To celebrate the launch of our new site designs and new e-commerce system, we decided to do a blog post – the great fitness tips ever, including our line of boxing equipment. Feel free to link back with love. If your a Fit veteran, or a newb to Fitness, here’s everything you could ever wish to know about training

get kitted out

If you look and feel the part – you’re more likely to play the part. But avoid spandex – unless you’re Justin Hawkins. Why? Because it is easy to start making excuses not wanting to train – if you are not missing out on essential home fitness equipment, towels, kit bags and everything you need before you start – then you already have applied the “exercise identity”

aim for a progressive overload

The basis of increasing any measure of fitness – strength, size or endurance – is making your muscles work harder than they’re used to. You must progressively overload your muscles to advance. To gain strength, you must constantly try to handle greater amounts of weight. To increase size you can increase the number of sets or reps, and to build endurance you can increase sets or reps and decrease rest time between sets. The key word is progressive. You should built-up gradually, rather than attempt too much too soon, but the concept of overloading underpins all physical training

build pyramids

Muscles fibers grow and gain strength by contracting against heavy resistance. In an ideal world you would lift the maximum weight you could handle by eight times for a number of sets, and strength. But in the real world all this would do is injure you. That’s where “pyramiding” comes in. Start with about 60 per cent of the maximum amount you could lift for one rep, and go 15 reps. Then increase the weight and decrease the reps to 10-12. Finally, add weight to about 80 per cent of your max and do 5-6 reps. This allows you to handle heavy weights after warming up, maximising your the benefits and minimising the risks of injury.

pre-exhaust yourself

This can help if you have imbalances within a muscle group. Pre-exhaustion involves using a single-joint isolation movement before following up with a multi-joint exercise. Let’s say your quads are strong but your glutes get pumped. With pre-exhaustion you do leg extensions first, then move on to squats with your quads already a bit fatigued. This way you work all your muscles as close to their maximum potential as possible. Other examples are lateral raises before military presses, and flyes before bench presses.

supercharge your sets

A superset is what you get when you group two exercises for opposing muscle groups together, for example biceps curls and triceps press downs. Doing these with little or no rest in between speed up your workout, boosts recover and is a great based pumping mechanism. You can also apply it to your back/chest, lower back/abs and quadriceps/hamstrings

focus on core training

The core of your body is the engine of the body. Your core is your back and stomach. Having a strong core will stabilise and maintain posture and prevent injury, so don’t neglect your stomach and back back exercises. Do them at the start of a session and before you tired make sure you do that little extra for maximum benefit.

slow down

It’s not about doing many reps in the quickest time as possible. Slow, controlled reps, especially on the eccentric portions (lower a weight) will produce better results.

burn and set those muscles on fire

Doing a 2-3 second short partial reps at the end of a regular set takes the muscle beyond normal point of fatigue, giving you a burning sensation as the muscle produces lactic acid. It is good for the muscle because fatigue increase the potential for strength and growth.

no easy route

Difficult exercises are actually good for you, so do not avoid them by taking the easy route to do smaller easier ones.

work super hard

Going to the gym is probably one thing. Working really hard is quite another. People find it far to easy to actually rest for too long between workouts rather than actually getting a race set going and simply working out. Race through your workout and simply get it out of the way, or even spend slightly too much time chatting to your mates. High-intensity training isn’t easy, but for maximum benefits you have to give your all, push yourself to the limits and you will find it is the only way to increase those limits.

listen to your body

By listening to your body you can find out what its telling you. A little muscle soreness is the sign of a really good workout; at the same time it is also the sign of working a bit too much. This relates to having a lot of soreness and you can take that as a warning for an injury coming up on the road. If you are in a hell of a lot of pain between workouts and reps, then you need to rest, spend a good day resting especially for pulled and ripped muscles, do not continue to work on it – remind yourself that over training will actually slow down your growth. If worst comes to worst – call your GP

confuse your muscles

Never let your body fully adapt to one training routine. If you constantly change and do a variety of exercises, sets, reps and angles of pull on your muscles you can never find time to adapt to stress. You must confuse them to keep growing

keep a diary

Keeping an exercise diary will actually help you to make sure you a handling up to any new and coming adjustments that you are working on improving. Its also helps that you will be able to keep yourself motivated and actually identify any weakness of your training routine.

get professional help

Book an occasional session with a personal trainer, even if you’re happy with your progress. He or she will be able to help you work harder without injury – even if its just squeezing in that extra rep! They will correct your minor flaws and suggest new approaches to your training to prevent any form of boredom.

Use free weights

Free weight training. Dumb-bells in particular. Dumb-bells should be the corner stone of any workout. Unlike machines, the require you to use a range of balance so you use stabiliser muscles in your workout and strengthen your core. Dumb-bells can be used for dozens of moves and you don’t have to queue for machines in the gym.

Realism

Training and exercise is not a competition. Don’t push your body too hard in an attempt to keep up with anyone else in your gym and don’t give up in despair either. Concentrate on your own form, not one someone else figure.

maintain thy form

Do not ever neglect your own form. If you train in bad position you can strong in that bad position. Common mistakes can included a flexed spine, head poking forward or down, and knees straight. If you can’t maintain proper posture the resistance is too high and you need to lower it

plan way ahead

Don’t leave it until you’re pulling on your shorts in the changing room to start planning a workout. Speak to trainer, send us an email or ask a training colleague of a fitness instructor about your workout and see if your doing it right – whatever you want to achieve. You need a clear idea of what you are going to do before you arrive. It will help build anticipation and helps you work harder and more efficiently.

build cardio fitness

Three factors to consider in cardio, always. They are:

1. Time
2. Intensity
3. Frequency

For example if you are running on a treadmill and doing a three mile run every single week and want to step up your game, you need to lengthen up the number of runs by half a mile every four weeks until you hit the six mile goal. Divide the run into a three one-mile section and alternate between a normal pace and a fast mile and recovery mile. Then add another session per week – make it cycling though or using a cross trainer.

add gradient to the treadmill

A flat treadmill isn’t always the same as running in a park or on your local street. A gradient that which is as low as about two percent will introduce a forward propulsive component that will force you to work that extra harder and coming closer to you stimulating “real” running.

avoid stitches

A stitch is caused when the blood flow to your internal organs is reduced and diverted to the working muscles. To beat it, run slower than normal for the first third of your run, then speed up. Slowly increasing your activity level allowing the blood flow more time to change.

keep a balance

If you play a sport that works on one side of your upper body more than the other, tennis for example, your chest muscles may become a little in balanced. Perform dumb-bell presses (on either side) to isolate individual muscles and stretch to lengthen the muscles equally.

Have a massage after exercise

Treat yourself. It’s not a luxury, when you exercise your muscles are flooded with lactic acid. Massage can bring more blood, water and oxygen into an area of muscles tissue, speeding up the removal of the acid from the body

spring workout

New Year resolutions often fail by mid-January because it’s dark when you get up, dark when you get home and sub-zero outside and if it isn’t enough for you its muddy and icy all the time. Starting training in spring so that when winter comes around again you’ve established your routine.

..enjoy winter though

When it does snow you should get outside, fast. Power walking through snow can burn over 800 calories per hour

in the summer head for the beach

Running on on sand can help build a capacity that will give you an explosive rate of power. Thanks to the extra effort, the irregular surface will help develop the stabilising muscles in the feet and lower legs, such as the calves too.

Sleep more

Eight hours of quality sleep will kip yourself a magic number. A tired body is a tired mind, a tired state and like living a bad dream – everyday. When you sleep make sure you get a nice sleep, about 8 hours so that your immune system can recharge.

stick with it

For most people especially men. An exciting hobby can seem like so much hard work and can often have many people dropping out only after a few weeks. Especially if you don’t begin to see results as soon as possible. Rest assured that it is normal to have patience. You’ve come this far so make sure you persevere. It usually can take around three months training to become a habit, and by that time you will start to look and start to feel better. In the meantime you need to start reminding yourself why you are doing this? You need to begin rewarding yourself for sticking with training and make sure that, for example a top-quality massage is an example, but even a treat like a takeaway, is better than quitting – make sure you have patience, perseverance – anything that is hard for you is essentially good for you, and anything that is easy for you is essentially bad for you.

Weekly football

Get yourself into some weekly football, there a loads of places around the country (UK) to start football, mater of fact, if you go down to a JJB soccer factory for example and are alone you will find yourself on a sub team and ready for invites, most football centers always have spares in games and you can even meet a few friends. If your not into football, you may want to start getting into a weekly swimming session for at least an hour a week or consider joining up a dance studio.

Power up

Daley Thompson the former Olympic champion says that “People often work on their fitness and only really do one part – the endurance part. They spend maybe 30-40 minutes on a running machine but would get more benefit if they mixed it with some high-intensity work. The crucial bits in sport come down to how your perform in short bursts – those half-seconds and milliseconds. But few people actually work on those”

improve your breaststroke

The straight-arm pull comes from your fingertips says Olympic gold medalist Duncan Goodhew, “Recreational swimmers often allow their pull to continue too long, rather than quitting while ahead. With a long pull it’s difficult to get the hands back on their starting position – which allow practice to short strokes, keeping the pull completely in front of the body.

breathe properly

“Most people forget that breathing is crucial to their performance – including inhaling, exhaling and doing this constantly and rapidly whilst in exercise”, says former Olympic cyclist John Howard. “This stimulates the flight-fight mechanism and is very inefficient. If you can elongate and control each exhalation, you can actually improve your cardiovascular conditioning.

Better triathlete

Peter Sandvang, three-times world long-distance champion says “On the swim, stay in the slipstream of the swimmer in front. It will help you carry you through the water and save at least five percent of your energy. On the bike, take it more easy and spread your training with time by cycling at a pace that you find ease in. It is tempting to give you nothing in reserve. On the run, find a good, steady rhythm and make sure you stick to it”

score like Ronaldo

Having sex a couple of hours before the match actually helps key to success according to Brazilian footie ace and World Cup winner Ronaldo.

Everything needs shaking

“Try not to stick to rigidly and to certain workout on set days”, says Chris Jones, fitness consultant to triathlete Simon Lessing. “Have a more instinctive approach and do the harder training when you’re ready. This will make sure it’s a high quality-workout and not bland.”

work on agility

Running around a load of cones and spinning around one way on a pitch is not something that will make you into a England Rugby star overnight. “You can still do drills, ladder drills by using a stepping in and out of them whilst they are on the floor. It’s been instinctive to me since I was really young, but it’s definitely something you can work on”, it will benefit you in every area of your training, as you will notice that when you try to lift weights after regular agility workouts, they will flying lightly in your arms!

Improve your explosive power

“Try plyometric quick jumps” says Steven Gerrard the Liverpool football star. You can do this by setting out six cones or markers at 18-inch intervals. Jump between each marker using both feet, concentrating on the speed of the jumps rather than the height. It will make sure you’re always balanced and in control.

Land a knock-out punch

Stand with your weight on the back foot and aim at the head. Boxing legend George Foreman says that spinning on the ball of your back foot as you throw a punch, simultaneously turning your leg and help, shifting your weight onto your front foot for power. Use a bag rather than other peoples heads – boxing is great for strength, speed, power and coordination.

be quick out of the hood

“Sprinting at the end of your training is counter-productive” according to England football coach Richard Hawkins, “You’ll benefit from more doing speed work early, just after you’ve warmed up”

Practice, practice, practice!

If the technique of any method is correct, then you can can into it essentially 100% and you will have commitment that and it will come out right. What this means is that you can’t let those worries stop you from playing the way you play. Jonny Wilkinson, before that World Cup-winning drop kick

Positive thinking

Exercise releases feel-good chemicals called endorphins, so you’ll feel happier and less stressed after a workout. Never use stress as a reason NOT to exercise.

Be smarter

People who set Specific, Measurable, Agreed, Realistic, Time-framed, Exciting and Recorded goals are more likely to succeed than those who simply “do their best”. You don’t go to work and say, “I will do my best and as much of my job as I can over the next few months and see what happens”. Don’t do it in the gym either and become what is commonly known as “a gym sinner”

go for a quick fix

You can make short-term goals and make you set set them every two weeks, you can be assured that they help you become fitter and healthier, whether it’s cycling to work or eating five portions of fruit and veg a day. Small changes can have a big impact.

team work

Exercise can be social, so make sure you speak to your friends and make friends whilst in the gym. You find it can be more easy to become more motivated if you have a friend or partner that you are doing the training with. Even greeting people at the gym can make it a happier place

manners!

It’s fine to ask to do a quick set on a machine if someone’s resting between theirs, but don’t demand it. And don’t be possessive either. Many people hate the fact that their is someone stood hammering right above you telling you to hurry up.

Press-ups to slumber land

Too busy to exercise? That’s no excuse. Do press-ups (with hands shoulder-width apart and your back straight) for five minutes, or until you fail, before bed every day and you’ll feel stronger within a month!

Get in the sauna

Saunas are a great way to unwind after a workout as the dry heat relaxes relaxes muscles and helps to flush out toxins and impurities, such as lactic acid, that have built up during exercise.

concentrate!

A lack of focus when exercising can lead to injury. Try the following exercise: sit in a comfortable position, relax and empty your mind. Slowly count to ten, thinking of the figures alone. If your mind wanders, start again. Repeat several times. Done once a day, this will help you and improve your focus.

Visualise success

Success has lovely aroma to it, better than white attar Arabian musk. Use all five senses and don’t only see things, but hear things, hear what goes on, smell, taste the sweat in your mouth and feel the steel bar and what’s it’s like to go through the movements. This benefits ordinary people lifting weights as much as it helps elite sports men

Use it and don’t lose it (Hot Sex)

There is no point in going to the gym three times every week and then spending the rest of your spare time dozing on the sofa. You can read, walk, travel, study and even start discovering the great new health physical benefits of being in good shape – like outdoor adventure, to hiking to better sex. Once you’ve learned how much more fulfilling your life can be you’ll never want to go back! Having good hot sex at least twice a week can prevent the common cold amongst other benefits.

1. Breakfast
   • Make a direct difference to your day every morning. According to the American Heart Association, a boiled egg is the best way to go. The AHA has also removed its previous limits on weekly egg consumption – as long as you diet your fine. An average egg only contains 1.5g of fat, and 72.5% of it all protein. Here’s the low down on the perfect Egg. Place the egg in a small pan and cover with at least 3cm (1 inch) of cold water. Add a pinch of salt and set at a high heat. When the water is just shy of boiling stir and set the time at three minutes for soft boiled, five minutes for a firm yolk and seven for a hard boiled egg. Now reduce the heat so the water is bubbling and stir again carefully. Done. Remove with a slot spoon and serve immediately.
   • Kitchen Craft White Porcelain Double Egg Cup – £3.50
2. Work Shade
   
   • Make sure your surrounded by colour/color.The Science Journal published a research article stating that certain colours improve your work productivity in different areas.  Seeing the colour red makes you more accurate and blue increases your creativity. Researchers at Columbia University, New York, tested 600 people and found that office workers shown red shades performed better on spell-check tests whereas the ones who ever given blue shades performed far superior in creativity.
3. Drink Smart
   • Drinking caffeine during the day is not a good idea. Whilst it can work wonders, it begins to be a problem once you start to drink it everyday. Your body becomes more tolerant and the stimulant causes less effect as an aid to concentration. Fill the void in your motivation by a sharp shot of glucose. Lancaster University has researched that a small dose of sugar can boost your memory by 50%. Sugar they say has had significant effects to memory long term boosts. They say it is linked with the spike in arousal and alertness associated with glucose consumption. Just 25g of the amount found in a standard bottle of isotonic drink can provide a positive full psychological effect in under five minutes. So your brain will be able to soak up more facts.
4. Listen Up
   
   • You might think you’ve heard it all before, but there is now a very sound reason for training to your own tunes. You can pump out 10% more weight. The right playlist can reduce anxiety and increase motivation and even make your kids more sharper.
   • Sennheiser OMX 80 Sport II – Sport Line – headphones ( over-the-ear )

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

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