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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!

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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!

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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!

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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.

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The Positives about Negatives! 2012

Negative or eccentric training is a great training technique to increase strength and muscle mass as it can be applied to increase the weights you use, amp up intensity, increase time under tension and burn body fat!

Traditional negative training involves completing the negative aspect of an exercise with a spotter lifting the weight on the positive or concentric part of the movement (e.g. during an exercise like the bench press you lower the weight by yourself as slowly as possible to your chest then a spotter lifts the weight back to the top of the movement for you). Charles Poliquin, an Olympic and top personal trainer claims using negatives is one of the fastest ways to improve your strength. He has had great success with this technique to help both his male and female clients perform pull ups. If they can’t perform one pull up (pronated grip) or chin up (supinated grip) he gets them standing on a box high enough so they can start at the top of the movement and perform only the negative. The strength gained during the eccentric training transfers over to the concentric aspect of the repetition too. So when they can complete a 30 second negative they are able to perform a proper pull up.

Another effective variation of negatives is to load the muscle with a weight heavier than you are accustomed to using in an exercise (we can be up to 30% stronger during a negative) while having a spotter take most of the weight during the positive part to increase strength and muscle growth. To be on the safe side begin by using a weight that is 5% heavier and go from there.
Others use negatives to increase intensity and time under tension (T.U.T) by completing as many normal reps as possible then getting a spotter to help with the positive movement when they can no longer do it to increase the reps and tension time the muscle is put under. Some recent research suggests that tension times of at least 40 seconds are extremely beneficial for muscle growth. If you consider that a normal set of 10 reps usually takes around 20-30 seconds for most trainers (1 second positive and 1-2 second negative) -adding 2-3 negatives can add up to 10 seconds or more on to the end of a set putting yourself in a way better position to grow!

Negatives can be done by yourself on one arm exercises like concentration curls or one arm triceps pushdowns as you can use the other arm to help with the positive movement when the muscles can no longer complete it. You can also complete partial negatives to develop weak points in any lift too.

Although negative training has been used with great success by many top bodybuilders, the unique stress it provides (during negatives the muscles are activated like they are in fast twitch mode and it causes more muscle damage than normal lifting) can be quite stressful and put a higher demand on the body’s ability to recover and grow. As a result it is only used for short periods of time as a technique to shock the body back into growth.

  • A good side effect of the muscle damage caused by negative training is the increase in the body’s metabolism which means you burn more body fat- so how could we get the benefits of negative training on a regular basis without the burn out that could occur with traditional negative training?
    Emphasising or lengthening the time of negatives in your normal sets has all the benefits of negative training and more! I have increased my negatives to 4 seconds with a 1 second positive on most exercises.
    I have found that increasing the time of the negative aspect of my exercises has had these benefits for me:
    · A better mind-muscle connection.
    · Better muscle pumps.
    · Longer time under tension (T.U.T); a normal 10 repetition set now gives me around 50 seconds of tension time.
    · Weights used are lighter which is great for my joints. (It was actually tough mentally to drop the weights I normally lift, thinking I would shrink- but I am so glad I did as the results I have seen have been well worth it).
    · I am recovering faster and can train more often (not trying to lift heavy all the time has meant my central nervous system is recovering faster and in line with my muscle recovery).
    · My metabolism has sped up (I weigh more; have got leaner and enjoying eating more food!).
    · I have increased vascularity and my muscles look fuller.
    · Don’t need a spotter.
    · I am enjoying my training even more than normal! :)

You can play around with the length of your negatives to see what works for you. Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson (x-rep.com and American Ironman magazine) promote negative accentuated (NA) sets that have a 6 second negative and 1 second positive aiming for 7 reps (49 seconds tension time and believe me it is TOUGH!). On most sets they use a 3 second negative and 1 second positive for 10 reps so they hit 40 seconds (T.U.T) on most sets. The progress these two have achieved with this type of training is impressive as both have amazing physiques (both are drug free too!).

If you haven’t tried negatives before give some of these variations a try. Who would have thought that focussing on the negative could have so many positives!