My Top 5 Supplements for Muscle Growth

1. PROTEIN POWDER

Protein powder is a convenient, low cost way to add muscle building protein to your diet!









2. CREATINE

Creatine allows you to lift weights with more strength and power!







3. GLUTAMINE

Glutamine helps your body to utilize protein more efficiently, prevents the breakdown of muscle cells and increases growth hormone levels!





4. EAA's

Essential Amino Acids act as muscle building blocks for your muscle cell walls, help produce muscle building hormones and speed up muscle recovery!




5. ZMA

ZMA enhances protein synthesis, increase your energy levels when lifting weights and improves your sleep quality!

Hope you have found this mini blog useful! Remember a Personal Trainer is a great way to help you achieve your goals and get you into shape using the correct training techniques and nutrition!

Rich Palmer PT

www.richpalmerpt.co.uk

“making your fitness goals a reality”

My 5 Top Tips to Build Muscle!

1   1) Hit Compound Exercises

Building muscle quickly will not work doing isolation exercises like bicep curls or tricep extensions unless you are already very muscular. Compound exercises like pull-ups, squats, bench pressing, or deadlifts will be much more effective. These exercises will not only work muscles in less time, but will also allow you to use much heavier weight than you would with any isolation exercises.

2) Go Heavy! 

A lot of people that try to build muscle do not use heavy enough weight. Pick heavy weights and go to failure for each set. Failure means until you can’t do anymore even if I put a gun to your head! One of the reasons bodybuilders have a partner is so there is someone there to help them when the weight gets too heavy to lift with good form. If you don’t have a workout partner, just stop when you get too tired to lift with good form, rest a few seconds and then keep lifting to complete the set. A Personal Trainer will help motivate you through your sets and make sure that your form is correct!

3) Do Less cardio

Your body needs calories in order to build muscle so if you’re doing a significant amount of cardio like biking or running, you are burning calories that your body could otherwise use for muscle building. If you want to build muscle as fast as possible, limit your cardio to a brief 2-3 session of HIIT CARDIO.

4) Eat Enough Calories

To increase your muscle mass you have to consume more calories than you burn. Instead of shoving any old food down your throat, try to get your calories from healthy protein sources like grass-fed beef, healthy fat sources like coconut milk, avocados, and healthy carbohydrate sources like potatoes and yams. You should be eating 6-7 meals a day!

5) Rest

To build muscle quickly, you need to fatigue a muscle group, but then give it time to rest. If you work a muscle too hard, too many days in a row, those muscle fibres will become too damaged to properly repair and grow. Typically, a muscle needs at least 72 hours to properly repair from a muscle-building, weight training session. A good rule to follow is to wait until you are no longer sore in a muscle before working it again. Also, MAKE SURE THAT YOU GET ENOUGH SLEEP!

Hope you have found this blog interesting! Remember a Personal Trainer is a great way to help you achieve your goals and get you into shape using the correct training techniques and nutrition!

Rich Palmer PT

www.richpalmerpt.co.uk

“making your fitness goals a reality”

5 Myths about getting a Six-pack

1) Abs are made in the gym

Most people think that doing all kinds of core and ab exercises will show the six-pack  the fastest. This is not the case, in order to reveal the abdominal muscles; you need to focus on your nutrition first.  The saying, “abs are made in the kitchen” is actually very true; eating correctly will strip the body of the layers of fat, revealing the abdominal muscularity. No matter how many crunches you do, you cannot out-crunch a bad diet! A personal trainer would be able to give you the nutritional advice you need!

2) Crunches and Sit-ups are the best exercises to make the abs show

These exercises are low energy moves and burn relatively few calories.  If you want your six-pack to show, you need to focus on the major calorie burning moves, such as compound moves (squats, lunges, deadlifts, etc). There is no way to actually “spot reduce” fat in the abdominal area, so you need to burn more calories overall.  The more muscles you use at once, the more calories are burned, thus revealing the lean muscle underneath the layer of body fat.

3) Core muscles should be worked every single day

Core muscles (including the abdominals) are just like any other muscle group of the body, and they require adequate rest in order to fully develop.  Be sure you include rest days to allow your muscle groups to fully recover.

4) Do loads of Cardio

When it comes to revealing your muscularity and definition, it’s important to burn calories so the body can strip away body fat.  When it comes to burning the most calories, focus on the most efficient exercises. Cardio is great to add a few more burned calories, but if you want the most calories burned for your time, moving weights is the best option. Maybe hire a personal trainer to help build you a tailor made workout programme!

5) Supplements will make the difference

The bottom line is that supplements only help you if your nutrition and exercise program are correct. Even though some supplements contain caffeine and green tea extract, they won’t make the abdominal muscles magically appear. Eat a clean and balanced diet and you’ll see the difference.

Hope you have found this blog interesting! Remember a Personal Trainer is a great way to help you achieve your goals and get you into shape using the correct training techniques and nutrition!

Rich Palmer PT

www.richpalmerpt.co.uk

“making your fitness goals a reality”

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5 Reasons not to miss Leg Day!

1) Balance of Physique

Whether you are training for performance or aesthetics, it is important to have balance in your physique. There is nothing more ridiculous looking than a guy with a huge upper body with a pair of chicken legs. A good set of legs is the foundation of a great physique!

2) A Healthy Spine

If you imagine a tree, it is only as strong as the roots and base that are holding it up. The same applies to the human body. One example of this is weak glutes. They put more work on the lower back and hamstrings which leads to tight hip flexors that pull on the lumbar spine. This creates an anterior pelvic tilt causing the abdomen to protrude thus adding further pressure on the back!




3) Increased Fat Loss


The exercises that are most beneficial for fat loss are Squats, Deadlifts, Step-ups, and other variations. The large muscles in the lower body burn more calories, create more lactic acid, and ultimately lead to a greater fat loss effect.  If you want to reveal that six pack make sure you are using the big muscles; your quads, hamstrings and glutes!

4) Bigger, faster and stronger

Squats are one of the most anabolic exercises, lower body exercises in general create more of the anabolic hormones required for building muscles and increasing strength. Women should not be afraid of performing these exercises either. You wont get a masculine physique from these exercises, you will get a great set of legs perfect for that bikini every women wants to wear on the beach!

5) Quality of Life

Quality of life is probably the most important reason to exercise. Mobility impacts quality of life greatly as you get older. Correct lower body training helps maintain flexibility, strength, and mobility. Being able to do the things you love doing later in life is made much more easier when you have taken care of your legs with proper and correct training!



Hope you have found this blog interesting! Remember a Personal Trainer is a great way to help to achieve your goals and get you into shape while making sure you perform the exercises using the correct techniques!

Rich Palmer PT
www.richpalmerpt.co.uk
“making your fitness goals a reality”

My Tips to Lose Fat for Good! Part 2

6) Limit Sugar Consumption

Taking in simple carbs (sugars) right after weight training replenishes muscle and liver glycogen stores, but excess sugar consumed at other times will be stored as fat. Satisfy your sweet tooth occasionally, but try limiting your intake of sugar to fresh fruit. Replace sugary beverages like soft drinks and juice with water, coffee, tea or diet soda.

7) Drink Black Coffee before a Workout

Caffeine causes the body to rely more on fat for fuel during a workout, rather than glucose, this is a fact. However, the caffeine effect is lessened when you eat a high-carbohydrate meal with it. Try to drink 1-2 cups of black coffee within two hours of working out and accompany it with healthy fats and protein if you're drinking it with a meal or snack. Skip the cream and sugar (which add unwanted calories and fat) and avoid drinking coffee at other times of the day; doing so can desensitize you to the fat-burning effects of caffeine.

8) Eat 5-6 meals a day

Dieters often decrease the number of daily meals in an attempt to reduce calories, this is a big no-no in my opinion. If you eat six meals a day versus three with the same total calories, you can lose more fat because more meals burn more calories (by increasing the production of heat in the body). Calculate how many calories you want to consume per day and spread them evenly across 5-6 meals.

9) Take CLA

CLA is involved in the regulation of body fat. CLA assists in the use of body fat as a source of energy and studies have shown that diets high in CLA have resulted in an increase of energy expenditure and a decrease in body fat levels. Also CLA appears to prevent the decrease in metabolic rate usually associated with a decrease in caloric consumption.

10) Use Creatine

Creatine, a potent muscle-builder, may also help you burn fat. The muscle added during creatine use increases your resting metabolic rate, increasing your fat-burning furnace. This is critical during a fat-loss phase, when low calorie intake can waste your muscle mass and lower your metabolic rate. Begin with a five-day loading phase: 15-20 grams daily, divided into 3-4 equal doses. After that, take 3-5 grams of creatine per day with a meal post-exercise.

Here are my next five tips to Lose fat for Good, look out for Part 3 where i will reveal my next five!

Rich Palmer PT

Personal Trainer In Sutton Coldfield

"making your fitness goals a reality"

My Tips to Lose Fat for Good! Part 1

1) Lifestyle Change

When on a mission to lose body fat, don't look at it as a program which often implies an end point but more of a permanent change. So make sure you can live with these changes indefinitely; don't over restrict calories and find exercise programs that sufficiently challenge you, provide progression and offer enough variety to keep you going for years to come.

2) Drink plenty of Water

Over 60% of your body weight is made up of water and is the medium for which most cellular activities take place, including the transport and burning of fat. A good guideline for an average women is about 2 litres and for an average man is about 3 litres.

3) Create a Calorie Deficit

Based on your age, weight and daily exercise, work out your TDEE (Total Daily Enegry Expenditure) using a macronutrient calculator. This will not only give you the amount of calories your body will need but also the breakdown of protein, carbohydrates and fats needed to achieve your goal. A healthy calorie deficit is considered to be around 500 calories per day which should help you lose around 1 Lb per week. Remember this is a lifestyle change, its a marathon and not a sprint, losing weight too quickly usually means more muscle loss than fat and will negatively effect your metabolism and function of your organs (Starve your body too much and you are starving your organs!)

4) Reduce Starchy Carbohydrates

Consuming too many starchy foods, such as potatoes, rice, pasta and breads (especially at one sitting), provides your body with more than it needs for energy and glycogen stores; anything left over will be stored as fat. DON'T eliminate starchy carbs completely or any food group for that matter just look to reduce or limit the amount of servings per day. Play around with what works best for you, perhaps increase your healthy fats or protein or even both.

5) Eat a Full and Balanced Breakfast

Remember you have probably been asleep for at least 7 hours so your body has technically been starving all night long, and it needs nutrients to rebuild itself. If you just catch something quick on the run instead of eating a full meal, it negatively impacts your workout, and everything else you do during the day. Try and eat sufficient protein (30-40 grams), a complex carbohydrate, like oatmeal, and a piece of fruit to start your day off right. That should set you up for the day nicely!

Here are my first five tips to Lose fat for Good, look out for Part 2 where i will reveal my next five!

Rich Palmer PT

Personal Trainer in Sutton Coldfield

"making your fitness goals a reality"