Zero to Ironman. Again.

I’m pretty sure it’s like having a baby. 

[Did I just liken competing in one of the worlds toughest triathlons to having a baby?! Oops...]

The satisfaction it gives you afterwards outweighs the pain. Eventually. Maybe.

You forget the dark damp early winter mornings at the pool, the extreme coldness you feel in your feet and hands after five hours on the bike on a February morning, the crazy thought of lake swimming at the start of April because the race you chose is at the start of summer...

I do like to set myself one big challenge a year and for next years challenge I’m revisiting an old flame.

In 2011 having never completed a triathlon and not even owning a road bike I decided to take on ultra endurance sports biggest challenge - The Ironman.

The Ironman is a 2.4 mile swim (often in the sea), 112 mile cycle and a 26.2 mile run. Done one after the other. On the same day. 

I brought a bike, took advice on how to swim, read the books and followed a time-friendly plan which saw me training for up to 20hrs per week and arrived at the start of Ironman France uncertain of what would happen... 

I crushed it! Finishing Ironman France in 12hrs 43mins, I was immensely satisfied with my efforts and decided to leave it there. Crossing the finishing line of Ironman France was the culmination of an amazing six-months training and was most certainly one of my proudest moments, but the training was so tough I decided despite the vast expense of buying a bike, wetsuit and copious amounts of lycra never to do it again.

Therefore I haven’t sat on my bike since that monumental day. It’s laid dusty and dormant in my garage since I pulled it out the bike box and put it back together. My wetsuit has taken pride of place at the back of my wardrobe alongside the pair of trousers I’m never going to wear, but can’t throw away. And my tri-suit? I’m not really sure wear that is!

However, after a mug or two of idea juice in Pret, I somewhat conveniently forgot the reasons why I vowed not to do it. I remember the euphoria, the carnival atmosphere you get at this race, the cool stash. I remembered the feeling of crossing the line, the feeling of knowing you are the fittest you have ever been and the feeling you have done something quite incredible. 

The race itself is alright (I guess if you take the time to prepare properly...), but the training for this race is brutal.

Swim, bike, run, swim, bike, run, swim, bike, run... To get good at three different sports takes time. Training takes up to 20 hours a week. But, like my hero The Rock says, ‘there’s great value achieving the goal. But the greater value is in the struggle and hard work to achieve it..’ 

There really is no glory without sacrifice.

I guess it’s this final point which makes Ironman an incredible race. When my friend Nikki told me she was keen to do it, I was keen to share her journey. The hard work, sacrifices and struggles make it an amazing accomplishment and that feeling is totally worth it.

I guess I’ve just got to remember this in the next couple of months!

Let my journey to Ironman Lanzarote begin...

7 Reasons To Exercise Other Than A Smoking Hot Body

Did you know there are actually more reasons to train than looking better naked? Check this out...

Clarity & Concentration

You have to be in shape to think! Ok, you don’t have to, but research says it helps. If your body is struggling to keep up with the energy demands of the day then imagine what your brain is doing? By increasing your stamina with exercise you can improve the way you think.

Reflection

Reflection is the better part of a champion! Exercise, albeit exertion, gives you a chance to unwind. Doing something more physical allows your mind to reflect and can give you a sense of perspective. This can give you solutions to mental challenges.

Enjoyment

If you like what you do it won’t seem like a chore! Ok, not all exercise is created equal, some types are more efficient than others. Depending on the results you’re looking to achieve will depend on what you choose. This being said enjoying what you do is important. Engage yourself in the process and you will love it.

Better Sleep

Getting moving can be the catalyst to better sleep. It might be the extra exertion, the calmness and satisfaction from exercise or simple distraction from daily life. If you want to sleep better take some exercise.

A Longer Life

People who exercise live a longer healthier life than those that don’t. However, rather than counting the years in your life, it might be worth considering the counting the life in your years. Being healthier as you get older will give you opportunities to enjoy your life and take holidays when you’re old and grey.

Stress Relief

Life is challenging. In this part of the world you can expect a certain amount of hustle and bustle. Taking time out to exercise can offer welcome relief. Again, this can provide a distraction and focus of day-to-day life.

Increased Self Confidence

Getting fit boosts happy hormones, strengthen posture and makes you feel much better about yourself. This coincides with an increase in self-confidence. People with greater self confidence have a better experience of life.

Improved Fitness

Do I need to elaborate on this one?? Improving fitness without the goal of weight loss is a great reason to exercise...

Look Good Naked in Fifteen Minutes

I’m ecstatic to read Arnold Schwarzenegger is endorsing my simple fitness message.

Working with busy people who are looking for a time-friendly fitness solution I started recommending just a fifteen minute daily exercise habit.

Introducing the simple do-at-home bodyweight workouts to be done before breakfast has been somewhat of a revelation. 

Even my busiest clients can set the alarm a little earlier and to quote The Terminator, “Start with 1%. Pledge to spend 15 minutes each day on your health.’ Simple, eh?

But is fifteen minutes really enough? Yes. Sure, if you did a little longer you could get greater benefits, but the reality is most people don’t do anything so it’s a great place to start. And with my simple bodyweight routines you can do this at home before work in your pajamas.

What to do? You could start with my Five Alive workout. 

Five Alive

• 5 Press Ups
• 5 Squats
• 5 Spidermans (on each leg)
• 5 Lunges (on each leg)
• 5 Burpees

Repeat this five time...

By contributing just 1% of your day to your health and fitness you will be surprised at the results.

Keep me up to date with your progress on Twitter @SteveKeywoodPT or on Facebook here.

Let's Mount Snowdon!

Last weekend The Fit Green mounted Snowdon.

Making our way up on Friday afternoon we arrived at The Black Boy Inn (a former brothel) in Caernarfon in time for some gentle pre-hike refreshment... 

Feeling a little jaded after a little too much refreshment we assembled at the breakfast table the next morning kitted up and ready to go. Leaving any sign of the detox behind us many elected for the full welsh breakfast (exactly the same as a full english... [cue the Welsh uprising]) to fuel the upcoming adventure. 

Being from a non-walking background the crazy get up was a sight to behold. Dressing little bit like one of The Three Musketeers in shorts, tights and boots, George Clooney lookalike (or not...) Mat was confident of the location to meet our guides for the day.

Alongside Mat, in her ‘special’ boots, Stidders and her partner in crime Lindsey, who were slightly fresher than the rest after electing to go to bed early to watch Alan Carr’s Chatty Man had made a sterling job of organising the trip. 

After many u-turns we arrived at the correct car park at the foot of the mountain. Despite being described as ‘very hard’, we elected to take The Watkins Path up Snowdon because it would be more of a challenge. 

Our guides Zak and Cat looked somewhat bewildered when our excited convoy finally reached the meeting point. Out the car and after a few minutes of last minute faffing (Tricey) we were off. 

Making our way up the gentle slopes to start off with we soon opened into the great outdoors. The views in this part of the world are second to none and it was clear this was gonna be a great journey. Starting at the back with Ben & Karen we were laughing at how they had spent the night on a sofa bed in Ally and Tricey’s room. They had booked into the same hotel as us but on a different night. Doh! Lucky we are a friendly bunch at bootcamp.

Just a few minutes in and we were already starting to take layers off. It’s surprising how warm you get whilst walking. This gave a brilliant opportunity for a photo or two.

From this point on the path got steeper and steeper and steeper until we were up in the clouds. The path, a well trodden one, gave fantastic views out to the coast and a challenge to even the toughest of our team. At some points we were on hands and knees. 

We made it up to the ridge and pushed on for the short steep walk to the summit. What an achievement! I think we were all delighted. Luckily we were joined on the summit by a surprise visitor - Ally’s cousin Huw who lives locally had whizzed up another route. Even better for us he was kind enough to bring a bottle of champagne!

After a toast and a few more pictures we found a quiet corner in the cafe at the top to eat our sandwiches. However, the job wasn’t quite done. Our guide Zak calmly reassured us the descent is often as challenging as the climb and so back out in the fresh air we needed to warm up. Keen not to waste energy and always primed there was nothing for it... PRESS UPS! 

Impressed by the teams general fitness levels and positive attitudes our guides decided to take us another route down the mountain. This was great because we got to some even better views and a slightly more varied terrain. 

It would appear Zak was right. Walking down was challenge. Mat, who had been struggling with a bad knee during the week began to feel it. Luckily for us he was proud and brave and didn’t let us know about it. Oh, no, that’s right, he did. Never have you heard something so dramatic. Luckily he had a couple of walking poles and a sense of humour.

Making it up in three-and-a-half hours and then back down in three we had all had a great day. From the journey up on the Friday afternoon with my trusty companions Bev and Cla(I)ra to the drinks in the bar to the climb and the descent this was an amazing trip.

A special thanks to Claire and Lindsey for organising it and Zak and Cat our guides. 

Another challenge complete! ...I wonder what’s next?!

Tom Daley & Clear Goals

Watching Tom Daley on the Jonathan Ross Show last week highlighted the importance of clarifying your goals.

With his Olympic bronze medal in hand he told of a conversation he had with his father when he was nine. 

At the time London had been put forward to host the Olympics in 2012 but hadn’t won the bid yet. Tom’s father who I gather from the interview was his coach told Tom if the Olympics were in London and he trained hard he could be there participating too.

With this thought in mind at nine years old Tom Daley drew this picture in his diary under the title My Ambition.

My point is having a clear and specific goal means you are much more likely to achieve it.

Furthermore research states by writing it down you are far more likely to succeed. 

Even better still by taking the time to draw a picture you can add further clarity and create a clearer vision of your goal. 

By engaging in the process this way you can make your ambition a reality. 

How To Get Six-Pack Abs Like Jessica Ennis

Mwahahhahahahhahahhaha...

Last week I unveiled my herculean efforts in the six-pack challenge. I was proud of the transition I made in a relatively short period of time, but the truth of the matter is I’m a personal trainer with years of experience and knowledge. I should be able to get myself in shape quickly - it’s what I do!

The real test of what I do is in the regular everyday person I help day-to-day. These people are often short on time, suffer with motivation, have less skills and abilities in the gym, often have an area of weakness/ tightness or muscular imbalance, have a limited amount of money to spend on stuff like personal trainers and are as a general rule derive slightly less enjoyment from exercise than I do.

Therefore for me to help not just one person to get a six-pack in six weeks, BUT TWO (please note the use of caps lock, bold and underlined for BIG EMPHASIS!) is perhaps the most satisfying social proof of the training plans and nutritional advice my clients are using and how I’m coaching them (I'm clearly taking full credit... Ha!).

The truth of the matter is I’ve been working with Franco for nearly six months now but from where he started and the results he’s got in this time are truly amazing.

This is a guy with a full-time sedentary job and various life commitments but with a strong motivation and very clear goal. Impressive.

However, when Claire asked me if she could join the competition I was excited. Claire is 41 and a mother of two and has been coming to my bootcamp three-times a week for over a year now. She has followed several of my internet-based fat loss plans but had never trained in the gym.

To get six-pack abs you need to consider three different aspects - posture, body composition (body fat!) and muscle tone. I wrote a blog on this a few months ago. Check it out here.

People Are Different

Both Franco and Claire needed slightly different requirements to achieve their goal. Franco had been training in the gym for a few years using big lifts such as squats, deadlifts, bench presses and pull ups. He needed coaching to work on his technique and we needed to do a bit of stretching and mobility work to improve his posture, but in general he had good muscle tone. Of most importance he needed to burn fat (and lots of it!) to see his abs.

On the other hand Claire had a relatively low body fat percentage (unusual for most of my clients - although still needed to do a bit more to bring out her abs) but priority for her was more structural/ postural work and coaching in the gym to achieve her goal. We also needed to get her doing the correct exercises at the correct intensity - i.e. We needed to improve her posture and muscle tone.

Improving Muscle Tone

For both we used the combination of heavy strength training combined with intense metabolic bodyweight workouts. Claire’s plan involved more control drills to improve posture and core strength whilst Franco had slightly more stretching to do to allow him to hold better posture.

With Claire and Franco I used big lifts to stimulate maximum metabolic disruption. These included squats, lunges, deadlifts, bench presses and rows (or pulling exercises). These are important on any plan to stimulate fat loss and improve muscle tone. 

Ab Work

You might be surprised to know I didn’t use too much ab work with either Franco or Claire. If you exercise correctly you should use your stomach muscles with the big lifts. Ab exercises don’t require much energy to do and therefore don’t burn much fat. That said we did do a couple of exercises at the end of each session because once we got down to our target body fat we need the muscle tone to get them to show.

What To Eat

If you regularly tune into my blog you’ll know the importance I place on the food you eat. The truth is abs are made in the kitchen and both Claire and Franco followed my diet plans.Again, there were subtle differences in these plans. 

Franco had to follow a slightly stricter plan because he seems to have a higher propensity to store fat than Claire. However, both were fantastic in adhering to the plans and like all my plans the goal is to make them as healthy as possible because a healthy body doesn’t store fat.

With nutrition the emphasis was on eating whole unprocessed food. We reduced (not eliminated) the energy dense starchy and sugary carbohydrates and even though we didn’t count calories we needed to reduce calories and be at an energy deficit to get the results. The balance between exercise and diet is crucial.

Rest, Recovery & Regeneration

To speed up results during a plan like this its important to consider rest, recovery and regeneration because with the accumulation of hard workouts it could be easy to burn out. Therefore I made sure Franco and Claire got to bed by 10:30pm each night, monitored stress and took time to relax during the day even if it was for just 5 minutes!

Fat Loss Supplements... NOT!

I do advocate supplementation to support this type of goal, but the key with this is to support health and none of my recommendations ‘speed up’ fat loss. You can find out what I recommended here.

Note: Most of the supplements to speed up fat loss are BS and are unhealthy.

Note2: If you overlook any of the above it is pointless supplementing.

THE RESULTS!!!!!

Check them out...

I think they both did brilliantly!

This is an extremely challenging goal and I’m really proud of their efforts. 

I thought it was also worth noting where Franco's come from to arrive at where he is. Epic, right?!

If you want to stay tuned on any of my blogs or have any positive and supportive comments venture over to my Facebook wall or follow me on Twitter @SteveKeywoodPT

The Six Pack Challenge: My Final Photos

In the last six weeks I have been taking part in a six pack challenge.

Whilst from the outside this shameful display of vanity might seem to be just a shameful display of vanity, I can tell you it is actually a little more. You see, my working principle is to practice what I preach and whilst I swan off around the world competing in ultra distance races, ironman and other adventure races, the majority of my clients quite simply just want to look better naked, therefore I feel it only practice and refine my skills in this area on myself.

By this I mean, I’m sure they want to feel better in themselves, they enjoy the challenge of getting fit and the rush of endorphins that come with it, they understand the health benefits and realise by doing a bit of fitness and eating better we can prolong the dribbly bit at the end of our life, but to be quite honest (and I might be wrong...) I’m sure many of them would forgo all that just to look smoking hot in a bikini (even the guys...).

This might seem fickle, but in truth it’s more important than you think. Whilst some people in life are busy demonising certain people for wanting to look good, criticizing pictures of good looking people and vilifying celebrities for daring to look good, looking good is in fact central to the way we think and feel about ourselves, our confidence and self-esteem. 

My point being it’s not a problem to want to look good naked. 

And more to the point, if you do it properly its pretty damn healthy too!

Anywho...

I guess the other aspect of this which was fundamental to me was I wanted a little nudge to get back in the gym. When we started this challenge six-weeks ago I had just finished my 69-mile ultra distance race from Carlisle to Newcastle and I hadn’t used a barbell or a dumbbell for a couple of months. With the rules stating I needed to put before and after pictures on Facebook this was enough to encourage me eating healthily and train hard (so you’d think...)

It’s fair to say I had a couple of reservations doing this challenge, my main concern was over the last year or two by doing big ultra endurance races I’d lost much of my muscle mass (think skinny runner...) and felt a six pack on a skinny guy just wasn’t cricket (a muscular person with a six-pack is far more respectable in my opinion), but the tables dramatically turned when a couple of my clients expressed an interest in doing it. I clearly couldn’t let them enter the competition without me, could I?!

It was a bit of a shock to the system to be back in the gym. And it’s not like I eased myself back in gradually either. With just six weeks, I needed to get moving. I pretty much followed the same exercise and nutrition plans my clients use with one slightly critical difference. From about three weeks, once I felt my body was in better balance, I tried using an intermittent fasting protocol called The Lean Gains Method.

This involved periods of feasting and fasting combined with my usual heavy resistance training and bodyweight workouts and sprints to stimulate slightly quicker results. 

I have to say I found it difficult. Perhaps looking good naked isn’t as important as I think? Perhaps it was too much too soon after coming off a challenging training plan for my ultra? Perhaps I needed to be more organised for the fasting and feeding phases of the diet plan I was using? 

Either way here it is...

Before

After 

You will notice somewhat tragically something is slightly abs-ent! Yes, I fell a little shy of my goal, but thats fine with me. I’m down to about 7% body fat which is pretty lean and you can expect to see definition in your abs at about 9% for a guy (its about 13% for a girl). I think I’d probably need to lose another 1% or 2% to get them to show.

I do actually feel great for being back in the gym and I’m keen to carry on too.

What’s next? I’m looking forward to hanging out with EJ & William and enjoying a bit cake and a latte at my new favorite coffee shop in St Johns. I will carry on training but with an emphasis on gaining strength and muscle, but not too much. I’ve signed up for Ironman Lanzarote next year and so will need to dust off my bike and find my goggles and so I’ll be back in training soon.