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Birthday Blog

SPECIAL 40th BIRTHDAY BLOG

A big thank you to all who wished me a Happy Birthday over the weekend, and thank you for the excellent new surf board I cant wait to use it. I had no idea what was going on

Well it all started off so well. Luke told me he would pick me up at 12 but I really had no idea what was going on. Unfortunately for Nic I just happened to be looking out of the window when I saw him try and Ninja his way down the lane, Hood up, Head Down.

True to form at 2pm (late as ever) Luke came up to get me and told me to put on some boardshorts and nothing else! Well I had consumed about 7 or 8 bottles of Desperados beer (the beer of choice) by this time and was more tha happy to get my kit off.

"Who ya gonna call?"

Blindfolded I was led through the Gym to unmistakable disabled changing room, or, to give it its proper title "Lukes Room"

I was as expecting some sort of naked lady when I took off the blindfold so, outstretching my arms felt the smooth finish of a gorgous surfboard instead, then was drenched in cold water as someone turned on the shower. The blindfold was removed and I was blinded by a totally PINK room! See pics above

"Luke gets his groove on"

"DJ GAV"

Nice work everyone It actually looks great.

Just in case Johnny forgets his own name again





Below Roger manages to hid his meat and two veg

"Roger Ramjet"

More drinking ensued and by the time Roger and the mini bus turned up at 4pm I can honestly

say I was off my face.

A short journey to Exeter, a Curry and an underground Punk Club finished the evening off nicley and with everyone accounted for we all passed out at around 4am.

Nice to know I can still party as hard at 40 as I could at 20.

Big thanks to LUKE, NIC, JEN, MELINDA, MATT, ROGER, GAV, JOHNNY and everyone else who helped.

MM

P.S. Party hard, live life to the full and skid to the grave knowing that you have no regrets.

You know I’ve been doing my workout first thing in the morning with a really good friend of mine who has recently rejoined the gym. I must admit he’s kicking my ass at the running and I seem to, be shall we say, be encouraging him with his weight training :-)

(YES THAT DOES SAY 7.15am ON THE CLOCK)
Now load of people say to me training? Why are you training when you do all those classes? Well you see, your body is an amazing, adaptive piece of machinery. When you throw a certain demand at it, it adapts in amazing ways to be more equipped to handle that demand in the future.

So the classes I teach has little or no effect on my body especially as I don’t put in 100% as I have to instruct, spot and correct. When you work out you need to be progressive and make each workout harder than the last to get great results.

Progressive? Yeah, you know, how you’re increasing the work you do from one cardio session to the next in order to ensure that you continue to improve your fitness and lose body fat.
So, when it comes to exercise, if we do the same 30 minutes of steady state cardio from one workout to the next, within 2-3 workouts we’ll be well adapted to those exact cardio demands. So well adapted, in fact, that those 30 minutes will be barely better than sitting on the couch.
And the same is true for high intensity work. If we don’t progress the workout from one session to the next, the demands will be so small on our bodies that we’ll see none of the benefit we saw when we started the program.

So there is a “secret” to an ever-increasing health profile, an ever-improving body composition, and non-stop performance increases. And it’s called progression.

Weight Training Progressions

Now, most people oversimplify the idea of progression. They assume that to “make it harder” from one week to the next, they need to spend more time exercising. However, that’s not always the case. Sure, this type of volume progression is one method to progress your program. Yet it’s not the only way.
In our weight training arsenals there are several ways to design programs to ensure progress toward a variety of goals, including increased strength, increased power, increased muscle mass, etc.

Here are a few examples of ways to design a proper progression in the weight room.

#1 Simple Load Progression
Classic progressive resistance training (or simple load progression as I call it) relies on the necessity of increasing our load lifted over time, assuming the same repetition range.
Like Milo, the Greek wrestler who purportedly jogged around the perimeter of the Coliseum with a calf on his back, getting stronger and stronger as the calf slowly grew into a bull, we try to increase the weight lifted from one week to the next in order to continue to progress.

#2 Complex Load Progression
Periodization models have introduced the idea of systematically increasing our load lifted while decreasing our repetitions. This model uses gradually increasing loads (or intensities, defined as a percentage of 1 rep max) while using gradually decreasing volume (measured by the total number of repetitions performed during a workout). These types of sessions are called intensification sessions.

Of course, even within an overall periodized program that’s focusing on intensification (heavier loads and fewer reps during a workout), the idea of simple load progression still stands. Obviously, if you’re using a similar repetition range from week to week during an intensification phase, you should be increasing your load used, even if you’re only using the same rep range during two consecutive training sessions for that movement.

#3 Simple Volume Progression
Compared to the simple load progression above, simple volume progression is pretty much the opposite. Instead of increasing the load from week to week, you keep the load the same while increasing the volume (measured by the total number of repetitions performed during a workout, whether that’s adding a few reps to each set or adding a few total sets).

So, instead of doing 6 reps at 80kg, as you did during week one, you’d be doing 7 reps at 80kg during week two. Alternatively, instead of doing 3 sets of 6 reps at 80kg, you might do 4 sets of 6 reps at 80kg. Either way, volume progresses, load stays the same.

Other examples, of varying utility, based on your goals, include:
Decreasing rest time from week to week in order to improve between-set recovery.
Increase rest time from week to week in order to handle heavier loads on subsequent sets.
Another example of using time as a variable is Charles Staley’s EDT. This style of training demands that, from one week to the next, you increase the number of reps you perform while keeping the total exercise time constant.

I’ll give you some examples of Cardio progressions next time :-)

Have a great day and I’ll see you in the gym
MM

P.S. More valuable information at www.mikemundsfitness.ning.com Please join in :-)

Not more excuses?

This site seems to becoming my RANT page and here I go again. I hate complaining and really don't like to moan but what are your thoughts on this?

Last September 2 friends joined my gym. They were both keen, excited about doing something positive in there life, losing some weight and feeling better about themselves.

Unfortunately one of the friends became genuinely ill and could not attend any more. Now under the rules of their contract If someone is genuinely ill and medically unfit to exercise then they can freeze, or in extreme illness cases, cancel their contract. fair enough.

Last week I had a visit from the OTHER friend the one that was not ill. She was complaining that Harland's (the nice people that handle all gym contracts) would not cancel her membership.

I asked her why she would want to cancel? Surly she still wanted to get the same benefits out of the gym that she wanted when she joined? Was she unhappy with the service? Was there anything I could do to make her gym experience more pleasurable?

Oh she said I have a swollen knee and can not exercise.


I asked what was wrong with the knee.

She said that she had been to several surgeons and there was nothing they could do

Oh I said So what is the matter? What did these surgeons say was wrong

She avoided the question.

I explained that Harland's handle ALL membership enquires and I was here to help with fitness questions and help every member achieve their fitness goals.

She said that she wasn't were happy about that and left.

By the way whilst this conversation was going on in the gym was:

Steve: 56 sitting in a wheelchair, had a stroke in his early thirties, comes to the gym 3 times a week despite having little control over his movements, I take the time to help him around He's lost over a stone in weight and gained strength in his arms an legs.

Frank: 71 Heart bypass recovery patient also has problems with his grip due to a tendon problem in his hands. Comes three times a week and has reduces his resting heart rate and increased his hand grip.

Denis: 53 Has Depression Mental heath issues and a speech impediment. He's only been coming for a month but attends the gym for about 30 minutes a day. He finds the gym helps lift his mood and he gets great benefit from the social interaction talking to other gym members

Now lets go back to the lady with the "swollen knee" in fact lets not.

Id rather that she hadn't joined the gym because now instead of having a positive and beneficial impact on her life she will probably spend a lot more energy and cause herself a lot of stress trying to "get out" of her contract.

Actually If you are that lady and you are reading this please come back lets get your body moving and let me help you achieve the goals that you joined the gym for.

That goes for all of you out there

For now take care and keep fit,

See you in the Gym

MM

P.S. Please leave a comment about this blog or pop over to http://www.mikemundsfitness.ning.com/ and leave a comment there.

Consistancy is the Key

Go to any bookshop and look in the diet section. Now count how many books there are. 10? 20? 100? 1000? All diff rent; Atkins,Weight Watchers, The South Beach Diet, I remember the cabbage soup diet. Which one have you used? One, Two, ALL?



Now how can there be so many diet books and which one works? Well they all do. And that goes for workouts too. The thing with fitness workouts is that you have to establish a base level and work your way up. The same as a diet.



For example every month there is a new fitness magazine out showing you how to do the same exercise. Just how many times do you need to be shown how to do a bench press or a triceps kickback by a different fitness model?


So its the same with BOTH dieting and keeping fit. Everyone wants to look like the fitness model demonstrating the exercises or promoting the eating plan but not everyone can succeed and achieve the look.



Dieting isn't fun and (as much as I try to make to be as diverse as possible) exercise can also be boring. As much as I wish you could, you cant magically transform your body by buying a diet book or a gym membership. Sorry but its hard work all the way until...



It becomes second nature to you and you live life like a fitness model. That's when you don't even think that you are on a diet and exercise becomes as much of a habit as brushing your teeth. You've got to find your own way. I'd love to guide you but you have got to make that conscious decision to make it happen and then get busy.



In fact here is a great tip from Mark (who lost a lot of weight last year) Mark found that doing his workout at the same time every day helped him stick to the plan and achieve his goals.



Consistency with Marks workout and diet helped him. Mark lost over a Stone in weight in 2008


Looking Great Mark

So if you can be consistently good in keeping to your diet and your workout you will achieve YOUR goal. If you are consistently bad then you wont. Check out this vid:







So in 2009 lets all eat better and exercise consistently





MM


P.S. A high profile client of mine (film star) consistently ate carrots for the duration of the shoot. She (oops that's narrowed it down). She lost loads of weight unfortunately she also turned orange! That fucked up continuity :-)

Excuses Excuses

On Friday I "went over" on my ankle in my Friday morning Fat Attack session. If you haven't done Fat Attack its basically a hi impact, hi energy interval training aerobics class. Maybe I was getting carried away as I normally doubt apparently,according to some people, going over on you ankle is easily done. Although I must say that in all my teaching life I have never injured myself or twisted my ankle.

Anyway there I was enjoying the last 5 minute aerobic peak and I caught the edge of my ankle on the floor the next thing I see is the sole of my foot pointing the wrong way up!

I went over like a sack of spuds and felt like throwing up. apparently the colour drained from my face. It took a lot of self control and a lot of biting my bottom lip to encourage the class to finish the section.

What happens next is that the class want to stop so I can get treatment! Well thank you for your concern but I'm sorry you don't get out of doing your press ups that easily! So we finish the class and I apply ice immediately. Of course my foot swells up to twice its original size and is turning a nice shade of blue as I type this. Yes it was probably silly of me to continue but there is something inside me that compels me to deliver the service that you are paying for. Injured or not.

I'm not some type of masochist and quite frankly hate being injured or ill but I am dedicated to my job, if you can call it a job. I like to think of it as a lifestyle choice :-) so..

Why I'm I being told by some people " Oh dear you'll have to cancel your classes now"

Well quite frankly bollocks will I. What I'll do is find an option for me to do and you guys will do the hard work. Easy. After all Its YOUR WORKOUT not mine. I'm here to guide you safely through YOUR WORKOUT and to encourage you to find YOUR own option so YOU can achieve the goals YOU want.

What sort of trainer would I be if I found an excuse to cancel your workout? Its hard enough encouraging some people to partake in some regular exercise as it is. I must admit a twisted ankle is a reasonable excuse. I discovered that I can still swim and do upper body exercises without causing any further pain so I can do MY WORKOUT. It might not be the workout I want to do but its better than nothing.

Its my belief that my workout is non negotionable and neither is yours. Just incase you are still unclear all classes will be running this week :-)

Feel free to leave me a message or comment. See you in the Gym MM

A quick catch up

Forgive me father for I have sinned. Its been 7 months since my last blog!

7 months!!! My apologies I promise to be a little more regular from now on

So a brief recap over the last months since the London Marathon.

MAY

May saw the launch of the FIRST MM BOOTCAMP. and how great was that? Over 80 of you pounding the streets of Bodmin at 7am every morning for Six Weeks. We even had live coverage on Radio Cornwall. But the important thing was the results. Everyone who followed the program lost weight. The most being 18lbs !!!!!! That's not bad going for six weeks work. Look out for next years which is going to be even bigger. Me and Liv are working on it even now.

SEPTEMBER

The annual Dragon Boat Race in Falmouth and probably the only sunny day of the year. A crack elite of MM members take the Henderson party bus down tho Falmouth to take on 15 other teams in the best Dragon boat race of the year. With Stan and Luke on Holiday we draft in some non members to put up a valiant race against the formidable Cornish Pirates only to come 2nd.




I think that we need to introduce drug testing into this sport to ensure a level playing field. Still there is always next year.

Its great to meet new members and sad to see members leave but It is with great sadness that I have to report that Katrina, our little drummer girl and great gym member, died in a tragic accident in Slovakia soon after this picture was taken. Kat you were an inspiration and we all miss you.



We also think of Mike, her boyfriend who also sadly lost his sister in the same month. Chin up Mikey hope you come back soon mate.




OCTOBER


October saw some strange going ons in Bodmin with no carnival to attend this year, a few of us felt the need to dress up anyway and get out and about to promote the fitness lifestyle that embodies the MM FITNESS COMMUNITY.

Just what were Batman and Robin doing running around the Streets of Bodmin with MM fliers?





Who were the three beauties who were promoting health and fitness in the pubs around Bodmin?






And who says that parking is a problem at MM FITNESS STUDIO?











These are a few questions that, unfortunately will remain a mystery but with Christmas looming we can look forward to a great end of year party and refreshing our health and fitness goals in 2009