Posted on

Tuesday, 2nd April

So here we are, Easter has come and gone, lots of you have been on mini-trips, and been enjoying yourself over the holiday, and why not!!

Easter signifies for me how much work you have really put in over the winter? Have you been working hard when it was freezing and wet, as well as when it was dark at 4pm?!!! This is when it really counted and the annual expectation that some have got to look great in one month is often a foolish one.

This is why i write this thing year round, because EVERY single week is important, every monday to friday in terms of training and eating is ultra-important to shape your destiny this year. Ideally, you would have taken some of that stuff in i was writing every day, and applied it to get some decent results. I know that is clearly the case with a lot of you.

If you have ignored what i said in all of those winter months, and indeed the last four years, then no need to worry, i will certainly not be offended and will gladly continue to try and help you.

If today is indeed your first day of trying to get into shape for the summer, than i welcome you onboard!

The first thing you need to look at is your food cupboards, and are they full of sugary and fatty foods, or are they full of good wholesome foods. If they dont come up to scratch, then please plan ahead and make your next supermarket shop your first start, filling that trolley will foods as natural as possible, without all the added sugar, salt and saturated fat, start drinking more water and start moving, and by that i mean exercising, however small in duration terms.

The fact that you started is the most important thing you can do today, and you can still make a difference to yourself by the summer, if you knuckle down right now!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Monday, 25th March

The biggest thing you can change this week would be getting salt out of your diet. You get enough sodium in most foods, and overdoing it with salt can be a really bad idea.

Adding salt to your foods is a cardinal sin, and this one will hold water and fluid in your body like nothing else! Fluid retention is unpleasant and I know a lot of people get it, getting rid of salt will get rid of it for you.

Cooking with salt is something that many people consider “natural”, the same factors apply here too. Adding salt to your foods is strongly linked to high blood pressure problems, water retention and other serious health problems. Salt added to foods that make them highly processed are causing big problems around the world, and nows the chance to turn back from that road and fire on all cylinders and reach new levels of performance and health!

In fact, there was a big story in the press at the weekend about salt being linked to more deaths than sugary drinks, this is a serious charge when you consider all the terrible press that sugary drinks have had lately!!!

When you get salt out of your diet, straight away you may notice your food doesn’t taste as nice, but these feelings will go soon enough, and when you get used to cooking without salt, you will never go back to your old ways!! It would be like going from having two sugars in your tea to no sugar overnight. Tough to start with but you will never go back to adding the sugar would you?!!!

Refreshing that salt is getting exposed in the press, after getting away with it to a degree compared to sugar and saturated fat!!

Time to change right now!

The benefits of no salt go all the way across the range, and from a health standpoint, as well as looking and feeling a lot leaner, salt has to go and it needs to go now.

Twitt
Posted on

Thursday, 21st March

An interesting question from someone I train today.

When I give out home workouts for individuals to do, many here will already know its usually 6-8 exercises, done for a total of 3 times. Most people tend to thrive and get serious results from this type of training, and then by the week we tend to increase the numbers for each exercises.

For example, if you can do 5 press ups in week one, and with gradual improvement you can do 25 press ups in week 6 or week 8 even, then you have made serious improvements. If you apply this to each exercises, and theres no reason to doubt that, then the across the board results can be staggering!

This has often been the case over the years, and this type of training forms the foundation of my home training.

The question I had was “could I do all of the exercises numbers in one go?”, what was meant by that statement was if the person was asked to do 3 sets of 10 press ups, then could they do 30 in one go? I have talked about the one set theory before, and one all out effort can work very well indeed, but it is very tough to do.

This is why I tend to spread the effort over 3 sets. This is also why I don’t do MORE than 3 sets, I want to spread the effort out over 3 sets, but I don’t want to lose intensity of the workout by spreading it out TOO much.

So the answer is that most people 3 sets of an exercise is just about right, but if you have the inclination and want to get your workout over much quicker, and are willing to put a huge effort in, then doing one set of everything can work incredibly well!

Twitt
Posted on

Monday, 18th March

A great day to be Welsh on saturday, an unbelievable result and great to see a great team effort coming back so strong, especially after the nightmare against Ireland in the first game. This shows unity, teamwork and a deep seated belief.

Monday is the same for them though as it is for us. Time maybe to still reflect on the weekend, but our minds need to be very much on today and the week ahead. The professionals from saturday will today be back into their stride. They will be eating right again, taking in plenty of fluids, ready to train well and look forward to the weekend’s games.

You should have that same attitude too. It may sound fanciful to you, but getting a professional attitude will keep you in shape for a lifetime.

Those of you who are used to peforming at a high level most of the time, will be used to eating the right things at the right times. You will be used to taking onboard enough water throughout the day, you will be getting to bed early in the week to make sure you recover from your workouts, and this is very much close to the attitudes those boys on saturday are used to showing in their normal daily lives.

This is what i try to teach individuals in their training too of all ages-professional training techniques that will get you results far quicker, and just as importantly, in a totally safe way that won’t stress your joints!

You have all the information now to train and eat like a pro, never has there been an opportunity like right now too get into the shape of your life!!

Twitt
Posted on

Monday, 4th February

Two big sporting losses for me at the weekend, Wales of course lost against ireland with such a poor first half performance,it was scarcely credible! This left wales too much to do in the second half and so it proved.

You cannot continue to make such serious mistakes at such a high level so often and expect to get away with it!

Then the san francisco 49ers lost againt the baltimore ravens last night in the superbowl!

The 49ers didn’t really perform to anything like what they could normally do, and left the first half so far down,it seemed impossible to get back in front.

They nearly pulled it off though and finally lot 31-34 in a classic superbowl!!

This is the magic of sports,and the theatre is creates. This is why a lot of us watch it in such big numbers!!!

If wales and the 49ers were more consistent, and play like they could play, the result could have been much different.

This is exactly the same with your training and eating.

If you lack consistency with either,you are going to be struggling to perform well, lose body fat and feel as good as you know you could.

If you do not start the week off today by being consistent with a good training session and solid nutrition, then you are likely to struggle the rest of the week.

You should be concentrating on getting a lot of good food in during your supermarket shop. You will need the nutrients to power your workouts, recover from your workouts, and keep your immune system strong, especially in the cold and wet winter we are having.

Consistency will always be your best friend, and the more you practice it, the more it will seem like totally the most natural thing to do!!

Twitt