How to Naturally boost Testosterone. Returning back to fitness following a short holiday

Thought it was time for a long overdue fitness blog post. Cant believe the last one was mid July!

I must admit I slacked off a bit during the end of July and early August. We actually had some decent weather here in the UK midlands and I found it more than a little difficult to get motivated in the week before my holiday which started on 15th August. Just a week off down on the Somerset Coast with my lovely 4 year old daughter.

I've started another program. I had seriously thought about re-starting Vince Delmonte's No-Nonsense Muscle Building. However, prior to going away, I did a bit of internet trawling for e-books on natural Testosterone boosting. I came across one "Naturally boost testosterone & build muscle" by Gerald Hall. It made quite interesting reading and I'd recommend it to any guy interested in a T boost the natural way.

Moving on to workout related stuff, I am doing a new program, developed by "The Muscle Nerd" Jeff Anderson, called "Optimum Anabolics". This program promises fat loss AND muscle gain. A bold statement if there ever was one. It breaks down like this...

You use your body's ability to "hyper-adapt" to the stresses you put it under. It is a split body workout routine spread out over a maximum of 5 days. You build your workout volume over a 3 week period to the point whereby you are on the verge of overtraining. At the start of week 4, and for the 2 subsequent weeks, you reduce your volume to 3 sets per exercise so your body "hyper-adapts" to the stress and load you subjected it to in the previous 3 weeks. This works on the theory that your body will be tricked into thinking it needs to build muscle to adapt to the continuing stress.

By then, the body will again get used to the reduced workload, so it is again time to start progressively overloading your body again for weeks 7 to 9. This time, there is a different twist. I don't want to spoil it for you, but even this bit amazes me that I really must try it. Weeks 10 to 12 are another "hyper-adaptive" reduced load cycle, and so the cycles continue.

It seems that Jeff Anderson has given this program some serious thought, and as he is a respected fitness writer, I am quite happily giving this program the attention it deserves. I'm 1 and a 1/2 weeks into this program now, and must admit, following a high volume routine is very challenging. Consider the time in the run up to Xmas a thourough trial of the program.

I started the program at 175lb and 18% body fat (based on his bonus e-book on calculating your body fat) on Sun 23/8/09. I weighed myself yesterday and there was a 1lb loss due to water, but its far too early to be seeing significant results. I will see do my measurements at the end of each loading and hyper-adaptive cycle as I think that will probably be the best way of assessing the results.

Incidentally, I have a FREE e-book written by Jeff, on how you can naturally boost testosterone. Simply click HERE to download it.

I will keep you posted on the progress of my latest workout.

Neil

All quiet on the blog post front!

Its been a while since I posted a blog on here. I now have a "day job" and as an off-peak gym member, the only way I have been able to get to the gym during the working week has been to get my lazy ass out of bed and to the gym for opening time at 6:30am!!!

As you know I started the TT transformation contest blog and then sort of got bored with TT and wanted a different sort of challenge.

Well, I decided to give Vince Delmonte's No Nonsense Mucle Building a shot. However, following the TT mass building program that I did for 3 weeks, and a couple of weeks rest, I have found that Vince's workouts are just far too time consuming for me to do. They were taking me over an hour in the gym as they are 5 supersets of 3X15 reps for 2 workouts and 6 supersets for the other. Plus, I was finding it inconvenient to fit in some cardio to minimize the fat gain. I have also "ballooned" in the belly (although I still have a bit of the 6 pack that was starting to develop before I started bulking), so I have decided that I am going back to TT for fat loss again.

I have no doubt that "No Nonsense" is a great program as I have found the workouts really challenging. The members website is fantastic too with forums, workout downloads, etc. I have an incling that I will go back to complete this, probably during the winter when it will seem more sensible to "eat more", but at the moment, I am pressed for time now that I am working, and only have time to spare for long workouts at the weekend, which is really the time I want to spend having fun at the gym as I used to. I cannot give the time that this program requires at the moment, and I would not wish to do things half heartedly!

So back to Turbulence Training then! I must admit it was great to be doing the fat loss workouts. I am going "Old School" and doing the 2K4 workout which alternates between an A & B workout so it is less complex than the ones I had done before. I am also enjoying being able to do interval training. I started TT again on Tuesday and will go in again tomorrow morning , Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon, so as to get back in to the Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday routine.

I went in and did some more cardio this morning. Steady state on the cross trainer for 15 minutes, and then a big challenge, 6 sets 20 second intervals at level 19 (out of 25) with 40 seconds rests in between. That was tough, I could just about handle those 20s intervals, and I was gasping for breath still by the time my cool down has completed! Given that I have been on the cross trainer twice this week already, I think tomorrow I will do some dumbell swings. They are a different take on intervals and quite a different sort of challenge. I have done these before as can be noted from the transformation contest blog.

My left ankle seems to be playing up again so I have bought an ankle support which will be needed as I see tomorrows workout has loads of lunges and bulgarian split squats (which I think is what agravates it!!!)

Anyway I am going to close down for tonight as I will aim to get to bed shortly so as to get up at silly o'clock. Night folks.

Neil

Some simple nutrition tips, plus Neil's special chilli con carne!

I have been thinking of posting some recipes for a bit and I thought I would do a quick post with a sort of sample menu for a normal (non-fasting, or non-cheat) day.

When you are eating for either the purpose of buring fat or increasing calories to build muscle, the basic principles still apply. Eat whole food (in otherwords UNPROCESSED), and avoid at ALL COSTS artificially hydrogenated (trans) fats, drinks such as fizzy pop, sugared tea/coffee, etc. I'm not going to get involved in the stupid argument about artificial sweeteners. For me that is what the filtering system in my body is for.

I find it is worth spending a little time in the kitchen preparing your food, even if you find it a bit of a chore at times, and there is nothing better than knowing that you have cooked a nice healthy meal, untampered by those who can interfere with your healthy lifestyle and sabotage your goals.

One thing I love is spicy food. The more chilli, cumin, coriander, etc the better!!! I especially love Indian food, but the only problem is that Indian restuarant food is usually cooked with large amounts of ghee (more saturated and possibly trans-fats) so it spoils the treat.

I made a nice chilli con carne and home made guacamole yesterday. I used lean minced beef from a local (national chain) hypermarket, half an onion, 3 cloves garlic, half of each of a red & green peper, whole cumin, whole coriander, chilli powder, 2 tins of kidney beans and a tin of tomatoes, plus a little salt to season the whole thing.

I don't use large (or even small) quantities oil to fry things these days, and I NEVER EVER use solid fats for frying either, (although I do use sprays for things like omeletes), so the beef is dry fried. of course the fat and water escapes during the frying which you use to cook the onion, garlic and peppers.

The whole thing makes use of those cheap, store cupboard ingredients, and makes an economic meal, especially if you have a large family.

Anyway I will give you a little sample. I tend to workout as soon as possible in the morning. I am usually in the gym for 7:30/8:00am.

So here goes the sample for today

Breakfast: Plain low fat yogurt with berries (fresh blueberries and raspberries and dried goji-berries) with 2 desert spoonfuls of oats and 2 of muesli. Aprox 350 kcals

Post Workout: Protein shake. (In this instance I am using 1/2 measure of Sci-MX strawberry lean-gro as a whole measure is just too much for me) 175 cals

Lunch: Home made chilli (recipe above) and guacamole + small banana + 6 dried apricots 600 cals

Afternoon snack: Muller light toffee + dozen almonds + 1 measure strawberry Maximuscle Promax shake 300 cals

Tea/Supper: 2 portions of salmon with al dente brocolli, sliced runner beans and raw cauliflower. 400 cals

Bedtime drink: Chocolate promax shake in 200ml skimmed milk. 200 cals

I think this is a great daily menu for fat loss (approx 2025 cals) for someone of my weight and activity level. For maintenance or muscle gain, feel free to increase the calories by adding healthy carbs such as brown rice or pasta and jacket potatoes.

Please post your comments on any recipe ideas you might have.

Neil

Too much flesh!!!!

Thought I'd do the post on here that I didn't get round to doing yesterday.

My weigh in results (see the transformation blog) showed no change yesterday so I did a bit of guilty cardio in the form of the body attack class at 9:30am. I wasn't the only bloke in there. I wasn't quite with it yesterday morning due to feeling guilty for not losing any fat, but went about the routine as hard as usual.

The only thing was one of the women who was standing in front of me had a backless fitness bra top and one of her mates, well, she looked like she was cold despite the fact that the air conditioning in the studio broke down ages ago and is still to be repaired!!!!! Please...I know us blokes get accused of posing in front of the mirrors and being all "LOOK AT ME!!!" when we're doing our weights. But do us a favour, and wear sensible but comfy clothing in the place. No wonder us blokes get accused of being pervs for even being in the same studio as you ladies!!! Just too much flesh for that time of morning, save it for bedtime for your husband please!!!

On a more exercise focused topic, I did the superset workout (as per my blog from the 9th) again first thing this morning. I got to use the big barbell for my deadlifts AT LAST! Again I did the routine as a tri-set and a quad-set. I think the barbell is half olympic weight which I understand to be 14kg and I added plates totalling 47.5kg. I used the snatch grip to change things up a little. I really enjoyed doing the deadlifts and was pleased to up the intensity at last. I am sure I can increase the weight, but I will do this gradually so I can assess where my failure point is. The burpees set and the end of the second circuit is a killer and makes you gasp for air after you've done it.

I was due for a massage today at 5:30pm so before that I went for a swim. I've been toying with the idea of using swimming for some interval training following a tip in the free-ebook report "Training And Nutrition Insider Secrets For A Lean Body" (click here to get a FREE copy) from Mike Geary, author of "The Truth About Six Pack Abs" and a blog posting from Joel Marion, author "Cheat Your Way Thin". So thats what I did. Our gym pool length is 20m so heres the workout.

10 lengths medium paced freestyle (200m) immediately followed by 6 sets of
2 lengths freestyle sprint with 3 lengths slow breastroke recovery (6X100m)

I did enjoy this workout, and given that I haven't done an intense swim for a long while (I used to be able to swim 1km in about 17 minutes at my best and that isnt that long ago!!!) I was quite pleased with the intensity of my sprints. Lets hope that it burns some fat.

Anyway feel free to download the FREE PDF "Training And Nutrition Insider Secrets For A Lean Body" by Mike Geary, by clicking this link. You could even consider buying his "Truth About Six Pack Abs" program by following the links in the PDF!

Enjoy your training and keep your food sensible. Back To Turbulence Training again tomorrow!

Neil

Making progress

Just a quick post on here as I have done a post on the transformation blog.

I'm really pleased as I burnt off 2lb fat this week, so it just shows that following the turbulence training program and doing 2 24 hour fasts per week will help you burn off your belly. I'm now really excited about the remaining 11 weeks, and doing my best not to be distracted by wine and beer.

For me the Eat Stop Eat book has made a difference to my eating pattern. I would never have considered fasting as legit a way to control calories, but it does go to show that it does make a difference.

For anyone considering fasting as a method of calorie control, I would certainly recommend that you do your research and get a copy of Eat Stop Eat before you take the plunge, as the author, Brad Pilon, addresses the principle concerns of most people, such as "Will I lose muscle?", "Won't I go into starvation mode?", etc, etc.

For me, it does seem to be a complementary part of my fat loss program, and is helping me control calories that I may have consumed without even realising.

Anyway I will close up this little blog and post more later this week.

Keep working hard and smart

Neil

What I've been up to this week.

Well we all know I've entered the 5th Turbulence Training Transformation Contest (TTTC). I've been working on that and the comments about that are on my other blog www.neilsturbulencetrainingtransformation.com (tinyurl.com/ngtttc). Please bookmark it, follow it and give me your support as it really will be very much appreciated.

I've not been bad but I've not been brilliant with the booze this week, as I had a couple of bottles of wine over the week, and a beer and bottle of wine tonight. About what I can handle I would say. I didnt find yesterday's TT very intense because it contained exercises I havent done so I had to work them fairly conservatively. That said, I am not doing my TT interval training on the eliptical now (they will be on the treadmill from now on). That will be a challenge because I am a really heavy-footed runner, and whenever I run, for some reason my rhomboids just ache for ages.

So as for my drink tonight which is my treat, I feel I have thoroughly deserved it.

I have done 2 24 hour fasts this week following the "Eat Stop Eat" principles. I've managed not to overeat as well. I'm hoping for some progress this week.

Leaving my TT workouts aside, on my TT rest days I did a cardio/abs from skinny vinny's site, rested on Thursday and was in for the body attack class starting at 5pm. Usually I do circuit training (starting at 4) but it is losing its appeal as now that my fitness has improved I find it is no longer intense enough.

I had been thinking about designing my own workout. I've seen a few of skinny vinny's vids on you tube and he is another documented trainer worthy of trust. I therefore felt that I could design my own workout based on some of his own advice so this is what I did to day:

UPPER BODY

HORIZONTAL PLANE

A BB Chest Press 3X8 @ 40kg
B BB RDL/Bent Over Row Combo 3X8 @ 40kg

VERITCAL PLANE

A BB Shoulder press 3X8 @30kg
B Pull ups 3Xmax (assisted bw - 19kg)

LEGS

A BB Deadlift 3X8 @40kg
B BB Squats 3X8 @40kg
C Burpees 3X12

CLEAN & PRESS

A BB C&P 3X6 @40kg

I then did an abs circuit of

A Plank On Ball 3X90s
B Hanging Knee raises 3X15
C Cable woodchop 3X12 (13.75kg)
D Cable crunch on ball 3X15 (11.25kg)

and then interval training on the cross trainer (Easy = level 13/2 Hard=level 17/25). 3min warm up, 5X 30s hard/30s easy, then 30s hard/90s cool down.

There was only one other person workin out when I had finished. thats dedication.

It took me about an hour and 20 mins to complete the workout, and I was dripping particularly with the resistance training. It wasnt the greatest amount of weight but the supersets were very intense and I found it hard with my grip which is one thing that is on my key improvement goals.

Since doing the TT workouts I've definitely improved in terms of my strength and i can see how much leaner my muscle tone is. my veins are developing on my biceps despite the fact i never do any isolation exercises from my own program or choice.

A funny thing I can relate to is those people who rest too much and dont work hard enough. Today there was a lad who must be in his late teens/early twenties. he hogged the smith machine and rested pretty much most of the time i was doing my supersets. what a waste. I could have done a quick yoga routine between that guy's sets

I may have not done the weight level I wanted but I still had a great workout, that will be more intense and better the next time I do it. I hope I am not too stiff tomorrow.

Enjoy your weekend.

Neil

Trying something different.

As we all know, Turbulence Training is my primary workout program, with my current routine 2k8 being a day on day off, day on day off, day on 2 days off. So what to do in my off days like today?

Well, as an affiliate of, and newsletter subscriber to, Vince Del Monte, I thought I'd give one of his mini programs a whirl. It's imaginitively titled "The 16 week Razor Sharp Abdominal Cardio Workouts".

It goes like this. He gives 6 abs circuits, and 11 cardio routines. I chose workout 1 which was double leg raises (on a ball), and a cable cruch on a ball 3-4 sets, both to failure. I had a real problem with doing the double leg raises on the ball so i moved onto a bench. I was fine with the cable crunch but it took a little bit of experimenting to find the right level of weight, which was 11kg. The only thing is that you do those circuits between 2 rounds of 20 minutes minimum on the treadmill. And they aren't steady state either. My workout was a ladder of 1 minute easy followed by one minute hard, 1 minute easy 2 minutes hard, 1 min easy 3 hard and repeat 2 to 3 times. Well I hate the treadmill and I was going pretty well given my lack of experience on it so rather than repeat I just reversed the process so did 2/1 then 1/1.

As you can conclude, I didn't particularly enjoy the treadmill although the abs work was nice as it was different to what I would normally do, which is usually a circuit of things like planks on ball, side planks, ball jacknifes, etc. That said I think if I do continue with some ab work I will start incorporating cable crunches into my circuits.

I have been thinking about starting my swimming back up, as its been a long long while since I did it seriously, so I've scheduled some swimming in on Thursday.

Another thing I have decided to do for a short period is to drop the circuit training class on Saturday afternoon. Two reasons for this and they are both important to me. 1 I can spend a little bit more time Lydia before I take her back to her mum's, and 2 I can stay at the gym a bit longer after the body attack class, and perhaps do some abs or a little bit of steady state to build up my endurance. And, it will mean I go back home later, and start my Saturday treat (nice bottle of wine) a lot later so that I'm not tempted to over-consume.

That moves me on to the nutritional side of things. I'm waiting to hear about Joel Marion's "Cheat Yourself Thin" affiliate program. As I mentioned, I am experimenting with intermittent fasting, having finished my second fast at lunchtime this afternoon. Virtually every exercise/nutrition system is totally against it (apart from TT) for some reason. So lets see how things pan out.

Final thought for tonight. The TT Transformation contest. I weighed myself yesterday 78.5kg 23.8% BF. I have now started a separate blog specifically for that. Please take a look. I did get my composition done at the gym, which said 19.8% BF. I just dont know. Anyway, I will be using my scales for the sake of consistency.

Will now close it at that, as it looks like Arsenal are going to lose to Man U in the Champions League Semi Final :-(. My best mate will be gloating. So will get an early night and some rest ready for tomorrow's TT workout and body attack.

Neil

Quick post on Saturday

Thought I'd just make a quick post before I take Lydi back to her mum's and I go to the gym to do circuits and body attack.

I'm feeling a bit fitter today and ready to go for it. I've also been sorting my eating plan and fasting schedule for next week when the contest starts.

I'm abandoning the Hardcore fat loss pdf for the time being, but it is still in my plans.

So this is the schedule for the next 12 weeks starting on Monday.

Weeks 1-4 2K8

Weeks 5-8 2K9

Weeks 9-12 Hardcore Fat Loss.

Somewhere within these 12 weeks I will be taking a week's holiday down in Somerset so I will take the dumbbells and the stability ball and see if I can do some sort of maintenance program, which I will look into a bit closer to the time. I expect I will be fairly active in any event as Lydi will probably want to go on some sort of day trip a couple of times in the week.

Anyway I'm signing off for now and going away to work on my pull ups and dips before circuits start.

'Til next time

Neil

My first experience of fasting, and Back in Training.

As mentioned on Wednesday my little daughter, Lydia, wasn't able to go to nursery because of a sickness bug. So Thursday was a stay at home day. That added to the fact that the TT hardcore fat loss program totally tires you, and my foot injury meant that I completely rested yesterday.

As you all well know, despite my fitness, I do enjoy wine more than I should (taking me away from what I want to achieve), and I have found Craig's ultimate nutrition plan really tough to follow. So I have therefore been forced to think outside the box. In Craig's, and other writers such as Mike Geary and Vince Delmonte, have discussed Brad Pilon's "Eat Stop Eat" e-book on intermitent fasting.

I had my doubts about whether fasting is for me, but in the interests of experimentation, and given that my discipline has wavered, I have decided that Brad's e-book is well worth investigating. I have really found what Brad has said to be particularly interesting. I have fasted from about 5:30pm yesterday to about the same time today. From then on I am eating "normally", which for me is pretty healthily in any event.

It wasn't as hard as I expected it to be, and I will go into a little something that might be of interest. I took Lydia to MacDonalds today as a little treat to cheer her up. Not long after we sat down with her "Happy Meal" and my bottle of Buxton Spring Water (only, no "food"), a rather obese couple sat down with their large maccy meals. It was interesting to watch this couple of slobs. Lydia ate about 2 1/2 chicken mcnuggets,about a dozen french fries and drank a very small amount of her chocolate shake in roughly 15 minutes. The male member of the "couple" wolfed his nuggets and fries chewing them about 5 or 6 times, then shovelling the next load into his mouth as fast as his "hunger" made him. He then went and ordered a mcflurry or whatever they call it. What's more astonishing is that they couldn't have even taken a total 5 minutes to consume all those calories. No wonder they were shockingly overweight, and I was very sad to see people choose to be in such a state.

This experience, however, makes me feel much better about my own little vice. But it also makes me feel more commited to eating healthily and to intermittent fasting. That way I can feel much less guilty about my passion for wine. A couple of days fasting for me would represent a caloric defit of about 5,500 calories (which would represent a 1.5 lb fat loss) so personally, it would be very worthwhile using the East Stop Eat lifestyle.

Another product that I have seen that is launching today is Joel Marion's "Cheat Yourself Thin". Joel is an advocate of using "Cheat Days" where if you are on a restricted diet, you eat massive calories of whatever you like, so that your body is fooled into thinking that food is in abundance after having calories restricted. I'm not going to dismiss Joel's system, as I'm sure it will work for many people and (despite being in pre-launch) already has many testamonials from people that he has helped with this system before publishing it. However, Brad Pilon explains this phenomenon in Eat Stop Eat, and is referred to as diet edema. I'm not going to claim I know anything about what they are talking about, but it seems that normal eating after some form of calorie restriction, whether total intermittent fasting, or a reduced calorie controlled diet, increases fat loss rates for many participants.

Moving back to resuming Turbulence Training today, I was unable to complete the week's TT hardcore fat loss program for the week as I do not have any equipment at home to do chin ups or dips. So I did a nice TT program from this year's "March Madness". Craig demonstrates it in the video below:


It was nice to workout at home, and in fact I worked out in the back yard (except for the stability ball part of the circuit). I don't have a kettlebell so I used my adjustable dumbbells. I started off at 10kg for the first circuit, moved up to 13kg for the second, and 16kg for the third and final circuit. I've done this routine before, last month (links on my facebook page!!!). All I can say is that I was completely whacked out, despite being used to doing circuit training on a regular basis at my gym.

Lydi goes back to her mum's tomorrow afternoon so I will be back to the gym afterwards to do circuits and body attack at 4pm. I'm looking forward to seeing what delights Sophie has in store for us after an interesting class last week. I've got a suspicion that it will be the strength supersets again.

The Transformation contest starts on Monday. I am launching a new blog specifically to cover my transformation progress, but I will still continue to write to this blog too.

Keep motivated, eat healthily, enjoy your life.

Neil

I'm injured and my daughter has a virus!

Oh dear. My left foot has been killing me for a couple of weeks. I spraigned my ankle very badly when at school (nearly 20 years ago, but it has never been the same). I think spraigned it again Easter Sunday, when I first walked up the Wrekin (local hill and beauty spot). It wasnt going up that did it, it was coming down.

Anyway, I've been favouring it for a little while and both the top muscles and my tendons and ligaments in my ankle have been hurting ever since. It's been really affecting my ability to do the good old bulgarian split squat for a while. Anyway, I have struggled on for a good 3 weeks, I have been going on full tilt in the gym and studio, but it is hurting so much that enough is enough; I've just got to rest it.

And today, my (ex)wife rang me up to tell me our daughter has been throwing up since she came back from nursery. Proper projectile vomiting!!! I will pick her up first thing and look after her at home for a couple of days as she would be passing whatever she has on to the other kids, and that just isnt fair to them.

With the TT Transformation contest coming up on May 4 it seems sensible to just calm things down for 4 days. I am going to give 100% to that contest. Whether I win it or not, giving it 100% commitment is what matters.

In the meantime, my daughter is all that matters so I will take this opportunity to rest and then JUST DO IT!

I am launching a seperate blog to monitor my progress during the TT Transformation contest. Links will be posted through here and my pages on the social networks that I'm on. Be prepared for the "ugly" photos.

Wish me well

Neil

4 weeks in and going "Hardcore"

Just been re-reading last Monday's post. It's now 4 weeks since I started on Craig Ballantyne's world reknown Turbulence Training programme. Although I did weigh myself this Monday, I have decided to return back to Wednesday weigh ins as this will remain true and consistent to my previous records.

I'm pleased to say that in 4 weeks I have actually lost 1.8kg (4lb) of body fat (now down to 18kg/40lb of fat) , which represents a 1.3% reduction. My initial goal was to lose 1%. At that time I had not really made any calculations as to how much fat mass I was to lose, and based it on percentages. I made the following video not long after I started the programme.

As I mentioned in my last entry, I've had a big struggle with my alcohol consumption. Whilst I do believe that life is for living, and I have no problem with people responsibly enjoying their tipples of choice, I sometimes feel guilty about my passion for wine, particularly as it is preventing me from achieving what I want in terms of getting a great mid-section! At the moment it really is too hard a task to just eliminate my level of consumption so I have decided to do a much more gradual reduction.

We brew some lovely beer here in the UK and there is one brewery that I am a big fan of, the Badger Brewery based down in Dorset. So my treat is a (as in ONE!) bottle from their range of very fine ales every other night in the week (i.e. Monday, Wednesday and Friday). On Saturday, I will apply the John Berrardi 90% rule and enjoy some wine after going to my back to back classes at the Gym.

Anyway, moving back to the main point of my blog, I have achieved my goal despite enjoying a more than what would we be called normal amount of beer and wine. Whilst I wonder what I could have achived if I had been more disciplined, I will learn from my mistakes, and not get too down on myself as states in the TTFFL manual that advanced exercisers are likely to expect a lb fat loss per week. So I do still feel really pleased and positive that I can get great results. I just have to be more disciplined.

Its not just the fat loss results that are great. I'm really impressed with my improvements in my strength. Before TT I just played with resistance training doing it twice a week at my own pace. Now I am straight in, resting as little as possible between sets and supersets, lifting as heavy weights as possible, bearing in mind that my right shoulder is still compromised from last year and is nowhere near as strong as the left. The results...

I have noticed a dramatic increase in definition of my muscles in my arms, and my main vains are now starting to become noticeable on my arms and...

I am definitely a lot stronger than I was before I started the programme, even in just 4 weeks.

An example of this is the upper body workout track in the body attack class at the gym. There is a lot of core strengthening and a hell of a lot of press-ups both bicep and tricep. I used to manage bicep press-ups with my knees off the floor, but practically all the tricep push-ups were done with my knees down. Today I managed all but 4 knees off the floor. I know I will get to the stage where I no longer have my knees down on either.

Ok so thats the original programme completed my sheet is below.

Its time to move on to the next programme. I have downloaded the Hardcore Fat Loss programme from TTmembers.com. Time to up the ante and the intensity. Monday's workout was a killer, particularly the 30s/30s intervals where I have also started increased the resistance on the cross trainer at the peaks to level 17 of 25. I was knackered.

However, the thing that scared me most was Craig's nutrition plan with 8 meals a day totalling 2,100 kcals. My god!!! I am however taking some steps to move towards Craig's eating plan, and increasing my fruit and (unsalted) nuts intake with whole graprefruits, dried apricots and almonds has made an incredibly surprising impact. Yesterday I worked out til about 9:10am. I had a protein shake, a grapefruit, a banana and then a ricotta and ham fritata with some baby carrots and cherry tomatoes for my lunch at about 12 ish. I didnt actually feel that I needed to eat my evening meal which I took at about 7:15pm, and I had taken another walk up the wrekin as well to burn off my lunch!

It just goes to prove that if you are disciplined you can make those step by step, but critical nutritional changes a part of your lifestyle. If I can so can anyone!

Craig has announced another 12 week transformation contest with entries to be in between 4th and 26th May. Check here to see the links to the last contest winners with their respective stories. I am going to enter, which is the reason why I have not posted any photos after my first 4 weeks. I am not entering to win, although that would really be amazing. My main reason is that it will make me even more accountable to my friends and family whose support I will be needing. Wish me luck!!!

Click here to obtain a FREE 10 minute workout from Turbulence Training. This gives you half a dozen QUICK and SIMPLE fat-melting workouts. It's in PDF format and you can save from there. If you are interested in the full Turbulence Training programme you can follow the links from the PDF or order from Godzilla Marketing Health & Fitness (where you can view other weight and fat reduction programmes as seen below) on the following link by clicking here.

Keep working hard, stay disciplined, get results.

Neil

Time to re-group and start again. Diet VS Exercise

Where do I start? The last 2 weeks haven't been very well disciplined for me. I haven't been following the Turbulence Training plan to the full. In terms of exercise, yes, I've been following the resistance and interval training programs, as well as doing my own thing on off days. However, I haven't cut my alcohol consumption and this has dramatically affected my goals. I actually gained 2 lb of weight this week although my body fat percentage only went up by .2%. So now 78.7kg/173lb with 18.8kg/41lb of body fat.

I've embeded one of Craig's diet vs exercise videos to the blog below. It makes interesting (and amusing) entertainment and I have posted links on my facebook pages. It's a pity I never took much heed of the message it contains as I could have achieved my goals if I had.


Whilst I'm not a big beer drinker (wine is my tipple of choice), I do drink far too much of the booze. I know its been a bank holiday (and a long one at that) but 5 bottles of wine and 3 half litre bottles of 5% beer must equal at least another 5000 calories and no body fat loss!!!

That said, enough is now enough. Its time to write off the last 2 weeks and re-group to start again from scratch. And this time I'm more determined than ever to shake off this horrible fat that I'm carrying.

So, I've taken a few simple but effective measures.

Instead of setting just targets, I've actually thought about how I am going to achieve those goals.

The big problem is the vino. So I've printed my calendar off for the rest of this month and next and have scheduled when I am allowed to take a drink. I will add a "smiley" on the chart for each day i remain "dry", and start giving myself some small (non-alcoholic) rewards to keep myself motivated.

I have signed up to Craig's Twitter page and already I have 27 new followers on there, so please followers and friends keep kicking my ass to keep me off the wine cos I really do struggle at times to control it.

I've also set up an account on Fitday to allow me to keep a food journal, and I will re-do the 21 day kickstart plan on the TT for fat loss manual. I am also seriously thinking about posting my progress on the TT members forums.

Anyway, I have been doing a bit too much "guilty" exercise to compensate. However, that might contribute to dehydration and even worse, potential injury. So that is why it is important that I cut down.

To move away from my sins (for which I now repent!!!) I have had a nice long weekend. I decided to walk up The Wrekin, which is a local hill here in Shropshire. Its 407m (1,335 ft) high (according to Wikipedia). At school, we used to do our sponsored walks there (2 circuits) and it was quite a challenge. I haven't been up there for what must be 20 years. Yesterday I jogged around the base and climbed up the steepest part. It took me about 35 minutes from leaving the car to do it and it is quite a bit of a hike. I'd intended to shoot a quick video but the video cam battery had discharged so that wasn't to be.

Today I did the body attack class before doing my TT program. I have added a 5 exercise abs circuit for which I do 3 circuits before going on to do the intervals. The air conditioning hasn't been working properly at the gym (and it was worse in the studio) so it was a tough day today. The new body attack routine has now started and its a little bit complex. That said, I know I will pick it up shortly.

This afternoon I went for another trip up the Wrekin. I just walked it and did the easier route. However, I did it at a fairly brisk pace, and that combined with the abs work from earlier, I could feel the work I was doing and did break a bit of a sweat.

I am going to wrap it up for tonight and will make more of an effort to post a new entry more often

Keep kicking my ass if youre following my blog or twitter and I am still drinking the booze, and keep praising me for each bottle of diet ginger ale I consume.

Neil

Turbulence Training and other fitness e-book suites are available from

www.godzillamarketing.co.uk/healthandfitness.htm

Fat Loss by the numbers, and the perils of overtraining.

To maintain good habits and practice, I've been keeping record of my bodyweight and body fat percentage since the end of November 2007 (gives or take a few odd months when at the time I didn’t feel it really mattered). To be honest I never really gave it much thought until I started playing with a few calculations yesterday.

I decided to do this after subscribing to Mike Geary's "Truth About Abs" email newsletter. As a freebie for signing up I was able to download his eBook "Training & Nutrition Insider Secrets For A Lean Body".

Well it wasn't until I calculated my body fat mass and fat free mass that I realized I may have lost quite a lot of muscle.

Going back to the first recording on my bodyweight chart which was 21 November 2007 I weighed 84.1kg (185 lb) and my body fat percentage was 26.1%. So my fat mass (FM) was 22kg and fat free mass (FFM) 62.1kg. My lowest weight was 75.8kg (167 lb) and body fat percentage 22.9% 2 April 2008 meaning FM 17.4kg and FFM 58.4kg. Looking back at my weigh in stats from last week my FM was 19.8kg and FFM was 55.5kg. Since the majority of the loss CANNOT be just down to water retention, it can only be concluded that I MUST have lost muscle.

I must admit that I have exercised to excess in the past. I guess it was probably down to my bad alcohol habits, and the guilt I have been feeling about it; in other words I've been trying to burn off the alcohol calories instead of making the changes in my lifestyle that would allow me to burn my body fat and build lean muscle instead.

The Turbulence Training email newsletter from 25 March was talking about skinny guys wanting to lose more weight instead of gaining muscle to make them look better for the "beach body" look. Although not what you would call a hard and fast rule in the real world, Craig suggests that a person of my height should weigh no less than 165 lb/74.9kg in order to look good on the beach.

This has given me the opportunity to take a look at the figures to aim for which the table below shows:

Suggested bodyweight	75.8kg	FM	FFM
Bodyfat percentage	20%	15.2	60.6
	15%	11.4	64.4
	10%	7.6	68.2
	8%	6.1	69.7

Wow! That is some challenge. To lose 14kg of fat and increase my muscle mass by nearly 15kg.

Fortunately, taking a closer look at these numbers and reading Mike Geary's book have given me insight, as well as quite a big shock, as to how I must have been punishing my body by overtraining, with the increased cortisol levels reducing my muscle mass. Thank god I have taken interest in the range of eBooks that I am promoting, as these will allow me to train in a smarter, more efficient way and manage my nutrition so I can build up my muscle mass and reduce fat which of course is the reason why I'm doing this.

Mike Geary's "Truth About Six Pack Abs" is now available from the health and fitness pages at Godzillamarketing for the amazing price of US$39. For more information or to order click here.

Your continuing partner in the quest to look healthy and lean, all the best for the rest of the week,

Neil

P.S. Since writing the blog draft yesterday, I weighed myself this morning (31/3/09) and I was 78.2 kg 23.9% body fat (18.7kg). I’m really pleased to have lost 2 ½ lb of fat this week. It proves that my diet and exercise program are working as if it had not gone down I would have been in starvation mode and retained my body fat.

I will be doing my turbulence training first thing tomorrow after a lean breakfast of Shropshire produced Muller light and a cereal bar. I’m going to do the body attack class after I will make a sincere effort to recover some protein and calories when I finish working out. I have finally decided to buy some whey protein. But this will only be as a recovery aid. I am not a real fan of supplements and have always been skeptical about them. However, I do need protein to keep my muscle mass from decreasing rapidly. As always I will keep a record and publish my progress here. Stay in touch with me!!!

Saturday 28/3/09 Circuits and Body Attack classes at the gym

just a quick post tonight.

had my usual saturday today spending the morning and afternoon with my gorgeous daughter whom i wish i could be with every day. after i left her back at her mum's i went back to the gym for the circuits class and, it was a great bodyweight cardio class this afternoon. just what i wanted after last weeks torture!

in this one we work in pairs, so whilst i am doing the exercises, my partner is resting (albeit supposed to be doing step ups), and vice versa. so this is how it goes:

round 1: 30 bicycle crunches

round 2: 30 bicycle crunches + 12 power squats

round 3: 30 bicycle crunches + 12 power squats + 10 press ups.

You get the picture...you do the previous set and then add another exercise so the pyramid looks like this.

30 bicycle crunches +
12 power squats +
10 press ups +
9 burpees +
8 shuttles runs (length of studio) +
7 crunches +
6 gun raises (power lunges) +
5 tricep push ups +
4 reverse crunches +
3 press ups and start jumps +
2 high knee shuttle runs +
1 tuck jump

whoa! that sounds like hard work. and then, guess what? when you've finished all that you have to do the pyramid circuit back in reverse!

I partnered up with Mark again, and guess what, we completed the whole circuit first. Wow, we must both be fit as there are some pretty fit people who do circuits on a saturday.

I did the body attack class afterwards. Mark had to give up after about 4 or 5 tracks, he must be getting old. we're getting the next routine in a couple of weeks and i can't believe it's now 3 months since hearing some classic old tunes like abba's "knowing me knowing you" and joan jett and the blackhearts "i hate myself for loving you!" amongst some others. i really wonder what the next routine will hold in store? some great music i hope and fun aerobics i hope.

ahh well. i'm glad to say that tonight was another enjoyable evening.

i will keep you posted with my progress on my fat loss quest. the next weigh in will be on wednesday

keep the faith

Neil

www.godzillamarketing.co.uk

Big Wednesday

Just posting a quickie tonight as feeling really really tired tonight.

I call it Big Wednesday because I do a good solid stint of exercise. Today, I did the body attack class. I was a little late as Micky started the class on time for once. But she never does all 11 tracks for some reason. Still we did all the aerobic tracks and given yesterday's and Monday's training efforts, and with bigger than usual turnout on a Wednesday, I was dripping by the time I came out of the studio at 10:30am.

I spoke to my mate Mark after the class (who incidentally was a footie referee here in Shropshire). We were both still feeling the effects from the studio classes last Saturday, and we were both soaking wet from just the one hour body attack class.

That little chat left me a little late going back up to do my turbulence training (program B) routine, but I did manage this in full, including interval training on the cross-trainer. I was unsure about going to the circuits class, but decided to go anyway. It was quite an intense half hour (after warm up and instruction on the circuit), and followed with a cooldown (in the loosest sense of the word) with a mini abs circuit for about 5 minutes or so.

All I can say is that If I don't sleep well tonight, then maybe I never will.

Oh, I have just remembered, for all you ladies out there, check out the Fit Yummy Mummy program available at godzillamarketing.co.uk. This has to be the premier fitness program for new mothers who are looking to get themselves back into their pre-pregnancy shape. And further, those principles can be applied to any woman of any fitness level, beginner or expert, whether post pregnancy or not. Incidentally, a copy of the basic FYM e-book is also available with the deluxe turbulence training e-book suite, also available from godzillamarketing.

Keep up the hard work.

Wishing you all the success in your fat loss quest

Neil

Let The Trials Begin!

The first thing I’m going to say is that I finally decided to download Craig Ballantyne’s Turbulence Training e-book suite. I purchased the deluxe version, and after an initial review am quite pleased.

I will be using the TT program 3 times a week. In addition to this, I will be treating any other swimming or classes at the gym as what Craig describes as “fun” activities.

So, despite the fact that I usually do my weigh in on a Wednesday morning, knowing that I was likely to be writing up my blog, I thought “well one day is not going to matter”.

I’m pleased to say, that despite some difficult family circumstances during late February and early March, I have managed to maintain my weight. The additional stresses meant that my alchohol consumption crept back up to the excessive and unhealthy levels of the recent past.

However, I am determined to change that. After all, if I am to promote my range of health and fitness e-books that focus on losing body fat, I had better set a good example!

Here are my vitals:

Name: Neil Gazzillo

Age: 36 (I will be 37 in June!)

Height: 5 ft 9 ½ inches 176.5 cm

Weight: 177 lb (12st 9lb) 80.2 kg

Body Fat %age: 24.7%

Chest: 39in

Waist: 34in

Hips: 39in

Arms: 13 ¾ in (right) 13 in (left)

Thighs 22 in (right) 22 in (left)

I have set some short and long term fat loss goals;
To lose at least 1% within 4 weeks (I think this will be easily achievable) and to reduce the body fat percentage to 18% by the end of September.

As I intimated earlier, alcohol is likely to the biggest obstacle to overcome in my fat loss quest. That said, other than enjoying far too many glasses of wine, I do have a pretty good diet. I guess the level of exercise I undertake has meant I have been able to maintain my weight.

Whilst at the gym today, I had a good look at myself and thought I was in pretty good shape. Whilst I still have a bit of a spare tyre around my belly, my abs are reasonably well defined, albeit, nowhere close to a “6 pack”! However, the one area I am not happy with is my upper back. I expect this to be the area where the most effect is seen, although, I must admit, that I would love a 6 pack, and that is the whole point of my efforts.

So, this is where I let you know my plans for my workouts over the next 4 weeks:

This week I went in yesterday and did a 25 minute X-trainer interval program as per last entry, used the resistance equipment (rather than free weights), and some abs work.

Today I did my first TT workout (original workout A). Craig recommends using the bike rather than the X-trainer, and whilst my preference is definitely with the X-trainer, given that I did a pretty damned hard workout on it yesterday, I thought the bike would be better. Given that I haven’t used the bike for a while, I must admit I did feel it in the legs!

Tomorrow is “big Wednesday”. I love the body attack class which is a great cardio routine with some upper and lower body conditioning for a well deserved break. I will then do TT (original) workout B with the cardio element on the X-trainer. I expect to feel pretty drained after then, so I will probably give the circuit training class a miss!

Thursday is set to be mainly a rest day, although I haven’t been swimming properly for donkey’s and I think a nice half hour, reasonably paced swim sounds in order!
Friday will be TT workout A again. Saturday will be my usual day with my gorgeous daughter Lydia at the pool, and then followed by circuits and body attack in the late afternoon. There is no way I am doing anything energetic on Sunday!!!

From there, I will start next Monday with workout B and then follow a plan to workout Wednesday as per this week (but TT workout A) then TT B on Friday.

For more information, or to order the Turbulence Training e-book suite, view my sales page (and see other programmes that may interest you or others) click here.

The other thing I am going to talk about is a supplement called CLA (or Conjugated Linolelic Acid). It is reported to have anti-oxidant and fat burning/muscle mass gaining properties. I’ve purchased a tub of 270 500mg tablets from Argos for a reasonable price. I don’t claim to be a scientific expert by any means of its chemical composition can be found through the usual search engines.

I am usually skeptical about supplements, however, in the eyes of my “research” I am quite happy to keep an open mind. Obviously, with this trial, there is no “control” so to speak. So the plan is that I shall analyze my weight/fat loss whilst using the supplement and compare results after I have run out of tablets. I expect that rate to reduce once I have lost a few percent but then again I will be able to compare results after roughly 4 months.

In the meantime, I will be publishing my progress here on my blog, and giving you my (non-expert) opinion on the effectiveness.

In the meantime, keep working hard.

Neil

Welcome to my blog.

Welcome to the first entry of my fat loss blog.

I'm Neil Gazzillo. I live in Telford, Shropshire in the UK. I'm not promoting myself as a fitness or health guru. However, I am a relatively fit and active person with an interest in losing fat in those tough areas such as the belly and the love handles!

I've decided to share my tips with you on how to lose body fat effectively. These consist of both diet and exercise. But this first blog is just going to be about how I exercise.

My local gym has been a godsend to me over the last couple of years after a spell of depression after separating from my ex-wife and taking an enforced career break. However, doing the same routine in the gym everytime I go is something I have found that can become a bit tedious.

So I like to mix my workouts up.

I do a circuit training class once or twice a week along with a class called body attack, which is a mix of high tempo high impact aerobics and conditioning for the upper body, legs and abs. I usually do body attack 2 or 3 times a week. Sometimes I will do other classes such as body combat and body pump, but the other classes are the ones I attend regularly. In addition to those I normally do a cardio and resistance programme twice a week.

Recently, I have also become interested in other programmes. I have recently discovered a range of e-books and have decided to give the workouts in there a trial. "Turbulence Training" is a system developed by fitness guru Craig Ballantyne, from Toronto, Canada, which promises fat loss without doing long boring cardio exercises, and uses minimal equipment over a period of approximately 45 minutes. The workouts focus on bodyweight and dumbell exercises and a stabilty ball. So these are workouts that you can do at home.

I've decided to incorporate some of the principles from Turbulence Training into my cardio/resistance programme.

My cardio programme is on the eliptical cross trainer.

1. 2 minute warm up at level 11 out of 25.
2. 2 minute at 14kmh at level 14.
3. 1 minute as fast as possible at level 14.
4. Repeat of steps 2 and 3 a further 5 times.
5. 5 minute cool down level 10.

For my weight training I am doing supersets using the barbell.

3 supersets of:

15 shoulder press (20kg) and 20 upright row (20kg)
20 deadlifts at 30kg and 15 bent-over rows 20kg
20 barbell squats at 30kg and 30 bulgarian split squats (15 per leg) with 7kg dumbell
21 bicep curls (7 full range, 7 upper, 7 lower) and 15 tricep pullovers both at 15kg
20 chest presses at 25kg and 15 decline press ups

I then move on to my abs, where I do not tend to have a fixed programme, but do the usual suspects for the upper abs, obliques and lower abs. I then stretch and cool down and hit the sauna and spa. Well deserved too I can add!

Its a pretty tough workout but highly effective. I promise you one thing, you will sleep well the following night!

For more information on the "Turbulence Training" programme, and to get a FREE 10 minute holiday workout e-book, you can subscribe to my newsletter by filling in the form below.

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In the next few weeks, I will be reviewing more programmes and providing some diet and exercise tips that will help you lose body fat and tone up for that sexy physique!

More information on the other programmes I am promoting can be found at www.godzillamarketing.co.uk/healthandfitness.htm

Wishing you all the success you deserve on your fat loss quest,

Neil