Water and the Benefits

There are good reasons to keep yourself hydrated with great benefits.

· Weight loss

· Healthy heart

· Energy

· Headache cure

· Healthy skin

· Digestive problems

· Cleansing

· Reducing risk of cancer

· Better exercise

· Regulate appetite

Now we are looking at the benefits of drinking water for weight loss and to aid your training program. The next time you are in the gym, work, shopping or in the bar, look around you, 7 out of 10 people in the room are ………… DEHYDRATED. To start with, for your body to function properly, the presence of water is needed.

For example, water flushes toxins out of vital organs, carries nutrients to your cells and provides a moist environment for ear, nose and throat tissues.

So if you have a dehydration problem, the body will not function efficiently. Water has no energy contained in it, but you will still, and this sounds strange, gain energy for being successfully hydrated. This gain in energy doesn’t come from the water itself, but being fully hydrated allows the chemical reaction between the cells to happen and the breakdown of the fats and sugars to occur more rapidly. This is why we feel more energized and refreshed for what we are about to face.

One of the functions of the liver is to convert stored fat to energy. The kidneys need plenty of water to function, if they are deprived of water the liver has to help which lowers the productivity of the liver. The liver will not convert fat to energy as efficiently so it will take longer to burn away the fat stores and you will feel lethargic.

Research shows being dehydrated by a few percent “athletes” lose up to 10 percent of their maximum potential. Many of you reading this would not call yourselves athletes but it still shows that dehydration can affect the overall results and goals in your training program. Being dehydrated and then working out may not be effective enough to burn off sufficient calories to lose weight in a relatively short time. It differs for every individual how much water you should drink each day, it depends on your diet, weight, health and how active you are. But a good rule is to drink around 8 glasses of clean water every water.

The Institute of Medicine advises that:

· Males: should drink roughly 3 litres a day (about 13 cups of total beverages)

· Females: should drink roughly 2.2 litres (about 9 cups of total beverages)

Yes drink lots of water, it may make you go to the bathroom more often. What is happening is the body is flushing itself of the water that has been stored through years of dehydration but in time this will stop and the bathroom breaks will return to normal again. What’s great about the body flushing itself of the stored water is that in time, the water stored around the hips, thighs, ankles and possible abdomen will also be removed.

Water makes up 50 to 70 per cent of an adult’s total body weight. We are all sweating and losing water though other ways and if we do not top-up regularly, our body’s survival time is limited to a matter of days. So your body function will slow down and not function well.

So staying hydrated will not just help you get the most out of your workout but also help you lose weight and get a better toned body!

Check out article on What is an Isotonic Drink?

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How to video Barbell Squat

Watch how to do Barbell Squat visit the youtube site for more videos
Click here

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October article in SUB Magazine

My new article in SUB Magazine for October

Do you ski much? All about pre season training for Skiing and Snowboarding

Page 26 to 29

Check here to read

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Sumo Squat with Weight instructional video

Watch this video on how to do the basic training on Sumo Squat.

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How to video

New Youtube site! with "how to" videos

click here

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First Article In SUB Magazine (page56-59)

My First Article in Sports Urban Bible (page 56-59)

Stretch Further - all about Stretching in your Training
Click here to check it out!

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Better Six Pack!

This 6 weeks work plan is to help you reach and build a better six- pack and overall core. So many people ask me week to week on how to strength their core or to get the abs to pop out like in all the fitness magazines. Sit-up and crunch alone will not do it for you!

Core Anatomy

When it come the your core (which is the Transversus abdominis, Internal obliques, External oblique’s, Rectus abdominis and also lower back muscles, diphone and pelvis floor muscles)

One of the best ways to increase the strength and size of your ABS is compound movements. Compound movement’s forces your body to release large amounts of growth hormone, which in turn will help you to build better abs. Compound movement’s exercise cause your core to base with the add pressure that the core comes under, which in turn will strength your core to become a stronger unit. Compound movement will also help you strip away at the layers of fat by helping you burn more calories. Performing compound exercise means you have to use a number of large muscle groups to complete the movement, and by placing a number of large muscle groups under tension the pressure, if force the body to burn more calories and in turn burn more fat. It also will increase your metaboilm rate which is why you burn more fat tissues.

Fat Tissues

As I said some many people do sit-up or crunch to build better abs, which is the wrong way of going about it. Its no good building great strength in the core and increase the size of your abs, if you or no-one else can see they because of the layer of fat above them. You will have to do hundred of thousand of sit –up to burn around one kilogram of fat. As I said compound movements are great way to burn calorie but you also have to do Cardio. Yes CARDIO!!!

Cardio

I know so many people who hate doing cardio and that also inclues me. But it something that need’s to be done. It’s a means to a end’s!! I’m not talking about running on a treadmill or outside of hours on end. No, I’m talking about short intense cardio workout 15-20 minutes. Its not long ……. to get bore, but just right amount of time to work around 80% or more of your max heart rate.

All Angles

As most people are looking for the wash-broad abs. We have to hit the core (abs) from every angle possible. Twisting movement as well as holds and leg raise movements will hit the core from all for every angle.



Lets begin!

If’s a six – week guide to a better six –pack. We are split the workout in to three parts. Each week exercise getting hard as you become stronger. Each week will include compound exercises, cardio fitness exercise and some form for abs base movement.

All I need to say now is work hard and good luck!!

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8 Different Workout Techniques

Have you ever been in the gym and heard people talk about different types of technique and not have a clue what they are talking about, or know the names of the technique but are not sure how to really do it. Then here is some help, below is 8 techniques that you can use in your workouts. Here are some of the best techniques used in the gym, a few that some people have never heard of before, ‘jump sets’ or ‘strip set’. Have a read and give some a try.

There are more techniques you can use like G.V.T and E.D.T which I will talk about at some other point. If you have any questions about techniques or style of training please drop me a message.

1. Drop sets

Do a set to failure with a weight, then straight away do another set to failure with a lighter weight.

· You can do this by double-drop (reduce the weight once)

· Triple-drop (twice reduce the weight)

· Down the rack (consecutive set moving down the rack after failure)

e. g: Doing Biceps curls with a weight you can get maybe 8-10 reps for (failure) then pick up the next lightest weight and repeat till you cant lift the weight with good form. Keep repeating the procedure until you get to the last weight on the rack. Each set has to be to failure!

· Variation Triple Drop Sets

This is when you do the same exercise or movement in a different position, e.g. incline bench press to flat bench press and finishing off with decline bench press.

2. Superset

Supersetting it a great way to save time in your workout, when time is limited. It also one of the most used methods of training in a gym.

· Same part supersets

This is the most common type. Two different exercises that work the same muscle, bench press into dumbbell fly’s (no rest between exercises).

· Antagonistic Supersets

Doing an exercise for one body part then immediately do an exercise for the antagonistic body part e. g. Biceps then triceps or quads and hamstrings.

· Upper body/Lower body supersets

As it says, exercise of upper body (shoulder press) then lower body (lunge)

3. Rest-Pause Training

This is a technique to allow you to force more reps out on the same weight. This is great for improving your lactic acid threshold, which will increase your muscle endurance threshold. Do the set to failure then rest 5-10 seconds and then try and force a few more reps out on the same weight. You can do this once or a few times depending if you can keep good form.

4. Giant Sets

Giant set are great for muscle endurance and to help weight loss. To do giant sets, you need to choose one body part and then do several exercises without rest for that body part. The same exercise can be done more than just once within the giant set, e. g chin-ups, pull downs, seated rows, bent over rows, pull downs etc.

5. Force Reps

The most popular and most used intensity technique that a personal trainer uses. This is when you use a spotter to help assist you to complete a set number of reps. So as you start to fail on an exercise the assistance will help you lift the weight and this will force out more reps.

6. Jump Set

Is a great way to build strength! To do jump set is very easy, it’s a way to do large number of heavy sets for different muscle groups without losing as much strength after each set. Say you are doing 5 sets of bench press and 5 sets of bent over row. You start with 3 sets of bench and then 3 sets of rows, and then do the remaining 2 sets of bench and 2 sets of rows. This rest will allow you to have more strength on the last 2 sets than you normally would doing 5 sets in a row.

7. Strip Sets

Strip sets are very like drop sets but can only be done with barbells. You need two spotters to do strip sets. Do a set of bench press and without racking the bar, get the two spotters to remove some of the weight then continue the set. Keep stripping the bar till you meet the desired weight or you fail. So this speak s for itself that you should use lots of light weight to make up your desired starting weight. This exercise is great to burn out a muscle at the end of a workout.

8. Negative

This technique focuses on the negative portion of the exercise (the lowering phase or eccentric phase). Rule of thumb for negative is to use 10% heavier than you 1 RM, you also need a spotter as well. Take bench press, lower the weight slowly taking about six second to lower it, then get the spotter to help lift the weight back up, the more help the spotter does the better. It your job to fight against the eccentric phase, lower the weight as slow as possible. This technique will help you increase your 1 RM.

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Most Common Gym Mistakes

1 PICKING THE WRONG WEIGHT

It’s all about form and muscles tension. If the weight is light you will not place your muscles under enough tension to get any meaningful muscle grow. To heavy and your form will go out the window meaning you will over work muscles then the ones you are targeting. Making imbalances in the body which conis injury.

2 ALWAYS STICKING TO YOUR FAVOURITE MOVES

People come to me for help because they are not seeing any more change in they fitness or body. The body need variety if it’s going to keep growing and developing. So you need to consistently introduce new exercises to your workouts if you want positive results.

3 SWINGING YOUR ARMS TOO MUCH WHEN DOING BARBELL CURLS

You are doing a biceps exercise not a lower back extension! This is just going to lead to back pain not bigger Biceps. If you swing your body or arms, you are not keep any form and will work other muscle to the one you are trying to target. Also your should raise and lower the bar slowly through the full range of motion. To stop swinging lean against a wall and do your barbell curls. Harder yes?

4 RUNNING IN THE FAT BURNING ZONE

I talk to and see so many people fall into this trap. Yes you see and hear about the ‘fat burning zone’ all the charts on the walls tell you to run around 60 per cent of your maximum heart rate? (220 – your age =) Well under less you are planning to run of hours on end in your session, you will burn to few calories to get any realistic benefits. Better to do SHORT, INTENSE runs to effectively burn the fat in a short space of time.

5 WEARING A WEIGHT BELT AND WRIST STRAPS

Question? Are you an Olympic Weight Lifter?

NO? So don’t wear a lumbar belt or wrist straps when lifting. If you feel you need them, it just means you had to work more on your core and grip strength. All they will do is stop your core and grip from working fully and in turn weaker them areas. So under less you are going to the Olympic or lifting over 3 times your body weight don’t wear a belt or wrist straps

6 DOING CRUNCHES TO LOSE BELLY FAT

I see so many people in the gym do crunches and under less you want to be great at lifting your shoulders off the floor….. Think! Yes crunches will help you build great stomach muscles but useless you burning away the layers of fat that obscures them, your on a losing battle. To get rid of your flabby belly you need a good combination of diet, regular cardio and all-body weight training session.

7 OVER-TRAINING

It’s the big mistake that over 75% of the people do, from men to women. I see people training for hours on end. Which is a bad idea. To get fit you don’t need to train over an hour everyday. After more then 45 minutes of training and you can start to eat away at your muscles as your body raids them for fuel. Plus training everyday means you do get time to recover allowing your muscle time to repair between sessions. 40-45 minutes three or four times week is enough for most people.

8 NOT HITTING THE WEIGHTS

So many women I see (as well as men) just hit the treadmill or some cardio equipment but never do any weight training exercises. Women ask any men who trains and they will tell you don’t become HULK over night. Fact hitting the weights will increase muscle size but also burn fat to. Plus muscle will burn energy at rest so a little more muscle is not a bad thing. Again you can’t become ‘bulky’ over night it takes time.

9 FREE WEIGHTS Vs MACHINES

They always say free is best! And in this case it’s right. A machine will only let you move in one plane of motion, to a free weight. Which can move in any plane of motion, meaning you have to control the weight. This will incarpo not just the target muscle but the muscle around that area. Burning more calorie and building a more tone body. Also using free weights right and the less risk of injury to!

10 WHY JUST SIT-UP?

Just lifting yourself up by jamming you feet against a wall or under a bench, is not the best way of get a six pack. You are just going to end up work your hip flexors as your abs give in. Crunches are a better exercise but it’s just one of a range of moves you need to get a six - pack. You need to hit it from all angles.

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Check List To Joining A Gym

1 Necessary facilities

Have your goals in mind when you are picking your gym. Overtime your fitness needs will change and you need to make sure the gym facilities can cater for this. So number one rule is know why you are joining a gym, have your one, three and six months goals set in your head before you step in to a gym. Maybe even your 1 year goal to. All gyms should have:

· Great selection of cardio machines

· Good size free weight training area

(squat rack, bench press, cable machine, dumbbell)

· Stretching area

· Studios

· Personal trainers

· Changing room (Showers, lockers and sauna and steam room)

2 Monthly Fee

As well the facilities and helpful staff, the gym should also provide you with towels, water, shower gel, hair dryers. I know some gyms that charge you extra for towels. If this is not covered by the monthly fee, what are you paying it for?

3 Trial Run

Always have a trial run before joining a gym. It will help you make up your mind if it’s the right gym for you. If the gym does not offer a trial session then you should think why that is. You always notice more things about a gym when you workout in it; such as the staff, how good the quality of the machines are. Look at the gym members, it’s a great time to ask them for the inside information and get some feedback. Good tip for you- if the gym refuses a free trail run is to find one of the personal trainers and see if you can book a free trail session with them.

4 Peak time

Think about your goal and your lifestyle. Are you going to use the gym in the morning before work or after, maybe in your lunch at some point? Do your free trail then, as this will be the time you are going to be in the gym. Can you get on everything you need for your fitness goal, do you feel relaxed and are you certain this will be the right place for you? If you are going to do lots of classes, if so can you get into the classes you want. Talk to the staff to find out the busy time and ask questions.

5 Classes

Lots of people do classes because they find them more fun and it helps to push them more. A gym should have a great variety of classes for you to join in with. Classes will help improve you in different areas of your fitness and keep things interested.

6 Using other branches?

Gym chains offer you the possibility to use different branches to train in. Sometimes this is free or a small additional cost. Will this be useful to you? If you have the same gym chain near your house and work place this could be a great thing. You can join the gym near to your work and if you train on the weekend you can train in the gym close to home saving time on travelling. Win, win.

7 Qualified Staff

As you take your fitness journey to reach your goals, you may or will need advice from the staff who works in your branch. Get to know the staff as they will be a great help in you reaching your goals with advice and any other help you may need. There should be two types of trainers working in a gym. Fitness instructors (level 2 qualification) and Personal Trainers (level 3-4 qualification) Both members of staff will help you out with any question you have but if you want to get to your goal faster then I would look into hiring a personal trainer!

8 Signing a contact

Don’t feel pressured into signing a contact if you don’t understand it or be put on the spot. Nearly all contacts in gyms are 6 or 12 months so it’s an expensive long-term contact. If you feel pressured to sign or put on the spot, ask to take the contact home to relax and read it. If happy sign and start your journey. Good luck!!

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