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.

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.

Don't do this you muppet…

I was chatting to someone about their strained back the other day.

***Disclaimer!  I’m not any kind of physiotherapist, so I am not any kind of expert in this.***

She had pulled her back picking up a bag from the floor, so she was asking me for some things to strengthen her back so it won’t happen again.

But because I have way too much free time on my hands and am a bit of a nerd, I tried to investigate and understand the problem and come up with a good solution.  So I started off with a very important lesson I have learned…

Often, a pulled muscle is not due to a weakness in that particular muscle, but because of a weakness in a totally different muscle.

Why?

Because the injured muscle is not only doing its own work, but having to do the work of the other, weaker, muscle also.  This added workload can be the straw that breaks the camels back…or pulls the muscle, in this case.

For example, picking a bag up off the floor.  The “ideal” way of doing this is in a deadlift fashion, where the back muscles lock the spine flat, while the legs and bum do the heavy work.  If we don’t move properly and bend at the hips and knees, then the back has to do all the work and the chances of pulling something are greatly increased.  This is because the back is doing the work of the back, bum and legs combined.

So if we pull or strain a muscle, the common thought is to strengthen that particular muscle.  But I would suggest that maybe its strong enough already and the weakness is somewhere else and your body is compensating for this by overloading another part of your body.  In this case, simply strengthening the injured muscle is fixing the wrong problem and we don’t improve this way.  It is just masking the symptoms of a deeper, underlying problem that doesn’t get fixed.  We are all guilty of it at some time or other.

…do this instead.

The way to improve would be to properly assess your muscles actual strengths and weaknesses.  And importantly, assess your movement patterns to see if there are any glaring inefficiencies.  In the example above, it would be to:

• Learn how to lift properly and improve your strength/mobility of your legs and hips.  Because if your legs and hips are strong, mobile and used to work, you are more likely to use them instead of your back.
• Develop the consistent habit of lifting in this way in all aspects of your life…not just in the gym.

Another common example of fixing the wrong problem is when people try to “tone up” their belly by doing a million belly exercises like crunches.  9 times out of 10, you don’t need to do more crunches, you need to eat less.

And that is why I often get funny looks from people who come up and ask me for advice…and the answer I give may sound totally unrelated.

“…but I asked you about exercises for my back.  Why am I working my legs?”

It is because I am trying to fix the right problem and giving you what you need, not necessarily what you want.

As always, if you have found this interesting, please feel free to share it using the buttons below.  And if you want help with any of the above, just contact me by clicking here.

Don't do this you muppet…

I was chatting to someone about their strained back the other day.

***Disclaimer!  I’m not any kind of physiotherapist, so I am not any kind of expert in this.***

She had pulled her back picking up a bag from the floor, so she was asking me for some things to strengthen her back so it won’t happen again.

But because I have way too much free time on my hands and am a bit of a nerd, I tried to investigate and understand the problem and come up with a good solution.  So I started off with a very important lesson I have learned…

Often, a pulled muscle is not due to a weakness in that particular muscle, but because of a weakness in a totally different muscle.

Why?

Because the injured muscle is not only doing its own work, but having to do the work of the other, weaker, muscle also.  This added workload can be the straw that breaks the camels back…or pulls the muscle, in this case.

For example, picking a bag up off the floor.  The “ideal” way of doing this is in a deadlift fashion, where the back muscles lock the spine flat, while the legs and bum do the heavy work.  If we don’t move properly and bend at the hips and knees, then the back has to do all the work and the chances of pulling something are greatly increased.  This is because the back is doing the work of the back, bum and legs combined.

So if we pull or strain a muscle, the common thought is to strengthen that particular muscle.  But I would suggest that maybe its strong enough already and the weakness is somewhere else and your body is compensating for this by overloading another part of your body.  In this case, simply strengthening the injured muscle is fixing the wrong problem and we don’t improve this way.  It is just masking the symptoms of a deeper, underlying problem that doesn’t get fixed.  We are all guilty of it at some time or other.

…do this instead.

The way to improve would be to properly assess your muscles actual strengths and weaknesses.  And importantly, assess your movement patterns to see if there are any glaring inefficiencies.  In the example above, it would be to:

• Learn how to lift properly and improve your strength/mobility of your legs and hips.  Because if your legs and hips are strong, mobile and used to work, you are more likely to use them instead of your back.
• Develop the consistent habit of lifting in this way in all aspects of your life…not just in the gym.

Another common example of fixing the wrong problem is when people try to “tone up” their belly by doing a million belly exercises like crunches.  9 times out of 10, you don’t need to do more crunches, you need to eat less.

And that is why I often get funny looks from people who come up and ask me for advice…and the answer I give may sound totally unrelated.

“…but I asked you about exercises for my back.  Why am I working my legs?”

It is because I am trying to fix the right problem and giving you what you need, not necessarily what you want.

As always, if you have found this interesting, please feel free to share it using the buttons below.  And if you want help with any of the above, just contact me by clicking here.

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.

Harvard School of Public Health – Healthy Eating Plate

The Harvard School of Public Health has just published their Healthy Eating Plate (click here).

I am going to use this Healthy Eating Plate in conjunction with their Healthy Eating Pyramid (click here) and my 10 Simple Rules for healthy eating (click here) as the basis for helping people improve their diet.

Click here to go to the Harvard website explaining everything, or read the following quote I shamelessly stole off them…

When it’s time for dinner, most of us eat off of a plate.  So think of the Healthy Eating Plate as blueprint for a typical meal: Fill half your plate with produce—colorful vegetables, the more varied the better, and fruits. (Remember, potatoes and French fries don’t count as vegetables!) Save a quarter of your plate for whole grains. A healthy source of protein, such as fish, poultry, beans, or nuts, can make up the rest. The glass bottle is a reminder to use healthy oils, like olive and canola, in cooking, on salad, and at the table. Complete your meal with a cup of water, or if you like, tea or coffee with little or no sugar (not the milk or other dairy products that the USDA’s MyPlate recommends; limit milk/dairy products to one to two servings per day). And that figure scampering across the bottom of the placemat? It’s your reminder that staying active is half of the secret to weight control. The other half is eating a healthy diet with modest portions that meet your calorie needs—so be sure you choose a plate that is not too large.

I know you know someone who can benefit from this…so please help them by using the “share” buttons below.

Weakest Link

Our bodies are very sophisticated, complex things.  So complex that usually, many different things have to happen for an end result to be produced.

I have talked before about walking (click here).  It is an everyday task, but in spite of this it needs:

• Balance
• Strength
• Timing
• Body awareness
• Coordination of loads of different muscles and joints.

Similarly, our body composition (how fat/lean we are) and competition/training performance is the result of many different factors coming together.

eg – bodyweight is the interaction of our food/drink, activity levels, personality, genetics, geographical location, training etc.

Change one factor, and the end result will also change.  But sometimes a single factor can act as a bottleneck, limiting factor, or brake, preventing any improvement regardless of the other factors. These are your Limiting Factors, or weakest links. 

A very effective way of quickly improving either your training or diet, is to identify these limiting factors and put effort into improving them.

Example #1 – the diet that does not work.

A man I was talking to wanted to reduce his bodyfat and asked if he should switch from full fat to semi-skimmed milk.  But unfortunately he was not planning on changing his habit of having a bar of chocolate and 2 packs of crisps every day.  In this situation he can stress over “tweaking” his diet all he likes to get minimal results, or he can make 1 simple adjustment to his limiting factor (cut out the chocolates and crisps) and things will start moving.

Example #2 – the “bad back”.

Bad back

I know a bloke who is clinically obese (BMI >30) and has a “bad back”.  So he approached me to ask for some “simple exercises I can do a couple of times a week to strengthen” his back.  Here, his limiting factor is not his “weak back”.  He can strengthen it all he likes and it won’t do any good.  Instead, his limiting factor is 1 of 2 possibilities:

1. His obesity is throwing his body out of shape, causing too much stress on all his joints (including his back).  So if he lost the weight, things would start improving.
2. His psychology/attitude/work ethic is such that he chooses to ignore the real problem (his weight) in favour of a “quick fix” (5 minutes of exercise a couple of times a week).  In this case, he needs to change his attitude first.  Not much else will work, because he will subconsciously sabotage his efforts by simply not being arsed to put the effort in.

Example #3 – “which exercise is best for…”

Over the years, a few people (almost exclusively young lads) have asked me what bicep curl is best to emphasise the “peak” of their muscle.  I am not into bodybuilding and have never been interested enough to bother looking into it…but I do know that the limiting factor preventing these scrawny lads getting big biceps is not the type of curl they are doing.  Instead, it is the lack of a solid foundation of muscle and strength.  They can chop and change their curling workout all they like, but until they have some actual muscle to bunch into a “peak”, they are wasting their time.

So in everything we do, we all have limiting factors or weakest links.  And one of the most important jobs I have as a coach is to try to identify peoples limiting factors (myself included), how they are holding us back and how to improve them.  Try it out on yourself.  See how you do.  But if you need help, contact me today (click here)!

And remember, if you like this, please feel free to “share” it with anyone you think might benefit, using the buttons below.

Strength Training with Pressups

“New and important guidelines” have been released today about recommended physical activity levels for people in the UK.  Click here to read them and see how you compare.

Here are just a couple of my thoughts…

• It recommends aerobic activity (remember the golden rules of aerobic activity:  Get out of breath, Stay out of breath, Do it often) AND ALSO muscle strengthening activity.  And I know I sound like a sexist bastard when I say this (but I was brought up surrounded by women, my closest friends are women and i train a hell of a lot of women), but ladies!  Pick up some heavy-arsed weights!  Please!  In 50 years time, I do not want to be pushing you round in your bathchairs because your bones have crumbled away through osteoporosis, because you wrongly thought you would get “bulky” if you picked up anything heavier than you bloody handbag!  Click here to read everything I have written about getting stronger.

• It recommends “vigorous intensity” activity each week.  This is more than just a gentle stroll…it means something that really works you hard and pushes you out of your comfort zone.  Remember, “hard work” are not swear words.

These new  guidelines also include the following points:

• “The intensity at which we exercise is key, and light activity such as strolling and housework is unlikely to have much positive impact on the health of most people. For aerobic exercise to be beneficial it must raise your heartbeat and make you sweat.
• The more exercise you do, the better. Everyone should do a minimum of 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise but that really is the minimum for health benefits. If you can go beyond 150 minutes, you’ll gain even more health benefits.
• Sedentary time (time spent sitting down to watch TV, use a computer, read or listen to music) is bad for your health, even for those who are achieving 150 minutes of exercise a week.”

In other words, it is saying that we should improve both our Background Activity and Peak Activity levels (click here for more information).

And finally, how many of us do you think are meeting the old recommendations of 30 minutes of activity at least 5 times a week?

• England: 40% of men and 28% of women
• Northern Ireland: 33% of men and 28% of women
• Wales: 36% of men and 23% of women
• Scotland: 43% of men and 32% of women

If you are interested in getting some real health and fitness benefits from your training, contact me for some coaching!

Strength Training with Pressups

“New and important guidelines” have been released today about recommended physical activity levels for people in the UK.  Click here to read them and see how you compare.

Here are just a couple of my thoughts…

• It recommends aerobic activity (remember the golden rules of aerobic activity:  Get out of breath, Stay out of breath, Do it often) AND ALSO muscle strengthening activity.  And I know I sound like a sexist bastard when I say this (but I was brought up surrounded by women, my closest friends are women and i train a hell of a lot of women), but ladies!  Pick up some heavy-arsed weights!  Please!  In 50 years time, I do not want to be pushing you round in your bathchairs because your bones have crumbled away through osteoporosis, because you wrongly thought you would get “bulky” if you picked up anything heavier than you bloody handbag!  Click here to read everything I have written about getting stronger.

• It recommends “vigorous intensity” activity each week.  This is more than just a gentle stroll…it means something that really works you hard and pushes you out of your comfort zone.  Remember, “hard work” are not swear words.

These new  guidelines also include the following points:

• “The intensity at which we exercise is key, and light activity such as strolling and housework is unlikely to have much positive impact on the health of most people. For aerobic exercise to be beneficial it must raise your heartbeat and make you sweat.
• The more exercise you do, the better. Everyone should do a minimum of 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise but that really is the minimum for health benefits. If you can go beyond 150 minutes, you’ll gain even more health benefits.
• Sedentary time (time spent sitting down to watch TV, use a computer, read or listen to music) is bad for your health, even for those who are achieving 150 minutes of exercise a week.”

In other words, it is saying that we should improve both our Background Activity and Peak Activity levels (click here for more information).

And finally, how many of us do you think are meeting the old recommendations of 30 minutes of activity at least 5 times a week?

• England: 40% of men and 28% of women
• Northern Ireland: 33% of men and 28% of women
• Wales: 36% of men and 23% of women
• Scotland: 43% of men and 32% of women

If you are interested in getting some real health and fitness benefits from your training, contact me for some coaching!