Tuesday, 11th September

The overwhelming story overnight was the huge Andy Murray win in Flushing Meadows, New York.

A lot of people wrote andy murray off, as a “choker”, a “bottler” or someone couldn’t handle the pressure at the highest level.

This assertion has now been thrown in the rubbish bin, because murray defeated his most difficult opponent, who has previously crushed him in past matches and a final, and racked up 5 grand slams in double quick time.

Murray’s story is about perserverence, sticking to a plan when most people questioned whether it would work out, his supporting team believing in him despite the sport’s highest prize seemingly outĀ of reach forever.

How things can change overnight!!!

Now there is a raft of people coming forward saying “i told you so”, and they never doubted him all along!!

This is a prime example of sticking to your beliefs, sticking to what you know is right, and following it through.

Not many people have had so many knocks, and come back from each and every one of them.

This happens every day, every week, and every year of our quest to be in shape, to get into shape and to create huge energy levels in our lives. This is a constant challenge and anyone who tells you otherwise is surely lying to you, or probably trying to seel you some kind of dodgy diet that is doomed to failure.

The message on here is always about trying to do the right thing, eat well and with some common sense, train hard but in a proper way, rest properly and have a bit of what you fancy, keeping your sanity is very important after all!!!

Monday, 10th September

Your training should always be balanced each week over a seven day period, and you should plan what you’re going to do each workout.

For example, today is monday and typically would be a great time to put some weight training/resistance training in. This can be done through weights and dumbbells, or using your own bodyweight as resistance.

I encourage all over body workouts each time, so I would look to put my second weight session in on a thursday whichht gives you 72 hours to recover. Your muscles break down during the session, and build back up again and recover properly only when they have had enough rest.

48-72 hours is a great rest period enabling you to come firing on all cylinders.

A beginner would tend to do their weight training programme on a monday, wednesday and friday because the intensity of their workouts isn’t going to be so great, therefore needing less recovery time.

A beginner will also spend a lot of time just getting used to the new movements, usually using a lot less weight so this means less muscle tissue broken down, this is the big reason not so long a recovery is needed.

So monday, wednesday, friday if you’re just starting out, monday and thursday if you have much more experience and you’re familiar with training and the required exercise and intensity.

Then we look at the cardio side of things. Down at the gym in burry port, we use treadmills, rowers and bikes, but there’s so much more to cardio in my view.

I’m a big believer in the battling ropes, which anyone who has trained with me knows only too well! They are massive on lung capacity, shoulders. Arms, back, legs and most importantly, core! You only need around a minute on these ropes, and you are absolutely blasted so get used to them as soon as possible!

Then we like to use a lot of speed and agility techniques, as discussed late last week, so you can see you definitely DO NOT need to rely on traditional forms of cardio anymore!!

I would put these fun sessions in on a tuesday and friday, with wednesday off to recover and rest properly. Recuperation is vital and always an underrated part of your health and fitness programme.

The weekend can be your fun stuff outside, getting up walking or running even up mountains, and you have endless routes to try in terms of cycling.

There’s always swimming, longer walks in natural surroundings such as pembrey country park and exercise ideas are only limited by your imagination!