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Monday, 1st October

It’s monday again, and also the start of the month. It is twelve weeks today to christmas day so if there was ever a day to get psyched up about getting fit and healthy, it has to be today!

We talked friday about how important and convenient it was to train at the weekend, but for those of you who put all your workouts into the week, then today, monday, is the most important day to set the tone for the rest of the week!!!

I always view monday as a huge day, not only its the first day for me back training people, but its an important marker for me in how my own workout is going. I rarely train along anyway and haven’t done for years. I either run or cycle with someone i train, or i do the same with weight training, and i ALWAYS get a better workout training with someone than training alone, as long as that person is committed.

If there is two of you training, then both of you can push each other. Maybe one day you are feeling a bit sluggish and down, then its up to that other person to get you off your behind and push you to your normal high levels!!!

The only problem with training partners is sometimes one of you isn’t great time keeping, and this can really get people fed up i have found!

Then there are many of you i know who like to train alone, to do your own thing when you want to do it, to suit all of the other commitments in your life, i know i used to be one myself!!

So whatever your situation, be sure to get your best workout of the week in today, or at least give it one heck of a shot! Setting the right tone today is a massive indication of the level of commitment you have to getting yourself in top shape!!

Twitt
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Wednesday, 26th September

As time goes by, technology allows us to do everything faster, more conveniently, and achieve a lot more in a record amount of time!

This has been proved to me yet again by two completely different training clients this week.

One is a 16 year old boy, who has already been training 5 years with me, and has gone from a very overweight young man, hating sport, to someone who has become very accomplished in exercise terms, is now very lean and pacy, and has reached national level in one of  his chosen sports, he plays three different sports now, and none of them rugby or foootball!!!

He has become very organised now, and now keeps training diaries and records of everything he does.

He told me the other day that he finds this whole process fascinating, purely because of the staggering progress he has made over the 5 years. He was shocked to see how he is training now, compared to the light and basic programme he had to start! He now realises that he can get in shape in a very quick period of time! He trains 5 times a week for 25 mins a time, and that’s it!!

This is how technology can work for you!

Then the other individual is someone who used to be fit and healthy, but now has several issues with his health and life in general.

He tried to get fit on his own, doing the same things he did when he was 20. It turns out he can’t do any of those things anymore, and he came to me in desperation, realising  even at 45 years of age, his body couldn’t move in any way like he used to, and he panicked about it!!

Six weeks on, he feels alive again! He is moving better, stronger, leaner and finally getting control of his diet, realising that whatever goes into his body will have a direct effect on the way he looks and feels!!

Best of all he says, exercising 4 times a week for 40 mins a time suits his lifestyle, and all the new moves and exercises are a tiny sacrifice to get him feeling young and healthy again.

Exercise doesn’t have to be all grunt, using your brain can make the whole process a lot more enjoyable and dramatically speed up your process!!!

Twitt
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Monday, 17th September

First of all, a big shout out to all of those cyclists who took part in the Gower bike ride on sunday, some found it harder than others and the overall feeling was that it went very well. Another message of support to the lady who has knocked down by a car on the Mayals Road, let’s hope she is okay after being airlifted from the scene. This hammers home the dangers of road cycling and how aware we need to be.

Cycling in general is matter of simply “doing it” !

When you first start learning to ride a bike, you simply do that, you learn how to handle your bike, the ups and downs, the fall offs, the twists and turns, and eventually you move on to using gears, and you finally discover how to go up hills, as well as the fun part of going downhills!

Then when we cut a very long story short, and you can do all of the things necessary to have full confidence to ride on your own, we then move on how to actually improve your performance, to get stronger and faster on a bike and how to last for longer.

This is a journey that can last a lifetime, and one thing you learn for sure as you get older is to ride “smarter!”.

Selecting the appropriate gears, hitting the right revolutions per minute (i always like 80 rpm), and learning how to use “drafting” to benefit in terms of work you have to do, using the wind to your advantage and benefitting from other cyclists in front of you, or even cars sometimes!

We can talk about all of these techniques and ins and outs of cycling, but the actual DOING IT is how you really develop, how you really learn how to handle a bike, and how you can end up doing such fulfilling charity rides such as the Gower bike ride yesterday, move on to triathlons maybe, or just set your own individual goals, such as your first century as one of my clients did the other day, all for his own personal satisfaction.

Don’t waste a moment and enjoy your ride, it’s all a matter of getting out there!!!

Twitt
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Friday, 24th August

Snacks-calorie breakdown

Snacks are vitally important as we talked about a couple of days ago, to keep energy levels up, and to keep important nutrients coming in throughout the day. Your diet needs to be all about energy and getting your performance levels right up there!

 Here are some ideas on what you should eat and their calorific value.

Fresh fruit for energy-100g usually

Apple-50

Pear-64

Banana-95

Blueberries-30

Kiwi fruit-29

Plums-34

Grapes-60

Strawberries-27

Satsuma-23

Dried fruit-to cure a sweet tooth and good for you

Sultanas-138

Raisins-136

Figs-43

Apricots-29

Low-fat yoghurts-provide calcium and nice desserts

Natural low-fat-56

Whole milk-79

Low-fat fruit-90

Low fat fromage frais-58

Nuts-50g-for essential fats

Cashews-287

Brazils-341

Almonds-306

Walnuts-344

Pumpkin seeds-57

Sunflower-57

Mixed nuts chopped-304

Hazlenuts-325

 As you can see by this list, we are talking about good healthy natural foods that are going to do you the world of good!

Please throw out the other sugary snacks such as biscuits, crisps and chocolate, the fact that they are still in the house means that they will get eaten at some stage or another, so give them away to someone who will appreciate them!

Snacks have often been the area where i have seen a lot of individuals leave themselves down. We have talked about the usual suspects such as chocolate, crisps, biscuits but what about the ones with real hidden dangers?

I am talking about cereal bars, and these were highlighted in the news this week as containing much more saturated fat and refined sugars than even chocolate in some cases.

When you add all the chemicals that they put in that you have never even heard of, then you have a very destructive so called snack that is going to put body fat on, and give you a lot of useless energy that is unusable by the body.

Eat natural and this means eating well

Twitt
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Monday, August 20th

With the economy still in the doldrums, most people have learnt to adjust to the new demands of life. Most are now spending less, and what they do spend on have become very discerning on what they are prepared to spend on.

They realise now that they have so much packed in their day, they cant devote huge amounts of time to getting in shape, so they want the ultimate workout packaged up in a user-friendly way, and progress showed to them constantly.

Having dealt with very busy people for years now, it was important for me to recognise that most individuals want economy of effort in attaining big results and this was the bottom line for me.

In other words, they don’t want to spend a whole lot of time getting what they want, and super results in a quick period of time are tough to get, but CAN be done and this is the good news and this is my whole philosophy now, and has brought out a whole new performance in me and everyone I train!

Every exercise and movement needs to be well-thought out when you are working against the clock. 20-30 minute workouts can be often superior to the long drawn out efforts that most people have been accustomed to in the past.

Each exercise always has an energy “cost”, usually meaning the tougher the exercise, the higher the energy cost, which means more calories burnt and more body fat lost. This is why lots of my workouts are full of these so called “tougher” exercises.

The first thing is before any of this is learning each movement and doing it with complete safety, I cannot budge from that.

Then the tempo and intensity required has to be taught, and got used to.

Then when we get to the level where workouts are done at a good pace without much of a break, this is when true economy of effort is really valuable and you will get a lot of return for a relatively low time investment. This is a high return workout went taught properly and once you learn it, you are unlikely to go back to the slow, laboured way of working that probably brought you mediocre results at best!

Time to change, save a lot of time and re-think what you’re doing.

Twitt