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NEW POSTS ON VEGANS ON THE NEW SITE 

http://www.smartmonkeylifestyle.com

 

Self hosted!!

Hey guys! Got some news, I will be moving over to http://www.smartmonkeylifestyle.com now, still hosted by the good folks at WordPress, still the same content and hopefully you’ll enjoy it just as much if not more! Will transfer all the content and set up a redirection.

Thanks all, see you in a bizzle!! ✌️

 

All aboard the gain train!!!

It’s that time of the year, the time to wear nothing but a pair of shorts 👍
Getting leaner is a combination of both diet and exercise, intensity, volume and nutrients, but I’m sure you already know all this. to increase the intensity and volume in my workouts I use supersets, which is essentially 2 exercise performed back to back. Usually those would be exercises for opposite muscle groups but not always. So here’s a few that I like to do for upper body…

Pull Ups – Dips 5×10/15

Flat Bench Press – Wide Grip Pull Ups 5×10/15

Incline Dumbbell Press – Bent Over Dumbbell Row ( one handed or two) 5×10/15

Cable Rows – Cable Flies 5×15/20

Military Press – Ben Over Barbell Row 5×10/15

Barbell Curls – Skull Crushers 5×10/15

These are very efficient and time saving, you can still use pretty heavy weight if you want to, or lighten the load and go for shorter rest periods. Either way give them a go, I hope they help and you like them!

Diet wise, I haven’t been eating a lot of meat or diary recently, my main sources or protein have been beans and peanut butter, very lean protein and its a lot cheaper. I don’t know about you guys but I struggle to eat hot food in the summer, and I also struggle to keep my weight steady, it tends to fluctuate a lot. So for me, in the next few months it’s supersets and carbs city! I am NOT getting off the gain train and I will stay big and strong!

Short and sweet one today, thanks for reading! Enjoy your day, peace!!

 

Leg Day, Squats & Accessories

A wiseman once said ” they’re just motherfucking peanut butter and jealous!!” Always remember that!

Anyways, I try to squat twice a week, one heavy day, one light, I pick a rep range and I stick to it. Today was heavy day so anything between 3-10 reps, these past few weeks however I haven’t done anything under 5 which actually feels pretty good. I’m throwing in a bit more accessory work and playing around with stance and footing. So, what I’ve learnt today is that I’m a lot more powerful in a mid to close stance with toes slightly pointed out, mid to high bar placement. I’ve been practicing a lot with different set and rep ranges, styles and rest periods and I am most definitely still learning and have a lot to learn. So today’s workout went exactly like this …

Bodyweight lunges 50 yards x 3

Squats warmups 1×10 1×8 1×5

Squats main sets 5×6 superset with hamstring curls 5×10

Squats (very close stance) 3×10

Stiff leg deadlifts 3×10

Leg extensions 3×10

Unusually for me this workout was just under an hour, very quick and decently heavy, I wouldn’t say I’m on a de-load but definitely felt like I needed to take sometime to focus on slightly higher rep ranges and accessory work. I feel like I’ve hit a wall and I’m not getting any stronger. The squat and hamstring curl superset is something I have done in the past to build up some strength, but I’ve been neglecting it, so back to basics!

Second squat day is on Saturday, I think I’m gonna stick to a bodybuilding style pyramid in the 3-5 x 8-15 range, seems to be working well right now, plus, I need to get jacked!!

So give this a go, see how you like it, find your weak points and create accessory work for them, then try to smash a PB!

Thanks for reading, peace!

 

Why Do Some People Find It Harder To Exercise Than Others?

Off the back of yesterday’s post I’ve been thinking, why do some people find exercise so hard, why do so many people give up and return to a lifestyle that they hate? There’s bound to be more than a 100 reasons but I only thought of a few.

Incorrect advice from shit coaches must be towards the top three, the type that don’t assess a client’s physical ability and kind of just throw you in the deep end with a stupidly low calorie diet, then you end up hating it because you’re constantly sore and seeing absolutely ZERO progress. A lot of trainers and coaches tend to forget that you’re not trying to become the best at exercising, you’re trying to reach your goal, which takes time, not an 8 week program.

Another one is motivation and support, I know I’ve mentioned it yesterday but it’s so important. I guess mainly for beginners but on any level, support from your friends, peers and family will go a long way, negative comments, if you let them get to you will drag you down. If you have the support, motivation will come. If you’re an advanced lifter, sometimes staying motivated is tough, purely because you’re not seeing progress as often, you have to work twice as hard and you may improve only by a fraction, but an improvement nevertheless!

The most important one in my opinion is perception, how you perceive and visualize your training. If you think of it as impossible and daunting, chances are you’ll find it harder. If you are confident and motivated, no matter how hard it is, what numbers you’re hitting or how much weight you’re loosing, you’ll still enjoy it and you will find it a lot easier.

What ever your goal is, keep your eyes on the prize and enjoy your journey.

Thanks for reading, peace!

 

Bad Days – Good Days

I’m sure every single one of you guys, regardless of your sport has had or are currently having a bad day or a bad week, or even a bad month. This kinda thing in my opinion is influenced by an infinite amount of things, some more obvious than others.

You know that feeling, you step into the gym like bleeergh and even your warm up feels exhausting, the weight is just not moving and hitting the same numbers just feels so fucking impossible. It’s okay to have one of those days or weeks, even months, your body and mind need rest. You don’t always need to max out and go balls deep. This exact sentence kind of goes against everything I have taught myself, I believe that you should give 100% every workout. However, I guess sometimes you need to take a step back, relax and evaluate the situation.

I’m a strong believer that the main cause for this is overthinking, figuring out a reason why you’re having a bad day is as bad as googling your illness symptoms, one minute you’ve got a blocked nose the next you have full blown aids. To give an example, on my heavy days recently I’ve been having this feeling of nervousness which I haven’t had in a very long time. Especially during heavy sets on flat benching, all I could think of were reasons as to why I wouldn’t get that off my chest with a pause for a solid single. I was a little tired, so I started questioning myself, “did I have enough sleep? I haven’t eaten enough! Man I’m still sore as hell from last week! I’m not recovering quick enough because I’m not sleeping enough! I hate that bar ms that bench” Etc etc…

Overthinking and questioning yourself will bring a ton of negativity and it will eat you alive during your workout and probably translate into the rest of the week or the month. So, when it was time for my last set, I got my shit together, quit being such a little bitch, turned my music on loud, cleared my mind and grinded that fucker out. Lesson I learned from this? Fuck overthinking and doubting yourself, if you’ve done it before you’ll do it again, if you’ve never done it before, put your mind to it and it will happen.

You have to learn the difference between your body and mind needing a rest and questioning your ability based on your surroundings and whatever it is that has happened over the last few days.

There obviously are many other factors that will influence how you’re feeling, such as relationships, breakups and make ups, family issues and drama, death of a loved one or even a crap week at work. The most important ones I believe are support and motivation, from your friends, your family, that crazy hot girl/guy who comments and gives you love on your IG, even when you get a retweet or acknowledgement from someone you look up on social media can give you that boost. This I find is especially important when you’re a beginner, you need support from your friends and family? If people around you constantly criticize your lifestyle choice you will either pack it in or you will say fuck them! If they don’t appreciate ambition and my love for my sport and this lifestyle then the hell with them! They will learn to!

What ever is going on in your life that’s causing you to have a bad workout or a number of them will pass, learn to clear your head, calm your mind and enjoy your workout. Have a laugh with your friends, listen to your favorite music and challenge yourself.

You will always have more good days than you do bad ones, how do you think you got where you’re at in the first place.

Thanks for reading, peace!

 

Skipping Every Morning.

As of yesterday my morning routine includes 5-10 minutes of skipping rope along with my coffee, before breakfast. The reason for this is my calorie intake, it has gone up to about 5,000 and I have my last meal pretty late at night which kinda sits on me in the morning sometimes. So to shake it all off and avoid feeling like a stiff mess in the morning I decided on the rope.

Now if you’re like me and haven’t skipped since you were 10 and your gym teacher made you the exercise is very humbling and demanding. It is however very effective, very cheap, portable and you can use it pretty much anywhere. From what I understand this is the kind of thing people are looking for, quick, cheap and easy way to exercise, I wouldn’t exactly call this easy but it definitely is easier than a lot of other things ( like burpies, fuck burpies ). It’s easy to incorporate the rope into any circuit or superset based routine if you want an added extra or simply a 5 minute morning routine if you want to loosen up and add that little bit of cardio to your day.

With a slightly higher calorie intake I will need this because my workouts are pretty high in volume and intensity as it is and if I increase the volume or intensity I will have a hard time recovering. I confident that I will still increase muscle mass and stay about as lean as I am.

So, if you’re looking to loose weight have no time for the gym or a full blown workout, try this. May be twice a day 5 minutes a go, then increase the length or intensity as you get better, because you will get better.

Keeping it short and sweet, have a great day, thanks for reading!

 

Nutrition Myths: Protein

One of the most frequently asked questions ( apart from how much do you bench bro?) is how much protein do you eat? My response to that is “all of it”. People often confuse how much protein your body can absorb and how much can it use for muscle growth.

People often say, “your body can only absorb X amount of protein” …. No, your body will absorb all of the protein you’ve consumed in your meal, BUT it will only use a certain amount for muscle growth. So the question you really want to ask is ” how much protein will max out the anabolic response?”.

Absorption is not equal to utilization, you will absorb all of the protein from your meal, your body will then slow down digestion to a certain degree so it can accommodate for all of the nutrients to then dispose or utilize them.

Superficially speaking, in an average person 30g-40g will induce anabolic response. You would need more as you get older because you become less sensitive to amino acids.

There have been some health concerns over high protein diets, mainly in relation to kidney failure. In order to to dispose of amino acids your body gets rid of them through the kidneys. One of the elements of an amino acid is nitrogen which is somewhat toxic in the blood stream, therefore your body gets rid of it through your kidneys, so if you have kidney problems this will be even more taxing. As this is not a clear cut issue people with healthy kidneys should not worry.

The general theme here is to eat in moderation, if you’re an average guy or girl doing little to no exercise eating 200g of protein is probably not that great for you. If you’re exercise level is intermediate or advanced you’ll find you will need more protein and other nutrients, so to say that there’s a set amount of protein that everyone needs to get the same thing is pretty much impossible. Too much of anything can turn into something negative.

Keeping it short and sweet, still sick AF, reading Arnold’s Total Recall, hoping to one day conquer America and have an illegitimate child with my house keeper.

Thanks for reading!

 

Training When You’re Sick

The stuff I’m coughing up right now must have been designed by hitler and created by satan himself, this does not belong inside any living thing. Being sick is a magical feeling, one day you’re hitting PR’s and the next day you’re weak as a kitten, which is pretty much what I’m going through right now. It’s been a while since I’ve been this sick, apparently the wind is bringing over some nasty stuff that the Welsh people are not used to and its slowly killing everyone.

I don’t really like skipping training when I’m like this, I find wrapping up warm and sweating it out is the best thing, nice hot shower or bath and wrap up warm and dry. Energy levels however are so low, muscle recovery is 10x slower and if anyone finds my appetite give me a shout. As a result of this its extremely hard to recover between sets, even catching your breath seems like an impossible task and it feels like I’ve lost a stone in a few days. All of this combined leads to a very, very tedious session. I hate going through the motions with ZERO drive and passion accompanied by a face like a smacked ass, but I still like to do something rather than stay home and think about all the gains I’m missing.

To get over this unholy virus I’ve been doing what I normally do, sweat it out as mentioned above, force feed myself with smaller portions of the same food I normally eat which is pretty much vegetables, fruits, porridge and peanut butter. Oh and also home made soup.

Coffee has been my best mate since last week, since I’m only getting about 4h of sleep a night. I made this thing to help me function, coffee, honey, sugar, lemon and a vanilla stick, which got me totally wired for like an hour and then it was back to the same old blocked nose, coughing up stuff that can only ever be used in some sort of satanic ritual and heaving as a result.

I don’t blame people if they say they don’t wanna be near me, if it was the other way around I’d probably wear one of those mask Chinese tourists wear when they think there’s a virus around, kick you in the crotch and run. Nobody got time for that!!

Needless to say my gain train to intensity ville has been delayed, this is not an excuse to stay home though and in about half an hour I will be hitting chest and back.

Make sure to carry some hand sanitizer with you, some tissue and a towel for the gym. Blow your nose somewhere secluded, I hate it when people are mid conversation, blow all that gunk out, don’t wash their hands and just stand there pretend everything is ok, are you fucking insane mate?! We can’t just come back from this like nothing happened.

So anyway, to sum up, I feel like shit, the weather is shit, this post is probably pretty shit but I had to share, thugs have feelings too!

Take care of yourselves out there, get some gains, stay healthy, listen to metal, drink coffee and hail satan \m/

 

Legs and Bum.

Another entry for the ladies who want to see some changes in their bodies. Learn how important nutrition and training is to achieve the physique you want and enjoy your journey 🙂

This piece will explain a little training principle known as supersets and I will include a lower body routine for the girls looking to tighten up those legs and butt along with a basic nutrition plan.

Supersets are simply two sets of different exercises performed one after the other without resting between the two. It could be done with two opposing muscle groups e.g. back and chest, or you could do compound sets for the same muscle group. When you’re talking about the most effective ways to increase your intensity, supersets are right up there, if done correctly they are extremely beneficial and a great way to shock those stubborn muscle groups.

Supercharge your training with the right exercise couplings, so check this …

Superset #1
Leg Extensions 3 sets x 15 reps
Leg Curls 3 sets 15 reps

Superset #2
Smith Machine Lunges 3 sets x 12-15 reps
Jumping Split Squats ( Bodyweight ) – 3 sets x 30 jumps (15 on each side)

Superset #3
Wide Stance Squat – 3 x 12-15 reps
Reverse Lunge – 3 x 12-15 reps

Superset #4
Glute Bridges: 4 sets x 25 reps
Kick Back (Can use a machine for this one) 4 sets x 25 reps

Superset #5
Stiff Leg Deadlift ( with dumbbells ) step back into a Lunge – one fluid motion – (Deadlift & Lunge = 1 rep) 10 reps each leg
Wide Stance Squats on Smith Machine: 4 sets x 12 reps

You can split this lower body routine into two days, or do it twice a week.

Don’t be fooled though, this one isn’t just for the ladies, you men out there apply some weight and try this exact routine and you won’t be disappointed. Not only do supersets increase muscle overload and intensity they are also time savers so if you’re a lunch time trainer these may be the ones !

Nutrition as you know is a huge part of your regime, so here’s a sample meal plan

Meal 1: Eggs, Oats and Berries
Meal 2: Chicken, Rice and Veggies
Meal 3: Fruit and Nuts
Meal 4: Fish, Veggies andAvocado

Servings will depends on your calorie intake for the day.

Hope you found this helpful, thanks for taking time to read. Happy Sunday!