You’ll often find soreness disappears after just 5 mins of warming up with some light resistance and flexi work.

If you’re nursing crippling whiplash or bedridden with a slipped disk then thats a bit different – rest!

You’ll notice as you train more that the aches and pains will reduce an they’ll occur less often as your body adapts.

Something I noticed a while ago was when my training partner for jujutsu said they were aching after the previous days training. Yet I realised – I wasn’t. In the past I would have been aching badly but it seems to fitness work I’m doing is making me more able to cope with the rumble of skills training and fighting.

Calories

This is highly dependent on your current weight, genes and health. I include a number of calculators at the bottom to get figures for your own body – please use these! These are general amounts to get an idea for someone leading a sedentary lifestyle and moderately overweight.

Women: Keep total calorie intake around 1300-1600 per day for at least 2 weeks – BUT NO LOWER!

Men: Keep total calorie intake below 1500-1800 per day for at least 2 weeks – BUT NO LOWER!

Calculate Requirements: http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/CalRequire.html (bear in mind you need a calorie defecit to lose weight so you need less than what this tells you)

Foods

Keep it simple. I go into more detail about what to eat on another post.

Interval Training

Long periods of exercise aren’t the answer to weight loss. You want to concentrate on high intensity interval training. Tabata intervals are as good a place as any to start so here we go:

Tabata Interval Idea 1:

• 20 seconds sprinting
• 10 seconds walking

….and repeat for 4 mins/8 reps.

Tabata Interval Idea 2:

• 20 seconds sprinting
• 10 seconds push ups

….and repeat for 4 mins/8 reps.

You get the general idea? You want 20 seconds of very high intensity exercise – something that’s gonna make you feel sick to your stomach. Then you follow it with 10 seconds of lower intensity exercise. I’ll be doing a seperate post on Tabata intervals later. But the major advantage of this training is it takes less time but has just as much benefit on your health and fat burning.

How Often?

At least 3 times per week but preferably more as you find yourself recovering quicker from sessions. I’d recommend only 1 day of complete rest per week although each day should be seperated by a day of light training work.

My training programme may be useful as a guide.

Its Boring

One of the most common reasons people quit their training or diet is boredom. So try to make your workouts interesting. They don’t have to be sprints on a treadmill. They could be anything! Ju jutsu, pushing your car down the road 5x, climbing trees, skipping, climbing frames, biking, etc, etc, etc.

How Long To Lose X Stone?

If you have no intention of gaining muscle and just wanted to lose fat while conditioning your CV and existing muscle then: You can realistically and healthily lose 2lbs per week. There’s 14lbs per stone so you could lose a stone in 7 weeks. It is possible to lose this weight without any exercise but I’d strongly recommend doing the exercise too – you’ll feel shedloads better.

Alcohol?

Avoid it like the plague. I’ve heard stories of Mr Universes dowing bottles of red wine per night with no hassle. However, its the exception not the rule. Alcohol is a calorie dense substance that makes you eat, decreases testosterone, releases cortisol, slows protein synthesis, hinders good sleep, causes hangovers and liver problems in high enough quantities. Just don’t bother with the stuff – full stop.

Habits Make You

I’m reluctant to say this because you can’t truly realise its potential until you’ve got new habits. The reason thin and healthy people stay that way isn’t dieting – its habit. For example tonight I ate an ‘all you can eat’ Chinese buffet (2x plates) and dessert. Why am I not fat? Because that Chinese buffet isn’t what makes you fat – its what I eat tomorrow, the day after, the week after, etc. When you get into a habit of eating at a certain level then you find it much easier to limit yourself. Its highly likely that tomorrow my intake of calories will be well below the normal level of 2000-2500.

When you first set out dieting you find it hard because your habits are always brainwashing you into eating at your comfort level. Its these habits that make you think you eat nothing when in reality you’re forgetting you ate takeaway 3x this week and forgot to workout on Monday. Habits make you – they also break you. Take control of them and remake them.

You already have a 6 pack.

With just that little fact you should be able to workout that all those ab miracle pills and exercises are a waste of time. Don’t believe me?

Well tough – its fact. Everyone has the same set of muscles in their abdomen and doing magical exercises won’t cause them to miraculously appear. The key to getting a 6 pack is decreased body fat. We’re talking in the single figures here: 7-9% should get you a 6 pack.

There’s an old saying: A 6 pack doesn’t start in the gym – it starts in the kitchen.

So don’t bother with all these miracle ab workouts hoping to get a magical 6 pack. Stick to a good diet, regular exercise and you’ll eventually get what you want.

I’d also like to add: Getting abs like that isn’t easy and it takes time. So don’t beat yourself up over it.

• Fitness, health and fighting book reviews.
• And DVD reviews too.
• Ashtanga yoga info and how it affects fighting ability and general fitness.
• Koryu/Kobudo experiences.
• Ju Jutsu experiences.
• Suggested training routines for different people, different sports and outcomes.
• Training routines of the rich and famous.
• Specific exercise tips.
• Science Summaries: Summarise wordy science into bite-size chunks that can be read in less than a minute!

Any thoughts?

On the 9th (Friday) I did a 13min conditioning workout which had a “training effect” of 3.5/5 (according to my Suunto T6).

At the weekend I did Yoga on both days for 1:30.  this is doing my flexibility and balance wonders but I need to cut down the time to complete it otherwise it’s not going to be practical.

Tuesday 13th was my first day Tuesday back for ju jutsu training. It was a great lesson and it not only made me realise a lot about the art but also my fitness – more to come (subscribe to make sure you don’t miss it!).

So what am I planning after this weekend???

• A brand new 70 day programme.
• A Google Calendar feed available with workout and training schedule – follow along!
• New goals.
• New tracking of results using funky interactive graphs and stats.
• More ju jutsu info.
• More training info and insights.

Finally my some stats are:

• Pull Ups: 5
• Chin Ups: 6
• Weight: 66Kg (10.5 st | 147lbs)

So keep connected and subscribe to see what happens next week.

Its why I made a point of buying a book by a famous British psychologist and psychiatrist (aka: ’shrink’) called The Motivated Mind.

In this post I’m going to summarise his 20 point list of tips to stay motivated…

1. Set Goals

Without an end in site or a dream to follow its easy to drop off from your new regime.  So set your goal, write it down and visualise it.

2. Set a Deadline

Or milstones.  Just set a time at which you want to achieve your goal.  Split it into parts if needs be.  So for example if you want to compete in an iron man but have no idea how long it would take to go from couch to iron set times for 1km (2 weeks), 5km (1 month), 10km (2 months), etc.

3. Set a Schedule

Creating a path to your desired goal.  Set up a schedule of what you’ll do and when in order to achieve your desired goals.  So you want to do 10 pull ups?  Create a pull up schedule 3 times per week, with reps and sets laid out.  You can see my workout program here.

4. Track Progress

Its always useful to know where you’ve been to know where you’re going.    I’ve found a great motivator with this blog and my program is when I go back to my old records and see how I’ve got better.  Record all the way and track your progress.

5. Get Your Resources

Nothing stifles a plan like not having the tools for the job.  Too often people will drop out of running at winter because they haven’t got a treadmill.  Or they’ll stop their weight training when they realise they want a bar bell set.  So get all of your information, tools, and resources before you begin.  For an idea of what you need I’d recommend the RossTraining forum.

6. Make Failure Difficult

Most people find this one uncomfortable and will often rationalise themselves out of doing it.  But with all the other parts in place this is one hell of a way to keep going.  If you’re going on a new diet or program then tell everyone about it!!  Its a LOT harder to fail publically than privately so let everyone know what you’re doing and that you’re still going.

7. Make it a Routine

The more chance your brain has to think of something the more likely you’ll not do it.  Take decisions out of the process by scheduling a personal trainer to wake you on Sundays for a run.  Or cook and prepare your meals for the week on Sunday so they’re easy to eat later on.  Get into daily mini exercises like calf raises in the shower, push ups in the morning, etc.

8. Get Informed

The people most motivated by a goal are those who’ve learnt a lot about it.  Don’t just decide your ideal weight but find out WHY and what range it falls in.  Wanting more strength?  Fine – but learn about the different types of strength.  This knowledge makes you hungry to experiment, and drives you harder than you’d think.  It also stops you from being side-tracked by the latest crazy fads if you’ve got an armoury of clear information to back up your ideals and targets.  Visit good sites: RossTraining, BodyWeightCulture, etc.  Read good books: Turbulence Training, The Naked Warrior, Relax into Stretch

9. Why?

Why are you wanting this?  Why the strength?  Why the muscle?  Why the weight loss?  Why the abs?  Why, why, why??  Don’t just superficially answer this.  The deeper you go into why you truly want something the more emotionally connected with the end result you’ll become.  Thefore the less likely you’ll drop out.
Here’s a spreadsheet to help you with this one.

10. Assess and Remove Goal Conflict

This isn’t an easy one to figure out but a simple example is: You want to lose weight but also build muscle mass.  Sorry – no can do!!  You need to re-assess those goals because they conflict with each other.  Muscle is heavy and building it will increase your weight.  So the solution here would be to maybe: ‘Lose body fat and increase muscle mass’.

11. Learn From Failure

If you fall off the wagon and binge on 3 Christmas Dinners or you miss a whole week of training through ‘illness’ then don’t give up.  Don’t think that the lapse makes it all worthless.  The fact is that everyone falls along the way to their goals.  What differentiates those that succeed and those that fail is the successful get back up, learn from it and carry on!

12. Never Get Complacent

Just because its going well doesn’t mean you can slack off.  You need to keep on the ball all the time and re-examine your plans and goals regularly to make sure you’re on the right track.

13. Role Models

Find people who have achieved what you want to achieve.  Emulate them, learn from them and be inspired by them.  If you want to be an MMA star then let Bas Rutten be your hero!

14. Don’t Go It Alone

A group of people with similar goals can help pull you up when you’re feeling down.  They’ll help you stay focused.  There’s numerous groups on Facebook, and running sites like FetchEveryone(UK) and MapMyFitness(US/UK) are great for clubbing together and tracking progress.  Spark People(US/UK) is great for losing weight.

15. Know Thyself

Sages form thousands of years ago used to bang on about knowing yourself is the key to enlightenment and such.  Its not far from the truth.  For if you know yourself, deeply, then you can develop strategies to overcome your weaknesses and exploit your strengths.
For example: I’m a fast learner but get easily bored.  The last thing I need is a program thats repetetive but one that’s constantly challenging me to learn more.  Then this blog can give an outlet and stop me from getting bored.

16. See The Future

Always be thinking of the long term consequences of your actions rather than the immediate fix.  So you can’t be bothered doing a workout tonight?  You’re tired, long day at work, etc?  Great – take a rest.  But in the long term – you’re only ruining your health.  Think about that and less about your current tiredness.

17. Fear

Everyone is so scared of fear its silly.  Fear isn’t something to fear; fear is something to use!  Its one of the most powerful forces living in your mind so exploit its power.  Fear the heart attacks to come.  Fear the strokes from years of cake and burgers.  Fear the increased risk of cancer from smoking.  See, smell and taste the fear – constantly and relentlessly.  If that doens’t keep you going you’re not human.

18. Back to Goals

The most important of all this list is goals and I’ll revisit it again.  Goals are how we measure our success in life.  Its the attainment of our goals that boosts our personal pride, self esteem, and confidence.  By setting goals you’re investing in your happiness.  So set those goals!

Technorati Tags: motivation, motivation tips, motivate

• Every day is active and so there are NO complete rest days.
• Eat 5 portions of fruit/veg per day.
• Eat a single multi-vitamin every other day.
• Eat at least 1 high concentration source of vitamin C a day.
• Tea is allowed – even encouraged.
• No high sugar drinks.
• Limit chocolate (aka: candy) to the weekends if at all.
• No alcohol unless its been 2 weeks since the last drink and then only moderate consumption.
• Learn something new about the body each day.

So those are my golden rules – now I’m off out to get multi vitamins.