The best way to achieve this is through high repetition training, now remember this is not a theory, I am speaking from experience and results as this is a method I have used hundreds of times on clients during the past 11 years of my personal training career.

The Benefits of High Repetition Training (HRP)

- Burns off subcutaneous fat and increases the visibility of muscle striations.

- Increases the protein content in the muscles through performance of long, high-reps sets.

- Increases capillary density within the muscle through increased adaptation to aerobic work, which may result in a slight increase in muscle size.

Get rid of FAT

In order to get the best defined look possible you need to reduce as much body fat as possible.  To accomplish this, the duration of nonstop muscular contraction must be increased.  Traditionally you will try running on the treadmill, rowing, cross training, cycling, stair climbers etc…but this unfortunately will not produce the desired results! 

The high repetition training method will result in elimination of fat from the overall body and more importantly from local muscle groups involved in the activity.

The number of repetitions and sets per muscle group need to be drastically increased in a progressive manor and in a nonstop fashion.  To avoid complete melt down of a muscle group during your workout, it may be an idea to exhaust one muscle group then straight after a set is complete move onto the opposite working muscle group.  For example, if you have just completed 10 sets on the bench press using the HRT method then it would be a good idea to then train the back muscles as they are still fresh, unfatigued and will allow you to perform another set of 10 sets! 

This is not only causing you to burn more calories but also keeps your heart rate up and adds an aerobic style routine to your training regime.

Considerations

Ensure when taking part in high repetition training that you leave only a few seconds from using one machine and moving onto another to keep your heart rate up.

HRT requires that muscle groups be constantly alternated

Beginners to exercise should enter this style of training regime with great caution as the end result can be muscle soreness for days which can be highly demotivating

Do not try to speed through the sets as this will cause your muscles to build up lactic acid at a much faster rate, instead, employ a steady speed throughout the set

It would be advisable to only take part in this training system twice per week to begin with if you are a beginner and for the elite athlete up to 4 times per week.

Ensure that your protein intake is always high and consume plenty of water.

Rule # 1 – Concentrate on improving joint flexibility before developing muscle strength

When first embarking on any kind of weight training the new trainee tends to be more focused on how much he or she can lift rather than focusing on how NOT to pick up an injury or even thinking about flexibility.

Joint flexibility should be the first part of your training regime for many reasons but the the most being to avoid joint pain.

During most exercises the weight of the barbell and dumbbells compresses the joints to such a degree, that if you do not have good joint flexibility, it can result in strain and allot of pain!

The best way to improve joint flexibility is to take part in range of motion stretches.  This in a nutshell refers to how far you move your joint.  You would be looking to move and stretch your joints through all the its range of movement.

The muscles and tendons that support the joint lengthen every time you stretch which in turn allows the joint to move that little bit further and more freely.  You may experience some burning in the muscle or tightness during this process. 

It is always advisable to take part in a thorough warm up prior to taking part in stretching to reduce the chances of picking up an injury.

Rule #2 – Develop the tendons before developing the muscles

The rate of gain in muscle strength always has the potential to exceed the rate at which tendons and ligaments can adapt to higher tensions.  Make sure the tendons and ligaments have time to adapt, remember health, fitness and weight training is a life long journey so don’t be in too much of a hurry and forget about the basics! 

This common and very amateur mistake is the equivalent of to trying to build a house on sand rather than on solid concrete foundations!

To train tendons and ligaments you need to take part in a low-load program (light weight, high repetition training) for at least 2 years!  Yes you read correctly 2 years!  There are no short cuts unfortunately but the result of this will be increasing the size in diameter which will allow your tendons and ligaments to withstand tension and wear.  Patience will ultimately pay off!

Rule #3 – Develop the body’s core before developing the limbs

Yes big arms and legs are impressive and takes allot of training to develop these areas.  Don’t forget that the trunk is the link to these areas and these limbs can only be as strong as the trunk.

A poorly developed trunk represents a weak support system for the hard working arms and legs, so never forget to focus on this important area. 

As tempting as it may be to just train the arms and legs, “don’t do it!”  Ensure that there is adequate core training included in your workout regime.  The areas of interest should be the muscles of the abdomen, lower back and spinal column.

Sucralose

Ever heard of Sucralose? Well Sucralose is the newest non-nutritive sweetener on the market. It is most well known for its claim to be made from sugar. It is used alone or found in Splenda and is 600 times sweeter than sucrose (table sugar). When used alone, it provides essentially no calories and is not fully absorbed.

This artificial sweetener can be used for cooking, so it has rapidly become one of the most popular and highly consumed artificial sweeteners.

The most misunderstood fact about sucralose is that it is nothing like sugar even though the marketing implies that it is. Sucralose was actually discovered while trying to create a new insecticide!!!

 It may have started out as sugar, but the final product is anything but sugar and without going into the bio-chemistry of i…it is unlike anything found in nature.

If you read the fine print on the Splenda web site, it states that “although sucralose has a structure like sugar and a sugar-like taste, it is not natural.”

The presence of chlorine is thought to be the most dangerous component of sucralose. Chlorine is considered a carcinogen and has been used in poisonous gas, disinfectants, pesticides, and plastics. The digestion and absorption of sucralose is not clear due to a lack of long-term studies on humans. The majority of studies were done on animals for short lengths of time. The alleged symptoms associated with sucralose are gastrointestinal problems (bloating, gas, diarrhea, nausea), skin irritations (rash, hives, redness, itching, swelling), wheezing, cough, runny nose, chest pains, palpitations, anxiety, anger, moods swings, depression, and itchy eyes. The only way to be sure of the safety of sucralose is to have long-term studies on humans done.

Splenda is a product that contains the artificial sweetener sucralose, but that is not all.

Sucralose does have calories, but because it is 600 times sweeter than sugar, very small amounts are needed to achieve the desired sweetness so you most likely won’t consume enough to get any calories. The other two ingredients in Splenda are dextrose and maltodextrin, which are used to increase bulk and are carbohydrates that do have calories.

One cup of Splenda contains 96 calories and 32 grams of carbohydrates, which is often unnoticed due to the label claiming that it’s a no calorie sweetener. Because this is found in so many products and can be used in cooking, it can be possible to consume 1 cup or more each day. For people with diabetes, this is a significant amount of carbohydrates, and for people who are watching their weight, this can be a problem. Consuming an additional 100 calories a day can result in a weight gain of 10 lbs. per year!

Please spear some thoughts on this and think again before using any Artificial Sweeteners…they are “artificial”….therefore cannot be natural!

However do not panic! If you don’t eat sugar and don’t eat artificial sweetener doesn’t mean you are left with a bitter mouth! ….in fact there is ALWAYS a healthier alterative…the way to go when it comes to sweet tooth is STEVIA…never heard of it? Of course not! They do not sell it in the UK (It would be interesting to ask yourself why??? But I won’t go there!) But you can find it online, just google  Stevia Extract, and it comes in powder or liquid extract.

Stevia is totally natural as it is a plant extract and totally calorie FREE!

So as you can see…once again YOU have a choice…

Gym Love J

 Check out the rest of Lazero’s Video’s on our youtube channel

Before we get going allow me to go through the workout you would have been mentally preparing in your head over the past few weeks and then I will then I will be covering what you should be doing…

Your Mental Plan of Action

For a few weeks now you will have been mentally preparing your workout and setting the intensity levels that you will be working out to in January.

This is all great but too much focus on the intensity of your workout could be where you potentially go wrong and will also determine if you will be consistently training over the weeks and months to come.

You will already have painted a picture of going all out on the treadmill, cross trainer, rower, lifting life threatening amounts of weights etc… and sweating bucket loads during the process!…However, this is the opposite of what you want to do…and here’s why…

Your body may have been used to exercising on a consistent basis and overtime would have developed a high level of tolerance to exercise and the recovery process would have also been pretty efficient after intense workouts.

Even after a few weeks of not exercising the conditioning of your muscles will not be to the same tune as they were a few weeks ago.  “So what does this mean for your workout?”…it means we have to cut back on the intensity for a good few sessions.  By doing this you will reduce the amount of muscle soreness but more importantly it allows you to exercise again the following day with less soreness.

Muscle Soreness Can Affect Motivation Levels…

By exercising too hard straight away you will find your motivation to get back into the gym is overcome by muscle soreness and even if the will power is there to exercise the lack of muscle flexibility and soreness limits your performance levels whilst exercising.  This is also how injuries can be picked up. 

Recommended Plan of Action

For the first few weeks I would recommend you concentrate on consistency rather than intensity.  It is better to get into a routine of exercising 3 times per week rather than taking part in 1 hard training session and then spending the next 4 days to recover and then repeating the process.  There is very little benefit in this routine.  You will find as you exercise more frequently, your body is quickly getting back into it’s normal routine and your muscles tolerance levels to exercise is improving which in turn means your recovery process is also allot quicker. “Remember Health & Fitness is for life, it’s not going out of fashion so let’s start slowly and positively”…

There are additional steps you can take to help the recovery process and that is to feed your muscles with its natural properties which are water and protein. 

Always stay hydrated as this can help maximise your training effort…remember muscle tissue is made up by 70 to 80% of water and about 25% protein!
Additional resources can also be protein shakes, this is a great way to supply protein to your muscles straight after your workout!

Conclusion…

So there you have it, start off slowly, concentrate on exercise consistency rather than exercise intensity (to begin with), drink more water, consume more protein and one last thing that we haven’t touched on yet is to try and get 8 hours of sleep as inconsistent or heavily disturbed sleeping patterns can also reduce recovery times and can also cause weight gain!

While it’s very easy to get caught up with the cold weather, snow and generally jolly moods, let’s not forget to keep focus on the well being of our bodies.

This may sound like hard work given all the elements we are facing but in actual fact it’s not really that difficult.  If you can sustain 30 minutes of cardio/resistance training per day that will see you through the month of December very nicely.

The trap you don’t want to fall into is going to work and finding yourself eating the cup cakes and other goodies in large trays that your very generous peers have left.  This will result in you eating nothing BUT SUGAR for 8 hours and this will continue for weeks because the next day another friendly peer will also bring in some festive yummies.

Then there will be after hour drinks and bar nights resuting in late dinners and so forth…and you will casually smile and accept what is going on because its Christmas!…Well it’s not quite Christmas, it’s the “lead up” to Christmas but you will only be more than happy to tell yourself that it is…

Now before we tackle the do’s let’s just quickly get the do not’s out of the way first as I like to end on positive and lighter notes…

Do Not…

- Do not starve yourself during the day so you can over indulge on snacks, goodies and Christmas diners

- Avoid sitting at your desk and snacking for 8 hours on cakes and goodies that your work peers have bought in!

- Separate yourself from your nearest and dearests December habits, they may not want to look after themselves as well as you do

- Avoid late night diners and going to bed straight after

- Do not get drunk on every given opportunity & avoid “one for the road”

- Do not be bullied into eating and drinking more because friends and family members are saying “go ooooooon……you know you want to”….it’s a trap!

Do…

- Drink plenty of water during the day, this will help release toxins from your body

- Do try the odd cup cake but don’t get excited and get caught up in the moment and find yourself elbow deep in tray full of assorted cakes!

- Continue to eat 3 regular meals during the day

- DO 30 MINUTES OF CARDIO/RESISTANCE TRAINING EVERY DAY

When I say cardio I am talking about going for a jog, swimming, skipping cycling any fitness activity that will have your heart rate up for at least 30 minutes.

Not only will this help you burn calories but it will keep your mind, body and immune system fit during the month of December…this will not only keep you active but it sets you up nicely for your New Years Resolutions.

Resistance training could be body weight exercises such as push ups, sit ups, squats, lunges etc…these exercises will help keep your muscles remain strong, supple, flexible, toned and well conditioned! 

Other advantages to 30 minutes of exercise per day is it keeps your immune system finely tuned resulting in you minimising your chances of catching a cold/flu and other airborn viruses that tend to pop up during the colder temperatures of December.

 I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a safe and wonderful “Lead Up” to and Christmas

Deepak Bhangu
Head of Operations & Personal Trainer
Musclemadness

“We have been recieving allot of emails on how to get back onto track with exercise after your training routine had stopped abruptly through an event that was completely out of your control.  The reason could be a serious injury, the death of a loved one, moving home…it could be any reason that has resulted in inactivity for long periods f time.

Luckily we are able to pass these questions on to our in house mindset expert Ron G Holland who will cover some basic self hypnosis techniques that are a sure fire way to get you going again…”

It’s a good question; having been a qualified hypno-therapist for over thirty years, I feel well qualified to answer it. 

Much depends of why you quit in the first place. 

If you quit because of some physical ailment: you badly strained a muscle in your leg or slipped a disc in your back, it may be time some time before you get back into physical shape and can get back into your exercise regime full tilt. 

However if you just lost the will to exercise that’s a different proposition and one I have come across many times.  I use a lot of hypnosis and self hypnosis.  This entails taking yourself into state of relaxation, what I call the relaxation induction.  Talk to yourself for 2-4 minutes of how relaxed you feel.  Using a dreary monotone voice helps. 

You can put this on an audio-tape so you can listen to it everyday until the program is properly installed into your mind. 

Then to the relaxation induction you add a number carefully worded ‘super suggestions’. They could be on the lines of: 

Every day I awake at 6am and feel motivated and ready go and start my exercise program. 

Every day at the proposed time I work out for thirty minutes. As I do so I feel happy, I fell healthy and I feel terrific. Tiredness falls away. 

Will I stick to my exercise regime?  YES I WILL! YES I WILL! YES I WILL! 

During the day I begin to look forward to and anticipate my exercise regime which I love, everyday that I work out builds a more powerful program in my mind to exercise the next day. 

You can add a few more that are appropriate to your own circumstances, but now you get the idea! 

At the end make sure you put a thirty second SNAP OUT of the relaxed mode on the tape so you are then fully awake and ready for the day or evening ahead. 

You can loudly state you are coming out of the relaxed state, that you feel fit and raring and ready to go…

Play the tape every day until you find yourself back in your regular routine and raring to go. It’ll be effortless! 

Ron G Holland 2010
Mindset Expert – Musclemadness
www.wealth.co.uk

So what are these relatively new kettlebells that everyone seems to be going on about?…they look like cast iron balls with a handle on it…but is there more to them than meets the eye?

Derrick Twum and Myself were invited to a fitness roadshow last week where we used allot of new up and coming equipment to give reviews and had the opportunity to speak to hundreds of people that were attending the event.

Whilst using some of the gym equipment we moved over to the free weights section and noticed a set of kettlebells sitting there waiting to be used.

I have seen kettlebells being used in demo videos but never really had the opportunity to use them myself so we thought we would give them ago.

We went through a number of exercises that were illustrated on a poster and to my amazement they were actually really good workouts  and worked up quite a sweat.

Now I wouldn’t replace them for dumbbell exercises completely but they were an excellent way to get warmed up and get the heart pumping!

The handle plays a vital part in allowing you to swing and clinch the kettlebell in certain ways which a standard dumbbell doesn’t allow you to do, but all in all there were allot of exercises that could also be done with a dumbbell!

So is there really a big difference between a dumbbell and a kettlebell?…

Yes I believe there is, I no longer look at them as a ball of cast iron with a handle, that handle allows me to perform warm up exercises I wouldn’t really perform using a dumbbell or I could but it wouldn’t feel as comfortable as using a kettlebell.

Our favourite exercise had to be the kettlebell swing , this exercise is a great way to warm up the entire body, it really works the back, legs, shoulders, hips and we found our hearts were really racing after this exercise!  (we will be releasing a kettlebell training video VERY SOON – Watch This Space)

As we raised the poundage the exercises naturally would have become more difficult but the intensity was allot higher than we anticipated, this wasn’t necessarily because we were lifting heavier weights but due to the fact that every set you perform you are using the majority of your muscles resulting in quicker fatigue, where as with dumbbells you are isolating the muscle you are working thus using less energy and calories. 

This is why there is a big mention on burning hundreds if calories whilst training with kettlebells on every kettlebell training video and posters,  you definately can but one word of warning, make sure you practice and get the exercises done correctly, due to the swinging nature of these workouts you want to make sure you don’t end up injuring yourself! 

Start off with light weights and master the exercise before raising the weight and trying more complex workouts.

Good Luck and share you stories of kettlebells with us in our forum

Deepak Bhangu
Head of Operations and Personal Trainer
Musclemadness

I really wanted to make an in-depth article on Sugar but I also wanted to keep it as easy to read and understand as possible….so as I was researching this article, I surfed the web and was surprised to find that the majority of the websites that mention sugar say that it is fine to eat in moderation!!!.Most of them say that your body turns all food to glucose regardless of the kind of food eaten, so whether you eat sugar, vegetables, or steak is irrelevant. 

Now to me this is pretty shocking!!!

First of all, it is true that your body converts all foods to glucose. 

However, there is an important difference between sugar and those other foods…..meat, fruits, and vegetables all have vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and amino acids when it comes to HOW your body react to them.

 Sugar has none of those things to assist in its digestion and absorption.  As a result, metabolizing refined sugar puts the body at a severe nutritional disadvantage.

Oh yes! I know! How many times have you heard…and said it yourself in fact…”Oh I feel weak I need some sugar!”…NO…you do not need sugar…lets have a look and understand why…

There have been many researches on this topic and science has now shown us several times that there is NO DOUBT, the sugar in our food is damaging our health far more than we can imagine.

Sugar is loaded into your soft drinks, fruit juices, sports drinks, and hidden in almost all processed foods, ketchup, sauces, cheese…everywhere!!. And now most infant formula has the sugar equivalent of one can of Coca-Cola, so babies are being metabolically poisoned from day one if taking formula.

No wonder there is an obesity epidemic!!!

Did you KNOW…???

A can of Coke contains:

Caffeine → it’s a DIURETIC which means you will wee free water

SALT!!! → 55mg of Sodium per can! It’s like drinking Pizza

So what happens when you intake so much salt and eliminate water? You get thirstier!

And of course SUGAR! Why so much sugar? Nobody wants to consume a salty drink!  Thats the amount of sugar that covers the taste of salt!

Oh yes the people behind this are pretty clever hey… I’ll leave it to you to judge.

Too Much Fructose Creates a Metabolic Disaster in Your Body

Now…If your diet was like that of people a century ago, you’d consume about 15 grams per day… Amazingly, 25 percent of people actually consume more than 130 grams of fructose per day!

Making matters worse, all of the fiber has been removed from processed foods, so there is essentially no nutritive value at all. And the very products most people rely on to lose weight—the low-fat diet foods—are often the ones highest in fructose.

It isn’t that fructose itself is bad—it is the MASSIVE DOSES you’re exposed to that make it dangerous.

Why is fructose so damaging?

1. Your body metabolizes fructose in a much different way than glucose. The entire burden of metabolizing fructose falls on your liver. This is NOT the case with glucose, of which your liver breaks down only 20 percent. Nearly every cell in your body utilizes glucose, so it’s normally “burned up” immediately after consumption.

So where does all of this fructose go, once you consume it?

On your thighs!! It is turned into FAT which means more fat deposits throughout your body.

2. People are consuming fructose in enormous quantities, which has made the negative effects much more profound.

3. Fructose tricks your body into gaining weight by fooling your Metabolism—it turns off your body’s appetite-control system. Fructose does not appropriately stimulate insulin, which in turn does not suppress ghrelin (the “hunger hormone”) and doesn’t stimulate leptin (the “satiety hormone”), which together result in your eating more and developing insulin resistance.

4. Fructose rapidly leads to weight gain and abdominal obesity

One of the more recent findings that surprised researchers is that glucose actually accelerates fructose absorption, making the potential health risks from HFCS even more profound!!

You can now see why fructose is the number one contributing factor to the current obesity epidemic…

…read full article on www.ilariapetrucci.info 
(includes 75 reasons why we do NOT need Sugar!)

 Gym Love

Ila

“Won’t weights just make me bigger?”…This is a common question asked by people all over the world, more so from females.   

There is a misconception that cardio alone will help you lose weight, it will assist in Weight Loss; However, incorporate weight training into your regime and you will see much faster results!…

Let’s just cover this from a male and a female prospective so we can gain a better understanding of the message being pushed across to you.

I have personal trained and written programs for hundreds of men over an 11 year period, a good number of these men have been looking for weight loss and one of the first things I hear when writing their program is “I don’t want to get too big so I don’t really want to lift any weights”

Not having done any weight training is probably the number one reason most of these guys have put on weight!  And further more their current lack of ability in not being able to lift weights is probably the real reason weight training doesn’t feel like a good option!   

If getting big and muscular was really as simple as lifting a few weights then there would be a good chance that every guy walking the streets would have an amazing physique…the reality is far from that…so don’t worry about getting really big after a few weight training sessions!

So let’s have a look at how weight training combined with cardio will speed up your results.

Doing cardio is  a great way to burn some unwanted calories and also a good way to start building up muscular endurance but more a little bit of more effort from you with weight training and the results can be excellent. 

The good thing about cardio is you will continue to burn calories for up to an hour or 2 after your session has ended but it slows down again shortly afterwards.

This is where it is important to ensure that you are including weight training as part of your regime.  The higher your body’s muscle percentage will result in you burning more calories doing your basic day to day duties, this includes, walking, standing up, sitting down, watching TV and the best one SLEEPING! 

“Doesn’t weight training all of a sudden seem a little more appealing now…”

Men with a higher muscle percentage against body fat percentage burn more calories than those that have a higher body fat percentage than muscle percentage…and the only way to increase muscle percentage is by weight training.

So the next time you start weight training and check your weight, do not be alarmed at the fact that you maybe the same weight or heavier!  Do not associate this weight with FAT, it is simply your muscles becoming heavier, which remember is a good thing! 

Ladies, the above principle also applies to you, increase your body’s muscle percentage and you will see your body fat percentage reduce very quickly!  So don’t be afraid in thinking you will become really muscular by lifting some dumbbells.

Let’s have a quick look at some love examples of what I am talking about.  Everyone has seen a bodybuilder, be it in life or in glossy magazines, these guys weigh about 20 stones and have a body fat percentage of 3 to 4%.  

I am not recommending anyone to try to reduce their body fat percentage to these low levels but the point I am trying to make is these bodybuilders eat up to 7000 calories per day yet have a lower body fat percentage than most of us that consume 2000 calories! 

Yes they do watch what they eat and exercise more but due to the simple fact they have a much higher muscle percentage to body fat percentage they are burning more calories.  They could not exercise for a month and would still burn more calories than someone that is exercising an hour per day that has a higher body fat percentage!

So the next time you are your local gym have a wonder into to the free weights or resistance machine area and incorporate this style of training into your regime.

“You can thank me afterwards”..