4 Exercises to Build Bigger Muscles and Burn Fat...

4 Exercises than will help you build the body you want.

Do you want to know which exercises will help you build muscle and burn fat faster than any others?

If you are ignoring these 4 exercises then chances are you could be stopping your body from building lean muscle faster than you ever have before. So read on to find out which exercises you shouldn’t leave out of your training program.

Before we get started and look at the 4 exercises in question. Let me ask you a simple question… Why are some exercises more effective than others?

Well…

As a London Personal trainer in I see so many people wasting their time with exercises that may look fancy and cool but don’t really get the job done. What I mean by this is that when we are training for any particular goal whether it be fat loss or strength/muscle gain we need to select exercises that recruit as many muscle fibers as possible.

Why?

When we perform an exercise involving a large amount of muscle fibers we are challenging our body to increase its workload as the exercise requires more effort. The result of this is increased calorie expenditure and muscle growth compared to single joint exercises that only work one or two smaller muscles.

So which 4 exercises will help your burn more calories and increase muscle size more than most others. Well here is my list below. So if you want to build a better physique you need to get reading and then get doing!

1. The Squat

Do you skip leg day? I hope not because you are making a big mistake.

The squat is often heralded as the king of exercises and for good reason. The squat is associated with working the whole body not just the legs, which means it recruits a huge amount of muscle to perform the exercise effectively. As we know the more muscle we have the more calories we will burn.

So keep the squat in your program if you want to see a huge boost in metabolism and increased size in muscle that will simply burn that fat away.

2. The Deadlift

So the question here is which muscle groups DOESN’T the deadlift engage?

It is another huge exercise that incorporates multi-joint and muscle actions. The deadlift is considered by many to be on a par with the squat or by some superior.

Muscle groups engaged include the lower back, legs, glutes , shoulers, arms and core.

Since all of the major muscle groups are involved the energy expenditure associated with deadlifting is going to be huge. Think of being able to perform just one movement that forces you to activate nearly every muscle in the body well this is it.

Another great benefit of the deadlift is it allows us to lift pretty heavy weights because of the position we are able to take to perform the movement. As we know lifting heavy weights is shown by research to be the number one factor in boosting our metabolism that allows us to build muscle and burn fat for hours after our workout.

Didn’t you know you could burn fat for 72 hours after your workout? Find out how by clicking here.

The Bottom Line:

If you are looking to gain lean muscle in both your upper and lower body you can’t go wrong with the deadlift.

3. The Bench Press

How much can you bench?

A typical phrase that you hear around most gyms but why?

The bench press is one of the main compound exercises that most people who go to the gym will have performed at some point. Heck for some people it’s the only exercise they do! Yes you know… The people who only workout their chest!

So when international chest day comes round (Usually on a Monday for most) the bench press needs to be included in your routine and here’s why.

The bench press may be considered as a chest exercise but this shouldn’t be all. It is one of the few exercises that engages nearly every muscle in the upper body. Yes that’s right we are talking shoulders, traps, triceps, rhomboids, forearms.

What happens when you exercise all of these muscles at once?

Exactly the same outcome as the deadlift and squat.

Your body is forced to recruit and switch on more muscle fibers to perform the action. This in turn allows you to push a lot of weight, which is once again related to the body’s ability to burn more fat and build more muscle.

Bottom Line:

This should be a staple exercises in everyone’s routine.

4. The Standing Barbell / Military Press

To complete the fantastic four is the number one shoulder exercise… The military press!

Once again onlookers may think you are just working your shoulders but there’s much more to this exercise than that.

How do you think your body is being supported?

Performing this exercise requires complete contraction of your core and legs to act as fixators to help you perform the exercise properly. Alongside this the upper body muscles that are engaged include triceps, upper chest and back.

No wonder this is considered to be one of the main compound weight lifting moves.

Working all of the muscles above has many benefits as it allows us to build great upper body size and strength, which will then have a big impact on how we perform other exercises like the bench press.

Performing the military press will help you increase the weight you lift when bench pressing.

So if you are looking for an exercise to give you a whole body workout… The military press is a great choice!

How often should you perform these 4 exercises?

At least one time per week. In an ideal world and to get maximum benefits from our training we should be aiming for 5 strength training workouts and 3 HIIT sessions every 7 days.

This allows us to give the correct attention to each muscle group. However not everybody’s lifestyles allow for this frequency.

If this is the case then ensuring that you include the above four exercises into your gym workout going forward should not be overlooked if you want to promote maximum fat loss and muscle gain.

Do you know how to deadlift properly? Check out some of my online training and online coaching plans to learn how to squat and deadlift with the right technique by clicking here.

Until next Time

EJP

5 Ways To Gain Muscle and Stay Lean On Holiday

5 ways to stay lean and gain muscle on holiday

Are you worried about losing that hard-earned muscle when you go on holiday this summer?

Do you want to arrive home looking and feeling better than before you went away?

Then you are going to want to read this and find out how using a few simple strategies can help you maintain or improve what you have worked so hard for in the gym.

Lets face it most of us if not all train hard all year round only to go and lose everything we’ve gained within that short 7 day holiday we cant wait to go on. Only to come back looking exactly the same as what we did 12 months ago feeling depressed about our physiques and that we have to do it all over again.

Well how would you feel if I told you that you can afford to eat huge cheat meals everyday on holiday and not have to worry about it?

Or continue progressing with your training improving or at least maintaining your physique and conditioning.

Well by applying a few simple protocols all this is possible and you can go back home still looking and feeling great. Read my 5 tips below on how to maintain muscle and stay lean while on holiday and put them into practice.

1. Keep Protein Levels High

When we travel away on business or spend some time in the sun one thing we tend to neglect is the amount of protein we consume each day compared to when we are in our everyday routine sometimes counting every calorie! It’s often far to easy to switch the protein out and replace it with as many comfort foods as you can. But this comes at a cost.

Without a sufficient amount of protein we are likely to lose muscle, which is the last thing we want. So aiming for foods such as Greek yoghurt, Lean Meats, Protein Powders, Fruits, Nuts is crucial.

2. Do Interval Training

Whether you are looking to gain weight, lose weight or just maintain we always want to keep our body fat % as low as possible and a great way to do this is through Interval training.

Why?

Interval training is shown to be a far greater method of burning calories that long steady state cardio. This is because it creates an after burn effect meaning you continue to burn calories after your workout for sometimes up to 72 hours later as your metabolism is given such a boost it can take it that long to return back to a normal level. Also you only need to work for around a 20 minute period to get this effect making Interval training a great go to option for exercising when you are away. Another great benefit is that due to the energy systems that are used in interval training it helps to keep you anabolic meaning you are less likely to break down muscle.

3. Try Intermittent Fasting

A typical dieting solution that might work for you whilst travelling as well is intermittent fasting. This reason for this is that you are likely to be skipping meals whilst you are away so using this technique means you don’t have to worry about your metabolism being effected by not managing to eat at your regular intervals and here’s how it works; -

Basically you eat your days worth of calories in a selected window during the day. Usually an 8-hour period for men and 10 for women. This means that for the rest of the day you are fasting, which helps to reduce fat storage as fasting has great fat burning effects.

The reason this can be very beneficial for most people is because generally when we are on holiday or travelling our meals tend to be a lot bigger so therefore by intermittent fasting you can still afford to have perhaps two big meals that you will enjoy eating out and not blow your calorie goal into oblivion.

4. Work Out in your hotel room

That’s right you don’t need a gym to get a good workout in while you’re away. If where you are staying has a gym or if there is one close by that you can get a pass for then go for it. But why not start your day off with a quick full body circuit or HIIT workout in your room or on the balcony if you have one.

My Advice would be to use the tabata style protocol where you exercise at your maximum intensity for a period of 20 seconds followed by a 10 second rest period. You then repeat this a further 7 times meaning you will have completed 8 x 20 Second bursts. This is one complete round of tabata. Rest around 2-3 minutes and aim to do 3-5 rounds of this.

Tabata is so effective in creating that after burn effect I mentioned earlier making it the perfect choice. Also because you are working at maximum intensity it ensures you stay in a catabolic state and will not break muscle down (you can even gain some).

With regards to exercise choices just select any of the following;- Press ups, Bear Crawls, Squat Jumps, Crunches, Leg Raises, Burpees, Froggers, Inch Worms.

I would recommend selecting 4 exercises and just repeating each one during the round the make the 8 x 20 Second intervals. But be creative and select some of your own exercises too and like I said you definitely don’t need more than a hotel room to do this! My Super HIIT workout available on my website here - http://bit.ly/2bnI0z6 is a great plan to take on holiday with you.

5. Workout before a meal

Do you want to gain some “free” calories in the day? Don’t we all! Then working out before a meal is a great idea and here’s why…

When you workout your body uses all of its energy stores in the muscles (Glycogen we take from carbohydrates). Therefore with these stores being completely depleted from a HIIT workout we need to replenish them and we need to eat carbohydrates to do this. So you are almost entitled to a cheat free meal as you wont store any carbohydrates as body fat until your glycogen stores are replenished. Go easy though!

As you can see by implementing a few simple strategies into your daily routine when you are travelling you can be sure to come back feeling like you have maintained most of what you worked long and hard for before you went.

Hopefully this will be useful for the majority of you and remember any further questions just ask.

E

Reverse Dieting.... How to Reverse Diet Correctly

So this is term that I keep seeing thrown about at the moment by trainers and athletes on social media. It might leave you wondering what actually is reverse dieting or why would you want to do a reverse diet? Let me summarise this for you and hopefully make it sound simple enough for you to give it a go.

The main reason you may of heard the term reverse diet being used quite a bit at the moment is partly to do that a lot of people will have entered the so called bulking season, having finished cutting for various competitions or now that British summer time has officially ended its time to add some muscle mass and weight to replace that chiseled physique in the hope of building a bigger frame for next summer.  Surely you just need to eat more and increase your carbohydrate intake right? Wrong! Reverse dieting is crucial to help you with the transition from your cutting phase into bulking season by changing your diet in a controlled and effective manner to increase calorific intake whilst preventing unwanted weight gain that will be the result if you don’t have a planned and structured reverse dieting system in place.

What tends to be the case during this transition is that people think that now they want to add extra weight in the off season its just the case of increasing your daily calorie intake to match this goal. Once you have worked out that magic number of how many calories you need to grow and to add some serious gains using various macro calculators that can be found online it is then just a case of hitting that number immediately. Wrong Again! Of course for any nutrition plan to be successful you will need to determine you’re your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE, which can be done online. Once you have this figure it gives you have a target of how many calories you can consume from your macros without causing any additional and unwanted fat gain. During this phase you will of course concentrate on increasing your carbohydrate intake to assist with building muscle mass and bulking. It is recommended that sufficient amounts to divide your macros up can be anywhere from 1 – 1.5g of Protein per pound of bodyweight. For fat it is recommended either 0.3 - 0.4g per pound of bodyweight and then whatever remains is made up from Carbs. Although it is not uncommon for people to increase their protein intake beyond these figures.

So lets say for example in my cutting phase I was consuming around 2000 calories per day to keep me in a deficit to lower my body fat percentage. After this phase and during the off season I then work out that I can consume around 2800 calories daily without adding any unwanted fat but still gain some muscle mass. I would set about reaching this target gradually over a period of weeks rather than just ramping up my numbers. I may increase my calories by 100 – 150 each week until I had hit the magic number of 2800. This would ensure I prevented adding excess weight and completely wasted my gains Id made from working seriously hard during a long and tiring cut and restrictive diet. Once you reach your new TDEE you will need to weigh yourself on a regular basis, as your weight increase will determine your calorie intake meaning you may need to do regular adjustments.

So why do so many people get this wrong? To start with when you have been in a calorie deficit for so long on a cut you feel extremely low on energy and the thought that you are now able to eat more food sounds amazing so its common that people get a little bit too carried away and consume far too much. When you are in a calorie deficit your metabolic rate (the speed at which you burn calories) slows right down so naturally you are unable to burn all these extra calories quickly enough and this is what causes fat gain. Once you change your training program to match your bulking goals your metabolic rate will begin to increase due to the fact your are lifting heavier weights increasing muscle mass.  By applying this principle along with slowly increasing your calorie intake to reach your goal you will perform a successful reverse diet and will only thank yourself later. So in hindsight yes a reverse diet is about increasing your calories but in a structured and controlled way that prevents unwanted fat gain. Get this right and your bulking season will become your best yet!

Also don’t forget some important benefits a successful reverse diet will bring : -

1.     More Energy

2.     You Can Eat More

3.     Enjoy Your Workouts Feeling Fuelled to Perform

4.     Forget about that Dieting Mindset

5.     Flexible Dieting (Coming soon in my next blog posts)

Hopefully this helps you to understand the term reverse dieting a little bit more and help you get it right. Any questions or help you need planning your reverse diet or cutting phase drop me a message and I can help you structure your personalized plan.

EJP

Top 5 Reasons to Hire a Personal Trainer...

Ever had a Personal Trainer? Ever considered one? Or maybe you are one of those people that don’t think you need it… Well you could be wrong!

There are many reasons for hiring a PT and I’m going to shed some light on why I believe it’s an excellent choice.  Yes I may be a PT myself but this puts me in a prime position to give you the low-down on why it might take your training to the next level.

So here are my Top 5 reasons: -

1.     Motivation – This might be the most obvious one. There’s nothing worse than having to drag yourself to the gym or your place to workout with no desire whatsoever. This is most likely because your training program is boring! A good PT will ensure each session has an element of fun and is always challenging and progressive to keep you on your toes. This doesn’t mean that you need a PT for every session, When you hire a PT they will put a complete plan in place for the rest of your week’s workouts to ensure you stay motivated to train and give you ideas for your Independent session. Get your Motivation right and the results will follow.

2.    Form – No matter how experienced you are there is bound to be one exercise where you could improve your form.  Good form and technique are the foundations to getting the most from your workout. They should take priority over anything else when you start to lift! A great reason to have a PT when you are a beginner to ensure that you form is correct right from the beginning as its always difficult to kick bad habits once you have developed them. But this is why sometimes its useful for more experienced trainers to hire a PT every so often to help pinpoint any areas for improvement.

3.    Prevent you from Hitting a Plateau – A common problem when people train and exercise on their own is not knowing when to change their current training program, which may have been awesome to begin with and got you great results but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be a game changer forever. In my opinion and experience anything more than 6-8 weeks on the same program is enough to see you hit a plateau and leave you feeling frustrated why the results aren’t coming anymore. A PT will keep challenging you and will change your program up at the right times to make sure you are making gains all year round. It’s all in their hands; all you have to do is turn up!

4.    Improve your own knowledge – Knowledge is power and in this field knowing why you are performing a specific exercise can go a long way to helping you understand the benefits or training in the correct and safest way possible. A PT will not only show you how to perform an exercise correctly they will tell you why its important and what adaptations it is likely to make. This for me is paramount to make sure my clients develop their own knowledge and feel completely satisfied that what they are being told to do is going to be beneficial for them.

5.    You Don’t want to work out in a gym – It’s true that some people don’t like training in the gym or simply don’t have the time. When your at home it’s even harder to motivate yourself and get off the sofa. Setting your own home workouts can be more challenging than you think. Are you really working at the right tempo and intensity? Probably not. Most PT’s will operate a Home visit service so you don’t even need to step out your own door. They will also have the ability to devise a home workout that will get you just as good results and most likely better than your friend who spends the whole evening at the local gym. Talk about convenience!

Are you considering a PT now? Hopefully this gives you some ideas why no matter what level you are at it is useful to hire a PT at least once in a while. There are of course lots more reasons why a PT is a great choice but these are my top 5. Remember elite athletes aren’t where they are because of themselves. They work continuously under the guidance and instruction of coaches and others around them. The same goes here.. If you want to be better a PT will help.

I offer many Personal Training and Online Coaching services to clients around the world. There may just be something for you! Take a look at my website below and if your serious about improving your training or understanding, I’m here to help!

www.ejpfitness.co.uk