Get you summer body ready to rock #1

The sun is starting to shine, so the BIG questions is:

Do you want to lose a few pounds of body fat so you have an awesome body come summer? 

So over the next 4 weeks, I want to share with you 5 pretty awesome strategies that will improve your metabolic health instead of wrecking your metabolism (this will help you keep fat off!)

#1: Do Metabolically Stressful Training To Lose Body Fat Fast

Doesn't that sound complicated? It's not.

To lose body fat, you need to generate as much physiological stress on your body as possible (so that your body uses lots of energy and produces a dramatic buildup of lactic acid in the shortest period of time). 

Result:

A serious calorie burn, the use of fat for fuel, and a thriving metabolism. You will also build lean muscle mass, which when combined with increased protein intake, will radically improve the amount of calories your body burns daily :)

How to do it: Lift weights... fairly heavy ones AND have short rest periods. Train, doing big lifts (these use the biggest muscle groups... when you're using the bigger muscle groups, bigger muscle groups have the ability to burn more!)

So your new best friends in the gym are squat, deadlifts, step-ups, pulls, rows, chin-ups, and presses.

Good luck with this in the gym! If you need any advice in relation to your programs, you can PM me via facebook! Next Sunday, beach body plan #2 will be out! But lets take one step at a time! This week, focus on changing your gym programs/regimes!

Erica xXx

Cross Fit... Yay or Nay?

Hellooooo,

Ok so CrossFit has gotten HUGE lately, and I felt it fitting to write my blog this week on CrossFit as we have just purchased an AWESOME 4 bay double sided crossfit rig for The Gym Howth!

CrossFit has some really brilliant ideas. It is a really social and team based form of training, and CrossFit athletes seem to have a great team mentality. They push each other hard…. Maybe sometimes a bit too hard. A major strength of CrossFit is that it helps people in the gym who might not like training alone.

Things I like about CrossFit:

1. They work their asses off!

2. They use the big lifts. Squats, Deads, Chins, Olympic lifts.

3. They eat well.

4. They don’t make excuses.

5. They have a huge focus on mobility work, stretching and foam rolling.

Some things that might be a problem for people doing CrossFit:

1. Technique can be quite bad. (This is not exclusive to CrossFit, there are bad coaches in every sport)

2. Exercises can be too advanced for the “athlete”.

3. Program design can be pretty bad also. I’ve seen videos online of people testing their 1RM Deadlift before moving onto 1RM Snatches. That’s just bad. Again, this is not exclusive to CrossFit.

Overall I think it is great. It has gotten a massive number of people up off their asses and taking an interest in their health. As with any sport, there is a likelihood of injury. But I do think that it suits the more advanced trainee.

I feel most people would find it far more beneficial to get Personal Training and proper coaching focusing on structural balance, good technique and workouts that are unique for what each individual is looking for. A good Personal Trainer will design a program that are tailored for YOU – this is the difference between people who train and get results and people who train and don’t get results.

Happy Training,
Erica xx

Granola Bars... and crumbs

Looking for something quick and handy to keep in the press and have with a cup of tea?

Here is my recipe for healthy granola bars :) Here are all the ingredients that you'll need!

Now, I know that all these ingredients make it look like it's a lot of effort, but it's really not. If you go out and buy all these seeds then they'll keep for whenever you need them (and they're not that pricey)

These are the one's that I buy in Aldi:

Use the protein shake scooper...

One scoop for these four:

Two scoops for these three:

Three scoops of these two:

So put all of the ingredients in a bowl and then add the wet ingredients!
- Almond butter (1 tbsp)
- Almond milk (40ml)
- Coconut Oil (2 tbsp)

Blend them all together, put in a tin and in the oven (gas 6) for 40 minutes :)

They are delicious and you can enjoy them with a cup of herbal tea .... healthy and filling and full of fibre to help your digestive system work properly!

6 simple steps... lose fat instantly

Right,

Are you ready? Five things - food related - to do and you are guaranteed to start losing fat instantly...

1. Back away from the booze
I am aware that this can be a hard pill to swallow...

If you want to get shredded... you CANNOT drink alcohol.

However if you don't want to get shredded, but you do want to lose a bit of weight or body fat, then you still have to give it up. Drink destroys your ability to burn fat by inhibiting your growth hormone production. It really messes up your liver, which means you will struggle to detoxify your body. Therefore if alcohol is a big part of your life, you're destroying your ability to burn fat... which isn't a great situation to be in really, is it?!

So bye bye wine... And no, it doesn't matter if it is gin and slimline tonic... all types of alcohol will inhibit your fat burning fun. It's nothing to do with calories or "low fat" mixers.... it is all down to the disastrous effect it has on hormones in the body.


2. Stop eating margarines
All those tubs of margarine are a no-go. It's a simple change - move to real butter, organic butter or unsalted butter (ghee). Margarines are full of transfats which are highly highly dangerous!

So as a general rule... let's not put trans fats (everything that is processed) into your body, they're not good for you.

3. Stop eating processed food
Processed foods have been made in a factory and get transported to the supermarkets in boxes... really do you want to eat from dirty boxes.

Factory made food... well you don't need me to tell you that they're not good for you. Plus, MSG and chemicals don't help fat loss either... actually they inhibit it (plus MSG is awful for your body... you're body is a temple, don't put that crap in it!) MSG and Aspartame are some of our generations biggest, most dangerous inventions, and they are literally killing millions of people a year. A bit bleak, I know, but unfortunately that is the reality!


4. Start eating vegetables

You know they're good for you. Just eat them. Preferably steamed, not boiled, and as much orange and green veg as you can!

5. Stop eating the bold carbs
Bread, Pizza, Pasta, Rice (brown, occasionally)
You know they're bad for you... So stop eating them.
Better types of carbs would be Quinoa and Sweet Potato, but the timing is as important, preferably post workout when you're more insulin sensitive.

6. No more low-fat
Remember this: Low Fat = High Sugar

Sugar stores as fat in body and it sits on your hips! Avoid all the foods that say "low fat" on the label. They still taste delicious which means that lots of sugar and chemicals have been added to them so they still taste good. Ditch them. Eat less of the regular product.

Think about this: 
Our bodies are machines, they perform millions and millions of actions every second in our bodies. Now your body doesn't really care about those two kilos that you'd love to lose... if you consume a load of chemically processed foods with ridiculously high sugar. Your main priority is to excrete them. Therefore your body is not focusing on your weight loss regime. If you want to lose weight, help your body function properly so it can burn fat effectively, don't hinder it by eating the above foods.

Hope this helped, Erica xx

#healthieselfie

Hi,

So I spotted this idea on Instagram from Sweaty Betty (a fantastic company with a brilliant gym gear collection) and I thought it was pretty awesome!

#healthieselfie
So as you know "selfies" are everywhere (if you don't know, a "selfie" is a picture of you taking a photo of yourself) BUT I think that #healthieselfie is a much better idea!!

Here are some of mine (obviously if you're doing something revolved with fitness, you may need to get someone else to take your picture):

Why not Instagram me your #healthieselfie @ericabrennanblog

Chat soon,
Erica xx

Abs Without Crunches

Okay, so abs are the big thing... but my God, they take serious discipline to get! Abs are hidden under the abdominal fat (which is the hardest to get rid of).

Abs will only appear on bodies that have a low body fat percentage. To get a low body fat percentage, you have to burn body fat. To do that, you need to be disciplined with your diet BIG TIME, supplement with high quality supplements and you need to bring in full body exercises into your workouts.

Compound full body exercises are more beneficial for abs than crunches!

Why??

Because you need to get lean first!! Crunches aren't hard, but chin ups are! Abs aren't easy to get, so obviously easy training won't get you abs. You need to make sure that your workouts are challenging!!

Okay, apart from the fact that deadlifts are my favourite exercise, if you want to boost fat loss, the main objective it to get stronger. You must include full body exercises, like deadlifts, into your routine!

Compound exercises are exercises that require all of your main muscle groups to work really really hard to perform the exercise properly!

Full body exercises are deadly because they really help develop your core strength! Steady core muscles are vital for many reasons... but mainly... because you look deadly with abs! To work your core properly, you need to be making sure that there are full body compound exercises in your programmes.

Full body compound exercises include;

Deadlifts

Squats

Chins 

Cleans

If anyone needs help with programme design, you can send me an email: ericabrennan.pt@gmail.com

Enjoy the rest of the weekend,
Erica xx