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Monday, 23rd May

What a monday already, wet and windy and what happened to the heatwave promised?

Anyway, we are already into a great monday when your body has been working in many ways already.

You may know already that you work your “core” in every single movement.

Your core in general terms is your stomach, lower back, hamstrings and thighs and these muscle groups control every movement in your body.

You could be making a cup of coffee, and the turning side to side to get the milk, coffee etc works your core, okay in a small way but still works it.

Reaching for a product in a supermarket also works your core, picking a child out of a car works your core, lifting anything works your core, just about anything works your core, and its VITAL your core is strong for any activity in life.

Anyone who has ever worked out with me will know that practically EVERY exercise will work your core with me, and you can always tell by the next day because you will be a little stiff in the most important area on your body!!! It shows that we are going things right and safely, which is always important to me and it should be to you too.

And you can forget about any fancy machines too, they claim to work your core but they don’t offer the flexibility that free motion and more natural movements offer. When you are on a machine, you are always in a limited range of  motion, and your body will therefore be limited in the way it can move. Anytime this happens, it means you are not getting the full benefits you should be out of your workouts, and therefore not going to be improving in the way you know you should be!!!!

I have found that with machines, they offer limited success and i am always more in favour of free weights, and much more free and natural movements you can do with a medicine ball and the fit ball (the pumped up big ball you see in gyms etc) of course.

The bottom line, stay away from these fancy machines who promise the earth, and stick to tried and tested methods that will safely deliver big results every time!!!!

Twitt
Posted on

January 3rd 2011

The people who trained over christmas are really finding now that their workouts are becoming much easier. I found that this morning on my early morning run. To be honest, i found it tough gettting out there to start with as the temperature has dropped quite a bit, but 10 minutes in, everything seemed to be getting much easier and my last hill even involved a sprint, or at least a faster run!!

These are signs to me that christmas habits of staying active bearing fruit. The ability to start the new year in good shape takes the whole “lets get back into shape in january” out of the equation. The focus should easily go away from january now, and you should be already looking at getting into shape into january. If you are a faddy dieter, then your sole concern is just january because life is all about short term fixes for you, and no strong foundations are ever laid.

So if you are already in the swing of things or nearly there anyway, the target now must be a couple of weeks of conditioning and easily by the end of january, the target should be to be at the very top of your game. This will give you a great satisfaction that by the end of january, you will be looking and feeling very good indeed. This will be just as most diet club members will be tearing their hair out and about to see their “diet programmes” collapse in front of their very eyes.

Anyone who doubts that last statement should look at the fact that i have rolled out before, about the numerous studies that diet clubs and faddy diets in general DO NOT WORK 97% OF THE TIME. That is not my statement, these are independent studies done over numerous years over numerous clubs and diets.

Let’s concentrate on getting some good foundations in, eating more natural foods 80% of the time, exercising regularly, drinking enough water and sleeping well.

No matter what stage you are at, if you want to make 2011 the start of something special, then you have the SAME opportunity as ANYONE else.

Let’s get it going even on this bank holiday monday!!

Twitt