I am currently learning to play golf. To do this, I have been taking lessons from a golf coach. I believe in allowing a professional to do a job they are trained to do. When I wanted to learn to drive, I went to a driving instructor. I could have been taught by family members, but opted for a professional instead. When I am injured, I take the advice of a physiotherapist. If I required accounts advice, I would speak to an accountant. The point is, there are people who know their subject far better than I do, so I speak to them about my needs in their field.

This belief extends to my professional life. As you would expect, I am a big believer in Personal Training, and think more people should look seriously at the effects having a Personal Trainer could have on their health and fitness.

So often, people want to be fitter, leaner, stronger etc, yet don’t take the advice of a Personal Trainer. They either join the gym with a friend, or take the advice from a guy in work who has been going to the gym for a few years – it is more often than not a case of the blind leading the blind. In many ways they are just shooting in the dark, hoping to find the road to weight loss. More often than not, their approach doesn’t work; they lose focus and interest, give up exercise and haven’t lost a pound (not in weight, anyway!) By taking the advice of a Personal Trainer in the first instance they would have had their plan set out from the start and knew they were on the right path to weight loss.

Before we go any further, I will stress that just because a person has passed their Personal Training exams, it doesn’t make them a good Personal Trainer. Over the last 10 years I have been in and around many gyms and have seen some brilliant Personal Trainers, but they are far outweighed by the crap the fitness education industry seems to churn out on a daily basis. There is so much more to Personal Training than knowing exercises – people need to be inspired, motivation, enjoy their sessions and want their questions answered. Without these auxiliary skills you may as well write off the Personal Trainer and keep searching.
As my career has evolved, so has my approach. I suppose like any profession, when I first qualified I was full of theoretical knowledge, but experience hadn’t kicked in. I didn’t fully know the effects of what I was doing, I hadn’t experienced the psychology of coaching someone through a long term project, and I hadn’t had the opportunity to try new things and chart the results. As time passes though, you learn more, read more, experience more and you begin to shape how you work.

I now focus my approach on improving all round health, not just fitness. My understanding of biomechanics and the role of the musculoskeletal system has improved, my exercise programmes are more balanced and allow for better performance, improved fitness, better posture, reduced injury risk, better injury management and a massive increase in overall health. These skills have come with client experience and practical application of techniques – these aren’t the kind of things you can read about in books.

In my opinion, it is these additional skills that set apart a fitness instructor and a Personal Trainer. Personal Training should be just that – PERSONAL to you and your needs. Any idiot can tell you to lift a weight a thousand times or run until you drop – so what? Those aren’t the skills you are paying for. A good Personal Trainer is an investment in your health, your wellbeing and your future. If you want to be screamed and shouted at to run and carry things, join the army. If you want a strategic, well-planned and effective training regime, hire a Personal Trainer.

Personal Trainers should ensure that your programme is in line with your goals and needs, but structured so they evolve at the right pace. I often tell people you can’t build a house on sand – it is all well and good wanting to achieve a particular goal, but if you are carrying injuries, your posture is awful and you haven’t done any exercise in months then we have to look at the bigger picture – let’s get a solid base of curing the injuries, perfecting the posture, improving the base level fitness and getting the techniques right. From there we can work on achieving the levels of fitness and the body conditioning you could have only dreamed of previously. If you try and work hard with a body that can’t cope, you are heading down a bad road from the start.

So what exactly should a Personal Trainer do? A Personal Trainer should start with posture and muscle imbalance checks, consult you on your diet, put together nutritional plans, take measurements and body composition results and help you set realistic targets and goals. From there they should be looking at fitness testing and putting together plans to start you on the road to your goals. Remember this is a process – it took you your whole life to develop the body you currently have, it will take work to change it.

But what if you can’t afford the services of a Personal Trainer full time? I never said a Personal Trainer needs to supervise every session you do. I have clients I see once per week, I have clients I see three times per week. I used to have clients I saw once per month to ensure they were keeping on top of their training, checking their progress and setting them their training plans for the next month. I would also ensure they were out of their bad habits from a technique point of view, and keep them running along smoothly. You can still gain some of the benefits of Personal Training by having a monthly session, so don’t think of Personal Training as a benefit for the rich only – anyone can benefit, and you can’t put a price on your health.

If you are interested in starting a fitness improvement plan, take seriously the effect that a good Personal Trainer can have. In reality the price isn’t much – many people spend more on a weekend in the pub than a Personal Trainer would charge for a month of sessions!

Think about that next time you wake up with a hangover and are £200 poorer after a heavy weekend…

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It seems winter is the season for illness – NHS statistics back up the fact that more sickness absence days are taken during the winter months (November-February) than any other time of year. It could be argued that Christmas accounts for a portion of this, but remember the Christmas period is only 1-2 weeks of that 4 month block. The annual sickness records show a clear link between winter and reported sick days over a number of years, so the winter illnesses certainly aren’t a new thing.

So why winter? We are surrounded by germs all year round, so why are we more affected during the colder months?

To answer this question, we need to have a basic understanding of immunity. We all have an immune system that guards us from infection on a daily basis. As hard as we might try to safeguard ourselves from bacteria, the world is a germ zone, and we are under constant attack. Providing we are healthy, our immune system does a great job at keeping most diseases at bay, protecting us from their effects.

The problem arises when we become ‘run down’ and don’t look after ourselves properly. Our immune system is weakened and infection takes hold more easily. It is at this point where we become ill and suffer the effects of the virus that has attacked us.

The winter time in the UK can be harsh. It combines cold weather, artificial heating, short days, long nights, general lethargy and to top it all, the stresses and strains of Christmas parties, New year parties, paying for everything, the stress of organising events etc. These have the effect of wearing us down, which weakens our immune system and allows the viruses to grab hold of us. Bacteria aren’t any stronger in the winter – our immunity is weaker.

So, in an attempt to keep the world healthier over the winter time, here is the Hoyles Fitness guide to winter-proofing your body. A list of 20 tips you can use to stay illness-free this winter….

1. Eat Plenty of Vegetables. Vitally important during the winter months. Giving yourself the best possible chance of keeping your immune system all full strength requires plenty of vitamins and minerals. Eating seasonal winter vegetables such as broccoli, turnips, cabbage etc will give you massive vitamin boosts when you need them most!

2. Get Plenty of Sleep. As we all know, sleep is the time your body uses to rest, repair and recover. The winter is harsh, and the damage to our bodies is more significant and requires more repair. Aim for 7-8 hours per night.

3. Don’t Over Train. Over training places high levels of internal stress on the body. The muscles, nervous system and internal organs all suffer as a result of over training. Many people use the winter to add size or to work on their fitness ahead of the summer, but train sensibly and listen to your body.

4. Drink Plenty of Water. I have said before, in many ways water is your body’s best friend. The nature of many winter-heated buildings mean they are artificially dry, so ensure you keep drinking plenty of water to stave off dehydration.

5. Get Outside. Contrary to popular belief, being outside in the cold doesn’t actually cause a cold. In fact the fresh air can do you the power of good. If you work in an environment where you are surrounded by a lot of people or spend lots of time sat in an air-conditioned office, getting outside is a great way to stretch your legs and stop breathing in recycled air.

6. Enjoy a Nap. Having a power nap is a quick an easy way of recharging your batteries. Even if you can only manage 20 minutes, giving your brain a chance to switch off for a few moments can leave you refreshed and less stressed.

7. Have a Hot Bath. When we are cold, our blood vessels towards our extremities (hands and feet in particular) constrict, diverting more blood to the important internal organs. This is the reason we often suffer from cold hands and feet in the colder months. A hot bath will improve circulation and warm a cold body!

8. Avoid Air-Conditioned Rooms. Air conditioning has been linked to spreading diseases, as it merely moves air around, it doesn’t take in fresh air. There are some circumstances where this may be impossible, but where you can, try to get out or away from stale air. If you eat lunch at your desk, get out to a cafe or bistro. If you usually schedule meetings in your office, change them to an external venue.

9. Reduce Alcohol Intake. In many ways, winter is party season. Halloween, Bonfire night, numerous Christmas parties, New Years Eve, Burns Night, Valentine’s day to name a few. The mixture of too much food and too much booze can wreak havoc with your general health. I am not suggesting you avoid alcohol altogether, but go easy and your body will thank you!

10. Eat a Varied Diet. To many this is obvious, but recently I have spoken to a number of new clients who literally eat the same thing day in, day out in an attempt to lose weight. Make sure you are eating a large variety of fruit and vegetables, proteins and good fats to provide a good balance of health.

11. Avoid TV. The temptation during the winter is to sit at home watching TV. This lethargy doesn’t do anything beneficial for your health, so get outside. It may be dark, but you can still get out of the house. Just wrap up – it’s winter, not the apocalypse!

12. Don’t Overheat Your House. For many, the default reaction to a drop in external temperature is to whack the heating up to full blast. Why? Heat your house to comfortable, not oven temperatures. Winter temperatures aren’t so shocking if you don’t live in a house that is 40 degrees Celsius inside!

13. Stretch Regularly. In the winter, blood is diverted from the extremities and our muscles and joints can tighten as a result. Make sure you stretch regularly to keep yourself supple during the winter.

14. Avoid a ‘Hot Toddy’. No, it doesn’t have health benefits. Whisky isn’t medicine.

15. Stock up on ‘Super foods’. Super foods are those with a very high vitamin and mineral density. Instead of eating lots of salads as part of your winter vitamin boost, look towards root vegetables that are in season and packed full of goodness during the winter.

16. Keep Your House Clean. Most of us spend more time at home than anywhere else, so give your body less to deal with by ensuring you keep your place clean. If you are surrounded by germs at home you are doing yourself no favours in the germ war!

17. Lift Weights. Winter is a testing time for us – many animals hibernate so they don’t have to deal with it! In order to make your body as robust as possible, make sure you incorporate plenty of strength training into your routine.

18. Have a Sauna. A good sauna session helps clear your pores, allows you to sweat out heavy metals from the environment and improves circulation – all good points at any time of year, but especially good in the cold. Just remember to stay hydrated during your session.

19. Don’t Party too Hard. As difficult as it may seem at times, you don’t need to accept every party invite. If you have a weekend of non-stop over-drinking and over-eating you will suffer for it for a few days afterwards. Having a good time is encouraged, but be mindful of your health.

20. Be Organised. Stress is known to lower immunity, so go to the effort to plan your time, your budgets and create a relatively stress-free life. Your body will thank you!

So there you have it, the Hoyles Fitness guide to winter-proofing your life! Have a healthy and happy winter!

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Over the last 12 months, my life has evolved into a much busier and stressful version of its former self. There are a number of reasons for this, and they have generally been as a result of conscious moves towards my personal and professional goals.

I have a busy, full time job. Due to a successful couple of years, the business I work for has grown massively. My role has grown, my responsibilities have increased and the number of problems I encounter on a daily basis has increased. This is not unlike anyone else in a managerial position, and I suppose the reason you are put in a position to deal with problems is down to you proving you are capable of solving them in the first place. It seems problems never really go away the higher you climb – you simply trade them for a new set!

For me, the vast majority (actually, almost all) of my stress comes from my job. The rest of my life is relatively stress free. How can I take steps to remove stress?

I have long a long standing ambition that I would like to live life on my terms – holiday when I want to, work when I want to and experience a life of relative freedom. In order to do this I need to be self-sufficient and not 100% reliant on a job to provide me with an income. Theoretically, I remove the job; I remove the source of most of my stress! Of course there are lots of other reasons for self sufficiency, but this article relates to stress, so I will focus on that.

In 2006 I was given Tony Robbins’ ‘Get the Edge’ series by a Personal Training client. At this point I had never heard of Tony Robbins, and I had never heard of ‘Personal Development’ – I was focussed on building a career in the fitness industry and had blinkers on with regards to anything other than exercise and nutrition as a health improvement tool. Despite this, I listened to the series with interest and realised the strategies it contained could help me enormously as long as I dedicated time to them.

Get the Edge helped me to clarify in my mind that taking my life into my own hands was the required step. At the time I was 23, didn’t really have the confidence or expertise to go it alone, so I put the idea in the back of my mind until the time was right. Over the last few months I have reached the point where the time has come for me to build a business that will provide my income for the rest of my life.

The difficulty is that I am a lukewarm risk taker. I have financial responsibilities so leaving a wage without a successful business to rely on for all of my incomes isn’t a good idea. I have to be clever with my strategy, and build a business whilst earning a wage. My full time job is 37 hours per week, although it always goes over that. It means I have to work to build the kind of business that can provide a sustainable and acceptable level of income, whilst still performing well at work. This is a perfect environment for stress to grow, which could have a devastating effect on my job and my business ambitions.

So a busy working life creates stress – nothing new there. The problem is how this stress affects my wider life – how we deal with stress can in many ways, make or break us. One of the common remedies for stress is exercise – the old adage says ‘healthy body, healthy mind’. Now for me this doesn’t ring true. I personally don’t believe I deal with stress very well, despite the fact that I exercise almost daily and eat a healthy and well balanced diet.

During stressful periods of my life I don’t sleep well, I lose my appetite, my motivation is affected. I have to literally force myself into getting on with things. My concentration drops to that of a hyperactive child during stressful times, and my mood isn’t great. I am notoriously bad at hiding what is going through my mind, so stress from any area of my life affects me generally. As I said in the opening paragraph, stress never really goes away; you just have a different kind.

My early experiences of growing the business whilst working weren’t especially happy – I had many sleepless nights and tough days due to the constant nature of the job. There were days when I would feel my work life was out of control, having to balance long hours with almost constant emails and phone calls. I would move from meeting to meeting, leaving me little time to get anything done, meaning the free time I did have was full of tasks I had to get done from earlier in the day. My email accounts were busy, and I had to spend time making calls during trips between appointments. Whilst these are fairly typical of anyone with a busy life, I didn’t have any strategies to help me deal with the new extra busy nature of my life, and I became more and more stressed, which affected me badly.

I decided I needed to learn to deal with stress better, and I have actively worked on this. I have developed strategies to clear my mind, organise my thoughts and get my life in order. I have gone back to the Tony Robbins ‘Get the Edge’ series. A blast of positivity and motivation first thing in the morning certainly doesn’t do me any harm, and helps set the tone for the early part of the day. I have started taking notice of productivity information, following productivity experts on twitter, for example. These measures may sound trivial, but they are working well.

Juggling a growing business with a busy job wreaks havoc with a work/life balance. I have to ensure that I keep as much order as possible to my life, otherwise trying to combine the two is nigh on impossible and both the job and the business are affected. I now try to set myself up to win on a weekly basis by trying to ensure my appointments are organised in advance, that my to do lists are kept up to date and never get too long – my busy life is the perfect breeding ground for stress, so I have to ensure I don’t let things become disorganised, otherwise I lose any feeling of control I have over life, and then the stress starts! As the business is growing, the potential stresses increase.

To many of you reading, this may seem common sense, and to be honest it should be! You have to remember however, I am not a naturally organised person – these are skills I am learning and developing as I go. Many of the skills I am learning come from my clients – in fact, I learn lots about business and life from my clients. Let me explain how…

I am lucky enough to work with lots of people who have been very successful in their field. I work with Company Directors, CEO’s, business owners etc. These are people who have succeeded in life, often in very competitive environments. During conversations with these people I have learnt that they share a number of common traits…

• Consistent focus and consistent action – they stick to a task until it is completed.
• Hard work – it goes without saying. Although there are many of people advertising quick and easy routes to success, most of the successful people I know have achieved due to hard work.
• Positive attitude – they tend to look at the upside of a situation.
• They work with passion as their motivation, not profit.
• They have been brave enough to take calculated risks.

Some of these traits I already possess – others I need to work on. I am certainly applying them to my own life now, and I am seeing the success of them already.

As a result of my new stress-busting regime, life is good. I am coping much better with situations that previously would have left me stressed. My business is growing well, which is allowing me to focus on applying creative energies to future projects. I am developing very clear goals for my future, and working consistently towards them. I spend my Sundays planning my week ahead, reducing my chances of potential stresses later in the week. I no longer procrastinate in the way I used to. I have cleared my business email inbox and deal with new emails the day they arrive (usually!)

I am certainly not stress-proof yet; there is still work to be done. I am getting better though, feeling far more control over my life. My business is built on a solid platform of organisation that can be maintained. The next step for me is to explore NLP and habit-making behaviours. If there is a way I can programme success into my psyche, I am all for it. For me to live life on my terms, I need to be as successful as possible!

Stress seems to be a very modern problem, but I believe it is a genuine one. As someone who has been affected by stress, I am aware of the damage it can do to our lives, but I also know there are ways to combat and reduce stress. It can’t be an excuse for long, so if you are stressed, look at your life and perform some mental Feng Shui – you will be glad you did!

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