After some time out of the gym, how long does it take to lose my fitness levels?

Well I'd say if you're a highly trained athlete then you can lose your top level of fitness quite quickly, say around two weeks, due to you're body conditioning to the training environment that you're in and that you get used to.

Not many people are training full time at the highest levels, so to maintain a level of fitness and stop for a while it all depends on your age and by "stopping" what you actually mean, if, for whatever reason, you have to stop totally and cannot move or exercise whatsoever then I'd say, again maybe 2/3 weeks you'll lose your fitness levels, but if you still keep reasonably active and raise your pulse rate a few times during the week I'd say it'd take a couple of months to totally lose all your fitness.

As with everything it's a little and often that always wins the race, take the hair and the tortoise example...

What is my home gym fitness equipment arsenal now?

Well I’ve slowly been collecting bits and pieces over the time I’ve been writing this blog and I’ve been able to review many other items of home gym fitness equipment, along with test them out.

To date I own:

A Skipping rope – brilliant for cardio training and getting toned.

Hand Grippers – Great for forearm exercises and help grip on holding weights.

Dumbbells – I bought these a good few months ago now and have been an awesome investment.

Yoga Mat – Vital for my sit-ups routines as I’ve got a very bony back and cannot do sit-ups just on the floor.

All of this fitness equipment can be used from your bedroom or within the comfort of your own house. The skipping rope needs some space, but is one of the best pieces of cardio equipment you can have! Why not take it for a run with you and skip after your run!

A great way to get toned!

Well it may seem like an impossible task but to achieve a six pack isn’t out of anyone’s league, ok it’s going to be much harder for some people, but how bad do you want it?!

The secret to six-pack abs isn’t Abs, Abs, Abs. It’s actually a mixture of a healthy, balanced diet, a good strong fitness routine along with a good set of Ab exercises. It’s a long process and nothing you do is going to make you a super human “Ab monster” over night, the secret is consistency with all the things listed above.

A Balanced diet – healthy foods and cut out the junk.
Good fitness routine – at least 30 minutes of cardio working up good a sweat 3 times a week.
Good ab exercises – Not overkill though, you can over strain your abs just as easily as any other muscle.

Scooby over at www.scoobysworkshop.com has done a fantastic video on a good abs program and makes fun of these stupid "abs in 10 days" infomercials, but the video is also full of some fantastic information!

It’s vital to keep and stick to your targets and goals when following a fitness routine, and if you’ve not got any, then why not?!

Write them down and log exactly what it is that you want to do. But how do you make something like a goal realistic? Simple solution. Add a time constraint!

I always overlooked the fact that when I was busy swimming all my goals and targets automatically came with pre determined time constraints. If I wanted to be national champion as one of my goals then I’d only have the national championships to be able to achieve that, so my training was geared towards achieving that.

Since finishing my swimming career I lost track on my time constraints within my goals, it’s all well and good saying “I want to get fit”, it’s better than nothing, but if you say, “I want to get fit by losing 1 stone by March”, you’ve got much more chance of achieving your goal, if you’ve not set yourself a time limit it’s always going to be put onto the back burner.

It’s also OK to fail, but just remember it’ll make you work harder, more efficiently and generally better! We learn from our mistakes and failure. No one can ever hit their every goal 1st time round. Right, I’m off for a run as time is ticking before my next goal!

Good luck!

With payday looming I’m already spending the “virtual money” in my head. I would love a good holiday due to the awful summer we’ve had here in the UK, but that means I need some luggage! If it’s not one thing it’s the other :)

But what about my fitness routine?! That can’t go out of the window?! So this raises the question, what should I take with me for maintaining my fitness levels and keeping up my exercise routine if I go away?

Well here at home I live by one item of awesome fitness equipment; a skipping rope! This is one vital piece of equipment you can’t overlook in your training arsenal.
Any sort of weights equipment is a big no, no, until I get my own private jet I’m not paying excess baggage for something that’s not vital! This brings me onto a handy little tip.

When you go abroad, you can buy HUGE water bottles from most local supermarkets! Go get a couple of those and there you go! Two instant dumbbell/kettleballs for your holiday. They’re not going to be very heavy, but still, boost up the repetitions and you can get a good workout done! And it’s better than nothing!

I’ve also had a look at the “Powerballs” that you can buy online, from what I’ve seen these condition your arm by vibrating and you’ve got to try and hold the “Powerball” still as it vibrates in your hand. They certainly look interesting and work along the same lines as the powerplate machines.

Maybe I’ll invest in a powerball sometime this week!