1500 calorie 7 day meal planner

Need to consume 1500 calories to reach your health and fitness goal?

Try this 7 day meal plan full of protein to repair and rebuild your muscles, carbohydrates to fuel your workouts and healthy fats to keep your body functioning optimally.

Don't forget to go to Musclefood.com to claim your food freebie! Enter code MH100544 at checkout to claim any one of these
4 x free chicken breasts
1 x free loaf of protein bread
1 x free thai protein ready meal
4 x protein crisps

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Matt
Synergy Fitness Systems

About the author

Matthew Healey is a qualified personal trainer and sports therapist. Matt is the owner of Synergy Fitness Systems in the UK which has been helping people change their body and improve human and sports performance for several years.

Matt has worked with many different types of clients from professional athletes, to recreational sports people to the general fitness population.

Matt has extensive experience in the fitness industry and has worked in many different settings including a top human performance centre in San Diego owned by Todd Durkin as well as working with sports teams and individual athletes and clients.

Matt’s area of interest is human and sports performance, and injury prevention and rehabilitation. At Synergy Fitness Systems, Matt focusses on improving the function, efficiency and performance of each of his clients and athletes.    

Boost your fitness with this conditioning circuit

At Synergy Fitness Systems, we love a finisher and regularly end our sessions with some sort of circuit or interval station.

Throw this following circuit onto the end of your workout for an intense finish targeting the whole body.

Set your watch for 7 minutes. Complete the following exercises as a circuit, continuously with minimal rest.


- Box jumps (Video Here) 
- Ring/Bar dips
- Pull ups/chin ups

As for the reps, perform 3 reps of each during the first round, then increase by 3 reps for each consecutive round:

Round 1 = 3 reps
Round 2 = 6 reps
Round 4 = 9 reps

Round 5 = 12 reps
And so on until the 7 minutes are up. 



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Training for bigger legs

If you’re an athlete and you want to build leg size, you need to ensure you check off a few essentials.

- Firstly, you must find your 1 repetition max (the maximum load you can perform a single rep with).

- Then you should be performing the given exercise at atleast 65% of your 1 rep max. 

- Then you need to think about rep ranges and the number of sets. For muscle hypertrophy (building muscle), 6-12 reps has been shown to give best muscle building results, completing 4-6 sets. 

- Finally, the quality of reps is also important; during the eccentric (lowering) phase of the movement, you should look to perform this slowly and under control whereas the concentric (lifting) phase of the movement should be performed with more speed and explosion.   

Now you’ve got your checklist, you need to cover each movement that the legs create and choose the right exercises to build leg size:

I prefer my athletes to separate leg days into two categories – Hip dominant and knee dominant

Hip dominant day:

Deadlifts 6 sets x 8 reps

Romanian deadlift 4 sets x 12 reps

Sumo deadlift 6 sets x 8 reps

Barbell clean 6 sets x 6 reps

Glute ham raise 6 sets x 8 reps

Barbell bench step ups 6 sets x 8 reps

Knee dominant day:

Squats - 6 sets x 8 reps

Bulgarian split squat 4 sets x 12 reps

Leg extension 4 sets x 12 reps

Prone ham curls 4 sets x 12 reps

Leg press 6 sets x 8 reps

Nordic ham curls 6 sets x 8 reps

There are many more exercises you can do, but the above are my favourite as I feel they tackle all the muscles of the legs.

Further thoughts

During hypertrophy training, you will be causing extensive damage to your muscles and so will need to increase protein levels to aid your body in building muscle. I recommend using MyProtein because of the high quality protein shakes they offer. CLICK HERE to have a look at some of their products. 

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Matt

My favourite post workout shake

Impact Vanilla whey and 100% natural peanut butter shake 

Ingredients:

200mls coconut water

200mls milk 

1 scoop Impact whey vanilla flavour

1 tablespoon 100% natural peanut butter 

1 tablespoon Greek yoghurt

Directions:

Blend all ingredients for 30 seconds 

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Total body fat loss workout

Today's workout was a total body fat loss one, with a hip focus.

Dynamic warm up 

Shoulder joint stability:

- External rotation standing

- Supine internal/external rotation 

Plyometrics and core x 3 rounds

1a) Skaters (lateral single leg jump) x6 each leg

1b) Cable chops x 12 each side (horizontal, low to high, high to low)

1c) Jump lunges with med ball rotation x 6 

Strength training:

2a) Deadlifts 3 x 8

2b) Push up to row 3 x 12

3a) Dumbbell clean and press

3b) Jump lunges 

4a) Single leg hip bridge x 12 each leg 

4b) Standing biceps curl x 12

4c) Supine Triceps extension 

Conditioning x 3-5 rounds:

5a) Heavy battling ropes - slams x 30seconds

30 seconds rest

5b) Mountain climbers x 30 seconds 

30 seconds rest

Cool down and stretch off x10 - 15 minutes whilst having a post workout shake

My favourite is a Impact vanilla whey with 100% natural peanut butter

Click here to see how it's made

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8 nutrition tips to get lean

How do I burn fat? How do I get lean?  Probably the most common question I hear from current and potential clients. Nutrition is the biggest part to this equation and I’ve got some great tips to help you below.

1. Increase protein levels - A high-protein diet will not only stimulate hypertrophy (muscle building) but it can also enhance fat loss. Researchers found that significantly more body fat was lost by subjects who followed a high-protein diet (40% of total daily calories from protein) for eight weeks, than those who followed a low-fat/high-carb diet. The increased levels of peptide YY, a hormone that tells the brain to decrease hunger, is one reason behind why eating more protein can help burn more fat.
Protein levels can also be increased through supplements. We recommend MyProtein because of it's high quality and low prices. Click here to visit their website.

2. Complex carbs - Choose slow-digesting whole grains such as brown rice, brown pasta and 100% whole-wheat bread to keep insulin levels low and steady. These foods will prevent insulin spikes from halting fat-burning ensure you don’t turn your body ito a fat-storing machine. A study conducted at Pennsylvania State University found that subjects following a low-calorie diet with carbs coming only from whole grains lost significantly more abdominal fat than those following a low-calorie diet with carbs from refined sources.

3. Add fats - Certain fats like omega-3s will not lead to fat gain, instead, they will actually stimulate fat loss. Eating fat to lose fat doesn’t sound like it should work, but if you keep your fat intake at about 30% of your total daily calories by choosing fatty fish such as salmon, sardines or trout as well as other healthy fat sources such as olive oil, peanut butter and walnuts, you can actually boost your fat loss efforts.

4. Eggs! - Eggs are packed with protein. They have been shown to help with muscle strength and mass. Research shows that consuming eggs for breakfast not only eat fewer calories throughout the day but also will help you to lose significantly more body fat. Scrambled eggs in the morning with some spinach and tomatoes is my recommendation.

5. More milk - Dairy products are rich in calcium. This property can help promote fat loss due to the fact that calcium regulates the hormone calcitriol. This hormone causes the body to produce fat and inhibit fat-burning. When calcium levels are adequate, calcitriol and fat production are suppressed while fat-burning is enhanced. Adding foods like low-fat cottage cheese, milk and yogurt (Greek or natural) to your diet are great ways to boost protein intake and aid fat loss.

6. Make it spicy - Hot peppers contain an ingredient called capsaicin. This is a chemical that has been proven to promote calorie-burning at rest as well as reduce hunger and food intake. Particularly effective when used with caffeine, it has also been shown to boost fat-burning during exercise.

7. Eat more nuts - Be sure to include nuts such as walnuts, almonds, Brazil nuts and macadamia in your diet. Significantly more body fat was lost during a study from Loma Linda university (California) when subjects opted for a low-calorie, high fat diet when the majority of their fats came from almonds in 24 weeks.

8. Go organic - Ofcourse, this option can be more expensive, but UK scientists found that organic milk had about 70% more omega-3 fatty acids than conventional milk, and a study published in the Journal of Dairy Science found that grass-fed cows produced milk containing 500% more conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) than cows who were fed grains. Organically raised cattle also produce meat that contains higher levels of CLA and omega-3 fats. So it would make sense to opt for the more expensive organic meat, cheese, cottage cheese, milk and yogurt as it has been shown that the extra properties it has like the omega 3’s and CLA has been shown to promote more fat loss and stimulate muscle growth.

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LOSE THAT GUT - I'm calling on males who want to shift that beer belly and get lean CLICK HERE to find out more 

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Matt
Fitness & Performance Coach | Sports Massage Therapist
Synergy Fitness Systems

Your core training is wrong - Top 5 core exercises

I think it's been known for a long time now that a few sets of sit ups at the end of your workout isn't going to increase your core strength.

That being said, I still do not believe the majority of people give their core training too much thought, and definitely think most people aren't incorporating the most effective core training strategies into their workout programs. 

Why bother with core training?

Your core, is often referred to as the power zone. It is responsible for the efficient transfer of force from your lower body to upper body. If your core is poorly conditioning, your movements which require sufficient stability will become compromised and may well lead to an injury. You core will also help to resist against external forces to keep you safe and injury free. 

How do you effectively train your core?
Firstly you need to see which muscles are involved in the group known as "The Core". They include deep muscles around the trunk that act like a corsette and keep you stable as well as more superficial muscles which help with movement:

Rectus Abdominis - The most superficial muscles located at the front of the abdomen.
Transverse Abdominis (TVA) - located under the obliques, it is the deepest of the abdominal muscles.
Erector Spinae - This group of runs from your neck to your lower back.
Multifidus - Muscles under the erector spinae along the vertebral column.
External Obliques - located on the side and front of the abdomen.
Internal Obliques - located under the external obliques, running in the opposite direction.
Gluteus medius and minimus - Muscles at the side of the hip
Gluteus maximus, piriformis - Muscles at the back of the hip.
Hip Flexors - located in front of the pelvis and upper thigh. 


These muscles are responsible for resisting different movements like spinal hyper extension, excessive lateral trunk flexion as well as unwanted trunk rotation. Whereas they are also useful in initiating their own movements allowing your torso and hips to rotate, flex, extend and laterally flex.

After identifying which muscles and movements are involved in core training, then you must think about how to apply forces to the body to challenge these muscles. 


 
What are the top 5 core exercises?

i) Roll out (Anti extension)

This exercise is top of the list because not only does it massivley challenge the core not to over extend the spine, but it can also be scaled down and used with many different pieces of equipment to suit availability of equipment.

 









ii) Side plank
The side plank is a great exercises because it challenges the muscles that resist lateral flexion. It also works the muscles of the gluteal complex as you are actively pressing your knee or foot into the floor, thus actively abducting at your hip.

 

iii) Anti rotation - Stir the pot
An exercise I have developed with my clients, stir the pot challenges you from shoulders down to hips. Works the core muscles responsible for anti rotation. A great exercise for sports people - think about being tackled around the torso in rugby, this exercise will increase your strength to resist the external force making you rotate. 
See how its done CLICK HERE


iv) Plank on gym ball
Another exercise that resists spinal hyper extension. This is an isometric exercise meaning the muscles involved contract without lengthening or shortening. The gym ball adds increased instability to challenge your core more, but scale back by removing the gym ball if that is your current level. CLICK HERE to see how it's done.

v) Hip bridge 
Not always associated with core training, this exercises primarily focuses on strengthening the gluteal complex through hip extension. However, increase the difficulty by performing a single leg hip bridge or by adding a gym ball. CLICK HERE to see a barbell hip bridge


I like to incorporate core training into my client's workouts before the main strength section. This way, it becomes a priority and not an afterthought.

So give these exercises a go. If you have any questions or feedback just contact me. I'd love to hear what your favourite core exercises are.

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Matt

4 exercises to avoid - Beginner's Fitness Guide

Ok so by now, if you started your training plan in January, you should be familiarised with your gym and some different exercises. (If not, then take a look at my previous blog post demonstrating 5 exercises you should be do as a beginner) 

As well as recommending some excellent exercises, I also try to avoid giving new exercises to some of my clients who happen to be beginners.

1. High impact exercises

Running, jumping, twisting and turning are some of the things you do not want to be doing as a beginner. This is because your joints, muscles, tendons and ligaments are just not ready for it. These structures of your body need time to adapt to this type of load you are placing on them. If you're not willing to build up to it, you will get injured and experience joint pain. Give it a few weeks, follow our programs and you will build the foundations to excel physically. 

Alternatives: Bike, rowing machine, cross trainer.

2. Anything using a smith machine

If this machine is in your program, remove it immediately. The smith machine is designed to assist you during your exercises but in my opinion this simply leads to reinforcmenet of bad movement patterns. Take a squat for example, using the smith machine you don't need to worry about keeping your spine protected by correctly bracing, you forget about contracting your stabilising muscles and all you need to do is squat down and stand up. You are doing yourself an injustice if you use the smith machine because by developing all of those muscles and finding correct form through the movment whilst performing a regular barbell squat, your body development will be accelerated as you will become stronger and more stable through other movements. 

People argue that it is an easy way to teach good form...I say that is rubbish. If you want to teach good form, you should do it by practicing the REAL movment, without any load and gradually build up.

Alternatives: Body weight exercises.

3. Crunches

Now this exercise is not in my list of things to avoid because it's a bad exercise.In fact, your abdominals are important mucles which need to be developed as any other. However, the reason I say to avoid this exercise if you're a beginner, is because I feel beginners place their hopes on the crunch. Beginners feels that by doing this exercise, they will magically become thin around the waist and develop a fine set of visible abs. When in reality, this is far from correct. The real focus for a beginner should be developing deeper core muscles, creating the foundations to work from in the future.

Alternatives: Plank, side plank, pilates exercises.

4. Upright row

This exercise can be performed correctly, and can be effective. However, too much emphasis is placed on increasing the load and lifitng as much as possible, no matter what the form may look like. This is a recipe for shoulder problems, usually a niggling shoulder injury that doesn't seem to go away. Who wants that right? I feel this exercise places the performer into too much loaded internal rotation at the shoulder. If there are weak rotator cuff muscles present, this is not going to end well. The focus should be on creating a strong joint by working on the rotator cuff strength. See how to do that here 

Alternatives: Seated dumbbell lateral raise, shoulder shrugs, Real delt raise.

So if you're a beginner, try to avoid these exercises and focus on creating solid foundations to avoid injury and allow you perform at your best during every workout.

This weekend Synergy Fitness Systems are offering our newsletter subscribers 2 more unbeatable deals at MyProtein. 
Sign up for FREE here to receive great deals like 25% off Whey protein and 40% off fat burners. 

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Weekend supplement sale continues - More great offers

It's day 3 of the massive MyProtein weekend sale and we've got all of today's discount codes below.

We have also put together some recommended bundles for you so keep reading.

But first, let's take a look at today unbeatable offers:

- 20% off the 15 best sellers at MyProtein.

CLICK HERE and use code: 2015

- 40% off fat burners

CLICK HERE and use code: BYEBYE

- 25% off Impact whey protein (Excluding unflavoured)

CLICK HERE and use code: NUM1

- Up to 30% off your order (selected products)

Basically, there is a selection of products (some of which included in our bundles below) the more you buy, the more discount you get

CLICK HERE and use code:

Buy 1 selected product and save 15% off your ENTIRE order use code: ONE

Buy 2 selected products and save 20% off your ENTIRE order use code: TWO

Buy 3 selected products and save 30% off your ENTIRE order use code: THREE

We have more!

Check out our recommended bundles below as well sa our favourite pre workout supplements from MyProtein

Pre Workout
Product	Size	Servings	Price
My Pre	500g	Up to 31	£24.99
Pulse V4	500g	Up to 58	£19.99
Pulse:Gel	12x50g sachets	12	£9.74

Muscle and strength bundle 1
Product	Size	Servings	Price
Hurricane XS	2.5kg	35	£32.99
BCAA	120 tablets	60	£17.99

Muscle and strength bundle 2
Product	Size	Servings	Price
Impact whey protein	2.5kg	Up to 100	£26.49
Creatine monohydrate	500g	Up to 100	£6.69

Weight loss bundle
Product	Size	Servings	Price
Impact diet whey	1.45kg	25	£19.49
Thermopure	90 tablets	30-45	£13.99
Omega 3	90 softgels	45	£4.99
CLA	60 softgels	30-90	£7.99

This weekend Synergy Fitness Systems are offering our newsletter subscribers 2 more unbeatable deals at MyProtein

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Matt