Week 5 Day 3 - Short & Sweet

29/04/15 Day 31 – Back

Powering though this week of German Volume Training saw me take on Back day, a muscle group I am incredibly found of. Following in the footsteps of previous days today was all about high volume, big weights and little rest periods allowing for sustained pumps, muscular fatigue and some serious gains to be made.

Getting into today's session, it's short and sweet but will be leaving you with nothing left in the tank! Here it is:

Chin Ups – 10 Sets x 10 Reps (60 sec Rest)

Bent-Over Rows – 5 Sets x 5 Reps (90 sec Rest)

Barbell Shrugs – 5 Sets x 20 Reps (90 sec Rest)

Cardio – Interval Training 15min Total

Firstly I would like to point out that the Chin Ups are intended to be weighted, but I however am unable to achieve 100 Reps of wide grip chin ups with my own body weight let alone extra weight. For my training I was using a light weight resistance band, this allowed me to keep up with the high volume style of the first exercise, Chin Ups. While performing the exercise I made sure that my range first and foremost was perfect, squeezing the elbows down towards my hips allows for full engagement of the Latissimus Dorsi (Lats) which is that muscle being targeted. When doing high volume training like these its very important to stretch in between sets and try to increase the blood flow to the muscles being used, it will prevent heavy lactic acid build up and allow you to fully utilise the muscles potential. In between sets I made sure to stretch out and hold my arms over my head, helping to drain the toxins from the muscles and aided my Venus return (click here to find out more).

After a serious stretch out I moved through the packed gym floor to the racks, here I performed the next exercise in the routine which was the Bent-Over Rows. Due to the nature of this exercise I always recommend a few warm up sets to get the lower back warmed up, as when you will start to go heavier you may well be putting some serious strain through these muscles. Remember – It's always better to be safe than sorry. After a few warm up sets I donned my straps, got some plates on the bar and cracked on. I wanted my focus to be about stretching and contracting the lat with every single rep, pushing the bar ever so slightly forward on the bottom phase of the exercise give your lat a fuller contraction and therefore means you will get more from the exercise.

Finishing off with the Barbell Shrugs means that you can go all out here, get some big plates on the bar as I did, get those straps out if you haven't already, as at this point much like myself your grip will probably start failing, so be careful. Even though this is a smaller muscle group it does not mean you can just throw the weight around, be careful, cautious and make every damn rep count for something.

Hope everyone has had a wicked Wednesday and look forward to an amazing Shoulder session tomorrow!

Happy Lifting,

Matt

Week 5 Day 2 - Unstoppable

28/04/15 Day 30 – Chest & Abs

Today saw the 2^nd day in the German Volume Training (GVT) routine, a brutal, high intensity session that left me with a two hour long pump and some solid results. I am so amazed to see how fast my strength is growing through the past 4 weeks of training, I couldn't be happier with my progress and if you too are following this programme I am sure you will be feeling the same right about now. So lets get this started.

Dumbbell Bench Press – 10 Sets x 10 Reps (60 sec rest)

Incline Dumbbell Fly – 5 Sets x 10 Reps (90 sec rest)

Decline Dumbbell Press – 5 Sets x 10 Reps (90 sec rest)

Weighted Sit Ups – 10 Sets x 10 Rep (60 sec rest)

Cardio – Interval Training 15mins Total

Another hardcore session to add to the list, with the rest so short on the first and last exercise be prepared to test your muscles to the MAX, but this doesn't mean you can chose a weight that is easy for the sets and reps, remember to test yourself. Starting with some nice loosening mobility work I wanted to make sure I was 110% ready for these sets. I jumped onto the bench for the Dumbbell Bench Press, laser tight focus, dumbbells gripped tight and I began. Working through the first few sets were pretty each, I was using a weight I would normally use for 10 reps in 3 or 4 sets, so I knew this was going to get tough, this however didn't mean I just gave up. I made sure I was hitting good range and tempo with every set, making sure every rep would count towards me achieving my goal. Yes there were times I wanted to give up, times where I thought that the pain was to over whelming to continue, but I never give up, I never give in. Fight, fight and fight some more, through every single damn rep until I was finished. I had the drop the weight on the last 2 sets to hold true to good form, but I am happy with what I achieved. Remember – you are strong, but first you must convince yourself you are, when you do this, you become unstoppable.

Moving from a compound movement to a isolation movement in the form of Incline Dumbbell Flys was tough! When you pre fatigue the muscle to the extent GVT does it really takes its toll on the muscles and fast. So I wanted my focus on this exercise to be slow, controlled and all about finding the stretch across my chest as I lowered the dumbbells into position. When I found that stretch I held it for 1 second then squeezed all the way up to the top, using the image of a piece of string extending from inside of my biceps, pulling my arms together, for me it helps engage the muscle, which if you have read any of these blogs you will know it's a concept I am incredibly fond of.

The last chest exercise was Decline Dumbbell Press. As the rest is longer with these last two exercises you can afford to go a little heavier then usual, but listen to you body, see what you are capable of. Trying to make sure the forearms track up and down like a smith machine, this exercise can sometimes be a bit tricky, you don't realise quite how small the range of motion is. Try to drop the dumbbells to the nipples (ladies, just under the breast will do fine) and then squeeze up toward the starting position, bringing the biceps close together as you ascend to get a secondary contraction in the medial (middle) portion of the pecks.

To round off the weights it was time to hit up some Weighted Sit Ups, hardcore style. When you are working for 10 reps on a weighted ab exercise you can actually afford to go real damn heavy. If you are looking to just tighten the waistline I would try avoiding lots of weighted ab work as it will be building muscle, which may give you a thicker look and be counter productive to your goals. For me a 25kg plate was perfect, rolling the abdominals up until the shoulders were completely off the ground allowed a full, tight and sickening contraction all through the upper portion on the abs, with the short rest you will really be testing your mental strength here, its hard but you can do it!

Its another busy day of writing up programmes for clients today, followed by an evening working at the gym. What are you guys all doing today? What ever it is, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do writing these!

Happy Lifting,

Matt

Week 5 Day 1 - Everyday I'm Stronger, Everyday I'm Wiser

27/04/15 Day 29 –Legs

First of all I'd like to apologise for not posting yesterday, I was very busy and just did not have the time to fit everything in.

Today I started Week 5 of my 12 Week programme, which means a new style of training is upon me and this week the style of choice is the old school, classical German Volume Training (GVT). This uses the 10 x 10 rule, giving you a one minute rest interval between sets. GVT is designed to fatigue the muscles to incredible lengths, not only on one exercise but multiple machines and exercises with a range of different compound and isolation movements, which means one thing, pain. We are looking to once again flood our muscles with lots and lots of blood, achieve hypertrophy through micro fibre muscle tearing and get a bit hot and sweaty in the process. So lets get to it. Today's training is as follows:

Barbell Squats – 10 Sets x 10 Reps

Leg Extensions – 5 Sets x 15 Reps

Laying Leg Curls – 5 Sets x 15 Reps

Seated Calf Raises – 10 Sets x 10 Reps

Cardio – Interval Training 15mins Total

I was training with Dad today, so if you don't usually train with a partner try it out for this session, with these high volume training you will need as much motivation as possible!

Beginning the session strong we started off with the traditional Barbell Squats, this is an exercise that requires a lot of mental focus and will power, so if you have it make sure you get your creatine and pre work boost in, you will need to be as mentally switched on as possible. Starting with a few warm up sets I gave myself a few minutes to really get “in the zone”, find my motivation and let the pre-works course through my veins, pulsating around my mind and body, I was ready to begin. With the first few sets behind me I was feeling on top of the world, my form was strong, the tempo was on point and I was set for gold. After 5 sets I think it's fair to say I was flagging slightly, I dropped the pace of each set, made sure each rep was low, strong and controlled. If you do have a weights belt it's always s good idea to have that extra safety precaution when you are starting to wear and fatigue. With only 60 seconds between each set it become very taxing on both your breathing, your mental focuses and most importantly your strength, so be prepared to maybe drop the weight for the last few sets!

After this it was onto the Leg Extension isolation machine. Here we were working in a higher rep range, but a lower set range, this meant we were able to take these sets a bit heavier as we were taking 90 second rests between sets. For me I hit a Pb on this machine which was a huge plus for the training. Remember – when you are training its about you and only you, you can't compare yourself to anyone else, because you aren't anyone else, you are you and you should be proud of that. My main focus here was to go heavy, be in control and try to squeeze the rep at the top of the motion, again looking to flood that muscle group as much as humanly possible to get all that naturally occurring HGH (human growth hormone) working its way around the body.

Jumping next door to the polar opposite machine: Laying Leg Curl, we again were working in that higher rep range with big breaks and lower sets, so don't be afraid to go a bit heavier and if you have a training partner standing by you may even want to perform some forced reps to finish off each set to really get the maximum benefit of this training. With my head 100% switch on I managed to blast through this exercise, making sure not to over extend my range and lose the contraction. Remember – if you can't feel the contraction then it probably isn't doing much, seek to learn how your chosen muscle contracts, focus on your mind-muscle connection. When you get your connection perfected you won't believe the results you can obtain.

To finish off the session we took a short stroll to the Seated Calf Raise machine. This wasn't favouring my fathers needs, so he moved onto the standing calf raise machine for this while I stuck with the intended programme. Once again I hit a new Pb on this exercise, which in all honesty is incredible when the sheer volume is taken into consideration, working 100 reps on one muscle group is taxing alone, but when coupled with such short resting periods you are seriously testing what you are made of. Admittedly my range started to reduce across the last two sets, but unfortunately I'm too damn stubborn to lower the weight, instead I just forced myself to try and work harder!

Couldn't really have been happier with this session, so leaving with a royal smile stamped across my face I find myself here talking to you wicked people.

So if you need help with your training and want to talk to a qualified personal trainer and fitness consultant send me an e-mail at : mgonlinept@gmail.com its free and easy and could change your life.

Hope you are all having a wonderful Monday!

Happy Lifting,

Matt

Week 4 Day 6 - How To Eat Your Way To A Flat Stomach

25/04/15 Day 27 – Active Rest

Diet, this is a term that gets thrown around a lot, so I will let you into a little secret pretty quick. If you actually want to get rid of fat, tone up and stay slimmer dieting is the worse thing you can possibly do.

So what does “Diet” actually mean?

“A special course of food to which a person restricts themselves, either to lose weight or for medical reasons.”

So here I want to focus on one word,“restricts”. If I was to sit here and tell you that for the next 6 weeks I want you to stop eating sugar, cakes,crisps, bread, chocolate and all manor of other indulgent food you probably do one of two possible things:

1- Tell me to F off

2- Laugh, then tell me to F off

The fact is going from everything to nothing just makes you want those indulgent foods we know are bad for us more. We are all guilty of it, I myself used to be the worst for it, but I learnt a secret, something that I am going to share with you now. You don't have to cut it out, you can still have those naughty treats you like so much, its just a matter of moderation. So in order for you to enjoy those treats you must become stricter in other areas of you daily food intake, I will take you through a small example to show you how you can work your way around get rid of all the things you like. Its called, macros.

So! If I am an average male my total carbohydrate intake makes up between 40%-60% of my “RDA” of calories. If I would usually hit my upper limit of 60% throughout the day with my main meals, I should theoretically not have any more carbohydrates for the rest of the day, but what you will find is that you have a chocolate bar here, or a ice cream there that you never even account in your “RDA”. So lets say I am allowed 400g of carbohydrate each day, I eat 3 meals with 100g of carbohydrates per meal, taking my total to 300g, then I consume a packet of crisps which contains 13g of carbohydrates, I then have a twirl on a break at work (56g of carbohydrates) and 2 apples through that day as a healthy snack, each apple containing 19g of carbohydrates, that takes my total for the day to 407g of carbohydrates, so I am 7g over my upper limit, as easy as that, now you will not lose weight this way! But if you plan to have a twirl that day, you can reduce each amount of carbohydrates in your fixed meals so they are 60g rather that 100g that is 120g off your whole day, you are still in a deficit, allows you to lose fat and still allows you to have a little treat.

Now I am not condoning this as a day to day activity, in fact far far from it. If you have a balanced food intake, you are active on a day-to-day basis and in good physical and mental health, then using this once or twice a week allows you to stay focused on losing that unwanted fat as well as having a little bit of the things you like, which as we all know will mean you are more likely to keep it up and keep the pounds off.

If you are looking to lose some weight for summer, tone up or torch that fat, get in contact with me at : mgonlinept@gmail.com for some personalised programmes with guaranteed results, if everyone else can do it, why can't you?

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!

Happy Resting,

Matt

Week 4 Day 5 - Always Move Forward, Never Look Back

24/04/15 Day 26 - Biceps & Calves

Finishing off the week of FST-7 Training with a bang! Its been a seriously intense and emotional week, the training has been off the scale, I'm so happy with the progress I am making and have to point out I still have leg DOMS from 4 days ago. So needless to say I will be using this method of training again in the future without a doubt and if you haven't tried it or even heard of it you can check it all out, from the start righthere!

So into today's training, hitting the smaller muscle groups has left me with a crazy pump and a huge smile plastered across my face. Here what it all looked like:

Preacher Curls – 4 Sets x 8 – 10 Reps

Incline Bench Alternating Dumbbell Curls – 3 Sets x 8-10 Reps

Laying Cable Curls – 3 Sets x 8-10 Reps

Spider Curls – 7 Sets x 8-10 Reps (30 seconds between sets)

Seated Calf Raise – 3 Sets x 20 Reps

Leg Press Calf Raise – 3 Sets x 20 Reps

Donkey Calf Raise – 7 Sets x 20 Reps (30 seconds between sets)

Cardio – Interval Training 15mins Total

Remember! - Contract the Biceps/Calves between every set to try and manipulate the fascia

Starting the session off with a nice isolation exercise in the form of Preacher Curls, here I wanted the focus to be on squeezing the biceps at the top of the contraction and slowly stretching the biceps out as I lowered into the bottom half of the range of motion. The slow and focused contraction really allows you to start pumping some crazy levels of blood into the biceps. Watching as the veins were rising, pulsing and swelling through my arms I knew from set 2 this was going to be a session to remember.

Moving swiftly on to sustain the pump I got onto a bench and got under way with the Incline Bench Alternating Dumbbell Curls. I struggled to feel the contraction slightly in this exercise, mainly I believe due to the fact my arms had swollen to the point of it being difficult to even take my earphones out. But I focused deep within the muscle, thinking about a think cable pulley system, much like a crane. This level of imagery really works for me, so if you are struggling to feel the muscles working during an exercise then try it out.

After I completed my 3 Sets I transitioned into the 3^rd and final exercise in my core sets before moving onto my exhaustion set. With the cable in place I got on with my Laying Cable Curls, I really like this exercise as having your arms laying against the floor stops you from using momentum, which allows you to really concentrate on the actually movement, rather than throwing the whole stack up and down by flailing your arms back and forth (and yes I have seen a lot of people do this).

There was only one way I was way to finish my biceps off and that was: Spider Curls, these little beauties are brand new to my training and I have fallen in love with them straight away. They not only allow you to superbly isolate the biceps but they also subject your arms to some heavy eccentric work, due to the range of movement. Well after just one set I had to admit that lifting with my ego wasn't going to get me through this, so I halved the weight, worked to the upper ranges of motion and squeeze every damn rep out until I got it done. Remember! - If you need to have small rests between the last few reps its completely normal, the rest pause principle allows you to work beyond your normal ranges, which obviously will allow you to flood the muscles better and grow.

With the bicep work behind me my new focus brought me to the Seated Calf Raise machine, after a few warm up sets it was time to crack on and get those baby cows working. With my head in the 8-10 rep range I stupidly kept the same mentality here and went really really heavy for 10 reps rather than the 20 suggested, yes I did feel a tad silly, but non the less I still worked myself incredibly hard, made sure I was hitting my 10 second static contractions between sets and started for the first time really to get a bit of a calve pump.

Feeling strangely keen to continue I made my way to the leg press for exercise No.2 Leg Press Calf Raise. With a good few plates on the rack I got underway with my gruelling 20 rep sets, hood up, eyes shut and my mind wide open I steamrollered my way through the first set. With the static contractions starting to make their mark I could really feel the deep burn within the calves, to be fair I usually shy away from this feeling in the calves but with this FST-7 I have learnt to embrace the burn and just work through it, and by the beard of Zeus that is exactly what I did!

Now to finish the Calves off I got my partner to jump on my back and get on with yet another new exercise for the books, the old school Arnold classic Donkey Calf Raises. With such small rest between the sets the lactic acid really started to build up quickly, I can totally see why Arnold used this exercise so much in his training, it hits your calves in such a brilliant and efficient way I couldn't really believe it!

To round off the whole day I chose today for my reefed day, getting in a high carb meal after depleting or lowering your carb intake for the week previous is a great way to spike to metabolic rate back up to make sure you continue to lose fat, but I will go into more detail on diet in tomorrows blog. For now all that is left is to say, have a wonderful evening, enjoy the people you are with, spread the love and have an awesome weekend.

Happy Lifting,

Matt

Week 4 Day 4- Strive To Be Different!

23/04/15 Day 25 – Back

Today was a awesome day, its currently 12 noon here in England and I am already starting to feel sore from a workout I did 7am!

Keeping on with the FST-7 training we took to probably my favourite muscle group today, but I was not alone, for today my dad, my girl friend and I were all training together. Under my watchful eye we all embarked on an FST-7 session never to be forgotten!

Here is what it looked like:

Wide Grip Pull Ups – 2 Sets x Failure

V-Bar Pull Ups – 2 Sets x Failure

Dumbbell Single Arm Row – 4 Sets x 8-10 Rep Per Arm

T-Bar Row – 4 Sets x 8-10 Reps

Barbell Shrugs – 2 Sets x 12-15 Reps

Seated Cable Row – 7 Sets x 8-10 Reps

Cardio – Interval Training 15mins Total

I would just like to start by saying, if you don't already if you don't already have a training partner, I would really suggest finding someone with the same sort of goals as yourself and work together, the motivation and drive I felt today, not only for myself but how much I want to naturally motivation my training partners is inspiring and if you feel like you aren't going anywhere with what you are doing at the moment then definitely give it a try.

I started today's session with some light mobility work, followed by a quick foam roller session on my back, for me I really notice a difference in my muscular pathways after I have had a roller on the target muscles. Then we moved onto the starting exercises :Wide Grip Pull Ups & V-Bar Pull Ups, now for a man with my kind of leavers pull ups are not a comfort exercise by any means, which is good because being out of your comfort zone pushes you to try different things. Non the less for me to get good reps out of wide grip chins I had to use a resistance band, now this doesn't mean let the band do everything and enjoy the ride, I still worked hard on getting my contraction right as well as getting full ROM (range of motion). I did how ever do the V-Bar Pull Ups without a resistance band, I hit some reps that I was happy with and some that I was not so happy with, but its all progression so pretty happy over all.

Then it got serious, we moved onto the Dumbbell Single Arm Row, with all of us working the sets at the same time it almost became like challenge, we all wanted to do really well, test our bodies and push ourselves hard and that is exactly what we did. Making sure to contract the Lats between ever sets to really get that solid pump, which helps us to manipulate the fascia around our muscles and promote growth, which is the whole point of this FST-7 training. With each set past it seemed like the motivation levels just kept bumping up, the weights increased, the grunting started and we worked seriously hard. Couldn't of been any happier with my performance, which is something you will rarely hear me say.

We then found a quiet room for our T-Bar Rows, we threw a few plates on the bar and got cracking. We were all really smashed from the previous exercise, but it didn't stop us, with encouragement in the air like a toxic gas it flooded through our bodies and was reflected in our performance, we hit our reps, we hit our sets as well as the contractions and came away with our heads held incredibly high!

On to the smallest set of the workout next, Barbell Shrugs. We performed this exercise with a Hexagon Bar, normally used for dead lifting but it proved easier to use than a barbell and in my opinion it actually works better than a barbell. So Dad and I got some nice big plates on the bar and shrugged our worries away, it was awesome.

Moving with pace we came to our final exercise of the day: Seated Cable Row, here we worked one at a time, in order to keep the intensity high, the rest periods low and make sure we were 100% focused on the task at hand. Focusing on drawing the elbows into the sides and squeezing hard at the top to get that flood pumping through our back, for myself I also made sure I was contracting in my 30 second rest periods just to aid that fascia manipulation.

All in all we had an absolutely incredible session, surrounded by brilliant people, in a brilliant place for brilliant results.

If you want to change your life today contact me at : mgonlinept@gmail.com many have already started seeing amazing results so why can't you!?

Have a wonderful day,

Happy Lifting,

Matt

Amie Jade : https://www.facebook.com/AmieJadeFitness

Week 4 Day 3 - No Pain No Gain

22/04/15 Day 24 – Shoulders & Abs

Today I was hitting one of my favourite muscle groups of the week, the Deltoids (shoulders). The Delts are group of muscles that I am really starting to get some nice development out of and it just makes me push even harder when I know that I am getting results.

Being up at 6am for my training I wasn't fully awake going in the gym, so I may have forgotten some of my static contractions and stretching here and there, but I made up for it by destroying my shoulders on the last exercise. So here is today's plan:

Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press – 4 Sets x 8-10 Reps

Seated Lateral Raises – 3 Sets x 8-10 Reps

Incline Bench Front Barbell Raise – 3 Sets x 8-10 Reps

Peck Deck Reverse Fly – 3 Sets x 8-10 Reps

Smith Machine Shoulder Press – 7 Sets x 8-10 Reps

Rollouts – 3 Sets x Failure

Cross Body Crunches – 7 Sets x 8-10 per side

Cardio – Interval Training 15mins Total

Beginning the workout with a series of nice and light mobility exercises as I tried to wake up and get in the zone for what was to be a pretty hardcore and heavy shoulder session. After some progressive heavier sets on my Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press I moved on to my working sets, using my wrist straps to support me I pumped out some sets that I was really happy with, although my form started to slip on my last rep I felt as though I held strong and really pushed through, as a result I actually a PB for my weight. Try not to fully extend the arms at the top of the motion and save your elbows.

After getting what was a pretty nice shoulder pump on I grabbed some lighter dumbbells and went through a few warm up sets for the Seated Lateral Raises, I like to do this just so my muscles know what is coming next, allow the fibres a few sets to get firing properly and then get stuck in. The way I like to think about warming up is, you would never expect an F1 Race car to just pull up on the track and win, you need to warm up the engine, warm up the tires and let the driver get comfortable, exactly the same with training!

The Incline Bench Front Barbell Raise was a tough one, really having to dig deep to push the reps out here, the anterior head (front head) of my deltoids where really struggling to deal with the heavy weight. To get good form out I dropped the weight down slightly and really tried to work on squeezing the muscle as much as I could to pump as much blood into it as possible.

Feeling pretty damn awake by now I was purely focused on ploughing through this workout and up next was an exercise I'm not entirely happy with, its the Peck Deck Reverse Fly, now I am pretty sure its just because my arms are so damn long that I feel its a really uncomfortable machine, but I just don't feel the contraction very much when I do this exercise, so I really tried focusing on engaging the posterior head (back) of my deltoid to help draw back the elbow. So instead of pulling back from the wrist, I focused my attention to pulling back from the upper tricep to help activate the muscle more.

Finishing off my shoulders with some Smith Machine Shoulder Press. My gosh this was hard, I really struggled with this exercise, as the smith machine at my gym moves in 4 directions it makes it very hard to do basic smith machine exercises, so I had to contract my back a lot and try to fixate my shoulders in place, on reflection I might as well have done it with a standard barbell, but none the less I made sure I was contracting during my 30 second rest breaks in the final 7 Sets, just in the attempt to swell up that muscle, manipulate the fascia and try to keep on progressing with my body.

“Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible”

- Frank Zappa

I want to take this opportunity once again to thank everyone for the kind support, touching word and the incredibly positive response I have got from doing this. I hope it may go on for a very long time.

Bless you all where ever you may be.

Happy Lifting,

Matt

Week 4 Day 2 - Like Father, Like Son Pt.2

21/04/15 Day 23 – Legs

So continuing on with the FST-7 style of training I moved on to, what is for me, the hardest day of the week. Even though I have always found legs the harder muscle group to work I actually enjoy it more than most other muscles groups these days, maybe its because I'm actually getting some sick results from my training now!

The sessions today are meant to be spilt into 2, an Am workout targeting the Quadriceps and an Pm workout targeting the Hamstrings. Due to me working this even I have merged the two workouts together, which was INSANE!

AM

Leg Extension – 4 Sets x 10-15 Reps

Leg Press – 4 Sets x 10-15 Reps

Hack Squats – 4 Sets x 10-15 Reps

Smith Machine Squats – 7 Sets x 10-15 Reps

PM

Laying Hamstring Curl – 4 Sets x 10-15 Reps

Stiff Leg Barbell Deadlift – 4 Sets x 10-15 Reps

Seated Hamstring Curl – 7 Sets x 10-15 Reps

Cardio - Interval Training 15mins Total

Today was another father/son special, working legs big time with the big bear. We started off with our Leg Extensions, doing a few sets on a really light weight to get those joints all nice and lubricated before we really hammered the legs. If you are slightly older over have previous knee injuries I cannot stress enough how imperative a solid warm up and active stretch session is! It was nice working with my dad today, feeling like the competition was on we constantly tried to 1 up each other on weights throughout the session, which is great for me because it meant I pushed myself to pretty much complete failure. Remember in between each set I was doing a 10 second contraction on either the quads or hamstrings depending on the exercise, so if you are follow this, then you need to be following too. Stretch that fascia and grow.

Then, after getting some good amount of blood into those legs we moved onto the Leg Press. Here the focus was to get some real heavy reps out on each set, having a training partner is nice because it allows you to work harder than usual knowing you have a spotter there to help you out, so push your boundaries like we did today and get the results.

After a quick talk with my dad about the direct links between weighted muscular training and the effect on your breathing rate and heart rate increase we moved over to the Hack Squat, this is probably one of our favourite new exercises, not only due to the insane contraction in the quadriceps but also the tension you can create through your glutes as well, which obviously will help all pressing motions too. Here the main focus was slow and deep, so deep in fact that a few times I wasn't quite sure if I was ever going to come up, but that's the fun of it, push yourself to the limit and demand more of your body.

After this came our final exercise, the dreaded 7 Sets of Smith Machine Squats. Now as I have stated previously, I don't like the smith machine at the gym I use, not because it isn't good, its just that I moves both horizontally as well as vertically, which in my opinion is not the point of a smith machine? But anyway that is my opinion and you guys and girls may love that kind of machine. So I had to work seriously hard through these sets, as I have spoken about in a few of my leg days I don't feel like I have lots of endurance. So having 30 seconds rest between each set takes its toll by about the 4^th set, but “by thepower of grey skull (I HAVE THE POWER!)” I forced myself through it with some good encouragement from the chief and am now all the better for it.

Then with a pretty quick turn around it was on to Hamstrings. So as our gym doesn't have a Seated Leg Curl I had to improvise and instead did my first 4 sets on a decline bench and did some Laying Dumbbell Leg Curls, which I have never done before and thought were really, really good. Then I moved onto the standard Barbell Stiff Leg Deadlift, which was again awesome, I feel like my hamstrings respond fantastically well to training which is why I love training them so much. Finally for the 7 Sets I worked on the Laying Leg Curl with the aim of the game being, keep tension for as long as possible, so this means not coming all the way up, listen to your muscles, actively seek out where the contraction stops and starts then drop to the bottom of the motion before the contraction fades away and work in that range. This is going to give: more blood, more naturally occurring Human Growth Hormone (HGH), more nutrients for repair and also help us to stretchthatfascia. So work hard and reap the benefits!

Wishing you all the best day you could possibly have.

More than welcome to ideas of how to make this blog better, soon I will be starting a Vlog to accompany this, pretty excited about that! But for now,

Happy Lifting,

Matt

Week 4 Day 1 - Sun's Out Guns

20/04/15 Day 22 – Chest & Triceps

Ladies and gents, boys and girls Y3T is officially over! A new week dawns which means a new training variation is upon us. This week I will be using the training method that has created legends like 3 x 212 Olympian “Flex” Lewis as well as 4 x Mr Olympia Jay Cuttler, I'm talking of course about FST-7. This stands for Fascia Stretch Training-7 the number seven represents the 7 sets you perform on the isolation exercise at the end of your session.

The Fascia is a huge webbing that surrounds your muscles, so when we use the FST-7 training we are trying to stretch and manipulate this fascia so we allow our muscles to grow out even more! This gives the bigger and thicker look to the muscles.

So here is what the 1^st FST-7 training session looked like:

Incline Dumbbell Bench Press - 4 Sets x 8-10 Reps

Flat Dumbbell Bench Press - 3 Sets x 8-10 Reps

Decline Dumbbell Bench Press - 3 Sets x 8-10 Reps

Peck Fly - 7 Sets x 8-10 Reps

Supinated Tricep Pushdown - 4 Sets x 8-10 Reps

Close Grip Bench Press - 3 Sets x 8-10 Reps

Overhead Dumbbell Extension - 3 Sets x 8-10 Reps

Rope Tricep Extension - 7 Sets x 8-10 Reps

Cardio - Interval Training 15mins Total

When working through the sets before the final 7 set on each group you are meant to take up to a 2 min rest period, this means you are able to go pretty damn heavy on these sets. You look to be using around the same weight as used in Week 1 of the Y3T training, hopefully you can lift a bit heavier now.

So I blasted quite happily through the Incline Dumbbell Bench Press, making sure I worked really slowly and controlled on the way down from the top of the motion, remember we are going for work on both the concentric (upward phase) and eccentric (downward phase), so after I blasted out the first 4 Sets I was feeling pretty damn good, my form was on point, my weight was nice and strong and I was starting to swell quite nicely. Between each set on every exercise I tensed my chest for just over 10 seconds, remember we are trying to manipulate the fascia as much as possible, so we want to fill the muscles with blood to over stretch it. You can chose to either stretch during you rest period, or tense, I suggest a combination of the two as that is what was recommend to me.

After the incline press I moved on to the Flat Dumbbell Bench Press, I punches up the weights and made sure I was getting a really good squeeze out of every single rep, I didn't lock out at the top or the bottom, this allows me to increase my TUT (Time Under Tension), which is also going to allow me get more blood into those pecks and help even more to stretching my fascia.

Ok, at this point, I was feeling seriously swollen, the tensing between sets had pumped so much blood into the muscles I was struggling to feel the contraction between my sets, so feeling pretty confident and sticking with the same weight from my flat press I hoped on the decline bench and got started on my Decline Dumbbell Bench Press. I wanted the emphasis to be the squeeze at the top, bringing the dumbbells together ever so slightly and tensing the pecks, a lot like the top of a peck fly. As I don't normally work on the decline bench that much this was some what of a new experience to me and I have to say I actually really felt it.

Then came the final exercise on chest, the Peck Fly, I did this on the Peck Deck machine at my gym, but again if you don't have one, dumbbells are a perfectly suitable substitute. With these final 7 Sets the aim of the game is to keep the rest period short, we're talking 30 seconds maximum, and try as hard as possible to flush as much blood into these muscles as physically possible. This was not easy, lots of mental focus had to push me through the final 2-3 sets, my pecks felt like they were constantly on fire, which was awesome for what I wanted to achieve, but painful none the less.

After I blitzed the chest it was time for the Triceps to get a good pounding. Starting the proceedings off on the Supinated Tricep Pushdown, I have to use a flat bar here as my wrists can't take it otherwise. I felt like it was a breeze going through the Close Grip Bench Press & Overhead Dumbbell Extension, as I like training triceps in this manor it didn't feel too bad, that is, until I got to the last exercise. Rope Tricep Extension was going to be the final hurdle, the last thing standing between me and my sweet, sweet new protein sitting in my locker and boy was it a big hurdle to jump. I like to use 2 ropes and attach them both to the pulley, using the full length of both rope attachments I feel like I can get a really good, long solid contraction through the Tricep. The first 3 sets didn't seem too bad, but then the muscles just wouldn't want to respond, the momentum came into play and I told myself that there was no point, so I simply dropped the weight so I was able to hit my rep range, kept the recovery really really short and made sure I got out every rep. Needless to say, the pump was unreal.

On reflection I absolutely LOVED my first day on the FST-7 Training and cannot wait for the rest of the week, check in tomorrow for: Legs.

Happy Lifting,

Matt

Week 3 Day 7 - 5 Ways to Change Your Life, Forever

19/04/15 Day 21 – Active Rest

Do you ever find yourself down? Sometimes you aren't quite sure what you are working for, you're lost and don't have the motivation to drive on to success, or maybe you just want to try something new for a change? Here are a few ways I personally keep my motivation levels high and constantly stay on track for success.

Goal Setting

Now you have probably heard about this a million and times, so a million and 1 won't hurt. Deciding what you want to be or where you want to be is incredibly simple to do. When you have that “place” in mind you then work backwards to figure out how you will get there. For instance: I want to place in the top 5 in my first ever Bodybuilding Competition, then I would say, ok how will I do this? Well I need to get my nutrition right week in week out (achievable) I need to stick to my training plan (achievable) I need to work on my posing (achievable) etc. So make them small goals you can monitor and keep track of, tick them off as you go and the motivational boast will be incredible!

Imagery

Positive mental imagery is an incredibly powerful tool. By visualising exactly what you want in life you are able to home in on what you must do to be there, the more you think about being there the more you will want it, the more you want it the more you think of it. The cycle goes on until it is the 1 and only thing you focus on, when this happens you will naturally do everything that is in your power to make sure that it happens. Try it, you will be amazed!

Talking to Yourself

Positive affirmations are some of the most powerful self motivating tools in anyone's arsenal. Saying something as basic as “I can do this, I can do this, I can do this” will force yourself to believe that you have all the tool capable to “do this”. It can be used in pretty much any scenario and will really and I mean really unlock your brain to endless and unlimited power.

Role Models

Using a role model is a fantastic way to constantly remind yourself why you are doing what you do, whether it be an image you are trying to replicate (bodybuilding) or a certain sum you want in your pay check at the end of every month, you have to look at the people that are doing it and say, what are they doing that I am not? Once you break that down and utilise the same thing that they are, there is nothing to stop you.

Fly with Eagles

When you surround yourself with people who are not interested in what you are trying to achieve you will have a source of temptation, with this comes distraction and if you are truly wanting this “thing” what ever it may be you must completely and utterly immerse yourself within it. To keep moving constantly and consistently forward you must surround yourself with people, like yourself, who share the same common goals and interests, this is how you will truly become successful.

To seek more free advice and help in your training or even get a customised fitness/nutrition plan send me an e-mail at:

mgonlinept@gmail.com

I am on there everyday and get back to everyone.

Hope you have enjoyed your weekend,

Happy Lifting,

Matt

Week 3 Day 6 - 5 Exercises Guaranteed For Fat Loss!

18/04/15 Day 20 – Active Rest

If you haven't already checked out last weeks fat loss guide, have a flick through before you go any further (click here)

Today I am going through 5 of the best exercises to torch fat and get you skinny for summer!

So when you are looking to burn large sums of calories and trim back the fat to reveal that lovely body you want to focus on a few things:

1. Use weight. Weight baring exercises get that metabolism sky high, and keep it there. You want to try burning as many calories as you can to gain that deficit that will help you loose that unwanted poundage.
2. Go heavy. When you lift heavy you need to recruit more energy from your muscles, which is going to increase that deficit we already spoke about, the heavier the weight, the more microfibre tears will be created in the muscle, which the body will naturally repair, the whole time you are repairing muscle you are also burning calories. Just remember, if you are aching the next day after training, you are burning calories!
3. Keep the tempo. Make sure you aren't throwing the weights about, working at a slower more controlled pace not only takes more effort (effort=energy) but it always allows you to sync your rhythm with your bodies metabolic functions, the more constant and consistent the tempo the more effectively you burn calories.

Moving on, here are my Top 5 Exercises to Lose Fat

Squats- Weighted squat work will primarily work your legs (Quadriceps) which is the largest group of muscles in the body, so I'm sure you can imagine the seem mass of calories you can burn off by really working these bad boys hard! Not only that, but you will get some wicked legs that will look great on that beach, whether you opt for a bikini or board shorts, this exercise is a must!

Deadlifts- This exercise is going to be working your legs, back, arms and your core strength. The more deadlifts you can fit into your workouts the quicker you are going to see some serious results. This compound movement requires you to contract hundreds and hundreds of muscles fibres to merely lift a bar off the ground, it's incredibly easy to perform and will help you tighten that waist, strengthen your back and build those legs. Once again I cannot recommend doing these enough.

Clean and Press- One of the biggest movements in exercise history, moving a bar from the floor to overhead in two huge, compound movements will not only get your heart rate flying but you will have fat literally falling off you. If you have never tried this exercise, seek professional advise from someone in your gym. It might take a few reps to understand how it works, but boy are you going to see a new you in that mirror because of it.

Bench Press- Working another very large set of muscles in the chest is going to give you a bit of diversity from working those awesome legs so much. You have a large variety of different angled presses you can do with this exercise, that will allow you to work on the main bulk of the chest as well as your triceps. Ladies, please don't fear doing this kind of work, just because you perform a few sets on chest each week does not mean you are going to have Pec's like Jay Cutler, but you can wave goodbye to those bingo wings!

Pull Ups/Chin Ups- The last exercise, the pull up and chin up can be performed pretty much anywhere, it is the simplest out of all the exercises spoken about today, but one of the best as well. Literally pulling your body off of the ground toward the bar you hang from, it sounds easy, but don't expect to be flying around like spider-man. Utilising the large muscles in your back, you are needing to supply the muscles with a shed tone of energy to move your whole body off the ground, which means more calories to burn. Don't worry if you can't do them to start with, jump on an assisted machine at your gym and build up slowly, your still stripping those inches off.

If you are unsure of how to perform the exercises, click the links in the description.

How ever if you want a personalised plan to get that 6 pack for summer e-mail me at :

mgonlinept@gmail.com

Have a wonderful day where ever you are,

Happy Lifting

Matt

Week 3 Day 5 - Hater Gunna Hate

17/04/15 Day 19 – Biceps, Calves & Abs

Today was the final day in the Y3T section of training. On reflection, I absolutely LOVED these past three weeks, they have taught me a lot about training, about how to push myself and where in my weaknesses lay. So if you have never tried this amazing style of training, check it out!

Onto today's session:

Ez Bar Wide Grip Bicep Curls – 3 Sets x 15-20 Reps (Dropset each set, 15-20 Reps Per Drop)

Ez Bar Close Grip Bicep Curls – 3 Sets x 15-20 Reps (1^st Set Dropset, 15-20 Reps)

Seated Calf Raises – 1 Set x 15-20 Reps (Dropset, 15-20 Reps)

Standing Calf Raises – 3 Sets x 15-20 Reps (Dropset each set, 15-20 Reps Per Drop)

Incline Reverse Crunch – 3 Sets x 15-20 Reps

Exercise Ball Knee Tucks – 3 Sets x 15-20 Reps

Cardio - Interval Training 15mins Total

So today was a very fast paced session, due to me working a double shift. The intensity is high, the rest was low and I smashed my way through it, lovely.

Starting with the Ez Bar Wide Grip Bicep Curls I put the focus into getting out everyone of my reps on both the standard sets as well as my drop sets, I did this because I personally feel as though the internal head of my Bicep lets me down. The internal head giving you that lovely peak look that Arnold was famous for during his hay day. So squeeze the bar up, fix those elbows tight to your waist and follow my lead, try getting every one of those reps out. Pump guaranteed!

Moving to the Ez Bar Close Grip Bicep Curls was very different indeed, for me its not an exercise I do very much, as I though it put a bit of strain through my elbows, turns out I was absolutely fine, the elbows stayed locked out, which allowed me to put emphasis on the external head of the Bicep, which is what this exercises is used for. I strongly believe that working these various muscles in a singular training session is very beneficial for people like myself who are progressing the entire body as a whole, locating the weaknesses and solving the problems.

As my arms started to relax, the lactic acid flooded out and the tightening pump slowly loosen to a point where I could more my arms, I moved on to the Seated Calf Raises. The seated calf raise is probably another new favourite of mine, never having used the machine before starting this new programme and joining my new gym (Underground, which is incredible), I have come to actually enjoy it, but alas only 1 set today, but boy did I make it count, squeezing at the top of the movement and slowly lower till I found the stretch in my Soleus (this is known as a stretch reflex), and shooting back to the top of the movement again.

After finishing on the seated raise, I moved a whole 2ft to the Standing Calf Raise machine, and here I faced some serious punishment. The one thing I will say about doing these kind of dropsets is that I seriously punishes you for trying to lift heavy, starting on around 55kg for my normal set (which is relatively heavy for me) I then tried working through my drop set at 45kg's, nope,40kg? Nope, 35kgs? Nope, until finally I could actually push out the rep range at only 30kgs! That's a 25kg drop in one set. So remember as I have said before, leave your ego at the door, don't worry about anyone else in that gym, what they think of you, or what they lift, you are your own person, you develop what you can. “Haters gunna hate”.

So finally finishing my gym work with the wonderful Ab workout! I personally preferred the Incline Reverse Crunch over the Exercise Ball Knee Tucks, as I felt they really tested my core a lot more than I thought, I could feel how my abs were constantly engaged throughout the whole of the reverse crunches, feeling incredibly tight on both my concentric and eccentric phases and if you have read any of my blogs so far, you will I love eccentric movements.

In other news I had my protein arrive today, which was absolutely incredible, I have chosen the Toffee Fudge Sunday by The ProteinWorks, if you haven't check out these guys yet, they have incredible prices, deals, great customer service and quality that well, speaks for itself.

But its time to shoot off to work, so I'll catch you beautiful people later, have a good day one and all.

Happy Lifting,

Matt

Week 3 Day 4 - Sometime You Just Have to Dig Deep

16/04/15 Day 18 – Back

Feeling very tight, pretty tired, are really struggled to pull myself out of bed today, but I did, and that's what matters.

I find it incredibly interesting how well people have accepted my life choice. The constant feed back I'm getting is very motivating and I'm moving towards wanting to do it for “the people” as well as myself. It is a whole new method of inspiration for me and I love it so thank you, everyone, whether its a small comment here or there or you have contacted me privately, you drive me to always be better.

So today I trained back, one of my favourites, again working with lots of reps, high intensity and a whole new meaning to Focus. If you feel like your grip is fatiguing a lot when you do this kind of work maybe try using some lifting straps to help you get through the session.

Here is what I was working with today:

Bent Over Double Dumbbell Row – 3 Sets x 15 Reps (last set is a drop set for 15-18)

Lat Pulldown – 3 Sets x 15-20 Reps

Superset

Underhand Cable Pulldown – 3 Sets x 15-20 Reps

Chest Supported Double Dumbbell Row – 3 Sets x 15-20 Reps

SuperSet

Straight Arm Pulldown – 3 Sets x 15-20 Reps

Barbell Deadlift – 3 Sets x 15-20 Reps

Cardio - Interval Training 15mins Total

What I really loved about the session today was the fact every exercise (apart from one) is all compound, so the body isn't limited to those small weights I have been working with all week and I was actually able to throw some weight about, which was really nice! So I started the session with Bent Over Double Dumbbell Row, I normally do this exercise with a Barbell so changing it up for me was really refreshing, and gave me a bit of muscle confusion, which is very healthy for you when you are smashing 5 sessions back-to-back all week, doing pretty much the same things. I could tell I wasn't 100% awake on this first set as I did my 3 Sets and went to move onto the next exercise, I then said to myself “that seemed a little too easy” and then looked at my training book, “Damn it!”, so for my stupidity I made myself do another set, followed by the intended drop set. I don't think I'll ever forget about that again.

Then moving onto a really nice SuperSet, Lat Pulldown Superset with Underhand Cable Pulldowns. Although you are relatively stationary on this exercise it gets pretty hardcore pretty quickly, making just a small change in your grip allows you to target some different muscles, this makes it easier to squeeze out more reps, while still keeping the main focus on those Lats, working on that awesome V-taper, if you know anything about physique you know this is a key feature to aesthetics. So try and put lots of Lat work into your workout, accompanied with some waist tightening exercises to put together a body only the Greek gods could make.

After pushing the intense burning sensation out of my back after the previous exercises I moved to the bench where I moved onto the 2^nd round of today's SuperSets. With the Chest Supported Double Dumbbell Row you have a few options with the bench positions, have the incline higher to work more of the upper back (rhomboids, traps, top section of the lats) or have the bench on a lower incline to target the middle back, with the main focus being the lats. Play around with it and see what feels better. For my sets I had the incline slightly high, to target a few different muscles not yet utilised in my session. Putting this back-to-back with the Straight Arm Pulldown was seriously hard work, as you are putting so much focus into the top portion of those lats, the insertion point which is just under the armpit into the humerus, feels like someone is sat there with a blow torch, but boy will it be worth it.

Finishing the session with one of my weaker exercises, the oldest of the old school lifts Barbell Deadlift, I took this as an opportunity to really work on my form, keeping a nice tight back and opening up that chest to keep everything tracking properly. For me I took this exercise lighter than maybe I could have done, but I wanted to hit my upper rep range each set, and try to created a beautifully strong mind-muscle connection, which is the foundation of being able to lift heavy. Yeah buddy.

Remember to listen to your body, it will tell you what it needs, all you have to do is listen and act.

“Do what you gotta do so you can do what you wanna do.”- Denzel Washington

Where ever you are, may your day be filled with joy and happiness.

Happy Lifting,

Matt 

Week 3 Day 3 - Trap City

15/04/15 Day 17- Shoulders & Abs

The chest DOMS are starting to set in now, getting a nice ache in the legs too. Its funny how I used to fear the feeling of being sore, yet now its all I want to feel, shows the true power of self development.

Talking of development, I have just got back from the gym, the shoulders are swollen, my focus is airtight and I'm ready for the day. Lots of work to do for my online clients, so today was all about smashing this session and getting home, so the intensity was up, the heart rate was up, and I pushed my body to complete failure. Mission successful captain.

I suggest you check out last weeks Shoulder session, to get an idea of how each week is completely different, but incredibly well adapted to build your muscles, week in, week out.

So here is the session:

Dumbbell Shoulder Press – 3 Sets x 20-25 Reps

Giant Set

Side Lateral Raises – 3 Sets x 20-25 Reps

Giant Set

Front Dumbbell Raises – 3 Sets x 20-25 Reps

Seated Bent-Over Rear Delt Raise – 4 Sets x 20-25 Reps

SuperSet

Side Laterals to Front Raise – 4 Sets x 20-25 Reps

Dumbbell Shrugs– 3 Sets x 20-25 Reps

Dumbbell Weighted Sit Ups– 3 Sets x 15-20 Reps

Cardio - Interval Training 15mins Total

Just looking at that session tires me out all over again.

So starting at the deep end, I jumped into a Giant Set to start, after a solid warm up and active stretch session, obviously. For those of you not familiar with a Giant Set, it quite simply is a Super Set, but contains more than 2 exercises back to back. So when you put Dumbbell Shoulder Press, Side Lateral Raises, Front Dumbbell Raises back to back, you will, guaranteed to have an insane pump. Because you aren't letting these muscles rest, and starting each set by pre fatiguing the whole deltoid, its going to be a bit of a struggle, expect to be lifting a lot lighter today than previous sessions, as you are dealing with some seriously high reps. 75 Reps in 1 set, no wonder I'm starting to hurt already.

Moving from a Giant Set to a Super Set on the 2^nd round of exercises, it isn't much of a compensation, but I took it. On this set I wanted to work really hard on my Seated Bent-Over Rear Delt Raise, as for myself, I feel as though my rear deltoids let my shoulder down, so I pushed out every rep here, even if it meant stopping for a few seconds, or even squeezing out ½ reps, you want to flood your targeted muscle with blood as much as possible. Due to me working on those rear delt raises, my Side Laterals to Front Raise took a bit of a punishing, trying to pull those dumbbells back from the front raise was killer! Be, like me, prepared to drop/alter your weights a few times though these exercises, as we are working already battered muscles as well as isolating a small muscle group.

Now comes to my favourite exercise of the day: Dumbbell Shrugs. Today I tried something different with these, and you should too! Firstly with the starting position, I tilted forward ever so slightly, so the dumbbells were in front of my body, the reasoning behind this is, that the traps don't just contract by lifting the shoulders up, but also from pull the shoulder blades together. So I changed the movement from straight up and down, to up and back, the difference was unreal. Secondly, I held the contraction at the top of the squeeze for about 2 seconds, the idea behind this is once again trying to flood those smaller muscle groups with as much blood as possible to allow them to grow, and this guys and girls is how you get traps like Tom Hardy in Warrior.

To round off the session I smashed out some heavy Dumbbell Weighted Sit Ups, here I didn't come all the way up, to make sure I was keeping a nice level of tension through those abdominal, try it, nothing will tighten that stomach like this!

Hope you are all enjoying the weather where ever you are.

Have a wonderful Wednesday,

Happy Lifting.

Matt