The Summer Diet

Recently I’ve been very busy with work but as the thunder storms pass and the sun finally comes out in London I thought it would be a great time to talk about the Summer Diet. Holidays on the horizon, T-shirts becoming the majority of the summer wear, looking good is one of the biggest factors for many. The extra slice of toast or spoonfuls of peanut butter need to go and replaced by celery sticks and rice cakes or so many believe.

Losing weight and becoming lean for summer eating plays a huge role, but before I elaborate any further I just want to make one point. Don't believe you are going to look like your favourite fitness model you see posting pictures up on their Instagram or the recent cover model of your favourite fitness magazine. These are more so often than not pictures of them when they're stage ready, dehydrated, depleted of carbohydrates until the day before with the best tanning and lighting!!!! You need not to compare yourself to these but yourself and your own goals. 

Now onto diet. Yes this needs to change from the diet you had over the winter consisting of high carbs and a few extra treats than you normally would eat but you don't need to cut everything out of your diet totally. Many believe a diet consisting of just protein and veg does the fix but you'll be thankful to know carbs are still essential. The best bit of advice I can give is split all meals a day into 5 similar size portions with breakfast, if any taking preference on the larger size. Look at the plate aiming for a fist size of protein and carbs, half a fist fat and unlimited vegetables, preference towards green. Try to avoid to much fruit, believing these are good for you. Yes they are nutritious but also contain huge amounts of sugar, empty calories which you really don't need. The main pointers to a great summer diet are:

1. If you fancy a treat, have it!!! Keep it small and don't over indulge. Eat either pre or post workout when you're body is in need of food the most. 
2. Again keep your breakfast the larger size meal, along with a post workout meal.
3. Stay away from eating to much fruit, post workout as a insulin spike is the best. 
4. Eat dense foods, keeping you fuller for longer, avoiding empty foods and more so drinks. Go with a high protein greek yoghurt with blueberries over a glass of orange juice for breakfast.
5. Try to stick to brown rice, sweet potato, oats instead of your breads and pasta. This can have a place in your diet but try and keep it as a treat, avoiding it as a sustainable part within the diet. 
6. Lastly stay consistent!! Slow and steady will get you the body you want, a crash diet might make you feel good and look good for an evening but in the long run is not going to help you get that dream body. If you have a poor day of eating, don’t just give up and punish yourself, reverting back to comfort food. The next day get straight back on it, forget about what you've eaten the day before and start again. 

New Push, Pull, Legs routine!!!

This week I have decided to split my workouts in a different manner. As oppose to doing the normal split of chest, back, legs and shoulders with a few additional areas covered, I have decided to op for the push, pull, legs followed by a further push, pull day, after watching a Michael Kory routine. Wow does it make a difference!!

The first push day was very similar to a chest workout however I included a few lateral raises which is a weak area of mine, with incline DB press at 45degrees bring more shoulders into the movement. I finished with a favourite of mine which is standing DB press which I find recruits the core so much and makes the movement much more of a rounded exercise. I felt like I hit this area as a whole a lot more effectively then just solely focusing on chest. The pull day saw me focus on both bring depth and width to my back, but as oppose to super setting a lot of my exercises I concentrated on going heavy, with fewer reps and sets. This worked a treat as my posterior chain rarely gets worked like this, with me waking up the following day with huge DOMS. This had quite an effect on my leg day for some reason. I just didn't feel as strong front squatting, so opted for a high rep day which wasn't pretty with my quads now crying out in pain 48 hours later. 

Now with the second push and pull days I broke my shoulder routine in half. My push routine I started off with push press getting up to 90kg for 5 which I was really pleased with and from then on hit the anterior and lateral head of the shoulder. A point to note with lateral raises don't go to heavy!!! If you're swinging them up than they are to heavy. I avoided this by doing them on a seated bench, super setting them with a incline press, this got a almighty pump going. I also used the cables for lateral raises which keeps a constant tension on the muscle fatiguing that head of the shoulder. Cables also featured with a Steve Cook inspired frontal raises with a rope through the legs, making sure you pull the rope apart at the top of the movement. Along with pronated incline flies which stretched the whole area out, my chest and shoulders were in bits, I couldn't even lift my water bottle up!!!! 

Second pull day I really wanted to focus on width with my back and include rear portion of the shoulder along with traps. These all blend well as along as you're contracting your back correctly when trying to build width your rear delts and traps are getting a good workout as well. This is exactly what I done with lat pulldowns to begin with, pausing slightly at the bottom of the movement for a full contraction. I targeted the rear delts much like the push workout the day before through DB reverse flies super setting with DB rows off of a incline bench. Performed correctly the upper back around the rhomboids will really be working hard. My favourite super set was using cable bent over rear flies along with cable face pulls. A full stretch of the muscle, along with a pause when fully contracted and this with build a V-shaped back that everyone wants. I finished this off with high single arm pull downs and boy did they finish me off!!

So there you go a new routine that I'm bringing in to my workouts. Always great to mix it up and if you train with a lot of volume, 5-6 times a week it's great as it allows muscle groups that all important 48 hours off. Give it a try and let me know how you get on.

Be sure to check out Michael Kory as this is who I thought of using the idea off of. Plus be sure to follow me on Instagram at jacksfitnessforyou for lots of motivation and recipe advice. 

The Ideal Breakfast

It's no myth that breakfast is THE most important meal of the day and making sure you are fuelling your body with the right produce is vital for making sure your body is running on full capacity throughout your day even when you're looking to burn body fat. This, therefore, means that your macro nutrients need to be top of the agenda!

Introducing you to the legendary Banana Omelette! This is legendary because everyone I introduce it to  just falls in love with it. So, I suppose you want to know how to make this bad boy?...

Well, it's super easy. 

Ingredients:

1 Large Banana (mashed)

4 egg whites & 2 yolks 

1 scoop of oats

1 Scoop of Vanilla (or a flavour of your choice) Pro10 Whey Protein Powder

A dash of Soya Milk

Fry Light 1 Cal Spray

Honey (if desired)

Method:

Pre-heat saucepan on high heat.

Once banana is mashed in jug, add eggs and whisk until fluffy. Then, add a scoop of oats and Protein Powder along with the dash of milk, whisk until all powder has disappeared. 

Spray saucepan with Fry Light and add mixture, levelling it out to create an even omelette.

Allow this to cook for until colour changes around the edges. Slowly loosen edges before flipping the omelette in half, cooking until liquid has disappeared. 

Time to serve and add honey if you've got a cheeky sweet tooth. 

Enjoy!!! - I know you will. 

Remember 70% diet, 30% gym.

Jack

Creatine Monohydrate by Pro 10 supplements

Are you taking creatine? Have you ever thought about taking creatine? Well this is the one you must buy.

Creatine is found in red meat and tuna but through the process of cooking this is often lost. Your body also produces creatine, however not enough to see substantial gains as your metabolism often burns this, therefore this must be supplemented.

If your goals are to put on size and strength then creatine is a way to aid you for this. Firstly it helps when producing ATP (adenosine triphosphate) which, in turn with type 2b muscle fibres, will help with your explosive power which is why many weightlifters use this supplement. So if you want to get a new pb deadlift, squat or bench press then this supplement will definitely help!!!

Creatine infuses in the muscle, causing water retention to occur, thus helping protein synthesis; and lets not forget a muscle is made up 80% of water. Anyway no more boring stuff, but this will help you put mass on with a good, strength based routine. 

Now the creatine supplement you need to be taking is pro 10 creatine monohydrate. (See link below). I've taken many in the past which have upset my stomach or not dissolved well with water, but this doesn't do any of that. I have seen real gains in my strength as well, taking this supplement twice a day pre and post workout with pro 10 whey concentrate. It goes down a treat. Just follow the cycle of 7 weeks on and a week off, 5 grams a serving and you'll see results. My only one bit of advice would be drink plenty of water as this will aid the creatine to work its magic.

Don't forget 70% diet, 30% gym

Jack

http://www.pro-10.com/en/creatine-monohydrate.html#

Salmon and Bulgur Wheat Risotto

Every thought of Bulgur Wheat as an alternative to rice when trying to cut body fat but still be able to hit the gym hard, then try this!!!

 Recipe for 2 servings

2 fillets of Salmon

75 grams Bulgur Wheat (dry state)

200 ml Vegetable stock

100 grams mushrooms

2 large pepper

1 small red onion

Small bunch of spring onion

Dash of soy sauce

Method

1) Dry fry mushrooms, pepper, red onion and spring onion until golden brown.

2) Add the Bulgur Wheat adding stock slowly whilst stirring. Then allow to simmer for a further 20 minutes.

3) Fry the salmon with a dash of soy sauce for 3 minutes each side, until a light pink colour.

Plate up and tuck in!!!!