Join our brand new run club for free, starting on Thursday 1st November at 7.30PM
NORTH LONDON RUN CLUB
The wonderful Nathan Khider, CEO of PT Workspace will be hosting run club every Thursday evening at 7.30pm, where he will then take you for a run around the iconic city of London. Ranging in distance between 5-10k all abilities welcome, whether you are looking to get off the couch or improve/maintain your cardio then run club is the place to do it!
No affiliation with PT Workspace is necessary, run club is open to all who wish to join. Get fit, meet new people and have fun while you do it.
Meeting point is outside PT Workspace at 7.30pm, where warm up will commence opposite the studio and cool down inside the studio at the end of the hour run.
P.S If you are interested in finding out about personal training at PT Workspace you can contact info@ptwporkspace.co.uk. In addition why not take a look at some of the personal trainers who already work with us here.
Understanding How and When to use Calorie Surplus & Calorie Deficit?
We have heard the words boundered around, however understanding how and when to use a calorie Surplus or Deficit in your diet can make the difference between maximizing fat loss and better gaining lean muscle mass.
Calorie Surplus (Extra food in the diet)
An example of using a surplus is often seen in a diet for competitive strength athletes and bodybuilders as their fundamental purpose is to promote muscle growth and strength. A surplus can be used effectively when coupled with a training program designed to reshape the body for a more leaner defined look. Diets having a surplus have shown to be superior over diets only reaching maintenance levels (balanced calorie intake) for lean muscle growth.
An advised surplus added should be from 5-10% more than your Basal metabolic rate (daily energy needs) and should allow for the surplus of calories to be directed to growth and not stored as fat. When using a surplus, fat stores may increase, so make sure to lose fat before this is implemented If you worry about extra unwanted weight.
A surplus is specifically ideal for individuals who have trouble “putting on weight” as this would have almost certainly been due to incorrect manipulation of calorie intake and expenditure. Make sure to eat clean and make up the extra calories through high protein sources. This is not an excuse to overindulge (takeaway, high sugar foods) to reach you calorie target or this will backfire with increased fat stored.
Notes
Ideal for those struggling to “put on weight”
Better Promotes Muscle growth
Quick to workout BMR+ 5-10% calories
Make up of high protein
Calorie Deficit (Less food in your diet)
A calorie Deficit is the most common used discipline in the fitness industry. A calorie deficit is when your body has fewer calories being consumed in your diet than is being expended from maintaining your body and the day to day activities.
Unknown to many… A small percentage of your activity will affect the overall needs of your body, as the primary calorie expenditure is to maintain the body’s state. This does not promoted inactivity but suggests that daily calorie needs will not range greatly among similar size individuals. Finding your BMR and calculating activity levels can give you a direct number to start decreasing your calories from.
Decreasing between 10-20% of your daily needs should be effective, which will usually account to around 200-500 calories .When decreasing your calories we would advise making sure you understand all the nutrients you consume in your diet first, and moving towards healthy food sources over general removal of calories, which can have severe effects on nutrition.
A reduction of a 1lb a week, is the equivalent of removing 500 calories a day. on average 2,500 cals a day for men and 2000 cals and day for women, for most individuals is advised by practitioners due to health and safety. This technique needs to have a balance between calorie loss through exercise and decreasing calorie intake through your diet. One should not be done without the other. It is important to make sure you do not place your body in starvation mode for prolonged periods of time. Always consult Medical Practitioner when making changes to your diet for either a surplus or a Deficit.
Notes
Ideal for utilizing adipose (Tissue Fat)
Do not use deficits for Prolonged periods of time
Small percentage is lost from exercise vs BMR (daily diet needs)
Difficult to increase Muscle mass vs Surplus
Must learn nutritional content of diet before reducing “willy nilly”
Below are some videos to help develop a better understanding of your diet.
It is so important when we have busy lives to use our time as efficiently as possible when preparing food, for that reason i utilize what i call “mass production cooking”. Often a meal even for one person in the evening can take between 30-45 mins to prepare and cook and so i prepare as many meals at one time as i can. This can seem obvious but often when i speak to clients that i train they never use this as a time saving tool.
Okay so every Sunday (yes the day of rest) i do “mass production cooking” for the week ahead. This is so i can take some food (in tubs) on the go that i know the nutritional value of and as we all experience it is hard to get healthy but tasty food when we are out and about in the week.
Ingredients
I genuinely put an hour aside each Sunday to do my cooking and often requires just a single trip to the shops to get a hand full of extra ingredients.
The ingredients do vary but often the basic ingredients remain the same.
2kg of boneless chicken breast
Handful of Spinach, tomatoes, Red peppers ,broccoli, mushrooms, and often a mixed bag of frozen veg.
2-3 cups of Rice
Tin of Black beans
I use an assortment of middle eastern spices such as Cumin, Coriander, Chilli, Garam Masala, Paprika and often Garlic and Ginger for the chicken & the veg. You can pick from the spices that you like best for obvious reasons due to the fact i am the sort of cook that likes to get creative i am not going to place specific amounts but the tend to range between 2tps-3tps each.
Nutritional Reasoning
So for the nutritional reasoning behind these choice is simple. The 2kg of chicken is split up into 6-7 meals a week equalling between 250-300 grams per serving. This alongside a protein shake and often a some mixed nuts with another fish based meal mackerels salad, tuna etc it will total my daily protein needs of 2x my 80kg body weight so 160-180 grams of protein.
The assortment of vegetables means i do get the recommended daily needs for vitamins & minerals. Spinach and broccoli are must haves in my book due to the high levels of vitamin A, C and immune system benefits. I could do a whole post on the benefits and make-up of the vitamins and minerals in the vegetables alone but i will keep to the main topic.
So the carbohydrates (the mix of black beans and rice) goes without saying it is important but specifically it’s needed for energy and also has positive nutrient uptake (protein to the muscles) when eating post workout.
The Cooking
So the cooking itself is easy and it requires little skill.
Dice chicken into trays and mix spices to coat and place in the oven for around 45 mins
Boil rice about 20-25 mins and add black beans at the end when finished just to heat up, do not forget to empty and rinse black beans!
Vegetables are easy and can help to create a sauce when using tomatoes it’s so simply by sauteing in a large deep pan with the other veg for around 30mins.
Equipment needed, large pan for vegetables and the two oven pans for the chicken. Also small saucepan for the rice.
Helpful order for cooking for vegetables:
1, red peppers, mushroom, add garlic and ginger, spices and then tomatoes and frozen mixed veg (this contains the broccoli and extras such as peas, carrots etc).
This can cook while your chicken is in the oven alongside boiling the rice/black beans and so the food should all be ready together. It is 1 hour approx dependent on how fast you are with a knife and chopping board :).
The finished article
Now i usually place 2-3 in the fridge to grab for next couple days and the others between 3-4 in the freezer. The freezer meals i grab out and place in the fridge after about 2-3 days for the rest of the week.
You can eat theses when you get home in the evenings or as i do take on the go to save me buying poor nutritional value foods from tesco, pret etc.
The measurements and ingredients are specific to me and my daily needs (80kg male) but it can be easily modified with switching up less or more chicken, rice etc and for vegetarians maybe quorn as an alternative.
Hope this was helpful and send me any questions or do not hesitate to comment below if i missed anything.
Happy Mass Cooking 🙂
P.S If you are interested in finding out about personal training or studio hire at PT Workspace you can contact info@ptwporkspace.co.uk. In addition why not take a look at some of the personal trainers who already work with us here.
The internet has allowed us to access information like never before, this is no secret! The issue is being able to tell what is a load of nonsense, and what information carries legitimate weight to it. The ongoing debate around cardio vs weight training is one which has been building momentum ever since having a big booty become the latest fashion in fitness.
Now don’t be mistaken in thinking that we are not aware of the positive results weight training has all round, specially when building glutes/muscles within your routine… NO SIR the myth that need debunking is that cardio is detrimental to you having a healthy physique, that if you run you are doomed to have a flat bottom, no muscle and below average physique for the foreseeable future. Weights are good and Cardio is bad… This needs to stop! here’s why..
Cardio for one does not only come in the form of running, its rowing, cycling, hiking, swimming, HIIT and the list continues, and so when you say cardio, this is being incredibly general! Even if running is what’s implied by cardio, different forms of running such as trail running and hill sprints can be very good at working your muscles and glutes.
Second being that we all have a different genetic makeup, whilst we can to a certain degree shape/enhance our bodies by targeting specific areas through weight training and CARDIO, we may not always have the success that others have in the areas we seek for many reasons. Not everyone is born to be a natural runner, just like only few have the size and build to be as big as Arnold Schwarzenegger. Our bodies have limitations some of which you can move beyond, the rest is reserved for the elite 1% whose bodies are far superior and most likely that of an Athlete.
Thirdly we all have our own journey in fitness and so we each arrive at our destinations at different times and in different ways. So being closed minded to certain types of exercise is like not eating vegetables, they might not be your favourite thing on the plate, but deep down you know you should eat them.
Whilst ascetics can be one of the main driving forces behind exercise, the most important thing to remember is your health above all else. A diversity of both weight training and cardio should be applied to a balanced diet, not one or the other and so we really need to move beyond picking a side.
P.S If you are interested in finding out about personal training at PT Workspace you can contact info@ptwporkspace.co.uk. In addition why not take a look at some of the personal trainers who already work with us here.
