Aegis Training | London Personal Trainers - Fitness News and Views

Our Newer Sexier Site

2011-12-16T14:54:00.002Z

Folks, we have finally embraced modernity and updated our website, as a result this blog has moved to our London Personal Trainer website here , where I will continue to put out musings on all things fitness and health.

Thanks for reading! And see you on the new site.

Zack Cahill

Skinny Bitch Roundup

2011-12-09T08:04:00.006Z

Just a quick one this week, here are a couple of before and after shots from the Skinny Bitch Experiment, my online fat loss program for busy women. These results were achieved with no more than 20 minutes of training a day, at home without equipment or gym membership. I've also included a few quotes from the private Skinny Bitch Facebook group.

We'll be opening up to new members again in January.

"Hey guys final results r in!! Minus 5.2kgs (11.5lbs) minus 6 inches on waist and minus 2.25 inches on hips!! Thanks so much zack for giving me the kickstart I needed to a healthier and fitter (exercisewise not hotnesswise haha) me!! I would never have been this motivated BSB (before skinny bitch) thank u so much coach bastard!! Posting the last of the fotos can't believe the difference!"

"I have weighed and measured today as we have friends coming so I'm going to have my first drink of the month! Altogether 17 pounds down now, 3 inches from waist, 2 from hips, 3 from top of leg and 2 from top of my arms. Totally delighted, I'm a different shape altogether and feel brilliant. I am going to continue as best I can until Christmas week, its work nights out etc so I will follow the rules. Thanks Zack, you did perform a miracle xx"

"right here it is: i've lost 7.3 kgs (16.09 lbs), waist 2.5 inches from the waist and 2.5 inches from the hips!! and in Shakira's words....the hips don't lie ladies!!! am so pleased I've defo exceeded pre baby weight and some ... I last weighed this 11 years ago!!!! look out boys!!!"

"Thanks Zack because I think I might look back on this as the point when i stopped being such a lazy bitch and started being a skinny one instead!"

If you want to reserve your place get in touch.

zack@aegistraining.co.uk

Why Nutrition Is Like Religion - Let The Hate Mail Commence

2011-11-29T22:05:00.002Z

There will be a slew of "don't get fat at Christmas" articles doing the rounds and I suppose if I wanted to stay topical and get some google hits I should come up with one too. But to be honest I don't find it very interesting. If you've worked hard on your training and nutrition this year, eat whatever the hell you want and then get back on track when it's done.

That wouldn't make a very good article though , so maybe I'll try and come up with something half decent for next week. In the mean time though, I've opted to massively offend large sections of both my profession and the population at large.

Here goes...
I believe that "nutritionism" has more in common with religion than it does with science, and I don't believe that this is a good thing. I don't feel that this engenders reasoned and rational debate and if you give me five minutes I'll explain why, then if you still disagree you can come to Shoreditch and burn me at the stake.

"Nutritionism" here refers to the largely unregulated industry that has developed around telling us what to eat in order to lose weight, allegedly rid yourself of diseases including cancer , and achieve everything in between.

I believe there are many well meaning people in this industry who do good work and provide value, I also believe there are some dangerous charlatans. Obviously part of my job involves advising clients on nutrition (though I believe in keeping things as simple as possible and focus more on changing behaviours than arguing about how much selenium something contains or trying to diagnose endocrine dysfunctions with a callipers ). My goal is not to malign any one person but to point out some flawed thinking that seems to be very common in the nutrition world and maybe get a few people thinking.

I'm also not trying to upset religious people or argue them out of their position. I just believe there are some interesting parallels between the religious mindset and that of devotees to particular nutritional practices.
1- Reliance On Faith Over Evidence- Religious claims can not be scientifically proven,which is inconvenient if your goal is to convince the world of your point of view. So, if the evidence won't work for you, one method is to attack the need for evidence itself. Religion does this by using faith as an integral part of religious practice. The act of believing really hard in something in the face of a total lack of evidence is in itself seen as virtuous.

Many nutrition gurus employs the same tricks. Like religious ideas, many of their very specific claims have never been proven scientifically. Instead there is a reliance on testimonials over data, "well all I know is it works for me and my clients" is a common refrain. Highly emotive and personal stories of "triumph" over illness or obesity are highly persuasive, we are wired to respond to them far more than dry statistics. But they are no basis to make an informed decision wether an intervention works or not.

There is also a trend toward portraying science and statistics as incapable of testing certain alternative approaches, and to claim that "anything can be proven". Evidence that contradicts your claims is dismissed as propaganda from evil pharmaceutical companies. Its not that these companies never use dirty tricks, but this phrase is usually used to shut down debate rather than engage in it, and comes from a position of intellectual laziness.

In the fundamentalist Christian worldview, evolution is portrayed as "merely a theory" (the use of the word "merely" in this instance demonstrating a misunderstanding of the word "theory") and creationism as a "competing theory", when it lacks a single shred of evidence to support it.

So this anti-scientific trend is prevalent in both the religious and nutrition worlds, at least when the evidence is not in their favour.

The approach in a nutshell; "science does not support my worldview, so rather than seeking to prove my theory or accepting the evidence and changing my mind, I will seek to undermine science itself"

The need for evidence for the existence of a higher power is possibly another philosophical debate altogether, I realise there is an argument that this question lies beyond the remit of science (I don't actually agree with that argument, but anyway). But if you are going to make scientific claims, wether they be "the universe is 3000 years old" or "protein will destroy your kidneys" you must back them up with scientific evidence, not blind faith.

2- Overly Defensive Response To Criticism. Science is about coming up with an idea and then trying to disprove it.

Then, if you haven't been able to disprove it yourself you throw it out there for your peers to rip apart and see if they can disprove it. If they can't prove you wrong, you may just have something.

Religion and the wackier areas of nutrition and alternative medicine use the exact opposite technique. It is about coming up with an idea, looking for (or making up) evidence to support it, ignoring evidence that contradicts it and reacting defensively to any who challenge your idea.

Religion has been very successful about portraying itself as somehow above debate. We can have a spirited argument about anything from our favourite food or football team to politics but once religion enters the frame its "this is my faith so you're not allowed to criticise it". The mantra "everyones entitled to their opinion" is chanted and the subject changed. Why? Are these ideas so fragile that they can't be questioned?

This attitude exists in the nutrition world also. It is incredible how often I've witnessed proponents of one particular school of nutritional dogma become angry to the point of throwing insults simply because I don't hold with their beliefs. Ive said this before but if you're getting angry because I disagree with you rather than engaging in a reasoned and rational debate, perhaps you're simply not that confident in your own beliefs.

An even more common technique is to attempt to label the critic as "closed minded" for not agreeing with the alternative view. I always thought being open minded meant looking at the available evidence and making an informed decision. It seems in the alternative nutrition and religious worlds, closed minded simply means "having views that differ from ours"

Anger, slurs and ad hominem attacks are all indicators that the person arguing has run out of facts.

Is any of this important?

I don't care if people want believe in God. I don't even really care if they want to waste their money on supplements that don't work (which isn't all of them) or with nutritionists who talk crap (which isn't all of them). Im happy to see these things as a self selecting tax on people who don't understand statistics.

But I do care about the systematic undermining of science within our little health and fitness bubble and to the general public. Because as it turns out , at the extreme what starts with some wasted money on supplements can end with the death of thousands

I care about holding the personal training and nutrition world to a higher standard of critical thinking.

If you still want to burn me at the stake I can be found at B@1 Spitalfields most Saturdays. Alternatively if you enjoyed this ramble, mines an espresso martini.

Merry ChristMASS

2011-11-23T10:01:00.003Z

I recently ran an online body transformation program for women, which I'll do an update on in next weeks blog post. Its been a great success with members losing up to 10lbs in the first 13 days.

It was also really fun to run and a great learning experience for me in delivering a program in a different medium. All of the participants said they benefitted massively from being told exactly how to eat and train , leaving no need for guess work, and having access to me on a day to day basis to ask questions.

So, as I've been getting a lot of questions about running one for guys I thought I'd give that a go.

Here's the deal-

The program is called Merry ChristMASS

(like what I did there don't you?)

It's a 24 day challenge starting december 1st that will take you right up to Christmas.

You need to be a member of a gym that has a decent set up, i.e. a squat rack, barbells, dumbbells that arent made of pink plastic. Beyond that, you won't need access to any specialised equipment.

Just a pair of balls, preferably your own.

You will be pushed significantly beyond what you currently find comfortable , and not just in terms of training. There is a general self-development aspect of this program also.

Every day you'll receive your instructions for the day in your inbox . These will tell you set for set, rep for rep, exactly what to do in the gym, right down to how much weight to put on the bar based on your one rep max.

In addition to this you will have a series of self improvement missions to complete that will push your comfort zone gradually on a daily basis, while opening up new avenues of self improvement for you to explore. The end result after 24 days will not only be a leaner, stronger more jacked you, you'll also have developed increased confidence and some cool new skills. A bit like Liam Neeson in Taken, except with less strangling of Albanians.

Sound good?

I'm pretty excited about it. When I launch this as a monthly program in january it will cost somewhere around that magic 97 quid mark, but I'm doing a deal on this as I'm just testing it out. For all I know I could be full of it and been talking out my arse for the last ten years.

So for December only it's £47.

I'm also conscious that I've been selling a couple of things on here over the last month as I've hit a bit of a purple patch in terms of creating new stuff. So if you bought my total rebuild ebook that I released recently I'll knock the cost of that off the cost of this program.

So, if 24 days of guided, step-by-step training and self development rather than a gradual slide into booze and mince pie induced lazy fatness sounds like a good idea, then mail me at zack@aegistraining.co.uk and say "I want a merry ChristMASS"

One last thing, due to my inability to grow a decent moustache, all proceeds from this little experiment will be donated to Movember to support prostate cancer research. So not only will you be getting stronger, leaner and better, you'll be giving cancer a swift kick in the balls too.

This Christmas, give yourself the greatest gift of all. The gift of jackedness.

To join the program mail Zack@aegistraining.co.uk

What Neill Strauss Can Teach Us About Fat Loss - an incredibly tenuous blog post by Zack Cahill

2011-11-16T16:32:00.004Z

Gentle readers, some of you may well be sane, normal human beings with fully functional and committed relationships. As such, you may be unaware of the literary oeuvre of Neill Strauss, author of The Game, and of his fellow pick up artists (or PUAs) . Thats ok, let me give you a brief introduction to this strange world, before explaining what it can teach us about health and fat loss.

The PUA community is an entire subculture of people (largely men, to be honest) who believe they have figured out the rules of seduction. They claim that by following certain principles of "social dynamics", even the most unattractive, loser-ish guy can attract the girl of his dreams. To PUAs, social interaction with the opposite sex is a game. And if you understand the rules, including everything from language patterns, body language and how you dress, you can win every time.

Why am I talking about this on a fitness blog? First of all because this stuff does actually transcend just chatting people up. I've long felt that The Game is one of the greatest marketing books every written, as the principles of marketing and the principles of pick up are basically the same.

Relating all this to health and fitness is more of a stretch, but lets give it a go with my top fat loss lessons from the world of pick up artistry. (Honestly I just happen to be reading another book by Neill Strauss this week and needed to write a blog post, lets see if I can drag something good out of it though eh?)

1- Let go of the outcome

This may seem counterintuitive given the array of "goal setting" articles that get written by us fat loss types, but bear with me. Lots of guys will feel intimidated about starting a conversation with a woman at a bar due to fear of failure. This is because they are holding onto the outcome, getting the woman's number or whatever it may be, and then catastrophising and imagining their own failure to achieve this.

If, however, you consider the conversation itself to be the goal, now your focus is just on enjoying an interesting conversation, a far less intimidating task. Crucially though, the act of speaking to this person is a behaviour that will bring you toward your original goal anyway. You're not going to get anywhere if never go and talk to them in the first place are you? Or as some probably-very-famous basketball dude apparently said "you miss 100% of the shots you don't take"

So lets say you want to lose 10kgs. Thats your goal. That too can be pretty intimidating. So intimidating that many people quit before they've even started, subconsciously tell themselves its impossible, or see it as so far-off and huge a task that there is no urgency to change their behaviour now.

But what if we let go of the outcome, and have a short term, behaviour based goal instead. Your goal is now to eat a healthy breakfast every day this week. Thats it. This is one behaviour you can immediately change, meaning you have no need to fear failure, just do it for the week and you've succeeded. But again, its a behaviour that brings you toward your original, big scary goal by default.

2- There is no failure, only feedback. So building on our fear of failure theme, what happens if our imaginary (and I must stress imaginary , as in NOT ME) wannabe lothario works up the courage to go and talk to this poor woman who's minding her own business in a bar, having a quiet espresso martini, possibly pondering who deserves to get kicked off x-factor.

So he initiates a conversation... and lets say the worst case scenario happens. She is not interested in having a conversation, perhaps she is dismissive or just ignores him. Its a complete crash and burn.

Is this failure? Worse, is this rejection? PUAs would tell you to re-frame this as feedback. Rather than simply getting discouraged, you would take this as valuable information about your behaviour. Perhaps you were too forward, or you mumbled. You can then use this feedback to refine your approach. You also mustn't try and spare your ego by dismissing the girl as "just being a bitch", because ultimately the success or failure of the interaction is down to your behaviour.

Likewise, if you do begin to have a healthy breakfast every morning and the weight doesn't come off as fast as you'd like, have you failed? No, you've achieved your goal of having a healthy breakfast every morning. But clearly some aspect of the plan needs tweaking. Maybe you need to reconsider what a healthy breakfast is (i.e. not cereal, even if the lady in the red dress in the ad eats it) Rather than being discouraged by your failure, be encouraged by your success at sticking to a plan, just seek to make it a better plan.

We also should avoid simply dismissing a particular approach to training or nutrition when it doesn't produce the results we want straight away, rather than taking it as feedback.

Ever heard someone say "tried that, doesn't work"...?

Well if we're talking about a nutrition or fitness plan that was based on sound principles (of which there are only a few really) then chances are it has actually worked many times for many people. Perhaps its better to ask if you truly adhered to the program. Its always more empowering to take responsibility for the result, and change behaviours accordingly, than to blame external forces.

Saying "tried it, didn't work" is like saying "she was just a bitch". It gets you nowhere.

Okay, I'm struggling now, can I think of a third tenuous link between the international subculture of pickup and the world of fitness and weight loss?

Go on then...

3-Inner game is all important. This refers to mindset, and how you see and talk to yourself. There are far smarter people than me who can speak on this subject but the point is that what goes on in your head is manifested in your behaviours and ultimately your body.

Even if you've read the books and you know the techniques, if you don't believe you're good enough to be having a conversation in a bar with our notional, espresso-martini-swilling
X-Factor fan then it is going to bleed through and you will ultimately sabotage yourself.

In The Rules OF The Game, Strauss says "the world is what you think it is". If you think that people are out to humiliate you for example, then you'll find plenty of examples of this that confirm your expectation. Like wise if you think that you don't deserve to be in shape then you won't be.

"Fixing" these mindset issues is not my area of expertise, all I can do is provide support, a road map and an inspiring environment for clients. Again, they must take responsibility for the body and the world they live in.

That last one was a bit rubbish wasn't it? but honestly, this is about the most tenuous link I've made on this blog, and I've made a few. But hopefully its given you slightly more than just an insight into my odd obsessions.

The LIMP Method- Intro to my ebook for personal trainers

2011-11-07T17:34:00.002Z

I'm aware quite a few trainers read this blog so this post is for them or any readers who already have a decent bit of strength training knowledge and experience-
Zack

I have written an ebook for personal trainers. Its ugly. There are no pictures. I don't cover mobility, or supplementation or nutrition. I don't invent new muscles or science things up to make them sexier. I don't make claims like you'll get great results in a week with just a few minutes of training a day. All of the programs are , on some level, horrible.

What you get is 9 months worth of the programs I have devdeloped over many years of turning fat, stressed out lawyers into athletic badasses.

What you will also get, I hope, is some entertainment. Here's the intro for free. If you want the book its 19.99.

Mail me at zack@aegistraining.co.uk because I am too computer illiterate to be bothered making a sales page.

Total Rebuild Introduction
I was going to kick this manual off with a bit of a rant against functional training and the rampant bullshitification of the personal training industry. But you know what? at this stage I no longer feel the need to defend myself or really make much of a case.

If you haven't woken up to the fact that proper, intelligent, hard and heavy weight training is the best possible way to transform your clients bodies then I'm not going to try and argue sense into you.

So I thought I'd flip the idea on it's head and give you my guide to making any exercise instantly more "functional"

All you need to remember is the acronym "LIMP"

This will allow you to instantly modify such time-tested exercises as the deadlift or power snatch so that you can avoid pesky things like results, strength or muscle.

The LIMP method

L is for Lighten- remember, in functional training we need to avoid overload at all costs. Overload leads to adaptation, this leads to your clients improving and if you're serious about being a functional trainer you need to forget about silly ideas like that!

I is for instability - along the same lines as the "lighten" principle, introducing an element of instability further reduces the clients ability to produce force and overload muscle groups. Great news! Remember, it's not about getting stronger, bigger, leaner or better, it's about getting functiony! Grab those Bosus boys!

MP is for multi planar- so you've lightened the weight so its roughly equivalent to two wet socks, and you've made the client so unstable they can barely perform the movement properly. Now, in the words of Nigel Tufnel "where you gonna go?"
I'll tell you where! Now it's time to go multi planar!
making a movement so complex that the client is literally doing a different exercise with each repetition is a great way to avoid nasty old mister hypertrophy. Also, mastery of particular movements takes thousands of correct repetitions. Adding multi planar, overly complex movements to an already unstable client will ensure the only thing they'll master is how to handle disappointment when they look in the mirror.

So, now that you're all graduates of the Zack Cahill school of functional training you can stop reading if you like. Unless of course, you're interested in results . In which case read on...
(hmmm, I guess that turned into a rant after all)

Contents-
Instroduction
Beginner Programs-
The Aegis Training 3 Month Strength Training Progression

Intermediate Programs-
HDSF
The Arnold Programs - Bennett 2.0, Blaine 2.0

Advanced Programs-
Thor 2.0 (12 week program)

The Latest From Our Skinny Bitches

2011-11-04T15:34:00.002Z

Last week we launched the trial month of our "skinny bitch" program, an online diet and training program aimed at busy women who want to lose weight but can't spend hours in the gym.

The response actually surprised me. we had set the limit at 20 participants , and we hit that limit within 48 hours. I have participants from the uk, Ireland, Australia and America now trialling the program.

The idea was to try it on a smaller scale at a lower cost so as to work out any kinks or problems along the way. When it comes to new aspects of our business I'm a big fan of just starting something and failing upward , rather than planning everything to the nth degree and consequently never starting (a common problem with weight loss programs as much as business ideas but that's another blog post)

So anyway, here's what I've learned from one week of helping 20 women around the world be the skinny bitch at the office party this Christmas.

Make it Achievable- this is not news to me but this experience so far has confirmed it all over again- it doesn't matter what the best program is, it's the best program that can fit into your clients lifestyle that is most important.
I could have written the fanciest, most high tech metabolic resistance training program ever, and used advanced nutrition strategies and I'm sure it would have impressed all of my trainer friends. But for the type of client I'm looking to help it would have been a disaster. This program is aimed at people for whom exercise and nutrition is not the most important thing in life, they may not even like exercise. Free time is also a major concern. So rather than thinking about what is the newest hottest training method, I made a list of the typical barriers busy women have to getting in shape and then focussed on providing the simplest solution to those problems.
Can't get to the gym? Ok we'll use 20 minute bodyweight circuits that you can do at home.
Client drinks or a birthday party coming up? I've got a protocol for that.
As a trainer I don't just parrot information. It's my job to fit the principles of health and fat loss into my clients lifestyle , not the other way round.

Of course you can't go too far with this line of thinking. If you want to change your body , changes to your lifestyle are inevitable.

Realise And Accept That Change Is Hard- Another thing I've noticed is that when making dietary changes people often want to stay with the familiar and just make minimal adjustments. For example, I've asked the group to cut out gluten. I then got a barrage of questions about what type of cereal is ok, or what can be substituted for cereal to fit in the plan. There is no real answer to that, because cutting out gluten involves cutting out cereal . Usually in favour of a protein based breakfast like eggs, and that can be quite a hurdle to jump for many people.

The truth is we would all love it if we could start a weight loss program and be told we're doing everything right already, and then lose weight. The guys on my program are all awesome, receptive and working hard. But I know I've had clients in years past who came to me convinced that they already knew everything there is to know about nutrition and what I was telling them couldn't be right. Of course if this were true they wouldn't be sitting in front of me in the first place. Change is always hard, no way around it.

Get Some Support- I created a private Facebook group for members of the Skinny Bitch Experiment and it has proved to be a far more useful resource than I imagined. Its clear that having a group of people pulling toward the same goal is exponentially more powerful than going it alone, and modern technology makes that a hell of a lot easier!
I'm toying with the idea of a male version of this, built around my Thor program which is still one of the most popular blog posts I've written so stay tuned for further news on that.

One For The Ladies - How To Be The Skinny Bitch At The Office Christmas Party

2011-10-26T17:46:00.004+01:00

One of the things I pride myself on is achieving outstanding fat loss results with busy female clients.

In fact when people ask me who my "target market" is or to describe my typical client, the ones who I have the best relationships with and therefore get the greatest compliance and most rapid results with, my answer is always the same, "female lawyers and gay men!"

Well, I have yet to come up with a program for the second of those specific niches. But if you're female, are interested in losing two jeans sizes in the next month and have limited time to commit to an exercise program, I do have something that might tickle your fancy.

In January we will be launching a home fat loss program. This will be for clients who want to achieve the kind of fat loss results our clients do on a monthly basis, but for whatever reason, financial, geographical or other, can't make it in to our studio to physically train with us.

However, I don't want to launch it until its been tested. I know the program works, but I've never delivered it in this way before without seeing the client in person.

So it comes down to this; I want 20 ladies who will be my trial subjects (I was going to write guinea pig there but its hardly the most flattering analogy) who I will work with over the next month. I will go to work like a mad man to get you looking your absolute best for the Christmas party season. You don't have to meet me in person, you don't even have to live in the UK. You just have to be willing to do exactly what I say for 30 days. Do that and you will get better results in those 30 days than you have in your last year of diet and exercise. I know because I do this every week and its what we have built our business on.

The ideal candidate for this program will-

-Female (obvs)

-Have had at least some experience of exercise in the past, but you DO NOT have to be super fit to begin with. I'm talking you've tried a few fitness classes in the past and at least know what a dumbbell looks like.

-Be willing to give me 30 days of your life and trust what I recommend. By the way, I train people who routinely work ridiculous hours and have a lot on their plate. I generally have 2 hours a week of in-person contact time with my clients. I'd be a moron if I asked them to do hours and hours of exercise every day, be insanely restrictive in their diets or go through bottles of obscure supplements. I know you're busy and am prepared to work with rather than against your schedule to get you the results you need. But remember I'm doing this to test a program, if you don't stick to it the test results are worthless so if you don't think you can commit this is not for you.

Thats it.

How much?
In January when we launch this program to the thousands of new years resolutioners we'll probably set the price at around £139. But this is the test phase so I'm not going to charge that much.

So for the month of November only it will cost £47, significantly less than the cost of one private session with me.

If you want in, email me at zack@aegistraining.co.uk and if you're one of the first 20 applicants who I think are going to stick to what I say, we're in business.

30 days from now you'll be the skinny bitch at the office Christmas party. Love it.

Brekafast Cereal, Snake Oil And Other Rubbish

2011-10-20T09:38:00.002+01:00

It was heartening to see this article appear in The Guardian this week

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/nov/23/food-book-extract-felicity-lawrence?INTCMP=SRCH

It gives an excellent summary of the history of breakfast cereals and makes for very interesting reading. Its great to see an article in a national newspaper suggesting that cereals are not the healthy choice many still think they are.

Breakfast cereals were first promoted by Victorian era religious zealot Sylvester Graham as an antidote to such evils as "carnal thoughts." These guys had quite a bee in their bonnet about sex, JH Kellog (he of the corn flake) even advocated burning the sex organs with carbolic acid.

Cereals are also the ultimate example of selling a cheap commodity at a huge mark up by creating the perception of health benefits, when in fact they are simply cheap, abundant crops processed in a way that removes any and all nutritional benefits. This is a common tactic, seen also with whey (a by-product of the manufacture of cheese) and soy.

Quaint as all this seems, things haven't changed much in 100 years. Its fascinating to look back on the tactics of these early health guru's and snake oil salesman such as Bernarr McFadden (christened Bernard, he changed his name to Bernarr to sound like the roar of a lion) and Dudley LeBlanc who created the first "health tonic" Hadacol (named Hadacol because he "hadda call it something") and see just how similar they are to today's TV nutritionists and pill peddlers.

There will always be eager customers for someone willing to claim they have an easy answer to a problem. Too fat? Lacking energy? Take this pill/drink/super food and your worries will be gone. Wouldn't that be great?

I attended a convention where someone used a device to demonstrate how tap water was horribly polluted. The device, a box with two metal rods, when placed in the tap water, turned it a nasty brown colour. Anyone who studied science until the age of 15 may remember this as the process of oxidisation, or in laymen's terms, rust. Yet many were amazed and eager to buy the demonstrators magic water cleaning device.

This was pure snake oil selling, it couldn't have more authentic if the guy had rolled into town on the back of horse and cart with tales of his discoveries in the far East.

I don't see this changing. Its a very old scam and is as effective today as it was in Kellog and Sylvester Graham's day.

But if people are beginning to realise breakfast cereals one of the worst foods you can start your day with and an absolute disaster for fat loss, its a definite step in the right direction.

Once And For All- Running Does NOT Make You Fat

2011-10-13T10:32:00.007+01:00

This article popped up in the Independant this week.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/does-running-make-you-fat-2368442.html

I immediately had a apoplectic fit. But on reading it its actually not as bad as the headline suggested and the journalist deals with the subject in a fairly balanced manner.

But there's still that headline; "does running make you fat?"

I get the need for attention grabbing headlines but lets get it straight- Running, or any form of exercise does not, does not DOES NOT make you fat.

The argument here seems to be similar to writer Gary Taubes' position, that aerobic training makes you hungry which makes you consume extra calories which makes you fat. The problem with a lot of fat loss research is that people tend to only report the mean numbers or read the abstract. What you find when you look closely at the numbers is that there tends to be a huge variance in individual responses, with some participants losing huge amounts of weight. Effectively, people can be divided into "compensators" and "non-compensators"

Compensators (and the author of the article in The Independant is a classic case of this) will sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously eat more and move about less in their daily life while undertaking an aerobic training routine.

To quote the article - "Getting up at 6am for long runs demands an increase in calorie intake. My response? Two breakfasts, minimum, and then protein-based snacks before and after runs. Ah yes, and the cake."

If I drive around for a few hours til my petrol tank is empty, then go to a station to fill it up, do I then conclude that driving causes my petrol tank to be full? Aerobic training is a way of burning calories, plain and simple. Calories as we know are not the whole picture when it comes to fat loss but they are a factor. If you take the fact that you're exercising as carte blanche to eat what you want, its not going to work. This is not complicated.

There are a number of factors that make running a less than ideal training method for many people, but this suggestion that it makes people fat is moronic, oversimplified and misleading.

Its this woolly thinking thats led to statements like "Sprinters are leaner than marathon runners so you should sprint and totally avoid aerobic training"

This has been repeated so much that it is accepted as gospel. While it is technically true, trainers are massively overinterpretting the statement when applying it to their clients.
Sprinting, probably more than any other sport in the world is self selecting. Sprinters are born so if you want to be a world class one, as the saying goes, you need to pick the right parents. A small percentage of people on earth will ever be able to run 100 metres in less than 10 seconds. They aren't built like that because of sprint training, they are sprinters because they are built like that.
Sprinting is the most genetically predetermined, self selecting sport on the planet. I'm not saying training plays no role. Clearly lifting weights, doing physical work every day and in some cases use of steroids will get you big and ripped. But to take what a sprinter does and extrapolate that out to " 20 minutes of intervals a few times a week will make you look like a sprinter" is bullshit.

Bottom line, I don't know what parallel universe people are living on where they think moving more is going to be counterproductive for fat loss, but it doesn't reflect the reality I see in my gym every day.

Jodie Marsh's Muscles

2011-10-06T17:30:00.003+01:00

So Jodie Marsh has done a bodybuilding competition. Judging by twitter, Facebook, and various opinion pieces the general consensus seems to be a mix of "I don't like her but fair play" and "looks gross though"

Having never met the woman I can't quite understand the outpouring of scorn. She seems to just be one of many people playing the fame game and doing well out of it and good luck to her.
As for the "she looks gross" part, well bodybuilding is a pretty weird sport I'll give you that. I can easily see how someone on the outside looking in would find it pretty hard to relate to and wonder why anyone would ever want to look like that. It's worth bearing in mind that when someone is on stage they are at their absolute leanest, a state that is maintainable for only a couple of days at a time. They are fake tanned and oiled up and looking about as far removed from a normal human being as possible. It looks weird, I get it. But I think in many cases, people who readily dismiss bodybuilding as ridiculous or pointless are telling us more about their own lack of progress in the gym or discipline at the dinner table.

Whether you like the look or not bodybuilders are the most successful dieters in the world. They are bigger and leaner than anyone else, so whatever your physique goals you can learn something from the bodybuilding world.

Will these new pictures result in women shunning weights for fear of "bulking up"? I don't think so. In recent years women have definitely woken up to the fact that weight training is essential to body transformation and that a few sets of squats do not a Ms Olympia make. At Aegis, slightly more than half of our client base is female and they are a pretty cool bunch. They power clean, squat and drag sleds and no one worries about getting bulky. Any such worries, if they are expressed, are generally stamped on in the consultation process with a pair of steel toed boots.

If anything, I have witnessed a baffling increase in new male clients who utter the dreaded phrase "I don't want to get too big" ("Oh thank God you told me! We'll only do two sets of lunges instead of three, otherwise you'll wake up tomorrow looking like He -Man")

If you take a look at the cover of mens health from 2000, and then look at an issue from the last two years you'll notice a stark difference. The cover models from the 90s and early 2000s were uniformly lean, muscular guys. The modern trend however has been towards men who are just, well, skinny. Perhaps the roles are reversing.

Where am I going with this? Men need to man up, and women need to keep it up. You don't have to like bodybuilding but don't be scornful of someone elses hard work. And if you're a man who is worried about lifting weights for fear of getting too big, do me a favour and give yourself a good, hard slap round the head.

PS - While I was writing this someone sent me a link to an interview with Jodie on This Morning. My thoughts-
1- I want to marry Holly Willoughby
2- I thought she came across like a nice person.

Psychology and fitness - (3 famous psychology papers and what they say about the fitness world)

2011-09-29T11:37:00.000+01:00

For about 4 years I shared a house with a bunch of psychologists. Over the course of that time by process of osmosis (or maybe more accurately by process of talking crap over bottles of red wine) I developed a keen interest in the field and in the fascinating research that has been done over the years. There are certain key studies that will be familiar to any psychology undergrad and indeed to much of the lay population. I recently started thinking about the implications of these studies for the health and fitness world, and what they might tell us about our behaviors.
My "academic" education is pretty limited, I don't have a degree or masters. But I read, I question, and I research. Here's my spin on things.

Stanley Milgram on authority-
Milgram carried out one of the most notorious experiments in the field of human behaviour. The experiment involved members of the public asking an unseen person in another room a list of questions. Unbeknownst to them, the answerer was in fact an actor. Every time the answerer seemingly got a question wrong the questioner was told to press a button which gave them an electric shock.
The machine which delivered this shock had many buttons , each corresponding to a different strength of electric shock. They went from mild shock, through to severe, all the way to an ominous button marked "xxx". As the experiment progressed and the answerer continued to make mistakes the questioner was told by a person in a white coat with a clip board to administer stronger shocks. Despite the actors obvious distress and audible screams, most participants continued to dutifully press the buttons. At a predetermined point the actors suddenly went silent, neither answering questions nor screaming. Even at this point , 65% of participants continued to administer electric shocks to the (now presumably dead) person in the next room. All because a person in authority told them to.

In fitness we see this behaviour in the phenomenon of guru following. Once a person is positioned as an expert and has amassed a group of followers, they can then simply make statements and have a large section of the industry take them at their word. Aerobics make you fat, spinal flexion/machine based training/aspartame is the devil, this or that gives you cancer, whatever. Statements can simply be thrown out there with little or no regard for actual evidence and quickly become dogma, repeated so many times they become received wisdom. Never questioned, merely accepted.
I'm not concerned here with wether these individual statements are true, more with the eagerness of many to simply "be told" rather than think and explore and research for themselves. Perhaps it's intellectual laziness, or perhaps obedience to authority is hard wired into human behaviour and trainers are no different.

BF Skinner and the superstitious pigeons-
Skinner and his team observed a group of pigeons through a glass window. At random intervals food was dropped into the pigeons enclosure. Occasionally the food would coincide with the pigeon performing a particular action, spinning round in a circle or bobbing its head in a certain way. What the researchers noticed was that the pigeon would then continue to perform that action, presumably believing that it had actually caused the food to drop in. In effect, they had observed the development of superstition in pigeons. Similar research was later carried out on groups of children and the same thing occurred.
We see this all the time in the health and fitness world, particularly in the area of supplementation. Many will swear by echinacea for example, because they took some and a few days later their cold was gone. But what happens to a cold if you take absolutely nothing? After a few days, it's gone.
I'm not anti supplement at all, some work. And to be honest I'm not that bothered about people buying totally unproven supplements or homeopathic remedies, it's their money and I'm happy to see it as a self selecting tax on people who ignore statistics. My concern is that it seems to feed into a larger trend of completely disregarding science in favour of personal experience. So we have trainers recommending a supplement because it "worked for them" when the research has never shown it to be any more effective than placebo, while simultaneously criticising the medical industry and claiming research can "prove anything".
(Post hoc ergo propter hoc is a Latin phrase meaning "after, therefore because of," a logical fallacy that fits nicely here. And no I don't speak Latin, it was the title of an episode of The West Wing)

This trend is troubling, and I have a nagging fear about waking up one day and finding myself part of the alternative medicine industry. Perhaps we're already there?

This is not to say that personal experience is unimportant. It's absolutely vital. Certainly with things like exercise selection, nutrition approaches or techniques to increase client compliance there are many ways to skin a cat, and using approaches that have worked for you is perfectly valid and sensible. Personal Training is an art as well as a science. But if a trainer is prepared to make hard, scientific recommendations about supplements causing a specific response, then I feel these recommendations should be backed up with hard, scientific evidence, not superstition.

The Forer Effect- The Forer effect describes our tendency to give high accuracy ratings to descriptions of our personality that are supposedly tailored to us specifically, when in fact they are vague and general.
The psychologist Bertram Forer demonstrated this by giving a personality test to his students. He then returned with what he told his students were specific analyses of their personalities, which he then asked them to rate for accuracy. The students rated them as highly accurate, at which point Forer revealed they had all been given the same reading.
You can read what he gave them if you like. Be honest about how accurately you feel it describes you, and try to imagine how you'd feel if someone gave you this following what was supposed to be a highly accurate personality test-

"You have a great need for other people to like and admire you. You have a tendency to be critical of yourself. You have a great deal of unused capacity which you have not turned to your advantage. While you have some personality weaknesses, you are generally able to compensate for them. Disciplined and self-controlled outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure inside. At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing. You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations. You pride yourself as an independent thinker and do not accept others' statements without satisfactory proof. You have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others. At times you are extroverted, affable, sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, reserved. Some of your aspirations tend to be pretty unrealistic. Security is one of your major goals in life."

Obviously this effect is heavily relied on by psychics, astrologers and other charlatans, but is it also used (consciously or unconsciously) in the health and fitness industry? Certainly I think we see it in many "allergy tests" which purport to prescribe supplements for specific, sub-clinical ailments. So we have questions like "do you feel you could have more energy?", "do you experience mood swings?" and the like. These are so vague that almost anyone would say yes, even if you rarely experience mood swings the question causes you to think of a time that you have, making it seem all the more tailored to you. Again I'm not saying that all allergy tests are utter rubbish, just that some seem to be!

We are all guilty of falling into these cognitive traps, and bar a small group of out-and-out snake oil salesmen I believe the fitness industry is in fact full of people who genuinely want to help their clients. Being aware of these tendencies might just help us to make better choices about how we help them.

Intermittent Fasting

2011-09-21T12:36:00.005+01:00

I'm a fan of self experimentation. When it comes to training and nutrition, I enjoy trying new and often extreme approaches out on myself. Even if they are not practical for use with our clients the act of trying new methods out on myself is one way to keep training fresh and fun. Last month I tried performing the power snatch every day. The result? My shoulders and traps grew, my snatch technique improved dramatically and I absolutely mangled my wrists.

This month it's the turn of intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting (IF) is having a bit of a "moment" right now in the fitness industry. If I'm honest it's the type of thing I would have dismissed but enough trainers who I respect have been raving about it for me to finally crack and give it a go. I have to say so far I'm a bit of a convert.

The benefits of intermittent fasting are supposed to be increases in growth hormone and improved insulin management, both of which will help shed fat and keep it off. Are these definitely genuine, proven benefits? I don't know. I think there are a number of other benefits however.

1- it teaches you what actual hunger is. I got into training and grew up with the mentality of "you must eat 2-3 hours or your muscles will disappear." I don't still believe this and the research doesn't really support it. I do think it has an application when trying to build a lot of muscle, but for a weight loss client I think it can be counterproductive. Despite this it's a very deeply ingrained habit, in the past I would find myself ravenous just a couple of hours after a meal . The interesting thing about fasting however, was that I was not actually that hungry at all. The act of deciding not to eat and being motivated to stick to the plan seemed to help and in fact I had great energy all day. Oddly though, when I finally decided to eat at 7 in the evening I was immediately starving. The lesson? How much hunger is genuine and how much is simply a Pavlovian response?

2- it's a simple method that leaves no room for interpretation or grey areas. You just choose a period of time (generally 16-24 hours) during which you decide not to eat. Hard and fast rules are more powerful than "guidelines" when you are attacking fat loss. Guidelines can be easily twisted to suit a hungry stomach and reduced willpower, but strict rules are harder to justify breaking.

3- you remove a significant amount of calories from your week in the simplest way imaginable. Calories are always going to be part of the picture. They may be less important than food quality, macronutrients ratios and other factors, but they are always going to be one leg of the fat loss chair. Even if all the claims about hormonal benefits turn out to be false or greatly exaggerated the simple act of removing a chunk of calories from your week in one move will without fail produce significant changes.

If you want to try it out here's what I suggest.

- Don't put too much pressure on yourself to go a full 24 hours. The first time I tried it I said I'd go till lunch time and assess from there. As it turned out I felt great and ended up not eating till the evening. The point is this shouldn't be about suffering through or punishing yourself. It's simply choosing not to eat for a slightly longer period of time once a week.

- go dinner to dinner. Maybe it's just a personal preference, but I think eating as normal the day before a fast is easier than going lunch to lunch or breakfast to breakfast and going to bed hungry.

- If you're quite overweight or a beginner to exercise, this approach is probably using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut. I would also be very wary of using it with any client with a history of disordered eating (In fact, I haven't used this with clients at all yet, just myself)

- when you break your fast, don't over compensate. Just go back to eating as normal.

Anyway those are my thoughts. If you want to learn more about intermittent fasting , do a search for Brad Pilon and his book "Eat Stop Eat".

Now, to decide on next month's experiment .

Zack Cahill
Director

Alcohol And Training - Can You Drink And Make Progress?

2011-09-15T12:58:00.003+01:00

Alcohol is a deeply ingrained part of British life , and a real point of struggle for many of our clients. Now, your bog standard fitness blog will tackle this issue with something as useful and insightful as "drinking is bad , mmkay?"

Or " it's a simple choice between being fat and unhealthy, or not drinking"

But in truth, it's not. For many it's a choice between socialising with their friends or not (the glib, pious personal trainer answer to this would be "get new friends")

For others it's a choice between progressing their career or not
(ask any city professional where the best networking gets done and the most strategic relationships are solidified and they'll tell you it's over drinks)

Booze is a social lubricant, a rapport building shortcut, and the linchpin of just about any social occasion. So as trainers are we living in the real world when we tell our clients not to drink? I don't think so.

I've been doing this a while, I know a lot of personal trainers and most of them drink, some drink heavily.

Now, they also train every day, are generally young, eat well and lead fairly low stress lives all of which tips the balance in their favour. But the fact remains that when you get a load of fitness people together at the various events we attend its usually as anarchic as any office piss-up. So the standard fitness industry advice to avoid alcohol is quite hypocritical.

Never the less , It's an unavoidable fact that excess alcohol consumption is unhealthy, slows weight loss and at extremes can be very destructive.

I grew up in Ireland, which is effectively the international school for binge drinking so this is a subject I know a little about. So do I think people need to cut out alcohol to get in great shape? No.

The negative effects of non- ridiculous alcohol consumption have, in my humble opinion, been overstated in the fitness world.

I've done 8 weeks totally booze free, and honestly I can't say that it was worth it.

That's my subjective opinion. But when we look at the research it seems to back me up. The oft touted testosterone sapping effects for example , are in reality so minimal as to be insignificant unless you are drinking quite heavily or drinking every day. (One study showed a 6.8% drop in testosterone following 3 weeks of drinking 3 beers a day every day. I don't advocate drinking every day. Another showed a more significant reduction for 16 hours only after the equivalent of 10 beers. Granted, in Ireland that would be known as "Sunday afternoon", but for most people thats still a fair amount of booze)

There is even some research to suggest that moderate drinking can improve insulin sensitivity (But what's moderate? That's another story. By the way if you want references I can put them in the comment section, I'm doing some mind numbing cardio as I write this and can't be bothered to dig it out. So instead you get me brain-dumping. Nice!)

The main issue with alcohol is that it interferes with the liver in a way that causes other calories consumed to be more readily stored as fat. This is compounded with the fact that we tend to make more indulgent good choices when we drink. It's been my gut feeling for years that stupid food choices while drinking and on the following day have a greater impact on the waistline than the alcohol itself.

So, how can we minimise the negative effects of alcohol while still enjoying the odd drink?

A few caveats. Binge drinking is unhealthy. Alcohol can be a very destructive and dangerous drug. It has messed up lives and had ill effects on millions of families including my own. It can also cause you to sleep with ugly people. I'm not saying you should drink as much as you like and there won't be consequences. But you're probably going to so here's my suggestions.

1- keep it to once a week.

2- on the day you are going to drink, consume as little fat and carbohydrates as possible. Stick to protein sources like chicken and to green veg.

3- alternate alcoholic drinks with sparkling water. The bubbles slow you down more than still water would.

4- don't make stupid food choices the next day, get right back on track with eating proper food and keep it lower carb.

5- stick to low sugar drinks. Dry white wines or spirits. If you're having mixers make them sugar free. I'll probably get kicked out of the trainer club for advocating "aspartame laden diet drinks" but in this specific circumstance I'd rather a bit of sweetener than the sugar.

6- don't take this as carte Blanche to drink as much as you like. No matter what way you look at it , 8 hour drinking binges aren't healthy. Don't do it and think it won't have consequences. You're an adult. Understand the consequences and make your mind up.

How To Learn The Power Clean

2011-09-12T11:44:00.003+01:00

Opinions about the olympic lifts are quite polarised within the strength training world. Some believe they are far too complex to justify teaching to anyone who doesn't actually want to become an olympic lifter, and that you can get all of the benefits of the lifts using jumps and medicine ball work without the teaching process.

Others believe the olympic lifts are the greatest form of exercise and that everyone should build their training around them.

As usual, fence-sitter that I am I come down somewhere in the middle, though to be honest as time goes by I find myself including them more and more.

Yes they are quite technical in nature, and should not be included straight away unless the client already has a very nice front squat and is reasonably well structurally balanced. But I believe the benefits of including them in a program far outweigh the time it may take to master them. We should be in this training game for life anyway so what's the rush?

In the video below I run through the sequence I use to teach the lifts to beginners. I stole this method from Glenn Pendlay, a well known American weightlifting coach.

One nice thing about the video is that Sam who demonstrates the method does not use power cleans in his own training so you are seeing him make the typical mistakes that I see beginners make all the time, and see me try and correct them. An 8 minute video isn't quit enough time to nail the lifts but Sam gives it a good go, and hopefully you find it useful!

If you want to learn hands on how to apply these training techniques and put them into an intelligent strength training program, I'm holding a one day seminar on Saturday the 24th of September.As mentioned in the vid, I'm running it alongside Jay Benedetti http://www.jaybenedetti.com/

We're calling it MASS- the Muscle And Strength Seminar (nice acronym eh?) and its £97 to take part. We'll be training you and providing food so its very much a learn by doing day. Drop me a line on zack@aegistraining.co.uk to book. Theres about 4 spaces left.

Back To School Leg Workout

2011-09-07T12:51:00.002+01:00

We're experiencing quite an influx of new clients this month. September is always quite a busy time for new inquiries . Perhaps we are still in the mindset of "new academic year, new me!"

Maybe people are returning to work having done some travelling, during which they realised "hey it's not about slaving away in the rat race! I'm gonna start a new chapter! get in shape, learn tango and start working towards opening that basket weaving retreat in Goa"

Or maybe people are just feeling fat after their holidays.

Regardless, here's a little leg smashing finisher I've been using with a lot of clients lately. This is for the client who has gone through our 3 month introductory process and can therefore perform the fundamental lifts (squat, deadlift, press, Olympic lifts) reasonably well, and can therefore start doing the sexy (or horrible depending on your point of view) stuff. This builds work capacity and burns fat. Bosh.

The Leg Smasher
with no rest perform-
2 lengths pushing the prowler
2 lengths walking lunge with 16kg kettlebell
2 lengths prowler
10 kettlebell squats
2 lengths prowler
20 kettlebell swings
2 lengths prowler
20 bodyweight squats

Rest 2 minutes, repeat.

Not easy.

The Dukan Diet - Some Unfocussed Ramblings

2011-08-23T10:58:00.000+01:00

"what do you think of this Dukan diet thing then?"

"what you mean that "new" diet where you reduce your carbs and increase your protein?"

It's pretty clear that the Dukan diet is a repackaging of the Atkins diet, which was itself based on pretty well established weight loss diet principles prior to Ancel Keyes leading us on a 50 year low-fat wild goose chase. This "new" diet adds nothing meaningful to what we already know about weight loss, and is an example of successful marketing rather than interesting and novel nutritional concepts. So far so obvious, what then can we actually learn from the success of this diet?

1- Look for the commonalities. low carb high protein does work. In this regard the Dukan diet is spot on. This is just another case of the good information being the big principles that are common to successful programs rather than the minutia. Low carb high protein works. Focussing on real food not processed crap works. Lifting weights and moving more works. Really, though we tend to get caught up in debates about selenium or front squats vs back squats, these things are all just details.
Personally I would focus on food quality before macro nutrient ratios. Make sure you're eating real, whole foods that walked, swam or grew in the ground before you worry about how much carbs or protein you're taking in. There also seems to be quite a lot of dairy products in the Dukan diet which I'm not the biggest fan of. But low carb, yes I'm on board with that.

2- proximity bias is universal. It always amazes me when people I'm close to, and who I would therefore happily advise on diet and training for nothing, decide to go on something like the Dukan diet or weightwatchers. But I shouldn't be, because of proximity bias.

Proximity bias is the tendency to discount information that comes from a source that is familiar to us. You may tell your mother she should reduce her intake of bread til you're blue in the face, but if an actress says it in Hello magazine suddenly it's gospel.

The tricky part is this can happen with long term personal training clients too. I've seen it a number of times where I'll have advised a long term client on an injury for a few weeks before just referring them to a therapist, only for them to come back and tell me the therapist told them what I'd been saying for the past two weeks. This only tends to happen with clients I've been training for years, and shows that proximity bias is part of human nature. We need to take it into account and figure out ways around it.
(just realising I could get a whole blog post on this alone so I'll shut up about it for now)

3- people love a system. The rules of nutrition are very simple, they'll never change, they've always worked and will always work. But if you just tell someone "eat real food. Meat, fish, poultry, veg, fruit" they'll say "yeah but I already knew that." Now, at this point I feel like responding "well then why are you still fat?" but clearly this would get us nowhere.

What's weird though, is if I present the same information in the context of a specific "system" with phases and it's own unique language and principles, (repackaging the same information in a new way just like the Dukan diet) I get a much greater buy-in from the client.
There's no point fighting it, it seems to be hard wired into our behaviour . So instead I try to use this behavioural quirk ethically to the clients advantage. I present the information without making wild, unscientific claims but I present in the form of a unique system. This gets greater compliance initially, and once the client is on board I can start to emphasise the importance long term healthy eating over "going on a diet."

Good grief that was a bit of a ramble! I'm off to drag a sled .

Guest Interview - Alwyn Cosgrove and Dr Chris Mohr

2011-08-15T16:03:00.001+01:00

Alwyn Cosgrove- I’m really excited to be back with Dr. Chris Mohr today. We’ve got him cornered in the the hot seat to talk about the always popular topic of supplements.

AC: Thanks for taking the time for our readers today. Let’s get right to it -- are there any supplements everyone should be taking?

Dr. C: High quality fish oil and vitamin D. A recent study showed that omega 3 deficiency is responsible for 96,000 deaths ... the 8th leading cause of preventable death in the US! And the more I read about Vitamin D, the more I realize how beneficial it is and how common deficiency is. I was recently talking with one of the world’s leading Vitamin D experts, Dr. Bob Heaney, as part of the monthly audio series for Dietary Supplement U ... he quoted studies showing around 60-90% of teenage girls were deficient.

AC: That’s crazy. I’ll get back to fish oil in a minute, but have you seen that’s also true for people like me, living in Southern CA who are fortunate to have a good amount of sun?

Dr. C: It’s interesting. Dr. Heaney (and others) have shown that if you live north of Atlanta, you don’t make sufficient D from the sunshine. And even if you are out in the sun, all summer long, research shows that by the winter your stores will be depleted again once the sun isn’t quite as strong and you may not be exposed to as much. Remember, too, most of us aren’t sitting poolside day in and day out, where most of our bodies are exposed. We’re covered by clothing and the rest of our bodies are covered in SPF, which doesn’t allow sufficient D to be made. The other problem -- it’s a really difficult one to get through the diet. Sardines and anchovies aren’t really at the top of most people’s “what’s for dinner” lists. But they’re great sources of D.

AC: Good stuff. What is the best type of omega-3 to take -- fish oil, krill oil, flax oil, etc?

Dr. C: Most of the science -- over 7,000 research studies -- use fish oil. Here’s the deal. There are three omega-3‘s. EPA, DHA and ALA. Fish oil is high in EPA and DHA. Non fish options of omega-3‘s are high in ALA. All are healthy, but they’re not equal. So flax seed or oil is NOT a replacement for fish oil. As for krill oil...there aren’t many data out there right now. High quality fish oil has more EPA and DHA. It’s more concentrated than krill oil. The “krill people” suggest krill is more potent. But I can’t say it better than omega-3 expert, Dr. Bill Harris, who is the August ‘issue’ of the Dietary Supplement University monthly audio series: “Considering the much higher price for krill oil (vs. fish oil), the potentially small increase in bioavailability may not be worth it. Until we have data comparing fish oil to krill oil on intermediate markers of risk (triglyceride levels, vascular function, etc) and actual disease endpoints (CHD death, heart attacks) we won't be able to say one is better than the other.”

AC: How much fish oil should I take?

Dr. C: From all the data I’ve read and heard, I think 1 gram of EPA/DHA per day is safe and effective. If you have heart disease, high triglycerides, etc than a higher dose is certainly warranted. Our 2 year old daughter even takes it and has practically since she’s been born.

AC: I’m excited to hear that interview. Let’s shift away from “general” supplements for a second and talk performance. At Perform Better when you presented on Dietary Supplements, you had one slide on creatine and said “it works.” Pretty funny. But what was shocking to me is that you were then bombarded with questions about creatine. Is there new information.

Dr. C: I stand by my original statement -- creatine works. It’s one of the few performance supplements that has stood the test of time. It’s safe and it’s effective for strength based athletes ... maybe even endurance athletes according to some research. But strength based sports for sure. No new information. As much as companies tried to come out with “bigger and better” creating products, basic creatine monohydrate has stood the test of time.

AC: Any other performance supplements on the horizon that show promise?

Dr. C: Beta alanine is an interesting one. The data seem to be mounting for this fairly new supplement. And most show promise. It’s most commonly used for delaying fatigue and reducing time to exhaustion. The data are pretty consistent in terms of positive findings; it seems to enhance muscle buffering (imagine easing the burning feeling in your quads if you did 200 rapid body weight squats, for example). More practically, if you are a sprinter, cyclist or other high intensity, short duration type of athlete -- maybe you can mask this “pain” -- which could increase your performance. We did an interview with Dr. Abbie Smith who is an Assistant Professor at UNC Chapel Hill and has pioneered a lot of the beta alanine research. I learned a ton myself since it’s a pretty new area.

AC: You didn’t mention branched chain amino acids, but I know a lot of my clients ask me ... anything there?

Dr. C: I have to be honest, I’m not that impressed with the science. Most of the data suggests it may be effective in reducing muscle soreness, but not necessarily improving athletic performance. Theoretically, it’s great to have less muscle soreness. But at the end of the day, what does that mean? Particularly for the “average” client who is simply training to get in better shape or maintain their already great shape. I’d personally rather have someone use a whey protein supplement, naturally rich in BCAA’s and get more bang for their buck.

AC: Brings up a good question -- whey, casein, egg, soy, etc. What’s the BEST?

Dr. C: I side with whey. It’s absorbed quickly (great post workout). It It seems to be “better” for helping with protein synthesis (building protein). might help you feel more full, so you take in less calories. Not bad, particularly if you’re trying to lose weight. Again, whey is also naturally rich in BCAA’s. We do talk more in depth about each of these -- including BCAA’s and essential amino acids -- in Dietary Supplement University.

AC: I have to say, I’ve never seen any supplement resource as complete as Dietary Supplement University. The monthly audio updates are awesome too, so you get to learn from so many experts. It’s an absolutely MUST have for anyone who works with clients -- trainers, coaches, strength coaches, etc. You did a nice job boiling all the research and complicated science into easy to ‘digest’ info. I don’t want to even know how long it took you to put together.

http://alwyncosgrove.com/

The Client Excuses Song

2011-08-08T12:57:00.001+01:00

We are lucky enough to have a lot of very dedicated clients, but if they do miss a session or two without a good enough reason here's what we tell them

The Latest News From Aegis

2011-08-05T08:29:00.003+01:00

Well its been a hectic week at Aegis studios hence the lack of blogging.

-We launched a new service, teaming up with a local business to provide the healthiest lunches in London to our clients. We're talking low carb, high protein, organic meat, cooked with coconut oil. Basically the ultimate healthy lunch. We put this in their hands as they walk out the door after the session, which is powerful. Lunch has always been the meal city workers seem to struggle with most, they would either leave after their session and then not eat for a few hours, or eat something crap. Not good enough, so we solved the problem for them.

-We've been dealing with a big influx of new clients, to be handled by our newest team member Fabio (more on him in a future blog, his story is ridiculous)

-Moving house, both myself and Greg. Me to somewhere local and Greg to the wild and scary world of "outside London" A place where your neighbours call over with cake to welcome you apparently, sounds dodgy to me. I've even heard rumors of random strangers in the street wishing you a good morning. *shudder*
So Greg is now doing 3 days of training people at the studios and the rest of the week in Chiswick. Not quite the four hour work week just yet but getting there.

-Lots of other smaller projects within the business. "Systems" is the key word here. We want the business running smoothly so we can focus on what matters, smashing it up in the gym.

SO in the mean time here's a little video interview I did a while back. I talk about the importance of program design in providing a service for your clients, its a bit technical as it was aimed at trainers, but hopefully you'll find it interesting.

So, have a great weekend and talk soon.
Zack

The Thor Program

2011-07-21T17:48:00.002+01:00

Following hot on the heels of our green lantern workout I thought I'd give some love to the other big comic book movie this year- Thor, the god of thunder.

If you've seen the movie you'll know that Chris helsmworth is a pretty impressive specimen. It's not the first time we've seen actors undergo incredible transformations for a movie role. Daniel craig of course packed on some muscle to provide women with a reason to watch Bond movies, Tobey McGuire defied decidedly poor genetics to get in shape for spiderman, and Hugh jackman became Huge Jacked Man for wolverine (he wasn't that huge but that was too good a pun to pass up)

So here is the premise- an A-list actor walks into my studio tomorrow and says he has 12 weeks to transform his body for a movie role. What do I do with him?

I will make the assumption that our hypothetical actor has been lifting weights prior to this. They move reasonably well and are not complete beginners. Here's what I'd do-

1- I would have him train twice a day. I have never seen a more effective method of rapid body transformation than twice-a-day training. Of course not everyone can do it, not many people have the time or the motivation. But a multi million dollar movie contract and the ability to focus solely on preparing for a movie role for 12 weeks of your life should help here.
Generally the morning session would be heavy lifting and power work, while the later session would be higher rep work, with more isolation exercises for key muscle groups. On which note...

2- I would focus on the upper body, and in particular the shoulders. Of course lower body exercise would be included, but the overall volume of work would be less. A few sets of squats and deadlifts twice a week would be the extent of it. This will give us the total body muscle building effect of these great exercises, boost the metabolism and testosterone production, but not be enough work to detract from our gruelling upper-body schedule.

How many movies have focused on the action hero's impressive hamstring development anyway? It's all about the abs on upper body in Hollywood.

However! I would have the actor perform power snatches every day in the morning session provided he can do them well. It wouldn't have to be particularly heavy, but frequent power snatching builds the traps and shoulders like nothing else.

3- I would build the program around pressing. Overhead, incline and some flat bench pressing for lots of sets of 3-5. This would be balanced with higher rep rowing exercises in the 8-12 range. The pressing muscles are the ones which will make the biggest visual impact, along with ....

3- abs. The big screen loves abs. This is going to come mostly from diet of course, but since this article is already becoming a bloody masters thesis I won't go into too much detail, here's the bullet points

6 meals a day

The bulk of the carbohydrates to be consumed before and after training sessions

Eat high quality meat and fish, and lots of veg each meal.

Post workout protein shake with simple carbs.

The usual basic supplements (multi vit, fish oil, magnesium) with perhaps a few extras to help fat burning in the final month.

Direct ab training would be done in the last couple of weeks on a 3 days on, one day off rotation.

4- as we move into the final phase it would be all about maintaining muscle mass while getting as lean as possible. It's possible for relatively small actors to look very impressive on screen as long as they have good abdominals, and even in a perfect world muscle gain is a slow process. So our time in this phase would be better spent dialling things in and getting our imaginary mega star as ripped as possible.

Sled work would be added every day and the carb content would come right down.

The result would be a ripped, athletic, bad mofo ready to swing hammers and punch bad guys in the silver screen.

Now, what possible application could this have for the average person with a job? Well, I have clients right now on our elite body program sticking to a schedule like this and their results are phenomenal. It can be done, it's just a matter of prioritising your body for a period of time. Brutally hard work, definitely not for everyone, but that's what it takes to look like the God of Thunder.

(by the way, in the interests of this article not turning into an even bigger rambling mess I haven't included a sample training program. If you want one, drop me an email at zack@aegistraining.co.uk and I'll pop one over. Not my fault if it kills you)

Training male vs female clients

2011-07-07T09:33:00.002+01:00

We have about a 50/50 mix at aegis between male and female clients. Though the methods for training each are broadly similar, there are a couple of considerations

- women generally have higher work capacity, they can do more work per session. I frequently put female clients through workouts that would kill a small horse.

-while men have greater relative upper body strength, there's far less of a difference on lower body exercises.

- women are capable of more reps at a given percentage of their max. For example, a guy lifting 90% of his maximum weight on an exercise might only get 3 reps, while a woman might get 5 or 6. So when writing programs, where I would a have guy do 3-5 reps I'll have a woman do 4-6.

- women always want to take less rest between sets, men want to take more. It's often necessary to slow women down so they are able to perform the exercises correctly for the required reps. Men you just have to shout at til they get off the floor.

- women don't care about the weight on the bar. Whereas it's sometimes all men care about. You need to sometimes reign men in from putting too much weight on the bar and lifting with ugly form. With women it's usually a case of convincing them they are stronger than they think.

-muscles to emphasise on women for aesthetic purposes are different to men. The program will still be based around big movements (though I'll do a lower volume of heavy deadlifts with women and more squatting instead) but I'll often program in some higher rep exercises at the end of a session for specific muscle groups.

With women you want to develop the glutes, hamstrings, deltoids, Lats and triceps. You want to de-emphasise the traps, forearms and neck.
With men the traps, forearms and neck are "power" muscles that can and should be developed.

So, small differences worth considering when your putting a program together.

Every now and then...

2011-06-28T08:05:00.001+01:00

I make a bit of an effort to make this blog a useful resource and set it apart from the usual bog standard fitness blog. But every now and then its nice to just do something stupid.

Sam Gets Smashed- Intro to Man Circuits

2011-06-27T15:09:00.002+01:00

Here's a little video filmed at the Aegis studio where I put Sam Feltham, local trainer and owner of Smash the Fat bootcamps in East London, through his paces.

Man Circuits are just one aspect of our programming system which we use to turn average London city workers into superheroes. If you want to learn more about them check out my other (slightly more technical, but also slightly sillier) blog here - http://itsgunday.wordpress.com/2011/06/27/circuit-training-for-men-the-gunday-circuit/

Sam's site is here - http://smashthefat.com/

And here's the vid, enjoy!

The Aegis Training Philosophy (In One Sentence)

2011-06-16T20:49:00.002+01:00

I've always felt that the best teachers are masters of taking complex concepts and explaining them in a way that is simple (but not simplified) and easy to understand. As trainers we may have the greatest technical knowledge in the world, but if we can't put that across to the people we're trying to help in a way that they can get their heads round, then I don't feel we are doing our job. So when trainers and nutritionists start talking about their complicated, proprietary systems and using jargon that is impenetrable to anyone without doctorates in biochemistry and physiology, my spider senses start to tingle. It feels like I'm being "sold to" rather than educated.
So just how simple can we get with this? Is it possible to sum up your entire nutrition/training/lifestyle philosophy in one line?

I'm fond of the phrase "don't eat anything with an ingredients list" or variations on the theme of "if it grew in the ground or used to be alive, eat it. If not, don't"
But these don't address training and lifestyle, or allow for large variations in food quality (a battery farmed low-welfare chicken was, after all, alive at one point. It just happened to have a crap life!)
So, here's my attempt at summing up everything I know about health and fitness in one line. I'm no Christopher Hitchens, but what I may lack in elegance I hopefully make up in efficiency:

"reduce the amount of man-made or man-augmented foods in your diet as close as possible to zero, and increase your amount of physical activity as much as possible without exceeding your capacity to recover"

Okay, so it's a long sentence! But it's one sentence nonetheless. And most importantly it touches in every every aspect of the general Aegis philosophy. As for how to apply it, there are an infinite variety of methods which can be debated to death (in fact if you wish to debate, add to, or take the piss out of anything I've said please feel free to comment below). But that's another post for another day, and my dinner is ready!

The Green Lantern workout part I

2011-06-08T13:50:00.003+01:00

What's that? Shameless search engine fodder just because there's a movie coming out? Well, maybe. But bear with me!

Aside from being a strength training geek, I also happen to be a comic book geek. Yes lifting weights and reading comics may seem like odd bedfellows but I assure you my bookshelf is one part Zatsiorsky to one part Alan Moore.
Anyway, the green lantern is a slightly more obscure superhero, lacking the recognition of superman or batman, despite inhabiting the same fictional universe. He is a member of the green lantern corps, an intergalactic police force who protect the universe from various threats with the use of their power rings (yes, I know, but stick with me here). The ring is capable of producing anything the ring-bearer imagines, provided he keeps it charged by placing it in his power battery (the physical green lantern of the title) and reciting the green lantern oath-
"in brightest day, and blackest night,
No evil shall escape my sight,
Let those who worship evil's might,
Beware my power, Green Lanterns light"

Ok Zack, shut up and get to the point.

Well, allow me to draw an analogy between the green lantern's ring and your central nervous system (CNS).
(warning, massive oversimplification ahead)
The CNS is absolutely crucial to strength training. In fact strength training IS central nervous system training by definition, as the CNS is ultimately the engine, the coordinator and the limiting factor for force production.
Any time you perform a set of an exercise you are doing two things, you are stimulating the CNS and you are accumulating fatigue both of the local muscles involved and the nervous system itself.
The trick is to keep the stimulation high and the fatigue low. So, the CNS is your power ring, it will let your muscles do whatever you want, but you have to keep it charged. See? I got there eventually!

So how do we stimulate the CNS without fatiguing it excessively? How do we keep that ring charged?

First of all, some simple principles for training effectively without accumulating massive amounts of fatigue. Then in the second part of this post I'll provide some strategies for training that will actually recharge the CNS.

Train frequently- seems counterintuitive, but when you employ the other fatigue-limiting techniques I'll list it becomes second nature. I truly believe there is no physiological reason for most people to have "rest days". That's not to say there aren't lifestyle or psychological reasons but that's another story. The nervous system requires and thrives on frequency. High frequency also builds work capacity, which allows you to train , you guessed it, more frequently! Infrequent, high intensity style training is a vicious cycle as the less you train, the less capacity you have to train (the less "fit" you become if you like) and therefore the less work it takes you to overtrain. So remember, there is always something you can do, every day, to make yourself better.

Avoid training to failure on bigger movements- I am not an absolutist and there is a time and place for nearly every training technique. But in general, on big barbell exercises like squats, deadlifts and presses, it's better to lift more often, for more sets while not taking those sets to absolute failure. This allows you to do more work overall which is the name of the game. I'm not advocating training easy mind you, so if you can text and squat you're doing it wrong.

Do not emphasise the lowering phase (particularly on big exercises) if you also want to train them frequently- the lowering or "eccentric" phase of any lift is what does the most damage and accumulates the most fatigue. If you can only get in the gym a few times a week, then accentuating the eccentric phase with a slow lowering tempo has it's uses. But you can't both train frequently and do this. Eccentrics can be useful but they don't allow frequency, and frequency trumps all!

Do a few things well- you only have so much power in your battery . Don't use it up on exercises that don't directly tie in to your goals. To be honest, for most people this probably just translates to more squatting and less silly single leg/unstable/machine exercises. Bottom line, spend most of your time on the most productive exercises.

Ok, that does it for the first part of this post, next time- how to use a training session to enhance CNS recovery.

3 Things to Spend Your Money on...(before you spend it on supplements)

2011-05-31T14:24:00.001+01:00

I'm a fan of some supplements, I just think they are too often over relied on. Ultimately, the very best supplement will slightly accelerate the progress made from training and nutrition, rather than creating progress in itself. I tend to stick to the few basic supplements that have a good evidence base and have consistently produced results for myself and my clients. These include good quality protein powders, multivitamins, fish oils, creatine and green tea extract. In fact in the case of the multivit and fish oil I tend to think of these less as supplements and more as staples. But beyond that I've never been particularly impressed by anything. So if you're going to spend money on something to improve your health and performance, here's a list of things I'd spend it on first.

Better meat -while I have to say I'm agnostic regarding some of the specific claims made by raving fans of organic food, I do tend to think that a cow that was well looked after and fed it's natural diet is going to be better for you than a grain fed cow that was treated with drugs and so on. Food quality is important, and if you're going organic I would have fattier meats such as beef higher on my list of priorities than vegetables.

More vegetables- Even if you think you're eating enough vegetables the likelihood is that you're not. Regardless of your goal, increase the volume and variety of veg that you're eating before spending money on a supplement. The point is to create a "base" of health before chasing a more specific goal such as fat loss or muscle gain. Trying to pack muscle on an unhealthy body is an exercise in futility.

Soft tissue work- particularly if you do suffer from niggling pains. Just like the previous points stressed creating internal health through proper nutrition, structural health is just as important if you want a life-long and successful training career (which you should!) So before looking for a miracle pill, find good soft tissue therapist to ensure you're body is actually working properly. At Aegis we have a phenomenal network of specialists we can refer our clients to if needed.
Bottom line, supplements are fine. But to get the most bang for your buck look at getting healthy, nailing your diet and eliminating niggling pains so that you can move and train effectively before you splash out on the next "magic bullet".

Direct Abdominal Training- Why I Changed My Mind

2011-05-26T09:44:00.005+01:00

Old school abdominal crunches are not en vogue anymore in the fitness industry, with good reason.
Our clients sit all day in a flexed position, so there would seem to be little sense in having them come to the gym and repeatedly flex their spine again. Renowned spine expert Stuart McGill makes a pretty water tight argument against training spinal flexion is his book ultimate low back performance. Add to that the limited time most clients have to spend with their trainer (we see our clients on average 8 hours per month) and its not hard to see why crunches tend to get dumped in favour of the big bang-for-your-buck exercises like deadlifts.
I still agree with all of the above arguments so it is still quite rare that I will include flexion in a clients program. But as with all training modalities I feel there is a time and a place where it can be effective.
When a client is already lean , circa 12% bodyfat, and is looking to step things up for an event such as a beach holiday, I will now have them perform direct ab work in the last two weeks on a 3 days on, 1 day off basis. Naturally, this is in conjunction with a number of other rapid fat loss strategies including additional short home workouts , diet and supplementation.
The benefits of this approach are as follows
1- The abdominals are muscles , they are capable of hypertrophy (muscle growth). Their capacity is pretty limited, but as a short term strategy for "peaking", a little bit of ab work can help show more definition.
2- it reinforces good client behaviour- the easiest part of my job as a trainer is the training session. The hard part, the art and the science of achieving real world results, is in everything the client does in the other 166 hours of the week when I'm not seeing them. Anything I can make the client do outside of the session to keep them on track is beneficial. Short ab sessions done at home most days help keep the client focussed on the outcome they want and therefore more likely to stick to the other behaviours that support that goal. If every night you're spending 15 minutes focussing solely on developing your abs, don't you think you'll be that little bit less likely to cheat on your diet or miss other training sessions?

As you can see the psychological benefit is as important as the physiological one, probably more so.

As for how I advise training the abs when using this strategy, I don't think exercise selection is as important as how the exercise is done. I advise the client to simply choose two flexion exercises, for example, crunches on the floor and reverse crunches, and do 3 sets each of about 15 reps. I tell them to focus on flexing the abs as hard as possible throughout the sets. Squeeze hard to bring the rib cage toward the pelvis, and maintain that tension when lowering the body so the low back almost has to pull the upper body back down.
That's it. Again, this is not a long term strategy, and is a very small part of the overall approach I use to get clients into the elusive "six pack abs" club. So if you have an already solid fat loss plan in place to take you to single digit bodyfat give it a try, but if you still have an appreciable amount of fat to lose, your effort should be spent elsewhere.

Training The Advanced Client (and more Arnie quotes)

2011-05-05T17:19:00.002+01:00

I've written before on this blog about the fact that our clients tend to be a pretty homogeneous group. They all tend to have desk based jobs, work long hours and have similar exercise histories. Consequently, they will usually have very similar training needs when they first come to see us. If you were to look at a training program for a handful of clients in their first three months of training they would probably have a lot in common, for example an emphasis on mobility at the hip, ankle and thoracic regions, and a good deal of training volume spent on upper back work and single leg exercises like split squats. One of our aims with all clients (in addition to their own personal goals naturally) is to have them full back squatting, deadlifting, chinning, pressing and performing some variety of olympic lift safely and with excellent technique within 16 weeks minimum. For most people it doesn't take nearly that long, but we do see the occasional person in pretty poor shape.

But if mastery of these core lifts is the goal, and we achieve that in our allotted time, what then? Today I'm giving an example of a program for a more advanced client, one who has gone through the process of developing proper mobility, stability, endurance, strength and technical proficiency to do it. In other words, this is the sexy stuff.

We name all our programs after characters from Arnold Schwarzenegger movies, so I call this one Matrix, after Arnie's character in the film Commando. So get ready because, to quote the man himself "all f**king hell is going to break loose". The idea here is very simple, for each session you choose from one of 3 movement patterns
- Upper Body Pushing
- Lower Body Hip Dominant
- Lower Body Quad dominant
You then choose 3-4 exercises that train that pattern. Each exercise should lend itself to using more weight than the preceding one. You then simply work up in weight in sets of 3 reps. When the weight becomes too heavy for that exercise you move on to the next exercise in the sequence. You should always strive to move the bar as fast as possible, and rest as little as you can without impairing performance (highly individual but this might be only 30-40 seconds on lighter sets moving up to 90 seconds on heavier lifts) Here's an example

Matrix!

Day 1 - Lower Body Hip Dominant

Power Clean from the hang - 4-5 sets of 3, progressively heavier each time
When the weight becomes to heavy move on to
Deadlifts - 4-5 x 3
Progessing in the same manner, finally moving on to
Rack Deadlifts from the knees - 4-5 x 3

Day 2 - Upper Body Pressing
Strict Military press (as above)
Push Press
Incline Bench
Flat Bench

Day 3- Lower Body Quad Dominant
Power Snatch from blocks
Front Squat
Back Squat

Day 4 - rotate back to Upper Body Pressing

Assistance work (upper back etc) is done either at the end of a session or between upper body sets. We train the back of the body quite differently to the front. You may often hear that you should do a set of rows for every set of presses to balance strength on the front and back of the body. I believe this is a misunderstanding of how the body should be trained for balance but thats a blog for another day. In the mean time , give Matrix a go and see if it turns you into "one gigantic motherf***er" (oh just watch the movie)

http://youtu.be/teSmRfAtDOU

Healthy Lunch in The City of London?

2011-04-28T18:44:00.002+01:00

We all know, or should know, that nutrition is the real key to fat loss. The fact that the phrase "you can't out-train a bad diet" has become a cliche is a positive thing because it is irrefutably true.

To this end, two common strategies we use with clients here at Aegis are

1- Focussing on nailing breakfast. This works because a decent breakfast sets you up for making better choices throughout the rest of the day. Eggs rock.

and 2- cooking double portions of dinner and having the leftovers for lunch the next day.

Pretty simple. Doesn't always work like that. Given our location in the City of London we train a high proportion of lawyers, bankers and business owners. These people tend to work their asses off and with the best will in the world they don't always feel they have time to prepare food to bring in to work every day. As a result they often have to grab lunch on the run. This is a problem as most of the options you will have for lunch in the city tend to be terrible from a fat loss perspective. White bread sandwiches from coffee shops being a typical choice.

So we could ignore this problem and blame the client for their lack of adherance when they get sub par results or we could come up with a solution. So, while this is not preferable to making your own meals and bringing them in (remember Cahill's second law of physique development ; "he who has the most tupperware in his bag will inevitably be in the best shape") this list of Aegis approved lunches in the city will help you when you're stuck.

Number one - Slo-Carb Box, Poncho No8, 5 Steward st, Spitalfields.
Developed by my colleague and fellow bicep curl enthusiast Graeme Marsh, this is a chicken based Mexican meal inspired by Time Ferriss's interesting book "The Four Hour Body". It ditches the wraps or rice in favour of black beans, a lower glycemic carb which keeps you fuller for longer and is less likely to turn you into a big fat fatty. Ask for extra guacamole and jalapenos, very tasty.

"www.poncho8.com

Number two- Thai Green Curry/Arrabiata Meat Balls. Pod, Exchange Square EC2A 2EH.
A bit of a higher carb choice here, so better reserved for post training or if you are already reasonably lean. The food quality here is better than most other take away lunch venues and it tastes great.

http://www.podfood.co.uk/

Notable mention- Haven't been in there much myself, but Chop'd salads in spitalfields market seems to offer some decent choices. As always with salads opt for a chicken and green leafy base rather than pasta, and balsamic and olive oil dressing rather than other options which tend to contain sugar and other ab-blurring rubbish.

Bon appetit.

Zack Cahill
Director

Why I Fecking Love The Sled

2011-02-04T19:00:00.001Z

Anyone who has ever trained at Aegis Training Studios will be all too familiar with what one of our clients called "the sliding tea tray of death", aka the sled. In many ways it sums up our entire training ethos - the body is made to lift, push, pull and drag stuff, the more you train it for that purpose the better your results will be. The sled is perfectly suited to this philosophy, and lends itself to a training experience that is simple but brutally effective.

However, it recently occurred to me that despite the sled featuring in pretty much every client's training week at some stage, I may in fact have been underusing it. For a long time I had been using the sled as a metabolic tool only, for quick and nasty fat burning sessions. Its is only relatively recently that I've come to view the sled as one of the most versatile pieces of equipment in existence, one that can be used to achieve any fitness goal.

The key to its effectiveness lies in these simple principles -
1- Fat loss, hypertrophy and strength gains rely on the accumulation of mechanical load, put simply ; you need to do WORK to see body composition and strength changes
2- Every bit of work you do requires a certain amount of recovery, the more work you do the more you need to recover. At a certain point the work you do will exceed your ability to recover from it.

With these principles in mind, here's a quick overview of how we use the sled at Aegis to its full potential

Rehabilitation - The sled is an awesome rehab tool, with particular application the the knee. Most knee rehab programs will involve some form of terminal knee extension. Yes there is some debate about the relevance of the VMO to knee function, and yes you need to address the hip, ankle, lumbo-pelvic region and so on, but I think most of us have seen TKE's work enough times not to throw it out of the toolbox. Traditionally machine leg extensions have been used, but there is concern that these can cause excessive sheer forces at the knee and (much as I despise this word for what it has come to represent within personal training) are seen as less "functional". Many trainers now use closed chain variations such as the Peterson or Poliquin step up. These are good exercises, but are frankly a pain in the ass to get clients to perform correctly, and more importantly can be quite time consuming in the context of a full body program. Its also incredibly boring to perform. The backward sled drag, however, targets terminal knee extension in a movement that requires practically zero coaching. It also has the added advantage of integrating the muscle into a movement that more accurately resembles a real world movement such as running, but with less requirement for deceleration at the knee and reduced eccentric load. All of this is good if you have a hurt client. The back sled drag can then be progressed to a forward drag and finally to a crouching sled push. You are progressing the client through greater range of motion at the hip and knee over time, while keeping the actual stress on the knee very low.
We know a big problem with corrective programs is they often aren't challenging enough to create any of the other benefits we would expect from weight training such as body composition changes. Not so with the sled. You can work them harder, sooner.

Hypertrophy - Again, hypertrophy is about accumulating mechanical load without exceeding your capacity to recover. Here's the rub - the most effective exercises for hypertrophy tend to be pretty tough to recover from, and what aspect of training makes the most inroads into your recovery capacity? The eccentric phase. Lowering weights, not lifting them is what makes you sore, eats into your recovery and prevents you from training more frequently. Enter the sled.
As I mentioned earlier the sled imposes very little eccentric load. You can pretty much use the sled every day without worrying about overtraining. If using it as a hypertrophy tool I will use the sled at the end of a session for whatever muscle groups have been trained that day (we usually don't get any more complicated than an upper/lower split, with many clients sticking with full body sessions) or as "extra" sessions within a weekly schedule. The only difference to using it as a metabolic tool would be rest periods and time under tension. For hypertrophy methods I tend to give the client a longer rest, use more weight and use about 30 seconds or so of dragging/pulling time. I love the sled for upper body hypertrophy work, particularly for the upper back. The back will respond extremely well to high frequency sled rows on top of an already sound lifting program.

Strength - Regarding training for strength, no less a clever dude than Vladimir Zatsiorsky said it well; "train as frequently as possible, as heavy as possible, while recovering as much as possible". You need to squat, you need to deadlift, you need to bench. However, if you imagine your capacity to recover as your monthly "wages", and these big lifts as "purchases", they are pretty expensive, and don't leave a lot of cash left for the little things like single leg work, isolation exercises "core" work and so on. So what's the solution? Squat less frequently? I don't believe so. In fact one of the most important changes I've made with training both myself and my slightly more advanced clients is to dramatically reduce, if not eliminate single leg work and focus instead on heavy, frequent sled dragging.
Heavy sled work, done for short distances (avoiding lactate accumulation) and with long recovery periods, accomplishes everything single leg work does. However, it is nowhere near as difficult to recover from and in fact can speed up recovery when done the day after a heavy lower body session. This allows you to focus on where the real money is, (squats and deadlift) while still taking care of the small stuff. I could go on about this but the bottom line is, focus on the big lifts and use sled work often to fill in the gaps rather than wasting time with endless single leg exercises that accomplish little in the scheme of things. By the way I definitely think traditional single leg work has its place, but (to steal a line form Alwyn Cosgrove) we are currently in a period of "overreacting" to and thus overusing it.

Metabolic - This should be pretty self evident as it is how most people currently use the sled anyway. You can do crazy challenges such as the Aegis Challenge (bodyweight on the sled, drag it ten lengths for time) or intervals, reducing the rest and increasing work over time like any other metabolic modality. Again the added benefit is that it is less stressful than something like running sprints, or even current favourites like barbell complexes. Just do some work, keep rest intervals incomplete, and do it a few times a week. Man this training stuff is complicated eh?

So there you go, hopefully that has you raring to buy yourself a sled or train somewhere that has one. Pile some weight on it and drag the mofo. You probably won't thank me but you will definitely see the benefits.

Inspiration

2010-09-20T17:33:00.001+01:00

I had a new client come to see me today. When he made contact he said he had looked at our exceptional blog (thanks!!!) which was also exceptionally out of date.. opps!!!

Anyway, just seen an awesome video on you tube.

Enjoy:

Poor man training - The prowler

2010-06-23T10:21:00.006+01:00

In this series we will look at cheap alternatives to some of the bits of kit available to use out there.

There has been an increase in the industry of more strongman style and athletic style training and this makes us very happy here at Aegis. It gives us ideas to try in our facility and we get to play with new and interesting bits of kit.

I think our clients like it too. This means that they get to experience the type of training that you will not find in other health clubs and gyms, make their workouts more varied and interesting. Not only that but this style of training gets results.

The prowler is a great bit of kit and we do not have one! We may invest in one in the future, I may need to sort out some storage space. See one in action below.

Until then we make do with our own version. Check Zack and Louis out, giving it a test drive:

Sample Meal Plan

2010-06-22T16:19:00.002+01:00

It has been a while, we know.

Lots of things to work on and no real excuse really, but we will be making a concerted effort to get more information up on the blog.

We are going to kick things off again with another Jack Lelanne video.

It still baffle us at Aegis, how there was someone back then who just knew what was right and that everyone chose to ignore him.

Hope you enjoy this and more to follow!

More about exercise intensity...

2009-09-27T15:01:00.002+01:00

We often go on about the importance of training hard. Of course, it is also important to give yourself time to recover and recuperate for adaptations to take place, but the underlying message is that in order to stimulate change, you need to train hard enough.

However, a recent study in Finland may well suggest that how hard you exercise and in particular how active your leisure time is, can have an impact on your future health. This study looked at the relationship between intensity of leisure time activity and development of cancer in men. You can find a link to the study HERE.

In the study they found that men who exercised in their leisure time at a level above 5.2 METS (Metabolic equivalents, where 1 MET is our resting energy expenditure and therefore 5.2 MET's means using 5.2 x the amount of energy used at rest - make sense?) showed significantly lower cancer mortality than those in the lowest quartile of below 3.7 METs. This was AFTER adjusting for age, alcohol and smoking, and other risk factors.

Now, 5.2 isn't particularly hard, for example, if you were to walk at 3.0 m.p.h then you would be working at 3.3 METs, whereas if you were running at 6.0 m.p.h then you would be up at around 10 METs. But the message here is clear that being active and including some higher intensity exercise into your leisure time - be that at the gym or out playing sport - can significantly lower your chances of cancer, in particular lung and gastrointestinal cancers and this should be of great consideration for us all. Although the study was carried out on men, similar studies have been carried out looking at women and breast cancer. It is no great surprise to see this trend echoed in the ladies, where an 11 year study in the U.S found a 20% reduction in post-menopausal women for breast cancer. Interestingly, this reduction was NOT seen in overweight and obese women.

Of course, when it comes to studies on exercise and cancer, the relationship is far from simple and different types of cancer show different relationships and responses to exercise both in risk and in treatment. However, it would seem that evidence is growing to suggest that exercise - in particular more vigourous exercise - can reduce your risk of several types of cancer, including the more common forms of breast, lung, and stomach cancer.

It ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it - that's what gets results"

2009-09-12T10:50:00.003+01:00

I am a self-confessed child of the eighties, a generation where Miami Vice was considered groundbreaking in TV cop drama and the highlight of my saturday night was watching Superstars with my dad. Oh, how things have changed, although spending a lot of my time living in Egypt as I currently am I still get to see Miami Vice and the A-Team on a regular basis, courtesy of the appropriately named 'MBC Action channel. Lucky old me.

Anyway, since well before the 80's, different methods and fads of exercise have come and gone. The latest craze in the PT world being a total abandonment of all aerobic type work and an almost evangelistic promotion of resistance training and strength work for the masses. Heck, I am mostly for it myself, and think that many people could benefit from adding resistance training to their workouts. I also believe that many people place too heavy a reliance on their jogging programme for weight loss. However, I don't believe that a total avoidance of 'aerobic' training is the way forward and don't subscribe to some of the arguments for this. Besides, if someone enjoys a jog round the park with their friend, then why not? The fact is that most people need to learn HOW to train, before they worry so much about WHAT to train. It doesn't matter whether you are running in the park, or doing the latest kettlebell routine, if the workout is done poorly, with insignificant volume or intensity to create a stimulus for change, then it simply won't be that effective. What is also true is that while aerobic training may not have been shown to be particularly effective in the research for weight loss, it has been shown to be a key factor in maintaining weight loss as well as improving several other markers of health, such as insulin sensitivity and mood. So before we throw the baby out with the bathwater, it is worth asking, is it what you are doing, or how you are doing it that needs to change?

In an effort to convey this message, I have gone back to the eighties. Where else? You see it isn't just about the type of exercise you do. Sure there are a ton of 'fat burning' workouts for sale on the internet, most of which are simply reinventing the wheel in terms of content. But, the fact is that none of them work if you don't pay attention to some underlying principles that apply no matter what you do. Indeed plenty of people do get results often with the most basic and sometimes terrible training programmes, so how do they do that?

It ain't what you do, it's how hard you do it

O.k so one of the biggest problems we see is that people often really don't train hard enough. They jog or bike at a level well below their lactate thresholds, which is no better than taking a weight you can press 20 times and only doing 10 reps with it. Whatever exercise programme you are doing, you have to train hard enough. That means training to a point close to (and sometimes beyond) fatigue with weights, and it means exercising for cardiovascular improvements at a level above that you can comfortably sustain, then using active recovery between bouts to raise fitness. In effect, we start to aerobic train a bit more like we weight train, working hard for a set, recovering, then repeating. When we look at the research it is clear, for both resistance training and cardiovascular exercise, higher intensities of work tend to bring an increased amount of benefits and improved markers of health in contrast to lower intensity work. So, remember, it ain't what you do, it is how hard you do it - that's what gets results.

It ain't what you do, it's how much you do it

O.k problem number two that we see a lot in health clubs all over the world, people simply don't do enough. Let's take for example the fat burning zone. This is sometimes called a myth and in some ways it is, although metabolic testing data will in fact tell you a heart rate and exercise intensity at which your body is primarily using fat for fuel, so it is a myth rooted in truth. However, the problem is that the actual total of fat calories expended at that level may be as low as 7 or 8 calories a minute. Now, when we take this a stage further, we can see that we would need to exercise for nearly 8 hours to burn through one pound of bodyfat. So, not exactly what you would call a particularly efficient method. Of course, we wouldn't typically do that in one go either, which means we would need to be doing essentially fasted sessions to do it that quickly. So, while it isn't so much a myth as a practical impossibility, you can probably start to see why your 5 minutes on the cross trainer, then 10 minutes on the treadmill, and 10 on the bike aren't going to make much of a dent in your fat loss efforts. Also, if you are one of those people who enjoys a sweet drink while you exercise then you will be raising insulin and preventing any of that fat burning taking place at all.

Now, of course the same in essence applies to resistance training. Insufficient volume of training will not exhaust enough muscle fibres to create improvements in muscle size and strength. Also, resistance training is a skill that needs to be developed and practiced and as such you have to spend time doing it. While the ACSM guidelines on resistance training (1 set of 8-12 repetitions) may be well-intended, they are not going to provide sufficient constant stress for adaptions to occur. Now, of course, there is a caveat here. Any training is designed to create a stimulus and is therefore reliant on sufficient recovery and adequate nutrition to allow that to happen. However, the research is clear, you need to be doing multiple sets of training to see continued improvements. So, if your own weights programme consists of one or two circuits of a few resistance machines then don't plan on seeing beach-buff pectorals any time soon. It's how much you do it, that's what gets results.

It ain't what you do, it's the way you progress it

The last section in our little homage to Banarama/Fun Boy Three, is to talk about progression. As we have already touched on, exercise creates a stimulus for change, recovery facilitates that change and consequently we become stronger and fitter. Essential to this is progression, yet we humans seem to have an affinity for repetition when it comes to workouts. I am not surprised, after all, learning HOW to exercise does not seem to be seen as a pre-requisite by anyone wanting to improve their health. However, like any other skill you need to improve your knowledge of it in order to progress and get better at it. Luckily, this is relatively simple with fitness training as in general it requires relatively little skill and therefore can be mastered by just about anyone.
The key to seeing ongoing changes is to ensure you are progressing your training. With cardiovascular work there are two main areas you can progress, you can either go harder or longer. Whereas weights offer a little more scope for progression, although altering volume and intensity are both principal methods. Adding an extra set for example would be increasing volume, whereas increasing weight for fewer reps would be increasing the intensity. Where weights allow for more progression is in the almost endless variety of exercises you can select to target a specific outcome.

Whichever it is remember, it ain't what you do, but the way you progress it, that's what gets results.

So, before you go abandoning your running or weights routine, ask yourself those three questions first. Are you training hard enough, are you doing enough of it, and are you progressing it with each workout?

A great blast from the past....

2009-09-09T09:48:00.002+01:00

A friend of mine recently posted a couple of videos from the great Jack Lalanne on his Facebook page and at Aegis we have all tried to figure out how - if this chap knew all this great stuff all those years ago - it all went so wrong? How did the public impression of 'healthy eating' get so distorted over the years with people thinking that a bowl of high sugar cereal is a great breakfast or that eggs cause your arteries to clog up?

We will be posting a few more videos from Jack Lalanne, and you can get over to his website at www.jacklalanne.com to see a whole lot more.

We hope you like it and remember, just because it is black and white and it may be old, it doesn't make it wrong. Watch and learn. Simple but really true advice from a bit of a legend in the fitness industry.

Can exercise make you thin? Or maybe it can make you fat....?

2009-08-30T09:55:00.003+01:00

Well of course, this would seem an absurd question to most of us, but not so it seems to John Cloud from Time Magazine in the US whose latest article has garnered all kinds of attention for it's rather tilted stance on the use of exercise as an adjunct to weight loss. Now, if we tried to correct every oversight or technicality on the internet we would be here all day, every day, but we couldn't let this one slide and here is why.

This reply was inspired by a friends somewhat desperate email to me about the article that appeared recently in Time magazine entitled Why Exercise won't make you thin'. My friend was horrified, all of a sudden she was counting her 'wasted hours' at the gym and spiraling into despair about what the hell she is actually meant to do to lose weight. I don't blame her, frankly the sheer volume of information on the internet is so vast it is hard to actually comprehend. Therefore, if you want to get your piece noticed then you have to have an angle, and John Cloud the author of the Time magazine piece certainly picked a good angle.

However, while he picked a good angle, his piece is a prime example of how to cherry pick research with strong selection biases (while Mr Cloud references the excellent Gary Taubes, I believe he might have missed the earlier chapters of Taubes book describing these) and glaring technical errors - even the old 'turn fat into muscle ' slipped into it. Of course, as this piece isn't a literature review and rather a more direct rebuttal, I have done similar and shown how easy it is to find research strongly contradicting this article.

On the first page of Mr Clouds article he quotes Eric Ravussin, Chair of Diabetes and Metabolism at Lousiana State university who comes out with a corker stating 'in general for weight loss, exercise is pretty useless' - nice one doc, but allow me to issue a rebuttal to that rather non-academic statement. You see first of all, the interpretation of that statement for the general public is that if someone wants to lose weight or is indeed overweight, then they shouldn't bother exercising. I disagree and I think that a review of literature tends to contradict Dr (?) Ravussin's statement.

In an academic review of available literature carried out in 2005 and published in the peer reviewed International journal of Obesity, Curioni and Lurenco (2005) stated that "diet associated with exercise weight loss produced a 20% greater effect than diet alone and 20% greater sustained weight loss after 1 year". So, score one for exercise. However, there is a more disturbing trend as highlighted in research from the Journal of the American Dietetic Association who found that although dieting alone produced results comparable with diet and exercise over the course of a year, those who didn't exercise were highly likely to regain their weight. This trend seems to be so evident in the research that it is a wonder anyone could reach the astounding conclusion that exercise might actually make you fatter, as Mr Cloud ventures in his article. It would in fact be easy to write an entire book simply full of reasons why you should exercise, particularly if you are trying to lose weight. For example, research has also found that adding resistance training to a diet intervention, while it made no significant difference to weight loss (wait for it...) did make a significant impact on the amount of lean muscle lost (Bryner at al 1999, Geliebtner et al 1997). It also found that in women between 35-50 (presumably a target market for this kind of piece) that exercise and physical activity can make a significant impact on metabolic rate (the amount of calories you burn to keep everything in the body ticking over nicely) and fat free mass (Gilliat-Wimberly et al 2001). It isn't just the girls either, guys too need to keep training, as if they maintain activity as they age then they also are able to maintain their metabolic rate (Van Pelt et al 2001), so in fact NOT exercising as Mr Cloud suggests would seem to be a recipe for gaining fat as you age rather than losing it.

There is no secret to this research, you can find it yourself, go to Google Scholar and type in 'exercise, weight loss, review' as a search term and most of these studies are near the top of the page. Much like weight loss itself, this isn't a complex thing to undertake, but it requires effort, time, patience, and a modicom of knowledge on where to go to get the right information.

Looking at the research I find Ravussins comments even more surprising, particularly from a chair of diabetes, given the strong ties between diabetes and insulin resistance and the overwhelming evidence to support exercise as an intervention in Type 2 or non-insulin dependent diabetes. Here is what the International Journal of Sports Medicine have to say on the matter "we conclude that physical training plays an important if not essential role in the treatment and prevention of insulin sensitivity" (emphasis added by this author) they also outline that the regulation of hepatic glucose output is improved by physical training, which is of particular benefit to NIDDM (Borqhouts & Keiser 2000). I could go on and indeed I will as i am unsure of Ravussins motivations for his comments, however, I will let the data and evidence speak for itself. Here is paraphrased (I'd love to have quoted the entire abstract but space is becoming a consideration) what the University of Texas had to say on the topic "the protective effects of physical exercise are strongest for those at highest risk of developing NIDDM, there are several important adaptations to exercise training that may be beneficial in the prevention and treatment of insulin resistance, impaired glucose tolerance, and NIDDM" (Ivy 1997). I am not sure that the rather dismissive absolutism with which Ravussin states that exercise is 'pretty useless' does justice to his rather magniloquent title. Is this the message that he is sending his undergraduate students before they go out into the wide world of working with people with insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, and NIDDM? Let us hope not.

Now, this is turning into a long article, but there are a couple more points to be made. Firstly, in a literature review, such as those referenced above you provide a critique of the evidence for and against. This rarely happens in journalistic articles for two reasons namely 1) it makes for rather dry reading (as I am sure you are finding) and 2) it doesn't give the 'quick fix' hook that the public are looking for and that sells magazines. I don't want to get into a diatribe here about what you should and should not do to lose weight, but merely try and provide some balance to the original article. Secondly, as we are in rebuttal territory of some of the quoted research in the Time article, a central theme is that exercising will encourage you to eat more and indeed to choose worse food choices. Again, a look at the literature doesn't tend to support this conclusion as Bellisle (1999) states in the Journal of Public Health "there is no scientific evidence that exercise increases appetite, but very intense exercise may suppress it transitorily" in contradiction to Mr cloud who suggests that 'intense' exercise will cause you to eat more. Bellisle goes on to point out (along with several other studies on the topic) that our social, psychological, and emotional habits all play a more significant role in how we go about selecting our food after exercising and in general, a sentiment echoed recently by Booth et al (2009) in the Nutrition Review Journal.

So, what should the take home message be for those of you still a little confused about what you should and should not be doing?

Well firstly, the benefits of a structured, progressive programme of exercise - including resistance training, not simply aerobic work - are so wide ranging and obvious that everyone should be encouraged to do it. While research on the specific effects of exercise as a weight loss modality may have proved underwhelming in some of the research (generally adding aerobic training to diets) for creating a strong additional effect, it is VERY evident that exercise plays a large role in keeping weight loss permanent and in creating long-term success. Pavlou et al (1989) concluded that dietary treatment alone had no effect at 18 month or 36 month periods and that all NON-exercise groups regained weight lost, in stark contrast to the exercise intervention where those who stuck at it managed to maintain weight lost. This is strong evidence indeed of the importance of exercise as part of a weight loss programme and another pretty firm nail in the coffin for naysayers such as Mr Cloud of Time Magazine. There is also good evidence that resistance training for example can play a strong role in the maintenance of fat free mass both in relation to dieting and ageing.

Of course though, results don't come by accident, they come through effort, but unfortunately it seems that our current trend is to go in search of the next quick fix solution rather than face the hard truth about what we need to do. This would explain why the public would love to read an article telling them exercise is a waste of time, I cannot imagine an article saying "weight loss takes work" would be anywhere near as popular. However, it would be a more truthful sentiment. The notion that 'walking home with the groceries' is 'just as effective' is laughable and in fact against all the long-established truths that exercise must be progressive and overload the body if it is to be successful.

As for Mr Cloud himself who has 'never been overweight' apparently, yet by his own admission has a gut that hangs over his belt? Well according to his article, his own 'intense' regime doesn't even leave him with enough energy to shop or cook, leaving him no choice but to go to Pizza Hut and do nothing whatsoever for the rest of the day. Indeed, he states that perhaps if he didn't train so hard, he might have the energy to take the stairs more often! He must certainly train hard if that is the case, harder than anyone I know, or could it be his lack of energy is linked to something other than his exercise, such as a lack of effort or education in how to eat correctly? Einstein first said that the definition of insanity is to repeat the same exercise over and over and to expect different results, a lesson Mr Cloud has yet to learn it would seem

Sure, you can't compensate for a terrible diet through a few sessions a week in the gym - although you can lessen the effects and improve other markers of fitness aside from weight, such as improving insulin sensitivity, increasing strength, improving mobility, and alleviating the effects of depression, to name but a few. Underneath all the hyperbole, this is the message that the article is trying to convey- that weight loss begins with good nutritional practices and can be enhanced through increasing overall activity levels, although the effectiveness of different types of exercise can be widely variable depending on a huge number of factors. However, the overall benefits of a structured exercise programme far outweigh any of the possible negatives, and the evidence doesn't concur with the original authors skewed perspective on it, nor does it account for his own personal failure to achieve the physique we presume he is after. The fact is that rather like Mr Cloud, many people undermine their efforts either through a lack of education or a lack of effort, some just don't train hard enough or often enough, while others place too much stock in the effect that 20 minutes of slow jogging is going to have on their weight loss. While it is true that heavier people already burn more calories simply through their weight - this cannot be compared to expending energy in a form that will actually stimulate adaptation and change within the body. There is a fundamental difference.

It would certainly seem to be putting the cart well before the horse to try and suggest that exercise is of no use in the efforts to help obesity and may even make people eat worse and get fatter? Last time I checked the global obesity crisis was not caused by over-exercising or by an epidemic of overeating and inactivity brought on by intense physical exercise. While the notion that you shouldn't be doing any exercise apart from walking the odd flight of stairs or carrying the shopping home may appeal to modern societies quick-fix nature, everything else in our evolution and in our sports science would scream that this is nothing more than journalistic quackery and hyperbole. My advice, if you want to know the truth about getting in shape, start by listening to someone who is, rather than someone who by their own admittance isn't.

References:

Booth et al (2009) Environmental and Societal Factors Affect Food Choice and Physical Activity: Rationale, Influences, and Leverage Points. Nutrition Reviews Volume 59 Issue 3, Pages S21 - S36

Bellisle (1999) Food choice, appetite and physical activity. Public Health Nutrition: 2(3a), 357 – 361

Blair (1993) Evidence for Success of Exercise in Weight Loss and Control. Ann Int Med. 1 October 119(7): 2, 702-706

Borqhouts & Keizer (2000) Exercise and insulin sensitivity : A review. International journal of sports medicine. 2000, vol. 21, no1, pp. 1-12 (130 ref.)

Bryner at al (1999) Effects of resistance vs. aerobic training combined with an 800 calorie liquid diet on lean body mass and resting metabolic rate. J Am Coll Nutr. 1999 Apr;18(2):115-21.

Curioni & Lourenco (2005) Long-term weight loss after diet and exercise: a systematic review. International Journal of Obesity 29, 1168–1174.

Garrow & Summerbell (1995) Meta-analysis: effect of exercise, with or without dieting, on the body composition of overweight subjects. Eur-J-Clin-Nutr. 1995 Jan; 49(1): 1-10

Geliebtner et al (1997) Effects of strength or aerobic training on body composition, resting metabolic rate, and peak oxygen consumption in obese dieting subjects. Am J Clin Nutr. 1997 Sep;66(3):557-63.

Ivy (1997) Role of exercise training in the prevention and treatment of insulin resistance and non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. Sports Med. 1997 Nov;24(5):321-36.

Pavlou et al (1989) Exercise as an adjunct to weight loss and maintenance in moderately obese subjects. Am J Clin Nutr 49(5): 1115

Skender at al (1996) Comparison of 2-Year Weight Loss Trends in Behavioral Treatments of Obesity: Diet, Exercise, and Combination Interventions. J Am Diet Assoc. 1996; 96:342-346.

Van Pelt et al (2001) Age-related decline in RMR in physically active men: relation to exercise volume and energy intake. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2001 Sep;281(3):E633-9

Wallberg-Henriksson et al (1998) Exercise in the management of non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. Sports Med. 1998 Jan;25(1):25-35.

Orthorexia

2009-08-17T17:13:00.003+01:00

This article appeared in the Observer on Sunday: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/aug/16/orthorexia-mental-health-eating-disorder

It seems orthorexia, defined as an obsession with eating healthily and "righteously", is on the increase. More and more people are planning meals in advance, becoming concerned with the types of food they put in their bodies and how it is produced, and deriving satisfaction from the act of eating better food. Oh, and this is a bad thing. In all seriousness, the article is reasonably balanced and I can certainly see how overly obsessive behaviour around food to the point that it causes you severe psychological stress if you miss a serving of chicken breast could be seen as unusual. Also, if you follow a stupid diet in the mistaken belief that it is a better way, you can become malnourished. But where is the line between healthy habits and an eating disorder? Well you can self test here to find out! http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/08.02.01/eating3-0131.html

Well, if you read that and answered yes to 2 or 3 questions, meaning you have "a touch of orthorexia", don't feel too bad. I did too, along with pretty much anyone else who has ever been in better than average shape. Along with every athlete. Brace yourself; getting in great shape requires some level of focus and planning around what you eat.

When I first began to take in interest in nutrition for the purposes of gaining muscle and getting stronger I experienced some resistance from friends and family; the usual unfounded worries about about excess protein and a general feeling that creatine and steroids are one and the same. But more than this, there was just a certain amount of plain hostility about the fact that I wanted to eat better food. Some people were threatened or perhaps offended by it. It happens.

I wouldn't go so far as to say it "socially isolated me", but it definitely caused some friction and caused me some stress. Until I realised it wasn't really my problem. I think that's the point really, restricting your food intake to the point of malnourishment and ceasing all socialising to focus on your diet is a form of disorder, and that's your problem. But if people don't like me eating better than them, or feel threatened or guilty because they know their diet is crap, then that's their problem.

Aegis makes it back into Time Out

2009-08-12T11:27:00.002+01:00

Well we still don't know how they found out about us, but we are delighted nonetheless to have made it back into the Time Out list of London's best gyms and fitness centres. We are especially pleased as this year it is a slimline list with only eight venues selected from central London. You can check out the page on London's best fitness centres here.

It is really pleasing for us to see our name alongside such large established venues like The Third Space and Gymbox, and refreshing to know that we are able to continue offering something that can compete with them. Of course, we always have and continue to believe that we offer something unique within London. A private gym with tons of space, natural light, plenty of equipment, a passionate and enthusiastic team, no contracts or joining fees, a great location, and high quality personal training starting from as low as £25 per session. So, we very much hope we can continue to reflect that in our clients and our results.

As readers of our newsletter will know, we are also only weeks away from finally getting the new website online, along with new pictures of the gym and a simple, easy to follow guide to our services and products. Our 30 minute training sessions continue to be popular and we still have a few slots available in off-peak times for those of you who find it hard to fit one hour training sessions into your busy days.

We even keep trying to get hold of the Time Out team to invite them to come and train with us one day here at the gym, but so far we haven't heard back (could it be that the tyre flipping and sledgehammers are scaring them off!!!???), so if they are reading please email London personal trainers and we will get your team down for some training.

Madonna's Veiny Arms

2009-07-29T18:03:00.001+01:00

Oh here we go again. You spend your working life explaining to women that weight training is massively beneficial to their health and effective for fat loss, then the Metro print a picture of Madonna looking like an anatomy chart with veiny *ahem*.. "bulging" biceps, complete with comments from a "celebrity personal trainer" admonishing her to cut out weight training and just do Yoga and Pilates (not wanting to put another trainer down I'll assume he was taken out of context to fit the tone of the article.) Excuse me while I stab myself in the eyes.
How many women are now going to be put off weight training by this picture and accompanying article?

Perhaps I've missed something but wasn't Madonna basically the poster girl for yoga, claiming at one point to practice it for hours every day? And didn't she train with that other "celebrity trainer" Tracy Anderson, the person who once brilliantly decreed that women should never lift more than 3lbs ? (careful never to buy more than two bags of sugar at once there ladies, you'll get bulging biceps just from carrying them home!) I have no idea what kind of exercise Madonna actually does (neither does the journalist writing the article or the trainer commenting on it) but the premise that she is performing too much heavy weight training and needs to do MORE yoga is, I feel, basically crap.

The fact is Madonna is not even particularly muscular, she simply has very low body fat , probably due to her alleged macrobiotic eating habits and a very active lifestyle given that she is dancing round on a stage for hours every night. A woman with the same amount of muscle mass and a normal body fat percentage would look the toned, athletic picture of health.

The blanket recommendation of Yoga and Pilates over weight training is moronic, and is symptomatic of the general demonisation of weight training that has existed for years amongst people who are ignorant of exercise physiology (again, I have no idea what the trainer actually said and don't wish to attack him personally, only the message of the article.) Perpetuating this rubbish helps nobody.

Madonna's physique and training regime has precisely zero relevance to anybody actually reading the article, the vast majority of whom don't even perform enough physical activity to preserve the muscle mass they have, let alone build massive biceps. Just because some celebrity looks a bit freakish doesn't mean you need to avoid weight training altogether for fear of turning into Mr Universe overnight. Trust me folks; it's not that easy! (if it was my biceps would be 26 inches instead of just 25.)

Weight training as part of a properly devised exercise program is one of the most positive steps you can take toward staying lean and healthy for life. Don't let any media boneheads or "Celebrity Personal Trainers" tell you other wise. Rant over.

Fat Loss Mistakes Part 3

2009-07-29T12:35:00.001+01:00

4. Not being honest with yourself.

Okay, if I had a fiver for every time someone has asked me how they should be eating to lose their spare tyre and then followed it with the caveat “I have a good diet, I only eat fish and vegetables” then I’d have at least £500, probably more. Please, don’t tell me one thing, when your body tells me a different story. You’re not just lying to me, you are lying to yourself and until you start being honest with yourself then you are not going to shift that weight. If you don’t play by the rules then you won’t get the results. Once you pick a programme or a diet that ticks your boxes you MUST stick to it. Doing something 70% will not give you 100% of the results. So, it means you must be disciplined and honest with yourself about what you can achieve.
For example, I am a known fan of ‘low-carbohydrate diets’ but this can mean a lot of different things, there is a world of difference between the ketogenic diet and the protein power diet for example, even though both are ‘low-carb’. Here is a little rule for you, the more extreme the diet approach, the harder it is to follow and the easier it is to get completely wrong. An interesting study carried out at Stanford in the USA found that when put on a low-carb diet or a low-fat diet over the course of a year those who were ‘low-carb’ (following Atkins) tended to increase their carb intake, while those who were ‘low-fat/high carb’ (following the Ornish diet) tended to reduce their carbs. Interesting, how both groups found long-term reduction of an entire food group to be a challenge. As an aside, during that study, the Atkins group however maintained a higher healthy fat intake and were yet the only group (the study also compared Zone and LEARN national recommended diet) to see reductions in triglycerides and LDL cholesterol, with improvements in HDL levels and favourable changes in blood pressure. A stinging blow for all those dieticians out there who STILL insist on vilifying anyone who attempts to suggest that we should focus our efforts on reducing the refined carbohydrate intake of the population.
However, I digress from the original motto of this little story and in true Ronnie Corbett fashion will adjust my glasses, sit back, and continue. The real fact is that people often don’t want to hear that losing fat is hard work, a lot harder than gaining it was actually. When they are new to exercise they often are reluctant to push themselves out of their comfort zone, instead opting for dumbbells the weight of toothpicks (wouldn’t want to bulk up after all!!!) and fifteen minutes in the fat-burning zone (see more below). Listen folks, it is simple, if you want to get strong then you have to pick up something heavy, if you want to get fitter then you have to get that heart rate up well above it’s normal daily level, and if you want to lose bodyfat you have to put some serious effort into how you eat and how you train. Anyone who tells you any different is either a liar or a salesperson, or both.

Five Fat Loss Mistakes Part 2

2009-07-27T12:11:00.000+01:00

Skipping meals

After that diatribe, the next mistake is pretty straightforward but all too common. Missing meals (more often than not breakfast is the common culprit) is a quick way to fail on any campaign to change your body. Those who miss breakfast tend to consume more calories throughout the rest of the day, and are also far more prone to reach for the sugary snacks to rapidly boost blood sugar levels. This is a fat loss disaster as it sends insulin levels sky high encouraging our body to keep the energy while it is available and keeping our fat cells in storage mode rather than usage. If you want to avoid this mistake, ensure you have protein at each meal, take small regular snacks through the day rather than large meals (which also cause chaos with our blood sugar levels) and make sure to eat something for breakfast. This is such a simple mistake, yet so common, we had to include it on our list.

Not doing enough, and what you do, not doing hard enough.

The third of our fat loss no-no’s is a symptom of our ‘more for less’ culture. In an effort to satiate this we are often surprised at some of the claims we see for workouts, supplements, and diets. However, through it all there is one truth – you have to do enough and what you do, you have to do hard enough. There are 168 hours in the week in which to mess up your efforts to improve your body composition so some of those hours have to be dedicated to getting results. Simply turning up at the gym isn’t enough.
We have a saying at Aegis that was a favourite quote of Vince Lombardi – “the only place that success comes before work is in the dictionary”. This couldn’t be more true when it comes to fat loss. Like any other skill, you only get out what you put in and it isn’t enough to just do an hour here and there a week and hope that the rest will look after itself, because it won’t. To get good at learning a language you need to speak it outside of the lessons, and to get good at fat loss that means you have to live it outside of training sessions. The studies back it up too, clearly showing that the strongest indicator of success in long-term weight loss is not what type, mode, or intensity of exercise you do (though of course these can make a difference to how much you lose and how fast) but actually how much activity you manage over the course of a week. Chances are if you can only find 30 minutes a week in your life to put your own health first then you might not see such great results. Getting leaner and healthier means taking time to learn how to shop and cook healthier and it also means taking time to increase your activity levels in your day to day life.
When it comes to time for training, you need to work hard. That doesn’t mean reading a magazine on the recumbent bike at the gym either – for the calories this burns you’d be better off dancing or playing some sport and not boring yourself to tears pedalling a bike that isn’t going anywhere. Fat loss training means sweating, pushing yourself, and trying to improve on your previous workout – one more set, more reps, more weight, faster sprints, shorter recovery intervals, less rest periods, whatever it takes to make improvements and keep the training a challenge. While the notion of getting more for less might sound appealing, it is not going to get you the results you want.

Five Fat Loss Mistakes…

2009-07-23T12:25:00.001+01:00

Most of what we know about losing weight and improving body composition is intuitive rather than learned. For example, we all know that broccoli is better than pizza for weight loss and that too much beer gives you a belly (amusingly an actual study has proven that alcohol will cause specific fat deposits around the abdomen, so it really is a beer belly). We also know that the basics like getting enough water and adequate sleep are essential for our health and well being, both physically and psychologically – Abraham Maslow identified this back in the 1940’s. These fundamentals are often missing as a result of priorities rather than ignorance – sometimes life just isn’t geared around losing weight. In fact, modern life seems to be far better suited to gaining weight and one look at the expanding waistline of our population is ample evidence of that fact. However, we can also see that not just our waistline, but the rest of our health suffers when our basic needs aren’t fulfilled – despite modern attempts to quell these needs.
When it comes to getting started with exercising and trying to improve body composition it is easy to be overwhelmed with the sheer volume of information out there on the topic. There are a multitude of training programmes and often some pretty dogmatic opinions, even though we know from the research that a fat loss programme is only any good if you actually stick to it. Indeed, the best fat loss programme is the one that you actually follow.

However, some of the mistakes we make can let us down without us realising where we have gone wrong, so to get the most from your efforts to improve your health make sure you avoid the following common errors…

1. Picking a programme you won’t stick to:

One thing that looking at fat loss studies tells you is that drop out rates are typically high, a fact that often seems to get left behind while fat loss ‘experts’ build their latest miracle fat blasting workouts based on the findings, often without asking why the study had a 30% or often higher drop out rate.

What this tells us is that the optimal fat loss protocol, may not be ‘optimal’ for you. Sure, intensive interval training is great for fat loss but how often are the psychological demands of this kind of training actually considered? These types of programmes work well for the highly motivated, those with a trainer, or those who exercise as part of a group – but are not so well suited to the person who teeters between trying and giving up and exercises on their own. Similarly, while high density metabolic resistance circuits can also be effective, they work best with those with the requisite strength to train them hard enough. For those who are de-conditioned, local muscular fatigue becomes a challenge long before systemic metabolic fatigue. Those without any resistance training experience would be better served combining lots of walking with a basic resistance training protocol aimed at improving lean mass, increasing strength and building local muscle endurance, prior to attempting high-density metabolic circuits.

So, to avoid making this mistake, first pick a programme that can work for you and be realistic about what you expect from it. Training three times a week is great, but it won’t put you on the cover of Mens Health in 3 months – despite what those selling the programmes might have you think.

Despite the vitriol directed at ‘cardio’ work recently, the fact is that very few individuals (with the exception of the genetically gifted and nutritionally virtuous) can lose weight without it. What type of cardio work you select should be dependent on your current level of fitness, body type, time challenges, and training experience. Beginners, particularly those overweight are well-served in the first instance by trying to accumulate as much exercise as possible such as uphill walking combined with basic resistance work. More experienced exercisers can incorporate interval training combined with some lower intensity work and of course resistance training. The more advanced will be able to choose from a wider range of methods, often using more athletic conditioning circuits, high-intensity intervals, and high-intensity weight training to build improved strength.

Those with a more rounded natural shape tend to benefit from a little more cardiovascular work, while those who are naturally taller and thin (and maybe have more localised fat stores in the abdomen for example) would do better with a bit less cardio and instead to concentrate on adding muscle mass with resistance training. Those lucky mesomorphs in the middle tend to get lean whatever activity they pick – much to the chagrin of the rest of us who aren’t blessed as such – but do well with resistance training and simply increasing activity through anything from walking to recreational sport. However, whatever your build you should avoid an excessive reliance on aerobic work such as running, which over time may not bring results but might well lead to a loss of lean muscle and be counter-productive. However the standard line that sprinters are lean and marathon runners are not so you should train like a sprinter is an oversimplification of the entire story, the research would disagree - finding that sports where bodyweight are supported (such as kayak or swimming) tend to have higher bodyfat levels and that sprinters and marathoners actually have very similar levels of bodyfat, check out the study here. Marathoners tend to have very low levels of body fat too, but sprinters have far greater amounts of muscles mass, in particular the fast-twitch muscle that give us explosive speed and power. You could well ask whether they got to be like that from sprinting, or alternatively if they got to sprinting from having that make up in the first place. My money would be on the latter.

Check in for fat loss mistake number two coming soon.....

Kettlebell Complexes

2009-07-17T13:06:00.003+01:00

Here's a quick and simple kettlebell complex which can be added to the end of any workout for the purposes of fat loss and conditioning. We're fond of adding these type of "finishers" at the end of training sessions after the strength training component.
A complex is simply a series of two or more exercises performed back to back, generally with the same implement. They are a good way to get power-endurance and fat loss benefits while also strengthening the grip and posterior chain. Here's a simple example. More to come.

Walking the Walk II

2009-07-07T16:29:00.002+01:00

Continuing our series in which we let you in on how our trainers actually train themselves, today it's the turn of company director Graeme Marsh . Currently swanning about in Egypt and calling it "work", Graeme has had to adapt his training program for suitability at an ordinary health club. Here's what he had to say.......

what are your current training goals?

Right now, with a history of shoulder problems and a lot of time spent at the laptop my aim is to stay lean, strong, and healthy....

What does your training program look like at the moment?

it's a bit of an irregular programme, but is designed to improve strength, avoid problem exercises, and strengthen weaknesses. As I am overseas it means training in a health club so I tend to work a lot more straight set training to avoid losing equipment or cables between sets.....however, this is the nuts and bolts of the programme. To keep it short i've not included warm up drills or all the relevant tempos and rest periods....

Day 1. Lower Body (Quad dominant)

A Front Squats in the Power Rack 4-6 sets of 3 (aim to work up to 6 x 3 before putting up weight). Stretch hip flexors between sets.

B. Split Squats with Front foot Slightly raised. 3-4 sets of 6 - 8 reps. 301 tempo. Stretch out hip rotators between sets.

C1. Decline Step Up 3 x 10-12

C2. Calf Raises 3 x 10-12 - slow ex and pause at bottom.

D1. Cable Side Bends 3 x 10-12 slow speed on ecc and con.

Day 2. Upper body 1.

A1. Cable Pronated Grip Row 4 x 10-12 - focus on lots of scap retraction and humeral head retraction.

A2. Rotating Rear Delt Fly 4 x 10-12 - on incline bench, rotating thumbs to ceiling.

B1. Cable Face Pulls 3 x 10-12

B2. Rolling Triceps Extensions 3 x 8-10

C1. Lower Trap Dips 3 x 20-25

C2. Band External Rotations 3 x 12-15

D. Wrist Curls 3 x 12-15

Day 3. Lower Body (Hip Dominant)

A. Rack Deadlifts 4-6 sets of 3 (aim to work up to 6 x 3 before putting up weight). Stretch hip flexors between sets

B. Kneeling Leg Curls 4 x 6-8

C1. Hyperextensions 3 x 10-12

C2. Calf Raises Bent knee 3 x 10-12

D. Dragon Flags 3 x AMRAP

Day 4. Upper Body 2.

A. Chest Supported DB Row 4 x 8-10

B1. Single Arm kneeling Cable Row 3 x 10-12

B2. Dumbbell Screw Curls 3 x 8-10

C1. Trap 3 Lifts 3 x 8-12

C2. Lower Trap Dips 3 x 20-25

D. Side Crunch on Roman Chair. 3 x 12-15

Two days a week i do energy system work.....one day is recovery walking and stretching and the other day is interval training and an early shower.....

What's your favourite exercise?

Strangely, never thought I would say it, but......probably front squats....a really challenging but rewarding exercise.

What aspect of training do you find most difficult?

Having to work around an injury and avoid exercises like Cleans that I really enjoy......

What does your diet look like?

Living here in Egypt has meant making some changes in my normal UK diet. Breakfasts I tend to alternate between a very high protein, low carb one such as a cheese omelette with something a bit lighter such as some watermelon and natural yoghurt the next day.. ...after training I'll have a protein shake normally with a few grammes of Glutamine thrown in. For veg it is mostly broccoli and green beans along with lots of peppers teamed with chicken, beef, and fish. I keep to one coffee a day, drink a heck of a lot of water, and eat fruit such as watermelon, apples, and avocado. As for supplements, I take Betaine HCL with main meals, Zinc and GI Microb X (an anti GI infection supplement that has kept me diarrhea free since arriving). Post-training is a serving of Whey Cool (no carbs pretty much) with a teaspoon of glutamine. My diet probably resembles that of the Michael Eades style Protein Power type diet most closely, but is not really designed for weight loss, more just to keep energy up through the day and keep blood sugar levels under control. I eat if I am hungry and am not adverse to the odd treat if i fancy it. Alcohol is virtually non-existent.

Walking the Walk

2009-07-03T09:53:00.005+01:00

Those of you who regularly read our blog and have checked out our youtube channel will have seen plenty of footage of us training and demonstrating exercises, but we have never delved into how we actually train when the cameras aren't around. Over the next few blog posts we'll be detailing what each of our trainers current training program looks like. First up is Senior Trainer Zack Cahill.

What are your current training goals?

As ever, get stronger on the big three exercises; squat, deadlift and bench press. I feel that if you focus on performance on those movements then muscle growth and body composition changes happen as a result.

What does your training program look like at the moment?

I'm adding in a bit of strongman training at the moment, mainly for the sake of variety and to keep things interesting. I'm also training twice a day, keeping sessions short. I do conventional strength training in the morning and strongman training later on.
What works for me is lots of sets of low reps with the big exercises, I get little additional benefit from doing lots of assistance exercises so I keep those relatively low, mostly just upper back work, external rotations and lower trap work to keep the shoulders healthy. And curls of course. My current weekly schedule looks something like this.

Monday -
AM session - Rack Deadlifts. As many sets of 1-3 reps as possible in 30 minutes. I might do a bit of single leg work after this such as Siff Split-Squats, for 2 or 3 sets.
PM session - Trap Bar Farmers walk to death.

Wednesday -
Am session - Bottom- up Bench Press in the power rack. Again as many sets of 1-3 as possible in 20 minutes, supersetted with weighted chin ups in the same format. I will usually do some sort of rotator cuff or lower trap work then and usually some bicep curls and tricep work like close grip bench presses to the neck, california presses etc.

PM session- Sled drags. To death again.

Friday -
AM session - Squats- As many sets of 1-3 as possible in 30 minutes.
PM session - Tyre flips. As many as possible in 20 minutes.

Probably not the most balanced or orthopedically sound program in the world and not one I plan to do for weeks on end, but it works and it's fun.

What is your favourite exercise?
The squat, because I am not a naturally good squatter and have had to work very hard to take my squat from totally pathetic to marginally less pathetic.

What aspect of training do you find most difficult?
I don't do cardio. Anything over 5 reps is cardio anyway isn't it? (joking...sort of)

What does your diet look like?

Generally lower carb. Eat every 2-3 hours. Protein every meal. Plenty of green stuff, nuts, meat and eggs. If it has an ingredients list don't eat it. If it swims in the sea, frolics in the forrest or grows in the ground, eat it. The basics. And a couple of corona at the weekend.

In our next post we'll question Zahid on his bizarre training protocols (10 sets of snatches as a finisher anybody?) and just how he keeps his beard so glossy.

10 sets of 10, with a tyre....

2009-06-26T14:31:00.003+01:00

As you know we have a tradition of coming up with a non-sensical, random, no-rules workouts every friday. This week it was our very own Master of Volume Zahid, the man with the largest adrenal glands in East London to come up with a workout and he has done us proud. Zahid has developed a reputation for the longest workouts on the team and is the only person we know who calls ten sets of snatches "a finisher".....!

As those of you who train with us know, we like to take elements from the many different schools of thought out there and for this workout we were inspired by the high volume, mentally demanding but brutally effective german volume training - popularised by Canadian strength coach Charles Poliquin and with earlier similar versions from the likes of Vince "ouch my shoulders hurt dips" Gironda. This was then combined with the sometimes rather insane methods of high rep explosive routines favoured by the Crossfit crowd.

Now, far from us to weigh in on the various pro's and con's of these often diametrically opposed approaches. We'll leave that to you to decide what works best for your own body and routine.

However, this weeks friday challenge was to perform 100 Tire Flips with 'Ernie' the tyre, in as fast a time as possible.

Currently the record is with the low-volume, low-rep, Zack "I don't do cardio or sets longer than 20 seconds -ATP dominant" Cahill, who posted a time of 27 minutes and 36 seconds and is now complaining of severe forearm soreness and walking like John Wayne.

Of course, the wisdom of this workout may be slightly questionable....it's just one heavy, hard, dynamic, full-body exercise done for a lot of reps, with not a lot of rest and it is physically and psychologically challenging....but why not give it a try? Alternatively come down to our gym any time during opening hours and give it a try yourself, we will be posting the best times on the blog.

Good luck!

Five ways to Get Fat

2009-06-11T11:59:00.002+01:00

Yes, you did read the title correctly. Today's post is nothing more than a poorly veiled attempt at a bit of reverse psychology. Here we look instead at some dietary strategies that are guaranteed to help you stack on unwanted bodyfat in double-quick time.

So, if these sound familiar then you should probably consider giving the opposite approach a try....

1. Eat large portions of energy dense food - Studies find that when told to eat only until full, people will overeat when confronted with larger portions of energy dense food. One study showed a remarkable 800 calorie difference in a day when the participants were confronted with the option of lower energy/smaller portions. Portion control is often the first stop in figuring out why your eating plan may not be working.

2. Skip Breakfast - Guaranteed to lead to both poor food choices and more of it than if you had eaten a good breakfast, including some protein. N.B: Cornflakes and Orange Juice is NOT an example of a good breakfast.

3. Drinking beers and lagers - Unfortunately beer intake can be a direct contributor to the infamous beer belly and the research does support this with studies showing a clear link between alcohol intake and increased abdominal fat deposits in men (http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13556219772912).

Of all the various forms of alcohol, beer is in fact probably the worst one when it comes to weight gain and there are several key reasons for this. The combination of simple sugars and alcohol in beer send our hormonal system off the wall causing increases in both insulin resistance and cortisol. If our body grows less sensitive to insulin then we progressively release more and more, which encourages the body to store more fat. Cortisol, which is an adrenal hormone (the alcohol causes large releases of this) causes abdominal fat storage (there is plenty of research now showing the link between high cortisol levels and abdominal fat storage), while also telling the body to keep ignoring the insulin it is producing. As if that wasn't bad enough it also affects other areas of the body - breaking down muscle for energy, which slows our metabolism, affecting thyroid hormone production and lowering testosterone levels.

It gets worse, because as we age our testosterone levels start to naturally drop, which means that the effect of drinking is more magnified in older men. Increased fat storage at the waist then causes men to start to produce estrogen - the female sex hormone - and before long you have man boobs! This is caused by an enzyme in our body called Aromatase which converts testosterone into estrogen. Surprise, surprise, alcohol increases the activity of Aromatase.

Alcohol has a few other interactions that can harm fat loss efforts, for instance it can block absorption of essential nutrients such as Zinc, Magnesium, and the B-Vitamins. It can also affect how we metabolise essential fatty acids and it can create further stress responses through its diuretic actions (dehydrating the body).

Of course it is simplifying things a bit too just blame beer for this, stress can make this situation even worse by increasing cortisol levels in the body, preventing good sleep patterns, and leading to poor food choices (refined carbohydrates in particular) - all of which can lead to a 'beer belly'. Of course you can still get the 'beer belly' look without the beer, by consuming large quantities of any alcohol (some of which have more pronounced effects than others), along with eating a diet high in sugars and having poor sleep patterns you can recreate the metabolic circumstances that lead to increased abdominal fat storage.

4. Eat high sugar/high fat combination foods Foods high in sugar and fat, while tasting pretty good, are a surefire recipe for stacking on weight at the middle. A good diet should have an appreciable amount of quality fat in as it is essential to health, but pairing up crappy fats with sugars (in particular hydrogenated fats with artificial sugars like high-fructose corn syrup - HFCS) is a nutritional disaster zone. Sugar sends our insulin levels sky-high telling us to store away all those calories packed in to the food itself. So, to gain fat - keep insulin levels high, and to lose fat, get them under control (though not always low - as insulin is also anabolic and at times is needed for growth!).

5. Eat fast and late. Fast food, perhaps is best named for the speed at which most people tend to devour it. Chewing food aids digestion and hence helps with absorption of key nutrients. Poor digestion is particularly likely to lead to poor health and often weight gain. Combine this with taking in a whole heap of food late at night and you have the final nail in the coffin for a healthy lean lifestyle.

Armed with these top tips you should now be able to gain weight - mostly bodyfat - with the greatest of ease. Of course, if that isn't your desire then simple reversal of these practices should give you an idea of how simple dietary changes can make a huge impact on your weight and health!

The effects of a terrible budget...

2009-06-10T09:35:00.003+01:00

Today, I am going to drift off our usual fitness related topic a little......I recently was having a conversation with a friend of mine about the recent budget and increases in income tax that were brought in by our embattled chancellor and it was interesting to hear how our opinions differed. He was impassive about the tax raises and feels that those who earn more should pay a lot more...I don't disagree entirely, but I don't believe further increases in income tax are the way forward.

While to many it may seem that raising the income tax of those high earners - many of whom reside in London - is a popular move, I am not so sure it is a good idea, particularly where small businesses are concerned. Many people may feel that this raise won't affect them as it is targeted as those high-end earners, however I do not believe that this tax raise truly benefits the wider economy or does anything to increase spending confidence.

Higher earners create wealth, that is the fact. They spend money in businesses all over the capital and in doing so create jobs for others. Taxing them at source with an income tax rate higher than the U.S, France, and Germany, does nothing for businesses - although it does add a few extra quid to the government pool to spend - perhaps a new moat or flatscreen tv for an MP instead?

Removing money from peoples pockets before they have a chance to actually spend it will do nothing to stimulate growth, in fact it just reduces spending confidence and frustrates the efforts of small businesses who are working their hardest on trying to gain new business. So, what do we do instead to raise revenue? Well, why not tax higher earners at the point where they spend their money rather than before they have spent it? That way people can CHOOSE where to spend their cash, increasing their disposable income, which in turn gets spent in businesses, thereby stimulating growth and employment.

So, we are effectively talking about a form of graduated sales taxation. For example, if you spend £150,000 on a new Ferrari then you would pay a higher rate of 'luxury' tax than if you were spending £6000 on a small eco-friendly car (where you could also benefit from a small cashback and low-cost road fund licence). Would a few thousand extra really bother someone who is prepared to spend that kind of money on a car anyway?

Now, I must supply the large caveat here that I am no economist or expert, and although I might have read Vince Cable's latest book on the topic, I am not saying this is the ideal solution. However, I am already seeing the effect of higher income taxation, in higher earners cutting back on their expenditure, the knock-on effect of which is reduced income to business and cuts in jobs.

I was reading an interview in the Times this weekend with the property entrepreneur Nick Leslau and it was interesting to read his opinions, which you won't be surprised to learn echo my own (perhaps he overheard me chatting to someone....?). His thoughts are that removing wealth creators from the business climate does nothing to stimulate growth - very true if you ask me, and particularly so here in London.

Today, I have been on Radio 5 talking about the tube strike. Personally, I think the Stones said it best "you can't always get what you want" and maybe the tube drivers would do well to look at the many private businesses and individuals who pay the extortionate travel prices here in London - Europe's most expensive city to travel in - and count themselves lucky they still have a job. Many, many people face reductions in hours, pay freezes, and long-term job insecurity - it is hardly likely that any of them will empathise with the RMT's decision. It still seems unclear as to what happened as according to the union leader, deals over pay and redundancies had been successfully brokered, only to be pulled at the last minute by, well we aren't very sure who! The RMT seem to be blaming the mayor in some kind of conspiracy theory, perhaps suggesting he deliberately scuppered the deal. Let's hope that this mess gets sorted and we can all get back to trying to pull us out of this recession.

Five of the Best...

2009-06-04T14:25:00.002+01:00

Sometimes I am asked about recommended books for trainers or for interested folks who just would like to learn more about training or nutrition....as a self-confessed bibllioholic I buy at least one or two a week, not always about fitness, but also about business and personal development. Recently I have even lapsed into buying fiction!

So, for those of you who are interested in widening the scope of your library, I have listed below some top 5's of books that are certainly worth thinking about investing in if you are interested in widening your knowledge and learning some new stuff!

My Top 5 Training Books...

O.k, this isn't an easy category to pick, but my top 5 are based on a desert island philosophy (assuming that island also had a gym of sorts). So, they all offer the maximum of useful and usable information with the minimum of fluff or filler.

1. Science and Practice of Strength Training - Zatsiorsky

2. Optimal Muscle Training - Kinakin (if you could only buy one, this would be an excellent choice).

3. Poliquin Principles - Poliquin

4. SuperTraining - Siff (I couldn't in all honesty bring myself to leave this one out, despite its complexity)

5. Stretch to Win - Fredericks (there are a couple of books on flexibility I really like, but this is probably my favourite).

Nearly rans included Low Back Disorders by McGill and Fleck and Kraemer's original text (not their latest one which was a real disappointment).

My Top 5 Nutrition Books

1. Staying Healthy Through Nutrition - Haas (This book has so much information in, it is always a great initial reference)

2. Diet Delusion - Taubes (brilliantly researched and evocative book)

3. Digestive Wellness - Lipski (a fantastic guide to the first part of the digestive chain)

4. 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth - Bowden (I recommend this for all my clients, it is a brilliant reference. Those of you who like it would do well to check out his book on 'Living the Low Carb Life'. He is a superb author and writes better than most I have read.)

5. The Cortisol Connection - Talbot

There are umpteen more books I own and think are great for learning about nutrition. I make no secret that I am a fan of both the Atkins approach and that of Michael Eades too, although I haven't included any specific 'diet' books in this list. 'Why Zebra's don't have ulcers' is a fantastic book as well and another that I highly recommend along with Dr James Wilson's book on Adrenal Fatigue.

Lastly, my Top 5 for Business and Personal Development

1. Good to Great - Collins (BUY THIS BOOK!!!)

2. The E-Myth Revisited - Gerber

3. What Clients Love - Beckwith

4. The Four Hour Work Week - Ferriss

5. Blue Ocean Strategy - Chan Kim

Now, what are you waiting for? Get yourself onto Amazon and away you go!!!

Take The Stairs, Get Leaner

2009-05-26T13:16:00.004+01:00

I won't bother starting this post with the obligatory rant about why most modern cardio machines are no substitute for old fashioned hard work like skipping, dragging and sprinting. If you read this blog I'll take it as read that you're already aware of the benefits of this more "old-school" approach to improving body composition. For the purposes of burning fat and getting stronger and fitter, we know that hard work will always trump clever gimmicks and fancy equipment. So with this in mind, to the subject of today's post;

Stairs Training for fitness and fat loss.
A flight of stairs might just be the best piece of cardio equipment you could ever ask for (luckily at Aegis Training we have two). Stairs sprints impose a large metabolic demand while building strength and endurance in the lower body. There are many drills which can be performed (check out the video below for some ideas) but the most basic is the sprint. Here's what to do to get started.
Find a stairs! Chances are you have access to one either at home, in a local park or near work. Ideally you want at least 15 steps, enough so that it takes about 10 seconds to sprint to the top and come back down (we don't advise sprinting back down, but coming back down briskly with your hands on the rails).
Warm up for about 5 minutes or so jogging to the top and back down or performing some light mobility drills (see our previous post on lower body warm-ups for ideas).
Now you're ready to go. Sprint as fast as possible from the bottom of the stairs to the top, then come back down keeping your hands on the rails for safety. Rest about as long as it took you to get to perform your sprint, then go again. Repeat for 5-10 reps.

Obviously sets and rest intervals can be adjusted to suit your needs, if you find this impossible simply double or triple you rest periods, then shorten them gradually over a few weeks. On the other hand, if you want more of a challenge, try the Stair Ladder.
Perform one sprint, then rest as long as that sprint took ( for the sake of simplicity we'll say it takes ten seconds). Then perform two sprints and rest 20 seconds, and continue in this fashion;
3 sprints, 30 seconds rest
4 sprints, 40 seconds rest
5 sprints, 40 seconds rest,
4 sprints, 30 seconds rest
3 sprints, 20 seconds rest
2 sprints, 10 seconds rest
1 sprint, collapse, hyperventilate, vow never to attempt this again.

Give it a try.

The Most Horrible Leg Exercise Ever?

2009-05-22T10:46:00.002+01:00

Too often in training we tend to gravitate towards the things we are already good at. Unfortunately, if we always stick to well mastered, familiar exercises that we enjoy, it inevitably results in less challenging workouts and less reason for your body to change. I feel that any program should always have at least one exercise that you're not fond of. The reason being; if you hate something it's a pretty sure sign you need to do more of it!
The Bulgarian Split Squat fits the bill perfectly as pretty much everybody hates it. Particularly the second variation shown on this video with the extra quarter rep in the bottom position. This is one we throw into a program when we're feeling particularly sadistic. Aside from replacing your quads with red hot coals, the exercise has the following the benefits;
Single leg exercises help balance strength between the limbs.
Promotes stability and strengthens the muscles of the foot and ankle.
Increases flexibility in the hips as the exercise involves a deep, loaded stretch of the hip flexor.
Hits the adductors and stabilising muscles of the hip in a way that double leg exercises do not.
So if your feeling brave, try dropping squats for a few weeks and give the Bulgarian Split Squat an honest try. 4 sets of 6-8 reps is good place to start. When you return to squatting you should be both stronger and more flexible.

Get To Grips With Kettlebells

2009-05-20T11:49:00.003+01:00

Question - What is the limiting factor on practically all effective strength exercises ?
Answer - Your grip. Your hands are what attach you to the dumbbell, barbell or kettlebell. Your grip strength is what transfers the force generated by the rest of your body to your implement of choice. Therefore if your grip is weak and is giving up before your legs or upper body, then you are not getting all you can from your training.
Unfortunately most people have pretty poor grip strength, in fact most new clients complain about pain in their forearms when performing pulling exercises rather than in their lats. This is a pretty good sign that the targeted muscles are being shortchanged. So how do we fix this weak point? By training it until it's a strong point. Thickening the grip on a barbell or dumbbell will always challenge the grip further. However thick grip barbells are pretty thin on the ground in most gyms, so we came up with a cheap and effective alternative - rope training.
The rope provides a thick, uneven handle which effectively targets the gripping muscles of the forearms and is extremely versatile. You can adapt most exercises for use with the rope and are limited only by your imagination. In the video below we show some variations using a kettlebell.
Stick to one or two exercises per workout using the rope and perform them at the end of your workout, otherwise you will fatigue your grip before your other exercises.
Here are some ideas to get you started, more to come soon!

A Dietician does it again...

2009-04-29T10:33:00.003+01:00

Now, I am not wanting to sound like I have an issue with dieticians, but this morning on BBC Breakfast they (well more specifically one of them - Dr Clare Leonard) over stepped the line.

Always, we are told how how a few of those with a dietetic degree think most of us nutritionist types to be quacks who peddle unnecessary supplements, bad science, and holistic nonsense. They will point to the lack of a dietetic degree (despite the fact that many of us possess science based degrees, masters or PhD's and are more current with the research than they are) as an indictment of the fact that we are not to be trusted. We could go on, but let's get back to the story in hand...

This morning's story was centred around the amount of sugar in breakfast cereals (us quack nutritionists have of course known this a long time) revealing the frankly astonishing amounts in some of the popular brands of cereal (in particular those aimed specifically at children tended to be the worst offenders).

In true BBC form they invited an expert in to talk about it (she must be an expert as she calls herself Doctor) - but we should of course mention that far from being impartial - Dr Leonard is the nutritional 'expert' for Nestle under the more official sounding moniker of 'Cereal Partners Worldwide' and clearly a strong advocate of us all eating a wheat/sugar refined cereal for breakfast.

Amongst some of the other unbelievable statements our good doctor has to offer was the fact (according to her) that "there is no research linking sugar consumption to obesity"

Yes, you read it correct, but in case you are finding it hard to comprehend that anyone with more than GCSE Physiology would say that I am going to write it again....

"there is no research linking sugar consumption to obesity"

Oh really??? I am sure that I need not go into the absolute dearth of research from some brilliant individuals, such as John Yudkin, Gerald Reaven, David Jenkins, or the pioneering concepts and findings from someone like T.L Cleave who realised many years ago the damage refined sugars and flour were causing. In fact, two things we can be pretty sure of are that sugar makes you fat and rots your teeth, while (by it's effects on insulin and links to insulin resistance) we can be pretty confident of its role in a whole range of maladies, such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer, dementia, parkinsons, gastrointestinal ills, and the list goes on (sometimes called diseases of civilisation or western illnesses due to the relative absence of them in indigenous populations until the arrival of 'civilisation' and the importing of sugar in its various forms).

Another of her pearls was that it is "fat in the diet that causes you to get fat" and at this point I nearly spat my eggs out all over the television in sheer incredulity at that statement. Clearly she has no knowledge whatsoever of triglyceride formation...some fructose anyone?

Why the BBC decided to interview such a one-eyed so-called 'expert' to do nothing but try and deflect questions and peddle false truths is beyond me. What is worse is that by calling her a Doctor they give the public the impression that this person is a medical expert and should be listened too.

Let me state this clearly. It is very rare, as someone who has studied and researched also, that I can state anything as equivocally as I am about to, but there is no place in your child's diet (or your own) for refined carbohydrates and sugar-filled cereals. There simply is no real basis on which you can argue for their inclusion. These foods are so devoid in nutrition that they actually have to try and add something back in during the processing. You could leave a bowl of cereals outside your door overnight and it would be left untouched by all the wild animals in the neighbourhood, which should tell you something!

What concerns me most is the effect these cereals are having on our kids from a young age, developing insulin resistance and hyperglycemia in our youngsters that is creating a dangerous public health issue, damaging organs, increasing their fat cells, promoting obesity and affecting behaviour. Kids are taught that food is super sweet, comes in a packaged box, and doesn't actually resemble any kind of actual food itself (scary how many kids now can't even recognise common fruit and vegetables....).

Any nutrition expert who doesn't think this is the case is either deluding themselves or has 'sold out' to a commercial interest. Simple as that. Those of us who work with regular people trying to lose weight clearly have a different perspective (sure, take a 24 stone teen who is eating 30 pop tarts for breakfast and replace with a small bowl of All-Bran and you might see a difference, but that is hardly evidence of the benefits of sugar laden cereals) on this topic.

If you'd like to read more then I highly recommend the excellent book, 'Diet Delusion' by Gary Taubes (sold in the USA as 'Good Calorie, Bad Calorie') although any good textbook on nutritional biochemistry will shed some light on the links between sugar and insulin...

Let's hope that next time the BBC covers this topic they do so in a better way than they did today, which quite honestly was RUBBISH!

Feel Better In 5 Minutes

2009-04-23T16:00:00.002+01:00

We're on a bit of a roll with the whole injury prevention theme, so here's the final piece of the puzzle for putting together an effective warm-up; self myofascial release through foam rolling.
Foam rolling is essentially a form of poor man's massage. It works via something called autogenic inhibition. This involves increasing the level of tension on a muscle until it perceives it as potentially injurious. As a protective mechanism the muscle will then relax. The end result is decreased levels of resting tension in the muscle and improved mobility. The video shows the techniques for the quads, add/abductors and lats but it can be done all over the body. Just find where you are tender and gently roll your body over the foam roller on that area. Spend about 30-60 seconds on each area on a regular basis to get the benefits. For best results buy your own foam roller and use it at home for few minutes every day, it's cheaper than a massage.
On training days, foam rolling would come before the specific warm-up (see the previous posts for examples). Don't wait till after your injured to start warming up properly folks!

Lower Body Warm Up

2009-04-21T12:14:00.006+01:00

Following on from our last post, here is a lower body warm up focusing on glute activation and hip mobility. Just as everyone can benefit from increased thoracic mobility in the upper body, it is very important to learn to move from the hips rather than the lower back. This "spares the spine" according to Dr Stuart McGill, a world renowned expert in low back disorder. Essentially, the more mobile the hips and the better your gluteal muscles are at doing their job, the better your lower back will be.
When you sit at a desk for most of the day the glutes can tend to shut down and the hips can become stiff and immobile. This results in more stress being passed onto the lumbar spine and eventually to pain and disorder. These exercises are designed to counteract the effects of sitting at a desk all day. It can be done before any training session, or even on rest days as a form of active recovery. The more often the better.

Sort Your Desk Posture Out

2009-04-16T12:53:00.002+01:00

As much as every client is different and will have their own unique training needs, there are some things that just about every client can benefit from. I would count thoracic mobility and scapula stability among those things.

If you spend most of your day in a seated position then it is likely that you have poor thoracic mobility. This results in a slouched posture which in turn prevents the scapula (shoulder blades) from tilting back when you lift your arms. When the scapula is not tilting properly, it reduces the space in the shoulder through which the muscles of the rotator cuff travel and over time cause impingement (this is painful and bad!).
So, if you want to prevent shoulder injury you need to ensure that the thoracic spine has adequate range of motion and the muscles that control the shoulder blades, such as the serratus anterior and lower trapezius, are strong enough to move the scapula into the correct position.
Long story short; good thoracic mobility plus good scapula stability equals healthy, pain free shoulders.

Check out the video for a sample upper body warm up which focuses on the spine and scapula. Do this each exercise for about 45 seconds in a circuit fashion before training to start fixing that desk posture.

Team Aegis

'Healthy Appetite?' or maybe not....

2009-04-03T10:52:00.004+01:00

I was very kindly bought a book for Christmas by the celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay (obviously he didn't actually buy it for me), although most the recipes seem to have been created by Gordon's Head Chef at Claridges - Mark Sargeant. I have to confess, it has sat on a shelf in my kitchen for a few weeks, having been so busy and suffering from a very poor social calendar has meant little need for culinary guidance lately. The book is called 'Healthy Appetite' and is meant to include healthy recipes, however, on first impression I am not so sure how healthy they actually are...

Anyway, I thought I would have a little look at one of the 'healthy' recipes and have to say I was a little shocked. Now, I must supply the caveat that this isn't a thorough book review, that will follow soon. However, the first recipe that I arrived at was a so-called healthy breakfast smoothie and I have to tell you I was a little surprised at the ingredients.....

It starts off o.k with a couple of portions of berries, but goes rapidly downhill with the addition of milk and then 3 - 4 TABLESPOONS of sugar. Yes, you have read correctly, that is about 40 - 45 grams of sugar in one smoothie, plus the sugar in the milk and obviously that contained in the berries. In short, this recipe is about the last thing you would want to give someone with any degree of insulin resistance or blood sugar imbalance issues. There is little need to sweeten berries, but even if you REALLY need to then you can add in some Xylitol (however, this is in my opinion completely unnecessary). However, as recipes for a healthy breakfast go, this one is a long-way off and would benefit greatly from the addition of some essential fats, some whey protein, nuts, and the removal of the unnecessary added sugar........

More Anti-Atkins B@llocks!

2009-04-01T11:40:00.006+01:00

O.k - it is a harsh title for a blog post. I accept that, but every once in a while someone shows me an article written somebody who clearly doesn't know what they are talking about. This particular little tirade against the Atkins diet that was recently forwarded to me is exactly the kind of uninformed rubbish that is pedalled by people who (despite putting a picture of the book on the article) haven't actually read the book, or any of the recent research, otherwise you feel they would be a lot less vilifying in what they wrote.

I am often criticised or challenged for trying to get people to eat more fat, reduce their sugar and grain intake. The usual accusation levelled at me in perjorative fashion is that I promote 'pseudo-Atkins' approaches, and it is usually uninformed comments like we see in the media or on peoples websites that provide the fuel for these. Mostly these comments are simply regurgitated verbatim et litteratim without a true understanding of what they are saying.

Try as I might, I cannot let this go unchallenged. So, in answer to recent comments in an article I thought I might try and right a few wrongs. So, here are a few of the comments from the article that are often cited by many dieticians and the public alike. I have bolded them with my viewpoints underneath?

The Atkins diet is a diet where you limit your carbohydrate intake and rely more on protein

O.k well it doesn't start on a good footing from square one does it? In a recent study over 12 months in the U.S comparing four different diet approaches (I'm going to come back to this excellent study) they showed that protein intake on Atkins was relatively comparable with both Zone diets and the national recommendations. What characterises Atkins over most common approaches is the greater fat intake. Has this guy read the book????

The problem with the Atkins diet and why many people think the Atkins diet is bad is that it is a great short term weight loss diet but very unhealthy for long term.

Hmmm, o.k well I'd love to see some references, but sadly they seem to have not been included here. In fact the article in case carries NO referencing at all. Well, this study at Stanford in the US would disagree with the above point. Check the abstract HERE .
You might be interested that contrary to the quote from the 'anti-atkins' article, the above study found that not only was Atkins more effective for weight loss, it was also the only diet in the study that showed FAVOURABLE changes in triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, and Blood Pressure.
Long-Term concerns that are often voiced about this type of diet tend to centre around the possible effects of a raised protein intake on kidney health in those with sub-par kidney function. However, there is NO data to support this hypothesis and it remains nothing more than a caveat given by those who are now having to admit that it may not be quite the nutritional heresy it once was.

Carbs are very important for the body and are what give you energy when these are cut down as a short term fix this will make you feel lethargic and can trigger other emotional problems.

O.k I must of missed the section on 'essential carbohydrates' in my MSc lectures and nutritional study. This is clearly someone who has never tried this or used this approach. I could go into quite a deep lecture on this but lets keep this brief. Actually most peoples terrible issues with energy are due to their inability to regulate their blood glucose levels, which is caused (in most cases) by excessive intake of refined carbs, grains, flour, and sugar. We see consistent improvements in energy, mood, and many other measures by simply replacing many of these carb calories with fats. Controlling insulin is central to dealing with lethargy and energy issues, not to mention successful weight loss and to do this effectively you must look at carb intake.

We aren't saying that you shouldn't eat carbs. In fact the research show's that those with a high degree of carb sensitivity often lose weight better when they have a more moderate than low carb intake. However, the notion that carbohydrates are what 'gives you energy' is completely misleading, as is the portrayal of this as a 'short-term fix' - we view it as a long-term fix. We keep our carbs in most cases to a large unrestricted intake of vegetables, full of antioxidants, phytochemicals, flavonoids, vitamins, minerals, fibre, and many other goodies.

Now, I could be here all day pulling out references to support my criticism, but I am not the one completely slating the lowered carbohydrate, higher-fat approach. However, a recent study out in February completely contradicts the 'emotional problems' that this article talks about. The study by Yancy et al found improved quality of life scores on mental health with the low-carb group only! . This follows a similar study from 2006 in the Journal of Obesity where the authors concluded "that weight loss can result in significant improvement in a broad range of self-report symptoms and that, compared with an LFD, an LCKD results in specific improvements in mood".

I think that is that covered. Let's move on.

The other problem with the Atkins is once you come off it you will put on allot (sic) more weight as your body will have gone into a starvation phase storing fat not knowing when you will be given food next.

Oh please. Let's not pretend this is an Atkins phenomenon, in fact you are far more likely to experience this with a true fad diet such as the 'Special K Diet' or the 'Flat Belly Diet' or some such similar rubbish. The Atkins is not a fad diet, in fact in keeping with the word 'Diet' which actually means 'way of life' the Atkins is designed to help people find a way to live long-term that prevents weight regain (READ THE BOOK!!!!). Anecdotally a search of the many online forums shows how much success there is, while empirically the Stanford study that is cited above showed that compared to Zone, Ornish, and national recommendations, those who followed Atkins had a higher rate of success at keeping their weight loss off.

"The main danger with the Atkins diet is how you actually lose weight from it. The Atkins diet triggers a short term weight loss situation called ketosis.This can also be life threatening for individuals who have diabetes."

Oh good grief. It just gets worse, not this old chestnut! Please go and learn the difference between ketosis and diabetic ketoacidosis. I won't go into that here, but the low level of ketosis seen on the first two weeks of Atkins cannot be compared to the extraordinary levels of ketones that are seen along with dangerously high levels of blood sugar seen in diabetics. Ketogenic diets were often the treatment of choice for epilepsy in children - hardly something that would be used if it was so desperately bad for the kidneys. While there is slightly higher rates of kidney stones (3-7%) seen in children after 18 months, the chances of any side effects from the two-week induction phase of Atkins are almost always overstated and I've yet to meet anyone who had kidney failure from two-weeks of low-carb eating. I've eaten low-carb for several years now and am pleased to report my kidney's are still intact and functioning perfectly well.

You do lose weight in this way but mainly water weight, the carbs in your muscles and as you move along the process some fat but also muscle mass something you really don’t want to be losing and is certainly not healthy to lose.

I am going to overlook the grammar and get to the point. Bodybuilders have been dieting like this since most of us can recall. Actually Dr Mauro Di Pasquale, Author of the Anabolic Diet, bases it around the ketogenic approach. In fact, just about every expert out there who really knows what they are talking about would say this is the basis on which bodybuilders, fitness models and others are actually able to get lean for shows, ever met a bodybuilder who leans out with pasta, rice, and bread? Shifting to a higher fat and reduced carb intake can help shift the body's metabolism to prefer fat burning over carb oxidation, which is why ketogenic cyclic diets tend to be so successful.

I have never understood this criticism of lowered carb/higher fat approaches. Yes, you do lose some stored water, what exactly is the problem with that? Many people struggle with fluid retention so the reduction in bloating and oedema that can come through reducing carbs (refined carbs and grain raise insulin, which leads to kidneys retaining sodium and the body retaining water) is often welcomed. Not to mention the benefits of a reduced vascular load, as evidenced by the reductions in blood pressure seen on an Atkins diet.

Personally I would advise no one to use the Atkins diet but instead go for a healthy lifestyle change where you could lose weight fast and keep it off for good

Please share this with us? Let me guess? Low-fat? Special K? Muller Light? I think by refusing to admit that approaches similar to Atkins (let us not forget that the notion that sugar and refined grain products may be deleterious to health was being mooted by many others, such as Jerry Reaven, and the brilliant John Yudkin before Atkins) may have some merit - and indeed recent research is confirming this- you are in danger of not only misleading and confusing clients, you are missing out on possible tools to help clients, particularly those with insulin resistance and Syndrome X/metabolic syndrome.

Our above comments are not intended to be a direct criticism of the authors of the article in question, I am sure they are well-intended. However, it comes across like a piece that just echoes dogma and myths that have been leveled at anything other than the USDA Food Pyramid approach for years now. For us, if you are going to write such a strongly worded piece full of such absolute criticism and vitriol then you really should back it up with some solid science and evidence. As educators to the public we have a responsibility to report objectively on issues that are often misunderstood by them, instead articles like this cloud the waters rather than clear them.

Finally, we emphasis that here at Aegis we don't talk about stuff unless we do it ourselves. That's why we don't write articles on bodybuilding or high-end athletic conditioning, we write about diet and exercise for the everyday client and person in the street who we help and see results with EVERY week, often using approaches and methods influenced by such people as Atkins.
Part of our rule is not to advise clients on diets and training unless we have tried them ourselves, or at least researched them thoroughly, which is where, for us, this article falls down. It doesn't seem to us like the author has even read the book, which may be a good place for them to start......

The fact of the matter is that modern research is now showing strong evidence for the efficacy of low-carbohydrate and higher fat approaches for weight loss and the treatment of insulin resistance and syndrome X/metabolic syndrome. Like it or not, the results cannot continually be swept under the 'Atkins carpet' that dieticians in particular are so fond of using in such perjorative fashion.

Oh Apple, you've done it again...

2009-03-26T16:13:00.003Z

For those of you who maybe read our blog but haven't visited us in person, we are an office of self-confessed Mac geeks. We all have an affinity with our Iphones, Macbooks, and various other Apple paraphernalia. In tandem we are also an establishment dedicated to learning and improving our knowledge across a wide range of subjects.

I have always maintained that personal training is an undersold occupation, often looked down on by 'strength/conditioning experts' or those with more grandiose titles. However, a really skilled trainer needs to have an armoury of skills and knowledge along with the ability to deliver that over no more than a couple of hours a week - we don't get a lot of time, and we don't have highly motivated athletes to hone our skills on. Being a good trainer takes elements from life coaching, anatomy and physiology, psychology, pharmacology, physiotherapy, strength training, nutrition (my personal favourite), sports science, and a wide basic understanding of many medical conditions and systems in relation to exercise and fitness. Somewhere in there you have to be able to write a decent training programme too! Although, for most of the 'average' clients, its less about a technical training programme than it is encouraging behaviour change and lifestyle modification, and there in lies a big difference. For our average client the need for a complex training programme is fairly low (of course there are exceptions), whereas the need for addressing lifestyle habits (which were originally the cause of weight gain and poor health) is high.

However, I am drifting hopelessly and somewhat pointlessly off-topic. Today's post is to tell you about an amazing resource new to Itunes, the Apple Mac music and entertainment software platform.

Itunes have introduced the Itunes U - a copious resource of audio and video from many of the worlds leading educational establishments, spanning an incredible range of topics from science to health to literature and social science. Even as I write this blog post my itunes is currently downloading biochemistry lectures, and video lectures from Stanford University on ethical food issues and endocrine function. Amazing.

Check out the introduction to it HERE

Alternatively if you want to get straight on with downloading, open Itunes, click on Store and then look for the link to Itunes U in the left hand column. From there you can explore a range of topics and categories.

It's great fun, there is a ton of stuff to peruse, and a wealth of information for even the most dedicated (Yes Ronan, that even includes you!).

Enjoy!

Things you hear that drive us mad!!!

2009-03-25T14:39:00.002Z

O.k it isn't often we have a bit of a rant on here, but today we are going to....

We recently saw a comment by one of the U.K's "leading" nutritionists on a website, which stated unequivocally that the "only reason you lose weight on a low-carb diet is due to water loss not fat loss".....

O.k, take a deep breath and count to ten, and you've probably got someone writing this who would tell you that low-carb = Atkins, that high (whatever they consider that to be) protein intakes cause kidney failure, that ketosis is terribly bad, that you NEED to eat carbs for energy, and more similar rubbish.

Firstly, we should add that you do often lose water on a lowered carbohydrate (and we are talking sugars and refined carbs here) intake, but I'm not sure why that is such a big deal! Carbohydrates that are refined raise insulin, which in turn leads to the kidneys retaining salt and the body holding on to fluid. This is a major contributor to high blood pressure....(despite all the press that tells you to limit salt, you'd be better off cutting out bread, flour, fruit juice, and other such insulin promoting foods). So, the more accurate statement would be that high-carb diets promote fluid retention!

I am always surprised at how many folks I meet who will soon chastise you when you mention the notion of improving health through controlling carbohydrates, or who think that the Atkins diet is the closest thing to nutritional heresy you can get. Despite this next to none of those I meet look particularly athletic or in particularly good shape, not only that but they have rarely, if ever, read the literature, or even tried it out themselves (if they had they would know how important the role of vegetables is in these approaches). Very few have read the considerable evidence for the role of sugar and refined carbohydrates in heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and many other 'western' diseases. They will often baulk at the thought of eating any saturated fat - despite the fact that many native populations around the world live on exceptionally high intakes of fat and only started displaying heart disease and cancers when their diets were corrupted by refined sugar and flour-based products. In fact their nutritional viewpoint is all too often based on uncontested dogma, that is often outdated and in many cases equivocal as to its reliability and relevance.

It is amazing that even in the presence of such overwhelming evidence for the role of refined sugars and flour products in our diet being directly responsible for many diseases and health conditions - including obesity - that we still make saturated fat the dietary pariah and hence the extensive amount of "low-fat" foods out there.

The yoghurt ad on tv right now is another example, with women shredding 'fad-diet' books in favour of a LOW-FAT yoghurt. Unreal. Perhaps they haven't heard of the Ornish Diet or Piritkin diets??? Both in my mind true 'fad-diets' at worst, but even at best no better than 'Atkins' or 'Protein Power' (by the brilliant Michael Eades....)

Eating low-fat is a fad and for most signals a diet full of processed crap full of chemicals, sugars, and additives all put in to replace the taste and satiety that came with fat.

Thankfully more and more of us are waking up to the reality and understanding that eating highly processed foods, refined sugars, and refined carbohydrate products are the real danger to our health. That doesn't mean we all exist on bacon and eggs either, most 'low-carb' eaters I know are the ones loading up their plates with broccoli, spinach, and other veggies next to their meat!

If you are interested in finding out more I suggest you get hold of a copy of 'Diet Delusion' by Gary Taubes - but prepare to have some of what you believe to be challenged!

Team Aegis

Sandbag Training for Fat Loss and Fitness

2009-03-19T17:13:00.002Z

Part 2

In part 1 of this article we gave you a guide on how to get started making your own kitbag with minimal cost and effort. In this next part we are going to talk about some of the exercise benefits along with some of our favourite exercises. In the final part, we will look at how to put them all together to make some simple circuits that can target explosive power and in particular energy system work.

One of the great things about kitbags is that they offer tremendous versatility and can be easily used indoors or out, making them ideal for bootcamp type training such as what we do. They can also be thrown about without fear of damaging them or ruining flooring. The slightly awkward nature of them means that they can also be used in a wide variety of lifting positions or techniques, as well as providing a truly 'functional' training challenge. The uneven and slightly off-centre weight distribution challenges the whole body, working to stabilise the load while lifting, walking, lunging, squatting, or throwing.

So, let's take a look at some of the basic exercises you can get started with using the bag.

Clean

Obviously this exercise is a staple in olympic lifting, but this is a bit different. The idea is to simply get the bag up to the chest using an explosive lift. Done with the kitbag this is a far less technical movement than the olympic lift done with a barbell, there is no need to teach a scoop or double knee bend or any of that stuff. Simply grab the bag with both hands on the canvas handle and rip it off the floor up to the mid chest height. From there as the bag reaches the top of its momentum, release the handle and 'catch' the bag with both arms underneath it.

Clean - Zercher Squat

Following on from our first movement, we add in the Zercher squat, an exercise that is absolutely perfect for use with the kitbag. In a Zercher squat the weight is carried at the front of the body, much more like it would be in any real life lifting task. From the finish of the catch position in the clean, you simply squat down, sitting back with the hips and driving the knees forward to achieve a good depth. Simple, but very effective. For an added challenge drop the bag after each rep and begin every rep with a clean, performing the movement as a combo.

Farmers Carry

Simple but very effective, grab a bag in each hand and run with it till either your grip or your lungs give out.

Farmers Carry High/Low

We've just tweaked up the conventional farmers carry, clean one bag up and onto the shoulder then bend down and pick up the other one in a low carry position and you are away.

Clean to Overhead Throw

This movement really develops explosive power and the anaerobic energy systems. Each repetition is a real total body effort from the feet up to the shoulders. Make sure you develop a strong lower back to get the most from these exercises as the lower back really is key in harnessing the strength of the lower body and transforming it into an expression of upper body power. This exercise is a real flashback to the days of hard physical jobs on farms and in yards loading or unloading and is one of our favourites.

Walking Lunges

No surprises here, they do exactly what they say on the tin! grab the bag, toss it over the shoulder or alternatively across the shoulders and get lunging....

Check out our video here to see full demonstrations of the above exercises and more....we decided to record this straight after 30 minutes of front squats and it shows, so don't expect perfect form! Enjoy!

Kitbag/Sandbag Training from Team Aegis

2009-03-17T12:28:00.001Z

Something strange must be happening with the global climate as we have had two consecutive days of sunshine here in London and we are loving it. I can feel the vitamin D coursing through my body and everyone is noticeably happier and more cheerful, roll on the summer! Of course, as ever we are doing our best to be innovative in the methods we use to train our clients and our recent bootcamp circuits are an example of the range of options we have for all fitness levels and budgets.

Our latest pieces of kit are simple, easy to make, and low-cost, so they can be made and used by anyone on a budget looking for new training ideas. They are also multi-functional and ideal for circuits or ballistic exercises as they are so durable and easy to throw around, drop, catch, and generally abuse without little risk of damage to them or the trainee. In this short series of articles we will be showing you some of the drills and exercises that we like to use with the bag, along with some short videos so you can see how to do it.

First things first though, how to get yourself one of these. Here is what you will need.

1. A kitbag - these can be bought online from british army surplus stores for around £7.50 plus postage. An absolute steal. We recommend you get yours from britishmilitarysurplus.co.uk

2. Sand - pop to your local DIY shop for this, a 20kg bag will be ample.

3. Gaffa tape - careful you may start to look like some kind of kidnap planner, but this is an essential.

4. 2 heavy duty rubbish bags

5. 1 large bin bag, big enough to line the kitbag. A wheelie bin liner is ideal. To dump the body, obviously (this will get you an even more alarmed look from the shop assistant)

6. Some filling - we used torn up sheets out of an old punchbag we had, but you can use pretty much anything from old clothes to rubber cut-offs.

The first thing to do is to make up your weights. Simply divide the sand into a couple of heavyweight plastic bags and then wrap those in gaffa tape completely to prevent them from splitting.

Once you have done this, line the kitbag with the wheelie bin liner and start to pack it out with filling. Place in the desired weight packs as you go keeping them well packed in with the filling until the bag is filled to the top.

Close the bin liner over the top and gaffa tape it shut, then gaffa taping the canvas flap in the bag down over it. To finish it up, simply draw the top shut and clip it secure using the bag clip and you are done. 15 minutes work and a total cost of under £20 for one bag.

Once you have your bag you are ready to start training with it. Keep eyes out for the next article where we will start showing you some exercises and circuit suggestions using the bag.

Another off-topic post

2009-03-17T00:31:00.002Z

Apologies, once again we are about to dive off topic - yet again...

Today the sun was out here in London.....people were smiling, winter seemed finally to be behind us, the mood was good, and we were happy.....

I had been chatting to a client about traveling and seeing the world and it got me a bit nostalgic about my five years or so that I spent around the globe teaching skiing and generally partying and enjoying myself. It also reminded me of one of those fantastic videos that simply would never have been without the internet and of course, YouTube....

So, I thought we would share it with you....I hope you enjoy it and if nothing else it reminds us of how something as simple as dancing can make so many people happy in so many parts of the world

If you have never seen this video or are wondering where this whole phenomenon came from then check out his 2006 travels. Fantastic music and amazing sights...

Don't worry we will be back on post later this week, but for now enjoy the milder weather and hopefully some more of the sunshine!

G

G

Should I train with a cold??

2009-03-11T13:29:00.002Z

This is one of those things that we get asked a lot. Adults on average suffer from between 2-4 colds a year. Most of these occur between September and May. Contrary to what you might think, researchers don’t put this down to winter weather. It is more likely that they are spread more readily, with people spending longer indoors together during the colder months.
Colds and Flu are often confused, though they are different types of infection. Symptoms of the common cold are a stuffy nose, sore throat and maybe some slight aches. Flu is generally far more severe with fever, aches and pains and feelings of exhaustion. Chances are if you are feeling like this, you won’t want to exercise. If suffering from flu, avoid exercise until a week after it has cleared up to ensure you are fully recovered. If you are in any doubt over symptoms, speak to your doctor first.
Whether or not we suffer from colds is largely down to our body’s ability to fight infection. Many different factors can affect this. Smoking, stress, poor diet and lack of sleep all reduce our protection, making us more vulnerable to illness.
By taking regular exercise and eating a healthy diet we can improve our immune system. Research has consistently shown that people who stay active suffer from fewer colds.
Colds are highly contagious and easily spread in places like health clubs. If you’re not feeling well then help prevent spreading it to others by staying away from the gym altogether. The American College of Sports Medicine advises avoiding all high intensity exercise, such as running until a few days after the cold has cleared up. Mild exercise like walking shouldn’t cause any problems, and may even help relieve some of the symptoms.
Certain medicines are important to be aware of as well. Many common cold medicines that are available over the counter contain a substance called pseudoephedrine, it is commonly found in decongestants. This drug will affect your heart rate and blood pressure. This is very important if you suffer from a heart condition. If in doubt, consult your doctor for advice.
The general rule for exercise with a cold is that as long as symptoms are above the neck – a runny nose for example – then moderate exercise should not cause a problem. However, if you are suffering from the flu then contact your doctor and stay away from exercise until fully recovered.
Here are some simple guidelines to help if you are suffering from a cold –

• Stay out the gym – nobody will thank you for sharing your infection
• Drink plenty of fluids
• If symptoms are above the neck then some moderate exercise is fine
• Avoid high intensity exercise for a few days after recovery
• If you have had the Flu avoid high intensity training for 2-3 weeks afterwards
• Listen to your body, if you are feeling out of sorts then give it a miss.
• If you are at all unsure, consult your doctor first.

Friday Funday Part 4 - Maybe not so fun!!!!

2009-03-06T16:24:00.002Z

This week we decided to push back the boundaries of 'fun' and try out
a new circuit format for team training.

This weeks workout is simply called the 'IGO-UGO 300' and is a workout
for teams of three. It is a great simple format for any of you who
train together and are looking for a fun twist to your routine that
inspires some healthy competition and some interesting exercise
variations, not all intended!

So, here is how its done. We pick three exercises, in this case we
chose deadlifts, chin-ups, and close grip bench press. Each exercise
is done for 100 reps total between the those of you taking part. One
works, while the other two rest. To make it a good challenge you
ideally need three people of roughly comparable strength levels to
avoid the need to change the weights between sets. We chose a weight
that would allow us to start with sets of 6 - 8 each and gradually do
less reps as we fatigue.

The idea is to keep the bar moving constantly, so avoid working to
total failure in early sets otherwise you will blow out way too soon.
So, your sets might go something like this - 6 - 6 - 5 - 4- 4 - 3 - 3
- 2 or similar.

Of course, if you want to you can make the exercises more metabolic
and choose movements like burpees, ball slams, box jumps etc or you
can raise the reps total for the workout. Again, remember, there
aren't really any specific rules, we just like to use big exercises,
keep movement constant, and work hard for the duration of the workout.
You could combine the formats, starting with a strength movement,
moving onto a more traditional hypertrophy exericse and then finishing
with a metabolic exercise, check out the example below for the lower
body...

A Barbell Squats

B Dumbbell Hack Squats

C Burpees

Or the following example for the chest

A Flat Bench Barbell Press

B Dumbbell Swiss Ball Press

C Sled Tricep Presses

If you want something purely metabolic then you can up the reps or add
a couple of exercises, here is the IGO-UGO 500 workout for metabolic
training. Do this with a team of three, rest when needed.

A Burpees

B Ball Slams

C Box Jumps

D Ball Rollouts

E Kettlebell Swings

There you go, weeks of fun!

Enjoy! Please post questions and comments!

Flipping Out - Tyre Drills for Strength and Fitness

2009-03-06T13:05:00.004Z

As you have probably realised by now, our take on 'functional training' is a bit different to what you will see on a lot of fitness blogs and websites. Functional training seems to have become a euphemism for training with all manner of toys along with 'training the transversus' and other kinds of stuff that from what we can tell doesn't seem to do an awful lot for changing the physiques of most the population. Not only that but last time we checked, life in the real world doesn't really involve anything remotely like all these daft exercises that many insist on promoting.

In fact, the biggest attractions we see of a lot of these methods is a low requirement for intensity, a lot of time spent laying on the floor or rolling around on a ball, and minimal caloric expenditure. Our idea of training functional strength and fitness is a bit different. In truth we think the whole thing is being grossly over complicated in an attempt to 'science up' things that we have been doing intuitively for centuries, if not longer! Too many modern workouts simply aren't tough enough to provide sufficient overload needed to make real changes in fitness and strength.

Part of this may be the fact that life itself rarely seems to demand much in the way of real strength or fitness either, which is probably why as a population we are expanding and diseases of the 21st century, like type 2 diabetes threaten to reach epidemic levels in the western world. However, we are digressing. Now, this weeks strength training article is all about training with the tyre, one of our favourite tools for developing strength and power. There is nothing like lifting awkward objects to challenge the whole body to stabilise during movement. The shape and weight distribution also ensures a solid forearm workout and a true cardiovascular challenge as well.

As with before, decide on what you want to get from the exercise before you stick it into a programme. You can train power endurance with it, use it as part of a metabolic circuit, or as an explosive strength movement at the start of a strength workout. Below we have shown two simple exercises to do with a tyre, plus a small metabolic/power endurance circuit which can be great for limited time workouts or as finishers for a strength workout. The tyre featured in the accompanying videos weighs in the region of 130kgs.

The Flip -

This isn't a move based on finesse. As often used to be said to me about lifting coal 'there is a knack to it - its all about technique' - well guess what, the stronger you are the better your technique! However, there is an easy way and a hard way to do this. Optimal technique is to get the grip under the tyre inside the feet. Keep the feet a good distance apart, this will make it easier to get low enough to get the hips into the lift. Drive forwards and upwards getting the tyre lifted and as soon as possible get the knee underneath the tyre. Drive with the arms and the knee to move the tyre to vertical and complete the flip by pressing with the arms.

Team Pushes -

All this takes is two people for a pressing power/endurance workout. Simply get the tyre to a vertical position and each stand on opposite sides of the tyre. One person begins by pressing the tyre away from them towards their partner. Their partner then catches the tyre, absorbing the force with the legs and hips, before pressing it back. So, it goes for the desired number of reps.

Tyre circuit -

If you have 15 minutes to kill at the end of a workout, and by some strange coincidence you only have a tyre with which to train, try this little circuit and repeat as many times as possible in the time alloted. We call it the Plus 2 workout.

A1 Tyre Flips x 4
A2 In and Out Jumps x 6
A3 Tyre Burpees x 8
A4 Press Ups with Feet on Tyre x 10
A5 Toe Taps x 12 each side
A6 Walk Ups x 14

You can view the three videos on You Tube here:
1. Tyre Flip
2. Tyre Pushes
3. The Tyre Circuit

Friday Funday Part 3

2009-02-27T17:23:00.001Z

Continuing our tradition of "no rules" training sessions on a Friday, this week we took advantage of the good weather and the innate funnyness of freaking out the office workers who overlook our carpark by taking it outside.

Today's session went like this:
Tyre westling - 30 second bouts, short rest then move to
Tyre Pass- 30 second bouts - repeat these two exercises 3times.
Then move on to this circuit
A1 - Tyre flip- 30 seconds, as many as possible
A2- Sledgehammer swings - 30 secs, as many as possible
A3- Medicine ball overhead swing- 30 seconds

rest as long as it takes for your turn to come round again then repeat another few times.

Total training time 20 minutes

As you can see Jenny has still managed to remain conspicuosly un-bulky which is strange, I'm sure that tyre weighs more than 3lbs!

Check out the video of our London Personal Trainer Team

Don't try this at home...

2009-02-25T16:36:00.004Z

Today we let enthusiasm for training overtake good common sense. Let this be a lesson for you all.

Our first mistake was warming up using the infamous 'Cahill Warm-Up' technique. This technique involves large incremental jumps in weight - accelerating you to your working weight in double quick time. While this saves time, it is probably not optimal for workout performance.

So, lesson 1. High intensity lifting often requires a good amount of quality warm ups to raise neural system levels.

Next, we picked an exercise that really is not at all suitable for rest/pause training. Rack Deadlifts.

Lesson 2. Choose the right exercise for the chosen rep/set method....

Next we worked up to our respective 3 rep maximums.

Then, without any regard for our spinal health, we proceeded to do one all out set of 20 reps, resting where necessary, which often meant doing singles followed by a short period spent horizontal on the floor cursing our own stupidity and the alacrity at which we had responded to this idea at the start of the workout.

Lesson 3. High intensity + rack deadlifts + high reps = horrible form. Sometimes you just need to 'ugly' the weight up as Zack says.

We then followed this with an upper back circuit. One set of 10-12 of the following

A1 Pronated Grip chins
A2 Supinated Chins
A3 Chest Supported Rows
A4 Pulldowns
A5 Kneeling Rear Delt Flys
A6 Barbell Curls

Then, we left the gym, shaking our heads in a state of disbelief but at the same time wondering if this bizarre little protocol had any place in the world of weight training.

The answer? Probably not, but we wanted to share it with you anyway!

Lesson 4. A lot of exercise dogma isn't true. But some is, effective warm ups involve limiting fatigue while raising sympathetic nervous system activity to an appropriate level for the work sets for example. Pick the right type of exercise for the chosen protocol is another. Finally, as the song says, sometimes you got to go there to get back - don't be afraid to experiment with different approaches and exercise protocols. Variety is a key ingredient to progression.

Till next time!

Team Aegis

Eggs really are good for the heart...

2009-02-25T13:15:00.004Z

It is well-known amongst my clients and colleagues what a strong advocate of eggs I am. I happen to think that eggs are one of the most nutritionally amazing food sources naturally available.

So, with that in mind I just wanted to share with you another piece of positive evidence (as if there wasn't enough already) as to why you should be including this nutritional powerhouse into your diet on a regular basis. Rather surprisingly this latest paper to reveal positive health benefits actually showed the strongest results to come from fried eggs!

Scientists found that fried eggs had high potential for inhibiting the production of something called Angiotensin Converting Enzyme. Now, unless you are currently on medication for high blood pressure, or are in the medical profession, you may well be thinking 'great, so what?'. Well, in short, this is good news as this little enzyme is responsible for changing the 'not very biologically active' Angiotensin 1 into the rather more active Angiotensin 2.

Eggs - bloody brilliant....

Angiotensin 2 is a bit like a bigger, rather more problematic brother of 1 and has a direct effect on the blood vessels, causing them to constrict and to raise blood pressure. Angiotensin 2 also is prothrombotic, which means that it encourages the formation of blood clots - another reason to want to keep levels of it down. As if that wasn't bad enough, it ALSO causes the release of aldosterone, which causes the kidneys to retain sodium and lose potassium.

This is the reason that one of the most popular drugs of choice for treating hypertension is designed to inhibit the enzymes that convert the non-active form of Angiotensin into its active relative. These are simply known as ACE Inhibitors.

You can check out the abstract to this latest study HERE from the Journal of Agricultural and Food Medicine.

I will be posting more in the next few days on eggs, including the latest research that can hopefully put to bed the concerns about cholesterol and egg intake. In the meantime, check out an article I have put together all about eggs to be posted on our website very soon!

Best,

Team Aegis

Friday Fun Part 2

2009-02-20T14:12:00.005Z

Welcome to this weeks installment of our friday fun workouts where there are no rules and no particular targets. All we aim to do on a friday is get the heart rate up, get the blood flowing and try to put together a general conditioning workout to round out the week.

Time was particularly short this week, which matched our energy levels, so we went for a short routine with a lower body, one upper body, and one whole body movement. Here is this weeks friday fun workout.

A1 Squats with Chains 4 - 6 reps

A2 Curl to Arnold Press Dumbbell Combination 6 - 8 reps

A3 Forward Sled Drag 2 Lengths of the gym

As many circuits as possible in 20 minutes. Simple.

check the video of our london personal trainers on You Tube here:

Give it a try and don't forget to post some comments on how you get on! Remember to check out our Youtube page HERE for all of our training videos.

G

Green Tea, Fat Loss and more...

2009-02-19T12:11:00.002Z

When it comes to weight loss there are endless articles and ‘revelations’ in the media about the latest and greatest fat loss supplements and secrets. Many of these are given with a fair amount of hyperbole and imagery that alludes to marvellous effects. The reality is that many of the recommended supplements really lack compelling evidence for use, while others are shrouded in mystery or uncertainty over their safety or efficacy. However, there are other dietary interventions that are easily achievable, relatively low cost, clinically safe, and proven at being an effective part of a weight loss programme. Probably leading the field in this market is Green Tea, which is one of the first things to go onto any client shopping list when discussing weight loss, or health improvement in general....

To read the rest of this article on the benefits of Green Tea from London Personal Trainers click HERE

Friday Workouts...

2009-02-13T14:50:00.006Z

Friday is fun day here at Aegis, well in fact every day is fun here, but friday is a fun day for training. It is a bit of a 'no rules' day for us when one of us will put together a fairly arbitrary circuit and we will go out in the gym and smash it up for a bit.

Today we thought we would share that workout with those of you diligent (or bored) enough to read our blog! We will post this to our Facebook page as well, along with a video of the boys in action actually doing it.

Training Focus: Power Endurance - Performing explosive movements in circuit format with an emphasis on speed of execution.

To do this we selected two upper body movements and two lower-body movements and simply performed them as a circuit with minimal rest between each and then rest as needed between circuits. Here is the circuit.

A1 Heavy Kettlebell Single Arm Swings 6 Reps
A2 Explosive Bench Press with Chains 6 reps (we like the chains as they change the strength curve to be more beneficial for explosive work - plus they look cool!)
A3 Power Cleans from the Hang 6 Reps (you can't really use a genuine 6 rep max for this due to fatigue, so drop your usual 6RM down and go for speed and groove).
A4 Inverted Rope Rows 8 Reps

Note: We don't generally support using higher reps for complex movements, in fact to be fair we don't really use high reps for very much at all, except for specific endurance or metabolic conditioning for anaerobic lactic acid fitness. We have found that technique soon gets bent way out of shape on cleans and snatches once fatigue sets in, adding an additional risk to the exercises that we don't feel is matched by the benefits.

Finisher: Team sled drag relays backwards and forwards, alternate between pulls.

Any extra time you have, if you still want more, try some grip work to finish such as sledgehammer work, no thumb curls and reverse curls, hammer curls etc etc. Or of course, like us you could throw in some passover curls, just for a bit of a laugh at the end.

Keep your eyes posted for this workout video, which will be up on our you tube page VERY soon. See it here: Personal Fitness Trainer London

Have a great weekend - and come on England!
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GM

Fitness Myths - Long, Lean, muscles and heavy weights

2009-02-11T12:45:00.006Z

Now, we promise there is more to come on this topic and in greater depth. However, we here at Aegis are having such a giggle over some of the mountebanks who proliferate in the fitness industry that we had to put a post up about it. In particular we found great amusement over recent advice in a national newspaper that women shouldn't lift over 3lbs in weight in the gym. This particular 'expert' who name drops to gain credibility is one of the prime culprits of this sort of nefarious storytelling. Another of their classics is that they only work the small muscles, and in doing so, this helps to lengthen the longer bigger muscles, which according to her, you shouldn't work in the gym or you'll swell up and become bulky and masculine. This is their 'unique' system, and apparently everyone else is getting it wrong...?

Unfortunately for the general public, there will always be those people who market their 'systems' as being unique based on some spurious claims that often are the antithesis of well-established physiological principles. Another of these is the classic comment that activities like Pilates can give you 'long lean muscles', which thankfully is a myth only talked about by a few, but again enough to make it an often-repeated phrase. Check out THIS article by the late Mel Siff, who provides ample excellent rebuttals of many of these common myths.

Check out this video below of Pilates in action...

Let me give you a quick lesson in basic physiology. ANY activity involves a shortening AND a lengthening of muscles. Adding resistance can cause the hypertrophy, or growth, of muscles. For women, this potential is greatly reduced due to their hormonal system not favouring size gains (amongst other reasons). If muscles are getting smaller from training then that is called catabolism or atrophy and is NOT desirable folks! Does it mean that the more you do the longer your muscles get? Hopefully not as if so then all your joints will become unstable and you won't be able to move....You can reduce levels of bodyfat through training of course, but not through 1000 pelvic tilts. Secondly, muscles are the length that they are - and although there may be reductions in sarcomere (the microscopic 'units' of muscle) amounts through chronic postural shortness - any activity that works the muscle through the full range of movement will help maintain or restore flexibility. It is a MYTH that weight training makes you inflexible - if you don't believe me, just check out this video

These guys lift weights ALL THE TIME and HEAVY ones too! But they also have amazing flexibility....and it isn't just them - many other athletes manage to develop outstanding strength and flexibility (ever seen the physiques on top gymnasts??). It is an outdated concept, based on stereotypical impressions of muscular bodybuilders, that strength or weight training equates to poor flexibility. In just about all cases, the opposite is true.

Finally, the notion that weight training with more than 3lbs is detrimental to women is so wrong it verges almost irresponsible in terms of advice. Even more dangerous is giving this advice to 'real' women based on the training programme of a Hollywood A-lister with a private chef and questionable dietary habits - not to mention someone who is genetically tall, slender, and never really had an issue with her weight in the first place?

Jamie Eason (left) is well known for being a strong girl who regularly lifts weights (yes, heavy ones that weigh more than 3lbs), yet you'd be hard pressed to say she looks either bulky or lacks femininity.

When you consider that research has CLEARLY shown that a loss of muscle mass is the primary reason women gain weight as they age, it really makes no sense to suggest they use such small weights. A new-born baby weighs more than 3lbs, not to mention bikes, shopping, pushchairs, or in fact ANY job - police, fire service, military, whatever, will involve a need for strength. In fact, I have in the past highlighted countless studies, including a fascinating study on occupational fitness carried out in the U.S, that clearly showed the importance of high-intensity strength training in developing all-round fitness. Check out THIS study if you want to see the real EVIDENCE as opposed to the myths and hype.

Hold on, I have to go as Jenny from our team is deadlifting in the gym and its more than 3lbs.....we better stop her!!!!

Obesity in the Genes? Not so fast....

2009-02-10T10:09:00.005Z

A short while ago you can probably remember the news making a big deal of the discovery of an 'obesity' gene that pretty much means (if you listened to their usual style of sensationalising stuff like this) that it doesn't matter what you do, if you are genetically meant to be obese then you are pretty much stuck with it. Now, this wasn't the first or only paper that has looked at genetic links to obesity, but it is probably the most high profile and given that the average UK waistline is currently expanding faster than Gordon Brown's overdraft - it's certainly hot news....

"Honestly, it's genetic.....it's nothing to do with nutrition or exercise...."

Well, at Aegis Training as personal fitness trainers, we greeted this kind of research with the kind of enthusiasm normally reserved for opening a credit card bill or listening to one of Leigh Brandon's jokes. We didn't quite believe things to be as simple as this, could it really be possible that no matter what you did, if you were genetically cursed then that was it? Well, we didn't buy that, and neither did a lot of other scientists.

Now, I should warn you, this whole genetics thing can get a bit complicated and is best left to those who spend their days toiling over bunsen burners and injecting small animals with various potions. However, I will attempt a brief explanation.

One of the main studies on this actually came from the U.K and looked at something called the FTO gene. They found that variations of this gene were related to weight gain, and increased risk of diabetes. Having several variants of the gene puts you at risk of even greater weight gain. The FTO gene acts on enzymes and they found it to be particularly active in the Hypothalamus, which amongst other functions, controls hunger and thirst - uh oh.....you can see why this might be a problem....(apparently over half of us here in the UK have variants of this gene).

Now of course, this is hardly as simple as it may, or may not sound. The body is a complex bit of kit and there are many hormones within the body and many enzyme driven processes that can be altered through diet and exercise. However, the Hypothalamus is often central to the secretion of these and can be thought of a bit like the conductor of the hormonal orchestra that drives how we eat and store fat.

O.k back to the story. Now, research out of the U.S has given us some hope. While scientists are now looking at how to modulate the FTO gene as a treatment for obesity, the latest research to be published suggests that high levels of physical activity may negate the effects of this troublesome gene. Researchers at the University of Maryland looked at just over 700 folks from the Armish community (the Armish make good research subjects as they are genetically homogenous)and found that they too showed similar patterns of increased weight gain in those with the FTO gene. However, and here is the important part so listen carefully, they also found that high levels of physical activity (many of the Armish have physical jobs such as farming or building) actually modulated the effects of the FTO gene in men and women. The researchers stated that - "This provides evidence that the negative effects of the FTO variants on increasing body weight can be moderated by physical activity". Powerful stuff, and also solid evidence that even if genetically you aren't blessed, you can still 'beat your genetics' with the addition of regular physical activity.

As a side note to this, which we will be looking at in future articles - they also found that the Armish had lower rates of diabetes and more favourable cholesterol levels than the average - despite a high fat and high cholesterol diet, adding further fuel to our philosophy on nutrition currently used here at Aegis Training.

If you would like to check out the original study, you can find the abstract HERE .

'Hockey' - next big thing?

2009-02-07T17:57:00.003Z

Every once in a while we like to go a bit off-base with our posts, and today is definitely one of those occasions.

When we are not busy creating new workout routines, or coming up with slightly bizarre systems of nomenclature for them, we like to check out some of the new bands and new music coming onto the scene. Yes, it's true, and despite the fact that the 80's are alive and well in our little corner of Shoreditch, we also like to listen to new sounds as well.

Here is a new band to Europe and the UK that we really like the sound of, and we think that they may well become very popular here. They're from Oregon and have a sound that could fit very well with the UK crowds - you can catch them at Cargo, just down the road from the Aegis studio on Monday 23rd February.....check out their tune below called "Too Fake" - Enjoy!

Aegis Training on Facebook...

2009-02-06T11:38:00.003Z

Well we would hardly consider ourselves to be luddites here at Aegis. In fact, armed with our Macbooks, Iphones, and various other pieces of modern technology we are far from it. However, when it comes to social networking we have been a little behind the eight ball.

However, this is no longer the case. We now have a very active Facebook page where you can get the latest updates on articles, videos, and events from Aegis. You can also use it as a forum to post questions, comments, or feedback on all things connected with fitness, nutrition, supplements, etc.

You can find our FACEBOOK PAGE HERE

We are also now filming a library of brief exercise videos and routines, which we will soon be expanding to nutritional videos that will cover shopping, eating out, and a whole range of other topics. Please do send us suggestions on what you would like to see so we can continue to build a great free resource for our clients and friends...

You can find our AEGIS YOUTUBE PAGE HERE

We will also be posting longer articles on a page on the website, you can find our two latest articles below:

TIME SMART CONDITIONING -by Team Aegis

SLED TRAINING FOR FITNESS AND FAT LOSS - By Team Aegis

Remember, we rely on referrals to build our business, so if you know of someone who might benefit from this information or from training with us, please do send them our details....

It's Payback Time! Fat loss and strength gains in 2 days? It is possible with "Blain"

2009-02-04T13:26:00.008Z

Continuing with our series of programmes inspired by the films of Arnold Schwarzenegger
we bring you a workout named after a man who typified intensity, and was probably no stranger to these methods himself- Blaine. We feel this programme is ideal for Blaine as not only did he not have time to bleed, he didn't have time to train either. well, maybe two sessions a week, which is what this programme involves.

Who was Blaine? Blaine was played by the former Governor of Minnesota and
professional wrestler, Jesse ' The Body' Ventura -
real name James George Janos. On screen Blaine was an uncompromising
character, a man of few words with a penchant for chewing tobacco and
large calibre rapid firing automatic weaponry - known in the movie as
'Ol Painless'. His iconic line was 'I ain't got time to bleed', which
later became the subtitle for one of his several books. 'The Body'
appeared alongside Arnie in a couple of other movies - notably in The
Running Man, where he is clearly someway off the capable killing
machine seen in Predator. This workout is most like Blaine, it is
tough, uncompromising, and if you lose it, you'll be in a world of hurt!

N.B: Chewing tobacco not essential for the successful completion of
this routine.

First we need to introduce you to 3 high intensity training methods. We have abbreviated them to RIP, which seems appropriate.
R is for Rest pause. Popularised by Mike MEntzer and Dorian Yates among others,
this method is also sometimes known as extended sets. Simply put, you work to failure, rest the bar, pause for either time or a number of breaths, then continue the set. you may repeat this process a number of times to reach the desired reps.

I is for Isometrics - We use isometrics in some format with all levels of trainee. Isometrics involve contraction of the muscle without any visible joint movement. This might mean exerting maximal force against a fixed bar or holding a position during a point in the movement . for this routine you will be employing mid range isometric holds. For example, on the bench press, after the final rep, lower the bar halfway and hold for ten seconds. Be sure to use a spotter for this technique.

P is for Partials and assisted - A great way to squeeze some extra work out of a muscle once it is too exhausted for full range of motion movement, this is a classic bodybuilding technique. Taking the bicep curl as an example, perform as many reps as humanly possible with a given weight and then knock out a few more reps lifting the bar ony halfway up. The assisted version would involve a spotter helping you lift the bar for a few extra reps while allowing you to lower by yourself. This is sometimes called negative reps but RIN isn't as cool sounding an acronym.

You will only perform 1 set of each exercise here, but don't let that fool you; in order for it to be effective this set MUST be taken to total muscular failure and performed with slow tempos, lowering the weight for a count of 5. Get as many reps as you can with each exercise and be aware that trainees often quit when they have a couple more reps in the tank. Don't do it. Push through the pain barrier and keep going till you reach true failure. At this point you will employ the techniques listed above to extend the set beyond failure . The end result? less time in the gym, more time to enjoy being a "sexual tyrannosaurus", just like Blaine.

Day 1

A-Back Squat - 1 set of 20 - perform these in a rest-pause fashion. If you can get 20 reps with no rest the weight was way too light. Tempo 5020 (5 seconds down, no pause, 2 seconds up, no pause)
B-Decline Bench Press - (use a competent spotter or perform these in the rack unless you fancy a crushed oesophagus) 1 x 10-12, then reduce the weight and squeeze out an extra 6-8 reps with some help from a spotter.Tempo 5020
C-Straight Leg Deadlift- 1 set of 20 - take a 10 rep max and perform 20 reps in a rest-pause fashion on a 5020 fashion.
D - Lat Pulldown - 1 x 10-12, then some partials and finish with an isometric hold in the middle of the movement for 10 seconds.
E - 1 Arm Concentration Curls - 1 x 10-12, you get the idea by now ; curl the weight till you can't lift your arm, then curl it again. Use partials and isometrics . Tempo 5020
F - Tricep pressdown - 1 x 10-12 Tempo 5020
G - Lateral Raises - 1 x 10-12, then reduce the weight and perform 8-10 more, finish with a 10 second isometric at the top of the movement.

Day 2 - Note- Don't use any of the intensity techniques on this day, just straight sets to failure

A-Front Squat 1 x 8-10
B-Pull Through 1 x 10-12
C-Incline Dumbbell Bench Press 1 x 10-12
D-Chest Supported Row 1 x 10-12
E-EZ Bar Standing Curls 1x10-12
F-Lying Tricep EZ Bar Extensions 1x10-12
G-Reverse Crunches 1x10-12
H-Knee Supported External Rotations 1x10-12

How to be a bit more like Arnold Schwarzenegger in 3 easy workouts - (maybe not easy)!!

2009-02-03T16:17:00.007Z

Recently, some of us at the Aegis Personal Training Studios in London have developed a bit of an obsession (much to the annoyance of the rest of the staff , I'm sure) with the the films Commando and Predator. These, as you know, are the two greatest Arnold Schwarzenegger movies of all time (and therefore the greatest movies of all time, period). This obsession began innocently enough with randomly quoting memorable lines and promptly developed into conducting entire conversations in a cod Austrian accent and refusing to answer a question unless it is phrased as a line from an Arnie movie. Recently however, it has extended to naming our training programmes after characters from these films.
That's right, here at Aegis there's no longer such thing as an "accumulation phase" or a "strength focused mesocycle", there is only "Bennett", "Blain" and "Dillon".
These workouts are current favourites around here so I thought I would share them with you in a 3 part blog post.
Starting us off is the "Bennett" programme. Bennett is , of course, the greatest movie villain of all time bar none. With his Australian accent, too-tight chainmale vest and Freddie-Mercury-on-steroids moustache, he fluctuates between moments of extreme psychosis and outrageous high camp. Indeed, his clear obsession with John Matrix (the schwarzenegger character) can be read as one of the screens greatest tales of unrequited love.

The programme, like the man, is all business. No effort is wasted on girly-man exercises like tricep kickbacks or cardio. Instead we have the cornerstones of strength training; squats and deadlifts. Still the best,they always will be, just like Bennett. Here's the programme:

The programme involves 3 days training a week. It includes a mix of good old fashioned strength training and some excellent fat loss strategies using functional strongman exercises.

Day 1
A1 - Rack Deadlift (bar is set at just below the knees)
A2 - Standing Dumbbell Curls
Set a timer for 15 minutes and complete as many sets of these exercises as possible . Perform sets of 3 on the deadlift and 5 on the curls in an alternating fashion. The weight for the deadlift should be about a 5 rep max. The goal each week is to beat last weeks record, so if you got 4 sets of 3 and 1 set of 2 last time for deadlifts, aim to get at least 5 sets of 3.

B1 - Bottom-up Bench Press (performed in a power rack, bar is resting on the pins about an inch from the chest and pressed up from the bottom. This eliminates any bouncing or elastic response from the muscle and ensures that your chest, shoulders and triceps are doing all the work)
B2 - Reverse EZ Bar Curl
Again set a timer for 15 minutes and perform these as described earlier, sets of 3 for bench press and 5 for reverse curl.

C1 - Face Pull 2-3 x 10-12 (see a video clip here: London Personal Trainer )
C2- Straight Arm Pulldown 2-3 x 10-12 (see a video clip here: London Personal Trainer )

Day 2

A1 - Back Squat
A2 - Lying Dumbbell Tricep Extensions (perform these lying on the floor, allow the dumbbells to touch the floor and rest on for 1 second between between reps)
Again, 15 minutes, sets of 3 for squats and 5 for tricep extensions.

B1 - Weighted Chin-Ups (use a weighted belt or hold a dumbbell between your feet, go heavy)
B2 - Overhead cable tricep extension
15 minutes. 3 reps for chins, 5 for triceps.

C1 - Prone Y raises 3 x 10-12 (see a video clip here: London Personal Trainer )
C2 - Serratus Crunch 3 x 10 -12 (see a video clip here: London Personal Trainer )

Day 3
Strongman / Fat Loss Circuit
Choose 3-4 strongman execises from the list and do as many sets as possible in a 20 minutes timeframe. Obviously you will be limited here by the equipment available to you. Here's a list of our favourites.
Tyre flip
Sled drag
Farmers walk
trap bar walk
Keg clean and press

If you train at a gym with limited equipment you can replace this day with a fat burning barbell circuit. Take a barbell and perform the following exercises back to back without dropping the bar
Deadlift
Romanian Deadlift
Barbell Rows
Push press
Front Squat
Back Squat

Do 6 reps of each and perform as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes.

That's it, don't miss the next installment - Blain "payback time"!!

Zack Cahill,
Senior Trainer

Low Carb does it again...

2009-01-29T10:44:00.003Z

Those of you who know us will know that we are not fans of either nutritional or training dogma. We don't particularly like those who come out with statements that start with "everyone should be...." or "nobody should be....." or those who are overly critical of others approaches. It just isn't us, we like positive and constructive information and happy stuff!

However, it has to be said, we are fans of low carb diet approaches and it is how we all tend to live our lives. Experience has shown that most people who come to us for weight loss tend to have diets high in refined poor quality carbohydrates and often deficient in protein - despite a lot of the modern nutritional literature that will state that protein deficiency is no longer the problem it was many years ago. I disagree - while protein may be freely available, many people don't eat sufficient amounts, mostly because they believe the hype and avoid many excellent high protein, muscle building, healthful foods in favour of high carb processed 'health foods'.

Seriously, how can anyone live on a bowl of Special K for breakfast and lunch? Get real.....

Anyway, here is an interesting, in fact, a fascinating blog post from Dr Michael Eades, the co-author of Protein Power. I'm a big fan of his and this post is one in the eye for those who always ask me "isn't a high protein, low carb diet really bad for you?"

It comments on the remarkable research work taking place in Germany where they are using Low-carb and ketogenic diets with cancer patients whose tumours proliferate on glucose....

Check it out.....HERE

We are back....

2009-01-28T17:45:00.004Z

Yes after disappearing on you all for a couple of weeks, we are back in town and ready to go again with our blogging!!!

We have had a few people ask about workouts and training as well as the nutritional side of things, so will be making an extra effort to try and update our blog regularly with information and training stuff!!

As you know, we don't like to over-science these things, or to be overly dogmatic. Sure, we want to train safely and effectively. But we aren't training olympic athletes, nor are we hardcore bodybuilders. Mostly, we just want to look good with our kit off, keep ourselves healthy and fit, be lean and strong, and stay happy and motivated....so, with a few exceptions we never say never and are not overly into those who think that intelligent blogging means being controversial or obnoxious in how you say what you got to say!

Keep your eyes peeled on the blog for training and nutrition tips that we not only teach at Aegis, but we also follow them ourselves!

Workout of the Day

2009-01-09T08:08:00.002Z

Today we are back to interval training, this time using a different format to the previous interval sessions.....

Again today, pick a piece of kit or if you are training outside find an area to sprint in or a hill to sprint up. Try to use a different format to what you used in the last interval session to target different muscles and keep the variety there.

Today the work intervals are 60 seconds with a 90 second recovery interval.

Repeat this for 8-10 intervals. Be sure to warm up and cool down thoroughly.

Finish with stretching for any tight muscles, in particular we find that the following muscles can benefit from regular attention..

Hip Flexors, Piriformis, Calves, Chest, Latissimus, QL - Keep checking back for a stretch routine on how to best target these trouble areas.

Enjoy!

Nutrition Tip of the Day

2009-01-08T13:56:00.003Z

Consider Alcohol:

Top tip for today is to consider alcohol, consider the alcohol units, consider the calories and then consider how many units you drink a day, a week. One glass of wine isn’t going to harm you. However, excessive alcohol consumption is not only bad for your health but it can also be disastrous for waistline.

14 units per week, is the medically recommended alcohol level for women. 21 units of alcohol is the maximum level of medically recommended units per week for men. 1 unit of alcohol is the equivalent of a small glass of wine that’s a 125ml glass, a shot of spirits and half a glass of beer.

In terms of calories for example, 1g of alcohol contains 7 calories while 1g of carbohydrate contains 4 calories. As a result alcohol can be very calorie dense with nearly no nutrient benefit. There are many added sugars in alcohol, cocktails are loaded with sugar, spirit mixers, both wine, cider and beer can contain some natural occurring sugar due to what it is made of.

Finally alcohol can disrupt the homeostasis in our body, disrupting hormone pathways, disrupting nutrient absorption which, can have a negative affect on how we metabolise some macronutrients encouraging them to stored as fat on our bodies.

Small changes such as drinking water with you meal instead of wine will help. When you are out drinking with friends consider alternating your drinks with water. You could also consider giving yourself a break, an alcohol free weekend and cleanse your liver.

Today is an active rest day. Let your body recuperate from the past workouts with a walk or hike in a nearby park or around your local borough.

Fat Loss Workout 2

2009-01-07T15:58:00.002Z

Same principle as before with this workout. Do A1 first then A2, rest, then repeat it for the 3 sets.

A1 Dumbbell Step Ups 3 sets of 12-15 reps
A2 Dumbbell Chest Press on a Stability Ball 3 sets of 10-12 reps (this isn't a great demo video, but you get the idea.....)

Rest 60 seconds and repeat.

B1 Hyperextensions at 45 degrees 3 sets of 12-15 reps
B2 Pulldowns Wide Grip Pronated 3 sets of 10-12 reps (be sure to retract the shoulders fully on this, and rather than using lower back momentum as shown in the video, fix the torso in one position for the set)

C1 Dumbbell Swings 3 sets of 12-15 reps (no need to swing it as high as in the video)
C2 Stability Ball Rope Crunch 3 sets of 15-20 reps

D Seated External Dumbbell Rotations 3 sets of 12-15 each side.

Get yourself a protein shake, with NO carbs if you are trying to reduce bodyfat. Instead add some extra glutamine!

Nutrition Tip of the Day

2009-01-07T15:50:00.002Z

Today our nutrition tip concentrates on protein.

Protein is not only essential for life, it is critical to get adequate amounts for building lean mass and preserving muscle if you are dieting.

so, how much is enough? Well opinions vary - the RDA (Recommended Daily Amount) is 0.8g per kg of bodyweight. We tend to think that like many RDA's that is a touch conservative and for those weight training with us we are inclined to advise nearer 1.5g per kg of desired bodyweight.

Of course, if you are (as we tend to) following a diet where carbohydrates are far more restricted, such as a ketogenic approach then protein requirements are even higher, to prevent muscle wasting. The amino acids are converted in the liver through a process called 'gluconeogenesis' (simply meaning the formation - genesis - of new - neo - glucose). So, if you are cutting carbs then you need plenty of protein!

Protein can come from both animal or vegetarian sources - for those who don't eat any meat, there are many excellent sources (ranging from and no excuse to be protein deficient! Although we advise you steer clear of all these highly processed soy products! My own favourite are lentils.....which are also high in fibre, but that's another tip for another day!

Workout of the Day

2009-01-05T10:08:00.003Z

Today is again nice and simple for your workout.

3 minute interval training.

You can do this workout either running, cycling, swimming, or rowing. Choose whatever format you like.

You are going to be working for 3 minute intervals and using a 3 minute recovery between these. So, each interval will total 6 minutes. The aim is to complete 5 intervals in total, so that's 30 minutes of total work.

During the work intervals you should be working hard, but remember you have to go for a full 3 minutes so pick an intensity that allows you to complete the time without having to stop halfway through. Start out steady first couple of intervals so you can gauge your level. Working at a level of about 6-7 out of 10 is probably going to be about right.

Good Luck!

Nutrition Tip of the Day

2009-01-05T09:58:00.002Z

Welcome and a happy monday to you all,

Today is a very simple tip, but one that a lot of people we see seem to really struggle with.

Eat breakfast every day.

You see the research has been pretty clear on this one. People who skip breakfast are the same people who have poor eating habits and tend to gain weight. Not eating in the morning starts the day badly, often leaving you starving by mid-morning and reaching for the junk snacks to ease the stress response and low blood sugar levels caused by depriving your body of food.

People who skip breakfast are also more likely to consume more calories over the course of the day, meaning that if you are looking to lose some weight after the seasonal indulgences then you are going to struggle without getting a good breakfast in to start.

So, what makes a good breakfast? Well here are some simple rules to follow....

1. Include some protein, it slows the energy release into the body and helps fill you up.

2. Fruit Juice is NOT a healthy breakfast, neither are Cornflakes.

3. Keep it varied, eggs are great, but omelettes every day soon gets boring!

4. Don't limit yourself to traditional breakfast choices of cereals and fruit, there is no reason why you can't eat meat, fish, avocado, or berries.

5. It needn't take long - boiling a couple of eggs with some sliced smoked salmon takes just a few minutes.

6. If you really struggle to eat something, start out with a smoothie - include something like Progreens and some whey protein to ensure it isn't just a big sugar hit from high sugar fruits such as bananas that often form the base of most smoothie recipes!

There you go! Good Luck!!

Fat Loss Workout 1.

2009-01-04T12:36:00.003Z

If you are reading these workouts, there are some simple guidelines. Exercises are paired together in Supersets, indicated by letters and numbers therefore perform exercise A1 and follow straight after with A2, rest, then repeat for the number of sets. Once you have completed the sets, move on to exercise B1 etc etc. We have chosen simple exercises you can do with either bodyweight or a set of dumbbells. Perform each exercise with a slow and controlled lowering of weights and an accelerative pressing or pulling of the weight.

Workout A.

A1 Dumbbell Split Squats 3 sets of 12-15 reps. No rest go to A2
A2 Dumbbell Overhead Push Press 3 sets of 10-12 reps Rest 60 seconds.

B1 Dumbbell Straight Leg Deadlift 3 sets of 12-15 reps. No rest go to B2
B2 Chest Supported Dumbbell Rows 3 sets of 10-12 reps Rest 60 seconds.

C1 Reverse Crunches 3 sets of 20-25 reps
C2 Standing Weighted Side Bends 3 sets of 12-15 reps

D Prone Cobra 3 holds of 60 seconds with 60 seconds rest.

Today's Nutrition Tip

2009-01-04T12:30:00.002Z

Following on from our fluid fantastic tip, why not try replacing those other drinks you are used to - especially the fruit juices or soft drinks - with a cup of Green Tea?

Check out our article HERE about the many benefits of drinking green tea.

Team Aegis

Training

2009-01-02T17:25:00.002Z

Take any piece of cardio equipment -Rower, Bike, or Treadmill.

Intervals, work from 8 intervals of 60 seconds long, with a 120 second recovery period.

Work intervals should be HARD - Rating on an 8 or 9 out of 10. While recovery intervals should be at a 3 to 4.

Remember to warm up and cool down thoroughly.

Enjoy!

Nutrition Tip - Fluid Fantastic!

2009-01-02T17:22:00.002Z

This is a simple and straightforward tip, drink more WATER! Water is essential for all bodily functions from digestion, to hydration, to joint lubrication, temperature control, appetite control. A general indicator that you need to drink more water is the colour of your urine, a deep yellow colour (in the absence of supplements) indicates you are not drinking enough. Aim to get 2 litres each day, this can be in the form of water or herbal teas. If you are not already a regular water consumer then, begin by buying yourself a new water bottle. Carry this water bottle with you everywhere you go and refill it throughout the day to ensure you get your 2 litres each day. It can even help with weight loss as recent studies showed increases in metabolic rate after drinking!

Good Luck!

New Year - New You?

2009-01-01T17:39:00.003Z

Well like it or not, for most of us the fun is over. No more reckless indulgence in chocolate or christmas pudding, well not for another few months at least. Yes, for most of us it is back to work, worry, and all if you are living here in London with us, the prospect of another 3 months of winter. Boo.

However, it needn't be all doom and gloom. Let's use this time ahead to refocus our efforts on our training and exercise programme. Now is a great time to redefine our own personal goals and maybe set ourselves some challenges for the new year, whether that is to run the marathon, to become a better dancer, drop a clothes size, or simply take some regular exercise! Remember, that goals are best when they are specific, easy to measure, achievable, realistic, and when you set a deadline.

Over the next 30 days we will be helping you by bringing you a daily nutrition tip and exercise routine. That's right, there will be something on our blog every day, so if you are full of enthusiasm but maybe lacking a bit of direction then you can use the blog as a reference to help keep your mind on the training programme through january.

Today's workout is simple. Do something active for 30 minutes. That could mean getting out and taking a walk or a cycle ride, it doesn't matter, just try not to spend the whole day in a coma on the sofa.

As you can imagine, most of our nutrition tips will be aimed at getting you back leaner and healthier so today's is a simple one. It is clear out time, time to go through the fridge and the pantry and get rid of the junk. As most of us know, if it is the house then chances are that at some point, in a moment of weakness or indulgence, you WILL eat it.

If you want to avoid having a physique like Homer Simpson then you best start by getting rid of that leftover Christmas junk!

Stay tuned for tomorrows tip and workout!

Damage Limitation - How to keep happy and healthy over the Christmas break... by Graeme Marsh

2008-12-23T13:00:00.002Z

1. Give yourself a real break from the things you really need to escape from - texting, email, blackberry, IPOD, Laptop - do it all less, if at all and you will be surprised on how much better you will feel...really, the world won't end i your phone isn't on 24/7.

2. Take the time off to catch up on some sleep. Stay in bed till 9 or 10 in the morning a few days if you can and enjoy the rejuvenating benefits.

3. Go get some pampering of some sort. There are some great christmas deals out there for spa days and pamper treats. Go reward yourself for a change.

4. Keep up eating a decent breakfast, it will greatly stop you overeating through the rest of the day

5. Take advantage of the free time to get out and walk - if you are away then explore where you are, if you are staying put then go out and check out more of where you live. Enjoy the fresh air and burn some calories too.

6. Don't eat just for the sake of it. If you feel stuffed, don't feel you have to cram in more christmas pudding!

7. Keep to good habits, eat plenty of seasonal vegetables and good quality proteins as the basis of your meals.

8. Drink plenty of water every day - keep hydrated and happy!

9. Watch the picking - its constant snacking on not so great food choices that will cause problems and sneak in excess calories....

10. Don't obsess - its only a couple of meals over the holiday period so sit down and enjoy them with the company of good friends and family. We don't do that often enough....!

Coming Soon - a month of fitness tips and workouts!

2008-12-19T11:47:00.005Z

We know that January can be a depressing month. You ate and drank too much over the christmas break, probably won't have exercised that much, the weather will almost certainly be rubbish, and your next holiday isn't till Easter. However, to cheer you up and help get you through the January blues, we will be providing you with a DAILY nutrition tip and workout!

That's right, you don't have to do anything to improve your health except log onto the Aegis Training blog and follow the advice on there!

Simple right?

So, remember, every day in January we will be giving you a free nutritional tip and workout to get you feeling fitter and healthier again in no time! Of course, we would love to share these tips with as many people as possible to feel free to send the link to our blog to your friends, family, and colleagues so that they can benefit too!

Meanwhile, news of the latest recession had not been met well at HQ Santa Claus....

There's no I in Team......but there's a lot of idiots!

2008-12-18T18:09:00.015Z

Over the next couple of months we want to introduce you to the Aegis Training team in a little more detail....please don't let this put you off!

This month the spotlight is on....

Nikki Hall
Marketing and Communications
Start Date: October 2008

PROFILE

Birthplace
Rochford, Essex

Best subject at school
Does lunchtime count as a subject?

Worst subject at school
Dissecting a frog in Biology was the most traumatic experiences of my life!

Favourite Place on Earth
Havana, Cuba or New York oh or Paris. Actually my bed.

Most Embarrassing Moment
I'm such an idiot there are many.

Falling over in the middle of a fashion show.

Getting my heel stuck in a drain at Liverpool Street during rush hour, having to remove said shoe and get help pulling it out of the drain by someone who walked past who happened to be really hot.

When I was younger had a bet with my brother I couldn't fit my head through a turnstile at Homebase. I could but couldn't get it out and had to be cut out by fire fighters.

Current Read
The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett
The Four Hour Work Week - Timonthy Ferriss
What can I say - multitasker.

Favourite unhealthy treat
Pizza, peanut butter but Cheese and Onion crisp sandwiches would have to be the ultimate.

Favourite healthy food
I eat so much spinach I could be popeye!

If I wasn't a personal trainer I'd quite like to have been....
Mmmm..maybe in marketing??? When I was younger I wanted to be a ballet dancer, a teenage mutant ninja turtle or a panda.

Look out for part 2 on Nikki, where you can find out what she really thinks of Greg and Graeme, the absolute rubbish she has on her ipod and her proudest moment.

You also have next month to look forward to, when we will be focusing on another member of the Aegis Team....watch this space!

Change up and improve your Bench Press with this exercise...

2008-12-17T14:49:00.004Z

Exercise Focus - The Lying Pin Press

From Team Aegis Trainers

There are a few exercises that can be seen done by just everyone in your local health club, and top of that list is probably the bench press. The bench is generally the first exercise people tend to gravitate towards when they begin their routines and not without good reason - its the number one movement for building strength in the upper body, in the main concentrating on the pectorals and the triceps.
However, something we also see with bench pressing is poor technique and sloppy exercise execution. Many of these mistakes are habitual, refined over years of practicing with poor movements. They are often central to people failing to progress in the lift and may also have a bearing shoulder injuries, which can often be related back to poor technique and weakness in stabilising muscles.

When it comes to injury prevention, it is equivocal whether a certain exercise is actually bad for you. In fact it is more a case of whether YOU are bad for that exercise. Many people can do dips, deep benching, and behind neck presses for years without ever suffering from shoulder problems, and it is more down to individual biomechanics and exercise performance when considering injury potential. The bench press can be performed in many different variations, some of which are far more likely to lead to shoulder issues than others. That is why we favour exercises such as the Pin Press, which has some key benefits listed below:

1. Pin Presses limit the range of shoulder extension and internal rotation, and when performed as outlined below they also reduce the amount of abduction. These three factors significantly ease the strain on the shoulder by placing it in a lower risk position for injury.

2. Pin Presses teach the importance of a strong scapula position during pressing

3. The bar starts from the bottom part of the lift, without momentum, which creates less reliance on elastic reaction from the muscles, tendons, and ligaments of the shoulder and instead places more emphasis on generating muscle activity and overcoming inertia. There is in essence a strong isometric action at the start of the lift as the muscles struggle to overcome the inertia of a heavy bar.

4. The movement strengthens the lockout portion of the lift primarily

5. The exercise concentrates the effort on the triceps and pectorals, without any lower body assistance

6. As it is performed in a power rack, it allows heavy weights to be used as the pins increase the safety of the exercise and remove the need for a spotter overhead.

7. Increases confidence handling heavy weights in the bench press

8. Provides an active 'change/rest' for the shoulder from deep pressing movements.

9. Ideal for rest/pause techniques such as cluster training - a favourite of ours!

So, hopefully by now we have convinced you that it might be worth giving the pin press a try in your next upper body routine as a break from the conventional style of bench pressing. Let's now take a look at our technical advice for it along with a small video.

- Begin supine on the floor in the power rack. The pins can be set at whichever height you choose to work from, a higher position will obviously concentrate the effort more on the triceps and the lockout phase of the movement.

- Legs should be straight out in front with shoulder blades retracted and held tight to the floor

- Take a grip on the bar a couple of inches out from where the knurling begins on the bar. This will be wider than for a normal close grip press, but probably narrower than a lot of you are used to using.

- Take a deep breath, and keeping the shoulders locked in tight, drive the bar upwards to lockout

- Lower under control to the pins, allow the bar to come to a dead stop, reset and repeat for the desired number of reps. (we tend to favour lower reps on this exercise - between 3 - 6 seems to work well)

check out the video below to see the lift in action. Remember, please feel free to post comments or questions to us at info@aegistraining.co.uk

Pin Press from Team Aegis on Vimeo.

Christmas time, too much food and wine?!

2008-12-08T17:43:00.010Z

Christmas is just around the corner and it is a time when many hard training individuals take a much deserved break from the gym. Occasional periods of less intense exercise or even total rest can be a valuable part of your training strategy, allowing for physical and mental regeneration and a renewed enthusiasm when you hit the weights again.

But let's take it one step further; how can you maximise the effectiveness of your rest period?

One very effective (but very taxing) method is a planned period of over-reaching, also known as "super-accumulation". In short this involves a large but short term increase in overall training volume and intensity. By pushing your body harder than usual within sensible limits, then taking a full week of res, it is possible to kick back and relax during your holiday period and still make gains.

Here are some guidelines for doing this-

1- If you usually train 3 times a week, commit to 5 sessions for the next two weeks. If you normally train Monday/Wednesday/Friday for example, add sessions either on Tuesday and Thursday or Saturday/ Sunday, or any combination that fits your lifestyle. If you normally train twice a week, step things up to four sessions. You get the picture; do significantly more work than you're used to.

2- Use full body sessions. If you normally do some sort of body part split, switch to full body routines on each training day. This may not be ideal long term, but remember; the goal is to shock your body. Expect some muscle soreness in the first week.

3- If you're already very fit and used to hard training, you could consider two sessions a day. An effective method is to do heavier lifting in the morning (4-6 reps) and higher reps in the evening (12-15).

4- It should go without saying but you need to eat supportive foods if you want to try this method. If you're skipping breakfast and having soup for lunch then you're not ready yet! Get your protein in and eat regular, nutrient dense meals.

That's it! Again, this method is not for the faint hearted. It requires serious commitment and proper nutrition. But get it right and you earn some guilt free Christmas slobbing!

"You put high heels on and change" - Manolo Blahnik

2008-11-27T16:08:00.005Z

The Sun newspaper reported today that baby's high heels were to go on sale for children up to the age of six months, provoking a lot of controversy.

Read the article here

See what company director Graeme Marsh has to say on the subject:

Phew, where do you start with this one? Is it all a bit of harmless fun, or is it another example of parents who seem loathe to let kids just be like kids and insist on dressing them up like little dolls to show off at friends parties? While I am all for grown women dressing up in their Jimmy Choo's for a night out, we can't seriously be considering putting our toddlers in high heels! This just seems wrong on so many levels that it is hard to know where to begin. It is amazing how little thought seems to have gone into the possible physical repercussions of this, let alone the psychological aspects. Trying on mums shoes is one thing, but buying tiny tots a pair of miniature high heels is another entirely. Is it just me who finds these pictures just a little disturbing?

These shoes aren't actually heels, and are aimed at catching the kids prior to walking, but I wonder if the creators are aware how susceptible to environmental influences kids are at that age. We all recognise how harmful heels can be to grown women, let alone messing around with the feet of growing toddlers. The difference is that grown women can get a choice. Is there a chance these shows could be harmful to a child's development? Maybe so, maybe not, although most experts would agree that it is probably not the best move at such a young age.

At the end of the day it seems like not much more than a light-hearted novelty product, although you wonder if they are popular with the same parents who like to show kids off at child beauty pageants putting make up on 8 year olds?? Why is it that we try to get kids to grow up so quick these days? I am sure if they realised how much of a pain in the arse being a grown up can be then most of them wouldn't be thanking us for it!

'It ain't what you do its the way that you do it....why intensity is key to burning body fat' - by company director Graeme Marsh

2008-11-25T18:41:00.004Z

There are often heated arguments between trainers about what the best type of exercise is for losing body fat. However, the simple fact is that results more often than not come down to how HARD you work, rather than WHAT you work or HOW long you work it for. Indeed, it is not uncommon to see internet articles where some form of exercise is being touted as the latest big thing for fat loss. Alternatively, many staples of the average exercise routine have been torn to shreds as a fat loss tool, where more often than not it is the intensity - a legacy from the days of the fat burning myths - that fails to get the mention it should. Why? Because most people would rather hear that they can do gentle exercise and lose weight without breaking a sweat! Sorry, but that only works in fantasy land folks. If you want to get real fat loss results then you need to get working hard and for the doubters, here is a little proof!

I want to share a study with you from the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise that is about to go to print.

Here is the abstract.....

To save you reading it here is the skinny on what happened. Two groups (well three if you include the control group) of middle-aged overweight women, one group exercised 5 days per week at an intensity below their lactate threshold (this is where lactate levels start to rise in the body and is normally associated with a bit of discomfort), the other group did two days at the same level , then 3 days at an intensity just above the lactate threshold. Both groups exercised until they used 400 calories per session and did this for 16 weeks straight.

The end result? Those who exercised at low intensity saw NO significant changes compared to the control group. Those who included higher intensity exercise had significant reductions in abdominal fat - both the fat under the skin (subcutaneous) and around the organs (visceral). The authors of the study concluded that "body composition changes are affected by the intensity of exercise training with HIET more effectively for reducing total abdominal fat, subcutaneous abdominal fat, and AVF in obese women with the metabolic syndrome."

Now, this is a pretty cool study. It matched caloric expenditure, which again goes to prove that there is more to fat loss than simply burning calories. Granted, this is working with a group of untrained, obese, middle-aged women, so we need to be realistic about the applications, but there are many, many women who fit this category who are failing in their fat loss efforts. Are they failing through a lack of time? Is it through the wrong type of exercise? Or is it more to do with the level of intensity they are working at? Well, chances are there are elements of all three, but this study goes to show the impact of simply not training hard enough. For too long now, women have been told that lower-intensity exercise in the 'fat burning zone' is the way to burn bodyfat. The sooner we can dispel this rubbish the better. Steady-state aerobic training has very limited value (although it does have some) as a tool for improving body composition and this study is a classic example of that.

The bottom line here is that if you want to see fat loss for all your fitness efforts then its time to quit with the long sessions of low intensity training. Now, for some this isn't exactly a newsflash, but for many out there it may mean a departure from their current training. The good news is that by training using shorter, more intense workouts (a format we use at Aegis Training for creating effective fat loss routines) you can get more results for less time invested.

In part 2 we will be suggesting some ways that you can alter your training to take this principle into account.