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.

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.

Training when injured

My friend was out running in the rain the other day, slipped and twisted her knee.  It is now lovely and swollen and she has been advised to avoid too much force going through her knee.

So what does she do now?  Does she have to lay up for a couple of weeks recovering and possibly losing some of the fitness she has trained hard to gain?  Of course not!  This is where cross training (and a little imagination) comes in!

First of all, here is the usual obvious disclaimer:

As with any injury, get it checked out by someone who knows what they are talking about.  It is stupid being all macho, ignoring an injury or “training through” it and screwing up your body for months/years to come.

Pain is a signal from your body that something is wrong.  Listen to it!

Then you need to find out what things are best to avoid.  In the case of my friend, it is higher impact, explosive forces.  Especially those that can force the knee in directions it does not like.  Knees do not like sideways or twisting forces.  They only like bending back and forth.

So for the moment, running, jumping and sudden changes in direction is out.  But her upper body is fine, and simple straightening/bending of the knee is also fine.  So instead of focussing on what we can’t do, we need to focus on the various things we can do…and then get doing it!

This is called cross training…or doing something different to complement our goals.

So simple things first.

Cycling

Cycling.  This involves simple, predictable bending/straightening of the knees, with virtually zero impact.  It maintains mobility of the swollen joint, increases blood flow (which can help healing), maintains leg strength and is fantastic cardio vascular exercise (it gets you out of breath).

Swimming.  Avoiding breast stroke where you can.  Breast stroke kicking has sideways forces going through the legs (not what an injured knee wants).  And on a side note, if you swim like most people (including myself untill recently), you arch your spine and neck back sooo much in an attempt to keep your face out of the water so you can breathe.  Stick your face in the water between breaths.  Your fitness/neck/spine will thank you for it!  Anyway.  In my friends case, she might want to swim front crawl, or back stroke.  This involves simple kicking of the legs back and forth (again, in the direction knees like) and is great for fitness.

Upper body erg – or the arm bike

Upper body ergometer (arm bike).  We have one of these in the gym and they are great.  No legs involved at all, so you don’t have to worry about aggravating an injury, so you can concentrate on working hard!

Rowing.  I love these machines!  But make sure you do them right.  Sit tall to look after your spine, and make sure when you bend your knees, they are between your arms.  Don’t twist them out so your arms are between your knees.  Remember, knees don’t like twisting!

Punching the bag.  Be honest now…are you really all that surprised I’m suggesting this?  I LOVE it.  You will just have to make sure you stay in one place.  No Ali-Shuffle for the moment.  Just stand in front of the bag and show it who is boss and keep out of breath.

Increasing your Background Activity levels.  If you are seriously struggling to find any form of training, then make sure that the rest of your time is not spent sitting down watching X-Factor.  Do something, anything else.

We will all get injured at some point.  The trick is to not throw our arms in the air and say

“buggerit!  I’m screwed!  I may as well sit here and eat cake until I’m fixed!”

Instead, we just work out what we can do, then get on and do it until we are able to get back into training for real.

1. Get injury checked out by someone who knows what they are talking about and start re-hab.
2. Find out activities/exercises you can do that do not aggrevate injury (eg if you lower limbs are injured, use upper limbs more and vice versa).
3. Adapt your training plan accordingly, then get on with being consistant.

Please do your bit and “share” this with your friends with the buttons below.  Ta!

Why do you exercise?

The gym I work at has been refurbished and now all the equipment is brand spanking new.  So, we have been spending the last week or so helping people get used to the new toys (showing them how they work, how they are different, what they can do etc).

And it has become very clear recently that a lot of the people have a very different view of training in the gym to me (and “different” is not “better”, or “worse”…it’s just “different”).

If somebody asked me why i train the way i do, the answer would be so that i am fit/strong/fast/quick/agile/coordinated/healthy enough so i can do all the other random/fun things i really like doing (climb hills with my sister, go white water rafting with my friends, act like a kid and get muddy and dirty etc).

At the end of the day, my training improves the performance of my body so i have the opportunity to do all these things.

But i have now met a great number of people who say:

“I do 15 minutes on the bike at level 8, before doing another 15 minutes on the X-trainer at level 5″.

And when asked why they train like that, their answer is:

“Because that is what i have always done”.

Now if i want to be a half-decent coach (and i do), i need to understand why people do what they do.

So here is an honest question for you all…

Take Our Poll

Please feel free to get all your friends to give their opinion…i want to know what people think!

The squat (as shown by my lovely stick man figure here) is a great example of a Keystone Ability (click here for more info).  But if you don’t believe me, listen to what an actual Knight of the Realm has to say on the matter…

Your average gym monkey

I work in a gym, but I don’t think I am your average gym monkey (at least I hope I’m not).  I am not interested in isolating muscles and “maximising the burn”.  Instead, because of my background in Karate, I am more interested in being able to move in strong, powerful, fast and well coordinated ways.

The human body is the most sophisticated, versatile and amazing gadget we will ever own.  Forget your iPad.  As sexy and funky as it may be, it is nothing compared to the body you are living in right now.  So I think everyone should be able to move it properly and get the most out of it.

I was chatting to my friend the other day.  He was telling me about some resistance machines he had used.  They had little flashing lights that guided how you should move, how far and how fast.  Now, I can see how that kind of thing may be very nice and quite useful for absolute beginners, but personally, I would hate it!  Maybe its just me, but I would much prefer to know what I was doing and why, rather than following mindlessly, sheep-like, a machine that was set for the lowest common denominator.

Talk about setting your sights low!  Which sounds best to you:

“I want to be the best I can be”

or

“I want to be bearly adequate”.

So, here are a few basic movement patterns that we should all be aware of, and should be able to do well, every day of our lives, whether you are in training or not:

Push (or press)

This is when the force in a limb is moving away from the body.  Examples include:

• Pressups - the arms are pushing away perpendicular to the body.
• Shoulder Press - the arms are pushing away parallel to the body.
• Leg press – legs are pushing away from the body.
• Punching – arm is moving away perpendicular to the body.
• Kicking - the leg is pushing away from the body.
• Throwing a ball – the arm (and ball) is travelling away from the body.
• Tug of war – the legs are pushing the body away
• Climbing stairs – the leg is pushing away from the body and down into the floor.
• Standing up from a chair – both legs are pushing away from the body into the floor.

Pull (or row)

This is when the force of the limbs is moving towards the body.  Examples include:

• Seated row - arms are pulling the weights towards the body.
• Rowing in a boat – arms are pulling the oars towards the body.
• Pullup - arms are pulling he body towards the bar.
• Tug of war – the arms are pulling the rope towards the body.
• Picking up a suitcase – arm is pulling the case towards the shoulder.

Twist (or rotate)

This is when the torso or limb moves around its own axis.  Examples include:

• Throwing a baseball – the body “winds up” before the throw, then “uncoils” during the throw.
• Swimming freestyle – the body and head twists as you take a breath.
• Throwing a hook punch – the body rotates to generate the power of the punch.
• Swinging a golf club - the body rotates as the club swings around.
• Using a corkscrew – the forearm twists to screw it into the cork.
• Passing a rugby ball to the side – the body twists to the side to increase the range of the pass.
• Reversing a car – the body/head turns on its axis so you can see behind you.

Stabilise (or not move)

This is not a “move” as such, instead it is the deliberate prevention or stopping of a movement.  I use this mostly in core training.  Examples include:

• The Plank - preventing your belly from sagging in the middle.
• Squat or deadlift - stopping your spine from slumping forwards.
• Tug of war – keeping your spine strong and still so it does not collapse and fold in the middle.
• Using a corkscrew – the other hand has to keep the bottle still while the screw is being twisted.

As you can see from some of the above examples, in a single act (eg, tug of war, using a corkscrew) different parts of the body can be doing different moves at the same time.  And things will only work properly if you coordinate all these different moves.

Pec Fly

A prime example is a guy I was helping in the gym.  Now this guy was very big and very strong.  He was showing me how good he was at the chest press and pec fly machines, and he could do almost twice as much as I could!  But he wanted to join the army, so obviously we got round to doing pressups….

…he couldn’t even do 1 of them.

He had been training his individual muscles for ages!  And his individual muscles were very very strong.  But they couldn’t work together for toffee!  He didn’t know how to stabilise his mid-section while pushing with his upper body, and so his belly would crumple half way through each pressup.  If I was being harsh, I would say his muscles were fantastic…but his body was useless.

And I don’t want that for myself or the people I train.  I would much rather fantastic muscles and a fantastic body.  Or am I just being greedy?

So if you come train with me, you won’t find many bodybuilding routines involving “back & bicep” and “chest & tricep” days.  Instead you will learn how to make your body fitter, stronger, healthier, more capable of moving well…actually doing things in your everyday life.

As Alfred said to Batman:

“What’s the point of all those push ups if you can’t even lift a bloody log? “

Contact me today by clicking here or leave a comment below!

Back Pain

Last year, I ranted about how a guy I knew was being prevented to exercise and rehabilitate his injuries because his solicitor said it would jeopardise his compensation claim (click here for details).

Well, today I was doing some research on back pain and stumbled on the following webpage (click here).  It talks about recovery times for people with low back pain, and how various factors affected these recovery times.  Then I read the following sentence:

“The strongest predictor of delayed recovery was if the episode of low back pain was compensable: compensation halved the chances of recovery.”

Being engaged in a compensation claim halved the chances of recovery!

Now it is always possible that these people are fooling the doctors that treat and diagnose their back pains…or maybe it could be that these injured people are prevented from getting full and proper treatment for their injuries.

They are told to not exercise, not move, not do anything that can strengthen their bodies and increase their resilience to injury…they are basically told to stay weak and injured for fear of shafting their compensation!

Hmmm….I wonder if we could sue the solicitors for buggering up peoples health like this?  Any law firms out there interested?

I’ve been spending the last few months working with Joan, who has been in a wheelchair for a long time.  The goal has been to help her stand and re-learn how to walk.

And that is the important bit…she needs to relearn how to walk.  How do you teach someone how to walk?  Is it just a case of ”put one foot in front of the other?”  At first, I thought it was as simple as that.  But I now know, if you do that you will fall over.  There is a hell of lot more to it than just that.

Just some of the things you need to do include:

• Transfer your bodyweight from one foot to another.
• Balance on one foot.
• Transfer your weight from one part of your foot to another.
• Control the hip in in such a way that it does not collapse under the weight of your entire body.
• Coordinate all these things through many different joints (hips, knees, ankles etc).
• Stabilise and control the moves from your upper body so they don’t cancel out the moves from the lower body.

Luckily, most of us do all the above without even thinking about, or even being conscious of it.  We can even do it when we are asleep (sleepwalking)!  But how do I take this massively complex task and simplify it to such an extent that I can teach it?

Well, the current strategy I am following is:

Going from bigger to smaller.

And by this I mean:

• Bigger to smaller joints (hips -> knees -> ankles -> toes).
• Bigger to smaller moves (moving the body -> moving the legs -> moving the feet).
• Bigger to smaller muscles (body/”core” muscles -> hips muscles -> leg muscles -> foot muscles).

So we are prioritising bigger things over smaller things.  First we worked on “core” muscles to improve sitting position and strengthen the back half of the body.  This is to compensate for the increased amount of work done by the front half when wheeling the chair (we used exercises that were adaptations of Scapular Retractions, Seated Rows & Back Extensions).

Next we worked on standing up.  This involved waking up/strengthening bum and leg muscles and (very importantly) the nerves that control/work them.  This involved adaptations of the Bodyweight Squat.

Now we have gotten this working well, we are moving on to the actual walking part.  This is a much more complex move and I have a feeling that it will take a bit longer to progress through this part, but she has got off to a flying start!  This week she walked about 20 meters, from one exercise station to the next  Before this, I had not seen her walk more than 1 meter!  So bloody well done!

The hip movements that were already being practiced in the standing up, need to be made much more delicate, precise and coordinated.  This takes a lot more fine control over the joints.  And this also means that smaller, “unsexy” muscles (i.e. the ones we don’t drool over looking at in the mirror) have to start working harder and playing their part.

Also, the smaller joints (eg knees) are going to become more important.  So we are going to start work on them any day now.  But I was asked yesterday about the ankles.  They felt a bit weak, as though they may give way while walking.  And this is totally understandable.  When you have been sitting in a chair for months/years, the muscles controlling the ankles are going to weaken.  And if that joint is unstable, it may give way. 

But even with the strongest, most stable ankle in the world, you are not going to walk anywhere if you can’t move your leg from the hip.  So while we are going to work on stabilising/strengthening the ankles, our focus is still going to be on the bigger issues (i.e. the hips).

So Joan is doing bloody well and making good progress.  And the main reason for this is the amount of hard bloody work she  is putting into the basics.  And that is the bit that I love to see.  She consistently comes in and works her socks off time and again.  I don’t think she has had an “easy” training session yet.

So bloody well done!

So the moral of this story is, when it comes to joints, movements and muscles,

go from bigger to smaller.

Don’t spend your time worrying about the tiny details, if you don’t have the big things sorted out first.

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Seated Row – Good

Name:  Seated Row

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

Main muscles used:  Upper and lower back.

Other muscles used:  Biceps, back of the shoulders.

Top tips:

• Sit tall.
• Keep your back straight and push your chest out.
• Hands should be a bit wider than shoulder width.
• Pull with your shoulder blades and elbows.
• As you pull, squeeze your shoulder blades together at the back.
• Think of drawing your elbows back as you pull.
• Keep your shoulders down throughout the move.
• Start and end the move with straight arms.

Seated Row – Bad

Common mistakes:

• Slouching forwards when sitting.
• Letting your shoulders hunch forwards at the beginning and end of the move.
• Leaning waaaay back when pulling.
• Hardly moving your arms at all and making the arm move very small.
• Pulling with your arms, instead of pulling with your shoulder blades.

Comments:

Seated Row – Good

The basic rowing move should be one of the fundamental parts of anyones training programme.  Doing it properly helps keep the back half of the body strong and when done properly, can help improve peoples posture.

It also helps keep shoulders healthy by balancing the huge amount of “pushing” exercises that most men do (to give themselves nice pecs).  Too much pushing and not enough pulling is a recipe for injured shoulders.

Doorway Chest Stretch

Name:  Doorway Chest Stretch.

Also known as:  (if you know this by any other name, leave a comment below).

Main muscles used:  Chest.

Other muscles used: Front of the shoulders.

Top tips:

• Stand in an open doorway with both arms stretched out either side, holding onto the doorframe.
• Keep your shoulder blades pulled back and down (think of putting them “in your trouser back pocket”).
• Keep your body tall and vertical.
• Step your body forwards and allow your arms to be gently stretched back.

Common mistakes:

• Bending the body forwards.
• Rolling the shoulders up and forwards.
• Leaning too far forwards and falling flat on your face.

Comments:

With more and more people spending more and more time sitting (in cars, sofas, offices etc), the shape of peoples bodies are changing.  One of these changes is the “slumped forwards” look, with the shoulders rounding up and forwards.

Regular stretches such as this chest stretch can be a persons first step towards regaining their posture.  It is also very good if you have just been “blasting your pecs” in the gym.

This stretch goes very well with Scapular Retractions.