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5 weeks into the Ironman project
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010
I’m currently just more than 5 weeks into the Ironman Project, in which I’ve cut my training volume by around 40%, played around with a few things, and am hoping to achieve a time 1 hour less than last years Ironman UK time. I have to say, even I’m a little suprised with just how well it’s all going thus far.
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In week 3’s testing session, I knocked 5 minutes off a bike: run brick session, with plenty of gas left in the tank. In week 4 I banged out a PB in the pool despite only having done 3 swim training sessions (other than the kick sessions I was doing previously due to shoulder operation). Most recently, at the end of week 5, for a 40 mile bike ride I increased my average speed by 1mp from 2 weeks previously, and a total of 2mph from the same session in week 2, which is more than a 10% increase in speed over 40 miles in just 6 weeks. Run times are also improving well, with average pace over 8 miles increasing by 20 seconds per mile within the last fortnight.
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As well as all this, the strength and conditioning is having a major impact in terms of injuries and various aches and pains. Staying in the aero position on the bike is much, much more comfortable for prolonged periods, with no ache whatsoever (I’d often get a little lower back ache from time to time before). There’s no knee pain during running (I used to get a little due to overpronation and tight ITB’s), and the shoulder is feeling strong once again.
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So, all in all, the program is still going extremely well, and I’m very excited about the next couple of months and the lead up firstly to Ironman Nice, and then to Ironman UK 5 weeks later. I’m also excited about releasing the details of the program to you just as soon as I’ve finished the guinea pig side of things. Until then, I thought I’d share just one workout with you, so check out the video, and I’ll write again soon.
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Stay strong.
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Andy
Tags: ironman triathlon training, procision fitness, strength training, Triathlon Training, triathlon weymouth
Posted in Triathlon Training, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Functional strength training for endurance athletes: Part 1
Sunday, March 21st, 2010
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Endurance athletes typically have a few things in common.
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Firstly, they love what they do, and knowing the fact that 99.9% of the population couldn’t imagine doing the sorts of races they do, whether its a Channel Swim, Ironman triathlon, mountain marathon, century ride or ultra distance run. Having the determination and dedication to complete and compete in these events is true testament to the human will, and something that only a small minority of people are capable of. The endurance athlete loves to push him/herself to the limit, overcoming barriers in training, and breaking down every wall that stands in their way on race day.
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They also love to train. Endurance athletes are quite happy to slog out 10, 20, 30 hours per week at their chosen sport, and make the sacrifice that is necessary to achieve their goal, whether it’s simply completing the course, or a top 5 finish. The training mindset of the endurance athlete is one that is strong, whatever the weather, against the odds, and willing to go the extra mile.
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However, like everyone, endurance athletes have flaws. The biggest that I can determine is that they (not everyone, but the vast majority) neglect strength training, or at least don’t perform the correct type of exercises in the gym. It is this similarity that is the focus of this article.
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Ask any endurance athlete out there why they aren’t performing strength and conditioning as an integral part of their plan, and I can guarantee that one or all of the following 3 points will come up:
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Strength training will make me heavy, slow and inflexible . . . .
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First off is the thought that performing strength training will make them heavier, sluggish and inflexible, and so strength training should be excluded from their training plan. There are a couple of things to address with this misconception. Firstly is the nature of the training that the athlete is associating with strength and conditioning. Often when people think of strength training, they think of traditional bodybuilding training, which is largely dysfunctional to the endurance athlete (although still seems to be advocated in a number of endurance sports training books). However, with a functional training program that has been designed in order to specifically enhance performance, you’re not going to get huge muscle mass gains, you won’t get any slower and you won’t get less flexible. In fact, you’ll actually become faster due to increases in strength, power, economy and movement patterns, you’ll get more flexible due to the integrated nature of the training, and as for getting bigger and slower? Nope. Regarding this, the first thing to mention is that the strength gains you’ll be getting are largely going to be down to improved neuromuscular performance, without a big increase in muscle size. Secondly, in general, endurance athletes are largely ectomorphs, who find it extremely hard to gain any significant muscle size. Those two things aside, the strength and power improvements you’ll gain will totally outweigh any added weight as you’ll be stronger, more powerful and more efficient at your event(s), thus making you a superior athlete and improving your performance greatly.
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I don’t have the time to train strength . . . .
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The second point is one of time. The endurance athlete spends so much time each week actually out on the road, in the pool or on the trail, that they believe there is no time left to perform strength training. To be fair, in their current regime, they’re probably right. But they shouldn’t be. There is time, and plenty of it. More so, it is a case of not being willing to ‘sacrifice’ a little swim, bike or run time in favour of 45 minutes strength training 2-3 times per week. The philosophy of the vast majority of endurance athletes is that in order to get better at swimming, cycling and running (or whatever your sport entails) the only and best way is to do more swimming, cycling and running.
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This is largely where overuse and overtraining injuries set in; that niggling hamstring injury that forces you to take a few days off every couple of weeks, that knee pain you get after mile 13 in your long run, the lower back ache when staying in the aero position on the bike for more than 5 minutes or when running up hill; the list goes on. In order to get better at your discipline, it’s NOT necessary to do it for longer, you just need to do it better. There’s no point rowing the boat harder if it’s pointing in the wrong direction.
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Strength and power training won’t help me as an endurance athlete . . . .
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My third point is the single greatest myth when it comes to training for the endurance athlete, and that is the fact that the endurance athlete feels that strength and power work will not improve performance in their endurance based event.
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During my recent mentorship at the Institute of Human Performance in Florida, Juan Carlos Santana explained this beautifully. Basically, believe it or not, endurance sports are ALL about POWER. The equation for power is work/time, So if an athlete runs a 3h30m marathon one year, then runs the same race the next year in 3h flat, she has become more powerful, as she has performed the same amount of work, in less time. The more functional power you have, the greater your stride length, swim stroke and cadence will be. Another equation for power is force x speed. If you’re stronger, you can generate more force, and as the equation states, power is dependent on strength and speed. So, you can see that it is absolutely necessary to develop functional power (it’s no good working on a 1 rep max power clean) as well as working on strength in addition to speed.
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By incorporating an appropriate and functional strength program into your training, you will improve also economy no end, meaning that movements require less effort, and so performance improves and injury risk reduces. Just think, in a 2 ½ hour run each foot will hit the ground around 13000 times. If it’s planting incorrectly, then that’s 13000 incorrect foot strikes in a single run. How many more times does your foot need to land poorly before your knee hurts, adductor pulls or achilles inflames? Not only this, but with incorrect movement patterns, comes power wastage, and if the body is not generating power from where it’s meant to, it’s got to find it from somewhere else. If however you’ve been (and still are) performing the right types of conditioning exercises, then you’ll minimize this and increase your power output and thus improve performance.
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An appropriate functional strength training program will give you the following key benefits:
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· Improved economy
· Reduced risk of injury
· Improved power output
· Improved neurological performance
· Improved lactate threshold
· Increased flexibility
· Increased functional strength
· Increased stride length
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From this article, you should now be thinking differently about the need for training strength for endurance sports success, and in part 2, I’ll be going into a little depth regarding just what a truly functional strength training program involves.
Tags: functional training, Personal trainer weymouth, procision fitness, strength training triathletes, triathlon fitness
Posted in Triathlon Training, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Triathletes, do we need to train so much?
Sunday, February 28th, 2010
Triathlon training at any level takes time, and lots of it. Professionals may train for up to 30-40 hours per week, and novices right up to age groupers will often put in between 4-25 hours per week depending on their circumstances. But is all this really necessary? Do we NEED to train for that long, or is alot of what we are doing, purely JUNK MILES? Is there a better way to train?
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I’ll be clear on something right now: The purpose of this post is not to try and change the way you train, or to rubbish any other method of training, rather, it is to encourage people to have an open mind when it comes to training for triathlon, and to let you know just what I’m up to right now in terms of training, following my week in Florida.
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During the mentorship program, in one of our final lectures, we got talking about swim training, and in particular, why it is that a sprint swimmer will put in so many hours and miles in the pool each week, when they are training for a race that lasts less than a minute. Do they really need to spend so long training? After all, a 100-400m track athlete doesn’t spend so long training, and we are all humans, so how is it beneficial for a sprint swimmer to train for so long? Would it not be more beneficial to have shorter, more focussed workouts, and more rest in order to allow proper recovery and reduce the risk of injury and over training? After all, how many swimmers (in particular children who are overtrained) develop shoulder, back and hip problems? I don’t know the exact figure, but it’s alot! We then spoke about marathon running, and again, is it really necessary to put in 40-80 miles a week, or would it be more beneficial to have shorter, more focussed workouts, with a bigger emphasis on recovery? After all, you make your improvements while you recover.
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We then touched on triathlon, and again the same things came up. Is it NECESSARY to do so many hours? Has ANYONE ever experimented with far less hours, but a much increased quality of training at the expense of junk miles? If you’re training for a long race, do you have to train for as long as the race (or at least each discipline) will take you? If you’re training for Ironman, that could mean putting in 2+ hour swims, 8+ hour bike rides and 5+ hour runs. No not every session, but you get the idea I’m sure. What I’m also sure of, is that there HAS to be a much better way to train. Step up Juan Carlos.
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At the end of the mentorship program, a few hours before we were flying back to the UK, I sat down with JC to get his thoughts on Ironman training, and in particular, to help me reduce my own Ironman training volume. Now, as well as the fact that I’m 100% sure that there are more effective methods of training for triathlon than are currently being utilised, I’m also recovering from a shoulder operation which has sidelined my swimming for 12 weeks, cycling for 8 weeks, and running for 11 weeks. On top of that, I work a long hours (much like you), and juggle a girlfriend, friends and family at the same time. Right now I have just 18 weeks to get into the best, injury free condition of my life in order to knock the 45-60 minutes off my Ironman time at IM France on June 27th (that’s my personal goal for the year).
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JC is a huge lover of all things sport and fitness, and was more than happy to look at my proposed training program, and after checking out my program, subsequently decided to slash my training hours by about 40%, and ‘play around’ with intensity a little, as well as introducing some pretty exciting new techniques. We then came up with a plan of attack. A structure was formed, followed by specific phases, and I spent much of the long flight home planning out each individual session. What we have come up with is something that has NEVER been tried, or at least documented, within the industry, and could well be something that will help triathletes all over the globe to achieve their goals in less time, with more recovery, and increased performance.
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What methods are we employing?
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Well…..there have to be some secrets right?! All I can tell you is that a couple of methods could, and probably will, raise a few eyebrows in the triathlon world, but both JC and I are extremely confident that what we have devised will work, and when it does, we are going to be ready to transform the way many triathletes go about their training, leaving you with more time, more energy, and better performance.
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From now, leading up to June 27th, I’ll be posting regularly on here letting you know how the training is going, the results I’m seeing and everything else….except of course the program! So keep your eyes on this area, and feel free to add your own comments 
Before you leave, checkout this video of myself and JC talking about the plan right here
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Wish us luck!
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Andy
Tags: andy sloan, functional training, ironman weymouth, jc santana, Personal trainer weymouth, procision fitness, triathlon dorset, triathlon weymouth
Posted in Triathlon Training, Uncategorized | No Comments »
DAY 1 at IHP in Florida
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
So here we are at the end of day 1 of our IHP mentorship, and we have started with a bang.
First up was 2 hours with the great man himself, JC Santana, discussing the IHP philosophy and the 4 pillars of human movement. This basically defines the way in which we move and emphasises the need to train movements not muscles. Something which I have been implementing with Procision Fitness for quite some time now, since first learning about functional training and studying the work of JC Santana and other top professionals from the field of functional training such as Gary Gray and Grey Cook.
Locomotion- being the way in which we move
Pushing/Pulling
Level Changes-moving the bodies center of mass
Rotation
These 4 categories enable us as fitness professionals to design functional training programmes for clients in order to enhance human performance and movement. The 4 Pillars also allow us to assess muscular strengths and weaknesses and gives us the necessart info to implement progressive training exercises and protocols for anyone from elite ethletes to the elderly. We then spent an hour with one of IHP’s senior trainers, where we looked deeper into functional assessment methods, addressing posture and correct techinques for key movement patterns.
The day then moved to a practical element where we were observing and taking part in the UFC Fighter training circuits , getting to rub shoulders and train with some of the top fighters in UFC, including Cole Miller, a recent winner of the best submission in the UFC. It was great to see the 4 pillars in action and at the same time as you see a young tennis hopeful and an OAP using the same philosophy, but with different exercises and intensities.
The end of the day finished with a Professional volleyball circuit. This was a circuit that was designed to really improve all aspects of strength and conditioning needed for beach volleyball. These included an integration of some of the more succesful traditional exercises, with some of the latest functional exercises really mimicing the movements in the sport. So plenty of jumps, chops, twists, turns and upper body power work.
Tommorrow morning is going to be a real treat, 7:30am doing some nasty training with Matt, Joel, Danny and Carlos Santana, followed by another amazing day at IHP.
Catch you all tomorrow.
Andy
Posted in IHP Functional Training Mentorship with JC Santana, Uncategorized | No Comments »
To The MAX - Triathlon Conditioning
Sunday, January 17th, 2010
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Weymouth Personal Trainer gives you 10+ types of push up to try!
Friday, December 11th, 2009
This post stems from a recent conversation I had with a friend of mine who had been doing push ups for few weeks and now is not making further progress with them, and subsequently got bored of them and eliminated them from his routine. Now, there is no need for anyone to ever get bored with push ups, as there is pretty much an endless variety that you can perform, of varying difficulties.
The push up is one of the single most effective exercises for developing total body strength. Not only do your chest, shoulders and arms get a great workout, but so does your core, your hips, and just about everything else! So why is it that some people hate push ups? In my experience it seems that those people who dislike the push up fall into one of 3 categories. 1 - they can’t do a push up. 2 - they have got bored with them. 3 - their goal is bodybuilding and they feel the push up can not sufficiently fatigue them to make the necessary gains.
All of these categories can be easily addressed through exploring and introducing a variety of push ups.
Category 1
Now, I am fully aware that loads of people (maybe even you) can’t do the full ones, but I’m yet to train a single person who hasn’t been able to perform some form of a push up, be it on their knees or up against a wall, so there is hope for everyone! If you fall into this category, try the kneeling push up illustrated below. If you find this too hard, adopt the same position, but with your hands on a bench or a step, which will put more of a load through your lower body and less through your upper, meaning it’s much easier to lower down and push back up. If you find that too hard, try standing up against a wall, with your hands flat against it, elbows to approx 90 degrees at the bottom phase, and push yourself away from the wall. The better you become, the further away you can take your feet, making the move progressively harder.
Category 2
With so many variations of this simple move, there is no reason to ever get bored of doing push ups! You can use balls, benches, buddys and plenty more objects and pieces of equipment to make the push up more challenging, fun, and specific to what you want to achieve. Some of my favourite push ups are the partner ones which I’ve outlined below. Now these are pretty advanced, so I wouldn’t recommend attempting them until you and your buddy can each do at least 20 push ups comfortably, and hold a solid plank position for at least a minute.
Hands on shoulders - You’ll find these ones are great for switching on your core and also hitting the triceps as your hands are put in a closer grip. The guy on the floor will also get a great core workout. If, and ONLY if you get real good at these, try both going down and up at the same time, or alaternately!
One hand on hip bone, one hand on shoulder - Another advanced move thats really great for hitting the core for both buddys. If you try these ones, make sure the hand is on the hip and not the lower back. You’ll also want to make sure that you work from both sides, so that everything is worked evenly. Again, to make it harder, try both going down and up at the same time, or alternately (one up one down).
Hands on stability ball - This is a great exercise for hitting the triceps as well as giving your core a decent workout to. In adition to this, you’ll also be providing your shoulder joint with some (often) much needed stability work too. Have your hands more on the sides of the ball as opposed to on the top, as this will be easier on the wrists.
Decline stability ball - This is a great way to add some lower body stability work in while also loading up the shoulders a little more. The higher your feet and legs are, the more weight you’ll have acting down on your upper body, making this a really tough move. Try also performing it with only a single leg on the ball, which really adds a huge eccentric load through the hip of ther planted leg (great for helping train decelleration such as when running).
Decline stability ball with roll up - This is a progression further than the one previously, and gives your hips and abs a great workout while loading up your upper body. On the way up, roll the ball in so your knees come toward your chest, and on the way down, extend the knees and hips so you are in a full push up position at the bottom phase.
Medicine ball ‘one up one down’ - This variation is pretty fun and can be adapted further by adding in a fast passover, a jump, a swapover, increasing/decreasing speed, elevating your legs and a few more ways alike. But try this first simple progression initially. You’ll find that the arm planted on the floor has to work extra hard to compensate for the elevation from the other arm. Don’t have a medicine ball? Use a football or a step instead.
Category 3
If you’re in this category, then I’ll urge you to have a try at the progressions I’ve outlined for you below, because they require some serious strength and explosive power also, and will help you both carve up and grow your chest at the same time.
Close grip medicine ball - These are one of my favourite push ups for hitting the triceps. If you want to make the move harder, turn it into a power move, but exploding off the ball and landing with hands either side, before exploding back up onto the ball as illustrated below.
Pausing med ball push up - These are the ultimate in developing phenomenal core strength, and are my favourite variety of push up to use with many of the athletes I train in various sports due to the immense core and hip strength as well as shoulder and hip stability required for perfect form. Complete the move in a controlled, steady manner, with a 1-2 seconds pause at the top range.
Band resisted push up and air time push up - Resistance bands are a great tool for increasing resistance in push ups. Make sure you have the band placed around your upper back for ultimate loading through the chest, but to hit the core even harder, you can lace the band around your lower back (do not do this one if you have a weak lower back, or are new to resisted push ups).
To make the move even harder, try adding some explosion into it but finishing with your hands (or hands and feet, off the floor! If you still feel your chest needs more of a workout, after each set, hit the bench press with a load that you’d normally hit 12 reps out on, and go to near failure.
Hopefully this post has given you some new ideas of ways in which to make the push up more exciting, specific and effective, ensuring that you remain on track to achieving your goals without your training going stale and unproductive.
Soon I’ll be writing a post of similar style regarding adapting the squat, so keep your eyes pealed.
Until next time, stay motivated, stay strong, and stay healthy.
To your success
Andy
Tags: andy sloan, fitness weymouth, personal trainer dorset, Personal trainer weymouth, training weymouth
Posted in Training, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Personal Trainer Weymouth: Fat Loss Mistakes Uncovered
Sunday, November 29th, 2009
It’s getting to that time of year again, where everyone is getting into Christmas mode and beginning to think about work parties, family gatherings and alike, and subsequently the thought of putting on that little black dress, or tight pair of jeans starts getting ever more worrying.
Most people’s work Christmas parties I’m guessing, are going to be happening within the next 3 weeks or so, which really doesn’t seem all that long a time to get down to size and feel confident to wear what you want to , and to be able to indulge a little, knowing that you’ve ‘earned the right’ to. Well what if I was to tell you that in just 2-3 weeks of not making the mistakes I’ve outlined for you below, you could be a clothes size smaller, and ready to slip into any outfit you so desire?
The following are the 7 deadly sins of fat loss that my Weymouth and Dorset personal training clients often come to me with during our initial free consultation, and we then seek to banish them for good, with great results! In fact, when all of these cardinal fat loss hindering mistakes are booted out, clients are dropping fat and weight faster and more effectively than they have ever managed before during any of the many fad diets and workout programs they have tried out in the past.
So have a read, see which ones you are making, and stop making them starting today. If you do, I’ll guarantee you’ll lose at least a couple of inches in time for the party ;-)
1. Eating refined carbohydrates
We all need carbohydrate in our diet, that’s fact. However, what we don’t need is the wrong form of carbohydrate. Eating carbs that have been refined, such as white pasta, bread, rice, sugar, sweets, cakes, biscuits and all that other nasty sweet stuff, is quite possibly the biggest fat loss mistake that people can make. Sugar, and sugary foods, are addictive to say the least. You eat it, you want more, you want more, you often eat that too! By eating these types of carbs, your body’s response is to hit back with a huge influx of insulin, which ends up making your body store fat. Not only that, but although your energy levels may initially be elevated, shortly after, you will end up on a downer and with reduced energy levels. The way forward is getting your carbs from fresh, natural sources, such as fruit and vegetables, which as well as giving you a much steadier supply of energy, will also fill you up with the vitamins necessary to ‘unlock’ the energy within your foods, as well as boosting immune function and improving your general health.
2. Eating processed foods
They’re convenient, their ‘tasty’ (debatable), they’re quick, they’re easy, they’re effortless………….they’re also so full of crap that every time you eat them you are literally filling your body with chemicals and empty calories, and inviting your body to store excess fat. By eating these types of foods, from canned tomatoes through to a full on microwavable curry, you’re voluntarily increasing your body fat and the level of toxins within your body, and decreasing your bodies ability to work as it’s supposed to. If you’re ‘trying’ to lose fat, but still eating packaged and processed foods (yes - even low fat, no fat, low salt, weight watchers, healthy living and all that), you are condemming yourself to failure. If you eat fresh, natural foods, you really can’t go wrong, so enough with the microwave, and get your steamer, oven and grill working, and start eating natural. You’ll be AMAZED at how much of a difference it makes just replacing everything packaged with fresh stuff.
3. Doing your 100 sit ups a day
Yes that’s right, many of my personal training clients, when asked, tell me that their fat loss attempts to date have involved doing plenty of sit ups every morning and every night. Well this is a very quick and simple mistake for me to discuss. Doing lots of sit ups will not get you a skinny, toned waist!!!!! If it could, then a third of the population would have great abs, not a BMI that categorises them as obese. The idea of doing loads of sit ups to nuke your belly fat is called spot reducing, which doesn’t, has never, and will never work to reduce body fat. It’s not possible to work one part of your body and burn only the fat from that area. It just doesn’t go like that. The body takes fat from where it wants to. All that doing excessive sit ups does generally, is give people a bad back and poor posture. If you want great abs, you need to be able to see them, so they key is to get rid of the fat that surrounds them (acting on the advice you are reading right now will help you!). You’re far better off doing full body training to reduce fat. The more muscles you work, the more calories you’ll burn. Fact.
4. Steady state cardio
Yes, this may well work for a while, and I’ve nothing against steady state cardio. After all, the sport of triathlon is pretty much all about this! However, if you’re training for fat loss, it’s not the weay to go. Many of my clients, as well as banging out sit ups by the hundred, also have previously spend an hour or so walking on a treadmill, cycling on a stationary bike, or plodding up and down on a stepper. Funny thing is, they all say it bores the hell out of them and they don’t get results after the first couple of weeks. So why continue doing it?! Cardio training for fat loss is all about hitting out the interval work. Through using interval training as opposed to steady state cardio, you will burn more ‘free’ calories throughout the day, due to the effect the interval work has on your metabolism (you can elevate it for up to around 24hrs aftre training!). So by putting in a 20-30 minute bout of interval work, you will burn plenty more calories than an hours steady workout, in half (or less) the time. Efficient, effective, and much more fun!
5. Lack of resistance training
I don’t want to burn fat not get big muscles. I don’t have time. I don’t like the gym. Just 3 of the primary reasons I hear for why people don’t do resistance training. The exclusion of resistance training one is the biggest mistake people make with their fitness programs. I’ll put it very simply for you though: If you want to lose fat, you need to build some muscle! Now ladies, it’s not to say that you need to get stacked, and get guns like Swartzenegger (in fact, you won’t be able to due to the hormonal differences with men and women), so don’t worry about that. The underlying fact however, is that muscles crave energy, and so the more muscle you have, the more energy they need to work, so the more calories they will burn. So, by building some lean mass (muscle) you will increae your metabolic rate, and burn more calories even when you sleep. As for using a gym, absolutely no need. Your body is the only equipment you need, and that’s a fact. Just as soon as I get some time, I’ll shoot a short workout video for you and stick it on here ;-). In terms of time, you don;t need much. 20 minutes, 3-5 times per week is whct I use with lots of my personal training clients here in Weymouth and Dorset, and the results are immense.
6. Not eating enough protein
This is related to the above. When I have looked at a clients food diary prior to our personal training commencing, the thing that ALWAYS sticks out is the lack of dietary protein. People only ever seem to eat it in their evening meal. Big mistake. Your body needs protein to rebuild your muscles bigger and stronger after work. By effectivle ystarving your body of this vital nutrient, you are reducing its ability to create the lean tissue necessary to boost your metabolism and increase your fat burning potential. Try to get some form of protein in with every meal, but be aware that there are complete (such as in meat, fish, eggs) and incomplete (such as in bread, pasta, pulses) proteins. Go for things like organic beef, fish, chicken, turkey, whole nuts, seeds and organic eggs as your protein sources.
7. No direction
This is without doubt, the biggest one. So many people (maybe even you) spend far too much time saying they are going to kick start their fat loss mission, but never get round to it, or go at it half assed. In my experience, the key to fat loss success (and success in general) is having a clear, determined and measurable goal, that is both achievable and challenging (check out my post here for help with seting goals http://www.procisionfitness.com/blog/2009/02/goal-setting-goal-getting/). If you have no direction, you won’t get anywhere. So know what it is you want to achieve, and actually be willing to go for it, pedal to the metal. None of this ‘I’ll start on Monday’ nonsense either, start today, start now, and start achieiving. If you truely want to be a size smaller so you can wear what you want to, and feel comfortable in it, then you will be willing to work for it. Remember, the journey of 1000 miles starts with a single step, so take the first step today by setting yourself a goal.
That’s it from me today. Hope you get something from this post, and don;t forget to leave a comment. Your feedback is always great.
If you want to find out about my GUARANTEED RESULTS fat loss program, get in touch when you’re ready
Until next time, good luck.
Tags: andy sloan, fat loss, fitness weymouth, personal trainer, personal trainer dorset, Personal trainer weymouth
Posted in Articles, Uncategorized | No Comments »
TRIATHLON and ENDURANCE SPORT-SPECIFIC LAND TRAINING IN WEYMOUTH AND DORSET
Sunday, September 6th, 2009
COMING SOON . . . . . . .
Anyone who has ever trained or competed at multi-sport or endurance events such as triathlon, duathlon, biathlon, long and ultra distance running etc spends masses of time in the water, on a saddle, or in running shoes. For the most part, this is quite right. After all, you’re not going to get good at swimming, cycling or running without the use of water, a bike, and a decent pair of running shoes. So of course, a huge part of your training time will be spent swimming, biking and running.
However, what the vast majority of multi-sport athletes tend to neglect, is the stability and strength training necessary to help boost performance, reduce the risk of injury, and really hammer away at their PB times. As an endurance and multisport athlete, if you have performed any type of gym based training, the chances are that you won’t have exlpored much beyond the realms of traditional ‘bodybuilding’ type training. This method of training for strength does have it’s place, however it’s of limited value for endurance and multi-sport athletes. That said, strength training, in it’s appropriate form, should hold a key position in the training program of a multi/endurance sport athlete.
You may be of the mindset that gym based training has no place in triathlon and other multisport events, as you feel that by putting on muscle and size, your times will slow as you become heavier, less mobile and less hydro and aerodynamic. If you’re thinking about training with traditional ‘bodybuilding’ movements, you’re most probably correct. However, through an appropriate strength training regime, that focuses on developing muscle strength and efficiency through training functional movements used in the sport(s) as opposed to isolating muscle groups, you can significantly improve your performance.
Put it this way, if you’re training for swimming, running or cycling, performing heavy bent over rows or bench press has little to no value in enhancing your performance. However, utilising functional strength and stability based exercises that mimic aspects of your chosen discipline(s) will help you develop as an althlete, through not only increasing contractile strength, but also the much talked about ‘firing’ of your muscles. (Swimming - aspects such as the catch and pull, as well as the rotational torso action during freestyle. Cycling - for instance the powerful driving force through either leg on a 10% incline, core element of cornering. Running - including the transfer of weight from one side to another, speeding up, slowing down).
Check out the exercises below and notice how they relate to the each sport -
This anterior reach with a single arm row is a great move for training single leg stability as well as an efficient arm drive for running, while also working the lower back effectively.
This polling exercise helps to develop a powerful pull during freestyle, by developing the lats, rear deltoids and triceps during the downward phase. On the way back to the top, the front and mid delts also get a workout for good measures!
How about these modified single leg squats, finishing in an (albeit slightly exagerrated) aero position, and working the glutes, hamstrings and quads, while also hitting out some core in the process.
So why am I telling you this . . . . ?
The reason for the above, is that Procision Fitness is soon to bring you the areas very first TRIATHLON/ENDURANCE SPORT SPECIFIC FITNESS CLASS! Although no dates or locations are set in stone, the class will be commencing in mid-late October, most probably on a Thursday evening, starting around 6.30/7pm at a Weymouth location.
The training is going to be approprately phased and 100% geared toward multi/endurance sport success, ensuring that you get the best gains possible. In addition to the weekly session, you will have the option for a heavily discounted individual strength training program specifically for your event(s).
So keep your ears and eyes open, and await the full details! If you have any questions, or want any extra info, feel free to get in contact via the contacts page.
Yours in training
Andy
Tags: endurance sports dorset, Personal trainer weymouth, triathlon fitness weymouth dorset, Triathlon training dorset, triathlon weymouth
Posted in News, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
IRONMAN UK 2009
Tuesday, August 25th, 2009
August 2nd 2009, Bolton, England
3 weeks on from completing Ironman UK 2009, and having now had time to reflect on the event, I figured it’s time to give you a short report on how the race went. In a nut shell, it sure as hell wasn’t easy! But then again, few things worth accomplishing generally are. So here is the timeline of how the day panned out . . .
11pm (day before): Finally managed to get to sleep! I wasn’t feeling nervous, but despite getting to bed at 9.30pm, just couldnt sleep. Not what you want before a long race!
Race Day
2.30am: Alarm went off. I’d actually set 5 on my phone, as well as a couple on my girlfriends phone just in case! There was no way I wasn’t getting up! I found myself suprisingly wide awake for this time in the morning, and was massively excited about the day ahdead. I was less excited by the prospect of what I knew i was going to be having for breakfast!
Because I was staying in a hotel, which wasn’t providing an early breakfast for competitors, I had to work round this. So brought a steamer and a load of food ready to cook and eat. As I was eating a pretty low fibre, no wheat, no dairy diet in order to reduce risk of digestive problems, but still needed to get on board a good few calories, my breakfast consisted of the following: 1 x steamed sweet potato, 1 x small steamed baking potato, handful of steamed green beans, 1/4 an avocado, 150g cooked chicken breast, butter, sea salt, 2 x bananas. I can safely say, that this will not go down in history as my favourite ever meal, and in fact, despite usually being able to eat anything, anytime, with a few bits of sweet potato and some dry chicken left, I called time on my breakfast and conceded defeat to the early start.
4am: Left the hotel, and drove down to the Reebok Stadium, where shuttle buses were running competitors to the start at Rivington Reservoir. On the bus, I chatted to a fair few people, and realised that there were a lot of first timers there like myself. A few nerves started to creep in on the way to the Reservoir, but mostly I was excited about starting, and finishing the race.
4.30am: Transition was open, so I got myself down to my bike to pump the tires up, and do a last minute check, as well as affix my fluids and food for the bike leg of the race. Because the weather had been so horrendous for the last few days, with loads of rain, the grassy area in which the transition was located was nothing more than a muddy pool, and despite the mats that had been layed down, it was very boggy underfoot, which meant that running from the transition tent to my bike was going to mean my cleats were full of mud, so clipping in could be a pain.
5.30am: By now, I’m in my wetsuit, all prepared, with hat and goggles in one hand, and my dry clothes bag in the other, ready to drop off before the swim. The man comes on over the speakers and gives the call for everyone to line up ready for the 400m walk down the steep concrete path to the swim start.
6am: The race was due to start by now, but not everyone was in the water as yet, so we had to wait. I positioned myself about 50m away from the line of buoys we had to follow, and right at the front of the start line. A few more nerves set in about now, as I’d not yet done a swim with so many people in such a small space, and it was going to be pretty nasty for sure!
6.10am: 3…2….1….GO! Swim begins, and I get a reasonable start, managing to avoid getting kicked in the face more than a couple of times, and after 400m or so I find myself in a little bit of space. I get to the first turn, and everything slows down, as so m,any people are turing 180 degrees at the same time, and at this point there’s a few more arms and legs flying in faces which makes it interesting! I ended up pretty wide on the turn, and had to cut back in, and in fact, I ended up zig-zagging pretty much the whole of that straight until the next turn. Within 30 minutes of starting, I felt my hips and calves cramping, and had to keep trying to stretch out while swimming. Eventually this subsided luckily. Lap 1 complete, and just one more to go. After about 2 miles of the swim my shoulders were beginning to tire, and I felt my technique and speed both go downhill, but as soon as I got to the home straight, got a burst of energy and hammered home. After about 1h11m of swimming, I was out of the water, and began the steep 400m run to transition.
Out of the water. Leg 1 complete.
7.20am (ish): Got up to T1 and took my time getting myself sorted out for the bike leg. I necked a bottle of Gatorade while running to my bike, then picked it up, ran down the muddy path, and jumped on. As predicted, my cleats were full of mud so it took a bit of time to actually clip myself in, but once in there, I was feeling strong and ready to go.
Over the mud and onto the bike
After a short downhill section from the start, the course then leads you 2-3 miles up a nasty hill, which at one point gets pretty steep around a hairpin bend, before starting a winding decent, before another hill.
Tough climb at the first hill
The first lap on the bike was fast. i was feeling strong and averaged 19.3mph, a little faster than predicted. Lap 2 was slightly slower, as the head wind picked up. When it came to lap three, that first hill seemed twice as long, although I was able to overtake a lot of competitors during the climb which felt good! The final 20 miles of this lap were pretty slow, with fatigue setting into my legs, as well as some cramps coming and going in my hips. I was finding myself needing to feed more often, and that seemed to help.
Nice flat bit to make up some time, at last!
1.30pm (ish): At the end of lap 3, with my legs feeling prety ruined and energy levels getting lower, I thought to myself, what a time to do my first marathon! When at T2, I again took my time to get sorted out, and when ready, began the initial climb past the spectators, including some family and friends who had made the journey to watch this event.
Out of T2 and up a hill at the start of the marathon. Easy!
The encouragement was amazing from everyone, with the croud shouting to competitors ’well done, keep going, you’re looking really strong’. Tell us that in 26 miles time! I actually started the run pretty quick, and felt suprisingly good, but 6 miles in it hit me. Another 20 to go.
Running technique starting to suffer
I managed to stay pretty strong for the majority of the run, although frequent cramps in my calves, hips, quads, hamstrings, groin and at one stage even my right forearm made running pretty hard going at times. After 16 miles, stomach problems began to hold me back, requiring me to walk and even stop every now and again, which disappointed me. Feeding was hard, so I stuck to Gatorade and energy gels, although did manage to sneak in 3 bananas on the route too which were a great boost. With 3 miles to go my stomach was in bits, and hurting more than I had ever felt before, but knowing that there was less than 30 minutes of running left for me, I put it aside and pushed through.
With the home straight in sight, emotion started creeping in, with the enormity of what I was about to achieve actually sinking in. The feeling was amazing. The croud was cheering, the finish line was in sight, and all I had to do was finish the final 100m and that would be mission accomplished.
10 months of training, all worthwhile. Job done!
5.45pm (ish): Crossing that line was the best feeling I have ever had, and after being given my finishers medal, and t-shirt, and a cap for coming inside the top 250 finishers, I found my family, who were beaming with pride, and most probably, relief that after 11h45m28s of hanging around the course, waiting for me to swim, cycle or run past them every couple of hours, they could finally go home!
Mission accomplished, all smiles!
My split times for the race were 1h11m30s for 2.4 mile swim, 6h9m39s for 112m mile bike, and 4h10m47s for 26.2 mile run. This placed my 222nd overall and 12th in my age group of 18-24. All the sacrifice and hours of training have been worth while, and having loved every minute of the race, I have now set some targets for next year, where I’ll be competing at Ironman France in Nice. Bring it on!
Yours in success
Andy
Tags: andy sloan ironman, personal trainer dorset, Personal trainer weymouth, triathlon weymouth
Posted in Articles, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Meeting the Queen . . . .
Wednesday, July 8th, 2009
I was fortunate enough to be presented to, and speak with both the Queen, and Prince Phillip. Check out the photos below!
Speaking with the Queen
Meeting Prince Phillip
Continuing the walk along the beach
Tags: fitness dorset, fitness weymouth, kids fitness dorset, Personal trainign weymouth, personal training dorset
Posted in News, Uncategorized | No Comments »
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