Monday, 5 May 2014

Breakfast Options

My breakfast is nearly always the same – bacon and eggs cooked in coconut oil. This gives me a good amount of protein and healthy fats which not only provide excellent nutritional nourishment, but also keep me feeling full for most of the day. However, I have had requests for breakfast options that DON'T contain eggs; so here they are:

Breakfast Stir Fry

Chicken or turkey mince
Chopped onions & tomatoes
Mixed herbs
Tomato puree
Coconut oil
Avocado
Salt and pepper

Heat the coconut oil in a pan, add the onions and tomato, then the mince and fry for a few minutes. Add in the puree, herbs, salt & pepper and fry for a few more minutes until the meat is cooked. Slice your avocado on top and it's ready in less than 10 minutes :)

Avocado Breakfast Bowl

Chopped chicken breast(s)
Smoked paprika
Avocado
Chopped bacon
Sliced tomato
Coconut oil
Salt and pepper

Heat the oil in a pan and add the chicken. Fry it with the salt, pepper and paprika. Cook the bacon separately in another pan. Slice the avo in half and remove the pip. Scoop the flesh out and mash it in a bowl. Place the mashed flesh back into the avo shell. When the meat is cooked place it onto the mashed avocado and serve with the sliced tomato – again, all ready is about 10 minutes!

Enjoy :)

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Personal coaching can help you achieve the results you desire, as well as giving you the necessary effective tools you need to keep striving forwards, to keep changing and progressing on your journey.


Challenge everything, especially yourself.

Alex Kay Grimmer


Contact me for Kettlebell classes and Personal Training in Southend-on-sea.
Please visit my website: ALEXKAY




Monday, 28 April 2014


I have had a request for suggestions on healthy lunches. We all probably struggle with what we should be eating because we have been conditioned to think it is cereal for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, and meat and potatoes for dinner. We it doesn't have to be that way. In fact, once you start exploring options, it is surprisingly easy, as well as healthier and actually tastier and more enjoyable!

Here's a tip: There is no set food for a particular meal. You can eat any food at any time. Food is fuel. It doesn't matter if it's 6am or 6pm. You will probably settle into particular foods for particular times, but it doesn't have to be that way. You can have steak, eggs, broccoli and sweet potato in the morning if it suits you! Break the mindset of set foods for set times. Dinners make great lunches too – time spent preparing for your health is not wasted :)

Cracking on; let's talk lunch.

Every lunch should contain protein, fat, and vegetables. The easiest options for protein are chicken, fish or eggs. I prefer to keep the 'heavier' red meats for evening meals, but they are fine too if you enjoy them :) Fats can come in the form of solids like avocados or olives (or even within fish such as salmon or mackerel) or oils like coconut, avocado or olive oils. Finally with veggies start with dark green (spinach, kale, broccoli) and then be as colourful as you can be!

Here are a couple of favourites, quick and easy lunch recipes.

Kale & Goats Cheese Salad:

a few large handfuls of kale
some of goats cheese
a sprinkle of pumpkin seeds
½ an avocado
2 red radishes thinly sliced
salt & pepper for taste
juice of ½ a lemon
a drizzle of olive oil

Put the kale, cheese, seeds, avo and radish into a bowl and mix! Season to taste, drizzle with the lemon juice & oil and enjoy :)

Clean & Lean lettuce Wrap

some large iceberg lettuce leaves
slices of roast turkey
sliced cucumber
hummus
paprika (a favourite of mine – try it on roasted and sliced sweet potato!)

Top a lettuce leave with a slice of turkey, cucumber, hummus and paprika. Wrap it up with another leaf and eat it like a sandwich – voilĂ !

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Personal coaching can help you achieve the results you desire, as well as giving you the necessary effective tools you need to keep striving forwards, to keep changing and progressing on your journey.


Challenge everything, especially yourself.

Alex Kay Grimmer


Contact me for Kettlebell classes and Personal Training in Southend-on-sea.
Please visit my website: ALEXKAY



Tuesday, 4 March 2014



RECOVERY.

Two great things that everybody can, and should, be using to better aid recovery from their workouts; are magnesium oil and a foam roller.

Magnesium oil is a fantastic supplement with a list of benefits longer than a monkey's arm, but I will try and focus on the ones you will be interested in and benefit from!

People who work out a lot put their body under stress. This is in addition to the normal, every day stress we all have, which is a great deal sometimes just on it's own.

Magnesium oil is in fact a super-saturated water solution that you apply directly onto your skin which you absorb more effectively than if you took an oral supplement. If you have low levels of magnesium in your body, you may experience a tingling sensation when applying it, but as you build your levels up you won't feel the tingling any more.

Here comes the science bit..
Magnesium helps to optimise DHEA levels (which acts a backup to testosterone), pregnenolone, insulin, seratonin and growth hormone, amongst others. These hormones are the ones that keep us young, help us to sleep better, be more active, have healthy sex drives, burn fat more effectively and build muscle tissue.

The more we stress our bodies with exercise (and just 'normal' stress like finacial worries, family issues, poor sleeping patterns, etc) the lower our magnesium levels, which has a cascading effect on the adrenal function of our bodies, which in turn makes us feel sluggish, look and feel tired all the time, loss of sex drive, thinner hair and poor complexion... the list goes on.

The good news is that you can change all that just by applying magnesium oil twice a day to your skin after a shower. In fact, if you have a particular area that is tight or painful from exercise, you can apply it directly to those muscles, as magnesium oil also acts as a muscle relaxant. If you have no particular areas of discomfort, applying it to the abdomen or just the larger muscular areas will be best.

Benefits you should notice within a week or two are generally a better sleeping pattern, better recovery from exercise with less muscle soreness, and an elevated mood.

The second thing you can and should be doing to better aid your recovery is foam rolling. A foam roller is a foam cylinder that is available in varying sizes, densities and designs, but largely all do the same thing. My preference is THE GRID (Google it).

Basically you position yourself onto the roller, and 'roll' back and forth. Think of this as ironing out the wrinkles in your muscles - it's the next best thing to a massage. When your muscles are tight and sore, you have adhesions or maybe even scar tissue, and the rolling helps to release the adhesions (knots) and break down scar tissue build-up. This helps to reestablish proper movement patterns which will allow you to function better not only after a workout, but generally in life too as sometimes we go about with poor posture, or other lifestyle factors that inhibit our muscles and movement patterns.

So there you have it! Very simple yet extremely effective tools to aid recovery and just generally improve our lives and longevity. The key thing to remember is these things should be used ALL THE TIME. Apply the oil twice a day EVERY DAY. Foam roll every day, or at least EVERY OTHER DAY. It is the cummulative effect that will make the difference.


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Personal coaching can help you achieve the results you desire, as well as giving you the necessary effective tools you need to keep striving forwards, to keep changing and progressing on your journey.


Challenge everything, especially yourself.

Alex Kay Grimmer


Contact me for Kettlebell classes and Personal Training in Southend-on-sea.
Please visit my website: ALEXKAY

Monday, 13 January 2014

Do you want to save £5 to £10?


Personal training is expensive. It is a luxury. But you really want results, and you know that if you try to do it on your own it just won't happen. So you've decided to invest in yourself instead of a new designer handbag, or the latest game console. How do you select a PT? They're all the same right? So you look at price. That's a reasonable thing to do, the economy sucks and we all need to be careful. You look around, and find surprisingly, a great number of personal trainers. Prices vary. But hey look! You've found one that is cheaper than the rest - £5 or £10 a session cheaper! What a bargain. Think of the money you're saving over those other trainer's clients. Easy decision, and you're on your way to a new you with your new PT.

Your new trainer works you HARD. They even have a whistle (How you hate that whistle...). You ache – for days. Every session you're sweating buckets, and getting to the point where you might need a bucket. You're drenched, dizzy, a little bit green around the gills, you have more than one part of you 'twinging' as you try to 'push through the pain'. But inside you're beaming because you KNOW that all this hard work will pay off and you will be amazing. The first few weeks are great, painful as they might be, because the pounds are finally coming off! This PT must REALLY know their stuff! AND you saved money with this PT!
Then after a few weeks; no more weight loss. Your body aches more than ever, but your PT just yells at you to go harder and faster, “More! More! More!” Eventually, you have no option but to slack off. You feel tired ALL the time, yet you still don't sleep well. The aches and pains just don't go away, and that stabbing pain every time you try a certain exercise is really starting to get to you. Your eyes look like a panda and your skin like a crocodile. Well congratulations. You have wrecked your endocrine system. Don't know what that is? Well neither does your cheap PT probably, which is why he destroyed yours. He also never advised you on correct lifting form, so your horrendous technique is now so ingrained it'll take a decent PT months to fix. But you did lose 5-10lbs in weight, and you did save 5-10 pounds in cash per session. It was worth it right?

When selecting a PT, do NOT select them purely based on price or even popularity (Paris Hilton is popular; remember?). Select your PT based on knowledge and skill. Those two, and ONLY those two things are what will get you from where you are to where you want to be, and safely.

I always encourage my clients to question everything. Feel free to ask me WHY I am getting you to do certain exercises. Ask me what the benefits are; how exactly is this going to get you to your goals? In fact, I pre-empt this. I always educate my clients, both class and private. I encourage you to learn, I encourage you to look to the right people to learn from. Most of my long term clients would make better coaches than 90% of the personal trainers out there. Why? Because I have educated them on everything, and taught them to think for themselves. Correct form, and how to fix mistakes, which exercises support others and why... etc.

I am always interested in helping people to learn. I am not just about beasting you into the ground. That part is easy. That time will come, but generally later when you have enough knowledge, experience, technique and strength to handle it so that it progresses you and doesn't just destroy you.

I may not be the cheapest. I am not the most expensive either. But I guarantee results if you follow what I say. I train, compete, get coached by and coach (yes, that too) some of the top coaches and lifters in the world. Every month I am in London at least once training alongside the countries top coaches. I attend seminars and workshops throughout the year hosted by the world's best coaches and lifters. I also coach and lecture at events, and I am recognised within the industry as someone who has a huge amount to contribute.

I am looking to take on a small number of new clients this year because from next year (and later on this year) my availability for PT will be less as I increase the seminars, lectures and writing I do within the industry. So if you're looking to make a change within yourself, now is the time. Start investing in yourself because this body has got to last you. Take the plunge and see what you are actually capable of, and in the process future-proof yourself against old age filled with illness and poor posture.

I will always do my best to make my services available, but what I offer has value, and as such it has a cost. In the long term it is money well spent. Would you rather lose 5-10lbs in 2-3 months with a cheap trainer, but then not only gain the weight back but have gained postural problems and a wrecked endocrine system to boot? One of my female clients recently performed a double bodyweight deadlift, and another should be there in a matter of weeks now too. These long term clients have progressed steadily, but have CONTINUED to do so, and will keep progressing. Which group do you want to be in?

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Personal coaching can help you achieve the results you desire, as well as giving you the necessary effective tools you need to keep striving forwards, to keep changing and progressing on your journey.


Challenge everything, especially yourself.

Alex Kay Grimmer


Contact me for Kettlebell classes and Personal Training in Southend-on-sea.
Please visit my website: ALEXKAY





Monday, 6 January 2014

Benefits of PT in a group session


People come to me for personal training to get fitter, to get stronger, to be able to move better. Well I want to be able to give the people coming to my classes those benefits. I do not want to run classes where people just go through the motions, using the same old weights they always did, never changing and never progressing. I love my classes and I really want to give everyone the most benefits that they can get. So in 2014, I am going to push the envelope, and push YOU to achieve far more than you thought you could. If you are really wanting to change, and see what you are capable of, join me for 2 classes a week and watch your strength DOUBLE in 6 months! Want to know how? 

For at least the first 6 months I am going to focus on 3 specific things during the group sessions -
1 – your ability to get up and down effectively
2 – the amount of power, and focus, you can generate
3 – pure, raw, strength
This means...
  1. Turkish Get Ups. Yes people struggle with these, but that is the number one reason to do more of them, and to get better at doing them. Everything starts with movement patterning. If you have poor movement, you have no base for building anything. Adding strength to dysfunction is a recipe for disaster. Start moving better and you will see how everything else becomes easier.
  2. Swings. There is absolutely no reason for anyone to swing light kettlebell. A strong core, good posture, unparalleled grip strength, true fitness and the ability to generate a good amount of athletic power are all benefits of a strong swing. Aim to be swinging one third of your bodyweight during the classes.
  3. Overhead Pressing. Once again, people gravitate towards the same, safe, light weights when performing overhead presses. The only way you are going to get stronger is by using a heavier weight. You need to push outside the comfort zone, suck it up, and use something heavier. This is actually easier than you think. By push pressing the weight, you get used to having something heavier in your hand and above your head. Keep push pressing until you can press it, then grab something heavier and start push pressing that.

Consider your training frequency too. How many group sessions do you attend each week? Once a week is great, but twice a week is infinitely better. Why wait a full 7 days before doing it again? What are you doing during those 7 days – sitting on your bum watching TV? Ask yourself, is there a real reason why you can't attend 2 sessions a week.

To encourage you to train more regularly, if you attend 2 classes each week without a break, after 9 classes you will get your tenth class absolutely FREE!

The classes are part of my gym schedule so long as enough people are attending them. Please encourage people you know to join you, so that you and others can continue to enjoy them and benefit from them. Here is my class incentive scheme for 2014:

You bring a friend and their first class is FREE!
When they attend their 2nd class, you pay only £5!


With your help, I can offer even more scheduled kettlebell classes, which will give you more opportunity and availability to attend them. Please encourage your friends and family to join you and support what is going to be an exciting year for physical change!

I don't know about you, but I am really excited to break through barriers and comfort zones this year, mine AND yours! It is exciting to know how that in only 6 months I am going to be praising people for what they have managed to achieve! All you have to do is show up, and work hard for approximately 40 minutes twice a week. Are you game?

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Personal coaching can help you achieve the results you desire, as well as giving you the necessary effective tools you need to keep striving forwards, to keep changing and progressing on your journey.


Challenge everything, especially yourself.

Alex Kay Grimmer


Contact me for Kettlebell classes and Personal Training in Southend-on-sea.
Please visit my website: ALEXKAY



Monday, 16 December 2013

The Importance Of Food Diaries


I make no bones about it. I am a strength and movement coach. I will coach you to move better, as you were designed to, and to become the strongest version of yourself. I am not a weight-loss coach. The reason? Weight-loss is your responsibility. I can control what you do in the gym, but only you can control what you consume. I will give you all the help you need to succeed, but ultimately it boils down to what you are prepared to do. So if weight-loss (read: fat-loss) is your goal, here are the two best things you can do to achieve your goal.

1 - Start keeping a food diary.

Simply keep a complete and accurate record of everything you consume. Then work out the calorie value and the macro-nutrient breakdown and you will know exactly what you are taking in.

WHAT YOU CONSUME = THE BODY YOU HAVE

You can work it out manually by looking up the calorie & macro values of the foods you've consumed, or use a smart phone app like MY FITNESS PAL which does it all for you. The important thing is to record everything you consume – eat, drink, snack – EVERYTHING.

2 – take accurate body measurements

This includes, but is not limited to, bodyweight. Take circumference measurements of your arms, waist, hips and thighs. If you can get a PT to measure your body fat percentage that will be good too.

Now most people THINK they know what they are consuming. The reality is they don't. Can you honestly say you know exactly how many calories you consumed last week? How much came from protein and how much came from carbohydrate? Unless you know those numbers, you just aren't in a good position to make effective changes. Going to the gym and cutting out crisps are good, but they are just a drop in the ocean if you are not tracking everything else.

I had a client that went from 21.15 stone to 11.81 stone, JUST BY CHANGING WHAT SHE ATE. She started keeping an accurate food diary, was blown away by the reality of what she thought “wasn't a bad diet”. She made the changes and voilĂ , she lost half her bodyweight. Now this didn't happen overnight. She went for the longest time fooling herself that she was eating healthy foods, and that she had portion size under control. When she finally started accurately recording her intake, she realised how unhealthy her food choices were, and how excessive her consumption was. She was now in a good position to recognise WHY she was overweight, and also in a good position to make some effective changes. Which she did.

Here is a quote from what she sent me:
I don't really drink AT ALL now, I avoid grains, bread etc like the plague and try not to eat potatoes more than twice a week. Fresh fish and lots of veg is a big part of my 'new regime' now, the portion control was what I learned!!”

Do you want real results? You need to realise that YOU are in control of that. Only you can do it. Start keep a food diary. Yes it means a bit of effort, but that's what it takes to achieve what you want. Only once you know exactly what you're taking in can you make effective changes. If you need help making those changes, contact me to book a consultation and I will show you exactly what changes to make. So start the food diary, and be honest! Because you body keeps an accurate record of what you consume regardless of what you decide to write down.

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If you need help on how to make improvements in your diet, get in touch. Personal coaching can help you achieve the results you desire, as well as giving you the necessary effective tools you need to keep striving forwards, to keep changing and progressing on your journey.


Challenge everything, especially yourself.

Alex Kay Grimmer


Contact me for Kettlebell classes and Personal Training in Southend-on-sea.
Please visit my website: ALEXKAY



Monday, 9 December 2013

Understanding hormones

Growth hormone is extremely important because a lack of it will mean faster ageing. Your skin will sag faster, your joint health will deteriorate and your workout recovery will suck. Optimal levels of GH will mean you body will be primed to burn body fat, you will recover quickly, your joints won't ache and you'll sleep like a baby. Ways to ramp up your GH is to include high-intensity in your exercise, adequate levels of protein in your diet and at least 7 hours of regular, uninterrupted quality sleep every night.

Leptin is the hormone that tells your brain that you have eaten enough and are now full. If you eat too much junk, your body still produces leptin, but your brain becomes resistant to it and doesn't recognise it any-more, so you keep eating. Avoid junk food and typical problematic foods like dairy, wheat and soya, plus load up on greens like cucumber, celery and spinach for their alkalising effects.

Insulin goes up every time you eat (to lower blood sugar) and glucagon goes down (which counters insulin by raising blood sugar). Leaving longer periods between meals will help stabilise your blood sugar levels. If you're constantly producing too much insulin your body is primed to store body fat. The more often you eat the more reliant you become on those meals and skipping them means a drop in blood sugar, which means you get tired, lack concentration, blurred vision, etc. Unless you truly train like a beast, let genuine hunger dictate your meals and leave at least 4 hours between feeding.

Adrenaline receptors reside in our stubborn fat areas like the waist and hips. The more stress you place on your body, from poor diet and lack of quality sleep (which the body treats as 'famine' type stress), the more fat you will store in these areas, because it's easier for these receptors to pull energy from these areas. It is extremely important to eliminate or avoid stress in your lives, and if you cannot do that, find a way to counter the effects of stress – like meditation, going for massages, using a steam room, working with a foam roller, getting adequate sleep, etc. That way you keep your adrenaline sensitivity high so you're not overloaded with it and your stubborn areas won't be so fat.

The bottom line is simply doing a combination of the right things. Avoid eating and drinking junk, eat a nutritionally dense diet, avoid stress, get good quality sleep, exercise frequently with a good level of intensity. The combination is important! Do not think you can just exercise harder and it will make up for your short-comings elsewhere. If you are not eating right and not sleeping well, trust me, what you perceive to be intensity in your exercise is nowhere near intense. You will fatigue way before you get anywhere close to real intensity.

So do yourself a favour – eating a diet rich in good quality nutrients, decent levels of quality protein and plenty of greens, drink plenty of water, avoid the junk food and junk drinks (especially alcohol), go to bed at a decent hour, get rid of as much stress as you can and find ways to effectively deal with what remains. If you are doing those things, you are now in a good position to exercise and discover what your body is truly capable of!

If you have questions on how to make adjustments to your diet, creating an optimal sleep environment, counteracting stress on the body, and corrective exercise, contact me to arrange a consultation to get you back on track!

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If you need help on how to make improvements in your diet, get in touch. Personal coaching can help you achieve the results you desire, as well as giving you the necessary effective tools you need to keep striving forwards, to keep changing and progressing on your journey.


Challenge everything, especially yourself.

Alex Kay Grimmer


Contact me for Kettlebell classes and Personal Training in Southend-on-sea.
Please visit my website: ALEXKAY