Physiology has a lot to do with the way we train, eat, perform and generally look. What I’m seeing a lot of right now is a lot of blanket prescription from so called ‘experts’ and people generally within the industry.

By gloriously proclaiming that its ‘ok’ to eat a particularly food group in large quantities or explaining the specific way we should all be training then basking in the rapturous applause you get from your brethren is something frankly I could do on a daily basis.

You see, in this industry it’s very easy with the invention of the Internet and mass marketing to make a name for yourself. There are a plethora of fat loss experts across the nation and celebrity trainers who will happily make you aware of that fact. Hell, I even did a business consult with a chap who became a ‘strength coach/educator’ overnight after it and still has a logo uncannily like mine. I know for a fact he knows nothing about strength training and when I also politely asked him to change his logo he chose to ignore my polite request. I therefore feel I’m perfectly within my rights to mention him. I won’t name him as thats not my style but I know he’ll read this.

A couple of notable ‘expert’ quotes for you to consider and their social following statistics. When I say ‘system’ I mean their blanket prescriptive method they’ve chosen to bestow upon the population. This is more than likely their solution to world peace and a growing bank account alongside it.

“Women should never lift more than 2.5kg”

 Twitter 48,001 followers FB 62,800 ‘system’ likes

“If you chew your food less you will absorb less calories.” 

 Twitter 6157 followers FB 19,444 personal likes FB 40,127 ‘system’ likes. 

You understand the power of this if you go on any of these pages and question these statements…dare you…you’ll get destroyed by thousands of keyboard warriors, even possibly death threats for defying their ‘religion’.

I choose to the best of my ability not to make any of these statements, as the way I see it it’s an abuse of power. When I teach my courses I am in a position where I could pull a statistic quite frankly out of my arse and get 60-100 trainers then quoting that for the next 5 years. I don’t and that is why when I speak to trainers in educational seminars I actively encourage questions and if someone disagrees its cool. Why? Because lo and behold I’m human and I could well be wrong, miss-read something or quite simply miss-understood something.

A lot of what I’m talking about takes me back to my very early weight training days and due to a multitude of factors the way I used to plan my training. At the tender age of 14 when I started picking up weights pretty much the only resource I had was literature I would find strewn across the gym reception or the occasional magazine I would blow my pocket money on. Not to show my age but the Internet wasn’t really available when I was that age sadly.

Much like when I hear ‘oh I don’t want to get too big’ or ‘not too lean’ I would look at these guys and think, I would like to look like that and therefore did the routines that they had published in Flex mag, Ironman, muscle and fitness or whatever it may have been. They looked like I wanted to look so therefore must know what they’re doing. NOT always the case.

The problem unbeknown to me, or the fact I was oblivious/ignorant to it was:

A) These guys has been in the trenches and lifted for a LONG time.

B) A large number of them are at the top of the genetic tree, being riddled with good muscle bellies, small joints, appropriate muscle insertions for the sport and good fiber types. This is NO excuse btw it just means certain people will never grace the stage of the Mr Olympia.

C) Many would be using hormonal assistance.

They say a picture never lies but they can certainly be misleading. Many of these guys would only look like this for the shoot or a few days, many are shorter than you may think so look a LOT bigger than they may in the flesh. So many factors I never considered but I would still pick up the mag and do Lee Priests or whoever’s workout it may have been.

There are a tonne of factors when considering training prescription, supplements and also nutrition. Just because I’m a powerlifter, eat a low carb diet for the most part and use barley starch as my chosen post workout carb DOES NOT mean that my clients will do this, it does not mean this is what I would suggest to people and it DOES NOT mean I personally will always do this. This makes me VERY narrow-minded and to be honest VERY stupid.

When people ask me ‘what I do’ that is why sometimes there is a little hesitancy as depending on who is in front of me and why they’re asking will often depend on my answer.

The human body is ever evolving, assuming we’re doing things right it will be positively doing so. As it does this certain things change therefore training, nutrition and supplements will also change. There are elements that may never change and that is what I like to call ‘base physiology’ this, if we’re talking science is your control and the rest your variable.

What happens typically to carbohydrate metabolism and tolerance, as someone gets leaner? I’m not going to answer that but if your trainer who is 8% body fat and an ectomorph is continuously telling you at 20% body fat with poor digestion, the physiological characteristics of an endomorph and a history of insulin resistance that carbs are ‘fine’ for you. The answer to quote a good teacher of mine ‘Depends’.

Answer me this:

Is an overweight person with insulin resistance going to applaud when you tell them carbs are fine to eat? Damn right they are, I would love someone to tell me I can eat a bunch of carbs and get leaner. Fact of the matter is I can’t.

NB: ‘I’ can’t doesn’t mean other people can’t.

Anyone who read my article on systems failure will understand why a system will not work. If I was to blanket prescribe what I personally do to all of my clients my success rate would be ‘ok”.  Wouldn’t be great but I bet a decent amount of them would respond pretty well. I could document those cases and sell myself around those ‘success’ stories and testimonials. I am lucky enough to have a reasonable size following on social networks so have a decent amount of Internet power. Recently after a question posted by someone a few people commented that I was one of the best trainers around, obviously HUGELY flattered but a large amount of them have never trained with me…you see how in some ways that worries me about the industry.

Fig 1. NOT me by the way.

If I chose too I could write a book, sell a supplement or food range, create a dietary system based around my teachings and beliefs. The problem in doing so is I then fail to understand and comprehend human physiology and its ever-evolving needs. I’ll make a lot of money potentially?  Given the right funding and support anyone on this planet could profit from people desperation to lose weight. It genuinely isn’t rocket science and people do it and have done it for decades. Could I make more money than I do? Of course, could I sleep at night? I doubt.

I give a crap about this industry, my clients and the people in the industry with me. This is why I take great satisfaction in teaching trainers and coaches. I DO NOT have the goal of a bunch of mini me’s preaching what I say.  My goal is for a network of trainers with independent thought processes that together can resolve, find solutions and ultimately make what we have better. There is only so much one person can read, fully understand or specialize in right?

In order to do this we must have open minds and be prepared to listen, change and evolve our thinking.

To pull one of my responses to a recent discussion:

“Education is about the willingness to listen and sometimes understand that despite the thought you may have all the information you never do. To dismiss something is the most idiotic thing anyone can do alongside making a blanket statement as to what is ‘best’ for the human body. Anyone claims they have the solution or make a physiological statement pertaining to ‘the human’ has NO idea about human physiology am sorry. Let alone claiming they know ANYTHING about changing it. I will quite happily put my hand up and say I’m wrong and also always say when something is my opinion. Anyone who knows me, has been taught by me, heard me speak or read any of my articles I hope will know that”.

Keep learning people and don’t be a smart-ass who has all of the answers. You don’t have them, no one does and generally when you may think have just grasped it you pick up something new that causes you to question it.

Our will to succeed, our will to move forward, our will to make decisions based on our desired outcomes and hell, even our will to live.

You look at the world today and a large part of what and who surround us are put there to take control and manipulate our will. The premise behind this for the most part is that someone somewhere along that line will become financially profitable from this or someone will simply get his or her own way.

I would be VERY confident I could manipulate the way someone feels, their emotional responses, the way they operate and even how rationally they make decisions. This could be brought about by a manipulation of dietary habits. If I was also given the opportunity to medicate them I could create a LOT of undesirable outcomes by masking and/or creating symptomatic problems…oh and probably make a lot of money out of them in the process.

Addiction is a large part of the problem we have. I talk a lot about changing people from both wanting and needing foods to just needing. If we can regulate this response wants become things out of the norm as opposed to a daily occurrences. This also lends itself to reinforcing positive habits. The issue that overlays this is the commercial messages being sent to use promoting, encouraging or even for the health conscious of us, fooling us into consuming things, in the US the message that overlays pharmaceutical medication is ‘ask your Doctor if its good for you’, seen on adverts alongside colorful breakfast cereals and all you can eat buffets.

We are consumers and that is the way the advertising industry sees us. We live in a world in which one of the major sporting events in the world is sponsored by a soft drinks company and fast food chain. An energy drink can fund a flight into space and we allow vending machines and billboards in our schools.

Lets go back onto symptoms to get a better understanding of what I’m getting at. If you have a headache we are that as a symptomatic problem, it hurts right. Could be one of many reasons why you have this headache but the priority isn’t to find out why, it’s to mask the pain from the sore head. We do these things in a very blaze fashion as its socially acceptable to ‘pop’ a paracetamol or ibuprofen right.

Common side effects of ibuprofen include:

• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Indigestion 
• Abdominal pain

Less common side effects include:

• Headache
• Dizziness
• Fluid retention
• Raised blood pressure
• Gastritis
• Duodenal or gastric ulcers
• Allergic reactions, such as a rash
• Worsening of asthma symptoms by causing bronchospasm (narrowing of airways)

Society says it’s ok so we just take these things without a thought, as it’s acceptable.

Do our peers play a role? YES they do hugely. Anyone who says they don’t care what others think of them are trying to mislead themselves as who else are we trying to send a message too?

I’ve spoke about the Doughnut person before and this has a few interesting issues. The doughnut person is the person that brings in the box of doughnuts as if everyone else has one they can have the one they’ve been craving guilt free. A few points are interesting about this.

Even the advertisers know this (This ad was created by an agency called Addiction uncannily).

It’s generally a Friday afternoon. It’s the start of the weekend and the end of the workweek therefore more acceptable. Imagine bringing them around on a Monday, people would question it right?

The person buying them will target the people they respect the most with their discipline, even diet. If they have one it ‘must’ be ok.

It’s generally around about the mid afternoon mark. The point at which following a traditional western diet structure our blood sugar will be at it’s lowest. This is the point at which the need becomes strong alongside the want. The only thing at this stage that will save someone is willpower.

Validating dietary choices is easy in today’s society when we consider that the two aforementioned companies that sponsored our Olympics are two of the top 20 brands in the world. Their joint value last year being in excess of 53 million dollars.

Obesity is becoming a standard norm; society has a major problem with behavioral issues that didn’t once exist. The dietary associations are huge and despite us having more medical and health knowledge something is failing us. To beg the question what doesn’t take a genius. People need to make a stand and dare to be different otherwise we are on a VERY slippery slope.

If you’ve read this piece you’re already of that mindset so BE one of those people!

A little perspective people…………

I can sit on my ass and watch TV for 2 hours a night but I can’t prepare food that will get me the physique I’ve always wanted.

I can’t prevent myself picking up, putting on the conveyor, buying, unwrapping, putting in my mouth, chewing and swallowing that food.

I can’t go a week without having an alcoholic drink with friends. (Is that an addict?)

I can’t afford to eat clean good quality food….Average price of a pint of beer in London is £3.50, packet of cigarettes £6-7.00

I can’t eat food at work because I get no breaks. My colleagues are allowed breaks to smoke though.

I can’t allocate 4 hours a week to improving my quality of life, my physique, my health and the ability to play with my kids in later years.

How many hours do you spend a week flicking through channels or on social networking moaning about your lack of achievement.

Saying I can’t do that after actually doing it…….I have a lot of people do that…..and they keep repeating whilst out of breath ‘I can’t do that’. Negative thinking…..get out of it people.

Its not that you CAN’T its that you choose not too!

I can’t possibly eat the same thing again and again in the pursuit of the body that will improve my health, my self esteem and my confidence. Also that I’ve always dreamed of. You think everyone even has that option?

I can’t do something different to all my peers……I want to fit in. This is one of the largest issues with society sadly. Take 5 people to McDonalds and one is on a strict eating regime……feels uncomfortable right?

I can’t go to the gym as I’ve injured my leg…….

I can’t go to the gym as I’ve injured my arm.

I can’t afford a gym membership.

Go to any low income area on this planet and you see fast fix, feel good hits that make use of disposable income….hair and nail salons, tattoo studios, gambling shops, lottery stations, alcohol, cigarettes and more than likely drug problems…. people need to prioritise expenditure and get out of bad patterns.

I can’t live without chocolate or sweets, I start my day with an energy drink.

Both cocaine use and carb consumption have been shown to have an almost identical  effect on the brain. Under stress or duress the body will look for anything that will illicit this happy feeling. Problem being the accompanying crash with give you anxiety, headaches and make your irritable, guess what will fix that…..more carbs. Add a hit of caffeine to these carbs and you have a drug as powerful and addictive as class A drugs.

Are food manufacturers aware of this?

I could coin a thousand quotes and ‘pep me up’ pics, videos etc and it can get as corny as hell but this is to serve to kick your own arse and give you a little shunt in the right direction…..

In the pursuit of size perhaps a hefty hit of gamma radiation would suffice. We could be big when we wanted to and find clothes that fit the rest of the time. Sadly this isn’t the case and the unfortunately for all you comic book buffs I’m going to also dispel sadly the reason that the incredible hulk simply could not exist.

I’ve always said it and will say it again that if you have any neuromuscular disturbance or physiological imbalance recruiting muscle tissue to illicit growth isn’t quite as simple as you may think or the ‘training’ aficionado may make you believe.

If I use one simple example of pec development. A large percentage of human beings in the western world have internally rotated shoulders. This means that the anterior head of the deltoid becomes over developed and the pecs shorten, in short it therefore inhibits them.

This will minimize the feedback mechanisms that we receive from the pecs and unfortunately the horizontal pressing movements we rely on to develop them will be achieved by using the anterior delt and triceps primarily.

This is a mechanical flaw but what if we had other things inhibiting development.

Let me explain to you a little about muscle tissue.

I don’t want to overcomplicate this but if you look at the above diagram. The areas that are of concern are the Epimysium, Perimysium and Endomysium.

The Epimysium is the outermost layer of connective tissue that surrounds and holds muscles in the body. Combined with the perimysium and endomysium of a muscle they form a collagenous cord of tissue, the tendon. All of these connective tissues are dense, irregular and have no particular directional orientation, combined these layers are part of whats termed as the muscular fascia.

Fascia is a thick sinewy substance that alongside the other tissues mentioned surrounds all of the structures in our body. Think of it almost like a wire mesh that keeps our cells, organs, bones, vessels, nerves and muscles intact and stable. When the mesh is in good condition the mesh allows for growth, like the fibres in lycra it allows capacity for expansion. If however the mesh has knots or restrictions in it, not only will it become a source of pain, tightness and limited movement but it will also inhibit the tissues ability to expand.

A quick one-on-one about muscle growth.

The whole intention that we have when trying to build muscle tissue is:

1). Recruit more motor units allowing more of the already existing tissue to be recruited. This is done through basic overload and lifting with speed. Think of it like having a million pounds in a bank but only being allowed access to half of it. You ‘on paper’ have the money but you can’t use it. Heavy lifting illicits a ‘survival’ response or what is known as the fight or flight mechanism. This will engage more fibres (motor units) within the muscle to allow to fight.

Motor neurons send the signals in response to stimulus and will fire whatever you basically need. Over time we can recruit more.

2) Take the recruited tissue and deplete it of glycogen by working the muscle group under continuous tension. Whilst doing so the tissue fills full of blood and sarcoplasmic fluid (THE PUMP) this expands the tissue causing the muscle fibres to swell and tear. This creates the byproduct of muscle breakdown, lactic acid to form which will create the delightful burning sensation. Termed as ‘Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy’.

Pretty simple right?

Now, if you consider the expansion of tissue. Quite simply Fascia is stronger than muscle tissue. If you have inhibition within the fascial network or what would be much like knotting or much like someone taking a set of pliars and pinching a few of the holes together. This could be caused by impact based damage, inhibitory patterns (as described above) or simply bad mechanical form in the gym.

As the mesh never changes size and ultimately ends in the formation of tendons all that occurs is inflamation around the joints or  inhibited movement patterns and/or pain.

These knots or pinched sections of mesh that form in damaged muscle tissue can be felt as nodules or knots of tightness. They restrict the stretch and swelling that can occur through Sarcoplasmic training and limit the capacity of blood that can be pushed into tissue. A way to think of it is like blowing a balloon up in a box, unless the box stretches the balloon has a limited capacity.

When seeking and pursuing the elusive pump and the adaptive increase in size we must ensure that fascia is healthy and pliable. Knotting in tissue or inhibitory patterns can create not only irregular and disproportionate development but also injuries and scenarios when simply sitting stationary can become painful and uncomfortable.

Because of muscular restriction, tightness, soft tissue adhesions, and neural-hyperactivity joint activity becomes hindered therefore the feedback loops to the CNS (Central Nervous System) become compromised.  Poor nerve signalling to muscle will compromise the contractile ability of that muscle group. If you can’t contract it, you can’t fill with blood or engage it therefore you cannot develop it!

I could go into further detail when talking about performance parameters but needless to say the benefit that the neuromuscular system gets from keeping these tissues healthy is huge.

Muscular development comes at a price and as we continue to break down tissue we ultimately must also look after what surrounds and encompasses it.

Don’t neglect soft tissue and self myofascial work, Foam rolling, Stick, Trigger Point work or get a practitioner to see you regularly using Deep Tissue techniques such as Active Release Technique (ART), before your next training session and between sets use some of these techniques to release tissue, you’ll be amazed at the difference.

Following on from my PARTIAL BOULDER DEVELOPMENT article this is another alternative approach to shoulder development. This is keeping the triceps fresh so we can work them separately.

A. Prone Rear Delt Swings (This is lying face down on an incline bench, these are swings with no squeeze of the upper back so we keep the load in the posterior delts. The weight will only come up to about 45 degrees)

4 sets 20-30 Reps 1111 Tempo, tension is kept continuous. 60 s rest.

Superset

B1. Heavy Partial Side Laterals with a hook at the top of the lift. (The weight is taken from the sides standing, raised only about 10-12″ to the sides then at the top the elbows are driven in a trajectory towards the ears)

4 sets 25 Reps 1111 Temp

B2. High leaning cable lateral raises. (The cable is brought to 45 degrees about the shoulder so HIGH)

4 sets 25 Reps 1111 Temp Rest 60-75s then repeat.

C. Partial Rep Machine press 4/1 Reps (4 partial reps followed by a full rep, 5 sequences so 25 total reps, set the machine so the handles are well below the line of the shoulders BIG stretch at the bottom)

4 sets 25 Reps 1111 Temp

Shoulders done…….triceps should you wish.

Business is business. I get that.

I’m just in the process of finalising my new website and of course one of the things I’m looking at is how will it be best served to promote my business and ultimately how will it help me make a living from my expertise and what I’ve learned over the years.

I love being productive, to the extent that, am sorry to tell you this. I may have replied to your email whilst in the bathroom……sorry. That’s how I work, I love what I do! Some days I get tired and a little neurally tired therefore need a break from it all and that’s ‘my’ time to do what I want to do. Right now I’m sat on a bus enroute to catch a train to Hull for a meeting with PhD, one of my sponsors. The journey will be 3 hours there, a 1.5hr meeting then 3 hrs straight back to London. I will still be editing and writing this enroute.

My point being is that although some of us truly enjoy what we do. Enjoy helping people we also enjoy the fact that what we can give will improve peoples lives. Part of that is improving the lives of those close around us, our family and friends by providing for them. Making a good living, enjoying doing that and also standing true to what we believe in is something that seems to get negated as soon as a ‘quick buck’ can be made.

I digress somewhat from the article topic so back to it.

The reason I was talking about what I was is that I need to quantify what I’m about to tell you.

sys·tem/ˈsistəm/

1. A set of connected things or parts forming a complex whole, in particular.
2. A set of things working together as parts of a mechanism or an interconnecting network.

Our industry is full of systems. We’ll have bought into these systems, in some cases literally ‘bought’ into them. Systems for nutrition, the zone, weight watchers, IF, keto, you name it. Systems for strength, power, hypertrophy, fat loss, you name it, someone out there has created a system, taken great pride in that fact, extracted enough circumstantial evidence to support or validate that system then pushed, sold, convinced you that it IS the only and the best way!

I assure you this. I could create a ‘system’ on the back of a beer mat. Fire up a website, find enough scientific reference that would validate it, plug it over social networking, get some devoted followers to plug it for me. Hell I could even employ people with no training whatsoever in the field of nutrition to sell my products on a commission base and incentivise them to get more people ‘Onboard’ who wish to ‘top up’ their earnings.

I used to train and do the dietary programming for one of the leaders of the worlds biggest dietary system….why? Well am sure you can answer that. She would still stand infront of a thousand+ people a week, charge them to stand on a scale in public view then tell them why they hadn’t lost ‘weight’.

This particular dietary system relies on joining fees, weigh in fees and the sale of their products. If it worked it would be a bad business right?

Human nature is interesting that if we try something and it works we remember that but we never remember why we failed. The re-joining statistics for this ‘club’ is incredible. A year after losing a bit of weight we remember ‘Oh I lost weight with them last year’ therefore we give it another try!

Stop trying and start DOING!!!!

Will systems work?

Yes they will for the most part.

Will they adapt and evolve in conjunction with your body as you progress?

No they won’t.

Therefore they fail or they get you diminishing returns. A pretty smart colleague of mine after a discussion about my own diet pointed out to me one of these ‘systems’ and he believed that it was an appropriate way to diet for everyone utilising a 40:30:30 split of nutrients. Now if we consider basic human requirements and demands you CANNOT put a number on anything. Much like a lot of things I’ve told you about the human being. Our bodies, through evolution and as much so devolution nowadays adapt to scenarios very well. Be them good or bad scenarios. We cannot base numbers or stats clinically on a ‘per lb of bodyweight’ approach or a height, weight or age approach. It simply won’t work. Asking ‘How many calories SHOULD I consume is a question I can’t answer. What I can ask is ‘How many DO you consume and whats it doing to you?’

Is five pieces of fruit or veg what everyone needs? Is 8 glasses of water right? Should a man consume 2500 cals and a woman 1500?

Both 100kg Men……

We need to consider insulin resistance or sensitivity, leptin resistance or sensitivity, thyroid hypo or hyper actions, training age, genetics, body type, overall hormonal and nutritional status, muscle fibre distribution, dietary history, refer to my Metabolic Damage article:

http://phillearneyblog.com/2012/08/12/a-bit-about-metabolic-damage/ 

……and a million other things.

Are systems useful?

Yes they are, they give us a template to learn, evolve and adapt from.

I sometimes worry when I write a program that it may be tagged as a system. Someone saw my diet the other day and instantly posted ‘Paleo’. It isn’t Paleo. Its what works for me. It has similarities but I certainly don’t follow a system based on a series of rules of what I can and cant do. I don’t buy T-shirts with the systems name on it and don’t buy a product as it also has their name on it. If I put a series of sets and reps there is a distinct possibility that someone has put their name to it. In one of my last mentorships I showed everyone a 5/10/15 rep system that was just used to explain a concept. A week later I get a few tweets from people saying they’re doing my ‘system’.

It’s not my system. I don’t own it but if someday my reputation is such that someone tags something as mine thats cool.

If we look at existing systems, 10×10, 5×5, 10×3, 6×4, 10×1 they all relate to one we’ve tried or utilised. I’ve seen people grow on 3 sets of 10 and seen people grow on

Will I write these sort of things, yes I will but they evolve with the individual. If the individual doesnt adapt or change the system simply needs reviewing as it doesnt work. If and when I do write about them I will certainly try to explain how to evolve them based on feedback.

Take systems with a pinch of salt. They won’t pay the mortgage, they wont fix health problems, they wont allow you to achieve everything you ever wanted. They may however allow a learning curve. Don’t be duped, if your business is crap because of a lack of attention to your clients, trying to sell them supplements to line your pocket through some pyramid scheme or some supplement that is touted by a Dr in a lab coat. I have four uncles that are doctors and am sure I could get them to push my ‘beer mat’ system if I asked them nicely. None of them are Doctors in anything relevant to nutrition but that doesnt matter right.

TAKE WHAT’S VALUABLE, ADAPT IT AND RE-INVENT IT!

A pretty light hearted look at the client trainer relationship and some serious undertones thrown in there.

If you intend asking your trainer if you can do something when you walk in…..don’t. If you do and they respond by saying, ‘yeah, sure we can’, fire them! They obviously have no plan and no idea what you’re actually there for. If you want to do what YOU think you should be doing or WANT to be doing you’re not ready to make the changes needed.

If you don’t intend listening to your trainer and feel heat magazine will have some more important and informed information just stay at home and save your money for magazine subscriptions.

If you don’t respect your trainers advice and what they can help you with as much as your accountant, lawyer, dentist or doctor get a new trainer. When any of the above speak we sit like nodding dogs, hand over our hard earned cash and often take any bright coloured pill they tell us to take, knowing nothing more than their word that it’s ‘good for you’. The last time I was in a Dr’s office (a long time ago) a Dr diagnosed me in about 3 minutes, gave me some pills and told me to take them. I actually knew what they where and uncannily a number of their potential side effects. I asked him if they had any and he said no. I dropped them in the bin in front of him as I left the practice.  I don’t nod, with glazed eyes at people who can’t do their jobs properly or lie to me.

If you want to role up late on your mobile phone and take your time over getting changed please stay at home. Your time is best served doing other things…..like nothing.

Feel free to ask questions if you don’t understand something, if your trainer can’t answer and doesn’t offer to find out I’d question if they’re actually out to help you or just make sure you fill a slot and pay your bill.

Trainers, don’t be rude! If your client owns a holiday villa in the Algarve it doesn’t give you the right to ask them for it. If they offer you it fine but don’t take advantage.

Your friend at the pub know nothing about training or nutrition!!

Your friend at the pub still knows nothing about training or nutrition even after a few drinks….

Please don’t tell us that you will do ‘whatever it takes’ and then proceed to ask when your next day off or cheat meal is. WE decide that and don’t need a prompt incase we forgot about it.

You’re not a delivery service for your trainer…..if you feel the need to bring them coffee for your pre-training chat about the weekend maybe you need to look at the true cost of that coffee.

It’s a two way street……I will give 100% if you do…..and thats how most good trainers work. Bad trainers give the bare minimum irellevent of of what the client puts in.

‘Oh its ok’ NO IT’S NOT!!! If you have a plan there is a reason for that plan. EVERYTHING counts. I don’t want to hear:

‘It was only a little bit’

‘I only had one’

‘But….’

If you feel that YOU still know best and think you should do more CV, should do less weights, more abs, feel the need to do ‘extra’ sessions as more is obviously better……DON’T! Thats what you pay us for!!! WE make the decisions, sure we can discuss things but we are P….R….O…..F……E….S……S…..I…..O…..N…..A…..L…..S.

Have a read of my Personal Training Rules as well, fairly closely associated to this post…….

http://phillearneyblog.com/2012/03/19/personal-training-rules/

I could be the bearer of bad news I’m sorry to say. Luckily as in most cases it isn’t all bad and the purpose behind this is to cut through the c**p and hopefully give some of you an idea of what lies ahead. Also giving you some realistic timelines for your goals and aspirations.

I’m not one to blow smoke up peoples arses and I won’t hold back with the harsh reality of what lies ahead for someone attempting to make a dramatic physical change to themselves. I will also tell you that a high percentage of people fail for a multitude of reasons. Many of the reasons are down to a lack of persistance and the belief that in a very short time frame a huge amount of large changes will be seen.

I will hold my hand up and say that am I partly to blame for this belief .When I am part of or witness an incredible physical change in a short time frame of course I want to show people it, to inspire people and for people to understand there is light at the end of the tunnel. The issue is that when I present something someone has never seen before it becomes contentious and it drags up all manner of irrationale reasoning as to ‘how’ they or I did it. Frankly I don’t care too much about what people think, I have no reason to utilise something to push my business and certainly don’t have the time to be mocking up pictures to claim that I’m something i’m not.  The reason I hold my hand up is that when I present a transformation the uneducated amongst us, the poor trainers and the sceptics will dismiss things without knowing ANYTHING about the person in front of them. I’m certainly not deceiving anyone I just wouldn’t want to divulge every last detail about my clients hormonal status, dietary history, dietary and training regime, sleep patterns, employment status, relationship status and all the other things that are actually relevant to the transformation.

In the pursuit of fat loss and conditioning many people become dissillusioned and defeated without ever seeing anything remotely positive. We consistently use body weight as our marker for physical improvement alongside perhaps how certain items of clothes fit. Getting skinny still remains something that is the perogative of many. This piece is primarily focused on women as historically they have the most issues with metabolic and endocrine disruption. This is led majorly by the media, the ‘diet’ industry and the sad fact that there is a single human look that we’re all meant to aspire too.

Be who and what you want to be!

I have tried, often too late in the moments before someone concludes they intend giving up to try and fix the psychological issues that underlie this decision. I try to nip it in the bud nice and early by simply being honest with who is in front of me and be as realistic as possible given their circumstances and history and their intended goals.

Just recently I presented two incredible transformations to 46 of some of the best trainers in Europe. The changes very similar, the circumstances very different which also reflected in the time frame it took to get from A-B. One a year, the other 14 weeks. The disbelief and accusations that surrounded the 14 week transformation where to be honest outstanding. Let me explain to you about metabolic damage.

If we had two different circumstances. Someone who had focused on weight loss most of their adult life. Had attended every exercise class imaginable with the false hope they would get her in shape. Ate a myriad of diets, low calorie, low fat, low protein, high protein, keto, atkins, you name it. Spent countless hours exercising in the gym, an estimated 70-100 hours of her life on a piece of cardiovascular equipment.

I’m trying to think how best to explain this in simple terms. I’ve spoken about these things before but in a slightly more technical fashion. When we consume food our body adapts by elevating metabolism and releasing a series of hormones etc through the endocrine system.

Am sure most of you understand NO2 bottles or nitrous that they put on cars. When you press the button this stuff is injected into the car and the car goes a LOT faster. The way it does this is the fact that the car is an internal combustion engine. The nitrous allows more oxygen into the fuel which allows it to burn faster therefore making the pistons drive harder.

Now the body has a bunch of these canisters (don’t be thinking we ‘actually’ do but its an easy was to analogise). We have several of them, and the overlaying part of our body  that keeps the car generally going is the size of the engine (Muscle tissue).

So, if we want a fast metabolic rate and efficient body we need to keep the engine as it is or soup it up (hypertrophy) to make the general metabolism faster OR we need to make sure everytime we hit the nitrous button we allow the body time to refill it before we hit it again (THE RECOVERY PHASE is how I am gonna term this).

We have a nitrous bottle that is full of INSULIN. This regulates hormonal output, has a huge factor on our inherant food choices, if our blood sugar is low our body isn’t dumb it will tell you to eat something that will fix it. As the drug ind……..sorry food industry knows this they have produced products that will get rid of these symptoms and get us addicted to them.

Now to talk about a few of the causes of metabolic damage.

Classical History of a weight conscious female aged 32.

Born in 1980 they where already into the generation of ‘synthetic’ foods, this goes right down to baby foods so there was no avoiding it. Protein is still perceived as something non critical and fat is bad for you so in their formative years they consume processed foods full of endocrine disruptors (E numbers, additives, preservatives etc etc). The chemical industry is thriving and everything, deodorants, skin creams etc are all full of them, hell the biggest selling products for babies are produced by one of the biggest drug and chemical companies in the world.  By the age of 10 she already has notable hormonal disruption and iregular dietary habits having consumed cordial soft drinks and breakfast cereals riddled with sugar for most of her life so far. Estrogen levels are elevating therefore net production of testosterone is driving her to early puberty. The drops in blood sugar are causing irregular behaviour which will soon be given a name and a condition given to them as it’s something we are seeing more and more of.

At the age of 10 she is thrust into the limelight of peer pressure and media perceptions. 1990 sees the rise of american TV shows of perfectly presented teens, skinny girls at the height of fashion. Dietary trends mean that the low calorie diet and low fat diet are the BIG thing.

They spend many of the next 10 years eating 500-1000k/cals less than their body actually requires made up predominently of carbohydrates. Fats are perceived to make you fat and protein is for bodybuilders. Even though they are consuming only 800-1200k/cals daily about 90+% of it remains carbs. The insulin nitrous bottle is getting hit WAY too often. Insulin recovery is progressively getting worse and the tolerance of sugars is getting worse. Over time the storage of energy into fat is increasing. Body fat percentage is increasing but the universal marker of ‘weight’ remains the same as lean tissue is lowering due to A) the lack of dietary protein B) the increase of stress hormones due to deficiency in calories C) The increase in use of unavailable fuel through excessive cardiovascular exercise and D) The adapting allowance of muscle loss to accomodate the low calorie intake. The body will only burn what it takes in.

By 1990 she has less muscle tissue so metabolic rate is lower. Her body is softer as the ratio of bodyfat and lean tissue has altered. Her ability to tolerate carbs has gone down as the Insulin bottle has never been given ANY recovery time with a diet that was 90+% of CHO (More than we would give an ultra endurance runner). Despite weight being the same the body is a mess. Inflamatory markers are also up due to the lack of dietary fats so chronic conditions are at high risk. Thats another article though.

For the previous years weight training has always been frowned upon as it will make you ‘bulky’, another myth that caused problems.

She now has an overproduction of oestrogen, a slowed metabolic rate in accordance with the intake and an underproduction of testosterone.

(READ THIS)

Now for the next 10 years up to 2000 she will chase and eat less, eat more, ‘exercise’ more. The 1990s saw the explosion of exercise classes, aerobics, spinning, step etc etc…They where fun and a great social thing but results where few and far between.

Diet wise every system has been used, most of which calorie controlled, always failing then trying again. Each and everyone working against what the body is designed to do but ultimatelly faith remains in them as those that stick with them DO lose weight for a while.

In the end what in 2012 I am left with is someone who is an endocrine mess, has food issues, a fear of eating, fear of lifting weights, a belief that doing more and more exercise is a better thing and STILL they DO NOT progress in any way shape or form.

Einstein coined it greatly.

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”

Almost every person I deal with are amazed at how they do almost the opposite to everything they’ve done before. They eat more, exercise less, train intelligently. Lift more weights, rest more.

The difference between the two aforementioned people I dealt with and the timescale for progress was exactly this. One of them bought into this for a long time. The other never did!

You’ve got to realise that if you’ve followed every trend and fad for the past 10 years in both exercise and diet it will take a ‘RECOVERY’ period before your body adjusts enough to start to see effective results. Persist people. Undoing this extent of damage and almost reversal adaptation may take a year or more of persistence and sticking to the plan. The fact remains that its a small sacrifice to have something you’ve dreamed of your entire life in such a small time frame to them carry with you until your dying day.

BAD trainers are those that follow the trends and do with you what YOU think you should do, keeps you happy right.

THINK outside the box as a client, as a trainer or as someone who wants simply to improve!!

Almost guaranteed every few days someone will ask me the inevitable question ‘Whats the quickest way of building muscle?’. My response typically revolves around some basic rules  around which the emphasis isn’t on muscle gain, but muscle loss, and preventing it.

In the everlasting debate as to ‘how much muscle tissue can someone put on’ we forget about the inevitable losses that will occur as the body battles for homeostasis.

Remember, weight training is all about physical stress, we stress the body so it adapts to in response to that physical stress and stimulus, if it doesn’t adapt we inevitably plateau or in many cases go backwards.

Stress can be seen as a cumulative total of mental, emotional and physical stress over a given time. At an elite sporting level a stressful home life can tear an athlete apart and result in consequent failure and/or injuries. You see this fine line is managed and governed by everything around us. Physical and Mental stress is the dictator to our anabolic (regenerative) and catabolic (degenerative) environments. Stress provokes a response by the adrenal glands resulting in an increase in the adrenal steroid hormone cortisol.

Lets look at a real world example of what this management could mean to a recreational or  even professional bodybuilder.

Many of my clients are of a corporate background and even when they’re not, most people, pro athletes, financial traders, hell even paperboys understand money.

You want to build anything in this life the fundamentals remain the same. Physical conditioning is a business, all about making profit and managing loss.  A series of trades and certainly at other times a game of chance.

When was the last time you made the decision not to train as you missed that all important pre-workout meal?

We focus on making more, from what I’ve seen it appears to be an element of human nature, we always think more is better.

In business if your gross earnings in year 1 are £100,000 for the year but your expenditure is £80,000 your net profit is £20,000. Year 2 the focus would inevitably be on making a larger gross profit.

For a physique athlete they may gain 30lbs of muscle tissue naturally per year, before any of you jump on the ‘thats not possible bandwagon, pick up a text book and do the maths’. The issue here lies in our expenditure.

As the consequence of a myriad of metabolic factors and to be quite honest dumb mistakes expenditure will often happily range from 80-100% of total profit. Those non physique athletes that complain of age and its impact on metabolism are simply superceding this amount on a regular basis or spending more than they earn. As lean tissue is the main dictator of metabolic rate all of a sudden they see this pattern between metabolic slowing and time (age). There are other factors but the major excuse am sorry, just doesn’t rub with me.

Aging is an interesting one when we consider the management of expenditure. Also one of the major topics we must cover if fat loss is a primary goal. The aforementioned Adrenal glands produce two primary hormones, DHEA and Cortisol. These are the defenses against stress, sadly though excessive use and poor management of stress leads to adrenal dysfunction and insufficiency.

Lets take a look at what happens.

You step in a weight room and start lifting, as stress on the body increases the secretion of cortisol increases. Cortisol causes a breakdown of muscle protein (This is great if you’re telling it specifically what to break through weight training). This concurrently releases amino acids into the bloodstream which are used by the liver to synthesise glucose for energy through gluconeogenesis.

Consider the same stressful flight or flight response occurring when we run. The stress hormones go to town on muscle tissue but we have no specific breakdown control. As we work in a short range of movement with running the breakdown creates shortness and tightness as an adaptation to the specific degeneration patterns. Running is quad and hip dominant therefore knee pain, lumbar and hip pain will develop over time if muscles aren’t stretched or suitably conditioned in a weights room. The same occurs with cycling and limited range sports. Conditioning work is critical if athletes are to remain injury free and efficient!

Gluconeogenesis is interesting as the process can utilize dietary proteins and fats as glucose as well.

Consider if we where to use supplemental BCAA’s during our workout. We provide the body with an additional energy source whilst the cortisol secretion releases fat cells to be used also as energy. The abundance of amino acids protects the tissue breakdown and allows this fuel conversion to occur. Add carbs as a pre or during workout fuel we no longer have the ability to break down tissue as effectively or utilise fat cells as fuel. Compositionally an issue, performance wise questionable. Both of these processes are designed to fuel the brain and allow the body what it needs.

One of the largest elements of fat loss and lean tissue gain as far as I’m concerned is the management of stressors and in order to do this it means commanding the endocrine system. I will write more on this subject but a quick little blog tonight as I’m travelling.

Time got a little ahead of me yesterday and in the hope of writing three articles in 36hrs soon died however I thought I’d put together something quick on the way to work this am.

Many of you will have spent some time trawling YouTube for a bit of inspiration, checking out what the big boys are doing in their training. I’ve mentioned this a few times about the downside to social media and lifting. People don’t find much entertainment in watching people lift light weights, slower tempo and higher reps. This then leads people to believe lifting brutishly heavy weights and lower reps is the way to train and aspire to be the size of some of these guys. Building size is about volume of weight, time under tension and what we call sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. More on that in a later article.

Those genetically gifted of us with a high prevalence of fast twitch muscle fibres will respond to pretty much any kind of lifting, the mere mortals however not so much. How do we shock the muscles into a bit of growth.

In the onset you need to build a base. Remember that the videos, training program’s that these guys and girls do are based on an already established amount of muscle tissue which came about from the visually less stimulating work years before. Full ROM (Range of Movement) on big compound lifts. To coin a phrase

‘Stimulate don’t annihalate’

Now without getting into this in huge huge details I wanted to just touch on partial range work.

This you will see a LOT of bodybuilders doing as it means we can target specifics of tissue without our weak points becoming the limiting factor. You could potentially train shoulders as an example and keep the triceps fresh to hit later. So people can get a feel for this here’s  a little program to do, let me know how you get on with this but the intent here is to blow those delts up without worrying about lockout or anything else failing you.

This is bodybuilding so very different to how I personally work.

Take note that over time this inhibits movement and shortens essential tissue so keep with the ROM work and shoulder mobility work. Post workout be sure to stretch your pecs, triceps (You could even slot them onto the end of this). If your training age is sub 3 years only try this, you need to stick with more compound work for now.

A. Prone Incline Rear Delt Raises 3 x 20reps Tempo 2121 45secs rest

B. Leaning Cable Lateral Raise 3×30 Tempo 2121 45secs rest

C. Behind Neck Partial Smith Machine Press (press until upper arm is parallel to the floor) 3×15 Tempo 1111 (no rest at top or bottom so weight will be low) Rest 60secs

Nb: If you have an issue with getting the bar behind your neck without straining through the anterior portion (front) of the shoulder, stretch and release the pec with some soft tissue work. If you then don’t get the range see an ART practitioner for a few sessions and get them to free it up. If this doesn’t release enough skip C and do 4 sets of D.

D. Partial Range DB Press 3×15 Tempo 1111 (as above) 60s rest

E. Upright Cable Row 1.5 reps lift full back to half way point, back up and full stretch on the way down. 3×20 11121
45s Rest

F. Snatch Grip Shrugs (use straps) 2×25 Tempo N/A just rep them Rest 30 secs

On the 1111 tempo count continuously in a metronome style fashion 1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4 and NEVER release tension on the muscle.

If your shoulders aren’t pumped to hell and growing after this you’ve slacked!!

Post workout stretch your pecs and triceps HARD!

Have fun!

Phil