Fat gets a bad rep. Sure it is 9Kcal per gram but it is an essential part of a balanced fat. Fats provide us with energy, makes up our cell membranes as well as our brain and nervous system. Fats are necessary to transport vitamins A,D,E and K and make and balance certain hormones. Fat can be found in 2 forms:
Saturated – mainly found in animal products like meat, dairy, eggs, coconut
Unsaturated – found in marine sources like fish oils, as well as nuts, seeds and vegetable oils
 
For years saturated fat was thought to be associated with higher risk of Cardiovascular Disease and so it was deemed as ‘unhealthy’ or ‘bad for you’. The problem with saturated fat was not the actual fat itself but rather the increased consumption of processed food or the large quantities of saturated fat products. Saturated fat helps increase the cholesterol production in the body which is an essential part of metabolism and in the production of steroid hormones. So saturated fat should feature in our diet, just maybe don’t latter every meal in butter.
​
Unsaturated fats are made up of mono and polyunsaturated fats.  These contain our omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids. Omega 3 fatty acids open our airways and blood vessels. They reduce our blood lipids and cholesterol and lower inflammation and pain. Omega 6 fatty acids do the opposite. Both are needed in the body, without both we wouldn’t heal or recover from exercise. The problem with Western diets is that we don’t have the proper ratios. We are at about 10:1 where we should be at 2:1 (omega 6/omega 3).
 
Low fat diets were a fad a few years ago. While people reduced calories, they increased their intake of processed foods. Diets lacked fats and fat soluble vitamins so instead of being healthier people were losing weight but were not healthier.
 
Fats are an essential part of any healthy diet. Be aware that they are very calorie dense so be sure not to overconsume and don’t opt for processed versions. Enjoy them as part of a balanced lifestyle. 

Sometimes it is great to go balls to the wall, but that doesn’t mean it’s optimal or better than
leaving reps in reserve. Training smart is a lot better than training hard, in the long run. We
all know people who perform drop sets, pyramid sets or other forms of fatiguing sets. People
argue that going to failure in your sets will mean you are creating more tension and activating
all of the motor units. This hypothetically would mean more hypertrophy (muscle building).
But, weight training amongst other training methods, is a long run game. A lot of studies,
including one from the Discipline of Exercise and Sports Science in Australia (2016) and the
Centre for Human and Applied Physiology in Australia (2016) both show that stopping a few
reps shy of failure results in similar increases muscle size and strength as failure training.
Working with weights as high as 80% of your 1RM will activate all of our motor units
(which is the main argument for going to failure).
 
If your goal is to maximise muscle and strength, going to failure won’t be the best idea for
you. There is a difference between going to failure every set and planning your sets. Let’s
assume we have 2 athletes who are training with the same weight. Athlete A trains to failure
for the three sets, and Athlete B plans there sets at 8 reps per set (even if they could manage
9/10). So Athlete A does the first set and gets 10 reps (going to failure), they then head into
the second set, slightly fatigued an get 7 reps, and on the last set they get 5 reps (again, under
fatigue). 10+7+5 is a total of 22 reps. Whereas, athlete B is more calculated and performs 3
sets of 8 reps, which totals 24 reps. So although training to failure may be attractive and feel
great, it is not as beneficial if you want to track training and progress over time. The fact
athlete B has not hit that fatigued state, the rest of their session shouldn’t be affected by the
first exercise, unlike Athlete A.
 
One of the hardest things about training to failure is the tracking aspect. Linear progression is
hard to achieve if you’re sets and reps are changing each week due to fatigue. It is hard to
progress under fatigue, because one week on your 1st set you may get 6 reps, and another you
may get 4 depending on multiple stresses. Leaving some reps in reserve is more manageable on any given day. It is so important to understand that what gets measured gets managed. Training is training.
Competition is competition. If you are training to perform, you must train, which means not
going all out. It is important to fix technique, work on weaknesses and build toward a
performance/competition as we all know, you cannot be peaked all year around, and if you
try to, your performance will suffer and never truly peak.
 
The knock on effect is important to mention. If you go to failure one day, your training the
next day may suffer due to muscle damage more and lack of recovery. A study in the
European Journal of Applied Physiology in 2017 found that if you are training submaximally
and not going to failure, you can recover quicker for your next session as you have managed
the volume and loads. As a result, you can perform better in your next training session and
there is a knock on effect to all subsequent trainings. If you are getting yourself into a
fatigued state during your first set, it means you will be performing the other exercises in
your session under a fatigued state. So before we even look at recovery for the next day of
training, you may be harming the rest of your training. From the 2017 study we saw 10 men
assessed and those who trained to failure in the study had slowed down their ability to
recovery up to 48 hours after training.
 
Is failure training ever useful? Yes, as long as it is limited and controlled. For example, isolation movements
at the end of a session, it may be find to go to max in your bicep curls as these smaller muscle
groups recover quicker and won’t affect your other lifts as much (unless you perform them at
the beginning of a session). On the other hand, limited can mean every now and then just to
mix it up, it may be okay to go to failure, but make sure you have someone with you. Going
to failure with weights is dangerous, uncalculated and the cons outweigh the pros. If you are
trying to get fit for your sport, going to failure the odd time far away from the season or when
you have gaps in the season may be mentally beneficial to build a tolerance to pain and get
comfortable being uncomfortable, mentally it is good, physically it is good (when limited) and
allows us to find out our limitations and how we react when under extreme stress.

Eat the Rainbow
 
What does it mean?
Colour is nature’s way of letting us understand how nutritious foods are. Foods with rich colours like spinach, blueberries, beetroot, wild rice (the list goes on) are full of nutritious components and antioxidants. Not only do these foods contain lots of vitamins and minerals associated with a healthy immune system and optimal gut functioning they are also jam packed full of phytonutrients.
 
RED Coloured Food
Red fruit and vegetables like tomatoes often contain a natural plant pigment called Lycopene. It is a powerful antioxidant which can help reduce cancer risk and keep our heart healthy.
 
Blue or Purple Coloured Food
Anthocyanin is what gives fruit and vegetables this colour. This pigment also has antioxidant properties that protect our cells from damage.
 
Orange or Yellow Coloured Food
Beta Carotene gives fruit and vegetables this orange or yellow colour. Beta Carotene is a precursor for vitamin A. Vitamin A is essential for vision, and healthy mucus membranes.
 
Green Coloured Food
Green coloured fruit and vegetables contain a whole host of phytochemicals. Foods like spinach and broccoli are also a good source of folate.
 
Brown/White Coloured Food
Phytochemicals like allicin (found in garlic) are known for their antiviral and antibacterial properties.
Potatoes and bananas are a great source of potassium.
 
Next time you’re eating a meal, make a conscious decision to add more colour. With all the talk about macronutrients, it’s very important not to forget your micronutrients 😊

Want to get better at something? Do more of the ‘something’. That is frequency explained in its most simple form. If you were going to run a marathon, it is obvious you would run more than once a week, the same goes for any muscle/skill you are wanting to improve. If you want a bigger chest, you would train that body part more than once a week, if you wanted stronger glutes, you would train your glutes more often.
 
Do more of the specific exercise to aid your goal. If your goal is to get a one rep max lift in the bench at 80kg, but you keep failing at 80kg every time you try; it may be as simple as benching more often.
Most people have one assigned day for a body part/movement. If you are benching once a
week and on an 8-week program, after 8 weeks you have only benched 8 times. By adding in
the bench press to another day in your program, you will double the volume.
 
There is a law of diminishing returns on this as we build muscle when we rest and recover, so it is important to not take it to any extremes, just as a marathon runner wouldn’t run every day, it is important not to bash yourself every day. Larger muscles may take 2-3 days to fully recover. Thee include your chest, back, glutes and hamstrings. Where as the smaller muscle groups such as rear delts, biceps, triceps, calves etc may only take 1-2 days to recover.
 
My suggestion would be once you hit a plateau on a lift you wish to increase, then introduce that lift into a second day, once you have utilised that, I would usually say 3 days is the magic number, you can get a lot of work in 3 days and on top of that, you can recover between days too in a typical 7 day week. If you are training a movement or muscle 2-3 times a week, make sure you have variance, in both the lifts and rep ranges. An example would be including 3 different chest exercises in your program
Day 1 benching 4 sets x 5 reps
Day 2 dumbbell flies 3 sets x 10 reps
Day 3 could be incline dumbbell press of 2 sets x 15 reps.  
 
To conclude, keep things simple and logical, and do more of the ‘something’.

BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is when you’re asleep, you’re not digesting, your heart is pumping and your cells are working. It is the minimum energy you need to be alive. It can only be calculated after fasting and lying in a dark room. RMR is a little easier to calculate as you just need to be rested without fasting. It accounts for 60-70% of energy output.

Things that affect your BMR include:
Age, Gender, Height, Weight, Genetics, overall general health and Nutritional status. While there are some things you cannot change like age, height and genetics, there are some areas we can make huge improvements in. Being overweight/obese will have an impact on metabolic function, like hormonal and endocrine functions. Nutritional status also has relevance to our BMR. Poor food choices can lead to high blood glucose levels, poor body composition and low immune function. NEAT (Non exercise activity thermogenesis) is the exercise we undertake in our daily lives like cooking, cleaning, highly active job and steps we take. Being sedentary leads to a lower BMR so get those steps in 😊
TEF (Thermic Effect from Food) accounts for about 10% of overall energy output. This is the energy required to breakdown food when we digest it. Protein has the highest thermic effect from food so a diet high in protein is optimal. Fat has the lowest thermic effect. If you want to get the highest thermic effect from food, make sure to have adequate protein in your diet, usually around 2g per kg BW.
Finally, EA (Exercise Activity) which is purposeful activity only accounts for approximately 30% of energy output. This is like a workout or run etc.
​
While people try and overly focus on the purposeful exercise they often neglect their BMR and food choices which account for double the energy output. It is important to focus on the whole picture and not just a single aspect. Look after your weight, body composition, sleep patterns, nutritional status and NEAT. This is just as important if not more important for your goals.

Being able to read labels is very important for understanding nutrition. It is even better when you have a good grasp of what calories and macronutrients are. But unfortunately, there are factors that can change the quality of our food including nutrients and energy. So just because a food says it’s 100Kcal doesn’t mean it’ll break down to that in the body.
 
Fibre/Resistant Starches – These are often over estimated in foods
Outdated Data – Some of the information is old data that needs to be updated
Imprecise Analytical Tools – Not using correct tools for measurement
Product Variety – Tests may be carried out on single samples. Does not take into account batches or variability between samples
Soil Composition – Food composition tables don’t take into account the composition of the soil some food is grown in
Ripeness when harvested- Ever taste in season fruit compared to out of season? Taste difference. Nutrition Difference.
Animal Diets – This can change the nutritional composition of meat
Length of storage – Nutrients are much different in products harvested yesterday than a few weeks ago in a different time zone
Preparation/Cooking food – Raw foods are different in nutrient composition versus cooked foods