Quote of the day 11/03/2011

"In truth, people can generally make time for what they choose to do; it is not really the time but the will that is lacking."

Sir John Lubbock


I post this in light of a conversation I had with a member at the gym today. He complained that he didn't have time to train every day, he then complimented me on my physical condition.

I then told him its not neccesary to train every day, that in fact I train myself 3-4 days per week for only 45-60 minutes at a time. I suggested he spend more time focusing on his nutrition than trying to attend the gym every day.

The point is if you prioritise your health you can make the time to put effort into training and controlling what you put into your mouth. Living in a free country such as the United Kingdoms gives you the freedom to choose, cherish it!

Five ways to waste time at the gym

1, Focusing on small isolation exercises only

Using exercises that only activate a small number of muscle fibres is going to get you nowhere when trying to loose fat and improve muscle tone. For women this normally involves using 2kg dumbbells for redundant shoulder exercises and for guys its often spending 45 minutes to an hour training only arms with isolation exercises.

Solution- Instead focus on big compound exercises that recruit the most muscle groups. This will give you the best bang for buck return for your efforts in the gym. Yes they feel hard, but that’s why they work!

2, Performing too much cardio, especially at steady state

Excessive cardio not only raises stress hormone levels further but it will actually make you fatter in the long run as your body breaks down muscle for fuel. Don’t be a cardio queen or make the mistake of doing cardio to ‘loose weight’.

Solution- Drop the cardio, especially performing it before you lift weights. Lifting more weights will not automatically turn you into Arnold Schwarzenegger or Zena warrior princess. The majority of guys who go to the gym struggle to build muscle despite their efforts. It takes years of specific and targeted training and nutrition to build appreciable amounts of muscle. Weight training will however increase your metabolic rate and make you stronger.

If you still insist on doing cardio then leave it to the end and limit it to 10-15 minutes of gruelling interval training. Intervals are best performed in a park as getting some fresh air and natural light is good for you.

3, Doing stupid stuff because its different and looks cool

Jumping on a bosu ball to perform 1 legged squats or doing bicep curls on a vibrating plate is not going to get you any closer to weight loss success. This is no more than entertainment training. Sure it might feel difficult due to the balance involved but so would a tightrope walk across the Grand Canyon. Would tightrope walking help you loose weight more effectively though, certainly not!

Solution- Ignore the stupid stuff and stick to the basics, and especially don’t let amateur personal trainers misdirect your efforts in the gym trying to show you cool stuff. You want maximal return for your time invested in the gym.

4, Getting stuck in Ground Hog Day and doing the same thing all the time

Humans are creatures of habit and routine and like to do things a certain way. Unfortunately so is the human body and it will adapt to any physical challenge you give it within 6-12 weeks. Performing the same routine for too long is a game of diminishing returns, especially if you are not pushing yourself to make performance improvements, i.e. get stronger or do more work in less time.

Solution- Change your bloody routine and stop being so OCD about doing the same thing all the time! Give yourself some fresh exercises to do that are compound in nature and you’ll be surprised how quickly it has an effect on your body.

5, Trying to make up for an inadequate diet with more activity in the gym

If you eat like crap unless you are exceptionally gifted with a fast metabolism to burn it off then you will look like crap too.

Unfortunately even those gifted with a fast metabolism cannot stop the internal damage done by trans fats and nutritional deficiencies created by the lack of nutrients in processed/fast foods. Eventually it will catch up on them in the form of inflammatory conditions and illnesses such as, IBS, diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure, mental conditions and abnormal cholesterol levels. The clock is ticking.

If you want your body to be healthy and function well then you need to provide it with the right nutrients for it to function properly. Only YOU put the food in your mouth, making excuses because of cultural and social pressure is no excuse.

Rather than bitch about how you find it difficult to eat healthier when around your family why not take command and start steering those you love to you to a healthier diet. How many years of good health do you want to spend with them?

With over 60% of the UK population overweight these you need to be doing something different from the majority. Don’t let yourself remain part of the overweight and sick herd of sheep.

The government guidelines on how to eat quite simply suck and are not working. People are getting fatter and sicker than ever and health policies are heavily influenced by big food manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies profiteering and filling their pockets at the expense of your health. Open your eyes!

Solution- Seek expert from a Bio Signature Practitioner or functional medicine doctor on correct nutrition. It you have been eating badly for a number of years then you are already going to have some nutritional deficiencies and imbalances that need to be corrected if you are to improve your health and loose body fat. A healthy body will drop excess body fat once it has been brought back into nutrient and hormone balance.

Back to Basics- Chin ups and Dips

I often find myself in discussion with guys about the most effective methods of training. Their usual desire is to get bigger on the upper body, specifically in the arms.

I start by asking them how many FULL RANGE dips and chin ups they can do and with how much additional weight. I emphasise full range which means starting from a dead hang on every rep of chin up and going as deep as your shoulder flexibility will allow on the dip. The partial range versions when you don’t come all the way down or up on either exercise don’t count I’m afraid!

At this point I often get funny looks at the concept of adding weight to these exercises. Then the typical excuses start to roll in-

A “Those exercises are so hard”

B “I’ll never be able to get as strong as you”

C “I’ll never be good at those, I’m too heavy”

D “My grip is too weak, I can’t hold onto the bar”

E “It hurts my shoulders”

Well sorry; none of the above are valid excuses.

A Yes the chin-up and dip ARE hard exercises because they activate so many muscle groups. But at the same time that activation of so many muscle groups at one time causes a massive stimulus to the body. More muscle means a faster metabolism so big exercises are crucial for your chubby guys too.

Please don’t tell me you are worried about getting too big if you do these exercises, unless your cousin is Arnold Schwarzenegger its just not that bloody easy to ‘get too big’.

Your results are proportionate to your effort. If you want to grow or if your goal is to reduce your waistline you have to be prepared to put in hard work and effort.

B News flash, when I started training I could do a grand total of 0 of either of these exercises. Yes I was skinny fat and weak. I have had to build up over a number of years what I can now do with additional weight. I am certainly nothing special as far as genetic marvels go!

If you put a limiting belief on yourself that you will never be able to do something then you are cheating yourself out of ever being good at it!

C How heavy you are when performing chin ups and dips is irrelevant. Your strength is all relative to your size. Yes true, a guy who weighs 80kg has to lift more bodyweight than a 60kg, but at the same token the 80kg guy should have more muscle.

Now if you are 60kg or 80kg and your body fat is too high (15% or above) then I’m afraid its time to loose the belly first! Any self-respecting male should be able to maintain around 10% body fat or below year round, especially personal trainers!

You will find as you loose the body fat and improve your fat to muscle ratio your chin up and dip performance will naturally improve.

D Your grip is too weak. Well its time to ditch wasting effort on 6 kilo wrist curls and start doing more chin ups. Ditch the straps and invest in chalk if your palms get sweaty.

Your forearms will get a hell of a workout just supporting your bodyweight. The grip will naturally improve over time as you get stronger on the exercise and will give you a much greater return compared to a wrist curl.

E If either the chin up or dip hurts your shoulders then its doubtful it’s the exercises themselves are the problem.

Its more likely that you have a shoulder dysfunction that could be caused by being too tight in the pectorals, too weak in the external rotators and lower trapezius or too inflexible in the thoracic spine. I recommend that you go and see a physiotherapist for a consultation if you have any shoulder issues. The shoulder is a complicated and easily injured joint so it’s a worthwhile investment to keep it healthy.

Chin ups and dips are for ladies too!



Women should not be afraid of performing chin ups and dips either. Women do not possess nearly as much muscle growth potential as men due to different muscle fibre composition and much lower levels of testosterone and other growth stimulating hormones. Becoming stronger at chin up's and dips will only produce a stronger, leaner, sexier feminine physique.

A benchmark to work towards

So to wrap it up if you cannot perform at least 10 full range chin ups or dips with your bodyweight then its time to drop the extra bicep curls and tricep pushdowns until you get a lot stronger on these basic exercises. This is a beginner’s level of strength for a man.

A man who has trained in the gym for more than a couple of years, should be able to perform these exercises for 10 rep's with at least 15% of his bodyweight added.

Ladies should aim to perform at least 3 full range chin ups and dips with their bodyweight.

Start mastering your bodyweight today!

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!

Quote of the day 26/01/2011

"Motivation is a fire from within. If someone else tries to light that fire under you, chances are it will burn very briefly."

- Stephen R. Covey