Who Do You Want To Look Like?

There are many different training methods available to anyone that wants to lose weight. But which is best?

The most common option seems to be running. Many people who hate the thought of going to the gym, working out with weights, or attending fitness classes, opt to go running a few times a week in order to lose weight; but is this the best idea?

Bearing in mind that most people want to lose FAT, not WEIGHT, it’s safe to say that running ISN’T the best way to do it. There’s no doubt that it has worked for many people, but if you really want to reach your goals (which you may think are weight loss, but actually, you just want to fit into smaller clothes and look better – unfortunately, people have linked this with weight), you're better off doing resistance training.

Let’s make it easy to see what’s better for stripping fat and building the muscle that shapes your body...

Take a look at the average marathon runner – for the most part, they look skinny, emaciated, and generally not too healthy. They may weigh very little, but they have no muscle, and no shape to them – not the ideal figure is it?

Now take a look at a sprinter. They’re lean, muscular, with good shape and muscle tone. They look athletic and healthy, and will generally have LESS body fat than the marathoners.

Obviously these are two extremes, but the bottom line is if you want to lose fat, shape and tone your body, and look and feel strong and healthy, you need to ditch the long cardio sessions and start working with high intensity intervals (sprints if running’s your chosen activity) and start lifting weights.

If you enjoy jogging, then by all means, go jogging. But unless your goal is to be “skinny fat” (where you weigh very little and look skinny, but still have a high body fat – mainly due to a lack of muscle), then you also need to be doing intervals and weight training.

Another easy way to see what you need to be doing is to walk into any gym. Are the people who look how you want to look walking on the treadmill for 20 minutes, then moving across to sit on a bike for half hour and watch EastEnders? ... Or are they in the freeweights area lifting weights?

Don’t be fooled by the common misconception that cardio burns more calories. Use your muscles and lift weights that you struggle to finish your set with i.e. if you’re aiming for 12 lifts (repetitions), you should struggle to finish the last 2 or 3. 

Just take a look at British champion weightlifter Evelyn Stevenson (Google her name).

Not exactly the hulky mass of muscle that people (especially women) are afraid of becoming if they lift a weight!

It should be clear, just by looking at the different athletes, which type of training will produce the best results – if you want to look like a sprinter, train like a sprinter.

This may go against what you thought was the best way to train and what you’ve been told by magazines, friends, even trainers in the gym. But really, it’s pretty obvious.

Be aware also that the same goes for diet. Just because you’ve read it, a friend recommended it, or a trainer has told you to do it, doesn’t mean it’s the right way. Even if it works, there might still be a better way, and it’s usually the most obvious.

If you’d like to know more about how best to eat and train for your goals you can joining my membership site MoveBetter.Club where you'll be guided, step-by-step through nutrition and training to get the best results.

Mark

YOU are an ATHLETE!

You may or may not realise this, but, YOU ARE AN ATHLETE!

The fact is, we ALL need to move well.

Ok, so we don't need to chase down our dinner any more, but we need to move around and function like humans are supposed to.

We may be able to get away with it these days if we lose that ability, but it's not fun.

Just ask anyone who isn't fortunate enough to be able to move properly.

It's sad that we don't realise what we've got until it's gone.

Stop and think about what it would be like if you couldn't complete basic tasks and ask yourself if you ever want to be in that position.

Start training like a human, for better movement and mobility.

Strength you can use, not just numbers on a sheet.

If you don't train - start.

If you do train - make sure it's functional.

We're not machines yet, so until then, train like a human.

Be the athlete you were born to be.

And if you want help figuring out how to do that, get in touch.

Mark

Summer Training

So, the weather’s improved a bit and summer’s just about to kick in – do you change your training accordingly? 

It’s not essential, but a nice way to mix things up a bit and keep it interesting is to change your training to suit the seasons. 

Obviously, you need to train towards your specific goal(s) but it’s a good idea to make the most of the better weather, and you’ll likely have spent the last couple of months “getting in shape” for summer, so you can change the focus of your training a bit to maintenance and building your fitness levels. 

A good split that I like to use in the summer months is to complete two resistance (weights) workouts per week to maintain strength and muscle mass, and then include a couple of outdoor workouts – that could be anything from playing a sport, to going to an outdoor fitness class, to taking a couple of kettlebells into the garden for a workout to make the most of the good weather. 

Any outdoor sport would be good for this – paddle-boarding, climbing, mountain-biking, football… anything that gets you moving in different ways and challenges your coordination and reactions is fantastic. 

Walking is ok, but you should be doing that anyway. ‘Physical activity’ is NOT the same as ‘exercise’ or ‘training’. 

It needs to be a bit higher intensity than just walking and moving around. It’s also a great time to add in some sprint work and really work on your High Heart Rate training. 

Find a track or a big field and work some intervals. 

Why in Earth would you want to do your HIIT training in a gym when you can do it outside in the sun?! 

The main thing is that you capitalise on the warmer weather and get outdoors as much as you can. 

Tweak your training routine to include outdoor training (trust me, by Autumn you’ll be missing it!) 

Sun, fresh air and being in contact with the Earth are incredibly good for us – essential in fact. 

So make the most of this opportunity. 

And you don’t even need to have a strict weekly plan! 

On the rainy days – do your gym workouts 

On the sunny days – do your outdoor workouts 

Don’t get too hung up on Monday’s being ‘chest day’ and Wednesdays being ‘Legs’, just aim to get something done on the days you can train, the order really isn’t that important if you’re not a professional athlete! 

As a special summer offer you can now get your first month free at www.MoveBetter.Club where you’ll find a range of workouts that can be done outdoors, at home or at the gym and would fit perfectly into your summer training to mix things up. 

PLUS you still get all of the Nutrition and Lifestyle content that’s on there too! 

Head over to www.MoveBetter.Club and use the code ‘Blog’ to get your free month.

Mark

Outdoor Training

With the warmer weather finally here, it might be time to take your training outdoors. It’s not just for runners and cyclists, gym-goers can take training outside too.

There are many benefits to training outdoors:
- The fresh air is much nicer than the sweaty, air-conditioned gym air. 

- Sunshine (which has a whole host of health benefits and is something many people, especially in this country, don’t get enough of).
- Grounding/Earthing – getting your bare skin in contact with the earth has also been shown to have many health benefits.
- You can use different exercises to what you’re used to doing in the gym since you have more space and are away from machines. A great opportunity to mix up your training for a while.

Whilst there may not be any of the machines you’re used to using outdoors, and while you may still need to use the gym for some heavier resistance-based sessions, you can get a lot done with just your bodyweight and your surroundings.

Bodyweight exercises are great for both building strength and working on your conditioning – push-ups, pull-ups, squats, lunges, burpees and many more are all great options that are always beneficial to work on. 

Mastering these basic bodyweight movements will always be complimentary to other weight training and general movement health.

The open space is a great chance to work on some sprints – something that too few people utilise, and that aren’t quite the same on a treadmill! (A word of caution though – build yourself up to these and always remember your limits. And warm-up very well first!)

Speed and agility work (with cones, speed ladders, hurdles etc.) is also great for athletic performance as well as general co-ordination. Practicing acceleration, deceleration, change of direction and foot speed is another great way to change up your training and reap the rewards.

Tied in with this you have lower intensity exercises such as yoga and stretching – which would be great to do outdoors in a peaceful setting.

Not forgetting the more traditional outdoor activities mentioned before like walking, running and cycling – these are always more enjoyable outside in the real world than in the gym on treadmills and stationary bikes.

Then you have outdoor classes like Bootcamps…

Here you can do many of the above-mentioned exercises and more. Some of these classes will have more equipment than just bodyweight and park benches, and you can really make the most of the combination of the space to train and all the options that brings, with the resistance work offered by the equipment.

They’re also likely to have different equipment to what you’ll find in most gyms or different ways to use it.
Tyres, kettlebells, sleds, medicine balls, battling ropes, sledgehammers and more are often used to great effect in outdoor sessions.

The main point I’m trying to get across here, is to make the most of the good weather! You’re not limited to just training inside and the fresh air and sunshine will provide as much, or maybe even more benefit than the exercise itself.

Find some green space – local parks and fields, your garden, the beach… and just move!

www.MarkOneFitness.co.uk

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

Summer Shape Up

As summer is almost here and holidays are just around the corner I thought I’d share a few tips to help those of you who want to shed those last few pounds before the bikini season.

So keeping it short and sweet…

Number 1: Cut out all unnecessary/simple carbs (bread, pasta, cakes, biscuits, cereals). Grains = flabby gains!
Your carbs should come mainly from vegetables, and fruits (ideally low Glycemic Index fruits like berries).
So less grains, more veggies!

Number 2: Eat protein and fat (yes, fat!) at every meal. Gone are the days of toast or cereal for breakfast and sandwiches for lunch. Meat, fish, eggs, seafood, and organic (preferably raw) dairy should provide your protein and fat fuels.

Number 3: Lift weights. Male or female, if you want to shape up and tone your body, you need to lift weights. Barbell Squats, Deadlifts, Chin-ups, Bench Press and Overhead presses should make up the bulk of your training programme. Add in some sprint intervals and Kettlebell Swings, and you’ve got yourself a recipe for success. 3-4 times a week along with a good diet and you’ll soon start to see the results that have eluded you for so long. Just make sure you’re lifting as heavy as you can with good technique.
Heavy + Bad Technique = Injury
Light + Good Technique = Slow Progress
Heavy + Good Technique = Good Progress!

Number 4: Sleep! You should be aiming for not only quantity, but quality. Bed by 11 in a pitch black room (no lights whatsoever – even the LED on your TV or alarm clock should be covered), and phone and Wi-Fi OFF! You’re not going to be making calls or surfing the net while you sleep, so turn them off until the morning – they WILL disrupt your sleep quality.

Number 5: Water. I’ve said it a million times – 1 litre per 50lbs bodyweight every day! Water is what we should be drinking. Ditch the diet drinks, and if you’re serious about this, cut out alcohol too, at least until you’re at your target weight – if you’re drinking more than a couple of glasses of red wine a week and not losing weight, you’ve only got yourself to blame!

And finally,

Number 6: Be consistent. Stick with it. Some people see results in the first week, some people it may take a bit longer; but if you give it time, it will happen. Steady progress is more permanent. Fast results are likely to disappear as fast as they came! And for your own sake, DON’T weigh yourself! Use your clothes as a way to measure your progress, or take some measurements and photos. You’ll be surprised at how much your body can change without your weight changing with it.

Exercise Video's

Hey,

Just a really quick post today to let you know (if you don't already) about the exercise video's I've posted on YouTube.


Check out my channel http://www.youtube.com/markonefitness

There's a few exercises you can try, some you'll have seen before, some you might not.

Be sure to subscribe to the channel so you can see when I post new video's.

Also, if you haven't got your Gymboss Interval Timer yet, I highly recommend them. Best thing I ever bought with regards to training!

Get yours here



Mark

How does exercise/diet help you lose weight?

So many people seem to be trying to lose weight without really understanding what it is they need to do for that to happen.

People go on diets – How does eating less help?

Sounds like a stupid question doesn’t it?

How about – How does exercise help?

Pretty stupid too... Or is it?

Without knowing how each of these things affects your body in a way that helps you to lose weight, you’re just “doing what everybody else is doing” without understanding why you’re all doing it.

It might have worked for your friend, you may know people who lost weight with a weight management group, but you don’t know what else they did while they were doing that; and how many of those people went on to re-gain that “lost” weight?

Everyone is different, but there is one simple truth that is true for EVERYONE – To lose weight you need to [consistently] burn off more calories than you consume. This means changing your lifestyle, not “going on a diet” which will ultimately end, meaning you start your journey of weight gain all over again.

Without understanding this one simple fact, you go into your diet with no idea of what you are doing or how it will work other than “It worked for________ (fill in the blank)”.

And for those of you who believe that you can do this properly without either exercise or diet (i.e. just do one of them), you’re fighting a losing battle.

What IS a calorie?

Contrary to popular belief a calorie isn’t just a way of seeing how good or bad for you a food is.
Calories ARE NOT bad!

A calorie is simply a measure of energy.

Therefore if we eat 2000 units of energy and only use 1500 units of energy, we store the extra 500 units (yep, as fat).

So, the recommended daily calorie intake for the average female is around 2000 calories (a VERY rough guide that should not be taken as gospel – for a more accurate measure of your daily amount you can use the Harris-Benedict Formula at the bottom of this article).

So, to lose weight you need to be consuming LESS calories than you’re burning. Simple.

But wait!

You can’t simply cut back on your eating and not exercise because your body is programmed to survive – 1000‘s of years ago, people didn’t know when their next meal would be, so we’ve evolved to survive as long as possible without food by holding onto our richest source of energy – fat.

If you cut back on your eating too much, your body will HOLD ON TO FAT, so instead of burning fat stores, it will burn muscle tissue, because muscle tissue needs energy, and your body wants to get rid of anything that’s burning energy.

So while reducing your calorie intake may cause you to lose weight, it will be from muscle tissue NOT fat tissue.

Enter... Exercise

By exercising, you are maintaining, or even building muscle tissue. This is important for a number of reasons.

Firstly, as I mentioned above, muscles need energy to function. Meaning the more you work a muscle, the more energy it needs/burns. So the more muscles you are working, the harder you’re working them, and the more often you work them – the more calories you will burn.

Secondly, the more muscle mass you have to maintain, the more calories you will be burning throughout the day just to maintain that muscle. These calories (if you are burning more than you are eating) will come from fat stores.

So in short, the more muscle you have, the more calories you will burn both during exercise AND throughout the day.

Starting to see why exercise is so important?

Without taking this too much further (you can download my Free report on weight loss from my website), I’ll leave you with a simple calculation that should show why it is important that you use both exercise AND a slight reduction in calories (only slight, or you’ll end up holding on to fat remember) to lose weight/bodyfat.

3500 calories = 0.45kg (just under 1lb) -- so to lose 1lb, you need to burn off 3500 calories MORE than you consume.

Spread this across the week and that means a calorie deficit of 500 calories per day.

Remember if you reduce your calorie intake too much you hold fat, so you need to create this deficit using diet AND exercise.

Reduce your calorie intake by 250kcal per day, AND increase your exercise/activity by 250 calories per day, and you’ve got your 500 calorie deficit. Meaning a steady, healthy weight loss of 1lb per week.

More importantly, by maintaining or building muscle, you won’t gain the weight back again when you “finish” your diet.

If 1lb a week isn’t good enough for you, then you will need to increase the amount of work your muscles are doing (not long runs/bike rides in the gym – work your muscles), but NEVER reduce your calorie intake by more than 500 calories below your recommended amount!

The harder you work, the more you’ll lose.

My book, Fab In 15 Minutes is a collection of 15 minute workouts that burn up to 250 calories each – this is a great way to reach your target quickly and effectively without ever having to set foot in a gym. Visit http://www.fabin15minutes.com/ for these weight loss workouts. If you could consistently lose 1lb a week working just 15 minutes a day would you do it?


To work out your recommended daily calorie intake use the Harris-Benedict formula below:

Men: 66 + (13.7 x weight in kg) + (5 x height in cm) – (6.8 x age)

Example- For a 170cm tall man aged 35 and weighing 90kg:
66 + (13.7 x 90) + (5 x 170) – (6.8 x 35)
= 66 + 1233 + 850 – 238 = 1911 calories


Women:655 + (9.6 x weight in kg) + (1.8 x height in cm) – (4.7 – age)

Example- For a 165cm tall woman aged 35 and weighing 75kg:
655 + (9.6 x 75) + (1.8 x 165) – (4.7 x 35)
= 655 + 720 + 297 – 164.5 = 1507 calories


Once you have this number (your BMR), multiply it by the following depending on your activity levels, to get your daily calorie guideline.

Sedentary BMR x 1.2 little or no exercise, desk job
Lightly Active BMR x 1.375 light exercise/sports 1-3 days per week
Mod. Active BMR x 1.55 moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days per week
Very Active BMR x 1.725 hard exercise/sports 6-7 days per week
Extra Active BMR x 1.9 hard daily exercise/sports AND physical job

So if we take the female example above with a lightly active lifestyle, your daily calorie guideline would be 1507 x 1.375 = 2072 calories per day


Please note, if you are “over-weight”, this calculation will slightly overestimate your caloric needs.


Now you (hopefully) have more of an idea of what it is you’re doing, check out the FREE weight loss report at http://www.markonefitness.co.uk/, and the workout book at http://www.fabin15minutes.com/.