Pick'n'mix Cardio

If you are someone who competes in a particular sport which has a cardiovascular element then you are going to have to be very specific about how you train. Runners need to run, fighters need to spar and crossfitters need to...do everything. But if you are a strength athlete, bodybuilder, or someone just training for strength, health, physique or whatever then you can be far more general when it comes to cardiovascular exercise. If you are doing cardio for the health benefits, fat burning effects or to build general endurance then the type of cardio you do doesn't matter as long as you are getting the benefits.

When you are doing cardio for these benefits you are not trying to build muscular endurance but are trying to build the endurance of your heart and lungs or burn calories.

Most of the down sides of cardio are associated with doing the same thing repeatedly. The adaptation s of your type 2 muscle fibres towards endurence will be greater if they are getting repeated signals to adapt to an ever greater demand from the same activity. In other words if you run a lot your muscles will adapt to get you better at running. But if your goals are to be as strong and muscular as possible this is not what you want as you are now conflicting with your other goals. The other down side to repeated cardio is wear and tear on the joints. The same motion over and over especially if its high impact like running tends to lead to overuse injury's. So how do you get the health and fat burning effects of cardio while avoiding loss of strength or muscle and minimising your chance of injury? Simple you do a different type of cardio everytime you train it and rotate around the vast options of cardiovascular exercise open to you.
Think of all the different types of cardio exercise.
You have running over varying distances and speeds on varying terrain, skipping, swimming over distances, speeds and strokes, cycling, rowing machines, elliptical, stairmaster, bodyweight circuits, kettle bell work, burpees, carrying things, playing different sports, interval training, power walking, walking with a weighted vest, pushing a prowler, pulling a sled, sledgehammer strikes, battling ropes, assault courses, bag work, grappling, barbell complexes, method naturelle type training. The list is pretty much endless. By taking a varied approach to cardio you still burn fat, get all the health benefits and allow your heart and lungs to adapt to exercise. However the constant variety doesn't allow your muscles to adapt effectively or to produce as much repetitive strain on the joints. The more of a type of cardio you do the more efficient you become at doing it and therefore the less beneficial it is. Constant variety means you will not be as efficient each time and will burn more calories each time.

Of course this method is not perfect as it is difficult to gauge progression.  Is running better than swimming? Did I burn more calories doing that circuit than this power walk? Well you have a couple of options. There is the rate of peiceved exertion. This is your personal gauge of how hard something is. If 30mins of running just about killed you while 30mins of swimming felt easy you know you got more benefit and burned more calories from the running. That's not to say that the most intense forms of cardio are always best. If you just do hill sprints all the time you will probably end up over trained. There are many benefits to easier more sustainable cardio. But overtime you are looking to work harder and for longer. Another way to gauge progress is to buy a heart rate monitor to wear during cardio. Here you can see your heart rate and how it compares between forms of cardio. Some even have built in calorie counters. While these may not be 100% accurate they are at least accurate to themselves so you can compare the calories burning effects between different types of cardio. You do not always need to seek progression on cardio and if you are not doing it for performance then does it matter to you whether it is improving or not? That's up to you but if you are losing fat, getting stronger and more muscular I wouldn't be worried. Training like this allows you to auto regulate your cardio based on how you are feeling with easier and harder workouts thrown in when your body feels ready. Of course you can pick and chose what types of cardio you want to be based on person pretences or create some kind of random. Cardio genrater perhaps giving different options a number and following a dice to see what to do. This can keep things fun and interesting.

I tend to divide cardio into steady state type activity, power walking, vest walking, running, swimming, rowing, elliptical
And interval type cardio, sprints, hills, skipping, bag work, bodyweight circuits, battling ropes, kettle bells, prowler, sleds, sledgehammers, complexes etc. I will perform a mix of the two on any given week depending on what I fancy doing. If you get the opportunity you can play any number of sports and if I have the chance I like to do all day cardio on off days.

All day cardio is basically hiking or bike riding over a long distance that will take several hours. The intensity is very low and is more of a leisure activity exploring new areas and getting into nature. But by being on your feet or on a bike all day you can really burn a lot of calories. Just see how tired you feel after hiking 10 miles. A good thing for this is to look at google maps or earth and find some unexplored places or country side that's within walking or cycle distance. You can of course drive further out and then begin walking or riding as well. You might be suprised just what you find and how good this makes you feel. Take the family with you, your dog, or just get some solitude. You can listen to music or audio books or just the sounds of nature. Only do these on a rest day and just fit them in if you find you have a spare day. I try to do one every couple of weeks.

Keep your cardio constantly varied and never get bored, get all the benefits with none of the draw backs. Programme it however you like or do it completely at random. Make sure you are still lifting to be strong and useful and eating good and you will continue to lose fat, get fitter and be healthier.

They like to mix it 

                                                   

I'm Quite Partial to Partials

Training with heavy partials is a very old training method which has fallen out of favour in recent years. Many big strong guys got incredible results from incorporating partials into their training. Two guys which come to mind are Paul Anderson and Bob Peoples. Anderson used partials almost exclusively for his squat training and ended up squatting a disputed 1200lbs. Whether or not he actually did this he was certainly a very strong squatter with lots of witnessed lifts in the 800-900lbs range. Bob peoples used partials for the deadlift which he was built perfectly for with massive monkey arms. He ended up pulling around 720lbs at 180lbs of bodyweight. Both these guys did these lifts before power racks were widely avaible and ended up digging a hole in the ground with the barbell placed over the top. They would lift in the hole and overtime start to fill it in until they were doing their lifts with a full range of motion.

There are a few reasons I feel partials are no longer as popular as they used to be.

They were widely used from around the 30s to the 60s with many strongmen from those eras advocating them. In this time those who lifted weights did so to get strong and to compete in weighting. After this bodybuilding started to take over and training for strength became less important. Partials are a pure stength training method and don't have a place in a bodybuilders routine, So partials and strength training in general fell out of favour while bodybuilding grew in popularity.

Many current strength athletes opt for accommodating resistance methods such as bands and chains which achieve a similar effect but aren't quite the same animal and don't quite cover all the benefits I believe partials have.

The final reason that partials aren't popular as its viewed by many lifters as ego lifting. But there is a difference to a beginner half squatting or only unlocking their arms on a bench press than a serious lifter using partials in addition to full range of motion lifting. The former is simply ignorance to what full range of motion is and how a exercise should be performed. While the latter is an assistance exercise to compliment full range of motion lifts. Its not to brag and say "look how much weight I lifted for 2 inchs!" No one cares how much you lift in a partial. Its simply an assistance exercise and should be treated as such.

All of this aside there are many advantages to including partials in your training.

Firstly partials build epic core strength. The body requires great stability to be able to support weights much heavier than your full range max even if it isn't moving them very far. The abs, obliques, lower back, upper back and internal core muscles are having to work super hard to maintain the neutral spine during the lift. These muscles can be worked much harder than during a conventional exercise as the prime movers are no longer the limiting factor. You will really have to brace hard and hold your air during a heavy partial and I would advise you to do them without a belt on. Unless you have a very weak core you should find that you can handle weights beltless greater than yor belted full range lift.

Tendon and ligament strength. Many old timers believed that great strength could be achieved by not only developing the muscles but also the tendons and ligaments as well. They used partials as a means to do this as it overloaded the tendons beyond what the muscles could handle during a full range lift. This in turn would make you stronger without increasing your bodyweight as well as making you more resistant to injury. To further develop the tendons perform a ultra high rep pumping exercise on top of this. Tendons have less blood supply than muscles and require much greater volumes to build them that 3 sets of 10 just can't achieve. Working anywhere from sets of 30 to 100 reps afterwards should give you tendons like a terminator.

Heavy partials can give a great psychological boost to your training. By getting used to handling heavier weights suddenly normal working weights done through a full range of motion don't feel as heavy. Having 200kg on your back is no longer a big deal once you are used to supporting 300kg. While there is obvious physical strength to be gained from training partials from a stronger core, tendons etc there is also great confidence to be gained in their training as well.

Heavy partial training when done from a deadstop can help strengthen your full range lifts by making you stronger through a sticking point. When doing a full range lift there comes a point where the bar is at the least mechanical advantage and will slow down. If the lifter is strong enough they will grind slowly through it to complete the lift. If they are not this is the point at which they will fail the lift. This is known as a sticking point. It can be on different parts of the lift and will differ between people. You might be weak off your chest in a bench, weak at the mid point in the squat and weak at lockout in the deadlift for example.

Take a average gym goer who does half squats. Not because he's doing partial training but simply because he's ignorant to proper full squat technique. He takes the bar out of the racks slightly unlocks his knees and comes up. This kind of partial creates a stretch reflex on the muscles at the bottom which helps you come up stronger. Now when coming up from a full squat and you hit your sticking point the stretch reflex as all but gone and its up to you to grind the weight out.

Partials perfored like this with an eccentric action first creating a stretch reflex will not carry over to full range lifts very effectively. How ever if you perform partials from a dead stop by using the pins on a power rack you have no stretch reflex. You will be relying on pure strength alone through that specific range of motion. You will find that partials done this way are hardest when trying to get them off the pins and that you really have to slowly grind through them. This will teach you to grind through the same sticking point in a full range of motion lift. It is this reason that I feel dead stop partials are superior to accommodating resistance training methods such as bands and chains when it comes to raw lifters.

So what partial exercises can you use and how should you implement them into your training?

While any exercise can be done with a partial range of motion there are only a few which are beneficial in the ways I have described.

Partial squats done off the pins in the power rack at varying heights.

Partial front squats off pins. Never tried these but I'd imagine they might be quite hard on the knees. These supposedly worked well for Dan John at improving his cleans.

Partial over head squat. Never tried this but probably a beast of a core exercise

Rack pulls from various heights or block pulls

Bench off pins at various heights. I believe these would work better than the fabled board press as the board press still creates a stretch reflex. It might be useful for geared guys but the Bench off pins will have more carryover to raw benching.

Overhead press off of pins. These are great for core strength. If you are short or your gym has a really high powerrack you can do these. I'm 5'10 and most racks are to low to lockout.

Incline press off pins. If you use inclines as your main press you might want to get stronger at them by doing partials

Seated press off the pins. Doesn't have the same core benefit as standing overhead press partials but still helps you get stronger over head

Partial weighted chins. You have to be able to set the bar at different height and pull from an already bent arm position so a Smith machine works well for these.

Partial one arm chin ups. I write about these in the one arm chin post.

Partial curls off pins. Yes this would mean curling in the squat rack so don't do them if someone is waiting to squat. I believe arm wrestlers use these as well as those who compete in strict curl events. It would also be a great way to strengthen your tendons to help prevent injuries from deadlifting or strongman.

When it comes to adding them to your training program I suggest doing them after the full range lift as an assistance exercise. You should only use singles to train dead stop partials otherwise you are creating a stretch relfex between reps and losing some of the benefits. You can do high sets anywhere from around 6-15. You could also do them rest pause with around 5-10 seconds rest between reps. Just make you are not supporting the weight in between pauses and that it is resting completely on the pins.

You can use various heights when training partials. I would suggest if you have never used them before to work from around the middle of the full range lift.

As you become accustomed to using partials you can use what the old timers did which was progressive movement training. This is starting at the top of the range of motion and very slowly overtime increasing the distance until you are doing full range lifts.

Make sure you build up slowly when doing partials. With such high loading on your body your joints will start to hate you if you go too heavy too soon or over do the volume. I would suggest you don't do partials more than once a week for each body part and you may even want to alternate each week between squat/Deadlift partials as they both put a lot of stress on the lower back. Don't go any heavier than your full range max your first few sessions then slowly increase the weight and sets from there. Doing partials from a dead stop off the pins in the power rack is a safest way to do them because if you are not strong enough the bar simply won't move but there is still a risk of injury. You are building your tendons and ligaments which take a ling time to develop so don't rush you have been warned.

To get the full tendon building effects it is good to perform high rep pumping exercises afterwards to get maximum blood through the tendons and ligaments. Aim for around 100 total reps split over several sets.

Some exercises which work well are:

bodyweight squats/kettlebell swing after partial squats.

45 degrees back extension/ banded good morning/ kettlebell swing after rack pulls.

Push ups or wall push ups after partial Bench or incline.

Dumbbell press or band press after overhead partials

Empty Olympic bar curls after partial chins,  one arm chins or partial curls.

That's it! Regularly include partials in your training and after a few years you will become both an unstoppable force and an immovable object.

How Crossfitters Should Train: Like Athletes

Its almost costomery to bash crossfit on fitness blogs and websites and while there are some good things to crossfit, it doesn't help itself with the tide of bad things also. But I'm not going to simply put it down but offer up an alternative.

The main philosophy of crossfit is to be a good all rounder when it comes to strength, endurance and athletism.  I see nothing wrong with this as a fitness goal. Wanting your body to be prepared for any situation and empathising physical performance above aesthetics. In some ways this is not too different from my own philosophy of being strong to be useful although I value strength above endurance

The problem comes from the application of training for this goal. Completely random haphazard workouts with no way of gauging progression. High rep Olympic lifting turning an exercise designed for explosive power into a sloppy and dangerous one. But even worse than this is the complete defiled abomination that is the kipping pull up. What I find ironic is that a regular pull up would be much more useful in developing the attributes they desire than kipping would. They are superior in building strength and if you needed to actually climb something chances are you wouldn't be able to swing and kip your body around.

Crossfit is basically classed as a sport now and what's interesting is that a lot of the top competitors don't actually do traditional crossfit by following WOD's. They develop their own ideas about how to increase performance.

But here's the thing. There are many sports where a mix of physical characteristics are needed. Sports like Rugby where athletes are massively strong and muscular but also have amazing sprinting speed and the endurance to play for 80minute matches.

There's MMA where fighters have to have the conditioning for 5min rounds as well as the strength to knock out an opponent and grapple with them.

 There's under 90kg strongman where competitors have not only amazing static strength but incredible work capacity and speed the pull trucks,  load and carry implents like farmers walks, yokes and medleys.

In the world of athletics there are multidisciplinary events such as the decathlon and heptathlon. Athletes have to have good performances in a mixture of running distances, throwing and jumping events. Take Jessica Ennis the British 2012 Olympic champion in the women's Hepthalon. I bet she could beat any female crossfit competitor in the crossfit games simple because her levels of strength, speed, endurance and athletism are so high. Without even needing to practice specific events. And she still has better abs than any of them.

If your goals are to be a good all rounder than why not study the training of these kinds of athletes and apply it to yourself. I'm not going to research all the training methods these athletes use but generally a few similarities arise. They periodize their training. Peaking for specific events and spending periods of time emphasising the development of certain areas above others. They work on weaknesses. Needing an all round level of physical skills will expose weaknesses quite obviously. Athletes in these disciplines work hard to improve their weakness as it makes a a dramatic improvement in performance. They develop skills in seperate training sessions rather than trying to mishmash everything together. They will have weight sessions to build strength, sessions for speed drills, sessions for endurance. Rarely do you see them try and combine everything at once. They use the right tool for the job. They might use Olympic lifting for power, weight lifting for strength and something sport specific for speed and endurance such as sprinting for rugby or sparring for MMA.

Your training should take you closer to your goals and to do that you need to learn from others who have what you want to achieve. A training method should be judged on the performance it creates not how much it makes you sweat or by how many people are in the group. I would love to see a high level athlete from one of those sports go in and dominate the crossfit games. Unfortunately this won't happen because they will be too busy training for sports that matter rather than trying to be the best at exercising.

Nutrition on a Budget

 It is a common misconception that healthy muscle building or fatloss food is considerably more expensive than a standard diet of junk food. While this maybe true if you want the highest quality organic, grass fed, free range, natural, gluten free, dairy free, carrots or something if you have a tight budget it is still possible to get some good nutrition at a low price.

First of all if you are on a budget it is not the time to follow fad or restrictive diets. Paleo, keto, velocity diet etc. These tend to be very expensive while results can be achieved following more regular food choices, an even mix of macros and watching your calories.

Learn where to shop. There are many budget supermarkets out there such as Aldi and Lidl which tend to be cheaper than the regular big supermarket names. There are also frozen food specialists such as Iceland and Farmfoods. Farmfoods especially is full of loads of cheap nutritious food so if you have one locally check it out. Amongst the bigger supermarket chains Asda appears to be the cheapest with Waitrose being the most expensive. Sainsbury and Tesco seem to be in the middle. By all means shop around for particular items as prices may vary amongst supermarkets.

Now let's look at each macro and go over the cheapest and best sources available

Protein

This is going to be your most expensive macro and the most important. Evaluate protein sources based on the grams of protein per £ spent.

If you are really on a budget and you need protein then just eat the cheaper conventional meat and eggs rather than organic, free range or grass fed. Let's be honest the difference between the two is minimal and if you are on a tight on money protein is very important. Now you might not ethically agree with it but unless you are vegetarian and outside the factories with a picket line I doubt you actually care about aminal welfare as much as you think you do. I expect a massive load of hate and butthurt for putting that. Try to eat less fatty meats such as chicken, turkey and lean mince beef. One of the main benefits of grass fed meat and free range eggs is the better ratio of omega 3 in the fat. By eating less fat you are avoiding the worse ratio from conventional meat anyway. I'll get to how you can improve the fat ratio later. Also the majority of toxins from meat are stored in the fat so this also helps you reduce those which maybe in the conventional meat.

The cheapest meats tend to be chicken, turkey and beef mince. Chicken and turkey thigh is even cheaper than the breast. skin on is cheaper still and you can always remove it later.

Buy frozen if you can. Frozen chicken breast, chicken thighs, frozen mince, frozen fish fillets are all just as good as the fresh versions but much cheaper. When it comes to fresh meat turkey and pork are your best bet and you can get mince from both at a good price. Casserole meat can be cheap and great for stews and soups.

Eggs can be cheap if you get regular ones but even the free range ones aren't too much more. I've found 6 eggs for 70p yielding around 45g of protein.

Tinned fish. Frozen white fish is fairly cheap but some really good sources are tinned. Tuna and salmon are the most obvious ones. Salmon even when tinned is still quite expensive while tuna is a cheap and good source of protein. But less common fish are also very cheap tinned. Mackerel, sardines, pilchards and anchovies are all fairly cheap tinned. These are also pretty high in omega 3. If you eat these often enough you can push your omega 3 ratio quite high with no worries about the fat you've been getting from conventional meat and eggs. You can even avoid the need for fish oil supplements. Just make sure you get them in brine or olive oil. Even tomato sauce. Just avoid getting them in sunflower oil as this is so high in omega 6 as to defeat the object of eating these.

Liver and other organ meats are some of the most nutritious foods you can eat and is also some of the cheapest. A 400g liver will cost you about £1 for around 60g of protein and a massive hit of almost every vitamin and mineral. It may not be that tasty so you might have to play around with cooking methods and recipes. Personally I can just eat it fryed with some onions and veg. You won't need to spend money on multivitamins if you eat this a couple of times a week.

Cottage cheese is an old bodybuilding favourite for its slow release protein it's also very cheap.

While not a complete protein source kidney beans are dirt cheap and full of vitamins and fibre.

Finally protein powder. You may think this isn't exactly cheap but that's because you buy it by the kilo. Depending where you get it from this could be anywhere from £15 to £30. Avoid GNC and buy it online from bulkpowders or myprotein. if you look at the grams of protein per£ you'll actually realise that's it's very cheap indeed.

Here's a quick run down of some of these foods from a protein g/£ ratio most of these are from ASDA online

Smart price Turkey breast 33g per £1
Turkey thigh mince 45g per £1
Farmfoods beef mince 33g per £1
Pigs Liver 225g per £1
Smart price beef and pork mince 69g per £1
Frozen chicken breast 40g per £1
White fish fillets 40g per £1
Farmfoods eggs 60g per £1
Large free range eggs 27g per £1
Tinned tuna in brine 45g per £1
Tinned mackerel 30g per £1 with 4g of omega 3
Tinned sardines in brine 46g per £1 with 4.4g of omega 3
Cottage cheese 30g per £1
Myprotein unflavoured whey 53g per £1
Myprotein flavoured whey 44g per £1
Kidney beans 40g per £1

These are just are just a few examples obviously prices may vary so you'll have to work out your own ratios.

As you can see liver beats the rest by far but you can't eat that stuff day in day out. Some are better than others But it's good to get a mix of sources for a more balanced amino acid profile and for the sake of taste variety.

Carbohydrate

Carbs tend to be pretty cheap as it is and are not usually a worry. The cheapest sources without being complete crap are porridge oats, rice and potatoes with tinned potatoes being especially cheap at about 20p a can. You can get oats and rice in kilo bags for around £1. Whole grain pasta is cheap and so are rice cakes for snacking potential. Even whole grain bread isn't very expensive. Don't worry about gluten or paleo as chances are you can digest gluten just fine. And don't have the budget to be really fussy. Rice and potatoes are gluten free though. You certainly don't need expensive carb powders Like dextrose or multidextrin for post workout. Any carb source will do.

Fats

You can certainly get some of your fat intake from your protein sources. Most other fats tend to be more on the expensive side especially the healthful monounsaturated kind.

For saturated fats you have single and double cream if you simply need the calories also full fat Greek yogurt. Coconuts are quite cheap at less than a £1 for a whole one. They have medium chain triglycerides with many health benefits. You can drink the water for a good source of minerals and electrolytes as well.

You can get creamed coconut which can be used to make coconut milk as its cheaper than buying the milk ready made. Peanut butter is fairly cheap and a good source of monounsaturated fat but avoid other nut butters as these are very expensive.
Nuts themselves are generally not that cheap but the most bang for your buck comes from almonds and walnuts. Buy them unsalted. For cooking use regular olive oil. Butter can be used in some cases as well. Olive oil is not cheap but is your best bet. Vegetable or sunflower oil are too high in omega 6. And the paleo favourite coconut oil is massively expensive as well as unnecessary since the healthy fats can be gained much cheaper from an actual coconut.

Vitamins, minerals and fibre

Here I'm talking about fruit and veg mostly. You can get a lot of cheap veg frozen with all of the vitamins and minerals remaining locked inside. Frozen broccoli, peas, mixed veg, peppers, stir fry mixes, cabbage and spinach. Can all be picked up for around £1 for a big bag. Starchy veg like parsnips, turnips, Swedes and potatoes tend to be less nutritious so you may be better just have a cheaper carb source like oats or rice. Red onions can be bought fresh and are more nutritious than white ones. Generally more colourful veg is better than white veg so I don't bother with cauliflower, Swedes or things like that. Salad leaves and lettace are pretty void of nutrition so don't waste your money on those. Tomatoes can be bought tinned and are actually more nutritious when cooked like that. They work great with mince dishes. When it comes to fruit berries contain the greatest amount of antioxidants. In summer when they are in season they tend to be fairly cheap but at other times of the year you can pick up frozen mixed berries quite cheaply. Blend them in smoothies or have them with yogurt or cream. Of other fruit apples and bananas are well priced and ignore the more exotic fruit from half way around the world.

Supplements
When you are on a budget you really need to be critical of the supplements you take. Looking at the g/£ of protein ratio you can already tell that whey powder is actually cheaper than alot of food so I suggest keeping it in your diet. Beyond that nothing else is really necessary. Omega 3 can be obtained from oily fish so you may not want to spend money supplementing there. Vitamins and minerals can be obtained from liver and lots of fruit and veg. So a multivitamin is not needed. Creatine is a very cheap supplement that can actually make a big difference so if you can spare the money it can be worth taking. If you need a boost pre workout then pick up some caffeine tablets such as pro plus rather than fork out for expensive preworkout supplements. It's mostly the caffeine which helps you anyway. Every other supplement has questionable scientific evidence to back them up and really aren't worth your money.

When it comes to beverages obviously you should mostly drink water. If you need some taste then go for sugar free flavoured waters rather than the typical big brand diet soft drinks. They are far cheaper. Tea green tea and coffee will just have to be budgeted for if you need them.

Buy in bulk. You can save money getting bulk deals and multipacks. Most people get paid on a monthly basis yet shop weekly. For non perishable items you can shop emphasising bulk deals when you have more money in order to save more. What deals are available depend on the supermarket so look around.

Check out the discount section and fresh food counters. Supermarkets usually discount perishable food which Is going out of date by as much as 75% for the last day. You can pick up some real bargains on meat and fish. Usually there is a certain time of the day that these products are reduced so try to find out when this is so you can pick up a bargain before anyone else does.

If you are bulking a great way to add calories is to drink a can of evaporated milk. It will set you back about £1 for 600 calories with a fairly even mix of fats carbs and protein. It even is quite high in vitamin D. But don't confuse this with condensed milk which is much higher in sugar. A very easy way to bulk would be to just drink a can of this in addition to your regular meals for that 600 calorie surplus.

Learn to use spices. While not cheap if you only buy one a month it is not much money. Some of these foods are very bland so may need spicing up a bit.

Pay attention to calories and macros when eating on a budget. You can use one of the online calculates to find your customised amounts. This ensures that you don't over eat and spend money needlessly and by having a balanced carb intake allows you to have some very cheap food sources rather than the more expensive proteins and fats. You can even emphasise more calories from carbs and have a lower fat intake. This is not necessacarily a bad thing as some people fair better with higher carb intakes and have more energy. As long as your calorie intake is in check you will not get fat. This applies to bulking cutting or maintaining. Don't worry too much about meal timing either just focus on getting the carbs fats and protein you need over a 24hour period.

Don't cheat too often. The foods I've outlined are very cheap compared to pizza, ice cream, cookies, eating out etc. If you cheat quite often the money soon adds up.

Avoid processed diet foods which are always very expensive. Gluten free bread and cereal, protein bar's, sugar free chocolate, and similar things available in most health food stores.

You can save money from food also by fasting. The typical intermittent fasting protocol of 16 hour fast 8 hour eating is no good since you will still eat the same amount of food. But a once weekly 24hour fast can have numerous health benefits but I won't go into them here. It can work well if you are cutting and save you an entire days worth of food. But do not exceed one day a week for this and don't train that day.

Finally see what you can get for free. Depending on where you live you may be able to hunt and gather a little. This may be a bit crazy but you never know what's out there. I know in my local area at certain times of the year there is seafood mussels, cockles, and winkles, seaweed, blackberries, chives and nettles. There are also lots of wild rabbits. I'm sure there is plenty of protein right there.

Finally I've give you a few cheap meal ideas

Oats with whey protein and skim milk

Mince meat of choice with onions chopped tomatoes, kidney beans, garlic salt and rice

Stir fry liver, chicken, onion, mushrooms and assorted veg

Soup from assorted veg potatoes and skin on chicken thighs. Remove the bones when cooked

Defrosted mixed berries with double cream

Weightgainer smoothie with evaporated milk, whey protein, banana

White fish with chives cooked in butter with mixed veg and rice

Rice cakes with peanut butter on

Mixed veg omelet

Simple meals like these are all very cheap. Eating like this might not be the most tasty or exciting way to eat but when you have a tight budget you need to focus on quality nutrition. At a guess I would say it would be possible to have a weeks food at around 3000 calories a day with balanced macros for about £40-50 taking into account bigger buys at the start of the month like protein powder.

 While it might not be the absolutely healthiest way to eat. When it comes to making progress whether muscle gains or fat loss it will achieve the exact same results as any grass fed organic gluten free extra virgin natural free range diet will.

Building Slabs of Abs

There are many myths that surround ab training. Some old favourites such as high rep sit ups or crunches, using a Swiss ball for core stability, abs only being built in the kitchen or abs being unnecessary if you do heavy compounds. I believe all of these to be false and that good abs are the result of heavy strength work combined with the correct diet. The symmetry of your abs is beyond your control but the thickness of them is not.

Big strong abs will make you stronger. You will feel like an immovable object as well as giving you an awesome physique.
There may be lots of skinny guys out there who have abs and don't train but you can really tell the difference between one of these guys and someone with exceptionally strong abs. Just like any other muscle the abs can hypertrophy and increase in size and thickness with training. The skinny guys abs are typically flat and small and merely exaggerate their already skinny look.

The abs main purpose is stability of the spine as opposed to bending it. So exercises which require a great amount of stabilisation are the best to develop functional strength in the abs. Heavy strength work seems to be the way to go here and I believe the abs develop best under high load low rep exercisers rather than traditional bodybuilding rep schemes. This may be due to them being more fast twitch dominant muscles used to protect the spine under stress rather than needing a sustained contraction. There are other muscles I feel fall into this category such as traps but that is a different article altogether.

So I feel that high rep exercises like sit ups and crunches are a waste of time for abdominal development because they aren't working the abs in their main function and aren't difficult enough to stress the abs in the way they develop best. Another exercise which seems to be massively popular for no reason I can work out is the cable crunch. Basically you either use a lightweight a do a billion reps same as sit ups or try to use a heavy weight and realise it doesn't really work due to the counter balance of your own bodyweight. The only thing I have found them useful for is as a rehabilitation exercise for back injuries or to just throw in if your back is feeling a bit beat up such as after sets of heavy deadlifts.

Next we have the plank. While moving in the right direction in terms of abdominal function it is not heavy enough to work to abs best for development. For most people it needs to be held over the one minute mark and just becomes an exercise in willpower rather than statuesque ab development. But the plank does have some close cousins which are effective ab exercises.

Before we discuss the truly useful abdominal exercises let's first clear up a couple of things. "Abs are built in the kitchen" not entirely true. Yes you need to be lean to see your abs but the abs need to be developed and hypertrophy combined with low body fat otherwise you end up with skinny looking abs rather than blocks of steel. "If you lift heavy you don't need to train abs" this may be partly true. While doing heavy compounds such as squats, deadlifts, and overhead presses the abs are working hard to stabilise the spine and they are being used for low reps. The only problem is the abs aren't being trained to their full potential. How many times have you had really sore abs after doing some compound lifts? Probably not very often even when the prime movers are sore as hell. This should tell you that the abs aren't being trained as fully as they should be.

So let's look at some effective exercises for the abs. First we have kneeling ab wheel rollouts. These are basically the plank in motion and are the beginning stage of effective ab work. They are working the abs in a stabilising role and are difficult enough for most beginners to get heavy enough response needed for greater ab development. Once full range of motion is used with arms full extended it doesn't take long for these to become too easy with a more difficult version required. Start with 5x5 twice a week and add reps up to 5x10. Then its time to move on. The next progression is the standing ab rollout. These are very difficult and can be built up to by using standing rollouts on an incline or doing partial standing rollouts. However I have found weighted vest kneeling rollouts to be incredibly effective allowing me to add steady increases by adding weight to the vest. These let you still train the fully extended range of motion which is the hardest part of the standing rollout allowing you to builds up gradually to them. Once standing rollouts have been achieved they can be made harder with a weight vest and declines and your abs would be pretty insane by that point.

The next idea for building brutal abs is the use of heavy partials in your training. Heavy partials such as rack pulls and rack squats overload the stabilisers during the lift by allowing you to handle weights much heavier than the full range movement. The prime movers no longer become the limiting factor but maintaining stability through your abs, obliques and lower back is. The best movements to use are rack pulls from various heights, rack squats where you set the bar up on the power rack pins duck underneath it and stand up and overhead press lockouts. The lockouts will depend on the height of your rack. If your rack is too short you can try loading the bar on top of the power rack frame but be very careful with this and don't try it in a commercial gym. The other option is kneeling overhead lockouts which offer almost the same benefits. Use low reps or singles and build the weights up slowly. Its easy to get injured doing heavy partials too soon.

Some other options for building epic core and ab strength are gymnastic progressions which require a lot of core strength to hold the positions. You can start at relatively easy movements and progress to more difficult variations. There are 3 main movements I'm thinking of to practise. L seats, dragon flags and front levers. For L seats think of holding yourself in a dip position and raising your legs up to 90° so you are in an L shape. This is like an isometric leg raise. Do timed holds and try to increase the time you can hold them. You can progress to V sits where you lean back slightly and raise and your legs up higher. This does require good hamstring flexibility. Beyond this is what's known as the Manna where you hold your body parallel to the floor with legs flat against your face. They are an elite gymnastic exercise and beyond the reach of most people.

Manna

Dragon flags are where you lie on your back on a bench. You grab the underneath of the bench at head level. You then raise you body up so its vertical with your upper back still in contact with the bench. You then slowly lower you body down from vertical to horizontal making sure to stay just off of the bench at the bottom. You then raise your body up again keeping it straight the entire time. For those that have seen Rocky 4 he does then in the training montage. You can start with negatives lowering as slowly as possible down to the bench until you are strong enough to raise back up.

Front levers involve hanging from a pull up bar and holding your body out horizontally. They require tremendous core and lat strength to do. You can build up to them by starting off holding the position with you legs tucked into you body. You can progress to holding your legs out further and further. You can do one leg straight and one leg tucked which are considerably easier than the full version. Lastly there is the straddle version where you split your legs as far as possible to make it easier than holding the legs out straight.

For all these gymnastic holds work pick one exercise to focus on at a time and work on the hardest progression you can in good form. Work with multiply sets of short timed holds and try to avoid holding sloppy form. Terminate the set once the technique deteriorates. During these movements create as much body tension as possible. Tense every muscle not just your abs. These movements aren't possible without this.

When it comes to building strength and thickness of the midsection an often overlooked aspect are the Obliques. For a long time training the obliques was actively discouraged with people thinking it would make your waist appear thicker and ruin your V taper. I feel this is wrong as you won't add a huge amount of muscle to your waist by training your obliques and well developed and defined obliques make your waist look far more impressive than the smoothness of no oblique development. From a functional perspective a strong set of obliques are powerful spine stabilisers to improve strength and avoid injury. I recall seeing  a guy in a old gym once doing endless broomstick twists because he said it would help define his waist without making it bigger. This is just nonsense. If you want a defined waist combine diet with effective ab training.

There are 3 useful oblique exercises that I can think of. The first are dumbbell side bends. Hold a dumbbell in one hand bend down to the side and straighten up again. Very simple and quite effective. You will probably find you can handle fairly reasonable weights in this exercise with dumbbells exceeding 50kg not taking long to surpass. This goes to show you how strong the obliques are. Doing sets of 6-12 reps works best for this exercise. Next we have a deceptively hard exercise known as Saxon side bends named after the old time strongman Arthur Saxon. To do these take 2 light dumbbells (and I do mean light) no more than 5kgs to begin with and press then overhead. Now perform a side bend keeping your arms parallel and in line with your torso. So as your torso bends to 45° your arms and the dumbbells should follow it. Then straighten up back to the centre. You will find the stabilisation needed is incredible to perform this exercise. For these I would go for 5-10 reps per set each side.

Finally there is the suitcase deadlift. These are basically a one handed deadlift with the bar perpendicular to you at your side like you would carry a suitcase. They require tremendous oblique strength during the deadlift to maintain the upright position. But the problems with this exercise is balancing the bar when using a standard Olympic bar. If you don't get the hand position exactly right the bar will be unbalanced and drift forward or backward usually resulting in one end crashing to the ground. I found I would have more bad reps than I would good reps with this exercise so a few adjustments have to be made. Suitcase rack pulls have been suggested with a higher start position the lift feels more oblique heavy by removing much of your legs from the movement. But the unbalancing of the bar is still an issue. To solve this problem there are a few options. In a standard gym with standard equipment you can use either an EZ curl bar by holding the centre bend of the bar offering better balance than a straight bar or use a tricep bar on its side with also offers a slightly higher start position. If you have access to one you can use a cambered bar or one side of a farmers walk bar which I have took to using. The raised handle allows the bar balance while raising the start position to make it more targeted on the obliques. Low reps of 1-5 work best for this. In terms of weights to aim for I think double bodyweight would be a good goal if grip isn't an issue (you could always use straps. Its not a grip exercise). While you could do these with a dumbbell or kettle bell I don't think its a great idea. You won't be able to go heavy enough and the dumbbell puts you in a very low awkward position which I believe losses the effectiveness of the exercise.

The final training method for developing a thick strong core is lifting and carrying heavy awkward objects. Objects such as rocks, sandbags, logs, and barrels. Lifting these objects in any exercise calls into play many stabilising muscles of the midsection in order to handle the bulk and awkwardness of these implements. The bulk of the objects makes them further away from your centre of gravity making the lift more difficult. Also their tendency to move such as sandbags or water filled barrels causes you to make constant adjustments as you lift them. These objects don't want to move in a straight line like a barbell does which makes them so great at developing the core. What you do depends on what you have access to. For sandbags you can buy the outer bags specially made for sandbags from PullumSports but they are a tad expensive. What I did was buy an old army duffel bag from a Army Surplus shop for £10. I then went to B&Q and bought 4x20kg bags of builders sand and some heavy duty black sacks. I lined the bag with the sacks and then added 3 bags of sand. I then gaffa taped up the sack and tied the bag up with rope and tape. That gave me a 60kg bag with the option of adding another 20kg to it a some point. I obtained a Keg from a friend of a friend who owns a pub. I half filled it with water and it is incredibly awkward to lift. I'm not sure how else to get one of these but I have seen plenty lying around in alleyways. Perhaps a scrapyard could get you one. For stones and logs you can buy ready made strongman versions from Pullum sports and other places online. Or builders yards or garden centres could also sell you then. Of course there is always nature with a fine selection of rocks at my local beach and many logs in the forest. What you do with these things is up to you there are almost endless exercises and combinations depending on what you have. Clean and presses, Shouldering, carrying in the arms, carrying on the shoulder, deadlifts, complexes, loading medleys, lunges with them on the shoulder, get ups with them on the chest, power cleans, power curls, zercher lifts and carries, throwing them etc. I won't go into sets and reps that's up to you but these work great as finishers at the end of a workout.

That gives you lots of options for ab training. Now I don't suggest you try to do everything at once but pick one or two exercises or methods to try. Some work your abs indirectly on top of others things such as partials, front levers and odd objects while others isolate your abs more. What you do is dependant on your strength levels, goals and access to equipment. There are no six pack shortcuts or secrets but I do believe a lot of conventionally ab training is ineffective. Try these ideas and see for your self what it takes to build and iron midsection.

All Round Lifting: Old School Strength Regenerated

Back in the day's before powerlifting and Olympic lifting were officially sanctioned sports weightlifting competitions used to consist of a wide range of various lifts referred to as the odd lifts. These harkened back to the times of old strongman such as Aurthur Saxon and Eugene Sandow who would perform such lifts in exhibitions. Even the Olympics consisted of varied lifts mainly one arm lifts and variations on the traditional Olympic lifts. Later Olympic lifting dropped to just 3 lifts and in the 70s down to just 2. With powerlifting taking off at a similar time it spelled the death of the odd lift competitions.

In recent years a new federation has sprung up called the IAWA which seeks to revive all round lifting by holding competitions consisting of any of 150 different contested lifts. These range from the usual power and Olympic lifts, typical gym exercises such as the military press, strict curl or front squat, old time lifts such as the bent press, the dumbbell swing or two hands anyhow to the completely bizarre such as the behind the back clean and jerk, zercher lift and teeth lift.

When I first started powerlifting I was coached by a man who was considered Britain's best all round lifter. He was a fantastic Olympic lifter, powerlifter, and won countless all round and one arm lifting competitions. One of his more impressive feats was a dumbbell swing of 75kg at a bodyweight of 75kg. I certainly found many of his feats of strength inspiring and would have liked to have a go at the kind of thing he used to do. If I can attain his permission I will write a blog post about him paying homage to british strength like I did for Edward Aston.

Lately i have become bored with training for just the big 3 and think it would be fun to have a go at some all round lifting competitions. While not only adding some variety and fun to my training it will also help develop all round strength as part of being strong to be useful. This philosophy is not just being strong in the big 3 but being strong in all ways.

When it comes to training you do not try and train all 150 lifts. That would be silly and tedious. Instead you maintain focus on your main compound lifts but put more emphasise on overhead lifting, grip strength and Olympic lifts or variations. As you get closer to a competition you focus on those contested lifts

Being an all round weightlifter is something different and is rising in popularity. You would still be able to steadily increase your main lifts which I consider to be the Squat, bench, deadlift, overhead press, chin up and powerclean but could also have fun trying different lifts and may even find new ways to improve your compound lifts.

For anyone interested membership is £20 a year. The 2014 calender is on the IAWA website along with the british and world records for the lifts. There are some very interesting and impressive feats on there. Check it out for some new challenges to your strength.

Birthdays, Challenges and the Inman Mile

The Blog has just turned one year old and while i jave not always been able to give it as much attention as i would like it has helped me define my training philosy as something more than lifting to look good or to win. I have many plans for the future and lots of blog post ideas still to come. The training style has come down to develop maximal strength, develop relative strength, lift weights, lift your own body, lift awkward objects, do conditioning. Do basic compound exercises with barbells and Stive for progressive resistance. Start with basic bodyweight exercises like chin ups and dips and build up to more difficult skills such as one arm chins and handstand push ups. Lift and carry awkward objects, sandbags, kegs, logs, rocks, strongman equipment. Condition yourself steady state easy cardio like power walking and swimming and build up to more useful forms such as sprinting, fighting, and carrying things. To me this sums up being a good all rounder but with an emphasise on strength. This is not cross fit. You are always striving to make your body stronger in one of these forms.

Its good to set challenges for yourself these can anything from hitting a specific weight, bodyweight feat or doing a powerlifting competition. For example to long term challenges for me are to lift all the Scottish manhood stones outlined in the book Of Stones and Strength by Steve Jeck.

Another challenge I want to do is to swim the lake Ulswater in the Lake District as my Grandad swum this lake when he was younger.

A more recent challenge I have come across is the Inman Mile.
This is where you take 1.5xBodyweight on your back like a squat and attempt to walk a mile with it. Its never actually been done with the record standing around 800metres. There is a yearly charity attempt at this challenge held in Tiverton in Devon by Tiverton weightlifting club. Its held on the 4th May and next year I plan to compete. While the challenge is seen as a novelty I think it is the perfect kind of training to develop what I am after. Anyone who can complete the challenge would be an absolute beast. While you would possess incredible endurance you would also needs to be very strong as well. It personifies be strong to be useful.

How do I plan on actually training for this? Well I have no way of taking a bar outside for a walk and wouldn't be able to load it to my shoulders without help. I'm going to have to rely on gym work alone. Some useful exercises i've been thinking of are weighted lunges in the squat rack, hise shrugs for time with the working weight, good mornings and marching in place in the squat rack. I'm currently around 83kg sitting between 2 weight classes of 80kg or 85kg. The difference making me have to carry 120kg or 127.5kg. I plan to cut to under 80kg for this challenge. A lighter weight and better conditioning.

Challenges like this are not the sole reason or emphasise for training. It still comes back to getting stronger at barbells, bodyweight, awkward stuff and conditioning. They merely add fun and enthusiasm to your training and a sense of accomplishment to your life which carries over to other things. Find your own challenges and strive to achieve them. Use what you learn and apply it to the rest of your training. Revel in their completion.