What is the best way to manage your progress?
Data.
And lots of it.
Nailing The Basics
Fitness and nutrition can be complex.
How many times to train a week?
Train fasted or after eating?
How many meals to eat in a day?
How much chicken, rice and broccoli do I need to eat in a day to grow muscles like Arnie?
A lot of the time, we can sweat the small minor details. We overthink what we need to do to become more fit and healthy. Rather than concentrating on what's going to have a big impact on our health, we focus on what might help us improve by the smaller 5-10%.
For those reasons, I wanted to share 5 actions we can begin to implement into our lifestyle. If you're currently doing none of them, you might want to set yourself a challenge to just complete one consistently for 2 weeks, before choosing another.
Get in at least 10,000 steps a day
Increasing your levels of NEAT (non exercise activity thermogenesis) will certainly help the amount of energy you expend in a day. It's very easy to only take 5,000 steps in a day but at the same time, with some small tweaks it's easy to hit 10,000 steps. Get off the tube/bus a stop or two earlier, walk up and down the stairs of your office or during your commute, park further away from wherever your destination is that you're driving to, take 20 minutes out at lunch for a walk and get some air. They're all small steps (pun intended) that add up across the day.
Sleep 6-8 hours a night
Sleep is often an area that's overlooked within our health. It's easy to sacrifice it in place of other things such as watching the latest season of something on Netflix. But is it really worth it? There might be times in our lives when work/life makes it's hard to get a consistent amount of good sleep. But by getting 6-8 hours of quality and uninterrupted sleep a night, it will help with recovery from your sessions in the gym, give you more energy for the next day and allows your brain to function better. I've previously talked about here about how to sleep better.
Get some protein and fruit/vegetables in each meal
There are numerous benefits to eating protein. For muscle growth & repair, increased satiety and healthy nails/hair. It can help keep you fuller for longer so there's benefits to eating it with each meal. There's many different foods you can eat for protein: lean meats such as chicken/turkey, eggs, greek yoghurt or whey protein to name a few. As for fruit and vegetables, it goes without saying that these are important to help get your vitamins in. Vegetables are relatively low calorie for the amount of food volume and contain fibre so again can help keep you feeling full. By eating fruit and vegetables in each meal, it makes it easier to get your 5 (or even 10) a day in!
Drink 2 litres of water a day
This is a bit of an arbitrary amount of water to drink. It's obviously different for everyone depending on their weight and activity levels but is a good base to aim for if you're not currently drinking much. Staying hydrated is an important aspect for performance and concentration. Keeping a water bottle to hand will help you achieve this target. Where possible, try and drink the majority of your water during the morning and day time. If you're guzzling 1.5 litres of water at night to hit your target, good luck with not waking up during the night to pee!
Do some form of exercise you enjoy
If you're not enjoying the exercise you're doing most of the time, chances are you won't sustain it for very long. If you're looking to be fit and healthy for the long term (and why wouldn't you) then it's good to find something you enjoy. Exercise gets the endorphins going, expends calories and brings a whole heap of health benefits. There's so many options out there: from aerobics to zumba and everything in between. There's definitely something for everyone out there.
Thanks for reading.
If you've got any questions or need help with anything, let me know.
Vele Fitness
Keeping Yourself Progressing
Real progress is slow. It can be tedious and at times frustrating.
It's not linear so when things aren't improving all the time it may feel like you're going backwards.
Weight loss, muscle gain, strength improvements. There are so many variables that impact them.
Not every weigh in is going to be lower than the last. Not every bench press is going to be stronger than the previous.
So with that, what can you do to ensure you're progressing in the right direction?
Below are 3 things that I've found have helped me...
Be clear what you want to achieve with real reasons why
Ever set yourself 4 or 5 different goals and not achieve any of them?
Yep, I've done that. When you try to achieve a lot of different goals at the same time, you can spread yourself thin and not truly complete any of them.
So rather than setting yourself up to fail, set yourself up to succeed.
Have fewer goals and make sure you've got real reasons for why you want to achieve them.
Once you've got one or two clear goals and tangible reasons for them, you can then focus your time & energy on that.
What get's measured, get's managed
This is a classic phrase that I love.
Data. Data. Data.
That's probably just the geek in my coming out, but what you track really does help yourself understand what's happening. So you're able to manage whatever goal you have better.
With the amount of technology we have at our fingertips, there's no reason not to measure the variables.
Your training for instance can be tracked through an app such as FitNotes.
Your daily activity levels can be tracked through an activity tracker such as Fitbit, or most phones will have built in step counters on them.
Your nutrition can be tracked through MyFitnessPal. You can also use this to log your weight progression.
You get the idea. These are just a few of what I've used myself in the past but there's 100s of different options out there. Try a few, see what you like using and stick with it.
You then have the ability to review your progress over a long period of time.
It's easy to get bogged down if your weight doesn't change from the previous week or your squat PR doesn't increase from your last session.
But track all the data and you can then go back and see how it's changed over a more realistic time period such as months, quarters and even over the past year.
Reflection
Taking time to reflect has a massive amount of value.
It may not seem like much but stopping to take note of what you've achieved, progressed and struggled with allows you to learn how to become better.
I don't think there's a set way everyone should do it. Everyone is different.
For someone, this could be 10 minutes at the end of each day to think about how their day has gone and if they've accomplished what they set out to.
For me, it's taking time out on a Sunday or Monday to review the previous week, set some new targets and think about what I can do to improve.
I don't achieve everything I set out to each week. So when I don't, that's where I can review with myself why it's not happened.
Oh. and all of this is done on a whiteboard that I can see daily. For me, it's no good setting goals and never having visibility of them other than in my head.
Whiteboards can literally change lives.
Hopefully that's 3 clear ideas of what you can do to ensure you keep yourself progressing.
Thanks for reading. If you've got any questions or want any support with anything, let me know!
Vele Fitness
5 Tips For Conquering Your First Tough Mudder
Last week I took part in what I would call my first organised fitness event (I’m not including the few weekend ParkRuns I’ve done), Tough Mudder. 12 miles, 20+ obstacles, lots of mud and water. How else would you want to spend your Sunday?
The thought of that might put a lot of people off but it’s honestly not as scary as it sounds. There’s so much fun to be had! I’ve just signed up to do another in September and can’t wait for it. If you’re even thinking about doing your first one then I suggest going for it! It’s certainly an experience you won’t regret.
So if you have signed up and thinking how best to get yourself through it, I thought I’d put together 5 tips on how you can conquer your first Tough Mudder.
Skip the fancy supplements
Me being me, one of the first things I thought about was what supplements and foods are going to get me through it. If you’re doing your first tough mudder and not running in the first wave (which is the timed competitive one) then there’s absolutely no need in wasting your money here. Personally, all I did was eat a little more food, in particular carbs, in the couple days ahead of the event, a good portion of carbs in the morning (such as overnight oats) and a coffee & banana on the way to it. Save your money buying all the fancy gels. There’s lucozade, trek bars and water around the course which is enough to keep yourself going the distance.
Get yourself a pair of cheap trail shoes
I heard different things from different people on advice for what footwear to have. Old trainers or more purpose built trail shoes? I went with the latter and didn’t regret it one bit. But you’re going to get them muddy and ruined? Wash them down in the showers after then. Again, don’t waste your money buying £80 trail shoes on your first event. I got these off Amazon for around £30 and they stood up pretty well against the elements.
Do some specific training
Given that you can do the course at your own pace, run or walk as much as you want in between the obstacles and even skip an obstacle if you don’t think you can do it (I’d encourage you to at least give each a go!), you don’t have to be uber fit to take part. Having said that, it’s good to give yourself some time before and do some specific training for it. Depending on your starting level of fitness, this could be months or weeks. What exercises should I be doing then? Keep it simple. Below are a few areas I’d look at…
Core: planks, dead bugs, 2 point box points
Carry stuff: farmer walks, suitcase carries
Bodyweight: pull ups, push-ups, rows, squats, walking lunges
Cardio: hill sprints, moderate pace longer distance running, interval training
Help each other out
If it’s your first event, you’re probably not looking to get a specific time and most people doing it aren’t looking to beat the person in front of them. Some of the obstacles can’t be defeated solo so after someone’s given you a helping hand (shoulder, leg, arm etc…) don’t forget to help out someone else. Even a stranger! There’s always someone that might need a leg up over a wall. Don’t be that person that takes the help but then carries on without supporting someone else.
Have fun!
Lastly, enjoy it! You’ve hopefully put some training time in to get yourself a little ready, maybe spent days or weeks thinking what on earth have I signed up for and it all comes down to a matter of hours. There’s such a fun filled atmosphere there so soak it up. Go for the obstacles with bravery (or blind confidence), run down the hills like you’re chasing an ice cream van and get mud on your face as if you were Rambo.
Hopefully, this will help anyone out there getting ready for their first Tough Mudder.
If you’ve got any questions or if I can help in any way, give me a shout!
Vele Fitness