Archive for the ‘General’ Category

Finally The Secret Project is Complete!!!!!!

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

Hi everyone,

You’ve probably noticed that I have been very quiet on the posting front, for which I do apologise. The silence was for a good reason though…

You may have read my previous posts, telling you that I was working on this “secret” project, well i’m extremely excited to tell you that I have finally finished!

If you are curious to find out what this secret project is then click here. Let me give you a clue though and say that if you are trying to build muscle, lose weight or both then you won’t want to miss it!

I hope that you will be excited when you find out what I’ve been up to!

My fat loss and muscle building blog posts will be back to normal now, so keep your eyes peeled for some great advice!

 Wishing you the best success,

Jon.

Achieving Fat Loss and Muscle Growth in 2010

Wednesday, January 13th, 2010

This is an exciting time, a brand new year, a chance to wipe the slate clean and set your self up for a successful year ahead. To ensure that you get on the way to success in your fat loss and muscle building goals, you should ensure you do the following:-

 1. Get back to it ASAP! – It is so easy to delay getting back into training after those Christmas Holidays, the earlier you get back to the gym and get back on a good diet the faster you will on your way to having a successful year!

2. Decide upon your goals – what are your aims? are you trying to lose fat or build muscle? You need to be sure as to what your aims are so that you can focus your training and dieting for that specific aim.

3. Plan you diet and workouts – Alot of people don’t plan there workouts or their diets, this can be a huge mistake. If you don’t pre-plan your workouts, you can find yourself wondering aimlessly around the gym, using random machines with no particluar format. Your workouts should be focused and planned for best results. It is also a very good idea to plan your food, this will prevent you from unhealthy eating just because it is convienient. I find it best to make my food for the next day the night before.

4. Develop positive habits – This is important. It is a New Year, a chance to start a fresh, so do it right. Get straight into the habit of eating right, making every single gym session you plan. You do this long enough and it will become second nature!

I have an exciting year planned for the Blog, expect to see loads of diet and training advice and techniques. Also my secret projest will finally be revealed in 2010! So please keep visiting us so you don’t miss a thing!

Also remember to send me any questions or problems you have and will do my best to answer them for you, email me at jallmark@fatlossandmusclebuilding.com.

Happy New Year!

Sunday, January 3rd, 2010

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick post to wish you all a happy new year! Hopefully the holidays haven’t done too much damage to your bodies, but if they have don’t panic! Over the next few weeks I am going to bring you some damage recovery tips, and how to set yourelf up for massive success in fat loss and muscle building over the coming year.

 Make 2010 your year for success!

Wishing you the best for the year ahead,

Jon.

Your Lack of Success in Muscle Building or Fat Loss May Not be Your Fault….

Wednesday, November 25th, 2009

There is an abundance of mixed information out there for both losing and gaining muscle, which ever your current goals may lie in. Unfortunately although there is a lot of good stuff out there, the majority of the information is absolutely useless! This is a huge reason why people struggle to achieve any good results in fat loss or muscle building. Alot of the time it really isn’t your fault that you are failing to reach your potential, it is down to being given bad information and advice.

The huge growth of the internet over the last few years, has made it possible to find out near enough anything you want, but only if you know exactly where to look! The fitness industry is a huge business,with ALOT of cash being thrown around, and unfortuanely due to this you are not always getting what you are led to believe that you are…

The fitness industry has become a billion dollar market, with big companies spending millions onmarketing and sales to bump up their profit margins, and they are very good at it! They are experienced and ruthless, they will make all sorts of promises to get you to hand over your hard earned cash. The supplementation company is one of the worse, trying to sell you products that “guarentee” you miracle results. The only guarentee that you really have is that willlead you disappointed! That is not to say that all supplements are useless, there are a small few products that may help improve your results, but even these can be done without.

Another problem which you may have is following the latest big thing in dieting. Alot of which will only give you short term results, that do not last. They involve following some crazy diet theory, which will just be impossible to stick to long term, and more than likely will leave you worse off than you were in the first place!    

When it comes to building muscle, it is easy to think that advice given by a guy who seems to have achieved excellence when it comes to their own body will work the same for you. When in fact you may end up trying to follow a plan that is either designed for a seasoned bodybuilder, or even a drug user! A routine that may be ok for a competetive bodybuilder with years of training behind them, will not work for a normal person.

I myself have made every mistake in the book, due to following bad advice and buying into numerous miracle products (the miracle was they didn’t work!). I eventually, after many painstaking years, and more cash than i’d like to remember, managed to sift through all the b.s and find what worked for me. By me I mean an average guy, not a genetic freak who can easily build muscle and lose fat at the same time and not a drug user. Once I had thrown out all of the useless info, I realised that the basics that had been used for years were what a normal guy like me need to concentrate on.

I have now managed to shed my unwanted body fat, and build lbs of new muscle, and all it really took was a bit of dedication and sticking with good training and diet practices. I’m now trying to use my blog to share all the great information that is out there with you. I want my blog to be a source of good information, that isn’t designed  toencourage you to buy the latest supplementation product available, but instead is designed to help the average person to achieve the results that I have managed to achieve myself. So please pay us regular visits, so I can pass my knowledge on to you. If you have any questions or would like any advice on a particular subject, please send me an email and I will try to resolve them for you in future blogs.

I have mentioned recently that I’m working on a bit of a project at the moment, which I am very close to finishing. Stay tuned and I will reveal all in then next couple of months… 

Sorry For the Silence!

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009

Hi Everyone,

I have to apologise about my silence and the lack of blog posts over the past weeks. There has been good reason for it,  and no it hasn’t been because of a really long holiday if that’s what you are thinking! 

Over the past few weeks have shut myself away in my office, away from any distractions to work on a project that I have wanted to do for years now, but never found the time to get going. Finally I have run out of excuses not to start this thing and have finally knuckle down to it. So what amI actually talking about? Well that i’m afraid I’m not going to reveal just yet, but let’s just say if you have an interest in losing fat, building muscle and increasing fitness (which I would imagine that you do if you are here on my blog!), then you will definately not want to miss this!

Although I have got the bulk of my ’secret’ project finished now, I have still got some work to do to get it just right. I will reveal exactly what I am creating soon, I’ll keep you posted on the progress. Until then I will be returning to my regular blogging activities, so please don’t be a stranger!

Also if there are any questions you have or there is some information that you would like relating to fat loss, muscle building or general fitness, send them in to me and I’ll try my best to help.   

 Train hard and expect great results…

Glutamine-L a Good Supplement to Use?

Monday, September 8th, 2008

I’m not one for over promoting supplementation, but I have recently recieved a few questions about the Glutamine-L supplement. For those of you who are interested in this supplement I’d like to point you in the direction of this useful article on Glutamine-L. This is an interesting little supplement, that has become extremely popular among the bodybuilding community. Glutamine-L raises the bodys natural growth hormones, which increase the body s ability to produce new muscle tissue.

My opinion on this supplement is the same as alot of others, if you are achieving good results using it, then go ahead and use it. I will say that as with any other supplement, it is not a miracle product and will not suddenly make your muscles huge. As with all supplements they are not a substitute for good diet and exercise, they are simple to be taken in addition to them if you want that extra bit of help to achieve your results.

I personally like to keep my supplementation to a minimum, and use natural food sources to get every thing that my body needs. Remember although the fitness industry may tell you otherwise, supplements are not a necessity, and great results are achieved without any help from any supplements all of the time.

Some Quotes from a Fitness Legend…

Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008

A few wise words from fitness legend Jack Lahane…

If you’ve got a big gut and you start doing sit-ups, you are going to get bigger because you build up the muscle. You’ve got to get rid of that fat! How do you get rid of fat? By changing your diet”

Remember this: your body is your slave; it works for you!”

The only way you get that fat off is to eat less and exercise more.”

Yes, exercise is the catalyst. That’s what makes everything happen: your digestion, your elimination, your sex life, your skin, hair, everything about you depends on circulation. And how do you increase circulation?…Exercise!”

You can’t get rid of it with exercise alone. You can do the most vigorous exercise and only burn up 300 calories in an hour. If you’ve got fat on your body, the exercise firms and tones the muscles. But when you use that tape measure, what makes it bigger? It’s the fat!”

This legend in the fitness world is 93 years old, he STILL works out, and still looks great! A great example of what exercise can do for your body and health. Definatelty an inspiration to anyone!
 

Sleep is Priceless…

Wednesday, August 6th, 2008

Quick post just before I pack up and go to sleep…

Getting enough sleep can really help improve your results with both fat loss and muscle building. Sleeping is when your body repairs and recovers from what ever you may have put it through during the day.

If you are trying to build muscle, when you are sleeping is when the majority of the repair and growth of your muscles will occur. Not getting enough sleep can affect your results. If you are notgiving your body enough of this ‘rest time’, it can even lead to over training, which can have negative affects on your body.

Also lack of sleep can seriously affect your energy levels, making a huge difference to your training, and even your motivation to train.

You should be aiming to get at least 8 hours sleep each night, this is what the body needs to fully recover from the previous days activities. 

Well that’s me done for the night, i’m off to get my full 8 hours! Night everyone!

Keeping in Shape on Holiday!

Friday, August 1st, 2008

Hi Everyone!

Well I’ve returned from my two week caravan holiday in the South of France, had a lovely time could have stayed a lot longer! The only things i missed was the comfort of my own bed and my gym!

Having a week off the training and dieting doesn’t hurt every now and again, but any longer may start to eat away at your hard earned results. As I had a two week holiday this year I decided that I was going to still try to eat fairly well and get as much exercise as I could fit in without cutting into my relaxing holiday too much.

I decided to put together a whole body resistance routine which I could complete first thing in the morning without cutting into the days activities, and also without the use of gym equipment. My routine was as follows:-

Bodyweight Full Squat (performed very slowly and controlled) – 3 sets 12-20 reps
Calve Raises (performed on the caravan step!) – 3 sets 12-20 reps
Press ups – 3 sets of 12-20 reps
Pull ups (performed hanging from a branch by our caravan!) – 3 sets 12-20 reps
Tricep dips (performed on the side of my bed!) – 3 sets 0f 12-20 reps
Shoulder side raises (performed with 2 shopping bags) – 3 sets of 12-20 reps
Ab crunches – 3 sets of 12-20 reps

I performed this routine 3 mornings a week. It was designed to keep my muscles active and to prevent muscle loss, not to build any new muscle.

Along with this resistance routine I tried to keep myself as active as possible. I decided to give myself a rest from my usual cardio which involves mainly running, and include alot of swimming, walking, tennis and a few other holiday activaties that me and the family could enjoy together.

I have to say that doing this allowed me to enjoy my holiday to it’s maximum, and I am very pleased to say after taking some measurements now i’m back to normality, that I have had no muscle loss or fat gain during my holiday!

If you are coming up to your holidays, and you want to keep in shape while you are away, I would highly recommend that you throw in as many fun exercise activities that you enjoy as possible. Also why not try my holiday routine above, it will prevent muscle loss on long holidays and only takes 30 mins to complete.

If you are having a short break, a week or less, then having a rest from weight training especially will do you no harm at all. In fact it will give your body chance to recover from your training.

If you are off on your hols, have fun! I’ve got no more planned for a while so the posts will be coming thick and fast again!

Holiday!

Monday, July 14th, 2008

Hi guys just to let you know things are going to be quiet on the blog for a couple of weeks, due to me slacking off and going off on my holiday!

There won’t be any new posts till the 1st of August, so in the mean time why not have a look through the old posts and see if there are any tips you may have missed.

I’ll speak to you in a couple of weeks, keep up the training!