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Congratulations to my PT Client-James,who has finished Ironman competition in Klagenfurt, Austria in amazing time of 11 hours. He has managed : -2.4 miles swim in 1.09 -122 miles bike in 5.46 -26.2 miles run in 3.50.

Great dedication and determination has paid off. It was honour and good fun to be part of preparations. To the next challenge…

It was great day at work today. It started with good session with Angela, who just starting training again after holiday and we all know how hard it is, but she is doing great. I have a big respect for determination, focus and involvement in training of my PT female clients. Angela, Severa, Sam, Rose, Kirsty always give 100%, no excuses- just hard training(as well as, many others women from my classes). My wife is beginning to join this pack, I am very proud of her. What I like the most, they are better than most of boys at GYMs where I work.

I had intense, hard strength &conditioning session with two fighters, who I admire so much-Martin and George, they both preparing for next professional MMA fights. Martin will defend his BAMMA light- heavy weight title in November. He will be sharp and ready.

The roles switched at 1pm when George was teaching me and others wrestling at Leo Negao club. So much to learn….

The day has finished perfectly with bootcamp at Tooting Bec Athletic Track and late PT session with William, who is more than ever focused on getting in shape after getting married. Everybody has done well, especial Bridget who started competing a bit with Bruno, giving him good run for money and showing a new meaning of ,,stronger gender’’.

In days like today, I love what I do-when work does not feel like work but pure pleasure.
Thank guys for that.

It was perfect weather last Sunday,everyone came with good fighting spirit and gave 100%.Well done.
No excuses-just results.Keep strong,keep coming-only 4 months to summer.
Please tell your friends about reach4fitness bootcamp,there is no reason to overpay and you will get a free class for yourself,if they come.

The spring is almost upon us, so naturally many of us starting preparing for summer (holidays, weddings, etc.).We increasing time spend in the GYM, outdoor classes and workouts in hope that we lose a few kilograms, tide up/shape up problematic parts of body. I would like to give you advice what to eat to make the most of your workouts and achieve summer goals.

Let’s start from beginning;
-the most common mistake with diet/nutrition is eating only 2-3 meals a day. Everyone who does it, automatically massively slow down their metabolism and contradict all hard work in the GYM (where we trying to speed up our resting metabolic rate).You should eat 5-6 meals/snack a day in regular 2-3h intervals.

-size matters-make sure that you eat a small portions, never eat to feel full and lazy

-try eat meals/snacks, which are made from fresh veg, fish, lean meat, fruits, etc., ideally by you (then you are sure what is inside), with short preparation time. I believe that any meal, which takes longer than 30 min. to make, is losing quite a lot of nutrients and probably is quite unhealthy because of cooking methods. Try to eat as much fresh salads as possible, avoid- processed food, fast foods, etc.

-try to limit your carbs intake to 2 meals a day. Most of my clients have sitting/office jobs and most likely don’t need as much calories as they deliver. Some time ago American trainers started forcing fashion of not eating carbs after 5pm, you can argue that it doesn’t matter when you deliver your calories as long you keep to your limits. Personally, I believe to eat your carbs in the morning and in the early afternoon.

-remember that, good fats’’ are better for you than carbs, they are making you feel fuller for longer and don’t give you sugar rush and mess up insulin levels

-drink plenty of water, more than 3l a day(tea and coffee don’t count as they make you dehydrated),if your training is intense or with big volume-drink more than 4,5l of water a day.30% of GYM users are dehydrated even before they start exercising. If you are feeling thirsty, you are already dehydrated.

-cut out from your diet:
1) alcohol (as much as you can manage, if you can’t at least limit it and/or replace wine and beer with white spirits-vodka, gin, which are less calorific) ,each glass of wine is about 200-300empty calories, pint is about 200-250 empty calories
2) Fizzy drinks and energy drinks (they usually full of sugar and you don’t need them if your training is shorter than 1.5h),
3) Fruit’s juices –again they full of sugar and messing up your insulin level,
4) Sweets, cakes, etc.

-don’t be afraid of supplements:
1) CLA, L-carnitine and green tea are natural supplements, which help you to burn fat. Black coffee drank 30min.before training helps you with keeping up with session as well as better fat burning
2)whey protein helps you to rebuild damage during training muscle fibres and makes you feel fuller for longer as protein are hard to digest
3) Glutamine, HMB, BCAA help you to regenerate your body faster
4) Creatine monohydrate and CEE creatine, ZMA  helps you with strength and size, if you think of leaner look, rather use CEE which doesn’t absorbs so much water
5) Pre-workout NOs formulae, help you to have more energy/power during training, helps you not minimize negative impact of cortisol on your muscles during and after GYM session
6) Use proper fat burners, if you really want to help/speed up burning process.

Just remember all supplements in the world without hard training and good, clean diet won’t do anything for you and will be only waste of your money. This takes me to conclusion that most of us don’t realise how hard/often they have to work out and how strict diet have to be to get results they want.

Obstacle races have become very popular over last few years. The most famous, Tough Mudder or Survival of the Fittest (you can argue which one) is ultimate test of fitness for many. I see a lot men and women wearing t-shirts with logo of these races at the GYM. Races attract runners as well as weight lifters…
I believe that preparation to competition should be periodise and divided into four blocks:

1) General fitness training-this should be the longest period, during which you work on basic compound exercises (squats, dead-lifts, lat row, chest press, military press, etc.) and long slow distance aerobic training (mainly running but rowing, arm bike, X-Trainer should be included as well) to increase endurance of the muscles and prepare your body (joints, tendons, ligaments, muscles) to more specific lifts and training, and preventing injuries. You are mainly interested in using your own body weight, bars and DB/KB with occasional use of cables machines. A huge effort should be put on building strong core. to the race depends on background of participant, but some rules are the same.
Duration of this period depends on many factors. However the most obvious two are-how long do you have before competition and what is your background (this period will be slightly different for runner and weight -lifter but will have one thing in common- it will be endurance training).
The number of repetition should be above 1o in each set, performed to fatigue and aerobic training should be minimum 30min but quite often extended to 1-1.5h, performed with comfortable speed/intensity. You focus more on volume of training than intensity.

2)Building up strength-during this period number of reps gradually should be drop to 3-6 reps per set (some endurance training should be still included)during lifting and some more dynamic lifts should be introduced-for example- clean and press, KB swing, power squats-jumps (so some plyometric exercises)to develop strength and power. Functional equipment and exercises should be included-KB, Bulgarian bags, power bags, TRX, Vipers, ropes, etc. Lifts gradually should be performed to failure.
Interval and speed training should be included in aerobic training, as well as some circuit or bootcamp classes.

3) Specific training before race-depending how long is your preparation time; this period should be the shortes-3-4 weeks. It is the most intense time, where you pushing yourself 110% and apart from functional training and your strength- training ,aerobic training,bootcamps ,you doing exercises similar(as much as possible) to the once you will be performing on the day, in conditions similar to your race conditions. You must go out of the GYM!
For example-you or your trainer should put some obstacle exercises in the local park; you should get completely wet in the beginning of training and carry on tasks for 1-1.5h.

4) Active rest is time in last week before race, when training is limited to maximum and base manly around short/easy runs, some body-workout exercises and swimming. It is a time for a full recovery of your muscles and period in which you, get hungry ’’to compete.Don’t forget to carbs load during the last day before race.

There is many ways to prepare to obstacle races but they all have to be periodised and specific, focusing on improving your weak points (you only as strong as your weakest point) and strengthening areas in which you are good already.

P.S. Do you dare?-one of my clients during last year runs.

Keep training

Artur

We had another fantastic bootcamp session last Sunday.The weather was awesome and so many of you came.I was inspired by determination and intensity of your affords,all well done-especial Laurence, who has been very regular and made a enormous progress.
I have some exiting news ,I am trying to organise children activity coach,who will be running  children bootcamps along my bootcamps, so when you come with new generation of fitness enthusiast,they will be kept active.
(It will be small additional fee for this service).Hopefully everything will work out and we will start soon…
We still should have a nice weather for month or two,but eventually wet winter will come.I found solution and trying to rent aerobic studio at Tooting Bec Athletic Track.It is quite small ,so maybe there will be two bootcamp classes.I will keep you informed.
This Sunday-we return to heavy duty training with equipment:Bulgarian bags,KB,elastic speed bands,etc.
See you soon…