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Wednesday, 11th December

It’s very easy to walk away from this programme, and even easier to never start it. It takes guts and determination to get through it and come out the other side a much fitter and healthier person. I’m getting some pretty inspiring stories through too, such as daughters and sons nagging their parents to keep on going right up to christmas, even when the parent is trying to find excuses a lot of the time.!

When questioned, the main reason the parent wasn’t going to exercise that night was due that old chestnut “I didn’t have time”! That’s my favourite one, or at least my favourite because its probably the most used excuse we have all used at times and most of us are sick of by now.

If you look at the training/workouts section of my blog (www.kerimckibbin.co.uk), some of those workouts are 15-20 minutes long JUST to fit in with those who have no time. I work on this theory and it’s heavily based on actual progress, and actual results. Anyone who has ever been through it will know exactly what I’m talking about. Some of my best workouts have been shorter ones when I had no time.

If you start off being able to do 4 press ups, then 6 weeks later you may be able to do 30, would you say you progressed?

Of course you have, if you did 20 squat thrusts to start with, and 6 weeks later you are up to 100, did you progress? It doesn’t take a genius to work that one out, so hopefully you are seeing you can actually do this thing!

Three sets of 5-6 exercises takes a maximum of 20 minutes including water breaks! So what exactly are you spending your time on? What do you exactly base “I haven’t got time on”?!!

Most people work so 8 hours there if you’re full time, let’s give you 8 hours a sleep night, family responsibilities I know are very challenging this time of year, but you have to find the minutes(not hours) to exercise! For some people, the extra hours go on watching neighbours, emmerdale, coronation street, and estenders, sorry I forgot holby city? And what about the trashy reality shows that are much worse again? Sorry, I forgot that life was supposed to be about all of those?!!

So even allowing for all of that, you probably have a couple of spare hours, yet you need just 15-20 minutes to turn your life around, and you can’t manage that? Compare that to driving to some gyms, 30 mins there and back, then a workout and that’s nearly 2 hours out of your night, same with the swimming pool?

So the question is again, is 15-20 minutes too much inconvenience in your schedule to get you into shape, sorry I forgot about the pub on the way home, the petrol station to get wine, the spar to get chocolates, and tesco to get your ready meals? There are more important things every day than your health, I apologise!!!

If you’re reading this for the first time, then you may think who this crazy person is, but I make no apology for stating the obvious!!! Many people, make that, most people have become very skilful at making excuses why they aren’t in the physical condition they want to be!

What would happen if you actually committed to the 20 minutes most days, and within 3 months, people started saying “wow, you’re looking great, what have you been doing?!!!”, would you like that? Would you like people saying that those clothes are hanging on you? You should buy a size that fits you?!! Would you like that or not? Would you like to be on the beach or certainly wearing less clothes, and people commentating on how amazing you look now and you look 10 years younger? THIS IS POSSIBLE AS LONG AS YOU QUIT MAKING YOUR EXCUSES NOT TO DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don’t fool yourself anymore, this IS possible I’m repeating myself and I want to know when you are going to give yourself the body and health you really deserve?!!!!! I’m excited anyway because I’m living this every day as I am helping others to achieve what they want. Nothing better when you see someone you are training and their clothes no longer fit, and they realise they are getting into their best ever shape, that’s a great feeling for all of us, so let’s pick up the pace and really hammer the final few day to Christmas!!!!

Twitt
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Tuesday, 10th December

If you are short of time due to the time of year, and most people usually are right now, then its vital that when you exercise, you REALLY make it count!

Going through the motions for an hour is not an option, challenging yourself to do the biggest “energy cost” exercises will be absolute key so you make the most of your valuable time.

Please don’t end up one of these individuals who spends endless hours of low intensity on the bike or treadmill. That type of exercise will do you good of course, but there’s a huge array of other options you need to get into that will deliver far better results for you.

For example, I always encourage people in the gym to stand up on the spin bike.

Simply starting by standing up for ten seconds in intervals, then sitting down for one minute, then, up for ten seconds again will put some intensity into the workout that you have never experienced before.

When you are able to stand up for 30 seconds, down for 30, up for 30 again etc, you know you will be doing very well and you will start hitting a very respectable level in spinning terms.

Plus this is far more fun than just cycling away endlessly using very little effort, and you will be far more likely to keep this activity up which is very important .

If you are weight training, don’t spend 5 minutes or so in between sets, try working on your lung capacity too and getting your heart rate up.

Weight training does not have to be just about strength. Weights can give you a much stronger heart and some added lung power, IF you cut down your rest in between sets.

Longer term targets for rest in between sets would be 45 seconds. You may have to reduce the weight you use initially, but you will eventually build that weight back up again as you progressively get fitter!

Twitt
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Monday, 9th December

Milk as a recovery drink post exercise

Milk is a near –perfect recovery drink, in terms of both glycogen and muscle replenishment and rehydration. In research, milk has been proven to produce a more favourable hormonal environment immediately following exercise compared to a carbohydrate sports drink. This they suggest encourages protein anabolism during recovery, in other words encourages muscle growth and repair.

Canadian researchers have found that when male weight trainers who were new to the sport consumed skimmed milk as part of a 12 week resistance programme, it promoted greater hypertrophy (muscle gain) than isoenergetic soy or carb drinks. Another study with females who were on a 12 week resistance exercise course found they reduced body fat levels , increased lean mass and strength after consuming skimmed milk post exercise.

It is thought that milk somehow changes the metabolism of proteins in muscle and so enhances muscle adaptations to exercise.

A post recovery drink should be drunk as soon as possible after exercise. There is a two hour ‘window’ post exercise when glycogen storage is faster than at any other time at a rate of 150% the normal rate. Therefore drinking the milk at this time speeds glycogen (blood sugar levels) and muscle recovery.

For harder, longer training sessions, extra carbs might be needed. Researchers have found that eating a bowl of wholegrain cereal with milk was as effective as sports drinks, but it also promoted greater muscle protein synthesis compared to the sport drink.

Twitt
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Friday,6th December

Avoiding pain and choosing pleasure at this time of year is a totally natural reaction.

Choosing to stay on the settee, instead of training sounds great to most people. You have instant pleasure and gratification through being comfortable, and that pleasure can only be enhanced if you like a bottle of wine, a takeaway, chocolate or whatever you crave.

The thought of going out in the cold, wet and dark nights is the opposite of most people’s idea of fun.

The problem starts when you choose the settee and the wine over a prolonged period and the whole thing starts affecting the way you look and feel.

Wearing black all the time will only work for a while. Wearing a big baggy jumper won’t hide all the lumps and bumps that are going to develop in your body in the places you really don’t want them.

Then all the “pleasure” you have enjoyed really becomes painful.

You really start to hate the way you look and feel, and you will do anything to change it. This is why many look for the quick fix of faddy dieting, then this works for a while but inevitably all the weight comes back on very quickly once you start eating properly again.

This is why a relatively short period of time exercising gives you much longer periods of pleasure. You know you’re going to look much better if you exercise properly and regularly, that half hour or 45 minutes will contribute heavily to the way you look and feel.

The funny thing too is that as you get fitter and exercise more, you will enjoy it much more so the whole thing becomes much more of a pleasant and pleasurable experience.

Another reason to hit your training hard in December, and stops any kind of rut developing!

Twitt
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Thursday, 5th December

To those of you who have “over-achieved” in 2013, and there have been many of you, its time to re-assess what your programme looks like, what your eating programme looks like, and how much your goals have shifted during all of this process.

Many of you in 2013 will have realized that you CAN lose 8, 10, 12, 14 even 20 inches off your waist if you put your mind to it. I have detailed evidence of that as you will know.

Losing 5 to 10 stone sounded unbelievable, but many of you have achieved this and are rightly proud of yourself (although weight is not the only thing).

Its easy to coast for a bit after all of this transformation in your life, but now is the time to pat yourself on the back one last time, and finally draw a line under a magical, extremely difficult time and rewarding in your life.

To get to where you once only imagined, and finally get to your new goal of looking fantastic compared to anyone, you have to re-assess and aggressively break down the limitations you may previously had on your training.

Here’s the three things you must do/keep doing;

a. You MUST weight train or do bodyweight exercises. This is an extremely powerful way to rev up your metabolism to the max, and totally reshape your body once again! 3 times a week is my recommendation.

b. You must keep eating natural healthy food and in its natural state where possible. Drink 1-5-2 litres of water a day. Think of how your insides will benefit, and the way you look and feel will be upgraded several levels again. Don’t fall for faddy diets, shakes and bars diets, everyone knows they bring long term misery. The sooner these products were banned the better full stop!

c. Lift your expectiations! Whilst you are having all sorts of complements from everyone, you need to target a new version of yourself that’s going to be even more rewarding for you, an even more athletic version that is capable of much more again. Some of you have already gone onto 10k’s, triathlon’s and marathon’s over the last couple of years. It doesn’t have to be an athletic achievement, all it has to be is something personal to you that really drives you first thing in the morning when its freezing, dark and wet!

No time to waste so writing down your future goals right now would be a great start!
Keri

Twitt