Don’t Be Average!

Getting in great shape or getting to a high level of fitness is impressive.  If you open any workout or lifestyle magazine you will see a ton of people looking in great shape but these are people that look good for a living and have “got ready” for that particular shoot.  Most people look like crap naked and if you were to stop the average guy in the street to enquire about the number of chin ups he could do or how fast he could run the 100m in it would be way beneath that of a 10 year old child.  Simply put we are a nation of detrained pampered weaklings that are growing weaker with every second that passes.

I do think however that in general it is not our fault as as soon as we leave education and enter the “daily grind” our concentration tends to switch over to making money and away from anything remotely physical.  You can pop out every few minutes for a fag but just imagine popping out to go stretch your legs or do 10 mins exercise?? you’d be crucified!  I also do not think that you realise just how out of shape you have gotten as most of us don’t do enough exercise to even highlight the fact.

As a personal trainer working mainly with city men aged between 20-50 who care at least a little about their physical wellbeing I have made some very eye opening observations such as below:

1. Only 1 in 10 men over 25 can complete a single GOOD chin-up/pull up.  Good means a strict chin above the bar from a dead hang lift not the kipping seizure resembling thing that most gym goers can do 10 of.

2.  Only 1 in 15 men can do 10 strict Pressups in a row.  Pressups mean chest to the ground, body parallel and locking the elbows at the top not the weird eel making love/caterpillar dance cacophony that usually happens.

3.  Nearly all men are too kythotic -rounded shoulders with a tight chest, traps, shoulders and lats – to straighten their arms above their head.  This means unable to push weight above the head.  Try this wall angel and then see how easy it is for your girlfriend.  Follow the instructions as although this woman may be the most patronisng cretin on the planet her cues are important.

4.  Most men could not run the 100 metres all the way to the end at a full sprint.  We all did it at school and even if it took 15 seconds we would finish but when most try it now the result is either a pulled muscle or a tired jog over the finish line.

Now to me these findings are pretty worrying as we are men and I think that means we should be strong, athletic, powerful and at the very least be able to handle our own body weight.

However all is by no means lost as your body wants to improve probably more than you do.  When you ache after a days work or you feel lethargic in the morning when you climb out of bed these are all ways that your body is telling you to pull your finger out and get moving.  Just warm up and try to do some press ups and chin ups or have a crack at running the length of a football pitch as fast as you can.  It doesn’t even have to have much structure in what you do, you just need to move and shake off the proverbial cobwebs that are making you feel below your par.  Whether you are 30 or 50 your body is still designed to move to run and lift and by just doing a few of those things you will feel a little better.

Now as lovely as it is to feel a little better I have never been interested in that because just “getting by” or “being average” is not really anything to be proud of especially when the government has started raising the bar to allow us to be fatter to factor in the nations ever growing waistline.  10 or 20 years ago if you turned up to your local GP’s office with a 36″ plus waist you would have been classed as obese and told to make lifestyle changes whereas now you’ll get a thumbs up and the all clear.

Most people who take on my Warrior Workout do start from a pretty low level of fitness but within the 12 weeks they will all master the feats above as well as making drastic body composition changes during the personal training sessions.  Now 12 weeks in the grand scheme of things is literally nothing so can you imagine what you could achieve if you just made smaller changes over a year?  The sky is the limit and it really is never too late how ever bad your have let things get.