Powerlifting Squat

In Powerlifitng you have to Squat so your hip is lower than your knee! I had always only squatted parallel but when you go that little bit lower it gets very hard to balance but practice makes perfect!

No Deadlift Grip!!!

The Deadlift is the DADDY of all exercises and is difficult to master but for a lot of my clients the most difficult bit is keeping their grip with heavy weights.

People with this problem will often start using straps to take the load off their finger tips so I designed a helpful guide to beat the straps.......

1. First always use the Olympic style grip (Both hands over). You will be using light weight as you master your technique so for the first few weeks your grip shouldn't be a problem.
2. After you start to add more weight and you feel your grip starting to slip as you reach the last few reps, change your grip to one over one under which is when you change one hand position to the opposite side (one palm facing you and the other facing away from you).
3. If you then manage to get heavy enough for your grip to suffer invest in some chalk that you can buy from any mountain climbing shop. I love using chalk and after competing in powerlifting events this year I have found my grip staying strong after deadlifting 180kg for reps.
4. If all else fails buy some straps but to be honest you don't need them until you're really lifting heavy or if you have injured fingers etc.

When I deadlift I never use a belt as it will weaken the muscles it is supposed to be protecting, only ever use a belt if you're attempting a 1 rep max and please never wear one when you do bicep curls especially if your doing bicep curls on a squat rack

Happy Training

First Programme Found!

I found a load of old fitness programmes and to my surprise my first ever programme written for me with the first weights I ever pushed was in there. To me there is a lot wrong with it, take a look......

The programme was a simple split Chest/Triceps-Back/Biceps-Legs/Shoulders
All Exercises consist of 4 Sets of 6-8 Reps!

Dips on Frame- Bodyweight
Bench Press- 40kg
Dips on Bench- Bodyweight
Incline DB Press- 15kg
Skull Crushers- 20kg
DB Flys- 12kg

Close Push Ups- Bodyweight
Wide Pull Ups- Bodyweight
Chin Ups- Bodyweight
Wide Bent Over Row- 20kg
Bicep 21's- 16kg
DB Single Row- 10kg
DB Hammer Curl- 12kg

Squats- 20kg
SL Deadlifts- 20kg
Leg Extensions- 20kg
Hamstring Curl (Ball)- Bodyweight
Calf Raises- 28kg
BB Jerk and Press- 20kg
Arnold Press- 8kg
Lat Raises- 5kg
Front Raises- 5kg

Now 2 years on my current workout today...................
Consists of 2 Full Body workouts every other day-
(The first 4 exercises on both workouts are compound and consist of 4 sets of 6-8 Reps, the last 2 exercises are isolation and are 2 sets of 6-8 reps)

DB Chest Press- 50kg
Close Lat Pull down- 125kg
Squats- 65kg (20 rep, recovering from pulled knee ligament was about 150kg)
DB Shoulder Press- 36kg
Tricep Pushdown- 75kg
Hamstring Curls- 70kg

Decline Bench Press- 110kg
Wide Bent Over Row- 80kg
Deadlifts- 160kg
Arnold Press- 30kg
Incline Bicep Curl- 12kg
Lat Raise- 10kg

I think you can see by looking at the first programme I didn't like to train legs. My goals haven't been to get bigger just to get into shape so some areas have had big improvements but others need attention but quite strange to look back and see what I was lifting......

Nutrition Made Easy!

Key points to a healthier diet that can be used for weight loss or muscle building:

Ø Eat plenty of Fruit and Vegetables
Ø Eat plenty of Lean Meat & Fish
Ø High protein and High Fibre
Ø Balanced Diet including Fat
Ø Plenty of Water
Ø Controlled Portion Sizes
Ø Small Alcohol Intake
Ø 4 to 6 small meals a day


Eat plenty of Fruit and Vegetables-

Fruit and vegetables contain important vitamins and minerals that your body requires to function properly, without them it will not function as it should to its full potential. Also take note that vegetables don’t contain many calories compared to other foods so you can eat a lot more of them.

Lots of lean Meat & Fish-

Lean meat and fish contain high amounts of protein, which help repair and build your body and low amounts of fat. Please note your body still needs fat to work sufficiently.

High Protein and Fibre-

Protein takes longer to digest than carbs and fat so if you eat high amounts of protein you will feel fuller longer, also high fibre foods will make you full up for longer as fibre isn’t digested and helps with digestion.

Balanced Diet including Fat-

Fat is a very important part of a diet and we all need a small amount, omega 3 and 6 types are very important and can be found in oily fish like salmon and mackerel.


Plenty of Water-

Water is used in every system in the body and is vital to a healthy diet. 80% of muscle is made up of water so if your looking for bigger muscles make sure you drink enough. Keeping yourself hydrated is also important when trying to lose weight.

Portion Sizes-

Portion size plays a very important role in weight loss. Sometimes when you serve food on a plate you don’t realize how many calories are in the food. For example 100 grams of wholemeal pasta uncooked has 316kcal in it which is a lot considering if you had a medium size bowl of pasta you could have up to 300 grams which is nearly 1000kcal more than half of your daily requirements and that isn’t including the sauce or meat. So its important you make sure your portions are reasonable so you don’t over eat.


Alcohol Intake-

Also linked with portion size, for example instead of having two large glasses of wine have to small glasses of wine and always sip and take your time to make the drink last longer.

Try eating 4 or 5 Small Meals a day-

Eating small and regularly has many benefits including raising the rate at which you burn calories at rest, as your body will be working all day digesting the food. When done correctly it also takes away the feeling of hunger, which will then stop you over eating at meal times or between meals. This will then improve overall maintenance and running of the body.


Helpful Tips:

Ø Eat Slowly and chew food properly, there is a chemical in your body that tells you that your full. This chemical takes between 10 and 15 minutes to be released and gives you that feeling of fullness so if you eat more slowly than usual you won't eat as much.

Ø When eating a meal always have a drink of water with it, after every mouthfull try sipping some water. This will increase the time of your meal and fill you up quicker as you will be drinking more water than usual. Or maybe try using a smaller plate to trick yourself into eating a smaller portion.

Ø Only eat when you’re hungry never out of boredom. If you do snack try eating fruit or nuts.

Ø Try reading nutrition labels on food to help find out what you are actually eating and try to stay away from processed foods that are usually loaded with saturated fat (Bad Fat) and high amounts of salt and calories.

Push Weights or Go Home!!!

As I have said the hardest part of my job is trying to persuade new clients to stop doing endless amounts of cardio work and hit the weights to start building some more metabolic tissue known as Muscle. The first comment I am always given is 'Well I don't want to because I don't want to look like a bodybuilder and I don't want guns like yours' ha ha.......



The easiest way I have found to explain it is.......... I will ask the client 'OK now when you were in your late twenty's what sort of shape were you in?' (now again some people are big some are small as teenagers but the point is the difference from then and now) "I would say 8 times out of 10 they will say I was a size 8-10 and could eat and drink what I wanted without putting on any weight" and if they did somehow put on a few pounds a short few weeks in the gym would put that right.



The second question I ask is "OK what has changed since?" usually the answer will be "Well Iv had a few kids" or "Well now I'm getting older is hard to keep off the weight"



So here comes the speech that will hopefully open their eyes to the real reason for the weight gain and even if they don't end up using my services at least they may be a bit wiser and change the way they have always trained to see if what I say actually works........



Now through your adolescence your body is growing at a very quick rate as you start the process of turning from a child into an adult. Your body needs food (calories) to grow, so as long as you eat a reasonable healthy diet you shouldn't put that much body fat on by the time your body has finished growing (Obviously this is not always the case for everybody as everybody is different and have different body shapes). So at this time your metabolism is very high, you have bigger muscles than you had before, so what happens???



If you don't stimulate your muscles through some kind of weight training your body decides "If it is not being used then it is not needed" Now as you slowly lose muscle your metabolism slowly drops, (1 pound of active muscle tissue could burn somewhere between 30 to 50 calories per day) which means your burning less calories throughout the day, which over time will build up and the excess calories will be stored as fat. Now lets just say you lose 2 pound of muscle every 5 years, so between the ages of 20 and 30 years you would have burned (364daysx5yearsx60kcal per day) 109200kcal less than you would of if you kept hold of it which will translate into about 31 pounds of body fat. This is if you eat your daily calorie maintenance, so if you start to eat junk and binge drink the pounds will start to add up to greater numbers. Just think you could have had a basic full body exercise weights programme and maybe put on a few extra pound of muscle which would have increased your metabolism further, made you stronger as well as keeping your body fit and healthy.



This seems to either go in one ear and out the other or make people open their eyes about where they have been going wrong because if you think about it it makes perfect sense.



After this I will tell them there are only three things you must do..........

1. Eat regular (4 to 6) clean meals on a nutrition plan i will design for them


2. Only train with weights 3 times per week for a maximum of 1 hour


3. Give 100% in all of there training sessions

If they stick to these three rules they will see results!

I would always start a client with a basic full body workout consisting of 5 compound exercises

1. Leg exercise (Leg Press, Squat, vibration squat)


2. Chest exercise (Chest Press)


3. Back exercise (Row)


4. Shoulder exercise (Shoulder Press)


5. Back exercise (Lat pull down)

I usually put two back exercises in because everything nowadays is forward. What I mean about this is sitting at a computer desk or driving a car your posture is pushed forward which will tighten your chest and loosen your back muscles. So the back exercises will help to improve posture alignment a bit and help tighten peoples upper back muscles.

There will also be no isolation exercises such as a bicep curl as they will be a waste of time when you could do a back compound exercise which will be more productive by hitting more muscles etc.

My first client I did this training programme with for only twelve weeks in early 2007 had very good results and is the main reason I'm so popular at the moment and because of my manly good looks, I will post her results so you can judge for yourself...........

Thanks

Mark Alexander

Opening Post!

As this is my first post I think it will be best to tell you a bit about myself and then what this blog will be all about........

My name is Mark and I'm a Personal Trainer working in a 5* Hotel in Hertfordshire. I was fully qualified in July 06 but have been working and studying Sport and Fitness since 2001. For the best part of 2007 I have been building my clientele as well as training and competing in various Powerlifting events around the country. I have been training since July 2005 with some great overall strength and size gains. The most important thing I feel I have done is try to experiment with various training methods in order to find out what is the best training methods for me to reach my specfic goals!

I feel I'm very lucky to be working in the gym that I do as the opportunities are endless. Its very exclusive and my clients ranged from ladies of leisure to celebrities and potentially I could do very well. When I first started in July 2006 Personal Training was unheard of (well maybe 1 a week) for all the trainers. Since being there I've managed to hit about 15 clients a week at £45-£50 a session which from none is quite an achievement especially as my training consists of all weights and no cardiovascular work which seems to be the hardest thing for my clients (especially the ladies) to take in. As everybody seems to think cardio is for burning fat and weights are for those big men that grunt in the free weights area. I'm slowly changing people's opinions about changing the training that they are used to but I must say that is most defiantely the hardest part about my job......

Now I will be posting everything from information about myself, client results, training programmes, nutrition advice, exercise videos, pictures, and anything regarding fitness they may help somebody out there reach their dreams!