12 Stone Challenge Update

A couple of weeks into the 12 Stone Challenge...

Starting weight: 12 st 12

Current weight: 12 st 7

A loss of around 5lbs means everything is going in the right direction. Blood sugars have been much more stable although I have still had the odd bad day where they have gone erratic. Certainly need to cut those bad days out and stay on top of the nutrition. Enjoying the workouts and even managed to see my heart rate reach an all time high of 207 beats per minute! (no, even Im not sure it's physically possible!). Im going to start increasing my cardio in the form of intervals and try to add a long recovery run once a week. I can't see any massive changes in the body shape so the 5lbs loss could be partly water, but im sure if I keep it up visible changes will come.

Guys, a quick message to let you know that the next 6 week bootcamp course is now open for booking. The first session will take place Monday 3rd October. Sessions will run Mon, Wed and Fri at 2pm and 7pm. If there is demand for a morning class please let me know and I may be able to put one on. The prices for the next course are as follows:

1 session p/w - £60

2 sessions p/w - £90

3 sessions p/w - £117

Bootcamp members recieve the Meta Force Bootcamp manual containing the methods behind the madness (how the system works), an additional cardio interval program to aid the fat burning process, and meal plans to fuel your exercise. Put simply, if you follow the system we have created, you can transform your body in just 6 weeks! Additionally you will recieve free pre and post course assessment to track your progress and the support of the our fat burning expert trainer!

All members of bootcamp are entitled to come along to the TRX class on Thursday evenings at 7pm for FREE. To register log in to your accounts (or register by going to www.betafitness.co.uk and selecting 'book now'), select the class scedule and book in for the desired time slots for the 6 weeks. Any problems please let me know!

Work it hard!

Paul

*Bootcamp course takes place at The Gym, Guildford, and therefore requires membership. Please visit www.thegymgroup.com to register!*

Deadly Workout Sin#1- Performing daily body part workouts

One of the longest running inside jokes within the fitness industry is the fact that Monday is “international chest day” where most gym-goers will do endless sets and reps of bench presses and chest flies until their boobies “burn so good” and swell as if being nipped by a swarm of ginormous mosquitoes.

We can thank the drug-abusing bodybuilding world for the concept of training one body part per day for best results. If you open the typical bodybuilding magazine, below is a great example of a training program you might come across (or some variation of this):

 

Monday- Chest
Tuesday- Quads
Wednesday- Back
Thursday- Hamstrings
Friday- Triceps
Saturday- Biceps
Sunday- Calves

Please keep in mind that when you take a cocktail of anabolic performance enhancing agents, just about anything you do will result in less fat and more muscle– not to mention a host of deadly side effects and the possibility of growing a tail (anything is possible).

The reality is that training your whole body more frequently will result in bigger strength and muscle gain, greater fat loss, and more metabolic boosts than training each muscle group once per week– and the science supports this.

In a recent study at the University of Alabama, researchers had two groups of men perform two different strength-training programs with the same total training volume (sets and reps) for each muscle group. However, one group split the work across three total body workouts while the other group trained each muscle group separately one time per week. They discovered that the total body workout group gained five additional pounds of lean muscle mass compared to their body-part training counterparts.

It’s critical to understand that the more muscle you have the greater your resting metabolic rate (RMR). Your RMR is the total number of calories you burn every day regardless of activity and adding several pounds of lean muscle mass will result in an additional daily calorie burn of up to several hundred extra calories per day. This translates into an awesome fat-smashing snowball effect over the course of weeks, months, and years. Think of more muscle as the fat-burning gift that keeps on giving.

Another benefit of having more muscle is that your body’s carbohydrate tank gets bigger. The human body has a limited ability to store glycogen (sugar) in your muscles and liver before it spills over into the blood stream and leads to unwanted fat gain. The total amount of glycogen your body can hold, or your sugar tank, depends on a host of factors including gender, body size, age, etc. However, by building more muscle through high-intensity training your body can subsequently store more sugar.

For example, let’s just say that your sugar tank was originally 250 grams of carbs but is now 300 grams due to intensive training and muscle-gain. The extra 50 grams of leeway before your sugar tank over flows means two things:

1.) You can consume more total carbohydrates before your sugar tank reaches capacity where you then begin to gain fat and smooth out unless that energy is expended. It’s just like when you overfill the gas tank in your car— the fuel spills on the floor and all over your hands and shoes costing you money and making you a pyromaniac’s wet dream. Though consuming excess sugar may not be as deadly, it’s the source of the raging obesity epidemic plaguing our sedentary society and leads to host of scary health problems like heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, metabolic disorder, etc.

2.) The lower your sugar tank the more your body will revert to using both dietary and stored fat to make up for that energy deficit. Thus if you gained more muscle and simply consumed the same amount of total carbohydrates, you will automatically burn more fat for fuel throughout the day. Now if you consume less total carbs in conjunction with more muscle mass then you will be a lean, mean fat-melting machine.

Plus, it doesn’t take a genius to realize that working your entire body each workout will torch more calories and thus accelerate metabolism and fat loss results. More muscles used equals more total work performed equals more total sugar, fat and calories expended-- all good stuff!

Lastly, it appears that it’s best to wait about 48 hours before performing your next total body workout. In multiple studies at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, researchers determined that muscle protein synthesis was elevated for up to 48 hours after a resistance training workout before it returned to normal. Performing another total body workout with less than 48 hours of recovery may not allow for adequate muscle repair thus impairing performance.

THE FIX: For busy people looking for the biggest bang for their fitness buck, best results will be achieved with 3 total body workouts per week with ideally 48 hours between workouts to maximize muscle growth and recovery.

Metabolism - the key to burning fat and getting the body of your dreams!

In the past i have produced an article based on the concept of metabolism and the 7 deadly workout sins many gym goers commit when trying to burn stubborn body fat and build lean muscle. As I now have many more followers I have decided to re-release these sins in a series - showing you what you may be doing wrong, and how you can fix it to breakthrough those dreaded training plateus and to get into the best shape of your life. So first of all - let's understand what the key concept is here...

 

What is metabolism?

Metabolism is the sum of all chemical processes that take place in the human body to sustain life. Many people are born with slower metabolisms that make them prone to weight gain. Other people, known as lucky ____ (fill in the blank), are born with faster metabolisms and seem to have no problem being lean regardless of their activity levels or dietary habits- I hate them too!

Though metabolic rate is largely determined by genetics, there are various ways to increase metabolic rate (the speed of your metabolism) through exercise, nutrition, and supplementation. Here we will focus solely on the metabolic impact of a properly designed exercise routine. By keeping up with this series you will end up with the tools to build your very own metabolic workout to blast fat away and turn heads with your sexy body!

 

Stay tuned for the next acticle in the series - 'Deadly sin number 1: Performing daily body part workouts'...

The 12 Stone Challenge!

Just over 1 year ago I started lifting weights. Before that, I was a bit of a cardio junkie - I loved my spinning, loved my long distance running and had played football for a number of the previous years. Although I knew the benefits of resistance training - I could never really find the motivation to get into it - it hurt too much, I couldn't lift much, and I was intimidated by all the big guys in the weights area! BUT...I am a personal trainer and I really do believe that I must practice what I preach. So I wrote out a lifting program 3 times a week and set about doing it. You can see in previous posts the results I gained after only 6 weeks. Over the last year and a bit I have continued to lift weights along with my metabolic workouts and am now the fittest I have ever been. HOWEVER, for those of you who don't know - I am an insulin dependent diabetic - and I am confessing that I have been a very naughty personal trainer. My control has been somewhat erratic for a while and I have not been eating the ideal food for both my diabetes control and also for my fitness goals.

It was last Sunday that I finally realised what was happening. My first night out in town for a good few months obviously meant I had to put the shorts and trackies in the cupboard and get out the jeans and shirt. What a shock it was to see that the clothes I found lose fitting a few months ago were now a struggle to get on! Furthermore the friend I was going out with (all 6 foot 2 of him) mentioned his astonishing weight loss accomplishment which now left him at 12 stone (compared to my almost 13!!). Now I know our body shapes are different and I do have some bulky muscle, but I knew that I should be doing better. So my mind starting cranking and it told me to create 'The 12 Stone Challenge'. And so now it begins...

You can see from the attached photo the changes I have made to my body over the last year. Now its time to lean it out. I want those abs. So my nutrition, diabetes control, and workouts are hitting a new level and I am determined to show you all that it can be done. Keep following the blog to see my regular updates on my goals and updated photos. Looking forward to a tough but exciting new challenge...

Paul

Beta Fitness