Your Diet & Fitness Program for Getting Ripped this Summer
We are now officially in British summer time, which means you will probably be showing more skin in the sunshine. If you have not got in shape yet, or you are currently lifting but want to shed some body fat, use these four simple but effective rules.
Protein stabilises insulin (fat storing hormone) levels, which is great, as you will have less cravings for foods full of carbohydrates and sugars. Protein is also the building block of growing muscle tissue from working out. The more you eat the faster you recover, the faster you recover the more you can train and the more you train the more lean muscle tissue your body carries. This pen-ultimately leads to your body processing calories faster.
No carbs before Marbs is a popular saying now days, but I have to say I disagree with going zero carbs. The Joe average gym user will need some carbohydrates throughout the day especially before working out as it gives your body energy to push it to its fullest capabilities. What carbohydrates you eat, makes ALL the difference.
Foods that have a high carb / high glycemic index are terrible if you want to lose weight. Foods such as white bread and a lot of breakfast cereals are terrible carb choices if you are wishing to get those abs out. Sweet potato & brown rice are low GI foods choices, these will also not give you that energy crash you get after foods with a high GI content, like bread.
Doing core/ ab work is fine and has its place in a training program. However, you can do these every day and will still see little to no difference unless your food is spot on. If you are looking to burn the most amount of calories in a gym session stick with movements such as squats, dead lifts, pull-ups and bench presses. All of these incorporate large/ multiple muscle groups at any one time and the more muscles you use, the more energy is required, resulting in more calories used.
I’ve always heard that lifting lighter with more reps, burns more calories & tones muscles. Firstly, there is NO such thing as toning a muscle. Any load or stress you put on it will result in some muscle tissue breakdown. Secondly, common sense is going to tell me if I squat 40kg for 15 – 20 reps, I would personally find this easy as it not very taxing on my body. Now load it up close to 200kg and I can squat it for 8-12 reps, this is considerably harder and more taxing on my body as it requires more energy. The more energy I use the more calories burned at that specific time.
There are many grey areas involved in lifting weights that cause a lot of confusion, injuries and above all – disappointment. This is because goals are not reached and expectations aren’t met. The lack of results doesn’t stem from the amount of time spent working out, or how many supplements one takes in pursuit of ripped abs or bulging muscles, but in the Training Approach while in the gym.
What is Training Approach? It is your fundamental principle of technique, exercise choice, set structure, rest periods and exercise range. All these things must have strict rules and must be performed with a specific purpose in order to continually stimulate muscle growth. Here are the proper instructions and explanations needed to lift weights properly.
‘Technique’ refers to proper form needed to contract the correct muscles for that movement, i.e. Pectoral muscles for Chest exercises. There are many ways to perform an exercise, but very few right ways. Correct form is vital for stimulating the target muscles enough to induce muscle growth. If proper form cannot be used then the weight must be reduced.
Upper body pressing and fly movements:
Upper arm 90 degrees to the body.
Chest puffed up, lower back arched, shoulders down and back.
Never drop elbows in towards the torso as this takes tension away from the Chest.
Upper body pulling movements:
Arch the entire spine top to bottom.
Keep Shoulders back as far as possible, never rounding the shoulders or dropping them forward.
Drive the elbows as far back as possible, pinching shoulder blades together.
Lower Body Pressing movements:
Feet shoulder width apart.
Knees must point in same direction of the toes at all times.
Never move knees inwards or outwards (side-to-side).
Movement must go slightly beyond 90 degrees at the Knee joint.
Isolation movements:
Isolation means single jointed exercise, only one joint is in movement.
If unable to move only one joint, i.e. only elbows during bicep curls – the weight must be reduced.
Do not pivot at any other joint as this reduces tension on target muscles, i.e. shoulder joint pivot during Bicep curls.
Building your body is not just about trying to build muscle, but building muscles in the right places – for aesthetic appeal (beauty), strength balance and optimal posture. The aim is width at the top and bottom of the body (shoulders + thighs), and narrowing of the centre of the body (waist/ stomach). We only choose exercises that target the desired muscles in the way we want, and ignore exercises that target undesired muscles.
Chest, Back, Legs + Calves, Back, Arms and Abs are the target areas. You need 4-5 Exercises per large muscle group (Chest, Back, Legs), 2-3 per small muscle group (Shoulders, Triceps, Biceps, Abs).
E.g. Dead Lifts are predominantly a back movement, but they have been known to thicken out the waist muscularly as huge amounts of pressure travels through the core. Thickening of the waist will reduce the illusion of size and shape of the upper body.
Squats are also not recommended for anyone taller than 170cm due to insufficient biomechanical movement and over emphasis on the Glute and lower back muscles. Over development of the Oblique muscles (side abs) can also cause waist enlargement, which is undesired.
What is a set? It is a group of repetitions on a particular exercise. How long is a set? A set is 30-40 seconds long, (can be longer when advanced). In repetitions this translates to 8- 12 repetitions per set for upper body, and 10-15 repetitions for lower body. Set Tempo also forms part of the set structure.
What is Set Tempo? It is the speed you perform the repetitions, and involves both raising the weight and lowering it. Our Tempo must be 2 seconds up (raising), 2 seconds down (lowering) – so an entire repetition should last 4 seconds. 10 repetitions = 40 seconds. The length of the set is fundamental, as the longer your muscles remain under tension the better. Perform 3-4 Sets per exercise.
The time you spend resting between sets and exercises is a factor that determines how Intense a workout is, which in turn describes how effective it is. Rest periods in between sets for upper body + calves is 30-45 seconds rest maximum, and 60-90 seconds for Legs. Beginners might need to work up to this over time, but resting any longer and the body recovers for too long and Intensity is drastically lost. The entire workout should only last 45mins.
All exercises are performed in what is called a ‘Tension Window’ – the section of the exercise range where maximum tension is exerted on the target muscles and no rest takes place. When performing an exercise with good form we must make sure that our muscles remain stimulated for the entire duration of the set.
To do this we must eliminate points of the movement where our muscles could rest, i.e. at the very top or very bottom of the movement. So, as a strict rule we will never fully extend or lockout our joints on any movement (except Tricep + Quad extensions), as this takes tension away from the muscle and onto the joints and tendons (dangerous + ineffective).
Never lift weights with your ego, be methodical with your technique and train your muscles!
3 Important Compound Exercises for Building Muscle
Compound exercise can be described as moves that involve more than one joint and muscle group at a time and as such compound exercises burn more calories and develop more muscle strength than isolation exercises. For example, if you perform a Pull-Up you are working at least 3 or 4 muscles in your back, as well as core, shoulders and biceps. If you perform a bicep curl you are, pretty much, just working your biceps.
So, lets get straight on with it then! Here are three great compound exercises for building muscle:
The main muscle involved in a Press Up is the Chest, however you can work and emphasise Shoulders, Triceps, Stomach and Lower Back just by changing your hand position. A wide hand position emphasises the Chest, whilst bringing the hands closer together works the Triceps a little bit more and placing one hand forward with the other hand slightly back concentrates on the shoulders.
You can also perform them using a TRX by placing your hands in the straps and placing your feet on the floor, then swap over and put your feet in the straps and have your hands on the floor!
You can have your feet on a raised step and try incline press ups or you can just stick to the old fashioned way!
Whichever variation you choose Press Ups are a great compound exercise to build muscle and you should simply aim to do as many as you can either in one go or split them up in to 3 -4 sets of however many you get to as your max in each set.
Now, these are tough, tough, tough! The main muscles working are pretty much all the muscles of the back, the whole shoulder complex and all your Core muscles so this is a must where compound exercises are concerned.
Pull Ups on a chin-up bar can be quite tough and you may only be able to perform a small number initially but a good way to build up to full pull-ups is to use the TRX to perform sets of 10-12 and then gradually aim to build up the number of “full ones” you can do.
Well, this one pretty much does it all! When performing a Deadlift you recruit Back and Shoulder Muscles, Core Muscles, Lower Back, Hamstrings, Quads, and Calves. With the perfect Deadlift workout, you want to aim for 3-4 sets of 8-10 reps each set.
