Your Fat Torching Guide by Revive

The Oatmeal Series – Carrot Cake

Breakfast, whether you regard it as the most important meal of the day, the most boring meal of the day or just a meal. You will end up having something, and I think a lot of people end up finding they go to the same things over and over again. One for me is oats, so to keep things interesting I like to pimp them up.

So I have for you the Oatmeal series, for which the main ingredient will be our beloved oats. If you love oats, you will love this series, if you hate them, you will probably find this series will help you discover a way to eat them that you enjoy. Don’t get me wrong, you definitely don’t have to eat oats, but they are cheap and versatile.

What You’ll Need:

70g Oats, 2 Cups of water, 1/2 Cup of grated carrot, half a banana chopped, tsp vanilla essence, tsp cinnamon, sweetener, 100g Greek Yoghurt, 10g Walnuts.

How To Do It:

1. Add the oats, water and salt to the pan and cook on a high heat, once simmering add the chopped banana and carrot, keep stirring and reduce the heat, mashing the banana against the sides is a good way to incorporate it quickly.
2. Once thickened reduce the heat further and cool till your favoured consistency, then add the vanilla, sweetener and cinnamon.
3. During the cooking process you can prepare your icing, for this add the Greek Yoghurt and Vanilla essence to a bowl and mix up, I prepared it the night before. Simply put your Oaty Carrot Cake into a bowl and dollop on the icing.
4. Sprinkle over the Walnuts and there you have it Carrot Cake with Icing.

What You’re Getting From It:

• 22g Protein, 65g Carbohydrates, 13g Fat (12g Fibre) – 467Kcal
• Banana- great source of potassium.
• Carrot- full of Beta Carotine along with many vitamins and minerals.
• Walnuts- full of Omega 3s keeping you healthy (still take your fish oils!).
• Cinnamon- this has always been a winner for me, great replacement for sugar and calorie free.
• Greek Yoghurt- higher in protein and lower in carbohydrates than other yoghurts and 100% natural, I use Fage 0% that you can get from any typical supermarket.

I love changing up my oats, so do my clients. Because we allow our diets to be flexible, we can swap and change foods all the time, we can eat anything we want and get great results. This is whether they are powerlifters, natural bodybuilders, mens physique competitors or just guys and gals who want to drop fat. Our diets are inclusive, and the only restrictions in place are ones that have to be to get results, calories.

Should you autoregulate your training?

To autoregulate your training you essentially go to the gym and do ‘what feels good’. That might mean your legs are feeling strong, and you want to work in a low rep range for some squats. Or maybe you did a lot of walking during the day, so you’re better off hitting your upper body, but you don’t feel like going heavy, so you go for some higher rep pulls and presses. You get the picture, you let your body decide on the day how to hit the weights. 

A problem with the above approach is that there is no structure, and what if you just decide not to train your lower body during the week, that’s just not on. So we need to create a programme as without an idea of what needs to be done we won’t progress. Therefore, better is to have at least an idea that you are going to squat, bench and deadlift heavy and for reps at some point in the week, but then choose when you do each. The amount of structure you provide can vary, there are whole training programmes such as Mike Tuchscherer’s Reactive Training Systems. 

A problem with that approach is that if you are new to training you might not really know what weights you should be using for each of these. Or maybe by not having knowing when you are meant to be hitting it hard and taking it easy, you never actually hit it all that hard. That also might lead you to not progressing. If you are a more advanced lifter you might actually be able to select a weight to hit an appropriate Rate of Perceived Exertion (to learn more about the RPE scale click here). You know how certain weights feel, so if you are warming up you can identify whether you should shoot for that PR or hold back and just go through the movement with a lighter weight.

My suggestion? if you are completely new to training I think you would be better suited to stick to a programme, using %’s based off your estimated 1 rep maxes. This is because you lack the experience with the weights to autoregulate and we want you to be progressing each week. I often will guide my clients alongside with an RPE, but they know the weight they are aiming for.

However, if you are a seasoned lifter, and are progressing at a monthly or more basis then I think a combination of RPE and % may be a better suited. What might this mean in practice? Say you know you are squatting today, it is a heavy day. You want to do 5 reps for a given number of sets. I suggest looking at what %’s of your 1 rep max you would like to achieve. For this case, lets say it is 75%, I would then create a range, say 5% above and 5% below this. Then you can work up to this range and then depending how you feel on the day, autoregulate the weight from this range. You’d do this during your warm up sets, if they feel slow you know to go lower within the range, if they are springy and smooth then push for higher. That is one approach I have seen to be very successful with my clients and it gives another reason why warming up is required. DO NOT JUST GO AND START ON YOUR WORKING WEIGHTS, that is reckless and could easily lead to an injury.

There are many other approaches that are definitely worth trying, such as using %’s for the main lifts and then hitting RPE’s for the assistance lifts. Or going for a rep max for the day and then backing off until you hit a certain RPE. The way you eventually choose to programme will be very individual. This is just a brief look into autoregulation and there is a lot more to be said about it, but lets leave that for another time.

Hope this helps you and your training #REVIVESTRONGER

Periodise For Gainz!

Fatigue, Fitness & Preparedness

Fatigue – how well recovered you are.
Fitness – how able you are to lift at your best.
Preparedness – how ready you are to show your fitness.

These three are all interrelated, and to get the most out of your training you can be clever and periodise your workouts, to allow for the best of all worlds.

So how are these concepts linked?
Well to get fitter we all know you need to apply stress to the body, so we can recover and get stronger. Therefore, we need a certain amount of fatigue to improve our fitness levels. However, when we are fatigued we are not in the best position to show our fitness, in other words our preparedness suffers when we are tired.

So what can we do? If we want to get fitter we need to produce fatigue, but when we are fatigued we lose are preparedness and therefore cannot perform at our best. This is where periodisation comes in handy.

Periodisation
Essentially there are a few types of training; Strength, Hypertrophy and Power. Periodisation is how you distribute these different methods across a period of time, and there are literally a gazillion (yes that many) different ways you can do this.

In general; strength training is more intense, as you are training with higher %s of your 1 rep max, Hypertrophy work is higher in volume as you are doing a greater number of reps and Power is lower in both intensity and reps as it is all about force production.

Fitness can be improved by both volume and intensity. Fatigue is largely determined by the amount of total volume performed, to decrease your fatigue you’ll want to lower your volume. With lower volume therefore you will have greater preparedness, and therefore can lift with more intensity.

So we can go through a period of time where volume is high but intensity is lower. This will build our fitness, but will also produce a high degree of fatigue, but that is OK because we aren’t required to show to lift maximally. You may call this a volume block.

Now we have built up our fitness, we want to show it off. Best way to do that? Drop our volume and increase the intensity. So fatigue will be lower, so we will be able to show our fitness plus our fitness is maintained due to the higher loads used. This might be called an intensity block.

And there you have it, a very simple explanation of two blocks you could implement into your training. The length of those blocks could differ greatly, they could be 4 weeks long or just a week long, they could even be done within the same week…as I said the possibilities are pretty much endless. Whats best? I recommend trial and error.

Thank you and #REVIVESTRONGER

Ted Hill – ‘in 4 months I got into the best shape of my life and was the strongest I’ve ever been’

Ted, what were your goals when signing up with me?

Gain lean muscle mass and become significantly stronger, especially on the squat, bench and deadlift. Also help in rehabilitating my rowing back injury, preventing me squatting and deadlifting.

What reservations if any did you have before we started working together?

I was slightly concerned about how flexible my life at university would be, especially with regards to eating meals prepared by my housemates, and going on nights out whilst drinking.

How was I able to help you with your reservations?

The IIFYM approach was clearly broken down to me be Steve and by understanding the method of dieting I felt confident enough to undertake the new lifestyle. Even when I got it wrong in the early stages Steve went about informing me and explaining how to improve next time – Like how to go about incorporating alcohol into my diet.

In point form, can you list your achievements training with me thus far?

• Gained lean muscle mass
• Increased strength
• Fully recovered from previous injuries
• Prepped successfully for a cat walk
• In 4 months my total on the big three went up 142.5kg or a 49% increase.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Steve has genuinely transformed my approach to gym and dieting. I have never seen such continual progress in the gym! Having accountability and someone who knows how to set up correct training and macro split is essential.

I have thoroughly enjoyed coaching Ted, it hasn’t always been easy with his lagging injuries and competitive rowing and living the student lifestyle, all competing with not only his training but also nutrition. Ted has done tremendously well in balancing everything in his life, and the progress he has made is outstanding. I look forward to working with Ted again in the future, he has a great future ahead of him.

Interested in online coaching? You can check out what I have to offer here.

The Fundamentals Make The Athlete

Back to basics

We all know those people who want to know the latest best exercise, or the new amazing supplement on the market. They are so focussed on the latest and greatest but have not taken the time to develop what matters most, and that is a strong foundation.

What makes up a strong base?

We all know that the best things in life are based of a few simple core principles. Apple products are great because they are so easy to use, this is the strong base they develop from. Costa produce some fantastic coffee variations and these all stem from top quality coffee beans. To be the best or to develop and grow you need a strong foundation to do it from. For the athlete this means perfect (or near to) technique on the main compound lifts, that’s squats, deadlifts and pressing varieties. It also requires a strong nutritional base, that’s your protein, carbs and fats, getting what you require by the end of the day, consistently. Developing these two aspects in the early stages of an athletes career pays massive dividends later on.

Stop looking for ‘training secrets’ & ‘magical supplements’
I know when I first started training I was far too concerned with the wrong things. Thinking if I took this shake and did this bicep tri-set routine I’d be cut and jacked in no time. I missed the bigger picture, and that was getting key basic principles correct. Any supplement or new training protocol is only ever going to be like the sprinkles on a cake. If you have a poor quality sponge, no matter how good those darn sprinkles are every bite will taste terrible. Just like no matter how good a supposed supplement or training method is meant to be, if you have poor technique on the main compounds or do not hit the your personal macro requirements by the end of the day, you will not see the results you desire. I know this first hand.

A coach can really help you get these aspects nailed, and keep you from straying too far from what matters. Not only do they keep you accountable for your nutrition, but if they are any good they know no matter how advanced you are as an athlete you can’t go wrong with a good squat, deadlift or pressing pattern. Making sure you are continually getting the basics right, each and every day.

Something Missing From Your Training? GPP

The missing element is…being ‘generally’ fit

So I was first introduce to this ‘generally’ fit concept when I read it in Supertraining by Yuri Verkhoshansky & Mel C. Siff (a terrific read, that you will have to re-read multiple times). However, I didn’t start using the principle until I was given it by my coach Greg Farris of Myobrain. Since doing it personally and knowing what it is about, I can really see why it holds such an important role. Simply stated, almost every athlete of any sport should be doing it to some extent.

What does it mean to be generally fit?
Verkhoshansky & Siff call this General Physical Preparedness or GPP for short, it is characterised by the progressive development of motor skills through a wide variety of non-specific exercises.

It’s role is to expose the athlete to a wide variety of physical fitness skills to enhance well rounded and healthy development. Exercises chosen are general in nature, but specific in function, allowing such improvements even though they are different than those of the desired sport type.

In essence you get fit to train, we are building and or maintaining a functional base for our sport.

Medvedyev describes the exclusive role GPP plays in the overall training programme:

1. The formation, strengthening or restoration of the habits which play an auxiliary, facilitatory role in sport perfection.
2. As a means of educating abilities, developed insufficiently by the selected type of sport, raising and or preserving the general work capacity.
3. As active rest, assisting the restoration process after significant, specific loading and counteracting the monotony of training.

When you combine Medvedyev’s three point description, with the above we come to some pretty awesome GPP prescriptions:

• It needs to be general in nature, but specific in function, using a wide range of different movements & modalities.
• It needs to be fun, different and non-exhausting.
• If the above two principles are met it will facilitate our sport, by enhancing our recovery and building general work capacity.

Exercise selection:
Exercises should consist of any means that elevates a certain trait required by the athlete, or found within the sport itself. They should be working on areas that are neglected by sport specific exercises.

So knowing the above would you wouldn’t give 2×5 clean and jerk to an Olympic weight lifter, but that may be suitable for a Powerlifter. Remember, the exercises chosen are general in nature but specific in function, so an Olympic Weightlifter clean and jerks all the time, so it is specific, but a Powerlifter would rarely perform such a movement, so it enhances their general fitness.

I think for GPP to build the best overall, all round general fitness it needs to be full body in nature, meaning the following movement patterns should be included:

• Squat
• Press
• Hinge
• Pull
• Bracing, Crawling, Jumping

This is because it is aimed at raising one’s fitness of many components of many tasks, and therefore should give all round physical development. We are looking to develop general endurance, strength, co-ordination and flexibility.

So you should look to alter load, duration, intensity, type of movement etc. However, remember it should enhance recovery and be fun.

What it might look like for a Powerlifter/Bodybuilder:

Exercise		Reps	Instructions
Push Up		1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10	Bodyweight Circuit- this should take 30 minutes to complete. You will do 1 rep on each exercise, supersetting, then 2, 3 until reaching 10 reps on each exercise, before moving onto the next superset/tri-set. Rest where needed.
Inverted Row
Squat		1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
Squat jump
KB Swing		1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
Goblet Squat
1 Arm Row		1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
1 Arm Press
Single leg glute bridge (right)		1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
Single leg glute bridge (left)
Glute bridge
DB straight legged deadlift		1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
Mountain Climbers

So what is missing from your training? General Fitness.

We are looking to improve the bodies functional capacity and therefore it’s general physical preparedness. We do this by incorporating exercises that enhance our sport, but are not specific to it. GPP needs to be fun, stress free and not take away from your recovery.

My athletes all seem to really enjoy GPP and there is no reason you won’t too, so go on, get fit!

Connor Stanbridge – ‘educated me dramatically through the process and always have time to answer my questions’

Connor, what were your goals when signing up with me?

I wanted to increase my weight slowly, because I wanted to add mainly lean muscle without the fat. I also wanted to increase my weights in the gym mainly focusing on my compound movements.

What reservations if any did you have before we started working together?

I was concerned about adding too much fat, and being told what to do and never why.

How was I able to help you with your reservations?

You helped me by increasing my weight and the I calories consumed, without adding fat. Plus I dramatically increased the weight used on the compound lifts. Finally, one major part is you have educated me along the way massively.

In point form, can you list your achievements training with me thus far?

• Gained lean muscle mass
• Increased strength
• Furthered my education
• Improved my confidence
• Made me love training, no longer seeing it as a chore

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

I would just like to say it has been a pleasure being coached by you and I am really looking forward to many more months to come. You have seriously helped me along the way with increasing my weight and lifts, and not only are you a great coach you are a really down to earth guy and become a great friend. One massive point for me although I have got a hell of a lot to learn, you have educated me dramatically through the process and always have time to answer my questions, which I admire and respect a lot. Once again thank you and looking forward to many more months.

I have really enjoyed coaching Connor, he is always looking to learn and understand the process behind his training and nutrition. This is something I really admire in my clients and encourage. He is currently doing a Personal Training course and in future has the goal of stepping on stage as a Mens Physique Competitor.

Interested in online coaching? You can check out what I have to offer here.

Focus on the Process to get the Goal

Are you goal or process orientated? 

You may be wondering, what in heck is he on about? Process orientated…goal orientated…what are these concepts? So I guess it would be best to clarify what I mean by each:

Goal Orientated– you focus on the end product, this might be a certain body weight, an amount to be lifted or even a promotion. This is your key driver, it gets you out of bed each day.

Process Orientated– instead of looking at the end product you hope for, you focus on what needs to be done to get there. If you want to hit a certain bodyweight, you make sure to eat and exercise each day in a way that would take you there. If you want a promotion by the end of the year, each day you nail your work and go the extra mile. You look at what needs to be done to get you to your goal, this is your focus each day.

As you can see there is one KEY DIFFERENCE; one focusses on the END PRODUCT and the other on what NEEDS TO BE DONE TO GET THERE.

So what’s wrong about looking at the end goal all the time? I mean it’s good to set goals and have them drive us throughout life? Well yes, setting goals is brilliant, and they need to be there to give us purpose and direction. However, the problem with thinking about the end product all the time is that you want it now. Or if something goes a bit skew whiff one day you get very frustrated.

Take Bob, he wants to get to 165lbs for a natural bodybuilding competition. Now Bob has given himself 20 weeks to get there, which should be plenty of time as he is only weighing in at 185lbs. So Bob knows that if on average he loses a pound per week he will hit his goal. Bob isn’t an idiot and knows that at first he can expect weight to come off faster and it will gradually slow.

Each day Bob wakes up and weighs himself, always with the focus on the end weight. So he is setting himself up for disappointment every single day, because he is not yet at his goal weight. Imagine a situation where he is 10 weeks out, and his weight stalls, he loses nothing for a week, or even gains a pound. Bob being Bob is thinking that he will not hit his goal weight at this rate, he gets very anxious and decides to add cardio and drop his calorie intake.

Bob then loses a lot of weight the next week, and once the 20 weeks are up he is actually 5lbs lighter than his goal.

Now take Fred, he is going for the same show, so he also needs to get down to 165lbs. Like Bob, he is a smart guy, he knows how to get there. However, unlike Bob, Fred focusses on these processes, he looks at what macros and exercise needs to be done each day, and is satisfied each day as he gets this done. Fred’s weight also stalls one week, however, being process orientated Fred knows he has done everything right and cannot do anything more. So he sticks to his guns, and when the 20 weeks finish, he manages to also reach his goal, but is 5lbs heavier than Bob.

So whats the difference? Both Bob and Fred were able to get to their goal, but Bob actually overshot and lost more weight than he needed and aimed for. In this situation it meant that he actually lost lean muscle mass by making drastic changes to his diet and exercise. He therefore placed lower than Fred, who being process focussed, didn’t lose his head, and therefore kept a higher amount of lean mass.

This is just one example of how being too focussed on the end product can worsen the outcome. Life is not linear, we get peaks and troughs of good luck and bad luck. However, if you focus on what you are doing to get to your goal, rather than goal in question, you will be in a better place to consistently do what needs to be done. You won’t get disheartened along the way, and do something non-productive.

Be process orientated, not goal orientated, you’ll be surprised how much more you enjoy the each day and probably hit your goal sooner!

Having a coach really helps keep you focussed on the processes, they give you your training and nutrition, all you need to do is do it. Therefore, it directs your focus on the process, they can keep the goal in mind. Like the sound of that? Check out my success stories and if you think my coaching might suit you check out my services.

#REVIVESTRONGER

Your Daily Coffee Is Killing You!

Coffee is a Killer

Truth or Fiction?

OK so I very much doubt your coffee is killing you, but some people are this extreme is their views. They seem to think that coffee is the devil because it contains caffeine, which is a drug and should be avoided. Now I love coffee, consume it daily and also get caffeine from other sources from energy drinks to chocolate. I am going to look at what science says to make my opinion on whether caffeine is good or bad, because I know my coffee isn’t killing people, that we can be sure of. I will note that a toxic dose of caffeine is between 20-40mg/kg bodyweight, so I at 75kg would need to consume 1500-3000mg of caffeine, which would be 10-20 average coffees.

What is Caffeine?

Taken straight from Examine.com ‘Caffeine is a stimulatory anti-sleep compound extracted from coffee beans’. It is most commonly consumed in the form of tea and coffee, and is the worlds most popular drug. It has been heavily researched and is deemed safe, but like anything else this is assuming moderation.

Coffee in general has between 40-180mg per 150ml and tea 24ml-50mg per 150ml. Once consumed it can have an immediate effect, however peak values in the blood take 15-120 minutes and most commonly seen is 30 – 45 minutes. The impact of caffeine can last quite a while, as its half-life can be up to 4.5 hours but has been seen to be as low as 2.5 hours.

What are the Benefits?

Funny enough even the idea of caffeine intake can improve our mood, which suggests it has a potential placebo effect. I know personally if I smell a fresh coffee I automatically feel more awake, if only they could produce a decaf coffee that tastes like the real deal.

It has been shown that caffeine can help to reduce the risk of Parkinson’s, and can help in therapy against it. Furthermore, caffeine has shown to increase metabolic rate and fat loss, however be warned habitual intake can make us desensitised to this.

Caffeine is widely known as an ergogenic aid, which means it has sports performance benefits. It appears muscle cells have an increased power output, also it has been seen to improve endurance performance by decreasing fatigue.

One study looked at caffeine and it’s impact on the number of calories we burn and fat mobilisation. It saw that a daily intake of say 6 strong cups of coffee led to an extra 100kcal expenditure. Wahey, that’s pretty nice right?! Well not only that but caffeine has also been shown to increase fat mobilisation and oxidation.

What are the Downsides?

So apparently coffee should be avoided because of the insulin response it creates, and insulin is the fat storing devil right? Well no, it may have been seen to impair glucose tolerance in the short term, but in the long term, which is what matters, it has actually been found to lower people’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Suggesting coffee does not raise insulin for long periods of time or make us insulin insensitive.

You may have heard that we can get addicted to caffeine, currently however there is insufficient evidence to suggest you can get addicted to caffeine, yet this may change as it does interact with our reward systems such as acute dopamine release, but this gets blunted with chronic use.

Not really a downside, but more something that I personally get frustrated by is getting caffeine tolerant. To date the mechanism by which we become tolerant to caffeine is unknown, but with chronic use we do begin to lose some of the effects of caffeine. It does seem possible to actually consume caffeine routinely without developing a tolerance, only anecdotally but going for 3-5 days should be enough time so not to become tolerant.

Conclusions

So as you can see coffee and principally caffeine has been investigated thoroughly, but some things are still a little inconclusive, but that’s to be expected as science is tentative and ever evolving.

In the short term we see some benefits to sports performance and mood, but also decreased glucose tolerance and a slight rise in blood pressure. Yet long term studies show that overall coffee is beneficial, decreasing the risk of diabetes, parkinsons and increasing calorie burn and fat mobilisation. If we take this together we can see that overall coffee is only going to help in fat loss, our results, and health, because of the short term benefits and the fact over time the negatives are not seen.

However, like everything coffee and caffeine should be consumed in moderation, as we can become reliant on it and potentially addicted. I would also note that the benefits of coffee in particular are only apparent if the person isn’t adding a load of sugar, cream or even god forbid butter to their coffee. So continue to drink coffee, but don’t have too much if you still want to experience a kick!