Calorie Counting

Fair to say it gets a bad rap, it also has its advocates.

So why is this?

Personally, I think it comes down to the methods and mythologies of how it is implemented.

A few weeks back we were talking about balancing calories and exercise, and how knowing the baseline requirement is very important, the same is true even without the increase in training.

When we think about counting calories it’s normally

·       How much is in something, shortly followed by “that’s a lot!”

·       I can’t have that

There are plenty of other thoughts, however as always, lets focus on just a few.

Thinking about those items, it would be fair to say those feel like limits being placed on us or being restricted.

Let’s change the viewpoint for a moment, take a fictional baseline, say 2000 daily calories and look at a week:

Rather than a limit, lets budget those calories:

 MondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFridaySaturdaySundayTotal
A200020002000200020002000200014,000
B200018002000180020002400200014,000
C180020001800200018002700190014,000

Imagining we train 3 times per week (Mon/Wed/Fri), the first option, should our personality like structure and routine, would work out nicely.

The second two focus on cycling our calories, option B looks at increasing our calories on training days, perfect for those of us who are a tad hungrier once we have trained. Option C gives us a few more calories on non-training days if we need a few more on our recovery days.

Both option B and C use those cycles to increase our available balance on the weekend, this could be a meal out etc.

Having flexibility allows us to control the overall intake but assign it based on our needs and how we operate best.

Moving onto creating a deficit, lowering our calories to lose bodyfat can be a sea of information, first off we have to know what our baseline is, how many calories on average are we taking in each day? – Doing this over a 5 day period that includes a weekend is the easiest way to get that baseline.

From here we can look into what deficit looks like, not wanting to re-visit previous topics, some apps/websites/techniques will look at the time goal, we are looking for balance and longevity which ultimately leads to success.

Try dropping 100 calories from your baseline, it’s a small amount that is not only manageable but also gives us lots of room for manoeuvre. Body fat not shifting, we can drop another 50-100 calories.

Lastly, calorie counting can have a negative effect for some of us, if that’s the case then just writing down what we are eating can help, we tend to lend a little more thought to our food when writing what we’ve eaten. 

Slow and steady wins this race, heavy restriction leads to frustration and feeling punished, when we should be enjoying the process and feeling good about ourselves.

Information overload? – if you have any questions or would like some help speak to a member of Team SF on info@spikefitness.co.uk or 07597215652.

Maintaining your progress

We are on the right track, workouts are feeling good, nutrition is balanced. So what happens now? There are a few different ways to keep things feeling fresh, understanding what makes you tick is very important, after all it’s your progress!

We could focus on a specific goal, this could be a particular lift so a squat, deadlift etc or a distance time goal such as 1000m on the rower in x minutes. The goal should play well with the other parts of your workout, it’s the overall workout that’s helped to get the progress.

There is also adapting the workout to increase intensity, in this instance, we can slowly build the workout intensity by increasing the weights, reps and sets we perform – quick note here, be careful not to make your workout too long! In this instance, we could use several methodologies:

Week 1 – 7.5kg 3 x 10

Week 2 – 7.5kg 3 x 12

Week 3 – 10kg 3 x 8

Week 4 – 10kg 3 x 10

You get the idea, important to note that we can’t (unfortunately) continuously increase weight. So trying variations of the movement can help. Alternatively, we could mix the weights in the sets, so increasing the middle set to the higher weight, then the last 2, finally upping all 3 sets to the heavier weight. Note – I often get asked about breaking/pausing during a set, this is where you stop at say 5 reps into a 10 rep set, grab a couple of breaths, then continue. Is it cheating? – I’ll let the keyboard warriors decide, however, from a purely functional point of view, there will be times that the new weight is on the ragged edge of our ability, and quite frankly how else are we going to get used to it? I’m yet to see a small child learning to walk get called out for only getting halfway to their parent….. Maybe those rules change when we get older?

That gives us a couple of routes through, find a goal or build upon our current workout, there are of course many other ways to continue progress, such as splitting the workout down, i.e. upper days, lower days, functional days, cardio/weights split and many more. The key is finding something you want to do and that gets you exercising.

Next junction – Nutrition. We would have been on point with our energy expenditure, and with progress it can be easy to allow a few more treats, cheat meals etc in as we deserve it – right? Well, whilst I would not suggest having a few tasty treats is a bad thing, we need to find the new balance. Great the magical maintenance calories bubble – exactly, so magical that it occupies a small sentence at the end of a social post or worse still isn’t an option in the less rounded calorie trackers.

There is a great reason for this, deficit is straight forward, you chop off 150 calories – doesn’t matter if you are out by 50 as either way you’ll still land in a deficit. Maintenance, well, it doesn’t have as much leeway. Typically, if we have been in a deficit when we start to up our calories we will see a slight increase in weight, 2-3lbs is normal this is the body adjusting it’ll level out. Also, as mentioned in previous posts, we may need to go past maintenance depending on the goal and our continued progress. The energy balance works both ways – food is fuel, fuel is needed for expenditure of effort. Start with a small increase, add in 50-80 calories, this could be by having an extra piece of fruit or a slightly larger portion size. Patience is key here, small incremental steps will allow the fine-tuning needed.

Lot’s to take onboard, as always, if you have any questions or would like some help speak to a member of Team SF on info@spikefitness.co.uk or 07597215652.

Creating the right training profile for you.

Quick scroll through the socials…. How many muscle building, fat burning or ab defining programs are there that guarantee results in 30/60/90 days?

How many progressive, cumulative or technique building programs are there that suggest change over time?

There is a good reason for this, I like to call it the Amazon problem, we want results as fast as possible, so faster delivery of results will get people queuing at the door, regardless of what the program is.

Question time:

If the last time you were happy with your body was 5 years ago, is 30 days realistic to get back to that? How about 90 days?

Secondly, if we could, what is the chance of that being a long-term change?

If we could drop 5% body fat in 30 days, surely, we would do so just before summer?

What does this have to do with creating the right training profile? – glad you asked!

Programs should match goals and aspirations with the correct responses in the body, and if we can make it interesting, that’s a bonus. Seeking an athletic body is OK, in fact, it’s a very sensible goal.

Ensuring that all the supporting muscles are well-built, we have a good power to weight ratio and can demonstrate above average stability and flexibility – oh wait, the advert said look like this, not perform like this.

This is where having the right understanding of goals and aspirations comes in, there must be longevity built into your program, to allow continued progress, to build all the mechanics into your body. It’s a tough sell, saying something will take 1-2 years, does not get the same amount of likes as abs in 30 days! Taking our time on a project isn’t something we are used to, unless it’s a house or a car, things we live in or travel in. Kind of like our body.

The right training program will strengthen your body, create the desired shape and make real world, daily activities easier.

It should: Allow progress, increase movement, enhance stability and flexibility and make us feel good.

These are changes that must be programmed for you, to suit you and your goals.

Speak to a Member of Team SF to get the best program for you on info@spikefitness.co.uk or 07597215652.

Balancing calories and exercise

The age-old challenge, training to our highest standard whilst not taking on board too many calories.

An impossible task? Maybe, maybe not!

We often tend to look at the items together from a weight loss perspective, then separately when looking at performance.

When did we last think about improving our performance and tailoring our calorie intake to match?

This could be through cycling our calories, increasing weight moved with the same calorie intake or spending some time to work out our baseline and then linking our calories to that.

Now, just to put it out there we can’t out train excess or less optimum foods, we can however allow ourselves time to dial it in. 

Lets make up a quick example, Person A wants to decrease body fat:

Ideally we would like to make their diet as clean as possible, we also want to include a good volume of resistance work to increase the use of their muscles.

The off the shelf method is to cut calories, and start working out 3-5 times a week, then find out the hard way that we need calories to repair our muscles, which with the cut in calories becomes harder as the week goes on leading to the inevitable wall or the weekend!

Before I head down the rabbit hole, fitness and calorie trackers are awesome, I use both personally and if you can find the sweet spot with them, they can be a real boost to progress.

More often than not, we will take the headline figures – tell a calorie tracker you want to lose 2kg and it’ll ask how long (lbs or kg per week) then give you a calorie figure to hit. 

Person A hasn’t recorded their calories, so how much of a drop is this?

They immediately drop their calories and want to workout 3 times a week, we end up back at the off the shelf method.

Using a slightly different approach, we could record our calories, then drop 100 from the average across the week, this would have us eating slightly less but not dropping by a large figure.

Monitoring this over the next 3-4 weeks, we can see how much of an impact it has had:

• Losing bodyfat = keep going, 

• Staying the same, then we can drop another 50-100 off. 

This will allow us to balance the energy we require with being in a calorie deficit that suits the workout profile we have.

This also gives us much more room for manoeuvre, dropping from 1800 to 1200 gives us the shock, but reduces the longevity and sustainability of the change.

1800 to 1700 to 1600 and so on, drops us down in stages and allows us to get the maximum from each step.

Bonus is, at the same time we can sustain the resistance training and help retain and even build muscle.

In the majority of cases we will find that we can balance the calorie drop with the increase in workout intensity, it’s not unusual to have to put a few calories back in…

So lots to ponder on there, it can be a bit of a minefield with competing advertising and social posts, if it sounds too good to be true, normally is and remember athletes got in phenomenal shape before shakes, supplements and various diets even existed – food for thought!

Speak to a Member of Team SF to find out how to get the best balance for you on 

info@spikefitness.co.uk or 07597215652.

1-1 Classes

All the benefits of a class, with a trainer on your shoulder! Seriously though, 1–1 classes can ensure that you:

1. Hit all the right areas

2. Push yourself (and be gently nudged)

3. Mix up the content – half boxing half circuits anyone?

4. Time convenient

5. Form and technique checked.

Having the class to yourself, we can ensure that it is tailored to you, making sure we are working on the exercises most relevant to you. Having the class to yourself, with the exercises planned for you, we can make sure you are working at the correct intensity and hitting those goals.

So many of our clients mix up their 1–1 classes, they all vary, however, being able to mix 2 or even 3 class types into a single session gives a great mix and keeps it super fresh for you. We even had some peeps ask to be surprised each session – not sure if this is genius or madness……

How many times have we looked at a class timetable and it just doesn’t fit with the work/home life? Choose a time that suits you and come and crush it without the worry of having to rush like crazy to make it on time. 1-1’s will have your form sharpened in no time, we can adjust as we go, making sure you are getting the most out of every movement!

So there you have it, 1–1 classes in a nutshell. Sounds like something that would work for you? Speak to a member of Team SF on info@spikefitness.co.uk or 07597215652.

Getting the most out of your gym membership

We get it, you want to make some improvements, maybe trim down a little bit, add a bit of muscle and feel better about ourselves.

How to start, what to do, what to change all start creeping in and it can be a little overwhelming.

Let’s see if we can keep it super simple, after all, we need to walk before we run.

First objective is to get moving, preferable working our whole body (if possible):

  1. Warm up with some cardio – 5-10 minutes, raise our heartrate and be ready to workout.
    1. Doesn’t need to be at an insane pace
    1. Try to move the whole body
    1. Ease yourself into it
  2. Work each major body part
    1. Couple of leg exercises, single back and chest, a movement for shoulders and arms with a side order of abs to finish.
    1. Can be with machines, dumbbells, kettlebells or bodyweight
    1. Try a few different exercises to see what you like, start lighter and add weight as we progress
    1. 3 sets of 8-12 reps with 1-2 seconds in each direction for each movement.
  3. Be sure to stretch
    1. Stretching limits the muscle and joint strain
    1. Relaxes tense muscles
    1. Helps close the workout in a positive way.
  4. Start with a reasonable amount of sessions
    1. 2-3 times a week will work, this gives us time to recover and time for our body to adapt.
    1. On the days in between, we can do some active recovery, such as walking, stretching or another activity.
    1. Once we have settled in, we can look to enhance our training program – if needed.

Boom, there we go, a simple effective full body workout, without the worry of how many of a certain exercise to do, what the tempo should be or whether it’s a certain type of training day.

Looking forward, having been in the gym for a little bit, maybe our workout needs some tweaking:

Firstly, a training program can help, having a trainer write/update your program can help revitalise it and keep you moving towards your goals.

A quick few tips if that isn’t an option, consider the speed of the movement, does it challenge us?

  • When we complete a movement quickly it becomes more ballistic and doesn’t tax the muscle as much.
  • Are the reps appropriate for the goal, for example, working on strength, we would look towards small rep ranges 1-5 (in the most part) to increase the overload of the muscles. Looking for more of a build, the mid ranges 8-12 offer a better balance of workload vs speed of movement.
  • Recovery – how much recovery are our muscle groups getting, for example, we could do an upper workout on one day, and a lower the next – doing 2 full body workouts in a row may have an effect on performance.
  • Are we using different movement types to work our muscles, doing some dumbbell work followed by some cable or machine work will allow us to keep the intensity higher whilst reducing the risk of injury and increasing the targeting of certain muscles.

That’s a very brief overview of adapting a training program, there are many options available, speaking to a trainer will help expand our own workout knowledge and find different methods.

All Spike Fitness memberships come with a Program from a PT and reviews, included as standard.

Can we help you get the most from your membership? – speak to a member of Team SF on info@spikefitness.co.uk or 07597215652

Benefits of classes

Did you know that small group exercise classes are one of the most effective ways to get fit, lose weight, build a better body and sustain a healthy lifestyle?

There are many benefits of group exercise:

You get a qualified fitness expert at your disposal, even better our classes are based on 4 people, so more time is spent with each individual offer amazing value for money.

Like-minded participants, great banter, a little bit of competition to spur you on, not that our classes are competitive, we all know that having others around can help bring the best out in us!

Having form, technique and structure can reduce your injury risk whilst keeping the class fun and easy to follow with a greater variety of exercises to keep you on your toes.

Classes can quickly help you scale your workouts without having to worry about the right level of exercise or movements, the instructor can suggest adaptations if needed to ensure you are able to give 100%.

So to recap, they are:

  • For everyone
  • Based on your ability
  • Reduce injury risk
  • Get you hot and sweaty
  • Led by a professional
  • Improve technique and form

And lastly, they give you a great endorphin boost.

So what are we waiting for, book on and give one a go!

If you would like more information on our classes, speak to a member of Team SF on info@spikefitness.co.uk or 07597215652

Benefits of a PT

Is this the right exercise for my goals?

Is my technique correct, how can it be improved?

How should I schedule and balance my workouts?

It can be a lot to think about, especially when we have many other things on our minds.

Having a PT in your corner, all the mystic of programming, calculating and timing can be removed.

Personal trainers extract the required information, construct the most appropriate program and then ‘gently’ encourage you to complete it.

Having a personal trainer to guide you in the right direction allows you to focus on working out rather than working out what to do.

  • Need 2 sets of eyes for checking your technique – done.
  • Quick maths for changing weights, sets and reps – done
  • Adapting exercises when required – done
  • Little tiny nudges to complete all reps – done

Making sure you get the most from your workouts is what we do, all whilst improving your technique, ability and wellbeing.

Having a PT also increases your accountability, we are really good at organising sessions and knowing when to push you.

We can also help when working around previous injuries or health issues, opening up different training avenues and making you feel great about working out rather than dreading it.

If you would like more information on how we can help you, speak to a member of Team SF on info@spikefitness.co.uk or 07597215652

Balancing Strength and Speed

Often considered to be at opposite ends of the exercise spectrum, but are they really?

Maybe, maybe not!

More frequently we see many different sports turning to strength training to improve performance, the more we understand about conditioning the body for a given sport the more we can tailor the workouts to help replicate positions, shapes and movements for that sport.

Understanding how to create the right mix keeps the right balance of speed and strength.

It’ll come as no surprise that those who lift tremendous weights may not do as much cardiovascular work, and marathon runners will do a little less weight training than the average weightlifter!

But, they still have a balance. Loading races for example require pace, and participants can move pretty rapidly when they need to – dangerous over short distances!

Top marathon runners such as Eliud Kipchoge undertake resistance training concentrating on the main stress points of their sport, this includes posterior chain, glutes, core and hamstrings, this can be done as a body weight exercise or incorporate bands or weights.

So how does one find out the right mix for them?

Everyone is different, constantly changing our routines makes it difficult to analyse what is working. Ideally, we should introduce the changes in a gradual way and give ourselves time to see how the new routine is working out for us.

6-8 weeks will typically allow a good insight into how we have adapted to the routine.

If we are starting with a cardio heavy base, adding in a resistance workout for 30-45 minutes a week, working on the areas that have a higher level of strain is a good starting point. We also need to remember that those areas will need to recover, making the following day active recovery or a lighter day is a good idea.

Starting from a strength background, add a little light cardio into the mix, we could look to hit a step goal by walking, outside or on a slight incline on the treadmill. Stair climbers and cross trainers are also a nice inclusion. Just remember to keep it at a reasonable level, heading in for a 45 minute cross trainer session straight off might not be optimal – listen to your body.

We have a couple of previous write-ups on incorporating cross training into your workouts, so I’ll keep this brief, the key is to get all parts of our workout pulling towards the same goal.

Use the change in training to support the overarching goal, work on areas that make themselves known when we are in our main activity and build up slowly.

Adding in these additional sessions will help make us perform better and reduce injury risk leading to more consistency.

For help with how to balance speed and strength effectively, speak to a member of Team SF on info@spikefitness.co.uk or 07597215652

Translating additional strength into speed.

When looking at the additional strength we’ve gained over the winter months, it could be easy to think “More power – I am Speed!”

As always, it’s not quite that straight forward, with additional strength we are able to activate muscles faster and with more ease.

Additionally, the pace at which we can move will be increased, this enables us to reduce our contact time when running, over increase up-stroke assistance when cycling and so on.

When looking at how to deliver the extra strength, we often say keep up the same pace for longer or to improve the touch points.

After increasing our output, this could be either volume (distance/time) or intensity (speed) we can call upon the adaptations made to our muscles.

Decreasing our contact time helps with speed, leg stiffness and the ability to deliver power in a more efficient way translates directly into speed.

The more time we are on the ground the less time we are moving through the air, faster more direct delivery of power increases the time and distance covered in the air.

In order to have a firmer landing with faster contact we need to be able to tolerate the loading that comes with it, this is where the additional strength comes in.

Does that mean strength isn’t just heavy weights then?

Absolutely, stability, balance and range of motion all contribute to strength and the delivery of strength.

Loading of muscles with unilateral or off axis movements will increase the strength of those muscles giving more wiggle room when undertaking our chosen activity.

Trail running would be a good example, adding in single leg movements, balance lunges or basic plyometrics will increase ankle stability and strength, increasing power delivery whilst decreasing injury risk.

The same is true of lifting weights, again this doesn’t mean heavy, we can actively increase the stiffness of muscles with pauses, holds and volume in a ‘lighter’ weight range when we can focus on the movement rather than the amount of weight.

A quick note on stiffness, we are looking at tighten our springs, at an appropriate point:

For running having a tighter spring will use more of the energy from the ground, if our spring had long travel we would bleed that energy into the ground which takes longer and decreases the force we can apply overall.

This doesn’t mean we land hard, it is about reducing the travel of our muscles and contracting to apply the force required faster than before.

Cycling would benefit from the increase in transition from downward push to the up stroke, typically improving the up stroke assists the pushdown, increasing our cadence.

For help with how to add extra strength and how to deploy it effectively speak to a member of Team SF on info@spikefitness.co.uk or 07597215652