Posted on

Tuesday, 11th June

The reason you are doing this is often forgotten, but this reason is often what will pick you up when you’re down, when you don’t feel like training that day or week, this reason will also help you shop better for food, not stray into eating junk food at times, and generally keep you on track.

Some people use a photograph of themselves when they were really in shape all those years ago, and sometimes stick it on the fridge to incentivize them to eat well, even when they have the strongest of urges not to!

Some people use a photograph of themselves carrying TOO MUCH weight! This can also help them get fired up so they don’t look like that ever again!

We need these little cue’s on often on a daily basis, so eating well really does become part of your daily life.
I always use the brushing teeth example. Ask yourself why you really clean your teeth and you will realize why you clean them every morning and every night before bed, these types of questions you need to ask yourself when it comes to exercising and eating well.

Ask yourself what it really means to you, how much you’re going to benefit from an improved healthy lifestyle, and how much better you’re going to look and feel from it?

Then ask yourself what it would mean to your lifestyle if you DID NOT adopt a healthy lifestyle? What would the negatives be? What would you lose in terms of the way you look and feel?!!
Whether it’s a diary you keep, or the photos you put on the fridge, the photos you have of yourself on your phone or computer, whether its your new years resolution you may actually achieve this year, or the life-changing decision you made to get healthy in the first place for WHATEVER reason, keep reminding yourself and you’re bound to keep improving!

Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday,4th June

Assuming you started the week off very well yesterday by having a very positive workout, then its surely time you became very serious about supporting that effort with some serious eating.

Apart from all the energy you need, you also need to consider how your “engine” is performing inside your body, after all if this was not happening then you would never even consider top quality workouts, especially in the hotter weather we are experiencing right now.

Are you taking enough fruit in?

Are you taking enough wholegrain carbs in with a slow energy release?

Are you taking regular intakes of protein which repairs all the breaking down of lean muscle that takes place during one of your tougher exercise sessions?

Are you eating regularly and really taking advantage of keeping your energy stores high at all times?

And how about the most important factor in all this talk about tough workouts and warm weather training-WATER!!!

If you are not taking regular sips of water throughout the day, then your body simply will noty cope with the extra hard workouts done in a much warmer temperature. This is the thing that I have to keep on to everyone about during a week like this!

If there is one thing you can do this week, please become much more aware of the need to stay hydrated. If you are already thirsty, then you are already dehydrated according to studies done over the last several years, so remember that thirst is NO GUIDE to hydration levels, and the temperature rise only makes that problem worse!!

So like we talked about yesterday, you should be celebrating all the nice weather AND the opportunity to exercise in it. The big thing to remember however, is to prepare properly and treat your body like a car engine or hopefully much better, and prime yourself ready to perform!

Don’t forget the sunscreen though, another forgotten tactic that should be a whole subject on its own!

Twitt
Posted on

Monday, 3rd June

With the temperatures finally rising, there is even greater opportunity to train hard and expand your options! This is what you would think anyway.

My experience with people i bump into in general life says that people usually get diverted in the warmer weather, and the summer months are not usually the best throughout the year. My own experience with the people i actually train is that because they have a good level of commitment, and i do a lot of early morning sessions, then the weather becomes less of a factor and my summer months of training individuals can be very productive indeed.

I do a lot more cycling sessions in the summer. I run more in the summer, i even do swimming sessions sometimes in the summer! I do some hiking up mountains in the summer due to the much more pleasant conditions, and i still manage to get a lot of indoor work done too. I love the variety at this time of year due to the extra light, the better surface running conditions and generally everywhere is so much more accessible!

So the message here today is to get away from thinking that its “too warm” to train, or you could be doing “other things””, its time to be more positive and realise how many more different options you now have in your training, and have the courage of your convictions and actually do them, instead of talking a good game!

Plan your training sessions in advance, work hard when you get to your training venue, follow through on what you planned to do, drink enough water and make sure you have some available at all times, and eat well afterwards.

This is a successful way to do it, then keep planning your sessions and exactly what you intend to do.

Don’t gie up on yourself, recognise what all this nice weather has to offer and embrace it for much better results!!

Twitt
Posted on

Thursday, 30th May

The pain and frustration in coming back from injury or illness is always difficult.

Its times like these when you really appreciate what you were capable of in the recent past, and you will do anything to get back to where you were.

First of all, you may be tempted to come back too early, and what usually happens is that you re-injure the problem that stopped you in the first place, which adds to the frustration again!

You have to learn not to work through the pain, and allow your body to re-adjust in its own time, this is the tried and tested way to do things properly.

When coming back from illness, you must take it easy, and allow your body to get fully used to training again, meaning you should do far less than normal. You should only be training if you feel well enough, not rushing back into things.

If you take the following example into account, you will see what i mean.

Studies show that when a pro athlete takes a week off, it usually takes them one to two weeks to get back where they were. If they have four weeks off, then it can take four to eight weeks to get back to normal. This shows that you MUST take your time when returning from injury or illness, take advice if possible and look for guidance on your journey back to full health.

Twitt
Posted on

Wednesday, 29th May

Internal changes to your body are the true measures of success, without these changes your body would not be able to perform in the way you would like.

If your heart is not functioning properly, then there is no way you can perform in the way you would want. You couldn’t test yourself in any sort of way, and you will always be worrying about what could go wrong with you body, instead of what was going right!

There’s nothing worse than admitting defeat with your body, and claiming that you can never even train hard anymore! Worse than this, there is something worse-telling yourself that you can’t even train anymore AT ALL!!

These things tend to happen when you don’t look after yourself, and this is why internal health is vital, even though you cannot see it on the outside!!

I have met an awful lot of people who have had their lives curtailed by their health, some through no falt of their own.

If you can do something about it though, you had better get on it straight away and go through some tests.

Cholesterol tests, blood pressure, resting heart rate tests are all things you can sort out very quickly.

Please do it today and treat your internal health as an absolute priority, this way the way you look and feel will change almost immediately with a sensible eating and exercise plan.

Twitt