Going Paleo...

So I have decided to go Paleo for my 20 week HIT plan. Admittedly this is now in my 4th week, so I would be cautious to think that any further resulting fat reduction or strength gains would be totally attributed to switching my diet to Paleo, however it will bear an effect, hence why I am doing it. 


I am not going to go into too much detail as there is loads written on the subject but put simply, it’s like Atkins but without the premise of having to buy all of their tainted marketing shit that goes with it. “Buy our shake, buy our bars” Shameful! 


Whilst I am trying to maintain my calorie intake to be the same 2600 calories, I have struggled in the first two days, but that’s because my fridge is empty and you need fresh veg, fruit and lots of fish and meat to satisfy the calorie intake. 


So a shop beckons for me tonight. 


I think one of the most interesting things about the diet is that James has been doing this for sometime and his take on it is actually rather interesting. “It’s not about listening to every word and following everything to the tee on it, its about applying the science and bringing that diet to the modern world.” So basically, yes marinade your meats, and if you want a pizza or fish and chips you can, just don’t make it a portion of your lifestyle but don’t let it affect your lifestyle either. 


I would recommend reading the Arthur De Vany site and his book - which I have been reading asiduosly at night - for further information on the paleo diet. (Arhtur De Vany is 72 and puts to shame most 20 year olds in physique and health).

No I've not fallen off the wagon...

I realise its been a few days since I last posted, nothing to worry about I have just been busy catching up with home projects and of course training.

To summarise because I can't remember much of the week;

- Changed protein powder - bad choice, the new stuff doesn't taste nice
- Workout is going very well, increases in everything which is nice
- Diet is going even better
- Water intake is around 3.5 litres a day
- Bought some creatine and I'll be loading this week.

Aside from all of that I hope you are all well.

Peace,
G

Bad friday night

So what started as "lets meet for a drink" turned into a shameful abuse of my capacity to drink beer. It took 4, yes 4 pints to make me paralytic. Realistically, my nephew of 18 months who has Hungarian, Italian, Swiss and I think English blood/nationality would be able to handle this better than me.

Thanks David. (David is a GP and should know better!)

Saturday destroyed.

I proceeded with a workout, which should have been technically the worse one to date. Strength had increased on all machines, reps likewise. (If someone can explain how feeling like you have been run over by a bus, and then have the bus driver jump and kick you in the head repeatedly mean that you can actually get stronger I'd really like to know!)

I proceeded with re-hydrating all day long and proceeding to eat clean... Portuguese chicken with steamed veg... Didn't taste too bad.

So today, I was meant to be heading for a run but the weather is a little off - may go later. Then cricket nets (never realised I could enjoy cricket) possibly football then NCIS LA to finish off the weekend. (And a huge stack of ironing to do)

F***ING cake ladies!

Shitty shitty day...made better through an unlikely source

So let's be clear, work was fine, actually very good. I got through everything I had set out to do, no problem. My lunch was shocking, nothing to blame on anyone but myself - I simply have no one to blame but myself - lesson learnt, failing to prepare is preparing to fail.

But my day was made wholesomely shit when I received some shitty shitty news from a friend in Italy - without going into detail it made me grouchy young man x 100.

My source of hope came through my workout. Yes the workouts which induce nausea, a sense of pain unlike no other, and make me reconsider the whole thing to start with. It's like exercising (I know exorcising is the correct but get the pun!) the horrible demons that you face. The power of visualisation is immense. I see one of my high school bullies dressed in an inter kit holding the champions league cup with one hand and a shotgun in the other and if I don't push as hard as I can he will win. Sad? Perhaps, but it helps me achieve my goal of maximum intensity every time.

Biceps CAN cramp!

"A temporary partial paralysis of habitually or excessively used muscles" - cramp

I write this latest post in semi-gregarious agony. Yesterday evening after completing workout B I returned home and proceeded to eat an omelette and have a protein shake, so far, so good. However when performing the simple task of lifting my plate from coffee table to sink I experienced a pain like no other...BICEP CRAMP!

Yes, even I, Gino De Blasio, man of little, tiny, incadescent biceps suffered cramp.

How the hell could that happen?

Last night was the first time in a long time that I had also felt sick after my last set of weight bearing exercises. I mean properly heavingly sick! I wasn't you will all be glad to read, but I was mighty close.

As for my diet...

Breakfast
125g of Cereal 480kcal
Boiled egg and some dry bread 135kcal
Water

Snack 1
Multigrain bar 125kcal
Water

Lunch
Bag of boiled brown rice and turkey cooked with some honey 597kcal
Water

Snack 2
nothing - I know I know
Lots of Water

Dinner 
Steamed Salmon with black pepper and salad 450kcal
Water

Snack 3 
3 egg omelette with 25ml of milk  - 240kcal
Protein shake with milk - 100kcal

Tonight I played football, and lost. Mr Johnny Fuller also has my top, I'm just saying so that the digital world has proof in case he doesn't give it back!

Flapjacks and other sugary snacks ARE your enemy!

After reading my friends blog which was in part responsive to my previous post I was very intrigued to read about how sugar and alcohol affect testosterone levels. 

Whilst the study was done in relation to measuring testosterone levels after fasting, the results indicated that a sugary diet can lower levels significantly to the point of being classed as type 2 diabetic.

The full study can be found here.

A Flapjack or a Fish Curry?

So I haven't blogged in the last few days due to a few planning and falling asleep issues - that being I am just falling asleep when trying to stay awake...at home not in the office!

Friday 
My water intake was a little weak during the day but I made up for it at night. If any of you ever think of doing super-hydration yourself, never, ever, ever try and consume your half day's worth of water after 6pm, trust me on this one.

As for my diet, it is going well. I actually calculated throughout the day an interesting bit. I was offered what was a seemingly innocuous flapjack. I took a look at the dietary information and was left perplexed. For 125g of flapjack extravaganza, it equated to 630kcal and 20g of fat! This was meant to be the healthy option!!!!  I managed to create a fish curry with brown rice and naan bread for the fewer calories and less fat, I know which one I would prefer.

As for my workout, it was a really great session. I lifted more reps than last time on everything and when you think I have had only a few days rest in between I was very happy. Overall I feel that the intensity I put into this session was a lot more than what I had done last time.

Saturday
I had a blow out on food and diet, or rather I thought I did. I actually ate less in calories overall than what I do on a usual day, just my frequency and quantity of food was done overall in three meals and no snacking between.

I did however have 2 glasses of wine - very nice Pinot Noir from Majestic, yes begin mocking now! 

Cake Ladies

So today is my day off from training, but diet remains the "strict" 2600 calories. I say "strict" in such a manner because the cake ladies came to the office today. Whilst their vast array of treats were enough to make Willy Wonka think twice before taking on the pensioners from the WI (Women's Institute) I used all of my restraint to purchase a lemon drizzle cake...Yes I can be broken on the promise of a cake!

Anyway, I looked up the calories and the quantity and proceeded to have a slither which made up for my 200kcal mid morning snack, but I fear for worse as it continues to stare at me on my desk...HELP!

On other news the rest today is doing me the world of good and my legs don't feel too stressed either which is great :). 

Legging it

Today was my first workout B session (legs, shoulders, bi’s). Once again commenced in the morning due to football viewing this evening. Last night’s football match (I played not sat and watched) really took it’s toll, so I was more surprised than most to be up at 6:40 ready to go and weight train, big mistake! 


My legs were literally dead, 2 evenings on the bounce of playing football and little rest meant that I had to push just as much today than ever before. 


I managed to get through my workout in yet again 32 minutes (the Neapolitan in me wants to play the number 32 on the next lottery), and when I got home I had a solid 640kcal breakfast.


No exercise tonight or tomorrow, I need the break. I will be doing Workout A on Friday evening to give me a little extra breathing room. This weekend will be filled with some cardio work, perhaps a bike ride or run. 


Diet 


Breakfast 
50g of cereal + 75ml of semi skimmed milk - 225kcal 
2 boiled eggs and 2 small pieces of toast - 340kcal 
Protein shake (half scoop) with water - 75kcal 
Large glass of water 
No snack due to Lunch being a little heavier today, but lots of water.

Lunch
100g of pasta with 50g cherry tomatoes, 55g of fresh prawns and 30g of chorizo plus 2 teaspoons of
olive oil. 690kcal 
More water. 


Snack 1
Protein shake - 100kcal 
Toast and Olive oil paste - 125kcal 
More water


Dinner
125g taglietelle with ham, mushrooms and cream - 525kcal 
55g asparagus omelette - 125kcal
Water


no late night snack. 


P.S. Gave up chocolate for lent.

Pancake Day

It’s undoubtedly one of my favourite days of the year. (The summer clocks going forward, May day bank holiday, a random bank holiday which appears from nowhere and your summer/autumn week holiday are the others).

I am pretty shattered after having gotten little sleep in the night - the by-product of me drinking copious amounts of water in my superhydration phase.

Yesterday I sent Jenson Button’s (yes the F1 driver) trainer Mike Collier a tweet asking about genetics and precisely, “here's a quick question, what role does genetics have in training, building muscle, injuries etc?”

I never thought I’d get an answer, but he did, and over 3 tweets. I have condensed the answer into 1 below.

“interesting question, probably too in depth for a twitter reply but we are all predisposed to a certain body size which can be altered through training but everyone will have a ceiling limit which varies between one person and another. There is defo a link between genetics and injury just like there is between some medical conditions and family history for example. Hope this helps”.  

Thanks Mike, very much appreciated.

It goes further to back my point on the role of genetics. James has written a great piece on genetics on his blog, I urge you to read it by clicking here.

Football tonight and hopefully some rest.

P.s. Each pancake with a slithe of nutella is 125kcal so watch out!

The first step is always the hardest

So I managed a good 8 hours sleep last night, to find myself fully refreshed for my first day on the HIT plan. 

I went to the gym for 6:40 and was out of there, completing my workout with a warm up set on each machine at 45% weight, and full intensity at 7:12. I was absolutely shaking and only the warm shower I could have back at home really helped. I had breakfast (I will put my eating tally at the bottom) and relaxed before realising that I had nothing for snacking or lunch - that’s what going on holiday and general bad organisation does to your brain! (I did proceed to visit Sainsbury’s and stock up for the day). 

My water intake has been good, 2 big glasses (500ml in total) and 750ml bottle before 1pm was achieved, even if my colleagues keep seeing me rush to the toilet every 30 minutes or so :( 

I did however succumb to 2 mini creme eggs which are 50 Kcal each - good thing I am giving chocolate and unhealthy snacking up for lent! 

Whilst I wasn’t intending to do any further exercise today, I was drafted into a game of 7 a side football as someone dropped out last minute. This, including tomorrow’s excursion onto the football field will probably not be totally beneficial unless I get a good night’s rest and good source of food to help fuel me for my activities.

Breakfast 

100g Sainsbury’s raisin wheats plus 200ml semi skimmed milk - 495kcal 

2 scotch pancakes no butter - 97kcal 

500 ml cold water 

Snack 1 

Nutrigrain bar - 110kcal 

Half a Kellogg’s bar - 75kcal 

Big glass of water

Lunch 

Prawn and rocket sandwhiches - 495kcal 

A slither of b-day cake - 75kcal “ROUGHLY” (according the pack and roughly weighing up the size) 

Mini Creme Egg - 50kcal 

Another big glass of water 

Snack 2 

Other half of Kellogg’s bar - 75kcal 

Mini Creme Egg - 50kcal 

More bloody water 

Dinner 

Steak with low fat chips and spinach - 630Kcal 

Banana - 80kcal 

Yep, you guessed it, water 

Snack 3 

3 Egg heart healthy omelette - 320Kcal 

Plan and diet

Ok, so this bit is the interesting part.

I’ve had a fair few years of training in different ways, and in HIT. The biggest gains I have had is when I have trained the same body part within 4-5 days rest period between workout sessions.

With that in mind I will be working out 3 days a week split into 2 workouts with the aforementioned rest period between. My routine will be as follows: 

Workout A 

Incline Chest Press

Upright Chest Press

Single Arm Machine Fly’s

Pullovers 

Pull Downs

Tri Rope Extension

Tri Machine Extension 

Plank

Side Plank

Rope Crunch

Incline Sit Ups

Workout B 

Leg Press

Leg Extension

Leg Curl 

Lateral Raise

Shoulder Press

Barbell Curl 

Dumbbell Hammer Curls 

Oblique Twists

Woodcutter 

Jacknife 

I will be performing all weight bearing exercises aside from Barbell Curl and Hammer Curls on machines to help in form and avoid doing something drastically silly with free weights. 

As for diet, the biggest issue for me personally is calorie intake. I usually either don’t have enough or the quality is either sugar rich or carb loaded to the max. I wont be cutting out carbs as such, I’m not going paleolithic diet at all, I’m Italian and pasta is part of my staple diet. What I will do is avoid eating too many carbs after 8pm because most of the diet documentation I have read up to now suggests that your body finds it harder to process the calories from carbs in the evening because your metabolism begins to slow down to compensate for your rest period. 

The total calories I will be ingesting every day will be 2600. To figure this out I did my BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) calculation, then did the Harris Benedict calculation and then from this I got my daily calorific needs. To ascertain this, you can follow this link to see how many calories you need. I will distribute these calories over 6 meals a day. 

I will also be superhydrating during the week. I won’t bother to go into detail but Dr Darden has a great article on this which you can read here. Basically I will be looking to drink approximately 3.5 litres of water a day and avoiding alcohol and coffee in my daily diet. 

And so it begins!

It’s 17 weeks until my cousin gets hitched in Rome. 18 weeks until one of my best friends gets hitched in Chester. And it’s 20 weeks until I have a university reunion. I’d better get training! 

My name is Gino and I’m 28. I have what can be described as a long limbed body with narrow-ish shoulders, wide hips and solid legs. I regularly play football, run 10km and even throw myself into silly triathlon and duathlon challenges. I also attend my local gym and weight train twice a week - or at least try to. 

On a recent holiday in the French Alps one of my roommates argued that he “had a great physique and that it came purely down to working hard over the last ten years”. I can’t deny that he has had worked hard, however we also have to establish the fundamentals of training to back this up. 

Firstly you have genetic factors. No matter how hard you train, watch your diet and rest, genetics are going to be single handidly the biggest factor in how you look after taking up weight lifting. Let me put it this way. If I worked at the same intensity as this particular friend, ate the same diet and did the same volume of work and rested the same amount of time, the only factor that would vary from how I look to how he looks is genetics.

Secondly, you go to the gym for a whole myriad of reasons, however if you are weight lifting the physiological changes are going to be muscular hypertrophy (muscles getting bigger) and or muscular endurance, muscular power and strength increases. You can’t go to the gym to “shape your muscles”. Once again, the way you look is a by-product of the intensity of your workout, your actual workout in the gym, diet and rest you have out of the gym, oh and genetics. 

Obviously I have tried all kinds of weight training regimes as well. Multiple sets to supersets and even HIT, and I am not here to debate which is the best form of training, I am using HIT because all the science indicates is that you can achieve similar strength gains with single set to failure (HIT) as multiple sets in less time. Like everything else in this world, if you can get it done quicker why wouldn’t you? 

Throughout the 20 weeks I will be talking to a whole variety of people, from physiological academics and strength trainers to the gym “rats”. I want to not only better my strength and performance in the gym, but my knowledge of the subject and understand other people’s attitudes best I can to weight training. 

Two of the most commonly used names that you will hear are Tim and James. Tim is my housemate and a fervent advocate of HIT training. He is also a graduate of Exercise Sciences and will be the first to change his opinion on HIT training if overwhelming evidence comes out that multiple sets is significantly better for your training. This would obviously all depend on the quality of the research done, period of time for the study etc. James is an associate lecturer and lab technician at Solent University in Southampton, what he doesn’t know on HIT training isn’t worth knowing. He introduced me to HIT training some years ago and he will be giving me more than my money’s worth on training advice and knowledge. 

I will be posting regular updates (I’ll try once a day, at least once every other day) to keep you all interested, even if it will be me and possibly several friends that will only read it. I hope you enjoy it, and if you want to comment please feel free to do so.