What are you waiting for?

So maybe your gym is shut for the holiday break, or maybe with all of the commitments that this time of year brings, you are busy traveling.

Also this time of year brings over eating,  food comas and a level of loathing and lethargy that can have you saying,  "I'll start again next week..."

But what are you waiting for?  Turn that christmas overload of foods energy into gainz and a kick arse ends to 2014!!!

My top tip is to engage in gym time asap! The sooner you get back on the horse the better you'll feel and the less the numbers will be reflected in the dreaded scales!

Tip number two...  don't use the scales!  If you can help it,  wait for the end of your first week of fitness to jump on the scales. If you really have to,  don't be shocked or burdened by the numbers. If you have increased in weight,  it won't be long till its off again. Remember the kilos are not the main defining factor of your health or fitness.

Tip number three,  start your routine with something big!  Get stuck into a big leg session to really start kick off the fat burning process.

But whatever you do,  just get back onto it!!!

Shoulders maketh...

I believe there is a saying that shoulders maketh the man. It's even suggested that it's one of the top things that a female look for in a prospective partner. All that aside, I don't think it quite works the other way around. But who am I kidding, some guys have profound tastes. 

Either sex that you be, respect the shoulders!

Shoulders is a very broad statement though. It refers to any top section of the arm, this includes some chest, tris, biceps and some of the back muscles. But what most people are simply referring to is the deltoid group when speaking of shoulders. 

So why respect the shoulders (deltoids)? Well because they are so interconnected with all the other previously mentioned muscles, damage the shoulders, say goodbye to chest day, arms day and upper back day!!!

When it comes to training them you also have to be mindful of the front, middle and rear deltoid regions because not all shoulder excercises and other muscles that incorporate a bit of the deltoid with them hit all three sections evenly. 

The chest, bicep and tricep workouts that everybody loves, have a tendency to put strain on the front deltoid thus giving you more front facing mass to your shoulder. This can be detremental to the look of your body, causing pulled forwad shoulders and no width. So be mindful on shoulders training day to even out the playing field a bit if you do a lot of chest and arms work during the rest of the week. Hit the lateral raises more for width and ensure that you carry out rear deltoid raises (bent over or on a bench for support) to ensure an all over shoulder look that won't have you looking like Quasimodo. 

Gyms, gyms everywhere!

As I have been recently finding, the fitness industry as a whole seems to be everywhere. News programs are reporting on it, supplement stores are hundreds to choose from and every second gym rat is becoming a fitness model or competitor. The other thing that seems to be on the rise is gyms AND more importantly 24hr gyms. 

Driving through big cities it's not uncommon to see even three 24hr gyms side by side. In my own town area we have gyms AND training centres to please and appease all tastes. What kind of gym is going to suit you best and is it worth the dough to join?

Doing some research and even dropping in for a one time use of a gym is most advisable for those looking for the right gym. But if you aren't 100% sure if the gym you have chosen is right, before you sign your paperwork for membership, find out what it will take to bail out our leave the gym contract. 

Some gyms are better suited to certain workout goals, so entering with a plan of how you want to workout will help you keep an eye out for what the gym has to help you achieve your goals. Don't chose a flash gym with loads of cardio equipment and no free weights if you plan to focus on resistance training. Look at the group fitness timetable if this will be more your thing to see if it will suit your own work and life schedule. Check the opening hours to ensure that this also suits your chosen workout time. 

Is it worth the money? If you are starting to get into your fitness and jogging round the block isn't cutting it any more, gym is an answer, but it can be a dollar investment that might end up costing you if you don't use it or choose poorly. Now most gyms have done the hard work for you, to stay competitive in your area they will all have a very similar price for membership as the rest of the town. But a gym with little equipment might be worth driving past to get to another gym if the other gym will suit your needs better. Don't let the fact that a gym is open 24hr sway your decision to pay more, I've belonged to two gyms that where not 24hr and I've learnt to build my training days around this. If you are game, ask the front desk attendant of you can try the gym for a free session, most gyms don't have a problem giving you a free trial session to test the waters, they will probably give you the membership cost spiel at the same time.  

Lastly, what about niche gyms? I'm talking crossfit, boxing, boot camp styles of gyms... These might be a better option to break away from the normal gym type routine, but might not be as permanent a choice for some. These gyms have very target specific equipment and goals. If you don't plan to be a boxer, boxing training might not be for you, but if you don't try... You might never know!

One things for sure, there are many choices and options for those looking for a place to call home (for fitness) so no excuses!!!

Fitness App review - BAU5

Ok, I’m always up for testing new things in the realm of fitness.

Since I was coming off day to day training in the lead up to a bit of a holiday, I decided to scroll through the iTunes App store to see what was new.

Though it reaches back to May this year (2014) I found BAU5, a personal training application that promised 3 workout days a week to get you into shape.

Is this going to kill the personal trainer game? Nope, some people just don’t have the drive to do it themselves and cheating the electronic system might seem too easy to do if you don’t want to be honest with yourself. You cannot cheat a personal trainer. That said, if you are willing and determined, this app could be the ticket for YOU.

Let’s start with a few gripes first.

1.       It is really weird having these REST day intervals. I’m more of a listen to my body type rest dayer. But…it has opened me up to being able to relax a little more on the start of my holiday. Once I’m overseas, I will have to stop almost altogether as I won’t be taking my phone. I did utilize one of the rest days to tackle one of my other passions in the fitness, a RPM class. Being able to see what my next workout was going to be I could see that legs were not on the board after rest day, so I was able to put a RPM class in the rest day just to get back into the cardio.

2.       If you have a really busy gym… Forget about this app. The way the app has you jumping from one machine to another and giving you a short period of time to set up and even throwing supersets that have you going straight from one machine to another, you will not want to be waiting for the machine to become free for your set.

3.        That leads me to the next problem, this app can only be used in a gym environment, and

you had better have a pretty well equip gym to use it.

Now for some positives.

1.       If you treat the app as a trainer and minimize the change over times from machine to machine, you will get an intense all over workout. Some of the routines are top balanced and others are lower body balanced. But in the end expect some work all over the body.

2.       The app uses visuals to really show you how your machine could or should be set up to achieve the weight that they are setting up for you.

3.       You get rest days. SO GO HARD! No need to worry about burning out and conserving some energy for the rest of the week, some people lack about for shoulders day so that they can go harder for arms day. Nope none of that here. I would liken this type of workout to that of Jason Statham’s, “…get serious, do 40 hard minutes, not an hour and a half of nonsense.”

So some other cool things that I can tell you about this app. The app gauges you on an exercise first up. So if the exercise is new and you haven't done the test before…be prepared to fail, but give it all you got. If you think you can get just one more rep out of the weight that they are testing you with, DO IT. You won’t achieve your goals if you just sit back and call it quits early. If the whole set of exercises are new, then give yourself around an hour and a half to complete it all. You might end up doing 15 sets on one exercise before failing and this can extend your workout significantly if you end up doing this with all the exercises.

Once the trails are done, the app will sometimes string together a super set of 2 to 3 movements. This took me by surprise originally. But they give you a heads up as to what the next exercise weight will require so that you can either set up before or move on knowing what weights you are going to have to stack on.

Other than that, the app is pretty self explanatory in its use. Though it would help to have a quick help section to explain what the heck the Flame logo is on the capstone set (and also, I’ve kinda figured it myself, but what is the capstone set?) You do have the ability to view an exercise from a YouTube link that is accessible within the app itself if you don't have a good level of know how on the exercise they are setting you up with (be warned though the guy they use talks...a lot.).

I will defiantly keep tracking with this app for a little while longer once I return from my holiday and see what kind of results I can get from it. Hopefully by then a few more updates might have been made to the app.

If any of my readers give this app a try, please let me know how you go.

Motivating music

Always chasing good remixes. Here's one for the end of the week, ad it to your gym playlist NOW!!

Motivating music

Always chasing good remixes. Here's one for the end of the week, ad it to your gym playlist NOW!!

Do I need a goal?

There is no denying that Australia is going through an obesity epidemic. But what are YOU doing to fight it? The government is only going to do so much. At some point you are going to have to make that conscious decision to start...and never look back!

I can see how jumping head first into this fitness world can or could be frightening for new and old players. 

There is a huge level of  pressure to fit a "fitness" mold. Are you a body builder? Are you a fitness competitor? Are you a power lifter? Maybe you are a marathon runner? Wait...maybe you don't want to be any of those things. Perhaps you just simply want to lose weight and be fit. 

Well guess what? You can.

What you need to find is a reason and drive to create a goal. This is what those in the molds have that makes most of us go, "but it's so easy for you ". They make it look easy because they have the drive to achieve their goal. Given the choice, if they weren't competing and could work out later in the day just about all fitness competitors would happily sleep in over waking early and hitting the gym. But they do it because of their drive to achieve their goal!

I'm always talking about goals, and that is because goals have more to do with fitness than anything else, it's the lynch pin that everything else hangs off. Training styles and diet revolve around those goals. 

So if your goals are simple and do not fall into the fitness sport category how does this effect you? 

Diet will be less strict, but make sure it's healthy. Some people think healthy foods are flavor less and boring. Just ask my wife, this is not the case. I'm constantly making tacos, pizza, burgers and monster salads that put fast food equivalents to shame and they are packed FULL of healthy veg , protein  and carbs!

Simple goals may also have you only training 3-4 times a week. That's fine too. Even better you can really mix it up, cardio, weights, classes or whatever takes your fancy. Many competitors cannot mix it up so much, they must stick to a tried and tested routine to maximize muscle and minimise fat.

And the other thing that your goal may determine its who you train with and "hang out with" fitness related. If you are wanting to become a bodybuilder you probably shouldn't train with someone who is not aligned with that goal. the same goes for those looking to stay generally fit, don't train with a marathon runner or a fitness competitor, if you can help it. They will stifle your results as much as you can stifle theirs!

Also you might find that you only need to take a few tips and info bits from those in the sport side of fitness that will fit your goal. Don't use "Gremlin Rules" if they don't fit your goal... What's a Gremlin Rule? They are,"don't eat___ after___" rules that certain people live by it can be diet related mostly but can also span into exercises as well. 

So don't think that goals are only just for those super serious about the sport side of fitness, find yours and use it to make better food and lifestyle decisions NOW and don't look back!!

This isn't even my final form!

You all hear it, use good form, take your time, control it and get good TuT. But how many of us do this? What does any of that even mean? Can't I just lift heavy things?

Sometimes that is what we get caught up in, the heavy, perhaps if you want to try a challenge that will test and grow you, you  should drop the weight and really focus on form. This will really target hypertrophy as you fully stretch each muscle and get a mind muscle connection with every vein pumping rep!

Here is what I propose, a fortnight of form! Spend at least one fortnight carrying out ALL of your exercises with full form, controlled pace and good holds or squeases at contraction points. I reckon that after that one fortnight of grueling strict form, you might not go back to swinging heavy weights so haphazardly...

Don't feel weak for lowering the weights, you'll get a swell like crazy if you are doing it right. Need help on what is THE correct form on your exercise? Check out bodybuilding.com or feel free to hassle your gym staff or even myself!

NRG!

Wouldn’t it be good to have a bottle of NRG?

 

When you needed a boost, “gulp, gulp, gulp!” instant boost!

 

Well that’s what many energy drinks promote, and many pre workouts also promote hyper boosting focus inducing energy wielding powers!!

 

But for some, these pre-workouts can make you feel sick or disrupt sleep cycles (or cost too much) and for the energy drinks… well this is not desirable due to the MASS amounts for sugar and MIND BLOWING levels of caffeine!

 

So what can you do if you need a stomach friendly energy boost and a pre cardio tweak?

 

My best advice is a short shot of coffee, cold (use a little bit of hot water to dissolve the coffee) and then top with a little bit of milk or cold water. A small amount of sugar doesn’t hurt for taste, but since it’s only shotted you won’t taste it for long.

 

The other FANTASTIC product for an energy boost is a banana, (heck coffee and banana have an awesome taste so you could have them one after the other and have that combination of flavours running through your mouth) just make sure you don’t have it too soon or too late.

 

What are your energy boosting tips?

 

Comment on the blog to let everyone know…. Serious tips please too…

 

Body types and training!

Body type categorisation exist for a reason, some people are just built different to others. Knowing your body type will help you build your own routine or utilise someone elses!

 

So let’s go back to the basics.

 

3 body types exist in normal circles of fitness thought, most people fit 100% in a direct category or some slide along a scale closer to one more that another; Ectomorph, Endomorph and Mesomorph. In simple break down, Scrawny, Brawny and Athletic are the physical attributes. Women and Men fit these categories just as aptly as one another and it is key to recognise that just because you might be fat, does not mean that you are instantly Brawny or Endomorphic, you could be hiding a Mesomorphic body underneath (you would have to be trying really hard to hide a Ectomorphic body under layers of fat due to the inherent ability to NOT gain weight easily with that body type.)

 

Have a real good look at yourself and be honest to class yourself.

 

Now that you have it figured out we can move forward from this and apply some of the REALLY basic principles of each body type for training and day to day food intake for those body types.

 

	ECTO	MESO	ENDO
CARDIO	LESS	MODERATE	FREQUENTLY
RESISTANCE TRAINING	FREQUENTLY	MODERATE TO FREQUENTLY	MODERATE
FOOD INTAKE	FREQUENTLY	MODERATE	MODERATE

 

Now that is really simple. Other factors could come in to play with your own goals e.g. mass gaining or shredding for comps or other reasons.

 

If you train with someone who is a completely different body type to you, you could be limiting your results. Either find another partner or modify how you both train together.

 

If you don’t train with someone else or are just trying different routines etc. you might want to take the time to reassess that routine after a period of time to review if it is doing the best for you.

 

So what should you do if you find an exercise routine that you want to try but are not sure if it will work for your body type? Simple answer, try it! complex answer, analyse it and see if it will assist in what you want to achieve. Is the workout plan heavy on legs? Too much upper body? Not enough cardio for your body type? Perhaps then you shouldn’t start it, but then maybe it will work or give you different results, and maybe that is what you are after…

 

These are my tips to help build your own OR help modify something that has been suggested to you or found on the internet.

 

*Cardio doesn’t have to mean running for miles on end, sweating and chaffing into the red! Instead replace all of your planned cardio with High intensity interval training. Take the Les Mills Grit classes or Rpm. If you are a treadmill warrior challenge yourself for a half hour, pop the headphones in and every time the bass drops, increase your cruising jog speed for a minute, then drop it back. Use the music to guide you and really crank it up for that half hour.

*Resistance training comes in all forms and just because it seems to be what everyone is doing, split training doesn’t necessarily have to be the way! You don’t have to do a full session of biceps or legs, you CAN carry out a balanced body training routine (circuits or a bit of everything can be great for maintaining)

*Ensure that you are eating enough of the right stuff! Doesn’t matter your body type, eat poor, train poor and maintain poor! Even as an Ectomorph who won’t put weight on from eating a dozen doughnuts, if you eat poor, expect to have less energy and minimal results from the hard work you put in at the gym.

*Look at routines from those with similar body types and fitness goals as you. What I mean by this is, there is no point in saying, “I want to look like the Rock! And I’ll do it by training like him!” if you don’t have the same body type! Don’t take a body builders routine if you want to just get in shape. If you have siblings that are in a similar body type that have something that works for them, try their routine.

 

At the end of the day it all comes down to trial and error, I’ve been training for 5 years and at the moment I think that the routines and workouts that I do are just what I need for the results that I’m looking for. But I assure you, I didn’t start with these exact routines and nor will I keep them this way forever!

 

In fitness change and measurement is always ongoing and it is up to you to be honest with the results you see and change things up if you are not seeing what you want to achieve!

If you want my opinion on routines or something that you are looking at doing, let me know by any of my media forums and I will be more than happy to give my advice.

Stole the image from fitnessfoundue cause I'm lazy http://fitnessfondue.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/photo-1.jpg

Are you having a GOOD day?

Are you having a good day?

 

Ok so some days you are not having a good day, some days you either wake up not feeling it, or you get to the gym and can’t quite lift or endure what you did last week.

 

This can affect you, but don’t let it! What is the point of beating up on yourself for something that is normal? If you think that your back is feeling weak, why stress it further with super heavy weights? Or if you are struggling to get 20mins into some good cardio and you can normally SMASH 30, why punish yourself?

 

Perhaps the secret here is that your body is trying to tell you that it needs more rest or nourishment for repairs.

I had one of these days on Monday just gone, what was the underlying reason? Not 100% sure but I think it had more to do with the food I ate on the Sunday nightbefore, it affected me in such a way that on the Monday morning for legs day I found myself unable to carry out my usual intensity. After only a day back onto my usual nutrients I continued the week SMASHING out my workouts breaking some new plateaus and PB’s!

 

As long as you don’t end up with more than a whole weeks’ worth of this feeling, you will most likely bounce back stronger in the following workouts!

 

Take the time to analyse the WHY.

 

Was there something you ate the day before (or longer) that has dropped your energy levels? If you normally don’t eat a heavy steak and sip down on some alcohol, perhaps this has put your body off kilter, this can happen more on a Monday training session due to a well-deserved weekend. Don’t stress unless you make this a habit!

Was it something different you had before your workout? You might have been told to try a preworkout recently and instead of feeling SUPER powers you are feeling SUPER sick in the stomach. Stop the preworkout immediately, there is a good chance that you are not built for a preworkout. Try a strong black coffee with a little sugar beforehand and something protein rich to get a hyped up energy boost.

Perhaps you got a really bad sleep? This is harder for me to recommend a fix to as I do not suffer from falling too and remaining asleep. Try to minimise stimulating drinks at the end of the night and try having a small bowl of cereal to ensure that the body doesn’t wake for hunger pains.

Maybe your macro and micro nutrients need an adjustment? Check that you are getting a good mix of veg and fruit as well as the meat in your diet to ensure that you are giving your body nutrients to recover and rebuild ready for that next session.

Are you coming down with an illness? Exercising and resistance training can eat into your glutamine reserves and this increases your chances of catching even the common cold. A readily available Branched chain ammo acid supplement can help keep this in balance in case you are not getting enough from your day to day food intake, even just L-Glutamine by itself can help stave off sickness and aid in overall recovery time from DOMS.

 

Whatever the case may be, listen to your body and PUSH further on the sessions that you can, but DON’T PUSH when you can’t! Avoiding an injury could mean a stronger return at your next session v’s not being able to do anything at all for a long time.

Calories

How many calories do you burn each workout?

 

This is a question that up till a week ago, I could not have answered.

 

My response was, "enough?" ... but it got me thinking, how many calories AM I burning?

 

Typically my daily exercise lasts an hour and a little bit, so I thought I high time to strap on a POLAR heart rate monitor and test out some of my gruelling routines to see how effective they really are.

 

Now besides the POLAR watch for recording, I did also try some other methods, these other methods though were either too hard to use (having to input every weight, rep and exercise) or inaccurate compared to the heart rate monitor method.

Here are the stats, tabulated for your viewing pleasure. 

EXERCISE	REC METHOD	TIME (HR:MIN)	CALORIES	MAX HR	AVE HR	NOTES
BICEP	POLAR	1:20	853	N/A	N/A	FORGOT TO GET HR AFTER EXERCISE
	IPHONE APP	As above	668	N/A	N/A
JOG	POLAR	0:30	467	180	166
	MAP MY RUN	As above	613			5.74KM JOG
ABS	POLAR	1:11	674	199	123
UPPER LEGS	POLAR	1:20	988	180	143
CALVES	POLAR	1:12	613	167	114
CHEST	POLAR	1:12	880	167	136
TRICEP	POLAR	1:12	770	155	126

 

The only exercise that is not on the list yet is shoulders, but judging by my other exercises it is going to be above 500. I will update these stats as soon as I get one of these done!

 

So a few things to consider.

 

You will notice that each workout has at least one hour invested into it (with the exception of the jog) and for some people this is too much time to invest. I’ll have to test it at some point but research would suggest that similar calories could be burnt utilising HIIT training such as the GRIT series from Les Mills.

 

You should understand that I do not run a Calorie count when it comes to food consumption. I intake as much nutrients as possible and at what I feel is a healthy portion AND to suit YOUR goals! If you are looking to find out what your intake should be, there are many sites that offer this. My tip though is to listen to your body and adjust your intake to suit your energy needs.

 

The myth about burning  extra fat due to having more muscle is also not really 100% true, there is a small amount of extra burn compared to someone that has less muscle mass but it is marginal. So you couldn't say that by having lower boy fat makes me burn more calories, in fact those that are fitter often have to work harder TOO burn more in exercise as their bodies have adapted to it. 

Whatever the case, I think it is important to know that what your doing is working, if that means recording your burn to monitor your progress, so be it. If just seeing the results gets you by, then don't go paying a mint for a piece of equipment that is going to tell you what you are already seeing.