totalNRG JAN - MARCH 2015 | ISSUE No. 8 | £2.50
HEALTH, FITNESS & NUTRITION FROM BIO-SYNERGY
THE VIKING METHOD CARDIo SECRETS From the HIIT coach SCOTT ALEXANDER
GUILT-FREE NUTRITION COOK ME LEAN NATALIE ALEXANDER
LIGHT UP LAS VEGAS James Cracknell and Reggie Yates smash World record to light up Vegas.
20
minute muscle meals
NUTRITION IN PRO CYCLING
5 1 0 2 E G N E L L A H C N O I T A M R O F S N A R T K E E W 12
WHEYBETTER
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JAN - MARCH 2015 | ISSUE No. 8
CONTENTS
MEET THE PEOPLE WHO MAKE IT HAPPEN
LIGHT UP LAS VEGAS
LEADING THE PROTEIN REVOLUTION SINCE ‘97
#MAKEITHAPPEN
DANIEL HERMAN CEO & FOUNDER
LEWIS ROSE CONTENT EXECUTIVE
LEO HERCEG NEWshound
NEIL FIDLER MARKETING EXECUTIVE
Natalia Andreyeva Financial Executive
DESIGNERS LEWIS ROSE
PHOTOGRAPHY
Voted most the No.1 Most Powerful Whey Protein
MATT MARSH LEWIS ROSE DANIEL HERMAN LEO HERCEG
100% whey isolate - no fillers. Over 6.7 grams of BCAAs and vitamin complex for maximum results
Ever wondered how many calories you would need to burn to light up the most high-stakes city in the world? 1.9m calories - that’s a whopping 8 megawatts!
EDITORS DANIEL HERMAN LEWIS ROSE NEIL FIDLER
MARKETING NEIL FIDLER DANIEL HERMAN LEWIS ROSE NATALIA ANDREYEVA
Increases muscle size, strength, r ecovery and performance
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CONTACTS E-mail: ADdress Bio-Synergy Ltd 120 West Heath Road makeithappen@bio-synergy.co.uk London NW7 3TX
Contains over 90g of protein per 100g
As part of a New Year challenge with Endomondo, James Cracknell and Reggie Yates led the charge of attempting to light up Las Vegas. Can they burn 1.9m calories? You may be surprised at the outcome...
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Contains virtually zero fat
THE VIKING METHOD From Crossfit to Pilates, Kickboxing to Yoga, Football to Ballet, HIIT Training to Badminton, Svava Sigbertsdottir has been a fitness fanatic all of her life. She’s trained the likes of Nicole Scherzinger and countless more celebs. Find out more in her feature length article.
IT’S TIME TO #UPGRADEYOURPROTEIN... Bio-Synergy is designed by sports professionals for sports
CARDIO SECRETS
professionals. For close to two decades, our mission has been to produce the highest quality range of sports nutrition in the world. We are proud to fuel
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the performance of over 4 million satisfied customers.
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#MakeItHappen
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BIO-SYNERGY.CO.UK
/BIOSYNERGY
MAKEITHAPPEN@BIO-SYNERGY.CO.UK
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Meal Prep with Ed Djafer - P. 11 Guide to kick starting 2015 and 12 week challenge - P. 15 Guilt free nutrition with Bio-Synergy Recipe Creator Natalie Alexander - P. 6 Guide to nutrition in cycling – James Hewitt, Performance Coach & advisor to Team GB - P. 13
The Cardio Guru aka Scott Alexander shares his training protocols. Discover how to burn fat and maintain lean mass at the same time in this exclusive article.
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NOTE FROM THE EDITOR UK Spor ts Nutrition Since ‘97
Since 1997, Bio-Synergy has been dedicated to producing effective and innovative products in the UK, that “work with life” to support your goals and get the most out of your training. Bio-Synergy is Britain’s most innovative sports nutrition company we were the first to launch Creatine in a two phase pack in 1997 and the first to launch a virtually zero calorie sports drink. Over the last 17 years our products have won awards and been given the highest ratings by numerous magazines including Men’s Health, Slim at Home, Body Fit, Daily Mail, News of the World, Daily Mirror, Daily Telegraph, Women’s Running to name but a few. Bio-Synergy is proud to have supported UK charities including Cancer Research, Help a London Child, Great Ormond Street, UNICEF and the Princes Trust among others. Bio-Synergy Ltd 120 West Heath Road London
NW7 3TX
makeithappen@bio-synergy.co.uk
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ince its inception in 1999, totalNRG has been devoted to bringing the latest and most exciting fitness news to give you the tools that you need to get the most from life. Whether your goal is setting a new PB or dropping a dress size the information that you will discover in each issue will be practical, informative and exclusive. I hope that you enjoy reading the articles as much as we did putting them together. Feel free to share with your friends, family and colleagues. Yours in fitness, Daniel & the Bio-Synergy team
CEO: Daniel Herman
Total NRG has been devoted to bringing the latest and most exciting fitness news to give you the tools that you need to get the most from life.
Daniel Herman
MAKE IT HAPPEN 4
GUILT-FREE NUTRITION
Peanut and almond energy balls
Peanut and almond energy balls BY NATALIE ALEXANDER
Garlic and rosemary chicken skewers
Nutritional breakdown for 1 ball
Nutritional breakdown for 3 skewers
Calories
162
Calories
353
Protein
4.1g
Protein
62g
Carbohydrates
5.6g
Carbohydrates
22g
Fat
9.1g
Fat
2.6g
Preparation time: 6–8 minutes Cooking time: 10 minutes Total time: 6–8 minutes Makes 6 large balls 1 serving=1 ball
Preparation time: 10 minutes Cooking time: 15–20 minutes Total time: 25–30 minutes
Ingredients:
3 large wooden skewers (soaked in water for 1–2 minutes before using) 1 teaspoon rosemary 1 tablespoon garlic granules 3 tablespoons fat-free natural yogurt 1 large chicken breast, cut into chunks 1 red onion, sliced into chunks Pinch Himalayan pink rock salt and freshly ground black pepper
Ingredients:
10g ground almonds 10g powdered peanut butter 1 teaspoon coconut palm sugar 60g smooth peanut butter 2 scoops (60g) Bio-Synergy Whey Better 20g wheatgerm 5g Revolution Foods super fruits powder or lucuma fruit powder 25g flaked almonds 3 tablespoons sweetened almond milk How to make me To make the nutty coating, put the ground almonds, powdered peanut butter, and coconut sugar into a medium-sized mixing bowl, then set aside. Mix all the remaining ingredients together in a large bowl until a dough has formed. Take one sixth of the dough and roll it between the palms of your hands into a ball, then coat the ball generously in the nutty mixture. Repeat this process for the remaining 5 energy balls. Once all the balls have been rolled they are ready to eat.
Red pepper stuffed with mozzarella
Enjoy one, then store the remaining 5 balls in an airtight container and enjoy over the next 7 days. Keep refrigerated.
NATALIE’S STORY - @cookmelean Red pepper stuffed with mozzarella
N
atalie is passionate about health and fitness. Qualified in nutrition, and fanatical about fitness she is well placed to have a clear understanding of just how essential it is that we all pay careful and considered attention to our nutritional intake when looking at achieving our health and fitness ambitions. Natalie recommends taking control of our
diet by knowing exactly what it is we are eating, and that starts by food preparation. “ We eat on trust , and I am afraid for me that trust is broken. There are far too many hidden sugars, calories, additives and carb rich ingredients not disclosed in the food that we buy. I prepare from scratch all the meals that both my husband ( Mr 5% bodyfat Scott Alexander) and I
YouTube.com/BioSynergyUK for more recipes
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eat, and it was after seeing first hand how easy it is with a little bit of imagination to replace bad with good clean natural ingredients, that prompted to me to delicious, nutritious recipes so that I could help empower others to take control of food.
Garlic and rosemary chicken skewers
Nutritional breakdown for pepper Calories
280
Protein
17.9g
Carbohydrates
34g
Fat
8.5g
Preparation time: 10 minutes Cooking time: 25 minutes Total time: 35 minutes Serves: 1 Ingredients 1 red pepper 1 teaspoon vegetable bouillon dissolved in 150ml boiling water (stock) 20g uncooked quinoa 1/2 red onion, chopped 30g tinned green lentils, drained 30g baby leaf spinach 1 teaspoon pine nuts 30g low-fat mozzarella cheese, chopped into small chunks 20g low-fat cream cheese
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For the dip 2 tablespoons fat-free Greek-style yogurt 1 tablespoon tomato puree Pinch onion granules Pinch garlic granules 1 teaspoon cider vinegar How to make me Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Coat a nonstick baking tray with low-calorie cooking spray. Mix together the dried rosemary, garlic granules, and yoghurt in a medium-sized bowl to create a marinade. Coat the chicken breast pieces in the marinade. Thread the red onion and chicken alternately on to each skewer until full. Put the chicken skewers on the baking tray and season with rock salt and black pepper. Place in the oven on the middle shelf and cook for 15–18 minutes. For the tomato dipping sauce, mix together the yoghurt, tomato puree, onion granules, garlic granules, and cider vinegar in a small bowl. This should take about 1 minute. Pinch Himalayan pink rock salt and freshly ground black pepper How to make me Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Put the stock, quinoa, and red onion into a medium-sized pan. Return to the boil, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring frequently. Add more water during the cooking time if required, a tablespoon at a time. Whilst the quinoa cooks, prepare and cook the red pepper. Coat a nonstick baking tray with low-calorie cooking spray. Slice the top off the pepper about 2cm down and remove the stalk by gently cutting around it. Scoop out the seeds from the pepper, then place the pepper along with its top on the baking tray, lightly coat in low-calorie cooking spray, and season with rock salt and black pepper. Place the baking tray in the oven and cook for 15 minutes. Add the lentils, spinach, pine nuts, mozzarella cheese and cream cheese to the quinoa in the pan and cook for 1–2 minutes, until the spinach has wilted. Remove the cooked pepper from the oven and stuff it with the quinoa mixture, then finish off by replacing the top off the pepper back on top.
g n i k i V The d o h t e M
3. Squat jumps backwards Targets: GLUTES, HAMSTRINGS, QUADS Begin with your feet hip-width apart and knees soft. Squat down, then launch yourself backwards in a jump. Land in a deep squat with your heels on the ground and your bum pushed back. Do eight big jumps backwards. Then jump to face the other way and do eight back to your starting positions.
the Discover that secrets zinger Cher nicole s ving about. ra has been
4. Beats Targets: QUADS, HAMSTRINGS, CORE, GLUTES Stand with your feet wide apart. Squat deeply, keeping knees behind toes. Jump, lengthening your legs fully, beating them together quickly in the air.
Exclusive Full Body Workout
Land back in a deep squat. Try not to bounce or reposition your feet. Do 12 reps.
1. Shoulder Press Targets: DELTOIDS, TRICPES, TRAPEZIUS Hold the dumbells at your shoulders with your palms facing out. Keep your core engaged and knees soft. Extend your arms up and then slowly down.
5. Jumping Kicks
Do 12 reps. Make sure your dumbbells are heavy enough that reaching the last rep is a challenge.
Targets: QUADS, HAMSTRINGS, CORE, GLUTES Stand with your feet wide apart. Squat.Begin with your legs hip-width apart. Pull your left knee up to your chest as you jump with your right leg as high up as you can.
2. Arm Walks Targets: CORE, ARMS Get into plank position and put your feet on the tea towels. Keeping your feet still, use only your upper body to ‘walk’ forward on your arms, dragging your body behind you.
Your left knee should still be in the air as you kick your right leg. The higher and faster you pull up your left knee, the more efficient your kick will be.
Throughout, keep your core engaged and your body in plank position. Be careful that you don’t drop in the middle or arch your back. Keep your hips completely still so you’re not swinging as you walk.
Do 12 kicks, then swap and do 12 on the other leg.
Go 10 steps forward and 10 back.
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The Viking Method is a unique training method developed by Svava Sigbertsdottir. With HIIT at the fundamentals it is adapted by your body type. Learn more by visiting thevikingmethod.com.
HIIT4FATLOSS
Better results in less timE
I
want to talk HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training). It is the buzzword in fitness. It’s a training protocol that has been used by the worlds leading athletes for decades, loved by Hollywood actors to get fitter, faster and stronger in a fraction of the time, and employed by the worlds best fitness coaches to help furnace and torch fat from the body.
each week. Now, like any training methodology HIIT for those of you starting out or new to this type of hyper training, can find it daunting or confusion. I therefore want to clear up a few common mistakes being made by many of you, and explain a couple of the key features of HIIT to help you train more effective.
I have centred my entire fat loss and hypertrophy (gaining muscle) approach upon placing the body under varying stimuli which forces it to becomes fitter VO (2R) which mean the body sustains both fat loss and lean muscle gains.
I will also include a HIIT workout programme taken from my new APP “Your CardioGuru” with a timed music mix along with audio coaching to help get you started on a journey that will be a game changer to your fitness and body ambitions.
As a coach, nothing melts fat faster than HIIT, as someone who has trained and pushed my body way beyond its comfort zone day in day out for over 22 years, HIIT is a protocol I have elected since I was 18 (I am now 40) and is the first training protocol on my training plan
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Scott Alexander celebrity life coach
“Following a structured diet plan is an important part of my training. Bio-Synergy supplements help me hit my macros with ease.” - Ed Djafer
BEAT THE FAT & BUILD MUSCLE B
rand ambassador, personal trainer and fitness Model Ed Djafer helps you get in great shape any time of year. Nutrition is a pivotal part of building an impressive physique and staying healthy.
Here are Ed’s Top 3 nutrition tips: 1. Eat plenty of protein: You’ve heard it before; take in around one gram of protein per pound of bodyweight. This is essential if your plan is to build instead of maintain muscle mass. 3. Eat the right kinds of protein: Make sure your proteins are from lean sources such as lean beef, lean ground meats, turkey, fish such as salmon and tilapia, chicken breasts, protein powders, egg whites with a few yolks, skim milk and fat-free or low-fat cottage cheese.
discover scott’s secrets & read THE FULL ARTICLE HERE. FOR EVEN MORE ON HIIT, VISIT THEcardioguru.com and scott’s soundcloud for an exclusive hiit download.
3. Eat the right kind of carbohydrate: Stick with complex carbs such as oatmeal, wheat bread, brown and wild rice, sweet potatoes, wheat pasta, and quinoa. This will ensure that your blood sugar stays steady throughout the day to supply you with ample energy for your hard workouts.
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nutrition in professional cycling lessons for the everyday athlete by bio-synergy ambassador and sports scientist james hewitt
What Are The Aims For Training & Nutrition In Professional Cycling?
Optimal power:weight Improved efficiency Power and fatigue resistance
Ultimately, training and nutrition should result in the rider: Losing weight to achieve an ‘optimal’ power:weight ratio, whilst preserving lean body mass and health. Becoming more efficient at using fat as a fuel at high intensity, to preserve glycogen stores. Being able to produce repeated very high-power efforts. These goals will be targeted at different times, according to the training phase. Just as training is altered to suit the demands of a race, nutrition must also be adjusted according to the performance demands and desired outcomes of training.
M
y name is James Hewitt, I’m a Sports Scientist and Performance Cycling Coach. My passion is helping cyclists to realise more of their potential. I see that the Performance Coach’s key role is to co-ordinate information from a specialist network and apply this to create an environment which optimises the performance of the athlete.
However, 12 years ago, before I became a coach I was racing myself and had recently moved to France to pursue a career as a professional cyclist. The cycling world looked quite different then and the sport’s approach to nutrition was no exception. It’s important to point out that I’m a practitioner, not an academic and that I’m also not a nutritionist, so today, I’m going to share how, as a coach, I might integrate the recommendations of nutritionists into a rider’s training programme to prepare them for a cycling event. We’re going to explore how professional
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cyclists prepare for competition and look at how this has changed over the last 10 years. What does the evidence say and are there any lessons to help improve the performance of ‘everyday’ enthusiast endurance athletes? I moved to France in 2002 and over the next couple of years moved up the ranks to join an Elite Espoir development team linked with a professional cycling team. At the time I was racing, nutrition at both amateur and professional level was unsophisticated, to say the least. With the exception of fluctuations in volume, our diets didn’t change that much throughout the year: pasta off the bike, gels, cereal bars and perhaps some carbohydrate based powder in the bottles, on it. No-one had taken the time to explore the research that was available. A classic example of this was the approach I took to tackle the cramps I was experiencing towards the end of demanding races.
In the peloton, I’d overheard a couple of guys talking about a pharmaceutical muscle relaxant called ‘Hexaquinine’. Apparently, it was effective in alleviating cramp. I bought some from a local pharmacy (they were pretty relaxed about prescriptions back then), popped a couple of pills towards the end of a race and it worked remarkably well, but I was acutely aware that I wasn’t addressing the root of the problem, I just didn’t have the time or access to advisors who could help me conduct a more thorough investigation. The fact that I skipped straight over possible nutrition and training interventions to a pharmacological solution, and the fact that I was so willing so self-prescribe it, was indicative of the culture of the sport at the time. Thankfully, this is changing and many teams are applying the wealth of scientific research that’s available to us to support health and improve performance.
I believe that a key development in professional cycling can be seen in the way in which teams are combining training and nutrition to create a ‘metabolic performance environment’ as Team Sky would describe it. In this environment, we see training as the stimulus for the protein signalling pathways that drive adaptation. Nutrition provides the building blocks required for the adaptation to take place. The Metabolic Performance Environment In order to determine what this metabolic performance environment should look like, we need to begin by answering some key questions: What is the rider capable of now? What they need to be capable of to achieve their goal? How can we build a logical progression in terms of training and nutrition to take them there? The Performance Question Model Perhaps unsurprisingly, Team Sky
have a systematic way of approaching this in a continuous process called the ‘Performance Question Model’. It begins by defining the ‘Performance Problem’. Preparing For The Race: The ‘Performance Problem’ Cycling is like other endurance events in that it requires athletes to maintain a relatively high work-rate for long periods. This requires a well developed aerobic system and fat metabolism. However, the average work-rate, often expressed as average power output, does not tell the whole story about the demands of professional cycling. A casual observer may suggest that the average power from a professional race is comparative to that of a strong amateur rider’s sportive performance. To use a Tour de France example, analysis of Vincenzo Nibali’s power file1 from his stage 2 winning ride in the 2014 Tour de France reveals that his average power was 221 watts. This statistic is misleading in some respects, because it fails to describe the short, intense, repeated efforts, significantly above the rider’s ‘threshold’, which were required to escape the peloton, catch competitors and force the strongest riders to emerge. In terms of nutrition during races and prolonged, high-intensity training sessions, the potential for carbohydrate consumption to improve performance has been extensively researched. Stellingwerf & Cox (2014)3 conducted a systematic review of 61 studies on carbohydrate and endurance performance, representing 679 participants, and concluded that 82% demonstrated statistically significant improvements in performance. The consumption of carbohydrate before, during and after races is an important element in a pro-cyclist’s nutritional strategy.
it would have been fuelled predominantly by carbohydrate. Ensuring that glycogen is preserved is best achieved through a combination of prior training and carbohydrate consumption before and during the event. However, in training, we are trying to stimulate adaptations, particularly in terms of fat metabolism. So, whilst a higher carbohydrate approach may be most appropriate for high-intensity sessions which target adaptations for the high power efforts that characterise road races, periods of controlled carbohydrate training may result in adaptations which improve fat metabolism and preserve limited muscle glycogen stores in preparation for this race context. In Practice However, many riders find it psychologically challenging to set off for a training session without eating breakfast. Also, hunger before and during training can compromise motivation. Whilst relatively few studies have looked into this, Team Sky’s Head of Nutrition Nigel Mitchell has observed that: “Protein feeding before and during fasted rides appears to support training and improve adaptation to endurance training while supporting recovery.” Some coaches and researches asked whether protein ingestion before and during training could compromise the adaptive response of carbohydrate restricted sessions.
Vincenzo Nibali’s race winning effort on stage 2 of the Tour de France. During the stage, he climbed the ‘Cote de Holme Moss, maintaining 400 watts for over 12 minutes. This effort came after 143 km of racing and this 12 minutes towards the end of bio-synergy ambassador and sports scientist james hewitt
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light up las vegas
ince 1997, it has been our objective to develop innovative and effective products that work and allow our customers to make it happen, whatever their goals. When developing the ActiVeman range, we wanted to keep things simple. We created a selection of products to meet the needs that many of our customers wanted. These included improving performance and powering up other aspects of their wellbeing, notably healthy joints, strong heart, strong immune system and weight management. With this in mind we also wanted to create unique packaging that would convey the message of “powering up” and nothing conveys this better than a battery; so the concept was born and with input from our amazing ambassadors, most notably: James Cracknell, Ben Shephard and Reggie Yates the range was developed.
Importantly, not only was the packaging innovative in it’s appearance, but in it’s functionality too, as it is made 100% from tin, it not only keeps the products in perfect condition but can also be recycled or even up-cycled into a stylish container. Conveying such a strong visual of energy, we then thought how can the energy from sport & exercise be harnessed? And it was then we had a chance meeting with Endomondo, who suggested that we come up with an ActiVeman challenge for their community of sports & exercise enthusiasts. At this point it dawned on us, that during exercise we burn calories, which are a measure of energy. If we could burn enough calories, then, in theory this could be converted into power which could light up a city, and the city most famous for its lights is: Las Vegas. We calculated how many calories you
featuring james cracknell & reggie yates
would need to burn to light up the most high-stakes city in the world, which turned out to be a staggering 1.9m calories - that’s a whopping 8 megawatts! The challenge was set could we light up Las Vegas for a day? Over 8,000 people joined us in this quest led by James Cracknell and fuelled by ActiVeman, all of whom tracked their calories every time they exercised. The result after only 1 month was a staggering 31 million calories burnt, enough to light Las Vegas for over 2 weeks! At the moment we haven’t figured out how to do this for real, but we believe somebody will figure it out. Did you enter the Las Vegas Challenge? If so, share your experiences with us by emailing makeithappen@bio-synergy. co.uk.
At Bio-Synergy, we understand that sometimes, you need support and guidance to achieve your goals as well as a focus. Over a decade ago, we launched our first 12 Week Challenge to provide a focus to achieve lasting and measurable transformations. Since then, hundreds have taken part in our challenge. All with different goals ranging from getting back to fitness to setting a new PB and in some cases achieving a change in lifestyle. At Bio-Synergy, we not only have the benefit of in house experts but a host of professionals that we can call on to create bespoke training, supplement and healthy eating plans. In our recent challenge there have been three standout participants, all with different goals. Luke Lawrence, an OCR competitor; Sarah Hunter a busy entrepreneur, and Dan Woodward a keen gym goer, who wanted to pack on lean mass. The team at Bio-Synergy created bespoke plans for each of them, and this is what they had to say after completing the challenge:
powerful combination that leads to success. If you’re interested in competing in the next 12 Week Challenge, email makeithappen@ bio-synergy.co.uk to sign up.
“I feel totally different and so confident. My clothes are loose and I feel completely energised in the mornings,” - Sarah Hunter. “I couldn’t believe how much stronger I got from the training and supplements. My goal was to reach 16, and thanks to Bio-Synergy, I did it” - Dan Woodward. And for those who love stats, here they are: Luke Lawrence: 12 stone 12 lbs start of challenge. 12 stone 0.5 lbs end of challenge. Dan Woodward: 13 stone 3lbs start of challenge. 14 stone end of the challenge. Sarah Hunter: Start of challenge: 13 stone 1 lbs. End of challenge. Sarah also lost an impressive 10 centimetres off her whole body. In summary, the focus of the challenge combined with bespoke plans and supplements is a
12 WEEK TRANSFORMATION CHALLENGE 2015 D
o you want to get in fantastic shape and take your training to the next level? Sign up to the 12 Week Challenge and receive a bespoke training regime and nutrition plan tai-
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“I normally focus on whey protein. However, I tried many other supplements including the Essential Sports Fuel and ActiVeman Free Motion. I always train hard but I really upped my training and benefitted from it greatly,” Luke Lawrence.
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lored towards your goals. Regardless of your discipline, whether it is strength training, endurance, or you want to lose a few stubborn pounds, enter our 12 Week Challenge and transform your life
today. Additionally, we recently partnered with Pure Elite: One of the UK’s fastest growing fitness competitions. Looking to challenge yourself? Sign up on April 25th? #MakeItHappen
STAYCONNECTED Simply click on the icons above or search “Bio-Synergy� on your social media platforms and connect with us. #MakeItHappen To learn more about Bio-Synergys amazing ambassadors, visit Bio-Synergy.co.uk