Posted on

Wednesday, 15th November

On from yesterday means more about the importance of proper nutrition for sports.

So we assuming the client is 14 years of age again and looking to get bigger for rugby.

Then we explained how important it was still important to eat good quality food, and in bigger portions gradually over time.

Now we have to explain why you need to eat every 3 hours ideally, and its importance in rugby and sports in general.

When you play rugby usually on a saturday, its a tough sport and you will naturally break down muscle tissue in all the mauling, ripping of the ball and wrestling and big hits all over the field for 80 minutes! You need to recover from this on the saturday night and sunday and this is done by showing great interest in the power of food in recuperation terms.

Whenever you break down muscle tissue, you need to replace it again through the power of food and the power of good sleep.

So putting a meal together of good protein and good carbs, along with vegetables will replace a lot of the broken down muscle tissue and help you not only recover, but make fresh gains.

This same principle applies to weight training too, as we have talked about in the last few days.

Whenever you do a weights session, you naturally break down muscle tissue. So guess what? Yes, its the good quality protein, good carbs and vegetables you need to put back into your system again within an hour of finishing weight training and throughout the day.

You need your porridge for breakfast, wholemeal bread, wholegrain pasta throughout the day packed with lean proteins such as white meats and fish, and try to pack in a meal with veggies included in it at least once a day. This will make sure your body is in fine shape inside and out!

Tomorrow we have an insight on how important water is in your diet and how it affects your performance and health overall.

Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday, 15th November

Going back to last week and the 14 year old’s question about how to get bigger and stronger for rugby, we talked about the necesssary weight training programme and the big do’s and don’ts of the programme.

Now we move on to eating and to explode the myths on why kids don’t seem to be able to put on the muscle and weight they need for rugby. Eating is at least 50% of the equation and if you ignore this side of things, then there’s absolutely NO WAY you can hope to reach your goals!

The important start is to make sure you and your family shop for good foods. For years, rugby players thought they could eat almost anything as long as it was long in calories, and “any weight” was “good weight”!! This right there is probably the biggest mistake most rugby players used to do and still do.

You have to consume good foods such as white meats, fish, red meat once a week, cottage cheese, milk for protein, you need wholegrain pasta, brown rice, jacket new and sweet potatoes for good carbs, plenty of fruit and vegetables as you need your internal functions working smoothly and properly and you still need to keep your energy levels very high of course.

You need good fats for your body such as oily fish including salmon, trout, mackerel etc, a handful of nuts would be good each day and these essential fatty acids will support everything you try and do in your physique building programme for rugby.

The difference between a rugby player looking for size and the average healthy person in the street is that the rugby player needs bigger portion sizes in his training, not too much for starters but building up over time. This way the quality of muscle built will be long lasting and all the extra food won’t deposit as fat, so slowly increasing portion size and meal frequency is the shape of things to come.

More of proper nutrition for rugby and sport in general tomorrow!!

Twitt
Posted on

Thursday, 10th November

To follow on as promised from yesterday, its time to talk about what happens after the first 4-6 weeks.

The first month or so is seen as your perfect opportunity to get used to the various exercises, get used to weight training in general, and get your ligaments and tends to a much greater force than normal, and this DOES take time.

Okay, assuming you get through this period with no problem and you have mastered proper technique, its time to move on to newer more challenging exercises.

Rugby is a tough game, but if you train in the right way, you can make the game a whole lot easier and set yourself up for future success and hopefully avoid injury to a better degree.

So the first week after week 6, assuming you are doing 3 sets per exercise, I would change your programme to the following.

Bench press-still in there as a great power movement

Chins-this is a new one for you, it’s the one where there a bar usually hanging high on the wall or even better from the ceiling. You usually have to jump up on a bench to get to it if you’re not that tall, and all you do is hang on it, and then pull yourself up.

This is a tremendously hard exercise so I would start off doing half movements if you find the full movement too hard. Persevere and you will get better, it may well take 6 months to get to 10 full reps.

Next is one arm dumbbell rowing, look for a demonstration of this on a google search again and is a great back builder, which will be of enormous help if you are mauling in rugby or simply fighting for the ball. Do 3 sets of 8 with a dumbbell that tests you-great exercise!

Then on to legs with squats or leg press. Two great choices there, do which ever suits. I would also put in a leg extension and its important not to lock out on this exercise, and will develop the muscles above the knee very well.

Leg curls are an underrated exercise too. Anyone who has ever pulled their hamstring will wish they would have done this one. A great hamstring developer and important to keep the balance of leg training so everything get worked.

You can add calf raises to the list too, another neglected exercise for the calf of course.

Upright rows is a great mass builder for your shoulders, and will add some serious strength. Shoulder presses can be good especially seated in your younger years, but as you get into your 30’s, try to avoid them as lots of people run into overhead movements with their shoulders as time marches on, so I would pick upright rows.

Bench dips or arm dips are great for triceps as discussed yesterday but I would move on to parallel bars dips from now on. This is much harder exercise than arm dips and when done with a wider grip, will also work your chest, shoulders, arms and back indirectly. Dips is one you ought to get used to and fast, its one of my key exercises but like chins, will take you a while to get used to depending on your current bodyweight.

Then to finish you have dumbbell curls, you arms can still take some work by this stage and strong arms are vital for all sorts of reasons in rugby, and in life in general.

So these are examples of very good weight training exercises after week 6 and these will form the foundation of your training for the next few months.

They will constantly challenge you and push you on to new levels of development and progress.

Please email me on fitness@kerimckibbin.co.uk for further info. Keep it simple and don’t over-complicate.

Even more tomorrow!!

Twitt
Posted on

Thursday, 2nd December 2010

Eating seems to be continually over-complicated by many of you or not even implemented at all at times.

The basic recommended plan goes like this

Breakfast

Weetabix/shredded wheat or porridge

 or scrambled eggs on toast on dry wholemeal bread

 (egg whites are better but can take some getting used to)

Mid-morning

 would be one or two pieces of any fruit

Lunch

Would be chicken/turkey/any fish with wholemeal bread/pitta bread even better and vegetables included if possible, this would  be an ideal choice if working

or if you are not working and have time to make a meal, the same principles apply and you still need your protein source which is the chicken/turkey/fish or even cottage cheese (with pineapple or onion and chives often liven the taste up), again with vegetables you like if possible. You can also put some healthy carbs with this such as wholegrain/wholewheat pasta and brown rice which are excellent choices.

The reason why some people think carbs put weight on is simply because the average person eats too much at any one sitting. Think pasta and we think of a big plate full, in fact the portion size should really be the size of your fist, quite a culture shock for some but will stop you putting any unwanted body fat and give you  the energy you need to continue your day.

The simple rules are size of your fist when it comes to portion sizes for carbs AND protein, and vegetables can be the rest of the    plate and the more varied they are the better.

Have to slip it in here about water intake by this time of the day? Have you relied on coffee’s and tea’s, or have you done the right thing and drunk a steady supply of water since you got up from bed.

Most people don’t realise that water intake burns fat too and makes your body work far more efficiently, and importantly makes you feel fuller than if you just relied on caffeinated drinks such as the tea and coffee.

We move on to now snacks in the afternoon and we think of fruit again and a handful of nuts this time for essential fats, which are vital for just about everything in the body. Nuts may be calorific but it’s important to consume them and really try to keep them in very small handful’s. Brazil’s, cashew’s, almond’s, hazlenut’s are all great examples of essential fatty acids your body needs.

Evening meal’s should follow the same simple formula as lunch. We are talking once again the importance of protein to fill you up, the good carbs to give you energy but not put fat on, and the vegetables to make everything in your body work well and be healthy from the inside out.

So we’ll go over it again, we’re talking chicken/turkey/fish for protein, wholegrain pasta or brown rice for carbs, also new potatoes are very good, sweet potatoes are amazing because of their slow sugar release in the body too. Your vegetables coming into your body at this time of day will give a massive boost to your immune system and really repair the damage that has come and gone from the trials of your busy day.

Hopefully, you wouldnt have forgotten about drinking water throughout the day, it really will make the massive difference you may be missing in your life. It just makes things go a lot smoother with your day both internally and the way you look and feel full stop. Don’t wait until your thirsty either, this means you’re dehydrated already so you need small amounts from dawn till dusk, and beyond this time of year due to the dark nights of course!!

Another familiar problem as you know is eating late at night or after dinner, you really dont need it at this time of day and you will be consuming extra calories at the wrond time of day, ironically when you’re burning the LEAST amount of calories!

How’s that for a day or eating and drinking? If you stick to that, then you will be in serious shape and feeling as energetic as you’re ever going to feel. The long term effects of eating like this cannot be overstated so let’s try and get in to it gradually and watch the amazing results flood in every single week!

Twitt
Posted on

Tuesday, 23rd November

Whether you are very optimistic today or you are a bit down and very pessimistic, it won’t really dictate the shape your’e going to be in right now, or indeed the rest of the year.

If you don’t exercise all week and don’t in general, you are unlikely to be in good physical condition no matter how optimistic you are.

If you eat mostly rubbish with only the occasional healthy meal in there, then there’s no way at all you will be in shape, no matter how much shouting and optimism you bring into your life. Being a good talker won’t guarantee you anything, its the “doing” that really matters and deep down you know that!!

Optimisim of course is a BIG help when you ARE training well and eating a good variety of healthy foods. Optimism then will give you all the momentum you need to continuously get better and better.

Optimism is quite a hard thing to pull off in the gloomiest period of the year and with all the bad news going on, so you’d better get used to practicing it and action better be the name of the game from now on!

Optimism can depend on the questions you’re likely to ask yourself. If you have a slight muscle pull that requires you to abstain from training for a couple of days or even a week, instead of getting down about it, see it as a nice little break to refresh yourself and that you will come back much stronger than ever. Breaks from training can be a good thing as long as they are handled properly.

Instead of having one bad meal right now and saying to yourself that your diet is blown, try and get the next meal right and get back in the saddle. A moment or experience in life will have the effect you let it have. No one bad meal should make you write off your week, that is just a weak excuse to get back on sugary and fatty foods that certainly taste nice, but will make you feel and look like a rubbish bin!!

Some people let certain experiences destroy their day, their week or even their life!!!

Its how you react to all of this that will make the difference ultimately. So let’s get used to getting up quickly from any setback and showing how well you can bounce back from anything!!!

Twitt