'I DON'T WANT TO LOOK LIKE MADONNA'

'I don't want to look like Madonna',.. wish I had a pound for every time I heard that one. It must be the most overheard phrase in the personal fitness training world when you propose that a woman should lift weights.
As I always patiently and calmly try to explain, 'if only it were that easy'. Madonna  has probably worked out every day for hours nearly all her life. Hard work, sweat, discipline, single minded purpose, dedication and time. Most women couldn't even come close, so please don't be afraid, it ain't going to happen.... and if by some weird genetic predisposition it does, well, you can always stop. So fear not, get in the gym and do your stuff, a toned woman to most men is very sexy, even if they tell you they like you with a bit of weight around the midriff, that's not what they say to their mates and I can assure you, it is certainly not what they think.

      So what about the guys, what do they say? Usually it's 'I don't want to look like Arnie, just toned'. Again, I have good news because you aint gonna look like Arnie either.
    To run for 30 hours up mountains isn't easy, to cycle around France in a race for 3 weeks, isn't easy and to look like Arnold is pretty much impossible unless you are prepared to work and train very, very hard for a very long time. So now we've got that out of the way, what can us mere mortals do, well contrary to the comments just made, quite a lot.
 As my friend Brigitte said many years ago in her fab French/English accent, 'It's all in ze training', it most certainly is, plus that other well known phrase uttered by Arnie:- 'Great abs are made in the kitchen, not in the gym' . And there you have it:- Training and Eating.
       Do these 2 things well and remarkable things are possible, even for us normal types.
But the real point is - What is your goal? These things may be of no interest and you just might want to go read a book, which is fair enough.
 ((May I recommend and excellent summer read - LAST TRAIN TO ST TROPEZ.
 It is available worldwide on Amazon.
USA Link to Amazon ...

 http://www.amazon.com/Last-Train-Tropez-Phil-Jeremy/dp/1481062875/ref=sr_1_1 s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1369325208&sr=1-1&keywords=last+train+to+st+tropez
UK link to Amazon ...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Last-Train-Tropez-Phil-Jeremy/dp/1481062875/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1369325421&sr=1-1&keywords=last+train+to+st+tropez

Click on the link and... Buy It Now!))

Sorry about that, couldn't resist it, where were we?
Ah yes, what is your goal?
To many people it is losing weight and to a few more achieving a toned figure or physique ... and to the great majority getting fit and healthy. These are all worthy goals and yet here is the conundrum, if these are the desires and goals of the many then why is obesity of the charts in most countries and getting worse annually.
     Having studied this for a very long time it seems to me that its just too hard to change, to step up,  to walk past the biscuits, to say no to a pizza, to visit the gym, to refuse the candy or ice cream, to reject the glass of wine, to go for a run, to drink water instead of coke, to start a fitness regime and keep at it.
These days the guy or girl at the party who works out and looks fab is seen as a bit weird or obsessed. It never seems to occur to the masses that drinking and eating crap every day is also weird and strangely obsessed ,especially when we know for a fact that the healthy, fit ones will live longer, have less sickness, have more vitality, be less of a drain on the health services and will be here to see their kids and grandkids blossom in their lives. Who's the weirdo?
Then the healthy one gets hit with 'well you have to enjoy life' which is really perverse as it infers that because they drink or eat mountains of pasta that somehow this is more fun! Have these people ever been healthy? Have they any idea what they are missing? probably and sadly not.
As I started this blog in a contentious mood, I figured I'd end on the same note.

PS - I was just reading a report on Dakota Jones who last year ran the Grand Canyon South rim to the North rim .... and BACK AGAIN, in just over 6 hours (called the R2R2R). To some this may
seem utter madness, to me it would be the experience of a lifetime, no matter how long it took. The sheer beauty and hardship all wrapped up in a melange of life being experienced to the full.