TRIGGER EXERCISES TO SHOOT DOWN POOR MOTIVATION!

I’d love to sit here and say to you that I train 6 days per week without fail, but I can’t. I’d love to claim that I’ve never had more than a week off from training, but I can’t. The truth is, at times, I, probably just like you struggle to exercise.

A lot of the time I’m like your average toilet tissue – on a roll. And by that, I mean my training is consistent, my eating is pretty good and my sleeping patterns decent. But sometimes, well, life just gets in the way and I fall off the exercise wagon, so to speak. Whether it’s family commitments, work commitments or whatever, sometimes I just simply cannot find the time or (whisper it quietly) the motivation to exercise. Now, this may come as a surprise to many of you that a person making his living out of the fitness industry should admit to struggling with motivation, but it’s the truth (unlike most of the perfect lives you see portrayed on social media).

Unfortunately for me and for many others, this downturn in exercise almost certainly goes hand-in-hand with an upturn in eating rubbish too. It’s as if training keeps my nutrition in check!

So, what do I do when my levels of motivation are lower than the compassion in Katie Hopkins heart? I make like your average American trying to resolve a relatively minor dispute and reach for my trigger. But not the trigger of a gun, no, the trigger that will get me off my backside and back on the exercise super highway!

For me, this is a nice long, slow, easy paced run (that’s probably another surprise to many of you, that as a personal trainer, my go to exercise isn’t HIIT!). For others, your trigger exercise may be lifting weights or doing some yoga. It might be a Pilates class or may be even taking part in competitive sports. Regardless of whatever it is, the most important thing is to find YOUR trigger activity – the exercise that will get you back on track again!.

It doesn’t even have to be something you would normally do in your regular training. Believe me I rarely go for long steady runs when I'm ‘bang on’ with my training, but for whatever reason once I’ve had a little time away from exercise I know that an easy run will kick-start my training and set me up for future sessions!  

In conclusion…

Motivation isn’t permanent like parent’s love. It’s more like a holiday romance – fleeting and uncertain. You must enjoy the highs whilst finding ways of dealing with the lows. And for me finding YOUR trigger activity is one good way of combatting the lows when it comes to motivation and exercise!

If you enjoyed this article, please check out these articles too:

IF, it'll leave your stomach emptier than Katie Hopkins heart, but does it work?

Let Them Eat Steak!

TO BOOK YOUR FREE TRIAL PERSONAL TRAINING SESSION, OR TO BOOK A PLACE AT MY BOOT CAMP CLASS, PLEASE DON’T HESITATE TO GET IN TOUCH!

 matt@mlrpt.co.uk                 www.mlrpt.co.uk                          07939316401 www.twitter.com/mlrpt      www.facebook.com/mlrpt        www.twitter.com/mlrpt

P.S. If you enjoyed reading this please click on the icons below and share with your friends!

CRUZ BECKHAM’S ROWING ROW!

Meanwhile (as the rest of the world seemingly goes to hell in a handcart) in celeb-world, the Beckham’s received a fair bit of criticism following their 12-year-old son, Cruz posting a video of himself working-out on a rowing machine. This whole storm in a tea-cup left me with 3 main questions:

1. Does every Beckham have an hereditary gene giving them an insatiable appetite for self-promotion?     
2. Why on earth have three hundred thousand people (myself included) wasted 30 seconds of their life watching a kid do nothing more than row at a fair intensity on a rowing machine?
3. Why did some people on social media, wrongfully condemn the Beckham’s for allowing their son to perform some form of semi-serious exercise?   
   

Now, question 1 can probably only truly be answered by doctors; the answer to question 2 is probably that more of us need to ‘get a life’; and as for question 3, I’m going to set about answering that now…

I’m sure any right-minded person would agree that all children should be doing some sort of exercise or activity, whether it be kicking a ball about with friends, playing kiss-chase, climbing trees or whatever; and indeed, the experts corroborate with this too. A quick glance at the NHS activity guidelines pretty much tells us so. They recommend that every child between 5-18 do an hour’s activity each day.

So why have the Beckham’s come in for such grief?

Why I think the Beckham’s have come in for particular criticism, is because of the nature of what their son was doing. If he’d posted a clip of himself having a running race with his friends everything would have been hunky-dory, but some people seem to think that children training in a gym or using gym equipment is inherently more risky or dangerous than other less formal exercise. But are these people right? Let’s see what do the experts say:

According to the world-renowned and more importantly well-respected American College of Sports Medicine, aerobic-type training such as rowing (as Cruz was doing) is not only perfectly acceptable, but should also be vigorously encouraged.

They don’t stop there though, they go even further by saying that strength training (lifting weights), which is often demonised when talking about training children, provided it is done sensibly and under supervision is also a sensible form of exercise for children too; and indeed, our very own NHS also agrees with this sentiment.

Aerobic and strength training

So, there you have it people, leading authorities in the world of health and fitness not only recommend aerobic training, but they are now recommending that children do some form strength training too, given that many of the tales you hear about its negative effects on the growing body have largely been debunked by the science!

But none of this is too revolutionary, if you think about it children have been informally strength training since time immemorial. Whether it be pulling up their entire body weight whilst climbing trees, or carrying the whole weight of another human being whilst playing piggy-backs; or even the more mundane task of carrying a heavy school bag laden with books and PE kit, children have forever inadvertently been strengthening their bodies!

In conclusion…

Exercise is good for children. Traditional aerobic type activities such as running, jumping, swimming, skipping are very beneficial to children and relatively inexpensive. However, if you have the inclination and the equipment don’t be put off from allowing your children to some strength training too. Provided it’s done sensibly it’s a great form of exercise!

And as for those ‘quick to type, slow to think’ type o’ people on social media, perhaps they should check out the facts and seek the advice of experts before giving their opinions. But then again if we can’t expect this from the President of the United States, who can we expect it from? 

If you enjoyed this article, please check out these articles too:

ALTERNATIVE FACTS OF THE FITNESS INDUSTRY

10 EASY STEPS TO BECOMING A CLEAN EATING GURU

TO BOOK YOUR FREE TRIAL PERSONAL TRAINING SESSION, OR TO BOOK A PLACE AT MY BOOT CAMP CLASS, PLEASE DON’T HESITATE TO GET IN TOUCH!

 matt@mlrpt.co.uk                 www.mlrpt.co.uk                          07939316401 www.twitter.com/mlrpt      www.facebook.com/mlrpt        www.twitter.com/mlrpt

P.S. If you enjoyed reading this please click on the icons below and share with your friends!

THE GORDON BROWN APPROACH TO WEIGHT LOSS

In recent months the agenda of the big three political parties has turned to how they are going to reduce the 'deficit'. In complete contrast to this, this article is all about how to PRODUCE a deficit…a calorie deficit that is, which is vital if your aim is to lose body fat.

Think of it as the Gordon Brown approach to weight loss. In the sense that he was responsible for creating the financial deficit which we find ourselves in.

This view, of course is largely dependent on your political persuasion. Those to the right will likely agree, those to the left will cite a global banking crisis as the cause of the deficit. For the sake of argument (and If I am being honest to give me a more attention catching headline) I am going to say that Gordon Brown was responsible for the deficit.

Doubtless there are some of you reading this that have read diet books which tell you that calories are not important, that you can lose weight without reducing the amount of calories you consume. Sorry to be the harbinger of bad news but this is simply not true. Granted there are many diets out there which do not blatantly ask you focus on calorie counting, but instead ask you to eat more or less of a certain type of food or ask you to not eat certain foods at certain times of the day, but these are  tricks. They are the David Blaine’s of the diet world.

In a roundabout way all of these diets lead you to consume less calories, hence the weight loss. This ‘tricking’ is not necessarily a bad thing especially when you think how hard it can be psychologically to lose weight. All I am saying is, essentially to lose fat you must use more calories than you consume and there are various ways we can do this.

CREATING THE DEFICIT

We know a fundamental part of any fat loss diet is creating a calorie deficit - we must use more calories than we consume. This can be done in three ways:

1.       You consume fewer calories (you eat less).

2.       You use more calories (you move and exercise more).

3.       You consume fewer calories (by eating less) and use more calories (by doing more physical work).

The most effective option being the 3^rd, as combing exercise along with a diet means you will not lose as much lean tissue as you would if you were to just solely diet alone. This will leave your body feeling and looking 'tighter'.

HOW TO CONSUME FEWER CALORIES

So how do we go about consuming fewer calories? Firstly you do not have to necessarily count every calorie you consume. You can if you like but you do not have to. Simply being mindful of your old eating habits and then altering them appropriately is often suffice to create a calorie deficit.

Below are some of the more popular, least intrusive and easy to follow methods which have worked with my clients. (Please be aware that the list is by no means exhaustive. There are a lot more scientific and accurate methods which I use with some clients to create a more accurate bespoke calorie deficit. For more information on this please drop me an email matt@mlrpt.co.uk).

·         USE A SMALLER PLATE. You do not have to change the types of food you are eating, merely because the plate is smaller, the portions are smaller hence fewer calories.

·         EAT WHEN HUNGRY, NOT STARVING. STOP WHEN FULL, NOT STUFFED. Once again you do not have to change what you are eating just stop eating before you are stuffed – do not be afraid to leave food on your plate.

·         EAT PROTEIN WITH EVERY MEAL. This will involve changing your food choices slightly but it will be worth it. Every time you eat try to include some lean protein in your meal. Protein leaves you feeling fuller for longer meaning less chance of hunger and cravings later in the day.

HOW TO USE MORE CALORIES

Granted, this is stating the obvious but one the easiest ways to burn more calories is to exercise and for my clients this involves training with me where I am able to motivate them; however alongside this I ask them to perform their own independent exercise. Below I am going to share with you some of the methods I have used with my clients to increase their physical activity levels when we are not training together.

·         GET A PEDOMETER. Get yourself a pedometer and record how far you normally walk each day for one week. In the second week try to increase the number steps you done in the previous week by 10%. Continue you this week by week until you get to 8000 – 10000 steps per day.

·         LAY DOWN THE ANCHOR. Get yourself an anchor point which will trigger you to do some physical activity/exercise. For example you may enjoy watching Coronation Street, in this scenario your anchor could be the commercial break. When the adverts start that will be your trigger to do 5 squats. Start small and get bigger, begin with 5 squats and build to 10, 15 until eventually your squatting for the entirety of the whole commercial break. As time goes on try to build in as many anchor points as you can in different parts of your life. For example every time you walk up your stairs at home perform 20 step ups! Sorry if you live in a bungalow!

·         ENTER THE LONDON MARATHON, THE MALDON MUD RUN OR WHATEVER. Well it does not have to be a marathon but enter yourself into some sort of exercise event, that way it will give your training some focus and hopefully motivate you to exercise.

DEALING WITH THE DEFICIT

We know that eating less and doing more creates a calorie deficit and much like the biggest issue facing any Chancellor of the Exchequer of the present or future…how are we going to deal with this deficit?

Ask anyone in society paying the bedroom tax and they will tell you dealing with the deficit is tough. And in many ways dealing with your own calorie deficit is going to be tough too!

At some point on your diet you will be hungry, for some people these feelings will very frequent for others less so, but at some point you will definitely feel hungry. After all a fat loss diet does involve consuming fewer calories than you are using!

THE CARROT OR CHOCOLATE TEST

It is at these times you have to decide whether you are hungry or just craving. One method I use for dealing with this is what I call the ‘Carrot or Chocolate Test’. When you are feeling hungry ask yourself this, could you eat a carrot? (Feel free to substitute the imaginary a carrot with any other vegetable of your choice) If you could eat the carrot you are obviously hungry and not craving, feel free to eat something making a sensible food choice. If you feel you could eat the chocolate but not the carrot you are more than likely just craving. You must do your best to deal with this craving by distracting your thoughts from it. These feelings can last around twenty minutes and ways getting rid of these cravings include reading, going for walk, brushing your teeth and a more novel way is to perhaps tap your forehead. Recently I read a research article on this which said it had some success and who knows it may work for you!

If you really cannot get rid of the cravings and absolutely have to succumb to them, do so but do it sensibly. If it’s a Mars bar your craving have a fun size bar not a normal size bar! But most importantly of all once you have treated yourself to the fun size Mars bar please, please, please do not think all is lost and jack in your diet completely. Once you ‘fall of the horse’ you must get back on straight away and as Marvin Gaye so succinctly put it, you must ‘keep on keeping on’.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this article. For a more individualised approach to fat loss please do not hesitate to get in touch.

If you enjoyed this article, please check out these articles too:

SUPERFOODS ARE JUST LIKE SUPERHEROES - PRETEND!

HOW CAN A RUBBISH X-FACTOR WANNABE HELP YOU LOSE WEIGHT?

TO BOOK YOUR FREE TRIAL PERSONAL TRAINING SESSION, OR TO BOOK A PLACE AT MY BOOT CAMP CLASS, PLEASE DON’T HESITATE TO GET IN TOUCH!

 matt@mlrpt.co.uk                 www.mlrpt.co.uk                          07939316401 www.twitter.com/mlrpt      www.facebook.com/mlrpt        www.twitter.com/mlrpt

P.S. If you enjoyed reading this please click on the icons below and share with your friends!