Barbells, Dumbbells or Cables?

With the ever growing dilemma of achieving the best workout the exercises you're using are important but more so now the equipment in which you're using to perform these exercises. Now I would always advise people to try and stay away from machines, do they have a place? Yes, but, they're so constrictive on movement, range of motion and more often than not giving you the plasibo effect that you can lift a lot greater weight than one can actually lift. I'd recommend sticking to the Barbell, Dumbbells and cables, here are a few pointers on how to choose which.

The barbell is the most recognisable piece of equipment in any gym when it comes to lifting weight. Usually being 7ft in length and weighing 20kg, with smaller versions in certain gyms if you're lucky enough to target a certain muscle group or perform an exercise. They're easy to set up, just loading plates onto each side, often in 2.5kg intervals with a huge exercise base to use them for. The barbell is often associate with the big compound exercises such as the squat, bench and deadlift where by you're recruiting many muscle groups in one exercise, this is why they're a must in anyone's routine. They allow you to go heavier than most other exercises and due to the fact your lifting all of the weight through one force is often easier to control than say a dumbbell.

There are however some disadvantages to using the barbell that being they can often create strength imbalances amongst the same muscle groups, where by muscles don't get to work independently. Let's take the simple back squat, you load 100kg on the barbell and be performing a squat with perfect form but more so than not you have a dominate side creating a imbalance, sometimes as drastic as 70/30. This in the long run can causes size difference and cause you to plateau. Furthermore it's late on a Friday night, in the gym by yourself and you benching your one rep max and you go for a second rep but just can't lock it out, that weight is coming back down onto you. Barbells can therefore cause serious injuries, there is no way of being able to remove the weight unless you've got a spotter, to many cases seen on the Internet of people not and ending up in serious trouble.

Dumbbells are what more and more people are tending to use when working out due to these sense of ease to change weight and the versatility in which they offer. The one thing I love about DB's is they offer fitness to a wider range of people purely due to the fact they can be used anywhere. From your home, to office it doesn't take up any room to store a few DB's with a heap of exercises which they can be used for, avoiding the hefty gym costs along with no excuses of not being able to fit a workout in.

There are no constraints when training with DB's either, allowing muscles to work independently, targeting and isolating certain muscle groups whilst further recruiting major muscle groups if required. This over time will aid balance and coordination through the independent training. Unlike a barbell the range of motion with a dumbbell can be slightly altered, this can be seen as a positive or a negative but in my eyes a certain positive. Not everyone's built the same, in short not everyone's therefore going to lift the weight from A to B the same, much like a barbell promotes. The DB however allows this, furthermore recruiting more to form a stabilising platform than a barbell. When lifting a dumbbell greater attention is paid to ligaments, tendons and overall agatonist muscles. People neglect these a lot, especially in the shoulder department however lifting with DB's you're somewhat achieving this. The only downfall is it demands a greater deal of control thus meaning you can't go as heavy and will often require a spotter.

Finally cables, people often neglect using when it comes to training anything but arms. The fundamental factor is they can be used for any movement pattern, which is great for sport related exercise or rehabilitation. It allows you to focus on a certain movement, let's take golf. The tee off shot you would never be able to rubricate unless using cables, building the strength, explosiveness and overall power through the increase of weight in order to develop the swing. With all cable machines you can gather many different attachments opening a wider spectrum of exercises and again allowing to rubricate certain functional movement from sport and everyday life.

From your committed gym goers the cables allow for ease when wanting to perform supersets with just a switch between the two cable or things such as drop sets and strip sets by just removing the pin as oppose to stripping the barbell or grabbing more DB's. The most important thing for me with cables is they cause greater muscle stress due to constant tension on the muscle. Unlike the barbell where for example with a barbell row the contraction, pulling the weight towards is a great deal harder than lowering it due to gravity with cables this never changes. It gives you a far superior of motion but further contraction allowing for you to really squeeze the muscle when contracting and stretching at the bottom of the movement. Some may say cables are superior therefore when it comes to isolating the muscle.

Cables do have their drawn backs through the way that the range of motion is so forgiving and any exercise can be performed often leading to horrendous form. They take up a lot of room so out of the question for your garage as well as very few will ever be in your gym.

So you may think which one is best and my answer to that is neither. There is no one I would solely recommend on using to create an all round great workout. They all have positives and negatives but I would create a happy medium using all in your workouts. Barbell for the big lifts, Dumbbells for your more so isolation along with cables for those high rep finishers.

If you're still lost and confused then I am still writing personalised programmes so drop me an email me on jcdpersonaltraining@gmail.com

Happy Training

Jack

Short and Sweet

Short and Sweet - Shoulders and Arms

Training doesn't have to be an hours and hours training that one body part to exhaustion, mix it up!! This is exactly what I did today, cramping two workouts into one, achieving one of the best workouts I've had in a long time and here it is.

1. A) 10x10 Barbell Shoulder Press
       B) 10x10 Skull Crusher
       C) 10x10 Barbell Curl

My first exercise I worked as a tri-set using German Volume training as my basis hitting the main compound exercises for the muscles I was training. Little tip, always schedule tricep first into the tri-set. Its pre exhausted from the pressing with one thing you must always remember it's a bigger muscle group than the bicep, taking up more of the upper arm, so train it harder!!! This was hard but so rewarding in that I felt that I shocked the muscles more than my normal routine, 100 reps is a lot of volume. Don't focus on weight!!! Tempo, control and rest time is crucial. Always stay below 45 seconds between all sets.

2. A) 5x12 Seated Lateral Raise
       B) 5x12 Reverse Push Downs
       C) 5x12 Hammer Curls

We're now focusing more on the isolation of the muscle, splitting the muscles heads. Focus paid to the lateral head when performing the seated raise, avoid swinging and take the weight down if you can't reach a full contraction. Bring the bench up to 90 degrees, full range of motion with a slight twist at the top of the movement, 'pinkies high', so your little finger points to the sky. This will generate more of the movement onto the lateral and slightly the rear delt. Reverse push downs will target the lateral head, which often gets neglected when performing the usual push down along with hammer curls hitting the long head of the bicep.

3. A) 5x15 Cable frontal raise
       B) 5x15 Overhead Extension
       C) 5x15 Single Lying Cable Concentration Curl

Again perform all three as a tri-set with the focus now being on pushing the muscle beyond fatigue, don't neglect tempo as the reps have increased with attention always  paid to the contraction more so when training arms or just training in general, more so when you up the reps. Squeezing, along with a full range of motion and contraction I think always stimulates the muscle over weight used. With the frontal raise use a rope, squeezing the rope out at the top with thumbs high. The cable curls perform lying down, avoiding any swinging of the weight ensuring your arm is pinned in and elbow down.

And that's it, 20 sets in totally, over 220 reps for each muscle group all in under an hour. The pump and overall exhaustion to the muscle is something I haven't achieved in a while. So keep your workouts intense and you're onto a winner.

Jack

How often should I train?

This is the question as a PT I get asked the most, ‘How often should I be training?”. This to me is such a broad question, with there being so many contributing factors to answer the question fully and correctly. What is your goal? How much time can you give to the gym a week? What is your current level of fitness? What does your diet look like?. These are all questions that I’m going to answer, offer you solutions and prompt ideas which in turn should help you in finding how often you should be training. 

The most important question you need to ask yourself, what really is your goal? I like to personally use a pyramid system with all contributing factors leading to achieving the goal at the top. The foundations being your diet, training in the middle and something very specific to the goal as the icing at the top. I still believe that your diet is the underpinning factor when it comes to training, not fuelling your body correctly will hinder you're training and progression. So before any of this begins you need to ask yourself what is that goal? Do you want to enter a competition, sports specific, look great for your holiday or just generally feel better about yourself? This is where you need to start. Ensure when deciding on this you use SMART goals.

S - Specific 

M - Measurable

A - Attainable

R - Realistic

T - Time Managed. 

This doesn't just have to be just one goal but could be many different, small achievable goals leading towards one long term goal. However you do it ensure that these are achievable, if not this could cause demotivation when you're not quite achieving them but can also pose as the opposite boasting motivation when you do. Once you have you're goal in mind everything else around that should be catered into how you going to achieve that goal the most efficient way possible. 

How much time you can offer to the gym is also crucial because if you can only offer 3 hours religious a week to the the gym than that is the only amount you're going to be training. Firstly you must remember that your training should never be a seen as a chore, you should be wanting to go, this being where the above point comes in with having a goal, motivating you to go and get the job done. With everyones life’s becoming busier there is less free time in your day to go and do things such as the gym and at the end of the day will determine how often you can train, so be strict on yourself on realistically how often you really are going to be able to go to the gym. If this is only 3x1 hour sessions a week that thats all it is, but you must stay committed to this, much like the SMART goals used above it must be realistic. Here are a few pointers to make the most of your time and be in the gym more regularly.

• Make it part of your routine. If you have a 10 mile commute to work each morning, instead of driving to work, cycle to work. Get up an hour earlier and join a gym close to work so you can workout before going to work meaning you can work slightly late or go for a catch up with friends after work. 
• Use HIIT (High Intensity interval training). This is the modern way to train, short, sharp and to the point with a workout rarely over 30 minutes. This can be from a class at your local gym or a quick 20 minute before your morning shower, all quick, simple but most importantly intense. 
• Train with a partner. Research says those who train together, stay together and this is very true. A Sunday morning jog or a quick circuit in the garden will up the volume you're training but also mean you're still getting to spend time with those close to you. They'll be your motivator when you need them the most.  

We’re getting slightly more specific now but in order to know how often you should be training you really should depend it on your current level. You won’t see an professional athlete that trains only twice a week and yet someone who hasn't done any kind of physical activity in 5 years all of a sudden start hitting the gym 5 times a week! You really must judge it upon what level you are at already otherwise, things such as injury could occur when you start training too soon, there must be progression. This therefore means look where you're already at yourself, could you go out and happily run a sub 50 minutes 10k with ease? Than running 4/5 times a week really isn't going to be a problem. Could you last a 30 minute HIIT circuit and still be able to move the next day, then you're at a level where you could train 3 times or more a week, its very much dependent on your already known ability level. Start off with less sessions and slowly increase over time, progression is always the better option to regression. 

Diet I will also refer back to as for me it’s the most crucial element of anyones training programme because without it you're not going to be able to train anywhere near your optimum level, get this in check before you even start considering how often you should be training. You could be training 7 days a week but if you're diet isn’t in order to either fuel or aid recovery after these sessions than you’ll never advance, or meet those goals. Little pointers to help are as follows:

• Always eat breakfast!! This is the most imperative in my opinion, opting for a carb and protein heavy meal will aid you so much in the mornings. Don't eat just a piece of food or these all in one breakfast ready to go drinks, really focus on getting some good nutritious food down you. Low Gi carbs along with some protein. Oats with MyProtein Impact Whey will do the job perfectly.
• You’ll need to eat more than you think. Find out your BMR (Basic Metabolic Rate) using an app or just type it into google. You'll gather a result, a rough estimate of how many calories you're body needs a day. Add or lose 300-500 for gaining to losing weight, simple!!!
• Bulk all meals out with vegetables. Veggies in this scenario are your friends, they make you fill fuller, make you believe there is more food on the plant and lastly are full on micronutrients. Also opt for greens over anything else. Snacking on vegetables is also great, carrot and celery sticks being my favourite. 
• Break your meals up throughout the day. Many people think the only way to lose weight is to eat 6 meals a day and with that they may be right, but not something which you have to stick to. I just believe in spreading them out, attempting to grasp around the same calorific content and marconutrients from each but don't get too hung up on this. Your overall calorie intake for the day is the crucial number, not how many meals you've eaten to achieve this so, divert more attention to your overall consumption. 
• Lastly it is never constrict yourself. This is one of the worse things to do in my eyes. Yes you're diet should be clean but it doesn't have to be this all the time, you can waver once or twice. Obviously this can’t become a regular occurrence but if you're craving say a piece of chocolate, than eat a piece of chocolate. There is always a better nutrition option such as dark chocolate so attempt to always get these where you can, but whatever you do don't treat it as a reward. See it as food and thats it, otherwise you'll than just have the mind set that you need a reward all the time. 

So I may have gone off subject quite a lot there but it gives you a broader understanding on how all elements work together. Yes the article is titled ‘how often should you train?’ but not one of the points I raised has more precedence than the other. Train hard, set goals, eat right and you're on the way to success. 

A season to change - New Programme

Writing a new programme

With the summer holidays now over for me looking lean and in shape like I actually attend a gym is not such a priority. This means new goals and objectives within my training are to be made, keeping my motivation and somewhat desire to staying fit. This is the fundamental factor in your training because everything will come together to achieve this end goal. Now for me this is to get the scales to read the grand total of 100kg, yet still be under 12% BF. I've never quite achieved this so this is the main goal along with a few other minor goals such as:
- 180kg Back Squat for 10
- 160kg Bench Press for 5
- Strict Overhead Press 100kg for 5.
I can't stress enough how vital it is to have these in place. When you get to that manic day at work and you realise that you've got to go a train legs that evening, the goal for back squats will force you to get under that bar, squat down and get back up again. It's that motivation that you need when you're just not feeling it.

Now just a quick few pointers when it comes to writing your programme:
1. Don't include too much. Volume has its place in any programme but often when writing workouts people tend to include way to much. Aim for no more than 20 sets, if you're struggling with that add in a superset, mini circuit at the end or even add in a second day into your programme. I'm currently doing this for back as I really want to try and create more width.
2. Set all your weights and reps. I am one of the worse for this myself in that I often end up going into the gym and roughly following what I've written down so this time I've written everything in detail and really follow it to the very last rep. Also ensure you keep slightly adjusting things such as weight to keep pushing yourself and become stronger.
3. Add in a test! Try to include in each workout something that will test you that little bit more, a mini challenge just for that workout. A timed circuit or max weight for reps, just something that will fire you up for that session.
4. Always have you're main objective in mind. Don't go off on a tangent when writing out these plans and remember how you've always wanted big arms so you're going to include them in every workout. Take a step back and think about how you're going to achieve that main goal.

So there you have it. As the sunshine is turning to rain here in London, with the seasons changing its time for you to change. I'm currently running a 8 week strength based programme for a one off price of £50. If you're interested in this or any programmes solely catered to you send me your details at jcdpersonaltraining@gmail.com.

Happy Training

Jack

Steve Cook - Hypertrophy Training

I was recently on youtube just having a little browse when I came across a video from Steve Cook on hypertrophy training, to which I thought I'd share with you. Steve Cook is very popular in the fitness industry after becoming an IFBB pro Men's Physique Competitor, Optimum Nurtition and Bodybuilding.com spokesmen and of course the founder of Swoldier. Swoldier nation is Steve Cook's ethos on training in the gym but furthermore in life. Doing things the right way. This could be through setting goals to achieve in the gym but basically it underpins the drive that causes you to succeed in life. This has become massive with many followers and has really started to bring a different light on the muscle building community.

Back to hypertrophy training. You may ask what is difference between strength and hypertrophy training well, firstly hypertrophy training is a method of strength training and is intended to induce the fastest muscle growth in the shortest period of time without the use of anabolic steroids. There are four different principles to this type of training. Mechanical load is the first, meaning tension loading of the muscle through an exercise. Chronic stimulation which is the theory that a muscle does not need more than 48 hours to recover because within that 48 hours window recovery can still take place with the correct rate of protein and nutrition. Progressive load is also a principle through over time the tissue adapts and becomes resistant to the effects of the first principle, mechanical load. Therefore the load must be increased to overcome adaptation by the body thus, causing growth to occur. Strategic Deconsitioning or in other terms a rest week is where the body has reached a point at the end of a cycle where it can't tolerate more weight, therefore a set period of rest must be take, allowing for the muscle to grow. These are the basics to hypertrophy training, boring stuff out the way now how to put it into practice.

Now as I mentioned early Steve Cook has recorded numerous videos of him doing this type of training online and it is really interesting, where you shall defiantly see growth. He overloads the muscle through 8 reps for 8 sets of the same exercise only allowing for 30 seconds of rest between sets. This therefore allows very little rest for the muscle to recover in anyway, and depending on which exercise your performing can really get the heart pumping. The weight used would not be what you would normally use for an 8 rep set otherwise you will not be able to last for all 8 sets so bring it down by about 30%. He thens pushes it further through either superseting or tri-setting exercises later on into the workout. This becomes really difficult after the muscle is already quite fatigued. With the additional volume in your training hypertrophy will definetly bring about growth. Also if your someone that goes to the gym and just goes through the motions this will bring a stop to that and keep the body guessing of what might be coming next causing it to adapt and grow. I personally tried the 8x8 with arms at the end of my session today and I usually get a burn through supersetting on my arms but this just brought an all together different burn more of any ache, so you should definetly give it a try if you want something new with any workout.

Try this link to see his workout http://bit.ly/1fZhrca

Remember diet 70%, gym 30%

Jack

Steve Cook - BIG Programme

If any of you are avid followers of mine you will know I am a huge Steve Cook fan, for those of you that don’t know who this man is, you seriously need to check him out. Steve is very popular in the fitness industry after becoming an IFBB pro Men's Physique Competitor, Optimum Nurtition, GymShark and Bodybuilding.com spokesmen and of course the founder of Swoldier nation. Swoldier nation is Steve Cook's ethos on training in the gym but furthermore in life. Doing things the right way. This could be through setting goals to achieve in the gym or the mind set that underpins the drive that causes you to succeed in life. This has become massive with many followers really starting to bring a different light on the muscle building community.

Enough on the man himself lets now see what he can do for you and this comes in his new programme called the BIG programme. The programme is designed for people who want to improve mobility and body functionality, don’t have the desire or time to create a program themselves along with a real desire to be stronger but yet still remain lean. It has been designed by Steve himself along with two of his close friends Michael Cazayoux and Jacob Hutton who physiques and abilities to rival anyone. The thing however that I love most about this programme is Steve is following it himself. He's not just the poster boy for it, telling everyone how they should be doing it yet training totally differently, no he's there putting the hard work in himself and suffering just as much as you will be, you can see this on his most recently posted video.

https://www.youtube.com/user/swoldiernation

Here is a quick break down of the 24 weeks, I’m currently on week 8, time to lift big!!!

• Week 1 : Test Week – Find your max to use in the programme over the following few weeks. 

• Weeks 2-7 – Muscle endurance is the focus along with hypertrophy and dynamic as through the whole programme. 

• Weeks 8-12 – Maximal Strength and Hypertrophy are the primary focus

• Weeks 13-24 – This segment is split into three 4 week blocks. The focus for this block of training is maximal strength and hypertrophy. These 12 weeks are the ‘Show weeks’ experiencing what the top guys go through to get ready for a show.

This is a MUST programme if you're struggling for motivation in the gym and really want to push your body into the next stage of growth. So many of my clients approach me with ludicrous high volume workouts they've read in magazines which they're never going to be able to do, thus becoming demotivated and quite often leading to injury. The fitness industry has a lot of smoke and mirrors but this programme isn't that, no matter where you are at whether it be a beginning or a professional this programme is going to work as the programme is catered to your ability not others. My only point would be is when it gets tough you've got to stick to it whole heartedly, as elements of this programme are very tough. So check it out

http://www.stevecookhealth.com/big/

I’m not one to pump and recommend things but this you really need to check out. So get to it!!!

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