Posted on

Tuesday, October 4th

Nothing beats the feeling of being a programme and know you’re on a mission too get into serious shape.

This can take many forms.

You may be a true individual in every sense of the word, and want to do everything yourself, you want privacy but are very determined and do whatever it takes to achieve your goals.

You may be the person who feels too intimidated to go into a gym, you may feel sad about how you have let your body go, and you may not even know where to start?

You may be the person who has been there, seen it, done it and have to start all over again for any kind of reason.

What about the person who always shows up to the gym, always knows everyone, talks an awful lot and always knows all the gossip, except he/she forgets to do one thing-TRAIN or at least train with a purpose that will result in a big results, these individuals are very common and are usually quite content to put up with a lack of results for years and years.

Whichever one you may be, its time to get on the right path and make a plan out right now.

Broadly speaking, you MUST do some resistance/weight training at least twice a week working the whole body, this is an absolute fundamental to put you on the path to success.

You must do some cardio at least twice and up to four times a week, this is a must for your heart and fat loss.

These two types of training work well together, and BOTH are as important as each other in terms of fantastic results. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, the people who insist only to do running, swimming or cycling for fat loss and fitness make me want to puke quite frankly. They have no real knowledge and they don’t do it for a living so their behind is not on the line every single day when it comes to advice!!!

Im here to help and much more to come tomorrow and what it really takes to get out of the quicksand of non-improvement!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Monday 3rd October

So hows the warm weather training going?

Something we have never experienced in this country in late september and early october, and there and benefits and disadvantages t0 training in these conditions. Athletes pay good money to train in these conditions in tenerife and lanazorote!!

First of all in this weather, its not too much of a problem warming up and getting ready to train. Your body is already warm and you are much less likely to have aches and strains along the way. This helps a lot.

A lot of people like training in this weather because theres lot of other people training out and about, and some people like to join the crowd. Plus you are far more likely to go out in this weather, it still reminds us of summer and how much we really felt like being in shape at that time!

This weather is a lot more attractive for cycling too, you don’t get so warm as running in the sun and its great weather to scan all the wonderful scenery, nothing better in this weather.

The downside of course is the extreme temperatures. Your body naturally gets hotter quicker, this means your body’s internal temperature rises quicker and therefore discourages you going to your higher intensity levels.

It does take time too get used to these higher temperatures, but luckily we don’t have to as this weather will vanish completely this wednesday, when the rain and cold is very likely to be back.

Compare this week with a week in january though, it will be much wetter and colder, darker and in general pretty bleak. This is when your resolve will be tested to the limit and you will be yearning for days like these!!!

I find everyone more cheerful in this weather too, nothing like a bit of sun to help our spirits!!!

Its all good news as far as im concerned so lets make the most of it and start the week in an energetic way!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Friday 30th September

Seems a few of you are finding the food information helpful, and thats what im here for, for YOU to be successful and firing on cylinders and i sincerely mean that.

Okay, where were we? Dinner, evening meal or whatever you want to call it!!

If you have followed the advice so far, and eaten every 3-4 hours, then you shouldn’t be absolutely starving by 6-7pm and your hunger should at least be controllable!

The great news is that the patterns you have got used to previously in the day conclude nicely with your evening meal.

I’m talking about keeping your portion sizes moderate, and this means in particular your carb selection. I’m talking about pasta, potatoes, rice, bread etc. If you overeat these foods you WILL struggle with your weight especially if they are the white refined varieties of these foods.

These foods can be fantastic for you in their more natural state, and in the right quantities!!

Whoever said remove them from your diet is usually not qualified in nutrition or anything else. More like a fly by night character who knows nothing about the whole picture when it comes to balanced diets.

Besides, the group i have just mentioned is a good group on  its own, and to remove food groups entirely is complete madness!!!

SO what are we talking about here for a typical evening meal?

A piece of healthy protein such as white meats or fish, baked or cooked with olive oil, no normal cooking oils please!

Then we have the carbs such as brown rice, wholegrain/wholewheat pasta/new or sweet potatoes etc, in a portion size the same as your fist.

Then vegetables have to be in there, and the greater the variety the better so lets make sure we make it happen every evening meal. We all know the benefits of vegetables and theres many we don’t even know about yet!!!

So there we have it, if you finish off with a meal of this quality, you’re going to get and stay lean and healthy. Accept no substitutes and tryly look after your body!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Wednesday 28th September

If you have tried missing breakfast in the mistaken belief that you will lose weight, you will soon be in for a big surprise!!

The theory some people use is that they never feel up for breakfast anyway, so may as well save those calories and use them for mid-morning, or even start eating lunch time. Then they eat sometimes sparingly during the afternoon and then usually get home, and then it all goes off!

The person doing this kind of eating programme is usually so ravenous by evening time as they haven’t eaten all day, they usually go mad at 6-7pm!!!

If you’re making food yourself, you will be so hungry you will grab a cheese sandwich or something while you’re cooking!

Then you will always overeat when it comes to the food you are cooking, this is because your blood sugars are so low and you are desperate to get them up again, but probably too desperate and you want to eat a massive portion. Very rarely will you be satisfied with that first portion!! Your body can only handle a certain amount of food per meal, and any over the top portion will get deposited as body fat every time!!!

So the missing breakfast technique is complete folly, and will never work long term, you may have realised that by now!

There are scientific reasons for eating breakfast anyway!

Eating breakfast counts when you eat food within one hour of getting up.

This boosts your metabolism because you’re sending your body a message that it had better assimilate that food ASAP and this gets the fat burning process going nice and early!

This helps your metabolism (the rate your body burns calories) get into overdrive early on.

There have been a massive amount of studies that show that those people who eat breakfast daily always lose more body fat and are able to MAINTAIN a healthy level of body fat for the rest of their lives.

Your choice but you know common sense works!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Monday 26th September

Since i have had a few texts on my last post, i think i should expand my comments on the development of the fitness industry!!

Here’s the next thing that has collapsed in the fitness industry! Those gyms and gym owners (usually chains) who proclaim to their new members (new direct debits they only see it as!) that they have the most treadmills in town, the most bikes in town and the most steppers in town!!!! Bravo i say!!!! But this is the main reason on why they are going bankrupt in their droves!!

In the states, the likes of gold gym, planet fitness, 24 hour fitness etc etc, will have been opening around 50 gyms a year with massive capacity. 50 treadmills, bikes and steppers come at a huge cost in many ways.

They forgot the fact that although they could intitially attract massive membership, those members had to get in shape. Having lots and lots of treadmills doesnt really do it!!! Lots of bikes doesn’t either!!! This is brainless fitness with programmes designed by men in suits, who had brains for figures and not how to get people in shape!

They forgot the fact that treadmills can be hugely boring, hamster wheels to some in gym speak, and only gave part of a result!

So what happened is you had everyone on treadmills and bikes, the weight room got ignored and all the stuff that really gets you in incredible shape, the medicine balls, swiss balls, dumbbells, sprints, bodyweight exercises etc were usually ignored.

Then when people realised they got bored of treadmills, they abondoned them, AND the gym AND their membership!!! Proper training WAS NOT explained!!!

The gym then realises that in the states anyway, they were paying $300 thousand a month in hire fees for all of these machines, the bottom line wasnt coming in anymore!!! Guess what happens next? They reduce their membership and so the decline goes on, then the filing for bankruptcy happens….at record pace in the states.

The same has started in this country, with a couple of the most famous chains either bankrupt or on life support.

It doesnt give me any pleasure to report such a decline but there is better news!

In the USA, 8 out of the best 10 gyms voted for by all industry magazines are performance related gyms, by this i mean they actually GET YOU IN SHAPE!!!! Wow, what a concept, they actually give you GREAT SERVICE, Wow what a concept, they actually TELL YOU WHAT TO EAT, Wow what a concept!!!!

They work with weights, medicine balls, swiss balls, things that will actually get you in shape, who’d have thought it!!!!

And guess what, you havent got the 300k a month overhead!!!!

The bottom line is that you HAVE TO GET PEOPLE HEALTHY AND IN SHAPE, just having a gym card doesnt cut it anymore, people are willing to pay, but not for rubbish!!! Human beings are INDIVIDUALS, and not robots, they are not perfect and there is a different programme for every body.

Times are hard but i know a record number of people realising this, and you are most welcome to send your questions to fitness@kerimckibbin.co.uk

Twitt