Sail through long sessions with tips from treadmill experts. It’s to easy to start your session with a nice 10 min stretch, hit the cross trainer for 15 mins and then jump on the treadmill not even to make it to 20 mins because of those nasty demons.. beat the boredom with these tips and stay focussed and locked in your training mind frame.

1 – Picture your prize

Why are you training?

• Weight loss
• Want to get fit
• Stress
• Stay in shape
• Gain Muscle
• Fun

Whatever your reasons for you being on that treadmill – keep that at the front of your mind at ALL times. So if you want to get married – keep that picture of your partner at the front of your mind ALL through your session.

You should also go over your motivations – say if you were doing it for charity and you were clocking miles – you suddenly get a stomach upset for a few days. Get back to training as your motivation for training was for charity – good motivations and sticking to them get quality results.

2 Be a DJ

Listening to music can help you take your mind off training. So make up detailed play lists on your MP3 player for each training session. If you are planning to run get a running playlist – if your planning to walk – get a walking playlist in. Your mood can pick up with a favourite song and can keep you going way past your struggle points. Personally if I was running at full pace for 5 mins and wanted to stop I would put music on and realise I can go way past my “mind limited zone”. Go over things to do in your training and think about some healthy food – talk to your friends – do anything that will keep your mind off training.

3 Focus on Success

Think about how you made it through other times and you’ll find it’s great way of convincing yourself that you can get through it. I thought regularly about time without a job, hanging with the bad crowd, problems at home and at college.. and only to come out on top of all those.. and when I think about that – it really helps.

Arm Bar

Four easy steps to making yourself younger.

1 SPRAY / AFTERSHAVE

The scent of your youth days may be Lynx Java and Africa and the occasional XL in the P.E locker room, however, your older now so upgrade your aroma. The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry found that “linalool” a natural scent in fruits lowers the stress hormone level “cortisol”. Get yourself some Gucci by Gucci Pour Homme Sport – the scents of orange, and grapefruit will make you smell and feel more like a modern gentlemen and lower stress levels.

£30-£40 from Amazon – Gucci by Gucci Pour Homme Eau de Toilette Spray 50ml

2 LIFECYCLES

Cycling to and from work a few days a week will make your body nine years younger – wow.
The average pedal to work is 8.7 miles which means that just three days of eco-commuting is enough to keep you upright and roll back the years to keep ageing in the slow lane.

Barracuda Classic bikes, £100 suspension bike – Barracuda Arizona Alloy Full-Suspension Bike

3 HEAD START

Marmite is full of vitamin B. Vitamin B contains B12 folic acid, an effect inhibitor of over production in homocysteine, an amino acid associated with Alzheimers disease. Love it or hate it, get some down you and get a full extra bit of breakfast to to ensure your mind keeps well and young in your twilight years.

Honey, good natural honey is good to, especially because it’s summer honey can reduce your pollen hay fever problems as well increase memory, reduce anxiety, clean your skin, refresh your mind, act as an anti detox and much more. Arm-Bar writers love good honey. New Zealand Natural Food Co Organic NZ Soil Assn Clover Honey 454g

4 HEALING

The Royal Edinburgh Hospital discovered that sex three times a week can make you 10 years younger. A decade long study of 3,500 European and American men found that sexual activity was second only to physical exercise when it came to staying sprightly. Sex releases testosterone which strengthens your bones and muscles. The pleasure releases chemicals in your immune system to ward off the ageing effects of general ill-health. Being in a relationship with a younger woman helped even more. If she is not game either get some new underwear or tell her that it makes women 12 years younger, too. Get some womens underwear and while your there read The Secret Body Language of Girls.

Many foods that are called “bad” are actually “good” for you.Welcome back these foods but not at once. Just forget the old nutrient taboos that surround them.

Nuts

The Myth “Causes you to gain weight”
The Truth

Nuts contain fat. That is a fact. What most people forget is that they contain the mono-unsaturated fat – the good stuff. Studies suggest that fat delays muscle fatigue. According to the British Journal of Nutrition, almonds keep you slim by controlling appetite. They’re also full of vitamins, minerals and electrolytes.

There are a number of ways to enjoy your serving. Cashews in stir-fries, almond butter on oatmeal and walnuts – just mix and match.

Cheese

The Myth “Diary is high in fat and causes you to gain weight”
The Truth

Cheese is also fatty. However cheese is rich in calcium and magnesium and protein. Cheese is readily absorbed and used to repair muscle. Both Berdan and Clarke say runners can budget in one serving of full-fat cheese a day. Hard, aged cheeses like Parmesan, Swiss and Sharp cheddar are higher in protein and calcium then softer cheeses.

There are a number of ways to enjoy your serving. Cashews in stir-fries, almond butter on oatmeal and walnuts – just mix and match.

Potatoes

The Myth “High-Gl foods are bad for you.”
The Truth

Baking potatoes do have high Gl (as opposed to new sweet potatoes), but they are actually very good for athletes, especially during ultra events. The high GL means that a potato’s carbs will reach the muscles more quickly giving a instant boost for running. Because these are complex carbs it will make you last longer when running.
Check out Nancy Recipe a day to make the potatoes salad in the image..

Red Meat

The Myth “Meets like beef are high in saturated fat.”
The Truth

Some cuts are fat. Others.. well others make my mouth water. Other cuts can be as lean as chicken. Red meats are rich in thiamin, riboflavin and B6. These are needed for energy production and improve endurance.

Did you know that the CIA have been known to use mind focus tactics for their training schemes. An example you ask? Well, next time your lying in bed about to go to sleep, look around the room or try to focus on the light (now turned off), look at your light bulb for 5 seconds, really focus on it, think nothing but the bulb.. now close your eyes for 30 seconds or so and try to focus on that bulb and that image in your head – nothing else but that image. You will slowly see it disappear within the blackness of your inner eye – bring it back and try focusing in whilst still having your eyes closed. Keep doing this by opening for 5 seconds and continue to close and focus. Within a few weeks you will have some real raw focus skills and your mind will be stronger. Anyway.. to the interview..

We got to interview Michael Darbyshire – a fitness mind coach. Take a quick read and learn how you can change your perception of training through mind training. If you can conquer your mind whilst training you can switch off – training more than ever and without feeling or thinking tired. It’s like a legal and non-intoxicating stimulative.

Mind Over Matter

Sports Mind Coach Michael Darbyshire explains how Boxers and Martial Artists can put their grey matter to good use.

Can working on the mental side really make someone a better fighter?

Sure. If you feel weak, tired or negative in a fight, you won’t feel as good as if your confident and focused.  To give you an example I recently worked with a boxer and chatting to him he said “This fight is going to kill me, I’m not looking forward to it, I’m going to get beat up.”  His language was very negative.

I set about changing it by getting him to visualize that the fight would be easy and seeing himself out-boxing his opponent.  I also worked on making him feel powerful and focused.

The next day he fought his best fight ever, and stopped his toughest opponent ever in two rounds.

Peak performance is about three things, physical excellence, technical ability and mental focus – many athletes spend money on equipment or a coach to get an extra edge and think nothing of it.  But they often omit the mental side.  That’s a big mistake.

But there’s a perception that anyone seeing a mind coach must be mentally weak themselves?

There is but its changing.  It takes a very strong person to say, actually, I want to develop my mental toughness.  I’m good but I want to get even better.  I want to see if there are more techniques that I can tap into.

OK, so what sort of problems can a mind coach help with?

Three things.  First it can help with setting goals.  Second, it can help build up confidence levels: it might be someone’s first bout and they may be nervous.  So power states, breathing techniques etc will all improve performance.  And finally, it can help calm the internal dialogue we all get both before and during a bout or competition – the dialogue that says “I’m going to lose” and help turn it around.

Let’s deal with each of those in turn.  How can people improve their goal setting?

Lot’s of people have unclear goals.  They say, right, I’m going to be a Champion and they see it in there head and that’s it.  They have one chance to achieve their goals.  I encourage them to set many goals.  Flesh out their ambitions.  What other goals do you have?  Can you improve your preparation?  Your mental approach? Give yourself lots of small goals, not just one major one.

What about improving confidence?  Say a person wants to win a championship, but doesn’t believe they can do it?

There were lots of things I can do using relaxation, visualization and various nlp techniques.  Another thing you can do before a competition is to think of all the negative things that may happen.  Analyse them and ask yourself, is there any validity in your fears?  If there is, work on them in training, if there isn’t concentrate on the things you are good at.  Often I get them to make notes about the things they are good at to say it to themselves over and over to reinforce self-belief.

Does that sort of thing work?

Yes it does.  Its very powerful because it brings to the conscious level the things you like about yourself.  So when your going down a negative path you can stop it in its tracks.  With repeated practice your unconscious mind stops thinking negatively.

What about internal dialogue you get during a bout or competition? How can they turn it around?

Focus on being in the present.  Forget about what happened 30 seconds ago.  Perform each technique at a time.  So if you didn’t get a good start to a fight, get over it.  You still have to think strategically.  Relax don’t tie yourself in knots.  There is still a long way to go.

And if you have a loss?

Put it in context.  There are many reasons we may have off days, it could be family or relationship problems or something else.  Work on your mental toughness and preparation during your off-season.  And remember, there’s always another competition.

Sports Mind Coach Michael Darbyshire can be contacted on mail(at)michaeldarbyshire.com or by phone on +44 (0)7955 995 202 for more details on my work visit www.michaeldarbyshire.com

How often are bloggers tell you ways to loose weight? I wanted a different angle and decided to talk about the most of the common things we do which can have devastating effects on us as to regards with putting on weight. Simple steps can help put a stop to quick and lasting weight loss. Gaining weight, not surprisingly is easy, we are bombarded with food adverts and tempted every single day with food campaigns from marketers and window shop menu signs. Just yesterday, I was watching My Wife and Kids on Sky and it’s the episode where Michael Kyle and his wife get together against each other for a friendly football tournament with their children – it turns nasty in the end with both parents fighting for the girls teams to win the game – the last part of the episode got to me though – Pizza. Pizza is my favourite food and I can tell you Arm-Bar.co.uk will most definitely start talking about it more and more. The quick instant glance at a team eating Pizza and soda was nearly enough for me to go out late and buy a Pizza to myself and park up on my own and – as they say “scran up”.

Let’s follow these simple five steps that put the weight on, learn them, memorise them – and then completely avoid them. If these are some of your bad habits, you may need to look at removing them.

For the record, I am very good at graphics – especially when it comes to vectors, lord knows how many vector stock images I have made. I went for a cow sign – hoping to get some comments and add so randomness to Arm-Bar.co.uk – tell me if it was pathetic or strange.

1 – NOT MOVING ENOUGH

Being stuck in the office all day you become connected with long hours, TV, no work breaks, over time, night working, driving around and everything else that keeps you still as a lemon.

SOLUTION

To do at least 30 minutes of exercise a day, you could even exercise at work, you need to anything, run, jog, walk to the bus stop and take the train, don’t take a tram and go for a walk instead, anything that will keep you committed to doing at least 30 minutes of exercise a day. A small tip, remember it: Even lifting your arm (taking a brake from typing) is exercise. You could argue that shaking someone hand is a form of exercise. So keep it moving.

2 – SLEEPLESS NIGHTS – INSOMNIA

Not sleeping enough not only makes you mentally unwell, it makes you put on weight according to some studies.

SOLUTION

You need around 7-9 hours of sleep a day.

• No coffee or tea after 2pm – some people say after 4pm – its a choice matter but the less you have the more hours you will get. Tip. Not having any fizzing drinks, tea or coffee after 4.30 is a good sign. Water with some lime or lemon – even a drizzle of honey is a the better solution.
• If you do not need to go to an event or place – then do not go to the event or place only go to places you enjoy – you could be sleeping instead – this sounds like the loner poster right? (It could be worded, if you can’t be bothered, you can’t be bothered)
• Every night, do 1 hour of free time. Read, Mediate, Pray, listen to music. Avoid TV as its more of a stimulant.
• Have some mint tea or honey with milk, take a warm shower and enter a cold room – you will feel really tired now. Read a book before bed.

3 – PIGGING OUT REALLY IS PIGGING OUT

If you put lipstick on a Pig, its still a pig – this one all gets me laughing. It is simply a fact like it or not.

SOLUTION

Avoid pigging out – even if you have a crisp packet a day (100 calories of your exercise time you don’t do, that is almost 1 pound in a month) Eat only until you are pretty much satisfied, not stuffed/full up. Eating slowly will help ensure that you can hear your body’s satiation signals and drink water or lemon water instead of juices and fizzy drinks. Benefits of eating slowly.

4 – STRESS

More stress is more weight. Remember that.

SOLUTION

• Focus on breathing – count to 20 slowly, only thinking about the numbers in your head. Try this for 5 whole minutes – every time you get distracted, keep visualising the numbers, picture your hand on parchment like Harry Potter, writing away like a scholar on parchment that he never was. Just keep it going and eventually you can shut off everything – a mini meditation method.
• Make note of your reactions in stress full situations, this will help improve next time when dealing with the devious office workers.
• Pray, listen to music, watch some TV, unwind and try finding time to read a book – EXERCISE.

5 – DO NOT LOOSE MUSCLE

The more we age, the more muscle we lose, its unfortunate!

SOLUTION

Yoga, Isometric weight bearing exercises – weight gain is not inevitable. If you want a healthy body, follow these steps. The best advice I can give you is to go slow, when you have a bad day, don’t beat yourself up. Just start again tomorrow. Make your health your #1 priority.

These days it’s so easy to loose yourself thinking about something. Did you know that eating food that you enjoy and have eaten before brings back those happy memories of that food? How about that sneaky chip muffin when you skipped your school lunch break to avoid school dinners?

Running is a great way to loose weight and amongst other things. We will leave the benefits of running within a different post for a different time. We want to focus on why people jump on a treadmill so eager to start running in a pool of their own sweat – only to stop and give up trying again for a long time. I think the commercials are to blame here, people think it is easy to start running a 45 minute treadmill session on level 9 and a gradient of 5% – well, it’s not. And here are some ways to make it easy for you and to motivate you to continue to run.

1. Play music – listen to sermons, talks life speeches.. keep your mind busy other than thinking about your running (this can apply to all exercise)
2. Keep picturing your prize, your new look – whatever your prize is – what your reasons are and make it a must..
3. Focus on success – think positive, surely you have done mistakes, surely you have had difficult times in the past..

Focus on winning, focus on success.

Thinking about how you made it through all the other difficult times is a fantastic way to convince yourself that you can get through this. There have been people who have mentioned about thinking positive – but they always fail to mention what to think about – some people need that. If you are having a bad time with your Miss/Mrs or are going through a rough patch at work – whatever – knowing that you have emerged out from other times better and stronger will resolve you to keep digging and keep the miles ticking over.

If your not planning for success, your planning for failure. Seriously, do we think that deep? Just repeat that slowly in your mind a few times and think what you define as success. If you are not planning (and working) for this that what are you doing?

Picture your prize

1. Why are you training?
2. What inspires you?
3. What does success me to you and how do you think you can get it?

All the reasons you have about why your training – put them in front of you. Literally try this: With your hands (we have to write pretend here in case someone does this and hurts themselves) take your thoughts all out of your head, just grab them out and them throw them on a table in front of you (imagine the table too), do this when you’re at the gym about to turn the treadmill on, tell the on lookers to go to Arm-Bar.co.uk J – now you can picture them much better. Focus on some of the goals in front of you and your reasons – maybe you want to feel confident and ultimate try to improve your career – focus on that for the first 5 mins and go on to something else.

You may be doing it for a charity – again, going over your motivations get you through the tougher moments.

One word. iTunes

All actions are judged by their intentions. It would be easy for Arm-Bar to give you affiliate link to iTunes. But were nice like that.

We all know that listening to music can take your mind off the training. In fact, I have many play lists on my MP3 player (iPod 5th Generation with video), lasting anywhere between two to six hours. They mostly correspond to my mood, my training routine for the day, things that motivate me, famous talks about inspirational leaders – my list is complex like that and I like it when I train, that I have the comfort of knowing that I can listen to a 45 minute speech – here’s the gold you have been waiting for – listening to a 45 minute talk whilst going on level 6 (medium paced jog) on a 5% incline brought out 400 calories – and brought out a big smile on my face.

Nike+iPod running gear is something that I am considering. There is a power song – it only plays from what I know when you are hitting your reset goals – so if your running well you can get Rocky Eye of the Tiger to come on – anything that keeps you motivated in different ways and keeps your mind away from the training will be a great start.

Lastly. Steadfastness is the foundations to keeping successful. If your not steadfast in anything then your not going to be a good at anything (continuous), and be patient too.