It may surprise some of you to know this, but I have a trainer.

I call him ‘Lethal Luke’ as he’s an ex-marine and believe me, he takes no prisoners! I pay him to train me, at least twice per week on two body parts I find tough: back and legs.

Now, you may ask, “why would someone who is a 10 years qualified and experienced personal trainer need a trainer?”

There are many reasons: I too need to be pushed beyond what I think I can achieve; sometimes even I need motivation; it’s handy to have another set of eyes on my technique and form; and finally, I don’t know everything – I’ve learned many things from each of the trainers I’ve used.

These apply both to the personal trainers I’ve used, and coaches who I’ve worked with in the past ‘remotely’ – by telephone and online.

You don’t NEED a trainer or coach – but you’ll improve if you have one

I believe everyone can benefit from one-to-one input from time to time, whether it’s in fitness, business or life in general.

Now, I don’t think everyone NEEDS one, but I think anyone—no matter who they are or what they do—WILL improve if they have one. Great coaches have a way of bringing the best out of you and taking you to the next level.

In fact, I’d go so far as to say that everyone should have a coach—at least at some point, even if it’s only for a short time.

Why use a fitness coach?

The short answer is that the mere act of hiring a coach can spur you on to achieve new heights of success. For a start, someone else is now involved, investing time in your success, and able to hold you accountable – this alone will make you work harder. Here are a few other reasons:

Expertise, applied to you personally – you can’t know everything. Someone who’s an expert in their field can bring in-depth knowledge to bear on your own challenges, likes, dislikes and lifestyle.

Motivation – you’ll simply work harder and perform better when someone else is involved. You’ll be alot more likely to work hard, alot less likely to skip workouts, and in general more prone to taking your program seriously.

Accountability – this is by far the greatest benefit of coaching. If you know someone is counting on you, you show up, both physically, and metaphorically.  Hiring a coach gives you multiple types of accountability.

Love and friendship – I can tell you as both a coach and a client, if you invest in someone emotionally, and they invest in you, and you’re both working towards mutual success, it’s impossible not to grow closer.  Your goals are their goals, and so their successes become your successes. This is why I have always said that, on some level, the “personal” aspect of personal training is more important than the “training part.”

Can I help YOU to reach the next level?

I’m passionate about helping people look, feel and be their best – and until now I’ve done this largely through personal training and writing articles. I still offer personal training to clients in London, but if you can’t get here, or perhaps you want a different type of support, you can now sign up for my telephone consults/coaching sessions.

If you’re trying to get to the next level; if you find yourself lacking motivation; if you find yourself spinning your wheels; if you just can’t figure out why you’re not progressing—I’d love to help.

Isn’t it time you got what you’ve been working for?

Let’s do this. Together.

Find out more here: www.alexandrawilson.com/coaching

I have been weight training now for about ten years. The first time I picked up a dumbbell was in January 2001 and I have never once looked back. During that time I have really developed my mind-body connection to understand how my own body works, its weaknesses and strengths.

One of things I have come to realise is that I am a ‘hard gainer’ and so I struggle to put muscle on and keep it on. Therefore, for me to say skip meals and/or eat the wrong foods is detrimental to my goals. I effectively become what they call ‘catabolic’ and that’s when my body ‘breaks down’ all my hard earned muscle that I’ve sweated for.

It got me thinking that everyone needs to really understand two main terms, namely ‘anabolic’ and ‘catabolic’ and more importantly, to understand what you need to do to keep a balance between the two. Why? because both are equally important and are needed to retain equilibrium in our bodies. It’s when this balance is lost that the problem occurs. But before we get onto the do’s and don’ts here’s a brief overview on the subject …

Firstly, you need to understand that anabolism and catabolism are linked processes that take place in the human body. They are interdependent. Both are collectively known as metabolism.

Anabolism

In simple terms, this means to ‘build up’.

To achieve an anabolic state the tissues within the human body need energy for growth and maintenance.

It needs a healthy diet and the appropriate supplements if required. If you do not achieve this the body becomes depleted and will actually start to break down muscle and healthy fat deposits for energy (i.e. catabolic). This will be detrimental to you if you’re trying to lose weight, gain muscle or indeed simply be healthy. Less muscle equals lowered metabolism which in turn equals fat gain.

Also bare in mind that the more intense and rigorous the exercise, the more important diet and supplementation becomes to maintaining that anabolic state.

Having a good hormonal balance is also important in achieving and maintaining an anabolic environment. First up, testosterone which is produced in the reproductive organs. And secondly, the growth hormone which is produced by the pituitary gland. Both these hormones will hugely effect your ability to build lean tissue. Clearly men have an advantage as they naturally produce more than women. However, there are a few things that will help increase these hormones e.g. BCAA’s (Branch Chain Amino Acids – see below), Vitamin C, healthy fats and zinc.

Catabolism

This is the opposite of anabolism. It is the ‘breaking down’ process. It is the breakdown of foods and nutrients so that they will later have the ability to build up and add to the muscle or tissue growth process i.e. anabolic.

Catabolism naturally occurs when we exercise but it becomes exacerbated if we have an inadequate diet especially in protein. This results in numerous side effects such as extreme fatigue, joint and muscle pain, sleeplessness, injuries, illness and lack of results.

Catabolism is also linked to the catabolic hormone cortisol which is released by the adrenal glands. The harder the training session, the more cortisol is released and therefore a balanced diet becomes even more important that contains sufficient carbs, proteins and healthy fats.

One of the biggest misconceptions is that you build muscle during training. This is complete nonsense. In fact, when you train you break muscle down and cause micro-traumas in the muscle. It is on the rest days that your body repairs, recovers and rebuilds. To facilitate this process you need good nutrition. During this growth period catabolism is dominated by anabolism. When maturity is reached, equilibrium is formed between the two. To retain this state a good diet is simply essential.

Alas with age muscle starts to waste i.e. catabolism dominates anabolism. The debate is still out there on this subject but I personally think it’s true. Take a look around you and notice how many older people have lost muscle and have increased body fat as they’ve aged. That’s your answer. My message to you is loud and clear – keep weight training as you get older to preserve and retain that lean tissue as well as implementing all the advice in this blog.

So what are the key things YOU need to do to stay anabolic?

Well, here are my ‘catabolic crushers’ as I call them. I personally implement all of these the vast majority of the time, and I would strongly encourage you to do the same.

• Never skip meals

• Never leave too long between meals (i.e. eat every 2-3 hours, and around 5-6 meals per day)

• Consume all macro-nutrients i.e. carbs, protein and healthy fats. Approx ratio’s (baring in mind these are guidelines only and will vary from person to person) are 50% carbs, 30% protein and 10% healthy fats. Remember protein is the building block for muscle so it’s a must. If you don’t provide your body with the proper fuel it will not grow. It’s that simple.

• If you are serious about retaining/putting on muscle, or train intensely you may want to consider: a protein shake immediately on rising before breakfast (e.g. Gaspari MyoFusion), and/or a pre-workout protein shake (e.g. Gaspari IntrPro ), and/or a night protein drink just before bed. The nightime drink should ideally have low/zero carbs and contain slow release proteins called casein. Whilst all these are not essential they will prevent you becoming catabolic. The one drink I will strongly encourage you all to take (including those with weight loss goals) is your post workout protein shake and ideally within 30 mins of completing exercise (e.g. Gaspari MyoFusion or IntrPro). On a side note, I add a little extra carbs to my wake up and post work-out shakes. Hard gainers may wish to give it a try. I use Vitargo which is a carb derived from barley starch.

• Vitamin C – You can either take Vit C rich foods or a supplement. It’s good for your immune system and it significantly helps retain the anabolic state.

• BCAA’s (e.g. Gaspari BCAA 6000 ) – I would highly recommend you take these during/post work-out. In brief BCAA’s are important for protein synthesis and muscle growth.

• Do not over train as your levels of cortisol will be too high

• Take your rest days, your body needs these to recover, rebuild and rebuild

• Avoid high levels of stress as much as possible as it releases cortisol which breaks down muscle

• Get adequate sleep (approx 8 hours) as this helps the body recover. This is also when your body releases growth hormones which assist muscle repair and growth. It also means you’ll have the energy to get the most out of your next workout.

For further details on all the Gaspari products I mentioned please visit the Gaspari website products section.

Leptin is a protein that’s made in the fat cells, then circulates in the blood, and goes to the brain. It tells your brain that you have enough energy stored in your fat cells to engage in normal metabolic activities. Everyone has a certain leptin threshold which is to an extent genetically set. When your leptin level is above that threshold, your brain senses that you have enough energy, which means you can burn energy at a normal rate.

What happens when you diet – decreasing fat burning, increasing fat storing

The problem arises when people diet. Let’s say you go on a diet and reduce your calorie intake. Your leptin levels drop and go below your set threshold. Your brain picks this up and senses ‘starvation’. Your body’s primary goal will be to get your leptin levels back up. So how does it do this? Well, the vagus nerve which runs between the brain and the abdomen is stimulated which makes you feel hungrier. Your body wants you to take in more calories so it can store it in your fat and therefore produce more leptin.

Let’s relate this all to the typical fat loss pattern. When they begin dieting the majority of people lose weight to start with. Correct? Week after week you consume less calories and exercise BUT then things slow down and plateau. Sound familiar?

Well that’s because your body is a clever piece of kit, and it will do everything to stop you from starving it. It goes into survival mode because body fat = heat and energy which are very important.

The problem is that you and I see what you are doing as ‘dieting’ BUT your body interprets this as ‘starvation’. It cannot tell the difference. All your body sees is that you are feeding it less calories. Your body will respond in various ways such as slowing down your metabolism , decreasing your fat burning hormones, and increasing your fat storing hormones such as insulin. It’s not fair is it?

Leptin plays a major role in this process so much so it’s often referred to as I mentioned earlier the ‘anti starvation’ hormone. Leptin is regulated by calorie intake. More calories = more leptin. Less calories = less leptin and a slower metabolism.

The burning question is ‘how do I diet without leptin lowering and so slowing my metabolism?’

Cheat days

This is where the strategic use of cheat days comes into play. Research has shown that it takes about 7 days for leptin levels to drop by 50%. This means you are 50% slower at burning fat. Not good ! But here’s the good news…

You can use cheat foods (ice cream, crisps, pizza etc) to get leptin back up to its full fat burning potential within 24 hours. So with strategic use of your cheat days (basically higher cal days) you can outsmart your body (obviously with moderation in mind). The key is don’t let your body get into a pattern. The strategic use of these cheat days does mean you have to be ‘on point’ the other days for the cheat day to work. No sneakies allowed and a maximum of 1 cheat day per week top end !!!

On your cheat days I want you to choose mega cheat foods that have simple carbs and fat in there at the same time. High glycaemic index foods with fat such as pizza, burgers, ice cream and biscuits etc.

So proper junk food ! Why ?

How junk foods and cheat days can help you lose weight

Because these foods cause your leptin levels to rise (by increasing the levels of insulin which is closely linked to leptin)

I can remember the day when I read some of the research on this. It nearly brought tears to my eyes – so much so that I went straight down to my local Pizza Express.

To summarise: If you diet 7 days a week, 52 weeks of the year weight loss will plateau and eventually stop. In simple terms what you are doing is shocking your system and re setting your metabolism. We want to give it a wake up call and say ‘I’m in charge’ !

So go and plan your strategic cheat days and ENJOY them to the full !

Until next time,

Alex

I hope you all had a great weekend and are having a super start to your week. Today, I wanted to share with you a concept you may or may not have heard about called ‘afterburn’ and if you haven’t you really should ! So please read on …

Basically ‘afterburn’ is the idea of burning calories and fat even after your workout is done and dusted. Sounds great doesn’t it ?! Sometimes it is referred to as EPOC (excess post exercise oxygen consumption).

In all honesty afterburn is achieved from all types of exercise. But certain exercises/styles of training achieve a great afterburn. Remember not all exercises are created equal.

All about afterburn

Afterburn occurs when you exercise and take yourself beyond what your capable of doing. Your body then uses the next 12, 24, 36 hours to ‘recover’ metabolically and that means its burning calories. Whoot whoot !!! Still with me ? I hope so, as this is a bit more of a technical blog but it’s important you get the gist of what I am saying. It’s important, so stick with me.

You see your body adapts to exercise stress via afterburn/EPOC, which causes the body to burn an elevated amount of calories so that it can get back to its ‘normal’ bodily state. The bigger the stress i.e. the between high intensity/low intensity exercise, the more difficult it is for the body to adapt to the stress you have applied to it. Long bouts of steady state exercise at a constant pace doesn’t cause a massive stress to the point where EPOC will be elevated over a long period of time. Don’t get me wrong it does elevate EPOC but the body is able to recover alot quicker. Whereas intense interval training/exercise will cause a huge elevation and therefore a longer recovery time.

Now I hear you say ‘so how many calories extra will I burn?’ – Through all my research and scouting over the internet there is no clear answer other than ‘alot’. It is very hard to accurately measure and quantify.

But studies comparing the same volume of caloric work between interval training/resistance training to aerobic steady state training do reveal a huge difference in total fat lost over a period of time. And evidence does show that change does happen post workout as a result of high intensity metabolic work that doesn’t happen to the same degree as with lower intensity work, even if the calories burned during the actual training are equal.

To back up what I am saying let’s look at some recent research data thanks to my friend Alwyn Cosgrove:

Knab et al: A 45-Minute Vigorous Exercise Bout Increases Metabolic Rate for 14 Hours.
Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2011 Feb 8.

These researchers had subjects undergo a bout of cycling at approx 73% of VO2 max (approximately 84% of max heart rate) for 45 mins. The subjects burned on average 520 calories in the 45 min training session. The following day their resting energy expenditure was increased an average of 190 cals compared to norm. Basically – the subjects burned an additional 37% MORE calories than the workout itself in the 14 hour post workout period — meaning that a single high-intensity session, when including the post-workout metabolic boost could burn up to 710 cals in total.

Heden et al: One-set resistance training elevates energy expenditure for 72 h similar to three sets.
European Journal of Applied Physiology. Volume 111, Number 3, 477-484, Mar 2011

The subjects were put on a very simple resistance training routine – full body training, either 1 or 3 sets per exercise of ten exercises. The researchers then examined the subjects resting energy expenditure at 24, 48 and 72 hours post workout. Both groups showed an elevated metabolism (afterburn effect) of around 100 cals per day. But there was no difference between groups. It seems that it’s intensity that determines how many calories are burned post-workout, not volume (obviously a higher volume program would burn more calories during the session than a lower volume program.

So what do I take from all this and more importantly what’s my advice to YOU ? Intensity in your workouts is key whether its weights or cardio. So push yourself hard. It’s well documented and proven that the most effective and efficient way to blowtorch fat is a combination of resistance training and some sort of interval/plyo/circuit routine that really elevates your heart rate. I call combining the two MRT or Metabolic Resistance Training. It would also make sense to choose big compound moves that engage many muscles to increase the intensity.

Any questions you know where I am !

Alex x