PROJECT ME BARBELL CLUB: START HERE

Hi lovely strong ladies in the making,

With just one sleep to go until we start our Project Me Barbell Club, here’s some information you might find both useful and interesting!

If you haven’t done this kind of training before, you’re going to find the stimulus very different, especially if you’re more used to high-intensity conditioning.

You don’t need to bring anything special with you, just your usual gym gear and water. Those of you who have lifting shoes, don’t forget them. If you don’t, don’t worry, but if you have Converse trainers you can wear them for part of the first sessions. (Bring normal trainers too!)

The aim of this programme is to help you build strength, strengthen connective tissue, increase your bone density and, above all, enjoy yourself.

In addition to all that, there are few things that will change your shape and give you that “toned” lean look as effectively as lifting weights That is, however, provided you’re keeping up the good work outside of the the gym with your food choices.

BODY FAT LOSS

If you’re after body fat loss you have to be eating in a calorie deficit. In other words, you have to be eating less calories than you are using.

The other thing you absolutely must do at the same time is preserve your muscle mass. The more muscle you have, the greater the demand on your metabolism. Your metabolism is your body’s furnace, it’s how you turn your food into calories. Muscle is live tissue which makes it metabolically-expensive. In simple terms, the more of it you have, the more calories you will burn.

There is a very easy way to do that – eat your protein. For women lifting weights, this is pretty much non-negotiable.

PROTEIN IS KEY

Protein is your body’s material for growth and repair. Trying to build and retain muscle without it is like trying to put an extension on your house without bricks and mortar. Pretty much impossible.

 

When you train with weights you are trying to create damage to the muscle in the form of micro tears. The body then repairs these tears and the muscles get bigger and stronger. That’s where the saying “ripped”, comes from, if you didn’t know. The material that the body uses to repair the muscle is, yes…you’ve guessed it, PROTEIN!

I’d say it’s a pretty safe bet that – unless you have been with me a long time – you are currently probably not eating enough protein throughout the day and just mainly taking it in in your evening meal.

Increasing your protein intake is pretty much a game-changer in terms of body transformation. I’d go as far as to say if you do it, you’ll never look back in the following areas:

1. You’ll feel full longer so won’t feel the need to snack on high calorie, low nutrient food sources.

2. Your cravings will abate

3. Probably, as a result of eating more healthily, you will address your energy balance which will send you into a small calorie deficit and help you lose body fat.

4. Protein helps you build muscle – and guess what, when you say you want to be “toned”, what you are actually saying is that you want your muscles to be visible. In order for them to be visible, they have to grow! If you want your muscles to grow,. you have to eat protein!

5. Protein is the most thermogenic of foods. Every action of every cell in your body requires calories, this includes digesting your food. Protein needs more calories to digest it than any other food so you are actually burning more calories when you eat it. (This is why people break out in a sweat when eating a lot of meat.)

HOW MUCH SHOULD PROTEIN SHOULD I EAT? 

Take your bodyweight in kg and multiply it by 1.5 – 2-5. Basically, the more you train, the more protein you need, as I’m sure you now understand, having just read all the benefits above.
So if you’re 70kg, you need somewhere between 105g and 175g of protein a day.

There are four calories in each gram of protein, by the way. And I would recommend using an app like http://www.myfitnesspal.com

to track your protein and general calorie intake. I am more than happy to work out a set of macros (proteins, fats and carbs) for you to follow, if you would like me to.

I would break that into four servings a day. Here’s some suggestions of high protein foods you can include in your diet:

Five Heck chicken sausages (they’re only thin) 32g
Sliced roast ham 100g – 23g
Sliced Roast beef 100g – 24g
Sliced roast turkey 100g – 29g
Sea bass fillet – 24g
Cod fillet – 15g
Fresh salmon fillet – 25g
100g smoked salmon – 24g
King prawns (100g) 23g
Eggs – one egg = 7g
Fillet steak 200g – 56g
Fresh Tuna steak – 45kg
Turkey mince 100g – 20g

One scoop of PNI Lean Shake Protein – 28g (I have no issue with you using protein shakes, especially post-training, to increase your protein intake)

WHAT ABOUT CARBS AND FATS? 

Carbs and fats are both vital macronutrients. We need fats for a healthy nervous system and brain and to digest vitamins A,D, E, and K. We need carbs to help us get stronger because they spike our insulin which actually a good thing, post-workout. It helps drive the amino acids from all that lovely protein you’re consuming right into your cells to fix those muscles.
Ideally then, I’d recommend a protein shake with a something like a banana or an apple, post workout.

In general terms, we women are terrible carbo-phobes, aren’t we? And with good reason. If you have put on excess body-fat, you have put yourself into a calorie surplus which means you’ve been eating more calories than you are using. Let’s be honest, it’s unlikely you have done this scoffing too much chicken and broccoli! Nope, you’ve been overindulging in high-calorie carbs; sweets, cakes, pastries, crisps, bread, pizza, chocolate, pasta dishes. Oh, and let’s not forget the booze!

I’m not going to tell you not to eat carbs. I’m merely going to tell you to be more judicious in your choice. The more of your carb intake you can get from lots of fresh vegetables, some fruit, white potato (nothing wrong with spuds!), sweet potato, rice – doesn’t have to be brown, grains like quinoa, oats, root vegetables like carrots and parsnips the better.

Carbohydrates have four calories a gram but all carbs are not created equal in terms of effect on the body and the hormones. You don’t have to be a genius to work out the ones you should be cutting right back on habitually.

Dry processed carbs like pasta, bread, biscuits, crackers, breakfast cereals, cakes, should be relegated to the back of the cupboard. They offer very little in terms of vitamins and minerals and all contain wheat which is potentially inflammatory to our digestive systems. I’m not going to tell you not to eat it ever again but it should not be a part of your daily intake.
Fats should come from avocado, olive oil, oily fish, coconut oil, more matured cheeses, nuts and seeds. Fats contain nine calories a gram but before you start thinking that this makes them more “fattening”, the truth is that not one food group makes you gain weight. It is eating more calories of ANYTHING that causes you to gain weight.

THE DEMON DRINK
As enjoyable as it is in the right context, alcohol is the enemy of body transformation. Firstly there’s the calories from the booze itself, then there’s all the other crap you eat when your inhibitions are lowered, then there’s the day after when you continue to scoff rubbish to combat the hangover.

In terms of strength gains, it’s a nutrient-blocker which means it will stop all that protein getting to the muscles to repair them. It also interferes with the digestive process too.
My advice? Leave it alone unless it’s a special occasion in which case, have it but don’t drink as if someone’s going to come and take it off you any minute.
Alcohol contains seven calories a gram.

SO, IN ORDER OF IMPORTANCE…

1. Consume an amount of calories which will put you into a sensible deficit but not enough to have you starving to death and going off the rails every weekend. (Happy to help with this. I’ll need your weight, please to do the maths)
2 Eat your protein
3. Fill the remainder of those calories with fats and good carbs to your dietary tastes. Some people prefer a diet heavy in good fats, some like their carbs. Remember, notwithstanding the protein advice, the best diet for you is the one that you will stick to.
4. Banish the booze or at least cut back massively while you’re on this programme.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

Lifting heavier weights than you have every lifted before is going to require you to recruit your nervous system. As the weeks go on, you will notice that a weight that seemed a challenge in the beginning will get lighter. This is because your ability to recruit motor units is improving. A motor unit is a single cell that supplies nerves to a group of muscles. Groups of motor units work together to contract muscles, sometimes just one muscle. The more you practice an exercise, the better you will get at recruiting motor units. The upshot of this is that you will get stronger and feel awesome.

But a lot of things come together to influence the efficiency of the nervous system. It’s important to get your diet right, it’s important to drink water to stay hydrated and it’s important to get quality sleep.
What I am saying, in essence, is that the more you get all those other things right, the faster and more effectively your body will reward you with change. So, as Paddy McGuinness would say on Take Me Out, “The power is in your hands.”

Let’s do it ??????