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. 

The big three!!!

How do you get big and retain it? 

This is a question I get asked a lot and my simple reply is remember the big three! These being the the Deadlift,Squat and Bench press. Yes I use other exercises to supplement my training but these three always take the biggest president in my program. My training split is built around these three, beginning my week with the Deadlift, followed by Bench on a Tuesday and Squats on a Wednesday. I put Bench in the middle of the two big lifts in order to take the shift away from my legs and lower back ensuring after heavy deadlifts on Monday all is ready to go Wednesday. Second to that I always rest on Sunday meaning when it comes to heavy Deadlifts on Monday I'm all ready to go and if I'm struggling I have no excuse as I'm rested from the day before. 

Deadlifts in my opinion is an exercise you can never not include in your programme. It's such an all over body exercise recruiting near enough all muscle groups, this is however often what it's been criticised on because why do people want to train legs on a back day, to which I disagree. I just treat it as another leg day in my programme. Be careful however that you don't do too much volume as this will one take up a lot of your gym sessions and second to that will end up causing fatigue for the remainder of the workout. Plenty of warm up sets, no more than 5 reps, just get a feel for the weight. Than 3-4 sets at your top working set weight. Hit it hard and move on. Then isolate the back through further exercises. 

Bench Press more and more people are shying away from including in their programme. Many believe it recruits too much shoulder and especially when going heavier puts a lot of pressure on this area. Now yes a lot of shoulder is going to be included when bench pressing as its an anterior muscle so is a muscle which will be used when pushing but secondly it's a stabilising muscle so will always be engaged in any pushing based movement. People see this as a negative but I see it as a positive. As long as you're doing the exercise correctly then not only are you working your Chest but also the stabilising muscle, ligaments and tendons around those areas. This can only mean one thing, you're going to get stronger. Yes don't always just go heavy and include further isolation exercises into your workout but if your doing the exercises right, with tempo and the correct weight then you will push the muscle to exhaustion and see growth, along with a strength increase. Much like the deadlift not to many working sets, with a strip set on the last set always pushing you that little further. Focus on tempo along with power with further isolation exercises through the workout. 

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Lastly the Squat, my favourite of all. Your legs are the biggest muscle group so you've got to train them hard. This could be through lots of volume, heavy weight or both all in one. I always begin with heavy back squats, it's the King of leg exercises. Ensure a good warm up, particular attention to the hamstrings. Warm up to your max weight for the reps and sets you're aiming for. I like to use either 10x3 or 7x4 as the programming, all about power. Before weight must come form and confidence to go heavy. The core must always remain tight, straight back, heels planted, below parallel at the knee and power injected through the legs. Once you have this you're ready to add weight through intervals over a prolonged period. No one can just load the bar with 5 plates and expect to be able to squat it, it takes time. Then exhaust the muscle group through high reps front squats and remainder of the exercises. This is another back workout as it will get smashed if you're going heavy, hence the day's rest. Tempo is still included through the actual lowering into the squat should be done under control, then the power comes. This is out of the three where you will see the most improvement and shall boast most certainly you're deadlifting. 

So there you have it. These are the three exercises I do to ensure I retain size and strength. If you keep working on them you may be able to join the likes of Hugh Jackman in the 1000lb Club. 

Jack

Cardio for the Summer

With the summer season on the horizon everyone is thinking about losing weight to cut down and look lean throughout the summer. Often than not this means cutting down on calories and the dreaded additional cardio in your programme. For many this will mean early morning cardio followed by a late, depleted on calories weight session never quite reaching the level you were at throughout the winter months. Here are a few tips of mine to avoid this and help you achieve those summer goals. 

1) Yes reduce your calories but this doesn't have to be dramatically less. A small change of 400 calories a day doesn't seems a lot but over a week is 2,800 calories which is a day's worth of calories for most. So bear this is mind, aim for between 300-500, increasing or decreasing depending on what you're seeing in the mirror!!!

2) Carb cycle!! Everyone believes when cutting weight carbs must be totally taken out of their diet, this isn't true. If you want to still train at the optimum level your body needs carbs. Try and eat the majority before and post workout. Secondly cycle high carb days with a lower carb days. Try it and see what works for you. I like high carb days on legs and back but some like to stick to more of a 3 day low one day high routine. Whichever works best for you. 

3) Do your cardio post workout!! Many of us don't have time to fit two workouts in a day, plus LISS training can get so boring. Instead I like to do my cardio at the end using high intensity interval training. This often is a finisher to my workout. Back days for example I do 5 rounds of:

200m row 

5 pulls ups

10 power cleans.

This is short sharp and to the point. I max my heart rate out, finish off muscles I've trained in the session and by increasing my metabolism I burn fat for hours post workout. Others include: 

10 rounds of: 5 burpees, 10 press ups and 15 kettle bell swings. 

10 rounds of: 10 jump squats, 10 jumping lunges and 10 box jumps.

These all help push the muscle group beyond the point of failure but managing to get my cardio in at the same time. It's very easy and I'm sure you could make up your own. 

4) Lastly increase the intensity of your workout!!!!! This is no doubt the most simple yet effective change of all. This could be through adding more volume by additional exercises, increase in sets, add in supersets or hitting a higher rep range. You could bring the rest time between sets down thus meaning your heart rate stays higher throughout. Or add in a few burpees, a row or some cardio based movement at the end of each exercise or set. The aim is just to keep intensity high, causing your heart rate to remain higher and the fat burning rate to become higher. 

So there you have it a few easy tips on track to becoming lean for summer. The main aim is just keep intensity high and focus more on what you're eating and you'll hit the goals.

Jack 

Bodyweight, the way to growth

Bodyweight, the way to growth?

I've been recently rewriting my programmes and am trying to more and more utilise bodyweight training into my programme. There are many reasons for this:

Every bodyweight exercises falls into the bracket of a compound in exercise. This is therefore recruiting a large number of muscles, thus you're hitting not only the main target groups but also the secondary muscles. This surely is going to put more stress on the muscle, thus seeing further growth. Let's take the pull up for the example. The main target group would be lats and rhomboids however, the bicep, forearm, posterior delt and traps are all assisting muscles in the movement. Depending on hand placement, width etc these can be recruited more or less in the movement. This is the same in a squat, dip, push up and lunge. Many secondary muscle groups are used to perform these exercises. The more muscles recruited, the more efficient your workout. Furthermore the more muscles being worked the more calories needed to fuel these muscles meaning they're also great as a fat burning tool.

Bodyweight exercises is also great because no matter where you are you can literally do them anywhere. You can cover every muscle part through every exercise. Make them into a HIIT circuit, concentrate more on hypertrophy or just add them into the end of your routine as a final finisher, they have a purpose in every environment.

Everyone says 'but you can't get the same contraction when doing a bodyweight exercise as you do using cables or dumbbells'. My answer to this is then you simply aren't performing the correctly. Use TEMPO. Any exercise where you really focus on the tempo will promote a better contraction. This automatically puts more strain on the muscle which in turn will make it a stronger muscle. 

Bodyweight training can go hand-in-hand with building strength through flexibility. Completing bodyweight exercises through a full range of motion ensures your joints are moving freely. Plus, it can lead to improved posture and might reduce the chance of exercise-related injury. Yoga, the fave no-equipment workout for many, is another great way to to improve flexibility while also significantly improving strength. Flexibility is a component of fitness and can help in numerous ways to getting stronger. The flexibility for example of the hamstrings and lower back will aid you when it comes to deadlifts. Getting lower, recruiting more lower body power and speed to the movement, overtime increasing the weight able to be lifted. 

Lastly don't forget bodyweight is free. So no gym membership required.

Jack

Do I always need to go heavy?

The most common objective in any gym by any avid gym goer is to lift heavier. This may not always be to build muscle, but a majority want both strength and size. But does lifting heavier promote muscles to grow and become larger? Well, you may say, Mr Olympia Ronnie Coleman always states ‘Everybody wants to be a bodybuilder, but nobody wants to lift no heavy-ass weights’ and he had some insane muscles. But is this true?

There are many different leagues of thoughts some believing muscle will only grow if you lift heavier but others believe you can just as effectively build muscle through using lighter weight but with higher reps. Now you may even ask ‘well surely the heavier I go I’m going to build strength so surely the muscle will have to grow’. So what is the difference between training for size and strength?

Strength is about increasing the force production, thus in bodybuilding terms being able to lift a heavier weight. Size is in our case the growth of a muscle through creating microscopic damage to the muscle in order for it to repair larger, this is hypertrophy in its simplest state.

When training for strength the general programme to follow is high weight along with low reps. This training is what I like to say to clients is much like a update on your computer, there to shock the body and thus promote the central nervous system into to thinking it has to increase motor unit recruitment. Much like an update on your computer will promote other parts of your computer to work more efficiently. This basically means the use of more muscles to perform that exercise. In contrast the goal with building size is to promote building muscle and strengthening bones, forcing the muscle tissue to grow stronger and develop. 

So you may ask, well which one should I do, I say both!!! There is a place for both in your programming if you're really serious about not only putting on size but getting stronger. Come on you may want arms the size of Simeon Panda but you also want to be able to deadlift 5 plates or bench press those 50kg dumbbells. The answer is therefore simple, include both in your routine. Here are a few pointers:

1. Begin the session with the heavy, compound exercise for that muscle group your looking to train. It will put pressure on the central nervous system but recruit every muscle within that group, hitting them in a different way, somewhat of confusion. I like to call this blunt force trauma training. Pushing the muscle beyond its limit.
2. Going heavy however doesn't mean you use momentum to cheat the rep or you lose focus on the muscle group you're training purely to lift the weight. Always have control over the weight you're lifting, this is where the strength will be built otherwise you'll just be further prone to injuries. 
3. If you're going heavy at the beginning don't then have a full workout planned after. You're body will already be slightly fatigued, reduce the volume and weight and focus on tempo of the exercises but most importantly the contraction. Really feel the muscle working, use forced reps or negative reps to really push the muscle beyond failure. 
4. Time under tension as partial mentioned above is critical in this stage. Use strict form focusing on the eccentric and concentric phases gaining maximal peak contraction. This doesn't mean a few cheat reps are out of the question, but do the fundamentals first. 

So the final point is do I need to lift heavier to gain muscle, the answer is yes, its a contributing factor. It will aid in the strength of the muscle and promote the central nervous system to become stronger however form shouldn't be compromised because of it. Hypertrophy still has its place to cause the breakdown of the muscle for it to grow back stronger but more importantly larger. So as a pair they go hand in hand and should be used to optzimumize both strength and size.

Happy Training

Jack

Rack Pulls instead of deadlifts?

Should I include Rack Pulls in my back programme? 

I got emailed a question from a follower of mine asking if I include rack pulls in my Pull/Back days, to which the answer is yes. I've only just begun to introduce them after reducing the volume of deadlifting in my routine. This is mainly due to the fact that I'm excerting so much effort on the Deadlifts that I'm exhausted when in comes to isolating my back with other exercises. This is because the deadlift is such a huge compound exercise. Legs, back, shoulders and most of the arm is recruited when performing. When you're hitting high weight, low reps and high sets you just haven't got anything left. This is where rack pulls come in.

Rack Pulls is given the title mainly because your pulling the weight out of the rack,quite literally. It's the upper two thirds of deadlift with little, if any use of the legs focusing predominately on the lower back and upwards. Points to note:

1) Set the safety bars so that the bar sits just below your knees. 

2) Keep a straight back at all times with a slight bend in the knees. Generate power from the lower back and lats transferring it through into the upper back.

3) The finishing position should be somewhat of a solider at attention. Push your chest out, look up and contract you traps and rhomboids. 

4) Avoid any real leg movement, just make sure the weight is transferred to your heels.

5) Keep your core engaged at all times. 

6) Lower the bar under control, avoid rounding of the back. 

7) Keep the reps around 4-8, with high number of sets. Don't forget this is a power exercise so ensure your achieving this, don't be scared about going heavy just don't let it comprise your form. 

So there you have it. Rack pulls are a great addition to your back workout but furthermore a perfect accessory movement to improve you deadlift in reaching lockout. Keep squatting heavy and your deadlift will improve or just add them in, to improve back width and thickness. 

Jack  

Inov8 Fastlift 335 - A MUST BUY!!

When squatting I've always been an advocate of wearing Olympic lifting shoes, not all the time for ever movement but certainly if you're looking to going heavy and generate power through your squat. 

What is the benefit of a Weightlifting shoe? Many people like to wear them when performing any pressing movement or power based exercise. They provide you with a heel block, flat base and a secure fit meaning power generated by the feet is transferred through the body, into the movement thus not lost. 

Now you may ask so why Jack don't you use them when doing those exercises and here is my answer. I just can't stand not being able to walk around or do anything else whilst wearing them because they are literally so uncomfortable when doing anything except lifting, this is until I came across the Inov8 Fastlift 335.  

These provide stability, and all of what an weightlifting shoe provides but also a more comfortable feel that you can use to train in any environment. This makes it perfect if you are going from a compound exercises where you need that support, into say a burpree, much like the most recent of the cross fit open workouts. The shoe won't get in your way, allowing you to perform the exercise with ease. This is unlike any other weight lifting based shoe unless you loose the stability when lifting and opt for much more of cross training shoe, which I’m really to a fan of.

This shoe therefore does a variety of jobs for you in the gym that is unlike any other shoe I have come across in the market to date. It gives you the weight lifting, olympic lifting and cross trainer options, the only it doesn't is running, but then who needs to run!!! A definite shoe you need in your collection, which you will always use unlike a common weightlifting shoe which will only come out once a week when it comes to squatting. 

Get onto www.SportsShoes.com where these are currently on offer at £69.99, a great deal. They'll make you feel more comfortable in a heavy squats, power through cleans and more explosive when it comes to a push press. Bring more versatility to your training, allow you to do more, but more so then anything help you in reaching your goals.  

Have fun training 

Jack