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

Get stronger without weights or getting bulky?

'I want to get stronger'.

Oddly enough I seem to hear this more from girls than blokes.

Well I've been using an old technique which gets far too little use - the girls and the guys using this are getting much stronger, much faster and with no added bulk.



These are the latest guinea pigs following my Intense Conditioning 12 week program. The aim is to sky rocket stamina, endurance, strength and power all at the same time - and it's working.

This is what James said (bear in mind he has been dropping body fat at the same time)

"I started with my pair of 16kgs but after the first set of Jerks I switched to the 20kgs. I still knocked them out.

In the past, I would have done 3 dips then moved on to the next exercise. This morning I knocked out all the sets and reps like I was fresh"

Being strong doesn't mean you need to be bulky.

Many blokes are so obsessed with just getting bigger so they LOOK stronger, that they forget that, when it actually comes down to it and they are being challenged on a sports field or in an arm wrestle with their 9 year old sister, size often counts for nothing.



Don't get me wrong if you want to be superstrong (like powerlifter strong), then you're going to have to get bigger.

However, there is a oft forgetten way to increase strength and power which doesn't require any of the following:

- A gym which is deliberately kept rusty to keep girls out
- A squat rack covered in chalk
- Steroids
- Vein popping weights and chains

This is great news for those of us who just want to be functionally strong.

I'm like you - I want to be lean, strong and fast without looking like (or training like) a bulky bodybuilder.

By this I mean I want to...

...jump higher
...jump longer
...jump higher for longer
...run faster
...run fast for longer (yes improving your 10k requires increases in strength and power endurance not just another Sunday pavement plod)
...be able to perform lots of pull ups and be capable of lifting heavy weights

What is this secret?

Well as usual it's not so much a secret but more of a forgotten art.

This art form is the use of isometric contractions.

Isometrics come in various shapes and forms but essentially they are defined as 'creating tension without any change in the length of the muscle'.


Not all tension is good!

Isometrics are a great addition for those who want to increase strength without adding muscle by having to do heavy weight training such as 5 x 5 reps of deadlifts or squats, or for those who don't have access to the equipment they need.

This training essentially involves creating near maximum tension in a muscle without moving the joints in question.

This can be done either by simply tensing them on the spot or trying to move an immovable object.

Examples:

Trying to push over a brick wall

Trying to perform the action of a dumbbell shoulder press against the resistance of a partner who is stronger than you

Why do them?

Isometric contractions enable you to focus on creating maximum tension in the muscles you need to be stronger, such as the quads, hamstrings and glutes for those looking to jump higher.

This will improve the firing patterns from your brain to your muscle enabling you to recruit more of the muscle fibres.

The result is a stronger you!

How do you do them?

All will be revealed soon but my favourite method focusses on being able to generate explosive power.

It goes something like this...

For the chest

Use this to improve push up and bench press strength and punching power if you do marital arts, boxing etc.

Push with 80% of your maximum effort against a wall with both hands for 3-5 seconds.

Your elbows should be at about the angle they are at the bottom of the push up (the hard bit where you struggle the most!)

Make sure you have a strong split leg stance so you don't fall back.

Rest 10 seconds.

Repeat the wall push.

Straight away perform 8 explosive push ups off the floor. If you are just learning to do push ups you would just do normal push ups as fast as possible.


Wear proper attire when doing brick wall isometrics please!

For the legs

Use this to increase your vertical jump.

Isometrics are a bit harder to do with the legs without certain equipment but a great way is to sit in a wall squat (back against wall with knees at ninety) holding two weights.

Sit for 60 seconds creating as as much tension as you can in your legs and bum.

Immediately perform 8 jump squats getting as high as you can.

Perform 4-5 rounds of each exercise.

If you do this once or twice per week in addition to your usual training you will soon find yourself getting a lot stronger in all the exercises you find hard!

Remember all athletic performance requires stress and now you can't use the excuse of a lack of equipment!

Jon

The doctor speaks on fat loss pills

Today I'm handing over my blog to a doctor I know here in Britain - we often have interesting dicussions about the state of British health!

Here's what she had to say in response to a rant I had about the recommendations MOST doctors give out being relatively useless in solving Britain's obesity crisis.

Now before I get set upon, there ARE some doctors who, because they actually train themselves and really do eat healthily, give out recommendations beyonhd the usual 'moderate exercise 3 times per week and 5 a day' rubbish!

Unfortunately these people are sadly in a very small minority.

My own doctor is overweight. (The guy below is not my doctor by the way!)



It's a disgrace and hard to see a way past it, especially when you see the problems doctors face.....

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"Most of my overweight patients are over 40, don't possess a pair of trainers
and think that healthy eating means having salad with their third takeaway
of the week.

They take little responsibility for their own predicament, always having an excuse ready, and, if they want a solution to their weight problem (and believe me, many don't), want someone else to fix the problem for them.

The only medications available to facilitate weight loss are useless without
significant lifestyle changes, and are never something I suggest to people.

However, the pressure to prescribe can be great from those who have read articles in the latest women's magazine.

To date I have not had anyone who has lost a significant amount of weight with them, mainly because they fail to make big enough changes to their diet and exercise regime, divulging all responsibility to the medication and me.

Take a recent patient who in 6 months has lost only 10kg (9% of their original weight) despite taking sibutramine (an appetite suppressant), in comparison with my 9.5kg (14%) in under 3 months.

The perpetual excuses of parties, friends visiting and lack of motivation abound.

The new fad for gastric banding is also taking over.

I have a patient with a BMI over 50 (yes, over 50) who says she can't eat less as she has to entertain with work and it would be embarrassing to not partake in the food and drink as she does. But she would like a gastric band as that would give her an excuse to say no.
Therein lies her problem.

No responsibility and passing the buck to someone or something else.

Equally many of those I see have zero knowledge of what a healthy diet and exercise plan looks like.

People who contact you for either exercise and/or diet advice are already, by definition, aware that how they live needs changing and are taking proactive steps to make changes.

Most of the people who come in contact with me have no real insight into their predicament.

Advice has to be tailored to their educational level and level of understanding of the problem. Initial suggestions to 'exercise more and eat 5 a day' are often major progress in their lifestyle.

For someone who regards walking up 1 flight of stairs at work a couple of times a day as exercise, getting them to take a walk at lunchtime is a big step.

So, enough of my ranting. I am converted, I know what needs to be done, but persuading the unwilling masses is a task not even I can achieve."

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See the problems the Western world faces?

I lay the blame squarely at the feet of the media and the government.

We are all programmed by what we see and hear all day so for those who have been brought up on crap magazines and quick fix media hype, can we really blame them.

To a certain extent I believe it is there responsibility to find out what they need to do but I guess it could be argued that they think they are taking that action by reading those magazines.

Is there anything we can do other than have the government impose much stricter rules on what can be advertised?

What can we expect when our own leader has more 'Chins' than a Chinese phone book?



No amount of shouting and raving from people like me can overcome the mulit-billion dollar marketing campaigns of the big firms.

Surely it should have gone through lengthy testing before being allowed to be advertised?

How do we implement this?

It's a sad state of affairs guys and we all need to start sitting up, taking notes and doing something about it.

Our doctor claims it is a big step for people to start walking each day but is it when there is concrete evidence that interval training, weight training and 95% clean diets are the only way to force life-changing fat burning processes in the human body?

How can we say it is a success if someone loses 1.5 stones but still has a very high risk of cardiac complications, diabetes and various other diseases. They will more than likely die early.

I also see problems with 'tailoring' advice to individual needs if I'm honest. It's like the failed attempts at downgrading cannabis to prevent drug use.

We pander to people rather than telling them straight "You're obese adn unless you do exactly what I tell you, you will die."

We all know gastric banding won't work in the long-term as it just gives people an excuse to start again with their crappy lifestyles.

Like the global warming issue, something big needs to happen and fast or do we face irreversable damage to the human race?

What are your thoughts?

Jon