Gym anxiety can affect everyone, newbies, gym-bros and old-hands alike. Everyone has moments of self-consciousness, but if it's putting you off your sessions, here are a few actions to take.
Gym anxiety: Dealing with nerves on the weights floor
Patience: The hardest thing to exercise in resistance training
Building an impressive physique naturally takes a long time, and one of your hardest workouts will be exercising patience with the process.
Exercise and mental health: Don’t let expectations destroy your motivation
We all know that physical activity is good for physical and mental health, but what happens when it has the opposite effect? Here are four checks to make sure expectations don't destroy your motivation.
Mental Health Awareness Week: How resistance training can help improve mental wellbeing
This year, the focus of Mental Health Awareness Week is 'body image'. Here's how resistance training can not only help you improve your body image, but your overall mental wellbeing as well.
Weight loss and workouts: Are carbs really the enemy?
Do carbs really deserve their much maligned reputation? Or is it time that we changed our thinking and embraced carbohydrates in our daily diets?
Thirsty? How dehydration could be affecting your workouts
Around 60 per cent of the human body is made up of water, but according to a recent study, 89 per cent of us don't get enough. Could dehydration be affecting your performance in the gym?
It’s time to stop using the phrase ‘real women’
Describing anyone as a ‘real woman’ instantly means there is a opposite: fake women, fraudulent women, women who aren't real.
‘Cardio alone won’t deliver weight loss, but that doesn’t mean you should avoid it’
A lot of people attack cardio because they don't believe it delivers the benefits it should; but it's an essential aspect of overall fitness.
Eight healthy treats to satisfy sweet cravings
When looking to cut down, it's helpful to have a few healthy sweet treats in the bag to get you through any cravings. Here are eight of my favourites.
‘Strong is strong: it’s neither masculine nor feminine, it’s both’
I wonder how many women have been told not to get 'any bigger' when they get into resistance training? I know how many times it's happened to me - and it's four times too many.
Are you overtraining? Why rest is key to progress
Training may act as the stimulant to growth and development, but sleep is when the adaptions actually take place. But what counts as adequate rest?
What I do when I ‘hit the wall’ in training
'Hitting the wall' is a feared term in endurance circles. But it can happen to a lesser extent in weight training as well. It's that point in training where you feel like you can't go on, where taking just one more step or lifting one more rep can seem impossible. Unless you're an elite athlete, it can happen to anyone, including me. So how do you cope?
How I got into weight training
Why do you weight train? Having spend a good portion of my time writing advice articles on resistance training and fitness programmes, I thought it would be worth looking at how and why I got into weight training. Everyone has a different story, and this is mine. How did you find your passion?
Three reasons to avoid short-term ‘beach body’ plans
Three weeks to shredded! Get beach-body ready in two weeks! Six pack in seven days! How realistic do these sound? Clearly not realistic at all. Yet, following a chat with a fellow PT this week, there are many people who think and want it to be otherwise.
Demotivated? How to deal with your fitness demons
It's 6pm: you've finished work for the day and are looking forward to hitting the gym. You've been working hard and the results are paying off. Yet, despite all this, the second you set foot outside, your motivation starts to wane. Sat at your desk- eyes glued to an Excel spreadsheet - the gym had seemed like a welcome break, but now, when the alternative is a warm house, the sofa and a slice of carrot cake, getting sweaty suddenly doesn't seem the best option. So, is there anything you can do to tackle your demotivating inner voice?
