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Thursday, 10th October

There’s a nice little story in the paper about the famous runner and Olympic champion Mo Farah, in the press today talking about his upcoming autobiography.

He talks about his early career and all of his ups and downs, and his long journey from Somalia to where he is now.

The critical moment was way back in 2005, when he was advised to attend a Kenyan training camp. This changed his life in many ways, but brought the professionalism in that was required to take him to being a world champion.

When he first arrived, he expected to go to the cinema or go out dancing. He looked at his watch and it was only 830am, yet all the Kenyan athletes went to bed! He used to drink 6 to 7 cups of tea a day, the Kenyans only drunk water, and when he followed this advice, his performances started improving quickly! He also started eating only simple whole foods, and this was a major change and revelation for him.

Then at 6am, everyone got up to loud church music, and he was required to do a 7am really hard run which half killed him!

Then they would return for food, then the Kenyans would sleep in the afternoon, then hit another big run at 5pm, eat throughout the day and then go to bed at 830am, day in day out without fail!!

This was their true secret of success.

While I could never ask anyone I train to follow such an extreme training regime, there are similarities in what I ask people to do.

I always say that regular, high quality training sessions are the way to go.

I always recommend getting to bed early, especially in the week, and putting great value on proper rest. My clients who do this are my best performers and usually look incredibly well!

I recommend much plainer, whole foods, which nourish the body very well and help you perform extremely well!

I recommend plenty of water, up to 3 cups of tea or coffee can be fine, but you dehydrate after that so this downgrades performance.

The Mo Farah story is a great learning experience for all of us!

Twitt
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Monday, 7th October

Formulating your workout plan should have began yesterday, and you should be approaching this Monday with great enthusiasm, hitting your Monday hard and setting yourself up very nicely for the week!

Planning a week of workouts is imperative, rather than making it up as you go along and ending up missing workouts often.

You have 168 hours a week to deal with to make at least 3 workouts a week happen.

Take 37 hours a week off for an average working week and you are down to 121 hours.

Let’s say you have 8 hours a night sleep, and you need to subtract another 56 hours a week off.

So we are now down to 65 hours a week left to fit in a minimum of 3 workouts.

A lot of individuals I train have 1,2, 3, 4 even 5 children, so that takes a lot of time up.

Many I train work over 37 hours a week, those in business and those who have high responsibility jobs.

The funny thing is that those who have the kids AND the business or high pressure jobs, are exactly the ones who never miss a workout!! THEY ARE ACUTELY AWARE that they need to perform at their best, they need greater energy levels than most, and the self-confidence and self-esteem that being in shape brings, gives them so much in whatever they do in life, and being in shape goes hand in hand with being who they are, how they perform and the results and happiness they now have in their lives!

So if we say on average we have a maximum of 65 hours to do 3 workouts a week, and bear in mind we can do an awful lot in just 30 minutes, then committing one and a half hours to keep yourself in shape really isn’t a lot at all!

All depends where your priorities are, are you going to get in shape now and keep it up for life, or perhaps you have had a break from training because you haven’t got time, but you can see from this illustration that you DEFINITELY CAN fit it in, all you have to do is manage your time A LOT BETTER and you will very soon be enjoying the vast benefits that exercising brings!!

Twitt
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Wednesday, 2nd October

The courage to commit to an exercise programme can never be underestimated.

The courage to walk through that gym door, or make that first telephone call setting up your first appointment is always going to be painful.

The first session is a worry to start with, but with the right guidance you can develop quickly.

I start every individual slowly and steadily, no matter how fit that person is to begin with. It’s a case of building things up at a steady level and not trying to run before you can walk. Doing it any other way, or overworking someone is downright irresponsible and dangerous!

Everyone has worries, doubts, negative thoughts going through their minds before they start an exercise programme, but the very best way to get rid of all those emotions is to actually go through with the sessions, and begin your journey to developing into a much healthier, fitter and more active version of perhaps the current version of you.

Everyone has moments of indecision, but its in those moments that your destiny is shaped. Those crucial decisions will dictate if you improve, how quick you improve and how enjoyable the process becomes.

For example, with the colder, darker, wetter nights to come, the easiest thing in the world to do is sit at home, say its too cold and wet to go training, and sit on the settee all night.

This is why I tell people all the time that those sessions are the most important to make. If you get to the gym, then at least you know you are going to do something highly positive at the time. If you stay in the house, then you will be doing absolutely nothing to improve your health and wellbeing.

In life, we have big decisions to make every day, the decision to get healthier starts right now with you, and you should be in control of how to do it. Manage your time better and schedule in your sessions, making time for yourself has never been more important!

Twitt
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Last friday in September

One of the most common questions is how to reduce an individual’s stomach area.
The misconception is that you can reduce one area of your body with a couple of exercises.

There is no way you can do this without reducing your overall body fat. You cannot have a lean tight stomach with your abs showing, without your arms being lean and tight too, without your back being defined, without your legs looking leaner etc etc.

Your body fat as a whole is the key element in you looking fit and lean. I have seen many, many people train really hard, but never eat well and consume a diet high in sugar and saturated fat.

Their goal in having an impressive stomach area will never be reached until they change their diet and start eating more whole foods, more natural foods full stop, and cut out the processed foods full of sugar, saturated fat and salt.

Eating sugary breakfasts like crunchy nut corn flakes will never make you lean, it will only put on body fat!

Having chocolate and crisps for lunch will only bulk you out in the wrong way!

Not paying attention to your evening meal and eating anything you want will make your stomach and hips expand only!

You can train as hard as you want, but until you start paying attention to your diet, your goal of leaning out in the stomach area is never going to happen!

Your taste buds will take a few weeks to change maybe, some people get into it quicker than others, but I guarantee you the results will be definitely worth it!

What’s more, your taste for sugary products will wane so much that you want to eat all those sugary snacks and fatty meals in the future.

This is all part of the new you and will last a lifetime if you put your mind to it!

Twitt