Jim T’s Journey – Week 10

“Poor old Jim’s had himself a bit of flu followed by loads of work but we are still bang on track due to his enthusiasm and willingness to learn.

In this blog Jim talks about his new found love of training whilst in a fasted state ie before breakfast.  I think he’s started to enjoy it as it has really pushed his fat loss into overdrive with him now having lost 17kg and 12% body fat at the 10 week mark!

One interesting thing about the way we have trained is that unlike most trainers I did not get him pounding the treadmill to burn off the fat, which would have probably have gotten him to drop even more weight at this juncture.  Instead he is able to fit into all the clothes that he wore when he was 86kg except that he is 7kg heavier at 93kg.  This is due to the fact that he is much more muscular that when he was at 86kg which leads me to congratulate Jim on now being able to do CHIN UPS!!!  Just being able to do more physically challenging activities shows the importance of strength training over all else as the new 93kg Jim could definitely knock the old 86kg Jim about like Bill Sykes giving Nancy a good hiding! All that said though, the aim is to get our Jim back to 86kg at least but with a more heroic package all round.

I give you Jim………”

 

Having trained roughly between 10 and 5 for the last 10 weeks I decided to go early-bird with my training sessions, specifically my strength training. Just to clarify, I have been doing 20 minutes to ½ hour of pre-breakfast cardio workouts for the last couple of weeks to get in a little extra fat burn. This has ranged from swimming, rowing or running and I have really benefited from starting my day off right, and really shedding the pounds. According to Yoda (Tim) this can largely be accredited to my hormones… eh?!

Hormones affect us too apparently, although I wouldn’t advise breaking down in the gym and reaching for the Malteasers, but they can have big impact on how much benefit we get from training.

Your hormones can be broadly labelled as either anabolic or catabolic. Anabolic hormones, specifically testosterone and growth hormones, repair and build tissue while catabolic hormones, specifically cortisol and glucogon, cause tissue break
down. Anabolic hormone levels are highest later in the day while catabolic hormones tend to be highest early in the morning. This means that, for strength and muscle building, workouts later in the day may be more productive and cardio is best done in the morning.

So why is it that every actor to grace the cover of men’s health to the main man LL Cool J all extol the virtues of hitting the gym in the morning? The problem is that while cardio burns fat, it also chews up muscle mass as well, which isn’t great news for guys who want to look “The Expendables” fit, whereas high intensity weight training will burn reduce body fat and build muscle!

Although its true that cardio activity before breakfast will use fat to fuel energy, it is also true that the process will only last as long as the exercise itself, and as your fitness improves your body will begin to resist shedding the weight. Weight
training, by contrast, works the body more intensely than most forms of cardio, which stimulates a greater metabolic response and ultimately leads to increased fat loss over simply doing cardio. Not only that, but by increasing our metabolic rate you will burn fat even while you are not exercising – boom!

There are inherent risks with weight training early in the morning. For one, your joints and muscles are generally immobile while you sleep. This causes muscles to tighten up and production of synovial fluid to decrease, both increasing the risk of injury, and also your blood glucose levels are likely to be low. This is due to the fact you will have been without food for anything up to 12 hours.

So basically its best to tackle these early morning sessions after you have been doing the programme for a while, by which time you should be supple enough to handle the exercise, and your diet should be balanced enough that a protein shake
(whey is best) with some blended blueberries and oats should be enough to get you through the exertion. Just eat like a king afterwards!