Below, you’ll find a declaration. This is your starting point, your first step to fitness beyond your wildest dreams. Have you ever been out of breath? Has the air you gulped for burned deep down into your lungs? Have you ever wished you could push out one more repetition? Well, all I’m asking you to do is sign a poxy declaration, so come on, and let’s get started! Anyway, you now have an aim, a target and a goal, so let’s go.
DECLARATION OF COMMITMENT
I, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
(name)
am making a commitment to myself to complete all of the stages within this book. I’m doing this because I want to change my life in a positive way. I’ve only been letting myself down all this time, but now that’s going to change.
My goal is to:
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
(Put your goal above, which could be weight loss, to become stronger, more confident, etc.)
If I give up before completing this regime I am letting myself down, therefore I am signing this as a commitment to myself so I can succeed and achieve my goals. I agree to be a winner because I’m worth it.
Signed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
TO STRETCH OR NOT TO STRETCH
It’s great to see you’ve made a start and there are two lines of thought on this chapter’s subject matter. A project relating to the benefits of stretching and warming up before exercise was carried out among many hundreds of members of the British Army. The findings were that stretching and warming up before exercise made no difference to whether you pulled a muscle or not. The Bronco thought on this, though, is a bit different and not for the reasons you think. You see, how is your body going to realise it’s getting ready for a shock to its system? If a bull came charging out a field at you then you’d either run or, out of shock, just stand still. It’s not always automatic that you’ll run or move quickly when this sort of thing happens. Why do rabbits stare at car headlights, transfixed by the light, unable to move, and then … BANG! Rabbit stew for dinner.
You have to teach your body to learn new things. I mean, your muscles have what is called ‘muscle memory’. That means a retired footballer could still get out on the field and have a reflex action to make his body do certain things he once used to do, no matter how hard he tried not to do them. That’s why he or she could pull a muscle; it can’t be avoided. By stretching and warming up, you’re alerting your body that exercise is about to begin and it had better get ready for some action! This warming up starts a chemical reaction within your body and sets things in place in readiness. Your heart is prepared for the sudden extra load, your lungs can store extra oxygen and already your muscles are starting to fill up with oxygenated blood. So you must, in my opinion, limber up.
This saves any strains or pulls, basically limbering up is like a motor: you don’t just put your foot down, you ease into it, otherwise you blow the engine up. Your body is the same – you’d damage a muscle or pull and rip a tendon, or even worse. So, use your loaf! It’s essential to warm up a bit with a bit of bending and stretching from side to side. I do a lot of high kicks myself to get the legs flexible. It’s important that you do it, even more so if you’re just starting out. No one is invincible or accident prone; we all bleed so take care!
Now this book ain’t about teaching the rudimentary basics of stretching or yoga. All I will say is that there are some basic rules to stretching and some definite stretches you would not undertake at this stage. Certain movements that place pressure on the lumbar (spine) region can be dangerous.
Do you know that if you sneeze while bending over at the waist you can dislocate one of the discs in your spine, or if you sneeze while pinching your nostrils together you can perforate an eardrum? So it’s logical that overly stretching can do as much damage without even trying. I’m not going to go fully into stretching exercises at this stage, but all I will say is try stretching out in bed before you get up in the morning. Never jump straight out of bed after waking up: tests carried out on heart-attack victims showed that 10 per cent of heart attacks happened immediately after getting out of the sack, so take it easy. No one’s gonna turn up at your deathbed saying what a good, loyal worker you are … too late! Let your body know what’s happening to it. Unless there’s a fire, do some stretching before you rise.
On the next page is an example of a very basic stretch. Kids can do this one easy as pie, but ask some grown-ups to do it and see their eyes water then hear how out of breath they get.
Pass the stretch test! Can you do this? If so, then you’re agile.
Is this you? For instance, say you did a leg workout and the following day you had stiff legs, you might think stretching your legs would help them recover. I say no!
MUSCLES CAN BE DAMAGED EVEN BY SIMPLE STRETCHING
Each of your muscles has a sheath covering it, a fine sheath that can become damaged. Small particles of calcium can grow in damaged muscles, giving you years of grief and pain. These particles can only be removed by unwanted surgery so be warned! Am I frightening you or what? I bet a lot of the so-called know-it-alls of the training world don’t even know most of what I’ve already told you: Bronco will keep you on the right track!
WARM UP PROPERLY
An ideal warm-up session should last from ten minutes to half an hour. How do you know you’re warmed up? If you’re a beginner then you’ll certainly know by the sweat on your forehead, starting to sweat is a sure sign. How do you warm up? Running on the spot, running around the garden or anything that gets the heart rate going faster than if you were at rest, even a fast walk (called ‘power walking’ where you walk fast with the arms held up in the jogging position).
After the warm-up, another stretching session should see you ready to start. Do this before every single workout, unless I say otherwise. If you can, fit the warm-up into your daily routine by walking to the shop at a fast pace and, by the time you get back, you’ll be ready for some simple stretching.
SIMPLE STRETCHING
Simple stretching is touching your toes with your hands without bending the knees, even if you can only go down as far as your knee or lower leg or ankle then that’s fine. The muscle memory will take you back to this point at the next session and you can push it a bit further every time. Eventually, you will be able to touch