This week seems to have whizzed by!

Again some interesting questions have been coming through, which I’ve really enjoyed answering. I’m on the lookout for more questions, so keep them coming!

What’s your best tip for people who are having a hard time committing to a new exercise schedule?

Firstly, make sure your expectations aren’t too high – have you set unrealistic limits? Look at what you’re wanting to do and make sure it’s manageable and not too overwhelming – I’m not suggesting making it too easy, but if it’s too hard you just won’t be motivated to even try.

If you’re completely new to exercise and you’re trying something, try something else. If you’ve tried the Gym and aren’t enjoying it, why not try a class or going out for a run? Yes exercise should be challenging, but it should also be enjoyable as well.

Finding a workout partner is great motivation – if you bail out, you’re letting them down too! You can find something that you both enjoy doing and motivate each other to keep going, and sometimes add in a bit of healthy competition.

If you’re really struggling to motivate yourself, you can think about getting a session booked in with a personal trainer to give you work out inspiration and talk through alternatives with you.

Is morning or evening the best time to work out for weight loss?

If you’re looking for fat loss, a morning workout can be more beneficial due to a couple factors – low blood sugar levels force the body to look for other sources of fuel, such as fat; and hormones that accelerate fat burning (such as cortisol) are at a high level during the morning.

For the best time with regards to performance, that would be afternoon. Usually because you’ve had chance to move around, so your muscles are warmed up enough to push harder.

Saying that, the best time to exercise is anytime you can fit into your schedule! The most important thing is not so much the time of day you exercise, just that you actually go and do it.

How do I know how much weight I should be lifting?

There are a couple of steps you need to go through to get to the answer, so stick with me!

• Work out the amount you need to do for your goal – if you have a pre-written programme, look at what that says for reps; if you’re writing your own programme, work out how many reps are suitable for your specific goal.
• You need to find your sweet spot – basically you need to find the ideal weight (not too light, not too heavy) for the amount of reps you’re doing. You should find the weight that allows you to complete the reps, but you shouldn’t be able to do too many more with perfect technique. If you are doing sets of 10, you might be able to perform 11 or 12 at the current weight but no more than that. If you’re struggling to perform 10, or your technique fails too early, then the weight is too much.
• Adjust – you need to adjust the weights as you go through. It sounds like guess work, and it kind of is! When you’re trying a new exercise, you might have an idea what weight to try or what weight you might be able to lift, so try that and tweak accordingly.

Once you’ve got the weight right, you need to think about progressive overload, which is essential for progression (and results!). If you can lift your starting weight easily for the number of reps prescribed, you can either increase the number of reps or the weight.

If this has completely baffled you, feel free to drop me an email or we can arrange to meet for a chat about weight progression and how to start off.

If you have any questions or feedback, please feel free to email or get in touch through Facebook