WHY IS DIETING SO HARD?

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If you're reading this, I'll presume you want to lose weight.

So why is 'dieting' so difficult? Well, there's no simple answer. It's a subjective opinion to which each individiual will have a differing perspective, but part of the reason is simply the fact that you call it a 'diet'. In this context, just what is a diet? Obviously, it's eating in a way that you lose body fat.

Eating to lose weight, to improve health and body composition is labelled in such a way that psychologically, you consider it a short term way to the 'look' or scale weight you want to achieve. You feel starved because you cut out certain types of foods. You feel obliged to excercise (even though you may not want to). You become obsessed with watching the digits on the bathroom scales; and what happens when the 'diet' ends? Things go back to normal of course. You eat 'normal foods' when you're hungry and when you go out with friends to dinner. You eat on the occassions your colleagues buy biscuits to eat with morning coffee... and then there's the coffeeeeee! The Chocolate Caramel Choc-Chip Latte, and Blueberry muffin (or dough-nut) that is just too hard to resist when you go to your favorite coffee shop. Mmmmmm dough-nuuuts!

I'll list what foods I'm thinking about right at this moment: Snickers, Dairy Milk, Twirl, Creme Eggs, Chocolate Digestives, Custard Creams, Bourbons, Jaffa Cakes... My weaknesses - chocolate and biscuits. All stuff that can be bought cheaply and on special offer at any supermarket. High sugar, high fat, processed loveliness.

The thing is, there's actually nothing really wrong with any of them. Why? Because I understand how to fuel my body with the food I put in to it; and I understand how the different types of food I put in affects it.

So my question is: Do you?

If you're honest with yourself, you'll probably answer 'no' because if you don't. You've must have made a consious descision to be overweight. 

Consider that comment for a moment:

Did you choose to be overweight? No!

So weather you like it or not, it's time to get educated! That's the purpose of this blog:

A no nonsence real world guide to fat-loss, fitness, muscle and weight training.

Stick with me...





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WHAT WENT WRONG?

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We've all been there. You wake up one morning and look in the mirror and it hits you. You look like junk. Not because you had a rough night's sleep, but because you realise that you've let yourself go. You're fat! You think to yourself, "I'm gonna go on a diet. I'll start tomorrow."

Tomorrow never comes.

So it's slow metabolism right? Stress? Maybe it's genetics? It can't be the chocolates, the fast or processed foods. It can't be alcohol - you only drink at weekends. Maybe you actually do some exercise in which case it's gotta be slow metabolism... Right?

Keep telling yourself that if you want...

So what's the alternative? More cardio? Eat clean? Atkins? That's where I come in...

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DEADLIFT

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Dead-lifts build back strength. Dead-lifts teach you to keep your lower back rigid against a load. Keeping your back straight is critical to avoid injuries when lifting heavy objects from the floor.
But that’s also why Dead-lifts have bad reputation. Rounding your back during Dead-lifts increases risks of spinal disc injuries like hernias. You need to Dead-lift with proper technique. This article will help you out.

What’s a Dead-lift?

Pull the barbell from the floor with both hands until your body is fully extended. Dead-lift by pushing from the heels, and bringing your hips forward. Not by pulling with your lower back.


Benefits of the Dead-lift:

• Dead-lifts work your back, legs & forearms. Dead-lifts don’t develop your legs like Squats do: your hips start higher. That’s why you can substitute Squats for Dead-lifts in case of knee injuries.
• Back Strength. Your back stays straight while the weight of the bar tries to bend it. Keeping your back rigid builds back strength.
• Leg Strength. Bringing your hips forward strengthen your hamstrings & glutes. Straightening your knees strengthen your quads.
• Grip Strength. You need to grip the barbell hard so it doesn’t roll out of your hands when doing Dead-lifts. This builds forearms & grip strength

Before You Dead-lift:

• Basic stuff you need to know before you even think about trying to Dead-lift with correct technique.
• Bar Height. Dead-lifts start with the bar at mid-shin level. Put plates on the floor if you don’t have/lack the strength to use 20kg plates.
• Lifting Shoes. Shoes with air or gel filling are compressible, impairing power transfer & stability. Wear shoes with hard soles. Chuck Taylor’s, weightlifting shoes, socks or barefoot are better than running shoes.
• No Straps. Never use straps for Dead-lifts. If your grip is weak, Dead-lift more. Switch to an alternate grip (baseball grip) & use chalk.

Setup for Dead-lift:

• Don’t move the bar to get into proper position. Walk to the bar & position your feet correctly.
• Foot Stance. Shoulder-width stance with toes slightly pointing out. Curl your toes up. Jump up a few times: that’s the stance for Dead-lifts.
• Bar Position. Bar should be 5 to 10cm (2-4″) from your shins when standing. Remember the position of your laces under the bar.
• Chest Up. Make a big chest & lift it up. Pull your shoulders back. Keep this position at all time & your back will never be able to round.
• Look Forward. Looking down makes your back round. Looking to the ceiling can cause neck pain. Look forward during the whole lift.
• Grip Width. Too small & your hands touch your legs on the way up. Too wide & you have to pull the bar higher. Use about 51cm/20″ grip width.
• Gripping the Bar. Put the bar close to your fingers, not in the palm of your hands. This will minimize callus formation & torn skin.
• Straight Arms. Dead-lifting with bent arms can tear your biceps muscles. Keep your arms straight. Tighten your triceps.

Performing The Dead-lift:

• Dead-lift by pushing from the heels & bringing your hips forward. Not by pulling back with your lower back. If you Dead-lift correctly, you’ll feel most stress in your upper-back, glutes & hams.
• Shoulder-blades over Bar. Put your shoulder-blades directly over the bar, shoulders in front of the bar. Your hips will be at the correct height.
• Bar Against Shins. Pull the bar up in a straight line. The closer the barbell to your shins, the better. No need to scrape your shins.
• Push From The Heels. Simple trick: curl your toes up. This automatically puts the weight on your heels.
• Bar Close to You. Keep the bar in contact with your body during the whole lift, rolling the bar over your shins & thighs. The closer the bar, the less stress on your lower back & the more weight you can Dead-lift.
• Squeeze You Glutes. Bring your hips forward by pushing from the heels & squeezing your glutes hard. This prevents pulling with the lower back.
• Lock The Weight. The Dead-lift ends when your knees & hips are locked. No need to roll the shoulders or hyper-extend the lower back.

Bringing the Weight Down:

• Don’t lose time bringing the weight down. Do it controlled but not slow. The rule: hips unlock first, then knees.
• Chest Up, Look Forward. Neglecting to do both will make your back round. Keep your chest up, shoulders back & look forward.
• Bar Close to You. Keep the bar in contact with your thighs until it reaches knee level. It’s friendlier on your back.
• First Hips, Then Knees. Flex at the hips first to return the bar below knee level. Then bend at the knees until the bar is on the floor.

Common Dead-lift Errors:

• Common mistakes you need to avoid to minimize risks of injuries when doing Dead-lifts.
• Hips Too High. Use your knees: it’s not a Stiff-legged Dead-lift. Put the bar against your shins with the shoulder-blades directly over the bar.
• Hips Too Low. It’s not a Squat. Put the bar against your shins with the shoulder-blades directly over the bar. Shoulders in front of the bar.
• Bending Your Back. Increases the pressure on your spine thus increasing risk of injury. Keep your chest up at all time & look forward.
• Hyper-extending Your Back. As bad as bending. The Dead-lift ends when your hips & knees are locked. No need to arch at the top.
• Rolling the Shoulders. Dangerous & inefficient. Your hip muscles move the weight, not your shoulders. Extend your knees & hips, stop.
• Shrugging at The Top. Unnecessary. If you need more trap emphasis do shrugs or Power Cleans.
• Pulling with Bent Arms. You could tear your biceps by pulling with bent arms. Keep your arms straight, tighten your triceps.

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SQUAT

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If you don’t Squat, you’re not training period. The Squat is the most important weight training exercise because it works your whole body, not just your legs. This guide will teach you how to Squat with correct technique using free weights so you achieve maximum strength and muscle gains without hurting yourself.

What Are Squats?

Bend through your knees with the bar on your back until your hips come lower than parallel. Once your hip joint is lower than your knee joint you Squat up again. Popular variations of the Squat include:

• Olympic Squat - High bar position, close stance & deep.
• Front Squat - The barbell rests on your front shoulders.
• Overhead Squat - Squats while holding the bar overhead.

Why Should You Squat?

Every muscle works when you Squat: your legs move the weight, your abs & lower back stabilize it, your arms squeeze the bar, etc. The Squat is NOT just a leg exercise, it’s a full body exercise:

• Build Muscle: Muscle size is directly related to strength. That’s why the best bodybuilder ever, Arnold Schwarzenegger, could Squat close to 500lbs. Getting stronger at Squats is the fastest way to gain muscle.
• Gain Strength: Squats strengthen your legs by working them through a full range of motion. This helps all sports but also daily activities. No more bending over to pick up an object, you can just Squat.
• Gain Flexibility: Squats are proof that weight training doesn’t make you inflexible. You need flexibility to Squat, and regular Squatting will help you maintain that flexibility.
• Strengthen Your Knees: Unlike what ignorant people will tell you, Squatting CORRECTLY will strengthen your knees by strengthening their surrounding muscles.

How to Avoid Injuries:

You should always Squat in a Power Rack. Set the safety pins so they can catch the bar would anything go wrong. The rest is technique – start light, add weight gradually, and remember form always comes before weight.

Lack of Hip Mobility:

It can make correct Squat technique impossible. One fix is to simply practice the squat movement at home without a bar – squat, stand, squat, stand etc.

Unracking the Bar:

• ALWAYS STEP BACK to unrack the bar; never forward. You don’t want to injure yourself stumbling over your own feet while walking the weight backwards into the uprights after a heavy set.
• Set the bar in the Power Rack at about mid-chest level.
• Position your feet directly under the bar.
• Squat under the bar and put it on your back.
• Tighten everything and Squat up to unrack the bar.
• One step back with one leg, one step back with the other leg

The Setup:

You’ll have to think about a lot of things at first. Study the tips below, start with an empty barbell, focus on your technique:

• Chest Up: The low bar position becomes easier with a low bar position. You can also tighten your upper-back better as a result.
• Forward Look: Look at the ceiling and your neck will hurt. Keep your head inline with your torso, but don’t start looking at your feet.
• Bar Position: Put the bar low, below the bone at the top of your shoulder-blades and on your back muscles – NOT on your spine and not on your traps.
• Until I realised the bar sat BEHIND my traps rather than ON them, I would always seem to fall forwards as I squatted! It took me nearly 9 months to realise at which point my knees and lower back became much less stressed.
• Grip Width: Your build and musculature will dictate this. Narrow grip makes it easier to tighten your upper-back. Do lots of shoulder rotations if this position feels uncomfortable.
• Thumb-less Grip: Put your thumbs on top of the bar, next to your fingers. You’ll be able to keep your wrists in-line with your forearms.
• Straight Wrists: Your back supports the weight, not your hands. Keep your wrists in-line with your forearm, never bend them.
• Tight Upper-back: Bring your shoulder-blades together. Tightening the upper-back gives the bar a solid base to rest on.
• Elbows Back: Don’t let them come forward. Pushing your elbows back prevents elbows injuries. Back doesn’t mean “up” by the way.
• Foot Stance: A narrow stance doesn’t work for the low bar Squat. Heels should be shoulder-width apart. If your lower back starts to round, go wider.
• Toes Out: Point your toes out at about 30 degrees. Your toes must always follow your knees or you’ll get knee injuries.

How to Squat Down:

You have unracked the bar correctly. All your muscles are tight and ready to Squat. The key to the Squatting correctly with a low bar position is your hips - you must have tension in your hamstrings at the bottom.

• Knees Out. Never allow your knees to buckle in unless you want to injure them. Push your knees out as you Squat down.
• Hit Parallel. Your hip joint must come lower than your knee joint. Ask someone to judge your depth or tape yourself. No Partial Squats.

How to Squat Up:

Your hip muscles will be stretched when in the bottom position if you Squat correctly. Use that stretch to bounce out of the hole. If you Squat this way, you’ll be lift a lot more weight while keeping your knees safe.

• Hips Up. Drive out of the hole by leading with your hips, not your chest. Don’t let your knees travel forward at the bottom or you’ll lose power.
• Squeeze Your Glutes. Power comes from the glutes. Squeeze them hard as you lockout the weight. It will also keep your lower back safe.
• Grab The Floor. Grab the floor with your feet, it will help activating your glutes. Do NOT let your heels come off the floor.
• Knees Out. Same as for the way down: don’t let your knees buckle in. Push your knees out as you Squat up.

Always use free weights for Squats. Machines are not only less effective for muscle and strength gains because they balance the weight for you, they also force you into fixed/unnatural movement patterns; and the Smith Machine is likely to ruin your lower back!

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BENCH PRESS

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The Bench Press is the most popular lift in the gym. It’s the upper-body exercise that lets you lift the most weight. The Bench Press builds upper-body strength like no other exercise, full stop.

Unfortunately the Bench Press causes most injuries, especially shoulder injuries. This article will teach you how to Bench Press with proper technique so you can bench more weight without injuring yourself.

What’s The Bench Press?

Lie on an upright support bench or a bench inside a Power Rack. Unrack the weight & lower it to your chest. Press it back up until your arms are locked.
You have several ways to Bench Press by varying grip, grip width, bench angle, etc. Some Bench Press variations are:

• Close Grip Bench Press - Shoulder width grip. Emphasis triceps.
• Reverse Grip Bench Press - Palms facing you. Also emphasis triceps.
• Incline Bench Press - From an incline bench. Emphasis shoulders.
• Decline Bench Press - From a decline bench. Allows more weight.
• Floor Press -  Bench Press while lying on the floor. More  triceps.

Benefits of the Bench Press:

Why should you Bench Press? Here are two reasons to do the exercise.

• Builds Muscle. Bench Press if you want a big chest, as popularized by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 70s. Front Shoulders & triceps work too.
• Builds Strength. The Bench Press is the strength training exercise that lets you lift the most weight using your upper-body muscles.

Bench Press Safety:

Most injuries in the gym happen when doing The Bench Press. One reason is of course because it’s the exercise done the most. Other reasons are not using the following tips:

• No Thumb-less Grip - Use your thumbs when doing the Bench Press. You don’t want the bar to slip out of your hands.
• Start Light - Add weight gradually. You’ll get a feeling of what you can & can’t handle while learning proper Bench Press technique.
• Ask Someone to Spot - Spotters will help you if you get stuck with the bar on your chest. If you don’t have a spotter, use a smith machine or be very careful!

Bench Press & Shoulders Pain:

Shoulder pain from doing the Bench Press is common. Switching to dumbbells or quitting the Bench Press avoids pain, but doesn’t solve your shoulder problem. Try to do the following:

• Improve Technique - If you don’t Bench Press with proper technique you’ll injure yourself sooner or later. Read on.
• Fix Posture - You can’t Bench Press with proper technique if you have slouching shoulders. Start doing shoulder dislocations. Focus on bringing your chest forward & squeezing your shoulder-blades.
• Avoid Muscle Imbalances - The Bench Press works your front shoulders more than the back ones. If you don’t strengthen these by doing the Barbell Row & Overhead Press, you’ll get a muscle imbalance causing bad posture bad Bench Press technique.

Bench Press Setup:

You need a strong base to press the weight from. Tighten your upper-back. Grip the bar hard: try to break it apart like breaking spaghetti.

• Grip Width - Too narrow & you’ll lose strength. Too wide & the distance the bar travels shortens. Grip width should be about 55-71cm/22-28″ depending on your build. Forearms perpendicular to the floor when the bar touches your chest.
• Gripping the Bar - Secure the bar with your thumbs by rotating your hands in. Put the bar in the palm of your hand, close to your wrist. If you put the bar close to your fingers, you’ll get wrist pain.
• Tight Upper-back - Squeeze your shoulder-blades before getting on the bench. Keep your shoulder-blades back & down at all times.
• Chest Up - Don’t allow your chest to go flat or shoulders to roll forward. You’ll lose upper-back tightness, losing power & increasing risk of shoulder injury. Keep your chest up at all time.
• Feet - Use a wide foot stance to increase stability on the bench. Feet flat on the floor, weight on the heels, lower leg perpendicular to the floor. This prevents extreme arching of your lower back.

The Bench Press:

Remember to keep the tight position during the Bench Press from start to finish. Squeeze the bar, keep your upper-back tight & your chest up. Unrack the weight with straight arms.

• Bar to Chest - Touch your chest where your forearms are perpendicular to the floor when looking from the side.
• Press in a Straight Line - Don’t look at the bar. Fix a point at the ceiling. Press the bar in a straight line above your chest, not towards your face. Keep the bar above your elbows during the whole lift.

Common Errors:

The following Bench Press errors are either inefficient or potentially dangerous. Avoid them at all costs.

• Unracking with Bent Arms - Don’t risk the bar falling on your face. Your arms are strongest when your elbows are locked. Unrack & bring the bar above your chest with locked elbows.
• Pressing to Your Face - The shortest distance between 2 points is a straight line. Press in a straight line. Fix a point at the ceiling where you want the bar to go. Don’t look at the bar.
• Bending Your Wrists - This will get you wrist pain. Put the bar in the palm of your hand. Close to your wrists, not close to your fingers. Squeeze the bar so it doesn’t move.
• Elbows - Too high is bad for your shoulders. Too low is inefficient. Put your elbows between perpendicular to & parallel with your torso.
• Shoulders Forward - Don’t let your shoulders roll forward, it’s bad posture, bad technique and a guaranteed way to get shoulder injuries. Keep your chest up, shoulder-blades back and down; and upper-back tight.
• Glutes off the Bench - This makes the distance the bar travels shorter & thus the Bench Press easier. However it puts pressure on your back, especially when the weight gets heavy. You’re more stable when your glutes are on the bench. Keep them there.
• Pushing Your Head into The Bench - You’ll injure your neck. Tighten your neck muscles, without pushing your head into the bench.
  
  
  
  

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