Well, that didn’t go as planned!
Um… Yeah. For those of you asking about how my competition went last weekend, my radio silence has probably been a clue. It didn’t go well.
What follows is an attempt to dissect, learn from this and ultimately put it to bed. So here goes:
As you know, I was competing in the 100m and the Long Jump and the problems began before I even got there…
Since I last wrote, the miles in my marathon training plan ramped up quite quickly. In fact, when I saw the second stage of the plan, slight panic set in. The honeymoon stage of training for a marathon was well and truly over. I told myself not to get overwhelmed. Break it down. One week at a time. One day at a time. Nothing was really that different from before, other than the increase in volume….
Squats!! One of my all time favourite exercises. Pretty much always included in my programmes, in one form or another. And most of you who have attended a session with me will have at some point heard me say: LOWER!!!
But the question arises, How low is low enough?
And of course, the answer isn’t simple. But rather “It depends”
Why become a personal trainer?
The other day I was chatting to a new client about how I came to be a personal trainer. It’s a fun story. So I thought I’d share. Plus, it talks about me, and I love talking about me!
I first started training to be a PT around 10 years ago. In those days, you actually had to attend a course in person. And it lasts about 3-4 months in total. (Today you can get the same qualification online or in a weekend, practically. Ho hum…)
At the time, my life couldn’t have been more different to what it is now…
How Charlie Grew to Love Hill Sprints
Once upon a time there was this mum called Charlie. We’d just started the Newland Corner sessions. Which as many of you know involve hills. And sprints. Or even hill sprints…
This one time, Charlie was in a bit of a grump.
“I hate sprints. I hate hills. It’s so hard. I hate it…”
Now, if any of you know Charlie you’d be thinking… What? Charlie? But she’s so strong. And so fast…
And you’d be right… She is!
Why is it so hard to do the things we KNOW we should be doing?
This morning, I was speaking to a mum…”My hamstrings are really tight…” she said.
Or checking in with a mum’s food diary “Not enough greens, I know…” she said.
Or me to myself after 120m sprints… “ I’m losing form after 80-90m…”
We know what we need: regular stretching, more greens, eat less rubbish, or do more ab work in my case.
And we know what the benefits would be: remain injury free, better health, stronger finish.
And it reality it doesn’t really cost us that much does it… 5-10 min every other day?
So why, oh why is it so damn hard to get it done, and done consistently?
Now confession… as I’m typing this right now, I’m not entirely sure I have the answer. In part, I’m writing this to make sense of my thoughts. So bear with me!
Let’s start with some reasons…
Well here it is. The very first Melita Fitness Guest Blog. Chris thought it would be a good idea. We’ll see…
Hi, I’m Katie, the stereotypically loud American in the group. Mum to Carter and Sienna, married to Paul and part time worker in the world of tax. I signed up to Melita Fitness just shy of 18 months ago, first training with Chris 1:2:1 and then joining the fun of the group sessions.
My workout
I realise I’ve been writing a lot about mindset, nutrition and so on recently but not so much about training. So I thought I’d give you an insight to a week of my training programme.
Also, I often get asked (or taunted) about why I don’t join in the group training sessions. The answer, of course, is that if I did, I wouldn’t be able to keep my eyes on all of you. The second part of the answer is that my legs are generally battered after a session, or I’m trying to keep them fresh for the next session.
So here is a week of training that happened in mid-November. It is a real week. It was a perfect week. I need more of these kinds of weeks! With Christmas and house move out of the way, I really have no excuses! So anyway, back to my perfect week…
Resolution Revolution!
‘Tis the season, of course. Everyone is talking about Resolutions. I’m sure you’ve seen the blogs and the posts.
Should you make one or some?
How best to make them stick?
Whether we shouldn’t be making resolutions anyway…
Is it pointless? What % of resolutions will have been abandoned by when?
And on and on…
My view is that with any big “ending” like the end of a calendar year, the training year or the school year, it is helpful to take stock, think about how things went, where you were last year? Progress made or progress you had hoped for but not made…
Christmas brings with it a complete change of routine. The kids are off school, social events are on the up, Christmas goodies are tempting you everywhere you turn and there’s a million things to buy, prepare and do!
With so much on, it’s no wonder that many of us put health and fitness on the back burner, promising to deal with it in the New Year. But it doesn’t have to be this way. I’m going to show you 7 little changes that will have you enjoying a fun, guilt-free Christmas.
