10 Ways To Train Your Core Without Crunches

This article from 'Girls Gone Strong', gives all you core junkies out there a few more ideas of how to build a great midsection. You can a lot of things about a person from this section of their body so make sure you get in a couple of these exercises a week! Dont go doing all of them in one go, just pick a couple every week and do a few sets.

10 Ways To Train Your Core Without Crunches

As the saying goes, “abs are built in the kitchen” though it never hurts to have a solid repertoire of core exercises to not only get stronger but also complement those six pack, nutritional efforts. As we get closer and closer to the midriff  baring months, here are 10 of my commonly used core exercises for both myself and clients.

Note: You won’t find a traditional crunch on this list. While many (ladies especially) associate the “burn” from crunches as an effective way to train the abs, the jury is out on whether crunches could hinder the integrity of our spine / disks with high volume, repetitive flexion. Because of this, you’ll find many coaches and trainers who utilize other methods to train strength, stability and overall performance through the core.

In no particular order:

1. Pallof Press – It’s always great to train on our feet as we’re usually operating / performing from a standing position. This is a great exercise for anti-rotation and sometimes I will utilize these in place of a side plank for clients as well.

For the rest of the article and some more great info from the girls over at Girls Gone Strong, please follow the link:

10 Ways To Train Your Core Without Crunches

Eric Cressey' 15 Mistakes of Static Stretching

A great article written by a very knowledgeable man. The article has videos as well as text, its well worth a read, its just gives you some great tips that you could implement straight away and change you stretch routine for the better. Enjoy and thanks to W10 for putting me onto this one!

One of the most debated topics in the strength and conditioning world in recent years has been whether or not static stretching is necessary and, if so, when it should be implemented.  While I don't think everyone needs it, and that there are certainly are times when it is a bad idea to utilize, I'm still of the mindset that it can have some solid benefits when implemented properly. 

Unfortunately, like all training initiatives, some people do it all wrong. To that end, I wanted to devote today's article to covering the top 15 static stretching mistakes I encounter.

Mistake #1: Stretching through extreme laxity.

This is the most important and prevalent one of all, so it comes first.  When I see someone doing this, this is pretty much how I feel:

We're all have a different amount of congenital laxity.  Basically, this refers to how much "give" our ligaments have.  Some folks have naturally stiff joints, and others have very loose joints.  This excessively joint laxity is obviously much higher in females and younger populations, but, as Leon Chaitow and Judith DeLany discuss in Clinical Applications of Neuromuscular Techniques: Volume 1, it is also much higher in folks of African, Asian, and Arab origin.
When you take someone who is really lax and implement aggressive static stretching, it's on par with having someone with a headache bang his/her head against a wall.  It makes things worse.
This is a tricky thing to understand, though, because many of these "loose" individuals will comment on how they feel "tight."  Usually that tightness is just them laying down trigger points as a way for the body to create stability in areas where they are chronically unstable.  They'd be better off working on stability training to get back to efficient movement.
I think yoga has a tremendous amount of applications and we borrow from the discipline all the time, but I think this is where many modern yoga classes fall short; they have everyone in the class go to the same end-range on certain exercises. Folks with serious joint laxity should not only contraindicate certain yoga poses, but also modify others so that they're training stability short of the true end-range of their joints. Unfortunately, most of the people you'll see in yoga classes are hypermobile women; you see, they like to do the things they're good at doing, not necessarily what they need to do.
How do you know if you're lax, though? I like to use the Beighton hypermobility scale to assess for both generalized congenital laxity and specific laxity at a joint. The screen consists of five tests (four of which are unilateral), and is scored out of 9:
1. Elbow hyperextension > 10° (left and right sides)
2. Knee hyperextension > 10° (left and right sides)
3. Flex the thumb to contact with the forearm (left and right sides)
4. Extend the pinky to >90° angle with the rest of the hand (left and right sides)
5. Place both palms flat on the floor without flexing the knees

One of the biggest problems I see in today's strength and conditioning world is that we assume all "big, strong" athletes are tight and need aggressive stretching.  As an example, take a look at this high Beighton score in a 6-3, 240-pound athlete.  We do very little static stretching with him - and absolutely none in the upper body.

If someone is really lax, nix the static stretching and instead spend more time on stabilization work.  If they still feel like they need to "loosen up," tell them to do some extra foam rolling.  They'll transiently reduce some of the stiffness they're feeling, but they won't be working through harmful end-range joint range-of-motion in the process.

Day 4- 5 Lessons of a Samurai- Eric Falstrault

Thanks to a good trainer friend of mine i came across this article a few days ago, it has some extremely useful information and practical guidelines for living life! Have a read of lesson 1 and then follow the like to Eric' blog and read the rest, while you there you may as well sign up to his blog posts. A lot of what he says just 'makes sense', so  go read, follow, learn, enjoy!

OC

Lesson #1

Preserving life is a matter of what we eat so food and drink are the nourishment of life. For this reason, nourishment should be considered a special daily supplement to one’s life that should not be neglected nor abused. The stomach and spleen receives the nutrients that send the pure liquid (pure liquid that supports animal life, that becomes blood) to the organs and viscera, just as the grass and trees grow by the means of the ch’i of the earth. In other words, Taking care of the stomach is of the utmost importance Yojokun (way of nurturing life) and taking care of the body. Ancients always set limits to their food intake in order to not disrupt the balance, and this nourished their health. You always must be aware of what goes into your mouth. The ancients often said ‘’disasters go out through the mouth and disease comes in through it.’’ Food and drink should be used to extinguish hunger and thirst. Once the desire is fulfilled, you should stop eating. Control yourself and set limits.

Another great point he made is that you should write down all the things that consistently make you ill, and then avoid them. A consistent malady becomes a chronic illness. Some will make you ill immediately and others over time. Avoid both at all costs.

For the other 4 lessons click here

4 Reasons why sugar is bad for you!

4 Reasons why sugar is bad for you!

Different foods affect the body in different ways and sugar is uniquely fattening.

Sugar (sucrose) and high fructose corn syrup contain two molecules: glucose and fructose.

Glucose is absolutely vital to life and is an integral part of our metabolism. Our bodies produce it and we have a constant reservoir of it in the bloodstream.

Every cell in the body can use glucose for energy. If we don’t get glucose from the diet, our bodies produce what we need out of proteins and fats.

Fructose, however, is very different. This molecule is not a natural part of metabolism and humans do not produce it.

In fact, very few cells in the body can make use of it except liver cells.

When we eat a lot of sugar, most of the fructose gets metabolized by the liver. There it gets turned into fat, which is then secreted into the blood.

1. Fructose Causes Insulin Resistance

Please click here to read the rest of this post by Authority Nutrition.

Day 2. & Tips from Tom Hamilton. 7 Tips to help you achieve your ideal body

Tom Hamilton is fast becoming one of the go to personal trainers in Bristol,
he trains both the general public and athletes, follow his ideas and follow his blog!

7 Tips to help you achieve your ideal body

1) Make sure you are consuming enough food.  Typical scenario I have come across is when someone wants to lose body fat, the 1^st thing most people tend to do is massively restrict their calorie intake, this is a huge mistake as it places the body into starvation mode & the body will hold on to the fat.

For the rest of the 6 tips go to Toms Blog 

Day 1 of Post an article a day month... Why Women Should Not Be Afraid Of Gaining Muscle

Day 1 of the 'Post an article per day month'. 

Please take the time to read the articles and at least implement one of the ideas from each one. There will be a variety of topics, some for men, some for females (although realistically they apply to both. 

Some will be nutrition based, some training based, some lifestyle based, but they all have one thing in common.... They will all get you results faster than you are getting them currently! So here goes the first article written by an amazing teacher and trainer from America, someone who I hugely admire and love to learn from, please read below:

Why Women Should Not Be Afraid of Gaining Muscle Mass

Body Composition and Hormone Response to Training
First, let’s address a few of the misconceptions regarding training, muscles, and women. For any newbies to Charlespoliquin.com, let’s review the key factor in changing body composition: hormone response to training. It’s physiologically impossible for women to gain muscle in the same way as a man because women don’t have enough testosterone unless they ingest it on purpose.

If men train hard and lift heavy loads, they will experience a large boost in testosterone post-workout. This doesn’t happen to women. Women have 15 to 20 times less testosterone than men, and studies have failed to demonstrate any significant change in testosterone response in women from training. 

The good thing about resistance training for females of all ages is that if you train hard, you will elevate the hormone Growth Hormone (GH), which burns fat in the body.  GH will also help you build muscle, but it has a much greater effect on fat burning. 

What a lot of women don’t realize is that if they resistance train, they will build a little bit of muscle, get stronger, and most gratifying, lose the fat that covers up the muscles they have. This will make them look strong and fit—and those muscles are great ammunition against the fat gain that happens with age. 

Muscle Won’t Turn to Fat
Resistance training will not “turn fat into muscle,” nor will muscle that has been built turn into fat. It you train intelligently hard, fat will be lost and muscle will be gained. You will increase your metabolism and with proper nutrition, you will keep that fat off. If you quit training, muscle will be lost, and fat will probably be gained depending on your energy intake. 

Also, a pound of muscle doesn’t “weigh less” than a pound of fat. They both weigh a pound, but if you have 10 pounds of muscle you will look a lot leaner than if that same 10 pounds was all fat. 

How to Get Stronger
The only way to get stronger is to progressively increase the amount of weight you lift. It is possible to build muscle with moderate loads, but the definition of moderate is not 5 pounds. Rather, a standard fat loss training program would use anywhere between 60 and 85 percent loads (that refers to a weight that is 60 to 85 percent of the maximal amount you can lift for a given exercise). Where a lot of women and uneducated trainers go wrong is that they take “moderate” to mean “light” and then they drop that weight in half. Loads of 10 or 20 percent are a waste of time. They won’t help you be able to pick a child up off the floor or put a heavy box up on a shelf overhead. 

In fact, high rep, light load training won’t do anything for you, except it may lead you to lose the small amount of muscle you already have! High rep, light load training is a variation of aerobic exercise and it may raise cortisol. One study found that embarking on a light load aerobic-style resistance program led to the loss of 5 pounds of muscle and a reduction in resting metabolic rate of 3 percent over a 10 year period!. You’ll be left with less muscle and possibly more fat—sounds like a Fat Trap to me!

The belief that high repetition, light load training will give women develop muscle tone is a misconception. The scientific definition of muscle “tone” has nothing to do with the popular definition, which seems to be the level of visibility of muscles. To achieve better muscle tone by the popular definition, all you need to do is lose fat, and high rep, light load training will not help you do this. 

The better solution is to a “periodized” program focused on body composition such as the German Body Comp program, which will progressively allow you to reach your goals. 

Ten More Reasons Women Shouldn’t Be Afraid of Gaining Muscle

1.    You’ll Have Less Body Fat 
Muscle mass is the best defense against getting fat. For example, one study compared a 12-week periodized resistance  training protocol using loads ranging from 60 to 80 percent of maximal with a muscular endurance protocol using light loads with 15 to 30 reps on body composition in women. The women that did the periodized program lost nearly 5 kg of body fat, gained about 3 kg of muscle, and had dramatic increases in strength. The women who did the high rep, light load muscular endurance program lost NO fat and gained no muscle. They didn’t get stronger either!

It’s okay to start getting strong at a young age. Studies show that girls from age 7 on up can develop equal strength as boys of the same age. Plus, in young girls, having a stronger handgrip, and more lower and upper body strength are all associated with better body composition, lower BMI, and greater functional ability as measured by vertical jump. By developing strength at a young age, you’ll set yourself or your kids up for a lean and strong future!

For the rest of this article please click on the following link: Article Day 1

Ten Top Fat Loss Foods For the New Year!

Top 10 Foods for Changing Body Fat Composition.
by Charles Poliquin.


Use these ten foods in your diet to support fat loss and get the physique you desire. Assuming you are training regularly, including these foods in a high-protein, relatively low-carb whole food diet will help you get and stay lean, while feeling energized and motivated throughout the day. 

These ten foods will help you lose fat because they support your body to do one or more of these five things: 
•    Increase the body’s use of fat for energy, shifting it to burn fat instead of carbohydrates.
•    Decrease chronic inflammation and improve the sensitivity of cells to insulin so that blood sugar from carbohydrates is used for energy or stored as muscle glycogen and doesn’t turn into fat. 
•    Improve the body’s internal detoxification system to enhance elimination of waste products and toxins that slow the metabolism. 
•    Support tissue repair and increase the body’s resting metabolic rate so that more energy is burned when food is broken down.
•    Improve the endocrine response to food—there are many effects of this, including lower insulin and cortisol, better elimination of excess estrogen, and higher leptin, which blunts feelings of hunger. 

#1: Cold Water Fish: Salmon, Whitefish, Mackerel, Sardines & Anchovies
These cold water fish are high in the omega-3 fats that improve insulin sensitivity and decrease inflammation. The effect is of getting the majority of dietary fat from omega-3 fats is fat loss and improved body composition. For instance, a recent study of healthy adults showed that taking 4 grams of omega-3s a day for 6 weeks significantly increased lean mass and decreased body fat. Other studies have shown an association of a better body composition in people who eat more than 5 servings of cold water fish a week. 

Take Away: Get the majority of your dietary fats from foods that are high in omega-3 fats. Cold water fish is a great place to start, and grass-fed and wild meats can increase your intake. Eat a serving of one of these high-protein sources at every meal. 

For more of this article please click here.

For more information on Body Fat Transformations by OC Fitness visit:

http://www.ocfitness.co.uk/pages/clients.html.