Oprah Winfrey breaks the unbreakable Lance Armstrong interview

He's beaten cancer, he's won olympic medals and he's won the world famous tour de france many times.

Through out my childhood I idolised Lance Armstrong

So to see one of your childhood sports heros come out to say that he was a complete cheat is a huge shock! I feel cheated! Buying countless books! & thinking wow what an inspiration! Now its all come out to be all a lie!

My favourite book of all time was "Its not all about the bike", well this is no more!

I can honestly say that monetising his story from a recovering cancer patient to super sports hero is criminal! I've watched and lost countless friends to cancer & to see that this man has made his fortune through lying is sad!

Here's a great link I found today from the telegraph! The video at the top says it all!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/cycling/lancearmstrong/9601294/Lance-Armstrong-interview-with-Oprah-Winfrey-the-previous-denials.html

My plans for 2013!

2013 Plans!

Well it’s another year in the busy, crazy world we live in! Last year was a great year for a few reasons!

I managed to go backpacking for a month by myself to Thailand, Borneo, Dubai and Singapore. Diving with sharks & manta ray, sea fishing, stayed at the 7* Dubai burj alla rab, went to the top of one of the world’s tallest buildings, kayak and rock climb on KO Phi Phi Island (where the beach was filmed!), climb one of the world’s highest mountains and more!

In May I went to Las Vegas and walked the whole strip, had a helicopter tour across the grand canyon! I was lucky to meet the famous boxing ring commentator Michael buffer & saw busta rhymes rap in the Venetian!

Watch my video on my travels across Dubai! Click on the photo above!

In 2012 I Invested in 2 different companies (1 good investment & 1 bad) I learnt more about life and business, made mistakes and learnt from them!  Met a great girl! Bought a car of my dreams! Set out to start up a new business! Finalised the sport that I’m going to get my teeth into! The Decathlon!
Watched the Olympics & got involved with all of the 2012 celebrations including the Queens Jubilee!

I managed to meet Usain bolt, Linford Christie, Chris Tomlinson, Mervyn Luckwell, Abdul Buhari, Jason Baird, Terry Holland, Jodie Marsh,  and many more sports stars & Olympians! To watch some of my interviews, travels, fitness updates watch my videos and subscribe! http://www.youtube.com/user/gmtownsend

But most importantly I finally became more appreciative of what I have! Travelling across Malaysia and Thailand made me realise how much we have & how easy our lives are in western society! Seeing poor, homeless children raiding bins in the slums is not an ideal view on any holiday however it’s a must see to appreciate everything you have!

In 2013 my plans are to knuckle down & to work hard and enjoy my life to the fullest! I won't allow myself to get bogged down with life’s problems and let negative people get at me!

Here's some of my plans for 2013:

- Launch my new clothing brand into the UK sports / fitness market with the view to wholesale UK wide... www.gymbeing.com
- Employ more people
- Travel to the States and S. America!
- Build a stronger presence within the fitness industry
- Mentor the team of personal trainers I have & help my mentors Rob and Matt
- Re-launch my entertainments business to the Warwickshire / UK market! www.gtentertainments.co.uk
- Focus on my training more! 12 - 15 hours per week, get the right coaches, training regime & techniques for my new sport!

 

Keep tuned! "LIKE" my facebook page or Subscribe to my Youtube channel! 

www.gavintownsend.com

Kirk Miller

Kirk Miller is fast becoming a “household name” in the fitness industry, since he was catapulted into the spotlight after winning the Men’s Health cover model contest in 2010. Kirks life first hinted a change when he entered the competition to become a Men’s health fitness model in 2009 which proved to be unsuccessful. Not deterred by this failure Kirk reapplied the following year and on winning the competition changed his life.  

Kirk was propelled into the fitness industry and went from being a 26 year old plumber who spent a lot of time “watching the clock”, to a fitness model and personal trainer. “Being a fitness model and Personal trainer is amazing”, I completely understand the meaning of that famous saying, “when you find a job you love you’ll never work a day in your life”.

Kirk’s passion and energy for his job more than tells you how much enjoyment he gets from helping others. His favourite case is a woman he trains called Nikki, who went from a; depressed, recently divorced, unhealthy, binge drinker to a recent competitor in the bikini classification at Birmingham.

Kirk is currently being trained by the great Neil Hill whose two latest pupils pros James "Flex" Lewis and Zack "King" Khan have both become huge within the industry.

Kirk has been working closely with Neil in developing the Y3T workout which stands for Yoda 3 Training. The principle of Y3T is to systematically keep your muscles guessing how you are going to train so that your body has less chance to adapt. This is done by rotating your training style over a 3-week period. In this period all the muscle fibres are stimulated and giving the overall body a fantastic composition.

Crucial Tips from Kirk

• Consistency is the key to a whole body and lifestyle change.
• Don’t get hung up on heavy weights, be yourself with workouts.
• Quality over quantity cannot be said enough, the greater the muscle activation the more of the muscle can grow.

Finally, we would all love to abdominals like Kirk, so here are some of his best exercises to help you on your way.

• Reverse cable crunches
• Russian twists
• Hanging leg raises
• Don’t forget with lower abs, simple low kicks are a brilliant way to sculpt this area. 

You can follow Kirk on twitter at @Kirk_abs_miller .

GavinTownsend and GT Personal Training would both like to thank Kirk Miller for his interview, we all wish him the best for the future.

Hurricane Sandy

Hurricane Sandy has been aptly named the Frankenstorm due to it being the biggest hurricane to hit the US east coast in living memory.  

New York is iconic there’s no doubt about that, with miles of skyscrapers, a harbour with extensive shipping ports and numerous airports it’s no wonder that the city recently turned over $85bn in exports. To put that in EU terms, that’s over three times the exports of Greece.

This is the first time weather has closed markets in New York for two consecutive days since a blizzard in 1888.

Below are some of the best pictures from hurricane Sandy, showcasing how mother nature still ultimately has the last word.

A wrecked suburb.

A stunning shot of central New York.

The moment when the underground was flooded.

A New York Taxi rank, probably the most iconic image from the whole disaster.

A once bustling New York high street.

Posted by Gavin Townsend 

Carly Thornton Interview

Here we have the best bits from my interview with Carly Thornton.

A quick recap, I did post a blog earlier on in week on Carly telling her story so if you need information please check this link.

Carly’s first competition was at the UK BFF where she placed 6^th in the body fitness category, which  critiques women on whole body shape.

This gave Carly the drive and ambition to further improve herself to get to the top. Following this she competed at  European championship where she placed top 15, with all the traveling and seeing a whole new world of competition Carly was so excited to take the next step in her development.

Carly also wished well to fellow friend and competitor Flex Lewis who recently became Mr Olympia.

Here are some of Carly’s Top-Tips

• Before joining a gym you should meet a personal trainer, someone you work well with and understands you because everyone’s different.
• Don’t be afraid to ask professionals through social media channels.
• Get rid of scales, losing weight does not mean you’re necessarily getting healthier.
• Regular meals every 2/3 hours are essential to aid metabolism

Carly would like to thank everyone for all their support so far and is gearing up for the UK BFF champions at SportEX on the 19^th and 20^th of October.

YouTube link to the interview is below.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vaA_Jl83XY4

Posted by Gavin Townsend                

Carly Thornton

Carly Thorntons story is one that can inspire anyone from any walk of life.

A relatively inactive child, it took Carly till her early 20's to realise that poor nutrition was taking a toll on her body and mind. In an attempt to shape up she joined a local gym and began going a few times a week. For a short while she only did cardio, then after time she began to experiment with the weights.

Carly has been quoted as saying  “I longed for that toned athletic look but had no clue how to obtain it”. I know most personal trainers would be ecstatic for a potential client with ambition to say such a line, although Carly decided to go down a different route by reading up on nutrition and weight training for herself. 

The level of research she went into was astounding, forever improving herself and her physique.  

Carly went on to become a personal trainer herself, until the commitments of being a top female fitness model became too great.

Carly has been involved with various media publications such as;

Fitness women

LA Muscle

Udos Choice Promotions

Muscle & Fitness

Ultra-FIT magazine

USN

To name just a few.

I am thoroughly looking forward to meeting Carly and I can’t wait to pass on what information she has to all of you.

Posted by Gavin Townsend

Leisure Industry Week

For those of you who didn’t attend Leisure Industry (LIW) Week shame on you! For those of you who did a huge well done. LIW is an annual three-day event where the leisure industry comes together with over 300+ exhibitors showcasing their products and services. There’s also an Education Village where a series of expert-led seminars were held.

At LIW I was running the Nutrition Complete stand, Nutrition Complete is an Australian company that offers fast-clinicalonline meal planning software. My role is to bring Nutrition Complete further into the UK market after the company’s success in Asia and America. The company received lots of genuine interest at LIW and this has given us a strong platform to build on. I would strongly suggest others look to get involved with LIW next year, you will definitely see me there!!

Lastly the atmosphere at LIW was one of optimism and looking towards the future of the fitness industry, which was brilliant. With this 20% VAT rise being imposed on fitness products its paramount that we all look at innovative ways to make ourselves appeal to the end user.

Posted By Gavin Townsend