5 Pieces of Fitness Equipment a Home Gym Needs

When you`re building your home gym you might feel the need to buy all the equipment you can afford. Although it’s good to have nice variety in the comfort of your own home, you only need basic equipment to work most muscle groups.

A good starting point is to cover the major muscles groups first. You need to have the most options with compound movements which will allow you to train multiple muscle groups during the same exercise. These types of exercises will provide the best results in a short period of time and possibly work best for home gyms. So what type of equipment do you really need?

Olympic Weight Set

Among the most important equipment a home gym can have is an Olympic weight set. There's no better way to develop overall strength and muscles than with compound movements. PERIOD!
Just think about all types of squats and deadlifts you could be doing. In fact the deadlift is one of the few barbell exercises you could be doing and still get a full body workout.

Regardless of the trends in the fitness industry, you will rarely see a commercial gym without a barbell. And if you're serious about working out that should be one of the first things you're buying.
One thing to add here - they don't come cheap.

A pull–up bar

Pull-up bars are a convenient way to develop the back muscles and form the “V shape” that so many people are after. It can work even for women as it can help develop strength.

The classic pull-up is also a compound movement as it involves the pulling muscles such as the back, biceps and forearms.

Some of the key benefits include strengthening your core and improving balance in the upper body. If you have the right technique and focus on the full range of motion you can get visible results in weeks.

The best thing - they don't cost a lot and you can even make one yourself. A no-brainer right?

Dumbbells

Dumbbells are so versatile that they can be the only equipment in your home and you could still perform a complete workout. The can be used for all of the major muscle groups. You can train your traps, shoulders, back, chest, biceps, triceps, abs and legs with dumbbells.

One of the often underestimated benefits of using dumbbells is fixing your body`s posture. If you perform your exercises standing you will need to maintain a good posture to perform the exercises correctly, which is a major plus, especially in a society where we sit for hours each day for our daily jobs.

Resistance bands

Resistance bands have been used for many years. They can add extra difficulty to your regular exercises and they can also force you to improve balance and posture.

Plus - resistance bands can be stored easily and taken on weekends away to provide an on-the-move workout whenever you need it.

If you want a different style of training you can also opt for suspension training which has been made popular by the military. You can anchor the system at any higher point in your home gym and perform multiple exercises to help improve the toning of your body.

The best advantage of home suspension training?

You can switch between strength and cardio training adding the much needed versatility to your equipment.

A rowing machine

Rowing machines can be associated with commercial gyms, but there are plenty of models for home use also. A good rowing machine can provide the high intensity cardio workout you need to lose weight. It can also increase your resistance levels and improve blood flow.

There are multiple types of rowing machines which can be based on air or water resistance. For home use you can even choose an entry-level model which can be challenging enough to provide a solid alternative to the traditional treadmill which has been used for weight loss training.

Keep it simple

When you build a new home gym you might be overwhelmed by all the equipment and advice you get from other users. Make sure you keep things simple and try to cover every major muscle group and a cardio option to have a complete workout at hand when needed.

You can also consider establishing a monthly budget to save for future equipment, as your fitness needs will see you progress through the routines.


"Paul is a passionate fitness enthusiast, writing about his experience in different blogs all around the web. He’s most knowledgeable in different fitness gadgets and equipment. Paul believes in the idea, that great equipment can take your workout to a next level." 

You can find Paul at http://www.dumbbellshub.com/

Ain`t No Mountain High Enough

So my 30th birthday approaches shortly and I am frequently asked if I feel old or am I scared of getting older? Do I feel old? No, not at all. Am I scared of being thirty? Off course not. I am however scared of not achieving more, I feel like I haven`t quite achieved enough yet in my lifetime. You see my birthday follows closely to my anniversary. Generally my partner and I go away to celebrate to different and sometimes random locations. This year was no different as we both visited an area neither of us have been.

Where we stayed there were two nearby national parks. So on our first free day we decided to go on a hike. When we arrived I saw the very aptly named “the pyramid” through the trees. A mountain made of granite with its large tip bare of any trees. Once we gathered a limited understanding of some very crude maps we sighted the trail and began walking. From the beginning I wanted to climb to the top of it. I have had quite a bit of experience climbing indoors/outdoors and bouldering so I felt comfortable with the idea. The trail itself was 1.6km (1mile) long which is nothing to walk at all. But at the same time the trail also ascends to 1200m (3/4 mile). So in a word the trail gets steep and my partner is as good at climbing hills as I am at swimming. (Which would make sense to you if you read my previous posts and knew just how terrible I was at swimming). Now really this was a challenge for her. We had to stop a few times to allow her to get comfortable with the height and steepness of the trail we were walking. I thought that she was going to turn back at one stage early on, but after a few minutes she had become comfortable and we went up further.

Now this trail ascends through forest, brush and bush with giant granite boulders and formations protruding randomly from the earth. Then we came to a clear area which was the base of the climb to the top of “The Pyramid”. At this point my partner chose to stay at the base where she would take photos of the view at 960m (3149ft). She didn’t feel comfortable with the steep terrain combined with the bare granite that she felt wouldn’t grip. I took off up the mountain which quickly began to slow me down as it was getting steeper fast. I was guided by a track marked with spray paint every few metres.

As I ascended I went through a channel of granite and passed two fathers with their two young children. On the way up we passed a teenage couple and they told us there is a section that is a “bit slippery”. Granite has lots of grip when dry but when it is wet it`s dangerously slippery. I went through the channel and took some photos of lizards that lived up there. I came to a section with some running water and then I began to traverse the outside of some granite to try and follow the marked trail. The recommended trail began to slope off to one side where there was a shear drop. The ground was too slippery and my feet stumbled. I managed to steady myself and decided that there must be a better way. So I climbed over the granite boulder and through some trees. I came across a couple with the boyfriend trying to get around the outside like me. “I told him and his girlfriend about the safer route I took. They went that way and I passed them.

As continued on I found myself pausing as it was getting very steep and I couldn’t help but wonder how I was going to get back down. I was scared and my heart was pounding. I told myself I was going to get down and I had no option but to continue. I had come this far I might as well see the top. I took control of my breathing and relaxed. The trail corkscrews up clockwise and I climbed some boulders and got to the top. I couldn`t see my partner so I had to crab walk down the face so I could see her. She took my photo and I began to make my way back. The air was getting cold and the clouds looked dark. I knew I had to get off of this rock. As I made my way down I had to crab crawl again just before the slippery section. It was at this point I had originally seen the two fathers with their kids. They had gone through the same trail I did to avoid the slippery section. One father got down like I did as we passed and crab crawled. I went back down and hung onto the channel to stop me getting to much speed. It began to rain when I reached the base. Two wives/mothers were sitting at the bottom waiting for their husbands. I said “you should call your family back it could get really dangerous”, luckily they had already done it.Really it was to dangerous to have young children on that trail. I caught up to my partner and we started to head back down. By now it was pouring. We tried to hide under an overhanging rock but we were already soaked so we thought we will just continue. We decided to walk a few other tracks, taking photos and enjoying the rain as we went. We were worried about the people on the mountain and wondered if they had gotten off safely. I had no climbing gear to help them if they did get stuck I would be little use. Turns out when we got back to the car after our hour ,3.5 km detour they had just managed to get down from the mountain. They has some scratches but were ok. I felt relived.

Now it turned out whilst I was on the mountain trail my partner had climbed up even higher. It was something I hadn’t realized with all the excitement until we were reflecting on the photos later. Alone and eager to try she inched up using the same method of step by step weaving through the limited rock formations she could find to help her feel comfortable with the steep terrain. It reminded me of a thought I had when I was sitting on the mountain top. Fitness is often like that day, it is a hard slog to get up there and it can be risky or painful but it is worth it. We got soaked that day but both my partner and I could`ve quit and turned back at any time. Neither of us made excuses we just took one step at a time. My partner really did a great job and she seemed really happy with herself. I am very proud of her because I know how big of a challenge it was. That makes me happy when someone persists and achieves and off course you can do that to. Just persist and try and it will be worth it.

It’s not how hard you train but how well you recover

The last post was about sleep and how we don’t get enough. In this article I mentioned how important sleep is for recovery. If you haven’t heard yet, you don’t build muscle or get stronger when you are training/working out. After we have challenged our body, it improves various tissues and abilities to try and cope the next time it is challenged. So hitting the gym every day for 3 hours and working hard to work towards your goal, without adequate rest may be the reason you are feeling tired all the time and just feel crap. There is good news once you have identified the problem you can fix it. But what if you are still feeling sore and just seem to struggle? Well, there are various recovery methods that can be used and many are cheap that can help aid your body's recovery.

Firstly, just want to cover some quick information, muscle soreness often occurs 1-3 days after a big session this is known as DOMS (delayed onset of muscle soreness). If you are not sore after a session that doesn’t mean your body isn’t healing to get you, “them gains”. Something you should know our muscles will recover quicker than our neurological system. If this is new to you, let me explain, your muscles are the engine and the ignition system if your neurological system. Basically, your nervous system governs how much your muscles can give. The neurological system can take much longer to return to 100%.

So what can we do to aid the body to recover? Well, we have talked about sleep already. But there are other methods. The first one is just as, if not more important than exercise, it`s nutrition. The pre and post nutrition intake can make a big difference. Depending on what kind of exercise you are doing can dictate what kind of foods you could be eating. If it is intensive try to stay away from anything that can lead to an upset stomach or something that will be terrible if you vomit. Try to have a pre-workout meal about 1.5 hours before exercise this may mitigate the risk of vomiting. The pre workout meal helps provide the nutrients to fuel the workout and improve performance. As for the post workout meal, try to get your meal within 30 minutes after you train. Now this isn’t a hard rule but research has shown that 30 minutes after a session the body is at the optimal state to absorb the most nutrients to aid recovery. I`d recommend a pre-prepped meal for easy access with some protein and carbs. Also in the coming days, research shows that taking about 20-30g of protein every couple of hours can help keep the protein synthesis fires burning. So taking a heap of protein in one go may not be ideal.

So let’s talk water. Not hydration I assume you are doing this and I won`t go into depth about how important hydration is for recovery. But there other ways we can use water to improve our recovery. Firstly, the contrast shower, we use hot and cold water in an alternating fashion. This helps the body relax and begin the recovery process. I have seen multiple protocols for this, I personally use a 2mins hot and a minute’s cold. I repeat this for about 10 minutes. I will caution this can be tough as the cold feels really cold. I do contrast showers if I can’t get to a pool. I love to use the pool for recovery. When coming home from weightlifting training I jump straight into the pool and I begin to do some walking forwards and backwards, leg swings, arm swings, etc. Try to use movement that use muscles you have worked during your session. The cool water of the pool helps return the body back to a normal temperature state and relax the nervous system. The hydrostatic pressure of the water helps with muscle swelling (edema). An Epsom salt bath can be handy as well. The magnesium helps the muscle soreness and recovery and helps relax the nervous system. Dissolve about 500g into a hot bath and relax. Do not do this if you have high blood pressure or kidney issues.

Now back on dry land there are some key things we can do. The warm down is the biggest one. It helps the body works out metabolites built up from training and helps relax the body. After a weightlifting session I like to go for a 30min walk this way I get some recovery and I cover the exercise guidelines of moderate cardiovascular exercise. Now if you don’t have time for that, a simple 5min jog or a 5 minute walk followed by some stretching may be fine. Stretching is something we all should be doing be it around our exercise or just when we are in front of the TV. Stretching and yoga can help ease DOMs and relax us before bed. We can also do some self-massage of our muscles as well as this aids blood flow and helps relax our muscles like stretching. You can use a foam roller and all those instruments of release if you like.

The most important part of the recovery protocols I think is about returning the body back to its normal state and using blood flow to get nutrients to tissues that need it. It will relax the nervous system so the body can get to 100% regeneration mode. Try some of these out and see how they work for you. Get back to me in the comment section about what you like and dislike. I am still thinking of ideas for an online course. Contact me with what you would like to see.

You are getting sleepy

We live in a fast paced world, it only seems to be getting faster and our time is constantly strained or misused. We have jobs, family, hobbies and whatever season of a TV show we are currently watching. We take things for granted, simple things really. These simple things play a massive role in our lives, more than we realise. To be honest, if we get a lot of the basics done right the bigger picture becomes easier to manage. One of those basics is sleep. Seems simple, but getting good quality sleep seems to be a forgotten art form for many.

Does sleep matter that much? Whilst that is a general question the answer is obvious, yes it is. But why is does it matter has been researched for quite some time. Now you may have said “our body heals and restores”, you would be right. There are other reasons though, we heal when we are awake as well, but it seems we restore best when we are asleep. This may have to do with the fact that we are asleep and it seems like we heal and rest up since we are not consciously aware of time. We also seem to consolidate memory and begin to defrag the hard drive. Recently, scientists discovered that during sleep, our brain is very active in removing waste created by cells when we are awake. That is a big deal, but it is obvious we need sleep. Shift workers will often have an increased risk of various diseases due to disturbed sleep cycle. Sleep deprivation in rats leads to them dying. Now we are not rats, but sleep deprivation in humans can have some disastrous effects. Even with only a few hours less of sleep over a few days you may have found yourself craving sugar. That’s because of the hormone Leptin, it is affected by sleep duration and cannot signal properly that you are full. To make matters worse a peptide secreted in the stomach called Ghrelin signals an increase in appetite. That alone could be bad for those trying to lower their calorie intake.

So what can you do to improve sleep? Lay off the stimulants, energy drinks, coffee etc. I try not to drink coffee after 2pm and if I do I go decaf or have a fair bit of water to try and flush it. To add to the consumption theme try not to eat too much before going to bed it can make you uncomfortable and the thermic effect of digestion of food doesn’t help either. Alcohol has been shown to upset our sleep cycle so try to moderate your alcohol intake.

When you go to bed do you sleep on a bed of nails? Probably not, but it is important to have an environment that is conducive to you sleeping. The temperature should comfortably cool 60-75F and limit distractions in your room. Electronics in your room are a big distraction and have been shown to interfere with your sleep. So turn off the TV, put down the phone or leave them out in the lounge.

Try and get your exercise done earlier rather than later. I have a rule to try and not train after 9pm. For those of you that are morning people you may get your exercise out of the way no problem. It is important to try and be consistent with when you go to sleep and when you wake up. Try to keep it within 30mins or so of your goal sleeping and rising. Try to get to sleep before midnight. I have noticed a lowered training output if I sleep after 12pm no matter how good it is. It may be helpful to read or meditate, even a light stretch before sleeping will do wonders for your sleep quality.
But how many hours should I get? The general guidelines seem to be about 7-9 hours. How do I know if I slept well? Seems obvious, but I thought I’d measure it to find out. There are many ways to track this. I used the app Sleepbot on my phone, I put it on and then put the phone under my pillow and it tracked my motion whilst I slept as this seems to correlate with sleep quality and cycle. I personally was not a fan of having a phone under my pillow and trying to sleep. It was like my body wouldn’t go through a complete cycle when using it. I stopped using it and slept better. You may like to try a sleep log or a Fitbit or similar as they are on your wrist.

Sleep is a big part of your life, health, recovery and overall wellbeing. It is important that you get this one basic right. All of the supplements and recovery techniques cannot replace a good quality night’s sleep.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/uorm-tsp100913.php
http://www.sharecare.com/health/healthy-sleeping/lack-of-sleep-affects-appetite

Make a comment below about what future articles you would like. I am considering creating a online course, what should I make the course about? Comment or contact me via email

A challenge done.

So I wrote about how not only should we set goals but we should set ourselves challenges and get us out of our comfort zone. You can read the article here but in that article I mentioned that my challenge was to swim 1 kilometer (0.65 of a mile). For some of you reading this it is no big deal but for me it was. I considered that it would take at least half a year of swimming to get to the point of swimming 1K. I went to the pool last week, I asked my partner to go with me as she is a great swimmer and I figured I might need someone to save me from drowning. You see I wanted to see how far I could swim in a session much like testing before starting an exercise program. Well it turns out that in one session I hit my challenge I set for myself. Yep I managed to swim 1k, I was really surprised by myself and I will mention that I did stop a couple of times for short rests. So I have upgraded my challenge to swim 1k without stopping. So to get to that I plan to swim 500 meters first without stopping, gradually progressively overloading how much I can do by adding 100-250m each week.

I am really keen to get your comments back in regards to your challenges and how your exercise testing and programs are coming along. For those of you that are reading for the first time I have linked the other articles I have written to help you set your challenges, test yourself and plan a exercise program.

Plan Ex

So you read the last article and if you didn’t, read it here. My previous article looked at some tests that you can do to find out where you are before you start an exercise program. You should have a program to follow. You could pay someone to do it or you can educate yourself on how to write one. That way you can just go ahead and see if you can hit your goal without anyone else’s help. This article will provide a little bit of guidance to help you design your own program.
First thing is you need to determine your situation. You are an individual and things like age, gender, work and family life as well as medical history and even self-confidence will determine what your plan will look like. Your goal/challenge will play a huge role as well, you wouldn’t write a plan to swim a mile then take up boxing and not swim at all.

So let’s get to some variables of the plan. This includes repetitions, sets, rest, frequency, intensity, tempo, progressive overload and types of exercises/activity. Repetitions (reps) refers to how many times you do a particular exercise or movement e.g. 12 reps bicep curls. Repetitions will have a relationship with intensity. Generally the heavier the weight (intensity %1Repetition Max) the less reps you will be able to do. If you are trying to improve strength without putting on to much muscle mass you would use 1-5 reps with an intensity of 85%-100% of your 1RM. If you are trying to get bigger muscles use the 8-12 rep range with intensities of 60-85% of your 1RM. Now if you want to increase your endurance use 15-20 reps with greater than 40% of your 1RM. Now I am aware that I am using resistance examples but you could use cardio based exercise. Cardiovascular examples include 3 repetitions of sprints or running 1 repetition of a mile. These examples can be linked to intensity as well. Cardiovascular exercise intensity is often measured as heart rate BPM (beats per minute) or percentage of maximum heart rate. These are measured by a HRM (heart rate monitor) For example 3 sprint reps at 80-90% of maximum HR or 1 mile of running at 140-150bpm. Rate of perceived exertion (RPE) could be used for either modes of exercise whereby the exerciser will chose a rating off a scale to describe how hard they are working.

Now I briefly want to talk about tempo many people these days pay no attention to tempo but it can be a real game changer. Have you ever been at a gym and seen a guy doing a bicep curl slowly down and quickly up? That is an example of tempo. Tempo is how long you should take to lift the weight up, pause, put the weight down and pause. Tempo is measured in seconds and it often expressed 2110 as an example. So 2 seconds to lift the weight up, 1 second to pause, 1 second to lower the weight and no pause at the bottom. The table below can give you some guidance. Keep in mind that every one of these variable are related and if you normally do a weight with no tempo and then you slow it down to suit a specific tempo that weight will get hard real quick. Tempo can also be used in cardiovascular training you may run a mile in a set time period say 1 mile in 7 mins.

So I covered the use of reps and intensity but you don’t generally do 10 biceps curls on their own and that’s that because we need to challenge the muscles to grow. You do sets which is basically how many lots of reps you will do. So if you do 8 squats you may rest and do another set which means you did two sets of eight reps or 2x8. It is important to understand that all of these variables are interrelated with each other. So for reps 1-5 you may do 4-7 sets, reps 8-12 sets would be 4-8 and endurance 15-20 reps would be 2-4 sets. So you will notice that for the greater amount of reps for endurance there are less sets to be done. I explain it like a see saw the more reps you do in a set the less sets you will do. Please note for cardiovascular training these may be different you won’t likely do 2x20 mile runs especially if you are starting out.

Rest is often overlooked but I believe it can be one of the most crucial variables of a program. Why you ask, well if you shorten or lengthen rest periods it can change how your body responds. But to keep this basic I’ll give you some basic rest times that accompany the sets, reps and intensities. The strength 1-5 range will see people rest 2-6 mins, muscle building 8-12 reps 2-5 minutes and endurance 15-20 reps 30secs to 2 minutes. These are all done for certain reasons mainly to give the body a chance to recover from the previous sets and reps efforts.

Leading from rest is frequency or rest between sessions I like to call it. This is about how often you exercise. The American college of sports medicine recommends 15mins of cardio a week and resistance done 2-3 times a week. But how many days per week? Well that’s up to you but I would recommend alternating cardio with resistance or upper and lower body workouts. Be aware that if you have a big session doing upper body you wouldn’t do upper body the next day. Frequency will depend on your plan design, the harder the session depending on what you did the more rest you may need between sessions.

Now that I have explained some of the other variables I will introduce volume. Volume is the amount of work that you are doing in a session. It is calculated in resistance training by sets x reps x load e.g bicep curls 3x8x20lbs = 480lbs and that is in one session and as you can see it quickly adds up. Other ways of measuring training volume are miles covered total or time at a certain HR (heart rate). It is important to understand that total volume is measured per session and totalled for the week. To much volume and you can burn out or hurt yourself, not enough and you may not be getting all the benefits you could for your time. Prescribing volume will depend heavily on what your program has in it. I know that Olympic weightlifters measure their programs volume with tonnage. Side fact 1980’s Bulgarian weightlifters over a year may lift 41 000 tonnes of weight.

Planning the order and type of exercises will depend on what you do you want to achieve. Generally exercises are ordered from compound to isolation exercises, heaviest and most taxing to easiest. This may seem obvious but if you do 3x8 of bicep curls and then try to do some chin-ups which your biceps are heavily involved in, your chin-ups performance may suffer. So you would do bench press before you do dumbbell fly’s or you would squat before you did leg extension. To add fuel to the fire if you do cardio before weights or weights before cardio has been contentious within the research. It has been shown it depends on what you are trying to emphasise so this should be taken into account.

Finally the main thing we need to remember is that we are trying to improve something whether it be running further or faster, lifting heavier or more reps we always need to be improving. If you are not progressing you may need to look at your plan or give it a bit more time and hard work. This variable is known as progressive overload and to put it into a simple example you may start walking for 10 minutes each day and every week add 2 minutes to each day and over the course of a year you will increase your walking time a hell of a lot. The body adapts over time but as a caveat via the S.A.I.D principle, (specific adaptions to imposed demands). So keep in mind whilst the example may get better at walking that doesn’t mean they will get better at squatting and heavy weight. So now you are asking how do I go about overloading? Well there are a few ways, you may decide to add a rep each week if you can or instead of 8 reps you do 12. You may decide to add a pound or 0.5 of a kg each week or an extra minute to your run. It is about those small steps that your body can adapt to so you improve gradually, safely and for a long time.

So there you go these are the main variables that you can manipulate to build a plan. Keep in mind that all of the variables are all interconnected and will effect each other. Take it easy and record it in a journal so you can log each session. That way when you design a new plan you have notes about your previous sessions to help guide your.
Like most things in science there are a few different ideas on how many reps, sets and rest times should be used for strength, hypertrophy and endurance. Please keep that in mind if you find that someone tells you that hypertrophy (muscle building) is 10-12 reps as an example and it is different from information here.

Get your Plan Ex cheat sheet emailed to you

The silly season is upon us.

It is the Christmas crunch and health and fitness gurus are writing articles on how to survive the silly season. I don't want to write an article about how you should do it, I do want to write about things I do, have done, that work for me. You may take some ideas from here and you could apply it to your silly season.

I keep a food diary and I have talked about this in the past in articles. I am sure some of you still don't keep a food diary and have no desire to start. That is your prerogative but I have found that keeping one allows me to not only track my energy needs and intake but educate myself about what foods I eat. You may argue that good quality food choices are enough but what if you think something is good when in truth it isn't. For example a food diary can help you understand that a granola bar is really a sugar bar with oats. If you prerecord your meal you are also more likely to stick to it. Further more alcohol can loosen our appetite morals and we begin to just eat whatever. A food diary I have found makes me more disciplined.

I use the food diary to see how my energy bank account is looking for the day and something looked at even less the week. Off course sometimes I go over my calories during the season, I can't preempt everything I will consume. I don't get pedantic about that and if I take note of the week I remain under overall. I still however try to get 5 serves of vegetables and 2 serves of fruit a day this will aid in my training quality.

I do apply a rule to myself if I find myself asking if I need or want to eat something I just say "meh" shrug my shoulders and don't eat it or say "no thanks". If I have to ask I probably have had enough. If I get someone pushing me to have more I always ask if they are having more this helps me redirect away from me eating and puts that person on the spot. The big one is booze, alcohol, poison I will try to have 1-2 glasses of water before and after drinking this helps keeps me hydrated and avoid a hangover. It also keeps me quite full and reminds me to drink a little less as often people can get carried away in the silly season. I like to drink in moderation and bear in mind that it does have limited value nutritionally to me. Yes there are benefits of moderate alcohol consumption but moderate can quickly become a bender.I also plan ahead I will not drink and drive as it is just stupid really.

I keep to a plan for training as well. I don't try to train away poor food choices because I do put conscious effort into making good food choices. I do write my training plan for six weeks to incorporate more caloric usage in my training which allows me to chase longer harder sessions as I do have more time due to holidays and more available energy.

More importantly this season I will take the time to let go and relax. I do have a plan for training and eating but if I miss a session on a day due to other commitments I don't get worried. I have seen people get anxiety about it ,hell I've been one of those people but more importantly I take the time to be thankful for what I have. I stop and just observe and listen, I feed my well being. Commonly I hear that we should appreciate things and people everyday but I live in the real world and it is not everyday I appreciate and grasp what I have around me. The final thing is I appreciate what I give more then what I get and this is from a material point of view. My partner and I enjoy giving good gifts and we strive to find things that will add value and meaning to those we give. If we don't get something material it doesn't matter what matters is we gave. Enjoy the silly season take a moment stop and breathe it in and appreciate it and those around you.

What should I do?

This is a question that is often finished with “to lose weight”, “to get bigger” or insert your health related phrase here? Recently whilst on Reddit which I do frequent from time to time I responded to a post asking “I want to lose weight but I hate the gym. What can I do?” Now I could have posted a link to thousands of articles written by myself and many other very experienced and intelligent people. But instead I posted “The Question is not what we recommend, the question is what do you like?”

This is really the crucial question for everyone. I could go on and on about recommendations and science and some may take the advice at least for a little while. But the only things the keeps anyone and everyone coming back is finding something that they enjoy rather than doing something they think they should. You don`t need to do any research to know that people will more likely do what they enjoy rather then what they don’t enjoy. This poster hit the nail on the head “I hate the gym”. I find that so often with patients and people I speak with. They don`t like the gym and think exercise requires mandatory gym attendance. The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) defines aerobic exercise as "any activity that uses large muscle groups, can be maintained continuously, and is rhythmic in nature." Most people often equate exercise to the above definition and think boring running or walking on a treadmill for ages. It certainly bores me thinking about it. But the thing to note about that definition is that it is very broad. This gives you and I a lot of room to play and be creative. 

I want to let you in on little secret often in education and motivational interviewing the teacher or interviewer will ask open ended questions and may do this “what do you think the answer is?”  We do this when interviewing someone for lifestyle changes and it works. The aim of this questioning is to force the person to give themselves answers and convince themselves of the change. Sales people will do it, they ask “on a scale of one to ten how much do you want this product?” The interviewer will then follow it up with “why wasn`t it a lower number?” They use it to get to the core of any problems and get you to convince yourself that you need this product. Have you ever had this happen? We use this to expose ambivalence. Now you may begin to see the connection to the previous paragraph. The definition of physical activity might be very broad but encompasses a lot of easy to do activities that most don’t consider. Like for example increasing your N.E.A.T (non exercise activity time) I recommend it in my weight loss activity checklist. For instance walking further to work or climbing extra stairs instead of taking the lift. Kicking the footy with friends, doing gardening all ways to improve your N.E.A.T. 

When asking “what should I do to achieve something?” often it is best to ask yourself first. You may not know what you need to do but you do know what you like. That first and biggest step to taking responsibility to find what YOU like. This will increase the likelihood of adhering to your goal.  

Now as a little addition you may have read this article and said I hate any physical activity. Really? Do you like video games? They can be used to create physical activity. Find out what you really like and use it to get physical, there is always something. The one thing I have found through all ages is that exercise that`s disguised as a game and is fun will turn everyone into an exercise lover without them knowing it.

Life`s a garden dig it.

               On this blog I often talk about aspects of fitness and health. Eating is included in these broad categories. Do you know where your food comes from? I mean really have any idea? I have been worried when I hear children answer the question of “where does milk come from?” with “a carton”. People don`t know remotely where their food is coming from. Now to be fair I wouldn`t expect most people to know with absolute detail where all of their food comes from. But one sure fire way to at least build an appreciation for farming, food and get a little bit of exercise is to grow your own fruits, vegetables, herbs. Now I know that not everyone lives on some form of land with soil and space easily accessible. That though is no excuse, many options are available from pots/window gardens, community gardens or just using the ground that you live on.

                Gardening has a variety of benefits and yes the possibility of saving money is one of them. For my partner and I we like to get to grass roots in many different ways and gardening is one of them. We try to grow a variety of our own vegetables. For some reason growing your own food just seems to taste better and no I don`t mean the organic vs non organic debate. The reason the produce tastes better is the X factor flavour, I think that flavour should be called satisfaction. It is more satisfying to put in the work and have even a moderate payoff. Gardening also seems to be good for mental wellbeing and I think it relates to satisfaction of seeing something you have put the work into giving you something back.

                Gardening though isn`t all sunshine and butterfly`s it takes a bit of work. Working in the garden especially if you choose to use limited machines and chemicals can be a bit of hard work. I think though it is important to note many of the cultures of the planet that live the longest farm with some methods from the past. They still get out there and pull up their sleeves. As you will see below the picture is of our garden, not huge but it`s ours. You can see the before we have left it to over grow a little bit.

                The during shot is after I have taken a shovel and turned the soil to aerate it a little bit after pulling out all the old plants. I have also raked up the weeds and spread the soil a bit more even.

The final shot is after I have seeded the garden with peas and alfalfa. I have done this because both return nitrogen and other nutrients back to the soil. I will turn them into the soil again after the peas and alfalfa has grown. I then added horse manure and raked that evenly and then added sugarcane mulch to help protect the soil/seeds and slow weeds growing. This took me about 90 minutes in the rain. The important thing to remember is the preparation pays off with better harvests. Quality soils lead to quality produce. So get to it start a garden you will appreciate farmers and where your food comes from much more.