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Prepared to compete? 13 August 2014 It was suggested to me by a fellow competitor that it would be a good idea to have a blog article explaining what we have to go through to prepare for a contest. Do you feel that you have the time and dedication to give it a go? Is it something you would even consider doing? I've put down some things I think might be helpful to maybe help you to decide. How long to diet for?r
A recipe for change? 30 October 2014 One more contest to go! Next week – NIFMA World's in Dublin then it's going to be a focus on gaining some more muscle over the next 18 months or so even tho I'm an old git now! I have found that prioritising basic compound movements has given me new found increases in lifts so perhaps some lean mass gain is possible? My diet however sucks in that it so boring and unimaginative. I have been inspired by other folk posting healthy recipes online that could easily fit in to daily macros.
02 October 2014 Yesterday I received my letter from my doctor's surgery requesting I attend for my annual flu jab. I am entitled to have this done every year as I am asthmatic. I don't remember the last time I had an asthma attack - they no longer occur since I have lost all the excess weight.
If a supplement could help to increase your overall workout intensity and duration in the gym, leading to developing a higher level of muscle mass would this appeal to you? Supplementation of creatine has become very popular and has been proven to increase power, strength and size for bodybuilders, athletes or sports participants. Background Creatine is a nitrogenous organic acid which is a non-essential dietary compound that is found naturally in foods like meat and fish.
Having brought my cholesterol levels down from what where considered dangerous to normal with diet and exercise, I had been avoiding eating whole eggs and restricting myself to powdered egg whites. I decided to look in to their benefits in more detail including the value of including whole eggs in my diet. Bodybuilders, sportspersons and fitness enthusiasts are, or should be aware of how important high quality protein is in muscle building processes in the body.
03 September 2014 Ever wondered when you are trying to lose weight or gain muscle how much you should be eating? We all want to either make lean gains or drop body fat and maintain muscle and it can be confusing as to how much we need to eat to do this. There are tools out there that can help you to work out how much you should be eating each day depending on your goals. I've seen myself crash on really low calories with weight loss coming to a standstill and feeling really bad or eating too much and getting fat!
As we age testosterone levels start to decrease and this may have an effect on several aspects of your life especially if you strive to maintain or gain muscle mass by following an active lifestyle. Low sex drive, depression and muscle loss can all be symptoms of lowering testosterone levels. What Is Testosterone?
ZZZZZZMA? 06 August 2014 If you train and exercise regularly increased sweating or an inadequate diet can lead to losses of vitamins and minerals, particularly lower levels of zinc and magnesium. Studies have shown that less than 70% of us get enough zinc, and less than 40% get enough magnesium. Zinc deficiencies may impair immune function and decrease performance when training. Zinc also plays a crucial role in protein synthesis and cell growth. Testosterone levels can also fall without adequate zinc and has a correlation with liver function.
Can green tea benefit us as we get older? Having had been diagnosed with dangerous cholesterol levels in 2012 and then being prescribed statins by my doctor, I decided against taking them as they changed how I felt and were affecting my hormone levels. I opted instead to look for something as a natural alte ative. I looked at the benefits of Green tea renowned to be "the healthiest beverage on the planet!" Background Green tea is native to China and India, made from un-oxidized leaves from the Camellia sinensis plant and is one of the less processed types of tea.
Training at intervals? 24 July 2014 In last week’s blog I mentioned that short intense workouts that can be done when weight training (HIT), why can’t the same principles be incorporated in to your cardiovascular fat burning program? If you could burn fat efficiently in short intense bouts of exercise why spend hours on a treadmill flicking through the channels on the built in multimedia display to catch up on the soaps?? HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) is a cardiovascular exercise method combining bursts of short intense anaerobic exercise with less-intense activity.r
I don't know if it's because of the weight I that have lost recently that I am more aware, but I can't help but notice the composition of people all around us. I went out for a long walk yesterday on a nice summer evening and noticed how few other people were out doing the same - yet there were lots of people in cars around hardly able to move in them. I even seen a couple squeezed in to the front of a small car outside the chip shop battling for elbow room to get around their ice cream cones. There weren't any kids in the park running around or playing football?
Recently with having a busy life, time constraints, working two jobs, family, huskies etc I realised I wasn’t getting as much gym time as I would like or was trying to do too much at once. I had a 4 day split for my workouts and if I was getting to the gym twice a week which meant bodyparts were being trained every two weeks and I wasn’t making any progress and if anything was getting out of shape. If I was getting to the gym more than that I still wasn’t making progress and was feeling tired
Do you get the massage? 19 August 2014 How many of us train week after week battering our bodies with physical exercise never stopping to think how we "service" the muscles, tendons, ligaments etc. that are constantly being used? Would you drive your car for miles and miles without getting it serviced? I just got my car serviced this month as the service warning light had been on for a bit of time and I thought I had better not leave this! One thing you can do however to look after your body at regular intervals is deep tissue sports massage.
Lowering Cholesterol Naturally Well good news! - I just got my annual cholesterol levels back this week and they are even lower sitting at 4.1. A couple of years ago my doctor had prescribed to me statins as he was conce ed about my dangerous cholesterol levels particular my triglyceride's and he had said that I was a heart attack waiting to happen! I stopped taking the statins after about six months as I didn't like how I felt and knew there would be side effects. Being a natural bodybuilder I was conce ed about it also affecting my testosterone levels.
Nov 28, 2014 If you have ever been on a calorie restricted diet for a long period of time in an effort to just lose weight or perhaps to enter a bodybuilding or fitness competition this may have had a negative effect on your metabolic rate. This can create what is known as metabolic damage. Fat loss and energy levels could be low and you are getting nowhere.
Many of us at some stage come to a point where we want to lose bodyfat for some reason - be it a bodybuilding/fitness model contest, a holiday or even for health reasons. How hard do you have to be on yourself with your diet? Does your daily nutrition have to be "squeaky clean" with food only from wholesome sources and nothing at all processed in there or you are doomed to fail?
So many times - in fact nearly every time I go to the gym I see some clown swinging equipment around and if you were to add some flames to the weights it would make a good circus act! One guy I have observed spends a couple of hours or more going around the gym in a circuit where he performs this mad routine. I've seen where he carries out an exercise lying face down on a bench making movements like train wheels going around with his arms using dumbbells.
As we become older - even in to our fifties or sixties is weight training something we should not be considering? Perhaps it is something that should be given up at that age if weight training is already being undertaken? Now in my sixth decade (gulp!) I feel fitter and stronger than ever due to my changed lifestyle, but are there advantages that can occur by undertaking weight training for the older person? Muscle Loss
I have recently been experimenting with healthy recipes in which I have included honey as a sweetener but I haven't really considered what it's true benefits are because honey is usually taken for granted as being a "healthy ingredient". I decided then to delve a bit deeper to see what benefits honey really brings?
My Transformation Story My name is Kenny and I'm from County Armagh in Northern Ireland. I am an IT Lecturer and Learning Technology mentor in a Further Education College. In March 2012 aged 48 I paid a visit to my doctor thinking I was a healthy individual to find out that I had dangerously high cholesterol levels, particularly my triglycerides which were at 13 and normal is 4 - potential heart attack stuff. I had been going to the gym for quite some time but was just lifting weights and getting fatter and fatter thinking I was fit... huh!
In last weeks blog I highlighted the benefits of beginning or continuing a strength training regime as we get older. Are there also benefits to undertaking a program of cardiovascular activity as we age or even at any age? Background As you age, losses in aerobic capacity and muscle strength can reduce your endurance and stamina. We all probably start taking things easier as we get older and begin to enjoy the nice things in life like more food or more time in front of the tv.
Are you training to fail? 16 July 2014 I see so many people obsessed with numbers when weight training? 5 sets of 10? 4 sets of 8?? 10 sets of 20??? If an exercise is carried out with a set number of repetitions specified beforehand, when you get to that predetermined number in your head that you have set for yourself to achieve, do you either just set the weight down or come to a halt on the machine? Have the muscle fibres been fatigued? What is the magic number?
Just for the recordr Dec 4, 2014rn“A muscle will only strengthen when forced to operate beyond its customary intensity and respond to that new stress imposed upon it” Progressive resistance training will regularly impose stress upon the muscles, forcing them to respond to the stimulus and overcompensate with the production of new muscle therefore promoting growth. In my experience to maximise the benefit of progressive resistance is to impose new stress on the muscles at each training session with a main working set for each exercise performed to muscular failure.