EP06: Do You Need A Training Program?

How do you optimise your training results? It's really difficult to optimise your progress if you're turning up the gym and making up your workout on the spot. Of course, you can get some great results early on by doing this. But you might find your progress stalls. I've found you can get faster results, more enjoyment, a set structure, accountability and better context for your training by having a consistent training programme. [FREE] CALORIE CALCULATOR: https://www.horsleyfitness.com/calorie-calculator [FREE] KICKSTART YOUR RUNNING 14-DAY-CHALLENGE: https://www.horsleyfitness.com/the-14-day-challenge Social Links: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lewis_horsleypt/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lewishorsleyfitness

I'm at the business end of training for my Ironman, so I've really been experiencing the topic of this week's episode. I've heard a lot that clients say don't have time to do all their training activities. But I've found you've got to set days and times to get these things done. It's very common to get to the end of a working day and just say I'll do that training or stretching session tomorrow, but then the cycle repeats. You'll probably be just as tired the next day... So you've got to set dedicated time aside to fit it amongst your lifestyle in a sustainable way! [FREE] CALORIE CALCULATOR: https://www.horsleyfitness.com/calorie-calculator [FREE] KICKSTART YOUR RUNNING 14-DAY-CHALLENGE: https://www.horsleyfitness.com/the-14-day-challenge Social Links: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lewis_horsleypt/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lewishorsleyfitness

Is the reason you're not losing weight actually because you "don't eat enough?" I've heard this one many times over the years of Personal Training You may have been following a diet a while in which you initially got results but your progress has started to slow down and now you're thinking... "Is the reason my weight loss has stalled actually because I don't eat enough calories and my body is storing the calories I do eat as fat" Well, the problem with this is it goes against evidence of being in a calorie deficit to lose weight [FREE] CALORIE CALCULATOR: https://www.horsleyfitness.com/calorie-calculator [FREE] KICKSTART YOUR RUNNING 14-DAY-CHALLENGE: https://www.horsleyfitness.com/the-14-day-challenge Follow Me: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lewis_horsleypt/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lewishorsleyfitness

Not incorporating strength training is that you're not directly isolating muscles to get stronger and make you a stronger runner I had a client who joined the Kickstart Your Running programme who hadn't done any strength training in a running programme before He (let's call him Steve) told me that he continually got calf & hamstring issues whenever he did faster intervals or hill reps during his harder more intense sessions Because running was his main priority, he thought strength training didn't need to be implemented into his routine to improve Because Steve didn't do any strength training, he persistently got these muscular strains which lead to him having to take 2-3 weeks out every 6 weeks which massively affected his progress in the long term When we had our initial phone call, I told him I was going to add 2 strength sessions to his programme to isolate these weak muscles After 12 weeks, the issues had totally gone and he no longer had any problems because the muscles were strong enough to deal with the impact of the more intense sessions [FREE] CALORIE CALCULATOR: https://www.horsleyfitness.com/calorie-calculator [FREE] KICKSTART YOUR RUNNING 14-DAY-CHALLENGE: https://www.horsleyfitness.com/the-14-day-challenge Follow Me: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lewis_horsleypt/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lewishorsleyfitness

We all know that fruit & veg are "healthy", but, are there limits on how much we should eat? The problem with eating TOO much fruit & veg could actually be counter-intuitive to your weight loss (as well as your toilet frequency) Now I'm not getting carried away saying that you shouldn't eat fruit or veg because that would be a bit stupid considering they have great benefits such as helping us feel fuller for longer and help get in our vitamins/minerals But, too much of a good thing... isn't good. In today's episode I'll explain why! [FREE] CALORIE CALCULATOR: https://www.horsleyfitness.com/calorie-calculator [FREE] KICKSTART YOUR RUNNING 14-DAY-CHALLENGE: https://www.horsleyfitness.com/the-14-day-challenge Social Links: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lewis_horsleypt/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lewishorsleyfitness

I personally have been a victim of performing every training run like it was a race, and I know you have done it too The problem with this is that it's going to lead to injuries, burnout, and de-motivation! Every week I would pluck up the courage to go out for a run knowing fine well that I wanted to beat my previous time from the run before I did this because I thought that was what I had to do to get better and be a better runner This lead to getting persistent knee injuries which stopped me from running every few weeks, I felt exhausted after every run which affected my other daily tasks, and I just didn't really enjoy running anymore This then lead to me slowing down my runs for the majority of my workouts at a pace that was "conversational" I was then able to reduce the risk of injury, build my aerobic base, and even improved my 5km time by nearly 4 minutes! If you look at the research of elite athletes, 80% of the time, they train at a "low intensity" for these exact reasons [FREE] CALORIE CALCULATOR: https://www.horsleyfitness.com/calorie-calculator [FREE] KICKSTART YOUR RUNNING 14-DAY-CHALLENGE: https://www.horsleyfitness.com/the-14-day-challenge Social Links: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lewis_horsleypt/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lewishorsleyfitness

Is the reason you're not losing fat because you're eating too late at night? The problem with this belief is that it doesn't have much evidence to back it up When I first started training at 16 years old, I was told that one of the key hacks to not storing excess body fat was to not eat after 8pm at night due to the food storing straight to fat if eaten too close to bedtime (yes, a lot of these false beliefs apply to me and my experience if you haven't noticed) I would usually have a busy day at college, come home, then train at the gym for around 18:00 This meant by the time I got home, I only had around 15-30 minutes to cram all of my remaining food in for the day, before the apparent 8pm cut-off point This actually, looking back, led me to eat a lot more calories than I probably would have if I didn't have this cut-off point Instead of having just dinner, I'd have dinner and then wolf down a big bowl of cereal because I feared I might not be able to eat for a while without storing body fat I did this because I wanted to drop some fat, see my abs, and I wanted to do whatever it took to get there The consequence of having the "not eating too late at night" cut-off, is that it was actually putting me in a calorie surplus the majority of the time Meaning that the reason I wasn't dropping fat wasn't that I was trying not to eat too late at night, but I just was simply eating too much over the course of the day... who would have thought? Once I did my research, I learned that the driving factor for fat loss is calories in vs calories out Not how late at night you eat A good reference point I give to my clients is that eating late at night WILL cause you to gain weight IF you have already eaten a lot throughout the day and calories aren't equated for For example, if your goal calories are 2000, you've already consumed 1800, then at 10pm you have a bowl of cereal which equates to 500 calories, you are going to be eating 300 calories over your goal But, if you had that same 500 calorie bowl of cereal at 10pm and had only consumed 1500 calories throughout the day... then your calories would be equated for and the bowl of cereal wouldn't put you in a calorie surplus Eating smarter not harder

Sugar gets demonized by a lot of media/high-profile platforms... But, is it actually that bad for you? Maybe you have always had the thought that sugar is the reason you're gaining weight, or sugar is the devil and it's the first thing you cut out when you go on a diet The problem with doing this is that it isn't sustainable and you actually don't need to do it to lose weight. You can actually still incorporate a lot of sugar in your diet AND lose fat (crazy right?) We've all done it at some point, we've stepped on the scales and got a bit of a fright when it rudely reads higher than we imagined So we immediately begin planning to cut out carbs such as bread, start eating "healthy" and say no to every sugary food insight After a few days of doing this, we realise that we are feeling hungrier than ever, we end up craving high-fat, high sugar foods This leads to us having a weekend-long binge of donuts, chocolate, sweets, or whatever you can get your hands on We do this because we have deprived ourselves of these foods for a certain amount of time without incorporating them into our diet... The consequence of this is that you're in a constant limbo of cutting sugar out of your diet for X amount of days, then binging on it after you can't handle it anymore How do you solve this? WE EAT SUGAR Contrary to popular belief, sugar isn't that bad. It's almost essential for us to include it into our diets To lose fat you need to be in a calorie deficit whether that's cutting out sugar or not In its most simple form, sugar is a carbohydrate, which is a source of energy If carbohydrates are accounted for in your diet in regards to calories, you will still get the results you want If you look at people who have your goal physique, AND they eat a good amount of sugar... how do you think they do it? They do it by accounting for eating higher calories by keeping their calorie expenditure high as well as tracking their calories so they know their intake, not by completely cutting out sugar

I'm going to explain to you why the fruit & veg you're eating may actually be a problem area... We all know that fruit & veg are "healthy", but, are there limits on how much we should eat? The problem with eating TOO much fruit & veg could actually be counter-intuitive to your weight loss (as well as your toilet frequency) Now I'm not getting carried away saying that you shouldn't eat fruit or veg because that would be a bit stupid considering they have great benefits such as helping us feel fuller for longer and help get in our vitamins/minerals But, too much of a good thing... isn't good Before I tracked any of my calories I would try to cram in as much fruit and veg per day because I was told that it was "healthy" Not only did I feel a lot gassier, but I actually didn't drop that much weight compared to what I wanted I would eat fruits such as dates, avocado's, banana, grapes pretty much every day without fail Veg wise I'd make sure I had a portion with every meal I had After I noticed a decline in progress with my weight loss, I decided to track my calories to see what my actual caloric intake was I guessed at 2200-2300 calories per day Guess what I was ACTUALLY consuming? ... 3000! What I realised was that through the big emphasis on consuming fruit, I was actually eating a lot higher calories than I thought Here's an example of the calories in some fruit... Avocado = 250 calories 100g of Dates = 282 calories This doesn't seem like much, but I was having 1 avocado per day with breakfast and two portions of dates for snacks throughout the day, that's 800 accumulated calories when I estimated it to only be around 100-200 I did this because like I said, I thought that eating fruit (no matter the amount) was ok because it's "healthy" This led to me consuming nearly 800 calories more per day than I thought I was The consequence of this meant it was putting me in a slight calorie surplus, meaning I was putting on weight that I couldn't account for before tracking calories The solution to this is simple, whenever you're eating these higher calorie fruits, make sure you know exactly how many calories you're consuming Have you been a culprit of eating foods such as avocados, dates, or nuts relentlessly thinking it was ok because it's "healthy"? Maybe you would benefit from knowing the exact portion size or tracking your calories/weighing out your portion size to get a better understanding

If you've ever tracked your calories on MyFitnessPal, it will give you a calorie target for consumption as well as "active calories" But, should you be eating back your calories that you have burned from a workout or should you stick to the calories which were initially given? Eating back your burned calories could actually be the reason you're not making progress, and here's why... I had a client pretty recently start with me as she wanted help with her fitness goals. Her main problem was the nutrition side of things as she thought that she was doing everything right such as tracking calories, training consistently, and sticking to a plan I looked through her food diary and realised that on an average day, she was consuming approximately 2500 calories The only reason this was a warning sign was that I knew that although she trained 3-4 times per week, she had a sedentary job in which she didn't burn many calories outside of training, meaning that 2500 calories are were a high target. I asked her why she was eating 2500 calories and asked if she had used a calorie calculator to get this target... "On training days I eat back my burned calories from the workout which is usually between 2500-2800 calories" she replied The consequence of eating this many calories and "eating back burned calories" meant that she was essentially putting herself into a calorie surplus without knowing it This wasn't her fault as this was what she was told to do and what she thought was correct I then went away and recalculated her daily calorie target (1800 calories) After just 6 weeks of hitting this new target, she successfully began to drop body fat again at a steady rate of 1 pound per week, putting her right back on track Here are a few reasons why you may want to re-think eating back your burned calories: 1) The calorie burn feature on your Fitbit or Apple Watch isn't as accurate as you may think. Studies have shown that activity trackers could overestimate your calorie burn by up to 93%! This means that if you burned 350 calories during a workout for example (according to your watch), a 93% overestimation means that you would be eating 326 calories more than you needed. Although that being said, I do think many people can benefit from activity trackers as they promote NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis) such as step count as well as reminding you to get up more and do some exercise. 2) Have you ever suffered through a long workout and thought "I've earned this pizza"?... yes I've done it too. Some studies show that some people may be prone to eating more after exercise because they're hungrier, and think they burned more calories than they actually did... leading to over-consumption. 3) Your daily calorie target should already include your exercise burned calories. Just like my client earlier, I set her a new target of 1800 calories which already took into account the training she was doing.