Fitness – achieving your dreams from Matt Roberts

Are you overwhelmed with lots of exercises, don’t know where to start and how to make a programme? Well keep reading for one of the answers to this problem from Ben Watson, a top personal trainer at Matt Roberts personal training.

PURSUING YOUR GOALS

In life if we want to achieve anything great, it often comes through hard work, commitment and consistency. People such as Martin Luther King, Winston Churchill and Andy Murray all fought relentlessly for their cause, for the goal towards which they were working and despite continuous setbacks, challenges and struggles they made their dreams become reality.

Dan John a well-known strength coach describes it perfectly, stating that training is not a lifestyle change but instead an all-out war. A relentless pursuit to get towards your goal whatever the cost. In this same quote Dan John refers to Revelation in the Bible which says: “If you are lukewarm I will spit you out”. The point that he is making is if you’re not committed to something, then don’t do it. Conversely, if you choose to do something be hot – do it with all that you have.

How is that relevant?

Now I know this is quite philosophical and you might be asking what has this got to with my training? Well, everything.

Olympic athletes plan for the next four years what they need to do to be the best. Now I’m not saying that we need a four year plan but it is clear that this level of attention to detail obviously pays off.

What is your goal? What is it that you would like to achieve?

Whether it is an aesthetic goal or a functional goal, consciously decide what it is and be realistic about what you’d like to achieve based on the amount of time that you are willing to commit.

That’s the first step, what’s next?

MAKE A PLAN AND STICK TO IT!

The easiest way is to make a one month plan which you can modify at the end of the month and then again at the end of the second month. This makes up three months which is a good timeframe to make any substantial achievements.

You might however be asking, how do I do that?

Answer: Full Body & Split Routines

I’ll let you into a little secret. At Matt Roberts Personal Training we mainly use either full body workouts or an upper/lower body split and I would recommend that you do the same. If you are training 2-3 times each week then definitely use full body workouts. If you are training over 4 times each week then you would favour an upper/lower body split.

For too long we have been training like bodybuilders doing a chest day or a back day or a legs day but what you have to remember is bodybuilders are training twice a day every day so it means that they are hitting each muscle group two or even three times a week.

When you do a full body workout or train upper/lower body you can train one muscle group while the other one is resting, whereas working on one particular muscle means that you need more rest between sets. It also means that your level of overall muscularity will be consistent throughout the week as you are hitting it more frequently.

All of this is well and good but again you might ask well which exercises should I be doing?

Below are a few links for some good full body and upper/lower body workouts:

The Matt Roberts workout, part one: mattroberts.co.uk,

The Matt Roberts workout, part two: mattroberts.co.uk

For more great tips visit bodybuilding.com