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. 

Motivational music - wat?Triple play Sunday!!!

Woah! Thought I was done for Sunday? No way take this third track to gym tomorrow and let the power of whoo hoo drive you!!!