Posted on

Thursday, 21st July

Knowledge is power and stops us wasting endless hours, days weeks and even years in trying to get in shape.

If we try to go too fast too soon, we sometimes get injured and more often than not, lose all the enthusiasm we had at the start.

This is because we don’t stop to learn the basics, we try to go through a programme that someone far more experienced is doing, such as some athlete in the magazines or something very advanced we see online, both are likely to be unsuitable.

Many magazines are filled with information, but a lot of it unfortunately is targeted at those who have been training for many years, and not those who are beginners or need a helping hand.

The best way to start off or pick up where you left off is to simplify matters.

Select a whole body programme where you work just one exercise for each body part, work up to doing 3 sets of each exercise over a couple of weeks, and aim to do this programme 3 times a week. That’s it, nothing complicated, nothing that will confuse you or your body, just plain old solid routines that will work each every time.

As i keep saying, unless you’re a professional athlete, please, please, please DO NOT waste your time by working one or two body parts each time you go to the gym.

There are two things going on with that last statement.

Are you really up for having fantastic results? Or are you listening too much to your friends and following their programme that’s usually very poorly designed with the no end goal in sight?!!!!

So back to the point, knowledge really is power IF applied properly and its time to start applying it properly. Think what programme is going to WORK FOR YOU!!!!! Its about YOUR progress and YOUR body and keeping it simple is the way to go, just show some effort with your training and the sky’s the limit!!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday 12th July

 I notice some of the little changes you have made lately have become big physical changes for you, or definitely turned into big physical transformations for some of you.

Take one of the easiest, most tiny changes you can make and the results are usually staggering.

If you stop taking butter and margarine on your toast, then you will be saving yourself at least 100 calories per sandwich, and more likely up to 200 calories for some people who slap it on their bread. I have found this tactic enormously successful for everyone who has stuck with it!

Then there is another obvious one. Mayonnaise! This is a serious weight gainer and if you can’t eat your fish or even meat without it, then you must change right now because every time you take some on your food, you are filling your arteries up with saturated fat in a very serious form, this only has a bad ending I can assure you!

No need to try the low fat versions of these either, you really need to get rid of the taste of these products and they are prime examples of how people continually never get “weaned” off high fat and high sugar foods, because you’re not really getting rid of them.

You may get a lot less calories in the “low fat” varieties, but you’re not getting rid of your taste for all of these products, and you’re not stopping the endless chemicals in these products coming into your body.

If you want your body to become a chemical experiment, then carry on but my guess is most of you care what happens inside your  body and you don’t want to take chances with your health.

Eat fresh when possible, eat natural at every opportunity, eat in moderation  and you give your body a great chance of having outstanding health!

Twitt
Posted on

Monday 4th july-Independence day!

Good vibrations for your health always begin at the start of your week and your future ambitions depend on it.

A few pints on a Saturday and Sunday without any exercise can lead to a bleary eyed start to the week. We all like to talk about Monday being AN ABSOLUTE MUST for your best possible start to the week.

It may hurt a bit more than normal on a Monday, depending on the how excessive the weekend you have had, but that short term pain will be more than worth it, because it sends massive signs to your body that you want it to fix itself after the weekend, and you want your metabolism to be in top shape and firing on all cylinders.

You will never become a fat burning machine unless you practice the principles we talk about on here all the time.

Working out hard takes a lot of concentration too, so you need to get on with it and think about what you’re doing, and trying to improve nearly every week can be tough, but it is achievable of course.

 By all means talk and mess around in your workouts, it’s a free country after all but this is a sure way to very poor results, in fact some gyms encourage that type of behaviour, as all they concentrate on is your direct debit, and then forget about you. These places make me sick of course but at least be honest with yourself and rate yourself on how hard you are actually training, remember just “showing up”, “going through the motions” and just having a “gym membership” is not going to get you very far.

Our body judges us by actual deeds. Your workouts will get you a good return on your investment if you’re prepared to work. Your intake of fresh natural foods will get you’re another good return if you are consistent.

Monday is a time to be honest with your body and get fired up for another big week!

Twitt
Posted on

Friday 1st July

Nadal faces an in form Andy Murray today, and the big question is “will he do it this time”?

That question is seemingly asked every single year and this year is no different of course.

Great of the game such as Borg and McEnroe insist Murray can finally do it this time, no question. Nadal has a suspected foot injury and Murray has a niggle with his hip, and his ankle but i don’t think either are making any excuses!

Most say that if Murray wins this one, then he will go on to win a few grand slam titles. The confidence of winning a big one will transform him and his confidence levels.

Thats the big thing of course, confidence and knowing deep down you can do it!

That’s the big thing for you too, and many of you keep telling me the same thing all the time. You managed to do it once, or even twice and you can’t work out why you can’t get into great shape anymore.

The problem comes when you aren’t willing to be honest with yourself anymore.

Are you really eating now the way you were when you were in top shape? Are you really that disciplined anymore and are you willing to make the sacrifices on food and alcohol you once were? Come on be honest with this question!!!!

What about your exercise levels? Do you find it easier now to cancel workouts at a drop of a hat? Have you stopped putting challenges into your workouts? Are you more of a “go through the motions” type of person now? Are you striving to be the best you can be, or are you someone who claims that walking the dog is “more than enough exercise?!!!!!

Serious questions have to be asked if you are not getting closer to your goals anymore, it doesn’t matter if it takes a long time, as long as you are moving in the right direction, then you and i should be happy with that.

Murray in fairness has worked hard to get closer to his goals of winning a grand slam title, and is almost there. The question is can he go one step further and the other big question is are you moving closer to your dream of being in great shape and having outstanding health, which should always go together of course!!!!

Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday 7th June

We talked about yesterday the ability to work around injuries, instead of working through them which tends to make the injuries worse of course. Being flexible and being able to change your programme is very important.

The other issue is recovery and how important sleep and eating well is.

If you eat a variety of fresh natural foods, this usually means you will be ingesting a lot of vital nutrients that your body needs and when your body is down, such as when you are injured, these nutrients are even more important not only to make you feel better but to heal the damage that has already been done by the injury.

The process of an injury usually starts with your twisting or pulling something quite badly, then usually depending on the severity of the injury, your point of injury will bleed internally and the damage still goes on.

This is why ice is applied as soon as possible to injuries so the healing process can begin immediately, and you don’t waste time.

The ice will also bring inflammation down quickly of course, further speeding up the healing journey.

Then when you injury has stabilised, its important to keep bringing in, as I keep saying all the time, fresh natural food when possible to enable food to have its true healing power. People may scoff at this but your cells really appreciate good food coming in all the time because then it can go about fixing the injury, and much quicker than if you went on some kind of junk food diet which will only delay the process!!!

So if you can follow these rules, sleep then becomes paramount. If you get as much uninterrupted sleep as possible, your body will be in full recovery mode and will do its very best to fix itself in record time!

Its also paramount NOT to antagonise the injury again by working through it, you need to work AROUND it and train smart not to upset the incredible healing process your body is now on.

For the record, alcohol is the worst thing you can consume, as your body has to get rid of this foreign substance before it can heal again!

Some injuries are worse than others but these principles will help A LOT every time you have the misfortune of injury!!

Twitt