Before Vs After

So here I am after 12 weeks of gruelling hard work behind me and plenty more to come, I feels its only right to reflect on everything that has happened in the past 12 weeks.

Starting this programme I was pretty nervous, I thought I pushed myself quite hard in the gym and was relatively happy with where I was in terms of my body composition. After deciding that I was going to become a Natural Body Builder and set my sights on competing early next year I knew I had to step up my game, I needed to learn and grow at the same time.

 I felt this programme has taught me so much in terms of how my body works, what feels good, what needs improving, where I am weaker, where I am stronger etc. By using so many different training principles I think I have been able to deduce what is best for my body, what is best to promote growth and how I need to train some more specific muscle groups in order to actually get something out of them.But enough of all of that, lets show the before and after pictures, on the left is 12 weeks ago, the right is today after waking up, completely dry weight.

Relaxed Before

Relaxed After

Front Double Bicep Before

Front Double Bicep After

Lat Spread Before

Lat Spread After

Back Double Bicep Before

Back Double Bicep After

Quadriceps Before

Quadriceps After

Calves Before

Calves After

So look at the pictures the first thing I notice is that I am not as trim now as I was 12 weeks ago, which I totally understand and I know its due to my increased calorie intake over the past 12 weeks. I do feel that my muscles look a lot fuller in my after photos. My back for one I am very happy with, the width and thickness of it really shows up here, my Quadriceps and Biceps deserve and honourable mention too as they have beefed up very nicely too!


Now lets look at the numbers!

Before Measurements:

Chest-44inLat Spread -46.5inWaist-36inThigh-25inCalf-18inBicep- 16in

After Measurements:

Chest- 44in

Lat Spread- 47.5in

Waist- 35in

Thigh- 26.25in

Calf- 18.25in

Bicep- 17in

So after looking at the statistics I can see I was correct in saying my Back has grown! as well as my Biceps, also by taking in my Waist it will give the illusion of bigger/wider Back and Shoulders and smaller Waistline. I am not massively  impressed with my Chest, although I know my upper Pec development has come on my mid and lower development hasn't come across too much, but now I have time to work on it and develop it the way I need too for my personal look.

The past 12 Weeks have been a real pleasure! I am so incredibly happy with all the amazing support that I have been shown by my friends and family and really hope you continue to stand by me throughout my journey. 

I won't be completely stopping the Blogs, so don't worry! I will be trying to move my attention across to Vlogs, as it is nicer for me and easier viewing for you guys too, I can then better get across information in a fast effective way. 

Once again thank you everyone, I have loved every minute of this and really look forward to progressing further with my training!

Happy Lifting you bloody wonderful people!

Week 12 Day 1 - Fairwell Legs (1200 Rep Leg Day)

15/06/15 Day 77 – Legs & Calves

Here it is, the beginning of the end. Week 12 is upon me and boy do I know about it, finishing off just as hard as I started this weeks DTP training is in the form of Uni-Lateral training, basically working one limb in isolation, then followed by the opposing limb, going back and forth with as little rest time as possible, whilst working up and down pyramid, so yeah, it hurts. This style of training is fantastic for development of the individual limbs as you are actually able to produce more force! Enough of the preamble, lets take a look at the session:

Single Leg Leg Press – 10 Sets, 1 x 30,25,20,15,10,10,15,20,25,30

Bulgarian Split Squat – 5 Sets, 1 x 30,25,20,15,10

Close Stance Split Squat – 5 Sets, 1 x 10,15,20,25,30

Single Leg Seated Calf Raise – 5 Sets, 1 x 30,25,20,15,10

Single Leg Standing Dumbbell Calf Raise – 5 Sets, 1 x 10,15,20,25,30

Cardio – Interval Training 15mins Total

Just looking at that session made me tired, let alone actually doing it! Well needless to say I made sure I performed a huge warm up and active stretch out before even attempting to start this session and rightly so because I needed it.

Starting with my Single Leg Leg Press, I was thrown in at the deep end. Starting my sets with the foot towards the bottom and centre of the foot plate allowed me to incorporate more of my Quadricep muscles, by isolating them I got to really work them to failure on each set. The nice thing (I guess) about this style of training is that whilst one side is working the other can rest, meaning that even through you aren't actually resting going up or down the pyramids you do get a small rest period in between sets. It was pretty damn brutal pushing out so many reps on only one leg but I really surprised myself with the amount of weight each leg was able to carry, as I have never really trained like this before it was a bit of a eye opener to how strong I have actually become, which I am really happy with. Once hitting the 10 rep mark in the middle of the exercise, I took the foot placement higher and wider, by doing so I meant I was able to incorporate more the Hamstring and Glute muscles now, so I could share the work load across the whole leg. With the fatigue starting to settle in working back up the pyramid was just as savage as coming down it! But rep after rep I pushed on, supporting the knees and making sure everything was tracking properly, until I finally finished my last 30 repetitions and I could move on.

Transitioning to a exercise like the Bulgarian Split Squat mean that my core and stabiliser muscles now had to work a little harder to support me in the exercise. By working like this I knew I was not going to be able to lift anywhere near as heavy as the last exercise, but that was completely fine. With a old knee injury still reaping havoc on my balance it also gave me a little bit more of a test, which I never shy away from! Starting with no weight at all I worked my way down the pyramid, bumping up the weights as I went to really fatigue the whole leg out before moving onto the Close Stance Split Squat. With the Close Stance Split Squat I used the exact same weights as I did going down the pyramid to come back up the pyramid, putting all sense of fatigue to the back of my mind I just kept pushing harder and harder as I progressed on. After set three I found that I had to rest pause my way to the end of the sets, my quads were just cooked to pieces by this point, I do also recall having to take a few minutes to go outside and take a breather in the cold air, as I could feel my breakfast coming to revisit me, thankfully I kept it down and was able to carry on with the sets until I hit my 30 reps again.

So all that was left now was the calves! To work these bad boys I started on the Single Leg Seated Calf Raise, this is simply because the Leg Press was being used and I needed to improvise. I was really surprised at how well the exercised worked, really squeezing out a deep contraction through the whole calf showed me that I had in fact made a good choice. As per usual I was working my way down the pyramid with the weight getting pushed up with every passing set, I really felt shot to pieces at the end of this, but needless to say this wasn't the end for me!

Single Leg Standing Dumbbell Calf Raise, this was the only thing standing in my way between finishing my last Leg Day of this 12 week muscle builder! Grabbing hold a big ass dumbbell I mounted a wooden block and prepared myself for the pyramid set from hell! Rep,rep,rep went by, one leg to the next, drop the weight and back on the block, it didn't stop I was a man possessed, nothing was going to get in my way. With my calves pumped full of blood it felt as though they could have exploded at any second, but with my final repetition, I placed my dumbbell down and in a state of complete relief gave myself a big pat on the back, waddled over to the mats and began my cool down and stretch. So there it is 12 Weeks, 12 Leg days, boy am I glad that's over, so much learnt and now its time to keep the progress going!

If you are stuck, feel like you aren't progressing and need a change, contact me at: mgonlinept@gmail.com for a 100% tailored programme, guaranteed for results!

Happy Lifting,

Matt

Week 11 Day 4 - How To Get A V-Taper

11/09/15 Day 74 – Back & Biceps

Just from looking at today's session on paper I knew that this was going to be a hard session, with a huge amount of sets and reps being performed there was no way I was walking out the gym without a serious pump. Exactly like the previous day working chest, today was going to be structured with 3 exercises in each Giant Set, working up and down repetition pyramid to induce to serious fatigue and push my muscle to their absolute maximum!

So without further adieu here is today's session:

Giant Set 1

Wide Grip Lat Pulldown – 4 Sets, 1 x 25,20,15,10

Barbell Deadlift – 4 Sets, 1 x 25,20,15,10

Chest Supported Dumbbell Row – 4 Sets, 1 x 25,20,15,10

Giant Set 2

Chest Supported Dumbbell Row – 4 Sets, 1 x 10,15,20,25

Barbell Deadlift – 4 Sets, 1 x 10,15,20,25

Wide Grip Lat Pulldown – 4 Sets, 1 x 10,15,20,25

Giant Set 3

Barbell Curl – 4 Sets, 1 x 25,20,15,10

Standing Bicep Cable Curls – 4 Sets, 1 x 25,20,15,10

High Pully Curls – 4 Sets, 1 x 25,20,15,10

Giant Set 4

High Pulley Curls – 4 Sets, 1 x 10,15,20,25

Standing Bicep Cable Curls – 4 Sets, 1 x 10,15,20,25

Barbell Curl – 4 Sets, 1 x 10,15,20,25

Starting with my first Giant set I really wanted to make sure I pushed myself as hard as I physically could, so taking myself out of my comfort zone (I seem to be out of it more than in it these days), I bumped up my weights higher than usual so my starting sets. With the Wide Grip Lat Pulldown I was only focusing on drawing my elbows down for the contraction, followed by flaring my lats out on the way up to get a massive pump in my back. As I made my way to the Barbell Deadlift I could already feel how well my back was engaging, feeling every muscle popping with every rep. As I have a rather weak lower back I cant always deadlift heavy, so I wanted to make sure I could keep my lower back as tight as possible, when deadlifting I always try to make sure to keep my hips below my chest. By opening out the chest and pulling my shoulder blades back I can always make sure my back is aligned and thus focus on the muscle contraction more. Last but not least in this gruelling Giant set was the Chest Supported Dumbbell Row, using two dumbbell for this exercise was a blast from the past, as I used to perform this a lot in my early teens for back development. As I worked my way down the repetition range I could feel the fatigue settling in fast, trying to fight it as much as I could as the weights got heavier and heavier, I slowly began using the rest pause principle for the final two exercises. As a whole body movement the deadlifts do tend to drain energy quite fast, so I did have to anticipate that in with my weight calculations, so as I didn't over exert myself too much too soon.

Working back up the pyramid on Giant Set 2, the exercise order once again was altered, this allowed me to go heavier and focus attention on the Chest Supported Dumbbell Row more now and less on the Wide Grip Lat Pulldown. Having a finishing exercise like the pulldown really did highlight how insane drained my lats had become though this first half of the work out, as a relatively isolated movement I could feel the massive burning sensation under the armpits. Unfortunately there wasn't much I could do to counter act this, apart from stretch out between sets, so when I was working all I would focus on was getting the best contraction out of the movement as possible, with one more week left of this programme I wanted it all to be about effectiveness!

With the lat burnt out and at bursting point I made my way on to the Biceps. As a synergistic muscle group the biceps had already had a bit of work through the Wide Grip Lat Pulldown & Chest Supported Dumbbell Row, but this wasn't going to stop me working them even harder! Starting the third Giant set with the Barbell Curl followed by the Standing Bicep Cable Curls and finishing with the High Pully Curls, this was a recipe for pain and I was the head chef. Hitting the barbell for my Curls I took a wide grip so as to hit the internal head of the bicep and work on that peak, then moving on to the Standing Bicep Cable Curls with a close grip to hit the outside head of the bicep which meant I could develop the entire bicep with two exercises which was awesome and then just to finish off I could burn out on the High Pully Curls with a medium grip and just smash out the reps.

With the heaviest set done and dusted it was time to reverse the exercise order and hit the biceps up in a completely different way, causing more muscle confusion and getting more effect results out of the session. Starting with the High Pully Curls I found I could go really heavy on these, but then when moving on the Standing Bicep Cable Curls I had hardly anything left in the tank and even less when I finished off on the standard Barbell Curls.

All in all I really loved this session, working in this giant set fashion has brought to light so areas for improvement for myself which I am very happy about, as I strongly believe that you are only as good as your weakest link. This is even more prominent in body building, where ever muscle is scrutinised.

I hope you gals and guys are working hard and smashing the gym today!

Happy Lifting,

Matt

 

Week 7 Day 2 - How to Build Your Chest (Extreme)

12/05/15 Day 44 – Chest & Biceps

Following on from a pretty intense day on legs, today's treat comes in the form of a DTP Extreme Chest and Bicep session. Training alone today which I must say was quite a struggle, no music, no distractions just 100% pure focus and determination. The idea behind this DTP Extreme training is to work up and down pyramid sets with a variation on weights and reps. Let me show you what today looked like for me:

Barbell Preacher Curl – 6 Sets, 1 x 30,25,20,15,10,5

SuperSet

Decline Dumbbell Bench – 6 Sets, 1 x 30,25,20,15,10,5

Dumbbell Bench – 6 Sets, 1 x 5,10,15,20,25,30

(For each rep performed 1 sec rest is awarded, 5 reps = 5 sec rest)

Barbell Standing Curl – 6 Sets, 1 x 5,10,15,20,25,30

(For each rep performed 1 sec rest is awarded, 5 reps = 5 sec rest)

Standing Bicep Cable Curl – 3 Sets 1 x 30,20,10

SuperSet

Incline Dumbbell Bench – 3 Sets 1 x 30,20,10

Incline Dumbbell Bench – 3 Sets 1 x 10,20,30

(For each rep performed 1 sec rest is awarded, 5 reps = 5 sec rest)

Standing Bicep Cable Curl – 3 Sets 1 x 10,20,30

(For each rep performed 1 sec rest is awarded, 5 reps = 5 sec rest)

Cardio – Interval Training 15mins Total

With the knowledge gained from yesterdays session, I knew that today was going to be no walk in the park. With my pre-workout beginning to pump around my body I picked up some light dumbbells and began my warm up, focusing on what I needed to achieve during the session allowed me to home in my focus on my muscle contractions as much as possible.

Starting with the superset of Barbell Preacher Curl & Decline Dumbbell Bench allowed me to fully work the arm and chest without fatiguing the muscles needed for the opposing exercise. Working my way down the pyramid allowed me to really wear the muscles down for the DTP Extreme sets to follow. My main thought on the descend was to get my range and contractions right so I could get as much out of my muscles before I burnt them out. Once I had pumped out the last 5 Reps on each exercise with a nice heavy weight I rested for around a minute, during this time I moved to a flat bench where I picked a weight I could perform for 20 reps, then picked up another barbell which I could also curl for 20 reps. Then came the fun part, DTP Extreme! I was not super setting these two exercises but instead I worked through the rep ranges, with my tiny rest breaks (correlating with the amount of reps I had done) breaking down my muscles to complete failure. When I was hitting failure at around 15 reps I lowered the weight slightly so as I could keep good form and not risk injuring myself.

With the Chest and Biceps starting to swell really nicely I set up for what would be the 2^nd and last combo for my session today. This combo included the Standing Bicep Cable Curl and the Incline Dumbbell Bench. The idea behind these two is to make sure we are targeting the same muscle “group” but yet hitting muscles that had not been focused on the last two exercises, so for myself I took a wide grip on the cable curls as it targeted a different head of the bicep and of course the incline bench is targeting the upper chest region. Thankfully these exercises were only working through the rep ranges of 10,20 and 30, so although they are less endurance based, the small rest periods and completely sapped muscles made it really hard to even work through that. The descending rep range allowed me to push to some pretty heavy weights once again and really get those muscle fibres firing, but when it came down to the ascending rep range portion (or the DTP Extreme portion) I had very little left in the tank. To get the reps I needed to out I had to employ a rest/pause principle, whereby I put the weights down for a few seconds to give the muscles a very short rest in order to keep working through the reps all the way to completion.

With the session done and my body screaming it was time to get some fuel on board, so I chugged down my Whey Protein and had a nice upper body based stretch session. Now I find myself sat here drinking my water and talking to you beautiful people. Hope you are all having a fab day wherever you are!

Happy Lifting,

Matt

Week 7 Day 1 - 840 Reps Later...

11/05/15 Day 43 – Legs & Calves

Today marks 2 things, the beginning of Week 7 and thus DTP Extreme Training, but also it is my 21^st Birthday today, so celebrating all weekend has lead to possibly one of if not the HARDEST training session of my life.

DTP stands for Dramatic Transformation Protocol and it draws from a Extreme version of pyramid training, there will be a shed load of reps and sets. You will discover a whole new meaning of the word volume. Lets see what my Birthday training looked like:

Leg Press – 6 Sets, 1 x 30,25,20,15,10,5

Leg Press – 6 Sets, 1 x 5,10,15,20,25,30

(For each rep performed 1 sec rest is awarded, 5 reps = 5 sec rest)

Leg Extension – 6 Sets, 1 x 30,25,20,15,10,5

SuperSet

Lay Leg Curl – 6 Sets, 1 x 30,25,20,15,10,5

Leg Extension – 6 Sets, 1 x 5,10,15,20,25,30

(For each rep performed 1 sec rest is awarded, 5 reps = 5 sec rest)

Laying Leg Curl – 6 Sets, 1 x 5,10,15,20,25,30

(For each rep performed 1 sec rest is awarded, 5 reps = 5 sec rest)

Seated Calf Raises – 6 Sets, 1 x 30,25,20,15,10,5

Seated Calf Raises – 6 Sets, 1 x 5,10,15,20,25,30

Cardio – Interval Training 15mins Total

Starting today's with a really solid warm up was key, I knew that the session was going to be stupidly difficult so mental preparation was paramount. With several minutes on the bike it was time to crack on with stretching and some mobility work, when hitting such high volume you must,must,must warm up for a good amount of time otherwise you will tighten up to fast and render that whole session worthless.

After jumping on the Leg Press it became very apparent very quickly that this was going to be a very Extreme session. With two sets in (30 reps & 25 reps) my legs had already become fully swollen, with around a minute rest between each of the first 6 sets meant that going heavy was a easy possibility. Building the weight up with every sets merely helps to pre fatigue the muscle before getting into the “Extreme” portion of the exercise. For the next 6 sets the weight would be kept on whatever weight was used to do 20 reps in the previous sets, then I had to perform 5 reps, 10 reps, 15,20, etc. up to 30 reps. The number of reps I performed was the amount of time I was aloud to rest, 5 reps = 5 secs, 10 reps = 10 secs and we did this all the way up to 30 reps! Needless to say I was on the verge of crying through these 6 sets. If you want a challenge, you need to try this out.

We then moved from the Leg Press to a wonderful superset using both the Leg Extension & the Lay Leg Curl. Using the exact same method here as the last exercise we built up the weights as the rep range dropped. With the legs so heavily fatigued just adjusting the machine was a struggle enough let alone trying to actually do something, so I was not looking to achieve any personal bests here, but instead simply work my way through these sets, in wait for the horrendous pyramid sets to follow. Thankfully with these exercises we didn't have to superset them on the 2^nd lot of sets and work through the 5,10,15,20,25 and 30 reps on each machine separately. With such short rest periods between sets my legs were screaming at me for most of the session, I got used to the fact that it felt like my legs were on fire for the majority of the time, but what was really hard was how the muscles took such a beating, by the final few sets the muscles just didn't have the energy to contract fully. It was a very strange feeling having your legs just give up on you in such a way, but it certainly let me know they were being worked.

To finish off the lower body we used the Seated Calf Raise machine, using the same principle as the last 2 exercises we built up our weights through our first 6 sets, which by this point was so difficult. Even though it was a fresh muscle group our bodies just couldn't handle to beating it had taken, so we (my partner and I) had to try our best to encourage the other person one, counting out every rep and every rest interval allowed us to just get on with the actual exercise. As we got onto the final 6 pyramid sets it almost became a case of stretching in between every set, the calves as a muscle group for me like to tighten incredibly quickly and almost get a burning fizz running through them for the session, which really isn't ideal, so stretch and make the most of it!

I hope everyone has had an awesome weekend! I certainly have. Lots of new comics to wear and a bunch of new gym vests to show off to you guys!

Happy Lifting,

Matt

Week 6 Day 5 - Chest 101

08/05/15 Day 40– Chest & Biceps

Today marks the end of Week 6 and rounded off the HIT style of training I was working on. Re-capping on the week I have to say its been a real test going in to every session knowing that my aim is to push my body to complete failure, both mentally and physically it's incredibly draining. With the added support of a training partner it tends to make it a bit easier, but none the less its not always possible to train with someone else, so then trying to get yourself out of that comfort zone needs to be the no.1 priority.

Enough of that, lets see what today had in store for me!

Incline Dumbbell Bench – 2 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Leverage Chest Press – 2 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Decline Dumbbell Bench Press – 2 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Cable Cross-Over – 2 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Dumbbell Alternating Bicep Curl – 2 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Barbell Curl – 2 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Preacher Curl – 2 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Cardio – Interval Training 15mins Total

Starting the session off with some really thorough rotator cuff work and some big stretches allows me not only to get into my mind what I need to achieve through the session, but it also means I am able to loosen and lubricate the joints that are going to be given a serious thrashing, such as the shoulders and elbows. For me I like to use some elbow protection when going heavy with large pressing movements as it simply gives me a bit of added support and security against injury.

Beginning my working sets on the Incline Dumbbell Bench I decided to push myself a bit harder than I usually would and bumped up my weights, normally I would be very hesitant to do this but today I was feeling pretty damn good so I went for it. Driving all my force through the elbows to punch the weights up, keeping the elbows nice and soft and squeezing the contractions I surprisingly beasted my way through both sets, reaching failure at around 10 reps, then trying to pump out any remaining ½ reps I had left in the tank.

Moving on to the Leverage Chest Press was a whole new experience for me, if you don't have a leverage press at your gym then just use a fixed bench machine, its pretty much the same thing. Due to the fact you are not laying down (therefore not working against gravity) you will find you can bench more here then you can on a flat dumbbell/barbell press, so don't be afraid to go heavy! Keeping the elbows up nice and high to recruit as many of my pectoral muscles as possible left me with a serious pump. Remember: When doing such high intensity work you must make sure you are stretching between most sets, the chances of a Pec tear are very high when working with heavy weights over long periods of time, so take care of your body.

After working the upper and middle portion of the chest all that was left was to punch out some lower pectoral work, today I did this with Decline Dumbbell Bench Press. With a smaller range of motion than the other presses you can afford to go slightly heavier with this movement, just as I did. Keeping my wits about me I made sure with a few warm up sets that I was in fact able to lift the weights (fatigue will start creeping in at this point so be careful). After asking another member to help me get the weights up I was happily off repping my way though the sets, hitting failure at around 9-11 reps. It was pretty difficult pushing myself to failure and then trying to work out any further reps, but I know what I need to do to succeed and that is what keeps me going.

To really finish off the chest I moved onto the last exercise on the list: Cable Cross-Over. With this exercise make sure the elbows and hands are pointing in the exact direction of where you want the cables to finish, by doing so it means the pectoral is working by itself, if there is even a slight mismatch you will be hitting the rotator cuffs hard, which means you will not be able to go as heavy, for as many reps because the cuff is tiny in comparison and no where near as mechanically effective.

With chest done and dusted it was time to move on to the Biceps. Starting with Dumbbell Alternating Bicep Curls is a good way to introduce the tendons in the elbow to work. Starting with something like a preacher curl puts far too much strain though this joint and massively increases the risk of an injury. So after a few heavy warm ups I jumped into my working sets, trying to make sure I was failing just after 8 Reps, then I was encouraging the movement with some momentum, this allowed me to work on the negative to finish my 12 rep sets.

With the biceps nicely pumped up I moved onto the straight Barbell Curl, the intension with this exercise is to work on a different bicep head, making sure the whole bicep develops in unison with each session. For someone going into competing you must be symmetrical so to do so you must work every single muscle as hard as its opposing muscle, this gives the even look the judges will be looking for.

To round off the whole session I finished on and old school favourite, Preacher Curls. I did this with individual dumbbells to try to keep the muscles as even in strength (and thus size) as possible. When doing this exercise you want to make sure you don't fully extend the arm, by doing so it means the elbow joint is being subjected to insane amounts of strain and can very, very easily result in injury. So keeping the contractions slow and controlled I worked to failure at around 10 reps and then aided the weight back up with the other hand to complete the 12 reps with negatives. Man that was a sick pump.

Hope every is enjoying their training today!

Yesterdays session will be up tomorrow, have been busy and didn't have chance to put it up, so bare with me!

Happy Lifting,

Matt

Week 6 Day 3 - How To: Eat Your Way To A Summer Body

06/05/15 Day 38 - Active Rest

With the intensity of the Week 6 HIT training coming into play this week will host a rest day in the middle of the week, splitting up the 4 days training. Today I wanted to take the opportunity to talk through some simple points that could help those of you looking to lose a weight of weight before beach season hits us, so here it is! 

5 simple points to help you lose that unwanted poundage 

Today I'm talking about a few easy tips that will help you shed some of that unwanted weight before come round without having to go on any outrageous detoxes or calories deficient diets!

1)Firstly thing I will mention is about the consumption of Protein, protein is a nutrient that is massively under consumed and under-rated. Its ability to resynthesise muscle tissues is remarkable, but it burns fat just consuming it! As the molecular structure make the protein so dense it effects something called our TEF=Thermogenic effect of food, this basically means our digestion system heats up (thermo) as a result of the breakdown of particles from the moment we put it in our mouth and our salivary amailase (saliva) starts to slowly digest our food, this happens right the way through our body. This process in itself will help us to burn fat. But surely you can do this with any food Matt?? Well quite simply yes! you can but the difference is quite scary. Per gram of fat consumed TEF accounts for 2% energy use, Carbohydrate is 5% and Protein is a country mile ahead with 25%! that's 5 x the amount that Carbohydrates use!

2)Next is food regulation, most people will eat 3 times a day, these meal will normally be rather large in the hope to keep the person full till right up to the next meal, which in real terms is around 4-6 hours without a meal. This quite frankly is a ridiculous ask of the body, the majority of us will start to feel hungry after around 2-3 hours after the meal, sometimes even quicker depend on your exercise routine. We feel hungry because we are getting a massive drop of insulin in our blood levels from our massive spike in our consumption of our big heavy meal. This means we are going to start getting some cravings now, and these cravings are going to be for the naughty things, quick fixes that satisfy our need so food, often unhealthy and most certainly not going to help us level out our blood sugar. So instead of having 3 big meals, start trying to eat 4-6 smaller meals throughout the day, this keeps our bloody sugar levels lower, and means no more cravings for naughty things that will mean we keep putting on the poundage! Also means our TEF can work more readily to keep that fat burning.

3)Which brings me on to the next point.Stay away from pre packaged meals. These microwave meals have had layers of there natural fibre coating removed in order to be heated up quick. This means your body has even less work to do when it comes to digestion, effecting our TEF and not to mention shovelling tones of artificial preservatives into our body that cant be used as fuel. Stick clean and eat raw, whole foods that packed with vitamins, minerals and natural fibre.

4)Do you drink enough water? not to mention the delivery of vitamins, minerals and essential   fats through our body water also increases our metabolism. Increasing our BMR (basal metabolic rate(the rate which we burn fat at rest) is vital to burning as much fat a possible. By increasing your intake of water by 1.5 litres a day for 1 year you can burn 2kgs alone, now this isn't much but for an easily sustainable act as simple as drink more water  you can lose 20kg of 10 years, that loads!!

5)The final topic I will talk about is stress, stress is the biggest cause of weight gaining and putting on fat. But now we have to go back to the first days of the cave-man. When cave-men were stressed out it would be over the fact they missed a kill and would now have to go without food for possibly days on end, what happens now is incredible! When the cave-man got stressed their bodies releases a hormone called Cortisol, cortisol breaks down muscles tissue in the body and  uses it as a energy source, as its denser than fat, and with a massively depleted fat store, death is imminent, so the cave-man allowed their own body's to eat their muscle tissue, as they had plenty of it in order to give them the energy for the next kill. Muscle is one of the biggest contributing factors of fat burning as the more muscle we have the more fat we burn, just look at top end body builders! So when you are getting angry because someone has cut you up, or your stuck in traffic, or your toast lands butter side down, just think that you can be releasing cortisol! So I recommend finding something you enjoy doing that is relaxing, such as yoga or reading a book or taking a nice long bath, or even some simple meditation and simple breathing to alleviate the stress in the body and keep you burning that fat all day long.


I hope you have found this article interesting, if so check out the rest of my posts.

If you are interested in some personalise Gym/Nutrition plans, guaranteed to get results send me an e-mail at: mgonlinept@gmail.com  and change your future today!

Happy Resting,

Matt

Week 6 Day 1 - HIT Time

04/05/15 Day 36 – Legs & Calves

Today saw the start of a brand new week, with a brand new training method. This weeks I will be following in the foot steps of 6 x Mr Olympia the one and only Dorian Yates. His HIT style of training will be focusing on small 45min-1hr training sessions, packed with high intensity. The idea is pre fatiguing the muscles, followed by sets that are pushing your muscles to absolute failure and then going beyond that with the aid of forced reps and negative reps.

Starting the week with Legs allow us to focus our energy on the biggest group of muscles in the body. Here is what my session looked like:

Leg Extensions – 2 Sets x 15-20 Reps

Leg Press – 2 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Hack Squat – 2 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Dumbbell Laying Leg Curls – 2 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Seated Leg Curls – 2 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Seated Calf Raise – 2 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Standing Calf Raise – 2 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Cardio – Intervals 15mins Total

Starting off the session with some light leg work it allowed me to focus both my mind and muscles on the session ahead. I made sure there was plenty of stretching throughout the warm up, this was due to the fact the session ahead was designed to test the muscles more then they have been worked in previous weeks, so keeping the muscle nice and supple will mean I can get the most out of them without sustaining injury.

Leg Extensions began the working sets of the session, here we were seriously heavy. Making sure that we were failing before we hit the rep limit, meaning that my partner was having to aid me through the following reps, some times introducing negative reps can also promote serious levels of HGH release in the body and inhibit growth, which is exactly what we want.

From the extensions we moved onto the Leg Press, were we performed some nice light warm up sets to get ready for the failure that would follow. For myself my stance was slightly tighter to put more emphasis on the quadriceps, where as my partners stance was wider, with the foot placement higher as well to put more of an emphasis on the glutes. Trying to force yourself to failure is not an easy task, but made a lot easier with the knowledge that you have a partner with you to support you.

With our legs well and truly burning it was fair to say at this point we were not looking forward to the Hack Squat which followed. With this I was once again focusing on a smaller stance to put more strain though the quads, be careful with the hack squat as it can some times put strain through the knees if your foot base is too close, so don't be afraid to push those feet slightly more forward than you usually would.

With the quadriceps fully burnt out at this time, it coincided with the perfect transition to hamstring work. Starting with the Dumbbell Laying Leg Curls was a great start to the second half of the session. With a few light sets in the bag the hamstrings seemed amply warmed up by now and allow my partner and I to work into our two working sets. Due to the fact you have to pinch the dumbbell in between the feet you are also getting a secondary contraction in the adductor muscles, which just adds to the awesomeness of the this exercise, it now takes No.1 place as my favourite hamstring exercise.

With the dumbbells racked it was time to move onto the Seated Leg Curls. Where once again the need of a training partner was made even more prominent, due to me never really working my hamstrings to failure it made it very hard to push myself out of my comfort zone on this exercise, but I clicked a few extra plates in place and hooked myself into the machine and repped. With my partner standing by to help me achieve full range it felt like my legs were going to split in half and I loved it!

At this point our legs were feeling pretty damn swollen, which meant it was a good point to move across to the calf work. Starting with the Seated Calf Raises was slightly nicer as it meant we got to finish the calves with the Standing Calf Raises which allows you to utilise a little bit of momentum. With working to failure on the seated calf raises you partner will need to assess how to aid you, if you are using a leg press machine they will find it easier to aid the forced reps, where as on the seated machine there isn't always much room to hold, making it slightly harder for them. Remember – always assess the situation before you do anything, you must always know what you are doing and how to over come boundaries that can potentially stop you.

With the bank holiday coming to a close its back to normality for everyone, so wishing you all a fantastic week! I am now on a 7 day count down to my 21^st Birthday, which seems to be encroaching incredibly quickly!

Happy Lifting,

Matt 

Week 5 Day 6 - Avengers ASSEMBLE!

02/05/15 Day 32 – Active Rest

Today was an awesome day! One of the first days I haven't actually missed the gym as if I have lost a part of me. This morning I actually managed to have a lay in, which made me feel incredibly revitalised, now don't get me wrong I do love waking up early and getting things done, but there is nothing like sleeping in an extra few hours.

After a usual daily breakfast and coffee my partner and I popped off into town for a spot of lunch. It was a relatively high carbohydrate meal, which will be taken as this weeks cheat meal. Remember – If you are dropping carb levels during the week you need to have a high carb meal (not a day, a meal). This will allow you to spike your leptine levels which having been gradually dropping all week. The leptine spike boosts the metabolism back up and allows for constant fat burning all week long!

After our lunch we went to see the new Avengers:Age of Ultron. Which I have to say was absolutely awesome. If you have read my earlier posts then you will know I am a big comic book fan, so when big events happen like this it is a must for me to see them! Seeing action scenes on the big screen just brings in a whole new aspect of the story line, with the massive progression in CGI every year we see huge animated blockbusters hit our screens and wow us in amazement. This was one of those times. With this progress in animation its truly incredible to witness films like these that 10/15 years ago would have been a distant thought in producers minds due to the huge technical demand, but now they have blurred the lines between Sci-Fi and reality. Looking at films like these there is a part of you sitting there wishing/hoping that some day something like this could actually happen (yes I want to be a superhero, I really, really do). Without giving away anything I have to say it is pretty damn close to being on par with the first Avengers film, which I my opinion had a perfect balance of humour, action and suspense. There was a fair bit of humour running throughout the film which tickled kids and adults alike and does justice to fans like myself and the thousands of other that have seen this film since its UK release.

For me super heros aren't just cool film and comic book characters, they are people we can relate and aspire to, now don't get me wrong I won't be donning pants over leggings and try to fight crime! But standing up for what is right, believing in yourself and other and always striving to be the best at what you do, now that is something anyone can do, you don't need super powers but you will feel like you do.

Hope everyone is enjoying their Saturday,

Happy Resting,

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