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Low carb not no carb

18 Sunday Jan 2015

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Since the new year has come around and everyone is jumping on their health kick, I’m hearing a lot of people are going on a no carb diet in a desperate attempt to lose weight and get in shape.

The above picture is a recent editorial i shot for Rollacoaster magazine. Notice that my body fat is fairly low at about 8%. Many people assume that i eat 0 carbs to get my body fat this low, so everyones pretty surprised when i tell them i eat a high amount every day. 0 carb diets are not healthy, you can achieve great results whilst eating carbs, just make sure they are the right kind of carbs.

What carbs should i eat?

You don’t need to cut out carbs all together, all you need to do is swap the bad carbs for the good. An example of this would be swapping white rice for brown rice, or swapping white bread for wholemeal bread. The Hovis wholemeal bread i eat contains roughly 14g of carbs per slice whilst the white bread contains around 25g of carbs per slice. Little changes to your diet like this will massively help you achieve your weight loss goals. Another carb that i consider to be a “super carb” is SWEET POTATO. Sweet potato does not only taste great but its full of nutrition and gives me a great energy boost if i include them into a pre workout meal.

Energy

If your getting serious about training your going to need plenty of energy to get in a good workout and eating 0 carbs will result in tiredness/half hearted efforts in the gym. A well balanced diet mixed in with some high intensity cardio and resistance training will be much more effective than just starving yourself of carbohydrates altogether.

 

 

 

Keep in compound #TOP5

14 Wednesday Jan 2015

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When it comes weight training you need to forget all the fancy exercises you see on youtube and remember that these 5 exercises are the best when it comes to building strength and muscle.

1. Bench press – This exercise is probably the single most effective exercise when it comes to building muscle and strength in your upper body. Not only will you feel it in your chest but you will also make strength gains in your shoulders and triceps too. If you already have this incorporated into your workout then try some bench press variations like using drop sets of even super setting it with another chest exercise to really help burn out the upper body.

2.) Military press – Barbell military press is another great compound exercise which works mainly your deltoids but again helps with strength gains in other areas. If your using this exercise in your shoulder workout i would recommend doing this as your very first exercise. Then go into targeting the smaller areas or your shoulders after.

3.) Squat – Many people just assume that squatting will result in strong legs but the squat will help you build strength in every area of your body. Not only that but when you squat your body releases testosterone which is a natural growth hormone that your body needs for muscle to grow. So using this exercise in conjunction with everything else is great.

4.) Bent over barbell row – This exercise is one of my favourite when it comes to training my back. Its physically demanding but its one that will really help pack on the muscle. Be sure to keep good form when doing this exercise and ensure your back doesn’t begin to bend.

5.) Deadlift – This mainly targets your lower back but like some of the other exercises I’ve talked about its also great for your entire body. For me, this is my favourite exercise because its one that i feel really pushes my whole body to the point of exhaustion. I sometimes spend a whole session just focussing on this exercise and perfecting my technique. Its extremely important that you warm up before deadlifting and also do 1 or 2 warm up sets. Its so easy to get injured if this exercise is performed incorrectly.

My top 5 abdominal exercises

09 Friday Jan 2015

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Hanging leg raise – This is in my opinion the most effective exercise for the lower abdominals and really helps get that classic v line that everyone wants. I usually do 3-5 sets of around 15-20 repetitions on this exercise.

Abdominal pull down – The reason this is such an effective exercise is because unlike a lot of bodyweight ab exercises, with this you can actually up the weight on the cable machine to lower the rep range. Unlike crunches where you end up doing 30-40 before you even feel the burn.

Woodchopper – Although this targets mainly your obliques, it still hits your abs nicely. Remember your abdominals and obliques link on together so to get a great torso you will need to train both.

Double crunch –  The double crunch will target both your upper and lower area of your abdominals and also help increase your around core strength.

The plank – The exercise that everyone neglects, the plank is classic exercise which engages not just your abs but your entire core.

Total body superset workout

06 Tuesday Jan 2015

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Dumbbell chest press x Dumbbell shoulder press:

3 sets of 10-12 reps per exercise

Dips x Single arm dumbbell row:

3 sets of 10-12 reps per exercise

Bent over barbell row x Pull ups:

3 sets of 10-12 reps per exercise

Bicep curl x Tricep rope extension:

3 sets of 10-12 reps per exercise

Dumbbell lunges x box jumps:

3 sets of 10-12 reps per exercise

 

Abdominal rope pull down x Hanging leg raise:

3 sets of 15-20 reps per exercise

 

 

Is Naked juice even healthy?

02 Friday Jan 2015

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Since being healthy and going to the gym is considered “cool” it seems that everyone is looking for the next craze to jump on, lately I’ve noticed that Naked fruit juice drink is that next craze. I personally love the taste of these drinks and the of marketing of the product. Using words like ” Natural”, “Fresh” and even ” healthy”. All of this lead people to pay as much £4 in some shops for this drink. But is it really healthy? Some of the flavours contain as much as 35g of sugar which is the equivalent or if not more than a lot of the obvious unhealthy fizzy drinks such as coca cola and fanta.

Here are some the popular flavours with their sugar contents.

Naked™ Orange Juice: 27 grams
Naked™ Berry Blast: 32 grams
Naked™ Green Machine: 35 grams
Naked™ Mighty Mango: 35 grams

Not even just Naked products are guilty for this. Although the majority of fruit juices are considered healthy, they all have large amounts of compressed fruits into one drink which leads to high sugar contents. If your looking for a healthy fruit juice with less sugar you would be better of buying a basic orange juice or something that only contains a single fruit and of course is fresh.

However, my advice when it comes to what to drink would be WATER. Drinking lots of water a day will lead to a stronger immune system, better skin and also contributes massively to weight loss.

Christmas ab blast

26 Friday Dec 2014

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This christmas has consisted of chocolate,sweets and lots of cake! So now I feel like i need to get down the gym asap and burn of all these calories. But in the mean time here is a great ab burning workout which only takes about 5 minutes.

Once you have finished, take a 30 second rest and repeat again.

30 crunches

30 alternating crunches

30 leg raises

30 side bends

30 double crunch

1 minute plank

1 minute side plank

 

Back and bicep blast

23 Tuesday Dec 2014

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Pull ups x Lat pull down 

4 sets of 8-10 reps per exercise

Bent over barbell row x shrugs

4 sets of 8-10 reps per exercise

Single arm dumbbell row x Deadlifts

4 sets of 8-10 reps per exercise

Dumbell bicep curl

4 sets of 8-10 reps

Hammer curl

4 sets of 8-10 reps

preacher curl

4 sets of 8-10 reps

Seated single arm isolation curl

4 sets of 8-10 reps

 

Legs and abs workout

14 Sunday Dec 2014

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Here is a intense high repetition based leg workout, followed up with some core burning abs. The reason i chose to put the two together is because when training legs and performing exercises like squats, alot of natural testosterone is being released which helps with all round fat loss. So adding an ab workout at the end will help you burn of that extra fat around your stomach area you’ve been trying to lose.

 

Barbell squats:

4 sets of 12 – 15 reps

Hack squat:

4 sets of 12-15 reps

Single leg dumbbell lunge:

4 sets of 12-15 reps per leg

Quad extensions:

4 sets of 15 reps

Hamstring curls:

4 sets of 12

 

Hanging leg raise:

3 sets of 10-15 reps

Weighted sit ups:

3 sets of 15-20 reps

Exercise ball crunches:

3 sets of 15-20 reps

Double crunch

3 sets of 20-40 reps

Total body destruction

09 Tuesday Dec 2014

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Here is a great total body workout which uses supersets to up the intensity and help maximise how much calories you burn, whilst destroying your muscle at the same time.

Deadlift x pull up

3 sets of 10-12 reps per exercise

Barbell squats x single leg lunges 

3 sets of 10-12 reps per exercise

Bench press x push ups

3 sets of 10-12 reps per exercise

Bent over barbell row x Dumbell shoulder press

3 sets of 10-12 reps per exercise

Bicep curl x tricep extension

3 sets of 10-12 reps per exercise

How to lose weight fast with HIT CARDIO

07 Sunday Dec 2014

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High intensity cardio (hit cardio) is a great way to maximise the intensity of your workouts and really help you burn the most calories as possible. For those who are unfamiliar with the term, its basically any kind of cardiovascular exercise/workout that gets your heart rate up and really pushes you to your max. I notice that alot of people approach cardio the wrong way, they tend to spend the duration of the gym session on a cardio machine going at a steady pace, hoping they will lose weight and burn calories. HIT cardio is a much better way to burn calories and you can do it in half the time. The best way to burn calories and get in better shape is to get your heart rate up as high as possible and get your entire body working at a pace that will really push you and force your body to adapt. I guarantee that if you scrap the normal cardio routine for a few hit cardio sessions a week, you will see a huge difference in your fitness in no time.

Here is my HIT cardio workout that i did this morning.

warm up:

2k run

Interval sprints on treadmill:

run at a moderate pace for 30 seconds then sprint for 40 seconds. x 15

Rowing machine:

Row 3000 for time

Box jumps

3 sets of 20 reps

Burpees

3 sets of 30 reps

punch bag 

5 x 3 minute rounds with speed punching for 1 minute every other minute.