Tuesday, 26th July

The issue of post workout nutrition has never been so important.

If you are currently going through a tough pre-season for sport for example, what you put back into your body is going to be of extreme importance.

If you train very hard and then don’t care what you eat, then you’re not making things very easy for yourself at all.

There used to be a saying in the 80’s, 90’s and still sometimes today, that “as long as you train hard, then it doesn’t matter WHAT you eat afterwards”!!! What rubbish but what’s even sadder is that some people believe this!

Let’s look at it logically.

When you train hard, you break down your body.

You will lose a lot of nutrients out of your body.

You will break down muscle tissue down.

You will disrupt the chemical balance of your body and lose vital nutrients that need to be replaced.

So does a takeaway really cut it as an after workout meal?

Does the chip shop meet all your needs?

Is a bottle of wine really going to help you replace what you have taken out?

Is a couple of pints of lager going to repair your immune system or help destroy it?

So let’s get one thing completely straight. YOU CANNOT EAT EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANT AFTER A TOUGH WORKOUT IF YOU REALLY WANT TO GET IN SHAPE!!!

Okay, i’m glad i have got all of that off my chest.

So what should you eat?

White meats, lean red meat once a week, any fish as long as it hasn’t got batter, eggs, cottage cheese are all EXCELLENT protein sources!!!!! These are vital!

You don’t need a bucketload of carbs after either.

A moderate amount, the size of your fist will do and avoid white bread, white pasta and you will be fine.

Vegetables will provide a lot of the nutrients you need to replace in your body, you will be so much better off by having a good variety of veg in your meal after training for all sorts of reasons. This along with proper hydration will be vital in your athletic goals.

I have tried to make it plain and simple, lets just do it!!!!

25th May 2011

Cyril brings a great point up this week about should he split training up into different body parts.

You can do this of course, but having done both myself, i am now a big fan of working the whole body in one session. It used to be extremely fashionable in the 70’s and 80’s, and 90’s for that matter doing a split routine, when you would work chest and arms on one day for example, then the next day you would work legs, and the day after you  would work shoulders and back, then have the next day off.

Then you would repeat the whole cycle again over the next three days and thats how your training was. You would usually do three exercises for your back, then three for your shoulders or even four, then hammer yourself so much, you would think that this was indeed the holy grail of workout programmes, haven’t done both as previously mentioned, i now love working the whole body in one go!!!

The reason for this is that it tends to burn more fat, burn more calories, i end up feeling and looking harder on it, i end up leaner and it just feels like a much better workout.

The other simple fact is that this type of whole body workout is MUCH TOUGHER!!! A lot of people do split routines simply because its easier in my book, i certainly found that. To work your whole body in one workout takes guts and determination, and these are things not everyone’s got time after time, workout after workout, week after week. THIS IS the way to do it though if you’re looking for a leaner, stronger body that is full of huge amounts of energy at all times, the whole body workout is literally the best all rounder you can get!!!

If you are currently on a split routine, try going back to a whole body workout where you work every single body part, you will find you work much harder and therefore are bound to get a much better overall result. Sometimes going back to basics delivers the best results, hard work will always bring its big rewards so what are you waiting for, lets do it!!!!