Lose weight, keep it off and feel great! Part 3

Weight loss diets Deciding the best way to lose weight can often be a little tricky – the basic premise of taking in less calories and burning more calories in the form of exercise holds true but there are a couple of caveats. The Department of Health recommends a calorie intake of 1940 calories per … Read more

Lose weight, keep it off and feel great! Part 2

Body fat measurement The most accurate ways to measure body fat is by using imaging techniques such as computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or Dual-energy X-ray absorbtiometry (DEXA) scans. However these methods are expensive, time consuming and impractical for clinicians such as doctors and nutritional therapists to use in clinic.

Lose weight, keep it off and feel great!

With the nation getting ever fatter and the burden this will have on our health and economy, the government and health care professionals alike are urging us to lose weight and become more active. But there are so many different diet books and weight loss programmes on the market and so much conflicting information in … Read more

What should I eat?

How to cut through all the modern day science with a little help from the past. 

Pick up any newspaper or health magazine and you’ll find any number of conflicting articles about what is healthy nutrition and what is not. One minute alcohol is bad for your liver and should be avoided, the next minute it extends life. It’s the same with supplements – one day they are just expensive urine that do nothing, the next day they reduce the risk of heart disease. So why is there so much conflicting information and how do you cut through all this to make the best choices? 

With most research there is always an ulterior motive built in, pharmaceutical research will tell you that drugs help treat diseases – such as statins lowering LDL cholesterol and preventing heart disease. Of course they will, they are not going to pay for or publish a study that says their drugs don’t work. More alarmingly, these companies have been known to press ahead with pushing drugs on the market that are not properly tested or are in fact harmful – think of some of the drugs that have been taken off the market because they cause deaths – such as the anti-inflammatory Vioxx. 

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Rapid fat loss – a case study part 2

The nutritional cleanse is based around liquid meals – that provide proteins, fibre, vitamins and minerals. Added in to this are a multi vitamin and mineral or supplement that supports biotransformation in the liver, essential fats such as omega 3, essential amino acids, and fibre. In the UK we are very polluted with xenoestrogens from plastics, pesticides, industrial chemicals and personal care products so I would then orientate the cleanse to detoxify oestrogen such as using DIM, calcium d glucurate and sulphurophane. Finally supporting sleep is extremely important, as this is when a lot of the detoxification occurs. Using amino acids, herbs and magnesium to aid sleep works well.

Here is a 7 day oestrogen orientated cleanse that one of my clients did. The morning of the cleanse she was 67.8kg at 17.8% body fat and had a 32 inch waist.

On waking
Hot water with lemon
15 grams of Primal Fibre 1 in a full glass of water

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Rapid fat loss – a case study

I have helped a lot of people lose weight, and I usually suggest that slow and steady weight loss such as 1-2lb’s a week is sustainable weight loss, however there are some people that are just too impatient or who want dramatic results in order to get in shape for a wedding or to look good on holiday. These people may be the ones who would go on a juice fast, crash diet for 2 weeks, or try the master cleanse (the maple syrup diet). These diets may work whilst you are on them, but I do not believe they are a healthy or sustainable ways to lose weight.

Most of the time as soon as you stop the diet you put the weight back on with a little more to boot. This happens because these diets really screw up your hormones and metabolism. When you go in to a state of famine (dieting) your body reacts by up regulating your lipogenic (fat storing) enzymes, your thyroid slows down reducing your metabolism, and you start to produce more stress hormones. Your detoxification also slows down as your liver needs a whole host of vitamins, minerals and amino acids (the breakdown products of protein) to clean your body and eliminate toxins through the bowel and bladder.

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Preparing Mark Schwarzer for the World Cup part 3

Mark Schwarzer diet and training

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next 11 weeks consisted of progressively increasing the strength in key muscle groups such as the VMO, hamstrings and rotator cuff, correcting muscle imbalance and working to improve strength in key lifts such as the squat and incline press. A key concept that I employed was to periodise the upper body work with thick grip implements. A goalie needs to be strong with an open hand such as making saves, catching or throwing and rarely needs to be strong with a closed fist apart from punching. Therefore we used an array of 3-inch fat EZ bars, 3-inch fat Olympic bars and devices called Fat Gripz to be put on dumbbells and cable handles.

This dramatically increased the demand of the exercise and increased upper body strength. Here is an example 2-week upper body / lower body programme:

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Training Mark Schwarzer part 2

The common misconceptions are that players should not lift weights for the fear of becoming too big which makes them slow or that they should not train too close to games because the muscle soreness will impair their performance on the pitch. Neither of these are true, however after the first few sessions the initial muscle soreness decreased and Mark could see that training four times a week did not impair his performance. To improve Mark’s body composition I employed a couple of Charles Poliquin’s favourite routines, the first 3 week phase consisted of a routine called 6, 12, 25’s. This is a brutal programme that creates serious lactate build up in the working muscles and gets you shredded. The theory is that the more lactate that is produced, the more the blood pH drops causing the body to produce growth hormone. The liver then turns the growth hormone in to IGF-1, which preferentially burns stored body fat as a fuel. Here is a sample day:

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Preparing Mark Schwarzer for the 2010 World Cup

Steve training Mark on the 3 inch fat Olympic bar bench press

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Working with elite athletes is a passion of mine and when the opportunity to help Mark Schwarzer prepare for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa came up, I jumped at the chance. Little did I know how inspiring he would be for me; what a driven, top professional he is and how hard he would work in the gym. Although I had been advising Mark on nutrition and supplements for about 18 months, we started working together more seriously in January 2010.

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Peak XV is open for business

Welcome to our much anticipated website and blog. We hope to send out regular articles on health, nutrition and fitness that you will find useful and timely. We invite you to download the free report to your right by submitting your e-mail and name in the boxes provided. You’ll not only receive our twenty or … Read more