April 25th, 2012

I awoke this morning to no alarm great start to the day it is 7:30am and I don’t have to rush off to work – thank god I gave up that 8am class. However I soon realize that today is day 1 of my Cleanse / Detox. Why the hell am I doing a detox / cleanse you may well ask and at this point I think that that is a fair question and I am starting to ask myself the same question.

I have been feeling ordinary for probably the last 2 years. I am not sick – my blood work is all clear but I am feeling flat and lethargic. I exercise 4 – 6 times per week and my motivation fluctuates. I know how it feels to feel great and bounce up out of bed ready to jump into anything that life will throw me – but that has gone and seems a distant memory. I have tried heaps of things to try and regain that feeling – I suspected my adrenal glands where tired so I gave up coffee for a month and didn’t really feel better, made significant changes to my diet but that didn’t seem to work either. Tested my digestion and that seems ok. So I decided to try a detox / cleanse to see if this will help me. I want to focus on 2 main areas – the first is to give my digestive system and break and chance to recover and rebuild. The second reason is to detoxify my liver – the liver is an extremely important organ and I think mine may be a bit slugglish.

I must also say that I really want to drop some body fat – I have been training hard and have increased size and a lot of strength too since Christmas but I am now the heaviest I have ever been which isn’t ideal because I am tried to increase my running (interval based) but I am struggling with the extra weight. ( I now understand now why AFL footballers can’t pack on too much muscle over the preseason!!)

My problem areas are: my upper legs and my mid section. Thanks to my Biosignature qualification I know that the hormones I need to target.  My Goal = Single Digit bodyfat and currently 21.9% and I weigh 88.8kgs

I will be using Medical foods and some Liver support supplements as well as eating 1 green vegetable per day.

My supplements are set out for the morning are set out:

1 Serve of Fibre (15g – Primal Fiber)

I then jump in the shower then I have my first meal of the day:

Estrogenomics Px Vanilla (2 Scoops in Water) + 10 BCAA + P1P2 Balance (for Liver detox)

Followed by 2tbs of L-Glutamine in water

I then went to the gym Today’s work out was Back / Pulling Exercises I also threw in 4 sets of Squats and 3 sets of Front squats.

Returning from the gym 12pm I have another   Estrogenomics Px Vanilla (2 Scoops in Water) + 10 BCAA’s + P1P2 Balance

About 2pmI am a little bit annoyed at myself I was suppose to of already prepared my broccoli but  I need to take off for work so I have a Phyto Px (Mixture of vital greens and reds)

I trained a couple of clients and now I am feeling a dull headache nothing major I wolf down another shake this time it a Inflam Px Mango OMG that is not a good flavour – actually that was hard work getting that one down.

Trained another client then headed home. It hard to explain I am not starving but I really really want to eat. I jump out of my car and I can smell food yum. I jump in the lift yep someone one level 1 is cooking up a storm. I finally reach my apartment great I can finally eat – woohoo tonights dinner Broccoli : ) I also had a second serve of Phyto Px.

I demolish my broccoli and just before I go to bed I have another shake this time Estrogenomics Px Chocolate (2 Scoops in Water) + 10 BCAA and some Zinc and Magnesium.

My first day wasn’t too bad I did get a dull headache but it I was able to cope and it faded once I consumed another shake.

Posted on Wednesday, April 25 2012 / Permalink / No Comments

March 19th, 2012

Going to the gym is Anti-Aging

10 Biomarkers of Aging (that you control)

1. Muscle mass

2. Strength

3. BMI body mass index

4. Body fat %

5. Aerobic capacity

6. Blood sugar tolerance

7. Cholesterol

8. Blood Pressure

9. Bone density

10. Temperature regulation

Posted on Monday, March 19 2012 / Permalink / 1 Comment

February 28th, 2012

Found this pic today:

Says a lot I believe – we need to learn to let go – learn and move on!

Too many people hold do stew over things when things don’t seem to go right – negativity is extremely dangerous and it saps your energy and will.

Anthony

Posted on Tuesday, February 28 2012 / Permalink / No Comments

January 4th, 2012

The new rules of Lifting by Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgrove.

I have flicked through this book several times and thought it be about time I actually take the time to read it. After working in the fitness industry for 10 years now I have read and seen a hell of a lot of information and people making bold statements that their way is the only way to train – I know I have my own methods and theories but I always say that no two clients are a like and that a personalised program is what will give my clients the best results.

Back to0 the book – Reading through the first few chapters I got an understanding of the what the authors where all about and where they got their inspiration from for writing this book.  I really enjoyed the fact that the authors had the same frustrations as me – seeing people in gyms who have been following the same program for years and haven’t really gotten any results from it for however many years minus four weeks (if you missed my subtle point: you need to constantly update your program every 3 to 4 weeks). On the other side of the coin Crossfit style workouts where you change the routine daily never allow you to adapt and improve (unfortunately you just get better at Crossfit). Sorry getting slightly side tracked.

The Rules are pretty simple:

1. The best muscle-building exercises are the ones that use your muscles the way they’re designed to work. (my definition of Functional)

2. Exercises that use lots of muscles in coordinated action are better than those that force muscles to work in isolation. (ditto)

3. To build size, you must build strength. (strength is the key)

The list goes on but the next chapter gets into the nut and bolts the big six. The main movements or key exercises that are going to give you the results and body you want. Squat, Deadlift (bend), Lunge, Push, Pull and Twist. Sound familiar? Paul Chek uses the same six exercises as what he calls Primal Patterns the premise being that to survive in prehistoric times you needed to be able to perform these 6 movements plus one more Gait (running and walking). Thank goodness the authors do acknowledge Paul and also Richard A. Schmidt whose work this all originated from.

Reading on I was all pumped up and wanted to get straight into the program – hell I wanted a new routine for tomorrow morning – but the next few chapters seemed to ramble on the content was and is important don’t get me wrong but I just want to know what am I going to do tomorrow : ) I have read and seen first hand that too much cardio makes you fat (slow long runs etc) I know the functional importance of the big 6 and I am familiar with the mobilisation principles – but to other readers I am sure that they will learn a lot.

When I eventually got to the programs I pretty much already knew what the authors where going to present – the programs are well structured and have a nice periodisation plan to them. Have they re-written the programs I will give to my clients for the new 6 months? No – but I did get a few really good programming ideas that I will definitely look at implementing.

The other rules I quite liked

NEW RULE #5 • The goal of each workout is to set a record.

NEW RULE #7 • Don’t “do the machines.”

NEW RULE #18 • You don’t need to do endurance exercise to burn fat.

Overall I recommend this book to anyone who has been stuck on a plateau for a while or has given away training due to a lack of results – there is a good years worth of training programs in the book which will ensure that your training will at least be moving in the right direction.

I give this book 3.75 Stars.

- Anthony

Posted on Wednesday, January 4 2012 / Permalink / No Comments