Belly's not gonna get ya...if you read and apply this :)

Many of the questions I get asked whilst working as a fitness professional relate to reducing stomach size and searching for the elusive six pack abs.

Often this is quickly followed up by...shouldn't I be doing more stomach exercises to reduce the fat around my middle?...

No...you shouldn't as you cant spot reduce through body part specific training.

Simply put removing body fat from your body is based on burning enough calories through exercise or activity and/or mildly restricting your caloric intake. These two processes place you in a calorie deficit so you start to lose weight.

Unfortunately your genetics will play a large part in where your body likes to store fat, and where it is happy to release it from, meaning that all your hard work frustrates you as it falls from the arms, the legs, the face practically anywhere except where you want it to.

So I can't spot reduce at all....I'm doomed to belly burdon?

Actually no....there is hope yet :)

Spot reduction is possible from site specific areas but not through exercise.

The key to abdominal fat loss comes down to the following:

Rebalancing your hormones:

The main hormonal culprit for belly fat storage is cortisol. Cortisol is a stress hormone that when chronically elevated encourages our body to store nutrients from our diet as fat around the belly. This stress can be anything from sitting in the same frustrating traffic each day, an overly busy job, or being a night owl.

So how can I reduce my cortisol levels?

Your first aim is to get to sleep by 10-10.30pm most nights of the week. Cortisol levels tend to elevate sharply after this time in the evening (this is often why we can then stay awake in to the early hours) which means we dont get into the deeper restorative sleep that our body needs to reduce stress levels. It also leaves us with higher levels of stress the next day...gradually fatiging the body and making it harder for us to burn fat.

Find time to relax: reduce your stress levels through massage, relaxation, reading, yoga, meditation, whatever it takes to switch off from the world.

Assist your body to fight stress and rebalance your hormones with supplementation:

-most of us will benefit from a multivitamin (particularly B-complex vitamins) magnesium and zinc.
-those with long term stress that they know wont immediately change should look to theanine (found in green tea or capsules), magnolia bark, PMF's (citrus peel supplement). all of which will assist with relaxation and improved sleep (choose one and follow dosage advice).
-if you are under a particularly large amount of stress (sudden deadlines etc) then ashwagandha, ginseng, or rhodiola may be necessary until the stressor is removed.

beyond the supplementation I would also recommend removing stimulants such as caffeine (from tea, coffee, cola's etc) and engage in shorter bouts of exercise (as long bouts raise cortisol levels) regularly.

I hope this helps guys, if you follow the advice here you will put yourself in a stronger position to remove the unwanted belly fat from your body.

For further information on cortisol control try the following books:



to your health and happiness

Nathan

www.nathanlee-pt.com

Do you love your love handles? No? then read on....

Often with any weight loss journey you will reach a point where stubborn fat just sits there refusing to budge.

Each individual is different and we often read that this is purely genetic and we must be patient, it will go when our body chooses to let it go from that area.

But what if you have run out of patience?

Is spot reduction possible?

Despite popular belief yes it is (cue heavenly music and the sun parting the clouds lol) however this is more so through hormonal manipulation rather than specific exercises.

Through changes in your diet, lifestyle and with supplementation of natural products you can target those stubborn areas of fat whether it be your belly, love handles or thighs.

The Love Handles

before we start to focus on losing specific fat from the love handles I have to presume that you are already completing the following pre-requisites, without them you are fighting a losing battle:

- a clean, healthy, balanced diet with a mild caloric defecit compared to your daily maintenance intake.
- regular moderately intense exercise or activity.
- consuming a litre of water for every 25kg of body weight
- getting to sleep by 10.30pm 5 nights a week

If you are not doing these 4 things then start now as your body isnt ready to get specific...you might not even need to if you get the above completed for a sustained period of time.

ok so we're up to scratch and good to go?

Great, so the main culprit behind fat stored in the love handle area is insulin resistance.

Insulin resistance in its most simple terms leads to the body storing carbohydrate from your diet in the fat cells rather than the muscle or liver cells, and particularly this storage occurs in the love handles.

Insulin resistance develops from years of eating refined and sugary carbohydrates such as pasta, white rice, bread, and consuming large amounts of fizzy drinks, sweets, chocolate etc.

Our typical response to these foods is for the body to produce insulin to tell receptor cells to recieve the broken down sugars to reduce our blood sugar levels. Unfortunately because we over consume these foods over an extended period of time our cells become desensitized to the constantly high levels of insulin, ultimately leading to insulin resistance and love handle specific fat storage.

Ok that doesn't sound good what can I do about it?

First we need to give your body a break from all the refined overly processed foods such as pasta, white rice, bread and all sugar (look for it on food labels as fructose, dextrose, glucose or anything ending in ose and avoid like the plague). Do this for a 30 day period and you are well on the way to resetting your bodies responses to sugar based foods.

Secondly cycle your intake of complex carbohydrates, so alternate days with normal portions of potatoes, brown/wholegrain rice, with days of either very small carb portions or none at all. By alternating these cycles you are ensuring you keep energy levels up, allowing your body a rest from high insulin levels, and encouraging the body to access fat stores as a preferred energy source :).

ensure on low or no carb days that you make up your portions with meat or vegetables so that your body recieves adequate nutrients every day, you may miss the carbs but you shouldn't be going hungry.

If we get both of these parts right we should see results within 30 days :), we can assist the process with the following health supplements...

Fish oils:

Fish oil supplements, whether capsules or oil, are without doubt one of the best health products out there. Amongst the many health benefits (google them) you will see that fish oils accelerate fat burning, decelerate fat storage and blunt the insulin response when taken with meals (so specifically useful on carb days). I would advise finding yourself a good online source (as the high street versions are not as potent and taste awful), ideally there shouldn't be any fishy aftertaste if you get a good prouduct.

Fenugreek:

Fenugreek is a herb that is often used as a mediterranean culinary spice, it can be used in seed form sprinkled on foods, or taken as a capsule both of which can be found at high street health stores. for Insulin resitance, fenugreek helps to slow gastric emptying (so sugar doesn't overwhelm the blood stream) and reduce blood sugar which will reduce the insulin responses to your carb based meals and assist in giving your resistant cells a "breather".

Magnesium:

Magnesium is fast becoming recognised as an essential mineral for health, sadly it is also now publicised that many of us are already magnesium deficient.
(for some of the benefits of magnesium have a look at www.mgwater.com )

It would seem that magnesium is a potent protector against insulin resistance and will assist our process of removing the pressure from the over sensitized cells.

Magnesium can be found again at health stores with the most appropriate type being magnesium citrate, follow the dosage advice as if taken to too high a dosage you may be a little "loose" lol.

Thankyou for reading, I hope this helps you to understand why the love handles can be such a difficult area to remove and gives you some key points to put into action

to your health and happiness

Nathan

p.s. if you want more information try the following book for ideas :)



www.nathanlee-pt.com
www.nathanlee-pt.ning.com

Hey guys generally speaking I read a couple of books minimum per month to update my knowledge on fitness, health and diet...

here's some I have read so far this year...

worth a read if you want to find out more about some of the topics I write or will write about over the coming months :)

Getting to the bottom of it.....glute activation

Check this guy out....

he knows a thing or two about glute activation, the rest of us tho? Ours have got lazy.

not through a lack of exercise mind you most people in gyms will be doing squats and lunges, hip extensions and abductions but our glutes just really aren't developing and this can be a supplementary causal factor for low back pain...something that mr Gluteal up there wont experience!

So why aren't our glutes working?

Mainly because we are sat on them so often, with many of us office bound, driving more and then relaxing either on the sofa or seated in restaurants, we are spending more and more time in a seated position.

yes it's great isn't it?

well no, not really. We spent thousands of years evolving to stand tall and be active and now the last 20 years has seen us take an evolutionary step back into our seats.

I am confident to say that this is one of the biggest causal factors of low back pain seen today.

so why is the seated position so bad?

well two things oocur...

1) your hip flexors become extremely shortened and over active.
2) your glutes become lengthened and underactive.

Without going too indepth the agonist and antagonist muscles (paired) either side of a joint are served by the same nerves equally.

If one of those pairs becomes short or over active the nerve signal becomes inhibited to the opposing muscle...in this case the glutes (your bottom) get switched off (as they are also in a lengthened inactive postion when seated).

Over time this leads to the hip flexors pulling the lumbar (lower) spine out of position as the pelvis tilts forward, putting pressure on the lower back and being a precursor to low back pain.

The gluteals become weak and don't activate as they should in squatting, lunging, walking and the hamstrings tend to take over their work (synergistic dominance) (alongside the pelvic tilt this leads to us thinking we have tight hamstrings) leading to potential hamstring strains.

So what can i do to save my glutes?

first....stop stretching your hamstrings and focus on the hip flexors. See a qualified personal trainer to help you stretch or teach you to perform it yourself so that you can relax your hip flexors asap.

second.... get up out of your chair, if your'e stuck in the office all day get up every 30 minutes and stretch out your legs, walk to the water cooler and increase your fluid intake, go flirt with the boss, whatever it takes but get out of that chair.

third and final... get your trainer to give you specific glute strengthening exercises and show you how to really activate them, simple additions such as a resistance band around the knees during a squat force you to push outwards to keep knees in line with the toes and automatically activate your glutes....theyl thank you for it :)

bottoms up :)

nathan

Fitness and Fat Loss Myths.....3 of the most common get BUSTED! or Confirmed!

Hey people I hope you are all fit and well?

Todays second article (I have a day off so I'm playing catch-up yay) is about the typical questions I get asked or statments I hear on the gym floor and examining why these common beliefs just don't cut it.

so here goes, happy reading :)

1) I do hundreds of crunches to burn belly fat

Sorry this one just annoys the hell out of me as no matter how many times you explain it those clients still climb back on the sit-up wagon.

Basically this just comes down to how your body works.

Are crunches and sit-ups good exercises?...yes,

Do they utilise enough calories to see body fat shift?...no

Do they specifically target body fat for any calories they do burn? ...no

Typically speaking any isolation exercise ie crunches, bicep curls, tricep extensions, are going to strengthen and tighten that area of muscle but will have no effect on the fat surrounding that muscle.

The only way to burn fat from problem areas is through large muscle group exercises, compound resistance exercises and cardiovascular training, and a clean mildly restricitve diet that in combination create a calorie defecit.

Even at this point your body will still decide gentically and hormonally where the body fat will be removed from first and last.

You can actually spot reduce specific fat store problem areas through hormonal manipulation (see a future article) but not through site specific exercise.

Myth BUSTED!

2) The more you sweat the more you lose!

This is an understandable presumption to make that the level of sweating during your workout is indicative of how hard you are working and how many calories you subsequently burn.

However, what it is important to understand is that sweating is just a homeostatic mechanism for the body to regulate temperature.

Homeostasis is just the process of the body keeping all its systems at a consistent level.

So when we get overly hot, in extreme climates or when running on a treadmill the body excretes fluid (sweat) to allow cooling of the blood as the sweat evaporates of the skin.

Each persons individual control of temperature will be slightly different based on their natural physiology and current internal environment, so the amount they sweat in response to a given amount of exercise will also vary, thus the amount you are sweating is not neccessarily indicative of how hard you are working or how many calories you are burning.

people often associate this sweating with weight loss but in reality you will replace much of the water (sweat) loss when you next drink after exercise.

so throw away the sweat suits and only use your bin liners for their intended purpose (to make capes at halloween).

Myth BUSTED!

3) No Pain, No Gain,

So this is a difficult one because it comes down to your definition and understanding of pain.

the dictionary defines pain as: An unpleasant sensation occurring in varying degrees of severity as a consequence of injury, disease, or emotional disorder.

so this would suggest that all pain is related to injury, disease or emotion. In which case you would be well advised to avoid anything painful at any level so the no pain no gain phrase would definately contradict this meaning.

However in the field of exercise and sport that definition of pain may need extra clarity.

Pain in exercise may be described as the uncomfortable burning sensation of a muscle performing hard work, for example most people that have performed any significant weight or resistance training will have experienced the burning sensation as you near the end of a training set.

I feel that in this instance yes, potentially, as long as you have trained progressively up to this point and use safe overload principles, then no pain no gain gives a generically acceptable statement that just confirms that you get out what you put in to your exercise program.

However pain that is more sharp than burn, or pain that arises in a non related area of the body to the movement occurring is definately not applicable to the no pain no gain mantra so please do get any of these pains checked out by a physiotherapist or a corrective exercise specialist.

Myth: Inconclusive depending on your definition of pain.

Thanks for reading,

stay healthy and happy,

Nathan

Are you running before you can walk?

As a personal trainer and fitness coach, I have often experienced people's desires to try the latest and greatst exercise, that they have typically seen in magazines, that claim to be the next best thing to get a 6 pack or lose the love handles or bingo wings.

Whatever your reasons for starting an exercise program it's vitally important to follow a progressive plan based on where you are now and where you want to be.

Don't run before you can walk!

So the point of this article is to give you a guide to the progressions you should be making to ensure your exercise program is safe and effective.

To get the best from your body you would be well advised to follow the following continuum....

Mobilise, Stabilise, & Strengthen.

1) Mobilise

Too often when people embark on a new exercise regime they jump feet first into energetic cardio routines or lively classes without first having a trained professional examine what their body is capable of.

Your first point of call should be a postural and movement analysis (often referred to as kinetic chain analysis) that allows you to understand which of the muscles in your body are tight, long, weak, strong, inhibited or facilitated.

Because of our current society's tendancy to be seated (in the office, the car the couch) many of us will exhibit tight facilitated musculature that pulls our posture out of position.

Once you understand which of the muscles in your body are tight you can target them specifically as part of a flexibility plan specific to your body... rather than the typical finsh a session stretch your hamstrings and go philosophy of most training sessions.

Ask yourself the question... why do you stretch the muscles you currently stretch?

So why is this important?

If you start to perform even simple movement patterns such as cycling and cross training at the gym, without mobilising or stretching/releasing tight musculature you are putting yourself at risk of injury and potentially making current postural deviations worse.

For example anyone with an office job would be well advised to avoid cycling or any seated exercise unless they have a specific hip flexor lengthening plan.

Find a good trainer, get assessed, then start to re-balance your muscles for a body that moves more naturally, burns more calories and stays injury free.

2) Stabilise:

great so we can now build mobility into our program to protect the joints and muscles what's next?

Stabilisation of the joints within the body is our next step to true strength and fitness.

Before we can start to add any true strength work into our program the joints and supporting structures must be stable through their natural ranges of motion.

Using static strengthening, or isometric exercise, we can create basic strength around a joint whilst ensuring perfect postural position and exercise technique.

An example of this would be a supported squat position. Instead of a dynamic squat that has high potential for movement error and compensation we would move into a squat position and take the time to analyse and correct our position for perfect practice...as practice makes consistent! You could use a friend, a mirror, or a trainer to look at your position and give you verbal and physical feedback to improve your position.

These static positions allow you to learn how a position should feel, how the muscles and joints feel in the correct allignment, so that when we introduce movement you know instinctively that you are achieving the desired action.

This is particularly essential for core exercise.

Often people rush into crunches and sit-ups as they presume they are the best exercise for the abdominals as their PE teacher or football coach always insisted on them, when really the abdominals are designed for stabilisation of the spine.

Exercises such as the plank, abdominal hollowing, pelvic bridges and supermen will all provide a more effective stabilisation training effect that supports the spine and reduces the chance of injury or chronic pain through exercise and daily activites.

It is important too to not neglect the stabilsers of the shoulder, the rotator cuff muscles which must be strengthened prior to large muscle exercises like the chest/bench press, shoulder press, lat pull down etc.

3) Strengthen:

Now that we have rebalanced the tightness/weakness in our muscles and addressed the need for stabilisation of the bodies joint structures we can begin to strengthen the major muscle groups of the body.

First we will need to build strength endurance, this allows the neuromuscular pathways to develop correctly so that what our brain thinks...the muscles do, and prepares the ligaments and tendons of the joints and muscles for harder work in the next stage.

Typically this involves comfortable weights or bodyweight exercises that we can perform in the 15-20 repetition range.

After 4-6 weeks of this progressive endurance program we can the add a greater strength element. Increasing the weight now to a level where you can only perform 6-10 repetitions with good technique. Again perform this progressively for 4-6 weeks and then alternate these cycles throughout the year.

So there you go people, a generic guide to the progressions you should be making through the initial 6 months to a year of your fitness program to ensure a balanced strong body.

There is more to learn with regards training for specific outcomes so look out for future articles but until then,

Stay healthy and happy,

Nathan

www.nathanlee-pt.com