Tip Of The Week - Stop justifying eating crap We've all done this at some point after a hard exercise session when we've fancied something naughty to eat. "Oh this is only x amount of calories and I've just burnt x amount off so it equals out" That's all fine and good if you only ever want to stay at the weight your at and completely stall your progress. However if you actually want to progress towards your goals this can be a habit that has seriously limiting effects. Not only will this slow / stall your progress down it can then lead to the worse habit of further justifying crap snacks. "Oh I can just burn twice as many calories tomorrow and I'll be fine" Sounds good, but even your still just spinning your wheels and not progressing. Now I'm not saying you should never treat yourself, in fact I'm all for it. However you should plan your treats in advance. This will keep you on track for the rest of the week ensuring your progressing towards your goal and not wasting any effort in the gym. My general rule is unless your a competitive athlete you can get away with sticking to your plan 80% of the time. The other 20 is planned treats / cheat meals (Not days). Stop justifying wasting your effort. Stick to your plan, plan your treats in advance and keep progressing!

We're always being told HIIT is more effective for fat burning and burning more calories in a shorter amount of time but is this really true? Lets say you have the choice between training for 60 minutes or 30 minutes. 60 Minutes will be at a slower pace and 30 minutes will be much more intense and a lot harder work. It's often assumed that the shorter more intense session would be far more effective than working at a slower pace for longer (after all sprinting is a lot more tiring than jogging). However a few studies [1, 2 3] have shown that when compared side by side there isn't a huge difference between the methods. When the methods have been compared it has been noted that HIIT can produce similar benefits to moder inensity training (MIT) even when the volume is half of what the MIT is (30 vs 60 minutes). This is all fine and good and will definitley save time in the long run, however to fully get the benefits of HIIT you need to be working at a high intensity and to keep this pace up for the full 30 minutes. This can be quite challenging for a lot of people and many people will be shocked to find their not working as hard as they need to be - however this isn't to say that some people wont be bale to work at this intensity for such a long period of time. If working at such a high intensity is a challenge, then your better of sticking to a lower intensity programme where you will get the full benefits and be able to work your way up. But what if you can work at the full intensity for the 30 minutes? Well then here's some good news! If you can work at a higher intensity and keep the pace up then you can make HIIT more beneficial than MIT. The bad news is you have to increase the volume. The studies listed above have shown a trend that if HIIT volume is equal to MIT volume then greater adaptations will be made which include greater levels of cardiovascular fitness and greater fat burning. Again this presents a barrier of already needing good levels of fitness and recovery. In summary if your just starting out, take your time and build yourself a good foundation of fitness and recovery before you jump into the deep end. Once you've got this covered then you can safely and effectively start ramping up the intensity! References 1. Gibala, M.J., Little, J.P., Van Essen, M., Wilkin, G.P., Burgomaster, K.A., Safdar, A., Raha, S. and Tarnopolsky, M.A., 2006. Short‐term sprint interval versus traditional endurance training: similar initial adaptations in human skeletal muscle and exercise performance. The Journal of physiology, 575(3), pp.901-911. 2. Berger, N.J., Tolfrey, K., Williams, A.G. and Jones, A.M., 2006. Influence of continuous and interval training on oxygen uptake on-kinetics. Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 38(3), p.504. 3.Burgomaster, K.A., Howarth, K.R., Phillips, S.M., Rakobowchuk, M., MacDonald, M.J., McGee, S.L. and Gibala, M.J., 2008. Similar metabolic adaptations during exercise after low volume sprint interval and traditional endurance training in humans. The Journal of physiology, 586(1), pp.151-160.

Give it up for my client Michelle! While maintaining her weight was her main priority (which she's achieved consistently) her strength has rocketed! Not only is she lifting heavier than ever before she's also started squatting (after being told she wouldn't be able to) and is now hitting 50kg for 12 reps each set and her form is absolute spot on!!

BOOM! The Biggest Loser Challenge is here!! For 6 weeks i'm going to run a programme that will completely change the lives of those that take part. My Biggest Loser challenge is here * 6 Weeks of Training with myself * A fully coached nutrition programme * A 6 week Nutrition course that covers precisely how you will be able to keep your results for the rest of your life * Suitable for all ability levels, but best suited to those with more than 1st to lose All for a grand total of £30 for 6 the entire 6 week course! However this is what you need to do 1) You must NOT miss a session in the 6 weeks. Sessions take place at 12pm Tuesday AND 12pm Thursday. Sessions will usually last 60 minutes, however the first and last session may last a bit longer. 2) You must walk at LEAST 10,000 steps every day and report this in the Biggest Loser Facebook group. 3) You must report your nutrition progress every day to our Biggest Loser Facebook group. The challenge starts on Tuesday the 13th of February at 12 pm at X-2 Fitness with a Biggest Loser Workshop where we will take your body assessment and starting stats. Think you have what it takes? Think you can last the 6 weeks? Follow the link below to sign up https://www.x2fitness.co.uk/bl

Tip of the week - Track what you eat Have you ever wondered if you wrote down what you ate in a day and totalled everything up what would it add up to in calories? Thankfully we don't have to do all this, instead we can use handy little apps such as myfitnesspal, which has a huuuuuge database of food / ingredients and a handy little bar code scanner for convenience. Using an app like this is super simple and can really drive home 2 big facts to people. 1. How easy it is to overeat 2. How easy it is to under eat I've met many people in my career who at first eat salads for every meal in a day and feel crap for it - because they're eating way under what they should be. Similarly I've also met people who describe their diet as "Not too bad really" and who are way over their calories each day without realising. This is why using an app like this can be so helpful, it puts all the numbers of what your eating infront of you. Not only does this work for food, but it also takes into account all the drinks you have in your day. Best of all. Many apps like this are free!

1st Total Body session of the new year tonight!! Looking for a fun way to burn off some Christmas calories? Head down to X-2 Fitness tonight at 6!

While the majority of my clients have lost weight through training with me a few of my clients have also benefited in other ways such as confidence, strength etc. Here's a few quotes from some of my clients on how personal training has helped them. "When I first began my training sessions, I struggled to lift even the lightest weights, displaying very little upper body strength. However, with steady and balanced progression from week to week there has been a very noticeable change in my lifting capabilities and I have noticed a massive improvement in my physical appearance and confidence." - Olivia "This year I have lost 4 stone in total...... Following the guidance for diet and exercise from my personal trainer. I thought that the weight loss would help me feel and look better. It has been hard maintaining the diet at times. What kept me on track with this is the 20% that comes from exercise and being answerable to someone. With the challenging yet achievable excercise plans that Aron has devised for me. I have gained more than I ever thought possible, not only am I maintaining my weight loss with him. I have gained more than I ever thought possible, I am stronger, fitter and look better than I have ever have. However it is the unexpected boosts that have surprised and kept me going. I have never had much confidence - I have loads more now! I have never been proud of my achievements - I am now and that is directly due to exercise and fair but constructive feedback. So overall the weight loss has been ok, however being proud of myself and how I got to where I am is even better. With great, guidance, advice and feedback from an effective personal trainer you can achieve anything." - Michelle "Exercise have given me many benefits not just physically but mentally too. I was always negative and the first to say I can't do it and setting myself up to fail before I even started. Weightlifting has shown me that I can do it and given me more confidence in myself, never thought if be able to lift over 100kg but I did and still can! Training has changed my life, my body shape, my belief in myself and my health. I can now set myself goals and know how to achieve them, when I first started training I could hardly run to the end of my road now I've done a half marathon, tough mudder and other 10k events. It's given me a new way of life which is much more positive than it was. To me there is no better feeling than going to the gym and knowing you've done something you never thought you could, the feeling of an awesome workout takes some beating." - Sara

Tip Of The Week - One bad day isn't the end Having a bad day isn't the end. Sure if you've struggled with your training or your diet sometimes you might think to yourself "fuck it". Yeah you may have ate an unhealthy meal, but does that mean the entire week of being sensible and developing good habits was for nothing? What if you've only completed half of your workout? Well its sure as hell better than doing nothing at all! Look at it this way, if you dropped you phone on the floor would you then start stomping on it until it was fully smashed into tiny little pieces? Nope, you'd pick your phone up and carry on. What if you got a flat tyre? Would you then go and slash the other 3 tyres? Nope you'd whack on a spare. Don't let one bad day ruin your progress. Accept it, learn from it and carry on.

Give it up for my client Michelle! While maintaining her weight was her main priority (which she's achieved consistently) her strength has rocketed! Not only is she lifting heavier than ever before she's also started squatting (after being told she wouldn't be able to) and is now hitting 50kg for 12 reps each set and her form is absolute spot on!!

Warning! This may seem a bit heavy handed, so if you want skip to the end to learn a real valuable lesson. Otherwise buckle up and prepare for a ride! First off weight is not how much of you there is. That's classified as Mass. Mass is your total volume of everything that's in you, this doesn't change unless something is added or taken away (body fat for example). Weight is actually the amount of gravitational force that is acting on your mass and should be measured in newtons. If the gravitational force that is pulling you down increases - weight would go up, if it decreases weight would go down. Now say for instance you take a run and jump onto a set of scales, your gonna generate a hell of a lot of force and pressure upon landing. This will impact on those scales (more than likely break them too) and your weight reading would shoot up - because of the increase of force generated by gravity pulling you down. Remember though, your actual "weight" is your total body mass and volume, this only changes if you add or take away mass. This will not be affected by any force you generate through the jump. Therefore the reading your going to see on the scale will not be a reflection of your actual "weight". Now lets say you lightly suspend yourself over the scales and lower yourself gently onto them (just like mission impossible!). You'll notice the weight reading will slowly go up the more force and pressure you add onto it. Again this is reading is entirely depending on how much force is applied. With both of these methods your actual body mass is not going to change, only the amount of gravitational force your going to be applying. For our last example lets think, how much would you weight in space? Practically nothing, but does this mean there's no mass on your body? Nope, the entire contents of your body are still there, you just don't have any gravity pulling you down generating weight. Now for the important lesson. Your weight on the scale is totally irrelevant. Personally unless you need to be a specific weight (or volume of mass if were being specific) for a certain reason such as a sport. I was buzzing yesterday because I've finally bulked to 15 stone, but that's a personal achievement for me - does it actually mean anything in the grand scheme of things? Nope, it just means I've added more mass to myself. So if your ever bothered about how much you weigh, don't be, because if gravity changed tomorrow your weight would be completely different, but your body wouldn't of changed. Yet if you focus on living a healthy lifestyle, your overall mass will change regardless of what gravity says - hell you could even add more mass and lose body fat. But that's a subject for another time.

Yet another huge round of applause for my client Olivia! In only 4 weeks she's dropped 6.2 inches and rocketed in strength! She's even managed to deadlift her own bodyweight twice 💪💪.

Tips of the week - Break it up We're always recommended to do at least 30 minutes of moderatley intense physical activity a day in order to stay healthy. But did you know you don't have to do it all at once? First off lets just clear up what moderatley intense physical activity is. This can be classed as any activity which elevates your heart reart for a extended period of time. So no, it doesn't count when your partner says you need to have a chat. For some people this genuinley could be something like climbing up x amount of stairs. For others this could be running for x amount of time, x amount of exercises etc. Now back to the original point. You don't have to do this all in one go, sure it makes it easier and gets it out the way, but if your genuinley pushed for time you can break this 30 minutes up into 3 10 minute blocks. As long as your heart rate is elevated for those 10 minutes and your performing moderately intense exercise your still good to go! Your results may be a bit less than if you were to do it for 30 minutes straight. But it's still a step in the right direction.