If you’re like most people—including many athletes—you’re probably eating too many carbs. Your body’s need for sugar is, biologically, very small. And when you consume more than you need, your body turns it into fat. The majority of people get fat nowadays not from eating too much fat but from eating too much sugar!

We can only store about 320 grams of glucose in our body. Making it very easy to overdo on a daily basis with diets many people consume today and the lack of exercise they combine with poor nutritional choices. Once you go beyond that 320 gram limit your body has to find a way to deal with the excess carbohydrate. Yep it stores it as fat.

Current trends in the western world have led us to a very dangerous science experiment with the amount of sugar people are dumping into their body rising year on year. The result of our modern diet, which is loaded with grains and sugars (especially fructose), is a large percentage of obesity, and people that are overweight. This can be turned around, however, using a wise combination-approach of a high-fat, low-carb diet and high-intensity interval training.

When you undertake high intensity interval training like that we do at Get Fit Guernsey you are aggressively emptying sugar out of your muscle cells. By doing this and combining it with a low carbohydrate diet you start to mend your metabolism and bring everything back into balance.

Our modern diet is highly inflammatory and produces inflammation throughout the body on a scale that is beyond belief. If you do any exercise that puts the body under stress in this state you are just adding inflammation on top of inflammation and it will be very hard to see results.

Please remember you cannot exercise your way out of a bad diet. The first step you must take in improving your physique is to cut out as much processed carbohydrate as possible.

This includes

-       Sugar/Fructose

-       Grains

You would be surprised just how many foods you eat that contain these sources of carbohydrates! Have a look at just some of the foods you buy on a weekly basis to get an insight you will be surprised just how much processed carbohydrate you are consuming on a daily and weekly basis!

What to Eat After Your Workouts

After A Cardiovascular Workout

Consume a good quality protein and vegetable carbohydrate.

Here’s a sample recipe of a good meal to have.

BASIL AND BLUEBERRY CHICKEN SALAD

Makes 1 servings

INGREDIENTS

6oz chicken breast, cooked and diced

75g fresh blueberries

2 tbsp water 1 tbsp red wine vinegar

1 tbsp shallot

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp basil

2 handfuls lettuce Salt and pepper

DIRECTIONS

1. Cook chicken separately.

2. In a blender, combine blueberries, water, vinegar, and salt and pepper.

3. Blend for 1 minute or until the blueberries are pureed.

4. Add the shallot, oil and basil. Pulse until well combined. Pour over chicken and serve on a bed of lettuce

After A Resistance Training Workout (Get Fit Guernsey Workout)

After a resistance training workout you will need a different approach. This is the only type of meal you want to be absorbed rapidly after exercise.

The reason for this is that normally when you eat high glycemic foods there is a chance your blood sugar will rise too fast and the carbs will be stored as body fat. However, after a resistance workout you have a 1 hour window after exercise to get nutrients into damaged muscles which has a beneficial approach to protein synthesis. This means women you will benefit from a higher percentage of lean tissue in your body resulting in a faster resting metabolism and more calories burnt whilst you rest, as long as you continue to eat the right things and guys you will benefit from better muscle growth!

If you miss this one hour window after your intense workout, the chances of you repairing your muscles optimally and benefitting from this phenomena are very slim and could actually result in muscle loss and a slower metabolism!

Here’s a sample meal to eat after a Get Fit Guernsey Workout

CHICKEN MASALA

Makes 4 servings

INGREDIENTS

4 chicken breasts (boneless, 6oz each)

700ml low-sodium chicken broth

8 sliced mushrooms

2 minced shallots

1⁄2 tsp red pepper flakes

1 clove garlic

1 tsp rosemary

4 tsp yogurt

Salt and pepper

Serve with one cup of whole grain rice

DIRECTIONS

1. Sprinkle red pepper flakes, salt and pepper over chicken and set aside

2. Bring chicken broth to a low-boil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add mushrooms, garlic and shallots, then simmer for about 15 minutes until sauce reduces

3. Grill chicken for about 5-6 minutes each side or until cooked.

4. Return sauce to stove and whisk in the yoghurt

5. Serve by topping chicken with sauce and rosemary

Paul Gosling runs Equilibrium, a massage providing service from St Sampsons and he has been in business since May 2010 after deciding to move into a career he felt passionate about.

To Paul, massage is about about a mixture of circumstances coming together to make the most beneficial and relaxing experience for you. He believe’s that no two massages are ever the same for reasons such as the individual’s skeletal structure, muscle mass, diet and emotional state.

These are just some of the conditions that he, as a massage therapist, has to be completely in tune with in order to offer individuals the best tailored massage experience he can. Paul offers massages for private individuals, corporate clients and sports persons. Each and every person who visits Paul has their own unique reasons for doing so and he see’s it as his duty to make their experience as beneficial and enjoyable as possible.

Click here to go to his website and learn more

If your suffering from back pain, hopefully the attached will help you find the right medical approach to you. Without knowing all of the factors that caused your back pain in the first instance it is very difficult to diagnose an injury . As such we can’t stress enough that the attached chart should help you identify what treatment or what professional you should seek out in the first instance and follow their advice. You should not use the chart below to self diagnose yourself or a friend or family member. This chart and any suggested treatment is only remedial and short term and proper medical advice should be obtained as soon as possible.

Get Your Fitness Back On Track

Sneaking some protein powder into a childhood favourite is a great way to convert them from a fat producing to a muscle building meal or snack.

Unlike traditional pancakes, which are all carbohydrate, these will help you feel full whilst nourishing your muscles.

The recipe is simple all you need is 2 bowls. One for dry ingredients and one for wet and a hot non-stick pan. Serve your pancakes with some natural maple syrup for extra sweetness or just eat them as they come!

Banana Protein Pancakes

3 Tbsp vanilla protein powder

3 Tbsp gluten free flour

1 Tbsp Stevia

1 tsp baking powder

1 banana mashed

1 large egg

250ml water

Directions

1)   In a large bowl combine the protein powder, flour, stevia and baking powder. Mix well and add the banana and egg.

2)   Coat a non stick cooking pan with coconut oil and wipe away the excess with a paper towel. Set the towel aside and use it to wipe the skillet between pancakes.

3)   Spoon 1 ladle of mixture into the skillet, cook for 1 – 2 minutes on one side until golden brown, flip and cook for 30 seconds – 1 minute on the other side or until golden brown. Repeat step 3 with the reminding batter.

Makes 3 pancakes

If building muscle was as simple as doing bench press and bicep curls we would all look like Arnie! But our bodies are more than just a collection of muscles, it’s a system and if we exclude any it will have a knock on effect to the rest of them.

If one muscle doesn’t work I can guarantee the rest won’t work as well as they could do.

However, we are still working out like body builders, splitting workouts down to different muscle groups and working them until we feel “the burn”. But is this really necessary? Look at all the succesfull strength coaches.

Mark Rippetoe

Christian Thibaudeau

Charles Poliquin

Paul Chek

How many of them are using isolation exercises?

Yes they will make your muscles bigger, they have to your imposing a demand on them so they must adapt but it’s not the best way for us to go about it, unless you want to be a body builder.

We should train to meet the demands of everyday life, and for that we need multi joint movements that use multiple muscle groups and more closely resemble movements that we maybe called upon to do in our everyday lives.

When we under go the mind shift from thinking about muscles to thinking about movements it starts to become more apparent.

A deadlift for example will work your arms and shoulders just like a bicep curl and a shoulder press. However, whilst you may only be able to use a 20kg DB at best to do either of these a deadlift will see you comfortable lift weights 5 times + heavier than this. Now your not using those muscles in the same way but if your doing a deadlift, which is considered a leg exercise and your having to hold onto something that heavy you can guarantee that your arms will get stronger. They have to, there is no choice! So with this one exercise you have worked a lot of muscles in your body and now once you have done this maybe you’d want to do something for your chest like a bench press which would now be suitable. Your arms and legs are fried, work a muscle group that hasn’t bee worked directly using a movement based approach rather than a muscle based approach.

Yes you are using your arms to hold a weight rather than move it but your arms still need to be strong enough to hold it! The bicep curl may be a more efficient way to make your arms bigger but is it a better way to make you stronger? Big muscles and strong muscles aren’t neccessarily the same thing. For example is the guy who has the biggest biceps in the world stronger than the guys in world strongest man, to prove my point if we go back 15 years or so you may remember that one competitor in the competition unfortunately broke their arm in the arm wrestling competition. The guys name was Nathan Jones and his arms were far bigger than the guy who broke his arm Magnus Samuelson. Who would your money have been on before this event just looking at the two men? If you have a strong stomach you can watch what happened here, if you are watch it until the start when he faces Samuelson so you can see the size difference and then hit stop! Click below to watch the video

World\’s Strongest Man Arm Break

Movements we can perform with our bodies can be broken down into 6 categories.

Quad Dominant – Squats

Hip Dominant – Deadlift

Horizontal Push – Chest Press

Horizontal Pull – Inverted Row

Vertical Push – Shoulder Press

Vertical Pull – Pull Up

If you base a program around this rather than muscle groups you will work far more muscles in less time and as a result build more muscle and burn more fat as your using a lot more muscles! This will result in the lean strong physique of an athlete rather than that of a slightly chubby body builder when they aren’t “cutting”.

Want to see how to train like this and get results fast? Email us at info@getfitguernsey.com and sign up for a 2 week free trial. Starting on February 6 we will have a transformation challenge, specifically designed around these principles which, will burn fat and build muscle FAST. Email us to reserve a spot or find out more!

We see this a lot. People signing up for camp wishing to lose weight and get some definition. Both are simple, straight forward requests that we should be able to and can deliver.

The first things we need to consider with the individual are

1. Are they training hard enough?
2. Are they training often enough?
3. Are they eating the right things in the correct amounts?

Obviously if someone wishes to lose weight and tone up but they aren’t exercising there’s no mystery as to why they aren’t seeing the results they would like. We need to get them exercising.

Since no one is confused about the need to exercise if you wish to lose weight and get some definition, we need to look at the type of exercise people choose to achieve their goal.

You’d be surprised how many people start exercising with the goal to lose weight but are working out at far too low an intensity to see results.

There’s nothing special, or particularly luxurious about this approach. There’s no short cuts and it does require effort, however. The one thing we can promise you with this approach is that it works.

The secret to a successful body transformation training program is………..

“Hard enough” and “often enough”

These are two subjective phrases but perfectly sum up what needs to be done if you wish to transform your body. Regardless as to whether it is weight loss, muscle growth or even improvement in physical performance.

Hard enough

Workout at a high enough intensity to cause your body some metabolic disturbence. What we mean by this is working out at hard enough to cause your metabolism to increase due to the stress of exercise. Make the most of every second of your workout. You can’t cheat yourself to success with regards fitness and there are no short cuts. Come prepared to work and do the work!

Unfortunately a common misconception within fitness is that more is better. You burn more calories and therefore will lose more weight.

Unfortunately however, this isn’t true. Studies have shown that workouts more than 30 minutes can actually lead to us storing fat not burning it. This is due to the body shifting from a state of repair to a state of breaking down.

When this shift occurs instead of building lean tissue your body will actually break it down, causing your fat free mass to decrease and your fat mass to increase!

Make the most of the workout window and work hard for a shorter period of time. Not only will you see better results but you can spend more time doing other things you like in life!

Often Enough

Unfortunately due to technological advances we have been spoilt. We can pretty much have an answer to any question we have in less than 10 seconds by using the internet on our phones. We can send information instantly around the world via email and can contact people instantly via telephone or text. We have become a society of I want it now!

Unfortunately this has proven detrimental to fitness, with some people being unprepared to wait and work for a goal. They expect to be able to do one workout, take one pill and see results instantly!

We don’t expect to have a house built in one day so why do we think our bodies are different! Far too often people will start a training program designed to improve their bodies in any number of ways and then get disillusioned when they don’t see life changing results in the first couple of days!

It takes time and effort to build something to be proud of we can’t rush it.

Be consistent, follow your program and keep your end goal in mind. Treat yourself occasionally but for the majority of the time keep doing the things you need to do until they become daily habits. Then not only will you achieve your goal you will be able to maintain it. It won’t be a quick fix it will be an effortless life style change. It might take some effort to begin with when you start, but if it wasn’t worth achieving you would have never thought about it in the first place.

Take small steps and keep walking towards your goal. With the right training program and information you can achieve your goal.

Are you on exercise autopilot? Routinely going into the gym and doing the same old routine week in week out. Sure this philosophy served you well initially as a beginner, but have your results slowed or even stopped?

The most popular way to progress a weight-training program is to simple up the weight you are lifting. But what if you can’t lift any more weight. Does that mean you have reached your genetic potential and you should stop.

Nope! You’d be surprised how simple changing tactics and adopting another progression method can help you break through plateau’s and start lifting more.

Below are three ways in which you can do this increase your total volume and as a result increase your strength levels without increasing the weight.

1. Add Reps

Exercise 1 – Squats 3 sets of 10 reps using 100kg

Exercise 2 – Dumbbell Chest Press 3 sets of 10 using 100kg

If we add one rep to each of these exercises the total volume for the workout will increase by 600kg! (Workout Volume = (reps*weight)*sets

1. Add Sets

Exercise 1 – Squats 3 sets of 10 reps using 100kg

Exercise 2 – Dumbbell Chest Press 3 sets of 10 using 100kg

Now let’s say we add one set to each exercise. This is a more advanced version of step 1 and will result in a much higher total workout volume increase.

Adding one set to each exercise so you are now performing 4 sets increases the workout volume by 2000 kg for just these two exercises alone!

1. Reduce your rest period

Exercise 1 – Squats 3 sets of 10 reps using 100kg

Exercise 2 – Dumbbell Chest Press 3 sets of 10 using 100kg

Let’s say you take 30 seconds per exercise and have 60 seconds rest between exercises. Using an alternating set workout system.

E.g.

One set of Squats taking 30 seconds followed by 60 seconds rest and then one set of bench press taking 30 seconds followed by 60 seconds rest.

To complete all 3 sets of each exercise will take 9 minutes.

Now if we reduce the rest period by just 15 seconds so you now only get 45 seconds between exercises it now takes you just 7.5 minutes to complete the same amount of work!

This method doesn’t make a difference to the total workout load but increases the intensity of the workout by having you complete the same amount of work in a shorter period of time.

All three methods place a different stress upon your body that forces it to adapt if it wishes complete the exercise. If it doesn’t adapt the work won’t be done and the body will not be in a state of balance. Which is what it always strives to be in. Therefore your body must adapt!

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Week 1

Complete 3 sets of 10 of each exercise with a 60 second rest.

Week 2

Increase the reps in each set by one keep the rest at 60 seconds.

Week 3

Maintain the reps and rest but add one set to each exercise.

Week 4

Reduce the rest period to 45 seconds keep the reps, sets and weight the same.

These progressions over a 4 week period of training will lead to the following increases in your workout program with these hypothetical weights.

Do not use these weights unless they are what you would normally use. They are only used for the sake of this example!

Week 1

Workout Volume = 6000kg

Time Taken = 9 minutes

Week 4

Workout Volume = 8,800kg

Time Taken 7 min 30 seconds

We have just increased the amount of total work you do in the workout without adding weight to a bar! So if you have hit a plateau or workout at home and have simple run out of weight. Simple changing these training variables can help you make big progress.

Different methods of progressing exercises are very useful and will prevent overtraining and injury.

The key to progress is overload, and this can be achieved by many ways It’s not just about adding weight!

1) We’re not apes

Don’t undo thousands of years of evolution by slumping over at work or during your workout. This will lead to injuries! Stay tall, if you can’t and your rounding or arching your back the weights too heavy and you shouldn’t be lifting it!

2) Get Intense

There is no need to work out for any longer than an hour. Get in do your workout and get out. Stay focused get in there and do what you went there to do and get on with the rest of your life. Studies show that workouts lasting over 30 minutes exactly increase cortisol levels in your body that will lead to muscle breakdown, slower metabolisms and a fatter figure. So don’t lust after the hot girls on the cardio equipment you’ll just get a reputation as a pervert. Don’t stare at yourself in the mirror flexing your muscles or checking out your abs, you’ll just get a reputation as being arrogant and the girls you are trying to impress will avoid you like the plague.

GET IN, DO YOUR WORKOUT AND GET ON WITH YOUR LIFE

The gym shouldn’t be your life but it should be part of a healthy lifestyle.

3) Train Hard Rest Hard

You don’t improve or change shape during a workout. The changes from a workout occur during the 48 hour window once you finish your workout. Meaning what you eat and how much sleep you get effect how much you get from your workout. If your going to train hard don’t waste it by eating rubbish food and staying up late. Look after yourself, go out have a good time occasionally but don’t undo your hard work by eating rubbish and staying up late every day.

4) Keep Your Body Guessing

Your body will adapt to a training program in as little as 4 weeks. Once this occurs you need to shake things up and tweak your program. Failure to do so will result in any results you see being very small if you see any at all! Switch up your program every 4 weeks to keep your body progressing by providing a new stimulus each month. There are more ways to progress a workout then just by adding weight to the exercises. In fact just by modifying your reps, sets, tempo and rest we could give you at least 6 months of programs!

5) Get mobile

A warm up should not consist of stretching. Vladamir Janda a well respected physiotherapist noted that during gait (walking) a ligament called your ligamentum teres fired before any muscles. This changes the way you should think about a warm up. Forget the stretching mobilize your ankles, hips and thoracic spine to stay pain free and improve your performance in the gym and as a result the progress you see from your training.

6) Think About It Or Forget About It

If your going in to a workout with other things on your mind your aren’t going to perform well Studies show that men who focused on their workout lifted more weight than those who had a wandering mind.  The only exception to this rule is steady state cardio (which unless you have a specific reason for doing isn’t necessary) studies showed by tuning out of the workout it made the activity easier.

Leave whatever else is on your mind at the door and get on with your workout.

7) Don’t Be A Hero

Carrying on whilst something hurts is the biggest mistake guys make in the gym and is one of the most common causes of long term serious injury. If you carry on when you feel a twinge you risk putting yourself out of action for longer than you would if you stopped when you felt it and got it seen to. A good coach should be able to identify the problem and work around it or refer you out if need be.

Consistency Is The Key

Men who schedule their workouts and keep them consistent as part of a lifestyle get better results than those that do it randomly. If you are looking to maintain your current fitness level 2 times per week is fine. If you are looking to improve and progress 3 – 4 times is necessary.

9) You Snooze You Win

A lack of sleep will hamper your results in the gym. You should regularly be getting 8 hours a night if you want to get the most from your workout program. Staying up watching late night TV no matter how much protein you eat or training you do will cause muscle break down to some degree.

• Keep Your Muscles Guessing

We’ve mentioned this a lot in previous articles but we can’t state enough how important it is to keep changing up your workout. Sticking to the same workout doesn’t present your body with a constant challenge and your results will start to slow down. By changing your workouts weekly (training variables not the whole workout!) you will keep burning a high number of calories.

• 90/20 Nutrition Rule

Being good all the time will sabotage your best efforts sooner or later when you go on a big binge. Prevent this from happening by eating well for 90% of your meals and having 10% as treat meals. Treat meals include snacks and alcoholic drinks! As an example if you eat 5 meals per day you will eat a total of 35 meals per week. 90% of this is 31 meals leaving you 4 meals per week to eat what you like. Don’t save them all up for one day or night out as this will sabotage your results. Spread them out throughout the week.

• Keep Things Interesting

If you stick to the same exercise or meals for too long you are going to get bored and fall off your program. Switch your eating and exercise program once per month to keep things fresh and different for you. Kaos provides different workouts and a constantly increasing library of meals to help keep your program fresh.

• BCAA’s before a workout

BCAA’s are directly responsible for muscle growth and repair by effecting the rate of protein synthesis. Kaos provides you with a BCAA protocol proven to work in the real world. This very formula has helped advanced bodybuilders put on as much as 10lbs of muscle in a 3 week period. BCAA’s are also used by the marines to improve strength and increase stamina when out on missions. What does strength and protein synthesis have to do with fat loss? Muscle tissue is the tissue that raises your metabolism and causes more calories to be burnt, the amount of muscle you have is controlled by the rate of protein synthesis in your body. So the more muscle you have and the faster the rate of protein synthesis in your body the quicker you burn fat.