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:

1. cut out the crap in your diet
2. eat more green veg
3. 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
4. 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

www.theREDtrainer.com

Facebook: Chloe thered

Twitter: Coach_Ultimo

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

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.

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.

Taste is clearly not everything I judge a protein shake on. Digestion is very important for me. Syntha 6 worked for my digestive system and no upset stomach with Syntha 6. Protein content per serving is 22g of which 10g are essential amino acids. Calories per serving is 200 calories which is slightly higher than lean oriented protein servings. However, given the amount of training I do (6times/week) and the type of training (cross-fit, cardio and strength) I can justify going on a slightly high calorie protein.

I use Syntha 6 not only after my workout sessions but also add a scoop to my breakfast oats in the morning which helps keep my protein intake in good shape until lunch time. I also use it on some evenings where I feel I didn’t consume enough protein on that date. The reason being Syntha 6 is not all fast release protein because it is a protein blend of:

- Whey protein concentrate

- Whey protein isolate

- Calcium Caseinate

- Micellar Casein

- Milk Protein Isolate

- Egg Albumen

If I was trying to lose weight I would probably not use Syntha 6 and go on a roughly 100 calories protein per serving but if one wants to maintain and build muscle mass  I think Syntha 6 ticks many of the boxes especially that it is versatile for day or night time use.

W.

Obviously these improvements are not entirely down to one product and have required a lot of hard training but I feel the one stop Xtreme has aided me in my goals, particularly in helping with recovery and in getting enough calories to gain muscle.

Ingredients-wise this product is very good, the protein blend is entirely whey and casein based (so no cheap soy protein) and the carbohydrate blend has a balanced mix of high and low GI carbs. (I credit this with my not gaining fat whilst on a mass-gaining diet.)
It also contains a comprehensive mix of amino acids (BCAAs, glutamine, taurine, glycine) in high doses compared with other products.

The main negative with this product is the taste, which isn’t good, particularly the strawberry flavour. The chocolate flavour isn’t too bad. Unfortunately this is a problem with most products that contain creatine, and it would be worse if they sacrificed the quality of the product by adding a load of sugar/artificial sweeteners just to improve the taste.

Summary
A well above average mass-gainer that does help with results, but if you are sensitive to taste perhaps consider something like Kinetica Oat Gain which is a bit more palatable.

M.

Today, I had an intense workout after taking a sample of Ripped Freak Pre-workout.

According to Pharma Freak website, the pre-workout uses a clinically-proven dose of TyroPure™ Instantized L-Tyrosine for maximum mental alertness and cognitive function. The clinically-proven dose of TyroPure™ Instantized L-Tyrosine found in RIPPED FREAK PRE-WORKOUT dramatically amplifies the adrenaline-stimulating effects of its formula! With this ingredient combination, you’ll maximize your energy and intensity levels AND experience better mental focus and clarity all at the same time!

If you have not yet tried it, why you may want to give it a go and see if it you beat your best with it. After all, not every pre-workout supplement works the same for everyone!

W.

Thai massage

by our Therapist Pia. The session started gentle by applying pressure points on the legs. Within few minutes, I realised I am starting to unwind and feel relaxed. The massage involves lots of stretching helped by the therapist own weight. Naturally, some muscles were more tense than others but that’s the whole point to treat the tense muscles and relieve the pain. There was no oil used, which is better if you need to get back to work and don’t want the oily feeling.

The massage is not performed on a table like other massages. It was done on a thin mattress on the floor. There was an instant relaxing effect of just lying on the floor. This invigorating massage is applied using thumbs, hands, elbows, feet and knees, and delivers a deep and effective pressure. In the process the therapist loosen muscles and joints , enhance movement and restore circulation in tight areas, and relive stress and tension tissue.

The advantages I felt from trying Thai massage are relaxation, release of tension from the shoulders and thighs, more focus and less stress.

I highly recommend Thai Massage for either a holistic kind of massage or for a sports person.

W.

W.