What The H*#L Are You Doing?

This is the question I keep asking myself at least ten times when going around at gyms. I usually just do my own thing, and never say anything, unless some friends are with me, just listen to my music, train, and get the hell out of there.

But, when I am resting between sets, I can't help looking around in the gym, and just watching what other people are doing, and always, every single time, I see something that makes me wanna ask this question.

Why are people doing squats standing on a stability ball with a barbell on their back, and doing one leg deadlifts on a bosu ball. Whats with the trainers making overweight older people doing jumping split squats, and sprinting on the treadmill. And the Guys who can't do a proper pushup or a proper squat, pushing way too heavy weights in a bench press or in the almost useless smith machine. I am just waiting for the day when a big guy with two dumbells standing on a bosu ball falls over me while I'm doing my stretching on the mats....it's gonna happened. WHAT THE H*#L ARE YOU DOING?!?

The trainers should take their part of the blame, trying to make their clients feel like the workout is worth their money, by coming up with some ridiculous exercises and workouts.

On the other hand, some people feel like they need to show off by doing “strange” workouts with wobble boards, bosu balls, and balancing on stability balls.

Lastly, mostly it is people who just don't know what they are doing, and sadly read a magazine to get workout advice or watch some other equally clueless person in the gym, and then copy what they are doing.

And off course, the people who do these ridiculous things who make me think: “ WHAT THE H*#LL ARE YOU DOING?” are almost never people who I consider being in good shape...

So.. they are doing all this weird crazy stuff, and it's not doing anything to help them get a better looking body... If anything it just make them look more stupid.

Then again, people who I see that have a great physique, they just stick with the BASICS and put the necessary time and effort in to get their body in great shape.

So, the point here is that no fancy piece of equipment or bizarre techniques is going to get you to your dream body any faster than hard work and a well designed workout program. Leave wobble boards, bosu balls, and stupid machine exercises to the people who want to show that they “know” what they are doing...which they don't. Get busy with dumbbells, a bench, barbells and some serious effort and you are going to reach your goals way faster.

So, while some “strange” exercises are useful for people who needs rehabilitation training, example: ankles, shoulders, knees etc, this is not what most people need to do.

I feel like including a short list of exercises you SHOULD be doing, and NOT be doing, if you actually want to get anywhere with your strength program.

Include:

Deadlifts
Squats \ Single leg squats
Bench press
Rows
Chin ups
Shoulder presses
Dumbell bench presses, squats, deadlifts, rows.
Core work: Bridges, woodchops, cable lifts, landmines, walking lunges, roll-outs.

What not to include?

Bicep curl machine
Smith machine
Pec-deck machine
Row machine
Triceps machines
…......................
Pretty much all the machines!!!

Why?

Your body DOES NOT work in locked movement patterns. Machines make your body do movements you usually never do in real life...
Machines poorly train your stabilizing muscles
Machines are not made for your body composition
Machines do not train your body in compound functional movements
Machines are usually busy, but they shouldn't be
Machines usually require you have to sit on your ass


Morten

Power smoothie!

Feeling warm, lazy, and superhungry? Try this power smoothie after your workout or as a lunch! It's quick, and it contains pretty much everything  to get you going again!

Ingredients (long list)
5 large tbsp of low sugar vanilla yogurt
1 scoop (30g) of vanilla\chocolate protein powder
200-300g of frozen blueberries
1 banana
1 tbsp of coconut crunch
1 tbsp cottage cheese
1 tbsp linseeds
1 ts of peanut butter (optinal)
Sweetner & cinnamon

Put everything in blender, then mix in 20-30g of cashew nuts, eat with a spoon!

Check out "Healthy recipes" for more good stuff!

What you should have in your fridge!

I've said it before, and I have to mention it again. Keeping your fridge and house clean of  "bad" foods is the easiest way to stay away from them. So, when you have gotten rid of all the calorie dense, processed, non nutrient foods, what should you fill up your fridge with? This a list of what I usually have in my fridge:





- Big bottle of cold lime\fruit water
- Fresh fruits, fresh and frozen veggies

- Lean meat (chicken breast, eye fillets, turkey, pork, Aldi's 5% fat lean mince)
- Fish \ tuna in spring water
- Low fat cottage cheese
- Low fat, low sugar, low calorie yogurts
- Eggs
- Frozen berries (for smoothies etc)
- Minced garlic, chili & ginger
- Sauces (ex soy, hoy sin, salsa, cranberry, oyster, & apple sauces).
- If needed: Fish oil, calcium, multivitamins.
- Macadamia nut oil
- (Ice cold beer and pepsi max)


Putting this on your shopping list is a step in the right direction for starting a healthier lifestyle. Next article I am working on brings up an important question: Getting in shape, whats more important: exercise or diet?

Recent research say that Exercise in general doesn’t really do much in helping weight loss. Adding cardio type exercise to a weight loss diet doesn’t always increase the weight loss results. Cardio or weight training doesn’t really affect weight loss. It’s essentially always comes back to diet, and calories in vs calories out. Some people may totally disagree in this, and it's a interesting question!

Morten

Massive Chicken Salad!

Coming home from a workout, and need to put together something quick? This salad is super-healthy, full of proteins, and healthy fats!
Eating healthier seems pretty simple if you enjoy eating quick and good tasting dishes like this one. 

Ingredients:
100-200g diced chicken breasts(I used 400g :P)
20 g Cashew nuts, or other nuts
Soy sauce, chili, garlic, cumin, salt & pepper
Low fat cottage cheese
Salad of your choice.

                                                              Directions: 
Cut the chicken and start stir frying it in the pan
Add: 1Tbsp soy sauce, 1ts minced chili & garlic. Spice it up with pepper, salt and cumin. While chicken is cooking, make yourself a good salad, I used
Lettuce, capsicum, tomatoes, red onions. When chicken is cooked, mix the chicken & salad together. Add some nuts and a couple spoons of cottage cheese.

Kcal: 464
Protein: 56,2g
Fett: 23g
Karbs: 7,2g

Favorite Lunch.

Spicy scrambled eggs & veggies 

This is by far my favorite, and most used lunch. I have this almost every day. Sometimes I like to add some fresh tuna, or some good meat from the day before. This dish takes you 5 minutes, is 100% healthy, and fills you up really good.

Ingredients: 

200-300g frozen veggies

1 tbsp soy sauce

1-2 Tomatoes

2-3 eggs

1\2 onion 

Spices (chili,  garlic, pepper, salt, cumin, basil, etc)

Low fat Cottage Cheese                              
   Optional: Tuna, salmon, prawns, chicken.

Directions:

Stir fry the veggies & onions for 2-3minutes until cooked. Add 1tbsp soy sauce.

Add the eggs and all the spices you like, stir for 2 minutes.

Serve on a plate with fresh tomatoes, cottage cheese, and if you are a crazy tuna-can lover like me, get some of that too. The clue here is to fill up your plate as much as possible. This is low calorie food, eat until you drop. 

My dish (About 650g of food)                 vs            "Typical toast lunch (about 350g of food)

3 pieces of toast with: banana, peanut butter & cheese + a glass of orange juice. = around 900calories (!!)

= Around 500 calories (With 100g tuna)

12 week body transformation!

Yesterday at physiqueology I started a 12 week body challenge with four lovely girls'! My job is to assist them through the 12 weeks, helping them with everything from eating plans, training, motivation, meal suggestions, etc.The 12 week challenge consists of two group sessions a week, and one personal training session with me once a week, which makes it a total of 3 sessions. Even though we are going to give it 100% in the gym, the major change has to happen outside the gym. The goal is to improve the girls' eating habits outside the gym. Pushing it hard in the gym will make them in better shape, stronger, fitter, and able to do daily activities much easier, but for weight loss, the nutrition HAS to be good. A good exercise program can NEVER out beat a poor diet.

There is so many out there thinking that a bit of exercise can do miracles without changing their way of eating, well it's not like that. When that is said, people tend to think it's awfully complicated to lose weight, and following all the "rules" out there is not very easy. Well, let me tell you one thing: The point is that anything that can help you stay on track and focused on your weight loss goal is worth doing. If it means having a special coffee or tea twice a day then go for it. If you think you should  rather have a post workout protein shake and it helps you avoid going crazy with the ice cream in the evening then the post workout shake might be critical to your success.

My tip of the day: In the morning, wake up 20min earlier, start your day with a big glass of cold water, deep breaths, and go outside for a short walk to get some fresh air. Then, set yourself 2-3 small goals to do for the day, write it down on a note. This can be something practical that needs to be done, doing some exercise, standing up every 15min if you are a office worker, or try to stay away from sweets, etc. It will feel great when you accomplish the goals, even if they are not too ambitious.

"You’re the only person who knows your weaknesses and barriers when it comes to exercise, weight loss and eating. So once you find a system and ritual that works for you, stick with it."

Lets look at some simple tips that can help you reach your weight goal:


1) The easiest is to eat less calories than you burn. This means less calories than your BMR or your daily energy expenditure. Sadly for most people their BMR accounts for all the daily calories burned. (the other things that can burn calories are purposeful exercise and lifestyle activity)
2) Increase your lifestyle activity level. But this only works if you don’t compensate by eating more calories. This is actually tougher than it seems. Most people who have a busier or more active day just end up eating more and erase any weight loss benefit from being more active.
3) Do more exercise (or start exercising). This is different from lifestyle activity because exercise is usually for shorter periods of time and at higher intensity. Again this only works if you don’t compensate by eating more calories.
4) Take a supplement, or coffee, or green tea, or anything that you think will help you stick to your weight loss program. This is likely more of a placebo effect than anything, but going through the ritual of taking a vitamin supplement or a workout supplement might just make it all seem more real and keep you focused.

"Real weight loss success comes from consistency, and consistency is usually rooted in rituals that make you feel good about the process and that remind you to stay on course."

Challenge: 

Try  to do one exercise ‘thing’ per day for your fitness, and one ‘good nutrition/food’ thing per day

Do you want help with your nutrition, training, or both? I will teach you the SIMPLE way to do it, it just takes 100% commitment from you part.  Contact me at: morten@physiqueology.com.au

Morten

Protein Pancakes!

Made these delicious pancakes today, and they tastes awesome! This is the perfect meal to have after a workout. A good mix of "good" carbs, proteins and fat. Check out the recipe