Anthony Gillespie
06/08/2018
Abs. Everyone wants them. But do they REALLY? If you want visible abs you need to be roughly sub 12% body fat for men and sub 18% body fat for women. If you want to reach these body fat percentage levels then it is safe to say that you cannot get away with drinking alcohol, whilst trying to achieve that goal, which might take 6-12 months depending on your starting point REPEAT: You will be a teetotally whilst trying to get abs, not to mention eating a very strict diet. So if you aren’t willing to cut the daily beer or red wine and sharpen up your diet to an unsociable degree, then you don’t really want abs.
06/08/2018
Most of our clients report the main advantage of a successful exercise program is ‘Feeling Good’. We’d hasten to add that body fat loss and the accompanying spike in energy will help you; age better, improve your lifestyle and simply become a better partner or parent to hang out with.
29/07/2018
The way you perceive the world shapes your thoughts, your thoughts become actions, and your actions create your physical reality. If you haven’t been getting the results you want then it might be time to change your paradigm. It won’t be easy and it’s not without risk. But it’s the only way if you want something different to what you are currently getting. You must become pleasure-AVOIDING in the short term with the long-term goal of perceiving things a whole lot differently – a paradigm shift. You have to see what you once found pleasurable as painful, possibly eating that cake and what you once found painful as pleasurable, getting up early to exercise on a cold Winter’s morning perhaps. If you don’t make this mental switch in your mind, you will always be fighting an uphill battle because often times the things we have found oh so pleasurable have a massive sting in the tail. It is important to understand that getting healthy and into shape isn’t really a physical process; it’s the physical result caused by a person’s worldview, thoughts, and therefore their actions – in essence, their paradigm.
28/07/2018
Why is it that a holistic approach always wins in the long run? It’s because health and fitness are more than just getting a good work out. ‘Holistic’ means your considering the whole health and fitness equation – the positive mindset, the small consistent steps to habit change, the healthy nutrition plan, the dedicated hydration and the weekly coaching that keeps you accountable to maximise results. That’s what we call “Smart Training” at Best Practice PT
07/07/2018
Why is it that some personal trainers enter the industry with as little as 6 week’s training, and on average leave the industry within 10 months? I blame the marketing machine that drives this ‘qualification’. At best I see the cert 3 and 4 in Fitness as just a good start. At Best Practice PT we’ve invested 3 to 4 years in our university training (and sometimes much more) plus several years of practical experience to always bring you an informed perspective on your fitness program. Don’t you think that your greatest asset deserves that kind of respect? You’ll have a quality assured training program, safe workout moves and carefully monitored progress towards your goals when you become a valued member.
10/05/2018
If you have been following me on Facebook and Instagram (hint: if you aren’t, it is probably a good idea to go there now!), you will see that I am doing yet another self experimentation with food. Some might call it self denial on a silly scale or a left over from an overly strict catholic upbringing, where suffering was seen as a virtue – might be some truth in that! Okay, it may be overstating it by using the term ‘suffering’, but here is what I am doing and I will let you be the judge. For 30 whole days (it’s called the ‘Whole 30’ so it makes sense!), I am not consuming alcohol, added sugar or sweetener in any form, grains, dairy, legumes or vegetable oils or a bunch of other specified nasties that you wouldn’t believe are regularly added to our food. And I guess here’s the point. All the rules around the Whole 30 are based on limiting foods and additives that have been linked to various disease processes in the body stemming from inflammation. We have all seen or heard the concept that all our health problems are linked to inflammation, as in caused by it, not in response to something else. I am currently reading the book(s) on it and it is very interesting indeed. The pair who wrote it have their credentials in the field of nutrition but they aren’t researchers or world renowned experts by any means. Some critics have called them nothing more than master marketers but I am reserving judgement […]
29/03/2018
We pride ourselves on being of what I call the future of personal training. What I mean by this is the departure from the old school, ‘do what I say or else’ type dogma. You know the image I am talking about, trainer in tracksuit with whistle around his or her neck, military flavoured haircut with square jaw beneath, barking orders staccato style. We are more the confidante and coach meeting you where you are at, changing plans if you turn up with an unexpected issue, be it physical or mental, listening more than talking, adapting. So quick quiz. You decide. Intelligent personal training or….not? 65 year old with knee issues doing aggressive box jumps? Large group of people, with a mixed level of training experience all doing the same exercises in a circuit type set up? Client turns up late. Trainer pushes client straight in to a high intensity move so as ‘not to waste time’ I think you guessed the answers! Best Practice Personal Training. Working hard to earn the title of Brisbane’s best personal trainers.
22/03/2018
Heavy subject line I know. But sometimes a bit of harsh reality is needed to spark action. The life of a health and fitness influencer is all about that – stimulating the beginning and then the continuation of the medicine we all need – movement! There is a strong message and promotion of “extreme exercise” bursting from the fitness industry’s marketing channels. Best Practice Personal Training, arguably the best personal trainers in Brisbane 🙂 are advocates of a more conservative approach . We are attempting to break through the noise to get to the vast majority of our society not attracted to box jumps with a barbell on their back (oddly enough!) who don’t exercise regularly but know they should. A lone voice in the wilderness is us – Move well first then move a bit more we cry! This is the first action and order of events in my humble opinion. Waiting for inspiration, i.e. starting with the head can be a long and sometimes fruitless wait. I have heard time and time again – “I eat better when I start exercising” “I feel mentally stronger when I exercise” “My performance in everything improves when I exercise”. So, big question. What are we waiting for? Life comes and life goes, what will you (be able) to do with the in-between bit? What will you see when you look back? Ok enough contemplation, start small and go for a walk already!
21/03/2018
Do you ever get the feeling that you are doing something on autopilot? You know when you unconsciously eat a biscuit because you are having a coffee. We’ve all been there. It’s the way our brains are wired and it’s not our fault. It just is. The reason is that we only have a finite of space to process information, kind of like a computer. It’s efficient to not to have to think all the time. Now I want you to think about all the habits that don’t serve your ultimate goals. What if you could change those habits and replace them with others that did serve your ultimate goals? What if getting up early and walking before work every day was your thing for example? No thinking, just alarm, hit it and then put on shoes and walk out the door? It’s the no thinking part which is so appealing because let’s face it, there is A LOT of information coming at ya in the year 2018. Okay, big question how do you get from not doing a good habit to “doing”? You have probably heard of the 21-day rule and how habits can be formed in this time frame. There is a lot of physical evidence, as in brain imaging not just theorising, that shows that this timeframe is in fact pretty accurate for a change in the hard wiring of behaviour. Lesson? Find a way to fake it till you make it. Start collecting new beneficial habits by will powering your way through the first 21 days […]