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Friday, 17th February

You are eating well most of the time, you are training okay and you think a lot about how you perform and look, but you may still not be sure that you are improving any more?!!

It may be tedious at times to check your progress, and maybe its time to look at things in a different light?

Every time you run, walk hard, swim hard, cycle hard, you have to realise that with every step forward, you ARE improving because things will be getting easier. You are bringing fresh oxygen into your cells, and your body will be functioning internally far better than it did first thing this morning, and a million times better than if you didn’t do any cardio at all, thats a fact!!!

Every time you eat well , you ARE improving and feeding your body like it derserves to be fed.

You didnt stop off in any one of the fast food places that a lot of people do these days. You did take the trouble to make food from scratch, instead of buying in ready made meals which are full of salt and every preservative under the sun!!! You are fulfilling your body’s potential to be much better and you’re not being one of the crowd that doesn’t care what they eat.

You drink water everyday to  IMPROVE, just think of it like that, if you don’t take enough water onboard, your body won’t function as well as you know it can, keeping hydrated is the single most important thing you can do for your body.

Every time you make your workout happen, you have reached your commitment for that day in terms of exercise.

Whether its struggling to get through traffic, struggling to juggle your time with everyday demands, whether its getting the focus together again to hit the numbers you know you’re capable in your big productive exercises, you finally got there and you will sleep with confidence that you can still improve, whatever your age!!!

EVERY DAY can be regarded as improvement if you look at this differently and keep things in prospective!!!

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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February 13th, 2012

Technique is often underplayed when it comes to exercise.

If you walk into any gym anywhere, you see a wide variety of versions of the same exercise.

A lot of boys and men like to do curls for arms for example, unfortunately due to the swinging in this exercise, it ends up as a back exercise instead of an ARMS exercise!!! I’m sure many of you have seen the same thing, the key is to drop the weight until you are not swinging your back, this will give your biceps a far better workout and ultimately this means results.

There is also a tendency to do exercises in rapid fashion.

This means that on leg exercises for example, you will be putting enormous strain on your knees, leading often to injuries that can be hard to reverse.

Lack of proper technique is often seen outside the gym too.

Cycling for instance is a prime example.  Incorrect seat height and handlebar height can hurt your knees and back, and make cycling thoroughly unpleasant.

Your seat height should be in line your hip, and you shouldn’t be bending over too much to use the handlebars, make it comfortable and you instantly become a more efficient and better cyclist overall.

Running is another example when a lot of people get it wrong, not using your arms for example when you run, and especially when you want to sprint wont allow you to run at top speed. Your leg speed is always dictated by your arm speed, so not using your arms in an efficient manner will stop you reach your running and sprinting potential.

The same can be said when you’re walking and especially uphill. If you swing your arms you will walk stronger, faster and with more purpose purely down to using good technique.

 These are little things that can make your training much more productive and enjoyable, and you don’t have to be a pro athlete only to enjoy them. Everyone can train like a pro by using a few simple strategies that works, and this means more results in the end!

Twitt
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Thursday, 9th February

To continue about the importance of a strong healthy heart, its vital you start with a proper foundation in order to create it in the first place.

Number one is you need to exercise regularly and in general stay active.

Number two is you need to eat healthy at regular intervals, and in sensible portions.

Number three is that you need to avoid excess alcohol. Drinking a few times a week will especially put great strain on your heart, as well as other vital organs.

Number four is to avoid smoking, if you smoke you are doing the single most destructive thing against your body. You are destroying cells, ageing your body throughout and putting amazing strain on your most important muscle.

Number five is to try and cut down on stress. If you have a lot of worry in your life, self-induced or otherwise, you are putting strain eventually on your heart. It is no coincidence that exercise and eating well are the best for combating this stress.

Number six is sleep well. Sleep deprivation can literally affect everything you do. Hate to be like a broken record but all of the above helps you sleep better!

Number seven is stay positive. Being positive about life can be one of your best habits to develop, negative people are usually full of stress and never actually do anything for the greater good. If you stay positive, then you tend to take action and approach life in an optimistic way, one of the secrets of quality of life especially in old age research has shown.

Number eight is to show consistency in all of these keys to having a successful strong and healthy heart, don’t be a “flash in the pan” when it comes to your health or let a doctor tell you all of this when its too late. If you practice these most of the time, then you will reap huge benefits!!

Twitt
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Tuesday, 7th February

Sometimes your biggest enemy can be the reliance too much on routine.

For example, if all you did in the gym or wherever you trained, was to work on the treadmill or bike, then your gains wouldn’t be as strong as they would by mixing your training right up.

If you don’t do your weights/resistance work, then you’re going to be missing out.

If you don’t workout aerobically, and this means working out with big gulps of oxygen, and getting your heart rate up quite a bit, then you’re also going to be missing out.

However, even if you every exercise under the  sun, and simply “go through the motions”, you are not likely to get very much at all out of your training programme.

When you get going on your workouts, please make sure you train with purpose, you’re not there to look good and show off, you’re not there to watch the clock and just last until an hour is gone, you’re not there so you can work to levels well beneath you, and you’re not there to stay in some kind of comfort zone.

Today is another day to prove to yourself that you’re still alive, that you have enough energy to test yourself physically to new limits, even if you have seen the wrong side of 50. Age is never a deciding factor either, in my experience it is training experience and conditioning that matters, and definitely not age.

I have many 60 something’s who could destroy 21 year old’s in terms of physical performance, and having a leaner and harder body. When you get older, it seems that we value our health much more sometimes due to our inactivity of the past.

The bottom line is that its never too late to do something about it, and discover the power of actually “doing it”!!

Twitt