Category Archives: time

body, body weight, Energy, Fitness, habits, mind, muscles, planning, time, truths, workout

A “Democratic Workout” may just be the thing for you.

_MG_5226   Great sets make great workouts. The more shapely, smooth and safe one’s sets are, the more structurally sound they will be, like good engineering foundation to a building – the better one’s workout will be. Simple right?

Not so fast. Lets break it down.

A great workout needs to transcend ego training. It needs to rise above fear but stay within the safety umbrella. It needs to progressively take you beyond your tolerance levels. Your self-imposed limitations. It must, within the limits of personal experience in the gym and domain knowledge, allow the person to feel what I call the ‘essence’ of each exercise. The aim of a good workout is to gain as much as possible as economically as possible, within a specified time-frame.

A set could be short, right and nice. Some people prefer that.

A set is a little miracle and a critical link to a successful workout. A miracle because of the way it makes you feel, when you do it right and nice. A number of repetitions make up a set. A set in weight training refers to the way we move a weight from somewhere to somewhere else. It metaphorically tells a short story – of what is, of what happens, of who did what and of what is done, when it is done.

All sets have a definite finishing point. It carries a trainee from calmness to acstacy, from being dry to sweaty and pulsating. From nothing to something.

A set in bodybuilding is as critical to a workout as a river is to a whole catchment. Namely, everything. The part serves the whole, it is what the whole comes down to. You see, sets alone or sets of exercises laid out in no particular order may get you sweating and burn calories but does not fit in to an organized pre-designed plan: 2 sets of 10 reps of squats. 45 reps of dead-lifts. Huh? Why? For what purpose? What goal?

Oh, I get it. Sets are part of a story.

I like to think of a workout that a person carries out is a short-story. His/her story through physical expression. Meaning needs to arise. How does meaning arise? It may happen because a suitably experienced personal trainer puts the sets and exercises into an order that allows meaning and purpose. Why do we need meaning/purpose (refer to my previous blog: don’t be a rudderless ship for some insight).

There is in each and every one of us humans, an innate need for story, for storytelling, for relationships between disparate things. For causality. We all like to make sense of and recognise patterns in everything in life, including the performance of sets of exercises in the gym. A set in a workout needs to be structured with the correct number of repetitions, weight, tempo to allow the gym trainee to see and allows us to discover meaning to patterns – and for storing and repeating them in body, mind and spirit for the future.

When you see the interrelationship, when you observe and feel the connection between the set and the workout – it is like pure art. It is like beautiful music. Like sex. What you get is sets performed – simple, compound, complex and compound-complex. Interspersed with rest periods and water/liquid breaks/chat breaks/toilet breaks.

Like sex. Orgasmic, really.

Even when you think you understand the interrelationship between the set and the workout. You don’t. You realize you don’t understand the chemistry and mystery behind it that give meaning because every time you perform each set, keeping all variables constant, the feeling and result is different.

How is that so? One can learn patterns by which this simple-complex system, the set, works. But how you get different results, different effects from the same cause is as mysterious as the soul of a man or woman or the origins of the universe. It comes down to the different mental states people are in at any point in time. A mystery at the best of times.

A set as I like to define it is a “15 to 45 second focused moments”.

People can understand a whole workout program without ever knowing the ‘essence of the exercise’ when performing a set. I have seen this in people who have trained with weights for many, many years. When you perform sets of exercises in the proper manner, you have rhythm and when you do it well enough you not only get  meaning but you make music. It is music in motion! Great sets make great workouts.

Great workouts include long and short sets. Long and short ‘focused moments’. Complex and simple and complex-simple.

Workouts of the rich and famous have gotten ridiculously short and everyone seems to be after the shortest workout in our every-increasingly busy, instant gratifying western societies. Workouts that include only short sets for an even shorter workout is to say the least, hypocrisy personified. People want to get all the health benefits of working out but don’t want to put in the work. Everyone wants to know how much less and less they can get away with fewer exercises when the are in the gym.

“Here it is”, an newspaper article or tv broadcaster would say “get the body you want by only spending 5 minutes in the gym once a week”. How ridiculous is this? Do you think Michael Phelps got the results he desired by spending only 5 minutes in the pool? Do you think Tiger Woods got the results he got by spending only 10 minutes out on the golf course? There are many more examples in every field in life. They got that way because they spent countless hours deliberately practicing certain habits within a structured and planned program over many years. Not 5 or 10 minutes!

Well I have news for you. There are many ways to perform a set, and a serious gym enthusiast should employ most of them, if relevant. Just as a golfer would use different golf clubs for different strokes, a gym trainer would use different sets. Some of your sets should be short – yes; some should be long; some may even be what I call a ‘midget-set’ – a sub-set of a set. Each set has a unique tempo to it depending on where they fall in the workout and purpose.

The point is to mix them up.

Mix them up within an overall workout goal and plan. You need meaning and purpose in your workouts to get the most out of them. Mix them up, like an ecosystem or local community, a workout thrives on diversity and mastery of execution. Just like a democratic society.

You see, I have had many, many workouts and have done many, many sets and spent many, many hours in the gym with deliberate practise over the last 23 years or so. One thing struck me as odd and interesting – some workouts took less than twenty minutes and were very short, some took almost all morning. Usually, these long workouts happened because I did not have any particular time set in mind to do them. Instead, I made a conscious choice to take the time. In the shorter workouts, I didn’t take the time. I got lost in the workout, enjoying the highs and lows of each set, sculpturing away.

Each workout still done with pleasure.

Each set and workout had no fixed intrinsic amount of interest. Instead each set and workout were interesting and pleasurable as long as I chose to focus and give my attention to them. Its similar to a surfer being out in the surf or a golfer out on the golf course for hours trying to hit a small ball in little holes. Or a swimmer doing laps in the pool or a person knitting a patterned jumper or a man spending hours servicing his car. Or a tennis player playing tennis. Why do they do it? How long?

Same answer as each of these activities would give  – as much time as you care to give it. Not an infinite amount of time, but more time than you first imagined.

So, put away the clock and time-piece and lose yourself in your sets – your workout. “Feel” each repetition of each set of each workout. Make the last rep as good as the first. Give more meaning and purpose to your workouts.

Make music. Allow yourself to make music with motion. Find your rhythm.

Give each type of set a chance – a voice, sometimes without the constraint of time. Give your least favourite exercises a try – an avenue to be heard.

You may just like what you see and feel (and hear).

This is what I call a democratic workout. Try it sometime.

 

Until next time,

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body, dreams, Energy, faith, Goals, habits, hope, life, long-term perspective, mind, perseverance, planning, self-image, time

Don’t be a rudderless ship.

B&W3295      _MG_9957

The one thing I know about going anywhere, is firstly, you have got to decide on where it is you’re headed. Usually before you depart. This increases your chances of heading in the general direction of your destination and – getting there!

Knowing where you want to or desire to go is very important in all areas of life – physically, financially, spiritually, relationships etc. The one thing that my successful clients have all got in common is a ‘sense of purpose’ in why they are going through a body re-engineering program and getting help from me.

I work with my clients to put together a picture of how they would realistically see themselves looking like. Once done, I design daily habits to help them achieve their goals, using my framework to body transformation – a Game Plan.

They get critical goal-achieving acts to be performed daily. These were habits that were not fun but necessary to achieving their goals. I differentiated them from acts which were merely tension-relieving and got them to FOCUS on the former. Once I devised the plan to make it happen, they developed the attitude of “I’ll do what’s necessary to get what I want”.

They had purpose.

You see, what I have learned in over 20 years of helping people in the gym is that purpose is the engine that powers our lives. What we’ve all got to do is work at increasing that ‘engine size’, maybe from a 1.8L to a 4L or 6L?

Everyone has purpose, yes. For some it is surf, and others the internet, still others it is to eat, for others it may be just to get through the day and for others still, it is revenge or getting even. In very challenging stages of your life, the response you need – purpose – is the healing portion that enables each of us to face up to adversity and strife. A winning positive mental attitude.

Don’t give up on life when the going gets tough and you’re in a little rutt. Always think that its only temporary. Don’t think that you no longer expect anything from life. Instead, think in the reverse: think that life was expecting something from you. That life is asking of every individual, including you, a contribution and it is up to YOU to discover what it is. What it should be.

Someone really wise once said:

“Where there is life, there is hope.”
“Where there are hopes, there are dreams.”
“Where there are vivid dreams, repeated, they become goals.”

So true.

These goals then turn in to action plans and game plans – life plans. When these goals are connected to the heart, when it becomes an inner commitment, the achievement of the goals is almost automatic.

I see that with everyone I have successfully helped – it means something to them, your goals has got to mean something to you, too, in whichever area of life it may be.

This is one of the critical reasons for over 80% of my clients who have achieved their body transformation goals. They had their heart in it and realised their desires through the game plan I set for them and worked the plan. This is critical – working the plan!

As the saying goes, if you fail to plan, by default, you plan to fail.

What kind of goals are you committed to?

Have you asked yourself “what do I stand for?”. What would I defend to the end? What would I want people to say about me when I am gone? What do you want your children to tell their children about you?

It seems that for many people, millions of people – getting through the day is their -goal and getting to the ‘end of the week’. You hear radio announcers re-iterating this pathetic line, tv hosts reminding you of the ‘slug’ of the ‘daily grind’. What a load of you know what!

Setting such goals results in people generating just enough energy and initiative to get through the day. Their goal is to watch television – soap operas by day, game of chance shows in the evening, cops and robbers, home renovation shows and situation comedies by night – seemingly having no goals of their own. They sit in a semi-stupor night after night with tunnel vision and watch TV actors and actresses enjoying themselves earning money, pursuing their careers and their goals.

Do you go to work everyday waiting to see what happens? And do you spend all your time making someone else’s goals come true?

Purpose, my friend – purpose.

Do you know where you are going in your life? Do you really know? If you do, then, I would say that you would be in the less than 5% of human beings who do. Congratulations!

The vast majority however, I would say, sadly, do not. Like a ship with no rudder, left to the changing tides of the sea of life, with increased risks of getting no where or possibly getting ship-wrecked.

Aim to be one of the 5% if you’re not there already.

Start by setting lifetime goals and then breaking them into bite-size chunks for 1 year or 5 years, a 6 month or just a season project. Once set, spend more time on high-priority goal-achieving activities, daily. Just like my clients who successfully got the body they desired, they stuck to the game-plan through deliberate practise of daily habits.

Most people spend more time planning a party, studying the newspaper or news and/or making a Christmas list, than they do planning their lives.

Don’t be one of the 95%.

Find your purpose – your life direction.

Take the time and exercise the discipline to decide on your destination and to chart a course. Captain your ship through life with proper sails and rudders and accomplish more in a few years than most would accomplish in a lifetime. Just like my clients accomplish in a few months what many gym enthusiasts fail to achieve in years.

How?

The 5% of human beings that have done it have developed their game plan for LIFE.

Work on yours today!

There’s no time to lose …

Until next time,

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Beliefs, body, Energy, habits, Imagination, life, mind, muscles, Strength training, time, truths, Vitality, workout

No belief, no nothing.

_MG_9866-1

I love stories and storytelling. Do you?

I love listening to stories that people share. Everyone has a story in them. I have heard many stories from the hundreds of people that I have had the opportunity to help over the years. This blog is one such story.

A courageous story of finding the strength within and overcoming fear and the journey towards a better quality life. A few years ago, a member of my gym asked if I could get his wife to come and see me about ‘fixing’ her back. She had been suffering for about 20 years. He was very happy with the success he was getting in one of my programs and he asked me to call his wife as he had failed to persuade her to come see me. I did something a little different. I wrote her a little message on my business card saying “please come in and tell me your story”. I gave her a date and time.

To my surprise she turned up.

Typical of a lot of women, she was a little scared of gyms with a view that it was a place only for men, people who wanted to put on huge muscles and was an unfriendly, male-dominated domain that was not welcoming to women. I knew it was difficult because she had a belief fueled by mis-perceptions.

We sat down and I listened to her story to that point in her life. She had suffered from excruciating back pain and had been in and out of many different professionals for almost 20 years. Visits alleviated pain temporarily but her quality of life had been hampered by the pain and was slowly deteriorating. Her whole family suffered with her too. I discussed my philosophy to training and the framework I would use to help her. I asked her to give me 3 weeks of her life. She needed to see me for half an hour twice a week. A total of 6 visits.

She hesitantly agreed.

She had demonstrated a great deal of courage, just to consider trying something different but also something she truly feared: being in the gym. At this point in her life, she had tried almost everything and nothing was working and she desperately needed a better result. A pain-free existence.

My objective was to help her experience a better quality life, a life without daily back pain and life she could only dream about. I had less than 3 weeks to produce a result. A miracle, but I could not do it without her help. She faced a challenge and I reassured her that we would face it together. The first thing I needed her to do was to stop naming and talking about her pain. This would stop giving them power over her – sucking away at her life through her attention and fear of them.

I got her to imagine the end result (pain-free existence) and feel its reality. I needed her to change her belief and managed to convince her that “according to your belief, is it done unto you”. I then got her to tie this new belief mentally and emotionally within her being. With this renewed belief in herself, my program and me, we went to work. She got to do things that she had been advised not to do for almost two decades.

Let me give you an example: She was afraid to bend and reach for her toes and had the belief that it would make her back problem worse. She did things in the gym with me in her first week that she had feared. By the end of the second week, she told me that the pain in her back was gone. I expected it but not that soon. In the third week, her two teenage children attending university came in to the gym to personally thank me for what I was doing with their mum. It was the first time in their lives that they did not hear their mum complain of her back being sore. They had seen and heard her suffer in pain all their life. Every single day!

I was touched.

I told them the real miracle was that their mum was prepared to do the things she was afraid to do. The healing power was brought about by a changed mental attitude. She essentially cured herself with a little help from me. As I had been there before, I was only a tour-guide but she did the work and journey all on her own. The real courage she demonstrated was the open-mindedness and flexibility to adopt a new way of thinking and acting. That was my true challenge, not the weight-training part.

To cut a long story short, this lady who was afraid of even bending down to just touch her ankles went on to not only do it but she also ended up being the strongest woman in my gym. She dead-lifted 140kgs for 6 reps on a good day. And she was in her mid-50s with no prior training experience. She remained pain-free for the entire time she trained with me – over two years! She got her life back. Her quality of life improved greatly.

When I think back about her miraculous transformation, I knew from the time I first met her that she was a naturally strong woman but she had lost her faith in herself. Her belief in her own inner-strength. This is an example of the many little miracles that I have seen people produce, in their own little way. In their lives – changing their lives and changing the lives of others. Just like the many others, she was empowered. She was back in control.

The law of life is belief.

All religions of the world represent forms of belief and these beliefs are explained in many ways. This client of mine went from thinking why she was getting certain results to asking herself how she was creating the pain she was experiencing in her life. She tried to understand how her beliefs and philosophy generated what happened in her life and to cease to continue believing what did not serve her. I got her to shift her focus consciously and intentionally to what she did want (pain-free back).

She did it.

You too, can achieve your own miracles. Little miracles happen everyday and its all around us. What you focus on is the KEY to everything! For any outcome, whether internal or external, there’s a certain way of thinking and acting that will get it for you. Its like weight-training, if you want strength, you need to train a certain way, if power is goal, then a different way of training is necessary to achieve the goal desired. There is a different path for different goals.

Your task is to find this new way of Thinking and Acting. You then have to be flexible enough to adopt the way of thinking and acting that will get you there. Finding that new way is the easy part. The difficult part is the applying and adapting.

My tip to you: watch “inside” to manage “outside”. There is a saying that goes “it is done unto you as you believe”. What do you believe about yourself, life and the universe? What is the belief of your mind or put simply, what is the thought of your mind?

All your experiences, all your actions, and all events and circumstances of your life are but the reflections and reactions to your own thought in your thought factory.

Watch your thoughts!  

Until next time,

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body, Body shape, diet, Energy, Fitness, habits, muscles, perseverance, Strength training, time, you

Muscle-building success: some simple laws.

B&W3349-1I have described in an earlier blog the congruence of muscle building and  life and have concluded after over two decades of gym experience, that they both have the same principles, namely –

  1.  Simplicity
  2. Continuity

Getting the body you desire and getting in to shape can be complicated but not as much as you think so. If it was so complicated, why are so many witless people in better shape than you are?

The answer is simple: every occupation has its trade secrets, those little muscle nuggets of insider information that acts as recipes to achieving a desired physique shape or result. A lot of people are in the ‘dark’ about these nuggets of inside info and so end up with nothing to show for their efforts in the gym. You can find many helpful secrets in the many resources out there today. However, unfortunately, there are also a lot of BS out there too!

I will try to share some of my more than two decades of training in the gym building and maintaining muscle and what I have observed from the many people who have gone through my various programs to success. This is not only to help you get started or keep going but to also help you not end up being like the millions of gym-goers who start and stop before giving themselves a genuine chance of success. Or for those who have tried everything to lose weight, change their body shape and have been unsuccessful. Very frustrating indeed!

Understanding the basic rules of exercise and weight-training can help you see why the basic average beginner’s workout example I detailed in my last blog can help you get the body you want. If all you can spare is 30 minutes and if you learned and applied the program I shared, you will learn that:

  • Your muscles will not struggle and hurt as much as you think
  • Your body burns fat no matter how long you exercise
  • Your exercise program does not need as many sets as you think
  • Your don’t have to think too much as the workout has been simplified

Also, you’re quite safe in the gym. The simple part is its simplicity in training. The difficult part is the consistent and persistent practice, the dedication required. This is what YOU have to do. You alone. You take full responsibility. No one can provide the dedication for you. Only you.

Try thinking of your muscles with mathematics in mind. Changing them to a look that you desire is much easier than most people would realize. Once you decide what you want your muscles and physique to look like, its really just a matter of determining the right formula to get that result. This formula includes the right combinations of numbers: repetitions, sets, tempo and the amount of weight you should use. Its like a golfer selecting a different club for a different stroke on the fairway.

For example if you’re strength-training for muscular endurance and a leaner look, doing 12 to 15 repetitions is the way to go or if you’re goal is increase in strength, then keeping your rep range under 6 is recommended. Put simply, to succeed in muscle-building, you need to:

  • Know where you are NOW, imagine where you NEED TO BE and design a program to TAKE YOU there (seek help from a mentor if you’re unsure how to)
  •  Stick to your program (ability is > 90% stickability)
  •  Always use correct exercise technique
  •  Train hard once you’re beyond the initial few months
  •  Eat every 3 hours or so (except when you’re sleeping)
  •  Eat ONLY healthy foods. Practice good macro-nutrient portion control based on your program.
  •  REST well between sets – between exercises – between workouts
  •  Go to bed early enough to allow for necessary recuperation. Adequate rest and recuperation leads to adaptation which leads to muscle success.

All this takes focus and dedication.

These are a few of my SIMPLE LAWS OF MUSCLE-BUILDING SUCCESS!

You’re now aware. Act. Adapt accordingly.

All the best!

Your friend in body re-engineering and muscle success,

 

Until next time,

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body, Body shape, body weight, Goals, life, mind, muscles, Strength training, time, workout, you

How much time do you have for a workout?

_MG_9779-1Doing something – anything, is ALWAYS better than nothing.The time you spend exercising and working on your health and fitness goals within a structured program should be viewed as an investment and not as an expense. It is akin to putting aside money in the bank. Everything adds up, every bit of exercise you do – counts.

However, people struggle to find time to go the gym.

But how much time is enough time? How much time do you believe you should have to able to have a meaningful workout? 10 minutes or 20? How about 30 minutes, maybe 1 hour or 2 hours? So, because people perceive that they need a massive 2 hour block to get a meaningful workout done, people don’t go. That’s like not putting a few dollars aside each time in your piggy bank when you have a few dollars available for saving and instead only saving when you have a cool one hundred thousand or a million dollars to bank. Odds are you’ll never save even if you finally had that huge sum of money to.

Its not how much time that matters but its what you do in that time and how you train. Basically how efficient and effective your exercise routine is. Experience and know how is an important factor to getting the most out of each minute you spend in the gym and I am not going to lie to you: not having as much time to exercise does mean that it may take you longer to see the results you’re gunning for.

But doing something – anything, even if all you have to spare is 20 minutes a week, will take you one small step closer to realizing your goals. It also means you won’t work as hard when you finally have a bit more time to exercise.

So, you only have a maximum of 30 minutes to spare in the week? So what? If that is all you can spare, then what if I told you that you already have enough time to serve your body (and mind) what it desperately needs. Obviously, there are many variables at play here when you’re venturing in to un-chartered territory if you have never been to the gym before.

Don’t fear, the exercises I am listing below is BASIC and when done with control and feel, risk of injury is relatively low. Regardless of what you look like or how fit you are – or what you visualize yourself looking like later, start with the exercises listed below for your 30 minute workout.

You can kick-start part of your New Year’s Resolutions using this. The key word here is: START.

Exercise Sets Reps What it works Specifically
Squats 2 10 Legs From your butt to your calves
Bench Press 2 10 Chest/shoulder/triceps Upper body
1-arm dumbbell row 2 10 Back Upper/middle and lower back
Upright rows 2 10 Shoulders/traps
Seated triceps extension 2 10 Triceps  The back of your arms
Biceps curls 2 10 Biceps The front of your arms/forearms
Crunches 2 15 Abdominals  “6-pack”
* Weight to be used for each exercise should allow you to get to the recommended rep range. If unsure please seek help from a suitably experienced and qualified professional.

The above workout plan is very basic and for the average beginner. Always workout with safety in mind. The reason it works is that when combined, these movements achieve a full-body workout that is very efficient and effective if you perform them within the 30 minutes you have available.

Working out acts as insurance for your muscles, making sure you don’t have to challenge any of them by accident. It also lowers the risk that you don’t fall in to the trap of working only the ‘mirror muscles’ – chest/shoulders/biceps that young men typically over-train in the gym. You set a foundation towards balance and symmetry which helps build a better body and significantly lowers risks of injury to your joints.

The program uses compound exercises – where several muscles work together, instead of isolation exercises which work only one muscle group. For example, doing the squat with proper form, your whole body has to pitch in. All your muscles in your body is turned ‘on’ and is required to work equally for a complete, balanced look. These compound exercises are more effective and practical for building lean muscle fast, because they work more muscle fibres in a shorter period of time. They also teach your body to work as ‘one unit’.

Working out efficiently and effectively is like a good rugby/football team: the forwards or big men lay the platform before the smaller, lanky, faster, smaller men out wide get involved for a winning combination and try/touchdown.

The best exercise programs are always designed to work the larger muscle groups first (legs, back, chest) and then smaller muscle groups (shoulders, triceps, biceps, calves and abs) last.

That’s all you need to know for a winning workout if you have 30 minutes to spare in the week for your investment in your health, strength and fitness. If you are looking for other products/options that may suit your needs better, have a look at some of these under my ‘training program packages’ tabs.

Consistency and persistence are also key variables in the achievement of your physical transformation goals.

Good luck!

 

Until next time,

Training efficiently and effectively under the “safety umbrella ☔️ “ helped me get to 2 x world 🌎 championships
The conservative approach to training is always the best way in the long term

 

 

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body, Body shape, body weight, diet, Fitness, habits, mind, time, you

What percentage of your weekly meals are bad for you?

Relaxed me

We have all heard the saying “you are what you eat”, haven’t we? Well, there is an element of truth there.

You cannot transform your physique from where you are to where you would like to be without getting handle over your nutrition and what you’re actually letting in your mouth. A very important aspect in the success of over 80% of my client’s have had of the years – is managing your diet better.

As we are essentially all creatures of habit, I have found when I look at client’s diets that most people spend their weeks eating the same meals over and over again. That can be good. Let me explain.

Good because if 70 percent of the meals (solids and liquids) you eat is bad or unhealthy for you then it is highly likely that your next meal would be unhealthy, too. Now what is the best way to find out your weekly bad meals ratio? Well, simply keeping a diary of all meals you consume every day. Do this for 7 days and identify all the ‘bad and unhealthy’ meals that you consume. Mark it off on paper. Assess your good/bad meals percentage. What is your daily bad meal percentage and what is your weekly percentage or ratio?

What do you do next? Well, lets keep it simple and take things one step at a time. Try getting rid of just one ‘bad’ meal  per day and replacing it with a ‘new’ healthy meal to your weekly repertoire. Stick to this one change. Try sticking to it for a few weeks and aim for a month or two and observe how this little healthy change can and will have a positive impact on your body, possibly encouraging you to boosting your ratio and percentage of healthy meals even further. One meal at a time.

This positive little step-by-little step approach, gradually becomes a part of your daily life without making you completely conscious of it. This, I think is better than spending more and more time examining  food labels for nutritional information for everything that you eat that you see a lot of people doing these days. It isn’t always the easiest thing to do and maintain. Besides, food labels can be quite confusing, even for the best of us.

Try this method if you’ve been wanting to help yourself but didn’t know where to start as it may just be as effective in keeping your eating habits under control and helping you lose fat and stay healthy, one good meal at a time. It won’t happen overnight but it will happen if you will it to.

There is power in habit. Believe in it.

Become aware. Apply action. Adapt accordingly.

 

Until next time,

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ageing, Body shape, Fitness, Goals, habits, life, mind, risk, self-image, Strength training, time, you

Have you got what it takes?

Before you begin lifting weights and start your workout program, either after a long lay-off or if you’re a beginner you need to consider a few things. In my two decades of experience, one thing that holds true is, you have got to decide what you want to get out of it. Basically, what is your goal?

Working out in a gym and sculpturing a physique that is closer to what you imagine yourself to be in the mirror can be rewarding, but it involves hard work, time, lots of effort, sacrifices, risk and money. How much risk you’re willing to take is an individual thing. Just like the famous but true investment motto, “gamble only what you can afford to lose”, in this case, training on your own increases your risks (here, injuries and not achieving desired results). To lower these risks, seek help from a suitably experienced and qualified professional.

So, it is essential to understand why you’re doing it and where it lies in your priorities in life whichever phase of life you’re in. A clear sense of purpose will help propel you through what can be a confusing and often unsatisfying experience, if you’re not careful.

Depending on which phase of life you’re in, for example a man or woman going through their 40s would see life quite different from a person in their 20s. In many cases, there will be a specific trigger that kicks this process off – a change in circumstance maybe an upcoming wedding, something traumatic such as going through a divorce or being made redundant or even coming in to a sum of money. For a person in their late teens or early 20s, making themselves feel stronger, more confident and looking better may improve their chances of attracting a potential partner.

In my experience, for most people, however, the underlying reason for starting a strength and fitness program is a desire to be a better version of themselves – a better you, of the person they see in the mirror every morning when they wake up and every night before they go to bed. There is no doubt that feeling stronger and healthier and fitter with an improved body shape makes people feel more attractive and improves their level of confidence. It gives you a certain level of self-determination that simply does not come from other parts of life. If you feel good about your physical self, after all, you usually relate better with everyone who comes in contact with you. More importantly you relate better to you. That much is true. Everyone gets the best of you. You get the best of you too.

Have you got what it takes?

Do you have enough humility to accept that you are not perfect and that you don’t know everything and that you may just need help? Only you can answer these questions. Only you can act on them. Don’t wait too long.

Be brave.

Let the David in you overcome the voice of goliath that has been creating fear and stalling you. Your strongest weapon in beating this goliath, in changing and adopting new physical habits in your life for a better quality life now and especially in to your old age, is with you, 24/7: your MIND.

Its never too late to start, no matter how old you are.

Good luck!

Until next time,

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Its body shape not body weight that matters

The old Cap”n Viking Pirate – ME.

Weight loss is a losing game

I have helped hundreds of people of all ages re-engineer their bodies towards a stronger, healthier, fitter version of themselves over the years with over 84% success rate in clients’ achieving their goals. Weight-loss has always been a by-product of the transformation using my framework to body re-engineering.

It is important but it has never been the main focus for me and I’ll tell you why I have never believed in losing weight just for the sake of losing weight. Weight loss is a losing game, I know but most people go about loising weight the wrong way.

Be the best you can be for you, first, then by default, everyone gets the best of you.
Vv.

The importance of composition 

The weight scale can be misleading because it tells you nothing about your body composition. Your weight can fluctuate quite a lot on a daily basis due to many factors – your water intake, temperature, time of day etc. It has been the catalyst for many trainees being disheartened and de-motivated on their journey to a better version of themselves.

The scale does not tell you what your muscle-fat ratio is. So, understand that body shape is more important than body weight.

Imagine. Believe.

Rely on YOU

Avoid rapid weight loss because that usually accompanies muscle loss and you cannot afford to lose muscle. Avoid diet-only transformation programs that does not incorporate strength training. If you have a lot of fat to lose, and if you choose not to get an experienced personal trainer to help you, the best thing you can do is combining a well thought out diet plan with a good progressive strength and cardiovasular and stretching routine.

With self-control, discipline, consistency and persistence you may lose say, 10 kg on the scale  over 6 months. A safe and sure way. But note, that would be the net effect of actually losing 13 kg of fat and gaining 2-3 kg of muscle. Like for all my clients who go through my re-engineering programs, this way of weight loss will have a significant effect to your appearance, fitness and well-being: your body shape.

Rely on YOU.

The additional muscle gained enables you to use up more energy even at rest. The benefits go far beyond the initial fat loss and mere aesthetic measures as there are improvements in the inter-cellular and intra-cellular levels in your body and this would help reduce the tendency to store fat.

Educating a top national sprinter of the importance of proper nutrition for recovery & optimal performance

The best you can be

So, the better your condition gets, that is, putting on more muscle and losing fat, the easier it is to lose further fat and maintain a lean body once you have shed the excess fat. You body goes about maintaining a new ‘state of balance’, a new equilibrium: a new YOU.

Don’t go on extreme weight-loss diets, don’t fast to lose weight and don’t go on a fad diet and we have had many come and go over the years. When you limit your food intake extremely without proper resistance exercise, your body will respond by slowing your metabolism or ‘engine room’ and this makes fat loss more difficult and fat gain easier. Your engine room dictates the amount of calories you burn at any point in time.

You then find yourself spending more and more time on treadmills and other versions of cardio machines in gyms. You’ve seen the countless numbers pounding the conveyor belts of these machines in the gym. This all leads to losing muscle you cannot afford to lose.

Target a weight loss of no more than half kilogram per week, which under the right training program can add up to 13 kilograms over a realistic and healthy time-frame of six months. Do this safely.

Don’t be the best ‘biggest loser’ you can be, be the BEST  you can be!

Sometimes a feather can feel heavy when you are FOCUSED on the essence.

Strive for an improvement in body shape, get closer to getting an ‘x-frame’ (which means a smaller waist and from a health point of view means you carry less visceral fat around your waistline which all medical advice say decreases your health risks).

You should not do it with diet alone. You must build muscle.

Control fat by building more muscle. Muscle burns fat, its as simple as that!

Until next time,

 

Best of Vitality and ahoy to YOU,

 

The old Captain Viking Pirate ,…. & thoughts on muscel and body shape and the ridiculous focus on weight loss ( I love meaty women!)

Each rep of every set of every exercise is an opportunity for a person to connect with the muscle group he or she intends to.
The right mix of tempo, control, continuous tension and feel is critical.
Executed properly, under an experienced eye, allows one to bridge the muscles with the mind.
Practise does not make perfect. PERFECT PRACTISE MAKES PERFECT!

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My meditation hour

We all need to relax. True.

Some people, some cultures, some countries do it better than others, just like there are some animals that do it better too. We all need to relax. That much is true.

And physical relaxation is important but I think it is second to mental relaxation. A relaxed mind is a relaxed body.  Not necessarily the other way round. You see it when you watch elite sportsperson in competition and you hear them talk about their mental state being the difference between winning and not. The mind is intricately connected to the body, you all know that.

What I mean is that mental relaxation and peace of mind is one of the most important ways each and every one of us need in our lives to truly relax because it helps boost our sense of vitality. The quantity of hours of sleep is not as important as the quality of sleep but sleep in and of itself is not enough to attaining a relaxed mental state. Your mind being at rest. A quiet mind. You know the type, the people who sleep more than the recommended 8 hours a day and still seem more restless when they wake. They probably have not quietened their mind, not truly allowed their minds to rest. Slowed their minds.

It is a need, not a want. Remember this.

Everyone is searching for that something, that medium that would allow them to feel relaxed. Some go to a church or mosque, some do yoga, meditation classes, some surf, do gardening or fish. Some turn to alcohol, some to drugs. Some go to the other side of the world in search of a way, of a magical drug to find a way to calm, to rest, to slow their minds. Some find it, most never do.

What if I said that you don’t have to look very far. What if I told you that the essence of meditation can be had in the gym. Yes, your gym down the road.

Apart from all the physical goals you set yourself to achieve by visiting the gym, the most important benefit – NOW, to you is the intangible benefits of mental rest and relaxation. How is that so, you say? Well, I don’t think everyone has the required skill level to truly absorb the full benefits to the mind that working out with weights gives. However, it can be learned just like anything else, with patience and a good teacher.

How do you define a workout? Some of you may say words like “lifting weights, with reps; intensity; hard work, lots of sweating etc ..” All good.

I define a workout as a “continuous progression of 15 to 45 second FOCUSED MOMENTS”.

Now, here’s the thing – what are these ’15 to 45 second focused moments?’ Well, they’re simply what every gym goer calls a ‘set’. A number of sets of exercises comprise a workout. I refer to a set as a ‘focused moment’. Now, how does this allow my mind to relax?

Well, think about it for a second … if you really focus for the 15 to 45 seconds and become one with the weight and perform the set, your mind will be thinking of nothing else but getting through each repetition. All other thoughts are blocked out of your mind just for those focused seconds. Don’t let anything or anyone distract you for those seconds. If you add up all those 15 to 45 seconds for the duration of your workout, you would probably get 30 minutes of ‘quiet time’ or totally ‘relaxed mind’ for that period of time.

Now that is food for the mind.

Each workout is my meditation hour. Make it yours too. I have anywhere between 3 and 5 workouts a week. So that means I get 3 to 5 meditation hours every week. Do you get yours? Do you get to rest your mind through your body? Do you give it the respect it needs? What you get out of it depends on how much effort you put in to it, how well you focus. Learn proper exercise/meditation technique and practise, practise, practise. Set after set after set.

If you don’t already visit a gym, do so and try it. Try this meditation technique. Even if you don’t get it the first few times around, you’re still going to benefit from increased muscle size.

Its a WIN-WIN for you!

See if you feel the essence of your workouts.

Until next time,

 

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14.5 tips for growth and producing more, with care

The old Captain Viking Pirate 🏴‍☠️ ⚔️Enjoying a beer 🍺 in a hot 🥵 spring day here in Sydney Australia 🇦🇺

I’m talking about growth and producing more muscle for you, here.

There is no room for compromise on the components of recuperation and getting adequate rest to building more muscle towards a more healthier, stronger, fitter you. More muscle is hopefully a more satisfied you too with regards to your body transformation goals.

Here are 14.5 tips (the list is not exhaustive) for getting adequate recuperation and rest with the goal of more muscle and to take better care of you:

Building the best physique you hope to does not rely on chance.
It comes down to many variables summed up here –
Imagination + Visualisation + Effort (hard deliberate practice) + Feel (Heart) + Talent (genetics) + Focus (never-say-die Mind-set) …
To create Balance & Symmetry in design.
It does not matter which art medium is used – building architecture, watches, cars etc ..
Beauty = Balance & Symmetry
The only difference between sculpturing your physique and the other types mentioned above is –
the human body is alive and has a mind.
Continue to work on yours.

1. Make sleep a priority.

Make quality the focus, not quantity

 

2. Eat a little extra calories unless weight loss is your goal.

 

3. Lifting moderate to heavy weights (for your level) is critical to muscle growth.

Once you’re training hard (referring to your skeletal muscle here), consume 1g of protein per pound of body-weight.

Don’t waste your time with ‘light weights’
Use a weight (depending on the muscle group) that will get you to 10 reps.
But you struggle to get to 8 reps with good form.
Everyone’s limit is different.

4. Stay away from low-fat diets. I can show you how fat can be used to burn fat.

Matter of fact, fat in your diet is essential to stripping unwanted fat off you – especially the stubborn fat a lot of people carry around their waists. Fat is vital for your overall health – mind and body. It helps maintain an anabolic metabolism.

However steer clear from unhealthy fats as best you can.

 

5. Avoid junk food. Enough said!

 

6. Don’t get too caught up on sources of protein, carbohydrates and fats.

Why?

Because what you actually digest and allow your body to assimilate is more important than what you eat and drink.

Meals need to suit you and your physical goals. Understand YOU. Find the most appropriate solution. If you can’t do it yourself, find someone who can help. It may just reduce the risk of disappointment.

 

7. Try not to go for long periods without food/meals.

Try to avoid getting hungry (believe me, you probably will like me less if you’re around me when I am hungry. You definitely don’t want to be around me when I am both angry … and hungry … ‘Hangry’

Preparation is key – try setting aside some time in the evening for preparing your sandwiches, blender drinks etc for the next day. A little time in the kitchen the night before or on the weekend, will save you tonnes of time during the week, thinking about what you would like to eat for various meals.

Educating a top national sprinter of the importance of proper nutrition for recovery & growth for optimal performance

8. Don’t waste your “window of opportunity”

Within a half hour of finishing your workout, have a liquid easily digested meal (high in protein) and then have a balanced solid-food meal in the next couple of hours.

I call this the ‘window of opportunity’ to infuse your muscle cells with the necessary nutrients to maximise growth and retention.

Now sit, back, rest and say … “Grow baby, grow!”

And it will.

 

9. Don’t skip breakfast!

 

10. Supplements are just that – ‘supplements’.

It is meant to supplement a nutritionally sound diet from real food.

That took me to multiple NSW Titles and 2 x World Championships, simply eating good ‘balanced meals’ of REAL FOOD. You can’t beat it. Keep it simple.

Focus on food! Full stop.

 

11. Drink adequate amounts of liquids.

Too much water is better and less risky than too little.

A good guide is drinking 1L of water per 25kg – 30kg of bodyweight.

My apprentice drinking water as I have ‘coaching conversations’ with him

12. Manage your energies.

I’ve always thought that life is about energy management, not time-management.

Do try to spend more of your precious time with people and doing activities that give you energy – real energy and do your best to limit your time doing activities or being with people who drain you of energy.

Recuperation and rest for example is an activity that enhances your energies. Love yourself more. Give yourself more of it. Don’t feel guilty.

 

13. Keep calm.

Do this by slowing the mind. Quiet the mind. Find a way.

Find your way.

Feel your emotions.
Think through and with your heart.
Listen to your íntuition

14.5 Stay healthy.

We’re all different, all unique.

Appreciate that uniqueness and ask yourself what your idea of ‘healthy’ is and how would you define it, with respect to every area in life – meal composition; amount of rest/sleep; play time; activities that you do; books that you read; visual programs that you watch etc.

Continue to ask yourself ‘what is healthy to you’ and promptly eliminate habits and behaviour that steal away from a more healthy you. Respect and love YOU first to truly respect and love all around you.

Take your health seriously if you want to optimise your ability to recuperate….

And live better …

… now and in to your future.

 

While you’re still breathing and can do something about it.

Just DO IT! ( I love this NIKE slogan …. my favourite of all time)

 

All the best!

 

Until next time,

The Old Cap’n Viking Pirate …. & essential workout Hacks/Lessons … for willing participants

Explaining the fine points of re-engineering the physique and increased self-awareness through enhanced ‘mind-muscle’ connection..

Belief in God has helped me represent Australia at two consecutive World Natural Bodybuilding Championships and achieve those dreams.
Never stop believin’.
Vv.

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