To be honest, it's hard to keep this list down to just five things, but these are the main mistakes people make when trying to gain a decent amount of muscle mass. Failing to address one or more of these will seriously affect your performance - and your results.
1. Avoiding the big lifts.
If your gym programme, over the course of a week, doesn't include squats, deadlifts, some form of chin ups, and some form of bench press, then you need to stop and re-evaluate what you're doing. Ideally, your programme should have:
Squats
Deadlifts
Chin ups
Military presses
Bench press and/or dips
Rows
Once you've got all those factored in, great. You can go on to do whatever other exercises you like, but don't skip the big lifts. You simply won't get the same results doing dumbbell flies, leg extensions and curl/shoulder press supersets.
2. Not eating enough.
As trainers, we get VERY used to skinny folk saying 'but I eat like a horse'. No, you don't. Or you wouldn't be skinny. Eat more than you burn off + weight training = muscle gain. At the very least, if you ate more than you needed and never trained, you'd gain fat. If your weight stays the same, you aren't eating enough. End of story. Most people who claim to eat 'loads' turn out to be eating huge portions, but not eating often enough. A 1000 calorie meal might look impressive, but if over the rest of the day you only eat another 1000 calories, you won't gain muscle.
3. Not resting enough.
You don't grow in the gym. You grow when your body has a chance to repair itself...when it's resting. That doesn't mean train once a week and rest the other six days. You need to strike a balance. Generally, for new lifters, training three times a week, having a day (or maybe two) in between each training day works. As you get more advanced, you can train more often, but only if you plan your training intelligently.
If you train every day, don't get enough sleep and constantly push yourself, you'll burn out. The most obvious indicator of burning out is a lack of progress in either your size or strength increases. If you hit a plateau, look at your rest and see what can be improved. An hour earlier to bed? An additional rest day? A weekend off?
4. Relying on supplements.
Really, this needs it's own blog post. Suffice to say, the clue is in the name - supplements. They are designed to supplement an existing good nutrition and training plan, not replace them. I have yet to train anyone who couldn't simply get better results from addressing their nutrition plan, than from spending money on supplements. 'Fat burning' supplements in particular are a huge con. They simply won't have any effect on fat loss until your diet is 100%, and I mean 100%, perfect. My diet isn't that perfect, and neither is yours - so don't waste your money on something that will make 0.1% of difference.
I'll add a caveat to that - probably, for convenience sake, a basic whey shake, multi-vitamin and Omega 3's are worthwhile investments.
5. Changing your routine every five minutes
There's a current trend (things like P90X) to promote 'muscle confusion' as the way to get big and lean. Well, it's generally rubbish. Your body responds to progressive overload. It likes getting used to doing an exercise well, and being able to get stronger at it. That takes time, and can't be achieved by chopping and changing your plan every time someone comes along with a fancy new idea. Pick a plan, stick with it for AT LEAST six weeks before considering changing. If you're wanting to get bigger, get more muscular, then consistency and progression are key. Not jumping on every latest fad.
Monday 18 July 2011
Thursday 14 July 2011
Gaining muscle...
There’s a lot of conflicting advice out there about gaining muscle and strength. The truth is, it’s about consistent hard work, attention to your diet, and using your training time intelligently. You wouldn’t expect to be able to service your own car without doing a little research and experimenting first, yet so many people walk into a gym blind…and are quickly disheartened by a lack of results.
Your body doesn’t necessarily want to generate extra muscle. After all, it takes a lot of effort for the body to grow and maintain lean tissue. To encourage it to go in the direction you want to go, you need to do three main things:
Muscles increase in size through repairing themselves after intense activity. Firstly, you need to provide that activity in a structured way, and secondly, you need to ensure you have enough incoming energy to ensure that the re-building happens at an optimal level.
How often you train, which exercises you pick, the number of repetitions and sets – all of these things impact on your size increases, and whilst there is no one-size-fits-all training programme, there are certain elements common to any successful trainee.
At Real World Fitness, we can manage both your training and your diet to ensure that none of your valuable gym time is wasted, and that everything you do is geared towards increasing your lean body mass. Incorporating tried and tested conditioning methods as well, our programmes ensure that your weight gain doesn’t come at a price of sacrificing your overall fitness, or body fat, levels.
We will teach you (or assess and if necessary improve your form) all of the major compound movements – the squat, the deadlift, the bench press, bent over rows, chin-ups and dips, military presses and basic Olympic lifts. As you learn and improve your technique, you will notice dramatic improvements in your strength, size and conditioning.
We can work with you at a number of gyms in the Nottingham area, or further afield subject to a small travel cost. Check out the website and contact us to discuss your training.
Your body doesn’t necessarily want to generate extra muscle. After all, it takes a lot of effort for the body to grow and maintain lean tissue. To encourage it to go in the direction you want to go, you need to do three main things:
- Supply an excess of energy (i.e calories)
- Supply a consistent stimulus to your muscles
- Get adequate rest and recovery
Muscles increase in size through repairing themselves after intense activity. Firstly, you need to provide that activity in a structured way, and secondly, you need to ensure you have enough incoming energy to ensure that the re-building happens at an optimal level.
How often you train, which exercises you pick, the number of repetitions and sets – all of these things impact on your size increases, and whilst there is no one-size-fits-all training programme, there are certain elements common to any successful trainee.
At Real World Fitness, we can manage both your training and your diet to ensure that none of your valuable gym time is wasted, and that everything you do is geared towards increasing your lean body mass. Incorporating tried and tested conditioning methods as well, our programmes ensure that your weight gain doesn’t come at a price of sacrificing your overall fitness, or body fat, levels.
We will teach you (or assess and if necessary improve your form) all of the major compound movements – the squat, the deadlift, the bench press, bent over rows, chin-ups and dips, military presses and basic Olympic lifts. As you learn and improve your technique, you will notice dramatic improvements in your strength, size and conditioning.
We can work with you at a number of gyms in the Nottingham area, or further afield subject to a small travel cost. Check out the website and contact us to discuss your training.
Monday 11 July 2011
Weight Training Basics
When you first decide to start using weights, it's probably tempting to just wander into the gym and have a quick go on every machine, doing loads of reps, and looking a little bit lost as you try to take in the myriad of equipment available to use.
This article is designed to help you cut through all the useless tat in your gym, and get straight onto the stuff that works. At this early stage in your lifting career, get the basics right and you won't waste the months, and years, that most people waste while they try to figure out what experienced people already know - that simple hard work, simply works!
A couple of ground rules:
1) If you're totally new to exercise, it's probably a good idea to visit your doctor and get your blood pressure, cholesterol etc tested. If nothing else, it'll give you some good data to improve upon. Pay particular notice to your blood pressure and heart rate, because these will change for the better with proper training.
2) Try to stick to the things in this article. Don't get swayed by the gym PT trying to tempt you into BodyBlitz or VibroClass. Equally, don't let Big Dave get you following his latest split programme that involves a forearm and neck training day!
The Basic Planes of Movement
Your body has six basic planes of movement. These are:
Quad dominant (anything pushing with your legs)
Hip dominant (anything pulling with your legs and hips)
Horizontal push (e.g the old favourite, bench press)
Horizontal pull (anything pulling an object towards you)
Vertical push (anything pushing above your head)
Vertical pull (e.g pull ups, chin ups)
All of that might sound overly complicated. It isn't - this article is going to show you a specific exercise to do for each of these movements. Your first eight weeks of training will consist of doing just those exercises - remember, we're going to keep things very, very simple. Why? Because simple WORKS!
The Exercises
All of these exercises below assume that you are in an average-to-well equipped gym. I won't make any excuses for saying that a gym that doesn't have a squat rack or a chin up/dipping station can't really call itself a gym. If that's the case with your 'fitness centre', seriously consider moving gyms.
Squat (quad dominant):
This article is designed to help you cut through all the useless tat in your gym, and get straight onto the stuff that works. At this early stage in your lifting career, get the basics right and you won't waste the months, and years, that most people waste while they try to figure out what experienced people already know - that simple hard work, simply works!
A couple of ground rules:
1) If you're totally new to exercise, it's probably a good idea to visit your doctor and get your blood pressure, cholesterol etc tested. If nothing else, it'll give you some good data to improve upon. Pay particular notice to your blood pressure and heart rate, because these will change for the better with proper training.
2) Try to stick to the things in this article. Don't get swayed by the gym PT trying to tempt you into BodyBlitz or VibroClass. Equally, don't let Big Dave get you following his latest split programme that involves a forearm and neck training day!
The Basic Planes of Movement
Your body has six basic planes of movement. These are:
Quad dominant (anything pushing with your legs)
Hip dominant (anything pulling with your legs and hips)
Horizontal push (e.g the old favourite, bench press)
Horizontal pull (anything pulling an object towards you)
Vertical push (anything pushing above your head)
Vertical pull (e.g pull ups, chin ups)
All of that might sound overly complicated. It isn't - this article is going to show you a specific exercise to do for each of these movements. Your first eight weeks of training will consist of doing just those exercises - remember, we're going to keep things very, very simple. Why? Because simple WORKS!
The Exercises
All of these exercises below assume that you are in an average-to-well equipped gym. I won't make any excuses for saying that a gym that doesn't have a squat rack or a chin up/dipping station can't really call itself a gym. If that's the case with your 'fitness centre', seriously consider moving gyms.
Squat (quad dominant):
Straight Leg Deadlift (hip dominant):
Bench Press (horizontal push):
I know most guys reading this will be thinking 'yeah, I've got this one, I don't need to watch a video on it'. Well, yeah, you really do need to. I don't think I've ever seen more than handful of people in gyms benching properly. It's not just a case of throwing the weight up and down. So watch! And yes, I know the guy teaching doesn't look in amazing shape, but this guy has forgotten more about weight training than you or I will ever know. Looks, occasionally, can be deceiving!
Bent over row (horizontal pull):
Military Press (vertical push)
Chin-ups (vertical pull):
A little bit of clarification here. Most people new to training simply can't do chin-up. That's ok - you're not expected to be able to straight away. There are ways of building up to them. One way is to use the lat pulldown machine in the gym. It works broadly the same muscles, but unfortunately, it doesn't recreate any of the stabilising work you need to do in a chin up. I'd much prefer you to jump onto the chin-up station, and try these instead:
Negative chin ups are an awesome way of learning how to do a full chin up. You'll get stronger in the basic movement, and before long you'll have the strength to attempt a full normal chin up. And you'll get that strength far quicker by doing negatives than you will by playing around on the lat pulldown machine.
Of course, if you ARE able to do chin-ups, then go for it!
The Programme
There's just six exercises there. No more, no less. There's no need to do any more than that. In fact, once you get good at each exercise and start to increase the weight you are using, you'll probably find that the workouts become too hard. So next time you look at the programme that the gym have given you to follow, ask yourself what is the point of doing 10-15-20 different exercises?
For the first four weeks, you are just going to do two sets of twelve reps of each exercise. Two sets, of 12 reps in each set, using a weight becomes a real struggle for the last 2 or 3 reps of each set. By 'real struggle', I mean it's hard work to do the exercise properly. You should really need to grit your teeth and grind out the last couple of reps. Don't, however, throw all the good technique from the videos above out of the window. Try to strike a good balance between working hard, and working smart.
Make sure you time your rest between sets. Aim to take no more than 60 seconds rest between sets.
You'll probably need a couple of practice sessions in the gym, learning how to do each exercise. That's fine - take a week to go into the gym and play around. Learn the moves, get comfortable with each exercise without really doing a 'full' workout. That's not a wasted week, believe me. I still do that before starting a new programme. It helps you to understand exactly what you are about to do, and means that you are ready to start working properly on the first training day.
When you start, aim to train three times a week. Monday - Wednesday - Friday works for lots of people. Tuesday - Thursday - Saturday tends to be quieter in the gyms as a result though - so you might find that's a better way to work. Whatever you choose to do, leave at least one day in between training sessions. And yes, in that first week you will ache. It gets better, I promise!
As you get used to the exercises, and they start to feel easier, add weight. Not much, just an extra couple of 1kg plates, or more if you think you can. Try not to use the same weight as the last session. Always aim to improve.
For the next four weeks, jump up to three sets of eight reps. This is going to allow you to use significantly heavier weights, yet still lift for as many reps. It'll boost your strength, and you'll start to see some size improvements/fat loss too. Expect to be able to lift anywhere between 20-30% more weight than you were handling at the end of your first four-week period. Keep your intensity levels as high as before - including timing those rest breaks.
This four week segment will be hard work, done properly. Once you've got this bit done, you'll have eight weeks of solid training under your belt. You'll be significantly stronger, and depending upon how good your nutrition has been, you'll be seeing major changes to your body. At this stage, you'll want to streamline your training a little, and cut down on some of the exercises in order to focus on really working hard. Keep an eye out for a future article that will show you how to break down these exercises further and keep you making progress.
So go on! Get started! Feel free to contact Real World Fitness for any help or advice on starting out. We're quite happy to do one-off sessions for form-checking and programme design, as well as longer term PT arrangements for people who want more targetted help.
Prioritising Health - Rebecca Conlin
I have come from a very stressful job in a secondary school, where my role was looking after a particularly naughty year group and often dealing with less than supportive parents/carers. I was also leading an expedition to Borneo for some students who had to raise over £3500, which I was only given an hour a week to do. I did not receive very much support from colleagues; in fact it verged on bullying.
On top of this I was studying a full time distance learning degree in Psychology which took up most of my spare time. If that’s not enough I was also training most nights and competing for Eastwood Amateur Boxing Club… it doesn’t even end here! My partner was also serving in Afghanistan on the front line. As you can imagine I was very busy, and there is only so long you can go without it catching up with you.
About 10 months ago I had a mini melt-down and had to reconsider my life and put things into perspective. I had to prioritise what was important. Firstly, my health. Without health, you cannot enjoy anything else in life. I’m not just talking about physical health, but all round mental, physical and spiritual wellbeing. After a lot of soul-searching I made the decision to quit my job, quit my degree, quit boxing competitively and focus on what really matters and guess what? I’m happier, healthier and fitter than ever.
So my point is: drop the excuses. I don’t care if your job is stressful. I don’t care about your family commitments. I don’t care about any other personal problems that you're using as an excuse NOT to prioritise health and fitness. That might sound harsh but without the latter you have none of the former! I’m not saying quit everything and hope for the best. I'm not saying to ignore your family and friends commitments. I’m saying act now and don’t let the hustle and bustle of everyday life grind you down, eventually putting you in the position that I ended up in.
If you want to put your health and fitness first then please contact Real World Fitness and together we will put a plan together that addresses your personal commitments and advise you on how you CAN do it. Sometimes failure just isn’t an option.
On top of this I was studying a full time distance learning degree in Psychology which took up most of my spare time. If that’s not enough I was also training most nights and competing for Eastwood Amateur Boxing Club… it doesn’t even end here! My partner was also serving in Afghanistan on the front line. As you can imagine I was very busy, and there is only so long you can go without it catching up with you.
About 10 months ago I had a mini melt-down and had to reconsider my life and put things into perspective. I had to prioritise what was important. Firstly, my health. Without health, you cannot enjoy anything else in life. I’m not just talking about physical health, but all round mental, physical and spiritual wellbeing. After a lot of soul-searching I made the decision to quit my job, quit my degree, quit boxing competitively and focus on what really matters and guess what? I’m happier, healthier and fitter than ever.
So my point is: drop the excuses. I don’t care if your job is stressful. I don’t care about your family commitments. I don’t care about any other personal problems that you're using as an excuse NOT to prioritise health and fitness. That might sound harsh but without the latter you have none of the former! I’m not saying quit everything and hope for the best. I'm not saying to ignore your family and friends commitments. I’m saying act now and don’t let the hustle and bustle of everyday life grind you down, eventually putting you in the position that I ended up in.
If you want to put your health and fitness first then please contact Real World Fitness and together we will put a plan together that addresses your personal commitments and advise you on how you CAN do it. Sometimes failure just isn’t an option.
Tuesday 5 July 2011
The Importance of Goal Setting - Rebecca Conlin
Something that I have struggled with the last few months is my diet. I train like an athlete, never missing a session, enjoy feeling like I’ve worked hard and as sad as it sounds I love the feeling you get the day after a hard workout of sore aching muscles. However, I hold myself back with my lack of diet discipline, especially for chocolate flabjack (and yes, I mis-spelt that on purpose!). After tweaking my diet continuously for the last few months to find something I can maintain I came to the conclusion that it wasn’t the diet that was the problem… it was me!
The problem is that I have got into ‘okay’ shape and I’m not unhappy enough with my appearance to alter my diet. Although a better diet would fuel my workouts and allow me to train better and harder, I don’t want it enough to change my diet! At this point to move forward I need a goal that I want enough to make these changes.
Not having a goal is like trying to buy a train ticket and not knowing your destination. You have to know where you’re going before you set off. Having a goal allows you to plan the most efficient and direct route to your goal destination. It allows you to plan out different stages of your journey in achievable chunks; in fact you can have short, medium and long term goals running at the same time. So how do you plan goals? I use the SMART acronym:
Specific
The problem is that I have got into ‘okay’ shape and I’m not unhappy enough with my appearance to alter my diet. Although a better diet would fuel my workouts and allow me to train better and harder, I don’t want it enough to change my diet! At this point to move forward I need a goal that I want enough to make these changes.
Not having a goal is like trying to buy a train ticket and not knowing your destination. You have to know where you’re going before you set off. Having a goal allows you to plan the most efficient and direct route to your goal destination. It allows you to plan out different stages of your journey in achievable chunks; in fact you can have short, medium and long term goals running at the same time. So how do you plan goals? I use the SMART acronym:
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic
Time Bound
I have now set a SMART goal: to compete in a figure show a year from now. To help me get there I have also set short and medium term goals mostly to improve my diet and nutrition which will fuel my body for the hard workouts I have planned. Guess what? For the last week my diet has been immaculate because I now have a goal in place that I want enough to change my eating habits.
The power of a decent goal should never be underestimated! If you would like to contact Real World Fitness about your own goals and goal setting please do not hesitate to get in contact. We pride ourselves in not only providing quality training, but also creating a the supportive network that is essential to enable people to reach their diet and fitness goals.
I have now set a SMART goal: to compete in a figure show a year from now. To help me get there I have also set short and medium term goals mostly to improve my diet and nutrition which will fuel my body for the hard workouts I have planned. Guess what? For the last week my diet has been immaculate because I now have a goal in place that I want enough to change my eating habits.
The power of a decent goal should never be underestimated! If you would like to contact Real World Fitness about your own goals and goal setting please do not hesitate to get in contact. We pride ourselves in not only providing quality training, but also creating a the supportive network that is essential to enable people to reach their diet and fitness goals.
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