6 Ways to be a better Athlete (and a decent Human Being)

A lot of people have different opinions on how to live their life, how to achieve their goals, and some people may even have an opinion on how to look good doing it. Reading all different health and fitness magazines there are also similar guides to being the best athlete you can be. But how many of these opinions encompass becoming a generally nice human being? How many of these so called guides give you the steps to make everybody around you feel good and also becoming a fulfilled human being?

So here are my 6 Ways to become a better Athlete, and also a decent human being along the way.

Work Hard

This goes without saying. There is no point in having ideas of grandeur and setting all of these goals if you aren’t planning on working hard and sacrificing a lot to achieve them. Yes, if you want to become a successful athlete there are a lot of sacrifices that need to be made. Early mornings, late nights and lack of a social life just to name a few. If this is something that you really want, sacrifice some short term pleasures for your long term successes.

Be Humble

There is nothing worse that a good athlete who won’t shut up about how great they are compared to you. But there is also nothing more inspiring to me than an athlete who quietly works their ass off day in and day out to achieve their goals. In a world full of social media and sponsorship ideas, it is very hard to be a successful athlete without posting on the social media sites like Instagram and Facebook. The most successful athletes will post updates about their program and their progressions, but they won’t sit there and tell you how good they are. They will post showing their hard work day in and day out in their efforts to achieve their goals.

Be nice to Everybody

I feel conflicted about putting this one on the list, as I believe it should be a fundamental part of being human. Whether it is saying hello to everybody as you walk in to the room, or spending that little bit extra time with somebody who asks you for some tips and tricks. Being nice shouldn’t be a chore, it should be ingrained in our society. Unfortunately it isn’t. So the next time you have the opportunity to  improve somebodies day, don’t think. just do it (I swear that is a slogan for a really well known brand…)

Don’t expect anything to be given, earn everything

This is one of my favourite sayings, earnt not given. This goes for everything in your life. If you expect good things to happen without putting in the hard work and dedication required to achieve results, you are relying on factors you can’t control. You cannot expect to hit the gym once a week and fluff your way around trying all the different equipment and expect to be able to perform at a high level. You need to be dedicated and have a specific program that allows for progression and allows you to develop your skills and physical attributes. This applies to everything outside of the gym as well, your personal life, work life and even your leisure activities, if you want good things to happen, put in the hard work.

Bring everybody up to your level

I have had multiple encounters with professional athletes over the years, usually as a fan. Most of these encounters have been super positive, with the athletes giving up valuable time to share some of their experiences and knowledge with me. And I couldn’t be ,more grateful for that little snippet of time that they gave me. Even if you are not a professional athlete, giving your experience and knowledge to everybody around you is a sure way of bringing everybody around you up. I know that after meeting with some of these athletes I was filled with a new found motivation to be a better person and role model to the people around me. So if you ever have the opportunity to positively impact anybody around you, whether they are athletes, family members or just friends, make sure you give them a positive and rewarding experience.

Don’t be an Asshole

I think this is pretty self explanatory. We live in a time now where everybody is so in touch with how they are feeling, yet sometimes we are horrible people to each other. Before you do or say anything, take the time to assess how that action or those words will effect that person and their day.

Why work with a Trainer?

Sometimes I get asked why people need to work with a trainer? There is so much information on the internet and social media in relation to training and getting results.  Yes, some people can get great results training using techniques and programs they saw on youtube and read about in the latest Mens Fitness.

But what most people don’t know is the programs you see in those magazines or the Instagram accounts are specifically designed for athletes at a certain period of time in their training schedule. “8 Weeks to look like Chris Hemsworth from Thor” won’t work if you are starting from a relatively sedentary lifestyle.

This is where having a trainer comes in handy. Whether you see them once a week for some programming and some technical assistance or you see them five times a week for constant motivation and guidance. They are pivotal in helping you reach your goals.

 

7 Reasons why you should have a Trainer: 

1. Motivation: We all know the feeling of being so motivated and to get fit and healthy. It strikes usually straight after seeing a particularly unflattering photograph, or the impending thought of being in bathers in summer. And we also know the feeling of this motivation running away just like the perspiration after countless hours plodding away aimlessly on a treadmill. This is where a trainer comes in, trainers are the perfect way to stay motivated, they keep sessions varied and interesting and keep your interest at an all time high. They have the ability to set short and long term goals that make you feel like you are progressing each and every session.
2. Accountability: That feeling of guilt after eating a whole large pizza is not too bad, but having to admit that to a trainer who has structured a specific eating plan and workout schedule to help you achieve your goals is a whole lot worse. A good trainer will offer certain points of analysis to see where you are progressing and what steps you need to take to achieve those goals. An even better trainer will offer a nutrition plan that will allow you to eat the foods you love in moderation which will increase the effectiveness of the plan!
3. Individualised Programming: The programs you see in Mens Health magazine or on Instagram are good for those specific athletes, why? Because they have been designed with that individual athlete in mind. Their strengths, weaknesses, injuries and special conditions have all been taken into account and a program had been moulded around them. You as an athlete need to consider that a trainer will assess where you need to improve and specifically design a well rounded program to get you there. There is no one size fits all programming, and if there is someone is about to make a whole lot of money selling it! consider your injuries, conditions and limitations and think about how a program could be designed to make you the best athlete you could be.
4. Technical Skills: A good trainer will equip you with the right skills to enable you to train outside of your sessions with them. They will enable you to perfectly execute technical skills that will enable you to develop muscular adaptations through lifting and metabolic conditioning sessions.
5. Wealth Of Knowledge: A good trainer never stops learning. They are constantly looking for ways to improve themselves as coaches and their athletes. Trust in your trainer as this is what they have devoted their lives to doing. Improving athletes and enabling them to perform at their best. Trainers really do get a kick out of seeing improvement in their athletes, whether it is through mobility, strength or conditioning.
6. Safety: How many times have you looked around your gym and seen some lunatic attempting something that looks like it is about to cause some serious damage to themselves and maybe other people around the gym? a good trainer will educate you on how to execute techniques safely and not injure yourself. A trainer wants to see you become the best athlete you can and not become injured!
7. Efficiency: Ever see the guys at the gym do a set and sit on their phones for twenty minutes and then do another set. A trainer will keep you on a strict rest period to increase the efficiency of your workout. A trainer will enable you to fit into an hour session what would normally fit into two hours.

If you or your friends or family are interested in starting your health journey. Dont hesitate to get in contact with me at rob@crossfit25.com.au

Speedbumps

If everything went according to plan, the world would be a very different place. People would be in different financial situations, careers, mindsets and even continents. But the best thing about life, is that nothing ever goes to plan.

This is never more true than when being applied to ones fitness journey. Injuries, illnesses, work commitments or relationship breakdowns all play a part in our accessibility and motivation to continue on a path to better our physical fitness.

Personally I know the effect that an injury can have on your training mindset. A lower back injury kept me out of most physical fitness activities for the latter half of last year, making it hard to walk/run/sleep and at the time most frustratingly, lift weights. But through careful analysis of what I could and couldn’t do. I worked out a physical fitness program which served multiple purposes. The main purpose of this program was to stop me turning into Jabba the hut and putting on excess amounts of weight. The second purpose this program served was to keep my mind active and give me something to do whilst recovering.

Most people believe that when they are injured they should completely avoid exercise and recover. This is true to an extent, obviously if you broke your arm I wouldn’t suggest going and doing handstands in the park. But I would suggest a program devoted to your lower body and developing your cardiovascular conditioning without including your injured limb.

The mental aspect of an injury is probably the most debilitating, it gives the feeling of being useless and unable to complete tasks. A specifically designed program gives the client the satisfaction of knowing they are completing tasks that are adding towards recovery and they are achieving something whilst they are injured.

The biggest thing about any sort of setback is exactly that it is a setback. Its not a road block, it is a speed bump. Obviously you may need to slow down to not hurt yourself, but the main thing is to not stop or you may just get stuck.

                         “Setbacks are just learning experiences.”
                                                                          -Beth BROOKE

If you or your friends or family are interested in starting your health journey. Dont hesitate to get in contact with me at rob@crossfit25.com.au

Performance VS Perfection.

How many times have you heard someone say “I need to lose some weight”, and that person restrict their calories so much on a regular basis that they become a moody grinch who focuses solely on losing that weight? 

Sure a drastic restriction of calories will result in a loss of weight, i’m not disputing that fact at all, but at what cost?
Of course a drastic cull of your daily calorie intake is usually paired with exercise, and when you work out without the adequate energy stores to facilitate the energy expenditure, your body will not be able to perform at its peak. 

I am not the greatest at maths but think of losing weight or body fat as a math equation. Calories in Vs Calories used. Your body needs a certain amount of energy per day to function and then on top of that your body needs to fuel whatever physical exertion you are putting it through. 

So lets do the math. An “average” adult male should consume anywhere between 2400-3000 calories a day depending on how much exercise they are doing, and an “average” female should be eating 1800-2400 a day. 

So to lose a “healthy” amount of weight per week we should be aiming for anywhere between a 0.5kg-1kg a week. Which means any given day we should be in a calorie defecit. To do this without having any sort of impact on your bodily functions you should aim for anywhere between a 500-700 calorie defecit. Now that isn’t all from restriction of calories this is from burning extra energy as well. If you reduce your calorie intake by 300 calories, and head out for a 20min jog which would burn approximately 200 calories, you would be in a 500 calorie defecit for that day. 

I know more than anyone how hardthis  process can be. But it is always about making a relevant health choice in relation to your goals. If your aim is to lose weight, yes it can happen quickly, but losing 2-3kg a week is not sustainable and is definetly not a healthy option. 
If you or your friends or family are interested in starting your health journey. Dont hesitate to get in contact with me at rob@crossfit25.com.au  

 

Stepping Stones

Our biggest tool to motivate people is obviously looking at their goals and planing accordingly. But one of the other effective tools in motivating someone is getting them to look at a previous version of themselves and see the changes that have happened.

This is a great way of motivating someone who is in a little bit of a slump. I have had a client who has recently lost a little bit of motivation and just seemed to be going through the motions with training and their diet and lifestyle. We took a little bit of time to discuss how far they had come in the time we had been training together, and how much improvement we had both seen. It was almost instantaneous the change in motivation and vigour that client had towards training in  the past couple of weeks.

We can all look forward to how our fitness journey can effect our future, but lets not neglect where our fitness journey has already taken us. Take a bit of time to look back at where you once were, now this could be a positive you can see the improvements that you have made over time. Or it could be used as a motivating factor that your diet and lifestyle choices have maybe slipped a little and need to be pulled back into check. But use this reflective time to get some clarity and new found motivation going into the next couple of weeks!

Enjoy your Labour day Monday and make sure to get out there and get a good sweat on!

Heres a quick 10 Minute workout to try on your day off!

4 Rounds:

30 Seconds Shuttle Runs

30 Seconds Pushups

30 Seconds Crunches

30 Seconds Walking Lunges

30 Seconds Rest

Get out there and get moving!!!

If you or your friends or family are interested in working towards your goal with me please feel free to contact me at rob@crossfit25.com.au

Motivation

Have you ever been laying in bed before going to sleep and had a burst of motivation to do something tomorrow. You then wake in the morning to find all that drive and motivation that had been floating through your pre-sleep brain is now gone with your dreams from the night before.

Our brain is a wonderful thing, it recognises that you are far enough away from the actual action to accept accountability for when you wake up. You feel a surge of this positive attitude and drive, but when it comes time to take action your brain finds all the reasons in the world not to do it.

So how do we stop this constant cycle?

I could suggest not sleeping and getting up as soon as you have that motivation, but that would be plain irresponsible.

We all have goals, they can be small goals to achieve throughout the day or goals for the rest of your life. But each goal that we have we need to have a certain number of well thought out and planned steps to get ourselves closer to achieving it. If we don’t have these steps our goals are just dreams.

If you needed to buy some milk from the shops, one of the steps to achieving this goal would be going to the store to actually get the milk. It isn’t going to magically appear in your fridge.

So how do we apply this theory to fitness and health?

I have met so many people who say “I want to lose 10 Kilograms” or “I want to tone up my stomach”. And I usually ask them all the same question, “What steps have you taken to work towards your goal?”. Most people make comments like “I have started eating healthier” or “I have started working out”. Which is absolutely fine! And in  no way, shape or form am I taking anything away from these answers. But there is no specific steps or plan involved in their approach.

Every person I work with in relation to losing weight or “toning up” is told to write down their eating and exercise patterns for a week. And the slightest and most sustainable of changes in these systems yields the biggest rewards and benefits. You don’t have to go on a crash diet involving no sugar, carbs and anything that starts with the word F. It is a process that will not happen overnight, but it will happen.

If you or your friends or family are interested in working towards your goal with me please feel free to contact me at rob@crossfit25.com.au

#earntnotgiven

 

 

#earntnotgiven

In a world of instant gratification, fitness and hard work has kind of been thrown to the wayside. Time is valuable, I completely understand that, but when did we start to value our time over our health?

Fast food, fast cash, get fit fast. All of these have something in common, time.

We have become so obsessed with everything happening right here and right now, we have forgotten about the hard work and dedication that is required to obtain some of these things.

So my challenge is to you, one hour every day for four weeks (28 days) do some physical activity. It could be playing with your kids, it could be a nice walk with some friends, it could be a rage filled boxing bag session, anything to raise your heart rate and get a
good sweat on! One hour is only 4% of your day, and I promise you that investment will be worth it in the long run.

I will be posting mini workouts and nutrition hints and tips on this page so keep a look out!

If you want an individualised program and training please don’t hesitate to contact me at rob@crossfit25.com.au

 

 

Welcome to GPT!

Hey Guys!

Thanks for taking the time to have a quick look at Guerrilla Personal Trainings website!

This site will be a point of call for all of your health and fitness goals. I will be writing blogs and posting hints/tips and tricks for you to get the most out of your fitness journey.

Any questions/queries or inquiries please don’t hesitate to get in contact with me at rob@crossfit25.com.au

#earntnotgiven