Hi Walt, I'm ex police from Australia, and I have a few recommendations for you.



1. Get off the treadmill, its much, much easier running on a treadmill than on real ground. Try it, you'll agree. Also... your testing for the police won't be on the treadmill...

2. I'm familiar with crossfit and agree, its an excellent program especially for occupations like the police.

3. Your trainer sounds useless. All she seems to be saying is do cardio. do cardio. do cardio. Are you doing any weights? Do you want to catch your friendly crook AND control him, or just catch him & hope for the best? Do some weights. Please!

4. Do some kind of grappling martial arts, most of your fights will involve grappling.

5. Heard of a beep test? We use them here for our testing. Even if you don't use them in your testing, they're an excellent training tool if you push yourself. As opposed to normal - read useless - cardio where you're doing steady state for an hour, the beep test has you upping your intensity as the test goes on until you're sprinting and gasping for breath.

6. In line with point 5, do HIIT (High intensity interval training) once your body is in better shape... I must confess some low key steady cardio is good for getting your body used to exercise.

7. Train & eat like a bodybuilder to lose body fat fast. I recommend the excellent T-Nation for that.



Remember, you might get into the police with average results on entry tests, but once you're in, I believe for your own safety you need to work hard on being strong BEFORE you look at increasing your cardiac fitness.



Who cares if you lose a few crooks (you'll see them again!!), at least they won't overpower you and hurt you if you catch them. Not to mention the many other situations you might end up fighting people in. Just think of yourself first... if you get injured by one of these guys, you won't be doing much crime fighting in the future, right?



Breathing techniques- I forget where I got this one (cycling I think?), but deep breathing through your nose, out your mouth when you're absolutely busted & gasping for air is the fastest way to recover... I tried googling this but can't find any reference... too many resuscitation sites & alternative health stuff! Anyway, I can personally vouch that it works for me. Long hard breaths in through your nose, forceful exhale out through your mouth.



Stay safe and good luck.

Hi everyone,



Ever wondered which Wii games you could use to workout with? I wrote 7 articles on my blog about which Wii games are good, and which are a waste of time.



If you're interested, check out my web site.



Cheers & I hope you find it useful.

Jonathon

We're done! Day 7 is out. Red Steel is fun, but not any good at all for working out.



That's the week done, Rayman Raving Rabbids is our favorite from the week long series.

Day 6 is up! Wii Play, great fun, not so good on the fitness.



Have a look-see.

Thanks Catherine, I'll definitely do a preview of sorts soon. Pity there's not a bit more detail out there on exactly what fitness games will be in it.



Maybe I should dig around a bit more...

Great ideas Matt, I like it! Especially how you motivate yourself to get baskets in by knowing you'll be working hard if you miss.



Some ideas from my website:



1. Whatever you do, do it with a friend. Friends are the best way to motivate yourself to exercise. Squeeze in socializing time while you walk, pump iron, or play your Nintendo Wii boxing game.

2. Bring your dog along. Combine with number 1, and number 1’s number 2. Hmm. That sounds all wrong! Anyway, take your pet along for your walk, pets are great stress killers, can do amusing things while you’re out walking them, and you never know when they’ll help you meet someone special!

3. Get the music pumping. Music has proven affects on our mood and on motivation. Key your favorite music on your ipod or on your home gym’s stereo and get sweating. Remember, pumping motivational music works best! Check out Apple’s website for iTunes content, or do a net search for down-loadable music.

4. Take a different route. A change isn’t as good as a holiday if you ask me. I’d much rather go to France than walk or bicycle around a different block, but doing that has its advantages. Changing your surroundings and going through a different part of town, a different beach, or a new nature trail can refresh your batteries and give you something new to suggest to friends… That is if you’re not taking them with you to begin with!

5. Make it an event. Once a week, or once a month, grab a big bunch of friends and try something new. Shared experiences are great friend and relationship builders- just ask friends who have been to a large sporting event, been in a dangerous situation together, or experienced something magical together, and they’ll tell you all about it.

6. If you’re a gym junkie, change your routine around. You should know yourself if you’re into big biceps that changing reps & sets have a positive effect on your muscles. So help out your motivation as well as your arms, you never know when you’ll find a new favorite routine.

7. Combine a passion with exercise. This one might require you put on your thinking cap. What do you love to do? Can you combine that with breaking a sweat? I bet you can- take my t.v. watching audience reading this right now. Get down and bust out some squats, some push ups, or some nice minute long abdominal planks (yeah, ouch) while you watch t.v. Want a little extra motivation? Why not envision yourself with the body of your favorite (fit!) t.v. personality, then work towards it. They all workout a lot, I guarantee it.

8. Find a new hobby that you can enjoy, and that gets you out and moving.

Heres a list to start you with:

1. Gardening

2. Sailing

3. Kite flying

4. Bicycling

5. Nintendo Wii or DDR playing

6. Soccer/Basketball/Tennis/pick a sport!

7. Bush walking

8. Dragon boating

9. Bird watching

10. Woodworking.

It doesn’t matter what you pick and how small you believe the exercise, something which gets you off the couch, and actually using your neglected postural muscles is GOOD- in many, many ways!

9. Just mentioned above, the new series of games that has you up and moving is one of the most effective tools you can use to get yourself out of your bum-groove and moving again. Why? Because its lots, and lots of fun! I highly recommend the Nintendo Wii, and Konami’s Dance, Dance Revolution, otherwise known as DDR. You’ll get your best workouts for the Wii using Wii Sports: Boxing, baseball, and tennis. Big hint- Add a bunch of friends to your Nintendo Wii workouts and if you’re even vaguely competitive you’ll really get a workout to be proud of.

10. Take the kids along. We’ve all seen how much energy kids have compared to us. You can harness that to charge up your workouts and help you break a sweat and have a bunch of fun at the same time. One suggestion for you is to take the soccer ball, cricket set or volleyball out, and let them go nuts. Add pets to the mix and who knows what could happen. Kids just have this way of making fun out of any situation, try and learn from that and enjoy their antics whenever you can.

11. Make records and compare them with friends family & colleagues. Got 10 bucks a week spare? Like a little competition? If so you’ve got quite the recipe there for increased workout productivity, and plenty of fun, too. Take measurements of your waist, hips and chest, weigh yourself, and see who makes the biggest losses. If you’re into facebook, check out the workout application, and share with your friends.

12. Ever notice how much more fun you have when you’re in a relaxed situation? Take movies at home with friends. Fun and relaxing right? You might find you enjoy life a bit more if you try and extend your ability to relax throughout your day, and beating stress is a very good way to help your body lose weight. With that in mind, here’s another quick list of activities that can help you relax at any time, and are fun and good exercise to boot:

1. Yoga

2. Tai chi

3. Meditation (ok you got me, you don’t sweat much with this one)

4. Pilates

5. Yogalates

6. Pilateyogis

7. Taipilateyogitation

6 and 7 don’t exist yet, but you never know what the future will bring!!

13. Find yourself a gym that has a range of exergames, where you can sit and pedal in competition with others, watch a graphical representation of your progress, or anything which takes your mind off the grind of aerobic exercise.

14. If you’re into weights, take a week off, and do some cardio. That thing beating in your chest is important too, and the more efficient it is, the harder you can push yourself on the weights. You’ll enjoy the change, too. Just kidding, I hate cardio…! But if you add a few of my ideas from this article, you might enjoy yourself more than you think, and the health benefits to your heart are worth it.

15. If you’re into cardio, take a week off, and do some weights! I’m a big weights advocate. Increasing muscle density only slightly will increase the rate at which your body chews through calories while at rest, and in my book, the more calories you’re burning off while not actually exercising the better! Burn more calories while you sleep, for real!

Wow, day 5 is a shocker... I'm surprised anyone likes this game at all... If you do... read my post & tell me why, I'll do a hundred pushups per person who can convince me of why its any good!



Day 5!

Day 3, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, and Day 4, Rayman Raving Rabbids is up on my webpage, Place in the Ground.

Humberto checkout Rayman Raving Rabbits, there's some crazy fitness stuff on there. I just got it now. Marvel Ultimate Alliance is pretty physical too, but is fairly right arm dominant... I highly recommend Rayman. =)



I've started to write up a review of a few popular games on my blog. You have to be a bit creative for a few of these games to break a sweat though. Rayman seems best if you just want to play and not add your own exercise into the game.



Any other games out there people like for exercising that I could try and squeeze a workout into/around?



Cheers,

Jonathon

Day two is our review of Madden 2007- not a good product to workout around unfortunately, so I'd stick with one of our other day's guides!

Mario Strikers Reviewed- if you like my ideas and want to use the workout guide I've created, let us know how you go here!

Day one, "Get Soccer Slim with Mario Strikers" is up on my blog.



Let me know what you think, and if you're interested, integrate it into your workouts and have some fun with it!



Cheers,

Jonathon

I train regularly at a gym, doing plenty of weights and circuit workouts, I still got muscle soreness in my arms and back from punching hard... just like a real boxing workout.



Take it easy, every sport or activity has you working new muscles that need time to recover & adapt.

Hi,



I've just started a blog on having fun & getting fit, and I made a post today on various Wii workout pages. If anyone has a link they think is good value, could you let me know either via this forum or on the site?



Its www.placeintheground.com



Thanks a bunch,

Jonathon