One of my trainees asked me yesterday for some healthy recipes to help them lose some weight. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I am not a very good cook (enthusiastic, yes…good, no!). I am very much a “cook by the seat of my pants” type of person in the kitchen. My idea of cooking is to lob it all in the wok, turn it up to 11, and see what happens.
Cerin
Happy new year!
In case you didn’t notice, it is January, so happy new year!
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…
Movement Analysis – See how you move and how it can be improved.
I see my job as helping people move more, and move better (hence the tagline to my website – “Movement & Variety”). I’ve been lucky and since I started Karate when I was 7, I have been coached to move well (well = efficiently, safely and with coordination). 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.
Get the basics right, and the details may not matter at all.
I carry on a lot about getting the basic fundamentals right and not stressing about the little details (click here, here, here, here, here and here.) This is totally unsexy and not at all what people want to hear when they ask my advice. But what the hell. I’m paid to get results, and I don’t have a warehouse full of “Ab-Dominator!” machines to flog.
Training secrets for young athletes.
This link (click here) is by James Marshall. He is a fantastic strength and conditioning coach who trains many people (including international athletes). 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 … Read more
Another gorgeous picture
Click here for a lovely picture of the snow. It is a very similar scene as earlier on in the year…
Are you crippling yourself every time you walk?
Out turned footprints in the snow.
I was walking into work yesterday morning, looking at the footprints in the snow, left by someone who had been along before. This person showed a common problem that can lead to bad things if they are not carefull. You could see that as they walked, their feet were pointing outwards nearly diagonally! In other words, they were walking like Charlie Chaplin. They had “duck feet”.
Doctors say most PE lessons neglect all-round fitness
Just read this news article (click here) on how many school PE lessons are a bit rubbish when it comes to getting kids active (click here to read something I wrote a while ago about fitness testing in schools).
There are a couple of sentences in there that jumped out at me:
Skipton Santa fun run.
Just to say well done to everyone who took part in the Skipton Santa fun run yesterday. It was a lovely bright (if cold) day. And I must say, I enjoyed my first ever run much more than I thought I would! I try to learn something new from everything I do. And what I learned … Read more
Pros and cons of working with a training partner.
When people come into the gym I work at during the day, I often encourage them to find/bring a training partner. This one simple thing has many benefits for people who exercise recreationally or just train hard. Just some of these benefits include:
Recovery Strategies: What to do after training has finished.
It is a well known, but well forgotten fact that our bodies don’t improve during exercise/training. Instead, they improve after exercise/training. Put simply, during training, our bodies are damaged/broken/busted up. And in the hours/days following, our bodies repair/improve/upgrade themselves, and make them just that little bit better than before.
Making use of “dead time”.
A very common excuse for people to give for not exercising, or increasing their activity levels, is that they are simply too busy. They “don’t have enough time”. Unfortunately, this excuse is bollocks.
Aim for “perfect”, but settle for “good enough”
This is my quote for the day…
“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.
Marketing magic for a healthier diet: Do try this at home!
I was shown this internet blog (click here) by a nutritionist friend of mine. It shows a few ways to “trick” yourself into eating better. I especially like it because it uses actual, real world marketing tricks that supermarkets use to make us buy the things they want us to buy. And I am a … Read more
Army launches ‘improvised’ fitness guide for troops
“The British Army is rolling out an ‘improvised’ fitness guide to all soldiers operating in isolated spots away from main bases.” Click here for the video. Keeping fit without expensive equipment. Image from http://ukforcesafghanistan.wordpress.com/ I absolutely love this kind of “guerilla” exercising. You don’t need a gym full of expensive machinery to get you fit … Read more
Getting ready for Christmas
I have mentioned periodisation before (click here). It is the “big picture” view of training. It is about managing your training in such a way as to maximise your results. I talked before about doing things in a certain order, but it also means managing when you can work hard and when you need to ease off to recover. In this way, periodisation works on different time scales, such as:
How to: Do a Pullup.
A good Pull Up
Name: Pull up.
Also known as: Chin up.
Main muscles used: Back muscles.
Other muscles used: Arms.
Top tips:
The difference between a sweat session and a “clinic”.
Some people have been surprised when watching me coach clients. They have expected a hard, rip-roaring sweat session…pushing people to the max like some drill sergeant. And to be honest, sometime that is my job. Sometimes I do need to push people out of their comfort zone in order to get them to their goals. But the main part of my job is not simply getting people to do more (a sweat session). It is getting people to do better (a technical session).
Good luck Bex!!!
Good luck Bex (click here), who has just moved out to Australia to make her fame and fortune! She is starting up her own training business down there, and I know she is going to do ace! I have worked with her loads when she still lived up here in Skipton, and I would train under … Read more
Has the calorie had its day?
Have you noticed this story (click here)? It is asking if we should change the way calories are marked on food labels. It is an interesting read. It mentions how some foods are processed differently in the body, so this affects how many calories we get from them. There are 3 bits in it that caught my eye: