Get a beach body and eat pizza!

I'm less than a week into 'beach mode' and I'm already getting bored with the bland food. So I'm experimenting with different foods all the time. Check out this carb-less pizza, everyone loves pizza right?

How to make the pizza...

Cook one chicken breast
Blend the chicken breast in a blender or mash it up with a meat cleaver.
Create the pizza base with the blended chicken
Add toppings of your choice. I used tomato purree, mozzarella cheese, mushrooms and red pepper
Season with mixed herbs
Bake in the oven for a further 10-20 mins
Enjoy....

The superhero vitamin

Vit D is synthesised in the body in response to sun exposure or it can be obtained from food/supplement form. Chances are though your not getting enough sun exposure to create optimum amounts of Vit D (especially if you live in the uk). So it might be worth investing in a supplement. Look for 'vitamin D3' as its superior to its standard vitamin D counterpart. For a long time vitamin D was simply looked at as a bone health vitamin, but studies have shown its benefits branch out more. Much, much more....


Muscle strength 

Lean body mass

Blood sugar regulation

Insulin resistance

Muscle power 

Male and female reproductive health

Cardiovascular health

Fat loss

Immune function

Prevention of obesity 

Treatment of hypertension (high blood pressure)

Kidney health

Bone strength and density 

Acts as an anti-depressant 

Maternal health


Remember, there's 3 ways you can get your vitamin D levels up 

1. Sunshine
2. Vitamin D3 supplement
3. Eat foods high in Vit D such as cod liver oil, fish, oysters, caviar, eggs, mushrooms. 

Hands down, there's no other vitamin or supplement that gives you more 'bang for your buck' than what vitamin D does. It's not only essential for your health and fitness goals, but essential for life! 

How to get a body like Candice Swanepoel

In the gym, in a bar, at a party, it doesn't matter where I may be, as soon as a I tell a girl I'm a personal trainer you can pretty much guarantee they reel of a pre-prepared speech of questions like...

(Takes deep breath)

"How can I tone the insides of my legs and loose fat from my tummy and shape the back of my arms and develop a really nice bum and make my legs look longer and tighten up my abdominal muscles and lose fat off my back?"

(Looks and me with excited eyes and a big smile)

At first I don't normally give a direct answer, I usually want to find out what their currently doing and why it's not working for them. They're responses usually always involve:

Cardio (lots of it)
Bicep curls (with weights equivalent of a baked bean tin)
Crunches
Zumba class

Sound familiar? It's great, your doing some exercise, but it will only get you so far! Obviously diet plays a huge roll in getting that Candice Swanepoel figure, its also worth noting that you are tied to your genetic limitations when it comes to sculpting your perfect body. Your bone structure will always be the same, your height will always be the same etc. Candice has a slim, lean, muscular body, defined abs and definition in her arms,legs and shoulders. She looks strong yet sexy and feminine. In other terms - Perfect!

Here's 5 things you should be doing in the gym to achieve a similar look:

Sprint intervals
Sprint training is a great fat burning and metabolism revving tool. You can get more work done in a shorter period of time and its more exciting than a 30 minute jog. Check out this blog post for more info on sprint training http://fitinfivehundredwords.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/sprints-for-win.html

Focus on money exercises
What are money exercises? These are the ones that give you the most bang for your buck aka compound exercises. Compound exercises use more than one muscle group, burn plenty of calories and rev your metabolism. Examples are - squat, chest press, lunge, romanian deadlift, kettlebell swings and burpees.

Shorter rest periods between sets
Because females generally have less overall muscle than males they are generally weaker. This means they can recover faster between sets. The effort can usually be repeated in as little as 30 seconds. A faster paced workout will also burn more calories...bonus!

Lift heavier
The ideal rep range for females is 8-15, so pick a load that is ideal for that amount of repetitions. You need to challenge yourself and give your body stimulus to change. Baked bean tin bicep curls ain't going to cut it! High reps (20+) do not help burn fat or improve definition, lifting heavy will burn far more calories and keep your metabolism revved for hours after your workout.

Keep sessions short an intense
An ideal workout should be quick and intense. The ideal time is 45-60 minutes, not 3 hours of nonsense. Long workouts will either put you in so much of a calorie deficit you look fatigued, thin and wiry or the exact opposite and raise your cortisol levels up which will hold fat around your middle. Neither one of them is the look we're going for.

5 of my favourite things in the fitness industry

I want to start by saying I wouldn't reccomend/promote a product or brand if I didn't truly believe in it. If I reccomend it you can guarantee I've taken it, worn it or used it over and over again. There are hundreds of thousands of different brands out there in the fitness industry and it continues to grow. Currently these are some of my favourites....

Vascular wear 

Exploding onto the scene just last year, vascular wear have taken the gym clothing industry by storm. They offer a wide range of comfy, professional, clean-looking and fashionable designs from vests to joggers to shorts to hoodys. I can always be seen in the gym training with my vascular wear clothes on!

Check out their products here www.vascularwear.com and to receive an exclusive 10% DISCOUNT off all products use code AARONB10 at the checkout.

Myprotein

I've been using myprotein products for over a year now. The thing I love about myprotein is you get exactly what they say on the tin without all the BS! You can buy products in bulk for a very reasonable price and mix and match to create your own shakes. For example you could add glutamine and dextrose to your whey for a great post-workout shake. 

For an example of how I'd stack myprotein products for lean muscle, power and strength, check out a previous blog post here http://fitinfivehundredwords.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/becoming-bolt-supplements.html

TRX

I love the trx! Such a great tool for utilising your own bodyweight as resistance. The great thing about them is they can be easily transported and used pretty much anywhere! They're a regular part of my sessions and my clients' alike.

Fatgripz

Thick grip training will activate more muscle. I've used them on nearly every exercise in the past and as a result my forearms got bigger and my grip strength flew up! Definitely worth the investment.

Bobble water bottles

I feel much more focused and revitalised from drinking bottled or filtered water as opposed to tap water. Buying bottled water can be expensive especially if your drinking 3L+ a day, and carrying a big britta water filter around with you is impractical. A simple solution - the bobble water bottle. It's got a mini filter built in which you can replace every 2 months.



There are many other products and brands that are a massive part of my everyday life, but unfortunately I can't discuss them all! Maybe I'll save them for another post...  

The power of visualisation

2 weeks ago I was on a beach in Australia, 2 days ago I was in the Amazon rainforest.....

If only! But recently I have started using the power of visualisation to instantly feel chilled out from a hard days work and intense training sessions. 

Working long hours or going through a stressful time at home or work will stress your body out. This in turn will raise your levels of the hormone cortisol. This is bad news, and will effect your ability to train, lose fat and build muscle. One simple way to combat this is to use your imagination to visualise a scene in such detail it actually effects your mood and outlook. The subconscious can't differentiate between what is perceived and what is real. Therefor if you can imagine something so vividly the body will react as if its actually experiencing it. Creative visualisation will help you de-stress, ease anxiety and lower blood pressure. 15 mins in this deeply relaxed state could equate up to the equivalent of an hours sleep!

Follow the steps below and in 15 mins you'll feel so much better! Believe me...

- close your eyes and take deep breaths, imagine your in beautiful surroundings. It could be a holiday you've been on in the past, or you can conjure up something from your imagination. 

- use your senses of sight, sound, taste and smell, put yourself in the scene and and allow it to come to life. Revel in the colours, smells and sounds. I found a great iPhone app called 'nature sound'. It contains many sound samples of different scenes such as the beach or a tropical rainforest. So by playing them with your headphones on, your able to block the rest of the world out and make the scene more realistic. 

- stay in the scene for as long as possible, soaking up all the details. Then slowly bring yourself back into the room. 

- try this technique 1-2 times a week or whenever you feel stressed to help recover from exercise and everyday life.

Skinny leg cures

Any 6ft tall guy with a 32 inch waist weighing between 70-75KG is going to have an obvious weakness. Usually it's the legs! You train hard, and you do develop, but you end up looking top heavy and your middle name should be 'johnny bravo'. Sound familiar? I found myself straying towards this body shape. Until I put an end to it and started incorporating each of the techniques below into my routine. I've found these to be the best skinny leg cures. My skinny jeans began to feel tight around the thighs and my physique started to look much more in proportion. Arnold Schwarzenegger said "I accepted the fact that leg workouts simply have to be brutal to be effective". If you haven't accepted this fact then don't even bother trying any of the below... 


Heavy front squats 

Heavy front squats really thickened my quads up. Because of my height, my stature isn't suited to the back squat, so I much prefer these for heavy reps.

Power cleans from hang 

These developed strength, power and size in all areas of my lower body. I usually do 6-8 sets of 2-3 reps. Olympic style lifts such as this torch your fast twitch muscles fibres. These are the ones with most potential for growth. 

Prowler sprints and sled work

My legs responded really well to eccentric-less training. They're great for hitting the fast twitch fibres and as an added bonus they're great fat loss tools 

High volume work

Your legs hold your bodyweight up all day, so you can imagine they're very big, strong muscles and it takes a lot to tear them down! You need to push the volume up on your leg workouts if you really want to see results. Try GVT (10 sets of 10). Or if you really want push the envelope try this quads workout for 3 weeks consecutivley. I did and saw some great results. 

Front squats 10 x 6
(Superset)
Back squats 10 x 8

Signalling

Signalling is a technique that involves sending signals to your body pointing it in the direction you want it to go in. Actor Tom hardy says he has used it for a few film roles. I like to use it for my calves. Now I know it's not very practical for most to do this, but I work in a gym so I can. All I do is pick a day and aim to do 500 reps for my calves. I usually do calf press. Every 1-2 hours I would just do another 50-100 reps. It goes back to my previous point on high volume training. 

5 reasons everyone should weight train

Your mum, dad, nan, grandad, best freinds cousin, sister, girlfriend, boyfriend, favourite superhero, neighbour should all do some resistance training. Even you should! Regardless of your goal, weight training should have some place in your workout routine. Here's 5 reasons why, and believe me I'm only just touching the surface here...


Weights dramatically change your body composition...
Training with weights has the incredible power to help you increase muscle, lose body fat, even do both at the same time! So whatever your goal you can use weights to sculpt your perfect body.

More muscle means more calories burnt at rest...
Muscle tissue is metabolically active, meaning the more you have, the more calories you will burn just to maintain that tissue. Increase your metabolic rate you'll torch through calories just by being you. Great for fat loss.

Take advantage of the afterburner effect...
Weight training is great because it creates this after burn effect. Basically your going to carry on burning calories for hours after your resistance workout because the muscles have to repair themselves and this burns calories. 

Heavy weights builds bone density... 
If you have stronger bones you'll be less likely to get injured. As you get older bone mass starts to degrade, however you can reverse this easily by incorporating some resistance training into your routine.

Weight training enhances the central nervous system...
If you have an improved cns you'll have faster reactions. This crosses over into hundreds of daily tasks and situations. For example, just dropped your keys over a drain? No worries you'll be able to react lightening quick and grab them before the even hit the drain. Some fool just took swing for you in a nightclub? No problem, you'll easily be able to squat down and dodge it. And hell, with the strength you develop, maybe even lamp them one back if they deserve it.

Weight training should not be overlooked. Period