A day in the life...

Some people find it hard to lose weight, some people find it hard to gain, some are easily motivated and others are difficult to movitate. I've found the key to both, is having a routine, but not mindnumbingly so.

What I mean is to have a routine of doing things but not necessarily doing the same things over and over. Exercising , through various happenings this past year, is medically important to me, but doing the same thing day in day out would drive me insane - more so than I already am - so I have to mix it up a bit but at the same time I have to keep a routine of always exercising at the same time. Its easier to actually get started if you set aside the same time every day for a particular function.

At the moment, my life consists of eating, work and working out. My day starts at 5:30am follows the same pattern every day, but certain key features vary to ensure that I dont stagnate or go mental. For example, even though I do the same amount of pressups and situps every day I dont always do them in the same order.

One night I will lift weights, another I will box, the next I may work my legs or only do a basic workout (120 pressups and 100 situps). But I will always work out at the same time. Your body becomes accustomed to the energy expenditure and will begin to expect it making it easier to get started.

I dont use a gym, machines are the wrong size for me, and I hate using earphones as the cable often gets in the way of weights, so I work out at home. The benefit is that I can still watch tv whilst doing crunches, or pressups or weights which helps pass the time a bit more quickly.

Feel free to leave a comment!

The man who went up a hill and came down a mountain...

Well..thats the cycle decided. August 2009 cant come soon enough to get the same sense of camaraderie and fulfilment that we got from last year. Although, I am NOT looking forward to the buttache and the burning aching pain in my legs from climbing hills. And we are going to climb a LOT of hills this year. The edge of the Bavarian Alps to be exact. Yikes!

Looking at it on Google earth the cycle from Prague to Berlin will require an effort of around 2000ft climb over most of the first day through the mountains between the Chzek Republic and Germany.

To be honest, I can't wait. After this weeks newly found weight lifting abilities I'm going to attack harder and harder to build mass and strength, then in April, I'm going to maintain the same level of weight lifting but increase the cycling to 30 miles 4x a week.

I reckon by the end of the summer I should be a lot fitter than I was last year.


Feel free to leave a comment!

When to realise your limits

Yesterday was a routine day of blood tests, being poked and prodded and various other tests that doctors could imagine. Or so I thought. I have recently moved to a new doctor and hospital so rather than just have the usual small amount of bloods, a whole gamut (ooooh fancy...I never thought I would actually use that word in a sentence) of tests were ran on me.

I'd planned ahead and had booked the day off work...good no problems there then. So this morning I woke to the residual stiffness from the DOMS mentioned a few days ago. So thought "Excellent, back to the gym today". When I got to the gym it seemed a bit busier than usual so the bikes were all used up... So I did my customary 3 second stretch and hit the weights.

WOW! what a difference that made. I was able to up my leg press from the usual 73kg to well over 100kg and bump up the reps to 30. Now, when you only weigh 58kg, I reckon thats pretty good going! Again, I was able to up my chest press to 60kg and increased the reps to 24. I was starting to get a bit worried...what was going on...how after no training for two days, no warm up and having quite a lot of blood taken was I able to do all this?

I'm still puzzling this out to be honest. With the lack of blood I should have been struggling for air as there is less haemoglobin to transport oxygen to muscles. Blood pressure is also lower as theres less volume of blood.

So anyway whats going on? The only thing I can think of is that because I didnt get the heart rate up, my heart was able to beat with a little more force to get the blood to where it needed to be. I really don't know why...answers on a postcard please...although a cheque would get my attention more!

Feel free to leave a comment!

We are no longer the knights who say "Ni"

We are now the knights who say "ecky ecky ecky patang!" Well...thats what my legs feel like they are doing. So today, I decided that since my arms hurt after take after take making that chip up video that I would mainly work my legs.

Starting with a 5 minute cycle at 30km/h to warm up, I then stretched my hamstrings using this method:



With my legs suitably warm, I then went on to the leg press. Now its been a while since I did this so I started light - 73kg and did 20x Squats twice with my feet at the bottom of the foot board on the leg press machine - this worked my quads and could feel the burn shortly after starting. I NEVER fully lock our my knees when doing squats, thats asking for trouble, instead I keep a 10 degree bend in my knee and hold it for 5 seconds, then down (take 2 seconds to go down) and then up (again taking two seconds to do this).

Then keeping the same weight I moved my feet right up to the top of the foot board. This worked the tops of the backs of the thighs and shortly I could feel them loosening up a little as they heated up. I could only manage 10x 73kg squats twice doing this.

Lastly, I did some calf presses, now, I couldnt actually lift the 73kg from a squat position to a full leg straight position using the calf press stance, so I squatted the weight normally until my legs were straight and slowly walked my feet so they were off the board apart from the balls of my feet. Then slowly, drop your heels and then just as slowly start to raise them. You'll feel the contraction in your calves if you are doing this right, I try to keep my feet as close together as possible when doing this.

Whilst I am trying to bulk up a little, my main aim is to increase strength and stamina in the muscles and thats just what I am achieving by never unstressing the legs during a squat.

Feel free to leave a comment!

No Gym? No Problem!

People trained before gyms. Gladiators in the Roman Empire. Trojans and Spartans before them. Rocky used russian mountains in Rocky 4.



This week has been a long hard week at work, long nights and early morning compounded the usual motivational problem of getting to a gym on a cold dark winters night.

Training has to be done though so improvisation is the key. Being single (at the moment) means I am lucky enough to be able to leave my weights whereever I feel they are handy. I have dumbells next to my couch so I can use them whilst watching TV. Isolating my arms is easy as I can rest my elbow on the couch armrest.

If you want to train, not getting to a gym isn't going to stop you. All you have to do is improvise a little. I normally work my arms and legs quite heavily at the gym and at home I do the same.

Where I would do a lateral pull down in the gym, I jump up to grab on to my doorframes and do wide grip underarm chin ups on it... and I HAVE to use a wide grip or I risk pulling the frame off the wall as its over 100years old. What makes it a harder workout is that I am having to grip with only the tips of my fingers so my forearms get a workout as well as my upper arms and back.



For situps, I hook my feet under the edge of the couch and use that to stabilise myself (realistically you shouldn't need a weight on your feet to do a sit-up/crunch).

Benchpresses are easy at home - I use the bench, however as I am on my own, and the bar could do a lot of damage at 60kg should I drop it, I leave the collars off the weight bar. This makes it easier for me to get out, if I drop it the weights will unbalance and slip off the bar, so I dont get hurt (not too badly). It also means you have to be more balanced and controlled in your press because the weights will slide off the end of the bar if you aren't.

So, the next time you say you dont have the time to get to the gym...stop lying to yourself, use your house, improvise.

Feel free to leave a comment!

Reach for the stars, you dirty animal!

Most training works on your endurance and strength. That's what you are aiming for most of the time, apart from when you want to get up short steep hills - or when you want to explode out of starting blocks.

The best way to build fast twitch muscles is by using plyometric exercises. A plyometric contraction involves first a rapid muscle lengthening movement, followed by a short resting phase, then an explosive muscle shortening movement, which enables the muscles that work together in doing the particular motion.

Things like Karate, Thai Kickboxing, Capoiera all rely on the ability to expel energy quickly. The movements, forms and training used within them all help develop tast twitch fibres. Kung Fu's tend not to rely on explosive power and instead rely on smooth movement, reading body language and technique over the strength required in the external martial arts.

So how do you know if you need to develop fast twitch muscle fibres?

Try this. Stand next to a wall, feet flat, now raise your arm so that you reach up the wall as far as you go. Mark it (mentally if you dont want to put a mark on your wall), now standing in the same position and without crouching, jump as high as you can and touch the wall with your arm upstretched again. You should be able to get at least 30cm (1ft) higher, if you can manage more then you have plenty of fast twitch fibres. If you can only manage about 10-20cm more then you need to develop the fast twitch fibres.

Fast twitch fibres get tired really quickly, exercising them wont help their stamina, however it will help the efficiency and the number of fibres, thereby making you able to explode out longer when you need to.

Feel free to leave a comment!

These shoes are made for walking..

I bet when you were buying your trainers for the gym and for exercising you went for two things over anything else. Look and Comfort. Thats great for ensuring that people might be attracted to you but not so useful if you are there to work out properly.

When you decide which shoes to wear to the gym, you should consider what exercises you will be doing. Take treadmill running for example, you need a cushioned sole with high enough grip to ensure you dont slip on the rubberised running surface. Cross country running you need shoes with a little more stability in the sole. Tennis you need ankle support for the fast turns and changes of direction.

Similarly when lifting weights or cycling, you need a solid sole. Having an air cushion in your shoes when cycling means a lot of your effort is going into compressing air instead of pushing down on the pedal. Lifting weights is even worse, each time you push a weight with the base of your foot or are doing a standing rep, your body changes its stance, balance and motion ever so slightly. You wont notice the minor instabilities but they will build up and cause you to swing the weights instead of lift/curl or press them.

Try cycling or lifting weights with a solid soled shoe, with minimal lift and padding, sure it might not be the best walking shoe in the world but then again, you aren't walking are you? I always use Lonsdale trainers - the stuff boxers wear. No, I don't think I am a boxer and don't pretend to be, but the training they go through and the rigorous years of studying to be a boxing trainer must mean something, and if they suggest those shoes then there must be some thought behind it. And they dont look too bad either...

Feel free to leave a comment!

I love it when a plan comes together...

Normally I spread myself out across 9 different machines in the gym after my warm up. I don't do much of a warm up as I don't want my metabolism getting into that fat burning zone. But lately I've noticed that my body isnt really getting pushed as hard as it used to. So...instead of working on all muscle groups, I've decided to break down my exercises over 2 nights instead. That way I can hit them harder than before and hopefully see better gains.

What do I mean? Well instead of doing pushing and pulling exercises in one night (and you really do have to do both types or your joints will suffer) I'm now doing only one type each night. But so as I dont leave myself totally crippled, I am working my legs on pushing on the nights my arms are pulling; and the nights my arms are pushing my legs will pull.

Why?

Think about it, when you are pulling a Lateral pull down bar, the rest of your body needs to keep you stable to work your arms properly, your abdomen, back, shoulders, chest all have to work to keep you straight and true, and if you are like me then your legs are also working to keep you from being pulled off the seat by the stack of weights.

Now thats fine normally, but say your back shoulders and triceps have already been hammered by benching that 220lbs you can do for 3 reps (read that as the 220lbs I do), when you pull down on the lateral bar, your back is going to be quivering worse than a jellyfish thats had a dodgy curry. So by splitting the pushing and pulling exercises I hope to a: keep better form, and b: lift (push/pull) heavier...

I'll let you know how it goes. I'm going to try this for a week then bump myself on to creatine - to see if that makes any difference.

Feel free to leave a comment!

Step away from the weight bench...

Ok, so you can bench 200lbs...you can leg press over 250lbs...great, you're a machine. Bet you aren't. Most people that spend all their time training on pushing exercises like that forget to remember to pull.

Pull ups. Chin ups. whatever you want to call them, you MUST balance your exercise or you will cause yourself injury through your own depth of focus and determination. Pushing exercises work specific muscles, triceps and pectorals. Over work those and underwork the deltoids and you risk unbalancing your entire shoulders... and thats when you end up with back pain.

So where do you start with chinups. Well, with a bar. Just hang from it until your fingers give out (aren't you glad you are doing this at home instead of on a cliff 100ft up)...shake out your arms...and hang out for a while more until your fingers give out...shake out your arms again and then hang out more until at last your arms give out.

Whats this doing?

You might think its not exercising your arms at all, but it is, just not the show off muscles you are used to exercising. Its strengthening your forearms and grip.

Why is that important?

Simply because everyone will laugh at you if you can bench 200lbs and can only curl 40 before your wrists and fingers give in and you drop the bar on your foot. When you have a stronger grip, you will be able to exercise the muscles in your upper arm a lot more successfully as you wont feel the temptation to throw the weight up by swinging your body to compensate for the feeling that your fingers are slipping.

Another way to strengthen the wrists and forearms is to use a triangle press up, do 3 sets of 5 to start with - trust me its a lot harder than you think and build up to 3 sets of 10-15. You should notice a big change in your strength.

Short Circuit

No, not the type in an electrical problem. I'm talking about circuit training. Most people envisage circuit training as involving a lot of cardio-vascular exercise and not helping those who want to build up mass.

All cicuit training is, is a method of training which reduces the mental impact of repetition and increases the impact on muscle use by varying the muscles being used.

In practice what this means is that you can train longer and harder without being reduced to a quivering mass of jelly or thinking "you know what? I could be in the pub now sinking a few pints of bevvy with a sheilagh or four!"

Heres my typical circuit

• Press ups
• Shoulder press
• Sit ups
• Leg raises
• Squats
• Back Extension
• Bicep Curl
• Deadlift
• Tricep Pushdown
• Lateral Raises
• Single Arm Rows

At the end of the Circuit, start again, do this three times. If you are still standing, then congratulations but you probably want to increase the reps on each circuit step, if you aren't standing, well done; if you passed out you should probably call an ambulance when you wake up.

I'll let you know how things go over the next few weeks. I'll be interspersing the circuit training with Weight lifting twice a week. Every fourth week, I'll train to failure to ensure that I'm not getting too complacent.

Fingers crossed!

Who are you calling a jerk?

Yesterday was the first day I got back on the bike since getting back from Sweden. Cycling back to Irvine from Glasgow. 38 miles. I'd done it in 2.75hrs in one go the last time (two weeks before the trip).

This week it took us just over 3 hours - which still isnt too bad. But it was absolute hell. I'd made the mistake of hurrying whilst washing my water bottles. That meant when I needed liquid most and took a quick swig I couldn't. All I could taste was washing up liquid. Now, If you have ever tried to cycle 40 miles across the countryside with no liquid you will know how stupid that was.

My muscles were starting to seize up pretty badly, my lips were dry, and I could feel them starting to crack.

I made it though.

That wasn't the worst though. At the end of the night I lay in bed trying to sleep and just about managed to drift off when I jumped out of my skin...everyone has this from time to time. You know the dream. You're falling, falling, falling and boom with a jerk you wake up...then you drift off to sleep again. It happened to me 4 times last night. Its pretty un-nerving waking up thinking you're about to crash, even my hands had tightened as if I was pressing the brakes.

So what the heck happened?

Well. At night your bodys cicadian rhythm starts to slow everything down so you can sleep. Hormones are released to induce your body to want to sleep, you yawn your head off, and then nod off. simple?

Well, when you are exhausted your body is affected much more than normal, your heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure drop much more rapidly. Your lymbic system panics as it thinks you are about to pop your clogs and sends a massive jolt to every muscle in your body - a kind of a jump start. Your heart rate speeds up, your breathing quickens and your blood pressure spikes temporarily; trouble is, I was so tired that this "one time fix" didn't work. So my brain tried it, again, and again, and again.

The net result is a very bad nights sleep; and very sore muscles the day after.

What have I learned? never ever ever wash your water bottles only 8hrs before you use them. Wash. Rinse. Rinse. Rinse. Rinse. and Rinse again!

And I've decided that cycling alone isnt going to help. This week sees me starting weight training again, and rowing, possibly running although I can't think of anything worse!

Training To Failure

This week sees the beginning of a hard training week. Training almost to the point where muscles have nothing left to give. Refuelling with high protein and carbohydrate drinks and food. Whats the point of that?

Well...each time your muscles reach the point of failure - the point at which they can physically exert no more energy (not the point when you think you are too tired) - your body has to repair that muscle but as it knows its been overworked it develops new muscle fibres in the hope that those new fibres will allow you to perform better, faster and more efficiently.

So whats that mean in terms of training? Cycling a minimum of 20 miles a night. Lifting weights at home (free weights such as dumbbells and barbells with no end caps).

A few friends have commented in the past about my lifting weights at home without a spotter - specially as I quite often lift more than I weigh. My retort to that is I always lift those heavy weights with no end caps. The weights stay on the bar purely through their own resistance and my lifting form. IF I should fail at any point the weights would slip off the bar on one end and leave me able to get out without any serious injury!

But all that training is no use if you are not eating right. I've posted numerous times on what my diet consists of so I wont do it again but remember: You need enough carbs to fuel your exercise, and enough protein to be able to rebuild those damaged muscle fibres!

Mr Average

Today was a great day for cycling. The wind that had been threatening to blow me away over the weekend had subsided to a barely noticeable breeze. The cloud cover had parted to allow some sun to shine.

I set off pretty early this morning, about 9.20am. I set off for my old office first and made really good progress. By 10am I'd covered the 10 miles there. After a short break, I set off for the next 10 miles. Again I'd managed to cover the next 10 miles in just over 40 minutes.

That meant my average speed had risen from 12mph to 15mph. It doesn't sound like much but believe me, when you are on a mountain bike with off road tyres that are slightly soft you do notice that the pedalling ain't as easy as you wish it was.

The amount of cycling I am doing I'd have thought that my general fitness would be much better than it is. However, last night after just 17 press-ups I was out of breath. Bench-pressing? forget about it! I was able to only do a few reps of the normal weights (30Kg) before my arms were trembling. I knew I had been feeling a little bunged up from a cold for a while but hadn't thought it would affect me as much as it did. Today proved otherwise. 5 miles in I had real problems breathing, but I managed to press on regardless. I just hope having to breathe as heavily as I did that I didn't make the cold any worse. Oh well! Lets wait and see. In the mean time, the heating is on and I'm enjoying a nice cold Nastro Azzurro.

Rest your heart...

If you are anything like me and do a bit of reading about training you will see that there are three heart rates which figure heavily in most literature.

• Resting Heart Rate
• Training Heart Rate
• Maximum Heart Rate

Your resting heart rate is the base rate for your heart to pump blood around your body, the lower the rate, the more efficient your heart is at getting blood where it needs to be.

Maximum Heart Rate isn't what you think; it does not stand for the rate just below that which would make your heart explode. Instead it means the maximum rate during exertion. To measure it normally takes a lot of equipment but can be emulated by doing something like cycling for 10-15 minutes and increase the pace every minute for five minutes, at the end of it, sprint as fast as you can. Now measure your heart rate for a FULL 60 seconds, no cheating though because your heart will be slowing down gradually over these 15 seconds (unless you are having a heart attack in which case its probably going to resemble a 5-4 beat in a Jazz ensemble - I don't even know if that's possible or not but it gets the point across).

The Training Heart Rate is the most important for me, the resting heart rate will come down through training on its own, my maximum should stay level or fall too. The training heart rate is the rate at which your body is most able to provide oxygen to the muscles. Get the rate too high and your body is taking in more oxygen than it needs, get the rate too low and your body will turn all that aerobic exercise into anaerobic and start to tire out your muscles a lot faster. Getting the rate to between 50% and 85% of your maximum heart rate (see there was a reason for torturing you) will ensure you are able to work the muscles without unecessarily depriving them of the oxygen they need.

I am amazed at how little exercise it took to drop my heart rate from 80BPM to 60BPM at rest. I could imagine it being a lot lower if I trained more consistently. Maybe I should start taking a note of it.

Good Things come to those who wait..

This weekend sees us do our longest cycle yet...72 miles. Twenty two miles more than we have ever done in one day. The route will take us from Edinburgh Waverley Street station to Falkirk (past the Falkirk Wheel) to Glasgow. Thats 66 miles. Tom and I will also do an extra three miles each way to Glasgow, once in the morning to get the train to Edinburgh and then from Glasgow Centre to our respective flats at night after the 66 miles. And the thing is I am looking forward to it.

I feel like the guy from the guinness advert. Waiting. Poised to spring into action and get that 72 miles under my wheels and start to see the miles go by.

Tick. Follows Tock. Tick. Follows Tock...

Here's why I am getting excited about it. This week we burst through the £500 barrier for donations already. A company I used to work for and that Tom still does work for has kindly said they will provide shirts and give us a donation too. And to top it all off, a site I signed up for ages ago http://www.athletefocus.com/ has been talking to me to get a blog set up there to help motivate others and may also provide us with some sponsorship. All in all, much more positive than I thought things were going to be.

I've recently given myself a much more streamlined haircut (read as: shaved it all off with a number 1 clipper) and gained enough weight to tip the scales at 62kg last thing at night. I haven't ever done that since I became sick with Crohns Disease (a story for another time) apart from a long time ago during a period of heavy medication from my doctors. Ever since then I've been struggling to get my weight up to 59kg, never mind 62kg.

And that is where my philosophy in life comes in, EVERYTHING, no matter how hard it seems to deal with it at the time, has a positive aspect to it. Jack inspired Tom to decide to raise money for the charity that looked after him, but I reckon its made all the guys taking part better friends and made us learn a lot about ourselves. So yeah cycling for 5 hours is a real pain in the arse. Yeah, I am in pain the next day. But by doing this every week I learn more about my limits, what I can cope with and what I am willing to go through to ensure that we dont let anyone down in Sweden. At the same time I get fitter, a bit heavier and I get to see parts of Scotland I had only ever dreamed of...so whats a day of pain compared to all that?

Pain Pain go away come back another day

Normally the day after exercise and pushing yourself to your limits and beyond your body will be in pain. Not because you are a big jessie...you may be but normally its just your body repairing itself and for it to do its job properly in building that new muscle it wants to stop you using them.

That means causing you pain.

But there are ways to counteract muscle pain. And it starts when you finish your exercise regime. Chilling the muscles quickly stimulates them into cooling much more quickly. It halts the production of Lactic acid and as you warm up again stimulates circulation and removal of lactic acid.

Contrast Showers (those of you with families will know this as someone flushing the toilet whilst you have a hot shower) stimulate your circulation almost as well as an Ice Bath would.

Yeah, you read it right, an ICE BATH! although I don't have a freezer big enough to make that much ice but living in Scotland means water is always pretty cold and just filling a bath with it can be enough specially on hot tired muscles.

Now, no matter what you do after the exercise, its absolutely vital that you do not just sit on your bum and do nothing the next day, even if its just a brisk 4 mile walk, you HAVE to move. Get the blood flowing. Your limbs will feel tired but they will not feel as painful. I promise!

And if they do hurt...well then I guess you really are a big jessie!

The Monday Morning Blues?

Well if your weekend was anything like mine it involved pain, exhaustion, exhiliration and pushing yourself past personal barriers you never thought were there.

The trouble with pushing your body to the limit like we did on sunday is that your muscles will start to hurt a day or two after the exercise. I didn't know there was a technical term for it until recently but have since found out its called Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (or DOMS). What is it? Normally it is the symptom of over exertion. Either lifting too much weight, running too far or using your muscles past the limit of their endurance. That last one is particularly dangerous as you can actually cause far more than just the DOMS to occur.

I and the other guys, don't really have the luxury of using the 10% rule to train to - we'd be there for ever adding 10% on to our cycle each week to get to the distance we'd need. Instead I'm going about it slightly differently. I've drastically altered my diet. I eat a high carb, high protein diet (always keeping the same ratio of 2g of protein to 5g carb). This will allow the muscles to have enough fuel and enough building blocks to adapt to what I am subjecting them to.

Then there is the exercise. Normally through the week we train to about 12 miles. It's better than nothing but not enough. So weekends we do 20+ miles normally, although yesterday was about 47miles by the time I cycled home.

Pushing ourselves that far is bound to cause DOMS so what can you do to reduce the pain? To be honest not a lot. Research has shown that a warm down wont help, that stretching doesn't help after the exercise - but it can reduce swelling by as much as 30%. Massage can help too, it increases the blood flow and therefore the oxygen getting to the muscles making them recover slightly quicker.

Obviously avoiding the DOMS is the better option; for us its never going to happen, we'll be in pain regardless as we have to push hard to be able to complete the cycle in Sweden. For you guys though, a thorough warm up, and using the 10% rule will help to ensure that you don't overdo it, remember gradual changes are best. Don't go out running a 10k run if you haven't ran before.

Stop cramping my style!

Last night about 3am I woke in excruciating pain, the likes of which I only experienced when I was sick before my op in 2002. My left leg, the entire leg had cramped. Normally I just push on through the pain but I couldn't pull the leg out of the cramp so I had to endure it for the 7 minutes it lasted. EEEK!

What is a muscle cramp?

A muscle cramp is a painful spasm of your muscle. It's caused by a prolonged tightening of that muscle, leading to it being shortened. The spasm can last from a few seconds to 15 minutes.

You do not have any control of this spasm and the muscle often feels hard and painful. Muscle cramps, especially in the legs, are very common. The small muscles of the feet are also sometimes affected. The muscle may remain tender for up to a day after the cramp. Cramp often occurs as a result of using your muscles a lot. It is common in athletes, especially long distance runners, and tennis and football players and people stupid enough to sign up to a charity event over 200 miles.

Cramp often happens after you have sweated a lot. Sweat is high in sodium and loss of sodium upsets the way your muscle works. I know I keep banging on about this but it is REALLY important to drink enough of the right liquids when you are exercising. Water isnt enough, you need an electrolytic drink with isotonic qualities which will help your body balance out the loss of sodium fast.

Relief from muscle cramp

You can relieve the pain of muscle cramp by stretching and gently massaging the muscle. Grab your muscle with one hand and pull back on your toes with the other to point the toes upwards. This helps to relieve the spasm. Note: if you are a bit of a jessie you will cry; this is sore!

A lot of people say warming up is necessary before exercise but I've done a lot of reading on sports journals and studies have found that in a lot of cases - a warm up isnt necessary. What is necessary is to ensure that the muscle remains active long enough after the exercise to ensure that the lactic acid doesnt crystalise in your muscle and is moved into your bloodstream to be cleaned out by the magic liver and kidneys.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers...

First things first, to fuel yourself you need to know your body type, everyone bandies about different terms but there are three generally accepted terms (I've simplified them in my own unique way) and note that you may fit a composite of two types instead of neatly into one:

• Ectomorph: normally small framed, with light muscle structure and finds it hard to gain weight.
• Endomorph: large frame, good muscle structure and gains weight more easily.
• Mesomorph: large frame, gains weight easily and less defined muscle structure.

Now, you Endomorphs and Mesomorphs are jammy gits, I hate you, pretty much anything you do to your diet will result in your body coping with the training.

Ectomorphs find it difficult to gain weight if at all. Normally upping your calorie intake by 1000 to 2000 calories a day should suffice.

You need to make sure you are eating the right foods though, 1000 cals of fat is going to harm anyone that eats it. If you need to train and need to gain weight then you should increase the carbs dramatically, and up the protein too.

Another trick I have is to snack at night, your body will normally still digest whilst you are asleep (somewhat slower) but you are expending far fewer calories; pack away some simple carbs and protein before bed and you will gain weight and be able to train properly without risking muscle fatigue as much.

The importance of being idle

On waking today I noticed that my arms were stiff from over use - I stupidly pushed myself a bit further than I should have lifting weights and am now suffering from slightly tweaked tendons. Obviously it would be stupid to be lifting weights in this condition. And that brings me on to my point - over training.

Regardless of what type of training you are doing - its important to ensure that you give your body enough time to recover from whatever you put it through before you start again. You don't have to be exercising like this guy to be over training.

The best way I've found to figure out if you are overtraining or not is to check your heartbeat first thing in the morning, if its 10BPM more than your resting rate - today is going to be a rest day as your body is still recovering. That being said, unless you want to be Arnie or Sly then you'd only be lifting weights every second day.

But whats lifting weights got to do with riding a bike? not a lot to be honest, you can ride a bike all your life and never have to lift a weight, but I am taking a different view on this. We don't know what the terrain will be like in Sweden or Norway at all. Some of the roads will be rough. Thats a given. That means standing on the pedals, maybe lifting the bike on to my shoulder for a short distance and thats where upper body strength comes into play. Obviously the legs will be worked constantly from the cycle training but the arms and shoulders are basically relaxed all the time. Lifting weights will help increase their stamina and strength.

At the same time it should help maintain my body size and weight so that I dont become even skinnier than I am!