How to get fit

Last weekend I played tennis for the first time in 30 years. My wife and I are lucky enough to live near a tennis court that is very rarely used. So we went to a supermarket, bought two bats and some balls (for £15 total!) and started playing. I know that they should properly be called racquets, but believe me, when they are in untrained hands like ours, they are definitely bats.

To say that we were truly dreadful would be a considerable understatement. Passers-by initially found it fascinating to watch, until they realised that no one was safe from stray tennis balls…

We had a lot of fun. We got well and truly puffed out, mainly running after balls that we had no chance of hitting, but also going outside the court to collect the balls that went over the fence. They don’t make the fences high enough, do they? Or that’s what our spectators thought!

All this made me think. I’ve been reading a lot recently about the benefits of short, high intensity intervals in training. As a runner, you can never convince me to abandon long runs. They are great for endurance and running efficiency, and I really enjoy running through the countryside in a world of my own.

But short bursts of high intensity exercise (running or other forms) are well known for improving performance very rapidly. And that is just what playing tennis is about. A burst of running as fast as you can, followed by a rest.

Even though I do a fair bit of running, this 1 hour of tennis gave me quite a workout, and the next morning I could feel muscles that I didn’t know that I had. It MUST be doing me good! And it really was great fun. It may not have been much to watch – Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams we are NOT – but we enjoyed it, and it gave us a good workout. What a way to take advantage of the summer evenings!

If you want to get fit, but you feel stuck in a rut, try something different and fun. There are many possibilities – tennis, badminton, swimming, squash… And down here in Cornwall there is Pilot gig racing – rowing in the sea in teams of 6 or 8. If you want a workout that will really stretch you, try rowing! Chances are, you’ll enjoy it so much you won’t even realize that you are getting fitter!

Rob Knowles 27 July 2010

Now that summer is with us – the sun has actually come out in Cornwall on more than one occasion, and it’s only July! – thoughts turn to sport and holidays. What with Wimbledon, the football World Cup, the Tour de France, the wonderful one day cricket internationals (sorry to any Australians who maybe reading this between bouts of sobbing inconsolably) it would be easy to spend all your spare time watching the Sports Channel. And why not?

However, while you are watching, don’t just be dazzled by the skills of the players, and the euphoria of winning (oops, sorry again to the Australians!). Take a little time to observe the physique of the sports men and women. Even in cricket, which many people consider to be a lazy mans sport, you don’t see any overweight players these days. It may look a bit tame if you don’t like the game, but let me assure you that fielders have to have a pretty good 100m time to be able to run after the ball and stop it reaching the boundary. And they do this many times every day. A recent study showed that an average first class fielder ran 15.5km (9.6miles) per day, with many high intensity bursts of running interspersed. This is not a sport for a couch potato!

Even Motor Racing, which on the face of it seems to be the laziest sport of all, is not immune. I know that the drivers basically just sit there driving for a couple of hours (I do the same myself quite regularly…). But racing drivers are different. They have to be at the peak of fitness. When Formula One driver Mark Webber broke his leg in November 2008 he was competing in a charity 250km challenge involving trekking, kayaking and riding a bike. Not the actions of a lazy car driver.

Obviously genetics must come into this at some stage. We are not all given the basic equipment to enable us to ride 3642km on a bike across France in 23 days, however much training we do. However, everyone can get better. With training we can all get fitter, improve our endurance, build up muscle, and burn off fat. It just takes effort.

So don’t just sit there enjoying the sport on TV. Let it inspire you to reach your challenges. The Tour de France might be a bit of a stretch. But what about running your first marathon next year? Or entering a Triathlon for a new challenge?

Elite athletes were not born able to win world records. They trained and trained and trained. Let the great weather and the exciting summer of sport give you the spur you need to improve on your best. You’ll be amazed at what you CAN achieve!

Rob Knowles 6 July 2010

The summer is here and there is no excuse for not getting out and enjoying the sun!

I hope that you are having a great summer, getting out and about, and doing so much exercise without realising it that you are really beginning to feel the benefit.

However, I feel some of you may be suffering like us – down in deepest South West UK the weather for the last 2 months has been….lousy.

For all you people planning a late holiday in Cornwall, I’m sure the weather will improve – honest! But so far it has been pretty wet (the grass and bushes are growing like crazy), and it hasn’t even been very warm – maybe 16 – 18°C. In a ‘proper summer’ we should be having 25°C plus.

What has this got to do with getting fit? Well everything really. One of the most difficult things about getting fit can be finding the motivation to get out of your chair and start doing some exercise. Walking, jogging, running, swimming are great. But if the weather is foul it’s easy to think ‘Maybe tomorrow’. Unfortunately, this year that would have meant staying in and never getting any exercise at all.

There are two things that can help, though. Firstly, if you have got your motivation properly worked out, you will have written down your goals, and why you want to achieve them. When you are struggling to get out of the door, think about your goals, and why they are important to you. Think how good it will be when you have achieved them. This should help to give you the extra kick you need to get started.

For more information about how to get your motivation sorted so that you WANT to get fit, go to www.getfitfeelgreat.co.uk

The second point may be more difficult to believe – but once you’ve tried it you will know it is right. Going for a walk or run when it’s raining actually makes you feel better about yourself than going when the weather is nice.

Don’t get me wrong – I love running in summer. Blue sky. Sunshine. The world is just such a great place to be! And when you get home again and have a shower, you feel great.

When the weather is awful though, it really is worth persevering. Firstly, as you will be exercising, you will warm up. If the weather has been awful it may be the first time that you’ve warmed up all day. I know this works for me.

Also, the sense of achievement when you get home is HUGELY more than if you go out on a nice day.

You have overcome the elements!
NOTHING can stop you from achieving your goals!
You are getting fitter despite everything!

Trust me – this really works. One time I had to cut short a run because the strength of the wind was so high that the rain drops actually hurt my forehead as they were blown into it.

When I got home, I was REALLY wet.

But I felt GREAT!

Really invigorated by the exciting weather. And with a real feeling of achievement that I actually went for a run in really nasty weather. It helped my fitness. It helped my motivation to keep going even more.

I’m not suggesting that you give up the nice weather walks, jogs or runs. But just try going out sometimes when the weather is awful. You won’t believe how good it can make you feel about yourself!

Find out more about how to get fit, fitness motivation and feeling GREAT!

Here’s hoping that you won’t have to try my idea for another few months (but expecting that you will…).

Rob Knowles 18 August 2009

I heard something on the TV news the other day that made me laugh out loud. The newscaster said ‘The causes of obesity are many and varied, and clearly much more research needs to be carried out to find a solution’.

Don’t get me wrong – I don’t think that obesity is funny. But there is just one cause of obesity – consuming more calories than you use. There are things you can do to change what you eat, and how much energy you expend each day, but the only cause of obesity is a consistent, day-to-day imbalance between the number of calories that you use and the number that you consume.

Going a level deeper into the problem, I can think of just 5 reasons that may have led people into the bad habits that create such an imbalance:

1. Ignorance. They don’t know how harmful to their health being obese is. They don’t know about the health time bombs of heart problems and cancers that they run a serious risk of contracting, or about the likelihood of dying much younger than their healthier contemporaries. They are just happy going along, treating their body badly, without a care in the world. I would like to think that there is no one in this group in the world. Education is a good thing, and hopefully everyone should have the basic information about their bodies to make informed choices about how they want to treat them, and what the likely outcomes are.
2. They don’t care about being obese. They are happy with the way they are, and with the health problems which they will inevitably face as a result of obesity. I don’t understand people in this group – why would you willingly put yourself through such a torture? But if people are genuinely happy in their skin, they have made a choice. I know some people in this group, and they have every right to be how they want.
3. Those who can’t see the truth. They don’t see anyone fat looking back at them when they look in the mirror. Or think it’s someone else’s fault that they are overweight. Perhaps they were force fed with cream buns, or defied science by putting on weight despite only drinking water and eating 2 dry biscuits a day. I don’t think so!
4. They have low self-esteem. They feel bad because of the way they look. Or maybe they feel bad for other reasons (bad relationships, stressful work, etc) which makes them comfort eat. They just don’t think that they are worth spending the effort on to improve. The only solace they get in life is from enjoying eating what they know they really shouldn’t.

   I suspect that many of this group would like to change but just can’t see a way out of the darkness. They can’t find the willpower to do anything about it. I feel really sad about this group, as they are living through hell, when there is a way of changing themselves, their health and their self-esteem.

5. They have no willpower. I can sympathise with this group too. I know how hard it can be to make the changes that you know need to be made. It can be difficult getting out of bed early on a winter’s morning to go for a run. It can be impossible to resist eating too much at a barbecue. Only having one drink at a party can be unbearable. But again there is a way to overcome this. Anyone can learn how to have a will of iron, if they want to.

So what is the solution? For the first group, education is the essential ingredient. The more you know, the more you are able to make informed choices about your health and life prospects. So the more information you can read about health and weight, the better.

The second group seem pretty happy, so I won’t worry about them – just wish them good luck (they will probably need it later!).

The third group are really difficult to help, as they won’t believe anything you tell them. Their only hope lies in the patient and persistent support and encouragement of friends and family to help them see the error of their ways. It’s going to take some time though…

The last two groups really can be helped, and should be. I’ve written my own book about how I lost weight and got fit called Get Fit, Feel GREAT! which has a lot of information about how to transform your health.

Rob Knowles 23 July 2009

If you want to achieve a lifetime of fitness, there is one essential thing you must do, but most ‘health’ websites won’t tell you what it is. THEY are only interested in promoting their own program, so they will always say they have the only way that works. However, that fails to recognise that we humans are all different. We all like different things, start off from different points and have different levels of motivation for improving our fitness. So what’s the key thing no one will ever tell you? It’s so simple, I’m almost embarrassed to say, but the most important thing is…..

…..that you start doing something to improve your fitness.

It doesn’t matter what. Just do something. Anything.

Sure, some combinations of exercise and diet are better than others. But almost any WILL improve your fitness. And it will do you more good to do SOMETHING rather than NOTHING. I know it’s heresy, especially as I have written my own eBook about getting fit (www.GetFitFeelGreat.co.uk), which is mainly in favour of doing regular cardiovascular (CV) exercise (e.g. running, cycling, swimming) and gaining control over your diet. But if you can’t face that type of regime, it will help your health much more if you start SOME kind of fitness program rather than just keep on leaving it until tomorrow.

Another problem many people face in the current harsh financial situation is that they don’t want to waste cash on something that won’t work. It’s often difficult to know how good these health programs are until you’ve actually spent hard earned cash on them, so I have another helpful idea for you – why don’t you test-drive the top three programs on the internet absolutely FREE! If you go to www.GetFitFeelGreat.co.uk/Lifetime_Fitness.htm you can download free samples of the top fitness programs without spending a dime! Then, if you really do want to achieve a lifetime of fitness, simply read through each and see if they speak your language.

• Do they inspire you to start exercising now?
• Do you think you could stick with the kind of routines they describe?
• Will they help you to achieve your goals?

Only you can decide the answer to these questions.

So go now to www.GetFitFeelGreat.co.uk/Lifetime_Fitness.htm to try out the top internet programs for attaining lifetime fitness.

If none of them suit you, you could try my own eBook www.getfitfeelgreat.co.uk It’s less of a formal system than the ‘big ones’, but it’s based on my experiences of getting fit, and staying fit, and my research into what works best. It is a lot more adaptable to your interests and circumstances than my more famous competitors, and it might just help you to make the change in your health that you are seeking.

And remember, it’s more important that you start doing some form of exercise, than what that exercise actually is. You can worry about how to maximise your health gains from your invested time once you have found a form of exercise you like and can keep to. So what are you waiting for? Try out the top fitness programs on the internet now from www.GetFitFeelGREAT.co.uk/Lifetime_Fitness.htm to see if they can set you on the course to a lifetime of fitness!.

Rob Knowles 21 May 2009

Newcomers to the world of fitness frequently are unsure about how exercise and diets go together. Most people who decide that they want to get fit are a little out of condition, and usually a bit overweight. There is no doubt that the maximum gains to be had from a fitness regime come from attention to three areas: cardiovascular training, resistance training (e.g. building muscle by weight training) and nutrition. Dealing with any one of these in isolation will have a positive benefit to your health. But dealing with all three is best.

In practice, I find that those starting out need to concentrate on cardiovascular training (e.g. walking, jogging, cycling…) and nutrition. Only after they have starting making improvements to their fitness should they start thinking about asking Santa for a set of dumbbells!

I’m always talking about the cardiovascular (CV) side of things, so today I thought I’d give you a few ideas about modifying your diet to support your new fitness regime. It’s difficult to give specific advice as I don’t know you, but assuming that you want to lose a few pounds whilst getting fit, here are some good general guidelines to follow:

1. Try to eat less fat in your diet. That means more white meat (e.g. chicken, turkey) and less red meat (beef or lamb). Also stir-fry or grill the meat rather than deep fry or roast it, as these cooking methods minimise the amount of fat left in the food when you eat it.
2. Try to reduce the amount of sugar you consume. That means no cola (or at least diet cola if you can’t live without). No sugar in hot drinks (use a sweetener if you need one). No chocolate snacks (try a single square of dark chocolate to overcome chocolate cravings).
3. Try to eat more vegetables, fruit and nuts than before – you need the nutrients, and a good varied diet is essential if you are increasing the amount of exercise that you do.
4. Be VERY careful about diet foods. Always read the carton before buying a diet food in the supermarket. For example, many low fat yoghurts being sold as healthy options are FULL of added sugar. You can find ones which don’t have all this sugar, but you need to check the nutrition panel before you buy it.
5. If you drink alcohol, try to drink wine instead of beer or lager. If you must drink beer, try to go for ‘lite’ beers. You’d be amazed at how many calories a single pint of beer contains (around 200!).
6. Finally, if you are doing more exercise than you are used to, you will probably need to eat more protein in your diet. That means a bigger portion of meat or cheese than before, but stick to the low fat versions.

I hope that this is helpful. My eBook Get Fit, Feel GREAT! has more information about exercise and diets, should you be interested. Click here to find out how to get fit and lose weight and enjoy the process!

If you want to find out more about nutrition, my wife Eleanor has written an eBook : www.EatLeanNotMean.com. It goes into a lot more detail about what is in food, what you need to eat to be healthy, and how to modify your diet without giving up the things that you love eating. It’s not a diet book – it is designed to educate you about food, so you can make the right choices yourself. It even tells you how you can eat some of your old favourites, but without heaping on the pounds. Click here to find out more about nutrition and how to cook yourself thin!

I hope that this helps explain the connection between exercise and diet – changing either one will help make you more healthy – changing both together works even better.

Rob Knowles 7 April 2009

Welcome to the new Get Fit, Feel GREAT! blog.   Here I’ll be putting up articles which I hope will be of interest to anyone who wants to get fit.   Please feel free to contact me if there is anything I can help you with!

People often ask me whether jogging to lose weight really works.   So many websites say that any cardiovascular (CV) exercise is a waste of effort.   And I know many people see obese joggers and think to themselves ‘That sure doesn’t seem to be working!’.   So what’s the truth?  

Jogging really does help people to lose weight.   You may lose more weight if you modify your diet as well, but jogging on it’s own still works.   Here’s why:

1. Jogging uses up a lot of calories while you are doing it.  
2. When you finish jogging for the day, your body’s metabolism continues running at a higher rate than your normal resting metabolism for some hours.   So even when you are sitting at home you are still using up more calories than usual.
3. When people start jogging the amount of muscle in their legs and lower body begins to increase.   All that exercise quickly builds up muscle bulk.   When you are resting, muscle burns more calories than the rest of your body.   Jogging has found another way for you to burn more calories even when you are watching TV!
4. I find that running allows me to think about all the things that I want to do, as well as enjoying the countryside, and the fresh air.   So I don’t tend to spend my life thinking about food.   And I’ve found that the less time you spend thinking about food, the less you tend to eat.
5. When I get back from a good run, my wife is convinced I’ll be starving hungry.   But in fact the opposite is true.   I’m just not hungry for some time afterwards.   So again you tend to eat less.
6. Finally, as you start to feel fitter, notice that your clothes start to feel looser, notice that you have some muscles developing after all, you get a real boost.   Then you find that you want to learn more about what’s more healthy to eat, and you end up eating better.   Again, less calories!  

All of this adds up to a great recipe for losing weight.   In fact everyone I’ve ever met who started running or jogging has lost weight.   That’s why I’m sure that it can work for anyone.   All you need to do is start out carefully (you don’t want to injure yourself before you start, do you?), follow the basic rules of starting exercising, and you can look forward to a great new you! 

And what about the fat jogger?   They are almost certainly just starting out on the road to getting fit, and losing weight.   Keep an eye out for them in future, and see how fast they morph in to a normal (i.e. thin) jogger.   They deserve praise for taking their long term health into their own hands.   Don’t you want to join them?

To find out more about how you can start jogging to lose weight, and what the basic rules are go to http://www.getfitfeelgreat.co.uk  There you’ll find all you need to know to start changing your life for the better.

Rob Knowles 30 March 2009