Using Exercise as a Venting Mechanism

Have you ever had a really crappy day and just felt like screaming? It may be work, family, friends, your pet, situational stress, frustration, something else or a combination!

As bad as you may feel when the world is against you, what I have found from personal experience is that exercise is an amazing venting mechanism. There is nothing like grabbing a host of bad emotions and channelling that negative energy into something that is really, really productive.

Probably the best and most cliched form of venting is boxing. You’ve had a fight with your boss and you just cannot stand to look at him. What better way to exercise than to punch a bag imagining that the bag is his face! Apart from getting that anger and frustration out of your system, you are:

1. Going to have an amazing workout
2. Benefit yourself from a health and physique perspective
3. Feel so much better when you’re done
4. Possibly going to like your boss that little bit more for helping you to have such a great workout! (hah!)

It doesn’t have to be boxing. You could go into the gym and jump on the bike and ride as fast as you can until you’ve expended all your energy. You could go and lift some weights and channel those powerful emotions into kinetic energy that will benefit your body.

A really significant benefit to this is the endorphin rush that you obtain immediately after the completion of your workout. Colloquially known as the “runners high”, that great feeling that you obtain after your workout is the result of endorphins being secreted to calm your body down. You’ll de-stress, feel happier and be able to relax much easier than before.

The biggest challenge to this is overcoming the “in the moment” emotions. You’re frustrated for whatever reason and the last thing you possibly want to do is exercise. But after you try this approach to venting once, there is a strong possibility that you may find exercise to be an addictive form of venting. I know that is certainly the case for me because it is just so darn effective.

Give it a go next time next time something comes up and see how it works for you.

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Should I Exercise Like They Do On The Biggest Loser?

I was in a discussion forum today discussing The Biggest Loser, which is returning to Australian television shortly.

As I have written about in the past, I do think that The Biggest Loser is an exceptional way to inspire Australian’s to get up and be pro-active in achieving their health and fitness goals. The amount of awareness that this show has created within the general community about body-image and health is excellent.

My biggest concern with The Biggest Loser are the exercise protocols that are implemented into these morbidly obese people’s training regimes. Most of them, with very little training experience exercise vigorously, often performing extremely dangerous exercises. It’s no wonder that injuries are extremely common on that show.

So, the question is whether or not you should exercise like they do on The Biggest Loser. Unless you know what you are doing, have the doctor’s okay, with a solid grounding in years of exercise and have been exercising vigorously recently, then it may be okay. But in all likelihood, if you are reading this article because you genuinely are unaware as to whether or not you should exercise like they do on The Biggest Loser, then the answer is no.

No, you should not exercise in the same manner as these contestants because it can be unsafe, reckless, ineffective and outright dangerous to exercise in this manner if you:

1. Do not know what you are doing
2. Do not have the guidance of a trained exercise professional
3. Have not obtained your doctor’s approval
4. Have any injuries or medical concerns
5. Are limited in your exercise experience
6. Have not exercised recently on a regular basis
7. Have not trained at this level of intensity recently
8. Don’t like training in this manner

There are some very serious health concerns with training at such intensity, especially if you are unfit and/or overweight, obese or morbidly obese. There are also very serious health concerns by rapidly losing large amounts of weight.

Coming back to The Biggest Loser, keep in mind that this is a television show. It would not be entertaining to watch a bunch of contestants performing a typical gym workout. The producers need to make the television show exciting, and what better was to accomplish this than to push the contestants to their physical, mental and emotional limits? That’s entertainment – but it’s not necessarily the most effective way to accomplish a health and fitness goal.

I have written extensively on this topic and if you are interested in finding out more specific aspects to possible dangers, I do recommend to read a couple of articles on the topic:

Firstly read The Biggest Loser Australia which was a previous newsletter of ours that elaborated on these idea’s I have presented in this post.

After that, have a read of Yo-Yo Dieting, No-No Dieting which is a fairly comprehensive read of the dangers of rapid weight loss.

Always remember that whilst losing weight may be important for your physical and emotional health, it is also very important to do so in a safe, sustainable and effective manner.

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Bodybuilding Supplements – The Essentials & Buying Information

A number of our clients come to us seeking to build a substantial amount of muscle. When you’re trying to build muscle, you are effectively undertaking a bodybuilding regime. So it is very common that I am asked what bodybuilding supplements are the more important ones to take as part of a muscle building nutritional programme, immediately before and after a workout.

In my opinion, there are two absolutely essential bodybuilding supplements for pre-/post-workout supplementation:

1. A high quality protein powder
2. A high quality carbohydrate source

Bodybuilding Supplements: Protein Powder

Why is a high quality protein powder so important? A protein powder is going to provide your body with a high quality source of amino acids, which are required when synthesising new muscle tissue. Muscle synthesis will happen upon the completion of a workout, so it’s really important to injest a fast-acting, high quality whey based protein powder prior to and immediately after your weights workout.

I have blogged about protein powders before and here are a list of three high quality protein supplements that I recommend (and consequently our three best sellers):

Optimum Nutrition 100% Whey Gold Standard Protein Powder 4.7kg
AST Sports Science VP2
Dymatize Elite Whey 4.5kg

Click on the links to find out more about purchasing information from our online store.

Bodybuilding Supplements: Carbohydrate Source

Many novices overlook the importance of a fast-acting carbohydrate source. However, in order for protein synthesis to occur, insulin must be present. As I’m sure you have heard before, insulin is secreted in the prescence of carbohydrates.

The ingestion of x grams of a high glycemic index carbohydrate will have a far greater impact on the magnitude of insulin secreted immediately after ingestion relative to x grams of a low glycemic index carbohydrate source. Considering that protein uptake is most prevalent immediately following your workout, it is vital to consume some high GI carbohydrates immediately post-workout. There is also plenty of research to suggest that high GI carbs ingested immediately prior to your workout will faciliate hypertrophy also.

So, what carbs? I generally recommend dextrose, which you can buy relatively inexpensively. We did however recently add a brand new product to our store that you can buy:

Dymatize Flud Waxy Maize

Waxy maize is one of those excellent pre-/post-workout bodybuilding supplements.  It costs more than dextrose, but the addition of enzymes to facilitate digestion ensure more rapid carbohydrate uptake.

Of course there are many benefits to other supplements, but these two are what I believe are the two essential bodybuilding supplements!

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Personal Training for the Kokoda Trail

Today I was very happy to write and publish an amazing transformation of a client of ours, Mike, who left for the Kokoda Trail first thing on Monday morning this week.

I worked with Mike intensively as his personal trainer to prepare him for the Kokoda Trail. Whilst his primary goal was to prepare for the trek, his other major goals were to:

• Reduce his weight to 80kg (from over 96kg!)
• Improve his fitness

Of course both of these would certainly be important in his Kokoda Trail preparations.

Anyway, check out these jaw-dropping before/after photo’s!:

Mike's Kokoda Trail Personal Training Before Photo

Mike's Kokoda Trail Personal Training After Photo

It would come as no surprise that he dropped 17.5kg and reduced his waist by 20cm! He also improved his cardiovascular fitness by 56%!

Apart from this though, there was a very heavy emphasis on Mike’s endurance capacity, core strength, co-ordination and various injuries he had sustained (including two knee reconstructions a few years back).

Over the period of our training together, Mike accomplished some phenomenal results and I’m sure is now trekking the Kokoda Trail with relative ease compared to many others who attempt the trek. (It came to me as a shock that last year over 60 people were air-lifted out because they weren’t fit enough for the adventure!!).

It may surprise you that Mike did not adhere to a strict dietary programme. In fact, he regularly ate take-away hamburgers, chips and donor kebabs. But you know what – he did so in conjunction with a very healthy nutritional programme. This was the key to Mike’s success, because he had failed previously attempting to adhere to an unrealistic “healthy” eating plan. The reason why Mike is in such good shape for the Kokoda Trail is because we worked closely in developing a suitable approach to nutrition that suited him, not a “diet”.

Anyway, be sure to check out this amazing Kokoda Trek Personal Training transformation with more photo’s, full statistics and a more detailed rundown of Mike’s training!

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Losing Weight or Building Muscle is Not a Short Term Project

This morning as I was driving to and from clients, I was listening to the amazing Dr Stephen Covey who was speaking on his very insightful book, “First Things First”. (I highly recommend this book!). He discusses a number of vital concepts that must be understood in order to achieve goals in almost any aspect of life. Fortunately for all of us, health and fitness is no exception.

Achieving a particular health and fitness goal requires consistency, discipline, knowledge and commitment. I have selected two of the more common goals as examples in the title – losing weight and building muscle – however these fundamental principles reign true for all fitness goals, whether that is to prevent injury, treat injury, get in shape for a wedding or prepare for a marathon.

Coincidentally, Covey uses an example of marathon preparation in his programme. He suggests that for someone planning on running a marathon, years of lazing around, eating chocolate and chips is not going to be undone by exercising vigorously the day before the big race. The reason why this ludicrous example is not viable is commonsensical.

Also ludicrous are the following examples:

1. A farmer who didn’t bother planting the seeds ready for harvesting later in the year. Instead, he plants the seeds a week before prime harvesting season, whilst watering and fertilising like crazy.
2. A student  who has a big exam coming up that doesn’t begin studying the night before and crams everything in like crazy.
3. An overweight individual who undertakes an extreme diet to lose a lot of weight really quickly, without having to worry about “healthy eating” or “exercise”.

Consider all three examples above:

The first is obvious. It is impossible under our natural laws to expect an entire field of crops to grow to their potential in such a short period of time. The farmer didn’t plan ahead and thus he will not reap the rewards of his investment.

The second is something that many of us are guilty of at one time or another. There are the select few of us who may practice information cramming on a regular basis as a student and score respectively in exams. But the question is – did you really get an education? Covey, on his audio programme, admits that he was guilty of this bad habit and whilst he obtained his undergraduate degree, spent many years re-learning much of the content.

The third is a common practice that is exhibited by many people desperate to lose weight. Quick and easy weight loss is highly desirable relative to slow, sustainable, safe, effective and planned weight loss. After all – it’s the result that you’re after right?

Well, think about the desired result in detail. Do you wish to achieve your particular health and fitness goal temporarily and then return back to your normal state? If so, short-term approaches (fad diets, skipping meals, heavy reliance on a particular supplement or other unhealthy practices) could be the answer.

But, if your goal is to accomplish this weight loss, muscle gain, or other health and fitness goal permanently, then a long-term approach must, and I repeat MUST be taken. You do need to invest the time and effort into yourself in order to develop new lifestyle habits that can be continued indefinitely.

Initially, a long-term approach to weight loss or other goal may seem expensive and require too much effort. However the irony is that short-term, “quick-fix”, “band-aid” and “fad” approaches are undoubtedly the number one cause of wasted time and money in the health and fitness industry. This is  because they are only temporary measures, without treating the actual core issue at hand. Invest into yourself and you will reap the rewards in the long-term.

For further reading on this topic, I recommend you read my article entitled “How to Lose Weight“.

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Ego’s in the Weights Room

It should come as no surprise to anyone that has ever weight trained regularly in a commercial gym – there are plenty of ego’s about. It’s as if some people go into the gym just to brag to the rest of the world how great they are. Seriously! I am so over the egocentric, obnoxious and frankly “pain in the ass” people that have such little self esteem that they need so much validation from others by being the school equivalent of the “class clown”!

I have trained at a gym where this one guy would walk in and just had to be the centre of attention. Apart from critiquing everyone else’s workout within the gym, he was the first to announce his latest personal best lift to the rest of the weights room. This particular person would also grunt obnoxiously and throw the weights around (literally throw them!). I remember once he was performing standing barbell shoulder presses and dropped the barbell from head height! C’mon now…seriously!

The thing is, nobody liked this guy (can you believe it?) and I believe that the gym received so many complaints that he finally got booted out, much to everyone’s delight.

That’s my little rant done!

There is one particular issue that I do want to touch on from both my own personal experiences, and that which I have observed in my years of training. It is probably most prevalent in young males.  Whilst I have no data to back this up, this is based on my experience alone. It’s the “lift as much weight as possible” mentality, often either as a an ignorant approach to training, or a social response to impress others and boost the ego. Whilst it’s often a combination of the two, I’m going to focus on the latter.

Many of us are guilty of this approach training and I know I sure was when I first started training. Rather than focussing on technique, control and safety, it was far more impressive to sacrifice a little form just to lift an additional 10kg of weight.

One thing that I really try to emphasise with my personal training clients is that execution is the most important thing to your training. Just because you “can” lift more weight doesn’t mean that you should. Personally speaking, sure, I could double the amount of weight that I am curling on bicep curls – but I would have to swing my back, move my upper arm excessively and utilise my legs to assist in the lifts. But what’s the point when by doing this you:

• Significantly increase the risk of injury
• Take the load off the bicep and utilise other muscles
• Reduce the overall effectiveness of the exercise

Upon considering these disadvantages, here are the only advantages that I can conceive:

• Boost your ego by lifting double the weight you could otherwise lift
• Not being aware of the heightened risk of injury and decreased effectiveness

Think about that for a minute. I’m assuming that you probably train for a reason – to get results. Then why would you bother taking unnecessary risk and decreasing the effectiveness of your workout just to impress others?

Here’s something that should be written on gym walls:

The amount of weight you lift is not a function of your masculinity.

Nowadays, I lift similar weights to that of a few years ago. But (and this is a big but), my technique has improved phenomenally. It comes as no surprise that my results are better and injury incidence is lowered.

I do see plenty of people who seem to have very little training experience lifting ridiculous amounts of weight; far more that what I am lifting at present. I think it’s silly, but at the same time I can empathise with their mindet because I was once doing exactly the same thing. You live and learn.

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Does Alcohol Contain Calories to Prevent Weight Loss?

When seeking to lose weight, a really common point of confusion is whether or not alcohol contains calories. Is alcohol consumption going to inhibit your weight loss progress?

You may have heard that beer and wine contain excess carbohydrates (which they do)…but what about the alcohol content? What about a mixed drink? What about a shot of vodka?

Well the answer is, yes, alcohol does contain calories. A lot in fact. Here’s a comparison of how dense alcohol is in calories relative to carbohydrate, protein and fat:

• Carbohydrate: 4 calories per gram
• Protein: 4 calories per gram
• Fat: 9 calories per gram
• Alcohol: 7 calories per gram

So in effect, alcohol is nearly double the caloric density of carbohydrate and protein…almost equivalent to that of fat! When it comes to weight loss (which is a function of consuming less calories than what you expend), alcohol is a very significant inhibitor to the realisation of this goal.

You may have heard that certain drinks are better or worse for you to consume if you are losing weight, due to varying calorie densities. Whilst the alcohol itself is quite dense in calories, often the carbohydrate and fat content can be significantly heightened from additives in your cocktail. For example, the addition of soft drink, juice, cream or cordial will significantly increase the total calories in your drink. Here are a few actual examples of how many calories are contained within each alcoholic drink:

• 1 glass of red wine = 69.4 cal
• 1 schooner of beer = 155.5 cal
• 1 shot of vodka = 60.8 cal
• 1 corkscrew (vodka orange, short tumbler) = 134.1 cal
• 1 tequila sunrise = 173.8 cal
• 1 vodka cruiser = 176 cal
• 1 Baileys/Kahlua/Frangelico & cream based cocktail = 931 cal

To put these numbers into perspective, a schooner of beer is similar to two slices of bread. A schooner of beer and a glass of red wine is a sandwich with a generous portion of meat and plenty of salad. Just one creamy cocktail is about 4-5 sandwiches worth!

But don’t be fooled – there are many more high-quality nutrients contained within a meat and salad wholegrain sandwich as compared to two drinks! Your body can actually use these nutrients effectively, whereas the majority of calories contained within the beer and wine will be “empty” calories.

These figures from above were pulled off our food nutritional information database and you can search up all other types of alcoholic drinks here to compare.

If you are drinking, ensure that you drink sparingly. I often suggest to my personal training clients that they enjoy a few drinks every now and then, but in conjunction with a well balanced nutritional intake. It is important to recognise that whilst alcoholic drinks are extremely dense in calories and will inhibit weight loss, you also need to consider your general lifestyle (including the social aspects to your life) when seeking to lose weight.

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Judging Overweight or Obese People

Probably the saddest part about the weight loss industry is the fact that overweight or obese people, who are unhappy with their body shape,  are humiliated and laughed at just because of their size. It’s an unfortunate truth of this world which is largely due to ignorance.

For a person of normal stature, it can be so difficult to understand how someone could get to such a large size in the first place. I mean, eating healthy and exercising seems pretty easy right?

I was in a discussion with a friend of mine who was speaking to me about the personal training industry. He asked me “How on Earth could you gain 50+kg without realising it? It’s not like you just wake up one day and are obese.”

It’s true – you don’t wake up one day and find yourself overweight. But what many people don’t understand is that there are often other issues that can affect one’s body-shape apart from just “being lazy”.

Sometimes it may be medically related. There many medical conditions that can inhibit weight loss – even in those who eat a relatively healthy diet and exercise regularly!

Other times, it may be psychologically orientated, which may be related to life experience, lack of self worth or self esteem, depression and so on. Food is often used as a means to self medicate because eating in excess, in the moment, can feel really, really good.

Even though I have written countless articles on how to lose weight through exercise and nutrition, it is so important to understand that for many people that struggle with their weight, it is not just about developing healthy eating habits and exercising regularly. Looking at weight loss from such a superficial point of view does not explain why many people are grossly overweight.

One of the things that the personal training industry has taught me is that everyone is completely different. You cannot look at a group of obese people and apply a blanket statement to every single one of them like “they are lazy” and that they should just “stop feeling sorry for themselves and get over it”. When you sit down and talk to someone, you often find out that there is far more to it than the obvious “exercise and diet”.

Over three years ago, I wrote an article entitled “My Transformation – Exercise and Diet Just Isn’t Enough“. I was never obese, but I was certainly overweight. In that article, I briefly touch on my personal experiences and what was going on behind the scenes.

Everyone is different and what I experienced will probably be completely different to the next person. My goal in writing this very brief article is to try to encourage compassion and understanding, whilst pointing out that nutrition and exercise does not always explain every piece to the puzzle.

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Do Fad Diets Work to Lose Weight?

After seeing countless advertisements and news reports on the latest fad product (many of which I have written about in the past), I was so glad to hear a news bulletin today stating that the Federal Government’s Health Task-force is introducing much stricter guidelines that weight loss products must adhere to. This came about after the government found no credible proof that fad dieting is viable. This notion has been backed by the Dietitians Association of Australia, and certainly by us at Amino Z.

My thoughts on the matter - it’s about time!

I’m not entirely sure what the new guidelines are just yet, but with so many bogus products currently on the market, it’s no wonder that so much time and money is wasted on products that promise the world and often deliver very little.

Fad diets do not work – period. Some people may be successful in losing weight following a fad diet, however this is due to changed lifestyle habits and not the fad diet itself. The fad diet can sometimes be responsible for a shift in one’s attitude and act as a cornerstone in developing a new long-term approach to weight loss. Fad diets, in themselves, are short-term, quick-fixes that have no long-term viability.

Nearly three years ago, I wrote one of our most popular articles, “Fad Diet, Fad Result“. After having published this article, I followed it up with a more objective take on the subject with “Yo-Yo Dieting, No-No Dieting“. Both cover exactly the same topics, because fad dieting is what paves the way to yo-yo dieting.

Fad dieting will not deliver desirable long-term results. The reason is because in reality, such diets cannot be adhered to on a long-term basis. For example, I am yet to meet anyone who is able to live happily and consistently off one whole-food meal a day and two protein shakes for more than a year. In theory, they sound great, but in the real world, they are just not viable.

As a result of following such an approach as advocated by many extremely unhealthy fad diets currently available within Australia, this can cause muscle loss and a lowering in your metabolic rate. The reduction in your metabolic rate effectively means that you process less calories per day – making it much easier to gain the weight back on. In some circumstances, you can actually begin to break down organ tissues, which can cause permanent long-term damage. In addition to all of this, there are a plethora of other health risks that you run when continually following diets of this nature.

It is no wonder that people who go from one fad diet to the next (commonly known as yo-yo dieting) gain more weight than what they lose. Initially, they may lose a significant degree of body-weight quickly (which can be extremely unhealthy in itself), but upon coming off that fad diet and re-initiating old lifestyle habits, the body-fat will inevitably pile back on. Unfortunately, this results in two of the most common frustrations of dieters:

• Lost Money
• Wasted Effort

As a professional in the industry, I can completely understand that fad diets can be very tempting, especially when you feel that you have exhausted all other options. It can be so tough when you feel like a failure. But you have to understand that the healthiest, most sustainable and viable approach is to redevelop your lifestyle.

If you feel completely lost and overwhelmed, here is a good place to start, How to Lose Weight.

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How Much Exercise Should I Do?

Exercise can be your friend or foe, depending upon how well it has been structured to suit your goals.

Before we proceed with this discussion, it is important to dispel a common myth that plagues the industry, resulting in many people obtaining substantial results for their level of effort invested:

More exercise is not necessarily better

That’s right – you can do too much exercise. You can do so much exercise to the point where you are actually doing more harm than good!

Let’s consider two common of the most common goals and understand why more exercise can significantly inhibit your progress.

Lose Weight

Losing weight seems simple on the surface – just create a calorie deficit by performing exercise and restricting your calorie intake. But, when you delve deeper, you will realise that too much exercise can inhibit weight loss.

Building Muscle

If you want to build muscle, just lift more weights…right? Not necessarily. By performing too much weight training, you can actually stop, or reverse the muscle building processes.

So, why is too much exercise an issue for weight loss and muscle gain? Recovery.

Exercise, a form of physical stress, runs your body down. In a controlled manner, exercise is great. It requires energy to perform the bout of exercise and it also requires energy to recover from all that stress that you have placed on your body.

Too much exercise can inhibit your body’s ability to recover. You may feel run down, moody, ill, depressed, restless at night or not hungry. If you exercise far too much, you could actually place a significant strain on many of your organs and potentially cause long-term damage. This is what is known as “overtraining”, a condition that results from your body being unable to recover in between bouts of exercise.

So, how much exercise should I do?

Having covered the myth of exercising more, when it comes to the amount of exercise that you should do, this is a very, very broad question. You need to consider various aspects including:

• Your lifestyle and commitments
• Your level of commitment
• The time you have available
• What you feel would be realistic (not just ideal)
• Your goals
• Your body and it’s ability to cope

Most of these you can do on your own. Whilst it would be greatly advantageous for you to hire a personal trainer, to determine the best approach for you as an individual, here are some basic guidelines purely from a results point of view (note, they are very generalised for general fitness and may not suit your goals specifically):

1. Have at least one day of rest from any intense exercise each week (more if you are relatively unfit)
2. Do not perform more than one workout a day if you have never exercised regularly recently
3. If you begin to feel run down, decrease the training load
4. If you are not seeing positive results over a number of weeks, consider increasing or decreasing the amount of exercise you are performing
5. Aim to perform a minimum of three exercise sessions a week

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