From ancient Greece to Arnold and Rocky Balboa, men have been trying to find ways to enhance their muscle growth, strength and recovery. One popular method has been a post-workout liquid shake. Before the days of widespread, affordable powdered supplements, bodybuilders and strength athletes alike used raw eggs and milk to pack on the pounds and to get those precious calories into the body as fast as possible, post-exercise. The bodybuilder Irvin P. Johnson began to popularise and market egg-based protein powders marketed specifically at bodybuilders and physical athletes in the 1950s, but the supplement industry did not really take off until the late 70’s. 

I am sure you have asked yourself the question ‘do I really need to consume a post-workout shake?’ The answer, as always, in the health and fitness world is ‘maybe’. 

Lets first discuss what is loosely termed the “anabolic window”. After exercise your muscles are more insulin sensitive due to the muscle contractions and fuel depletion during your workout. FYI – Insulin is an anabolic hormone that transports nutrients to various cells, including muscle cells. So due to this beneficial physiological environment it’s an ideal time to get in the raw materials to facilitate progress and recovery. However, due the affect stress hormones (which are elevated during exercise) which impact our digestion system and appetite, it’s not wise to eat a solid meal straight after exercise. In fact, after intense training you may actually feel quite sick at the thought of eating food. That’s where protein shakes come in. It’s a far more convenient way of getting those calories in and taking advantage of the aforementioned. Ideally, you want to consume your post-workout shake anywhere between 30-60 minutes post-workout. 

Does this mean you won’t make any progress if you do not consume a post-workout shake? No! Overall daily calories and macronutrient ratios are the most important factors. In fact, unless you are not able to eat a meal within 2 hours of finishing your workout it’s not essential at all. However, if you are a serious gym goer, recreational or elite level athlete then I highly recommend including a post-workout.   

Lets look at some of the other benefits of consuming a post-workout shake. 

• From a performance perspective: You want to replenish glycogen (stored glucose in the muscle) as fat as possible to enhance recovery and increase performance next time around. A post-workout shake containing a specific ratio of protein and carbohydrates will be your best bet.

• From a muscle growth perspective: This is a great time to get in much needed calories, protein and carbohydrates and take full advantage of the increased insulin sensitivity. The goals after training for muscle growth will be to drive as many nutrients into the trained muscles as possible.

• Pre-Diabetic/insulin resistant: If your body is not efficient at metabolising carbohydrates, then consuming the majority of your daily intake of carbohydrates around your workout would be a wise choice. Again, you are just simply taking advantage of the improved insulin sensitivity. This means a higher percentage of the carbohydrates you do consume will be stored in muscle cells as opposed to fat cells. 

• It’s an easy way to get the calories in: Ask any serious gym goer and they will tell you eating to build muscle is not easy. On average a post-workout shake will easily have between 300-600 calories. That’s 600 calories from solid food less you have to eat. In fact, for my leaner clients, I have pre-scribed a 100+ grams of carbohydrates in their post-workout shakes.  

• One for personal trainers: When starting with a beginner client one of these easiest meals you can control is your clients post-workout shake. Typically, you will be with them when they consume it. You can get creative and use this meal as away to get in much important nutrients for the overall health of your client such as, essential amino acids, omgea 3’s and antioxidants. 

Liam Horne – Personal Trainer

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Snacking in-between meals is the next thing I’ll look at. Again, people just seem to write this off because it’s not in their meals. It’s very common in the work place for everyone to share and snack on sweets, cakes and donuts in between meals on a regular basis. It’s a social thing and it can soon add up! Lets say someone on a diet eats 1 slice of cake at work per day in addition to their prescribed diet. What harm could it do aye? An average slice of cake contains roughly 235 calories. Now, x 235 by 7 equals an additional 1,645 calories per week. This could easily prevent fat loss.

A cheeky little beer after work 3x per week. What harm could it do? An average pint of larger contains 138 calories but it’s not so much the extra calories when it comes to drinking alcohol but the negative physiological changes that occur from drinking it that unfortunately slow down fat loss. Drinking alcohol a few times per week could easily prevent fat loss.
So, you can now see how these little habits people have can prevent fat loss even though you’re on a diet.

My advise, work on removing any little habits you may have that are potentially ruining your fat loss efforts or calculate this additional food into your daily allowance. Remember, start with the small things first.

Liam Horne | Personal Trainer Kensington

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If you have never weight trained before, or you’ve spent a long time living a sedentary life, the first few weeks of training are going to be a huge shock to your body and there are a few physiological changes to begin with that if not explained could make you question the plan.

Reason 1:
When you first start weight training, 24-72 hours after your workout, you can have extremely sore muscles. This is normal! During your workout you will break down muscle tissue and connective tissue (this is normal) and a good thing as it must be repaired and will come back bigger, stronger and more resistant to injury.
Now, if you have never trained before this process could cause enough inflammation that can lead to a little excess water retention. Why? The body is healing the area. This whole process is referred to as Controlled Acute Inflammation. This extra water retention can actually cause weight gain on the scale! Don’t be scared, this is just extra water NOT fat gain. Also, the metabolic waste products that build up from resistance training can be enough to fluctuate your weight over the course of a week.

Reason 2:
During the early stages of your weight training journey the resistance being placed on the muscles will actually cause intra-muscular fat to be pushed out of the muscle and actually become more visible. This will give the appearance of actually gaining fat or having more fat overall. In reality, all you’ve actually done is moved it – this is a good thing and perfectly normal.

Reason 3:
Glycogen uptake: Glycogen receptors (GLUTE 4) are embedded in muscle fibres. Muscle contractions during your training sessions will stimulate these receptors to move to the outer-layers of your muscles and signal them to up-take, circulating glucose into muscle cells (insulin sensitivity). The muscle contractions during exercise are like a switch for these receptors. Glycogen receptors allow (sugar in circulation) to be stored in muscle tissue. Skeletal muscle tissue and the liver are the two main places in your body you can store glycogen. The liver stores fructose – fruit sugar and skeletal muscle stores glucose in the form of glycogen. This uptake will give the appearance of larger muscles and possibly weight gain on the scale. This is a good thing (especially for fat loss) and a perfectly normal physiological response to weight training and it happens fast.

Also, if a person is obese and wants to lose weight and starts an educated exercise plan, in the first 1-8 weeks (or even longer) they MAY not lose any scale weight. Why? Because every pound of body fat they lose will be matched with a pound of muscle gained (glycogen uptake) so scale weight remains the same.

To sum up:
So, a 30 year old female who wants to lose body fat starts resistant training. First, her body holds on to slightly more water, which can possibly causes scale weight gain. Second she pushes out intra-muscular fat giving the appearance of MORE body fat. Third, she can now store more glycogen in her muscles giving the appearance of LARGER muscles. Fourth, she is not seeing the scale weight change and possibly even increasing. This is enough to put any beginner off. Without being educated as to what’s happening and why, it would cause some individuals to question the plan and be non compliant. I get it! I advise you seek out a coach with a proven track record of helping people similar to yourself and be persistent and not give up. The results will come.

Liam Horne | Personal Trainer Kensington

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1: A structured plan: If fat loss or building a well rounded physique were easy, everyone that’s ever stepped foot in a gym or gone on a diet would be in great shape and I would be out of a job. The truth is, our modern world has largely created this problem. Years ago the food that was readily available to us and the amount of moving that was required on a daily basis would have largely taken care of people’s body composition issues. However, getting in shape and more importantly staying in shape can be tricky in today’s world. This is why people need a structured personalised plan!

A personalised training and/or meal plan should take into account the following; daily routine and requirements, individual genetics, training and dietary history, current composition, current food intake, stress levels, age, health, sex, specific nutritional requirements, medical history, job etc..

2: Exercise intensity: Most people will not workout hard enough by themselves, especially if they don’t actually like physical activity. If you don’t workout hard enough your results will be mediocre at best and at worst you’ll be wasting your time. I’ve spent enough time in various gyms to know that the majority of people in there are socialising and not actually training. These same people tend to never actually change their appearance beyond their beginner gains.

3: Coaching: This applies to exercise execution in the gym and the psychological aspect of losing weight. At times, it can be psychologically hard and draining when trying to improve health or lose weight, especially with all the additional stress life throws at us. When the going gets tough a personal trainer is worth their weight in gold.

4: Time: Time is the ultimate currency, you can never get more of it! Why waste time when you can higher a professional. Simply put, you’ll save time and stress.

5: Education: Without meaning to sound rude, most people, from all walks of life, have poor knowledge on the topic of nutrition. Once you understand a subject and more importantly your own body, maintaining the shape you’ve spent weeks, months and years acquiring becomes far easier and at times even effortless.

Liam Horne | Personal Trainer Earls Court 

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People overestimate the progress they can make in 3 months and underestimate the progress they can make in 1 year. Implementing small changes that are religiously followed can deliver huge change overtime.

Tip 1: Exercise: Find 30-60 minutes 3x per week for exercise. If you are really busy find 15 minutes 3x per week. If you can’t exercise 3x per week then just exercise 1x per week. Just start! Perform the best bang for your buck exercise. Remember this isn’t for enjoyment, this is for the biggest return on investment.

Circuit training using body weight or external resistance (weights) is best. The bodyweight exercises can even be done at home, making them ideal for someone who doesn’t have the time to go to the gym. Circuit training can include 4-10 exercises performed back to back with very little or no break in between each exercise. Only resting once all of the exercises have been completed. This is typically repeated 2-4 times.

Tip 2: Nutrition: For anyone who is busy, preparing and cooking food can become an inconvenience. If you have the finances, I recommend having food that is already cooked and prepared delivered to either your home or your office. There are countless food delivery services out there now that allow you to order meals with a specific calorie and macronutrient breakdown.

Another option, which I recommend for most people, would be to research what local food shops you have near your home or workplace. Check their websites and look up what food and meals they offer and choose the ones that aline with your goals.

You could also cook in bulk. Stew like meals can be made in bulk 1-3 days in advance. Include a meat source, carbohydrate source and put in as many vegetables as you can.

Tip 3: Lifestyle: The best thing you could do for overall health and fat loss would be to optimise your sleep. Anything that helps you calm down in the evening and get to sleep quicker is going to help. Things such as, a warm bath in the evening, reading before bed, meditation, stretching, no screen time 2hrs before bed and not doing anything work related 2hrs before bed is all going to help. Aim for 6-8 hours of undisturbed sleep.

Enjoy!

Liam Horne | Personal Trainer Earls Court

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Example:

Breakfast: prêt a manger, 2x boiled egg and spinach pot with a packet of naked nuts.

Calories: 517
Protein: 38g
Fat: 37g
Carbohydrate: 8g

https://www.pret.co.uk/en-gb/540-salads-&-sushi-egg-&-spinach-protein-pot.aspx

https://www.pret.co.uk/en-gb/652-pret-snacks-naked-nuts.aspx

Lunch: EAT, tuna salad and an oat fruit slice.

Calories: 605
Protein: 24g
Fat: 17g
Carbohydrates: 45g

https://eat.co.uk/food/tuna-nicoise-salad

https://eat.co.uk/food/oat-and-fruit-slice

Mid-afternoon: Pret a manger, crayfish and avocado salad with an apple.

Calories: 259
Protein:15g
Fat: 15g
Carbohydrates: 30g

https://www.pret.co.uk/en-gb/545-salads-&-sushi-crayfish-and-avocado-no-bread.aspx

Dinner: Pret a manger, chicken salad, pumpkin seeds and a banana.

Calories: 531
Protein: 30g
Fat: 37g
Carbohydrates: 22g

http://www.pret.co.uk/en-gb/1609-salads-%26-sushi-chef’s-italian-chicken-salad.aspx

http://www.pret.co.uk/en-gb/1749-pret-snacks-tamari-pumpkin-seeds.aspx

http://www.pret.co.uk/en-gb/932-fruit-banana.aspx

Total:

Calories: 1,912
Protein: 108g
Fat: 106g
Carbohydrates: 105g

This is just an example. Adjust portion sizes depending on your sex, goal, activity level and requirements. Obviously, you may not need to buy every meal out. For example, you may eat breakfast and dinner indoors and buy your lunch and a mid afternoon meal out. I hope this gives you some idea on the kind of food you should be purchasing if you want to shrink that waistline.

Liam Horne | Personal Trainer In Kensington

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Cinnamon:

Cinnamon is a spice that has been shown to improve blood sugar uptake into cells. Thus, reducing blood sugar levels. 1-6g of cinnamon per day for as little as 40 days has been show to decrease blood sugar levels by 18-29% in people with type 2 diabetes.

Don’t consume more than a teaspoon of cinnamon per day as dosages higher than 6g can cause headaches.

Liam Horne | Personal Trainer Earls Court

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