Get back on track

With the end of daylight savings (in some regions) many people say good bye to their training habits as it is starting to get cooler and there simply isn’t the available light to train in. When people say this to me I simply inform them that these are simply excuses to stop getting their training done, and let the good habits of the last 6 months slip by, so here are a few little rebuttals to most excuses.

It is too dark: Most fields have lights these days, and if in your local area there aren’t any fields with adequate lighting you can go for a road run, find some hills and do some hill sprints. Set yourself under a light, do some body weight exercises (as discussed in an earlier article) then sprint up the hill. Then jog back and do either another exercise, or reduce the number of reps you do then sprint again. I will explain this below as session 1 and 2.

Session Set up

You are based under a street light at the base of a hill. Ensuring you have warmed up properly do a few runs up to the last street light on the hill and make sure the ground is smooth and safe. That now becomes your finish line. This is the setup for both Session 1 and 2.

We are going to do 4 sprints per set, and we are going to do 3 sets for session 1 and switch for session 2. We will be using the same exercises for both Session 1 and 2, just the format will be slightly different.

The 4 exercises will be:

• Push Ups
• Squats
• Burpees
• Lunges

Session 1

First lap

• 12 Push ups then SPRINT to the finish, walk back
• 12 Squats Sprint
• 12 Burpees Sprint
• 6 Lunges (per side)

Second lap: Reduce the numbers to 8, then for the third lap reduce them to 6

Session 2

• 12 Push ups Sprint
• 8 Push ups Sprint
• 6 Push ups Sprint. Then Rest. For round 2 swap in Squats, then round 3 burpees and round 4 lunges

It is too cold: For me overheating is a problem in summer, but in winter we want to get, and stay warm. Simply add more light layers of clothes. Don’t go from a big puffy jacket to a singlet as that would be a shock. Be smart, and you can even train harder in the winter as it is colder.

It is too comfy in bed: Get out of bed as soon as the alarm goes off. Don’t give your mind a chance to fool you into thinking about comfort. Get up and get it done. Win the morning and win the day. Go and read Mel Robins book “The 5 second rule” and it will change your actions. Once you change your actions your life will change. This book explains how reacting in the first 5 seconds doesn’t allow your brain to override and question yourself. This may be in meetings when asking questions, or getting out of bed when you have set your alarm to get up to train. It shows you why you do a lot of things and how you can short circuit your mind to create actions that can change your life.

Something that I have done recently, which was great for my team was to do a push up challenge. It doesn’t have to be push ups, but it has to be something physical, and a little uncomfortable. Mine was 200 push ups each and every day for the entire month. I posted videos with my results and lessons I learnt about myself during this process. It may be X amount of squats a day, who can do 15,000+ steps a day (we all have fit bits or something like that to measure our steps), anything physical. This is not just to get you moving, but to have some friendly competition and some good conversations amongst the staff. If you can create this friendly competition amongst your staff then other areas will flow. You may even add in a kitty and the winner takes it all. With the steps that would be quite easy. Just go to their app and add all their steps for the required month, and the winner is the one with the most steps.

For the push ups, squats or any other body weight movement this may be a little tougher to judge, but we did it to simply see how much improvement we can get in the following areas:

How many can you do without stopping?

How quickly can you do the required amount?

Then you can add other variants like heart rate, measurements etc.

The most important thing as the weather starts to cool down and the days get darker is to keep moving. You have hopefully got momentum going and seeing some results, so keep that moving.

For all you out there that want to look great strutting your wears down at the beach or at the pool, or just feel better and perform better remember, that summer bodies are made in the winter.

Have a great month all.

By David Lindsay - High Performance Coach, Keynote Speaker and Former professional Athlete, www.davidlindsay.com.au