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10 Important Habits for Weight Loss.

Weight loss requires a combination of several habits:

 

  1. Eating a balanced diet that is low in calories enough to place you in a slight deficit and high in nutrient-dense foods, such as fruits, vegetables, and adequate amounts of proteins.
  2. Engage in regular bouts of physical activity, such as cardio and strength training, to burn calories and build/preserve muscle mass.
  3. A consistent monitoring of portion sizes and keeping track of the number of calories consumed each day. Don’t try to guess, use scales for an amount of time that it takes for you to know how to estimate your portion sizes but alway refer back to your scale weight when in doubt.
  4. Drinking enough water to stay hydrated and avoid overeating. Set hydration targets throughout the day to help you stay on track. Keep a water bottle with you at arms length at all times.
  5. Managing stress levels through techniques such as yoga, meditation, mindfulness or deep breathing. Anything that can put your body in a parasympathetic state of deep rest.
  6. Getting enough sleep each night, as lack of sleep can affect hormones that regulate appetite. Your quality of sleep is also important, have a sleep routine and stick with it consistently, this discipline will change your life.
  7. Avoiding processed foods, sugary drinks, and excessive alcohol consumption.
  8. Following a consistent eating schedule and avoid too much snacking. If you need to snack eat fruits or protein sources.
  9. Finding a form of physical activity that you enjoy and making it a part of your daily routine. This will help you stay consistent.
  10. Seeking support from friends and family, or a professional personal trainer, to help you stay on track and achieve your weight loss goals.

 

Weight loss is not a one-size-fits-all process and it’s important to consult a professional coach who can guide you and mentor you through a weight loss program with the right strategy for you. There is no quick fix, achieving health and weight loss is a journey that will have many hurdles stick to the plan and get through the tough bits and you will reap the rewards in the long run.

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Energy Systems: Lactic Acid System

This article will go more in-depth about the Lactic Acid Energy System and also how you can focus you’re training to improve its efficiency to further benefit your performance in the gym.

 

The name Lactic Acid Energy System derives its name from the fact that the by-product lactate is produced when this energy system is predominant. This system uses only carbohydrates as its fuel source to, like every energy system, produce energy in the form of ATP for muscular contraction. It does this by a process called anaerobic glycolysis. Anaerobic means without the use of oxygen and glycolysis is a series of reactions that extract energy (ATP) from glucose (a carbohydrate).

 

The lactic energy system produces ATP quickly, which is why it is the predominant energy system for exercise between 30 seconds and 3 minutes, depending on intensity and the person’s fitness level who is exercising. It yields 2 molecules of ATP for every molecule of glucose broken down.

 

However, the build-up of the by-products of this energy system causes fatigue. This cause of fatigue is due to the build-up of pyruvic acid in the muscle. Pyruvic acid is made up of two molecules; pyruvate and a hydrogen ion (H+). Without oxygen, the body converts the pyruvate and two H+ to lactate. This helps to reduce the acidity of the muscle and allows anaerobic glycolysis to last longer, as the lactate is removed from the muscle and taken to the liver where it is converted to a useful fuel source such as glucose. However, in continued high intensity activity the lactate cannot be removed fast enough, which results in a buildup of pyruvic acid. It is specifically the buildup of the H+ within the muscle that causes fatigue. It does this by increasing the acidity of the muscle and causing the enzymes needed for anaerobic glycolysis to slow down.

 

To apply this to athletic performance and the gym, we have to acknowledge that any working set or event lasting between 30 seconds to 3 minutes will primarily be using the lactic acid energy system. In sport, this would include events such as the 400m and 800m. In the gym, any sets 12 or more reps or circuit training for working sets within the duration mentioned. Therefore, to become better at these events, we must know how to train this system effectively.

 

We have established that our working sets need to be between 30 seconds and 3 minutes, but ideally less than 3 minutes when training though as 3 minutes using the lactic acid energy system would be an all-out effort, taking a lot of time to recover from. However, how long should our recovery intervals be? The process of recovery once fatigue has occurred requires oxygen. Pyruvic acid in the presence of oxygen will be converted to acetyl coenzyme A, which is then broken down through the Krebs cycle to produce more ATP. Without oxygen, it is converted to lactate and removed from the muscle and taken to the liver to be converted into glucose. Full recovery can take anywhere between 30min and 60 min. Although, to train this energy system we do not want to fully recover, we want to recover just enough so that we can do another rep whereby this energy system is predominant. For this, a work to rest ratio of 1:1 is recommended. To give an example, if you are training this system to improve 800m performance, then a session consisting of 3-10 45-second-high intensity running intervals with 45 seconds rest in between would be enough to stimulate improvement of this energy system.

 

Adaptations to this type of training include an improved tolerance to lactic acid, as well as the ability to buffer the amount of lactic acid produced. Thereby, allowing you to perform at a high intensity for a longer period of time before the event becomes too painful to continue at that sustained intensity. One way to improve lactic acid buffering besides from training alone is the supplementation of beta alanine. Beta-alanine supplementation increases carnosine levels which, simply put, helps your muscles reduce their acidity levels during exercise, thereby reducing pain. It is recommended that to see these benefits to performance, 2-5 grams is taken daily. 500g of Beta Alanine can typically be bought for 40 pounds. Therefore, at 40p per serving it is a relatively cheap supplement. Caffeine has also been shown to reduce perceived exertion during endurance performance. For these effects, 3-9mg per kg of bodyweight is recommended 1 hour prior to performance. For a 70kg person, a dose between 210mg and 630mg is recommended. However, tolerance can build quickly and if taken less than 6 hours before sleeping, can be detrimental to sleep quality, so it is worth being selective on when using it.

 

Overall, I hope this article has been insightful as to how you can improve the efficiency of your lactic acid energy system and how you can apply this knowledge to your own training to benefit your performance.

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How Much Does Muscle Growth Differ Between Lifters?

Reference to the Study:

Hubal et. al. (2005). Variability in Muscle Size and Strength Gain After Unilateral Resistance Training. MED SPORTS EXERC.

 

 

Details of the Study:

 

  • 585 untrained adults performed the same arm training routine for 12 weeks.

 

  • Most lifters experienced around a 10-20% increase in cross-sectional area, but there was extreme responses on either end of the spectrum.

 

  • A small number of individuals experienced no detectable muscle growth (with some even seeing losses in muscle size).

 

  • On the other hand, a small number of individuals saw increases in biceps cross-sectional area of greater than 50%.

 

  • As with most biological traits, the response to resistance training generally follows a bell-curve relationship. This means that most people see an ‘average’ muscle growth response, but a small percentage of people experience extremely more/less growth than average.

 

 

Applications to training:

 

  • This study supports the idea of the importance of an individualised plan in order to optimise muscle growth in each person.

 

  • Furthermore, it is unavoidable that some people will find it significantly easier to add muscle more than others, rendering comparison between peers futile. If you want to progress, then track your progression against yourself.

 

  • Ultimately having a personal coach who has the skills to guide you on how to execute your exercises correctly to get the most out of each exercise will put you in the best position to see results with your hypertrophy goals from your training in the gym.
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The Energy Systems: ATP-PC System

When we exercise, our bodies require energy to cause our muscles to contract, resulting in movement, cardiac muscle to contract more frequently and powerfully to increase blood flow and smooth muscle, such as the muscles in our respiratory system, to increase the amount of oxygen we take into our bodies. Energy can otherwise be called Adenosine Triphosphate (1 molecule of adenosine and three molecules of phosphate) or ATP for short. The body has 3 systems that it can create ATP from and, although we always use all 3 simultaneously, there will always be one system that is much more predominant than the others, based upon the activity and environment you’re in. This article will go more in-depth about the ATP-PC system or Alactic System and also how you can focus you’re training to improve its efficiency to further benefit your performance in the gym.

 

The ATP/PC system derives its name simply because it recycles the small storage of our bodies ATP and PC (Phosphocreatine) to produce ATP for exercise. Firstly, ATP is broken into ADP (Adenosine Diphosphate which is 1 Molecule of Adenosine and two molecules of phosphate). This action releases the energy required for our muscles to contract. Phosphocreatine is then broken down into creatine and a molecule of phosphate by an enzyme called creatine kinase. The energy released from this reaction is then used to join the phosphate group to ADP to create ATP which can then be broken down to create more energy for muscular contraction. Therefore, the limiting factor for this energy system is our body’s stores of phosphocreatine (or just creatine, which will be touched on later in the article.

 

As our bodies only have small stores of ATP and PC, this energy system can only be used for 10 seconds of exercise before we primarily use either to lactic acid energy system or the aerobic energy system, which will be looked at in the coming articles. However, despite its short duration, a huge positive of this energy system is that doesn’t produce performance debilitating by-products like lactic acid. Once used up, it takes approximately 3 minutes to replenish our body’s stores of ATP and PC, in order for the ATP/PC system to be the predominant system used in the next 10 second bout of exercise.

 

If we apply this to training in the gym, strength training, power training (less than 6 reps per set) and sprint training (10 second bouts or shorter) will primarily use this energy system. Therefore, if you are looking to improve on your strength, power and/or sprint performance, then it’s important to remember the principle of the 3-minute rest in order to be providing the stimulus to the ATP/PC system and therefore bring about the desired outcome of becoming stronger, faster or more powerful. Inadequate rest or prolonging the duration of repetitions will place stress onto the lactic acid energy system. The negative of doing so, is that this does not have the same benefit when it comes to all out efforts of 10 seconds or less, which is of particular concern for people partaking in sports where performance in these areas is key.

 

Although our stores of PC are very small, there is ways to increase them slightly. We can do this by supplementing our diet with creatine. This is because creatine has the ability to increase our muscle’s stores of PC and thereby prolonging the amount of time we can utilise the ATP/PC system before the lactic acid energy system becomes to primary energy system. The benefit to this is that you can place the training stimulus onto the ATP/PC system for an extra couple of reps/ few seconds per set which, over time, results in greater adaptations, and therefore performance, in strength and power.

 

Also, creatine is the most well researched supplement in the world and, unlike some supplements, it has been found to have no negative side effects. The recommended dosage for creatine is 5g per day which is relatively cheap as you can purchase 250g for approximately £15-£20. However, as it is a loading supplement, it is important to consume every day so that the quantity of creatine in the muscles can build up in order for you to see the benefits, unlike caffeine, whereby you take a dosage 1 hour prior to training and feel the effects for the next few hours.

 

I hope this has explained how you can improve the accuracy of your training and supplementation when you wish to focus on improving your strength, speed or power performance and overall bring about better results.

 

 

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Is Training to Failure Better for Hypertrophy

 

Reference:

Refalo et. al. (2022). Influence of Resistance Training Proximity to Failure On Skeletal Muscle Hypertrophy: A Systematic Review With Meta-Analysis. Sports.Med

 

Details of the Study:

 

  • The researchers analysed the effects of failure under three separate categories- muscular failure, set failure and high velocity thresholds.

 

  • In all categories, there were trends favouring the failure condition, although these findings did not reach statistical significance.

 

  • This lead to the authors to hypothesize that training closer to failure appears to be non-linearly beneficial for muscle growth.

 

  • In other words, training to failure may be slightly superior compared with leaving a few reps in reserve, although the benefits are marginal.

 

 

Real World Application:

 

  • Training to failure can be fun to truly test your limits and this research supports the idea that it would be beneficial to do so, when the goal is muscle growth.

 

  • However, when adjusting to new training loads or during times when life stress is higher than usual, you can train slightly sub-maximally safe in the knowledge that it will not significantly prevent you from reaching your training goal.
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Adherence – WHATS YOUR WHY?

Dedication vs Motivation

 

Adherence to any program or plan is the number 1 factor that will determine success to reach a particular goal or failure where you quit prior to achieving it or even getting close to it.

 

Don’t make excuses find solutions!

 

In any pursuit of getting to a certain goal consistency is king, if you are not consistently putting in the effort for the most amount of the time you will be taking 1 step forward and 3 steps back rather than the opposite.

 

Motivation will fail you, when emotions get in the way when your not in a good mood, your stressed sad, overwhelmed. Motivation will seize you’ll quit or have a day off that turns into a weeks to a month off.

 

Dedication is something that you will do regardless of your circumstances, regardless if your stressed, tired, overwhelmed and regardless if your not in a good emotional state. You’ll always find a way regardless of the situation.

 

If your just motivated you will find any little excuse to stop yourself from doing the things that you need to do. When we are dedicated we will find a solution you’ll adapt to get what you need get done to progress.

 

That’s why it’s important to identify your Why, your why is an emotional thing which can change and progress or can remain the same through the course of your journey.

 

It’s really important that we really think about this and put some focus into it as we can use it to remain dedicated when things will get in the way of our progress and progression and having that awareness as we navigate through our journey on how it may change or progress.

 

Be attached to your why, write it down put it on your notes in your phone and review it periodically. When your making excuses to yourself read it out 10 times and you will see how your focus /mindset will change.

 

We have to set our self’s up for success we are living in a more stressful environment at present and each individuals allostatic load is much higher which means we are required to acknowledge all of these things that may happen along the way over the course of the month and year and say to yourself your reactions to these stimuli that may raise your emotions will be X or Y. For example I will not drink a bottle of wine when X happens at work. I will do a workout and do 10 mins of deep breathing and meditation, or I will book myself a massage so I can release the tension from my body. Often times it’s not the stimulus but our reaction to the stimulus how we perceive it and react to it.

 

Let’s look at examples of what someone’s WHY may look like?

 

  • I want to be fit and healthy for when I have children.
  • I want to be able to keep up with my Grandchildren.
  • want to be a good role model to my children so they can see me focusing on good habits toward my health eating good foods and exercising regularly.
  • I want to be mobile and active when I reach and elderly age.
  • I like to look good for my husband/wife/partner and myself.
  • I want to look good for my clients so they believe in what I advise them to do (as a coach you are your own business card).
  • I like feel good cognitively which by creating healthier lifestyle habits allows me to feel this way. (exercises has a positive impact on mental health).
  • I want to be healthy enough to continue to do the hobbies/sports I love.

 

Make note of yours, focus and review it regularly, use it as your fuel to keep your dedicated on becoming the healthiest and strongest version of yourself.

 

A good physique, health and vitality is created by consistent habits that will require a consistent dedicated approach. As coaches and personal trainers we help individuals navigate through this process and keep you accountable to your WHY!

 

 

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Static Stretching on Muscle Thickness.

 

Reference to the Study:

Warneke et. al. (2022), Influence of long-lasting Static Stretching on Maximal Strength, Muscle Thickness and Flexibility. FRONT PHYSIOL

 

Details of the Study:

 

  • Subjects used an orthosis (a brace) to hold the ankle in a dorsi-flexed position for 60 min per day for 6 weeks in total.

 

  • The device stretched the calf muscles to an 8/10 pain rating- as perceived by each individual subject.

 

  • It was found that gastrocnemius muscle thickness increased by around 15% at the end of the 6 weeks, compared with 2% from the control group who did not use the brace.

 

  • These results support the idea that static stretching is an anabolic stimulus.

 

 

Applications to training:

 

  • These results help explain why training through a full range of motion (and partials when overloading a muscle in the lengthened range) often produces superior levels of muscle growth.

 

  • Therefore, focussing on overloading the muscle in the lengthened position may be superior for hypertrophy.

 

 

Considerations:

 

  • The body of evidence supporting this idea is still small, therefore more research into this would need to be done until this is a genuine, evidence supported application to training.
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Staying on track over Christmas

With Christmas only 6 weeks away, celebrations are fast approaching. Most people will spend their time going out more and enjoying themselves and as Christmas only comes around once every year it’s important we all enjoy ourselves. However, the last thing people will want to do is to undo the hard work they have done in the gym and leave themselves with an uphill battle to climb when January comes around. Therefore, this article will go into ways in which you can still derive all the enjoyment from Christmas festivities, without derailing the progress you have made towards your fitness goals.

 

Firstly, you need to establish the mind-set you are going to adopt. Broadly speaking, there’s three to choose from. Firstly, there’s the athlete’s mind-set whereby you don’t derail from your diet or training regime at all. On paper, this is the best approach everyone. However, in practicality, the majority of people will not be able to adopt this approach because of the increased amount of socialising that Christmas brings which limits time being spent in the gym, as well as not having access to the foods on their meal plan.

 

On the other end of the spectrum, many will choose to completely drop fitness as a priority and choose to enjoy themselves by any means necessary. Although this is the more fun approach in the moment, it can leave people feeling really down about losing their way when January come around.

 

The third approach, is to enjoy yourself whilst making small adjustments to your Christmas plans in order to not regress over the next couple of months. What this approach looks like will differ between individual’s due to the varying levels of sacrifice people are willing to make in order to stay in shape over Christmas. Below we will discuss ways in which you can alter your plans to suit your fitness goals. The extent to which you apply these to your lives will be dependent on the amount of sacrifice you see as sustainable and enjoyable for yourself.

 

The first alteration we can make is with nutrition. With many people indulging in high calorie, low nutrient based foods over Christmas, the first thing you should have in mind is to still prioritise protein in each meal. This will help you maintain muscle mass, as well as making you feel full, to help prevent overeating on that box of Celebrations lying around. What this looks like in practice is sorting the protein source in each meal out first. For example, when Christmas dinner comes, fill half your plate with a portion of turkey leaving less space to fill up on the extras such as roast potatoes, stuffing and Yorkshire pudding. This ensures adequate protein is being taken in, whilst still being able to enjoy the other parts of Christmas dinner with less chance of over consumption due to less space on the plate.

 

Next, we can opt for lower calorie options of certain foods and drinks. For this we need to identify the calorie dense items of food and drink and make switches which you are happy to settle for. For example, you may find yourself going out drinking more over the Christmas period. A typical alcoholic drink for winter is Bailey’s and the number of calories in a 250ml glass of this is 437kcal. This is over 4 times the number of calories found in a single gin and tonic (96kcal). Although this is an extreme comparison, even consuming 100-200kcal less with each drink can be the deciding factor on keeping your calories near maintenance when having multiple drinks in one sitting. The same can be done for food. If you wish to indulge in ice cream as a Christmas treat, 460ml of Haagen Dazs salted caramel is 1309kcal whereas Halo salted caramel of the same size works is just 320kcal, a 1000kcal saving on snacks which are essentially identical.

 

Planning ahead with your training is also going to be key. It’s normal to not be able to maintain 3+ sessions a week if you are travelling and with family in other parts of the country. However, training a muscle group just 5 working sets per week will maintain the size of the muscle for an extended period of time. Therefore, if you can find it in your schedule to fit this in, then that is going to go a long way in terms of maintaining your progress and prevent the consequences of ceasing to train altogether such as losses in muscle mass and strength.

 

Finally, many of us will cease work for 1-2 weeks over Christmas. Therefore, planning to use some of this added time with physical activity with family can significantly help increase one’s energy expenditure for the day. For instance, choosing to go out on a long walk in the countryside during the day instead of sitting down inside is a hugely positive action to take. This will also make it a lot easier to transition back into regular training, should you have to stop training due to travelling or other social events over the festive period.

 

In conclusion, I hope that the several lifestyle tweaks discussed in this article have given insight into how small changes can produce big results in ensuring that you start January in a really good place with your fitness whilst still being able to enjoy Christmas the way you want to. If you are hiring a personal trainer it might be worth sitting down together to plan your Christmas strategy so you can hit the ground running come January.

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Pre-Fatigue Training vs Traditional Sets on muscle growth

 

 

Reference of the Study: Trinidade et. al. (2019). Effects of Pre-Exhaustion Versus Traditional Resistance Training on Training Volume, Maximal Strength and Quadriceps Hypertrophy FRONT PHYSIOL

 

 

Details of the Study:

 

  • Trainees performed 3 sets of leg press to failure 75% 1RM, 2x per week, for 9 weeks in total.

 

  • One group performed 1 set of leg extensions before the leg press (pre-fatigue group), while another group performed the leg press training in a non-fatigued state (traditional training group).

 

  • It was found that both groups saw significant muscle growth of all quad muscles, with no notable differences between groups.

 

  • This study suggests that when taking each set close to failure, pre-fatiguing a muscle can achieve similar muscle growth compared with traditional training, with no additional benefit.

 

  • This is despite the fact that lifting performance (load lifted), on the leg press for the pre-fatigue group was significantly affected.

 

 

Real World Application:

 

  • Pre-Fatiguing the muscles provides an opportunity to gain the same muscle growth as traditional training, with lighter loads and less repetitions, thereby minimising joint stress.

 

  • Therefore, this could be particularly useful for people returning to the gym after rehabilitating certain joint injuries.
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The Importance of Sleep for your goals

 

On average, in the UK, men get 6.17 hours of sleep per night, whilst females get 6.04 hours per night. This falls short of the 7 hours recommended for your average adult. This falls even further short of the recommended amount for someone in regular training, whereby the general rule of thumb is 7 hours + as many hours as you trained for that day. For example, if you trained for 1 hour, then it would be recommended that you sleep for 8 hours (7 hours + 1 hour of training). This article will look into the key factors effecting your training outcomes and how sleep will influence each one.

 

When we isolate training from nutrition and focus only on getting the most out of the session when we step into the gym, we want to be feeling our best. However, a lack of sleep can drastically effect this. Concentration and motivation towards goals have been shown to significantly reduce in response to low levels of sleep. Whereas, anxiety and irritability have been shown to increase. When these factors are put into play in our daily lives, it will automatically make us enjoy training a lot less and not train at the same level as we potentially could do. Also, for most of the general population who are not fitness enthusiasts, this will be enough to make their attendance to the gym drop by large amounts which will then have the knock-on effect of preventing the gym from becoming a habit whereby attendance becomes second nature. That way, even when they do eventually catch up on sleep, they have to work hard again to try and make it become a habit. Training also increases muscle protein synthesis, the act of building new proteins (the building blocks of muscle tissue). However, lack of sleep actually blunts this response, resulting in less muscle being built each session. This links closely to nutrition which we will move onto now.

 

Nutrition provides the body will the fuel to execute training efficiently, as well as the nutrients needed to recover and grow. Adequate protein intake is required to stimulate muscle protein synthesis and as mentioned above, lack of sleep blunts this response, instantly making your diet not as optimal as it could be. Next, a lack of sleep has been shown to trigger increased levels of ghrelin and decrease levels of leptin which leads to increased levels hunger and appetite. This is going to make it much more difficult for anyone looking to consistently eat within a caloric deficit each day to lose weight. However, when paired with the lack of interest towards goals, this can also be an issue for people looking to eat within a moderate calorie surplus to gain muscle. This is because if motivation towards goals are low, then this can result in more low-quality foods being eaten, leading to them feeling sluggish and potentially overeating if the foods they choose to eat are hyper-palatable, high calorie foods.

 

Overall, a lack of sleep can have both direct and indirect negative influences on the results you achieve when trying to change your body composition. Therefore, it should be a priority to achieve adequate sleep if you are serious about making significant changes to your health and fitness.

 

If you are struggling to get the right amount of sleep, it is worth looking at your sleep hygiene. Sleep hygiene is the term used to describe environmental and behaviour practices used to enhance sleep quality and duration. There are a few factors that contribute to this. Firstly, if your lifestyle allows, a regular sleeping pattern will help your body maintain a healthy circadian rhythm (sleep/wake cycle) so your body will know when it’s time to sleep. Similarly, it can help to create a routine before bed to aid with this. However, this should not include any screen time, as screens decrease melatonin levels, the hormone which helps us to fall asleep. Therefore, consider relaxing activities which do not include a screen such as having a bath and reading. Next, we want to eliminate the effects of drugs that negative impact sleep. The two common drugs being used are alcohol and caffeine. The half-life of caffeine is approximately 5 hours. Therefore, if you consume a large energy drink (approximately 160mg of caffeine) at 5pm, there will still be 80mg of caffeine in your system at 10pm. Therefore, it’s important to consume your caffeine early in the day, a general rule is no later than 8 hours prior to bed but even earlier would be better. With alcohol, often people believe it helps sleep as they can fall to sleep more easily after consumption. However, it effects sleep quality, therefore limiting consumption to weekends will prevent evening glasses of wine from impacting your sleep in the week.

 

If this does not work, I would recommend seeing a specialist whereby they would analyse your individual case and work out the best method of treatment, potentially recommending certain supplements such as magnesium. Overall, I hope this article has helped inform you of the importance of sleep and how you should prioritise it, in order to aid you in reaching your health and fitness goals.