Spam and Custard - My favourite training tools

Some days I find it hard just to motivate myself to get off the sofa. Yesterday was one of those days but I managed to goad myself into doing some exercises with a little help from Kariss (she took the laptop away), a mug of custard and a twix. I know that doesn't sound like a good basis for increasing my fitness but last night I managed to do 55 press-ups! Given that my previous personal best was two sets of 10 followed by a long time lying on the floor groaning while being unable to do anything useful with my arms, I was very pleased with the result.

But how did I manage it?

With a little help from Twitter and a surprisingly useful piece of spam.

Being new to Twitter I did not know, and had not thought about, the possibility of spam messages. Almost immediately after I posted the link to our pitiful video of pull-up failure I received a message with a link to a video on how to do the perfect pull-up. 

'Aha!" I thought, "an interested follower who wants to motivate me is doing what I asked - sending me tips."

Twitter. It's a funny old thing

 Alas, it was not to be and, after messaging her back and finding out it was an unsolicited tweet with no friend to be found at the other end, I felt like a fool.
But - and this is a pretty big but (like mine) - I did watch the video and it did give me some good tips. I won't link to the video because I don't think spamming is an honest way to communicate but I will tell you two of the ways they suggested helping to maximise your exercise training.

1. Do as many of the exercise as you can (be it pull-ups, squats or calf-raises, this will work for them all)
2. Have a 60 second break
3. Repeat

It's as simple as that. Repeat until you can only do, say, 10 of your chosen exercise (I got bored of the video at this point but this method worked for me).

OR

1. Do 1 press-up (pull-ups, squats etc etc)
2. Have a 10 sec break
3. Do 2 press-ups
4. Have a 10s break
5. Build up until you cannot repeat a set.

Do these on alternate days and you will soon be much better at your chosen exercise. Reward yourself with a nice mug of custard and a twix. Call it carb-loading or glucose-storing if you wish to make it seem more athletically valid.

Yes, this would be me and my mug of custard

So, in conclusion, some of my best training tools are unsolicited tweets and a mug of custard. Simple, free and they make me happy.

Elli




208 days to go