BLOG

Peter Chown 31/01/2020 Peter Chown 31/01/2020

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

Peter Chown 03/10/2018 Peter Chown 03/10/2018

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

Peter Chown 20/09/2018 Peter Chown 20/09/2018

Team Natural Physiques New Champion. Dressage Rider Sofie Butchart!

Sofie Butchart, Dressage Champion.

For the last few months I have been training Sofie and also overlooking her nutrition. Since we started Sofie has won a PSG Small Tour qualifier and her first FEI Grand Prix!

This is just a quick blog to say well done Sofie from myself and Michelle! We’re very proud to have you on Team Natural Physique and heres to many more wins!

Peter & Michelle

Peter Chown 01/02/2018 Peter Chown 01/02/2018

OLD SCHOOL QUAD BLAST! - SISSY SQUATS

NOT FOR THE FAINT HEARTED

The Sissy Squat doesn't sound like a tough exercise does it? Ok, its not quite as tough as a back squat, but it is tough, do not let the name fool you. It's named after a Greek mythical king called Sisyphus who was made to push a big rock up a hill only for it to roll back down again for eternity, as punishment for being a not very nice person. He ended up with big legs funnily enough.

This exercise is a great quad exercise for men and women to add to your leg training, or if you train at home and haven't got much equipment, then this will hit the quads hard. It isolates your quads really well as the hamstrings and glutes are mostly eliminated from the exercise.

It's also a great exercise to superset with a compound leg exercise like the squat or leg press, this will have your quads on fire!

To add size, shape and awesomeness to your legs then this is it, demonstrated by my buddy, of Diversity fame, former client and now owner of his own PT business Bodybox, Terry Smith -

-Stand Upright, feet shoulder width apart.
-Lean back until your body forms a straight line your neck to knees, supporting yourself by holding on to a piece of equipment.
- You can use just bodyweight or when you are stronger then hold a weight place across your chest.
- Descend as far down as you can to work through the full range
-Drive back up through the quads to the starting position.

Give it a go and let me know how you get on!

Peter Chown

Peter Chown 26/01/2018 Peter Chown 26/01/2018

Age Is But A Number

I'm Too Old To Do That!

As we get older we do like to make excuses to not do things, I know, I've tried a few of them! But age is just a number, ok as we age we do get a few aches and pains, Im now 45 and I definitely have a few of them due to my intense training for my sport, but that shouldn't stop us from doing things. I hear many excuses about being too old to exercise, too old to eat healthy, too old for this, too old for that, but it really hasn't got to be like that.

Over 40 and think you've missed the boat?

Being over 40 doesn't mean it's too late to be the best you've ever been. It's a great time to start a healthy exercise routine and start eating healthy. Being over 40 isn't old

Over 50? Why not look better than you've ever been!

Take my client Karen here, she started exercising at 40, she has been training with me since 2007. She's now 55, an inspiration to anyone over 50, it goes to show with a healthy and fit outlook you can be just as active as you were in your younger days.

Peter Chown 10/02/2017 Peter Chown 10/02/2017

My Mindset! By Peter Chown

Mr Natural Universe? My life? What was the mindset that I had to achieve what I have achieved in natural bodybuilding? Hey, its no secret, it was just the way I lived my life! But none the less I am more than happy to share with you my 'secrets'.

I started competing as a natural bodybuilder in 1991 after 2 and a half years of training and over the years have won several Under 21 Junior titles including the Junior Mr Britain and Junior Mr Europe. Later on in my career my achievements extending to winning the INBF World Heavyweight tile in 2005 in NYC and a year later winning the heavyweight title and overall champion at the INBA Natural Mr Universe in Los Angeles, California where I earned my natural bodybuilding professional status. Plenty of moments I will remember for the rest of my life.

ANB SOUTH EAST AGE 23, WINNING THE HEAVYWEIGHT CLASS AND OVERALL IN 1996.

Getting yourself into the mindset to train for a bodybuilding competition can be hard! You know you have many weeks, or even months if you have more than one competition lined up, of hard dieting, hard training, 24 hour commitment, tiredness. What the hell made me want to do this?! Well, it is a sport I love and luckily for me its a sport that I was encouraged to compete in from early on in my training as I was actually good at it! I'm not very good at many things so this was my opportunity to excel in a sport. When I'm passionate about something my drive towards my goals is intense. Even before I started training I knew I wanted to be a bodybuilder, I wanted to win the Junior Mr Britain title, to be one of the best in the world.

One other thing that drove me as well was that I was scared of losing! I wanted to win, I wanted to feel special, I wanted to inspire others to build a body that they want, if I can do it then so can others. I was a very shy teenager, I worked in retail where you get many customers look down at you, I wanted to prove that with drive, determination, consistency that this shy teenager in a dead end job could work hard and become a World Heavyweight Champion, a Mr Universe, who could train in Golds Gym in Venice California and be recognised for the physique he built.

What else drove me to have this intense mindset? It was seeing how much the body can take in the gym, as I have always been lifetime natural I didn't have the option of drugs helping me build my physique. I didn't want to limit myself either with the mindset that as I was natural then I'm limited to only building a smaller physique, a physique that could only lift a limited amount of weight. My goal was to build a physique that wouldn't of looked out of place amongst 1980's style physiques, as to me this was one of the best eras of bodybuilding. If I told myself that I can't do this because I'm natural, I can't do that because I'm natural then I would limit myself to what I could achieve. I was a bodybuilder, thats it. I trained harder than anyone else, I was known for crazy intense training sessions, especially leg workouts. I got the respect of high ranking non natural competitive bodybuilders. It's amazing how much punishment the human body can take. I'm not saying this is the way for everyone to train as everyones goals are different, but this was my mindset, every workout was a challenge, I trained intelligently, but like a nutter too!

A massive tool that helped me too was visualisation. I'll cover this inmate depth in a separate blog another time. In my mind I had what I wanted my body to look like. Every workout I trained my body, I could 'see' the fibres contracting, the muscle growing. My body just had grow into what was in my mind. Every time I ate a meal, every gram of protein was building my body, every step of cardio pre contest was turning my body into a fat burning furnace. Visualisation really works!

One other thing that is really important, and something I learned later in my competitive career is a balance in life. Even though I was very intense with it all I learnt to switch off as well. Pre contest I still made time for others in my life, not early in my career, but the last few years I did. In the early years I thought everyone should understand what I was going through. I didn't make much time for others pre contest. It was when an ex of mine competed I found it really hard to be the partner who wasn't competing, not going out, the arguments. This was coming from someone like me who had competed several times! I thought if I found it hard then what must people think who aren't into the sport who's other half is competing, it must be hell! From then on when I competed I always made time to do things with my other half, no matter how tired I was, my cool bag can come with me and we can have days out. It helped and I then had more of a balance, certainly not perfect, I did have competitions coming up but I made the effort. Now when competitors tell me their husbands or wives don't understand, its causing problems in their relationship, I can help. Competing certainly isn't worth losing a great relationship over and no-one forces us to go through this, we can stop at anytime.

This sport isn't for everyone, I've seen many people diet for a show and they've suffered badly mentally, they just haven't got the right mindset, they're almost losing their mind, they get angry with everyone, ranting, its really not worth it. Competing should be fun, seriously hard, but fun seeing the changes your body can make with hard work. If its not fun then take another sport or activity up, life too short!

Anyway, I waffled on enough I think but I'll cover more on mindset, visualisation etc. in the future. If you have anything you'd like me to cover then just let me know!