So it was with delight that I opened a mystery envelope this week to unearth a CD full of “choons” designed for the gym. Hoorah! Thank you, Defected Records and DJ Sam Divine.

Defected, the house music people, released the first edition of Defected Bodymusic (“I Like Exercise, But I Love Music”) last Summer. Now, they’ve brought out “Body Music Workout”, three new one-hour mixes (Run, Gym and Chillout Stretch), all mixed by Defected DJ Sam Divine. Here she is, being a lot cooler than I am.

Run is full of uplifting, bouncy beats and up tempo tracks, Gym – so the press release tells me – is deep grooves, and the Chillout & Stretch is a down tempo, melodic and hypnotic mix.

Well, I go to the gym, so I opted for the Gym CD. No flies on me! Here’s the link to it on iTunes. The mix starts off with a short “warm-up” section, which is slow but funky, before launching into the main workout section. It’s not as hardcore or fast as I expected, but then it is aimed at training in the gym, not pelting round a running track or something. It’s around an hour long and I guess an hour of techno would be a bit much, particularly in combination with a pre-workout supplement or a strong espresso. The mix is more lyrical, with plenty of tracks I recognised (but not ones which I’d heard too often already) and all of them worked their way into my head during the hour. There’s then a short cool-down section, which is slower and gentler. Full details in the blurb below, and here’s a screenshot of the tracklisting.

Here’s the blurb on all three, not just the one I tested out:

Defected presents Bodymusic Run (DJ Workout 2) – Uplifting and soulful with a bouncy beat that’s fast moving between tracks. It contains a main workout mix plus bonus warm up and cool down mixes. Based around classic uplifting house vocals from ATFC, Dennis Ferrer, The Shapeshifters and Kings Of Tomorrow amongst many others, there are plenty of house anthems and familiar disco hooks to keep energy levels high…

Defected presents Bodymusic Gym (DJ Workout 3) – Deeper grooves with contagious, head-nodding and toe tapping beats, surrounded by the coolest vocals. It contains a main workout mix plus bonus warm up and cool down mixes. More suited to a gym workout on machines or with free weights and interval training, the music is a little tougher and certainly more epic. Once again, there’s plenty to be familiar with: Bob Sinclar is joined by Sandy Rivera, Haji & Emanuel and Tensnake and with many of the vocal tracks there’s plenty lyrically to get inside your head and really push you to achieve the ultimate training goal.

Defected presents Bodymusic Chillout, Stretch & Tone (DJ Workout 4) – Melodic and hypnotic, with a seamless flow of quality chillout vocal house tracks. It contains two de-stressing DJ mixes. With this edition we explore another side to fitness, with slowed down sounds for a more sensual workout. Better suited to stretching, Yoga and Pilates, the focus is on well-being with house music for the mind, body and soul. Favourites from Afterlife, Louie Vega, Guitarra G, DJ Gregory and Dubtribe Sound System are included to transport you to a different place.

Sound good, don’t they? All three are available on iTunes now and are a bargain-tastic £4.99. I think I’m going to get the other two, actually!

Thank you, Defected!

What’s your favourite kind of music to listen to whilst training? Are you a cool, house music type or stuck in a boy-band jag like me like some people I’ve heard about?

Fitness kit I’ve tested this week: Bodymusic Gym CD mix is a post from The Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.

I told you a while ago that Castle Gym, a bodybuilding/powerlifting gym not too far from me, offered me free membership. I love training at Castle (I tend to go there for my “big lifts” days – legs, back, chest) and am convinced it’s going to transform my training this year. In fact, it already has. So, a massive thank you to Jason and everyone else at Castle. I really am grateful for the membership and love training at your facility.

Then there’s my local gym, St Crispins (a Harper’s gym). A while ago, their PR people asked me to send a few bodybuilding photos and give a little comment about my experiences of training at St Crispins. I was happy to; I’ve trained there for years, during my swimming days, my triathlon days, my oh-my-god-I-love-Les-Mills-classes! days. The staff are wonderful, have been so supportive of my bodybuilding training, and are the first people I ran to with my trophies last season.

What I didn’t anticipate was the offer of free PT. Not just a couple of sessions, but a session a week throughout my 2012 prep. Thank you, thank you! (Although I’m not sure “thank you” will be quite the two words I’ll utter doing a conditioning PT session at St Crispins the day after doing legs at Castle…!)

On another note, the Jodie Marsh bodybuilding TV show was aired last night, but I didn’t get to see it because I don’t have Sky or Virgin. Jodie competed last year with the NPA and placed 5th at the Mike Williams Classic. I’m sure I’ll catch the show at some point but, in the meantime, did you see it? What did you think? If you didn’t know much about competitive bodybuilding, did anything surprise you?

Oh, one more thing! My fellow Physique competitor Anna Millington (who had a completely stellar year in 2011, culminating in a World Title) has written a fascinating report of her 2011 season – and everything which led to that high point in her bodybuilding career – on the NPA site. Read it here – it’s long, but worth it.

A couple of thank yous (and did you watch the Jodie Marsh bodybuilding show?) is a post from The Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.

I was recently sent a couple of items from Bio Synergy. For the past 10 years, the brand has been creating high quality nutritional supplements, ranging from sports performance to slimming products. Their latest range – Body Perfect supplements – use various natural extracts like green tea, resveratrol and acai berry, to boost results.

First up, I tried the Skinny Protein Shake in the strawberry flavour. This whey powder (which also has soya extract) contains extra ingredients to help control appetite and encourage fat loss: green tea, guarana, chromium (which can reduce sugar cravings) and l-carnitine. It also packs a hefty protein punch, as you’d expect. I like the sound of those extra ingredients, and indeed most of them are supplements I already take. What about the taste and mixability of the powder? It mixed very well and was pretty sweet (sweetened with sucralose) and light tasting, quite like a milkshake I guess. I’ve said before that I’m not a huge fan of berry protein shakes, but if you like strawberry milkshakes, then you’ll probably like this.

With that in mind, I gave my sister some of this to try, and this is what she had to say: “The Bio Synergy Skinny Shake is actually really nice, it mixes together with water really quickly and is very smooth (unlike some protein powders that I’ve found I have to blend, and even then they’re still a bit grainy). I only have to mix this one in the flask thingy you gave me and only have to give it a little shake. The flavour is just right, not sickly or heavy. It’s refreshing and easy to drink quickly! Yum yum, I am looking forward to drinking a lot more of this!”

If you’re interested in introducing the chromium, l-carnitine etc into your nutrition regime, this is certainly a convenient way of doing it, particularly if you’re not confident about adding bits and bobs to your water bottle or taking various pills during the day.

Per 40g serving:
162kcals
30.7g protein
3g carbs (from sugar)
3g fat (2.4g from saturates)

I also tried the Acai Berry capsules. You take two caps a day (2x2000mg) of this extract of acai berry, apparently used by Brazilian aboriginal communities for fat-loss and to combat obesity. The extracts of the purple acai berry, they say, containing anti-oxidants, anti-carcinogens and anti-ageing agents, boosting immunity and metabolism. Acai berry contains EFAs (essential fatty acids), amino acids, phytosterols and antioxidants, as well as fibre and digestive enzymes.

Now, the problem here is this: it’s very difficult for me to say whether one supplement or other truly helps me, unless the results are going to be something very obvious. I’m not obese, I exercise regularly, I eat for fat-loss and I already supplement with lots of other things. So it’s very difficult for me to say whether or not these capsules had an effect. I’m sorry, Bio Synergy people! I can say that they were very easy to take, completely tasteless and gave me nothing in the way of side-effects.

Have you taken Acai supplements? What do you think of them?

Fitness kit I’ve tested this week: Bio Synergy Skinny Protein Shake, Acai Berry capsules is a post from The Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.

Sometimes, when I’m pondering my general awesomeness, I wonder if I’m the only person to have swum the Channel and competed as a natural bodybuilder (perhaps one day I’ll do the research). From the outside looking in, they seem poles apart. But when I think about the two sports from the point of view of the athlete, I realise they’re really not that dissimilar. “But you’d never catch me fannying about on stage in a pair of budgie-smugglers,” the Channel swimmers amongst you cry. “And you wouldn’t catch me getting in that dirty cold water,” the bodybuilders agree.

They’re not so different. To prove it, I’ve conjured up this handy chart (click for a larger version, if my formatting incapabilities render it impossible to see…)

Channel swim vs bodybuilding

Which would you rather do? Jump in the sea in your swimmers all by yourself? Or jump on stage in your swimmers in front of an audience?

Edited to add: it has been pointed out to me that the “you are up at 3am because…” answers are the wrong way round. But you spotted that already, right? *oops*!

Channel swimming vs bodybuilding is a post from The Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.

Apologies as always for iPhone pics – I never said I was a food blogger

I recently got hold of some brown rice protein powder (thanks to Anna at Protein Pow(d)er for the recommendation) and have been wondering how it would bake up alongside some GOOD Hemp Nutrition chocolate hemp protein powder. I used this recipe of Anna’s as a very vague base (OK, so it’s nothing like it, but browsing her amazing recipes got me inspired!)

By the way, GOOD Hemp Nutrition are currently offering a whopping 33% off new online orders, to celebrate the launch of their new website. Go and check the website out and then grab your 33% discount! (Available until 17th January using this link.)

My aim with this recipe was to create a baked thing which would go well with a mid-morning cup of tea/coffee, fit my macros but still be something which a non-bodybuildery type would eat. I love coffee and dark chocolate, so that was the flavour hit of choice. I wanted to use non-whey protein powders.

The resulting muffin was denser, rather than fluffy, but very tasty indeed, ideal with a coffee (even held up to the “dunk test”.)

Next time I might try:
- less egg white/more Kara
- one egg as well as egg whites
- and/or some kind of filling or topping (vanilla protein powder and liquid? Or – if you do dairy – quark/greek yoghurt?)

All in all, two thumbs up. Let me know if you give them a try!

Dairy-free mocha muffins

Assemble your ingredients:

Chocolate brown rice protein powder (I use Growing Naturals currently on offer here)
Chocolate hemp protein powder (I use GOOD Hemp’s)
Liquid egg whites (I use myprotein.com’s)
Non-dairy milk (I love Kara)
Coconut flour (I use Tiana)
Baking powder (I use…er… Tesco’s?)
Not pictured – because I forgot – ground espresso beans (the real stuff not powdered, and dry not ready to drink)

Recipe:
25g chocolate brown rice protein powder
25g chocolate hemp protein powder
150g liquid egg whites
5g coconut flour (a little goes a long way with this stuff)
Splash (aka 25g) non-dairy milk
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp espresso grinds (or to taste)

Use a blender or bowl ‘n whisk to mix it all together. I just do it in one go. Add the baking powder last.

Pour into muffin cakes (I use silicone ones). Sprinkle a little extra espresso on top if you like (I do).

Bake at gas 6 for 15-18 minutes.

Allow to cool (at least a little bit). Eat!

Stats per muffin (I got five out of this mix… even though there are only four in the picture… ahem):

Monday baking: dairy-free mocha muffins is a post from The Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.

There are six products available in the new pouches: MAX® True Whey, MAX® Hurricane Evo
, MAX® Total Gainer
, MAX® Total Peptide, MAX® Creastorm and MAX® Recovery Evo.

There’s also MAX® Elle True Diet, which I tested out. I really liked this product, and if it wasn’t for the fact that I’m trying to stick to non-whey protein powders this year, I’d order it in a flash. Here’s why:

- it tasted great (I tried the chocolate flavour) and mixed up really smoothly. I made it as a kind of pudding, just by adding a little water and mixing thoroughly. It was lovely
- it’s full of extra ingredients which are there to support weight gain and give you a boost in the gym, and which I think would make it a great option for taking before morning cardio (Green Tea extract, Guarana, Chromium, CLA, EFAs)
- it’s also got fibre (something we all need more of) and carbohydrates, from low GI sources
- it really seemed to zap my sweet tooth, even though it was sweet and chocolatey. I guess that’s the fibre and caffeine? Or perhaps the Bioperine®, which helps the absorption of nutrients.

A word of warning: I didn’t do my research, and picked up the sample pack to take with me to a late-night appointment. I then wondered why I had real trouble sleeping that night. Not one to take late in the day, particularly if you’re sensitive to caffeine.

The verdict on MAX® Elle True Diet? All good! It’s just a shame I’m avoiding whey. Sorry, MP! If I change my mind, I’ll be ordering a (foil!) pouch of this.

The other product I tried was MP’s pre-workout, Pulse® . This is full of whizzy things to give you a big boost before you hit the gym, great for days when you’re feeling a bit tired or know you need a lot of focus. Let’s see, it’s got Tyrosine, Glucuronolactone, Guarana and Chocamine® Plus (this stuff is potent! you can buy it by itself from the MP website and a little goes a very long way). There’s also CEE (Creatine Ethyl Ester HCl) in there, and a dose of Beta Alanine: two performance boosting supplements which have been shown to promote power output and ward off fatigue.

I can’t say for sure whether Pulse® gave me a boost, because I tried it whilst training with my new friend Amie, and we were both over-excited to the point of hysteria, but what I can say is that I ought to have been very tired for our training sessions (late nights the night before!) and I wasn’t. And I seem to remember we trained for a very long time, actually! Tastewise – two thumbs up. Berry-ish. (It’s called Berry Blast, so that shouldn’t come as a surprise).

Myprotein recently announced price cuts of up to 50% on over 100 products – these are long term price reductions across some of the most popular products. As most bodybuilders will agree, this can be an expensive sport, so moves like this are appreciated: thanks, MP!

Thanks for the samples, myprotein people!

Fitness kit I’ve tested this week: myprotein Pulse, myprotein Elle True Diet is a post from The Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.

So, I wasn’t altogether surprised to find myself training legs last weekend with WNBF Pro Helen Stack: former NPA overall champion, INBF World Champion and WPF Miss Universe.

You see, when I started to get focused on my own 2012 goals, I put together my mood board thingy for the kitchen. It comprises a slightly tongue-in-cheek, slightly disturbing mathematical equation, played out in picture form:

(A x B) + C = X, where A is Helen Stack, B is Patricia Beckman and C is me. X is unknown outcome.

It’s highly doubtful I’ll ever train legs (or anything else for that matter) with Patricia, what with her living in America and everything. But the law of attraction (and…er…the fact that she lives locally) meant that, a few days into 2012, I found myself training with Helen.

And what a session it was! Want to know what we did? OK.

- Box squats (new to me – sitting back and down onto a low box which is placed within the squat rack). I think I did 2 warm up sets and 7 working sets (ay caramba).
- Vertical leg press – single legs and both legs. Helen did immensely more weight than me, I can’t even remember what she did but it was crazy. I did 5 sets.
- Leg extension (machine) – single legs and both legs, with a horrible “pulse and hold” thing dreamed up by Helen in the depths of her Pro-bodybuildery brain. I ended up covering my eyes and kind of screaming during these. 4 sets.
- Standing hamstring curls, 6 sets
- Lying hamstring curls, 4 sets
- Donkey calf raises, 3 sets

Helen doesn’t often train at Castle Gym but, from time to time, she pops in, and hopefully we’ll get to train again soon. I’m absolutely loving training there! The kit, atmosphere and other people are really motivating.

Which athlete from your chosen sport would you like to train with? From my “other life”, I’d love to swim in the sea with Lynne Cox (and some seals).

Leg training with Helen Stack is a post from The Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.

I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t think to head to Tesco (other supermarkets are available ) for a protein hit. Other than, perhaps, rotisserie chicken. Even so, that’s a bit tricky to eat whilst driving out of the carpark.

Obviously it’s best not to be in a position where you need to buy anything from the supermarket on which to snack, but life isn’t perfect. So, Tesco’s Nutri1st Advanced products – a new range of protein shakes and bars – could come in handy.

According to the press release, the Tesco bods have crafted this range with the bamboozled in mind. The products have been designed to make it easier to select a protein product to support your sporting goals. Additionally, the decision was made to have packaging which doesn’t feature muscly models, the idea being that these products might appeal to people who have just started out on their fitness quest.

There are six types of products, all of which are clearly labelled with their intended purpose: muscle definition and strength, lean muscle growth, maximum muscle growth, increasing size and strength, early morning workouts and non workout days and bedtime. I’m not sure there’s a distinct difference between all six, but I can see the value in assisting people new to protein supplementation. The products include only natural colours and flavours across the entire range.

Nutri-Whey Extra – for supporting muscle definition and strength
These high-protein, low-carb shakes and bars contain a triple combination of whey proteins (isolate, concentrate and hydrolysate). I sampled two flavours of the shakes (at around 130 cals, 24g protein, 3g carbs and 2g fat per 34g serving) – strawberries and cream, and chocolate. Both £22 for a 1kg tub. They were perfectly nice tasting, but I’m more interested in what’s in them. As well as the triple hit of wheys, you get amino acids and an enzyme complex, to make the shake more easily digestable. You also get sucralose, unfortunately. In terms of taste, I wasn’t hugely keen on the strawberry (but it’s never my favourite flavour) and thought it was very sweet, but the chocolate was good.

I also tried one of the Nutri-whey extra bars (strawberry again) which was nice, but coated in a chocolate-flavoured layer so, essentially, a protein-rich candy bar. £1.25 for the 60g bar. At 190 cals, 18g protein, 20.3g carbs and 4.7g fat per 60g bar, it’s a decent protein hit for sure, and a better choice than a chocolate bar, but I’d suggest there are better bars out there (or better things to munch on from the supermarket) than a bar covered in sucralose and palm kernel oil. Mind you, I munched my way through it perfectly happily so who am I to tell you what to eat! On the plus side, this bar is bigger than a lot of protein bars out there. In texture, it was chewy rather than crispy or crunchy.

Nutri-Lean Extra – for lean muscle growth
The shakes and bars in this range contain metabolism-boosting ingredients as well as whey protein. I was sent one of the bars in the range, a chocolate/mint concoction. £1.25 for a 40g bar. At 144kcals, 18.7g protein, 11.8g carbs and 3.3g fat per 40g bar, it’s a good chunk of protein but I have to say I wasn’t a fan of the texture. It was a little chalky. The ingredients of note here are good old CLA (1097mg per 100g – the bar is 40g), green tea extract (430mg per 100g), and l-carnitine. To be honest I’m not sure that the thermogenic ingredients would offset the fact that, again, you’re eating the bar’s coating, with ingredients like sugar and glucose syrup. Although the bar is surely a better choice than a Twix or something like that, and undeniably delivers a good hit of protein.

Nutri-Power Complete – help support maximum muscle growth as part of your exercise plan
The shakes and bars in this range are branded as all-rounders, with whey and soya protein, plenty of carbohydrates and supplements including creatine, l-glutamine and HMB. I tried the raspberry and honey flapjack bar which was tasty and carby, but pretty sweet (as you’d expect from something called a honey flapjack). £1.25 for the bar. Per 60g bar (again, it’s a decent size), you’re getting 215kcals, 20.6g protein, 25.8g carbs and 4.7g fat. Not one to choose whilst dieting or trying to having a low-carb day, and I’m not sure that I’d choose a bar with this many sweeteners if there were other options available.

In summary, I think these products are a good entry-level range for people who don’t know about sports supplements and would feel confused or intimidated by some of the existing brands. The packaging does explain in simple terms what the ingredients are useful for. However, for me, the amount of sugar and sweeteners, and vegetable oils, mean I’m unlikely to choose the bars over products from other ranges (in truth I’d rather bake my own!) But I appreciate that a lot of people simply don’t know where to start when it comes to supplementing with quick-grab protein before or after training, and wouldn’t know where to start when it comes to mixing up creatine, l-glutamine, etc for themselves.

The range also includes Nutri-Gain Extra – for increasing size and strength, Nutri1st Advanced Breakfast Shakes – ideal for early morning gym goers and Nutri1st Advanced Staged Release Shake – ideal for non-workout days and bedtime. The range is available in store or from Tesco Direct.

Have you tried anything from Tesco’s Nutri1st Advanced range? What did you think?

Fitness kit I’ve tested this week: Tesco Nutri1st Advanced protein products is a post from The Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.

I hereby present to you: Notch Watch, episode 1, January 2012. In which I managed to reach four notches on the belt. (Yes, it’s pulled very tight – it’s meant to be.)

Stayed tuned for further episodes of Notch Watch, which will feature fewer inches of waist, and more notches of belt. I bet you can’t wait.

Notch Watch 2012 is a post from The Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.

Yesterday, we got stuck in straightaway with a hefty quads and calves session: sumo squats, regular squats with the Olympic bar, split squats, leg press, calves and then a nasty finisher (I think I blogged about it here). Then some abs (Amie’s abs are to die for and I was hoping some of it would rub off on me!)

Today, we went to town on our chest and delts: some mobilisation work, then bench presses (50kgs for me – yay!), incline dumbbell flys, shoulder supersets, some sneaky things Kenny told Amie (and, with shoulders like his, who’s going to argue?), chest press machine superset with reverse fly machine then some shoulder finishers. Ouch!

Tomorrow we’re going to meet one final time to work whatever we feel needs working! Possibly glutes and hamstrings, possibly biceps and triceps, maybe back. It’s great to have someone here with whom I can train hard, chat about prep and talk through all the feelings, joys and fears of competing. Amie is hoping to compete in the Figure class at the BNBF Welsh this coming July. I think she’s going to do brilliantly. She has a beautiful shape with the tiniest waist, and she’s tall and elegant. She’s overcome some challenges to put on an impressive amount of muscle, and she works damn hard, so she’ll no doubt put on a bit more yet. I’m so pleased we got to train together! Thank you, Amie!

Blind date training is a post from The Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.