It's no joke really, in the last 20 years there has been a huge increase in the amount of Estrogen in men. Testosterone and estrogen are actually very closely related in the body. A look at their chemical structure reveals only subtle differences. Yet, the differences of the effects of these two hormones on the body are substantial. It is no secret that our bodies and our environment are swimming in estrogen. Puberty is occurring as early as eight years old in children, Estrogen is blamed for everything from breast and prostate cancer and other hormone-linked conditions to obesity, sexual dysfunction, dropping sperm counts and depression and mood disorders. Most of us know we unwittingly get synthetic estrogens (endocrine disrupters) from plastics like BPA, petroleum based products, detergents, cosmetics, furniture, carpeting, thermal receipts and on our food from agriculture chemicals like pesticides, herbicides and fungicides (a good reason to buy organic). But we also get a lot of “natural” estrogens from foods we may eat every day. “Healthy” foods like flax and soy may have more estrogen than you think. Legumes like chickpeas (garbanzo beans) red beans, black-eyed peas, green peas and split peas are also estrogenic. How about the “healthful” seeds we think of as mingled in trailmix? Sesame and sunflower seeds are among the highest of all estrogenic foods. While their seeds are not a staple of most people’s diets, their oils are widely used in processed and prepared foods, so do think about what you eat, & definitely cut out those processed ready meals. Are you concerned from any of the list of 10 points below? *Low Sex Drive Testosterone plays a key role in libido (sex drive) in both men and women. *Difficulty Achieving Erection Testosterone stimulates a man’s sex drive — and it also aids in achieving an erection. Testosterone alone doesn’t cause an erection, but it stimulates receptors in the brain to produce nitric oxide *Low Semen Volume Testosterone plays a role in the production of semen, which is the milky fluid that aids in the motility of sperm. It’s pretty simple: The more testosterone a man has, the more semen he produces. *Hair Loss Testosterone plays a role in several body functions, including hair production. *Fatigue & Lack of Energy Men with low T have reported extreme fatigue and a noticeable decrease in energy levels. * Loss of Muscle Mass Because testosterone plays a role in the building and strengthening of muscle, men with low T might notice a decrease in both muscle mass and strength. *Increase In Body Fat Men with low T may also experience increases in body fat. In particular, they sometimes develop “gynecomastia”, a condition in which they develop enlarged breasts. *Decrease In Bone Mass The thinning of bone mass (osteoporosis) is often thought of as a condition that women experience. However, men with low T can also experience bone loss because testosterone aids in the production and strengthening of bone. *Mood Changes Women often experience changes in mood during menopause, when their levels of estrogen drop. Men with low T can experience similar symptoms. Testosterone influences many physical processes in the body. It can also influence mood and mental capacity. *Confidence Not looking your best with the above can have a huge detrimental effect on your confidence. Want some help?, I can put you in a more healthier position by offering you a Charles Poliquin BioSignature session,click on the link to find out more.
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| Some things you need to consider if you're getting to a plateau in your training. "Change it up"! Tempo : Time under tension how fast or slow you go. Range of motion: Full & partial repetitions Position: Open chain or closed chain exercise Weight: ...What % of your maximum lift are you working at & why? Press ups are an easy exercise to fall foul of being boring look at the slides & try this next time your in the gym or add something else to the mix by following the suggestions above. |
"If you’re bored of your usual routine in the gym, you should perhaps try something different"
Get away from doing the usual routine like the computer surfing in the evening, by connecting online, we are disconnecting offline, if you’re always on the social networks its not really going to help your cardio fitness goals is it?.
You can learn a trick or two, pick up a few tips here and there, but ultimately your going to miss out on allot more from life as a result.
What critical moments do we miss that we didn't even know passed us by? make sure you get out & about & make an effort to try something you’ve not done before or put aside for a while, because you haven’t made it a priority.
I love Living in London, the weather is not the best at times, but the summer is just around the corner (well our English version of it anyway).
Keeping in mind .. "He who has health has hope, and he who has hope has everything".~ Arabian Proverb
Breakfast tip: The best meal is usually the first meal!
Keep it simple & rich in protein & choose your supplements to fit your own personal goals.
"Breakfast"- The most important meal of the day, don't skip It, change it up weekly & start the day as you mean to continue.
Keep in mind "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day", don't skip It, change it up weekly & start the day as you mean to continue.
Daily alcohol consumption will slow or stop your results, plus the drawbacks are probably going to far outweigh any health benefits.
That means that as long as there's alcohol in your system you won't be burning any body fat. If you have one or two drinks, you might stall your fat loss for a few hours. If you have quite a few drinks, it might be as long as four days before you're metabolizing fat again".
So let's recap those calories...
Carbohydrates and proteins have 4 calories per gram. Fat has 9 calories per gram. Alcohol has 7 calories per gram.
Remember you don't burn any calories from Fat if you have alcohol in your body, zip, zilch, zero, none!.
Drinking also dehydates you, raises cortisol levels (goodbye muscles), raises estrogen levels (hello hips), lowers inhibitions (pizza anyone?).
Combine that with the fact that alcohol promotes abdominal fat storage (of all places!) and it's really not worth it, not even on free day, not if you're serious about making a major transformation.
Yes you have heard that before & correct it is going to be repeated again.
click the "like button" if you now appreciate & acknowledge this!
FAT can be The dreaded "F” word some Personal trainers dare not even say for fear of scaring or losing clients,
Want to know your body fat? ... "like & share this post then contact me for a free 30 mins "Bio-Impedance fat" test at the Andaz Hotel health club in Liverpool st.
In order to go forward with your fitness goals, if you know where you are now. then you have a clear idea of where you want to get to, that’s a S.M.A.R.T way of taking ownership.
For women between age 20 and 40, 19% to 26% body fat is generally good to excellent. For women age 40+ to 60+, 23% to 30% is considered good to excellent.
For men between age 20 and 40, 10% to 20% body fat is generally good to excellent. For men age 40+ to 60+, 19% to 23% is considered good to excellent.
How's your metabolism? Fast or slow? Do you suffer from fat around the mid section & upper back?, If you do you may be carb intolerant or just not efficient at processing carbs & may need a little boost with a supplement like Fenuplex or Insulinomics or you may have weak stomach acid.
Keep asking yourself questions..then go a step further & speak to a personal trainer like myself or a nutritionist it's our job "to find out what you want, by asking you & breaking it down to the base level.
D.O.M.S is residual pain and stiffness in the muscles that occurs the day or two following exercise.
Have you had it recently? want to know a great way to get rid of it faster?.
“Take a Zinc supplement"! After a workout a great way of keeping D.O.M.S at bay (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) is to use a Zinc supplement and drink plenty of water to replace /top up what you lost in your workout. Zinc is involved in numerous aspects of the body’s vital processes and most people are chronically deficient in this vital mineral. It is an active agent in our body’s ability to metabolize food and nutrients. Zinc is also crucial for the health of the human immune system. It aids growth through its role in protein building and synthesis, and is therefore particularly needed in pregnant and lactating women It also plays a role in the body’s ability to heal itself after an injury. Zinc keeps our sense of smell in proper function, and is commonly linked to healthy eyes, skin and hair. What is more, we must be sure that we get enough of it in our diet, as well as from zinc supplements, as the body does not naturally have a zinc storage system. | |
It has two very distinct forms of zinc, namely Zinc Orotate and Zinc Aspartate, which can be readily absorbed by the body. This is a key supplement to take, whether you're training with weights or not.
That's not the only thing its good for, click here and check out the link for "The top 10 benefits of Zinc", it's a great article.
Sometimes you've only got a 30min window to fit in a workout, including your 5min run to the gym & shower, its not giving you much time but you've convinced yourself its better than not going, which is true. Try a few multi joint exercises which will work the big muscle groups, it gets you to push your cardio and at least give you a bit of a sweat going. The exercise to the right is a basic, but effective compound movement , which will work the legs , butt, abs and arms. 1 step forward 2 press 3 arms back 4 step back & repeat. Resistance does not have to be heavy if your looking for weight loss its about 12-15 repetitions at around 60% of your maximum load. | |
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However you got to be smart, "beasting yourself" for extended periods & not refuelling or over training can have an adverse effect on your body,
Cortisol can get get released into the body breaking down muscle & using the muscle as a fuel source causing you to go into a "catabolic state", as a result of that your body gets better at storing more fat usually around the thighs, love handles & abdominal area....
"Johnny come lately" pay attention the gym is not just a January quick fix...Cortisol is normally present in the body, at higher levels in the morning, and at its lowest at night. If your'e the type gets up in the morning without grumbling just before your alarm goes off then your levels are probably nice & high, if you snooze a few times & curse that you're not getting enough sleep then you've probably got low levels of cortisol in the morning..not good)
Although stress isn’t the only reason that cortisol is secreted into the bloodstream, it has been termed “the stress hormone” because it’s also secreted in higher levels during the body’s ‘fight or flight’ response to stress, and is responsible for several stress-related changes in the body. Small increases of cortisol do have some positive effects though.
While cortisol is an important and helpful part of the body’s response to stress, it’s important that the body’s relaxation response to be activated so the body’s functions can return to normal following a stressful event.
Increased abdominal fat, is associated with a greater amount of health problems than fat deposited in other areas of the body.
You can learn to relax your body with various stress management techniques, and you can make lifestyle changes in order to keep your body from reacting to stress in the first place.
In terms of exercise after you've done 35-40 minutes of weight training this is the time to do Interval training.
This is a type of workout that alternate high-intensity levels with lower-intensity, an example of this is using the "Concept 2 Rowing machine" & doing 30 seconds of work followed by 30 seconds of rest, keeping your watts very consistent for say 200 watts for 12-15 intervals, this can be set up very easily on the rowing machine & keeps going till you stop, it's a great way of burning fat & keeping the dreaded "stress hormone" Cortisol at bay.
Here are a few exercises that you can do intervals with ...
1) Shuttle Runs.
Get 6-8 x risers that you normally find in your gym studio & stack them up, pick a nice distance say 12-15 meters away, Find a pace that suits you & run / jog & collect one riser back to the starting position repeat till all risers are stacked up, time how long it takes you to complete the set, (say it takes you 1:30 sec) rest using that said time & repeat.
2) Boxing intervals
Boxing Base lift.
Great overall body exercise, if you got one of these in your gym then try this out. grab the upright part pull out from the base, then put on the floor, pause pick back up & put back in the base, see how many times you can do that in 1minute, then rest for up to 2 minutes & repeat.
Rowing machine Intervals
As stated before.. get on the "Concept 2 Rowing machine" & do 30 seconds of work followed by 30 seconds
of rest, keeping your watts very consistent for say 200 watts for 12-15 intervals. keeping the stroke rate to only 12 strokes in 30 seconds
Spin bike or Upright bike
B.O.S.U side step
15 steps each side in 30 seconds, rest on top of the ball for 30 seconds & repeat for 4-8 repetitions, this is very hard but very rewarding, will post a video on this, to show you how to do it correctly, so please look out for it in the video section.
Found this article useful? ... please feel free to "like/ share" or post your comments because they are much appreciated many thanks.
Vary your breakfast, you may have to tweak your portions accordingly, Lastly earn those calories with an active daily lifestyle.
Remember ~ "The secret of getting ahead is getting started" Get to the gym and begin the week with a great workout!.
By connecting online (some of us with monotonous regularity) we are disconnecting offline, perhaps moving further from the truth of reality.
What are we missing from life as a result? What critical moments do we miss that we didn't even know passed us by?
The problem with social networks is that you can’t use them on their own — and part of the reason that Facebook has picked up such traction is that.
It’s really not an illusion. I believe we are doing more with each 24 hours, as technology enables (or forces) us to interact and intersect and do and consume with unprecedented volume and vigor. We live our lives at breakneck speed because we can, because we feel we have to keep up.
There are so many alternatives to keep us plugged in, the average person has in fact double the amount of online friends than physical ones, it's hard to find the right balance as many of the social networks are so well known.
Twitter offers something different, and is perhaps less friendly. Google Plus is slick but has fewer people on it. LinkedIn is focused on jobs, Instagram gives a different perspective with photography & now video based interaction…ohh yeah the list goes on with Pinterest, Youtube….
A lot of the information I give out, you can get on the internet, if you search long enough, but it’s not just about getting or accessing information, otherwise we would all be happily rich, healthy & successful in our fitness goals, its what you do with it, that counts.
"Knowledge is power…No, Knowledge is potential power, clarity is power"
Lets be clear then, "The iron never lies",… & non of us have superhuman powers, so we've got to be realistic when setting our fitness goals., You’ve just got to get yourself out there, as I have said before “The secret of getting ahead is getting started"
You've got to change your mindset & stop looking for a quick fix, you won’t find it online, my suggestion going forward, is to just get out & about, get a trainer or a partner, It can be a pain in the ass to get down to the gym but the interaction is real, the sweat tears the laughter, the noise the hustle & bustle, the smells you cant avoid, the chatter in the locker room, the people that you aspire to.. some of us don’t get butterflies with our emotions…we get the whole Zoo!..that’s real.
“The iron never lies to you. You can walk outside and listen to all kinds of talk, get told that your a god or a total bastard. The iron will always kick you the real deal. The iron is the great reference point, the all-knowing perspective giver. Always there like a beacon in the pitch black. I have found the iron to be my greatest friend never freaks out on me, never runs. Friends may come and go but 200 pounds is always 200 pounds.”
- Henry Rollins
Make sure you get out & about & "Look up” Be sure to watch this entire video, especially the ending.
http://sftimes.co/?id=637&src=share_fb_new_637
This works out where you store your fat deposits on your body & the relationship it has with your hormones, like Estrogen, Thyroid, Insulin (sugar) growth hormone & the dreaded cortisol (stress hormone). click here for more info.
So what's the great combination?
"EPA-DHA + L-Carnitine".
This is a great combination ..provided you also do the hard work in the gym, increasing the amount of carnitine stores you have in your muscles & the right amount of fish oils means fat loss & energy benefits for you, what’s also crucial is eating the right food at the correct time of day.
Lets break it down…
EPA-DHA (fish Oils) there are two types of omega 3 fatty acids which are found in the cold water fish.
The brain is highly dependent upon DHA with the heart relying on EPA, your body can suffer ill health if you don't get enough.
Main benefits are
•Heart health
•Brain function
•Musculoskeletal health
•Immune system
L-Carnitine (an amino acid) is available in the following food sources: red meat, diary products, avocado & tempeh.
Some of the Benefits
•Muscle Mass
•High-intensity work capacity
•Male Fertility improvement
•Increase athletic performance
•Speeds up your recovery from intense workouts
So get to the gym, have a baseline of working out 3-5 x a week, cut out alcohol completely & add in a Protein rich breakfast, lastly drink plenty of water throughout the day & supplement your diet with "EPA-DHA + L-Carnitine for awesome fat burning...not asking for much am I?, there are no short cuts, so stop looking for themso keep this in mind,
"When I lost my excuses I found my results".
There are loads of exercises for the backside, one of the go to exercises & quite rightly so is the squat, add in also the popular deadlift & lunges but you have to keep in mind these are knee dominant & primarily work the quads & the anterior chain (front of the leg), by doing the "glute bridge" you'll see it's a hip dominant exercise, (posterior chain) back of the leg which will target & fire much more muscle fibers hitting both glutes & hamstring...try this one after 12-15 repetitions you'll be screaming "fire in the hole"
How to do it: Sit on the floor & put your back onto the platform with as little gap as possible, be sure to use a pad or a towel for extra comfort on the bar then with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. Raise your hips so your body forms as straight line from your shoulders to your knees. Pause in the up position for 2-4 second, then lower your body back to the starting position.
Fit tip : I will be doing a video series on the glute & posture what effects your performance & how to active & alleviate back pain so please look out for this in the shop..😁
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