First up, if you haven’t already, please come and join my new Facebook Group – it’s full of practical advice and ideas to think about when working on your health and fitness.
We often hold ourselves to very high standards when it comes to our diet and exercise routines.
If we’re not seeing what we want to see – or if we’re not seeing it as quickly as we would like – we often throw in the towel and quit.
We end up with a bit of an ‘all or nothing’ approach, which can look a bit like yo […]
Monday is apparently the most miserable day of the year – the third Monday in January has been marked out by science as the most rubbish day of the year, every year.
Whether you go with this particular date or not, we do seem to universally agree that January and February are the least fun months of the year. The days are short, the weather is cold and miserable and the long days and warm weather seem a long way away.
Which brings me onto the positive impacts of exercise for mental health.
Have you ever really thought about how much […]
Happy New Year!
I hope you’ve all enjoyed a Christmas break.
Have you made any New Year’s resolutions?
Aren’t they FUN! We feel like we’ve already achieved something by writing them down!
Remember though that we’re making these grand plans for the year ahead off the back of two weeks of doing not a lot, having eaten in a different way to usual and having been in a different routine to usual.
This different perspective means it’s easy to forget that that ‘urgh I need to eat better’ feeling goes very quickly, as well […]
First up, have you joined the new Facebook group yet? If not, please do – this week I’ve written about Christmas and the benefits of cold!
Today, let’s look at discipline.
It is THE answer to staying consistent with your plan. It’s the thing which will make you stick to your routine even when you don’t want to. It means you’re not hanging on to your willpower hoping you feel the urge to do the things you need to do, and instead, you just do them because you have an internal motivation to do it.
For […]
The answer depends a large amount on whether you’re new to structured exercise, and I’m going to focus on those of you who have not been in a consistent exercise routine for any length of time here.
Those of you who have been in a consistent routine can have another read of my series from a few months ago. This is the one about exercise: How Stuff Changes As We Age
I think that being either completely or fairly new to exercise around 40 can actually make it easier to figure out how you are best to exercise […]
Let me begin by confirming that I am not about to try to sell you a particular brand of supplements, as is usually the case with these kinds of articles!
As you might imagine, I get asked about supplements a lot. It can be quite a confusing area, and there are a lot of supplements out there which can and do help, but there are also plenty which are unlikely to offer any benefits!
It’s also worth considering the reason you’re looking for a supplement which can add another thing to consider. This doesn’t mean the benefit […]
You’ve probably tried your fair share of different nutrition and exercise strategies over the years. Sometimes, it’s obvious an approach isn’t working for you – for example you might physically not be able to achieve what you need to in order to maintain your plan, or you might feel less energetic, your gut might not feel happy or you might experience food cravings.
But what about when an approach IS working for you? How do you really know?
Well, there are a few different aspects here which are worth considering.
How are you feeling:
Are you sleeping well […]
There was a really interested study published about the remarkable effects of strength training which showed that just three seconds of resistance work a day was enough to cause measurable strength gains. Isn’t that incredible!
Now, before you start thinking you’ve found your new exercise routine, remember that this probably isn’t how you should exercise and this 3 second workout probably wouldn’t continue to provide improvements forever – but, this study does highlight the amazing effects of strength work.
It reassures you that if you were to create a routine of 45 minutes strength training even twice […]
When I suggest you improve your fitness, what image flashes through your mind?
I imagine it’s a hard and fast workout which leaves you gasping for breath and dripping with sweat on the floor.
It seems that these types of workouts have become what it means to be fit.
And if this is how you think you have to exercise if you want to lose weight and get fit, then I have excellent news for you – these kinds of workouts are not essential!
Often I find myself conveying the importance of resistance exercise, and this is because resistance exercise […]
All the information you need in order to achieve all your goals in life – health and fitness or otherwise – is already available, for free.
The difficult bit is sifting through the huge amounts of information and deciding which bits apply to you, and how to apply them.
I’ve worked with so many people who feel like they know what they need to do, but haven’t managed to make it stick until we’ve sat together and put everything into a logical order.
This, I feel, is where working with a personal trainer is invaluable. I don’t think […]
