The Yorkshire: Taking Home The Novice Lightweight Title

I awoke at 4.30am and knew straight away that there wasn't a chance in hell that I was ever going to get back to sleep.

This was it.

This is what I have been working towards for the past god knows how many years.

I've been talking about it for nearly as many years as well.

So hadn't put any pressure on myself whatsoever...

In the weigh-in room I was nervous as hell as first, then, seeing some of the guys in my class, I relaxed a great deal, I knew I was in better shape than many of them, I wasn't going to come last anyway, which is always the fear in the back of anyone's mind!

I weighed in at a crazy 60.2kg, 14kg lighter than the heaviest in my class! This had my slightly concerned, but I certainly relaxed a great deal.

I was then drug tested, which was a great joy, forcing a treacle like piss out in front of a very helpful tester, and thank god, I just about managed enough to get an acceptable sample!

Once that ordeal had finished so commenced the waiting game....

After what seemed like an age it was time to start pumping up and preparing to go on stage for the quater turns and compulsory poses.

Back stage despite feeling ridiculously bloated I seemed to be looking pretty good and received lots of positive comments from many people backstage.

Just about ready to go on!

 Then the brutality began. They really worked me hard. By the end of my time onstage I thought I was literally going to pass out!

The quarter turns I was happy with.

All but two of the compulsory poses went according to plan, but I will seriously have to work on both the rear and front lat spread.

Here are three of my favourite shots from compulsory posing:

Then they sent us off stage to await our turn for the individual posing round.

https://www.facebook.com/Kersh123?ref=tn_tnmn#!/photo.php?v=4396495245471

Before going on for the individual I had no idea if I would even be able to bend my legs, let alone remember my routine. It was far from perfect and I didn't breathe correctly on a couple of the poses, but I have lots of time to perfect things in time for the britains!

Then, we were brought back for the results.

Even after 2nd place had been announced I still didn't think I had won.

Everything after my name was called out as Champion is all a complete blur!

Hours and hours...and hours of waiting later it was time for the overall. I had NOTHING left to give. Thinking back to it now I should have had a pre-workout supplement or caffeine or something, because I could barely even pump up. Definitely a lesson learnt for the Britains!

It was an honour to be on stage with these guys. I'd place myself 5th, which isn't good enough for me!

So what must I improve for the Britains?

• Overall Conditioning- the more I look at the pics, the more I think it just wasn't good enough
• Rear lat spread
• Front Lat Spread
• Breathing during individual posing
• Pumping up
• Chest, traps forearms and biceps weren't up to scratch
• Leg placement on a rear double biceps

But I was pleased with my legs :)

Thankyou to ALL who came to support me, it was an absolutely amazing feelng to see you all cheering me on throughout the day, you really carried me through.

I just hope many of you can make it to the Britains, where we must go through all the stress again!

I've caught the bug now, I just want to get back on stage!

See you at the finals!!!!

A No Excuses Special: Gwen van Rosmalen- Life Won't Wait

During my copious amounts of Youtubing today, I came across this video, and needless to say I was completely blown away by the transcendent, never say die spirit of this inspirational woman.

Many people give up on their goals when the first obstacle gets in their way.

Gwen had a stroke at the age of 28, and then after the subsequent recovery process, was hit by a truck driver who wasn't paying attention to the road, leaving her paralysed from the waste down.

Has this stopped her setting and achieving goals?
Does she face a dark and depressed future?
Has life beaten her?

Of course not!

"If you want things to happen you have to make them happen by yourself" Gwen van Rosmalen

I hope this goes to show you just how powerful the human mind is. Nothing, absolutely nothing has to stop you from training, improving, setting goals and achieving your dreams.

You must start the process, it will be a long and hard road to get anywhere near attaining the goals you want, but work for them like you have worked for nothing before, embrace the blood, sweat and tears and remember there is absolutely no reason why you can't achieve anything you want.

"Believe in yourself, follow your heart and never give up!" Gwen van Rosmalen

No excuses!

By Chris Kershaw
Level 3 Personal Trainer

Some Monday Motivation!

I have a to-do-list I go through before, after and while at "work." I use inverted commas as my job doesn't really involve going to work due to how much I enjoy it.

The first item on that list is to watch a youtube video of my choice (funnily enough I always seem to get this job done more than any other...I wonder why???) and today, I so happened to click on to this one.

Forget about impossible and the people that tell you that you can't do something.

Theo Wilson at TedX: The Rise of The "We"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBZAj-0Kwt0&list=PLY5j7w8WDbrpKggCvAmJnG3ctrAetB8RX

For some reason I won't let me post this video directly, but I found it that inspirational that I thought I would just post the link and hope you all follow it. What a guy :)

No Excuses #2 Money

Potential and often cited excuse #2: Money
Specifically for Training, Eating Healthy and Education

I Don't Have Enough Money To...

Train: This is one of the most annoying things to hear from someone.

You simply do not need a gym or a Personal Trainer to be able to exercise regularly with enough intensity to get results, especially with all the resources available over the Internet. The following videos will illustrate my point fully:

Extreme Example

I can do most of these, however the backflip burpee is beyond me...FOR NOW!

Flow Workout

Go fucking crazy with these, the possibilities are literally endless.

Barstarzz

I'm not saying go and train in the middle of a busy city centre, but these guys utilise everything and make it into their own little gym. And when there is nothing but the floor to train on, they use the floor! Some of the workouts these guys come up with are incredibly innovative, and I have often been influenced by very their individual style.

Parkour

He is in his living room for god sake!
Remember, you are always just a few clicks away from innovative/rebranded (coughcrossfitcough)  approaches to exercise using little to no equipment, often not even requiring you to leave the comfort of your own home.

And here's me rolling around again.....

CJK Bodyweight Routine

Eat Healthy
I'm sorry but this is unacceptable. I've  heard this excuse too many times to keep quiet about it now. I'm just going to use one example to show that you can at least eat healthier on exactly the same budget.

So we can immediately see with this one example that a healthier alternative to what you are eating is always possible when you actually shop around and take the initiative with an open mind to trying new things. To hear people say they can't afford to eat healthier is so so frustrating because it just isn't a valid excuse, not for one second.

I got literally the nicest bunch of banana's I have ever eaten for 20p the other day, from a big name supermarket as well.

Remember, if you eat shit, then you will look and feel it LIKE SHIT and you only have yourself to blame.

Further My Education:
In a less ranty tone, I'd just like to share the following websites which offer completely free, well-recognised University courses that have literally opened up a world of possibilities to me in the last few months.


www.coursera.org





I am currently enrolled to about half a dozen free courses through this website, and thus far, they have never failed to deliver. And all for free. This is amazing.

https://www.edx.org/courses

I haven't signed up for any courses through this website as I only discovered it yesterday through the courera discussion forum, but I will certainly be looking into it in the future. Again, a wonderful free resource that just proves again, that THERE ARE ALWAYS OPTIONS, WAYS AND METHODS of getting wherever you want to go with your life.

Free and less expensive stuff (often of higher quality than you pay for) is everywhere, it is just a matter of looking.

Currently working through this as well...

No excuses!

By Chris Kershaw

The No Excuses Series #1

I have a philosophy in life and in business, and that is a philosophy of there are absolutely no excuses in the striving for success and the achievement of my clearly defined goals.

In this series I hope to be travelling down numerous tangents (not necessarily directly related to exercise) which show that are excuses very rarely match up to the reality, very rarely are good enough and how these excuses can be eliminated therefore helping you achieve more success in your life in some form or another.

Excuse No.1

The Weather
(Or more specifically snow)

I received a text a few hours before a session with the genuine question of whether I would be able to make it into the gym for a session, which is a perfectly reasonable question, but I was surprised to get it because no matter what the weather was like, I can say with absolute certainty, that I would have made it in to the gym. If our cars were snowed in I'd expect any C & J Personal Trainer to try public transport, to get a lift off someone who isn't as snowed in, if that failed I'd expect them to run, if that failed I'd expect them to walk, and if they can't walk, well, you better get crawling.

So as you can see, in this little company we demand excellence of ourselves, therefore expect excellence from our clients.

"A good leader (or trainer!) must be harder on himself than anyone else. He must find discipline in himself  before he can discipline others. A man should not ask others to do things that he would not ask himself to do do at some point in his life." Vince Lombardi

And even if the weather was that atrocious, that hellishly bad that you couldn't even get out of the door, then we would still expect you to be able to workout, to train, and to get nearer your goals by performing (for example) exclusively body weight exercises and flows (which all of my clients should pretty much be able to construct by themselves by now!).

To sum up my philosophy on Personal Training and life; you must practice excellence in order to inspire it in others.

The weather is never an excuse not to train, to turn up for sessions or to skip out of thrying to make progress in some element of your life. There is always a way.

Picture stolen directly from Rosstraining.com (which you should all check out IMMEDIATELY by the way!)

And if a little bit of snow does stop you from training, getting to work or doing ANYTHING in life, perhaps you should take a look at the people who experience extreme adversity every day and still manage to pursue their goals.


In other news I became an Advanced Kettlebell Instructor this week, you may now bow down in my awesomeness at completing a day course to give me such a title.

(In all honesty the instructor taking the course looked as if he couldn't be arsed all the way through it and I doubt you could have failed the course if you tried. There are very few actual testing standards in Personal Training courses as a couple of my articles have touched on before, with most courses concerned with keeping people coming back to do more courses. Whether I ever go back to this particular company remains to see seen.)

No I don't do courses during which I train other Personal Trainers yet but WHEN I do (and I will before too long I hope) I will do so with this quote in mind:

"A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops." Henry Adams
 

So yeah, show some enthusiasm, or step out of the way of people who would love to be in your position.

By Chris Kershaw

Leg Day Madness and the Keys to Success

Leg Day rolls around again, and as always is my favourite workout of the week, due to it being (by far) the most taxing, challenging and therefore effective workout of the week.

Here is our leg day odyssey for you to enjoy....and perhaps have a go at.

You know you want to really.
You do.
Honestly!

The session:
Warm-up
 Co-ordination drills, dynamic stretching, animal crawls, agility ladder and footwork, quasi-plyometrics (low intensity) 10-20 mins

Main Session*
*I'm only including the working sets in this article- on every single exercise we always perform a number of warm-up sets just to get the movement 'locked in' before our working sets designed to make our bodies adapt.

Front Squats 3x20 reps (maximum you can do hopefully, but this can be subject to change between each set, there are no strict rules here)
Back Squat 3x6 reps (heavy as possible/heavy as you dare!)
Glute/Ham raise to failure- 1- Attempt at a 1-rep max 2. Half the weight of the first set until failure is reached 3. Bodyweight failure 4. Band ASSISTED to technique failure
Barbell Split-squat 3x20 reps each leg

Cardio
As little rest as possible

800m Run
30 Seconds of all-out Press-ups
600m Run
30 seconds all-out V-ins
400m Run
30 seconds all-out on Press-ups
200m Run
30 seconds all-out V-ins

You are done!

We just about lived on to fight another day!

So why did I choose to structure the workout like this?

Basically because it sounded really really hard, yet was low enough in overall volume not to completely smash my central nervous system and not leave me completely ruined for a number of days, subsequently ruining workouts in the following weeks, especially with me dieting for the show in May.

Something Jen said to me today got me inspired; it was along the lines of "Do something every day that either makes you more money or makes you more successful" These weren't her exact words, but importantly, that is what I took from whatever it was she was saying!

This reminded me of a video that I watched recently:

So, how to apply this to exercise?
Well, if we just concentrate on the first so-called 'secret' in the above video, if you are going to be successful (however you want to define the term) you must love or learn to love what you are doing.

What if you don't love working hard in the gym, or exercising in your home?

For me, the way I overcame thins was actively TELLING MYSELF THAT I LOVE THE PAIN OF IT.

Every day I train (pretty much) I repeat over and over in my head that I absolutely love it, that I love setting an example to everyone else and showing them how I think they should be training.

In my head it goes something like this:
I LOVE THIS PAIN!
I LOVE THIS PAIN!
I LOVE THIS PAIN!

At some stage it stopped being me trying to convince myself that I loved the pain of training, now I am addicted to training hard and absolutely nothing is going to get in my way. Rest is important and knowing when to rest is a very important skill if you are trying to achieve anything, but remember guys, there are no excuses to be lazy, and I hope everyone out there eventually will learn to love training hard if indeed you haven't already been bitten by THE IRON BUG (the kettlebell bug took a large bite out of my forearm this week...more on that in future sessions, videos and articles you lucky devils!)

Remember....everyone has a different version of training hard. Everyone has weaknesses, everyone has strengths, try not to get frustrated and focus on what you want to achieve and you will get there if you persevere!

By Chris Kershaw- Now an Advanced Kettlebell Instructor no less!

P.S. I'm doing free Personal Training consultations every Monday out of 'The Works Fitness' in Wakefield, message me for more details and we will discuss things further :)

The Fun, the Spontaneous and an Alternative to Typical Cardio

Okay so my typical day can involve as much as 2 cardio sessions in a day and as a Bodybuilder competing soon, I am encouraged to do slow cardio for prolonged periods with low intensity, such as stairmaster, uphill walking and a plethora of other boring shit for stupid amounts of time.

Fuck that.

At the very least its high intensity intervals for 10-16 minutes either at the end of a workout or early morning for me, at least this gets it over with quickly and challenges the entire body without taking up massive portions of my day.

But even this gets boring, and we can all get bored with a routine despite how important to us our goals are.

So what to do should/when your workout becomes monotonous one day? It will probably be fine tomorrow, but today, doing the same or a similar workout just won't cut it, that is ok. Do not despair, you can still come up with some fantastic workouts by just taking a look at your ipod (or similar) making a playlist and constructing a workout in the following manner:

• Pick a selection of songs
• Pick any number of exercises and perform a repetition each time something distinctive in the song is repeated
• Play the playlist
• Do the exercises
• Complete the workout

It was James and Jimmy who started riffing on this idea while we were all kinda just messing around at 'The Works' in Wakefield where I work. A couple of the songs and exercises come directly from them, and a few are my own ideas.

Here's what I came up with for myself and a client today:

Song/ Exercise 1: Lou Bega- Mambo No.5

 Hold a press-up position, and time Mr. Bega mentions a woman name...perform a press-up! Either hold the press-up position, or perform mountain climbers between his lady listing! 

 Song/ Exercise 2: Smells Like Song 2

Each time "Woo-hoo!" is shouted, you perform a walkout press-up. Each time Kurt repeats the word "hello" you perform a squat.
 

Song/ Exercise 3: ACDC- Back in Black

 Perform a burpee each time you hear the word "back"
 

Song/ Exercise 4: Witch Doctor- Ting Tang Walla Walla Bing Bang

 

Perform a dumbbell clean and press from the floor each ting you hear "ting tang" then do mountain climbers between verses/ to the beat
 

Song/ Exercise 5: Eiffel 65- Blue

From a v-sit or holding the top of a sit-up perform a sit-up or v-sit each time you hear the word blue- this one is awful!
 

Song/ Exercise 6: Nuclear Assualt- Hang the Pope

 Perform a alternate straight punch each time you hear "hang the pope" repeated. You can punch pads a bag or just out in front of you, it all works.
 

Job and cardio done!

Give it a try.

What songs, exercises and ideas can you come up with?

Dare to make your cardio different.

Making brutality even more fun is allowed. Forget endlessly plodding away on a treadmill, stairmaster or bike in a gym, the time for that is soon to come to an end. Especially in terms of my Personal Training! It is an obsolete form of training for a Personal Trainer's to prescribe for any significant amount of time.

And thankyou to James Riley and Jimmy Stewart for providing the original idea for this concept.

By Chris Kershaw