1-Up Fitness (Matt Sanders PT)

Category: Uncategorized

  • Why you won’t see a lot of selfies on my social media

    Why you won’t see a lot of selfies on my social media

    I had it pointed out to me the other day, that I don’t post a lot of selfies on my website or social media. I suppose it’s true that for some people, seeing the results of a person’s efforts can help motivate them to continue on their own journey. I expect for a lot of people, it’s just a bit of eye candy, a chance to become stimulated by a bit of tight fitting clothes or half-naked person on their screen. For me, personally, when I go to these social media feeds of ‘fitness influencers’, I am completely turned off and demotivated. Those people up there, even the ‘normal’ people showing themselves off, are not living a life that most people can (or want) to live.

    It takes a lot of time, dedication and sacrifice to achieve the hollywood or fitness professional ‘look’. These people aren’t living the life that most of us would want to live, not to mention all of the tricks of lighting, makeup, unhealthy body stress, etc that people are using to get those photos that get so many likes.

    So yeah, they may be ‘sexy’, but they’re not inspirational to me. I find them the opposite, completely de-motivational. I know I’m not ever going to look like them without having to make a lot of changes in my life. I’m not willing to give up things I like. For me, I want to see and celebrate a normal person’s achievement – a person that might have children to take care of, a full time job that doesn’t give them the flexibility to head off to the gym whenever they want. The person that has to deal with their house and car repairs by themselves, perhaps also having to fit in cpd and career progression, make & keep friendships, and fit in a relaxing hobby. I want to see the people that like to order the occasional pizza or chinese takeaway and aren’t scared of a Full Scottish breakfast. They like to binge Netflix in a way that they can talk about a programme more than ‘that was so good. I really enjoyed it.’. And perhaps also spend time doing volunteer work.

    And with all of that said, I do spend more time on fitness and nutrition than most people would want to(or be able to). So while I reduced my waistline down quite a bit, and put on some muscle, I’m not going to be a realistic example. I don’t know how having photos of me is going to motivate anyone, particularly not the people I’m wanting to focus on helping.

    I’ll close out with the second part of my reasoning. It’s the fact that I’m a private person. I’ve always been a private person. I take criticism to heart and I struggle to accept compliments as genuine. I’m not going to open myself up to the internet in that way. And I think other introverts are going to be the same. We are the geeks that are used to spending more time to themselves, and uncomfortable asking for help for fear of looking stupid and failing at what they want to accomplish. I’ve gained so much confidence through my fitness, and I’ve had help from some amazing people, but they were still people that I felt couldn’t ‘get’ me, as they were talking about sports, etc. I really want to help people that want to make a change, but aren’t comfortable approaching someone that you’d normally find posting about their fitness.

    Maybe that makes sense, maybe not, but the people wanting these body pics have a plethora of people to follow. I don’t need to be one more. I’m here for the people like me, that just want to be a fitter and healthier version of themselves.

  • Undersun Fitness Review (Resistance Band programmes)

    Undersun Fitness Review (Resistance Band programmes)

    As I mentioned in a previous blog post, the lockdown has led me to trying different styles of training, and even taken on some of the online programmes that are available to people. There are so many paid and free apps available, and one that caught my initial interest is the Undersun fitness programmes. I had heard James Grage speak on a fitness podcast some months ago, and I since I don’t have a lot of any weights at home, I went ahead and decided to see what he offered with his bands.

    His website offers equipment (fitness bands, door anchors,etc) and also fitness and nutrition plans. They provide a facebook group for customers, which they offer as a way for customers to encourage and support each other.

    I haven’t tried everything they have to offer on the site, but I have had a go through some of their fitness programmes and have a few thoughts. Specifically, I tried James’ strength programme, and Nik’s HIIT&Tabata programme.

    The price may be people’s initial concern, but the website does say they offer a guarantee – one page says 30 days, the other says 90, so I’m not sure which is true(this is an example of my criticisms, which I’ll come to later).

    I obviously wasn’t going to be purchasing the bands, as they ship from the US and I can find perfectly fine resistance bands within the UK.

    As for the programmes and coaches – there’s plenty to like about them. Both James and Nik come across as very positive, people and while Nik is more ‘enthusiastic’ than James, I don’t find her over the top, like I’ve seen with some other programmes, and I think the actual programme designs, overall, give you a good workout (though I find James’s programme a little more balanced than Nik’s)

    The programmes are set-up to run over three months each, and so you’ll click the month that you’re on, then the week, and then the day – they label the actual days of the week (Monday, Tuesday, etc) but there’s no reason to follow that specifically, you can pick any day to start and then follow their pattern of workout and rest days.

    Once you’re onto the day’s workout, it provides a page that lists the exercises that they’ll be going through with video and photo demonstrations. James videos are per exercise(eg. Video of chest press) as you’ll be doing sets and reps, like you’ve experienced with gym equipment. You aren’t following along in his videos – he demonstrates and then you do it at your own pace.

     Nik’s exercises run in sets(circuits, if you will), so she’ll provide a few exercises at a time, and you can watch the video to follow along with her, as she’ll help you keep time. For example, 20 seconds of jumping jacks, 10 second rest, 20 seconds pushups, 10 second rest, etc)

    Logging in through their website is fine, though I do sometimes wish it was through an app, as I find having to log-in to the website every time I want to do a workout an unnecessary inconvenience.

    I also find that there are a lot of mistakes in both the web site and the videos. Nothing that completely breaks everything, but when you’re paying for something, you do expect a certain level of quality. For example, they’ll often re-use videos across different days and weeks, such as

    She’ll say ‘hi guys I’m Nik from undersun fitness and we’re going to start off week 1 with ….’, and then that same video plays in weeks two to four. James seems to be a one take type of person – there are times when he fumbles his speech, or corrects himself ‘Okay so for month two we’re going to be doing xxxx. No wait, I might use this again in week 3, so let’s cut that out’. It’s really not professional.

    They also don’t often show a consistency between what they show in videos and what they show in the photos. So the band may be placed quite high in the photo and then be much lower in the video. And they don’t give an explanation of why they place things in a certain place or even if it’s still working the same muscles to move the bands up or down.

    They also sometimes provide the wrong photos for the exercises they have on the list, and they sometimes miss things off the lists that are in the videos.  James will say to do 4 sets of 20 reps on something in the video but on the screen, it’ll say sets of 20/10/10/15. Again, you’d think that if they want to sell themselves, they’d want to have better attention to detail.

     Sometimes Nik doesn’t give much time to remind watchers what the next exercise is until she starts it – when she has plenty of time during the rest periods to do so. I’ve noticed in particular that at in month two she forgets to even rest on one exercise and says ‘the exercise will look like this’ and goes to demonstrate, but then keeps doing it and says ‘ten seconds left”! you have to clearly tell people when to start and finish!

    My final thought is about the balance. One thing that really sticks out to me, is when instructors don’t work things evenly. It’s important that if you are doing 10 reps on one side, then you want to do 10 reps on the other side. Muscle imbalance can lead to pain or injury later. Undersun videos do make sure that if they work both left and right sides. I do find that Nik’s workouts can be a little unbalanced in the muscles she’s working. For example, working shoulders a lot and barely touching the chest or back, or putting in lots of core/ab exercises. Core is useful, but these muscles are used in pretty much every exercise you’re doing, so if you really work them early in the workout, it can affect how well you do other exercises – such as your squats, etc. These really (IMO) should always be towards the end.

    I also think that since they are already giving a step by step programme, they might as well include some warm up and cooldown videos – even if it’s the same for the entire programme, warm-up and cooldown are super important parts of workouts!

    Final word – For the price of one or two months in the gym, you’ll get a three month programme that can be done from home (or pretty much anywhere) for a year. There’s also plenty of free videos on James’s youtube account, as well. I don’t see any reason why I should tell anyone to completely avoid it.  If anyone else has experience with other programmes, let me know and I’d love to take a look at them and offer my views!

    I’m going to tack this onto the end of my review. I had a scroll through the facebook group. The people posting in there all seem a very positive and supportive bunch, and that’s at no additional cost to the purchase price. I personally tend to be put off by people calling each other ‘bro’ or ‘mate’ or things like that, so it’s not really my cup of tea in there. I will also find it unnecessary for people to show off form with half their clothes off – yes, people will rightly feel proud of the hard work they’ve done, but I find it completely off-putting, as it’s not realistic to aim for that type of look for most people( those with day jobs, families, life responsibilities).
    But as I said, they seem a positive bunch, so this could be a great way for the extroverts to socialise and support others. The introverts, feel free to contribute content to my facebook page -1up is very much a home for the geeks and introverts to support each other.

  • Bee yourself!

    Bee Yourself GIFs | Tenor

    Mental Health awareness week is this week in the UK, and one of the things I think about when I think about mental health is the effect of social media on our wellbeing.

    This isn’t going to be an in-depth analysis of the effects, nor do I have any research to share on the matter, and I know that it’s going to be odd about me criticising something I’m using myself. It’s just – I know from my own experience that when I use apps like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, I find it just as likely that I come away feeling bothered about something as I do feeling positive.

    To me, Social media often seems to be about a need for attention and validation(when not about being upset about something). Folk spend time trying to come up with something to say about anything, and oftentimes they’ll say it in a way that they think will make them come across as funny or clever. They certainly don’t talk the way they do to their friends in normal conversation, when people aren’t ‘watching’.

    I’ve had friends feel crushed when they don’t get the likes, comments, or shares from others. ‘Why isn’t so-and-so liking my post?’ type of things, or ‘please someone share this post to say how important this topic is’. What is that doing to their self-worth. They’re comparing themselves to others, and then feeling bad when they don’t seem to be ‘as good’ or ‘as popular’ or ‘as funny.

    They’re not able to show their vulnerability to their ‘friends’ publicly. I understand how difficult this can be. I hid my sexuality for years to my family and friends for worry about how they’d react or treat me differently.

    So I know it’s difficult to be authentic and to ‘love yourself’. But we can do it. If you’re having trouble find someone to talk to. Find a phone line if you can’t talk to the people you know.

    And as for the main point for this post – I think, particularly during this difficult pandemic situation, perhaps one of the best things we can do is to avoid social media feeds more, stop feeling the need to announce things, or share your outrage at news articles. Instead, use the tools to have some deeper conversations with people. Binge a tv programme and tell a member of your family or your coworkers about it. What did you like about it?

    Read a book, learn a new skill, or maybe start that exercise or change of eating you keep talking about. Just be in the moment for yourself more often. People will like you for who you are, not for who you think they want you to be.

  • Too Busy to exercise

    Too Busy to exercise

    I get it. I’m not in my 20s. I get tired a lot easier now. And between work, chores, running errands, friends/family obligations, maybe some volunteer work, and then trying to have some time for hobbies, it can seem like there’s no time to fit in exercise.

    And yet, when necessary, we find the time to spend work late, attend a birthday celebration, play that extra couple of matches of Overwatch(candycrush,WoW,….) etc. So really, it’s not that we don’t have time for the act of exercising. What is it that stops us from doing it? Probably our motivation, right? We don’t want to get sweaty, we don’t know where to start, or(and?) we are mentally exhausted from everything else we have going on, or any other reasons we tell ourselves when we think about exercise. If it’s not motivation, it’s procrastination!

    I think a lot of hesitation relates to the uncertainty we feel about it. I know when I decided to exercise, I worried a lot about doing things wrong. That I wasn’t going to wear the “right clothes” and people would judge me; That I’d be doing exercises wrong or I didn’t know how to use any of the equipment and embarrass myself; am I going to hurt myself by exercising wrong, or at certain times of the day, or by drinking/eating at the wrong times.

    There are so many doubts that we can put into our heads – I think this is especially true of people who tend to be more shy or introverted, or isolated, the ones who we might not typically think as fitness or gym people. But that’s not the case, really, to be healthy, we don’t need to spend hours and hours in the gym or running marathons. Some people like to do that, but it’s definitely not necessary.

    We can get into the reasons for different types of exercise later, but today I’m just wanting to focus on combatting that excuse to not start. I know it doesn’t help when so many gyms make it difficult to try without a long commitment, or are too busy or aren’t open when you would have the time (or the cost!). But you don’t need the gym to exercise. And you don’t need to buy and store a lot of equipment. You can start out exercising with your own bodyweight. You can try putting some tins or books into a cloth bag, or refill old clean milk jugs with water and you have homemade weights!

    As for time, you don’t need to commit an hour to exercising at a time. While that dinner is baking in the oven, take 5-10 minutes to do some leg exercises. Then, when watching tv, do some arm exercises. Find five minutes at a time to go for a quick walk. You don’t have to do your exercise all at once, it can be split up and still improve your health.

    As for the embarrassment, it’s something we probably all feel, but what I found out is that most people are too busy paying attention to their own workout to care what you’re doing. And those that comment or are judgmental are usually doing things wrong themselves (and perhaps that attitude is how they are hiding their own insecurities).

    Hope that provides some inspiration in getting started to do something. Remember, goals are only reachable by taking steps. Don’t think about how many steps you need to take, just focus on what that next step is and do it!

  • Never gonna give you up!

    Never gonna give you up!

    There’s a film that I’m sure most people haven’t seen, about Beethoven’s life. It starred Gary Oldman and came out in the 90s. I remember him having a conversation where he asked someone “what is music?”, to which the man responded something about being exalted. Beethoven calls his meaningless response and tells him that you hear a march and you’re not going to feel exalted. No, you are likely to feel like marching. When you hear music, it’s the composer bringing you into his state of mind.

    So what does that have to do with fitness? Well, there’s a reason why so many people wear headphones while working out, or why so many gyms think they need to play so-loud-you-can’t-hear-yourself-think music during group classes. It’s because music has such a powerful effect on people that it can be a great motivator (or de-motivator, in my case for group exercise classes).

    Photo by Genaro Servín on Pexels.com

    When i’m really struggling to make an effort in my morning exercise, I often put on an upbeat or exciting piece of music (one of my faves) and I find myself able to push myself just that little bit I need to get in a warmup, and that usually does the trick to get me ready for an actual workout.

    You’ll also see a lot of people wearing headphones while out running, and it’s definitely something I needed every time I was out for the first year or so that I started running. I still often use music, but once I was in the habit of running, I found I often enjoyed hearing the sounds of nature and being that ‘one with nature’.

    So really, this is a long-winded way of saying that find some music that you like, that you have a connection to. It doesn’t have to be pop-music, but something that you can use to lift your spirits and help push you to achieve your goal for that day. You’ll notice a lot of exercise tracks give you the beats per minute (bpm) of the song. And this can be a way to mix-up your exercise – move a little faster to the beat for a few minutes and then a little slower. And as in my own ‘exciting’ example above – it doesn’t have to be what others listen to – I have that history of gaming, and I can recall the excitement of the stage leading to a big boss fight, and so that connection helps push me to keep moving and ‘be the hero’. Find what works for you – don’t be afraid to experiment!

    I hope that offers some help. If you already use music as part of your fitness inspiration, please feel free to share with us here or on facebook!

  • Trying resistance bands

    Trying resistance bands

    I like the gym. I like lifting weights, and I like how keeping active makes me feel, so it’s not something I want to ignore when I’m on holiday. Hotels with fitness centres are pretty expensive, and particularly on business trips, you can’t always stay somewhere that has one or offers affordable and convenient facilities nearby.

    So I had been considering using resistance bands, and I even bought a set online, not realising that there are different types of bands. The ones I ended up with are quite small and don’t stretch very far. While there are plenty of exercises you can do with them, they don’t seem to be suitable as an alternative to gym-based strength training. I didn’t try to find more until a few months ago, when the Covid-19 pandemic lead to gyms closing.

    So with that happening, I bought a new set of bands, and have given them a serious effort from home. I’m looking forward to seeing how I look and feel after a few months – it’ll be hard to see or feel any real results without giving it a little time. But already I can see how helpful they’ll be in Personal Training, and how the workouts can be adapted to different skill levels. I’ll try to provide more information here on the blog as time goes on.

  • My first blog post

    Well, I’m not sure how much I’ll be posting here, but I’ll try my best to put up helpful information. If there are any topics you’d like me to say something about, just let me know.

    Tennis club, anyone?