Stick Ups

Name:  Stick Ups.

Also known as:  Wall Slides.

Main muscles used:  Upper back.

Other muscles used:

Top tips:

• Stand with your back against a wall or any flat surface.
• Have your feet a few inches away from the wall.
• Keep your belly tight throughout.
• Have your bum, shoulder blades and back of head touching the wall.
• Keeping these 3 points of contact at all times, put your arms up, as if someone were pointing a gun at you.
• Squeeze your shoulder blades back together until your elbows touch the wall.
• If you can, try to get your wrists to touch the wall also.
• Keeping these 5 points of contact with the wall at all times, slowly slide your arms up and down to the count of 4 seconds.
• When pulling your arms down, think about squeezing your elbows in tight to your sides.

Common mistakes:

• Letting your bum/shoulder blades/head peel away from the wall.
• Failing to get your elbows back touching the wall.
• Failing to get your wrists back touching the wall.
• Relaxing your belly and letting it arch out in front in an attempt to get your elbows touching the wall.

Comments:

This is a very good variation of the Scapular Retraction exercise and is particularly good for anyone who suffers from a slumped forward posture.

Not only does it help mobilise the upper back and shoulders, but develops the muscles needed to pull the body back into an upright posture, and it teaches us how it actually feels to be upright.  If this move feels very alien to you, it is an indication of how much your posture is off.

And don’t worry if you can’t do it at first.  Many people these days find it difficult/odd at first.  The trick is do it “little and often”.  Do this exercise as part of every warm up, and for a few seconds several times each day.

So here is a quick and easy routine for almost anyone to improve their hip mobility.  There are only 4 stretches involved and it only takes 3 minutes, so you don’t have any excuses (you can even do it in the advert breaks of X Factor!)

So here goes…

Squat Stretch (click here for details).

Squat Stretch

Cossack Stretch (click here for details).

Cossack mobility stretch

Left side Hip Flexor Lunge Stretch (click here for details).

Hip Flexor Lunge Stretch

Right side Hip Flexor Lunge Stretch (click here for details).

Hip Flexor Lunge Stretch

Do the above four stretches for 10 seconds each, then repeat again for 15 seconds each, then a third and final round of 20 seconds each.  That makes a grand total of 180 seconds, or only 3 minutes!  And trust me, your hips will feel a lot looser and mobile afterwards.

You will get significant short term benefits from doing just this, so it would be a good drill to put into your warm ups.  But to get longer term benefits, follow the “little and often” principle.  Do this mini drill several times a day and you will get longer lasting and more permanent results.

Arm Step Out - Good

Name:  Arm Step Out.

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

Main muscles used:  Belly.

Other muscles used:  Shoulders, lats.

Top tips:

• Set yourself up in a Pressup position.
• Keep your belly very tight and your bottom down from the start.
• Keeping your body rigid and straight, take a step forwards with one arm, then the other, before returning to the start position.

Arm Step Out - Bad

Common mistakes:

• Letting your hips hang down low and arching your back down.
• Letting your body roll side to side.
• Letting your body bend or sway as you step your arms forwards/backwards.
• Only doing little, tiny steps with your arms.

Comments:

This is a dynamic progression to the Front Plank.  When your arms are stepped forwards, the move is simply a harder version of the Front Plank.  But when your hand is in motion, there is a strong twisting force acting on your body that your midsection has to work hard to control.  This is what makes it a good move.

Start by making sure you can do the move slowly and under control.  As with many of these exercises, quality is most important.

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.

Squat Stretch - Good

Name:  Squat Stretch.

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

Main muscles used:  Inner thighs.

Other muscles used:  Bum.

Top tips:

• Have your feet a good shoulder width apart.
• Feet turned out slightly.
• Squat down low so your bum gets close to the floor.
• Jam your elbows on the inside of your knees and push them outwards so you feel a stretch on your inner thighs.
• Keep your feet flat and heels firm on the floor at all times.
• Keep your chest out and shoulders back at all times.

Squat Stretch - Bad

Common mistakes:

• Having your feet too close together.
• Having your knees too close together.
• Pulling the heels off the floor and going onto the toes.
• Slumping the shoulders and back forwards.
• Confusing “getting the bum low” with “getting the head low”.

Comments:

This is a very good hip mobility and adductor stretch exercise.  A person with good hip mobility is less likely to display movement compensations that can lead to injuries, including back problems.

Too much sitting in our lives can lead to tight hips, including adductors (inner thighs).  If you are not careful, this can lead to dodgy backs and knees.  So if you have dodgy backs/knees, or if you want to avoid them, make sure you do this stretch regularly.

The squat stretch helps with both athletic moves (running, jumping, landing etc) and everyday moves (sitting, standing, climbing stairs etc).

Hurdle Step Over - Good

Name:  Hurdle Step Over.

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

Main muscles used:  Hip stabilisers, bums, legs.

Other muscles used:  Ankle stabilisers.

Top tips:

• Stand in front of a hurdle/barrier whose height is approximately knee height.
• Stand tall and keep your body straight and vertical.
• Lift your knee and foot over the barrier without touching it.
• Keep your lifting knee directly over your lifting foot.
• Step over the barrier and “hurdle” your trailing leg over by cocking your knee and foot over to the side.
• Land secure and stable, then repeat with other foot.
• Keep your whole body square and facing the front at all times.
• Make sure the movements come from the hips, not any other joints.

Hurdle Step Over - Bad

Common mistakes:

• Turning the leading foot out to one side or other.
• Not lifting the leading knee high and keeping it directly over the leading foot.
• “Hitching” the leading hip up to help the foot over the barrier.
• Bending or twisting the spine.
• Not lifting either knee high over the barrier.
• Doing everything possible to avoid lifting either knee.
• Losing your balance and falling over or hopping around.

Comments:

This is a good warming up mobility exercise.  It looks easy and simple, and is very easy to do badly.  But of course, the trick is to do it properly, and then it gets harder.

It gets the hips moving in lots of directions and is a very practical move.  Done properly, it can help teach people to move more efficiently by using the hips more and the spine less.  And finally, by getting people to stand and maneuver on one leg, it is a very good balance exercise and developes the often over-looked hips stabiliser muscles.

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.

Slipping on ice

When (not “if”) you slip on the ice, your feet are going to shift away from you.  If your hips are mobile, you have a greater chance of shifting your support into a position where you might be able to avoid falling. 

If your hips aren’t mobile, then you have a greater chance of either ripping some important soft tissue in your groin (ouch!), or planting your face into the floor.

This is why everyone should keep their body moving and strong.

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.

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.

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.

Side leg swing - good

Name:  Side Leg Swing.

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

Main muscles used:  Bum, adductors, abductors.

Other muscles used:

Top tips:

• Stand tall, straight and still, using a wall for balance if needed.
• Keeping your leg straight all the time, swing it out to the side.  Only as far as your hip will allow.
• Actively return the leg to the start, crossing it in front of the supporting leg, again, only as far as your hip will allow.
• Keep your hips, belly, chest and shoulders pointing square to the wall in front.
• Keep all your toes on both feet pointing straight forwards to the wall at all times.
• Repeat with the other leg.

Side leg swing - bad

Common mistakes:

• Twisting and bending your hips, belly, chest and shoulders towards the swinging leg.
• Bending the swinging leg.
• Pointing the toes of the swinging leg up to the ceiling.
• Sticking your bum out and back, or “jack-knifing” in the middle.
• Twisting so out of shape the side leg swing turns into a bad front leg swing.

Comments:

This is a good hip mobility exercise.  You can use it during your warm ups to increase the mobility in the hips and to learn to distinguish hip movement from spine movement.  Most of the common mistakes come from trying to get the foot artificially higher by twisting the bending the hips and spine.

Front leg swing - good

Name:  Front Leg Swing.

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

Main muscles used:  Bum, hamstrings, hip flexors.

Other muscles used:

Top tips:

• Stand tall, holding onto a wall for balance if needed.
• Keep shoulders pulled back and chest and head high throughout the move.
• Swing one leg forwards and backwards, keeping the swinging knee straight and a slight, comfortable bend on the supporting leg.
• Swing your leg up just high enough until you feel a slight tightness at the back of the leg.
• At the end of the move, swing your leg back just enough until you feel a slight tightness in the hip flexors at the front of the hip.
• Keep your belly button pointing forwards all the time.
• On the back swing, keep your belly tight.
• Keep toes of both legs pointing forwards/upwards all the time.
• Make sure the movement comes from the hip.
• Repeat on other side.
  

  Front leg swing - bad

Common mistakes:

• Bending the swinging knee.
• Hunching your upper body forwards towards the swinging leg.
• Twisting your hips so your belly button turns away from the front.
• Letting the toes of either foot twist in/out at any time.
• Arching your back and letting your belly stick out on the back-swing.

Comments:

This is an exercise to help mobilise your hips and warm up the muscles surrounding them (glutes, hamstrings, hip flexors and quadriceps).  Most of the common mistakes happen when you aren’t keeping the movement in the hips, but twisting and wrenching your spine instead.

This move keep the hips mobile, flexible and teaches you to use your powerful hips, instead of your back.

Backward Lunge - Good

Name:  Reverse Lunge

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

Main muscles used:  Bum, legs.

Other muscles used:

Top tips:

• Start and end the move standing tall and balanced.
• Take a stride straight backwards with one leg, landing on the toes.  Keep the heel pointing straight upwards (don’t let it twist in/out).
• Take as long and low stride as your flexibility and balance will allow.
• Try to get your back knee as close to the floor as possible without cracking it on the ground.
• Keep your belly tight and body tall and feel a stretch at the front of the back hip.
• Dig the heel of the front foot into the floor and start to stand back up straight, keeping your belly tight and body tall throughout.
• Repeat with the other leg.

Backward Lunge - Bad

Common mistakes:

• Not stepping back far enough.
• Not stepping low enough.
• Hunching your back forwards.
• letting the front knee cave inwards.
• Letting the back foot collapse in/out.

Comments:

This is a progression of the normal Lunge.  Stepping backwards into the “unknown” can be a bit nerve wracking, so this can help your confidence and body awareness.  The longer and lower you go with this move, the more of your bum and hamstrings are used.  It can also be used as a fantasic hip mobility exercise.

If you know anyone who may benefit from this, please share it with them using the buttons below.  Thanks.

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.

Inverted Row - Good

Name:  Inverted Rows

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

Main muscles used:  Upper back, arms.

Other muscles used:  Lower back, bum.

Top tips:

Inverted Row – Good

• Hold onto a solid, secure bar, with hands a couple of inches wider than shoulder width apart.
• Hang underneath, with heels digging into the floor.
• Squeeze your bum and make sure it does not “sag” downwards.
• Start pulling your chest up to the bar by squeezing your shoulder blades back and down.
• Continue the pull using your arms, until your chest makes contact with the bar, then return to the start position under control.
• Keep your legs, back and neck in a straight line throughout.
• Let your elbows make a 45 degree angle with the sides of your body.

Inverted Row - Bad

Common mistakes:

• Letting your bum sag down to the floor.
• Over arching your spine in attempt to get your chest higher.
• Reaching your chin forwards to the bar.
• Not touching the bar to your chest at the top.
• Not keeping your legs, bum, back and neck tight and straight.
• Trying to pull yourself up with the arms, instead of with your upper back (shoulder blades).

Comments:

This move complements the pressup wonderfully, working all the body that was missed in the pressup.  Make the move easier by having a higher bar (so your body is more vertical).  Make the move harder by having a lower bar (so your body is more horizontal).

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.

Download the poster below:

Olympic Masters Swim Clinic poster

Booze

Is a small drink good or bad for you?  Does a small glass in the evening give you health benefits?

Read this special report from the NHS for an analysis on “the media’s relationship with research on alcohol, the science behind it, and what all this means for us when we consider raising a glass.”

The report covers:

• Alcohol stories in the headlines.
• Do we drink more than is good for us?
• What happens to our bodies when we drink?
• Why do scientists have a problem with alcohol?
• Alcohol and the heart.
• Alcohol and cancer.
• Alcohol and pregnancy.
• Other health issues.
• Conclusions.

It is a very good read, and the bottom line is, don’t kid yourself that booze is a health drink!

Download it by clicking below:

whats_your_poison_1.0

As always, if you liked this, please “share” it with your friends using the buttons below, and if you have anything to say, just leave a comment.

Shotokan Karate

First of all, here is the disclaimer…I am not a physiotherapist, or qualified in pain relief in any way.  I am just a person with an interest in the way the human body moves and works.  So if you know more than me, and know that i am just talking out of my hat, leave a comment below and tell me.

But I work with several people with various injuries and disabilities.  A few of whom suffer from chronic pain.  It took me a while to appreciate the concept of chronic pain.  As a young, healthy bloke with a background in martial arts I would think that i have been hit by loads of people and got hurt (I was never that good at martial arts!).  I would think:

“Its just a bit of pain!  Man up and deal with it!”

But then someone explained it to me in the following way:

“Imagine the pain you feel when you get hit/hurt.  It hurts like hell, but you know the pain will subside in a few minutes/hours.

Now imagine the pain you feel when you get hit/hurt.  It hurts like hell, but now you know the pain will still be just as bad a few hours/days later.”

Then i think i started to understand.  It is not only the pain you feel there and then (although that is bad enough)…it is the certainty that it is not going to improve/get any better for ages!

One thing that I have learned over the years though, is that exercise/activity can help in so many ways, including pain relief.  Simply moving the joints through gradually increasing ranges of motion can help in many ways.

• It can reduce stiffness in joints.
• Helps increase temperature in the joints and body.
• Improves Range Of Motion (ROM) in joints, which can increase efficiency of movements.
• Can improve strength and “robustness” of the body.
• The sense of self-belief and pride it can generate can boost a persons emotional state.

And because of my background in martial arts (which involves a huge amount and variety of movements) I have always thought that people should take it up.  But how the hell can I convince someone to do that when they are in constant fear of hours/days/weeks of constant pain from the slightest knock?

The other day, I tagged along with one of my clients to their hydrotherapy session with their physio.  And while I am massively simplifying the treatment here, it seemed the goals were based around maintaining/improving mobility of the joints…and I saw that many of the exercises given could be replicated in Shotokan Karate.

The marching on the spot is almost identical to the first half of a Mae Geri front kick.  The standing twist is very similar to a Kizame Tsuki (lunging punch) followed by a Gyaku Tsuki (reverse punch).  The walking forwards and backwards can easily become the simple stepping drills we do in line.

The main difference being in the speed/power/explosiveness of the moves.

So a few days after their positive experience at their hydrotherapy session, we tried a similar thing in the local swimming pool.  But this time we tried going over some basic karate moves (punches, kicks, steps etc).

This got them doing very similar movement patterns as to their hydrotherapy (but obviously at a very different pace/intensity), but it also put them in a really good mood!  Suddenly they felt like less of a patient, and much more of a “normal” person, doing things that a fully fit person can do.  This improved sense of wellbeing lasted for the rest of the day.

The key message I think I am getting from the hydrotherapy sessions, is that a major priority is maintaining mobility of the joints.  It is easier to move the joints through a greater ROM in a warm pool where you are supported by water, than when you are on dry land.

Another priority seems to be finding the balance of how much to do.  Doing too much can cause aches and pains and put the person off (see my discussion about Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness for more on this), but doing too little can reduce effectiveness and maybe reinforce the feeling that the person needs to be “molly coddled” and can’t have a fulfilling life.

So me and my client are going to experiment a bit more and see what works and what doesn’t.  But I think we may be onto something  (I know for a fact that many people with injuries are referred to the local “aquacise” class, run by people with a lot less experience and a much looser grasp of the human body than me).  So as long as all goes well, we are thinking of trying to do a few Katas in the pool over the next few weeks.

But do any of you have any experience with this kind of thing?  Have you tried it, or seen it done before?  Does anyone know of any studies on this kind of thing they could point me to?  Any and all feedback on this would be greatly appreciated!  Just leave a comment below.

And if you know anyone who might benefit from reading this, please “share” it with the buttons below.  The more input from as many people as possible, the better things will be for us all!

Thank you.

He sprints 100 metre races and is also aiming for the Toronto Waterfront Marathon today!

This 100 year old guy can do it…how old are you again?

What is your excuse?

http://flic.kr/s/aHsjwkzwq6

Peruvian Fruit

If you follow this link, the guy talks of being in Peru and being guided round a local fruit stall full of unusual fruit.  The line I like is:

“…the future will not be about finding information, but rather, finding reliable interpreters and guides…”

I feel the same way when someone comes to me with the latest internet exercise craze.  I remind myself to upgrade my internal “bullshit filters”, so I can recognise people who know what they are talking about, and who are just trying to sell me something.

http://evidencebasedfitness.blogspot.com/2011/10/fitness-nutrition-and-peruvian-fruit.html

As always, if you want a reliable guide to getting fitter, stronger and healthier, contact me today (http://www.clwb-heb-enw.co.uk/contact.htm).

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!

Marine Commando Challenge

As I mentioned a few days ago, I’m doing the 10 km Marine Commando Challenge on October 9th, raising money for the Devon Air Ambulance.

I have a “Just Giving” donation page where anyone can donate money for the charity, and I need your help to get as much donations as possible.

Please click here to go to my page and donate something, and tell all your friends to help me too!

Thank you!

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.

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!

My new Facebook page. Help me fill it up!

My mate Mark has just set up a new Facebook page for me!  Now I need to fill it up and put it to good use.

Please take a look and tell me how!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cerin-Rees-BSc-Fitness-Coaching-Personal-Training/220073511379541

10k Marine Commando Challenge (picture from The Independent)

OK…I think I am going to sign up for the 10k Marine Commando Challenge (click here), so that means I will be hounding anyone and everyone for sponsorships.

I need to start running back and forth to work again, and brush up on my pressups and pullups.

And just to warn everyone who turns up to any of the classes I take…we are going to start cranking things up a notch or 2 again!

Well, yesterday, he completed his 44th row, so he only has 6 more to do.  His final one is due a week tomorrow (Tuesday 30th).

If you havent watched them already, please watch the following 2 videos so you know what he is doing and why.  Then please follow this link (click here) and donate any money you can to a very wonderful cause…

And please use the “share” buttons below to tell as many people about this as possible.

Thank you.

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.

“I think I’m reasonably fit.  I do a lot of walking (dozens of miles a every week), but I get so out of breath when I climb the stairs/run for a bus/play with the kids.  What is wrong with me?”

The Intensity/Duration Curve

I recognise it.  Every single week someone comes up to me and asks me some version of this question, so here is the answer.

It is all to do with the Intensity/Duration Curve.  First of all, here are a couple of definitions:

• Intensity:  The amount of work (exercise) done in a given unit of time. 
• Duration:  How long it takes to do the work (exercise).

The graph shows how as the intensity of the work decreases, the duration of it can increase (point B or “Low Intensity” on the graph).  Or put another way, as the duration decreases, the intensity can increase (point A or “High Intensity” on the graph).

You can see this easily in the real world.  How long you can walk/jog is measured in hours, how long anyone can sprint flat-out is measured in only seconds.  Of course, the world is not simply black and white.  We are not restricted to either A or B, but we can do anything and everything in between and different things in life/training will fall at different points on the curve.

Examples of A include:  100m sprint, high jump, long jump, throwing the javelin, running up a flight of stairs, running up a hill, punching a bag fast and hard, jumping.  These are all things that are explosive, fast or need a blast of full effort all at once.

Examples of B include:  marathon, walking, easy swimming, easy bike riding, basic gardening.  These are all things that are “slow burning”, still need effort, but you need to “pace” yourself.

Most of us spend our lives at the “B” end of the curve.  We try to make things as easy as possible in our lives (quite understandable).  But following the very basic principle of

“We get better at what we do”

we get relatively good at doing “easy” things for a “long time”, but get relatively bad at doing “hard” things “quickly”.  In other words, we get better at “B” and worse at “A”.  And when life forces us to do something intense (eg running for the bus/ambulance/bar etc), we are totally unprepared and find it a real struggle.

Now I am certainly not saying that high/low intensity training is better/worse than the other.  But they are different and if you are interested in good, solid all round general health and fitness (as hopefully you all are), you should be able to manage both.  And restricting yourself to just one end of the curve (usually the “B” end) will leave your shortcomings very exposed at the worst time.

So if you want to be able to handle “climbing the stairs” or any such higher intensity things like that, you need to make sure you are doing some higher intensity training.  The simple way of doing this is when you review your training, don’t progress by increasing the time/repetitions etc.  Progress by increasing the speed/weight etc.

As always, if you are interested in improving your health, fitness or training, or finding out where you are and where you should be training on the curve, contact me by clicking here.

I hope I have explained this curve well enough, because I will refer back to it in the future.  If you are scratching your head, puzzled at what I have written, please leave a question in the comments below.  And if you know anyone who could benefit from this, please “share” it using the buttons below.  I need all the help I can get spreading the word!

We are signing up for next year, and we are gonna race it!

I’m off to bed to clean all the many grazes I now have and have nightmares about bloody electric fences!

http://sheffieldmanofsteel.co.uk/

Only a couple of weeks until I have a go at the Nettle Warrior challenge!  So as a practice run I’m having a go at the Sheffield Man Of Steel tomorrow!

Wish me luck!

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!

Holiday

My friend is going on holiday to Italy for 3 weeks, so she was wondering how will she cope without her regular training 3 times a week?

Holidays can be difficult when it comes to training.  So off the top of my head, here are some of the main problems and how we might get over them…

• Lack of equipment – You are somewhere new and you don’t have access to your usual shiny gym machines, CV toys and weights.  What are you to do?

• Lack of motivation/training partners – This is often the biggest problem.  We seem to be almost hardwired to equate holiday with “eating, drinking and doing sod-all else”.  Without the structure and responsibility that comes with a usual working week and the people we meet, it is very easy to miss the hard work “just this once” and go sit by the pool instead.

• Lack of knowledge – This tends to tie in with the “Lack of Equipment” problem.  Most of us learn the specific machines/exercises of our usual routine.  We know what level/speed/setting/reps etc we normally do, but have no idea what they are doing, or what effect it is having on our body.  Because of this, we are totally reliant on the equipment and have no idea how to replicate the effect in any other way.

So these are the main problems I can think of.  So how do we get over them?

Equipment.

The Planche

Lack of equipment is quite an easy one to get over.  All it takes is a bit of imagination and a willingness to give it a go.

Bodyweight Exercises – This is how people have kept fit and strong for thousands of years.  These exercises can range from the easy (star jumps, walking/jogging, pressups, bodyweight squats, bodyweight split squats etc) to bloody challenging (burpees, pistols, pullups, hill sprints, handstands etc).  I have made a list of several of my favorite exercises, and many of them are bodyweight ones.  Click here to see them all.  If you have a favorite exercise, tell us about it in the comments below.

Iron Cross - Using portable equipment.

Portable Equipment – The next answer is to simply take your training equipment with you.  Portable equipment such as this can come in many forms, such as:

• Skipping Rope.
• Resistance Bands.
• Balls (footballs, tennis balls etc).
• Gymnastic rings.
• Punching pads/focus mitts.
• Your full suitcase.

Kit like these are small, light and you can get them out/put them away at a moments notice.  Of course, as with any new bit of kit, make sure you know how to use them properly before you go at them full tilt!  And you can get kit such as this from most good sports shops.

But because this is “portable” equipment, don’t make the mistake of thinking you can’t use it when you are not on holiday.  They can be part of anyones regular training.

Parkour - using the environment

Use the environment – Again, the way people have kept fit and strong for thousands of years.  Is there a pavement or path?  Go for a jog.  Is there a nice bit of sloping ground?  Try some hill sprints.  Is there a good strong tree?  How about climbing it or improving your pullups.  Is there a park with a climbing frame?  Then climb it!  The only thing that is stopping you is your imagination and that silly nagging voice in your head saying you are too old, or it will be embarrassing.  Sod it!  You’re on holiday!

Lack of motivation.

This is a tougher one to crack.  But most of us get over a lack of motivation everyday using 2 things…routine and accountability.  Millions of us grind our way through a horrible daily commute to/from work because it is now “part of the routine”.  And we actually go to a shitty job because of our accountability to our boss/co-wokers/family/bank manager.  So why don’t we use these to help us exercise on holiday?

Routine.

Make exercise part of the routine of holiday.  Something that is automatically done.  Maybe you could go for a walk/jog/swim/ride before breakfast?  Or you could book “activities” on every other day.  These activities can be almost anything:

• Go rock climbing.
• Learn to surf.
• Go kayaking.
• Join that group of people who are going to climb that mountain over there.
• Etc.

It doesn’t matter so much what the activity is (just make sure you enjoy it), just make sure it is routinly booked in to the day and you actually do it.

Accountability.

It is a well known fact that most people do better when someone is checking up on them.  This could be a training partner or coach.  But if you have “announced” you are going to do something, and someone is there expecting it to happen, it is much harder for us to back out and make excuses for ourselves.

Facebook

That is how a training partner/coach keeps us accountable.  But if they are not with you in person (who takes their coach on holiday?) it is quite easy to use your phone, email or social network of your choice to keep in touch.

Arrange your routine with them before you go and keep them updated as to how you get along.  Tell them when you are starting, when you are finishing, how you did, could you have done better.  If you slip up, they are only a button away to get you back on track.

But the important thing is to announce what you are doing before you do it.  Once the announcement is out there, it is much harder to back out of it!

Lack of knowledge.

I think this one is the root behind the above 2 problems.  Essentially, a lack of knowledge is when people don’t know what their options are, or how to get the most out of them.

e.g.  portable equipment, bodyweight exercises and the environment are no good if you don’t know how to use them.  And routine and accountability are all fine and dandy, but if you don’t know they can be useful, you probably won’t ever bother using them.

Each week I speak to people who have come to believe it is simply not possible to get fitter unless you are on the newest, shiniest CV machine in town.  Or they cannot possibly be improving their strength or muscle tone unless they are strapped into the resistance machine with the most flashing lights.  These people don’t know how to use their bodies, but they do know how to use specific machines.

And hopefully this is where I and coaches like me come in.  I can help you work independently of fancy equipment and make the most of the best bit of kit you will ever possess…your body.

But before I finish up, I just want to throw this question out there for you to think about…if you are training regularly, consistantly and properly, what is wrong with taking a week or 2 off?

Contact me or leave a comment below if you feel like it.

My Plate from the USDA

The USDA revamped its guide on what to eat the other day. It used to be a funny pyramid with lots of stripes on. I was never very keen on it, because it wasn’t very clear to me.

But I think I like this new one. It is clear and simple. And importantly, it is very clear that half of what you eat should be made up of fruit and veggies.

I think I might use this to help absolute beginners with their diets. But as soon as I can, I think I will still try to get people to use the Harvard School of Public Healths Healthy Eating Pyramid.

While not as blindingly simple as the “My Plate”, it is still easy to understand, and has a great deal more info on it. Information such as:

• the difference between whole grains and reined grains.

• the difference between plant and animal based fats/oils.

• restricting sugary sweets/drinks treats etc.

• getting some exercise every day.

I am a firm believer in the principle of Keep It Simple.  And when I have a problem that is not getting fixed, I try to simplify it, get the basics sorted, then gradually add more detail and complexity as and when appropriate.

And I know a lot of people out there (myself included) can be overwhelmed by all the millions of facts, figures and stories about weight control (you should/shouldn’t eat carbohydrates, you should/shouldn’t eat after 6pm, dietary fat is good/bad for us).  So I like anything that starts at square one but lets me move onwards from there.

This is square one.  If in doubt, make sure your dinner plate looks something like the above.  When this has become a second nature habit to you, move on to something like the Harvard Healthy Eating Pyramid or my 10 simple rules for healthy eating.

As always, you can subscribe to this blog using the RSS or email thingy near the top right of this page, or you can “share” it with your friends by clicking the buttons below.  Ta!

Indoor rowing

Half a marathon is 21.1 km, or 21,097 metres long.  That is a long way.  It takes my friend Mark about 1 hour 20 minutes to row it on the indoor rowers here at work.  The British record for his division is 1 hour 13 minutes.  So Mark is going at a very good pace, and he is working his body hard!

Almost everyone I tell is very impressed by this…then I tell them that he is going to do 50 of these half marathons over the course of 60 days…then everyone is impressed!

Other ways of saying 50 half marathons include:

• 1,054,850 metres.
• 1,054 km.
• 655 miles.
• From Scotland to Iceland.

He has worn out 2 pairs of trainers and 2 pairs of gloves in training already, and he doesn’t even officially start until July 2nd!

But he is putting himself through this hell for a very good reason.  It is for a local 9 year old girl who broke her neck (2nd vertebra) last year.  She is now totally paralysed and will be on ventilator for the rest of her life.

If you have a few minutes spare, please watch the video below to find out more.

Or you can click below to download a pdf explaining.

MARK – Bel 1.

Supplements

Supplements. Do you take them? Do you know what they are? Are they worth the money we spend on them and are they even actually safe for us?

If you don’t know the answer to any of these, click here to find out.

This NHS report gives you unbiased information from actual science studies (not from an advertising exec.) on:

• vitamin and multivitamin pills

• weight-loss supplements

• supplements for preventing and treating colds

• glucosamine, ginkgo and ginseng for ageing

• fish oils

• body-building supplements

And just in case the link above dies at some point in the future, you can download their report directly by clicking below:

BtH_supplements pdf (4mb)

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!

Fake it til you make it

Fake it ’til you make it is a phrase that can help with self confidence, self belief and achieving a target/goal.

Have you ever been given a challenge and immediately thought

“I could never do that!  It’s impossible!  I’m not nearly good enough!”.

The next thing you know, you have:

• Sweaty palms
• Butterflies in your belly
• Trouble getting your words out properly
• Forgotten your lines
• Forgotten how to do your next move.

Basically, you are cocking everything up because of this self-fulfilling prophecy of telling yourself you can’t do it.

Why is this?  Personally, it is because I have spent so long convincing myself I can’t do it and mentally rehearsed all the things that could go wrong.  All this rehearsal and practice makes me very good at actually doing things wrong!.  I have practiced so hard at fudging things up, it is difficult not to fudge them up!  It has become second nature to me!

And when I eventually do fudge it up, this just reinforces my lack of self confidence, so I have even greater self doubt, I start mentally rehearse failing again next time…and the vicious downward spiral continues.

It is here where faking it til you make it comes in.  The trick is, if you have little/no self-confidence, then just pretend.  Do some play acting behave like you can succeed.  Try to convince as many people as possible (yourself included) that your success is almost a foregone conclusion.

Mentally rehearse and practise all the things that are going to go right, your “victory speech” etc, for when you succeed.  Even if you don’t actually believe it yourself, behave, think and pretend that you do.

After a while, more and more people will believe you and have confidence in you.  This confidence will then start to rub off on you and after a while, you will start to really believe in yourself too.  Basically, you are creating an environment in which you can succeed, instead of one in which you will fail.

Quaterback

One example is of a quarterback in American Football who had just won the Super Bowl (I forget which one).  A reporter asked him “how do you feel”.  His response was:

“It feels just as great as the 1,000 other times I have won it since I was a kid in my back garden”.

In other words, since a kid, he had practiced, pretended and mentally rehearsed how it is to be a winner.  Or, he had faked it ’til he had made it.

So next time I ask you to do a pressup/pullup/squat/jump/run etc, don’t stand there looking at me going:

“Nope, I can’t do that”.

Instead, go:

“How good is it going to feel when I achieve that!”

This approach works for millions of people all around the world, and it works for me…why don’t you at least give it a try.

And if you are sitting there telling yourself “Nah, I’m different.  It won’t work for me”, do me a favour and re-read this post, because it obviously has not sunk in yet.

If you think you may benefit from movement analysis such as this, contact me today, or please “share” this with your friends using the buttons below.

Seeing yourself like this can be an invaluable tool for anyone who wants to step up to the next level.  If you are interested, contact me today.  And if you know anyone who may benefit from this, please “share” it with them using the buttons below.

Flat-out Sprinting

I read this story (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8429518/Sprints-better-than-marathon-for-heart-health.html) when it came out last month.  It shows how multiple, maximal effort sprints had similar effects on health compared to long duration exercise.  But after chatting with some people in the gym, I have a couple of problems with the practical implications of it…

• Maximal effort sprints are not simply shorter duration exercise, but they are much more intense.
• Maximal effort sprints are bloody hard work and they make you feel horrible (vomiting is a common thing afterwards!)
• The vast majority of people don’t know what maximum effort is and they never go anywhere near it.
• If I got the everyday people in the gym to do maximal effort sprints 3 times a week, 99% of them would not come back after the first time.

Fantastic exercise, but not maximum effort sprints.

So while brief, intense bursts of exercise is beneficial (and personally, I much prefer them to long duration, steady exercise), there is a time and place for them.  And that time and place is in people who are physically and mentally capable of doing it.

Unfortunately, these days there are fewer and fewer people who are actually capable of safely putting in maximal effort sprints.  Either their weight or lack of body awareness/coordination makes tripping a real danger, or they are so heavy they can put joints at risk.

And then there are very few people who actually know what maximum effort is, and how to do it!

As a real life example, I have trained with a guy who is much fitter than I am.  He just simply does-not-stop.  He can just carry on going for hours and hours.  But when we did 10 second sprints, he could not go any faster than his normal pace!  He just could not switch his brain out of “steady pace” and into “flat-out pace”.

He knew how to push himself longer, but not harder.

Now personally I think that everyone should learn how to push themselves harder (it makes you a fitter, stronger, better person).  But that was not what people were taking away from this news story. 

They were not walking away telling themselves

“I need to push myself as hard as I possibly can”.

Instead, they were walking away thinking

“I only need to do about 5-10 minutes, then I can go and put my feet up.”

They were taking away the message that they could be even lazier and do even less work than they already were.  Taking away the wrong message is always a problem when it comes to only reading the headlines, but never the deeper story.

If you liked this article, or know someone who might like it, please feel free to “share” it using the buttons below.

Abdominal fat

Click here (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13222192) for the news story.

It says how where you carry your bodyfat can have a big impact on your health and risks of disease.  It talks about the waist/hip ratio.  Or how much fat you are carrying around your belly.  This is a very easy measurement to take.  In fact, you can do it right now!  All you need is a tape measure.

I have written about the hip/waist ratio back in 2009.  So click here (http://cerin.wordpress.com/2009/10/16/assessments-body-composition-part-1-body-weight/) to find out all about it!

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?

Mature geezer strength training

Last summer I did my best to explain why everyone (including women and the elderly) should do weight training in order to get stronger (click here).

Well, The American Journal of Medicine have published a report that backs me up!  They say:

“Our analyses of current research show that the most important factor in somebody’s function is their strength capacity. No matter what age an individual is, they can experience significant strength improvement with progressive resistance exercise even into the eighth and ninth decades of life.”

They also say that even people in their 30′s can show declines in strength if they don’t work to keep it.

And one recommendation they make, is:

“Incorporating full body exercises and exercises that use more than one joint and muscle group at a time, such as the leg press, chest press, and rows. These are safer and more effective in building muscle mass.”

Woman strength training - www.gubernatrix.co.uk

Just the same things as I recommend for people (click here and here).

But I still think half the people I talk to will run a mile if I mention weight training and the other half will only ever want to do bicep curls and tricep kickbacks

If you know one of these people, please “share” this article with them using the buttons below.  Or better still, contact me for some proper training!

Not only the obvious ones like getting fat and unfit, but soon your joints are going to start giving you problems, your mobility will reduce and risks of repetitive strain injury (RSI) will increase.

Workrave - http://www.workrave.org/

So I want you to take a look at a FREE little computer programme called Workrave (http://www.workrave.org/).  It is totally free and you run it in the background of your computer.  Then every few minutes it flashes up a reminder to take “micro-breaks”.  These can be simply 30 seconds where you are not staring into your monitor, or you stand up and walk round your desk a coupe of times.  Basically, it reminds you to not spend 8 hours solid sitting, peering into the screen.

I have been using it with a couple of people to help them improve their flexibility/mobility.  Everytime it flashes up a reminder, they spend 30 seconds doing a mini stretching routine.  The programme itself even has a few standard stretches/exercises built into it that you can follow, or you can just use the timer to remind you to do any kind of “little and often” task (eg – taking a swig of water, getting off your butt, sucking up to the boss etc).

And, if like me, you are not allowed to install anything onto your work PC, there is even a “portable” version that will run off any standard memory stick (http://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/workrave_portable).

So seriously, if you work in an office and have ever used that as an excuse as to why you can’t increase your activity levels, try this little app and see if you can increase your background activity (click here for more details) levels.

Oh, and by the way, I am in no way affiliated to Workrave and am not getting sponsored by them or anything.  I just find it a fantastic little tool that can help people that want to help themselves.

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.

If you have liked this article, don’t forget to use the little buttons below to share it with your friends or anyone you think it might help.

Pregnant Weight Training

A while ago I wrote some posts about exercise during pregnancy (click here, here, here and here).  So here is a little bit extra on the subject.

I want to direct you to a new bit of research done to test the safety of resistance training for pregnant women (click here for the abstract).

In short, 32 pregnant women did 12 weeks of supervised low to moderate intensity strength training and it was shown to be safe.  So getting pregnant is not an excuse to give up all activity, do nothing and eat loads!

And if you are pregnant while reading this, congratulations!

As always, if you know anyone who might benefit from reading this, please use the “share” buttons below.

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.

Scapular Retractions

Name:  Prone Scapular Retractions.

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

Main muscles used:  Upper back.

Other muscles used:  Back of shoulders.

Top tips:

• Lay flat, face down, on the floor, with your arms out to the side and elbows bent.
• Keep your chest and head touching the floor at all times.
• Squeeze your shoulder blades back together and lift your elbows and hands up off the floor.
• Squeeze your shoulder blades together as close as they go.  Pause for a second, then return to the start.
• Keep your elbows and hands the same height throughout.
• Keep your arms directly out to the side of your body throughout.
• Put your mind “in your shoulder blades” to make sure they do the work

Scapular Retractions

Common mistakes:

• Don’t arch your back up, or raise your head off the floor during the move.
• Don’t rotate your arms, allowing your elbows or hands to drift higher than the other.
• Don’t let your shoulders slump on the floor or hunch up near your ears during the more.
• Don’t let your elbows drift downwards towards your hips.

Comments:

This is a simple strengthening exercise for your upper back.  It helps strengthen the muscles that can wither and weaken if we spend too long sitting down (eg, in a car/lorry, office, sofa etc).

It combines well with the Doorway Chest Stretch.

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.

Do less, score more.

This is a line I heard a top level coach telling one of his fighters.  The fighter was moving around, ducking, weaving, attacking, blocking…generally doing plenty of work and making his presence felt…but he was not actually scoring any points, or getting the job done!

Pointless "stuff"

And that is a major problem for many of the people I see training/exercising.  They spend hour after hour doing “stuff”…but somehow fail to improve.

I was like that when I used to work in a warehouse…I could walk around the place with my clipboard for ages…but somehow managed to never get any actual work done!

When people hire me to help them achieve a result, I remember this quote and one of the first things I try to do is to cut out all the pointless “stuff” that people do.  Getting fitter/stronger takes hard work.  And when you have hard work to do, the last thing you want is tons of pointless crap slowing you down, wearing you out or getting in the way of the rest of your life.

So if you want help with your training, or if you want to improve the efficiency of your training, contact me today.

Click here to go to their website.

If you want to see how well/bad I do, why not subscribe to this blog?

• A young, up and coming athlete eager to perform at you maximum.
• An average Joe office worker wanting to get a bit fitter and lose some weight.
• Retired and wanting to maintain the quality of your life while you draw you pension.

Fit and capable body trapped inside.

A fit and capable body is hidden away inside all of us, and for health, performance and quality of life reasons, we all should try to help it get out.

There are different components of a fit and capable body.  Here are my favorite ones:

• Cardiovascular endurance.
• Muscular strength.
• Flexibility/mobility.
• Balance.
• Agility.
• Coordination.

Cardiovascular endurance.

This is the ability of our heart and lungs to take in, process and mobilise enough oxygen to the appropriate parts of our body.  In other words, so we don’t run out of breath and have to stop so often.

• For athletes, this is important so they can maintain a high work capacity throughout their particular event.
• For average Joe, this is important to keep a healthy heart, to help control their bodyweight and so they can do all the things they need to live a full and happy life.
• For a pensioner, this is important so they can still play with the grandchildren, do the shopping, do household chores and to keep their heart healthy.

For more information on fitness, click here or here.

Muscular strength.

This is the bodys ability to move itself and other objects and (importantly) to help prevent injuries.  In other words, you are able to pick that heavy thing up, move it round the place and not put your back out.

• For athletes, being strong enough to excel at their chosen sport is an obvious advantage.  And their reduced risk of injury means they can spend more time training/competing and less time in rehab.
• For average Joe, being strong often means “looking good naked”.
• For a pensioner, being strong can mean that they are less likely to get injured if they fall or are hit/knocked by anything.

You can read all the things I have written about strength by clicking here.

Flexibility/mobility.

Flexibility

This is the ability of a joint (eg hip, shoulder, knee etc) to move through its range of motion.  In other words, you can bend all your joints and they are not seizing up.

• For athletes, this is important so they can actually perform the moves needed in their sport.
• For average Joe, this is important to reduce chances of chronic stiffness and pains.
• For a pensioner this is important to prevent joints from getting stiff, and so maintaining independence (eg they can tie up their own shoe laces etc).

For information on stretching to improve your flexibility, click here.

Balance.

Balance

The ability to remain stable on your feet in less than ideal circumstances.  In other words, you don’t fall over on your butt as soon as you stop concentrating.

• For athletes, this is important so they can hit/kick/throw/jump etc from various positions.  They don’t have to waste time “getting into position” before they do what they have to.
• For average Joe, this means they can experience much more in their lives.  eg they can ride a bike, they can lean over and see round the head of the person standing in front of them at the concert etc.
• For pensioners, it means they are less likely to fall and injure themselves, or trip over their cat etc.

We all find ourselves in less than perfect situations throughout our lives.  And good balance usually means we get through them without falling flat on our faces and embarrassing ourselves.

Agility.

The ability to change directions of travel quickly, effectively and in a predefined or random way.  In other words, we can weave and dodge around things.

• Most team athletes need good agility in their sports, to either defend against opponents or to overcome these defences.
• Average Joe needs agility to get through a crowd to the bar, or to not embarrass themselves while playing with the kids and because life just generally puts things in our way.
• Pensioners need it, because a lack of agility usually ends in a fall.  And that is potentially very dangerous.

Below is one of the most spectacular display of agility I have ever seen…

Coordination.

Coordinating everything

The ability to get many different things working together, so the whole outweighs the sum of the parts.  In other words, putting together all of the above to make a body that is capable of many wonderful things, instead of ending up slumped in a sofa, unable to get up for fear of failing miserably.

• Athletes need it because all of the above physical attributes mean nothing unless they all work together to achieve the ultimate goal.
• Average Joe needs coordination to achieve the most everyday tasks.  Driving a car requires great coordination, because both feet and both arms are doing different things at different times in different places, and they all need to happen at exactly the right time, or you end up crashing.
• Pensioners need it for the same reasons.  Getting through life needs all the above things to happen at the right time in the right place.  Otherwise, we lose our independence and our quality of life decreases.

Conclusion.

It is obvious that athletes, average Joes and pensioners will need vastly different levels of the above components of fitness.  But by maximising each component, each population can and will improve their health, fitness and ability to get through life in a good way.

There is so much more to exercise and movement than just “toning up my belly a little bit”.

And I try to make sure my coaching improves all of the above, as much as possible.

So if you want/need help with your health and fitness, contact me now, or spread the word using the “share” buttons below!

He did not say that a particular woman, with a particular injury, should not use more than 10 kilos…no, he said no women should do it…

Horse Shit

That is the biggest load of sexist, misogynistic, stupid and just plain wrong horse shit I have heard in ages!  How does a supposedly educated person lump over 3.5 billion people together and make such a sweeping, idiotic, statement?

I bet he is the same kind of person who think that women shouldn’t do pressups in case their womb falls out (I have heard people say this…and believe it!)

It is little wonder that so many of us are out of condition, when we have people telling us how weak and pathetic we are and how we are going to snap in half at any moment!

Twat!

Sorry.  It pisses me off when people infantilise women (or anyone, come to think of it).

OK, rant over now.

Blood Pressure testing

It seems that the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is to change it’s guidelines on how high blood pressure is to be diagnosed.

I mention this because I get quite a few people being refered to exercise due to high blood pressure, and it is one of the things included in the physical/fitness assessments (click here for more info) I conduct on people.

The White Coat Effect - it gets your heart racing.

One major new recommendation from NICE is to confirm a patients hypertension by continuously monitoring their blood pressure over a 24 hour period.  In other words, while they are stressed, relaxed, sedentary, active, sleeping etc.  This will help reduce the common “white coat effect”.

The “white coat effect” is when the blood pressure and heart rate of a person temporarily increases when a doctor/nurse/lab technician starts strapping things to them and saying they are now facing a “test” (I remember my heart was in my throat when walking into my exams in university!).

A different kind of White Coat Effect - it also gets your heart racing.

I see this white coat effect when I do my own assessments on clients.  I take their blood pressure multiple times over at least half an hour.  And by the 6th or 7th time, everyone has got used to it, calmed down, relaxed and their numbers always improve (drop).

It is these later numbers that I pay attention to.

Take a look at just a few of the ways the papers blow a health story out of all proportion, and you will understand why one of my favorite saying at the moment is:

Never believe the headlines!

Superfoods?

So I want to direct you to a document you can download for free.  It is called “Miracle foods:  Myths and the media”.  It is only 11 pages long and a very easy, but eye-opening read.

Click here to download it from the NHS website.

Click here to download it from me.

The bits I liked best were:

• The list of 14 foods that the newspapers had said were both healthy and dangerous.
• The explanations of why we should not worry about most of these news stories.

But by far my favorites were the very simple conclusions they round up with.  And here are some of those conclusions (with my comments in brackets):

• Drinking alcohol increases cancer risk (so stop kidding yourself that the bottle of wine you just downed is “medicinal”).
• Eating your greens reduces your cancer risk (probably the single, simplest thing all of us can do to improve our health/weight, is to at least double the amount of veggies we are currently eating).
• A Mediterranean diet increases your chances of living to a healthy old age (this diet consists of relatively high proportions of fish, olive oil, fruit and veg, while relatively low proportions of meat and processed food).

And the final paragraph sums it all up:

“When it comes to keeping healthy, it’s best not to concentrate on any one food in the hope it will work miracles. Current advice is to eat a balanced diet with a range of foods, to ensure you get enough of the nutrients your body needs. Limiting your intake of alcohol and high fat, high sugar, salty and processed foods, keeping to a healthy weight and regular physical activity are also important.”

Or put another way, follow the 10 simple rules of healthy eating (click here).

So I guess my take-home message is quite simple:

Relax, stop worrying that your food is about to kill you and your whole family, and just eat a damn carrot/mushroom/melon/cabbage/leak/turnip/pepper!

Killer food will kill you!!!!!

(I know I have already posted this video…but I have a very simple sense of humour and it still makes me giggle!)

If you know anyone who might benefit from reading this, please “share” it using the buttons available.

Thanks!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12459173

This ties in with the article I wrote on stretching a while ago.  In it, I described the different basic forms of stretching, when and how you should do them.

Click here to read that article.  And as always, if you need help improving your flexibility or mobility, or if you want to improve your fitness, just contact me by clicking here.

http://www.excelsiorgroup.co.uk/blog/being-woman-gym-diary-intern

Almost every other day I talk to a woman in work who refuse to do anything that does not involve little pink dumbells in fear of “turning into a man”.

Yesterday I had a lady in wanting to get ready for her first half marathon.  This needs a good level of conditioning/fitness, and healthy, injury-free legs.

But she refused point blank to go near a rower (a fantastic tool for conditioning/fitness), and refused to attempt any kind of lunge or squat (fantastic exercises to strengthen the leg muscles and joints, to help prevent injuries from pounding the road for miles).

Why?

In case it “made her legs big”.

It really does make me a bit sad when people knowingly risk crippling injury, in the mistaken belief that it will make them look hotter.

I can't think of many things less sexy than a dislocated knee

Swag

I stumbled across this story (click here for the story).  Basically, people were paid money if they managed to lose bodyweight.  And they were more successful than another group of people who were not paid money.

But, when they were measured again 9 months later, they had regained most of the weight.

This is a very common thing for people and can turn into “yo-yo dieting”.  This is where you lose weight, regain it (and usually a bit more), then lose it again, then regain it (and usually a bit more), and so on for ever.

There are many reasons for yo-yo dieting, but in my opinion, a big one is that:

People focus on the wrong thing.

In this study, the people focused on “getting the money”.  So as soon as the study was over, and there was no more money to be earned, their focus disappeared and they fell back into their previous ways.

In many other cases, people “go on” a diet for a short, predefined time period.  This is often limited by an event of some kind, such as:

• A wedding.
• A reunion.
• A holiday.
• An arbitrary number on the scales.

And as soon as this time period is up, their point of focus is gone, so they go back to their old bad habits and they pile the pounds back on.

A much more successful way of losing weight, and keeping it off, is to simply focus on a different target.  Instead of focusing exclusively on “losing weight”, focus on:

Changing your habits and behaviours.

Change them gradually, steadily and permanently.

Some examples of good things to focus on include:

• Cutting out processed foods for 6 days out of 7.
• Doing at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity every day (moderate activity can be classed as something that gets you comfortably out of breath, eg walking, cycling, gentle swimming etc).
• Gradually increasing your periods of vigorous exercise to 3 or more times a week (I class vigorous exercise as something that works you significantly harder than your background activity, such as sports, exercise classes etc).
• Include a mixture of colourful vegetables in every main meal of every day (no matter who you are, and no matter how much veg you are currently eating, it is very safe to assume it is not enough.  So stop pretending I don’t mean you…because I do mean you…Yes, YOU!).

So by focussing on some of these more open-ended habits and behaviours, you will end up healthier, fitter, at a better bodyweight and you are much more likely to maintain that weight.

This is because once we are in a certain habit, it is much easier to stay in that habit.

And for all you parents out there, you are much more likely to pass these habits and behaviours onto your kids.  That means that they are much less likely to join the ranks of overweight/obese children here in the UK.

For more information on changing your habits and behaviours, click here.

For more example of good eating habits we should all try to get into to help us live fitter, healthier lives, click here.

And as always, if you like this, or know anyone who might like it, please use the “share” buttons to pass it on (you know how rubbish I am at spreading the word!)

Craven Swimming Pool and Fitness Centre

Share and enjoy!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Craven-Swimming-Pool-and-Fitness-Centre/169284923107407

Pardon? 

Fruit - more available now than ever before.

Here in Skipton, a small rural town, we have a Tescos, Morrisons, Marks & Spencers all within a 5 minute walk of each other.  We have a market right in the centre of town 3 days a week selling fresh produce from the local farmers.  In the town next door we have Asda and Sainsbury.

With all these supermarkets, the second you step through the front door you are in the fruit and veg section!  It is not possible to get to any other part of the store without walking through isles head high full for fruit and veg!  Not only that, but there are so many different types of fruit and veg, that I simply do not know what half of them are.  The variety is simply amazing!

Coming home from training last night, I walked into Tescos at 10pm and bought a coconut!  Last week me and my Sarah got some Lychee  (I’ve never had any before, but GOD it was nice and juicy!).  We have never had such a wide variety and abundance of fruit and veg available on our doorstep 24 hours a day. 

So I have this advice to anyone out there having trouble getting hold of fruit and veg…

• Walk into your local supermarket.
• Take 10 paces then stop.
• Open your eyes and look around you.

For any human being, sitting for prolonged periods of time can weaken these muscles.  And with weaker stabilisers:

• We are more prone to injury.
• We are unable to perform everyday tasks as well.
• We reduce our sporting/athletic performance.

So I loved watching the video below.  It shows a young lad confined to a wheelchair, but displaying core strength, coordination, courage and an athletic ability I only dream about!

Bird Dog - Good

Name:  Bird Dog

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

Main muscles used:  Bum.

Other muscles used:  Belly, sides,

Top tips:

• Start on all fours, with your knees directly below your hips and your hands directly below your shoulders, and eyes looking directly down onto the floor.
• Concentrate on keeping your “core” (back, chest and belly) tight and totally still.  Pretend they are like a statue.
• Kick one leg (eg, your left leg) backwards, leading with the heel.  Try to get the upper part of your leg (thigh and hamstrings) as near horizontal as possible.  Do this by trying to squeeze your butt cheeks together as tight as possible.
• At the same time, extend your opposite arm (eg, your right arm) forwards beyond your head.
• Ideally, you should have a straight, horizontal line from your fingertips, through your shoulder, body, hips, knee and heel.
• Hold this extended position for about 3-5 seconds (make sure you are breathing normally), then return to your starting position.
• Repeat on the other side.

Bird Dog - Bad

Common mistakes:

• Letting your belly sag down in the middle.
• This causes your hips to drop, chest to raise, your head to stick up and your spine gets in a horrible position.
• Not raising your upper leg (thigh, hamstring) high enough.
• Not using your butt muscles (by squeezing your butt cheeks together), but using your back muscles (by sagging your belly downwards).
• Not moving in a smooth, controlled way, but “chucking” your limbs out.

Comments:

The goal of this exercise is to be able to move your limbs in a controlled fashion, while maintaining good spinal stability.  You get good at it when:

“You control and move your body.  Not someone or something else does.”

Quality over quantity is the important rule for this exercise.  So don’t go and try to make it harder by strapping weights all over your body.  Because most people I have seen do this, just end up fudging it up.

Glute Bridge

Name: Glute Bridge

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

Main muscles used: Gluteals (bum)

Other muscles used: Hamstrings

Top tips:

• Lay flat on yur back, legs strongly bent and feet flat on the floor.
• Keep your upper and lower back on/close to the floor.
• Squeeze your butt cheeks together and use these muscles to raise your butt off the floor.
• Try to get your hips in line with your upper legs.
• Hold the hips raised, butt clenched position for a second, then relax.

Common mistakes:

• Failing to squeeze your butt cheeks and letting your back and hamstrings do all the work.
• Lifting your whole back off the floor, leaving only your shoulders on the ground (this is a different exercise).
• Not getting your hips to line up with your legs, and letting your butt hang down to the floor.

Comments:

A major purpose of the gluteals is to extend the hips (push the legs backwards).  The Glute Bridge helps wake up and practice this movement pattern, so we can do it properly when we stand, walk, run, jump, kick etc.  So in this situation, you would do a few sets of these during your warm ups to “switch on” your bum.

Hip Flexor Lunge Stretch - Good

Name: Hip Flexor Lunge Stretch

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

Main muscles stretched: Hip flexors (top of the front thigh)

Other muscles used: Bum

Top tips:

• Get into a long and low Lunge position, but rest the back knee on the floor/mat so you are comfortable.
• Lift your body tall and tense your stomach to keep your spine nice and tall/vertical.
• Push your hips forwards until you can feel a stretch at the top of the back thigh.
• Keep your whole body vertical and avoid leaning forwards or leaning backwards.
• Hold the stretch for 10-20 seconds, then repeat on the other side.

Hip Flexor Lunge Stretch - Bad

Common mistakes:

• Rolling the hips forwards when stretching.
• Bending the spine backwards when stretching.
• Doing anything that shifts the stretch away from the hip flexors (top of thigh) and only the stomach.
• Leaning the whole body forwards.

Comments:

Some people with bad postures can have overly tight hip flexors, which puts their spines in a weakened position.  This can stretch the tightened area and allow the hips to be better positioned.  But it will only work if you are careful to kep your back straight and tall.

The thinking goes, if we are in a warm cosy environment (like a centrally heated room) our bodies don’t have to burn so many calories to keep us warm.

Now that is a very good theory, and it sounds totally plausible to me.  It is true, the colder your body, the more calories it burns to maintain your body temperature…BUT GET REAL!

The reason more than half of us are overweight has nothing to do with the temperature, it is to do with eating too many pies!

Masai tribesmen - These guys are so fat because they live in a warm climate(!)

I dare you to go to Kenya and tell the Masai tribesmen (pictured on the right), that the reason you are fat is because you spend most of your time in a temperature of 20 -25 degrees!  The climate there is a hell of a lot hotter, but you don’t see too many obese Masai.

I’m sorry.  I just got a bit pissed off when I read that story.  It just struck me as another thing that can prevent people from improving their health by losing some excess weight.  Please don’t over-complicate things any more than they already seem to be.

The reason so many of us are over weight has nothing to do with:

• Central heating
• Big bones
• Glands
• Fruit(?)
• Genetics
• “Muscle weighing more than fat”
• Water retention
• Alien abduction
• Pixies/fairies/goblins

It is because

we consume more calories than we burn.

And the sooner we accept that and stop trying to find scape-goats, the sooner we can all help each other deal with it.

For basic info on weight control, follow the links below:

An absolute beginners guide to losing weight

10 simple rules to healthy eating

The healthy eating pyramid

Influence on weight

I only found out about this guy a couple of years ago, but he died on Sunday.  Click on the videos below to get an idea of what he was like.  Most of us can learn a lot from it…

Creamy Veggie Korma - BBC Good Food

The following recipe for creamy veggie korma came from:

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1089641/creamy-veggie-korma.

Take a look there for loads of other recipes for home cooked food.

Serves 4.

Ingredients.

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 onion , finely chopped
• 3 cardamom pods , bashed
• 2 tsp each ground cumin and coriander
• ½ tsp ground turmeric
• 1 green chilli , finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove , crushed
• thumb-size piece ginger , finely chopped
• 800g mixed vegetables , such as carrots, cauliflower, potato and courgette, chopped
• 300-500ml hot vegetable stock
• 200g frozen peas
• 200ml yogurt
• 2 tbsp ground almonds (optional)

Method.

1. Heat the oil in a large pan. Cook onion with the dry spices over a low heat for 5-6 mins until the onion is light golden. Add the chilli, garlic and ginger and cook for 1 min, then throw in the mixed vegetables and cook for a further 5 mins.
2. Divide the mixture appropriately between two pans if serving vegetarians and meat eaters. Chop the chicken into small chunks and stir into one pan. Add the stock, dividing between the pans appropriately, and simmer for 10 mins (if only cooking the veggie version in one pan, use 300ml stock; if dividing between two pans, add 250ml to each). Divide the peas, if necessary, and add, cooking for 3 mins more until the veg are tender and the chicken is cooked through.
3. Remove from the heat and stir through the yogurt and ground almonds, if using. Serve sprinkled with the toasted almonds and coriander, with basmati rice or naan bread on the side.

Nutrition per serving.

• 257 kcalories
• protein 10g
• carbohydrate 31g
• fat 11 g
• saturated fat 5g
• fibre 7g
• sugar 16g
• salt 0.42 g

But this is the internet, and there are millions of people out there who can cook.  So I am going to start posting (simple) recipes that I have found during my wasted wanderings around the web.  If you know of any places where I and others can find simple, healthy recipes…leave a comment below!

www.foodafactoflife.org.uk

Food, a fact of life – www.foodafactoflife.org.uk

I can’t remember how I stumbled on this webpage, but it is aimed at school teachers/parents trying to teach healthy nutrition to kids.

Having said that, I know for a fact that most adults (myself included) can learn a lot from it.  Just some of the things on the webpage include:

• Videos showing the basics of how to cook in general, and how to cook some nice actual recipes.
• Dozens of simple recipes to knock up yourself in your kitchen.  If you can’t find a few you like the look of, you are odd in the head!
• Cooking lessons aimed at 3-16 year olds (I learned things from the ones aimed at the 3 year olds!).
• Posters you can download and print out helping explain all about food/nutrition etc.
• eSeminars – these are video presentations given by experts to a “live” audience on the web.  This audience can participate, ask questions of these experts etc.  And best of all, they have recordings of previous eSeminars that you can watch and learn from (but obviously not participate in, duh!)

So please go take a look at this webpage and spend a couple of days browsing through it.  If you are struggling to control your bodyweight, it can help you loads.

Alternatively, you can hire me and I can do it for you

Front Squat - Good

Name: Front Squat

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

Main muscles used: Legs.

Other muscles used: Bum.

Top tips:

• Rest the bar high up on the front of your shoulders.
• Keep the bar as close to your centreline as possible.
• Keep your back strong, tight and straight at all times.
• Think of pushing your chest up and out.
• Bend at the hips by pushing your bum backwards, then bend the knees, so you squat low.
• Squat as low as you can, while keeping your low back strong, tight and straight all the time.
• Keep your body much more upright (vertical) when compared to the Bodyweight Squat.
• Think of pushing the floor away from you, and stand up straight again.

Front squat - Bad

Common mistakes:

• Letting the chest collapse forwards and down.
• Not holding the bar high up on the shoulders, but letting it slump forwards to the elbows.
• Bending forwards and not keeping your whole back strong and tight.
• Failing to bend at the hips and pushing the bum backwards.
• Only making it a very small move and not squatting low enough.

Front Squat - Good

Comments:

Most of the teaching points for the Front Squat are similar to those of the Bodyweight Squat.  The main differences are that because you are holding a weight in front of you, the body ends up much more vertical.

This in turn, makes the Front Squat much more of a front of the thigh (quadriceps) dominant move.

Supine Leg Lower - Good

Name:  Supine Leg Lower

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

Main muscles used:  Abdominals, hip flexors.

Other muscles used:

Top tips:

• Keep your lower back flat against the floor throughout the exercise.
• Especially if you are new to this exercise, start with your legs straight and vertical.
• Keeping your stomach very tight all the time, slowly lower your heels to the floor.
• As soon as you feel your lower back arching off the floor (or your heels touch the ground) raise your legs back up to the starting position.
• Make sure the move is slow.  As you get better, make the move last longer, rather than do more of them.

Supine Leg Lower - Bad

Common mistakes:

• Not tightening the stomach and keeping the spine straight/flat.
• Arching the lower back off the floor as the feet gets closer to the floor.
• Trying to start the move with the legs down, and having to arch the back to get started.

Comments:

This is a fantastic “practical” exercise.  It teaches the stomach muscles to do what they are supposed to do…stabilise the spine.

While your usual abdominal crunch will strengthen your stomach, it teaches you to hunch/crunch/fold forwards.  This is not a very good habit, and research suggests that it can be bad for the spine.

This move also strengthens the stomach muscles when they are in a fully extended position (such as when you are standing up straight).  Strength in this position is good for anyone who stands on their feet (i.e. virtually everyone).  It will be especially useful for anyone doing Karate, as it will mean you will be able to take a hit better.

Research showing that if you sit around all day, you will get unhealthy.  But if you regularly get up on your feet (even for a minute or so) you can improve your health.

Click here to download the actual study paper.

Some practical tips from the story:

• Stand up to take phone calls
• Walk to see a colleague rather than phoning or e-mailing
• Have meeting standing up
• Taking the stairs instead of the lift
• Centralise things like rubbish bins and printers so you need to walk to them

Basically, what it is suggesting to do is increase your Background Activity (click here).  I love it when I am right!

And my favorite quote was:

“‘Stand up, move more, more often”

But it is the new year now, and millions of people have made the resolution to get fit and join up with gyms/exercise classes.  So this article is aimed more at that crowd…exercise virgins, if you like!

Walking like John Wayne

So what I am going to cover is the aches and stiffness that you feel in your muscles a day or 2 after your training.  It is really annoying, because you probably didn’t feel any aches or pains during the training itself, or even for the rest of the day.  But you wake up next morning and you feel bits of you that you never knew existed, you feel tight/stiff as hell and you end up walking like John Wayne.

Welcome to the world of Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, or DOMS, for short.

What causes DOMS?

Science does not know the precise causes of DOMS.  A hundred years ago, it was thought that the build up of lactic acid in the muscles were responsable.  But it is now known that it does not, but this urban myth is still going strong.

While we don’t know the precise cause of DOMS, we do know that you are almost certainly going to feel it:

• After a new exercise.
• After a new variation in an exercise.
• After an increase in the intensity of exercise.
• After eccentric exercise (controlling the descent of something, eg landing after a jump, running downhill, lowering weights etc).

Because exercise virgins face new exercises, new variations of exercise and an increase in their activity levels, they are especially susceptible to feeling DOMS.  But it is not just exercise virgins who suffer from it.  People who train regularly will probably get hit by it, when they change their training programme, increase the intensity or if they take a break and start training again.

For example, I spent most of this Christmas sitting on my arse watching episodes of Columbo.  I only took about a week and a half off, but then I took a couple of basic circuit sessions, and my butt was still sore 2 days later!

The good news though, is that our bodies adapt and get used to things very quickly.  Over the years I have trained hundreds of people.  And while lots have ached after the first session, only a very small fraction of these people have ached after the second go.  And so far (touch wood) no one has ached after the third session.

How to cure DOMS?

As yet, there is no “cure”.  Many people think that stretching after exercise prevents DOMS.  This has been shown many times not to be the case.  In fact, I was chatting to a lovely lady in the gym the other week who was stretching “so she didn’t ache tomorrow”.

She was such a nice lady that I didn’t have the heart to tell her that she was doing all the right things, but for all the wrong reasons (and her workout was good and effective…just not for the reasons she thought).

Probably the best strategy is to prevent DOMS.  And here is a tried and trusted way of doing that:

• Change/increase things gradually.  Give your body a couple of sessions to get used to new things.
• Maintain your training frequency, so you are not always “re-starting”.
• Every couple of weeks, deliberately include some things that have made you ache in the past.  This will help keep your body “inoculated” against DOMS.

But if I don’t ache after training, doesn’t that mean I’m not improving/training properly?

Lots of people like the aching feeling after training, because it makes them think they have “done” something.  And I have been guilty of this myself.  But now I see DOMS as a thing to avoid whenever possible.  For me, it shows that I have pushed my trainee too much and too soon, and I need to improve my training programming.  I think this because:

• If the trainee does not like it, they might not trust me next time.  Worst of all, they may not want to even execise again!
• The trainee does like it, but comes to the next training session stiff, sore and unable to train properly, leading to a wasted session.

And finally, DOMS is not a measure of how well you have trained.  So don’t think you are the greatest because you ache, and don’t beat yourself up because you don’t ache.

The only way to measure how well you are training, is:

• You are not getting injured.
• You are getting faster/stronger/fitter/leaner etc.

If you have learned anything from this article, please help me spread the word by sharing it using the buttons below.

And if you live in/around Skipton, North Yorkshire, and need a coach, contact me by clicking here.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12068595

And if you are interested, number 3 in the clip is talking about “Background Activity”.  Click here, here, here and here to see what I have written about it in the past.

And number 5 in the clip is talking about food diaries.  Click here to download a free food diary for yourself and find out a bit more about them.

If you like this, or know someone who might like/benefit from it, please share it using the buttons below.  I’m bloody useless when it comes to publicising things, so I’m hoping you can help me.  Thanks!

Turn it up to 11, just like Spinal Tap.

Which suits me and my attitude down to the ground.  But I know most people don’t have that same attitude…so I had a quick search on the interweb and found the World Cancer Research Fund (click here for their website).

And on their website, I found 10 recipe/cookbooks that anyone can download for free (click here for the cookbooks).  There are loads of simple, but healthy meals for anyone to try.

So go on.  Don’t be a wuss.  Just take a look.  They are free!  What else would you be doing right now?  Checking your Facebook for the millionth time?

I dare you!  I double dare you!

I’ve been ill (with sniffles) the last couple of weeks, so to be honest I can’t really be arsed to write anything meaningful just yet.  So I’m taking the easy route and simply posting the 5 most popular things from this blog over the last year…so here are the things that have attracted the most attention over the last 12 months…

1. Assessments: The Multistage Fitness (Bleep) Test - Explaining the world famous bleep test you probably did in school, and an mp3 download of the test itself.
2. We are all Kevin and Perry! - Not really sure why this is so popular…because I wrote it when I was in one of my strange moods…
3. Assessments: Body Composition part 1 – Body Weight - The first of a 2-parter explaining the various ways you can assess your bodyweight, giving pros and cons for each.  I enjoyed writing this.
4. Warming up – Do’s and don’ts of a general warm up. - This is a run through of how we should “warm up”, or get ready for exercise/activity.  If you still do the usual of a few minutes of CV and some static stretching…you really should take a look at it, for your own bodies sake!
5. Keystone Abilities. What are they and do you have them? - This is my attempt to steal tried and trusted concepts from my biology degree, and apply them to my coaching.  If you train with me, you will get to recognise the concept of Keystone Abilities.

My cold has nearly gone now, so I’ll be writing more of my usual stuff soon.  Hope you enjoy it.

And because of this, I notice just how many people move badly (badly = inefficient, unsafe and uncoordinated…click here).  These people come in all shapes and sizes, from your average Joe through to your exercise junkie.  And by moving badly, we run the risk of, at best, not improving our bodyweight/fitness/performance, and at worst, developing acute/chronic injuries (how many people do you know with “dodgy” back/knees/shoulders etc?).

So I have been trying various ways to help more people move better (click here).  And I think I have a new way…but I need your help to make sure it works.

Shamelessly stealing ideas from Hollywood, I can now film people moving/performing/exercising/competing, and with the help of my trusty computer, can track, analyse and measure their movements.  Watching this back on a DVD at home, people can then see where they are going right/wrong and what their strengths/weaknesses are.

I’ve stuck together a few of my early test runs in the video below…

Best of all, after they have had a chance to practice, by analysing their movements a second time, we can compare them “before and after”, see how they have improved and what their next problem is (remember, we always have problems…we just need to steadily go through life correcting one at a time).

I’ve tested this out on myself and found that my endurance needs improving (this is because I have such a short attention span that I can never be arsed to spend more than a couple of minutes on any one thing!).

So I am calling out for volunteers!  Anyone who:

• wants to see just how they are moving and how it can be improved
• does or does not exercise/train regularly (this is beneficial for athletes wanting to improve performance and your average person just looking for improved health)
• is willing to let me and my computer use them as lab rats
• lives in or somewhere not a million miles away from Skipton

So if this sounds like you, contact me (click here) today and I can arrange to meet up with you!

So I had a little chuckle to myself when I read this story (click here).  It is about a guy who tested to see if his £1,000 carbon fibre uber-bike got him to work any faster than his second hand £50 pushbike…It didn’t.

And I think the moral of the story is…he got the basics right.  He got a bike that actually worked!  It had 2 wheels and it went when he peddled it.

The other bike had lots of added details (it was light as a feather, more streamlined…it probably even had go-faster-stripes on it!).  But unless all those details are in the hands of an elite cyclist, none are going to produce any actual results.

So I will say it again (because I just know some of you are thinking that it does not apply to you because you are different in some way).

• Unless more than half the food you eat is made up of fruit and veg…don’t even think about pills, potions and powders.  Click here for 10 simple rules to healthy eating.

• Unless you are able to do a proper pressup/pullup…don’t even think about tricep kickbacks/bicep curls.  Click here for an Absolute beginners guide to weight training.

Because when you have the basics sorted out, you may find you don’t even need the finer details.

If you know anyone who might like/benefit from my ranting, you can “share” this using the buttons below.

Here he lists some of the most important things you have to get right to become a better elite athlete.  And if you think it includes some secret, mystical exercises with the latest high tech gadgets…you will be surprised.

And if that advice is good enough for the Olympians of tomorrow, I’m pretty sure it is good enough for the likes of us!

Click here for more on the subject of consistency.

It is a very similar scene as earlier on in the year…

Out turned footprints in the snow.

This seems a small problem, and in the big wide world, it is not that major.  But that is one of the nasty things of it.  Because it is not that much of a major problem, it is ignored and never addressed.  So it lingers and becomes a habit.  And before you know it, this minor, insignificant trifle that you have ignored for years, is causing chronic pain in all your lower joints.  Now it is a big deal because it is preventing you from doing the things you took for granted, or the things you always dreamed of doing.

Pronated feet

Now I don’t know if the feet had caused the knee problem, or vice versa, but they are almost certainly linked.  And it shows how a small, insignificant problem can fester, spread and become a big problem in other parts of the body.

Knocked knees

This follows on from my last post about kids PE lessons in school, and how it is important to learn the basic movements skills.  And there is not much more basic than walking in a straight line.

So now while the snow is here and you are bunking off work, take a look at your how you move/walk.  Not only when you are exercising, but in your everyday life also.  And see how making a small change now can pay big dividends later.

There are a couple of sentences in there that jumped out at me:

“Specialists in sports and exercise medicine say that too often PE lessons focus on developing sports skills rather than encouraging flexibility and movement.”

Movement in schools

As always, I tend to think “it depends”…but generally speaking, we all need to learn to walk before we can run.  And almost everyone I see/coach want to do advanced, sexy exercises (fair enough, they are more interesting)…but they can’t do the simplest movements properly yet (they can’t “sit”, only “collapse”, they can’t “stand up straight”, only “slump upright”, they can’t “bend at the hips to touch their toes”, they can only “flop forwards and touch their knees” etc).

When you are building anything from the ground up, you must start with the foundations first, before moving on to the finer details.  And kids/people are the same.  Learn technical skills after the basics have been drilled in so they are second nature.

So a guy is trying to introduce new workouts for schools, called “5 in 5″.  I’ve tried to find out about these, but can’t find details on them yet.  If you know more about them, please contact me.  But they are described as:

“The five-in-five routines involve squatting, lunging, pushing, bracing and rotating.”

These moves are basic, everyday, fundamental moves that we all use everyday.  In fact, they sound very much like the foundation work that I find myself going through with the majority of the people I train.  So I want to find out a bit more about it first, but it sounds like something I might like.

As always, if you know any more about this subject, leave a message below.  Or if you know anyone who may be interested, you can “share” this article using the buttons below.

I try to learn something new from everything I do.  And what I learned yesterday was:

“While I have very little willpower, my ego is big enough to get me through most things”.

• Increased enjoyment leading to increased frequency of training.
• Increased enjoyment leading to increased consistency in training.
• When you are not in the mood, they can get you going, so you don’t “fall off the wagon”.
• Encouraging each other to new personal bests (PB’s), and to try just that little bit harder.
• Checking the form of one another, keeping your standards high.

"It's all you bro! It's all you!" Spotters should only touch the bar to pass to/from the exerciser, or if there is danger of injury.

But I have noticed a few bad things that can come with a training partner also.  Try to avoid these whenever possible:

• It can change from a training session into a social chat, so neither of you end up doing any work.
• You and your partner have totally different goals, and you both end up compromising each others workouts in an attempt to stick together.
• Neither of you know what you are doing, so you pass bad habits onto each other.
• You are halfway through your resistance set, and your partner “helps” you move the bar.

This last point is particularly bugging me at the moment.

A spotter/partner should not touch the weight unless you are in imminent danger.

I am currently seeing way too many young lads “spotting” their mates, by physically helping them move the weight from the start of the set!  If you need help from the start of the set, you are using too much weight.  Put your ego in check and reduce the weight on the bar.

The set ends the second someone else touches the weight.

So definitely use a training partner (I’m rubbish without one).  Especially if you find motivation a problem.  But avoid the few pitfalls that can come with them.

As always, if you need help with your training, just contact me and maybe I can help.

Everyone out there is hunting for the newest/bestest way to exercise/train, but very few care, or even think about, their recovery.  So here are some basics about recovery.  These basics are applicable to everyone who exercises.  But it is obviously much more important for those who train hard numerous times a week, compared to those who might go for a gentle walk once a week/fortnight.

So what do I mean when I am talking about recovery?  Well, I define it as follows:

“Returning the whole body to a pre-training state”.

Jam Sandwich - High GI carbohydrates and calories.

And to keep it simple, I am going to split it into 3 sections:

• Nutrition.
• Physical.
• Mental/emotional.

Nutritional recovery.

When we train hard for a prolonged duration, our bodies use up a lot of resources.  The easiest ones to deal with are fluids, carbohydrates (energy) and proteins (muscle).

• To replace lost fluids, you want to be drinking (no, that does not mean alcohol!).
• To replace energy, you want to be consuming high Glycemic Index (click here) carbohydrates, such as sweets, ice cream, chocolate, cakes, sugary drinks etc.  In fact, as long as you are training hard, the half hour after training is the best time to eat all those things we should otherwise be avoiding/limiting!  (If, however, your goal is to lose bodyfat, ignore this bit.  It will not help you!)
• To repair/preserve muscle, you want to be consuming food containing protein.

Milk - fluids and protein.

And ideally, we want to have a quick “shot” of all these within the first half an hour after training. So how do we do this?  You can get sports recovery drinks that contain all the above in a single bottle.  These tend to be convenient and practical and easy to consume within the initial half hour after training.  Alternatively, you can simply:

• Drink your bottle of water or glass of milk (fluids and protein).
• Eat your jam sandwich on white bread and a handful of raisins (high GI carbohydrates).
• Eat your meat/dairy/egg sandwich on white bread (protein and high GI carbohydrates).

This initial quick “shot” get the recovery process going as soon as possible.  But within a couple of hours after training, we should be aiming to sit down and have a good meal of proper food with an emphasis on plenty of complex carbohydrates and protein.  This gives the body the tools it needs to replace all the resources it used during training, so it will be ready to train hard again next time.

Physical recovery.

When we train, our muscles burn up a lot of energy and dump out a lot of waste products.  These wastes are then literally flushed away by the blood flowing round our body and through the muscles.  But when we train hard, the wastes products can’t be flushed away fast enough, and they hang around in the muscles, causing aches/stiffness/soreness etc.

The best ways to aid our physical recovery is to help our body flush away these waste products, and bring in fresh resources.  And probably the best method of all, starts before the training session has even finished…

Active recovery, or a good cool down.

Active Recovery - an easy jog.

This is probably the most important method of physical recovery.

Depending on the duration and intensity of the training, this can be 5-10 minutes or more of gentle, easy aerobic activity, eg an easy bike ride, gentle jog, nice swim etc.  You can interspersed this with your static stretches to improve your flexibility if you like.  But contrary to popular belief, these stretches have little to do with reducing aches and soreness in the following days.

The idea behind active recover, is to simply keep the heart rate ticking over and the muscles gently pumping away, to help flush out more waste products and get fresh resources in quicker.

And Active Recovery does not end there.  You can, and should, use it later on in the day, or even on the following few days.  When you are feeling sore and stiff, there is nothing like a gentle, easy (ie not hard/intense/difficult) walk, jog, bike ride, swim etc to mobilise your body and help get rid of your aches and pains.

Passive recovery.

Passive Recovery - relaxing.

This is probably what most people think about when they talk about recovering from training…sitting or laying down, not moving and basically chilling out.  And it works.  Because the body is not working hard any more, it has the chance to get on with the business of repairing/improving itself.

But many studies have shown time and again that people do not recover as well, or as quickly, compared to Active Recovery.  This is possibly because the blood is not flowing as quickly/well as in a moving body.  So bad stuff is not circulated out, and good stuff is not circulated in as well.

So after a hard training session, even though you may want to collapse in a pile…it is usually not the best thing to do if you want to feel better.

Contrast baths.

Contrast bath - the cold bit.

This is a simple method to again, help the blood flush out the muscles.  You alternate between 3-4 minutes in a hot bath (37-43 degrees C), and 1 minute in a cold bath (12-15 degrees C), and repeat 3-5 times.  When you are in the hot bath, your blood vessels expand and more blood is shunted into your muscles.  And when you get in the cold bath, these blood vessels contract and all the blood is flushed out of the muscles.  This is the same principle as Active Recovery, except you end up nice and clean at the end.

If you don’t have access to 2 baths, do the same thing in your shower (1-2 minutes hot, 10-30 seconds cold).

Massage.

I have no personal experience with massage, but understand that it can increase blood circulation in the area being massaged.  This can help flush out waste products in a similar way to the previous 2 methods.  But the few studies I have read about massage have shown that they are not as effective as Active Recovery.

If you have a deeper knowledge than me, leave a comment below.

Mental/emotional recovery.

Emotional Recovery - a good nights sleep.

This aspect of recovery is very often overlooked by people.  And while it is much more of a consideration for high level athletes, or people who train hard/compete several times a week, it can and does effect your regular exerciser.  Usually when they have been doing the same routine for a long time without change.

Constantly putting yourself under pressure by training hard, or competing every week can take a mental toll on anyone.  Or constantly going through the same motions of the same workout, for months on end, can make the most enthusiastic exerciser grimace.

So a very effective way of recovering emotionally/mentally, is change.  These changes can include any or all of the following:

• A change in training intensity.  Alternate between easy/hard training sessions, so you don’t get stuck in a rut.
• A change in training duration.  Spice things up by sometimes having a longer/shorter session than usual.
• A change in training type.  Do something completely different.  Make it a totally different activity.  eg, if you are a cyclist, go off and spend a week hang gliding or something.
• A change in the company you keep.  If you are always training with the same people/team mates, spend some time away from them thinking/talking about something other than your last/next training session.
• A change in your training environment.  This can simply mean try out a different gym, or train outside instead of inside (or vice versa).

The above are all good tactical (short term) ways of recovering emotionally/mentally.  But we should all try a more strategic (long term) approach.  This involves having as stress free lifestyle outside of training as possible.  This is usually much harder to achieve, but can include the following:

• Spending quality time with friends/family who you can relax around.  But pick them carefully.  Being in the middle of an arguing family/group of friends is not stress free.
• Try to avoid clashes between training schedules and school exams/work assessments etc.  Coming from a competitive training session straight to a competitive school/work environment is not stress free.
• Develop a network of “helpers” who can assist you in your training logistics.  Eg, mechanics to take the stress of equipment from you, or drivers to take the stress of getting to/from training/competition from you.
• Ensure you get a good nights sleep every night.  Sleep is the bodies natural way of mentally and physically recovering.  You ask any insomniac how important a good nights sleep is.  Don’t skimp on it!

As you can see, the above are much more long term strategies that may or may not be practical for everyone or every situation.  But they do help!

But if you remember only one thing from this article, remember this…

“We improve in the time that we are NOT training”.

Hair dyeing

We all have loads of “dead time” in our lives.  This is time where we are either just hanging around, or waiting for something to happen next.  Some people have more dead time than others, but we all have some. 

One girl I train told me her fantastic way of making use of her dead time.  She dyes her hair, and needs to keep it in for 30 minutes.  Previously, she would just smooch around, watching the clock for half an hour.  But now, she jumps on her exercise bike and uses the in-built lock to time how long the dye has left!

I couldn’t stop grinning when she told me about this!  Because I have no experience of dyeing hair, I had not thought of this at all.  But it is a bloody brilliant use of otherwise “dead” time!

So take a look at your life and identify similar chunks of dead time.  Add up all the wasted time you spend waiting for things to start/end/change/boil/cook/set etc, then be honest with yourself…

…is your life really too busy?

“Aim for “perfect”, but settle for “good enough”.

This means, be aware of and recognise what you want in a “perfect world”, and every day strive to get there.  This can mean the perfect job, perfect girlfriend or the perfect move done with perfect technique and perfect timing.

But recognise that this is not a “perfect world”, and be happy when you have something that is good enough, effective and does the job.

Picture from http://www.deddington.org.uk/community/fireservice

I have been trying to apply this rule to as many things in my life as possible.  And I was happy to have it confirmed 2 weeks ago when I was on a first aid course.

The bloke taking the course was Bob the firefighter (a top bloke, really good, knowledgable and funny guy).  He gave an example…

You have a badly injured casualty in a burning house.  In a perfect world, you would get a stretcher in there, pump him full of painkillers and slowly, gently ease him out…but this is not a perfect world and the fire is heading your way.  So you sling him on your back, ignore his cries of pain and get him out as quickly as possible.

In other words, you do it as perfect as you and your situation will allow…but at the end of the day, you don’t waste time, you get the job done!

The same thing goes for exercising/training/changing your diet.  There are too many people out there who don’t give a damn, go through the motions and so don’t get anywhere. There are also too many people who worry/fret so much about the “best/only way”, that they end up not doing anything at all…so don’t get anywhere.

So this is what I try to instill in the people I train.

• Don’t be slap-dash, not bother, or do it badly.
• Don’t seize up and freeze because you are worrying too much.

But this is not an excuse to stop trying hard as hell to perfect your technique.  So remember (quick plug coming up!), if you live in or around Skipton, you can get your technique checked over in one of my Exercise Clinics.

Click here to contact me, or share this with your friends who might benefit.