tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32073148206753424122024-03-10T20:22:40.101-07:00Muscle and MacrosHealth, Fitness, Sport; and everything in between.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08355044903865742023noreply@blogger.comBlogger54125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3207314820675342412.post-81200369952664812682016-04-17T10:30:00.000-07:002016-04-20T01:27:45.493-07:00Review - The Foolproof No Fail Guide to Flexible Fat Loss<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Remember those times in school that you'd be given a text, or told to choose a text and were then instructed to write a review on it? I do, and for the most part I wasn't a fan of it. However, I seem to have softened at my grand old age of 22, and I find that reading and reviewing texts is something that can be quite enjoyable (as long as they're on the right subjects), so guess what I'll be treating you to in my next few posts! Don't worry, I'll be doing one per post and they're all health and fitness related (this is a health and fitness blog after all!). </div>
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First up, is this gem.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Foolproof, No Fail Guide to Flexible Fat Loss - Mike Samuels</td></tr>
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<b><u>The Foolproof, No Fail Guide to Flexible Fat Loss</u></b></div>
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I've started with this book as I'll be taking each e-book in the order that I read them. This was incidentally the first fitness related book that I'd ever purchased and read fully. For a long time I'd struggled with my nutrition. There's a lot of information out there regarding healthy eating and dieting (which has always been my focus), but I found that most of it was either extremely over-complicated or just extreme to the point of ridiculousness. The only factor that was consistent in the majority of the information that I found was focused on clean eating, demonising carbs, no sugary foods whatsoever etc. If you're like me, then your brain tries to apply logic to solve problems - that's exactly what I did with regards to finding the diet that I needed. I picked out the common factors that I've outlined and applied it to my own nutrition. I cut out sugar and anything that I deemed as junk food, I ate mostly salads, vegetables, rice, tuna, eggs and chicken, and scoffed at anyone that ate anything that I considered to be unhealthy. I even dabbled with the paleo diet for a while (until I realised that it was costing me a ridiculous amount of money). Out of my experience, I can tell you a few things:</div>
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1. It didn't help me to make much progress</div>
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2. I was miserable</div>
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3. Points 1 and 2 combined were enough to throw me into a mindset of 'fuck it'. Basically, I ignored everything that I thought I'd learned about nutrition and focused on just eating what I classed as healthy foods (Ones I'd now class as nutritionally dense), and allowed myself junk food in moderation. </div>
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My new approach had kind of worked, but I needed something more to help me make sustainable and informed progress, I needed the knowledge that would finally give me control of my nutrition. Enter Healthy Living Heavy Lifting. I'd actually heard about the site through a post from Nick Cheadle (if you don't know who he is, check him out - he's kind of a big deal). Amongst all of the great content that I found on the website, laid The Foolproof, No Fail Guide to Flexible Fat Loss. I was immediately pulled in by the synopsis of the book and instantly searched for a few reviews, all of which came back pretty complimentary!<br />
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So I went ahead and purchased the book for around £12 (I say book, but its actually a comprehensive series of books). The three parts break down as follows:<br />
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<b>Part one - This book explains the basics of calories and macronutrients and teaches you how to calculate your own macros for dieting. </b><br />
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<b>Part two - FAQs, basically if there are any questions that arise from your reading of the first instalment, then this pretty much answers them all.</b><br />
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<b>Part three - Troubleshooting, it's designed to combat any problems that may arise as you proceed with your diet, including hitting those familiar plateaus. </b><br />
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So as you can see from a quick breakdown of the texts, it looks pretty comprehensive. The book promises to arm you with the knowledge that will enable you to work out your very own calorie and macronutrient needs and how to manipulate them for dieting, and by applying a bit of logic it also gives a tip of the hat towards gaining weight. That's quite a lot to promise for £12, and let me tell you - it more than delivers.<br />
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Meet the man behind the books</h2>
First of all, we're introduced to Mike Samuels (he's the author, a coach and the owner of Healthy Living Heavy Lifting). The first statement he makes is more of a confession, telling the reader of how he fully subscribed to the strict dieting culture and restricted himself from certain foods. He tells us of how he became out of shape and decided to make a change through flexible dieting, the secrets(or lack thereof) of which he'll share with us.<br />
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The Basics</h2>
So after a quick introduction, we jump straight into the main event - calories. Mike explains the basics of calories and then proceeds to explain how to calculate your basal metabolic rate (that's the rate at which your body burns calories at rest), and then combines it with your activity level which results in your daily calorie intake. After that, you'll be shown how to use that numbers to calculate calories for dieting. That's very much a whistle stop tour of that section, but Mike explains it precisely and clearly and makes it extremely easy to understand. Plus, when it clicks, you'll realise just how logical and simple it is.<br />
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After calories comes macronutrients. For anyone that doesn't know what they are, they consist of:<br />
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- Protein<br />
- Carbohydrates<br />
- Fat<br />
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Mike explains how many calories are in each nutrient per gram, gives you the basics of each nutrient and then explains how to calculate exactly how many grams of each you need each day. Again, that seems rather quick but it's all explained clearly and is very easy to follow. He follows his explanation for this with a few examples just in case you're a little stuck.<br />
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Next up in the book is the topic of refeeding. Most people will 'eat clean' during the week and spoil the progress that they have made by blowing out with a cheat meal at the weekend. Mike directly addresses this and goes on to tell us about a way that you can still have more calories at the weekend without actually coming out of a calorie deficit. It's a method that I swear by and that has given me many days of great food without it affecting my progress. He explains this in a way that is detailed enough for the reader to understand without blinding us with jargon and science (something that's common in all of his writing).<br />
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Tracking your progress</h2>
The great thing about this book is that it not only teaches you how to take control of your diet, it also teaches you how to measure and track the results that you'll undoubtedly see by using the knowledge that you gained in the book. There's a detailed section on different things to expect and how to deal with managing your progress. After that, he runs through a list of foods that could be useful to any flexible dieter due to their high nutritional values. Don't get me wrong, he doesn't tell you exactly what you should be eating, more tries to give you a better idea of foods that are easier to fit into your own custom meal plan.<br />
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That's just book one! Book two actually addresses any FAQs that its predecessor may have brought up and tries to answer them in the best way possible. Book three then continues down the support route and offers help and advice in the form of troubleshooting. It focuses on overcoming plateaus, which can become a big problem when dieting. Between books two and three, Mike has all of the bases covered!<br />
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So there you have it, a whistle stop tour of Mike Samuels' The Foolproof No Fail Guide to Flexible Fat Loss! I honestly can't recommend this book enough if you're looking to get serious about your diet and lifestyle. It's really accessible and is made really easy to read so there's no need to worry about things going over your head. This book helped me to take control of my diet and further my knowledge on nutrition to the point at which I now have a sustainable approach to my nutrition that I could happily keep up for the rest of my life. It's also great value for money, so head over to <a href="http://www.healthylivingheavylifting.com/" target="_blank">Healthy Living Heavy Lifting</a> and get your copy!<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08355044903865742023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3207314820675342412.post-84994951904432818612016-03-27T07:00:00.000-07:002016-04-04T11:01:46.927-07:00Meet the coaches: Kavan Byrne<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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In my last post, we got a great insight into the mind of Mike Samuels as part of the 'Meet the Coaches' series. This time out I've been speaking to Kavan Byrne, he's a guy that I've been following for a long time and whom I have a lot of respect for. I've been following his antics since his first show, not only is he a phenomenal athlete, he's a great guy. So without further ado, let's get to it. <br />
Q. Tell us a little about your background. Have you always been health and fitness oriented? Have you always been a coach? If not, tell us about what you did before and why you wanted to become a coach.<br />
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A. Well I wasn't born but I was raised in a gym. My parents owned gyms all through my childhood and bodybuilders and the fitness industry was something i was very much exposed to and very much involved in from a young age, it was where I started my fitness and bodybuilding journey. I worked in and managed a supplement shop for 5 years through college from the age of 17/18 before I came a coach so I'm a bit of a supplement buff aswell :) </span><br />
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Q. As a coach, what are the key things that you try to instil in your clients?
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<span style="color: red;">A. Train smart not hard. There's a time and place to go balls to the wall but there's no point lifting everything unless it's with intent and understanding the reason as to why you're lifting it and what you want from it. </span><br />
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Q. Have you ever competed in any bodybuilding/powerlifting/sport related competitions? <br />
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<span style="color: red;">A. I have placed 3rd in Juniors in NABBA Mr. Ireland 2012 & 2013 and last year I placed 2nd in that same class the day after placing 4th in the RIBBF Nationals Junior class :) I'm 23 on the 1st March of this year so it's my last year as a junior and a good time to send me some monster zero as a present Al ;)</span><br />
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(Note from the author - The Monster must have gotten lost in the post, or it could be that I was just sending empty cans..) <br />
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Q. Describe your own training style/approach<br />
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<span style="color: red;">A. I'm currently training powerlifting in Boyneside Strength & Performance , my coach Dean Gartland uses a conjugate system which I loves 2 upper body days and 2 lower body days one dynamic (speed work) and one max effort :)
With bodybuilding, I like to pre exhaust every muscle group to begin with, work it as maximally and optimally as possible for a main move, work it from a stretched position then a finishing move to flood the blood in </span><br />
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Q. Who is your biggest inspiration? (Fitness or otherwise) and why?<br />
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<span style="color: red;">A. I draw inspiration from a lot of different places and I always have, the bigger dude in the gym, my parents, my friends and from a pro level Flex Wheeler, Flex Lewis, Justin Compton and then the younger dudes Cody Montgomery and Dallas McCarver are big inspirations at the moment</span> <br />
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Q. What would be your words of advice to anyone just starting out?
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<span style="color: red;">A. Enjoy it. It's a marathon not a sprint, don't try and take everything and do everything all at once. If you weigh 60kg soaking weight, don't try and get shredded like Lipsett, bulk up and build some muscle and a foundation (without becoming a blob)
Matt Wenning is a popular powerlifting coach in the states and has made the point that if your foundation isn't all that wide you can only peak so high. So the bigger the foundation, the bigger the peak </span><br />
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Q. There's a huge difference in your physique between your bodybuilding competitions. So it really begs the question - Is it something to do with the beard?
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<span style="color: red;">A. Between my first and second show I put on 14kg of stage weights, now I could've been lighter but I did some growing.
Face hair is the key and anybody who disagrees has a baby face hahaha </span><br />
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Q. What supplements do you currently use?<br />
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<span style="color: red;">A. My go tos are a decent Whey protein, glutamine a good BCAA and intra carb powder. I'm using some Olimp and MyProtein stuff at the moment that are pretty decent </span><br />
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Q. Any projects on the horizon that you can give us a teaser of?
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<span style="color: red;">A. I'll be at BodyPower with my Sponsors Up&Cut and catching up with sown friendly faces in the industry :)
Few photo shoots and then of course I'll be back on stage this October to claim the NABBA Junior Mr. Ireland title ;)</span><br />
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So there you have it, a quick crash course in the life and times of Kavan Byrne. If you're interested in finding out more, check out his social media channels - <br />
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Twitter - <a href="http://www.twitter.com/KayByrne_GWH">www.twitter.com/KayByrne_GWH</a><br />
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Instagram - <a href="http://www.instagram.com/kavb_gwh">www.instagram.com/kavb_gwh</a><br />
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As always, you can catch me on social media using the buttons below...<br />
<a href="http://www.twitter.com/Wrighty__" target="_blank"><img alt="twitter, health, fitness, blog, writing, rugby" border="0" src="https://adium.im/images/services/icon-twitter.png" title="" /></a> <a href="http://www.instagram.com/wrighty__" target="_blank"><img alt="instagram, health, fitness, muscle, nutrition, blog, writing" border="0" src="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/library/images/icons/instagram" title="" /></a>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08355044903865742023noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3207314820675342412.post-53870273221618746792016-03-26T03:38:00.000-07:002016-03-26T03:38:33.247-07:00Bodybuilding on a budgetThis next article comes from Adam Foster of <a href="https://www.blogger.com/www.shreddybrek.com">Shreddybrek</a> and is all focused on bodybuilding on a budget. Most people think that it costs a lot to eat healthily in general and usually use that as an excuse to binge on less expensive, less nutritionally dense foods. This article should change your mind a little, so without further ado, take it away Adam...
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“Eat Big To Get Big” what a cliché.</div>
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We’ve all heard it, and as cliché as it sounds…. It’s true.
You <i>can’t</i> gain weight without eating
“big”. </div>
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But for the “casual” gym goer eating big means eating
expensive…. But that doesn’t have to be the case.</div>
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Seriously, I’m speaking from experience.</div>
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I’m 25 now, but I was once an 18 year old, going to Uni,
working part time, paying for bus passes, University books, gym membership, and
food.</div>
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Whilst I don’t eat like this now, when I was on a tight
budget, it worked so well for me.</div>
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As a competitive bodybuilder, blogger and YouTube video
maker, I get asked the same questions from blog comments, emails, YouTube
comments and from guys in the gym.</div>
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“How do you afford to eat!?” </div>
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“I can’t afford to eat like you, what should I do?”</div>
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Truth is, these people just make assumptions about what I
eat. Heck, they make assumptions about what all bodybuilders eat.</div>
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These assumptions are probably made up from “pro
bodybuilders” and what magazines publish.</div>
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This is a far cry from the reality of me and you hitting the
gym and trying to make some gains.</div>
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We don’t have the luxury of having no job. Being paid by a
supplement company to train, and compete.</div>
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That’s just life.</div>
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We need to make the most of our situation. Whether we’re
earning £3,000 a year, £30,000 a year or £300,000 a year – there is a way we
can all eat, supplement, and workout.</div>
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Here are my top tips for eating like a bodybuilder on a
budget. All based from my experiences from Uni and beyond!</div>
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">There’s more to gaining muscle than protein</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Buy in bulk</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->3.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Protein powder is your cheap ass friend –
embrace it</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->4.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Prep in advance, and don’t buy pre-prepared
anything</div>
<h2>
More Than Protein</h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
People often think “to gain muscle eat all protein”
completely forgetting about carbs and fats.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My macro breakdown is roughly</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
50-55% carbs</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
30-35% protein</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
10-20% fat</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That somehow adds up to 100%....</div>
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Anyways, as you can see, carbs makes up a large part of my
overall macro and calorie intake.</div>
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The best thing is …. Carbs are cheap!</div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://dailybrainstorms.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Daily_brain_storms_Carbohydrates_5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="carbohydrates, cheap food, cheap bodybuilding, budget, adam foster, shreddybrek" border="0" src="http://dailybrainstorms.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Daily_brain_storms_Carbohydrates_5.jpg" height="215" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
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<b>Here are my
recommendations for cheap carbs<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Rice</div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Potato</div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Oatmeal</div>
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Aaaand that’s it.</div>
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If you’re having 5/6 meals a day – alternate these carb
sources so you’re having 2 meals of each.</div>
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If 3 carb sources aren’t quite enough for you then you can
also throw in these slightly more expensive options;</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span>Sweet Potato</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]-->Ground Rice</div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span>Cereal</div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">Cornflakes</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="text-indent: -18pt;"> Rice Crispies</span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Rice Cakes</div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Bananas</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All are relatively cheap, all are easy to prepare.</div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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<b>Cheap Fats<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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This is sooooo easy!</div>
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Peanut Butter!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A 1kg tub from somewhere like Myprotein is just £4.99.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1kg is “bulk buying” but that leads onto a point I’ll cover
later.</div>
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You can go for almond butter, cashew butter, or just
straight up nuts BUT!</div>
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Peanut butter is cheaper, and tastes nicer.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://images.vitaminimages.com/hb/vf/productimages/HB/370/002142_A.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="peanut butter, cheap bodybuilding, cheap food, adam foster, shreddybrek" border="0" src="http://images.vitaminimages.com/hb/vf/productimages/HB/370/002142_A.png" height="320" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Cheap Protein Sources<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The cheapest protein source by far, is whey protein powder.
A lot of people think supplements are expensive, and those people buy them from
Tesco or Asda.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Seriously, if you’re clued up – you would never ever buy
supplements from a supermarket.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You can easily pick up 1kg of whey protein concentrate
powder for just under £10. </div>
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1kg of whey will give you around 40 servings – each one
packing around 20g of protein. BUT if you buy in bulk (which I’ll cover later)
then you get them even cheaper. It makes sense – and you know it does.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Protein powder isn’t anything special though. It doesn’t
make you gain muscle quicker, or make you stronger. It’s just a source of
protein. Think of it as nothing more than this.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Other cheap protein sources include;</div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Whole eggs</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l4 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Tuna</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l4 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Chicken Breast – Don’t buy from the
supermarkets. Musclefood sells it for cheap, but you can get it for even
cheaper (usually) by striking a deal with a local butcher – if you buy in bulk.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l4 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Milk</div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Cottage Cheese</div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Ground Turkey</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l4 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Ground Beef</div>
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Plenty to pick from there, so you should never get bored.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://cdn.vkool.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/lean-meat-and-poultry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="protein, bodybuilding, cheap food, bodybuilding budget, adam foster, shreddybrek" border="0" src="http://cdn.vkool.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/lean-meat-and-poultry.jpg" height="180" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2>
Buy In Bulk</h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I cannot stress this enough….. BUY IN BULK!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Chicken breast from Tesco is £8.17 for 1 kg. Here it is: <a href="http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=288879417">http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=288879417</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I get 1kg of chicken from my local butchers for £4.33 ….
Almost half the price. BUT to get it for this cheap I have to buy 15kg of it at
once, for £65.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I easily get 5 meals out of 1kg. So I get 75 meals for £65.
That’s just £0.87 a meal.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You can always go halves with a friend, or just save your
cash up, and buy it in 1 go. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You’re going to need it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The same goes for protein powder.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Lets use Myprotein Impact whey as an example. Its RRP is
£12.69 for 1kg here <a href="http://www.myprotein.com/sports-nutrition/impact-whey-protein/10530943.html">http://www.myprotein.com/sports-nutrition/impact-whey-protein/10530943.html</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So for 5kg that would be £63.45</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Buy a 5kg pouch and it costs just £46.79. Combine this with
a <a href="http://cheapproteindiscountcodes.co.uk/">http://cheapproteindiscountcodes.co.uk</a>
my protein discount code, and you can get <i>at
least</i> an extra 10% off. Sometimes, you can get 30% off. That would make 5kg
of impact whey from Myprotein just £32.78.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Again, using the 25g serving size, this means each serving
of 20g of protein will cost you under £0.17 a scoop. Lets say you need 2
servings for meal…. You’re getting 1 meals worth of protein for under £0.35.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Butttttttttttttt, if you wanna keep heading to Tesco buying
their brands… go ahead ;)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By no means do you have to use MyProtein. I’m simply using
them as an example.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I would personally however recommend one of the big, cheap,
UK protein bulk suppliers. The following are all well known within the UK,
reputable, and offer cheap protein, especially when buying in bulk</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l5 level1 lfo5; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Myprotein</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l5 level1 lfo5; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Protein Dynamix</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l5 level1 lfo5; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Bulk Powders</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l5 level1 lfo5; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Go Nutrition</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l5 level1 lfo5; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->The Protein Works</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l5 level1 lfo5; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Bodybuilding Warehouse</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All of these companies offer a very similar level of
quality, at similar price points. Shop around to find the best discounts,
offers or prices, and then stick with a brand.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: red;">(Note from Alex - <a href="http://www.jbc-nutrition.co.uk/" target="_blank">JBC Nutrition</a> is also a great bulk protein supplier, use the code JBCALEX04 at checkout for 10% off)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.jackedfactory.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Dollarphotoclub_69504139.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="protein powder, cheap protein, bodybuilding budget, adam foster, shreddybrek" border="0" height="259" src="https://www.jackedfactory.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Dollarphotoclub_69504139.jpg" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span></div>
<h2>
Prep</h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the words of Chris Jericho</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Never Ev….ev….eeeevvvvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrr” buy
pre prepared food. Microwave rice is £1.50-£20 for 1 pack which will do you 1
meal.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1 kg of raw, uncooked rice in comparison, can be picked up
for around £1.50 – and easily give you 10 meals minimum.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1 of my rice meals is only 70g raw rice. This means a 1kg
bag is giving me 14 servings. Assume a £1.50 price tag, and that means im
getting each rice meal for around £0.11</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But preparing goes beyond food prep.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You should;</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo6; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Establish macros</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo6; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Draw up a meal plan</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo6; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Write a shopping list</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo6; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Stick to this</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This means you won’t deviate from the plan, buy food and
waste it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://lifecdn.dailyburn.com/life/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Protein-Meal-Prep-Pic1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="bodybuilding, meal prep, healthy food, adam foster, shreddybrek" border="0" src="http://lifecdn.dailyburn.com/life/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Protein-Meal-Prep-Pic1.png" height="320" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2>
Wrapping Up</h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As you can see, this article has shown you can bodybuilding
on the cheap.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It has contained no fancy, expensive supplements. Hell, the
only supplement it contains is a protein powder.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It contains no expensive or extravagant foods. Just basics.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Apply these tips to your own diet, and start fueling the
gain train, with the cheapest, but best fuel, available.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You can follow me at</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/shreddybreklol">http://www.facebook.com/shreddybreklol</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.twitter.com/shreddybrekgym">http://www.twitter.com/shreddybrekgym</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/shreddybrek">http://www.youtube.com/shreddybrek</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
</div>
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<br /></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08355044903865742023noreply@blogger.com36tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3207314820675342412.post-57932862057264584012016-02-28T07:00:00.000-08:002016-02-28T07:00:15.010-08:00Meet the coaches: Mike SamuelsThis is a post that I'm extremely excited to share with you. You've probably seen me write a lot about Mike Samuels, or Healthy Living, Heavy Lifting. I've been an avid follower of his for a while now, and much of the content that I produce is based on experiences that I've had after following his articles and acting on many of the suggestions that he makes. In my opinion, he's nothing short of a genius with an awesome writing style, and to top it all off - he's a great guy. So without further ado, let's learn a little more about the man himself!<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVWUoPjDznyFEF9il3KTHAePV-UOWLHad2laJSZ32Qm9qy0uDcc4NFx-J4-uobWdkFd7iPr62C6msGAcPdxSKZbVEKJFg6b91yCr9DPtPqerlBAFDs8Mw6VH8TvCBNM5PGn8QKev6rKQ4/s1600/Mike+samuels.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="health, fitness, workout, training" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVWUoPjDznyFEF9il3KTHAePV-UOWLHad2laJSZ32Qm9qy0uDcc4NFx-J4-uobWdkFd7iPr62C6msGAcPdxSKZbVEKJFg6b91yCr9DPtPqerlBAFDs8Mw6VH8TvCBNM5PGn8QKev6rKQ4/s320/Mike+samuels.jpg" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.4599990844727px; margin-bottom: 1.35em;">
<b>Q: Sum up yourself and what you do.</b></div>
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<b style="line-height: 18.4599990844727px;"><span style="color: red;">A: I'm Mike - an online coach, writer and personal trainer from England. I like eating, lifting heavy stuff, and helping others to feel better about themselves.</span></b></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4599990844727px;"><b>Q: Tell us a little about your background. Have you always been health and fitness oriented? Have you always been a coach? If not, tell us about what you did before and why you wanted to become a coach.</b></span></div>
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<b style="line-height: 18.4599990844727px;"><span style="color: red;">A: I was always the chubby kid at school and got pissed off with that, so I started running.</span></b></div>
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<b style="line-height: 18.4599990844727px;"><span style="color: red;">I ran myself down from a podgy 15-stone to about 9-stone, while following a low-fat diet. Essentially I got skinny! Then I discovered weights and decided I wanted to be a personal trainer. The only non-fitness jobs I've had were a paper round at age 14, and I did 6 months in a DIY store part-time while I was at college. I started as a full-time PT in 2009, got involved in online coaching in 2014, and have been mostly online since then.</span></b></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4599990844727px;"><b>Q: As a coach, what are the key things that you try to instil in your clients?</b></span></div>
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<b style="line-height: 18.4599990844727px;"><span style="color: red;">A: Life comes before diet and training ... ALWAYS.</span></b></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4599990844727px;"><b>Q: Have you ever competed in any bodybuilding/powerlifting/sport related competitions?</b></span></div>
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<b style="line-height: 21.2999992370605px;"><span style="color: red;">A: Yup. Last year I competed in both men's physique and bodybuilding, so had to strut my stuff on stage in skimpy pants! I also competed in 5 powerlifting competitions between 2012 and 2014, and am looking at getting back into it later this year</span></b></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4599990844727px;"><b>Q: Describe your own training style/approach</b></span></div>
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<b style="line-height: 18.4599990844727px;"><span style="color: red;">A: That's a tough one. I actually prefer not to have to think about my own training, hence I hire someone to program for me. But I suppose I like a mix of heavy stuff and pump work, along with basic powerlifting and "bro stuff." (because who doesn't love curls and pushdowns?)</span></b><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; line-height: 18.4599990844727px;"><b>Q: Who is your biggest inspiration? (Fitness or otherwise) and why?</b></span></div>
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<b style="line-height: 18.4599990844727px;"><span style="color: red;">Okay, these questions just get tougher.</span></b></div>
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<b style="line-height: 18.4599990844727px;"><span style="color: red;">I guess two guys - Nate Green and Jon Goodman - got me passionate about wanting to help loads of people, and live a cool life with purpose.</span></b></div>
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<b style="color: #444444; line-height: 18.4599990844727px;">Q: What would be your words of advice to anyone just starting out?</b></div>
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<b style="line-height: 18.4599990844727px;"><span style="color: red;">A: Just do the basics really, really well. Pick a few people to follow, and whatever you choose to do, stick with it. An average program and diet done consistently and with intensity will always get better results than chopping and changing between the latest fads.</span></b></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4599990844727px;"><b>Q: Team HLHL is picking up speed and growing rapidly, are there any new projects on the horizon off the back of this success?</b></span></div>
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<b style="line-height: 18.4599990844727px;"><span style="color: red;">A: Plenty more ebooks, potentially a membership site and world domination.</span></b></div>
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<b style="line-height: 18.4599990844727px;"><span style="color: red;">(Two of those are true by the way.)</span></b></div>
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*Author's note - I have it on good authority that Mike has already invested in a death ray to hold the world to ransom.</div>
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<b>Q: Are you currently affiliated with any brands?</b></div>
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<b style="line-height: 18.4599990844727px;"><span style="color: red;">A: Nope - I prefer to advise people on different products from a completely unbiased standpoint.</span></b></div>
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<b>Q: Any favourite/recommended supplements?</b></div>
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<b style="line-height: 18.4599990844727px;"><span style="color: red;">I'm a big fan of the Protein Works - they're a UK-based company, and have grown rapidly in recent years but still have a nice personal touch.</span></b></div>
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<b>Q: As an IIFYM'er, you're always experimenting with foods, what are your staple foods/what's your favourite meal to make at the moment?</b></div>
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<b style="line-height: 18.4599990844727px;"><span style="color: red;">Tuna, rice and broccoli.</span></b></div>
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<b style="line-height: 18.4599990844727px;"><span style="color: red;">Or protein sludge mixed with plain vanilla ice cream, digestive biscuits and sea salt.</span></b></div>
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So, there you have it - you're hopefully a little more familiar with Mike now. Why not head over to his website (link at the bottom of this article) and check his social media channels out to learn some more and get access to the amazing content that he's currently sharing with the world?</div>
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I'd also like to thank Mike for taking the time to answer a few questions for Muscle and Macros. You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar. </div>
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<b>Web: </b><a href="http://www.healthylivingheavylifting.com/">www.healthylivingheavylifting.com</a></div>
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<b>Twitter: </b><a href="https://twitter.com/mikesamuelspt">https://twitter.com/mikesamuelspt</a></div>
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<b>Facebook: </b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/HealthyLivingHeavyLifting?fref=ts">https://www.facebook.com/HealthyLivingHeavyLifting?fref=ts</a></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08355044903865742023noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3207314820675342412.post-34768544837917915162016-02-23T11:30:00.000-08:002016-02-23T11:30:23.882-08:00How to structure a workoutWorkouts are a great tool in terms of weight loss, muscle gain and generally living a healthier lifestyle. That being said, there is a difference between strolling into a gym and randomly jumping on any piece of equipment that takes your fancy, leisurely throwing out a few reps then leaving, and structuring a training session to ensure that you get the most out of each and every minute that you spend in the gym. This article is just going to run through a basic structure that could go a long way in helping you to achieve more from your sessions. It boils down to this:<br />
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<b><u>Warm Up</u></b></div>
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<li>5-10 minutes slow jogging, rowing, cycling etc </li>
<li>Mobility work (focus on any problem areas)</li>
<li>Activation work</li>
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<b><u>Main Event</u></b></div>
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<li>Warm up sets</li>
<li>Working sets (Strict rest times)</li>
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<b><u>Cool Down</u></b></div>
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<li>Stretching</li>
<li>Foam rolling</li>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://relentlessgains.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Stretching-bodybuilder.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="health, fitness, warm up, nutrition, training" border="0" src="http://relentlessgains.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Stretching-bodybuilder.jpg" height="228" title="" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image credit - relentlessgains.com</td></tr>
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Firstly, let's start with the warm up. As I've said in previous pieces, warming up is an incredibly important factor in a training session. It gets blood flowing through your muscles, mobilises your joints and muscles and prepares your body for the exercises in the session ahead. There are various sources out there that can provide you with great warmup routines and videos explaining various stretches etc. Again, there's a lot of information and links that can be found <a href="http://muscleandmacros.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/are-you-jeopardising-your-progress-in.html" target="_blank">here</a>.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image credit - gameplan.com</td></tr>
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Then there's the main event - the actual workout. Even though you've already warmed up, it's always good to get some warm up sets in before you hit your working sets. Before each workout, think about the weight that you want to lift for each exercise. Perform your warm up sets as percentages of that weight. For example -<br />
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<li><b>10 reps at 40% of target weight</b></li>
<li><b>8 reps at 60% of target weight</b></li>
<li><b>6 reps at 70% of target weight</b></li>
<li><b>4 reps at 80% of target weight</b></li>
<li><b>2 reps at 90% of target weight</b></li>
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It might seem like overkill, but these reps will ensure that your muscles are sufficiently warmed up, will minimise the risk of injury and will contribute to the overall volume of your workout. Bottom line - they're important. </div>
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Then there's your working sets, these need little to no explanation. Just perform each exercise for the set amount of weight, reps and sets that you've defined before your workout. The only thing that I'd ensure you keep track of is the time that you've taken to rest between sets. Here are some rough guidelines for rest in terms of the type of sets you're doing. </div>
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<li>Strength sets - 90-120 seconds between sets</li>
<li>Hypertrophy (higher rep) sets - 60-90 seconds between sets</li>
<li>Power (low weight, low rep) sets - 45-60 seconds between sets</li>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://stopwatch.onlineclock.net/stopwatch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="stopwatch, time, fitness, health, workout" border="0" src="http://stopwatch.onlineclock.net/stopwatch.jpg" height="212" title="" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image credit - stopwatch.onlineclock.net</td></tr>
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After that, you've got your cool down. This can take a very similar form to your warm up - just make sure that you're stretching your muscles out and working out any knots or kinks that may have formed during your session. </div>
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So that's an extremely basic, but efficient way of structuring your workout. Dubious? Try it out and let me know how you get on by getting in touch with me on social media using the buttons below, or dropping a comment in the comments section! </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08355044903865742023noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3207314820675342412.post-72250145319441371912016-02-18T11:30:00.000-08:002016-02-18T11:30:22.671-08:00Using MyFitnessPal to Track Calorie IntakeIn my last post I explained the basics behind calories and macronutrients, and provided you with a link to a calculator which would help you to calculate your own intake. Those numbers are great to have, but there's also got to be a way of tracking the foods that you eat in order to actually make use of those numbers. Enter MyFitnessPal:<br />
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MyFitnessPal is an app that can be installed on any smartphone or tablet, or even just used as a web app as a means of tracking calories and macronutrients. It has an absolutely massive database of foods which can be searched for. If you're using a smartphone, you'll usually be able to scan the barcode of your food and the app will pull up the nutritional data for it.<br />
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The only issue with the app is that it tries to dictate what your calorie and macronutrient intake should be. This is just something that you have to ignore when using the app. Use the Macro calculator that I linked to in my last article to get your numbers for calories and macros, and then input those numbers into your app through the 'Calorie and Macronutrient goals' field, which can be found under the 'Goals' tab of MyFitnessPal.</div>
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Unless you purchase the full version of the app, you'll be forced to set your macronutrients as percentages of your calorie intake. Try and manipulate your percentages to be as close to the numbers that you were given by the calculator and set them up. My advice after this would be to purely use the app as a tracking tool through the use of the 'Nutrition' tab. Basically, make a note of the numbers that the calculator gave you, use the numbers on the left hand side of the nutrition tab as a guideline, and check those two sets of figures against each other instead of using the numbers on the app. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoDJoJ5fWRsx3fqeAGi2bHGU85hFd78Drj-MSwZiSxXlkLyKKgN0xnHiCg0hp7D5usQ9A7ZxdbXP868VCnL292PZZcm6hfSDMy2vMZ2OuA1A9_pRg7Ak6PDFjKUL18D89E7nu2y0l8EGQ/s1600/Myfitnesspal.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="health, fitness, myfitnesspal, nutrition" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoDJoJ5fWRsx3fqeAGi2bHGU85hFd78Drj-MSwZiSxXlkLyKKgN0xnHiCg0hp7D5usQ9A7ZxdbXP868VCnL292PZZcm6hfSDMy2vMZ2OuA1A9_pRg7Ak6PDFjKUL18D89E7nu2y0l8EGQ/s320/Myfitnesspal.PNG" title="" width="216" /></a></div>
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The last thing that I will say about using MyFitnessPal, is that its up to you to keep yourself accountable. Track with honesty and accountability and stick to your numbers, and you'll find that you're on a sustainable path to your goals.</div>
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If you'd like to chat to me about this article, or you've got any feedback then you can get in touch with me on social media through the buttons below. If you don't have Twitter or Instagram then just drop a comment on this post and I'll get back to you!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08355044903865742023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3207314820675342412.post-74616103534590411542016-02-15T11:30:00.000-08:002016-02-15T11:30:10.483-08:00Calories and Macronutrients - The BasicsIn a lot of my posts I talk about nutrition and regularly reference things like 'macros', calories, IIFYM, flexible dieting etc. It has only just dawned on me that I'm excluding a lot of people and assuming that everyone is already clued in on the details of nutrition. So for that, I should apologise. However, instead of apologising, I'm going to dedicate this post to explaining the real basics of calories and macronutrients. I'll start with calories.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.mhpersonaltraining.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/calories.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="calories, nutrition, fitness, health, blog" border="0" src="http://www.mhpersonaltraining.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/calories.jpg" height="212" title="" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
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Calories are the fuel on which your body runs. Overall, they're the one set of numbers that you should always be looking at if you're serious about your nutrition. Whether its weight loss, weight gain, or maintaining weight; calories are important. There are too many 'experts' and nutritional zealots in the industry today proclaiming that calories aren't important. This is complete and utter rubbish. Yes there are schemes that help people to lose weight and they don't mention calories at all. People even lose weight on these schemes, but I guarantee that when they do, they're in a calorie deficit due to restricting some high calorie foods. Yes I'm looking at you guys on Slimming World - all of those 'Syns' that you're told to stay strict on are high in fat. You'll realise why its important to cut those down when I talk about macros later on.<br />
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Everyone will have their own specific number of calories that is needed for them to gain, lose or maintain weight. Usually these numbers will depend primarily on your height, weight, activity level and age (there are many other factors that can be used to really hone in on those numbers but the ones listed are the basics and good enough to get you a reliable result). I've explained this in another articles, but the basics behind weight loss, gain or maintenance in terms of calories boils down to the following:<br />
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<b>Calories consumed > Calories burned = Weight Gain</b></div>
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<b>Calories burned > Calories consumed = Weight loss</b></div>
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<b>Calories Burned = Calories Consumed = Maintain weight</b></div>
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Don't let anyone tell you different, your caloric intake for each day is extremely important, and you can't trick the science of it with any wonder supplements or by pretending that they don't exist. </div>
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<b><u>Macronutrients</u></b></div>
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So now you have a basic idea of calories, let's talk about the building blocks behind those numbers. Those building blocks are known as macronutrients, or macros for short. They consist of Protein, Fats, and Carbohydrates. Any food with a calorie content will contain a mix of those macronutrients. As calories are calculated through the use of numbers, so are macronutrients. Here's how those numbers look - </div>
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<b>Protein - 4 calories per gram</b></div>
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<b>Carbohydrate - 4 calories per gram</b></div>
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<b>Fat - 9 calories per gram</b></div>
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By that logic, 25 grams of carbohydrates would be 100 calories, 25 grams of protein would be 100 calories, and 11 grams of fat would equal 99 calories.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.joshwalliecoaching.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Josh-Wallie-Fat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="health, fitness, calories, nutrients, blog, workout" border="0" src="http://www.joshwalliecoaching.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Josh-Wallie-Fat.jpg" height="218" title="" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
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For any Slimming World followers - that's why your syns are all fat heavy foods. By reducing foods that are high in fat, you're reducing the foods that are most calorie dense and therefore increasing your chance of being in a caloric deficit. </div>
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In terms of calculating your own personal calories and macronutrients, I could give you a way of calculating those numbers but I'd just be taking credit for someone else's work. Instead, I'm just going to give you a link to my man Mike Samuels' Macro calculator on his Healthy Living Heavy Lifting website. </div>
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<a href="http://www.healthylivingheavylifting.com/how-to-calculate-macros-for-cutting/" target="_blank">Healthy Living, Heavy Lifting - How to Calculate Macros for Cutting</a></div>
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That article will give you everything that you need in terms of calculating calories and macronutrients. The Healthy Living Heavy Lifting blog is also a great source of information, so if you head over there then spend a little bit of time browsing through the other articles. </div>
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If you'd like to get in touch with me regarding these articles then you can find me on social media through the buttons below, or drop a comment on this article and I'll get back to you!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08355044903865742023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3207314820675342412.post-73173222549815171102016-02-10T11:00:00.000-08:002016-02-10T11:00:20.447-08:00Are you jeopardising your progress in the gym?These days I see a lot of different styles of training from a lot of different people at the gym - Strongmen, bodybuilders, crossfitters, cardio kings and queens etc. Regardless of their form of training, there's one common factor that ties them all together - the vast majority of them seem to jump straight into their workouts without warming up.<br />
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I know that the concept of a warm up being something that could potentially jeopardise your progress if not observed/not done correctly is a pretty simple one, yet so many people neglect the process. Maybe they don't have the time to warm up, maybe it bores them, maybe they think that it doesn't apply to them. If the latter is the reason for not warming up then they're either not training properly in terms of mechanics, or they're not training very hard at all.<br />
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<a href="http://i1.wp.com/www.winetoweightlifting.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/band2-e1379348706160.jpg?resize=600%2C450" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="weightlifting, health, fitness, stretching, crossfit, bodybuilding" border="0" src="http://i1.wp.com/www.winetoweightlifting.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/band2-e1379348706160.jpg?resize=600%2C450" height="240" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Image credit - www.winetoweightlifting.com</span></div>
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Why should you warm up? </h3>
There are a few simple answers to this question, but I'll just highlight two. Firstly, working out without warming up means that you're going into a workout without preparing your muscles. This in turn means that you have an extremely high risk of injury, especially if you plan on performing some heavy compound lifts. Secondly, a warm up will stretch out your muscles and contribute to better mobility. Therefore if you're not stretching and warming up, your mobility will be affected and if you don't get injured, you won't be able to perform your lifts with the full range of motion, losing the effectiveness of the lift.<br />
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If you grew up in a similar environment to me then the idea of stretching and warming up probably involves a bunch of generic, static stretches like toe touching. I'm not saying that this form of stretching is redundant, but it definitely isn't optimal.<br />
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<a href="https://lacrestadr.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/dscf4915.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="weightlifting, crossfit, bodybuilding, stretching, fitness, workout" border="0" height="240" src="https://lacrestadr.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/dscf4915.jpg" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Image credit - crossfithelena.com</span></div>
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Where to start</h3>
Forget what you know about stretching and warming up, the first step is to re-educate yourself. There are a lot of stretching and warm up routines out there, some better than others. One that I'd particularly recommend to newbies is <a href="http://www.muscleandfitness.com/workouts/workout-tips/bulletproof-your-body-ultimate-warm" target="_blank">The Ultimate Warm Up Routine</a> from Muscle and Fitness. Its also got a great article attached to it.<br />
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Another one (and one that I'm currently using) is a warm up routine featured in an ebook called Strength and Power. It can be found on <a href="http://www.ironmacfitness.com/" target="_blank">Iron Mac Fitness</a>. There's a lot of great information in that book, so I'd suggest downloading it. Its also FREE.<br />
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<a href="http://www.ironmacfitness.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Strength-Power-Small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="strength, conditioning, power, weightlifting, fitness, workout" border="0" src="http://www.ironmacfitness.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Strength-Power-Small.jpg" title="" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Image credit - www.ironmacfitness.com</span></div>
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When it comes to the time you spend stretching, there's not a prescribed amount of reps or time that you should do it for. You should switch between relaxing and holding a stretch until you feel the target muscle loosen up properly. Don't rush the process, impatience is a step away from injury.<br />
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If you've got any questions or feedback regarding this article, please feel free to drop a comment below or get in touch with me on social media using the buttons below.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08355044903865742023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3207314820675342412.post-77205145524238899772016-01-17T09:00:00.000-08:002016-01-19T12:34:44.410-08:00The biggest secrets to weight loss - revealed! Apologies for leaving my last post on a cliffhanger - it was getting a little long and I still had a lot more to say. To make sure that this post doesn't go in the same direction, I'm going to get to the point right away.<br />
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If you didn't catch my last post, I was giving a quick overview of the state of the fitness industry today in terms of miracle supplements and fad diets. To sum up - there's a lot. From diets and magical workouts, to special powders that instantly make you lose multiple stone in body weight - they're all out there. The worrying thing is, you don't even have to look very far.<br />
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This piece is going to cover one of the real secrets to successful weight loss, and you're going to kick yourself for not having thought of it before; this part concerns nutrition.<br />
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You've probably heard countless people reciting the phrase 'abs are built in the kitchen'. This isn't strictly true, you don't 'build' abs, everyone is born with them, they just might be covered at the moment. However the sentiment of that statement definitely holds true. Nutrition is the cornerstone to weight loss. You can work as hard as you like in the gym, but if you're shovelling a ridiculous amount of calories into your body then all of those hours working out aren't going to add up to much.<br />
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At the highest and most basic level, here's what nutrition really boils down to:<br />
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Calories out > Calories in = Calorie deficit = Weight loss</h4>
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Calories in > Calories out = Calorie surplus = Weight gain</h4>
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Yes, it really is that simple. To lose weight you need to be burning more calories than you're consuming, and to gain weight you need to be consuming more than you're burning. Too simple to be true, right? </div>
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Wrong. </div>
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You technically don't need to spend hours punishing yourself in the gym to lose weight (but I'll cover how it can help in my next post), you simply need to eat less. That being said, there are always certain guidelines and rules to be wary of whilst putting yourself in a calorie deficit. The main ones are as follows: </div>
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<li>Don't starve yourself, It's not healthy, doesn't do your body any good, and nobody likes to be hangry 24/7.</li>
<li>Don't demonise certain foods - A calorie is a calorie, a carb is a carb, fat is fat, protein is protein. Your body largely can't tell the difference between carbohydrates consumed from starchy vegetables and carbohydrates consumed from rice, pasta, or even the devil's food - bread. Damn you Satan, you sandwich loving maniac.</li>
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There are many others, but those two are a good starting point. I keep seeing a meme doing the rounds on social media and even as a flexible dieter, its something that I agree with. I'll admit that there are some parts that I'd question, but the message is clear -<br />
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To sum up, the real secret to nutrition is to K.I.S.S - Keep It Simple, Stupid! I'm not saying that you should go all 'bro' and start eating 6 meals a day comprising of chicken, broccoli and rice - that just isn't sustainable, and it's boring as hell. I'm saying that you should take an 80/20 approach to your diet. Make sure that 80% consists of good quality foods, one that you really get your calories' worth as it were. For example: chicken, cous cous, vegetables, rice, pasta, potatoes, sweet potatoes, tuna, lean beef, turkey and greek yoghurt are all huge staples of my diet. Most days I'll eat at least 5 of those foods and it gives me that little bit of leeway and those macros left over to be able to enjoy something a little sweeter like some chocolate, or my personal favourite - COCO POPS!! Again, I'm not telling you that if you eat chicken and broccoli all day that you can just afford to binge on junk food. Be smart about your nutrition, take the 80/20 split and then allow yourself your favourite foods IN MODERATION. Maybe one bowl of coco pops, and not 5 (Something I save for refeed days), four pieces of chocolate, and not a whole bar. Don't restrict the things that you love because you'll only crave them more. Instead, learn how to enjoy them in moderation.<br />
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Now that's an extremely loose guide on the secret of weight loss and by no means am I proclaiming that its the full answer to it. However, if you're just starting out then why not adopt that approach? Of course as time goes on, you'll have to start looking at your diet in more detail depending on your long term goal, but this should give you an extremely strong framework and foundation to work from. For anyone that wants to push further and learn more about the intricacies of nutrition then there will be a few posts coming along soon to cover that. Until that time you can get in touch with me on social media to ask any questions using the buttons below. Stay tuned for my next post in this series, which will be covering the secret to sustainable, successful training.<br />
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For anyone interested in purchasing supplements, head over to <a href="http://www.jbc-nutrition.co.uk/" target="_blank">JBC Nutrition</a> and enter the code JBCALEX04 at checkout to get 10% off your order!<br />
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Until next time...<br />
<br />
Alex<br />
<br />
#TeamJBC<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08355044903865742023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3207314820675342412.post-18422296868959722692016-01-14T10:00:00.000-08:002016-01-14T10:00:10.237-08:00Biggest secrets to weight loss! <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Ok so the title is a little misleading, but I had to get your attention somehow! Throughout the year I see posts from various people claiming to have the 'secret to weight loss', mostly through ridiculously overpriced, underwhelming supplements and fad diets. However with the masses making their new years resolutions to get fitter, leaner, and healthier, the health gurus come out in force. Not only do we see a rise in self proclaimed fitness and weight loss experts, most multi level marketing schemes also decide to rear their ugly heads.<br />
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Want to lose weight, AND make money? </h2>
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Those ^^^ are the kind of questions that you see posted freely around various forms of social media, usually coupled with a ridiculous amount of emojis and exclamation marks. You know, just to really prove their point. I'd say 75% of people have the common sense to stay away from these kinds of posts. However there are always some pour souls that are sucked in by the false promises because they're either desperate and kidding themselves, or just unaware of how dieting works. </div>
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There are plenty of fancy sounding supplements out there, most are complete with their own catchy slogan and promise of success. Pills, powders, diets, detoxes, you name it, its out there. Which leads me to this question..<br />
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When did dieting get so complicated?</h2>
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I'll tell you when - right around the time that people realised that they could make money by exploiting the lack of widespread public knowledge of nutritional science. They realised that they could slap fancy labels on what is effectively a placebo, and people would buy it out of desperation. The fitness industry has become saturated with over-complicated diets, workouts and supplements. </div>
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So how do we separate the right information from the lies? Tune in to my next post where I'll be revealing the three pillars of dieting success.</div>
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Until next time...</div>
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Alex<br />
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#TeamJBC<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08355044903865742023noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3207314820675342412.post-87447216671236573442016-01-12T12:35:00.000-08:002016-01-12T12:35:05.687-08:00Now a JBC Ambassador!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://s3-media2.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/OYFyWplJQ6mivRTv3xYhfA/ls.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://s3-media2.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/OYFyWplJQ6mivRTv3xYhfA/ls.jpg" /></a></div>
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Anyone that manages to catch any of my social media posts might have noticed that I've recently been taken on as a brand ambassador for JBC Nutrition. If you didn't know before, you do now! This means that I'll be representing the brand and promoting their products. It also means the following:<br />
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10% Off ALL JBC Nutrition Products (Excl. 3 for 2)</h2>
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Use the code JBCALEX04 at checkout to claim discount</h2>
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I'm really excited to have the chance to work with JBC because they're a brand that I've used religiously for a while, and therefore a brand that I actually believe in. All of the products that they stock are extremely high quality and lacking the price tag that you see from their competitors. I'd encourage everyone to give JBC Nutrition a try for their next supplement order. With 10% discount on already low prices, what do you have to lose? </div>
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If you're anything like me then you probably hear the name of a supplement company that you've never heard of before, and you're a little hesitant. The majority of people already have their own trusted supplement company and are always reluctant to try something new. For that reason I welcome any questions whatsoever about the brand, and will of course answer any questions on the supplements with complete honesty. After all, it's no good lying, and trying to sell poor quality supplements to people for three reasons: </div>
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<li><b>Poor customer satisfaction and therefore poor feedback and reviews</b></li>
<li><b>No repeat business</b></li>
<li><b>No recommendations to others</b></li>
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If you're wary of coming directly to me for honest feedback on JBC products, then not to worry. I'll be doing a series of posts on here reviewing their key products, starting with my personal favourite - JBC Iso Whey protein powder. </div>
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If you'd like to contact me regarding this post, or just in general, then you can find me on social media using the buttons below. </div>
<a href="http://www.twitter.com/Wrighty__" target="_blank"><img alt="twitter, health, fitness, blog, writing, rugby" border="0" src="https://adium.im/images/services/icon-twitter.png" title="" /></a> <a href="http://www.instagram.com/wrighty__" target="_blank"><img alt="instagram, health, fitness, muscle, nutrition, blog, writing" border="0" src="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/library/images/icons/instagram" title="" /></a>
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Until next time...</div>
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Alex</div>
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#TeamJBC</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08355044903865742023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3207314820675342412.post-1070167589199367512015-11-12T14:07:00.001-08:002015-11-12T14:07:13.836-08:00Who hates cardio? Sample workouts inside!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I do. Out of all of the forms of exercise, cardiovascular training has to be my least favourite. It makes minutes feel like hours and repeating the same movement over and over for 30-60 minutes is extremely tedious. Give me a few sets of heavy deadlifts or squats over a 5 mile run or 10 mile cycle any day of the week.<br />
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Yet I still force myself into a few cardio sessions per week to supplement my training. Why? The answer is simple:. I.LOVE.FOOD. Unfortunately, this love for food means that I have to increase my training to achieve a satisfactory calorie deficit for weight loss. Weightlifting will always be my preferred form of training, after all - more muscle mass means that more calories are needed to maintain. However, its pretty inevitable that after a while of dieting, your weight loss will begin to plateau and maybe grind to a halt. At that point, you have a few options:<br />
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1. Decrease calories further. However maybe you've already done that, and you don't think its a good idea to drop any more.<br />
2. Reverse diet/take a diet break - Just like it says on the tin, this either involves gradually increasing your calories over time until you're back at maintenance levels, or just taking a few weeks away from your diet. Obviously this would still involve trying to eat right and gauging how many calories you're eating a day. This option generally isn't a favourite for people unless they're already pretty lean.<br />
3. ADD CARDIO - If you're already weight training (which in my opinion, you should be) then its probably not a good idea to keep piling on the volume as this could lead to injury. However adding cardio as a different form of burning calories will be lower impact and can be added comfortably to a weightlifting routine.<br />
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So now we've covered the 'why' of adding cardio to your routine (apart from the fact that some people love it), lets explore the 'how'. That might sound like an obvious thing to cover, but when most people think of cardio they think of endless running or rowing, countless hours on the exercise bike or cross trainer. It doesn't have to be like that.<br />
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<a href="http://hayli2goode.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/gabriel-grobben-crossfit-06.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://hayli2goode.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/gabriel-grobben-crossfit-06.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
To quote healthstatus.com:<br />
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<i>"Cardio exercise is any exercise that raises your heart rate"</i><br />
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That can be achieved in a number of ways. A lot of pro bodybuilders will opt for LISS (Low intensity steady state) cardio when prepping for competitions as they believe it prevents muscle breakdown and is more suited to their goals. However you'll find that people like crossfitters will wholeheartedly embrace a HIIT (High intensity interval training) style approach.<br />
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Whether you want to opt for HIIT or LISS is up to you. Would you rather spend an hour on a treadmill or bike at a slow but steady pace, or spend 20 minutes on the same piece of equipment at varying speeds and intensities? I used the treadmill and bike as an example here, but there are countless ways in which you can perform HIIT or LISS cardio. Personally I'll opt for a HIIT approach 90% of the time, and add an LISS workout in very occasionally, because that's what works for me. I'll also try to keep traditional forms of cardio to a minimum, and I'm always looking for new ways to mix up what would otherwise be mind numbingly tedious workouts.<br />
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So as promised, here are a few of my favourite cardio workouts!<br />
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<h3>
Workout 1 - High intensity</h3>
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400m Run<br />
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Barbell thrusters (40kg RX) x 15 Reps<br />
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Burpees x 10<br />
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Pull ups x 5<br />
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5 rounds<br />
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The aim for this one is to have as little rest as possible! <br />
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<h3>
Workout 2 - Tabata (High intensity)</h3>
4 minutes - 10 seconds off, 20 seconds on (Perform each exercise for 4 mins before moving on)<br />
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Double unders<br />
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Burpees<br />
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Kettlebell swings<br />
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Jump Squats<br />
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Press ups <br />
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Workout 3 - Metabolic conditioning</h3>
Run 400m<br />
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50 pull ups<br />
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Run 400m<br />
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50 push ups<br />
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Run 400m<br />
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50 sit ups<br />
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Run 400m <br />
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50 squats<br />
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Try and keep a decent pace, but don't go all out at the beginning and gas yourself out! <br />
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<h3>
Workout 4 - High intensity</h3>
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2K row (as fast as possible) <br />
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<h3>
Workout 5 - High intensity</h3>
21-15-9 Reps<br />
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Burpees<br />
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Kettlebell Swing (24kg RX)<br />
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This should take 5 minutes or less if performed at the right pace, and will catch you by surprise! <br />
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<h3>
Workout 6 - High Intensity</h3>
10 Power snatches<br />
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10 OH Squats<br />
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10 Deficit push ups<br />
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100m sprint<br />
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5 rounds <br />
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<h3>
Workout 7- High intensity</h3>
10 burpees<br />
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10 box jumps<br />
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10 kettlebell swings<br />
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200m run<br />
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5 rounds <br />
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<h3>
Workout 8 - Steady state</h3>
Skipping - 10 minutes<br />
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Spinning - 10 minutes<br />
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Rowing - 10 minutes<br />
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So there you have it, a few of my favourite cardio workouts, or as I like to refer to them - the lesser evils. Try them out and tweet me/hit me up on Instagram to let me know how you get on! </div>
<a href="http://www.twitter.com/Wrighty__" target="_blank"><img alt="twitter, health, fitness, blog, writing, rugby" border="0" src="https://adium.im/images/services/icon-twitter.png" title="" /> </a><a href="http://www.instagram.com/wrighty__" target="_blank"><img alt="instagram, health, fitness, muscle, nutrition, blog, writing" border="0" src="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/library/images/icons/instagram" title="" /></a>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08355044903865742023noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3207314820675342412.post-58595839860953051182015-11-11T13:09:00.001-08:002015-11-11T13:10:04.307-08:00Stop Taking Pictures of Your Damn Smoothies<img alt="blueberry-mango-carrot-smoothie" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1286" height="266" src="https://shanelees94.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/blueberry-mango-carrot-smoothie.jpg?w=960&h=641" width="400" />Just stop it. Stop pretending you are actually ‘Totally loving this new kale, wheatgrass and Syrian refugee tears smoothie!’ You’re not. You hate it and you hate yourself. You hate everyone else who’s posting this stuff too. It tastes like arse. It looks like a 70 year old vegan named Cyril threw up in a glass and farted on it for good measure.<br />
Stop taking pictures of yourself at the gym and stop the candid shots of your Sunday morning runs as well. <em>This is painful.</em> You don’t live in California no matter how much you wish you did.<br />
<img alt="friends-skipped-bonding-over-brunch-chose-morning-run" class=" wp-image-1287 alignright" height="334" src="https://shanelees94.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/friends-skipped-bonding-over-brunch-chose-morning-run.jpg?w=334&h=334" width="334" />I don’t know how you’ve all done this but you’ve managed to take the noble and pure pursuit of health and fitness and turn it into your own personal vanity kick. It’s become an echo chamber of people with poor self esteem looking for self approval from people they hate or don’t care about. The only reason your doing this is because it’s currently popular with the social media generation and will get likes. The worst part is that whenever you see other people sharing these photos, even though you ‘like’ them the only thing going through your head is how much of a tool you think they are<em>. </em>Everyone who sees your photos is thinking the exact same thing as you do when you see their photos.<br />
But deep down you know this. You know how everyone, even people involved in this, hate it. You know that social media is a festering pit of vanity, narcissism, petty jealousy and low cunning. It’s a clique of American High School girls from all those rubbish films and shows who all hate each other and are in a never ending competition with one and other. You are part of that clique. You are actively participating. But you ignore it. You pretend you’re not a hypocrite. You tell yourself that you really are in this for the health and fitness benefits and it’s everyone else who is being shallow. Of course it’s all a lie, because every time you share a picture and it doesn’t get the requisite number of likes a pit opens in your stomach and you feel like it was all for nothing. And then you see that your friend, who you hate as well, called Olivia shared a picture of her organic, free range, vintage Herbalife InstaFitShake and got 37 likes on it. You look at the picture. <em>How was it different to mine? Maybe it was the caption? Maybe it was the filter? What time did she upload it? Is that a rustic oak table that glass is on? Maybe she’s just prettier than me. </em>You base your next picture around the one she did in the hope your likes will go up.<br />
<img alt="Stock Photo by Sean Locke www.digitalplanetdesign.com" class="wp-image-1288 alignleft" height="177" src="https://shanelees94.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/high-school-cliques.jpg?w=267&h=177" width="267" />See as much as you won’t admit it this all has nothing to do with you suddenly developing a deep interest in your own health and fitness. Frankly if it was you’d be going about the whole thing completely different. This is a modern fad and one that’s very popular. It’s the one the ‘in’ people are doing and you always wanted to be one of them. You’re in your 20’s now and you still have the mentality of a high schooler. This has less to do with you wanting to feel better and more to do with you wanting to look better.<br />
You see it’s completely empty. If this was only about fitness why would you post the whole thing onto facebook and instagram? Why did you feel the need to let everyone know you had poached eggs and avocado for breakfast? Y<em>ou people think you invented avocados. The avocado will be outlive all of us. </em><br />
<img alt="Michelangelo_Caravaggio_facebook2-495x600" class=" wp-image-1289 alignright" height="422" src="https://shanelees94.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/michelangelo_caravaggio_facebook2-495x600.png?w=348&h=422" width="348" />The fact is if you wanted to just be healthy and fit you wouldn’t try and take any shortcuts. These supplements, detox pills and 4 week fitness plans? 95% malarkey designed to take your money. You know it too, just like you know those pop up ads telling you that you can make $2437 a day is bull. You know you can’t trick the body into good health. You know the only real long term solution is a balanced, healthy diet and frequent exercise. But this isn’t about genuine results. It’s about looking the part. It’s about your self esteem, which has already been hollowed out by your unhealthy obsession with social media. And now of course you’re trying to claw it all back from the very same thing.<br />
This is the biggest irony, because this behaviour isn’t healthy at all. Your pursuit of health of the body has led to a deterioration of the health of the mind and the health of your own self perception. Your building the new foundations for your self esteem on quick sand and as the weight piles on you will inevitably only sink deeper.<br />
By all means, try and become healthier and fitter, but please – for the love of god – stop posting pictures of your damn smoothies.<br />
<br />
<b>Shane Lees</b><br />
<a href="http://www.twitter.com/ShaneLees94" target="_blank"><img alt="twitter, health, fitness, blog, writing, rugby" border="0" src="https://adium.im/images/services/icon-twitter.png" title="" /></a><br />
https://shanelees94.wordpress.com <b><br /></b>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08355044903865742023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3207314820675342412.post-48892870947958446542015-11-03T13:06:00.001-08:002015-11-03T13:06:05.317-08:00Finding Information in the Fitness IndustryThe fitness industry is a large and at many times, confusing place. Finding information on the industry is actually pretty easy, but finding well researched, well backed and reputable information can be a very tricky task. So many people are quick to buy into wonder supplements, diet schemes, and other fads. This is because they're simply being told what they want to hear, and what they wish would be true. The reality of the matter is that none of it is actually true. People will buy in to these 'wonder' schemes and supplements, give it their all for a few weeks, see no results and then give up. Alternatively, they'll try the aforementioned schemes and supplements, throw themselves into a huge caloric deficit, see results up to a point and then give up because they think that they're done. Once they do that, the weight piles back on and they're back to square one, or even worse.<br />
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The sad truth is that there's a lot of bad information in the industry, mostly created to make money for people. However, there are a lot of amazing sources of information out there, you just have to know where to look.<br />
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<h3>
How do I find these sources?</h3>
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I'll be honest - a lot of it is down to trial and error. You'll find some people who you believe to be reputable but somewhere along the line you'll realise that what they're saying doesn't work for you. However it just takes one really reputable source for you to get the ball rolling. Once you find them then they will point you to other great sources. Before you know it, you'll be surrounding yourself with people that are aligned with yourself, and that help you to reach your goals.</div>
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I went down the route of social media. I checked out trends and really looked in to the people that were being recommended - the majority of which were personal trainers, and had been reviewed by clients. I also looked at people that had been recommended by brands/companies that sponsored them. Now I'm definitely not saying that just because someone has been recommended and sponsored by a brand you should immediately listen to everything that they say without question. Some professionals will recommend that you eat a completely 'clean' diet (make of that what you will). Some will recommend that you control portions, some will recommend flexible dieting. If they have had proven success with their methods and rave reviews, then there would be no reason for you to question it. However reputation and knowledge are only half the battle when it comes to obtaining the right information for you. </div>
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Once you've found a collection of sources that are tried, tested and trusted then its time to find the right source for you to focus on. This part isn't a question of who has the most qualifications or the biggest success rate. This is simply a question of who seems the best aligned with your views, who's style you most relate to. Who has the most personable and engaging approach in your opinion. At the end of the day, you could follow the advice of someone with multiple PHDs, hundreds of success stories and a killer physique. However, if their approach doesn't appeal to you, or you don't find them to be engaging or easy to relate to then it just won't motivate you and you probably won't see the success that their clients do. </div>
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I'll use myself as an example to explain a little better. I'm not the kind of person that finds it easy to cut out my favourite foods, to eat huge amounts of chicken, broccoli, brown rice, mackerel etc, or to eat plain and frankly boring meals. I tried following the advice of a lot of fit pros and self proclaimed 'experts'. I threw myself into 'clean eating', restricted the foods that I loved, lost a little weight, became miserable and put it back on again. I went through various periods of eating whatever I wanted as long as the fit pros proclaimed it as 'healthy food'. This didn't work for me. I had no motivation and I wasn't making great progress. </div>
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I decided to look elsewhere and when browsing Instagram, I came across Nick Cheadle. For anyone not familiar with him, there's a link to his page at the bottom. Nick is in phenomenal shape, has great reviews from clients and best of all - he's an advocate of flexible dieting. His approach to dieting involves an open approach - no need to restrict certain foods as long as they're eaten in the right quantities to satisfy your individual needs. This was the perfect approach for me and after some trial and error, I found it to be the optimum approach - not only in terms of reaching my goals, but in terms of the best plan for my personality and preferences. </div>
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Through Nick I've found some great sources regarding both information and motivation and I'll drop a few names at the end. They may not necessarily work for you - but you never know until you take a look at their pages and understand their approaches. Find the sources that are reputable and that work for you as an individual - that's the key to success. </div>
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If you've got any questions about this piece, or you're interested in writing for Muscle & Macros, then contact me through the social media links below.<br />
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<a href="http://www.twitter.com/Wrighty__" target="_blank"><img alt="twitter, health, fitness, blog, writing, rugby" border="0" src="https://adium.im/images/services/icon-twitter.png" title="" /> </a><a href="http://www.instagram.com/wrighty__" target="_blank"><img alt="instagram, health, fitness, muscle, nutrition, blog, writing" border="0" src="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/library/images/icons/instagram" title="" /></a> </div>
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Nick Cheadle - http://nickcheadlefitness.com/</div>
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Mike Samuels - www.healthylivingheavylifting.com</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08355044903865742023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3207314820675342412.post-68756823031372505032015-10-28T15:55:00.000-07:002015-10-28T15:55:34.123-07:00Diet Schemes Series #2 - Herbalife <h2>
Herbalife - What's it all about?</h2>
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<a href="https://canew.global.ssl.fastly.net/files/logos/herbalife_logo_424.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="76" src="https://canew.global.ssl.fastly.net/files/logos/herbalife_logo_424.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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Let's start with the basics. Herbalife markets itself as "Scientifically designed with your success in mind." It then goes on to state:</div>
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<i>Herbalife's innovative products have been developed by scientists and nutritionists with your personal wellness goals in mind. And while Herbalife's nature-inspired formulas are designed to put a lifetime of well-being within reach, the promise of the business opportunity also makes your financial success a rewarding possibility!</i><br />
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<h3>
So what does this tell us?</h3>
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In essence we're being told that not only can the products produced by Herbalife make a difference to someone's health and well-being, they also offer the opportunity for people to join as a business venture and be financially successful. Who wouldn't want all of that? </div>
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<h3>
The Products</h3>
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Herbalife offer a large range of products to contribute to a healthier you. From a quick glance, they offer the following verticals - </div>
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<ul>
<li>Weight management</li>
<li>Energy & Fitness</li>
<li>Targeted nutrition</li>
<li>Personal care</li>
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In the interest of being thorough, I'll go through all of these categories individually. </div>
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<h3>
Weight management</h3>
<div>
The first thing that struck me after hitting this page was their main video for their 'meal replacement products'. It proclaims that <i>"Substituting two daily meals of an energy restricted diet with a meal replacement like F1 helps weight loss". </i>So basically they're saying that being in a calorie deficit helps weight loss - in this respect they're bang on the money. For anyone that's read my <a href="http://muscleandmacros.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/iifym-my-experiences.html" target="_blank">Flexible Dieting article</a>, you'll know that weight loss is a numbers game - you simply have to burn more calories than you consume. With this in mind, where would the benefit be from substituting two meals for shakes or energy bars if you're already in a calorie deficit? I'd argue that an actual meal (as long as it has good micro and macro nutrient content in) would be much better in terms of satiety than a 500ml shake or 60g meal replacement bar. If you're already in a calorie deficit then what does it matter? However, some people may feel like they're being more 'hardcore' and that they'll get to their goals quicker by replacing meals with shakes. It's a fairly narrow minded way to look at things, but each to their own. </div>
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As for the products themselves, its hard to find a macronutrient profile for them. I took a look at the F1 shake and found a few things out. </div>
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<ul>
<li>They contain 18g of soy protein per 220kcal serving - First of all, there's an ongoing debate as to the effectiveness of soy protein within a diet. If you trawl through the internet, you can find various articles arguing for and against soy protein. Interestingly, this article suggests that Whey Protein is more effective for fat loss than soy protein - http://jn.nutrition.org/content/141/8/1489.short. - The debate is still ongoing but personally I've always preferred whey. Now, on to the nutrient content. 18g of protein contributes to the 220 overall calories for an F1 shake, which means that protein accounts for 72 calories out of 220 - leaving 148 to be allocated to fat and carbohydrates. Unfortunately this isn't specified by Herbalife, which causes me concern.</li>
<li>Proclaimed as a 'Healthy alternative' to a high calorie meal - interesting choice of words here, Herbalife. How would it compare against a low calorie meal? </li>
<li>Quote - "Underpinned by science: Clinical studies show that daily use of meal replacement shakes as part of a calorie restricted diet is proven effective for managing weight, along with moderate exercise." - Clinical studies have also shown that calorie restricted diets are effective for managing weight, without the need for meal replacement shakes. Note that they don't reference these studies. </li>
<li>Quote: " helps you to control your calorie intake whilst also providing essential vitamins and minerals, with carbohydrate and protein" How does it help to control a calorie intake? I'd argue that vitamins and minerals, along with carbs and protein could be just as readily accessed through eating the right foods and supplementing with a good multivitamin.</li>
</ul>
<div>
So basically their flagship weight management shake is a 220kcal soy protein shake without a macronutrient profile but with the promise of 18g of protein and "vitamins and minerals".<br />
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<b><u>How does it compare to other products?</u></b></div>
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<b><u><br /></u></b></div>
Simple - it doesn't. Let's take a look at the protein powder that I use from JBC Nutrition for example. In a 226kcal serving it provides 48g of protein (hydrolysed, whey), 2.8g of fat and 10.6g of carbs (8g of which are dietary fibre). Herbalife's F1 shake practically pales in comparison. Surely if you were to want to substitute one of your meals for a shake, then you'd pick JBC Iso Whey over Herbalife F1 due to far superior macronutrient profile. It also contains a good amount of BCAAs which F1 doesn't even make reference to.<br />
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<a href="http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0910/0538/products/iso_whey_4kg.png?v=1435757371" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="herbalife, health, fitness, nutrition, blog, writer" border="0" src="http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0910/0538/products/iso_whey_4kg.png?v=1435757371" height="200" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
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<h3>
Energy & Fitness</h3>
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This range consists of three products - </div>
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<ul>
<li>Liftoff Lime - Quoted as "a caffeinated low calorie, effervescent energy drink. Caffeine helps to increase alertness and improve concentration." - Essentially that's a berocca (or cheaper equivalent) with caffeine. Also great for hangovers.</li>
<li>H30 Pro - "a carbohydrate-electrolyte drink, designed to be taken before, during or after exercise." - After looking through the ingredients and the purpose, it basically translates as Lucozade sport. </li>
<li>N.R.G tablets -"NRG tablets contain caffeine from guarana to help support alertness and helps reduce the feeling of mental fatigue." - Essentially its pro plus with guarana, or a low cal energy drink. </li>
</ul>
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To me, this is a very lacklustre attempt at being 'innovative' as Herbalife claim to be. The products are very basic, which in one way is good - they use tried and tested ingredients such as carbohydrates, caffeine and guarana to draw energy from. There's a reason that they're so widely used in the fitness industry today. So although they aren't innovative products, I have to tip my hat to Herbalife on this one for keeping things simple and going with what works. However, I'd also like to note that they're lacking a stronger product from the range, something more along the lines of a pre workout like Ignite from Icon Nutrition or Gold Standard from Optimum Nutrition. Shame that none contain creatine or beta alanine.<br />
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<a href="http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0403/8757/products/Ignite_strawberry_daiquiri_1024x1024.jpg?v=1439475199" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="herbalife, health, fitness, nutrition, blog, writer" border="0" src="http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0403/8757/products/Ignite_strawberry_daiquiri_1024x1024.jpg?v=1439475199" height="320" title="" width="260" /></a></div>
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Targeted Nutrition</h3>
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This range essentially contains a lot of multivitamin supplements, and a couple of fibre supplements. The products are all pretty similar and I'd argue that there are probably cheaper options in terms of multivitamins and some of the micronutrients offered such as ones contained in their Roseguard supplement are probably a touch of overkill. All in all, a pretty basic range, just packaged cleverly. </div>
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Personal Care</h3>
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I'm going to brush over this as they're mostly beauty products, but from a glance they look rather the same as any other beauty product name. </div>
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The Conclusion</h3>
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Herbalife is now bringing a lot of products to the market, and despite a clearly effective marketing campaign style, their products don't really bring a lot to the table. The company itself promotes a calorie restriction and meal replacement shakes as a lifestyle. As I said earlier in the article, there's no need for both of these. A calorie deficit will always result in weight loss, there's no need to make yourself miserable by replacing the food that you can fit into your deficit with shakes and bars. <a href="http://muscleandmacros.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/iifym-my-experiences.html" target="_blank">To find out more about a way of eating the foods you love whilst losing weight, click here.</a> As for the products themselves, they're pretty poor in comparison to what's already available on the market (see reference to Herbalife F1 vs JBC Iso Whey) and the quality of the ingredients is questionable. Its also a cause for concern when the full ingredient list isn't readily available on the website. You'll find that most (if not all) supplement companies will have a full ingredient list to accompany each product. Firstly it establishes trust through full disclosure, and ensures that you're not buying a product containing ingredients that you might be allergic to. Herbalife don't even discuss whether there are any allergens in their products or disclose allergen information. In my opinion, this is another cause for concern - what do they have to hide? They claim to have products containing amazing nutrients, but fail to mention what these nutrients might be - so do we just take their word for it?<br />
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I've also seen a lot regarding the Herbalife 24 range. Most have probably seen or heard of this. Unfortunately it seems to have fooled a lot of people through their main endorsement. This range is endorsed by Cristiano Ronaldo, and as he's one of the best footballers in the world, anything that he endorses must be amazing - right? WRONG. Endorsements mean nothing - all they mean is that the individual in question is getting paid a lot to be seen with the brand. For example - David Beckham was the face of Pepsi - does that mean that you should go out and buy/consume gallons of it? No, not unless you have an unnatural love for it.<br />
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Would I recommend Herbalife to anyone? Definitely not. They do offer some good products such as their energy & fitness range, but the truth is that you could quite easily find cheaper (and just as effective) alternatives in a variety of brands. If you want to lose weight then just stay in a calorie deficit (<a href="http://muscleandmacros.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/iifym-my-experiences.html" target="_blank">see more about that here</a>), and if you feel that you'd like to replace a meal with a shake or bar, then take a look around the market for a good quality product (E.g JBC Iso Whey) rather than buying in to a multi level marketing scheme with below par products. </div>
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On a final note - This article hasn't been designed to upset or offend anyone - its simply my own opinion coupled with factual research. If you'd like to get in touch with me to discuss more, or you're interested in writing for Muscle & Macros, follow the links below.<br />
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Thanks for reading</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08355044903865742023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3207314820675342412.post-23351353485608614832015-10-28T13:53:00.002-07:002015-10-28T14:11:53.870-07:00Falling in love with FitnessAs both a player and fan of rugby, the last few weeks have been an exceedingly exciting period for me, thanks to the World Cup. Living in Cardiff has let me experience the tournament up close and personal, due to both the Millennium Stadium, which has hosted several games, and the fan zone, located in Cardiff Arms Park next door, where games are broadcast live on large movie screens. <br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
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Not only is this world cup, as is every other, a fantastic advert for the sport in so-called first-tier nations, it is, for the first time, a real showcase of the second tier teams. Japan's impressive and surprising win against South Africa helped set the tone for a fantastic tournament for many teams that had been written off before the World Cup even began. Georgia recorded a surprise win against Tonga, and their captain, Mamuka Gorgodze, was named man of the match against the All Blacks, the second time he received the award this tournament. Argentina, a team that fairly recently became a first tier nation has reached the quarter finals, defeating Ireland last week in Cardiff<br /><br /><br />Sadly, all has not been positive, and this year’s World Cup has seen its fair share of controversy. Discrepancies in ban severity between first and second tier teams has been highlighted as a concern, as have the comments, and involvement, of ex-players, particularly in their criticisms of the England coaching set up, and early exit from the Cup. Despite this, and despite my own team, Wales, being knocked out by South Africa, I have remained in high spirits and have now switched my full allegiance to my country of birth. My second team, like that of most people, is the mighty All Blacks, current world champions, and, if the crushing defeat of France is anything to go by, world champions for the next four years as well.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://media.allblacks.com/dnaImages/team/teamMain_MaoriAllBlacks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="rugby, new zealand, all blacks, haka, sport, fitness, health" border="0" src="http://media.allblacks.com/dnaImages/team/teamMain_MaoriAllBlacks.jpg" height="175" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
<br /><br />Having been born and raised in New Zealand, you might be forgiven for thinking that my sports career has consisted of nothing but Rugby. Strangely though, I never played for my school or a club until I moved to the UK when I was thirteen. Up until then my sport had been Field Hockey, which I was very good at. But, by fourteen, in a country that expected me to be a rugby player based on my accent, I had switched to my current love of the oval ball, and I’ve not looked back since. Thus, While my primary sport has changed drastically, my basic love of athletics and hatred of distance running has remained constant: at school and at rugby I regularly come in last for anything over 1500 metres, yet in year 10 I won both the high jump and shot put on the same sports day, and placed within the top five in multiple other events. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
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Then, at some point between year 10 and 11 I sustained a major back injury that put me out of rugby for a year and has hampered my training ever since. A basic lack of core strength was possibly a cause of the injury and has certainly been enhanced because of it. While I am once more active and fit, my core and back remains a weakness: one I am, however, determined to defeat.<br /><br />These days, my training consists of a combination of Rugby training (and sometimes fitness) sessions run by my club, coupled with personal gym work. The gym component of my fitness comprises of both weightlifting (which began as body building and now resembles power lifting) and body weight exercises- press ups, pull ups and box jumps, sometimes supplemented by a weighted vest. My fitness goals are currently to bulk and increase my max lifts, get visible abs, hit a 50inch box jump and seriously consider competing at a powerlifting meet<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a>. <div class="MsoNormal">
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<b>Nat</b> </div>
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Interested in hearing more from Nat? Find him on social media:</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08355044903865742023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3207314820675342412.post-74666941927576599992015-10-28T13:38:00.001-07:002015-10-28T13:38:27.469-07:00It's time for a change!<h3>
Muscle & Macros is branching out!</h3>
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After a bit of deliberation and a lot of planning, I've decided to open Muscle and Macros up a little bit. I've got a brand new writer joining me and we'll be looking at more topics than just standard health and fitness. However, I started this blog to document my weight loss journey and to document my experiences in the world of health and fitness so that will remain as the main topic for the blog - but hey, where's the harm in shaking things up a little bit? You can still expect more of the same kind of posts as before - stay tuned for my Herbalife article (that'll be dropping very soon) and the rest in the Weight Loss Schemes series. </div>
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The newest addition to Muscle & Macros</h3>
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<a href="https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfl1/v/t1.0-9/11391178_860182450728541_8787053925720603905_n.jpg?oh=b1b3a48c33406aafe883e5eef7feed2e&oe=56D36B3D" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="blog, rugby, health, fitness" border="0" height="320" src="https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfl1/v/t1.0-9/11391178_860182450728541_8787053925720603905_n.jpg?oh=b1b3a48c33406aafe883e5eef7feed2e&oe=56D36B3D" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
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Readers, I'd like to introduce you to Mr Nat Corbett. I've known Nat for a couple of years now, and until recently he was a colleague of mine. Similarly to me when I started the blog, Nat is currently studying for a Bachelors degree (History). He's really passionate about health, fitness and sport in general (especially rugby, but he'll tell you all about that). Due to this, he'll be writing about all things Rugby and fitness related, and I'm grateful to him for participating in the blog. His first post is going live tonight, and I have no doubt that you'll all enjoy it! </div>
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As I mentioned in the beginning, I'm expanding this blog and opening it up to a wider variety of topics. If you've got something health and fitness/sport related, or even a completely random topic that you'd love to write about, then get in touch with me using the social media links below or drop a comment below this post and let's get you online! </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08355044903865742023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3207314820675342412.post-80262211693333675302015-10-18T14:58:00.000-07:002015-10-18T15:55:23.139-07:00Diet Schemes Series #1 - Juice PlusHey everyone, I posted on social media not so long ago to inform you all that I'd be doing a series of pieces to take a closer look at the diet schemes that are present in the health and fitness industry today. Tonight's post is going to get up close and personal with Juice Plus.<br>
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What is Juice Plus?</h2>
On the official Juice Plus website, it describes itself as<br>
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"whole food based nutrition, including juice powder concentrates from 30 different fruits, vegetables and grains. Juice Plus+ helps bridge the gap between what you should eat and what you do eat every day. Not a multivitamin, medicine, treatment or cure for any disease, Juice Plus+ is made from quality ingredients carefully monitored from farm to capsule to provide natural nutrients your body needs to be at its best.</blockquote>
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So what does that tell us? </h2>
In all honesty, not a lot. It tells us that essentially all that the products contain are naturally occurring ingredients. Luckily, they have an 'Ingredients' page, which tells us that the ingredients are:<br>
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NUTRIENTS FROM FRUITS AND VEGETABLES - Under this title they explain that the products aren't a medicine, or a substitute for fruit and veg, and that they offer a wider variety of naturally occurring vitamins along with antioxidants and phytonutrients than 'traditional' vitamin supplements.<br>
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So let's break this paragraph down a little. They explain that all of the vitamins contained inside are naturally occurring and that you can't get them in a 'traditional' vitamin supplements. Firstly, if the ingredients are naturally occurring then what are the benefits of getting them from Juice plus products? The only benefit that I can see is that they're available in 'instant' form, rather than having to go out and buy/cook/eat the foods that contain them. Personally, if I'm offered the chance to get my nutrients from real, satiating food - you can be damn sure that I will. Some people may find that they feel 'healthier' or that they're a step ahead of everyone else because they're getting it in pill or powder form. Sorry guys, I don't think that's the case. Let's also take a look at the final point - they mention 'traditional' vitamin supplements. What does this mean? Does it mean older, less varied multivits? Or just the cheap, basic multivitamins on the market? Unfortunately I couldn't seem to find a full list of the vitamins that Juice Plus provides, but I'd argue that such products as Centrum and Opti-Men probably contain the same vitamins and minerals as Juice Plus products. The difference being that you don't have to cut out a meal to get these vitamins.<br>
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POWERFUL ANTIOXIDANTS RIGHT FROM THE SOURCE - Juice Plus actually calls on an academic article to provide the definition for 'antioxidants' (because everyone loves an officially cited study to back up their products). Here's what they say - "According to the National Cancer Institute, antioxidants are “substances that may protect cells from the damage caused by unstable molecules known as free radicals. Examples of antioxidants include beta-carotene, lycopene, vitamins C and E and other substances. Many of these antioxidant substances come from fruits and vegetables". Now, I'm pretty cynical when it comes to writing, so this sentence actually hit a nerve. Firstly they explain that their products contain powerful antioxidants. Then they back this up with a sentence saying that antioxidants MAY protect from free radicals. Free radicals have been indicated as possible contributors to cancerous cells. So by saying that Juice Plus uses antioxidants - are they indirectly stating that their products protect against cancer? That's for you to decide, like I said, I'm just cynical. FYI - Their sentence taken from the National cancer institute is also paraphrased - to read the actual statement, you can find it here - http://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/diet/antioxidants-fact-sheet.<div><br></div><div> Again, antioxidants are naturally occurring - so why not get them through food rather than buying various supplements to do so? The only place that its going to make a difference is your bank balance.<div>
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After I'd finished looking through the Juice Plus website, I decided that I needed to find some real customer reviews. Impartial and honest reviews. I managed to find a post on Facebook which detailed an actual conversation with a Juice Plus rep. The rep promises to provide Juice Plus shakes which can not only help with weight loss, but muscle building too. Now I'm no expert, but if that was possible, wouldn't the Mr Olympia contest be a hell of a lot easier to win? Anyway I digress, they state that the shakes should be taken for 16 weeks - two a day for 8 weeks, and then one a day for the last 8. This 16 week plan would be accompanied by a workout and diet plan (I'm guessing this would just be your standard cookie cutter plan) and would cost £130 in total. They then explicitly state that the products contain nutrients from fruit and veg to 'boost weight loss' and that coupling an exercise plan with their shakes will help them to build muscle. The potential client then enquires about the possibility of using the products with type-2 diabetes (for his father). To which the answer is "Definitely, the plan is perfect for type 2". The potential client then comes up with a bit of research of his own.<br>
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1. The products contain 23g of sugar from 4/5 different sources - 2 shakes would equal 46g of sugar daily. Sounds like a recipe for loss of life for a type-2 sufferer, not weight.<br>
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2. The protein inside contains a poor amino acid profile<br>
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3. It contains a variety of oils<br>
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He follows with this quote - "Fact is, people will lose weight due to a massive calorie deficit, the weight they lose will be largely water at first due to the lack of carbohydrates in the diet (carbs hold water) then a rapid catabolic state where the body will break down lean muscle tissue as it cannot produce protein. This will result in a slowing of the metabolism, a knock on effect of which will be the body releasing stress hormones to help promote fat storage (body reacts as if going into a famine). Females will reduce estrogen to promote fat stores around reproductive organs. When people go back to eating normally they will gain more weight due to metabolic damage."<br>
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Now that's someone else's words, not mine. He produces no scientific evidence to support this, although he does raise an interesting point. The Juice plus range promotes a very low calorie diet and diets with too much of a caloric deficit have been shown to have a detrimental effect on the human body. Here's an interesting article on that - http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/ars.2010.3253<br>
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After seeing this frankly brutal destruction of a clearly clueless Juice Plus rep, I decided to look closer to home and had an enlightening conversation with a friend of mine who currently uses the products. We talked about which ones she uses (powders) and her thoughts on the range, plus how its working for her. She was under no illusions, she immediately stated that they're not wonder products and essentially they're meal replacement multivitamins. She had tried a variety of other ways of dieting and hadn't found them to be suited to her. She also told me that Juice Plus wasn't her idea of a long term solution, but it was working as a springboard into a healthier lifestyle. She's made some good progress, slimming down and dropping some weight, and feels great for it. However she's not really put this down to the products, its more attributed to the structure that the products bring and she's finding it easy to stick to. That's pretty hard to dispute.<br>
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The Conclusion</h2>
Juice plus ambiguously markets its products and could be seen to allude to them as a prevention tool for cancer. It markets products full of ingredients that could easily be incorporated into a well rounded diet and promotes an extremely low calorie diet (whether directly or indirectly) which has scientifically been proven to have adverse affects on human physiology and psychology (see article above). It also contains some questionable ingredients such as a high sugar content (due to fructose) and a poor source of protein (making for some protein heavy feces). There is also some concern to be raised around the credibility of some of the reps, who are clearly uneducated and freely make decisions that only a qualified professional should be able to make. However, the scheme has been shown to provide a structure to one's lifestyle - and anyone that has dieted successfully will know that the real key to achieving your goals is consistency. For this point, I can't really knock them.<br>
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My honest opinion?</h2>
Juice Plus is an extremely expensive way of getting basic nutrients (which could easily be provided by a good multivitamin). It promotes extreme calorie deficits which, when increased, will cause the user to gain weight quickly as their body tries to hang on to all of the calories that it has been missing. It could lead to yo-yo dieting and harm a person physically and psychologically in the long term. It clearly provides support for all of its users but why pay hundreds of pounds for a support structure that you could build yourself? There are hundreds of groups out there who support each other freely because that's what good natured human beings do. I'm lucky enough to be a part of Healthy Living, Heavy Lifting's free weight loss group on Facebook, and its home to some of the most supportive, well rounded and intelligent people that I've ever met. The best part about it? I receive great support, get to give great support and its all done for free. Don't waste your money on a company that gives you naturally occurring ingredients, employs reps without a clue and gives you support that you could get for free.<br>
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Awfully sorry if this post has offended everyone, but its my honest opinion. I'm not trying to offend everyone, and if Juice Plus works for you then that's great - personally I'm a much bigger fan of being able to make sustainable progress whilst eating Ben & Jerrys, but that's just me. If you want to hear more about that, then feel free to hit me up on social media:<br>
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<a href="http://instagram.com/wrighty__" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSarGqSxbSfRQ5_LDnUVhJeTV64NZSJr-Qfx9MU-uUxCOUepW_U4cSfkuk"></a><a href="http://twitter.com/wrighty__" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://www.thetankertonarms.co.uk/images/twitter-bird-blue-on-white_small_2.png"></a><br>
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<br></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08355044903865742023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3207314820675342412.post-26941304134955746632015-10-04T10:44:00.000-07:002015-10-04T10:44:21.597-07:00Bodybuilding V CrossfitThis is a post that I've been sat on for a long time, not knowing which side to take (if any)/worrying about anyone that I might offend with it. However I think that its time to share it - if it offends you and you don't agree with it, that's cool, not everyone will. Just my point of view on things.<br />
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I see a lot of bad-mouthing from both crossfitters and bodybuilders, proclaiming that their way of exercising is the best and sometimes the only way to exercise. There's always arguments over who is the more functional and flexible, who is the strongest, fittest, fastest etc. You can find various parody videos, and a lot of trolling between the two sides all over the internet. This post is just going to take a look at both sides, and then I'll give you my opinion on the two.</div>
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Bodybuilding</h2>
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At a basic level, bodybuilding is the use of resistance exercises to develop muscle. It can be both a pastime or applied to a competitive level, both amateur and professional. Regardless of the purpose, you'll find many a serious bodybuilder in the gym 5/6 times a week. Commonly, these guys will isolate areas of muscle and work them all once a week. There will also be elements of cardio thrown in there for those dieting. A typical week for this approach could be:</div>
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There will more than likely be one or two abdominal sessions thrown into the mix on certain days, or the individual could just choose to incorporate a sixth session that would incorporate abs, cardio and maybe some isolation training for minor muscles. I say that this approach is common, but there are various approaches to bodybuilding such as a push/pull split, SMOLOV, and DUP. For anyone who currently applies a 5/6 day split to their training, and is bored and interested in these approaches, they'll be explained in another post. There also seems to be a stigma attached to bodybuilding, that any bodybuilders with especially large muscle mass are on steroids. This can be attributed to the fact that many competitive bodybuilders over the years have been found to be steroid users. Unfortunately, many people stereotype bodybuilders as steroid taking idiots - which couldn't be further from the truth in my opinion. </div>
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Crossfit</h2>
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Compared to bodybuilding, Crossfit is a particularly recent phenomenon. It was developed by Greg Glassman and Lauren Jenai back in 2000. It combines factors found in gymnastics, weightlifting, bodybuilding, strongman, plyometrics and calisthenics to produce a very different kind of workout. The structure for a typical session is usually as follows - </div>
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<li>Strength element - This usually involves performing a major lift such as back squat, clean, snatch, press, deadlift, or variants thereof. Rep and set ranges can vary at different stages of strength cycles. </li>
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Some crossfit workouts are relatively easy, some take 5-10 minutes and leave you lying flat on your back wondering what just happened, others are a 30-60 minute slog that take determination and willpower to complete. Unfortunately, many of the stereotypes for crossfit include the fact that many crossfitters choose reps over form. Basically it means that the exercises performed are quick and not done properly, which can cause injury. There have been a few instances in which crossfitters have sustained serious injuries from weightlifting and they have been widely publicised. </div>
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My Opinion</h2>
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Having had much experience with both bodybuilding and crossfit, I can honestly say that I don't believe that either of them are better than each other. I believe that they both have great merits and that all of the negativity that you hear from either side is to be taken with a pinch of salt. Crossfit promotes 'functional fitness' and chastises bodybuilding for not being as functional. However if you break down most of the movements used in either sport, they are largely the same. There are some differing movements but they're few and far between and I guarantee that you could find at least one bodybuilder that uses them. With regard to the functionality and mobility arguments, these can both be addressed with a good daily stretching and mobility routine - which is something that can be incorporated into either approach. </div>
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With regard to the argument that crossfit is dangerous and that the lifts are sloppy and out of control - this is true if the athletes are left unsupervised and aren't taught how to do them properly, it can also be down to the athlete being too lazy to complete the lift properly due to the intensity of the workout. I trained at Crossfit Aberystwyth (an official affiliate gym) for around a year and the notion of crossfit being dangerous was quashed in my time there. The coaches watched everyone closely to ensure that firstly the lifts were being performed properly, secondly that the weight was right for the individual and their rep ranges, and lastly that the repetitions weren't rushed or sloppy. Their job is to progress you and to ensure your safety at all times, in many ways it is a lot safer than bodybuilding on your own, where you don't have anyone to watch your form or call you out when you're being unsafe. Yes injuries have happened in the sport of crossfit, but bodybuilding has its fair share of injuries too - they are both dangerous if not done properly. </div>
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As for my approach, I try to combine what I deem to be the best elements of crossfit and bodybuilding. I currently follow a DUP style approach (more on that soon), and add in isolation work as in bodybuilding, but I'll also set aside workouts for olympic lifting and high intensity varied routines. This approach works for me and I've found that it compliments my goals well - I'm getting leaner, and gaining strength and definition due to it. As for the argument that one is better than the other for making progress and getting in to a better shape - they both depend on how much you put into them and what your personal ideas of a 'better shape' are. For example - take a typical Mr Olympia physique e.g. Phil Heath's physique. The man is a mountain, his muscles are well developed and symmetrical - the key points of being a successful Olympia candidate. Then let's look at Rich Froning Jr. - This man has been at the pinnacle of Crossfit for a while, he is fit, fast, agile, strong and has unbelievable stamina. He may not be as symmetrical or have as much muscle as Phil Heath, but his physique allows him to compete at the highest level of his sport - exactly the same as Phil. In a nutshell, how do you compare two sports when they're geared towards completely differing end products? If you have no preference towards your own end product, where is the harm in combining the two, as long as its done safely? </div>
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<a href="http://swoletra.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Phil-Heath29.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://swoletra.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Phil-Heath29.jpg" height="320" width="260" /></a> <a href="http://islethree.com/wp-content/gallery/10-reasons-to-watch-the-reebok-cross-fit-games/rich-froning-jr-muscles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://islethree.com/wp-content/gallery/10-reasons-to-watch-the-reebok-cross-fit-games/rich-froning-jr-muscles.jpg" height="320" width="212" /></a></div>
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Anyway, they're just my thoughts on the two. If you liked this post please feel free to share it with people and feedback is always welcome. You can post a comment below or find me on social media -<br />
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Thanks for reading!<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08355044903865742023noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3207314820675342412.post-41440003256382687822015-10-01T14:40:00.001-07:002015-10-02T05:49:57.005-07:00Flexible Dieting: My ExperienceHey everyone,<br />
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First of all, I'm going to apologise again for my lack of posts - I shouldn't be letting this blog slip so much after having such great feedback. Although I don't have a great amount of time on my hands due to a busy work life and the series of books that I'm currently writing about my weight loss journey. The books will come in four parts: </div>
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<li>My Journey, an overview</li>
<li>Experiences with nutrition</li>
<li>Training types</li>
<li>Motivation </li>
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Throughout the four books, I'll be sharing my experiences with regard to dieting. For those of you not in the know, three years ago I was over 21 stone and frankly its a wonder that it didn't really affect my health. After three years of hard training and trial and error, I have managed to reduce my weight significantly, dropping right down to 79kg before gaining more muscle and jumping to 90kg. This was by no means an easy feat and it took a lot of research. I experienced set backs along the way, but through some great sources I got the information and motivation that I needed to get myself back on track. </div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xft1/v/t1.0-9/12004737_10153066644451776_1684427982627298603_n.jpg?oh=1a91dee7a292888d28b26e4d2a6b8f07&oe=5692912E" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="weight loss, fitness, health" border="0" height="320" src="https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xft1/v/t1.0-9/12004737_10153066644451776_1684427982627298603_n.jpg?oh=1a91dee7a292888d28b26e4d2a6b8f07&oe=5692912E" title="Weight loss transformation" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Left (May 2012) - 135/140kg - Right (August 2015) - 87.5kg</td></tr>
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<h1>
What is Flexible Dieting?</h1>
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Flexible dieting, or IIFYM as it is widely known, isn't a new concept. It has been present for a long time, but unfortunately in the past was discredited by most of the fitness industry; cast aside in favour of 'Bro-Science'. However, when you strip the concept down to the real definition, it isn't very different from the dieting protocols that various icons in the health and fitness industry have followed. </div>
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On a base level, the concept of flexible dieting involves calculating an individual's daily calorie and macronutrient (protein, fat, carbohydrate) requirements through a series of calculations specific to the individual. The individual can then use a calorie counting app (MyFitnessPal seems to be the most preferred, it is definitely my app of choice) to keep track of the foods that they are consuming and the caloric properties of those foods. The individual is then free to consume any foods that they want, provided that they satisfy their calorie and macronutrient goals for the day. There are other targets that the person would be required to fulfil, but like I said - at base level this is the premise. I'll go in to these other requirements in a future post, so watch this space. </div>
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How has Flexible Dieting helped me to get closer to my weight loss goal?</h1>
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I discovered the concept of flexible dieting a while ago through various posts from <a href="http://nickcheadlefitness.com/" target="_blank">Nick Cheadle Fitness</a>, however at this point I was still of the mindset that chicken and broccoli was the best meal to 'torch fat'. Due to this, I ignored all of the great information that Nick was throwing out there and continued to eat the same boring, tasteless and frankly depressing food every day. After a while, I hit a plateau with regard to progress and gave up on 'clean eating'. After a few months of not watching my nutrition and causing detriment to my progress, I decided that it was time to seek help from someone who knew what they were doing - enter <a href="http://www.jvfitness.co.uk/" target="_blank">JV Fitness & Nutrition</a>. Jason was really easy to approach and he took everything into account when designing a nutrition plan for me - the result was a detailed and well calculated approach to my nutrition. Through the plan he showed me that I didn't have to eat the same foods every day, and that there were ways to manipulate my diet such as carb cycling (stay tuned for this in a later post) to allow little treats on a weekly basis whilst still making progress. </div>
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The plan that Jason detailed for me was only designed to last for around 4-6 weeks, however I was determined to diet for 12 weeks for the run-up to Christmas 2014 so I stretched that time limit to the maximum. In that 12 weeks I managed to get down to 79kg and retained the majority of my muscle mass. However after being in a calorie deficit for so long, I over-indulged at Christmas and set myself back a little. Once upon a time, this would have killed me - however at that point I was already in the mindset that setbacks don't matter in the big picture, as long as you keep pushing forward. After binging for so long and struggling to get back on to the diet that Jason gave me due to motivation and the chaotic nature of my life thanks to work and training; I decided to give flexible dieting a try, At that point I had nothing to lose and possibly everything to gain. I went about this by throwing myself into the mindset that flexible dieting was all about eating what I wanted and that |I could miss things out here and there on MyFitnessPal and that it was a rough guide. As a result, I put on weight and became demotivated. This made me to go back and try 'clean eating' again - which unsurprisingly made me miserable and made me binge after restricting myself so much. It was around this point that I'd seen a collaboration article between Nick Cheadle and Mike Samuels of <a href="http://www.healthylivingheavylifting.com/" target="_blank">Healthy Living, Heavy Lifting</a>. Mike was another advocate of flexible dieting and after being recommended by Nick, I had to check his website out. After delving further into Nick and Mike's sites, I realised that the reason that flexible dieting hadn't worked for me previously was because I'd completely misunderstood the concept. Luckily there were masses of articles and resources available on their websites and social media channels for me to re-educate myself with. I also bought a copy of Mike's e-book series - <a href="http://www.healthylivingheavylifting.com/flexible-fat-loss/" target="_blank">The Foolproof No-fail Guide to Flexible Fat loss</a>. Its no exaggeration when I say that these books completely changed my outlook and my approach to nutrition and I eagerly applied this new approach to my lifestyle. </div>
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To cut an already long story a little shorter - Flexible dieting has allowed me to eat the foods that I love whilst still making progress, I never feel the need to binge as I'm always eating the foods that I want to eat (in moderation), I even manage to fit such things as an entire tub of ice cream, or even a large bar of chocolate into my weekly intake (Stay tuned for my next blog post to learn about how I do that). For these reasons alone, I'd argue that flexible dieting is the most sustainable approach that you can take to your nutrition. It caters for all goals and personally I would be very happy with using the protocols that I have learned from Nick and Mike for the rest of my life, could you say the same about your diet? If not, why not drop a comment at the bottom of this article and we can chat. </div>
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That's all for now, I hope you've enjoyed reading this. Watch this space for more new content! If you want to check out any of the sources that I've named in this article then I've put a few links in there for you. Or you can check the guys out on social media - </div>
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Nick Cheadle Fitness</h4>
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Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/nickcheadlefitness</div>
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Instagram - @NickCheadleFitness</div>
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Healthy Living, Heavy Lifting</h4>
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Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/HealthyLivingHeavyLifting</div>
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Instagram - @MikeHealthyLiving</div>
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JV Fitness & Nutrition</h4>
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Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/JV-Fitness-Nutrition</div>
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Instagram - JV_Fitnutrition</div>
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Thanks for reading! </div>
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Alex</div>
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Follow me on social media - </div>
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Instagram - @Wrighty__</div>
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Twitter - @Wrighty__</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08355044903865742023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3207314820675342412.post-71305047069519483782015-05-20T17:02:00.000-07:002015-05-20T17:02:03.854-07:00Back in Business<h2>
Nutrition - What I've learned</h2>
Hey guys,<br />
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For those of you that are familiar with this blog and my previous posts: Welcome back. To those who are visiting this place for the first time: Hello! Its been a long time since I've posted anything and I've decided to change things up a little, some of you may notice that even the name has changed. If you read back on some of my earlier posts, you'll see that I zoned in on certain subjects and offered my opinion on them. Things are going to operate a little differently now, I'm just going to use this as a platform to share my experiences and hopefully the tips and tricks that I share will be useful to you guys in some way. So without further ado, lets get in to the post.<br />
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So since the last time I posted, I've been putting in the work and trying to get the best results from my regime with regards to both nutrition and training. I'm going to go through both of these areas in separate posts, and hopefully there's some information that you guys can take away with you.<br />
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This first post is going to focus on nutrition, because in my opinion it is the first factor that you need to consider if you're looking to alter your body composition; whether that be gaining weight or losing weight. I want to be clear with this, a lot of the knowledge and views that I have regarding nutrition come from a variety of sources. I'm going to make these guys clear before I continue, because they definitely deserve a lot of credit and I everyone can benefit from what they have to say on a day to day basis. So, in no particular order, here's the list -<br />
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<ul>
<li>Nick Cheadle (Of Nick Cheadle fitness) - Here's his site - <a href="http://www.nickcheadlefitness.com/" target="_blank">Nick Cheadle Fitness</a></li>
<li>Jason Vaughan (Of JV Fitness) - Here's his site - <a href="http://www.jvfitness.co.uk/" target="_blank">JV Fitness</a></li>
<li>Mike Samuels (Of Healthy Living, Healthy Lifting) - <a href="http://www.healthylivinghealthylifting.com/" target="_blank">Healthy Living, Healthy Lifting</a></li>
<li>Bec Chambers - Here's her <a href="https://instagram.com/becchambersfit/" target="_blank">Instagram </a>account</li>
</ul>
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Now that the right people have been included, let's get stuck in to the details. Anyone that knows me will know that for the last 3 years, I've been trying to lose fat and to build a body that I'm more comfortable with. To do this I've had to completely change my approach to nutrition, and its been a long and difficult road to get to where I am today. </div>
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I started out in my efforts by believing that Carbohydrates and fat were the enemy, and that it was important to eat mostly protein each day. I found myself living off chicken and broccoli, and then binging regularly because my diet sucked. After this I moved on to a stage where I started to eat anything that I considered healthy (chicken, tuna, oats, rice, pasta, fruit etc.) and in theory I was on the right track. However, I had no comprehension of how to measure these foods, and convinced myself that it was good practice to just eat these foods in whatever quantities that I pleased and that the result would be fat loss. This continued for a long time, although after a while I decided to significantly reduce the amount that I was eating/increase my training and it began to work. I'd eat the exact same meals every day of the week, and a lot of the time I'd be going hungry. I convinced myself that I was doing the right thing because I was starting to see changes in my body. </div>
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This continued for a while, until my weight stopped decreasing and I hit a plateau. So it was of course time for me to explore the world of 'wonder supplements' 'super foods and smoothies' and general quick fixes. First of all I went for what I now see as the lazy option and tried fat burning tablets, its important for me at this point to tell you all that I also began to eat less whilst taking this supplement. Due to my extra caloric deficit I began to lose weight; but due to the fat burners I had less of an appetite, and extra energy due to the high caffeine content that usually comes with those kinds of supplements. Basically, over the course of two years, my diet had no structure and I relied on fat burners and cutting out carbohydrates. So I'd like to move on to how I tackled this.</div>
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I started out by getting in touch with Jason Vaughan (see the link to his site above), and he tailored a nutrition plan for me that completely revolutionised the way I approached eating. I ditched the fat burners and the fads, and set out on the nutrition plan that he created. I can't emphasise enough how much this plan helped me, and how much it helped me to change my body composition. I combined it with a good training plan (which I'll go in to in my next post) and the weight just dropped off me. I later found out that I was eating between 2500 and 3000 calories a day, and the best part was that Jason made sure that I had different choices of meals every day. So if you're interested in hiring a coach, then I'd fully recommend Jason.</div>
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This continued until one day I had the fortune to stumble upon Nick Cheadle's <a href="https://instagram.com/nickcheadlefitness/" target="_blank">Instagram</a> page (which you should all definitely check out). Nick's approach to nutrition centres around IIFYM (If it fits your macros), also known as flexible dieting. The basic premise behind this approach is that as long as the food that you consume in a day fits inside your daily allowance of calories, protein, fat and carbohydrates (I'll refer to them from now on as macros/macronutrients), you will progress towards your goal. It goes without saying that everyone's intake levels will differ due to a multitude of factors, including their goals (weight loss/gain etc). So in essence, you can eat whatever foods you want (in moderation) as long as it fits inside your daily macros then you'll progress. </div>
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However, you can't just rely on a generic set of numbers for your Macronutrients, your numbers will depend on a variety of factors, which brings me on to my next point. There are many sources out there that will help you to work out your macros, but I've found that the most effective are Nick Cheadle, and Mike Samuels (see link to his site above). Nick operates a free blog on his website which contains a multitude of posts about training and nutrition, including a post about how to work out your macros. Mike has a very reasonably priced (and great value for money) ebook - <a href="http://www.healthylivingheavylifting.com/flexible-fat-loss/" target="_blank">Flexible Fat Loss</a> - In this book he shows you exactly how to work out your macros and explains a lot about nutrition and the things to remember when dieting. Both Nick and Mike also outline the general rules for flexible dieting such as sufficient water and fibre intakes to suit your goals. </div>
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I've been properly flexible dieting for around a month now, and I'm noticing some real changes in my body. Basically I'm losing weight and retaining muscle, whilst still enjoying my favourite foods in moderation (like Ben and Jerrys ice cream). The key driving force behind flexible dieting is sustainability, which is a message that you'll see consistently from Nick Cheadle, Mike Samuels and Bec Chambers. Ladies, If you're looking for motivation I'd definitely recommend Bec, her philosophy towards training and nutrition is an extremely positive and intelligent one, and I guarantee that you will all be able to relate to the issues that she discusses on her page. </div>
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So to wrap up, after trying a multitude of different fad diets, supplements, and low calorie diets; I found flexible dieting. It has allowed me to completely take control of my nutrition and enjoy the foods that I love whilst working towards my goals (though I do still hold some hope to be part of Team NCF one day). I'd recommend visiting the sites that I've mentioned to all of you, even if you're not currently interested in being able to eat ice cream and donuts and still lose weight because you've adopted a sustainable and happy relationship with food. After all, knowledge is power.</div>
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If you've made it to this point in the blog without me boring you, then thank you very much for reading this and for visiting the page. Please feel free to explore some of the older posts, I'm sure some will generate some laughs, and I apologise for any bro science that has slipped in there. You can also keep up with me in the following places - </div>
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<a href="https://instagram.com/wrighty__/" target="_blank">Instagram </a></div>
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<a href="http://www.twitter.com/wrighty__" target="_blank">Twitter</a></div>
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<a href="mailto:wright.alex@hotmail.co.uk" target="_blank">Email</a></div>
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Failing that, leave a comment in the box below and I'll get back to you. Any feedback is always appreciated. </div>
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Make sure you catch my next post on my experiences with training routines and how to build your own effective workouts.</div>
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Until next time,</div>
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Alex</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08355044903865742023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3207314820675342412.post-20968126568261170252014-02-07T10:26:00.000-08:002014-02-07T10:26:09.852-08:00Update!It's been a long time since I posted anything substantial on this blog, but I'm hoping that some people might still read this, so this one is for you guys. The last few months have been one crazy whirlwind of training, and for me it's been going from strength to strength and I'm seeing some real results. For anyone that's just starting out or maybe just lacking in motivation, I can honestly tell you that seeing those results is pretty much the greatest feeling in the world. Stick at it and those results will come; trust me when I say that when they do, you'll just want to push yourself even harder and even further.<br />
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With regard to my own training, I started experimenting with some pretty intense stuff in the form of Muscle and Fitness' 'Rock Hard' workout. In all honesty when I first looked at it, I doubted that I could even attempt to complete such a high level of workout, and worried that I wouldn't have enough energy to complete a full week. The first month consisted of a four day split of Legs, Chest, Back, and Shoulders. Two of those days also included an abs circuit at the end, with legs day also consisting of 30 minutes of steady state cardio post workout. I should also mention that I was averaging around 40 sets with reps 12+ in each of these workouts. At this point my diet wasn't quite on point, although I was eating healthily. So with such an intense plan I saw a considerable difference in my body, and my fitness skyrocketed thanks to the intense volume and the inclusion of cardio (I've never been a big cardio person, struggled to run for ten minutes straight around 18 months ago.<br />
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After the first month of this workout, I was pumped and ready for a new challenge; so I decided to progress to the more intense second month of the plan. This was structured with a five day split consisting of Quads and Hamstrings, Chest, Arms, Back, and Shoulders, Calves and Forearms. I suddenly found myself completing less sets overall each workout, but an element of German volume training had been dropped into the workouts, though the Muscle and Fitness variant was to perform 10 sets of 10 reps in 10 minutes, so each set and its rest time would be encapsulated in the same minute. Abs were also included three times a week, with three sessions of HIIT and two sessions of steady state cardio being split between the routines and performed post workout. As with the month before, I was eating healthily but my diet still could have done with a lot of tweaking.<br />
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Its safe to say that after completing that level of training over the course of the two months, I became much fitter, faster and stronger than ever before and I noticed a drastic change in my body. This continued up until Christmas last year, but in the New Year I was searching for a new challenge; I decided that I was ready to take my diet to the next level and to freshen up my workout formats. I'd noticed Icon Nutrition were advertising a 90 day challenge. All you had to do was purchase a pack which included a tailored nutrition and training plan, 2.2kg of whey protein, a large tub of their pre workout 'Ignite' (Which still remains my favourite pre workout), a t shirt and a bottle. They offered 10% off on this plan and I snapped it up straight away. Needless to say the training plan is an intense one, including three weights sessions all followed by an intense ab circuit, and three cardio sessions per week. They're all detailed and perfectly explained, there's also a home workout that you can complete which is pretty damn intense too. As for the nutrition plan, I'm finding it to be completely spot on, I've seen a huge change in my body and I'm really starting to shred fat. Plus, its a pretty cheap plan to follow and you can always chop and change some things to your liking, although the plan is varied with multiple options already. It's safe to say that since I've been on this 90 day challenge, I've been getting the perfect amount of nutrients and this is the best that I've ever felt. So anyone that's really interested in toning up and getting really healthy, the stack is definitely worth buying. I'd better also mention that they do other plans for specific goals too. I'll drop links at the end of this post for everything that I've mentioned so far.<br />
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The last thing that I want to focus on is the importance of choosing your environment very carefully. By this I mean that one of the most important things is to surround yourself with likeminded and/or wholly supportive people. Even if it's just through social networking sites like Twitter, find people that inspire you and let them continue to do so. Personally I've had endless support from my family and friends and I couldn't ask for any more from them, they're pretty damn amazing. However, there are so many people that I follow on Twitter that continue to inspire me and the fitness community is full of people that love to support eachother and you'll find that a lot of people will pass on their advice free of charge and with a hell of a lot of enthusiasm. For example, I've found that big communities and companies like BodyActive, Icon Nutrition and Machine Fitness are absolutely amazing for encouraging and recognising the people around them and they're in my opinion both at the pinnacle of the fitness community with regard to the effort that they show. You can find all of them on Twitter if you're interested in seeing what they have to say.<br />
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Here is the link to the Rock Hard workouts -<br />
http://www.muscleandfitness.com/workouts/rock-hard-training-plans-build-serious-muscle<br />
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and of course the Icon Nutrition 90 day challenge -<br />
http://www.iconnutrition.co.uk/ICON90<br />
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Hope you all found the stuff I had to say interesting, and I hope that I can at least help one person with the resources from this post.<br />
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Alex.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08355044903865742023noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3207314820675342412.post-56056963405366433202013-11-17T11:16:00.001-08:002013-11-17T12:08:33.794-08:00Motivation<p dir="ltr">Motivation, its a powerful thing. It keeps you chasing your goals and encourages you to work harder and harder to bring those goals closer. Motivation can come in a variety of forms from direct or indirect influences. Since I've started to really train (16 months ago) people have commented on my commitment and asked me where my motivation and drive comes from. It got me questioning myself and at first I struggled to see what set me apart from a lot of others. I don't see training/dieting as a means to an end, and I absolutely love everything about them. My motivation boils down to the fact that I see this as a lifestyle and not just a chore. That's not just a self centred and narcissistic claim, take a moment to think about some big fitness icons. They love to train in the same way that any sports people love to train. They do this because they want to and not because they have to. </p>
<p dir="ltr">A phrase that always rang true for me was 'A Product of My Environment' I first heard this from Fitness Made EZ (Paul Corkery) and its a term that needs little analysis but has rather a strong meaning. Everyone is a product of their environment in some way or another. What if you constructed your own environment? By this I mean that you could surround yourself with people and communities that support and reinforce your own goals. Find those positive influences that encourage you to make that change for the better and connect with them. The fitness community is vast and usually extremely welcoming (in my experience). If you put in the work to surround yourself with these influences then you will definitely reap the rewards. </p>
<p dir="ltr">One thing that I've always been guilty of is beating myself up about my appearance and if it weren't for the people around me I'd still see myself in the same way. Its hard to see your own progress when you're so used to looking at yourself in a mirror on a daily basis. Pictures can help, but I prefer to rely on the input of friends and family. I've become so frustrated at points after months of clean eating and hard training and not seeing a difference, it took an outsider's view to make me realise that I'd made a lot more progress than I'd first thought. </p>
<p dir="ltr">So, the bottom line? Motivation can come from anywhere, but it doesn't just appear out of nowhere. You have to put in the effort to find your positive influences and to adapt your mindset. At first it all might seem like a chore, but give it a chance - you might learn to love it. </p>
<p dir="ltr">This is the part that I love the most, the name dropping. Like I said, you have to find your own inspiration; but maybe you could start by looking at who inspired me. In the beginning I had one single inspiration in the form of Fitness Made EZ - Paul Corkery (@Fitnessmadeez on Twitter and Facebook). I've learned a lot from him thanks to his non-bullshit, tenacious and active approach. As both a fitness source and a fighter, his input and support have been a huge help to me and he continues to be one of the big influences on my lifestyle. Next are the guys over at BodyActive. They included me in their community and offered me so much support and even gave me the opportunity to blog on their website (which I'd love to do on a regular basis), frankly I'm humbled to be a part of that community. Icon Nutrition have also been a huge influence, especially lately. They're amazing to interact with, always there to offer their input and they have a great team of athletes to help with that. Also they happen to make some of the most amazing supplements that I've ever tried. Kavan Byrne also provided some specific input, I had trouble training certain areas and he pointed me in the right direction and had me making gains again. I also recently discovered Emmy Glover's blog (lovelaughandlift.blogspot.co.uk) which is actually a really refreshing and balanced view on training and a healthy lifestyle, and I look forward to reading more of her posts. </p>
<p dir="ltr">That's all from me for now! Hopefully I'll be able to get some more posts up soon. Make sure to check out everyone that I've mentioned and see for yourself why I rate them so highly. As always, if you've got any questions then you can catch me on Twitter (@Wrighty__). <br></p>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08355044903865742023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3207314820675342412.post-81791153484773229702013-06-13T10:11:00.002-07:002013-06-13T10:11:53.742-07:00The Weight Training Antidote - REVIEW!I've been telling myself for a while that I'd sit down and take a long look at this <u>FREE</u> E-book, after all - what's the harm in taking advantage of free advice from an experienced source? There's no harm at all, in the health and fitness industry, experience acts as a huge cornerstone and its something that allows people to pass on tips and advice to help maximise others' training. For anyone that's not heard of this E-book, its written by Adam Kitchen, the founder of DPA Fitness - which is based primarily in Hong Kong. I first discovered Adam through the forums over at BodyActive whilst I was partaking in my trial of X Factor Advanced. He's a big contributor to their forums and always on hand to offer advice and words of support. Basically, what I'm saying is that the author of this E-book is a trusted and sincere source - he's not going to try and sell you wonder supplements, or bullshit you with mountains of unnecessary technical jargon. Instead he keeps things as simple as possible and makes his points as easy to understand as possible. He achieves this by first introducing his topics, then breaking them down and analysing them, before concisely bullet pointing the key points to be taken from those topics. Therefore you're receiving this information in three different styles, all of which compliment each other and make it all easy to understand. The text is also structured simply which again makes it easy to understand. Although this book is relatively short (53 pages) - it contains concise and reliable information, backed up by solid scientific evidence.<br />
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Now, enough about the structure of the book - on to the content! I'm very wary of giving too much away with regard to the information contained within the text, so I'll try and omit any chance of spoilers. Basically, Adam introduces a system to break up what he considers to be the most important aspects of a healthy lifestyle (A simple system which I thoroughly agree with) - He then goes into these key aspects in detail in each chapter. Basically, any aspect of healthy life that you can think of - Adam has it covered in one way or another, whether it's in regard to Training, Nutrition, etc. He also offers a complete and detailed structure for successful training plans, and even goes as far as to offer a sample of these workouts. The structure that he offers is something that I'd toyed with the idea of but I'd never really looked into it in detail - after reading his explanations of this structure, its something that I'll definitely be adopting with regard to future training. It's safe to say that this method has completely blown my mind and changed my outlook on training! He also offers some solid nutritional advice that I'll most definitely be adopting, as its the thing that I most struggle with. You can probably find some of this nutritional advice by piecing together countless other sources, but 'The Weight Training Antidote' is the only place that you'll find this information plus more in a coherent and effective manner.<br />
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For all of those people that are reading this, and thinking 'It sounds like a bodybuilding guide' or 'Its just for men' then you are SEVERELY mistaken. This e-book is about <u>WEIGHT TRAINING</u> - whilst some may associate that directly with bodybuilding, its not the case. Adam describes how and why lifting weights is the most efficient form of exercise and training, not just for bodybuilders, but for athletes, fitness enthusiasts, or even beginners that are looking to get healthy and fit and tone up. In addition to this, he explores the myths and reasons behind the inhibitions held by women over weight training, and why it won't turn them into hulk-like figures, and just make them toned and sexy instead. He offers training tips for both beginners and more advanced enthusiasts too. Overall, within 'The Weight Training Antidote' - Adam Kitchen provides his readers with a tried and tested system which is designed to allow people to lead a healthier lifestyle without having to sacrifice their social life or put things on hold. He doesn't aim this at a specific audience, he aims it at EVERYONE - It doesn't matter if you're Male or Female, Beginner or Advanced - this book will give you the tools and advice necessary to make a huge change in your life, without drastically affecting the other important things. In short, if you're interested in health and fitness in any way, then this book is a must read, I'm giving it a huge 10/10 for both content and structure!<br />
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For anyone that's interested in reading this E-book, you can download it for free from the DPA Fitness website - <a href="http://dpafitness.com/the-weight-training-antidote">http://dpafitness.com/the-weight-training-antidote</a> ; Also for anyone that's interested in getting involved in BodyActive's community (Which is also free) then just head over to www.bodyactive-nation.co.uk and create yourself an account. If you're on Twitter then get following @DPAFitness and @BodyActive. You can also find me on Twitter @Wrighty__ and on Facebook - www.facebook.com/A.Wright.Fitness. Now get over to DPA and download this book, you will not be disappointed. Happy reading!<br />
Take it easy<br />
Alex.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08355044903865742023noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3207314820675342412.post-5423261489777812312013-06-12T15:35:00.002-07:002013-06-13T05:31:29.275-07:00Weekly UpdateFirst off I'd like to apologise for the lateness of this post, I'll try and have updates up every Monday in future. Now, on to business - I've just completed my first week of training and its been an interesting experience. I'll hold my hands up and admit that I haven't been strict enough with my diet and I'm rectifying that this week. However, despite my cheat days I've still managed to make some major headway in the form of weight loss and muscle gain. For anyone that missed the previous post, my stats at the beginning of last week broke down like this -<br />
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Legs - 25.5 inches</div>
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Arms - 16 inches</div>
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Chest - 42.25 inches</div>
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Weight - 96.5kg</div>
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Max Deadlift weight - 100kg</div>
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Max Squat weight - 95kg (Below Parallel)</div>
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I managed to stick to my training completely last week, completing full body workouts in the gym on Monday, Wednesday and Friday; and also partaking in cardio exercise on Tuesday and Thursday. On Sunday I managed to fit in a fasting day, despite wanting to eat everything around me by the end of the day. With regard to supplements, I've been taking three Warrior Blaze capsules per training day, with a Diet protein shake post workout. Anyway, on to the results; I weighed in and measured up on Monday of this week, and here is how the stats have changed:</div>
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Legs - 26 inches</div>
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Arms - 16 inches</div>
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Chest - 44.25 inches</div>
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Weight - 92kg</div>
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Max Deadlift Weight - 130kg</div>
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Max Squat Weight - 112.5kg</div>
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So as you can see I've managed to make some major strength gains which I'm hoping to increase again by the end of the week. I've also managed to lose some significant weight - 4.5kg (9.9 pounds) whilst gaining muscle mass on both my legs and chest, whilst maintaining muscle on my arms. Its safe to say that the past week of training has been a successful one, despite my nutritional lapses. However, due to the huge weight loss this week, I'm not expecting anything big in the following week, I'll be happy just to maintain the weight that I'm at, as I'm hugely ahead of target, sitting just behind the half way point for my target. </div>
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I've had a few people ask me how I manage to lose the weight and how I keep myself motivated. With regard to the weight loss, its all about the amount of effort you put in. I pride myself on pushing myself past my limits in every gym session and working as hard as possible - to put it simply, if you're not sweating heavily and feeling your muscles start to ache at the end of a session, then you're just not doing it right. With regard to eating, the last week has been an exception for me. I've learned to love healthy foods just as much as junk foods, and I try to keep my diet interesting. If you've got a boring and tasteless diet, then its more likely that you're going to want to cheat it and eat junk food. With regard to motivation, I get my motivation from seeing myself in the mirror week after week and seeing the improvements that training is having on my body, but most importantly I don't see my training as a chore or something I have to force myself into. It's become a huge part of my life now, and spending 3-5 sessions in the gym per week is standard to me, its just a bonus that I see such amazing results from it. Also, its all about who you surround yourself with, I try to surround myself with people that are passionate about fitness, Icon Nutrition have helped me massively with workout tips and info, Kavan Byrne has also been a huge source of info. Of course Fitness Made EZ has helped me massively with regard to motivation and my training approach, my last 5 months of training have been attributed to his advice and guidance. Also I encourage you all to get over to the community at bodyactive-nation.co.uk - its an amazing community to be a part of and they've helped me a lot over the past few months.</div>
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Well I hope that everyone's enjoyed this post, for anyone that's interested in my workout routine or the structure of my diet, its all in the post preceding this one. If people have any feedback or questions or even want to join me in my journey (as I've said before I'm happy to offer nutrition and exercise tips) then you can catch me on Twitter (@Wrighty) on Facebook (www.facebook.com/A.Wright.Fitness) or alternatively just leave a comment in the box below! </div>
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Take it easy</div>
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Alex.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08355044903865742023noreply@blogger.com3