Keeping in shape over Christmas & New Year. 2010

Christmas and New Years’ is a time to be jolly! So wouldn’t it be great if you could feel like you are having heaps of fun without straying too far from your training and physique goals. Here are six ideas to help you enjoy the festive season and stay in shape!

1. Just because Christmas and New Years’ is a holiday doesn’t mean you have to stop training. Gyms are open most days during this period. Also there are lots of body weight exercises you can complete at home. However if you want to take a break from your normal training, there are heaps of other fun activities to try, like: surfing, swimming and walking at the beach for starters. Either way if you keep active it won’t be a mission to get back into your normal training routine after the holiday break has ended. It will also mean you use up most of the extra calories you have consumed over that time.

2. A good strategy to use to eat fewer calories when all the tempting food is around is to eat your macronutrients in this order.

  • Raw foods like: carrot & celery sticks, salads. (Gets digestive juices ready for the meal to come).
  • Protein like meat (steak, lamb, venison, chicken) & fish. (You will feel satisfied quicker and keeps Glycaemic Index of meal lower).
  • Other cooked vegetables like: broccoli, cauliflower, spinach. (Provides valuable nutrients with minimal calories).
  • Other complex carbohydrates last like: rice, kumara and potatoes. (You will eat less of these if you leave these foods till last).
  • Then if there is still room have a little dessert /alcohol or bread. (I don’t bother with this- I would rather have an extra serving of protein. Remember you don’t always have to eat dessert or drink alcohol when you go out for dinner).

So at a barbeque you could start with carrot sticks, iced water and a leafy salad (try using lemon and extra virgin olive oil as a dressing-it’s awesome), followed by some barbequed meat, then finish off (if you have room) some cooked vegetables or a kumara/pasta/potato salad. Dessert/ alcohol (could be low calorie) or bread after that is optional and usually not necessary.

3. Another idea is the way in which you ingest your macronutrients throughout the day. My normal pattern of eating is to eat 5 very small meals (made up of fruit, raw vegetables, nuts and protein powder) throughout the day then overeat with a huge meal at night. So when Christmas comes along and big dinner meals are the norm my body weight and composition is not affected at all! (As long as I stick to macronutrient order mentioned above).

4. Avoid or drink less alcohol. Alcohol is a killer for maintaining your physique goals; it has empty calories (around 100-150 calories for a standard beer), it decreases your testosterone and depletes your body of nutrients. However, if you follow the food order above and have a drink afterwards (remember you don’t have to drink) then this should hopefully minimise the negative effects and the amount you want to drink.

5. Continue to use your supplements like fish oil, multi minerals, vitamins and protein shakes. These help your body function properly so don’t leave them out. Remember:

  • Protein is a great appetite suppressant and satisfier.
  • The humid weather and festivities means more alcohol is consumed and alcohol is a shocker for depleting the body of a number of vitamins and minerals.

6. The heat also means you should drink lots of water. Remember that even being 2% dehydrated can affect your mood, energy and ability to remove toxins from the body. Also, thirst is often mistaken for hunger. So when you know you have eaten enough but still feel like eating, drink 2 glasses of water first. Often this will curb any more of those (false) hunger pangs.

Give these ideas a try over the holiday period and I guarantee you can still have heaps of fun without straying too far from your training and physique goals. Yes, you can have your cake and eat it too! Have a merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

Benefits of Weight training 2010

Weight training has so many benefits for everyone! It has the potential to keep you young, strong and fit. You can learn about yourself and grow in so many ways. Below is a collection of benefits you will receive if you incorporate weight training into your lifestyle.

Weight training can keep you young and improve your quality of life as you get older. Around the age of 30 your body naturally begins to slow down. One of the side effects of this is a condition called sarcopenia where you begin to lose muscle mass. This particular condition can actually be reversed through weight training. If you build more muscle you will have a greater chance of maintaining your quality of life as you get older as you will have more muscle to lose before it would affect your ability to perform everyday tasks. Weight training is also beneficial in maintaining and improving bone mass and density (possibly preventing osteoporosis), muscle balance and reducing injuries during sport, work and everyday life. In fact training with weights can improve your quality of life at any stage- from young to old.

I think weight training is the best way to lose weight. If you use the right training protocols you can burn fat, build muscle, optimise your hormones for well-being while making the most of your precious time. I have tried many forms of exercise to get into shape, however, I always look and feel better when my exercise regime solely involves weight training (plus stretches afterwards).

You can become a better athlete by using weights. If two athletes have the same skill level, but one is stronger, who would be the better athlete? In most circumstances, if not all I would go with the stronger athlete. Extra muscle mass developed through weight training can give you more strength and power (power = strength + speed). That’s why most top athletes incorporate some form of weight training in there exercise regimes so they can move faster, jump higher and dominate over weaker opponents in contact sports.

Weight training can make you smarter. Knowing how to train and diet to optimise results requires a lot of analysis of literature and experimenting with training protocols and nutrient ratios. The old idea that weight trainers are “all muscle and no brains” is a fallacy, especially for natural trainers who must continually learn and critically analyse all the information that is out there (which is often generated by companies for profit rather than to truly help you achieve your muscle and strength goals). Weight training can help develop thinking skills that can be used to achieve your muscle goals. These very skills, like goal setting can be utilised in other areas of your life too.

Weight training can affect your mood and self- esteem for the better! I know of a lot of students at school where weight training has given them more confidence and provided opportunities to shine in front of their peers. Weight training helped me to be more confident as a teenager. It has also never failed to make me feel better after a stressful day at work, or provide an energy boost before I get back into work again. Weight training is my own special “me” time and my own form of meditation!

Other benefits of weight training are:

• Better sleep patterns

• It can prevent depression

• Can improve quality of life for people who suffer from health conditions like diabetes, cancer and metabolic syndrome.

• Improved posture

• A more active metabolism (burn more calories)

• You can develop skills which can be applied to other aspects of your life like: persistence, goal setting and enjoying hard work.

Although this is not an exhaustive list of benefits it clearly details more than enough reasons to weight train. In my opinion weight training is one of the best ways to improve your quality of life!

Water works Part II

I thought I would take the benefits of water a step further and explain how I personally use water for health, training and bodybuilding competition.

My usual water intake can range from 2-4 litres most days and I know if I drink any less I feel sluggish, think less clearly and fatigue easier both in and out of the gym. I start off each day with 1-2 glasses of water and half a lemon.  This helps my body to optimise the detoxification process and lose body fat.  I have also found that it helps with unblocking my nose during hay fever season. 

My water intake before and during training is vital in terms of getting a good workout.  Before training (about ½ an hour) I will drink 2-4 glasses of water with a nitric oxide supplement.  This ensures that I will get an awesome pump and be in the zone to train. During the workout I will drink steadily between sets and get through at least one litre of water (definitely more in summer). This strategy means I maintain the pump and my energy levels throughout the whole workout.  The great Steve Reeves (the original Hercules) used a concoction of water, lemon and honey when he trained and I have found it to be useful on occasion too. I feel water is just as important as protein, creatine and other bodybuilding supplements in helping me achieve my training and physique goals.

I then make sure that I continue to drink water regularly throughout the rest of the day.  Water needs to be consumed regularly as all food and supplements are delivered to your muscles in an aqueous solution.  So remember if you are not properly hydrated you will not get the full benefit of your food and supplements.

Water is often seen as the enemy to bodybuilding competitors trying to get as shredded as possible onstage.  My experience over the last 10 years is that the times I have tried to restrict water it was because I wasn’t in decent shape in the first place. Restricting water intake always made me look smoother, flatter and I felt terrible! How many times have you heard a competitor say I was holding too much water when in actual fact they were just not lean enough? (Some bodybuilders can have hardly any water 2 to 4 days before a show-sometimes even longer which I feel is a very unhealthy practise!)  Natural athletes need to maintain their water intake as much as possible leading up to a show- remember your body is around 55%-75% water, so if you are dehydrated your muscles will be flat, you will be tired and you will not look your best.

The Monday before a show I will increase my water intake slightly to around 4-5 litres and maintain that all the way to Thursday.  On Friday the day before a show I will drop my water intake to around 2-3 litres and on the day of the show I will sip water whenever I feel I need to.  This strategy has always worked for me and it works because the body thinks it will continue to be supplied with a plentiful amount of water so it only holds onto the bare minimum. If you have been limiting water over several days which appears to be common practice for a lot of bodybuilders then your body tries to rebalance very quickly(about 1-2 days) by holding onto water so that normal body functions can still take place properly.  Also everyday detoxification is compromised and this can also contribute to water retention on the day of the show.  It will also mean you have difficulty getting a decent pump backstage and will be more prone to cramping up when posing.
Straight after the show I have 1-2 litres to replenish the water lost during the pump up backstage and posing under the lights.

Obviously being as lean as possible and looking your best for competition is a difficult feat to accomplish and requires a lot of knowledge, hard work and dedication but if you can see that water is your friend in the pursuit of looking your very best then try some of the ideas here, fine tune them for you and look forward to better health, energy and success onstage!

Improve your posture for a better physique. 2010

         NABBA/WFF Nationals 2012

Posture has a significant part in how we gain muscle and even how our physiques look (You only have to look in the mirror with your chest puffed up compared to being slouched over to realise the latter claim). It is important that you consider posture when you train so that you develop muscle in the right places, remain injury free and look your best. Below are some features and reasons for poor posture with some strategies to improve it for a better physique.
Forward head posture is a common problem in the gym. You would have noticed people at the gym who walk around with their heads slightly slouched forward, or who when completing exercises lurch their head forward on each repetition.

It usually occurs because people: 

• Use momentum to complete a lot of their exercises.
• Crunch their torso forward during exercises (to stabilise their body) which can further encourage the problem.
• Have poor posture (they slouch: their spine is in kyphosis) to start with.
This over time usually leads to neck and shoulder problems. Realising also that if your head is forward and down (instead of straight and directly over your shoulders) gravity is working on it all the time. Imagine in 10 years what your posture would look like if you did nothing to correct it (you would definitely have a more hunched over look).

Internally rotated shoulders are another problem that can exacerbate kyphosis of the spine and poor posture. Often weight trainers love to train the showy muscles like the chest and front deltoids while neglecting the muscles of the upper back like the traps and rhomboids. Over time the chest muscles become overdeveloped in relation to the back causing the shoulders to slouch forward. This will definitely make your physique look narrower, less aesthetic and more prone to injury the longer you are involved in weight training.

Another reason for poor posture is the core; the abdominals, hip flexors and lower back not being strong enough (or not being used properly) to stabilise you during exercises. Most people who have kyphotic posture tend to perform exercises crunched over or leaning forward which usually means their upper and lower back muscles are not flexed properly, leaving them open to injury.

So how do we correct these common problems? 

• Make sure you are aware of your own posture. Some people are more naturally kyphotic than others so assess your posture (or get someone else to) so you can select exercises that will improve your posture.
• Learn what good posture is and looks like. My students in the weight room at school are taught to stand with their chest puffed up, belly button in, feet shoulder width apart and knees slightly bent with their head above their shoulders looking straight ahead (usually this is enough to get their posture right). I also show them what poor posture looks and feels like so they are in a better position to correct themselves.
• Make sure you train with controlled movements and that you maintain a neutral head position (looking straight ahead, head over shoulders and no movement).
• Use exercises that put muscle on your upper back like:
Deadlifts, Barbell, dumbell or machine rows (rows with elbows out will generally hit them better- but experiment to see what feels the best), Low pulley upright rows-make sure you stand about a metre from pulley station (this position seems to be better on the shoulder joint and hits the upper back muscles hard), shrugs with a focus on pulling up and slightly back (not to be confused with rotating up and back).
• Put less emphasis on chest training and focus on the upper back muscles. A good rule is for every chest exercise you complete, do at least two exercises for the back. For example my Chest & Back workout at the moment looks like this:

Exercises
1. Deadlift
2. Incline DB fly press (cross between DB fly and DB bench press)
3. Bent over row or machine row (On machine rows I focus keeping my ribcage high and pulling my scapulae back and down in one fluid movement).
4. Chin up
5. DB Pullover
I naturally have a tendency to slouch a little (a combination of a slightly kyphotic spine or natural tendency to slouch, working on a computer a lot and not giving my upper back muscles the priority they needed) so training like this has helped a lot in changing my posture for the better. I have noticed that because my shoulders are not as internally rotated (because of a stronger back) it is easier for me to feel my chest exercises better as my shoulders are taken out of the movement more; as a result I am making more improvements in my chest than when I was doing three times the work!
• You can perform some easy exercises at home like locking your hands behind your back, then, with straight arms raise your hands as high as they can go slowly. Repeat 10-20 reps a couple of times a day. You can also hold your bent arms up, out to the side (parallel to the ground) and perform scapulae squeezes for the same amount of reps as above.
• Make sure you stretch your chest, shoulder and neck muscles after workouts so that the muscles do not become tight. You could also use a broom stick- rest it on top of you traps with arms wrapped around the broom to get a good shoulder/chest stretch.
• Train your core muscles by performing heavy compound movements with good form. I feel these are more beneficial than the focus on stability ball training which seems to be the rage at the moment.
• Perform a movement like the Plank where you are in a press up position on your elbows with a straight back. Suck belly button in and hold for 2 minutes +. Progress to the rollout.
• Focus on the lower aspect of the rectus abdominus by performing reverse crunch movements.
• When you are out of the gym make sure you walk with good posture, imagine the top of your head being attached to a hook, chest up and relaxed.
• When seated in front of a computer make sure the screen is high enough so that you do not slouch and take regular breaks to perform some of the exercises mentioned above.

Although this only scratches the surface in terms of ways you can improve your posture, I hope it gives you a good starting point to consider what you can do to develop muscle in the right places, remain injury free and look your best.

Optimum activation levels for training. 2010

Imagine you have gone to the gym, excited with a plan of what you are going to do.  You warm up and you feel good, focused and ready to rumble.  You begin training and all the usual distractions like other gym members and music become a distant blur to you. You are totally focused on achieving your goals and feeling the muscles work against the resistance.  Before you know it your muscles are pumped, aching and your workout is over!  You just had an amazing workout- (where did the time go?).  You were just in the zone!  Wouldn’t it be great if every workout you did was like that!  Achieving optimum activation levels or being “in the zone” mentally and physically (It can be a spiritual experience as well) is an important part of improving muscle gains. Here are some ideas on how to achieve this optimum mind/body state on a more consistent basis.

Know what level of activation you are before training.

Here are the three categories of activation and their signs and symptoms:

(Signs and symptoms taken from the Australian Sport Commission)

  • Over-activated — cold and clammy hands, need to urinate regularly, sweating, negative self-talk, increased muscle tension, butterflies in stomach, nausea, dry mouth, fidgeting, difficulty sleeping, inability to concentrate, tensing wrong muscles, consistently under-performing in the gym
  • Optimal activation — total immersion in the activity, feeling in complete control, inner calm, energised, heightened awareness, in the moment, confident.
  • Under-activated — lack of enthusiasm, moving slowly, mind wandering (that is, easily distracted), lack of concern about performance, heavy/lethargic feeling.

Knowing where you are, activation wise, and where you need to get to in terms of your unique optimum level of activation is important, some people need to be more or less pumped up than others.  If you are either under or over activated you can use some of these ideas below to get you in the zone.

Ideas to decrease activation

  • Breathing: breathe in through the nose for a count of 4 and breath out the mouth for a count of 8. Breathe and “fill the belly” as opposed to shallow chest breathing.
  • Muscle relaxation: When you breathe in tense a group of muscles then when you breathe out relax them and keep them relaxed.  Perform this for other areas of your body until all muscles have been relaxed in this way.
  • Listen to relaxing music
  • Meditation:  I like to use this when I have had a stressful day- I focus in on my breathing and count each breathe (usually to 10).  Some people use a number, others an image in their mind.
  • Warm up:  Make sure your warm up is controlled and you begin the process of focusing in on your training goals in a calm and focussed manner.
  • Attitude: Have the attitude that when you go to the gym you forget about all other issues/ worries that you might have and leave them at the door so you can get in the right frame of mind.

Ideas to increase activation

  • Increased breathing rate: A vigorous warm up will get the heart and lungs pumping.
  • Verbal cues (Ronnie Coleman is a classic” Light weight” or Ain’t nothin but a peanut” or “Yeah Buddy”) are all sayings to help him get in the zone.
  • Positive self-talk: “ I am going to lift this weight 10 times no matter what!”
  • Listening to upbeat music
  • Have Attitude:  Attack the weights, dominate them!
  • Using imagery (think Arnold when he envisioned his biceps to be as big as mountains) or imagine yourself repping with a weight you normally couldn’t handle and doing it easily.
  • Boost self-esteem: Convince yourself that you are awesome! (Probably keep this activity to yourself) tell yourself that you are the greatest and you can achieve or do anything. It is amazing how this can boost self esteem and put you in a head space that allows optimum activation levels to occur more easily.

Other ideas to achieve optimal activation levels.

Have goals:  The easiest way for me to get in the zone is to start off the workout looking at my training diary and looking at my goals for the session.  You need a plan so that you don’t waste any time and get straight down to business.

Time you train:  If it is at all possible, train when there are less people at the gym.  There are fewer distractions and no queues for equipment.

Avoid chit chat:  Nothing worse when you are having a great workout and someone wants to talk to you.  I make it a point to be polite and say hello, but I never get involved in a discussion during a workout.  Don’t let them stop you, just start your next set, they will get the picture. You could also wear an i-pod (doesn’t even have to be on) so that you are left to your own devices.

Avoid overtraining:  Sometimes no matter what you do you can’t get in the right head space. A good reason for that is that you may be suffering from overtraining.  Have a couple of days off and come back fresh!

Training partner:  Sometimes a good training partner can help get you in the zone.  I personally have found it much easier by myself, but you have to do what works for you.

Exercise selection, range of motion, density training:  These can have an impact on how easy you get into the zone.  I know that when I perform certain exercises with either a full or partial range of motion (depends on muscle group being trained) I feel it solely in the muscles I want to work allowing me to focus 100% on them.  Also density training systems like Hany Rambods’ FST- 7 training, Charles Poliquins’ volume training: 10 x 10 or Vince Girondas’ 8 x 8 allows you to focus in on the muscle and achieve huge pumps with little chance of distraction between sets (rest periods are short and you are using the same equipment).

Nutrition:  Make sure you have adequate fuel in the tank to get you through the workout.  It is also imperative that you are sufficiently hydrated as being slightly dehydrated can affect mental and physical performance by up to 20%!

Supplements:  The best supplements I have tried for getting in the zone and having a strong mind muscle connection are nitric oxide supplements (Amazing!).  I have found really good results with glutamine too.  Good old coffee can get you focussed pretty fast as well.

Achieving optimum activation levels or being “in the zone” is integral to gaining muscle.  So what are you waiting for, apply these ideas, get to the gym and get in the ZONE!