Products I recommend

Hey Guys,


One of the questions that I get asked a lot is what food and supplements do I recommend?


I always answer the question with the classic “A solid nutrition programme beats any supplement or fad diet”, and that’s true. I won’t ever sway from that as there are many great athletes and people smashing their goals with little to no supplements.


No supplement is necessary and anyone telling you that you NEED any supplement to hit your goals probably has their own agenda at heart.


Smart, dedicated nutrition beats everything!


However there are some supplements out there that make life a little bit easier and in some situations make things better.


In this post I will highlight brands and companies that I think that put out great stuff. Stuff that I use myself and recommend to clients.


DISCLAIMER 


Some of these companies I am affiliated with. This means that If you go through the links below and purchase something I either get a small piece of that or it helps me improve relationships so that I get more products to test (for posts like this). Some of these companies I have no affiliation with and get zero from them. I just think it’s great stuff.


If can find detailed product reviews on many of these products in the product section of the website which can be found HERE


Ok, first are the supplement companies that I recommend.


Myprotein


In particular I like their Impact Whey, Pre:Pare, ZMA, Vitamin System and waxy maize.


Biotest UK


Massive fans of Plazma, Mag-10, Indigo 3G, Flameout, Hot Rox and ZMA.


PhD Nutrition


Top marks for their Pharma range and Recovery Products.


Now for clothing and Equipment!


Roll Supreme


Tatami


Scramble


All of these companies have fantastic products and even better customer service! They really care about the sport and the people in it.


If you have tried any of these or have your opinion on any of them, please let me know in the comments.


I will occasionally repost this if any new products come out that are worth telling you guys about. Also keep checking the product review section for reviews every week!


Stay Healthy,


Mike

Post on Methods and Principles

Hey Guys,


Today I want to talk about principles.

Principles are the key to unlocking any goal that you have.


Many people focus on using methods to solve a problem (e.g. carb cycling, fasting etc) and try to get them to fit their own unique circumstance. The problem here is that sometimes it’s like trying to jam a square peg into a round hole. It might fit but its going to take a lot of effort than it needs to and it’s probably not going to look all that pretty in the end.


However if you understand principles (fat loss, muscle gain) then you can apply these principles to any situation and get results (round peg, round hole).


So why do people pick methods over principles?


Well firstly principles take more work to understand.


It’s much easier to be told exactly how to do something rather than being told how something works then getting you to creatively apply this to a new situation each time.


In BJJ the people who do the learn the quickest seem to understand principles better. They understand that to pass guard they need to maximise their tools and limit their opponents. They are then able to do this no matter what the bottom person does as they are applying a principle over a method.


The second reason people seem to favour methods (especially in nutrition) is that they seem to get a bit fanatical over things. In nutrition people seem to throw themselves into one method (carb cycling, fasting, carb back loading, IIFYM) and then stick to it religiously despite the results that they are getting (or aren’t getting). In nutrition people attach themselves with a cult like passion to a method then disregard everything else as nonsense or out dated information.


This simply isn’t the case.


If they took a closer look at things they would see that all of these methods are just different ways in which principles have been applied. If they then saw this, they could then use these methods to gain better understanding of the principles of nutrition.


What we then would have is a group of people that could use the correct methods at the right time in order to move towards their goals as the principles were always being applied (despite whatever method they used).


This however, would mean that I would be out of a job…


The best clients I have are the ones that ask LOTS of questions. They want to know WHY things are set up in a certain way and why I make the adjustments that I do, when I do. They are seeking to learn the principles of what is getting them the results.


Ask loads of questions whenever you are experiencing something new and you will be well on your way to understanding not just the HOW, but the WHY.


However you will probably end up annoying people as much as me (sorry coach).


Stay Healthy,


Mike

Rant on Picking a coach

Hey Guys,


The other day a friend posted this article on his Facebook wall.

I am a fan of the site and the author so I read the article. After reading it I concluded that I agreed with pretty much everything the author said with a few minor objections.


I then started to write this post.


I wrote out a long and detailed post about how (especially in sports) people need to pick their coaches and trainers wisely.


It seems that everyone is now an MMA or CrossFit coach and I even bet that your local gym has a few classes along these lines. it seems like every PT in the land is now an expert on how you can get ‘MMA conditioning’ or are Strength and Conditioning Experts.


I even wrote a big bit about how I thought that some of it applied to me and how results speak for themselves.


I however deleted it all and wrote this instead.


Yes people pretend to be something that they are not. Yes people try to get your money from you for things they have no experience in. And it’s your fault.


That’s right, it’s YOUR fault.


If people did the correct amount of research and asked the right questions then all of this Mickey Mouse trainer bullshit wouldn’t happen. People would get found out for the frauds they are and have to go actually learn the craft before getting clients in it.


Coaching is a skill set and it is your job to make sure that you get the right person for you. Not every PT can help you achieve every goal (just like no nutritionist knows all sports).


We need to be careful who we give access to helping us achieve out dreams.


Do the research!


Stay Healthy,


Mike

Burning Stubborn body fat

Hey Guys,


Today I want to share an article on shedding stubborn body fat.

I know that a lot of people have been in this situation.


They have lost a bit of fat but are finding it really hard to lose those last few pounds (this is normally when they call me).


This article touches on some very effective strategies that will help you eat away at those last few stubborn pounds of fat.


Give it a read HERE and let me know what you think!


Stay Healthy,


Mike

When people drop calories too low

Hey Guys,


The other day I talked about how using the scale was a bad idea in terms of assessing health and getting the body that you want.


I talked about how when the scale stopped moving people had a tendency to drop calories. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing to start, the problem comes when people use this as their only form of adjustment. After a while you’re going to start to run into some serious problems!


For the purpose of this post I am going to talk about people who are just focusing on a reduction in WEIGHT using the scale as their only indicator of progress. Remember that weight loss is different to fat loss, and people should focus on the other indicators mentioned in the previous post.


Let’s say we have an individual who is on a diet of 2000 calories a day. They are exercising a few times a week and are seeing results in their weight reduction. After a few weeks the weight loss stops, so they do what they think is right and drop calories by 500 per day.


They are now taking in 1500 calories everyday (this is quite low). The weight loss starts up again and they manage to lose a few more pounds, then it halts again. So what do they do now? Most people  drop by another 500 calories because that’s what worked before right?


The weight loss starts up again but this time it stops a lot quicker. By now the dieter is probably feeling tired all the time, feeling run down and may have any number of the following issues,

Getting colds and infections all the time.

Dry skin.

Poor sleep quality.

Irritability.

Loss of sex drive.

Skin tender to touch.

Weight gain.

Plus many other symptoms.

Weight loss as now pretty much stopped. even if they did ridiculous things like dropping even more calories or add in more exercise. 

So what’s happened?

Well they have gone far to low, far to soon. As they have dropped calories without looking at the plan as a whole, and the body has down regulated their metabolism to combat the lack of nutrients and fuel. 

This is called metabolic or adrenal damage (another article for another day).

Your body is now in a state where it will do everything it can to not lose weight. As far as it knows, it is on the brink of starvation. All your body wants to do is to survive, it has no idea that you are trying to make weight or just want abs for the summer!

The scope of this is far beyond this brief blog post, however here are a few things that you can do to prevent it in the first place,

Know what you are doing. If you don’t, ask your coach or a professional.

Make sure you are eating a sensible amount of calories for your body and your activity.

Get the right nutrients in! Make sure you aren’t neglecting any macronutrients.

Consider refeed meals if your calories are low.

Look at adding activity in before you cut calories.

Make sure that you are recovering from your training and you’re not just running yourself into the ground.

Running your calories to low for to long can do some serious damage to your metabolism and body. 

Having a damaged metabolism can effect your ability to build muscle and lose fat in the long run. You may also experience a number of other symptoms that will effect your life dramatically. 

NOT GOOD!

Make sure that you are making intelligent, calculated changes to keep you moving towards your goals while keeping you HEALTHY!

Remember that while calories do count in a fat loss plan, there are many other factors that make just a big difference!

Stay healthy,

Mike