The New Year Health Kick

I've been seeing a few posts around about people wanting to shift their holiday weight and those that "Can't wait to get back into the gym". Whilst its highly likely that they will indeed make a start to get fit and healthy; most will drop their efforts within the first few weeks. Don't mistake this post for an excuse to bitch about the lack of motivation in society; I would rather see people inspired than spend my time putting them down. Basically, this post is directed at all of those people who are really looking to get serious about their lifestyles. It's easy to just say "I'm going to get rid of this fat and get ripped and toned in the new year" - the reality of that statement is much harsher. If you're really going to get ripped/toned/gain some serious muscle; then you HAVE to plan your approach. There's no point in thinking that you can just turn up at a gym, hit the treadmill for 20 minutes, lift some random weights and then go home - it doesn't work that way. Also, if you really want that body that you've always dreamed about; then you can't just limit your approach to exercise - proper nutrition and a structured lifestyle are also the keys to succeeding in your goals.

Let's start with the getting fit part of the plans. You need to plan your gym sessions/workouts to tailor to your specific goals. If you're savvy with that sort of thing then it's pretty simple to come up with your own personal training plan. For those who aren't as good with that side of things - find someone to ask! Most fitness experts are more than willing to dish out advice to others because its likely that they learned their shit through the exact same methods. I'm also happy to help people out as long as they're serious and not wasting their time. Also for your viewing convenience there's a few workouts posted previously in this blog which can tailor for losing weight, building muscle or both. If you're looking to make some serious gains and really bulk up - then split your training. E.g. Monday - Back and Arms, Tuesday - Shoulders. Wednesday - Rest. Thursday - Chest and Arms. Friday - Legs. Once you have a structure like that, you can then plan your workouts accordingly. Those looking to lose fat may opt for 3 days a week (E.g. Monday, Wednesday and Friday) in which to do a full body workout, possibly combining cardio and weights (which I'd highly recommend). It's all about finding the right plan for you; also don't jump into a ridiculously hard schedule because if you struggle too much it'll put you off and that's your motivation gone. Get involved in a sport that you enjoy, perhaps one that you haven't tried before; think of getting fit and healthy as fun rather than a chore!

On to nutrition - in my opinion its the hardest part of changing lifestyle. The obvious first step is to cut down massively on junk food - takeaways, chocolate, crisps, alcohol (Excessively different for students) etc. Get to know what's in your food - those figures (Calories, Fat, Salt, Carbohydrate, Protein) that you see on pretty much every product are there for a reason! They make it very easy to monitor your nutritional intake and give you more power over what's going into your body. If you're looking to gain weight, don't think that you can just increase your protein intake massively whilst working out and it'll give you gains - a high amount of protein is good, but a ridiculous amount can, and will end in a heart attack if you're not careful with it. Bump up your carbohydrates and calories too if you're looking to gain - just couple it with intense training and that's where the real gains are made! If you're looking to lose weight, obviously you'll need to drop your calorie intake along with slightly adjusting your carbohydrate and fat intake. Check out my earlier post on intermittent fasting - it works brilliantly for those wanting to absolutely shred fat!

A few quick final notes - Firstly, supplements! Its all well and good going out and spending some money on supplements to enhance your efforts and put you closer to your goals. However I cannot stress enough how important it is to really research them and find out exactly which ones will work for you. Don't expect that you can throw back a few shakes without much weightlifting and suddenly become Arnold Schwarzenegger. Supplements only work if you put 100% into your training - they're designed to build on your positive results, not produce them for you! This applies to many people with regard to fat burners - they think that they can take a tablet and wait for themselves to become thin. This is not true - fat burners work on the understanding that you're eating clean and working out. No legal supplement can just hand your goals to you on a platter - you both need each other to get the ultimate results. However; its also important to ensure that you're buying the right supplements. In the course of my training I've found that there's only a few supplements that have worked for me. For example, my protein of choice is Syntha6 - I've found that it minimises recovery time and really helps to pack on muscle. When it comes to fat burners - Thermobol from Maximuscle is a complete waste of time - its effects are minimal to zero. However there are two fat burners that I would recommend - the first are Grenades; the only problem with these are that the side effects are brutal and those with a weaker system will suffer them badly. Luckily there's a trustworthy and highly effective fat burner, which would be my first choice. This is Warrior Blaze - however it has recently become Blaze Reborn due to a change and from what I can gather improvement in their already effective formula! Plus its at a completely reasonable and fair price! Warrior (@WarriorSupps) are also a brilliant company, who actually give a shit about their customers - the same cannot be said about big corporations like Maximuscle who are just after your cash. Anyone in the Wrexham/Llangollen area interested in supplements should get in touch with Nick Lingard (@Lingard_) on Twitter. He currently runs a small supplement business with great prices and decent products!

My last point is on gaining and maintaining real motivation. Its very hard to really maintain pure motivation, but once you've put that hard work in and you're seeing results - training becomes more of a passion than a chore and suddenly you're self motivated at all times. However from time to time its good to get a fresh dose of inspiration and some brand new ideas. Personally, most of my inspiration comes from following Fitness Made EZ's training, new and old. (www.facebook.com/FitnessMadeEZ)  - its good to see someone who's ridiculously committed to and also highly enjoying their training. Also the Hodgetwins are a great source to gain some information from, plus they're funny as fuck. Check out JV Fitness and Nutrition on Facebook too! (http://www.facebook.com/pages/JV-Fitness-Nutrition) He's a fully qualified personal trainer and has some absolutely brilliant advice on the subject of health and fitness.

Anyway, I hope that the information on this post has been useful to people. As always you can get in touch with me on Twitter - @Wrighty__ Like my page on Facebook - www.facebook.com/TransformitToday; or simply comment underneath! Also I'm looking to revamp this blog a bit, possibly with a name change aswell so anyone that has got any ideas please don't hesitate to get in touch! Good luck to all of those that are undertaking a new lifestyle through fitness in the new year!
Train hard, but train safe,
Alex.

Intense Home Workout - Try if you dare!

Well, not so long ago I posted a home workout for everyone to try, nice and simple - and actually relatively easy. Since then I've had a lot of good feedback so I've decided to share the real workout with you all - the high intensity home workout - not for the faint hearted. I'd actually recommend trying the low intensity one first, if you find that difficult, then maybe stick to that for a few weeks before trying this one. This workout is guaranteed to shed those calories, and tone your body up greatly, but you have to stick to the timings and put everything you've got into it. If its taking you more than 15 minutes to complete the circuit, then you're doing it wrong. If you're not sweating ridiculously by the end of the first run through, then you are again doing something wrong. As with the previous workout, its completely bodyweight based, but some of the bodyweight exercises can be difficult. All you'll need is a stopwatch, and some water nearby! Anyway, enough with the build up - let's jump straight into it!

30 Seconds Running on the spot

15 Seconds High Knees

15 Seconds Sprinting on the spot

15 Seconds High knees

15 Seconds sprinting on spot

10 Seconds high knees

20 Seconds sprinting

10 Tuck Jumps
5 Seconds running on spot
10 Star Jumps
5 Seconds running on spot
10 jackknifes
5 seconds running on spot
10 squats
5 seconds running on spot
10 clap press ups
5 seconds running on spot
10 burpee tuck jumps
5 seconds running on spot
10 dorsal raises
5 seconds running on spot
10 squat thrusts
5 seconds running on spot
One armed press ups (10 each side)
5 seconds running on spot
Lie flat on your back, hands behind your head. Lift your legs 6 inches from the floor, hold for 3 seconds, open your legs, hold for 5 seconds, bring legs together, hold for 3 seconds, drop legs. Repeat 10 times.
5 seconds running on spot
10 twist sit ups
5 seconds running on spot
10 hand on hand press ups

20 seconds running on spot
30 seconds high knees
10 seconds sprint on spot
15 seconds high knees
15 seconds sprint on spot
15 seconds high knees
15 seconds sprint on spot

There's your circuit! Make sure that when you're doing the running/sprinting/high knees that you put everything that you've got into it. If you're doing it lazily then there's not much point in doing it at all - if you can't handle the intensity then simply try the easier one and build up. There's absolutely no shame in admitting that you're not quite at the right level for this and building up to it instead. With regard to any aspect of trying to meet your goals - a lot of the time its difficult and sometimes detrimental to try and jump straight into a ridiculously high intensity. You might not be ready for the intensity and you'll end up either not doing the exercises right and not getting the results - or you'll just hurt yourself and not be able to train for a while - that's gonna hurt both your goals and your confidence with exercising. If you're really serious about your goals then you'll be sensible about them too - know your limits and therefore know how far you can test them. It's all about being patient and finding the lifestyle that works for you! Anyone that tries this workout please get in touch with me and let me know how it goes, I'm interested to see if anyone sees the results that I have. You can tweet me @Wrighty__ find me on Facebook - www.facebook.com/transformittoday or leave a comment below this post. Thanks for reading!
Keep Testing the Limits
Alex.

Mixing it up!

Lately I've decided to completely mix my training up. Previously I was relying on workouts engineered by myself with a pretty conventional split. So I'd do three sessions and split them into Chest, triceps and shoulders; Back and biceps, and finally Legs. This worked for me for a while; but after a few weeks it became clear to me that I needed to up the intensity and try shaking things up if I wanted to carry on making gains and hitting targets. Otherwise, what's the point in training? So I thought that it would be best to take a leaf out of someone else's book, someone whose training advice I could actually rely on. I did contemplate the Hodge Twins, but had been using their methods for a while and had to try something completely different - enter Fitness Made EZ. I trawled through his YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/glyphmedia) and found his Flexdem workouts. I've been using these workouts for two weeks now, and I'm definitely seeing so many more improvements. My new workout split as a result of this is

Monday - Shoulders
Tuesday - Chest and triceps
Wednesday - Biceps and triceps
Thursday - Back and biceps
Friday - Legs

 In 2 short weeks I've been able to really improve my personal bests and I'm feeling great as a result of the change-up. For example, I've been able to up my bench press from 70kg to 90kg, and my Squats from 130kg to 140kg among other improvements; but they're the most notable. Just a simple shake up of routine and split can affect your progress massively. One thing I really want to point out is EZ's inclusion of a 'burnout set' - its a set at the end of a workout to target the smaller muscle used in your session. For example it would be tricep on a chest day, and bicep on a back day. Honestly, those sets really finish off a workout and leave you feeling pumped. I'm not going to share any real details of them, you have to check out his youtube channel to really understand what I mean. If you don't then you're just depriving yourself of precious training information.

Basically, all I wanted to point you towards in this post are the real benefits of mixing up your training. You can't allow your body to get used to a routine because it will become less and less effective with each session. You've got to be willing to try new things and up the intensity to see real improvements; that all depends on if you're serious about your training or not I suppose. Also, don't be afraid to take advice from different sources (as long as its not completely idiotic). In my experience, the Hodge Twins, Fitness Made EZ, bodybuilding.com etc. have been really useful. I want to point everyone's attention to another brilliant source - JV Fitness & Nutrition. (www.facebook.com/pages/jv-fitness-nutrition). Jason is a fully qualified personal trainer and was one of the first examples that I saw of dedication to fitness and nutrition. Honestly, he will be able to answer any queries at all on the subject of fitness. So please go and like his page on Facebook and see what he's got to say.

Speaking of Facebook, I've also started up a page dedicated to this blog. Its www.facebook.com/TransformItToday - It's just basically to keep people informed of updates on the blog as I won't be posting them on my profile anymore. It would be great if everyone could go ahead and like the page as its lacking at the moment. Hopefully I'll also be training with Grant (@jonesgx on Twitter) in the coming months and getting some training snaps/videos of proper form in exercises and I'm aiming to get them up onto the page. I've had a lot of good feedback from the latest posts, especially the home workout post. So any more feedback is welcome and I'm also happy to advise people on different aspects of training, whether that be nutrition or workouts.With regard to future posts; if anyone has got any suggestions for them then by all means get in touch with me and we'll work something out! So please direct all feedback to either my Twitter - @Wrighty__ , My Facebook page - www.facebook.com/transformittoday , or just leave a comment under this post!
Keep testing the limits,
Alex.

Home Workout - Weight Free, Fast, Easy and Extremely Effective!

Over the past month or so, I've had various requests from people for a bodyweight workout. That is, completely cardio, no weights and high intensity. Basically, if you're too self conscious to join the gym, or don't like the atmospheres of gyms, or for most people its just that they don't have time to go to the gym with busy lifestyles. I decided to take some former knowledge and structures and use them to create a home workout. All you need for this particular routine is anywhere between 10-30 minutes of your time depending on how many times you'd like to repeat the circuit (Personally I'd aim to repeat it 2-3 times) and a decent (but not too large) amount of space. I do a similar, higher intensity workout to this in boxing and from personal experience I can tell you that it shreds fat and rips and cuts your muscles in ways that you wouldn't believe, but you've got to stick at it! With regard to the amount of times to do this workout a week, I'd recommend 3-5 times, maybe do it in the morning before you have to go to work, school, university etc. It would definitely be an amazing way to energise and kick start your day. This workout is suitable for anyone, its an entry level workout and its easily made more intense; and the best part about that is, the limits to which you can go with regard to intensity are endless. This workout will work all of your body, but it is especially good for core. If you've got that annoying body fat around your midsection that just won't seem to shift, this will definitely do the trick! Oh, you'll also need some form of stopwatch (phone, ipod, computer etc.) Anyway, enough introductions and lets get down to the workout.

30 Seconds Running on the spot
20 Seconds High knees
20 Seconds Heel Flicks (Flicking your heels towards your glutes, almost a running motion)
10 Seconds sprinting on the spot
30 seconds high knees
10 seconds running
15 seconds sprinting on spot

10 Tuck Jumps (Jump into the air, tucking your legs up beneath you)
10 Star Jumps

10 Seconds Running on the spot

10 Squat Thrusts (Begin in a press up position, thrust your knees towards your chest before returning to the start position)
10 Press Ups
10 Crunches

20 Seconds High knees
20 seconds heel flicks

10 Squats
10 Dorsal Raises (Lie on your front, place your hands by your head and proceed to raise your chest from the floor before returning to start position)
10 Burpees (Same premise as a squat thrust, but after thrusting your knees forward, change into a standing position, then back to the start position)

20 Seconds Running on the spot
30 seconds high knees
10 seconds sprint
20 seconds high knees
15 seconds sprint

Okay so there's your circuit. Anyone interested in a higher intensity version of that, just get in touch with me (details below) Realistically, one run through of the circuit should take you 10-15 minutes depending on how fast you're willing to go. Obviously its better to perform these exercises fast to keep the intensity high and therefore maximise the calories burned and fat lost. Also, if you own a skipping rope, I'd recommend that you did some skipping to warm up for the circuit. Try doing 2 minute rounds with 30 seconds rest in between. The best idea would be to do around 3-5 rounds of this (Skipping is great for your core, so if you haven't got a skipping rope/don't know how to skip - now is the time to buy one and learn!

Hope this proves useful for people and that some give it a go because it really is a fantastic workout, and its even better when modified to a higher intensity. So if you'd like to give me any feedback on this post, whether its requesting the more intense version of this workout or even just some general comments and suggestions; everything is welcome! You can find me on Twitter - @Wrighty__ Facebook - www.facebook.com/wrightyx or alternatively just leave a comment under this post. I look forward to any feedback that people may have. So until next time,
Keep Testing The Limits,
Alex.

Building Muscle and Shedding Fat

When looking to make a change in their body, most people opt for either shedding fat, or building muscle. It's definitely possible to do both, but it involves a lot of patience and careful planning. The main thing to remember is to maintain a solid balance between your cardio and weight sessions. In addition to this you have to remember to eat right (this doesn't matter as much if you have a relatively low body fat content. To do something as extreme as this definitely requires a huge lifestyle change, but if you're truly passionate about reaching your goals then you'll be willing to change your approach for the best results. Some may disagree that its impossible to shed fat without losing muscle; while this may be true in some cases, in my own case I've found that its possible to maintain your muscle and gain some whilst shedding your fat. I've decided that instead of outlining vague principles for people to interpret themselves - I'm just going to outline the plan that I'm sticking to at the moment with some nutritional advice and hopefully some of you may trust me enough to give it a try, especially if you're looking for goals similar to mine. The whole idea behind this plan is to gain lean muscle rather than just bulk and then have to go through the 'cutting' stage and also if you've got a higher fat content - it cuts fat off like no other plan that I've tried. 

The whole premise for my muscle gain plan came from a workout split that I found from Terry Crews' Expendables workout; however only the split itself has been lifted from there. The exercises themselves have been chosen by myself. I also use what he refers to as 'The 24s' to warm up rather than cardio. This is purely because I now separate my cardio and weight training completely, allowing my body to focus on one goal at a time. With regards to my cardio, mine usually comes in the form of high intensity cardio through boxing on two evenings a week, and two hours of hockey - therefore I make sure to get my weight training done early in the day, and perform my cardio in the evenings. Anyway, enough of the introductions - lets get down to the plan itself!

24's Warmup - Perform this warm up before every session. Treat these exercises as a circuit, perform 6 reps on each exercise before moving on to the next. Maximum of one minute between circuits - perform all with a straight bar (begin with a low weight if you have to, make sure you're getting the correct form. You can find this warm up on Youtube in Terry Crews' Expendables workout. 

Upright Row

Clean and Press

Romanian Deadlift

Jump Squats

Monday - Shoulders

Alternating Dumbbell Front and Lateral Raises - 3 sets, 12 reps (Where 1 rep is considered the combination of both the Lateral and front raise)

Dumbbell Shoulder Press - 3 sets, rep to failure

Dumbbell Shrugs - 3 sets, 15-20 reps

Bent Over Low-Pulley Side Lateral - 3 Sets, Failure

Rear Delt Flyes - 3 Sets, Failure

Barbell Upright Row (EZ Curl Bar) - 3 Sets, Failure

Evening Cardio - Boxing

Tuesday - Back and Arms

Barbell Row - 4 Sets, Failure

Lat Pulldown - 4 Sets, Failure

Hammer Strength Row - 3 sets, 12 reps

Wide Grip Pull Ups - 3 Sets, 10 Reps

Incline Prone Row on Bench (Dumbbells) - 3 Sets, 12 reps

Bicep Curls - 3 Drop sets, Failure

Tricep Pushdowns - 3 Drop Sets, Failure

Hammer Curls - 2 Sets, 12 Reps

Evening Cardio - Hockey

Wednesday - Strictly Cardio Day (Boxing)

Thursday - Chest and Arms

Bench Press (Normal Grip) - 3 Sets, Failure

Wide Grip Bench Press - 1 Set, Failure

Incline Bench Press - 1 Set, Failure

Decline Bench Press - 1 Set, Failure

Chest Flyes Machine - 3 Sets, 12 reps

Press Ups - 2 Sets - 20 reps

Close Hand Press Ups - 2 sets, 15 reps

Tricep Extensions (Machine) - 3 Sets, 12 reps

Bicep Curls - 3 Drop sets, failure

Tricep Pushdowns - 3 Drop sets, failure

Friday - Legs

Squats with Barbell - 4 sets to failure, increasing weight with each set

Bent Legged Deadlifts - 4 Sets to failure

Calf Raise Machine - 3 sets to failure

Leg Press - 3 Sets, failure

Leg extension machine - 2 sets, failure

Leg curl machine - 2 sets, failure

Hack Squat (Machine) - 2 sets to failure, increase weight each set

Okay, so that's the breakdown of my workout split so far. I get almost all of my core training from the 24's warmup, big compound exercises and mostly boxing. I also like to throw in some core work at the end of a workout, possibly through a Plank, incline situps, roll outs etc. Feel free to add those in at your own discretion. With regard to nutrition; I still intermittently fast once a week, whilst keeping my calories low on another day. The other days of the week I basically try to keep my calories well within 1750 and try to keep my fat levels as low as possible. I now mostly eat a lot of veg (broccoli, carrots, onion etc.), Different types of fruit, Cous Cous as my main carbohydrate, chicken as my main source of protein, eggs, and of course a protein shake after every heavy session. I try not to live by a strict eating plan, I just try to monitor the things that I eat, and so far it has seemed to pay off. Basically the best advice that I can give anyone is just to get smart about the foods that you're eating, work out what the healthier foods are; and eat the things that you prefer from that list. Also, make sure that you're keeping your water intake high every day. 

Well I hope that this information has been useful to someone and I welcome any feedback whatsoever that people have to give. It would also help if people do decide to try this plan if they let me know and compare notes with myself as its a plan that I'll be sticking to for a few more weeks. If you want to get in touch with me you can either leave a comment under this post, find me on Twitter - @Wrighty__ or even find me on Facebook - www.facebook.com/Wrightyx. Please don't hesitate to get back to me with any feedback, even if its about another post or just the blog in general, I love hearing from people about this blog! Until next time, 

Keep Testing The Limits

Alex.

False Advertising and 'Wonder' Products

I'm going to kick this post off by again apologising for the lack of activity in the blog; the reason for this is that I've been training so much lately that between that and my uni work, I haven't really had time to get any material out. However now I'm more used to my schedule I'll try and keep the posts coming regularly and hopefully continue to be of some use to people. Anyway lets get on with this post, I've seen a lot of things flying around the internet lately about diet and weight loss secrets; wonder products and the list goes on. 

An advert that I see way too much is some bullshit transformation secrets with before and after pictures. They promise to share their secrets with you if you pay them - what good Samaritans they are. Personally I find it an insult to people like myself that work damn hard to meet their targets and achieve their goals that some website can just appear and promise some instant results with just a few little secrets which are most probably either unrealistic, ineffective, or the same information that you can get anywhere else for free. If you were to come to me and ask me directly about the secrets to transforming your body I'd tell you the same motto that I've stuck to since starting to train myself seriously. The only 'secrets' to getting your body into the shape that you want are blood, sweat and tears, in other words - hard work. 

Take a look at all of the top athletes, and even just the people that you may see in your gym - they all got to where they are because they worked hard to learn the ins and outs of fitness and exercise, and worked even harder to put that information into practice. Anyone that puts everything they've got into achieving their goals is a person that you should respect. Don't mess around with the scams and the cons. The harsh reality is that if you're willing to pay a source that you know nothing about in return for weight loss just shows that you're lazy. You haven't got the right mentality and mindset to really achieve the goals that you want. Now although you may lack that mentality, its not impossible to achieve. The moment that you commit yourself fully to your dreams, is the moment that your success is guaranteed. Once you've got that down then its only a matter of time until you're hitting targets and edging closer to your final goal.

 If you think about it, the only base secret to achieving the body you want is that you're the only one standing in your way. I'm by no means saying that you have to hit the gym constantly to achieve these goals; a lot of people that I know hate going to the gym; they get their exercise in ways that they enjoy. Find something that you enjoy doing and you'll stick to it - whether its competitive sport, training in the gym with a friend, or even just going running from time to time; every bit of effort that you put in brings you a step closer to your goals. So please, don't fall for the ads - they just want your money and they're not going to tell you anything that you don't already know; all the information that you want to find will be available for free somewhere. I myself am more than happy to help anyone out as long as they're serious about what they want to achieve. Sources such as Fitness Made Ez (Links to his pages can be found at the bottom of this post) and The Hodgetwins/TwinMuscleWorkout provide some amazing free information, and there's countless other places to find good, trustworthy info. However, if you're going to start anywhere; I'd strongly suggest starting with those guys. 

The other thing that I wanted to talk about are the 'wonder' products that are being spewed onto the internet left, right and centre. Supposed diet pills and products designed to help you gain ridiculous amounts of muscle in a short space of time. There's not much to say on the muscle building side of things, apart from the fact that to gain an unbelievable amount of muscle in just a few weeks; you'd have to take steroids. I understand that professional bodybuilders take steroids for competition's sake - anyone else is going to sign their own death warrant through steroid abuse; because believe it or not they will kill you eventually, and sadly it will be slow and painful. The real problem that I have however, are with the diet and weight loss pills. The answer to losing weight healthily and keeping it off is being dedicated to your exercise regime and really being smart about what you eat. A popular scam these days is that of the Acai berry tablets - there is no way in hell that a berry can make you lose weight automatically with no effort (unless its poisonous and makes you lose weight through illness). Relying on a product to do the hard work that you should be doing yourself is pointless because you'll be disappointed when no results are shown. Things like 'Adios' and SlimFast are widely advertised and sold; yet people are under many illusions as to their purpose and how to use them. For example, Adios themselves stated that the pills ' Combined with a calorie-controlled diet and exercise' will show results. To me this just begs the question - what the hell is the point in taking these tablets if you have to change your lifestyle completely anyway? Chances are that your lifestyle change will show the results and the supplement will take all the credit for it. That's how you generate the ill informed positive feedback and results.

Don't assume that there aren't products that can help you out there. I myself currently take Warrior Blaze; and with a decent diet and routine, it definitely helps. I know this because I've tried training with and without it - although I saw results when not taking it, the best results came when I coupled it with my training and used it as it was really supposed to be used. Take it from me - Warrior are a trustworthy, cost effective and generally pleasant company to do business with and I'd highly recommend them. Other products that work are products such as Grenades, but I found that they had way too many side effects, including nausea and sickness. If you want to buy supplements from Warrior, you can tweet them for more information at @WarriorSupps . Or just search Warrior Supplements in Google, they're sold at every decent supplement site including my personal favourite - www.bodybuildingwarehouse.com.

Well I hope that you've found this information useful, if you've got any feedback then you can tweet me @Wrighty__ or find me on Facebook - www.facebook.com/wrightyx or just leave a comment on here. Also, as promised, you can find Fitness Made EZ on Twitter - @FitnessMadeEZ , Facebook - www.facebook.com/FitnessMadeEZ , www.flexdem.com, and even on Youtube - www.youtube.co.uk/glyphmedia. My best advice to you at this point is don't be pulled in by scams and cons, do your research, find what works for you, and put it into action. Until next time, 
Keep Testing the Limits
Alex.

New Training Schedule

I realise that there's been a serious lack of activity from this blog lately, so sorry for that. The reason for the radio silence is that I've been trying out a completely different angle to my training and its taken me a week or two to get used to the routine. One thing I'll say about the my new training is that its definitely paying off with regards to muscle gain and fat loss; however its a lot more intense than any other regime that I've done before. I've also intensified my approach to my nutrition along with this. In previous posts I mentioned that I was reducing my calorie intake to 500/600 on two days of the week, since starting my new routine I've opted to change those days into full fasting days. Needless to say, this routine has been completely different to me - so I thought that I'd share it with all of you.

As I said that I had planned to in previous posts, I've recently taken up boxing. For those of you are into the sport but haven't tried actually training - I'd highly recommend it, its the best workout that I've ever had. Its especially good for your core as that's where a lot of the movement/power comes from in boxing. Also as of today I've restarted playing hockey; I'm hoping that coupling this with boxing will allow me to partake in a huge amount of cardio and core activities which will allow me to focus more on building, toning and maintaining muscle whilst in the gym. I've decided to follow the Hodge Twins' training split with regard to muscle building and do one day that consists of Chest, arms and shoulders, one that consists of Back and arms, and one that consists of legs and compound movements. By compound movements I'm referring to exercises such as clean and press, pull ups etc. I threw compound movements into my leg day because I personally think that it increases your power output when it comes to other exercises. So bearing all of that in mind, this is how my week is set out.

Monday - Chest, Triceps and Arms. Boxing.

Tuesday - (Fasting Day) Hockey Training

Wednesday - Back and Arms. Boxing.

Thursday - Rest Day (Fasting Day)

Friday - Legs & Compound Movements.

Saturday & Sunday - Rest Days

As you can see from that breakdown, its a pretty intense week of training. I am considering moving a muscle building day into Thursday to reduce the workload on another day. However, the set up that I have now seems to be working, so why fix something that isn't broken? Also, here's a breakdown of my various routines for each gym session.

Chest, arms and shoulders -
Flat Bench Press - 4 sets, failure
Incline Bench Press - 2 sets, 10 reps
Tricep Dips - 3 sets, failure.
Chest Flyes (Machine) 4 Sets, Failure
Shoulder press (Dumbbells or machine) - 3 sets, failure
Bicep Curls - 3 sets, failure
Tricep Pulldowns - 4 Drop sets to failure

Back and Arms -
Wide Grip Pull Ups - 4 sets, failure.
Hammer Strength Row - 4 sets, failure
Prone Row - 3 sets, failure
Lat Pulldown - 3 sets, failure
Bicep Curls (EZ curl bar) - 3 sets, failure
Tricep Pulldowns - 3 sets, failure

Legs & Compound -
Barbell Squats - 4 sets, failure.
Clean and Press - 2 sets, failure
Bent Legged Deadlifts - 3 sets, failure
Calf Raises - 3 sets, failure
Pull ups - 3 sets, failure

From that you can all gather that my training in the gym now is focused on heavier lifts to gain muscle, and I've saved the cardio, core, stability and flexibility work for outside the gym with boxing and hockey. With regard to the supplements I'm taking, I'm still taking Warrior Blaze and its still doing an amazing job, I'm also now on a course of Syntha6 protein. Thanks to these two supplements and my training working together, I've seen a huge difference and decided that this regime is worth sticking to until it proves otherwise. I also said in an earlier post that I'd report back on syntha6 and its effectiveness - I have found it to be the most effective protein shake yet. Its helped me gain lean muscle pretty fast and its also reduced the amount that my muscles ache after intense workout days. Also, its pretty damn tasty. Basically its definitely worth a buy if you have 30-40 pounds to splash out with. I've also taken pictures to mark the start of my new training regime, I'll post them with what I'm hoping will be huge transformation pictures when the time comes.

If anyone's got any feedback on this post - any questions or comments etc. You can find me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/wrightyx Twitter - @Wrighty__ or alternatively just post a comment under this thread. Don't hesitate to come to me with any feedback, I love hearing from people that read this blog. I'll try and get another post up as soon as possible but until then,
Keep Testing The Limits.
Alex.

Knowing Your Training

What I'm about to share with you is something that I wish someone would've shared with me when I'd first started training. I'd spend countless hours in the gym, pushing myself so far, working every single muscle in my body until I literally couldn't take any more. Unsurprisingly I saw absolutely no gains and felt run down and generally shitty. I had no idea about overtraining or the process that your body undergoes when you over train. It became so simple and so straightforward when I had it first explained to me; yet for some reason I couldn't reach that conclusion on my own. The definition of overtraining is simple, its a state where you push your body further than you should and the result is detrimental towards your goals. It doesn't just stunt your progress towards your goals however, it also weakens your body and makes you more susceptible to illness and that's going to affect you in other places rather than just the gym.

In more detail, overtraining is a simple science. When you overwork your muscles, it creates a negative nitrogen balance within them, and your muscles enter what is known as a catabolic state. A catabolic state is caused by a higher than normal production of cortisol within the body. Cortisol is a biological chemical which breaks down protein into amino acid form and transfers them to your liver to produce glucose. Cortisol is usually produced as a result of a high intensity training session, obviously the purpose of cortisol is to produce more glucose for energy. However this glucose is being produced from protein in your body, and after the unused protein in your body has been used, the cortisol will then begin to work on the protein within your muscles, therefore decreasing your stored protein levels and sometimes even decreasing muscle mass. Basically, the longer that you train at a high intensity for (You should always be training at a high intensity) the more cortisol you produce, and the more you run the risk of breaking whatever muscle you have down. You need to make sure that the cortisol you produce is only breaking down the protein that hasn't yet been fed into your muscles, the only way to do this is by cutting down the amount of time that you spend in the gym. It may not seem like a lot, but 45-60 minutes in the gym is really all that you need. I would never recommend doing more than 60 minutes worth of high intensity training because after that you really run the risk of over training.

Over training is dangerous in the long run due to the taxing effect that it has on your body, you don't want to run the risk of damaging yourself just because you haven't been well informed. To make sure that you don't run the risk of over training, try and ensure that you increase your protein intake pre and post workout, and also increase your carbohydrate intake before a really intense session, give your body enough nutrients to turn into energy, don't force it to take the protein from your muscles. Its important to plan your workouts specifically, aim to only work two major muscle groups maximum when executing a weightlifting session. Make sure you get enough sleep every night to utilize your body's natural hormone balance. Also, I know its a cliché - but listen to your body! Make sure that you allow yourself enough time to recuperate between sessions; I'm not saying don't try to power through minor pain; but if your body is in major pain, and you feel run down - Don't force yourself into the gym! Be logical with your decisions, after all, only you know what's best for your body. I'd also recommend taking a week off from training every 12 weeks or so, to give your body some real recuperation time  - more often than not you'll see some muscle gain during the recovery period if you've been training right.

Well I hope that this post has helped and opened some people's eyes to the dangers of over training and the benefits of getting smart about your sessions.  It really helped me to understand this with regard to my training, I began to saw so many more gains after heeding this advice and I can guarantee that you all will too. At the end of the day its just logical and I'm just trying to point out the logic. Regardless of what I've said, its your body and you're free to use it however you see fit, but you might find some of the things that I've said useful. I'll try and get another post up soon. As always you can find me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/wrightyx or you can tweet me - @Wrighty__ or just leave a comment in the space below this post. So until next time,
Keep Testing The Limits!
Alex.

Getting Back Into The Swing Of Things

Okay, I'd like to kick this post off with an apology for the lack of posts lately. I've recently moved back to University and of course had to give time to the compulsory 'freshers' week; which generally involved a week of cheating on my diet and routine. However, despite my lapse - I'm now back in training and ready to give it everything that I've got. Due to the location of my training being altered, I've also altered the set up of the training that I'll be undertaking. I suppose I'll start explaining the things that haven't undergone drastic changes.

My eating is still very similar to how it used to be, however I'm taking a shot at using my judgement and perceptions rather than sticking to solid numbers. For example, I'll still be using two reduced calorie days in a week, however instead of having a 300 cal meal, I'll try to stick to smaller calorie objects such as fruit, and eat those throughout the day, therein spacing the calories out rather than having them all in one go. I eventually plan to drop the calorie intake and believe that the best way to ensure a smooth transition into less calories is to break them up into portions and slowly cut out those portions. When I'm not on a reduced calorie day, I'm still being very careful with what I eat, and taking into account what I need to eat for the activities that I'll undergo throughout the day. For example, if I'm planning on an intense cardio session in a day, then I'll ensure that I have enough carbohydrates to fuel me through the session. The same would apply to protein when undertaking a heavy lifting session. Whilst doing this, I'm also watching my calorie, fat and sugar intake to ensure that I keep them to a decent level. On the supplement side of things, I'm still taking Warrior Blaze capsules twice a day, and Cod Liver Oil tablets once a day. I plan on buying some BCAAs in pill form to help with my training and also have a tub of Syntha6 protein on the way, which I of course will review after a month or so of use.

The most radical change that I've made is my approach to my training. Over the summer period, I was focusing on full body workouts three times a week, with the cardio side of things being cycling to and from the gym (Around 7km each way). However since coming back to University, I've opted to take up boxing - and after having my first session on Monday, I can safely say that its the best cardio workout that I have ever taken part in. It also easily surpasses the amount and the intensity of the cardio that I was doing over the summer. With regard to my actual gym sessions, I've decided to split them up into isolation days, those isolations days consisting of: Chest, Arms and Shoulders; Back and Arms; and of course everyones favourite - Legs. I'll be incorporating a decent amount of core work into each of the sessions aswell. Oh and I've also decided to keep up my interest in hockey, so again there's more cardio work. I've planned my week to look a little like this -

Monday - Chest, Shoulders and arms, Boxing

Tuesday - Hockey Training (Low Calorie Day)

Wednesday - Back and Biceps, Boxing

Thursday - Legs (Low calorie day)

Friday - Boxing

Saturday and Sunday - Day off

So as you can see, I've got a pretty intense week planned. Obviously if its too much for me then I'll have to shuffle things around and re think what I'm doing. However I'm hoping that I can really push myself throughout the week and use the weekend to recover. After all, its all about testing your limits and striving to better yourself, getting fitter, faster and stronger. Compared to the training that I had over summer, this is a huge jump in intensity and new territory for me, but I guess that the only way to keep achieving the goals that you set is to up the intensity of your training and keep your body guessing.

So you're all now updated on my training and current state. I won't be weighing in for another week or two, just to get myself back on track and adjust to the new state of my training. I'll be keeping you all updated on my progress and I'll post the reviews that I have of any other supplements that I may purchase. I've taken a picture to document the start of my transformation and hopefully will have one to compare it to at the end of the transformation. Also, since I'm stepping into very unfamiliar territory with boxing, anyone with experience thats willing to share some insight would be greatly appreciated. I'll also be posting pictures of me repping the Flexdem gear that I know own thanks to Fitness Made EZ - if you haven't liked him on Facebook or Followed him on Twitter then please feel free to do right about now - @FitnessMadeEZ www.facebook.com/FitnessMadeEZ. Also, get back to me with all of your suggestions, comments, questions, and general feedback please. Help me keep this blog going by showing your support. You can find me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/wrightyx or you can follow me on Twitter - @Wrighty__ or even leave a comment on here. So if anyone reading this wants me to keep writing posts, and maybe even has any input for future topics then I'd love to hear them so get in touch please! I'll try and get a follow up post up fairly soon depending on the responses that I get to this. So until next time,
Keep Testing The Limits
Alex.

Get Smart About Your Lifestyle!

For anyone that's looking to succeed in their goals - whether they be muscle growth, fat loss, or generally just to stay healthy; you must really know what you're putting in your body. Healthy nutrition is an uncompromisable foundation for achieving real results. Yes a good fitness plan will help you, however it can only go so far towards your goals alone. Plus if you've got a decent fitness plan, but no idea about nutrition, then you're only slowing yourself down and making yourself lose motivation because you can't see any results. The people that infuriate me (infuriate me even more because I used to be one of them) are the ones that go to the gym, work up one hell of a sweat and really push themselves, to then come home and gorge on chocolate and shitty foods. It's a terrible thing to do but many people are culprits with this sort of thing. It's easy enough to do, my best advice would be to not keep junk food at your house. Now this isn't me saying swear off all of the foods that are bad for you, because that's just madness, everyone needs a treat every once in a while. Something that I, and many others that I know do; is allow themselves a treat day. For example, Ez (Fitness Made EZ) actually attempts to slip into a sugary coma every time he has this treat day - but that's fine, because he does it once a week, and trains fucking hard the rest of the week whilst being very careful with his nutrition. Also, people that think that not eating is the solution to losing weight, you're very very mistaken. Starving your body of essential nutrients is dangerous. If humans weren't meant to eat then they wouldn't be born with a digestive system. In the long run, the longer that you starve yourself for, the longer your systems are going to be eating into whatever muscle that they can find to and the less muscle you'll end up with. So if you're looking to lose weight and maintain muscle, or even just lose weight in general, please do not starve your body, just get smart about what you should be taking in. 


It took me a long time to find out the real essential facts about nutrition, but that's because I had no help or guidance whatsoever, and I don't want others to be in the same situation. When you really manage to get your head around it, its really not as difficult as it looks either. Personally, I try to make sure I don't take in too many calories daily, I like to keep it below 2000, there's a lot of ways to get a decent amount of calories and still feel full at the end of the day, you just have to be careful and make sure that you know the nutritional values of the things that you're taking in. Think about investing on something like a calorie counter book, I did, for 4.99 its one of the most useful and worthwhile things that I have ever purchased. Its got nutritional details about every possible base food that you can think of. Once you've got yourself armed with something like that, then you can deal with your nutrition head on. For example, a lot of people will opt for a low carbohydrate, high protein diet when looking to do what bodybuilders call 'Cutting' - that's basically the process of really stripping off every inch of fat from your body to uncover serious definition in your muscles. While this approach is good and also definitely works, its not good for you in the long term. The main focus of weight loss with a low carb, high protein diet is water weight. It will also force your body into starvation mode; this is because your body likes to run on glucose/blood sugar, which is supplied by carbs. When your body doesn't get this, it feeds on the glucose and blood sugar found in muscle, causing a major breakdown in your muscle which simulates weight loss. Also, due to the increased amount of saturated fats in a high protein diet, it can cause heart problems, so basically, use that diet if you're looking to lose water weight, maybe if you're a fighter. However please don't try it for longer than a week or two, you'll see adverse effects. 

The best advice that I could give to people, is to keep your diet well balanced and well informed. Watch your calorie intake each day, I'd say keep it 200-500 under your GDA, watch your carbohydrates, you don't have to pack them into your diet unless you're on an intense training program. Your protein should be kept at its GDA if not higher. Other stuff such as fats and fibre - be smart about. Try and make sure that the fats that you take in are essential fats such as the ones found in tuna, cod, broccoli, spinach, hazelnuts, walnuts etc. There are so many ways to get your essential fats. Also as some of you may have realised things like broccoli and spinach also help you to get your fibre intake, two in one! Any fruit or vegetable is a good source of fibre, plus fruits like bananas are packed with natural sugars and pure energy. Each morning I just have a cup of green tea or black coffee, with two bananas, and that alone makes me sail through my workouts with no difficulty whatsoever. 

So now I've talked about food, lets talk about drinks. Honestly, the best thing to drink would just be pure, clean water - there's no extra additives, no calories, nothing to drag your diet down. However things like green tea, black coffee, and very weak cordial aren't bad for you. Drinks such as Coke, lemonade, and even fruit juice, are a big no no for me. Simply because they contain way too much sugar that your body doesn't need at all. Though I know that many people love their alcohol, particularly on a weekend, and being a student myself I know how hard it is to resist a good night out. So if you are to go out drinking, and this is still by no means telling you to go out and drink - try to stick to spirits and mixers; they contain a lot less calories than beers and ales etc. However if you're itching for a pint, go for Guinness over lager - this is for the simple reason of because it may seem heavy, it actually contains less calories than any other beer or stout. 

Okay that's all on food and drink, obviously any questions that anyone has I'll be happy to answer. Just going to devote a bit of time to the subject of supplements. Obviously people with different goals will go for different supplements. I've said this many times before, but anyone who's looking to lose some fat - I'd recommend giving Warrior Blaze a go; it has definitely worked for me where some supplements have failed me. However you can't just sit back and be lazy whilst taking them, they rely on you as much as you rely on them, get a good diet and an active lifestyle and they'll help to boost your goals. I've also said before for protein shakes to try Promax because it really helps to put on lean definition. I'll also be trying a course of Syntha6 in the near future so look out for reviews on that. If you're going to pick a protein shake, just pick something low in calories and low in carbs and fat, preferably with a fair amount of amino acids and glutamine. Also try and get your hands on some BCAAs. I know for a fact that myprotein.com sell them for a very reasonable price. For those who don't know, the function of a BCAA is increase production of insulin, which mainly focuses on helping circulating blood sugar to be taken up by the muscle cells and used as a source of energy. So not only should they give you a boost whilst training, they should also stimulate increased muscle growth; helping you on your way to gaining some serious muscle. As for normal daily supplements (that is, the ones that aren't produced for the sole reason of helping fitness goals) I'd definitely recommend purchasing some Vitamin B tablets, they mainly help to keep your energy levels higher; Also things like Milk thistle (Helps to clean out your liver and kidneys and keep your systems healthy), Cod Liver Oil capsules (Helps to keep your joints healthy) and even just a Multivitamin supplement are helpful aswell when looking to keep a healthy lifestyle. For example, cod liver oil gives you extra support for your joints as you may put stress on your joints while training. Milk thistle helps to keep toxins out of your body and helps to keep your body working at optimum levels. Vitamin B helps to give you that extra energy kick when you need it and so on and so forth. 

Well I hope that everything that I've run through in this post has been of use to people, its just mostly the information that I wish I'd had access to when I started training all in one place. The bottom line is, getting healthy and fit isn't just about dragging yourself to the gym every so often, its about a lifestyle change, to give your body what it needs to be healthy in all areas. As always, I'm open to any questions, suggestions or general feedback that people may have. If you've missed this information before you can find me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Wrightyx and my Twitter username has now changed to @Wrighty__ - so you can either add me/message me on facebook, or follow and tweet me on Twitter. Failing all of that you can just drop a comment under this post and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. Hope you all enjoyed the read. 
Keep testing the limits! 
Alex.

Isolating target areas

Right, so anyone that has me as a friend on Facebook will be aware of how I threw this post open to the readers, for them to decide what they'd like to see me talking about. I posted asking people to get in touch telling me what areas/muscles of their bodies that they'd like to work and promised to post exercises that I believe will really work that area. Bearing that in mind, I'm going to answer all of the replies I had for that post.  The main areas that I've been asked to look at were abs & obliques, arms, and legs, so we've got a fairly comprehensive list there. It's probably just easiest to start at the top and work my way down so I'm going to kick things off with some arm exercises. I'll also post links to descriptions of the exercises.

Due to the fact that its female interest in arms I'll focus this more on toning them up rather than building any significant muscle. People may disagree with me, but in my opinion the best way to tone without putting on muscle mass is to keep the weights that are being used fairly low and throw in some bodyweight exercises too. However what you have to remember is to successfully tone, you're going to have to reduce your body fat as much as possible to make it easier for the exercises to work. So pick a weight that really isn't too heavy for you and go through any of these following exercises.

Tricep Kickbacks - Kickbacks

Single arm Tricep cable pulldowns - Pulldowns

Bench Dips - Dips

Dumbbell Bicep Curls

Zottman Curls - Zottman

Ok so you've got a few different exercises there, hitting the biceps and triceps and also my personal favourite - the Zottman curl, which incorporates your forearms into the exercise. Anyway, on to the abdominal area, I was asked specifically to focus on obtaining V lines. As I've talked about before this involves heavy emphasis on your internal and external obliques, but you can't leave your transversus and rectus abdominis muscles out so I'll throw in a couple of exercises for those too. All of the descriptions for these exercises are in the 'Blasting your core' post, I'm just naming my favourites.

Side Plank with lateral Dumbbell Raise (This really cuts into your internal obliques, and the added dumbbell raise really tests your stability, making the exercise that bit more demanding)

Leg Raises into twists (This is one of my personal favourites, as you're working your transversus and rectus abdominis, whilst working your internal and external obliques. Due to the movement of the exercise it can be seen to work all of your abs. I'd recommend doing this to failure)

Heel Touches (This isn't covered in the other post, but its fairly simple. Lie flat on your back, and pull your feet up towards you so they're still on the floor and your knees are bent. Lift your shoulders off the floor in almost a crunch motion - proceed to try and touch your heels with the corresponding hand, complete this as many times as you can.

Killer Twists (Again a brilliant exercise for your core as it works on your stability and strength whilst really cutting into your obliques)

Mason Twists (This exercise relies on your transversus abdominis strength whilst working your obliques, check earlier posts for the description)

Suicide Planks (These focus purely on your transversus abdominis, an absolute killer exercise)

So there you have more than enough abdominal exercises to really cut into your core and achieve those hallowed V lines. On to leg exercises, and most of these shouldn't need any description, however if you feel that you need one, there are plenty in earlier posts.

Lunges with dumbbells

Barbell Back Squat

Goblet Squats (Holding a kettlebell or dumbbell like a goblet, perform a squat)

Prisoner Squats (Perform a bodyweight squat with both hands on the back of your head)

Bent Legged Deadlifts

Calf Raises

Side Lunges (With Dumbbells)

Okay so they're all of the areas that I've been asked to focus on, so I hope everyone that wanted them tries them out, and please let me know how they work out for you. If there's anything else that people would like me to talk about then please get in touch and tell me. You can find me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Wrightyx or Twitter - @_Bazinga_Punk_ . Also, I'm aware that I haven't posted workout pictures of Friday's session with @JonesGx - I apologise for this as it slipped my mind in the midst of the workout. I shall do my best to get some snaps this friday, mainly of the more complicated exercises that I've posted about. I'll also post the full heavy workout that we've been experimenting with, and hopefully you guys will have a go at it too. I'll try and get another post up as soon as I can. In the meantime, get in touch with me and let me know what you'd like to read about. I'll also be comparing notes with my friend @GarethFrazer1 on essential bodybuilding facts. So until then,
Keep testing the limits!
Alex.

A Quick Word Of Thanks

Well, this blog has been up and running for just over a week now, and its already reached over 650 views. That's thanks to everyone that has taken the time out of their day to read the topics and hopefully have passed it on to other people, which is something that I appreciate so much. So instead of this post focusing on advice, I just thought that I'd take the time to thank some of the people that have really helped in the progression and sustainment of this blog. So as with most logical things, I'll start from the beginning. Nick Lingard was a huge help to me when I was first starting to take fitness seriously, keeping my motivation up, helping me with different workouts, and generally teaching me to not give up, and push through whatever obstacles I might encounter throughout workouts. Incidentally, he also provided the basis for the Killer Workout that you can find earlier on in this blog. He also now runs a small supplement business, with great prices and great advice on what would be best for you to achieve your goals. He's definitely helped me in that way too; you can find him on twitter - @Lingard_  - He's also the person that taught me about different parts of the abdominal muscles and which exercises work best for each part. Greg King has also been a phenomenal help for me and my training - regularly giving me new workouts which test me further and further every time. His knowledge of how to get the most out of your training and which exercises are the most effective is out of this world. I know that I've said this before but there are very few people who can stand up against him as a personal trainer, and I don't think anyone could put in the amount of effort he does without pay; he's been a huge help in my bid to lose the pounds and tone my muscles - You can follow him on Twitter - @Greg87King .  Next up there's Warrior Supplements, I've only moved on to taking their supplements recently thanks to Nick, but the results I've seen since taking their product Blaze are just phenomenal, also the level of customer service that you get from them is just brilliant, even on Twitter (@WarriorSupps) they're very interactive with customers. So if you want to buy any supplements that actually work, from a company that actually cares about its customers, I'd definitely go with Warrior without hesitation.

More recently, I've received a lot of help and advice from Paul Corkery (EZ of Fitness Made EZ). He even helped me with the layout and colours of this blog! Honestly, you just have to check out his Facebook page to find out that he knows exactly what he's talking about when it comes to health and fitness, and also even boxing. Take some time to check out his Youtube channel aswell, you'll be blown away by the information and help that he throws at you. In all honesty, his pages and updates inspired me to start writing this blog and share what I've learned with every one too. He also holds the same motto as me, that information shouldn't be kept to yourself, it should be shared with others to help them develop just as you did. So if you haven't already, I'd highly recommend checking out his Facebook page (www.facebook.com/FitnessMadeEZ), His Twitter (@FitnessMadeEZ) or his Youtube channel (www.youtube.com/glyphmedia). Last but not least, there's Grant Jones, a friend of mine who's recently been taking the time to come and train with me, and has exchanged information on different fitness/fighting topics with me. The bag drill featured in the boxing workout was all courtesy of him. He's been a great person to train with and I've definitely learnt quite a bit in the short time of training with him. If you'd like to follow him on Twitter its (@JonesGx).

I'd also like to thank everyone else who's been frequently reading my blog and constantly sending me messages of support and thanks for what I've been writing (Yes that means you Stav!). I can't thank you all enough for the great support and genuine interest that you've all been showing and it just helps to spur me on and keep this blog going with new and different posts as often as possible. Like I've said in every single post, I'd love to hear from everyone, just get in touch, leave a comment on here, follow and tweet me (@_Bazinga_Punk_) or add me on Facebook (www.facebook.com/Wrightyx). I'm also happy to help people with nutrition and supplement advice, also I'll gladly tailor specific workouts for the people that ask. If you're reading this and you don't know me, it doesn't matter, just get in touch with me with any questions or suggestions that you may have and I'll do my best to answer everything to the full extent of my abilities. Maybe even share your fitness success stories with me, its always great to hear those! So again I just want to say a big thank you to you all, you're all inspiring me to carry on. So until next time,
Keep testing the limits!
Alex.

Tailored Workout - Boxing

Right, I recently had a request from a friend to come up with a workout to test him and get him fitter and stronger. I decided that as he was a boxer, I should try my hand at tailoring a workout specifically to optimise his goals towards his sport. It took a bit more research than usual, but it was definitely a challenge to make sure that I had all bases covered from the sport's point of view. After hours of research, I finally found out what I needed to know - which was the specific muscles used whilst executing certain movements such as punching and parrying. There are four main body parts involved with the movement of punching for example - these are your legs, your core, your lats, and your pecs. So with information such as this, I decided to focus the workout on the areas that I had found. I decided to incorporate a bag drill (courtesy of @JonesxG ) and a footwork drill, which was modified by my guinea pig for this workout. Obviously before posting it on the blog I wanted to make sure that it had been tried and tested to save people from wasting their own time. Also, I'd recommend that a cardio routine be added to this workout. For serious fighters I'd recommend doing that cardio daily; If necessary, I'm also happy to provide a cardio workout to go with this weights routine. So without further ado, here it is -

Core Circuit -
Suicide Planks
Balance Sit
Side Plank Raises
Leg Raise into twist on bench
 Weighted cable crunch on swiss ball

Bench press - 2 sets, failure
Wide Grip Bench press - 2 sets, failure
Back Squats - 3 sets, failure
Barbell bent over row - 4 sets, failure
Clean and press - 4 sets, failure

 Bag routine - 3 minute round. 30 seconds - combinations, next 30 seconds - fast hands (low power needed), next 30 seconds - knockout/heavy blows (give it all you've got) - Repeat that again to make it 3 minutes long. (Note for this routine, keep your feet moving at all times, do not stay static!


Bent legged deadlifts - 3 sets, failure
Press ups (Feet on bosu ball, hands on medicine balls) - 4 sets, failure
Calf Raises (Weighted) - 4 sets, failure
Lat pulldown - 4 sets, failure
Lateral raises - 4 sets, failure

Footwork routine (Ladder Drills) - If your gym has an agility training ladder then that's ideal, if not then you'll just have to mark out an area in your head for this. For anyone that hasn't used an agility ladder before, the premise is really simple, its a line of boxes that you have on the floor, the aim is to complete the ladder placing one foot in each box as fast as you can. I recommend doing this with a dumbbell in each hand. Also try sidestepping through the ladder, completing it in almost a zig zag motion.

Repeat the first bag routine.

So as you can see, you've got a core circuit that targets your Transversus Abdominis and your internal obliques, but also your Rectus Abdominis aswell. This means that you've targeted your deepest and most powerful abdominal muscles to ensure that you really get the full range of power out of them. Again, there's huge emphasis on legs, pecs and lats in this workout, and with the compound movements you'll also be working your shoulders, especially with the clean and press. Your biceps and triceps are also worked hard through compound movements rather than isolation. I've included the bag and footwork routines to keep your body working the muscles that need to be worked; keeping them warm and active at all times. Plus with the footwork routine, you're trying to up your agility as well, which is very important for boxers. You can mix the ladder drills up, maybe stepping both feet in the same box one after the other to make it more difficult, even doing the routine backwards! Just keep changing it up to really work yourself hard! A small note about cardio, skipping is also a good way to improve your agility and warm your body up, however I would recommend other cardio on top of that too. Also, make sure you're stretching your muscles properly before and after! Can't be having any injuries occuring! If you're confused about any of the exercises in the workout, particularly the core ones, you can find them in earlier posts in this blog. The core ones are all contained in the 'Blasting your core' post.

Again I hope that this post has been useful to you all, especially all of you fighters. I'm also happy to tailor workouts for certain sports, just have to ask me people! Responses are always welcome to this blog, suggestions, general comments, questions, and any other feedback. Please get some of your feedback in, let me know if there's anything I can improve on. Constructive criticism is always welcome. So you can find me on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/Wrightyx or Twitter  - @_Bazinga_Punk_ . Failing that, you can always leave a comment underneath this post or any other and I'll get back to you as quick as possible! Stay tuned to the blog for tomorrow's training pictures with @JonesGx and possibly another post tonight if I get enough feedback, but until then,
Keep testing the limits!
Alex.

Get Motivated!

Since I've started writing this blog, I've had quite a lot of questions about how I keep myself motivated and keep working harder and harder without giving up. The short answer is that I've drilled the motto into myself that giving up is not now, nor will ever be an option. Everyone will find different ways to motivate themselves, because lets face it, we've all had days when we know that we should go and work out, but just can't find the motivation to get out of bed. I've had those days, and personally I feel like absolute shit at the end of the day because I know that I could have tried harder. At the end of the day, by being too lazy to do something that you thought was important to you - all you're doing is letting yourself down. One of my personal favourite ways of motivating myself is simply just taking a look at myself in the mirror and seeing the changes that my new lifestyle is bringing. One of the best feelings in the world in any area, is working fucking hard, and seeing that hard work pay off over time. However there are so many ways to motivate yourself, maybe pick someone that you'd like to model your body on, or inspire yourself with some words of wisdom; even listening to music that really lifts your spirits is a brilliant way to get motivated. In fact, I find that listening to music whilst working out definitely helps my performance and will to go on.

Getting motivated is all about finding what works for you. You definitely need to find a workout that you enjoy doing, I mean, who wants to do something that they don't enjoy? Find a workout or exercise that challenges you, but isn't so hard that you want to give up halfway through it. Its always good to push yourself, but be careful how far you push. If you've got the right balance, then you can push yourself, and beat personal bests - which feels absolutely amazing because you know that you've made a lot of progress. However if you push yourself too far, it can lead to injury and low morale after working out, no one wants to feel like that. When you first begin your training, write down all of your stats - what weights you can lift, cardio times and records, bodyweight etc. Then work to improve them gradually, with a final goal in mind - keep that goal in your mind, and remember why you want it so badly. The more organised that you are with your training, the more that you can monitor your goals and use them to motivate yourself. My point here is, that to really gain motivation, you have to dig deep within yourself and get serious about your training. Yes its supposed to be fun as well, but just because you're taking it seriously doesn't mean that it can't be fun.

So don't just give it a go for a week and give up, don't let yourself lose focus of what you want to achieve. Get yourself out of bed in a morning, look yourself in the eye through a mirror, and tell yourself that you can do it, that you won't settle for anything less than your goals; and as you begin to see results, keep telling yourself the same things, any progress is good progress. A huge tip that I can't express enough is be patient! You won't see results overnight, but if you stick at it, and work hard then you will definitely see results. After all, you'll get back exactly what you put in when it comes to effort and results. Its just like EZ (Of Fitness Made EZ) says - 'Whilst perfection may be unattainable, we all have the ability to strive for excellence'.

I hope that what I've written here for you is of some use for your training. No matter how hard it gets, just keep training and keep moving towards your goals, because when you reach them you will look back on your efforts and realise that they were all worth it. However, when you get to your goals, don't stop putting the effort in, even if its just to maintain yourself. If you've got any questions, suggestions or just general feedback then please feel free to comment under this post or follow and tweet me @_Bazinga_Punk_ . You can also find me on Facebook under Alex Wright. If you haven't already, I'd urge you all to Like Fitness Made EZ on Facebook and follow him on Twitter - @FitnessMadeEZ - After all, he's the most motivational source that I know of. Let me hear some of your suggestions for future topics and please keep sending your feedback.
Keep testing the limits!
Alex.

Supplements!

After doing a quick scope around the Internet, I found that there was nowhere near enough information on supplements and reviews of how they work and what they really do for people. Well, you can find pages of information - but its all written in scientific jargon, making it pretty useless to anyone who doesn't have a science related degree! Over the past few years, I've experimented with a few different supplements and its probably time to share what I've learned about them. You can see reviews like this all over the Internet, but I guarantee that this one is one of few that are true, with no bullshit whatsoever. The majority of the supplements that I myself have tried are obviously 'fat strippers' - little did I know that they weren't really needed as much as I thought. Anyway, here's the list:

Thermobol - Thermobol is a Maximuscle product designed to help you lose those unwanted pounds and boost your metabolism through its 'Thermogenic' qualities. Thermogenic is just a fancy word for a product that is designed to boost your body temperature to boost the speed at which your body burns the calories that you take in. Plus, its made by such a high reputation company so it must work, right? Wrong. I tried using this product and saw very very poor results overall, even when I was training hard 5 times a week. I didn't feel any different whatsoever whilst using this particular supplement, would not recommend it at all.

Jack3D  - This is one of the most powerful supplements that I have ever taken. Its a pre workout supplement, designed to give you a real boost throughout your workout. One of its key ingredients is called Schizandrol A, this particular ingredient helps your brain to tell your body that lifting a heavy weight is indeed possible and helps you to push out those impossible final reps. The only side effect I noticed was a sensation of tingling all over my skin, it scared me at first, but once I knew that it was a harmless side effect, I learned to love it. It also contains a fair amount of creatine, so helps to give your muscles that extra pump when training. When I was taking this supplement, I literally felt like I was walking on air, and for the small price of 20 pounds, its possibly the most effective supplement that I've ever tried. Would highly recommend it.

Acai Berry Extract - Surely most of you have seen the adverts for acai berry on the Internet? Seeing it advertised as a miracle product for weight loss? Well its complete bullshit. I managed to get my hands on a fair amount of the stuff for free, and I'm sure as hell glad that I didn't pay for it. Its terrible. Has no effect on your body whatsoever, I'd definitely advise against going anywhere near it.

Grenade Thermo Detonators - Grenades are a product designed to help you annihilate the fat on your body, and they're advertised as powerful. Trust me when I say that this is no understatement, these pills are very very powerful, and should definitely be used with caution and their instructions are not to be ignored. After taking my first ever serving of this product, I felt as if I'd just been charged full of electricity, ready to work out until I dropped. Seriously though, the instructions for this product need to be followed closely, especially regarding your morning serving, make sure you eat very soon after you take it and you should be fine. I found that if I didn't eat after taking my morning serving then I felt sick. I also managed to lose a few pounds whilst taking this for a week, so I'd recommend it as a weight loss supplement.

Maximuscle Promax - This Maximuscle product, unlike its fat burning counterpart, really does work. Its a simple protein shake, however unlike most other shakes, it has a very high protein content, whilst maintaining a low fat and carbohydrate content. Thanks to this, it replenishes your protein reserves, aids recovery and helps you to gain muscle mass without gaining any fat. It also contains a huge amount of glutamine, which is a godsend when it comes to recovery. I took two shakes a day when training, and would not feel the after effects the next day thanks to this product. For anyone wanting to gain lean mass and definition - this product is definitely for you!

Warrior Blaze - Again another fat burning pill. I'm still currently taking this supplement, and it must have aided my weight loss somewhere along the line considering the fact that I've managed to lose around 2 of the overall 3 stone that I've lost whilst taking it. However you definitely have to couple it with a strict diet to get the results that you want. As well as aiding with weight loss, its caffeine content also gives you that extra boost whilst training, without the horrible crash at the end. I've never experienced a side effect from it, so overall, I'd recommend this product as the best fat burner on the market right now. If you want to learn more about this product and the other supplements that Warrior sell, follow them on twitter - @Warriorsupps .

So there's a breakdown of the supplements that I've taken up to this point. I know that its a small list but you don't need to be taking every supplement under the sun to achieve your goals. For example, if you're trying to gain some serious muscle mass, all that you need to do is adapt your diet and workout, and maybe take some protein shakes at the same time. If you want to burn fat, then cut the shit out of your diet, get strict with what you're putting in your body; adapt your workout to suit the goal of calorie burning, and again maybe buy a fat stripping supplement such as Blaze or Grenades. In my opinion the worst thing that you could do is rely too heavily on supplements and not make any changes to your lifestyle, for one - its almost the same as a quick fix, and secondly, its bloody expensive. What happens when you run out of money and have to stop taking your supplements? You'll probably lose muscle and gain weight. All you're doing is wasting your time if you don't use your supplements correctly. The bottom line here, is make sure you're doing your research and being smart about your nutrition if you're intending to take supplements.

I'm hoping that I can get a few training shots up in this blog of my heavy lifting session with @JonesGx ; try and demonstrate a few of the key exercises that we do and hopefully encourage some of you guys to tweet me your training pictures too! Lets try and make this blog a little more interactive! I hope you've all found these supplement reviews to be useful. As always if you've got any feedback, feel free to leave a comment on here or follow me on Twitter @_Bazinga_Punk_ - and keep an eye out for more posts, including the pictures of Friday's session. Also, get tweeting your training pictures to me, maybe some of exercises I've gone through in this blog? Something to think about! More posts to follow soon!
Keep testing the limits!
Alex.

Blasting your core!

Ok so as promised I'm back with the second of today's posts, my favourite exercises to really annihilate your core muscles and put you well on the way to those hallowed 6 pack abs, with the 'v lines' that everyone seems to love so much. Apart from the aesthetic effect, having a well chiseled core is very very important when it comes to working out and exercise in general. Having a strong core is key when weightlifting, it helps you keep a strong posture and therefore helps you execute your lifts perfectly without damaging yourself. Its also important for sports players, sports like football and hockey require a strong core in order to demonstrate strength whilst in possession of the ball. In boxing its important to keep a strong core, it gives you a powerful basis to work from and can also soften the blow of a body shot. The benefits to having a strong core really are endless! A lot of people will leave ab exercises out of their workout, some because they find them too difficult, others just due to a lack of knowledge regarding them. Its also always important to be selective of your exercises, you need to make sure that you're not just working the same parts of your core. Your abdominal area consists of four different major muscles, these are:

Transversus abdominis - This muscle is your deepest abdominal muscle, it cannot be seen or touched from outside the body, this muscle will have a major effect on your posture; its very, very important that this muscle is kept strong.

Internal Obliques - These are a pair of muscles, almost as deep as the transverse abdominus, they lie on either side of your torso. Together with the transverse abdominus, they have a tremendous effect on your posture. They're involved in rotation of the spine.

External Obliques - These are a more superficial muscle, lying further out than the internal obliques. They still have an effect on your posture, but not as much as the deeper muscles.

Rectus Abdominus - This is the most superficial part of your abdominals, the outer muscle, which give the aesthetic effect of the six pack when worked properly.

So now I've run you through the four major parts of your abs, its time to get into the exercises. Its good to have knowledge of the four muscles as you can learn which exercises are affecting where in your torso, and therefore not spend all of your time working the same part and neglecting the others. Anyway, here's a few of my favourite exercises for your abs, I'll also explain which areas they target the most whilst running through them. As always, any exercises that you're still not sure about, feel free to research further.

Plank (This will target your Transversus muscles, working deeper than other exercises and helping with stability)

Suicide planks - Beginning in a plank position, and then proceeding to move into a press up position, repeating to failure. (These target the same muscles as a normal plank, just with slightly higher intensity)

Side Planks with T raise - Beginning in a side plank position with dumbbell in free hand, proceeding to raise the dumbbell in an arc until your body lies in a T shape, repeating to failure. (Works internal obliques)

Reverse Twist - Lying on your back on a swiss ball, making sure that your hips and shoulders are still in contact with the ball. Move your arms out in front of you and hold both hands together. Proceed to twist your arms to the side, hold when you feel the exercise in your obliques, return to start position. (Also works internal obliques)

Balance sit - Lie down on your back on the floor. From this position, raise your legs off the floor and also raise your upper body off the floor. Hold this position to failure. (Works Transversus muscles)

Swiss Ball Jackknifes - Begin in a press up position with your feet on a swiss ball. Proceed to pull your legs in towards your body, rolling the ball with them. (Works rectus abdominus and transversus muscles)

Mason twists - Whilst on a bench, hold the same position as a balance sit. Hold a kettlebell with both hands, proceed to twist from left to right to failure. (Works both the Transversus and internal obliques)

Swiss Ball Resistance twists - Set up a resistance cable pillar so the attachment is at the bottom of the pillar. Pick an attachment that is easy to keep hold of. Place a swiss ball a foot or so away from the pillar. Whilst lying on your back on the swiss ball, pull the attachment so it sits behind your head. Proceed to perform a crunch (Works rectus abdominis muscles)

Deadbugs - Whilst lying on your back on the floor, bend your legs in towards your body, and raise your arms above you, preferably holding a barbell with no weights on. Proceed to lower your arms and legs at the same time, making sure to keep your lower back pressed into the floor. Repeat 15-20 times. (Works rectus abdominis muscles)

Killer twists - Holding a medicine ball, keeping your legs slightly bent, begin holding the ball on one side of your body adjacent to your hip. Proceed to move the ball in an arc, twisting your body until the ball is above shoulder height on the opposite side of your body. Repeat both sides. (Works external obliques)

Leg Raises into twists - Begin lying on a bench, making sure that you have a decent grip on it. Proceed to raise your legs upwards, at the top of the movement, then proceed to move your hips off the bench, twisting to the left, to the centre, to the right. Drop legs and repeat to failure. (Works external obliques and rectus abdominis)

So there you go, my favourite ab exercises, targeting every section of your abdominal muscles. Giving you the aesthetic effect of your 6 pack and V lines, whilst also working deep in your core to help with your posture. Of course you don't need to perform all of those exercises in the same workout. Just try to make sure you're performing at least one exercise for each abdominal group and you'll definitely see results. At this point, I'd also like to thank two people for a couple of these exercises. You can find them both on twitter - the first is @Greg87King  - who has been with me since day one of my training, helping me with different workouts, you'd be hard pushed to find a better instructor. The second, whom most of twitter are well acquainted with, is @DannyBoyRoe - he also has a 6 pack abs workout which you can find on Youtube (trust me, its worth a look) - you'll notice from there that the balance sit was lifted from him, brilliant exercise.

I'd also like to bring your attention to Fitness Made EZ. You can find EZ on Facebook (www.facebook.com/FitnessMadeEZ), Twitter (@FitnessMadeEZ) and also on Youtube (www.youtube.co.uk/glyphmedia) . He's been a big help with this blog, and he ultimately inspired me to begin writing these posts. His pages are full of bullshit free, down to earth advice on health and fitness. Many people could stand to learn a lot from this man. When it comes to this subject, he's definitely someone that you should be checking out. Also, if you're a fighter, he's definitely a source that you'll need to research, with a lot of experience. He also sells his own Gym wear, just check out www.flexdem.com - I've already ordered some merchandise from him, and I suggest that others follow suit. Oh yeah, and he occasionally gives freebies away!

As for me, I welcome any feedback, questions/suggestions that anyone would like to give me. Perhaps you could give me some pointers? Its all about sharing the knowledge that you've got, don't hold it to yourself and waste it! So if you've read this, and you have Twitter, please feel free to follow and tweet me @_Bazinga_Punk_ - Failing that, drop me a comment under this post and I'll get back to you as soon as possible! Makes my day to hear all the good feedback. If I get enough decent feedback I'll also create a Facebook page for updates on this blog, thats all down to you! So until next time,
Keep testing the limits!
Alex.

Cardio Exercises & Routines

Ok, so I realise that most of the posts in this blog with regard to exercise have focused on mostly weight loss through the use of weights rather than cardio. So I thought that I'd just devote this one post to Cardio routines that definitely helped me get so much fitter and strip off some fat. As always with cardio however you do run the risk of losing a bit of muscle mass, but as long as you compensate with a decent enough weightlifting workout - it shouldn't be too much of an issue. Obviously depending on your goals you could opt to do more cardio than weights, in which case you can say goodbye to really intense muscle mass, so the alternative is to do maybe 1-2 days a week cardio, with 3-5 days a week weights to keep your mass up. With regard to using cardio primarily to strip fat and gain some fitness - I found that high intensity interval training did the job very nicely. Obviously you can choose what form of cardio that you'd like to try with interval training, from cycling, to running, to swimming, even to rowing. Any form of cardiovascular exercise can be converted into interval training. I myself opted for a mixture of running and rowing as I felt that they worked best for me, but everyone's different. Cycling is also a good cardio exercise due to the fact that its low impact, so if you've got weak joints or arthritis, then cycling or even swimming will be perfect for you. Anyway, if you're not clued up on interval training; it speaks for itself. The whole premise is to perform a cardiovascular exercise at different intensities for certain intervals of time. For example, my old interval training program for running was performed on a treadmill - It was 12 minutes long, and each minute was a different interval. I'll run through the 12 minutes below.

1. Speed - 9.5 kph, Gradient - 2%
2. Speed - 11.5kph, Gradient - 2%
3. Speed - 13.5kph, Gradient - 1.5%
4. Speed - 11.5kph, Gradient - 1.0%
5. Speed - 13.5kph, Gradient - 0.5%
6. Speed - 11.5kph, Gradient - 0.0%
7. Speed - 13.5kph, Gradient - 1.0%
8. Speed - 11.5kph, Gradient - 2.0%
9. Speed - 13.5kph, Gradient - 1.0%
10. Speed - 11.5kph, Gradient - 2.0%
11. Speed - 13.5kph, Gradient - 1.0%
12. Speed - 15kph, Gradient - 0.0%

As you can see, it's a pretty straightforward routine, with regard to calories burned during the exercise, it should range from 300-400 calories for an average person. Obviously the speeds and gradient can be altered to suit you, and you can lengthen and shorten it. However I'd recommend that the sprint at the end is kept, its a good way to finish off the exercise. Think of it as the home stretch, giving your all for 60 seconds at the end of the routine. You'll have to dig deep, but trust me its worth it. This is where I see the cardio machines having a slight advantage over an outdoor cardio exercise as you can adapt the gradient and speed with ease. You can do this outside as well, its just with the gradient side you'd have to choose your route carefully. As well as cardio such as running, cycling, rowing, swimming etc; there's exercises such as skipping. Some of you may feel slightly stupid doing it, but trust me, its a brilliant exercise for improving agility, speed, stamina and co ordination. You can also try various punching drills on a punch bag, just 10 minutes on that will help you work up a real sweat and it definitely works as one hell of a stress reliever. One cardio exercise that I wouldn't like to recommend is the X Trainer - this machine relies very heavily on momentum rather than constant effort. With these machines, if you put in enough effort at the start, you can cruise through the rest of the exercise with little effort at all, there are plenty of other cardio exercises that you can do instead of this that will give much better results; so don't waste your time. So to sum up, the key to interval training is to mix it up, keep your body guessing! Have fun with it, you don't have to stick to a certain plan, you can make your own rules and change intensities when it suits you; its a very accommodating and effective way to train.

Obviously the other form of cardiovascular training is just straight up, measured sessions. You can measure your cardio on time, distance or even calories burned. Even though it might seem straightforward, its important to choose the exercise that best suits you and your goals. I mean if you're looking specifically to gain stamina, then obviously distance will be your key goal, and if you're training for a race, then time will be your priority. If you're not training for any particular sport, then this leaves a variety of different cardio exercises open to you, and my best advice for those people, is to again mix it up, try everything! Just bear in mind that running/jogging has been proven to work your core very effectively. Also, swimming is a brilliant full body workout and the amount of calories that you can burn by doing it is unbelievable. Cycling is again an amazing exercise, with a big focus obviously being on your legs. However, the key to successful cycling is cadence and rhythm, don't try and hammer the pedals to build up to a decent speed and then drop because you're completely gassed. Keep a steady but decent paced rhythm, honestly it helps so much. If you decide to try rowing (machine) then be careful to execute the proper movement, otherwise its a waste of time. The exercises that I've run through are just few of many. My advice to you all is to get out there, research different cardio exercises, and try them all, that way you can find out what works best for you and what you enjoy the most; because lets face it, there's nothing fun about doing an exercise that you hate, and as cardio is so important, you need to be doing something you like to keep your motivation up and to help you keep doing it over and over. I hope that everything I've talked about has been of use to you, I'm going to focus my next post (which will be either later today or tomorrow) on core exercises and my personal favourite core exercises that promise to blast your abs and leave you wanting more! As always, any feedback, questions, or suggestions, you can comment on here or follow and tweet me @_Bazinga_Punk_ .  So until next time,
Keep testing the limits!
Alex