5 Ways to Make Leg Day More Beneficial

Training your legs is super important. Whilst the oldest cliche in weight training is missing leg day, you can’t deny that strong legs have a knock-on effect all over the body.

Legs are the base on which the rest of your body is built. When you perform exercises such as squats, lunges, stiff leg deadlifts etc you don’t just benefit your legs - you’ll train your back and core as well. You’ll be improving your joint stability and your injury resistance. Your athleticism will improve, not to mention your overall musculature.

When you weight train you stimulate the release of human growth hormone. When HGH release is stimulated, it benefits the whole body. Given the legs are the biggest of all the muscle groups, training them stimulates the largest release of human growth hormone.

In short, train your legs and EVERYTHING benefits!

Now we’ve established that leg training is important, let’s look at ways we can make it even more beneficial to you as a lifter. All of these approaches are evidence-based and should feature in your leg workouts…

Include Single leg Movements

One of the quickest and most effective ways of building overall strength is by ironing out any strength imbalances between sides. I like to do this with single-sided, or unilateral movements.

There’s not just a strength imbalance issue at play here - there’s a sporting element. We know that bilateral deficits exist (where one side is weaker than the other), which can impact sporting performance - jumping off one leg, accelerating when running or even changing direction is worse when you have a weaker side.

Ironing out these with split squats etc is very helpful in a sporting and injury resistance sense.

Improve Range of Movement

When you work through a full range of movement, you improve the strength of the muscles and the health of a joint. Unfortunately most people can’t manage to do that with squats and lunges, so they need help with it.

Weightlifting shoes are a massive help, because they raise the heels, making it easier to achieve greater squat depth. This means you increase the time under tension of the muscles, which improves their strength and capacity to lift (it removes any ‘sticking points’ in a lift).

Another way is to add a squat wedge. These have exploded in popularity over the last few years, and rightly so - they’re an excellent way of helping lifters to increase their range of movement and therefore strength on squats, lunges and split squats.

Include lateral movements

In the gym, most people perform leg exercises in one direction. The knees will move forwards and backwards, but rarely side to side. Whilst this is great from a squat and lunge strength perspective, it does little good for athletes who require side to side/lateral movements of their knees and legs as a whole.

If you participate in a sport that includes change of direction (which is most sports), you need to training your legs in a side-to-side manner as well. Research shows that lateral knee stability is improved by exercises that do this.

Follow the advice in this video to help you include these exercises into your training…

Mix up rep ranges

True fitness and strength will include a broad range of rep requirements in training. If you’ve spent your entire lifting life working in the same narrow rep range (usually 3 sets of 10), then you’ll only be good at that.

One way to mix things up and really improve the effectiveness of your leg training is to switch up the type of leg training you do. Adding high repetition sets (20+) to your workouts, as well as high weight, low rep sets (1-5 reps) will help to make you strong across a wide range. You’ll be strong and have great lower body endurance, which makes you truly versatile and will help build a lot of muscle.

Include power movements

People mix up power and strength, when they’re actually two very different things. You can be strong but not powerful, and powerful but not strong. Here’s a simple explanation…

Power is your ability to move a mass (weight, ball, yourself etc) at speed. Examples include throwing, jumping, weightlifting.

Strength is your ability to move a heavy mass, regardless of the speed. Examples being heavy squats, deadlifts, presses etc.

In most sports, power is more useful than strength. You build power by lifting lighter weights at high speed, but with an effort on large muscle groups. Think plyometrics, olympic weightlifting etc. Of course you need to have some level of strength in order to generate power, but by biasing power training, you’ll develop more useful sporting abilities and be generally ‘life fitter’.

5 Ways to Make Leg Day More Beneficial - Concluded

Leg day should be an integral part of your weekly training. Even if you’re only interested in aesthetics, leg training is important (as we discussed earlier).

By adopting these five lessons into your leg training, you’ll make it more useful, beneficial and effective.

If you want your health and fitness journey to be guided by the best personal training team in East London, get in touch with us at AdMac Fitness. We operate from our private personal training studio in Bow, E3. Contact us on 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

How to Get Your Warm Up Right

Warming up before exercise has been the subject of all kinds of change across the decades.

In the personal training world there are all kinds of different voices making suggestions… some people are saying that stretching is important. Other people say not so. Some say you should stretch, but only at certain times.

The good news is that there’s a lot of very credible research out there in the fitness space, so we can look at how the scientific community views warm ups and take advice on how best to prepare the body for exercise. Fundamentally that’s all a warm up is - a prep phase for what is about to come.

The evolution of warm ups…

If you cast your mind back to school PE lessons (well, if your teacher was anything like mine), a warm up would consist of standing by the side of a freezing cold pitch, perform a few stretches and then away you go - you’re playing!

It was amazing that there were fewer injuries - I think the only reason the injury rates were relatively low is because kids are basically made of elastic, so the injury frequency is a lot lower generally.

As time went on, it became more understood that you needed to ‘warm up’ the body properly, which is where the introduction of low intensity cardio came in. Gentle jogging, cross trainer use, rowing machines before a workout - they became increasingly important, for good reason.

In sporting circles, pre-event cardio became a feature too. Rather than standing by the side of a pitch stretching, you’d see players performing running drills and getting warm that way.

The stretching issue…

Stretching is another aspect of warm ups that have evolved significantly over the last few decades.

For many years there was one type of stretching - static stretching, where you bent into a stretch position and held it for a given period of time, usually anywhere between 10 and 30 seconds. As research into the area grew, it became apparent that static stretching wasn’t a great idea before exercise, simply because it doesn't really reduce injury risk.

As the research around stretching grew, we had improved recommendations. The type of stretching suggested now moved from static stretching to dynamic stretching - a type of stretching where you progressively elongate the muscles and work through a more functional range of movement. The results from the labs were consistently positive in terms of the improvement of range of movement and reduction in muscle stiffness.

When to stretch? The debate…

The general trend of the science shows that the best time for stretching is after a muscle is warm - this can be achieved actively (cardio/movement) or passively (sauna, warm bath/shower etc). We know this because blood flow increases flexibility and range of movement, but also it reduces the injury risk significantly.

Research shows us that when muscles are cold (which can happen outside in winter sports), the risk of injury is increased significantly. To reduce the risk, spend time making sure your muscles are warm before you do any kind of stretching. Whether you’re a runner, a football, rugby, hockey, golf player or any other outdoor sport, never stretch until you’ve done a warm up.

Some people don’t like to stretch at all, citing research that claims there’s a detrimental impact on muscle performance post stretching.

The counter argument to this claim is that muscle stiffness can have a much more severe detrimental effect on performance that any minor loss of power or strength post-stretching. The research does note that the loss in muscle function is very small, so it’s unlikely to make a big change to amateur sporting ability.

Movement based warm up…

If you’re warming up for a sporting event, there’s some credible research showing that you will benefit from a movement based warm up. This is one that gradually warms the body by the usual principles, but then adds in specific movement and technique drills.

This kind of warm up is effective because it doesn’t just warm the body - it practices movements and techniques, which has the effect of stimulating the neural system and warming that up too. It’s not just a case of warming the body, it’s also a practical way of warming up the movement patterns and specific timings ahead of the activity being undertaken.

So what’s the best warm up advice? The bottom line…

Based on what we have discussed here, a warm up should be based on what you’re about to do. A specific warm up is far more effective than a general warm up when you’ve got an activity to undertake. There are some commonalities, which are…

1. A gentle cardio element. This warms the body, most specifically the muscles and connective tissues that are about to be used. Always do this first.

2. Dynamic stretching. This is superior to static stretching, because it helps to reduce stiffness of a muscle and increase range of movement.

3. Movement specific warm ups. If you are taking part in a specific activity, such as throwing or jumping, warm up for this in particular. Take the time to work your body through specific drills to get it ready.

If you are in a gym, stages 1 and 2 here are applicable, then with number 3 you can adapt. You can perform a warm up set at the start of each exercise with an empty bar or light pair of dumbbells. It has the same effect - it practices a movement pattern, but at the same time it does so at low risk because of the light weight.

The AdMac Fitness personal training studio is in Bow, E3. We have personal trainers with a range of specialities, so we can offer the ideal personal trainer to help you achieve your goals. For more information on who we are, what we do and how we can help you achieve your health and fitness goals, contact us on… 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

Workout Finishers to Add Intensity to Your Training

Anyone who has had personal training with us at AdMac Fitness will know how we like to throw in a high intensity workout finisher into our sessions sometimes. It’s a way of maximising calorie burn and intensity of a session. It’s also a great way to challenge your fitness - being able to perform well under fatigue is a true test of your physical capabilities.

Workout finishers can be made up of all kinds of exercises and approaches, but the one constant they have is that they’re high intensity. They can be made up of traditional cardio exercise, resistance exercises or a combination of them both.

Here’s a few workout finisher ideas to add to your training…

Air Bike Finisher: 30-20-10 Watt Marker

This is a fantastic workout based around a mixture of time and power output, which is measured using the Wattage counter on the Air Bike screen.

You start with a 2 minute warm up; this is gentle, the idea is to get your legs and arms moving and your blood flowing.

On the 2 minute mark, the workout starts.

Ride for…

• 30 seconds maintaining 150-250 Watts (this is recovery pace)

• 20 seconds maintaining 300+ Watts (this is moderate-fast pace)

• 10 seconds flat out – aim for 700+ Watts (women) and 900+ Watts (men)

Continue for as many rounds as you need to!

Barbell Complexes

Set a barbell up with a light/medium weight - something you could manage about 20 deadlifts with. Perform the following complex…

• 1 Deadlift, 1 Power Clean, 1 Push Press

• Rest for 10 seconds and then perform…

• 2 Deadlifts, 2 Power Cleans, 2 Push Presses

• Rest for 15 seconds and then perform…

• 3 Deadlifts, 3 Power Cleans, 3 Push Presses

Keep going until you can’t complete the next circuit. It’s an all-body circuit that will burn a lot of calories and train a lot of muscle in three simple moves. If you don’t know the exercises, give them a quick search on YouTube.

Treadmill Hill Run

This is a great finisher, because it uses one item of kit and is a really simple way to train.

Set the treadmill at 5KPH and at 0% incline. Every 30 seconds increase the speed and incline by 0.5KPH and 0.5% incline.

Keep doing this until you can’t keep going any longer.

At this point either take 2 minutes rest and start again, or finish your workout.

Thrusters to Finish

Thrusters are an excellent finisher exercise because they leave no muscle untrained, they don’t need a heavy weight and they’re great to do when fatigued because the technique is relatively easy to pick up. This combo means that you can keep going until you’ve got nothing left in the tank!

You can either set a rep target (I’d suggest 100) or a time target (I’d suggest 5-10 minutes).

You keep performing reps with as few breaks as possible until your end point is reached.

Rowing Machine or Ski Erg Sprints

This one is particularly nasty… but the good news is it will torch fat, is simple to set up and will improve your cardio capabilities no end!

Set the rower or ski erg to 100m sprints, with a 20 second recovery.

Row or ski as fast as you can for the 100m - it will take you between 20 and 25 seconds per set.

Watch the rest timer count down for 20 seconds…

Repeat as many times as you can. Once your 100m sprints take longer than 30 seconds, it’s time to call the workout off!

These finishers are simple to set up, but tough to execute. The idea is that you give each and every one your all, so you leave the workout having maxed out your capabilities. When you perform finishers properly, they help elevate your fitness and calorie burn to a whole other level!

The AdMac Fitness personal training studio is in Bow, E3. We have personal trainers with a range of specialities, so we can offer the ideal personal trainer to help you achieve your goals. For more information on who we are, what we do and how we can help you achieve your health and fitness goals, contact us on… 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

Changing Seasons... Change Your Approach to Healthy Living?

As much as we hate to admit it, the summer is drawing to a close. The nights are drawing in, the mornings are that bit darker and there’s a slight nip in the air. The seasons are changing, so does that mean we have to change our approach to healthy living?

There’s definite value in adapting how you approach healthy living as the year progresses. As a base you should be switching your foods around if you want to maximise vitamin and mineral density, as well as taste. You can tweak your supplements as well in order to reflect the changing needs of your body.

Your exercise and sleep patterns can be switched up to maximise results and minimise risk.

As we head into the autumn, here’s some of the simple yet very effective lifestyle tweaks you can make to ensure great health…

Tip 1 - Start Supplementing Vitamin D Again

I’m assuming if you’re reading this you live in the UK. If that’s the case, as the sun fades away, our vitamin D levels go with them! This is a bit of an issue, because it’s such an important aspect of our overall health. Research suggests vitamin D has protective effects against cancer, heart disease, fractures and falls, autoimmune diseases, influenza, type-2 diabetes, and depression.

In the summer months (April-September), frequent sun exposure and natural light helps us to keep our vitamin D levels topped up naturally. In the colder, darker winter months however the sun isn’t strong enough to provide us with sufficient vitamin D.

To combat this, a daily vitamin D supplement is a good idea.

Tip 2 - Allow Yourself More Sleep

We are ‘photosensitive’ beings… in English this means we are affected by light. This is all kinds of light - natural light, artificial ‘blue’ light from screens, candle light etc. They can impact all kinds of things. Our mood is a good example - ‘yellow’ light from candles for example is relaxing, whereas ‘blue’ light from screens and ‘white’ light from fluorescent bulbs can impact our ability to sleep.

In general though, your body will require more sleep in the darker months than in the lighter summer months. This has been proven via research on seasonal changes in sleep cycles, so make allowances for the extra sleep. Turn off screens earlier, light candles and get to bed 30 minutes earlier than normal.

Tip 3 - Maximise Outdoor Time

This might sound counter intuitive given the world is getting colder and darker, but it’s still important to maximise time outside. Even if you live in a city, look for green spaces if possible. Even if it’s not, there are benefits to being outside and walking. You want to hit a minimum of 10k steps per day and that’s always best done outdoors - run an errand or two on the way and make your walk useful!

Being outdoors has been linked with calmer moods, reduced anxiety and improved general mental health. It’s also a great excuse to get away from a laptop and breathe in some fresh air. Don’t worry about the cold, just wrap up!

Tip 4 - Change Your Diet

Food is seasonal, and when you’re in tune with this there are all kinds of benefits you may not be aware of, ranging from health boosting to money saving. We’ve lost a lot of this knowledge though because we can import foods all year round, so we lose sight of the seasons.

We’re about to enter the root vegetable season. This means foods such as carrots, turnips, broccoli, onions, squashes, potatoes, parsnips etc are about to become much bigger, tastier and cheaper (who doesn’t love a bargain?!) . They’re also going to be more nutritious, so everyone wins!

Fruit wise, it’s time for apples, pears and berries.

Get rid of the salads and replace them with soups and stews.

Tip 5 - Boost Immunity

We all know how important great immune function is, so now is the time to build your immune system ahead of the winter colds and flu season. When it comes to immunity, we know that it’s just as important to stop reducing your immune capacity with late nights, excessive alcohol etc.

The basic immunity tips include all of the normal good advice… a healthy diet, plenty of sleep, take plenty of exercise and supplementing properly. Alongside the vitamin D, it’s a good idea to take a multivitamin and a cod liver oil every day.

Changing Seasons... Change Your Approach to Healthy Living? Concluded

There are without doubt differing requirements from summer to winter, but they don’t need to be dramatic or wholesale. A simple evolution in what you do will be sufficient, assuming you practice generally healthy behaviours generally!

Just take the advice here and make the necessary changes. You’ll maintain excellent health throughout the year, avoiding the winter cold and flu season and feeling great throughout the colder months.

Let AdMac Fitness help you with your fitness journey…

If you want your health and fitness journey to be guided by the best personal training team in East London, get in touch with us at AdMac Fitness. We operate from our private personal training studio in Bow, E3. Contact us on 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

Unconventional Abdominal Training - Working Your Abs Without Realising It

There’s a lot of nonsense written around abdominal training. You can tell that just by looking around any gym, or doing a quick google search of ‘abdominal training’. Unfortunately lots of personal trainers are no better, spouting the same nonsense without any real understanding.

The abdominals, or more importantly the core, are responsible for strength, stability, force generation, balance and rotation.

What this means is that if you perform exercises that challenge these abilities, you’ll be training the core without realising it. There’s a couple of benefits to this…

1. It makes your workout more efficient - the whole thing is done more quickly because you reduce the number of exercises you’ll be performing

2. You’ll provide a new challenge to your abdominals - they’ll lack the movement efficiency because they wouldn’t have trained these movements much, so it’ll be a real challenge

In this article I’m going to share a few of my favourite exercises that unconventionally train the abdominals. There won’t be a crunch in sight. They won’t be easy, but they’ll be effective - I can promise you that much!

Single limb exercises…

These are fantastic because they include multiple stabilising elements to them. Your core is forced to engage in order to keep your spine in a strong position. This engagement also helps to prevent your torso from rotating. Finally, there’s a balance element. Single limb training means you’ve got to balance your body on a smaller base of support, which forces the core to deeply engage.

Here’s a couple of single limb exercises that I like to use in my training. They have the added advantage of training the core too.

Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat

Standing Landmine Press

Overhead exercises

These are exercises when the weight is pushed or pulled overhead. This has the effect of making the abdominals switch on to keep the spine strong and stable as it supports a weight at height. The spine will have a tendency to flick into lordosis (arched lower back, with hips pushed forward) when heavy weights go overhead. A strong core helps to prevent this.

Switching the abs on with overhead exercises doesn’t just help the technique, it reduces the chance of injury, making these exercises significantly safer.

American Kettlebell Swing

Push Press

Squatting patterns

A lot of people don’t realise that squatting actually engages the abdominal muscles. What happens when you squat (especially front squat) is that your body has to generate spinal stiffness using the core muscles in order to maintain great technique.

When you pick up a heavy load, your body has to maintain its balance in three ways - front to back, side to side and up and down. All of this needs core engagement, making squatting patterns a great way of exercising your core without you realising it.

Front Squats

Pistol Squats

Unconventional Abdominal Training

All of these exercises are ways to challenge your core. They may not even be obvious at first - for example in the pistol squat, a lot of people fail because they lack the core strength to support their body weight.

If you’re squatting well over bodyweight with a barbell, but failing on a pistol it’s almost certainly because of a core issue. That may be your core isn’t strong enough to balance you through the movement, or it’s not keeping your spine in correct alignment.

By adding these exercises into your training regime you’ll be giving your core new challenges to deal with. This will improve both your athleticism and your overall fitness, busting you out of stagnant movement patterns you’ve grown too used to over time.

If you need any help building that bullet proof core, get in touch with the best personal training team in east London, based at AdMac Fitness…

The AdMac Fitness personal training studio is in Bow, E3. We have personal trainers with a range of specialities, so we can offer the ideal personal trainer to help you achieve your goals. For more information on who we are, what we do and how we can help you achieve your health and fitness goals, contact us on… 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

Switch Up Your Kettlebell Training With These Exercises

Kettlebells are awesome. Used correctly, they’re a seriously amazing training tool. They can offer a huge array of training variety, they are easy to carry and store, they can be used to train all of the muscles in the body and they’re available in a wide range of weights, so there’s a kettlebell for every need.

In terms of the technical aspects of what makes them so good, you can point to a couple of major plus points over other common resistance training tools…

1. They’re fantastic for training the posterior chain eccentrically (meaning the muscles contract when they lengthen).

2. The vast majority of kettlebell exercises (beyond swing and squat variations) are unilateral, meaning they train each side individually.

To many people, that may not mean a great deal. To a personal trainer though, those points are huge. Our muscles contract in a number of different ways. Enabling eccentric contraction across a lot of muscle is a big advantage and kettlebell swings do this better than most exercises.

The second point, the unilateral one is something that is only really shared between kettlebells and dumbbells.

Most barbell exercises and weight training machines use both sides of the body at the same time. Kettlebells and dumbbells (depending on the exercise) force each side to work independently. This means that the stronger side can’t dominate a movement, doing more of the work and leaving the weaker side to stay weaker.

Kettlebell exercises for you to try…

The chances are if you do already use kettlebells, you’re probably performing swings. You might be doing squats as well. The purpose of this article is to inspire you to switch things up a little bit. Here’s 5 exercises that you may not have done before, but will add an extra dimension to your kettlebell workouts…

Double Kettlebell Alternating Hang Clean

The double kettlebell hang clean is a great way of generating power through the upper back. It also distributes the load across two sides, so it’s truly unilateral. It’s a strong hinge movement and helps to train the back, core and shoulders effectively.

Single Arm Kettlebell Thruster

Thrusters are a great exercise at the bets of times. Add in the single arm element of it and you take the challenge in a whole other direction. By loading one side of the body you force the core to work harder to keep the torso upright and stabilise the spine. It’s a classic all-body movement.

Single Leg Romanian Deadlift

These are the perfect combination of being functional, challenging and really helpful when it comes to improving knee, hip and back stability. It helps to train the quads and glutes, as well as the lower back. They’re humbling as well, so start with a light weight!

Kettlebell Bulgarian Split Squat

This is an amazing leg exercise - one of the best of them all in my opinion. There’s a few reasons for this, but ultimately it comes down to the unilateral element of the exercise, forcing each side to work independently. It also encourages/allows a greater range of movement at the knee, so can generate extra squat depth over traditional squats.

Single Arm Kettlebell Swings

I’ve no doubt if you’re using kettlebells in your training, you’re probably using them for kettlebell swings. This variation is a less commonly used one, but it’s a great way to exaggerate the eccentric loading nature of the swings. It forces each side to work independently and allows you more volume per side that the traditional swing. It’s a great exercise and uses essentially the same technique, just with additional core engagement thanks to the anti-rotation element required.

Switch Up Your Kettlebell Training With These Exercises

Hopefully you’ve learned a few things here and generated a few new ideas for your kettlebell training going forward. We can get stuck in a dogma with exercise, so every now and then a fresh perspective, a few new ideas and a different approach can work wonders for us.

Add these kettlebell exercises into your routine and see how you get on.

The AdMac Fitness personal training studio is in Bow, E3. We have personal trainers with a range of specialities, so we can offer the ideal personal trainer to help you achieve your goals. For more information on who we are, what we do and how we can help you achieve your health and fitness goals, contact us on… 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

Can You Build Muscle with High Repetition Weight Training?

In fitness, there are some myths that just seem to stick. Even when evidence to the contrary emerges, there’s always a delay between the truth emerging and people changing their training habits. One of the tried and tested ‘truths’ we’re going to explore to day is the need to train heavy in order to gain muscle.

Is it true, or is it time we updated our thinking on the matter?

For decades the thinking has been that in order to grow muscle, you really should be lifting medium-heavy weights in an 8-12 rep range. Whilst there’s plenty of research supporting this approach, one question we can ask is ‘is it the only way, or can you build muscle with high repetition weight training?’

That’s what we’re about to explore in this blog post…

Muscle is a varied tissue…

A quick physiology lesson…

Not all muscle tissue is the same. In a given muscle, there’s a mixture of different fibre types, each with their own unique properties. Without going into serious detail, you can largely divide these into type 1 muscle fibres, and type 2 muscle fibres.

Type 1 fibres are commonly known as ‘slow twitch’ fibres. They take longer to fatigue, but their capacity to generate force and increase in size is limited. People who have great endurance are usually type 1 dominant in the sense that type 1 fibres make up more of their muscle mass. They’re less likely to be big, strong and powerful, but they’d run a 10k race without trying!

Type 2 fibres are spilt into several different types (but that’s not especially important here). They’re known as ‘fast twitch’ fibres. These are the opposite of slow twitch fibres. They have a greater capacity for growth, force generation and strength, but they fatigue quickly. Fast twitch dominant people excel in strength and power events, but would find a 10k race a challenge.

Training the different muscle fibre types…

Just as they have different capacities, the different fibre types respond well to different types of training. Given most of us aren’t at the extremes of fibre type distribution (like we see in the above examples), we would respond better to a varied type of training.

Bolt may be 80% fast twitch fibre, Kipchoge the same for slow twitch fibres. The rest of us will be much closer to 50% each (with some variation of course).

If we solely focus on one type of training, we leave behind the other fibres. That’s exactly what we’re doing though if we train within the same rep range all of the time. We don’t give much opportunity for the fibres we’re neglecting to maximise their capacity for growth. Imagine the possibility for improvement if we make the other 50% of our muscle work as it should!

What does the research show about high rep training and muscle growth?

There has been a few research studies around the effectiveness of lighter weight, higher repetition weight training for muscle growth (hypertrophy). The results have been clear - it works!

One of the pre eminent researchers in the space is Brad Schoenfeld and his research team identified in a 2015 study that lower weight, higher rep training approach helped to increase muscle growth. It also had the secondary benefit of improving muscle endurance. Whilst the research clearly stated that in order to maximise strength you have to lift heavy, when it comes to muscle growth, there’s certainly a place for higher rep work.

This isn’t the only study to conclude these results either…

A 2017 meta analysis of the data around low load training for hypertrophy concluded that muscle hypertrophy can be equally achieved across a spectrum of loading ranges.

Finally (because we’re at risk of labouring the point too much), research as recently as 2021 has analysed significant amounts of data and previous studies and has concluded yet again that… the compelling body of literature indicates that similar whole muscle growth (i.e., muscle thickness, CSA) can be achieved across a wide spectrum of loading ranges ≥ ~30% 1RM. These findings are independent of age and training status.

The point being, the science is showing us that yes, you can build muscle with lighter weights and previous assumptions that you couldn’t, are wrong.

Tips to maximise muscle growth with lighter weights

A few tips to getting the most from your lighter weight hypertrophy training…

• Stick with full body workouts - stimulate more muscle with each session. Forget split routines here and go the whole hog! Whole body every time.

• Train to failure - if you’re going to build muscle with lighter weights, you’ve got to go to failure. No half measures. This is especially important when it comes to isolation exercises.

• Use compound movements - these are the big, multi-joint movements. Think squats, bench press, deadlifts, rows, overhead presses etc.

• Train frequently - lighter weights will mean less recovery. Shoot for 4-6 workouts per week, making sure you follow all of the advice above.

Using lighter weights to build muscle in an excellent way to shake up your training. It also helps to give your body a break, it aids with connective tissue strength and health and gives you a new challenge to focus on!

It could be just the change your training needed…

The AdMac Fitness personal training studio is in Bow, E3. We have personal trainers with a range of specialities, so we can offer the ideal personal trainer to help you achieve your goals. For more information on who we are, what we do and how we can help you achieve your health and fitness goals, contact us on… 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

Fasting - There's More to it than Weight Loss

When you think of fasting, the immediate benefit that springs to mind is the weight loss effect. You hear stories of people losing significants amount of weight by simply not eating (makes sense), but weight loss is actually only a small part of the benefits.

Fasting is a powerful tool for helping you to look and feel better. It can be diagnostic in nature, it helps your body to ‘take a break’ and when done for long enough, it stimulates a process called ‘autophagy’, which is your body’s way of doing a spring clean of itself.

In this article we’ll look at the research around fasting and look at a diarised account of what happens during a fast.

Defining Fasting

Before we go any further, let’s first of all define a fast. In this case we’re referring to fasting being abstaining from anything other than water and black coffee for a given period of time.

The reason this is important to define is because thanks to people like Dr Michael Mosely and his 5:2 diet, some people think of a fast as merely a day of eating less. This isn’t a fast in any sense of the word - it’s just a day of severely restricted eating.

The benefits we’re looking for from fasting come from a complete abstention from food.

Autophagy… What and Why

The body can be viewed in some ways as a complex manufacturing plant. It is taking in raw materials (food) and turning them into products (new cells, energy, waste products). As the factory is is working, some of the machines (cells) get worn out and damaged.

Autophagy is a process whereby the body cleans these cells out. For a definition, look no further than this from Medical News Today…

Autophagy is a vital process in which the body’s cells ‘clean out’ any unnecessary or damaged components.

It comes from Greek and the word translates as ‘self eating’. Evidence shows that the body not only removes these damaged and dead cells, but it also uses the useful parts to recycle into new cells. This is the first major benefit of fasting - the removal of dead tissues and the regeneration of new cells.

The research proves without any doubt that fasting is a very effective way to trigger the process of autophagy in the body.

Fasting reduces inflammation

There has long been a suggestion that fasting reduces inflammatory markers in the blood and can help to reduce general inflammation in the body. Previous much of these benefits were either anecdotal (felt by the individual, but not proven in a lab), or based on rodent models.

We now have research that shows a pathway linking fasting and reduced inflammation. Researchers have found that fasting inhibits sources of inflammation in the body, meaning there are profound effects on the recovery from injuries and illness. It also suggests that some diseases may be prevented in the first place, thanks to a lack of inflammatory trigger.

Using fasting to help treat and prevent cancer

Cancer is a tricky subject to cover, but there are so many different types of cancer, each with their own nuances and treatment plans.

What we do know is that certain types of cancer seem to respond to fasting as part of an overall treatment approach. That’s not to suggest that fasting is a treatment on its own by the way, but there is definite positive research linking fasting and effective cancer treatment.

There’s a suggestion that fasting may be an effective preventative measure against cancer, with some people suggesting lack of glucose provided by no food coupled with the autophagy triggered by fasting could be an effective preventative strategy. It’s important to note though that research into this is in it’s infancy and whilst it’s showing promise as an approach, it shouldn’t be taken as a given that it works.

Weight loss…

Now on to the one that most people think is the reason you should fast - the weight loss. Yes, fasting does help you to lose weight, and it does so for an obvious reason. Weight loss is simply a matter of calories in versus calories out. When you’re fasting, it’s easy to lose weight because you aren’t eating.

What we know is that fasting is an approach that can help weight loss in a couple of other ways…

1. It helps to modify behaviours. It teaches people that hunger is transient, so they don’t feel the need to eat every time they get a hunger pang.

2. The black and white nature of it means it helps people deal with food choices. When you’re fasting, there’s no food choice to make, so you can’t make a bad one!

3. Fasting helps to reduce hunger hormones, so people who fast tend to feel less hungry anyway. It helps overweight people control their appetite more effectively.

Whilst there are plenty of other dietary approaches that are effective for weight loss, it appears that fasting offers some interesting benefits that may help it be more successful for some people than other approaches.

What happens when you fast?

This depends on how long you fast for. Some people think they’d ‘starve’, but the reality is all of our bodies are perfectly equipped to deal with a fast. It’s harder psychologically than it is physically.

Hunger is transient though. It comes and goes, so whilst you think you’d get progressively more hungry as the fast goes on, the reality is nothing like that. You will experience periods of hunger that last around 10 minutes, but then they’d go and you’ll be fine again!

Once you go beyond 24 hours, you start to notice other benefits such as alertness, reduced aches and pains (as the inflammation dies down) and weight loss as your body gets rid of water and fat stores.

For a detailed account of what a three day fast feels like, read this here. It details what happened, what to expect and what the results were.

Let AdMac Fitness help you with your fitness journey…

If you want your health and fitness journey to be guided by the best personal training team in East London, get in touch with us at AdMac Fitness. We operate from our private personal training studio in Bow, E3. Contact us on 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

Cardio - What's the Current Thinking?

Those of us who are old enough to remember exercise in the early 2000’s will know that ‘cardio’ went through a bit of a decline. Like most things, fitness goes through phases and fashions - some approaches become the ‘in’ thing, and others fall out of popularity.

It was cardio’s turn to suffer in the early 2000’s, when coaches like Charles Poliquin suggested that cardio wasn’t a great tool for fat loss.

Consequently, amongst a certain generation of exercisers cardio fell out of fashion. Instead, people used stricter dieting coupled with intense weight training to get themselves in shape. It was an approach that worked (and continues to, because physiology doesn’t change), but was the criticism aimed at cardio fair?

In this article we’ll look at cardio, define the different types and see what the value is in each approach. You’ll be able to decide what’s best for you.

Why was cardio shunned in the first place?

Amongst a certain subset of people who trained (mostly young men), cardio gained a reputation for shedding muscle. The more cardio you did, the more muscle you lost was the thinking. There was also an assertion that muscle was a really ‘metabolically active’ tissue, meaning it burned a lot of calories even at rest. The theory was that if you got rid of muscle, you’d reduce your body’s ability to burn fat.

Ultimately, if fat loss is your aim then it’s a case of calories in versus calories out. If you want to lose fat, simply eat fewer calories than your body needs. It’ll make up for its shortfall by using up your fat reserves.

You don’t need to do cardio to lose fat. But then assumes that the only reason to do cardio is fat loss, which is utter nonsense.

Benefits of Cardio

Once people understood there was more to cardio than just losing weight, it began to increase in popularity again. The evidence began to prove that it didn’t shed muscle in the way people thought it would, so that worry eased.

The positive impact on heart health, brain function, blood pressure, hormonal profile, sleep, calorie burn, bone density, connective tissue health etc associated with cardiovascular exercise became even more clear. When these benefits of cardiovascular exercise were proven beyond all doubt, the voices of the naysayers quietened.

Cardio started to gain popularity again, only this time with a twist.

Cardio in it’s Current State

Fast forward a couple of decades and cardio is back on the menu, only this time the menu is much bigger!

To explain what I mean, I’ll run you through a few of the more common types of cardio, their unique points and how they are best used. This isn’t an exhaustive list, but it’ll certainly help you learn more about the different types of cardio exercise…

Steady State

This is what most people think of as cardio. This is where you pick a particular exercise (running, swimming, cycling, rowing etc) and perform it for a given period of time at a relatively low intensity. This is the one the gym bro’s turned their backs on. It might not be the most interesting or varied approach, but there’s a lot of benefit to it.

It’s a simple way to exercise, it burns a lot of calories, improves cardiovascular health markers and a version of it can be done anywhere.

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

HIIT is an approach that has really exploded in popularity over the last 15 years or so. It’s set periods of very high intensity training mixed with periods of low intensity work. This can take any form - running, cycling, rowing etc. You can vary the length of the work and rest intervals for different purposes, but they tend to be set for a workout. They also have to be very high intensity. That’s where the benefit comes in - the overreaching of your capabilities.

The calorie burn is very high and the workouts are typically very short on account of the intensity. Your cardiovascular fitness will improve very quickly with the approach. It’s fantastic when you don’t have much time either.

Interval/Fartlek Training

This is another form of interval training, but the difference here is that the intervals are less ‘prescriptive’ - they can be more fluid, so you can mix in periods of super high intensity with super low intensity and something in between. Think of a run where you’ll jog for 5 minutes, sprint for 3 seconds, walk for 2 minutes, then sprint for 20 seconds, job for 3 minutes etc. The point is to mix it up as you see fit.

This approach also burns a lot of calories, is a great way of keeping interest and motivation high and it improves cardiovascular health markers. Additionally it’s really beginner friendly because it can be mixed up to suit abilities and fitness levels.

Metabolic Conditioning (MetCon)

This is the new kid on the cardio block, which has been born out of the CrossFit explosion. Met con workouts are usually done with resistance training (occasionally with cardio mixed in) at a high intensity. You’ll typically lift light to medium weights, perform lots of reps and keep your heart rate and intensity high throughout the session. The plan is that it will burn a lot of calories whilst training muscle, meaning you’ll benefit from weight training and cardiovascular improvements.

Metcons are great for when you don’t have much training time available but want a tough workout. They’re not as effective as pure cardio for improving the cardiovascular system, but the overall health benefits are likely better.

Cardio - final thoughts

There’s no doubt at all that cardio has its place in a general fitness regime. Whichever approach you take from the above, your health and fitness will benefit, so you can’t really go wrong. Just make sure you add some into your workouts - it’s too beneficial to neglect!

If you want your health and fitness journey to be guided by the best personal training team in East London, get in touch with us at AdMac Fitness. We operate from our private personal training studio in Bow, E3. Contact us on 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

Glute Training - there's More to it than Building a Booty

Glute training exploded in popularity about 10 years ago… around about the same time that Instagram took off and fitness influencers became more popular. Before then, outside of the strength and condoning world, nobody really bothered with glute exercises. You’d never see people doing hip thrusts etc.

Now even in commercial gyms you’ll see people performing various glute exercises. There’s programmes written about growing your glutes and equipment providers have started to produce machines specifically to train your glutes!

The thing is, there’s so much more than building a booty to glute work. Strong glutes help you athletically, they help to prevent injury and they are a genuinely functional muscle to strengthen. They help to generate power, strengthen the lower back and serve as a powerful junction between upper and lower body.

If glute day is going to become a thing, we want you to do it properly. Here’s 5 glute exercises that you need to be doing if you want to build a strong set of cheeks…

Single leg deadlifts

The single leg deadlift is a really humbling exercise. It’s the kind of thing that you look at, think ‘ah, that’ll be easy enough’ and then try with a decent weight. Your standing leg will wobble like you’re stood on jelly. Your glute will scream at you and the whole thing will look like a disaster.

It’s an exercise you really want to persevere with though, making sure you get good at it. It’s an excellent glute strengthener, it trains the lower back effectively, helps with knee stability and engages the core.

Shoot for 4 sets of 10 per leg. Start with a light weight - you’ll quickly learn why if you go too heavy!

Hip thrusts

These are probably the most famous of all glute exercises. They’re a pretty simple set up, don’t take much in the way of technique to learn and are very effective. They allow a lot of weight to be lifted by the glutes as well, so they’re excellent for strengthening the muscles.

You can set these up with most kinds of barbell, use a pad for comfort if you need to, and adjust the height of your feet and back support to increase or decrease the range of movement with the exercise.

Aim for 5 sets of 8 here.

Split squats

The split squat is often neglected in favour of other forms of squats - usually barbell back squats. The beauty of the split squat is that it is a unilateral exercise, forcing both sides to work independently. It means that the stronger side doesn’t dominate the movement like it can with a barbell.

The other benefit is the range of movement is bigger. The greater depth you hit with the split squat really engages the glutes, forcing them to work extra hard. This help you iron out strength imbalances and improves lower limb joint health.

Aim for 4 sets of 10 per side.

Step Ups

Step ups are a super functional exercise - anyone who has had to walk up several flights of stairs, or climbed a big hill knows how hard walking up something steep can be! Step ups are this movement and then some! Being a unilateral exercise they iron out strength imbalances, plus they’re known to be one of the best glute exercises there is.

They are easy to adjust - you can lift heavier or lighter weights, and you can increase or decrease the height of the step you’re using to do the step ups. They work well either with a fixed number of repetitions, or for a given time period.

Aim for 4 sets of 20 per leg.

Lateral band walks

These are a great exercise for prehab (preventing injuries rather than fixing them), but they are equally as useful as part of a glute training plan. They’re simple to do, don’t require you to learn much technique or need much equipment. Ideally you’ll have a little space to walk in, but if not it works well going to side to side.

You can adapt the strength of the band relative to the exercise intensity - this means you can use a tighter, thicker band if you want to go harder. Likewise you can go for longer if you want the muscles to do more work.

Aim for 3 sets of 60 seconds in both directions.

Glute training - final thoughts

You don’t need to over-complicate your glute workouts to get the most from them. In fact, a handful of simple movements that are executed well is perfectly suitable. There’s an opportunity to build a powerful, strong and impressive peach just by using these 5 exercises and working hard each time.

If you’re wanting any additional guidance, our expert team of personal trainers at AdMac Fitness are on hand.

Are you interested in working with AdMac Fitness? Read on…

The AdMac Fitness personal training studio is in Bow, E3. We have personal trainers with a range of specialities, so we can offer the ideal personal trainer to help you achieve your goals. For more information on who we are, what we do and how we can help you achieve your health and fitness goals, contact us on… 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

How to Speed Up Your Post-Exercise Recovery

When you’re new to training, or you’re training particularly hard, you can end up stiff and sore for a few days after. It’s the same if you’ve followed a particularly tough training programme for a while - you’ll likely accumulate fatigue and need some rest.

So the advice in this post is how to speed up your post-exercise recovery (without the need for any expensive treatments or supplements). The advice contained within this article is practical, achievable and doesn’t require you to do anything extraordinary!

Follow these tips and you’ll be recovered in no time at all…

Get plenty of food in…

The research around your post-exercise food requirements is really clear. It says you need carbohydrates and protein. Nothing out of the ordinary here.

The confusion lies within how much and when this food should be taken. The reality is that the science is a little sketchy and there’s no clear answer. The evidence for an ‘anabolic window of opportunity’ appears to be slim at best.

Instead, the suggestion of protein and carbohydrate consumed after workout will help to speed the recovery of glycogen (your body’s sugar stores) and start the rebuilding and repair of tissues damaged in the workout. In terms of how much protein you should be eating, the general advice is that a figure of around 1g per pound/2g per kilo of bodyweight is perfect.

Sleep as much as you need to…

Notice here how the advice is to sleep as much as you need to? That’s on purpose.

We know from research that there’s no such thing as the perfect amount of sleep and that you can’t make a blanket guideline that will suit everyone. The suggestion is to aim for 7-10 hours of sleep, but in their 2021 narrative review, sleep researchers suggested that post exercise sleep should be advised as following…

‘An individualised approach that should consider the athlete’s perceived sleep needs.’

With this in mind, there’s no need to worry about a certain sleep target. Your body will tell you how much sleep you need - as long as you don’t feel tired, assume you’re getting enough sleep. Whether that’s 7, 8, or even 12 hours - if you’re asleep, you obviously needed it!

Stick to a solid sleep routine - no phones in bed, aim for a similar bed time each night, avoid excess caffeine or alcohol before bed etc. All of the usual suspects required for a good night’s sleep.

Drink plenty of water

A big asset when it comes to keeping yourself healthy is making sure you’re sufficiently hydrated. There are no hard and fast rules for hydration - a good guideline is to make sure you drink enough water to keep your urine clear.

Hydration isn’t just about making sure you’re not thirsty - over 60% of your body is water, so making sure you’ve got enough of it is important. You don’t need to overdo it, otherwise you’ll spend half of your day running to the toilet. Shoot for a minimum of 2 litres - that’s a solid baseline for most people.

Fizzy drinks and caffeinated drinks aren’t as good - they’re dehydrating, so replacing water with coffee/tea/cola etc isn’t OK. You can get away with sports drinks and diluted fruit juices etc, but avoid getting by on strong coffee, thinking you’re doing your body a favour!

Use a sauna

What was once seen as a quirky Scandinavian thing has now been proven to be an incredible health tool. The research around saunas has moved from ‘do they actually work?’ right through to ‘how do they benefit human performance?’

What we know is that the answer is a clear ‘yes’. Saunas have a positive impact on a number of health biomarkers, including recovery, cardiovascular health and even low level detoxification (some surface-level toxins can be excreted via sweat in the sauna).

The performance and recovery from exercise element is fascinating. In runners, research showed that sauna bathing increased the time to exhaustion by a huge 32%! The scientists believe that this is down to an increase in blood volume created by the sauna use.

In more recovery-focussed piece of research, pre-activity sauna use was shown to improve the effects of DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness), increasing range of movement and reducing pain ahead of the next session. This shows that pre-exercise sauna use will be helpful for post-exercise recovery.

Finally, the hormonal response to sauna use is increased growth hormone production, which is important because it helps the muscles, bones and connective tissues recover from high intensity exercise and the damage that it creates.

Enjoy expert level coaching…

One of the simplest ways to make sure you’re able to recover from exercise is to do an appropriate level of it in the first place! By hiring an AdMac Fitness personal trainer you’ll have your workouts planned for you, meaning you’ll be working at an appropriate level of intensity.

Not only will you have access to the best personal trainers in east London, you’ll also be training in a private studio and will enjoy fantastic results.

We have personal trainers with a range of specialities, so we can offer the ideal personal trainer to help you achieve your goals.

For more information on who we are, what we do and how we can help you achieve your health and fitness goals, contact us on… 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

Meet the AdMac Fitness Personal Trainers: Nancy

The most effective type of personal training is when the relationship between coach and client is strong. At AdMac Fitness we really value the closeness of the relationships between the team and the clients. To help you get to know the team a little better, we’re running an occasional series of interviews with the team, so you can learn a little more about us all!

Up next is Nancy, one of the more recent recruits to the AdMac Fitness team!

So, Nancy, introduce yourself!

My name is Nancy and I’m a personal trainer here at Admac fitness.

How long have you been interested in fitness?

My passion for fitness began 5 years ago when I started weightlifting. Before then, I went to the gym but wasn’t training for a specific goal and found myself not making any real progress. When I started using weights, I started to feel and see real changes.

What is your favourite type of exercise?

I love the traditional power lifts - in particular the squat and deadlift.

What makes you unique as a personal trainer?

I’m particularly interested in the details of a client’s diet. I and enjoy coaching people into seeing food as fuel and I encourage people to get creative with their veggies. I also have a few great recipes up my sleeve!

What do you enjoy most about personal training?

I love seeing the client journey. It’s often challenging to start with, but the stronger and more agile someone is, the easier life gets and the more empowered you’ll feel.

Finally, what can clients expect from you?

Whether your goal is to build muscle, lose fat or improve your fitness, we can work together to achieve your goals enjoyably! Fitness should be enjoyable, not something you dread.

To book personal training sessions with Nancy in our private personal training studio, contact us on 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

East London Personal Trainer... Why You'll Love AdMac Fitness

If you’re looking for a personal trainer in east London, let us tell you why AdMac Fitness is the perfect place to train. Having built our reputation as east London’s best private personal training studio over the last few years, we can share with you a few reasons why we’re the go-to venue for anyone looking to improve their health and fitness…

AdMac Fitness has amazing personal trainers

What makes a great personal trainer?

In our opinion it’s not just an in-depth knowledge of fitness and exercise programming. It isn’t about nutrition either. They’re the ‘hard skills’ that anyone can learn. Of course they’re fundamental to being a great trainer, but to truly help people get the best from themselves you have to be able to work with clients.

We don’t do the screaming and shouting - if you want that, join the army!

Instead the AdMac Fitness personal trainers work with clients, creating a team that helps you on your way to amazing results. We combine expert fitness and nutrition guidance with a supportive, hard working culture that allows people with different goals to thrive under one roof.

In a world where personal trainers are ten a penny, you have to be good to be successful. That’s why we’re still here, long after many other personal trainers have upped sticks and left the industry. We get results!

Private, supportive environment

The AdMac Fitness team operate out of a private personal training studio in Bow, E3. There’s a lot of reasons why this works so well for our clients…

• It’s a private gym, so you never have to wait for equipment

• You can exercise without fearing judgement - it’s an amazingly supportive environment

• Other users become friends. We’re all trying to achieve the same goals!

• There’s never any comprise on kit - our personal trainers design effective workouts because they know our equipment properly!

• It’s a clean, well-run space

Your surroundings are key to your success. If you feel as though you are exercising in an environment that supports you, relaxes you and inspires you, you’re going to go the extra mile. You’ll work harder, you’ll enjoy it more and you’ll write your own success story.

There’s a reason why personal training is so effective…

We operate a people-first culture

In the modern world we’re rapidly losing connection. Our friendships are managed over social media. Our dating is handled by apps. Our shopping is done online…

AdMac Fitness is the antidote. We put people and interaction first. You train with us, in-person. You interact, we chat, we support each other. We want to put the ‘personal’ into personal training. That means you’ll follow your own distinct programme. You workouts are yours - not something we downloaded off the internet.

Our personal trainers don’t just update your workouts and count your reps, they share your journey and they take a genuine interest in what you’re doing and how you’re doing it.

Our personal training clients join for the results, but they stay for the culture. They become part of the journey of AdMac Fitness, and our success stories are an amazing advert for what we do. Whether it’s helping someone to shed 50lbs, or help a person build muscle and confidence, happy clients are loyal clients and that’s how we’ve done so well.

The AdMac Fitness personal trainers achieve amazing results…

Always be wary of a personal trainer who doesn't have evidence of the results they helped their clients achieve. Unless you can point to your success, how can you be expected to be trusted to deliver?

The social proof of what we do at AdMac Fitness is abundant… we have so many success stories that validate our approach to training. The sheer range of success, with people from a wide variety of background and with a whole range of health and fitness goals shows the versatility and expertise of our personal trainers.

We don’t hand pick our easy wins, we help anyone who is willing to come in with enthusiasm, a smile and a commitment to what we ask them to do. We don’t pretend that change is easy, but we do promise to support you the whole way!

Are you interested in working with AdMac Fitness? Read on…

The AdMac Fitness personal training studio is in Bow, E3. We have personal trainers with a range of specialities, so we can offer the ideal personal trainer to help you achieve your goals. For more information on who we are, what we do and how we can help you achieve your health and fitness goals, contact us on… 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

Training in the Hot Weather - 5 Useful Tips

It’s that time of year agin, when the days are long, the temperature rises and the world seems like a better place! For those of us who exercise, the summer brings with it a whole new set of challenges for us to deal with. Things we didn’t even consider in the other seasons now come to the forefront of our minds. Dealing with the heat and its challenges needn’t be a problem though, if you follow some basic advice.

In this article we’re going to provide you with 5 practical, actionable tips that will help you deal with training in the hot weather. They’ll help make you comfortable and allow you to get the most out of your summer exercise regime.

Tip #1 - Hydrate/Rehydrate Properly

This is so important that I wanted to put it first. There has been some strong research on exercise in the heat and sweating rates. As you’d expect, sweating rates tend to be proportional to three main points…

1. Temperature - we sweat more as the environmental temperature increases

2. Exercise intensity - the harder we’re working, the more we’ll be sweating

3. Fitness levels - the fitter and lighter we are, the less we tend sweat

There are some factors that we can control, others we can’t. Whilst there’s no way to control the outside temperature of your training environment, you can change the time of day at which you train, or the clothes you wear to train in.

Recommendations from the research suggests that performing exercise at moderate to high intensity, in intense heat you can expect lose around 3-4 litres of sweat/water per hour, or up to 10 litres of water per day. If you are training particularly hard in the peak heat, use these figures as a measuring stick for re-hydration requirements.

Tip #2 - Wear sunscreen

Another obvious point is the application of sunscreen. By now we all know we need to wear it, but what has been less clear is the details around application - do we need a particular SPF? How should we apply it? When should we apply it etc?

Canadian research has looked at sunscreen application and provides us with the following guidelines…

1. Use a minimum of factor 30

2. Go with generous application - ideally in cream rather than spray form to ensure good application

3. Apply 15-30 minutes before intended use to allow it to settle

4. If heavy sweating is expected, use a waterproof sunscreen

5. Re-apply if you’ve been in water

The important thing to remember with sunscreen is that for the most part, it’s a chemical barrier, not a physical one. You are protected from the harmful elements of sun exposure by the chemicals in the cream. It doesn’t ‘block’ the sunlight, it helps to absorb the negative elements of it.

If you have particularly sensitive areas (ears, lips, nose, eyes etc), then a full block may be advisable, such as the zinc sticks popular in sports such as cricket.

Tip #3 - Pick the right time of day to train

We’re told to avoid the peak sun where possible, because it’s when it’s at its most damaging and generally the temperatures are highest too. The time of day when this occurs can vary on a number of factors, but the general acceptance is that the hottest point of the day is 12-3pm. This is when the sun is at its hottest, which means floors, walls and surfaces are heated too.

These warm surfaces then radiate heat back into the environment, so it ends up becoming a perpetual cycle for a period of time.

If possible, avoid training outdoors during these hours, unless of course you’ve taken appropriate measures against the ill effects of the heat. Get the sunscreen on, drink plenty, dress appropriately etc.

Tip #4 - Reduce warm up time if it’s appropriate

When training in the cold, we have to increase the amount of time and care we put into our warm ups, because of the issues around reduced blood flow and the impact that has on tissue elasticity, and ultimate;y movement quality and injury risk.

Thankfully, the reverse is true in the warm weather.

A physiological process known as vasodilation (widening of the blood vessels) helps to improve circulation - vasodilation occurs naturally in the warm weather. In a warm up, we are moving to increase body temperature, creating vasodilation another way.

The additional blood flow created by vasodilation means that tissues are more elastic and able to move well in the warm weather. It’s also important for helping to reduce injury risk. What you may find is that in the warm weather you won’t need to warm up as thoroughly, which can save you time and energy in the heat.

Tip #5 - Dress appropriately for the weather

Your body is a pretty efficient machine when it comes to cooling itself - it radiates heat through the skin and produces sweat, which cools the body as it evaporates.

The clothes we wear can impact that significantly though, whether by keeping us too warm or harming the effectiveness of our natural cooling measures. Here’s a few pointers that will help you make better gym wear decisions, allowing you to stay cool in the hotter weather…

1. Layers are insulating, so try to reduce the amount of layers you wear

2. Avoid heavy materials such as wool or thick cotton

3. Expose as much skin as possible - trousers and jumpers will keep you warm, whereas shorts and t-shirts will help cool you

4. Wear breathable fabrics or cuts of clothes with airflow - elasticised cuffs and synthetics materials reduce airflow and create more sweat

5. A lot of heat is lost through our heads, so if you’re liable to sweat, don’t wear a hat

These are common sense for the most part, but they’re important if you want to be comfortable training in hot weather. By all means wear a heavy cotton tracksuit to go for a run at 1pm, but don’t say you weren’t warned!

Hot weather training - summary

It’s possible to train safely in the heat, but you just have to exercise caution. Follow these tips, use some common sense and you’ll be absolutely fine. It’s a case of taking care of yourself and not being silly. You’ll thence able to enjoy some great workouts in the summer sunshine - and there’s plenty to love about that!

If you want your health and fitness journey to be guided by the best personal training team in East London, get in touch with us at AdMac Fitness. We operate from our private personal training studio in Bow, E3. Contact us on 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

Joint Health - Looking After Your Moving Parts

Anecdotal observation highlights joint injuries are incredibly frequent - especially among active people. Think of the common names for many of the joint injuries we’re aware of….

‘Tennis’ elbow, ‘Runner’s’ knee, ‘Golfer’s’ elbow, ‘Boxer’s’ knuckle, ‘Pitcher's’ shoulder… you get the point.

So if activity and injury are such frequent companions, how do we protect ourselves against frequent joint injuries? Are there steps we can take to reduce the risk, given the alternative (not exercising) has even greater risks attached?

The answer is yes, there are simple steps you can take to reduce your joint injury risk significantly.

In this article we’re going to outline a very simple three step approach to making sure you are doing everything possible to ensure your joints are protected and you stay injury free. Not only that, by taking some of the approaches in this article, you’ll make yourself more athletically capable and more muscular too.

A three step approach to improving your joint health…

Our goal here is to simplify and to give you practical guidance that you could realistically follow at home or in the gym. You won’t be told about expensive cryotherapy, massage techniques or anything involving additional people or skills - all of these three are completely achievable on your own.

Before we start though, let’s look at the main points that cause joint injury…

• Muscle weakness/imbalance

• Connective tissue health and tightness

• Inflammation

By addressing these we can prevent joint injury, and in the case of many existing injuries we can remove the problem entirely.

Tip #1 - Improve muscle strength

Joints are inherently unstable - they’re essentially held together by ligaments, supported by muscles which are attached via tendons. There’s a limited amount of strengthening work you can do for the connective tissues (most of which is achieved by loading them anyway), so the focus has to be on strengthening the muscles that surround the joint.

Doing this helps in two ways…

1. It allows the muscles to offset some of the loading on the joints

2. It protects the structural integrity of the joint - stronger muscles do a better job of holding the joint in place

Research shows us that strengthening muscles around the joints can have a positive effect on conditions such as arthritis. We also know that strong muscles can have a protective effect for ligaments. This is also a preventative measure against future injury as well.

Pick exercises that help to engage muscles across the full range of the joints, such as knees over toes split squats and push ups on parallettes...

Finally, the work done to strengthen the muscles will also have a strengthening effect on the ligaments, tendons and bones, making for a universally protective measure. There’s a benefit to strength training that goes FAR beyond having bigger muscles.

Tip #2 - Stretch more!

Another protective measure against join pain is ensuring the muscles around the joints are supple. There incidences such as shoulder pain, knee pain, hip pain and back pain that are often (in part) the result of tightness in the muscles that surround and anchor joints.

It’s not to say that stretching alone is going to be responsible for joint pain disappearing, but what it will allow is free movement of the muscles around the joints, which can help to protect the joints as they move. It also helps to keep the connective tissues such as the ligaments and tendons in good working order. If they are allowed to become stiff, it can increase the risk of injury.

The research around tendon stiffness shows that there’s a clear case for including a stretching protocol as part of your health and fitness regime. By keeping the connective tissues healthy, you reduce the likelihood of joint discomfort later on.

Tip #3 - Look after your diet

As with a lot of things to do with your health, nutrition can play a large part. Most of us are nutritionally sensitive to foodstuffs - that can span from a minor inflammatory response through to full-blown anaphylaxis by the appearance of a food in our presence.

Anecdotally, this can have a significant effect on joint health and well being. By removing these foods you can help to improve joint health and remove low-level inflammation. I myself noticed this when I fasted for 3 days once.

There’s significant research supporting the use of omega 3 oil in arthritis patients, and there’s even a school of thought that suggests taking fish oil even as a protective measure against joint issues. I think it’s a good move, given the other proven benefits of fish oil as a supplement.

Curcumin is another supplement with credible scientific research supporting its use for fighting inflammation. With the weight of research saying that it has positive impacts, it’s a worthwhile supplement to take, because even if you don’t suffer from arthritis, there’s a possibility that inflammation may be hindering joint health and recovery.

As a general rule, keep your diet as ‘clean’ (eating natural foods) as possible. Make sure you drink plenty of water and get a little sun exposure to help with vitamin D production - all of these points will help to create a low-inflammation environment that will keep joints feeling great and functioning as they should.

Joint Health - final thoughts

Living with joint pain can be miserable, so do your best to follow these simple tips and you’ll enjoy strong, healthy and functioning joints for a very long time. You’ll also improve your own strength and performance as a bonus too!

If you want your health and fitness journey to be guided by the best personal training team in East London, get in touch with us at AdMac Fitness. We operate from our private personal training studio in Bow, E3. Contact us on 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

How to Indulge on Holiday... Without DESTROYING Your Hard Work!

Holiday season is upon us, and if there’s one thing any personal trainer knows, it’s that their clients will gain some weight both at Christmas and when they go on holiday. Throw a good value ‘all inclusive’ deal into the mix and it’s an absolute certainty!

That heady mix of on-tap food (that you don’t have to prepare and cook yourself), cold booze, relaxing days on the beach/by the pool and the great weather means you’ve got to have the discipline of a Shaolin Monk to avoid the temptations.

So assuming you’re not a Shaolin Monk, how exactly do you avoid the temptations of an all-inclusive holiday, without destroying all of your previous hard work in the gym? Here’s the AdMac Fitness advice…

How to indulge on holiday and get away with it!

Part of the joy of a holiday is the food and drink. It’s a chance to relax, to enjoy a few more treats and not be overly concerned with everything you eat and drink. Here’s how to do that, without gaining a lot of weight that you’ll struggle to get rid of when you get back home…

High protein, low carb meals

When you head to the restaurant, try to stick to the high protein options. Make sure you load your plate with plenty of meat, fish, eggs or whatever your protein of choice is. Bulk the rest of the meal out with salads and vegetables. Try to keep carbs at a minimum.

This isn’t a carb-bashing thing by the way, it’s just an observation that protein tends to be the bit people are most excited about, they' keep you full for a long time (therefore you don’t over-indulge) and they tend to not make you hold onto water as much, making you look leaner.

Exercise daily

The idea of exercising on holiday might fill you with dread, or even confusion - “I’m here to RELAX, not to SWEAT!”, but frequent activity goes a long way. You don’t have to train especially hard (although if you can, do and you’ll benefit more). There’s also the effect of exercise helping you to feel better after a day of indulgence!

Don’t automatically think of an on-site gym either. You could enjoy some sports if where you’re staying has them, you could swim, cycle, go on a long walk etc. If there is a gym though, a quick 30 minute HIIT or weight training blast will sort you out!

Look at your snack choices

Fresh fruit is always a huge part of an all-inclusive restaurant - the large array of available (meaning prepared and peeled etc) options make it far more likely you’ll jump in and enjoy them. One of the barriers to fruit at home is the fact that some of them need to be prepared, so it puts people off.

If you can, grab fruit as your snacks. It’s the perfect combination of being sweet (satisfies a craving), it’s full of fibre - great for digestive health, it’s full of vitamins and minerals (great for overall health) and it’s low calorie, which saves the weight gain! Winner all around.

Get plenty of sleep - even if it’s a nap

This might seem an odd one, but hear me out. It’s vital to help controlling your weight and cravings. When sleep in relation to weight loss and appetite control has been studied, the results are really clear. There’s strong evidence that a lack of sleep disrupts the hormones leptin and ghrelin, which are responsible for us feeling hungry and full.

Getting enough sleep helps us to regulate them properly - even a day time nap on the beach or pool helps. Feel free to enjoy an afternoon snooze, knowing that it’ll help you control your food intake better!

Lower calorie booze options

Alcohol and holidays go hand in hand, so I wouldn’t suggest you don’t have a drink. There’s a few simple tips to make sure you can enjoy a drink without gaining half a stone though!

1. Wait until later in the day. If you drink a couple of drinks per hour, waiting until 5pm rather than starting at 12 will save you thousands of calories.

2. Opting for a lower alcohol content drink will save calories. Think session beers (3-4.5%) rather than strong lagers (5%+).

3. Clear drinks with diet mixers help. Vodka/gin with a diet mixer will come in at less than 100 calories per drink, as opposed to over 200 with wine or beer.

As I said - it’s not about avoiding drink, it’s about making better choices around it!

How to Indulge on Holiday... final thoughts

The purpose of this post isn’t to be a fun killer, it’s trying to encourage you to enjoy yourself and really let your hair down, but to do it in a way that benefits you. By following the tips in this article you’ll be able to enjoy the great food and the booze on holiday, but you’ll also have eaten well, kept up with your exercise and managed to not gain a load of weight, leaving you feeling crappy after your break!

For more help on this, contact the AdMac Fitness personal trainers…

If you want your health and fitness journey to be guided by the best personal training team in East London, get in touch with us at AdMac Fitness. We operate from our private personal training studio in Bow, E3. Contact us on 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

How Important are Vegetables? A Quick Review

Over the last few years vegetables have been in the firing line somewhat, which many of the diets gaining popularity (or notoriety) downplaying their importance. In some cases, there are diets that are suggesting their removal completely.

So what’s the score? How important are vegetables? Do they retain their spot as the basis on which all healthy eating should be based? In this article we’re going to take a look at some of the research and conclude by answering whether or not vegetables are important, and whether or not you should be making room for them in your diet…

Vegetables - why the halo may have slipped…

The spotlight on vegetables shifted when the Atkins diet came into popularity. It was the first of the low carb approaches to really gain traction in the mass media, and it was famous for allowing people to consume fried foods, as long as they were high in protein such as eggs, bacon and sausages.

Not only that, but the Atkins diet actually promoted the reduction of vegetable consumption, because some of them were too high in carbs! It was a dream diet to many… and it appeared to work!

Fast forward a few years and the Paleo diet become more mainstream. On the Paleo diet people were encouraged to return to a diet that a Paleolithic man would recognise - meat, fish, eggs, nuts, seeds, berries and greens. No processed foods, limited fruit and little/no starches.

Whilst the Paleo diet doesn’t ban vegetables, it certainly restricts the consumption of a lot of them.

By the 2010’s, the Ketogenic diet gained traction. This is a diet where around 80% of your calories come from fat, and the remaining 20% come from protein. This really is a diet whereby vegetables are off limits - with some VERY low sugar exceptions (broccoli, rocket, spinach etc). Vegetables were once again being questioned.

Although the ketogenic diet didn’t quite reach the popularity of the others, it remains a significant nutritional approach to this day and is used by some high profile people in the industry.

Last but not least, we’ll look at the Carnivore diet. This is exactly what it says - nothing but meat. No vegetables, no fruit, just flesh. It’s like a ketogenic diet, but restricted to meat and is higher in protein and less reliant on fat for calories.

Why eat vegetables, when they’re my food’s food? Is a common line in the community.

Why do we eat vegetables?

Before we nail our colours to the mast either way, let’s take a look at why we eat vegetables in the first place. If it’s a food group we can potentially do without, why do we hold them in such high esteem? Let’s take a look at three of the main reasons we think vegetables are important…

They’re high in fibre

I’ve gone with this point first because it’s (in my opinion) the most important point about them. You can get vitamins and minerals from other sources, but fibre is much more difficult to come by. The evidence from the research is crystal clear - a diet high in fibre (vegetables) improves appetite regulation, gut flora (bacteria) and can help to reduce inflammation.

They add variety to your diet

A boring diet is going to be very difficult to stick to, so vegetables provide an opportunity to consume a huge variety of foods on a daily basis. With vegetables available all year round, with a multitude of colours, flavours, textures and nutrient profiles, they offer dietary options that take us far beyond what we’d experience without them.

They’re incredibly nutrient dense

There’s no getting away from the nutrient density argument. In terms of ‘bang for your buck’, vegetables offer a huge depth of vitamin and minerals. Not only that. but when they’re fresh, these vitamins and minerals are of the highest quality - better than anything you’d be able to supplement with. Plant foods are also high in phytonutrients and antioxidants.

So why do some diets neglect vegetables?

There’s a number of reasons diets will neglect vegetables. In the case of the Ketogenic diet, it’s because some vegetables such as onions, carrots, parsnips, squashes etc are particularly high in carbohydrates and that will knock you out of ketosis, which is detrimental to the ketogenic diet approach.

In the Paleo diet, the argument is that many vegetables are actually a source of allergens and they can promote an inflammatory response in the diet, which will impact overall health. By removing these, Paleo follows argue the diet is actually healthier.

The other argument is that they’re just unnecessary. Some people believe that the vitamins and minerals we obtain from vegetables are easy to obtain from other foods, so why bother eating them if you don’t like/want/need to.

There’s no getting away from the fact that there are a lot of people who live perfectly healthy lives without touching a vegetable. I suppose the question is, just because you can, should you?

How important are vegetables? The AdMac Fitness take…

From our point of view, vegetables remain an important part of the diet, for the reasons mentioned above. Sure, you might be able to live perfectly well without them, but the fibre, the phytonutrients and the vitamin and mineral density means that they just have to feature for us.

Additionally, variety is the spice of life and by adding vegetables into your diet, you open up so many different culinary options, and we just can’t ignore that. With a multitude of ways to prep and cook them, you’ll never run out of possibilities.

For us, vegetables to remain fundamental to a great diet. We’d even encourage you to step out of your comfort zone and try a few new ones! Maybe explore pickled and fermented vegetables too, which are other great ways to eat them!

If you want your health and fitness journey to be guided by the best personal training team in East London, get in touch with us at AdMac Fitness. We operate from our private personal training studio in Bow, E3. Contact us on 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

Mental Fitness - Keeping Your Motivation Strong

There’s a tendency in the fitness world to only talk about how to train your body. Whilst that’s important, we also need to acknowledge the impact that our mental state has on our willingness/ability to train. In many ways, your physical fitness follows your mental fitness. If you can’t be bothered to exercise, you’re either not going to train at all, or you’re going to do a really half-baked workout.

Either way, you don’t win.

In this article we’re going to share five quick and simple strategies to employ to help you keep your mental fitness up. A strong mind precedes a strong body, so follow these tips to stay mentally fit as well as physically fit.

Tip #1 - Get enough sleep!

This one can’t be stressed enough. Sleep has a dramatic impact on your physical and mental fitness. It’ll help you control your cravings for unhealthy foods, it boosts your motivation and it protects your mental health. It also helps you to rejuvenate physically, which is important - if you’re tired, or your body feels under-recovered, you’re not going to want to train.

Shoot for 7-10 hours per night, depending on what your body needs. For more of our sleep tips, follow the guidance in our sleep blog post here.

Tip #2 - Set yourself realistic mini goals

When we embark on a fitness journey, there’s a temptation to look way into the future, setting ourselves huge goals that will take a long time to complete. The problem is here that we lose sight of the regular wins, and the big goal can seem so overwhelmingly long term that we can lose focus. Say for example you want to lose 30lbs (just over two stone), break it down into smaller chunks.

Don’t fixate on the 30lbs target, instead shoot for a smaller target of 7-10lbs per month (always set a range, because there’s a lot of factors that make up weight loss, so it’ll never be precise). Also, hit regular mini goals, such as 10k step per day. These small goals keep motivation high.

Tip #3 - Reward yourself

Exercise can seem like a constant battle of punishment and sacrifice - eating fewer treat foods, drinking less, sweating more, working hard. That’s all true - it’d be pointless (and a lie) to suggest that great results are possible without some level of sacrifice. That doesn’t mean that there are rewards along the way though. You can factor in rewards, which are an important step to maintaining mental fitness.

A reward can be something like your favourite food, your favourite drink, your favourite day out, your favourite film - whatever you want! It’s your reward. Don’t worry about destroying your progress, because you can factor high calorie foods into a weight loss plan if you’re sensible.

Tip #4 - Do things you like to do

Unless your goal only has one path to completion (i.e. if your goal is to get stronger, you’ve GOT to lift progressively heavier loads), there’s nothing stopping you from picking a type of exercise you enjoy more. If you just want to be generally fitter, pick something you love to do an it’ll make the process much easier! If you want to improve your stamina and love football, 5 a side is a great way to get some hidden HIIT in!

This works really well with weight loss and general fitness improvement - pick something you love and do it often. It’ll help you get there more quickly if you love doing it.

Tip #5 - Start small

Ignore what other people are doing. Stop looking at fitness influencers and comparing your workouts to theirs. Stop looking around the gym and thinking your efforts aren’t as good or as worthy as other people. It’s YOUR journey, so just do your best. If your best at the moment is a simple 20 minute session, good for you - start there. Build up from somewhere, but just get started. If the idea of a huge workout scares you enough to not want to exercise, ask a personal trainer to design you a quick and simple workout to get you going.

Never compare your starting point with someone else’s 5 years of consistent training. We all start somewhere, and with enough effort and persistence we all make progress. One day you’ll look back and be glad you got going!

Tip #6 - Train with a friend!

If you struggle to exercise, ask your most active friend can you tag along with them - that way you mix both socialising and exercising, killing two birds with one stone! The important thing here is that you pick the friend who is most likely to exercise. If you pick a friend who is likely to skip the gym, you’ll find yourself diving out of training too, and that’s exactly what you’re trying NOT to do by getting a friend involved!

If you don’t have a fit friend who is a regular exerciser, see the next tip - it’ll get rid of that problem for you!

Tip #7 - Outsource your motivation

If you struggle to motivate yourself for any other reason, why not outsource your motivation to a personal trainer or group exercise class? At AdMac Fitness we have both! If you’ve booked a personal training session or a group exercise class, it’s a commitment in your diary that you can’t back out from, so it’ll force you to go. When you get there, you’ll get started and before you know it you’ll be enjoying your workout and be glad you went!

You’ll leave your session feeling great, even though you couldn’t be bothered beforehand. It’s amazing what some exercise at the hands of a great personal trainer can do!

At AdMac Fitness we’re not about fads, fashions and short term fixes. We want you to succeed properly over the long term, so with our help and advice you can get your fitness back on track! If you’d like us to help you, contact us on 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

Power Training - Introducing it to Your Workouts

When you think of ‘power’ training, you may automatically think of Olympic Weightlifting movements such as the snatch and clean and jerk. You may picture huge weights, being hoisted off the floor by men who look like they’re one step away from being full caveman.

It’s an understandable link to make, but it’s wrong. Whilst those movements are powerful, explosive movements, they’re not the only way to train yourself to become more powerful.

In this article we’re going to look at ways to train power. We’ll look at why you should introduce power training to your workouts and what the benefits are, regardless of your age, gender, fitness goals and all the rest of those things. By the end of the article, I hope you’ll be introducing power training into your sessions at the gym.

What is power?

First things first. What’s power?

Power and strength are different. To put it simply, strength is your ability to move a heavy weight from one point to another. Think of a heavy deadlift - you’re moving the weight from the floor to full extension. It doesn’t matter how fast or slow that happens. That’s a movement that requires a lot of strength.

Power is your ability to move a weight (however heavy) at speed - the speed bit is the most important part here. Think of a shot put - the thrower has to generate a lot of power to throw the ball as far as he can. To do so he has to generate a lot of speed. This is a powerful movement.

You can be strong without being particularly powerful, but to generate power you need a bit of strength.

Why is it important to train for power?

Power training helps you to learn effective lifting technique. It also makes you a far more rounded, fitter athlete. Being more powerful will help you to resist injury more, you’ll be able to generate more force, you’ll learn new training methods, you’ll burn more calories in the workout and finally, it’ll compliment all of your other aspects of fitness and training that you’ll have been working on.

You don’t want to leave gaps in your training if you want to be truly fit.

How do we train for power?

Simple - we execute movements at high speed, with high quality. They don’t have to be especially heavy, in fact research shows that if you want to develop power, the emphasis should be on speed over weight.

There’s also a suggestion that power focussed training should be kept to short periods of time - maybe keeping power training blocks to 4-6 weeks at a time. This helps to keep things fresh, but it also reduces the injury risk over the longer term.

What this means is that developing power should be seen as something we work on occasionally, dropping it into an overarching training programme, rather than going all out, all of the time to work on it as a stand alone ability. When you look at power training approaches, this makes sense. They’re very physically demanding and as such, you want to ensure you maintain quality over quantity.

Power training exercises to add into a workout

If you want to maintain a level of power, without focussing on it all the time (which is what most of us should do), you could include plyometric drills into your workouts. Here’s a few suggestions in the video…

What you’ll notice here is that there’s not a massive amount of weight being lifted - the focus is on generating force and speed. It’s important to maintain this movement quality as well, so the advice is to use lots of sets, with short rep ranges.

Power training is a lot different to what many people expect - it’s not all huge weights. In fact, you can do so much power training with the equipment we have at AdMac Fitness. We use battle ropes, slam balls, kettlebells, bodyweight exercises and combine them with more traditional approaches such as barbells and dumbbells.

The AdMac Fitness team have your power needs covered!

Training for power - a summary

To summarise, here’s what the evidence suggests when it comes to developing power in the safest and most effective way…

• Lift lighter weights at high speeds – explosive movements are the fundamentally important part

• Keep power training to short blocks

• Do a lot of sets (5+), with low reps (3-6)

• Movement quality is key. Don’t go to full fatigue

Professional personal training in East London with AdMac Fitness

If you want your health and fitness journey to be guided by the best personal training team in East London, get in touch with us at AdMac Fitness. We operate from our private personal training studio in Bow, E3. Contact us on 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

The 10 Commandments of General Fitness

We’ve got something a little different for you today. Instead of a blog post around a singular topic, we’re going to share ‘10 Commandments of General Fitness’. These are rules by which we believe anyone who wants to achieve a fantastic level of general fitness should abide by.

These commandments are simple, actionable, easy to understand and follow. More importantly, the'y’ll lead you to a fitter, healthier and hopefully happier state of being!

So without further ado, here’s the AdMac Fitness 10 Commandments of General Fitness…

Thou shalt strength train

Regardless of your health and fitness goals, it’s really important that there’s some form of strength training in your routine every single week. Strength training is so much more than just building muscle for the sake of vanity. It helps to burn calories, it strengthens connective tissues and bones, plus it reduces your risk of injury. Strength training is the foundation stone that all other fitness should be built on.

Thou shalt take more steps

As a basic form of exercise, walking takes some beating. It’s an excellent calorie burner, it’s a commuting tool and an excuse to get some fresh air. It’s an opportunity to make a phone call to a friend, to avoid a busy train or to listen to a podcast. It’s a way of breaking up your day and exercise by accident. Aim for 15k steps per day. It can save you petrol or tube money and help you move even your rest days.

Thou shalt eat more vegetables

Yes, this one may sound obvious… but it’s truer than ever. We STILL meet lots of people who don’t get anywhere near enough fibre in their diet, and the best way to do that is by dramatically increasing the amount of vegetables you eat. High in fibre, filling, versatile, full of vitamins and minerals. Unless you suffer from a gastro condition such as IBS, you should max out on your vegetable intake!

Thou shalt mix up cardio

Unless you’re in training for a particular event such as a 10k, there’s almost no doubting that HIIT (high intensity interval training) is king of the cardio hill. It’s an incredible calorie burner, can readjusted for endless variety, keeps the injury risk low and the motivation levels high. Don’t just think of cardio as a boring run down the road - throw in some HIIT!

Thou shalt stretch more

If the basic stretches at the end of your workout is the only stretching you do, you’ll need to up that considerably! Stretching is a fantastic way of promoting circulation, keeping movement quality high, reducing injury risk, making connective tissues work and generally maintaining suppleness. If you never stretch, start by following a beginner yoga routine on youtube.

Thou shalt drink plenty of water

Adequate hydration is a bedrock of health. Given (depending on who you listen to) 60-70% of our bodies are made up of water, it makes sense to ensure you’re drinking plenty of water every day. There’s a lot of guidance written about how much water you should drink, but much of it is over complicated. Here’s a simple way to ensure you’re hydrated… make sure your urine is clear. If it’s not, drink more water!

Thou shalt value training frequency over duration

There’s too much emphasis placed on how long a training session lasts and not enough on the quality of the session. Give me 4 good, hard 30 minute workouts over 2 low intensity, slow-paced workouts any day. We should always value quality over quantity. If you’re in the gym more than an hour… you probably should be working MUCH harder in there!

Thou shalt get more sleep

There’s almost no physiological process that isn’t affected by poor sleep. Every process in the body, ranging from training recovery, digestion, hormonal balance, immunity, mental health and a million others are governed in part by how well we sleep. Put the phone down in bed, keep a regular bed time routine and shoot for 7+ hours of sleep every night.

Thou shalt get plenty of protein

Protein isn’t just for bodybuilders - it’s important for everyone. As well as helping to build muscle, it’s involved in the repair and rebuilding of all tissues - skin, hair, bone, nails etc. Making sure you get enough protein will be important for helping your body recover from workouts, it’ll help you stay full for longer and depending on the protein source, it’s often accompanied by lots of vitamins and minerals.

Thou shalt train the full body

Unless you’re a seasoned bodybuilder, there’s no need to follow a split routine. Research shows us that more frequent stimulation of muscle is better for growth than a sole ‘day’ for a muscle. If you train all of your body in each workout you’ll stimulate more growth hormone, you’ll stimulate more growth and you’ll reduce the impact on a single body part, allowing you to recover more quickly.

The AdMac Fitness 10 Commandments of General Fitness…

We hope you’ve enjoyed the AdMac Fitness 10 Commandments of General Fitness! It’s a light-hearted advice piece with a few key takeaways and reminders about what you should be doing. Speaking of which, if you need help with that, read on…

Personal Training in East London…

If you’re confused about how you should go about building the fitness and physique you long for, trust the professionals at AdMac Fitness to help you. They’re a well-qualified group of expert personal trainers, with decades of collective health and fitness experience.

You’ll train in our private personal training studio in Bow, E3. That means fantastic 1-1 service and no waiting for equipment. It’s also perfect for those who feel self conscious because it’s a private studio, used only by AdMac Fitness personal trainers and our clients.

Contact AdMac Fitness on 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!