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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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Tuesday, 12th March

Spring has formally started for me in terms of getting outside and working out hard in the fresh air. You may find that a strange comment on another brutally cold day, but the facts are that it is light at 610am to get some great cycling, and running workouts in. It is light also to around 620pm which opens a whole host of outside options in the evening!

I love using the agility ladders outside, hurdles, harnesses, cones and markers to create all sorts of new speed and agility workouts, and this fresh weather is great for getting the parachute on and testing our sprinting prowess to brand new levels and limits.

If you have been stuck in an office or a car all day, then there is nothing more liberating that flipping tractor tyres, getting the sledghammer out to give your core a thorough going over, and all of this work will certainly blow away all the cobwebs you would have built up from being stuck in an office all day!

All of this outside training we do at the gym in burry port in particular, is the best for stress relief you can get. This is the feedback i get all the time, FROM MALES AND FEMALES.

Its a shame, a big shame that many women restrict themsevles to “traditional” female training in most gyms. Doing the cross trainer or the treadmill or the bike, and maybe a couple of sets with some dumbbells is criminally unimaginative in this day and age when exercise science has moved on so much!!!

I tell people all the time that the majority of individuals i train are women, and the hardest trainers are usually women too, often putting the guys efforts in the shade!!!

This is why training outside is great for men and women, and the exercises i mentioned will bring massive benefits to both, and this is what matters to all of you!!!

Twitt
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Thursday, 21st February

With the food industry seemingly at an all time low, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that there is much more to come. With the current investigations likely to take months to sort out this mess, I believe they will then move on to other food areas.

Milk and the production of milk has long been controversial, and seeking the freshest and most natural produced milk has to be a priority for you.

You know I always advise wholemeal bread, which although still contains a little sugar and other not so good ingredients, is a million times better than white bread. The sugar, salt and bleaching agents in this awful product would scare most people, yet some are still not willing to change! Eat white bread daily and you will never get in shape full stop, plus its going to be a negative for your health.

Changing to wholegrains is a massive step you can take right now, to improve your health, improve your bodily functions and reach your target body fat levels A LOT sooner and stay in that good zone for life!

So when I have talked about shopping in supermarkets before, I have always advised to IGNORE most of the aisles. You should ignore the ready meal and pizza aisles, the frozen vegetables etc are fine because they are non-processed.

Avoid the full fat cheeses, avoid the frozen chip ailes, avoid most of the cereal boxes aisles but please select porridge, shredded wheat, Weetabix which are known 100% natural products.

Select wholegrain pasta which is going to be good for you and a nice slow release of energy, brown rice better than white rice, spend a LOT more time in the fruit and vegetable section, this will be a good investment in your health right there!

The fish section is always good, plus the tinned fish can be a much cheaper option and more sustainable option. All fish options are good, apart from the ones which have heavy sauces included in the product.

So in shopping terms, only trust the fresher, most natural products because you cannot go wrong with them. Avoid chemically enhanced and pumped up products because you know they are not going to help you on bit, plus you know by now you’re going to have to worry about their long term effects.

Eat natural and feel and look good full stop!

Twitt
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Friday, 7th December

Following on from yesterday, you need to determine the rut you may find yourself in, or at least realise that you may have hit a plateau that you HAVE to get over!!

Determine how serious the situation is, what you can do about it and what goals you may have once you get over this temporary hump in the road!!

Has it been a few days you have been stuck in your training plateau?

Has it been months even since you can remember serious progress?

If it has only been a few days, then you shouldn’t worry anymore because all of us can have the odd bad week here and there!

Getting back on track after one bad week could be as easy as getting a few nights of good quality sleep, this can fix a lot of problems and get you fired up on all levels!!!

If it has been a few months, it is serious and you need to make dramatic change right now!

If you havent had progress for a while, then there’s always a reason, and probably several reasons!!!

Go over your diet, go over your training, and go over your sleeping habits. Three simple things right there but three massive subjects!!! Get all three and you reach all time highs in your physical conditioning, get all three wrong and you end up in poor shape!!

This time of year offers a stark choice on how you should eat, drink and sleep.

If you make the poorest choices full of sugar, saturated fat and alcohol, then prepare to be wearing baggy jumpers all winter to try and avoid all that weight you’re going to put on.

Make consistently good choices even when those around you are eating and drinking all sorts of rubbish, and you will get the body and overall health you really want!!!

Twitt