David @ DHPT

With the heatwave that has been going on around the country for the last few weeks I thought it might be worthwhile to go through a few simple tips around training in the heat.  Most of these are obvious but they can be overlooked either through being busy and not remembering to do certain things or trying to fit training into small windows of available time in our lives.  Sometimes we need to make some adjustments to keep ourselves healthy and safe in these sorts of conditions.  So here are 5 ways to beat the heat. 1. Water, water, water Always have water on hand during a workout.  It is essential to keep your fluid intake up in the sort of heat we have been experiencing lately.  It is also important to keep your fluid intake up throughout the day as you will get dehydrated more easily than normal.  A handy tip to prevent forgetting to take your water bottle to your workout is to always have a spare one either in your gym bag or in the car just in case...

Whats my BAG? Every year I take time over the Christmas and New Year holiday period to let my mind wander and dream about what I would like to achieve over the coming year.  I often find that during the year while I am working I don't have the mental capacity to do this type of reflective deep thinking.  IT often results in a few different types of goals - some goals for my business, some personal goals, and even some family goals (if my wife and agree). This year I didn't seem to be able to get into the right headspace to get to that great place where my mind wanders and comes to these different places.  However, as I could not seem to find this place, I decided to take a different course for my goals this year. Instead of setting a number of different bite sized goals, I decided instead to work on one Big Audacious Goal (BAG) this year.  I decided on a goal which I could track easily and that would have multiple benefits for both mind and body.  The go...

Comparing ourselves to other people is part of human nature.  We all do it.  It's also a very unproductive form of thinking in my opinion.  What purpose does it actually serve other than to make us feel a little worse about ourselves (usually anyway).  This type of thinking is very common in the health and fitness industry. What we need to remember, especially when it comes to fitness and body image is that life is a fluid concept.  No single image that we see of someone in a magazine or on a movie screen is how they look the whole time.   The actor who looks like their abs are carved out of marble doesn't always look like that. Neither does the fitness model who got down to what seems like 0% bodyfat for a photo shoot.  At best most of those individuals hit that bodyfat percentage for a couple of days, and then went back to a more sustainable level of fat.   We need to remember that comparing ourselves to others (especially those mentioned ...