Posted on

Monday, 31st March

Training with purpose is the most important state of mind you need to get into when you enter the gym.

If you are half-hearted, not know what you are doing, feel lost when you are in the exercise environment, then its worth you spending time with me and let me develop your programme from start to finish again.

Most if not all people, I go through it time and time again with them.

We all get stuck, we all feel as if we could go to another level but really don’t know how at times how to pull it off.

We all remember great workouts we have had recently, but we may have lost our mojo on how to get those great feelings back of exercising so well. We all have “purple patches” of exercise, its important not to let them slide into a distant memory.

Regular good periods of exercise and food will guarantee you success every time, and self-monitoring, as well as me doing it will only help you continue to succeed ALL of the time.

This is why exercise diaries can be so valuable and record how well we have progressed, and quite often exactly why we have done so well. A small little notebook is often kept by the most productive of athletes, because they want to keep their roadmap of success fresh in their minds!

You may train harder when you workout with your favourite training partner, you probably work quite a bit harder when you train with me, so its always productive when you create the right training environment.

Not knowing what you are doing, going through the motions, just watching the clock when you exercise is not acceptable to me and it should definitely not be acceptable for you! Keep changing your programme and continually consult me about it, because that’s what I do full stop!

Twitt
Posted on

Monday, 24th March

A little known fact is that women recover quicker from their training than men.

The same with weight training or any other type of training.

Women produce more of the chemical that provides the energy to allow your muscles to work better, faster than men do.

Women also will experience less muscle soreness in the day after your workout, women will feel the soreness quicker but the pain and soreness will last more in the man.

This is what I have found over the years, in my experience a lot of men have had to have more time and rest in between workouts, while many of the women keep on coming back for more and recover quicker.

Another technical issue that separates men versus women reaction to exercise is that women will have a little more inflammation than men from a tough workout.

Your body then has to repair the broken down muscle tissue to build lean muscle tissue, and this is a great reason for your body to speed up its metabolism because it has to work hard in recovery.

This means your body will eventually burn more calories just resting 24 hours a day. When people talking about raising your metabolism, this would be a very good example so you are likely to stay leaner without working so hard for it in the future.

This is why strength training is so important for all of us to do, it sets us up to leaner, harder and strengthens our bones too.

Once your body does repair inside, the chances are that the same workout will not cause the same level of soreness again, and your body will become to crave strength work as the results start coming in fast.

Twitt
Posted on

Sunday, 16th March

Since we have become the opposite of gyms who just encourage their members to spend just endless hours on the treadmill and bike, it’s always vital to tell you why.

The variety in the gym has never been greater, and there is a strong reason for doing every one of these new and old exercises.

Every exercise has an energy cost.

Walking slowly has a relatively low energy cost, whilst doing sprints full tilt up hills has a very high energy cost.

Flipping tyres has a high energy cost, whilst pedaling at low intensity on a spin bike will have a low energy cost.

It stands to reason that if you doing a number of high energy cost exercises in your workouts, you are going to get much better results than most people who go through the motions at most other places.

This is not to say that you have to do every single toughest exercise there is, in every workout! That is wrong and often dangerous and counter productive.

Thinking about your exercise programme though is vital, and to constantly question yourself if you are really getting the best out of your training each time is a very healthy place to be.

There is a chart on the whiteboard showing what methods and equipment you are using, and how your results are developing.

Chances are that if you are employing all the things available to you in the gym right now over the course of a week, and using them on different days and getting better on them by the week, then over time your results are going to go through the roof-this is afact.

You may be tired to start with getting used to new movements, but the overall result will mean you become a much better athlete!

Twitt
Posted on

Friday, 7th March

Jason has asked me a good question on whether it was best to train in the evening or the morning. There are good pros and cons for both, but whatever you decide, its crucial you do what suits you, and exercise the time which you can actually do the most in a week!

Pro’s for working out first thing in the morning are;

1. you get it out the way early, meaning nothing is likely to disrupt your training such as something coming up later in the day.

2. you burn fat straight away training before breakfast, as you wont have any food in your system.

3. training early sets you up for the day! You will feel energized all day long and not feel more tired as some people would imagine.

4. the gym is quiet very early in the morning, you will not have to wait for equipment and you have plenty of room to move around.

5. it’s a good change, mixing around your training times can stimulate your body into fresh gains, and take you totally out of your comfort zone!

Negatives would be;

1. With no food in your system, your performances are likely to be not quite as good.

2. It takes time to get used to training first thing in the morning, I am used to it now, I do it every day at 5am and now I love it, but it took a while!

3. Your body is not fully warmed up that early in the morning, it can take a while to warm up especially on winter mornings, and this can be an issue avoiding injuries.

4. Your motivation can suffer. Its not always easy to get up at 5am for a session, and your mood will vary especially when the honeymoon period has come and gone.

5. It can affect your social life, getting up early every single day to train will mean you hitting the sack far earlier, and your bed times may differ quite a bit with the rest of your household.

I train people all times of day, and everyone performs super well, and theres no science to say one time is better than the other.

Whatever you decide, just make sure you keep hitting the sessions no matter what!

Twitt
Posted on

Wednesday, 12th February

The ability to eat well in social settings is one of the biggest difficulties most people face.

Some people eat the likes of pizza, Indian/Chinese takeways, party food “just to be sociable”, this is what many of you have told me over the years. The same could be the said about the pressure to drink alcohol every single time you go out no matter what.

Absolutely nothing wrong with the occasional treat, it keeps you fresh and you shouldn’t have to feel you are on some kind of “diet”!

To make the change publicly to eating healthily in front of your friends, or at least not making “quite as bad” choices is a difficult path for some of you to follow.

It is though a powerful sign that you are prepared for people to see that you are on this healthy path, that you don’t want to eat the fast food on offer all the time, and usually people I train are pleasantly surprised how positive it goes down with their friends.

Changing your behaviour and associations with food and alcohol is always difficult, and people will have a few comments to say about your new choices in public, but apart from that initial change and surprise, after that others will almost expect you not to eat all the rubbish in future, even if they are piling in themselves!

To get into shape and the physical conditioning you want to really achieve, you have the change your lifestyle for good. There is no other way and everyone I know who has had the best results over the longer term has changed their lifestyle and will never go back to the way they were.

Nothing feels better than being fit and healthy, to being close to your optimum body fat levels, and being capable of regularly improving your performance levels.

Nothing can beat that!

Twitt