A couple of things... Try regressing the weight down firstly, to something you can handle and perform with perfect form. Next, keep going all out with that weight and push out as many reps as you can whilst maintaining that form.

Other factors for a plateau or form slip when increasing the weight could be due to a simple thing like imbalances and/or tightness in certain areas. The best way to fix this is to find out what the root cause of this is and working on corrective exercises and/or a good stretch routine aimed at fixing it!

Always remember that it's not always about the weight, because your muscles don't know what the numbers on your plates! So focus less on that and more on perfect execution. 

Good luck!

Hybrid Training Systems 

What's up Hybrid followers!?

Thought I'd write a short little thing on Fish Oil supplementation.

Did you know that not all Fish Oil brands are the same? Far from it. For the longest time, I myself was under the impression that one brand of Fish Oil that says 1000mg is the same as another brand's 1000mg.

Wrong!

What's actually more important then that 1000mg (which in most cases is artificially inflated with garbage fillers etc), is the EPA and DHA content per capsule/serve.

Personally I would recommend a healthy adult who does weight training to take 2g of EPA and 1.5g of DHA.

In order to get these numbers, you may have to take up to 10 or more tablets with some of the lower quality brands! So watch out and make sure you know whats really in that 1000mg! Otherwise you may be taking the Omega-3 Marine Triglycerides WAY overboard in an effort to get the EPA and DHA levels up. The key is finding a brand that has a good ratio of all of those.

Hope everyone's having an awesome day!

Is weighing yourself every day or every week a good idea? Does it really matter?

The topic of 'scale weight' vs appearance in the mirror or measurements has been visited many times. Relax, I'm not going to bore you with the same old 'muscle weight takes place of fat' eg. scale weight is irrelevant etc. So, here's my humble take on the subject.

The weight that's showing on the scale largely doesn't matter too much in the short term. What's more important is what your current nutrition plan is because that's what's really going to affect your numbers and body composition in the long term. Little things like water weight and that chocolate cake (or the whole bar lol) you *may* have consumed yesterday, may skew short term figures a little bit, but all in all, in the long run it doesn't matter too much unless you consistently mess up your macro's of course!

So what does all this shit mean exactly?!

I'm getting to it, don't worry :-)

I have basically simplified the nutritional side of things to 3 easy-to-understand main categories, depending on your goal. With 2 of these, scale weight *should* change, if all else is constant and you are following your nutritional plan properly.

Firstly, I'm going to talk about a 'Body-Recomposition' plan. This is basically what you think it is. Which is 'shifting the ratio' of fat:muscle, in favor of muscle, with your body-weight remaining constant. Choosing this plan means you are happy with your scale weight but would like to drop 'X' amount of body-fat and replace it with 'X' amount of that clean sexy lean-muscle mass! Cool!

What about the other 2? Now for these 2, your 'scale-weight' would most likely change. 

One being a 'lean bulk' plan. Not to be confused with the standard term known as 'bulking'. Quite the difference in fact. This plan involves packing on a high amount of lean-muscle, with very minimal (if at all) body-fat. I do understand that this may not make sense to everyone. This is largely because of the state of the fitness industry and how they have the general population believing in statements that are not backed by any conclusive research. This however is a topic we shall revisit at another time.

Last but not least is the fat-loss plan. This plan is generally recommended to men roughly over the 15% mark and women over the 22 - 25% mark. It is designed to focus primarily on shedding fat whilst maintaining existing lean-muscle mass. However, the only drawback is that the potential amount of new lean muscle mass that one can gain from this plan is not as high as a body-recomp or lean bulk plan. If you are on a deadline, and need to strip fat as fast as possible, whilst retaining lean-muscle mass, this is the plan to go for. Don't get me wrong though, you WILL still build quality lean muscle with this plan, that's for sure :-)

Hope this clarifies a few things and explains my take on the whole 'scale-weight' topic.

So what exactly do you do with salt/sodium and should you control it, with regards to water retention?

With salt, I'd recommend simply not doing anything about it. By this, I mean don't attempt to reduce it and vise versa don't try to increase it either.

What causes water retention is shifts in sodium intake, rather then the specific intake itself.

Example being, if you went higher on your average sodium intake then usual, you can expect to have some water retention. If you did the opposite and dropped sodium intake a little more than your usual intake, you may lose a little water weight. However, this is largely short term, and your body will eventually 'adapt' to this new level and make adjustments to balance it accordingly. This relates back to aldosterone, vasopressin as well as other hormones that affect water retention.

A standard 2-week bodybuilding comp-prep suggest gradually reducing sodium until you are left with minimal to 0 in your daily intake leading up to the comp. This is largely completely inefficient, as you can achieve exactly the same (or better) results within a time-frame of a few days when done right. No guesswork involved, just science as usual.

Want to maximize your results at the gym? 

Isolation work does have it's place. But the simple fact is that the vast majority of people who do isolation work are the ones who should be staying as far away from them as possible. 

What do I mean by this? I mean the guy that spends 30mins doing curls 3 x a week, when he can't do 8 proper pull-ups, let alone any weighted ones.

Spend more time focusing on the big 4 and you'll reap the benefits! I guarantee it! 

Squats, Deadlifts, Bench, Pullups! Smash them!

Ever heard the saying, 'quantity doesn't always equal quality'?

This statement is 100% true, in the sense that it is highly efficient and more productive when you do a reduced number of sets per workout, but focus on maximum intensity and focus on these sets.

What do I mean by this? I used to do dozens of sets for a chest workout. These days, I do about 6 - 9 focused set's in total, with longer rest periods. This allows me to get a full recovery (given the circumstances), and perform much more focused and concentrated sets with maximum effort. Not forgetting the added benefits of having more rest days in your week then the norm. Allowing you to attain full recovery between workouts and maximizing efficiency on your next workout. So, what exactly does this mean? More lean muscle development, of course! 

When training fasted your body releases natural adrenaline and nor-adrenaline, as well as utilizing glycogen from reserves in your muscles. I strongly believe in limiting glycogen expenditure during training, hence why I always keep my sets low and focus on fundamental exercises that generate maximum results. This is basically what 'carb-back loading' does, and why glycogen stores will remain adequate, which allow for maximum strength in your workouts, as long as nutrition is in check.

In the past year I've made more progress in terms of strength, lean muscle mass development and also drastically reducing bodyfat levels (and keeping them low all year round), more than ever before.

Sometimes... less is more!