Who you calling fat? Week 2

Well it's been an interesting and more importantly an enjoyable week. First let me start by saying that I didn't weigh myself Monday morning, instead I'm going to do a final weigh in at the end.
It's an odd feeling waking up knowing that you can have fatty foods for breakfast and not feel guilty. On a few occasions this week I've thought "this is so wrong" but I continued to fry my bacon and eggs in butter.

In regards to food this week it's been mainly bacon, eggs and pork sausage for breakfast and twice during the week I had the same in the evening, I did however find myself getting a cooked chicken mid week and totally destroyed it, pretty good value too considering it had 34g of fat and 166g of protein.

I’ve noticed that I've become stronger this week, not He-man strong but enough to notice. After doing some research (watching fat head again) it turns out that saturated fat helps produce more testosterone, so that could be the reason for my strength gains. My workouts still consist of hitting one muscle a day and I try to hit the muscle from every angle possible. Due to the drop in carbohydrates I can’t train to the intensity that I am used to, so instead I’m concentrating on lifting heavy to maintain muscle mass. It must be working well for me as I was asked if I was taking any steroids, so after I finished my 6th set of seated shoulder presses with 35kg dumbbells a side and after dropping the weights after 12 reps (good reps might I add) I say:

                                            “What makes you think that?”

My friend then says, “Well how are you so strong?” now some people might get offended by a question like that but not me, in my eyes that’s a massive compliment. I’ll be honest in my younger days I did experiment but I was foolish and I can assure you I’m never going down that road again!

So my response to my friends question; (you might want to get a pen and paper so you can write this down!)

“The mind will always fail before the body does.”

People will approach the weight thinking “there is no way I’m going to lift this”. To get past this mental hurdle you have to forget about what you think you can lift and just lift, you will be surprised what you can do when you’re mentally savvy. Pick a number in your head and lift, and if you don’t reach that number do it next time.

In terms of physical appearance I'm feeling slightly leaner and my stomach as become to some extent flatter. This could be water retention due to the drop in carbohydrates, but we will see in the oncoming weeks.

I must say that not once this week have I felt hungry, and that's having breakfast at 6:30 and not having anything else till around 1pm. You really do stay full and satisfied pretty much all day. I’m still taking my protein shakes after workouts and sometimes in the evening, but this time with full fat milk and they taste so good.

I almost forgot to mention that on the weekend my sister came home for a few days with her boyfriend so we did spend some time eating at restaurants I did eat somewhat healthy meals but I wasn’t going to be totally anal and ask how many carbs were in the meals. Life is about enjoying yourself, not putting red tape on everything!

That’s all for this week, but I’ll leave you with my daily nutrient details.

Who you calling fat?

I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything but I have been rather busy over the past few weeks. Honestly I sat down on a number of occasions ready to knock something up but first I needed to figure out what my next mission would be. After my bout of intermittent fasting I needed to do something which wouldn’t involve too much planning as I can’t commit to eating at certain times every day.

When I did the IF diet I didn’t really restrict my carbohydrate intake, which was nice but I found out I’m very carb sensitive and would bloat and hold water when I consumed them, also I’ve found that I don’t ever crave carbs anymore and when I do have them I feel very lethargic.

A few months ago I watched a documentary called “Fat Head” it’s basically a follow up to “Super Size Me” but actually informative. In a nutshell it’s about a person who lives on fast food for a month and loses weight, roughly 12 pounds. I pulled this from the film website as it describes it better than I can;

“Have you seen the news stories about the obesity epidemic? Did you see Super Size Me? Then guess what? … You’ve been fed a load of bologna.

Comedian (and former health writer) Tom Naughton replies to the blame-McDonald’s crowd by losing weight on a fat-laden fast-food diet while demonstrating that nearly everything we’ve been told about obesity and healthy eating is wrong. Along with some delicious parody of Super Size Me, Naughton serves up plenty of no-bologna facts that will stun most viewers, such as: The obesity “epidemic” has been wildly exaggerated by the CDC (Centre for Disease Control and Prevention). People the government classifies as “overweight” have longer lifespans than people classified as “normal weight.” Having low cholesterol is unhealthy. Lowfat diets can lead to depression and type II diabetes. Saturated fat doesn’t cause heart disease — but sugars, starches and processed vegetable oils do”

So I recently watched it again and thought this could be an interesting diet, everything you’ve been told about saturated fats has been lies. Now I have no issue with fat in my diet but I’ve never gone out of my way to consume more than I have to. Regarding carbohydrates I hope by now you know I’m not a fan and will avoid them like the plague, the documentary explains what happens when we consume carbs and how and why carbohydrates get converted to fat. I’m not going into great detail about the film as I urge you to watch it yourself, trust me when I say it will completely change your view on fats and why you should include them in your diet. For me personally now when I look around a supermarket I see it like this.................

Now for the rules of the diet:

Calories must not exceed 2000 a day and carbohydrates must be limited to 100g, it’s as easy as that!

Obviously sugar is off the menu but by now you should know better. I did plan on posting this yesterday but it actually worked out better as I can post my nutritional information so you get a better idea of how much I’m consuming.

As you can see my fat and protein intake pretty much take priority and the carbohydrates are trace calories, which come from protein shakes with full fat milk.

I’m looking forward to this diet, for the simple reason I get to wake up and have a cooked breakfast and not feel guilty and to be fair in the past when I’ve had a hearty fatty breakfast it keeps you full for longer and you hardly ever feel hungry. I checked my weight yesterday and I'm 12st 11, I'm only going to weigh myself once a week and someday this week I'll try and record my body fat percentage and post it on this page.

I think I’ll leave it there for this week but I must mention my one rule for this diet:


If it bleeds you can eat it!

Intermittent fasting - my thoughts!

I’ve been following the 16/8 fast now for around three weeks and it’s pretty easy to follow. I have my own personal issues with this way of eating which I’ll touch on later but first let’s move on to the positives.
The whole idea of not eating for 16 hours is a scary thought, I had visions of me being starving and worst of all, watching the clock and counting down the minutes before I can eat. There was none of that!

I started this when my schedule was pretty straight forward, meaning every day I trained at 12:30 so my meal timings were the same every day. So for me this was as follows;

1:30pm – first meal (biggest)*
4:30pm – second meal (medium)*
7:30-8pm – last meal (smallest)*

*amount of calories

I followed this for two weeks and I must say for the two weeks I never felt hungry once. Regards to what I ate, I kept away from junk as usual but I increased my carbohydrate intake a fair bit. My main source of carbs came from protein flapjacks which have 30g carbs and 20g protein per bar which I had straight after my workouts. Other carb sources came from oatmeal which I normally added the dry oats to my protein shakes. My post workout meal was fairly simple and easy, I relied on meal replacement shakes, not ideal or the best option but it was the easiest option for me at the time.

So I finish training and immediately have a protein flapjack, my meal replacement shake (which included BCAA, creatine and L-glutamine) and a 300g tub of cottage cheese.

My second meal which was a “real” meal would normally be sirloin steak with steamed vegetables. This did vary and I’m not sure if this has been done before but I did have some beef burgers but instead of the bread buns I used portobello mushrooms. I just grilled them for a few minutes per side added some mozzarella cheese to the burgers and ate it like a normal burger – DONE.

The last meal was simple; it was basically another protein shake which consisted of 40g protein and 2g carbs per serving which was perfect just before bed.

Regards to my training my strength has gone through the roof, this could be because my carb intake was higher than it normally is which means I have more fuel for my workouts. My workouts were split over five days where I focused on one body part per session, trying to spend at least an hour (around 20 sets) making sure I hit the muscle from every angle. After the weights I did some cardio, nothing too taxing but enough to break a sweat, cardio sessions lasted maximum 20 minutes.

I refrained from checking the scales the entire time, mainly because I was getting a bit tired of it if I’m honest. This time I just went of what I looked and felt like, I’m looking better in the mirror; my muscles seem fuller which is a bonus. I think the main indication of my progress is based on two key factors, if my waist line is the same and if my shirts are getting tighter.

Check and check!

I enjoyed the experience granted it was a short one but due to my schedule I couldn’t stick to training times and my meal timings were getting sloppy towards the end, so some days I’d have my first meal at 1pm and others it would be at 4pm. It was just a nightmare trying to keep within the 16 hours and working your meals around it. Don’t let that put you off though; if you can train at the same time on a daily basis then this would be good routine for. I originally planned to do this for a minimum of 4 weeks but I can’t do it due my time commitments, with work and me just starting a nutrition degree and not knowing when I can train it’s just not the best option for me. I do encourage you to give it a try though even if it’s only for a week, you have nothing to lose!

Church of Pain

So I get a call last week from my friend Joe asking if I fancy a session with IFBB pro bodybuilder Lee Powell, before he even finished his sentence I said “yes” as I thought it would be great experience. So after some other small talk we hang up and then I realised I never asked what we are going to be training. So I pick up the phone and ask what body part are we training? This is where my smile got turned into a frown!

Legs!

I hate training my legs I really do, don’t get me wrong I give them equal attention but it’s always been the one body part I never look forward to. Anyway I thought “this is going to be interesting and I’m going to learn something” so leading up to Saturday I was excited and ready for anything. I wake up Saturday morning around 7am to sort out my gym gear and make sure I have everything for the trip then all of a sudden I became really nervous about training, maybe due to the fact I was going to be in the presence of a pro, maybe the thought of training legs? Whatever it was it put me on edge!

After the drive to Gloucester I turn up at Joe’s and we catch up and put the gear in the car and then head to Severnside gym. We park up and start walking towards the gym, I have to admit the gym is in a beautiful location and the gym alone is a thing of beauty! It’s a church which has been converted to a gym and after speaking to some of the locals who train there it’s been called the Church of Pain!

How can something so beautiful cause so much pain? I was about to find out...............................

We get inside and I take a look around and the only way I can best describe it is that it’s a “man’s gym” no coloured weights, no fancy machines just the basic tools needed to pack on muscle. Lee then walks over and introduces himself we have a quick chat but that’s not what we were there for! He then explains that we are going to do warm up sets on the leg extension, so I hop on and ask “how many reps?” To which I get the response “I’ll tell you when to stop!” ok, fair enough your bigger than me, whatever you say!

I start the exercise strong and I’m on the 15th rep and he I hear “OK” I don’t even remember if the next set was heavier or lighter, I was just pushing and pushing until Lee said otherwise! Now the third set begins and as I’m at the top of the movement he tells me to squeeze and lower with control. At this point my quads were on fire and it was only the warm up! The weight changes again and after the last rep he shouts “give me 15 partial reps” the lactic acid was once again knocking on Mr Shaw’s door! We did another 3 sets and after I got off the machine after my final rep I could barely stand, I felt horrible, dizzy, fatigued, in a word “knackered”. This was only the beginning; this was only meant to be the warm up! I then realised I might of bit off more than I can chew but I was there and going to push on!

Next up was the hack squat, a machine which I haven’t used in years but was quickly reacquainted with. We started with no weight just to get used to the movement and speed of the reps, even with no weight I was finding it difficult! The key to this exercise is to get as low as you can while keeping the momentum slow enough so you can feel the muscles working and believe me I did! Lee was there to correct my footing and give me support but the legs were shaking already and I was feeling pretty grim! We did a few sets and added weight gradually but in all fairness, lifting my own body weight was hard enough and I felt every single rep!

After the hack squat we moved onto the leg press, I thought I would be ok with this one but my legs were on fire and the sweat was running down my face and I couldn’t stop drinking water as passing out was just moments away! I started off with a light weight which again was difficult at this point due to the shock that my legs had gone through. I think I managed to add two plates a side but in all fairness I wasn’t paying attention, I was more concerned about pushing the weight up and banging out the reps just so I could rest again! After this exercise I was really feeling it and I think the picture below tells you exactly how I felt!

We then moved on to squats with the Olympic bar, I’m not a fan of squats, never have been so I wasn’t looking forward to this. I started off squatting the bar just to get my technique right but frankly the bar was enough, my legs were starting to get tight and I had nothing left. I felt my manhood drift further and further away each time I attempted to squat! It’s my own fault though as I should squat more often.

Finally we come to dumbbell lunges; again my pride is ripped from me as Lee tells me to do them without weight to get my balance right as I was a bit wobbly. After the first set I’m handed weights and was told to do ten per leg. It was the longest ten reps of my life followed by another ten painful reps. Lee was telling me to get down further to get a good stretch but I physically couldn’t, I was thinking “if I get down further, I ain’t getting back up” I finally finish the last rep and drop the weights with a sigh of relief then stumble across to the nearest chair and collapse. I was done!

It was one of the most painful workouts I’ve ever had in my life, during the workout I was wishing it would end but I did enjoy it in a sadistic way, it was a great experience even though I was holding back the tears!

I asked my friend Joe to write a small segment about the session but from his point of view, this is all his own words and I haven’t edited anything just 100% truth!

“I grew up with Dave and we have known each other a long time. I enjoy training and I live in Gloucester. Gloucester just happens to be home to Lee Powell. Lee is an IFBB PRO and owns his own gym, Severnside, also known as - 'the church of pain'. Lee offers personal training sessions for a very reasonable price and I have been having these for a few months now. If you enjoy training, if you think you train hard, then try a session with Lee. This is what Dave did and this is how he took the session from my eyes.

We started with the leg extension and well, if I'm honest, I think Dave could have ended it here as well. Lee is all about the form, you don't need to pick up massive weights you need to have good form and control the negative. Once you can do that, then you start adding weight. By the end of these high rep drop sets I could see Dave was already in pain and it was only gonna get worse, much worse.

Onto the hack squat.

Lee makes you go ass to the floor, slow up, slow down. You can't lock out at the top either so the movement is constant, no rest for a set of 15. If done properly this hurts and Dave looked hurt. He was sweating pretty hard after the 3rd set and had only had to squat the frame. Like I said, good form over big weight. So now he was looking a bit pale, onto the leg press. First set was light, 100kgs for 12 reps. I had to laugh a bit when he couldn't lift it. He sat in the press legs shaking and we stripped it off to 50kg a side. Now if you’re reading this thinking - 'What, I could do that easy!' then you do not understand the intensity of this workout. IT IS HARD. So by the 3rd set, Dave managed that 100kg and it was onto some squats.

When you think of squatting you probably see the bar bending under all the plates. Not this time, Dave had to squat an empty bar and when he first tried to pick it up he couldn't. His legs just wouldn't do it. I laughed and said 'how’s it gonna look telling everyone on the blog you can’t squat the bar?!' This gave him a bit of motivation and he managed his sets.

It was the same story with the next exercise, dumb bell lunges. Just body weight reps, Now it might sound like I'm slating Dave but I'm not. I've done this workout with big Lee a few times now and I was the same as Dave first time round. Properly exhausted, I wouldn't say the workout gets any easier either, your body just gets better at coping with the pain. So now you know Dave isn't making all this stuff up. Now do what he did and get yourself to church!”

Joe

I get home around 5:30pm and I just crash on the sofa, I knew I was going to be feeling it but I had no idea of the pain waiting for me around the corner! Sunday I wake up feeling the pain in my quads, it was bad but bearable. I phone Joe and we joke about the pain and he then tells me “it’s only going to get worse” I take the comment with a pinch of salt and carry on with my day. So I wake up Monday and the pain is worse, walking was an effort and all I could think of was “I totally agree with this guy, I don’t like Monday”.

I struggle through the day and try to forget the pain, sleeping was also a nightmare as every time I moved the pain would resurface. Then I wake up today and yes the pain is still there and feeling somewhat worse than before, it felt like I was beaten in my sleep. I get up and sort myself out but every time I seen a step they stared back at me and I could almost hear them laughing, smug little bastards!

Even though the experience was painful I did leave satisfied, Lee knows his stuff and pushes people to get the best out of them and for that I’m grateful! If you’re ever in Gloucester I urge you to visit the Church of pain;

Severnside Gym (The Church of Pain)
Church Lane
Gloucester

I’m planning on going back and training other body parts in the future so when I do I’ll write about it.

I’d like to thank Lee for his time and Joe for sorting out the experience, it was a pleasure!

Introduction to intermittent fasting

After another 4 weeks of doing the Rapid Fat Loss diet I admit I wanted a change, not just for my benefit but for the readers benefit too. I had some great results over the 8 weeks or so and would happily do it again in the future to mix things up.

I had a week or so not worrying too much about what I ate but I’ve still been watching my carbohydrate intake during the week and indulging on the weekends, It’s hard to get out of the habit once you’ve been doing it for a while which I think is a good thing. Sunday was my refeed day and it involved me getting up at 9am cooking a pizza and enjoying it while watching the rugby then once it finished back to bed I went! Sunday clearly is my day of rest!

Over the week I had some time to think about what I’m going to do next and I decided to try intermittent fasting. For those of you who have never heard of intermittent fasting (IF) it is a pattern of eating that alternates between periods of fasting (usually meaning consumption of water only) and non-fasting. A specific form of IF is alternate day fasting (ADF), which is a 48-hour routine typically composed of a 24-hour fast followed by a 24-hour non-fasting period. The reason I choose IF as it claims to help get rid of stubborn body fat.

Stubborn body fat refers to areas of the body that hold onto fat the longest. Generally speaking, these areas include the lower abs and lower back in men, and the lower body in women. So that’s my goal, to get rid of the stubborn fat, I have no idea how this is going to go but I guess that’s the whole point of me doing this in the first place.

There are a few ways to carry out an IF diet but the one which got my attention the most is Martin Berkhan’s Lean gains. The Leangains protocol consists of two phases; 16 hours of fasting, followed by 8 hours of feeding. During this period, three meals are usually eaten. Depending on the day, the composition of those meals varies; on workout days, carbs are prioritized before fat, while on rest days fat intake is higher. Protein remains fairly high on all days.

So an example of the fast is as follows;

11.30-12 AM or 5-15 minutes pre-workout: 10 g BCAA or whey protein
12-1 PM: Training
1 PM: Post-workout meal (largest meal of the day).
4 PM: Second meal.
9 PM: Last meal before the fast.

Calories and carbs are tapered down throughout the day in the example above.

For me this is ideal as I normally train around 12:30pm most days and after a good session (behave) I always leave the gym famished so eating a big meal straight after is a god send!

I imagine some of you are thinking “16 hours without eating, that’s going to be hard” yes, 16 hours without food does seem daunting but if your last meal is around 8:30-9pm that means you’ll be asleep for most of the fasted phase. I’ve been trying it out this week to get an idea of what I can expect next week when I officially start the “experiment” and it’s pretty easy to get into. After the 2nd day I didn’t even think about food and my energy levels were pretty good, I was training at 100% and never felt drained once. One thing I will add is that when in the fasted phase you really have to stick to it, yesterday I had a bit too much milk in my tea and hunger pangs hit me hard, this happened because I consumed calories.

This is good time to list the key points to the 16/8 fast. Some of this information is from the lean gains site as I think it’s important to understand what to do to make the fast as successful as possible.


* No calories are to be ingested during the fasted phase, though coffee, calorie free sweeteners, diet soda and sugar free gum are ok (even though they might contain trace amount of calories). A tiny splash of milk in your coffee won’t affect anything either (½-1 teaspoon of milk per cup at the most - use sparingly and sensibly if you drink a lot of coffee). Neither will sugar free gum in moderation (~20 g).

* The fast is the perfect time to be productive and get things done. Don’t sit around, get bored and brood about food.

* Meal frequency during the feeding phase is irrelevant. However, most people, including me, prefer three meals.

* The majority of your daily calorie intake is consumed in the post-workout period. Depending on setup, this means that approximately 95-99% (fasted training), 80% (one pre-workout meal) or 60% (two pre-workout meals) of your daily calorie intake is consumed after training.

* The feeding window should be kept somewhat constant due to the hormonal entrainment of meal patterns. We tend to get hungry when we're used to eating and maintaining a regular pattern makes diet adherence easier. If you're used to breaking the fast at 12-2 PM and ending it at 8-10 PM, then try to maintain that pattern every day.

* On rest days, meal one should ideally be the largest meal, as opposed to training days where the post-workout meal is the largest meal. A good rule of thumb is to make meal one on rest days at least 35-40% of your daily calorie intake. This meal should be very high in protein; some of my clients consume more than 100 g of protein in this meal.

* If your preference is to eat a larger meal in the evening instead of noon, or whenever you break the fast, it's no great harm. Some people prefer to save the largest meal on rest days for dinner with their family instead of having a large lunch and that's fine by me if it makes them enjoy and adhere to their diet better.


There is a ton of information on the Lean Gains site and I highly recommend you take a look and soak up as much information as you can.


This is still a “free week” for me so any results that I’ve gained or lost will not be counted. This is just an introduction as if I posted everything next week the post would be huge!


I’ve been lazy lately with the posts as I’ve found it hard to find the time to sit down and write anything but I’ll change I swear! (Sounds familiar)


So until next time.................

You can’t just step into the ring and think you can box!

A few weeks ago I was introduced to Mo Nasir, a commonwealth boxing medallist. We talked for a while about what we both do for a living and I mentioned I wouldn’t mind doing some focus pad work for my cardio sessions as I hate doing cardio, I hate cardio so much if cardio was a person I’d punch him in the face! (Excuse the outburst) So I wanted to do something different and in the process learn a bit about boxing.

A few days later I get a phone call and its Mo asking if I want a one on one training session with him, I accepted and we arranged times etc and I was really looking forward to it as it’s a new experience and life’s all about trying new things and taking risks.

So it’s Wednesday and I’m doing my usual thing training with people with the appointment with Mo getting closer and closer and me feeling a bit anxious as I didn’t know what to expect but I thought how hard can it be? I’ve seen Rocky a number of times, I’ve got this!
I turn up a bit early and I catch Mo training someone else so I took some time to check out his wall that’s full of Newspaper articles, pictures with every boxer I could think of and his awards from the commonwealth games. It was impressive!

So we begin and we start with warming up which just consisted of jogging and stretching, then I gloved up! He picked up the focus pads and went through all the types of punches and more importantly getting my foot work right! We started slowly working on simple routines and making sure my hand positioning was correct and then went on to blocking different punches. At this point I was still feeling pretty fresh and thought it’s not as bad as I thought!

Then shit got serious..........................................

Movements started to get faster and faster, bobbing and weaving started to get thrown in and he started to hit me to keep me on my toes to make sure I was blocking. As we were training he would stop me and correct my stance and give me a few tips on how to punch with more power and it’s crazy, the slightest adjustments made a massive difference and when someone says “good now I can feel your knuckles” you know you’re doing something right!

I was banging out combos like a crazy person trying my hardest to listen to the next command over the sound of the gloves and pads connecting! We then did some work on body shots and again how to make each punch count. He told me to brace myself and block the incoming onslaught I was about to receive, well he gave me a left body shot so hard and fast I almost had to take a knee, for a small guy he hit’s hard, really hard!

The pad work lasted just over 30 minutes, we took a breather and chatted about things and I was quizzing him about his boxing career, we had stopped for about 5 minutes and I was under the impression we had finished but then I hear....................

”time for some conditioning work”

Words can’t really describe how shocked I was to hear this as I literally had nothing left in the tank, but this picture gives you a good idea!

We entered the weight room and I felt safe, this is what I excel at, “bring it” I thought. He picks up an Olympic bar and goes through a weight circuit routine which included bicep curls, shoulder press and upright rows, he says 30 reps each, so I start and it felt doable but I haven’t done any high rep work in a while and the burn soon found me and gave me a beat down!

After I did another circuit which involved fast step up work on a box, dips, tricep overhead presses and a overhead throw down with a medicine ball (why make a ball that doesn’t bounce, seriously!) I started doing 10 reps of each then 9 then 8 and so on until I got down to 1 rep. Then we do some ab work which again involved the medicine ball, normally my abs/core is pretty strong but after 40 minutes of training I could barely finish a full set, it hurt so bad I could feel each abdominal cramp up and begging me to stop to the point where I felt like I was going to be sick! It’s a horrible feeling!

We finally finished with some cool down stretches and at this point I was drenched and relieved that the session was over and all I wanted was a protein shake and a hug!

                                                  HARDEST WORKOUT EVER! FACT!


After the session we talked and he mentioned I should come along to the sparring night! I agreed and thought “Spar sounds good” So I go along with swimming shorts and towel in hand walk in and to say the least I was slightly disappointed!

When I arrived they already started so I just hung back with the other boxers and just watched from a distance. Now before I arrived I didn’t plan on staying too long as I had to meet someone and I’m not one for being late, so I’m talking to one of the boxers and ask

“Do you hold back when you spar regarding the power of your punches?”

He replies “yeah you’re meant to but sometimes you get carried away”

As he finished his sentence we watch one guy’s head fly back and a cloud of blood around his head! He turns and his nose is busted and he’s covered in blood, now they really had my attention and I get the phone out and text my friend explaining I was going to be running late. I was hooked (pardon the pun) and ended up there for an hour, I couldn’t look away!

I’m going for another one on one session this week as even though it was extremely difficult I really did enjoy it and think my fitness/conditioning will increase and you never know I might lose a few pounds in the process.

Mo is holding a charity boxing event on Friday 23rd September where local guys who train with Mo will step into the ring for the first time in front of a crowd and go toe to toe. The details are as follows:

Round 2: Rapid Fat Loss Week 4

Another week done and dusted and what a week, training solid all week and pushing the intensity as far as my pain threshold will allow. Over the past two weeks I’ve been training with a partner which has really helped with my motivation so even if I can’t be bothered to train I have to go as I don’t want to let him down. I think even the most enthusiastic fitness fanatic goes through a period where they think “I could just not go and stay at home” but you have to suck it up and get your arse in gear! I truly believe that the more you put in the more you get out, now I’m not saying you have to over train as you need plenty of time to recover after your workouts but when you think about it logically there are 168 hours in a week, if you train 5 times a week for an hour that’s not really a lot so we all could get out of the house and be more active, walking instead of driving etc.

With regards to my workouts the past week has involved a number of drop set routines just to mix things up and shock the body. The workouts are similar to the bicep workout I posted where you start on a certain weight do 10 reps drop the weight do another 10 etc, I can’t really describe the pain but it burns......a lot! I think the bicep session is the worst by far. It literally feels like this............................

Over the week my weight has fluctuated, I’m really trying to get out of the habit of weighing myself daily as you can become slightly obsessed. My diet has been fairly strict but I did have a cheat meal on Sunday as it was a family get together and I never turn down a free meal especially from my mum!

So Monday morning I hopped on the scales and to my surprise I’m 12st l0lb.........

I admit I was disappointed, I even thought “what’s the point of carrying on?” I regretted the cheat meal, thinking that it ruined my progress for the week but then I saw sense. I can’t get fat in a day; I can’t fat in a day I kept telling myself, I’m still looking leaner and my definition in my muscles are looking better than ever. So I went over my food log for the week and checked everything and it seems I was eating over 230g of protein a day so the few pounds I’ve put on could possibly be muscle and we all know that muscle weighs more than fat!

I still wasn’t 100% convinced so I decided to get my body fat percentage checked out, the last time I had it checked was just before the first fat loss cycle.

 

Stats	Before	After
Weight (lbs)	182	169
Lean Body Mass	150	144
Fat %	17.2	14.6
Upper Body	19	24
Torso	22	11
Legs	19	15

Once I seen these figures I felt a bit better as it clearly shows that I lost fat and not just weight! I’m still on the right track and it’s nice to have the results in black and white showing that my chest is bigger and my stomach is getting flatter. I had a friend run these stats through his super computer and it printed out an artist’s impression of what I will look like after the 2nd cycle, so here it is................................

Bicep Workout

This workout is and I quote “unpleasant” it drains every last bit of energy from you and lactic acid becomes your new best friend. As with training any body part you need a few warm up sets to prepare for the discomfort you’re about to experience.

I did this workout with a guy that I’m currently training to mix things up a bit and as he was half way through lifting he said “I’m really starting to hate you!” it’s all for the greater good as now and again you need to shock the muscles to activate and tear more fibres which in turn will lead to muscle growth etc.

Ideally it’s best to train with a partner as they will push you and spot you if you’re struggling.

So after you’ve warmed up do the following:

Preacher curls

The preacher curl isolates only the biceps so you can’t use your back for momentum to swing the weight up.

Start off with 40kg (4 10kg plates)

Lift the weight in an explosive movement and once at the top hold and squeeze for 3 seconds.

Then lower the weight as slowly as you can, making sure you keep perfect form at all time.

Your aim is to reach 10 reps!

Once completed take a plate off and repeat until you’re down to 10kg, at this point you should be feeling an extreme pump and your arms should be burning like crazy!

So in total your doing 40 reps with a maximum of 5 seconds rest in-between each 10 reps (if that makes sense?)

After all 40 reps it’s your partners turn, we did two sets of this and in all honesty that was enough but in my next bicep session I’ll be aiming for three sets.

21’s

Personally I love doing 21’s and if you’re not sure what they are basically incomplete movements ending in a full range of motion.

Start off standing with a barbell (again we used 40kg) and lift the weight half way so your elbows are at right angles and hold for a few seconds then lower the weight slowly in a controlled manner ensuring you have a full stretch at the bottom when you relax your arms.

Repeat for 7 reps

Once you’ve done 7 reps lift the weight from the elbows right angled position, once you’re at the top of the movement hold and squeeze for a few seconds then lower half way.

Repeat for 7 reps

Now complete 7 full reps keeping your form strict and making sure your arms straighten out at the bottom so you get a good stretch, the last 7 should be really difficult (if you’re doing them correctly)

Aim for 3 sets

Bicep finisher!

This only works if you have someone to train with. Pick a barbell which is fairly light but still heavy enough to test you.

The idea here is to drain the last bit of energy from you but it also acts as a competition to see who gives up first.

Stand facing your partner while holding the bar (you need to have enough space to curl the bar)

Complete a full rep and once you lower the weight completely your partner grabs it and does his rep and so on.

This just boils down to who lasts longest so don’t count reps just lift until you physically can’t do anymore!

I don’t do this routine every time it’s just something fun to throw in the mix once a week etc

Remember “weight for show, form for a pro”

Round 2: Rapid Fat Loss Week 3

This past week has been fun with all the celebrations and drinking but I did pay for it all. Even though I maintained my eating habits the calories from the alcohol tipped me over the edge for the majority of the week but in my defence it was my birthday and for that reason I'm writing week 3 off! 

I decided last night to get serious with this and cut out alcohol entirely until I reach my goal. I'm also doing cardio from now on even though I can’t stand it I think it will be beneficial with speeding up the fat loss. When doing cardio I keep it brief and do HIIT (High Intensity Interval training), this normally involves a 15-20 minute session where I sprint for 30 seconds then jog for 30 seconds and repeat until the times up. The idea behind this is when you sprint you mobilize the fat cells and then when you slow down that’s when you actually burn the fat. This sort of training when done correctly is a killer and 20 minutes is more than enough. I normally do this 3 times a week when I'm not lifting weights and after the session I’m normally dripping with sweat! (If you’re not then your intensity isn't high enough) 

On the weekend I trained with a friend and we hit the biceps hard by concentrating on form rather than weight. This involved explosive curling with a squeeze at the top then lowering the weight as slowly as you can. The pump was crazy and it hurt in a good way! 

After that we went for a run which I was dreading! I have one rule regards to running, only run if your being chased!

Once I got into it I was enjoying it and we ended up in a park doing pull-ups and leg raise’s on a bar which was about 5” thick which was difficult as the forearms took a hammering because of the grip! All in all it was a good workout and it just goes to show that even if you’re not a member of a gym you can still go outdoors and train to some degree. 

Regards to weight I'm 12st 10, I expected that in all honesty and now I’m raring to go to drop as much weight as I can. Last time I did this it was over a 4 week period but I think I’ll be aiming for around the 6-8 week mark as I have a lot more work to do. 

It’s a short one this week but I’ll post the bicep workout midweek to make up for it!

Round 2: Rapid Fat Loss Week 2

After the first cycle and the initial drop in weight I was raring to go with the second cycle, unfortunately your body will do everything it can to stop you from losing too much fat, especially in a short amount of time!
When I started again last week I thought I would be losing weight at the same rate as before but I’ve found out that I have no room for error and if I stray from my eating habits I’m punished for it!

My calories over the past week have been a little higher than normal; I’m probably hitting around 1500 a day. That’s still pretty low but if you compare that to the 800 calories a day on my last cycle I’m definitely seeing the difference.
For one I’m sleeping a lot better this time round, this could be because I’m consuming more calories or the fact that I’m taking a protein drink that is designed to be more effective at bed time and promote sleep.
This time round I’m also training at high intensity lifting heavy weights, it’s nice to get back in the gym but there have been some downsides. My appetite has increased a great deal and I always find myself grabbing a spoon and heading for the peanut butter to curb my cravings!

Also the DOMS (Delayed On-Set Muscle Soreness) has been crazy this week! This is my own fault as I’ve gone from no training to going all out lifting weights as if I’ve never stopped! The bicep pain is the worst by far, with back soreness coming in at a close 2nd! (Damn you wide-grip pull-ups). It’s been difficult walking around trying to stay chipper when it feels like you’ve been beaten all over!

Regards to food and drink I did go out for a friend’s birthday on the weekend which probably threw my calories way off but what could I do? I’m trying to do this while maintaining a social life, I knew from the start this wouldn’t be easy!

While I’m on the subject of drink I was asked during the week what I drink in general as I’ve never mentioned it before. Normally I drink water as often as I can; at a guess I’d say I consume around 6 litres a day (including the water I drink during training). I also drink a fair amount of diet Pepsi, I don’t know why but when I’m on low calories’ drinking this stuff keeps me sane. 

If I go out drinking I try to only drink spirits with diet coke but as the night goes on I often stray to other things depending on the company I’m with and end up knocking back a Jägerbomb or two!

So the scales tell me I’m still 12st 8 which is acceptable if you take into account the increase in calories and the odd drink!

The upcoming week should be challenging as tomorrow I’ll be 27 and already my week has filled up with events which always end up involving alcohol! I will remain focused and keep my food intake strict but I can’t promise the same with the drink, I am human after all!