Reverse Crunch – Good

Name:  Reverse crunch.

Also known as:   (If you know these by any other name, please leave a comment below).

Main muscles used:  belly, sides.

Other muscles used:  Hip flexors.

Top tips:

• Lay on your back, knees bent, feet flat on the floor.
• Make sure your lower back is not arched off the floor.
• Use your hands to hold onto an anchor point above your head if it helps.
• Keep your heels tucked tight into your bum throughout the move.
• Pull your knees tight up into your chest, keeping your heels tucked tight.
• Try to lift your bum up off the floor and get yourself into a nice, tight, cannonball.
• Return your feet to the floor under control.
• Make sure your lower back is flat on the floor before your feet touch the floor.

Reverse Crunch – Bad

Common mistakes:

• Arching your lower back off the floor at the start/end of the move.
• “Flinging” your knees and feet up in the air to gain momentum.
• Not being in a tight cannonball shape half way through the move.
• “Dumping” your feet back onto the floor at the end of the move.

Comments:

Many people find this move difficult at the start, but it is a very good “core” exercise.  I use this to help people who are having trouble with their Planks, Wheelbarrows, Pressups and people with poor posture.

This can help towards correcting an over arched lower back, or anterior pelvic tilt.

Happy New Year!

The new year is here, and statistics show that most of us plan to get fitter, stronger or lose weight in 2012.  But statistics also show that only a fraction of us will actually succeed.  If you are working out your new year resolutions,  make sure you don’t fall into any of these exercise and diet pitfalls…

Doing waaay too much.

Often people overestimate themselves and go:

• Gym 5-7 days a week!
• At least 2 hours while in the gym!
• An exercise class every weekday!
• Eat nothing but 1 apple a day!

This is unsustainable and will lead to either injury or frustration, but defiantly failure.  Be realistic and practical.

Doing waaay too little.

People often underestimate themselves too.  They have spent their whole lives being told this, that and the other is dangerous, or they can get something for nothing, and have no actual experience of hard, physical work. 

So as soon as someone does something that slightly nudges their comfort zone, they back away and decide that is more than enough for this week.  After all, if they have been in the gym for half an hour, they have sat on the bike for a bit and waved the little pink dumbells around…surely they deserve to sit down, have a rest and “recover” with that cake!

Not having a goal or target to aim for.

Many people have a vague idea that they should do something and they want to change their bodies in some vague way.  But unless you have a clear idea what you are aiming for, how do you know if you are getting it or not?  How do yo know if you are improving, staying the same or getting worse?  And if you don’t know if you are improving, it is all too easy to simply assume you are doing fine and slip back into bad, old ways.

Setting an outcome as a goal or target.

And while we are on the subject of setting goals or targets, make sure you choose the right ones.  Don’t set your goal as an outcome, or end result.  Make your target an actual, consistent action to perform.  For example, instead of saying:

• “I aim to lose weight”, say “I will eat no more than 1 piece of junk food per week”. 
• “I am going to get fitter”, say “I am going to do something that gets me out of breath for 1 hour, 3 times a week”.

Each of the above “outcome” based goals have many different and sometimes conflicting ways of achieving it.  This breeds confusion in most people.  Instead, choosing the “method” based goal is far simpler, better for long term adherence (consistency) and is a direct route to your desired body change.

Over complicating things.

Keep It Simple should be one of your mantras.  Don’t be one of the people who starts the year with a training programme of 2 dozen exercises per body part, or a diet that reads like a mobile phone instruction manual. 

The more complicated something is, more things can go wrong, more loopholes can be found in it and the harder it is to follow consistently.  Start with the basics and don’t complicate things unless you absolutely, positively have to, or your life is at stake!  A good starting point is my “Holy Trinity”.  Click here for more details.

Relying on your memory.

It has been proven time and again that we are rubbish at remembering things when it comes to exercise and food.  We forget what we did in the last training session, we forget what junk food we have had, we forget that we havent done any exercise for a month, we forget that we should not be having that chocolate “treat” 4 times a day.

Write it down!  Write down targets, write down deadlines, write down what days we can/cannot treat ourselves.  If it is written down in black and white and stuck up somewhere prominent (eg on our kitchen fridge), then it is harder for us to cheat.

If you want to control your weight, then writing a food diary is almost a must!  Click here for more details.

Doing it alone.

Humans are social animals, even me, and I’m an antisocial bugger!  When we are alone, it is easy to fall off the wagon, to wimp out or even quietly convince ourselves that we never really meant it in the first place.  If we are in a group of people with similar aims, we can make it so much easier on ourselves and make use of the peer pressure that comes in such a group.  If everyone around us is doing something, it is much easier to do it ourselves.

In fact, a good training partner, social group or coach is worth their weight in gold.  And of course, if you are looking for a coach to help you, contact me today!

Doing it at home.

Every year, people buy home gym equipment (workout DVDs, exercise bikes, ab crunch frames etc), use them once, then never use them again (except maybe as a clothes rack).  For most people, our homes are a place to relax, unwind and have fun with family/friends.  And most of us have developed an almost Pavlovian conditioning to not doing strenuous work or exercise there.

There are so many distractions in our homes that most people find it almost impossible to exercise effectively in their own homes.  So get out side, go to a gym, go to a village hall or even go to your training partners house.  Your presence will help them train properly in their home, and they can return the favour at a later date.  In fact, you will almost certainly find it easier to train properly virtually anywhere other than by yourself in your own home!

If any of this has made sense to you, please feel free to share it with your friends, or even find me on Facebook.

Movement compensation on crutches

Since I started to learn Karate when I was 7 years old, I have consciously or subconsciously been trying to improve the way I move.  I have learned that if I want to put my body in a certain position, there are loads of different ways I can do it.  But I have also learned that some ways are better than others.

Movement Compensations are when one part of your body doesn’t (for whatever reason) play it’s part fully when you try to do a movement.  In order to put your body in the desired position, a different part of your body has to do more than its fair share, or maybe change its role entirely, or “compensate”, in order for you to complete the move.

A classic example is if you get your leg in plaster and have to use crutches.  In this case, your leg is not working properly, so your arms, shoulders and other leg take over, compensate and support your bodyweight on the crutches so you can walk. 

Another common situation is that many people these days have stiff or immobile hips (hence my mini series on hip mobility recently).  With the hips not moving fully, the spine has to compensate by bending too much and this can lead to injury (click here for more on this).

In my series of “How To:” articles, most of the “bad” examples show classic Movement Compensations, where movement at the hips/shoulders is reduced, while movement at the spine is increased.

I’m sure all of you recognise the general situation from your working life.  If you are working in a group or team, and one of you is a bit rubbish and not pulling their weight, then to achieve deadlines or targets, the rest of the group/team has to do extra to make up for the slacker.  It is obvious this working situation is far from ideal, and the same goes for the body.

But our bodies are so good at compensating for weaknesses, it is often the case that we don’t even know that we have a weakness that is being compensated for!  And without this knowledge, we don’t do anything about it and this can lead to:

• The weakness is never corrected.
• The weakness gets worse.
• The compensating bodypart is chronically overloaded.
• The compensating bodypart is injured.
• Another bodypart has to compensate for both the original and new weaknesses.
• …and so on…

So now we know what Movement Compensations are, how do we avoid them?

• Maintain or increase mobility of your hips and shoulders.  If we can move these major joints easily, then we are more likely to move them instead of others.
• Strengthen all muscles that move the hips and shoulders.  It takes strength to move these joints through their full range.  If we find it physically hard to do this, we are less likely to keep it up.  And notice I said strengthen all the muscles, not just “tone up the sexy ones”.
• Apply it to every aspect of your life.  If you only do it for a couple of minutes a week during training sessions, you are less likely to do it in real life where it really matters.  Make proper movement a habit and it will become second nature.  Make it part of your background activity.

Follow these points and your joints will thank you!

It’s not what you do, it’s the way you do it.

Do you want to get fitter? 

Do you want to get stronger? 

Follow these 3 golden rules and improve your chances of success…

• Get in the right frame of mind.
• Get in the right environment.
• Get in the right social group.

Get in the right frame of mind.

Do things with purpose and don’t kid yourself.  In other words:

Wearing your Game Face – focusing on the task in hand while others around are distracted.

• Put your “Game Face” on, or focus on what you want to achieve and don’t get distracted.
• Learn and accept that apart from injuries, our fitness and strength are mostly the result of our behaviours and habits.
• We control our behaviours and habits, so to a very large extent, we control the health, fitness, strength and size of our bodies.
• We are not slaves to external forces outside our control.  We are not the result of big bones, hormones, water retention or the wrong kind of shoe/clothes/equipment.  We are the result of what we eat, drink and do.  These things are in our control.
• Decide we want to change our behaviours and habits.  It’s not a chore, or something we are forced into, or something we try to wrangle our way out of.
• Realise we don’t have to do everything all at once.  But we have to do something.
• Realise it won’t be perfect and there will be bumps on the way.  But we won’t let these bumps derail us.
• Have a sense of perspective – realise what the big problems that we need to concentrate on are…and what the little details that can be left until later are.

Get in the right environment.

Healthy environment

The bulk of our lives are spent in only a few places.  The most common of these are the home, the workplace or the journey between the two.  Like the rest of the animal kingdom, we adapt to our surroundings. 

• If our surroundings are full of sweets, chocolate, pizza and beer/coke, it is little wonder if we succumb to the temptation.
• We have the most control over our home surroundings, so make sure that there are no foods/drinks you want to avoid in the house.
• Empty the cupboards and fridges of all things that can throw you off your healthy eating routine.
• Surround yourself with the foods that you want to embrace in your life.
• Move to the front of the fridge/cupboard the foods you should eat more of.
• Try to do the same thing in your workplace if practical.
• Remove distractions and temptations from where you exercise/train.
• Don’t exercise/train in the rooms you eat, relax and generally “chill out” in.

Get in the right social group.

Greek god Heracles – http://aworldofmyths.com/

• We are very heavily influenced by the people around us.  Peer pressure is a powerful thing.
• If we are surrounded by overweight/unfit people who sneer and jeer at our attempts to improve ourselves, we are much more likely to fail.
• If we are surrounded by people who are trying to be healthy, fit and strong, then we can help eachother through tough patches and help keep eachother on the wagon.
• Have dinner with people who share your goals of controlling your weight.  It is much easier to say no to a chocolate bar if everyone else is also saying no.
• Exercise with people who are passionate about maintaining or improving their fitness and strength.  It is very difficult to work hard if everyone around you is bitching, complaining and whimping out after 2 minutes.
• Ask the people around you to help you say no to second helpings of pudding, while saying yes to the next training session.  If those people like and respect you, they will want to help.  If they don’t like or respect you, they will enjoy pointing out any time you fail.

But remember, you don’t have to be surrounded by people who are built like Greek gods wearing nothing but a silver posing pouch.  You just need to be around people who share the same goals as you.  I often train with people who are injured/disabled who can’t keep up with me physically…but their passion for progress puts mine to shame!

By following these 3 golden rules, you will make it much easier to achieve your weight/fitness/strength goals.  Importantly, these things will help boost your willpower, which is notoriously rubbish in most of us.

And if you need more help, you can hire me by contacting me here.

Which exercise machine burns the most calories?

This is a very common question.  The short answer is:

None of them.  No exercise machine burns any calories.

The slightly longer answer is that you burn the calories, not the machine.  And if you are asking the above question, you are missing the most basic but important thing…

• You have to put the physical effort in to burn calories and get slimmer.
• You have to put the physical effort in to lift heavy things and get stronger/toned.
• You have to put the physical effort in to get out of breath and get fitter.
• You have to put the mental effort in to stick to your diet…even if it is Christmas or someones birthday.
• You have to put the mental effort in to go back out training even if you don’t feel like it, or you are tired, or its raining.

While you are still looking for some machine or external force to do the work for you, you are not going to achieve your goals.

As Yoda would probably say:

Inside you, the answer lies.

Cossack mobility stretch

Name:  Cossack mobility stretch

Also known as:   (If you know these by any other name, please leave a comment below).

Main muscles used:  Bum, hamstrings, adductors.

Other muscles used:

Top tips:

• Your feet will be approximately 2 shoulder widths apart.
• Bend one leg right down so your bum is touching the heel.
• The “back” foot will be on its toes, while the “front” foot will be on its heel with toes pointing straight upwards.
• The “back” knee and hip will be as bent as they will go, while the “front” knee will be locked straight.
• Using your elbow, push the “back” knee backwards to feel a stretch in the groin.
• Sink your bottom as close to the floor as you can to feel a stretch on the back of the “front” leg.
• Keeping your feet where they are on the floor, shift your bodyweight and bum from one leg to the other.
• Sink into the stretch for a second, then return to the start and repeat.

Cossack mobility stretch – from the top

Common mistakes:

• Failing to drop the bum as low as possible to let it touch your heel.
• Having your feet too close together.
• Failing to “open” the hips by pressing the “back” knee backwards.
• Letting your bum rise up high when shifting your weight across to the other leg.
• Moving your feet instead of moving your bum from side to side.

Comments:

I found this drill one of the most effective before my Karate training.  It opened up my hips and allowed me to move my legs and hips better, faster and stronger.

Hips that can move effectively through a large range of movement can improve your performance of most activities.  This ranges from everyday moves like sitting/standing/climbing stairs, to high level athletic moves such as kicking/running/jumping.

Cancer

You may have noticed this story in the news:

Over 40% of cancers due to lifestyle.

If not, click here for the story, and click here for an explanation of the story from the excellent NHS “behind the headlines” website (I love this place, it explains the millions of health related stories you read in the papers and helps you decide which ones you can totally ignore!).

If you want to change your lifestyle for the better, click here to download my very simple guide to help you.

Bastards

I get bored easily.  I have noticed that unless I have some kind of goal to aim for, or unless I have someone keeping me accountable, I can easily put things off until another time (why do something today if you can put it off until tomorrow?).

And once I have put something off once, it is easy to put it off again (if it was all that important, I would have done it by now!).  And then my consistency goes all to pot.

So one trick I use to con myself into keeping on going is to set myself little challenges/games.  This is my latest…

My girlfriend is REALLY looking forward to opening her advent calendar.  But I banged my head recently and have decided to set myself an Advent Challenge.

In the run up to Christmas, I am going to do 2,500 Bastards.

Starting on December the first and ending on Christmas day itself, I am going to do 100 bastards each and every day.  And here are the rules I have set myself so far (I have a bad habit of bending rules unless they are cast in stone by the Gods themselves):

• 100 full, quality Bastards each and every day (no rubbishy half-harted ones with a rubbish jump/pressup).  After all, a challenge isn’t a challenge if it is easy.
• A day lasts from midnight to midnight.  I am not likely to wake up at 1am in order to do  them, but at least the option is there if I am feeling a bit odd/drunk.
• They can be spread out or grouped together in any way (eg I can do all 100 in one go, or do 10 sets of 10 over 10 hours etc).
• I can not do any less than 100 a day, and any over 100 do NOT count to the total (so I can’t do 200 in one day, then take the next day off).  This means I have to be consistent.

I am hoping this advent challenge will tick all my character flaw boxes:

• I can honestly say that I wont be lazy if I am doing shed loads of bastards every day…they are not easy or nice and everyone sane avoids them like the plague.
• It won’t take that long to do 100 of them, so I will have little chance to get bored.
• I don’t need any equipment or gym memberships or have to spend any money at all to do this.
• Announcing this here will mean I can’t give up half way through, because my ego won’t let me face that shame and my sister will never let me live it down (and feel free to slap me hard if I make any lame, whining excuses as to why I havent done them).

So there we go.  This is one of the random tricks I play on myself to stop me getting fat and lazy.  Do you have any tricks that work for you?

As always, feel free to share this with anyone you think may be interested using the buttons below.

Thanks!

Bastards

Name:  Bastards

Also known as:  (If you know these by any other name, please leave a comment below).

Main muscles used:  Legs, chest, shoulders, arms, heart.

Other muscles used:  Everything else.

Top tips:

• Start by standing tall.
• Squat down and put your hands on the floor, a bit more than shoulder width apart.
• Jump your feet back into the pressup position in one smooth movement, just like the first half of a squat thrust.
• Keep your belly tight all the time, don’t let it sag towards the floor.
• Do a full, quality pressup, with chest touching the floor.
• Jump your feet back to where they were, just like the second half of a squat thrust.
• Jump high up in the air and tuck your knees tight to your chest, just like a tuck jump.
• Land softly on the balls of your feet, then repeat.

Common mistakes:

• All the same mistakes as the constituent parts (squat thrust, pressup and tuck jump).
• Cutting each part down into smaller and smaller moves as you get more and more tired.

Comments:

The Bastard is a progression on the already difficult burpee.  It is essentially the same move, but with a pressup and tuck jump added.  Because the whole body is being used, it works your heart and lungs a great deal.  The pressup makes it a very good upper body strength exercise.  The explosive tuck jump makes it a very good lower body strength exercise.  The combination of everything makes this a very, very hard, full body exercise.

And it is horrible…hence its name.

If you find this useful, please share it with your friends using the buttons below.

I was asked a common question the other day.  A young lad came up to me and asked if he should be having a protein drink like he sees all his friends having.  He trains once or twice a week and when I asked, he said he had no specific goals.  He seemed the perfect example of the average lad doing recreational exercise for general health.

This was an easy one to answer…

No.  He shouldn’t have a protein drink.  I’ve mentioned these before (click here) and i still stand by what I said.  Protein drinks are there for a specific purpose.  They help your body recover after a tough training session and get ready for the next tough training session that is just round the corner.

If you don’t take part in tough training sessions, and if the next tough training session that you wont be taking part in is up to a week away, it won’t have any noticeable effect on you.  If you are genuinely asking from a health point of view, you will be far better advised to go home and eat your greens and lay off the junk food.  But if you are asking because you want to fit in with your mates swigging back on bright pink protein shakes….I’m the wrong person to ask (I don’t have any mates!)

If we want to emulate high level athletes who will benefit from supplements like this, I suggest the first thing we should try to emulate is their work ethic and focus.  They tend to know what they want from their training and tend to put in the years of training needed to achieve their goal.

But that is a very difficult thing to do and it is much easier to put style before substance.  I know this because I do it myself every day…but I’m trying to change.

If you need help putting substance before style and doing some quality training, contact me and maybe I can help.