Wednesday, March 26, 2008

All it takes is a little consistency...

Yesterday, I was talking to one of my clients about the single most important element to success in personal physical fitness. The element of consistency.

There are thousands of programs and diets you can follow, but without consistency in both, your chances of success are slim. Obviously if fat loss and a positive body-composition change are your primary goals, you must place an immediate emphasis on your diet to make sure you stop adding any more weight. Diet alone CAN cause major changes in body-composition but in order to really make sure the weight stays off permanently, we must exercise on a regular basis as well. The added muscle mass and related increase in activity allows our body to become a much more efficient life-long fat-burning machine. Even if we are happy with our appearance, strength, flexibility and conditioning training is a must to ensure we keep up a good quality of life now and into the future. You can think of it as an insurance policy, allowing you the best possible chance of maximal physical function far into your later years.

The big question becomes, how do we stay consistent? This is one of the biggest challenges we face in many aspects of our lives. I think the best way to ensure consistency in exercise is finding ways to make it work for YOU. As we are all individuals, a one-method solution will not work for everyone and will only stick for those who prefer that particular method. The obvious solution is to actively do what you ENJOY doing. Working out with a specific performance goal in mind be it squash, tennis, ultimate or golf helps many people stay consistent as it offers a real reason to do so, improved performance. The other major factor we must face is time. Some of us are able to keep up a 3 to 5 times a week workout lasting well over an hour. Most of us are not... The important thing to remember is we do not NEED that long to get a great workout. The other important thing to remember is doing something is better than doing nothing, so even if you only have 10 minutes to spare for exercise today USE IT. Consistency is nothing more that a habit, so is inconsistency... Trade one for the other and see the real results that have eluded you for so long and live a longer, happier and more satisfying life!

Do.

Monday, March 24, 2008

A great article on pushups from The New York Times:

Sorry there were no posts last week! This year's particularly bad flu hit me hard...
Found myself practising my snatch form today so all must be well again.

Click HERE for that article on pushups. More original posts coming in the next few days!

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

You are only as old as you choose to be...

Check out this video of Eduard Trusevich. He is a 62 year old man who has been training with kettlebells for over 40 years. The video shows him in the midst of his snatch set at the 2007 Kettlebell World Championships. In 10 minutes, he snatches a 55lb kettlebell 220 times! This number is seen as a very high achievement for men half his age. This is a great reminder that almost anything is possible at any age. All you need is the desire to do it and the discipline to stay consistent. Now, I am not saying you need to be able to put up such snatch numbers as he is obviously very fit and has spent some time acheiving such a feat. Imagine what he was doing when he was 30!

The most important thing is to just do SOMETHING! Even if it is as simple as doing pushups and squats during commercial breaks. Hell, even lifting a weight above your head while sitting down will do as a start! Fitness does not have to be about gyms, expensive workout wear, boring cardio and comparing yourself to others. Workout at home or outdoors in your shorts from 1984, enjoying your choice of fun heart health exercise and feeling great as you top a personal best!

Now, check out Eduard:

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

I don't usually post my workouts but...

Today I will as am feeling really good and trained despite having an injury. My right rhomboid (muscle behind the shoulder blade) is aggravated so that means no horizontal pulling (ex bent-over rows). I put together a kettlebell and bodyweight combo that went something like this:

Part One:
Squat Thrusters L/R (24kg) x 5 x 5
Two-Handed Swing (24kg) x 5 x 5

Part Two:
One-Handed Swing (16kg) x 5 x 4
Pushups x 5 x 4
Front Squat (16kg) x 5 x 4

Set myself a 20 minute time limit so was unable to finish set 5 of the last three. Going to do this one again soon and get that last set within the 20 mins!

These short and intense workouts are great when you have lots of work to do and still need to find the time to train. I got most of my March newsletter completed today and still got to exercise!

Speaking of the March newsletter, stay tuned as it will be out in the next couple of days. Just need to shoot the video...

Monday, March 10, 2008

Congratulations!

My good friend and squash partner, Bryce Norman got married last Thursday. His lovely bride Enid Raye Adams was there too : ) I wish them and their son Zachary a happy future!
Now that the wedding has happened, perhaps we now begin discussions on the rules of Full-Contact Squash?


Thursday, March 06, 2008

Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.

- Painted on a wall at Broadmoor Prison, South Africa

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

What can you do?

During a recent session, my client and I talked about how easy it can be to want to just give up on keeping your body in shape and healthy. What it often comes down to is that we are unhappy with with an aspect of our lives or ourselves. Unfortunately, as health and appearance deteriorate, so does the expectation of happiness. We are all familiar with self-fulfilling prophecy and how negative thoughts can only propagate negative results...

On the drive home I thought about how I, in the context of fitness training, help my clients to get quickly motivated and in the right frame of mind. The challenge for any trainer is to ensure their client continues to train even years after the last scheduled session. What good are the results if they need you around forever to maintain or improve them?

Since major fat loss and the resultant exposition of toned muscles takes longer to safely accomplish than a decent level of strength takes to gain, I make sure to teach my clients how to develop real-world strength so results come quickly and emphasis is taken off exclusively appearcnce-based goals.. No matter what someone's body looks like, what really counts is what they can do with it. Would you rather be one of the best players on the team or the one who looks best in a swimsuit? How about both! Instead of continually looking for results in the mirror, look instead for results in real-life performance.

I strongly believe this way of thinking is the path to real and permanent success. A great way to easily practice one facet of this is to make sure you participate in active pursuits other than only your fitness routine. It is your participation in these activities that highlights the pay off from all your hard work. The spotlight is placed on your physical acheivement rather than physical appearance. This feeling of success will begin to supplant the negative thoughts associated with body image and thus form new and more positive ones associated with body capability.

With proper nutrition and hard work, the aesthetics WILL take care of themselves... by then, hopefully they won't be quite so important.

Stay positive, and remember YOU are the one in charge of your life!
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