Five Reasons Fish Oil Will Make You Stronger, Leaner & Healthier
www.rebornpt.co.uk brings you an excellent article on fish oil from Charles Poliquin, 5 straight forward reasons why you should take more fish oil.
#1: Fish Oil Can Help You Lose Body Fat
Fish oil can help you lose body fat for a number of reasons, some of which are well known, while others are just emerging. First, fish oil provides essential fats because it is made up of omega-3 fatty acids. Essential fats are those which the body can’t produce on its own—they must be eaten—and it must have them for optimal function. Read more here
Top Ten Foods for Fat Loss & Body Composition
www.rebornpt.co.uk personal training, Sandbanks brings you a great article from Charles Poliquin on the TOP TEN FOODS FOR FAT LOSS:
Use these ten foods in your diet to support fat loss and get the physique you desire. Assuming you are training regularly, including these foods in a high-protein, relatively low-carb whole food diet will help you get and stay lean, while feeling energized and motivated throughout the day.
Is Aerobic or Anaerobic Training Best For Getting Rid of Belly Fat?
Lose belly fat fast and improve your health by doing strength training and high-intensity intervals. Compelling research shows that the BEST way to get rid of the belly fat is to train with hard but short bursts of exercise, a style that taps into the anaerobic energy system more than the aerobic.
There is overwhelming evidence that belly fat loss is best achieved when exercise is with a high, but varied intensity, and a relatively large volume. However, this does not mean you have to spend hours and hours a day killing yourself in the gym. Less than an hour a few days a week can produce dramatic fat loss if you do it right.
This article will tell you why you burn more fat when you favor anaerobic-style training and give you eight reasons to favor this style of training by lifting weights and doing sprints rather than spending hours on aerobic exercise.
#1: Burn More Belly Fat with Sprint Intervals
A large number of convincing studies show that high-intensity interval training is the best conditioning strategy for losing belly fat. In contrast, one research group that has conducted a number of experiments comparing aerobic and anaerobic training for belly fat loss write, “Disappointingly, aerobic exercise protocols have led to negligible fat loss.”
The reason anaerobic interval training works so much better is that it requires the body to adapt metabolically—your body is forced to burn fat to sustain the level of intensity being asked of it. It also elevates energy use for more than 24 hours post-workout, which has a dramatic effect on belly fat loss.
For example, a 2008 showed that a 6-week program increased the amount of fat burned during exercise by 12 percent and decreased the oxidation of carbohydrates—obviously, a favorable result for losing fat. More impressive, a 2007 study showed that in as little as 2 weeks, active women who performed interval training experienced a 36 percent increase in the use of fat for fuel during exercise.
Interval training is so effective for fat loss because it taps into different energy pathways than aerobic exercise. Simply, aerobic exercise tends to burn carbohydrates first and activate pathways that are degrading to muscle, whereas high-intensity exercise such as weight lifting and sprinting will burn a greater percentage of fat, enhance the body’s production of enzymes involved in fat breakdown, and activate pathways that lead to muscle development.
The other reason anaerobic intervals are superior for belly fat loss is that they increase excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) a huge amount. A 2006 review showed that protocols that are more anaerobic in nature produce higher EPOC values than steady-state aerobic training because the trained muscle cells must rest restore physiological factors in the cells, which translates to a lot of energy expenditure.
#2: Lose Belly Fat With Sprint Intervals: The Proof
The following are examples of the superiority of anaerobic interval training for belly fat loss from the research:
• A 12-week high-intensity interval training program produced a 17 percent decrease in belly fat in overweight young men. Subjects lost 1.5 kg of belly fat and 2 kg of total fat, while building 1 kg of muscle. Fat burning was increased by 13 percent due to the 3-day a week program of 20-minutes of cycling in which the subjects sprinted for 8 seconds and then did 12 seconds of recovery, repeating these intervals for a total of 60 sprints.
• The same 20-minute cycling interval program produced 2.5 kg of fat loss in young women in 15 weeks, and the majority of the fat loss come from the legs and abdominal area. The sprint intervals were compared to a steady-state aerobic program that produced no fat loss.
• A 16-week study had trained athletes perform either a sprint interval protocol or steady-state running four days a week. The sprint interval protocol varied each day, but an example of one of the workouts used was 10 intervals of 30-sec sprints with 90 seconds rest. The sprint interval group lost 16 percent or 1 kg of visceral fat as well as 2 kg of total fat, compared to the endurance group that lost no belly fat, but did lose 1.4 kg of lean mass. The belly fat loss appears to be small, but be aware that subjects were lean, trained athletes to begin with and had less belly fat to lose than overweight subjects.
• An 8-week interval program using both high- and moderate-intensity intervals decreased belly fat by 44 percent in middle-aged men with type 2 diabetes. Subjects increased quad muscle size by 24 percent and improved insulin sensitivity by 58 percent—a dramatic improvement that highlights the other mechanisms involved in belly fat loss (muscle building, insulin health & blood sugar management).
#3: Sprints Take Less Time than Aerobic Exercise
Not only do sprints help you lose MORE belly fat, they help you lose it FASTER and with LESS training time. Repeatedly, studies show that more fat loss is achieved in high-intensity programs that use 20 to 25 minutes of training time than those that use 45 or 50 minutes of aerobic training time.
Scientists write that anaerobic intervals are overwhelmingly preferable to aerobics for producing belly fat loss, and that the estimated optimal dose of aerobic exercise necessary to lose belly fat appears to be 3,780 calories expended per week. This is an enormous volume of exercise that would require 1 hour of moderate intensity aerobic cycling 7 days a week to burn 550 calories a day so that you could lose even a pound a week!
In less than half the time you can get better results with anaerobic training. A 1994 study is indicative of this: Participants did either 20 weeks of aerobic training or 15 weeks of intervals (15 sprints for 30 seconds each) and lost nine times more body fat and 12 percent more visceral belly fat than the aerobic group.
What is so interesting about this study is that the energy cost of the aerobic program over the whole study period was 28,661 calories, whereas for intervals it was less than half, at 13,614 calories. In less time, the interval group lost much more weight—nine times more weight. How do researchers explain it?
Aside from greater fat oxidation and higher EPOC, hormone response plays a major role…
#4: Sprints Improve Hormone Response for More Belly Fat Loss
Sprint intervals and anaerobic exercise in general improve your entire endocrine system. Both training modes enhance the cells’ sensitivity to insulin, making anaerobic training a successful treatment for diabetes.
Perhaps most important, anaerobic exercise also elevates growth hormone (GH) —a powerful fat burning hormone that helps restore tissue and build muscle—much more than aerobic training. GH is released by the body in greater quantities in response to physical stress above the lactate threshold, which is the reason heavy, sprints are so effective.
Another hormone called adiponectin that is released from fat tissue during exercise also helps burn fat. Emerging scientific evidence shows that any time you perform forceful muscle contractions, adiponectin is released, and then your body produces a substance called PGC1 that is like a “master switch” that enhances muscle and metabolic functions, thereby burning belly fat. Naturally, anaerobic training is most effective for increasing adiponectin and PGC1 to burn fat since sprints and especially weight lifting require extremely forceful muscle contractions.
#5: Strength Train to Lose Belly Fat
To get a lean, trim your midsection and lose belly fat, you need to strength train with a high volume, using large muscle groups, and short rest periods. This metabolically intense type of training is fantastic for increasing GH and aiding belly fat loss. This doesn’t mean you have to spend hours and hours a day killing yourself in the gym!
You will get results from a resistance training program that includes the following components:
• Multi-joint lifts such as squats, deadlifts, lunges, split squats, step-ups, chin-ups, and chest presses in every training session. Add isolation exercises only if you have extra time.
• Train with a higher volume—work up to more than 4 sets per exercise. Shoot for 24 to 32 total sets per training session.
• Train with a higher intensity—include some training in the 70 to 85 percent of the 1RM range.
• Include short rest periods (30 to 60 seconds) and always train a “finisher” that requires near maximal effort for more GH response (25 reps of squats or 2 minutes of leg presses, for example).
• Count tempo for every lift so that you apply a specific amount of tension to the muscles. In general, opt for longer (4 second) eccentric tempos and short or explosive concentric tempos.
• Shoot for 3 to 4 hours of total training time per week, which includes resistance training and a few short sprint sessions.
#6: Anaerobic Training Produces Less Cortisol For More Belly Fat Loss
Cortisol is the stress hormone that is elevated when you are under both physical and psychological stress. Research shows cortisol is chronically higher in endurance athletes—one study found that aerobic athletes had significantly higher evidence of cumulative cortisol secretion in their hair than controls.
In addition, cortisol is generally elevated more following aerobic training than anaerobic training. Part of this has to do with the fact that strength training and intervals do elevate cortisol, but they also elevate anabolic hormones such as GH and testosterone that counter the negative effects of cortisol.
If GH and testosterone are not elevated, cortisol overwhelms tissue, having a catabolic effect that leads to gradual muscle loss and fat gain. By doing aerobic training without strength training, you will lose muscle, lower your metabolic, rate, and gain fat. Worst of all, high cortisol causes chronic inflammation, which lead to belly fat gain over time—all-around bad news!
#7: Anaerobic Training Is More Fun & Less Boring than Aerobic Exercise
Intervals and strength training take less time and provide much more variety than aerobic training. Not only are you doing many different exercises in a strength training session, but you are pushing yourself to reach new personal bests. When you see how it can transform a fat belly into a lean, cut midsection, you will be that much more motivated to continue!
In addition, although sprint interval training can be mentally challenging, it only requires a short workout and many trainees find intervals less boring than endurance exercise. Plus, most people enjoy feeling powerful and fast from going all out. Get a training partner to help push you through the hard parts and know that by working hard but smart, you will reach your fat loss goal.
#8: Mix It Up with Modified Strongman, Varied Strength Protocols & Sprints
A few more anaerobic training suggestions include the following:
• Try modified strongman training: Do sled training, tire flips, and a heavy farmer’s walk to lose belly fat fast.
• Mix up strength training protocols with circuit training and supersets that use very short rest periods. For example, do supersets with 10 seconds rest when switching from the agonist to the antagonist exercise and 60 seconds between sets. Or, do a “death circuit” of heavy, high volume deadlifts followed by split squats followed by lighter high volume squats with 10 seconds rest between exercises.
• Try a sprint training workout in which you do 20 second all-out sprints with 10 seconds rest in 4 sets of 4 intervals. Rest 3 to 4 minutes between sets.
• Try hill or stair running in which you sprint up as fast as possible and jog down—repeat immediately. Do 8 to 16 reps.
• Try a sprint-endurance workout with six to eight 200-meter sprints (about 30 seconds each) with a 3 to 4 minute recovery.
LOWER BACK PAIN, why you should treat the cause and not the pain.
Lower crossed syndrome is a common postural distortion that many people deal with on a daily basis. This usually causes low back pain. This condition is caused by tight lower back muscles. The individual might also have sore knees due to tight leg adductor muscles (muscles that move your legs towards the center of your body.
Lower crossed syndrome is common in people who sit for extended periods of the day, leaning in a slightly flexed position. This causes the lower back muscles or erector spinae to continually contract to hold the body’s weight upright while the constantly flexed position shortens the muscle length of the iliopsoas and rectus femoris muscles (hip flexors). Over time these overused muscles adapt and shorten in length leading to muscle tightness. Low back pain, knee pain and ankle and hip pain are very common symptoms from this condition.
The body responded by abnormally lengthening other muscle groups. This phenomenon is known as reciprocal inhibition. This causes major low back pain and pelvic distortion which can cause knee pain, ankle pain, low back pain, inflexibility of the hamstrings and hyperlordosis of the lumbar spine.
Think of your quads (front thigh muscles) versus your hamstrings (back thigh muscles), if you flex one, you should feel the other stretch when you maximally contract. In the end, the shortened tight muscles cause the stretching and lengthening of their antagonist muscles. This ultimately leads to the weakening of those muscles.
Due to the tightened and lengthened muscles being imbalanced, a person suffering from lower crossed syndrome will typically present with anterior pelvic tilt that is causing low back pain and knee pain. The person will appear to be hunching forward with their pelvis. They might also have an increased lumbar lordotic curve, also known as an increased lower back arch, which contributes to the anterior pelvic tilt. Both of these conditions help to further enforce the lower crossed syndrome, resulting in one of the many reasons for lower back pain.
Muscles commonly tight or shortened in lower crossed syndrome include:
- Iliopsoas
- Rectus femoris
- Erector spinae
- Piriformis
- Tensor fascia latae (TFL)
- Leg adductors
The weakened or lengthened muscles include:
- Abdominal group
- Gluteal group
Treatment
Remove any trigger points and adhesions with myofasial release and trigger point therapy. Using foam rollers can work wonders at home
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoHBDim_fzk it band foam roller
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cEaTbwrY5A hamstring foam roller
Stretch hamstrings with PNF
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvOQK8qNi9E&feature=related hamstring pnf
Strengthen Abdominals and Gluteus Maximus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld1yQZRCn14 glute pnf
PREHAB (Rather than rehab, PREHAB being a proactive method of keeping the body supple, moving and pain free) is a much faster, cheaper and more efficient way of dealing with back pain so get to work today and beat any future back issues, start by booking a full movement assessment at RE:born personal training in Sandbanks.
We will assess and then give you a corrective exercise program to solve your bio-mechanical issues.
Call 07825445333 today to book in.
Three Tips to Solve Obesity

Americans are some of the fattest people in the world with 33 percent considered obese and 68 percent classified as overweight, but obesity is a problem in many industrialized countries. The UK, Australia, Mexico, and New Zealand all have obesity rates over 20 percent.In the U.S., a quick snapshot of obesity trends show that women are slightly more likely to be obese than men, and 33 percent of children are classified as overweight before they reach the age of 5. People living below the poverty level are more likely to be obese than those above it, and people of color are more likely to be obese than Caucasians.
Why Are They Fat?
You Can’t Out-Train A Bad Diet
1) Aerobic exercise is not the ideal exercise mode for fat loss because it doesn’t increase muscle mass and does not raise metabolism significantly. The common policy solutions promoted by government health organizations to perform aerobic training will not solve the obesity epidemic.
3) Strength training is well known to improve the body’s sensitivity to insulin. Making the body more sensitive to insulin improves energy use, enhancing the metabolism.
Tip #1: Avoid A Calorie Approach to Fat Loss
Avoid the calorie approach to fat loss in favor of a lifestyle in which you eat a diet with a macronutrient profile that improves hormone and chemical transmitter response in the body so that you achieve optimal body composition. By eating more protein and fewer carbs you will increase metabolism, elevate hormone levels that keep your appetite in check, and help you feel physically and mentally sharp. There’s research to prove this, which I’ll get to below, but let’s get the calorie issue out of the way first.
Tip #2: Eat A High-Protein, Low-Carb Diet
Tip #3: Eat Smart Fats and Protein for Better Body Composition and Health
Obesity Statistics by Country. Nation Master. Retrieved 21 May 2012.
Vary the tempo of your lifts for maximum fat burning and strength results.
Vary the tempo of your lifts to lose fat and get more powerful. Manipulating tempo is an easy way to modify the amount of time your muscles spend under a load, making it one of the best tools to help you break through plateaus and drop a few pounds of fat.
A fascinating new study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research shows how varying tempo and load will produce very diverse physiological results. This study compared the effect of performing the upright seated bench press on power, work output, exercise time, energy burned, and excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) using the following four protocols performed to failure:
• Muscular endurance, 55 percent 1RM with a 4141 tempo
• Fast Force endurance, 55 percent 1RM with an explosive tempo
• Maximum Strength, 85 percent 1RM with an explosive tempo
• Hypertrophy, 70 percent 1RM with a 2121 tempo
(Here is a quick description of tempos :
The first and third are the amount of time it takes you to perform the eccentric and concentric portions of the exercise, respectively. The second and fourth are the number of seconds you are advised to pause after. So 2010 requires a 2 second eccentric portion (lowering the weight), no pause at the bottom, a one second concentric portion and no pause at the top.
the ‘X’ implies you perform the action as fast as possible with good form. You typically see this on the concentric (raising the weight) portion of an exercise. )
Results showed that the Fast Force protocol resulted in the greatest power output, followed by the Maximum Strength protocol—a finding that is not surprising since those exercise trials were performed explosively and the others used a controlled, deliberate tempo. Maximum possible velocity and loads in the 30 to 60 percent of the 1RM range will always produce greater output than restricted lifting speed or heavy loads. Still, the fact that the Maximum Strength trial produced the second greatest power output also supports the inclusion of heavy load training for power—it’s not that one tempo is always best, but that you must vary tempo to achieve optimal results.
The Fast Force protocol also resulted in much greater work to be performed than all other protocols. The Maximum Strength protocol was second in work output, but this protocol took the shortest amount of time to complete (only 30 seconds) compared to the Muscular Endurance, which was longest in 105 seconds. The Fast Force and Hypertrophy trials both took about 64 seconds.
Considering that energy is related to the ability to perform work, it can be concluded that the Fast Force protocol requires the highest energy cost, or for practical purposes, it results in the greatest calorie burn. However, the Maximum Strength protocol provides the greatest energy burn for the amount of time spent lifting, again highlighting the value of tempo variation.
One interesting point made by the researchers is that in the Hypertrophy protocol, the amount of work performed was similar to that of the Maximum Strength trial, but the Hypertrophy protocol took much longer to complete, indicating that building muscle is a result of longer exercise duration and the subsequent physiological and metabolic responses produced, rather than mechanical work.
The last thing you should be aware of is that all the tempo protocols produced similar EPOC, which refers to the amount of calories burned following the workout due to an elevated metabolism. Although EPOC was similar, you would achieve best fat loss and body composition by using similar time under tension as with the Fast Force and Maximum Strength protocols since these used the most energy during training, and EPOC can be maximized with higher loads or greater work.
Reference
Buitago, S., Wirtz, N., et al. Mechanical Load and Physiological Responses of Four Different Resistance Training Methods in Bench Press Exercise. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2012. Published Ahead of Print.
Do Sprints and Traditional Strength Training for the Best Abs
If your primary goal is lean abs, a high volume total body program with sprints is the way to go. You’ll gain strength and muscle mass in the obliques, rectus abdominus, and erector spinae, giving you better trunk stabilization and a rock hard stomach.
Call us today on 01202 671783 for more amazing info to get you looking great by this summer.
For more information and update fitness info, “like” our facebook page at www.facebook.com/rebornpt
Top tips to help you lose the fat and get super lean.
Here are some more amazing top tips to help you lose your body fat.
1. Train using the most “bang for your buck,” multi-joint lifts like squats, deadlifts, bench press, chin-ups, and Olympic lifts.
3. Use very short rest periods (10 to 60 seconds) to trigger the greatest growth hormone response.
4. Vary the tempo of lifting phases and rest periods to provide new stimulus for the body to adapt.
5. To get lean fast, use a hypertrophy-type protocol (8 to 12 reps, more than 3 sets, 70 to 85 percent 1RM load).
6. Use a longer time under tension to burn more energy and increase postexercise oxygen consumption—try a 4-second eccentric and 1-second concentric phase.
7. Train to create an anabolic response. Increasing growth hormone is the priority because of its significant lipolytic (fat burning) effects.
8. Perform circuit training with little rest between sets for maximal growth hormone response.
9. For gradual fat loss over a longer period, include strength cycles that favor testosterone release with heavier loads (up to 95 percent 1RM), slightly longer rest (2 to 3 minutes), and lots of sets.
10. Work harder. If you’re not getting results, you’re not working hard enough.
11. Give priority to training the anaerobic energy system over the aerobic system when strength training and conditioning.
12. Do high-intensity sprint intervals for conditioning. Two examples are 60 cycle sprints of 8 seconds each, 12 seconds rest; or 6 all-out 30-second running sprints on a track, 4 minutes rest.
13. Be as active as possible in daily life. Move more: Take regular brisk walks during the day, always take the stairs, park far away in any parking lot, or do your own yard work.
14. Do relaxing physical activity instead of sitting in front of a screen: yoga, stretching, foam rolling, martial arts, or walking mediation.
15. Eliminate all processed foods from your diet—don’t eat them ever.
16. Eliminate all trans-fats from your diet such as margarine and shortening—they MUST be removed from the diet.
17. Don’t avoid fat. Research shows that people with diets with 30 to 50 percent coming from smart fats have higher androgens and lower body fat.
18. Eat smart fat, favoring the omega-3 fats that come from fish and wild meats.
19. Take fish oil to boost omega-3 fat intake and ensure your omega-3 to omega-6 fat intake is balanced.
20. Eat a diet with high-quality protein—organic meats will provide the largest “bang for your buck” protein.
21. Eliminate wheat and avoid grains in favor of vegetables.
22. Raise resting metabolic rate (the amount of calories the body burns at rest) by eating a higher protein diet with 15 to 25 percent of the diet coming from high-quality protein.
23. Eliminate all high-glycemic carbs and eat only low-glycemic vegetables and berries.
24. Eat an antioxidant-rich diet to prevent inflammation, which leads to fat gain. Try kale, broccoli, cauliflower, bok choy, berries, pomegranates, and cherries.
25. Non-green veggies that help you lose fat are colored peppers, eggplant, garlic, onions, mushrooms, hearts of palm, spaghetti squash, and water chestnuts.
26. Drink a lot of water (at LEAST 3 liters a day) to stay hydrated and help detox the body.
27. Avoid alcohol, juice, soda, and sports drinks. Stick to water, tea, and coffee.
28. For a radical approach, eliminate all alcohol.
29. Try acupuncture—studies have shown it can aid in treating obesity.
30. Make sure your vitamin D level is over 40 ng/ml. Take vitamin D if not.
31. Take a probiotic to improve your gut health.
32. Make sure your magnesium level is up to par. Scientists suggest 500 mg of magnesium a day.
33. Take a liquid zinc test to see if you can taste zinc. If not, you are deficient and should take zinc to speed fat loss.
34. Don’t buy cheap, poor quality supplements because they will do more harm than good if they are tainted with heavy metals or pollutants.
35. Take B vitamins, especially if you eat a high-protein diet or take BCAAs because the extra amino acids take away from the pool of available B vitamins need for detox.
36. Drink coffee or take caffeine before workouts to increase fat burning and work capacity—research shows we will self-select heavier loads if we take caffeine before training.
37. Drink organic green tea to elevate fat burning and aid in detoxifying the body.
38. Take carnitine to help the body use fat for fuel and increase time to exhaustion when training hard.
39. Take the amino acid taurine because it lowers the stress hormone cortisol and helps the body digest fat.
40. Take R-form alpha lipoic acid because it supports detox and recovery from training.
41. Use the herb fenugreek with meals to improve insulin sensitivity and energy use.
42. Remove body piercings to lose fat fast, especially belly piercings.
43. Limit fructose in the diet because it gets in the way of losing belly fat.
44. Never eat fructose before workouts because it blunts fat burning and lowers metabolic rate.
45. Avoid milk before workouts because it is very “insulinotropic,” meaning it causes persistently high insulin levels that make you burn less energy.
46. Don’t drink caffeine after workouts because it may raise cortisol at the point where you need to clear it for the best fat-burning and recovery effect.
47. Eat high-quality protein for breakfast. Avoid cereal and all processed foods.
48. Eliminate all sugar from your diet. It’s way more trouble than it’s worth if you want to lose fat.
49. Make an effort to get enough sleep. An early-to-bed, early-to-rise sleep pattern has been shown to improve body composition.
50. Know that you have complete control over what you put in your mouth. No one ever ate anything by accident.
HIIT: The reason why you should choose RE:Born Poole bootcamps.
High intensity interval training, the reason why you will burn more FAT at RE:Born Bootcamps.
So many fat loss methods, so many celebrity fat loss videos, so many weight loss surgeries and i can’t believe it, the highest definition of laziness, there is even weight loss gastric band hypnotherapy!!! What’s that all about……..
So what is best? Well I hate to say it, but nothing beats good old fashioned hard work! Forget prancing around your front room following the latest celebrity in a low impact Pilates session, although this is a start you’ll never reach your maximum FAT loss potential.
So what should you be doing? you should be booking in to join us at RE:Born Bootcamp for HIIT it is the answer to your body composition dreams.
What is HIIT?
High intensity interval training (HIIT) is when you alternate between high and low intensity exercise(s) or between high intensity exercise and a short period of rest.
For example, a short sprint across the Sandbanks beach followed by a walk back to Jazzys is interval training. Or a set of burpees followed by bodyweight rows at the RE:Born Bootcamp.
If you’ve ever participated in HIIT, you know that alternating body weight conditioning exercises for 15 minutes can be a lot more challenging than a jog around the park.
Ok so why is high intensity interval training so important, sorry it gets a bit sciencey now..
It’s physiologically impossible to sustain maximal intensities during exercise for an extended amount of time. This is because of how our bodies use fuel.
A good way to explain these systems to you is to tell you to go outside and run as fast as you can for 20 minutes. Here is what will happen:
Stage 1 – Phosphocreatine
The first 10 to 20 seconds are going great! You’re sprinting like the wind! That’s because you’re using a high-intensity energy source known as phosphocreatine.
Stage 2 – Lactic acid and anaerobic glycolysis
After about 20 seconds, your phosphocreatine starts to run low, and anaerobic glycolysis would dominate. At this point, more lactic acid would be produced and used as a fuel source.
You’re still be running as hard as you can, but you’d be slowing down, and your lungs are working overtime.
If you were a Lance Armstrong, you could probably maintain this for up to 10 minutes. But those who are not well conditioned would need to slow down and even stop and if this is your first time off the sofa, you might even consider throwing up, YUK….however don’t worry this is just due to the change in blood pH levels.
Well, it looks like the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. 20-minute sprint challenge: FAIL.
So why can’t you work at maximal intensity for an extended amount of time?
Oxygen: The molecule that makes the magic
One reason is the supply and demand of oxygen when working so hard, nature is full of trade-offs. In this case, we trade efficiency for intensity.
When you work at a lower intensity (such as plodding along on the treadmill at your gym), aerobic metabolism.
Your body uses oxygen to break down carbohydrate and fat for energy. This is very efficient, but you can’t work at top speed. With aerobic metabolism, you gain efficiency but lose intensity. Back in the caveman days, this would be useful for traveling long distances while foraging for food or water.
On the other hand, when you work at a higher intensity (such as sprinting), anaerobic metabolism.
Your body can’t get oxygen to where it needs to go fast enough. This is very inefficient, but it lets you produce short bursts of speed or high energy — very handy when you’re running away from a sabre-toothed tiger or similar.
So, we have these two systems, both of which have their own advantages and disadvantages. What if we could have our cake and eat it too? (Or, in this case, lose the fat we gained by eating the cake in the first place.)
Enter HIIT.
With HIIT, you alternate short bursts of very intense exercise (such as 10-20 sec of sprinting) with periods of lower intensity (such as 1 min of walking).
- The higher intensity periods create a metabolic demand that is very effective for long-term fat loss and overall conditioning.
- The lower intensity periods let you recover and use the aerobic energy system.
What you should know about HIIT
Exercise can range from gentle movements to maximal efforts. HIIT and heavy weights can elevate stress hormones.
Mostly every high intensity physical activity is a state of “crisis” in the body. It endangers oxygen supply to tissues, increases body temperature, reduces body fluids and fuel stores, and causes tissue damage.
Intense exercise creates endocrine and defense reactions that are similar to those elicited by low blood oxygen, high blood carbon dioxide, acidosis, high body temperature, dehydration, low blood sugar, physical injury and psychological stresses.
Hormonally, your body basically freaks out. Then it brings out the big guns to deal with the problem. High intensity exercise stresses the body so much that it’s forced to adapt.
Why HIIT?
HIIT is excellent for:
- losing body fat (while retaining lean body mass)
- strengthening the cardiovascular system
- developing sport-specific energy systems (e.g. training for that England Rugby team)
- developing “work capacity” (i.e. the ability to tolerate a high level of intensity for a longer period)
- improving fat and carbohydrate oxidation in skeletal muscle
- developing “mental toughness”
- making you a badass exerciser
- challenging the fast twitch muscle fibres — the fibres that are great for strength, power and looking great
HIIT is extremely efficient. It lets you get a bigger training effect with less time spent.
How to do HIIT
There are many ways to do HIIT. One is to come down to one of our Bootcamp classes for full a varied, motivational, high intensity and safe class or bust it alone with HIIT and remember the following principle: Alternate short bursts of very high intensity with periods of recovery/low intensity, such as…..
Don’t forget: Perform an adequate warm up and cool down when performing HIIT.
People always at this point ask what is HIGH intensity? Well, during your next sprint, envision a great big crazy polar bear chasing you. That should suffice.
So what are you guys and girls waiting for….get out there and smash some intervals.
On our Doorstep charity event for Help 4 Heroes
Come and check out our FREE fundraiser on March 11th 2012.
Follow this link to our “On Our Doorstep” site for more info.
Christmas training calender: 19th December 2011, Day 18
Flaming carol singers everywhere….AGGGHH!!!
If i hear ding dong merrily again, I’m going to go crazy…these songs are in my head continuously!!!
Therefore I’ve had to and I’m sorry but today’s session is based on the 12 days of Christmas….cheesy i know but i have to get this out of my system.
Warm up:
5 – 10min: be as dynamic as possible, work through all your joints, moving in as many planes of movement as possible.
i.e multi-directional lunges, some jops (cross between hop and jogging, google it), some press ups, chin ups and ab work.
The 12 Days of Christmas Main session:
1. Bear Crawl (about 30-40 feet and back)
2. Inchworms (with push-ups)
3. Renegade Rows (3 on each side)
4. Russian Twists (4 per side)
5. Floppy Burpees
6. Double Unders (or 18 single jump ropes)
7. Pullover Sit-ups
8. Dips
9. Box Jumps (or 9 step-ups per side as a mod)
10. Walking Lunges (10 per side- optional with weight)
11. Suicide Push-ups (11 total, not per side)
12. Weighted Squat Jumps (weight is optional)
Then…after the 12-Days of Christmas, there is a one mile run to top it off!
Please feel free to sing this out loud when your training today…..it will help cleanse the soul!!!!
oh and by the way……
Boring disclaimer part.
Here at RE:Born we advise everyone before entering a new exercise programme to get a full health assessment and sign off by the GP, reborn also accept no responsibility of anyone suffering from injury, illness or shear stupidity to hurt themselves with these basic exercises)
Pure water, as NATURE intented…WHY YOU MUST FILTER YOUR WATER.
WATER WATER EVERYWHERE…..should you drink it, or should you despair?
Well if its regular tap water or most bottled waters then the latter is the option every time.
Today is rest day from training, so i thought it apt to have a chat to you guys about hydration, and yes i know you have heard it probably a thousands times… so here it is for the thousand and first.
You NEED to stay hydrated… Most people are grossly dehydrated, and not only are people grossly dehydrated but also as a general public we are taking in over 40 harmful chemicals everyday from their tap water.
The tap water supplied to us today may have been treated to avoid contamination by certain water-borne organisms, but could also contain a whole host of potentially toxic chemicals as well as chlorine- resistant parasites. In fact, apart from chlorine addition and in some areas, fluoride, drinking water is often treated with other chemicals such as salts of aluminum, and may also contain other heavy-metal deposits.
This does not include the hundreds of tons of drugs that are flushed away every day in our toilets from urine only to re-emerge in our recycled drinking water system. It is estimated that the average glass of London drinking water has already passed through at least 15 other human bodies! Pharmaceutically manufactured drugs such as Prozac and the contraceptive pill are two of the most common organic compounds which may be found in city tap water, the effects of which have already been reported in the press.
Here also is a list of some of the other chemicals found in UK tap waters.
Aluminium Sulphate - Aluminium Sulphate can sometimes be found in tap water.
Heavy Metal Deposits - Small levels of metals such as Mercury, Cadmium and in some areas Arsenic & Lead can sometimes be found in tap water. These are leftover contamination from industrial effluent, leakages, spillages and left over from The Industrial Revolution.
Nitrates - especially in agricultural areas, the high levels of chemical fertilisers used on crops can enter local water supplies.
Herbicides & Pesticides - These are freely sprayed on crops and can leach out of soils into underground water sources.
Chlorine Resistant Parasites – Some Cysts including Cryptosporidium & Giardia can be resistant to the low lever of Chlorine in Tap Water. They can cause diarrhoea and vomiting as in the Cryptosporidium Outbreak in Northampton 2008.
Recycled pharmaceutical drugs - Hundreds of tons of drugs are flushed away every day in our toilets in urine, only to re-emerge in our recycled drinking water system. It is estimated that the average glass of London drinking water has already passed through at least 15 other human bodies! Pharmaceutically manufactured drugs such as Prozac and the contraceptive pill are two of the most common organic compounds found in city tap water.
Hormones – With millions of women on the pill and HRT relieving themselves into water supplies, and little attention paid to filtration of the hormone, recycled tap water has become a very risky.
Plastic bottled water doesn´t help either. Indeed, plastic packaging on all drinks and food stuffs leaches phthalates, which are ´oestrogen mimics´ into the food and drink in varying quantities. Plastics can also leach BisPhenol A, a chemical now banned in certain countries – it comes in bottles, dummies, babies´ feeding bottles and even plastic toys.
Chlorine – Chlorine is found in tap water as a means of water treatment. Chlorine can also react with organic compounds in tap water to produce THMs (trihalomethanes). It can vaporise in hot water to become steam during bathing & showering.
Fluoride. – Sodium Fluoride (Hexafluorosilicic Acid – H2SiF6) is added to tap water in large parts of the UK.
So now that I’ve scared you all, let me highlight a few reason why you should stay hydrated.
Energy: Suboptimal hydration slows the activity of enzymes, including those responsible for producing energy, leading to feelings of fatigue.
Digestion: Our bodies produce an average of 7 liters of digestive juices daily. When we don’t drink enough liquid, our secretions are more limited and the digestive process is inhibited.
Regularity: As partially digested food passes through the colon, the colon absorbs excess liquid and transfers it to the bloodstream so that a stool of normal consistency is formed.
Blood Pressure: When we are chronically dehydrated, our blood becomes thicker and more viscous. Additionally, in response to reduced overall blood volume, the blood vessels contract.
Stomach Health: Under normal circumstances, the stomach secretes a layer of mucus (which is composed of 98 percent water) to prevent its mucus membranes from being destroyed by the highly acidic digestive fluid it produces.
Acid-Alkaline Balance: Dehydration causes enzymatic slowdown, interrupting important biochemical transformations, with acidifying results at the cellular level.
Weight Management: Feelings of thirst can be confused with hunger.
Optimal hydration makes us not only feel and perform better, but I believe the muscular challenges we face today would probably not exist if we were optimally hydrated each and every day.
So what must we do?
Well there is only one option i believe, and that is to invest in a reverse osmosis water filter, i believe the best ones on the market are supplied from “THE WATER FILTER MAN“. Not only do these supply you with pure CLEAN drinking water, with the ability to remove chemicals as per the list below, but they also add alkalising salts, therefore giving you an anti-aging, anti-oxidant, oxygenating health drink and giving you body pure, filtered tap water daily.
Please take time to read my blog on alkalising and the importance of balancing your PH levels, to understand more on why this type of water filter is light-years ahead of the rest.
Here is the difference between your water and the water from a reverse osmosis water filter, clearly demonstrating the contaminated water we drink everyday in the uk.
I challenge you to start the day with a big glass of water, from a reverse osmosis filter, yes before your morning coffee and note the differences after 21 days!
BUY one of these filters today!!!!
Christmas training advent calender: 12th Dec 2011, Day 11
Time to get outside again and hit a tempo run, and why not, its absolutely gorgeous in Poole, Dorset.
So what is a Tempo run, also known as an anaerobic threshold (AT) run or lactate-threshold run, the tempo run was popularized by Jack Daniels, Ph.D., about a decade ago. Here’s his definition, taken from Daniels’ Running Formula (Human Kinetics): “A tempo run is nothing more than 20 minutes of steady running at threshold pace.” (He goes on to say that 20 minutes is ideal, but may be varied to suit the needs of a particular course.) Without getting too technical, threshold pace is the effort level just below which the body’s ability to clear lactate, a by-product of carbohydrate metabolism, can no longer keep up with lactate production. Daniels states that this pace is, for most people, about 25 to 30 seconds per mile slower than current 5K race pace.
Exercise physiologist and coach Pete Pfitzinger adds: “For very fit runners, the pace is between 15K and half-marathon race pace.” For those fond of using heart rate monitors, Daniels notes that tempo runs are done at 90% of maximum. However, most runners seem to find it easier to use running speed as a guide.
For those who have neither HRMs nor marked courses at their disposal, Daniels stresses that the effort associated with a tempo run should be “comfortably hard”—one that could be maintained for an hour in a race.
So bearing that al in mind, find your runners, hoody and ipod and get moving…….RUN HARD!!!!
Boring disclaimer part.
Here at RE:Born we advise everyone before entering a new exercise programme to get a full health assessment and sign off by the GP, reborn also accept no responsibility of anyone suffering from injury, illness or shear stupidity to hurt themselves with these basic exercises)
Christmas training advent calender: 10th Dec 2011, Day 9
Saturday afternoon its really cold, but very sunny in Sandbanks, Poole
So what better way to spend our time, but to bash out some serious full body, dynamic, plyometic work!!! OH yeah, bet you did think that was coming.
Today we’re just going to do two exercises (Well maybe three, if you count the first exercise as two)
So here goes, today session……..
Warm up:
5 – 10min: be as dynamic as possible, work through all your joints, moving in as many planes of movement as possible.
i.e multi-directional lunges, some jops (cross between hop and jogging, google it), some press ups, chin ups and ab work.
Main session:
27-21-15-9 reps of:
Burpee Pullups
Plyo Pushups
20″ box jumps.
AGGHH, burning quads and massive pump on lats, chest and arms….love it!!
Now time to stretch, go through a whole body stretch routine, inc. tris, bis, quads, hams, hip flexors, claves, lats etc etc, hold each stretch for a 90sec period.
All the best, see ya tomorrow.
Boring disclaimer part.
Here at RE:Born we advise everyone before entering a new exercise programme to get a full health assessment and sign off by the GP, reborn also accept no responsibility of anyone suffering from injury, illness or shear stupidity to hurt themselves with these basic exercises)
Christmas training advent calender: 6th Dec 2011, Day 5
Welcome to session 5
Well today started, until I went to the local supermarket and got bombarded by millions of offers on chocolates, cakes and all things covered in sugar, and witnessed poor people buying these goods.
AGGHHH, what a nightmare!! Too many people, stocking up their trolleys with all this JUNK!!
Why do they bother i ask myself, when it’s reported that 25% of females in the UK are obese, yet people still chose to chow through 100′s and 100′s of small foil wrapped, sugar filled small parcels of diabetes inducing goods…CRAZY.
Anyhow RANT over, for now. let’s get some training done.
Today’s focus is inline with these tins of chocolates, and its based on 1 REP per chocolate.
Therefore let me introduce you to the…….
100’s Workout!
Rules: You must complete 100 reps for each of the 10 following exercises, keeping absolute perfect form. Each exercise can be broken down into any set/rep count for example: 4 sets of 25 reps, 5 sets of 20 reps, 10 sets of 10 reps.
1- Basic squats
2- One-leg reach crunches (50 each side)
3- Push-ups (can use knee modification)
4- Spiderman plank
5- Burpees
6- Russian twist
7- Bench/chair dips
8- Power jacks
9- Bench crunches
10- V-jumps
Time this session, and remember to record the results. This can be a great benchmark for your fitness level, next time you must do it quicker.
Please post your time below in comments.
Boring disclaimer part.
Here at RE:Born we advise everyone before entering a new exercise programme to get a full health assessment and sign off by the GP, reborn also accept no responsibility of anyone suffering from injury, illness or shear stupidity to hurt themselves with these basic exercises)







Rather, high cortisol, poor insulin health, and gastrointestinal problems are greater influences on belly fat gain. Take control of these three factors and you’ll lose belly fat and be much healthier—and you’ll probably feel less stress!






















