I just brainstormed some health and fitness maxims or quick ideas that I hope give you something to think about. My goal with this article is that a few of these maxims might resonate with you and make you delve deeper into that subject. Here they are.
1. Don't charge your phone in your room. It will ruin your sleep. Use a stopwatch for an alarm. Leave your phone in another room.
2. Choose intervals and intensity over steady state running for better results.
3. Ninety five per cent of people would be better concentrating on shorter running (5k and below ) and try to get faster than going longer for their health and fitness.
4. You can always add more vegetables to a dinner.
5. A run shared is a run halved. Try if at all possible to exercise with friends.
6. Batch cooking is key for most busy people.
7. Higher reps/lower weight to lose weight.
8. Heavier weight/fewer reps to build mass.
9. Never sacrifice form for heavier weight.
10. Morning workouts lead to healthier decisions throughout the day.
11. 10,000 steps per day is huge for weight loss.
12. Increase weight or reps each week to get stronger.
13. If you’re not gaining weight or muscle, you’re not eating enough.
14. Everyone should be doing Pilates or movement restoration at least once a week for 45 minutes.
15. Fasting plus black coffee in the morning are great for burning fat.
16. If you’re not losing weight, you’re eating too much or not burning enough calories.
17. A few sets of dumbbells and the right exercises are all you need to get in great shape.
18. Healthy eating is easier than you think. The more lean meat and vegetables you eat, the healthier you would be. You can't eat enough of these.
19. Don’t expect instant results. Take a picture of your physique on day one, commit to the routine for six months, reflect on how far you’ve come at that point.
20. You don’t need to follow a strict diet. Just eat whole foods and prioritise protein.
21. Develop a sleep routine. Quality sleep will make your muscles grow and recover faster while burning fat quicker.
22. Working out with a partner will prevent you from using your phone during workouts.
23. Find exercises you enjoy and do them routinely. Fancy isn’t necessary.
24. Lift legs two to three times per week. This will help ALL muscles grow faster.
25. Do back workouts to build depth in your physique.
26. Life is easy when you live it the hard way, and hard when you live it the easy way.
27. You cannot control where you burn fat. You just have to be patient.
28. If your muscles are in pain, let them rest and workout a different part of your body.
29. Injury prevention should be your number one priority at all costs.
30. Don’t underestimate the 1kg weights. Use these to get stronger gradually.
31. Drink room-temperature water when working out.
32. Exercising and running makes you humble because you learn you can’t win all the time. This makes you a better person.
33. Try using shoes without big soles when exercising in the gym. Or bare feet when doing Pilates.
34. Always have a weekly plan for your exercise to make sure you stick to it.
35. The easiest way to get addicted to the exercise is by doing workouts you genuinely enjoy for the first couple of weeks. Once you have developed the habit of doing something you enjoy, then you can start to add other variations.
36. If you expect results instantly, you will fail. If you give yourself 12 months and just do the right things on a consistent basis, you will transform your entire life.
37. Doing the right thing or the wrong thing won’t make any real difference in the short term but are life changing in the long term.
38. Lifting with perfect form should be your focus at all times.
39. Get 30 minutes of direct sun every day.
40. You will never regret going to the gym or exercising when you didn’t feel like it.
41. Use a high-quality protein powder to help you hit protein goals.
42. Ninety per cent of what you drink should be water.
43. To lose weight and get lean focus on trying to eat as many dinners in the day that are meat and vegetables. Eating three dinners in a day would stop you snacking, which is where the real damage is done.
44. Delayed gratification is the key to success in life.
There you have it. I hope you got something out of these. All these ideas are my own and not entirely in touch with reality at times. If one struck you go back and read it again. Maybe you could act on just that one.
To get my book Get to the Line in the Best Shape Possible visit www.everardpilates.com/book, or for back pain visit www.backawarebelt.com/healthyspine for my free book Secrets of a Healthy Spine.
