I always look forward to these, its great to test yourself and see what you can lift on a given day. Its a measure of how your strength is progressing toward your goals, today I can see I’m getting there, but loads to work on. I went into today a little tired after a busy week, but had a really positive attitude to do my best and be aggressive with the lifts. All went well…bar the Press. Here are some vids for those that are into that sort of thing.

1. The back squat…beat my old record of 110Kg by 2.5. However, this lift felt easy so I have more in the tank for certain. But as Louis Simmons from Westside says, if you get a new personal record be happy with it and move on.

2. The Strict Press. Every time I do a CrossFit total I have a maths malfunction. I was paranoid during the back squat but we failed to notice I was lifting the wrong weight during my 2nd attempt here…55kg instead of 52.5kg. So I failed and got pegged back to simply equalling my previous best of 52.5kg…weak sauce. This figure is poor, need to work on upper body strength in a major way.

3. The DEADLIFT. Thats in capital letters because the deadlift if awesome. Got new personal record for 1 rep today, up to 140kg now from 135. Delighted with that, again I think there’s more in the tank and on my way to 150kg target. Whut whut….

Check out the rage on the bar, an important element. My CrossFit total score for today is 305kg (total for 3 lifts combined).

I appreciate that these lifts aren’t that interesting to most people, but hopefully the point is that strength is a really vital aspect of fitness that is undertrained by most. I’m taking a barbell basic strength workshop tomorrow that will help spread the message to some more people who train at Oakgrove. Lifting is not about getting big, its about maintaining functional strength into your old age so that you don’t need assistance getting out of your armchair. Of course, it also helps with a huge range of other things in the shorter term…such as looking and feeling better.

So get yourself down to the squat stand, ask for help with using it, Bob’s your uncle, Fanny’s your aunt.

Every Monday morning there will be a new conditioning class at Oakgrove. The class will be at 9.30am for 45mins. We will be doing:

• High intensity intervals
• Full body movements like squats, push-ups, burpees..
• A bit of sprinting, skipping, rowing
• Using kettlebells
• And other fun stuff ha ha.

This is a drop in class with a €5 fee for members. I am a CrossFit certified instructor, and will be using elements of that in the class. All welcome.

But stress is possibly just as big an issue, and certainly more often ignored. Stress is something we all take for granted, “one of those things” that we all suffer with and get on with in most cases. Here we’ll look at stress in the context of weight loss, specifically belly fat.

What if you’re trying to lose weight or belly fat, and failing? You’ve tried fixing your diet, you’ve tried training harder but you just can’t shift it. Well instead of doing 100 sit-ups per day on the ab-shaper, consider the following:

• Stress leads to the release of cortisol, a steroid hormone produced by the adrenal gland.
• Chronic stress (probably more common amongst people than you may think) leads to prolonged and excessive secretion of cortisol. This is not good.

Cortisol then has the following effects on you:

• Increases visceral belly fat, which in turn increases fat accumulation and inflammation in the body…which in turn, you guessed it, increases body fat. A viscious circle.
• Cortisol makes you age faster by increasing the amount of oxidative substances or free radicals in the body (the opposite to antioxidants). This causes further inflammation in places like your brain and heart, both fairly important organs in fairness.
• Negative feedback loop…similar to insulin, in times of greater stress our bodies become less sensitive to cortisol so that it takes greater quantities to have the same effect that it was originally meant for (to increase blood sugar). Over time it becomes harder and harder to get back to normal state as cortisol stays elevated, and we end up with more belly fat for less stress.
• Cortisol inhibits thyroid function, slowing your metabolism and decreasing the number of calories you burn. Which increases your body fat if your diet is not clean. The area most susceptible to fat retention, especially for males, is the belly.
• For women, cortisol interferes with progesterone and estrogen receptors, bringing on the symptoms of PMS such as water retention, irritability, and cravings.

Print this out and place on a table, don't do it on your actual laptop screen. They can be expensive to fix.

Increased elevated cortisol levels is brought about by stress, so what can we do to fight it?

1. Obviously, anti-stress solutions such as breathing practices and meditation are beneficial. There are a few good meditation apps around, one being Headspace which guides you through a nice 10 min regular practice. As a former Yoga instructor, I learnt that to breathe deeply and slowly is a simple but really great practice to reduce stress. Don’t just read that and skip over it….actually put it into practice. It only takes seconds, literally!
2. Probiotics in some studies have been shown to help by reducing gastrointestinal problems.
3. Accupuncture has also been shown to aid in cortisol reduction, though I have never personally tried it. Might be worth a shot.
4. Avoid coffee in the aftermath of a workout and exclude it from post workout nutrition. Caffeine raises cortisol here, but is less detrimental at other times.
5. Drink organic green tea to shovel more fat into the furnace.

So to summarize, we tend to underestimate the effect stress has on our overall health and specifically weight gain around the belly. Start to deal with your own stress because as you can see it has some nasty consequences that shouldn’t be underestimated or ignored. If you can put some of the above points 1-4 into practice, you may not get a perfect six-pack, but you can go some way towards improving your appearance and overall health. Hakuna Matata.

For those that don’t train the deadlift regularly, why not? It has huge benefits:

• Back/hip/posterior chain strength. The back of the body has to extend the hips to get the weight off the floor from a dead weight position. Every good athlete has excellent hip strength….you want to be more like them don’t you?!
• Core stability. Your lower back and abdominals have to contract to stabilize the spine and hold your trunk in a rigid position.
• A huge number of muscles are involved in the deadlift, it gets your body working VERY hard. For example, this is a back exercise mostly, but your quads have to do a lot of work to help get the bar off the floor and over your knees.
• Grip strength. Your grip will improve with this lift.
• The deadlift places a huge demand on your nervous and hormonal systems. You get more bang for you buck with weight loss and other training benefits.
• Enough reading and more training!

There is plenty of information out there about fat loss and calorie burning, a lot of it misleading or just plain wrong. The following is the tried and tested best order of activities that you should do…in order of importance.

1. Sort out your nutrition.

2. Sort out your nutrition.

3. Sort out your nutrition.

You CANNOT make any real progress unless you eat clean, unprocessed food as the majority of your diet, incuding enough protein and good fat sources for successful fueling. Is your nutrition on the right track? Ask me!

4. Do activities that increase muscle mass, elevate metabolism and burn calories all at the same time.

So what does this mean? In a nutshell…doing resistance training/weights with an elevated heart rate. We burn most of our calories due to our metabolism. The more muscle we have on our bodies the harder our metabolism has to work, therefore the more calories we burn. So get doing weights. When we do resistance training with compound exercises we get more bang for our buck.

Best activities for ladies and men? Deadlifts, back squats, presses, etc.

Get lifting ladies!

5. Do activities that raise our metabolic rate and burn calories at the same time.

The next best thing after no 4 above, with 2 boxes out of 3 ticked. High intensity training will elevate metabolism and burn calories effectively. There is the EPOC factor…elevated post oxygen consumption which is defined scientifically as the “recovery of metabolic rate back to pre-exercise levels” and “can require several minutes for light exercise and several hours for hard intervals.” Think about that, several hours. So may have stopped exercising several hours ago but your body is working hard to recover from it.

Best activities? High intensity conditioning with full body movements like squats, lunges, burpees, sprints, press ups, sit ups, intervals, etc.

Push ups are simple, beautiful and necessary

6. Do activities that burn calories (but not necessarily elevate metabolism or promote muscle mass like in 4 and 5 above)

If you have more free time than most people, then supplement no’s 4 and 5 with some low-medium intensity cardio. It will burn calories while you exercise but not afterward. Play tag rugby. Walk to the shop, don’t drive. Take the stairs not the lift. Walk the dog twice not just once. Spend more time on the row machine and treadmill (but never at the expense of activities listed in 4 and 5 above!!) Stay active and keep moving.

Follow those rules and the weight will fall off if you need to lose it.

But not everyone gets it, why? The main mistakes that many people make:

• too much low-medium intensity cardio and not enought activity that promotes muscle mass and elevate the metabolism. Less time on the treadmill please and more time hitting weights. Get past the pink dumbbells and keep progressing to where your body is ACTUALLY challenged!
• Too much refined carbohydrates in the diet. Pasta, rice, bread, packaged foods, junk food. Let them go to get results. If you eat these on a regular basis and don’t get results…then why not give it a go? You might just feel better and get to lose weight faster.
• Not enough protein and fat. Protein will enhance your ability to maintain/promote muscle mass. As we saw earlier, you need muscle mass to burn more calories. As for fat, well fat should no longer be a bad word. Fat is good fuel, that will actually help you burn your excessive stores of subcutaneous fat stores. So eat your “Good Fats” from sources such as Oily fish. Omega 3′s are derived from seafood and cold water fish, ie. Salmon, Sardines, Herring and Mackeral and nuts such as almonds, walnuts, brazil, and seeds.

Best of luck with your own weight loss, if thats your training goal. The way to feeling and looking great is a hard one, but more than worthwhile!

Remember…if you like to train with a friend (always a good idea), then don’t forget that personal training is also available to  small groups of friends together. It is a handy option in the following cases:

• You and your friend(s) share a common general goal i.e. Lose weight, or build muscle
• You’re the kind of person that sometimes needs extra motivation. Having a training buddy helps cos you have made a committment to make the session to THEM, not just yourself. And you don’t want to let your friend down, thats bad form.
• You’re not the kind of person that puts headphones in and keeps your head down. You’re social, like the banter and training with others gives you that enjoyment.

If that sounds like you, then consider small group personal training. You get the same high levels of attention, with more of the fun. And you share the cost of personal training together…whats not to like! I train with my brother-in-law on many occasions, helps me lift heavier and run harder.

"Ewe wanna throw another 5kg on the bar there buddy?"

You can enquire about small group training to Diarmuid on 087-6569905

There are many members who are not aware of how to incorporate the barbell into their workouts…so I will be running workshops with skill training for 5 vital movements:

• The Deadlift
• The Back squat
• Strict Press
• Bench Press
• Pull Up variations

Why? To learn basic barbell movements that will help you get stronger.

When? Monday 14th and Tuesday 15th @ 7.15pm – 8.15pm.

Spaces? Limited to just 6 per session. We are going to keep the numbers low so that the quality of input is high for each participant.

Cost? €20 per person for 2 seperate hours.

What Else? Course notes on each movement, and q&a discussion on how to incorporate barbell training into your workouts to meet your goals ie. weight loss/muscle gain etc

Sign Up sheet to go up soon in the gym, add your name if you are interested. All are welcome.

Not what they teach you at school.

Good nutrition, and behavioural change,  is key to achieving anything long-lasting in fitness. If we eat poorly, then we’re just kidding ourselves and negating whatever hard work you might be putting in at the gym. Obviously nutrition is a huge area of discussion, so this post is just aiming to discuss what Paleo nutrition is, why I recommend it and what steps you can take to start educating yourself on better eating in general.

Paleo nutrition is the style of nutrition that I try to follow. I emphasise “try” here as I’m not 100% strict on myself. I aim to eat excellently 90% of the time, and relax about the other 10%. This 10% is usually a meal or treat on a designated day, or eating carbs (but no junk) directly after high intensity exercise (when your body best handles carbs).

Paleo intro videos..these explain it really well. Take the time to have a look and even though it may contradict what you traditionally believed to be true, it makes a lot of good points. Video below.

This video with the esteemed Robb Wolf deals with myths associated with Paleo:

On a personal level, I certainly feel much better when I eat this way. As soon as I switch back to eating bread, pasta etc…hello bloating and foggy brain. So I tend to stay well away from those.

So you want to start eating a little bit better and stick to it? Take these steps:

1. Continue to eat normally for one week and write down everything that you eat.
2. Read over it and see where you can make obviously better choices. i.e. I ate a Mars bar after dinner…next time I’ll have a small handful of nuts or maybe realise that I’m already full and I don’t need desert!
3. Continue to keep a food diary.
4. Start increasing the amount of healthy food you eat. Perishable foods on the perimetre of the supermarkets.
5. Start generally decreasing the amount of unhealthy food you eat. After a few weeks cut out all unhealthy foods, especially sugar in everything packaged.
6. Reduce alcohol intake (boo hiss…sorry but don’t complain about not losing weight while drinking alcohol regularly. How about once per month?)
7. Eat more protein…lean meat, fish, eggs. The best way to recover properly from exercise and treat your body well.
8. Read up. Arm yourself with knowledge and be in charge of what you’re doing. The links below are a good place to start.
9. Deal with your behaviour, choices and emotional issues. In the long run, we tend to fall back to poor choices when we haven’t addressed the issues that result in us chowing down a packet of biscuits when we’re not hungry. John Berardi of Precision Nutrition has some excellent articles here to get you started.
10. Lifestyle decisions. Shop well. Don’t store junk food in your house.  Prepare packed lunches, don’t buy lunch on a whim. It may seem like a lot of hard work but it really will be worth it when you look great and feel even better! A lot of people don’t think these kinds of sacrifices are worth it…my own opinion is to take a long term view…I’d like to be healthy and as fit in my later years as possible (I want to be a badass old man overhead squating like these guys. I want to avoid doctors and hospitals as much as possible.

Here are some great resources and reading in relation to Paleo nutrition:

Mark Sisson: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/

Robb Wolf: http://www.robbwolf.com/faq/

Paleo Diet FAQ: http://thepaleodiet.com/faq

The Grain Manifesto: http://whole9life.com/2010/03/the-grain-manifesto/

Nutrition Data: http://nutritiondata.self.com/

Thanks for reading, enjoy your Easter egg and eat well for the rest of the week!

I’m personal trainer Diarmuid Morley, CrossFit Level 1 certified (as well as many other qualifications) and I’ll be posting about my training, the goings on at Oakgrove and other fitness issues of interest. We’ve got new equipment in and have loads of new things for members to do in the Oakgrove gym. Here’s Martin, mid squat demo-ing the new squat stand.

For those who don’t know what CrossFit is about, or for those who might have heard bits and pieces only, we’ll describe it simply as this:

A well rounded fitness conditioning program that is fun to do, makes you work hard and challenges you to be the best you can be.

Well-rounded? Yes, training encompasses strength, metabolic conditioning (a more efficient and modern version of “cardio”), skill training, mobility and flexibility, and of course nutrition. All of these elements are vital to make your body reach its physical potential.

Fun? Hell yes! Its fun to swing a kettlebell, jump up onto boxes, run, hang off bars! Maybe practice handstands, skipping, work with barbells. Do CrossFit and you’ll probably have more fun than in the 45 minutes you spent on the treadmill.We will incorporate the treadmill for run tests and sprint intervals but not for long periods.

Work Hard? Absolutely, you have to. Anything worth doing in life (like achieving your fitness goals) will involve hard work and CrossFit is hard work. But in a good, safe way. You will never be asked to do too much, BUT only when you step outside of your comfort zone will you achieve anything long-lasting and remarkable.

Be the best you can be? Why Not? Invest in your health and fitness and give it your all to get the best value. High intensity training like CrossFit will get the best result for general physical preparedness. You really can achieve things you never thought possible.

AAAAAaaaanyway, my training:

On Sunday I practiced cleans. My goal is to reach 1.25 times body weight this year. Thats 82.5kg and should be very achievable. I did:

5 sets of 3 reps, building to 70kg for 3 in last set. It felt good, hoping to video these sometime soon to see for myself what I’m doing right and wrong. For those who don’t know what a clean is:

The voice in this video is Coach Mike Burgener, who I did my CrossFit Olympic Lifting certification with. Great man.

Thats all for today, check back regularly for training updates and news.

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