Motivational Music (6)

Azealia Banks – 212 ft. Lazy Jay

Motivational Music (5)

Rage Against The Machine – Wake Up

Motivational Music (4)

Ida Corr vs. Fedde Le Grand – Let me think about it

Kev Brady

Just do it!

In tandem with our post last Friday we wanted to post our congrats to British adventurer Kev Brady. Paddling 14 hours a day for three months he completed a solo rowing mission down the Mississippi river whilst determinedly steering his canoe through one of the harshest US winters on record. (oh, and raising £3000 for sick children in Gloucestershire Royal Hospital in the process) 

The prep work involved?  One weekend messing about on his local river before heading out and doing it. Just shows what anyone of us can do, if we get out there and just do it. Nicely done Kev. 

Check out his Facebook page here to see how he got on and a fun victory video when he finished too: https://www.facebook.com/paddlingthemississippi

Motivational Music (3)

Eagles of Death Metal - I Want you so Hard

Obstacle Races

We’re throwing down the gauntlet and challenging you, YES YOU, to sign up to race.

Getting that work/exercise/life balance

Time. It’s probably the number one factor that can inhibit us all from cracking on with our workouts. Between juggling work, personal commitments, odd jobs (and let’s face it the preferable pub session) it can sometimes feel that there just aren’t enough hours in the day.

Guilty of being an A-class procrastinator here are the methods I use to ensure that run or workout gets in.

Motivational Music (2)

The Crystal Method - Born too Slow

Motivational Music (1)

Fort Minor - Remember the Name

Blue Monday

Beat the Monday Blues

Today is Blue Monday, reportedly the most depressing day of the year. Many of us will be hit by the January ‘blues’; a combination of crap weather, lack of funds, failing our new year’s resolutions and low motivation. Mathematically speaking it looks like this, which in itself looks depressing enough:

But before we cry “Goodbye cruel world!”, we’ve decided to take heart in the simple things that can make it not so bad.

Motivational Music

We know you’ve done it, cos we’ve done it too – embarked on a particularly strenuous workout humming ‘Eye of the Tiger’ under your breath. And with good reason; 

Winter

Ah Winter – it’s a tricky time of year. Ironically the time we decide to make a new year’s resolution is exactly the same time when the weather is completely crap. Conjured excuses like “It’s too dark out” or “I could slip on a leaf!” pitched at any other time of year would make us sound pathetic but because we’re in winter they sound like life or death. Best to stay in eh? Who wants to risk being eaten by a polar bear on an early morning run anyway? Far better to kick back in the warm, binge watch Breaking Bad and hibernate til spring.

But consider this, if you can tear yourself away from the warm it’ll give you a head start on everyone else – remember the slowest pace still outruns the bloke lazing on the sofa. The cold will mean you burn more calories and if you can face doing it now you’ll be able to do it any other time of year - just wear a hat.

 

Goals

First things first, let’s start with goals. Walk into a gym and one of the first things they’ll ask (if they’re a gd’un) is what it is you actually want to get out of it. Do you want to lose weight? Slim down? Tone up? Go for definition? Build muscle? Odds are, if you’re anything like me during my first gym encounter the hesitant answer will be ‘Errrr – all of the above?’.

Seriously though, knowing what you want out of all this and having an image of how you want to look is important. Firstly it’s a great motivator – you can’t start without something to aim for. Secondly it’ll highlight what you need to focus on - if you’re aiming to be a long distance marathon runner you’ll focus on other areas and exercises than say a professional body builder, this is a bit of a sweeping example but you get the drift. Identify what you want and that’ll streamline the next steps – even if at this stage it’s quite general i.e. I want to lose weight. I want to tone up my upper body. I want to get fitter overall. Give yourself that goal!