Our Brittany holiday cottage with private heated swimming pool and gym near Baud

Over the last week at our Brittany holiday cottage with private heated swimming pool and gym near Baud I have been busy working in the garden.

'Killing two birds with one stone' I dismantled the terrace of La Forge to fuel the fire to burn out the large tree stump within the garden. For a full explanation of the work carried out click this LINK

The tree stump is now gone and my next job will be to build a new terrace for the Brittany holiday cottage La Forge.

The other cottage La Veille Maison has a large fixed terrace over looking the garden and pool also.

The terrace of La Veille Maison Brittany holiday cottage

Our Brittany holiday cottage with private heated swimming pool and gym / fitness center near Baud

A couple of weeks ago at our Brittany holiday cottage with private heated swimming pool and gym / fitness center near Baud I hit the tender age of 50.

In the body building fraternity it is custom to perform squats on your birthday - with that in mind I attempted to turn the clock back and perform a weight on front squats that I last did around 30 years of age, a 140 kg front squat.

The week before I got 4 reps on 130 kg but on this attempt I actually crashed out on 120 kg due not to my legs but my shoulder injury - the hardest part of the exercise for me is actually holding on to the bar, either the bar is to high on my neck restricting my breathing or its lower down and has the tendency to roll off.

You can see from the  clip how low I perform the squats using a pause at the bottom on 100 kg.

The gym at our holiday cottages La Forge and La veille maison is available for all our guest to use.

Our Brittany holiday cottage with private swimming pool and gym near Baud

Just a 45 minute drive from Laforge is Lamour-Baden where you can board a boat to take you to the Island of Gavrinis where your find Brittany's very own pyramid that was built around 3500 BC and is notable for its megalithic art within the burial tomb. Near to the pyramid is another island with standing stones that have been erected that also descend in to the sea. We really enjoyed the trip and will be recommending it to our guest Staying at La Forge and La veille Maison. As a bonus for me while waiting to depart the small harbor was swamped with fishermen catching Garfish - I will return soon for a bit of sport!

Early booking deals at our Brittany holiday cottage with heated private swimming pool and gym near Baud

Early booking deals at our Brittany holiday cottage with heated private swimming pool and gym near Baud:


In conjunction with Brittany ferries we are offering some great early booking discounts:

20% discount on any weeks booked before 7th October starting 8th October through to 19th May 2017.

5% discount for any holiday from 20th May through to 30th September 2017

Offer does not include Christmas and New year which are already being offered on a special price of just £349 per week or both weeks for £650.

Book your holiday during this period and increase your Brittany ferry discount from 20% to 25% when booking La Forge.

Our Brittany holiday cottage La Forge near Baud

Weight training at the gym located at our Brittany holiday cottage near Baud

Back weight training at the gym located at our Brittany holiday cottage near Baud today for a leg session.

I've just started a new workout mixing every thing up after recently waking up to the fact I am no longer in my twenties and as such my training should change in accordance to my needs.

Once you hit 30 your testosterone levels start to decrease and I've also discovered that long sessions of cardio are also detrimental to testosterone production - long cardio sessions release cortisol which in fact eats muscle tissue.

I need to increase my testosterone levels in order to build muscle at 50 therefore I'm now going to train 6 days per week doing a 4 day split, training 4 days on with 1 day rest then repeat the cycle only training 30 - 40 minutes to maximize the testosterone production by lifting as heavy as possible keeping good form in each session.

I then create a situation where I'm gaining more muscle, which means i'm burning more calories during rest and therefore should get leaner.

When I'm 20 weeks out from a show I'll start adding walking sessions - walking is the only exercise that does not promote cortisol production.

My workouts now consist of:

Day 1: Chest
Day 2: Biceps and Triceps
Day 3: Legs
Day 4: Back

The gym at our Brittany holiday cottage allows for any one to have a good workout.

Bastille celebrations at our Brittany holiday cottage near Baud

Last week we celebrated Bastille day at Josselin just 25 miles from our Brittany holiday cottage near Baud.  Josselin is always a recommended tourist attraction for guest staying at our Brittany holiday cottage and the festival is simply the icing on the cake.

We had our hair cuts done to compliment the costumes and as a family I think we hit the mark with our son stealing the show.

Like father like son at the Josselin medieval festival

We love the atmosphere of the medieval festival at Josselin

We had a large family party who over the last two weeks rented out both holiday cottages La Forge and La Veille Maison who all said enjoyed the festivities of the Josselin medieval festival.

Enjoyed a lovely day out as a family

 After wearing 13 kg of chain mail for 6 hours - it was time for the warriors to return to the car.


Josselin holds its medieval festival every other year on the 14th July and is always a highly recommended day out for our guest staying in La Forge and La Veille Maison.

Weight training and keeping fit at the gym /fitness center at our Brittany holiday cottage near Baud

The weight training  at the gym /fitness center at our Brittany holiday cottage near Baud is going really well - especially using the new seated row machine.

It's hitting my back in the same areas as would dead lifts, the middle back and traps but without the risk to my lower back.

Muscles worked during the seated row.

We bought some new 20 kg plates just for the seated row in order to increase the amount of weight loaded, just using the initial pair of 20 kg plates followed by 10 kg disks I was limited to 100 kg now with 4 20 kg plates I'm up to 130 kg now on the machine and loving the feeling I get when training.

Its also increasing my grip strength and like dead lifting my forearms are getting bigger also due to holding the weight.

My back work out now consists of:

6 sets of ultra wide grip pull downs to back of head
4 sets of narrower pull downs to front of head
6 sets of seated rows

We can now load a bar up to over 200 kg so I'm sure we can cater for any level of person staying for a holiday in either La Forge or La Veille Maison.