Today I wanted to share with you what I have learnt over the past 20 years since I started in the health and fitness industry.
Hopefully these 10 insights will help you to focus on what really matters…
1. Not all exercises are created equally
No matter whether your goals are fat loss, toning, strength or muscle building, you should base all your workouts around 3 exercises: Lunges, Squats and Deadlifts.
These 3 exercises incorporate 100’s of muscles, have positive hormonal impacts, develop natural movement skills, and burn lots of calories. It’s no coincidence that all my workouts are based around these 3 movements and yours should too.
Deadlifts include Kettlebell Swings like below…
2. Avoid Drinking Calories
If your goals are fat loss or even just improving your health then you need to be very selective with what you drink. Calories in drinks are absorbed into the blood stream quicker than food and easily stored as fat.
Alcohol is the worst culprit, just giving up the booze for a few weeks will see regular drinkers lose a lot of weight. Fizzy drinks, fruit juices, and sports drinks are fat storers too.
Drink more water, especially when you first wake up and rehydrate the natural way.
3. Exercise from the Inside Out
The centre of your body is your core and abdominal muscles. Your core muscles create a stable base for your limbs to operate from. If your core muscles are weak your spine will be unprotected and vulnerable to injury.
Exercisers should ensure that there core is functional and strong enough to support loaded movement before proceeding to weight training.
The deep core muscles should be conditioned first, then the external core muscles through stabilisation exercises.
Avoid back breaking sit-ups and crunches at all costs. My 37 Core Workouts will show you how to progress safely and in only 4 minutes per day.
4. Stay young
As you age so your movement range diminishes, this has compensational effects on the rest of the body. A limited upper spine will put extra strain on a shoulder joint.
Tight hips will cause excess movement at the lower back
If you want to stay young looking and avoid injury then you must focus on your joint mobility to avoid compensations and injury. Yoga and my mobility exercises are great for this.
Watch my full body mobility routine
5. Develop habits for success
Some people love exercising but most find regular workouts overwhelming. My advice is to keep things simple and manageable and develop a simple exercise habit.
Exercise first thing to avoid making excuses later in the day. Start with the most effective 3 exercises listed above. Workout at home using no equipment, even in your pyjamas if you want.
How about starting with 50 bodyweight squats or lunges before work. Start simple and build from here as your habit takes hold.
Here’s how to get your bodyweight squats correct
6. Long Slow Cardio Doesn’t Work
If you want to burn fat effectively then steady cardio on treadmills, steppers, ellipticals, and exercise bikes is a big waste of your time.
Studies have shown time and time again that you burn more fat both during and up to 24 hours after your workout if you reduce the workout time and increase the intensity.
Interval Training is very effective not only at burning fat but also at increasing your hearts capacity. Stick to short bursts of 20 – 30 seconds followed by enough rest to reduce your heart rate back down to approx. 110 -130.
You don’t even need to leave the house, most of my workouts use no equipment or just 1 kettlebell and you can be finished in under 10 minutes.
7. Everything Points to Stress
If there is one thing I have learnt from training high profile clients and celebrities is that high levels of stress really has a dramatic effect on the body.
Stress can be caused not only mentally but also as a reaction to food, drink, too much exercise, pollution, TV, bright lights and more. Identifying the key stressors in your life and making a conscious effort to control them will dramatically change your mental and physical wellbeing.
Is it time you reduced your caffeine, wheat, sugar, alcohol, or long cardio workouts and did something more relaxing like reading, meditation or taking a nice relaxing walk in nature.
8. Movement Matters NOT Equipment
Sorry but there is no magical piece of equipment that is superior for fat loss. Your body only knows movement whether it’s carrying a dumbbell, kettlebell, medicine ball or nothing at all.
Focus your attention on quality movement first to avoid injury and build a solid platform for the future. Learn basic bodyweight movements like Yoga Squats, Shoulder Taps, Lunges, and Single Leg Deadlifts before adding any kind of weight to your exercises.
I’ve yet to meet a client that can perform bodyweight exercises correctly and hasn’t been seriously challenged by a bodyweight workout.
Watch the Shoulder Taps exercise in action below:
9. Add Variety for Longevity
Everyone gets bored with repetition eventually. If you want to maintain a healthy life for years to come then you need to factor in variety to keep things interesting and avoid boredom.
Break up your fitness into different activities like team sports, cycling, golf, rowing, gardening, yoga, kettlebell challenges etc.
Adding variety will not only save your body from repetition injuries but will alleviate boredom, increase motivation and prevent your fitness from plateauing.
10. Focus More On Your Breathing
Breathing is the essence of life and yet so many people neglect its importance.
Can you take a deep breath slowly in for 5 seconds and out for 10 seconds?
Most people shallow breathe, using their chest rather than their diaphragm, this causes upper back and neck issues as well as deconditioning the abdomen area.
One of the simplest ways to flatten an unconditioned pooch belly is by strengthening your inner core muscles through the use of reverse breathing.
Strong inner core muscles and correct breathing patterns are so fundamental that I always work on these before any other exercise.
OK, that’s all for today I hope you found these insights helpful and I’m confident that if you follow them in 2017 it will be your healthiest year yet.
Take care and Happy New Year
Greg
P.S. See all my Workout programs for here
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