Following on from last post, I weighed in at 83.6kg the night before I was due to travel down to Aldershot but I had been water loading so was confident I’d make weight in the morning. Skipped breakfast, loaded the car with food & drink ready to rehydrate and refuel then hit the road nice and early. It’s a long old drive from Pembrokeshire and weigh-in was 10am-11:30am and I wanted to get in as early as possible so I could eat up!
Typically, my car radiator blew on the way .. perfect .. limped the last 30 miles using all the water I had in the car and heaters on full blast to cool engine, but still ended up missing the morning weigh-in by 10 minutes! Just what I needed. Used the scales they had there to see where I was and was looking at around 82.3. Couldn’t take the risk of having even a quick dioralyte as they weren’t the official scales and I may have gone over. Gutted … Had to wait till the 3pm weigh-in instead, feeling totally dried out and knackered from the hot drive down in the sun and watching the rest of the team fuel up around me. That’ll test your resolve when you are starving and thirsty as hell and having to watch your mates drinking plenty and stuffing burgers etc down their face 😔
Weighed in at 81.2kg by 3pm and spent the rest of the day eating and drinking and trying to regain as much lost water as I could knowing that my performance in the morning was dependent on it. Got a reasonably decent night sleep as was staying with family and was back ready in the morning. Didn’t feel too bad at the time, but warm-ups were feeling heavy and I knew I would have to really push myself to hit my targets.
Squatting opened well for me, hit a comfortable 190kg followed with a 210kg which went up easy so then went for a comp PB of 227.5kg (500lbs) – Didn’t go so well, knee gave way a little at the bottom so the spotters had to step in. That failed lift left me with just a 210kg squat. The judging was quite harsh and several lifters bombed out on depth so by the time bench came around, I dropped my opener down to 140kg. I’m confident I can hit that on a bad day and got that on the board happily. 150kg didn’t want to go up on my 2nd lift and on third lift my shoulder gave way on one side and the bar hit the spotters hand so I was red lighted even though I managed to lock it out (looking back at the video I can see why as not only was the bar travelling unevenly, he looked like he helped me, but when I was on the bench I didn’t feel like it!). My bench is always the first to get hit when I drop weight, especially with limited time to rehydrate again so I knew it was going to be a struggle. Ah well, on to deadlifts, dropped my opener to 180kg as again, I’m confident with that weight, easy lift on 2nd with a 190kg but centre ref had a quick word about bar ‘dropping too quickly’ and then a reasonably easy 200kg at third attempt as by that time it was all I needed to win my category and no point in shooting for a crazy PR.
So, not an amazing total by far, but it was enough on the day to take a European title and after the day I’d had beforehand, I was over the moon to have made it through and not been ‘bombed out’ of the competition at the squats – Plus the trophies were awesome 😉
Vids: Squat 190kg, Squat 210kg, Bench 140kg, Bench 150kg (fail – red light), Deadlift 180kg, Deadlift 190kg, Deadlift 200kg
Following that, I took a little time off and just enjoyed being ‘off-season’ as it seems like it’s been a long time and I’ve been nursing a few injuries for too long. Typically over the next few months I came down with a few illnesses and worst still, my knee gave way on the stairs as I’ve been suffering with patellar tendonitis for a while and sprained the inflamed tendon – yowch! Couldn’t walk for almost 3 days and training was out of the question for a while. My shoulder has also played up ever since, I think I’m getting too old for this lark! Ha ha
Now the last two months I’ve been rebuilding lost strength and trying to rehab my injuries. I have got back to all previous lifts equipped now, but my raw game has taken a big hit not only from the injuries, but the fact I’ve been focusing all my training on equipped lifting and feel my technique has come apart a little when unequipped as it’s a completely different way of lifting.
So now we’re into December and for now I’m really pushing to get my raw lifts back to where I was before I started competing. I’ll try and get some equipped lifting in once a month with the Pembs Powerlifters as I still plan on competing equipped but otherwise all training will be raw.
Life back on track, knee/shoulder calming right down with the focus on rehab and raw lifting and I’ll be posting up on here regularly again – Also, good news, I’ve met a graphic designer who will be looking at my book ‘Hench – A Straightforward Guide to Size and Strength’ as it’s still in Microsoft Word format and then will get it published and hopefully will finally get it out there! For now, back to the Christmas shopping, the joys of parenthood and work, work, work 😉
December 14, 2015 | Categories: Miscellaneous, Training | Tags: aldershot, bench, bench press, bombed out, BPO, british powerlifting organisation, champion, championship, deadlift, dehydration, EPC, european, hench, injury, make weight, meet, meet total, powerlifting, powerlifting meet, rehab, squat, training, water cut, water loading, WPF | Leave a comment
Where to start? Well, not long after last post I contracted a kidney stone & infection, needless to say, very painful and it knocked my training for 6. I pretty much couldn’t do anything for a month and had to pull out of the BPO British Championships in April as I wouldn’t be ready in time. These were qualifiers for the upcoming Europeans so needless to say I was a little gutted!
Thankfully, the president of the BPO has invited me to the Euro’s anyway as I have a ‘justifiable reason’ for not competing at the British, so wasn’t disappointed for too long J
Since then it has been a bit of a slog trying to get back up to previous strength levels. I’ve deliberately gained a little weight alongside training to help my lifts but unfortunately this mean I’m closer to 90kg than the 82.5kg I need to be at the meet and needing to cut 7+kg over the next 5 weeks.
Not an impossible task, but I will need to tighten up my diet and possibly water load again despite being advised against it by my GP. I know the risks and will put more into making sure I’m fully rehydrated for the comp – after this meet I won’t be competing till next year so will spend the rest of the year focusing on health and joint rehab/mobilisation, and possibly even move up a weight class next year to stop having to cut weight each time.
Training through April was just trying to get back to weights I’ve lifted this year and happily I’ve managed to do so, Deadlift back up to 190kg x3, Bench 150kg x2 and Squat 210kg x2. Equipment is a little tighter due to weight gain so pretty sure that’s helping, but still happy to hit my old numbers 😉
May has gone well, I’ve hit 160kg on Bench, 205kg Deadlift and 227.5kg for squat on max week. My goal is still to hit a 250kg Squat, double bodyweight Bench 165kg and another 5-10kg on Deadlift to take me up to my failed attempt at the worlds last year of 215kg. Got to have goals right?
So now it’s June, 1 week to go to the Euro’s, weighed in over the weekend at 87.6kg so I need to drop 5 kg, I’m eating as clean as possible and have easily dropped 3-4 kilos previously by water loading so feeling confident I’ll make weight … Watch this space J
June 16, 2015 | Categories: Training | Tags: bench, bench press, BPO, british powerlifting organisation, championship, competition, deadlift, EPC, Equipped, european, meet, meet prep, powerlifter, powerlifting, squat mistakes, strength, strength training, training, water loading | Leave a comment
By Mark Rippetoe
Here’s what you need to know…
• Most university-level programs do not equip their graduates to function beyond the commercial gym pin-setter level.
• Barbell training, the most basic and effective method for improving strength and conditioning, is either not taught in most programs or so poorly taught that it leaves students unable to get real results with their clients and athletes.
• Many studies that make it into the hallowed “Literature” draw conclusions based on unrealistic, silly methodology and puny weights. It’s clear the “exercise scientists” conducting these studies do not use barbells beyond a novice level, if at all.
• To get a real education, study a “hard” science, plan for much self-education, compete in your field of interest, and coach lots of other people… for years on end.
Read more here …
July 15, 2014 | Categories: Articles | Tags: balance board, barbell, bosu, exercise, fad, gymball, importance, instability, mark rippetoe, problem, rippetoe, science, training, vibro-plate | Leave a comment
Appropriate Conditioning by Johnny Pain, originally posted in Starting Strength and Strengthvillain.com
One of the most frequently asked questions that I receive both in the consulting end of my business and at the Starting Strength seminars, is when and how to add conditioning work to a strength training program. This is a valid question certainly, and a serious point of discussion for many. This article is designed to address the topic from my perspective, and convey my opinions on the matter.
When asked about conditioning, I typically reply with a simple question of my own: “Why do you want to do conditioning work?” This isn’t asked from a condescending, “who wants to do that sort of thing?” point of view, but rather out of a genuine interest to determine why conditioning may or may not be important in that person’s program. Answers range from the need to pass physical fitness tests at a person’s place of employment to the desire to be “well rounded” and able to take on any task that comes one’s way. The most common answer, although the one that often has to be extracted out of a somewhat uncooperative individual, is the perceived need to include conditioning work out of the erroneous belief that body composition is dependent on one’s exposure to that type of training – the irony being that diet is 99% of body composition. All of these reasons can be legitimate concerns in their own right depending on the situation. In most cases, however, a bit of education is required in order to help the inquisitor understand the best method of addressing the issue.
Before we get into the specifics, let’s take a look at the term “conditioning”. What does it mean? For our purposes we will define it as one’s ability to perform a given task. Terms like “General Physical Preparedness (GPP)” and “Work Capacity” have become buzzwords these days, particularly among people who do not compete in an activity that requires a specific conditioning adaptation. There is a widespread belief that one must train for any possible contingency, “the unknown and the unknowable.” It is my contention that becoming as strong as possible will have the most significant effect on one’s overall ability to perform a variety of tasks, and therefore represents the most intelligent use of training time for the purpose of conditioning, within certain limits.
Let’s talk about this a bit. <— Follow link for remainder of article..
April 12, 2014 | Categories: Articles | Tags: appropriate, cardio, conditioning, fitness, GPP, Johnny Pain, starting strength, strength villain, training, work capacity | Leave a comment
An old article by Mark Rippetoe, but one of my favourites! It’s no secret I’m a bit of a Rippetoe fan, despite his very strong opinions I enjoy reading his articles due to his style of writing and humour.
“There is a lot of advice, information, and well understood knowledge regarding the field in which I practice—strength training and fitness—that is just silly bullshit. Plain old “SB” (to keep from baiting the censors too temptingly). And it comes from numerous sources: chief among them are medical professionals who think that they are also exercise professionals, muscle magazines published specifically for the purpose of perpetuating it, home exercise and weight loss advertisers, Internet fitness sites, the academic exercise people, and the mainstream media, who are the mindless pawns of the others.” Continue reading –>Silly BS – Mark Rippetoe
July 10, 2013 | Categories: Articles | Tags: mark rippetoe, rippetoe, silly bs, strength, training | Leave a comment
Some serious strength gains after a year of 5/3/1 – My friend Pete demonstrating how effective the system is by simply following it for 12 months. Great work mate!
A Year Of 531 <——- Click Here!
July 1, 2013 | Categories: Articles | Tags: 531, Jim Wendler, Pete Stables, progression, strength, Strong, training, transformation, Wendler | Leave a comment
A great article (http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/rippetoe_throws_down&cr=) at T-nation by Rippetoe recently. I’ve always liked his straight talking opinion – here’s some others (http://www.t-nation.com/ALSAuthor.do?p=Mark%20Rippetoe&pageNo=1) if you’re interested.
April 22, 2013 | Categories: Articles | Tags: barbell, crossfit, exercise, insanity, mark rippetoe, p90x, rippetoe, strength, Strong, training | Leave a comment
I’ve written a few posts now on Hyper Lordosis or Anterior Pelvic Tilt and it’s effects on lifting. The fact is, almost everyone has a degree of hyper-lordosis due to the fact we all use chairs far too often! From working to travelling to relaxing, it is all usually done in a seated position, this then in turn re-inforces the poor posture already lurking, causes tight lower back/hip flexors and weak or elongated abdominals/gluteals.
Most of us then try to address it with some stretching of tight muscles and strengthening the weaker ones. The problem with strengthening the abs is that the overwhelming majority simply don’t know how to. They will do something like sit-ups or crunches and hold a plank for minutes on end. The problem with these is:
- Situps work your hip flexors more than your abs, especially with the classic jerking off the floor type, crunches are a little better, but still involve the hip flexors and tend to lead to…
- Upper back rounding – When crunches are performed the movement reinforces poor posture by causing you to round your upper back each rep so leading into Kyphosis or a Neanderthal type posture – Instead of keeping your shoulders back and down with good posture, you’re constantly rounding your upper back and pushing your chin forward.
- Too much flexion and extension of the spine. Alot of people do situps by arching the lower back, pulling their body up with the hip flexors, then rounding forward towards the top of each rep. Think about it – what happens when you keep bending something back and forward over time? SNAP!
- Most people hold a plank ‘passively’ – hips sagging and upper back rounded (see post on RKC Plank for a better option)
- Due to the law of reciprocal inhibition (when a muscle on one side of a joint contracts, the other opposing muscle relaxes), your already inactive or weak glutes get weaker every rep because your hip flexors are strengthened with every rep! In other words – Sit-ups exagerate the problem you’re trying to address!!
Real Abdominal or Core Strength is simply the ability to stabilise the spine especially when under load. This is the primary job of the abs after all! How often are we even required to perform a sit-up/crunch type movement? I can’t even think of an example after getting out of bed! But, I can certainly think of many an occassion where I am supporting a load – Carrying shopping, picking up the kids/pets, moving things around, picking things up, etc etc.
If you’re already doing heavy deadlifts/squats/press’s then your core will already be getting plenty of stabilisation, if not, or you want to focus on it a little more you can’t go wrong with looking at the olympic weightlifters (especially the lightweight category). They are required to stabilise huge loads overhead and generally have the physique to match! Makes sense really, if you’re going to lift something heavy over your head then your abs are going to have to work overtime to keep your torso upright and stabilized.
To work on stabilisation, you can’t beat a bridge/plank type movement (performed correctly!)the light-weight Olympic lifters do things like supporting weight on their stomachs while they’re laying over two chairs, making their abs a “bridge” for the weight and forcing their whole core to stabilize and work to keep their back straight. A bit of an extreme version for most, but it is the general ‘bridging’ principle we’re looking at – Try the RKC plank to start.
Instead of doing hundreds of reps of easy situps and causing so many muscle imbalances, un-even weaknesses and strengths… if you’re going to do abdominal exercises to train your abs to contract your body in half… you should try harder ab exercises.
Try and focus more on lower ab work. Most people have weaker lower abs compared to their upper abs. This is usually due to crunches and upper ab work like that.
On top of that, posterioral problems and muscle imbalances are common from doing so many situps and from crunching your ribcage down towards your pelvis. You need to work your abs in a different plane of motion.
If you are lifting heavily on a regular basis, there is a great move for strengthening the abs, but also to stretch (decompress) your spine from those heavy loads. The Hanging Leg Raise and its variations
- They strengthen your abs
- They decompress your spine
- They stretch your back
- They help Correct Lordosis by training you to tilt your pelvis posteriorly and up.
Train your abs the way they were meant to be – As spinal stabilizers and with harder contraction exercises.
April 15, 2013 | Categories: Articles | Tags: ab, abs, APT, conventional, core, core strength, crunch, don't work, hanging leg raise, hyper-lordosis, lumbar, methods, problem, RKC Plank, sit-up, sit-ups, Stabilisation, strength, training | Leave a comment
A frequently asked question when it comes to chest training is ‘Are Dumbells better or worse than a Barbell?’ – There is no yes or no answer to this one, it is entirely dependant on your goals.
As you can load a barbell gradually with minor increases in weight, they are the ideal tool for building strength. To get stronger you need to progressively lift more weight over a period of time. If you can’t, something is not right – You can perform all the drop-sets/supersets/giant sets/forced reps etc etc, but if the weight is not increasing, you will not get stronger – You will plateau much quicker with Dumbbells due to the large increase in weight percentage between them. Even a well stocked gym will have the weight increases around the 2.5kg mark. This is as increase of 5kg on your lift which is going to be a challenge for most and makes progressive loading nigh impossible. If your goal is pure strength you can load significantly more onto a barbell due to its balance and stability and so is the perfect tool in this situation.
Muscular imbalance is another thing to address. Although you can try and be more aware of pushing equally or focusing on leading with the weaker side, with a Barbell imbalances can be masked. When using Dumbbells you will be much more aware of imbalances as one side will be unstable or will fatigue first, and will prevent your dominant side from growing faster than the other. Balanced body strength leads to greater performance and lowers the chance of injury.
The Barbell bench press is also harder on your joints than dumbbells. When pressing with dumbbells, your hands won’t remain completely pronated (palms forward), but will rotate slightly inwards reducing the stress on your wrists elbows and shoulders (particularly rotator cuff) and therefore reducing your chance of injury.
With regard to muscle recruitment, researchers noted that electrical activity or muscle stimulation in the arms was greatest in the triceps with a barbell, but when dumbbells are used the biceps also come into play as stabilisers. The Barbell activates more upper chest fibres and anterior deltoid due to the wide grip in the top position, however as your hands are free to move across your body with dumbbell presses there is greater lower pectoral activation. Although yes, you will use more stabilising muscles with the dumbbells, you will be limited by the weight increases as previously mentioned meaning you will plateau sooner.
In my opinion the barbell is the better option as you can handle a lot more weight doing the same exercises. More weight moved = bigger muscles. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use dumbbells, you should try and use both – Just keep the main focus on increasing the weight on the bar and use dumbbell sets to ensure you work the entire chest area, prevent imbalances and keep your joints healthy.
In a nutshell:
Barbell – Heavier weight handled, better mass gain, easier for beginners, greater progression (stall less often).
Dumbbell – Better for balance and stabilisation, no need for spotter, less stress on joints, slightly increased range of motion.
March 11, 2013 | Categories: Articles | Tags: Anterior Deltoid, bar, barbell, bench, bench press, Best, Chest, Dumbbell, Imbalance, mass, mass gain, muscle, Option, Pectoral, progression, progressive overload, Range Of Motion, Rotator Cuff, Stabilisation, strength, technique, training, Versus, Vs | 2 Comments
Should you use lifting straps? It’s yet another massive debate with people on both sides passionately arguing the case for and against them.
Having had a crossfit background, I have been guilty of judging people on using them myself. However, since strength training I’ve been bringing them in for my heavier topsets on deadlifts and I’m getting a couple more reps, so definitely see the benefits. A lot of the for arguments are that there’s better Lat isolation or they say ‘I feel it in my back more’ or even just being able to perform more reps with a weight that they can’t without them.
When performing deadlifts, rows or pulldowns, the majority of the time your grip will give out before your back will. If you use straps a lot you will need to add in some grip work on top of everything else. Grip training itself is extremely taxing to your CNS and is difficult to recover from as everything you do involves your grip to some extent. My advice? Don’t use them every set, just when grip is starting to become an issue with the weight you’re using. That way you’re not having to do additional grip training and you can reap the benefits of being able to go heavier on your lifts.
Additional info: Pros and Cons of Strapping up, Using Straps to Build Muscle – Sean Nalewanyj, How Using Straps Can Save Your Back and Elbows – Jason Ferruggia
March 5, 2013 | Categories: Articles | Tags: back, CNS, forearm, gain, grip, isolation, lat, lats, lift, lifting, lifting straps, lifts, mass, mass gain, muscle, straps, strength, Strong, training | 2 Comments
Article from TheDeadlift.com
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The Physical Benefits of Deadlifting
Why Deadlift? To us asking that is akin to asking Why Breathe? The Deadlift is one of the most ancient, fundamental and just flat out alpha lifts out there. In no other lift do you raise hundreds of pounds of weight off the ground with your bare hands. There’s really something magical about the Deadlift. You just don’t feel the same amount of confidence and joy doing Squats or Bench Pressing as you do while Deadlifting. There’s a reason so many people look forward to Deadlift day.
What Muscles Does The Deadlift Work?
The primary of deadlifting are increased strength and muscle mass. Since the deadlift is a compound movement it utilizes nearly every major muscle of your body:
• Spinal Erectors
• Quads
• Glutes
• Hamstrings
• Lower Back
• Middle and Upper Trapezius
• Abdominals and Obliques
• Lats
• Calves
So doing one deadlift is almost like doing In a leg presses, aback extension, lying leg curls, an abdominal crunch, a gripping exercise, a straight-arm pull down and a shrug all at the same time. Yep, its one hell of a compound lift.
Another great reason for deadlifting is testosterone and growth hormone release. Studies have shown that compound lifts like the deadlift use the most muscle groups and thus release the most of these 2 crucial chemical compounds.
Still not fully convinced by the glory of the Deadlift? Listen to Johnnie Jackson, IFBB Pro and one of the strongest bodybuilders in the world.
Other Deadlifting Benefits
• Deadlifting helps to increase stability control. While using machines to train muscles will isolate and target only a specific few muscle groups, the deadlift also involves supplementary and minor muscles called stabilizer muscles that are usually ignored by the mainstream. The lack of training of these stabilizer muscles will lead to imbalances and can lead a person to be more susceptible to injury and unsymmetrical physique.
• Another huge benefit from deadlifting is increased grip strength. Since the deadlift is one of the few exercises where you must manually hold hundreds of pounds of weight, it is one of the best exercises for increasing grip strength and strengthening the forearms. Increased grip strength will then aid to improve other lifts like the bench press.
• Deadlifting is also one the few exercises out there with real world application. Pickup weights off the ground is something we’ve been doing for millennia and is exactly what the deadlift trains the body to do.
• If performed correctly the deadlift also strengthens the spine and can lead to better posture. People with lordosis or excessive curving of the spine can benefit from the deadlift as it will help fix their posture by strengthening their lower back muscles, as well as the core, and by ironing out any lower back imbalances.
• Cardio. The only two exercises to really make someone light headed are Deadlifts and Squats. Deadlifting really taxes your cardiovascular system, as you already know, or will soon find out. (Pro tip: Make sure you have somewhere to sit down after deadlifting).
Some uneducated people and crappy gyms (AKA Planet Fitness) will try and tell you the Deadlift is not a good exercise, and that it’s dangerous, and that you shouldn’t do it. That’s not true at all. Driving a car is dangerous, yet we still do it. Why? Because we learn how to do it first. So read up on Deadlifting Form before you go out there and do a clean set of 5.
Article from TheDeadlift.com
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February 14, 2013 | Categories: Articles | Tags: benefit, benefits, compound, deadlift, exercise, gain, glutes, hamstrings, lift, lower back, mass gain, muscle, physical, strength, strengthening, Strong, training | 1 Comment
You don’t keep a training log.
Keeping a detailed log of your progress is one of the most important things you can do to make sure you are constantly progressing and acheiving optimal results from your training. Without this, your training is just guesswork. If you keep a log you can look back and set yourself a goal/PR to beat every session, or look back and make adjustments/changes when you hit a plateau. On top of this, how will you know you’ve improved over time? Wouldn’t you like to be able to look back and say ‘I’ve added 20kg to my Bench Press in the last 6 months!’ or ‘My 1 mile run time has dropped by over 30 seconds in the last 8 weeks’?
To build muscle you should always be striving to beat PR’s (personal records) in your training. Without your training log you will be hard pressed to remember all of your PR’s so you won’t know if your progressing or just spinning wheels, and without it, everything you do is just like driving without a map and your progress will be much slower than it could be.
This basic rule should form the basis of your entire workout plan, especially if strength is your goal. To structure your training approach, this is the most important factor. Nowadays everyone is so obsessed with all of the specific principles in the gym (such as rep ranges, grip variations, speed of reps, how many sets to perform, whioch days to train, exercise selection .. the list goes on ..) they fail to see the big picture.
Whatever your goal is, the underlying principle will always be progression.
Our bodies build muscle as an adaptive response to the environment they are exposed to. When you go to the gym, you break down your muscle fibers by lifting weights. Your body senses this as a potential threat to its survival and will react by rebuilding the damaged fibers larger and stronger in order to better enable them to cope with the threat next time. So in order to make continual gains in muscle size and strength, you must focus on progressing workout to workout in order to consistently increase that stress level and so growth.
Progression is in one of two forms – An increase in weight or an increase in reps. As long as you increase one of these every session you will give your body the incentive to grow stronger. If you ignore this and train without a logbook or a planned out session you will be ignoring the principle of growth and your gains will come to a grinding halt.
Your aim is to improve on a session by session basis, how can you do this without documenting it somehow? You need to record the lift, weight used and reps acheived so that the next time you enter the gym you can sit down, review the previous session/lifts performed and aim to smash the weight or reps you’ve recorded previously. Buy yourself a cheap diary and start writing it down!
January 28, 2013 | Categories: Articles | Tags: build muscle, document, goal, goal setting, log book, mass building, mass gain, PR, progress, progression, record, recorded, strength, training, training log, workout plan | Leave a comment
After the Christmas/New Year binge, I thought this might be an eye opener!
Most of us associate the effects of alcohol on the body with the heart, lungs, liver, brain, memory, etc. And when asked about the effects to our training goals, most people will refer to the beer belly.
Drinking a lot of alcohol will cause you to store too many calories as fat. Some people go for low calorie drinks or diet mixers (i.e diet coke) and feel that by making this choice the only bad effects of the alcohol (increased fat storage) will be minimized. The fact is, only about 5% of the calories from alcohol are stored as fat! The effects of alcohol on the body are far more damaging than the number of empty calories in some alcoholic drink.
1: Alcohol really affects the amount of fat your body can and will burn for energy.
In a study done by the American Journal of Clinical Research, It was concluded that just a mere 24g of alcohol consumption showed whole-body lipid oxidation (the rate at which your body burns fat) decreased by as much as 73%!
When alcohol goes through the liver, the by-product is called Acetate. Acetate puts the brakes on fat burning in a massive way. Your body can use many types of fuel. Protein, carbohydrates and fat. In many cases, the fuel used is dictated by its availability, your body will use whatever is available so as your acetate levels increase, your body burns more acetate as fuel. What this means is fat burning takes a back seat. Basically a) You have a few drinks. b) Your liver metabolizes that into acetate. c) Your body uses the acetate for fat as fuel.
2: It leads to an increase in your appetite.
In another American Journal of Clinical Nutrition study, there was evidence to suggest that consumption of alcohol leads to an increase in appetite over that of any other carbohydrate type drink. Researchers over in the Research Department of Human Nutrition and Center for Advanced Food Studies in Denmark concluded that consumption of alcoholic beverages, and wine in particular, may enhance total energy intake at a meal relative to a soft drink, when served with no restriction.
3: It decreases testosterone and increases cortisol levels.
A study of 8 healthy male volunteers observed that after drinking alcohol, the effects of a significant decrease in testosterone and an increase in cortisol (a muscle destroying hormone) lasted up to 24 hours. So if you are serious about building muscle and burning fat, you want all the free testosterone levels you can get and you want to reduce cortisol in any way you can. That means go easy on the booze as it does affect your hormone levels. Worse still the effects are worse if you exercise before drinking – So don’t drink on training days! Not shocking is a study done by the Department of Radiology, Sahlgrenska Hospital, Goteborg, Sweden that determined increased waist to hip ratio of alcoholics may include not only changes in adipose tissue, but also in muscle tissue distribution – Fatter around the middle and less muscle, not ideal!
4: It decreases vitamin and mineral absorption.
When you consume large quantities of alcohol, your liver is working overtime converting the alcohol to acetate and any vitamins and minerals that it might process are taken up by the detoxification process. Alcohol interferes with the metabolism of most vitamins, and with the absorption of many nutrients. Alcohol stimulates both urinary calcium and magnesium excretion. This just means that you’ll get less of a benefit from the “healthy” meal you may be consuming. Food in the stomach will compete with ethanol for absorption into the blood stream. It is well known that alcohol competes and influences the processing of nutrients in the body.
5: It decreases protein synthesis of type II fibers.
This means the actual building of muscle is slowed down by 20%+ or more. This included a 35% decrease in muscle insulin-like growth factor-I (GF-I).
6: It increases dehydration.
A common side effect of alcohol is dehydration. Alcohol is a diuretic. Drinks containing 4% alcohol tend to delay the recovery process. Considering how important water is to muscle building and general health, it’s clear that dehydration can put a real damper on your progress. After alcohol consumption the first thing you might want to do is drink coffee. But that’s a diuretic as well. How to avoid dehydration? Drink more water!
7: It reduces sleep
Alcohol consumption, especially at the times when you would normally sleep, can have effects on the quality of sleep. Clearly high quality sleep is extremely important to the rebuilding and growth process of muscle. Without proper rest and recovery, your gains will be affected. Alcohol consumption can also induce sleep disorders by disrupting the sequence and duration of sleep states and by altering total sleep time as well as the time required to fall asleep.
8: You won’t make PR’s with a hangover!
Obvious really, but if you plan on drinking on a Friday night in excess then the squat session you normally do on Saturday morning will take a hit. It takes a bit to recover, your body to detoxify and for you mentally to be prepared to workout. Not to mention you need energy for the workout ahead. Sure you can hit the weights but , it’s not going to be a great session.
For more evidence in the November 2004 issue of the International Journal of Obesity a study on the effects of moderate consumption of white wine on weight loss was done. Each group consumed 1500 calories. 150 calories came from white wine in one group and 150 calories from grape juice in another. The conclusion: An energy-restricted diet is effective in overweight and obese subjects used to drinking moderate amounts of alcohol. A diet with 10% of energy derived from white wine is as effective as an isocaloric diet with 10% of energy derived from grape juice. It’s simple: Moderation is the key!
So basically the effects of alcohol on your body when it comes to building muscle and burning fat are quite clear. It is a lot more than just some extra calories stored as fat. If you drink too much, it can upset your goals for a lot longer after your head has hit the pillow and you’ve gone to sleep.
January 5, 2013 | Categories: Articles | Tags: acetate, affect, alcohol, apetite, cortisol, dehydration, effect, fat burning, fitness, gym, hangover, mass gain, metabolism, muscle, session, testosterone, training, workout | Leave a comment
Anyone who has participated in training of any kind is familiar with DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness). Even advanced lifters may occasionally suffer from it. What may surprise you is that it is still not fully understood in the scientific community nor can its causes be fully identified. There are a few theories, some of which are more believable, but none are 100% proven. (I may delve into these at a later date, but for now I’m looking at the effect on training and/or hypertrophy (muscle growth)).
DOMS itself can range from mild swelling stiffness around the joints involved to crippling pain where you are literally barely able to stand. It can start from immediately after a workout to a couple of days later and cast last for days – in extreme cases up to a week! Typically however it occurs 24-72 hours after a workout and lasts a day or two. To best keep it to a minimum ensure you eat enough post work-workout, drink plenty of water and get adequate rest.
You do not need DOMS to build muscle, so don’t strive to absolutely kill yourself with volume and/or reps every workout, this is madness! It will also hinder progress as you will be unable to train again for a few days due to the pain. Some trainers deliberately push their clients into soreness every workout with statements like “no pain, no gain”, and “if you don’t hurt tomorrow, you didn’t work hard enough”. All this shows is a complete lack of knowledge on their part, and generally are just trying to prove themselves as their clients may then talk about them in ways such as “so-and-so is a much better trainer than so-and-so, my legs were killing for a week”. Great! well done, you’ve done one session and now can’t do anything else for a week due to soreness! Now think about going for a 10 mile walk tomorrow (boring I know), I can guarantee if you don’t do a lot of walking you will have a level of DOMS from it. Does it take a Personal Training certificate for that? It is very easy to make someone sore after a workout, but not so easy to get them faster, stronger or lower body-fat, that is where a good trainer should stand out from the crowd.
Now I’m not saying you should avoid DOMS altogether, far from it, but you shouldn’t train specifically for it either. It can occur at random due in part to being dehydrated or not having enough rest, but it will mostly occur when you change an exercise or perform something you haven’t done before. It also tends to occur a lot with plyometric (explosive) work, but again mainly when you are new to the exercise and tends to decrease as you adapt to it. For example, I performed a Hack Squat last week for the first time and had DOMS for around 4 days, even though I increased the weight the next time I used it, my soreness was far less as I’ve started to adapt to the stresses involved.
Should you try to train with DOMS or will it make it worse? Another debate-able point. If you are too sore to train, there is little point anyway, but I would suggest some light/mild exercise as I find it helps to dissipate the soreness. However that is my experience, you may be different. One thing is for sure, in the science world, it has been proven that the recovery process can continue and even be enhanced through another workout session, so don’t get dragged into the ‘overtraining’ myth – You can’t overtrain in one workout!! Too many people have been brainwashed with the ‘you must completely recover before the next session’. I have often trained whilst sore and it has never hindered my progress. (I can also talk about CrossFit here, whilst following that I was regularly sore but still would workout the next day without ‘overtraining’). If you get prolonged or extreme soreness, however, then it is genuinely time for a break!
In short, getting DOMS after a session is a good indicator of work done, but it is not the only indicator. It should not be trained for specifically and not getting it doesn’t mean you haven’t trained hard enough. Keep adding weight to the bar and get stronger, you cannot get a better indicator for progress than being able to lift more weight for more reps.
October 10, 2012 | Categories: Articles | Tags: crossfit, DOMS, hypertrophy, post workout, recovery, soreness, training | Leave a comment
Been a real hectic weekend so haven’t had time to train, let alone post. However here is just a little something that anyone looking to get big and strong should read! Paul Carter wrote this some time ago and like Johnny Pain has a great no bull in-your-face way of writing that requires no further comment! Read it here : Just Train
October 7, 2012 | Categories: Articles | Tags: Lift-Run-Bang, Paul Carter, training | 2 Comments
‘What supplements should I take?’ is a common question in gyms worldwide, our dependence on them is shocking! How many people do you know taking supplements? what percentage of gym goers would you say is hitting them regularly? I don’t know either, but I know it’s a lot. Why is this..? Clever marketing!
The definition of a supplement is: Something that completes or enhances something else when added to it.
Supplements are just that, they are supposed to go with good training and nutrition, not replace them. Too many people (young guys especially) put supplements first and training second. They are never going to succeed with that attitude. No supplement takes the place of hard work in the gym and good nutrition, not one.
If there really was a good supplement that worked really well on the market, don’t you think we’d all know about it? And don’t you think the top-level bodybuilder’s would be using it instead of pumping full of dangerous and illegal steroids?
Again, to supplement means ‘in addition to’, but that’s just the point, most people think they can stack a load of horrendously overpriced supplements and they’ll pack on muscle. Unfortunately they forget that food is the number one most anabolic substance out there, and hard work in the gym second. Get those two absolutely spot on first, then ask yourself – Are you getting enough rest and hydration? – Then and only then could you start to think about supplements, and if you are, do some proper research! don’t follow what some forum guy advises or because some top-level pro advertises it. They didn’t get that way from the supplement, I can guarantee it!
Do I supplement? Yes, I do. However, I like to think I have the above points covered, and I also know that they are just a tool to aid my progress and may get me there a little quicker. The training I do is and always should be the number one priority. I only take a few time proven supplements that have been used for many years by all levels – currently protein and creatine. That’s it! – All the other ones are unnecessary if you stick to a balanced healthy diet, which also means you’re not taking unknown quantities of whatever might be included, even if the dosage is high enough to warrant taking it. (do you really know what half of the ingredients even are, never mind what the long-term effects might be?) Half of the supplements out there have such a low amount of the active ingredient you may as well not bother. The rest of the hype is marketing and advertising. Don’t fall for it!
Do you think supplements got this guy in this shape? I very much doubt it!!
In summary, get your training right, eat properly, drink plenty of water, get enough sleep and rest adequately between workouts. If you’re doing all this, then you could consider taking supplements, but don’t expect miracles!
October 4, 2012 | Categories: Articles | Tags: best supplement, build muscle, mass building, nutrition, supplement, supplements, training, why supplement | Leave a comment
BE HENCH 