Do you do any specific work on your hip flexors when you feel them tighten up? I find that they're quite easy to stretch off and 'fix' compared to other muscles. Few lunges and they're good as new

Must be nice! I have had to work very hard on my hip flexors. They're a lot better now, but it wasn't a simple job!

I have a new mobility drill that I use to start my lower body days which I find is very effective. I lunge as far forward as I can and bring the knee to the floor as softly as possible (in this position we are stretching the hip flexors, pre-loading the glutes and activating the core) then come up into a standing bow, warrior 3, then walk into the same thing on the other side. I hold each position for about 3 seconds, but I reset the clock if I start wobbling about everywhere so I make sure it's three seconds of static. I just do 2 sets of 5 on each side. Really is working wonders for posture, lower back strength, core stability, hip flexibility and glute activation.

[dieting 101]

In order of importance, this is dieting 101

• Energy balance (calories in minus calories out)
• Macros (protein, fats, carbs, fibre)
• Micros (vitamins and minerals)
• Meal timing
• Supplements

Would you also class this as your 'nutrition 101'? The list is perfect in my opinion for someone wanting to lose weight but for someone who's training for something in particular is it still in the correct order?

If you're on a strength regime for example would you put Macros above calories? Maybe not above but certainly it would have a much greater weighting as would all of the others.

For purely losing weight calories may be 70% of that list whereas with other goals it may be 30% with the other 40% re-distributed amongst the other 4 elements.

What's your point on meal timing? Is it to do with spreading your meals throughout the day, carb loading pre-training, avoiding carbs pre bed time?

I'm not quite sure about supplements being in the list as well. Surely supplements are just a part of the other elements? A supplement is just something which helps make the other 4 items easier to achieve.

This is aimed at anybody by the way, not just a reply to Sean.

Love this

Yes absolutely nutrition 101. I was in a bit of a hurry to get it all written down so I've not said a few things as elegantly as I'd like to have done.

I wouldn't say any one thing on the list occupies a % of the result; it's simply an order of operations. If we want to gain weight - it doesn't matter if we've got all these great protein powders and creatine, we eat immediately after training, with a perfectly-balanced vitamin-rich high-protein diet - it just isn't happening unless your input > output (first thing on the list.)

What you say about supplements is basically what you can say about anything moving backwards, if that makes sense? Supplements make goals easier to achieve if the other 4 are in place. Meal timings make goals easier to achieve if the prior 3 are in place and so on.

[dieting 101]

So really you're saying it's the ratio of calories to protein that matters? As long as my meal contains 1100 calories and 75g or so of protein it makes no difference how I obtain it?

We're obviously not counting the fact that we'd die of salt poisoning or vitamin d deficiency or some such thing at some point?

This is basically the crux of it. I was going to, and probably still will, do a video about diet. It's quite simple, but the industry loves to make it complicated.

In order of importance, this is dieting 101

• Energy balance (calories in minus calories out)
• Macros (protein, fats, carbs, fibre)
• Micros (vitamins and minerals)
• Meal timing
• Supplements

We NEED to understand this list top to bottom. Juice diets are popular because they prey on people who understand micronutrients but don't understand energy balance. Weight gain powders are popular because they prey on people who understand supplements and meal timing, but don't understand macros.

"Healthy foods" are so-called because of their vitamin content and glycemic load. If you got all your calories from ice cream then your blood sugar would be all over the place, you'd be hungry and miserable all the time, but as long as calories consumed were fewer than calories burned then you would lose weight.

Body comp requires muscle maintenance, which requires adequate protein consumption. So let's make sure we hit our protein targets, then we can go ahead and get the rest of our calories from wherever you want. As mentioned above, if it all comes from ice cream then we will feel like shit, but we will still be losing weight (and because we understand our macros, we will be maximising fat loss and minimising muscle loss)

Try eating 2,000kcals worth of McDonalds (basically 4 double cheeseburgers, not ashamed to say I have run the numbers on all my junk food favourites) and then try eating 2,000kcals worth of lean meats, fruits and vegetables. Weight loss/gain will be the same in both cases, but guess which one will make you feel fuller, which one will make you feel better. Spoiler alert, it's not going to be the McDonald's diet... However, if you want to sacrifice a few kcals here and there for your favourite things, such as skittles, then this will not affect your weightloss efforts, but it will help maintain your sanity!

Hi Guys,

Can you help,

A couple of months ago i woke up in the early hrs with severe cramp in both calfs, this had never happened before and has never happened again since.

When i started the run leg of my triathalon within 300m of starting i felt the cramp coming in both calfs and thought i was going to have to pull out, luckily it cleared within a few minutes.

I did the parkrun this sunday and after 600m i could feel the twinge of the cramp coming on but only on my left leg, i hoped to run it off, after another 100m it was excruciating, i tried to continue but had to stop. I massaged it and hobbled on hoping it would clear but it never did.

Aftersome 36 hrs it is starting to wear of but is still painful. Please note i was fully warmed up for this race as i got there half an hr early to do just that.

The research i have done point to, over training, not guilty, poor warm up, not guilty, lack of hydration, guilty, salt/sodium  deficiency, guilty i guess.

Any ideas of how to tackle this ?

Cheers

Steve

Bumpity bump guys, all ideas?


Went for a 1k run on Monday  to test the calf it felt painful and tight but felt I needed to stretch it. Doubled the distance yesterday i.e to 2k and again I could still feel a little bit of tightness it was ok until about 1.5 km when I felt it start to come on again so I slowed right down and back to limping a bit today.

Any dead on supplements. rest advice?

Cheers

Steve

Since you've tried the obvious approach, let me ask you a few things.

What's your range of movement in your ankle? Is there a dorsi/plantar imbalance? (Start with your foot at a right angle to your shin, point your toes as far away as possible and as far towards you as possible. Do you reach roughly the same angle with both movements?)

Do you have tight hip flexors? Try doing the front splits and see how far down you can get

Do you have tight hip adductors? Try doing the side splits and see how far down you can get

Do you ever get shin splints?

Do you use a foam roller?

It seems to me the problem is not in your calf, but the surrounding tissue. If you're joke tight in your ankles or hips, then you might be releiving that through your gastocnemius, hence the cramps.

you don't need the deadlift

WAT

How much do you charge for a PT session Sean? Thinking about having a squat/deadlift session at some point to get my technique looked at before I aim for any bigger numbers.

I don't PT any more. Also I wouldn't charge you anyways. Can still take a look some time tho. Where do you train? Do they offer day passes or similar?

you don't need the deadlift

WAT

Just had a look, and there is no way I'd be able to do those, lol.

Start off with just getting comfortable in the bottom of a split squat and enjoy the stretch. Then start making it more dynamic, get used to the balance element. Then you can start playing about with hand positions (out to the side, overhead, behind your back, etc) THEN you can start adding weight.

The movement by itself is so good at undoing dysfunctional patterns that there's no need to rush and get a shitload of weight involved. Just add 10 reps on each side to your warmups or daily routine etc?

Split squats are the nuts. Great hip flexor stretch, great unilateral glute work. Definitely makes my top 10.

Been doing yoga lately and literally no gym. Calories around 2200kcal. Losing lots of weight both muscle and fat. The bulk was gna be fun, but too many health problems so just gna do what I can while I atrophy haha.

I did upper body today for the first time in a decent routine for months.

It was an eye opener and I was disappointed. I felt overly stiff and a little bit weak, of course after a layoff this is normal, but i was lead to believe because i was starting to look better on top as i am naturally getting leaner that this meant i was getting stronger which is ridiculous obviously. So here was my session:

10 mins jog
dynamic stetch

dumbell shoulder press - 1x8 1x6 1x4 1x2 at 15kg - really unhappy about this, i struggled a lot. I think my seating position generally during the day doesn't help, but i am just try and crack on to get stronger

lat pull down machine - level 5 - 4x15 - this one felt something could go on the over straining front so i reduced it to a very manageable routine.

bench press - 30kg 4x6-12 - I know i could do more, but i felt stiff, and that was the main issue with everything I was being held back by stiffness, I think that is mainly because i haven't done it in a while rather than poor warm up so i just need to get through em.

bent over row dumbell - 24kg 4x6-12 - I was most impressed by this one, not far off what i was capable before of doing, and I need to crack on getting higher.

Side bend dumbell - 24kg - 2x12

sit ups - 2x20-30

chest fly machine - level 6 - 4x 6-12

Warm down

So yeh a bit annoyed but I know this is a starting block and I need to crack on.

I really like this routine. I want to make a couple of suggestions so let me know what you think please.

For balance, if we are doing chest flys then we should be doing some sort of reverse fly as well. Sometimes we can jump in facing the chest fly machine, or you may have to grab the weights or cables.

Instead of a lateral flexion movement (ie side bends) , consider a twisting movement instead for example woodcutters or russian twists. Instead of an sternum dominant movement (ie sit-ups) , consider a pelvis dominant movement instead for example reverse crunches or mountain climbers.

Also, what does your dynamic warmup involve?

[are you doing these events one per day? How are you structuring it?]

Got some questions but I am very much interested. First of all, are you doing these events one per day? How are you structuring it?

We are running a delayed Olympics in the studio over the next two weeks.

Will post in here some results to see if anyone wants to compare themselves.

Events:

Hang for time Overhand grip?
Hollow body hold for time Arms and legs extended? Do you stop the clock as soon as form breaks anywhere or do you get a chance if lower back wobbles etc?

Most amount of slams (5kg for women/9kg for men) in 2 mins We don't have slam balls but we have battle ropes so won't be a completely fair test but similar
Most amount of bridge (BW on the bar) on 2 mins Is padding allowed/required? You doing it shoulders to the floor or shoulders on a bench?

Most amount of ab rolls in 2 mins Are you using a barbell for this? If so, how much weight on the bar?
Most amount of press ups in 2 mins

1km on the Xtrainer Adding any resistance?
500m Row

Track food for 14 days (accurate to the macros I set them)
Track steps for 14 days (most amount).

Really looking forward to seeing the results.

Finally back at the gym yesterday. Didn't put more than 50kg on the bar for 10 rep incline bench. A little surprising at just how weak I was, but hopefully those numbers will shoot back up without having to "force it."

I'm going to restart with upper/lower for a few weeks until I feel comfortable going back into that pyramid program.

Good to see everyone crushing still. Keep going!

not trained in two weeks and it's killing me

Thanks for the responses.

My reasons for not raising were simply to let V1 barrel off. In a vacuum I think raising 3b pre, raise flop and raise turn are all viable. In this case I prefer raising turn as our hand on paper has just improved massively, although not sure what I would do on K, J or T turns.

My reason for folding river was that V2 simply must have something to have called all 3, and should in theory be close to the top of his range as he is not closing the action and not much has really changed so is probably expecting us to call behind. I appreciate he can have some worse although I don't think I include AJ, and if he has some ATbdfd and Q8s then he can presumably have 98/97 hh which he might not raise. He can also be flatting here with 88, 77, 96 and J9.

It was ultimately some live stuff that made me fold the river, although not saying whether I was right or not. Think I just wanted to see how close people thought raising turn was. Not that close apparently

Interested to see what people would do here and why

Deep £1/1 game.

We are in the straddle, start the hand with £450 and are covered in both spots.

Villain 1 is MP and basically throwing chips around on tilt

Villain 2 is OTB and don't have much info on him.

[Pre-Flop]
V1 raises £12, V2 calls, blinds fold, we call

[Flop - £38]
We check, V1 bets £25, V2 calls, we call.

[Turn - £113]
We check, V1 bets £50, V2 calls, we call

[River - £263]
We check, V1 bets £100, V2 calls, we fold