Want to burn fat, get strong, have superior energy levels and avoid excuses?

Then cook in bulk.

I can't eat well
I just don't have the time
I can't cook my own lunches for work
I work too late
blah blah blah blah blah!

I have a simple solution to this......cook more food.

I, too, start work early and finish late. A typical day for me is a 6.30am client followed by 7-9 more throughout the day until about 7.30pm. I then get home around 8.30-9pm. This means I'm out of the house from 5.45am until 8.30-9pm at night. I could easily sloth on the sofa and claim I am too tired and don't have the time, reach for the phone and order an Indian take away. Don't get me wrong, I sometimes do, but it’s rare.

I like to eat well and be prepared.Thats why when I cook, I cook big. Here is a great example:

A very simple, quick and tasty meal to prepare that will last for days. Great to have for lunches or the next days dinner.

To be honest roasting veg is a winner. It’s nutritious, tastes good and can be cooked in bulk quantities:

• Chop a load of sweet potato, red onion, parsnips, carrots, butternut squash and wack it in a baking tray.
• Mix with some macadamia nut oil, mixed herbs, salt and pepper then in the oven it goes. It takes 5mins to prepare and then whilst it's cooking get some steaks in the pan and you’re away.
• Cook enough steaks to last for dinner and tomorrow’s lunch, it doesn’t take any longer so if you’re cooking dinner anyway you might as well cook a bit extra for your lunch.
  

This way, you enjoy a tasy nutritious lunch, save money and you can be safe in the knowledge you’re eating good quality food.

Another great tip is to bulk cook your meat and poultry. Invest in a decent sized baking tray and cook a couple of days worth of meat or poultry.

Here I chopped two whole chickens, marinated them in macadamia nut oil, cayenne chilli powder, cumin, garlic, salt and pepper and cooked them in the oven. This was enough for both mine and Keris’ dinner and our lunches the following day. It was so easy to prepare, tasted amazing and lunch the next day was sorted.


I always recomend folk eat a good breakfast but I understand and extra 20 minutes in bed can be the most appealing thing in the world at times. Which is why I recommend my egg loaf.


This is great for breakfast on the go or something to get down you upon waking as it requires no prep, just eat it. Simply mix 6-8 whole free range organic eggs with chopped red pinion, chopped red pepper, some smoked salmon and a bit of seasoning and cook in the oven for 15-20 mins.

A good protein hit, healthy fats and antioxidants and it tastes great. You can use spinach, mushrooms, chopped tomatoes whatever you like. Be creative and enjoy. Again, something like this will last a couple of days.

So, invest in some baking trays and some tupperware boxes and get cooking. Stop making excuses and feed your body with the good food it deserves rather than spending money on that shop brought processed crap. Saying that, we have a great blog series coming soon with some great tips on where to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner and advice on what choices to make. I'm sure you'll find this of interest.

The point of this post is to assure you that cooking your own breakfast, lunches and dinners is not as time consuming or expensive as you think. It is very time friendly and easy on the wallet and can also be incredibly enjoyable if you put your mind to it. I used to hate cooking and would often put together the easiest dish possible. Uncle Ben’s 2 minute Rice, a tin of tuna and a tin of sweetcorn was a favourite of mine :-) Now i love trying out new ideas and I feel very satisfied when I'm tucking in to my tasty, healthy and hearty lunches whilst other people opt for their processed, fat laden lunches.

People often ask how I manage to maintain high energy levels throughout the day and I always say it’s my diet. This may sound obvious but it is often over looked and people are always looking for other reasons as to why their energy levels have dropped. When more often that not they have had a carb rich and processed breakfast which has now seen them have a blood sugar crash. Start your day right, snack well, eat a good lunch and your body will thank you for it not to mention your training sessions will benefit too.

Hope you enjoyed this quick post and please if you have any questions or would like some recipe ideas please don’t hesitate to get in touch at matt@fitterlondon.co.uk

Have great day,

Matt

The best workout for...........??!!

"What's the best workout for gaining muscle?" "What's the best workout for losing body fat?" "What exercises are good for getting rid of my bingo wings?"

I get asked these questions all the time, and I al

ways get a look of surprise but mostly confusion when my response is "What's your diet like?"

I could give you a fantastic workout to build up your chest and arms, an interval protocol for fat burning and a great tricep plan to rid you of your wobbly arms.......HOWEVER!

This is all well and good but let me tell you - all this is wasted if your diet is full of saturated fat, alcohol, sweets and tons of processed food.
Now I'm not going to waffle on about eating plans but one bit of advice I will give you is this - Assess your diet before embarking on a so called "miracle workout". You can train as hard as you like but believe me you will soon grow bored and frustrated when the results don't go quite the way you liked.

Remember, you are what you eat. Your diet is responsible for:

• How much energy you have
• How effectively you train
• How quick you recover
• How well you sleep
• Your mood.

These are just to name a few and they are pretty important if you ask me.

So, for a week - write down everything you eat, log times of meals, energy levels, how much sleep you got and an idea of how long you are taking to recover from workouts. This is the best way of highlighting problem areas that sometimes require the smallest of change for maximum results.

Eat well, train smart and sleep peacefully.

Matt Whitmore

Top 5 Tips to a Better Night

Getting enough quality sleep is vital when it comes to good health, optimal training recovery, injury prevention, more energy and stress reduction. So here are a few quick fire tips to help send you to the land of nod.

Hope they help.

1. Leave at least 90mins between your last meal and going to bed.
   You don’t want your body having to digest a big meal right before bed as it WILL disrupt your sleep. Remember there is a big difference between sleep and quality sleep.
   
   
2. Up your dose of Magnesium in the evenings.
   As well as eating magnesium rich foods throughout the day to aid a better night’s sleep take a good magnesium supplement and use magnesium lotion about an hour before bed, rub the lotion on the back of your knees and neck. It helps relax restless muscles, reduce cramping and will help you drift off to a good night’s kip.
   NOTE: Don’t rely on supplements; be sure to eat a balanced diet.
   
   
3. Read a good book.
   Spending your last moments before bed glued to the TV or your laptop will not give your body the impression it is ready for bed. Put the laptop away, switch the TV off, dim the lights and read a book or magazine for 30 mins before bed. You will relax, unwind and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
   
   
4. Get into a routine.
   Aim to get to bed at the same time each night (especially during the week). This will get your body more accustomed to a routine. 10pm one night 12.30pm the next plays havoc on your body’s sleeping pattern.
   
   
5. Your bedroom is for sleeping…….and that too.
   You want to be able to associate your bedroom with relaxation and sleep so leave the laptop in the spare room, leave work at work and if you have a TV in there sell it on eBay.

Matt's Top 11 Tips for 2011

1. Don’t make a New Year resolution “JUST DO IT”
   Chances are your resolution this year is the same as the one you made last year which you never managed to go through with. Get on with it.
   
   
2. Don’t buy a fitness DVD.
   It will be on the shelf catching dust by the end of Feb.
   
   
3. Don’t go on a diet.
   Pick a healthier lifestyle instead, it will last a lot longer.
   
   
4. Invest in a Personal Trainer or well structured group classes.
   A good Personal Trainer will understand your goals, give you a reality check and provide the structure needed to get you where you want to go.
   
   
5. Don’t cut out fat from your diet, cut out Gluten.
   Trust me, you will look and feel better.
   
   
6. Don’t aim to get 7-8 hours sleep a night, get 7-8 hours sleep.
   Your body will thank you for it.
   
   
7. Have a goal that has nothing to do with how you look.
   There is more to life than what you see in the mirror.
   
   
8. Don’t buy lunch, cook it yourself.
   You will save money, get more nutrients and your training will benefit big time.
   
   
9. Adopt a Paleo style of eating.
   I started last year and have not looked back. Leaner, faster and stronger. Nuff said
   
   
10. Don’t make excuses.
    "I don’t have time", "I’m too old", "I trained hard today so it’s ok to have a burger and fries". Bulls**t will get you nowhere.
    
    
11. Ditch long duration cardio. Lift weights and do interval training instead
    Weight training will raise your metabolism, melt body fat and send your cardio through the roof.

If you would like any more info about the above please get in touch matt@fitterlondon.co.uk

Lift Weights To Melt Fat

Guys and girls, it’s time to make a change. If you are looking to lose body fat, increase strength and get the body you want, keep reading.

Gone are the days when an hour slog on the treadmill, at 60% of your maximum heart rate, was the best way to lose body fat.

Make way for interval training and resistance training.

A combination of these 2 training methods will not only give your body the shock it needs to succeed but expect all of the following:

• A faster metabolism.
• Stronger muscles.
• A Leaner physique
• Better athletic performance.
• Reduced workout time.

If this is not enough to convince you to give it a try, keep reading.

What is interval training?

Interval training is a type of physical training that involves bursts of high intensity work. This high intensity work is alternated with periods of rest or low activity, the eponymous intervals.

A good example would be a 1 minute sprint on the treadmill followed by a 1 minute jog/walk.

For best results I would not recommend longer than 30 mins including both warm up and cool down.

This is a more effective way to burn calories. However the bad news is these intervals sessions need to be intense in order to produce enough lactic acid to have the desired effect but the good news is you will only need to perform them twice a week.

A good weekly schedule for both men and women would look something like this:

Mon: Full body resistance training.

Tue: Intervals on the treadmill

Wed: Rest

Thu: Full body resistance.

Fri: Intervals on the rower.

What is resistance training?

Resistance Training is a form of strength training in which each effort is performed against a specific opposing force generated by resistance (i.e. resistance to being pushed, squeezed, stretched or bent).

Now ladies don’t be put off by this, you will not end up looking like Arnie, I promise.

Again we are looking to up the intensity here compared to a typical weight training routine. In come the supersets and triple sets.

Supersets are where you perform two exercises back to back before resting and triplesets are where you perform three exercises back to back before resting.

Both of these methods place the muscles under a greater tension for a longer period thus raising your metabolism and providing cardiovascular benefits as well as stimulating your fibers for growth, strength and tone. AGAIN LADIES DON’T BE ALARMED.

A typical routine should last no longer than 40 minutes including warm up and cool down and may look something like this:

3 x 12reps of each superset with 40-60secs rest between.

- Incline dumbell press paired with Deadlifts

- Press ups paired with squats

- Shoulder press paired with barbell curls

- Side raises paired with Cable tricep extensions.

The above has a focus on the larger muscle groups of the body (the bigger the muscle the more energy it requires to perform the exercise, which means more calories burned and a higher metabolism). See where I’m going with this!

The truth is most people spend at least 90 minutes training in the gym and most probably don’t even come close to the above. So up the intensity, reduce your training time and look and feel better for it. Trust me.

Now I don’t want to go crazy with detail but I just wanted to get the point across.

I understand some of the above information may go against a lot of things you have read/heard in the past or you may still not believe me, so please if you have any questions or would like some ideas on how to incorporate this into your routine then please get in touch matt@fitterlondon.co.uk

Have a great day and look forward to hearing from you.

Always happy to help,

Matt Whitmore

Chirping Birds, Sunrise... Nice!

A good night’s sleep + a calm start to the day = more energy, productive training and the feel good factor.

Its Monday morning……..BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP. You jump out of bed thinking its World War III, your heart rate's up at 90%; you reach for your alarm in panic only to stub your toe in the process. What a great start to your day.

As amazing as a good night’s sleep is, how you wake up is also very important. Starting your day in the above way will only send your stress levels through the roof from the very moment you wake up and you don’t need me to tell you this isn’t good.

I used to wake up each morning in such a way and to be honest it was F@#$ing annoying, I hated it. It was affecting my work, my training and my mood. So of course I did something about it.

I purchased myself a natural alarm clock.

You what?

It’s an alarm clock that’s wakes you with a light rather than noise. For example I set the alarm for 5.40am (most mornings), at 5.10am the light on the clock gradually gets lighter (this is to mimic sun rise) and will be at its full brightness by the time its 5.40am. The idea being the gradual increase of light prepares your body for waking up as opposed to suddenly jumping out of bed to run for cover when the alarm belts out in pitch black darkness.

If you are not convinced that the light will wake you, 5 mins after it has reached full brightness an alarm will sound. You can choose from the radio, singing birds or a rather pleasant beep.

Now don’t judge me but I went for the singing birds…I said don’t judge me!

I now start my day in a fully lit room to the sound of singing birds. I feel wide awake and ready for the day ahead. The best bit is I can walk to the bathroom, switch the light on and not feel as though someone has just thrown Polish vodka in my eyes.

I only started using this alarm last Thursday and already, I feel energized throughout the whole day, my training feels amazing and I start the day without a single bit of stress. Now bearing in mind I get woken up by the w@nkers sorry, builders who are doing some apparent TfL emergency work at 3am every night I think this is pretty going. I just need a plan to get rid of them now (Any ideas welcome) Once that’s sorted I'm sure I will be having the best sleep ever.

This alarm cost me £85 but it was worth every penny.

I will be in touch again next week with tips on sleep and most importantly quality sleep.

Train smart, sleep well and eat your greens,

Matt Whitmore

Rest and recovery

Let’s get something clear right away. Rest and Recovery are two completely different things……way different.

Just because you may have rested does not mean you have recovered. If you continue to train when you have not recovered properly then quite simply you will get injured.



The key to optimal recovery requires 5 major factors:

• Rest
• Quality Sleep
• Nutrition
• Knowing your body
• Recovery training (active rest).
  

Would a body builder train his/hers chest 2 days in a row at maximum poundage for their 8-10 rep range? NO.

However they may perform some much lighter chest exercises the following day to provide blood flow to the chest muscles in order to aid their recovery and muscle growth.
OR
A long distance runner may run hard for 20 miles one day, but a nice light 30 min recovery run the next day will relieve tightness, create blood flow and again aid their recovery.

Let’s go back to the 5 key factors to your recovery:

Rest:
So you have gone hard at it for 2 days solid in the gym, chances are your body could do with a rest. But I don’t mean sit on your ass and do nothing. Ease off on the intensity; go for a light run, stretch. It is so important to keep your body moving and create a good flow of blood. After all it is your blood that carries the nutrients to your hard worked muscles.
However there are days when your body does need a complete rest, this falls in to the knowing your body area which I will cover soon.

Quality Sleep:
Notice how I say quality sleep*? This is because everyone sleeps, but most certainly do not get enough quality sleep.
By quality I mean, 7-8 hours a night, in a dark room, no electrical appliances all over the place and no broken sleep.
Think about how much better you feel when you have had a good night sleep. Now think about how beneficial that is to your hard worked muscles that need to recover to perform at their best.
*Blog coming soon on quality sleep.

Nutrition:
So you have just finished and hour long full body workout, you feel great. On your way to work you grab a croissant, a pack of crisps and a tea with 2 sugars to have for your breakfast. Because you deserve it right? Wrong.
After your workout your body needs nutrients for recovery and repair. It needs good quality protein and carbs and it needs it now.
Please refer back to my blog on post workout nutrition for some ideas on this.
Remember you are what you eat. The food you consume is your fuel like petrol is to a car. For example if you tried to run a petrol car on diesel then it would break down as you are providing it with the wrong fuel in order to function.
The same rule applies to your body. Do you think the Manchester United squad has a Cornish pasty, mars bar and a can of coke before a game? You know the answer.
So in order to maintain energy levels, recovery and repair make sure you eat right, your body will thank you for it.

Knowing your body:
This bit is the hard bit as most people really don’t know their body when it comes to not having enough or having too much rest.
It is so important to know the difference between things like muscle fatigue and injury or my favourite, people who don’t train legs because their chest is sore from the day before.
Learn to listen to your body and make the right decision. Does your body need a genuine rest or are you just tired because you have not been eating right? See where I am going with this?
Also never ignore an injury, it’s not big and it’s not clever.

Recovery training/active rest:
Here’s a scenario, you have just woke up the day after a challenging kettlebell workout and you are sore all over and tight everywhere. Surely the best thing to do would is to have a complete day off from training and just sit at your desk all day. NO my friend, this is probably the worst thing you could do.
Get your gym kit on and go for a light 20 min run followed by a full body stretching session. This will provide your sore muscles with the blood flow they need to recover, loosen up and most importantly become less sore. Don’t believe it? Try it, works for me every time.
If running not for you? No worries, row, cycle or quire simply just move and get the blood flowing.
I promise that not only will you recover quicker but you will feel more energized and raring to go.

So the truth is just taking on one of the five things listed above just won’t cut it. All of the above have a knock on effect to each other. For optimal recovery assess all of the above and ask yourself “Are their changes I can make?”

The answer is yes, as it is for us all. The truth is it is not easy to compliment our lifestyles with what I have listed but let’s at least try as I promise you; you will be a better person for it.

Matt's Top Tips

Post Workout Nutrition

Have you ever heard/read that training, recovery, health and overall well being is 70% diet and 30% exercise?

Well it’s true, so listen up.

Don’t get me wrong training is great, it makes you fitter, stronger, keeps your joints healthy, gives you a massive confidence and feel good factor and most of the time it’s great fun (well our classes are anyway ). However if your diet lacks nutrients, your training and your recovery will SUFFER and this is where things go wrong. It is so important to tailor you’re diet according to the demands you place on your body...

You have just completed a Fitter London Kettlebell class on a Tuesday morning, which we all know hits every major muscle group in the body and is always a challenge.

Your muscles have been depleted of sugars; your muscle fibres have been broken down and are now in desperate need of fuel in order to replenish, recover and be ready for the day ahead and training sessions to come.

A typical guy will opt for a post workout protein shake; this is a wise choice however most drinks out there contain a ton of sugar and typically way too much protein. Remember your body can only use a certain amount of protein in one go (normally 20 – 30 grams) the rest is quite simply wasted and stored, most shakes contain anywhere up to 55g protein and 50g of sugar in one serving. Where there’s sugar there are calories so beware. Not only is this way too much but the last thing your body needs after it’s already been stressed from a full body workout is a protein and sugar overload. This will just create more stress for the digestive system.

Now for the ladies (and I’ve seen you ;-)) who grab a post workout coffee on the way to work. Bear in mind that you have just lost a load of water during your workout, grabbing a dehydrating caffeine filled coffee is not ideal.

So to keep things simple, here is a list of things to avoid and things to consider after your workout:

Avoid:

• Lucozade
• Sugar laden protein drinks.
• Excessive protein (20-30g is ideal)
• Caffeine.
• Saturated fats.

For immediately after your workout:

• Fruit (dates are great)
• A protein shake with no carbs and between 20-30g protein (no ladies this will not make you big and muscular).
• 100% pure coconut water (amazing)
  

It is also important to make sure your meal following this one should also contain all the right nutrients to aid your recovery further.

For example scrambled eggs with smoked salmon and a piece of fruit would be great. A great protein hit from the eggs and salmon (ideal to repair those hard working muscle fibres), Iron and B vits from the yolk, healthy fats from the salmon and of course vits, minerals and antioxidants from the fruit.

Remember you are what you eat.

Yours in training,

Matt