Posted on

Wednesday, 11th January

“None of us can change our yesterdays, but all of us can change our tomorrows”

Colin Powell, Former secretary of State of the US

Most people who never succeed with the health and fitness plans usually dwell too much on their past experiences.

If you go through life with something heavy weighing you down emotionally, you’re always going to struggle to move at the speed you’re really capable of.

If you hang on to the past too much, negativity and doubt will influence all of your future decisions.

Anger, resentment, hurt, fear, regret are all emotions that will tie you up to the past, instead of letting you achieve great things in the future.

Resentment is a particularly destructive one you often see in people.

Here a great quote from Nelson Mandela

“Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies”

If anyone had reason to resent people, surely it was him?!!

2012 is where we are right now and the best time to let go of your past mistakes and unfortunate experiences, and move forward to all the possibilities that a healthy lifestyle offers.

If you drunk too much alcohol in 2011 and past years, then training sensibly and eating well will encourage you to drink less, get your body on track and energy back in your life. You will be improving yourself and others who had to put up with your drinking in the past.

If you smoke too much now, and promise yourself that you will exercise SOME DAY once you give the fags up, then stop making excuses right now!! Exercising and eating well will give you every incentive to give this destructive habit up once and for all.

If you were really overweight in 2011 and years before maybe, use 2012 as the year you’re going to finally do it, and the great news is that im here to help you the whole way!!!

Whatever your situation, leave the past behind, start with a clean slate and lets see how much you can achieve in 2012!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Thursday, 5th January

The term “snacks” can be viewed in two different contexts.

Snacks have been given a bad rap, but this is usually because most people consider snack as mid-morning junk or mid-afternoon treats. If you imagine pasties, cakes, biscuits, sausage rolls, chocolate, bags of crisps as the right sort of choices for snacks, then you are going to be highly destructive to your body.

These types of foods not only pile the weight on, but they will create wild swings in your blood sugar, causing potential diabetes if consumed over a longer period of time, mood swings due to the sugar swings, and low energy levels again due to the sugar swings. A bad idea all round then!!!

I have included some snack ideas at the end of this piece, and all of them will be based on my philosophy of eating natural foods when possible.

After an initial period of a few days, you will appreciate the natural flavours of these foods, and not revert to the saturated fat, high sugar, high salt nature of the foods mentioned in the second paragraph.

I love these snacks also due their ability to sweeten your “plainer” foods. Try dates and figs, chop them up and use them as a sweetener for porridge for example.

Chop fruit up and make natural fruit salads from an assortment of fruit, with natural yoghurt as a topping. Nuts also make great toppings for just about anything, and include vital natural fats that will enhance your skin, and just about all your internal workings of your body, making sure you perform and look your best at all times!

This is the time right now to convert your very poor choices of snacks to the natural variety we have just talked about. Eating in between meals used to be a big no-no, eating these snacks though will keep you full in between meals (mid-morning and mid-afternoon) and stop you overeating at meal times, and don’t forget the energy they give you too, a win-win situation I think you’ll agree!!

Snacks-calorie breakdown

Snacks are vitally important, to keep energy levels up, and to keep important nutrients coming in throughout the day

Fresh fruit for energy-100g usually

Apple-50

Pear-64

Banana-95

Blueberries-30

Kiwi fruit-29

Plums-34

Grapes-60

Strawberries-27

Satsuma-23

Dried fruit-to cure a sweet tooth and good for you

Sultanas-138

Raisins-136

Figs-43

Apricots-29

Low-fat yoghurts-provide calcium and nice desserts

Natural low-fat-56

Whole milk-79

Low-fat fruit-90

Low fat fromage frais-58

Nuts-50g-for essential fats

Cashews-287

Brazils-341

Almonds-306

Walnuts-344

Pumpkin seeds-57

Sunflower-57

Mixed nuts chopped-304

Hazlenuts-325

Twitt
Posted on

Thursday, 10th November

To follow on as promised from yesterday, its time to talk about what happens after the first 4-6 weeks.

The first month or so is seen as your perfect opportunity to get used to the various exercises, get used to weight training in general, and get your ligaments and tends to a much greater force than normal, and this DOES take time.

Okay, assuming you get through this period with no problem and you have mastered proper technique, its time to move on to newer more challenging exercises.

Rugby is a tough game, but if you train in the right way, you can make the game a whole lot easier and set yourself up for future success and hopefully avoid injury to a better degree.

So the first week after week 6, assuming you are doing 3 sets per exercise, I would change your programme to the following.

Bench press-still in there as a great power movement

Chins-this is a new one for you, it’s the one where there a bar usually hanging high on the wall or even better from the ceiling. You usually have to jump up on a bench to get to it if you’re not that tall, and all you do is hang on it, and then pull yourself up.

This is a tremendously hard exercise so I would start off doing half movements if you find the full movement too hard. Persevere and you will get better, it may well take 6 months to get to 10 full reps.

Next is one arm dumbbell rowing, look for a demonstration of this on a google search again and is a great back builder, which will be of enormous help if you are mauling in rugby or simply fighting for the ball. Do 3 sets of 8 with a dumbbell that tests you-great exercise!

Then on to legs with squats or leg press. Two great choices there, do which ever suits. I would also put in a leg extension and its important not to lock out on this exercise, and will develop the muscles above the knee very well.

Leg curls are an underrated exercise too. Anyone who has ever pulled their hamstring will wish they would have done this one. A great hamstring developer and important to keep the balance of leg training so everything get worked.

You can add calf raises to the list too, another neglected exercise for the calf of course.

Upright rows is a great mass builder for your shoulders, and will add some serious strength. Shoulder presses can be good especially seated in your younger years, but as you get into your 30’s, try to avoid them as lots of people run into overhead movements with their shoulders as time marches on, so I would pick upright rows.

Bench dips or arm dips are great for triceps as discussed yesterday but I would move on to parallel bars dips from now on. This is much harder exercise than arm dips and when done with a wider grip, will also work your chest, shoulders, arms and back indirectly. Dips is one you ought to get used to and fast, its one of my key exercises but like chins, will take you a while to get used to depending on your current bodyweight.

Then to finish you have dumbbell curls, you arms can still take some work by this stage and strong arms are vital for all sorts of reasons in rugby, and in life in general.

So these are examples of very good weight training exercises after week 6 and these will form the foundation of your training for the next few months.

They will constantly challenge you and push you on to new levels of development and progress.

Please email me on fitness@kerimckibbin.co.uk for further info. Keep it simple and don’t over-complicate.

Even more tomorrow!!

Twitt
Posted on

Monday, 7th November

The very cold weather has finally arrived and its a big wake up call to your body today!

The first reaction is to stay indoors as much as possible and do your best to “hibernate” until april!!! Just like many animals do in the wild!

Then we have to get real and go about our daily lives the best we can.

So now we have got over the fact that we are not going to curl and freeze for the winter, its time to set out a plan!!

Most of you won’t be on salads for the winter, and you may be already switching to hotter, more filling foods already.

The great news is that you can easily stay fit and healthy in the winter and all of this cold weather is no excuse to go into your shell, or “pig out” on fatty and sugary food!

Take soups for example. Are you the type to make your own version of soup full of natural ingredients or the type to rely on tins of soup? The difference can be startling!

For one, the soup you make naturally has the opportunity to be full of vegetables and a good nourishing meat if you fancy meat.

The soup in a tin is absolutely loaded with salt and usually sugar which is seriously bad news for your health. Salt and excess salt is the best way to develop problems with blood pressure and water retention, so if you want to feel horrid and bloated, go ahead and stick to the tins!!!!

If you’re into feeling and looking healthy, then this winter you STILL need to make fresh natural food your absolute priority!!! Without eating well, you won’t get anywhere near your goals in health terms so its important right now NOT to fall into the trap of tinned toup and other high salt and sigar products. There are lots of winter vegetables you can use to make soups and broths that will nourish your body in a first class way!!

The ideal time to commit yourself to a whole winter of healthy eating is today so lets give it your best!

Twitt
Posted on

Friday, 4th November

Massive changes in your body will happen if you are training in a proper manner.

For instance, i was doing a one off session with someone yesterday and this person claimed she always did fit ball/swiss ball group classes and was also a regular a pilates classes.

Since a lot of my sessions are now focused on balance and stability work, i was ready for this person’s valuable input on my session.

The result was the exact opposite of the one i expected.

Out of 20 exercises i did on the fit ball, she had only done one of them before, i was stunned.

On the pilates moves i usually do, she had never done one of them.

Guess what too? She still had a bad back despite her appearance at all of these “group classes”!!!

I asked how she found all the new exercises i had given her, and she said she felt relieved because her back was so much looser and the exercises i had given her she felt would quickly strengthen her back. This was good for me to know too, as you are looking for good feedback on the work you do, and getting the right exercise prescription is always important.

It shows that if you do the right exercises, then not only do you get substantially better results, but you spend less time exercising too because you will be getting the job done a lot quicker!

It is like seeing someone who only does treadmill work every session, every week, every month for years. They may appear quite lean, but you know they are missing out on so many elements of health and fitness. For example, they are not doing a lot of muscle toning, bone strengthening, muscular endurance etc etc.

They will need resistance training in their lives if they are to reach their true potential. Sometimes we don’t like leaving out self-enforced comfort zones, but we must do it to reach our true ambitions.

Twitt