HARRY LEATHERS TRANSFORMATION UPDATE!

Harry Leathers Natural Physique Transformation.

This is just a quick update on Harry and his body transformation. Even with the Cover-19 lockdown Harry has still been working hard at transforming his body. He has a few weights at home and has been training five times a week and keeping to his healthy eating plan.

Every week he has been sending me updates with regards to his training, eating and weight. Well his last weigh in he weighed in at 15st 9lbs! This is from a starting weight of 21st 2lbs. He has been incredible and although we are still working on fat loss we are now upping his calories slightly as his weight has started to drop off even faster. Harry is very happy with that!

Keeping Fit And Healthy During Covid-19.

HOME TRAINING WITH NO GYM EQUIPMENT!

Here is a home set up of my clients that they are using while on lockdown. But what if you haven’t even the basics?

With gyms being shut during the pandemic it is important to keep on top of our health and fitness. If, like me, you are very gym based with your own training then it’s time to change your mindset to mixing up your training as we will have none to very little gym equipment at home. I have virtually none myself part from a physio band which offers very little resistance!

So our training will have to be very much circuit based using our bodyweight and what we have around the house. A few examples are bent over rows using a sports bag that you can fill with heavy books, I myself use a portable oil filled radiator! As the weight isn’t what we are used to then slow down the reps really going for the contraction at the top of the movement working on that mind to muscle connection. The same bag can be used for squats, holding the bag on your chest.

Here is an example workout I am using with a client at the moment -

First a simple ab circuit -

Each exercise to be performed for 45 seconds with 20 seconds rest in between exercises. After a circuit have 1 minute rest then repeat the ab circuit. I use the GymBoss app on my phone for a timer so you can set it so it bleeps at the start of the exercise and finish.

AB CIRCUIT

Plank - 45secs

20 seconds rest

Russian Twist - 45 seconds

20 seconds rest

Crunches - 45 seconds

1 minute rest and then repeat for a total of 3-4 circuits.

WHOLE BODY CIRCUIT - 45 seconds on, 25 seconds rest. 1 minute between circuits.

Squats holding a sports bag by the chest or use a kettlebell if you have one.

Press Ups

Alternate Lunge

Bent Over Sports Bag Row

Glute Bridge with the sports bag on your lap

Single Arm Lateral Raise using a backpack with a couple of books in.

This is a nice simple whole body workout that we can all do at home even with a tiny bit of space.

If you have a garden you can use it for sprint intervals or walking lunges to the end and back.

Also take this time to learn some yoga, working on your flexibility. I’m no expert on yoga at all but YouTube has some great yoga channels. Two channels that I use are Boho Beautiful (the backdrops are nice and relaxing!) and also Yoga With Adriene. There are plenty of others of course.

While we are at home keep on top of your nutrition, don’t use it as an excuse to eat crap. Reduce calories slightly and keep food healthy and nutritious to support your immune system.

Most important, stay safe, stay indoors and listen to the rules we are given, they are there for a reason!

Peter

HARRY LEATHERS WEIGHT LOSS TRANSFORMATION UPDATE 15 WEEKS IN!

Harry Leathers Body Transformation Update

Harrys amazing and continuing weight loss journey.

Harry is now well into his transformation (see previous Harry blog ). There was a little pause in progress over the holiday period due to Christmas, New Year and his 19th birthday but I can forgive him for that as this transformation isn’t about being brutal with diet and training, it’s about a healthy lifestyle change. His progress has been amazing though!

He is 38lbs/17.3kg down in weight and his waist is down 8 inches/20.3 cm and he is feeling good! He has needed to buy some new clothes as his work trousers and shirts are starting to be slightly baggy! He is still feeling good though, he says his energy levels are a lot higher now, feels a lot fitter and loves that people are noticing his changes. I’m really proud of Harry and am really looking forward to continuing his journey with him at Muscle Limit Gym.

Harry training hard at Muscle Limit Gym!

Want a summer body? It's best to start now!

I quite often receive messages from people that have a goal to get that summer beach body so they can feel confident in their swimming costume . Quite often too I am contacted about a month before the planned holiday or in some cases less time than that. This is nowhere near enough time to transform and drastic weight loss diets are definitely not recommended.

When is the best time to start? The best time is now! A sensible nutrition and exercise plan will result in a gradual and healthy weight loss, dropping bodyfat to show off that new confident you. With a gradual weight loss and a sensible progressive exercise plan that new body, that new confidence will stay with you rather than a rapid post drastic diet weight gain.

The summer will come around really quick so lets do it :-).

Peter

HARRY LEATHERS TRANSFORMATION PROGRESS 5 WEEKS IN!

Big Changes After Only 5 Weeks!

18 year old Harry Leathers came to me to help him with his fat loss and bodybuilding goals. I’ve known Harry for a while now and he is super passionate about bodybuilding, especially more the old school so I knew he would do well.

Only 5 weeks into his training at Muscle Limit Gym Harry has made some amazing progress! I wouldn’t normally post progress pictures quite this early but i’m so chuffed at how well Harry has done I couldn’t resist. Harry is using resistance training 4 days per week using an upper body/lower body split and is combining the weights with cycling. Harry would commute to work by train but has swapped the train for his bike and now rides to work as much as possible. This has really helped him drop the lbs but also gain plenty of pounds in his pocket as commuting to work on his bike saves him £400 a month! Who said keeping fit costs a lot of money?

We still have a way to go but I have 100% faith in Harry as he is a hard worker and has that passion to succeed.

THE BENEFITS OF RESISTENCE TRAINING FOR OVER 40'S

OVER 40 AND NOT LIFTING WEIGHTS?

Being 47 myself I tend to talk to a lot of people over 40 about exercise. A trend I see is how many over 40’s stop or don’t perform resistance training. The reasons being '‘I don’t want to build muscle as i’m too old now'‘, ‘‘I just do cardio as I just want to burn fat these days’’ amongst many other reasons.

Are these people right? Of course they’re not and lets see the reasons why these women and men are making a big mistake leaving resistance training out of their exercise routines.

AGE RELATED LOSS OF MUSCLE AND STRENGTH

As we start to plough through our forties we can lose approximately 1 to 2 % of muscle mass every year and this can speed up as we get older, this is called sarcopenia. It doesn’t have to be like that! Remember that saying if you don’t use it you lose it? Well if you are pretty inactive you will lose muscle mass.

What is the solution? Resistance training of course! An increase in your muscle mass will help build your metabolic rate too, resulting in a leaner body. Muscle is metabolically active so more calories are used throughout the day. Two to three resistance workouts a week will not only maintain muscle mass it will increase it. You can build an awesome body in your forties, fifties and beyond! It’s not too late even if you have never trained before.

BONE DENSITY DECREASES AS WE AGE INCREASING THE RISK OF OSTEOPOROSIS

As we age our bone density decreases and we have a higher risk of osteoporosis. This can result in fractures as we start to get into old age. We all hear of ageing family members having a fall and fracturing a hip etc. It’s more common in women but still affects a large percentage of men too. Guess what? Yep, resistance training can slow down bone loss and in some cases increase the strength of your bones! Two to three weight sessions a week and you’ll have bones as strong a s steel..well a lot stronger than before anyway. Take a look at my client Karen, in her 50’s she has been training with weights for a few years now and she is fit, healthy and strong!

IMPROVED BODY IMAGE

As we age we tend to suffer from the middle age spread. We are less active, we eat and drink more and we put on weight. We can start to feel bad about ourselves because we don’t look like how we used to when we were younger, our confidence goes so we eat some more and drink some more for comfort. It doesn’t have to be like that at all! What can help? Weight training again! You can do all the cardio you want it won’t change the shape of your body at all apart from becoming a smaller version of what you was before. That isn’t knocking cardio at all as it is important but weight training sessions will change the shape of your body by adding muscle in the right places. A great strength training plan with a great nutrition plan can dramatically improve your body and how you see yourself, improving mental health.

My client Dave Ridgewell part way through his transformation. He’s 56 years young.

INCREASED MOBILITY AND FUNCTIONALITY

As we age we do tend to ‘seize up’. Resistance training will increase the mobility in your joints making you much more functional in your day to day life.

So what are you waiting for all you over 40’s, get to the gym and start training! If you haven’t got the confidence to go to the gym on your own then please get in touch and enquire about personal training!

Peter

ARE YOU A HARDGAINER AND CAN'T PUT ON WEIGHT?

How To Gain Weight The Natural Physique Way.

Quite often I have someone email me or come up to me in the gym and ask how they can put on weight as they find it impossible. After they tell me they eat a ton of food I ask them to tell me a typical days nutrition. 9 times out of 10 I find they are eating way too little. A sandwich, packet of crisps and a Milky Way won’t go far when you have the metabolic rate of a Bugatti Chiron!

Winning the Junior Mr Europe at 20 years old in Holland 1992.

When I was a teenager just starting training I didn’t realise the importance of nutrition and getting in enough calories. My nutrition was based around cornflakes, jam sandwiches and whatever my mum cooked for dinner! It’s just food, it stops you being hungry I thought. Well, after a long chat with the owner of the gym I trained at, who was an IFBB Professional bodybuilder, he convinced me of the importance of food. It’s worth a try this food lark, lets up my food intake and see what happens!

Well, he wasn't wrong! After thinking what the hell can food do, I had a complete turn around of thinking. I grew like a weed, a couple of stone on in just a few weeks. There’s something in this eating game! The muscle went on, I got so much stronger and not long after training I had plenty of compliments from gym members about my gains, that does wonders for an extremely shy 16 year old!

The day before I won the ANB South East Junior Championships at 19 years of age 1992.

My jam sandwiches and cornflakes made way for eggs, steak, milk and weight gain protein drinks. Increasing your calorific intake is like training with weights, you have to build the calories up over time and be very disciplined. Over time my daily food intake was 26-30 whole eggs, 2lbs of steak (I had a friendly butcher who helped me out) 6 pints of milk and plenty of chicken! It is a lot of food and sometimes I had trouble eating it all but I wanted to gain size and naturally so bad.

So if you want to gain weight and muscle and you are not putting on weight then seriously think about the amount of food you eat. If the weight isn’t going on then your calories are too low. Increase your calories say by 500 calories a day, after a week if no weight has gone on then add another 500 calories until the weight starts to increase. It really is as easy as adding calories! Pick good calorie dense foods, combine with a good training program and see things happen. If weight still isn’t going on then keep raising your food intake. I never said it will be easy!

Here’s an example of my nutrition as a junior natural champion in the off season. I’m not saying follow it to the letter but rather what I had to do personally to gain weight/muscle without putting on too much fat -

Breakfast

12 whole egg omelette or boiled eggs

1 very large bowl of oats made with full fat milk or cereal like bran flakes

1 pint of milk

Mid Morning

Weight Gain drink made with whole milk

3 bananas

Lunch

1 lb of fillet/sirloin steak

2-3 jacket potatoes with cheese

Plenty of veg

1 pint of milk

Mid Afternoon

Weight Gain drink made with whole milk

3 bananas or pack of rice cakes

Dinner

1lb of minced steak

2-3 potatoes or big serving of rice

Plenty of veg

Big bowl of ice cream

Before Bed

12 whole egg omelette or boiled eggs

1 very large bowl of oats made with full fat milk or cereal like bran flakes

1 pint of milk

If you need someone to guide you through this and want continued support have a think about my online coaching and I can be there every step of the way.

Thanks for listening!

Peter Chown

STARTING A NEW SPORT AT AGE 46, BMX RACING!

Since I stopped competing in Natural Bodybuilding I have always missed competition. As time went on, as-well as my age, I started to think it may be too late as any sport I enjoyed, athletics for example, wouldn’t really be possible due to knee and shoulder problems. I didn’t really want to believe that though, there must be a sport that I can compete in and be competitive!

Myself at Rom Skatepark 2017

I looked into various sports but I didn’t have any passion for them, when I have that passion for something then I know I will give it my all, 100%, no less. I had already got back into BMX riding 3 years ago, a sport I have always loved since the early 1980’s, even when bodybuilding I still followed the sport, although not riding much myself. I started riding skateparks and ramps again and i’ve loved every minute of it! The feeling of being on my bike is a feeling that I crave. The best thing though is that there’s a massive over 40’s riding scene. Freestyle BMX isn’t something that I’m amazingly good at though, but it’s something that I love immensely. An added bonus is the fitness side, it’s pretty much like interval training, you ride for a couple of minutes, have a short rest, then go again. But I needed that competition still….

Ever since I discovered BMX back in 1982 I have loved watching and reading about BMX racing. It’s fast, exciting and spectacular to watch. I was always too shy to start racing when I was younger as I didn’t know anyone that raced, everyone was into the freestyle side of things, which was fine and that’s what I done, spending most of my days riding over the very famous Rom skatepark in Essex. Fast forward many years to the present day and here I am, a big boy that can now do things on his own!

Late last year I bought a BMX race bike, a stunning piece of kit that I couldn’t wait to use. I contacted my nearest race club and they said they would put me on the mailing list to inform me of the training times. Well, I booked myself onto the INTRO TO BMX that everyone has to do. I was told there was a few over 40’s that race at the club so I would’t be the only one. I turned up and to be honest I was a bit nervous, not because of the riding but because I would’t know anyone! Well I needn’t have worried as everyone was really friendly and the first guy I spoke to was 50 years old, so I felt ok!

Well, the intro bit took all of 2 minutes as they could see that I could ride ok so I was straight into the training session. I had no idea what to expect! After a couple of laps to warm up and a few jumping jacks we had a short ‘core’ session, planks etc and then onto walking lunges and bodyweight squats, I now know how my clients feel when I train them!

What followed was some sprints on the bike, some starting gate practice and skill lessons on manualling (basically a wheelie without pedalling) over some jumps and some crash training. I loved it! Feedback was good as I was told that they would of never thought I’d never raced before so that really boosted my confidence and one of the guys there thought I was hiding something as I could ride my bike well lol. They are a really good crowd.

So after the training session I drove home with a big smile on my face knowing I had made the right decision, starting a sport that I know that i’m really going to enjoy. It’ll take time building my fitness and skills but I can’t wait for my first race!

My bike after just getting home form my first ever BMX racing training session.

I will continue a blog on here too as I know there are a few over 40 people that look at this site thinking that maybe the time has past to follow their passions. Well, it is never too late to follow a passion or to have fun! With some good training and healthy eating you can do whatever you want! Go on, go for it….

Peter Chown

FITNESS TRAINING FOR THE EQUINE WORLD

'Should I Fitness Train For Equine Sports?’

I have been Personally Training rising Dressage star Sofie Butchart for a few months now and she has really benefitted from the extra fitness, strength and overall well being that results from the training. She is winning competitions and is more determined than ever.

I know my bodybuilding career is ever so slightly different from equine sports but the drive and mental focus needed to win transfers over to all sports! We work on visualisation techniques and a winning attitude as well as the fitness etc.

I’ll hand over to Sofie and she can tell you in her own words how she transformed herself to rise in the world of Dressage. I did not ask her to write anything for me, this was done off her own back!

‘ Within the equine world it is hard to find the time to be healthy and look after your body correctly. Although in order to perform our best to contribute to our equines overall performance, we should look after ourselves like we do our horses!

Previously I literally lived on fast food, carbs and anything with sugar in to give me a boost of energy on a busy day. I had an extremely inconsistent diet with massive gaps between meals, then times of binge eating. I managed although my concentration levels, energy levels and my overall health were pretty awful! I was ill a lot, I would get injured very easily and feel run down the majority of the time.

I knew things had to change to not only become a better rider but also a fitter and healthier person! That’s when I met Peter Chown, former Natural Mr Universe and Heavyweight World bodybuilding champion who is also a well respected personal trainer and nutritional advisor.

With Peters help and guidance I have transformed from being McDonalds favourite customer to now managing to consistently eat the right foods to fuel my body and being healthy. I also train at the gym with Peter 3 to 4 times a week and under his watchful eye I am stronger and fitter and also i’m loving seeing the visual changes. I feel great!

During my training sessions with Peter we do some cardio but mostly weight training to help strengthen my whole body for my riding. We have recently progressed to training lower body and upper body both twice a week. I have felt a huge difference within my riding performance as well as feeling so much better in myself.

Beforehand I had ‘strength’ in my riding muscles but I was extremely weak in other areas making me prone to injuries, form hernias to having major surgery on my shoulders due to reoccurring dislocations.

Peter is always on the end of the phone for me whenever I have any questions regarding my nutrition plan and training.

Originally I thought eating healthy was just salad and boring foods, it isn’t, I now really enjoy my meals A LOT!! I cant lie, when I first started my nutrition plan I felt awful, my body wasn’t used to healthy food, I craved Dominos pizza so much! But I stuck to it and now I look back at how I used to eat and it makes me feel sick! I wouldn’t feed my horses an inconsistent and unbalanced diet and expect them to perform at their best, although I was doing it to myself.

I also have acupuncture and visit an osteopath every 2-3 weeks to keep any twinges at bay and help my bodys energy and my mind. My horses are very sensitive and their performance changes drastically if I am not ‘on form’ so it’s important for their sake I keep myself in the best shape I can mentally and physically.

I hope this has given you and idea to my personal training structure, how I look after myself in order to perform at my best and also how anyone can turn their lifestyle around with guidance and support, not just in the equine world but anyone! ‘

Michelle Bossing MS!

Natural Physique member Michelle this past weekend attended a paralympic trial for the British paracycling team. Michelle was picked due to her success in an earlier trial. She was diagnosed with MS (multiple sclerosis) 6 years ago and after getting over the initial shock she fought back.

Her big goal was to make the paralympic cycling team due to being a keen cyclist. We worked hard together on resistance training, bike work and also her nutrition and supplementation while listening closely to her body due to her body not recovering the same as someone without a condition.

The big weekend came and she worked hard at the trial but unfortunately she couldn’t be classified. The reason being, in the assessors own words, ‘you are too strong, too fit and have rehabbed yourself so well that we can’t classify you!’ . We were gutted in a way at first as it seemed the dream was over and we done “too well” but the most important thing is health. MS is very unpredictable, you never know what is around the corner. But with exercise, good nutrition and a very positive attitude it can be fought and held back.

So, whatever your goal, whether you have a condition, disability or are as healthy as can be, just go for it. Don’t let the dream go.

So congratulations to Michelle for working hard and getting that trial in the first place and Bossing MS! The dream isn’t over.

Peter