Well firstly it’s a myth that anyone ‘needs’ breakfast.
But we were always told that breakfast is the most important meal of the day?
If you questioned why. You were probably told because your metabolism starts when you eat breakfast. If you have breakfast, your metabolism starts earlier. And probably that you burn more calories if you eat breakfast or ‘you’ll lose weight’ eating breakfast. Well according to Betts et al 2014 [1] Daily Breakfast consumption has no effect on resting metabolism. For those of you who hate breakfast or those of you who like to fast, there is hope :D Does that mean don’t eat breakfast? Absolutely not. I’m a regular breakfast eater. I could not go without it. But I deal with clients daily who ‘Don’t have time’ or ‘can’t stomach it’ so I won’t force them to consume it. The answer really is do you want breakfast, if no, don’t eat it, if yes, enjoy 😊
 
 You may have also been told the more meals you have in a day equates to burning more calories and boosts your metabolism more.
This is also a myth. The thermic effect of food is the same if you have 6 meals or 2 meals. Sometimes having small frequent meals can actually prove a hindrance as you may overconsume on calories. Dashti et al. 2017 [2]. Your metabolism or metabolic rate is highly influenced by your overall calorie consumption, your food choices, your NEAT and your purposeful exercise. It is overall daily calorie intake that is what matters, not necessarily how you distribute it. Unless in certain circumstances like athletic performance or muscle retention, where it may be important.
 
So finally, it really comes down to personal preference. Do what suits you and your lifestyle. Remember, when it comes to metabolic rate, overall calories are important. What is not important is meal timing or meal frequency. 😊
 

1.  The causal role of breakfast in energy balance and health: a randomized controlled trial in lean adults. Betts et al.

Am J Clin Nutr. 2014
 

1. Recommending Small, Frequent Meals in the Clinical Care of Adults: A Review of the Evidence and Important Considerations. Dashti et al

Nutr Clin Pract 2017 
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I can only assume you know how it feels to not be ‘arsed’ with training, but you go anyway. I think it is important to go training when this state as it is impossible to be totally motivated every single day and every training day. This is just not realistic, but I will also assume you have had these days where you go in with an attitude to just get it done and go through the motions and as a result, you have a terrible session. Whether this is due to a lack of energy, a poor attitude toward training or viewing training as a chore, you’re completely off on that day. We are always hearing about how powerful the mind is and how it influences out performance. I  100% believe this to be true, look at the best athletes in the world, not even them but look at top inter county players, their attitude, their posture, confidence, constructive self-criticism and positive mindset. This seems to be a common denominator amongst athletes and performers around the world, that isn’t by accident.
 
A paper named the ‘Expectancy effects and strength training: do steroids make a difference?’ written by Maganairs in 2000 and looked at how expectancy can effect strength training. They distributed placebos to 11 power lifters explaining that they were anabolic steroids. The power lifters saw great advancements in their programs, until halfway through, they informed 5 athletes that it was actually a placebo and their performance largely dissipated resulting in poor lifts (not even hitting PR’s they set before the program). The other 6 athletes all hit new PR’s, this showed first hand that expectancy played an effect, both ways. Another paper way back in 1972 by Gideon Ariel called ‘Anabolic steroids: the psychological effects of placebos’. 15 male lifters were put on a strength program and those who date the best gains in bench press, shoulder press and military press would be chosen to go on a 4 week steroid program. 6 guys, who gained an average of 11kg between the three lifts, were chosen to on a 4 week free and legal steroid program. After just 4 weeks of a placebo pill, they gained an average of 45kg between the three lifts.
 
It is fair enough to say that the mind has a large role to play in our performance, our daily performance has a direct effect on our progression and our results. So my top tops would be, to pick a form of resistance training/strength training that you enjoy and will not total dread and even more importantly, learn to appreciate you have the health to walk into a gym and be active, understanding that people would give anything to have the option and health to take part in exercise. You are lucky enough to exercise, so take advantage and enjoy it. This will have a great impact on your performance, and therefore your results.
Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re probably right!

Kevin

​Building muscle can take some time; we all know that is the case. But, maintaining muscle is much easier than building it. Why is this? We all know how much hard work it takes to get in shape, get aerobically fit, build muscle, gain strength or even reach any fitness goal. Once again, I am using GAA as the direct example simply because I can relate. Every team in the country gears up to peak at championship, months before championship begins; players are being put through such gruelling grunt work on the pitch, getting faster, learning to sustain pace, improving their aerobic capacity, raising their lactate threshold and improving the overall economy of their lunge and legs. Not to mention, the strength gains you must make in the gym on top of this, lifting heavy, lifting explosively and improving our body composition. This can all take months to build to this point before championship begins, but as soon as we reach that peak (usually two/three weeks before the first game), why is it so easy to hold that pace, hold that fitness and keep that strength even though we have taken the foot off the pedal and we are just training at a maintenance level now? This will be the discussion.
 
First of all, we need to understand why building and maintaining is so different. As I mentioned before, have you ever seen someone in fantastic shape, and upon talking to them, they mention they only train 3 times a week at the moment. How is this possible? Is it due to magnificent genetics, or did the person just fail to mention they trained 6 times a week for 4-5 years before that? It sounds simple, but building muscle is not all sunshine and rainbows, it takes work, consistency in the gym and adherence outside the gym. Building muscle (A.K.A hypertrophy) is a huge part of why everyone trains, to get toned, to look good, to be stronger and most people who train for performance will always have a goal of being aesthetic at some point as we are all human. You cannot create more muscle cells, but you can increase the size of the ones you have, just like you cannot decrease the amount of fat cells, but you can decrease the size of them (side note, you can eliminate fat cells with surgery). Muscle is usually built in certain areas through specific movements, if you want to increase muscle in your chest? Easy, pick a chest dominant movement, overload (increase volume as time goes on) on that movement/muscle each week and frequently train it (minimum twice a week).Think whenever you are building muscle in an area, specificity, overload and frequency are king.
 
Once you get to the level you want to be at, it is a lot easier to maintain this muscle, you can stop overloading and stick to your 8-12 reps or else you can drop frequency from 2-3 days a week to 1-2 days a week and still maintain, why is this? Muscle is very resistant to atrophy, so much that research shows you can maintain muscle size with training breaks up to 2-3 weeks (Hwang P.S, 2017, Department of Health, Human Performance and Recreation). But, if you are lowering intensity for this long or on holidays and plan to have no training, nutrition will be more important. If you can at all, fit in a session at some point during the week and you’re as good as gold. You do not need to train every day when you are away, but 1-2 sessions every week at this point is enough to even overload and improve. The reason muscle looks smaller when you’re not training is down to muscle glycogen being lost, and this happens quickly during a training break which is completely normal. Since muscle glycogen is glucose that is physically stored in your muscles, any decrease in muscle glycogen stores affects the size of your muscles. But, this is only temporary, once you are back training (even after 3 weeks off), your muscle glycogen stores fill up again. 1-2 hard training sessions can bring you back to ‘pre-break physique’.
 
As we get older and more experienced training-wise, the term ‘less is more’ comes into effect. Once we have years of training behind us, it will not take much to hold that shape, strength and fitness levels. But, less is more at this point, with age comes a lot more responsibility, workload, commitments and all of these things are stresses. As you are more experienced, get the job done with the least amount of tools.  
 
Secondly, we must understand fatigue, fitness and deloading. As we go through a phase or a training block, two variables begin to raise, fitness and fatigue. Fitness is subjective as to what the goal is, for some it may be defined as strength and others it may be endurance, for athletes it could very well be a combination. Fatigue can be described in the short run and in the long run as the inability to sustain a given power output or speed. An example of short run fatigue would be slowing down in a run as you cannot sustain a certain speed. Fatigue in the long run is more along the lines of overtraining/burnout. Today’s discussion is more about the physiological side of things. When you begin a phase/training block and you are fresh, fatigue is not a problem. Your overall fitness begins to rise at a steady pace. As you get into the program/season, fatigue begins to increase as steady pace also, if you keep overloading your fitness trainings, fatigue will eventually grow at a faster rate that your fitness. Once fatigue surpasses your fitness levels, you could be in trouble and your fitness, recovery and performance will take a hit. We all know it is impossible to constantly improve week in week out at everything so a deload will help this by resetting the clock.
 
Deloading is a brilliant way of avoiding fatigue. As you train for weeks at a consistent rate where you are constantly overloading, by simply cutting volume for a week or a few days here or there, you are able to maintain fitness and manage fatigue. The goal is always to keep that fatigue at bay, while maintaining your fitness levels. It is important to understand that maintenance is not difficult and you can maintain muscle with a 50% volume cut (in running or lifting).

Kevin Farrell

Metabolic conditioning is a very effective way of getting stronger and fitter at the same time.
When I say fitter, I mean increasing aerobic capacity and the cardiovascular system. It is not as simple as pairing two exercises together and going hard through it until you burn out or slow
down. metabolic conditioning takes time into account and, whether that is sticking to a time or beating a
time with given repetitions. It is important to understand how the body gets energy when
programming these types of workouts. The work to rest ratio can be determined by the goal
of the workout.

Metabolism is how we break down food for energy. It can be broke into three sections,
Phosphagen, Glycolytic and Aerobic. Phosphagen, also known as the creatine phosphate
system, is the most powerful and fastest way to get energy. This is used in explosive
movements and short duration bursts no more than 10 seconds long. An example is a short
sprint, Olympic lift or a max jump. This system is so quick and powerful that it may even
take 3-5 minutes to recover. When training this system, recovery time is very important and
full recovery is the goal. Glycolytic can provide energy for up to 4/5 minutes. It is primarily
used in short but intense duration including 400-800m sprints and weightlifting. This can
take 3 minutes to recover fully. Finally, the aerobic system includes long lasting duration
and can recover in a matter of seconds. Now it is important to note that no sole pathway works once at a time, there is a lot of interplay but certain work to rest ratios used in metabolic conditioning can prioritise one energy system. You can still build all systems to a certain point, but you may have to prioritise one
depending on your goals.

Metabolic conditioning can be used to maximise the efficiency of one energy system, which
can be directly translated to a particular sport or even just for personal goals. From the
Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, a study in 1992 named ‘’Effect of resistance
training on excess post-exercises oxygen consumption’’ showed us that this high intensity
training leads to a higher resting metabolism for hours after. Metabolic conditioning very interesting because it values and prioritises rest time, which is often ignored. 

Here is a general look at how you can prioritise each system (I mean general when I say it).
Work to rest ratios (W:R)
Endurance (4:1) Work 4 minutes, rest for maximum 1 minute.
Intermediate system (1:2) Work for 20 seconds, rest for 40 seconds.
Explosive/Power (1:10) Work 10 seconds rest 2 minutes.

Kevin

​Are Macro and Micro Nutrients important for Athletes??? YES!!!!
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Let's delve into what we need each nutrient for and requirement levels.
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Protein
Every cell in your body needs protein. Protein is absolutely essential for athletes due to the amount of training they are doing. Protein turnover is very high so demands for protein are also very high. We need it for recovery and muscle repair. It is also very important in times of injury. I recommend 2g per Kg of Bodyweight.
Sources include: Meat, Fish, Eggs, Beans, Legumes. Eat protein at every meal.
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Carbohydrates
Carbohydrate is the preferred fuel for GAA. It gives us energy in the form of glucose or stored glycogen. There are 2 types of carbohydrates:Complex carbohydrates and simple sugars. Complex carbohydrates are the ones we want most of in our diet. They not only provide fuel but also fibre which is essential for gut health. I recommend about 3g per Kg Bodyweight. This can increase days of games/trainings or day before to almost 6g per Kg Bodyweight. Sources include: Rice, Oats, Fruit, Potatoes, Sweet Potato.
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Fats
Fats are often neglected and are a very important part of an athletes diet. Fats reduce inflammation (caused by exercise or injury), they are part of our cell membranes and they transport vitamins A, D, É & K. I recommend about 1-1.5g per Kg BW. This can increase or decrease based on carbohydrate consumption. Sources include: Avocado, nuts, seeds, dark chocolate, oily fish
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Micronutrients
These are often overlooked. Although they are required in small quantities, lack of consumption can lead to serious deficiencies. Not only is immune function lowered increasing risk of catching colds and illnesses which can increase absenteeism from training. Cognitive function can be impaired (not ideal on a pitch). Micronutrient deficiencies in some cases can cause fatigue like a lack of Iron or B Group Vitamins. Water would also be considered a micronutrient
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It is important to look at the big picture. It's not just macros that are important to athletes. We need micronutrients for our overall recovery and health