achieving what you have set out to do!!

Eat and drink a bit of what you fancy now and again, it’s never going to hurt and keeps you mentally fresh, as long as most of what you eat and drink is good normally.

Have a day off here and there from the gym when you feel you need it, this will freshen you up at times too.

Only do this though when YOU feel like it, and never feel the need to conform to others’ expectations just to fit in!!

Expect the odd bit of negativity now and again, but always look at the person saying it in the first place and their motives, and appreciate where YOU are right now and how far you have come.

Thursday, 12th June

Once you decide that you will never be ruled by the weighing scales ever again, you are going to take several positive steps forward.

I have and still do track the progress of an amazing amount of people over the years, and I see time and again individuals dropping dress sizes, have to buy clothes they never thought they would fit in, and transforming themselves-WITHOUT TOO MUCH DIFFERENCE ON THE SCALES!!

Most people are confused by this.

This is because in the past you may have lost weight too quickly on a faddy diet usually without exercise, and your lean muscle tissue on your body will have gone down to below average. Then the weight piles back on (and much more) and you end up worse off than when you first started, both with your body and self-esteem.

Our programme encourages you to build lean muscle to become healthier, and if you are a female become smaller in all the important areas.

Numerous studies have shown time after time that those who use resistance training (weight training, bodyweight exercises etc) and eat healthily in sensible portions, ALWAYS lose the most body fat and KEEP IT OFF!

Not only that but you will end up so much fitter too. Your heart and lungs will be much, much stronger and you will feel amazingly well full stop, adding hugely to your quality of life.

Realise right now that the numbers on the weighing scales don’t matter!!!

What matters is your body fat, the inches you lose off your waist, how your clothes fit, how healthy you are and how you are able to perform during exercise.

Time to throw out your scales and approach your health in a much more scientific and meaningful way.

All weighing scales do is play mind games with you. Time to end them!

Monday, 9th June

One of the least productive ways of training you can do is concentrating on certain fancy exercises that never really give you a great return on your efforts. These are all over the internet and on certain magazines offering “new” exercises that REALLY are the “secret” to get into shape.

This advice usually confuses people even more, and can push you further and further away from getting into shape.

I have seen lots of people waste huge amounts of time doing some obscure cable movements, perform exercises that look technical but will give you very little development and not stimulate your body in the way you want it to.

Sometimes the best individuals to train are the ones who have never done any training before because they can learn the right way to start with.

Many people who have gone to different places before us, usually develop bad form in many exercises, and this poor performance of exercise can take some time to work out of them.

Performing movements the wrong way can also lead to overuse injuries and longer term pain problems. Sometimes you need to strip things back down to basics to move forward.

Most people get it wrong with exercise selection, the way they perform the exercise and men in particular try to use too much weight on that exercise, and perform it way too quickly just to get the weight up.

Women before they get to us usually have not challenged themselves with weights like their potential really allows. Once they do, their progress is always rapid and their body responds very positively indeed.

The best advice is to stick to a few powerful tried and tested exercises that have a history of delivering huge results.

They all take proper instruction to learn how to do them, and they will get you out of breath when you perform them. They are hard work but you need to perform them consistently and you will progress.

Keeping it simple, not getting distracted and following through on your plan is a guaranteed way to be successful.

Monday, 2nd June

This is bananas!!

Everybody and their mother knows by now that sugar and saturated fat is bad for us and can make you pile on the weight quickly. Sometimes it’s hard to visualise and accept just how bad they are for us. And worse of all, those little biscuits and cakes are so damn tasty, sometimes it’s just too hard to resist. How many times have we been in the office or an auntie’s house and someone has offered you a biscuit with your coffee. One or two won’t hurt right? I mean you can always work extra hard and burn them off in the gym tomorrow. Think again. Answer this quiz to get you
back down to earth with a bang!

How many bananas can you eat which are equivalent fat wise to 2 chocolate Hobnobs?

26 bananas!!!

Yes, at 0.3g fat, bananas are virtually fat free. Whereas the Hobnobs are 4g of fat each!

Those two little biscuits don’t seem so tasty now, best pass me the fruit bowl…

Eat to train.

Sunday, 1st June

Watching the person you are training in how they move is often far more important than what they have to say.

Anyone I train will know I often ask excessively “how they are feeling” and how was that movement they just did.

Did it work for them? Was there any pain? Was it too much?

When anyone I train doesn’t know me too well, they will often tend to agree with everything I say. Then when they get to know me, they will tend to answer me back and question a lot of what I say-THIS IS A GREAT SITUATION!

Take a movement that’s causing you pain for instance.

When I get someone doing a new movement for the first time, there is a small chance that this new movement may cause them some discomfort.

The person I am teaching may say they found it “fine” but may walk away rubbing their shoulder. This is a clear sign that everything wasn’t fine and that movement we tried was a problem for them.

This is when observation of the person I am training is vital. The person I am training for years will always tell me straight if something was causing them discomfort, and they know I would stop right there.

When new people come to the gym, I always explain how your body works and is supposed to move, and avoiding pain is key for us. Their past experiences of exercise though have often not included this philosophy.

PAIN DURING EXERCISE AND NOT BEING ABLE TO WALK AFTERWARDS ON A REGULAR BASIS IS WRONG, DAMAGING AND IS GOING TO CAUSE LONG TERM PROBLEMS FULL STOP.

There is said it!

This is why how people move often gives more tell-tale signs than what they say.

The potential for new members to make mistakes in their training early on is huge, this is why I need to spend so much time developing them and not leave them after just one session left to their own devices.