Strength and Fitness Tips | How to Build Muscle Top muscle building and fat loss tips.

Tips to Build Muscle but not Break the Bank A lot of people this new year will be feeling the squeeze on their finances. I for one have noticed how fast the price of food is rising particularly meat and vegetables. Everything that gym goers need will undoubtedly have seen a price rise over the last few months and I’m sure it will continue to do so. If you want to build muscle you need to eat more. A lot of this extra food is going to have to be protein, probably the most expensive type of food. Beef, Chicken and fish are certainly more expensive than bread and pasta and adding this protein to every meal can cause costs to shoot up. When building muscle on a budget the last thing you can be is fussy. I speak on behalf of the UK when it comes to the different ... Read More »

How to suppress your appetite One of the biggest problems many people face when it comes to losing weight is not having the will power to control their eating habits. Hunger is an important part of anyone’s weight loss journey, if you are not hungry at some part of your day the chances are you will not lose any weight. This urge to eat shouldn’t be gigantic and if it does over power you then it’s likely you are eating the wrong foods. I’m not going to go into an appetites suppressant which you may have seen advertised. I promote the natural weight loss journeys, there is no such thing as a shortcut! So what brings on a hunger craving? Usually this is brought on by a lack of food in the stomach and digestive system but how does your body know this? In simplest terms it’s down to volume, ... Read More »

Certain jobs require huge amounts of sitting down, as I’m sure you are aware it is very hard to live a healthy lifestyle by sitting down all the time. There are also claims that sitting down can seriously damage health, however I suspect this is because merely because of correlation and not causation. Lorry drivers are at a certain advantage because they have a huge lorry to carry some equipment, while on a bike you are slightly more limited as to what you can carry. For a lorry driver it’s worth investing in some kettle bells. For some these are the weapon of choice as kettlebell workouts do offer an extensive full body workout. If you are familiar with workouts such as the 300 workout you will know that when it comes to the kettlebell push press it is absolutely killer! In the picture below there are 6 exercises you can ... Read More »

I don’t want to sound like a gym elitist I just want to tell it how it is. Some things people do the gym are just damn annoying, here is what infuriates me. 1)     ‘Yo Bro how many sets do you have left…..?’ There is nothing more annoying than getting a piece of gym equipment and settling down to smash out your sets when some fagbrah and his bro come up and ask you how many sets you have left. It doesn’t concern you how many sets I have left I am gunna be done when I’m done.  For me anyway it’s a free but of preworkout rage. Instead why not ask, ‘Excuse me bro can you give me a shout when you are done?’ 2)     Having a 5 minute break between sets This is the exception for when it’s ok to break rule 1 and question how long people ... Read More »

I was doing a leg session in the gym today and on my first set of squats I hear a tear. I was wearing shorts and tracksuit trousers and it turns out I had completely shredded my lucky shorts which I have had since I started working out 3 years ago! I just thought I would give you a few hints on what to wear and when as I would hate for this to happen to you. So I don’t want to tell you what you should wear when you work out. That is up to you, you have your own fashion statements and I respect that. However I want to highlight some clothes that will give you more from your workouts and possible bring to light some items you have not thought of yet. Hoodies For keeping warm especially in the winter there is nothing better than a hoody. ... Read More »

Foods to avoid when dieting and getting toned abs Diet is the single most important thing when it comes to shedding those pounds. Spending 1hour a day doing cardio and 12 hours a day eating, excuse the french sh*t isn’t going to get you those lean, toned abs. When it comes the the foods to avoid when dieting some will cause more harm than good. These can be split into 2 categories, high fat and high GI index. Lets have a look at some foods in the high fat category. Foods to avoid while dieting – High Fat Foods Unless you are going on the Paleo diet then high fat foods are something you should be staying away from. Why? Fat contains a huge amount of calories per g, 2.25x as much as carbohydrate or protein. It will also occupy far less space in your stomach making your body think ... Read More »

Have you ever heard of the phrase, “If you want to lose weight you can’t eat carbs after 3pm”? This is one of the most common myths out there told only to make people limit their calorie intake, the truth is that there is no correct time to eat carbohydrate this varies from person to person. Not eating carbs after 3 is only going to lower your calorie intake so that you are in a deficit each day. I personally think this is bad because it can encourage over eating before these hours. When you eat carbohydrate your liver converts any excess blood glucose into glycogen via the Cori cycle and glycogenesis. This can then will be stored for 18 hours and released when needed via glycogenolysis. Also excess glucose can be transformed to fatty acids and stored as fat. The glycogen will then be used before any fat reserves ... Read More »

Asking the question, “how long does it take to build muscle” is very much like asking how long is a piece of string? It varies from string to string, much like it varies from person to person. There are a variety of factors that are going to determine whether you are going to put on 10lbs in 10 months or 10lbs in 10 weeks. How long does it take build muscle genetic dependance Some people will have greater genetics than others when it comes to the makeup to building a muscly body. If you have struggled with putting on muscle in the past you may have poor genetics. Just because you have poor genetics doesn’t mean you will never put on muscle, you will just have to train and diet differently than someone that does. Genetics is one of many factors affecting the rate of muscle tissue growth, there are ... Read More »

What is a Pre exhaustion leg workout? A typical leg workout and one that I have been using for years consists of doing the heavy compound movements such as squats and leg press at the beginning of the workout. This is when you have the most energy which allows you to lift heavier weights. With the weight being heavy more damage is caused thus resulting in more growth. So what about turning this all around and doing the exercise essentially in reverse? “If Arnold recommends it, it’s good enough for me!” There is little evidence that this causes any additional benefit when it comes to muscle growth but seeing as all the big name bodybuilders have and are using it, why not add it to your repertoire? I have always struggled to build larger quads and I have been implementing these in my workouts for around 1 month and have ... Read More »

When going on holiday or visiting people one thing that is always on my mind is how am I going to maintain all my gains! There is no worse feeling than worrying about all those hours of dieting and training going out the window because you either can’t train or can’t consume. So to protect yourself and maintain your fitness and well being while travelling there is only one thing you need to do and that is prepare. “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.” Most of this post is going to operate on the following pretences, you are travelling around and either staying in a hotel or friends house. You will not necessarily be in the same place each day and you will be carrying around 2 or so pieces of luggage. First things first, in my opinion the hardest thing to get right while travelling is your diet. ... Read More »