Alcohol is poison

I am dying....I know so is everyone else but today I AM DYING!




The photo is not a mistake or a set up I plonked the objects down and found that whilst I could be trying to get blog recognition with brands (evian if you are reading this I drink 3 litres of your stuff everyday - Gazzetta dai meno con l'intermerda più con Milan) it is a telling sign of one of my weekends, in a foreign country where the previous night did it's damage.

I am obviously writing this from an airport lounge, Lisbon to be precise. I wait for the flight before me to go to then get a seat at the front of the queue for the torrid trip to Liverpool airport. The flight in front is for Rio...I have yet to spot any cabanas or dancing troops to annoy/entertain me. Get your act together Brazilians!

The training and diet prior to this weekend had been going to schedule, I had played football twice this week coupled with 2 weight sessions and a 60km bike ride. Overall my weight has levelled out at 74kilos for the last 4 weeks following an initial drop from 80kg when I switched to low carb/paleolithic.

This weekend has been great on the food front. Well apart from the pasteis de Belem I had on Friday with Derek and Luis (follow him on twitter he's a top bloke) everything else was very low carb, couple with that fresh grilled fish and meat with salad everyday you can really eat very healthily without compromising on quality or cost - it seems even a "broken" country like Portugal appreciates that veg and fresh fish should cost less!

(this by the way shows the power of twitter, I started following Luis about 3 months ago, it was a mutual follow ie he and I were following the same person. Then, only a few weeks ago we were tweeting and I mentioned that I was going to be in Lisbon and that we should meet for a drink. I did have a back up plan incase he was an axe murderer or smething. Luis was a legend, we ate at pasteis de belem, had a drink in Belem on the river sea front, saw parts of Lisbon most tourists wouldn't see and we even ran into a famous Portuguese actor. Thanks Luis, you helped make this a quality weekend)

On a further side note, Lisbon is a surprising city. I always had a feeling that it was going to be pretty but I never realised how much it is on a par with some of my favourite hot spots - a definite if you have never been. And all I can say about Cascais is...beautiful. There remains a sense of the old and traditional in a town which embraces it's tourist influx, a refreshing change to somewhere like carvoiero which has become a running joke for travel writers across central Europe.

Alcohol is however poison.

I will refuse to talk about last night, not because anything bad happened, just because I can't remember much after my third drink. Yes it took me all of three drinks, two beers and a Capirinha to do the damage. Whatever I had after seems a moot point as I just don't remember! Even the thought of drinking again makes me gag worse than a new employee at the sewage plant! Anyway, it makes you think one heavy night, followed by a pretty sour day after, what goes on through your body and its functions to recover and get you going again is amazing, but the damage will be plenty - trust me, I think science will find some way to spoil you having one glass of alcohol.

I took resistance bands with me this weekend, no this is not for "functional" training, I have a trapped nerve and I have found that light stretching in the arm helps release it somewhat. I have yet to see any valid scientific proof that resistance bands help aide muscular growth, or to any effect "maintain" what you already have, as ever if someone does have any interesting scientific articles that promote the use of these in strength training and muscular development, please email me.

Anyway 10 days until I'm in Rome, the first of three back to back weddings in July. I hear my cousin isn't shitting himself which is rather disappointing but refreshing. I look forward to the weekend, even if I feel that my stomach will bloat from the pizza and pasta - well, when in Rome.

Barbeque pizza please

I wrote this piece a week ago - sorry for the delay. Updated bits in italic. 

As I write this post the weather outside is teetering on something resembling a summer, if in temperature alone - god knows where the sun has gone and it isn't anywhere near my vicinity. So, it's strange that the title should be involving a relative cooking pursuit which in other ways would require for their to be good weather. Amazingly the weather perked up and we had some good sunshine for a few days. 

I have purchased a baking stone and and a pallet for turning the pizza. Both can be used within an oven or an outside barbecue setting - I can only hope that one day someone will buy me an official pizza oven...(hint hint, nudge, nudge) Whilst I am on a reduced carb diet and trying to follow a lot of the basic principles of Paleo dieting, I don't believe having a pizza or a plate of pasta every 10-15 days is going to do any harm. So I look forward to my pizza this evening.
The pizza shovel here was put to good use. As you can see I need to work on the shape and the cooking time a little more, but it's fantastically mega! Picture below!



Training 
My training hasn't been going so bad since coming back from injury. (I was carrying a slight back tweak 3 weeks ago) My strength hasn't decreased which in fairness I knew wouldn't happen, and it's very unlikely I would have suffered any strength decreases if I took off 20 days instead of the 10 that I did.

I am not sure what actual time does elapse before you start to lose significant strength but I would venture a guess at not 10 days. (If anyone has any knowledge of this I would appreciate it).

One thing I have placed a little more focus on is my arms, encorporating 2 exercises for Bi's and Tri's to my routines. So in the space of one week, two total body sessions which include these muscle groups. What I cannot work on to failure still is my back, shoulders and legs due to therapy & injuries.

Diet 
In the last 10-12 days it hasn't been at its greatest but it is getting back to good standards. Certainly I notice the snacking takes a hit and cost wise - it's bloody expensive to eat in a reduced carb state. Let me put this to you. For breakfast you may have cereal. Well the average cereal box is £1.45, and it will last me 4 - 5 days. Now as I no longer eat cereal and eggs instead, sometimes turkey bacon and definitely fruit (yes I know they are carbs - not complex though) on average it costs £7.32 and last me the same amount of time. So overall my food shop has exponentially increased nearly 6x what it originally was - so any tips on keeping this low cost would also be appreciated.

I am nearing the trip to Portugal and have been working hard on not snacking on shite. Yes that's right, shite. I am eating as lean as I possibly can and keep everything plain to an extent. I am noticing a difference for it though, which is positive! 


Anyway, back to the grindstone people. Hope you are all well,

Peace
G

Week 11...

I resisted blogging last week as I had sustained a football (soccer) related injury. In my behest to get it fixed I had nearly done equally as much damage just shifting things around my house to make me feel more comfortable.

Fabio pointing out why I am stupid

What had happened remains a slight mystery. I remember stretching for the ball and then next thing, feeling my back tweak...I struggled to walk home.

So it was back to limited movement and pain killers, all of which took the edge of slightly but the pain in total was a little too much to go exercise on - so last week could be considered somewhat of a rest week. This week perhaps more of the same.

Johnny (yes my personal torturer) and Fabio (my Milanese friend, confidante and overall p1ss taker) set about putting me right - It has nearly worked. I am recovering and perhaps may make a speedy return to the weight racks and see people train horribly in the mean time.

(Actually Fabio and Johnny have more in common than I thought, they both like to take the p1ss out of me - especially when treating!)

I'll give you another update when I am back in full action.

Peace
G 

A good article on "functional training"

So as you could see the other day I engaged in a conversation with Mr Murphy (murphy_fitness) about functional training.

It's quite obvious where I stand on this. I don't prescribe to the "functional" phenomenon. And I'll explain. In my limited knowledge of training and sports exercise I have spent a lot of time at looking at my own personal goals and so in some ways have become "blinkered" in different training approaches - ultimately I will do what works for me and avoid exercises which don't. Fair point. But what I have always done is try to assert basic common sense and the most scientific sense based on pier reviewed articles/journals.

So here is where I stand on the subject of functional training.

Functional training experts will advise you to use everything but a machine in your weight training routine. So the use of training bands, balls, human bodyweight, resistance and plyometrics thus creating an unstable environment for your body to then exercise in.

The principal of functional training is to "mimic the function of the human body be it in life or a sporting context". (This is the most commonly defined term used among professionals for the term "functional").

However as the article which I will link to will show there is a better definition.

Functional - Func.tion.al
1. capable of operating or functioning
2. capable of serving the purpose for which it was intended
(Webster's Encyclopedia 2nd Edition, 1996)

So to not let me ruin the rest of the article which you can read at your hearts content, I just want to ask this question. 

At what point does doing a push up on a bosu ball with weighted arm bands actually replicate anything you would have done in your life to reading this article?