What’s Holding You Back?

This morning I did something that I have been putting off for at least five years.

It is something I have truly been fearful of.

Fearful to the point that when I thought about it I would feel nauseous, sweaty and my heart rate would rise.

When I found out I would be doing it, my eyes welled up because of the built up emotion I carried.

I had to do it, now was the time. I wasn’t going to be putting it off any longer.

Today, if you didn’t know is my 30th birthday. And kindly enough, my wife Racheal organised for me to go skydiving (that is, jump out of a perfectly good plane) from 10 000 feet.

This has been my number one fear since at least my 25th birthday when I said bravely that I would do it. Instead I packed my bags and moved to Queensland. Talk about confronting fears head on!! Then I have considered doing it every year since, as well as in most scenic cities we have visited, and never followed through.

The result? It gets worse. The built up anticipation and fear multiplies. What was once (possibly) completely reasonable now seems completely impossible.

(I remember lying on the couch when we lived in Broadbeach, eye closed, visualising flying up in the plane, opening the door and ‘jumping’ out. I fell off the couch, my heart was racing, and telling myself I couldn’t do it.)

Now having done it, I feel,… well I don’t really know how I feel.

I do feel a bit numb, I feel that I have a different perspective on life (and Hobart! what a view!!) but it’s hard to put how I feel into words.

What I do know however, is that I can now do anything I want to and that the only thing holding me back is myself and a negative outlook or mindset.

Which ever way you look at it, if you tell yourself that you can or can’t do something, you are going to be right.

So what is holding you back from achieving your goals? Chances are that you might have put some of your own obstacles in the way whether they be physical or mental.

Work on finding solutions and ways to overcome these obstacles instead of focusing on the problem.

Make a change to something in your control that will bring you closer to your goal instead of further away (and instead of making the obstacle appear bigger).

Utilise the information you have at your disposal and take action! Knowledge isn’t power unless you do something with it.

Today I want you to have a look at yourself in the mirror, ask yourself “What is my biggest fear? What is holding me back?”

Then openly ond honestly answer the question. Tell yourself what you are going to do to overcome this fear or obstacle.

Believe it then do it.

The rewards are amazing and cannot be put into words.

My experience today backs this up 100% and I want everyone to feel the same!

Have a great day.

8 Ways to Instantly Improve Your Workouts

Following on from the success of the post 8 More Ways To Instantly Improve Your Eating, here is the workout version. Too often we get caught up focusing on minutia instead of getting the basics right. If we take the back basics approach, more often that no there is a lot to gain. Enough rambling, lets get to it.

1. Stand Up. If you can do an exercise standing then….do it standing. We sit down way too much these days so the last thing you want to be doing when you are trying to improve your health, fitness and physique is to be exacerbating an existing problem.
2. Avoid Machines. The most advanced machine known to man is, well, man itself. (Perhaps I should have said the human, but I didn’t!) Body weight exercises, free weights and other forms of resistance such as kettlebells, sand bags, resistance bands will get the job done. The only ‘machine’ worth using is an adjustable cable. If you don’t know how to exercise safely and effectively without machines get someone (ideally me…or at least someone qualified to do so) to show you what to do.
3. Work the whole body. Yes guys, there are muscles on the back of your body. A full body workout isn’t just chest, arms and abs! Your strength in general will increase if you can squat or deadlift more weight. Strengthen your butt and hammies and you will be able to run better and fill out your jeans at the back. Increase the weight you can row, or the number of chin ups you can do and all of a sudden your bench press increases. Get to it and work the muscles you can’t see in the mirror.
4. Go unilateral to save your back. Huh? Uni what? Think single leg exercises. Step ups, lunge variations and single leg deadlifts. These will work your legs just as much as the bilateral versions (two legs) but because you aren’t using as much weight you will decrease the amount of stress on your spine.
5. Get up (and down). One of the best ways to get your heart rate up is to get your body moving vertically. Think about it this way. Star climbing, jumping, hill running. All of that is seriously hard work. If you want to keep the intensity up in your workouts, either throw in some sort of jumping exercise (jumping, skipping, burpees) or alternate between floor exercises and standing exercises. This little trick will send your body into a calorie burning frenzy!
6. Weights first, cardio last. If you are doing any sort of cardio, metabolic or conditioning work make sure you leave it to the end. The reason I suggest this is two fold. First of all you want to be lifting the maximum weight possible for all of your exercises. If you are fatigued from intervals, you won’t be doing this. Secondly, if you are fatigued , physically and mentally (and you should be after some serious conditioning work) then the chance of injury will be higher. Follow this formula. Warm up, weights, intervals -> go home.
7. Change it up. Whatever you are doing, even the most perfect workout, will have a shelf life. I’d suggest that somewhere between 3 and 6 weeks is the most you should follow the same program for. Even if you are making physical progress you will find that your potential progress might be limited when you get bored with a program. If you really like the program, mix it up, do something different for 3 weeks and come back to it.
8. Have goals. Last but definitely not least, goals will make or break your success. Have at least one if not many. A goal might be just to workout 3 times per week. It may be to deadlift 210kgs for 5 reps (that’s one of mine right now), or it might be to train consistently for 4 weeks. Whatever the goal is doesn’t matter. If you don’t have one, why are you training?

I could keep going on but I’m sure you’ve had enough listnening to me! Lets have at it. What is your number 1 method to instantly improve your workout?

Fat Melting Intervals

In one of my recent posts I mentioned that if you are short of time and can only do three, half hour, sessions per week that one of these sessions should be an interval sprint session.

Now running doesn’t agree with a lot of people (neither do I for that matter!!) so the sprint session doesn’t just have to be running. What we want to do is get the heart rate and intensity elevated quite high and then have a rest. So you can do this on the track, in the pool, on a bike or if you’re mad : burpees! It doesn’t really matter what the input is as long as the output is high.

These sprint/interval type sessions have been shown in a lot of research that it can be up to NINE TIMES more effective for fat loss over steady state or endurance training.

Put in the extra effort and you will have your body’s metabolism revved up for 24-36 hours after you have left the gym.

Just a quick word of caution though. Don’t go overboard with this type of training. Too much of a good thing can easily make it bad (think red wine). If you overdo these intervals (more than say three times per week) then you run the risk of injury and burning out. Incorporate it with the rest of your training and you’ll be fine.

Here are a few quick samples of how to set up your session. Remember that you need to do a proper warm up prior to going crazy at it.

Session One

2 minute warm up (specific to your task after your general warm up)

30 seconds hard (8-9/10 Perceived Rate of Excursion)  : 90 seconds easy (3-4/10) x 8

3 minute cool down

Session Two

2 minute warm up (specific to your task after your general warm up)

120 seconds hard (7/10)  : 120 seconds easy (4-5/10) x 4

3 minute cool down

Session Three (specific to your task after your general warm up)

2 minute warm up

60 seconds hard (8/10)  : 120 seconds easy (5/10) x 6

3 minute cool down

Try to increase your intensity with each session either by increasing the level or the speed on the hard section of the interval. You will be rewarded with a new level of fitness and a leaner, toned body.

Do you have a favourite sprint or interval session that you do? Let us know about it in the comment section below.

Hobart Personal Trainer Demonstrates Running Warm Up

Whilst the workout is the focus of a lot of our thoughts, we need to make sure that the warm up isn’t over looked.

Gone are the days of running a few laps and then doing some static stretches for the quads, hamstrings and calves. Instead you want to do something a bit more dynamic which will really get your body primed for your workout.

The focus of the warm up is to get the body ready for action. You want to get the heart rate up and increase your body temperature so that when you start your workout your muscles and central nervous system are alive and kicking.

You should be getting your breathing rate up as well during the warm up. If you sweat easily you might find that you start to perspire a bit during this time. Great! Just don’t turn the warm up into the workout.

Have a look at the video below for my complete lower body warm up which is perfect for any running, sprinting, interval or lower body workout. Tweak it a bit if you like, after a few trial and error runs, you will find what works best for you.