How Important Are Supplements?

For many people who exercise strenuously, and I mean those who workout 6 days a week and really pay attention to their health and overall lifestyle, the body will naturally require more nutrients so that it can repair and grow. I’m not necessarily even talking about bodybuilding specifically, but as with any sport or fitness regimen, you’re putting your body through incredible amounts of stress. Sometimes, this level of stress means that you have to go above and beyond the everyman / everywoman routine and nurse yourself with supplements and vitamins that would otherwise be difficult to get even from whole food sources. With whey protein for example, which is commonly used by bodybuilders as a quick-releasing protein source, it will provide you with essential amino acids - building blocks of protein which cannot be created by the body. This example is more or less case in point that supplementation is imperative if you are to get the best results from your fitness regimen. 

This is just an example, however, as there are in fact an abundance of supplements out there that’ll help optimise your performance, and rest and recovery period. It’s true that someone who never hits the bench may have no use for whey or creatine. But even avid cyclers or those who run and swim will at some point face an injury or some obstruction to their performance that could perhaps have been avoided if the correct measures were taken - if the correct supplements were taken.

Glucosamine is a very popular natural source which athletes use to prevent, or decrease the effects of joint or muscle pain. The body synthesises it naturally. However, it is not known to be found in any food source. This means that those who do take part in any one, or all, of said triathlon of sports, could take preventative steps and use this supplement to help keep their body tissue healthy and free of pain and inflammation. Glucosamine is just one of many examples.

Personally, I use a handful of supplements which helps me to both reach my daily macronutrient goals, and also speed up the recovery process by helping my muscles repair and grow. I’ve even found an improvement in my level of performance itself. As a student, I make the most of the 10 percent discount at MyProtein. Their prices are unbeatable for the quality of their products. They also deliver very quickly too. As someone who has goals of building mass, I never go a day without having their whey protein isolate, which is the core of any post-workout shake. Dextrose and maltodextrin are two more supplements I also choose to have for the spike they both cause in your energy levels. Both are carbohydrates that score high on the glycemic index, but dextrose is a simple carb which quickly spikes your energy and maltodextrin is complex so takes longer for your body to break down - making it slow-releasing much the same as a food like oatmeal for example. The fact it’s high in sugar shouldn’t scare you. When taken during exercise it can greatly improve your performance and endurance and you’ll burn it all off as you workout anyway. Many athletes use it and it’s a great supplement to have. It’s also very, very cheap.

There are hundreds of minerals, vitamins, supplements and other sources that you can’t provide your body with just purely through foods. And these sources could be the difference between an injury and a slight nick, or results you get in 12 months that you could have got in 6. Analyse the stresses you put on your own body and work out accordingly which product from your local health shop or nearest Holland and Barret can help get you to where you want to be with regard to your own lifestyle.

The Truth Behind Abs

I saw an intriguing tweet the other day which seems to be a popular phrase circling the internet at the moment amongst fitness forums. It essentially says that abs on a skinny guy doesn't count. It was at least a saying that I hadn’t heard until now and I realised how true this was. Abs are perhaps the most sought after part of a man's physique, and the part which many women look for on a guy too over any other feature. But how easy is it to achieve a chiseled core? I for one have had major trouble finding my six pack when the rest of my body seems to progress. My chest, shoulders, legs, back, and arms have all grown bigger, more pronounced and defined, but although my abs are visible and I have a strong core, I still have those couple percentages extra in body fat that keep me from looking as good as I want to look. Now that could be down to the fact I'm relatively new to the regime of a fitness junkie, as I didn't start getting into shape until just about over a year ago. But I'm quite sure that depending on where you start, it's definitely possible to achieve a decent washboard stomach in a shorter period of time.

So why is it so hard for a bodybuilder? And why is it that skinny guys seem to achieve it with ease? Well the truth may seem simple and the clue is right there in the difference between those trying to put on mass and those who, well, don’t. Considering the obsession with abs that this generation of health conscious people has, it's surprising how confused we can be about the illustrious six pack. Some articles will tell you that direct abs exercises like crunches or planks, for example, will build a rock solid core. Other publications will say you first have to melt away the fat on top of your abs. That is after all why 'skinny' guys have abs - because their body fat is so low. But really it's a combination of the two that will get you the abs you want - direct, and indirect.

A high intensity workout that kicks your metabolism into overdrive will initiate the fat burning process and decrease the body fat around your middle, as well as the rest of your body. That's what makes your muscles pop and more defined after a cutting phase, for instance. Doing such workouts can achieve a higher metabolic rate for up to 48 hours after exercise. Combine this with an abs routine that directly targets your core and makes the abdominal muscles burn, and the six pack will come in time. It's just a case of sticking at the high intensity workout like HIIT cardio so that your body fat gets lower and lower. This of course, however, depends much on your diet too, as generally speaking burning more calories than you consume means your body has no choice but to shred the fat.

Unfortunately for us bodybuilders though, eating less calories than you burn is counter productive - building is in the word bodybuilding for a reason - it's not called bodylosing! And eating less than you burn means muscle loss as well as fat loss. So how can you achieve abs while bulking? Well, I've actually yet to see an effective plan that will achieve both. And that's basically down to the biology of our bodies. Neither can really work at once. That's why the cutting phase you hear bodybuilders talk about is a phase. Because it's a part of a bigger plan where the rest of the time you're packing in calories - building your body, growing, gaining weight - all to get to your desired size. So how come bodybuilders aren't fat? At least many of them. That's because the ones that aren't pay just as much, if not more attention to their diet than their actual workout regime. This is where consuming the right amount of macronutrients, which I've stressed the importance of before, will make or break your success. You'll find that you can easily eat 3000 or more calories a day and yet still eat less of the bad nutrients, if you can call them that, such as saturated fat for example, than the average person.

All of these factors contribute to how quickly and how defined you will see your own abs. Because they are there. Everybody has them. Just as everyone has a brain. It's just about how you use your brain to get achieve the results you want. A strict diet, strict regimen, and a strict overall lifestyle is what will get you those abs. And that's why a set of them always look better on a muscular physique more than a skinny one, because you have to work harder to get them. So don't be despondent if you're working out every day and yet still don't have as impressive a set of abs as the guys you see on the beach. Instead of analysing the appearance of your core, ask yourself if the guy you're comparing yourself to has the chest, the arms, the legs and the shoulders that you have. You'll get the abs you want, but don't worry about it until you're the build and size that you’re after. That's my advice on getting abs. As long as you’re paying as much attention to the food you put in your mouth as the work you put in at the gym, abs wont be far away when you shift your focus from your brawn to your belly. And aren’t abs just way more impressive with a big chest and shoulders to match? Just something to think about.

What's Right For Me? A Thoughtful Tip On How To Get Fit

There are of course many ways to achieve your dream physique, from simple cardio like long-distance running and team sports such as football or rugby, to disciplined martial arts practice or the tried and tested formula of lift, eat, sleep, repeat. There is no one right way though, at least not for everybody - that depends on your fitness goals. Perhaps you want to torch the belly fat away, maybe you want to put on mass for a buffer body, or you may just want to improve your cardiovascular fitness for the benefit of your health rather than just a bigger chest or more chiseled abs.

When beginning your fitness journey, choosing which path is for you can be a difficult decision, especially when you hear or read conflicting arguments claiming which activity is best to get to where you want to be. I too was confused when I started paying attention to my own health. I used to be one of the awkward academic ones who would accidentally on purpose forget my kit for P.E. I didn’t ever join a club or do any extra-curricular activities. For me, school was a place where in the six hour day I’d disappear into the shadows of more capable sportsmen and just keep my head down until the 3.15 home-time! Now though, I can cast as a big a shadow as any of my secondary school friends. Fitness changes you in every way, and now I stand tall with confidence which I never had before. You may presume that getting in shape will only change your exterior, but you’ll actually find that you gain a lot of self-respect and become a lot more confident on the inside too. 

All of this came in time though - time in which I spent a great deal just trying to figure out what exactly to do to get myself in shape. It started when I was about 15 and my older brother saw just how timid I was. He was a Royal Marine, so was having none of that! He took me to a local muay thai boxing gym and my life changed from that point on. It was the best thing my brother could have done for me. That gym wasn’t necessarily the start of my fitness addiction, as it was more of a causal once-a-week thing I did, but I certainly recognise it as what had spurred me on into the life I now lead - as something that made me appreciate fitness rather than shy away from it. I continued to practice muay thai for about 5 years, but never got into the cycle of a six-days-a-week workout that I’m now used to.

Now, I own more than a thousand pound’s worth of equipment in my parent’s garage! It started with a simple punch bag and speed rope to compliment the fitness I did at boxing, and slowly escalated until you couldn’t really call it a garage anymore but rather a home gym. I now own an agility ladder, resistance bands, a pull-up bar, a bench and an olympic weight set, and most recently have bought myself a huge set of dumbbells amounting to nearly 400 kilos. It’s fair to say working out is now an addiction for me. It’s almost too much equipment to know what to do with! But lifting weights, bodybuilding, getting bigger and stronger, that’s what my regime is all about now. There’s nothing like the pump you get from pushing 10 more pounds from the previous week or pulling another rep or two before failure. Some other fitness freaks may disagree, but as the boxing might suggest, it hasn’t always been that way for me either - I’ve tried out various ways to get fit, and the obsession began with Insanity, another home fitness programme.

For 30 gruelling days I challenged my body, and mind, more than I ever have before. With that programme, it wasn’t just about the workouts, it was about eating the right food and following a strict schedule - learning how to be disciplined and push yourself through plateaus, or say no to biscuits with your tea or even the standard two teaspoons of sugar! In fact, caffeine altogether, which I’ve since learnt to steer away from given its energy-boosting effects and subsequent disturbance of your sleeping pattern.

In essence, my point is that you need to identify what it is about yourself you want to change. Why is it you’re wanting to get fit? Is it simply because you can’t run a few paces before losing your breath and so want to improve your stamina? Or is it that you’re not happy with your weight and want to slim down? Or, it could even be the opposite. After boxing, Insanity and nothing but high intensity cardio, I found myself feeling like Captain America before he was injected with that super serum! I ended up disappointed with my scrawny body shape and so decided instead to bulk out and gain more mass, and maybe that’s what you want to do too. It’s no good saying you want to get fit and then immediately pay for a gym membership and go swimming the very next day or just hit the treadmill for a couple of hours. Think hard about what getting fit is all about for you, and then you can make the right decision about what type of routine will help you get there.

Staying On Track With The Post-Summer Blues

Last night the September equinox was upon us, and with it, we see the beginning of Autumn and the gradual colder, darker days that ensue. Luckily for me, all that means is that I have to put an extra layer on when I workout in my badly-insulted home-gym, but for others the problem can be worse as they can find themselves demotivated from doing any exercise or eating healthily altogether.

Personally I can very much empathise with this as I too was once that someone who just thought “sod it” when these chillier months came around. As these post-summer blues take their toll, it’s easy to look for any excuse, like the Halloween treats and the Christmas dinners, to justify the unhealthy choices we substitute for our usually better, more nutritious habits. What else could those new-year resolutions be if not a cleansing period in which we rid ourselves of the toxins for a week before becoming indulgent again?

Of course, here I’m actually jumping ahead in time a bit and being all pessimistic about it too, but it is unfortunate and has to be noted that this is the truth for many people - there’s something about us as a species that procrastinates and passes off the blame onto something else. Really, however, the consequences will only ever be on you, and that harsh realisation was what made me change my ways.

So when those chocolate advent calendars, Christmas dinners, and new-year’s drinks come around, don’t pretend like that’s everything keeping you from maintaining a balanced, healthy lifestyle for the remainder of the time. I’m not saying for once don’t indulge in these traditions - I want to stress that I don’t mean to write all my posts from an angle at which the healthiest choices should be prioritised at the expense of happiness and general wellbeing. I consider indulgences (on occasion!) to be part of what makes us happy as well as healthy. But what must be understood, is that they should be just that - a part, and a small part at that.

I realise that being healthy and happy at the same time can be contradictory, but it’s more about how you balance them both. These treats now and again mustn’t control you, and as long as you keep it that way there won’t be any need to have resolutions at the beginning of next year! Resolutions shouldn’t be a new-year thing. They should be an ongoing, everlasting year-round way of making ourselves better tomorrow than we are today. So eat those 25 tiny advent chocolates in December if you must. Share those new-year drinks with that girl you want to intoxicate into kissing you at midnight. But don’t for once fool yourself into believing that every day in your life you can be as forgiving. Remember, you’re the one who has to live with the consequences.

Meal Of The Day

Seasoned Chicken, Red Potato Wedges, Mixed Vegetables.

By no means am I an accomplished chef. The concept my parents have of cooking is to just bung something in the microwave! So naturally I’ve grown up with a rather limited knowledge of what a real, nutritious meal should taste like. Now I am discrediting my parents a bit here - they did the best job of raising me and my poor dad even sacrificed most of his garage space so I could have a place to put all of my home gym equipment! But as my mum’s favourite magnet says on our home fridge / freezer which is packed full of ready-meals, “If it fits in a toaster, I can cook it!”

I think this is relevant to a lot of people who want to get in better shape - there’s this preconceived idea that you’ve got to be some celebrity cook or at least have a book which Waterstones recommends in their food and drink section, if you are to have any chance of living more healthily. The truth is that you don’t have to be Jamie Oliver’s protégé in order to cook a decent meal. In fact all you need to know is where the fresh food sections are in your supermarket of choice, and which dial in your kitchen works the oven.

One of my favourite lunches I make for myself at home, which takes five minutes to prepare and 20-25 minutes to cook, is chicken, roasted red potatoes, and a cup to two cups of any couple of vegetables of your choice. Personally I love onions and peppers together with this meal. It may not sound like something as exciting as you’d find on the menu at Barbecoa, but actually, it only takes a few more seconds to season your chicken and potatoes with some sea salt, pepper and a few spices and herbs, to disguise it as something not too dissimilar to a Jamie Oliver dish.

Firstly you preheat your oven to about 200°, or gas mark 6, and then oil a baking tray or use some non-stick foil. Chop a 5 ounce red potato up into wedge-like chunks, and then finely chop your vegetables. Put it all on the baking tray with your chicken, and season with whatever you fancy. Personally I have a taste for spicy food so I add a dash of paprika as well as sea salt and pepper. In the oven it goes and in 20-25 minutes you couldn’t have made a healthy meal any simpler. Optionally, if you have more time to spare, you can always pan fry your vegetables so you have more control over the temperature and cooking time, but either way the result will be downright tasty!

Macronutrients: What They Are And Why They're Important

I’m surprised by how little the coverage is of macronutrients in the pages of health and fitness magazines, given that it is one of the most critical things to learn about when it comes to your eating. Fortunately, it’s very easy to understand. Made up of carbohydrates, protein and fats, macronutrients are simply the primary food groups that need to make up your daily food intake if you are to eat a fully-balanced and nutritious diet.

It’s a simple concept, but one which I believe is imperative. You can have the cleanest, most minimally processed diet in the world, work harder than everybody else in the gym, but still if you’re not getting enough of any one of these macronutrients you will be inhibiting your results. If carbs dominate your every meal but your plate is short of protein, your body simply wont have enough amino acids to repair itself. And yet if you’re eating three chicken breasts a day but not fuelling yourself with things like potatoes, oats, or rice, your workouts will be a complete bust because you simply wont have the energy you need to push through those last few reps. Fats are also essential in a daily diet. Now, I’m not talking cupcakes and chocolate brownies, but unsaturated fats which you can get from nuts, seeds, oils and fish, or oily fish, all provide energy as well as certain vitamins. They also help reduce cholesterol and fight against inflammation.

Depending on your own body type, the amount of macronutrients you need will differ from everybody else. No two people are the same, and just as you wouldn’t expect a 200lbs bodybuilder to eat the same ratios as a welterweight boxer trying to cut down for the weigh-in, you will have your personal goals to meet too.

Much of what I have learnt in fitness and nutrition has come from BeachBody’s home workout programmes, and particularly Body Beast, the bulking programme devised by two-time Mr Israel and world renowned bodybuilder Sagi Kalev. Now I don’t claim to be a health or fitness expert myself at all, but his approach to macronutrients comes from his 26-years of experience, and I stick by his opinion religiously. You too can find your personal, accurate nutrient needs online with calculations concerning your own weight and body fat percentage. It sinks my heart when I see someone trying to lose weight but is eating, for example, way more fruit than what they should be allotted. Yes, fruit is good for you, but it can still do more harm than good if you overload yourself with all that sugar, even if it is natural - you wouldn’t eat jars of honey in one go so don’t eat punnets of strawberries either! Same applies to every other food group. So make sure you get this right and you will succeed!

Down To The Specifics

On this drab September day as I drive home from the supermarket, I notice a couple, each with an ice cream in their hand, and not only was I perplexed as to why they were eating such a thing on a grey day like today, but I was also puzzled at how this far into my blog I haven’t yet shared the specifics on what I actually eat on a daily basis. Having just been for my grocery shop, I thought now would be a good time to shed some light on this.

Although my palate may seem as drab as the dreariness of today’s weather, given that I tend to eat the same food day to day, it’s the easiest, most cost-efficient way of eating what you need, not necessarily what you want. If there’s one thing I’ve tried to make clear about nutrition up to this point, it’s that food should be seen as the sustenance that it is, not a pastime! Having said this though, I think my palate is actually rather vibrant both in the rich colour of the foods I buy, and the downright tastiness of how they turn out cooked into one hearty meal. It is possible to cook a plate of food that’s both nutritious and absent of anything artificial, no matter how much those sweet-craving tastebuds may try and fool you!

Granted this isn’t my full weekly shop, I tend to go to the supermarket intermittently throughout the week to keep my food fresh, as a lot of what I buy is fruit, vegetables and meat which of course is the last thing you would want to eat past its use by date! So I buy my groceries here and there rather than in one bulk.

Here you can see I literally have a mixed bag, which as I said before is crucial because you want to get your nutrients from as many food groups as possible. And don’t twist my words here, you know what I mean - chocolates and biscuits are not food groups! Protein, carbohydrates, unsaturated fats, fruit, vegetables and some dairy are all important and reduce the risk of you depriving your body of any one of these essential nutrients.

For me the milk is one of the most important ingredients I buy, as it is very versatile by being able to go with many of the meals I eat. It can be mixed with the shakes I have post-workout, and put in with porridge for breakfast as a more appetising alternative to water (which, personally, I hate with my oatmeal) and of course, it’s common to just drink milk on its own. It’s a convenient way of both hydrating and providing your body with the calories and nutrients it needs - this is also why I go for the semi-skimmed milk because I can meet my own calorie needs. Feel free to choose the milk you most enjoy, however, or if you don’t like milk or are lactose intolerant there are of course alternatives such as almond milk for instance, which even I have additionally to the dairy milk (as in cow’s milk, not the Cadbury bars!). The yogurt accounts for much the same, but unlike milk it’s of course more for eating than drinking, so it mixes well with fruit for a nice, light snack, with which I usually have the raisins you can also see in the picture (the green packet).

Aside from the dairy, today I also bought some red potatoes, kidney beans, 100 percent orange juice, a ribeye steak, onions, peppers, and Dove care body wash for men, because smelling as fresh as your food tastes is just as important for maintaining a healthy body and mind! That, or I just forgot to take it out of the bag before I took a picture of what was just supposed to be my groceries!

The kidney beans are also quite flexible in their usability, and so I find myself cooking these for various meals from a tuna salad sandwich to a hearty autumn / winter turkey chilli - with which I’d also have the peppers and onions I bought today too. The ribeye steak is more of a treat as I only have red meat on occasion, instead favouring poultry or fish which is more beneficial to your health. With this I tend to have some delicious roasted red potatoes which I season with a dash of sea salt, pepper and herbs and spices. Lastly, the orange juice I buy is 100 percent juice. I have this over squash for the obvious reason of it being untouched by added sugars. I tend to have this in the morning with my oatmeal.

There is no magic pill or specific ingredient you’ve never heard of - much of the food I buy is as simple as you’d imagine a healthy diet to look like. The difference is the unnatural foods you must cut out if you are to see these nutritious meals take effect and get you the results you want from a healthier lifestyle. The less processed an item of food is between it having been picked from a tree, out of the ground, or from the sea, and put onto your local supermarket shelves, the better. If your diet is packed full of purely whole foods with nothing artificial added, you’d have to try really hard to go wrong! Just take notice of how often you eat your food (every two to three hours is best), and eat five to six small / medium meals a day depending on your individual needs as far as calories are concerned and the target weight / goals you have. Just stay focused, keep motivated, and carry on moving forward, and the results will come in time.