Unilateral training

You probably have one arm that is stronger than the other. For example, if your right handed, your right hand has to balance strength with coordination. Your left hand on the other hand only has the strength aspect (unless your ambidextrous). This is where unilateral training can benefit you and your body strength wise and for coordination.

Training unilateral means training one limb at a time. If you were using dumbbell curls as an example one might do 10 reps on the left arm then switch to the right. This is used instead of barbell curling sometimes so that one arm does not overpower the other arm and therefore rip more tissue leading to increased hypertrophy  (Muscle size) in the opposite arm.

Simple unilateral exercises include:

1. 1 arm dumbbell shoulder raises
2. Dumbell curls
3. 1 arm dumbbell chest press
4. Dumbbell lunges
5. Dumbbell rows
6. Dumbbell kickbacks

 As you can see, the majority of unilateral exercises include dumbbells since they use one limb for movement. Visit some sites on the internet for more examples. Happy training!

Cooking with whey protein

Are you one of those people that love to throw random ingredients together to create something new in the kitchen. Eating the same things over and over again can be very boring and end up destroying your motivation. There are countless recipes that are good for you and contain tons of protein using steak, fish and chicken. Sometimes you crave those foods that satisfy your taste buds but not your muscles. I'm here to tell you today you can make those foods using one simple, muscle building ingredient: whey protein powder.

It can be used as a flour in most cooking situations such as muffins, pancakes, cookies and ice cream.

Here is a simple yogurt recipe that supports your nutritional goals:

1 scoop whey protein: pick flavour (preferably vanilla or strawberry)
6 oz of berry flavoured yogurt or cottage cheese for extra protein

mix ingredients together in a bowl and add a touch of cinnamon and handful of berries on top.

Enjoy! Happy muscle building

Kris Gethin Motivation

I found a great article the other day and found it really interesting. Kris Gethin is a writer and spokesperson for bodybuilding.com. Enjoy!

""My favorite body part isn't my legs or my biceps. It's my brain. My mind helps me crush every workout, stick to every meal and follow my supplement plan exactly. It keeps me from cheating. It pushes me to grow. With the right motivation, you can do anything. These 10 tips will help you transform your brain and your body.

1/

Control Your Environment

I am sick of hearing, "I have a harder job, I work longer hours, I don't have time, I don't have the money for a trainer, my genetics are sh*t, and I have pain when I train." Shut up, already! I have seen taxi drivers, lawyers, mothers of 5 with 3 jobs, actors who work 16-hour days with no weekends, and builders who have to climb ladders for days accomplish amazing transformations.
Why? Because they wanted it. On the other hand, I have seen others who have easy jobs, all the money in the world, no family commitments, amazing genetics and access to the best gyms look the same year after year. Why? Because they make excuses day-in, day-out! If you are one of these people, either harden the f#ck up or get another pastime.

2/

Do What You Fear

You hate doing legs because you fear the sickness, the dizziness, the trauma on your CNS and the pain hitting your body like war hammers. You don't like pulling out your Tupperware in public places because you fear ridicule. You may want to steer away from the high repetitions that DTP calls for because you have always been told that high reps lead to muscle loss, or they're suited for people who want to "tone" their physiques. If you want to attain the results that DTP promises, stop giving into your fears. If you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always gotten. In order to change, you need do what you fear and not fear what you do.

3/

Long-Term Motivation

Many people want immediate results. Yes, you can achieve great things with your physique in a very short amount of time if you don't cut corners. Don't think you can have 1-2 dirty cheat meals and let them sit in your belly without a second thought. Don't assume that stopping 1-or-2 reps short of failure will add that extra inch to your arms you've been craving for so long. If cooking food is an inconvenience, don't think you can replace all of your meals by taking in excessive amounts of protein shakes. They won't put you ahead of the game.
If you want a physique worth admiring, you need to invest the time, work and effort. If I have a physique that you want, it's nothing to do with my genetics, my job, my family life, my environment, the gym where I train, etc. It's because I don't take short cuts. I NEVER miss a meal and I train harder than you. If you are offended or defensive, it's because the truth hurts.

4/

Watch A Motivational Movie

My favorite bodybuilder movies to watch prior to a tough workout are anything by Dorian Yates, Branch Warren, Ronnie Coleman or Johnnie Jackson. Watching these movies prior to my workout while I take my pre-DTP supplement allows me to focus on the immediate task with charged intensity. I also get to detox my mind from daily stresses from emails, text messages, business decisions, team leadership, personal training, problem solving, etc. Give yourself a moment to prepare for DTP, and let everything else fall away.

5/

Set Goals, Achieve Goals

The environment, situation and timing will never be just right to start your DTP muscle-building journey. I've heard every excuse in the book. Don't wait for the end of your school term, or until you have someone to cook from you, or until tomorrow. Start today. Winners make commitments no matter the situation; losers make excuses based on their situation. Which one are you?"

Fat loss tips

Everyone looks for some quick fixes when the warm weather hits. Truth is there are no quick fixes, fitness is a marathon, not a sprint. However, having said that there are some tricks you can use to your advantage to fire up your metabolism and fight that fat.

Regarding nutrition, there are many tips you can use to cook with to burn those extra calories:

• Eliminate refined foods
• Do not use protein bars when snacking. They are over rated candy bars.
• Use spices such as cinnamon, pepper, and garlic to enhance fat burning effects.
• Upon waking, down 500 ml of cold water with lemon to clean the body and rid toxins
• Green tea is the best thing you can drink. Full of anti-oxidants, cancer fighting additives, healthy caffeine and catchens.
• High protein diets coupled with low-moderate carbs and moderate healthy fats
• increase water intake during the day

 Regarding training, utilize some of these tips

• switch up workouts every day. 
• use full body workouts for maximum fat burning capabilities
• use high and low reps
• heavy weight burns fat fast
• use cardio after weight training
• prioritize legs as they release the most fat burning hormones

Nutrition on the go

As we all know, travelings makes it very difficult to keep up with a current nutrition routine. A good quote to remember: failing to plan is planning to fail. If you want to stay true to your routine, you should always pre-cook your meals and tupperware them so when traveling is an issue you can easily take your meals with you. If you want to avoid the bodybuilding stigma that goes along with bringing tupeprwared meals, there is still hope for you. There are easy snacks that are high in low glycemic carbs, high in protein and in good fats needed for hormonal development. Some of these snacks include:

• Protein pancakes
• Protein cookies
• Protein muffins

All of the above use protein powder, eggs, raw oats and nut butters such as peanut butter, almond butter and such to provide the nutrients your body needs. You can add some brown sugar (a little) or honey for some taste but alot of the taste comes from the nut butters and types of protein you choose to bake with.

Search google for some quality recipes and stay true to your nutrition. If you have a sweet tooth and like to cheat then the above meals will help satisfy that tooth.

Supplementation

Sometimes there are a few cracks in your nutrition and training regiment. These cracks can be filled with some good supplementation tactics. Supplements have been around for a long time in the world of fitness and for good reason, when used correctly they can take your body to the next level. For example, when following a good cutting/fat loss diet and training routine, adding green tea extract, L-carnitine and a whey protein may increase your fat loss and muscle gains. Green tea extract is exactly what is sounds like, it is taken from green tea leaves full of anti-oxidants, powerful ingredients that rev up your metabolism after ingesting and is an anti-cancer ingredient. L-Carnitine is an amino acid which helps increase the efficiency of fat transportation to mitochondria (Energy producing cells) so it can help use more fat for energy throughout the day. Protein is an effective way to help burn more fat since adding muscle (protein helps with repair) helps increase metabolism speeds.

When supplementing a weight gain/muscle gain diet and training routine, people commonly supplement with a mass gainer, BCAA's and creatine. Mass gainer again is self explanitory, it packs a large amount of calories, protein, complex and simple carbs and good fats for effective muscle recovery when training hard. BCAA's are branched chain amino acids which help aid in recovery and are some building blocks of muscle. Creatine is proven to be one of the most effective strength and size producers (natural) and is used by almost every fitness enthusiast or bodybuilder.

Finding Motivation

When starting or carrying on a fitness journey, finding and keeping motivation alive is crucial. Keeping the fire burning is the key to your success. It is what gets you up at 6 a.m to do a morning session or it gets you back in the gym for a second time that day.

When finding yourself lacking motivation there are numerous ways to rev it back up:

• Youtube motivational videos
• Friends and family
• Inspiring idols
• Set new goals
• Change your workout routine
• Change your nutrition

If you failed your news resolution this year to lose that unwanted poundage or to gain some muscle then here are three tips to kickstart your transformation:

Set Realistic Goals:
When setting goals, most people shoot for the stars, you should set small attainable goals so you get the chance to taste success. There is no greater feeling then reaching your goals.

Forget Rigid Meal Planning:
 This sounds dumb but when you actually follow a meal plan to strictly, your setting yourself up to fail. You will follow it for a while but sooner or later backed up by statistics you will stray from it and relapse hard. The best way to counteract this is to include a few cheat meals into your weekly schedule. Maybe 2 times a week have ice cream or something.

Learn How to Press Reset:
 There are times when your priorities will overtake the gym and nutrition. You might celebrate one night and ruin your regimen. You might get the flu and lose gains or gain weight. You need to put this in the past and press reset. Get back on the horse.

Source: Bodybuilding.com

Carb Cycling

The nutritional program I am following requires me to cycle my carbs. Most diets fail because of the lack of variety in it ultimately leading to failure. Carb cycling uses different amounts of carbs throughout the day on different days of the week. So for instance, Monday to Wednesday might be low carb days (under 150 grams) and Thursday would be a high carb day (350+). The individual would then repeat this cycle for a couple weeks then change the cycle. Changing the amount of carbs taken in each day requires your metabolism to keep switching gears. The low carb days are depleting your glycogen stores in order to use fat for energy. The high carb day requires your metabolism or inner furnace to burn hotter then its used to and that requires alot of energy therefor burning calories helping you to retain muscle and cut fat at the same time. This method is used by alot of professionals with alot of different variations. Some might do 3 high days in a row followed by 4 low days. Some might do 10 low days to put the body into a state of ketosis then shock the body with a high carb day.

Here is a great article written by one of my idols, Brenden Fokken.
http://www.cutandjacked.com/Carb-Cycling-Made-Easy

Hopefully you learned something from this post and can apply it to your own fitness goals if you wish to do so.

Study time

Sitting here writing this blog is getting my productivity juices flowing so following this blog post I will be studying for my Can-fit personal trainers exam that takes place on the 23rd of February. I chose to study on my own whether then in the class room course to make time in my own schedule for it and to save alot of hassle. The exam is 3 hours in length, consisting of 100 multiple choice questions along with case study questions regarding training beginners/intermediate lifters. Following the written exam, provided I pass, there is a practical exam where I must take a friend through a workout developed by me supervised by a trainer from the association. From this practical they decide whether I'm fit for certification and I can my license to train people in gyms or in the comfort of their own homes. I set aside maybe 2-3 days a week where I sit down and review the material for an hour or so. This helps me to retain information I learn and to enhance my understanding of what I already no. I will keep writing about my fitness journey in the upcoming blog posts as it is going well so far and I am keeping on track with diet, training and recovery.

Week 3

Cravings for sugar, starches and bad carbohydrates are starting to fade away as I have been sticking to my diet strictly without many cheat meals. However, cheat meals do play a role in my weekly routine. When you get a cheat meal, it helps to keep you sane. Therefor helping you stay with the diet or plan longer. If I were to never cheat, I would be craving badly everyday and eventually my will would not be able to defeat the sugars calling my name. So every week (usually on leg or back training days when my body needs the most calories) I will include a cheat meal or two into my routine. This could be made up of chicken wings or pizza. Just make sure it doesn't go to far. A bowl of ice cream and slice of pizza is adequate and then its back to the chicken, turkey, salmon and mixed greens for another 3-4 days. It is hard but the end result and lessons learned are well worth it.

My routine

Starting in the new, I will be starting to cut down the excess fat and water I gained over my bulking phase. The goal is to reach 200 with a body fat % of less then 9%. I am currently sitting at aroun11-13% and 205. In order to reach my goal, I will need to increase my lean protein sources for the day to maintain muscle mass while restricting my caloric intake and cycling my carbohydrates on a daily basis.

My new nutrition routine is a modified carb cycling routine developed by Brandan Fokken. A bodybuilding.com sponsored athlete. I have been inspired by him for a while and decided to include his nutrition approach into my every day life. It follows a 7 day cycle where carbs are cycled from no carbs, low and high.

Monday: No Carbs
Tuesday: Low Carb
Wednesday: High
Thursday: No
Friday: Low
Saturday: High
Sunday: Low

Cycling carbs will increase the metabolisms efficiency long term. You see all these diets preaching low carb diets forever. Carbs are the enemy they say. The problem with these diets is that when your body is depleted of carbs long enough, your metabolism starts to get smart and fat burning slows to ensure your body stays in survival mode. When you throw a couple high carb days into the mix, your body has to rev up the metabolism in order to burn the nutrients down. Shocking your body on a daily basis is the key to losing fat long term. Cycling carbs also ensures you have glycogen stores for your workouts.

My fitness Intro

Start of new year and with every new year comes a new resolution. Last years resoultion was to put on as much size as I could in the year. With that accomplished I started at 180 and got to 220. This was a combination of the right training, nutrition and recovery methods. Friends helping along the way and motivation staying at its peak, I was detirmined to stay on course for my goal and I ended up being very satisfied with the results.

This years resolutions are:

1. Complete my personal trainers exam and build a client base
2. Reach 200 lbs under 9% body fat.

 Right now I am studying the personal trainers course outline and study manual for the test in a month. The test requires me to complete a 100 question multiple choice and case study exam with the added section of a practical exam where I train somebody from a scenario. Hopefully I can pass with flying colours and start making a job out of a passion I have. That would be great.

As for my second resoulution, I currently weigh around 205 lbs and 11-13% body fat. Nutrition and training have been modified to support some weight loss while maintaining muscular strength and size I have acquired over the past year. Carb cycling and HIIT training will be added to my routine for enhanced results.

I look forward to blogging my experiences and progress over the next couple of months.