Peak Week Magic?

There's a lot of myths that flood the physique world with the voodoo of peak week being right up there. 


Here's what we did for peak week at SNBF, you decide if it's magic 


ConditioningWe got into the condition we wanted 2 weeks before the show. This meant all we had to do was to maintain conditioning to through to the show, which is easy as the body gets used to being there.

Training
We only trained once that week, due to a cold. It was a blood flow restriction, full body session aka a pump session. Had Shelley not had a cold then we would have done a second session pretty much identical.


Diet
Lowered carbs to 135g for 2 days (this was the lowest that CHO intake went throughout the entire prep. The highest being over 400g)
then increased CHO the day before & limited water intake slightly.
We had done 3-4 trial run throughs during which Shelley tried out different carb sources to see if they made a difference and decided that basmati rice was the one.



Remember you can't get shredded in a week but you can mess up 6 months of prep by thinking that there's some voodoo to be had in the final week.

The Getting Stronger/ Not Getting Weaker Mindset

Your mind can be a fickle thing. One week you're feeling good about yourself. You hit a couple more reps in the squat rack, shaved 20 seconds off your 5k time and your nutrition is easy.

Next Thing, the metaphorical wheels are off. A sickness bug hits the family, a few nights away with work, crappy food and an even worse gym means that voice inyour head starts beating you up. A simple shift in mindset can make such a big difference when it comes to dealing with the peaks and troughs of training. 

The times when people are 'on it' doesn't need discussing. Nobody needs help when that's happening.

It's the times when other areas of your life take over and training suffers that causes the issues. This is where people tap into an 'off it' mindset and all too often everything goes out the window: nutrition, training, recovery.

"If I can't make today's session, then I may as well just start again Monday" Sound familiar?

Who’s To Blame?

This is something that has been eating away at me for a while now but my Facebook and twitter feeds are full with people laying blame at, well anything really, for the way they look and feel instead of taking ownership over the decisions they’ve made over time that have led them to that place. I get it, I mean nobody likes to hold their hand up and announce ‘I messed up, it’s my fault’ but taking responsibility for the way you look and feel will be the best thing you ever did.

The Problem With D.U.P.

Daily Undulating Periodisation or D.U.P. is everywhere at the moment. This makes me happy as it's method I've been using for some time. I believe it’s a great way to organise your training, keep athletes engaged and most importantly, it gets results. However, there’s no getting away from it, it’s tough. So here is why I believe making a very small change can lead to better results and less overtraining.

Whatever Happened To The Expert

Remember when there was that person. When it came to training and nutrition advice you went to …, when you needed money advice you went to ..., you had an arsenal of ‘go to’ people to fill in the gaps for you. Well, what the hell happened to that person? Now we seem to be surrounded by ‘experts’ who can provide a one stop shop for all our needs. I wanted to be one of them. I’m really really glad I’m not!

High Intensity Intervals vs. Steady State cardio for fat loss

Over the past decade HIIT style training has become evermore popular. Again, as with most thing in the fitness industry, the pendulum has swung firmly in one direction for the time being, but let's take a look at what we know and you can decide which is best for YOU.

Do I need to go low carb?

People waste far too much energy worrying about whether they've eaten too many carbs. This industry tends to swing like a pendulum from one extreme to the other, which can make it confusing for anyone trying to keep up with the latest trends.