High Frequency Training Part 2, A revolutionary training method: Fat Loss

When it comes to programming and training clients 90% of them are looking to cut, lean up, get ripped, tone ect. When a client comes to me with these demands I have one goal in mind: Maximum results in minimal time. How do I achieve this? High Frequency Training. In part one I established that quite simply, the more often you train without exceeding your ability to recover, the faster you'll achieve your goal. On the surface HFT seems like a training system that encourages a trainee to workout with an excessive frequency which could potentially lead to over training and over use injuries, but this system is smarter than that, it has effective methods to combat these issues. All these methods are based around the most important factor associated with HFT, fatigue management. Its only through fatigue management techniques and methods that training at a high frequency becomes possible. Here the insight to my own spin on the revolutionary training method you've all been waiting for.

Commence the program with 4 workouts a week preferably 2 days in which you train twice that day, rest 2-3 days between each double session day at first and cut the rest each week by adding single day workouts in between that will eventually progress into double day workouts.
Rome wasn't build in a day. The key point here is progression. This correlated directly to the S.A.I.D acronym, Specific Adaptation to Imposed demand. In order for your body to adapt to the high training demand (the frequency) of this program you must start off with a solid foundation of sessions and build up a workout capacity from there. Our body is capable of much more work (in this context workout capacity)than we give it credit for. Think of how many tradees who work between 50-60 hrs a week, balance a wife and kids with potentially a few workouts of their own every week, and they complete all this with a diet of beer and burgers, and some people complain that 5 sessions a week is too much? Compared to the tradee's lifestyle HFT is a piece of cake!

Always use an explosive concentric (contracting) phase and don't accentuate (focus) the eccentric phase, just control it.
I use this principle for 4 reasons. Firstly, explosive contractions possess the ability to recruit the type 2 b muscle fibres which have the most potential for strength and growth and overall muscle recruitment. Secondly it has now been proven that explosive muscular contractions are directly correlated with higher levels of overall calorie expenditure than slow lifting (for the burn), meaning that your going to burn more calories during and after your workout if you lift explosively. Thirdly, muscle soreness has been far more significantly associated with the eccentric phase of an exercise as opposed to the concentric (the concentric phase would be the lifting phase in a bicep curl, the eccentric phase would be the lowering phase of the weight once its been lifted). When an individual minimises the eccentric phase of an exercise it effectively allows them to perform more volume without excessive amounts of soreness a day or 2 post-session. This is why after eccentric training workouts you have a deep soreness for the next 48-72 hours. Lastly using an explosive concentric contraction can actually stimulate rather than fatigue the CNS (central nervous system) this leads to the potential lifting of heavier loads and if used correctly allows a trainee to train at a higher frequency with less accumulative fatigue. A great example of the above principle applied practically is evident in the sport of Olympic Weightlifting. Many of the top Olympic weightlifters, notably from Eastern European countries like Bulgaria and Hungary, are known to train with a very high frequency and with loads between 90-92.5% of their 1RM (one rep max). They achieve this due to the eccentric-less nature of the 2 Olympic lifts, the clean and jerk and the snatch (both do not possess an eccentric phase) coupled with low rep use and never working to failure. Many claim drugs and being an Olympic athlete are the reasons as to how this is possible, but this type of training is based on physiologically efficient methods that individuals without performance enhancing drugs can incorporate into their own training regimes with great success. This is what I do with my clients and it achieves results, fast.

When it comes to exercise selection pick 3 pairs (6 total exercises), vary exercises every 2-4 weeks but always stick to these rules: For the upper body use supersetted antagonistic pairing and superset lower body squatting movements with upper body isolation movements. 
Exercise selection is important but not as important as the fashion in which you perform them. Your 6 total exercises will consist of 5 compound movements and 1 isolation. 4 compound moves will be upper body orientated (2 pushing exercises like shoulder press and push ups and 2 pulling exercises like pull ups and dumbbell rows) and 1 will be a squat variation. The upper body isolation exercise can be either tricep, bicep or forearm specific and will always be paired with a squatting movement. Why isolation exercises on a cutting program? Simple: they produce significantly lower amounts of overall CNS fatigue, we superset them with a squatting variation because the squat is already a neurally and physically demanding exercise we dont need excessive amounts of accumulative fatigue so we pair a demanding squat compound move with a relatively less neurally-taxing isolation move. As mentioned earlier it links back to the most fundamental factor associated with HFT, fatigue management
      Pair upper body movements antagonistically and superst them. Antagonistic supersetting  simply means pairing two exercises that work opposing muscle groups and perform them back to back with no rest, back and forth until you've completed your max number of sets. An example of an antagonistic superset would be performing a set of pull ups followed by a set of shoulder presses with no rest in between until you reach your max number of sets. for each exercise.
After choosing your exercises pick a weight you can perform for no more than 7-8 reps but use low reps to focus on explosiveness, never choose less than 2 reps and never more than 5 reps. 3 reps is ideal for fat loss.
This goes hand in hand with the need for explosive contractions. Obviously when it comes to lifting explosively with a moderately heavy weight your not going to be banging out sets of 20, unless endurance is the goal. This particular HFT program is designed specifically for fat loss. For cutting use a 7-8RM and perform your ideal number of reps per set which is almost always going to be 3.

Use the rep speed of your selected rep range (chosen from above) in order to auto-regulate fatigue.
This is the KEY to HFT. Instead of using muscular failure (the point where you can't physically perform an additional rep on any given exercise) to dictate set termination as many trainees do, simply stop your set when the speed of the rep was not as fast as the previous rep. This allows your body to auto-regulate performance based on how your feeling that day. On days you feel good you will do more sets as your speed of movement will remain constant for longer, on the days you don't feel that good your body will naturally decrease your speed of movement earlier during your sets and restrain itself from over-training all while not having thinking about it! This performance auto regulation allows for efficient management of fatigue and in turn serves as an opposing force to Injury and over training.

Keep your total number of sets above 5 but never more than 8 per exercise, if you complete 8 sets of an exercise without a decrease in the rep speed then terminate the exercise, continue with the other one in the pairing and increase the weight by 2.5 kgs (or 5 pounds) next time you train the movement you hit 8 sets on.
No need for explaining, this ones self explanatory.

So to recap:
-Start with 4 workouts a week preferably 2 days in which you train twice that day, rest 2 days between each double session day at first and cut the rest each week by adding single day workouts, then eventually progress those single workout days into double day workouts.
-Lift explosively, don't focus on the eccentric
-pick 6 exercises; 5 compound 1 isolation, then divide them into 3 pairs. Use antagonistic supersetting for 4 upperbody compound movements, and superet an upper body isolation move with a squatting variant. Change the exercises every 2-4 weeks to avoid overuse injuries.
-Calculate your 7-8 RM for the above exercises, and perform sets of 3 reps
-Use rep speed to dictate set termination in order to auto regulate performance and reduce accumulative fatigue. You will never work to failure.
-Keep your total sets between 5-8 per exercise. If you can reach 8 sets of 3 reps without a rep speed decrease terminate the set, finish the other exercise in the pair and add 2.5 kgs to the exercise you reached 8 sets on at the next workout.

There you have it, a comprehensive evaluation into the HFT methods used to regulate fatigue in order to make one of the most efficient fat loss programs ever produced.

What you NEED to know about Protein

You should now all know that you need to eat less calories than your burning in order to loose weight. You should also know that the 3 main nutrients (in no particular order) and their calorie value per gram are as follows:

Protein: 4 calories/g
Carbohydrate: 4 calories/g
Fat: 9 calories/g

Now it's the protein that I want you to take a particular interest in. Protein has the highest thermic effect out off all the above macro-nutrients. So why should you care? Protein takes the most calories to digest out of any nutrient. So while a gram of protein pre-digestion may have a caloric value of 4 per gram, due to the energy required for the body to digest that gram of protein that gram isn't 4 calories at all, its closer to 2.5-3.
Doesn't sound like much does it? Let me put it in perspective.

Lets take a common breakfast meal bacon and eggs on toast
(The numbers are rough estimates so you can merely understand the concept and may not be the true calorie value)

4 whole eggs: 30g protein, 15g fat, 0g carb
5 medium  pieces of bacon: 50g Protein 25g fat 0g carb
2 slices of wholemeal toast: 5 grams protein, 0g fat 30g carb

Now due to the fact that protein=4cals/g carbs=4cals/g and fat =9cals/g the above would be added up as follows:

Eggs: 30x4+15x9=255 cals
bacon: 50x4+25x9=425 cals
toast: 5x4+30x4+140 cals
Total: 255+425+140=820

Now if we take into account that proteins actual calorie value is between 2.5 and 3 cals/g theres a difference in total calorie value. To make it fair I'll use the number 2.7 as its in between the above bracket. Here are the new calculations.


Eggs: 30x2.7+15x9= 216 cals
bacon: 50x2.7+25x9= 360 cals
toast: 5x2.7+30x4=133.5 (rounded to 134)cals
Total: 216+360+134=710

As you can see there is a overall difference of 110 calories between the two. Now lets say you had this meal 3 times a day (breakie lunch and dinner) along with 3 snacks for a total of 6 meals eaten every 3 hours. That would mean that, even for someone who has calculated the exact amounts of macro-nutrients down to the decimal point, due to the fact they haven't factored in metabolic digestion they have actually encountered a 330 calorie deficit (110x3 of the above meals). And that's not including the snacks either! So that number could potentially be 500+ calories that the individual has failed to account for!

So how does this affect you? It can be both a positive and a negative thing depending on whether you are bulking or cutting.

Bulking: You should all know now that to gain eight you should have a caloric surplus, meaning you are consuming more calories through food than you are expending through physical activity and daily bodily function. When your bulking you will have a perceived calculation of what your total calorie intake may be. So here's a hypothetical: (again these numbers are a rough estimate and not necessarily based on the actual number of required daily calories so don't apply the following to yourself just because you are a similar weight, actually find out for yourself) lets say a motivated bloke keen on looking the part weighs 90kgs. In order for him to maintain that 90 kg bodyweight he needs to eat 3000 calories a day. This same bloke has a goal to gain 5 kgs in order to reach 95 kgs. In order for him to achieve his weight-gain goal he must achieve a caloric surplus. As a result he raises his calories from 3000 a day to 3500 a day for 6 weeks in order to reach his goal. Now this guys very motivated to achieve his goal so hes educated himself a little on nutrition so hes very precise about what he eats and more importantly the macro-nutrient breakdown of each meal. So he's gone and calculated every gram of Protein, Fat and Carbohydrate hes consuming in this caloric surplus. Lets say that he was actually eating the bacon and eggs on toast meal FOUR times a day with 3 snacks. Now when you apply the fact that protein is actually around 2.8 cals/g not 4 cals/g that extra 500 calories (from 3000-3500), fundamental in achieving his goal of 95kg body weight, now diminishes by 440 (remember how there was an 110 total calorie difference in the meal explained earlier, just times that by the number of times this blokes consuming that meal, 110x4=440). So now that 500 calorie surplus is a 60 calorie surplus (500-440). Now when you factor in those 3 snacks hes having. Your 500 surplus could potentially be back to only maintenance level, in other words you wont gain any weight whatsoever!!!! All because of one little fact that you didn't account for! The solution? When on a caloric surplus still consume high amounts of protein but increase your quality carb intake at breakie peri-workout (before after and during workouts) and lunch.

Cutting: For cutting the fact that protein=between 2.5-3cals/g as opposed to 4cals/g is highly beneficial. As established in the bulking article, if you calculate your protein intake and multiply that number by the perceived calorie value which is seen as 4clas/g (but you guys know otherwise now!) without even knowing it you have actually achieved a deficit! So when it comes to protein intake for cutting, keep it as high if not higher than you would if bulking so as to take full advantage of this hidden nutritional factor.

One of the best exercises for size and strength in the upper body part 2

So we established that for most people that the push up is generally a poor exercise choice when building muscle on the upper body framework. We also highlighted the reason for this was due to the fact that almost every person I have come across doesnt perform the pushup to maximise the muscles they are trying to target i.e the chest and shoulders. Well Im now going to teach you how to do a pushup correctly. Not only will this make the pushup harder but you will instantly notice a difference in the stimulation of the correct muscle groups.

Positioning is paramount. Guys many of you don't feel your pecs as stimulated as you should after pushups, theres a reason for this. One of the main functions of your chest is to bring your arms across the body. To give you an idea; stand up, open you arms out wide and pretend you were about to get crucified. Now bring your arms across the body so that the palms of each hand are making contact with eachother. Now I want you to puff out your chest like a bodybuilder at the beach, pull your shoulder blades back and then force them down as if you were trying to place them in your back pocket. Now squeeze your hands together as hard as you can. That my friends are your pecs at work!

The real push up: The two keys are:
 Consciously (not literally) squeeze your hands togther as hard as possible during the whole set as this mimics the main chest function as mentioned above. And at the top of the position push the ground as hard and far away from you body so that you pull your shoulder blades apart, this targets the ever forgotten seratus anterior muscle that will contribute to shoulder health.

The set up:

Get into a girl push up position (on your knees)
Place your hands shoulder with apart
Lock your scapula and pull them down as hard as possible, maintain this position
Turn on your core as if doing a plank
Angle your hands to the right at a 45 degree angle so that your thumbs and index fingers form what looks like the Nike tick
Push the ground as hard and far away from your body as possible so that you pull your shoulder blades apart
Hold the above position but now consciously (not literally) squeeze your hands together as hard as possible this will make sure the tension is on the pecs.
Now lift your knees off the ground and get into a normal pushup position while focusing on following all of the above instructions
Perform for reps, remember Consciously squeeze your hands together as hard as possible during the whole set . And at the top of the position push the ground as hard and far away from you body so that you pull your shoulder blades apart on every rep.

Stay tuned for part 3 which will include other variations and in future a sample workout!

One of the best exercises for strength and size in your upper body part 1

If I told you that I know of an exercise that will build a large barrel chest, cannonball delts, thickly developed triceps what would your guess be?

The bench press? Nope. Okay maybe your thinking there must be a twist so perhaps its the incline bench press, decline? floor press? The dumbbell variations of all these exercises? Unilateral variations? Nope all wrong. The answer is the push up.

Now most of you probably think push ups are far too easy, maybe even a few of you think it can't build appreciable amounts of muscle. To be honest for most people this is actually a very accurate assumption. But theres a reason for that, and once this reason is dealt with, you've got yourself an exercise that lives up to the title of this article. The reason is simple, not many people know the proper way to execute a push up that maximises the targeted muscle groups. Many claim they cant build big pecs from performing push ups, this is due to the way they perform the push up not because its an ineffective exercise.
Part 2 will describe how to correctly perform a push up to maximise results. Stay tuned!

A closer look into training: High Frequency Training

HFT has caught my interest lately and it should catch yours too. I have a favorite quote that I've been applying to my own training recently; Train as often as possible without exceeding your ability to recover. The more you can train without exceeding your recovery abilities the more you will progress, regardless of your goal, be it size, strength, fat loss, endurance or sport specific. Now before you start planning 30 training sessions a week, you need to realise that you need to start with a few sessions and build up a high Work Capacity. In this context we are using work capacity in direct correlation to workout capacity, ie the amount of workouts someone can perform a week without tampering with their recovery. A high workout capacity is the key to fast tracked results. The higher your work capacity is the more sessions you will be able to fit in per week without affecting your recovery. The more sessions you can complete without exceeding your ability to recover the faster you will reach your goal.

But how do you increase your 'workout capacity' and how do you complete grueling workouts back to back on a daily basis? Stay tuned for part 2.

Sport Specific training for MMA part 3

Its time for a sample workout that MMA fighters, or any athlete looking for an increase in explosive strength-endurance can utilise to their advantage. There are 3 parts to the workout all are to be done as a single workout.

Warm up: 5 mins skipping dynamic stretching work eg linear and lateral leg swings, 10 sprawls with a squat jump at the end of each sprawl.

Main focus Explosive movements:
dead lift: 10x2 15 sec rest each set
rest 1 min
power clean: 10 sets of 1 rep, 15 sec rest each set
rest 1 min
split jerks: 10x1 10 sec rest each set
rest 1 min
front squat: 20 sets of 1 rep, 15 seconds rest each set
rest 1 min

Explosive strength-endurance circuit
 Super set 30 seconds of medium grip :pronated pull ups with 30 seconds of alternate dumbbell floor presses (a dumbbell press performed lying on the floor where you lift 1 dumbbell up at a time)
complete5 rounds with 60 seconds rest between each round

Sport specific Metabolic finisher:
30 seconds sprawling
30 seconds shadow boxing
30 seconds medicine ball floor slams
 all of the above are to be super setted with no rest bewteen each, once you complete all 3 intervals thats 1 round. Complete 3 rounds with 60 sec rest between each round.
Cool down with 5 min walk and static stretching for all the used muscle groups

A KILLER Leg exercise

The biggest mistake most trainees i know make is not performing enough, if any lower body development work. This is totally ridiculous as legs and glutes are the most powerful muscle groups in the body and make up approximately 40 % of ones body weight and . So when you disregard training legs, you limiting yourself to sub-par results.

Most trainees don't do lower body work because of a bad back. I've got an exercise that eliminates back pain is easy to execute, is possibly one of the best exercises for knee stability and injury prevention, is eccentric-less in nature so you can perform it regularly. All while providing your quads and glutes with an INSANE burn and pump. You don't even have to worry about hamstring flexibility too much because it solely focuses on your quads, and depending on depth glutes too.

So what is it? The weighted BACKWARD Squat Walk. Simply mark out a 10 m straight line, grab a pair of dumbbells, squat down to just above parallel and slowly walk backwards taking 6 inch steps (15 cm) with an emphasis on keeping your weight in your heels ( your heel striking the ground first instead of the balls of your feet) once you reach the end of the 10 m line straight away turn back and repeat (there and back counts as one rep). Give this ago and let me know how your legs feel afterwards.

Sport Specific Training for MMA Part 2

So the real question is how do you train a fighter sport specifically? Below is a method that is proving to be incredible at producing fighters who don’t get gassed, and are strong for the whole fight! It’s all about specificity!

The training method is based around the following equation:
Strength-Endurance= Heavy load, Short rest periods and High volume.
But I thought endurance was 15 reps and over? Wrong. If we were training with 15 reps and over we wouldn’t be able to use heavy weights and we would be training athletes to be weak over a set time frame.
You NEED to lift heavy weights, 80% of your 1RM and over. Why? Because you need a high strength base. An opponent should not be easy to manipulate, but if you possess a high strength base they will be.
Short rest periods are crucial. 60 seconds should be the most rest used and you can progress that to be as little as 10 seconds. The whole reason behind training strength-endurance is that a fighter needs to be able to exert force over a prolonged period of time whilst having the ability to perform this whilst not being fully recovered aerobically. Short rest periods force the body to adapt, leading to a fighter being able to recover quickly both during the fight (after executing an explosive combo followed by a takedown) and in between rounds. Whilst lifting these heavy weights, having a short rest period in between gives the exercise an aerobic base, and due to the low amount of rest the fighter will be performing at a fatigued state, just like you do in a fight. It’s Sport Specific.
Last but not least, volume. If you’re not performing a high TOTAL of reps and sets then improving any type of endurance will be exceedingly difficult. A high volume of work, with short rest periods and heavy weights is what will lead you to the greatest sport specific physical attribute a fighter can possess; strength-endurance.
On the next part of the series I will cover a program and in future, some need to know methods on preparing fighters for competition, stay tuned!

Sport specific Training for MMA Part 1

Weight training in any combat sport is absolutely crucial. On the most part, the fighters who perform weight training programs are performing non specific types of training in relation to their sport. “Bodybuilding” weights are regularly performed by fighters. The problem is that combat sports like MMA require a dominant strength to bodyweight ratio. Bodybuilding does little to enhance such a ratio.

Then you’ve got your strength orientated lifters, they lift low reps and heavy ass weight. Although its important to acquire strength as a sport specific attribute, its not brute strength that wins fights, its endurance-strength, the ability to exert max and sub maximal forces over a prolonged period of time. Conventional strength training entails heavy weights for low reps with long rest periods. But when in a fight are you going to get a 5 minute rest? Being strong is of little use unless you have the ability to keep it up over the full distance of the fight.

Then we have our bodyweight trainees. Bodyweight exercises can be fantastic when used correctly. Problem is the exercises are too basic. Conventional push ups are a great warm up exercise but there not going to make an elite fighter any stronger. The key is to progressively overload bodyweight exercises by making them more and more difficult, for example elevating your feet on a higher surface to make your push up harder, then you might even progress to handstand push ups against a wall, perhaps even a one handed push up. Conventional Push ups, sits ups and body weight squats are just not going to cut it. Remember the goal is to become fight-strong you need to be pushing yourself through progressively difficult exercises in order for your body to adapt thus constantly improve.

Chicken: A meat staple!

Whether your cutting or bulking, when it comes to meat consumption chicken breast fillets are always the best option! Its cheap, low in fat, high in protein and a staple food source in any nutritious diet. I suggest cooking all your chicken at once then seperate your serving sizes into plastic containers and chuck them into the fridge so you dont have to worry about making food later in the day, pre planning is the key to long term dieting!

The two essential phases in training and nutrition

Catabolic and anabolic are the two different states that are used describe whether the body is building tissue or breaking it down. For the most part of the day we want our body's to be in an anabolic state. But your body is in a catabolic state when you wake up, this means that it may break down muscle to use as an energy source. The... best way to combat a catabolic state is to consume carbohydrates because eating carbohydrates makes the body produce the hormone insulin, which is an anabolic hormone!. This makes eating carbs crucial when both gaining and even loosing weight. This also makes breakfast one of the most important meals as it kicks off the fueling of your body for the day ahead!

An awsome Biceps finisher!

Your at the end of your workout  you've done every curl variation in existence with an excessive volume but you still have that urge for a bigger pump, something that can produce an even more significant stimulus to elicit that extra growth. I have an exercise that will satisfy such an urge: A gravity fighter chin up! It has lots of names but that's what I like to call it. Grab a chin up bar with your hands about 6 inches (15cm) apart, palms facing towards you. Perform a chin up and isometrically (statically) HOLD the very top portion of the exercise whilst squeezing your biceps as hard as you can. Hold this top position for as long as possible until you start to drop, this is where you fight gravity all the way until the bottom. Once your fully outstretched then its time to stop the exercise rest 60 seconds and repeat for a total of 2-4 reps. Its crucial that you really focus on feeling the connection with your biceps whist squeezing the ENTIRE time.

Quick nutrition tip for awsome results

Most people just simply don't consume enough protein and consume way to many carbs. A simple trick I often use with clients is to add up your daily totals of carbs and protein, then switch the two numbers. So for example say you are getting in 300 grams of carbs a day and 100 grams of protein switch them around so your consuming 300 grams protein and 100 grams carbs. If your really eager for quick results consume those carbs first thing in the morning and around your workouts. Try this for as little as 3 weeks and you will notice a major difference in body composition.

A tip for training lats

When training your back for width you should take to your advantage that your lats respond very well to a 2 second isometric contraction at the peak of the concentric phase of lat exercises. In simple terms, when performing exercises that target the lats say, for example, a pull up , make sure that you squeeze your lats as hard as possible for a full 2 seconds at the top of the lifting phase (when your chin in over the bar). This goes for all back exercises in general, but specifically when lats are your primary focus.

How to workout when your cutting Part 3

Its time for the sample workout incorporating all the principles outlined in parts 2 and 3. Rest between sets and tempo will also be covered as a bonus!

Back Squats 5 sets of 3 reps (5x3) 90 sec rest (between each set) . Tempo 3:0:1 (3 seconds down, 0 sec pause, 1 sec up)
Barbell or dumbbell bench press: 5x3. 60 sec rest. Tempo. 3:1:1 (3 sec down, 1 sec squeeze at the top, 1 sec up)
Barbell or dumbbell bent row: 5x3. 60 sec rest. Tempo 3:2:1 (3 sec down, 2 sec squeeze at the top, 1 sec up)
Barbell push press (the key is the leg drive, be explosive): 5x3. 60 sec rest. Tempo 2:0:1 (2 sec down, 0 sec pause, 1 sec up)
Chin up (if you can do more than 8 with your body weight do weighted chin ups): 5x3. 60 sec rest. 3:2:1(3 seconds down 2 seconds squeeze at the top 1 second up)

Metabolic finisher; Persorm 3 rounds of the following cuircut with 45 seconds of rest between each round
30 sec of medicine ball pushups
30 second of medicine ball throws
30 seconds of burpees

This is agreat basic program when your cutting. Remember always:
Use compound exercises
Lift heavy weights (3-6 reps)
Low volume: 3-5 sets
Lift exposively
Use a metabolic finisher preferably a style of HIIT (high intensity interval training).

Which cardio burns the most calories?

This might suprise some, but the best cardio for overall calorie expenditure is High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). A basic example of high intensity interval training would be a 30 second sprint on the bike followed by 30 seconds of rest. Repeat this for 15 minutes. HIIT is more intense and takes alot less time than traditional forms of carido jogging do. The reason it burns more calories is due to a process called EPOC. EPOC stands for excess post-excerise oxygen consumption. EPOC sends an individuals metabolism through the roof leading to extra calories been burned not only during your workout but for up to 48 hours after! In simple terms this means that you worked your body so hard that you managed to create a debt that your body has to pay off in the form of consistently burning calories for an extended period of time. Next time you think of buring lots of calories stick to HIIT the key is short and intense!

How to workout when cutting part 2

In part 1 we established some ground rules. Lift heavy weights for 3-6 reps for a total of 3-5 sets. Focus on compound excerises that use the most amount of muscle and lift them explosively to stimulate the fast twitch muscle fibres becuase these have the most potential for growth. In Part 2 we will go over which exercises to use. We will also go over the structure of your session which will be split into two halves: Lifting and metabolic training in order to maximise your results.
     The exercises used are basic exercises that have withstood the test of time. Heres the exercises your going to use. The back squat, The standing military press, weighted pull ups, weighted dips, Pendelay row (a row that commences the rowing portion of the lift from a deadlift position, look it up for more details). As for metabolic training, there are quite a few options opened for you. I'll name a few to get you thinking in the right direction. Farmer walks with 15 kg dumbells. An intense body weight curcuit, skipping mixed with boxing, ground and pound work on the bag done in intervals. These are only a few to get you thinking. Stay tuned for Part 3 where an example ofa basic program will be given using all of the above principals.

How to workout when your cutting part 1

So you've decided to get ripped, shredded, cut, chiseled. You get the idea. You cut your carbs and eat them at breakie and around your workout (around meaning a mixture of before, during and after you workout). If your cutting and you don't do what I just mentioned try it and see what happens you'll thank me in 6 weeks. But even then you notice that you just can't lift as heavy when your cutting weight. This is then further amplified by the fact that people practise the MYTH of lifting light weights for high reps to get cut. Its absolute rubbish. When you are cutting your going to have to sacrifice SOME (not necessarily alot but some) of your hard earned muscle. For this reason your main focus during a workout when cutting is to PRESERVE your muscle mass. Lifting lighter weights for higher reps does not preserve your muscle mass,quite the opposite, infact it desensitizes it to lifting your usual heavier weight which leads to the body reacting something like this: your body: wow this weight is way lighter than before, looks like I dont need all this muscle here anymore! So whats the solution? LIFT HEAVY WEIGHTS FOR LOW REPS! A good place to start is the 4-6 rep range (personally I find the 3-5 range to be more effective) with a set total of between 3-5. By performing heavy weights with low reps your giving your body a reason to hold onto the muscle mass it already has, it also allows you to initiate a strength maintanince mode where your body has the ability to, whilst cutting, keep up a certain lift without loosing much strength. So what excerises should you perform? COMPOUND ONES! No isolation work, compound excersies stimulate the most amount of muscle groups giving you more bang for your buck and when performed explosively with heavy weights, simulate the high threshhold, fast twitch muscle fibres  which have the most potential for growth and strength.

The double effect

A neat little trick when it comes to bringing up a lift that is lagging behind the rest is performing the exercise twice in the workout. For example Squats, dips, pull ups, push ups, bent rows, Squats. By doing this your nervous system adapts by familiarising the movement pattern making you more efficient and in turn stronger at the chosen exercise. This is especially effective when trying to increase your strength in a given lift. As for gaining size, its advantageous in regards to the fact that the targeted muscle groups involved in the particular lift will get extra stimulation through the extended volume and time under tension leading to more growth.

Carb confusion?

There are 2 types of carbohydrates: Simple carbs and complex complex.You should be consuming most of your carbs in the form of complex Carbs expect for 2 key times where you SHOULD consume simple carbs: DURING and AFTER your workout. Simple carbs should be in the form of fruit juices( I recommend grape fruit juice) carb supplements and milk. As for the consumption of complex carbs stick to the stales of brown rice sweet potato and oatmeal.

Endocrinology is the study of human hormones. Hormones can be both incredibly beneficial to our progress in the gym but at the same time, highly detrimental. When your stressed your body releases a hormone called cortisol. Cortisol is a highly catabolic hormone which can significatly affect your weightloss efforts, and your muscle gaining efforts. The less stressful you are the more SUCCESSFUL you will be in your training. Here's the problem. Ironically weight training is actually a catabolic activity, it breaks down your muscles so you can repair from the workout and become a bigger stronger version of your previous self. To counter this catabolism aim to consume some some quick digesting carbs before during and after your workout, this will shift you into a anabolic phase which is prime for muscle building!

Its important to remember that it is possible to gain significant amounts of strength without gaining weight. This can be crucial to sports which have weightclasses for athletes such as boxing, wrestling, olympic weightlifting, and mma to name a few. How does it work, and how do you do it? The key is usling maximal weights and use a low volume of reps preferably between 1-3,  and a low-moderate to high volume of sets,  when PURE strength with minimal hypertrophy is the goal. Good ranges for PURE strength include the following, 3x3 6x2 and 8x3. They call this Neuromuscular strength becuase rather than stimulate purely the muscle whiste feeling the burn and the pump like the standard 8-12 rep bodybuilding approach, your stimulating your body's central nervous system by improving in the efficiency of motor unit recruitment patterns as well as the firing syncronization of these patterns allowing you to become more effiecient at a particular movement. Due to the fact that during a set the muscle is under a low time under tention the body does not maximise hypertophy but rather neuromuscular strength, im not saying you wont gain anything, but if size is your goal then this method of training is certainly not optimal.In simple terms this training style will not put on much size but it will make you alot stronger on your big lifts like the bench press, deadlift and squat in particular.

Theres so much debate about the optimal frequency in which an individual should hit the gym. Is it best to go 3 times a week?  maybe 5? How about 6? some even claim as little as 1! See the truth is...There is NO optimal training frquency. The best way i have dicovered to explain to people is something I picked up from a famous strength and conditioning coach. "An individual should train as often as possible without exceeding their aility to recover". Simpily put this means that you should train as much as you can as long as you can recover from the previous session. If that means training once a week or 20 times a week then so be it. The more frequestly you train and recover from that training the faster you will progress and achive results. So your focus should be on increasing your work load from week to week, especially if gaining muscle mass is the goal, in that case you should bumb up the volume as well as the weight used in excerises.

Did you know that everytime you gain fat you not only enlarge your fat cells but they actually multiply in a process called FAT CELL HYPERPLASIA. To explain, imagine a person who weighs 85 kgs but gains 10 kgs making him 95 kgs after mistreating his diet and slacking off at training. Lets say hypothetically that he had 1000 fat cells at 85kgs. When he went from 85 to 95 those 1000 fat cells enlarged but also multiplied giving him 1300 fat cells. Now this doesnt mean he cant loose that weight, it doesnt neccissarily make it any harder to LOOSE that the extra weight by sticking to a good diet and training program but once you mutiply your fat cells its PERMENANT!!! you cant ever loose them. What does this mean? Well it means that when you slack off your diet again you will gain fat at a faster rate! This is why when many overweight people loose a lot of weight but then go back to bad habbits they put it all back on and in some cases even more! This is why the conventional bodybuilding approach to bulking is not optimal.

The conventional body building of bulking in the form of eating as much as you can of whatever you want to put on mass is an absoloute waste of time. A much more efficient method to bulk is to eat 300 calories over your maintainance cals everyday for the first week and add 50 cals to that number every week after for a total of 8 weeks. so week 1: 300 cals above mainatainace, week 2: 350 cals week 3:400 cals above ect. Try to keep the majority of these cals come from breakfast, pre, during, and post workout.

You should always Cut BEFORE you Bulk. The reason is that the higher your body fat percentage is the easier you will put on fat, so when you bulk you'll be gaining weight, but the majority will be fat. The leaner you are the less likely you are to put on fat when your bulking so cut up BEFORE you bulk up.

Explode for new PBs!

Try this interesting technique. Before performing an exercise like barbell bench press or barbell squats, try performing 5 reps of an explosive body weight movement. So for barbell squats it would be a standing body weight squat jump and for bench press it would be an explosive or "clap" push up. The reason for this is that it stimulates your CNS (central nervous system) and primes it for heavy loads subsequently enabling the trainee to lift more weight. Give it a try!

When performing dumbell bench press try this quick, useful tip . At the top portion of the lift touch the insides of the two dumbells togther and squeeze them for a full second. On the few reps try squeezing for 2 or 3 seconds instead of one. This will properly stimulate the pecs as their primary function is horizontal felxion.

Successful training programming knowing when to change it up. As a rule of thumb never do anything the same for more than 3 months. Preferably change it up every 6-8 weeks. The key is to allow your body to progressively ajust to your program and progress through it to the point where your body has adapted as much as it can, then change the stimulus and repeat the cycle. Almost all programs will work, but none will work forever.

The most important priciple in weight training is progressive overload. You must consistintly strive to add weight on the bar, grind out an extra rep or two, add an extra set, increase your time under tention or decrease your rest periods.

Maximal hypertrohy has been been proven to be effective using frequent high volume training with the use of the 8-12 rep range wth MODERATELY heavy wieghts

Studies have shown that when hypertrophy is the goal (muscle size gain) its highly beneficial to eat a mixture low GI carbs and a high protein source an hour before your work out. And high GI carb (no not junk food) and high protein mixture both during AND after your workout.

During weight training we use glucose from our glycogen stores as a fuel source. This means that at the end of a hard workout due to the fact that your fuel is low we enter a catabolic state, uh-oh! To prevent this we should focus on consuming some quick diegesting carbs to spike our insulin levels so that we can jump back into an anabolic stae where we want to be! An excellent and highly efficient way to achieve this is by drinking grapefruit juice both during annd after your workout in conjuction with a source or protein.

Catabolic and anabolic are the two different states that are used describe whether the body is building tissue or breaking it down. For the most part of the day we want our body's to be in an anabolic state. But your body is in a catabolic state when you wake up, this means that it may break down muscle to use as an energy source. The... best way to combat a catabolic state is to consume carbohydrates because eating carbohytrates makes the body produce the hormone insulin, which is an anabolic hormone!. This makes eating carbs crucial when both gaining and even loosing weight. This also makes breakfast one of the most important meals as it kicks off the fueling of your body for the day ahead!

Try and eat 6 meals a day: 1 large ( breakfast) 2 medium (lunch and dinner) and 3 small (moring afternoon and night snacks)

As a rule of thumb, when it comes to vegies stick to the green varieties such as brocholi, spinach, asparagus, cabbage, brussle sprouts ect.

high volume weight training (meaning of lots of reps and sets) for getting cut is not practical and shouldnt be used by the general population. When it comes to weight training for fat loss, the key is low volume and heavy wieghts. Stick to a few basic compound excerises and work with a heavy weight for reps between the 4-6 range. This while fire up the metabolism without too much glycogen depletion. High volume is impractical when your in a caloric deficit

There are 3 MAIN macronutrients Protein Fat and Carbohydrate. When dieting for fat loss, macronutrient manipulation is key. Keep your protein high fat moderate and carbs low. Concentrate on eating your carbs in the morning, before your workout and after your workout (pre and post workout). For the rest of your day you should derive you carbs from vegetables

There are 3 MAIN macronutrients Protein Fat and Carbohydrate. When dieting for fat loss, macronutrient manipulation is key. Keep your protein high fat moderate and carbs low. Concentrate on eating your carbs in the morning, before your workout and after your workout (pre and post workout). For the rest of your day you should derive you carbs from vegetables

Diet is the key to your reslults in the gym regardless of your goal

When loosing weight, far to much time is commited to performing cardio. After Diet, Weight training is the top of priorites when fat loss is the goal is. It is more important than cardio is PERIOD. Weight training when performed correctly will fire up the metabolism and maintain your hard-earned muscle. Too much cardio can impair results and lead to loosing weight in the form of muscle, giving you that unwanted skinny-fat look.

You cant gain weight unless you have a caloic surplus. This just means that you need to eat more calories than you burn each day for a set amount of time to increase your bodyweight. The same goes if you want to loose weight, a caloric deficit must be achieved, meaning you must eat LESS calories than you are burning for a set amount of time to lower your bodyweight

if your a beginner stick to basic compound excerises. A compound excerise is one which uses more than one joint or muscle in at once. Good compound exersises to use are: barbell back squats, deadlifts, chin ups and pull ups, dips, push ups, push press, military press.

if your doing the Bodybuilders style bench press (wide grip elbows flared out and bringing the bar close to your collar bone) Your asking for shoulder injuries, do yourself a favour and pull your shoulder blades back and down to create an arch, cheep your chest prowed. Flex your lats and core keep your butt on the bench, keep your elb...ows in close to your body instead of flared, allow your grip to be closer to enable this, grip the bar tight. Bring your feet back AND wide as far as you can while still maintaining contact on the ground with your heels. When you unrack the bar being it to your nipple line and without bounching the bar touch your chest and as you push the bar up drive your heels into the ground as if doing a push press. This is the correct technique for the bench press.

There are no real concrete rules in training, as everyone is an indvidual and responds differently as individuals, So use my information more as a guidlines to help you in the right direction

An Intro

Greetings all gym junkies, meat heads fitness enthusiasts and general public alike. Im Andrew Sheridan a Northshore based PT who has a knack for producing results for those who take their time out to follow my advice. This blog liturally will contain everything you need to know about many specific types of training and nutrition programs. Not only that but Im going to simplify all the complex, cut the bullshit and Im going to tell it how it is not how you want to hear it. I'll share with you all my experiences with a range of different diets and excerise programs as well as my progress over the past and the present. I make no claim to be a doctor, a physiologist, neurologist, an elite strength&conditioning coach, or nutritionist. I also make no claim that the methods I use and advise to you guys are the only way to achieve results but I do not only claim but garuntee that if you take the information Provided to you on this blog and use it correctly you will achieve awsome results.