life and training is about being your own specialist, you have your own journey, your own values and your own beliefs, so i tend to gear to wanting to know who someone is and helping them get to where they want and not telling them who they want to be

and that applies in life, in training and in philosophy, we are all so different and we always will be. we have to look at our own strengths and weaknesses and tailor our path this way, by observing, noticing and being honest with ourselves.

so for example for me being strong, healthy, flexible, confident and muscular are important to me, so i focus on those things, however a lady may want to be leaner and mobile and firm, so her workout design and route would be different to mine.

this week I’ve experimented with ideas to balance my body out, I’ve done bikram yoga in the st james area twice this week and that helps me to mobilise extend, contract and twist in different ways whilst sweating out the toxins and breathing deeply, that works for me in balancing the body with weight, strength and postural training, the only thing that i feel is missing from my programme at the moment is a little more core is required and some steady state cardio that doesn’t burn into my muscles such as a comfortable 10 – 20 minute run by the river, for me thats it. here are some ideas on a workout i love for me at the moment

I’ve been hanging out and training with olympic sprinter Julian Thomas, he raced Usain Bolt in the last olympics so i like to brainstorm ideas with him, and he loves the whole 5 x 5 philosophy for strength training. i happen to love one of the two olympic lifts. the snatch, it works every muscle in one motion, and it is one movement only. it require great flexibility and is fantastic for improving posture, confidence and the bones, or bone structure, to put it simply it makes them strong. this move also creates great speed for field athletes or any athlete for that matter, I’ve trained a hockey player who’s speed and recovery have been highly noted by his team.

the next move i love is the overhead squat, particularly because i do yoga regularly and yoga tends to overextend the body and spine which is great for the joints and ligaments as long as they are protected by the muscles, so the over head squat is great for getting your sternum lifted and keeping you held upright, to me a lot of yoga teachers and students who only do yoga tend to have a lower back that is quite lordotic, goes inwards or has a daffy duck nature to it, while their shoulders hunch and slope forward, funny enough if i ask them to hold themselves upright they can do it immediately because they have the range of motion, but they cannot hold it because they don’t have the strength.

behind the neck press, i love this because its great for activation of the rear deltoids, the back of the shoulders, and this helps you again to hold yourself upright.

the standing tricep extension, i love this with a barbell or a dumbbell as you get such a deep stretch from it in the triceps and work in both strength and flexibility which is key for sports and for function

the bent over row, great for knowing how to engage your hips properly, as well as your lats and your forearms

hex bar deadlifts from a low position great for sports and for function because it uses a hammer grip, or a neutral grip not a gorilla or pronated one, hence good for the shoulders

pull up great for strength and for core

t push ups with dumbbells, i love this because you have a push up with rear deltoids working and core working from the twist

so find your exercises..