Help, I want to gain weight... yes really!

 

Loosing weight and toning up is by no means an easy feat.  But one of the hardest things I have seen girls trying to achieve is actually adding on muscle, or anything for that matter, sometimes even a little fat (yes-yes I know you going whatever!)  I am not talking about those genetic little mesomorphic freaks that just look a weight and grow, I am referring to the small ectomorph individuals that no matter how much they eat, or how much they lift, they just don’t seem to grow.  The struggle for them is as frustrating and demotivating as it is for those individuals trying to shed a  couple of kg’s.

My client Lollie (in the photos) has been with me exactly a year.  And just looking back at her fitness journey with me, made me realise just how hard it has been for her and other ladies like her.  We started at 55kg, and the heaviest we have been able to push her weight has been 58kg.  Imagine you could only loose 3kg in 12 months, would be pretty demotivating right?  Exactly the same on the flip side.

This is just a brief overview of what we did.

Absolute perseverance and consistency. You just have to keep going and pushing until the results starts showing.   

• Nutrition 

You have to eat, and eat more then what you use to.  Now I am not talking about pigging out on junk food, that will just make you skinny fat! Wholesome, clean food.  Lean proteins like chicken, lean steak and mince (I actually got Lollie to eat a steak after 2 years…) salmon, good quality carbohydrates (oats, quinoa, sweet potato, basmati rice) fats (almond butter, avocado, coconut oil) a couple of apples and bananas here and there.   

In the process of eating so much food, even the healthy kind, your body-fat will probably start creeping up a little as well.  This is absolutely normal, collateral damage.  We gradually increased her calories every week until we saw the body-fat going up, then we stop for a little or drop down again, and as the body adapts, pushed the calories again, we were cruising around 2900 calories at one time, with body fat around 17%, decent ratio. 

Don’t just focus on pre and post workout meals, fuel your body from the moment you wake up until you go to bed.  It goes hand in with the next point.

• Training.

If you are not going to eat properly, your gym sessions will be futile to muscle growth! We focussed on doing compound movements, in other words, good old bodybuilding training.  You need to lift HEAVY (without giving yourself a hernia!) rep range between 6 - 10, longer rest periods.  And zip, zero, zilch cardio.   We started adding some cardio in in closer to competition time.

• Supplementation

Our basic supplementation was whey protein post workout, casein before bed, l-glutamine, BCAA, Vit C, Omega 3 and creatine.

And lastly but by no means the least.  Adequate sleep and hydration.  I will touch on these separately soon as I believe their importance are very much overlooked.

Detoxing

In the past couple of weeks, I have been asked a couple of times how do I feel about detoxing. I must be honest, whenever I hear that word, my right eye starts twitching involuntarily. It’s safe to say that personally, I just don’t believe in it. I am obviously not referring to medical detoxification of people with life-threatening drug addictions. I am referring to those where you drink nothing but water, lemonade, fruit juice, apple juice, vegetable juice, apple cider vinegar & baby food for a week, sometimes even longer. 

So what exactly is detoxing suppose to do. In short, detoxing refers to a program of “diet”, liquids, herbs, and other methods of removing environmental and dietary toxins from the body. Some goes as far to say that it cleans your blood. Dirty blood? If toxins did build up in a way your body couldn’t excrete them, you’d likely be DEAD or in need of serious medical intervention. 

The human body is just incredible. Our body detoxes naturally on an ongoing basis by a process of neutralising and eliminating toxins that can be potentially harmful to the body. The liver, intestines, kidneys, lungs, skin, blood and lymphatic system all work together to ensure that toxins are excreted from the body.

Detoxing claims to have many benefits. I think one of the benefits most people are after is for weight loss. Detox diets will almost always lead to weight loss. When you drinking nothing but cucumber juice for a week, it’s inevitable that you will loose weight as you are drastically cutting your calories. And most of these diets will have a diuretic affect. BUT as soon as you switch back to your normal eating habits, the weight just comes straight back. In no way did it teach you anything about making healthy options that are sustainable. 

Some of the first steps being suggested when embarking on your detox is to cut out processed foods, refined sugars, alcohol, saturated fats, caffeine, tobacco, wheat & very importantly you must increase your water intake. For the detox diets that actually allows you to eat food, your need to add fresh vegetables, fresh fruit, unsaturated fats, complex carbohydrates & lean cuts of meat. Honestly, these are all things you should be doing anyway, so just by making healthier choices, you are in effect, detoxing. 

So there is absolutely no reason to go to these very extreme measures to have all the benefits that detoxing claims to have. Detoxing is short lived. Make healthier food choices, exercise, drink enough water and make it a lifestyle. 

And just a final note, an interesting observation when doing a little research on these crazy detox diets, they all come with a warning that you should see your physician first before starting. Makes me think twice. 

The quiet after the storm.

                                                                                                                                         Model: Daniela Verga

So our 2014 competition season has pretty much reached it’s end with one more show in November. And as it is in our industry, one of the down sides is the weight gain and misery that follows for some. Because for some, the battle is not getting on stage, the real battle starts after.  This article is aimed at those who really struggle post show, and usually at the beginner stage. 

I recently had a conversation with a fellow Pro, how competitors have been complaining and blaming the post show rebound on the lack of information available as to what you have to do after your show. I have been thinking about this for a while now. My question is this, and I know it sounds harsh, but what did you expect you were going to do? And think about this logically now, after your show you:

Stop the hours of weight training.

Stop the hours of cardio.

Stop your diet.

Stop your water intake.

Stop your supplements.

Stop all forms of assessments. 

In a nutshell - you want to go from HERO TO ZERO and not gain weight. Not going to happen. Ever. And with the weight gain, comes that feeling of shear misery, and sometimes even depression. And if you already prone to episodes of depression, you feel even worse.

When your prepare for your show, there is so much more going on then just adding muscle and losing body fat. The training, the very clean diet and even some of the supplements we take, are methods to increase your testosterone, dopamine, serotonin & endorphin levels, all your “feel good” hormones. And even though you feeling hungry and tired pretty much all the time especially toward the end, you are focused and your adrenalin levels are high to help you push even harder. And let’s face it, that glimpse in the mirror while you training, and fitting into those really skinny denims, makes you feel good no matter how hungry and tired you are.

But post show everything comes to a grinding halt. By stopping all the good activities and introducing bad activities, you are doing exactly the opposite, which affects all your feel good hormones in a negative way, and in a very short period of time. You can imagine how this wreaks havoc with your body and mind. This is something I’m doing further research into, and will definitely share when I’m done. But definitely makes sense to me.

I warn each and every one of my clients about rebounding after their show, whether they have an easy prep, or tough prep. I always say it’s like something in your brain switches on when that show date has been decided, you are focused, determined and follow your program to the T, because you know, you have to be in that bikini/speedo in a couple of weeks. But take that goal out of the equation, and it’s as if that same thing just switches off, and you can’t stop eating. Why this happens? Because we are human beings (well some of us anyway, there are some machines) and being on a diet void of taste and variety, well, it’s just not normal. From birth we are taught to enjoy things that taste, smells and look nice. Now take it out of the equation for months on end and all you want to do is eat everything because your senses goes into overdrive! And trust me I have been there more then once, so I know exactly how it feels to look at yourself and think “how the hell did I get here?”. 

So guess what? This is your life. Whether you just want to look good or step on stage. You will be eating lean protein, good fats, low GI carbs, drink your water, keep doing your weight training, keep doing your cardio, take your supplements, do your assessments for the rest of your natural fitness life, it’s just the quantity and variety that will change. If you can get all the information and plan to get you on the stage, there is no reason why you can’t do the same for after.

Here is some tips I hope will be helpful.

• KEEP DRINKING WATER!!! I can not stress this enough. The benefits of staying properly hydrated is endless, if you don’t know why, you have some Google homework. When you eating badly and you stop drinking water on top of that, you retain ridiculous amounts of water, bad foods are loaded with sodium, sugar and preservatives, pretty much all the things you stayed clear of for many weeks. Start drinking your 4lt of water every day and flush that crap out! I can guarantee you, within 48 hours you will look and feel better. 

• I have heard this often “I am just going to go back on my pre-contest diet” If you can do it, great. But for most competitors starting out the mere sight and smell of whatever they have been eating the last couple of months is enough to drive anyone to the nearest KFC. Change & freshen things up. After my show, I just want to bake stuff! So I look for some nice healthy recipes to make. When I work out a maintenance plan for my clients, first thing I ask, what are you sick of eating? I do not believe in forcing someone to eat something they don’t want to, it is a set up for failure. There is a huge variety of healthy, lean foods to choose from, don’t be scared to try different things. 

• If you can, and I know this is hard when you starting out, try to gradually increase your calories. I think you will be pleasantly surprised to find out just how much of the healthy stuff you can eat and keep your weight in-check. But this means that you will have to keep your wits about your for a couple of weeks longer. 

• With eating, also comes drinking (and yes I am generalising). Alcohol is a KILLER when it comes to weight gain in general. And I love a glass of wine (or 2…) so in NO way am I preaching here. But it really does play havoc with your body when you were dieting strictly for so long. Try and keep it to a minimum. And if you wondering why alcohol is so bad for weight loss, some more Google homework. Again, make sure you get the water in.

• As with your diet, the same goes for your training program. Change it up! Try something completely new. This is the perfect time to experiment. I don’t know if it’s because I have been in the industry for so long, but I do struggle to get back in the gym after my competition season. So I stay out of the gym until I feel mentally ready to head back. But, this doesn’t mean I do absolutely nothing, I love to go mountain biking and recently started doing bikram yoga. 

• Now… I’m going to throw a spanner in the works here…. one of the things I mentioned we stop doing is our assessments. So you know that scale that everyone told you doesn’t matter when you started out? Dig that baby out from under the bed, dust her off and start checking your weight. When you step on stage your pretty happy with how you look, so your weight is not going to bother you much. It is however going to start bothering you when you balloon out of control. If you working with a Coach, don’t go MIA. I know it’s hard and even embarrassing. But rather keep doing your weekly check-ins, and if not with your Coach, check-in with yourself. It is unfortunately human nature and much easier to turn a blind eye and pretend bad things are not happening.

• For your next show, give yourself more time to prepare. The more time you give yourself, the easier it will be on your mind and body. You will be able to eat more food, and more variety of food, and no stupid amounts of cardio. It’s when you start running out of time that all the crazy stuff comes into play, and it’s these crazy things that does the most damage to your body and mind. 

• I believe your first goal should not be your next show. Your first goal needs to be getting your nutrition and training under control again. Once this is under control, you can start planning for the future. 

Final note.

The one thing that you have to remember, at the end of the day, you are the only person that is in control of your body. No amount of information will make a difference if you don’t have self control. And having self-control, is probably one of the best feelings there is. Think about the months leading up to your show, the self-discipline was a vital key to your success. For me personally, this is what I miss the most when I have a bad post show experience. I want that control back. It gives me a sense of self-empowerment and accomplishment, because there are very view things in life we have total control over. And that motivates me to get back on track and take control again.

Online Training – Friend of Foe.

Online training has recently become the latest "craze" among fitness enthusiasts, ranging from those who would just like to get into better shape, to the more serious athletes.  The first time I caught on to online training was 5 years ago, a year later I met up with my Coach, Nathan Harewood all the way in Calgary, Canada.  Four years later, and we still going strong, and it has worked amazingly for us.  Three years ago I took my business the online route, and it's grown steadily over the last couple of years.  But I have picked up some problems.

Probably the biggest attraction about online training, is the fact that it's more affordable and you can manage your training to your own time schedule.  However, it has its downside as well, and these are just a couple of points that you need to consider before going this route.

1.       Problem: You have to know your way around the gym and especially the weights room.  If you have never seen the inside of a gym, to start off with, your program will probably be complete gibberish, never mind trying to attempt the exercises. 

Solution: Do your research.  If it’s not on the internet, it doesn’t exist.  You-tube is a fantastic option to find training videos.  You can also ask you Coach to send you the relevant video clips.  Ask for help.  If your Coach is out of town, then ask someone trustworthy to assist you.  Maybe even invest in a session with a reputable trainer to take you through your program.

2.       Problem:  Ladies often feel intimidated in the weights room, and that is with a trainer. 

Solution: Get over it! You deserve to be there just as much as anyone else.  If you need to use a piece of equipment, and someone is busy on it, ask, no one is going to bite your head off.  The gyms are also open all hours of the day and night, maybe in the beginning try to go in off-peak times.

3.       Problem:   You need to be able to push yourself.  There is no one there to tell you to push harder and make sure that you finish every set, every rep.  If you don't push yourself, your progress will be very slow.

Solution:  Keep a training diary.  You have your training program and nutrition plan, write down every day what you train, eat, tick off that you have taken all your necessary supplements, how much cardio you have done, how much water you drank.  This way you can keep close record to make sure that you cover everything your Coach wants you to do on a daily basis.  Especially on the training side, you need to make sure that you progress every week, even if it’s just a little bit.  But be honest in your diary, if you skipped a workout, write it down.  This way when it comes to assessment time, you and your Coach can have clear understanding of your progress, or lack thereof.

  

4.       Problem:  You need to be committed and consistent.  No one is waiting for you at the gym to make sure you pitch for your session. 

Solution:  Again you’re training dairy.   Also schedule your day in such a way that there can be little or no interference with your gym sessions.  Planning is everything, same as with your meals, plan your training accordingly.

5.       Problem: I am a BIG believer in proper form when it comes to weight training, you need to make sure that you do the exercises 100% right, or again your progress will be very slow, and most importantly, you can pick up serious injuries.

Solution: Again do your research and discuss with your Coach.  Start off slow, make sure that you perform every rep perfectly before moving up to a higher weight.   Concentrate and watch your form at all time.

Most importantly, go out there and enjoy your sessions! A new training and nutrition plan, is like a holiday. 

HIIT vs Steady State Cardio

Received this question... and my response.

"Which form of cardio, HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) or steady state cardio works best for fat loss".

Dear "B" I'll start off with a quick definition of the two:

HIIT: Any workout that alternates between intense bursts of activity and fixed periods of less-intense activity or even complete rest. For example, 2 minute walk, 1 minute sprint and so on.

Steady State Cardio: is simply a cardio workout that is a continuous, steady effort for an extended period of time.

When you read on the web each have their own list of benefits, and why you should be doing the one an not the other, and so on.

This is one of those things, and I know it's probably one of the most irritating answers, but it differs from person to person. For me personally, I only do steady state, and it works brilliantly for me. I have experimented between the two with clients, and find that they will respond well to one, but not the other. I suggest that you stick to one form of cardio for 2 weeks, and then switch to the other and see how your body response.

Cellulite!

I received this question today, and I would like share my response.

Question:

Although I'm very thin I have so much cellulite.
I don't know how to get rid of it , Its mostly on my upper Legs and bum I can't dare to wear a bikini .

I also struggle to eat right ! I'm addicted to energy drinks How can I get my body in shape and stop eating and drinking wrong !! 

Response: Dear M.... let's look at your first part of the question:

Cellulite:

What is cellulite? Its name makes it sound like a medical condition. But cellulite is nothing more than normal fat beneath the skin. The fat appears bumpy because it pushes against connective tissue, causing the skin above it to pucker.

The subcutaneous fat rests on top of muscle, and if the muscle is weak and flaccid, this can also contribute to the ‘bumpy’ effect of cellulite.

Since cellulite is largely due to a structural conformation below the skin, it is often common in very slender women. However, individuals who are over-fat will frequently have a more pronounced cellulite development, while those with less fat and more muscular definition tend to have less visible cellulite.

Some causes of cellulite:

Poor diet
Fad dieting
LACK OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY!
LACK OF MUSCLE TONE/FIBER
Slow metabolism
Dehydration
Total body fat
Thickness and color of your skin
Excess consumption of saturated fat and sugars

The best way to reduce the amount of cellulite, is to decrease the amount of body fat in the body. You can do this by:

Eating a healthy, balanced diet
Do more resistance training
Increase your cardiovascular exercise
DRINK MORE WATER! Minimum 4lt per/day
Avoid the use of caffeinated drinks
Restrict the use of alcohol and sweetened carbonated drinks.
STOP SMOKING!

Therefore "M" when you look at the points above, I'm sure that you can see why you struggle with cellulite, when you fix the things mentioned above, the cellulite problem will go away. But this links directly to your the second part of your question. And this is unfortunately something that only you can decide on. You need to be mentally and emotionally ready to make the change, no one can make you do this. The road to a healthier, fitter more beautiful you is not the easier road to take.

Recipe: Wasabi Grilled Tuna

Absolutely delicious, quick and guilt free.

Wasabi Sauce:

1 teaspoon wasabi powder or 1 teaspoon dry hot mustald
1 teaspoon water
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 tablespoons fat free smooth cottage cheese
1 clove garlic (crushed)

Tuna

1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon wasabi powder of dry hot mustard
2 fresh tuna steaks (2cm thick)

Directions:

Sauce:

1. In a bowl mix wasabi and water to make a paste
2. Let stand for 10 minutes
3. Stir in vinegar, fat free cottage cheese and garlic
4. Set aside

Tuna

1. Prepare grill with medium-hot coals (or hot skillet)
2. In a cup, mix the soy. oil, and wasabi powder
3. Brush on tuna
4. Grill for 3 - 4 minutes for rare tuna (I don't like it rare so 5 - 6 for well done)
5. Thinly slice the tuna and serve with wasabi sauce.