Start Your Winter Fitness Plan Today!

Have you noticed some changes to your routine with the changes of the season's?

Any changes in moods or eating patterns?

How about energy levels or sleeping patterns?

If not careful this is a time of year when the Summer time health and fitness efforts can all go out the window!

You don't really want to have to start all over again in the Spring do you?

Good I thought not! Address this early – now, don't wait until something like Boxing Day to realise you've not done any training for the past 2 months.

Having said all that, it's probably no bad thing if you do change some things about your routine, but not if that leads to dropping it altogether.

You might decide to change the time of day that you exercise to better fit in with your moods, energy, levels of light, and other commitments.

You might decide to change your focus – lift more weights, or find some shorter but higher intensity sessions that challenge you with less time available for example.

You might need more sleep when you can get it – do you really need to watch rubbish on TV or surf the internet late so often?

All of these things just point towards you having options and adapting so that you make the most out of the training you do.

Now decide what you want – how do you want to be looking and feeling around that time of resolutions being made? What is it going to take to achieve that?

With some idea of a plan in mind you want to get this established as a routine before all those demands on your time risk taking over.

Use the next 3 to 4 weeks to establish some good habits that will have you looking and feeling great after the holiday's! I'd recommend starting a food and exercise diary if you are not doing so currently.

Keep an eye on any changes, write down what is really happening, and stay accountable to achieving the results you want.

Be an everyday athlete!

Steve Cork
www.sussexbootcamps.co.uk
www.everydayathletes.co.uk

Personal Training - Stretching or Strengthening?

I'm off to do a course today - actually re-do a course i took last year. Along with fellow personal trainer and bootcamp trainer, Ben Davis, we are going to be learning - or re-learning in my case MAT.

MAT stands for 'Muscle Activation Techniques' and is particularly useful in a one on one personal training situation. I know it is great for helping my clients and therefore want to get better at using it.

One of the key concepts of MAT is how muscular tension is viewed and worked with. For a long time the approach to a tight muscle is to stretch, stretch, and stretch some more.

However MAT has shown that this is often not an appropriate solution.

Instead, tension is seen as potentially protective of something else that is weak. This is assessed and tested, and if appropriate corrected by allowing the weaker muscle to become activated or strengthened again.

The affect of bringing the weakened muscle back into play can be such that the previously tense muscle can now return to a normal level of activity.

The amazing part is that someone can have this done and be stronger. They can then go back to their normal approach of stretching - and find that they are weak again! That's right for some people stretching (and also possibly regular exercise) will make you worse!

Not to say never to stretch or work on your flexibility, just that it's good to know when and how to best do this and have a way to test. MAT provides this, and if you think you have any imbalances or recurring problems, especially if you feel it is made worse by certain exercises, then you should seek out a MAT trained Personal Trainer.

Have a good weekend,

Steve.