Posted on

13th April 2011

Making a statement that you are doing your best with your training, you are doing your best with your food is a lot harder than what usually what happens in practice.

The hardest thing i have to achieve with individuals is getting them to believe in themselves, and to develop confidence in themselves, if i can do this, then i know i have won the hardest battle and things should move along very quickly after this.

All the great coaches in sport and in  business pursue this quest all the time, and use different ways to do it.

Some people need a good shouting at, in fact they thrive on it.

Some people would crumble if you shouted at them, and their confidence would be lost forever, this is why every individual is different and needs to be handled with different degrees of care!

Telling someone that they will soon be capable of climbing any hill, any mountain and by climbing i mean running or walking hard! I am no expert in mountaineering and im not pretending to be, but i do know how to get up vicious hills and how to get others up the same challenging hills!!

It is all small steps, and you have to demonstrate to the individual that there is progress each and every week. If you focus on progress then you will already be in the fast lane of development. If you simply show up and go through the motions, your workouts will not only be very boring but unproductive too, and thats exactly the situation you don’t want to be in!!!

The positive nature of hill training can never be underestimated! Everyone who i have ever taken up hills always conquers their insecurities about their true ability and sometimes, a new and much more confident person is born from being able to conquer any hill in the area. You may also find that the same person will never run flat again, the prospect of hill running or walking can be addictive not only in the challenge factor, but the results in terms of fitness are always tremendous!!!

Get up there and give it a go as long as you have developed your fitness to a good standard! There must be a hill which you currently think is impossible, its to to crush your fears and surprise yourself so give yourself 6 weeks to conquer it, edging up further each workout, a little progress every week will lead to massive progress over 6 weeks so plan it and see how well you can do!!

Twitt
Posted on

April 6th 2011

April is a great month for health and fitness full stop.

We all are complaining about the ridiculous prices on food at the moment, but with more local produce being available soon because of the better weather, there should be better and cheaper fruit and vegetables around, plus more fresh and tastier food full stop.

It really pays sometimes to visit your local farm shop once in a while. Theres lots of fresh everything and a lot of home made food even for you to get stuck into. For example, the difference in the price of eggs these days compared to even the supermarket can be phenomenal, plus you know where those local eggs are coming from in the farm shop.

The closer you can get to eating fresh food the better, in terms of the way you look and feel, after all what goes on internally in your body is critical to the way you’re going to look.

People are becoming more aware of health full stop now, as was illustrated in the report this week on our shopping habits. White bread for example is now on the decline for the first time ever in 30 years of shopping analysis. This is a clear sign that a lot of people are making small steps to make sure they live longer and have a better quality of life.

Small steps will always mount up into one massive big step if you stick by simple rules.

Refined sugars have no place in your diet, neither do ready meals or “low calorie” biscuits and cakes, nor does alcohol in the week or so called “low fat healthy” cereals such as frosties, perhaps the biggest false description of all time, of course it has little fat but it is absolutely LOADED with sugar, that will be detrimental to your health in the long term.

Surely it is better to take the plunge now and spring into summer with plainer, more natural foods that will give you a lift right now and for the rest of your life? The natural way has to be the only way so lets get ready to work hard in the good weather to come over the next week!!!!

Twitt
Posted on

April 4th 2011

Good weeks and fresh starts are often kick started by weekends or weeks away sampling richer foods that we don’t normally eat.

If you consume mainly fresh nutritious food nearly every day, then when you experience foods much richer and more full of saturated fat, then your body is not going to react too well. Having been away the weekend, i now feel far less energetic than when i went away on friday. I did go a run on sunday morning, but this was a far more painful run than normal, and i must admit i struggled around far more than my normal early morning runs.

 It was all down to richer food, more salty food and far inferior food in terms of nutritional content than normal, performance is always affected by the quality of nutrients we put into our bodies, and i have to admit, i didnt do too well over the weekend. I wasn’t putting any chips in, or eating every cake in sight, but it was a far less impressive version of my normal weekend’s eating and im still paying now!

To say i need a great start to the week is a huge understatement, and i know my workouts today, as its a monday, will always shape the rest of the week. If i go in half-hearted, i will have a half-hearted week, or definitely medicore in terms of results, exactly what i don’t want to happen!

This type of thinking can also become a negative spiral. Let’s say i didnt train today, or tomorrow and wrote the rest of the week off. This would mean i would really need to start next week off well, but what if something came up? I couldnt get to train and the next week was gone too!! Sound familiar? If it does, then you need to realise that these mondays are highly important to get your week off to a great start, and it will also stop you getting into sloppy habits!!!

Lets give it a huge start this monday and do our best!!!! I’m out to break out of this myself today so i will be going through the pain too!!

Twitt
Posted on

28th March 2011

Another fresh week and the clocks have gone forward at last!!! The weather is considerably warmer and brighter, and winter seems to have gone away. I have seen this situation before though and end of march and early april can still surprise us by being very cold, so we will wait and see!!! Anyway for now, things are good so hopefully you’re going to be making the most of it.

Not all of you are well of course as jean has said, she is suffering terribly with her chest infection that even has involved hospital visits like the one this saturday just gone. Nothing i can say can make it that much better right now, but all jean has to remember is that she can get back to health again, and when she does, it won’t be too long at all before she gets to being back out on her bike, or whatever she feels like doing. Health is number one, and she can make it happen!!!

Cyril is also struggling, this time with his back and i have been encouraging to blow up his swiss ball and do some exercises on it to relieve pressure on his back. The problem is that most people don’t realise that its not just your back is usually the problem, its your hips and your hamstrings that are all related.

For example, if your back is bad, usually you have limited mobility in your hips, and if you play some sport, your hamstrings will usually be tight too, causing strains and pulls in all of these regions, which can put you out of training for weeks, even months so its an issue that needs resolving.

The number one cause of back pain is weight around the trunk area, so carrying excess weight triggers off a whole host of problems that cannot be solved long term until you lose the weight. It sounds like a vicious circle but if you understand how your body works, it starts to sounds better because you will be attacking the problems head on and not repeat your mistakes!

More on how to get rid of the bad back, tighs hips and stiff hamstrings tomorrow!!!!

Twitt
Posted on

24th March 2011

We talked about cycling in a different way yesterday, lets talk about different ways of running today.

First of all, running on mindless flat roads is one of the most boring things I could think about doing, some people enjoy it but I like to make things a little more interesting and a lot more productive in terms of results!

Since we live in a pretty hilly country, there’s never a hill that far way fortunately, and sometimes vicious hills!!!

Hills will always get you working harder, going uphill works your legs better, makes your lung capacity push on to new levels, helps bring your body fat down quicker, gives you a greater sense of pride and achievement having completed them, gives you some great views when you get to the top and in general provide some great workouts!!!

This is why I head straight to them every time!!!

Another thing you have to look at. On sunny days, you will see plenty of people walking or running on flat roads. You won’t see many if any people running or walking hard up hills, those you do see working hard up hills will nearly always be in good shape.

If you want to look at where people in great shape train, go to the more obscure parts of the area, these people are never on show and never want an audience. They want a place where is quite but offers great challenges in terms of terrain. You feel great when you walk hard or run up a very steep hill or even mountain, there’s nothing like that feeling when you develop your potential from only being able to walk 10-20 minutes on the flat to being able to run up a mountain, it may sound far fetched to some of you but it is totally achievable, I can guarantee that!!!

So today, tomorrow or the weekend, by all means warm up on the flat roads or track, but head for the hills and experience a brand new set of results that will astound you in all sorts of ways!!

Twitt