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Hydration and I.T

Firstly apologize for the huge gap in blog continuity. I had a computer glitch. I seriously hate computers. For me they never do the same thing twice, that is a bit of a lie, sometimes they do the same thing with the same instruction and then just as I think I have got the hang of it….. f*** UP…the bastard thing just goes all random. Its me of course, I understand that it is me that is the weak link. Since September I have been fighting the computer. Last week I gave up and bought myself a shiny new lap top. I hate the f****** thing just as much as I hated the last computer, because of course the same retard is working it. Such is life.

So to this blog on hydration. Why hydration again?

Over Xmas I saw all the shiny new push bikes being wobbled about on by born again bikers, squashed into Lycra. They were being chased down by the day glow clad spangly trainer joggers huffing and puffing, smugly getting a head start to their new year new ‘them’. My thoughts were all about how they had set themselves up for this NEW YEAR new you exercise activity.

Also all this personal physical activity was being self promoted ALL over social meedya, right next to the same persons late night antics. Very impressive! Or is it?

Well I think not. I am a Pro P.T.I. My primary objective is to instill fitness in others. Why then am I not impressed by physical activity in the previously sedentary? Firstly I would not take an inactive semi alcoholic (Xmas drink specialist) far over its design weight and think it was a great idea to take it on a 20 mile pedal. Or for that matter a 10k jog. I was fairly inactive myself over Xmas and I was definitely more active in the pub.

Look I am not knocking enthusiasm, I love enthusiasm. I have observed enthusiasm and the over enthusiastic over MANY years. Its a bit like being VERY enthusiastic about having sex with someone you really fancy. Sadly it generally doesn’t last long. Of course It doesn’t have to be like that, with a little prior preparation the rewards are HUGE.

Why do we need to hydrate?

That is a BIG question which I am going to break down and summarize so stay awake but ostensibly it is THE ultimate in prior preparation.

Injury prevention, digestion, performance(physical/mental) and recovery. That is it. Those four thing are your primary/only reasons to be hydrated. Simple eh.

Well no actually its not, however I am going to give you some methods to achieve hydration and experience the benefits that come with it.

45 mins before you get up, drink a glass (pint) of water. This will set up your body balance. Some of you smart arses will make reference to the ‘before you get up’ comment. Get a life.

15 mins Prior to and during each meal sip water. This will set up and then assist your digestion.

During your day consume at least a liter of water. (this is in ADDITION to the ‘before you get up’ and meal time hydration)

Prior to and during exercise take on at least 1 liter of water. (at least) Not ‘just’, you can drink more but I doubt you will find that easy.

An hour before you go to bed consume half a pint of water, this will assist your hydration state and provide a better platform for restful sleep.

When you wake up from your restful sleep in the middle of the night needing a piss, take on a couple of mouthfuls of water from your bedside glass. Repeat as necessary during the sleep/piss/sleep phase of your existence.

My unwritten study in summary (of which I have many) on the ‘actual’ hydrated state compared to that of a hydration state is this:-

When I consume alcohol (Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening) coffee and tea plus 3 litres of water a day I am generally always thirsty but piss for England. I seem to perform OK physically and mentally but I am susceptible to injury if I push myself after a weekend with higher levels of alcohol.

When I consume less or no alcohol (January & October) and less coffee or tea but still drink at least 3+ litres of water a day I piss much less but perform physically and mentally at a higher level. I experience little or no injuries.

To attain complete hydration is quite tricky and easily disrupted. However the benefits of increased performance from hydration are a joy to experience.

Try it.

Busy Busy but NO excuses!

This summer has been MENTAL!

Wedding in Paxos. What a LOVELY place.

Overseas events including parties in Spain and Dublin. The Barcelona Formula 1 Grand Prix. Le Mans 24 heures and my own training camp for those wanting to improve their fitness at my fitness facility in northern France.

Although a third of my client base has been away on holiday all through the summer we have been FLAT out!!

Some of that has been due to having at least ONE of my team of trainers off every week. (They need holidays too ) Mainly it has been because ‘Dynamo’ has been engaged by more clients wanting to increase their fitness levels.

Keeping humans in my charge focussed on the job of heath and fitness during holiday season is where I really earn my money. It is ridiculously easy to go on the piss, eat s*** and do f*** all.

OH NO YOU DONT!!!

Holiday season is over. All the clients are back in. I have got rid of one of my unreliable trainers but recruited another (seriously not easy to find quality AND reliability) Time will tell how good he is.

MORE candidates are enquiring about joining, so far this week I have taken on 4 new clients and it is only Tuesday!

It is going to be a busy last third of the year!

I am going to need to be fit for purpose. I need to be fitter. I need MORE energy. I need to work SMART and HARD!! Now more than EVER I need to eat the right stuff and train consistently. I need to be ALERT. I need to be physically STRONG. My days are 06:00 to 20:00 5 times a week. I need a plan. I have a plan. All I have to do is stick to the phuckin plan.

Simple.

NOT.

Easy.

I suspect we are not too dissimilar?

Stay fit.

Any questions e mail me martin@dynamoboxing.co.uk

Its not what you do, its the ‘WAY’ that you do it.

Titter ye not!

Comedian, Frankie Howard, on stage.

The ‘WAY’ you do IT is the single most important component to ‘effective movement’. (yes people, especially ‘THAT’ movement!!)

Ok if your objective is to ‘just’ move, then just move. However if your objective is to attain a result then the WAY you execute the movement is CRITICAL.

Every gym I have been in has mirrors. My gym is NO different. The difference between my gym and ‘other’ gyms is that in most other gyms the mirrors get used by humans ‘looking’ at themselves and perving at others.

In my gym the mirror is used as an effective TOOL, another piece of equipment, a very VALUABLE piece of equipment strategically placed to assist my trainers and my clients in attaining ‘proper’ form.

Take a look at my ‘Dynamo’ Fb page pictures for some examples.

The mirror is not there for you to look at YOURSELF doing an exercise, it is there for you to look at the EXCECUTION of the exercise that you are being instructed to administer to yourself.

SAME/SAME but very DIFFERENT!!

Attaining proper form is in my opinion, foundation training. If my client has ‘proper’ form then they are working off a stable base. The exercise is executed to maximise desired benefit. The risk of ‘movement’ injury is therefore minimised if not eradicated. It is a win, win, win. Quality form. Accelerated result. NO injuries.

Incidentally.

Evander Holyfield wrote in an article titled ‘The mirror NEVER lies’ that I read some years ago, something like ‘If I can see an opening in the mirror, then my opponent can see the same opening’.

Holyfield

My boxing club has specific shadow boxing mirrors for my boxers to use, they look at their footwork and the ‘openings’ that their opponents may get presented with. They spend ‘hours’ working on aspects of offense and defence.

I have more women than men at ‘Dynamo’, most of them hate looking at themselves in the mirror. ALL of them get taught or are in the process of being taught that the mirror is a key tool to successful personal goal attainment. It is also the best progression monitor.

As a foot note.

If you have a mirror on your bedroom ceiling but do not have a ‘friend’ then may I suggest that it was not what you did, it was the way that you did it that renders you single. (well that and you being a wrongun)

Enjoy.

Delusion Destruction using DATA.

It is ALL about EFFORT!

We all know this, trouble is ‘delusion’ overrides EFFORT. Sadly delusion does not override desire it just frustrates it.

Here is a ‘mathematical?’ equation for you to ponder.

DESIRE+EFFORT= RESULT

DESIRE+DELUSION=ZERO (followed by a f*** load of b******* excuses)

To beat a world record in anything takes planning. DATA is the key in the planning of a successful world record breaking attempt.

If you want to beat a world record without cheating then you have to take the cheating OUT of the world record attempt.

Obviously this statement is applied here in its purest form as DATA will always be applied to a ‘cheat’ world record.

Let us just imagine that ‘you’ are cheating on your effort thus falling into the ‘deluded’ category of humans with desire.

How can you STOP the cheating? DATA my friends. Use DATA.

We have discussed the mental aspects previously, we understand that it is 99% in the/your head. You ‘have’ to realise that a full on mind set change HAS to happen if you are to achieve your ‘world record’.

DATA is the first weapon you have to fight personal delusion. There is lots of data to record. However as with anything you need a solid FOUNDATION of ‘basic’ data before you get ‘clever’ with data.

1. Record EVERY workout you do. DAY. DATE. TIME.

Seriously people I meet SO many humans that tell me they work out EVERY f****** day and eat like an athlete but strangely have not lost a pound, got faster, stronger etc and then when pushed we see that they have trained ONCE in the last month and ate mainly KFC! They booked time to go. They booked LOTS of time to go. (this booking time had a mental placebo/lie effect) They convinced themselves they were doing one thing when in reality they were doing another……..DELUDED.

OK, so if in the first instance you record WHEN you worked out. You would then have an ‘accurate’ record of if you ‘actually’ did work out.

Initial DATA.

1. DID YOU ACTUALLY GO?

We can get simplistically clever after applying this first CRITICAL bit of DATA.

I am sure you are intelligent enough to see where this is going. Data stops us being deluded. Data is the key to supplying ‘higher’ performance. In ALL areas data is key but within fitness performance, weight management, power out put, endurance, condition etc etc etc then DATA is SO important if you are NOT keeping records of what you are doing. Then I can guarantee that your ‘fitness/health’ desire will remain just that, a desire. You will convince yourself you are working hard and I will call you DELUDED.

Apply DATA. Destroy your DELUSION.

Physically MENTAL!

Are you f****** MENTAL?

Big question and depending on what context you apply, you should be actively wanting the answer to be a resounding YES!!

To clarify. The term MENTAL for the purposes of this blog is NOT directed at humans that actually ‘have’ a mental illness condition. Although it ‘could’ be as during my career as a pro PTI I have worked positively with ‘MANY’ humans using higher levels of fitness as a method of dealing with ‘issues’. Remember FITTER is BETTER.

Anyway, if you are actually ‘mental’ or want to be MENTAL. This blog is for YOU!

99% of fitness is in the head . We all know this. If you need to lose weight it is your mental strength that gets you to lose weight. It is not the healthy food stuffs and hydration that pass from hand to mouth to gut.

It is your ‘mental’ state.

I was at a family do last week and my younger brother suggested I was ‘mental’ whilst alluding to the exercise routines I partake in. He flippantly remarked ‘you probably do a marathon before breakfast’….. (I wish)

Depending on who you ask regarding my mental state I am pretty certain he would be backed up by many.

It got me thinking about perception. I go to many business functions, generally these revolve around food and alcohol. I am always put on the spot by some chubby bright spark that is tucking into a ‘fat boy’ fry up or ‘spannered’ supping a pint…. ‘Oh you CANT eat this’… ‘I bet you do not drink do you’.. Sorry fella but I LOVE a fry up and a pint of beer (generally not at the same time).

I love these exchanges as it gives me an opportunity to do a tiny bit of mind-set manipulation. I am aware that people perceive me as some ‘mental’ fitness addict that only eats healthy, never drinks alcohol and runs everywhere. More utter bollox has not been assumed since David Cameron announced that ‘free’ childcare could be supported to 30hrs per week. MENTAL!

I eat s*** and drink beer. I just don’t do it all the time.

Does the weather stop you going for a run? No. It is your head that stops you going for a run. If you miss a split time on your run, I can almost guarantee that it will be what is going on ‘in’ your head that misses the split, not the food you ate etc pre event that missed the split.

Mentality is ‘everything’. To achieve a higher level in ANYTHING requires a higher level of mental activity.

Funnily enough if you go to the office/work at 04:30 and return at 22:00 whether you become minted or not you will be labelled a hard worker.

If you get up at 04:30, take exercise go to work, stay late. You will be called MENTAL.

Are you ‘f****** Mental’?

I do hope so.

Delusion destruction – ‘LEG DAY’

All my life I have used roadwork (running) as the base fitness generator to any physical activity I take part in. Incorporating specific leg exercises like Deadlifts, Squats, leg extensions etc to compliment my running was applied to my workouts but because I ran and because my running always included fairly evil hills I never really worried if I missed ‘Leg day’.

4 years ago a car driver caught me out doing the classic ‘turn right on a bike’ manoeuvre. Sky floor. Ambulance. f***!

I have been rehabbing myself for the last 4 years. Getting back to running (lol more like ‘dragging’) has been THE single most frustrating part of my quest for fitness and to get my body to work how it had done pre accident.

I keep breaking. I can put a good few weeks of training together in the gym but as soon as I lace up the trainers and get out on the road. I break.

In the photo above you will see the right handle bar is obscured. It is bent backwards. Imagine a rodeo rider being flung up from the bucking bronco he is trying to hold onto. During this bit of road violence my right knee got skewered onto the end of the handlebar, with the bar embedded under my knee cap . I also somehow broke my left big toe?? These two injuries have been the limiting factor in me getting back to my roadwork.

I have substituted running with ‘LEG DAYS’, ok not ‘LEG DAYS’ like those mahoosive freaky body builder types.

I had myself CONVINCED that I was working HARD on my legs as I have implemented a huge variety of leg exercises and felt the ‘LEG DAY’ burn. HOWEVER last Saturday I managed my first 10 minute run for quite some months. My left calf kept blowing up and it took me a while to work out that it was all connected to the break of my left big toe.

Anyway I ran out on Saturday, flat, fast across a field, along a disused railway track up a teeny bijou lumpet of a hill along a bit of road and back to my house. Bent over looking like one of those bug eyed fish, gasping for breath akin to a wheezing 40 a day smoker!

Fucked but triumphant!! Left calf was still where it should be. RESULT!!

Sunday both legs feel sore.

Monday I have DOMS (Delayed onset muscle soreness) like my mother has beaten me with a rolling pin. I took myself out for a 21 min run. I ran well, keeping a pace that I could only just aerobically sustain but my legs felt really sore. Not weak. Just sore. A 10 min run on the Saturday had given me pain that NONE of the ‘LEG DAY’ effort over the preceding 4 years had managed to do. Bent over dribbling bug eyed fish impression follows.

DELUDED.

I have been deluded! Not running has left my legs weaker, even with ‘LEG DAY’

If you run you are doing ‘LEG DAY’ every time you run.

If you do not run and only do ‘LEG DAY’ you are, like I have been, DELUDED and missing a valuable addition to your ‘LEG DAY’.

What ever your training. What ever you are training for. Train yourself to run.

Enjoy.

When I was 5

When I was 5 there were TWO things that I ‘really’ thought were a complete and utter waste of my time.

The first was SLEEPING, I never wanted to go to bed. I could sleep standing up for 2 seconds and that would do me for the rest of the week.

The second was EATING. Oh how I hated having to sit down and eat. Don’t get me wrong I could eat. I was a dustbin. I would eat anything in front of me. I just didn’t want to have to sit down to eat it. The whole process of eating when you are 5 is just so BORING. I can remember being ‘made’ to eat sssslowly. All I wanted to do was get it done and get on with being FIVE.

Being 5 involved a s*** load of running about. Eating and sleeping got right in the way of my running about.

As we get older we do lots more eating and sleeping and a lot LESS running about. As a result of this increased inactivity our waistline increases directly in line with our blood pressure and our reason to take MORE sleep.

There are studies on sleep. lots of ‘boffins’ have spent many hours researching sleep. These so called boffins came up with the EIGHT hour sleep is ‘best’ study. You may have seen a new study which suggests that FIVE hours sleep is better than 8 hours??

There are many studies on eating. Lots of ‘boffins’ have spent many more hours than the sleep boffins boffing about-about eating. There is SOOO much boffed up boffinisms on eating that I cannot even put just TWO examples for you to cogitate.

As for ‘movement’, there maybe even MORE studies on movement than there are on sleeping and eating put together. BOFFINS everywhere regarding movement. EVERYONE is a boffin on MOVEMENT!!

Ok so here is my ‘UNWRITTEN’ study (of which I have MANY)

If you are tired you will sleep well. If you sleep when you are tired you will sleep better than if you are ‘over tired’. Quality of sleep is worth much more than QUANTITY of sleep. To attain QUALITY sleep you need 2 things. First you need to be TIRED and then secondly (difficult to coordinate) having the ability to sleep when you are tired will deliver the BEST quality sleep. Falling asleep at the wheel or directly after having sex are generally accepted as dangerous so best avoided.

Creating an exhausted state through movement will create a ‘quality’ sleep ‘state’. You can just CRASH out. Power nap springs to mind. like when I was 5. Run run play play run ‘crash’ repeat…….. Your body will recuperate in a fraction of the time. Unbelievable QUALITY sleep.

Point to note. If you eat copious amounts of food you will feel tired. This is not fatigue from movement, this is ‘digestion’ fatigue. It is neither quality NOR generally quantity sleep, although some people eat s*** loads and then sleep long.

Eating ‘well’ seems so BONE obvious to me but in today’s confused society full of ‘boffins’ expunging mainly ‘sponge’ on how and what to eat I understand it to be a difficult subject to ‘digest’. Let us not go into a tutorial BUT apply some common sense…. Eating loads of Pizza, drinking a litre of cola with spotted dick in this instance is NOT considered ‘eating well’. If you need more direction than that I am not the man to assist you.

In summary. 5 year olds know s***.

Sleep LESS.

Eat LESS.

Move MORE.

Have the energy of a 5 year old.

‘Fresh’

So last time I was discussing ‘consistency’. The REALITY is that consistency is pretty much ‘key’ to success on ALL levels. Not just in your health and fitness. All relationships, lovers and love, family, friends, business. Everything needs consistency.

Being fit and healthy takes shed loads of consistent effort. Staying in a long term relationship takes shed loads of consistent effort. Making money same. These are THREE areas that are ‘primary’ to happiness in the 21st century.

It is funny how the last of the three on this list is the one that most humans concentrate on FIRST. Money.

FRESH…. fresh?…. what has ‘fresh’ got to do with anything?

FRESH my friends is how to stay consistent.

If you want to keep your woman/man happy keep it ‘fresh’

If you want to make more money keep it ‘fresh’

If you want to make more of your health and fitness….yep….KEEP IT FRESH!!

I am not going into a whole psychoanalytical tutorial as to the meaning of ‘fresh’ I am hoping that if you are reading this you have at least five brain cells and get it that ‘fresh’ means ‘interesting’, ‘new’, ‘varied’. Not varied as in having multiple lovers whilst in a relationship. Not varied as in having multiple streams of (no) income. Not varied as in having gym memberships you do not use.

As a pro P.T.I this is my vocation, it is my reason to and for being. I do not do it for recreation but I do it for recreation.

The above photo shows me and my woman after taking part in the ‘back to the trenches’ 10k recently. As you can see we are both ‘rotten’ freezing cold, wet through and covered in mud. (how do women keep their faces clean?)

The top photo shows a new piece of workout equipment I made recently for ‘Dynamo’.

Both pictures show new variety to keep things ‘fresh’.

We both do roadwork as a base to fitness. Generally we do not throw ourselves into freezing muddy water with hundreds of others.

We both punch bags as part of our boxing based workouts. Generally we do not punch a 70k truck tyre. (has to be one of THE best punch bags I have ever used).

I have been working out for about 45/6 yeas now. I should be bored shitless. I am not…… WHY?

Firstly I understand that MY fitness is THE priority in my life. I attribute time to my fitness BEFORE anything else. (sadly ‘most’ humans do not get this concept)

Second FIRSTLY I keep it FRESH. I consistently do not do the same workout.

If you are one of my clients, neither do you.

Consistency

Consistency

I was talking to my right hand man and Head of dept P.T Mr Adam Wright RM (rtd) yesterday. The conversation occurred during our pre planned daily training session which happens everyday from 15:00 to 16:00. We were not doing the same session but working on individual aspects of our personal requirements. My session was organised around my quest to regain strength I lost after my motorcycle accident nearly 4 years ago. Adams was a leg session designed to help him run faster.

I have been training and training with Adam for nearly 20 years now. I have been trained by others and training myself ALL my life.

Neither of us are, have been or are likely to be a world champion in any recognised sport.

I turned to Adam and said ‘you know it is sad that we are seen (by some) as impressive whilst being so mediocre, medieval man, for instance would ridicule our pathetic efforts in attaining physical superiority’. Adam nodded in understanding.

We all know of many young sporting world champions, that after their heady days ruling the world fall into the familiar spiral of personal neglect once the ‘goal’ has gone.

I do not know how many sporting world champions there are across ALL the sports. I do know that it is fractional compared to world population. Your ‘actual’ potential to be a world champion then is like mine. Very limited!

What is ‘the’ point then of physical activity if it is not to be a WORLD CHAMPION?

Being physically fit I suppose precedes being a world champion by millennium. Being fit is supposed to be part of the living experience, its uses so multiple it is unquantifiable.

To attain it and maintain it in any USEFUL form though requires ONE thing, in my ‘unwritten’ study of physical training at ‘world’ and ‘domestic’ level. One thing is either apparent or not apparent.

I know of and have trained hundreds of ‘bright’ stars.

Dieters. Fasters. Maniacal trainers.

Know all’s. Coveters. Wishers. Wanters.

Dreamers. liars. Blamers.

I then, like Adam and many others I train now are actually aspiring to our own made up world championship a world championship encompassing the ONE thing that is either IN or OUT.

This world championship comes in both sexes and in EVERY weight category that the human form can be made to attain. It also comes in ‘every’ category of exercise that has been invented.

What is this world championship you ask? Well since you ask. I call it ‘CCW’.

CONSISTENCY Championship of the World.

In fitness if you are not consistent. You will NOT reach your potential.

Is that clear?

Good.

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