Guest post by Charles Poliquin and something we advocate here at W10 – The Meat & Nuts Breakfast.

“When people ask me for the best single dietary tip for optimal leanness, energy and sustained mental focus, I invariably tell them to try the rotating meat and nuts breakfast. Clients ranging from NHL & NFL stars to corporate executives rave about the increased mental acuity and focused energy they derive from this food combination. The meat allows for a slow and steady rise in blood sugar. The nuts provide a great source of healthy smart fats that allows the blood sugar to remain stable for an extended period of time”.

Read the complete article here>>

The date for our next Jeans Challenge has been set for the 7^th May 2012 and we’re getting excited.  We’re at nearly half capacity already and this is already shaping up to be the best one yet!

The schedule is as the previous two.  It works, why change it right?

You’re looking at total of four sessions per week for eight weeks, made up of two Personal Training sessions and two Small Group Metabolic Circuit sessions (or more if appropriate) each week.  Not any easy schedule granted, but one that is well worth the effort for those who can commit to it!

Nutrition is of course an integral part of the program again and we will be incorporating our 14-day Re-boot program and our new for this Jeans Challenge we’ll also be including our 14-day Amino Cleanse.  Nutrition is probably the toughest element of the program – we’d all rather be tucking into pasta and vino! – but everything will be laid out for you and you will be told exactly what to eat throughout – all you’ve got to do is stick to it!

This time around we’re also excited to be working with Lily Simpson from The Detox Kitchen who will be working with us to make life even easier by offering the exact foods you need delivered fresh, daily to your front door (samples menus etc coming soon).  You don’t have to think about it; just eat that days menu knowing that it’s exactly what you need to compliment your training and to get you the results you want!

Perhaps the most powerful thing about the Jeans Challenge is the support you’ll get throughout – you’ll never feel on your own. Throughout the eight weeks you’ll receive the support of the W10 Personal Trainers and you’ll get all the social support, encouragement and inspiration that comes with being part of a group of like minded women.  If you’ve got the motivation, you can’t fail!

We’ll do all of your initial assessments and measurements when you start out and we’ll keep you updated and motivated with regular re-assessments throughout your journey.  You’ll see results in the first week and you’ll be amazed at how quickly your body changes!

Click here for more information>>

As with previous Jeans Challenges numbers will be capped at fifteen.  Contact us now for more information and register your place with a 50% deposit.

Spring is officially upon us and with it comes the perfect time to shake off any winter lethargy and perhaps the resultant additional pounds and spring cleanse your body!

Let’s start with the basics.

What is a ‘cleanse’?

By our definition, a cleanse is the act of both reducing the amount of toxins coming IN to the body whilst aiding or accelerating the processing and elimination of toxins OUT of the body.

In others words, cleansing helps us detoxify the existing CRAP (typically Chemicals, Refined sugars, Alcohol and Processed foods) out of our system whilst at the same time reducing the amount of CRAP that we put in that system in the first place!

At W10 Performance this process often begins with our W10 14-day Re-boot program.

What is the W10 14-day Re-boot?

The reality for people who are carrying a few extra pounds is that their blood sugar levels are out of whack and they have developed some degree of insulin resistance – disastrous for both health and aesthetics!

How has this come about?  Long story short, insulin rears its head in response to elevated blood sugar levels and insulin resistance occurs when insulin levels are elevated over a prolonged period of time, causing the body’s own sensitivity to insulin to be reduced.  This is a fat loss own goal and we need to reverse this, quickly.  Enter the 14-day Re-boot diet.

How does the 14-Day Re-boot work?

Our 14-day Re-boot program does exactly what it says on the tin; it ‘re-boots’ the system, specifically kick-starting fat loss.

In a nutshell, it works by removing processed foods and refined sugars that negatively affect insulin levels and balancing the diet with low GI foods which will help rebalance, or re-boot, our sensitivity to insulin.  This will help us tolerate sugars better and in turn help us shed some of that excess body fat.

So, we’re removing higher GI food – which eliminates all processed foods and refined sugars; we’re removing alcohol completely; and we’re placing the emphasis on clean water and organic produce – thus reducing many sources of chemicals and other unwanted nasties from the system.

Net effect?  Many major sources of CRAP removed from the system meaning a significantly healthier and more aesthetically pleasing you!

How do I do the 14-Day Re-boot?

It’s simple.  For fourteen days – and fourteen days only – you eat from the ‘green’ foods at the base of the W10 Food Pyramid, excluding all fruit and Category B vegetables.  No digressions, no cheat meals.  That’s it.  (We know, but it works!)

The only other guidelines we give are around protein quantity, supplements and fluids.

Protein recommendations are based an individuals lean mass and we encourage people to ensure that they get adequate amounts.  This is important for several reasons, most notably the preservation of lean mass and to aid liver detoxification.  A palm-sized serving with each meal is a decent guideline.

Supplements are not essential but will definitely help. If you choose to do nothing else, throw an organic greens drink into the mix (to help alkalize the system), some omega 3 fish oils (to help reduce inflammation), some fibre (to ‘clean out the pipes’), and a decent probiotic (to boost gut health).  A good quality multivitamin will also make you feel better.

Needless to say that plenty of clean water is essential – add lime to further alkalise.  No coffee would be ideal; one coffee per day is fine.  Herbal teas are in.  All else is out.

What can I expect from doing the 14-Day Re-boot?

Significant fat loss, increased energy levels, better looking skin, better sleep and radically improved mood are just a few of the things you’ll be experiencing by the end of the fourteen days.

Although it’s probably fair to say that for most people the first few days can be pretty tough going, the effort is worth it.  You’ll look, feel and function better – and you’ll find it easier to lose or maintain your weight in the long run.

Is the 14-Day Re-boot suitable for everyone?

It’s suitable for most people, although if you’re starting on the back foot you might want to build up to it meal by meal – something we do a lot with our new members at W10.

In other words, align your breakfast to the green list first – do that for a week or two.  Next, look at your lunch, align that to the green list – do that for a further two weeks.  Next, look at dinner, and so on.

Where can I find the W10 Food Pyramid?

You can find our downloadable W10 Food Pyramid on our Facebook page www.facebook.com/W10Performance and on our website homepage.  Please feel free to ask us any questions that you may have there also.

You’re set.

Happy spring cleansing!

In Part 2, we’ll look more closely at specific nutritional cleansing where we’ll introduce our 14-day W10 Amino Cleanse, a two week fat loss program designed to specifically boost liver function and help rejuvenate the digestive system, whilst simultaneously helping you shift fat like no other program we’ve seen!

Guest post from Strength & Conditioning Coach Charles Poliquin on the many benefits of including Branch Chain Amino Acids as part of you training program:

“I started using branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) in high amounts in 1994 after meeting with one of brightest minds in exercise physiology and medicine, Dr. Mauro DiPasquale, who wrote Amino Acids and Proteins for the Athlete: The Anabolic Edge. His contention was that if money was an issue, taking supplements during workouts was most important. I still believe that this holds true after playing with them for 17 years.

I like to keep an eye out for new research on BCAAs since they provide so many training and health benefits, of which not all the physiological mechanisms are yet understood. An abundance of new evidence shows BCAAs can support liver health, prevent diabetes, and are essential for longevity and aging well. Plus, emerging data provides more support that you should take BCAAs to stay lean, get strong, recover faster, and have greater work capacity. Let’s review BCAA basics and take a look at what the new research tells us…or if you don’t have the time, just read MY TAKEAWAYS from each study.”

Read more>>

'Whole' grain or not, they're not going to help most people when it comes to losing body fat!

Have a read of the 12 Reasons You’re Not Losing Body Fat guest blog by Jason Ferruggia which we posted on our Facebook page.

It’s a really good overview of the common mistakes A LOT of people are making when it comes to fat loss.

We’ll worth a read…..

W10 training tip: Full-body compound movements are superior to body part split-routines for fat loss purposes!

In anticipation of the enquiries and the barrage of questions we’d be facing relating to fat loss – it being January and all – last week we held a seminar at the gym focussing primarily on, you guessed it, fat loss.  We touched upon nutrition, training, supplements and other factors such as sleep and stress etc, but most of the content was about what, why and when to eat.  We also also had one of our members who is a chef knock us up some menus in keeping with our ‘green list’ – more on that later.

We did our best as always to keep things simple.  In hindsight, we tried to cram to much in in such a short space of time – we get carried away – so as promised here is a brief summary of what was covered.  Apologies for the delay….. it’s January, and there’s the usual influx of people coming through the doors with new goals and New Years resolutions!

In the interest in keeping things brief (ish) we’ve got for five key points in each area.  Some of these are simple and certainly won’t gain us column inches for the next ‘new’ diet, but they work – consistently.

Here goes…

Goal setting

1. Set measurable short-term goals.  Fat loss needs to be sustainable, definitely – but it’s best achieved when attacked in short and highly focussed (unsustainable perhaps) bursts.  We’ve found 28-days to be optimal – it’s about all most people with other stuff going on in life can commit/stick to 100%.
2. Commit 100%.  52-week long, half-arsed fat loss programs don’t work.  Focus for 4-6wks and do exactly what is required.  If you get to where you want to be, great – if not, go back to ‘moderate’ living for a couple/few weeks, and do it again.  Repeat this process three or four times per year if necessary, just stopping doing it half-cocked all year every year.  It hasn’t worked and it’s unlikely to!
3. Shift your goal from an ‘outcome’ goal to a ‘process’ goal.  Most people fail when they align their goals to a particular outcome, Eg. ‘I want to lose a stone’.  They are much more successful when they set process goals, Eg ‘I will go to the gym three times per week, every week and I will eat foods from W10′s green section of the pyramid for all but two meals, every week’.  Forget about the outcome, just follow the steps it takes to get there and it will happen as a matter of course.
4. Measure progress.  Weight alone isn’t a great marker.  Skinfold readings, photos, circumference measurements or an item of clothing are far better indicators of progress.  Whatever it is, get some marker.
5. Find a social support network.  Do it with someone, make yourself accountable by telling as many people as possible and hang around with like-minded folk.  Don’t kick around in a health club with all the other demotivated and uninspired souls – the environment is not conducive to getting results.

Training

1. Train with purpose.  Turning up and going through the motions won’t cut it.  Fat loss requires that you create significant metabolic disturbance and you’ve got to train accordingly.  Be prepared to work hard for it.
2. You need to train four times per week consistently – three minimum – to see significant results.
3. Stick to full body strength training programs – body part split routines are not the best choice for fat loss.  And big multi-joint exercises like squats, lunges, push-ups, chin-ups, etc are where it’s at if you want to shed fat.
4. Keep your workouts short.  Under an hour including mobility/movement prep & flexibility work.  Cutting carbs, caffeine, calories, and other ‘feel good’ things from the diet will cause an initial stress response (as will food separation anxiety!), don’t add to this considerable cascade of stress hormones by smashing yourself in the gym for several hours, several times per week.
5. Add some short, sharp conditioning blocks to your strength training for more rapid results – either at the end of your workout or as separate sessions.  Include metabolic resistance training (bodyweight included), interval training, hill sprints, sled work and so on to massively accelerate fat loss.

Nutrition

1. Eat clean.  Follow the W10 Food Pyramid (soon to be published on the site) and eat from the green list.  Avoid Category B vegetables and excess fructose (fruit) for an initial period of 14-days.
2. Eat regularly.  Three meals and two snacks is often the preferred approach, and that’s fine, but based on experience we find people do better with four small meals (Eg 7am, 11am, 4pm & 7pm).  This could be breakfast, lunch, mid-afternoon protein shake (if you struggle to find time to eat mid-afternoon) and dinner.  (Get a quality protein supplement – we stock Solgar).
3. Include adequate amounts of protein.  This doesn’t mean that you’ve got to gorge on an abbatoir quota of meat a la Atkins, but most people are ‘under-proteined’, which is fat loss suicide.  There’s a reason – multiple actually – why many diets favour protein over other macronutrients….
4. Eat from a relatively small base of foods.  Most people don’t do well with choice – we have to make too many of them already.  I can’t tell you how many people we’ve given the W10 Food Pyramid to who still look at us and ask “well, what do I eat”.  I used to think it was them.  I know realise that it’s just more to have to think about and incorporate into an already busy life.    Many people do very well when they pick three breakfast, three lunch and three dinner options and they rotate these twice through the week – Sunday when they typically have more time being the one day the make other choices.
5. Keep a food diary throughout.  Not only does this keep you accountable, it also creates awareness of what you eat and what makes you feel good or otherwise.  An irritating thing to keep perhaps, but those who keep a diary throughout get the best results.

Supplements

1. Supplements are exactly that – supplementary to a clean diet.  Don’t live off frankfurters and cage raised poultry/eggs whilst spending the US defence budget on supplements – thats backward.
2. Buy reassuringly expensive.  Many products bought from mainstream high street outlets cost you more to process and eliminate than they actually give you.  It’s better not to take supplements than it is to take cheap crappy products.
3. Different people need different things.  Biosignature Modulation works well, but before we go down that road, let’s get all of the five nutrition and training points in place.
4. Protein supplements are not just for meatheads and knuckle-draggers.  For most people they help them get the levels of protein that are essential to their fat loss goals without the bind of meal preparation time.  Yes, ideally we should definitely eat all of our food, but protein supplements come into their own when time is short, say first thing in the morning or when mid-afternoon nutrition doesn’t fit in with work schedules.  Be sure to buy a decent quality brand (we stock Solgar).
5. Supplements should be taken with meals  (the exception being neural stimulants).  Digestive supports (probably the most important of all supplements for most people), omega 3 fish oils, greens drinks/multi-vitamins and other ‘staples’ should always be taken with food.

Other factors

1. Mindset.  If it was easy, everyone would be lean and you wouldn’t be reading this.
2. Mindset
3. Mindset
4. Sleep.  Probably one of the most important things you can do for your health and hormonal balance, and thus fat loss efforts, is to get regular quality sleep.  Afternoon naps are great also if you have that luxury.
5. Relaxation.  Not TV, not Playstation, and no, not your gym workouts.  We’re talking dog-walking, fresh-air induced, loved ones included, genuine relaxation.  Most people just do not do ‘nothing’, but doing ‘nothing’ occasionally is important.

So that’s it – hopefully some useful points.

We haven’t posted the 28-day sample nutrition program and the ‘green’ recipes that we provided.  We might post these next week, but please ‘Like’ our page and post on our Facebook wall if you would like them or have any questions in the meantime.

Going forward we want to make the nutrition aspect of fat loss and indeed general health far less complicated and easy to combine with a busy schedule, so we’re working on a few things we’ve come up with – our own W10 Food Delivery Box, aligned with seasonal menus, recipes and video tutorials one we’re particularly excited about.  Any suggestions, recommendations and ideas from both a practical and personal experience perspective would, as always, be greatly appreciated!

Watch this space…..

“The bottom line is that we want everyone who walks through the door to leave here healthier, stronger, fitter and more educated about nutrition and fitness.”

Read our recent review on the Luxury Channel>>

“W10 is a gym with the sole intention of self-improvement through knowledge, technique and pure determination.  In three months I learnt more about my body, food, nutrition, exercise and mental toughness than I ever had before. Combining food diaries, intolerance tests and background medical checks with structured workout routines that are designed to enhance your body to the maximum, making W10 Performance a leader in its field. There is no pretence, no bank of TV sets on MTV or Sky Sports – this is a gym to be used, and you are a diamond in the rough ready to be”.

"So yes, at the end of the six weeks, I did get what I wanted. I got into my skinniest jeans, could see my jaw line for the first time in years and dropped from a size 14 to a size 12".

It seems that exercising at W10 not only gets you in shape, it also makes you a better person….. not sure that is true of us all!

Check out our mention in todays Daily Mail online>>

Ps. Great reference to our Jeans Challenge also.

A belated Happy New Year to all!

So January is here and the usual media frenzy has gathered considerable momentum this past week.  The Biggest Loser UK and Fat Fighters being our current ‘favourites’ to date.  Dear oh dear oh dear.  Why do personal trainers continually perpetuate the stereotype that were all idiots and reinforce the notion that we’ve all got sh1t for brains?  Very frustrating for those of us working hard to drag the standard of the industry out of the dark ages.  Anyway…..

Given that we’ve all been inundated with the usual January diet and exercise nonsense, we thought we’d leave it a week before we posted out the obligatory January Fat Loss and goals related bumf.  If you’re like us, it gets to the point were one switches off.  In the name of keeping up, we’ve been keeping our ear to the ground to see what comes to the fore this time around (and who’s invested in their PR!), and as always it’s the same old stuff rehashed – and in most cases, pretty badly.

All that aside, it’s about time we brought some sense and much needed clarity to the situation.  And as such, we’re hosting our January Fat Loss Seminar on Wednesday next week – Wednesday January 11th at 8pm.  It will be held at the gym and is open to both members and non-members.  Please let us know if you would like to attend – so that we can ensure that we don’t have to sit people on the floor. Or worse.

We’ll be giving the outline of our 28-day Fat Loss Blueprint, including menus, recipes (good ones I might point out, written especially for us, and adhering the ‘green’ section of our W10 Food Pyramid), supplement advice, practical nutritional strategies, and of course the complimentary training recommendations.

This might not all be new news to many of our members, but its a great opportunity for a refresh and a chance to ask some questions that might go forgotten during training sessions.  For those who haven’t been privy to our approach previously, it will be game changing.

We hope to see as many of you there as possible.

Ps. We’re going to be running a W10 ‘clinic’ on the first Wednesday of every month.  Each month will be a different focus, but every session will be a chance to ask questions on all topics.  We see it as a chance every month to continue to bring certain things to the fore and perhaps refocus one or two peoples thinking.  The next one will be Wednesday 1st of February, topic as yet undecided.  Please let us know if there is anything you would like us to cover.