Nick Mitchell's Ultimate Performance

The Ultimate Radical Physique Transformation?!

Nick — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 16:27:46 +0000

Normally I like to wax lyrical when it comes to highlighting our physical transformations, but sometimes I think it is better to spare my keyboard and let the images do the talking. So if you look below you will see just one series of before and after shots that were taken three months apart. I am not going into detail as yet as the subject matter will be dealt with in minute detail in an official publication (and possibly a lecture that Charles Poliquin himself has asked me to deliver next month) so this is just a teaser.

Yes, it is pretty incredible stuff, even to me who coached and witnessed the changes on a daily basis, but we have hundreds of supporters who saw firsthand the pain, misery, and outright dedication of the magnificent “test subject” (much, much more on him later) and have personal endorsements from celebrities such as Coronation Street’s Ben Price (who viewed part of the process and added his name to the supporters in order to silence the haters and naysayers who believe that radical physical transformations are impossible or must be somehow cheated) and the aforementioned world icon of strength and conditioning Charles Poliquin, who also saw the early stages of the transformation at firsthand and was kind enough to allow me to repeat the following words he used on his own Facebook pages whilst drawing the attention of the world to the startling results we have achieved:

“With these startling results Nick Mitchell has reaffirmed himself as one of Europe’s top trainers. I myself saw Glenn at the early stages of his transformation and to see him come so far in such as short space of time is a testament both to his own steely determination and work ethic, and to Nick’s depth of experience and coaching knowledge.

The ability to construct a program that garners such results in an individual living a regular working life and not that of a professional athlete is all too rare, yet using many of Nick’s own methods combined with some of the advanced Poliquin principles that I have personally taught to Nick over the years Glenn’s life changing transformation shows what can be done in just a three month period!”

As I said, much more detail is going to follow on this radical physique transformation, but for now I just thought I’d show you the first photos (totally untouched) hot off the press from a final photo shoot on Tuesday 24th August. I hope that you are as inspired by them as I am. Time to hit the gym and watch those carbs!

Fruit Sugar And Cancer

Nick — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 12:37:50 +0000

If there is one prevailing health / fat loss myth that I find particularly galling it is the one surrounding fruit and just how essential it is to health. Too often I see supposedly motivated and enthusiastic personal training clients, if truth be told the biggest culprits for this sin are tree huggers and females, who insist that I am wrong when I tell them that fruit is pretty damn useless, and almost always counterproductive, in a fat loss diet, and that anyway “isn’t a lot of fruit supposed to be good for you and we need five servings a day!”.

Let’s get the facts straight here, not only is fruit no good for fat loss (I won’t bore you with the details as I have already written extensively on fruit and fat loss), nor is it “essential” for health and longevity, especially in already overweight individuals who need to do everything they can to improve blood lipid profiles, lower blood pressure etc. The foods, or to be more precise macronutrients, that are truly essential are protein (remember the derivation of protein comes from the Greek word “of primary importance”) and ‘essential’ fats. Forget about having a six pack or looking toned and lean, without either of these macronutrients we will die a very premature death. No one ever died from not eating fruit so long as the rest of the diet was rich in vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients, all of which can be derived from eating a wide variety of vegetables. Now before Mr Del Monte and Mr Jaffa put a hit out on me I will qualify much of what I have just written here by stating that I am by no means anti-fruit and that one or two pieces of fruit a day are definitely good for us. If someone is happy with their body fat levels then by all means eat some fruit on a daily basis, in moderation. Take note of the “in moderation” please – far, far too often I see food diaries that have fruit as half of the days calorie intake with the poor misguided (19 times out 20 female) client all confused as to why she can’t lose any fat, has blood sugar fluctuations, and mood swings.

Now that I have thoroughly depressed those fruit lovers amongst you, I will slightly switch tack to the main topic of today’s discussion. The perils of fructose, better known as fruit sugar, and high fructose corn syrup in particular. The latter is basically a cheap way to add sweetness, and I believe “body”, although I wait to be corrected on this point, to an alarming variety of foods. We are not just talking about your regular processed fare here, but also breads, supposedly healthy baby foods…the list seems to be pretty endless. A recent study, the full details of which are below, was brought to my attention by Canadian personal trainer Mike Demeter, a man who is both a continuous font of relevant and interesting knowledge and who clearly gives of his time to help the wider fitness community in a manner that speak volumes for a generous and positive character. You can find Mike at www.MikeDemeter.com (I haven’t added this as a hyperlink as his site appears to be buggy today so just copy and paste the rul into your browser if you want to see more about Mike).

The take home lesson of all that is below is that you should monitor your fructose intake generally, and if you are ill or in a high risk group for certain cancers then fructose in definite moderation and a total avoidance of all high fructose corn syrups!

Cancer cells feed on fructose, study finds Research shows the refined sugar helps cancer cells proliferate

WASHINGTON — Pancreatic tumor cells use fructose to divide and proliferate, U.S. researchers said on Monday in a study that challenges the common wisdom that all sugars are the same.

Tumor cells fed both glucose and fructose used the two sugars in two different ways, the team at the University of California Los Angeles found.

They said their finding, published in the journal Cancer Research, may help explain other studies that have linked fructose intake with pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest cancer types.

“These findings show that cancer cells can readily metabolize fructose to increase proliferation,” Dr. Anthony Heaney of UCLA’s Jonsson Cancer Center and colleagues wrote.

“They have major significance for cancer patients given dietary refined fructose consumption, and indicate that efforts to reduce refined fructose intake or inhibit fructose-mediated actions may disrupt cancer growth.”

Americans take in large amounts of fructose, mainly in high fructose corn syrup, a mix of fructose and glucose that is used in soft drinks, bread and a range of other foods.

Politicians, regulators, health experts and the industry have debated whether high fructose corn syrup and other ingredients have been helping make Americans fatter and less healthy.

Too much sugar of any kind not only adds pounds, but is also a key culprit in diabetes, heart disease and stroke, according to the American Heart Association.

Several states, including New York and California, have weighed a tax on sweetened soft drinks to defray the cost of treating obesity-related diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

The American Beverage Association, whose members include Coca-Cola and Kraft Foods have strongly, and successfully, opposed efforts to tax soda.

The industry has also argued that sugar is sugar.

Heaney said his team found otherwise. They grew pancreatic cancer cells in lab dishes and fed them both glucose and fructose.

Tumor cells thrive on sugar but they used the fructose to proliferate. “Importantly, fructose and glucose metabolism are quite different,” Heaney’s team wrote.

“I think this paper has a lot of public health implications. Hopefully, at the federal level there will be some effort to step back on the amount of high fructose corn syrup in our diets,” Heaney said in a statement.

Now the team hopes to develop a drug that might stop tumor cells from making use of fructose.

COACH MIKE NOTE: “Or simply avoid eating a high fructose diet . .sheeesh . .a drug to block fructose . .what next . .morons”

U.S. consumption of high fructose corn syrup went up 1,000 percent between 1970 and 1990, researchers reported in 2004 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Female Fat Loss Transformation

Nick — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 19:02:24 +0000

Female fat loss transformations can come in all shapes and sizes. Although I have coached some startling female fat loss reductions, the actual amount of weight lost, or even body fat % improved, is more often than not irrelevant to whether I judge my work a success. What really matters is how the “new, slimline / lean and toned” person feels about their new image and how it can empower their life at every single level.

A prime case in point of this is the female fat loss transformation that I would like to focus on today. A personal training client, Saher, over the course of her fat loss transformation journey lost an incredible 70lbs and took her body fat % from the high 20s to below 15%. However to me that isn’t really a big deal because numbers in and of themselves mean nothing. What is an extremely big deal however, is how such a radical change can alter a person’s perspective on life. Suddenly everything seems just that little bit more “possible”. Challenges that would previously have been seen as insurmountable are now mere hurdles to be leaped over. The superficial boost of the fat loss transformation from a home body to a gym body can be great for the vanity and certain parts of one’s self esteem, but don’t underestimate the much deeper, and in many ways more important, changes in self worth and self confidence that come with regaining control over a once errant, and often malfunctioning, body.

This really is the same person!

In Saher’s own words, via a message that she sent me and very kindly allowed me to use in this blog in the hope that it can inspire other women to take real charge over their own bodies, here is how her own fat loss transformation helped to reshape her confidence and her self esteem:

“Nick I wanted to thank you for many things. You have truly changed my life. I have NEVER looked this good and as vain as this is going to sound..I cant stop looking at myself in the mirror. My classes (she was a full time cardio teacher before I weaned her on to weight training for her fat loss transformation – kind of belies the myth that weights will make a woman bulky doesn’t it!) are absolutely packed because I’m in such good shape. Funny thing is because I now look so much younger not only can people not believe that I have a child, but I’m getting guys in their early 20s hitting on me-ha ha!!!! I find it hilarious. Not only is my confidence sky high it has made me realise so much about myself…I am reading more, I am studying more, I just want so much more from life!

I want to be the best I possibly can, which before I never believed I could be before…

Most of all Nick, I’m a much happier person and a better mother to my daughter as a result.

I weighed myself last week and I’m 7stone 12 lbs-for me that is truly incredible. I’ve never been in this shape, slim and with shape to my body and my small muscles and I feel amazing about myself.

Nick thanks again, I couldn’t have done it without your help, support and advice.”

As great as the photos look, it is the last sentence that makes it all worth it for me. Contributing to helping a good person regain her self confidence and become empowered by changes made through the force of her own will (I provided the 1% of advice, and the rest is 99% her own will, grit and determination) makes me feel very privileged. It’s been a fantastic journey for Saher and I will watch her future progress with great interest and admiration.

Female fat loss transformations are harder than for men – the reason being that female hormones and lack of muscle mass mean in many cases that women have to work twice as hard as their male counterparts for 50% of the results. Get the right advice, don’t continue to do what you have always done (useless leg turning on the stationary bike is a pet hate of mine performed by too many females seeking fat loss) as otherwise you will never change, and above all else believe that you can do it because I guarantee that if you want it badly enough you can.

A Summer Update At Ultimate Performance

Nick — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 19:09:57 +0000

Its been a little while since I updated our team news here at Ultimate Performance. The ongoing, and loooong overdue new website development has meant that I have stalled with adding details of the expanding UP London personal training team. So in anticipation that the new site will be up and running in a matter of weeks (at the most I hope!), I thought it would be useful to detail some of the changes that have occurred at UP over the last three months.

New Horizons

We have long been searching for premises in west or central London in order to expand the business away from our main City of London personal training gym. Despite putting in offers on a couple of locations at the start of this year that search still continues apace. It’s actually been a heck of a challenge as the property market on that side of London just doesn’t seem to support spaces that would be suitable for a 4,000 – 6,000 square foot gym. Rest assured that every hurdle is seen as being part of the inevitably difficult route towards success and that our efforts are redoubled as given our positioning as the preeminent, in fact possibly the only, legitimate, results driven personal training business in London it just seems plain daft not to have another London location.

We were at one stage using a small gym in a private members club in the Covent Garden area, INC Space, but as nice, clean and avant garde as the decor and staff were it just wasn’t appropriate for our business model. We require serious facilities in order to achieve serious results and a small fitness spa environment was never going to be suitable for us. So for any of you who were looking for us in that part of London I’m afraid we no longer have a presence there at the time of writing.

New Personal Trainers

It’s been a busy few months with new personal trainers making great marks from within UP. All will have full details added to the main UP site once we are finally live with the new version We welcome:

Eddie Baruta

Eddie has been with us several months already and has already made a fantastic impression upon clients and colleagues alike. Very much the modern, career personal trainer I first met Eddie at a Continuing Education seminar on BioSignature Modulation in Dublin and was immediately impressed with the seriousness with which he approaches all aspects of personal training. In keeping with my insistence that those personal trainers who make it at UP must ‘live the life’, Eddie is a walking, talking advert for being in top shape and practicing what he preaches!

Dave Lewis

Dave is our newest, and youngest, recruit. Only in his early twenties, the norm for personal trainers but a rarity within UP, what Dave lacks in hours of experience (although I should add that he has travelled the world to study from Charles Poliquin and is a level 2 BioSignature practitioner as well as a level 2 PICP coach) he more than makes up in passion and commitment. He has already given everyone a kick up the backside with his very strong work ethic and hunger to improve both himself and get the best results with his personal training clients. The one thing that all our personal trainers compete on is who can get the best fat loss transformation at the the end of the year, and I can see that Dave is trying to keep his eye on the big prize already!

Sarah Lindsay

Sarah is something of an anomaly within UP as her experience as a personal trainer is a little limited, but that didn’t stop me hiring her in an instant! That is because she is a former golden girl of British winter games Olympics, having represented our country in all three of the last Winter Olympics as short track speed skater. Let’s just say that it was a very safe assumption that Sarah knew her way around the gym and fully appreciates the psychology of excellence! She has already impressed with her desire to push herself forward, and at my suggestion even used some of her English Sports sponsorship money to attend a BioSignature Modulation course before she had started working with UP. You can’t get better than that combination of theory and practice.

Sarah Lindsay - the Olympic's loss is UP's gain!

Kostas Stavrev

Although Kostas has been working with us for a little while I have kept his profile quieter due to his ongoing involvement with working on the fitness and conditioning teams at Premiership football clubs West Ham United and Tottenham Hotspur. Hopefully we can continue to get a bit more access to Kostas’s time as the man is a font of knowledge following a lifetime’s involvement in all things to do with fitness. I’ve personally known him for over fifteen years and if you ever want a good honest workout, with the potential for an absolute tonne of variety then he is your man. A nice blend of a dry sense of humour and that Eastern European hardness means all his clients are guaranteed extremely challenging workouts.

James Langley

James has actually been working at UP since we opened the personal training gym in May 2009, but it is only this year that he made the switch from freelance trainer to working as part of the UP team. He has come on leaps and bounds in the last twelve months and should take great credit for his professionalism and desire to keep learning and pushing himself forward. He is working hard to get his pure resistance training education up to the highest level to complement his increasing understanding of BioSignature Modulation and it’s impact upon fat loss, and his all round training skills have made him a burgeoning fat loss star. James’s other string to his bow is his boxing / kickboxing abilities, honed in Thailand where he has taken himself on specific courses, and his individual and two-on-one boxing conditioning classes are proving very popular as an extra way to shed body fat. I’ll be posting up some video of this very soon as James has managed to make something that is very hard work look like great and accessible fun. Not so much fun that I fancy trying it myself, but my inability with boxing gloves is another story…

James Langley in an Aha moment...

Bruce Butler

Bruce is an extremely accomplished therapist who, whilst not being formally part of the UP team, is permanently based at our City of London gym and treats a number of our staff and clients alongside ART practitioner Heather Pearson. Bruce has a whole world experience and what really sets him apart is the fact that he seems to have a limitless supply of tools in his treatment box and can draw upon everything from Active Release Techniques to more traditional rehabilitation and myofascial work.

Grace Chan

Grace is our newest recruit to the UP family, and whilst not actually being a personal trainer that makes her no less important to what we do. In fact, working alongside Gym Director Ridhi Sharma in ensuring that the gym runs smoothly you could well say that she is part of the single most important aspect of the business! Grace started out with us just a month ago on work experience after graduating with a degree in Sports Therapy, and has impressed us so much with her intelligence, thoroughness and self starting attitude that I had no choice but to hire her on a permanent basis.

I should also note that it is not all about growth at UP as we need to constantly prune our way to excellence, and we have recently said goodbye to personal trainer Tony Bayliss. Although he left under something of a cloud that we are still trying to sort out the financial repercussions of, myself and his former colleagues wish him well. Despite having worked with top Hollywood actor Benicio del Toro, Tony Bayliss is very much an old school fitness trainer (unfortunately scorning any encouragement to pursue ongoing education) rather than a modern personal trainer in the UP fashion, so it was always difficult to keep him busy as most of our clients are interested in scientifically sound body composition advice rather than being barked at when running up and down our sprint track and dropping to give five press ups. Mike Porter needs to take a lot of credit for taking up a lot of his own time in trying to assist Tony Bayliss with some semblance of structured weight training programmes, and I’d also like to praise our own Glenn Parker who tried to help a former Armed Services colleague by asking me to give a struggling guy a break. You can’t win them all Glenn!

Proper Nutrition, Supplementation & Exercise During Ramadan

Nick — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 07:44:28 +0000

In today’s increasingly multi-cultural, or cross-cultural (a phrase that suggest a type of integration that I feel we should be aiming for) society we always need to address certain differences. From those who won’t eat pork, not a problem at all when it comes to optimizing body composition, to those who won’t eat red meat (big problem) or even in some cases any type of animal product at all (we can improve such cases but they are totally screwed if wanting to get exceptionally lean and muscular! – read the benefits of and how to source wild meat). So in this spirit, I thought it might be useful to address an issue that affects a number of our London personal training clients and no doubt many of our readers at large. That is the subject of how to eat over the upcoming Islamic period of religious observance known as Ramadan. Proper nutrition, supplementation and exercise during Ramadan are very thorny issues for some.

The “rules” of Ramadan as I understand them, and if I have got anything wrong please will someone correct me, are that for a calendar month (the ninth in the Islamic calendar, the dates of which vary and are governed by a visible crescent in the astronomical new moon) a total fast (no food, no drink, no sex) must be adhered to from sunrise until sunset. For anyone seeking to improve their health, fitness and physical appearance this is something of a metabolic disaster and as much damage limitation as possible needs to be put into action – nutrition during Ramadan being typically a low blood sugar induced gorgefest. This is especially true as Ramadan seems to occur most often in the summer months when daylight is close to it’s peak. In many Islamic countries I believe that daytime life moves at a slower pace during Ramadan (in Dubai for example) and then picks up at night when people are eating, being sociable and generally feel more energetic as they have some food and drink inside their stomachs. This isn’t something that happens in the West however, and the thought of trying to maintain a functioning, healthy daytime lifestyle in London, during the month of August, without even water to subsist on must be a true test of religious observance that I for one can only marvel at.

The best photo I could find for exercising during Ramadan...(if I find better I'll replace!)

My own rules for maintaining fitness, muscle tone, and minimizing a metabolic shutdown over Ramadan are as follows-

Nutrition, Supplementation & Exercise Rules For Ramadan:
1)   Don’t use Ramadan as an excuse to not exercise. It is crucially important that you do some gym work over Ramadan as without it, and in the absence of a regular eating pattern, your metabolism will go on strike quicker than a British Airways cabin crew.
2)   The best time to hit the gym during Ramadan is either early in the morning (after your first meal of the day) or after sunset (after your first meal post fasting).
3)   Ensure that both your Ramadan “breakfasts” (by breakfast I literally mean the two meals following a fast, one following sleep or opening the fast, the other following the day’s fasting) contain easily digested protein and, depending upon body composition goals, some complex carbs and essential fats. If you are due to follow one of these meals with a hard workout something like a whey shake with essential fats, an apple and a handful of nuts would be great. I personally would wolf down 6 eggs, some coffee, and then go bang the weights – but not everyone could digest that and then train hard.
4)   Unless you are feeling on top of the world I wouldn’t go seeking new personal bests in the gym during Ramadan. My advice would be to switch up your routine from the norm, so that you don’t feel down in any way about a noticeable decrease in physical performance, and try to make the workouts as fun and varied as possible.
5)   Workout duration during Ramadan should be kept very tight. Get in and out of the gym in under one hour and preferably aim for 45 minutes of hard work. If you normally take much longer don’t worry, you can still get an awful lot done in 45 minutes and for those of you who are looking to gain muscle Ramadan is more about anti-atrophy workouts than super mega blasting hypertrophy!
6)   During the time that you are allowed to drink you should be thinking “hydration, hydration, hydration!”. In past periods of Ramadan I have seen hardcore Muslim bodybuilders at Muscleworks Gym in Bethnal Green almost pass out as they tried to push themselves without drinking water. A good goal for a 200lb man should be to try to down 3litres of water between sunset and sunrise.
7)   Some people get into a little panic before Ramadan thinking that they will lose all their hard earned gains as it is impossible to benefit from good nutrition, supplementation and exercise during Ramadan. This isn’t so, and with a bit of organization and thought there is no reason to take a big step backwards. 4-5 meals over a 24 hour period are very possible, and this alone should be enough for maintenance, and maybe for the very lucky ones, even some small improvements. For example (and I may be slightly off in daylight times here so please forgive me), one could eat a large pre Ramadan fast meal at 5.45am, then break the Ramadan fast at 7.30pm, eat again at 9.30pm, and finally have a supper at 11.30pm.   It isn’t ideal, but it does show you that your physique doesn’t have to come crashing down. If minimising fat accumulation (or fat loss for the super ambitious) is your goal the mainstay of my macronutrients would be from protein and “good fats” (think unprocessed, natural fats and you won’t go far wrong).
8)   There are also a few supplements that would definitely help ease the metabolic challenges of Ramadan. My top ten Ramadan supplement picks would be:
Acetyl L Carnitine (3gms upon awakening)
Essential Amino Acids (snack on these as much as possible during the hours of darkness)
Greens Powder (add several tablespoons to a large bottle of water and sip constantly)
Casein Protein Powder (for supper)
Whey Protein Powder
Multi Vit / Mineral
Magnesium (at night to aid sleep)
Omega 3s
A good digestive enzyme complex
Phosphatidylserine (at night before sleep to reduce any extra cortisol production caused by daytime fasting / and to aid sleep)

In summary, the discipline of Ramadan need not prevent proper nutrition, supplementation and exercise. Yes, it will be challenging and require both discipline and moderation, but that is obviously what part of the whole process is about.

Soy by Charles Poliquin

Nick — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 16:37:58 +0000

I have never been a fan of soy products for either men or women and have long advocated avoiding them like the plague. This is especially true for non Asians who have great difficulty in digesting soy proteins. In short, the moral of the soy story is that you shouldn’t believe anything that powerful vested interest lobbies (notably the soy lobby) have to tell you. They really do not care about your health or well being, instead only preferring to keep an eye on their balance sheet and P&L figures.

If you really want to learn about soy products then I suggest you buy “The Whole Soy Story” By Kaayla Daniel (New Trends Publishing). It’s pretty depressing reading, but nevertheless highly informative and enlightening.
A more light hearted look at soy can be found below. I have taken the liberty to copy and past a recent Charles Poliquin blog, and would recommend all of you who are on Facebook to join his group (as well as our our London Personal Trainers one!) in order to keep up to date with the latest findings in our constantly evolving world of health, fitness, fat loss, and BioSignature Modulation.

From Charles Poliquin:

This a typical conversation second day conversation that I have with a Health Conscious Female Client (HCFC)

HCFC: Thanks for education me on proper breakfasts
Charles Poliquin: You are welcome!

HCFC: I am not very clear on quantities, how much should meat and nuts should I eat?
Charles Poliquin: For a start, a side of beef plus 3 kilos of pistachios.
HCFC: Really?

Charles Poliquin: Just kidding. For the meat, there is a formula developed by a Japanese fan of mine, Kamenashi. It goes like this: You take your bodyweight in kilos, you divide by atomic mass of the most common earth element of your place of birth, you multiply by the numeric value of your date of birth, condensed by using standard numerology, you divide by the square root of the age in days of when your first molar tooth appeared. Just kidding again; write this down: Any nutritionist that gives you an exact number in grams for a food is either a closet food Nazi or a twirp, or a combination of both.
Listen, you have to retrain yourself to make the distinction between your mouth and a vacuum. I never give quantities in food programs. Just go by appetite.
HCFC: But my previous nutritionist told me it is crucial to count calories…

Charles Poliquin: Did the advice work?
HCFC: No, not really…that is why I am here…I guess

Charles Poliquin: Was she fat?
HCFC: Yes…very fat!
Charles Poliquin: Where her hips much wider than her shoulders?
HCFC: INDEED!

If your nutritionist looks anything like this, you know what you need to do...

Charles Poliquin: Classic case of you are what you eat, she goes by the food pyramid, she is shaped like one!
HCFC: You are ruthless!
Charles Poliquin: Actually, just observant!

HCFC: What should I drink at breakfast?
Charles Poliquin: Any type of organic coffee or tea, and/or water.
HCFC: Can I drink soy milk?

Charles Poliquin: Was that part of the list of the beverages given above?
HCFC: No…
Charles Poliquin: There you go.

HCFC: But…it makes me feel great!

Charles Poliquin: So does cocaine.

HCFC: Soy milk is healthy for you!

Charles Poliquin: Get off your granola fed high horse. Check the ingredient list on your soy milk and you can be sure you will find a lot of sugar. It will have all sort of names ranging from evaporated, cane sugar, barley malt, rice sugar, fructose, corn syrup.

No matter the manufacturers call it, it is sugar. The most likely reason that you feel “energetic” after drinking your soy milk is that you are getting an sugar buzz.
The second reason being that the soy estrogens are stimulating your thyroid. For most individuals, this induces a mildly hyperactive thyroid with very short-term energy gain. The down side is that over the long run your thyroid crashes, sinking into hypothyroidism. That translates into poor energy levels, brain fog, loss of brain function etc.. Put it this way, the short term benefits are not worth the long term negative effects.

HCFC: But is says on the bottle that it is organic.
Charles Poliquin: So is elk manure. Listen up. All it means is that it will less pesticide residues that genetically modified soy. Whether it is organic and harvested by Tibetan monks, or grown GMO, all modern soy products are jam packed with anti-nutrients such as phytates, and toxins which are now linked to host of ailments ranging from brain shrinkage to thyroid dysfunction. In men, it lowers testosterone and sperm count to a point where they are 317% more likely to go shopping than to have sex.

HCFC: You are kidding again aren’t you.
Charles Poliquin: No, 76% of statistics are made up on the spot. Yes, I am kidding about the shopping thing, but not for the ailments brought on by soy. Regarding sperm count, Dr. Chavarro and colleagues studied 100 men who were members of couples having trouble getting pregnant. Semen analyses showed that the men with the highest levels of soy food intake approximately a half serving per day – had 41 million sperm per milliliter fewer than men who did not consume any soy. The researchers used a questionnaire listing 15 soybased foods to determine soy consumption over the preceding three months.

HCFC: What about soy protein bars?
Charles Poliquin: No.
HCFC: What about soy protein?
Charles Poliquin: No.
HCFC: What about soy burgers?
Charles Poliquin: No.
HCFC: What about soy chips?
Charles Poliquin: No.
HCFC: What about soy lollypops?
Chalres Poliquin: Enough. If you were a male, I would have already roundhouse kicked you to the temple with steel toe capped construction boots.

Go read this article: http://www.charlespoliquin.com/ArticlesMultimedia/Articles/Article.aspx?ID=35
And will see you tomorrow.

HCFC: I’m soy sorry

3000 Reps in 3 Days! Meditation For Alpha Males

Nick — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 13:37:25 +0000

I have a confession to make – as of yesterday I completed 3000 reps of volume training in just 3 workouts…and I loved it!

Now before you Mentzer / McRobert proponents of pseudo scientific high intensity quackery call out the men in white coats to cart me off to the funny farm for grotesque overtraining, let me explain some of the method behind my madness and, far more importantly and of relevance to most of the readers of this personal training blog, just why I enjoyed it so much (as enjoyment, or at least a sense of real satisfaction is absolutely vital to long term success in any endeavour, especially something that is weight training focused).

Why Volume Training?

I have begun training with Ultimate Performance personal trainer Mike Porter in preparation for his assault on the British Bodybuilding Finals in October and we have decided to add a little bit of muscle before beginning the fine tuning of his pre-contest prep. One phenomenal way to add muscle is to trick the body into supercompensation, whereby once it is “empty” it will soak up nutrients and be preferentially anabolic in status. This initial depletion is best achieved via volume training.

There are countless ways and reasons to run a volume training protocol but the essence of this particular one is simple. Our goal was to totally strip the muscle of glycogen through minimal dietary carbohydrate ingestion and a massive volume of repetitions. The beauty of what I do is that I am a true fan of training and the science and the art behind physique manipulation. I am always learning and always experimenting with new twists and tricks, and will always try various protocols out on myself before recommending them to my clients or my team. So although I have depleted and then “loaded up” countless times before and intimately familiar with the science, the art comes into the nuances, the small changes, and the mental challenge that you present yourself. To that end, and knowing that I would be training with a true warrior who possesses all the gym focus that sometimes slips me by now that I have a busy business and a young family to take care of (and no, I am by no means feeling sorry for myself here!), I decided to come up with something a little bit special to really push us on to the next level.

Classic volume training might be a 10 sets of 10 reps Poliquin program for a given bodypart. It might be 25 sets in an entire workout hitting 12-15 reps each set. That wasn’t for us – I have been there and done it, and in honour of stepping it up with Mike something a tad different was required. Following a 3 way split (dividing the body into 3 separate workouts – back & shoulders, legs, chest & arms) I opted for something pretty simple – 1000 reps in a single workout, 10 movements per session, 5 sets per movement, 20 reps per set. Of course this would take about 2-3 hours to complete (all 50 sets!) if one trained at a regular pace so the only option for rest intervals was either to superset (whilst Mike was on leg extensions I’d be on hack squats, and vice versa) or a very fast paced “I go, you go”. The longest workout took about 1hour 20minutes, the pace was brutal, and both of us are as sore as hell today. And we have a whole bunch of workouts to do tomorrow, but these will be with massively reduced volume and the delight of added carbs! More on this later if you are interested…

Mike Porter: photo taken just after set 44 / 880th rep so forgive the shaking hands and blurry image!

Why Did I Enjoy Volume Training So Much?

Contrary to what you may think, I am not some crazy ass masochist who lives for pain and destroying himself in the gym. In fact, most of my weight training life was spent doing high intensity, very low volume work so this past few days of mega volume training has been way out of my comfort zone. Yet I loved every minute of it, and I suspect so did Mike. The reasons are clear and simple and may be principles that you can apply to your own training, although I would caution you against following a 1000 rep volume training workout as Mike and I have over 40 years of combined training experience and as such can tolerate more physical workload than most.

First of all the importance of choosing the right training partner is paramount. I’ve almost always trained by myself as I always prefer to work to my own schedule, do specifically what works for me, and am a picky s.o.b who can only train with someone who really knows what they are doing, doesn’t need their hand holding, makes me work each set with better form (that even for me can start to slip once fatigue sets in), doesn’t shout in my ear unless I really need it, and can spot flawlessly. On top of all that it needs to be someone who I would actually be willing to listen to and respect enough to have a healthy, friendly sense of competition with. Crikey, when I read this back it’s no easy feat! But training with Mike fulfills all those criteria and more. He is one of the very best trainers I have ever seen and brings a level of intensity to the table that is forcing me to step things right up.

This principle also holds very true for anyone seeking personal training – if you are not inspired by your personal trainer, if he / she can’t lift you up and get more out of you than you could ever do by yourself then my advice is to find a new one! This is just one of the reasons why finding a great personal trainer can be very challenging.

The second main reason why I have loved this period of volume training so much is the gym location. Perhaps I shouldn’t write this, but I have stopped training at my own personal traiinining gym and popped down the road to my alma mater of Muscleworks. Each gym has slightly different equipment – Muscleworks being twice the size of UP at Paul Street has more variety of leg machines, but we have much better strength specific training equipment such as a variety of fancy bars, weight training chains, bands etc and in fairness my personal training gym is perfect for intense private workouts where you can set things up however suits you with no need to wait in a queue and an infinite possibility of workout protocols to choose from. However, where Muscleworks stands out, apart from the fact that I have many friends there and one can train as hard and as loud as possible without nary a glance from the other gym users (it is a fantastic commercial gym for serious trainees – especially if you can avoid the peak time rush in the evening), for me now is quite simply that it is NOT my own gym.

What I have recaptured this past week, partly through working with Mike Porter, and partly through the (sort of) new training environment is my joy of training. That ability to zone the world out for a given period of time and just focus on the training and the ensuing endorphin rush. I can’t do that at my own place as once I cross the threshold there is inevitably some issue to deal with or someone who “absolutely must speak to me right away or the sky will fall in!”. Away from that stress I can focus on one single task and effectively meditate throughout the entire workout. I am not certain of the strict definition of “meditation”, and will eschew the chance to look it up in google as it fits what I have in my head perfectly and I’d rather not change that. By meditation I mean the ability to shut out the stresses and worries of the world and to focus on one point with singular concentration. You’ll never get someone like Mike or me chanting verse in a meditation pose, so maybe the right workout, in the right gym environment is simply meditation for alpha males…

Twelve Weeks To A Totally New Person: An Amazing Transformation!

Nick — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 08:48:14 +0000

Every once in a while a personal training client comes along who is a dream to work with. They follow your advice to the letter, prioritise their workouts above socialising, and immerse themselves fully in what I term the “educated effort” that makes up much of the overall Ultimate Performance experience. When an individual gives of him / herself in such a way then results will be guaranteed and physical and mental (most notably with confidence) transformations are commonplace. One such person is James, the subject of this post and whose spectacular 12 week physical transformation was matched in its intensity by his dogged determination to radically change his physique.

When James first walked through my office door he made it very clear that he was on a mission. He had seen some of the work that I had done with Wesley Doyle (the journalist who became the first 40 year old on the cover of Men’s Health magazine and had a great physical transformation journey of his own) and was on his own personal quest to both turn his physical appearance around and achieve something tangible. In fact, his stated aim was that he wanted to be one of the “before and after” fat loss transformations that he had seen on this very website! A lot of people say this, but very few really walk the walk and give it their all. For those who do however, the results are pretty clear (as the image below will attest!) and I like to think that we really are the only place in London that can furnish the committed individual with the necessary tools to achieve such success – genuinely expert advice, no other business has the depth of personal training experience (working with everyone from professional bodybuilders to Victoria’s Secret models, with personal trainers who have been GB representatives at both summer and winter Olympic Games / competing physique athletes), a methodology that has been proven time and again with numerous physical transformations, and private personal training gym that is far both from the madding crowd of commercial gyms and lightyears away from the small and hugely limited personal training studios that many PTs operate from.

Twelve weeks to achieve such a transformation hardly seems believable...but the photos don't lie!

Please note what I have just written – “furnish the committed individual with the necessary tools to achieve such success”. We can push, cajole, entice, bully, encourage, instruct, educate, and motivate, but we cannot do the actual work. We don’t lift the weights for our clients, and more importantly we don’t exercise the discipline needed to get to the gym on time, to say no to dessert, or to eat that protein portion when all that you really fancy is a cup of coffee and a couple of biscuits! We give shortcuts and provide the very fastest track possible, but the desire must come from within, and this is where James excelled. In his own words, he had slipped from being a relatively athletic teenager into an increasingly chubby and inactive man in both his 20s and early 30s. I’ll let him take up the story:

“A demanding career working long hours had meant that any exercise and visits to the gym were sporadic. I had always planned to get round to training specifically for physique, however something had always got in the way and whenever I did manage to go to the gym for any period of time because I had little dietary knowledge I just ended up looking bigger, not toned. At the end of 2008 I had started wearing 36” trousers and made a new years resolution to get the body I’d wanted since my early twenties, I weighed fifteen and a half stone. I started running and cutting out take away and junk food and by the summer had lost nearly two stone. This gave me the motivation to rediscover the goals I’d had for nearly a decade to get toned, but due to many failed past attempts I knew I needed some proper help and advice. I spent a lot of time searching on the internet searching for suitable trainers and gyms, and I contacted Nick Mitchell at Ultimate Performance after reading about Wesley Doyle’s transformation to Men’s Health cover model proportions.”

So please bear in mind that when James came to us he had managed to drop two stone already – this made it easier for us in one respect as he had the fire in his belly from seeing early results by himself, but also harder to get a real change as we all know that the first few weeks of any fat loss regime see the biggest improvements. So the tough job of a achieving a really spectacular transformation was well and truly on!

We didn’t do anything different with James than what we would do with any of our clients. A detailed discussion of what would work best for him, because he has a busy career I ensured that all our programmes fit around his lifestyle not vice versa, an initial BioSignature Modulation assessment so that my nutritional and supplement protocols were as precise as possible, and then into the eminently capable hands of UP Personal Trainer Rich Phillipps. Rich wrote a three times a week weight training programme, and over time we added to this with an interval training plan of my own that helped shift even more fat as and when James was ready for the extra intensity. Ongoing BioSignature tests with Rich (who is very accomplished at this) added the icing on the advisory cake, and then it was all down to Rich pushing James in the gym (yes, sometimes necessitating the odd toilet break due to “exercise induced nausea”), James driving himself onward, the social support that comes with working in a gym like UP London, and James knuckling down to the diet with gusto. One particular memory I have of his dedication is at about week nine, when he was starting to look really sharp, and I asked him how tight he was on the diet. A sheepish look followed, and the answer that sometimes he cheated…instead of one serving of blueberries he might have two…or two handful of nuts rather than one! If only we could all cheat so wildly!! This example of what he considered cheating, which of course can hardly constitute as such, more than anything highlights the dedication that he has and why he should take such great personal credit for his transformation.

The changes from the rear are just as impressive as the front, and that is really saying something!

And most importantly of all, how does he personally feel about this radical change in his life?

“I am extremely happy with the body I achieved with UP in just 12 weeks, I am 33 years old and had never seen the vaguest glimpse of my abs before. My sense of confidence and inner satisfaction increased significantly. I now appreciate that my body can do amazing things, and far from resting on my laurels I have gained a sense of knowledge and confidence to continue training to and achieve even bigger goals. “

For myself, speaking as someone who dedicates his life to helping others gain control over their bodies, watching James’ inner confidence blossom was even more rewarding than seeing the startling physical transformation. He started with us as quite a shy man who although very clear in purpose held himself in reserve a little and didn’t really relish being in the limelight. He finished off as a man who had gained control back over a body that previously had not matched the image he had for himself in his head, and the sense of accomplishment was tangible. To the extent that he was happy to pose for the photos in this post and even flash his six pack upon request in the middle of the gym!

I’ll let James’ words finish off this story, but I’d like to thank him for serving as an inspiration to all at UP, both trainers and clients, and to his personal trainer Rich who did such sterling work.

“I thoroughly enjoyed my time with UP, the professional approach, limitless knowledge on diet and training techniques as well as always feeling welcomed. I really found benefit from having the continued support from Nick as well as Richard my trainer throughout the 12 weeks, and plan to keep in touch with them both in the future for individual sessions and consultations for advice and support on my new training goals.”

Addendum: I should also add that these results were achieved with nothing extra other than by rotating through a small handful of Poliquin supplements. James’ budget wasn’t vast and the focus was on real food, real training, and dedication. Nothing more.

If you want to learn more about how he did it, and maybe try yourself, then the best way to contact us via Caroline@UPFitness.co.uk as I am not always in a position to answer emails as promptly as I would like. As ever though, do feel feee to leave a comment at the foot of this post as all feedback is more than graefully received!

Don’t Let Something Fishy Stand In The Way Of Success!

Nick — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 09:49:03 +0000

Wise men will always tell us that life is all about balance, but in my experience people who bang on about this are either individuals who have never achieved anything of great significance in their lives, or characters who have reached certain heights of accomplishment and then conveniently forgotten about the drive that got them there. Certainly for me, inurred in the bodybuilding philosophy of Schwarzenneger from my eary teens, nothing succeeds like excess. I posted a video of Will Smith a while back in what I found to be a very inspirational blog.

A lot of people don’t understand the drive to be different, in fact it casts a shadow on their own insecurities which is why a lot of you seeking to better your lives will have met with much resistance from friends and family who should have been encouraging you down the path of positive self improvement. Apologies if that last sentence was a bit too Tony Robbins for your taste, I am not one to get caught up in motivational pop pom waving, however I do feel that we should constantly strive to develop ourselves physically, mentally, and emotionally.

All that being said, sometimes it is possible to push things a bit too far and there is a fine line between healthy focus and drive and an unhealthy obsession. Do your own thing certainly, but don’t do it at the expense of alienating all those around you as in the long run it does make your own life harder…as one the Ultimate Performance gang found out all too recently. I popped around to his flat to discuss the imminent launch of our brand new UP website only to be confronted in his small communal hallway by the image you see below. Read it carefully and take heed…always be considerate of others, even if we don’t care if they don’t appreciate your quest for a better body, they don’t have to live with the consequences (and putrid odours) of your endeavours! (Oh how I laughed at this…)

Don't let something fishy stand in the way of your goals!!

Craving success? Focus on what is important and don’t sweat the small stuff.

The Benefits of and How to Source Wild Meat

Nick — Sun, 23 May 2010 10:56:51 +0000

I have often written about the myriad of benefits of opting for wild, grass-fed meat as opposed to its vastly inferior grass fed counterpart and often receive emails asking for reliable sources. So whilst my vacuum sealed Springbok steak is rapidly defrosting in a saucepan of warm water I thought I’d give you a quick reminder of why choosing grass-meat is all round the right thing to do for both your physical and mental health and physical appearance.

The Benefits of Eating Grass-Fed / Wild Meat:

1) Grass-Fed meat have far higher levels of omega-3 fats (the GOOD fats we all need not just for health but also to actually encourage lipolysis – that’s fat burning in plain English) as opposed to the less than optimal omega-6 fats more commonly found in grain-fed animals.

2) Grass-fed meat, and of course my own personal favourite of wild meat (impala, ostrich, springbok, and dare I write cuddly kangaroo?!) are not pumped full of steroids and growth hormones in order to beef up (pardon the cheap pun) profits.

3) Grass-fed animals would only very rarely, if ever, be fed antibiotics. Would you credit that antibiotics are given to grain fed cattle, because of the digestive problems brought on by the consumption of corn and soy, rather than their normal food of grass and clover. Think abou this for a second – cows have a third stomach (the rumen) that is designed specifically to digest grass, and yet this is bypassed in modern farming in order to get heavier cows and more meat to the consumer in the supermarket.

4) Contains healthy omega-3 fats. Studies clearly show animals reared on grass have higher levels of omega-3 and a lower amount of omega-6. Most people consume way too much Omega-6 causing inflammation and inflammation-related illnesses.

5) Grass-fed meat is far leaner than corn fed meat. Just go ahead and cook some grass-fed bison and redular British beef and see and taste the difference. If nothing else will convert you it is this.

6) Because Charles Poliquin says so! OK, I write this tongue firmly implanted in my cheek – Charles is my single best source of knowledge when it comes to optimising human performance but nor do I agree with every pronouncement that emanates from his lips so Poliquin groupies beware. I don’t even mind cardio in what I perceive as the right circumstances! However, when it comes to wild meat and its benefits I have to give credit where credit is due and praise Poliquin as being the first person to really espouse its qualities to me. I returned from my first ever BioSignature Modulation course in Phoenix, Arizona in 2007 and promptly bought a tonne of venison, and blow me down if I couldn’t “feel” the difference right away! It took me a little too long to get my act together and organise the constant flow of wild meat that I now enjoy today, and I wish I’d pushed a bit harder and done this earlier.

7) Referring to my last point – when I eat wild meat I genuinely feel more energised and ready to attack the world with everything I have got! We all remember the stories of red-blooded Vikings chewing one hunks of game before raiding the vulnerable shores of Anglo Saxon England, and I can sort of see why now…Wild meat help to raise dopamine and acetylcholine levels, and these are the two key neurotransmitters responsible for mental drive and focus. A fantastic breakfast (and one that I wrote about in an old blog bost on buffalo meat) is buffalo and brazil nutes. Whenever I have this, alongside my regular green tea and assorted mountain of nutritional supplements, I always feel fantastic and am perfectly set for a busy and hyper productive day.

Would Lentils and Brown Rice Have Fuelled Such Fury?!

Where To Buy Wild Meat / Grass-Fed Meat

Over the last few years it appears that options for buying grass-fed meat have massively increased as the public becomes ever more aware of just how much better a nutritional option it is over your standard grain-fed supermarket fare. I have tried a few online suppliers, but the best of the bunch for myself is www.Osgrow.com. They have a very wide selection, are reasonably priced, and deliver vacuum sealed frozen meat from as far afield as Africa and America right to your doorstep. I buy about 100 (smallish) steaks at a time from about half a dozen different animals and this keeps me happy for about 10 weeks. When I grow bored with my current skinny physique, get the bodybuilding bug again and decide to add some muscle to my frame then I’ll most likely double my supply. Yes, wild meat really is THAT good.

Please note that if any of you have had any interesting experiences with wild meat please do share in the comments section below.