As many of you may have seen on my Facebook  I was recently travelling around Japan! And what an awesome country it was, but with all travelling and holidays sometimes you don’t have the facilities or means to be able to get to a gym yet training is still important!

Now I’m not going to say don’t enjoy your holiday but I feel it’s important to keep activity levels high, and still train your body for health and any goal you’re chasing! I think this is more important if  your trip is sitting by the pool kind of trip as we all love to eat and you can get to eat more without worrying if you train still.. WINNNNNNNNN!!

What I’ve done is just create a really simple program they’re all body weight exercises that require no gym! Now some moves may be a little advanced and if that’s the case regress them and make them easier i.e squat jump to just squat, pull ups to invert rows or negative pull ups.

3 workouts a week should be ample but if you want to do another add an extra sprint session or a long run if that’s what you like and if you’re stuck for ideas drop me a message on here or on my Facebook and get in touch always happy to help!

I thought not only giving you an insight into the food I create which is found HERE but to also give you more of a peek into what I do training wise and why I do it.

I find a lot that people go into the gym go with no basis of plan towards what they’re wanting and have just a generalised goal like;

“I want to lose weight” which is like saying “I want a car, a car that goes from A to B” but has no thought at all towards how long it takes to get there, how quickly it will achieve and what the journey will be like.

It’s important to train smart & train hard having one without the other will yield sub par results if any results at all.

My program here is focussed on work capacity what that means exactly is; “Work capacity” is a program to condition your body to handle a higher volume of work at a higher intensity level that you will experience in your strength phase of training

“Doing this before a strength program is ideal especially as it will reduce risk of injury”

Within the program I’ve incorporated more bench as mine is relatively weak compared to my overhead and getting it stronger will imrpove the other, increased my training on my lower and upper back as getting a lift or not can be greatly determined by it and finally I wanted to do a lot more hamstring and glute work as my last program was very squat focussed so I wanted to bring proportional size and strength back.

How to Follow;

• Down the left side you see the order in which you perform the exercises “A1” would be followed by a “A2” or “B1”.
• If it’s “A2” it would mean they’re supersetted and you can go the left side and see that A1 is performed and with no rest A2 is done, only then do you rest for the specified time.
• “Cycle” one cycle of the program is 3 weeks.
• After 3 weeks all the main lifts %’s are increased by 5% so week 1’s squat would go from 85% & 70% to 90% & 75%
• Warm Up – This is my one I use and it caries depending on the session make sure to focus on your weaknesses and niggles
• Notes provide focus points
• Sets, Reps and Rest are outlined as usual

Here’s the free download to my program;

 Work Capacity Block FREE Download

Little video of me doing my supersetted deadlift from this week

This program would ideally be done for 9 weeks meaning you would get 3 cycles of it before moving on to a new program, I also included conditioning on my rest days to keep speed, agility and fitness but that’s another blog post, if you would like to see what I do for conditioning why not like share and comment and I will show you.

From Will, the guy who trains to beat himself

Get PRIMAL, Be Happy!

When reaching the level where you want to compete, performing well becomes that much more important and knowing what supplements on the market truly work and will improve that performance is hard to come by!!

There are actually very few proven sports supplements that ACTUALLY make a difference, yet it remains one of the biggest money makers in the fitness industry! So what you really need is;

A List of supplements that actually work!

This is a 2 part blog on Recovery and Performance so you can bring your A game all the time!!

First up PERFORMANCE;

Protein;

This doesn’t have to be whey protein or isolate, casein it can just be meat, though meat isn’t a supplement it should be the main ingredient in all diets especially those who want to lose weight, grow muscle or perform better

• Vital in Performance & recovery
• Needs to be high in L-Leucine (most anabolic amino acid)
• Protein intake every 4 hours to maximise muscle protein synthesis
• Available everywhere
• Also available in Protein powder form, great when in a rush

Creatine;

The most tested sports supplement on the market… It works, here’s why

• Intake from diet is roughly 1g/d and body synthesizes 1g/d. Need about 5g per day to saturate the muscles over time.
• Improves muscle hydration
• Increases strength over the 1-5 rep range
• Aids in ATP re-synthesizeation
• Only go for high quality Creatine in the form of “Creapure” tm.
• Reasonably cheap

Beta – Alanine;

New..ish great product that helsp prevent lactic acid build up in the muscles, so you cna push that bit harder for longer.

• Increases performance by 2.5% in exercise between 60-240secs
• Reduces time to reach fatigue by hydrogen ion buffering
• Inexpensive
• Best incorporated in endurance sports
• 1.5g x 4 a day for 6 weeks – then 1.5g x 2 a day ongoing

Caffeine;

• Between 4-6mg per kg is considered optimal for performance benefits. >9mg per kg does not lead to an increase in effects
• Increase power output in weightlifters and cyclists as well as a wide variety of other sports
• Do not use for prolonged periods of time due to increased dependency and reduced effectiveness.
• Best used during peak weeks or pre competitions
• Very cheap

So there you have it!! A list of what works and what could be helping you reach your new PB. Though I want to add nothing really does beat training hard, eating well and sleeping like a hibernating bear!

There are other potential supplements like beetroot juice, tart cherry juice, why not drop a message and ask a question if you’re not sure though.

From Will,

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Is what you can find yourself saying when you can’t sleep or continuous waking in the night.

BUT you’re not alone! Problems sleeping is a really common thing and I have lots and lots of people ask me about it, why do they have it and how can they can change it?

Having trouble sleeping, whether it’s drifting off or broken sleep can be really frustrating and upsetting, so I thought I should create a list to help you through these horrid times!

Here is the list of quick easy things you can do that can help;

• Avoid blue lights an 1-2 hours prior to sleep! Blue lights are things like electrical devices (computers, phones, TVs) if you use them late at night due to shift work or other reasons install justgetflux.com on you device.

WHY? Blue lights on whilst asleep with prevent disruption with blue light prevent REM sleep, ever randomly woken up with the TV on? Yep that’s all due to it being on and causing cortisol (stress hormone) to keep increasing till you wake up)

• Avoid low GI/complex carbohydrates late at night which can disrupt the entry of deep sleep and production of growth hormone aiding in recovery

• Getting your environment just right for sleep sounds simple but making sure background noise, heat and lighting won’t disrupt or prevent deep sleep is important.

• White noise, ocean or forest sounds etc. Have been proven to help block other thoughts and distractions and create an easier path to sleep

• The temperature of the room should be cool, this usually means open windows or specific lightweight bed-clothes and minimal clothing to ensure airflow

• Black out curtains mean that when summer comes and that sun is rising at 4-5am you won’t be getting up way before you’ve fully rested.

The Suns light naturally causes the body to wake up which is why in summer you find yourself getting up earlier than usual.

• Taking ZMA an hour prior to sleep enables the CNS to be depressed and allows you to enter REM sleep quicker

• Tulsi tea with its cortisol reducing effects with aid in deep sleep entry.

• Magnesium baths once per week can be very relaxing in the evening and are ideal at the end of a very stressful week to improve relaxation

Do them one by one and see which one works best for you!

If it’s still not working why not drop me an email or a facebook message and I will take some time to chat with you about what might help you.

From Will, the guy who  sleeps like Snorlax

Get PRIMAL, Be Happy!

Self-affirmation

Noun

1. the act or an instance of affirming; state of being affirmed.

2.the assertion that somethingexistsoristrue.

3.something that is affirmed: a statement or proposition that is declared to be true.

4.confirmation or ratification of the truth or validity of a prior judgement, decision, etc.

I wanted to open this post with the description of what I want to talk about today, “Self-affirmation” the process of confirming to yourself that what is said is declared to be true.

Sometimes it’s easy to find yourself being lost and not know your direction in what you want to do, achieve, be and this can be so stressful can leave you feeling confused and even possibly upset. So I checked out this cool book I was recommended “How to have a big life” – Rupert Mckerron.

“Like a genie, your subconscious will deliver whatever it is asked regardless of the consequences.” – Rupert McKerron

So I started reading this book and even after a few days of doing what it suggested I suddenly started to find my feet again, and began walking on the path I had originally set out on! And this made me wonder how many people are actually out there, aimlessly living life day by day, lost and not sure what to do, not by choice possibly, but just because they don’t know how to create direction, and all they’re needing is to be guided towards that “Yellow brick road” and to find themselves again!

I thought I would love to help all of you guys with this too! This website is after all about living a happier, more primal life, about sharing with you the things I do, and have found through my process of adventure and self discovery!

So let’s start with the first step I’ve taken and you can take it too! As the beginning suggest this is all about Self-affirmation!

Affirmation is the movement of thoughts from negative town (Unhappy thoughts, ideas, harsh experiences) to positive city! (Happy thoughts, ideas, fun experiences). It’s the re-programming of your mind – sub-conscious to be more accurate – to change negatives into positives.

You see if you constantly tell yourself “I’m fat!”, “I’m a failure” your sub-conscious will recognise this and will do it’s damnedest to make it a reality!

So what if we swap it around and instead of “I’m fat!” you started saying “I’m SEXY!” Ha! And instead of “I’m a failure” you say “I’m SUCCESSFUL!!” and slowly you will override those old beliefs with new positives ones, not only that you will start to believe these statements, and they will start becoming a reality!

You need to challenge those negative beliefs and start to stem the flow of negative thoughts and words that seek to validate them. Affirmations are more than just repeating words. It is a whole process of becoming aware of your thoughts and words in everyday life, choosing to think and project happy positive thoughts. The more you can consciously inject the spirit of you affirmations into your daily thoughts and words, the quicker they will work for you.

It’s about 2 weeks ago now I started doing mine, and each morning and I practically shout them to world, they make me smile and instantly happier, I then chant them in the car on the way to work, repeating them to myself, ingraining them into my sub-conscious,and BOOM! It’s working, my attitude, my training, my work, even the way I view things is changing! And suddenly more doors are opening and my yellow brick road is brighter than ever, so I’m sure I won’t be losing my way any time soon!

“Is this the right path?”

So this obviously begs the question “How can I do this!?”

Start by taking some time to think about areas in your life you would like to improve and how you might want your life to be. Take your time though, you want them to be powerful, and the things you want most!
Now look at each item on the list and write out a few positive statements for each. They must be positive and in the present tense, focus on what you do want!

Some examples could be;

• I am Happy
• I am successful
• I am confident
• I am strong
• I am committed to my goals

Make sure the phrase doesn’t have any negatives in it otherwise your sub-conscious won’t hear it! For example if you said “I’m not stupid!” your sub-conscious would only hear “I’m stupid!” Your instructions must be CLEAR!!!

Make sure you don’t whisper them too shout them out really tell yourself that you’re AMAZING! and you will begin to believe!

From Will, the guy who tells himself how awesome he is every morning in the car to work!

Get PRIMAL, Be Happy!