Eat Well and Work Out

03/04/2024

Not one Olympic athlete has got to the games after being entertained for four years, ever.

They get there by consistent, repetitive, progressive and attentive hard work '

Chris Sommer (ex US National Gymastics Coach)

And he is totally right.

We live in a highly stimulatory, fast past, results driven, get things NOW environment.

Our bodies need the opposite

Most of us have seen the Karate Kid where Mr Miagi gets him to practice a move repeatedly for weeks on end.

'Wax on...Wax off'

(admit it you say this every time you clean the car/ windows etc...or is that just me!)

This is a powerful message as a young, immature athlete learns about how he wants to move onto the next level, yet the wise sensei knows that the kid needs slowing down and his body and mind needs to move at its own pace.

Exercise sessions are repetitive and boring at times to us.

Again, they are NOT this way to your body as it does the hard work in the background making us stronger.

A good coach may sometimes annoy you as they seem to be 'holding you back' and you can't get 'lean' like in that stipulated time period the program you read about.

Foundationally strong, mobile and fast bodies take a LONG time to build with continuous effort...
...yet built this way they are built to LAST

Being impatient and expecting your body to do what you want in a short space of time is, to be blunt, short-sighted.

Your body makes changes every day when you keep the challenges coming..99.9% of these changes you can't see in the mirror!

I would go as far to say as you 80% of the improvements you are making now you won't see the benefit for MANY years.

The gym session this morning and subsequent sensible progressions ongoing will be what stops that knee replacement in 2025.

The boring, repetitive plank holds that pesky PT gets you to do every day could mean the difference between constant back pain from 65 onwards...or not.

Your body and mind are a system that has taken millions of years to evolve.

It is perfect.

I will say it again, YOUR body is PERFECT.

You woke up today, you walked downstairs with no pain and can smile at your kids as you know your body will give you the energy you need to be awesome all day long!

Want to keep this?

Your body is adaptive, it will build strength and power that you cannot imagine with good balanced, patient training.

It will also switch off and reduce anything you don't use to save energy.

Muscles, strong tendons and string bones are EXPENSIVE to the body

Read that bit above again^^

Use it or lose it!

If you don't challenge your body regularly it will take back the resources.

You can start now my simply moving a bit today, and then a little bit more than that tomorrow...

Hang in there, enjoy the journey and every time you feel a bit bored, disheartened and feel like it is going nowhere remember that this feeling often comes just before the next level up....

Remember the old Japanese proverb:

'Fall down seven times...get up eight'

The amazing athletes we see know this, and have the same struggles as the rest of us.

They get up again and never give up...just that 1% extra every day should cut it?!

13/01/2024

Forget the scale weight, don’t focus on those wobbly bits or worry that your nutrition isn’t on point..that will all come.

This podcast highlights the two measures that outstrip most others as regards to living longer:

- Find out your VO2 max..and then do exercise that you enjoy to increase it.

- lift heavy stuff, as many times as you can a week. (You can ALWAYS lift heavier than you think when you learn how!)

Don’t take my word for it…

‎Show ZOE Science & Nutrition, Ep How to add a decade to your life - 11 Jan 2024

18/11/2023

New Year Resolutions doom you to fail without PRACTICE first!

We have all been there..

Xmas and NY over, so starting January with all the best laid plans to hit the gym, start running, eat healthier, be a better parent/ partner/ employee/ boss/ family member/ catch up on work from the break…

Anyone else see how long that list is?

Why then, do we try and then overlay joining a new gym or starting a new class or regime on top of this?

Remember our first day at school?

- strange faces everywhere looking at you
- unfamiliar surroundings
- feeling a bit lost
- attempting to level up but finding it overwhelming
- losing old friends to new ones
- tired from the extra cognitive load of all of the above

It’s like that when you start something new now, just the same. New job, new class, new team, new coach.

Don’t put it all on yourself all at once. Take your time and let yourself settle in..exactly what you would tell a friend or child!

So, why not start NOW?

You have 5 weeks to New Year..in that 5 weeks you could start something new on a scaled down level.

- Just aim to get through the door of that new gym and have a stretch while you suss out the surroundings and get used to the new faces.

*As a side note, I’ll wager if you ask that gym that is spamming you with January offers to start a bit early if you join today they will let you have that discount! 😉

- Just have a taster session at that new class or with that new PT

- Just try that new type of nutrition plan for a day a week

- Just try eating only REAL food for a day a week.

Imagine how much more confident you will be when that sun rises on the first day in January 2024?

How much easier will it be to shake off the Xmas excesses, brain fog from all the down time and as you fight yourself out of bed on that dark, crappy winter morning?

MUCH easier! There will be less overwhelm, less fear of the unknown and, the best bit, you will already be part of the new community..not one of the ‘January Newbies’!

The most important thing to focus on..how much further will you be along when Summer hits!?

Just get started!

01/11/2023

Your most powerful part of your anatomy....is an open mind!

To make any changes we have to be able to recognise and interupt detrimental patterns and cycles that are deep rooted in our subconscious.

How can we improve ourselves in any way if we hold onto outdated beliefs, worries and behaviours that work against the results we want?

Personal Training is not all about asking clients to lift stuff and run about, it is mainly being there to guide a client as they change. We are 'Change Managers' who's sole purpose is to pattern interupt negative habits and guide towards more positive ones. A little secret here too...we get loads personally from it as well!

To rewire our subconscious, we need to become imaginative and think really deeply about the person we wish to become. Grab a piece of paper, and take 10 min out of your day to write down your answers to the following questions:

how does this person look?
how do they dress?
what makes them happy?
what do they like to do?
what makes them successful?
how often do they work out?
what do they eat?
and the best question of all..what does their day look like?
Are you ready to become that person?

If it's a 'hell yeah!' then you need to open yourself up to new experiences and above all take ACTION.

Got some news for you...you have that person inside. If you can imagine them, then you can BE them!

Use imagination to put yourself in that place. The more you visualise this person you wish to become the more you create new behaviours and thoughts that guide you in that direction. Napoleon Hill in his book 'Think and Grow Rich' talks in depth about how we can absolutely make things happen if we open ourselves up truely to believing we will get there. It is true and it works.

Provenance favours ACTION takers.

Be mindful of every thought you have and take a detached view on it. Imagine you are watching yourself from a distance as you act, speak and think at all times. If you are not behaving like the person you want to be, apply the breaks and start again.

Stay Improving..

29/10/2023

Imagine forward..

If you carry on the current trajectory for the next few years..where will you be, how will you feel and are you thriving in life?

How do you feel now?

Think back a few years. Did you have more energy, less aches and pains and how was your general health and mood?

Plot a line between the three points:

- back then
- now
- future

Are you on a positive upwards trajectory, or the opposite? Of course it won’t be a straight line..but is the general trend in the right direction?

Success on your health journey will correlate exactly to how much you can delve into the above points in your life. How much energy and focus you can apply to really see where you are heading.

If you had more energy, and felt healthier back then than you do now, imagine forward to where you will be a few years from now.

If you are feeling healthier, stronger and have more energy than you did then. Take this moment to appreciate the work you have done!

We move away from pain and towards pleasure. When we can clearly see a future that worries us or can imagine the health issues that could come our way in the future..this causes pain.

Those that achieve success on their health journey use this pain daily:

-It gets them out of bed on a cold morning

-It gets them off the sofa to get out for a walk

-It gets them past their fear or nervousness in the gym

-it ensures they take control of their choices in life to the positive

And the best bit. The more we push past a barrier the stronger we get.

Small course corrections every day add up to ensuring you thrive in life. Get after it

Be imaginative!

24/10/2023

Move..move…then move some more!

Mechanotransduction is a relatively new theory.

It is the mechanism by which EVERY cell in our body responds to movement and loads resulting in an adaptation.

This adaptation can affect us:

Positively:

Loads applied in the correct manner such as lifting, climbing....in fact any natural movement, creates a response in the cells affected such as more energy, better removal of waste products and increase in strength (as in muscle cells)

OR

Negatively:

Unsupported loads, poor posture and incorrect movement patterns create adaptations that are detrimental. Sedentary lifestyles also reduce load, therefore the adaptation is to switch off development of the cells...why would the body use energy on what you aren't using?
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It really is use it or lose it.

Still water often stagnates, running water keeps fresh.

It is the same in our bodies....we NEED to keep in flow

When we move we stimulate our bodies to improve.

It doesn't have to be 'exercise'....we just need to move as much as possible.

Our circulation also needs movement to move nutrients in the blood to all of our cells.

The heart does the bulk of this, however it has to work really hard to supply a body that is not moving.

This is maybe the reason why bed sores occur and why someone bedbound needs manipulation?

Think through the movements you do across the day:

Could you do more?

Do you climb, walk, crawl, sit on the floor, squat, lunge enough?

What could you commit to adding to your movement for the day?

Everything you do across the day...think about how you can add different positions, movement patterns and more walking.

Compared to our pre-industrial ancestors we are very sedentary. Remember they didn't do the 'gym', go for a run or even lift weights.

Their bodies were a product of their lifestyle

Gathering food, building shelter, hunting prey and sitting/ squatting on the floor meant they moved 8+ hours of the day.

Not a chair in sight!

Thinking we need to go all out in the gym for an hour a day isn't necessarily the answer.

Of course exercise is important and the gym is a good place to do it, however it is movement across the whole day that keeps us growing.

walk
run
flap your arms about
wrestle with your kids
climb a tree
roll down a hill

'we don't stop moving because we get old...we get old because we STOP moving'

Move like you did as a child.

We all note how quickly they heal and bounce back from illness....maybe, just maybe this is down to the huge amount they move?

Wait for the science to catch up with all this and read about it in the media in ten years ...or take a chance and get moving more now?

04/10/2023

Build muscle!

Sarcopenia is the loss of muscle mass as we age.

According to studies we lose between 0.5% and 1% of our muscle mass every year past 30 years of age and we lose 12% to 15% of strength per decade!

As we've discussed before, muscle is youth.

Muscles help us move, obviously, however they also:

-help us balance against the loads we are under throughout the day

-balance and support joint movement so we don't wear away cartilage or bone

-create and store energy in the form of glycogen, this is what our bodies create from carbs consumed so the more in the muscles, the less in the blood and liver

-muscle is metabolically active, it uses calories and balances hormones

-help us maintain good posture (when we keep them mobile)

-muscles are denser that fat, therefore the more we have the less 'wobbly' we are

-fight off the effects of osteoporosis and aging

and the most important thing...the stronger we are the easier life is!

The better we move the more we will want to.

The stronger we get the more we can do.

Holding onto your muscle mass is a guarantee on your activity levels when we are older.

Work all these years to build a retirement fund?

How is your muscle fund doing?

So, what can we do:

-train: use it or lose it! Research has shown that it is never too late to build some bulk. Studies on age ranges shows that a 70 year old can put on muscle at the same rate as a 20 somethings (they just need more rest in between!). 20 to 30 min, three times a week is enough

-DAILY mobility work and stretching keep our muscles full of blood, supple and soft. Do you want muscles like beef jerky or a juicy steak? (yum)

-Protein: 30g a meal of good quality source of fish, meat, eggs etc. 30g is much more than you think. Protein also satiates you well so this can help stave off grabbing those naughty snacks

-Get your Omega 3's: Omega 3 fatty acids provide more building blocks to maintain and build muscle. Salmon, walnuts and omega-3-enriched eggs give you a nutritional powerpack as you get omega-3s and muscle-building amino acids. Flaxseeds also give you a hit. Eating 4 ounces of cooked salmon plus 1/4 cup of walnuts a day is about all you need to reap the benefits. A good fish oil such as Eskimo also helps.

-Vitamin D: We often find people are deficient in this substance. Vit D is used in a VAST amount of process in the body as it is a hormone pre-cursor so worth keeping topped up. Get tested and if needed get plenty of sun or supplement in winter.

-Move lots: It isn't just about pumping iron. ANY movement uses our muscles, again, use it or lose it!

-Hydrate: we are 70% water so keep yourself topped up.

Ask anyone who is trying to add muscle and you will find out that it is hard. We need to challenge ourselves every day just past the level we did previous.

You need to be consistent, it can be monotonous and it is uncomfortable at those times of extra effort. You just have to keep at it..forever!

It is SO worth it though. Every rep, stretch, extra kg added in improves your body.

EVERY effort reaps a reward.

Better return than my pension that's for sure!

Every time you move a limb, stand up or run for the bus, take a moment to be grateful for all those muscles that performed for you.

Did some not feel right or not perform as well as you needed? This is where you need to do the work then 😉

Get out there are grow those beautiful lumpy bits!

27/09/2023

Everyone with a body is an athlete…and that means you!

Yes..I'm sure that subject line got lots of 'yeah right' and 'I knew this man was crazy' 😉

I stand by what I say though. The many people I've trained have convinced me week on week that inside everyone is an athletic giant waiting for his/her chance come forward.

athlete:

-a person who is proficient in sports and other forms of physical exercise.

Whether it is walking, running, climbing, crawling...anything you do requiring some effort IS a physical activity!

I've watched a woman deadlift their body weight off the floor and stand up after with the look of pride on their face that makes all the 'gym guys' around stop and give a round of applause. Two months earlier she had been laughing at me when I was suggesting that one day she would love the Barbell!

I've been in tears with a Father who managed to give his kids a piggyback ride for the first time despite the docs telling him he should liftnothing more than 10kg for the rest of his life.

Strong men lift heavy stuff but can't run for toffee...

Marathon runners can run for toffee but can't lift heavy stuff...

Work to find what you would really like to be proficient in.

Remember physical exercise doesn't need to be full on blood, sweat and tears.

Your inner althete is totally aligned to what your strengths are and what you enjoy doing. We can't be good at everything. This also changes as we move from decade to decade.

'A kick ass half is better than a half assed whole'

Give yourself permission to try different things, absorb what you are strong at and reject what doesn't work for you..

27/09/2023

The first pic below is me before I got past my nervousness in the gym and fell in love with the incredible changes my body can make.

So much so I got qualified as a Personal Trainer.

I’ve since spent the last 14 years helping hundreds of people on their own health transformation.

Hard work, LOTS of laughs and being there to highlight those small changes that build up to a healthier life gets the results.

I’m here to help you:

⭐️Build positive habits

⭐️Build confidence

⭐️Thrive

⭐️Build discipline

Focusing on what you can DO and how you PERFORM is how we get results.

How you LOOK will take care of itself!

Sessions at home, outside or in the gym..fitness can happen anywhere!

-1:1
-Small Group
-Family Groups
-Boot Camps
- Online training!

Let me help you find those positive changes!

13/09/2023

Most of us know that if we grab a weight and do some repetitions of a movement the muscle involved will get stronger, more mobile and larger.

A bicep curl trains the biceps muscle predominantly. A leg curl trains the, you got it, the hamstrings of the leg.

On a basic level, this is true and, as you are well aware by now, I believe the fundamental thing we can all do to thrive into later life is to add muscle, lots of it, and maintain mobility of our bodies.

Taking this deeper though, each of the exercises above do train the muscles they are named after, however, done right they train, to some level, nearly every other one in the body too.

A standing bicep curl, done right, is accompanied with a contraction of the Glutes, torso muscles and stabilisation of the back, shoulder, neck and chest muscles. There is also a load on EVERY one of your 100 trillion cells, and this load creates a response.

In short, ANY load we carry, hold, push or pull against 'trains' our muscles. Training our muscles makes us stronger if this extra load is consistent.

The adaptive and intricate body we all have will 'assume' that any load it comes under frequently is here to stay so it will add muscle, strengthen tendons and bones and make itself more mobile to deal with these loads.

Adding muscle goes FAR deeper than buns and guns!

It doesn't have to be 'beast mode' and 'crush it' in the gym everyday.

You can start small, really small and just repeat as much as possible for you. IT IS ALL PROGRESS!

Your 'small' will soon become not that small at all

Try really focusing on one walk a week one eve, for 30 min or so. Do this consistently for a couple of weeks and then come back after a month and tell me that its not increased to 4/5/ eves a week and you feel much better!

It can just start with thinking about reducing using THINGS to support your body less and getting it to support ITSELF more.

Think about how we respond to gravity.

EVERY muscle, bone, joint and ligament have an infinite number of positions as we move about.
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The arch is a perfect symmetry of load displacement and its strength comes from its shape.

The arches in the Colosseum have stood for thousands of years, even with loads of holes in it, all the wooden and iron supports rusted away, earthquakes, world wars and millions of humans tramping through it.

By making sure our bodies have to support themselves more all day long, every mechano-receptor in EVERY cell responds by adapting to the extra load.

We are supposed to be moving all day long!

Or..

We don't stop moving BECAUSE we get old, we get old BECAUSE we stop moving!

-change your geometry, every 45 minutes
-ditch the chairs, or sit upright without using the back to support
-walk, lots, and then walk some more...and a bit more
-walk up hills and on uneven terrain (ever wonder why children always find the most awkward winding route? It's their innate behaviour being driven to create the most efficient human machine! NOT to make you late!)
-ditch the sofa and sit on the floor, often
-grab something and hang off it
-climb
-roll
-crawl
-get up off the floor and sit down again, ten times. Lounge cardio
-stand up to work
-work to sit in a squat position as much as possible (populations that squat more, live longer, we know this)
-sit on different things, the stranger the shape the better!
-when that mobile rings, get up and walk about
-take the stairs, whatever the floor (observe those crazy H&S rules in your office though!)
-take the left route and walk up escalators
-driving somewhere and you see a nice wood on a sunny day. Stop, get out and have a wander
-journeys under 2 miles, walk
-when waiting in a queue or standing around, find things to stretch your feet on, hang off or push against
-go barefoot, walk on stones and seek out uneven terrain
-add in push ups, planks, squats and lunges to your daily routine. Bodyweight exercises can be done anywhere.

OK, some of these seem a bit out there or 'fringe' and yes I am the lunatic who hangs off the handles on a train or bus, stands on one leg in queues and walks his dog barefoot on stony paths.

Think through how you can load your body in different ways across your day.

And, be honest, how much of the positions you spend your days in up until now match up to those niggles and hurty bits?!

We are the sum of our past actions in EVERY way!

Imagine what your body would look like if you laid down for a few years.

Just as a tree is shaped not by the wind but the loads applied to the tree from the wind..you can drastically impact the shape of your body by moving it more and removing supports, comfort, cushioning and convenience

Think less about when you need to 'do exercise' today and more about how you can add more movement into your lifestyle…

27/06/2023

⭐️Personal Training & Classes Available⭐️

-1:1
-Small Group
-Family Group (5yrs upwards)
-Boot Camps
- Online (fully or hybrid)

So what can our 14 years experience coaching and training hundreds of people provide for YOU?

⭐️Build positive habits: Realistic, honest and effective advice on how you make those small changes that build to great results for body and mind.

⭐️Build confidence: Let’s find out together what your body is really capable of and get you past those barriers that stop you taking the next step!

⭐️Help you thrive: Once those small changes happen in body and mind, there is no stopping the progress you can make! We focus on what will take the mileage out of your body and become a badass for many years to come!

⭐️Discipline: Our job is to provide as much knowledge as we can so you have that drive to get up for that workout, or make that better food choice.

Focusing on what you can DO and how you PERFORM is how we get results. How you LOOK will take care of itself!

We can train in the gym, outside, in your home or at your work..fitness can happen anywhere!

Call anytime on 07870 262741 for a intro chat..

Let’s get started!