Hydration

Getting enough fluid intake throughout the day is extremely important for your body to carry out normal function, for you to perform well in your workouts and in competitions. If you don’t get enough water you can feel lethargic, tired and in extreme cases can cause some quite serious medical conditions. Here’s a quick run down of why you should be getting enough fluid on board and a few ways you can do this.

Organ Function

From helping to regulate blood pressure & heart rate to waste removal, water plays a large role on every functioning organ in the body. If you do not have enough water, you body will simply enough just shut down. In extreme cases this can cause organ failure and even result in death.

Performance

We’ve established that water is needed to keep the body functioning properly, and this has a major effect on performance. It is widely accepted that a 2% drop in hydration can cause a 20% drop in performance! That’s a huge loss when hydration is something so easy to control on a day-to-day basis!

Skin

As skin is the largest organ in the body, it will suffer if it doesn’t get enough water. If you’re getting dry, cracked and un-healthy skin, try increasing your daily water intake to help make your skin healthier. We are certainly not beauty therapists, so don’t just take our word for it, if you look up any respectable beauty blogger they will be telling you the same thing.

So, we know why we need to stay hydrated, here’s a quick run down of how…

Drink water regularly

Taking a sip of water regularly is highly recommended. It keeps your body regulating your fluids levels consistently and will also help keep food cravings at bay. If you do feel yourself getting dehydrated, don’t neck 5 pints of water in one go as it tricks your body into thinking it has loads of water and it just passes through without doing the job it was intended for.

Eat foods with a high water content

Water can make up to about 20% of your overall fluid intake, foods such as cucumber, celery and tomatoes have a very high water content – most veg does. Besides all the extra vitamins and minerals and the health benefits they bring along, they also help bulk out salads and meals as they have a lot of un-soluble fiber too! It’s a win-win! Get some decent hydration, vitamins and minerals and make yourself feel full with a solid meal.

Drink different drinks

You don’t always have to drink water, you can drink other beverages such as tea, coffee and squash. Just be careful with these drinks as they can add calories, caffeine or both into your diet which is something you are probably trying to track. Just use them as a way to mix things up!

And finally, just a few quick tips on spotting if you’re dehydrated and if you should drink more water.

If you have headaches regularly – without ruling out medical conditions, a lot of the time drinking more water can help out.

If you urine is a very dark yellow/brown colour – this is a sign of being de-hydrated so you should probably start drinking some more water.

If you have a white tongue – again, this is a sign of being de-hydrated so go and get a glass of water.

Keep an eye out for a follow-up blog where we will cover how much water to drink and few ways of tracking your water intake – hope you liked the post! Thank you for taking the time to read it, if you liked the content and fancy sharing it then by all means, feel free!

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8 of the biggest gym mistakes

These gym mistakes may be slowing down your gains and stopping you seeing the benefit from all the hard work you’ve been putting into your training sessions. So we have put together 8 of the top gym mistakes to stop you from doing the same! This will allow you to see the full benefits of your workouts and smash those goals!

1. Overuse of cardio and underuse of weights.

Yes, cardio burns calories but you need to change it up. Resistance training with compound lifting will utilise your CNS and therefore will put your body under high amounts of stress, making you work much harder during your workouts and therefore burning more calories. Weights will also keep a stimulus on your muscles to make your body actually keep it and keep your metabolism up at the same time. Keep the cardio short but intense. Lifting weights is what actually shapes your body.

2. Not training at all.

Make sure you have discipline. There is no bigger mistake than not even training at all. Have set training days and stick to them. Try to always train on a Monday so you start the week off straight away.

3. Poor form.

One of the biggest mistakes made in a gym is poor form, by lifting too heavy to soon. Be sensible with the weights you use, it’s not always about lifting heavy. Having a better technique will allow you to progress much quicker and will help to reduce injuries so you can continue training. Make sure you can complete the full set you set out to do with the correct form.

4. Being Unorganised.

Not following a program will have a massive impact on the results you can achieve. Every workout should reflect your goals, don’t just jump from one bit of free equipment to the next one free, hoping for a pump. Following a program also allows you to track your progress, this will in return help to drive your motivation.

5. Just going through the motions.

A lot of people get stuck into the same old routine. Try to make sure you’re constantly challenging yourself every workout. Mix it up so you don’t get bored and you continue to progress.

6. Using DOMS as a guide.

A lot of people tend to use soreness as a guidance to whether they had a good workout or not. If you have an awesome gym session and feel like you tried really hard, if you don’t experience DOMS (Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness) this doesn’t mean that you had a bad workout. It could instead be a really good thing, and could suggest that your body is recovering really well and that your nutrition is really good.

If you want to find out more on DOMS click here 👈

     7. Using cardio.

Using cardio machines to count the calories you burn as the only factor of how hard you work. – Every individual burns calories at a different rate depending on many different factors.  A machine will not be able to tell you your exact expenditure, just use them as a guide not as gospel.

8. Wanting results to quickly.

To many people don’t allow themselves the right amount of time in order to get the results you want. – they people expect changes instantly, but the truth of the matter is that consistency will be the key to achieving your goals. It won’t happen overnight but it will happen, if you are consistent and work hard giving your body the right amount of time.

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The Zercher Squat

In our recent blog about improving your conditioning, we mentioned an exercise called the zercher squat as an alternative to using atlas balls (if you haven’t got any). Off the back of that, we received a fair few messages asking us what a zercher squat is, and what its benefits are. Whilst this exercise is on the app and has full exercise cues and pictures, here’s a quick breakdown of the benefits of a zercher squat and how it can fit into your programs.

Centre of mass

Placing the bar across your arms and holding into your mid-section keeps the centre of mass really close to you. This means that you have very little force pulling you out of alignment which can help you keep your posture upright and stable.

Mimic a front squat

Zercher squats can be used to mimic a front squat. This can come in handy if you get a shoulder injury or if you have a limited range of motion (ROM) around the shoulders which stops you doing a front squat.

Targets your core

As the zercher squat forces you into an upright position, your core muscles are forced to engage to a higher degree to maintain this. Core strength translates across pretty much any fitness or sport related goal, so its always a win.

Hits your distal quads

Your vastus medialis and lateralis are the two muscles in your quadriceps that attach distally around the end of the femur (bottom of the thigh). Increasing the size and strength of these muscles will give your legs a larger look, it will strengthen the knee joint and will also allow you to develop more force when running, jumping and landing.

Switch it up

Including zercher squats will switch up your training program and make sure that you don’t get bored! They will give you a new challenge to smash and provide a different stimulus for the body!

So there you have it, a few reasons why you should include zercher squats in your training program. TIP: If you start to go heavy, place a towel or jumper over your arms to stop the bar digging in when you hold it.

For training programs, success stories and online coaching, click our website here 👈

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Burn fat and improve your levels of conditioning without doing a single bit of cardio!

Knowing how to switch your workouts up is vitally important for long term results. Everyone is human, everyone gets bored or can lack motivation. Having a variety of fitness tools in your toolbox is very handy for these times where you just need to shake things up a little bit. Whilst its important to push through plateaus and push yourself to go to the gym when you don’t feel like it, sometimes you just need a new challenge to get you hungry for success again. Here’s a few ways you can design a solid workout using nothing but resistance training!

 

Try out strongman style training

Exercises such as sled pushing/pulling, atlas balls and tire deadlifts can be adapted into a challenging and effective workout. If you haven’t got a sled, a mat with weights on it works well, zercher squats can be used for atlas balls and you can use a rack pull for the tire deadlifts. These exercises will get your heart rate up and get you breathing heavily!

Circuit training

Circuit training has been used for years to get fitness enthusiasts into better shape, and for good reason! They boost your metabolism, burn loads of calories during the session and show you what a hard workout is! With the rise in popularity of bodyweight HIIT training, circuit training in the traditional sense has taken a bit of a back seat. Try using 4-6 compound resistance exercises in a circuit fashion and watch the fat melt off! Exercises like squats, deadlifts, bench press and barbell rows are all great exercises giving an effective total body workout.

Giant Sets

Have you ever completed 4-8 resistance exercises back to back without rest? If the answer is yes then you know where I’m coming from, if its no then I invite you to try it! It gives a great burn and if can be done in so many ways. For example you could aim for a total body workout or focus on one muscle group to get a ‘pump’. You can literally do anything you like with it and the conditioning you can get out of it is awesome!

Don’t sit down all day

Ok, so this may border along the lines of cardio (maybe) but sitting down all day is one of the major factors in the obesity levels in modern society. Simple things like standing up every 30 mins, getting up to change the T.V channel or taking the stairs all add upp to non-specific conditioning levels. You’d be surprised how this translates into your gym/sport conditioning (check out our blog on marginal gains here)

 

For exercise demonstrations, check out our FREE app (click the picture below) to view videos, pictures and exercise cues for over 250 exercises!

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6 Reasons To Listen To Music When You Workout

Everyone has music that they absolutely love listening to. Whether it’s keeping up to date with the latest chart toppers or listening to some classics from way back when, there’s no denying that music can move you emotionally. This can then translate into your workouts and help push yourself further! Here’s 6 reasons to listen to music when you workout!

It can up your effort

Recent studies have found that athletes worked harder when listening to faster tempo music, compared to slower tempo. It has been found that songs between 120 and 140 beats per minute (bpm) have the optimum effect on the outcome of workout intensity.

Music can get you in ‘the zone’

Ever had someone tell you they’re getting in ‘the zone’ before a workout or a set by listening to a song. Everyone has that go-to song that gets them in ‘the zone’. We associate certain songs with memories, we then relate these songs to the context we originally heard them. This has scientifically been shown to improve physical performance.

Music Makes Exercising More Fun

Another great reason to listen to music while exercising is that it can make working out a lot more enjoyable. Exercising is not always fun, especially cardio. Some people see it as a chore. This is where choosing the correct playlist can help you find exercising a lot more fun, and it makes it a lot easier to motivate yourself to go down the gym.

Diverts the mind from fatigue

Research has found that music can improve performance by drawing your attention away from feelings of fatigue and pain when engaged in endurance activities such as running, cycling, or swimming. It has been shown to increase exercise efficiency and postpone exercise fatigue.

A good beat can help you stick to a steady pace

The rhythm of your music can impact the pace of your workout by stimulating the motor area of the brain to direct the body when to move. When performing exercise such as running, cycling etc. It is good to have a steady beat like club and house music, but when performing weights try to have a song that has lyrics over the top to distract you from putting a tempo on your reps and possibly affecting form.

Choosing the right music

Not everyone has the same music taste, like pumping electro beats during your workout. However, a general configuration can still be found to improve performance.

• First of all, it’s a good idea to think about which type of workout you’re about to perform. Choose a type of song where the rhythm and tempo link with the exercises.
• Scientific research suggests that some activities, especially those that are characterized by repetitiveness such as warm-ups, stretching, circuit and weight training are particularly suitable to perform while listening to accompanying music.

 

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4 exercises to build rock solid and healthy shoulders

Building your shoulders has tons of benefits when trying to sculpt an athletic and strong physique. Whether you’re aiming to  push a heavy weight over your head, increase the size of your shoulders or if you’re looking for general stability, there’s no denying that a variety of exercises are needed to fully train the shoulder complex. Here are 4 exercises that you may not have heard of that will stabilise, strengthen and build your shoulders.

 

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Y-Press

The Y-Press hits the anterior deltoids to a greater extent than a normal shoulder press. Instead of pressing the weight over your head, you should aim to press the weight ‘out’, aiming to make a ‘Y’ shape with your arms. Tip – Imagine you’re driving your shoulders to your ears and your elbows to the ceiling.

Poliquin Raises

The poliquin raise was developed by the Strength Sensei himself, Charles Poliquin. This exercise allows you to eccentrically load the deltoids more by shortening the level (your arms) on the concentric phase of the lift. This is done by simply bending the arms, much like a hammer curl before raising your upper arm until it is level to your shoulders.

Snatch Grip Shrugs

Not only does the snatch grip shrug hit your traps and delts hard, it will also challenge your lats and your grip strength. Due to the wide grip position of your hands, you are at a slight mechanical dis-advantage when performing this lift so a hook grip is recommended (fingers over thumbs) and it’s good practise if you do any Olympic Lifting in your program. Simply take a wide grip on the bar so that thbar sits in the crease of your hips and shrugs your shoulders up (aim for your shoulders to touch your ears). Slowly lower the weight down to the start position and repeat.

Rope Face Pulls

This exercise will challenge your rear delts, traps and rhomboids – essentially it will target your shoulder girdle and your ability to control the movement around your shoulder blades. This exercise looks simple, but notice that the delts and rhomboids are pinched back BEFORE the rope is pulled to the face. This allows for proper function of the shoulder girdle and the proper movement of the shoulder blades throughout the movement. It will also help stop you getting a shoulder impingement which you can thank me for later!

 

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Food Blog – Cottage Pie

Try this tasty Cottage Pie, this meal takes a little longer 30-40 minutes (including prep), but it’s definitely worth it, with plenty of flavour.

Just follow the instructions below and you can have an easy healthy cheat meal in no time.

Ingredients List (Feeds 4)

• Low calorie cooking spray/oil.
• 1 Large onion (Chopped)
• 1 Medium Red Pepper (Chopped)
• 1 Medium Green Pepper (Chopped)
• 750g Lean Beef Mince (5% fat or Less)
• 400g Tin chopped tomatoes
• 4 tbsp Tomato purée
• 1 tsp Dried mixed herbs
• 1 Beef stock pot
• 1kg Sweet potatoes
• 200g Fat-free natural fromage frais
• 160g Reduced-fat cheddar cheese (Grated)
• This meal can also be served with vegetables of your choice.

Macros for one person

Method

Stage 1 – (15-20 mins)

• Spray a pan with low calorie cooking oil, then add the onion and peppers for 5 minutes.
• Then add the mince beef and cook until the mince is brown, while the beef is cooking add the beef stock pot.

Stage 2 – (15-20 mins)

• Preheat oven to 200°C/180°C Fan/Gas 6.
• While you are cooking your onions and peppers, peel the potatoes ready to boil them in a large saucepan of lightly salted water for 15 to 20 minutes.

Stage 3 – (5-10mins)

• Once the mince is cooked add the chopped tomatoes, tomato purée and herbs.
• Allow to simmer for 5 to 10 minutes while you drain the potatoes.
• Add the fat-free natural fromage frais, mash until smooth and set aside.

Stage 5 – (10-15 mins)

• Put the beef mixture into an oven proof dish and spread the mash over the top, then sprinkle your grated cheese on top to your preference.
• Place into the oven for 10 to 15 minutes until the top in golden brown. Then its ready to serve, Enjoy!

Let us know what you think in the comments section/on our Facebook and Instagram pages!

For exercise demonstrations, check out our FREE app (click the picture below) to view videos, pictures and exercise cues for over 250 exercises!

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7 Glute exercises to build and better and stronger butt

Having strong glutes is crucial for running, jumping, lifting weights and performing daily activities. It’s also essential for a good physique, for both men and women. Working your glutes is an absolutely essential part of your training, whether you just looking for a better physique or you’re trying to develop your athletic performance. Here are 7 glute exercises that you need to include in your program to optimise their development:

1 – Squats

Squats are one of the key exercises for lower body development, as they pretty much use all your leg muscles while strengthening your core, hips, and lower back. The lower you squat the more emphasis your put on your hamstrings and glutes.

2 – Barbell Hip Thrusts

One of the best exercises for glute development. The hip thrust activates your glutes more than any exercise. Make sure you wrap a pad around the bar before putting it on your hips, this can get painful if you can load the bar.

3 – Bulgarian Split Squats

With the exercise positioning and balance is key. With this exercise the further out you put your front foot (the foot planted on the floor) the more glute activation. The closer your feet the more quad dominant the exercise. When your reach the bottom of the movement, if you lean your torso over slightly from the hips you will again increase the emphasis on your glutes (don’t lean any more than 30 degrees).

4 – Deadlift

The deadlift is one of the best exercises you can include in your program. It is one of the best total body exercises you can do. It’s great for working your posterior chain; your back, glutes, hamstrings etc, and, is great for your posture when performed correctly.

5 – Zercher Squats

A very uncommon exercise, the zercher squat is very similar mechanically to the goblet squat. The zercher squat allows for greater depth. While naturally you have to stand wider to perform this exercise, this puts more emphasis on your glutes.

6 – Barbell Split Squat

Place the barbell across your shoulder on your traps. The split squat is slightly different to a normal lunge and is more demanding. With the split squat you start in the bottom of a lunge position, this is then your start position. Because of this you therefore have to fully engage your glutes, hamstrings and quads to drive yourself up.

7 – Stiff Leg Deadlift

The stiff leg deadlift is great for developing hamstring and glute strength. This exercise needs to be performed properly to take the focus and strain off your lower back. This is done by pushing your hips back until you feel the stretch on your hamstrings. Make sure that you keep your lower back neutral and don’t let it round. Have your feet at hip width or closer to make the exercise more demanding on your legs.

For exercise demonstrations, check out our FREE app (click the picture below) to view videos, pictures and exercise cues for over 250 exercises!

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5 Quick Tips for Exercise Selection

Picking the right exercises can be very confusing! Between the BS ‘functional coaches’ and the ever so insightful world of social media, there is a plethora of information that is impossible to sift through. Now, it’s not to say that all exercises are bad, it’s just that not all exercises are good – some are better than others, and some serve a very specific purpose. So how do you figure out what’s good for you, and what should be left for another time/purpose? Check out the rest of this post where we run down 5 quick and easy ways to optimise your exercise selection!

Know your goals

This is the most important factor! Knowing what you want to do will be a major influence on what exercises you pick. For example, people aiming for fat loss should spend more time on compound movements in order to recruit more muscle and burn more calories as a consequence. This links directly into the next point…

Know what the exercise does

Squats for example have a completely different purpose to a bicep curl. Obviously they target different muscle groups, but one is a compound movement, whereas the other is an isolation movement. Bicep curls wont get you ripped whereas squats are more likely to.

Look at regressions

If you want to do compound movements but cant quite manage a full lift, look at regressing the exercise. For example, a squat could be regressed into a partial range of movement (box squats or quarter squats) or an alternative exercise could be used (goblet squat, hack squat). Progress these until you manage the full exercise.

If it looks like BS it probably is

If you look at an Instagram page and it seems a bit off, it probably is. Nobody gets muscular, lean and fit by doing banded bodyweight squats (unless they’re taking some questionable ‘supplements’). You get in shape by working hard, there’s no two ways about it! Not to say that exercising can’t be fun, but ‘fun’ workouts may not always be the most effective or hard working – for example, I’m yet to find anyone who genuinely looks forward to doing a minute of burpees!

Start broad and get specific later

This is heavily linked to the principles of periodization, but no one starts off doing ultra specific workouts. As we mentioned in 6 Easy Tips For When You Start Lifting Weights, pick 4-6 core exercises and ready nail them. Pick exercises that hit more muscles at a time (squats, deadlifts, bent over row) and build the rest of your workouts around those.

 

For exercise demonstrations, check out our FREE app (click the picture below) to view videos, pictures and exercise cues for over 250 exercises!

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Marginal Gains – A powerful tool to achieve your goals

In our blog, How To Beat Your Brain, we mentioned a concept called marginal gains. As promised, here’s a quick run down of what marginal gains is and how you can use it to break down your goals and make more progress than conventional methods.

The concept of marginal gains was thrust into the spotlight after the London 2012 Olympics when GB Cycling performance director, Dave Brailsford, spoke about how he used the concept to improve GB Cycling performance so much that they dominated international cycling for over a decade. Dave Brailsford summed the concept up by saying “The whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, and then improved it by 1%, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together,” (Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/19174302).

This summation is pretty spot on! Essentially you can break down a problem or in our case, your goals/performance into as many sub-categories as you wish and improve on each of these parts individually. When you then look at these sub-parts as a whole, you will have a larger overall increase/improvement on your performance. In the case of GB Cycling, they were aiming for gold medals so they may have gone into more details than is necessary for some people – take sleeping in the right position for example. Yes, it may work towards achieving your goals, but it probably isn’t as important as just getting 8 hours of decent sleep if you’re currently getting 5.

Below is a simplified version for someone who is trying to loose 10 lbs of fat in 5 weeks.

Goal – Loose 10 lbs of fat

Duration – 5 weeks

Higher level factors that affect fat loss

1. Activity Levels
2. Food quality
3. Food intake
4. Sleep quality
5. Positive mind set

So here we have 5 higher level factors that will influence this goal of burning 10 lbs of fat in 5 weeks. Now, you can stop here and get going or you can break down each of these 5 factors into more sub-factors within each one. Below is the breakdown for one of these factors.

Activity Levels

1. Exercise 4 times/week.
2. Exercise for at least 1 hour for each session.
3. Walk to work and back 3 times a week.
4. Stand up every 30 minutes whilst at work (shown to significantly increase metabolism).
5. Do 10 squats, 10 press ups and 10 star jumps every morning.

 

So from picking 1 higher level factor, here you have 5 lower level factors you can focus on to reach your goal. You see how this could go on and on!

My advice would be to pick 5-10 higher level factors and really nail them. If you want to you can go deeper, but this can make things a bit over whelming to start with, which is totally the opposite of what this aims to do. 10 higher level factors with 5 lower level factors will total 50 points for you to improve on, which is quite extreme!

The take away message should be to take what seems a complex problem and break it down into smaller chunks so you can focus in and achieve your goals. If you improve by 1% on 10 factors you will have an overall increase of 10%! Which is significant!

 

For exercise demonstrations, check out our FREE app (click the picture below) to view videos, pictures and exercise cues for over 250 exercises!

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