Three Training Tips We Think We Know But Often Ignore

There are so many fitness tips out there: drink your body weight in water, avoid carbs, circuit train, protein protein protein, do thirty second intervals at your highest power, mix up your work outs, never workout one side of the body without the other, PROTEIN.

I’m pretty sure if you’re reading this blog then you’re at least an eeeensy bit interested in getting fit and healthy (or you enjoy chuckling while two loony girls almost die trying). You’ve probably picked up at least one fitness magazine in your life, likely spent at least an hour examining your body as though it had recently landed from an undiscovered planet or at the very least, thought briefly that it’s probably maybe a good idea to start being active. Someday.

Yep, we’ve all been there.

It’s bloody hard to get fit, it’s just so much easier to watch Come Dine with Me and drink wine and fantasize about one day winning the lottery so that you can remain stationary for ever and ever (except maybe by a pool with a cocktail instead of in this waterfall masquerading as a country). And this is exactly why the fitty boom booms out there are so bastard smug about it. Because they worked really hard so they could run 10km and not feel completely depleted (rumour has it some actually enjoy every second of it!) Good for them.

However, if you’re more like me and live with half a brain on uber fit and the other half down the pub eating pies, then here are three tips you already know but probably ignore. Believe me, they make ALL the difference. ***

1. Do it even when you don’t want to: This is a tip that sticks with me, it came from a friend who lost 6 stone and has recently run his third marathon. I asked him how he did it and he told me ‘always do what you say you’re going to do. If you say you’re going to run to point A then go there, even if you have to walk some of the way.’ Never let yourself off the hook because it can quickly become a habit. I am constantly learning this lesson but on my better days I try to have this thought process: If I run for half an hour in the morning it will make my day so much happier; I will be proud of myself, I will get to be exceptionally obnoxious for a day, telling everyone I see that I got up at 6.30am to run and I will be closer to my goals (and therefore in control). If I stay in bed another half an hour I will probably not even be any less tired, I’ll just be warm and cozy for a tad longer of a day (yep, the whole point is this is meant to be hard).

2. ‘Can’t’ often means ‘don’t want to’: Here’s a quick one for you. Instead of saying ‘I can’t do that’ try saying ‘I don’t want to do that’. It feels uncomfortable, ey? Saying ‘I don’t want to exercise with you’ is somehow so much more defeatist than saying ‘I can’t’. ‘Can’t’ implies something out of your control; ‘don’t want to’ is more an indication of laziness. Unless you have a physical issue, chances are you CAN at do something active, whether it be power walk/skip/jog/have a self dance party/tango around the kitchen/ride a bike/hike to Tesco/do synchronized swimming. If you don’t want to then fair enough, but own that decision and stop making excuses.

3. Keep on keeping on: Sadly you can’t become a slug for a couple of weeks and think you can just go right back to where you left off. The body doesn’t work like that. It punishes you for your wrong doings. Two weeks ago I could almost run almost 10km no problem. I’d been working at it for several months and while I was no lean goddess of the jog, I could at least keep going without near lung explosion. Today running just 5km was so much more difficult. But run I did. In the rain. And 5km took me much longer than it usually would, so a thoroughly soaked me was extra punished for my lazy ways.

The best thing about exercise is it’s addictive. It releases all kinds of happy chemicals in your brainual region and it makes you feel BETTER.

So there you have it…just do it, because you can, and once you do, keep on doing it too!

***As a teacher I learnt the importance of positive reinforcement. So these are do dos, not don’t dos.

Bad at Being Good: the first tough day for Sophie

After standing on the sides lines for three weeks, coughing and spluttering and being waited on by my oh so obliging boyfriend, I resolved that Monday would be THE day I was getting my flabby arse back in gear. Fitness apps downloaded, good intentions embraced and bright pink snazzy jazzy sports bra purchased, nothing was going to stand in my way.

Determination stations

I am very bad at being good. This malady seems to have its most potent affliction at the exact moment when tame Jane should step in and take the brain reins. Sunday night started well, I went to my friend Alex’s to do some prep for a presentation later in the week. We were very good, for about an hour. Being around her makes me want to drink; it’s strange, like a knee jerk reaction of devilish wonder. “We could just go for a small one.” One small one morphed into one large one then two, then two bottles, three, an impromptu pub quiz (definite epic failure), several cheeky cigarettes (‘I do NOT smoke‘) and four bottles of head boggling red wine…

“BALLS, I have to go to circuit training tomorrow.’

Monday morning, 7.30am and a steady pound pound pounding. I probably have the Sahara in my mouth, a steel band in my brain region, a swarm of bees in my lungs. I am probably an idiot.

Mondays are not fun: 5 hours of Public affairs followed by two hours of short hand.

I am determined; Dr Christian, the stevie-vision prophet, has foretold my potentially embarrassing fat future. I WILL go to the gym. It is snowing, short hand has considerably impaired my breathing abilities and caused a deep-rooted sickly nagging that seems to be muted only by a large quantity of greasy food. But…I go to the gym (I feel a little bit more awesome about myself than I probably should).

Bloody Nora on a rainy Sunday, circuit training is HARD! It’s not the running/jogging/sprinting/skipping/lunging, not even really the squats and weight lifting. More the tempo, the constant go go go and most difficult of all, the need for strength, which I appear just not to have.

Oh but I will. Yes yes, I will.

At the end of the hour the trainer tells us that all of the buses and most of the trains have been cancelled. The snow has fallen not all that thickly and England has gone into panic mode. It never ceases to amaze me how ridiculous this country is in adverse conditions. Let me tell you, come the zombie apocalypse, we are all screwed.

I am hatless, stuck on Sussex University campus wearing inappropriate shoes and a thin coat. Idiot status: reaffirmed. Sussex campus is in the middle of nowhere, nestled in a quasi-forest and the south downs. We are miles from civilisation. They close the library, the bar and the gym. This is not ok. What follows is two hours of running for trains, waiting on trains, listening to angry people shouting on trains. Then a three-mile trek through the Hove town wilderness (luckily I accidentally discovered my phone has GPS – GENIUS!) Buses are abandoned on the side of the road, the snow falls with a lack lustre determination sure to put the fear into any self-deprecating English-man. I trundle on. I am not afraid.

I am well on my way to being tough enough. I am definitely more awesome than I was when I woke up this morning. Probably.