What fat Loss experts don’t tell you

4 10 2011

Circuit Training

Metabolic Conditioning (MetCon)

Super Sets

Kettlebell Training

Interval Training

Full Body Workouts

Each one of these training methods is lauded as the ultimate “Fat Burning Workout”
Each one of these methods is supposed to “Leave you ripped, with 6 pack abs in X number of days”

And it’s all a crock of shite.

I use all of these methods with my guys at Wild Geese, now to be fair, the large proportion of WG-Fit athletes are looking for performance enhancement not fat loss, but the methods I use  to make fighters fight harder, triathletes run, swim & bike faster and everyone else lifter heavier, faster, for more reps. Well these methods are the same as those peddled my the marketing media as your one stop cure for obesity.

But it aint.

You want to sort your waistline out, sort your diet out. And I don’t mean slimfast shakes and muesli bars, I mean meat, fish, salad and veggies.
Cut the crap out, learn to listen to the body instead of the adverts. Get energy from real foods, not artificial stimulants and sugars.
Moderate caffeine intake, minimise alcohol intake.
Make water your primary source of fluids, make fruit and nuts your first choice for snacks.
Realise that if it says Low Fat on the packet it really means “Added artificial sweeteners & sugars” In fact, if it comes in a packet at all, it’s most likely been tampered with.

And one more thing, if they try to ram down your throat the fact that this particular food is healthy, it aint. The bigger and brighter the text or the greater the repetition, the bigger the lie.

So that there is the secret to being a healthy weight.
Eat real food, ignore the adverts and learn to cook. Simples!
And don’t be afraid to feel hungry the odd time.

So, back to the exercise.

Can you say "Photoshop" ?

Exercise is to make you fitter, stronger, faster and more durable. Looking good is a by-product.
Yes, a full body resistance training workout will elevate your metabolism and increase the body’s need for nutrients. That is assuming you’ve shifted some tonnage and stressed all the major muscle groups in a balanced fashion, not just danced around to cheesy disco pop.
This is because the effort put into training will have damaged the muscle fibres and depleted the fuel stores requiring the body to adapt.
This recovery process requires fuel which can either be taken from the fat stores or the ingested energy from food.

But it still comes down to food. Not exercise.

So next time you are tempted with a “fat burning” workout, stop and think, are you first willing to change your eating habits?
A requirement for my online clients, particularly those looking for body composition changes is they track their eating habits on LiveStrong (Here: http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate/ )
Tracking your diet allows for easy modification. Create yourself and account and start recording. Try to get your Protein:Fat:Carbohydrate ratios (don’t worry, the site works it out for you) to 30:30:40 for starters, then go from there.

Then, lift, carry, drag, throw, run, crawl, climb, roll and hit. Use a variety of reps and hit every movement pattern in each workout.
Make sure the weights you lift get incrementally heavier. Ensure that if you repeat the same workout twice, you do it faster the second time. Always, always either do more reps, more weight or take less rest. Otherwise, just don’t bother.

Regards

Dave
http://www.wg-fit.com





Building a bodyweight workout part II

15 01 2011

Alternating sets, or super sets work.

Not just for bodyweight training for just about training style, assuming of course, you do it right.

The key point to remember is that the two exercises must not compete with each other, they must be antagonistic.

What does this mean?
Simples, if you do a bicep curl, then you are obviously working the biceps so the triceps is inhibited to allow the arm to bend. While being inhibited, the triceps are relaxed and therefore getting time to recover.
If you’ve worked push ups and your pushing muscles are fried, take 30 seconds break and perform your bodyweight rows, rest another 30 seconds before returning to the push ups. You will have rested somewhere in the region of 1 1/2 to 2 minutes between push up sets but will hae used that time wisely. As well as the time spent resting there is evidence coming out to support the theory that due to the reciprocal inhibition caused by working an antagonist you actually get a more thorough recovery.

You don’t have to stick to true antagonists such as bicep/triceps, we can also use distal antagonists. as in upper / lower body or even unilateral antagonists such as right leg / left leg.

Here are a few pairings:

True antagonists:
Push Ups / Bodyweight Row
Handstand Push Ups / Pull Ups
Walkouts / Bridge

Distal Antagonists:
Push Ups / GHR
Pull Ups / Squats
Dips / Broad Jumps

Unilateral Antagonists:
Lunge Left / Right
1 Arm Push up left / right
Pistol Squat left / right

For fat loss we found that distal antagonists work the best. The cardio vascular system has to work very hard to supply blood to the working muscles in the upper body, then as you move to a lower body drill the blood is mostly redirected with some still being sent to the upper body to aid recovery. This puts your cardiovascular system under pressure so will get you breathing and skyrocket the metabolism into a fat burning furnace.

Try putting together a Density Training program, it’s simplicity in itself.
Simply take two antagonistic drills, set a countdown timer for 15 – 20 minutes and bang away. Do as many sets as possible, never going to failure, untill the buzzer goes of.
Ensure you record every rep, next time you repeat the workout, try to get more reps done, even a single rep more is progress.

Here’s an example:

Workout 1:
Push ups / Walking Lunge

Workout 2:
Bodyweight Row / Squat Jumps

Train 3 days per week alternating between 1 and 2.

Enjoy

Regards

Dave
www.wg-fit.com

PS – For the person who searched “Bodyweight Tricep Isolation Exercise” on Google and landed on this site – why isolate when you get better results from integrating, here are a few that will hit the tri’s hard and put some size on your guns:

Close Grip Push ups (place hands in a diamond shape, finger and thumb touching, and lower the forehead to them)
Dips, try to keep the torso vertical
One arm push ups
Handstands
Handstand Push Ups
Tiger Bend push ups 

Enjoy.





Building a bodyweight workout

13 01 2011

The other day I wrote about how running, while great exercise, is not optimal for fat loss.
I went on to say how strength training was better and gave you a bodyweight workout to experiment with.

Today I want to continue on the theme. Only this time I’m not going to give you a workout, I’m going to tell you how to create your own.

First, why bodyweight?

Simple, the people I see pounding the pavements are most likely the type who wouldn’t bother with a gym. The people who come to me for coaching most often tell me that they are looking to give up their gym memberships and train at home instead, or join the training at Wild Geese. So I’m guessing the people regularly reading this blog aren’t the typical gym bunny types either.
Therefore bodyweight training is the way to go, no gym membership needed.
If you wish to set up a gym at home, you won’t go wrong with investing in a pull up station and maybe a kettlebell or two, possibly build yourself a sandbag. Nothing else is needed.

The next thing you’ll notice is that when you are able to create bodyweight only workouts, you are never left without a gym, the whole world becomes your gym. You’ll spot places to train anywhere and soon will become proficient at improvising any kit you need, which isn’t much.

Then there’s the simple fact that every bodyweight drill is a core training drill and is also a functional training drill.

So lets look then at how to build a workout.

Step 1 – Get a timer.
I’ve had a series of Nokia phones, all of which have a countdown timer function. More and more of you have one of those smart phone doohickies so you can download timer apps. Or get a Gymboss or a simple egg timer.

Step 2 – Designate a workout time.
In other words, make an appointment with yourself, maybe even invite a friend. Don’t skip this appointment.

Step 3 – Choose your workout goal.
For many, we’re still working off the mince pies, others are looking for strength, some conditioning. Pick your goal for this particular workout, or series of workouts.

Step 4 – Choose your exercises.
Keep it balanced. Take 2-5 leg exercises, 2-5 Upper body push and 2-5 upper body pull.
Pick drills that are appropriate to your goal, there’s no point doing 100 push ups if you are looking to get strong. Instead work a variation that stops you short, or keep the reps purposefully low but do multiple sets.

Step 5 – Build the workout
Whether you use the alternating set method (often called superset), circuits, “minute drills” or density training, with the right drills and a little intensity you’ll have a great session. Over the next few days I’ll explain each of these methods of building your workout, go back to the last post and you’ll see an example of an alternating set workout.
Regardless of the style of workout try to ensure you work the full body and use good form. For efficiency put non competing exercises together, for example a set of Push ups and a set of squats. This way you can reduce the rest times as your arms are resting while you squat. This will allow for a higher work rate without compromising quality.

Step 6 – Get on with it!
There’s no time like the present, you can get an intense bodyweight session done in under 30 minutes, including a warm up so get on with it.

 Here’s a short bodyweight circuit to get you breathing hard:

5 x Pull Up
10 x Push Up (any variation)
20 x Squat

As Many Rounds As Possible (AMRAP) in 15 minutes

Don’t forget to warm up first.

Regards

Dave
www.wg-fit.com





Running for Fat Loss?

10 01 2011

Driving through town the last few evenings I’ve witnessed an incredible amount of people out jogging.

I’ll guess it’s the new years resolutions kicking in and people are all out trying to lose a few pounds.
Fair play to them, but is there a better way?

Short answer:

Yes

Long answer:

Jogging is not the ideal weight loss training method, for a number of reasons. One of which is the damage it can do to the body.
I’m not anti running as seems to be fashionable in the weight loss/fitness industry at the moment, but i do think everything has it’s place.
For an unconditioned, overweight person starting out on a fitness program, running is not necessarily the best start point.

As we run each footfall can land with the force of up to 12 times your bodyweight. I weigh 85kg, so that could be 1020kg on every step being absorbed by my ankles, knees, hips and spine. Now I’ve years of running experience behind me but even in experienced runners this impact is still in the region of 5 times bodyweight (425kg)
If we run for 5 kilometers, that’s 5000 meters. An average stride length will be around a meter, so 5000 footfalls, each sending a tonne weight through you. All on unconditioned muscles and joints.

So for a start, those numbers ought to tell you that going from inactivity to road running isn’t wise. But it’s still not the full story, I used myself as an example, my 85kg bodyweight is around 12% bodyfat, that leaves 75kg’s of lean tissue, muscle, bone etc to take the impact.
For the Mr Resolution, he may be up around 25% bodyfat at the same weight. He will have 64kg’s of lean tissue, over ten kilo’s less than me at the same bodyweight, or if you like, equivalent to me running with a 10kg backpack on.

The potential for injury is very high, especially if like many at this time of year, you throw yourself headlong into your program.

And then there’s the actual calorie count. Weight loss, or more accurately Fat Loss os a two-pronged animal, it requires dietary discipline as well as elbow grease and sweat.
We’ve all heard the “Calories In Calories Out” discussion, burn more calories than you consume and you’ll lose weight. This is true. However it’s not the full story.

We are, as a species built to run, it’s something we’ve been doing since we stood on two feet. Our bodies are very efficient at it. A jog doesn’t require much more energy than a walk. and pretty much as soon as we stop our metabolism returns to a normal level.  You’re likely to burn around 6-800 calories during a run. So long as you eat clean, you will lose some weight.
The weight you lose may not be the weight you want to lose though.
As discussed, we are very efficient when it comes to running. But the body does know that it will perform better with less weight to carry.
As muscle outweighs fat, and fat is a useful energy store, whereas muscle costs energy to keep. What do you think goes?

Quite often runners and other cardio athletes seem to have a hard time shifting their spare tire. The body wants to keep its fuel store topped up.

So to lose bodyfat and get that beach body, running is only one part of the equation, and certainly not the first part.

So what is?

Strength training.

Build some muscle. Just sitting there a muscle is burning energy, the more of it you have the higher your resting metabolic rate will be.
Adding some muscle to the body will involve strength training, this will assist in injury proofing the body, strengthening the tendons and ligaments.
Training using full body workouts, alternating between upper and lower body with minimal rest will provide a cardio effect similar to running but without the impact.
Muscle building workouts, especially short sharp and intense sessions encourage the EPOC effect. This is a fancy way of saying that the metabolism burns at a higher rate for longer.

An aerobic workout will elevate the metabolism but it will return to normal within a few hours. An anaerobic workout will cause the metabolism to burn higher for up to 36 hours. So while you may burn more calories during a 20 minute run than you would in a 20 minute bodyweight workout, over the following 24 hours your total calorie burn will be higher for the strength session as the body does it’s best to rebuild the muscles stronger.

So for everyone who is out on their new years resolutions to lose weight, here’s a tip. Save the running for a while, come back to it later. For now you need to be working your strength, build some muscle, clean up the diet and I can guarantee you’ll like what you see.
Save the running untill after your workouts, or on the days between your workouts. And wherever possible run on grass or other soft surfaces and change pace regularly (intervals and fartleks).

Here’s a sample bodyweight workout, it can be done in less than 20 minutes and will charge your body into a fat burning furnace:

 1A: Jump Squat (regular squats for beginners)
1B: Wall Slides
12-15 reps of each, 3 sets

2A: Reverse Lunge
2B: Push Up
12-15 Reps each, 3 sets

3A: Overhead Squat
3B: Back Hyper
3C: Criss Cross
12-15 reps, 3 sets

If you need further guidance, feel free to come along to any of the classes, or take advantage of our online training service.

Regards

Dave
www.wg-fit.com





15 Minute Kettlebell Workout

2 01 2011

Got 15 minutes?

Got a kettlebell?

Then here’s a Wild Geese favorite, we call it the 5-10-15

5 x Clean & Press l/r
10 x Front Squats
15 x Swings

As many rounds as possible in 15 minutes.

The video shows me looking for a conditioning effect using a 24 kg bell.
But if I’m looking for strength I can use doubles, or move to a heavier bell.

Here’s the video:

Now it’s your turn

Regular training starts back THIS THURSDAY with a brand new class, Kettle AM, launching on Feb 1st.

See you there

Dave
www.wg-fit.com





Farmers Walk Circuit

17 12 2010

A couple of days ago I posted a workout featuring Farmers Walks.

well a few of you got in touch and asked for exercise descriptions, so I filmed a quick demo.
The video shows one round of the circuit, I’m walking back and forward so you can see the drills more clearly, usually we use the full length of the room (walking a little over 15meters) and perform a drill at each end of the room.

So here’s the video:

Now before you go thinking I invented these, here’s the T-Nation article that we took it from:

http://www.t-nation.com/testosterone-magazine-630

Enjoy

Dave
http://www.wg-fit.com





Short Circuit – Fast fat loss & intense conditioning

22 10 2010

Circuit training has been around for as long as the hills. It’s a favourite method of training here at Wild Geese.

Beyonce - Built by circuit training and hill sprints

The format is simple, lay out a series of exercises and go from one to the next until all have been completed for the desired reps / time. Rinse and repeat.
Go to any gym and you’ll probably see something like this going on. Although in most gyms it’s usually run by an aerobics instructor……

For an athlete looking to build strength, power and endurance, even those looking to burn fat, circuit training is a one stop shop, if done right.

Here are a few simple guidelines to adhere to when creating your circuit:

  • Know what you’re trying to achieve.
    Don’t just throw out random drills and random times / rep brackets. Have a plan; this is the most important guideline.
  • Balance the circuit.
    Most people want a full body workout, so ensure that this is addressed. There’s little point having 4 stations of pressing if there are only 2 pulling and 1 leg station.
    Even if you’re creating a more specific circuit, such as a finisher for a lower body training session, keep it balanced, use knee dominant moves, hip dominant moves, single leg work, even some plyometric type moves.
  • Use exercises that complement each other, not compete.
    You can put squats and lunges together if you like, but will this be to the athlete’s benefit or is causing fatigue for fatigues sake?
    If you do put two similar exercises together, make the focus of the exercise different, for example a heavy lift followed by an explosive or endurance lift. I often put pull ups and hang cleans together, both work the back and big pulling actions, but the direction is different, as is the focus. A heavy press can be paired with a clapping push up for some nasty contrast training.
  • Keep it simple
    Complex drills or drills that require a lot of setting up have no place in a circuit, especially a group setting. A bench press, while a great drill, is awkward as the bar needs changed for varying athletes and time is lost in setting up, unracking and of course, the need for a spotter, better option may be a dumbbell floor press or push up variation.
  • Control the rest periods
    This one will depend almost entirely on the plan. A well balanced circuit has “rest” built in, i.e. you won’t repeat a particular exercise until the next round, but there is no true rest. If you’re working conditioning or fat loss, keep the rest periods to a minimum, if your focus is on strength, then a longer rest will be needed between stations and indeed rounds.
    As I deal mostly with fighters, we often use the boxing format of 2 – 3 minute rounds with a minute off, 4-6 drills maybe performed each round, depending on the focus.

 

This mornings Boot Camp performed the following series of “mini” circuits:

Short Circuit - Made a man out of this robot

Circuit 1 – Burpee / Pull Up
Circuit 2 – Sandbag clean & press / Renegade Row
Circuit 3 – Thrusters / Plank (with arm excursions)
Circuit 4 – Kettlebell swings / Sledgehammer slams

Each mini circuit consisted of 4 x 30 seconds alternating between the two drills, with 10 second change over’s. This gave two minutes of work. The athletes then took a minute break before moving to the next exercise pairing.
To finish we did a single lap of all the exercises in a standard circuit format using the Tabata timer.
This Mini Circuit format is fantastic for both fat loss and for conditioning.

Try it for yourself.

The Boot Camp manual is starting to take shape and will include many of the circuits we actually use with our fighters, as well as the guidelines and rational behind how we put these circuits together, as well as the hows and whys of each of the other training days.

Regards

Dave

www.wg-fit.com

Next Kettlebell Workshop:
7th November – Level 4, Double Kettlebells, includes the Long Cycle and more.

Next Boot Camp commences 15th November – This will be the last Boot Camp until February 2011 and it’s already filling up fast.

Email for more details (info@wildgeesema.com)





Cardio – Only better

13 10 2010

The smile muscles, the only ones that haven't been exhausted

This morning we had the first Cardio day of the current Boot Camp. We kicked off with the fitness test that we repeat on the last day and then launched into the regular cardio day workout.

It’s a tough session, designed around building mental strength and work capacity. It has the bonus of being an extremely powerful way of burning fat.
Basically we run around the block (approx 90 – 120seconds) then perform an extended set of bodyweight / kettlebell drills.

Mixing the bodyweight drills with the running makes this far more taxing on the body than simply running, a 15 minute run would be a piece of cake. Breaking the run up meant the temptation to run faster was there, so when it came to the strength oriented drill you were blowing hard and had to recover while working.

Think about how this would apply in the real world.
You just fought off a mugger and now you have to run to safety….
You’ve just sprinted the length of the pitch and face a line of defenders to beat….
You’re in the ring and the seconds are ticking down, suddenly he drops his guard…

These are all genuine scenarios that this style of “cardio” can help you deal with. It’s as close to sports specific (I hate that phrase) you get without doing the sport or activity.
It mentally prepares you to hit those few extra reps even when fatigued, believe me after 3 exercise mixed with 3 runs, that 4th one is a daunting task, especially if you’ve pushed hard at the beginning.

But wouldn’t you like to know that you’re able for it, that you’ve trained for it and look good doing it?

Usually we split the group in two, one goes out running while the other performs the drill until they get back.
Today looked like this:

Run
Hindu Push Ups
Run
Farmers Walk (with either 16 or 32kg kettlebells)
Run
Bodyweight Rows
Run
Hindu Squat

This took approx 15minutes. The entire session, including warm up, test, workout and cool down was over in under an hour.

Regards

Dave

www.wg-fit.com

Next Kettlebell Workshop:
17th October – Level 3, Snatch & Jerk

Next Boot Camp commences 15th November – This will be the last Boot Camp until February 2011

Email for more details (info@wildgeesema.com)





I don’t understand, why am I not loosing weight?

26 08 2010

The other morning after the Boot Camp Cardio day, I was chatting with a couple of the lads when a common question came up.

How come I haven’t lost weight when I’ve been training so hard?
I always answer this with a question., “How do your clothes feel?”
The reply comes back in 9 out of 10 cases, “Oh, they’re looser” or “They’re hanging off me!”

So then I have to go into the “Body Composition” Speech.

It goes like this:

Weight is a general term for your total body mass, this includes the muscle, bones, fat and fluids. A drop in bodyweight can mean a drop in any of those factors (whatever you do, don’t loose bone mass!)

So really we learn nothing about our progress if weight is our only factor.

What we really want to do is measure how much fat we’ve lost, while keeping as much fluid and possibly increasing our muscle mass.
There are many scientific measures for this, but for most there are two simple methods, both of which are as accurate as we need them to be. One is to take before and after photo’s, many find this embarrassing but that’s cool, the second measure I call the Wardrobe test.

Somewhere in the back of your wardrobe is a shirt or pair of jeans that you can no longer fit into. If your fat loss program has worked you ought to not only fit into this item, but it should also look good on you.
The guy asking the question at the top of this post replied with, “Yeah, I’ve a shirt that I bought years ago and have never been able to close, I got that on for the first time the other day.”

So he’s gotten smaller, he’s lost a significant amount of body fat but his weight hadn’t changed, so looked at him and saw that his back was significantly bigger as were his quads, he stood much straighter and had just put in the fastest time on the running portion of the days workout.

These are both 12kg kettlebells, the black one is all muscle, the blue one has a fat problem

He had grown muscle, which is heavier than fat, a litre bottle full of muscle would weight 1.06 kg whereas the same bottle of fat would weight 0.9 kg, this is the reason he didn’t notice a change on the scales.

On the other hand, John who was seriously overweight and out of shape when he joined Boot Camp has shifted nearly 2 stone in 8 weeks. He’s complaining that he got into trousers he hasn’t worn for years but then couldn’t button up a shirt over his chest. John has gone from looking like a barrel to having a barrel chest. That and for a man who couldn’t complete the cardio day a few weeks ago, now is keeping up with everyone else and even got home first on one of the runs. He’s delighted, and so am I.

So the bathroom scales are not always the best measure of your progress. At Wild Geese, we’re more interested in performance, body composition change comes as a result of increased performance, but if you need to check your body composition, dig out those old jeans and see how you go, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

The next Boot Camp commences on September 6th. Are you up for a challenge?

Regards

Dave
www.wg-fit.com





Strength Training for Fight Training

31 03 2010

Recently some of the Wild Geese Kickboxers have been coming to me asking for advice on getting stronger.

And I have to admit, I’m delighted.

Right from its inception, Wild Geese have been offering conditioning training for its fighters. But various coaches are a little set in their ways and the lads often think that what they do in class is enough.

The coaches I can understand. They’ve done what they’ve done for years and have gotten great results, why change?

Simply since the rise and rise of MMA and the UFC franchise, conditioning has become ever more apparent. The old adage in the martial arts that strength doesn’t matter has been thrown out the window. On the TV show “Ultimate Fighter” you see the contestants go through rigorous conditioning sessions as well as their actual Martial arts training.

And very often, the man who works harder at getting stronger off the mat is the victor on it.

This trend has been noted by other martial artists now and it’s creeping into the wider world.
I see this as a good thing.
For years I’ve been advocating strength training for martial arts. Those around are just starting to listen.

So what do I recommend?

Well that depend on the fighter and the fight.
But nearly always I see weaknesses in fighters backs and hips. Hours and hours of crunches, stretching and cardio often leave them with weaknesses here.
This leads to power leakages when they strike and a greater potential for injury. The answer is simple, Deadlifts for strength and Kettlebell Swings for power endurance.

The strength coach must be carefull to ensure that the conditioning training doesn’t take away from the fighters technical training. They must be fresh enough to work with complicated techniques and combinations, yet building the ability to do these techniques in a fatigued state.

Some method of periodisation then is necessary.
I’m about to put a fighter on a low rep strength program. He has little need for extra conditioning, I’ve seen him knock out around 300 pressups in sets of 50!
Obviously he has endurance.

His 6 pack maybe impressive but his back is weak, therefore his core, as a unit is weak. Which means that whatever power is being generated by his hips isn’t necessarily getting through to his shoulders for that knock out punch.

For this individual a low rep heavy training scheme could be the answer. Build that dense muscle, train the body to function as a unit and build the absolute strength that so often serves as a foundation for both power and endurance.

He is merely one example.
Other fighters, especially if their fight is still a few months out would benefit from building strength and endurance at the same.
Here’s a cracking circuit I perform some days, particularly when short of time:

Perform the following exercises back to back:

1 rep Deadlift
15 Rep Kettlebell Jerk (each arm)
20 Rep Sledgehammer slams into a tyre (alternate left and right)

Take a minute break, add weight to the deadlift and repeat. I usually work towards 5 rounds, with the 5th round being just shy of my 1 RM deadlift (fatigue prevents a true 1 RM)

This one circuit trains all aspects of the fighter, max strength and hip extension through the deadlift, transferring power from lower to upper body via the jerk and then some abdominal work on the tyre.

Play around with it, it’s only one example.
There are many other exercises you could choose.

The key is to work the whole body through a variety of rep ranges in a variety of angles.

Careful dieting and mobility work will keep the body within its ideal weight category and ready to fight at a moments notice.

If strength turns out not to be an issue, I also have a foolproof method of building non stop conditioning and will power, using only One Exercise.
But more on that another day.








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