Tackling Problem Areas

We all have certain areas on our bodies where we seem to store more bodyfat and find it harder to shift the weight; for women this is often around the hips and thighs, and for men this is usually around the stomach. Whilst this isn’t a rule, and you may be different, this is generally what we tend to see and it’s dictated, at least in part, by your hormones (hence why it’s slightly different for men and women).

The real question though is, can we target those areas for fat loss (also known as “spot reduction”)?

Unfortunately, the answer is complicated, and whilst we can’t, technically, spot reduce (i.e. do some stomach exercises to lose fat from your stomach), we can improve our chances of burning fat from those areas.

Naturally you’ll tend to store fat in those areas as it’s a protective mechanism built-in for our survival – protect the reproductive system/internal organs. What this means for you is that hormonally, you’re set up to store more fat in those areas, and they’ll be the most difficult areas to lose it from (because your body wants it there).

Now, you’ll always gain fat all over, and lose fat all over – it might just get stored slightly quicker in those areas and take a bit longer to shift. So it’s not that it moves from their last, just that it may take a bit longer, especially if the other factors we’re about to talk about aren’t addressed.

So, what can you do about it?

The first thing is to plug the leak. Stop fat being stored. This is simply a case of getting control over your diet and exercise regime so that you’re not consuming more calories than you’re burning. Find the balance between what you eat and drink, and how active you are (this does not just mean cut calories! Read my other articles for a better understanding of how to go about doing this).

Once you have your routine in place and are burning more calories than you’re consuming (hopefully from healthy, nutritious foods), your hormonal profile should start to optimise itself and you’ll start to burn some bodyfat, but this will be from all over your body, not from any areas in particular.

However, there are a couple of things that may prevent you from burning fat from those problem areas (other than hormones) and the types of exercise you choose will play a role in whether or not the bodyfat from those areas gets mobilised and used for fuel or not.

Circulation plays a big part in this. If you mobilise fats (release them to be burned for fuel) from a problem area (your hips and thighs for example), these fats then need to make it into circulation to be burned. If they don’t get circulated, they’ll stay put and get laid back down as fat stores.

To do this you’ll need to make sure you’re not blocking circulation, sitting down for example will not encourage blood flow to your backside, hips and thighs – so sitting on a bike, rower or other machine isn’t likely to be beneficial if these are your problem areas.

Whilst exercising the area you’re trying to focus on doesn’t burn fat from that area, it does increase circulation in that area, which will help to make sure that fat from that area is being burned along with from the rest of your body.

It’s quite common for people to have under-active muscles – the muscles of the backside (glutes) and lower abs being some of the most common since most of us sit down for a large portion of the day – reducing blood flow and in effect “turning off” or de-activating those muscles. Other postural muscles tend to get weak too as a result of prolonged sitting positions and lack of use.

Ask a knowledgeable trainer for some activation exercises for these muscle groups and do these to “activate” the muscles before you start your exercises.

Then choose exercises that will work those areas whilst encouraging circulation. Large, full body exercises are better than waving your legs around Jane Fonda style (though these could be useful as the activation exercises if they hit the target muscles…).

Avoid anything sitting down and don’t use a bodybuilding type routine i.e. working one area/body part per workout.

Aim to work your upper body (to get blood flow there), then your lower body (to shift the blood flow to your legs), then upper body, then lower body… keep pushing the blood to different areas to encourage circulation (sometimes referred to as PHA – Peripheral Heart Action training). This will also improve your fitness levels as your heart is constantly having to work to pump blood to different body parts to feed the working muscles.

If you’ve ever gone dizzy after a spin class, this is because you’ve pushed all of the blood to your legs and it stays there, so when you stand up/get off the bike, you go dizzy, the same as if you’ve been sitting down for a long time and stand up too quickly. So, while spin may be fun and have its place in some training protocols, it might not be the most effective use of your time if you’re trying to lose weight and have stubborn areas.

Review your workouts and see if you can tweak the exercise order and change the exercises to ones that will encourage circulation to problem areas. Upper body/Lower body supersets will be better than 3 sets of chest, then 3 sets of legs… etc.

If you have problem areas that aren’t shifting and think your workouts need adjusting, show this article to your trainer and ask them to rewrite your workouts accordingly, or find someone who can help.

www.MarkOneFitness.co.uk

What to do next...

In order to establish a baseline, for the last week you should have been recording your food and drink intake. If you didn't, go to the previous blog post "Where to start with your new nutrition plan..."

Everything from your morning tea/coffee to the 3rd helping of cake and 2 bottles of wine you drank!

The aim of this exercise is to figure out how much you're actually consuming so we have a starting point to base any dietary changes off.

Without knowing this, there's no way to tell if you need to eat more, less, the same amount, whether you need to exercise more or less, or what other changes you might need to make.

So our next step is to establish some consistency.

Get a bit of routine in your eating and exercise and again, track your data.

Right now we're still not changing anything, just establishing consistency.

So for the next week, all I want you to do is this:

Repeat the last week's food intake.

Whether it was "good" or "bad", you have in front of you a menu of foods and drinks, that you like and choose to eat, and that should be easy for you to repeat.

Again, all we're aiming to do here is establish some consistency and routine. This is the starting point from which changes can be made. The assessment needed to know what step to take next.

Without this, any changes are pure guesswork and the chances of success are a lottery. You can follow what worked for someone else (i.e. a mainstream "diet"), but really - has that worked for you in the past?

So you have the next week's menu in front of you. Foods you've likely already got in the house or know where to buy. Foods you know how to cook/prepare already and probably foods that are easy for you to make and that you enjoy.

This is a diet plan that even you can't fail at.

Once you've begun to establish this baseline, simple changes can be made to get things moving in the right direction.

You may even find you lose weight just from doing this! (I won't let on why just yet, but don't be shocked if you see the scales some down a couple of notches!)

So unless there was a blowout of epic proportions on last week's food diary, simply repeat exactly what you ate/drank last week and see how you do.


Until next time...

Where to start with your new nutrition plan...

Most people try to jump right in with a complicated nutrition plan with no regard for where they're starting from.

What if you've been eating 1,000 calories a day and your weight loss plan tells you to eat 1,200? Has it accounted for your current nutritional habits? No.

Does your lean meal recipe adjust portion sizes dependent on your size, gender, goals (weight loss or weight gain), activity levels that day, or whether you've just worked out or had a rest day? No.

So why the hell would you think that this plan will work for you?!
...because the advertising tells you it will and there are some pictures of people who've lost weight on the front cover?!

Even your intricately :p calculated weight loss plan that asked for your weight, goals and activity levels can't accurately guess your energy/calorie needs.

You can find an online calorie calculator that will give you this "information" (if you can call it that) but in actuality it can't possibly get it right because we're not as simple as the calories in/calories out equation.

Whether calories get used for energy or stored depends on hormonal profiles, which energy systems are most efficient in your body, and a host of other things (not to mention that not all calories are equal - 100 calories from some avocado is NOT the same as 100 calories of biscuits!)

So your starting point should be this:

Establish a calorie baseline

Quite simply, record what you're eating and drinking (every single morsel of food and drink that passes your lips) and establish how much you're actually eating.

You won't be eating the same amount every day, and your weekly totals probably won't be too similar either.

It's natural, normal, and healthy to have fluctuations in calorie intake, but if you're fluctuating too much (i.e. starving yourself during the week and binging at the weekends) then you have no baseline to work off. No starting point for your "diet".

So your starting point, and homework for this next week is to simply record your food/drink intake in a food diary. Find out how much you're actually eating now (it's probably nowhere near what you think you're consuming!) and establish whether you're currently gaining weight, losing weight, or maintaining weight.

That's it. Don't change anything yet, don't worry about macros (protein/carbs/fat), don't worry about meal timings or meal frequency, just record and collect information. You don't have to do anything with it yet.

Take up this challenge and I'll be in touch again in a week to tell you what to do next.

If you're serious about making healthy changes to your diet, ditching the fads and gimmick diets, and getting control of your eating habits and weight once and for all, DO THIS.

Don't skip the easiest and most fundamental stage because you're impatient! A week or two establishing your starting point so you get it right is not time wasted!

Get things ready and start first thing in the morning. Log it on your phone, write it down, use an app - whatever suits you, but get it done.

In a week I'll tell you what to do next...


If you want help with your nutrition/diet, please get in touch or check out the Nutrition section of my website www.DartfordBootcamps.com

7 Top Tips to stay healthy in December

In December many of us tend to let our guard down with regard to our health and fitness regimes (if we have one in place to begin with). We’re busy with “busy work” and our exercise efforts can quite easily take a back seat to shopping, lunches and dinners, hangovers, kids and more.

It’s important to make time to fit your exercise in, even if you have to shorten your workouts or train at home. Skipping workouts leads to skipping more workouts and then, like the classic diet, the “I’ll start again on Monday” promise that translates to a complete blowout.

There’s no denying that at this time of year we have extra work to do – busy times at work or deadlines to meet; yes, the shopping does need to be done; and yes, there are lots of social things going on – but if you don’t take time for yourself you’ll be left in January feeling beaten and depressed and looking at what seems like a huge challenge ahead to lose weight and get fit again.

So here are some tips you may find useful through December to try and keep on top of things.

Remember, at this time of year if you struggle to maintain your exercise and healthy eating, your focus should just be on maintaining your current weight, not on losing weight. As long as you’re not gaining weight you’re doing better than most, and also probably better than previous years!

Tip #1: Make time. It’s not as hard as it sounds, just schedule in your workouts and stick to it – things will crop up and get in the way, but you need to keep to your schedule for yourself. Other things can wait, because in the end, your health is more important and one missed workout can snowball. Find a time that you think you’ll be able to allocate to a workout and schedule it in.

If you have the time to train in the morning – do it then. If not, train as soon as you get home from work (maybe even change into your gym kit before you leave). The longer you leave it, the more likely you are to skip it.

Tip #2: Pace yourself. Just because you’re on a night out, doesn’t mean you have to guzzle your way through 3 bottles of prosecco or a dozen pints. Enjoy your drinks, don’t neck them. And avoid shots!
As an extra bonus you might avoid the end-of-night junk food binge too!

Tip #3: Don’t take cakes, sweets, chocolates etc. into work. Chances are most of your co-workers will be trying to avoid the Christmas weight-gain too so stick together and be strong! If someone offers you treats, try to politely decline as much as possible. If you receive a box of chocolates as a gift, don’t open them, or gift them on (preferably to someone who’s not watching their weight).

Tip #4: Catch up on lost sleep. The late nights associated with all the get-togethers will have an impact on your health. Sleep is your best tool for keeping off the pounds. You’ll feel better and have more energy (= less skipped workouts), you burn the most fat (proportionally) when you sleep, your body recovers and repairs and your hormones rebalance. If you miss sleep, be sure to catch up on it somewhere – try to avoid shifting your wake up time too much, just take a nap in the afternoon when possible to make up for a late night or get to bed earlier the following night.

Tip #5: Walk more. To make up for the extra calories you’re likely consuming, and possibly (but hopefully not) missed workouts, try to get more activity during the day. Park at the back of the car park. Walk instead of taking the bus. Climb the escalators instead of waiting to be delivered at the top etc. Little things that you do daily add up. 

That being said, walking isn’t the most efficient activity for weight loss, so don’t sacrifice a workout for a walk, but if you can add walking in where it wasn’t before without cutting into your day, do it.

Tip #6: Drink lots of water. A glass of water when you wake up (before your tea/coffee) will help you rehydrate; a glass before meals will help you to eat less; a glass or two on a night out will slow down your alcohol consumption; water during the day will help you focus and may help reduce snacking; there are no down-sides to staying hydrated and many upsides, so it’s a no-brainer really.

Tip #7: Use your diary. This is similar to tip #1, but we tend to find ourselves wasting a lot of time all through the year, especially at Christmas. Plan your days and make them efficient. You’ll be amazed how much you can get done when you have a clear plan rather than just winging-it. Plan your day the night before – write your to-do’s, allocate time for meals and workouts, get the small things ticked off quickly and be sure to make time for yourself too. Things will get in the way, but just stick to plan and deal with extra things as soon as they come up.

Obviously there are many more things you can do to stay on track, but scheduling your days will likely have the biggest impact.

If you’ve been prepared and done all of your Christmas shopping already then you have one less thing to worry about – work on your plan of action for the nights out and think about when you’re going to have your workouts, and making better choices when the temptations are abundant.

When January comes you’ll be ready to hit the New Year running and focus on your health and weight loss goals without having to undo all the damage done in December.

If you need help with your training and/or nutrition, visit www.DartfordBootcamps.com for more information on Nutrition Coaching, Personal Training, Bootcamp, and other classes.

Seasonal Affective Disorder: What is it and what can you do about it?

So it’s nearly winter again. It’s dark when we get up (most of us), and dark when we get home.

Alongside the excitement of the holidays, the treats, and the get-togethers with family and friends, comes the cold, wet weather, the stress of the impending holiday and the expense that goes with it.

For anyone who just feels like hiding under the duvet until spring, there could be something else that’s affecting your mood other than stress.

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) can affect many people. You may feel fine all through the summer months, but come November, you start to get the winter blues.

Whilst there may be other factors affecting your mood, don’t immediately rule out SAD as it is real, and can have a huge impact on your life. If you find that you struggle throughout the winter months, it could be affecting you too.

So what is it, and what can you do about it?

It’s a form of depression linked to the seasons. The exact cause is still uncertain, but it has been intricately linked to the lack of sunlight during the winter months. It can affect your hormone levels (predominantly melatonin and serotonin – which are involved in mood and sleep patterns) and your body clock to the point that you feel down, lethargic and like curling up in a ball and hiding.

You might feel sad and depressed, like you’re not getting enough sleep, and be struggling to get out of bed in the morning, and also feel tired during the day.

Energy levels may be low and concentration may be a struggle, and you may also crave high carbohydrate foods leading to weight gain over the holidays (compounded by the plethora of indulgent foods around us at this time of year).

On top of that, reading all of this may just push you over the edge!

But don’t panic! There is something you can do about it – and it’s actually simple stuff.

If you feel that you may be suffering from SAD (even mildly), or even if you’re not, it wouldn’t hurt to do some of the following during the winter months:

Try Light Therapy – Since the cause of this seems to be a lack of sunlight, for most people, simply getting out in the sunlight during the day (when it’s still light obviously) or buying a “light box” and placing it on your desk is often enough to counteract many of the symptoms and have you feeling better. Daylight is the best option, but a light box as mentioned, between 2,500 and 10,000 lux will also do the trick (don’t worry too much if you don’t know what that means, just look for those numbers when you search for light boxes). If you arrive at work in the dark, and leave work in the dark, the light box will likely be your best or only option. Just sitting indoors with your lights on won’t do the trick unfortunately.
As a side note, this would also be a useful tool, year-round, for those who work nights.

Get a good vitamin D supplement – Vitamin D, or “the sunshine vitamin” is produced naturally by your body in response to exposure to sunlight. Even just 20-30 minutes exposure will produce more than enough to get you through the day; but in the winter when we don’t get out in the sunlight too much or on gloomy days vitamin D levels drop causing the symptoms described previously. It is actually a hormone, not a vitamin, and like many hormones, is produced from cholesterol – so also be aware that following a low fat diet may also be affecting not just your vitamin D levels, but other hormones too – be sure to get plenty of healthy fats in your diet and skip the low-fat rubbish you see in the supermarkets!

Exercise – It’s a simple solution, but the “feel good” hormones released when you exercise doing something you enjoy can go a long way towards fighting depression and therefore SAD.
Train regularly for at least 30 minutes to keep your endorphin levels up and feel good. An added bonus to this is you’ll probably also feel good about yourself for keeping up with exercising through Christmas – you can give yourself a big high five for that!

Get a Dawn Simulator – One of my favourites! I’ve used one of these for years and it’s great! A dawn simulator is exactly as it sounds – an alarm clock that mimics the sunrise. 30 minutes or so before your alarm is set to wake you up, a dim light comes on. Over the next 30 minutes the light gets brighter and brighter (like a sunrise) until your alarm goes off and you wake up more naturally as your body has recognised the “morning sunrise”. Some SAD sufferers have great success with this, and for those who don’t suffer from SAD, it’s still a good way to wake up, rather than an abrupt alarm waking you up in a dark room and then shielding your eyes as you switch on the light.

You are not alone if you’re starting to feel a bit depressed as the light disappears for the winter. Try some of these options and especially keep exercising. Before you know it the days will start to lengthen again and we can look forward to spring and summer.

I hope this helps and please let me know if you have success with any of these recommendations J

Going too fast is slowing you down

If you’re like most people trying to lose weight, you want the world.

20 years of bad food choices and on/off dieting has left your body unsure of how to deal with food and how to burn fat efficiently. Of course, you want to reverse those 20 years in 2 weeks; and the “insert name’s” 28 day rapid fat loss metabolic shred belly blast toning program has told you that you can do it, and it must be true because a well-paid celebrity is vouching for it.

They have their own branded foods in the supermarket, Jean down the road done it and lost 5 stone and looks great (in a gaunt, tired sort of way).

So what’s the problem? How can it fail? They even offer a free sign-up and a bunch of goodies to get you started!

The problem of course is that you can’t follow the plan! Maybe for a week, or if you’re really good, a few weeks. Then you crack… and eat everything under the sun because “today’s ruined” and you “may as well” make the most of it today and start again tomorrow… or Monday.

Even if you manage to stick to it and lose the weight, you feel like s*#! and you’re left clueless as to what to do now it’s over. You go back to eating how you normally would, maybe replacing the worst culprits with an “insert name’s” approved snack, and you gradually (or maybe not so gradually) start to gain weight again. After all the hard work you put in, why are you getting fatter again?!

The problem is if you’ve gained weight over a period of years it’s going to take more than a few weeks to undo all of the damage you’ve done to your body. You can cheat the system and shred it in that time (some of these systems DO work after all), but there’s a cost to that and it’s likely to be a short-term result.

I’m guessing you’ve been trying to lose weight for a while now. How far have you gotten in the last 12 months? Lost some and put it on again? Tried and failed 4 different diets and are back where you started (or maybe the diets failed you)? Feel like you’re chasing your tail?

If you could sit down a year from now at, or at least a lot nearer to, your ideal weight would you be pleased? Would more have changed for you than in the previous year?

The key to weight loss (and health) success is to find an approach that suits you personally. Something that you can follow easily, without crazy restrictions, that makes you feel great, gives you energy, helps you sleep better and relax, de-stresses you, and you can do without fail every day, even on holiday and on nights out.

Doesn’t even sound like a “Diet” does it?

THIS is the key to success.

It really is that simple. Making healthier choices, changing your habits, and integrating it into your daily life will get you where you want to be.

You can spend the next year going from diet to diet, scales going down, then up again, frustrated, stressed, tired and angry, or you could chill out and take it one step at a time, tweak things to suit you as you go, and make steady progress.

Which do you choose?

If you’re over-weight and just want to get to a “normal” size that you’re happy with, maybe a size or two less than what you are now, then the steady approach is best for you. Nothing complicated, no following a bodybuilder’s contest-prep meal plan and workouts, just a sensible approach to eating and a little bit more activity day to day.

THIS IS ALL POSSIBLE!

If you’re currently 30% body fat, what do you need to do before you get to 10%?
…you need to get to 29%.

If your current diet is about a 5 on a scale of 1-10, what do you need to get to before you get to 10?
… 6.

If you’re currently gaining weight, what do you need to do before you lose weight?
…just STOP gaining it!

Small, simple changes will get you a little bit further forward. Drastic changes may get you quicker results to begin with, but then you’ll bounce back to square one and the trade-off is you have to go through hell to get there. Why punish yourself for 12 weeks if you can relax for 24?!

Think of one simple, small change you can make right away that would be an improvement on what you’ve been doing; and do it. Maybe swap just one of your cups of coffee for a glass of water; or buy ONE chocolate bar instead of 3 “because they’re on offer”; or swap to dark chocolate instead of milk. Whatever your guilty pleasure is – how can you make a small, manageable improvement to it?

Instead of focussing on what you can’t eat, focus on what you can eat and work from there. As you increase the amount of “good/better” foods you eat, you’ll naturally decrease the amount of “bad/worse” foods you eat.

If you’ve tried and failed at dieting before, take a look at my new Nutrition Coaching program. We take a long-term approach to your nutrition, making small changes one at a time to improve your diet.

 We’ll track your progress (no dingy halls to “weigh-in”), monitor your consistency (the part we’re crap at), and explain how you can enjoy the foods you like, guilt-free but without “saving up for it” all week or “making up for it” next week (that is not a healthy relationship with food!).

The program is delivered to you DAILY via e-mail and you can log-in on your smartphone, tablet or computer to read the day’s lesson (takes about 5 minutes to read or you can listen to the audio version).

The daily “nudges” will keep you focussed on what you’re doing and why, and make you think about your food and why you’re eating it.

The daily reminders are what keep people on track, and the successful dieter is the consistent one. How much easier do you think it would be to follow your program if you had someone reminding you every day what to do and why?

The power of this program is in the sustainability of the changes, and the constant monitoring of your success.

If this sounds like it would help you then get in touch. I’m currently charging just £30 a month for this program.

If you’d like more information visit www.DartfordBootcamps.com/Nutrition-Coaching and feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Together we’ll work on improving your diet, health, body composition, energy levels, stress levels and lifestyle; one step at a time.

A year from now you’ll be able to look back with no regrets (diet-wise anyway) and will know what works for you. No more Diets, no more guessing games, no more fads. Just a bunch of new habits that require no extra effort to do, that keep you fit, healthy and well-nourished.

Can you say that about the last 12 months?

Go to www.DartfordBootcamps.com/Nutrition-Coaching now to find out more and sign up.

I look forward to working with you!

Mark 

Cardio or Weights for Fat Loss?

Are you wasting your time on the treadmill?

For the most part fat loss is about energy expenditure. Calories are units of energy, fat is made up of stored energy, ergo to burn fat you must use up energy.

I’m going to tell you how you can burn more energy, without spending precious extra time in the gym.

Your muscles are the engines of your fat burning. The harder they work, the more energy [calories] you’ll burn.

Whilst running on a treadmill/outside, cycling, or jumping on the cross-trainer for 40 minutes will burn energy and improve your aerobic fitness, it’s not going to work your muscles particularly hard, especially after a few weeks of doing it when your body becomes accustomed to the workout and more efficient at it (more efficient = less calories burned).

For the most part, the sheer amount of time people spend running is what produces any fat loss results, but also normally comes with a loss of muscle too (picture a typical long-distance runner – not the most muscular people).

If your goal is fat loss, without the accompanying loss of muscle and strength (remember you want to keep hold of your muscle to burn more calories, and I see no reason why anyone would want to get weaker!) then resistance training is your best choice.

Already I can hear the usual response (normally from women): “But I don’t want to get muscly”

You won’t.

Let me explain.

To burn fat, you need to be burning more calories than you consume – should be quite obvious.

To build muscle, you need to be consuming more calories than you burn (you can’t build muscle without adequate fuel – it would be like trying to build a wall without any bricks).

So while there are some slight differences between training protocols, training for fat loss and training for muscle gain are very similar. The difference comes from your nutrition.

By lifting weights (resistance training) you will be burning more of the fuel in your muscles. This fuel then needs replacing, which will come from your food, or if you’re burning more than you’re eating, from your energy (fat) stores.

Enter the next problem: Gyms full of machines.

Machines made to target specific muscles are great for rehabbing an injury or for targeting problem areas for body-building, but for the weight-loss community, they’re using too few muscles to burn any significant amount of energy; and if you spend your hour in the gym going from one machine to the next with your “3 sets of 10” programme, you’re missing out on A LOT of calorie burning.

There’s a reason that squats, deadlifts, lunges, burpees etc. are hated world-wide – because they’re hard work! Hard work means they’re using most of your muscles at the same time, draining your energy (burning it) and getting you out of breath (muscles need oxygen to burn fuel – so the more out of breath from lifting weights you are, the more energy you’re likely burning [as a side note – this also counts as “cardio”]).

THIS is how you should be allocating your gym time. Focussing on large movements with resistance.

Remember, if you’re eating less calories than you burn, you won’t be able to build lots of muscle! For women, you also don’t have the right hormones to build muscle easily, especially without eating enough.

Some people will notice an ‘apparent’ increase in muscle size to begin with. If you’re not used to lifting weights, your muscles will draw in more fluid (water/blood) in order to repair, and they’ll also become more efficient at storing energy (which is a good thing because it’s easier to burn it from here, and it means less will be stored as fat if more can be stored in the muscle).

This is not your muscles growing, just becoming more efficient; and it will not continue unless you are over-eating – don’t panic about your jeans getting a little bit tighter around your thighs initially.

Fat-burning is much, MUCH faster than muscle-building so this will be a non-issue very soon.

Another point to remember is that bodybuilding requires the muscles to grow in size. This means striving for the famed “pump” in the muscle. This shouldn’t really be an issue if you’re using large, full-body movements instead of isolating small muscle groups, but if you’re worried about this, avoid lifting light weights for high reps – a sure-fire way to get a pump in the muscle and a common mistake women make when lifting weights, as people generally believe that this is better for “toning”!

This is a classic trap that women lifting weights fall into – too scared to get big and muscly, so they lift light weights.

If you want a leaner, more toned, firmer look, you need to make your muscles firmer and more toned. 

To do this you need to put tension through your muscles with heavier weights.

“Toning” requires heavy weights, not light weights and high reps.

Please be aware though that as with any training there is risk involved and by “heavy” I mean the heaviest weight you can lift with good technique. If you’re unsure of technique, get a good trainer and make sure your focus is on technique, not going for PB’s (personal best’s) every session.

*Until your technique is near perfect, you should NEVER increase the weight you’re lifting!*

In summary:

● For fat burning you need to lift weights (even just bodyweight exercises are sufficient) as oppose to spending countless hours doing “cardio”.

● Choose large, full body exercises over small isolated ones.

● Technique comes first and foremost, only then can you add more weight.

● As long as you’re burning more fuel than you’re consuming (calories), you CANNOT build masses of muscle, just a small adaptation to begin with as the muscles adjust to the extra work.

● More sets, less reps, heavier weights (with good technique) are preferable.

● Eat a healthy diet full of nutritious foods and avoid over-eating, but don’t drop calories too low; as long as calorie intake is less than expenditure you’ll lose weight, but if you drop calories too low your calorie expenditure will drop to match it and weight loss will stop.

For guys (or girls) wanting to burn fat AND build muscle this becomes quite complicated. Without a good coach I would recommend you focus on just fat burning first – if you’re doing strength training you’re unlikely to lose too much muscle so focus on getting leaner. Then, when you have lost an adequate amount of body fat, change to a muscle building routine (it’s easier to build muscle when you’re leaner as testosterone/oestrogen balance is more favourable for this with lower body fat).

For help with your training and/or nutrition, visit www.DartfordBootcamps.com for more information on Nutrition Coaching, Personal Training, Bootcamp, and other classes.

And follow us on Facebook and Twitter (do it now……) for extra tips, advice and motivation.

How to diet successfully (and easily)

Ok, so most people reading this have probably, at some point, followed a diet. You may be following one now?

But is it too much? Are you struggling to stick to it?

Most people when starting a new diet aim for perfection.

On a scale of 1-10 (1 being terrible, 10 being “perfect”), people aim for 9 or 10 when they start a diet. Cut out ALL of this, don’t have ANY of that, cut 1000 calories a day… then after a week, it all goes out the window. The weekend binge of 6000 calories on Friday and Saturday undoes all of the calories you’ve saved in the week, and does more damage than if you’d not bothered in the first place; and you went through 5 days of hell to get there.

If your diet is currently a “2 out of 10” – what do you need to do to improve and see a change…?

3 out of 10. It’s that simple.

If you normally have a large pizza on a Friday night – would your diet be better, would you be eating less calories, and would you see a change if you swapped that large pizza for a shish kebab or a burger?

Yes!

You’ve swapped one “bad” food, for something slightly better. Do you need to change it for a bean salad? Probably not right now.

Is this change more acceptable to you? And are you more likely to succeed?

Find compromises that you’re happy with (salad may not be one of them right now) and are confident that you can do, and implement them.

If you swap the pizza for a lower calorie, healthier option, you’re on the right track.

If you can eat what you want, as usual, but just skip dessert – you’ve improved your diet and reduced calories. All without giving up the foods you love.

Like chocolate and can’t imagine not having any? Swap it for dark chocolate. You’ve just jumped from a 2 to a 3 out of 10.

The point is, you need to implement small changes that you can actually see yourself being able to stick to, without draining your self-discipline to the point that when someone offers you a piece of cake you want to bite their hand off or punch them in the face.

Take the guilt out of the foods you love, and just work on a slight calorie reduction through small changes. Trying to cut out bread? How about go for thin sliced wholegrain instead of thick sliced white? Another simple improvement that doesn’t leave you wondering what the hell you can eat for lunch.

Make small, easy changes for the better and gradually your diet will improve more and more. You only need to get from a 2 to a 3, then 3 to 4, and so on…

There are so many little changes and swaps you can make to improve your diet, don’t try to make them all at once or go straight for the big ones. Steady weight loss, without the stress, hunger and cravings is far better than rapid weight loss, feeling like s*** and inevitably failing a week or two down the line. And no-one wants to give up the foods they love for lettuce leaves!

You CAN have your cake and eat it, just a little bit less :)

A quick note on calorie reduction:

While it’s not quite as simple as it seems, the bottom line is you DO need to burn more calories than you eat to lose weight. But the clue there is “burn”.

Don’t drop too many calories out of your diet or you’ll cause a number of other problems that will be far worse in the long run, as well as being constantly hungry (which will chip away at your discipline and diet adherence).

If you drop 200 calories from your diet (a modest reduction and easily achievable for almost anyone), but also BURN 200 extra calories per day (again, a perfectly achievable amount), then you’ve just created a 400-calorie-a-day deficit – more than enough to see changes in body composition and weight loss.

This could be as simple as skipping dessert, having one biscuit instead of 3, taking 1 less sugar in your tea/coffee, having a square of dark chocolate instead of a bar of milk chocolate…

…and adding a 20-minute workout into your daily routine (or if you already workout, tweak your routine to burn more calories – switch from running on a treadmill to lifting some weights or circuit training for example).

Sit and have a think about how you can “improve” your diet, without trying to eat like a vegan supermodel, and find a form of exercise you’d be happy to spend 20 minutes of your day doing.

Then make those changes!

If you need more help, I offer one-to-one and group training out of Crayford gym. Visit www.DartfordBootcamps.com for more information on this, Nutrition Coaching, and Bootcamp classes.

And follow us on Facebook and Twitter (do it now……) for extra tips, advice and motivation.

Crunches Cause Back Pain

I remember back at school we often did “fitness tests”. Even studying Sports Science at uni we went through these so-called fitness tests, and again on my Personal Training course.

The bleep test
Sit and Reach test (for flexibility)
The sit-up test etc.

These are all tests that have been used for years – but how effective are they?

The bleep test works. It’s a great way to test your general fitness level, and the key is in re-testing, NOT in the level you reach when you do it. (There are other considerations to bear in mind, but if all things remain unchanged, the re-test will show fairly accurately any gains or losses in fitness levels).

Sit and reach is pretty useless. It doesn’t show where your flexibility/inflexibility is coming from, since it is a whole body test.

And as for the sit-up/crunch test, that’s the reason for this post.

The rectus abdominus (the “abs” or 6-pack muscle) is a superficial muscle. Meaning, while it looks very nice, it doesn’t do much to support your body functionally. It won’t go far in helping with your stability, strength, or anything else... it will however help give you awful posture and back pain if overtrained.

Due to the attachments of the muscle in the body, if you do 100’s of sit-ups/crunches, it will pull your chest downwards towards your stomach, rounding your back and producing awful, and unattractive, postural distortions. As well as rounded shoulders and tight hip flexors (which are a problem many people face these days anyway, without these awful exercises reinforcing the posture!).

Obviously, as well as looking awful, this poor posture can cause all sorts of problems, predominantly in the shoulders, neck and back. Joints out of alignment will cause pain, stiffen up/lose mobility, and cause muscle imbalances which can lead to injury.

With back pain being as common as it now is, and all the hype about “core” training, more and more people are turning to these exercises in order to work their core. As well as the belief that thousands of sit-ups will help lose the belly (which obviously we know it won’t).

Well it’s not working. As I said earlier – the rectus abdominus is a superficial muscle, meaning it doesn’t work to stabilise and support the spine. In fact, it works to flex the spine. That means it’s actually going to make things WORSE, by exacerbating the problem. Plus, all the time you spend working your abs, you’re NOT spending doing the exercises that WILL help!

In order to reduce back pain, and pain in any other areas, you need to work on balancing the muscles across your body and re-aligning the joints.

If you want to work your “core”, you need to focus on exercises that will strengthen the deeper muscles of your trunk, such as the Transverse Abdominus and Obliques.

Planks, side planks, and side raises are good exercises for this, but sticking to large, full-body movements will make sure you’re activating your core in a functional way, instead of isolating the movements.

In short, you don’t need to specifically work on your core. If you’re using good exercise selection, your core will be working the whole time. (And as for losing the belly, it’s these large movements that are going to burn the calories, not small, isolated movements like crunches or bicep curls.)

Crunches will lead to imbalances, poor posture, back pain, and potential injury. You might have a nice looking 6-pack, but it won’t look good on a hunch-back who looks like they’re in pain!

For more ideas on exercises you can do that will work your “core” without causing back problems and muscle imbalance, check out my youtube channel www.youtube.com/markonefitness

Mark

Why use BPA-free bottles?

If you’ve ever heard that you shouldn’t re-use plastic bottles, then you’ve heard right.

There’s been a lot of press about how many plastic bottles can leach plastics into your drink, maybe not so much recently, but over the years the articles have accumulated.

Well it’s true to say that if you can taste plastic in your drink – you’re drinking plastic. But what if you can’t taste it?

The numbers on the bottom of plastic bottles (usually in the little recycling triangle) like the ones below are there to inform you what type of plastic the bottle is made from.

I won’t go into great detail as to why bottles are required to have these numbers, I’ll just skip to the bit you need to know...

If your bottle has either the number 2, 4, or 5, then it’s fine (in theory – although I have read that any number under 5 is best avoided).

However, the type most commonly used is number 1 – Polyethylene terephthalate

If you check your water/fizzy drinks/juice bottles, this is the number you’re likely to see, and these are definitely only recommended for one time use. DO NOT re-use these bottles.

What about those nice colourful gym bottles given out as freebies by all sorts of companies? Well you tell me – number on the bottom aside, they always seem to taste like plastic to me.

You may also read that number 7 bottles (we’re really not being left with much here are we?!) can leach BPA (Bisphenol A) into your drink.

Bisphenol A is a xenoestrogen which is a known endocrine disruptor – this means it disturbs the hormonal messaging in our body (not good), and has been linked to cancer, decreased testosterone in men, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. And is particularly harmful to babies and young children.

So since we can’t drink from pretty much any of these numbered bottles, what do we do?

1 – Use a glass bottle

Using a glass bottle will eliminate all of these problems (as well as save on the landfill!), but isn’t always practical – you don’t want to drop a glass bottle, obviously! Not to mention they’re not as easy to find as you might think.

2 – Get a BPA-free plastic bottle

This is probably the most practical option. Plastic bottles are more durable and won’t smash into a thousand pieces if you happen to drop them.

There are plenty of places to get these if you’re looking for them.

The one I use is the Kor One (which you can get here in the UK or Europe, or here in the US)
This isn’t the cheapest option – but it looks pretty cool! Plus, some of the money from each purchase is donated to an environmental organisation. So you’ll be doing your bit for the environment too.

3 – Use a stainless steel bottle

Again, this eliminates the above problems since they are free from BPA and other toxins.

I use the Klean Kanteen, which you can get here in UK/Europe, and here in the US

And one of the sentences they use on their website sums it up – “What you put into your Klean Kanteen is exactly what comes out of it.”

They also donate a proportion of the sale price to environmental organisations through their 1% for the planet scheme.

You can see some studies on the effects of BPA on our endocrine system here: Environmental Health Perspectives Journal

Now go get yourself a drinking bottle that isn’t going to poison you!

A great "food trick" to control calories and over-eating

A great way to control your appetite, and aid in weight loss, is to eat a handful of nuts (almonds, pecans, walnuts etc) about 20 minutes before each meal. (Seeds would also be a great compliment to go with the raw nuts.)

Ideally eat them raw as it reduces the oxidation of polyunsaturated fats.

You need to do this about 20 minutes BEFORE your meal to give your brain time to recognize the nutrition and reduce your appetite.

This works because the healthy fats (yes, healthy fats), fibre, protein, and micronutrients in nuts help to satisfy a lot of the nutritional needs of your body, thus reducing your body's "eat" signal, since it recognises that it already has a lot of the nutrients it requires.

Doing this will also increase your intake of healthy, nutrient-rich calories, multiple times per day, not only reducing your food cravings and over-eating, but increasing the percentage of your calorie intake from healthy snacks as opposed to other, less healthy options.

This will help in decreasing body fat.

You might also want to try drinking a glass of water (filtered of course - not tap) with the nuts, 15-20 minutes before meals, since the body can sometimes mis-read thirst as hunger. So drinking a glass of water before meals can also help to reduce appetite and prevent you from over-eating, or eating when you're actually just thirsty.

Give it a try - you might be pleasantly surprised! :)

What's in Your Drinking Water?

Many prominent scientists are alarmed by the content of some drinking water and actively seek to change the processes involved. The practice of making water safe to drink actually involves adding large amounts of extremely poisonous chemicals to it. Key scientists are now providing evidence that long-term ingestion of small amounts of chemicals like these could be the cause of some major health problems.

Here is a list of just a few of the chemicals routinely added to our water supply:

Liquified chlorine
Fluorosilicic acid
Aluminium sulphate
Calcium hydroxide
Sodium silicofluoride

Even if the water leaves the source in a relatively clean state, don't forget that your water travels through pipes, which may have been underground since Victorian times. It is almost impossible for the water not to become contaminated by something undesirable.



Contaminants in Tap Water

Tap water is treated with a large number of chemicals in order to kill bacteria and other microorganisms. In addition, it may contain other undesirable contaminants like toxic metal salts, hormones and pesticides, or it may become contaminated by chemicals or microbes within pipes (e.g. lead, bacteria, protozoa).

Typical Tap Water Content:

Chlorine
Fluorine compounds
Trihalomethanes (THMs)
Salts of:
- arsenic
- radium
- aluminium
- copper
- lead
- mercury
- cadmium
- barium
Hormones
Nitrates
Pesticides



Testing Your Own Water

You can assess the quality of your water by testing for Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) with a TDS meter which reads the TDS instantly and gives a read-out in parts per million (ppm) TDS. Generally, water with a TDS of 500 ppm or more is regarded as unfit for consumption. Most tap water ranges from 150 to 420 ppm TDS. A Reverse Osmosis system typically produces water with a TDS of 90 - 95% of the incoming water.



Fluoride in water

Another very important health hazard is fluoride, which is added by some water authorities in the UK, and is also present in many toothpastes and mouthwashes. Around 10% of the UK’s water supply is fluoridated, despite a huge and ever-growing body of evidence that the science behind this mass medication programme is questionable to say the least.

Fluoridation of water is banned in all other European countries. (see the Flouride Action Network - Statements from European Health Authorities).


For still more information on the dangers of fluoride, visit these links:

Thirty fluoride links from Dr Mercola’s site (USA)
Fluoride Action Network (USA)
Finally, you may wish to review the Scientific Facts on the Biological Effects of Fluorides.



Mark

Every man needs a good WOMAN...

It's true.

Come to think of it, every woman needs a good woman.

What am I talking about?

Water
Oxygen
Minerals
Alkalinity
Nutrition

These are all essential for health, and without any one of these, you're pushing your luck for staying healthy.

Water is the most essential element and we can't go for more than a couple of days without water before our body starts to shut down.

Most people are wlaking around in a constant state of dehydration, and as a result of this, suffer joint pain, back pain, headaches, and limited function of every organ in their body. Inadequate hydration has so many effects on the body I can't even begin to list them.

Suffice to say that it is imperative that you stay properly hydrated for your body to function properly.

A good rule of thumb is to drink 1 litre of water per 50lbs bodyweight.

And no, tea, coffee, alcohol, fizzy drinks, ANYTHING other than water just won't do.

Oxygen is again, essential for life. I feel like I'm insulting your intelligence just by pointing this out! Yet as obvious as this is, people don't breath properly!

Yes, we breath, but we don't breath fully, using our entire lungs and abdomen. Long, deep breaths of clean, fresh air are what we need for health, not the shallow, hunched over breaths we take most of the time.

Take time out every day to take 10 or 15 deep breaths. Take a deep, belly breath in for 5 seconds, hold for 10, and exhale for 10.

This will help to oxygenate your blood, improve lymph drainage (clear the crap out of your body), and expand your ribcage.

Sounds simple, but do this every day and it WILL have an impact.

On top of that, try to pay attention to your breathing. If you find yourself slumped over a computer desk, sit up, and take deep breaths for as long as you can remember to. Then when you find yourself slumped over again, repeat! Do this until your body remember to sit tall and BREATHE!

Minerals - All of the biochemical reactions that take place in your body require minerals, they are also required to maintain proper cell function.

Unfortunately most of the foods that plague our diets these days are severely deficient in vitamins and minerals, meaning we're left devoid of these valuable minerals.

This leaves our bodies chemically imbalanced, and makes it impossible to maintain optimal health.

Simply eating a healthier diet, with more fresh vegetables and fruit will help, but a good mineral supplement such as Colloidal Minerals will also go a long way towards helping.

Alkalinity - This one you may not have heard of, but research shows that disease, fungus, parasites and many other health problems like cancer, heart disease, premature ageing, obesity, allergies, fatigue, can all come from a having an acidic body.

In fact, most diseases (including cancer), and all parasites (which studies suggest up to 85% of people have) NEED an acidic environment to live.

So if you can make your body alkaline, instead of acidic, the health benefits are almost immeasurable!

And this is easily done by following a healthy diet, and using a green drink such a Liquid Chlorophyll, which are alkaline and will help to shift your pH levels back to where we want them. Aside from that, eat plenty of alkalising foods.

You can find out more about alkaline diets here.

Nutrition - Good nutrition is essential to health and wellbeing. It encompasses all of the above and more.

You need to be well hydrated, obtaining all of the essential vitamins and minerals from your diet (even if that means supplementing to fill the gaps), and cutting out ALL foods and drinks that are detrimental to your health.

If you haven't downloaded it yet, enter your name and e-mail in the box on the right of this page, and I'll send you some healthy eating hints and tips that will steer you in the right direction.



If you're interested, I use the following supplements on a regular basis, along with daily exercise and a healthy, balanced diet: -

Liquid Chlorophyll (to clean blood and alkalise body)
Omega Blend (I'm sure you've heard of the benefits of Omega 3 fatty acids...)
Super Supplemental Multi-vitamins (to help supplement what's missing from our food)
Colloidal Minerals
Vitamin C (just get the best one you can afford, ideally with Lyceine)
Vitamin D (Same as above, best you can afford - or just get more sun!)


I'm sure now no-one will disagree that everyone needs a good WOMAN. So go get one! :)


Mark