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Thursday, 14th June

Salt is very much in the news today, as the newspapers list quite a lot of well-known high street restaurants who make meals that are very overloaded with salt, which is many times your daily recommended amount!

These are often child friendly restaurants that are advertising themselves as “freshly made”, cooked on premises etc, when the reality is that the salt added to the food often outdoes any of the benefits of the vegetables etc.

Salt is one of the biggest contributors to blood pressure problems, as well as links to heart disease and certain other illnesses.

The reasons why a lot of these restaurants use so much salt is to preserve the food (make it last longer) and make it taste that much nicer again. This is playing right in the hands of children’s food as kids always go by taste first, and never of course worry about the nutritional content, not even on their list of concerns!

So naturally, if there’s far too much salt in the kids food, then the adult meal is likely to be over the top on salt too. This compromises the adult’s health and if done on a regular basis, will lead to ill health at some stage in the future.

Another bad situation developing from this is that kids and adults soon become accustomed to salt-laden food, and this soon becomes the benchmark of taste for future meals out and more importantly at home.

If you’re trying to make healthy snacks and foods for the kids, they will soon complain that the food doesn’t taste anything like when they “go out for food”, and your chances of keeping your child on a healthy diet go quickly downhill.

When your child  wants to go out and eat in these places every day, you know have a problem.

Another serious problem is the likes of Harvester, Nando’s etc who are peddling the myth that they serve healthy food, are getting away with it.

 They say “eat fresh” and “come to us”, when the reality is eat sort of fresh (sometimes), and we will make you much more unhealthy than if you made your own meal from scratch in the house!!

This is why its better to eat out once a week max and choose carefully from the menu, avoiding unnecessary sauces and other cooking methods designed to make your food taste nicer, but really disguises a cheap and poor product in the first place!

Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday, 12th June 2012

Nine days off the longest day of the year already, and to most people, we haven’t had much of a summer!

The cooler weather conditions can have their benefits though.

How many times have you NOT trained this time of year due it being too hot?

How many times have you not trained due to things being organised last minute just  because the weather was too nice to train in, and “more important” things like barbecues etc took precedent!

The cooler weather conditions are my ideal training conditions, my heart rate takes longer to get up to higher levels (which is a good thing), i am never in danger of over-heating from it being too hot, therefore my performance is likely to be high, and its quite pleasant when you are exercising and there is a lovely breeze around the place!

The wetter weather like we have been having is far less pleasant, but sometimes theres nothing better than running in the wetter conditions to cool us down. The wetter weather also gives more opportunity for gym workouts, sometimes being the much more pleasant and productive option for many of us. Home workouts again will work big time for you, use the weather to work FOR you instead of against you!!!

If you realise that in the UK, its likely to be wet or cool at least nine months of the year, then everything will be in a proper context and you will be more content with your training conditions!

Personally, i have had a great week of training already, helping people set new highs in their training, i have experienced far less excuses from everyone and everything is being very productive indeed!

Its a tuesday and im already feeling hugely energised so use it to your advantage too!!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Monday, 11th June 2012

Plyometrics are a great way of training, but all depending on your goals.

Plyometrics involve jumping of all kinds, and the spring you have in your muscles and joints is important for health and overall performance.

Children in particular love plyometrics, and will often benefit from jumping exercises in their programme. This will only add to their development and move them on several levels, and allow them to perform in sports far better, increasing their performance significantly!

Then you have individuals who practice plyometrics in their sports training.

Professional athletes in particular become very good with their plyometric training, which produce increases in dynamic performance, ability to jump, become faster, stronger and more resilient to injury.

The problem starts when plyometrics are applied to all sorts of people, no matter if they have issues with their joints, or a bad knee, or a bad back or ankles, or all of these!

I have heard many horror stories with fiftysomethings being made to jump off boxes of different heights, causing massive stress on their back and knees, and ending up needing hospital treatment because of it!

What about jumping up and down with weights in your arms, they can be destructive for your joints if you have a weakness of any kind. Again, i am talking about those with a prior condition or weakness to this type of training.

The bottom line is to be careful with your training, try and avoid high stress to the joints movements, keep it impact free when possible and this will make sure you train for the rest of your life with little or no injury.

Trainers who preach plyometrics for everyone can be dangerous individuals, who can cause significant harm and injury to unsuspecting trainees. A little knowledge in the wrong hands can be highly dangerous!

Twitt
Posted on

Friday, 8th June

I’m excited about the progress everyone i train has made this week. Almost without exception, there have been superior performances across the board.

If you get individuals to train safely, and with good intensity, then of course you will achieve big things.

I always love non-impact exercises too. Anything that doesn’t put great stress on your joints is going to be a huge positive for anyone i train, and means even if they are just 18 years old, their knees, hips and back should be in good shape when they get to 70 years old! Depending if they keep their training up of course!

Variation remains pretty close to the top of your list of training requirements in my research.

The days of working on one machine for an entire training session, or even an entire week is unacceptable in my book, in terms of pure boredom and pure results.

I met a girl this week who trained in a local gym and all she did every session was the stepping machine, and wouldnt come off until she reached 100o calories!!! Surely this form of training vanished in the 80’s and 90’s, but apparently not according to what she said!! This timewarp had to stop and be put into the history books for good!!

I’m happy to say that she’s now on a far more productive course, and spending her energy far more wisely and more importantly, efficiently!!

In fact, after taking over my father’s gym, i have got rid of all the stepper’s and other pieces of equipment that i don’t regard as necessary anymore, especially when compared with much more cutting edge training methods, that will bring you treble theesults in around a third of the time.

So this why i’m so excited at the end of the week, a great set of results for people and most importantly, will last them a lifetime as long as they commit to be active and eat well.

Twitt
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Thursday, 7th June

Please let’s not hear that excuse about it being too “wet” and damp to exercise, because if you are committed to truly exceptional results, then you know deep down that this is not going to wash when it comes to questioning why you are not achieving your goals.

This is exactly when variety of exercise comes into it, to cut out these so called excuses so you’re not caught up worrying about what the weather is doing all the time.

If it is torrential rain outside, and you don’t fancy going for a run or cycle, or even a walk, then you should have the option of working out inside.

A simple circuit of the following would be very valuable, straight to the point and cut out your excuses not to exercise.

Press ups-10

Arm dips on chair-10

Sitting up and down on a chair-10

Sit ups-10

Alternate squat thrusts-20

Nobody can seriously tell me that five exercises are impossible to do!

Nobody can tell me that ten minutes is too hard “to fit in to your busy lifestyle”!

Most people will make up excuses not do any exercise, please take yourself out of that large group of the general population, or you will become one of the people in this country (the majority in fact) who are classed as overweight and obese.

It makes me laugh when I hear of all the sometimes complicated exercise programmes you hear of in magazines, which are adopted with limited success by the general public.

For most individuals who are just interested in getting fitter and healthier, a simple programme that takes 10-20 minutes three times a week can work surprisingly well.

In fact, I have seen people start off on a programme just like this and go on to achieve great things, such as take part in triathlons, race the London Marathon, go on to ultra-endurance challenges, etc etc.

The starting point can be as small as you want, but the road you take after that is entirely up to you as long as you show commitment and consistency, that’s all it takes!

Twitt