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Five For Friday
26 NOVI’ve decided to start up a new blog feature. Each week (usually a Friday, hence the extremely catchy title) I’ll pick five things related to training, diet, or health which I’ve enjoyed during the week, and think deserve a mention. This is also the introduction of pictures and videos to the blog. I feel that whilst the content is usually not half bad, even if I do say so myself, a bit of extra colour and visual content would brighten things up somewhat. Without further ado, here’s the first instalment of Five for Friday. 1. Tony Gentilcore’s Deadlift Article Tony Gentilcore is a trainer and strength coach at Cressey Performance in Massachusetts. In my opinion, his blog is one of the best in the industry. He has fantastic knowledge on all things to do with strength training, fitness, anato...
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Fitness Gimmicks
18 NOVI tend to be very sceptical when new fitness fads come along. Whilst there have been some excellent advances in training techniques and practices in recent times, there are also many new training ideas, or pieces of equipment that come along, that ensure the only place you lose any pounds from is your wallet. TV shopping channels, gyms, and personal trainers are always selling the supposed benefits of the current fitness craze. The way they go on about it you wonder how anyone ever got in shape without it. In this blog, I’ll look deeper into what I consider to be current fitness gimmicks, to find out if they’re any good or not, and whether you should invest your hard earned cash and time on them. Vibration Plates Every commercial gym has vibration plates, (or power plates as they’re sometimes known) at the top of their wish list at the moment. Whole studios are being devoted to them, and profe...
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Possible Health Complications of Low Carb Diets
15 NOVI’m a fan of low carb diets. I think they’re great for fat loss, sports performance, and improving general health. They certainly hold many benefits over traditional Western high carb diets, but can there also be negative effects? I’m probably fairly close minded when it comes to possible health complications that may occur from following a long term lower carbohydrate diet, as I’ve always advocated them to friends and clients. So I thought it might be a good idea to explore the possible negative effects, to see if I’ve been overlooking anything. But first, I’ll explain what constitutes a low carb diet. What Is A Low Carb Diet? Many people have different views on how to class a low carb diet. You get some low carb diets which recommend virtually no carbohydrates whatsoever. An example of this is the Atkins’ induction phase. Atkins is probably the most famous wei...
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The Importance of a Keeping a Training Log
2 NOVHardly anybody seems to keep a training log. Look around the average gym, and you’ll probably see a handful of people writing their workouts down between sets, while everyone else is chatting away, changing weights, or resting on a bench. It’s a shame really, because keeping a training log can really give a huge boost to your training. I used to find it nearly impossible to remember exactly what I did from workout to workout, but still that didn’t make me start a workout log. I might have been able to remember that I got up to 100kg on my front squats, but was it for 4 or 5 reps? Did lunges come before glute ham raises or after? What did I do for my warm ups? And that was on a good day! Other days I might have forgotten completely what I did for my last workout. If you don’t keep a training log, there’s no way you’re going to be able to remember what you did the last time you trained, and if ...
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Single Leg Training For Soccer
1 NOVThis is just an updated version of the blog I wrote a few weeks back entitled "Single Leg Training For Football". I decided to jazz it up a bit, and submit it to an American fitness website, hence it now being "Soccer". It's a bit more informative than the previous effort too. Injuries are bound to happen in soccer, it’s just a part of the game. There’s not much you can do if you’re hacked down from behind and pull a muscle - tackling carries a much higher risk of injury than anything else on a soccer pitch, and it’s very difficult to control what happens when you’re tackled. However, it seems that an awful of lot of soccer players are still getting injured in apparently low risk, controllable situations. It’s quite common to see a player pull up with an injury just from running for the ball, or jumping up for a header and landing awkwardly. And how many players get injured in training? C...
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False Functionality
27 OCT“Functional” seems to be the new buzzword in the fitness industry. Personal trainers, fitness instructors and strength coaches use it wherever possible, and many pride themselves on making their clients’ programmes functional. But it seems that many have lost sight of what functional training actually is. Most people would consider functional training to be gym-based training which helps with a particular activity or event. And the dictionary describes functional as “designed for or capable of a particular function or use”. (1) When we look at what exercise professionals would consider to be functional exercises, we’ll probably see squats, deadlifts, standing overhead presses, chin ups, power cleans, lunges, and many more freeweight and bodyweight movements mentioned. All these exercises are fantastic – I’m a huge fan of any exercise which uses a lot of muscle groups, forces you t...
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Dairy’s Effect on Body Composition
19 OCTOne of the most hotly debated topics in the health and fitness industry is dairy. Some people swear by including a few portions of dairy in their diet every day, other people won’t go near it, and some sit happily in the middle. There appears to be a lot of conflicting information floating around about how dairy can help or hinder a fat loss diet. I’ve had a look through some studies, and seen what some experts think, to try and determine whether I think dairy is a key player in a fat loss diet, or one to be avoided at all costs. Why Dairy May Aid in Fat Loss Recently, there have been suggestions that the calcium in dairy foods that we eat can aid fat loss. One of the first things you may think of when you hear the word dairy, is calcium. Calcium is a chemical element, which is essential for all living organisms. Most people associate calcium with helping to build strong bones and teeth, which it ce...
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My Favourite Nutrition Writers
11 OCTI find anything to do with nutrition extremely interesting. Some people will think that’s really sad, but I don’t mind – I think it’s fascinating how all the food you put in your mouth has an effect on how you look, feel and perform. I have no formal certification in nutrition, and don’t have any plans to acquire one, as I believe that most of what dieticians and nutritionists are taught is pseudo science from the 1980s, with very little scientific backing. There are some fantastic, well-read nutrition professionals out there, but most seem more concerned with promoting a diet low in fats, high in grains, and banging on about getting your five a day than giving any useful information. But I do read a lot of nutrition books and articles, and experiment with different nutrition strategies myself, to try and sort fact from fiction in order to help my clients in the best way that I can. Here’s a list of my favourite &ldqu...