Thursday, 20th October

Another scandalous piece of information in the press today, the fact that three quarters of men over 40 years of age are now regarded as overweight!

This is up on even recent figures and shows a big decline in our nation’s health.

This brings a host of problems to the NHS too, how we are going to be able to cope with the huge obesity problem that this brings.

With being overweight, the issues come thick and fast for our always overstretch health service.

Think diabetes, heart diseases, certain cancers as just three major diseases that are likely to explode again.

You have a million other diseases that will come too, mostly down to poor health that can start with being overweight.

It doesn’t take a genius to work out that not moving around enough in physical terms, and eating too many calories are the main culprits in causing such a terrible situation.

None of us are so grateful when we are able to visit someone in hospital, and be in good enough health to walk straight back out again after visiting time is over!!!

We are all grateful that we have good health, and we are able to function in a normal way in our everyday health, not everyone is so lucky as this.

We can celebrate this by using every day as a reason to exercise and eat healthy. Not only does this make us feel good but really cuts our chances down of having a serious health problem.

We can work our heart instead of letting it weaken and deteriate.

We can tone our muscles instead of letting them get soft and floppy.

We can improve brain power and concentration by exercise, up to 40% as latest studies show!

There has never been a greater time or more vital time to get up and exercise, lets make it happen right now!!!!

Tuesday, 18th October

Warren Gatland admitted today he thought about cheating when it came to saturday’s disappointing loss, by faking an injury to one of the other props so Wales could achieve uncontested scrums. This would give a big advantage to wales, especially when it comes to the fact that they were already playing 14 versus fifteen, and the game would end up more evenly balanced, instead of being under constant pressure in the scrum!

For the sake of the spirit of the game, he didn’t resort to that but that are plenty of teams who would, without naming individual countries, but cheating has been a part of professional sport since the year dot!!

Drugs are the most well known form of cheating, and there are numerous sports such as athletics, cycling, american football, baseball etc that are rife with widespread drug taking unfortunately.

You may know yourself someone who takes drugs in order to get ahead in whatever field they are in. It could be recreationally taken steroids, it could ephedrine type products for sport, whatever it is, it comes down to one thing-CHEATING!!!

Performance enhancing drugs are not only illegal, but like the gatland comments, they are totally against the spirit of the game and sport in general.

Once you have resorted to them, you have given up your right to offer advice to others on performance, because you will not have played on a level playing field. You won’t know the hard work it takes to do it naturally, to suffer more, to recover more, to hit the sack earlier to recover, to have greater attention to detail in your food, to make every training session count etc etc.

To aspire to get to the top of any sport naturally is a very noble thing, and unfortunately becoming more and more difficult.

The good news is that it is possible to do it, as long as you make the use of the latest science and have a monumental work ethic.

 The other route is cheating, plain old fashioned cheating and that doesn’t impress anyone, and when you take the longer term health side effects into consideration, it can’t be worth it surely?!!!

Monday, 17th October

We always go on here about the preference towards short intense workouts, rather than long drawn out low quality sessions when it comes to big results.

Still though, there seems to be resistance to it, especially when it comes down to time more than anything else, or supposed lack of it!!!

A remarkble stat hit me this weekend that blew me away.

We apparently spend an average around 7 hours a month on facebook alone!!! SEVEN HOURS!!! That’s incredible and some of these people are the ones who say they have no time for workouts!!!

I suppose this is not including the rest of the time spent on the internet, so the amount of time spent on the net could indeed end up mind-boggling!!!

Time management is everything when it comes to being in shape.

The worst time managers are the ones who give me the biggest excuses and they are usually the ones who have the LEAST amount of responsibilities!!

If you don’t schedule a time for your workouts every day, then you are doomed to miss out on the work you need to do. Something will “always come up” and you’re likely to wonder what could have been!!

If you have a workout scheduled and your boss asks you to do something unreasonable and you end up missing workout after workout, then you have to learn to say no. If you for example finish at 5pm every day, and your workout is 530pm, then being forced to work on every night is never going to work. Offer to work earlier as long as you can still finish at 5pm if the extra hours are required.

Saying no gives you freedom too and will make you feel good. Nobody likes being pushed around and standing your ground will give you respect for yourself and from others. Most bosses i know actively encourage exercising anyway, and will often support your efforts to the hilt!!!

Your exercise must be part of your day if you want to be in shape for the rest of your life, and making everyone aware of that in a nice way will help you. If work hours are still impossible, then try working out BEFORE work, this way will be guaranteed to get training done first thing and is a sure way to fit everything in.

Friday, 14th October

Promising to get onboard an exercise programme and committing yourself to a lifetime of being in shape is what everyone wants but not everyone is prepared to go through the essentials every week for that to happen.

Lots of people want to do it, but never get around to it.

For example, i know lots of people who went to australia, then came back and then promised to fill in all the application forms and go there for life. The reality is that it never comes off and they talk a good game the rest of their lives, or at least a few months. Good luck to them if they do go but i also know a ton of people who come back after finding out that the grass is not always greener the other side. Life is not all neighbours and beer unfortunately!!!

So as we approach this friday, i take it you have got through some well-executed workouts, really given your best, haven’t spent too much time on the treadmill, you have got on with the really tough alternatives that actually work.

This welsh rugby team currently regarded as possibly the fittest in the tournament don’t spend too much time on treadmills either, they are looking for the exercises instead that will give them more bang for their buck.

If you have never worked out with a medicine ball, then you’re seriously missing out on big results.

If you thought a swiss ball was just something to sit on or look good under the stairs, then you’re missing out on your best results.

If you have never done a bodyweight exercise, then go ahead and carry on working on those fancy machines, and live a life of mediocrity!!!!

Its the end of the week, wales have their biggest game ever tomorrow, literally, so try and put a huge friday workout in, and possibly an even better early morning saturday workout in, you will be GUARANTEED to be inspired and finish off the week in a perfect way!!!

Thursday, 13th October

A story in the newspapers yesterday has brought many questions and may be needlessly so, but they must be answered so here goes.

RUNNING MAKES YOU FAT! Was the headline in at least The Independent and probably the daily mail (the most sensationalist paper of the lot! And interesting to know that they supported the nazi party before world war 2!).

The bottom line of the article was that many people been interviewed were complaining that they never lost weight for years despite their running efforts.

They developed bad knees and backs, sometimes weak ankles and the results were never worth it!!!!

The stories kept on coming in like people obsessed with distorting the truth.

If you carry too much weight, you WILL be putting a strain on by running on hard surfaces and longer distances. This will affect your joints and back and the pain will be magnified that much more if you wear poor trainers.

A 200 pound runner will put 600 pounds of pressure through their joints because of the pounds, so its important to do everything right.

The biggest thing I haven’t mentioned here is FOOD INTAKE.

What was common throughout these stories was that none of them had really changed their diet. They were still eating lots of sugar and lots of saturated fat.

Another common factor was that they would have a big “treat” if they did well on a run, and that often included a trip to a fast food outlet, or to the cake shop!!!

It could be an excuse to drink more alcohol or to eat a fried breakfast.

The story continued to run and this was the recurring theme. People really thought that they could run off anything, and they deserved to be in shape despite eating badly.

The fact is you cannot “run off” a bad diet, the calories will be too overwhelming. Say you have a great run and you burn 400-600 calories, that can easily be outdone by a couple of beers of glasses of wine, you can easily eat 1000 calories at McDonalds!!!! Or more!!

Unless you change your diet to good fresh natural foods, you’re always going to be one of those who may complain that “running makes you fat”!!!!

Change today and get the results  you really deserve!!!