How to get Lean Legs Part 01
By Chloe The Red!
If you’re reading this article there’s a good chance, like me, you’ve not been blessed with gazelle like pins and you have been desperately trying to find a solution for years! Even just to make them a teeny tiny bit better would make you ecstatic! I’ve managed to make some massive improvements on my own pins and those of my clients so now it’s sharing time
Well, the bad news is you’ll just have to accept that you can’t down the takeaways, bread, cheese, sweeties and beer / wine like your genetically gifted pals with bambi-like legs. This is just the raw truth and no matter how many creams etc you try, the sooner you accept the truth the quicker you can knuckle down and establish permanent behavioural patterns that get you what you want
Ok, truth accepted? Next phase, transformation time! I believe it’s critical that my clients understand about the physiology of their bodies so the instructions I give are followed not just because I said so but because they understand the physiological reason, so get ready to learn some stuff!
So what exactly adds to the circumference of the legs? There are quite a few factors, it’s not just subcutaneous (under the skin) fat from an excessive diet (always the first thing I overhaul). Also to consider is toxic overload and food intolerance, the amount of good fat in your diet, gut health, hormonal fluctuations, over training and under-eating, hypertonicity (excessive muscle tension) and water. Each of these I’ll blog on over the next few weeks so keep checking back in 
This is not a diet article! There are many already out there, I am going to illustrate other factors you may not have considered / known about, especially useful to those already with a clean diet but the legs are not improving
ARE YOU TOXIC?
FACT 01: Fat cells are also used to store toxins / pollutants / stuff that’s bad for you, whatever you want to call it, that the body hasn’t been able to eliminate.
Poisons, toxins and oestrogen mimicking hormones can come from many sources including pesticides, growth hormones and antibiotics in non-organic meats to name just a few. This rubbish is added to processed food to extend shelf life and bulk it out to make the manufacturers as much profit as possible.
Toxins and chemicals from cleaning products, hair care products, make-up, pcb’s (Polychlorinated biphenyl), parabens and other chemicals also leach into food from packaging and enter your body through the skin. It’s the job of the liver to filter out all this crap as well as a whole host of other functions including fat burning! When it’s overloaded with toxins (alcohol is a toxin btw) the liver has to dump it somewhere less toxic, away from the vital organs, guess where it goes? Straight to the thighs!
Charles Poliquin developed biosignature modulation, a fat measuring protocol that went in to more detail about where exactly the fat goes and why. This surmised that fat accumulation on the quadriceps is more related to a hormonal imbalance within the body, while fat accumulation on the hamstrings is more related to environmental toxins (those bad oestrogens again) irritating the body
FACT 02: Dieting alone is not going to shift the fat on your legs, you have to detoxify
To detoxify you have to eliminate the excess oestrogen and toxins. One of the ways this is done is by consuming a diet high in fibre along with large amounts of cruciferous / brassica vegetables. These vegetables contain diindolylmethane (or DIM) that helps your body get rid of this excess oestrogen . Ensure you have lots of green veg at every meal or make yourself homemade veg soup from scratch and browse on that throughout the day. YES, I am suggesting you sacrifice 1 hour of TV to prepare your food that will get you closer to the body you say you’d kill for! Get off your bum and do it!
I sip on a mixture of supergreens and lemons – that’s the nasty looking green drink you may have seen me drinking if you’re a Gymbox Holborn member. This helps liver detoxification, rebalances the body’s acidity levels aiding the absorption of nutrients that, among other essentials, aid with the elimination of toxins and excess oestrogens.
Lean Legs Part 01 in short:
- cut out the crap in your diet
- eat more green veg
- reduce alcohol consumption – and I mean all those after work and evening glasses of wine / beer! Can it!! Or just keep it to the weekend
- Look out for Skinny Legs Part 02 where I’ll be explaining how good fats and food intolerances can have a massive impact on your quest for leaner legs
CONTACT ’THE RED’ at chloe@theREDtrainer.com
Facebook: Chloe thered
Twitter: Coach_Ultimo
Read more…Interval training basics
To all the new years resolution trainees who are trying to keep up with their fitness regimes, (and to some of the old veterans who need more motivation) Pro-Health is here to help!
We’ve all spent time slaving away on treadmills and cross trainers hoping to burn off that last slice of cake we know we shouldn’t have eaten! But we’re here to tell you it doesn’t have to be this way!
What if I told you that you could spend less than half as much time exercising and burn more fat than using traditional steady state cardio? It sounds too good to be true, right?.. Right??
Enter: Interval training!
The principle behind interval training is that instead of performing continuous low effort exercise you ramp up the intensity and push your body harder than ever! Naturally if that’s all you did you’d quickly burn out, so instead of exercising continuously you add some short rests between the “intervals” of training, and hey presto! We have interval training.
Why interval training?
There’s a lot of scientific evidence suggesting that interval training is much more effective for burning off fat than typical endurance style cardio. The principle behind this is that low intensity cardio will only burn calories while you’re actually exercising, whereas interval training will stress your muscles more so that your body burns calories for the rest of the day through and speed up your metabolism. Interval training is especially effective if you supplement it with Ripped Freak Fat-burner.
So what’s the catch?
The main drawback to interval training is that its tough. Really tough. Even experienced gym-goers can find interval training too intense for comfort, but if you take some time to adjust to this type of training it can be very rewarding!
So how do I do it already?
I’m going to give a basic 4 week template for some interval training, if you want something more advanced or more specific to your needs I recommend talking to a personal trainer.
This program should be used as one of your cardio days each week for a month.
step 1) Choose your favourite cardio machine (Although by the time you’re finished with this program you may not like it any more) and do a light 5 minute warm-up
step 2) Find your work/rest times for the week
Week 1: 30 seconds work / 20 seconds rest / 10 rounds
Week 2: 35 seconds work / 15 seconds rest / 10 rounds
Week 3: 40 seconds work / 20 seconds rest / 8 rounds
Week 4: 45 seconds work / 15 seconds rest / 6 rounds
New Year Resolutions? this time try SMARTER!
It is always tricky to set up new year resolutions because we don’t know if we will stick to them and we don’t always want to be embarrassed few months (if not weeks) down the line that we have not achieved much. In our case, I am mainly talking about fitness. Fat burners and diet protein tend to be best sellers in this month, together with detox supplements such super greens, aloe vera juice and the like. It is all good if the interest in fitness is not focused on the new year resolution and short lived for one month.
If you happen to be in London, you will notice many guys with big gym bags since the beginning of January. I don’t think it is a coincidence too that the gym I go to is packed during this month with all shapes and ages. So is it a good thing to have fitness related new year resolution? I would say YES! Maybe because it is a starting point where you can re-set your goals and be more specific about what you want to achieve.
Some experts talk about SMART: s:specific; m: measurable; a: achievable; r: realistic; t: timely, which I think is clear. There is also SMARTER, where the e stands for evaluate and r for reevaluate! I think that is even better because fitness goals don’t and should not have a limit.
So if we take a typical weight loss example, how would SMARTER work?
Specific: I want to lose some weight
Measurable: exactly 4kg!
Achievable: yes it is achievable if you are serious about it
Realistic: not sure what to say except yes
Timely: ideally overnight, but no that is not realistic, how long would it take me to loose 4kg? personally I am very careful not to loose muscle mass so any weight loss for me has to be well planned and spread over a reasonable time period. Ok 6 weeks is good for me.
Now lets assume, I have been dieting from beginning of January and by middle of February , the 6 week period I have given myself is over. The SMARTER bit comes here; E: evaluate how much weight I lost and R: reevaluate again and again. Clearly, I may change mind after 6 weeks about loosing weight and maybe decide to stick to that weight but detox or try another training programme or whatever it will be that will come to my mind by the end of the plan.
Be SMARTER, it might work! and if you looking to loose weight, I highly recommend CLA and Diet Protein!
W.
Read more…Kinetica Oat Gain Review
Hi everyone! So since my last review (the Reflex One Stop Xtreme) I have started using a new mass gainer;
Oat Gain from Kinetica.
I have been supplementing with this product for two weeks and not altered my training making for a nice comparison with the Reflex product.
So Oat Gain contains 600 kcal per serving (slightly higher than the One Stop Xtreme) and 45g of protein per serving (slightly lower) It is worth noting that Kinetica control production of all their own whey, so their “Biotein” blend is of the highest quality. However based on these figures there isn’t a great deal of difference between the products.
The key strength of Oat Gain is the fact that all carbohydrates in the product are sourced from oats, meaning they are low GI and ideal for anyone trying to gain muscle without increasing body fat.
Another contrast between the products is the absence of creatine in Oat Gain (One Stop Xtreme has 5000mg of Creapure per serving) this may be seen as either a benefit if you’re trying to maintain definition or a detraction if gaining muscle is your priority.
Moving on to my experiences; Oat Gain tastes excellent (much better than the One Stop Xtreme) and seems to be more easily digested. My performance in training has been improving whilst using Oat Gain, but two weeks is too short a time to say anything definitively regarding performance effects. The mix-ability of the product is slightly suspect but this is easily fixed by mixing it with more water.
In summary this is an excellent product that I intend to use for several more months at least. I would recommend it to anyone in a strength/power sport who doesn’t want to gain unnecessary body fat or anyone in a hypertophy training stage.
M.
Read more…