Smart Fitness Perth

19/11/2015

Injuries – the word alone sends shivers down my spine every time I hear it. Injuries are the single biggest obstacle in your way to achieving all your fitness goals and becoming the strongest version of yourself. Today’s post is all about injuries, why we get them, how to prevent them and how to fix the problem.

So let’s go through the most common injuries I see in the gym – lower back pain, medial knee pain (pain on the inside of the knee) and shoulder pain. If these injuries sound familiar, either in your own experience or someone close to you, then I have good news – it’s fixable.

One of the biggest pieces of advice I can give you that is not only applicable to injuries (or even fitness for that matter) is “BE PROACTIVE” – if you don’t like something about your life do something about it!

The problem with injury rehabilitation for most people is that they’re either doing the exact opposite of what they should be doing and hence making the problem worse or only addressing half of the problem.

If I asked you - “How would you rehabilitate lower back pain?” how would you answer? Take a moment and think about it. Thought of an answer? Good.

Now I’m willing to bet that a large proportion of you would answer with – “initially rest the muscles” (which is great advice, well done) and “strengthen the lower back muscles” (not so great advice, actually terrible advice) – and here’s why.

There are usually two scenarios that cause muscular pain:

1) Muscle Strain – which is a tear in the muscle fibres and usually occurs suddenly during exercise

2) Muscles become Tight and Overused – which usually happens slowly and over a long period of time causing a muscle imbalance around a particular joint

In both scenarios we want to avoid using the effected muscle all together. If the muscle is strained, further aggravation of the muscle will cause even more damage and if the muscle is already tight and overused then using it more would just further the problem.

So you probably understand why strained muscles cause pain, but why do overused, tight and often very strong muscles cause pain? Well, as muscles get stronger they become tighter (unless a suitable flexibility program is being used).

If muscles get extremely tight they can cause nerve impingements which cause pain. Also, as one muscle gets tight and strong, the opposite muscle gets weaker and looser through under-use (think back muscles being opposite to chest muscles for example). This vicious cycle of overusing tight muscles and the under-use of weak muscles is the main cause for most chronic muscular injuries out there.

So how do we fix it? By stretching the overused tight muscles and strengthening the weak underused muscles. Only by stretching AND strengthening the relevant muscles can we rectify strength imbalances and eliminate pain for good.

Here is a list of the most common injuries and how to fix them:

Lower Back Pain –
Stretch Hip Flexors and Lower Back Muscles
Strengthen Glutes and Abdominals

Medial Knee Pin –
Stretch Hip Adductors (Hip Flexors and ‘Groin’ Muscles that run down the inside of the leg)
Strengthen Glutes

Shoulder Pain –
Stretch Chest Muscles (Pectoralis Major and Minor) and Anterior Deltoid
Strengthen Posterior Deltoid and Rotator Cuff Muscles

There you have it guys, a quick and effective explanation on everything to do with injuries. If you have any questions about your problems or injury concerns please don’t hesitate to comment down below or give me a message!

I hope this week’s post is going to help you on your fitness journey, and as always, keep growing stronger!

27/10/2015

Hey guys, today is all about the importance of core strength and why you should be valuing it greatly and placing it high on the priority list. Core strength is really important because it determines the alignment of the upper and lower body and is the connecting point between the two.

When I say “core” I’m referring to the muscles around the hips and lower torso – abdominals, obliques, hip flexors, and lower back. For most people who are required to sit down for long periods of the day, the hip flexor and lower back muscles are usually quite strong whereas abdominal and oblique strength seems to be lacking.

The reason for this is that while you are seated your hip flexors are constantly being used to stabilise and support your torso. Similarly, as we are required to sit for long periods of time everyday our posture begins to deteriorate. This causes our upper back to round and our lower back to arch causing tight, overused lower back muscles which leads to chronic lower back pain.

As our hip flexors and lower back muscles get stronger, they begin to tighten and become shorter (assuming no suitable stretching is being performed) causing our lower back to arch and our hips to rotate anteriorly. An overly arched lower back or “hyper lordosis” disengages abdominal muscles at the front of the torso, causing them to weaken over time due to inactivity.

So, how do you fix this problem and create a strong and balanced core? - Strengthen your abdominals and obliques, and stretch your hip flexors and lower back. Follow the program below and you’ll soon have a pain free lower back and a strong stable core.

Perform the following exercises twice a week:

Planks – 3 sets of 1 minute (on your toes if able, knees if not)
Dumbbell Side Bends – 3 sets of 8 to 12
Bosu Ball Sit Ups – 3 sets of 8 to 12
Kneeling Hip Flexor Stretch – 3 sets, hold for 30 seconds in each leg
Knees to Chest Stretch – 3 sets, hold for 30 seconds

It is extremely important that you perform each exercise slowly and without using any momentum to get the most out of the workout. Aim to perform each repetition for 3 to 4 seconds and keep your arms still during the sit ups.

Cheers for reading guys! Remember to train smart, strengthen that core, and keep growing stronger!

20/10/2015

This is a shout out to all the girls out there that want to take control of their health and fitness while creating the dream physique. Every time I walk into the gym I notice many women making this one massive mistake when trying to achieve their fitness goals.

Lifting too light, with super high reps, while trying to achieve “toning.”

I want to bust one of the biggest fitness myths out there right now for all of you reading: you CANNOT spot reduce body fat. What I mean is; if you want to reduce fat around your waist for example, crunches and sit ups (while important to do for functional strength) will have an extremely low effect on reducing body fat around your belly.

What should you be focusing on instead? Diet and strength training of your BIG muscles. Obviously, diet is a massive contributor to fat loss (around 70%) but when it comes to your training strategy, the focus should be placed on your big muscles: legs and back.

To reduce fat around your belly or your arms, for example, you must reduce body fat over your entire body. So instead of doing a million reps of sit-ups and bicep curls, focus on controlling your diet and training your legs and back by doing squats, deadlifts, lunges, chin-ups and rows.

Now back to my original point: stop lifting light and lift like a BEAST. It’s important to lift as heavy as possible within a suitable rep range as long as form isn’t being compromised. The reason for this is that muscles require overload (an increase in required performance) to grow stronger, and growing muscles aid heavily with fat loss.

Use a rep range of 8 to 12 reps, lift as heavy as possible while keeping perfect form and perform exercises that use all the biggest muscles of the legs and back. Here is a sample workout plan which will support you in achieving your fat loss and muscle growth goals:

3 sets of 8 – 12 reps for every exercise, twice or once a week
Back Squat or Leg Press
Deadlift or Hip Thrust with Barbell
Lunges or Romanian Split Squats
Chin-ups or Lap Pull Down
Seated Row or Standing Row with Barbell

Add in some core and push exercises (bridge, sit-ups, shoulder press, bench) and you have an awesome, balanced workout that will aid you in your fat loss goals.

Here’s the point to take away: perform exercises that allow you to lift as much weight as possible, avoid exercises such as bicep curls to “spot reduce” fat and focus on your diet and lifting like a beast! Don’t be afraid to lift heavy and push yourself.

Lift heavy, look like a goddess and keep growing stronger!

06/10/2015

Are you finding it hard to improve your cardiovascular fitness? Can’t seem to run more than a kilometre or two without losing your breath, causing you to slow down or stop altogether? Well here’s the solution – control your breathing!

The ability to breathe in a controlled and consistent way is most commonly the biggest factor in limiting performance for amateur athletes over a running distance between 1 to 10 kms. For shorter distances (100 to 800m sprints) technique, strength and mobility have more impact on performance and for longer distances (10 to 40+ kms) the biggest limiting factor is “suspension” – primarily the thickness and elasticity of your tendons and the absence of muscle imbalances around the hip, knees and ankles.

I’m going to assume most of you aren’t training to be sprinters or marathon runners for the time being so let’s focus on your breathing. It’s important to understand how your respiratory system works and what impact it has on your performance – check out this article - http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/how-to-breathe-when-working-out-and-running.html

In short, deoxygenated blood is pumped through the heart into the lungs where it is reoxygenated and pumped back through the body to be used by our muscles. When we perform exercise the demand for oxygen is increased causing our breathing rate to also increase. Unfortunately many athletes allow themselves to either lose control of their breathing or perform an exercise at a too high of a difficulty which leads to hyperventilation. Hyperventilation causes our breathing to become shallow and inefficient which leads to an overall decrease in oxygen intake and a decrease in performance.

Our breathing rate is also directly related to our heart rate (pulse) which is a big factor in creating an optimal training regime. Many studies have shown that the optimal heart rate to improve overall cardiovascular output is approximately 80% of our maximum heart rate – roughly 80% of 220 minus our age. So if we allow ourselves to train with a high breathing rate, our heart rate will also increase decreasing the effectiveness of the training altogether. I have personally found that the use of a breathing rate of once every 4 or 5 seconds for the majority of my clients correlates to approximately 80% of their maximum heart rate.

So how do we control our breathing so ensure that we don’t hyperventilate? Simply breathe in and out for a maximum total of 4 seconds or every 8 to 10 steps. Ideally we would like to exhale on an odd number of steps to evenly distribute the impact it has on both sides of our core, but more on that in a future post.

Here’s the golden rule: if you’re unable to walk, run, cycle, row or swim while lowering your breathing rate to a maximum of once every 4 seconds then reduce the intensity of the exercise until you’re able to. This will ensure that you’re performing the exercise at a suitable difficulty which will allow you to continuously see progress and avoid plateaus.

Remember to take control of your health and fitness, train with a purpose and most importantly, remember to breathe! Thanks for reading guys and keep growing stronger!

30/09/2015

Hi guys! Today we’re talking about the essential basics for increasing hypertrophy (muscle mass gain) which will support you in achieving your goals.

When I ask my clients: What is the most important factor affecting hypertrophy? – 90% of them respond with the same answer, weight. Well, even though the amount of weight being lifted is very important, the MOST important factor that affects hypertrophy is Time-Under Tension (TUT).

Time-Under Tension is simply the amount of time your muscles are working or “under tension” in one repetition. As this article explains, “Time to Grow” by John Paul Catanzaro - http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/time-to-grow.html, an increase in TUT affects the particular exercise in two ways:

1) The athlete is forced to use less momentum during the exercise, leading to an increase in tension through the complete range of motion – simply put as better form

2) The total duration of a set is increased with an emphasis placed on the eccentric portion of the exercise

For most amateur athletes the reduction of the use of momentum in exercise is the most significant factor as form is crucial in achieving hypertrophy. Since the target muscles used in a particular exercises are not under tension while momentum is being used then the effective TUT may be as low as half of the total time needed to conduct the repetition – leading to half of the work being done and half the results.

Many studies have shown that the eccentric portion of an exercise account for as much as 70% of the observed increase in hypertrophy where the concentric portion attributes to as little as 30%. If we follow the recommendation of John Catanzaro and use a cadence (concentric : eccentric time) of 2 : 4 seconds, then there is a greater emphasis placed on the eccentric potion of the exercise which will lead to greater results in hypertrophy. Look in the comments for a link to a study on the effects of eccentric strength training.

The article goes on to discuss optimal rest intervals between sets where John recommends the use of rest intervals as long as 3 minutes. I would personally recommend using rest intervals of 60 to 90 seconds or the use of 2 to 3 minute intervals while conducting supersets (2 or more exercises targeting different muscle groups in succession without rest).

So next time you’re in the gym trying to increase muscle mass remember these simple rules:

1) Use a rep range of 8 to 12 reps
2) Conduct the exercise with perfect form – don’t use momentum
3) Lift as heavy as possible – as long as the first two rules are being obeyed (70-80% 1 Rep Max)
4) Use a cadence of 2 : 4 with a total Time-Under Tension of 45 to 75 seconds per set
5) Enjoy the results!

Thanks for reading guys and keep an eye out for next week’s post. If this post helped you achieve your fitness goals please like, share and comment below and as always keep growing stronger!

21/09/2015

http://www.leangains.com/2010/10/top-ten-fasting-myths-debunked.html

Hi guys! Today’s post is all about exposing some of the biggest nutrition and fasting myths out there while making it simpler for all of you to achieve your fitness goals.

When I first began my fitness journey I searched high and low for nutritional information on how to lose body fat efficiently and effectively and to sort through all the contradiction regarding nutrition floating around the fitness industry.

Of course, I wasn’t satisfied until I found solid scientific based reviews on the research and literature out there regarding nutrition. Many of my questions were answered when I stumbled upon this blog: Lean Gains.

In this article, written by Martin Berkhan, 10 of the biggest myths regarding nutrition and fasting are exposed and explained in detail. Here are the 10 myths that are busted in the article:

1. Eat frequently to “stoke the metabolic fire.”
2. Eat smaller meals more often for hunger control.
3. Eat small meals to keep blood sugar levels under control.
4. Fasting tricks the body into “starvation mode.”
5. Maintain a steady supply of amino acids by eating protein every 2-3 hours. The body can only absorb 30 grams of protein in one sitting.
6. Fasting causes muscle loss.
7. Skipping breakfast is bad and will make you fat.
8. Fasting increases cortisol.
9. Fasted training sucks. You’ll lose muscle and have no strength.
10. “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch a queen, dinner like a pauper.”

I’ve heard many of these myths quoted by amateur athletes hundreds of times and it’s time to share with you Martin’s thoughts on the matter.

As you can see from the Lean Gains website, Martin is all about promoting intermittent fasting and its benefits. From my personal experience I can say that it really does work as I have been intermittent fasting for over a year. I’ll talk in more detail about how to intermittent fast and its benefits in a future post.

I hope this post helped simplify all of your nutritional plans and has answered many of your fitness questions. If this post helped you please like, share and comment below and as always keep growing stronger!

Intermittent fasting diet for fat loss, muscle gain and health. Articles, research, diet advice, and free guides from IF-expert, Martin Berkhan.

14/09/2015

The world we live in today has a tendency to highly value hard work and determination which causes many of us to burn out at work, at home and even in the gym. Often when people attempt to reach a goal and fail to do so they put forward two very extreme solutions.

a) Work twice as hard, or
b) Just give up altogether

Well let me offer you a third and very effective solution:

c) Do less

Surprising I know. Who could have thought that doing less would lead to greater results in the gym? Why you ask? Well, it’s important for us to understand how important recovery is and how much it affects your ability to achieve your fitness goals.

Simply put, if you work too hard and too frequently you will not allow enough time for your muscles to repair and grow. Let us imagine that recovery time wasn’t a huge factor in fitness gains, well then wouldn’t that mean exercising every hour of the day would lead to a greater increase in gains? No, it wouldn’t. You would find yourself exhausted (mentally and physically) and would be overtrained.

Now comes the difficult question. How often and how hard is too much? Unfortunately the answer is, it depends. It depends on your genetics, your experience with your chosen sport/workout as well as your goals.

For example, if I was giving advice to a beginner client that was trying to put on some muscle mass I would recommend that training the same muscle twice a week at a high intensity was absolutely fine if not optimal. However, if I was giving advice to an experienced bodybuilder I would recommend only training every 5 to 7 days would be most optimal.

The reason for this is that the experienced bodybuilder is lifting more weight and has more muscle which requires a longer recovery period to fully repair and grow.

As a general rule to ensure you’re not overtraining I would recommend taking a full week off training every 4 to 6 weeks and training each body group once a week in a split strength training program and twice a week in a full body strength training program.

This methodology is not only applicable to mass or strength gains but is also very relevant when attempting to achieve endurance or cardiovascular fitness goals. If you’re finding it impossible to beat a time over a certain distance then I would recommend taking an entire week off training. Actively rest during this week, work on mobility and return to your training re-energised and ready to break through your plateau.

If there was a single point to take away from this post it would be to rest, not increase your workload when experiencing a plateau in your fitness goals. As long as you’re working out hard with a high intensity and eating the right foods then the only thing holding you back is a suitable recovery time.

If this post helped you then please like, share and comment below and as always keep growing stronger!

09/09/2015

Today’s post is on the dreaded scale and how we can ditch them and bring in the tape to measure our fat loss goals.

If you have ever worked your butt off all week in an attempt to lose weight to only find yourself stepping on a pair of scales that tell you that you’ve put on weight, then you will know what I’m talking about when I say “ban the scales.” To be honest though, it’s not the scale’s fault.

Our body’s weight fluctuates day to day and even hour to hour due to food intake, water weight, gain in muscle mass and other various factors that have nothing to do with fat loss at all. So how do we measure fat loss without having to book in for an expensive body fat consultation? With a good old fashioned measuring tape.

Simply measure your waist line in the same spot once a week to record your fat loss progress. You can also measure hip line as well as arm and leg circumferences for more information. To measure your waist line simply place the tape measure around your waist line (at about belly button height) and make sure the tape is parallel with the ground all the way round your waist.

This method of recording fat loss is especially useful for people that are also engaging in strength training as an increase in muscle mass is probably the most common reason for producing a misleading number on the scales.

Hope that helps you achieve your fat loss goals and remember to like, follow and share my page, and most importantly keep growing stronger!

08/09/2015

Are you unsatisfied with your fitness achievements? Have you created that physique that you’ve always wanted or beaten -that- time or lifted -that- weight?

Have you been exercising for months or even years without much to show for it? Perhaps you’re new to fitness and are often confused and lost as to what to do to achieve your goals?

What’s the solution? Good, effective and affordable training by a fitness expert.

Smart Fitness Perth is passionate about empowering the young people of Perth to grow stronger and achieve all of their fitness goals. We have seen how valuable fitness coaching is for young people and also how unaffordable it can be, especially for students. Smart Fitness Perth offers effective and affordable fitness training targeted specifically for young people.

For as little as $10 an hour for group sessions and $20 an hour for 1 on 1 sessions, personal training is affordable for anyone, even students!

So if you’re passionate about becoming the strongest version of yourself email us at [email protected] to begin your fitness journey today and if you email us before the 14th of September we’ll give you your first session for free!

You have nothing to lose and so much to gain so please contact us today!

We hope to hear from you soon and as always keep growing stronger!

07/09/2015

Now that you have the three simple steps needed to achieve effective and sustainable fat loss, it is crucial that we discuss how to calculate how much energy you use per day and how much food you need to eat to lose body fat.

Before we dive head first into the calculations let’s define what a calorie is. A calorie is simply a unit of energy and is commonly used in relation to food and is approximately 4.2 kilojoules (kJ).

The reason why calories are commonly used to measure energy stored in food is that it is very simple to calculate how many calories are in any particular food by looking at the total amount of macro nutrients that the food contains. We have four macro nutrients; carbohydrates (approximately 4 calories per gram), protein (approximately 4 calories per gram), alcohol (approximately 7 calories per gram) and fat (approximately 9 calories per gram).

There are A LOT of calorie calculators on the web which I have personally tested and this one seems most accurate for me and also explains the calculation process which is really important -

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/issa64.htm

There are a couple of important facts that I should point out –

1) BMR or Basal Metabolic Rate is simply the amount of energy an individual’s body uses per day if no movement is performed and the person is in a fasted state (think sleeping for 24 hours straight)

2) The total number of calories required per day to maintain body mass is dependent on how much muscle mass the individual has and how active they are during the day

Let’s do an example calculation:

If you are a male who weighs 80kg at 18% body fat who exercises 3 times a week at a high intensity and works at a desk all day, then your calculation would look something like this –

1 x 80 x 24 x 0.95 x 1.55 = 2827 cal/day

The exact calorie total is not crucial as we’re only using the calculator to obtain an estimate of our caloric needs. So DON’T PANIC if you don’t know your exact body fat percentage or activity level.

Now that you have your caloric needs to maintain your body weight all you have to do is create a calorie deficit by subtracting an amount of calories depending on how much body fat you want to lose a week.

To be able to lose 1kg of body fat a week you will need a calorie deficit of 1000 calories a day and to lose 0.5kg a week you will need a 500 calorie deficit, you get the picture.

Losing 1kg of body fat a week is definitely achievable but losing any more than that would be detrimental as the weight lost would be not just body fat but a combination of fat and muscle mass. I would suggest starting at a calorie deficit of 500 calories a day and working up to 1000 from there.

So there you have it, Calorie Counting in a nutshell. If you have any questions or queries please comment below and I'll do my best to answer them all. Thanks for the support guys and as always keep on growing stronger!

02/09/2015

Four simple words: squat, deadlift, bench, chin-ups. Today’s post is all about these four amazing exercises and how they can benefit you if done correctly.

1) Squat

The squat should be a staple of any leg routine as it is a great functional exercise that can be done with a large amount of weight. The squat recruits all the muscles of the leg as well as the core and even the back and can be done using a barbell, dumbbells or simply with body weight.

Form is very important when performing the squat and can differ between athletes. A suitable bar height, stance width and squat depth will vary depending on the individual and shall be discussed in next week’s post.

2) Deadlift

This is probably my favourite exercise out of all the different possible exercises available and is my favourite for two reasons:

a) The deadlift is really hard, if not impossible, to perform if you have structural or mobility issues located anywhere in your body, from your ankles all the way up to your neck

b) When done properly, you can lift A LOT of weight

The key to the deadlift is form and stability. When I prescribe this exercise to my clients to help support them in not only growing stronger but correcting posture, muscle imbalances and mobility, 90% of them feel frustration in the first few weeks of training. The frustration comes from the inability to lift a lot of weight and the large amount of effort required to initially conduct the exercise properly.

This frustration is a good thing. It means that the client is struggling to overcome an issue within their body and has taken their first step in correcting it. I think everyone should include some sort of variation of this exercise in their training regime may it be (kettle bell swings, dumbbell deadlifts, hex-bar deadlifts, hip thrusts or glute bridges). Stay tuned for more exercise variations and tips on form in future posts!

3) Bench

The bench is my favourite chest exercise with dips as a close second. The bench is a great compound exercise that focuses on developing not only the chest, but the shoulders and triceps too. You will require a lot of shoulder and back stability as well as core strength to correctly perform this exercise which will help support you in achieving good posture and stability.

Many variations are available to you from the use of barbells and dumbbells as well as performing the exercise in an inclined, flat or declined position. The bench will be discussed in more detail in future Workout Wednesday posts.

4) Chin-Ups

This is probably one of the hardest exercises for me to perform effectively because of the large amount of shoulder and core stability required to achieve perfect form. This fact alone makes this exercise one of my favourite upper body training options. Chin-ups are a great back exercise that can be performed in a variety of different hand grips (close, neutral and wide) to allow you to target different areas of the back and shoulders.

Thanks guys for reading my post and helping me support you on your fitness journey. I hope that you will include all four of these great exercises into your training schedules to help you achieve all your fitness goals. Please like, share and follow the Smart Fitness Page for more useful tips and as always keep growing stronger!

01/09/2015

If you’re new to bodybuilding or have been working hard in the gym with little or no results then this post is for you. Here are my three simple steps to effective muscle gain.

#1 Energy in must be more than energy out

As I explained in my previous post, 3 Steps to Effective Fat Loss, if we take in more energy than required per day we will convert that energy into either fat or muscle. Without this vital step, you will find it very difficult if not impossible to gain muscle mass. Aim for an increase of around 250 calories per day which is equivalent to a pint of milk. To ensure that we convert the extra energy into muscle and not fat we must follow steps 2 and 3.

#2 Eat plenty of protein

Protein is essential for the maintenance and building of muscle and are the building blocks for the thousands of muscle fibres within your body. The general rule of thumb used by many fitness professionals for the optimum amount of protein required for effective muscle building is around 1.4 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight.

However, many health professionals are concerned about the use of high protein diets and its effects on the kidneys. Look out for future posts on how much protein is necessary for you as an individual.

#3 Work your muscles, not your ego

This is another crucial step in your muscle building journey and is often the down fall for many people. It is very tempting for many people to lift as heavy as possible when going to the gym and even though they think that this will lead to muscle mass gain it is possibly the sole reason that they aren’t getting the gains they are looking for in the first place.

The key to lifting for muscle mass is time under tension. Time under tension is simply the amount of time that your muscles are activated in a single set. The longer the time under tension, the more work your muscles have to do per set. The optimal duration required for time under tension is debatable and shall be talked about in more depth in future Muscle Mass Monday posts, but as a rough guide for all of you, aim for 30 to 60 seconds per set.

So there you have it, the three steps to form the foundation for your bodybuilding journey. I hope this post helps, please like, share and follow and my page and posts and as always, keep growing stronger!