“I won't be able to make the session today Papa because……….”
I have had some fantastic excuses over the years from clients who have chosen to reschedule their pre-booked sessions or cancel attending one of my free online sessions that I used to do. So much so that I wanted to share the best ones as it leads to a very important topic of discussion around the mental approach to exercise.
“The time on my laptop was set to French time”
“Thank you for reminding me but I forgot” (the worst excuse but shows a total lack of mental desire to exercise)
“I am at a BBQ and it is my dad’s fault as he has just poured me another drink.”
If you are searching for an excuse not to exercise then your whole approach to exercise is wrong and you will always have this internal battle. Exercise starts with a positive thought process and determination to get up and go.
First of all get your head around and accept that exercise is hard work, result don’t come in the post they take months, it hurts and will always hurt…………..“no pain no gain”
Sometimes the pain is in the mental strength that is required to push you out the door or jump around your living room when all you want to do is relax, not the physical side.
Taking part in regular exercise means that you have to remind yourself every day why you have chosen to start your exercise journey. You need to be proactive in your planning and set a time in your day when you are in the best mindset. Exercise should be as easy as choosing to have a coffee. Get your gym kit out and ready, protect your time in your diary, tell people what you are going to do. Choose an exercise activity that you like, don’t follow the crowd. Change the type of exercise routine you do regularly from month to month. Some days only plan when you are going to exercise and decide what to do when you have put your trainers on. Prepare your body for exercise, eat the right energy food and keep hydrated, if in doubt have a big glass of water.
Most of all remember how good the feeling is once you have exercised, remember how relaxed you feel, how for the duration you did not think of anything else but putting one leg in front of the other, the weights you are lifting; how good you looked when you caught yourself in the mirror.
To all of you who have already laced up your trainer and are exercising, congratulations but you too are prone to making excuses and regressing. Just by deciding to get active and exercise does not mean you will achieve your goals, do not rush out and buy the latest fitness gadget, only do this when you are past the 3-4 month stage of your journey. The next 6 months will be the toughest. keep the focus on making exercise part of your daily routines.
The first sign of your regression is when you start to look at buying exercise gadgets, equipment and potions. The biggest excuse is I will do it at home or this will work quicker. The exercise gadgets will come out the box for a few weeks and then you will use them to dry your clothes on or say they do not work and it is not well made. Exercise is exercise, it is not rocket science and it is simple, you have to make the body move. If you are smiling as you read this my advice is change it up, do a different exercise, sport, gym routine, join a club. Better still, go get a personal trainer for a few sessions who will push you over the blip and get you back in the zone. Once you lose it you lose it and you will find yourself sitting watching TikTok and Insta exercising your fingers and eyes dipping a chocolate digestive into a cuppa.
Now the bad news………only you can do the exercise, only you can make the change, only you can decide to put your trainers on and get a wiggle on.
Remember, exercise is not just for Christmas, it is for life.

​Personal trainer, Papa Luckman, is the first trainer in the UK to provide sports specific training for Speedway racers.
The adrenaline pumping sport means the riders have to be in top physical and mental shape in order to navigate the course and control their bikes.
Papa Luckman, 46, has developed what he believes is the first free fitness programme with specific sessions aimed to get the heart rate at the same rate as it would be when riding, His training helps the body cope with the physical demands through developing lean muscle mass to increase physical strength needed. Sports Specific Training also develops mental strength to cope with the stress of riding at 70mph with no brakes. It also helps the body cope better with crashes and injury recovery.
He said, “ I analysed the demands placed on a Speedway rider and design Sports Specific training session to simulate a typical race meeting. If you want to be a sprinter you train to run fast, if you want to improve your performance on a Speedway bike you train for 4-5 one minute races in the right Heart Rate Zones. A speedway race starts with a 2-minute time allowance siren for riders to be up at the starting line. A rides heart rate will increase. To simulate this, I get riders to perform various exercise to raise the heart rate. The race then starts and rider perform high intensity exercises to get their heart rates to their max. At the end of a race, riders return to the pits, so to calm everything down low intensity exercises are completed to recover. 
Unlike other motorcycle sports, Speedway bikes have NO BRAKES with 4 riders racing around an oval dirt track at speeds of up to 70mph in one minute. Speedway bikes are powered by a 500cc engines that runs off methanol. The art of Speedway is to powerslide around the bends going anti clockwise around the track, only turning left. Bikes accelerate of the start line faster than a Formula 1 car…….it is a dangerous adrenaline filled sport in which he says, "the only skill you need is to be able to twist the throttle and a big set of……"
He first became involved with the sport when he was 11 years old, my dad took him to a World Semi Final at Odsal Stadium, home of Bradford Dukes. He said, "I asked my dad if it was dangerous and he said that it can be. On the first race and all four riders crashed into the first end. In those days there was no safety air fences……I have loved the sport ever since. It is a fantastic vehicle to develop interpersonal skills no matter what the sport it. Speedway is a tough and dangerous sport so riding a bike with no brakes gives you that extra edge.".
When he was 15 years he contacted Newcastle Diamonds to ask for a trail, he didn’t have a bike so he didn’t get a trail. But he attended a few Speedway schools in his '20’s and bought his first bike to take part in amateur meetings.
He said, "I got my first opportunity to ride for the Isle of Wight Wizards in the Southern Development League.  I am also part of Connor Kings and Cooper Rushden’s Team spanning for them at race meetings. My 11-year-old boy, Charlie attended Barry Bishops My First Skid sessions starting on an electric bike when he was 4. He is now riding a 150cc and racing in the Dirt Track Events Series with ambitions to race with the British Youth riders next year. He has had massive confidence issues with his starts but since he attended a British Youth Training Academy in February 2022, he has come on leaps and bounds and was awarded most improved rider of the day"
At the start of the pandemic I started doing free online fitness train for work colleagues and friends on Zoom which is now formally known as Papa Luckman Fitness. I saw a social media post for a young rider called Cooper Rushen preparing for the season. I offered to do 1 on1 training with him to develop his fitness and develop his strength for his riding.
After running through a few sessions with Cooper he invited 15 of his fellow British Youth Riders to the sessions every Saturday morning and we continued with the sessions for 8 weeks. In 2022 I set up a 3 month Pre Season Speedway Sports Specific Training Programme to really put the riders through their paces. In February 2022 I was invited to a British Youth Training Academy where I took 25 British Youth Riders through a session to get them warmed up for a day of practise"
His ambition is to train some of the top riders in the UK Leagues and then his sessions to Poland where Speedway is their national sport. In addition, he has launched his first global fitness bootcamps, with the first one taking place in September in Cyprus.
 
He said, “Sometimes it’s good to get out of your comfort zone and go somewhere entirely different so you can focus on the task in hand. My bootcamps enable you to do just that, giving yourself breathing space from your usual routine to concentrate on yourself. I will improve your mind set, body and soul over the four days, showing you how to break bad habits and create a new, healthier lifestyle so you can start living the life you love." 

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What is the Papa Luckman Ethos
There is a lot of good personal trainers out there posting great contend and exercise videos, so much so you can get lost in what you should do and what you are capable of achieving.
Papa’s ethos is to keep it simple if you are starting out or refreshing your focus on getting more active. If you are already someone who regularly exercise then it is all about keeping your routine fresh and changing it up regularly.
Don’t get me wrong, being active is hard work, it hurts and it is easy to get into your comfort zone. Being active, exercising regularly and correctly is like a jigsaw puzzle. The 4 straight edges are is your mind set (desire, motivated, passionate, focused). The equal shaped pieces are like you body (good food, water, sleep, rest). The more intricate pieces that all look the same is your soul (challenge yourself to be the best and overcome your limitations)……if you don’t have all the pieces then your will not make the active picture you have in your mind.
It is important set your activity goals that are achievable, accessible and fit into your daily routine. Exercise is very personable; you have to choose the activates that are good for you. Work life balance is so important but in reality our motivation is driven by how we feel each day, stress at work/home, lack of sleep, what we eat, the weather and being tempted by the quick fix. It is how we manage and negotiate these distractions that is the key.
Reality check here, I would suggest it takes 2-3 months before you see true results and you have to make being active a lifestyle change that becomes part of your daily routine, just like having a cup of tea.
If you have already nailed exercise and it is part of your daily routine then you need to focus your training on what you are really trying to achieve. You cannot train for multi disciplines if you want to improve your performance. For example, you want to improve your running pace but also want to improve your performance in football, rugby, netball etc
▪ Exercise at your own Pace (in any space) and within your own ability– it is about you, how you feel and not what anyone else is doing
▪ Mental Strength – There is no such word as ‘can’t’ . When you hit the wall you will get over it.
▪ Work hard, Eat hard – Whatever you eat needs to be burnt off through physical movement. It is all about moderation. It is not rocket science, if you know it is wrong don’t do it. If you do be prepared to work that body. Your diet should be balanced with all the good stuff to fuel your body for exercise. Hydration is key, drink plenty of water through the day
▪ Getting Results – It is all about how you feel and look, you will know it when you see it. Listen to your heart, your heart will tell you if you are training right, it will never lie

▪ You must want it – say no more……………