Fitness Friday #1

* * * * * NEW FEATURE * * * * * 

Welcome to your weekly sports supplement. Here we can share our athletic adventures and keep each other motivated. As you'll know if you follow my Instagram, I like to document my fitness with amusing photos, I'll explain for the reason for this in a bit... 

So here goes:

1. RESOLUTIONS

It's the 1st of Feb......you're already one month into 2013, so how are your new years resolutions shaping up? Has your life been drastically improved already? Did these tips help you? If not, do not despair, all hope is not lost, you still have 11 months left to make this into a cracking year. 

Do it now. 

Write down a list of 10 fitness goals you want to achieve this year, for example, one of mine is: Do a handstand against a wall...

2. SIT UPS

One of the best and most effective training ideas I ever implemented was night time sit ups. And because we are all in this together, I will now pass on this simple advice to you. Every night, just before you go to bed, sit ups. Yep, it's that simple. There are no shortcuts to getting awesome abs, just patience and hard work. Vary your method, some days I do 50 in one go, some days I do as many as I can in 2 mins. Honestly, do this every day before you sleep and you'll notice the benefits after 2 weeks... simple yet effective. (And don't beat yourself up if you miss a day, life happens).

3. MY GOALS

Training is much more productive when you have something to aim for and when you train with friends (more on this later). Personally, I am doing another Half Marathon in May. After the experience of the Valencia Half, I realised that I need to do longer runs more often, whilst being immersed in a race atmosphere. To that end, I am making myself do at least one public race each month, here's what happened in January.

4. FUN RUNS

I have already mentioned how great park run is as a fitness initiative and I thoroughly recommend you find your nearest one as a UK resident. For fellow Spaniards, use this website to find local runs in your town. They are a great way of making friends, forcing yourself out of bed and for discovering new running routes. Other nationalities, have a google for fun runs. Yes, it may be intimidating the first time you go, but the atmosphere is truly great and before you know it, you'll get addicted!

5. SPOON CHALLENGE

This month I've had a 'ridiculous face' challenge with my dear friend Spoon on Instagram. You can do this too. It'll encourage you to get up and lace up on days when you're really not in the mood for exercising, because you know that your friend is expecting a photo from you, they are counting on you and you can't let them down. Any suggestions for our February theme?

6. CLOTHING

It distresses me to see people wearing normal clothes to the gym, so as motivation to get active, treat yourself to some new tops/shoes/shorts/etc. Because you've spent money on them, you just have to go to the gym to show off your new look! Check out tribehead for lax kit, some cool t shirts here, and my favourite nike for your sports bra/trainer needs.

7. INSTA-INSPIRATION

If you are on Instagram, then I really recommend you follow @tonedtannedandfit @charlenejohnson for some body motivation, @runnerspace and @instarunners are an obvious choice if you're that way inclined, @runaday is one of my faves at the moment, every day he runs and every day he takes a pic. @ultimatefitspo and @gymmotivate are also a great place to get started. Let me know what you think and please give me some suggestions too.

Go on, TAKE THE CHALLENGE this February!