Hi and welcome to another week,
Loved my training last week – and thanks so much to everyone else who got along to have a crack. I have to say, that ‘long, slow effort’ on the bikes on Thursday (5 minutes, 75 calories) was a real shock to the system and – even though I had built the programming up to this for 2-weeks preceding Thursday, it was a real challenge and left me feeling pretty unhappy at the end. I actually called it ‘The Grind’ on the class plan and it really felt like it as I worked through it…congratulations to everyone who really went after it with a positive attitude and got it done (either inside or ‘just outside’ the allocated time limit!).
Had a great moment in the gym last week when one of our clients who is going through a bit of a diet ‘revolution’ at the moment announced she had manage to drop nearly 3.5kgs inside a month. A great effort. She topped the story off by telling me how just before jumping on the scales, she had decided she was a ‘bit tired’ to go for her nightly walk that she has added to her current training routine as part of the weight loss push – funnily enough, the great result with the weight loss had her throwing on her walking shoes and hitting the road…all this stuff is connected! Your eat well, you train well – you train well, you eat well. And if you are just consistent with your habits then you will stay ‘on track’ for (ever?) a really long time!
If you are struggling a bit with your food, here are a few things I have been working through with some Food Matters people that you might find worth checking out in your own diet…none of these are earth shattering ideas but they are worth ‘giving a go’ if you are thinking about throwing your hands in the air and giving up.
Firstly – do you know that some foods are just more ‘filling’ than others? Do you know that there is some science behind this and there is something called a ‘Satiety Index’ (check the link here – http://www.mendosa.com/satiety.htm) which gives you some good ideas about things you can eat that ‘fill you up’ and reduce the likelihood of you feeling the need for a post-meal snack? You will see fruits including Oranges and Apples, carb sources including OATS and Boiled potatoes are AWESOME – other things are not so good…and unfortunately the ‘not so good’ group includes some typical snack foods such as candy bars, muffins and yoghurt. Have a read of the link, maybe think about adding some OATS to your morning routine, or having an orange in the middle of the afternoon might be a super addition to your routine!
Tricking yourself into ‘slowing down’ your eating is another great way to get on top of things. I’m sure we all know that the “I’m Full” signal being sent from stomach to brain isn’t instantaneous…after all, food has to be chewed and swallowed etc before your body knows it is there…and by that time, it is too late to say ‘NO MORE’ – it has already off the fork and in your mouth. So trying things such as one drink of water after three bites of food is effective for a lot of people…but there is one even more effective method. Eating with others in a social situation is a great way to slow your eating – you can’t talk and eat at the same time so your eating will naturally be slowed down. So, go to the lunch room at work – don’t eat at your desk. Not only will it give your eyes a break from your computer screen AND help you build relationships with your co-workers, it is also a pretty valid weight loss tool.
Lastly, make sure your protein is ‘up’. There are two pretty simple ‘rules of thumb’ here:
First, you want between 20-30% of your TOTAL calories at EACH MEAL to be protein. Now the reason here (and you can read more about it in this study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18469287) is that protein generally increases satiety to a greater extent than fat or carbs. Of course, the fact that higher protein diets are associated with stimulating lean muscle growth doesn’t exactly hurt either!
Second, you want to have between 1.0g and 1.5g of protein PER KG of body weight PER DAY. I know some people have more than this (up to 2.0g is generally considered ‘OK’ but as per the link shared on Facebook during the week, ‘overdosing’ on protein is not a massive problem either – click here for the link: http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/1103993) but keep in mind we aren’t chasing protein here for muscle growth but – as noted earlier, lean muscle growth is not exactly a negative side effect.
Remember, help is available on this stuff – just ask. You are going to need to put in a bit of work of your own (and stick at it of course) but if you are trying to lose some kgs/’fix’ your diet, those are some of the reasons we are here.
See you all in the gym!
Michael.
OK. Lot’s of questions lately about where this is at and it will all be kicking off on the first Sunday in June (June 3) at 7am. Apologies for the early start on a Sunday morning, but with the gym open from 8am it is kind of the only opportunity we will get to do it…plus, most of the events we are talking about will be early Sunday morning starts and you may as well get used to it.
Week #1 we will meet at the gym and will base ourselves there for a couple of weeks – longest run in week #1 will be 200m.
As mentioned last week, our new challenge ‘The ONE’ will be kicking off in May. This challenge is a bit special as participating gives you a 15-minute ‘sit down’ with one of the trainers to work through your food and training goals/plans – remember, it is all about getting BETTER at one training element and SACRIFICING one food element.
I am thinking that my ‘get better’ exercise is going to be barbell front squats – I tend to avoid them because of the stress on my wrists but the real solution would be to do them MORE not less…let’s see how it goes!
Week 2 of our strength/muscular development program is up and rolling. Hopefully everyone who wants in has asked all the rack set up questions etc that they might have had…if not, track down a trainer and ask them this week!
Now, this program is again intended only to take up to 15-minutes of your time either before or after class…if you want a bit more, well, try the strength program (on the whiteboard in the power rack area) or the full-body program (on the whiteboard in the upstairs gym) OR get to Body Works OR get to TANKS (yes, I know it costs an extra $13.50 but it is pretty good!) or a PT session or 2. Anyway, here goes:
Day 1:
Squat: Warm-up with 2-3 light sets of 10 reps. Pause at the bottom of each rep (count of 1) to work through your mobility.
Pull-ups: Complete 3x sets of 5 strict pull-ups (10x fencepulls) to prepare your back for squats.
Squat: Complete 3x sets of 5x HEAVY reps of back squats. Pretty simple – add between 2.5kgs and 5kgs to the bar from the weight you used last session.
Day 2:
Bench Press: Warm-up with 3x sets of 10-12 reps of bench press. Focus on the bar going down ‘steady’, fast UP!
Push-ups: Complete 3x sets of 10 strict pushups.
Bench Press: Complete 3x sets of 5x HEAVY reps of Bench Press. As with the squat, add between 2.5kgs and 5kgs to the weight you used last week.
Day 3:
Squat: Repeat the warm-up from Day 1 (light squats and Pull-ups).
Deadlifts: Perform 3-5 warm-up sets (slowly increment) then get 3x sets of 5-reps each. As with our efforts last week, these don’t need to be super heavy but I want them to be a ‘challenge’…you should finish your 3rd set with a little bit left in the tank though.
Well, there was a clear tipping disaster with pretty much every result being an upset – and in EVERY game (yep, every single one) the team that won had started the weekend lower on the ladder than its opponent. Regardless of all that, someone had to win…and that person was the proud new Dad, Dave MacFarlane. Dave selected 5 correct which had him one clear of a whole heap of people on 4 (there were 11 of them so I am not going to mention names!).
Things are tight on top of the ladder with Peter Brear and Craig Burleigh (both Cats supporters) leading the way on 42 with 17 others within 3 points of the lead.
Over in Fantasy, things were a bit more normal with some good scoring by the top teams. Liam top scored for the week with 2179, Justin (struggling in the middle of the ladder) returned to form and other big totals were posted by Brett and Kim.
With the strength based 1%’er up at the moment, this is a cool little article to read:
https://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/strength-training-101-how-to-squat-properly/
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