Getin BACK into it!

I didn't stutter on Saturday, but I had planned to gym Sunday, that didn't happen.

In fact I felt that fitness and health wise I had a crappy weekend. Socially and mentally though it was great. Caught up with some friends, continued progress on my calendar project and spent some quality time with the wife. 

A sleep in on Sunday and eating, not crap, but not the greatest food, left me feeling sluggish a little and puffy...

BUT no feeling sorry for myself now, it was time to reset and get back into it, literally!

A great back session today ended with a good dose of ab work left me wanting more, but time got away from me. 

Sometime you are going to hit that wall or slip up and have a junky weekend in favor of good times with friends, and you know what? That's fine, just got the reset button and ASAP start back on it! 

The expression goes, one bad meal won't make you get fat, just as one workout won't make you fit!

So jump back on the horse if you've fallen, and keep up the good stuff!!!

SWEET BUN-NY LOVE

Oh my,

 

The bunny is coming!

 

Just when you had gotten over the Christmas fat man, you have the sweet temptation of the evil I mean Easter bunny.

 

Easiest way to solve the problem? Don’t buy chocolate eggs.

 

But let’s be serious, short of cutting off your family and friends, you can never be clear of the chocolate eggs! Sure you can limit it, but something will slip through.

 

So unless you have the will of a god, don’t stress if you get a few eggs or bunnies. Whaaaa?!!?!

 

Yes my friends, don’t stress, at the same time don’t punish yourself either. 1 large egg does not equate to half an hour of jogging or anything like that. Just keep up your regime and enjoy the brief moment in time that you can relax just a little while you enjoy the gifts that your loved ones have given to you.

 

I will post another blog update soon with some healthier choices (if I can find any on the shelves of the regular shopping centres) that you could suggest for your loved ones to buy you.

 

But in the meantime ignore the temptation of the goodies that have now been in the shops since Christmas and wait. Work hard now not to allow yourself to accept more sweet treats, but because you should already be working hard, no difference there!

 

Here are my solid tips for beating the CHOCO blues.

 

If you have to eat chocolate, go dark! The darker the better. The way chocolate is made usually leaves a lot of oils in regular chocolate AND regular chocolate relies a lot on sugar to sweeten it. White chocolate is even worse its almost 100% sugar!

 

Do you eat it all or just small bits? Consume chocolate at optimal metabolic times, utilise your body’s natural energy burner to ensure it gets utilised for the energy you need and not stored as energy for later (fat). Have some pre workout and post, but try and eliminate the consumption through the whole length of the day.

 

How do I feel better after eating TOO much? We are all guilty of having the chocolate binge that leaves you feeling sickly  sweet, drink lots of water! Water will clear your mouth of the sweetness and help digestion of the cocoa. Other than that, you will have to live with the feeling till it subsides, let that be a lesson to ya!

 

Till I update on some healthier shopping centre options for Easter, stay motivated and stay focused!

 

Hulk SMASH!

No matter how he got that big, the pause mid set is KILLER! CT is a masterful motivator.

Exercise of the Week! - Shrugs!

Most people know about the kind of shrugs that imitate that look and feeling that you give someone when you don’t know the answer.

However there are actually 2 variants of shrugs. One where you move weights with arms lowered and the other where you move weights arms extended above.

The two target areas are trapezoids and serratus anterior respectively.  Now there are exercises that target these areas as part of the compound movement. Traps are hit during dead-lifts, dumbbell squats and any time you pick up dumbbells from the floor using your arms, the serratus are hit every time you carry out an over head shoulder press or work incline on chest exercises. But there are ways to hit these muscle groups more specifically!

Why would you want to hit these muscles specifically?

As I have just described, these groups get used during regular exercises that you do every week, but as these are assistance muscles, you can target them for more growth and more strength, thus making those larger movements more efficient and allowing for more lifting or more endurance.

So how do you shrug?

Well for the arms down shrug you have three arms positions to start on, in front, to the side or behind. Obviously dumbbells are best for the side and barbells are better fro front and rear arm positions. Then the next part is simple… really simple… so simple that you’ll see people at the gym making it look difficult. Raise the weights up, contracting your trap and moving your shoulders closer to your ears. Keep your head still, body tight and aim to touch your shoulders to your ears. Then lower the weights and go again!

Yep that’s it, no rolling, no bounce, no swaying, just simple up and down shrugging.

Ok how about this arms over head shrug you speak of?

Well there are a couple of ways to achieve it, one way is to lie on an incline bench and hold dumbbells or barbell above your head as if to start a chest press. But drop your shoulders back, then stretch them back up as if you are reaching for the ceiling. Simple, the other way to do it is with a cable or a fixed end barbell. Stand (or sit on an incline bench if you are using the cable method) then raise the bar (or weight) out in front of yourself, one arm extended. Then brace yourself, drop your shoulder back, slightly flexing the arm, then push out again as if to reach beyond your grasp. Repeat!

Here are my tips on shrugs of both types.

Go heavy when you can, these are small muscle groups and are surprisingly powerful.

Fatigue them for a great feeling the next day (you will know every answer the next day and after doing the serratus shrugs you will having a feeling of being hugged all day)

Insert into shoulders day and back day. The serratus is tucked in behind the lats and you use it on shoulder day so it can be fatigued well for growth. You use the traps on back day during rear deltoids exercises and on shoulder day when performing lat raises.

So who’s shruggin?

I don’t know…

What grinds my gears!

You know what really grinds my gears?

Assumption! Assumption that all those who train and gain MUST be on steroids!

I myself have only once had the hint dropped by a concerned fellow gym user, but atlas he was put back in place as I proclaimed very emphatically, I’m not on the gear and never will be.

Some choose that path, and hopefully they are aware of the risks that they are taking before jumping on that wagon. Some young men choose that path with little more than the body image pressure of popular culture to drive them. WHAT?! Did you just say BODY IMAGE and YOUNG MEN in the same sentence? Yep sure did and it only take a muscle magazine cover to see why young men are just as susceptible to body image problems as women, and it could be JUST as devastating for their health.

The thing that got me really thinking was a statement that I read on Facebook aimed at festival goers. One of the jibes it made was that you weren’t allowed in to the festival without being a muscle bound roid junkie. Now I don’t frequent these types of events, but I am aware of Zyzz and the Aesthetics crew and the fact that there are a minority group that are trying to make the “upper body ripped” look a part of the music festival scene. Now I guess the problem with this is that youth being so naive COULD try and achieve their body image. Chances are, this would take more time to achieve naturally and might not fit in with the next festival date. STEP IN, Steroids!

Then of course you have the BIG boys of the body building game. So even if you are not interested in bopping around in a field listening to your favorite music, you might be into working hard at the gym and listing to your favorite music. Then you have the likes of Arnold, Branch and Ronnie to aspire to instead of Chest Brah, Zyzz and Turtle. BUT again these inspirational builders are riddled with the tell tale signs of steroid use to get to the physique that they have attained.

So is everyone doing steroids? According to Today Tonight they are, in fact according to Today Tonight if you are taking a protein supplement, you ARE most likely also on steroids. WOW! Powerful assumption there guys.

What can we do about it? Nothing! Yep that’s right, absolutely nothing! On the larger scale of things at least, but on the smaller scale education is the cure. Just like smoking, you won’t be able to stop 100% of people from doing it. Show them studies of the health problems and they still won’t believe it can happen to them. Stop putting beasts with naturally unattainable figures on the magazines, nope because that would make Flex magazine look like Men’s health magazine. So again, education is the key here.

In closing, don’t assume that everyone who is building muscle or spending time at the gym is using steroids, and those who are striving for a body image goal, don’t assume that all of your hero’s are not or have not used steroids to get where they are. Your best bet is to work on building a better YOU and be proud of what you can become with hard work, sweat and staying natural.

The secret to getting ripped!

Well, it's been close to a month now of taking the combo suggested by the ads that continually pop up on Facebook and the internet. A testosterone boosting pill and L glutamine. 

Well one can't claim either of these supplements as a wonder pill that will burn fat while you sleep or make you lift beyond your personal best. This just isn't possible! What I can confirm is that L glutamine IS a proven supplement that WILL assist in the recovery process. Even better than that, it's cheap and doesn't need to be taken 20 minutes before a workout or even taken right after a workout. It is recommended to take after a workout though, wether you time this with the anabolic window (40 mins post) is up to you, otherwise it is taken 3 times a day. So breakfast, lunch and tea. Easy!

What about the testosterone booster? Well once I run out of pills (which were also cheap through eBay) I will see how much EXTRA energy they really give me. 

What the combo has done, it seems, has given me the ability to train more at the gym and wake up less sore. Before the tests I was struggling each week to get up and go to gym in the mornings due to DOMS and feeling lack luster in energy. With the supplementing (and I am currently all out of protein powder) I can wake each morning with spring in my step EAGER to go and crank an hour to an hour and a half of morning gym. Legs, chest, arms, abs you name it, nothing was a session I wanted to skip! Then preceding each resistance session that's where I was able to ad in the extra half hour (hence the hour and a half) of jogging.

So the pills and powder didn't work magically. They just helped my body recover more quickly for the activities I was pushing it through. 

So perhaps my ideal STACK of proven supplements for me would probably be, whey protein (concentrate or isolate), creatine, beta alanine and now L Glutamine! Oh and coffee (black and with brown sugar) can't forget the COFFEE!!!

If you have a supplement stack that is working for you I would like to hear about it! And perhaps if I haven't tried it already I will give it a try and blog about it.