30 days and 8.7kgs lost…everything is right on track

As I said yesterday…I was asked about my training and diet…I covered the training part of it yesterday so I thought I would go over the diet part of it today. Before I do though I want to share a couple of things with you.

Friends…who needs them?
I was talking to a friend today…a real friend…and we were discussing Facebook…specifically we were discussing the fact that he had over 700 ‘friends’ while I only have 170 or so (most of whom I barely know)…and I said ‘I can’t believe I don’t have more friends’ and he gave me this look like I was crazy and said ‘Have you not met yourself’. That was basically the end of the converstation…I mean…he’s got a point.

Will Heffernan Action Figures…coming to a store near you soon!
The lads in the gym were discussing creating Will Heffernan action figures…like a G.I Joe…only fatter. I suggested they be called Will Heffernan lack of action figures. The figures would have a draw string that you could pull and various streams of abuse would come out of the doll. Their opinion was that these dolls could essentially make me redundant. I think it was Goose that suggested it just had a fat stomach that could be screwed on off depending on whether the lack of action figure was in ‘winning a bet mode’ or in ‘coaching only mode’. Someone else suggested it just have some sort of pump so you could squeeze the head a few times and blow the stomach out the the appropriate size. I think this idea could have legs….and if it ever works out I’ll just delete this post and pretend it was all my idea.

So onto my diet
My diet is almost as incredibly complex as my training program. It boils down to this….from Sunday lunch time to Friday lunchtime I’m pretty much dieting…although I wouldn’t really call it that. Friday evening till Sunday breakfast I basically eat and drink what I like…now I am not going over the top…just eating normally basically.

During the Week
I did a little calorie counting the first couple of weeks but now I am pretty much eating the same sort of things so am not bothering with the counting any more because I am most certainly getting leaner and definitely getting stronger and I am holding onto my lean muscle mass far better than I had thought. So what am I eating I here you ask…well before I get to that let me tell you what my thoughts were when I started this. I wanted firstly to make sure I was getting enough protein…so what my goal was and still is was to try to get 200 grams of protein a day…if I got a little more that was great…but I wanted to make sure I got 200 grams. So where did this protein come from:
Eggs…I’ve been eating about 8 large eggs a day…which gets me about 50 grams of protein.
Milk…drinking 1 to 2 litres a day…which is 30 to 60 grams of protein.
Tuna…eating 1 425 gram can daily…this is just over 80 grams when drained.
This is essentially the baseline stuff protein wise that I’m eating daily…that gets me to 160-190 grams already and this is before I eat dinner which is usually chicken or red meat and vegetables which gets me the rest of the way there and doesn’t even take into account the other protein I would consume during the day either.
In reality what I’ve been doing is having an omelette with some cheese and a little ham for breakfast. Then for lunch I’ve been having tuna and salad with some avacado, a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Then after I train I’ve been drinking a litre of milk then having dinner when I finish work at night.

That’s it.

Supplement wise I’ve been having the occasional protein shake but when I finish what I have now I won’t be getting any more… I’ve basically just come to realise that I just don’t really need it. The supplement I have been taking although I suppose I shouldn’t really call it a supplement is fish oil. I’ve been consuming about 8-10 caps daily. I just take a couple when I eat anything.

Now my diet definitely isn’t ‘low carb’ but I’ve just been avoiding carbs during the week. This means no pasta, rice, bread or potatoes. I’ve been training really well so what I have been doing is that if I have felt ‘flat’ then I’ve had a sandwich with plenty of protein in it as I did today after training.

On the Weekends
This has been a chance to ‘carb up’. I haven’t been going mad….although I plan to this weekend…Wicklow here we come…I’ve been eating normally…if I wanted pasta, pizza or some fries with my steak then I have just gone right on ahead and had them. This covers Friday night to Sunday breakfast and then come Sunday lunchtime it has been back to tuna and salad or some chicken and broccoli or something like that.

I’ve been training how I outlined yesterday and eating what I have written here. When I started back training seriously I was 118.7kg and today I was 110kg on the dot. I’ve been having my skinfolds done but I won’t have them done again till the 1st of July when I next test. The week before I started out my 8 site skinfold reading was 148mm…for those of you that don’t know….that’s huge….and not in a good way. When I was measured just over a week ago I was 123mm and I think by the the time of that test on the 1st of July I think I will be under or around 90mm.

So that’s me taken care of…this is the training and diet I will be sticking with until I test and then I will have to evaluate what the best way to proceed is.

Day 15-21

Just quick lunchtime post to kick the week off.

Didn’t get a chance to do my video fat log this morning as I had cold and angry clients to take care of down at Dun Laoghaire Harbour…it is well and truly winter now. So it was a near freezing start to the morning…then a pile of paperwork and other work to take care of…a small amount of annoying people on the internet…then out for a bit more work and back now for some chicken and to regroup for work this afternoon and MMA training tonight.

Training is going REALLY well and so is my nutrition. Training is actually going better than expected…I’m am getting through a tonne of quality work and feel great while I’m at it.

I am thinking of riding my bike when work and time permits to and from MMA training just to get some extra low intensity steady state cardiovascular work in. Ride over earlier so I have a chance to have a stretch and refuel before MMA training. It’s a 40-45km round trip…done a few times a week it should whip a bit more fat off.

Nutrition wise…I am going to keep doing what I did last week. Keep the calories and the carbs low during the week and then eat ‘normally’ (for normally…read high calories and higher carbs) from Friday night till Sunday morning.

I weighed in yesterday at 109.9kg (and I have a witness) so I am expecting to be around 110-112kg this evening at training…which I am sure all the guys I’m training with on the mat will be glad to hear.

I’m not going to do a fat log video every week…mainly because it’ll pretty much look exactly the same and because the internet can only cope with so much fat.

I weighed in at 111.4kg tonight at training. That is down from 117.3kg on day 1 and 113.7kg last week. So pretty much steady as she goes and pretty much bang on what I had planned. I will do a fat log vid next week because if things go as planned I should be under 110kg and hopefully we’ll be able to see some visible differences.

Food Log
I’m not going to keep a food log because I am pretty much sticking to the same pattern as I said above. Today for example I had a few of legs of chicken during the day and that was it. I had some EvoPro before I left training tonight. Now that I am back I’m having some mince beef (bolognese sauce), cheese, and a potato (after 4.5hrs training…I deserve a carb or 20). That’s it…I’ll stick to that sort of pattern through the week and then bang a bit more into me between Friday night and Sunday morning.

Training Log
Monday
24.8km/55 minute ride to training…average heart rate 151 bpm.
2.5 hrs MMA Training.
25.2km/55 minute ride home from training…average heart rate 141 bpm.

Tuesday
2.5 hrs MMA Training.

Wednesday
Bike – 5 mins

Rower – 5×500m with 60 second recovery between efforts…flat out…I found out that my max heart rate isn’t 180bpm as I thought…I didn’t find out painlessly either.

10 min work block of Barbell Rows and Push Presses with 60kg…I did 50 reps of each.

Rower – 5×500m with 60 second recovery between efforts.

10 min work block of Bench Press and Lat Pulldowns with 60kgs…I did 80 reps of each.

Rower – 5×500m with 60 second recovery between efforts.

10 min work block of Bicep Curls and Overhead Tricep Extensions with 30kgs…I did 90 reps of each.

Bike – 30 minutes

5 sets of 15 Heavy Standing Ab Pulldowns

Did I mention that all the rowing work was done ‘max effort’ and that I only took 2.5 minutes to get between rower and work block…except for the after the first rower effort after which I took 5 minutes…I am feeling so much better every session.

Thursday
25km/55 minute ride to training…average heart rate 142 bpm.
1 hr MMA Training.
25km/52 minute ride home from training…average heart rate 138 bpm.

Friday
48 minute ride to work…average heart rate 135bpm.
41 minute ride home from work…average heart rate 122bpm.

Saturday
41 minute ride to work……average heart rate 141bpm.
Lower Body Mobility Work
*Over & Unders
*Deep Elevated Splits Squats
Upper Body Mobility Work
*Scap Pull Ups
*Scap Push Ups

1A Neutral Grip Pull Ups – 5×5
1B Elevated Push Ups – 5×15

2A Natural Glute Ham Raises – 5×5
2B Alternating Hanging Leg Raises (to bar) – 5×8

3A Single Arm Cable Rows – 5×10
3B Single Arm DB Press – 5×10

4A Trap Bar Shrugs – 3×10
4B Ezy Bar Bicep Curls – 3×10
4C Close Grip Bench – 3×10

40 minute ride home from work……average heart rate 135bpm.

Sunday
37 minute ride to work…average heart rate 149bpm. Rode harder today rather than just pedalling along. Legs were quite fatigued.

60 minute circuit/conditioning session. Took it easy today. Didn’t push to hard. More to loosen out and had a good stretch at the end. Feeling good.

I just thought this an important question

Below is a comment I saw on my Facebook feed by a mate of mine Dave Tate (it says we are friends on Facebook so it must be true).

If Batman took the same stuff as the Hulk would he be stronger? His structure is more suited to deadlifting. YES, I do have these thoughts.

This is Dave a few weeks after his successful arm transplant.

Dave is the big swinging dick over at EliteFTS. They have a great Q&A section over there if anyone want to get proper answers to very specific training questions. A lot of what little I know about powerlifting and strength training I’ve robbed from Dave and Jim Wendler and the other powerlifters they sponsor and who work with EliteFTS.

Dave actually used to be a powerlifter before he caught the ghey and started inhaling a little too much fake tan….this is actually one of my favourite photos of Dave…I just wish he was a little more bloated.

Day 1-7…training is basically starting today

Just so you know…I am going to keep my own training and updates here in this post. What I’ll do is to make a Monday post every week and keep all the training details in that one single post.

I am going to post a video fat log every Monday morning so people can track my body composition changes…or lack thereof…whatever the case may be. I’m going to do that every Monday morning basically.

I’m going to keep a food log as best I can to give those that are interested an idea of what I am doing nutritionally…I’ll keep track of my supplements as well here.

I’m going to keep my training sessions here and detail those so we can see how I progress…or not.

Now the thing is…I’m not in great shape…but that’s because I don’t train consistently and I pay basically little or no attention to my diet. People have made the comment to me personally and you see the comment out there particularly on the internet…along the lines of ‘what do you bench?’ or ‘why don’t you have abs if you know so much?’ or that sort of thing…basically along the lines of why should I listen to you if you can’t do it yourself?

Well the thing is…I never trained just for the joy of training…I trained in the past because that was what I needed to do in the past to compete when I was racing. So since I stopped racing I never trained consistently any longer because I didn’t have anything to train for…well now I do.

I have a very specific goal in mind now. I am going to dedicate my training and nutrition to getting myself in the best possible condition I can to belt the absolute living daylights out of two people who consistently shoot their mouths off with no thought of the consequences.

Now, I agree…it is a stupid goal. I agree that it is very unlikely to happen because all those that know the individuals involved know that all three of us are absolutely full of it…that those two are unlikely to show up and will find every reason in the world to avoid this fight…on the other hand people will realise that unlike them…I actually can’t wait and am really looking forward to it because it is a no lose situation for me. No mater what happens they are going to look pathetic…whether they win or lose which I’m happy to take a beating for either way.

I love external motivation…I never did anything just for the joy of it…I’m a terrible person actually…the joy for me of competition has nothing to do with self improvement or self satisfaction…it was always about being better than others and proving other people wrong who told me that I couldn’t or can’t do something. It is really quite sad…but I’m OK with that.

So in short…the people that really know me…know that I actually mean what I say…whether I’m full of it or not…and they know full well that when I have a goal I am extremely single minded and dedicated. So I have my goal I have a basic time line…I have to get myself in the best fighting shape possible by June 2009.

So we’ll see right here whether I am full of it or not. We’ll see whether I know what I’m doing when it comes to strength and conditioning and whether I can put what I know into practice myself…like I say in the fat log…the proof is in the pudding…and right now…I do resemble pudding…let’s see if I can change that from here on in.

This is Day 1 of my training…I’ll post a video update every Monday morning…I weighed in at 117.3kg

Proposed Day 1-7 Training Week
Monday
AM – Walk, Abs/Core/Trunk, Mobility
PM – MMA Training (2hrs 30mins)

Tuesday
AM – Walk, Abs/Core/Trunk, Mobility
PM – Conditioning Session

Wednesday
AM – Walk, Abs/Core/Trunk, Mobility
PM – MMA Training…going to try to arrange a one on one session with my coach to do some technical work.

Thursday
AM – Walk, Abs/Core/Trunk, Mobility
PM – MMA Training (2hrs 30mins)

Friday
AM – Conditioning Session
PM – Conditioning Session

Saturday
AM – Conditioning Session
PM – Rest

Sunday
AM – Conditioning Session
PM – Conditioning Session

Note: I am going to make sure that the Friday, Saturday and Sunday sessions are my heaviest sessions conditioning wise. I will detail the actual make up of the sessions in my diary as I go.

Proposed Nutritional Plan
I am going to start detailing what I eat so people can see it. I’m going to get feedback from Lyle and I will modify it as I go and work out what the best nutritional strategy is for me…hopefully with his help. My training weeks are going to remain pretty much the same week in week out so I want to build a nutritional strategy around my training to maximise my fat loss and maintain or increase my lean muscle mass. My primary body composition goal at the moment is to reduce my bodyfat.

Monday – I am going to eat only a small amount of protein on Monday’s. Not just to make my food log easy to fill out but because I can. I am going to drink a lot of water today and coffee. I love caffeine. I think it is a great training aid and between coffee and snus I don’t have a problem managing my hunger.

Tuesday – Today is going to be a relatively low carbohydrate day. The carbs I do take in are going to be consumed prior to and during training Tuesday evening. I’m going to make sure I get 300gram of protein every day…excluding Monday.

Wednesday – This will be my lightest training day of the week. This will be a veggies and protein day.

Thursday – The morning will basically be a veggie omelette and I will start carb loading after training Thursday night.

Friday – This will be a high carb day and also my hardest conditioning day.

Saturday – This will be high carb also in the AM before shifting to protein and veggies in the evening.

Sunday – I am going to make sure that the carbs I consume on Sunday are all consumed prior to and during my Sunday sessions.

So we’ll see how this week goes in reality as opposed to how I’ve planned it out here and hopefully as I said we can get some commentary from Lyle with regard to what he thinks.

Training Log
Monday
AM – I’ve already been for an hour walk. I’m not ready to run at this stage. My body just isn’t up to it. I want to get my bodyfat down to reduce my weight. I want to look after my joints and don’t want to hammer them pounding the pavement. When I got back I did some dynamic flexibility work along with some ab/core/trunk work.

PM – Submission wrestling for 60 minutes followed by 90 minutes of MMA training…working on shooting technique tonight and 5 bouts of 4 minutes of sparring at the end of the session.

Tuesday
AM – No session this morning…but I am going to more than make up for it this evening.

PM – Had to work tonight so no fight training…which I already really missed.
5 sets of 500m on the rower all under 1.45 with 60 second recovery between sets.
Leg Press
8 reps 120kg
8 reps 160kg
4 sets of 5 reps 200kg
30 reps 200kg
Standing Ab Pulldowns
3 sets of 15 reps 50kg
YTW’s
3 sets of 15 reps with 10kg
Assisted Pull Ups
3 sets of 12 reps(Assisted)
2 sets of 6 reps
Blast Strap Push Ups
5 sets of 12 reps
1A Plate Tricep Extebsions – 3 sets of 12 reps 20kg
1B Plate Bicep Curls – 3 sets of 12 reps 20kg
Lateral Woodchoppers – 3 sets of 12 reps
Lower Abdominal Curls – 3 sets of 20 reps
5 sets of 500m on the rower all under 1.55 with 60 second recovery between sets.

Wednesday
PM – Did 2 sessions today. Couldn’t get a session in with Barry today so I did my own technical work…I worked on my sprawling and shooting for close to an hour including a good warm up.

This evening I did the following:
10 sets of 150m with 30 second recoveries
1A Single Arm Deadlift – 5 sets of 5 reps with 50kg (each side)
1B Push Ups – 5 sets of 10 reps
Lower Abdominal Curls – 3 sets of 15 reps
2A Back Extensions – 3 sets of 15 reps
2B Natural Reverse Hypers – 3 sets of 15 reps
10 sets of 150m with 45 second recoveries

Thursday
Didn’t get my AM session today…work got in the way.
PM – 20 sets of 250’s on the rower with 30 second recoveries…yesterday was tough…not the weights but the fight training stuff…different movements and different muscles…I am all kinds of sore in all kinds of weird places. The muscles in my feet are actually sore. Suffice to say…yesterday took more out of me than I thought so did the smart thing and took it relatively easy. Want to get good sessions in tomorrow and over the weekend.

Note: I think it will take a week or two to really bed this diet and training program down. I already have a number of alterations that I intend making next week.

Friday
PM – 20 sets of 250’s with 30 second recoveries…done as follows:
1. 60 seconds
2. 55 seconds
3. 50 seconds
4. 45 seconds
5. 60 seconds
6. 55 seconds
7. 50 seconds
8. 45 seconds
9. 60 seconds
10. 60 seconds
11. 60 seconds
12.60 seconds
13. 45 seconds
14. 50 seconds
15. 55 seconds
16. 60 seconds
17. 45 seconds
18. 50 seconds
19. 55 seconds
20. 60 seconds
5 sets of 5 box jumps
5 sets of 5 mixed grips pull ups
5 sets of 10 push ups
3 sets of 12 hanging leg raises
3 sets of 15 kettlebell swings
10 sets of 500m with 60 second recoveries.

Saturday
AM – 60+ mins of MMA Drills

PM – 10min Bike
3 blocks of 6×30sec/30sec (Rowing Test)…I did 1 easy 30 second row with 30 second recovery then did 6 all out efforts…rested then on the 10min mark repeated the same protocol, then did it once more…I thought I may have been about to die.
Biked till the hour mark came up.
1A Hanging Leg Raises
1B Back Extensions
1C Standing Ab Pulldowns
1D Natural Reverse Hypers
I did 2 sets of 15 reps of each of these.
2A DB Shoulder Raises
2B DB Arnold Press
4 sets of 12 reps of these.
3A Push Ups
3B Inverted Rows
3 sets of 8 reps of these.

Sunday
Bike – 10 mins
Shoulder Mobility Work
Swiss Ball DB Press – 4×15(25kg)
Unsupported DB Row – 4×15(30kg)
Hi-Lo Woodchoppers-4×15
KB Squats – 4×15(20kg)
KB Swings – 4×15(20kg)
KB Press – 3×15(20kg)
Tricep Extensions – 3×15
Bicep Curls – 3×15
Standing Ab Pull Downs – 3×15
Bike – 10 mins

Food Log
Monday
Fasted today.

Tuesday
1 tin of tuna
6 scrambled eggs with a little grated cheese.
2 Scoops of EvoPro
1 plate of mince and grilled vegetables.

Wednesday
6 scrambled eggs with a little grated cheese
2 scoops of EvoPro
1 plate of mince and grilled vegetables

Thursday
4 scrambled eggs with ham & cheese
A plate of pasta with meat, grilled veg and cheese
2 small Mars Bars

Friday
2 Ham & Cheese Crosaints.
1 Chorizo and Mayo roll.
1 AfterMax Shake…with milk…I think it may actually be better with water…who’d have known.
3 cans of Guiness…3 more in the fridge..they are calling me….will update this later as I’m sure they are going to be drunk…whether they want to be or not.
Still making a decision regarding dinner.
Couldn’t make a decision on dinner…so I ate 765g of Chinese entree.
Only consumed 4 cans of Guiness in total.

Saturday
4 scrambled eggs, grilled veg & cheese
1 block of chocolate
4 cracker bread with cheese and ham
2 potatoes, green beans & chicken breast
2 cans of Guiness

Sunday
4 tiny cinnamon buns
2 potatoes, green beans, chicken breast, onions, bacon, cream
4 biscuits
3 potatoes and chili con carne
2 can of Guinness
1 cracker bread + cheese
2 pieces of bread and cheese

Day 1-7 Summary:
All in all it was a pretty good week training wise. Didn’t get to do as much actual hands on MMA training as I would of liked with work getting in the way but that’s life. I think my program will work well but it is going to take a couple more weeks to get it just right I think. The same with my diet. It is going to take a little while to get is spot on. It was a bit of a mixed bag last week. These things are always an ongoing process though so I am definitely not beating myself up over it.

It’s all relative

I met up with an athlete today that I haven’t seen for ages…the first thing he said was how slim I looked…I’m tipping the scales at 116kg or 256lbs at the moment and I look slim? I must of been an incredibly fat bastard when he knew me….but heh…apparently I’m slim now so it isn’t all bad.

Anyway…firstly I sorted out that stuff for Ian. You guys do realise that I often go back and edit old posts don’t you?

I had something else that I wanted to blog about tonight but can’t remember what it was….so apparently it must have been a lie…like everything else about me if you believe what you here…I’d tell you it was true but who would believe me.

I got this comment in an email today…I won’t name names (I never do) but:

“Oh and I finished Lyle’s book. He likes to crap on just like you. A lot of what he said and the way he said it reminded me of you.”

In fairness to Lyle though the fat cow that made that statement was reading his book for a reason…and doing my program for the same reason…and it’s all due to the fact that she’s always either got rubbish coming out of her mouth usually in the form of abuse or rubbish going into it like the sweets she’s filling her face with in this photo on the recliner…I mean Leg Extension machine. So she’s got good reason to hide her face.

I really liked that comment for so many reasons…firstly because I immediately found it more insulting to Lyle than it was to me and secondly I really happy with the fact that I can take stuff like Lyle’s work and regurgitate it so well that people read Lyle’s stuff and it reminds them of me.

Questions and something hopefully resembling answers

ian said…
Hi Will,
I’ve got a few very dull questions – if only I had your wit and repartee – but since every blog has its studious reader it might as well be me.

Regarding Laura & Lisa:
Did they put themselves up for 4 sessions Monday to Thursday?
We decided this together.

In this day and age where we see trainers/coaches promising more fat loss in less time, your 4 x 1hour+ sessions are quite a commitment.
If you think they are going to get away with an hours training you are having a laugh. I’d say it’ll be closer to 90 minutes.

ian said…
I knew it was going to be 60mins plus – and fair play to the girls for committing to 90mins.
They want to be hotties…and that don’t come easy.

I have never believed in the rigid 1 hour exactly sessions generally used by trainers and gyms – I just think you do what you need to do however long it takes – even if that means a 30 minutes session 1 day and a 75 minute session another.
I think Johnny and Daz have the record…I think they did a 4 and half hour session the other day…that was 5 exercises from memory.

ian said…
I was referring mainly to personal training clients with full time jobs and kids where the norm seems to be to allocate blocks of 60minute sessions – you know the drill – warmup, cardio, machine weight training, stretch and they’re done – I detest this approach and have never understood this dogmaic approach.
I think it is stupid as well…with a lot of my personal training clients I don’t have them warm up at all…I mean seriously why the hell would I waste 10-15 minutes warming up if they are going to be doing bodyweight lunges, push ups and bridging for example. I see trainers warm up their clients all the time then doing bicep curls with them with 5kg dumbbells…give me a break.

How much time do you give to screening your personal training clients and since fat loss is the goal what static/dynamic tests do you think are worth doing?
As much time as I think I need…depends why they are standing in front of me. Every session that every athlete or client does with me they are being assessed. Sometimes I get people training for a while so I can work out ‘what’ exactly I need to assess.

ian said….
I was referring mainly to fat loss clients – other then assessing how fat they are (I like the sight test – I can look at someone and in an instant can assess them as being fat – no calipers, no scales – works a treat) – I was wondering how much attention you would initially pay to their mobility, strength and so on – which isn’t what they came to see you about to start with – but then your last comment about training people for a while made me realise you can assess a lot of stuff once you get them on the program.
Exactly…if I see something wrong or that doesn’t look right then I’ll assess it so I can do something about it and then assess it on an ongoing basis to see if I’m making inroads. I mean I also see some trainers doing full one hour functional movement screening and assessments…they do it because they can…rather than because it’s needed…total waste of time most of the time for the majority of clients…I could give their clients the same feedback without ever seeing them…your hamstrings are too tight, your hip mobility is poor, your trunk strength isn’t what it should be and your shoulders are a total mess…next!

I imagine it is possible to over do the assessments when really the only thing the client is interested in is if their dress fits better
Precisely.

I know there are an infinite number of ways to structure your sessions – and I’m sure you do – but you seem to like the strength stuff interspersed with cardio.
This is just one of a number of formats and it is probably the format that I use the least actually.

Do you like the format because the clients can keep the intensity up on the cardio due to the rest they get while doing strength – or is it a nice structure because the mixing up of strength and cardio keeps boredom away? I’m trying not to look too deep into this – but I know that’s how it comes across
Don’t ever worry about how your questions come across…like I’ve said before the more specific the question the more specific my answer will be…and if you aren’t 100% sure what I’m getting at with my answer…ask more questions…like I also said…one of the reasons I’m doing this is because I am not the best at explaining myself and I know that so asking questions helps me as much as it may help you. I think this works well with fat loss and conditioning for sport. You’ll see most of my cardio is distance based rather than time….if athletes want to go harder and get it finished quicker I’m all the happier. The blocks of strength work are time based because I want the athletes get better at managing their work capacity. I think they find it easier to get their heads around the fact that whatever I’m having them do is only going to last 15 minutes. I let peoples competitive nature take care of the rest.

For nutrition do you just tell the girls to clean up their act for the first month and see how they go?
Yep.

Do you just use the Tanita scales to measure body fat or do you get the calipers out?
Photos I think work better. Scale weight can be deceptive. Calipers are crap for fat people. Electrical impedance devices are extremely unreliable. A picture is worth a thousand words.

Joel Hallström said…
What’s your view on rotation exercises at the lumbar spine like the windscreen whiper? Ive seen a few coaches taking them of the program after reading Shirley Sarhmann’s Treatment of movement Impairment Syndromes Movement in which she states that :”Rotation of the lumbar spine is more dangerous than beneficial and rotation of the pelvis and lower extremities to one side while the trunk remain stable or is rotated to the other side is particularly dangerous”
I’ve read the work…just happen to think a lot of it irrelevant. Let me put it this way…what do you think is more dangerous or potentially harmful…windscreen wipers or getting punched repeatedly in the face? What about woodchoppers or say packing a scrum?

Which do you think might be potentially more dangerous?

You really need to rely on common sense and experience when you read stuff like this…I also know a lot of trainers that have stopped doing sit ups because apparently lumbar flexion is also more dangerous than beneficial…I mean for heavens sake…give me a break. Where do you honestly think sit ups done properly rank with regard to the causes of back injury?

My point being that there are a lot of exercises and activities that can potentially cause injury…should we go out of our way to do exercises that are reckless or dangerous….no….but should we avoid all potentially harmful activity? I don’t think so…what would we have left to do?

Anonymous said…
Exactly what kind of fitness center are you running, sir??
Not sure you could really call it a fitness centre.

Artie said…
It’s probably been discussed, but I’m lazy: if you want to increase for example a 100 kg 1 RM front squat 5-10 kg, what would be your specific scheme to increase the load (from WO to WO)? Or do you just follow the Westside style and “try” to go for a 1-3 rep max each time? Thanks!
Cmon Artie…you can do better than that…this is a crap question. Have a think about it and try again.

I mean how does who increase their 1RM front squat from 100kgs? What have they been doing previously? What is their technique like? Are they really quad dominant? Do they have a really weak back? What’s their trunk strength like?
Do you think both these guys need to do the same thing to improve their 1RM bench for instance?

lylemcd said…
How can you supervise non-existent/fake athletes?
I know I know…especially when I have all my non-existent/fake marketing plans to put into motion and my non-existent/fake books to promote.

You’ve got to be Bold to be Beautiful

Had two new clients start today…two lovely ladies…hang on….ladies makes them sound old….two girls then….but that makes them sound really young…two women or two chicks…whatever you prefer. They’ve basically come for some fat removal and I intend to thoroughly de-fat them. I’m talking about the removal of ‘bingo wings’ and the creation of a ’single arse’…instead of a ‘multiple arse’ that goes from knee to mid back. I haven’t talked about my ‘normal’ clients much but I realise some people reading this that might be more interested in the ‘personal training’ side of things. Basically as I said before…I don’t do personal training…I’ve been there and done that and have no interest in it any more. But I do still have a lot of private clients…the thing is they do what all the athletes do…they show up. I write their programs and they train in the gym with all the other athletes.

These two….let’s just call them Lisa and Laura to protect there anonymity are going to do 4 sessions a week. Monday to Thursday. They are going to come in…warm up…do the prehab and mobility work that they need to do then they are going to go at it. They’ll do 10 minutes of some sort of traditional cardio either of the steady state of interval variety. Then do a block of 15 minutes of weights…this will be 1, 2, 3 or 4 exercises done either as straight sets or circuit style work. This will be followed by another 10 minutes of the same style of work that they began with and then more weights then more cardio.

So their training template will look like this:

Warm Up + Mobility + Prehab Work
10 mins – Cardio = Bike, Treadmill, Rower (steady state or intervals).
15 mins – Weights = Straight sets or circuits of 1, 2, 3 or 4 exercises.
10 mins – Cardio = Bike, Treadmill, Rower (steady state or intervals).
15 mins – Weights = Straight sets or circuits of 1, 2, 3 or 4 exercises.
10 mins – Cardio = Bike, Treadmill, Rower (steady state or intervals).
Then whatever cool down and stretching I think is necessary.

They are doing a month of this…we’ll reassess at that time how they are going. They were thinking 3 months but basically if I don’t think they are serious or that they aren’t committed or putting in like everyone else then they are going to get sacked and they can go back to their personal trainers. I also have their before photos…so girls when you read this be sure you understand you have 2 choices….either 1. You can work your arses off both figuratively and literally…and then we can sit down and decide whether we want to show off and post your pics of before and after and gloat….or…2. You can waste my time and not work your arses off both figuratively and literally and I will stalk you like a tabloid paparazzi and get some pics of you in as unflattering and embarrassing poses and positions as I possibly can and post those. So basically it is going to be down to you two how this works out for you.

On another note
There was a particular moron online who was commenting on the poor push up form of one of my athletes doing rehab…to cut a long story short…this particular athlete was with me doing his rehab after suffering from Parsonage Turner Syndrome…you can google it yourselves but in short he suffered severe wasting of his lat and a lot of associated lat and shoulder dysfunction. Basically the guy was lucky to be able to do ‘a’ push up let alone one with full range of motion.

I think you can see for yourself the damage that was done?

Keep in mind that this is after we’ve done a fairly significant amount of work building him back up.

Anyway…this particular discussion with this idiot in particular got me thinking…usually it just makes me laugh…that the internet really is full of complete imbeciles and I should know…because I’m one of them. More to the point that people really don’t know what they are talking about. They look at videos on the internet of people lifting and comment on ‘form’…that this person has crap form and this person has great form…but what are you really looking at? I mean I could if I wanted ’stage’ every single video I put up. I’m a good enough coach that I could make every single video perfect…I mean every push up, pull up, clean, squat, deadlift…every single exercise I could coach and modify to the point that it would take some serious exercise ‘lab coating’ to pick it to pieces and find fault. I could carefully select every single exercise video I put up and only upload the ones that are actually perfect…if people seriously think that is what I do or that this is what this blog is about than some people are even stupider than I thought….and believe me…I think a lot of people on the internet are pretty stupid so that takes some doing.

Two things came together in this single thread on this particular forum…1. That the form of my athletes was poor and therefore I was by extension a crap coach and 2. Another poster was trying to make the point that all I care about is how I am ‘perceived’ and that all my posts are all about me ‘marketing myself’…keep in mind…this particular person is also so idiotic as to think I was posting to promote all my non existent books…and that my whole ‘online persona’ was a carefully constructed fabrication…that I was trying to ‘present’ myself as someone ‘who doesn’t care what anyone else thinks’.

Now in answer to these 2 points.

1. That my athletes like all athletes do some stuff perfectly and some stuff that is a mess…I tend to show as much of both as I can because usually I use the camera for coaching feedback rather than to have something to post…for example…here is an athlete making an absolute mess of his 2 reps on his box squat with 180kgs.

This is not an ‘instructional video’.

This was a mess so what we did was take 5 minutes break and did it again…this time perfectly…actually…not perfectly…that’s a stupid thing to say…he did it much better.

In short I am not making a training manual or video detailing the perfect execution of exercises…these are just videos of training…simple as that.

2. If I stopped this blog tomorrow and I stopped posting on forums on the internet do any of you want to take a guess how much effect this would have on my annual income? I can’t wait for you to get back to me so let me tell you. If I stopped blogging and posting my income would only go up because I would probably be forced to do more work and hence I’d get paid more. The only income I get is from coaching or from coaching consultancy and approximately less than zero of that comes in anyway shape or form from the internet. If anything my blogging and forum posting probably has a bigger negative effect on my income because people realise before they actually come and pay for coaching what an arsehole I am and I don’t get that first months payment out of them before they come in and train and find out for themselves.

So anyway…I better get back to work.

Oh and here’s some not so great and far from perfect 100kg cleans with Darcy falling forward a little…maybe I will only put up bad lifts and poor form for a while…at least I’d get a lot more laughs out of some of the idiots I encounter online who have never coached a day in their lives but think they know everything about everything especially when it comes to training and coaching.

Perfect? No…but do people really think he doesn’t know that?

What if I told you they were all cross country runners?

Kira said…
Are the dudes being tested rugby players?
Absolutely…Johnny and Chops are both props and Logi is a 2nd row.

and what’s your take on the ultrasound thingy?
It looks excellent and am I very seriously considering buying one. It seems really quick and easy to use and incredibly consistent. It gives you a depth on fat and muscle. It is really something that I would like to get more experience with…I’ll keep you informed.

John said…
Great work Will, that 220Kg looked easy. They are impressive gains. How long had it been between tests?
Good question…I will ask Chops. I think he did 4 weeks with me…the fat camp for 2 weeks so 6 weeks in total.

Joel Hallström said…
Maybe you should just not read those emails and instead read and respond to the emails you get from us that think you are great…
Anyone who knows me knows that I really love that stuff…I’m actually powered by hate…anyone who’s been coached by me or worked with me knows that it doesn’t bother me in the slightest. As for your email…as soon as I get all the dates sorted we’ll be ready to rock and roll.

Denise said…
Ill even admit it myself you can really see a difference…well in Jonno and chops…sorry Logi.
That is really harsh…just because Logi managed to lose more in the 1st week than either of the lads lost in 2 isn’t his fault…though the fact that he managed to put on more weight in the 2nd week than either of the lads lost in 2 maybe at least partly his fault.

I also have to say well done to Chunky
I think out of all the lads on Fat Camp he’s probably made the biggest visual change. He started a day behind the other guys and unfortunately I forgot/didn’t get time to get ‘before’ photos on the day he started.

Day 1 – 119.5kg
Day 7 – 116.7kg
Day 14 – 116.3kg

I also want to say well done to Nasher.
For slightly different reasons…he didn’t train with us…he did his own program and training.

Day 1 – 106.8
Day 14 – 106.7kg

Total loss of 0.1kg…although I think he went to the toilet just before he weighed in yesterday.

Frank the Tank also did well…he didn’t have as much to lose as the rest of us.

He went:
Day 1 – 94.0kg
Day 7 – 93.5kg
Day 14 – 93.0kg

So that is this episode of the Fatathon all wrapped up.

Someone asked about Cookies shoulder work.
Here is Chopper doing what is either ‘max effort band work’ or ‘band work cardio’.

Apparently Johnny’s fatness isn’t real?

I’ve been told that Johnny hasn’t really lost weight…that he was just sticking his gut out or being ‘fat on purpose’ whatever the hell that is supposed to mean.

Here are the shots from the other side.

Before…maybe that is my problem…I’m not actually fat…I’m just being fat on purpose?

After

I’ve had other mails saying it is no big deal and from others saying that they could do a lot better and their athletes could lose heaps more…that’s great…I’d love to see it. Like I said…it is two weeks of training and ‘better’ nutrition not ultra strict dieting.

Chops tested yesterday. He banged out a 40kg PB on his trap bar deadlift improving from 180kg to 220kg…and as you can see in the video he had a heap more in him.

In his last test he pulled 180kg.

I actually stopped him from doing another as he had a full training session afterwards and I also want to ‘look’ like the coaching genius I am when he smashes his PB again at the end of August. He improved his bench from 110kg last test to 130kg and added 1 pull up over last test. Took his push ups from 30 ish to 49 (not 50…sorry Chops…you get what you get…I don’t make the rules….actually…wait a second….I do.) and his inverted rows from the mid teens I think to 26. I don’t know what more I’m supposed to do with athletes…making them leaner and stronger I thought was a pretty good start….apparently not. Have not had a single ‘well done’ or ‘great job’ and that’s cool because it is actually my job. Instead what I get is a dozen or so mails saying that ‘I’m not all that’ and that unnamed others could do much better….all this from people who ‘can’t be bothered’ to read my blog and have ‘no interest’ in what I have to say but still take the time to email me and tell me what they think? I don’t get it…I’m sure they won’t read this….seeing as they never bother reading the blog but I just thought those of you who actually do read it would think it was funny all the same.

The Fatathon went as well as I planned….naturally

I brought Steven Carroll in to put the Bodymetrix body composition ultra sound and software to the test…well I wanted to make sure of the lads body fat measurements as well as ensure none of the bellies they were sporting weren’t the result of an unplanned pregnancy.

There is no where to hide your fat from sound waves.

As you can see…some of us had more fat to try and hide than others.

I shouldn’t let some of my female athletes test with the lads…it’s bad for their confidence.

Before

After – I think you’ll agree that there has been a significant decrease in the amount of muffin top overhang?

Chops did well…the secret according to Chops is no carbs after 3pm except for the 2 nights a week at which time he gets completely plastered! Well…who am I to mess with success.

Day 1 – 120.9kg
Day 7 – 119.8kg
Day 14 – 117.6kg

So a loss of 3.3kg. I think that is 1.5kg off each love handle and 0.3kg of his neck.

Before

After – I know what you’re thinking…what has that fat bastard got to smile about…in fairness I think for two weeks work….10 training sessions and anything but strict dieting…he can afford a smile.

He’s got 3 weeks worth of strength work and field conditioning to do and if he isn’t under 115kg’s by then he’ll have another 2 weeks of fat camp…that’ll wipe the smile off his face. I intend to have him playing at a lean and hard 112-115kg come the start of the season.

Before

After – At least Johnny won’t need that girdle any more.

Day 1 – 122.5kg
Day 7 – 119.2kg
Day 14 – 117.9kg

So a loss of 4.6kg

Johnny’s program is going to be similar to Chops only he has a little more gym based conditioning to do as he is still continuing his rehab some recent knee surgery.

Before

After

Day 1 – 122.9kg
Day 7 – 117.8kg
Day 14 – 121.2kg

Did you see what happened there…Logi was the hot favourite to take the title after week 1…he was pretty mad about his 2nd week of dieting…actually….can it be called dieting when you actually put on more weight than the other guys lost? He was so mad at one stage I thought he was going to have a stroke. Then I saw this photo and thought he already had.

Logi was so mad that he gave himself a little bit of brain damage…or so it appears.