Tom Daley & Clear Goals

Watching Tom Daley on the Jonathan Ross Show last week highlighted the importance of clarifying your goals.

With his Olympic bronze medal in hand he told of a conversation he had with his father when he was nine. 

At the time London had been put forward to host the Olympics in 2012 but hadn’t won the bid yet. Tom’s father who I gather from the interview was his coach told Tom if the Olympics were in London and he trained hard he could be there participating too.

With this thought in mind at nine years old Tom Daley drew this picture in his diary under the title My Ambition.

My point is having a clear and specific goal means you are much more likely to achieve it.

Furthermore research states by writing it down you are far more likely to succeed. 

Even better still by taking the time to draw a picture you can add further clarity and create a clearer vision of your goal. 

By engaging in the process this way you can make your ambition a reality. 

How To Get Six-Pack Abs Like Jessica Ennis

Mwahahhahahahhahahhaha...

Last week I unveiled my herculean efforts in the six-pack challenge. I was proud of the transition I made in a relatively short period of time, but the truth of the matter is I’m a personal trainer with years of experience and knowledge. I should be able to get myself in shape quickly - it’s what I do!

The real test of what I do is in the regular everyday person I help day-to-day. These people are often short on time, suffer with motivation, have less skills and abilities in the gym, often have an area of weakness/ tightness or muscular imbalance, have a limited amount of money to spend on stuff like personal trainers and are as a general rule derive slightly less enjoyment from exercise than I do.

Therefore for me to help not just one person to get a six-pack in six weeks, BUT TWO (please note the use of caps lock, bold and underlined for BIG EMPHASIS!) is perhaps the most satisfying social proof of the training plans and nutritional advice my clients are using and how I’m coaching them (I'm clearly taking full credit... Ha!).

The truth of the matter is I’ve been working with Franco for nearly six months now but from where he started and the results he’s got in this time are truly amazing.

This is a guy with a full-time sedentary job and various life commitments but with a strong motivation and very clear goal. Impressive.

However, when Claire asked me if she could join the competition I was excited. Claire is 41 and a mother of two and has been coming to my bootcamp three-times a week for over a year now. She has followed several of my internet-based fat loss plans but had never trained in the gym.

To get six-pack abs you need to consider three different aspects - posture, body composition (body fat!) and muscle tone. I wrote a blog on this a few months ago. Check it out here.

People Are Different

Both Franco and Claire needed slightly different requirements to achieve their goal. Franco had been training in the gym for a few years using big lifts such as squats, deadlifts, bench presses and pull ups. He needed coaching to work on his technique and we needed to do a bit of stretching and mobility work to improve his posture, but in general he had good muscle tone. Of most importance he needed to burn fat (and lots of it!) to see his abs.

On the other hand Claire had a relatively low body fat percentage (unusual for most of my clients - although still needed to do a bit more to bring out her abs) but priority for her was more structural/ postural work and coaching in the gym to achieve her goal. We also needed to get her doing the correct exercises at the correct intensity - i.e. We needed to improve her posture and muscle tone.

Improving Muscle Tone

For both we used the combination of heavy strength training combined with intense metabolic bodyweight workouts. Claire’s plan involved more control drills to improve posture and core strength whilst Franco had slightly more stretching to do to allow him to hold better posture.

With Claire and Franco I used big lifts to stimulate maximum metabolic disruption. These included squats, lunges, deadlifts, bench presses and rows (or pulling exercises). These are important on any plan to stimulate fat loss and improve muscle tone. 

Ab Work

You might be surprised to know I didn’t use too much ab work with either Franco or Claire. If you exercise correctly you should use your stomach muscles with the big lifts. Ab exercises don’t require much energy to do and therefore don’t burn much fat. That said we did do a couple of exercises at the end of each session because once we got down to our target body fat we need the muscle tone to get them to show.

What To Eat

If you regularly tune into my blog you’ll know the importance I place on the food you eat. The truth is abs are made in the kitchen and both Claire and Franco followed my diet plans.Again, there were subtle differences in these plans. 

Franco had to follow a slightly stricter plan because he seems to have a higher propensity to store fat than Claire. However, both were fantastic in adhering to the plans and like all my plans the goal is to make them as healthy as possible because a healthy body doesn’t store fat.

With nutrition the emphasis was on eating whole unprocessed food. We reduced (not eliminated) the energy dense starchy and sugary carbohydrates and even though we didn’t count calories we needed to reduce calories and be at an energy deficit to get the results. The balance between exercise and diet is crucial.

Rest, Recovery & Regeneration

To speed up results during a plan like this its important to consider rest, recovery and regeneration because with the accumulation of hard workouts it could be easy to burn out. Therefore I made sure Franco and Claire got to bed by 10:30pm each night, monitored stress and took time to relax during the day even if it was for just 5 minutes!

Fat Loss Supplements... NOT!

I do advocate supplementation to support this type of goal, but the key with this is to support health and none of my recommendations ‘speed up’ fat loss. You can find out what I recommended here.

Note: Most of the supplements to speed up fat loss are BS and are unhealthy.

Note2: If you overlook any of the above it is pointless supplementing.

THE RESULTS!!!!!

Check them out...

I think they both did brilliantly!

This is an extremely challenging goal and I’m really proud of their efforts. 

I thought it was also worth noting where Franco's come from to arrive at where he is. Epic, right?!

If you want to stay tuned on any of my blogs or have any positive and supportive comments venture over to my Facebook wall or follow me on Twitter @SteveKeywoodPT

The Six Pack Challenge: My Final Photos

In the last six weeks I have been taking part in a six pack challenge.

Whilst from the outside this shameful display of vanity might seem to be just a shameful display of vanity, I can tell you it is actually a little more. You see, my working principle is to practice what I preach and whilst I swan off around the world competing in ultra distance races, ironman and other adventure races, the majority of my clients quite simply just want to look better naked, therefore I feel it only practice and refine my skills in this area on myself.

By this I mean, I’m sure they want to feel better in themselves, they enjoy the challenge of getting fit and the rush of endorphins that come with it, they understand the health benefits and realise by doing a bit of fitness and eating better we can prolong the dribbly bit at the end of our life, but to be quite honest (and I might be wrong...) I’m sure many of them would forgo all that just to look smoking hot in a bikini (even the guys...).

This might seem fickle, but in truth it’s more important than you think. Whilst some people in life are busy demonising certain people for wanting to look good, criticizing pictures of good looking people and vilifying celebrities for daring to look good, looking good is in fact central to the way we think and feel about ourselves, our confidence and self-esteem. 

My point being it’s not a problem to want to look good naked. 

And more to the point, if you do it properly its pretty damn healthy too!

Anywho...

I guess the other aspect of this which was fundamental to me was I wanted a little nudge to get back in the gym. When we started this challenge six-weeks ago I had just finished my 69-mile ultra distance race from Carlisle to Newcastle and I hadn’t used a barbell or a dumbbell for a couple of months. With the rules stating I needed to put before and after pictures on Facebook this was enough to encourage me eating healthily and train hard (so you’d think...)

It’s fair to say I had a couple of reservations doing this challenge, my main concern was over the last year or two by doing big ultra endurance races I’d lost much of my muscle mass (think skinny runner...) and felt a six pack on a skinny guy just wasn’t cricket (a muscular person with a six-pack is far more respectable in my opinion), but the tables dramatically turned when a couple of my clients expressed an interest in doing it. I clearly couldn’t let them enter the competition without me, could I?!

It was a bit of a shock to the system to be back in the gym. And it’s not like I eased myself back in gradually either. With just six weeks, I needed to get moving. I pretty much followed the same exercise and nutrition plans my clients use with one slightly critical difference. From about three weeks, once I felt my body was in better balance, I tried using an intermittent fasting protocol called The Lean Gains Method.

This involved periods of feasting and fasting combined with my usual heavy resistance training and bodyweight workouts and sprints to stimulate slightly quicker results. 

I have to say I found it difficult. Perhaps looking good naked isn’t as important as I think? Perhaps it was too much too soon after coming off a challenging training plan for my ultra? Perhaps I needed to be more organised for the fasting and feeding phases of the diet plan I was using? 

Either way here it is...

Before

After 

You will notice somewhat tragically something is slightly abs-ent! Yes, I fell a little shy of my goal, but thats fine with me. I’m down to about 7% body fat which is pretty lean and you can expect to see definition in your abs at about 9% for a guy (its about 13% for a girl). I think I’d probably need to lose another 1% or 2% to get them to show.

I do actually feel great for being back in the gym and I’m keen to carry on too.

What’s next? I’m looking forward to hanging out with EJ & William and enjoying a bit cake and a latte at my new favorite coffee shop in St Johns. I will carry on training but with an emphasis on gaining strength and muscle, but not too much. I’ve signed up for Ironman Lanzarote next year and so will need to dust off my bike and find my goggles and so I’ll be back in training soon.

Do YOU Want Olympic Fitness?

I don’t know about you but I’ve been well and truly wrapped up in the whole olympic spirit. Watching the trials and tribulations of the competitors has been fascinating. It got me thinking what can your everyday fat loss and fitness consumer learn from the olympics...

Marginal Gains - The head of British Cycling Dave Brailsford is renowned for what he calls marginal gains. When he took over as chief he started to look at every aspect of elite cycling to see where they could improve. The concept of marginal gains can be applied to your fitness and fat loss journey. It’s often not the big decisions people get wrong it’s the small ones day to day. By stoping the little things like picking at your childrens leftovers, indulging in that extra biscuit or pushing yourself just that little bit harder in the gym you will be on a sure path to success.

T-CUP - Ok, he’s not really an olympic coach, but Clive Woodward, the England world cup winning coach coined the phrase T-CUP. It means Thinking Clearly Under Pressure. He used it so that when the England team were defending their try line or attacking the other team they made better decisions. This has an easy carry over to the fat loss and fitness client when it comes to peer pressure. We’ve all got the friend who says ‘oh go on, one more won’t hurt...’ Whether its a biscuit or a beer if you think clearly under this type of pressure and just say no, you will be running faster, jumping higher and feeling stronger.

One-Love Jamaica - Watching Usain Bolt perform is a marvel. What seems even more exciting is watching him enjoying himself in front of the camera. He’s talking to games makers, waving to the crowd, pulling funny faces... He is so endearing. At the heart of this is his positive attitude. I’m pretty sure behind the scenes he’s working his tail off in training to arrive at the start line in great shape. Therefore this must give him confidence when he’s in front of the camera. What’s the carry over? By working hard day to day in the gym and having a positive attitude you will look, feel and perform better. 

The Power of Intermittent Fasting

If tonight you get bored with the olympics you will be able to feast your eyes on something different.

Michael Mosley will be leading the charge on another ‘health’ documentary this time about intermittent fasting.

By all accounts I think this one appeals to him and so gets a favorable thumbs up, but given his other slightly dubious ‘scientific’ documentaries I’m intrigued with how it’s done.

I am in favour of intermittent fasting and over the last year or so have found it to be a popular and successful method of accelerating weight loss/ fat loss and improving the health and fitness of my clients, but like all these things when they hit the mainstream and become sensationalized by a journalist in this fashion you see them develop a life of there own.

It’s not that I don’t respect Michael Mosley’s work, and I’ve yet to see the documentary,  but in his previous shows he has painted a rather ignorant picture of what it is to be healthy and fit.

For example following his set point theory of fitness I was inundated by overweight clients with concerns over whether they would ever be fit. Following his brief endeavor into fat loss he used a tabatta protocal and claimed he only needed 4-minutes exercise a week and I fielded questions on the duration of exercise.

I realise Michael Mosley is a qualified doctor but the way he draws attention to his show and the manner in which the information is often depicted is more likened to a journalist. And not one from a broadsheet. 

I accept being on television he needs to attract viewers but my concern is he is humming a popular tune. Don’t like exercise? Only do four-minutes a week. This slightly overlooks the fact you sit at a desk all day and eat cake. You’re unfit? It’s just the way you are. We all have genetics to contend with. Just like Mo Farah can run a fast 10k, I’m pretty sure if he wasn’t running so fast he wouldn’t be head of the Bank of England. None of us picked our parents! Some of us are genetically gifted, others have to work a bit harder.

Tonight he will say something predictable like ‘stop eating to lose weight and improve health’. And whilst I like intermittent fasting, I feel this will be another popular message and will be arming more overly informed and underactive people with more contradictory and confusing ideas.

My point is this. Despite having access to more information than ever before, our country is in a state of woeful health. The majority of people I see are fat and undernourished. This means they eat too much and yet still lack vital nutrients. To tell them to stop eating on certain days or for periods of the day will only exacerbate this. They will still be undernourished.

Again, I like fasting and don’t doubt the benefits. I wrote this post about it a while back and have seen vast improvements in the health and body composition with myself and my clients. But, please don’t take the information of tonights show at face value.

Intermittent fasting is neither new nor revolutionary, but it can be part of a healthy lifestyle. Perhaps before you give it a whirl you should try eating five portions of vegetables a day and exercising regularly then you might experience the full benefits ...Just a wacky idea?!

If you want to discuss this further head over to my Facebook Page or follow me on Twitter @SteveKeywoodPT.

If you still want to give Intermittent Fasting a go or for more information on Intermittent Fasting I think you should look at the following three sites... Precision Nutrition, Eat Stop Eat and Lean Gains.