Coach Damrow

10/05/2022

One last time for those in the back.

A muscle cannot tone.

It can either grow or shrink

The toning you see is the muscle becoming more visible due to:

1) dropping body fat around the muscle
2) increasing the size of the muscle

Or more commonly, a combination of the two.

Higher reps will not have an effect on this.

Any good weight training program where you focus on getting stronger and training consists combined with good nutrition will accomplish this goal.

⬇️🎤

09/05/2022

I know some of the things that I say sometimes can be a bit hard to wrap your head around.

This is because building muscle can become quite complex when you do a deep dive.

However, you can still achieve amazing results if you follow just a few simple steps.

Also, I think we can all see why I never became an artist now.

Please feel free to use this post as a cue to ask any specific questions about any of the points as they relate to your journey.

Ask me in a direct message or in the comments

06/05/2022

As usual, I don't think the answer is simply one or the other but a combination of the two.

Set your calorie target then focus on getting your fruit and veg in first. 2 and 5 is always a great rule of thumb 👍

From there you will mostly want "clean" sources of protein. Getting all your protein from "dirty" food will also come with a lot of carbs and fats and you may end up over your calories.

Once you have fruit, veg, and a fair amount of your protein in you can start adding in some dirty food to hit your calorie target.

You also want to keep an eye on your fiber intake but you should be okay if you follow the 2 and 5.

05/05/2022

The Lateral raise seems to be one of the most scrutinised exercise in terms of different techniques.

You always hear don't do it this way or that way and my way is best.

Perhaps though, all options are okay given you adjust the weight for your technique choice and you are taking the muscle through it's full range of motion.

04/05/2022

Eating back exercise calories.

There are a few main issues with this mindset:

1) Smart watches are grossly inaccurate when it comes to calorie expenditure and normally overestimate. This is perhaps the biggest issue as you will not only be re-eating what you burned but much more.

2) If you're doing this because you're hungry and you want more food I have news for you... exercising will just make you even hungrier.

3) Your daily intake target may already account for exercise calories.

At the end of the day, if you're exercising to be able to eat more you are putting yourself in a bad position both physically and mentally.

03/05/2022

There is no such things as a superfood.

A superfood is simply a food that has a higher amount of nutrients than others.

They don't have any particularly amazing properties that will instantly stop aging or prevent disease.

If you eat a healthy balanced diet you will get most (if not all) of these nutrients anyway.

Save your money on the superfoods and eat your fruit and veggies.

03/05/2022

You do not need squats!

That's not to say that squats can't me useful.

I squat!

But at the same time they scare the sh out of me.

Plus there have been times where I just haven't wanted to train and have even blown it off because I knew I had to squat.

If you hate squats and you are actively avoiding training because you think you have to do them, you don't.

You can get still build a whole hepa of muscle and strength without them.

28/04/2022

Does this sound like you?

If it does you have a few options:

1) You keep enjoying your "naughty food" on the weekends and learn to love your body how it is. This is a totally valid option.

2) you bring your calories down a little bit lower during the weekends and still have a little bit of fun on the weekend. This will help to bring your weekly average intake into a deficit

3) you choose a period of time which you go into deep focus mode - no takeaway, no drinking; just eating the food you make at home. You can even make this a short burst of 2-4 weeks then go back to a bit more fun on the weekends (returning to maintenance) then repeat. These are known as fat loss sprints.

4) you plan your weekends a bit better. If you are going to go out for food then just have lean sources of protein and fruit or veg for the rest of the day to help keep your total calories for the day lower.

27/04/2022

26/04/2022

26/04/2022

13/04/2022

What is a deload?

Honestly, a deload can be a lot of different things to a lot of different people.

Over the course of a program or several programs you accumulate fatigue. Sometimes this fatigue can accumulate so much that it results in non-functional overreaching. A deload is designed to disipate this fatigue.

Non-functional overreaching can become evident in multiple ways such as dereased strength, motivation, energy, increased joint pain, feeling like you're not recovering.

However, you do also have to take into account external influences:
- are you getting enough sleep
- are you eating well and/or enough
- are you under a lot of stress, etc

A deload can come in the form of a decrease in load/intensity, volume or more commonly - a decrease in both.

In some cases it can even end up coming in the form of a week completely off but we don't really call that a deload... it's just a week off 😅

So how should you deload, well this is up for debate. The exact method is not really clearly defined in the literature - at least not for training to improve your physique. As with most things in the world of hypertrophy (building muscle) the optimal approach will be slightly different for most.

One approach might be decreasing some of the load (lifting a little less) along with decreasing some volume (dropping a set or 2 on some or all of your exercises).

Another approach may be just stopping each set a few more reps before failure.

Another approach again, may be just having one or two days a little lighter than normal.

As you can see there are many different methods you can use.

Rather than getting so caught up in the method I think it's more appropriate to focus on the fact that you feel like you are both mentally and physically refreshed after your deload week.

I do not believe a deload should be planned (unless you have a comp coming). I believe it should be reactive based on how you feel. Keep an eye on your performance, recovery, and how you're feeling and base your deloads around these feelings

If a deload has been successful you should be coming out if it feeling stronger and more motivated than when you went into it.

10/04/2022

21/03/2022

16/02/2022

Give or take a few hundred

15/02/2022

In most cases this comes down to personal preference.

Do you like eating foods rich in carbs rather than those rich in fats? If you do, cut more calories from fats.

Do you like eating foods rich in fats rather than those rich in fats? If you do, cut more calories from carbs.

Protein should always be kept pretty high.

There are a few other points to consider with this conversation though:

1) Fats are useful for certain nutrient absorption. They also support cell function and produce important hormones. If you are below 150cm then you probably don't want to go below 30 grams of fat per day. If you're above 150cm subtract 150 from your height (in cm) multiply that number by 0.5, then add 30... for me at 178cm... 178-150 = 28... 28×0.5 = 14... 14+30 = 44 grams of fat minimum. You can go below these numbers at times but don't make it long term.

2) 1 gram of fat = 9 calories and 1 gram of carbs = 4 calories meaning that fat has a higher energy density

3) A general balanced diet will normally have more carbs than fats so there will be more room to subtract carbs

4) Subtracting carbs can mean subtracting fibre which is important for health and can help with weight loss. If you're taking some carbs out make sure you're still consuming lots of fruit and veg as well as some wholegrains.

5) carbs are a great source of energy for your body so you may feel tired if you take too many of these out too quickly.

My recommendation for you is experiment. Take some calories from carbs and see how you feel. If you lost weight but feel pretty crappy try keeping the same amount of calories but dropping fats this time and bringing your carbs back up to compensate.

Or

Do what I did and take a bit from both periodically over time.

14/02/2022

The internet is a minefield of contradictions when you are a beginner. These tips will help you take the first few steps in the right direction.