Some things can be made harder!!

I laughed so hard I cried at this!!

Aim:  Spin around for 30 seconds with your arms out and looking at the sky. Stop spinning and then try to take a penalty!

I’ve found the Fat Loss Secret!

YES! I’ve finally found the secret formula for Fat Loss and Fitness whilst holidaying in Malaysia!!

Seriously though, whilst walking through the shops in Langkawi, I came across the above in the tea section. Maybe this is why there are no gyms here on Langkawi?!!

As posted previously, the diet here comprises of fresh foods and fruit, nothing processed, hardly anything packaged. This must say something?

There are NO secret potions, pills or powders that will give sustainable fat loss or fitness benefits. It will just be hard work on the fitness front, and sensible, fresh, natural eating to give you maintainable weight loss, sustained energy and vitality, and a healthy life.

Oh, and a touch of sunshine always helps!
One more day and then off to Oz for the next update!
A quick pic of our beach! 😉

An unwelcome sight this morning!

We had it forecast, but still waking up this morning, this was the view from the back of our house! OK, to some of my readers in ‘snowy’ countries it may not look a lot but in England, this is quite severe!

I was supposed to have a busy day today, with 8 PT clients – I now have zero!

Even worse, myself and the family are supposed to be flying to Malaysia and then Australia on Wednesday night, and currently our two main airports are closed, with flight backlogs due to be a problem…….hmmmm we didn’t plan for this?!

Sometimes though, things happen which are outside your control. With these issues, you just have to “ride with them” and make the best of a bad situation. Deal with what you can and plan ahead as per usual.
Only when you are creating your own problems by eating too much too often, eating the bad types of food too often, are you making things harder for yourself, and affecting your OWN outcome.

I’ll just use today as an extra day to pack, plan my upcoming bootcamps further, and then take the kids out for a bit of sledging…..getting an unexpected workout in at the same time!

Here’s to the snow clearing soon……!

"Can we do some stomach exercises?!"

If I said to you, “what exercises work your core, or your abs or your stomach“, what would be your thought?

Crunches? Situps? Plank? Ab Rollers?

Sometimes I get asked at the end of our PT sessions, or have over heard at the gym “Can we do some stomach work?!”, or “we haven’t done any stomach exercises, let’s do some now!”

I give the same answer, til I’m blue in the face, but it still keeps happening!!

“You know those lunges with overhead press, the pullups, the renegade rows, the pressups, the mountain climbers, the squats? You know I keep reminding you, pull that belly button in, brace your core?!”

Well hey! Guess what?! You’ve worked your core, your abs, your stomach, and a hell of a lot more muscles, with all of those functional exercises!! If those muscles didn’t work during the exercises, your hips would have sagged, your lower back would have folded like jelly, your hips and knees would have buckled, and you would be a mess on the floor!

Your ‘core’ is always working! It is your central pillar, that keeps you upright, and assists with balance. By focusing on the above exercises, and bracing your abs/core further you are engaging those muscles to further support you, and whether you know it or not, they are getting a great workout!

It’s only people who aren’t in the know, who feel they have to finish, or sometimes even start (which is worse, as your core acts as a stabilising set of muscles for your body, and if they are fatigued at the beginning of your workout, you will not be very productive and risk injury!) their workouts with “abs” exercises, like situps, more situps and ‘specific abs’ exercises.

Sure, if you want to hit your core further, add in some cable rotations, wood chops, sledgehammers etc, but make sure they are at the end, and aren’t the main focus of your workout.

A touch of humour to lighten your day!

Laughter, and comedy are great stress relievers, and should be integrated into your week to relieve stress, lighten the workload, and to lift your spirits and positive attitudes.

I received the below via email, I hope some of them make you laugh!

To Maintain A Healthy Level Of Insanity

1. At Lunch Time, Sit In Your Parked Car With Sunglasses on and point a Hair Dryer At Passing Cars. See If They Slow Down.

2. Page Yourself Over The Intercom. Don’t Disguise Your Voice.

3. Every Time Someone Asks You To Do Something, ask If They Want Fries with that.

4. Put Decaf In The Coffee Maker For 3 Weeks . Once Everyone has Gotten Over Their Caffeine Addictions, Switch to E spresso.

5. Skip down the hall Rather Than Walk and see how many looks you get.

6. Order a Diet Water whenever you go out to eat, with a serious face.

7. Specify That Your Drive-through Order Is ‘To Go’.

8. Sing Along At The Opera.

9. Five Days In Advance, Tell Your Friends You Can’t Attend Their Party Because You have a headache.

10. When The Money Comes Out The ATM, Scream ‘I Won! I Won!’

11. When Leaving the Zoo, Start Running towards theParking lot, Yelling ‘Run For Your Lives! They’re Loose!’

12. Tell Your Children Over Dinner, ‘Due To The Economy, We Are Going To Have To Let One Of You Go.’
And The Final Way To Keep A Healthy Level Of Insanity –

13. Pick up a box of condoms in the pharmacy, go to the counter, and ask where the fitting rooms are.

PLEASE put down the light weights!

I had limited time for a workout today due to a busy schedule, so at the gym, after a warmup, I set my watch for a 15minute timer. From here I moved from one exercise to the next, completing 15reps at each exercise, with limited rest before the next. I chose multiple muscle exercises like pullups, kettlebell swings, lunge with press, pressups and squats.

Suffice to say by 15mins I was toast!! I collapsed to the matted area, to catch my breath with sweat running off my head! A fair few calories had been burnt!

Just then a middle aged lady asked, “Have you finished on here?” pointing to the Lat pulley.
“I’m definitely done!” I replied!
“What weight did you use?” she asked?
Now, unless she was being competitive, I decided to help out!
I asked her what she was attempting to do, to which she replied, “I’m supposed to be doing 2 x 16 reps, and I’m using weight number 1” Now, I was tired, and exhausted, but this lady needed helping! I rolled over and said, “Well basically, you should be selecting a weight whereby your last 2 reps are getting pretty tough, so therefore you probably need to be selecting a heavier weight, do you think?!”
“Ummmm maybe” she replied, “I have my programme review next week, so maybe I’ll wait til then”

NO!

It is a myth that women will get big by lifting heavy. To get anywhere near “big”, women would need to eat thousands of calories, lift heavy and often, and probably inject a touch of testosterone.
After progressing, you need to start lifting heavier weights. Choose weights which will challenge you around the 8-10 repetition mark. Only then will you start seeing your body change and adapt. You’ll see nothing by using such light weights.

This particular lady probably lifts heavier weights carrying her shopping to the car, lifts her children on a daily basis, or carries the hoover up the stairs. Just because it is called ‘a weight’ it doesn’t mean you need to go light!

Quite why the weights pictured above are sold I do not know. In fact it is laughable that such small weights are made with the intention of using them separately for exercises, when the whole lot together is packaged in a case with a carry handle, meaning you have to carry them all together at some point!
PLEASE, ladies reading, ditch the sub 4kg weights, and allow your body to change for the better!

Your new Personal Trainer!!

Some ideas for our next session courtsey of Euro Training!

Functional warmups and exercises

Whilst at the gym yesterday, a boyfriend and girlfriend came into the weights area, and stood next to each other, in front of the mirror. They started, under the leadership of the boyfriend, to run through about 2mins of arm swings, windmills, shoulder rolls, and other such upper body mobility movements. He was calling out the next move, just before they ‘performed’ it. I tell you, if such movements were a synchronized Olympic event, they’d be coming home with a medal!

As they finished, I continued to keep an eye on them, between my sets of work, to see where and what they would do next. It all went downhill………

He started bench pressing, and she went straight over (to one of the most useless pieces of gym equipment) and sat on the seated abductor machine (Where you sit with your knees together at 90degrees, and take them outwards in a very attractive manner!). After a couple of mediocre sets, the next machine was the seated leg curl ( to ‘work’ the hamstrings).

My problem with this ‘workout’ is;

1) You should warmup specifically for what you are about to do. The girl in this case mobilised her shoulder joint and upper body, and then went and sat down to marginally work her lower body!

2) The choice of equipment is poor. The seated abductor machine attempts to work your abductor muscles (in your hip and bum) but from a seated position. When do you ever sit down and perform such a movement? The same can be said for the leg curl. Do you ever sit down and work your hamstrings from a seated position? No, they get used, walking, running, bending down etc etc.

What should be done is;

1) Warmup specifically for the exercises you will be doing. If you’re going to work the lower body, then perform some multidirectional lunges, some bodyweight squats, some knee raises and star jumps etc.

2) Perform functional exercises, ones that will mimic daily movement patterns, or at least those exercises which will be weight bearing, and using multiple muscles. Lunges, and jump lunges, squats, and jump squats, side squats, weighted step ups, staright leg deadlifts. Then look to incorporate the movement into a full body exercise by adding some rotational work as you lunge, some pressing overhead movements as you squat. These such exercises will work towards a lean, athletic body, whereas the seated examples are wasting your time and money!

(These ‘gym stories’ are not mean’t to be personal attacks, but to hopefully help you avoid the mistakes made by other people!)

Only in America…..

would people use the escalator to get from the car park to the gym……..I hope?!

The elusive flat stomach question!

This morning I was at the gym working out. I had my Ipod in as usual, and had just finished my first set of deadlifts. As I put the bar down and turned away, panting, and probably gurning from the effort, a middle aged lady approached me and mouthed something in my direction. I tugged an earpiece out, and raised my eyebrows in a “Sorry, say again” manner!

“Do you work here?” she said!

Now, I’d be pretty unhappy with the gym staff, if short of work, they went into the weights area, put their ipod’s on, and starting lifting weights, while wearing clothes that were definately not part of a uniform!

She obviously realised she was barking up the wrong tree, but continued;

“I wanted some exercises to lose and flatten my tummy”

(Ahhhhh!!!! If I had a pound for everytime someone asked that question, well, I could probably start work on our extension!)

I gave her the honest answer of;

“You probably won’t like this answer but the main thing would be altering your diet”

with this she replied, “Errm, maybe I should ask an instructor” (Yeah like that will give you the answer you’re after!)

“Well I am a Personal Trainer” I replied (She suddenly looked interested again!”

” You could try some medicine ball twists, and some rotational work, which will work your whole core unit” I suggested.

Anyway, she “ummed” and “aaghed” for a few seconds, and we jointly moved out seperate ways.

Me, back to my second set of deadlifts.

Her, to the decline bench for some useless, and possibly damaging decline crunches, putting extra stress on her back, and by the looks of it a potential strained neck!….. I tried!!

So the moral to this story and the answer to the above is;

Limit or cut out;

Alcohol / Wheat / Caffeine/ Processed Foods / Dairy / Sugar / Crunches

Do or eat more of;

Lean Protein / Nuts / Fruit / Vegetables / Water / Eat small and often

Lift challenging weights which work the full body / Short sharp interval training / Rotational Work

It IS possible….. the choice is with you!!