Are you a chubby Easter Bunny?

Yes I had a Cadbury's Creme Egg AND 3 beers - what you gonna do?!

Like Christmas, Easter time usually brings banter about whether or not I am going to touch certain food and drink.

Like Christmas I let myself have a treat, control it, enjoy it, don't feel in the slightest bit guilty, then make sure I burn it off with a beasting!

It is also untrue that I got my family boiled eggs for Easter!

This Easter's beasting came in the form of a 10k cross country race. As you know I'm not a big fan of long cardio for fat loss, but I am having to do such events in preparation for Tough Guy!

Yet again though this weekend proved a few points about fat loss and conditioning.

1) I completed the course in around 43.30 - not an awesome time by any stretch but considering it was mainly grass, had some nasty hills and I only run once per week to protect my joints (and muscle mass) I was fairly happy - this keeps me on target for a circa 40 min road 10k by summer, but I know I can get more out of my legs.

The day you are satisfied with your training and your performances is the day you embark on a slippery slope - remember that!

2) I, my girlfriend and my clients who also took part beat many of the club runners who do nothing but run.

We do a combination of metabolic weight training and intense interval conditioning with one 'aerobic' run per week (if that) to put some miles in the legs and get used to the distance.

This is the video for my personal training studio showing some of the guys and girls who ran today. It'll give you some ideas as to the kinds of training you should be focussing on to lose fat whether you are a beginner or more advanced trainee.



This is how the FLAB was created - by testing and developing programs which work for real people who don't have hours and hours for training and who can't bear the thought of cardio work!



Get the FLAB before the holidays roll around ======> Click here

This goes to show that strength work does more for improving endurance running and pain tolerance than pavement pounding.

I spoke to a few people who ran good times but 'couldn't break the XXXX barrier'. All they do is run and run and run to improve it - this WILL NOT work!

We've all been chopping minutes off our run times in the past 6 weeks with no signs of slowing down by focussing more on strength work than just TRYING to run faster.

A metabolic weights workout might look something like this:

5 rounds as fast as possible of...

20 kettlebell swings
10 jump squats
10 jumping pull ups
5 renegade push up-row
250m row on Concept 2

Try this and it will smoke you taking less than 30 minutes.

3) If you are worried what one creme egg or one chocolate bar over the Easter weekend will do to your waist line, the rest of your year is seriously uncontrolled and lacks focus!

You can't undo 51 good weeks with two bad 3 day spells at Easter and Christmas.

It's when you let your poor control of your taste buds take over on a weekly basis that you're in trouble!

4) I am approaching the end of my temper with so-called international experts who send emails out saying you can get an awesome workout done in 5 minutes.

Don't be so stupid - if you believe this you are having your intelligence insulted.

Short workouts are VERY effective when done properly but '5 minute workouts to burn fat' - give me break!

That will get you another small hole on your credit card but not a lot else.

If you truly want change, you need to be prepared to FIND 20-45 mins x 4-5 per week.

Less can certainly be more but don't let the marketing hype get to the 'quick fix node' in your brain!

Jon

If you did over-indulge over Easter and have decided now is the time to rip off a stone of body fat in 6 weeks ready for your holiday, grab your copy of the Fat Loss Action Blueprint here =======> Click here for the FLAB

How to structure a training week

This post is no doubt going to leave me open to those who disagree and tell me that you should have a clear linear periodisation plan that first builds strength then converts it to power etc.

Put your toys back in the pram and your periodisation textbook back on the shelf. Science is great, real world results are better.

Just to prove how powerful this can be, I yesterday ran 8.25 miles in 58 minutes which included 8 x 50m STEEP hill climbs up and down on grass at half way and a fairly steep road hill at about 7 miles.

Whilst this is not anything that special to a 'runner' I run once per week because I have to get ready for an endurance event I am doing in July.

I hadn't run until February.

I have also maintained my muscle and kept body fat at about 7% rather than ending up like a stick thin Sunday Shuffler / Pavement Pounder.



I can also...

- Deadlift 2.5 times my bodyweight
- Squat 2 x my bodyweight
- Perform a single leg squat with a 32kg kettlebell
- Perform 15-20 single arm push ups

This isn't a brag and there are many people who could outperform that, however the point is that people tend to believe that you can only have good endurance OR be strong OR maintain muscle.

Consider that I also have kind of bodytype which qualifies me for the Grasshopper Olympics and has had me labelled 'lanky streak of ****' by my Grandad and 'gangly' in local newspaper sports reports.

If you want to be the BEST at any of the above, then no this training isn't ideal, but the vast majority of us out there want to be capable of many things all at once - it makes life much more enjoyable and gives us much more potential!

My training philosophy is to build lean athletic bodies which, whilst they won't win bodybuilding competitions nor half-marathons, are capable of holding their own in ANY competition.

They are capable of sprinting faster than most, running 10k faster than most and looking better than most.

Clearly the need for such abilities will fluctuate but the point is you have a great base of everything so that you can be ready to specialise for any event as required.

So what does a training week look like for me at the moment?:

Monday - Anaerobic Conditioning

A challenge such as 5 rounds as fast as possible of:

30 extreme kettlebell swings
15 burpee-pull ups
10 kettlebell jerks
10 sprints across my studio
No rest

Repeat until 5 rounds are complete

Tuesday - Strength

Dumbell snatch
4 x 5 reps 45 sec rest

Superset of 1 leg squat with 2 kettlebell press
4 x 5 each side 60 sec rest after press

Superset of 1 arm push up with pull up (using weighted vest)
4 sets stoppping 1 rep short of failure

Wednesday - Anaerobic conditioning

Hill 'sprintervals'

Treadmill on steep incline (or find a nice hill outside - I live in the city centre!)

8 rounds of 45 seconds at high speed - 90 seconds rest between each interval

15 minutes steady run at 75-80%



Thursday - Rest

Mobility and flexibility work )e.g foam rolling and developmental stretching

Friday - Strength

1 arm dumbbell clean and press

Superset of barbell front squat with weighted pull up
4 x 5 reps - 60 seconds rest after pull up

Superset of 1 arm dumbbell chest press with single arm row
4 x 5 reps each side - 60 seconds rest after pull up

Glute-ham raise
4 sets to 1 short of failure

Saturday - Rest

Mobility and flexibility

Sunday

Long run (at the moment due to requirements for Tough Guy event)

*****************************************

This is just one week.

4 times per week is core work using varied sets, reps and exercises.

Each week certain variables will change.

I might do one arm pull up strength practice or side-to-side pullups.

I might do kettlebell snatches instead of dumbbells.

I might use isometrics and complex training (not complexes) to increase strength and power.

Sometimes I'll do more strength and less conditioning.

Please do not take this as a 6 week program or anything like that, it is purely to demonstrate how to mould strength training with conditioning without burning out.

What if I can't train that much?

If you only have time to train three times per week you might do 15 mins heavy strength work at the start of a session followed by 20 minutes conditioning.

There is no set way of training so don't get caught up in performing the same sessions every week just so you 'get better at it'.

If it hurts, makes you sweat, is balanced in terms of muscles used and gives certain energy systems enough recovery time, it will work.

And don't forget to eat well!


Jon