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Tuesday, 14th August

The Olympics continue to make the headlines for all the right reasons, and when you delve into the successes some more, you can see why a lot  of these athletes have improved so much

Any athlete who wants to be at the top of his/her game, now has to work harder every day, every week, and every year if they want to become successful in the next Olympics in Rio in 2016.

If you apply the same level of detail to your own training as previously discussed, then of course you can reach new highs and fairly quickly.

For example, you don’t need to accept that just because you are getting older, then the famous, or make that infamous “middle aged spread” will definitely happen! This is not the case.

While it is indeed true that you cannot eat as much and as uncontrolled as you did when you were 18, with a bit of thought and a bit of control, you will be able to control new successful strategies in your life that will offer healthy low levels of body fat and increased workout performances.

This is true of ANY AGE, not only do I see it in the “middle aged spread” category, but I see it with teenagers and senior’s in the 70’s.

If your diet is all over the place at the moment and you lack direction, then its time you stopped putting up with this lack of strong mindset and re-programmed yourself for success.

You don’t have to be this incredible Olympian either to do it! All you have to do is start paying more attention to the way you live your daily life. Model yourself on those who are successful with their weight, their body fat levels and their performances.

Whilst Jessica ennis will likely be very, very strict on her diet, and has been for many years, you can create a stricter version of yourself which will automatically take you up several different levels if you give it some time to work.

Consistency of eating well and training hard and regular can never be underestimated and is the true secret of champions.

Twitt
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Wednesday, 1st August

Usain Bolt says once you come out of the blocks in a 100 metres race, and out of the drive phase, then the last 40-50 metres is quite relaxing for him, and there’s nothing he can do to make himself run quicker.

If you see quotes from most world-class athletes, they try and stay away from any great strain in their efforts and rely on great technique and even relaxing at times throughout their races/competition.

This can apply to your training too of course.

Have you noticed when you start to run, it seems so much of a strain, that you may never get to the stage when you will be able to run without straining yourself.

Then with a bit of walking, a bit of running, bit of walking, then some more running, you end up getting to the stage when you can actually run all of the time. This is extremely difficult to do and its the practice you need to get in to eventually alleviate all of this discomfort and strain.

Anyone who runs now, or who has had to go through this process will testify that all of this is true.

Then the next stage to go through can be quite a pleasant one.

When your fitness gets up considerably, you eventually get to RELAX in your running stride, and this enables you to run for much longer distances.

For many of you who can run good distances,  you will experience the ability to get some serious “thinking time” in your running. This means that you can relive your day through your run or think about a business opportunity or think about your family or anything you want, as the actual process of running is not that difficult anymore, it has become more of a regular thing in your life, and the ability to relax is absolute key for you!

These are all different processes along the way of being in your best possible shape!!

Twitt
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Thursday, 10th May

Adjusting your eating in the first place to become a healthier, fitter person is one of the hardest, most uncomfortable processes we go through.

Although most of us show great enthusiasm when we say we will and want to change our lifestyle, the actual knuckling down to it all can be much harder than we thought.

Most people who are overweight and unhealthy exist on a diet of high refined sugars and high in saturated fat. This is the ultimate double whammy in becoming the most unhealthy version of yourself, and the bad news is that this way of eating can take a lo of getting used to.

Not only that but those of you who eat a lot of “bad” and “empty” calories (in terms of nutritional value), will usually be prone to drinking a lot of these worthless calories in too.

If you see someone carrying a big bottle of coke or pepsi down the road for instance, then its fairly reasonable to expect them to be overweight.

If you see someone who “calls for a pint” every night or every other night in the pub, then is usually guaranteed they will be overweight, and if not, certainly unhealthy inside which can be even worse.

Since most people who live this lifestyle have been on it most of their lives, then of course it is going to be very difficult indeed to get off this path.

The great news is though that once you leave the path of making yourself extremely unhealthy over the long term, the changes can start happening fairly quickly, and happen much quicker again when you start exercising properly, or just even moving around more.

As I said, the hardest decision is often to change your diet in the first place and get on the right road. I don’t consider the right road to be slimming clubs either, they are the quick path to yo-yo dieting and ultimate failure and self-confidence destruction (scientific studies say that 97% of dieters put the weight back on and 5% more).

Im talking about eating healthy, eating fresh when possible and eating foods as much in their natural state as possible. This is the right road that will eventually take you to ultimate health and a strong standard of fitness.

Twitt
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Thursday, 16th February, 2012

This week we have talked about not making excuses about lacking time to train, how we can really make the most of ten minutes when that’s all we have, and to make quality come first in assessment of our workouts, rather than “just working out for an hour” and that’s our benchmark and that’s it!!

Another not very time consuming tool that’s very powerful for the effort put in is self measurement.

How long does it take to measure your own waist and hips, or get someone else to do it for you?

I have talked about it many times before, if you measure yourself around once a month and see if you have come down a little bit in terms of inches, then you know you’re doing something right!

If an individual comes down 1-2 inches a month, then you would consider that great progress.

Inches off your waist are nearly always a better indication on how you’re doing than weight on the scales, which are often inaccurate due to a variety of reasons.

If you lose weight off your waist, then your clothes will feel much better, another tried and tested way to show progress.

Losing inches off your waist is one of the best ways to tell if you are fit and healthy, and to avoid serious disease.

Your waist size should always be a maximum of half your height in inches.

In other words and using simple maths, say you were 6 foot tall, that would be 72 inches since there are 12 inches in a foot of course.

So your waist should not be more than 36 inches and ideally a little smaller.

Medical science has proven that this is a very good formula for showing true health.

You secretly know too that if you are carrying too much weight on your stomach and hips, that you are not as healthy as you could be, that you will not be as confident as you could be for the summer, when you are likely to be wearing less clothes, that you are not as confident in visiting the doctor for a health check up and you won’t have as much energy as once had when you are in peak condition.

Do the waist test on yourself or get someone else to do it, and in general, you will be able to tell how much work you have to do!!!

Twitt
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Thursday, 29th December

If you got into your workouts gently yesterday, then today is a day to step up the ante.

You have to face reality that your first “proper” workout will hurt a little bit, and it will be a little uncomfortable, due to the high likelihood of your eating too much and drinking too much maybe. Throw in some lack of sleep and you have the perfect combination for inferior workouts!

The great thing about getting through a good workout today is that you are bound to feel better from it. It may be painful to get through at times, but after you have managed to get your blood flow going, the aches and pains will slowly go and you will leave the scene of your workout in much higher spirits than when you first started!

Another neglected part of Christmas for most people is the lack of water consumed.

Water is the most important part of feeling and looking food. Without it and its not going to happen for you full stop. Your internal workings and your vital organs wont function properly if you don’t hydrate yourself adequately every day. Water is vital to human life, so lets make every effort to get something that is so fundamental to your health 100% right now.

I was guilty of it myself over Christmas, drinking too much tea and coffee, and in a matter of days, realising your energy levels have gone so far south, you don’t have the inclination to exercise, and even if you have, your performance is unlikely to be anywhere near your normal levels.

I guarantee that if you get a good workout in today, and you sip water throughout the day and especially in your workout, you will feel 100% better and as close to your normal self as is humanly possible.

After all, the sooner you feel better, the sooner you are going to perform better and eat well too. A lot of people I know don’t feel they have the incentive to eat well unless they have trained.

It all starts with today’s workout, don’t follow the crowd and wait until the new year, hit it today and lets get the feeling good process moving right now!!!

Twitt