10 Super foods worth Having in the cupboard!

First Blog of the New Year and I thought I would start off with talking about some foods that are worth having about in your cupboard that have beneficial properties.

Super Foods (Part One)

1. Peanut Butter:

 

A personal favourite super food of mine. It contains a great source of antioxidant vitamin E. It contains a great source of mono saturated fat which is handy for keeping cholesterol levels low! Using peanut butter will neutralise tissue-damaging free radicals in the body and helps the blood clot properly.

2.Broccoli:

All be it not a lot of the population find this an attractive option of a super food, it is very useful. One Cup of broccoli bolsters the immune system with a large dose of beta-carotene.Trace minerals,such as zinc and selenium.Further act to strengthen immune defence actions.

It is a diet aid regulator,and as it is high in fibre,it aids digestion and prevents constipation,maintains low blood sugar and curbs overeating (a bad habit of the western world!) It also contains calcium, Vitamin C and K.

3.Green Tea:

Unlike any other hot beverages, Green tea is free from any fat inducing calories.It is packed with poly phenols,which have significant heart protective and anti- cancer properties!Green tea will also raise our hormones that allow fat burning in our body, helping to increase metabolic rate and muscle readiness.

4.Pumpkin Seeds:

 

The zinc contents gives your skin a healthy sheen and helps keep your vision clear.Pumpkin seeds also contain omega 3 for a healthy heart and a variety of vitamins including vitamin B,C,D,E and K.

5.Bagels:

Bagels actually have a high glycaemic index (GI) score. which meals they really should only be sampled after a workout.It is a great post workout way to return glycogen back to the depleted system after training.

Arthur Saxon - The Iron Master - The Man,The Mystery Part One

This man is responsible for some of the methods on how we train today,he was before his time in terms of strength training,with a lot of strength and conditioning coaches and fitness professionals resorting back to what types of training that was used by Saxon.

Saxon, born Arthur Hennig, was a strong man and all round circus performer in the late 19th century/early 20th century. Dropping out of school at the age of 14, Saxon studied Steinmetz stone sculpture and began to create and sculpt his own weights , and at the young age began to start training. This is a key factor here,especially with our nation and Britain's obese culture of laziness,lack of exercises and junk food, is to start children exercising and enjoying it from as young an age as possible,it does not have to be to the magnitude of Saxon's strength training,but something that they enjoy!




It became a family affair when his two brothers, Kurt and Hermann, holding feats and strength contests in the family back garden,competing against one and other with different movements and exercises. The events help in their garden,soon became something of a neighbourhood competition,allowing any one over the age of 15 to enter (for a whopping two and a half cent prize!) by overcoming a lifting challenge set by the brothers and beating the weight that they had lifted, otherwise they would compete in belt wrestling.
*Swiss Belt Wrestling - The contest would be each person wearing a belt,ring attached at each side,with the only way to win,by grabbing the rings on the belt,and grappling to the opponent was on the ground.
The trio were never defeated in their youth contests.

So what was Saxon famous for and how did he train?

It is unlikely that in the early days of his training he would have used any barbells,just based his training around  early kettlebells, Olympic ring and early dumbbells. If we look at training today,we see that these instruments and currently being still used to this day,and are even more so in the dawn of strength and conditioning becoming an actual science.

As his training progressed,barbells were introduced as it became prevalent that more weight could be added. Saxon's famous lifts included bent press for a then world record of 370lbs/176 kg. As well as the "two hands anyhow " lift of 448 lbs/203kg.





Saxon vs Sandow, Old Lion overtaken by the Young Cub...

In what would become "The Sheffield Showdown" this is when these two Goliaths of that time clashed when Saxon threw down the challenge to any audience members in a lifting contest.Eugen Sandow was in the audience,and stepped up to the challenge.Onto the stage he came.
it was something that he would surely regret.
With each challenge that was laid down, Saxon Conquered, with Sandow choosing not even to compete in some. The main challenge being the bent press that is pictured above, with Saxon having five attempts to do it standing erect, doing so on his second attempt.
Saxon began trumpeting his triumph over Sandow in his advertising posters.  But Sandow’s contract required that he be billed as the "World’s Strongest Man," so he sued Saxon.  Sandow won – he had gotten the 264-pound barbell to arm’s length, and the judge, being ignorant of the rules of the bent-press, declared that Sandow had lifted it.




PART TWO COMING THIS WEEK!

A Strength Challenge This Winter...

City Gym,were I am based, this winter are having a strength challenge, Personally I really endorse this spirit of competition, giving your average gym goer something to compete for,and to help them achieve better one rep max's and personal bests!

The Movements and exercises are as follows....

Dead lift: Movement must be lifted from the floor,maximum weight for single rep. No straps allowed,chalk optional. Parallel position (90 degree angle in starting position.)

Seated Shoulder Press: Performed on an upright bench with the back against seat,the bar should be taken from an overhead position and lowered to chin level and pressed to FULL extension (elbows locked out.)

Weighted Chin Up: Pull up should be performed from a full hanging position,bringing the chin above the bar at the top.as much weight as possible attached at the hips with chained weight belt. 

Bench Press: The Bar should be taken down until it lightly touches the chest and pressed to FULL extension (elbows locked out.)

All lifts do not need to be done on the same day and can be done on separate days.

Feel free to pop in and give it a go,anyone welcome from all fitness levels,

With the no wrestling shows over the holidays,a winter break so to speak, I will be definitely be taking part in this,question is...will you?

Until later,Train Hard,Think Strong...

Coming Over the weekend,With the strength competitions looming, An article Arthur Saxon -Responsible for Strength training and the basics and fundamentals we use today.

Taking the Gym By Storm...

This afternoons view,Rack em' up!
A good workout today,shifted a fair amount of tonnage(will post total amount later),

Starting off with Power Clean into the Press position, Very tough to start out with, probably because of the lack of pre-workout carbohydrates in my meal,but had press on (pardon the pun), It is though a Thoroughly enjoyable exercise for power and strength,and for technique practice.The last statement i cannot stress enough.PRACTICE. It is too often now that i will see members of the gym ect, killing themselves lifting Extremely heavy weights,with little or no proper form,and wince in pain with the fact that it is curving their spine,and putting unnecessary strain on their joints!

A new training set will be up tomorrow,as will some nutritional supplementation and wrestling related nonsense as i am working for BCW wrestling tomorrow night in Kilmarnock Grand Hall,last booking for the year.


SUCCESS AND NOTHING LESS
#NO EXCUSES 

Calm Before The Storm...

Today titled the calm before the storm for reasons threefold.
1.In Glasgow today it is literally storm conditions with a hurricane picking up.
2.Be prepared to be bombarded with posts on training,nutrition,progression,client periodisation  and progression ect.
3.I am Training Deltoids/Core/Bodyweight Power...it is going to be biblical.

1st Plug follow me on Twitter at
@Joe_Coffey
      OR
@JCPT88
So for the first post,here is  the session. Feel free to give it a bash for yourself.

Power Clean and Press: Set 1: 12-15 reps @ 60kg (use as a warm up set)
                                     Set 2:  12-15 reps @ 60 kg
                                     Set 3:  8 reps @ 80kg
                                     Set 4:  6 reps @ 90 kg
                                     Set 5: 1-3 reps @ 100 kg

• With this we are using a pyramid training system,using both sides of the pyramid, One to INCREASE resistance with adding on KG,the other,decreasing in rep range,moving into the power & strength zone as for me this is functional,with the nature,of my chosen sport. I do like using this system here,as my transcend through hypertrophy to that stage,helpful as I am in the phase of adding muscle mass,with quick power and speed.

Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press : Set 1 : 20-25 reps @ 22.5kg DB's
                                                     Set 2 : 12 reps @ 42.5 kg DB's
                                                     Set 3:  12 reps @ 45 kg DB's
                                                     Set 4:  8-10 reps @ 50kg DB's
                                                      *Drop Set 30% of 50kg- dropping 15kg, straight onto 35 kg DB'd rep to 8-10 rep range, then run the rack to fail each set,for a final three times (25KG to fail,15Kg to fail,10 kg to fail.)

Upright Row (GS) : Set 1: 12 reps @ 60kg
                              Set 2:  12 reps @ 70kg
                              Set 3: 12 reps @ 70kg

Around the world Plate work (GS): Set 1: 25 reps left and right @ 25kg plate
                                                      Set 2: 25 reps left and right @ 25kg plate
                                                      Set 3 :25 reps left and right @ 25kg plate

Sledgehammer Rounds : Set 1: 60 second rounds (30/30 split left and right)
                                     Set 2: 60 second rounds (30/30 split left and right)
                                     Set 3: 60 second rounds (30/30 split left and right)

Kettlebell Swings : Set 1 : 60 second rounds @ 24 kg KB
                             Set 2 : 60 second rounds @ 24 kg KB
                             Set 3: 60 second rounds @ 24 kg KB
*(GS) denotes Giant Sets, a workout themselves for one muscle group,a giant set is essentially 3 or more exercises performed successfully for a particular muscle.

Lateral Raises : Set 1 : 20 reps @ 10 kg DB (use as warm down set)
                        Set 2:  12 reps @ 17.5 kg DB  - 15 hindu push ups to stretch slowly
                        Set 3:  12 reps @ 17.5 kg DB  - 15 hindu push ups to stretch slowly
                        Set 4:  25 reps @ 10 kg DB  - 15 hindu push ups to stretch slowly
                        Set 5:  50 reps @ 5kg DB

Core : Rocky 4 Leg raises on bench 4/15 reps
          Crunches 5/25
          Plate twists 4/10 w/ 20kg plate
          Ab Roll Outs 4/10

Cardio to finish off, some interval training for 25 mins,this will probably top me off and the home to refuel!

Static stretching on deltoids,triceps trapezius muscles and some neck bridging to loosen off!

Will rest for 60 mins before i do anything else after this session,Thank god there are no more clients for the day,after getting them done in the early AM

www.citygymglasgow.co.uk - Hard work gets done here!

As it was weather for Nordic gods,thought we would have a giggle before training...

so for now folks....blog later...

success and nothing less !