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I have some big interviews planned in a new section called Meetings with Masters and will be getting all the best info in the fields of strength, nutrition, fat loss, injury rehab, kettlebells etc I know I have been banging on about these points on this blog for ages but its good to get some outside input also.

I will also be doing what I think will become the most read section of my new site. I will wait until I get this started and keep you posted when it comes up.

Remember I am now on Twitter so join and subscribe when you get a minute. http://twitter.com/#!/dominicmunnelly

It’s not finished yet but I will be writing articles and working on getting my book up there in the future for people to buy.

Just keep swinging and do not stop

A step forward I hope and let me know what you like or dislike about the new site.

The cat is coming with me.

Thanks for all your support. Thoughts and comments to the comments section below.

So what do I recommend that you ask for this xmas? Well here are just a few suggestions -

1. Books – the only difference between who you are and what you are now and in 10 years time is dictated by the books you read and the people you meet. Please read more and here are a few books I think you might enjoy.

One of the most complete diet books written – Primal Blueprint

Robb Wolf’s Paleo Book (his podcast is excellent also – The Paleo Solution

A very intersting read and one of my fave books of the last year – Bad Science

If this is as good as his last book it will become a must buy – The 4 hour body

The video for the 4 hour body is unlike anything I have seen before when advertising fitness/exercise books. Very motivational and not a single lady doing biceps curls with water bottles or deadlifts with a rounded back in sight (both seen in a recent Irish fitness book I picked up). Insulting to women and just disapponting.

2. Equipment – Runners. God I love my new zoot’s! Get them here Super super light, no faffing with laces and sooo comfortable.

My Zoot's!!

Underarmour or Skins - essential kit for the cold weather and they are now available in most good outdoors or sports shops. I would favour the skins myself.

Essential for staying warm yet breathable also

Bands, foam rolls and kettlebells – it really depresses me when I hear people that want to buy a set of weights for Christmas. You might as well buy an Ab circle pro or some other piece of junk that’s just going to take up wayyy to much space and you can get your fitness and muscle toning/building kicks done with far less. We are in a recession yet people still maintain gym memberships to a facility they barely use or could have gotten their workout done in the time it took to get to the gym. Go figure and remember most gyms will sell you the Carlsberg gym concept but deliver very very little in the way of good instruction, progressive exercise and effective training

I really think all most people need is a set of bands, a good mat, foam roll and 1-2 kettlebells. Here’s why – Bands              and           Kettlebells

Here is a really simple workout using kettlebells for those that want highly effective and fat burning workouts. Train smarter NOT longer.

3. Treats. I’m a firm believer that if I am going to have something that I know is not great for me then I want the very best. I absolutely love chocolate and coffee but will only buy high quality. Better quality does not mean it’s going to cost lots as many supermarkets in Ireland will carry very nice dark chocolate (mars bars, aero’s, buttons etc are NOT chocolate – they are sugar, vegetable oil and a tiny amount of chocolate) and I love Tesco’s finest 70% dark choc, Lidl’s 70% dark and Aldi’s 72% dark. However, this is still without question the best I have tasted but it is pricey. 

For great coffee you just have to get a good coffee machine, a good grinder, freshly roasted beans and you will be able to create stunning coffee without the excessive cost and poor quality (don’t get me started on Starbucks muck) that you are forced to buy in the shops. Get stunning coffee from Hasbean - open the bag – soak up that lovely coffee aroma – grind – pop in machine and enjoy. If you want to know what great coffee tastes like and are in Dublin then please pop into Third Floor Espresso or the bald barista

I am not exagerating when I say it’s a game changer experience. You might just feel like you have been cheated when paying for coffee in the past.

4. Vouchers. Finally I have to end with a plug for myself as every year I get requests for vouchers for loved ones to avail of my services or for existing clients looking for their loved one(s) to pay for my services. If you need a voucher then pop me a mail to dominic@thetransformationcatalyst.com which I can email on.



http://www.dermadental.ie/

For perfect white teeth

Keep up the workouts leading up to Christmas and remeber to earn those treats!

With this in mind you really need to have a look at any of the following three ultimate home workout threads (one more to follow soon) and pick a few that you can do easily with little to no equipment.

Ultimate home workouts 1

Ultimate home workouts 2

Ultimate home workouts 3

You really need a home workout asap. Step away from the table now

Many of these workouts will take less than 20mins so no excuses just pick one now, warm up and 20mins from now you will be feeling 100% more energetic and will have earned those treats that are so tempting on a cold winters day.

Snow time for excuses NOT to exercise

If you are like me then you will venture out in the snow get a good long walk or even a calorie burning naked snow clearing . Remember naked exercise in the snow burns 10 times more calories than regular exercise – FACT!!

The Chippendales of Mens health!

Most guys are encouraged by magazines to train so they too can have ripped abs. Now I’m all for getting guys to drop fat belly and moobs, hit the weights and eat healthier but what these magazines are selling is false. They display guys with good abs but all it’s really showing is a guy that got his diet on track and stripped away the fat. This does in no way mean that his abs or core is strong. It is my contention that looking like you are fit and strong are not the same as actually being fit and strong. You can’t show me a picture of a guy with a 6-pack or hell an 8-pack and say his core must be unbelievably strong. Only a video will show me that as there are plenty of guys that have a low body fat, have chiseled abs yet possibly wouldn’t last five minutes in any of the metcons I or most of my clients would do. If you want to have that pretty boy look and give the illusion that you are in super shape then thats easy as all you have to do is get really really tight on your diet (that’s critical)  and do some weights and cardio. However, that is not sexy and magazines just love to make something superficially exciting.

Ok here is a perfect exmaple of what I am talking about and it’s taken directly from the mens health site and I am just picking a very typical example. Meet Jan Schumacher (bloody great name to begin with!!).

Jan, all 6ft 1in and 11stone 8lbs of pure manness!

To start with Jan looks great and the guys the pick up a copy of the magazine are again sold on the superficial i.e. just look at the titles of the articles surrounding the picture. My personal fave is beach ready in 2 weeks. The only thing that’s going to be ready in a time frame of 2 weeks is getting your bloody bag packed for the trip!

Getting back to the lovely Jan. His profile gives plenty of sound advice like drink more water, eat more good protein sources and restrict your alcohol intake. However, his following tips were total clangers for me.  

• Train each muscle with three (not 2, not 4, not 5) different exercises, three sets at a time and for 9reps. Ok lets do that for say a chest and triceps day (God I hate those split programs). That might look like bench press, flys and decline bench press. He also recommends a tempo of 4secs lowering the weight and 1sec up x 9reps and a 1min break = at least 6-10mins per exercise (remember there are 3 exercises). Well that’s at least a good 20mins just to do your chest and you have yet to hit the outer head of your triceps for which according to Jan you are going to need another 20mins. Sounds like Jan has a whole lot of time to burn in his workouts, but wait there’s more…
• Do your cardio workouts for at least 25 minutes: you only hit your most efficient fat-burning zone after 20 minutes of pounding the pavement or the pedals. Wow another great tip from the lovely Jan! Well Jan can you please explain why my clients NEVER and I mean never do any straight cardio in our sessions yet manage to burn ample amounts of fat? Has he even heard or read up on the massive amounts of research that shows shorter and more intense sessions produce the most fat loss? May be a good plug for 10-20mins excellent workouts in my home workout section here.

Ok so lets get to the final and for me the most important point. Jan is 6ft 1in and is just slightly over 11 and a half stone. Now in my books that’s just plain skinny and there are girls heavier and leaner than him. I’m an inch taller and 2 and a half stone heavier! I would absolutely dwarf him. I am sure Jan hits his workouts hard but the point is that just because he has a 6-pack does in no way what so ever mean he is strong. So can you show me a strong core via a picture? I certainly don’t think so and for this reason I give you some videos of a strong core in action.

The first is my good self in a workout that takes 10mins – do I really look like I care about the optimal fat burning zone or 3 sets per muscle group?

The second is one of my hero’s Chris Spealler doing a Turkish Get up with his wife. Now try that with a 30kg dumbbell and you will quickly see your core strength or weakness.

Ok just one more short one. Chris Spealler again and pound for pound one of the greatest athletes on the planet. Do you think he even cares about a 6 pack?

Give me more real men that can run, move and actually display great strength rather than pretty boy models that largely just look good but have very very little to back it up. I am sick of guy’s preoccupation with getting a 6-pack when they won’t get the basics of their training and diet right. The girls below have better work capacity than most of the guys I see in gyms doing in their day to day training. It’s time men started being men again, dropped the moobs and bloated belly,  focused more on better performance, full body workouts with the importnat lifts, a good diet and workout plans that produce superior results without focusing on superficial goals like getting a 6 pack.

I would consider a kettlebell, a foam roller, a lacrosse ball, a good mat and a band essential workout equipement. I have covered why these are important training tools and how you are going to massively benefit from using them here -

Kettlebells – the perfect workout tool

The three most important prehab/rehab tools you must own

Your program sucks and here’s why

In this blog post I am focusing on the latter piece that I mentioned – the band. I recommend the Iron woody bands as they take a massive amount of abuse, they are not flimsy and light and are perfect for home or to make your workouts portable. I did this video to highlight just some of the movements you can use it for.

So many people are quick to buy useless pieces of equipment that come with inflated promises and can be very expensive yet it is always the simple tools that produce lasting results.

Take the ab circle pro video below. The secret here is get a woman that looks fab, wears hot short-shorts, has big boobs, recently lost weight, relatively well know and attribute all that to a €100+ machine. Bands are NOT sexy but jasus maybe I just need to sell out and get myself a bogus piece of equipment I can flog and convince people they too can look just like me for just €99.99!!

I like this version -

I have the bands available in two resistance levels so mail or call me if you want me to hold on to a pair for you to pick up.

Crossfit Ireland are running  a mobility workshop on the 4th December. This is the link – http://crossfit.ie/events/

Stretching the lats

If you are not 100% familiar with foam rolling and stretching then you really need to attend this workshop as you might have gotten the message of the importance of being mobile, stable and flexible in your training.

Call them to make a booking.