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Get away from time, concentrate more on performance!

Who do you think is fitter out of the following and in the best physical condition?

The 100m runner who runs it in under 10 seconds or the one who does it in 12 seconds?

The runner who can run up a 2 mile gradient in 14 minutes or the one who takes 25minutes?

The swimmer who takes 10 lengths in 15 minutes or the one who does it in 25 minutes?

The cyclist who can cycle around pembrey country park in 30 minutes or the one who does it in 60 minutes?

The person who does his/her 3 circuits of inside workouts without a break, or the one who has to take a break after each exercise?

The person who power walks with her dog or the one who ambles along stopping to talk to everyone over the same distance and takes twice as long?

The one who recovers very quickly from a tough exercise session or the one who takes all day to recover from a tough session?

The one who can do 10 sprints up steep hills without much of a break apart from walking back down the hill, or the one who needs 3 minutes break in between each sprint?

The person who focuses on constant improvement every month or the ones who goes through the motions every day, every week, every month, every year, not focusing on improvement, just “getting through it”.

There are exceptions to a couple of these but in the main, if you are faster and stronger at something, it is a great sign that usually your body fat is lower, your strength is better and your health is in great shape. Since we don’t really want to be getting involved in races against our friends, we need to start competing with ourselves a bit more!!!

You should be able to tell if you’re improving right away. Are you better than last week, last month or especially last year? Are you going through the motions in your training or do you really try to do your best in most sessions? Did you have health worries in the past and have you tried living your lifestyle in a much healthier way to alleviate those concerns? These are the questions you should be asking yourself, especially as we come to the end of the year. Its always a time for reflection and its not too late to finish the year off at a high if you really want to.

Those distance high’s may seem a long way off, but if you train regularly, eat well and sleep well, and have patience, those once proud moments in your life will be your again!

Lets give it a go and get going!! Nine weeks to christmas so lets get a move on!!!

Twitt
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Your way of life

Okay, we discussed over the last couple of days how easy it is to get into your workouts, how they don’t have to take you all day, and how important it is to work with purpose in your workouts, rather than against the clock.

We talked about half an hour in your day is possible to bring about excellent progress in your training, as long as you knew what you were doing and you gave a real effort each day you trained, i have to make it clear right now that you shouldnt kill yourself and work TOO hard, that is not necessary, we need progress and we dont need anyone collapsing so thats a big warning on safety reasons!! PROGRESS AND SAFETY, yes it can be done and i get people doing it every day.

I think this is an excellent way of making sure you train for a lifetime and not just for one month, one week, or one year. If you set yourself unrealistic expectations, you will be setting yourself up for failure full stop. One of those unreasonable expectations would be to train for 2 hours at a time. I have met so many people who do so and you know they are not  going to keep that kind of schedule up for a lifetime.

People who will do that longer period of training (90-120 minutes per day) are usually around 18 years of age and perhaps thats their main focus on life, as responsibilities are pretty much non-existant in their life. Once life changes for them, they often quit exercising and make that famous excuse “i havent got time” again.

I think 90-120 minutes training is not only nearly impossible to stick to and keep up, its not productive. I know some of you have/do train for long periods, but was it/is it really sustainable long term without breaks? Wouldnt you like more time in your day to have fun and do other things?

I have had a couple of people train with me in the last couple of weeks (sons of parents i train) who said they usually workout for these long periods and i swear to god, we did a workout which was pretty non-stop and they lasted 29-30 minutes, and both of them very fit to start with. They couldnt believe how much they really did in half and hour and wanted to train this way forever, because there were BETTER things to do than hang out in the gym all day training!! They told me that they had never worked so hard, but it was of high-quality and they felt sure great results would come.

Thats the bottom line, if you can get some great, results-orientated training in your life and it only takes 30 minutes, WHAT are you waiting for. This lets you get awesome results, allows more time to do other things and keeps the chances of you staying fresh and actually KEEPING to the programme very high.

What more do you want?

The science is there now to support all of this, lets make this a way of life you can keep up AND get fantastic results from!!!

Twitt
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10 weeks to go!

So have you had a great weekend of training like cyril has? Or has most of your weekend being spent feeling sorry for yourself in the pub saying you’re “definitely, this time, honestly im going to give it a good go after christmas”!!

This is prime excuse for anyone thats willing to throw in the towel now. Some of my most successful clients have started just before christmas and have been forever glad they did! Nothing feels worse than starting after christmas as your body is at its lowest ebb.

Too much alcohol would have been drunk, too much sugar and fat would gone through your body and there are usually any number of colds going around the area. This is when your immune system is at its year low, and the only way is up surely, the only problem is that it hurts a lot when you’re that out of condition and im advising you now to get going now, to save you the pain of after christmas training.

Starting now will also surprise people. Nothing better than surprising your friends and family by getting into great shape before christmas. You will then start 2011 with a fresh set of goals, and things you previously thought impossible will soon become achievable.

We concentrate a lot on here discouraging people from making excuses. These are the facts unfortunately. Most people work harder on making up far-fetched stories on why they cant be fit and healthy than they would if they suddenly embarked on a simple health and fitness programme, i know this to be true as i’ve heard all the excuses by now. I will now challenge people if they say they cant do things because i know thats not true. Most of us would like to do things the easy way, but im encouraging you all to take the hard road. Ironically, this will make life FAR EASIER in the long term once you have trust and give a minimum 12 weeks commitment to your workouts and proper food.

I say trust because thats what commitment is. I also know that the 12 weeks will be enough to show impressive progress and convince you what is possible.

The spending cuts by the government may be coming but theres no room for doom and gloon on here. There is only one way to go and thats up. No point fretting on all the negatives, lets make the most out of the cards we are dealt and make the end of 2010 a huge one, YES it is possible so lets do it!!!

Twitt
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Summer in october

The warmer weather may be the perfect excuse to get back to normal with your outdoor training, and with the average temperature this weekend likely to be 20 degrees, there has never been a better time to get out on the bike and go for a run and go for a walk, not necessarily all three of course but hopefully you will know what I mean!

This is your chance to set a marker in the sand and really go for it again, and tell yourself that this is the time to do it once and for all.

Its also a good time to remind yourself that next spring and next summer will be here soon enough too. Its not going to be good enough then to hang out in baggy jumpers and coats to hide how much weight you may or not put on. You will want to show your improvements off.

The hard work is always done over the winter months and it starts right now if you really want to make a spectacular difference to yourself. The most important workouts are always those you don’t really want to do and the news is that the dark mornings are already here, and cold evenings are waiting around the corner after this hot spell. It is a false dawn before the winter so lets make the most of it and think of the rewards that will be yours next spring.

There will be no baggy jumpers or baggy bottoms next year, you will be able to show off your transformation if you really apply yourself right now, spring will be full of compliments if you just show up for your own workouts and shop well for good food!

My guess is that you will be able to see lots of people on bikes etc this weekend in the warm so lets make the start right now. The same people are not likely to be out in the dead of winter and that’s the challenge, to keep your training up during the harder, darker months, when the real progress is made so lets give it your best, starting this weekend!!!

Twitt
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Show up and fight!

Pretty amazing progress is within all our grasp.

You must have heard some people who have made it big in life say that as long as you really focus on what you’re doing, what you’re trying to achieve, and the most important thing, YOU NEVER GIVE UP, then you can achieve absolutely anything you put your mind to.

If you haven’t got to where you want to go yet, and if you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you will probably be honest enough to admit where you’re going wrong.

You will have probably had wonderful periods of training and eating, you will probably have had some mediocre periods of eating too, and nobody can expect you to be wonderful all the time. But as long as you keep showing up all the time, or most of the time, then all good things await you. You have to trust me on that.

The more experienced you get, hopefully the down times should get less and the good times should form the majority of the year.

Each and every one of you tell me you feel lousy when you don’t train or eat badly, and especially when you do both.

All of this comes down to self-confidence or more likely, lack of self-confidence at times. Im not expecting you to be this super confident super achiever type of person. What I am expecting though is to show up in your workouts, when you make your big shop of the week, I wouldn’t expect to see white bread, biscuits, crisps, oven chips etc in your shopping trolley.

I’d expect a certain standard and that is very achievable for all of you.

The chocolate, crisps and wine stops in the petrol station during the week are not acceptable if you want to be in shape, they’re really not. It’s a free country for sure and we have a choice on how we look and feel. You know how to do it by now, you know that faddy diets will eventually drive you crazy and overweight, you know that moving is far better than sitting and you know the wonderful feeling of getting fitter and fitter.

So lets do this thing! Aim to improve every week but if you don’t EVERY week, then that’s no problem, but I guarantee if you show up all the time for your workouts, you take pride in your food shopping and what it contains, you don’t drink alcohol in the week, GOOD and even GREAT things will happen to you throughout every week, every month for the rest of your life.

Are you going to stick it this time? Or are we going to keep having this conversation?

TIME TO CHANGE RIGHT NOW!

Twitt