Personal Training

For me being a Personal Trainer is the greatest 'job' in world. It does not feel like 'work'. Getting paid for something I genuinely enjoy doing - exercise and fitness is my hobby - and crucially making a difference to people's lives. It is a great feeling knowing I am helping, supporting and inspiring clients to change their lives and to live more active and healthy lifestyles.

Today – as always – was a busy and action packed day. Lots of cycling, running, power walking and circuits including press ups, lunging and squats. Living life in the active lane.

For me being a Personal Trainer is the greatest 'job' in world. It does not feel like 'work'. Getting paid for something I genuinely enjoy doing - exercise and fitness is my hobby - and crucially making a difference to people's lives. It is a great feeling knowing I am helping, supporting and inspiring clients to change their lives and to live more active and healthy lifestyles.

Yesterday – as always – was a busy and action packed day. Lots of cycling, running, power walking and circuits including press ups, lunging and squats. Living life in the active lane.

As a Personal Trainer, one of the common ‘reasons’ I hear from people for not exercising is ‘I don’t have the time’.

With this in mind, I have developed a community hashtag on twitter called the #1MinuteChallenge. The objective of the #1MinuteChallenge is to:

1) Show that you do not need much time to get a great workout – in this case 1 minute,

2) Challenge people to work at a higher intensity in a short space of time,

3) Allow people to join a network of like-minded, motivated people who are determined to get fitter/stronger/healthier and

Make 2013 the year that you achieve your health and fitness goals.

The first step to achieving your goals is knowing what you want to achieve. If you don't know what you actually want to achieve, how will you ever know if you have achieved it. So actually take some time to think about them and write down your goals for 2013. Be honest and be open about what you want to achieve with regard to your health and fitness. Once you have confirmed what your goals are, you can then go about achieving them.

What have you achieved in 2012? Have you achieved what you wanted to achieve? Could you have done more? What went well? What did not go well etc?

Take some time to review the past 12 months and to analyse how you have got on with achieving your health and fitness goals. This is a great way to actually see if you achieved what you set out to achieve. When I speak to people about their goals and aims, they are quick to say what they wanted to achieve but when I ask them have they reviewed their success, the answer is often “no”.

From my experience training and working with clients, I have observed and analysed what I feel are the personal characteristics that will go some way to helping you achieve your goals. These ‘characteristics’ are not a list of what you should possess, but are merely the traits that my most successful clients (and by this I mean those that have achieved their individual goals) have. They are the attributes that I have seen displayed consistently and on a regular basis by my clients.

The Press Up is a fantastic exercise for building up your upper body strength, provide a great core workout and challenge your Cardiovascular System. Press ups don't require any equipment, you don't need much room and they can be performed anywhere and varied in so many ways. This blog will look at doing the press up with jumping the legs out and in. Please see my previous blog on 'Give it a Go - Basic Press Up' before attempting this version of the press up.

This blog will look at doing the Pull Up Hold with a Knee Raise. Please see my previous blog on 'Give it a Go - Pull Up' before attempting this version of the Pull Up. Pull Up Hold Knee Raises will provide you with a great core and upper body workout and will challenge your Cardiovascular System. Being able to pull up your own body weight off the floor, hold it there and then perform knee raises correctly under control is a great test of your strength and something many people struggle with.

Lunges with Shoulder Presses will help to build up your lower and upper body strength, provide a great core workout and challenge your Cardiovascular System. Lunges with Shoulder Presses are a challenging compound exercise because the exercise, if done correctly, utilises a wide range of upper, mid and lower body muscles and joints simultaneously.

Tricep Dips are a great exercise, which work your Tricep, Chest, Deltoids and Abdominals. Being able to do Tricep Dips correctly is a great test of your strength and is something many people struggle with.