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Thursday, 20th June

The greatest satisfaction for me is seeing individuals do things they never thought possible.

For example, there is nothing better than seeing people overcoming the odds, and i have seen it happen time after time.

I have seen people who have never run due to certain disabilities, develop their own way of running and be successful at it.

I have seen people who haven’t run since school, then at 50 years of age run a marathon with 12 months of training.

I have seen people go from never shopping for clothes because they were a size 24-26, to shopping most weekends for clothes in “mainstream shops”, and have now become highly fashion conscious and can now literally choose any figure hugging clothes they want!

I have seen people who needed to lose 4 stone for certain operations, becoming triathletes after losing much of their weight through cycling, and developing unbelievable enthusiasm for their new found love of the bike!!

Good things happen to those who are willing to put plenty of hard work in during their exercise programme.

Good things happen to those who are willing to fill their grocery basket with good food, instead of the trash that many people choose.

Great things happen to those who stay the course, no matter what the obstacles along the way!!!

Twitt
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Wednesday, 19th june

Last great day of the week in weather terms today maybe, but you should use it to your fitness advantage.

The british lions recently played a rugby match in hong kong, and most players agreed that it was the most humid, and hottest place they had ever played rugby. Anyone who has been to hong kong will testify that to be true, and the humidity is unlike anything you will experience.

I was in hong kong in 1994 and have never felt so uncomfortable staying still even!

We haven’t got anywhere near like the temperatures of places like hong kong, and will never achieve the humidity, BUT these temperatures we have right now (likely to reach 26 degrees today) do help us with our fitness.

The lions medical team said as much with the game in hong kong on how training and playing in such intense conditions would benefit their players in the weeks to come.

If you get used to training well on a day/night like today, then when it gets cooler you should be able to train at a higher level.

The one BIG THING I can say to be cautious about all of this warm weather training is drink water regularly throughout the day, and in particular THROUGHOUT your training session. Training in warm weather without water is downright dangerous!!! Please do not train without water, I hate to repeat myself but I have to over-emphasise this!!!

Hopefully, we are now out of the stage where you avoid training just because it is sunny and warm too! Its time to have a professional approach to your training if you are really serious about your training and health, and this is what this blog is about every single day, to encourage you to be healthier, fitter and perform at the best of your ability to help you reach your goals quicker!

Twitt
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Monday, 17th June

Another monday hits us and as always hope you are prepared to hit it hard to start the week off on the right note!

Some base their most important workout on a monday, some just ease gently into it, some don’t have any kind of plan and just hope for the best (not recommended), some hit their highest intensity on a monday-whatever your situation AS LONG as you are exercising then you will be off to a flying start.

If you let your weekend go into a monday in terms of alcohol, overeating junk food and no exercise, then you are not serious about your health whatsoever, and you need to re-assess exactly what your goals are and set a realistic plan on how you’re going to achieve them!

Monday is always a great day to get your weights/strength work in, nothing raises your metabolism as effectively (and i am talking about weight training with little rest and with plenty of high energy cost movements no plodding slowly along!). I set a lot of strength workouts on mondays and thursdays with a nice three day gap in between, allowing for plenty of recovery in between.

A lot of my other workouts get set up for the tuesdays, wednesdays and fridays. This allows me to set up the fundamentals up for the week for people, and give a lot of variety in between, making sure we are fat burning every day and we are going to get higher and higher numbers almost on a week to week basis, which means we are constantly improving!

So you should be looking forward to a big monday, making the bigget possible statement for the week ahead!!!

Twitt
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Friday, 14th June

A common misconception with different training methods and different exercises is that you are only “supposed” to do certain movements based on your goals.

For example, if you are trying to lose body fat, trying to increase your speed, then you don’t need to do much weight training, and power exercises are totally not necessary!!

This is the big mistake that many people walk into.

Power and speed are very closely related, and you cannot have one without the other. This is why i always put these power movements in every programme, because of the strength it gives you all over. Bodyweight exercises for example involve total power. Your core has to take a lot of the strain and will deliver a lot of power throughout your body.

Boxing requires a lot of power, and this is one great discipline for getting you a lot faster and gets you shedding body fat quicker than just about anything else. Boxing is a great addition to your training programme for speed and power without a shadow of a doubt.

People used to say that weight training slowed you down, we now know that the opposite is in fact true! If done properly, weight training can revolutionalise your speed and power.

One of the best training techniques is sprinting, and if you have done it you will realise its all about power. Why do people sprint? Because they want to get quicker of course!

Power exercises should be embedded in your programme and never leave if you want to be stronger and faster in just about anything you want to do!!

Twitt
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Thursday, 13th June

The bad rap that carbohydrates have got over the last few years can be seen as totally unjustified.

You had the atkins diet some years ago banning “everything carb” related with the focus very much on protein only.

This fad lasted longer than most people thought, and at one time jacket potatoes were seen very much the enemy, and pasta was like the anti-christ!

Fortunately though, sanity prevailed and the atkins diet crashed and burned for many people, and some people had horrendous experiences from going through it.

Carbs can be a problem in weight gain if you eat too much of them and the wrong type. By the wrong type I mean the simple sugar version. White pasta for example contains a lot more sugar than wholegrain pasta does.

Brown rice will be better for you than white rice.

Wholemeal bread is a million times better for you than white bread and so on.

So the type of carbs you eat is all important in giving you the energy you need without all the simple sugars that will put weight on you.
Then the serving size becomes all important. Most people put weight on with carbs because they eat too much of them, plain and simple! Eat too much of anything and you will have a weight gain problem.

Your carb serving should be the size of your fist, so a plate full of pasta is overdoing it. This is why you should combine your pasta with a protein source, not only to bulk up your meal to keep you fuller for longer. Some vegetables chopped up will also will go very well with your meal, and give you endless benefits.

So please see that carbs are never the enemy, but it’s a matter of picking the right ones and in the right sensible
amount.

Twitt