2011 December | Glenn Ward

Yesterday the family pulled together to help dad (Roger Ward) marshal his first organized run around rural Glen Parva. The run started at Glenhills memorial hall and lead off across the fields at the back of Glen Parva making use of some great running locations along the great central way and popular dog walking tracks by the canal. It was a figure of 8 course over 3 km with a water station at the interchange for a water break on the outbound and inbound route.

That evening we decided to introduce dad to the online world and set him up with a blog to tell you all about his events, classes and health tips.

Visit Roger Ward health and fitness here to find out more and see the route from the run.

The English way! An unproductive and unhealthy way to work

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I read somewhere that British workers on average work more hours than any the rest of Europe. You’ve all heard the jibes in the office “half day is it part timer” “Afternoon!” is it just office banter or psychologically does this create a silly work ethic that we abide to against practical reasoning.

I recently attended a training day on how the brain works. We discussed right side, left side brain function and also how the brain processes in the subconscious, which is why you suddenly come up with the answer to something that was puzzling you or possibly where the phrase sleep on it possibly came from from. Despite knowing that we function better having had some down time, how many of us work though our lunch breaks or line up meetings back to back for 8 hours solid? Taking a half hour break would allow the brain function far more efficiently but we choose to ignore this, bragging about how much coffee we drink to stay functional. Seriously! Look how many Twitter bios say “self confessed coffee addict” oh please, sorry you’re busy! If you really are busy, people know! there’s no need to publicize how many espressos you need to get you out of bed in the morning.

Like with my fitness, I am a bit obsessive and this means reading a lot of health and nutritional advice. My daily productivity is becoming far more efficient and you will be pleased to know its not from sticking to a 9-5 routine.

Think back to when you did your gcses or A-levels. We all had a little etc time to sleep in “yeh mum, I’ve got a double free period this morning, yawn!” but you hear people say it all the time “I’ve had loads of sleep but I’m still tired” Over sleeping definitely makes me less productive and I get a real buzz on the days that Im up and about by 7am and by 10 I’ve achieved half a days chores before my piers have got out of bed. To this end I, as much as I can try to make sure I get a perfect 7hrs a night.

A body building diet for fat loss often consists of little and often eating. This is the most efficient way to consume as it keeps the metabolism active all day. So why do we stick to 3 meals a day? We all know skipping breakfast is probably the worst habit we can slip into as eating fires up the body ready for the day, however many do and many eat late at night, firing up the metabolism just before we go to bed, then complain about not being able to sleep.

I’m not going to get into details on diet but we all use our busy lifes as an excuse. I wake up have a small bowl of muesli (slow release carbs) and a protein shake. Then sit on the train for 2hrs, when I get to London I have a banana in my pocket, a little natural sugar pick me up to take away the snooziness. I eat mainly salad at lunch to avoid a high carb lunch that will give you a boost and then a dip mid afternoon. Don’t eat you pud straight away save it for mid afternoon to avoid snacking (usually a protein bar). If I really have to snack I have a bag of muesli in my draw to avoid munching on chocolate or crisps for emergencies. In the evening I eat early, between London, train and gym followed by another shake. If I’m still hungry after 9pm I’ll have a bowl of bran flakes, not sure whether this is nutritionally correct but I like it

Ok, now my society rant. Many of us are busy and cant get away with a 7hr day. The world is hypothetically shrinking so why do we feel pressured to work a regimented day? Half of my colleagues are in bed while I’m emailing them. We all have smart phones and tablets. If IT departments weren’t so fridged we could work from almost anywhere, so why do we give the people who make the best use of their time such a hard time? Because its the English way! And its societies little sheep that maintain lifes many annoyances. Lets take a current big moan. The cost of travel. Last year I spent 1/7 of my wage on travel, apart from being skint! not only am I busting my every day I’m less productive and am reinforcing high peak prices. If I work from home I effectively get another 4hrs out of my day but again I tend to work through without a break. What if I get up same time 6:30am and go for a swim, by 7:30 I couldn’t be more awake, this isnt the best state of mind to be sat on a train. Go home! Get 2 super productive hours in, work on stuff you can continue on the train (this is my German time as they are up an hour earlier). Leave the non urgent emails for the commute and get an off peak ticket, no snoozing I have to admit, I’m not very good at the lunch away from the desk thing but I apply the same theory in the evening as well, return train being my America time. A quick gym in the evening helps me drop off to sleep these days if I have everything in my head out and on my iPad!

Long and short of this post is, break the norm! The norm is unproductive and more importantly unhealthy!

The GfK Insights Calendar – Crambed full of Insights, Infographics, Animations and Research Findings

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This year we have produced calendar review of the last year. It’s packed full of all the Infographics, Animated Videos and Charts we have been producing to support our PR and blog outputs. Have a browse and feel share the Insights.

We now have expanded the in house video production team with the addition of a motion graphics and 3D specialist so there’s some really exciting visuals and client deliverables just around the corner, all in a whole new league than any of our competitors.

There will be plenty more to come next year so watch this space.

Completed the Mens Fitness Abs of Steel iPad App to the letter

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Some of you are aware that this summer I trained to enter the MensHealth cover competition, following this while training for the Maximuscle bulk up challenge I tore my groin landing a jump in the splitz while windsurfing. I was out of action for a while and put on some body fat. To get my abs back and also to test the app I decided to follow the Mens Fitness Abs of Steel workout available on the iTunes App store.

Summary

It works! my abs are solid as a rock (steel) and the App is well worth the money for a number of reasons which I will go into more detail below.

I have learnt are lot about my training in following this workout. Fundamentally it has reinforced the need to continually change, increase and improve. In contrast I have also discovered that one workout is not the exact fit for all, all bodies, metabolisms and eating habits differ and we all need to take this into account when writing our training programs.

The full body exercises included at the beginning session was a real refreshing change to my usual specific muscle group exercises and for me whos goals are not to get massive but more ripped. I feel more balanced after 6 weeks due to the fact that I have worked more supporting muscles and possibly muscles that would usually be overlooked. When undertaking the core exercises you are pumped and get the most out of every movement if you put the effort in.

From my perspective, although the full body exercise fire up the metabolism and provide plenty of fat burn this would be beneficial to those with more to lose but for me the one aerobic a week just wasnt enough. I feel the best addition to my routine to reveal the abs would have been adding a bike, 30 mins Random with the heart rate elevated for a good 20 mins.

Conclusion

The original test was to see if these magazine workout are really worth following. My conclusion is that a lot of effort has clearly been out into constructing them. Take them, your knowledge, your PTs advice and adapt to suite your needs. You know how your body reacts, how much you cheat your diet your recovery etc.

The added benefit of this type of app is the video aspect. You can see the technique performed in far more detail. Although, on some exercises, dead lifts being one, get someone to critique your form at an early stage. Its easy to develop bad form and this could be damaging.

Overall 4 stars, well worth the money!

As pomised,

Follow my progress on Twitter @glennmward and just ignore all the digital marketing stuff!

The Challenge
The First Day
The First Week
The Second Week

Also check out my fitness column on the Boardseeker magazine website

“Loose the love handles!”
“Loose the Hunch”

Sometimes you dont know what you’d like to do but you know what you like doing

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I write this post as a thought pops into my head. I often get asked for life advice, despite not feeling qualified in myself to give this kin of advise I always try and encourage a line of questioning of oneself, ones actions or things that could be considered, rather than handing out direct, do this do that advice.

I have embedded a video at the bottom of this post that is well worth a watch. It explains what is fundamentally broken and what holds back a good many of us from being great. Really! take the time to watch it.

Ok, my thought process begins with some early life choices. Deciding on my A-Levels, like many I had no idea what I wanted to do. I did know what I liked, what I was good at and the things that make me happy so I chose PE, Art and Business Studies… oh how they laughed! this is when I realized I had a bit of a what the f*/k do you know attitude, I wasn’t however massively qualified to argue with the gibes but stuck to my decision. In hindsight the ridicule came from those with a lack of knowledge in certain areas, they didn’t know the things I knew and they were those I considered well educated (the video below explains) A weaker man might have changed there mind and studied 3 coinciding subjects to meet societies pre conceptions of what would be the right thing to do.

Having finished my A-Levels I still didn’t know what I wanted to do however I knew what I liked doing. I first became a windsurf instructor, I knew I liked windsurfing, I knew I wanted to see a bit of the world, it made sense. In my off season I wrote an idea for a TV show, it got made by a href=http://www.rapido.co.uk/shows/shw.5.phpchannel 4/a and I shot off around the world filming. I then worked in TV, back to water sports, well yachting during which time I was teaching myself about websites and ecommerce as my brother and sister set up a www.innerwolf.co.uk. One more cheeky season in Egypt (windsurfing) then university to study a Media and Design for Digital Media during which time I helped take the watersports shop 2xs to being an online retailer. A quick stint as an website and marketing manager for a clothing company then up to the smoke to set up an in house video production service for a market research company. Now I am heading up the role out of our Website and Social media strategy.

My point here is that all of these things benefited very well from my choice of A-levels and more importantly what I do for a living now didn’t exist as a job when I started down this road. So, how can I take advice on my education when the people giving the advice have no concept of what the future might hold for me or the economy, you cant! and those who did take that advise, probably ended up in a job where they look at watch every day.

Sure, there are times you’ll take a knock. I got fired from the UKSA and it hugely dented my confidence. I thought questioning safety was a good thing but apparently not when you are questioning the decision of the MD. They attempted to throw me off the Isle of Wight as I influenced the other instuctors. So, draw the positives from any given situation, I’m an influencer! there’s a little take away, Ill put that in my toolbox and use that later.

Do what you like doing along the way, it might not fall into place straight away but you’re more likely to end up in the right place because if you are interested in something your learning is accelerated and people will notice, sure there will be politics along the way but stay focused on the bigger picture and let it wash over you.

Love this video!