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 8 Day 4 - Serious Shoulder Session!

21/05/15 Day 53 – Shoulders

Today was day 4 of the 2^nd week on the DTP Extreme trainer, today session was created and designed to complete annihilate the deltoids and that is exactly what it did. Feeling pretty darn tight in the legs, chest and back I made sure my body was prepared for today's session. Last night I began visualising what I wanted to get out of the session today, creating a mental game plan, so as soon as I stepped foot in the gym I knew what was I was going to do.

So here it is, today's session:

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

SuperSet

Cable Upright Rows – 6 Sets, 1 x 30,25,20,15,10,5

Cable Shoulder 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)

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

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

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

SuperSet

Cable Rear Delt Flyes – 6 Sets, 1 x 30,25,20,15,10,5

Dumbbell Later Raises – 3 Sets , 1 x 10,20,30

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

Cable Rear Delt Flyes – 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

I really had to make sure that I was thoroughly warmed up today, with the joints feeling a bit creaky and having quite hardcore DOMS (delayed onset of muscle soreness) I wanted to be 100% sure in my own mind that I was ready for the session ahead, so worked through lots of rotator cuff work as well as some dynamic stretching to try and work some more blood into those tight muscles and aid their recovery.

Starting the session with a super set was pretty fun, jumping back and fourth between the Dumbbell Shoulder Press and the Cable Upright Rows really was a great introduction for the shoulder joints into the DTP Extreme massacre of the muscles. Working my way up the weights in these first sets was a nice eye opener for my strength, I sometimes lose track of how far I have come until I do a session like this where I am constantly going back to the rack to pick up heavier dumbbells because I am choosing to light a weight, which really felt fantastic. Working the front and lateral (outside) head of the deltoids in these two exercises allowed the muscles to share the work load, which was another contributing factor to the heavier reps.

Then came the first DTP Extreme exercise, moving on the the close cable system I lowered the handles, placed a bench down and began my journey on the Cable Shoulder Press. A bit of a bizarre exercise for me, as I have never really tired using the cables for any shoulder pressing movements, but I have to say it very much tested my ability and strength and will be something I come back to in the future. Really hitting the smaller fixation muscles in the shoulder as well as those big deltoid heads really allowed me to get a fantastic workout out of a very simple exercise.

With the deltoids screaming out after those presses it was only fair to work them a little bit harder, with around 1 ½ minutes rest I moved the bench out from the cables. With a relatively light weight on the stacks I set myself physically and mentally and began the next DTP Extreme set which was the Cable Seated Front Raises. Isolating the Anterior (front) head of the shoulder meant this already fatigued muscle group was being pushed to is complete limit, I loved every minute of this exercise but that isn't to say it was easy, I often found that I had to stop for a few seconds here and there because my shoulders were on fire, the build of of lactic acid really had me grunting out every single rep in the last few sets.

Giving the front portion of the should a bit of a break I moved over to the wide cable pulleys and set out on my second super set of the session, which was the Dumbbell Lateral Raises followed by the Cable Rear Delt Flyes. With a few minutes rest since the last DTP set I was ready to crack on, working with the high reps meant that I was working with quite light weights to start with, but as the sets went on I was slowly creeping up the weights and forcing my muscles to complete failure, this allowed me to breakdown more muscle tissue, which will then have to be resynthesised by the body to create larger and stronger muscles.

With the super set done and dusted it was time to move on to working the movements in isolation for the final two DTP Extreme sets! Starting with the Dumbbell Lateral Raises I worked with the same weight I performed for 20 reps in the previous exercise, to ensure I would reach failure on the 20 & 30 rep sets in this exercise. Remember: Do not be afraid of failure, working your body to its maximum is the only way it's going to grow.

With the end in sight I prepared the cable system for the last push through the soul shattering Cable Rear Delt Flyes. Here you may have noticed I was only working through a 10,20 and 30 rep range, keeping the duration shorter and thus the rest periods also dwindled, forcing more blood into the muscles, keeping them under tension for longer and if you have been following these blogs over the past 8 Weeks then you will know it is all about Time Under Tension (TUT). With the final set done and the weights completed, I ensured that I stretched out for a while, still having all the blood pumping around the delts made them tight and needed to be flushed out.

I hope you kill your session as hard as I murder mine today!

Happy Lifting,

Matt

Week 8 Day 1 - Baby Got Back!

18/05/15 Day 50 – Back & Ab

Here I am 8 weeks into this awesome and gruelling 12 week muscle gainer programme, feeling very confident with the massive progress I have in the past 8 weeks I can only imagine what another 4 weeks are going to do for me!

Week 8 marks the 2^nd week of this wicked form of DTP Training, if you haven't check out what DTP is all about check my blogs from last week. So this week will have another huge emphasis on volume, on fatigue and on massive pumps that will swell my muscles and make me grow.

Today we hit back and abs, lets check it out:

Chin Ups – 5 Sets, 1 x 20,15,10,10,5

Reverse Grip Lat Pulldown – 5 Sets, 1 x 5,10,10,15,20

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

Leverage Isolated Row – 5 Sets, 1 x 20,15,10,10,5

SuperSet

Laying Cable Crunches – 5 Sets, 1 x 20,15,10,10,5

Seated Cable Row– 5 Sets, 1 x 5,10,10,15,20

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

Cable Crunches – 5 Sets, 1 x 5,10,10,15,20

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

Bent-Over Wide Grip Barbell Row – 5 Sets, 1 x 20,15,10,10,5

SuperSet

Seated Knee Tucks – 5 Sets x To Failure

Reverse Grip Bent-Over Barbell Row– 5 Sets, 1 x 5,10,10,15,20

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

Cardio – Interval Training 15min Total

If you have read any of last weeks sessions you may notice that this session the reps are not quite as high, working between 5 and 20 means that the focus can be more around lifting heavy now, rather than having to factor in large amount of fatigue that would otherwise burn the muscles out.

Beginning the session with Chin Ups was nice, I haven't performed standard chin ups in quite a while and was shocked when I found out I could perform a lot my reps than I have previously done, this I put down to the large amount of lean muscle tissue I have gained throughout this programme. Starting with a big compound movement allows the whole body to start working, gets the bloody pushing around all the muscles and is a fantastic way to start a session. With the volume aspect you may find you can only just get the last few sets out, don't worry you can always hope on an assisted machine or get a spotted to help you. You maybe also find the final 5 reps are too easy, in which case I would suggesting stacking a weight belt and test yourself on how heavy you can go.

Moving on to the first DTP exercise of the day Reverse Grip Lat Pulldown looked to isolate the lat slightly more, although there is a tendency for the biceps to creep into the equation some times. Remember: Try to draw the elbows down, rather than pulling down from the hands, the shorter leaver system works the muscle more effectively and also triggers the contraction better too. The last few sets were a real struggle to perform, not just because the muscles were incredibly pumped, but also due to the forearms being fatigued on the chin ups, this meant gripping the bar was much tougher than usual.

With the first superset of Leverage Isolated Row & Laying Cable Crunches the idea was to fatigue the core muscles needed in the next DTP exercise. So when you are lowering the reps you need to up the weight, this is what will allow your muscles to breakdown more effectively (which strangely is exactly what we want). With the leverage row you isolate more the muscles in the upper back (traps, rhomboids etc) as suppose to the chin ups which are more lat focused.

From there we moved onto the DTP portion of the exercises, where we took those pre fatigued from the last exercise and worked them to the point of failure, the first exercise was the Seated Cable Row. Here you may find some bicep recruitment sneak in, so I always try to draw the elbows back and try to switch the focus into the back muscles. Trying to squeeze the reps at the top of the motion to get a better contraction became relatively hard, quick, so when this happened I made the conscious effort to draw the elbows as far back as possible to make it worth while. With the second exercise:Cable Crunches, the idea is to hold the rope attachment aside of the head, draw the abdominals down and try to focus the elbows towards the knees. That movement alone will make the abs contract, to get an even better contraction I like to hold and squeeze the abs at the bottom of the movement to make it slightly more challenging.

Then came the penultimate exercises: Bent-Over Wide Grip Barbell Row & Seated Knee Tucks. These two exercise allowed work of most muscles in the entire torso, which I really loved, the wide grip rows put more of a focus on the upper back once again. With the barbell being pulled to the chest rather than the naval it means the lower back is having to work increasingly hard to stabilise the movement, so expect to feel a little uncomfortable! The ab work to failure was a real kick in the teeth as will no rest you are moving from once massively draining exercise to another. I did have a tendency to want to give up, it was hard and i'll admit I was struggling slightly, but I made sure I gritted my teeth and just kept forcing the reps out until I had nothing left.

To finish off the session we performed the Reverse Grip Bent-Over Barbell Row, but in the DTP fashion. With this exercise the lower back was taking a bit of strain as it had been worked pretty hard before, but to compensate there was some bicep recruitment to even the playing field, all in all it was a really difficult exercise to finish. A few times I had to strip the bar down to try and get all the reps out, but by the hammer of Thor I did it, and I feel pretty good for it now.

I am looking forward to another week of awesome training, with awesome people! What are you guys and girls training 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 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 5 Day 5 - Only Human

01/05/15 Day 32 -Arms

First of all apologies for the lack of blogging yesterday, time was a real issues and I simply wasn't able to fit it into my day.

After a pretty rubbish end to my week I took the opportunity to focus my anger and energy on Day 5 of the German Volume Training workout: Arms! It was a really short session in terms of number of exercises, but none the less the sheer volume of work made up for that. So here is what my session looked like:

Barbell Curls – 5 Sets x 10 Reps (60sec Rest)

Ex Bar Curls – 5 Sets x 10 Reps (60 sec Rest)

Close Grip Weighted Dips - 10 Sets x 10 Reps (60 sec Rest)

Cardio – Interval Training 15mins Total

After my motivation taking a bit of a beating with a lack of sleep weighing me down and having to deal with a pretty rough customer at work, it was fair to say my head wasn't really in the game, but none the less I got on with my warm up and hoped the outcome would change. After a few very light warm up sets to get the muscle fibres firing I could immediately feel a difference in myself, I sometimes forget how good the gym is to vent your anger and focus negative energy in a positive action.

I started with a pretty traditional exercise, the Barbell Curls. Working my way up to a reasonable weight through a few lighter sets just allows me to lubricate the joints and get the muscles nice and lose for the working sets. When I found the a weight that was perfect for my working sets I strapped up, drew my focus and attention to the muscles I wanted to contract (the biceps) and began with the first phase. I started strong punching out solid reps for the first three sets, then on the fourth set my muscles began to tighten and the reps began to become a lot harder to squeeze out. The fantastic yet annoying thing about German Volume Training is that due to the low rep nature you naturally want to lift heavy, but then limiting yourself to short rest periods it becomes increasingly hard increasingly fast to actually push the reps out. After 5 hard core set it was time to put the flat bar down and pick up another.

Moving on to the Ez Bar Curls meant that I was looking at working a different head of the bicep, as well as having to deal with the pre fatigue of the previous set. So I decided to lower my weight from what I was using on the flat bar as I moved across, this then allowed me to test my muscles capabilities without the factor of bad form. Remember – if you are going lighter than usual you can always slow the movement down to make it harder, work the eccentric phase for longer to get a sick pump and challenge your muscles like they never been before. With the last few sets becoming a bit of a struggle I took the emphasis away from my eccentrics and just worked on getting the reps out.

With the final round already here it was time for me to move across to the parallel bars. The Close Grip Weighted Dips are all about testing the muscles through the movement of not only your body weight but extra weight to over work the target muscle group. For me, dips are already a bit of a pain, so I took a slightly smaller plate to work with so I could try to get a few sets in without failure. Well needless to say my triceps hated me today and took me a measly 3 sets before I started to fail on reps. At the first sign of failure I dropped the weights belt off and began to work with my body weight alone. With such small rest breaks the muscles do not have time to repair, meaning with every set that goes by the intensity and toughness also increases. After 2 more weightless sets I began to fail again, to finish the sets I worked on some negative reps as a form of mental punishment ( I know I am cruel) and then decided to grab some assistance bands and finish of my gruelling sets with perfect form and range.

On reflection I have really enjoyed this week of German Volume Training and think it has given me some fantastic ideas to base future training around. For such an old school training method it still gives some of the best results, so if you have never tried it or simply want to try something new, join tones of other people and e-mail me at: mgonlinept@gmail.com . Start your future today!

Hope everyone is looking forward to this bank holiday weekend, I know I am!

Happy Lifting,

Matt

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 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 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 2 Day 7- 7 Ways Nutrition Can Change Your Waistline

12/4/15 Day 14 – Active Rest & Cardio

Hello again you wonderful people! I would firstly like to start today's blog by congratulating all of the Marathon runners in today's Brighton Marathon, it was an incredible sight to see so many willing and determined people, putting their bodies on the line for both themselves and their given charities, well done to all who took part, today, you are all winners!

But now, onto some tricks and tips that might save your wallet and your waistline.

1-Start The Day Right

If you have a large breakfast that contains a high level of protein, mixed with some nice complex carbs it gives you such a mass of sustainable energy that you don't need to eat for hours afterwards. Remember that when you wake up your body is craving nutrients, it needs those nutrients to function properly, so if you just have a bowl of cereal or a slice of toast your body is left wanting more, which is why only an hour or so later you find yourself hungry again.

2- Eat Little & Often

When you eat you raise your insulin levels, this keeps your energy levels elevated, allows you to stay focused more and keeps your mind off wondering what you are going to have to eat next. With less peaks and troughs in your insulin it allows your body to constantly metabolise, a small change that can go a long way.

3-Always Pack Healthy Snacks

We have all been there, at work, feeling hungry and there is nothing to eat, so you pop to the shop and the little devil on your shoulder tells you to just have a bag of crisps, or a chocolate bar, because it can't hurt just to have 1 can it? So don't allow yourself to be tempted! Pack some mixed nuts and seeds, if you want that sugar kick, why not pack some level mixed dried fruits in with your nuts, the combo of protein, good fats and some natural sugars will ward off those bad snacking habits until your next main meal.

4-Just Don't Buy It

Exactly that, if you don't want to eat bad foods, don't buy them! I know it can be tempting when you go into a supermarket to just pick things ups because they are on offer, or you just crave it, so take a list with you, don't divert from the list and soon you will realise, you don't need these bad foods, you naturally have an abundance of energy. If that is too difficult, shop online, as you can't browse like you can in store it restricts the temptation to buy something you wouldn't usually.

5-Swap White Carbs For Brown Carbs

This is probably one of the biggest and best changes I have ever made to my diet and it will do wonders for you too. Brown Carbs fill you up for twice as long as white carbs, you don't bloat as there is not the excess starch in the brown/wholemeal/wholewheat carbs, this means you can have smaller portions that will do more for you, as previously explained in tip 2.

6-Read Food Labels

Have you ever picked up each individual item in your shopping basket and actually looked at what is in it? Do you know how much sugar, salt and saturated fats are in what you are cooking everyday? The chances are that you haven't, this is another amazing tip to help you deviate from the bad, unhealthy foods, when you actually read what is going into your body you are a lot less likely to want to consume it, or give it to your partner, children etc.

7-Plan Your Meals

By planning your meals for a few days or even a week in advance you free up more time to do other things, as you don't have to spend the whole time cooking. You can also meticulously go through each meal and decide what is going to be beneficial for you and what isn't. Its so easy to be running late and having to just 'throw' a meal together, anything goes in it, as long as its quick and easy, and we both know its not going to benefit you like a healthy pre planned meal would be.

Enjoy your Sunday were ever you are in this incredible world.

For personalised meal plans, personalised workout programs, supplement recommendations and guaranteed results for both men and women, email me at: mgonlinept@gmail.com

Happy Lifting

Matt