JD's Superior Performance Blog Follow my new journey Posted on 11/09/2014 Lam back, I never ruled out a return and now I have good reason to start blogging again. The following 44 blogs will be a bit niche, but the process and lessons learnt can be applied universally. Thave always been lean, in part due to genetics and part because I've always been so active playing sports and going to the gym. As such, I have always found it difficult to put on lean mass. Mainly because I've not eaten enough but also because moving away from a lean, athletic look has been hard for me psychologically. This blog series will follow me through 44 weeks of structured training and dieting with the aim of adding some quality muscle tissue whilst staying relatively lean. I shall be using a coach, Mr Keirone Woodgate (keironewoodgate@hotmail.com ) & under his tutelage am expecting to go from 71kg, @ 8% BF to roughly 80kg @ 10% BE. ‘As context, for my base line start point I dieted down to 70kg @ 6% BF eating roughly 2,250 calories and training 4x pw. After a holiday blow out I am now sitting at 71kg @ 9% BF on 2,500 calories and my hormones seem to have up regulated back to a normal level and I am feeling good. In the weekly blogs I will update you with my weight, my calories & macros, my training split and all other relevant variables and each month I will expand on a specific area so you understand the rationale and specifies of the process/approach. Llook forward to sharing this little journey with you all as [ attempt to do something which is outside my comfort zone and something I’ve not managed to do before. Follow my journey in photos on Instagram @jimmydiv123 Posted in Superior performance Leave a comment The future?! Posted on 19/06/2013iamesdonaldavis files.wordpress.com/2013/06/img_ 3935. This is me signing out for a while. Lhope you enjoyed my transformation blogs! As always follow me on twitter @jimmydiv123 and il answer any questions you’ ve got. Perhaps the above is where you will next see me. yD Posted in Superior performance Leave a comment The Transformation — Expert help Posted on 10/06/2013 My goal on this journey to transform has been to do whatever it takes to get in physique competition condition. I thought I knew what this entailed and originally thought fuck it, I don’t need help I'l just figure it out myself. The rationale for this was twofold: 1. Lam cautious with money ~ so didn’t really want to part with the cash! 2, Surely my years of training experience is all that I'd need?! How arrogant, naive and misguided of me. No one knows it all and in fact the most successful and knowledgeable people I know are the ones who are consistently learning and investing in their knowledge base.So to quash my two concerns; 1. If you are cautious with money (not a bad thing) do really thorough due diligence, so that you know what you are getting represents value for money — for me this was engaging the services of Adam Stansbury (ht verfitness.co.uk/) via an online consultation (http://coverfitness.co.uk/store) I've know about Adam for years after watching his abs workouts on the active channel as an impressionable teen. Many years later | started following him on twitter and coincidentally at the same time he was also competing in the WBFFs. As if any more vindication of the decision was needed Adam had also just gone through the process himself! 2, Now [already had my training plans on lock (blog to come) and have no problem training balls to the wall every session, I knew my diet was healthy and kept me lean but had no idea what it took to get super lean physique competitor condition. So my main focus would be on diet and nutrition. All signs pointed to the fact I needed help! So I initially Skyped Adam and was so excited, slightly star struck and had to keep reminding myself the consultation was about me! I really liked his laid back approach whereby he just listened rather than talked. He took on board my specific questions and then proceeded to give me 30 minutes of the most invaluable advice The Invaluable Advice Due to my goal of achieving very low levels of body fat and a more extreme body composition, I needed to adopt a much higher level of accuracy with regards to my nutritional planning and therefore I would need to count calories. Adam did reiterate the fact that he only condones counting calories for show prep type conditions and more extreme body composition levels, because for the large majority who just want single digit body fat, it is not necessary and just creates anxiety and unneeded complications. I would need to create a calorific deficit - working this all out involves a bit of maths so I lapped it up. I'd probably read this all before but being stamped as legitimate by Adam rammed it home. I got off the call and was buzzing and so focused for my diet phase. I bought the scales, I downloaded the app and generally if I commit to something I give it my all. The follow up The plan was in place and during my transformation I followed it and the advice given to me by Adam to the letter. I attribute a huge part of my success in the transformation to his help. It is worth noting that I had a couple more online consults during the process to ensure I was still on track and whether anything needed to be tweaked. Thank you! A huge and personal thank you goes out to Adam and his business Cover Fitness http://coverfitness.co.uk/). I would whole-heartedly recommend his online coaching because it is his passion and it really comes across in his level of service provided. ‘This was the best investment I could have made to get closer toward my goals and represents incredible value for money.COVER FITNESS Summary *Don’t be afraid to shell out for expert help *Do thorough due diligence to ensure you are getting value for money Posted in The Transformation 1Comment The Transformation — My supplement regime Posted on 10/06/2013 Tused to be a sucker for supplements and have tried many with differing degrees of success. Now, I have a core few which I use almost every day. Most of these are scientifically backed, but more importantly I believe help me and sometimes the placebo affect elicited can be very powerful CAVEAT — no supplement will override a bad diet. Eating a balanced diet full of single ingredient foods is the best supplement one could ever take. Get your diet fixed and optimal before spending money on additional supplements because they need to be taken synergistically to reap the full rewards! 1. Whey protein - nothing fancy here, just a chocolate flavoured whey (Maximuscle Lean (http://www maxishop.com/maximuscle/lean-definition/promax-lean) - tastes like smarties). During my bulk I took one of these a day, always post workout which contained roughly 40g protein. Whilst dieting in the last 7 weeks, I took 1 or 2 a day in oder to hit my macros / calorie targets (one PWO / one at night). ‘Typical prices range from £13 - £30 per kg. For best affect blend with ice cubes, makes it like a milkshake! 2, Omega 3s — fish oils are a healthy fat and have been shown to improve cognition and overall health. I take 3-6 per day with meals at work from Bulk Powders (http://www bulkpowders.co.uk/omega-3-fish- oil-softgels html). Prices range from £4- £10 per 100g [note: differing brands have different quantities of EPH/DPH — more the better]. 3. Vitamin 43 — especially throughout the British winter I (and many others) will be deficient in Vit d (ack of sunlight) and therefore supplement with 5000iu per day. Prices vary, but they are relatively cheap, I get mine from Bulk Powders (http://www.bulkpowders.co.uk/vitamin-d3-tablets-5000iu html) 4, Carb powder (dextrose/maltodextrose) ~ I used MaxiRaw carb impact (http://www maxishop.com/maxiraw/carbohydrates/carbimpact) when bulking and would take 50-100, in my PWO shake to increase carbohydrate intake. This is when your body is primed for uptake of carbs. Carb powders are essentially sugars so make your PWO shake very sweet. Very cheap £3—5 per kg.5. Createpure - creatine has had an unfounded bad wrap in the mainstream media, whereas actually it's very beneficial for strength performance and also has been more recently found to have more wide reaching health impacts. Why Createpure over simple Creatine Monohydrate? Simple, I was advised to do so by Alex Ferentinos s://www. fi ok.com/nutritionand fitnessconsultant) who knows his stuff. I didn’t load but took 5g post workout in my shake, again from Bulk Powders (http://www bulkpowders.co.uk/shop-by-category/creatine-supplements/creapure-creatine- monohydratehim) 6.BCAAs - more controversial in terms of whether the scientific literature backs up the claims, but highly recommended and used by many elite athletes. I took MaxiRaw flavoured BCAAs (nitp://www_maxishop.com/maxiraw/amino-acids/primary-bcaa) intra workout (10-20g) and before fasted HITT sessions. This supplement is quite expensive and if I was on a budget I wouldn’t use. Look for flavoured varieties or pills because powder on its own is unpalatable. Prices range from £20 - £30 per 500g. 7. Magnesium — | live on a busy road, in central London, it’s very loud and so I need quality sleep. I feel this supplement really helps with that. I use a Better You spray (http://www, betteryou.uk.com/Magnesium-Oil-Goodnight- Spray) which I've found really helpful and their customer service is second to none. We've talked about this before and I caveated this post above, but supplements are just the icing on the cake in terms of nutrition. A large % of my results achieved through diet / nutrition are from eating a diet rich in nutrient dense, single ingredient foods: meats, vegetables and nuts/seeds. I spend £60pw on shopping which is definitely more than average but I love what I eat and it’s the cornerstone to the progress I have made / am making, Ireiterate once more, until you have a good diet based on whole foods don’t bother with the supplements. JD @immydiv123 Posted in The Transformation Leave a comment The Transformation — Nutritional strategies Posted on 10/06/2013 I've had some really good feedback about the transformation and lots of questions around diet! Hopefully the post below will answer the majority of the questions that I've had in much more detail. I think before I start though I have to caveat by saying that diet recommendations are very individualised and therefore what works well for me may not be best for you! So read and digest the below but the route to sustainable and healthy eating is by trial and error and seeing what works for you!I've spoken about what I eat for body composition before and itis largely a paleo type diet. I eat fairly low carb but will increase them when I feel necessary, my only strict rule is an avoidance of gluten because I am particularly sensitive to it (coeliac disease runs in my family and gluten gives me digestive issues). Through the transformation Lused a flexible form of carb cycling in the off season whereby I tried to keep protein / fats high and carbs low (c.100g) on non-training days and high protein / low fat and high carb (c.300g) on training days (4x pw). I actually found it quite difficult to ingest 300g of carb each day in whole food sources so would often use a carb powder (carb impact by MaxiRaw (http://www maxishop.com/maxiraw/carbohydrates/carbimpact)) post workout. This approach allowed me to remain lean (12-15% BF range) but also to add on some muscle. During my 4 month off season period I went from 76kg to 81kg (my heaviest weight ever)! Thad never done an extended period of higher carb / calories before and I enjoyed the additional food, greater flexibility in eating and the additional size. You do lose the shredded look but I knew to expect that and wasn’t that bothered. In my transformation blog (https: //amesdonaldavis wordpress,com/2013/06/04/the-transformation/) you can see my start position in January looking very fat and bloated! Did I care? No, because I was executing the plan. Deeper into the transformation As I got into March I started to gradually reduce carbs on training days according to training type so legs was 300g, torso - 200g, arms - 100g and rest days roughly 50g (majority of which were taken post workout). This had an almost immediate impact as you can see from the second photo and I felt I was in a good position to start the proper cut diet. Up to this point in time I had not been tracking calories or macros other than trying to eat 2-3g protein per kg BW every day and eating carbs as above. The cut begins 1%* April 2013 - After speaking with Adam Stansbury (see previous blog) about how to get down to single digit body fat we agreed on the following diet set up: 2,350 calories per day split roughly 15% carb, 50% protein and 35% fat. This represented quite a big drop in daily calorie intake and I lost weight (could be water?) quite quickly. We then decided to up calories to 2,500 with the additional calories coming from fats (olive oil and nuts) this was well received by me as I was getting increasingly hungry and losing weight quicker than anticipated. It was also at this point 4 weeks out that training volume stepped up and I started incorporating HITT on rest days. In these last 4 weeks although calories were kept the same, carbs were cycled like so; 50g on training days (4xpw), 90g on HITT days (2xpw) and 180g on rest days. Although up to this point I'd been taking my carbs after big workouts, having high carb day on my day off was not only motivating, but meant my muscles were refilled with glycogen before being smashed in the gym the next day (so I looked pumped).Again with this last tweak in training and diet the impacts were noticeable with body fat still dropping and veins starting to pop. Legs starting to define (a first) and abs finally coming through (a first) - see “early May” picture. The final week In the last week I trained whole body workouts in the gym, utilising lots of compound movements, high reps and short rest periods to deplete glycogen. 1 ate low (250g) carbs for 4 days and drank increased volumes of water. On the day of the final photo I had less water than usual (c.1L) and had more carbs throughout the day. This meant my muscles looked fuller and everything looked a lot more defined To summarise So to summarise my approaches: “off season - higher calories, higher carb on training days and low carb on rest days *before the cut — keeping calories high but tapering down carbs to lean up *cut— drop in calories of 10-20% below maintenance and low carb (15% of total macronutrient intake). What did I actually eat? This isn’t rocket science: Proteins — — roasted beef joints, steaks, mince and burgers CHICKEN — chicken breasts TURKEY - turkey breasts LAMB - lamb mince SALMON - steaks and smoked slices EG WHEY PROTEIN Carbs — ROOT VEG - sweet potatoes / white potatoes GRAINS ~ basmati rice / rice pudding / oats GREEN VEG - broccoli, spinach, green beans and peas FRUITS - bananas, apples and blueberriesFats — NUTS - almonds, cashew and walnuts (+ nut butters) LEGUMES - peanut butter DAIRY ~ ghee and butter OILS - olive oil, coconut oil and omega 3s Other- ANTIOXIDANTS -high % dark chocolate HOT BEVERAGES - teas (normal and green) and coffee HERBS / SPICI 'S- very hot dried chilli, mixed herbs (oregano) and Cajun spices, ‘To summarise on food choices; “eat single ingredient, density rich foods *eat a protein and green veg with every meal add a root veg / grain / fruit on higher carb day and preferably post workout *try and rotate food choices every day *dont be scared of fats, they are very good for you so incorporate the choices above *have whey protein after training Tlike to keep things simple as time is limited for me so would rotate the above as much as was possible. This prevented me from getting bored with the food but also allowed me to to prepare most of the food at the weekend after I had done a big shop (L.e.— marinade chicken, roast beef, cook veg etc etc). ‘Asan aside my breakfasts were always meat and nuts or eggs (never carbs as I feel lethargic). There you have it - good articles for how to set up a diet can be found here http://josephagu.com/2012/10/31/how-to-create-a-diet/), the above approach worked very well for me and it may do for you, but everyone is different so trial and error of what works for YOU is best, there is no one way, although by sticking to the few food choice summary rules above I don’t see how you can {go far wrong. JD @immydiv123 Posted in ‘The. ansformation Leave a comment The Transformation — Embracing technologyPosted on 10/06/2013 Throughout the transformation I utilised some really important “technology” which I want to share with you. NUTRITION TRACKING - electronic scales / myfitnesspal As boring as it may sound I love analysing numbers. Which is why it is perhaps surprising that I hadn't been measuring my food intake up to this point. It may be an excuse, but I initially thought that weighing out food and tracking it would turn me into a robot. Whilst not specifically dieting, I did a trial run and started to weight my food and it wasn’t an inconvenience for me in the slightest. I was already preparing my food in the evenings for the next day, so the only thing extra was actually buying the scales, measuring it and recording it. This is where the technology came into use: Step 1 —buy a digital scale for £5 Step 2 - download myfitnesspal app (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/) With this app it’s very easy to not include foods (especially if out) but you are only kidding yourself Using this app I was able to track all my foods so that I knew approximately what calories I was eating and my daily macronutrient splits (proteins, fats and carbs) Disclaimer: tracking calories does take patience / planning and should therefore only be utilised for optimal body composition. Other than that I wouldn’t bother. However I would really strongly recommend logging all your food and drink for 1 week only just to give you an insight as to what you are actually consuming at a calorie / macronutrient level - I think you will be surprised! WORKOUT TRACKING - IPhone notes Lused the notes religiously in my workouts to record weights / set / reps and rest. You can use old school paper and pen but I kept losing mine and not doing it. I’'ve written about this before but recording your workouts is so vital to ensure you are constantly improving either by adding more weight / reps or performing the same volumes quicker (less rest). FREE ONLINE RESOURCES - Twitter/Facebook There is so much good knowledge out there (as well as bad) and I've learnt a great deal from twitter. I hate #ff but here are some of my favourite users and why I like them. The amount of free advise these guys give out is phenomenal @UPFitness ~ Nick Mitchell, creator of 12 Week Body Plan (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mens-Fitness- Week-MagBook-Health/dp/1781060576)(the training framework I actually followed in the transformation) owner of successful PT business and giver of no nonsense advice all things gym related, when he speaks I listen. @PhilLearny — writes brilliant blogs (http://www. phillearney.com/), incredibly passionate about forcing society wide changes, very strong!@AlexFerentinos7 — nutritional specialist, answers thousands of tweets daily with clear and concise outputs. @lukehaslett - WBFF athlete, very successful in physique transformations and shares his experiences in an open and honest blog (http://physiqueconsultant.com/blog/) @Adam Stansbury - my “coach”, owner of Cover Fitness (http://coverfitness.co.uk/), recent WBFF contestant so following his journey helped me prep for mine. @KeeganSH - specialist S&C coach with great blogs and videos (http://keegansh.com/) - great for athletes in particular, also has cutting edge thoughts on nutrition, @JosephAgu - writes scientifically backed blogs (http://josephagu.com/blog/) denouncing a lot of “myths”. Obviously very intelligent and one to listen to. Conclusion There are thousands of apps out there, but often the simplistic ones do the best job. For me; myfitnesspal, iPhone notes and twitter were paramount to my success so I suggest you give them a try too! yD @immydiv123 Posted in The Transformation Leave a comment The Transformation Posted on 04/06/2013 Okay so here are the pictures that I am sure you've all been waiting for! Lwanted to be consistent throughout so made sure that photos were taken in the same place, under the same light in the same pants! None of the photos have been doctored by filters / photo shop and all results are due to precise planning, large amounts of determination / willpower and lots of hard work (not drugs) These results were achieved in a 5 month period and are probably a realistic gauge of how ones body composition can change in that period. Have patience, it’s takes time! I never lost motivation because I knew if I stuck to the plan results would follow. Picture 1 - January ‘This was taken after New Year's Eve (I did have back shots but deleted them when phone updated). Quite “puffy” looking and probably 12/13% BF (80kg).Picture 2-March Switched up my workouts to utilise more compound type movements and started more aggressively carb cycling, loss that watery look and started to lean up. Probably 10% BF (76kg).Picture 3 — Early May Started to get very lean at this point with all muscles prominently showing, still feeling good in the gym and lifting well. Probably 8/9% BE (75kg).Picture 4— Late May End of 7 weeks calorie controlled dieting, higher volume training & HITT workouts plus completed a 4 day carb depletion and refeed on the day of the photo for full affect. Back was very lean and legs / abs had veins coming through. Probably 7% BF (74kg).(hitps://jamesdonaldavis.files,wordpress,com/2013/06/img_4055.jpg) Conclusion, believe that these pictures speak for themselves and I am so happy with the final article! In hindsight I would have trained my abs a lot more because I think genetically they aren't as prominent as id like (opposed to my upper back!). For good measure below is my favourite picture taken in late May.(https://iamesdonal davis files. wordpress.com/2013/06/img_4040.ipg) Below is the 5 month comparison shot. The next blogs will go into more detail about the transformation!Posted in The Transformation 2 Comments OLDER POSTS Blog at WordPress.co1