Interval training can give you far greater cardiovascular fitness improvements than slow long continuous CV training and reduce your risk of injury. The reason for this is that it allows you to dip into your aneorobic energy system which is where all the great training adaptation s occur while reducing your training time. Here are some of the long term adaptations:

• lower resting heart rates
• greater volumes of blood ejected from the heart
• greater tolerance and clearance of lactate acid from muscles
• more efficient use of oxygen in tissue
• more efficient use of energy sources from muscle i.e using fat sources rather than glycogen

So why spend hours pounding the pavement running when you can spend less than half the time running and get far greater results. Try these interval programmes on any piece of CV equipment you like.

8x 200metres at your strongest constant pace followed by a slow 1 and a half minute walk in between each run

4x 400metres at your strongest constant pace followed by a slow 1 and a half minute walk in between each run

2x 800metres at your strongest constant pace followed by a slow 2-3  minute walk in between each run

When you return to your long distance running you will find that you can last longer without depleting your energy reserves as your body will be able to use your oxygen rich aerobic energy system for longer which uses fat as its primary fuel source.

 

Please do not undertake this eating plan unless you have consulted your doctor and he has given you permission to do so.

AND ONLY FOLLOW THIS EATING PLAN IF YOU WISH TO LOSE LOTS OF WEIGHT!!! If followed to the letter you will lose 9kg (20pounds) of weight in 28 days.

THE  10 RULES

1) Breakfast must be eaten within 30 minutes of waking up.
2) Eat 4 meals a day spacing each out by 4 hours.
3) You may eat the same meals over and over again.
4) Don't drink calories.
5) Do not eat white carbohydrates such as white rice, white pasta, white bread, potatoes and bread crumbed batter.
6) Do not eat any fruit.
7) Eat as much protein as you wish for each meal (eggs, beef, fish, chicken ect).
8) Eat as much vegetables as you wish for each meal.
9) Eat as much pulses and beans as you wish for each meal.
10) 1 day a week you can eat anything you like even the banned foods mentioned in rules 4, 5 & 6.


THE RULES EXPLAINED

This is not a protein only Atkins diet. In my opinion such a diet as bad for your health and may increase the risk of coronary heart disease. This diet allows you to eat plenty vegetables and beans that are high in fibre therefore providing you the health giving nutrients and vitamins essential for a healthy body.

Rule 1) Breakfast- the chances of you being obese doubles if you don't eat breakfast! Anything you eat at breakfast will be used to fuel the body and not stored as fat.

Rule 2) Regular meals- means your body knows when to expect nutrients so will be less likely to store food as fat as it wont think your going into starvation mode.

Rule 3) Eating the same meals if you wish- in the short term while your trying to get weight off eating the same meals every day shouldn't be a problem. Some people find it stressful or difficult trying to come up with different meals every day. Once you find 4 meals that you enjoy within the rules feel free to stick to them until you hit your target weight.

Rule 4 ) Don't drink calories- fruit, fizzy coffee drinks contain calories, which people often forget so try and drink plenty of water and green tea.

Rule 5) Not eating white carbohydrates- white carbohydrates absorb extremely quickly into the blood stream and store as fat very easily, so cut them out.

Rule 6) Not eating fruit- although they are a good source of vitamins and minerals they are also very sugary therefore store easily as fat. instead get your vitamins and mineral from beans, pulses and veg. If you really miss them you can have as much fruit as you want on your treat day.

Rule 7) Eat lots of protein- protein keeps you fuller for longer and doesn't absorb quickly or get stored as fat easily. They also encourage the body to release fat destroying hormones like glucagon. Enjoy!

Rule 8) Eat lots of veg- as its low in calories, very filling, high in fibre, and full of vitamins and minerals. Eat as much as you like.

Rule 9) Eat lots of pulses and beans- as they will help give you energy as you will not be eating many carbohydrates. It is very important to eat them in this diet as they are high in fibre, full of protein, plentiful in good fats, and a good source of energy.

Rule 10) Have a treat day once a week- by doing this you will be able to compare how good it feels to eat healthily once a week compared to your treat day. It will stop the body going into starvation mode and psychologically it will give you something to look forward to.

It is paramount that you try and include beans and pulses in most meals as this will provide you with the carbohydrates you need for energy and prevent your sugar levels becoming too low.

IDEAL FOODS TO EAT
Choose one from each list for each meal you have. You can have other types of these foods but these are the best.

Proteins
Eggs (2-5)
chicken
beef
fish
tofu (veg option)
quorn sausage (veg option)

Legumes
lentils
black bean
borotolli beans
red beans
soya beans

Vegetables
spinach
brocolli
cauliflower
asparagus
peas
green beans

Other food types
salsa
guacamole
nuts

Meal Timing & Food Examples
Breakfast 8am- Scrambled eggs and mixed veg
Lunch 12pm - beef, mixed veg, borlotti beans, guacamole
Snack 4pm- 20 grams of brazil nuts
Dinner 8pm-chicken, lentils, salsa, mixed veg.

Eating out
Mexican & Thai, sushi (minus the rice) are best
Ask to substitute potatoes or chips for extra veg in the restaurant.

No time to prepare food?
You can always but nuts, salads, or soup these days.

Cooking methods
stir fry, boil, bake, roast, grill.

FAQS
Q) Can I eat whole-grain carbs? Yes but you wont lose as much weight

Q) Can I drink fizzy drink? No. Unless on a treat day.

Q Can I eat dairy? Not if you want to lose 9kg in 28 days. If you don't mind losing less weight try to stick to goat cheese and cottage cheese. But you can on a treat day

Q Can I drink alcohol? Not if you want to lose the maximum amount of weight unless on a treat day. If you must drink on a non-cheat day choose wines of the dry variety.

Any questions email me!!! Martin

Weight Loss Food by Martin Khoo

  Believe it or not but you can eat to lose weight. Don't think losing weight as all about going without and starving yourself- its not. It's about making good choices, eating sensible portions often. But there are also a few foods out there that can boost weight loss. Here's ten of my favorite.

Grapefruit
Remember the grapefruit diet? Well surprise, surprise it didn't work! It's just not healthy to eat nothing but grapefruits! But it has been found eating half a grapefruit before each meal or drinking a serving of the juice three times a day can help you drop the pounds. The theory goes that the fruit's phytochemicals and reduce insulin levels which stimulates your body to convert calories into energy rather than storing as flabby fat, which is the exact opposite to what a donut does!

Fennel tea
Fennel tea has many great health benefits; it's packed with vitamins B and C as well as good levels of potassium, magnesium and calcium. But it also works hard on the weight loss front too. Fennel has a double benefit: it works as an appetite suppressant and a metabolism booster which is great when it comes to losing weight. You can get fennel tea at any supermarkets. So add it to your daily diet to stave off cravings and boost your fuel burn.

Salad
Eating a low-calorie salad before your main meals can help you to lose weight and ensure you get recommended daily intake of veggies. Here's the reason, you can eat loads as its so low calorie, which makes you feel too full to pig out when it comes to your main meal. But watch out, don't drown it in a fatty dressing or you will tot up the calories.  The perfect low cal dressing is little olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Cinnamon
Cinnamon is a super spice in terms of weight loss; it's all to do with controlling those post-meal insulin spikes, which is what make you feel hungry. And you don't need to get much of the stuff to get the benefits; studies have shown just a quarter teaspoon of cinnamon a day can lower the blood sugar, cholesterol, and triglyceride levels. To up your cinnamon intake either sprinkle it on to your breakfast cereal, or maybe mix it into your morning latte.

Lentils
Lentils are great weight-loss food as they have the power to really satisfy your hunger without packing your body with loads of calories and fat. The reason is there full of protein- that's often why lentils feature heavily as a meat substitute - they can make you feel like you've had a meaty dish minus the calories and saturated fat that come with eating meat. Lentils are also full of fibre and foliate so as well as giving you the full feeling, they are great for digestion and healthy cell growth.


Green tea
Like fennel tea green tea really has a number of health and wellbeing benefits. Another great benefit is that  it can boost endurance by 25%, which means you can burn more calories therefore more fat- so it makes the perfect pre-workout drink. But in terms boosting your weight loss power, a study carried out by the Journal of Nutrition, drinking five cups of green tea per day can help you lose twice as much weight, most of it where we want to lose it most - around the middle.

Chili peppers
Adding a bit of heat to your meals can give you a weight-loss boost. Studies show that having a spicy start to your morning, i.e. eating chilies as a part of your breakfast can make you opt for a smaller lunch. Apparently it's down to capsaicin which is found in chilies and red peppers that has appetite suppressing properties. Granted - chilies aren't the easiest of items to face as your morning meal but how about as a part of a spicy egg-white omelet or stirred into scrambled eggs for a spicy weight loss kick.

Quinoa
Pronounced 'Keen-wah' quinoa is known as the 'mother grain' by the ancient Peruvians. Quinoa is good for weight loss as it has the power to keep you feeling fuller for longer due to its high protein content. Also the carbs that are present in the grain are released slowly into the body so you won't get that rush of energy after eating quinoa as you would with other foods like white rice or pasta.  You can eat quinoa raw but we reckon it's best when it's cooked in a similar way to rice or couscous.


Celery
Celery rates well as a weight-loss food as you can actually end up burning more calories eating it than your body will take on consuming it. But by no means does that make celery low in nutritional value; it's super-packed with fibre (great for digestion) and foliate (the essential nutrient for the care and production of new cells within the body). Get your celery fix by making sure it's featured in your pre-meal salad, as an accompaniment to your lunch or as a healthy snack when you want to satisfy that 'munch' craving.


Dark chocolate
Granted chocolate is not low in calories nor in fat, but dark chocolate has two major dietary positives that can lead to long term weight loss. First, it's quite difficult to scoff massive quantities of high-quality dark chocolate as compared to the milk stuff. Secondly, dark chocolate is very high in health-promoting antioxidants. In terms of a weapon in your weight-loss armoury  you can use dark chocolate as a way to curb any sweet cravings, just a few small squares to quell a full on chocolate pig out is well worth the modest calorie intake.




 

 

 

5 Tips For Getting The most Out Of The Gym

1)      Eat something!

If you get a bit dizzy half an hour into your training a small energy releasing meal 2 hours before will give you the energy you need to train hard and the psychological boost to know you can. Here's a couple of choices 1) brown tuna roll and banana, great for weight training) 2) a small pot of pasta (great for everything) 3) yogurt and a small handful of nuts (great for CV). Or if you want to get really fancy; eat something moderate 2 hours before (tuna sandwich) and then something small and a bit more sugary (banana) 1 hour before to have your muscles brimming with energy.

2)      Progress Your Training

Some people seem to spend every waking minute in the gym but their bodies never seem to change. To avoid training plateaux's don't do the same old workouts over and over again. Make sure you progress your program every 2-4 weeks to keep your body guessing. So add harder exercises, more exercises, heavier weights, more sets, more reps, or have less rest to kick start some changes. And rest! Its not the training that makes you stronger it's the rest after the training.

3)      Tired of Waiting for Equipment?

If you're on a tight schedule and the equipment you want is occupied don't stand around huffing and hawing! Instead always have a back up exercise planned. If the chest press is busy- do the bench press. If you can't get on the knee ext- do some squats. Think what muscle group you want to work and pick another exercise.

4)      Work Muscle Group Evenly

Work muscles groups evenly to avoid muscle imbalances and postural problems that predispose you to injuries. Always do the same amount of exercises for the chest, shoulders and back. Guys don't fall into the trap of overworking your chest muscles and not your back muscles or you'll end up with shortened pecs and forwardly rotated shoulders, giving you a hunched appearance. So show all that great chest work you've been doing by doing your back!

5)      Design a workout specific to your goals

If you're not seeing the results you want and are resting properly and training hard you might want to make sure your training programme is specific to your goals. So if you're a female wishing to tone up but avoid bulk do weight training with lighter loads and higher reps while stretching your muscles to give your muscles a longer slimmer appearance. Alternatively if you're a guy trying to put weight on don't spend longer than 1 hour training at a time, reduce your CV exercises and increase your rest period between weight training sets.

 

Designing a Weight Training Programme

To design an effective resistance training programme there are a couple of simple rules to follow to get great results.

1) Aim for balance- make sure you work all muscles groups evenly to avoid muscular imbalances. This means you should do an even number of chest to shoulder and back exercises. Bicep to tricep exercises. Quad to hamstring exercises.

2) Make the rep ranges specific to your training goals- 1-6 rep max for strength, 8-12 rep max for big muscles, and 15 -25 rep max for toning and endurance.

3) Take the right amount of rest inbetween sets and exercises- 30 secs or less for fat burning and endurance. 1-2 minutes for muscle building. 3-5 mins for strength.

4) Always work big muscle groups first as they take more effort to tire out.

5) Progression is paramount- if you keep doing the same programme over and over again you wont see any changes in your body. Try to change your workout every 2-4 weeks. These changes should come from increasing the amount of exercises, weights lifted, sets performed or difficulty of exercises.

Martin Khoo Personal Trainer & Sports Therapist, Glasgow

Benifits of Portion Control -
Hi everyone, today's blog is about the benifits of portion control for maintaining a healthy weight. All of my clients will testify that I am obsessed with portion control and firmly believe it is one of the main factors at the heart of controlling your weight and providing your body with consistant levels of energy.

I truly believe that there is nothing that you eat that is bad for your health. Im not saying all food is equally benificial but that portion control is just as important in maintaining a healthy weight as the type of food you eat. For instance a slice of pizza is not bad for you a whole 20 inch pizza is. Let me provide an anecdote that I believe supports my stance on the importance of portion control.

Earlier this year I tested the body fat and heart disease risk of 50 proffessional golfers during one of their tours. Of the 50 golfers tested roughlly 50% of these golfer had body fat of more than 20% and high normal blood pressure and cholesteral- far too high for professinal golfers. While the other 50% had body fat below 20% and normal blood pressure and cholesteral. After questioning the golfers on there: diet, exercise and lifestyle. All of the golfers had simliar levels of activity mostly 4 hours play/ practise a week and similar exercise formal regimes (not alot!), so no real difference in exercise levels. The significant factor that kept re-apearing was portion control and timing of meals. Group one (above 20% body fat) nearly all ate 2-3 meals a day totalling on average about 2500-3000kcals throughout the day- small lunch, medium size lunch and large dinner. Group two (below 20% body fat) ate 5-6 meals a day roughly spread out to every three hours totalling 2500-3000 kcals.

So over the course of the day the two groups were eating the same amount of calories but but had significantly different body fat percentages. The reason for the two groups body fat percentage differences I believe was how they spread that calorie consumption over the course of the day. I.e those with the lower body fat spread it out over 5-6 meals and those with higher body fat percentages over 2-3 meals a day.  It is this anecdotal evidence that convinced me even more that portion control and meal timing plays a big part in weight control.

Why would spreading your food more evenly over the day lead to a reduction in body fat storage? Here come the science!!

1) Starvation mode- Going long periods without eating can cause the body to go into starvation mode which causes the body to store food eaten later in the day as body fat in case there is a food drought again. This was an evolutionary benifit during times of food scarcity but is no longer a benifit (especially on the waistline) in a culture where food is plentyful.

2) Eating what you need- You generally only need about 500-600 kcals at a time for one meal as this is all the body needs at one time for repair of tissues and maintenance of energy levels unless you have just done heavy exercise. So if you were to eat a 800Kcal dinner the extra 200kcals has got to go somehwere if not used by the body. You guessed it body fat!

3) Craving high energy snacks- Going ling periods without eating increases your chances of going for high energy easy option foods like chocolate and fizzy drinks. Again too much of these raise blood sugar levels and therefore increasing the likihood of storing food as fat.

4) Burn more energy as you eat- It takes energy to digest food so eating regularly makes your body work harder to digest food and thus you can eat more without putting weight on.

5) Boost you metabolism Your metabolsim is all the energy required to keep your body working. Think of your metabolism as a bonfire. To keep the bonfire buring hot and brightly you would feed it wood regularly and in small amounts not heap a massive log on it and watch it smoulder out. Thus your metabolism is no different feed little and often to keep it buring brighlty.

Reccomendations- So my recommendations for daily portion control is: Always eat beakfast, eat small snacks between you main meals like oat cakes, fruit, nuts, yogurts, seeds, slices of meat and salads. Dont over do your dinner and lunch sizes instead spread it out by eating snacks. Try and eat every 3 hours. Do this and watch the fat levels drop!


http://www.glasgowpersonaltraining.co.uk

 Welcome to glasgowpersonaltraining.co.uk/ mkhoo.com, Martin Khoo's new website for personal training and sports therapy. The website has been specifically designed to let new customers know about my services and to give my current loyal clients more services to help them achieve their health and fitness goals. In the coming weeks I'll be uploading more nutritional programmes, workouts, and health and fitness news. In the members pages at the moment we have over 50 workouts and nutritional plans for you to download and enjoy. Every week I'll be posting a blog to keep you up to breadth on the latest news in health in fitness. Enjoy!