Tuesday, June 30, 2015
RSP Chiseled Nutrition Overview
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Workout of the Week #25
Take on your Men's Fitness workout of the week, a new 52-part series to keep you inspired and challenged for 2015. We'll post a new workout every Monday and for an added incentive, we'll take on the workout too so you can see how your best time compares with a member of the MF team.
Workout of the Week #25
Do five sets of five 60kg back squats, five toe-to-bars and five dips as fast as you can.
How to do the workout:
Squats guide:
With your feet just wider than shoulder-width apart, rest the bar on the back of your shoulders. For added comfort, use a barbell pad. With your chest up and core braced, squat down until your thighs are at least parallel to the floor, making sure your knees stay wide apart. Drive back up through your heels to stand.
Toes-to-bar guide:
Once you have finished five reps, move onto toes-to-bar. Hang from the pull-up bar with an overhand grip. Contract your core and bring your legs up together so your toes touch the bar, then lower to the start position smoothly.
Dips guide:
Finally, turn towards dips to complete the circuit. Grip the handles with an overhand grip, your arms extended and your torso straight to isolate your triceps, or lean forward to recruit your pectorals, before bending your arms and lowing yourself until your arms are at a 90 degree angle. Then, press powerfully upwards to the start position. After five reps return to deadlifts and repeat the circuit.
Watch the video, take on the challenge and post your best score in the comments section below.
MF's par time: 6min 30sec
This workout was shot at The Athlete Centre in Oxford. Check out our Workout of the Week YouTube playlist for more gym challenges. Subscribe to the Men's Fitness YouTube channel for our weekly Workouts of the Week, posted every Monday throughout 2015.
Monday, June 29, 2015
How to properly track your training progress
Tracking data isn’t the preserve of elite athletes. Monitoring your training is about trying to optimise your performance, whatever your level. Tracking progress is a training aid – it’s not a replacement for working hard – and you have to be careful not to become obsessed with it. Professional athletes have time and resources to track data, chasing tiny improvements, but if you’re new to it you can make huge gains very rapidly by tailoring your programme to make improvements where you need them.
Take heart
Heart rate is the number one thing to monitor. It’s directly linked to exercise intensity, so you can use it tell how hard you’re working. It also takes into account daily differences such as how fatigued you are, what time you train, if you’ve had anything to eat or if you’re low on energy. It gives you a true sense and marker of how hard you’re working.
A good starting point is to measure your resting heart rate every morning, because fluctuations will give you an early warning if you’re overtraining, allowing you to back off when necessary.
The best heart rate monitor sport watches
Speed limit
Depending on what you’re training for, speed is another important metric. On the bike or the rower or running, you can use it to set a target, although you shouldn’t see it as something to stick to rigidly – it’s just a marker. Stay flexible and don’t try to do anything daft like try to beat it when you’re ill or hung-over.
Heart rate and speed are both metrics that measure things directly. They’re robust and reliable so you can trust the data. When you track calorie burn, you have to estimate the results using an algorithm. That’s not to say it’s not worthwhile but you have to be more careful – these things are better used to build a profile over time rather than to provide instant feedback.
Inside track
Once you’ve been tracking your data for a while, I’d encourage you to internalise the process to an extent. When I work with elite athletes they can tell me their heart rate or speed without looking at anything. Obviously that’s partly because they spend so much time training, but the key point is not to make your tracking equipment a crutch. As time goes on, you should start to need it less and less.
Forgo tracking and you’ll miss out on valuable experience, especially if you’re new to training. Knowing your speed or your heart rate lets you understand exactly where your ability level is and gives you the confidence to improve.
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Sunday, June 28, 2015
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From here to there: the world’s best freerunning documentary
Pro freerunners and best friends Cory DeMeyers and Jesse La Flair present, “From Here to There” an exclusive documentary about the world’s best parkour and freerunning athletes. Following them throughout their 2013 world tour the film surrounds their journey to become the world’s best freerunning athletes and also features interviews and appearances by top athletes.
From Here To There - Trailer from XTreme Video on Vimeo.
Was the 2013 Red Bull Art of Motion your first freerunning competition?
Cory DeMeyers: Actually it was my 4th time competing in the Art of Motion. I had previously competed in Boston 2010, Switzerland 2012 and also at Santorini in 2012.
Jesse La Flair: That wasn’t my first freerunning competition. In the past I mostly stuck to speed competitions and placed in almost all of them.
How did you guys enter the competition?
CD: Until 2012 the only way to enter the competition was by a private invitation from Red Bull, but in 2012 and 2013 they opened a local qualifier for a few additional positions. The top 8 every year were invited back and since I missed top 8 by 1 position in 2012 I had to do the local qualifier, thankfully I did because I not only qualified I also won the qualifier taking 1st place 3 days before the main event.
JF: After winning a freerunning competition with Cory in Seattle, we both got invited to the largest freerunner competition held in Sweden called the "Air Wipp Challenge". There were over 5,000 spectators and a course built on a castle in the middle of Helsingborg. I ended up winning 3rd place and that qualified me for a guaranteed spot at the Red Bull AOM.
How did you get involved in parkour and freerunning?
CD: I always wanted to be a Pro Action Sports Athlete, and with my Martial Arts background I was very acrobatically inclined. I saw a video on YouTube of a guy, running, jumping, climbing and flipping off of things! After a little more research I found out he was freerunning and that there were competitions and a handful of pro athletes. I thought I might just have a shot at going pro, so I literally did everything I could think of to get there and never looked back!
JF: Growing up I had a passion for action sports and movement and while in college I stumbled upon a few kids who introduced me to parkour. From that day on I’ve continued to train. Everything I learned was self-taught, I came from a background of Motocross, BMX, skateboarding, surfing and snowboarding. In each sport I would just explore movement and techniques until I got better just as I did with freerunning.
Where was the hardest course you tried and why?
CD: Each course is challenging because its architecture may not compliment your style well, therefore you have to find the right parts of the course to showcase your best abilities. But if I were to say which one is the most nerve-racking then it would be the Air Wipp Challenge in Sweden. There are 5,000 spectators every year and they’re all standing at the bottom of the course staring at you so that adds an element of pressure.
JF: For me, Red Bull’s AOM in Santorini Greece is still one of the craziest courses I have competed on. Outside of the fact that everything is solid, the surfaces and ledges often switch back and forth from round to flat and everything is painted white. When you’re flipping and spinning through the air it can be difficult to differentiate between the ground, sky or walls.
How can our readers go about doing some basic parkour moves?
CD: Like anything else, repetition is key, the more you practice the more natural the movements will feel to you, so do them until they don't feel awkward any more but I think this is an awesome question for Jesse! Jesse is the tutorial King on YouTube with over 240,000+ Subscribers so I’ll let him handle this.
JF: If you’re interested in getting started in parkour or freerunning I would, head over to my YouTube channel and find my tutorial playlist. When I teach, my biggest focus is starting from the easiest point and working their body and mind into understanding and doing the move. Even the smallest of steps can equal the biggest of strides.
How can someone incorporate parkour and freerunning into their gym routine?
CD: If were talking about gym routines, box jumps and modified box jumps that are working on explosiveness as well as landing can be a great supplement, if you focus on technique as well then believe it our not you are doing parkour! If you can climb up on a wall or have access to a small wall in your gym, these will greatly improve your upper body strength as well as make you much faster the next time you "need" to climb a fence.
JF: I’m a huge fan of CrossFit and mixing more creative movement into my gym routine. Learning any parkour fundamentals and giving yourself the respect to take some time and understand how and why something works will give you better control of everything you do. You should also try getting out of the gym and challenging yourself in a new environment.
Pro Tip: Balance
Cory DeMeyers says, "One workout I love for improving balance is to focus on all the proprioceptive muscles or stabilizer muscles in the legs."
Start with feet shoulder width apart and stand tall on the balls of your feet.
Now as slowly as you can squat down until you’re in a seated position with your heels not touching the ground but still on the balls of your feet.
Hold for 10 seconds and then return to the standing position with your heels still off the floor.
Doing 3 sets of 10 is killer, also for an additional challenge when returning to the standing position rise as slow as you did while equating to the seated position.
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Navigate the supermarket for a healthier body
1 Tune out
Many supermarkets play music with a rhythm that’s slower than the average heartbeat, and – according to a study published in the Journal Of Marketing – that makes you spend longer in the store and spend up to 30% more on food you don’t necessarily need. The solution? A set of Yurbuds earphones and the new Mumford and Sons album.
Spotify’s best playlists to motivate you
2 Bulk-buy with care
‘If you switch from buying a six-pack of fizzy drinks every week to a 12-pack in an attempt to save money, you’ll probably start drinking 12 cans a week,’ says nutritionist Dr Lisa Young, author of The Portion Teller Plan (portionteller.com). ‘Not only are you not saving money, you’re also overeating and drinking. If you’re bulk-buying, stick to household goods like toilet roll or bland foodstuffs like tinned veg and avoid anything you’ll be tempted to binge on.’
3 Remove Temptation
Supermarkets will deliberately try to seduce you into making unhealthy impulse buys with strategically placed ‘gondola’ promotions at the end of aisles and confectionary-packed ‘golden zones’ next to the tills. Ensure you avoid temptation by shopping online. A consumer study by eDigital Research found that 29% of shoppers made impulse buys in store, compared with just 7% on the web.
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4 Buy boring foods first
‘Supermarkets deliberately position bright-coloured fruit and vegetables near the front of the store to put you in a good mood and make you more likely to spend money,’ says Phil Lempert, editor of supermarketguru.com. ‘They also have pleasant-smelling flowers and baked goods near the entrance to activate your salivary glands, which makes you more likely to deviate from your shopping list.’ To avoid this trap, head straight to the ‘boring’ aisles stocked with canned goods, and visit the front of the store last. By this point, you’ll be keen to leave and less easily distracted – plus putting fresh fruit and veg in your trolley last means it’ll be less likely to get squashed by the rest of your shopping.
5 Check for suspect portion sizes
The portion size listed on product packaging is very important, according to the Food Standard Agency’s rules, each manufacturer can decide what they consider to be a single serving of their product and list its values accordingly. This can be used to manipulate food labelling to make a product seem healthier than it is. For example, a manufacturer may claim that one biscuit from a large packet constitutes a serving. If there is up to 0.1g of sodium in that biscuit, the FSA rules allow them to list it as trace or 0g, even though a 400g pack of biscuits – each containing 0.1g – would contain roughly 30% of your sodium RDA.
6 Avoid ‘low-fat’ foods
‘Most so-called “low-fat” foods have been highly processed to remove the fat and are often packed with salt and sugar to compensate for and enhance the flavour,’ says nutritionist and sports scientist Laurent Bannock (guruperformance.com). Most types of fat – especially heart-healthy polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats – are good for you, and will help rather than hinder fat loss like sugar does.
7 Know what’s really in your food
Most people realise that if a food has high quantities of sugar on its ingredients label, it probably isn’t going to help with fat loss. Unfortunately, food manufacturers increasingly get around this by sneakily adding smaller doses of lots of different types of sugar, or equally bad sugar substitutes, with names that the average consumer won’t recognise. Questionable ingredients to look out for include dexterose, are used in place of regular sugar. A similar problem occurs with MSG – a food additive that causes fat-storing blood sugar spikes and increases your appetite – which can be listed as glutamate, yeast extract or hydrolysed protein.
8 Use if-then action plans
Research from New York University suggests that forming an if-then plan – ‘if X happens, I will do Y’ – can significantly improve your ability to avoid temptation. Examples could include: ‘If I have to eat when I’m on the go, I’ll get healthier food from M&S rather than a KFC’ or ‘If there’s no option but to go to McDonald’s, I’ll get a coffee or mineral water with my meal rather than a fizzy drink.’ With prepared strategies in place, you’re far less likely to fall off the wagon completely when presented with difficult food choices.
Our list of the best healthy lunch ideas from the high street
9 Be aware that you’re a target
‘Our minds are constantly processing information such as colour, lighting, smells and words on signs,’ says psychologist William Poundstone, author of Rock Breaks Scissors: A Practical Guide To Outguessing And Outwitting Almost Anyone (williampoundstone.net). ‘Studies have shown that these factors affect our decision-making process without us being aware of it. Fast-food restaurants are manipulative places that use these factors to entice you in and convince you to order as much as possible. Examples include the use of the colour red because it activates your hunger and grabs your attention, and the use of words such as “premium” on menus, which affect your decision-making. Simply being aware of these methods makes it easier to counteract and ignore them.’
10 Avoid combo meals
‘Combo meals give you an incentive to order something extra,’ says Poundstone. ‘It costs pennies more to get fries with your burger and drink, so you might as well – you’re practically throwing money away if you don’t order them. But this is only because restaurants deliberately inflate the prices of à la carte items to make the combo meals seem like a bargain. So if you just want a burger, order that, and avoid the extra calories, sugar and salt that come with the optional extras.’
11 Always choose a small drink
‘Most fast-food or coffee-shop chains will offer three sizes for all their beverages, often with enigmatic names to mislead you about their sizes,’ says Poundstone. ‘In this situation, most people will instinctively favour the middle option because it seems the safest, which is known as “extremeness aversion” or the “rule of three”. Restaurants use this for ‘upselling’, by making sure that the middle option is moderately bigger (and more expensive) than the average customer would otherwise order.’ If you’re trying to stay trim, always choose the smallest of the options on offer. It’s highly unlikely that you’ll be left wanting more, and your waistline and wallet will thank you for it.
12 Take a stand
‘Research has shown that if you can resist a strong attempt to persuade you to think or act differently than usual, it will strengthen and reinforce your original attitude, and make you less likely to be persuaded in the future,’ says psychologist Dr Laura Edwards. So next time you’re tempted by fast food, make a conscious point of avoiding it. It’ll be easier to resist on subsequent occasions and your healthy eating beliefs will be strengthened.
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Training tips from the multi-talented Ashley Roberts
It was a bold move to leave the chart-topping, 15 million-selling Pussycat Dolls in 2010 – but there’s no doubt it has paid off for the multi-talented Ashley Roberts. With a long career as a dancer and choreographer already behind her, Roberts has moved seamlessly into acting and TV presenting, as well as appearing on some of TV’s most high-profile celebrity reality shows including Dancing On Ice and I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! Whether dancing or surviving bushtucker trials, she’s been helped by her lifelong dedication to fitness, as she tells MF.
The Pussycat Dolls were renowned for energetic dance routines. What level of fitness did that demand?
Some people don’t think of dancers as athletes but that’s garbage. All-day sessions in the studio are hardcore total-body workouts. I did ballet, tap, modern and lyrical – all different styles that tested my fitness and worked my muscles in different ways. Having said that, my mom taught aerobics and we had a Pilates machine at home that I loved using. So while I didn’t need to do any extra work, ever since high school I’ve been hitting the gym and doing additional mobility drills, which prepared me well for dancing professionally.
You moved from LA to London, are there different attitudes to fitness in each place?
Everyone seems to train in LA. Everyone. Training shoes and clothes are standard wear, and every gym has a smoothie bar opposite – it’s built into the city’s infrastructure as well as its culture. London isn’t quite there yet, but I’ve noticed lots more gyms popping up so it’s certainly moving in that direction. Apart from that, the main difference is how hardcore some of the classes are in LA compared with here. I used to go to Soul Cycle spin class over there and even though they’ve introduced them in the UK, they’re not as intense. I got some funny looks for adding extra hill sprints to the sessions while everyone else was chilling out.
Do you think your fitness has suffered as a result of that lack of intensity?
Not at all. Instead of going to classes I’ve started strength training and now my fitness is better than ever. I go to a gym called W10 and the trainers there are more hardcore than any class instructor, which I love. As far as I’m concerned, anything that doesn’t challenge you doesn’t change you. I need someone to really push me to motivate me. If I go to the gym by myself it’s impossible to train as hard.
Does lifting weights take up the majority of your training now?
I still do a lot of yoga. Not only is it good for mobility and injury prevention, it de-stresses me too. You need to have a balance of hardcore stuff and things that centre you, plus your body needs time to recover after doing heavy deadlifts and squats.
What is it about strength training that appeals to you?
Lifting gets my heart rate up and makes me look amazing, but more importantly it makes me feel strong. Scrap that, I don’t just feel strong – I am strong, and I think it’s important for women to feel that way. The only thing I don’t like about it are the callused hands. They suck. I went back to LA recently and didn’t do any weight training for a while and it was the first time in ages that I didn’t have hands that looked like I’d been working in construction.
Have you become a fan of any British sports since you’ve been living in London?
I’ve never been a sports fan, apart from boxing because it’s so visceral. I did go to a Welsh rugby game recently though, which was much more fun than I thought it would be. I liked the fast pace, especially compared with the constant stopping and starting in American football.
Did your bushtucker trials on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! affect your approach to nutrition?
Well, I’ll never eat kangaroo penis again if that’s what you’re asking. I’m pretty much a vegan now, but I don’t think having to eat that informed my decision – not consciously at least. I try to have a good diet. Every now and then I’ll have a treat, but I love most healthy foods so it’s not as if I’m depriving myself. My trainer sometimes worries I’m not getting enough protein, but I have vegan protein smoothies to make up for the lack of meat and fish.
Get more protein shake recipes here
What’s in your favourite vegan smoothie?
Most mornings I blend up a bunch of organic greens, such as kale and spinach, add some raw fruit such as banana, avocado and blueberries, then finish it off with some almond milk and maybe some agave if my sweet tooth needs satisfying. Finally, I add some vegan protein powder to ensure I hit my quota for the day. Try it. Even if you’re not vegan I guarantee you’ll love it.
Read our beginner's guide on protein powder
TRAIN LIKE A GIRL
Slide pad plank walk
‘Make the plank harder by holding the position with your feet on slide pads, and walking forward, then backwards, using your hands,’ says Roberts.
Side plank star
‘In a side plank position raise your arm and leg straight up to the ceiling and hold it there for five seconds,’ says Roberts. ‘It’ll take your core stability to a whole new level.’
Mountain climber
‘Using slide pads for this move helps you get into a fast rhythm,’ says Roberts. ‘That means you work super-hard during a 30-second burst.’
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Friday, June 26, 2015
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Making the upgrade: beach body – part 2
First off, the good news is I’ve definitely got used to the way I’m training now! It took me about six weeks but after that it all clicked into place. That’s not to say it’s easier or anything – far from it – and we’re still increasing the weights but I’m much more used to the rest times and I think my body has just got used to the whole thing.
The results are starting to show as well. The first stage of the training has been about putting on size. I started on 78kg and now I’ve gone up to 84kg. I’ve put four inches on my chest! It’s not just aesthetic either; I’ve found that I’ve gotten a lot stronger.
I’ve actually just moved into the next stage of the training now. My coach, Tim Chase, and I have been keeping an eye on my measurements and Tim wanted to emphasis the development of different parts of my body. For example I’ve seen a lot of improvement on things like my chest and quadriceps but my calves haven’t changed at all.
The sessions change every other week now. One week I’m doing more strength based exercises. So that’s lower reps, no more than 10 reps on everything. The second week is more volume, which includes much more supersets. I make sure I add Optimum Nutrition Creatine to my post-workout shake, which helps to enhance my ability to produce short bursts of high intensity effort for my next workout. In the first plan we trained each body part twice a week whereas now we focus on training that body part once a week but with a lot more exercises. To keep my energy and focus up during these sessions I’ve been taking Optimum Nutrition Amino Energy. The boost it gives has been a big help actually, I just feel like I have a little extra in the tank.
The other reason we switched up my training a little is because my weight completely stabilised. It means my calories have gone up again! I was eating so much but I wasn’t putting any weight on. My calories have been bumped up to about 3,500 calories, primarily with more fats and carbohydrates. It’s simple enough do to, it’s just things like adding an extra spoonful of rice to my meals but it is quite hard to eat that much. I’m always full and it gets a bit tedious but I’ve done a few things to make it easier to manage.
I found eating eight times a day tough so I started eating fewer meals with larger portions. Now it’s three or four meals a day as well as Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard protein shakes rather than trying to eat eight times a day. By giving myself a bit more break in between meals I’ve found it much easier to eat all the food. It also fits in with my schedule as a teacher as well – I only really get a lunch break, the rest of the time I’m on duty!
I’ve also found I’m understanding better the important things to focus on. One of my first goals was to increase my dumbbell bench press but I’ve been speaking to Tim about it and he told me not to have such an emphasis on hitting the weight but rather making sure that my form is perfect and I’ve got a good tempo. Obviously I still want to make sure I’m lifting heavy but I has made me realise it’s not all about the number.
Coach’s Verdict
‘Ben has fully committed himself to the Upgrade Challenge, which has been very impressive to see,’ says Time Chase. ‘He is dedicated not only in the gym but also with his whole nutrition and lifestyle. His strength in the gym has improved, his weight has increased and his calories are now higher than ever! This gives us the perfect platform to start Ben on his cut to shift the excess body fat for his beach body.’
One of Ben’s upper body workouts
Machine Shoulder Press
Sets 4 Reps 10/8/6/6 Tempo 2020
Hammer Pulldown
Sets 4 Reps 10/8/6/6
Flat BB Chest Press
Sets 4 Reps 8-10
Machine Seated Row
Sets 4 Reps 8-10
EZ Bar Skullcrushers
Sets 3 Reps 8-10
EZ Bar Preacher Curl
Sets 3 Reps 8-10
Abs circuit
Reverse crunch
Sets 2 Reps 15-20
Crunch
Sets 2 Reps 15-20
Plank
Sets 2 to failure
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Why Greek yogurt will make you happier
Ex-soap stars on adverts might not be the most scientifically reliable sources, but trust us, yogurt is good for digestive health – and now, a study has shown the same stuff that helps your stomach could also put a smile on your face. The Institute of Brain and Cognition gave one group of people a placebo and another probiotics for four weeks, and analysed both groups at the start and end of the study. The group that took the probiotics had a significantly reduced focus on recurrent negative thoughts. Our advice is to go Greek: as well as having more muscle-building protein than standard yogurt, Greek yogurt also has a higher probiotic count because it’s more concentrated, so – like a middle-aged woman in a movie, escaping from a cheating husband to an idyllic island and finding herself – you’ll end up stronger and happier.
For more ways to mix Greek yogurt into your daily routine try these recipes for carrots, beetroots, and salads.
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The best healthy meal plan delivery services
Don’t have the time, skills or inclination to cook? Help could be at hand in the form of healthy meals delivered directly to your door by a new breed of companies who can take care of all your nutritional needs.
Soulmatefood
THE COST
Prices range from £185 for three meals and three snacks a day for six days to £2,160 for 12 weeks.
THE CLAIM
Soulmatefood’s Perform Low Carb Plan Menu consists of nutritionally balanced meals and snacks with calorie and macronutrient values that are supposed to be designed to directly correspond to your personal requirements, enabling sustainable fat loss – and convenience.
HOW IT WORKS
Soulmatefood specialises in tailoring its meals to suit an individual’s needs, so to get the most out of it you should speak to a trainer or nutritionist beforehand who can calculate how much protein, carbs, fat and calories you need to consume daily to optimise your fat loss. With this established, Soulmatefood provides six days’ worth of food – delivered in batches twice a week – consisting of three main meals and three snacks that hit these targets. Once you’re up and running, the company provides feedback and advice throughout via email. Meals can also be adapted to take into account any food you don’t like or any additional supplements you’re taking.
THE FOOD
Breakfasts include plenty of frittatas, packed with satisfying ingredients such as feta and spinach. The snacks range from smoothies and shakes to beef strips and chicken bites, with at least one protein-based snack each day for post-training consumption. Dinners cover a range of interesting cuisines and include dishes such as green Thai curry and moussaka.
THE VERDICT
‘It made life much easier,’ says MF art director Ped Millichamp. ‘Between work, training and raising two kids I’m pretty time-poor, and I’d never be able to buy, prepare or cook this much healthy food, so it was extremely convenient. The quality of all the ingredients is top-notch, and there’s plenty of meat, which is always a bonus. And even though it was a fat-loss plan, the meals left me feeling well fuelled, which was helpful pre-gym. Combined with some solid training, I was able to lose 6kg of body fat over a ten-week period, so the results speak for themselves.’ soulmatefood.com
Honestly Healthy
THE COST
Prices range from £195 for two meals and two snacks a day for six days, to £1,920 for 12 weeks.
THE CLAIM
The Business Box contains alkaline-rich vegetarian meals that help to counterbalance the acidic effects of a meat and dairy-heavy diet, resulting in increased energy, reduced stress and improved sleep and concentration.
HOW IT WORKS
As the name suggests, it’s aimed at time-poor professionals who struggle to eat well or prepare their own food during the day. You can pick whichever two main meals best suit your schedule – breakfast and lunch, lunch and dinner or breakfast and dinner. Meals are delivered in batches every three days. You’re free to eat whatever you like for your third meal of the day and all day on the seventh day, although for best results it’s recommended that you keep things clean throughout.
THE FOOD
Breakfasts include veg-packed smoothies such as coconut, kale and flaxseed, seed and coconut muesli with fresh berries and hemp seed granola. Lunches are mostly salads, soups or noodle-dishes containing protein sources such as feta cheese and tofu. Snacks range from spicy juice combos such as carrot, apple and ginger to brazil nuts with a lemon cleanser shot and a beetroot brownie with aloe vera.
MF VERDICT
‘As a meat eater, I was sceptical about how I’d get on with all the veggie meals,’ says MF deputy editor Ben Ince. ‘But they were really tasty. The morning smoothies were surprisingly filling – although puréed kale for breakfast took some getting used to – while the lunches were full of fresh and interesting ingredients like samphire and fennel, which helped to increase my daily veg intake. Although it was a hectic week when I tried it, my sleep improved and I felt more energised and focused. I’d recommend it if you’re concerned that your busy lifestyle is affecting the quality of your nutrition.’ honestlyhealthyfood.com
Mealtek
THE COST
With lunches and dinners from £5.99, breakfasts from £3.99 and post-workout nutrition packs from £1.69, you’d pay at least at £19.35 a day.
THE CLAIM
Whatever your fitness target – building muscle, boosting energy, reducing fat – Mealtek creates, cooks and delivers customised meal plans to help. CEO Karl Brandt says its meals are ‘for athletes, fitness enthusiasts and those who just want to get in shape’.
HOW IT WORKS
Once you’ve told Mealtek what you want to achieve, the company’s nutritionists, dieticians and chefs devise a meal plan that will help you. Meals are delivered once a week and you’re advised to put half in the fridge and freeze the rest for later in the week. Most meals just need a few minutes in the pan or microwave and an easy-to-use online nutrition-tracking platform lets you keep tabs on what you're eating.
FOOD
Breakfasts include cherry, coconut and chocolate porridge, for lunches and dinners you’ll get dishes such as gammon with rice, red peppers and green bean salad, and at snack time expect things such as high-protein sesame-dusted chocolate balls and a protein granola mix. Mealtek can devise dairy or gluten-free plans and also offer Paleo, Primal and Pescetarian meals.
MF VERDICT
‘Every Wednesday, Mealtek would deliver five days’ worth of meals at about 1,000 calories each,’ says MF editor Nick Hutchings, who used Mealtek during a 12-week bulking programme. ‘That meant huge amounts of carbs, but some delicious sauces made these manageable. In the “leaning” phase of my regime, though, the ratios changed which meant the tastier ingredients came to the fore. The only problem was the size of my meals meant my fridge was almost bursting at the seams!’ mealtek.com
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Will eliminating wheat products help you lose weight?
Nutritionist Drew Price tries different diets to, ahem, sort the wheat from the chaff. Find out if following the Wheat Belly diet, created by cardiologist William Davis, can help you lose weight by eliminating wheat products.
THE DIET
One of the best-known ‘gluten-free’ diets, Wheat Belly aims to improve your physique and overall health by cutting out wheat and other gluten-containing grains.
THE CLAIM
Wheat is a staple grain across the globe, but one that has been intensely cultivated and has changed over the years. As a result, according to Wheat Belly author and cardiologist Dr. William Davis, modern grains (and the gluten and additional compounds they contain) are addictive and destroy our health. Davis’s book makes bold fat-loss claims, including a predicted 6-8kg reduction in weight within the first month of following the diet, as well as listing broader benefits that include improving the autoimmune system, slowing down the ageing process and reducing the risk of developing diseases such as cancer and diabetes.
THE METHOD
The diet is pretty simple, in that all it specifies is that you avoid grains that contain gluten, such as wheat, barley and rye. You can do it the easy way, by replacing grains with starchy substitutes such as corn pasta, or the hard way – which I chose – by forgoing starchy food altogether and opting for extra protein, healthy fats and fibrous veg.
THE REALITY
The downside to this diet’s simplicity is that it offers little in terms of guidelines to follow or suggestions for how to replace grains in your diet. Since grains are basically everywhere, this makes it fairly impractical, especially if you’re eating out. In the end, I resorted to cooking meals from scratch at home with simple ingredients and carrying food around with me in Tupperware tubs all day. When I stuck to this I was fine, but when it wasn’t possible I ended making poor food choices, missing meals and generally falling into dietary disarray.
THE RESULTS
The diet was annoying, and the results didn’t help matters either. I actually gained 1kg in weight over the month, which – according to my Speedflex body composition analysis – was attributed to a 3kg rise in fat mass and a 2kg drop in muscle mass, despite my training volume and intensity being strictly controlled from month to month. My blood work also showed a rise in ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol and visceral fat. So overall it wasn’t exactly a roaring success.
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George North: From ‘gangly’ speedster to formidable winger
Three concussions in the space of five months threatened to jeopardise George North’s place at September’s Rugby World Cup, but following extensive rest, recovery and a confirmed inclusion in Wales’s 47-man training squad, the 23-year-old is set to play a key part in what will be a feared and highly motivated side.
His commitment to nonstop eating as well as relentless workouts using escalating density training (EDT) has seen North grow into a hybrid winger, combining raw speed with incredible strength and size, making him a huge threat to the likes of hosts England – whom he’ll face in Wales’s second game of the tournament.
When North and co return at the end of August from their summer training camp the squad will be whittled down to 31, followed by home and away warm-up matches against Ireland and a final warm-up game against Italy on 5th September.
‘The players will face a tough couple of months of intensive training,’ said Wales head coach Warren Gatland at the announcement of the initial 47-man squad. ‘I can assure everyone they are no holiday camps.
‘We put a lot of emphasis on conditioning and preparation in 2011, which worked well for us and we are looking to step that up again this time,’ Gatland said, having led Wales to the semi-finals of the last World Cup in New Zealand. 'We believe the longer we are together, the better we perform and this summer of preparation will give us every opportunity to be at our best come the Rugby World Cup.’
MF spoke to North to gain an insight into his staggering development, alongside his recovery from multiple head injuries and what this summer holds for Wales in the build up to the World Cup.
How did you transform your body to handle the rigours of rugby?
I was always tall and gangly. When I left home to play college rugby I was 6ft 3in [1.9m] and 80kg, which compared to now – I’m 6ft 4in [1.93m] and 106kg – is completely different. One of the main things that helped me put the size on was constant eating. I knew I needed to put size on to compete at this level so I was even eating when full, and followed a strict diet of high protein and carbs. People often shy away from carbs because they think it puts on bad weight, but when you’re trying to put weight on and training nonstop your body needs all the nutrition it can get.
What sort of training do you have planned for the summer in preparation for the World Cup?
We go to Switzerland first for the altitude stimulus where training will be relatively low-intensity. We call it ‘train low, live high’. Then we’ll go to Qatar purely for the heat stimulus. We speak a lot about cryotherapy and we’ve been doing it for a few years now but the opposite of the cold is the heat in Qatar. If we can survive that heat and perform well it will bring out the best in us. Then we go back to Poland [to use cryotherapy chambers to boost recovery] for ten days to refocus and freshen up ready for the first game of the World Cup.
What safety precautions, if any, have you put in place to protect against concussion?
I haven’t done anything special. People talk about protective headwear but scrumcaps only takes the impact out of any collisions. They don’t prevent the concussion risk, which is from the whiplash of your brain within the skull. You can strengthen your neck muscles to reduce that whiplash effect – similar to what formula one drivers do to handle the G-force when racing – and do a lot of rehab around your neck and shoulders to keep everything sturdy but I haven’t been giving it special attention.
Which sides are among the fittest at the World Cup?
The Southern hemisphere sides are very fit. They play at a high tempo all the time. We talk about ‘ball in play time’ and how many metres per minute you cover. Against Southern hemisphere sides they are a lot greater than us. The game they play is quicker, at a higher tempo and with less contact.
Who do you see as your toughest opponents in September?
England and Australia are two of the toughest teams we could play against. We play Uruguay first, then England, Fiji and finally Australia, so we should be able to peak at the right times and get better with each game.
The 2015 Rugby World Cup kicks off on 18th September when England face Fiji at Twickenham. On 20th September Wales take on Uruguay at the Millennium Stadium.
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Should you take painkillers during an endurance race?
Towards the end of a big race muscle fatigue and pain kicks in and taking painkillers seems like a good idea. Don’t give in to that temptation. Several studies have found that popping pills while racing can affect your performance negatively and even damage your health.
Bad pharma
For example, participants in the 2010 Bonn Marathon were asked if they used any non-prescription pain medication. The number of people who failed to finish because of pain and other health symptoms differed little between those who used painkillers and those who didn’t. However, far more of the people who took painkillers had to drop out due to stomach problems than those who didn’t. Runners who necked painkillers were also five times more likely to experience symptoms including stomach cramps, cardiovascular problems, gastrointestinal bleeding, blood in the urine and joint and muscle pain than those who took nothing.
Overall, nine runners who took painkillers ended up in hospital: three for temporary kidney failure after taking ibuprofen, four for bleeding ulcers after taking aspirin, and two after heart attacks (also aspirin). Not a single person who competed in the race without painkillers was admitted to hospital.
It gets worse. In 2006 physiologist David Nieman, director of the Human Performance Laboratory at the North Carolina Research Campus, did blood tests on competitors at the 100-mile (161km) Western States Endurance Run. He found that people who took painkillers (including anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen) before and during the race actually had more inflammation than those who didn’t. The pill-popping athletes also suffered kidney damage and even a particularly nasty condition in which colonic bacteria leaked into their blood.
Bottom line
Putting grim thoughts of poo-contaminated blood aside, it would seem logical to assume that painkillers must at least increase pain tolerance. Not so, says science – among Western States Endurance Run competitors, researchers found no reduction in pain and muscle soreness between those who had and hadn’t taken painkillers. In fact, the pill-poppers actually reported more inflammation and pain. In an endurance event everyone will suffer some degree of discomfort – that’s natural. But if a more serious pain makes an unwelcome appearance mid-race then it’s time to weigh up whether finishing is worth the risk of turning a niggle into an injury that blights all future training.
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Tape the pain
Don’t fancy the risks associated with popping pills mid-race? Kinesio tape could be an alternative to the drug cabinet for pain relief in endurance sports What? Used by top athletes including Novak Djokovic and Mario Balotelli, kinesio tape was developed in the 1970s by Japanese chiropractor Kenzo Kase. It promises to reduce fatigue and inflammation by providing support to joints and muscles without affecting your circulation and range of movement.
How?
Kase’s research led him to conclude that the pain sensors lying between the epidermis and the dermis are responsible for most exercise-related joint and muscle discomfort. The theory is kinesio tape gently pulls on your skin, creating more space between the two. Kase claims this allows blood and lymphatic fluids to flow more freely and for excess heat to be more easily dissipated.
Does it work?
Multi-coloured tape in crazy patterns is commonplace at sporting events, but academics aren’t fully convinced. A clinical trial published in the Journal Of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy found the tape improved range of motion in people with shoulder pain, but more studies need to be done to fully assess its effectiveness.
In the meantime, England football team physio Gary Lewin swears by the tape, as does the Chartered Institute of Physiotherapists. Try it to make up your own mind. You’ll find tutorials on YouTube to learn how to apply it on your knee and ankle, just don’t go overboard or you’ll risk looking like an early ’90s raver. No amount of pain relief is worth that kind of embarrassment.
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Workout of the Week #24
Take on your Men's Fitness workout of the week, a new 52-part series to keep you inspired and challenged for 2015. We'll post a new workout every Monday and for an added incentive, we'll take on the workout too so you can see how your best time compares with a member of the MF team.
Workout of the Week #24
Do 20, 10, 5 reps of 50kg power cleans and decline press-ups as fast as you can.
How to do the workout:
Grab the barbell with a shoulder-width grip. With your arms straight and chest up, press down through your heels and drive your hips forwards to lift the weight up to chest height. Quickly bring your elbows under the bar and as high as you can to catch the barbell across the front of your shoulders. Return the weight to the floor and repeat for 20 total reps. After your last one, move onto press-ups with your feet elevated on a bench. After 20 reps, return to the power cleans for 10 reps and so on until you finish. Rest as much or as little as you need/can tolerate.
Watch the video, take on the challenge and post your best score in the comments section below.
MF's par time: 4min
This workout was shot at The Athlete Centre in Oxford. Check out our Workout of the Week YouTube playlist for more gym challenges. Subscribe to the Men's Fitness YouTube channel for our weekly Workouts of the Week, posted every Monday throughout 2015.
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Saturday, June 20, 2015
Making the upgrade: CrossFit
Things have really started to kick on in the past month with pretty much every aspect of my training.
I’ve been slowing things down with my lifting and practising individual movements within key lifts such as the snatch and clean, and the results have been great. Before I started my Upgrade training, my strict overhead press one rep max was 65kg, but I managed to crack out five sets of five reps with 65kg the other day, which is a massive increase. Likewise, I easily managed to complete four sets of four reps of cleans with 105kg, which I never would’ve been able to do before. While I can definitely feel that I’m getting stronger, I think the majority of this improvement can be attributed to spending so much time working on my technique, which also gives me a lot of confidence, knowing that I’m not going to struggle with any part of the lifts.
I’ve seen noticeable changes in my physique too. First of all I’ve had to go out and buy new T-shirts because my old ones are too tight on the chest and arms, which is definitely a good sign! I’m leaner round my torso too and have a four-pack pretty much all the time, despite my weight going up by 1.5kg. The fact that I’m still being fairly obsessive about my nutrition – in addition to the ridiculous amounts of rowing I’m doing – has definitely contributed to this. I’m still sticking to my 3,600 calories per day target, my daily macro splits of 130-140g fats, 340-360g carbs and 170-200g protein and my regime of Optimum Nutrition pre- and post-workout shakes and BCAAs.
I imagine this will be changing soon though, as I’m heading to Cardiff in the next couple of weeks to train with my coach Andy Edwards, and he’s keen for me to increase the volume in my next training block, so I imagine my calorie intake will have to increase to fuel the extra work I’ll be putting in. Considering how well everything’s gone so far, I can’t wait to get started with this next phase of my training.
Coach’s verdict
‘I’ve been monitoring Alistair’s progress, and he seems to be making steady gains in terms of his lifting numbers and his gymnastics,’ says Andy Edwards. ‘His body composition is changing too, which is great.
‘He’s doing a good job of managing his nutrition, and seems to be enjoying it, but most importantly he has enough energy to work out properly. Next week he’s going to start the second phase of his training, which includes two additional early-morning sessions doing duration work to help build up his cardio for competition.’
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Lawrence Dallaglio: ‘The fittest team will win’
On 18th September, England start their bid to win the Rugby World Cup for the first time since Lawrence Dallaglio and his team-mates triumphed over Australia in 2003. But between now and then the current players face a gruelling summer of training.
'In order to win the World Cup you have to be the fittest team,' said coach Stuart Lancaster when announcing his initial 50-man squad with fitness testing in Surrey commencing next week, before the team head to Colorado in July for an intensive two-week camp at altitude.
‘It will be grim for the players,’ he said. ‘We want another 10%. Altitude improves aerobic capacity and is a more effective way of stripping body fat. So they should come back leaner and fitter. If they are not then they will be going home.’
Speaking to MF at Twickenham – at an event to mark 100 days to go until the home tournament begins – Dallaglio echoed Lancaster’s sentiments. With holders New Zealand strong favourites, the former captain believes Lancaster’s men will need to be at their peak both physically and mentally to win back the prestigious Webb Ellis Cup.
What did the 2003 team focus on during the three-month training camp ahead of the World Cup?
We worked incredibly hard on our strength and conditioning, speed work, spin training and anaerobic threshold. Fitness in rugby is about being as involved in the game as possible. There’s the physical side of the game that you need to be able to cope with, but it’s also about being able to make the right decisions under pressure and you can only do that if you push your body to the limit.
How hard did you work on your own fitness? Were you naturally fit or did you have put in extra work?
It’s one thing being fit and another being one of the fittest players in the world. It depends on where you set your ambitions. We made a collective decision that if we wanted to be the best we had to train to compete against the very best and overtake them. But it wasn’t just about fitness. It was also about diet. Rugby players love their food so we had to make sacrifices – and make the right sacrifices. We tested each other so there was a lot of peer pressure and we pushed each other to the limit.
Who was the fittest player in the team?
Everyone had different positions so it’s hard to tell. You had some guys weighing in at 17, 18 or 19 stone [108-120kg] who had a different role to someone playing on the wing. Jonny Wilkinson, Neil Back, Richard Hill – they were among the fittest, though. Everyone was exceptional, as were the coaches.
Was there ever a ‘eureka’ moment in your training that made a big difference to your fitness?
It was the little things – making 100 things 1% better. Being able to push yourself to the limit and being prepared to put your body through pain is vital. Your anaerobic threshold is one of the most significant aspects of performance, in terms of how quickly you can pump blood around your body and how quickly you can remove lactic acid to make sure that you’re constantly involved throughout the game. You need to be able to look your opposite number in the eye and know that you can push harder than he can.
Was there any specific training that helped to do that?
A mixture of sprint training, condition training and anaerobic training, where you’re working for short periods with very little rest and going again and again, all helped. You need that to help maintain the energy required to win a game.
What’s the key to improving your fitness, for life and for rugby?
It’s about sticking to the routine of training, in terms of rest, recovery and looking after yourself in your diet. Essentially for rugby, though, the focus is about winning. That’s what you’re trying to do. I’ve always been a firm believer that you have to modify your training depending on what your outcomes are. If you’re not winning then you work backwards and come up with a timeframe and a plan that allows you to achieve that. If you’re working to achieve something specific that’s what you have to do. Looking good in the gym is great but a rugby match takes place on the rugby field so you’ve got to train accordingly. It’s about getting up off the floor, wrestling with the opponent, catching a pass and sprinting. For us it was also about the mental side of the game because you have to work under pressure. Intensive training creates that pressure environment for you to handle those tough situations.
How far can England go in this year’s Rugby World Cup?
They have a very good chance [of winning]. They’re the host nation and they’re playing pretty much every match apart from one at Twickenham [their home ground]. If you look at the history of the Rugby World Cup the host nation tends to do pretty well and no one wants to play against them. But hand on heart, are they the favourites? No they’re not, New Zealand are – but that doesn’t mean to say that England can’t upset the odds.
Could fly-half George Ford be the difference like Jonny Wilkinson was in 2003?
Well he’s only young, so I don’t want to put too much pressure on him, but he’s a very thorough and well-prepared individual who comes from a background filled with rugby. He’s incredibly passionate, always practising his skills, and clearly he is a huge talent with a lot of ability. If he continues to play well, then undoubtedly England will play well.
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