Mixed Martial Arts And Size Zero

Mixed Martial Arts And Size Zero!

This came up in conversation with a client the other day, and I thought it'd make a great topic to write about! First, a little background...

In mixed martial arts, as with many combat sports, there are weight classes set in intervals of roughly a stone. Fighters are only ever matched up within their own weight classes, as a much larger individual has too big an advantage in terms of strength and mass and will often beat a more skilled smaller guy due to size alone. The weight classes eliminate these one-sided fights.

Now, some examples. The two pictures below are of Sean Sherk and Randy Couture, who are both UFC champions.

Both are about 8% bodyfat or thereabouts, both are in great shape and renowned for not tiring out. Looking at their build, they have pretty similar proportions. So you'd think it'd be a great fight between the two of them then? There's one problem.....Sherk weighs 155 lbs (11 stone) and Couture weighs 225 lbs (16 stone). If they ever did fight, Sherk would have a serious problem! On the other hand, Couture would have a serious problem fitting into one of Sherk's shirts. In order to get down to 155, he would have to lose 70 lbs of muscle, and even then may not fit into the same clothes due to having a much larger bone structure.

This is why I find the current obsession to be a size zero ridiculous - people have different body types, bone structure etc. and there is never going to be a 'one size fits all' solution to anything, let alone clothing! What you should instead strive for is minimal levels of body fat whilst maintaining a healthy amount of muscle, within the framework of your own body. This is a path that is much more likely to lead to success than blindly trying to reach a size that is impossible to do, and you are more likely to feel good and be healthy if working with your body's potential.

In summary, stop worrying about weight and size, and instead concentrate on fat.......or I'll set Randy Couture on you!

 

Wow I'm tired...

Recently I have been trying to lose fat, so calories have been a bit low. I have also been trying to get stronger, so have really been hitting the strength work. I have ALSO been trying to get fitter, so have been hammering the interval work. I have ALSO been working lots of hours and training in Muay Thai/MMA. Being the best at giving advice and the worst at taking it, I have been trying to push on through despite the fact I've been getting tired and my workouts have been grinding recently. This is a great sign of what's known as over-reaching, which is basically pushing the body beyond what it is capable of recovering from in the short term. While this is not bad, I have to finally accept that it's time to back off, have an easy week, have fun and not strain. This time will allow me to recover and hopefully *supercompensate*, a cool word meaning to improve on the situation I was in to start with. If I choose NOT to back off the training, I will just feel worse and worse, and bad things can happen. Muscle tears, viruses, depression etc etc - the likelihood of all of those and more is much higher if your body is constantly battling a huge stressor such as hard training. If you're like me and hate to have time off, do what I am doing and force yourself to listen to common sense. You will come back stronger soon, and able to kepp making progress! Remember that training is a stressor, and the body cannot take heavy stressors indefinitely. Consider the gasoline (petrol) analogy, courtesy of 'The Thinker' on www.elitefts.com -

"Dosage and duration
Dosage and duration
Dosage and duration

One eye drop of gasoline on the tongue won't kill you. Drink a litre at once and you'll die.

This is an example of dosage.

One eye drop of gasoline on your tongue every 5 seconds will kill you in rather short order. Ration the litre out over the course of 60years and it won't kill you.

This is an example of duration.

The gasoline is an irritant not so dissimilar to a jump, squat, bench, clean, fight with the girlfriend, etc.

It is the characteristics of the irritants and their effect on various biological systems that deserves our most special attention."

Junk food is delicious!

Wow, junk food is great! A nice burger and chips, some pizza, fish and chips, mars bars, jelly babies....mmmm, lovely!

Or not.

Recently I've noticed that junk food SEEMS nice, but rarely is! The nice burger and chips becomes, in reality, a soggy lump of sub-standard meat in a bun that falls apart with a sauce of dubious origin. The pizza becomes either a floppy mess or overcooked (or if you're particullarly lucky, both). The fish and chips is horrible, batter so fatty you can see the years coming off your life as you eat it and half-cooked oily chips that normally resemble wilting celery. Sweets look good until you eat them, then are normally far too sweet or chewy.

This, however, is a good thing. The more bad experiences I can have on my 'cheat' meals the better, since next time I will probably remember that it wasn't really worth it. I just had a lovely meal of salmon fillets, spinach, peppers, tomatoes, radish and olive oil which was much nicer than any cheat meal I have had recently.

So remember, next time you are thinking of ditching your nutrition plan and going for that tempting junk food, it's probably not worth it in reality. And as Alwyn Cosgrove says, "Nothing tastes as good as lean feels!"

It never gets easier...

A few clients have made a similar comment recently to me, along the lines of (best delivered in a style similar to De Niro in the Godfather....)

"Just when I thought I was getting fit, you made it even harder!"

The fact is, to progress in training you have to be continuously pushing your limits. Go to the gym and do the same workout for a year, and you'll probably look pretty similar at the end of the year! Therefore, it is a good plan to change up the stimulus regularly to ensure you keep making progress. This is a concept my clients are only too familiar with!

This is only one of the many benefits of personal training - it's all too easy to forget how hard the workout you are doing now was the first time you did it or overestimate how hard you are working now and stagnate. If you are training with me or any good trainer you will never reach this stage. You can get all the reps with that weight? BAM! More weight on the bar, now do it again! You can do that lunge variation? BAM! We increase the range of motion, slow the tempo, cut the rest or mess with any of the many possible variations to increase the difficulty. Make sure you are always progressing.

"If you are not moving forwards, you're moving backwards"

My training plan for next few weeks

I am entering power phase of my training now, so will be incorporating the Olympic lifts a lot more than in the past and cutting down my conditioning work. I have also put heavy pulls in my routine for the first time in a long time, as I have noticed that my lower back has quickly got weak and I need to drag that back into shape! There’s more than one was to strengthen the lower back, but I quite like the thrill of standing in front of a bar with lots of weight on it with the adrenaline pumping. I am optimistic that this training block will yield good results!

Chili - A burning sort of cool!

Recently I have been really getting into chili, with almost everything I eat being spicy enough to be used as a substitute for rocket fuel! As a side effect, I have been looking into the health benefits of it, and to my surprise, there are MANY great health benefits, including:



- High in vitamins and minerals

- Good for pain relief

- Reduce risk of cancer

- Kill intestinal parasites

- Clear nasal passages

- Control of blood sugar (reduced risk of diabetes)



Therefore, if you do not already, I recommend bringing a bit of spice to your life! There is a level for everyone, from a touch of paprika to extra hot chilli powder, so choose a level that won't blow your head off to start with! I like using fresh green chilies too, anyone that is brave enough can ask me for a sample of my chilli, but you'd better like it hot!



If you are planning on trying out adding some spice to your cooking, I thought it may be prudent to add a link to this page on how to cool chili burns!



http://www.wikihow.com/Cool-Burns-from-Chili-Peppers

Bacon gives you lung disease?!

This was brought to my attention by a client – there was a story in the paper recently about bacon giving you a fatal lung disease. I have also researched this and as far as I can see there is no real substance to it (note: just because I can’t find any evidence doesn’t mean it’s not true!). The disease is called COPD, and I have looked into it a fair bit as I said before. I have found that taking a certain supplement considerably reduces your risk of getting the disease. Anyone that has read this or known me for any period of time should be able to guess what it is, the supplement that does pretty much everything, fish oil! So if you are worried about this disease, you now have another reason to take copious amounts of fish oil. At this rate I’m going to have to open a fish oil distribution company!