New Year, New Goals

When Big Ben sounded and London's skyline lit up with fireworks it sparked the beginning of 2017. A new year means new resolutions and for the keen gym geeks out there it often means new goals in the gym. It's key to set these goals so they'll challenge you but also be achievable and realistic for you to complete.

I've spoken about this in previous posts but goals should always be SMART, meaning they're Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and with a Time frame. These are the fundamentals when it comes to setting goals that will keep you motivated and push you to become a better you.

Another important factor is to understand why you should set up goals. Now for me they set up the direction of my training by focusing my attention towards goal-relevant activities and away from goal-irrelevant activities. For example, if a marathon runner sets out to improve cardiovascular fitness, running economy and muscular strength then he should focus on improving these areas, something towards their goal. They should not focus on other tasks such as their clean and jerk. Yes aspects of this may somewhat help in running but is it still relevant to running itself? This approach will allow you to focus on the most important aspects of training and in essence, ensure your training is as efficient and effective as possible.

As I mentioned earlier on the post motivation is huge in any type of training and the way you set your goals can help with this. Goals allow for an easy assessment of performance and enable you to learn more about your training abilities which can subsequently help to replace boredom with challenge. As you start achieving your goals you will build your own self-directed motivation and replace fear and tension with focus and confidence. These factors combined often lead to more rewarding training.

My last point is set both short and long term goals in order to see success. No goal is too big in my eyes but you must set short term goals in order to achieve this. So, set one long term goal encompassing all that you want to achieve but within this set short term goals. These could be daily, weekly or monthly but something which when put together with others will help in achieving that long term goal.

For me goal setting is an extremely powerful technique for enhancing performance that can be applied by absolutely anyone ranging from elite athlete to recreational gym-goer. Goals help you to establish your ultimate destination, they offer a prudent method of identifying the roads you can take to get there, and indeed, they let you know when you have arrived. It is important to consider the different type of goals and how these can be implemented into your training regime so that you remain focused on your gym goals.

Happy New Year one and all.

Jack

Do I workout or not?

Do I workout or not?

With the summer holiday season now upon us and family time along with social lives becomes a greater part of life and the routine of wake up, go to work then head to the gym is non existent the question often asked is 'do I workout or not?'. Motivation is at an all time low but you know it's got to be done, here are a few tips to include to get that workout in.

Set yourself a goal. This could be complete this many reps of a certain exercise or a certain amount of rounds of one exercise, anything that you can use as a motivational tool but that once competed you will have had a great workout. Use crossfit workouts, circuits or things such as pack of playing cards. This is something I'd highly recommend nominating an exercise to a suit and the number of the card being the reps performed, use the whole pack and there is your workout.

Set yourself a time limit. If you know all you're going to do is 30 minutes then you're mentally more prepared for what is to come. Count down the minutes or whatever you need to do but you know it's only going to be 30 minutes. Use the AMRAP principle where you must complete as many rounds of a certain circuit in a given time, great upping the intensity, high volume of reps performed along with motivation to beat your pass score or someone else's.

Play Sport. It sounds so simple but many forget this as a form of exercise. With the stunning weather we currently have here in London sport should be at the top of the list as one of the things to be doing. Play it with the family or friends and add in forfeits. Let's take football for example, if a goal is scored 10 press ups, someone skills you 10 star jumps, every corner 10 squats and if you foul someone plank for 30 seconds. Yes it may slow the game down but it can make it fun at the same time as getting some cardio and a strength workout all in one.

So no excuses, stay in shape over the summer.

Jack

Crossfit and 16.3

Today I decided to do 16.3, for those of you who don't know this is the lad test test in a string of workouts for the Crossfit open. CrossFit Games  then proceeds to the open regionals for those who qualify then off to Carson for the actual games. 

Now CrossFit is a training programme which builds strength and conditioning through a variety of different workouts. In these workouts many aspects of fitness are covered from gymnastics, to  weightlifting and as far as a triathlon based workouts at the games. Games you may ask? This is run every year in Carson where all the top CrossFit athletes from around the world take on events over three days to determine the fitness man and women on earth. Prior to this there are regionals and a open so anyone has the opportunity of going. Some of the professional athletes such as Rich Froning, Dan Bailey and Stacie Tovar who are ones that I personally support are in ridiculous shape and could step on stage with professional bodybuilders and wouldn't look out of place. Now with the rise of CrossFit so has the criticism of the sport, mainly because its all about doing things as quick as possible, with form sometimes leaving a little to be desired. Kipping Pull ups is an aspect which has got the most grief due to the swinging phase of the movement, as oppose to just pulling straight up, with many other exercises being adopted with a variation for Crossfit. Check these out online, some of them can be very useful, all down the individual on preferences.

CrossFit I occasionally include in my programme as either a cardio based workout or something strength related just to mix my workouts up. Now today workout Being 16.3 (as it's the 16th CrossFit games) was quite advanced with snatches and muscles ups but below are a few you could try if you're just starting out.

Jacks cardio burner!! 

400m Row
15 Box Jumps

12 burpees
8 clean and press (half of BW on bar)

 

5 rounds in the shortest time possible.


Murph - As quickly as possible.

1 mile run
100 pull ups
200 push ups
300 squats
1 mile run

Fran - Quickly as possible.

Thrusters (Front squats to push press)
Pull ups

Rounds of 21,15,9.

Give these a go and post you times in the comments below.

Jack

Writing programmes

I'm currently away in New Zealand with work and am therefore having a week off totally from training, well when I say totally I've still programmed in 3 HIIT sessions in just to keep everything ticking over. No more than 25 minutes from start to finish. This personally helps me to keep focused and aids in keeping the muscles loose. This week away has come at the right time as I'm going to start a new programme when I get back gearing up for the summer. Plenty of hours on the plane has ensured I write out my new programme in detail so I thought I would elude to a few keys points to help. 

1) Ensure you have a goal in mind prior to writing. Set yourself a broad goal, such as putting on 5kg of muscle by July. Then split these goals down, micro goals, like a 6 week programmes within that. Again take into account if you want to be 5kg heavier but yet lean, than you need to put more weight on through the bulking phase. 

2) Setting goals use SMART goals.

Specific - make your goals are exactly what you want from your training. 

Measurable - use a system to see you're growth, thus helping motivation when you succeed. Weighing yourself and measuring certain muscles groups for example. 

Attainable - can you reach these goals or are they out of reach?

Realistic - you can go big with your goals but know your limit. Not achieving these could end up in demotivation.

Time Specific - set goals to a time scale and make sure you're always on target to meet them. 

3) Make sure you schedule in rest. Don't just train every day of every week and expect results. Add in rest, this is the time to grow. Hit you're workouts hard, eat well and grow with rest. 

4) Include compound exercises. Go heavy on these, bring shock and trauma to the muscle, then isolate the muscle with higher reps to build size and bring detail to the target muscle group. 

5) Don't spend too long in the gym!! Get a good warm up in, hit the muscle hard with adequate rest in between to reach your optimum level with your next set but don't spend ages, texting your friends. Hit the muscle hard and get out. You'll also keep the pump better throughout the workout and not annoy your fellow gym goers by spending ages in a piece of equipment. 

So 5 easy steps to planning your workouts, now get to it. 

Jack

Use Cleans to build muscle!!

Following on from my last post reference powerlifting I want to go into detail how I've started using more powerlifting techniques in my programme, more so cleans. 

Now this is a exercise which I think is often over looked in the bodybuilding world as one of the mass builders along with the more common squat, bench and deadlift combination. The clean uses many muscle groups, as in its basic form it's a deadlift into a upright row, lastly pushing your elbow through ending in the rack position. Hamstrings and lower back dominate, moving into upper back, along with traps, whilst your core is essential to keep you stable at all times.  This is why I love to start my routine with heavy deadlifts, into heavy cleans. 

This is an explosive movement, so make it explosive!! 

- Recruit your legs as the power house muscle at the beginning of the movement.

- Much like a deadlift keep the bar in a straight line all the way through the movement.

- Get under the bar. Once the movement has been shifted from legs and more so to the upper back concentrate on getting under the bar. 

- Push your elbows through and high.  

- Lower the weight under full control. 

I like to do heavy cleans, really to focus on my speed, explosiveness, power and strength. I like 6x6 getting heavier each set. The the 100 rep challenge right at the end of my workout, with half my bodyweight on the bar, hitting the 100 reps in shortest time possible. If done correctly you will finish the workout on the floor in a puddle of your own sweat. Ensure that the form of the exercise however is never comprised. 

So there you have the one exercise you need to use in your programme. There are many different variations, so keep mixing it up. Learn the basics, gradually increase weight and this will be an exercise you keep in your programme. 

New Gym and Amino Energy!!

I know it's been a while but Happy New Year to everyone, I hope you're already into conquering your goals of 2016. 

I've been really busy myself with work over the Christmas period but managed to get home for a few days to see the family and of course try out a new gym. Where my parents live as oppose to London gyms are few and far between but through word of mouth I managed to get a week pass at 'Elite Physique Training Gym' (www.elitephysiquetraining.co.uk) in Sandy just off the A1.

The gym has only just recently opened back in October but has really got a lot to offer. It's in a small warehouse offering you a weights area, cardio suite and a room for classes. Dumbbells range from 1-50kg, all three types of bench presses, 2 smith machines, a squat rack and some machines I've never used before. One of these being the C press, which hit my shoulders at a totally different angle to the normal, straight, vertical pressing I'm used to. The gym has recently brought heavy duty bands which I knew I must give a go. Joe Donelley is a new advocate of these and boy do they work. The contraction is just insane!! High face pulls, rows, push downs, bicep curls and flies can all incorporate these. The muscle is under constant tension along with more resistance being exerted when you are at the strongest phase of the movement, thus making any movement much more difficult. I had some great workouts in this gym so if your in the area be sure to check it out. They're offering all types of memberships, including a day pass which is always helpful, along with Personal Training.

Lastly a quick shout out to Optimum Nutrition once more!! I can not get enough of amino energy. No matter how I feel, whenever I take this I get a good workout in. No matter the body part I don't fatigue and always seem to be focused throughout and get the job done. Plus the fruit fusion flavour is to die for. Check it out!!!! 

Have a great week of training, really try out some heavy duty resistance bands into your training.

Jack

Pre-Workouts

Pre-Workouts, do I really need them?

This has been a huge discussion in the fitness industry in recent months. Are pre workouts really essential to perform at your optimum level in the gym and get the best out of your workout. There are so many different ones on the market that it can cause so much confusion as to which to buy, the ways in which they affect you and what is actually in them.

Pre- Workouts have their benefits in more ways than one, often there are a huge mixture of different ingredients that make up a normal pre-workout, so i’m going to outline a few. 

Creatine monohydrate is one of these products. Creatine Monohydrate can act to increase physical performance in successive bursts of short-term, high intensity exercise and is ideal for sports which require high-intensity, explosive movements. This is ideal in a pre-workout for aspiring bodybuilders as it will help aid both strength and power in the compound exercises such as bench, squat and deadlift. Many often say it can also help achieve that pump in the muscle. The only downfall with creatine is it often requires a loading phase into a cycle, often requiring more than just one intake which you will receive from your pre-workout. It’s also really cheap to buy separately and following the guidelines may be a better option. 

Many pre-workouts also include your amino acids. Amino Acids are complex chemicals that are the building blocks of protein, which are required for the creation of new tissue, and the repair of existing cells. An essential Amino Acid cannot be synthesised or created by the body and therefore must be supplied from the diet. These are often taken pre workout, intra and post in order to aid growth and repair but more so to prevent your body going into a catabolic state, in other terms using muscle mass as an energy source. These can again be brought separately and much like creatine need to be used on more of a regular occasion than just pre-workout. 

The last large contributor is Beta Alanine. This is an non-essential amino acid and therefore is produced by the body, its supplemented as additional levels are required through training. It is thought to aid physical performance, increasing your exercise capacity. This can however have a few side effects such as flushes and a slight tingling effect on the body. The downfall to this product is many people often becoming immune to the effects on the amino acid after consistent use. 

This is one of the reasons why I’m not a big pre-workout fan as I really don’t feel that it does anything for me. I prefer a good helping of coffee, along with your favour song gets me more focused and ready to go every workout, every time. This for me is my pre workout routine and very much like those who take pre workouts gives you that placebo effect on your body, when actually it hasn't benefited you a great deal. One thing I tell everyone is if you want it that badly, hit your PB’s and reach your goals than you will push yourself to those dark places and not require something to do it. 

Give one and try and let me know how you get on, they work totally different for individuals and you may really notice a benefit. 

What do you do when you have no gym?

I’m away again from the gym for the the next few weeks, might be able to get a through sessions in but won’t be able to stick to my normal routine. So if you’re in the same position what do you do? Well here are a few tips which will hopefully help you out. 

1. Make sure you keep your diet on track. I’ve mentioned this in previous blogs but this is crucial. Just because you can’t train efficiently does’t mean your diet should go down the pan. 
2. Your body is your gym!! There are so many things which you can do with your own bodyweight and this is all functional movement as oppose to hitting the dumbbell rack. Press ups, squats, pull ups (If you can find a bar) crab walks, planks are all your friends when it comes to you having no gym. 
3. Tempo of exercises is crucial in any part of your training but even more important when it comes to bodyweight. This will recruit more muscle fibres, furthermore everyone knows that time under tension is the way forward when it comes to building lean muscle mass. 
4. Quick high intense circuits. When you’re away you don’t have loads of time to dedicate to the gym, so get you’re workout done hard and fast. Early mornings are always great for this, wake up 30 minutes earlier. Then you have no excuse. 

HIIT Circuit

10 press ups 5010 tempo

20 squats

10 Hindu Press ups 5010

20 v sits

10 press ups 2250 tempo

20m crab walk.

Repeat 5 times 

Keep on track whilst on holiday!!!!

I'm writing this as I sit in Heathrow ready to fly off on my summer holiday to visit a friend in Muscat, Oman. With everyone going on their summer holidays, me being one of them I thought I'd write a quick blog on essential goods to take to still keep on track with your fitness goals. I'm having a kind of rest week, but below are a few items I'll use to get a quick workout done. 

Now for all of you who are lucky enough to have a gym where you're staying then things can run as usual however, remember your on holiday!!!! It doesn't matter if you miss a few sessions here and there. My best advice would be keep it all short and sweet. Group muscle groups together such as shoulders/arms and Chest/Back. Supersets, tri-sets and mini circuits can all be included to get a great workout in. Timings wise you'll often be training in the morning, fasted so get some BCAA's down you and get training. Plus you can leave the other half to get ready and pig out at the all you can eat breakfast not feeling guilty. 

If you're unlucky like me and don't have a gym then you can still get a great workout done anywhere. Your body weight is one of the most under used way to train your body. For this I have packed a deck of cards!!! Now you may ask, 'why a pack of cards?' very random. Well it's a little trick I learnt off of Steve Cook, giving each suit of cards an exercise, for example hearts is press ups. You'll then have four exercises in all. The number on the card will indicate the number of reps performed, all face cards are 10 with an Ace being 11. If you land on a joker it's 12 burpees. Turn the pack of cards face down, turning one over at a time, performing the given exercise and reps. You can get a great little 20 minute workout done with just your body weight and a pack of cards.

One other essential I'm taking is a Thera-band. Now this I usually use in my programme to warm up with, especially the shoulder area. However, this can also be used as part of your workout. Exercises which can be performed are as follows:

- Squats with band around your knee, restricting from your knees pushing out and with a pause at the bottom it makes it tough.

- Bent Over Rows

- Upright rows

- Face Pulls

- Bicep Curls

- Lateral Raises

Along with a few push ups you've got a pretty good overall workout, use a 4020 tempo and you'll get an unreal pump.

A foam roller is something I always pack when traveling. It helps me to relax, but more importantly when your either sitting down waiting for a flight or on a long haul flight it's great just for getting everything loose once you've arrived. Additional it can be used as a warm up pre workout and to stretch post workout. 

Nutrition is the last thing I've left as in my eyes it's the least important. At the end of the day, you're on holiday, not at home. Unless you're a sponsored athlete with a company prepping your meals for you, you won't have meals to hand to eat every 3 hours. You won't have the facilities to make all your meals. But most importantly you're on holiday!!! Relax a little. This doesn't mean however stuff yourself with all the cravings you've had over the last few months but don't restrict yourself. One or two snacks a day or one main meal at the all you can eat buffet won't hurt. If you ate like this all the time then yes but for a week it won't. Make healthy choices where you can but at the end of the day just enjoy yourself. I personally come off of all supplements as well whilst on holiday. I sometimes find it can be an hassle to get them through security and plus your body needs a rest. Much like exercise your liver needs a rest. When you start taking them again you'll also notice such a difference.

So there you have it my holiday essentials. Those of you who are going on holiday have fun, just be ready to hit it hard when you get back!!!

Jack

Crossfit for cardio???

As I'm cutting down for my holidays over the summer I've got so bored of doing cardio so instead I've recently opted for a crossfit workout to retain the high intensity and not make it boring. You may ask, but crossfit!!! But it makes this boring art of cardio so much more fun. You can time yourself over each workout, pushing you harder and at the end of the day burn more calories, which is why you're there!!!!! With this however, you've got to be careful and selective as to what workouts you're doing so not to overtrain selective body parts. Here are a few workouts I've made up using as an alternative to crossfit in my programme:

Burpee Bonanza

100 burpees for time.

Heart Breaker

25 burpees

100m walking lunge

25 burpees

400m run

3 rounds for time.

Pool workout

100m best effort

12 pool muscles ups (muscles on the side of the pool)

Amrap in 20 minutes.

So there you have it, crossfit can be used in bodybuilding as a cardio alternative. I love burpees as you can see, swimming is also a great form of cardio. The pool muscles ups are a killer!!!!!! 

Have fun and let us know how you get on. 

Jack  

Crossfit Workouts

I recently took part in a CrossFit Team Event at work and with the CrossFit Games fast approaching us in Carson I thought it was fitting to write a quick blog on it.

Now CrossFit is a training programme which builds strength and conditioning through a variety of different workouts. In these workouts many aspects of fitness are covered from gymnastics, to  weightlifting and as far as a triathlon based workouts at the games. Games you may ask? This is run every year in Carson where all the top CrossFit athletes from around the world take on events over three days to determine the fitness man and women on earth. Prior to this there are regionals and a open so anyone has the opportunity of going. Some of the professional athletes such as Rich Froning, Dan Bailey and Stacie Tovar who are ones that I personally support are in ridiculous shape and could step on stage with professional bodybuilders and wouldn't look out of place. Now with the rise of CrossFit so has the criticism of the sport, mainly because its all about doing things as quick as possible, with form sometimes leaving a little to be desired. Kipping Pull ups is an aspect which has got the most grief due to the swinging phase of the movement, as oppose to just pulling straight up, with many other exercises being adopted with a variation for Crossfit. Check these out online, some of them can be very useful, all down the individual on preferences.

CrossFit I occasionally include in my programme as either a cardio based workout or something strength related just to mix my workouts up. Now today one of the workouts which I dare you to try in a group of 3 is as follows:

250m Row
Box Jumps
Rest

There is a person on each station, with changes happening after the 250m row has been completed. This is as many box jumps and distance of the row added together to gain a score after 20 minutes. My team today managed 5,800m row with 426 box jumps, (I so shouldn't have trained legs yesterday!!!!). After this my heart rate hit the highest it had in a while and how much more rewarding it is this then a 20 minute run outside. Working more your anaerobic capacity but also will be burning a lot of calories due to the sheer intensity. Try is as oppose to just going on a run, especially those of you who are doing added cardio in order to reduce body fat for the summer. Other workouts to try:

Murph - As quickly as possible.

1 mile run
100 pull ups
200 push ups
300 squats
1 mile run

Fran - Quickly as possible.

Thrusters (Front squats to push press)
Pull ups

Rounds of 21,15,9.

Give these a go and post you times in the comments below.

Jack

Crossfit

With the Crossfit opens fast approaching us gearing up to the ever growing crossfit games in the summer, I thought I would do a quick post on some of my favourite crossfit workouts which can be used for those of you with little time for training in your busy schedules or, for those who want a quick, intense workout.

Crossfit is part of a strength and conditioning programme, which is designed for anyone of any ability or age. It consists of varied, high intensity functional movements which is why it has grown so huge in recent years and used by many organisations. From my own experience this has become massive in the Military as all of the movements are functional to what might be needed in a combat situation, this therefore conditioning the solider in the right way to prepare them for when their physical attributes are called upon. Furthermore it is a very fun way to train and providing the equipment is at hand, large groups can be trained together. Crossfit is also a community and a way of living, seen mainly through the 'Paleo Diet' which if you don't know what it is I will be explaining in a later blog.

The only one thing I have against Crossfit is the fact they give you a certain amount of reps of an exercise to complete in a certain time. Don't get me wrong this is great for motivating yourself against others however, with speed comes poor form and when lifting heavy things can go totally wrong. So just make sure you don't sacrifice speed for form!!!

So why not give it a try?? I'm not a true cross-fitter however I do incorporate it into my workout regime as a cardio session or on days when I've not got access to a gym, so it is great for those who can't afford a gym membership and yet still can have an amazing workout. These are a few which I like doing, but if not Crossfit HQ release a WOD (workout of the day) each day so you have your own training regime to follow right there. Don't forget these WOD's all have regressions for those that are just starting out, or movements can be changed and just use the format for people with specific goals.

Cindy
5 pull ups
10 push ups
15 squats
As many rounds in 20 minutes

Fran
40kg thrusters
Pull ups
21-15-9 reps for time

Murph
1 mile run
100 pull ups
200 push ups
300 squats
1 mile run
For time

Jackie
1000m row
20kg thrusters (50 reps)
Pull ups (30 reps)
For time

Give these WOD's a go and let me know how you get on. The mixture of strength and cardio will definitely push you to the edge.

Don't forget 70% diet, 30% gym

Jack