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Tuesday, 24th September

The subject of missed workouts is very important to me.

First of all, if you are ill you should NEVER ever train full stop. You need to rest and recover and not do anything until you’re better.

The rest of the time, missed workouts really concern me because it sets off a chain of events that lead to individuals losing progress quickly, both physically and mentally.

You have probably heard me mention that even a pro athlete who has a week off from training, can take 1-2 weeks to get where they were. So 4 weeks off, can take up to 8 weeks to get back to normal and back to the previous standard.

So if you miss the odd workout, then that’s no problem, if you miss a week, then that becomes more of a problem, miss 4 weeks and you slip back by up to a couple of months.

Missing 4 weeks also sends you backtracking mentally. When you have 4 weeks off, you are not really motivated to get back into your training, and are likely to have an even longer lay off!

Through experience, I have learned to watch people closely, and arrest the slide to mediocrity.

Let me say this, I have many people who work 10-12 hours a day, I have a lot of women who have 2-3 kids, some 4, one even 5, and not one of them has said “I have tons and tons of time to train all day, let’s do it”!!!

What they do say is that they have very limited time to train, and can I solve their time management/workout problems!!

Suggestions on how to do this tomorrow.

Twitt
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Friday, 20th September

So we went through some ideas on strength work yesterday, and the importance of charting out your programme to get stronger.

Just as importance is your speed and agility work. While those words may give the image of youngsters jumping around full speed and going flat out, the facts are that I do speed and agility work with people of ALL ages.

Anyone can do speed work on ladders, and anyone can develop fast feet, anyone!!

Anyone can run around cones in different directions.

Anyone can run in and out of hurdles, you do not have to jump each time. There are non-threatening things you can do to keep your joints safe.

Anyone can run with parachutes.

Anyone can do our bungee sprints, slow or fast.

Anyone can use a sledge hammer safely when taught properly.

Most people can use our “prowler”, our famous addition to our training the last few months! Again, proper tuition is vital on this piece of equipment.

When you combine all of these things, you are destined to get faster, stronger and much more agile, which would be a major asset in anyone’s life!

If you learn to do these things properly from the start, you are likely to thrive in our environment due to the exposure you will be having constantly to professional training!

Twitt
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Thursday, 19th September

So assuming you have taken onboard the advice over the last few days, I would start to map out your programme out a bit more. Trying to do everything in one session will not work, will be ultra-time consuming and make you extremely tired all of the time, making you quit exercise because it wont fit into your life very well at all!

So I would look at doing weights Monday and Thursday with an all over body programme. Pick 6-8 exercise with one good exercise per body part.

For an average healthy adult male, I would look at giving the following programme a go.

Bench press-3 sets of 8

Upright rows-3 sets of 8

One arm dumbbell rowing-3 sets of 8

Leg press-3 sets of 10

Dips-3 sets of whatever you can do

Tricep pushdowns-3 sets of 8

Curls-3 sets of 8

Aim to improve the weight you use slowly but gradually, and as long as you are eating well, this should be achieved naturally as long as you train regularly and show good commitment levels!

So that would be Monday and Thursday with some sledge hammer work (3 sets of 10) to finish. If you haven’t done some sledge work with tyres before, then you need to change gyms. One lot of flipping tyres over 10 yards and back 10 yards.

So some stretching on the core roller to finish. Again, if you haven’t done some stretching on a roller, then I would strongly question where you are training.

The Monday and Thursday sessions are all about you delivering power in a safe and productive environment.

Your form on each exercise has to be good, you shouldn’t place any strain on your back whatsoever, and you should be shown PROPERLY how to do each exercise properly.

Tuesday and Friday, I would look to do some speed and agility work, and we’ll talk about that tomorrow.

Twitt
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Friday, 13th September

If you’re putting the big workouts in this week, and are looking for superior results, then you need to keep up the relentless intensity of the workouts. Working in a low rest, big energy exercise cost kind of way, will reduce your body fat and seriously increase your strength, making you enjoy the best of both worlds.

The lack of rest in between sets is the real killer, and this is the biggest challenge to keep up. It requires a lot of focus and determination in getting the job done well and seeing it through.

The culmination of this effort is always significant, and getting used to a typical 45 seconds in between sets is ideal. Having 5 minutes rest in between weight training set is totally unacceptable if you want to be well conditioned!

Going through the motions with plenty of rest in between sets is what most people do, but you’re not most people and you demand that much more out of yourself surely by now

Fighting through these type of workouts is always tough, this is why good food will always power you through, help you recover quickly and allow you to grow into your next phase of development.

Training hard, eating right with an abundance of nutrients, and regular proper sleep are all of vital importance if you want to keep on moving forward and keep getting better and better, and age doesn’t really matter in that equation for getting better and better as we spoke about yesterday!

Making the effort to do a workout on your own when its easier to miss it and do something else, is a critical decision that many people get wrong, and the most important workout for you can be the extra workout on the weekend that you may be putting off for whatever reason. The returns on the weekend workout can be considerable though, so use even a 20 minute window for getting even more out of yourself.

6 extra workouts in a 6 week period can change a lot again for you in health so start putting an extra one at the weekend and you will only benefit in a big way.

Give it 6 weeks and your body will look and feel a lot different. Most people eat and drink more calories at the weekend, so it makes perfect sense to be far more active.

Twitt
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Thursday, 12th September

The forgotten athlete we often miss out on in general life is the senior athlete.

Today, I am talking very much about the senior athlete over 70, and I do train quite a few, and most of them are remarkable for their age. The term “remarkable” for their age is often said in a patronizing way, but I can prove people wrong by comparing the stats with some of the over 70’s to my 40 somethings and 50 somethings.

I have people for instance who can bench press what many struggle to do in their 40’s-this is a fact.

I have senior athletes who can cycle for an hour no problem.

I have senior athletes who are far more flexible than some 20 somethings I know.

The bone density tests that a lot of senior athletes have done, come back remarkably well without fail. A solid well structured resistance/weights programme for the over 70’s is not only recommended, its essential!

All the senior athletes I train retain a high level of physical confidence, which is vital going into the autumn of one’s life.

Quality of life is everything and the worst thing I have ever seen is someone in their 30’s, 40’s or 50’s give up on themselves and say “they can’t be physically active anymore like they used to”!!

The senior athletes are a great example on how to do it, they compare very well in terms of strength and endurance levels compared to most people, and the last thing they want is ANY KIND of patronizing comments. Being 70 plus is not the life-ender it used to be, we have a new breed now fighting for new levels of strength, fitness and overall outstanding health!!

Twitt