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Small time thinking?

I saw thousands of visitors arriving for the Beach Break live festival down pembrey country park earlier, and what a welcome sight they were!

This is bringing a lot of money into a community that has been particularly hard hit by the recession, and many pubs and taxi’s were seen up to their eyes with work earlier, this can only be a good thing because these businesses are either not even open or have little trade during this time. There are not many sustainable businesses in burry port, and this should be a welcome boost for them, despite all the negative comments they have issued in the press!

It always makes me laugh when some small town thinkers think that pembrey is doomed to be a place of sex, drugs and violence this week because of the festival, well ive got news for you, it is being run by a highly professional organisation who have done many such events in the past, and its nice to see a high police presence, sadly lacking in burry port usually. And the funniest thing is, anyone who lives in burry port/pembrey is well aware of the sex, drugs, booze, violence that goes on EVERY weekend here anyway!

My guess is that the event will be run very well, the economy will benefit hugely and the youngsters attending will have  fun and entertaining time, what’s wrong with that?

Some people have the same small time thinking to their training, there is only one way to do things, there is a certain amount of time they need to train for, there are only certain movements or exercises they should do etc etc. The lack of variety in one’s training can seriously halt or push back your progress, just because you’re not prepared to do different things from time to time.

If you read through these pages, its encouraged you do different things, i do encourage putting firm foundations down, but this should be supported by varied activities which should also be fun. You should be getting more than sweat out of your workouts, you should be invigorated, energised and totally enthused about your week of training.

It helps too if you live by the coast, which many of you so lets get out there and use the coastal attractions, come on let’s really get out there and do it!!!

Please don’t do the SAME OLD routines every week, train inside AND outside, you will absolutely love it when you get all that fresh air down you, you don’t have to train in front of everyone and nobody likes an audience!

Its a nice week coming up so let’s walk the talk and do it, change it every couple of weeks and show how imaginative you can be, you are literally limited only by your imagination so lets do it!!

Twitt
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Muscle gain part 2

So we are aware of the commitment you need to show to get your muscle growth on a regular basis. Once you pass this test, and you’re ready to give the commitment, you need to think about exercise selection and why you need to choose certain exercises over others.

Here is how it needs to go.

Each and every exercise has a certain “exercise cost”. This means certain exercises burn more energy and calories more than others, and break more muscle tissue down than others.

For example, a squat will always burn more calories than concentration curls. This is because the squat is primarily working yours legs which are your body’s biggest muscle group, and indirectly works the rest of your body too because of the sheer effort involved in the exercise.

On the other hand, concentration curls just work the biceps, when compared to the legs is one of the smallest muscle groups. Not only that, but you will notice that the squat is a far harder exercise to perform than the curls. Any time you recruit more muscle groups or bigger muscle groups to perform an exercise, you will be working harder full stop. Any time you work harder, you break down more muscle tissue which is what we are aiming to do here in this post.

So when it comes to exercise selection, try and think which exercises are going to benefit you MOST in your workouts. The chances are that the most beneficial exercises will often be the hardest, and the ones that most people put off! This is why you need a great attitude to break down muscle tissue and create the conditions for muscle growth. You won’t get away with “namby pamby” exercises and still develop significant lean muscle tissue, it simply can’t happen unless you are using steroids, and you don’t really want to cheat and use substances that will have highly negative side effect do you?!!!

So if we are looking at your legs for a start, i would look at doing squats (if you have no knee/ankle/back problems), if you do have any problems, i would substitute this with leg presses, which can still give good results, but you won’t develop any associated problems.

If you have no access to a squat rack, i would try some lunges with some dumbbells by your side, these have a very high energy cost again and you can send that cost much higher if you turn them into walking lunges. Proper form is essential on this exercise keeping the knee in line with your ankle, and not stomping your knee down, be gentle with your knees, you’re going to need them when you’re 70!!

So these 3 exercises are great for muscle gain, and to develop some definition and thigh and hamstring development, i would try leg extensions (make sure to lower slowly too) and leg curls (lower slowly here too). Nothing looks more silly than well developed thighs and weak hamstrings, so make sure to include these too.

For calves i would try standing calf raises, number one for calf development or calf raises on the leg presses which you need to lighten up the weight, as its more of a specialist movement than the leg presses, you are trying to replicate the standing calf raise movement on the leg press.

I would look at doing 10-12 reps on each movement, as legs tend to need slightly more reps.

I would try 3 sets of each.

You will notice from doing this workout that you breathe heavily, and usually get a good sweat up and generally are very tired that night and day after maybe. This shows this workout is a HIGH ENERGY COST and WILL break down a lot of muscle tissue.

As long as you eat a lot of food and regularly, you will develop some serious muscle in your legs!

Twitt
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Muscle gain

A big question I always get from mostly males is how can they put on muscle to their frame. This can be a harder question than you think because there are so many variables when you’re dealing with the individual concerned.

There’s always the lifetime skinny guy who can never put muscle on, no matter what they do or what they eat.

Then there’s the guy who carries lots of body fat, but carries no muscle and the overall shape is less than flattering shall we say.

Then you have the sickening type of guy who picks up a weight and a few short weeks later, starts showing some major progress (it must be said that these genetically gifted people are few and far between).

Before you pigeon-hole yourself into one of those categories, I have some great new for you.

The principles of muscle-gain remain the same no matter where you fit in.

For example, any one of these groups will have to leave 48-72 hours in between working the same muscle group again. Most people don’t realise that when you work a muscle, you are actually breaking it down and it needs to recover, you need to feed it well and let it rest or it won’t grow, simple as that.

Training every day may seem the way to go but more is definitely NOT better in this case.

So if you’re prepared to put all the work into your training, and then not be totally committed to eating every 3-4 hours afterwards, then you’re not going to make gains.

If you can train hard but are not committed enough to hit the sack every or most nights for 8 hours, then you’re not going to make many gains. Your muscles need to rest and if you don’t get it, you will end up being frustrated because you won’t be getting bigger.

This strategy of training smart, eating smart and resting well is also needed for you to get stronger, if you don’t get stronger, your muscles won’t grow so you need to be fresh and full of enthusiasm to push yourself further and further.

If you’re employing all of these strategies, then it should be possible for you to be adding small amounts of weight to your exercises every 2 weeks, and I’m even talking about 1-2 pounds here and there, it DOES add up.

When you first start training, you tend to add weight relatively quickly anyway, but then plateau’s start coming. To smash through these frustrating sticking points, you need to consistent and do the right thing nearly all the time, nobody’s perfect of course but you’d better be ready to give this some massive commitment, or your body’s not going to grow in the way you’d like!

If you start missing meals and snacks, you’re progress will disappear. If you start missing workouts, you will go backwards, if you don’t get enough sleep, you will not feel motivated or have enough energy to get through the kind of workouts you need to do to slap on enough muscle tissue, and that will make a clear difference to the way you may look right now.

We will go into more detail over coming posts, but you need to realise that you have to show a lot of commitment to build a significant amount of muscle, and it doesn’t happen overnight.

If you are willing to do all of this, I look forward to sharing my thoughts with you over the next few days!

Twitt
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Reps nice and slow

If you’re looking for a bit of instant improvement and sign you’re improving, then try this way of training.

For example, if you’re doing a set of press ups, then presently you may being going up and down at a fairly quick rate, this may be fine to get an impressive number of reps out, but trying it another way may well allow you to feel the exercise more, and get far more out of the exercise.

So let’s stick to the press up, try lowering yourself far slower using a 3 second count on the way down, and then pushing up using a 3 second count, 1-2-3 and your rep is completed. When you do this for the first time, you will find you feel every rep and if currently you are capable of doing 20 press ups at a quicker rate, then really slowing it down and doing it this way will bring your overall capacity down to 10 reps max!

You will find you get far more out of your exercise, and therefore far more out of your workout if you apply it to the rest of your exercises. This takes more concentration but this time you’re really thinking about your workout. You will probably find that you will be a little stiff the next day too. This is because your muscles will have been worked far more thoroughly than normal, which is a really good thing by the way!

Working out slower also reduces the chances of injury, you don’t jerk so much on any movement as everything is being done in a very controlled way.

You always see from time to time when you go in different gyms that most people “cheat” when they do most exercises. This is because they are trying to use too much weight because they associate weight with progress, but if you’re not doing the exercise properly, then you’re not going to get as much as you should out of your workout.

There’s an old saying that you should leave your ego by the door when you’re going to train. The approach that you should use as much weight as you can is long outdated, but that attitude is more prevalent than ever around the area now, it looks like some people never learn, and i think most people don’t want to show that much concentration when they train. It’s all about lifting a weight from A to B, and nothing else matters according to most people!

I guarantee if you try the slow method (on the way UP and well as DOWN), then you will discover some fresh progress in your training full stop. The upward movement and downward movement are as IMPORTANT AS EACH OTHER. Give it a go and let me know what you think.

Twitt
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Possible progress

If you are thinking of starting training, thinking of beginning to eat healthy, or wondering if you can get fit and healthy for the first time in your life, then i have news for you.

Many people talk about getting in shape but the reality of it is that many never get around to doing anything about it. As i told you before, i get questions about training more or less every day, maybe in the supermarket or in shop i am popping into, or definitely in the gym, definitely with a client and if im out the weekend, i usually get a question then and that could be anywhere. I also get texts or emails through this site from people if they can somehow get in shape again, and is it really possible?!!!

Here’s what you can expect in just one month if you apply yourself, change the way you eat (which is highly important), and get on a well-structured training programme that is based on constant progression, starting off slowly but giving good gains each and every week.

I have to stress that no two people are the same, and everyone will give different degrees of effort into their programme and therefore get different degrees of success.

But on average and from training a lot of individuals over a very long time, here’s what i found.

If you apply yourself, it would not be unusual to lose 2 inches off your waist and 2 inches off your hips.

If you apply yourself it would not unusual to lose around 2% body fat (more than you think trust me).

If you apply yourself, it would not be unusual to bring your resting heart rate down 2-4 beats per minute, meaning your heart will be in better shape and be more ready to react better under stress.

Your blood pressure will improve.

Your circulation will improve substantially.

You will feel 100 times better as long as you train safely and with purpose, and 80% of your eating is healthier. Your energy levels can literally explode as long as you stick by a few simple rules.

 Your attitude to life will improve immensely, and you will be more positive about everything, and even likely to try new things you may not have thought possible.

From this month of progress, you will want more and your standards will go up accordingly. You will reach your initial goals quickly and you will be encouraged to set new ones, which will be more exciting and will introduce fresh energy and drive into your life.

The examples of results i have given you are conservative estimates of what can happen when you change things around in your life, ive seen plenty of people smash those estimates, so don’t wait another month or even another year, lets get down to it and make it happen right now!!

P.S. sad day, stuart cable, ex-drummer of stereophonics who passed away today-RIP

Twitt