Jogging 101

Hi guys, firstly, let me apologize for not having a post last week. I was caught up with some things last week and didn’t get a chance to sit down and write anything. But I am back, and I intend to stick with to our weekly posts routine.

OK, now that the apologies are out of the way, let’s get down to business. This week I want to talk about jogging and a few discoveries that I made. For the record, I really hate running, jogging and other endurance related activities, which is probably the reason why I was never into sports when I was in school. Since I hate it so much, I have not done much to become better at these activities. I just do the bare minimum to achieve my goals and that’s about it. The rest of my time is spent on strength training.

However, off late, I have been trying hard to reduce my body fat %, so I changed my workout routine around and also started doing a lot more cardio than my usual. I do the treadmill during my normal gym days, but once a week, I head out to the park in Bukit Jalil with wifey and we both spend a good 40 minutes on cardio. We usually do the stairs for about 20 minutes and then do some jogging.

But when I first started, I could barely jog for 3 minutes before I ran out of breath and had to stop. It was pathetic and embarassing. So I would jog for 3 minutes, run out of breath and then walk for 3 to 5 minutes and then jog again. I would repeat this routine of jogging and walking until my full 20 or 30 minutes was up. After doing this for awhile, I realized I was not getting any better at all. I mean 4 weeks and I still can’t jog for more than 3 minutes.

So then I asked myself if maybe my technique of jogging was wrong. Of course when I first started jogging, I never thought about technique. After all its just jogging right– one foot in front of the other and repeat. How hard could that be? Then I noticed what all the other joggers in the park were doing and then I realized that there is a technique to jogging. So I adopted it and now I can jog non stop for about 30 minutes and the improvement was almost immediate. From 3 minutes to 30 minutes – big difference right?

So what is this technique? Well here it is.

Keep your feet light
Originally when I jogged, you could hear me a mile away. My feet were heavy and I would slam it into the ground really hard. Then I realized, other people jogging, and you could barely hear their footsteps. So think light and only lift your leg up slightly and put it down slowly. You don’t have to thump your feet into the pavement with every step. Think light all the way and your feet will follow as well.

Take small steps
The other mistake I made was, taking huge strides. When you take huge strides, your legs tend to move faster which makes you go faster and faster until its in between a slow jog and a sprint. No wonder I couldn’t jog for more than 3 minutes… its almost like I was running and not jogging. So make your steps small and that will automatically slow down your speed as well. If you keep your steps small, you will almost automatically keep your feet light as well. So it’s a 2 in 1 deal.

Breathing
Breathing properly is extremely important during your jog. As I was constantly running out of breath all the time, I asked for advice from many people who jog regularly and they all had different answers to give me. Some say take 2 breaths in, and 1 breath out. Others say breathe in through your nose and out of your mouth. Tried it all, but for me personally, the one that works the best is slow and heavy breaths. So I would take a slow but deep breath and then exhale slowly as well. Problem is, this breathing technique causes you to feel the stitch in your abdomen area. I don’t feel it while running, but if I stop jogging for awhile and then start jogging again, the stitch comes on almost immediately. So I am still trying to figure that part out.

So yeah, here are some tips I picked up to take you from a pathetic 3 minutes of jogging to a fantastic 30 minutes. Pretty impressive right? Honestly, I am more than happy with my 30 minute record although to my friends in endurance racing, 30 minutes jogging is peanuts. But yeah, I hope these tips helps everyone especially beginners or others who are just as pathetic as I “used” to be. Also, please note that running 30 minutes on the treadmill doesn’t mean you can do 30 minutes on the road as easily as well. It’s a world of difference – trust me. Anyway, as usual, look forward to hearing your comments on this.

Indulgence Plan

I've been helping a friend of mine to lose weight and so far she's been doing good. I put her on a cross training / turbulence training workout routine, and the results have been amazing. I also recommended her a diet program and told her that every 2 weeks, we would make it progressively more difficult. Now its been about 2 months, and she is finally starting to face some problems with keeping up with the diet plan as we have cut out lots of stuff. She is down to 2 sweet drinks a day, very little carbohydrates and lots of fruits & vegetables as well as lean meat.

She says she has strong urges to just indulge every once in awhile in something sinful, but she is afraid she will blow away all her hard work. So i came up with what i call an indulgence plan. This indulgence plan allows you to indulge in your favourite foods with the hopes of keeping the damage to a minimum. So here is how it works.

Tip# 1 - Only indulge 10% to 20% of the time.
Now it depends on how quickly you want to lose weight and also your own body. Some people can indulge more and get away with it, while others may not. Also, she wants to look her best for this reunion she is going for at the end of May. So i told her to keep it to about 10% of the time. So if you are eating about 35 meals a week (i got her to eat 5 times a day), then 3 of those meals can become your indulgent meals, while the rest have to follow the diet plan. Now the key here is to keep note of how many times you are indulging. Most people keep indulging, but comfort themselves by saying its only today and yesterday. Sure you can do that, but you have to ensure that its only today and yesterday and not for the past 3 years. So giving a measurable % lets you know just how much you are allowed to stray away from your plans.


Tip# 2 - Indulge on the days you are going to work out.
Now if she is going to indulge, it would be best to indulge on days where she is going to workout rather than on days when she is resting. On days of her workout, she is going to be more active and is going to use a lot more calories that day than on her normal rest day. She works out 4 times a week, so i told her to try and keep it on those days when she does work out. If its your rest day, make it a point to do some activity after that like a 30 minute walk or something. This helps to reduce the damage of the indulgence. Now that 30 minute walk would of course be an additional workout to the 4 times a week because it was done during her off day. I told her preferably, if she needs to indulge, try her best to do it before her workout (as close as possible) or right after her workout (within 1 hour of working out). This further reduces the impact the food will have on her.

Tip# 3 - Balance it out
Now if your are going to eat at TGIF or something, then go ahead and enjoy yourself. But you have to balance out your other meals to ensure that you don't totally burst your calorie consumption for the day. For example, if she is eating 2,000 calories a day, and her TGIF meal is 1,000 calories, then she needs to do her best and still keep to the remaining 1,000 calories for that day so it all still adds up to 2,000 calories. So it doesn't mean for that day, you consume your usual 2,000 calories and then 1,000 additional calories because today was TGIF day. Its OK to go above a little like 2,200 calories or so for that day, but where possible, cut back on the other meals and try to balance it out and still stay within your plan.

So there you have it. Some simple tips that will allow you to indulge while reducing the effects on your weight loss program. Now if anyone follows these simple tips, i guarantee you that you will see results while leading a pretty normal life. At the end of the day, its almost impossible for anyone to keep strict to their diet 24/7. I know some people have more discipline than others, but for the rest who have to indulge (like me), then these tips help to reduce the damage to your waistline. Remember, you can't indulge all the time and expect this to work. The only way you can indulge all day everyday and lose weight, is if you worked in a construction site where you have to do hard physical labour 8 hours a day. If you are just going to be sitting around the office and working out 1 hour a day (like most people reading this), then this plan comes in handy for you. So try it out and see. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

How Many Calories Do I Need In A Day?

Following up from last weeks post, I mentioned that just flashing the number 2,400 calories a day for a 30 year old doesn’t mean much. So this week, I decided, to share with you, a method on calculating how many calories you personally need each day. Now the reason I say personally you, is because this is based on you as an individual. So its not just 2,400 calories for you and everyone else who happens to share the same birth year as you.

Now if you surf the net, you will easily find loads of ways or methods to calculate how many calories you need in a day, and I have chosen to share one of it. So the one i am sharing is not the holy bible of calculating your calorie needs per day, just one of the recommended methods of doing so. Where did i get this formula? I got this from the Nutrition Science for Fitness manual and I find it easy to use and pretty straight forward.

So how do you calculate how many calories you need in a day? You can use the simple formula below:

For men:1 x B x 24 x L x A

For women:0.9 x B x 24 x L x A

Now at a glance, the formula might look like a formula for calculating rocket propulsion against vertical air resistance or some other gibberish like that. But it’s actually quite easy once you know what the B, L and A stands for.

B = body weight (in kilograms),
L = lean factor - or how much body fat you have
A = is activity level.

How do you find each of these values?

B = Body weight
B is pretty simple. You just have to stand on a weighing scale and voila, you have your weight. Now if by any chance, you are using an ancient scale which only shows pounds, you can find out your weight in KG by dividing your weight (in pounds) by 10, and then multiplying that number by 4.5.

L = Lean Factor
L is going to be a little tougher to find out. You can get your gym to a do a free check for you. Most gyms are pretty obliging as long as you are nice to the staff. If you are not a gym member, go to any of the big gyms near you, tell them you are thinking of joining and ask them if they can do a Body Fat Percentage test for you - which will subsequently help you to decide if you need to join the gym or not. They will do it for you for free, in hopes of you joining their gym. So this is one way to find out your body fat %. Now once you have done that, you need to use that information to find out your lean factor. To do that, refer to the table below:-

10 to 14% body fat (for men) or 14 to 18% body fat (for women) = 1
14 to 20% body fat (for men) or 18 to 28% body fat (for women) = .95
20 to 28% body fat (for men) or 28 to 38% body fat (for women) = .90
Over 28% body fat (for men) or over 38% body fat (for women) = .85

A = Activity Level
A, Activity Level can be found by referring to the set of descriptions below. You need to find the one that best describes your activity level on a daily basis.

Sitting, reading, talking, playing video games, or surfing the web throughout the day...
Then your activity level multiplier is 1.30

Lots of typing, teaching, lab works, cooking, and some walking throughout the day...
Then your activity level multiplier is 1.55

Dancing, jogging or lots of walking, tennis, landscaping, OR weight training 1 to 2 hours a day...
Then your activity level multiplier is 1.65

Heavy manual labor like digging, construction or military work along with rock climbing, cycling, OR weight training 2 to 4 hours a day (split into 2 or more workouts of course)...
Then your activity level multiplier is 1.80

Heavy manual labor for 8 hours a day, plus 2 to 4 hours of weight training (or if your name starts with "super" and ends with "man"...)
Then your activity level multiplier is 2.00

OK, now its time to put all that information together and make sense of it.

For example, let’s take a 170 pound man who has 15% body fat and who does very little each day.

Change the pounds to kgs. 170 / 10 = 17 x 4.5 = 76.5 kg.

1 x 76.5kg x 24 x 0.95 x 1.30 = 2267 calories needed each day to maintain his body weight exactly as it is. To gain muscle, he should consume 500 calories more than that. To lose fat, he should consume 500 calories less than that.

So, to lose fat...
2267 - 500 = 1767 calories per day.

To gain muscle...
2267 + 500 = 2767 calories per day.

Now to gain muscle (and not fat), he will need to do weight training as well, and not merely consume 500 calories more a day. If he does not do any exercise and consumes 500 additional calories a day, those calories will get stored away as fat. Again, the 500 additional calories is just a recommendation and will vary from individual to individual.

So now you can pluck in the numbers that are unique to you as an individual and find out how many calories you need in a day and what you need to do to lose fat. So try it out and see. Once you know how much calories you need in a day, you can start deducing a plan to lose weight or gain muscle. In short, this gives you a target or goal to reach, rather than just shooting blindly in the dark. Hope this information is useful to all of you and as usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Sunday Star: Food Fat-ish

Did any of you read the Star newspaper yesterday. The headlines read "Food Fat-ish" and it was basically about Malaysians and their unhealthy eating habits. When i first read the article, they were taking aim at the mamak stalls for being open 24 hours. In my mind i was thinking, Oh boy, here we go again... the same old argument...blame the mamak and McDonalds for people making the wrong choices in food. To me, if you are blaming the Mamak for being there 24 hours a day, then you are barking up the wrong tree. Well they didn't totally take the piss of the mamaks, but just highlighted some statistics about Malaysians being obese.

Then as i read further, i came across the nutrition table and my eyes almost popped out. This is a national news paper with a huge circulation and i can't believe what they were saying. There are 3 major points that i disgree with, so i will post them up here 1 by 1 for you guys.

1) Roti Canai is 301 kCal and Chapatti is 300 kCal
Now i don't know about you guys, but that number just seems wrong to me. Have you seen how they make Roti Canai? You make it with refined flour, margarine and loads of oil. While you are pressing it out, you bathe it with more oil. When you cook it, you flood it with even more oil. Now i have seen these stats before in other places, and i am still baffled with how a roti canai can only be a mere 1 calorie more than chapatti... i mean seriously. Even with white bread and whole meal bread, there is a difference of almost 20 calories... and the oil spilt roti canai vs the dry chapatti is only 1 calorie? Does anyone know the explanation for this?

2) Murtabak 231 kCal and roti canai 301 kCal
Wooohh.... have you seen how they make murtabak? They take your roti canai (whole thing), add in chicken pieces, egg and onions and then cook it. Now, how in the hell did adding more ingredients make the murtabak have less calories than the plain old roti canai? It's like a bowl of plain rice will have more calories than a bowl of fried rice with all the ingredients dumped in.
Come on guys, at least check your figures before you blast it out like that. Now i thought maybe they are refering to some small murtabak, but nope, the weight of an average roti canai is 95g while the murtabak is 146g. so the murtabak is heavier than your roti canai. So how the hell did it miraculously lose 70 calories after you added ingredients? Mind blowing. i need to learn this recipe.

3) They had a table that showed how many calories you should be consuming.
OK granted, it is just a recommendation, and it should not be caste in stone. But 1 major thing they failed to highlight (which is probably the most important) was the level of activity. Meaning, when you recommend 2,400kCal a day for an individual between the age of 30 to 50, what kind of activity level are we talking about? Sleeps all day, watch TV all day, or moderately active, or super workout junkie or construction worker. My point is, just flashing out the number 2400 is really quite pointless and has little meaning. Now if you are a pretty active individual and try to follow this recommendation, you could be starving yourself of nutrients. I know all of you will be saying, its meant for the average joe... but how much activity does an average joe do? well they could have easily added in a 1 liner that says moderately active, with abaout 20 minutes of physical activity a day or something. this would have helped to put things in perspective, rather than just flashing a number. Its like saying 85kg is overweight... not if you are 6'5" and a body builder with 8% body fat. See what i mean? Just flashing a number doesn't make sense.

Anyway, thats just some thoughts that i wanted to share with all of you. I don't have anything against the Star newspaper, but i just thought that somebody needs to put things in perspective. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments on this... especially on point number 1, coz i am curious as to how they got those figures.

How Strong Are You?

Have you ever wondered how strong you are? I mean if you work out regularly and lift heavy, would you like to know if you are really strong or just think you are strong. How do you know if your heavy lifting is really heavy and enough? You can't just compare yourself to the gym rat next to you, because you don't know his genetic make up and how long he has been training for. So how do you measure strength?

Well one way would be to join a competition such as a Strong Man Competition. But lets face it, most of us are not full time athletes and don't intend to become one, so this is out of the question.

Another method is to use a scientific methodology in the gym which will tell you what your strength deficit is... which means, how much strength your body can physically produce vs how much strength you currently have. This is the best way to discover how strong or how heavy you are lifting and whether you are strong strong or just think you are strong. This is covered in the Fitness Science manual, so due to copyright reasons, i can't go into full details of it. This is the correct method to use to measure strength and not the stupid machine they had everyone pull in the Biggest Loser Asia.

But for this post, i am going to share a quick lay man table with you and if you compare yourself with the exercises you are doing below, it will give you a rough indication of how strong you really are. So its you against.... well you.

This technique is simple. There are 3 basic exercises (which almost everyone will be doing), and all you have to ask yourself is, am i doing enough or am i close to the recommendation. In short, you should be able to perform up to 8 reps of the exercises below. If you fall short, then you are not very strong. If you are lifting heavier than the recommended weight and still completing 8 reps, then you are mighty strong.

So here is how you gauge yourself.

When you are lifting, the amount of weight you should have for each exercise is as below:

• Standing Barbell Curls - half your body weight for 8 reps
• Bench Press your body weight for 8 reps
• Squat 1.5 times your body weight for 8 reps

Now i am sure if you are a serious fitness junkie or gym rat, you will definitely be doing the exercises mentioned above already. it would be part of your routine. So the question to ask yourself is, are you doing the recommended amount of weight and reps. If yes, then that's great, you would be considered strong. If you are not, don't feel bad. now you have a goal to work towards, so keep at it and i am sure you will get there.

So how strong are you. Me? Well, I can do half my body weight curls and my body weight bench press. But my legs, still short of the goal above due to a leg injury i had many years ago, but i am working towards it. Hopefully i get to reach it soon. When i do, i will let you guys know.

Anyway, do share your thoughts as well as your own strength test results for the exercises above. Look forward to hearing your comments.

Whole Foods

As we all know, when it comes to health and fitness, food plays an extremely big part – even more than exercise itself. The age old saying of “You are what you eat” is so true when it comes to fitness. So because of this, I thought it is extremely important to highlight some of the food choices you should make on a daily basis. Now I could sit here and name all the good foods and all the bad foods to avoid but that would just waste both our times. So instead, let me focus on 1 important aspect of choosing food and by just making this switch, you would have taken a giant leap towards a healthier lifestyle. If you can just remember this and follow it every time you eat, you will be far better than most people out there.

What am I talking about? I am talking about Whole Foods. Whole Foods is a term used to describe food that has not been processed / refined or only processed / refined slightly and consumed the way nature intended it. This is the best form and best way to consume food. In today’s world, our food choices are filled with processed foods which are filled with additives & preservatives that only add taste and increase the shelf life of the product. No nutrition value and worse still, some of these are actually harmful to you. So not only will some of these foods make you fat, but it is harmful to your health as well.

So what are whole foods? Anything that has not been processed or refined. So if you are going for chicken, buy chicken parts as they are, not sausages and burgers. If you want to eat burgers, buy your own fresh meat and mince it up yourself. If you want to eat french fries, buy your own potatoes and cut it up yourself, rather than buying the frozen ones which have been processed. If you want to drink orange juice, buy your own oranges and squeeze them yourself, rather than buying it in a bottle or can.

Let’s be honest for a second. I am sure you know some friends who eat 2 sausage buns for lunch every day thinking that that is a diet plan that is going to help them lose weight. After all, the sausage bun is only about 250 calories (that’s what they say to comfort themselves). Buns are made from refined flour, mixed with margarine (usually margarine contains transfat which is bad bad stuff), sugar and a whole lot of other preservatives. Then comes the sausage. Does anyone know how sausages are made? Usually its made from all the left over parts of the chicken which cannot be sold… like the skin, fat and any other body part which cannot be sold. So they grind everything up, throw in a whole lot of MSG and flavouring and voila…. You have yourself a sausage. Put that together and multiply it by 2 and that is what your friend is consuming everyday in hopes of losing weight. Need I say more?

Now the next question on everyones mind is, “OK, you have made it clear about how to buy healthy food for home preparation. But I eat out a lot. So how does this help me?” Well its no secret that making your own food at home will be better than eating out. However, I do understand the constraints of making your own food all the time. So, the next time you go out to eat, have this concept of whole foods in your mind as well. Skim through the menu and see what are the kinds of food that will still be in its natural form. So between a grilled fish and fish burger, which one would you choose? Mutton Kima (minced mutton) or Mutton Curry… which one would you choose? French fries or baked potato, which one would you choose? Fried fish or fried Keropok, which one would you choose? Now I know some of the foods I mentioned above, both choices are not the healthiest choices. I am just trying to make it clear when you have to choose between 2, which one would you choose. The lesser evil of course. And when you are eating out, sometimes you have to make that choice as you are not the cook.

So remember the next time you hit the supermarket for your grocery shopping, be careful with what you throw into your trolley. Your safest bet is always buying food which is not canned, bottled or wrapped up. Go fresh and go for whole foods. Eat food the way nature intended it to be. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

Doing My First Chin Up / Pull Up

Hi everyone. Firstly, sorry for the very late post this week. Work has been crazy for the past few days, so I didn’t get a chance to post anything. Now since I have a bit more time, I decided I better quickly write something, so I decided to write about doing chin ups / pull ups, because lots of people tell me they can’t do it and want to know how to train for it. So here are some tips to help you do your first chin up / pull up soon.

Before we continue on with this, it is important to note the difference between a chin up and a pull up. A full Chin Up or Pull Up is where the body is suspended by extended arms gripping a fixed bar, then pulled up until the elbows are bent and the head is higher than the hands. So that’s what you want to be aiming for. Not just pulling yourself half way up. Though the overall movement is similar, there is a huge difference in the grip which makes one easier and the other more difficult to do. A chin up is done with and underhand (supinated) grip. This is easier to do than a pull up which uses an overhand (pronated) grip. Both movements require tremendous upper body strength so if you still can’t do even 1 chin up or pull up, don’t worry or feel embarrassed about it. When I was younger, I couldn’t do 1 either. Follow these tips and hopefully, you will actually be able to do your first full chin up or pull up soon.

Heavy Weights Low Reps
As you know, doing a chin up or pull requires tremendous strength. In fitness, strength is basically your ability to get the muscles to do what you want them to do over a short period of time. So when it comes to chin ups, you want to be able to lift your body up. When it comes to training for strength, you want to use heavy weights and low reps. This basically helps to condition your Central Nervous System (CNS) to give you that jolt of strength that you need. When it comes to strength, a big part of how strong you are is the ability for your CNS to provide enough impulse to your muscle to act. The more practice the CNS gets at sending signals to the muscles telling them to move with great force, the stronger you become and the way to do that is to keep pushing on heavier and heavier weights. You want to primarily hit your biceps, back and shoulders real heavy as these are the primary muscles you will be using during a chin up or pull up. If these muscles are weak, then you are going to have a lot of trouble doing a complete chin up or pull up.

How heavy should you lift? You want to lift weights that only allows you to complete between 4 to 6 reps. So if you can lift more than 6, the weight is too light for you. Pick up something heavier! So when you train your biceps, back and shoulders, make sure you choose a weight that only allows you to complete between 4 to 6 reps.

Lose that Tummy
OK if you can’t do chin ups and have a bulging tummy, here is another reason to lose that tummy. The point is doing a chin up is hard enough already. So give yourself an added advantage by reducing any unwanted baggage that you are carrying with you and lose all that unwanted fat. Not saying you can’t do chin ups with all that fat around your stomach, but why add a disadvantage to yourself? So watch your diet, do more cardio, but work on reducing your body fat percentage. The leaner you become, the easier it will be to do a complete chin up.

Use the Law of S.A.I.D
Out of all the laws of fitness out there, this one has to be one of my favourites. The law of SAID stands for Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands. In normal English, what this means is, if you want to get good at something, just keep doing more of it. The closer you replicate your exercise to the actual movement, the better you will get at doing the actual thing. For example, if you want to get good at arm wrestling, doing lots of biceps curls is good but turning every workout you have into an arm wrestling contest will be better because that replicates the actual movement more than a bicep curl.

So when it comes to chin ups, doing bicep curls are OK, doing pulling exercises are good, pull downs are better, weight assisted chin ups are even better, but the best would be doing it with a spot. Now, when you spot someone for chin ups, the spotter doesn’t have to lift you up and down. He just provides a resting place for your feet and you push off just enough with your legs to get you going. In other words, you decide how much assistance you need and who knows better than you yourself. The less assistance you rely on, the better. So try your best to use as little as your legs as you can. As you improve, you will rely less and less on your legs until finally you can do it without any assistance.

Sticking Points
Now as you improve, you will be able to do a partial chin up and somewhere in the middle of the movement, you are going to get stuck and this is what they call the sticking point. One of the best ways to overcome sticking points is to do isometric exercises. So lift yourself up to your sticking point (no assistance), and once you reach it, hold that position as long as you can. Keep doing sets of this exercise and you will soon find you will be able to overcome this dreaded sticking point. Now this isometric exercise should be in addition to your normal workout following the law of SAID and not a replacement of it.

So there you have it. Some tips to help you overcome you inability of doing chin ups or pull ups. If you follow all these tips, I guarantee you will be able to do chin ups in no time. How long it takes is up to you and how hard to train and follow these tips. But remember, everyone can do it as long as you have the right tools…. And these tips help you to have the tools.

Go ahead, try it and I hope those who can’t do chin ups now will be able to overcome this and do chin ups. It really isn’t as hard as you think it is. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments

The Burn Machine

Have any of you heard of this new piece of equipment called the Burn Machine? The first time I heard it, I was wondering if it’s going to be some kind of vibrating belt gimmick and was reluctant to check it out. But after much persuasion from my friend Azmy, I decided to check it out.

We went down to the HQ of Pure Health and met up with Brian Wong, who is the co-founder of Pure Health. Once we stepped in, we had some brief introductions and then he tossed me this wheel looking machine.

He said, you are tough guy, I bet you can’t spin this for more than 1 minute. Not wanting to be outdone, I tried it. Man, within 30 seconds, my arms were burning away. By 45 seconds, I felt like I lost control of my arms and the burning sensation just intensified exponentially every second. Yeah, I didn’t reach the 1 minute timing but boy, my arms and shoulders felt pumped, like I just lifted.

So what exactly is the Burn Machine? The Burn Machine is a geniusly designed equipment with lots of uses. The main function of the Burn Machine is to help you burn fat and of course help to build upper body endurance. You can either do just the basic spin while standing stationary or you could go crazy and add this into your cycling routine (stationary bike please). You can use it as a dumbbell, spin it while doing crunches, spin while doing lunges. In short, whatever exercise you do, using the Burn Machine actually intensifies that exercise and just makes it that much more effective.

The Burn Machine comes in various sizes (weight) and models depending on your needs. If all you want to do is tone up and burn fat, the basic model below will suffice.



They also have a barbell version as displayed below for those who want to use weights. This is what they call an Asymmetrical Barbell System as the little counter weight in the center of the barbell will move. Overall, I think the Burn Machine is a fantastic piece of equipment to add into your arsenal of home based equipments. I totally love the spin action and is great for shaping up your deltoids, so your arms look great when you wear a sleeveless t-shirt. Just one small drawback which I hope they have in future models is being able to increase the resistance of the spinning action – hence making it more difficult to spin. The other thing I wish they had done was providing a way to add on some weights rather to the basic model. Currently, if you want something heavier, you have to buy a new unit which is bigger and heavier.

But besides that, I think the Burn Machine is definitely a great machine to burn fat and most of all, I would use it to supercharge my cardio workouts or replace your cardio workouts with an intense session of the the Burn Machine. We are working closely with Brian to come up with a special deal for everyone who is interested in buying the Burn Machine, so stay tuned for more details. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.

The secret to BIG arms

OK, this weeks post is a little different. Instead of just talking about weight loss like i usually do, i want to talk about something i am passionate about ie muscle gain. Since i was young, i have been obsessed with having big arms. So i literally tried every kind of workout there is and none of them were as effective as the one I want to share with all of you. So here is the secret to having big arms. It’s a lot of hard work, but the results speak for themselves.

Go Heavy
If you want to get big (whether its your arms or chest), one of the surest ways is to train heavy. When i train my arms, i do between 8 to 10 reps and with heavy weights where you find it difficult to pass 10 reps. For me, I usually train till failure. I have tried training lighter 12 to 15 reps twice a week, but personally, I feel training once a week heavy helps you grow faster. Also, just a word of caution, I would not recommend this routine to beginners. To effectively try this, please ensure you have at least 6 months of weight training under your belt.

Don’t cheat.
When you are doing bicep curls for example, it is important that you use only your biceps and nothing else. I have seen people in the gym who pound on huge plates and when it comes to lifting, they sway and swing in every way possible just to bring the weights up. But the end result, you walk away with a back ache and your biceps barely did anything because your used every other muscle in your body except your biceps to raise the weights. If you are going to lift, don’t swing and don’t sway. Maintaining your form is extremely vital not only for the growth of your arms, but to avoid injury as well. Reduce the weights a little and do it properly making sure only your forearms are moving up and down.

Do it slowly.
Another way to avoid cheating is to do each rep slowly. Ideally, each rep should take about 4 seconds to go up and come down. You will have to do a mental time count when you first start doing this, but once you have the correct speed, you won’t have to count the time anymore as the speed and timing will come naturally. Chances are, you are already doing it fast, so next time you hit the gym, make sure you do it slowly following the 4 second count. 2 seconds to bring the weight up and 2 seconds to bring the weights down.

Bringing the weights back to its original rest position is equally important.
Let’s use the example of the bicep curls again. Once you pull it up to your chest, don’t drop it back to your start position in half a second. The time it took you to lift it up to your chest (which is about 2 seconds) is the amount of time it should take for you to return back down. So take about 2 seconds to bring it down slowly back to the original rest position. The movement of returning to the original rest position gives your muscles negative resistance. Doing it slowly increases the negative resistance and this negative resistance is also vital for growth.

Do your triceps as well
When it comes to arms, a lot of people only focus on their biceps. They forget that there is another important muscle called the triceps which accounts for another 50% of your arm. So, the best way to bloat your arms up fast, is to do triceps as well. The same rules mentioned above apply for your triceps workout as well. So don’t just focus on your biceps. Give the same amount of attention to your triceps as well.

Do super sets.
When it comes to arms, train only your arms and not any other muscle group for that day. I used to do my chest and then my triceps after that, but then I found super sets. Super sets are basically exercises that are done back to back without rest. When it comes to arms, I do my set of biceps, and then immediately hit my triceps without a break. Once I finish my triceps, I take a one minute break before I hit the next set. So this way, each set you do will consist of one set of bicep exercise followed immediately by one set of triceps exercise. Make sure you perform all your exercises for your arms and do them in supersets.

Do 3 varieties of exercise
When it comes to my arms, I have 3 varieties of exercises for biceps and 3 varieties of exercises for triceps, which are all done in the same work out. So when choosing your arm routine, make sure you have 3 exercises for biceps and 3 exercises for triceps and do them in supersets.
So its 3 Sets x 10 reps x 3 exercises for biceps and 3 sets x 10 reps x 3 exercises for triceps. So if you do the math, its about 90 reps total for biceps and 90 reps total for triceps.

Indirect work out for your arms are essential
If you are doing bench press, inevitably about 30% of your strength will come from your triceps. This also means that your chest is only doing 70% of the work during the bench press and your triceps are still working out and doing the rest. When you do lat pull downs or chin ups for your back, yet again 30% of your biceps are being used. Quite a big number if you ask me. Hence, even when it is not your arms day, your arms are still working out. This is why I recommend only doing this superset routine once a week. So make sure you push heavy on bench press, incline press and other chest exercises to boost your triceps and push heavy on your back exercises as well to boost your biceps.

Change your routine
Change the 3 varieties of exercises you do every 3 or 4 months. This will shock your muscle enabling it to grow further. If you do the same routine for too long, your body becomes accustomed to that work out, and it will stop growing. Another way is to take a break for 1 whole week and then come back again. There are a variety of ways to change things up and shock your muscles. I shall discuss this further in another posting. But with that being said, it does not mean that more changes / shocks make it better. You only want to change things up every 3 to 4 months.

To sum it up:

1) Do your arms in supersets
2) Train it only once a week
3) When you are doing your arms, don't train other muscle groups
4) Go heavy
5) Do your triceps as well
6) Keep your form
7) Make sure you work out your chest and back as well
8) Change your exercises every 3 to 4 months

So there you have it. Some of my friends who have tried this routine are amazed by the results that they have gotten. Hope you guys out there who want big arms try it and as usual, look forward to hearing your comments.


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Eat for what you are about to do

I am currently going through the Nutrition Science for Fitness course and am realizing that a lot of what I held as true, turns out to be not so true after all. What exactly these are, well I will cover in another post. Another Wow factor is, I didn’t realize our body was such a complicated piece of machinery and there is just so much you can do by tweaking your nutrition plan. Anyway, all that to be covered some time soon. For this week, I just want to share one of the most important things I have learnt from the course and I thought it’s a must to share with everyone, especially those who want to lose weight.

One of the best and simplest rule you can follow is “eat for what you are about to do in the next 3 hours”. Now I am sure all of you have read millions of things about weight loss in magazines, on the web, on Oprah. Well sometimes there is just so much information out there, its hard to remember and decide what to do. So, if you forget everything else you have read on the internet and magazine, its fine, just remember this simple line “eat for what you are about to do in the next 3 hours” and you will be fine. What exactly does this mean? Let me break it down for you.

Ideally, we should all be eating 5 meals a day or every 3 hours that you are awake. The reason for doing this, is to ensure our body has a continuous stream of nutrition, so it never ever has to feel like its in a state of famine and start storing reserves… in our body, reserves means storing nutrition in our fat cells. I know doing a 5 meal a day plan is hard for most of us, and the best I can do is 4 meals a day – Breakfast, Lunch, evening meal (between lunch and dinner) and dinner.

Now for those who are more committed and more serious than me, you can plan your day ahead and pack food for all those odd moments when you need to load up. Ideally you want to pack up things which are simple to consume and of course, easy to prepare so you don’t spend 3 hours preparing for it. Things like carrot sticks, celery, sandwich, high fiber biscuits, muesli bars etc are easy to make and can be eaten anywhere at anytime and takes less than 10 minutes to prepare. So try to stock up on these and take it with you and every 3 hours, make sure you consume it.

So now the question is, how big should each of my meals be? The answer to that is “Depends on what you are going to be doing for the next 3 hours.”

So if you are going to help a friend move houses (lots of manual labor) for the next 3 hours, yeah, you are going to need more calories compared to sitting in front of the TV for the next 3 hours. If you are going to workout in the next 3 hours, again, you are going to need more calories than if you were going to take a nap for the next 3 hours. The basic thing is, ask yourself this question before every meal

What am I going to be doing for the next 3 hours?

If it’s sitting in front of your PC and reading this blog (though I can’t imagine why you would want to read this blog for 3 hours), heck you don’t need a whole lot of calories for that, some carrot sticks and celery sticks will do just fine. This is also why, you should keep your dinners small (unless you are working the night shift as a security guard where you got to keep walking) and how the popular cliché “Don’t eat anything after 7pm” started. It’s not entirely wrong, but again, a 7pm cut off is too early unless you go to bed by 9. But we shall discuss that in a later post. So try to keep your dinner small, since most of us usually hit the sack shortly after dinner.

The only time this rule kind of doesn’t apply is post workout, meaning even if you are just watching TV for the next 3 hours after your workout, your post workout meal needs to have a higher calorie content to replace back what you lost during your workout. But for all other situations, think forward of what you are going to be doing and eat for that.

So just a quick re-cap

· Eat 5 meals a day or for every 3 hours you are awake
· Plan your day and keep simple, healthy foods handy for those 3 hour breaks. Carrot sticks, celery sticks, muesli bars, sandwiches etc. You can be creative with this, but please ensure you don’t snack on unhealthy foods like Twisties, nasi lemak etc.
· How much you eat should be in relation to what you are going to be doing for the next 3 hours. If its sleeping, a roti canai will be way too much calories for that activity. In short, eat more fruits and vegetables when your activity level for the next 3 hours is going to be low.

That’s it. Simple, easy to follow and best of all, I guarantee you results if you truly follow this. So try it out and see and as usual, I look forward to hearing your comments.