Exercise – Page 7 – Exercise, diet and well-being

December 15, 2017December 16, 2017

My blueprint for getting lean! 2013

I get a lot of questions about how to lose weight or get lean for competitions so I thought I would share my main dietary and training philosophies here.

Step 1: Find out your blood type.

Step 2: Go to Peter D Adamo’s website and complete the questionnaire on which diet protocol would suit you better- Blood Type or Genotype.

Step 3: Do some reading. Depending on what diet protocol it suggests for you, purchase the book or get it out at your local library. If it’s blood type you have a selection of beneficial foods based on your unique blood work. Your blood type is either O, A, B or AB. If it is the genotype you will need to know your blood type and complete further questions and body measurements.

Step 4: Adjust macronutrient ratios. Now that you have the right food choices for your body you need to consider your protein, carb and fat ratios. If you store body fat easily, increase protein (make sure you are having at least 1-2 grams of protein per kilogram of lean body mass-maybe even more if you are really carb sensitive), cut out grains or use sparingly and replace with more vegetables and low glycaemic fruits from your beneficial food list (definitely cut out bread, pasta and other wheat products). Do not cut out fat-your body needs it. Use the beneficial choices from your unique food list. Drink at least 2-3 litres of water.

Step 5: Adjust meal frequency. Again this will depend on you. Some people need to eat every 2-3 hours. Others would do better if they stretched meals further apart. Breakfast for me is not the most important meal of the day and it may not be for you! I personally do better on eating close to nothing all day with a large meal at night. There are a number of different “fasting” protocols out there that I have tried. For me the Warrior Diet is the best. Others like Lean Gains by Martin Berkhan, Eat Stop Eat by Brad Pilon have worked for many people when the traditional small frequent meals didn’t work.

Step 6: Make sure that you are meeting all your nutritional needs. Make sure that from your lists you choose a variety of foods to get a range of nutrients to support health, growth and recovery. Supplements may need to be incorporated (with each blood type/ genotype diet protocol there is a unique beneficial supplement list too). Often people have suggested to me that these diets are restrictive; I have found it to be the total opposite as I have tried numerous foods that I would never have given a second thought.

Step 6: Do some weight training 2-4 times per week using compound exercises like, squats, dead lifts (trap bar deadlift if you can’t squat or deadlift), chins, rows, some forms of pressing and a few isolation exercises for the smaller body parts. Add in some form of cardio if it doesn’t impede on your weight training and suits your body type- for example Type O’s who are endomorphic may benefit more from cardio than a hard gainer who is Type A. Personally, I am a Blood type A, non- secretor, Explorer genotype. I have found that I can get leaner faster when I stick to my beneficial food lists, train body parts twice over an 8 day period using the exercises mentioned above with no cardio. My favourite writers on weight training are Casey Butt; creator of Weightrainer.net, Steve Holman; editor of Iron man magazine, Stuart Mc Roberts of hard gainer fame, Doug Brignole and Paul Burke.

Step 7: Remember to keep an open mind and realise that you are a unique individual. Adjust these diet and training ideas to suit you- there are other variables like somatotypes, hormone levels, recovery ability, motivation, time and financial considerations. Realise too that a paradigm shift in thinking may be all it takes to transform your body-don’t get trapped into thinking there is only one way to achieve your fat loss goals or that following some genetic freak or drug users advice online or in a magazine is what you need to do.

Step 8: Enjoy the process of learning about your body so that you can make the body composition changes you want in a balanced, healthy and sustainable manner. There you have it my blueprint for getting lean!

December 15, 2017December 15, 2017

Changing the resistance angle of an exercise to build more muscle. 2013

I have found that changing an exercises angle to manipulate when maximum resistance occurs during the exercise can have a positive effect in several ways, it can:

Improve motivation and enthusiasm for training by providing variation.
Stimulate muscle growth by overloading the muscle in a different way.
Allow you to keep training intensely when working around small recurring injuries.

Although I have never struggled much with having enthusiasm to train, nothing is more satisfying and motivating when you try a new variation of an exercise and BOOM, you feel it in a way you have never felt before, you get an awesome pump and you just know it will contribute to new growth (often a good dose of muscle soreness the next day too).

Of course there are multiple ways of changing the way that you train to get the above effect; however, using different variations of an exercise to provide another way to overload the muscle at different points along the range of motion can be used when all other methods such as lifting heavier, more volume, exercise order, different exercises etc, etc have been tapped out.

So how can you change where maximum resistance occurs during an exercise?

You can do this by changing the angle of the body and its levers in relation to gravity or by changing the angle of resistance by other external forces like cables or cam machines. A good exercise to explain this is the dumbbell side raise for the side deltoids. In a normal dumbbell side raise maximum resistance occurs at the top of the movement when the arm is parallel to the ground and perpendicular with gravity. If you were to do side raises lying on a flat bench or on the floor sideways, maximum resistance would occur at the start of the movement when the arm is next to your side as this is where the arm is now perpendicular to gravity. To get maximum resistance during the middle of a dumbbell lateral raise you would need to lie sideways on an inclined bench. So when I train my side deltoids my “Omni DB side raises” looks like this:

Lying side raise 1 set (one arm at a time) -max resistance at beginning.

Incline side raise 1 set (one arm at a time) –max resistance near mid- point.

Seated side raises 1 set (both arms) -max resistance at the end (top).

The above approach has allowed me to overload the side deltoids in a productive and unique way with comparatively lighter weights while still using rep ranges conducive for muscle growth.

This leads me to my next benefit, working around injuries. I mentioned last article that I had some niggles with my elbows. This was occurring during elbow flexion of around ninety degrees, especially during dumbbell curls. In a normal dumbbell curl maximum resistance occurs when the arm is flexed at ninety degrees and the forearm is perpendicular to gravity. So I have been using cable curls that are set up in such a way that maximum resistance occurs at the beginning of the movement with less resistance in the flexed position allowing me to continue to train intensely and productively without any pain or further damage.

So, if you have hit a plateau in your training or have a nagging injury that just won’t go away consider changing the angle of resistance to manipulate when maximum resistance occurs during your favourite exercises and watch your muscles start to grow again!

December 15, 2017December 15, 2017

Pre-contest Prep 2013

Lat spread versus the best in the southern hemisphere

It is only two weeks out from the NABBA/WFF Christchurch competition I am entering this year so I thought I would share my food and training log for the last week I have just completed to give you an idea of how I have been prepping for it. The good thing is my strength is up on last year in all exercises which reflects my focus more on myofibrillar (muscle fibre) growth compared to working primarily on sarcoplasmic(muscle fluid) growth. (Whether this translates in a better look is another thing J). Posing practise is on days I train so rest days are for REST. I had been intermittent fasting 16 hours with an 8 hour eating window with only 3-4 meals, but after my body fat loss stalled I decided to revert back to the Warrior Diet (under eating and over eating at night). Straight away I saw progress!

DATE	BW	All weights are in kilos.
Fri 26/4	63.4	Full body workout 1. Squat: 100x5, 140x5,120x6 2. Romanian D-lift: 100x10 3. 1-leg curl: 36x14,7 4. seated calf raise: stackx25 5. chins: 20x10,5 BWx10 6. DB fly press: 41.5x10, 30x11,7 7. High Pull: 80x10,5 8. face pull: 45x11,11 9. reverse curl: 50x6,4 10. push downs: 40x11,10	Meals 1. 60g unflavoured whey with natvia5 tabs spirulina 2. 2 raw carrots with lemon juice and 240g lentils 3. 60g unflavoured whey with natvia+5g glutamine 4. 180g lamb, head of broccoli, 500g green beans, whole onion, 3 cloves garlic, 2 courgettes, 2 carrots, seasoning(10g fish oil), 5g ghee Supps: B-12, 300-450g magnesium, milk thistle, rhodiola rosea, 10g fish oil, NO supplement before training.
Sat 27/4		Rest day	Meals 1. 30g unflavoured whey with natvia5 tabs spirulina 2. 30g unflavoured whey with natvia(10g fish oil) 3. 2 raw carrots with lemon juice/ or 240g lentils 4. 30g unflavoured whey with natvia+5g glutamine 5. 180g lamb, head of broccoli, 500g green beans, whole onion, 3 cloves garlic, 2 courgettes, 2 carrots, seasoning(10g fish oil), 5g ghee 6. 30g unflavoured whey with natvia+5g glutamine Supps: B-12, 300-450g magnesium, milk thistle, rhodiola rosea, 10g fish oil
Sun 28/4	62.4	Upper body 1. DB row: 57x13, 45x13 2. DB fly press: 45x5, 30x13 3. Cable row: 75x12,8,5 4. DB decline press 35x15,10,10 5. Omni-cable raise: 12x16,10,10,8 6. Omni DB row: 35x13,12,11	Meals Same as day before except 180g monkfish with meal 5 instead of lamb. Supps: B-12, 300-450g magnesium, milk thistle, rhodiola rosea, 10g fish oil, NO supplement before training.
Mon 29/4	62.4	Rest day	Same as day before except 180g lamb with meal 5 instead of monkfish. Supps: B-12, 300-450g magnesium, milk thistle, rhodiola rosea, 10g fish oil
Tues 30/4	62.6	Lower body 1. Deadlift:100x5,140x5,180x3,140x10 2. BB Hack squat: 120x11 3. 1-Leg curl: 40x11,7 4. calf raise: stack+35 x16,11 5. DB curl 26x8 6. Reverse curl 40x17,11 7. DB pullover ext: 45x8 8. Omni tri-pushdowns: 40x9,9	Same as day before except 180g monkfish with meal 5 instead of lamb. Supps: B-12, 300-450g magnesium, milk thistle, rhodiola rosea, 10g fish oil, NO supplement before training.
Wed 1 /5	62.2	Rest day	Same as day before.
Thurs2/5	62.6	Upper body 1. Cable row: 95x5, 85x5, 70x6 2. Omni DB fly press: 41.5x9,30x12,7 3. DB row: 57x14, 45x14 4. Decline Bench: 100x7, 90x6 5. Omni DB row: 35x17,12,11 6. Omni-cable raise: 12x10,10,8,6	Same as day before except 180g lamb with meal 5 instead of monkfish. Supps: B-12, 300-450g magnesium, milk thistle, rhodiola rosea, 10g fish oil, NO supplement before training.
Fri 3/5	62.6	Rest day	Same as day before except 2 rice cakes with meal 5.

*natvia is a natural sweetener containing stevia and erythritol.

This diet and training programme will carry on through until competition day. So:

Sat 4/5: Lower body

Mon 6/5: Upper Body

Wed 8/5: Lower Body

Fri 10/5: Upper Body

Sun 12/5: Lower Body

Tue 14/5: Upper Body

Thu 16/5: Lower Body

SATURDAY=competition!

The only changes diet wise will be rice cakes or lentils added when I look a little flat. In the last week I will begin water loading: Wednesday and Thursday I will have 5 litres of water, Friday 4 litres and sip water when thirsty on the day (Drug free bodybuilders should never restrict water intake leading up to a show!) I season my main food meal at night with my favourite spices and salt right up until show; just have a little less on Friday night before the comp.

So that’s my prep for 2013! As you can see it is a pretty simple training and diet regime that has served me well in the past. If you decide to take the plunge and compete find what works for you, believe in your training and diet, stick to the plan and give it your best!

December 15, 2017December 15, 2017

Why I say NO to cardio 2013

Don’t get me wrong I have nothing against Cardio. Cardiovascular or aerobic exercise has been proven by research over the years to be a beneficial way of improving your health and well-being. In fact in New Zealand we recommend performing a minimum of 30 minutes of physical activity every day to maintain good health. There are many forms of cardio to suit your own preferences and if you enjoy it I say go for it- It will do so many positive things for you! I also want you to consider that performing “Cardio” is not always necessary in reaching your health and fitness goals. It is obviously clear that if you want to be a marathon runner you will need to run, but if you are like me; a natural bodybuilder- does performing traditional cardio make a lot of sense? Everyone does it right? Well for me the answer is NO.
Before I tell you why I want to give you an insight into how the idea of getting rid of cardio evolved for me. The first time I considered dropping cardio from my pre-contest bodybuilding phase was back in 2005, I had just competed in my last show of the year and was preparing students for a triathlon as part of their NCEA course at school. I had not achieved the level of leanness I wanted to during the shows, even with cardio, and thought I would do some extra training with the kids to see if it would augment fat loss and my weight training. What happened was a huge surprise! I gained body fat, lost strength and felt terrible. Now you may be thinking that I was doing too much, but apart from 3 weight training sessions and 6 half hour cardio sessions- that was it. In 2006 I competed in bodybuilding again and was unhappy with my results even with all the hard work I put in- I just wasn’t lean enough.

I decided that next time I competed I would follow the lifestyle recommendations offered by Peter D’Adamo for Blood type A and reduce the amount of exercise to lower cortisol levels. I also began to see my weight training sessions as more meditative than intense to further balance the stress created by weight training. Excessive and prolonged cortisol levels within the body have clearly been shown to promote increased body fat levels through several different mechanisms. Also as a PE teacher I often tell my students that they need to train specifically for their sport. How is cardio anywhere like a bodybuilding competition? You may be only up onstage for 10 minutes max and during that time you are posing as hard as possible, so it made sense to drop cardio and focus on weight training, diet and posing to improve my ability to get lean for competitions.
In 2008, along with some diet modifications I performed no traditional cardio. Instead I began using “rest-pause training” during weight training sessions and found I lost fat faster and achieved a level of leanness I was unable to achieve before with cardio. The other huge benefits were that I had more energy to put into my weight training (I only trained 3-4 times per week); I stayed stronger, recovered a lot faster between workouts and felt a million times better!

Since 2008 I have done no traditional cardio before a bodybuilding show; all I do is:

Weight training 3-4 times per week with sessions lasting less than 45 minutes.
Make sure my diet is on point (for me that is high protein, no processed carbohydrates, plenty of fresh vegetables, lots of good fats and whey protein so my macronutrients ratios are right for me to lose body fat and gain/maintain muscle).
Use a pre-workout supplement.
Posing practice for around 15-30 minutes on non-training days, slightly more as competition gets closer.

I have to say for some people this may not be enough exercise for them physically or emotionally before a bodybuilding contest but I have found training smarter for me, not harder has given me better results. Also, genetics and other variables can influence how much you can train in terms of weight training and whether cardio ruins or augments your efforts in the gym. For example Peter D’Adamo recommends that Blood type O’s generally benefit from more exercise as it reduces stress and lowers cortisol levels for them.
In any case you need to be aware that there are many different ways to achieve your health and fitness goals, just make sure you don’t blindly follow what others do and find what works best for you. That is why I say NO to cardio!

December 15, 2017December 15, 2017

My journey to losing weight. 2013

It would surprise many people probably that I have struggled with my weight for most of my life, so I thought I’d share my journey (in terms of diet as I feel this is the main factor) with you on how I have managed to not only lose the weight, but be in a position where I can get into contest level condition with little fuss. As a young fella I was always the chubby kid, however, there was a window between the ages of 12-15 where I was reasonably lean. I attribute this to the amount of exercise I did at the time -honestly I would have exercised at least 3-4 hours every day. However after I turned 16 the weight began to pile back on regardless of how much exercise I did. My diet which was mainly based around bread at that stage began to take its’ toll.

When I was 17 years of age I reached my heaviest body weight of 95 kilograms even though I was still quite active lifting weights, going for runs, playing rugby and touch. Needless to say I was uncomfortable in my own skin, unhappy and had low self- esteem. Something had to change and fortunately enough for me I have always enjoyed reading so I utilised information from books and muscle magazines and tried to eat as closely as I could to their recommendations on the limited budget that I had. I began to exercise even more and with a determined effort I lost around 10 kilos in the first year.

By the time I was 21 I weighed around the 80 kilogram mark but the weight loss plateaued. I wanted to lose more weight and compete in bodybuilding so I got some advice from my Uncle Al. Since I was on a student allowance my diet consisted of a strict regime of tuna, mixed vege’s and SHAPE 2000-(a Horleys protein supplement). Honestly it was tough going- I can remember being in such a state, endless amounts of cardio, my legs for weeks before the show feeling like lead and I had insomnia throughout. Although I was in a terrible state mentally and physically I managed to win my first athletic bodybuilding title at 22 at a weight of 68 kg. I was ecstatic about the weight loss, however, after the show my weight ballooned up to 78kg within a couple of weeks.

In 2002 at the age of 25 I began getting chronic fatigue syndrome and annoyed at the medical advice and help I received I decided to go to an alternative medical provider (The RIFE clinic in Albany). They took blood tests and determined that I was Blood type A and that all the exercise I was doing and food I was eating was actually causing me more harm than good. I immediately read the blood type diet, followed the lifestyle, training and diet advice and my weight dropped to 70 kg within months. Even though I was armed with this great knowledge my weight still fluctuated between 70-85 kilograms (unless I was competing) until 2007.

At the end of 2007 I came across a book called the Warrior Diet where I under ate during the day and had one large meal at night. I also utilised the Genotype diet which was Peter D’Adamo’s extension of the Blood type diet where he considers physical characteristics alongside blood type to determine optimum foods that suit unique individual needs. I decided that I would compete in the classic bodybuilding division in 2008 using these two protocols. I started at a bodyweight of 79 kilos in February. By competition time in October I weighed 64.7 kg. The great thing about this diet was I was able to maintain all my strength, have a big meal once a day and there were none of the negative symptoms from previous attempts to get lean for competition. The other thing was my weight never ballooned up again; the diet and lifestyle concepts had given me complete control over my weight. I then decided that I would do the same the next year and sure enough I was able to come in even leaner at a weight of 63 kilograms to win my second classic title. In 2012 I made slight changes to my macronutrient ratios and tried some different training ideas which allowed me to present the leanest physique I have achieved to date. In 2013 I have adjusted things where I fast until 11 am and have only 3 meals within an “8 hour eating window” which has made getting and staying lean even easier for me.

As you can see my journey to losing weight and keeping it off has been a long and bumpy ride. If someone had let me know what I know now twenty years ago I could have saved myself a whole lot of suffering and frustration. All I hope is that the information I share with you here helps you on your own personal journey to achieve your fitness and health goals.