Posted on

Friday, 23rd March

Any of you who have been away for a short break or holiday, will have on thing in common if you are a regular exerciser and practice healthy eating.

It can be ENORMOUSLY difficult to get back into good eating after you have been away.

Most of the time you will either eat in the hotel, restaurant or café and for most of them unless you specifically ask, it will mean a ton of extra saturated fat, lots more salt in every day and no shortage of sugar!!!

This can send the calorific value of each meal you eat to stratospheric levels!

Everyone expects to put on a couple of pounds from such trips, but there is an even bigger danger that you do not even think about, but seems to get everyone when they return home.

By eating every meal which is much richer than normal, your taste buds can change very quickly and by the end of your stay, richer food soon becomes the norm for you.

So getting back to normal when you get home is a bigger task than you think.

Eating plain natural foods on a regular basis suddenly is much harder again! The plain porridge doesn’t taste as nice as usual, fruit seems “boring”, the vegetables you eat taste “different” compared to the ones cooked with a lot of salt on holiday, and unprocessed white meat and fish seems a harder dish to swallow than when you first went away.

So although we promise ourselves  that we will “get right back into it” when we get back, the reality is often very different, and the get right back into it turns into a 2-3 week delay in knuckling down to good eating!!!

The holiday pounds seem much harder to shift and exercising seems much harder than normal, not a great combination.

So if I get an “early warning” out to you and tell you how its going to be, you have more chance to prepare and make the first week you get back the “hard week” in terms of getting your taste buds used to the right kind of eating that you know is tried and tested, and get you dropping fat right away as well as getting you back to the standard of performance you had before you went away!!!

This early warning system can work so wherever you go this year, be prepared for the time it takes to get back to “normal”!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Thursday, 22nd March

Hopefully this week you have taken onboard the many different options you really have in getting fit, or if you are already have a decent level of fitness, then you are capable of substantially more!

The biggest danger to any good well thought out programme is being overly complacent.

Just because one workout programme has worked so well for you in the past, it doesn’t mean its going to do as well in the future if that is ALL you do.

If you go for a cycle a couple of times a week and that’s your entire fitness plan, then you should seriously think about doing a more rounded fitness plan.

Cycling is one of my favourite activities, but I’m not foolish enough to think that weight training, running, walking etc is not hugely important too.

Most of us know big guys who only lift weights and that’s it, taking long gaps in between sets. Whilst they may have impressive development from all of this, the horrible fact is that a 100 yard run down the road could put them seriously out of breath!!

Thos runners you see running on the main road all the time, on the same old route for the same old distances, at the same old pace, surely they can do better in terms of a more rounded programme?

Most people do not know that Paula Radcliffe for example, does regular weight training sessions a couple of times a week, as well as a lot of core stability work.

The same applies to Lance Armstrong of cycling fame, he used to do a substantial amount of strength work which means off the bike for longer periods than most people would have ever guessed.

So if you think “I’m a cyclist” or “I’m a runner” or “I’m a swimmer”, and think that to become good at one of those only involves doing that exact activity ALL THE TIME, then please think again, reassess your programme and look for more variety not just for the sake of it, but for the good of your body and for the improvement of your favourite chosen activity!!

Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday, 20th March

The number of exercises is definitely not important in your workout.

You could do 30 different exercises in your workout, yet perhaps you wouldn’t have worked out close to your potential. You could do just 4 exercises in your workout and you could have the biggest and best blast you have ever had!

It all comes down to how much you put into your workout, and good exercise selection DOES help.

If you pick the biggest and best exercises that require most effort, then you’re not going to go far wrong.

Some of the exercises invented around 50-100 years ago are often the best, and require the most work and effort. They are like the cabbage of exercises, you don’t really like it but you know its going to be good for you!

Most youngsters for example when it comes to packing on muscular size, will become obsessed with all the fancy machines and they think that in these machines lies the answer to looking like the incredible hulk!

 Nothing could be further from the truth and I often steer them away from these machines on to a tried and tested programme of 6-8 exercises, that if done regularly, will bring truly massive results!!!

When it comes to running, I try and get people away from long tedious run on concrete surfaces on to sprints up tough hills and nicer surfaces such as grass, and more demanding surfaces such as sand. The difference can be incredible!!!

When it comes to long boring swims, I set length targets designed to beat previous bests.

When it comes to cycles, I set specific courses, push for more interval training and get some hills thrown in, variety is the key here.

When you think variety and performance, you don’t have to do a ton of different exercises, its all about the effort you put in and the thought you put into your programme when you’re looking for superior results.

Twitt
Posted on

Monday, 19th March 2012

Another monday and you know that should mean a great workout to get you fully into your week, get you movitated and get you fired up for the monday to friday days that are essential for getting a good block of training in.

Whatever way you care to do it, just make sure you do. If you rely on a training partner, then make sure he or she turns up and that they are reliable and never let you down, a common training partner problem!!

If you have a certain ritual that you do before training that makes it a successful one, then please keep it up and keep it going.

You have more light than ever now this time of year, its around 645pm before it gets dark and its very light at 6am when you get up, you do not have any excuse now surely to get yourself going. Take all your excuses out of your life and i find the best way of doing that is exercising early before work, that gets the job done early and you will start the day in a very positive way!!!

Its a monday and hope you have planned things well. If you are working with weights tonight, then plan your other weights sessions for wednesday and friday to give your body a rest. Your cardio work can be done on tuesday, thursday and sunday ideally to make sure you make the most out of every session.

If you plan properly, then you will leave absolutely nothing to chance and you are pretty much guaranteed a good week!

Same with your food, plan to eat fresh and natural foods from monday to friday and have a big of what you fancy at the weekend. This will easily mean you eat well 80% of the time or even more, guaranteeing yet more results and big benefits.

Dont over-complicate it and make good things happen in your life, simplicity will always work for you!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Friday, 16th March 2012

Like analysing your food, analysing the way you exercise is just as important and results giving.

One of the most startling realisations I had was when I discovered that if you were on the same moderate programme for years and years, and you do the same thing day in day out, at the same speed using the same resistance, for the same number of times, then your fitness levels hadn’t really gone anywhere for years.

This statement can be upsetting for a lot of people because the truth can hurt, and an enormous amount of individuals and groups even will do things this way. Change is deeply uncomfortable for most people I have found.

The positives you should take out would be that simply changing things around will almost improve you overnight!! There IS a new world out there waiting for you.

If you simply change your programme regularly, then your body will have to keep adapting to change, and this will usually keep bringing you progress too, which is a benefit many have forgotten about unfortunately!

For example, if you have never done any balance or instability work on an unsteady surface, then you are missing out in a big way.

If you have become totally dependent on machines for your workouts, then I guarantee you that you are missing out on the huge benefits of free weights, and that you are really NOT getting the best out of yourself. Your body needs natural movements as much as possible, for all sorts of reasons and many machines do not come close to providing this!

Training is moving away from machines and has been for some time, there are far more inventive and beneficial ways to train, and you need to explore them and ultimately test your body under brand new conditions.

Freshening everything up is usually a massive positive in every other area of life, time to do the same with your exercise!

Put your trust in RESULTS, instead of machines that are already dinosaurs!

Twitt