What’s Your 2020 Vision?

Happy New Year!!

So here it is! A new year and a new decade! And to paraphrase John Lennon, what will you have done at the end of it? If you’re like many, January One is the day we make all kinds of resolutions, promises, goals and visions in a bid to make positive changes! That can only be good right?!

Well, yes and no. Date based goal setting often fails because they’re purely driven by obligations we feel in the moment. So the desire to create change and the implementation of those resolutions can have an enormous chasm. The talking and the doing! It’s easy to talk about what we want to achieve but where most fall down is in the doing! And it’s easy to start with the doing when we feel motivated and pumped (on Jan One) but, for many, the doing stops when it gets inconvenient, hard, challenging. Well the truth bomb here is that it’s inevitable. There will be times when doing what your goals require is inconvenient, hard and challenging. You can ‘hope’ it won’t be but that’s an unrealistic expectation. So how do we move toward our goals despite this reality?

It all comes down to YOU! As a trainer, I can provide opportunities and information for people to help them, guide them toward their goals (ie training and passing on knowledge). As a trainer I can encourage and support people but what people do with those opportunities is totally in their control, not mine. Your trainer/coach can’t make the decision for you to get out of bed for a 6am training session. But YOU can! Your trainer/coach can’t make the decision for you to train a little harder during that session! But YOU can! If YOU know you’re not training as hard as you could then it’s it’s totally in YOUR control to change that. Your trainer/coach can’t make the decision for you to be more resilient in reaching YOUR goals. That comes down to YOU too! Your trainer/coach can’t make the decision for you to persevere despite inconvenience, discomfort or challenges. That is totally in YOUR control! Sure! You can choose to make it about outside influences. That’s your choice but that strategy won’t move you toward your goal! Also, if you’ve set goals before and you haven’t met them, take some time to consider what and why. What didn’t work before? Why didn’t it work before? What will be different this time? What can you do to ensure it will work this time?

So while it’s my vision that every personal training client, every small group training client I come into contact with will reach their goals for this year, I know that ultimately it will come down to their choices. Whether they make the decisions that are required to do the work to reach their goals. It would actually be quite arrogant of me as a trainer to consider that I’m the be-all and end-all in YOU reaching your goals because ultimately YOU are. YOU will get there because YOU did the work, made the decisions required, had the courage, put in the effort to create the result YOU envisioned. So how do you achieve those visions, goals and promises? YOU create it by doing the work, accepting the challenges, taking the opportunities presented. Getting out of your comfort zone.

I love and have a passion for helping YOU create the plan and executing that plan. I love being in a position to encourage, love and support YOU toward those goals! Results In Motion is my vehicle to provide for people dedicated to reaching their health and fitness goals. Let’s do it!

3 ‘Secrets’ For Staying On Track

Motivation – like time, it’s fleeting!

The most common (and honest) reason I’ve heard for people walking away from their fitness goals is lack of motivation. “I’m just not motivated anymore”…”I just CBF anymore” are common dropout lines.

But here’s the truth about motivation. It’ unrealistic to expect that you’ll feel motivated 100% of the time. Nobody does! I’ve been training for nearly fifteen years now and I can tell you I’ve had plenty of occasions during that time when I felt a complete lack of motivation. This is when the excuses can easily start to get between you and your goals. Between you and your ‘why’ and in the way of your initial motivation for getting started. It’s too cold. It’s too hot. I’m too busy. I’m too tired. And the list goes on. I’ve heard them all!

So here’s three ‘secrets’ for staying on track when motivation jump squats out the window;

  1. Your best training partner is a really strong ‘why’.  Your reason for better nutrition and exercise. Like passwords, they need to be strong. Your ‘why’ should fiercely resonate on an emotional level. Mine were based around longevity and my kids. I wanted to be a good example for my kids. And I wanted to be around for as long as I could for them. I also wanted to give myself the best chance at a longer, healthier life. Your ‘why’ should have the power to get you out of bed for that early morning sesh. It should have the power to push you out of your comfort zone. It should inspire you to become comfortable with being uncomfortable.
  • Your training needs to become as non-negotiable event as regular showers. We don’t wait to be motivated to take a shower, even though it’s cold. Or because we just can’t be bothered. Not for long anyway! We just do it because we know it’s a non-negotiable to take care of our hygiene. So why would we consider that taking care of our health and fitness is negotiable?
  • Make your training sessions an unbreakable appointment for yourself! When I decided I was going to make a forever change to my health and fitness, my training times became unbreakable appointments. There had to be a dire emergency for me to break that appointment. This one may come with resistance from friends and family when you start being less available but my perspective on that is that nobody that truly cares about me and what I need would disrespect my desire to be a happier, healthier version of myself.

We’d love to hear what your ‘why’ is for your training! Tell us in the comments and inspire others to find that powerful ‘why’!

Get Your Heart Pumping In Your Lounge Room

DRILL #1 – basic full body conditioning

  • 40 squat jumps
  • 40 squat pulses
  • 40 dips (use coffee table)
  • 40 push ups
  • 40 sit ups
  • REPEAT ALL X30, X20, X10

DRILL #2 – cardio bounce

  • 50 star jumps
  • 50 switches
  • 50 knees up
  • 50 butt flicks
  • REPEAT ALL X40, X30, X20, X10 – if your house is big enough, add a run between sets

DRILL #3 – superset me

  • Squat Jumps VERSUS Squat kicks
  • Sit Ups VERSUS Plank Taps
  • Push Ups VERSUS Dips
  • Mountain climbs VERSUS Switches
  • Bound Jumps VERSUS V-extensions
  • ALL of them 30/30 20/20 10/10

Quality or Quantity?

Quality or quantity? It’s an age old debate in the fitness industry and you’d be hard pressed to find a good PT that will tell you to do more and more and more each day for the sake of getting results. Over-training can be a massive problem, leading to injury, fatigue and results plateau. Nobody essentially wants to be working their asses off and going nowhere, correct?

So yes, wholeheartedly agree, that you should be focusing on the following:

  • Correct movement execution
  • Deep range of movement
  • Controlled technique and breathing
  • Stability, control and core
  • Power where power is required

In addition to that, there should be careful progressive overload with your training – i.e. don’t expect to turn up and use an 8kg kettlebell one session and a 20kg the next! This also applies to cardio – you’re not going to be able to run 1km on Monday and suddenly 10km by Friday! We need progressive overload (new challenges) in order for our bodies to achieve results, and subsequently adapt. There are many formulas, methods and calculations to figure out how much you should push yourself, but a general rule is – ask yourself – “Was that too easy?”, “Could i have gone faster, harder, deeper, heavier, higher volume, less stability – CONFIDENTLY” If the answer is yes, then it’s time to move up a level. That means, progress your current training NOT simply add more and more in.

Progression should only occur once you have mastered that level – let your guiding rule be “how good” not “how much”. 🙂 We need consistency to get results – so although we are advocating QUALITY over QUANTITY, I think it’s also worth mentioning you can’t train once a fortnight well and expect 1. progression and 2. results.

So bottom line? Train PROPERLY. Train REGULARLY. Train SMART 🙂

Partner Training Pros and Cons

We’ve all been there – we’ve all started a new fitness regime and roped in a mate to join us! Does it work? Is it beneficial? Or are you better off alone?

On the whole, in the fitness industry, we tend to advocate the benefits of training with a partner 🙂 UNLESS you are in a training partnership that when one person decides it’s time to slack off, the other follows suit! No Susan, Monday nights are for Fight Club NOT Mojitos! A quick list of Partner Training Pros though, should be enough to convince you to source a training buddy 🙂

  1. Accountability. Unlike Susan mentioned above, the majority of partner training relationships work off that fact that you’ll egg each other along to go to the gym or class. If you have committed a day and time to another person, you’re more likely to go
  2. Healthy Competition. It’s human nature to be competitive, and often the best results are obtained with a little extra push from those close to you. If you and your training partner are working towards the same goals in the same sessions, use it to drive yourself a little harder, faster, stronger, better
  3. Spotting and technique safety. Want to try and lift a heavy bench press and not squish your face? Always good to have someone on hand ot spot you. If you can build up enough confidence and rapport with your training partner, it’s great to observe each others technique and offer corrections where applicable
  4. Celebrate your achievements together! Work hard and play hard 🙂 It’s great having someone as motivated as you to achieve your goals, and it’s even better when you can celebrate together.

Plenty of Partner Training pros, you’ve just got to make sure that you pick the right person for the job. Someone that is consistent, motivating and supportive…. not Susan the monday mojito lover

9 months in 9 months out!

OMG look how big my preggo belly was!!

Wow! I can finally say that I’ve made it! 9 months in and 9 months out! What a long, drawn out process of getting back into shape! OMG 🙁 I’m not there yet, but I’m a hell of a lot smaller than I was at 6 weeks post-partum, and not to mention bowling ball preggo! Check out that belly! Whoah BABY! As of this month, I’m starting to fit back into “normal” clothes and am proud to report I am only about 1kg off my pre-baby weight, and 4kg off my wedding weight. I reckon after 12months out (and by that I mean Charlie out), I’ll finally be able to say I’m back to my old self 🙂

I’m not going to sugar coat it and say the weight has dropped off easily – it hasn’t. It’s been a slow, consistent, focused approach. I’ve made a conscious decision to do it that way for the following reasons:

  • Avoid injury – after pregnancy, joints, muscles & tendons are lax; flexibility is crap – going in full pelt would equal injury and delay results further
  • Avoid stretch marks – we can all go and eat 500 calories, drink green juice and magically drop 10kg in 2 weeks, but once you get loose skin and stretch marks there isn’t much you can do about it – so I chose to shrink steadily.
  • Balance! I’ve got 2 businesses to run, first aid to lecture and a baby to cuddle – life is hectic, I’m not a Kardahsian, I can’t train 3X per day and I don’t have a live in chef.
  • Fitness and health outweighs aesthetics – now I’m massively focused on looking better and feeling better and fitting into my wardrobe BUT the feeling of getting back in and doing chins up, heavy deadlifts and just being fit is important to me. I still haven’t been able to start running or do much impact cardio as I’m all out of whack in the left hip (from carrying a buddha 12kg baby around) and this is a goal for the next 3 months
Core finally pulling back into place 🙂

I’m part of several mums groups on FB and one of the most common things I see posted is about losing the baby weight, regaining fitness and feeling better. Because of this, I’ve listed my 10 top tips for shifting it quick and getting back on your feet:

  1. Be consistent – you need to train 3-6 times per week, some weeks will be more because of #life but on weeks when you can bang out more sessions – DO IT!
  2. The sessions don’t need to be long – 20min-45min is ample – it’s about quality and consistency NOT time quantity
  3. Have an aim for each session – will you sweat for the whole time? Are you going to go slower and work on strength?
  4. Lift weights – they will change your shape and make you feel so much leaner
  5. Don’t do stuff if your body isn’t ready for – as I mentioned before, I can’t run at the moment. It pulls through left hip and doesn’t feel right, especially as I’m still heavy (for me)
  6. DIET is key – you need to be eating clean for 5 days out of 7. If you’re stuffing your face with cupcakes you will not get results
  7. Focus on fitness and the rest will come – you will get fit before you get fantastic if you’re training properly
  8. BE PATIENT – all of a sudden you’ll just turn a corner, if you train 5X per week, eat clean 5 days per week – it will happen, have faith.
  9. Give yourself realistic deadlines – I’m giving myself another 3 months to lose 3-4kg. This is achievable and will ensure that it stay off
  10. Make it a lifestyle change and lead by example – bubs will see you exercising, involve them, they love it!
My bubba boy <3

11 weeks postpartum – time to get back to reality

My grand plans of blogging my weekly return to fitness glory have been somewhat side tracked! Between juggling Results in Motion, PD4PTs, life and Charlie, it’s difficult to sit down to write a blog. So this piece from me, is actually a culmination of the last 4 weeks – I literally started writing this, taking pics and measurements etc. when I was 8 weeks postpartum, somehow I seem to have lost the last 4 weeks of my life! Doesn’t matter though, as the main thing is progression and progress and I’m pleased to report, we have success in that departments!

Last time I touched base, I was feeling like recovery was the slowest thing out there, at 5 weeks postpartum, really, I was only able to walk around the streets – max an hour. Well good news is, that has improved MASSIVELY! I’m proud to report that I’m back training, swinging my kettlebells around and loving life. Week 10 I headed back to the studio and completed a strength session – light weights, full body movements and had a great time using Charlie as a push up target. Super low impact and nothing too strenuous but MAN I WAS SORE! Like difficulty sitting on the toilet sore! Charlie was right at home in the Waverley studio and was a good boy, sleeping in his capsule while I ripped off the bandaid and started my exercise return.

That week, my Mother’s Group and I committed to weekly PT sessions in the park with our babies. So in the sunshine, we kicked off the first ever Mums & Bubs Training session and have now done this consistently for a couple of weeks 🙂

From a Training & Fitness angle here’s where I’m at:

  • Week One (week 10 postpartum) completed 2X strength and conditioning workouts
  • Week Two (week 11 postpartum) completed 3X strength and conditioning workout – started to add a tiny bit of high intensity and plyometric (jumping) stuff in
  • This week, and thereafter, I’m committing to 4X workouts per week – the plan is to keep it low impact and strength based for another couple of weeks, and then gradually move into some cardio / impact work

Perhaps the biggest motivator this week has been the decision to sign into Boot Camp. Results in Motion Spring Boot Camp kicked off today, and yep you guessed it, I’m IN!! I need to the support of a group, the motivation of a time deadline and something to focus my nutrition.  100% the hardest thing for me is finding the motivation to pull my eating back into alignment – late nights feeds, tiredness, coffee catch ups and being home are all the reasons I cannot seem to get my shizzle together in the food department. I’m hoping that Boot Camp encourages a change here. Measurement and weight wise I’m fairly happy – some achievements in this area include:

  • 1.3kg drop (66.7kg down to 65.4kg)
  • 19cm drop
  • 10cm alone off my hips
  • 5cm off my tummy

But looking at the images below (4 weeks postpartum TOP and 8 weeks postpartum bottom) you can see I’ve still got a lot of work to do. 

For those coming back from pregnancy, my tip would be stay focused, go slow and try and improve just a little each week. Slow progress is better than no progress and make sure you set realistic goals – my ultimate goal that I’m working toward is:

BE IN SHAPE (back to pre-pregnancy) for my birthday this year – December 5th

I’ll keep you in the loop with my progress and RIM clients, get ready to see me in action at the studio and in the training sessions from now until then!

5 Weeks Postpartum – Recovery Is Slow!

I’m not exactly sure where the last 5 weeks have gone, the days seem long sometimes (when Charlie is kicking off!) but the time genuinely has flown! Life for me as a Baby Mumma has been both enjoyable and stressful as I try to balance work + Charlie time – possibly the worst day ever was attempting to do my Quarter 4 BAS for Results in Motion and PD4PTs (so 6 months of profit & loss statements as opposed to 3) all in one day when Charlie decided to refused to settle. Worst. Day. Ever. Since that horrific day, I’ve tried to pull back on the work front and accepted that I can only do so much with a permanently attached small human!

Charlie and I also have opposing goals on the Health and Fitness front, he’s in a bulking phase and I’m hopefully on the path back to my Health & Fitness glory days. Guess what – it’s a LONG path for me!! ha ha 🙂 Check Charlies bulking action though, he’s definitely getting some quick results! What a legend!

I mentioned last blog that I’m going to be setting some really solid goals and targets for myself, well that will be after my OB check up at the 6 week mark. I’ve decided to do the right thing, allow proper C-section recovery and not push anything on that front. However, in the interim, I’ve made some positive Health and Fitness, nutrition and lifestyle changes over the last 12 days, that I’ll detail out below.

Training and Fitness

  • Daily walks – this has now increased to an hour per day minimum, I’m hoping that as my recovery keeps improving, i can pick up the pace, include more hills and turn these from a stroll in the sun into a workout. 12 days ago I could barely make it around the block, so can definitely feel some improvement on these! Image below of my mega sunshine walk the other day 🙂
  • Mini strength session – these has been a little tougher as I need to be so careful with jumping into this too early – it’s not much of a routine, but every 2-3 days I’m trying to complete the following:
    • 50 dips
    • 50 calf raises
    • 50 squats (mixture of wide sumo and regular)
    • 20 incline push ups (being VERY careful of angle etc. and stomach control

From the nutrition angle, I’ve been super relaxed with my diet + eating and have no intention of jumping on to a strict plan yet. I’m quickly learning to accept that I’ll never eat a piping hot meal again and that sometimes I have to eat whatever I can lay my hands on – so scrambled eggs on dense nutritious bread for breakky has been replaced with 3 weetbix & milk simply for convenience (i.e. I can make and eat this in 4 min as opposed to 15!) My changes over the last fortnight include:

  • Committing to drinking 1.5L of water daily
  • Making sure that I’m having 1 meal per day with a stack of veggies
  • Enjoying equivalent to 1 piece of fruit

Wellness and Lifestyle

Perhaps the most important thing at the moment, at 5 weeks postpartum is the “wellness and lifestyle” component. There’s a huge focus on this at all my maternal health check ups – avoiding post natal depression, mum’s mental health etc. Whilst I’m a happy and task driven person, I can 100% see how this whole motherhood thing can get lonely, frustrating, boring so it’s important for me at least to keep to a routine, give myself daily goals and just go with the flow. Some things I’ve implemented that I’ve found of use include the following:

  • Set up daily tasks and goals on a whiteboard and mark them off as they are completed (avoids the day in day out feeling)
  • Make sure that whatever happens I have a shower, eat all my meals, put on make up, keep up to date with social media, log into work – this normality helps!
  • Take time to get hair dyed, brows done, nails done – you need to feel human!
  • EAT THE CAKE IF I WANT IT! Some days you’ve just got to have a cupcake peeps!

Next week is a big one for us, my 6 week OB appointment, Charlie’s vaccines, me back driving around! Hopefully I’ll be able to utilise the time to set some real goals and get back into the zone!

 

Return to Fitness Glory – The Hard Truth

Wow – I’m 23 days postpartum and I barely recognise myself in the mirror! There is absolutely nothing glam about C-section recovery, looking after a newborn and the physical deconditioning that I’m feeling right now! 10 days ago, I decided that it was time to move into a “health and fitness” mindset, and indeed I’ve started to make the changes to commence the “Return to Fitness Glory” journey – but let me stress- they’re SMALL and SLOW behavioural changes. I’m not cutting hours of laps around the block, counting my macros and being ridiculous, I’m enjoying my new phase as a baby mumma and will take my time in getting back on track.

As with any client setting a Health and Fitness goal, I have spent a bit of time this week clarifying what my end targets are, what it is that I want to achieve – I will nut these out in more detail in a later blog post as some of them will be determined by my 6 week assessment with the OB. E.g. can I return to high impact training? Do I have diastasis recti (abdominal separation)? It’s important to have an end point, something to aim for, but I think it’s equally important to establish a baseline. This week involved a weigh in, measurements and some “before” pics – well postpartum photos but they are my official “hard truth” – this is where I’m at size wise, weight wise and aesthetic wise. It’s too early for me to test myself out on a fitness capactiy, but I know from how difficult it was to walk around the block, exactly where I’m at!

So here you have it people – my before measurements – this is the heaviest that I’ve been in my life and definitely the biggest measurement wise.

Below are my regular measurements and a more normal weight for me – overall it looks like I need to lose about 10kg and something like 63cm. MASSIVE goals!! But achievable with slow, steady focused training and nutrition

Numbers are numbers but what I think is perhaps more confronting are the postpartum images I took the other day – it’s certainly not what I expected to be 23 days out from the birth, but perhaps my expectations were a little unrealistic. My tummy is swollen and squishy and yes, it still feels like my insides are going to fall out at any given moment. There will 100% be no proper training until this feeling disappears – only basic Pilates movements, walks around the block and slow controlled body weight compound exercises like dips and squats (after OB clearance).

Here I am in all my postpartum glory – ready to commence my return to fitness and happy to have you along for the journey! 🙂