Buy organic when possible

Whenever possible try to buy organic whole natural food. If not at least buy free range.

It always makes me laugh when my dad, who is almost 70, says "we didn't have organic food in my day, and we did all right".

Well the truth is he did eat organic food, it just wasn't marketed as organic, it didn't need to be. This was before pesticides and too many to mention other chemicals were allowed to enter our food supply.

When he was younger food was just food, not covered in poisonous chemicals, a lot of it was grown in his family's garden or allotment. So he definitely did eat organic.

I'm still gobsmacked when people think there's no difference in food that's grown covered in poisonous, carcinogenic chemicals to food grown how nature intended.

As soon as I switched to organic, free range food, I saw massive improvements in the quality of my skin, energy and digestion. For years I thought red meat and eggs caused problems with my digestion, turns out it was the quality of the food.

Don't think for a minute it will cost more to eat organic. When I made an effort to look, there was numerous local farmers markets, butchers, farm shops all selling better quality food than any local super market and more often than not at about half the price!

You'll also end up needing to eat less as the food will be full of the nutrients your body needs, great for the waist line and your bank balance.

Energy in a pill- a scam

On Sunday I was in my local health food store, whilst looking around the shop a supplement caught my eye. It was in a bright yellow bottle claiming to boost energy.

Intrigued, I picked it up, we all want more energy to make us more productive at work and especially during our workouts to make them more effective at burning belly fat.

I read the ingredients figuring there would be some exotic herb blend to boost mind and body.

No such joy, the main ingredient.....drum roll please..............fructose!

Worst still was the price, this supplement cost £5.99 for 100 fructose tablets!!!

Now if I want to get some energy, call me crazy for this revolutionary idea, but I'll eat some real food and if I want it to contain fructose I'll eat some fruit, it will be a fraction of the cost of the supplement and at least it will contain some fibre, water, vitamins and phytonutrients and a whole host of yet to be discovered nutrients.

You don't need energy from a pill, adequate hydration, correct nutrition, time efficient workouts and the right amount of sleep will trump any 'energy' pill hands down.

Organic crap is still crap!

Recently I was round my mother-in-laws house. In her kitchen she had some Organic Sunflower cooking oil. I was dumbfounded, just because a product is organic, it doesn't mean its healthy.

Oils need to be cold pressed and stored dark cool places away from light heat and oxygen.

Commercial oils are pressed from seeds or nuts under high temperatures and exposed to oxygen rendering them completely useless, to further screw these oils up they are acid treated and bleached to make them look clean and pure to put on supermarket shelves.

These oils contain dangerous trans fatty acids which have been shown in numerous studies to be; carcinogenic, pro-inflammatory, raise LDL cholesterol and lower HDL cholesterol, increase ones risk of coronary heart disease, diabetes, stroke, you name it just about any inflammatory/ degenerative condition.

These fats rarely occur in nature so the human body is not used to dealing with them. Stay away from thes fats, they play no part in a healthy diet. In fact the US Food and Drug Administration recommends the safe level of trans fats to be ZERO!

Organic crap is till crap!

Whole Body Ab Exercises

Yesterday I promised some whole body exercises that also work the abs.

Bodyweight
Press ups
Inverted rows
chin/pull ups
Prisoner or Y squats
Prisoner lunges
Dips

Barbell
Squats
Deadlifts
Lunges
Push press

Dumbbell
Suit case deadlift
Squat and press
Alternate or single arm dumbbell bench press
Standing single arm shoulder press
Turkish get-up
Dumbbell row

Focusing on multi joint, whole body exercises that engage the abs will always work better than endless amounts of sit ups.

The Correct Way to Train Abs

In yesterdays post I said that situps were a waste of time for losing bellyfat and not only that they're not great for spine health.

So here's the correct way to train the abdominals.

Beginners
Beginners need to focus on stability and then build endurance.
so that means;
Glute bridges-build up to holding for 2 minutes
Front Planks-build up to holding for 2 minutes
Side Planks-build up to holding for 1.5 minutes
Birddogs 2 x12 each side. I personally prefer to hold each position for 1 minute.

Intermediate
Once you've mastered the above you can move it up a gear.
Front plank on stability ball.
Stability ball roll outs.
Stability ball jackknives.
Mountain climbers.

Advanced
Barbell rollouts.
Cross-body mountain climbers.
Cross-body stability ball jackknives.
Cable wood choppers.
Spider man press ups.

This list is by no means exhaustive. There's many exercises not included,but try these and you'll get great results.

It's also important to include whole body abdominal exercises; exercises which are not ab specific , but will still involve using the abs to a great degree, I'll discuss these tomorrow.

Situps- a waste of time

It seems as though a day doesn't go past when somebody at my gym ask me what exercise is best for losing their belly. The conversation usually goes something like this.

Member: What's the best exercise for getting rid of this (as they grab their belly fat)?

Me: (my less than diplomatic answer) Table push away's.

Member: Huh?

Me: Every time your at the table and there's too much food in front of you-push yourself away
from the table.

Member: Yeah, but what exercise should I do for this area (again grabbing their belly fat)?

Me: Ok, first you need to eat less, base your diet on fruits, vegetables and whole natural foods,
you can't out train a poor diet. Second no amount of sit-ups are going to make the belly fat
magically disappear. Third you need whole body resistance training, this could be a body
weight circuit, dumb bell or kettle bell circuit-this will really crank up your metabolism.
And finally- stop doing endless cardio, do interval training instead, you'll burn more calories
per minute of exercise, increase metabolic rate which will allow you to burn calories at an
increased rate once you've finished.

The member then looks disappointed that I didn't give them 10 different sit-up variations to really melt the belly fat away.

I find it hard to believe that even now in the 21st century people still believe that sit-ups are the answer to their fatloss goals. It wasn't as though a lack of sit-ups caused their belly fat gain!

Tomorrow I'll post on the correct way to train the abdominals and it doesn't involve endless amounts of back damaging sit ups.

Been busy, busy, busy!

I haven't blogged for over a fortnight. Have been busy at the gym recruiting new members. A local gym closed down and we have had a lot of new members come from there. This time of year we would usually be pretty quiet, so it's good to be busy although it is rather hectic.

Last week a had 'man flu' so I didn't work out for 9 days! Did my first workout in 9 days on Monday evening with one of my personal training clients-barbell squats, push press, alternate lunges, press ups, Romanian deadlifts, bent over rows and mountain climbers-one continous set 10 reps on each x 3 sets. My glutes and hamstrings feel like they have been pulverised.
Will do an upper body workout later today 6x4 weighted chins, 6x4 DB bench press and 6x4 DB rows.