Taking the First Step.

Have you decided what it is that you would like to start again – or start from scratch?

How are you planning to go about it?  What will get you to where you need to be?

It is not always easy when deciding to start doing something new.  It can take a lot of courage to make steps that will bring something different to your life.  But it can be done, and it often shows you that you can achieve the things you are looking to be successful in.

It doesn’t have to be a huge step, with everything done in one go.  Small steps are often the best way to go about getting to the big goal at the end.  Make moves little and often to either practice or develop new skills and as you become more proficient at your new skills you will find that you start to develop further, and can then add more new skills to your kit bag – making you better at what you are doing.

Before you know it, you are heading toward what you have been working on.  You may decide to change your end goal if you feel that there is something extra you want to work on, but you have the basic skills to be able to know whether it is where you want to be.

For example, you may decide to learn how to play golf.  You might first of all go to a driving range and rent a couple of clubs to practice hitting the ball.  You might look to see about having a couple of lessons with a pro every now and then to enable you to look at developing your overall game.  You might join a club and learn to play better over 9 or 18 holes.  You might decide to work on your putting, or your swing.  

All of these things are small steps – but they all have the development of the bigger picture in mind – playing a round of golf.  Once that has been achieved, the goals might move so that you are working on various aspects of your game to tighten them up and make them better, and thus improve further.

Obviously this is an example, and we all have our own lessons to learn to help us get better at things.

What first steps do you want to take today to get you where you want to be tomorrow? Leave a comment below.

Have a great day!

Vixx

www.kinetic-lifestyle.com

Copyright 2012. Kinetic Lifestyle. Do not reproduce part or all of this post without permission.

New Beginnings.

Happy Easter to one and all!

Easter to me seems best described as a time for new beginnings, of reincarnation.  Of being able to start again.

So my question for you today is:

What would you like to start again, or learn from for the future, in order to improve yourself?

Leave a comment below please

 

What makes your heart sing?

This is possibly the one rule of thumb I try to stick to in certain situations – after many years of allowing myself to ignore my gut instinct with disastrous consequences!

I spent too much time when I was younger doing what I thought I should do, rather than what I wanted to do.  It often didn’t work out the way I had hoped, and I was always questioning myself over how to do what was best for me.

Then I went on a course and the instructor during one exercise, asked us to think of something that really made us happy, and to think about how we felt whilst reliving our happiest occasion.  Then he asked us to think of something that made us feel bad, or sad – and to focus on how that made us feel.

Those feelings came to become my new, re-trained gut instinct.

A year or so later, I was umming and ahhing about whether to leave my job.  It was a job I loved to do, and thoroughly enjoyed it day in day out – despite late nights and long hours.  I was building up Kinetic Lifestyle at the same time, and I wasn’t sure what move to take at that point – stick with the salary for a little longer, or go it alone?

Then I was chatting to someone about health and fitness and they asked for some advice on training.  We talked for a while, and at the end he said “You really love this fitness stuff don’t you?” and I realised that my heart was singing.  Then I thought about having to go to work later and for the first time ever, my heart just sank.  My notice was accepted on the second attempt and I left.

Times can be tough, especially being as the recession was on the horizon when I left, but it has never been a mistake.

So, what I would like to ask is – what makes your heart sing?  When have you followed your heart, and where has it led you?

Leave a comment below, or follow me on Twitter (@KineticL) or Facebook (www.facebook.com/KineticLifestyle) to tell me your story!

©Kinetic Lifestyle/Vixx Thompson 2012. Please do not reproduce part or all of this content without permission.

Your Questions Answered (Part 2)

Today’s question comes thanks to Jon-Paul, who runs The Web Angel, has designed my website (www.kinetic-lifestyle.com) and has just recently started to get back into health and fitness himself:

Not a running question Vixx, but how do you limit muscle ache after weight training. I know it should hurt a bit a day after but how can you limit/reduce it?

There are various ways that muscle ache can be reduced or limited after exercise.  The stiffness that you are feeling is known as DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness/Stiffness) and should be an ache in the muscles when you move.  If there is any sharp pain or discomfort then this is not DOMS and should be investigated by a health professional to ensure that there is no lasting damage to the affected muscle or joint.

The trick with DOMS is not to limit your movement – a lot of people when experiencing this tend to restrict their movement in order to limit the amount of discomfort that they feel, but this tends to only delay the agony further.  I, and my clients, tend to find that the more we move when experiencing DOMS, the sooner this discomfort is eased.

DOMS can strike up to two days after exercise – it’s not always a stiffness that will occur overnight, but there are things that we can do to limit this, such as:

• Performing a thorough cool down after exercise.
• Stretching the muscles.
• Ice therapy, and/or:
• Heat treatment, such as a sauna or hot shower/bath.

A good cool down after exercise allows the body to rid itself of lactic acid (which is a by-product of exercise found in the muscles) easier than if you just finish exercise and then stop suddenly, leaving the lactic acid still in the muscle tissue.  By having a gentle cool down, and reducing the intensity of the exercise gradually, it can help to remove the lactic acid from the muscles.  An example of this might be 5-10 minutes of gentle walking after a good run.

Stretching can also help to play its part in a cool down.  By stopping and having a gentle stretch of all the muscle groups, this can also encourage looser, more relaxed muscles that are less achy.  Again, 5-10 minutes can be extremely beneficial, but should DOMS come on, then gentle stretching of the affected muscles at this point too will also be useful.

Ice therapy is still considered to be the domain of the professional athlete, with various stories of their ice baths after training, but a cold shower for the first few minutes (or seconds!) across the whole body can help to stop any inflammation or aching in the muscles before it has a chance to get worse.  Alternating between hot and cold water (or using an ice pack) can also help to flush out any remaining lactic acid in the muscles.

Heat treatment can also be beneficial as it helps to keep the muscles nice and loose, and thus a little less achy.  By utilising a combination of the above it can help to reduce DOMS and keep you relatively ache-free.

Do you have any tips to reduce or stave off DOMS?  Leave a comment below or e-mail me: vixx@kinetic-lifestyle.com

©Kinetic Lifestyle 2012. Please do not reproduce part or all of this content without permission.

Your Questions Answered (Part 1)

The first few questions are linked and have been asked by Andrew Gills (I have split them up for ease of answering):

What made you decide to run your first ultra?  How far was it?

At the time I wanted a new challenge.  There was a race I had done the summer before called the Thunder Run, which was a 24 hour trail race to see how many laps of 10km you or your team could do in that time.  I was part of a team of 5 and we had an amazing time exploring trail running by day and by night (with headtorches!).  When the organisers announced the return of the sister race, the Lightning Run 12 hour, I decided to have a go at that as a soloist.  My aim was 5 laps, which would take me from marathoner to Ultramarathoner in the space of one lap.

The Lightning Run was held at a different venue to the Thunder Run, and each lap had a climb (and descent) of 1000ft.  It was tough, and there was a much smaller field.  In fact I think it was the smallest racing field I had ever been involved in at that time!

I did manage my 5 laps, and was thrilled to achieve the 30 miles I wanted (the course had unfortunately measured short at 6 miles instead of 10km).  I did get injured along the way, but after some advice from the medical team I did get to continue, but was sensible and slowed down.  I wasn’t competing with anyone but myself that day.

This is what I won! 

Did you train for long before it or was it an impulsive decision to enter?

At the time I was already training for another race a month later, so I basically tied in my training to both events.  I had a mini-taper before the Lightning Run, but due to my injury at the Lightning Run (right ankle), I had to cross train my way to the Edinburgh Marathon 2 months later.

Were you already a runner before your first ultra? How did it feel afterwards?

I was already a runner at the time and I had done numerous marathons at that point.  I felt that I was ready to try going a little bit further than marathon distance.  My first marathon was the 2004 London Marathon.

And learning from that experience, what advice do you have for others who want to run – whether they want to run a 100m sprint against the kids, a 5km fun run, a marathon or an ultra?

I would say “Do it!”  It is never too late to start, but should you have had a period of inactivity for a while, then please get a check up from the doctor before you start to undertake any physical activity.  There are various running clubs around that will happily welcome beginners (some do beginners running classes too), or you could find a friend and perhaps start off by walking and running round the block to get you going.

Every runner has had to start somewhere, and I started off by doing 30 seconds running and 30 seconds walking, before gradually increasing the running bit and decreasing the walking bit.  Never be afraid to aim high either – my first race was that London marathon I mentioned in 2004!

Tomorrow I will be answering more questions.  There is still time to ask a question!

If you have one that you would like answered, please leave a comment below or send it via Twitter (@KineticL) and I will answer it in a future blog post!

©Kinetic Lifestyle 2012. Please do not reproduce part or all of this content without permission.

You want to know WHAT?

I want to write something inspiring!

However, I want to write something you want to read!

Therefore, this is your chance to ask any fitness/nutrition or motivational question that you’d like to know the answer to…..

Some examples:

• Has something gone wrong in your training that you are not sure how to change?
• Do you know what foods are best for post-workout recovery?
• How do you keep going when you just don’t feel up to training?

What can I help you with?  Best questions will get a blog post to themselves!

E-mail me – vixx@kinetic-lifestyle.com or ask me via my Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/KineticLifestyle

Hello!

I’d like to introduce myself properly.  I’m Vixx.

I do lots of silly and crazy things, more often than not without thinking them through.  I ran a marathon to prove that I could.  Then I ran a few more to prove it wasn’t a fluke.

On the way I learned lots of things.  Some have helped me.  Some have not.  I will use lots of this experience again.  I will probably forget some of it and have to learn it again – the hard way.  I know more about nutrition now than I did before.  I can tell you that a positive mental attitude has got me through more things where most would have stopped (so I’ve been told) than just plain old preparation could have.  I know what I can learn from to make it better next time.

So I use this experience to help people achieve their targets and goals without having to go through all of the things I did.  They can achieve them quicker because I show them the mistakes I made to make sure that they don’t.

I can help you to achieve your fitness and nutrition dreams.  You can get to where you want to be.  I could only run 30 seconds at a time when I started.  If I can achieve my dreams – let me help you to achieve yours.

Have a look at my website: www.kinetic-lifestyle.com to see what I can do for you, and then get in touch with me – vixx@kinetic-lifestyle.com or follow me on Twitter (@KineticL).

I don’t bite. Honest.