If you are going to go on a Keto diet, and then bang on about how great it is, and how you are in ketosis, the very least you can do is to buy some Ketostix, wee on them, and show us that you are “burning fat”.
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1
Sep, 2020
28
Aug, 2020
DWF: A lovely workout, too much curry and a nose job.
A cute little workout: 10 dumbbell snatches left, 10 right, 1 turkish get up L, 1 turkish get up R, 10 toes to bar. Amrap 12 minutes. I discovered I could use the door frame of the security gate. which added a few interesting challenges. The square shape gave my fingers and hand a “novel grip experience” and because there are bars coming off it, you have to control where your fingers go, otherwise you can smash them up.
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19
Aug, 2020
DWF: Doing Annie. Are you a sugar smuggler?
The fitness:
The Crossfit workout Annie
50-40-30-20-10 double-unders. 50-40-30-20-10 abmat sit-ups.
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15
Aug, 2020
DWF: A Cajun chicken dinner and morning burpees
Well its Saturday, and day 2 out of this training block of 3 days.
Todays workout is 12 minutes of :
10 burpees, 5 dumbbell push press L, 5 dumbbell push press R
This is nastily crafted as yesterday you had the push up grind. Today you will really want to drive your hips on the push press and you’ll probably want more of a sprawl on the burpee.
Still, super compensation, aside, it was surprisingly yuk!
Enjoy.
Todays Healthy Food Option
To add more variety to this blog, I’m inviting guests into share their favourite meals. First up is a Cajun chicken dish from Fresh Fitness foods.
Chicken – P: 27.83 | C: 0.73 | F: 3 | Kcal: 141.24
Broccoli – [ P: 2.52 | C: 3.2 | F: 2.42 | Kcal: 35.66
Rice – [ P: 2.8 | C: 26.5 | F: 0.75 | Kcal: 123.5 ]
Cajun Chicken Ingredients
- 2 chicken breasts
- 15g cajun seasoning
- 5g honey
Method
- Preheat the oven to 200c
- Mix all of the ingredients together, making sure the chicken is completely coated.
- Place the chicken onto a tray, place the tray into the preheated oven.
- Cook the chicken for 20-25 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked the whole way through leave to rest for 5-10 minutes then slice into thin 0.5cm slices.
Roasted Broccoli Ingredients
- 1 head broccoli
- 1tbsp smoked paprika
- 2 cloves garlic
- splash of olive oil
Method
- Take the florets off the broccoli, slice the bottom off the stalk, cut into 1/4’s lengthwise then slice into 1/2 – 1 inch cubes.
- Mix all ingredients together then place onto a tray and cook in an oven for 15 minutes at 200c.
Zesty Rice Ingredients
- 100g white rice
- 300g water
- 2 limes, zested and juiced
- small bunch of coriander sliced.
Method
- Place the rice into a pan and pour over the water.
- Bring up to the boil, leave to boil for 2-3 minutes then cover the pan with a lid and turn off the heat.
- After 10 minutes, fluff up the rice with a fork and mix through the lime and coriander.
If you want to try Fresh Fitness Food go here https://www.freshfitnessfood.com/ then use the discounts GABDOU10 for 10% off and GABDOU for £50 off your first order.
Have a great weekend, stay active, eat healthily, see you tomorrow, and join the mailing list
14
Aug, 2020
DWF: disappointing beef dinner and a workout
Well, it looked ok, but may I introduce you to a bit of tasteless beef.
So, its 4 block of tasteless beef ( lovingly slow roasted for 3 hours: that was a waste of electricity), 3 blocks of potatoes at 150g, and some nice cabbage with a block of extra butter (between the 2 of us) chucked in, otherwise Kate won’t eat it.
looked ok, tasted of nothing.
TODAYS WORKOUT
This mornings workout was 20 box jumps (or step ups) 20 push ups, 400m run . As many rounds as possible in 15 minutes.
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12
Aug, 2020
DWF: Kate’s favourite and a nasty snatch session
The meal I’ll analyse today is my lovely Kate’s favourite meat which is roast lamb.
Voila
4 blocks of lamb, or 112g ( that’s the protein) , 3 blocks of potato (150g) and my hope that the odd bit of fat that I rubbed over the meat before roasting was about 4 x 1.5g . The zone diet assumes that all meat has some fat in it.
You’ll notice I’ve slung peas and green beans on my plate, but without really measuring them. I think “pile on the ( non starchy) veg”, but don’t let this take you away from measuring the more carb dense food!
POINTS TO NOTE: when you start to properly manage your weight 1) don’t hunt out weird exotic meals to make. Try and stick with stuff you know and can cook. 2) learn to portion control the important stuff. Dont obsess if you had too much spinach or 3 more fork fulls of cabbage! Learn to recognise the high calorie food. still include it! But manage it.
Todays car park workout was an ‘up down ladder”
Mark out a 10m shuttle run, get a suitably nice, or nasty dumbbell to snatch
On the way up dumbbell snatches 2-20 (2, 4, 6) , on the way down shuttle runs 10-1(10, 9, 8)
Disgusting
5
Aug, 2020
Muted Hip Function
Effective exercise can generate powerful huge forces if they are initiated controlled and dominated by the hip.
Many untrained athletes have a muted hip which creates postures and mechanics that reduce power output, promotes postures and mechanics that are considered by many to be unsound.
In simple terms the Muted Hip Function (MHF) results from the legs compensating for the failed of the hip, in effect using leg extension to compensate for non existent hip extension.
According to the Crossfit Journal the causes and consequences of MHF include but are not limited to:
• structurally disadvantaged spinal posture
• low glute recruitment
• low hamstring recruitment
• pelvis abandoning the spine and chasing the legs
• centre of gravity shifting dramatically backward
• centre of balance shifting toward toes
• knee experiencing unsound shear force
• leg extension being the only productive effort
• hip extension not being possible with low hip angle
• pelvis rotating the wrong way
The cure is deliberate and focused training. Thats why you probably need a trainer like me. Why not join the mailing list a get useful information
6
Jun, 2020
Stretching your quads
It’s impossible to get fit without someone reminding you to “stretch your quads”. The quads, or quadriceps ( quad for four) run up the top of the front of your leg. Three of them go from the knee cap to below your hip. One goes across the knee and then across the hip. Here is a useful graphic from wikipedia
Stretching these muscles is important as they are the ones most likely to become short if you sit too much. We all sit too much.
Here is the standing quad stretch that I think everyone must have seen at some stage
But this is just the start of your quad journey. Get on a bed (or anything comfy) and kneel down
Put your hands behind you and lean back. Some may find this hard. Don’t worry, just keep on getting used to it. Just incase you get stuck, it maybe as well to have someone around to pull you back up again if you cannot get back up again.
Once you build your confidence, get a cushion pile and slowly take a cushion away each time you try
Eventually you’ll simply lie down. you’ll notice my hips are fairly high, so to be a quad stretching master, eventually you need to pull your hips down.
Unfortunately, you probably need to build this up to 3 minutes. If your ankles are very tight you may need a small roll (a towel) under them, as the initial stretch can be quite intense! Enjoy. Slowly build up your time and tolerance. In the early stages, it’s just about getting used to it.
14
Apr, 2020
Build your chest.
Maybe the strongmen of old didn’t have access to weights. I say that as, many of the old fashioned “get fit at home” manuals and pamphlets, put push ups and push up variations at the core of their regimes. Maybe they assumed that their home based clients didn’t have a “bench”.
Not a totally insane assumption.
So, push ups or “dips” as Charles Atlas called them, belong in any home regime. I think they are often overlooked.
Charles Atlas does his “dip”between two chairs in order to get a bigger range of motion. according to his pamphlet its great for “Chest, Shoulders and Back. Excellent for preventing Lung and Chest troubles. Do the dipping exercise at least 100 times every day. Aim to do it 200 times daily if you are keen on getting a very big and powerful chest development. Do this by dipping 25 or more times, rest and relax a few moments and do them again. Rest and do them again.” Charles Atlas said he did 200 daily.
However, it isn’t as simple as just doing any type of push up. Notice from this video that you are aiming for a planche push up. Your shoulders go forward and your hands end up as near the hips as possible
Of course, this is achievable if you already have push ups. If you don’t work your progressions like mad
9
Nov, 2019
Build your Push ups
There are a lot of very dull, unimaginative push up regimes on the internet. My aim is to get you 100 push ups in, about, 6 weeks.
For the purposes of the first part of this this post, Im going to assume you can do 10 strict push ups in one go. (If you have none, skip further down)
The 1st thing i need you to do is to do a test, one today, one tomorrow. today I want you to attempt the most continuous push ups you can. Record it.
Tomorrow, I want you to attempt as many push ups as you can in 2 minutes . You can take as many breaks as you like, you can do lots of singles. Does not matter. Just do as many as you can in 2 minutes.
This gives you an interesting base line to begin with.
For now, you have two alternating protocols to follow
1) Without being too prescriptive, I need you to get to 10 sets of 10 push ups, with no more than 90 seconds rest. At this stage, this means, shooting for 10 reps, then resting for 90 seconds, so the reps could look like this.
10, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 4, 6, 8.
2) 3 sets of maximum push ups. go down and do as many push ups as you can, rest 2 minutes, then do it again 2 more times.
So, do 1 on day 1, 2 on day 2, then a rest day. then 1 and 2 again.
That should get you started for now.
BUT WHAT IF YOU HAVE NO PUSH UPS. Ive seen lots of people with no push ups struggling on “box” and knee versions. Whilst they are interesting if you are really really weak, i have never seen anyone successfully get a full push up by using these shortened versions. The 2 best techniques to use are the eccentric phase and Isometrics. Put simply, get into the top of a push up, and lower yourself down as slowly as you can. Do this 4 or 5 times with 60 seconds rest ( more if you need it.). Then while lying on the floor, try and push yourself up. Put as much effort in as you can, and push for 7 seconds. Rest for 30 seconds and go again. ( say 4 times). You may not move, but you are building the specific strength to do so.