Batman vs Superman: The Ultimate Grudge Match

I need a hero!

“That was awesome!’

That was what I heard a guy say as I was leaving the men's toilets directly after watching the movie. It was about 3am, no other movies were on/finishing. It’s quite possible that this guy blacked out for over two hours and dreamt the film was good, unfortunately this was his genuine opinion.

You’re probably asking how and why this review isn’t singing Zack Snyder’s praises, especially coming from me, a fan of all the superheroes in this movie; and some of Mr Snyder’s previous work. It’s because for the most part this was a mishmash of disjointed ideas on how a superhero movie should be, intermingled with that dark DC undertone and the added pressure of a convoluted plot line that failed to deliver on many levels.

Ben Affleck does deserve his dues here, managing to portray an older, burnt out version of Batman who is simply at his last tether with the worlds adopted saviour who; upon his forced exposure to the world manages to destroy both his hometown of Smallville and his new town Metropolis (Man of Steel) in one fell swoop (pun totally intended). But we don’t really see enough of the Bat and what we do actually get is brief and over an hour into all the action.

Superman on the other hand being the focus of Bruce Wayne’s anger is prominent throughout the film without actually adding much to proceedings owing to yet another bland performance from Henry Cavill. There’s a lot that could have been improved on here but unpicking the mess that has been made onscreen would be, soul-sapping.

Maybe I’m being too harsh, I mean, the special effects were fantastic! But wait, it’s 2016, this is a big budget movie in a growing franchise, the effects are supposed to be out of this world by default!
I sat there looking at my watch every so often to see how much sleep I could get in before I have to wake up. I felt the movie was robbing me of precious rest.

Essentially, this was always going to be the movie to introduce us to the Justice League, but even that was done with very little tact and in a way that suggested maybe a writer from Marvel would have done a better job.
Jesse Eisenberg’s portrayal of Lex Luther came off more ‘mad’ than mad genius’ and I couldn’t help thinking he was simply a more damaged and psychotic version of nearly every character he has ever played in another film he’s been in. 
Wonder Woman was brilliant when she showed up, taking on Doomsday and coming off looking like she may have taken him down without any help.

I could name several sub-par Marvel movies that I could watch in place of this. The only thing I took away from this experience is the desire to see ‘Captain America: Civil War’ that much more!

An Attack of Common Sense

Life may just be a massive game of, Tetris...

I began writing a blog based around seeing various people ranting online and parked it in a folder because I didn’t feel as though it was beneficial to anyone who may happen to read it. After a long personal debate, I’m planning on publishing it (after some revision) online at some point, but it inspired me to write this instead - this being what I think is a more useful blog entry and something I’m not hesitant about sending out onto the interwebs…

There’s a routine that I have been accidentally developing. I say ‘accidentally’ because I’ve only in the last few weeks stepped back and realised that it was actually a consistent range of actions that appear to be streamlining my life and business at the moment.

Getting right to it, there’s often nothing more useful than some serious bullet points:

1. Plan your day:
…Not actually as you wake up, but from the morning/afternoon or night before. Things I plan in advance are my movements (via my gym and personal diary), my food, my training and my admin, what I post to my Instagram account. Anything on top is extra until I become efficient enough to add it in as a regular task. Before I became a PT I sometimes planned ahead, but there was never any consistency.

2. Find the gaps and fill them:
…By this I mean - once you have planned your day, look and see where there are any areas of ‘dead-time’, meaning; time where you can literally stare into space and do absolutely nothing … and fill these gaps by doing things that are of interest to you. This will make you a much happier human-being (this is a fact). I have about four different ‘non-fitness’ related things that I can get on with, one may very well be to push my business forwards, but I try not to make it all about the work.

3. Eliminate annoyances:
…This can be anything for anyone. For me, it’s not looking at my Facebook/Instagram/Twitter feeds for longer than 10mins collectively for the entire day. Yes, you’ll miss a lot of what your friends are getting up to, but news feeds are full of things that enable you to judge people subconsciously and consciously by the nature of the ‘posts’ being shared. I don’t need to know everything at all times, so if it’s not ‘breaking news’ from various media outlets, then it’s probably okay if it passes me by.

4. Do number 1 again (yup, plan your day)
…I’m talking about having planned the day already and then something unexpected happening so you need to reshuffle the deck and set tasks earlier or later depending on the situation/s presented to you.
Usually it’s a client cancelling a session because they are ill or the trains are severely messed up, and this means my day can get shifted around at a moments notice. This is all made easier because I use a diary and I had the day planned out anyway, so in my head it’s like a game of Tetris and all I need to do is slot the right bricks into the right places, even after I’ve turned them around eight times.

5. Make sure you’re not hungry:
…Sounds like a pretty basic thing to master but, if you’re a busy little squirrel most days, then this is where planning your day (yep, number 1 again!) is vital. Provided you’ve planned all your food and snacks for the day (possibly having done some prep the night before) you will be eating/snacking every three or so hours from thirty minutes after you wake up in the morning, or not; depending on your routine (we are all different and there’s no hard and fast way to do nutrition) but get the basics right and you will reap the rewards.

Sure, there are a plethora of other tasty tips but, if you’ve read this and noticed a pattern, great! Planning, being organised is a sure-fire way to stamp out inconsistencies (a word I will use along with it’s opposite on this website so get used to it).

Words have returned...

Sorry, vid doesn't play but you can view on IG @stephthecoach

I have been quiet for a very long time, but not for terrible reasons or excessive procrastination (when you re-read that slower it will not say masturbation - head/gutter get out!)

Figured I'd quit one career and start another, so I did. My previous post back in August 2014 was just as things were picking up for me and I was beginning to see some great returns from all my hard work, and I'm not referring to money - instead what has changed is my ability to coach and light that all important 'fire' within clients so they can progress and become LEGENDS!

Previous posts on this site prior to summer 2014 were a mishmash of things I was thinking about at the time, so if there is anything that proves to be helpful, then that's awesome.

This post in particular is only supposed to be short and to the point, but I can't help but digress ever so slightly sometimes... The real reason for the post is to shamelessly welcome myself back to 'writing'. And no, I'm not talking about books/novels/poems although I'm known for short stories etc... NOPE! I just have this annoying knack of thinking too much and writing my thoughts down, it keeps me sane; so it's no small wonder that I write-up my workouts in the gym, jot down sessions I give to clients and do a boat-load of admin on a regular basis! It's all my brains way of crying for help and it's saying: 

"LET ME WRITE, YOU KNOB!"

So here I am, still training to look good naked as per the strap-line on my blog and pretty much thinking about, everything and fitness...