Intelligent Fitness Blog

Research shows that making resolutions in the New Year leads to more lasting results than at any other time of year.
Despite this, 80% of people will have given up on their resolutions by February.

Implementing these 7 tips allowed Intelligent fitness clients to lose up to 11.5 stone and continually break personal bests in multiple sports.

Taking action and actually using these strategies will help you to build and maintain rock solid motivation all the way to 2019.

The festive season can be great.

Time off work, meeting up with family and friends, parties, enjoying tasty food and drink.

It can be very enjoyable and can really re-charge the batteries after a tough year.

But often people end the holidays feeling more lethargic, unfit and heavier than before it started.

Accordingly, figures clearly show the number one New Year resolution in the U.K. is to lose weight.

I Don’t Need to Lose Weight – I Just Need to “Tone Up”

It’s not unusual for people who want to “tone up” to say “I don’t need to lose weight; I just need to “tone up”.

Having measured more than two thousand individual body fat percentages on behalf of the Scottish Government over the last 17 years (including the amazing Susan on the left) I have very rarely come across anyone who didn’t need to lose many pounds of fat (rather than merely gain muscle or “tone” the muscle) to “tone up” to the degree they would be happy with.

Do you like cake or chocolate? The other day I was at the canteen at work and someone exclaimed jokingly about what was on my plate (pasta bolognese with garlic bread and salad). This isn’t unusual. Another time I was buying a cake and there was a long queue behind me. Someone shouted out “He’s buying a cake!”. This news spread like wildfire along the queue – there was a real buzz, like I’d somehow been caught doing something wrong and should feel guilty. 

Everyone looked and laughed, which was of course very enjoyable. Once, someone who hadn’t actually been at work when I bought a cake said “I heard about you buying that cake yesterday”. I know – this is pretty funny.

The Kenyans won 40% of all distance running races in 2011. The 20 fastest marathon runners in the world are all Kenyan. But they make up only 0.5% of the world’s population.

Many researchers have tried to discover why they perform so well. Much is made of genetic factors (but the evidence is a bit on the thin side, so to speak) and altitude.

But there are less glamorous reasons which are probably no less important.

Do you want to get lean, strong and toned in as short a time as possible?

A great fat loss and fitness programme is simply not complete without a good Metabolic Resistance Training (MRT) component.

Cardio work (like running cycling and swimming) and strength work (like the Turn Back Time protocol) allied to a sensible, energy controlled diet are essential for optimum health and fat loss.

Do you ever notice that exercise sessions sometimes seem much harder than other ones for no apparent reason? Feels like you have “run out of gas” during an exercise session? Or notice that you are fine on your new Paleo/Dukan/Atkins/Zone super low cal diet for a few days – then all of a sudden your will power just goes?