Low Carb Ideas

Although these videos are aimed at those with diabetes (most Americans!), many of the meals cross over to the carb watching dieter who needs more than just bland food!

LOW CARB BURGER


PIZZA


MORE VIDEOS

Motivation

Shawn Phillips, brother of Bill Phillips who runs Muscle Media















I get a shit load of emails. Everything from half naked guys asking what to do about their abs to skinny guys worried about getting too big and muscley (is that even a word? - it should be - oh how gyms are full of former skinny guys who ate those extra few calories and now have titanic chests and guns to rival any army). . . . but the most asked question tends to be regarding motivation.

Is this going to be some speech to make even Tony Robbins raise his 'A' game? Nope. I know spank all about motivation.

"But Neil your a PT and this should be half of what you do, high fives, group hugs and buzz words such as determination, perspiration and dedication should be flowing from your plump lips daily! - How can you not know about motivation?? How do you stay motivated? How do your clients get their ass down the gym?"

*add dreamy special effects here and black and whiteness for extra effect*

When I was a skinny kid (oh f*ck here we go) I remember seeing a guy on the cover of Muscle Media which was one of the main publications I bought in the 90's. I had just started lifting weights and at 8 odd stone had quite a road ahead of me. My older bro was busting my balls to get down the gym and at first I hated it. Everyone else was stronger than me and I struggled to lift anything more than my bodyweight. When I thought about the guy on the cover of the mag though I knew he hadn't been born in that sort of nick. He had obviously not built that physique over night, but he had built it. If someone can start off as an 8 pound baby end up looking like they eat 8 pound babies then surely there is hope for us all.

Soon the gym became habit for me. The motivation came when I saw changes. I was adding muscle and getting stronger so although I wasn't ready to step out onto a magazine cover I was seeing results. The goal of hitting 10 stone and benching 60 pounds was soon reached but with that goal being met I formed new goals. Goals are important but as with my last few blog entries a lot of it comes down to consistency. The short term goals such as the added few kg's on the bar or the inch off the waist to the longer term goals such as the magazine body - these constant steps soon lead you to the place you aim to be. If you enjoy the training along the way then the place you want to be seems to appear much quicker than you had previously thought. (That last bit reads about as well as a blind guy in the dark).

To summarise -

- No one can motivate you except you. Regardless of what I say you need to set your own goals and decide on the course of action.
- Seeing results won't happen overnight. Stick at it long enough to see the change and thats it. The ball is rolling, now aim to keep it rolling by improving on everything such as your lifts, and more importantly, your diet.
- If it was easy we would all be super buff and lean year round but its not easy. It takes months, even years of pulling and pushing bars about to change the human body but the changes will happen if you want them to.

Now go have a protein a shake and google 'muscley' to see if it is really a word.

So far so good!

Just a shout out to one of the guys currently using the Diet Plan.

Rich has a few cheat meals per week and does no cardio although he does play footie once a week. He is on a 'full body' plan made up of mainly compounds and although I haven't met Rich he has managed to make some pretty good progress these last few months. Even with a reduction in calories we can see improvements in the upper body with a significant drop in the man boobs (moobs for short) and gut.











































The reason I wanted to use Rich as an example is the fact that he hasn't tried to lose weight over night or starve himself. He doesn't live on nuts and seeds while beating himself up over an extra piece of toast in the morning. The success has come because his diet IS BETTER THAN IT USED TO BE!

You don't have to live like a monk or train twice per day - just make consistent improvements and you will see results!

30 days

A lot of times I get hit with this sort of question . .

"My mates birthday is on the 15th this month. What should I drink when we head out to keep my calories low?"

"I have a stag doo at the end of the month and the plan is to go to an Indian restaurant then head out. Whats the best low carb meal you can get from an Indian restaurant?"

My reply is usually the same. When creating a good physique you obviously need to get to grips with the diet. Nutrition is vital regardless of goals and people often get so into the whole process that they do worry about going out with friends etc.

Lets say you have an average month of 30 days and in that month you have a night out with work which will be messy both in terms of food and alcohol. My advice is just to go out and blow out. One blow out night in 30 will not undo all the hard work you have put in whereas 30 days and nights of poor eating will have more of an impact on your progress.

Look at it this way . .

Mr A -
Eats a textbook diet with quality protein and good fats, carbs at the right times and plenty of water. At the end of the month he likes a blow out with family and friends and will often be seen drinking and eating what he likes.

Mr B -
Skips breakfast and has fast food for lunch. Carbs around workout times are often missed and instead of quality fats he relies on processed microwave meals and trans fats to keep hunger at bay. At the end of the month he has a blow out but tends to stick with low calorie beers and avoids rice with his Chinese take away as he is trying to lose weight/ build muscle etc.

Who do you think will have the better physique?

(please say Mr A)

The mistakes you make daily will have much more of an impact than the single night of binging that we all deserve now and then.

Gun show!

I am loving this sexy super set at the mo. A barbell preacher curl to start and straight away switch to the tricep overhead ext. I simply spin around in the preacher bench and use the arm support as a back support.

EDIT - exrx wont let me upload the pictures directly, and now even linking to them seems to be a problem - sorry :p

You Versus Bodybuilders

The one on the left is a top bodybuilder. The other guy, is not.













This post may turn into a bit of a rant and for that my buff readers, I apologise.

When in work tonight I noticed a young guy working his chest and even when I was 45 minutes into a session with a client he still seemed to be working his chest although the angle of the bench had changed ever so slightly. Now this young guy has probably read a lot of bodybuilding magazines and has been brainwashed into thinking that he needs to hit chest from every possible angle for it to grow. I could tell from his shape that he hadn't yet applied the same principles to his back workouts and was heading towards some muscle imbalances and potential shoulder problems down the line. This kid, like many gym regulars and board users that I interact with, was applying the wrong answer to the wrong questions.

Neil, wtf, I hear you cry - whats all this about questions and answers?!?!

Well lets look at Dennis James, a top pro bodybuilder that I met a few years back.



















- Dennis James didn't work as such. He trained for a living, often twice a day and made money by competing and representing different magazines and supplements. The gym also payed him to train there as it was good for business (and he used to own it and wrote this into the contract for the new owner).

- Dennis lives in Thailand. Food is dirt cheap and easily available. Steroids as far as I know are perfectly legal there and although I am not saying he has taken them many top bodybuilders do.

- Dennis is mixed race and blessed with awesome genetics.

- Dennis has a loving wife who spends all day cooking anywhere between 5 and 8 meals for him each day.


OK, so now lets look at the average Joe looking to get into shape -




















- Average Joe works 40 hours per week and when he gets home from work he takes the pressure off the wife and spends some time with the kids will she nips out to pick up a takeaway.

- Average Joe with his man boobs and generally shitty genetics manages to make it to the gym 3 times per week but due to his lack of knowledge only does about 5 % of things right, ie he turns up (his workout though is about as random as a nun at an orgy).

- Stressed with work and the wife giving him shit, AJ (average joe) hits the bar at the weekends for a bit of banter with the mates and a belly full of bud and pringles.


So there we have two extremes and to go back to an earlier point about the young guy in my gym. How can people with such different bodies / lives/ diets etc expect to get results on the same routine??

When people argue about whats best they often get into a debate over the methods and ignore the individual. Training like a pro bodybuilder will not make you look like one. You need to adjust your training to suit your life and your goals. Working to bring out certain areas of the deltoids is fine if your shoulders block out the sun but not if you can walk through a fence without touching the railings!

You can buy this . . .

I am deadly serious when I say that this is a real fitness product. If you wanted to invent a piece of shitty equipment to stroke people of their hard earned cash what would you come up with?

Slam dunk!

Efficiency

I was flicking through a female fitness magazine recently looking at the usual articles produced for women. 'Tone those flabby arms', ' celebrity body' etc etc. When reading a calorie burning article I was amused to find that one of the benefits they had done was actually something that I would consider a negative.

Something like this. . .




"Cardio training will make the body more efficient and burning fat and calories!"

Efficiency is a good thing, for example, with your car. If you drive 100 miles and it takes £20 pound of petrol then your wife takes her car out and goes the same distance but needs £30 of petrol then your car would be classed as more efficient. You cover more distance with less fuel.

If you are a marathon runner then again, like the car, efficiency is a good thing. You want to be using a tiny amount of fuel to cover the furthest distance possible without having to load up on extra nutrients before or during the race.

Efficiency with fat loss - We can see how efficiency is good in the examples above but like many areas of fitness what works for the sportsman or woman does not necessarily work for the person looking to lean out and look better on the beach. If you are going for a run and it burns 300 calories and the next time you go you burn 280 then that is not good - you are training your body to hold onto calories to fuel you for workouts!

When you see an over weight class instructor and wonder why they carry so much fat yet they perform classes 15 - 20 odd times per week the answer is simple. They have become efficient at what they do. See a guy lifting weights each week yet he looks the exact same? Same idea, his body has grown used to the stimulus and sees no reason to improve.

To summarise -

Train the same and you will look the same. The body will adapt and adaptation isn't always the desired effect. In the same way that lifting the same weight will cause no added growth or strength you always need to be pushing the body and forcing change.

Efficiency - good for sport - more work done, less energy used, improved performance

Efficiency - bad for body transformation - change the routine when you plateau and try new things to make the body work hard. When you get used to it then change it.