Now don't forget to...exercise

Nearly at the 20kgs.....

And so I come to my penultimate post.

Yes the voyage has nearly ended for the blog, which a total of 6000+ people have read - thank you all, and 0 have commented, an even bigger thank you.

The penultimate post is addressing the ever important question of the Exercise Pyramid I have created for myself...EXERCISE. That's right, once you have put together your plan, your diet, your attitude and accepted what the outcome may be you will need to get into the gym and exercise. But what exercise suits you and how it will help achieve your goals are individual to you.

I have had a total of 4 plans. I have mixed things up in this 20 week period. I have always maintained 2 different sessions. In my first phase (around 12 weeks) I had one session which focused primarily on upper body and second session which focused on lower body. In my remaining weeks I have had two different total body workouts. My objective was to gain strength and growth on my chest, back, shoulders, arms etc. So the exercises I chose were relevant to that. I have increased aerobic activity to help burn fat along with addressing my dietary needs (yes that again).

You see, what I am trying to get at is, you will understand what exercises work and don't work for you. You will know which ones you like and which you don't. It's a fine process of tinkering around until you feel comfortable with the workout and know you can push yourself on it. Those moments where you think, "Oh I can't be bothered doing this tonight" is made all that different if you are doing a workout you know can and will achieve results.

I have a hand condition where two of my fingers are joined together, to grip weights with this hand can sometimes be difficult, and the overall movement will vary from my left hand side, so I always try and find exercises which I know I can execute without placing too much emphasis on my right hand and creating imbalance. This workout works for me, but it might not for you.

My only tip is this. If you are embarking on HIT you need to remember two things, form and time. Maintain the correct form throughout the exercise and your time in the positive and negative phase (2 up, 4 down) and you will be exerting your muscles fully and remember, you lift until you can't anymore. Visualisation techniques can help break through that pain barrier.

The science in this is ulitmately YOU.

So there we have it, play with your workouts, see what does and doesn't work for you. How you feel at the end of your workout and if you can find yourself enjoying it, and always remember no pain, no gain.

It's a game of patience

We see the adverts on most sites "Tips to loose your belly" or "Something's that the fitness pro's won't share". Well firstly if you click on them they usually take you to the same site where you have to pay through your nose to get a book or video on what is effectively a diet and exercise regime to shock an awe you - but in effect it's nothing different than paying for a few training sessions with a REAL health and fitness pro.

I also take offence to the notion that by clicking on some link you will go to some site which promises you something that a professional otherwise wouldn't want to tell you. Ask yourself this, why wouldn't they want to tell me? It would be like going to the garage to get your car fixed but then the mechanic saying "I can make it perform more efficiently, but I am not going to tell you how". Would you trust that mechanic? Nope I wouldn't either.

I said in one of my posts a few weeks ago that I would share what some of my tips for training have become, what the acquired knowledge of this experience coupled with the knowledge I had before this 20 week stint would bring out of me.

Well, I thought to share one today.

1. Patience


Achieving your goals be it in getting stronger, faster, more muscular etc it all requires patience - in my honest opinion. I don't believe in taking short cuts and I do believe that if you aren't strict with yourself on the days when you are meant to be doing exercise of such then, ultimately you will never achieve the results you were looking for.

Let me put it another way, if you want to achieve your degree in higher education, you know that you will set out on a course with a specific time duration. In that you will need to attend the lectures, classes, workshops, work on assignments, and finally take your exams. If you want your degree you NEED to follow those principles to the letter. You can't not hand in an assignment one week, and not do several exams expecting to achieve the same outcome, for you to get your degree you need everything working in your favour.

Bodybuilders train for years, in that time they eat a strict diet, they have a regimented structure of supplements (and other not so legal supplements) they rest when they can and they know that to achieve their goal it comes with hard work and time, for them it's all about being patient until the moment is right. So why should you look at doing this any differently?

Olympic athletes train for 3.5 years to aim for that Gold medal. Football/Soccer stars most of their childhood to make it professionally and with the hope of representing their nation. You could apply this to nearly every professional sports person on the planet - they had to wait to achieve their goal.

That for me is what training is, you can't afford to take the short cuts when it pleases. I don't mean throwing in an extra rest day or treating yourself every now and again to something not specifically in your diet. What I am trying to get at is understanding what your goal is. Understand how long it will take to achieve your goal - realistically - and work towards it. Set out a plan and work hard to achieve it.

Anyway, I would say that this is one of the foundations of training that I have discovered. I would ask any of you who has a personal trainer & ask them what they think about the patience principle and then ask yourself, if I want to achieve my goals am I being patient enough about it?

A Flapjack or a Fish Curry?

So I haven't blogged in the last few days due to a few planning and falling asleep issues - that being I am just falling asleep when trying to stay awake...at home not in the office!

Friday 
My water intake was a little weak during the day but I made up for it at night. If any of you ever think of doing super-hydration yourself, never, ever, ever try and consume your half day's worth of water after 6pm, trust me on this one.

As for my diet, it is going well. I actually calculated throughout the day an interesting bit. I was offered what was a seemingly innocuous flapjack. I took a look at the dietary information and was left perplexed. For 125g of flapjack extravaganza, it equated to 630kcal and 20g of fat! This was meant to be the healthy option!!!!  I managed to create a fish curry with brown rice and naan bread for the fewer calories and less fat, I know which one I would prefer.

As for my workout, it was a really great session. I lifted more reps than last time on everything and when you think I have had only a few days rest in between I was very happy. Overall I feel that the intensity I put into this session was a lot more than what I had done last time.

Saturday
I had a blow out on food and diet, or rather I thought I did. I actually ate less in calories overall than what I do on a usual day, just my frequency and quantity of food was done overall in three meals and no snacking between.

I did however have 2 glasses of wine - very nice Pinot Noir from Majestic, yes begin mocking now!