What's the new routine?

So what plan did I devise while I was away?

I still wanted to focus on my lifting, but I had found that the second time around, RPM was a great enjoyable challenge. I have always lagged behind a little on my leg development. It's hard to intentionally want to make your legs hurt for a few days at a time, and that is what really working the legs in a session will do. So along with the usual lifting routine (that has been tweaked) an abusive leg regime will be under taken along with 1 to 2 RPM sessions in the week.

The hardest part is going to be doing the RPM a couple of days after the leg session, so timing of the legs day is going to be paramount. 

The tweaking that I have done to my regular lifting routine, and the legs day routine itself, is inspired by one if my fitness idols Arnold!

It won't be ground breaking, having me jump onto blocks or making me do 100 different things in a session, it will be solid lifting with solid reps and sets. 

I want to be as powerful as I can by the time October rolls around, and ensuring that my food is kept clean and healthy, I will have my Beast Beach body.

I also have another fitness coach roll to take on a bit later in the year, a female this time. I will be doing a lot of research and forethought so that when she returns from her trip abroad, the punishment... I mean the torture can begin!!!

Till then, everybody that can, "Train like a beast!"

Time away

Sometimes it seems human nature to give in to temptation and just leave the fitness world behind for just a short time. 

To break from the routine of waking up early or fitting in that after work fitness activity.

I know that after devoting a good portion of my time to my last fitness achievement, fitness was going to be the last thing on my mind while I holidayed on the other side of the country with my family. 

I enjoyed food, family, fun, being full (most of the time), sleeping in, more eating and most relaxing of all no gym. 

Thankfully, I'm an addict. Yep.

My name is Kyle, and I'm an addict!

Hello Kyle. 

A gym junkie, a fitness freak! 1 week of no gym was starting to drive me crazy. By the end of the week I found falling to sleep hard, I had all if this energy but had not used it. 

While I was lying in bed, not falling a sleep, all I could think of was the prep for Beast Beach. When I wasn't thinking about that I was thinking about Tuesday morning and kicking into my new routine. 

So what if you are not yet an addict, or you are heading off for more than a week. (A week off won't hurt your results to much and will give you a good break and body rest) ???

Here are some things to consider that will help you get back on track after a short break. 

# It's a Holiday, not a fat-a-way, if you have the choice at a restaurant or at a relatives house (or wherever you are eating) try and stay healthy with your food choices. Avoid fast food outlets and consider assisting family members in preparing a healthy option for the meal. 

# Drink (alcohol)to be enjoyable but try not to drink excess. Sounds like I'm preaching here but besides the regular hangovers and health side effects, drinking is liquid calories. Easy to consume and a quick way to shrink your clothes. 

# Do not punish yourself for over eating or eating the wrong kinds of things. Putting yourself in a depressed mood can become the anchor when you return to the norm. Instead think about how great it's going to feel getting back into your fitness!

# Take a little time to plan. Sometimes having a holiday break can give you some clarity of where you want to be taking your fitness and body. So use a bit of your down time to write down some goals or plan out your new routine (I know I did )

# If you have the time or are away for more then a week, try and get some fitness into your trip. Pack at least one pair of fitness clothes an consider packing your joggers (if your normal shoe attire would not suit in a gym) and go for a jog, access a gym (some do free trials for a a short period, that you can abuse) or sped some time in your place of stay doing push ups, sit-ups or whatever you can for a bit of a 15 min to half hour session.

Make sure however... That you have FUN and RELAX a little!

That is what you went on the holiday for, after all. 

I love a week off.

There is nothing quite like having a week off to make you hungrier for change. 

So far I haven't eaten too badly, but compared to my usual food intake I have been eating more. I have not exercised at all, beside walking here and there.  If I was to be away for more than a week, I would definitely be seeking out some sort of gym to appease the fitness gods. 

But the week of leisure  and indulgence is almost over and I cannot wait to start off on another course of the good stuff. 

The week of recovery can assist as a break from a rigorous routine that can sometimes feel a little monotonous.

So bring on the start of a new week as the body has been bad... And needs to be punished... Mwahahahahha!!

Phase 3 - the reveal!

Shredding or cutting isn’t everybody’s goal, but it is nice to try and rip the fat away even more to expose all of that hard work that you have been toiling away at.

Phase 3 – 2 months

This phase was the hardest. It involved getting into some intense cardio fitness classes at the gym, this included the sweaty 45 minute RPM class, the “feel like dying” GRIT strength and a Super gym session that worked on every part of the upper body and abs.

The Super gym session included,

Chest fly’s, incline bicep curls, lateral pull downs, dips and pushups. All of these activities super-setted the exercise with leg raises until the dips and pushups. The dips and pushups were a superset of their own.

For the dips and pushups the goal was this.

Do as many dips as you can, then do the same number of pushups.

Whatever number of pushups or dips you make, you then aimed for one lower for the next round of dips and pushups.

Eventually you would make it to 1 and 1, or you can “break the machine” and push out a higher number of dips and pushups a couple of times consecutively which would also end the test!

Ultimately once you are at phase 3 in the fitness plan, you are ready to try most exercises and start to really tailor a routine that challenges you, keeps fitness fresh and allows you to keep achieving your goals.

Trying new fitness classes will unlock balance skills, cardio variance and a multitude of different exercise to try.

You should now be addicted to this simple thing called fitness…

What are you waiting for? Whichever phase you need to start at…just start!

Phase 2 - Building the body you want

The next phase was one of more refined gym styled work outs with rigorous reps and sets. Our set up was targeted, so you can make your regime targeted to what you are aiming for too.

Phase 2 – 2 months

The next step, as my pupil had decided to join a gym, was to start targeting the three areas that the build was leading up to. Shoulders, ass and abs!

Still jogging twice a week, but now the beach and park were replaced by a Glutes day, shoulder day and abs day!

Glutes Day, weighted walking lunges, squats (proper ones in a squat rack), glute bridge and prisoner squats.

Shoulder day – Arnold presses, seated overhead press, deltoid fly’s, overhead dumbbell laterals, cable pulls.

Abs day – Plank holds, Russian twists, fit ball crunches, captain’s chairs leg raises and side bends.

All of these exercises were completed in varying reps from 8 to 15 (depending on weight used) for 4 sets. Maximum of 1 minute rests and moving swiftly from one exercise to another.

 

Arnold Press

Glute Bridge Hold

Russian twist

Rear delt fly's

Cable pulls

Prisoner Squat

Walking lunges

Captains chair

You could do a lot of this stuff at home in your backyard with a bit of simple equipment. But having the gym at your disposal really helps so that you can easily increase the weights or jump from one piece of equipment to the other.

As for food at phase 2, the alcohol was cut down to very minimal and we were starting to tailor the food intake to adjust for more energy being used, so the serving sizes actually went up just a little in some meals.

Phase 1 - Increase fitness level

Let’s not kid ourselves, getting fit is more than just getting off the couch and going for a walk a couple of times a week.

Getting fit is a mission to change your life in a way that will stick with you beyond the fad diets and attempts to bring on a six pack for a music festival.

As promised, here is the plan that my pupil followed for six months to get from fat to fit, now he is addicted to it and the habits and lessons he has learned from it will stick with him for life!

Phase 1 – 2 months

2 times a week the challenge was set to complete a jog, the cardio vascular test of endurance that can easily be tailored to suit the bodies ever adapting fitness ability. Start with a goal, in this case it was to the beach and back, a full 5 to 6 kilometer distance. Then begin the jogging and try to better yourself each time in the amount of distance you can cover before needing a walk break. If you can include a hill in the route that would be fantastic as you can gain a great little test of will power by pushing yourself even harder for the climb.

2 times a week we would meet at a park for a mixed cardio and strength session. About an hour long the sessions included, sled pulling, timed sessions of military burpees, timed sessions of Mt climbers, Plank holds, Shoulder presses and pushups. The timed elements started as 1min of the exercise then 30 seconds of rest, repeated 3 or 4 times. Some very simple equipment was used, we used a weighted bar for the shoulder presses, but you could easily buy a small set of dumbbells for $60 or less from sports or department stores. The weight that you use is determined by your own fitness level and strength abilities. The sled can easily be made from scrap wood and could be weighted down with anything heavy including bags of sand. The rope length used for the pulling could be intertwined lengths of rope or in our case, a couple of old snatch straps sewn together. The rest is all created from your own body!

Once a week the beach was the playground. Sled drags and sled pulls in the sand created a different dynamic. A large set of stairs also aided in timed runs up and down. Some more bar work to hone in on some bicep work to finish and of course some beach jogging made for a great little starter to the day.

See all of the reference pictures for the exercises described

Sled Dragging

Plank Holds

Sled Pulling

Shoulder Press

Example workout Schedule

Above is the simple eating choices plan, as you can see, there is no time in the day where you are starved or left hungry!!

Food Tips : Drink water through the day. If you have a rumble from the belly, drink some water first and see if it subsides. Minimize the pre dinner snacks. Minimize the beers. Use Sunday as the rest day not only for activity but also for food, eat a little more on this day. Just keep it healthy! And feel free to have a glass of wine. If having a steak, slice the fat off before cooking. Cook with the fat in the pan but remove before serving.

The short journey ends...

The long journey begins. 

6 months have now almost passed and my pupils big day is upon us. 

From a regular guy to a fitness freak, I have helped coach him through not only getting fit, but also getting addicted to the best activity for life!

As for me??? Well my next big venture is Beast Beach. But before I go on ranting about that... It's still a few months away. So my next few posts will be a bit of a step by step for the program that I out my pupil on. Just incase you want to take yourself from one level of fitness to the other. It stars with unfit and panting, all the way to hungry for sweat and breathlessness! (In a good way!!)

Here are the before and after images for you all as well + the stats. 

You might have seen the image similar from a local gym... But let me tell you, you do not need a gym to get to this, it is however, handy if you take up a membership. But you wouldn't have to do it straight away. 

So now that the short term journey has just about ended, my pupil can continue the long journey of good fitness knowing that he can achieve any fitness goal!!!

And I'm sure he will be seeing ME in the near future...

Protein Power Puddings

Here are two quick Protein pudding recipes for a nice power boost morning tea or after dinner sweet treat.

 

Peanut Butter Pudding

 

Ingredients:

1 x weetbix brick (broken up, crush it with your powerful bicep strength!)

3 x teaspoons of natural peanut butter (make em decent scoops)

30gm of protein powder of choice (I’m currently using unflavoured WPI)

Squeeze of honey to taste

A little bit of milk to help it mix.

 

How to make it:

1.       Bung all of the ingredients into a bowl/container and mix till pudding consistency.

2.       EAT!

 

Oaty Yoghurt pudding

 

Ingredients:

¼ cup of quick oats

About half a cup of Greek unflavoured yoghurt

30gm of protein powder of choice

2 x teaspoons of nesquick or a stevia equivalent (banana flavour goes well)

A few choc chips (dark or cacao nibs for better health)

 

How to make it:

1.       Bung all of the ingredients into a bowl/container and mix till pudding consistency.

2.       Either eat straight away, or place back in the fridge, it will thicken up a little.

Forskolin

No I didn’t say what you thought I said…

 

It’s not the bit on the end of your old boy, it’s forskolin.

 

A herbal extract that is said to aid in fat loss by mobilising it within the body so that you can get rid of it.

 

Well ever the sceptic and always keen to try things for the sake of reporting my findings to you guys, I ordered myself some to trial.

 

Do the results speak for themselves?

 

Perhaps, bear in mind, I have increased my regime to include a little more cardio, and my food intake has become quite strict in that it is no longer a bulk up but is more of a tone down (similar to my Christmas 2012 challenge)

 

So here are some figures for your number crunching pleasure

 

Pre Christmas 2012 – 82.3 kilo with 9.5% body fat. (21/12/13) this was the lowest body fat I had been while recording.

Final bulk up score after Beta Alanine supplementation 2013 – 89.4 kilo 13.2% body fat (18/5/13) even after finishing the Beta I remained at the higher end of the 89 kilo mark and steadied at the 13% mark.

As I headed into new supplement territory, I carried out approximately 2 weeks of a new shredding routine as part of my pupil’s training until my supplements arrived, and at that stage I measured in at 86.6 kilo and 13% body fat (19/6/13). Then the forskolin supplementing commenced.

 

Last measurement was taken on the 26 of June, and the results were – 26 Kilo and 9.8% body fat.

 

So that’s only 3 kilo’s of weightloss from my beta peak, and 3.4% body fat drop in a little over a month.

 

I would have to say, that I have never seen the muscle definition that I see now, ever before. EVER!

 

I am continuing with my Beta Alanine supplementing, and have cranked up my creatine supplementing stack in the mornings before a workout.

 

Has the Forskolin made the difference?

 

Has my body just gone that next phase?

 

One things for sure, I think I’ll be continuing my routine and eating level to try and get even more in “shape” while still trying to achieve my Grecian Ideal, even after my training with my pupil stops.

 

Because in October I will be launching a Saturday beach program.

 

BEAST BEACH… I will want my summer beach body for that.

 

I will post some pictures soon showing the results.

 

AND as always, read up on this supplement before YOU take it. I have had no adverse side effects or problems from taking it, but everyone is different.