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With summer coming round the corner I’m sure everyone has that beach body goal in sight. Now is the perfect time to start and so here are a few tips to help you with your goals…

1. Keep a food diary – Whether it is checked by your trainer or not logging the foods you eat will help you keep your diet in check. I would recommend getting a trainer at your local gym to check up on your food diary and recommend any swaps you could make. Try lowering the amount of processed foods and if eating out try eating as healthy as possible.
2. Change your exercise routine – I’ve had clients ask why they haven’t been losing weight even though they’ve been going to the gym 3 times a week, doing lots of cardio and crunches?
   The level of activity you are undertaking may not be enough of a stimulus for your body to raise its metabolic rate.Use resistance exercises to build lean muscle, muscle is more compact, it weighs more than fat but makes your body burn more calories to maintain it thus having an increased metabolism burning more fat overall.
   For the ladies that are worried about gaining bulky muscles you shouldn’t worry about gaining that amount of muscle unless you are progressively overloading them.
   Where do you see this progressive overload happen? On the Adductor and Abductor machine. I’ve seen some women lift about 80% of the weight on these machines in the hopes that are toning the area when in actual fact they are increasing the muscle size in that area.
   Remember to do big movements, things like squats and lunges that will help you rapidly lose weight a lot faster than just working on the smaller areas such as the dreaded bingo wings and back boobs.
3. Find a workout buddy – With the current economy not everyone can afford to hire a personal trainer to push them throughout the session but this doesn’t mean you can’t get the same results. Working out with a friend that has the same goals as you definitely helps you push yourself to work harder. Join a gym with your friend and motivate each other to achieve your goals.
4. Get a good night’s rest, aim to be in bed by 10.30pm each night. Growth hormone is secreted during a good night’s rest this hormone can help you gain muscle and drop fat. Try to turn off all electrical appliances and get a good night’s rest. Just remember to leave the alarm clock on!
5. Keep your water intake to a minimum of 2-3 litres a day. Keeping your water intake high will help elevate your metabolism as well as flush out the unwanted toxins in your body. Fat cells need to be hydrated before they can shuttled around the body to be used as energy.
6. Do something active – This could mean gardening, go for a bike ride, walking to work or just taking a walk during lunch, and take up a sport. Anything to get your body moving, the more you stay active in your daily life the more it will help you overall. I’m sure you people already know this so get off your butt and get moving.

Alright I hope this has helped in some way, remember to train smart, eat healthy and think positive. Talk to your trainer before you decide to design your own workout programs and remember I’m always here to help you.

Good luck in achieving your goals

Really interesting video by Dr. Robert Lustig if you have an hour an half free, you have to watch this video about the dangers of sugar.

If you don’t have enough time please check out this video by Sean Croxton

The first time we saw Jason Statham was probably in lock stock and two smoking barrels, no way in hell did I think that he would be a massive action star but he’s pulled it off.

I wanted to give people an insight on how jason trains because he’s one of the few celebs doing it right.

Let’s have a look…..

Looking chunky, but he soon got ripped. Read below to see how he did it.

Jason Statham on Training

He works out every day but Sunday with Logan Hood, a former Navy SEAL that runs Epoch Training (www.epochtraining.com). Saturdays are reserved for hour long sustained trail runs in the Hollywood Hills while the other 5 days are spent at 87Eleven, a full service action film company and stunt studio located in a converted warehouse near the Los Angeles airport. Hollywood stuntmen own and train at the unique facility. There are trampolines, climbing ropes, heavy bags, barbells, kettlebells, crash pads, and a complex apparatus of pullup bars.

There are only two real rules to the workout.

1. No repeats. “I haven’t had one single day in 6 weeks that has been a repeat,” he says. “Every single day has had a different combination of exercises. Obviously, you repeat exercises over the course of 6 weeks, but you’ll never do that workout you did on Thursday the 23rd of August again. It always changes, and that’s what keeps it so interesting.”

2.  Record everything.  Some workouts are timed, but all work is tracked so that intensity can be maximized. Heavy lifts are recorded so that percentages can be calculated and used in other workouts. “All of this is important,” Statham says. “If you want to get faster, stronger, and healthier you have to record and track progress. Making progress is the primary goal of the training I’ve been doing.”

The workout consists of three stages.

Ten-minute warmup: Statham uses a Concept2 Rowing Machine (www.concept2.com)because it’s low-impact and works the cardiovascular system as well as all primary muscle groups. This is the easy part.

Ten minutes at medium intensity: This works the body and preps it for stage 3. There’s always variety. This portion of the workout consists of either:

1. Heavy lifting using compound movements like the front squat, deadlift, or power clean. Never more than five reps at a time.

2. Short circuits of various exercises with light weights.

3. Various carrying exercises with kettlebells or sandbags.

4. A progression of about 15 kettlebell exercises.

5. Various throws with medicine balls.

Interval training: This is the brutal final stage that “blows every gasket,” says Statham. “You’re crying for air. It redlines the heart into oblivion.” Again, variety is key — either different exercises, or one exercise done according to an interval structure. Here is a list of some of Statham’s exercises. Pick six to make a circuit.

Note: You may not have access to the equipment needed to do some of these. The point is to find a balance of total- body work, so you can pick six basic exercises you can do at home and go full-out. Statham does one six-exercise circuit five times. Rest for as long as you need between exercises. And know your limits.

Jason Statham on Diet

“It was lots of protein, lots of vegetables, fruit, nuts, berries, a little bit of dairy, no refined carbohydrates, no pasta, no bread, no sugar, no juices.”

The Eating Plan

Statham credits intelligent eating for his rapid weight loss. And he’s not starving: He downs 2,000 calories a day. For Statham the eating plan depends on the following execution, which he’s religious about (ahem, except for one night of beers a few weeks in).

1. No refined sugar or flour at all, ever. Bread and pasta are out, as are sweets of any kind. No fruit juices. No booze. “That’s the hardest part right there,” he says. His dessert every night is plain yogurt with fresh fruit.

2. If it goes down your throat, record it on paper. “This is the bible,” Statham says, holding up a black hardbound journal. He writes down everything he swallows, including water (he tries to drink 1 1/2 gallons a day — that’ll keep you feeling full). “Writing everything down makes it impossible for you to muck it up,” he says.

3. Spread out the calories. Statham has six small meals daily. The foods aren’t surprising — egg whites, vegetables, lean meats, fish, nuts, and protein shakes. But the 2,000-calorie limit is gospel.

So there you have it, Jason trains like a monster, add in a clean diet and the result is this.

You can see Jason in this summer’s action film The Expendables starring Sly Stallone, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Terry Crews Etc.

For more exercises try out my workout of the week.

Good luck.

I’ve been reading and learning about some things that might interest you, I’ve listed them below.

1. If there is any hormone you want to optimize it has to be insulin first! The sugar from the food you take in inhibits your immune system. Everytime you eat food that has a high sugar content be it processed wheat, sweets/fruits or even grains, your blood sugar goes up. Your body’s natural response is to tell your pancreas to send insulin into the blood and send the blood sugar down.
   The insulin forces your blood sugar down so low that you crave another meal or something sweet. You then make another bad food choice and end up in a nasty cycle.
2. Your metabolism does not speed up when you have 5-6 meals a day. Turns out to be a myth. Maybe a smart marketing ploy created to make you buy more food or products. The reason why it does work is because you are on a calorie deficit from the start, as well consuming fiborous vegetables and proteins keeping your blood sugar level, and consuming small meals will stop the need to binge eat.
   However you are still on a deficit in the first place. Click here for the article, it’ll open up your minds.
   
3. Missing a meal does not make you fat or make you lose muscle.
4. Ghrelin (not to be confused with gremlin) is a hormone released in the stomach to increase your hunger and slows your metabolism decreasing your ability to burn fat.
5. Leptin is a hormone released from the fat cells and switches off the signal that you are hungry.
   That’s great right? so the fatter you are the more of this leptin stuff gets pumped out right? In obese men and women the leptin levels are high but the receptors aren’t responding and it never shuts down their appetite.
6. Protein powders could be bad for you……actually some of the big brands are…” All drinks in our tests had at least one sample containing one or more of the following contaminants: arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury. Those metals can have toxic effects on several organs in the body.”  Click here for the article
7. Sleep is important for proper hormone optimization.
8. Topical magnesium absorbs better through the skin, taking this mineral gives you better overall sleep leading to optimized hormone levels, especially increasing free and total testosterone levels.
   

From Mike Mahlers Facebook post.

“Biol Trace Elem Res. 2010 Mar 30. [Epub ahead of print]
Effects of Magnesium Supplementation on Testosterone Levels of Athletes and Sedentary Subjects at Rest and after Exhaustion.

Cinar V, Polat Y, Baltaci AK, Mogulkoc R.

Karaman High Medicine of Physical Education and Sports, Selcuk University, Karaman, Turkey, bsyovedat@yahoo.com.tr.

This study was performed to assess how 4 weeks of magnesium supplementation and exercise affect the free and total plasma testosterone levels of sportsmen practicing tae kwon do and sedentary controls at rest and after exhaustion. The testosterone levels were determined at four different periods: resting before supplementation, exhaustion before supplementation, resting after supplementation, and exhaustion after supplementation in three study groups, which are as follows: Group 1-sedentary controls supplemented with 10 mg magnesium per kilogram body weight. Group 2-tae kwon do athletes practicing 90-120 min/day supplemented with 10 mg magnesium per kilogram body weight. Group 3-tae kwon do athletes practicing 90-120 min/day receiving no magnesium supplements. The free plasma testosterone levels increased at exhaustion before and after supplementation compared to resting levels. Exercise also increased testosterone levels relative to sedentary subjects. Similar increases were observed for total testosterone.

Our results show that supplementation with magnesium increases free and total testosterone values in sedentary and in athletes. The increases are higher in those who exercise than in sedentary individuals.

Mike Mahler
www.mikemahler.com”

That’s all I can remember for now.