The only reason they say that is is so they have a seemingly good excuse for eating crap.

Good food doesn’t come in rustco-looking cardboard boxes, or have a green ‘Organic’ sticker on it.

Good food has just one ingredient, and a short sell-by date. It can also be very inexpensive.

Let’s take three body-building staples; chicken, eggs and salmon.

Chances are if you’re serious about building muscle you’ll eat these things daily, and as a result, have probably complained about their price.

Here’s how you can get these three important staples for less than you’re paying now;

Chicken 

Lidl do 1Kg of chicken breast for £6.99.

This is pretty much the cheapest supermarket price you’ll find, unless you can get a decent offer in Tesco or Morrisons, where you can sometimes get 500g for £3.

A wholesale place or butcher might be cheaper, useful if you have one of these nearby, and a HUGE freezer.

Eggs

I’ve had eggs for breakfast nearly everyday for the past 5 years or so.

At most, when I’m not in a fat loss phase I’ll have 5 every morning. This means I need to buy in bulk in order to get the best price.

Tesco do 30 eggs for £2.60.

Salmon

For some reason people tend to think of salmon as a luxury item, and while it is a little more expensive than chicken, the omega 3 essential fatty acids it contains makes it, well, essential.

Go for Sainsbury’s (I know the image is Asda Salmon, smartass) smoked salmon trimmings, which are 98p for 120 grams.

The fat in salmon means its more calorie dense, so you need to use less of it, which goes some way to offsetting the cost (which, in the grand scheme of things, is still relatively low).

Consider Converses

A surprising choice, seeing as Converses are usually associated with basketball or trendy teens, but according to T Nation Converses have the perfect hard flat sole for squat lifting, and their stability means that your foot won’t roll around. Loads of high street retailers sell Converses so head to somewhere like Debenhams to get your hands on a pair of these trainers. These shoes are best suited to low-bar squats, and they also give you some good ankle mobility. Brands such as adidas and Nike also offer trainers that are suited to weightlifting, however Converses seem to be the shoe of choice for many weightlifters because of their durability, cheapness and good solid sole.  

Keep it minimal

There’s a craze to go barefoot at the moment, meaning runners, joggers and other sports fan ditch the trainers and go au naturel when training. Some weightlifters do prefer ditching the shoes, but if you don’t like the idea of a huge weight crashing down on your unprotected feet, you could consider a pair of minimalist shoes such as Vibrams. They’re the shoes that look like gloves for your feet, and they provide all the benefit of going barefoot, but with extra grip on the bottom so your feet are keeping in a more natural position. This style of shoe is good if you’re doing a lot of deadlifting.

Go Olympic

Olympic weightlifting shoes are available for non-Olympians to buy, however they can be expensive and are generally only useful if you’re doing complex weightlifting techniques. The heels of the shoe have wood or hard plastic stacked into them which make them more stable when lifting the really heavy weights. These shoes are generally heavier, which can make weightlifting even more cumbersome for you, so unless you’re a die-hard weight lifter it may be better opting for a slightly cheaper trainer.

The truth is, if you want a decent physique in summer, you need to eat well and train hard all year round.

That’s not to say however that you can’t make changes your diet to favour fat burning when the beach begins to beckon.

One caveat – don’t wait until the mercury rises to make these changes, by that time it’ll be too late. If you have a holiday coming up or a date in mind, make these changes a minimum of 12 weeks prior (N.B. this applies if you already have an appreciable level of muscle mass and suitably low body fat, if you’re untrained or need to make big changes, start a lot earlier).

If you’ve read my previous post ‘what I eat everyday’ the  you’ll have a good idea of my daily intake, this isn’t wildly different, the amounts are smaller and you’ll notice that I’ve back-loaded my carbs towards the end of the day.

Again, I haven’t included the exact amounts in weight, as your requirements will vary depending on your weight.

You should also note that for the best results you should stick to this almost religiously, save for the odd once-weekly carb up, if you think you need it.

So here yopu go, don’t say I don’t do anything for you;

Meal 1: 3 Eggs, ~50g salmon, blueberries

Ok so a few carbs in meal #1 but berries have a low glycemic index and and fruit is essential for overall health, and if you’re ill, you can’t train.

Meal 2: 1 can of Tuna, half an Avocado, Spinach

The lack of carbs is especially useful for those with sedentary jobs and should encourage the body to burn fat for fuel.

Meal 3: 200g Turkey, 200g Brown Rice, Broccoli, Olive Oil

If you train in the early evening like me, a good hit of carbs a couple of hours before will help fuel an intense session

Post Work-Out: 2 scoops of Whey Protein

No PWO carbs as the goal is to maintain muscle rather than build.

Meal 4: 150g Salmon, 200g Brown Rice, Mushrooms, Peppers, Tomato

My last meal will vary from day to day but always includes brown rice or sweet potato, chicken, turkey, steak or fish and a variety of vegetables

It goes without saying that yourt training needs to be on-point as well.

Monitor any changes closely and if needs be, add in some extra cardio or lower calories further. Good luck!

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The least well-informed and arguably the least successful trainers in search of more muscle and less fat are OBSESSED with supplements.

This would be fine if it weren’t so detrimental to their efforts.

The obsession in itself isn’t really the problem, it’s the fact that it diverts attention from aspects of their diet and training that are FAR more important.

Consider the debates that rage on blogs, Facebook and Twitter about the ‘best’ protein powder, here’s why it just doesn’t make sense;

• Yes, there are differences between brands and types (concentrate, isolate, etc) but for the layman, they’re INSIGNIFICANT. If you want a quality product, the old adage ‘you get what you pay for’ applies.
• The average trainer probably takes in roughly 70g for whey protein powder per day. If you have any sense, you’ll be eating more than twice that amount from other sources of protein, so why not have a debate about the best/cheapest chicken, beef, eggs, turkey, lamb, fish or pork?
• Yes, whey protein is convenient, but you don’t NEED it, why not have a debate about something more fundamental to the muscle building process, like sleep, overall diet, or training intensity?

And that’s just whey protein, what about all the other suppliments out there?

Let’s take testosterone boosters.

By all means, give them a go, but my issue is that people that are spending silly money on T-boosters aren’t even maximizing their potential to increase this essential muscle building hormone by, say, going to bed an hour earlier, or increasing fat in their diet.

It’s madness.

The same goes for pre-workout formulas, why drink something loaded with chemicals  that tastes like crap and costs the wrong side of £40 when you could go to bed an hour earlier the night before, and not feel like you need a ‘boost’ before your workout?

People are too naive to marketing bullshit.

Yes, supplements will make a difference, but a TINY one, perhaps that final 0.5% that professional bodybuilders need to get the edge over the competition.

Problem is, you’re not a professional body builder.

Forget the TINY details (supplements) and give yourself an extra 30% by optimizing your sleep patterns, training intensity and diet.

While intense workouts with adequate volume and appropriate exercise selection are essential to initiate the process of muscle growth, they are only a catalyst.

You also need to provide your body with the building blocks, which means eating. A lot. Nope, more than that.

Even though it may feel like you’re eating a lot at the moment, you may need to double it.

The only way to find out is to keep a food diary over a period of time, calculate you average daily calorie intake along with your macro-nutrient breakdown.

Monitor your weight, measurements and body composition and you should get a good idea of whether or not you’re eating enough (or eating the right things) to achieve your goal.

Of course this is extremely time consuming but if you’re serious about gaining quality muscle (while keeping tabs on your body-fat) then you need to do it.

N.B – if you’re not too bothered about gaining fat you won’t need to be as through, just make sure you’re getting enough calories and protein.

To get this figure you’ll need to weigh out all your food then get the calories and macros from the nutrition information, or off the net.

GOOD NEWS – there is a slightly easier way, eneter Fat Secret

This is an online app that allows you to easily track your calories and macros everyday.

It’s pretty easy to use, just enter the meal type (breakfast, lunch, etc), then the type of food, followed by the quantity.

Fat Secret will automatically calculate your calories and macros. Easy.

If you eat some of the same meals every day it’s even easier, since you can copy across whole meals from day to day.

This still requires a fair bit of work on your part but it does make the process slightly less painless.

Give it a try, you may be shocked how little you’re actually eating.

I mentioned in a previous Facebook post that I witnessed two people in the gym a few weeks ago discussing the pros and cons of dumbbell hammer curls vs supinated curls.

Pretty normal in a gym right?

Absolutely, I’m sure this happens daily up and down the country. So why am I ranting about it?

Because one of the people participating in this discussion was (probably) morbidly obese (and no, he couldn’t blame this on his muscle mass), the other was tiny.

Now, if the fat guy just wanted big biceps at the expense of everything else, and the skinny guy simply loved doing curls for the pure hell of it, then fine, I hope they both continue as they were.

The point is, I can almost guarantee neither of them wanted those respective things, and that discussions like between people like that should NOT be the norm. This, in my opinion, is the most common mistake in the modern gym.

Let’s be honest, most of us are going for a lean, balanced physique with an appreciable amount of muscle mass.

Dumbbell curl variations are not the way to achieve this.

I’ve said it time and time again, and so, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, here it is again;

The quickest, most efficient, most sustainable way of building mass and losing fat (or keeping it off) is spending 75% of your time in the gym on;

- Squats

- Deadlifts

- Bench Presses

- Pull-ups

- Dips

- Olympic lifts (and variations)

These allow you shift big weights in a powerful manner, get stronger, and increase your metabolism (turning your body into a fat-burning furnace).

Curls will not do this.

Granted, if you want big biceps, curls will help, and if you want big biceps with no V-shape, invisible abs and chicken legs then fill your boots.

Once you’re strong and have a great muscle to body fat ratio, then explore curl variations, but the chances are, by the time you reach that point you’ll be so hyper-aware about the ‘right’ way to train, you won’t want to try anything else.

There you go. Not very exciting is it?

The key to getting a great body doesn’t lie in a brightly-coloured pill bottle making wild claims.

Nor does it come at the end of a fashionable new workout, or finally reaching double figures on the bench press, or standing next to the biggest guy in the gym and hoping that hypertrophy happens via osmosis.

While all these may make a fraction-of-a-percentile of difference (save for the last thing), the key decding factor in whether or not you acheive your goals is consistency.

The sad truth is, building a good body takes years, sure you can make noticable and staifying improvements in just a few months if you’re a newbie, but any subsequent gains will take longer, and require more and more effort.

It will be of little surprise that many give up completely before a year is up, while others will periodically give up and ‘get back into it’.

Taking up training again after a lay off is admirable, but will only truly worth it if you stick to it indefinitely and train consistently.

Rest is of course essential to allow your muscles to recover and grow, but some people use this as an excuse to miss training for days on end.

The truth is, if you are performing a body part spilt, you can train for days in a row without rest.

There really is no set rule for training frequency, but I tend to auto-regulate rather than sticking to a struct schedule.

This means taking one day at a time, if you’re tired or bust on a certain day, miss training and just pick up where you left off.

It doesn’t matter if you’re not hitting a certain number of days a week, the only rule I’d recommend is never take more than 2 days off in a row, no matter what you’re training for.

Here are a few tips for maintaing consistency;

• I like to train legs on a Sunday evening. Legs are a tough body part and getting them out the way early doors sets you up perfectly for the rest of the week. You’re almost always guaranteed to get a squat rack on a Sunday evening
• Always train on Monday – if you’ve also trained on Sunday and you’re doing a 4 part split this means you’re half done by the first of day of a new week. Of course this doesn’t mean you get the rest of the week off, it just gives you a great mental boost.
• If you have the energy - train, you’ll never know when you have a tiring or stressful day coming up and you need an evening off
• If you having nothing on – train, you might have a surprise social event come up that you really want to attend, and training should not be the be all and end all
• If doing a body part split start and end with a heavy lower-body compound movement, e.g. perform squats on the Sunday, then Deadlifts on the following Thursday or Friday. This will give you plenty of recovery time and keep your metabolism elevated on your rest days
• Hit the gym straight after work, trust me
• Make sure you’ve eaten properly on days you plan to train – missing a meal is a common excuse for slacking off a workout
• Believe – gains take a long time but you NEED to keep plugging away, don’t get demotivated if you don’t see change, if you’re training intensely and eating and sleeping well good things will happen
• Enjoy training – research constantly to find new training methods, keeping things fresh and interesting
• Accept that training needs to be a significant and permanent part of your life if you want to achieve your goals

Why?

Because it’s the only part that’s in contact with the ground.

Would it work as well if it was fitted with the knackered set of Goodyears from your nan’s Micra?

Of course not.

Why then do I see people performing heavy squats in shoes that are better suited to break-dancing?

When you’ve got 100kg+ on your back, and you’re striving to push out that last rep, wearing trainers with inch-thick soles that make you virtually stand on tip-toes, you’re not doing yourself many favours.

Getting a great physique is all about fine details, so why spend hours in the gym and kitchen every week and let your footwear let you down?

So what should you wear?

Training barefoot is the preferable option, but this is clearly not practical in a gym with health and safety regulations, so what’s the alternative?

Vibram Five Fingers is a new shoe developed to give the most natural feel and best freedom of movement by maintaining the optimal contact patch with the ground, and allowing all five toes to move independently.

If you don’t think that’s important then you might when you realise you can squat and deadlift more when you’re in closer quarters to the floor.

Vibram’s Five Fingers come in normal sizes and slip on easily, they can be tightening with an elastic fastening strap at the back.

Walking in them immediately feels more natural, and the rubber sole and flexible body material flex with your foot.

Immediately you feel more control over standing movements, a lower center of gravity on squats and deadlifts means a safer, more stable platform, as well as more weight.

The Five Fingers really come into their own with Olympic lifts and move like the clean and press, where pushing off explosively with the toes is essential.

Starting at around £70, these come in a similar price to most fashion trainers

If you’re currently wearing your Nike Shox to the gym, then I highly recommend a pair of Vibrams, you’ll notice the difference instantly.

9/10

Vibram Five Fingers are available to buy from http://www.cotswoldoutdoor.com/

It’s cool.

Long, drawn-out workouts comprising of 20+ sets are out the window in favour of shorter, tougher sessions lasting an hour or less with almost non-existent rest periods.

While I don’t agree this is the BEST way to train (there is no ‘best’ way), it’s certainly effective, and a style that you should practise periodically.

‘Intensity’ is an ambiguous term however; some take it simply to mean ‘trying really hard’ – this is something you should be doing regardless of whether your workouts last 20 minutes or 2 hours.

So how can you ensure that your workouts become more intense?

Here are 4 techniques you can employ at the end of your sets to take your muscles ‘beyond’ failure;

Rest-Pause Sets

Finish your set in the normal fashion.

Rather than resting and waiting for your muscles to replenish so you can perform another ‘full’ set, put the weight down, rest up to 10 seconds, then push out as many more reps as you can.

Try decreasing this 10 second rest period over time until you can actually tack an extra rep on the end of your normal set.

The video below shows one regular set followed by 2 rest-pause sets (a style of training known as DogCrap or DC)

Forced Reps

You’ll need a spotter for these.

Once you reach failure, get your spotter to assist with as many more reps as you can handle.

As this video states, your spotter needs to do ‘just enough’ to help you get the best results, on most exercises you’ll reach a ‘sticking point’, and your spotter is best utilised in getting you past this so you can perform the remainder of the rep on your own. You can also spot yourself on single-limb. movements.

Negatives

Since you’re always stronger in the eccentric phrase of a rep (the lowering phase), you’ll be able to continue performing negative (eccentric or ‘lowering reps’) long after you’ve failed on the concentric (lifting phase).

With this in mind, get a spotter to essentially perform the concentric phase for you, while you concentrate on lowering the weight as slowly as possible for extra reps.

This also works as a standalone technique – i.e. you could perform a whole workout consisting of just negative reps

Partial Reps

When people talk about failure, they’re mostly referring to failure to perform another full concentric rep.

Often you’ll still be able to perform partial concentric reps through a certain phase of the lift.

For example, once you’ve reached full concentric failure on the barbell bench press, you should be able to continue performing the 2nd phase of the lifting (where the triceps are more involved).

Of course you’ll need a spotter to help get you through the initial phase (or the final phase, depending on which is the toughest) unless you’re using a power rack, as demonstrated in the video below

Drop Sets

Drop sets work best on machines, although they can just as easily be performed with fixed-weight dumbells/barbells or plate-loaded machines or barbells.

Once you’ve reached failure, remove 2/3rds of the weight and continue to rep out until you reach failure again.

Repeat until you want to scream.

You don’t necessarily need a spotter for these.

Enjoy!

Going on a January detox and cutting out the alcohol may make you feel good at the time, but as soon as you start drinking again in February you’ll undo all the hard work. According to doctors, you’d be better off not drinking for a few days each week throughout the year so your liver gets used to the decreased amount.

So, rather than thinking you can make a one-month, one-hit resolution to cleanse your liver, how about drinking less and getting a little more exercise? Here are just a few places where you can start.

Mountain biking

The popularity of road cycling increased dramatically after the Olympics, but we’re thinking something a bit more exciting might be the best way to stay fit in 2013. Once you’re kitted out with your bike, some Bontrager mountain bike shoes, gloves and a helmet you can start off on your local mountain bike trails. Get to know the local vicinity and your skills, then try and build up the difficulty level. Setting yourself goals and building up your ability level each time you ride is the perfect way to keep you interested throughout the year. Once you’ve pushed yourself hard, you can look forward to summer riding with the sun on your back.

Hitting the gym

Everyone goes back to the gym in January. A combination of too much over-indulgence over the festive period and cheap rates on gym membership makes it an attractive proposition. But you need to make sure you stick to it. It’s one thing signing up it’s another maintaining your level of attendance. Start off slowly and build the intensity of your workouts up, as there’s nothing worse for your motivation than pushing too hard early on for your ability level. It’s also important that you change up your workout too. Getting through the gym doors after work is arguably the most difficult element of your gym sessions – you need to keep the interest levels high.

Signing up for something

Come spring they’ll be marathons and half marathons aplenty up and down the UK, but if you want to compete you need to get yourself signed up as soon as possible. Once you’ve done this, you know you’ve got something to work for, as they’ll be nothing worse than turning up on the day and embarrassing yourself. No matter the weather, you need to be out training. Setting yourself a goal and working towards it like this is the perfect way to get fit and maintain that fitness in 2013.