A week of learning, now back to helping people

I have just spent the last five days participating on Charles Poliquin's Biosignature course. It was held at the Ramada Hotel in Ealing.

Biosignature is a method of assessment and treatment of the hormones in the body. With the lifestyles we lead today our hormones often get out of balance due to stress, environmental toxins, lack of sleep and poor diet. The Biosignature Method aims to restore the body to a working harmony, leaving you feeling a lot healthier, leaner and stronger.

The course was packed full of insightful information and Charles presented it in a fun and interesting way. He is a real walking encyclopaedia of information on health and exercise and walks the talk with a huge pair of arms!

It has been an intensive five days of learning and it will take a few days for it all to sink in. In the near future I will start to apply the knowledge I have learnt to my clients to further increase both their results and health.

Thank you Charles, John Connor of the Irish Strength Institute and André Benoit.




Stay tuned for updates on some of the subjects we covered.

Quote of the day 06/02/2011

“No great achievement is possible without persistent work.”

-Bertrand Russell

Abdominals are made in the kitchen

There are 2 huge mistakes people make when attending the gym in an attempt to get rid of their gut or burn off the love handles.


Mistake 1- Training abs, training abs and then training abs some more

Performing multiple exercises for abdominals is a waste of time unless it is for a sports specific reason involving certain movement patterns. You CANNOT spot reduce fat from your stomach by performing lots of exercises. Training abdominals more frequently is also another mistake. Abdominals are like any other muscle group and best respond to progressive overload with adequate rest in between repeat bouts of training.

People as me how I get my stomach muscles looking so good? Here they are for examples sake-



Well It certainly isn’t though performing lots of stomach exercises, I typically spend 5 minutes perform 2-3 sets of stomach work per week!

Mistake 2- Performing lots of cardio

Attempting to sculpt their stomach muscles by performing lots of cardio to loose weight is another bad strategy. Cardiovascular training although helping you to burn calories is not generally a good long term strategy to create a calorie deficit as it takes a hell of a lot of effort relative to the ease of eating calories. A more sound strategy is to not ingest those excess calories in the first place. Extreme amounts of cardio is also counterproductive to any weight training you are performing to improve muscle tone and strength.

Examples

A Mars bar contains 234 calories, consisting of 4.05 grams of protein, 31.35 grams of carbohydrate and 11.5 grams of fat.

This would take a 60 kg (9st4) women 30 minutes walking at 5mph to burn off. An 80kg (12st5) man would have to walk at 3mph (moderate pace) for 53 minutes. That’s quite a lot of effort to work off a chocolate bar that typically is eaten in less than a minute!

A typical piece of cheese cake contains 520 calories, consisting of 9 grams of protein, 54 grams of carbohydrate and 31 grams of fat.

This would take a 60 kg (9st4) women 52 minutes running at 6mph(10 min/mile) to burn off. An 80kg (12st5) man would have to run at 6mph(10 min/mile) for 39 minutes.
running, 5mph (12 min/mile). Maybe sharing your piece of cheese cake with someone would be an ok strategy if you must have it?

My cardio

I do not perform lots of cardio. I go for a 30-45 minute walk outside on my rest days from weight training, listening to an audio book while doing this a great way to learn, get some fresh air and some sunlight. I also avoid using the bus or tube when I have the time or option of walking. I live on the 5th floor of my apartment block so I also always opt to use the stairs. The human body is designed to move, so use it more!

How I get in shape

What is different in my strategy is that I use adjustments in my nutrition to affect changes to my body fat levels. Loosing body fat is not only easy, its very simple to do when you have a bit of DIETRY DICIPLINE. Creating a subtle calorie deficit over a period of time to maximise retention of muscle while loosing body fat at a steady rate is the best strategy from my many years experience as a personal trainer. This strategy has worked for hundreds of my clients and it can work for you to.

So to sum it up if you want your abdominals to show more, follow these 3 steps-

-Adopt an effective programme of eating to create a subtle deficit

- Track your intake of food consistently. Most people either underestimate how much they eat or end up under eating; starving themselves. They loose weight too fast, eating away at muscle and then rebound with a slower metabolism. How many times have you yo-yoed??

-Stick to it for at least 12 weeks

Your results will always be directly proportionate to your effort!