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

Monday, 21st April

Some words that belong in the 70’s and 80’s but still prevail today are the words “toning”, “shaping” and “lengthening” your muscles to get a “sleek” look with your body.

Your muscles have a genetically pre-determined shape, so these adverts you see trying to sell you some kind of “lengthen your muscles in a sleek way in a ridiculously short period of time” and make your muscles “long and lean just like a dancers” are guilty not only of false advertising, they are SCIENTIFICALLY WRONG!

Each of you will end up with a different shape, the best shape your body can be, your muscles will look better if you use strength training, and your body fat will reduce considerably if you eat a lot better too. This is what gives you “a great look” and will make you look “sleek”.

Getting into a healthy range of body fat will make sure you look your best.

A lot of times I have measured several women in the same excellent range of body fat, but each of them have had a different shape but all looked great and they felt amazing.

By the way, they do look lean, they are NEVER bulky and look athletic and very feminine always.

The propaganda you often get from people promising longer, leaner muscles for your body don’t understand your body at all, and have definitely never studied it. How many times have you heard that pilates and yoga will give you that long, slender look and using WEIGHTS will just make you bulky?

This statement is one of the greatest LIES you will hear about exercise, this statement is always from people who don’t know a thing about exercise science, who have never trained a lot of people and shouldn’t comment on matters they have no real experience on. Pilates and yoga WILL be good for your body, but please don’t try to lie to me that weights are going to make you bulky and be a negative in some way!!!!

If you train your muscle, saying it’s going to become long and lean is like saying all of our workouts are going to make you several inches taller, absolutely impossible, your muscles cannot respond that way.

Men and women are guilty of trying to look like someone they never will. Getting a grip of reality is vital when you start an exercise programme, and choosing the best way to accomplish your goals always involves not only strength training, but our speed and agility work, balance and coordination work too.

This is really the way to look incredible, to perform at your best in training AND daily life, and feel fantastic on the inside and outside! Your muscles and shape are unique to you and you only, so celebrate the way your body looks.

Twitt
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