Monday, August 31, 2009

How to Measure Volume & Intensity in the Gym...

We are all sold the latest "gimmicks" on how to measure your 'intensity' of training, but what about something that costs NOTHING!!!!....

Listen into Wammo and I from Kiwifm.co.nz to see what the BEST way to measure intensity and volume in the gym is!
Spida Hunter: Volume & Intensity

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Friday, August 14, 2009

Kiwi FM Podcast - Voices in your head

We all have them, you know the one. "Good" Spida vs "Bad" Spida....let the games begin 'good' vs 'bad' and what to do about it!


Spida Hunter: Voices in your head

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Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Protein Powders...too much confusion.....

In the fitness industry we seem to always have 2 ends to the spectrum on many different topics and Supplements (in this case Whey Protein) is defiantly one that causes many debates, blinded myths and followings at both ends of the spectrum of "good" for you or "bad" for you!!

Today I wanted to share with you Why I think Protein Powder is useful in your;
  • Fat loss
  • Fitness
  • Recovery
  • Nutrition
  • Strength,
  • Muscle Building
  • Sports Performance Goals....
  • YES, Protein Powder cover that much when "supplementing" with "common sense"!!
Here's the Top 5 Reasons, I get clients to take Whey Protein Powder;
  1. Aids in immediate Recovery to the muscles when taking directly after training! If your goal is to have less body fat then have it with H20, if your goal is more muscle mass have it with Gatorade or orange juice (carbs).
  2. Meal Replacement: This means, if part of your nutrition plan is to have 4-6 meals per day to help with body fat reduction, energy, recovery, stabilizing blood sugar levels etc... whey protein powder is a great SUPPLEMENTATION for 1 of your meals!!
  3. Proteins are organic molecules made up of amino acids – the building blocks of life!
  4. Our bodies need proteins and amino acids to produce important molecules in our body – like enzymes, hormones, neurotransmitters, and antibodies – without an adequate protein intake, our bodies can’t function optimally!
  5. Great Easy Option: This is often taken to the extreme with men and they live on Whey Protein Powders 4x or more a day and call it a balanced "meal"! Yeah right, look it's a great alternative when you are in a "jam" for time or lazy, however don't fool yourself to say it's gods answer to 6 pack abs my male friends!!
Alot of health guru's want to argue that there are better forms of protein or the "real" vs "non real" of food etc.....

I'm not going to here, accept I'm going to say when used with "common sense" it's benefits out weigh any debate!

Okay, so how much do you need?

Again this causes more debate then it needs to! No 2 people are the same and figuring out this equation is too complicated for entry level person that is embarking on a new health and fitness journey!;
i.e. 0.8 grams per kilogram (or around 0.36 g per pound) of body mass in untrained, generally healthy adults!

I'm not saying that the above equation is "wrong", I'm simply saying that we are jumping the gun for 90% of the population trying to achieve their goals, sure these equations and statistical data to back up these claims sure make you buy into this concept by confusing you and making you think they must know because it's been "researched" & you are confused!! If you are confused, it means it too complicated and YOU WON'T adhere to it long term!!

If you are a beginner my recommendation to clients;
Men
90kg or less 1 -1.5 scoops for a meal replacement
90kg + 1.5 - 2 scoops for meal replacement
Females
90kg or less 1 scoop
90kg + 1 - 1.5scoops

Of course this is a guideline but it's a guide line you can do NOW with out having to study math for 3days to get the "right" protein portion that changes once you add physical activity into the equation!!!
Start with this and over time you'll play with what's right for you from actual experience rather then from an intellectual stand point!

So What Whey Protein Powder should I use?
Again, the debate of "the best"???.....blah blah blah......

According to Charles Poliquin there is 3 places you can source RAW protein powder and NZ is one of them!!! That's right, so 90% of the protein powder market purchase from us, dress it up and then sell it back to us!

General rule of thumb (but not always)!: If it's cheap it's generally got lots of cheap quality protein source powder & fillers to hide the cheap product i.e. powder is graded 1-5.

1 = animal consumption, 5 = human consumption and 3 is Animal AND Human consumption i.e Grade 3 is used in protein powders around the world because it's cheaper then 5 but still "allowed" through FDA etc....!!

I personally think Rice based Protein powder is what is BEST FOR ME (or similar to rice based) but that's because they are good on my gut and don't leave me bloated etc.... however most people aren't prepared to pay the extra cost and would rather walk around bloated and gassy.....poooo stink!

However because I "change" things up occassionally when I do go back to Whey Based Protein Powder I use Ultimate Whey (100% Export Quality Whey Concentrate), I have found this protein powder to mix well i.e. no lumps when shaking with water only and taste great i.e. no artifical sweetners!


Nutritional Statement


per 30g Serve (mixed with 350ml water) per 30g Server (mixed with 350ml Sun Latte Milk)

Energy 119kcal 303kcal
Protein 23g 43.3g
Carbohydrates 2.3g 16.7g
Added Simple Sugar NIL NIL
Fat 1.8g 2.15g
Sodium 60mg 105mg
Potassium 205mg 570mg
Calcium 97mg 297mg
Natural Flavours 0.4g 1.3g

Ultimate Whey Protein Powder



Ultimate Whey Protein is a great place to start if looking for protein powder to incorporate into your diet! I won't say it's the best because that's an argument that I'm not interested in...... for me it's the best I've found that has suited every client that has purchased it to date!

To buy Ultimate Whey and only pay $5 shipping directly to your door (NZ) then do that here;

Ultimate Whey Protein Powder





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Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Humes Strong(er) Together Competition....AWESOME!!

On Friday we held the first ever Humes Strong(er) together Competition. To give you a bit of back ground I've been training Humes Pipeline Company on site for 6months with little more then Body weight and now they have graduated to Kettlebells!


Here's a video of them after 3months

Anyway, the objective of this day was to "work together/team building" in a Strongman type event.

To achieve this we put them in 2 teams (Team Mean & Team Meaner) 6 per team and they competed together.

They got points for;
  • Winning the event = 10points
  • Vocal Support of other team members = 1-10 points (verbalizing their encouragement i.e. yelling)
  • Physical support of team members = 1-10 points (helping team members with tasks to make it easier but not cheat)
The Strong(er) events where in order of completing them;
  • Farmers Walks = They have what's called Formers which are circular type steal plates that go from 25kg to a TON! We used 75kg for the big boys and 65kg for the smaller lads! Now let me tell you, the weight is not alot BUT the size of the "rings" are big and extremely awkward to carry!!

    Everyone gave it a nudge (couple put them in wheel barrows) & to my surprise everyone got them across the line & back.........just (I say suprise because I carried them & thought Holy shiz, I don't think I can carry it!!!!) Special mention must go to David who was the smallest guy and smashed everyone on time and ease.....very impressive!! Win to Team Meaner!

  • Sled Pulls = 20m Rope with 65kg of weight on a sled, pull that sucker as quickly as possible across the concrete then next team member did the exact same, until all team members had finished!! Team Mean had a shocka they only had 5 guys do it out of 6! So they "won" but we called it a draw!

  • Wheel Barrow Races = Wheel barrow to each team, they started with two 40kg cement bags in wheel barrow, they raced a zig zag course & picked up another 40kg cement bag at one end to repeat the zig zag coming home where they handed over to the next person in team to repeat the process!

    This was a funny event to watch & referee, they said this was the hardest due to fitness!! Broken cement bags everywhere with people taking the pi$ out of each other, it was fun and everyone was buggered afterwards!! Win to Team Mean

  • Lastly was good old fashioned TUG OF WAR!!
    Best out of 3......First one went to team Mean....then the smack talk started........2nd one went to Team Meaner.........then the smack talk got more........and it was all on for the 3rd and final tug of war...........go.........10sec team mean looked to have it in sync and in the bag.....15sec.....team meaner pull it back to the middle......20sec it's STILL EVEN......25sec.....team meaner start wearing down team mean.....30sec.....TIME! Win goes to Team Meaner.....was awesome the first 2 tug of wars where over in about 10sec due to team dominating the other....this 3rd and final was fitting to the day! 30sec of Tug of War and it was JUST won by Team Meaner!!
Final Points of the day taking into consideration of all factors? And the winner goes to...........................a DRAW with 110 each!!

The boys weren't happy about this they wanted a WINNER! So we did it the old fashioned way........choose 1 person from each team and sculling race! Ian bought it home for
Team Mean!

I have to say, I had a great time and so did the Humes Crew they are looking forward to the next one so they Team Meaner can get their revenge! For now though, Team Mean can bath in the feeling of success.......

Thanks to all of Humes Christchurch from Management to all the boys on the floor in having an open mind to "making it happen", it's not your 'normal' team building exercise BUT it's team building neither the less that suits these lads!!

I tried to video it but as it happens didn't work out....so sorry I don't have any footage of this in film or photo format because a picture captures a thousand words!

Here are a couple of pics of previous training sessions;



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Tuesday, August 04, 2009

First EVER Strongman Competition...

I completed my First Strongman Competition and here are the results for that comp!

First, I have to say I enjoy the Strongman Medley (which I won) and I suck at RAW strength i.e. Log Press! However, regardless it's very clear that my weakness is "raw strength", yet my capacity to TRANSFER the "raw strength" I CURRENTLY have is exceptional!

Before you put me in the category of blow ass, look at the facts I provide below, got nothing to do with my ego and how great I am, more an observation of others raw strength vs my raw strength, and my functional strength vs others functional strength.....now if you follow that, lets look at facts!


Facts:

  • I've been training for marathon this year which I completed on May 31st i.e. Strength training was limited to hardly any!
  • I've been training strongman for about 4wks prior to this event
  • 2 guys are strength/power lifters, 1 guy works construction everyday
  • The smallest guy in our division 81kg (I reckon the scales where heavy 2kg) after the competition was FINISHED, attempted to lift the 126kg stone and GOT IT!!! That's huge pound for pound, yet in the log press sucked like me!
Which brings me back to "use able" or being able to transfer the "raw strength" you have into what you are trying to achieve, what I'm trying to say; just because you are gym strong doesn't make you real life strong, sure you have a platform for Real Life Strength but it doesn't give you automatic rights!!

Click on results chart to make it bigger

Here's the video of the Medley;

Thanks to Eastside Strongman for organizing this event, it was a nice low key entry and fun as well (mostly). No matter where you go in life or what you do, you will always encounter Man and his EGO....the only thing that can change from that is HOW you deal with other people and there ego......I'm still maturing on that one :-)
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