Supplement basics


Posted by Gaz

Any article about supplements has the potential to rival the bible in length so I’m going to try and keep this simple. I’ll just cover a few of the most common supplements giving you an idea of why you should take them and very roughly how they work. The important thing to remember when taking supplements is that they are supplements; the majority of your nutrition should come from healthy eating. You must also be careful to follow the instructions on the supplements. If something you read here contradicts what’s written on the packet then you should always trust the manufacturer!

Protein
Most people know that proteins are the building blocks of muscle and without enough protein you’re going to get nowhere; this isn’t only true when training purely for muscle building but also for any type of training as your muscles need protein to recover. You should supplement your diet with protein to increase your intake to approximately 1.5 grams of protein per day per pound of lean body weight as a guide. The likelihood is that this increase will mainly be found in the form of protein shakes but you can also look at whole foods such as protein bars. There are many different types of protein available with the two most common being whey and casein. Whey will be processed by your body very quickly whereas casein will have a longer release time. This means that whey is ideal immediately after a workout, ideally within 20 minutes of the end of your workout as this is the period that your body is most in need of protein. Casein can be used slightly more strategically; taking casein right before you go to bed is ideal as it will drip feed your body protein longer into the night than whey.

Carbohydrates
Wow, where do I start?…carbohydrates are mainly used for day to day energy and often overlooked or sometimes feared as some people associate carbs with gaining fat which isn’t the case. You use carbohydrates for energy as your body is very good at utilising their energy potential; unfortunately if you don’t have enough carbs in your diet then your body has no choice but to fall back on burning protein for energy. This leads to problems; firstly protein isn’t a very good source of energy so your body burns through it at a hell of a rate which consequently means you’ve then got no protein left for your muscles to use when recovering. You have to be a little careful as to how you supplement with carbs to ensure you get the right type; we generally want to avoid simple carbs (sugars) such as dextrose and simple carbs have more bad effects than good. Having said that; taking simple carbs immediately after a workout is okay. The reason being that we can use fast acting carbs to help our whey protein to get into our muscles as quickly as possible.

Creatine
Creatine is a supplement that a lot of people have heard of but don’t really understand what it does or how it does it. Simply put; it makes you stronger.  You can split exercises into two types; aerobic and anaerobic. Aerobic exercises are lower effort and usually longer lasting such as running or cycling. Theses types of exercise depend upon your body taking in oxygen to continue (ie breathing). Anaerobic exercises are much more explosive and require so much effort that your body doesn’t have chance to worry about breathing to help you along. An example of anaerobic exercise is lifting heavy weights. When exercising anaerobically your muscles are fuelled by  a substance called ATP which during the process of energy expenditure gets turned into a substance called ADP which isn’t much use to us. Creatine is used by the body to return the ADP back into ATP; the more creatine is available the quicker this process can can place. The amount of creatine to take is slightly more complex than a lot of supplements as it is advised that you go through a loading phase and then drop down to a maintenance phase. Your best bet is to read the instructions on the pack.

Glutamine
There are 20 different amino acids but in the the world of supplements Glutamine is the daddy. The main reason for taking glutamine is to help recovery. I personally take about 20-5 grams spread out over a day but again the best bet is to just follow the instructions.

 

If you're going to look into buying some supplements then myprotein.com is a solid start.

General
Taste – If you don’t like the taste of a certain product then try another flavour or brand. Supplements range from tasting good to tasting like dirt.
Price – You can easily bankrupt yourself when buying supplements so make sure you shop around.
Buy a shaker  (like the one in the photo)  - Trying to drink lumpy shakes is awful, the shakers really do work.

Supplement plan - to give you an idea
7:00 – breakfast
10:00 – shake containing whey protein, complex carbs & glutamine.
13:00 – lunch
16:00 – shake containing whey protein & complex carbs.
19:00 (post work out) – Shake containing whey protein, complex carbs, simple carbs and glutamine.
20:00 – dinner
22:00 (before bed) – Shake contain casein protein.


Variety is the spice of muscle building life


Posted by Gaz

If you’ve read my post Over training or under recovering? then you’ll know that lifting weights to build muscle is all about shocking the muscle with workloads they’re not used to. The most common way to continually shock your muscles is by increasing the weight that you lift each session. The unfortunate thing is that if you continually do the same thing over and over again then your body will eventually get used to it and you’ll hit a plateau. Luckily however; there are many variables that we can change in our training:

  • Repartition volume & weight: People like to stick to 10-12 reps per set which is classed as the optimal number but that doesn’t mean we have to stick to this number all the time. We can shock our muscles by lifting heavier weights for 4 reps or much lighter weights for 25 reps as an example. You can change these numbers as much as you like going from as low as 1 rep per set (being careful not to injure yourself) to as high as 100 reps per set.
  • Overall volume: Another variant we can change is overall volume; If you’re feeling particularly energetic then why not hammer a muscle group by completing six exercises rather than your normal two or three exercises per body part. Although I would advise only doing this once every now and again to avoid over training.
  • Exercises: This is another common and obvious aspect of your training to change. You should aim to strike a balance between doing an exercise long enough to track a positive increase in weight and changing exercises often enough to keep your body guessing.
  • Rest periods: Not many people specifically time their rest periods between sets and exercises but adjusting these times can be a very effective tool for shocking your body.  If you normally rest around 60 seconds then half it down to 30 seconds.
  • Repartition speed: Most people will advise a repartition speed of 1-2 seconds on both the positive and negative portion of a lift. This again is something that we can change for either super slow repartitions or fast repartitions. I find trying for fast reps on particularly heavy sets is effective.

You don’t need to be applying these methods to every workout, maybe just cycle changes every four weeks, for example: have four weeks of high reps, then four weeks of ‘normal’ training, then four weeks of short rest periods, then four weeks of ‘normal’ training and then four weeks of fast powerful reps. Next time you’re sitting down to write a new weights program or you’re walking into the gym to do the same old workout; just remember the above points and think about how you can change things up a little. As always; if you’ve got any questions then just leave a comment and I’ll do my best to answer them.


10k FAIL


Posted by Gaz

So my plan of running in an organised 10k run before the end of the year is over :(

Over the past few weeks I’ve been having problems with my left knee when running; most likely caused by tight hamstrings. I was hoping the massive amounts of hamstring stretches would be enough to get me back on track before the 4th December. Unfortunately it looks like I haven’t made enough of a difference in the short amount of time I had which means I’ll be unable to join in on the fun on Sunday in Wrexham as part of the Helen Tipping 10k road race.

Moving forward I guess I’ve got two options:

  1. Admit that my suspicions were right and that running is only for scrawny little weaklings
  2. Combat my knee issue by: continuing to regularly stretch my hamstrings, increase strength in my glutes, increase strength in my quads and book a place in another run somewhere around February of next year.

Okay so it’s a fairly easy decision to make – I’ll keep you posted with my progress.


Cheaters some times prosper


Posted by Gaz

The main thing that keeps me on track with my dieting during the week is knowing that come the weekend I’ll have a night of eating what ever I want. When I say “what ever I want” I mean it…we usually choose to have a Chinese take away, a couple of cans of fizzy drink, maybe some Ben & Jerry’s and some chocolate for afters.

Now before you start booing me for my lack of will power during this binge there is a reason; when you’re on a low calorie diet your body starts to panic a little that you might wither away to nothing. Consequently it decides to reduce your metabolism and there fore the amount of calories you’re burning. This obviously makes burning fat even more difficult than normal. To fight this we use cheat meals; after a weeks worth of low calories your body is really starting to panic so we throw a whole bunch of calories at it to calm it down so get your metabolism burning away again – simple.

The only pitfall with cheat meals is when you use them as an excuse; if you haven’t behaved with your diet during the week then you don’t need a cheat meal so be honest with yourself! Also; remember that it will only take an evening of eating to get your metabolism burning again – not an entire weekend!

Saturday night reading.


Top 10…favourite exercises


Posted by Gaz

Here’s another top 10…no real use but a bit of fun.

1. Wide grip chin-ups
2. Incline dumbbell press
3. High pulley reverse crunches
4. Military press
5. Low pulley cable flys
6. Barbell curls
7. Deadlifts
8. Lat pulldowns with v handles
9. Push ups (at the end of a workout)
10. Tricep pushdowns


Fasted cardio


Posted by Gaz

Everyone knows that exercise is essential for burning fat more effectively than diet alone; unfortunately the majority of people aren’t sure what exercise and when is best. One tool that everyone should have in their fat burning arsenal is fasted cardio. The basis behind fasted cardio is performing your cardio on an empty stomach, most commonly first thing in the morning. Having a lack of food in your system means you also have a lack of fuel to burn for your workout. So where does your energy come from? That’s right – fat! Your body will tap into your fat stores and burn the flab away.

Image: luigi diamanti / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Unfortunately your body can also start to eat into your hard earned muscle which is not good. In order to protect ourselves and our precious muscle we can make a slight adjustment and perform semi-fasted cardio.
The only tweaking we need to do is have a little bit of nutrition before we head out for our run or jump on our bike. I have a half portion of protein shake which gives me around 20 grams of protein and I top it up with 5 grams of Glutamine. This is just enough to feed the muscles without giving our body an excuse to avoid burning fat. The only other thing to note with fasted cardio is the intensity; there is no need to go too hard as we’re just concentrating on burning fat and not particularly bothered about increasing cardio fitness. I’d suggest 20-30 mins of light/medium intensity exercise three or four times a week. If you couple this with some HITT training then you’ll be laughing all the way to the fat burning bank.


Breakfast time!


Posted by Gaz

They say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and for good reason. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why breakfast is called break-fast. I’m not convinced that it’s any more important than lunch or dinner but I can understand why they’d say its the most important as your body has had no nutrition for 6, 7, 8+ hours whilst you’re tucked up in bed. What you should have for breakfast will always depend on your goals but one thing is for sure; you shouldn’t skip breakfast! Your blood sugar levels are at their lowest first thing in the morning so you need something to perk you up and get you going. I know what your thinking but no coffee is NOT a good breakfast substitute. Eating breakfast will give you energy whereas caffeine simply stops your body from giving you the signs of fatigue which isn’t a good thing.

The ideal breakfast? Maybe not but better than nothing I'd say.

We’ve established that we need nutrition but what nutrition should we go for? Protein? Carbs? Fat?…how about all three!

Protein – After the workout that we’ve undoubtedly done in the past week our muscles are still recovering so still need protein…nuff said. Ideally we could do with some fast hitting protein such as whey…having said that I prefer eggs in the morning because they just seem more breakfasty to me. Eggs are a good source of protein due to their amino acid profile which in a nutshell is better than most; or should I say in an egg shell….ha ha ha     *hangs head in shame*. For a more detailed explanation try this link (I’ve only skim-read it but it seems pretty solid).

Carbs – If you plan to do any more than sit on your arse then carbs are going to make the day go smoother. Generally speaking we avoid simple carbohydrates such as sugary foods but you’re allowed a little of flexibility due to your current low blood sugar levels. Fruit is good for a little boost of sugar whilst I stick to porridge for longer lasting energy.

Fat – You need healthy fats even if you’re trying to burn fat. The mechanisms your body uses to burn body fat needs healthy fats; if you fail to eat fats then you’ll fail to burn fat as fast…fact.

Below is my average breakfast; I amend it very slightly depending on if I’m training that day or not. On training days I’ll go for a run before breakfast but won’t hit the gym until the evening.  On my rest days I’ll decrease my carbs (porridge) and increase my protein and fats (eggs).

  • Egg (1 on training day, 2 on rest days)g
  • Porridge made with water (35 grams on training days, 18 grams on non training days)
  • Breakfast shake – 1 small banana, glass of skimmed milk, 30 grams of egg white powder

I also take some supplements:
On training days I have 5 grams of glutamine, 5 grams of BCAA (branched chain amino acids) & 8 grams of essential amino acids before my run; taking these supplements before a run helps protect my muscle from being used as fuel whilst running which is a risk fasted cardio. On the days that I don’t train I add the 5 grams of glutamine to my breakfast cocktail but the BCAAs and essential amino acids get skipped. I top all that off with a basic multi vitamin and two fish oil capsules.

Whilst I was preparing for my photoshoot I also took some MyProtein Thermopure and some CLA (Conjugated Linoleic Acid) capsules. The idea behind these two supplements is the Thermopure speeds up my metabolism to burn more calories whilst the CLA makes my fat stores more readily available for burning.

Breakfast of champions.

 


Music for training


Posted by Gaz

I don’t think I’ve ever been into a gym that didn’t have music playing…with the exception of a small basement gym in Spain but I guess for every rule there is an exception. Even though the gym I currently train in has music playing I still listen to my own music using my MP3 player. Obviously everyone has their own preference but I’d feel confident in saying that the majority of people either go for dance, rock or at least something close; it’s not very often I hear people say “I find country and western really pumps me up for a hardcore workout.”.

I tend find both rock and dance good for a gym workout; one trick I use is to listen to one of the genres at the start of my workout and then swap halfway through to give myself a second surge of energy and motivation. Having headphones also allows me to block out all the hustle and bustle of the gym.

When I first started running I went with dance music thinking the up tempo beat would help me run that little bit quicker. It was only the other day whilst running that I hit the wrong playlist and ended up listening to Leona Lewis. At this point I realised that it doesn’t really matter what music I’m listening to as long as it distracts me from the fact that I’m running. With this in mind I tend to just shuffle through everything that is on my phone.


Split training programs


Posted by Gaz

You’ll find that the majority of people who regularly lift weights follow a split training program. This is the best way to train multiple times during a set period, most commonly a week, without over training your muscles. The idea is that rather than hitting your entire body in one workout you instead focus on only a small number of muscle groups. Not only does this allow you to avoid over training but it also gives each muscle group more focus and attention. You can go as simple or complicated as you like with split programs as long as you train your muscle groups in the correct order which is roughly:

Chest
\/
Back
\/
Biceps
\/
Shoulders
\/
Triceps
\/
Legs
\/
Abs

The reasoning behind the above order is that you are training your larger muscle groups such as chest and back first because they normally require the use of secondary muscles also. For example, if you perform the bench press for your chest you’ll inevitably use both your shoulders and triceps in this exercise as well. If you’ve worked either of these secondary muscles before your chest then you’ll be weaker on the bench press and your chest will suffer. Likewise most back exercises require the biceps to be used as secondary muscles, a lot of shoulder exercises require the triceps as a secondary muscle and so forth. Some people opt for a very simple two day split consisting of an upper body workout and a separate lower body workout. Others focus on just a single body part per workout if time permits. Below are three examples of split training routines that progressively get more intense.

Split training program one

Monday – upper body

  • Chest – bench press
  • Back – lat pulldowns
  • Biceps – barbell curls
  • Shoulders – standing barbell shoulder press
  • Triceps – dips
  • Abs – crunches

Thursday – lower body

  • Quads – squats
  • Hamstrings – lying leg curls
  • Quads – seated leg extensions
  • Calves – standing calf raises
Split training program two

Monday – Chest & shoulders

  • Chest
    • Bench press
    • Incline dumbbell flys
  • Shoulders
    • Standing barbell shoulder press
    • Lateral raises

Tuesday – Back & Biceps

  • Back
    • Lat pull downs
    • Bent-over dumbbell rows
  • Biceps
    • Barbell curls
    • Seated alternate dumbbell curls

Thursday – Triceps & Abs

  • Triceps
    • Dips
    • Seated arm extensions
  • Abs
    • Hanging leg raises
    • decline crunches

Friday – Upper legs

  • Quads
    • Squats
    • Leg extensions
  • Hamstrings
    • Lying leg curls
    • Seated leg curls
Split trainings program three

Monday – Chest

  • Bench press
  • Machine flys
  • Incline dumbbell press

Tuesday – Back

  • Deadlifts
  • Wide grips chinups
  • Seated cable rows

Thursday – Shoulders

  • Seated dumbbell shoulder press
  • Behind head seated smith machine press
  • Lateral raises to the front

Friday – Triceps

  • Cable push downs
  • Lying arm extensions
  • Dips

Saturday – Biceps

  • Barbell curls
  • Close grip cable curls
  • Concentration curls

Saturday – Abs & obliques

  • Crunches
  • Hanging leg raises
  • Side raises

The above three programs are aimed more at general weight lifting as opposed to specific power lifting training or anything like that. When I start my power lifting training I might write a blog specifically about that. There is always a bit of variation and personal preference regarding the best order in which to train your body parts in a split program but the above is a solid start.


Top 10….gym hates


Posted by Gaz
This is my list of top 10 things I hate (or at least mildly dislike) in the gym; it will be of no real use to anyone but I’m sure I’ll feel better once I get them off my chest.

  1. People who talk to me when I’m half way through a set because they’re so bloody impatient. I wear headphones for a reason.
  2. Those people that insist on performing their standing exercises next to one of the limited number of benches and only using the bench for putting their water on and planting their lazy asses on between sets.
  3. Having a bad first set which slows down your entire workout.
  4. People who think they’re strong because the pile more weight than they can handle and then perform half a rep or use ridicules and dangerous form to complete the rep.
  5. People who don’t wipe their sweat off a piece of equipment once they’ve used it.
  6. Busy times. Specifically when my chest day falls on a Monday because every man, women and child trains chest on Monday.
  7. Guys that stand butt naked at the sinks in the toilets to have a shave…no need.
  8. Kettle bell & TRX workouts.
  9. People half my size telling me what I’m doing wrong just because they don’t understand why I’m doing it.
  10. The women who has obvious exercise/body image issues who is dangerously thin even though she is pregnant…bad news.
  11. Fat guys who neck a massive protein shake after a workout as if their body needs all those extra calories.

Okay maybe I miscounted.