Workout Essentials

Off late, I have been bombarded with emails and questions about work out programs and what works best etc. Although most of the emails and questions are quite unique in nature, I did notice one similar trend in almost all the questions. Almost everyone asked me why is it that we stop seeing positive results after a while. So for this week’s post, I thought I would tackle this issue by providing all of you with information on what is essential for a workout routine. Hopefully this will serve as a guide and will help you to correct your current routine and start seeing amazing results. So here are some tips on what your workout should have for it to be an effective one

Keep your workout to an hour

Sometimes in life, we feel that more is better. For example, having more money is of course better than having less money. Though generally that is true, but that is not the case when it comes to working out. Yes, more is better, but only up to a point. After that, your body’s ability to respond to the given exercise reduces dramatically. On top of that, doing too much can be counterproductive as your body starts becoming more catabolic. For me, I like to keep my workouts short but intense. Just because it’s a 1 hour workout, doesn’t mean it can’t be effective. Keep your workouts to about an hour or less if possible, but make it count

Progressive Improvement

When you first start working out, you would probably start at a pace which you are comfortable with. Now it’s OK to start slow, but it’s important to progress as you go along. If you started with bench pressing 30 pounds for 10 reps and 6 months later you are still doing the same thing, then that’s not going to work. When it comes to seeing continued improvement, you need to keep getting yourself out of your comfort zone. If you can run 20 minutes without breaking a sweat, then you need to up it till it becomes challenging again. Your body is constantly trying to adapt itself to whatever stress you throw at it. The problem is, once it adapts to the stress, you are going to stop seeing results. So push yourself when you are in the gym or when you workout. Stop doing light bicep curls and before you even feel anything you put down the weights and call it a set. That’s not going to work. Continuously challenge yourself and aim to reach higher levels.

Mixing it up

Now besides making it more difficult as your move along, it’s also important to mix up your routine from time to time. If you usually ride the exercise bike for 20 minutes, try switching it to running on the treadmill for 20 minutes or using the elliptical. If you always do bench press, try switching it dumbbell flies for a change. The point is, by changing the exercise, we are essentially using our muscles differently and that again helps to prevent our body from adapting and thus allowing us to continuously see results. Whether you are training to gain muscle mass or lose weight, mixing it up really works wonders. How often should you change it up? Ideally you should change it around every 3 or 4 months. Or you can change it whenever you hit a plateau in your workout. But don’t change it up for every workout as this will be counterproductive. So be creative and keep mixing it up from time to time.

Nutrition

No workout routine is complete without the proper nutrition added to it. If you are trying to gain muscle mass and don’t eat enough protein, you can lift as much as you want, but you will never see results. It’s just plain science. If you are trying to lose weight and you keep eating more and more, you are not going to see results. So tailor your nutrition plan based on your goals. AND YES, nutrition is very very important to the whole equation. Your results are only as effective as how good you feed yourself. So remember that. Working out is only one part of the equation, the bigger and more important portion is what you do after your workout when you walk out of the gym.

So there you have it, some simple tips that need to be considered whenever you plan your workout. If you want the results, you need to ensure that you follow the tips above. If you want to continue seeing results till you reach your goals, you must follow the 4 tips above. So go through your current workout routine and make the changes you need to ensure that it meets all the requirements above. If it does, then I guarantee you will see amazing results all the time. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments

The Gym With The Most Beautiful View

2 weeks ago, i took a trip to redang island and by far, redang has to be one of the best beaches i have ever visited. White powdery sand, and crisp clear water that looks like a swimming pool, it was really gorgeous. in fact this is the first beach hotel i have seen where everyone is in the sea and the swimming pool is empty. Why go to a man made pool when you have natural pool which is just as clear.

Me and wifey went there with Berjaya Air, so we flew from Subang and it was a direct flight to redang island itself. I liked this because it cut our traveling time to just an 1 hour and 15 minutes. As we arrived we were taken by a bus to Berjaya Resort (which has now changed name and changed management). After checking in, we were taken to our hillside rooms. I was a bit skeptical about the room because we got it on promotion but was i shocked when i walked in. It was a newly refurbished room and it was beautiful. Check out some of the pics below.



This hotel was undergoing a transformation at that time, so we were basically enjoying 5 star service at 4 star prices. The hotel management is being changed and the plan is to upgrade it to a 5 star world class resort. So it was nice to be pampered for the 4 days that we were there. We went for some deep water snorkeling but it wasn't as impressive as Tioman. Tioman had far better and more colourful corals to checkout. But beach wise, i would give Redang a thumbs up over Tioman anytime.

Activities - there are load of activities to do from snorkeling, to diving to island hoping. Best thing i liked, just outside the hotel is a small gerai makanan, so if you don't fancy spending RM 50 per person for a meal at the hotel restaurant, you have an option of eating at an affordable price outside. There are also kedai runcits just outside this hotel so you can easily stock up on your supplies if you need to. But bear in mind, it does cost a bit more than KL but that's because there is the logisitic factor of bringing these things into the island. I even found out that 1 year ago, you couldn't even find ice cream on the island. You can find ice cream now, but be warned, its more than twice the price in KL.

And yes, the gym. I noticed the gym while i was swimming in the sea. It was up on the hill and i was curious to what it was. Then i saw people moving in there and upon a closer inspection, i found out that they were exercising. Imagine running on the treadmill and having the view below?
I mean watching TV while running on a treadmill is ok... but this view? I went and personally checked it out and besides having gorgeous view, the gym was also very well equipped. For a resort gym and for the space available, i was impressed with the choice of equipments they made. Was hoping to talk to the Manager of the gym, but i never saw him. I saw him occasionally while i was swimming, but never got a chance to speak to him. But for me, this is definitely one of the gyms with best views i have ever seen. Kudos to who ever designed it.

All in all, thumbs up to Redang and i highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in an awesome beach holiday. Best i have been to thus far. Another beach destination to add to my belt of awesome beaches. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Omit the Cheese

Hi guys, sorry for not putting up any posts last week. Was busy with my corporate training as well as made a trip down to Redang Island. It was really awesome. Will share more about that holiday in my next post. Will also share with all of you some of the gorgeous pictures i took of Redang Island. Definitely worth another visit.

Anyway, this week i wanted to cover a simple topic called Omit the Cheese. Reason being lots of people keep asking me how to make an unhealthy meal healthy, and one of my best received tips was, omit the cheese. Let me explain further.

In almost all restaurants, how can you instantly make any dish more delicious? You got it... just add cheese. Think about the many different kinds of food we have which we have added cheese to.
Cheese fries - melting cheese over already unhealthy fries
Cheese Naan - Adding cheese to naan
Cheese in your sandwiches - How do you make a boring sandwich taste better? Just add cheese
Pizza with Cheese crusts - Just in case pizza doesn't have enough cheese already, lets just add more cheese into the crust
Adding Cheese to your burgers - It always seems to taste better doesn't it.
Cheesy garlic toast - Add some cheese to garlic toast
Nachos El Grande - How do we make it better? Just add cheese
Healthy Salad - Lets make it better by grating some cheese in
Pasta - Mmmmm.... some grated cheese will go well with it.

The list goes on and on. The point is, many restaurants out there seem to add cheese just to make dishes more delicious. Don't get me wrong. Not saying there is anything wrong in eating cheese. But if you are on a weight loss program, you should understand that cheese adds in a lot of additional calories which you can do without.

The big question i have is, does adding cheese really add that much more flavour to the dish? Or are you just ingesting additional calories but you can't tell the difference? In some cases, yes, the cheese is an integral part to the dish. Without it... the dish will taste very.... plain. Eg. Pizza. If you are going to eat pizza, then yes, the cheese does make a huge difference in taste. But in almost all other dishes, i found that it really doesn't make much of a difference.

Have you ever tried eating a Subway sandwich without the cheese? I have... and honestly, i can't tell the difference at all. Have you tried eating a chicken fajita without the cheese? again, i really can't tell the difference because there are so many other flavours in there, that the cheese just gets blanked out. Cheese naan... i have tried some where you can taste it... and some, which honestly you can't taste at all.

If you can't taste it, can you easily omit it from the dish? Absolutely. Here are some dishes which i have found makes absolutely no difference whether you have cheese in it or not

Sandwiches - almost 99% of the sandwiches i have tasted out there tastes just the same without the cheese. If you can't tell the difference, why add it?
Burgers - If you eat burgers in places like Hard Rock Cafe, TGIF etc, i have noticed that the cheese has a very small part in the overall taste.
Tortilla Wraps - If you like to eat mexican, i have noticed that most mexican dishes taste the same with or without the cheese. This includes your fajitas, tortilla wraps, tacos etc. Of course some dishes like enchilladas, where the cheese is melted on top... then yes, you can taste the absence of cheese. But besides that, most of the time, you can't tell the difference
Salads - almost all salads i have eaten taste just the same with or without your cheese shavings.
Pasta - Ever tried adding some parmesan cheese sprinkles? By the time you mix it up, you can't really tell the difference. Of course if you empty the whole container, then you would, but most of us sprinkle very sparingly.... and honestly, that small amount makes almost no difference to the taste.
The point is, if you can't tell the difference in taste, then why add it to your dish? Yes most of the times the amount of cheese added to any dish is small, but hey, when you are watching your calories, any amount you can save helps right? What more when you can't tell the difference.

Now it is also important to note the kind of cheese you use makes a huge difference. Some cheeses have a strong tangy taste... so you are more likely to taste it. But most of the time, you will get either cheddar slices, swiss cheese, mozerella cheese or parmesan cheese. All these cheeses don't really add much taste at all to you dish. So you can easily leave it out and the dish will taste just as great.

Again, if you are going to eat pizza or something, then by all means enjoy it. Please don't ask them to omit the cheese from your pizza. But for all other situations, just give it a try and see. If you can't tell the difference in taste, why not leave it out. And guess what, you just made that dish of yours a whole lot healthier.

So what are the other dishes t you can easily omit cheese from? Are you one of those who must have extra cheese on the dish? As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

How do you get those veins in yours arms to pop?

Many people who i know always ask me how i got those veins in my arm to stand out. I never really knew what to say at first and so i couldn't really recommend any particular exercise for it. My usual advice was advising them to reduce their body fat %. As far as i know, if you can successfully reduce your body fat%, then you will almost immediately see your veins popping out. I didn't know that it was a particular workout routine that i had that was giving me the results i wanted. But recently, due to some mishaps, i discovered what it was which made the difference. And now, you will be able to do the same and enjoy the same results.

Some months ago, i injured my left arm (actually it was more like a year ago). Anyway to cut the long story short, i had this aching pain in my elbow when i did certain exercises... especially my favourite "modified one arm preacher curl". So i swapped it with concentration curls, and surprise surprise it didn't hurt. So yes, i could continue to work out. Why do i call it modified one arm preacher curl? Well i do it a bit differently than you would imagine. I extend my arm all the way down, then pull the dumbbell up about 1/4 of the way. Then I lower it down all the again and after that pull it up all the way. This counts as one rep. I usually aim to get about 7 to 8 reps this way. It usually burns like hell as i do it. how did i find out about this? Funnily enough, i was reading Men's Health in the US many many years ago (circa 2000)... and the author recommended doing this to help you break your plateau in preacher curls. Well i didn't really have a plateau or any kind, but it sounded interesting so i tried it. And i liked the way it felt, so i stuck with it.

Anyway i continued doing concentration curls for a good 6 months until i was 100% sure that whatever i had in my elbow was gone. It finally was gone. So i slowly reverted back to my modified one arm preacher curl. i just started it about 2 months back. Now before you start wondering where i am going with this useless banter... let me explain. During the 6 months when i was doing concentration curls, i noticed that my arms lost quite a bit in size as well as form. No matter how much i tried to lift, i just couldn't get it to grow or look pumped. Also, i noticed that the veins that were usually very prominent in my arms were now almost all gone. In fact, my arms started looking like i wasn't lifting. Most of my friends who saw me kept asking me what happen? Are you losing weight? your arms don't look so pumped anymore. Have you stopped going to the gym. It was frustrating to hear this when i WAS going to the gym 5 times a week as usual. The plain fact is, i was doing everything the same. The only thing i did was swap my one arm bicep curls with concentration curls. All else remained the same. Including the weights i was using.

But now that i am back to my modified one arm preacher curls again, voila... i am back in business. Arms look more pumped, and the veins... yup... they are popping out again as usual. I get strangers asking me for fitness advice again (yes, this all stopped for about 6 months when i was going through "hell")... and i get the usual "do you work out?" from strangers. My arms are bigger (a whole 1 inch more, i measured and saw) and my veins... well lets just say it pops out from the sleeves of my t-shirt again... i sure missed them.

Now i know all you fitness scientists out there are saying "This does not make scientific sense". And i agree. It doesn't. I can't seem to find a logical explanation. But you can't deny the results. As ridiculous as the modified one arm preacher curl sounds, it does work. Can anyone explain this? I really want to know. Unfortunately i don't have any before pics to share.

But back to our question on the post... how do you make the veins in your arms pop out. Well here are some tips that will help you.
1) Try reducing your body fat%. If you can get your body fat% to below 20% and you lift a lot, your veins will naturally start popping out
2) Do the modified preacher curls i mentioned in the post. It really works. Also, i feel it really helps to boost your arms from skinny twigs to mighty tree trunks.
3) I also find that training your biceps twice a week helps tremendously. I usually train once heavy, and then another maintenance work out (usually very light and i aim for more reps till it burns) about 3 days later. So one heavy and one light workout per week.

Those are just some of the tips that will help to make those veins in your arms pop out. You don't need to pump steroids to see those kind of results.

So what do you guys think? Anyone have an explanation for the query above? Also i do hope you try out the modified one arm preacher curl i mentioned above. Its one of my favourite exercises because it really delivers results. If you have been training your arms for awhile and now want to take it to the next level, try it and see. You will absolutely love it. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Cut down on Garbage Foods

I was talking to a friend the other day who is currently trying to gain muscle mass. He is a bit of a hard gainer (meaning not so easy to put on weight) so he has read everywhere that staying anabolic is essential for muscle growth. How do you stay anabolic? Ensure you have enough calories coming in and better still if you can surpass it slightly. This tip has worked tremendously for him, but he told me that he is starting to feel flabby. Yes, he has gained some good weight, but he has also gained some bad weight as well...around the mid section.

He has been doing zig zagging for awhile now, meaning he would stay anabolic on muscle gain days (meaning eat past your calories requirements for the day) and weight loss days (where he would eat slightly below is caloric requirement for the day). So it worked great in the beginning, but he is starting to see the unsightly bulges appear slowly. So what can he do to maintain the healthy mass he has built (or better still actually build up some more) while trying to reduce his body fat %. I explained to him to its going to be hard to do both on the same day. So we took a closer look at his food intake during muscle gain days and found the problem.

Though it is OK for you to consume some unhealthy stuff which is high in calories during muscle gain days, you also have to keep in mind that you need protein to help you gain muscle mass, not just empty calories. Some carbohydrates are great in helping you achieve the high calorie requirement, but not so good at providing you with the protein you need. Hence we both cam up with the term "garbage food".

What exactly is garbage food? Garbage food is kinda like junk food, but the scientific definition we came up with was Food that is high in fat content or high calorie, but zero or no other nutrition, especially protein. In other words, there are many foods out there which are just plain high in calories and fat content, but provide you with almost zero nutrition. Let me give you some examples:

Cha Koi - Oh boy... Malaysians sure do love these oily deep fried flour sticks. Cha Koi is basically dough that is deep fried and it expands tremendously in the ho
t oil. Yes, i too succumb to this guilty temptation from time to time, but its extremely oily and almost zero nutritional value.

Junk Food - Most junk foods in packets are like the name suggests. Just plain junk. Again, a medium sized bag of junk food could give you a whopping 500 calories, but again, with no other nutritional value

Roti Canai - Yes, Malaysia's most popular dish that since transformed into various other forms such as roti tissue, roti bom, roti pisang, roti susu.... the list just goes on and on. Again, roti canai is high in fat and calories and not much other nutrition can be found in there. Not saying that roti canai has 0g of protein, but if i had to choose between 2 boiled eggs and a roti canai for my protein source, you know which one i will go for

Mee goreng, maggi goreng etc - Most people i know go to their favourite mamak shop for lunch. Though there is nothing wrong with the mamak shop, many people end up ordering fried delicacies such as maggi goreng and mee goreng. Yes, there is an egg thrown in there, but the rest of the other ingredients are almost all garbage foods themselves. From the oily yellow noodles they use, to the "flour and onion fritters", its nothing but a good mix of different garbage foods.
These are just some of the most common garbage foods out there which most people eat on a regular basis. YES, you can eat it from time to time, but the problem i have noticed is, that most people eat these foods most of the time. If you are trying to gain muscle mass, yes you want to stay anabolic by getting enough calories in, but there are loads of other healthier options to stay anabolic besides chowing down garbage food.

Instead of choosing garbage foods like the ones mentioned above, make it a point to choose foods that may be high in calorie, but high in protein content as well. Also, where possible, you want to choose foods that have lower fat content. The worst choice you can make is one that is high in calorie, high in fat and extremely low in protein and other nutrients. If you find foods like that, its garbage food, and there is only one place it belongs... in the garbage bin.

So what are of the other garbage foods out there that you can think of? Which ones do you consume regularly? As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Should you do Cardio before or after your weight training session?

I seem to be asked this question quite often. Should i do cardio before or after my weight training? There seems to be a lot of debate on the internet as well as to which order is better. So let me present some facts and also my own personal preference. This question may seem simple enough, but actually it can get pretty complicated.

Whenever i get asked this question, my answer is always, well it depends on:-

1. what your fitness goals are. Your training and exercise program should be shaped around your desired fitness goal. Meaning you need to first decide what you want to achieve before planning your workout routine. Not the other way around. Its like asking "Are bicep curls good exercise?" Not if you don't want your biceps to grow.
   
2. How intense your cardio session is going to be. Is it just going to be a 5 minute jog or a 45 minute jog. You need to take this into consideration as well when making your decision.
   

Once your know the answers to the above 2, the choice is quite simple.

So when would you do Cardio BEFORE weights?

• If you are a marathon runner and your goal is to increase your endurance, then YES, give your cardio session the attention it needs. If your goal is endurance, there is a high chance that you are just doing weights to shape up and firm up your muscles. So in this case, you would want to do your cardio first.
• I know of some people who like to warm up by jogging on the treadmill for about 5 minutes, before hitting the weights. This is fine, though it would not be my preferred method of warming up. But to each his own. But please don't jog for 30 minutes and say it is a warm up.

Unless your fitness goals is one of the above, it will be better to do your cardio AFTER your weight training. Here's why

• Lifting weights requires you to maintain proper form through out the ROM. If you have already taxed your body physically with a 45 minute run, it becomes that much more difficult to maintain proper form, since your body is already exhausted. This also means higher risk of injury. Imagine trying to squat 100kgs after a 40 minute run.
  
• If you are lifting weights, i am assuming you are lifting heavy. To lift heavy, you are going to need all the energy you have. Especially for pushing out those last 2 or 3 reps when you feel like you just can't do anymore. After a 45 minute run, you will not be able to lift as heavy or push yourself as much as you would. In other words, your lift becomes a secondary workout, because your main focus was cardio
• Personally, i find it easier to do weights and then run compared to the other way around. Whether its a psychological preference or an actual physical conditioning, i am not sure. But i just find it easier to do it this way

But what if i want to just lose weight and firm up my muscles here and there, then what? If this is your goal, i would still recommend doing weights first and then doing your cardio. Many people don't see it and still disagree, but doing weight training is CARDIO. A good weight lifting session will cause you to burn lots of calories. Many people out there still believe that the only way to burn calories is to do cardio like running, cycling etc. Weight training is an EXCELLENT method to burn calories as well, so yes, it does work.

Unless your weight training routine consists of you swinging some light dumbbells around like a magic wand, for all other purposes, it is still recommended that you do your weight training FIRST and then followed by your cardio. For me personally, i don't like doing too many things at one go. I like to keep my workouts to an hour or just slightly less. Hence this is why i have muscle gain days and weight loss days. On muscle gain days, i focus on just building muscle and on my weight loss days... well i focus on burning fat. Meaning i don't mix cardio and weight training on the same day, let alone one after the other. However, there are some times, when i do go for a jog on my muscle gain days, but it is done much much later in the evening. Spreading out your workout like this would be the best technique, rather than one followed by the other. But if you lack time and want to spend 30 minutes on weights and 30 minutes on the treadmill, go with the weights first.

What is your take on this big question? Or which one do you prefer? As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Poll Results - Weight Loss Options

It's time for the much awaited discussion on our recent poll. Let me apologize for not updating anything in over 2 weeks, been busy traveling and just never got a chance to sit down and type this out. I know its a Friday... and i could wait till Monday to post, but i decided, lets not wait that long. So here you have it.... a post on a Friday. so do enjoy.

Anyway, lets get down to business. There was a total of 68 votes this time around for the question "If you had to spend RM 2,000, to lose 10kg, which weight loss program would you choose?" The options were

• Taking a miracle pill for 30 days
• Exercise with a qualified PT for 30 days
• Meal Replacement
• Slimming center solution

The answer, much to my surprise was Exercising with a qualified PT. Well i definitely voted on this, but i am surprised that over 64% of the votes were for this option. Why am i surprised, because almost everyone i meet is always asking me for some shortcut to lose weight. So i personally felt that this option would be the least popular one, but turns out i was wrong. Oh well. This is why we run polls to test our guesses. So i was proven wrong again. But then again, the answer could be skewed because most readers of this blog are already actively working out, so for them, hands down, this is the most sensible solution. I am just guessing. anyone care to share your thoughts?

2nd place goes to meal replacement. Though far away from exercising with a PT, meal replacements received a total of 13 votes. Guess more and more people are opening up to the idea of meal replacements. Again, i am in support of using meal replacements, but i disagree if you replace all your meals with meal replacements and don't exercise at all. Exercise provides you with a whole host of other benefits besides just burning calories.

Slimming center received a total of 7 votes. Honestly i thought this would win hands down. Looking at the number of slimming centers sprouting out everywhere, they are like mushrooms after a rain storm. If you go to Damansara Uptown, you can easily spot about 5 or 6 different slimming centers in that area. But only 7 out of 64 felt that this would be their choice. Again, i am guessing this could be due to the fact the readers of this blog are fitness-a-holics.

Lastly, the ever popular (or not so popular) miracle pill only received 4 votes. My guess, most people are just not comfortable with this because of the constant horror stories we hear about slimming pills causing drastic side effects. Honestly, if i had to rate which one is my least likely option, it would be this compared to the rest. YES, i would choose a slimming center over a miracle pill... but ONLY if i absolutely had to.

So there you have it folks. The votes are in and the people have spoken. What was your vote and what was your reasoning behind that. Do share your thoughts wit us. As usual, look forward to hearing from you.

Thor's workout

I originally planned on doing a review of the poll results for this weeks post, but then i changed my mind. I just watched Thor last night and the movie was absolutely brilliant. I had my doubts about Chris Hemsworth playing the mighty God of Thunder, but i must say, he did a good job and pulled of the role really well. If i had to initially choose who should have played Thor, i would have said WWE superstar HHH... since he is already really BIG and has the long blonde hair for the role. But nonetheless, i felt Chris Hemsworth did an awesome job and they did manage to bulk him up for the role. I mean really bulk him up.

So now the BIG question on everyone's mind is, how did manage to bulk up so much. The secret:-
1) Intense weight Training
2) Lots of high protein meals and shakes
3) Enough Sleep

Lets go through each one to give you a better idea of what he did.

1) Intense weight training
Chris Hemsworth is an active guy already, but he never did much weight training prior to preparing for his role for Thor. So weight training was relatively new to him. Most of his activity was surfing, so he had the typical lean surfer's body rather than the big built body you saw on screen. To prepare for the role, his trainer Michael Knight (no relation to Knight Rider) had to train him hard and helped him gain 20 pounds of muscle mass in just 3 months. That's really astonishing. The secret to gaining so much muscle so fast - Chris's workout was mainly made up of compound exercises. Compound exercises are exercises that utilize more than one muscle group to complete the full movement. Exercises such as squats, deadlifts, bench press etc are great compound exercises that hit a few muscle groups at once. So the first phase of his workout was to bulk him up. In fact his trainer did such a good job at bulking him up that 3 weeks before shooting began, the directors said that he was too big they had to make him cut down as he was too big and could not fit into his costume anymore. To lean him out, his trainer used a technique called the shrink wrap effect, which basically tightens the skin around your muscles to give you that ripped look which looks awesome on camera.For a full picture of his workout, you can check out the link below:-

http://chrishemsworthworkout.com/

2) Lots of high protein meals and shakes
As we all know, exercise is just one part of the equation and the other BIG part of it is nutrition. To bulk him up, Chris was put on a super high protein diet and he had to consume a lot more food than he is used to. His diet was about 40% protein, 40% complex / good carbohydrates and 20% fat. Chris admits that he is not used to eating such huge amounts of food everyday.

"The eating was the biggest thing; since stopping shooting I probably work out the same but don't eat as much, and I've probably lost 15 pounds or something. Chicken breasts and protein shakes, boiled chicken . . . clean meats, the right carbs. Sickly stuff." - Chris Hemsworth

Chris also made it a point to eat 6 meals a day or every 2 to 3 hours that he was awake. An example of what Chris's meal would look like is as per below:-

* Breakfast: 2 eggs a slice of avocado, small steak, and 1 cup of oatmeal
* Snacks: a protein Bar
* Lunch: tuna wrap or chicken salad
* Snacks: a whey protein shake, protein bar and an apple
* Dinner: broiled fish or chicken, brown rice and vegetables
* Snacks: protein shake

3) Enough Sleep
The third piece of the puzzle which most of us urbanites ignore or take lightly is sleep. I'm guilty of this too. Chris Hemsworth says that he ensured he got plenty of rest and sleep to allow his muscles to rest and grow. As we know, your muscles don't grow in the gym, but actually grows once you are done. It gets broken down during your work out session and grows while you are resting.
"It was purely eating, eating, eating, working out and working out, trying to sleep as much as you can — that's the other third of the equation." - Chris Hemsworth

Why is sleeping so important to this equation? Proper sleeps helps your body prepare for its future workout sessions. Also during sleep, our hormones (namely growth hormone or GH) are at its peak production and GH is extremely vital for stimulating muscle growth and maintaining the muscles mass we have already put on. So if you are always feeling tired and feel like you are not getting enough sleep, here is another reason why you SHOULD give sleep a priority, just like you do with exercise and diet. Most of us just focus on exercise and diet and give sleep the least of our priorities.

So there you have it. How Chris Hemsworth built his body for the role of Thor. Looking back at this as i write, i am also re-evaluating my workout routine, nutrition and sleep habits. Off late, i have been losing weight regardless of how hard i train in the gym. I am guessing that i may need to get some extra hours of zzzzz to let my body grow again. Oh well.... will try to fit into my schedule. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Carb Cycling

Carb cycling seems to be the buzz word in weight loss and lots of people have been asking me about what i think and should they consider doing it. So after dozens of people asking me this question, i thought it would be best to share carb cycling with all of you here. it is pretty similar to zig zagging of you ask me, but many may disagree. people have also asked me to design a weight loss program using carb cycling, but honestly, its real easy to design your own program, once you understand the principles behind carb cycling.

What is carb cycling?
Carb cycling is a method of cycling / changing the amount of carbs you take, to ensure that you don't always consume to same amount of carbs all the time. Most of us have a certain routine when it comes to eating and carb cycling helps to break up this routine. so instead of eating a steady amount of carbohydrates every day, the idea is to vary it and confuse your body.

What are the benefits of carb cycling?
oh boy... i could go on and on about why this is beneficial, but below are just some of the main benefits of carb cycling

Its not boring - most people quit their diets because they just get bored with the limited food they are allowed to eat. With carb cycling, it allows you to lose weight while indulging in carbs every once in a while. So you don't feel deprived and you are able to continue your diet program for a longer period of time
It prevents muscle loss - too many diets out there focus on just reducing your caloric intake drastically to see weight loss results. The problem is, if you cut down your calories too much and maintain that for a pro longed period, you end up losing healthy muscle mass. Every weight loss program should be focused on losing fat... and nothing else.
Your metabolism won't go down - With most diets, it works well for a while, but eventually your body will get used to it and your metabolic rate will drop as it adjusts itself to the amount of food that is coming in. Ideally, you should try to keep your metabolic rate up, so you burn fat even when you are resting.

OK, those are just some of the many benefits of carb cycling so you can see, it is a really good weight loss plan. But how exactly does it work? Well there is no hard and fast rule about how exactly you should do carb cycling, but in general, you are going to divide your days in Low carb days and high carb days. During low carb days, you are going to drop your carb intake to about 150 to 200 grams of carbs per day and on high carb days, you will be allowed to consume between 300 to 400 grams of carbohydrates a day. Of course this is just a recommendation and will vary from person to to person based on age, gender, physical activity etc. Some carb cycling diets even include a zero carb day... which means you only consume 25g of carbs or less on that day. So this again really depends on how serious you are with it. It is extremely important to note that regardless of whether its a high carb or low carb day, you must ensure you get enough protein at all times. How much?

For the average joe who doesn't do any exercise, the minimum protein you will need is 0.37g of protein per pound of body weight. so if you weigh 150 pounds, then you are looking at about
0.37 x 150 = 55g of protein. this is the minimum recommendation.

For more serious workout-holics and fitness junkies, it is usually recommended that you take about 0.5 to 0.8g of protein per pound of body weight. if you are lifting heavy and want to gain muscle mass, lean toward 0.8 grams of protein per pound of body weight. So if you are 200 pound heavy lifting superman, you are looking at about 160g of protein a day.

The most basic plan of carb cycling i can think of is doing low carb days for 3 or 4 days and then switching to a high carb day for 1 or 2 days and then just repeating after that. So lets just say Monday - Thursday is your low carb day... then friday and saturday will be your high carb day. Through out this period, you are going to maintain the amount of protein you take... regardless of what day it is. The only thing that changes is the amount of carbs you take.

Ideally, you want to keep your high carb days on days that you do workout. The reason is, you are going to use up that energy, so its best to have high carb days on workout days and low carb days on non workout days. So now that you understand the basic concept of carb cycling, you can play around with it and find something that works for you.

Some plans do zero carb for 2 days, low carb for 2 days and 2 days of high carb days and then repeat. Some do 5 days of low carb and 2 days of high carbs. So you really can mix this around anyway you want. ideally if your aim is weight loss, you want to ensure that you have more low carb days per week compared to high carb days. This is just a general rule of thumb.

So should you try carb cycling? Why not. It may be tiring at first to figure out how many grams of carbs you are allowed in the beginning, but once you get the hang of it, its pretty easy. I honestly think its an excellent weight loss technique and its easy enough for anyone to do. You can adjust the difficulty based on your own preferences and seriousness so it really is flexible. Best part is, its not a starvation diet that denies you from any guilty pleasures for long periods of times. So that is a definite thumbs up for me. Try carb cycling and see. Mix it around, start slow and see what kind of results you get. As you get used to it, increase your number of low carb days and cut down the amount of carbs you take on both high carb and low carb days. You will be amazed with the results. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Sometime Food & Everyday Food

I went to a buffet for lunch yesterday and as usual, i got the same comments from the group i was with "Apa ni, fitness instructor eating ice cream and other unhealthy food?" I know they meant it jokingly and didn't mean it in any hostile manner. But it got me thinking that lots of people out there think that fitness instructors are like monks who refrain from the pleasures of life. So i thought i would like to set the record straight.

Yes, i am into fitness and YES i do like to take care of my body, but that does not mean that i go overboard with it. Yes i drink alcohol from time to time, eat roti canai every once in a while and even the all sinful KFC ever so occasionally. My point is, what i advocate to people is doing things in moderation and not going to either extremes. To be honest, it irks me when i read articles written by so called fitness gurus who advocate no salt, no sugar, no this and that 24/7. I can't live like that, and neither do i expect anyone else to do that as well. If you can and you like that sort of thing, then go ahead. But for me, i advocate a path of moderation that is easier to follow and stick with. anyone want to follow me on this? you are more than welcome to join the fun side of fitness.

Hence there is the concept of sometime food and everyday food which i absolutely love and would like to share it with you guys. In short, its important to identify what is it that we eat most of the time, and what is it that we eat some of the times.

Sometime food - These are the foods that you eat occasionally to celebrate or just to indulge. Think of an expensive bottle of wine or champagne. You save it for that special occasion and it should not be taken with your dinner every night. For that, you would use dinner /table wines which are more affordable. So the concept here is similar.

Everyday food - Now this the food you are going to be eating most of the time. How often? At least more than 70% of the time. This is just everyday foods like bread, rice etc.

Now in order for this concept to work for you, you need to be clear on what foods you put in your sometime food category and what foods you put in your everyday food category. its simple, your everyday food, should be all that healthy stuff - Fruits, raw vegetables, lean meat, brown rice, chappati, thosai. You get the picture. Sometime food, is the food that you go out an indulge, not all the time, but some of the time. In here, you are going to throw in all the so called unhealthy foods such as you fast food, roti canai and anything else that is sinful. The problem i notice with most people is, that their everyday food is unhealthy and when they feel guilty (maybe after that annual medical check up) they decide to go on a diet or go healthy for awhile. Because they can't sustain it, they end up swinging back to their old habits of eating unhealthy food again. Most people's everyday food is unhealthy, and their sometime food is the one that is healthy. You need to turn it around.

If you are one of the people like i mentioned above, then you clearly want to take action and start changing your sometime food and everyday food. I would suggest that you do it slowly and progressively. Just like you can't run 10km on your first day of training, similarly you can't switch your diet overnight just like that. start slow and keep changing more and more things as you move along.

So back to my buffet story... why is it that i was eating everything under the sun? Well i don't eat buffets everyday. At most, maybe once in 3 or 4 months. So this is really something that is sometime food. when i do go to the buffet, i am going to eat as much as i can... or indulge, because i don't do it all the time. If you work in the hotel and eat the buffet everyday, then you will need to be more careful and you can't indulge in everything like i did... because then, the buffet has become your everyday food... and everyday food should be the healthy stuff, not the other way around.

Now that you understand this concept, your will also understand how it is you see slim people eating unhealthy food, and yet they stay slim. They don't do it everyday, they do it some of the time. So what is your sometime food and everyday food? Once you understand this concept and use it properly, you will be able to see great results. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.