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More focus in your training/cycling

The same old training all the time brings with it more limited results, and a lack of motivation because you will be doing the same old thing all the time.

If you’re out cycling today, then you may be just in the mood to get out there and coast it, no problem at all with that.

If you’re out to do something different and add something quickly to your fitness, i would look to challenge yourself a little more.

Easy ways to do this on a cycle path for instance, would be to pick off targets along the way. Paula Radcliffe for instance would aim to chase down targets or runners in front of her. If you see someone in front of you cycling, then try to chase them down and eventually pass them, then you can coast for a while.

When you get your breath and legs back, you can chase down the next one and so on. 20 minutes of this type of workouts will get you breathing very hard indeed!!

You can mix it up on the hills too, there must be some path or some succession of roads that you never thought you’d be able to cycle up? Well, let’s go and try it!!

I would start like this. Take your time more than normal on the flat, and do your best to get up the very steep hills, work up gradually of course and don’t take on the worst hill to start with!

The key to climbing hills on the bike is to stick to a pace that you can keep with. No point going off like mad and then blowing up 15 yards later, remember you’re not in the Tour De France and its not a race up the mountains.

You will get confidence from making gradual progress and the first time you take on a tough hill, that will be the worst feeling you’ll ever get because IT IS your first time. Every time you take that hill on after that, IT WILL FEEL BETTER AND EASIER. It’s all a question of practice and not quitting after the first time you do it because you didn’t achieve that much.

I’ve trained lots of people take on the most mammoth of hills, and they have lived to tell the tale! They developed great self belief from their accomplishments and they are proud to say that their cycling is now first-class and now literally no hill scares them, in fact some people go searching for them now!!!

Have a great day and an even better bike ride!

Twitt
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Uncertainty

The worst thing we have in our lives is uncertainty.

We are sometimes not certain how much money we will earn, not certain how much our bills will be, how much will our next car cost, will we meet our mortgage payments, how our health will be perhaps being the biggest etc etc.

The stock market for instance has hated all the uncertainty of the liberal/conservative fiasco, nobody likes uncertainty full stop!

Most if not all of you show uncertainty in your health and fitness programme at times, and some of you have posted here not knowing which way to turn at times.

You have been encouraged by others and hopefully by myself on here, because we all have had doubts, we all have uncertainties running through us at times, and its how we react to all of that worry that determines where we end up.

Make the ultimate wrong decision such as going on a mega-binge in times of stress and it can lead to a longer decline if not sorted out straight away. Weight gain ALWAYS leads to feeling worse than you ever should have done in the first place!

If you have a longer term plan and  true understanding of what it takes, then you are likely to react favourably under times of great uncertainty. This comes from experience though and you shouldn’t be hard on yourself if you make mistakes, all of us make mistakes and those who say they don’t are liars!

I would rather make a thousand mistakes but as long as i learned from most of them, i would know i have become a better person because of them, and are likely to make better decisions in future in times of doubt and uncertainty.

We all are learning and those who think they know it all are usually just that, know it all’s, and we all know a few but they are usually regarded as fools or to be pitied.

Whatever doubts you have, you know there is plan and way out of it, lots of resources on here to encourage you on the right path so let’s give it a go and be the success you always knew you could be!!

Twitt
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The train has left the station!

Getting some momentum in your training makes all the difference, as debbie is obviously discovering now that she is off the alcohol. Things are moving in the right direction for her, and she says she hasn’t had to make this  huge kind of effort to get there. Once she got into a new routine, and one that she has been very familiar with in the past, she is continuing to make the right choices and she is confident to post it here, and to inspire others.

She says its never too late, and although she didn’t do as well as she could have in the challenge, she is certainly making up for it now!

It’s like a train leaving the station, it chuggs away very slowly and with a lot of noise when it leaves the station, but when it leaves eventually, it gathers momentum and when at full pace, is a sight to behold and has huge momentum and nothing’s going to stop it!!! That sounds like what debbie is moving like now, and with that kind of mometum, the results and overall progress could be huge.

Now if you ask someone what feels better, is it a few beers and a life of takeways and chocolates? Or a life of feeling good about yourself 24 hours a day, full of energy, occasional treats and a good balance in your life of eating well 80% of the time, exercising well 80% of the time and sleeping well?

Heck of a choice there and i know some of you will go with the beers and takeways!! And its your choice because we are still a free country and you can make any choice you want. However long it takes you, as long as you get your life on a more healthy level, then thats great news to me and it will be for you i’m sure!

All i know is that anyone who has had a few years of eating rubbish, and not training at all, and THEN changing it around by eating the right things, and suddenly putting exercising into their life, ALWAYS TELL ME that their life is now better, and should have done it years ago, THIS HAPPENS 100% OF THE TIME!

If you haven’t tried it yet, give it a go, you never know you may like it!!

Twitt
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Benefits of being strong!

Back on my schedule today again, the 6.10am run and the day off yesterday did me no end of good so im hitting this message today with no end of energy too!

 I like to talk about balancing your schedule throughout the week, and how important it is to have your week planned in a broad sense to make sure you are successful each week full stop.

You always need to be doing some strength work a minimum twice a week to boost your metabolism, increase the rate your body burns calories 24 hours per day, really firm you up all over, get you stronger and fitter all round.

For many years, doctors argued that weight training and resistance work of all kinds would simply give you a heart attack if you pushed it too hard and would give you high blood pressure too. We all know now that the opposite is true.

Making gains in your health and fitness plan is impossible without having resistance training in your plan.

Another myth that used to be put around was that strength training slowed you down a lot.

The heaviest users of weight training in the running world are always the sprinters. Try telling someone who can run under 10 seconds for the 100 metres that weight training/resistance training slows you down!

The realities are that the athletes were the ones finding out first what worked before the doctors. The doctors would then research the claims made by athletes and then verify all the amazing benefits that they were constantly reporting.

Now any sport from tennis, to football, to squash, to canoeing all use strength training as vital parts of their weekly training, year round!! None of this rubbish “i don’t want to get too big”!! If only that was possible that easy!!! Sportsmen are discovering the benefits of strength training in all sorts of different ways for their chosen sport, and are not “getting big and slow”, they are getting sharper, fitter and lasting a lot longer into their 30’s than ever before.

A lot of strength training is about avoiding injury too. Most people dont know that you are strengthening your bones and joints when you use resistance too. This makes your body work together in harmomy more, making the chance of injury much less.

When you get in old age, you want strong tendons and ligaments, as well as strong joints and bones to avoid falls for instance, and to do things that will still give you a high quality of life. We all want to be active into old age but you have to create a strong base and foundation first.

You need to do your strength work AND cardiovascular work (running, walking, cycling, swimming etc), thats a perfect balance!!

Have a great sunday and thanks for visiting!

Twitt
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The right path

It’s never to late to take the right path. We have all chosen certain ways of doing things, approaching challenges etc, and many of us are too stubborn to change course, even if the ship is at times heading firmly for the rocks.

It stands to reason that we fall for the best marketing technique when choosing a way to be healthy. Actually, that was wrong, most marketing techniques are aimed at those who want to lose weight, whatever the consequences! Being “healthy” doesn’t seem to matter to most people as you would think. Associating losing weight with being totally healthy is misguided at best.

Living the healthy lifestyle involves a number of factors, and losing some weight can be beneficial of course if you have to lose in the first place.

Choosing what food and drink goes into your body matters greatly.

Exercising regularly matters heck of a lot.

Sleeping properly is hugely important.

Living life in a positive manner supports your immune system, being negative often brings on stress which attacks your immune system, you can see how important this is.

I find that most people go through all the marketing techniques before they get to me usually. I can be the last resort to some, but bringing people back to doing the right thing is always the answer.

Doing the “right thing” again after going through so many faddy ways of doing things may not work immediately believe it or not. Because you will have confused your body so much by constant dieting, and different methods of dieting, your body can be resistant to new ways of losing the weight.

I will concentrate on doing the right thing and your body has to get used to finally getting used to consuming all the important nutrients again. You have to get used to working out properly, doing the right exercises on the right amount of days, with enough rest in between. This will help you sleep better, which is massively important to your ultimate success.

So once you’re on a solid plan, regular improvements should come almost on a weekly basis to start with. These improvements will constantly increase your belief in the programme, and with that will come self-confidence.

After you’ve had some experience doing the right thing continuously, you will wonder how on earth you ever fell for all the faddy marketing techniques in the first place. Don’t feel like a fool, there are people out there making a lot of money in “selling” you this imaginary result that is never likely to happen, or at least last for an extended period or a lifetime.

So whatever your position, its never too late to get on the programme and put your body on a firmer course. All I know is that this way works, there may be some ups and downs, but ultimately you’re going to arrive in a better place, and you will be able to keep it up for life without too much trouble.

Its always the right time to do the right thing!

Twitt