Posted on

Wednesday, 23rd January

As we were talking about training in a different way yesterday, this principle can be used in any form of training.

When i run with someone for example, i often mix running styles up just to get a better result for the person i am training.

Let’s say we are doing 30 yard sprints on a hill, then i wouldn’t just do forward running/sprinting. I would always put backward running in with this effort, and sometimes some sideways running. This creates a great workout giving total development and boosts progress substantially!!!

One thing on sideways running thats a common mistake, do not over extend your stride when running sideways. This can create hip trouble and over-extension problems if you do a lot of it. Keep your strides shorter and i find this always helps in our aim to keep our training totally injury-free.

You can do a lot of variation with leg training.

I totally believe in your normal leg presses, but after that, how does this sound to you?

Try walking lunges, and please remember in this exercise that your knee should never come more forward than your ankle, if it does this means you may be creating some long term problems for your knee. Exercise form is paramount and makes your workout experience far more rewarding.

Do the walking lunges, then straight after you do squats with a sandbag (i like to use this a lot) and make sure you keep the sandbag in an oblong position (this makes it harder), then also do side to side runs on the bosu balls with the sandbag in your arms. This is a great exercise for your core and your legs are also working intensely!

Your workouts are only limited by your imagination, but the way you put your exercises together will be very important, and definitely lessen your chance of injury.

More tomorrow.

Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday, 22nd January

With a bit of luck, you have got through your big workout yesterday to set the tone for the week, and maybe you are thinking how you can replicate that impressive start to the week.

Variety then should be your number one way to keep your standards high, your workouts fresh and therefore your progress high too!!!

This is why your workouts apart from weight training and the usual cardio should incorporate so much more!!!

If you have read this thing for a while, then you will know only too well that i love medicine ball work, bosu ball exercises, swiss ball work, and boxing workouts.

These exercises will work your body in a different way and often reach the hard to get areas that traditional exercise doesn’t seem to get near!!!

All of these different forms of exercise tend to hammer your core much more deeply than a more traditional workout. They are so successful that i consider these forms of training as my “traditional” form workout!!!

Once you have your traditional form of training change, then its at this point when exercising becomes “exciting again”, which is down to the variety AND effectiveness of your training, which in turn produces the big results that we are all after!!!

The best way to incorporate these types of training is to package various exercises into groups of 3.

For example, you could do medicine ball press ups, with alternate squat thrusts, and then finish it off with rope work we like to do at the gym all the time. Let me straight away that the group of three just mentioned may well be the hardest combination you could pick.

Of course, exercise selection depends entirely on your fitness ability and what you can handle.

It’s always better to start off cautiously and we will be discussing much more of this tomorrow!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Monday, 21st January

Assuming you are still building your programme up, one big thing you should be making sure of is the importace of a big workout on a monday to start off your week in the right way!!!

You may have had a workout before breakfast, lunch time or you hit your workout at tea time, whatever that time may be, you need to make sure you hit it with intensity, aiming to do a little bit better than last week, and setting yourself up for a very strong week.

When you do train hard, you will be more inspired to eat well and less likely to make poor choices.

When you train hard, you won’t want to waste any of that effort you have just put in.

This is why monday is SO important. How many times have you had a bad monday in terms of missing a workout, and then you went on to have a poor week in general? You may think that because you missed monday’s workout, then it will not be so bad to miss tuesday too, and by the time wednesday comes along, you may as well wait until next week!!!

Missing a week of training usually goes with softening up on your diet too. The attitude of “putting everything off until next week” is very common, and i hear anecdotal evidence of this all the time.

Being in shape is all about creating good momentum, getting into shape in the first place is very much about getting that momentum going strongly, and the only way you get momentum is getting a succession of good workouts together along with feeding yourself in a highly nutritious way.

The great news is that once this momentum does get going, it can be very hard to stop and results at this stage are much easier to get, almost without even thinking about it!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Friday, 18th January

Had to take the morning off today, most people in wales are affected this morning, and i don’t really fancy doing damage to the car as i did in heavy snow a couple of years ago, or spinning up and down hills!!!

Anyway, the options for workouts today may seem limited to you, but theres a lot more than you think.

Walking in the snow (when it stops) is very tough and can give you a great workout! Your legs will be working overtime to say the least, and you will be very glad you took time out of the house to get some fresh air, especially when you are likely to be spending more time in the house over the next couple of days!!!

The house option is always viable with a typical inside workout.

Think a simple group of 5-6 exercises.

Press ups

Arm dips

Plank

Sitting up and down on chair

Alternate squat thrusts

Do your best on these exercises for a total of 3 times. This will make a big difference and give you a top quality inside workout!

Another good reason to train is to straighten out your eating.

I have found time after time that people never eat as well if they are stuck in the house all day, AND when they don’t exercise!

You have these two potentially weight gain situations happening today, so a workout of any sort should be very welcome in your day!!

We hav zero or sub-zero temperatures the next two days, so the same principles will apply, if you want to stay in shape that is!!!

Some people love the snow, and there’s no reason to let it destroy your workouts and good eating though!!

Twitt
Posted on

Thursday, 17th January

I am overwhelmed by the good success stories this year.

Never before, and i have been doing this a lot of years, have i seen the enthusiasm for training and eating as i have seen this year, and this is truly uplifting!

I think the big plus is that before anyone starts training with me, they know right away that they are going to be on a programme that is sensible, is measured and makes us both accountable. The know there won’t be any eating short term fixes, there won’t be any workouts that will destroy their joints, there won’t be a lot of shouting and screaming, they won’t have to take painkillers just to recover from their sessions (believe it or not that goes on i’m told regularly), they won’t be on any shakes and bars, they won’t be starving all the time and the bottom line is that they WILL be using a LOT of common sense.

The good news stories include a lady who hasn’t exercised for 40 years, and despite life-threatening disease in the very recent past, she is moving better than ever and has followed her pre-christmas efforts to bring her waist down by 10 inches in just 4 months.

How about the the gentleman who is now playing three different sports? Squash, football and badminton, despite never played sport in school, just because all the other kids used to make fun of him because of his “man boobs”!! This very difficult and potentially destroying experience has now become overcome, and he is having a new lease of life………..at 42 years of age!!!!!!

I want to hear good human stories all the time, and its even better when you’re involved in them each and every day i can tell you!!!

January 17th may be the dark time of the year, but these inspirational stories will always bring a lot of light into people’s lives!!!!

Twitt