health – Page 5 – Never Give Up PT

Last Of The Summer Wine

Over the past few weeks there’s been parents queuing up at the booze isle so that they can choose their poison for the evening when they’ve put the kids to bed.

How do I know? Because I’ve been one of them. And although it hasn’t gotten to fisty cuffs just yet, there’s been a few near misses as I hurdle the crates and boxes placed by the staff in the centre of the isles to get to the last bottle of Montepulciano. I almost straddled Big Dave’s back to reach for this particularly fruity red but luckily he was headed for the stout section. Just as well. If I had to challenge him for my favourite tipple I think I would’ve lost.

Of course, it’s not just the parents heading for the booze section. A study published by The Lancet in 2017 found that global alcohol consumption had gone up by 70% from 1990 to 2017. Notice the dates. This was pre-pandemic. I can’t imagine the consumption of alcohol to have gone down.

People are finding work stressful. They turn on the news to wars and political unrest. The economy is a mess. Social media can be addictive but toxic. People are having to hang on in there. The daily grind leads to an alcohol unwind. I just made that up. It rhymed.

But anyway, my job as a fitness coach isn’t to analyse the many studies made on our society. But it is my job to know how to deal with the many different issues that our society brings up. Body confidence, work life balance, injuries, physical health, mental health and food anxieties are all things that I deal with regularly in my work.

But I’ll tell you why I am particularly good at what I do. Everything I have listed above I have had to deal with in my own life at some time or another. Some are more prominent than others, but damn, it hits you like a ton of bricks and knocks you off course pretty quickly. Alcohol, perhaps, becomes a crux for some. For others it might be over or under eating. And then there’s a whole myriad of people who self harm in other ways. There isn’t much I haven’t seen.

My weight management programme has been tweaked to what is now a well established offering to my clients. Why? Most people don’t even know they’re on a programme. It simply becomes a journey of self discovery. It deals with becoming stronger both physically and mentally. It is designed to challenge the body and the thought processes that we have. I not only wrote the programme, but I lived it first.

Adding a summer sports school for a hundred kids two days a week to my list of work commitments this summer has had me spinning those plates to the extent that, just maybe, Big Dave wouldn’t have stood a chance had he made a grab for my bottle of Montepulciano.

But come September, I’ll be back to dropping the kids off at school and having a focus on developing my online coaching programmes and my gym work.

And seeing as the kids go back to school next week and I’m about to open this bottle of Montepulciano right now, it could be the last of my summer wine.

Mirror, Mirror On The Wall

Hmm. How can I make an interesting article about the thickness of mirrors? How can I make it informative without having you guys fall asleep when I start describing the thickness of glass?

Well, if you go to the gym and look in the mirrors or if you try clothes on in a clothes shop then you might find it rather enlightening. And I’ll not get too technical. Promise.

Leonardo Da Vinci said “The mirror is our teacher.” He was referring to the mirror being used as a fresh eye. When I train a client in a gym I will often look in the mirror at my client’s form instead of looking directly at them. Apart from the fact that it can be off putting having someone (even your PT who you trust) staring at you as you struggle through your set, me looking through the mirror gives me a different perspective on their form. I see things differently. We can lose perspective with the naked eye. Reflections can create new ones, especially with the thickness of a gym mirror which should be above 5mm in thickness.

Due to health and safety, public mirrors must be of a certain thickness and be safety backed. Therefore this thickness can give us a much better perspective of the reality that it portrays. Whereas a domestic mirror might only be 3mm in thickness. This can create a mottled effect on the glass and give a distorted view of what we see, especially in cheap mirrors that are mass produced.

Trainees have often said to me,”I look great in the gym but when I look at myself at home I feel rubbish again!”

This is the reason why. The gym mirror will be a true reflection. Your home mirror is probably a much cheaper, thinner piece of glass.

Artists often use mirrors to get a new perspective of their paintings. It takes away the peripheral clutter and enables the eye to focus on the subject. Training in the gym shouldn’t be any different. Your workout is your art. You have a blank canvas to work on and produce your own work of art. Mirrors can help. Whether wanting to build muscle or lose weight, often looking in a good mirror can give you a much better idea of your progress than the weighing scales.

I’m hoping that, one day, mirrors will become so thick that it will make me look like I have a fringe. But maybe that’s an art that might be a little bit too much of a stretch.

Why I Had To Become A Meditation Tutor

Maybe I was meditating as a kid when I didn’t even realise what it was. Did you ever get a telling off from your teacher for gazing out of the class window instead of paying attention to the lesson? Perhaps, in some way, me drifting away from the noise and busyness of the class room during mathematics to focus on cloud formations was my first experience with meditation.

To meditate, you don’t need to sit a certain way or to think about anything in particular. You don’t need to be spiritual and you don’t need to repeat ‘ommm’ if you don’t want to. Adults tell children to stop day dreaming, but maybe that is just their brains trying to get a time out. I think we all need to day dream a little bit.

My practical exam was to guide my wife’s meditation

My first official experience with meditation was about 7 years ago. My wife had postnatal depression after giving birth to our second child and her doctor prescribed medication. But this wasn’t a route that she wanted to take. There must be an alternative to tablets.

We got in touch with a local meditation tutor who did guides on a 1-1 basis. My wife started to attend the meditation guides for one hour a week. She also began practicing on her own and this is when I would join her. This later led me to attending guided meditation too. I was hooked.

The misconception of meditation is that it is an opportunity to clear your head. Yet it is quite the opposite. You fill it will good stuff. Positive thoughts, visualization of a particular journey or of your dreams, ambitions and goals. It is true it is a chance to declutter your head, but it will be replaced with something much more worthy of your thoughts.

As I gazed out of the class room window looking at the clouds as a kid, I was creating shapes with these clouds of me scoring a goal or getting a hug from my mum. Wouldn’t anybody, at any age, want to have a moment of a much more innocent time? That didn’t seem like a waste of time to me then and it doesn’t seem like a waste of time to me now.

We all have goals that we want to achieve in life, but to get through the difficult moments or the sticky patches how are we to actually get them? Do we ever stop to think about a pathway to achieving them? As I say, that’s not to say that you have to sit and chant or be a Buddhist to do it. Having 10 minutes to focus on your breathing and taking charge of your energy each day should be a minimum requirement in achieving your goals.

If I am to assist my Personal Training clients in getting their goals then a part of that process must be for me to enable them to accept themselves as who they currently are. There are lots of ways to do this but by far the easiest way to self discovery is through meditation. That is why I felt so strongly about becoming a meditation tutor. How can we tell the body what to do if our minds are constantly on high alert?

So maybe you should be gazing into space sometimes and having a little daydream. Put the breaks on. Take a few deep breaths. Ground yourself. That maths equation will still be there when you have finished but it might be a bit easier to solve.

Not If, But When

I like to think that I have a group of motivated and enthusiastic trainees who are focussed on their goals. At the moment there seems to be a buzz of excitement in what we are achieving, but it comes with a big red flashing light of caution.

As early as the consultation stage I like to prepare my future clients for the reality. Yes, they will succeed. They can reach their goals. But only if they become comfortable with the knowledge that it will be a case of not if, but when they have to face the feelings of failure.

Failure comes in many different guises. To some it’s a disappointing week with nutrition. To others it could be not seeing the results as quickly as they expected. It could be that they feel that they haven’t dedicated enough time to the gym or their weekend binge has set their progress back.

Even in elite sport the athletes will face failure. Djokovic might win Wimbledon, but he will drop sets. City might win the league, but they will lose games. A boxer might win the fight, but it doesn’t come without a few blows along the way. Real Madrid lost a whopping four times during their Champions League campaign in 2022 and yet went on to win the final. Being a Liverpool supporter I know that stat all too well!

The above sports people are trained to deal with the highs and lows of sport and competition. And let’s not hide away from the fact that your goals are a competition. If you set any type of target or goal, you begin to compete against yourself. Today, you compete against the yesterday’s you. Find that mindset and you make a big step towards your success. Acknowledge that sometimes the yesterday’s you will defeat you, then that’s an even bigger step.

But if you allow yourself to get bogged down on the low days then your journey will be so much more difficult. For many people it becomes too much and they give up.

The low days are the ones that you can look back on and embrace. These are the days when you learned something about yourself and you responded. It becomes an education. And in many ways you learn more on these days than you ever will on your good days.

Giving up on your goals is like slashing your three other tyres because you got a flat.

Sometimes you will get a flat tyre. Acknowledge it, know what to do or who to ask when it does, fix it and move on.

Dirty Fries

Scarborough is a small town. It’s the sort of place that if you go into the town centre you will probably know somebody to say hello to. Train in a gym with almost 3,000 members and the chances are that I will definitely see somebody I know.

Had they seen me in a bar this lunch time they would have found me with a large gin and tonic and some ‘dirty fries’. When I ordered them I imagined some chips with a sprinkling of grated cheese. What I actually got was a bag of potatoes, a pack of bacon and a block of cheese squeezed into a good sized pasta bowl. This wasn’t the amuse bouche that I had visioned in my mind, but it was one my belly was happy to try.

I wished a client of mine would’ve walked in as I slurped the stringy melted cheese into my mouth. If only to keep proving my point. I keep reiterating my point regarding food and weight management…eat it. All of it. If it fits your daily calories, eat it and enjoy it. But there’s a slight caveat. Just one little rule.

If you aren’t going to cut out the low nutrition foods, then you must keep the nutritionally dense foods high. Whether you are very active with fitness goals or more sedentary, keep the nutritionally dense foods high.

You see, I don’t believe in banning food types. If you want to stop off at a bar and order a truck full of McCain’s Chips then do it, as long as your weekly macros are met. Yes, weekly. Some days your carbs might be up, but if you keep the nutritionally dense and high protein foods a priority over the course of the week then your calories and macros will average out. Judging your Journey on just one day will serve you no purpose.

I knew that I could eat some greasy cheesy chips today. I count my calories.

Now, if you read the newspapers you might gasp in horror at the knowledge that I count calories and I also endorse it for others. The one exception being anybody suffering from an eating disorder. In which case they don’t need me, they need professional medical support.

But the media seem to be very negative towards counting calories. Which is interested, because they print lots of other methods such as 5:2, Intermittent fasting and promote large dieting companies who count ‘syns’.

My conclusion is that counting calories isn’t sexy. It isn’t a buzz word or trending on Twitter. And if it isn’t a large company paying a newspaper to advertise their diet or a book publisher paying them to flog Michael Mosley’s new fad diet, then it gets demonized as wrong.

If I go into a shop and see something that I want to buy I will check my bank balance before I purchase it. That’s just simple accounting.

If I go to the carpet fitters I will take the measurements of the room that I wish to have carpeted with me. That is just common sense.

If I take my son to buy a pair of shoes I will ask the assistant to measure his feet first. Efficient.

And if I want some dirty fries washed down with a gin and tonic I will make sure that my meals around this tasty treat are low in calories and high in nutrition. No anxiety or concerns.

I get what I want now and again and I also get to keep my body on track with my fitness goals. And a part of my fitness goals is my mental health, therefore stressing at banning all of the foods that I enjoy is not something that I consider healthy. I have a good relationship with food. I don’t want to feel anxious about being in a social environment and seeing half of the food on the menu to be cancelled for me.

I don’t develope programmes or challenges for my clients if I wouldn’t do it myself. So occasionally doing my own Balanced Plate Challenge works for me. My clients succeed, why shouldn’t I enjoy my own methods too?!

And so it’s time to make my smoothie. With plenty of spinach and fruit in there my body will still know that I love it. And it might even get another bowl of dirty fries again next week!

Fitness Auditing And Why We Need It

You have this cool programme that you developed/got off YouTube/received from a trainer about 6 months ago and it was fantastic.

It excited you, gave you a new purpose in the gym and got you some kick ass results. For the first time in a long time, you had a new belief in reaching your goals.

It was amazing. WAS.

But now, 6 months on, it all feels like a slog. The thought of going to the gym isn’t exciting you any more like it did. The results are slow if any at all and you’ve started to feel the injury niggles from repeating the same old exercises. Day in… Day out.

>sigh< “here we go again” you say as you enter the gym doors.

You start to blame yourself. Are you tired? Is your mind just not in the game anymore? Is it just an age thing? Are you eating right?

The odd day off creeps in where you would usually have gotten to the gym. A few mates are having a pint after work. It’s tempting. The gym bag gets thrown back into the boot of the car. Or the early morning start where you once jumped out of bed to get a workout in before work has gone. Now the snooze button seems like a better option.

If any of this sounds familiar then the chances are is that your programme has run its course. I’d estimate that it’s probably a good four months out of date.

Not only does a progressive programme last over months and in some cases years, but keeping a check on the finer details like rest periods, weights, reps and sets becomes essential to a trainees goals.

If you have a workout plan that you repeat every week without a direction beyond that plan then it will become stagnant. You become demoralised and you give up. Or you become demoralised and injury gives you little option but to give up.

Internet workouts perplex me. They appeal to people because they are free. I’ve been there. The free option was like finding a cheat sheet. A short cut that didn’t cost a penny. And the guy posting it was jacked. ‘That’ll be me soon,” I thought.

Programming isn’t a one size fits all. And if you are lucky enough to find something that works to begin with, then eventually, without auditing, you will be forever treading water. It will become a tired workout. You’ll become tired.

Assessing your progress every 6-8 weeks should be as much a part of your training as perfecting your squat or your bench. Knowing how and when to tweak your workouts is a skill. I only acquired this skill when I was studying for my PT qualifications. Since then I’ve written thousands of programmes.

If only I’d have known how to audit my fitness 20 years ago when I was at my physical prime. In truth, I didn’t have a clue back then.

I don’t blame myself or anyone else for not auditing and following a progressive programme. There’s so much confusing information out there and, as I say, it’s a skill. A skill that I learnt and became qualified in.

Why wouldn’t you try out free workouts online? After all, I wouldn’t trust most PT’s in mainstream gyms anyway. I honestly can’t tell if they’re giving the gym member an induction or a training session, such is the lack of passion in their approach.

But very good PT’s do exist. Ones who are fully self employed are generally 100% committed and knowledgeable to their clients. They have to be. If they fail then nobody will pay them. If they don’t get paid they don’t have a job. I literally go to sleep at night thinking about programmes or tomorrow’s sessions. I have to. I’m the one who will help my clients audit their workouts. I need to know every tweak for over 20 programmes at any one time.

The Bottom Line

Any new workout usually works for a time. They often work muscle groups that haven’t been worked before and muscle soreness feels intense but satisfying. But the body adapts and with it so must your programme. How you adapt it is what will keep getting you the results.

Resistance Machines

My usual gym routine is from Monday to Friday. The weekends are generally for family time and relaxing away from formal exercise. It works for me. There’s no set rule that works regarding a training plan. Perhaps my ideal plan would be having two rest days that aren’t together but personal circumstances have to be accounted for.

What training a full five days in a row allows me to do is have a definitive day in which I can begin a wind down in the intensity of my workouts. I can’t hammer my body every single day with heavy compounds. Indeed, I believe in my 420 reps workout that I have developed for others so much so that I am doing it myself. This means that once Thursday’s session is over I have completed over 1500 reps. By Friday, my body is telling me that I need a little assistance from machines!

And this is exactly what the resistance machines are perfect for. They provide much more relief for the body and it isn’t just the physical aspect that needs the respite. Neuromuscular Innovation, or more commonly known as the mind-muscle connection, takes its toll on the brain. The thought process of connecting with your target muscle in a bench press scenario is much greater than on a press machine.

Foot positioning, core engagement, time under tension, breathing and the contraction are all crucial components of a bench press. Sure, there’s still the necessary check list to go through on a machine but in no way is it as thorough. Therefore, instead of risking injury with sloppy end of the week technique, I still get to workout without breaking myself.

It does concern me, however, how overused these machines get. I get the impression that lots of gym goers use them because they haven’t been shown how to squat, deadlift, bench press or barbell row. Their inductions usually include a brisk talk through these machines, so why would they use anything else?!

When I did gym inductions I went through deadlift form as a priority. It is a free weight compounds that requires the whole body to move and work together as one. I can analyse the hip extensors and knee flexors of the participant and get an understanding of overall strength and fitness levels. Without it, I would struggle to know what machine or what type of exercises a new gym member should be doing. So I am perplexed as to how the gym staff know. Introducing them to an ab crunch machine is way way off of where most new gym members need to be.

And don’t get me started on an ab crunch machine. An over reliance on a resistance machine can cause injury, but an ab machine can be particularly dangerous. The deep abdominal muscles, together with the back muscles support and protects the spine. I cringe as I see yet another gym member rocking wildly like a wound up toy trying to work their abs. Back pain is the biggest reason for staff sickness in the UK and until we begin to train our lower backs correctly this statistic won’t change.

The Final Word

Resistance machines are a great way to supplement your workouts. A heavy session on the bench or in the dumbbell section takes a lot out of us physically and on the nervous system. Rounding off a session on the machines or cables can be a perfect finish. But we can’t rely on them to reach our goals, be it injury rehabilitation, weight control, muscle gain or movement. If you are completely new to the gym then I would recommend starting in the free weights area with a trainer who knows what they’re doing.

That you for reading this article. If you have any questions on this or any of my practices then do get in touch!

Shay PT.

Calm Mind

https://mindist.page.link/bxUb

Here is a link to my Calm Mind meditation that I recently recorded. A bit wierd meditating to my own voice! But I’ve done it a couple of times and find it quite relaxing.

Keep smiling!

Shay.

Smoothie Does It!

Like with most kids (and many adults) they can be fussy around certain foods. Textures, tastes and smells can put a kid right off. If only a banana looked like a chicken dipper!

My youngest has started to check his food to the extend of him looking at a slice of melon like Gil Grissom analysing a crime scene.

Finlay examines the black bits on the watermelon

And I must admit, there are foods that I wouldn’t be too fond of eating if they were put on a plate for me. Medjool dates are a prime example. But if I prepare them with lots of other fruit and vegetables into a smoothie then I can enjoy them.

I have found this with my kids, especially if they prepare their own smoothies and experiment with different ingredients then there is a much greater chance of them getting the nutrients and vitamins that they need without the fuss.

This morning they prepared a banana, strawberry, orange juice and spinach smoothie. They hate bananas and spinach and my youngest doesn’t like strawberries, but they enjoyed the process of creating their own smoothie and were pleased with what they had come up with. They felt empowered.

I have a smoothie at least once a day. A zesty citrus ensemble on a morning and usually a banana, milk and protein powder later in the afternoon. I find that smoothies can…

* Stops the hunger pangs and feeling snacky.

*Wake me up on a morning.

* Fit into my calorie and macro goals and I am getting the fibre into my body that I wouldn’t get if I were eating a meal.

Although I would never consider them a meal replacement, I do put ingredients into a smoothie that I would not make into a meal. I know that I wouldn’t eat the recommended daily fruit and veg that I need if I had to prepare it as part of a meal. I enjoy cooking, but sometimes life doesn’t allow us the time to spend on making the perfect balanced meal. This is why the convenience of a smoothie maker works for me and my family.

One of my biggest concerns is for my kids to be getting good nutritious food into them each day. It’s a constant battle. And when I know what they have as school dinners the need to feed them proper food at home is even more important. I’m not looking for clean eating and banning foods for me or my kids, but a balanced approach is a sensible one. And so far it’s working!

Body Image Affirmation

https://mindist.page.link/tx8j

I didn’t become a PT to make people feel inadequate in how they look. If you are unaccepting of your body now, no changes that you make to your body will make you any happier. The above link is a ten minute guide on body image affirmation.

I’m going to be creating more meditation guides in the future and I will, of course, be basing them on subjects that are close to me. Enjoy!

Speak soon!