Shredding diary

I’ve always said that it’s not about how much you lift, but what you look like. I believe that training isn’t a competition, but a lifestyle choice; you’re not competing with anyone but yourself.
I really love this quote from Zyzz – “My end goal is not to be some massed up freak, but rather to have a physique that can be looked as art; streamlined, tapered, and universally appealing"

So I decided to see the full extent of my training and shed the fat this month. This is my progress diary for the two weeks.

Week 1:

Start – weight 81kg

I started a new nutrition plan, which was basically to have more protein than carbs, and aimed to hit the following amounts of each for this week. For protein I aimed for over 850 grams in the week and for carbs less than 700 grams. This meant roughly less than 100 grams a day.
As far as training goes I kept to the same routines, and had Wednesday as a cardio day where I ran for 40 minutes around my local park with 30 push-ups at the end of each lap. Then later on I did the military circuit and abs circuit from this blog at the gym.

As an extra metabolism boost I spent about 15 minutes in the sauna 3 days of this week after my workout, to rev up the fat burning a little more.

 Results – protein total for week = 873grams

               Carbs total for week = 663 grams

Week 2:

After 1 week = 77kg (lost 4 kilos)
This week I set myself the same nutritional targets having seen such good progress in week 1 and having learnt how to manage the carbs counter more effectively I was able to plan a basic meal plan for this week. Good meals for this are tuna salads with a small red pepper pesto dressing, 130 grams of tuna and bowl of salad (33 grams of protein and 7 grams of carbs) and 3 scrambled eggs with 100g chicken and 50g mixed peppers (36 grams of protein and 9 grams of carbs). These were my typical lunches.
Breakfast was either a protein shake or the banana and nut Smoothie from this blog. Sticking to this kind of meal plan means that virtually all healthy/high protein dinners are acceptable as long as they don’t have over 75 grams of carbs.
In terms of training I stuck to my usually routines again, but this time added three 10 minute abs sessions to the end of every other workout to help with the chiselled core look. Also upped the intensity of the cardio a bit. Again I was ending the other 3 weights workouts with a 15-minute sauna session to keep the metabolism revved up for several ours after leaving the gym.

Results – protein count for week = 903 grams

                Carbs count for week = 658 grams

 Current weight = 75kg. 

As a final thing I found that once you reach your desired weight and definition it is much more motivating in terms of dieting as you want to maintain it. But also now you no longer need to lose weight you can increase your carbs intake per week by around 100-150 grams and still stay ripped.

Hopefully you’ll find this motivating and helpful for your own training and I wish you all luck in achieving your aims. 
to watch the video of my progress and see the change yourselves check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Drg-zb-iDh4

Importance of Variation

The importance of varying your workouts is enormous. Firstly it not only forces your muscles to work and perform in different ways, hence building more muscle in different areas, but it also makes it more fun, challenging and gets your brain more activated an focused in every workout, rather than simply going through the motions.

So how do I add variation to my workout? Simple:

1. Keep on climbing:

If you get comfortable banging out a weight or running, cycling, swimming at a certain pace or for a certain time then you need to make it harder. Try going up to the next set of dumbbells or going faster or for longer on the cardio. Always set yourself a target to beat every time you train and 9/10 times you’ll improve.

2. Mix it up:

Instead of simply sticking to the same routines every day of every week try to mix it up every few weeks or months. I train in a solid routine for 50 days and then evaluate my performance, weight, strength and cardio and then start chopping and changing the things that I need to improve on, or have maxed out to keep my workouts fresh and enjoyable. For example I wasn’t happy with my Tricep techniques recently and hadn’t noticed any real gains so I swapped 2/3 of the exercises around and I’m seeing results. In terms of cardio try swapping running for 40 minutes for a 40 minute circuit or swimming session, or vice versa. Always keep your body guessing.

3. Nutrition:

This too needs to stay fresh, but on a much more regular basis. Studies have clearly shown that people who train, but don’t vary their healthy diets enough soon slip up into bad habits or cheat days far too often. So every week plan your meals, even if its just your main meal each day and try to swap a few around each week to give you some new healthy combo’s and keep the diet enjoyable. This also applies to protein, keep changing the sources and you’ll get extra gains due to the extra nutrients each different source has to offer.

4. Don’t be afraid of change:

I’ve trained with guys who never changed their routines and yet they always complain that they hat one of their sessions! (usually legs) I always get the ‘Oh no its legs tonight’ crap every week. But this if you keep on swapping your moves about you’ll see the results faster and you’ll actually start to love your training again.

5. Brain power:

It has been proven that by changing your normal routines several times a year can improve the number of neurones in your brain and thus improve not only memory but reaction times and natural recall. The body likes to adapt to survive so give it a new workout to adapt to!

My Legs Workout

I thought I'd lay out another one of my workout routines for you to try and at the minute I'm really enjoying my legs training and thought I would share this with you.

Leg Raise resistance machine - 5 sets of 10 reps 97.5kg (mainly a warm up so keep rest times low -30 seconds)
Leg curl resistance machine - 5 sets of 10 reps 97.5kg (mainly a warm up so keep rest times low -30 seconds)
Calf press machine - 5 sets of 12 reps 265kg (calfs need high intensity so aim for less rest also)
Incline leg press - 4 sets 8 reps 260kg ( you can rest more for this compound move)
Held ab crunches (100 reps) as a short break from legs, remove lactic acid
Box squatts - 5 sets of 10 reps 100kg (all about the depth, get a low bench and sit down till your glutes are brushing it and the back up again, DO NOT REST ON THE BENCH!)
Standing Barbell calf press - 5 sets of 15 reps 85kg (again short intense calf session)
Held ab crunches (100 reps with 15 kg weight disc)
Stair master cardio machine - 6 mins at 115 steps per minute
Walking dumbell lunges - 4 sets of 20 reps (10 per leg) 28kg dumbells (try not to stop in between reps, stay low and keep walking them out till you've done 20 reps)

I normally aim to finish this in around 1 hour 5mins. So keep the rest times low and keep working, best results come from putting in more effort and less yapping. So get the ipod plugged in and really pump this one out cause it has really worked well for me over the past few weeks.

Bulking up

Surprisingly spring-time has been chosen as one of the best times for you to start a bulking nutrition plan, and this may come as a shock to many of you who prefer to gain the pounds over Christmas, during your hibernation periods. But there’s a good reason for this;

Firstly all the junk food that you have stocked up on over Christmas like selection boxes and comfort foods are now gone and its back to the old diet again. But this means that you will be fuelling your muscle growth on more healthy, and protein high foods rather than empty calories stashed away for winter.

Secondly as its spring your less likely to pie out on comfort foods due to the increased vitamin D in the sunlight and the general feeling of content on a sunny day, and thus again you wont gain weight around your waist but on your muscles!

Thirdly, the lighter nights mean that you will have the chance to keep up your cardio programme and so burn off the fat that comes in the bulking diet. Mind you cardio should be kept to a once a week basis for the duration of a bulking programme, mainly just as a safeguard from any return of your gut.

Finally it’s a good way to add some t-shirt muscle mass, before summer, and don’t worry about summer bodies yet, you still have all of June to get shredded for your holidays, so just go for it!

Basics for bulking:

Nutrition: The key is to drip feed your muscles and get your body into an anabolic state so feel free to graze all day on high protein and carb foods, but keep it smart and aim for foods low in fat and in terms of carbs I mean good carbs, not sugar!

Aim to get 2-3 grams of protein, 3-5 grams of carbs and 1gram of fats per kilo of your bodyweight daily, i.e if you weight 75 kilos aim for at least 150grams of protein and only 75 grams of fat.

Also keep getting plenty of fruit and veg to supply your muscles with all the key nutrients.  This may seem like a lot of food, but its necessary to get your body into its anabolic state and after a few days you will start to notice the gains and increased recovery your body has started to make.

Training: In terms of training you want to aim for 8-12 reps per set and lift around 80% of your one rep max. Also keep your rest at a medium level of around 90 seconds-2mins at most! Train with weights 4-5 times a week with one cardio day and a few rest days to allow your body to grow.

Sleep it off

We all know that we should be gettting at least 7-8 hours sleep per night to allow our bodies to recover for the next training session and to build and repair the damaged tissue from the previous days exertions. However for many teenagers this can be the biggest stage where our training and preparation fails, all because we cannot doze off.
So here are some tips to get you all getting enough zzz fom now on:

1. Turn it off;
I don't mean just the light, I mean all gadgets and gismos. The high frequency electromagnetic fields generated by artificial currents may disturb your brains natural levels, according to the Bio-Electro Magnetics Institute in the US. Brain waves during sleep are around 2hz on average, but the UK currently runs at levels of up to 50hz, so basically order an electrical blackout before bed!

2. Tire yourself out;
Beasting your body in the gym will ot only make you look better in your pj's but it will improve your quality of sleep. A study by british medical students found that subjects who exercised regularly had less sleep disturbances than those who didn't.

3. Drift off to classical music;
I know this sounds cheesy and I personally dont do this, but listening to classical music before bed was discovered to significantly raise sleep quality by a study published in the 'Journal of advanced Nursing'.

4. Wash away insomnia;
Having a good saok before bed really does help to improve your sleep patterns and make you nod of quicker, research has shown that subjects who took a hot bath 30 minutes before bed made fewer restless movements and also fell asleep far quicker on average than those who didn't.

5. Go for decaf;
Coffeee? Before bed? Do I really need to tell you why you don't want to be having caffine before trying to fall asleep? According to a journal of Sleep Medicine, switching to decaf all day will actually greatly improve your overall quality of sleep and make it far easier to nod off. So ditch the caffine!

Also on a point more related to training, your quality of sleep determines more than just your energy next day. A lack of sleep not only leaves you feeling sluggish but will lower your testosterone levels and production of growth hormones as well as increasing the production of the muscle damaging hormone cortisol. Also in terms of fat loss, good quality sleep = higher metabolic rate for those 7-8 hours and so = more weight loss! So get into bed and actually sleep tonight!

Smart Shop

Here's a few tips to help you sort out your weekly shop and keep your nutritional plans up to date and keep you fueling your training in positive ways.

1. Aim for Fresh Veg:
Make your first stop at the fresh veg aisle and target as many menbers of the brassica family as possible (e.g broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower) they can not only help to reduce the risk of cancer, but also provide many of the much needed minerals that your need to keep your body going and keep your muscles recovering fullly before your next training session.

2. Get Organic:
Organic food has come under scrutiny in the past few years with an academic study from the 'Food Standrads Agency' claiming that it offered, "no health benifits" over regular food. But when it comes to meat and dairy it would be stupid to consume somthing that wasn't organic or free range. This ensures that the meat does not contain traces of unwanted drugs, or poor quality, fat ridden cuts of meat.

3. Get into the freezer:
Avoid the pizza and ice cream and you'll find some healthy options in the frozen asile. 'Whole fods maintain their nutrients better when frozen because vegetables are generally picked and then frozen straight away' says Bishop-Weston. Scientific studies have confirmed that fresh veg lost around half of is nutritional content in the process of picking, transportation and cooking. The frozen veg is also better as it contains no additives unlike chilled meals.

4. Avoid low fat products:
'Low fat means that it contains less than 3 grams of fat per 100 grams, while reduced fat means that it is at least 25% lower in fact than the standard product. While you may think you're making the healthier choice, they ofn replace fats with sugar and artificial flavourings to make them more tasty. Also research in the Cornell university in the USA has suggested that people who eat low fat products actually consume more calories because you underestimate how much you eat. Besides we need fats to make cells and they are essential for survival, just aviod the trans fats and saturated fats. Tip - become a compulsive labell reader next time you shop.

5. Take only what you NEED:
Supermarkets are desigened to draw your attention to the layers of crap stacked wall to wall in the shop. Instead try to make a list of what you want to get before you go to help avoid temptation in aisles lined with high carb and fat products. Also, if you know that you dont want anything from an isle, dont go down it or temptation may overwhelm you and you'll come away with food that neither you nor your body needs.

6. Avoid 'free from' food:
This section may appear virtuous, but there's a reason this section isn't called 'healthy food'. Just becasue it is free from one ingredient doesn't mean that the others are all good. Make sure you check the label for sugar, fat and salt levels or else it just isnt worth it.

Also heres a good tip, the ingredient list must be listed from highest to lowest in terms of % inclusion in the food. For example if your peanut butter doesn't have peanuts as the first ingredient then get rid of it fast, because it more likely than not has more salt than peanuts in the jar! I mean who wants to be eating that?! 

Do 100 Push-ups Now!

So you want to know how to perfrom a century off push ups? Well look no further, below is a detailed plan of how to prepare for this landmark set and a few tips on how to get there fast!

(click to enlarge)
This plan comes from trainer Daniel Carlos and should be carried out over the 4 week period suggested but keep your other training going as normal.