So which four foods are the best for helping you build muscle mass?

Eggs

Over the last few years, eggs have been given a bad rap. It was thought that they were the reason for spiraling cholesterol levels. This is not the case; eggs are very good for you. In fact, the cholesterol in the yolk helps support naturally occurring steroid hormones in your body.

One egg contains 6 grams of protein, Vitamin B12 a ½ gram of leucine, an essential amino acid. When you have the right combination of amino acids in your body, you build muscle even faster. Eating just two eggs is beneficial for muscle growth.

Almonds

This power packed super food is full of protein and vitamin E. What does Vitamin E have to do with muscle building? It contains an anti-oxidant that stops free-radicals from attacking muscles and causing damage. Not only is vitamin E good for your muscle growth, it supports your immune system and improves the health of your eyes.

How many almonds should you eat? According to the University of Toronto, two handfuls a day is all you need. The study found that most people could eat this amount without putting on weight. That’s good news for anyone who wants to build muscle and lose weight.

Lean Beef

Jam-packed with protein that is needed for building muscle. It also contains iron and zinc, two nutrients that are critical if you want to develop lean muscle mass. Lean beef also contains creatine, which gives you energy while you workout. You can also find high levels of selenium in lean beef. This is good news for men as selenium can stop you from developing prostate cancer.

Salmon

High in protein and Omega-3 fatty acids. The fatty acids lessen the effects of muscle breaking down after a workout. Your recovery time improves and your muscles build faster. Salmon is low in calories, so it’s a fabulous way to get the protein you need and watch your weight at the same time. If you don’t like fish, try taking an oil supplement. You will gain all the same benefits as if you were eating fish.

These four foods top the list as being the best for building muscle. If you don’t like some of these foods you could substitute them with any of the following: yoghurt, olive oil, lentils, chicken, chickpeas and cottage cheese.

Your diet plays a huge role in how fast you will build muscle and burn fat. Remember to eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables along with these valuable protein sources. Fruits and vegetables contain vital vitamins and nutrients that are needed for good health. They are also low in carbohydrates, which is exactly what you need to lose weight and build muscle.

Crash diets

Weight loss experts will tell you that crash diets are rarely effective when it comes to weight loss and there are some good reasons behind this. In fact, most of these diets are usually very unhealthy and only succeed in helping you achieve rapid loss of weight. They promote loss of muscle weight or water weight which besides being gained back quickly, loosing these weight is potentially very harmful to your overall well- being. And as if this is not enough, you will realise that sticking to these crash diets in the long run is nearly impossible as your body will resist the change naturally. This in turn ends up frustrating your weight loss endeavours to a great extent.

Weight loss is only possible through a radical exercise regime

This is essentially not true as to succeed in weight loss; you will need to make small changes which you can stick to for a relatively long time. Losing weight is only possible if you are able burn much more calories compared to what you are consuming and an exercise regime is only one of the ways to help you achieve this. You will thus need to move more, eat less and best of all, combine both of them.

Slimming pills are the solution for effective weight loss in the long term

This is certainly not true as slimming pills will do you more harm than good in your long-term weight loss efforts. Most importantly, don’t use slimming pills for long term purposes and always ask your physician for a prescription.

Carbohydrates cause weight gain

A common myth is that carbohydrates only succeed in making you put on more weight and this is highly unfounded and certainly not true. When carbohydrates are eaten in the most appropriate quantities, they will certainly not lead to weight gain. It is essential that you eat whole meal and whole grain carbohydrates like whole meal bread and brown ice and you will certainly succeed in your weight loss efforts.

Drinking water helps in weight loss

While drinking water is always very important, keep in mind that it will not help you loose water. Water only makes you stay hydrated and could succeed in helping you snack less. Drinking water is important for your overall wellbeing and good health.

Keeping note of these myths will help you know what works and what don’t work when it comes to weight loss just to be sure that you are on the right track.

“The promise of spot reduction is an obsession that many in our culture just won’t abandon.” – Charles Poliquin

I was on a course and was told that to get a 6 pack is easy! It’s a by product from training hard in a functional way that engages all the body muscles working and eating clean.

Now the hard answer…

I believe you can by correcting the imbalances in your hormones if that is the identified problem by your personal trainer – it could simply be that it is your diet. Remember everyone is an individual and a full assessment by your personal trainer should be carried out, if you’re not assessing you’re guessing! For a deeper look at troublesome spots and links with hormones it is worth having blood samples taken to be analysed by a professional. Poliquin shows that the advancements in exercise endocrinology may give new tools for combatting site specific fat storage and the system to do this is called BioSignature Modulation. I haven’t studied this course as of yet and I am hoping to get on it later in the year. I know plenty of trainers who have undertook this course to learn the system and swear by it.

From what I have found and researched the main aspect to achieve correction of imbalanced hormones is to address your lifestyle and eating habits. This may involve detoxing or cleansing your system by expelling the toxins being store in your body along with using strategies such as carb cycling, fasting and shorter work outs etc. This can lead to the restoring of the body’s natural ability to heal itself. Once its healed and your beginning to work correctly in the way we were designed to do you will be at full centralisation.

Paul Chek recommends having an organic diet otherwise you’re eating dangerous food. Remember, fat is where you store toxins (and excess hormones) that you can’t break down due to not having enough nutrition on board to run the detoxify pathways. By getting your metabolic rate to optimal and you can do this by moving at least 20 minutes a day, even walking. You need eight hours of sleep at night from 10pm in order to restore the body systems and you need to get enough water into you.

As you may be aware I follow teachings by Paul Chek, Charles Poliquin, Robb Wolf, Paul Mort, Travis Jones and have researched this topic from Patrick Holford, Nish Joshi and Shawn Talbott to name a few and I am by no means a leading world expert but I have done work with individuals based on the learning from the above and has seen much better results than that of other methods I used when I worked in gyms.

To stress the importance of hormones  I’m going to quote Paul Mort…

“Neither diet or nutrition matter if your hormones are out of sync.”

Hormones are involved in most physiological processes thus making them very relevant to many aspects of exercise. They influence where and how you store body fat, research has shown that cortisol and insulin promote fat collection and that testosterone increases fat loss.

The research that I have looked into and what I have been taught on courses proves that it is more than likely the imbalance of hormones that cause certain areas to store body fat and the 6 most common stubborn fat spots are:

1. Love Handles
2. Stomach Fat
3. Bra Bulge Fat
4. Bingo Wings
5. Big Thighs & Bottom
6. Moobs

Before I go into each of the fat spots mentioned above I will first highlight in basis terms what hormones are and how they work. In order to do this I will direct reference two definitions that I feel sum up hormones:

“Hormones are chemical messengers that are secreted into the blood by one tissue or organ and act on target cells in other parts of the body.” – J.Kang, 2012

“Hormones act as chemical signals throughout the body.” - J.Wilmore & D.Costill, 2004

So hormones are messengers that travel around your body via blood to give orders to your cells to do things. Hormones can be broken down into two types;

Steroid hormones: These hormones have a chemical structure similar to cholesterol and are lipid soluble and diffuse easily through cells membranes. These are hormones form the adrenal cortex (cortisol and aldosterone), the ovaries (estrogen and progesterone), the testes (testosterone) and the placenta (estrogen and progesterone).

Nonsteroid hormones: These hormones are not lipid soluble so they can not diffuse easily through cells membranes. These hormones can be divided into two further groups: protein or peptide hormones and amino acid-derivative hormones.

Hormones can affect your growth, puberty, metabolism, weight, figure, shape, physical appearance, reproductive behaviour and emotions.

The thyroid gland is located below the larynx and secretes two important nonsteroid hormones which regulate metabolism by increasing the metabolic rate of most tissues and the basal metabolic rate by  as much as 100%. These hormones according to (J.Wilmore & D.Costill, 2004) also promote rapid cellular uptake of glucose and enhance lipid mobilisation, increasing free fatty acid (FFA) availability for oxidation, this is something I want you to think about as you read on.

Another you have properly heard of is the Adrenal gland this sits directly atop of the kidneys and is made up of the inner adrenal medulla and the outer adrenal cortex and each one secretes hormones that are different.

So how do they do this and affect the body to such a degree?

As I’ve mentioned earlier hormones are secreted into the blood in order to be transported to target cells, these cells are where hormones have their effect. Target cells are able to work hand in hand with hormones because they have receptors that blind and lock them together, much like a lock and key. Only the correct key can unlock the action within the cell, Wilmore & Costill (2004) refer to this as a hormone-receptor complex. When there is an increased amount of specific hormone there is a decrease in the number of cell receptors available to it, making the cell less sensitive to that hormone as less hormones can blind due to the fewer amount of receptors. Wilmore & Costill (2004) refer to this as down-regulation or desensitisation. The opposite effect is called up-regulation, these two processes change cells sensitivity to hormones.

Believe it or not there are some receptors that promote the breakdown of fat and some that actually block the breakdown of fat and research shows that there are two types of adrenoceptors that control not only fat cell metabolism but also blood flow into and out of the fat cell.

If we look at Beta-receptors these are the ‘good’ receptors, they increase lipolysis and adipose tissue blood flow while the naughty alpha-receptors inhibit lipolysis and adipose tissue blood flow.

So why tell you this and does it really matter?

Yes it matters, especially when different areas of body fat have different distributions of alpha-2 and beta-2 adrenoreceptors! This basically mean that fat can be mobilised and transported out of them by the blood in an effective or ineffective manner. A clear example of this is the lower body fat found on the hips and thighs – which have been found to have roughly nine times as many alpha-2 receptors as beta-2 receptors = stubborn fat or in scientific terms “elevated alpha 2 trap” and studies have shown that the blood flow in your lower body fat can have 67% lower blood flow than other depots. So with 67% lower blood flow you now have 67% less chance of removing the fat compared to areas of the body that are not storing fat as these areas transport fat away more effectively to be burned up.

So lets now have a look at two of these common stubborn fat spots!

Love Handles

Love handles can be typically seen on the area above your hips (as seen in the pic). The cause of this can be put down to an insulin issue indicating that your body need help handling the carbohydrates and sugar that is in your current diet. Normally insulin regulates blood glucose levels and directs excess glucose to the liver and muscles where it is stored as glycogen ready to fuel the demands of the body. In Robb Wolf’s simple terms “insulin puts nutrients into our cells.” Wolf goes on to explain that “insulin is released from the beta cells of the pancreas primarily in response to increasing blood levels of glucose and amino acids playing a significant role in micronutrient storage and conversions.”

Foods that absorb into the blood stream slowly are classed as having a low glycaemic load while foods that absorb fast have a high rating based on the glycaemic index rating of food and portion size. If you chose a clean and manily low GL foods you can prevent sugar peaks and energy dips. Keeping your blood sugar stable will great for love handle control.

The problem arises with your diet or better put modern day diets which are high in sugar, just look at the cereals and drinks below! You may not even be aware of these hidden sugars and on average we can consume as much as 30 teaspoons every day!

This abnormal amount of sugar found in the modern diet can lead to a condition called insulin resistance which leads to adult onset diabetes due to not managing blood sugars correctly or storing glucose properly. When this happens more insulin is produced in order to control any excess glucose this means fat accumulates in the fat tissue. Where as if insulin levels are low, fatty acids are mobilised from the fat tissue and fat deposits shrink. In some some people with obesity for example the number of insulin receptors on their cells appear to be reduced. Their bodies response by increasing insulin as mentioned above to obtain the same degree of plasma glucose control as normal healthy people.

Even worse is high-fructose corn syrup which is found in every processed food imaginable and according to Loren Cordain PhD “powerfully promotes insulin resistance.”

So did our stone age ancestors never have sugar? In actual fact they did have sugar in the form of honey, dates and figs – these sources of food weren’t always available due to the seasons. Loren Cordain PhD and Joe Friel MS show in the paleo diet for athletes that you don’t have to ban all sweets and can “eat all the fresh fruits that you like, and have certain spices such as vanilla, ginger, mint leaves, cinnamon and nutmeg to recipes.”

Stomach Fat

“The thickness of your umbilical skin fold (belly button) is a reflection of your cortisol output and is a direct reflection of your stress levels and their ability to handle it” says Charles Poliquin.

Stomach fat can be caused by stress (burnout), lack of sleep, bad diet etc. So when Joe Bloggs decides it’s time to get fit and hit the roads or joins a gym and starts doing lots of cardiovascular training and a bit of weights here and there he could in actual fact first benefit by following a more mindfulness programme, to help manage his lifestyle better and get happy, Alejandro Junger mentions in his book Clean that the adrenalin and cortisol created during stress also speed up the acidifying process and backs up the use of following a mindfulness practice.

It is in the adrenal gland that we will find the zona fasciculata which is responsible for the production of cortisol. We will also find the adrenal medulla in the adrenal gland which produces adrenaline. Both cortisol and adrenaline are produced when we find ourselves in stressful situations.

If we look at adrenaline first: adrenaline is produced in small amounts to regulate normal blood pressure, check out the picture below and take note at the size of the vessels and the size of the white arrows which is adrenaline. Nothing going on there to worry about but…

During stressful situations or during a event where we are forced in to a fight-or-flight response.

From watching the video you can clearly see that large amount of adrenaline are produced very quickly and have a dramatic effect on the body. All in case we need to run away or fight, basically so the body is ready for action.

• Raises blood sugar levels by stimulating the liver to change glycogen into glucose
• Causes fatty tissue to release fat into the blood along with protein
• Increases the heart rate
• Increases the speed of breathing
• Increases blood flow to the muscles
• Reduces blood flow to the skin and the intestines
• Widens the bronchioles
• Dilates the pupils

Look at the difference in the size of the vessels which have now vasodilated, which means there has been a widening of the blood vessels and the flow of the blood is increased which in turns carries more adrenaline hence one reason why the white arrow are bigger. The adrenal gland also produces more adrenaline which is the other reason the white arrows are bigger, so more adrenaline produced to fill a wider vessel results in ill health.

Shawn Talbott PH.D has a paragraph in his book The Cortisol Connection that I’d like to share with you now.

“In our fast paced, hurry hurry, twenty first century world, almost of all us are stressed out, sleep deprived, and hyper concerned about our diet and food choices. Because of this chronic stress unfortunately  most of us are also fat.”

This shows in today’s world, people suffer from stress (in different ways and over different things) and whatever way it is the body will respond to it in the same way which is to produce adrenaline. So this is happening in situations where no physical activity happens and the list for this is endless:

• Sitting exams/deadlines
• Even increasing society and family issues that we read about in the news and see on Jeremy Kyle day in day out
• Work-related pressure and balancing this out with home life
• Money
• Living conditions
• Our appearance
• Driving
• Lack of sleep
• Our status in society working class to upper class

All these and more issues can lead to an unhealthy release of sugar stores into the blood and cortisol causing ill health. Most people relate cortisol to being a stress hormone which is a little misleading Robb Wolf states that cortisol is critical to life and a lack of it results in health problems! you can’t win can you! well in actually fact you can so read on.

The graph above by Robb wolf shows  how a normal day starts for a non stressed person or how it started for our paleolithic ancestors. Am starts with high cortisol levels and this is intended to make sure you are alert and ready to go and by pm when we are winding down its drops. Now how many of us have a normal non stressful day every day or for at least longer than a month? Doesn’t happen does it? Look above again at the list of why people get stressed. How many things did our paleolithic ancestors get stressed over on that list?

Now please don’t think our paleolithic ancestors never got stressed because they did but it most likely never lasted long (acute) or was as chronic as we have as they were too busy surviving the elements. We were built to cope with stress on an acute level that’s why we have the fight-or-flight response. Can we respond to missed mortgage payments in a fight-or-flight response? No we can’t as it has further implementations on what we do or can do in future. This means that our graph above would look more like the one below.

Cortisol wants to break down your muscle and increase body fat, the very things that you hope to avoid. So when the sugar is released into the blood it is then taken by insulin to the cells for energy. The only thing is the cells don’t need the sugar for energy as we are not in a fight-or-flight response as we are just dealing with any of the issues listed above, so where does it go? The body does not want to waste it so it is simply stored as body fat. If we were dealing with a real fight-or-flight response the body would use the sugar up and the body would begin to sort it self out and find its balance.

Long exposure to cortisol according to some leading researchers is where real damage can occur, you can experience any of the following:

• Accelerated ageing
• Stomach fat deposition
• Loss of muscle mass
• Loss of bone mass (Can increase the risk of osteoporosis developing)
• Heart disease
• Potential damage to brain cells

Having a coffee or a cigarette can stimulant your body and produce more cortisol. The real problem with cortisol is the way that it forces itself on to cells, it will dock onto hormone receptors by fighting off progesterone (steroid hormone involved in the female menstrual cycle and it’s also in the male body at lower levels). Cortisol will win over progesterone due to the receptor favouring cortisol, this means the progesterone in woman who are permanently stress is less active. Researchers now believe that progesterone helps to burn fat and stimulate bone building cells called Osteoblasts.

Now once the cortisol is attached to the receptor guess what your body does? It sends a signal to the brain to produce more! and not only that but cortisol increases the production of oestrogen the list below shows how the progesterone and oestrogen effects mostly balance each other out.

Too much oestrogen can lead to oestrogen dominance:

Oestrogen dominance can occur at any age but it is more likely to occur in the years preceding and during the menopause. Just as the progesterone hormone is found in small amounts in the male body so too is the male hormone testosterone found in small amounts in the female body. To much production of testosterone in the female body can lead to a lack of ovulation, low sex drive and development of male characteristics such as facial hair.

According to Jerry Brainum cortisol also plays an important role post-exercise, by helping to supply fat in order to power muscle-protein-synthesis reactions. So cortisol is definitely not all bad it is just a matter of how you manage your lifestyle and training. Jerry goes on to state that an easy way to manage cortisol is to get sufficient rest between exercise sessions, and also enough sleep. Research also shows that a higher protein intake and in-particular branched-chain amino acids, also helps with recovery.

I’ve only touched the tip of the iceberg here everything that I have talked about can lead to you being very unhealthy. This could even cause you to be put in a life threatening situation and that’s one thing we all want to avoid. The good news is that by addressing the situation your in correctly and make key achievable positive changes your body will change for the better.

I hope you have enjoyed this article? If so, please your comments in the box below.

Stay healthy,

Just how strong is the link between alcohol, smoking and stress? I’ll begin this article by supplying you with a general overview of modern living demands, this will help set the tone for the rest of the post.

General Overview

Foley (2010) writes that modern living has increased the delusion of self-importance to an individual. He writes we are desperate to seek a gourmet lifestyle despite the fact it isn’t sustainable. He claims people are more eager than ever to remain young and that the things that people want are devalued once they get them by the things they want next.

If this view is true of the country, it paints a rather grim picture! It suggests people are materialistic, self-consumed, frivolous and don’t care for things that truly matter. Morals, values etc.

I will now move on to give some statistics regarding excessive stress, smoking and alcohol consumption at a national level. First alcohol consumption: There are three types of drinking that have been identified as a cause of ill health. These are: Hazardous drinking, dependent drinking and harmful drinking. To find the defined meanings of these three types of drinking simply follow this hyperlink. The point that needs to be made here is that within the past few years there has been an increase in the amount of people that drink in these three types of ways.

In summary:

• For women who drink hazardously (Twice over the recommended limit once a week) there was a 7% to 16% from 1998 to 2006
• For men in the same category there was an increase from 20% to 24% within the same time period
• For men who drink harmfully (Show clear signs of alcohol-related harm) there was a rise from 19% to 24% from 2005 to 2007, and 8% to 15% for women through the same period of time
• For dependent drinking (people who have lost control of their drinking and have trouble withdrawing from alcohol) there has been a 24% increase between 2000 and 2007. Adult Psychiatric Morbidity in England, 2007: results of a household survey (NHS, 2009)

The worrying trend is that for all types of drinking that lead to ill health, there has been an increase in recent years. I want to look at why this may happen. In modern times people feel that they are having to work more and yet receive less pay. This is a cause of stress and rightly so. Alcohol is considered by many as an aid to unwind and/or relax. If the amount of stress rises in a persons life, the amount of alcohol they consume to try and counter the stress will increase. It is a vicious circle and is something that the government should look to combat at a national level. I will talk about what the government are doing to combat this later on in the article.

Smoking

In summary:

• There are around 10 million people who smoke in the UK, that is around a 6th of the population
• 22% of adult men are smokers and 19% of adult women are smokers
• Research suggests poorer people smoke. 14% of adults in managerial positions smoke where as 33% of adults in manual occupations smoke. (Action on Smoking and Health, 2014)

The last statistic suggests that a lack of money or a worry about where money is going to come from in order to make or maintain a living is a cause of stress on people. The following video gives reasons as to why people smoke, it also points out how advertising in years gone by have encouraged smoking. This has been extremely damaging to people as they would buy cigarettes and the nicotine within them caused people to become addicted, which essentially will kill a person over time.

Stress

In summary:

• Work-related stress is defined as a harmful reaction that people have to undue pressures and demands placed on them at work. (HSE, 2013)
• Work-related stress caused workers in Great Britain to lose 10.4 million working days in 2011/12 based on the LFS data. (HSE, 2013)

I myself have had first hand experience of what it is like to live with someone who suffers from work-related stress. The relative who suffers from the illness told me that missing days at work due to this illness only makes the illness worse. Having time off work for stress causes more stress because the person is worrying about having time off work. This is again another example of a vicious circle and is something which needs to be resolved. I will discuss later what is being done by the government to help fight the problem of stress within the UK.

I will now look at statistics concerning mental health, alcohol consumption and the smoking of cigarettes on a local level in Solihull, Birmingham.

Alcohol Consumption

In summary:

• Around 70% of admissions to hospitals in Birmingham are alcohol related
• Alcohol misuse has been a feature in over 500 cases of child protection from 2012
• The cost to the economy for people missing work through alcohol abuse is £30 million (Vaughan, M, 2012)

Heartlands Hospital situated near the center of Birmingham is within an area called Bordesley Green. A key question that relates to the topic in this article is, does the geographic have an effect on the persons drinking, smoking and stress? Many people in the Bordesley Green area are out of work and they may use alcohol to get rid of their problems if only a temporary solution. From what has been in this article already, it is clear that there is a link between stress and work. Whether it be that someone is out of work and can’t find a job or whether they have a job but it stresses them out. Work is the one constant that causes stress and the variables that people may use to help relieve that stress are smoking cigarettes and the consumption of alcohol.

Smoking

In summary:

• The figures show that the overall rate for smoking attributable deaths during 2006-08 was 211.09 per 100,000 population aged 35 and over in the West Midlands, compared to 206.81 for England
• The impact on the NHS is also evident in the volume of smoking attributable hospital admissions, which stands at almost 1,340 per 100,000 in the West Midlands compared to less than 1,266  for the whole of England (NHS, 2010)

These stats show that the average of deaths due to smoking in the West Midlands is higher than the rest of the country. Again the geographic of Birmingham and the West Midlands comes into question as the West Midlands holds a stigma that it is not a very nice place to live. If this is true, it may be a reason in itself as to why people smoke. They smoke because they are stressed and they are stressed because they can’t move out of an area they don’t like because they can’t afford to. The link between stress, work and smoking can be seen clearly in this example.

Stress

In summary:

• An organisation called Mental Healthy did a UK regional survey in 2010 and found that although the East Midlands is the happiest place to live in the UK – the West Midlands, Wales, Northern Ireland and London fared worst

This statistic cements the idea that the geographic has an effect on the stress of an individual. Added to the stress of everyday life is the fact that a person is just not happy with where they live. Waking up everyday and having the world around you acting as a depressant is only going to add to a persons level of stress.

I will now talk about what the government is doing to help combat excessive smoking, drinking and stress.

Smoking

The government have worked with the NHS to produce ‘Quit Kits’ designed to help the user quit smoking. In the kit you will find:

• A leaflet telling you where you can get professional help
• An addiction test to test your dependency on cigarettes
• Examples of medication to help stop smoking
• Celebration stickers
• A toy designed to help keep the hands busy instead of holding a cigarette

Having reviewed the Quit Kit myself, I would say it is good and can be effective but ultimately the success of the kit comes down to how motivated the person trying to quit is. I feel that this kit partnered with one to one direct support can really help people quit smoking. If you visit this website, there are many options as to how you can quit smoking along with the Quit kit and one to one support.

Alcohol Consumption

There is an organisation backed by the government called Alcoholics Anonymous. There are branches nationwide and offer people the chance to meet with other alcoholics in small groups and discuss and share their problems and work on finding common solutions. The number for alcoholics anonymous is: 0845 769 7555.

This organisation has been around for a number of years and the fact it is still trusted by the government indicates they believe this organisation is working.

To identify if you have a problem with alcohol consumption, visit this website. It will also provide you with further information as to how you can stop.

Stress

The following website is provided by the NHS. At the bottom of that page you will find a few tips on how to deal with stress, talking about stress to your GP is one suggestion for example. Another way to help combat stress is to find support groups local to you which can be done on a search directory on the above page.

Thanks for taking the time out to read my article! Please find below my five top tips to quit smoking, decrease alcohol consumption and to relieve stress.

My Top Five Tips to Quit Smoking

1. Do not go cold turkey! Trying to stop completely at once will not work! Reduce the amount you smoke daily until you feel ready to stop all together
2. If you have quit for a while but then lapse and smoke a cigarette, don’t think its all over! Simply try again and remind yourself how infuriating it was when you gave in and had  cigarette last time!
3. Quit with a friend. You can motivate and support each other along the way
4. Find a reason to quit. Do you have kids? Second-hand smoke will effect your children and could hinder their health. If not doing it for them do it for yourself! Add years onto your life expectancy by kicking the habit
5. Think of the benefits. Uplifted appearance, fresher breath and say goodbye to that horrible smell of cigarettes!

My Top Five Tips to Decrease Alcohol Consumption

1. Decrease slowly, trying to go cold turkey will not end well
2. Limit the amount of alcohol in the house. If the temptation is not there it decreases the chances of you drinking
3. Find a reason to quit. If you have children, do you want them to be drinking like you when they are your age? set a good example
4. Think of the money you will save. Alcohol is not cheap. Not buying it allows you to spend the money elsewhere for better purposes
5. Realise the consequences drinking has on your health. Problems with the liver is a common problem

My Top Five Tips to Decrease Stress

1. Take time out for yourself. If you spend a lot of time doing things for others, put yourself first for a while
2. Find a hobby. A hobby however simple it may be can help you forget about the stress’ of life for a while
3. Get plenty of sleep. A brain deprived of sleep will only make the feeling of stress worse
4. Spend time around those that make you happy. A night out with friends or a night in with the kids can really uplift or relax a person suffering with stress
5. Realise help is always on hand whether it be from friends, family or schemes set up by the government if you are looking for more professional help

Thanks again!

Its great to be back and able to do a review for the MP45 Workout and Meal Plan Program.

This incredible exercise and nutrition program is one of the best available online today, the program is also huge with gym users around the world. The brain behind MP45 is the popular fitness brand Muscle Prodigy.

What I really like about this programme is that all your gym workouts and meal plans are listed in a step-by-step guide and schedule. All the hard work has been done and all we need to do is follow the plan! Due to it’s design this program is suitable for both males and females of any age or fitness level. For total convenience you can downloaded this programme on your phone, tablet or computer and get creating your dream body!

Workout Plan

MP45 is a 45 day plan that will completely transform your body over the four phrases that are broken down into the following:

• Week One – Laying the foundation
• Weeks 2 & 3 – Building the base
• Weeks 4 & 5 – Lean Muscle Activation
• Weeks 6 & 7 – The final phase

1. Protein Powder

Protein powder is one of the supplements that play a great role in the body and I’d recommend trying protein from Kinetica Sports. Typically, these proteins usually contain straight proteins and typically have little dietary fat or carbohydrates. Sometimes, protein powder will have no dietary fat or carbohydrates at all. It is essential that you keep in mind that other protein powders are on the market and each brand tries to achieve certain goals. Do your homework before buying any of these proteins and make sure you know what it is supplying your body.

2. Weight Gainer Supplements

Weight gainers are among the most common supplement that you will find and most people who take them involve strength training. These supplements usually target those people trying to build their muscle mass and for this reason, they require a calorie surplus. This calorie surplus plays a crucial role in the body, as it is the one that helps create some new body tissues when combined with some heavy weight lifting. Most weight gainer supplements will usually feature a combination of carbohydrates and proteins while some also include some fats though in small amounts.

3. Meal Replacement Supplements

The next highly convenient supplements that will perfectly in and around your lifestyle are the meal replacement supplements. These are essentially ready to server or pre-mixed drinks, which are convenient to take while training. Ideally speaking, meal replacement supplements are more or less the same as weight gain powers in that they will have dietary fat and carbohydrates added in. In most cases, meal replacement supplements recommended most sports have much lower values of calories. These supplements allow you to enjoy the advantage availed by a complete meal without risking to gain weight undesirably. 

4. Protein Snacks

Protein snacks are a very general category of convenient supplements, which are equally important just like the rest. While protein bars are included in this, you will find so many snack problems available out there that you should also consider. Such includes high protein cereals, power packed popcorn, protein puddings, protein jerky, protein pretzels and protein chips.

Just make sure that you explore your options for convenient supplements available on the market when deciding on what is right for you. All these supplements have all the nutrients you need to fully cover your dietary needs.

This means that receiving advice and guidance from professionals and experts can be of benefit. However, it also means getting help and assistance with what you want to put into your body. The old sayings of “you are what you eat” or “rubbish in, rubbish out” are all very true with respect to building muscles. The right diet can help you to feel great but there is also a lot to be said for taking supplements to provide you with further benefits in your muscle growth goals.

While protein supplements are very popular, you may receive more effective results by adding glutamine supplements to your regular routine. This is an amino acid and it has become a popular supplement amongst many within the body building and weight lifting community.

Glutamine is a very versatile supplement

There are many different benefits provided by glutamine and for this reason, it is considered to be one of the most versatile supplements. The human body has a number of amino acids in it but glutamine is the one that is most commonly found. As well as being found in the muscles, glutamine can be found in the brain, in your liver, in your lungs and even in your blood.

Help your muscle tissue to stay healthy

Scientific research has uncovered that exercise impacts on the muscle tissue, causing it to release sizeable doses of glutamine. If you work out regularly or in an intense manner, you may find that your glutamine levels will drop. In some cases, glutamine has been found to drop by around 50%. People working out intensely or regularly will find that their body uses up and gives out more glutamine than is found in a regular diet and what can be produced by the body.

One of the biggest reasons to add glutamine to your routine is the fact that it is an anti-catabolic agent. This means it can play a crucial role in preventing muscles tissues which are set to metabolised from breaking down. When the level of glutamine in the body falls, particularly after workouts, muscle tissue can be damaged and the body may enter a catabolic state. Therefore, adding glutamine to your body can prevent this from happening.

Take glutamine and stay healthy

A drop in glutamine can also impact on your immune system. This means if you are looking to stay as healthy as possible, topping up your glutamine levels makes a lot of sense. It is important to ensure that your immune system is properly fuelled when you are working hard. This can help to minimise the risk of overtraining and the negative side effects that come with this situation.

Another strong reason why many athletes look to boost their glutamine levels comes with the fact that it provides an anti-inflammatory benefit. This can help to reduce the level of inflammation that some athletes and body builders experience after a workout. For this reason, glutamine is also a supplement that is recommended for patients who are recovering from surgery or for people who have suffered burns, trauma and other ailments.

Sophisticated Gym Wear

This season is all about being a gentleman even when you are working out. Maybe it is the Great Gatsby effect, or simply that our gym wear has become dull; whatever the reason it is time to smarten up. Starting with this Superdry Henley T-Shirt. This is the perfect example of smart, functional sportswear. The collar adds in all the sophistication you need, whilst the logos are neatly placed to give the overall look of a college named sweat top. The Superdry collection at: www.littlewoodsireland.ie is a great place to start hunting for your gym look.

The general rules for sophisticated gym wear are plain colours, white high top trainers and of course a collar.

The Hooded Sweatshirt

When we consider the classic hooded top, we think thick material, bulky and too warm for the gym. However, they ultimately look timeless and are the epitome of sportswear, but they now have a fresher, gym perfect redesign. The hooded sweatshirt is breathable, easy to style over shorts or jogging bottoms and is fashion forward enough to be worn out after your workout.

Now, there are many forms of hooded sweatshirts available, from the long sleeved classic through to the short sleeved version. Which style you choose will really come down to what you are wearing the item for. Tennis, weights and kick boxing will require freedom of movement in your arms; opting for short sleeved here would definitely be the best look.

The Bright Trainers

When we say bright, we mean it. This seasons trainers are all about colour over anything else, from luminous oranges through to leaf greens – there will be a colour to suit everyone’s personality. Let’s face it, we may not all want to wear purple trainers, so this has to come down to you as an individual rather than what the trends decide for us.

If you are struggling to get on board with the incredibly bright, then why not pick a pair of running shoes like this Adidas pair from the collection of men’s running shoes at Littlewoods. The blue is bright enough to be bang on the trend, but they are muted enough to match with variety of shorts and sweatpants. On top of all this they promote the integral safety elements that you need when running. The EVA inner sole has been designed for maximum comfort and to take the full impact, making these trainers not just fashion forward, but protective of your joints too.

Thanks,

Swimming

Speedo’s new Powerflash Thinstrap Muscleback suit is reasonably priced and comes in a range of candy colour-inspired colourways. Our personal favourite is the mid blue with the pale aqua and black details. The suit is made from super durable material that will allow you to get full daily use out of the Powerflash for a long time.

Football

Nike’s newest innovation in football boots are the Hypervenom model. Created in striking orange and black, the aesthetics of the boot reflect the agility and adaptability of the shoe, allowing the player to make extremely quick reactions on the pitch.  The boot is priced around £100 and is available from all major high street sporting goods retailers.

Tennis

Fred Perry racerback tennis dress from John Lewis. This item is the perfect ‘fashion’ look for a day on the court channelling Jordan from The Great Gatsby. The pleats create a fantastic retro 1920s look. A very classic outfit if you’re going somewhere special to relax and play some tennis.

Yoga

From the H&M sportswear range, we recommend their sports tops for affordable yoga wear. These lightweight items in fashionable neutrals and neon are perfect for stashing in your work bag ready for your class at the end of the day. H&M’s sportswear line has won rave reviews from plenty of fitness bloggers for style and affordability.

Dance

Bloch Crossover Fleece from MoveDancewear.com is a very handy and stylish addition to have in your dance wardrobe rotation.  It’s cropped style allows the item to be worn over a number of different shirts and leotards, which makes for a great cover up when the temperature gets a little chilly.

Climbing

Charko chalkbags are made in Barcelona from organic cotton. They come in a range of fun prints from camo, to grass, to newsprint. They come with drawstring closer and a brush holder. They’re also very reasonably priced, at just under £20.  Perfect for keeping your climbing essentials stowed away safely.

Running

Although you should find an expert running shoe retailer to find the perfect shoe for your feet and running style, the Saucony Progrid Mirage is new and claims to be able to give you a cushioning effect combined with a lightweight running shoe experience.

If you make an investment in your workout clothes, they should need replacing less often. Spending money on good quality brands can often be the more economical choice. Think about items in terms of cost-per-wear, so sometimes you might find it’s better to spend more. However, there are tons of great online resources which will give you honest reviews of the product you are interested in. Gather the best advice you can and remember – everyone is different, and everyone’s needs from workout wear differ accordingly.

Thanks for reading,

Bodybuilding supplement shave become extremely popular for body builders, sportsmen, athletes, dieters and gym goers over the years. With so many brands and new product developments, it can be difficult to keep up with the latest trends and product launches. If you are new to using supplements to aid your performance at the gym, take a look at our top 5 brands for some guidance.

Here we look at 5 of the most popular and most trusted brand names in the sports supplements market. Although there are now many names out there, a few key names still remain as the leading favourites for regular body building customers. So if you are looking for supplements to help you with building muscles, increasing your strength, maximising your energy and your strength, helping you with your performance, or aiding weight loss and fat burn, then take a look at some of the leading brands.

PHD

PHD is a sports nutrition and whey protein provider and the company strives for perfection with every product range. PHD’s mission statement ensures their customers that they offer only the best tasting products around and they are dedicated to producing effective supplements to their clients.

Currently, their product range includes body mass and muscle building, weight loss, performance, body sculpting and recovery.

Maximuscle

This supplier has grown at an incredible rate thanks to it effective product range. The company focuses heavily on conducting research to ensure that each of their product lines gives the best possible performance for its customers. The research is highly effective and supports the unique formulas which help with bodybuilding and sporting performance.

Optimum Nutrition

Founded in 1987, this super brand is recognised around the world and has already built a respectable reputation within the industry. They are famous for being the creators of 100% whey protein and their books also include outstanding products such as Serious Mass Bulk Up, Gold Standard 100% Casein and Essential Amino Energy.

Reflex

Reflex, which was started in 1996 in the UK by James Phillips, has become a popular brand of supplements  over the years and they currently focus their product ranges in 5 key areas; high protein, muscle and strength, energy and endurance, weight management and vitality. The company prides itself on using the finest ingredients and sourcing the best possible ingredients to use in their protein powders.

Hope this article helps you,