Well 2008 is nearly at a close, and it is that time of year where many people start to think about their health and well being. Most people start writing (or mentally writing) there resolutions for 2009 about now.

Well I have found in the past that there is really 2 main elements that make up the ability to make changes in the body – Consistency & Accountability, I’ll talk more of these later.

Since I developed the idea of these 2 elements being important, more and more ‘keys’ start to become apparent for greater and greater success.

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Why oh why is it that these big multi national fitness magazines not actually do their home work.

I recently purchased a magazine and found to my horror that they were incorrectly showing their readers how to do the deadlift.

Now if you’re not up with your exercise classifcations this is a fantastic exercise and one that I teach in my Weight Training Technique System.

Any way one day they might get it right…Idiots!!

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 Please Deadlift Correctly: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Today’s rant is one quite close to my heart.

Being a qualified coach I have a real problem with these so called ‘qualified’ personal trainers that just stand and count the number reps you do.

If you have a trainer who is not working with you to correct your posture and weight training technique then you are not getting what I would call ‘qualified’ training.

As I say in the rant, not everyone is like that. There are some very good ones around but don’t be afraid to sack your trainer if they are just good counters and machine loaders.

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 Does your trainer just count reps?: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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As I mentioned yesterday I am changing the overall training plan.

Today was a planned change however to more of a strength training circuit rather than the previous resistance sessions which had been predominantly based around an endurance component.

The basis strategy is the same with 9 exercises followed one after the other. They were:

Forward Lunge 6LR

Swiss Ball Single Leg Hammy Curl x 6LR

Single Leg Plank Pose x 5 x 5 sec holds LR

Step Ups with weight x 6LR

Single Arm Row x 6LR

Swiss Ball Single Leg Half Jack Knife x 6LR

Dynamic Lateral Lunge x 6LR

Swiss Ball Single Leg Bridge x 6LR

Single Arm Press Up Bridge x 5 x 5 sec holds LR

LR= Left and right

As you can see all the reps have come down in number and I only did 2 circuits of this with 45-60 secs rest between each exercise.

The other major change is the tempo (speed of movement) for each exercise. As I was concentrating on a strength bias I slowed the negative/eccentric portion of the movement to a 3 seconds rather than the even controlled second or two that I used in the other program.

The negative/eccentric part of the movement is the easiest part.

What’s easier when you do a forward lunge, the stepping forward or pushing back?

It’ the going forward, so that is the portion of the movement that I use the slower three second tempo for, I still maintained a powerful/ 1 sec push back.

For something like single arm row the downward lowering is far easier than the up phase and therefore it is this part that I took my time over (I’ll explain why this is important another time).

So that was it, took me about 30 mins including warm up and call down.

If you are a little confused over the actual exercise in the circuits you will find detailed video clips at my Weight Training Technique site which is in the pre launch stage.

You can still get your own half marathon program by **downloading it here**

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Well today’s weight training session got a bit messed up. I ended up running out of time and trained with one of my clients – the only problem was I ended up doing what they were doing which repeated some of the same movement patterns as I did yesterday.

Any way here it is:

AM: Weight Training Session

A1 Squats with dumbbells – to sitting on bench (2×15)
A2 DB bench press with double leg stretch (2×15)
A3 Alternating Bent over Row – db’s (2×15LR)

B1 Walking Lunges with knee up and skip (2×10LR)
B2 Lat Pulldown – wide overhand (2×15)
B3 Push Press – barbell (2×15)

C Biceps rope curl – drop set (10,10,10)

D Triceps rope press down – drop set (10,10,10)

Ab circuit
E1 Supine 90 crunch with medicine ball (20)
E2 Squirms (20,20)
E3 Reverse Crunch (10)

PM: 45 minutes run

Steady paced run – training my wife to run a half marathon (it’s the longest she’s ever run for today…I’m very proud of her).

So not an ideal day of training but I made it work for me. It takes me back to my first rule of training – being consistent.

It’s been 10 years at the end of the month since I quit professional rugby and I have a desire to get back and play this September (all be it at an amateur rugby level……I’m getting on a bit!!)

I’ll be adding some of the above exercises to my weight training technique website that is undergoing some beta testing at the moment.

If you would like to see 4 of my videos for free and sign up to the early notification list **click here**

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