USN and The Pure Package Sponsor The Foundry’s Heavy Weekend

June 21, 2011 By

Bootcamp

The Foundry is delighted to announce that USN, one of the leading global supplements companies, is the official supplements sponsor of our Heavy Weekend in Oxfordshire on Saturday 13 & Sunday 14 August 2011.  They will be supporting the concept of offering elite sports conditioning to the general population by providing free protein shakes and bars for all participants.

Also, The Pure Package, the London based gourmet diet food delivery company, as used by celebrities and athletes such as Hugh Jackman, Zinzan Brooke, Denise Van Outen. Lily Cole and Linford Christie, are our official “Pit Stop” Sponsor.  They have kindly offered to provide free healthy snacks for all our attendees.

We have sponsorship spots still available for a lunch sponsor and transport sponsor for this weekend so please contact us at dave@foundryfit.com if you would like to get involved or know more.

Finally, we will be announcing our exciting national media partners shortly so watch this space!!

To find out more about The Foundry’s Heavy Weekend, please see our recent blog post, contact Dave at dave@foundryfit.com or book online at http://foundryheavyweekend.eventbrite.com

Filed Under: Blog, Fitness, Performance, Rugby, Sport, Strength training Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Eat Clean, Lift Heavy, Get Bigger

May 17, 2011 By

There is significant over complication about the best way to train, eat and supplement to build muscle.

We sometimes forget that the basic principles for getting bigger and stronger have remained the same for centuries. Eat clean, lift progressively heavier weights, rest and recover and be consistent about your training.  The problem with this advice is it doesn’t sell many e-books or pills.

Below is a client of Dave Thomas, Personal Trainer.  In 6 weeks our mystery man has added 4kg of lean mass (and reduced his body fat by 2%).  The initial fortnight focussed on improving technique and addressing a few imbalances.  For the last month we have followed a well known introductory strength training programme which focusses on the primary compound lifts: the Deadlift, Back Squat, Overhead Press and Bench Press.  We have added one supplement to this (a whey protein based product we sell at The Training Shop so I won’t plug it) and he has followed a diet of quality meats and fish and lots of vegetables.  Nothing else.

Dave Thomas Personal Trainer

Eat Clean, Lift Heavy, Get Results

Whilst this programme wouldn’t be appropriate for everyone (this client had near perfect squat form on his assessment which is a rarity) it does bring home the message once again that sometimes the old ways are the best.  As trainers we must be careful not to overcomplicate our programming or equipment choices to justify our role.  Our job is demystifying the world of strength training and coaching people how to perform safe effective exercises. The results are usually far more impressive and the clients far happier:

I really am indebted to you Dave, but at the same time proud that I’ve stuck so rigidly to the program and healthy diet.

V.S – One satisfied customer

The following quote is borrowed from Zack Cahill; one of the Directors of Aegis Training and the founding member of the popular movement that is Gunday along with Graeme Marsh, Paul Stevenson, (an excellent trainer at Soho Gyms) and myself.  It’s a point well worth making:

Remember, old time strongmen and bodybuilders never had “programs”, the routines they followed didn’t have names or celebrity endorsements, they just performed a small selection of effective exercises with consistency and intensity in a progressive manner, slowly adding weight or reps week after week, and recovering through rest and adequate nutrition. That right there is the unsexy “secret” to gaining muscle and strength.

We’ll be checking in with V.S. (as long as he’s not too busy fighting crime) again at the 12 weeks stage but today’s homework is to go pick something heavy up and put it back down a few times. Then eat some protein.

 

Filed Under: Blog, Fitness, Health, Nutrition, Performance, Strength training, Testimonials, Transformations Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Tyrone London Auditions for Mr March

March 1, 2011 By

Foundry Personal TrainingFor a 1st of March treat we thought we’d give you a brief snapshot into the training regime and 2011 transformation of one of our excellent personal trainers, Tyrone London.

Standing over 6 foot, weighing nearly 100kg at 8% body fat, Tyone is well known in The City of London as a top notch personal trainer who not only gets great results with his clients but walks the walk when it comes to his own training and diet.

These photos from a recent fitness photoshoot by the photographer Phil Young demonstrate what great shape he’s in; so Ty wanted to share some inside knowledge into what works for him and some of his clients.

Personal Training LondonTyrone spent the last part of 2010 reducing his body fat so that this year he could focus on adding lean mass and getting even stronger.

In January he was 92kg and we’ve just weighed him at 99.4kg. 7.5kg in 2 months – not too shabby!

So, for those wondering what it takes to get strong and lean, firstly make sure the words determination and committment are in your vocabulary:

Tyrone’s Split routine:

5 day German Volume Training cycles split into chest/back, arms/shoulders, quads and hamstrings with additional calves exercises twice a week.

For the uninitiated, beginner GVT cycles involve a huge amount of volume (10 sets of 10 reps), slow tempo and only one main exercise per bodypart. Hard work yes, but a very effective way to add mass quickly due to the extraordinary stress on the targetted muscle fibres.

Tyrone’s nutritional tips for adding lean mass includes:

Lean cuts of Turkey, Chicken and 8 Eggs for breakfast.

Good carbs post workout (for those who can handle them) in the shape of  brown rice

Add forest sized amounts of greens with every meal.

He supplements with Pro Greens, Whey Better and Omega First from our own range here at The Training Shop, the City of London’s first and only specialist health and fitness shop.

If you want to ask Tyrone a question about your own training  or are interested in personal training with an excellent conditioner who will never give you a programme he hasn’t done himself you can email him at tyrone@foundryfit.com

Filed Under: Blog, Fitness, Nutrition, Performance, Strength training, Transformations Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

All Change at The Foundry

February 4, 2011 By

It’s been a busy first month of 2011 here at The Foundry so apologies for the lack of update.

The first big announcement is about the restructuring of our, and your, beloved business.  We are excited to announce that we have joined forces with Graeme Marsh, internationally renowned trainer and successful businessman, to found Foundry Studios Ltd.

This collaboration means our business portfolio now includes, The Foundry Personal Training Studios, The Training Shop, London Trainer Network,  DHG Corporate Outreach and our soon to be unveiled, unique bootcamp offering.  It also means Helen now has her own company credit card which could be dangerous.

Our new board of directors are:

Helen Thomas: Director of Retail
Graeme Marsh: Director of Business Development
Dave Thomas: Director of Performance

This restructuring and recent capital investment means we’ll be able to offer the same excellent services with even more professionalism. If you have any questions please contact info@foundryfit.com

Physiotherapy LondonCOMPETITIONS
Congrats to everyone who entered our recent ‘Name the Skeleton Competition on Facebook, The winners, chosen by Nell Mead our physio are: (in reverse order)

3…Roger Evans with Cool Hand Luke
2…Radley O’Sullivan with Dr Bones
1…Jim Crick with Starvin Marvin

Thanks to all 25 entries; it was a lot  of fun. The three winners get 30min  with Nell and Jim also wins a 25% discount voucher to spend in The Training Shop. Everyone who entered will receive a voucher for £40 off a Ki-Fit Lifestyle Monitor with 12 month subscription and 10% discount off any Training Shop supplement.
And if you missed out, don’t worry, we’ll be holding competitions regularly on Facebook.

Fitness PresenterCORPORATE TALKS & HEALTH PROGRAMMES

We’ve recently given health and fitness presentations at Businesses across London.

Our clients this year have included Whistles, Weil Gotshal Manges,  RBS, UBS and Innocent Drinks later this month.

Here are some examples of popular talks which might interest you and your colleagues: “Building the Executive Athlete”,“Why Stress is making you Fat, Miserable and Sick and what you can do about it” and “Facts and Fallacies of Diet and Exercise”

Speakers are available from within the company and across the world of professional sport, medicine and fitness.

We also offer a variety of bespoke Corporate Health programmes such as for the excellent progressive company First Conferences who we’ll be discussing in a case study next month.

Contact Graeme@foundryfit.com for details

Massage LondonHALF PRICE MASSAGE

Due to overwhelming popular demand we have introduced another weekly HALF PRICE MASSAGE CLINIC on Wednesdays 10am-4pm.

No catches, no hidden extras, just half the normal price for deep tissue, Swedish or Sports Massage.

To book an appointment for Wednesday or our existing clinic 5-9pm on Mondays, please contact helen@foundryfit.com.

Advance booking is essential as there are very limited spaces available.

THE TRAINING SHOP

Health and Fitness ShopThose who have been into The Foundry recently will have noticed the reception area has changed a bit.  We have been selling a few carefully chosen product lines, such as Vibram Five Fingers, with overwhelming success for a year or so, but we are excited to announce the expansion of our retail arm.

Over the next month or so we’ll be introducing our own line of evidence based, high quality nutritional supplements, fitness accessories, strength training equipment, health and fitness books and fitness footwear.

The City of London’s first and only specialist health and fitness shop, THE TRAINING SHOP will be announced officially to the world with a champagne and special guest press launch in March.

Filed Under: Blog, Fitness, Strength training Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Client of the Week Demonstrates the Importance of Strength Training

November 28, 2010 By

“It is significantly easier to get an explosive athlete ‘in shape’, than it is to make an ‘in shape’ athlete explosive. The first will take weeks the second may take years.”

Personal Trainer London

Lose 6% body fat in 3 months

Mike Boyle. Strength Coach

We occasionally highlight client’s outstanding efforts, particularly when they provide an opportunity to discuss or analyse training methods.

Amy is a naturally strong and athletic individual.  We posted pictures of her recently on facebook warming up with  almost perfect 20kg overhead squats after 1 month training.

Amy approached Personal Trainer Dave Thomas after attending Power Plate classes for a year with minimal training results (she just simply wasn’t achieving enough progressive overload) with the goal of becoming  stronger and leaner.  So far we have dropped about 6% bodyfat and 5kg (measured via 12 site Biosignature Modulation assessment) since the summer and her strength in the deadlift, incline dumbbell press and chin up has improved over 50%

Amy was also tested on our Versa Climber Challenge after 1 month of training.  This is a 300m sprint (the height of the Eiffel Tower) with a leaderboard for the fastest times.  She originally completed it in 13.30 which is a good time but falls roughly in the middle of the female times.  We have subsequently spent the fllowing 2 months on strength training and improving her body composition but more importantly no aerobic conditioning.

versaclimber

The Dreaded Versa Climber

This week we tested Amy again and she completed the challenge in 11.28; knocking 2 minutes off her time, becoming the fastest woman to complete the challenge (by 40 seconds) and the 3rd fastest time of both sexes.

So firstly congratulations to Amy; a worthy winner of client of the week and a bottle of Poliquin’s topical Lean Legs (which retails for £50) and a signed copy of Rugby Legend Scott Quinnell’s book “The Hardest Test” are her rewards.

Scott Quinnell Hardest Test

The strong bird catches the..er...book and stuff

Secondly this is a nice little link into our discussion of strength training; in particular as a way to increase athletic performance and body composition.  We’ve discussed the multitude of benefits which strength training provides many times on this blog (especially our belief that strength training should normally precede conditioning) but there is sometimes ignorance around the fact that resistance training itself is a form of conditioning, increasing metabolism and hormone responses.

Not only can resistance training  strengthen muscles, bone, tendons and ligaments, improve joint function and flexibility, elevate mood and general well being  but it can also stimulate the  cardiovascular system.  Unfortunately, many people who want to lose fat, tone up or get aerobically fit approach training from the opposite direction. (See references for an indepth look at the full array of benefits from strength training)

How many people do you know who ‘get more active’ or ‘fitter’  or ‘want to lose a few lbs’ by walking or cycling or any other form of LSD (long slow distance) aerobic exercise. They might then join a BodyPump class, add a bootcamp or do a quick machine circuit at the gym to ‘tone up’ or get a bit stronger, almost as an afterthought.

london personal trainers

Personal Training in London with The Foundry

The trick so many personal trainers and their clients miss is that a solid strength base first will vastly increase performance and results when it comes to conditioning or athletic performance (including distance sports).  Initial strength training, as demonstrated in Amy’s case, makes improving athletic performance and losingt body fat so much easier.  It’s very hard to make someone faster and/or leaner with weak muscles.

Whether your goal is to lose fat, gain muscle  or improve health or mood, it will invariably benefit to begin with resistance training to accomplish your goals. Get stronger first, and everything else will fall into place.

References:

Gastroenterology
Filed Under: Blog, Fitness, Health, Performance, Sport, Strength training, Testimonials, Transformations Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Getting strong for football

November 12, 2010 By

For the past month, here at The Foundry, Central London Personal Trainers, we’ve been working with former England and Ireland International footballing star Olliver Nicholas, after his agent approached us with the goal of helping him improve his strength and body composition for a new professional contract.

We are in the process of producing an article on strength training for football soon so I’ll hold out on most of the theory behind the practice but we thought it would be nice to shout a bit about Ollie’s success and share some of the methods behind his training.

Get strong for football

Functional hypertrophy is essential for football

Getting strong for football

Making sure you are balanced is equally as important

Methods

Ollie’s main problem was a poor and irregular diet combined with a lack of structure to his training programme.

We spent two weeks of general preparation balancing out a few strength discrepancies between his legs and an exaggerated spinal curve and reducing body fat. We have spent the subsequent 3 weeks on an intermediate strength programme. Training has been similar to the 5×5 method with a two way split of upper and lower body.  Sessions have been every 3 days. Upper body primary exercises include weighted dips and chins and lower body exercises include back squats and Romanian deadlifts.

We have also managed to take the first steps in improving his diet. I would suggest he now eats better than the majority of 18 year olds, however there is still a little way to go as Ollie has an impressive sweet tooth.

Adequate and appropriate post workout nutrition has been essential, but for funding reasons no additional supplementation such as Creatine has been used.

Results

The pictures speak for themselves however his body composition and strength statistics are below:

Body Composition:

Gain muscle We haven’t taking his month measurements yet, but in the first 3 weeks Ollie has reduced his bodyfat by 3% and increased his lean mass by 2.7kg

Despite primarily focussing on Ollie’s strength (see his lifts below) we have clearly acheived a level of hypertrophy too.  Structural work finished just before the second measurement and it clearly shows if you look at the amount of lean mass Ollie put on between the 2nd and 3rd measurements.  This is not surprising as he has very minimal structured training history so has responded incredibly well to the training stimuli.  We can assume that his anabolic hormones are suitably high for an 18 year old and he has lots of natural strength.

Strength Gains:

Exercise Weight – 10/10/10 Weight – 29/10/10
Weighted Dips 25kg 5RM 32kg 5RM
Back Squat 78kg 5RM 90kg 5R

His dips have improved by 28% and his back squat by 15% in 3 weeks.  Even allowing for the initial training effects to the nervous system and Ollie’s good genetics, these are still great strength improvements which any intermediate athlete would be happy with.

The moral of Ollie’s results is that a well structured training programme is absolutely essential for everyone. Don’t think you can just make things up on the day or swap programmes after one session. You need consistency and effort and planning but the results are worth it.  It has been a pleasure for all of us to work with Ollie and we wish him all the best in his professional career.

What Ollie had to say:

I have been working with Personal Trainer Dave Thomas at The Foundry,  London, for the past month in preparation for a move abroad, in the hope of receiving a new professional contract.

The intensive, yet sensible training program has allowed me to quickly and efficiently correct all the minor discrepancies that were initially found by Osteopath Ricardo Davids & Structural Specialist Keith Littlewood in my Assessment in order to be able to move onto my Strength & Conditioning work.

On the Health, Strength, Fitness, Speed & Agility side of things Personal Trainers Rob Teppett & Dave Thomas have put me through my paces via tough yet enjoyable exercises both challenging me on a physical and mental level in which I will need to be able to perform under highly demanding training schedules. Dave Thomas, through his experience, encouragement and intellectual insight has in just four weeks helped me become, and feel, much stronger and more powerful, which not only show in my physique but also in the statistics with me being able to lift more weight week after week.

A HUGE thanks to Rob Teppett, Dave Thomas, Helen Thomas, Keith Littlewood & Ricardo Davids of The Foundry, Liverpool Street, for all your help & I look forward to working with you in my professional future.

Thanks  – Oliver Nicholas

Strength training for football central london

Check back soon to learn more about strength training for football.

Body Composition:Body Composition:
Filed Under: Blog, Football, Performance, Sport, Strength training, Testimonials, Transformations Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Fenugreek improves strength and body composition

November 1, 2010 By
Fenugreek Improves Strength and Body Composition

Fenugreek Improves Strength and Body Composition

According to a new peer reviewed study in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, Fenugreek, a leguminous, annual plant originating in India and North Africa, can turn the wobbliest moobs in rock hard man pecs…maybe.

The study looked at the effects of 500mg of Fenugreek supplementation on strength, body composition, power output and hormonal profiles in 49 Resistance trained males using a double blind test versus placebo tablets.

We have used the Fenugreek products for awhile here at The Foundry, Personal Training, central London, to help clients with blood sugar and insulin resistance and there is a large body of evidence looking at its role in the regulation of insulin and hyperglycemia.  Even we were surprised by the results of this study however. As expected there were no clinical side effects of supplementation, but the results were statistically significant compared to the placebo group over 8 weeks of linear resistance training.

Body composition:

The Fenugreek group experienced a significant reduction in body fat percentage losing 2.34% compared to only 0.39% in the PL group.  The authors believed this was largely due to the increase in lean mass; an obvious point but an important one to make for those fixated on the number on the scales. Body fat DOES NOT equal weight!

Strength, power and endurance:

The intervention produced significant increases in upper- and lower-body strength, which the authors suggest might be even more significant beyond the 8 week period as performance increased in the Fenugreek group between weeks 4 and 8 but not in the placebo group.

Leg press 1-RM (FEN: 84.6 ± 36.2 kg; PL: 48 ± 29.5 kg, p <0.001), and bench press 1-RM (FEN: 9.1 ± 6.9 kg; PL: 4.3 ±5.6 kg, p = 0.01

Endurance and power were not significantly improved which makes sense due to the training programme used however there was evidence that a longer study might lead to an improvement in power output.

Hormone profile:

One of the most interesting aspects was that Fenugreek products often claim anabolic potential with very limited, if any, human studies to back this claim up. The authors found that there was no statistically significant between or within group differences for any of the measured hormone variables, except for free testosterone.  Although a between group difference was noted for free testosterone between weeks 4 and 8, they dismissed its relevance  due to the fact that it did not significantly change over time. So this remains a bit of a grey area but for now the ‘testosterone boosting’ claims remain unsubstantiated.

Conclusion:

Fenuplex may Improve Strength and Body Composition

Fenuplex helps with blood glucose and insulin management

Well, if subjects got stronger and leaner despite the absence of anabolic changes, something else has to be going on.  I would imagine insulin plays a big role here, as we have had noticeable success with fat loss and insulin management using ‘Fenuplex’ with clients, a fenugreek product by strength coach Charles Poliquin.  The authors don’t speculate on the exact mechanisms but I would imagine the effect on insulin and blood glucose management may well be in part responsible.  They do state however  that: “500 mg of this proprietary Fenugreek extraction had a significant impact on both upper- and lower-body strength and body composition in comparison to placebo in a double blind controlled trial”.

This matches our clinical experiences and we will continue to use Fenuplex to assist clients with stubborn fat loss but it’s always nice to see new research to back up  supplement claims and suggest possible new applications in strength conditioning.

Thanks to Graeme Marsh for sending me the original study.

The full study is available here: Poole et al. 2010

Fenugreek improves strength and body compositiona ne
Filed Under: Blog, Health, Nutrition, Performance, Sport, Strength training Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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