Tim Taylor's Blog

"TODAY YOU WILL DO WHAT THE AVERAGE WON’T, SO THAT TOMORROW YOU CAN DO WHAT THE AVERAGE CAN’T!”

April 30, 2008

Q. Hi Tim,

My name is Naim B. I am writing to you from İstanbul, Turkey where I live. I am 45 years old, 1.83 mt.tall (12 ft.) and weigh 178 - 180 lbs. I have done sports regularly throughout my life. Here is my work out program:

Swimming – 2 days a week for 1 hour (approx. 1.2 miles per workout)
Running – 1 day a week for 1 hour
Cycling – One day a week for 2 hours
Endurance Training – One day a week
Strength Training – Once or two days per week

For many years , I did strength training. At that time , I was training for 4-5 days a week in theGym.

Here are my targets :

I want to increase my endurance level so that I can reach higher levels in running/cycling. Running a half marathon is one of my goals.
I want to have six pack abs!
I want to have a muscular, lean, balanced body.

As far as nutrition is concerned , I do keep a high protein diet, (a lot of fish and chicken, less red meat). I eat carbohydrates, plenty of salads, vegetables and fruit.

I have been taking multivitamins for various years. Some days particularly when I do strength training and endurancetraining I drink whey protein shakes. I have used amino acid tablets (BCAA)in the past especially when I have increased my cardio work (e.g. running 3-4 times a week) for recovery. In the past, I have used antioxidants too.

I would like to find out your recommendations for me To reach my targets in terms of vitamins/supplements/Nutrition etc. . Your suggestions concerning training program Would be most welcome.

Best Regards, Naim B. Istanbul

A.
Greetings, Naim!

Thanks for writing, my friend. It's good to know there are fitness enthusiasts like you all over the globe who are tuning into our site to enhance their training in an effort to advance to another personal level. From the overview you've given me of your current training regimen, it sounds like you're already exercising more than the average person, both here in America, and abroad, and for that, you deserve congratulations.
Judging from your height/weight you've given me, I'd confirm that you're in the normal weight category, and having never seen you, I'd want to ask you to monitor your body fat percentage for me in the following fashion: take the measurement of your skin fold at two sites, the umbilicus (right beside the bellybutton), and the suprailiac (the proverbial love handle at the side of the waist, and the measurement of your waist. Depending on those measurements, I'd then want to talk with you about the portion sizes and timing, of your meal intake, because it sounds like your food choices are along the lines of what they should be, ie. it sounds like you're not eating much junk. What I'd be aiming to make sure of, however, is that you're not eating too much of the good quality food, which can be a reason why many fail to fully maximize their training potential from day to day and month to month, basically eating too much of what otherwise are considered good things, but if they would only cut back slightly, would see further improvement. Ideally, I'd like to see you spreading out your existing food intake over 7 to 8 meals per day, a small meal or snack approximately once every hour & 40 minutes to two hours, taking in the majority of your carbohydrate-intensive meals before 5pm with the last 2-3 meals of the day being concentrated more in protein and what fat they naturally contain. Given an assumed bedtime of 9 or 10pm, I'd like you to have your last meal in you by at least 7pm, going to bed on an empty or basically almost empty stomach. Using those basic parameters, I'd then monitor your skin folds and waist measurement from day to day, and week to week and make small adjustments to the quantity of the various foods you're eating in your daily nutrition regimen so that your skin folds end up below 6 or 7 mm's and when there, take note also of where your waist measurement is at that time. It is these data points that will be a maintenance goal for you to keep in place as you train further in the months ahead, because it is at this point that you're body is carrying the least amount of extra fat and will be more able to train at the peak levels that will achieve the longer term goals you've set for yourself. You may find that with a reduction in bodyfat, there will be an almost effortless increase in your endurance levels under the same training protocols you're currently using in swimming, running, and cycling, and it will be at that point, that you will be able to possibly ramp up the intensity of selected workouts to push yourself a bit harder in the areas in which you feel you are the weakest, or the event that is the closest at hand.
I'm glad to hear you're taking a multi-vitamin/mineral supplement, while also adding anti-oxidants, such as Beta-Carotene, Vitamin C, and Vitamin E. I'd like to see you also drinking either Twinlab® Ultra Fuel® or Twinlab® Endurance Fuel™ before, during and after your workouts, your choice depending on your taste preference and your caloric requirements during your workouts, and also factoring in your daily energy needs. For your weight training days, which I'd encourage you to increase from 1-2 to at least 2-3 days per week, maybe giving up an endurance workout, I'd ask you to try both Twinlab® Creatine Fuel® & Twinlab® Glutamine Fuel®, sandwiching your workouts with doses before and after each workout session. Also, without knowing your tolerance for caffeine and other thermogenics, you might consider adding any of the Twinlab® Ripped Fuel® product line to your supplement arsenal.
If I'm assuming correctly that your training targets are in order of your personal priorities, I'd say that, while assuming that you're not at the 6 or 7mm skin fold level of "lean" already, that if/when you achieve that, you're endurance goals will already be several steps closer to your reach. Then, with the addition of some interval training protocols to your scheduled endurance workouts, you should be able to run that half marathon without a problem. Your Targets 2 & 3 revolve around weight training, thus my encouragement for more of these workouts in your training week. With proper nutrition (quality and adequate, but not excessive quantity), a well-balanced weight training program should start to reveal the beginnings of a 2, then 4, then finally your 6-pack as your skin folds & waist measurement decrease gradually, and you'll find that not if, but when, you achieve this 6-pack-goal, providing you're training your other major muscle groups as well, you'll end up with the muscular, lean, well-balanced body you're craving, and that will make heads turn, and start others around you, in your gym and on the street, start asking questions to you regarding your personal nutrition and training strategy.
All my best wishes for you and your on-going training efforts and let me know if you have further questions regarding what we've discussed here.
Wishing you well,
Tim Taylor
Team Fuel Athlete
2007 Mr. Fitness
 

March 7, 2008

Greetings and welcome to my first blog as a member of Team Fuel at Twinlab. It’s an honor and a privilege to be a member of a lineup of athletes representing the world-class company that is Twinlab, whose products I’ve used for years and which have helped me achieve accomplishments in the fitness industry that were only in the realm of my imagination a few short years ago. Thanks for joining me on this platform and as we begin this leg of our journey together, I ask that you consider joining me in making the above mantra your own moving forward, as I’m guessing that just by the very fact that you’re hear reading my page that you and I share something very much in common – the desire to live in the space above the average.

Perhaps, we should begin this journey with a first step, and I think it’s fitting that I share a little bit about me, who I am, and what makes me tick. At the core, I’m an athlete with an unquenchable thirst to realize my personal maximum potential in many life areas, one of the main ones being fitness, not just getting in shape two, maybe three times a year to try to time a peak for a contest as many do, but being in fantastic shape all 365. And, by the way, I’ll be trying to infuse you with that same desire. You see, I believe everyone is living life on a spectrum between what is and a higher level of what could be, and no one has achieved the latter. You see all too many people living their lives relishing their past accomplishments, reliving their “glory days” every chance they get, but let’s prefer to think that while history may be great, the very best of us just may be still hiding up our sleeves, untapped potential, waiting to be unleashed in the future. I’ll blog more about that when I introduce a concept I call “appropriate dissatisfaction” i.e., being just critical enough of your present self, to give you motivation to push harder moving forward.

Some tell me I’m too young to realize that some things are impossible, and to that I say, “So be it.” My mission is to educate and motivate you to defy the typical limits of the English language and make you better & brighter. And a warning as we begin here is appropriate: The statistical concept of the “average” will act as a strong magnet, pulling and lulling you into a state of complacency. Resist that pull. Don’t accept the decline that typically comes through the years as inevitable, because it is not. At times, I as your trainer will seem that I’m pushing you to the breaking point, and other life events and forces beyond anyone’s control will swirl like a storm around you, distracting you from your fitness goals. When this storms break, one thing I know, that each of us will tend to act in accordance with our own nature—some are dumb with terror, some run, some hide, and some spread their wings as eagles and soar. I’m going to ask you to join me in that latter group—take your shot… Make every moment count… In a word – Soar.

Together we’ll make 2008 a year to remember. A brief look at what’s to come: I’ll be introducing an over-arching concept of finding the proper weekly training load, above which will cause over-training, and below which, won’t produce meaningful results. I’ll be going into detail on nutrition. In gyms across America, I see well-meaning people getting through very intense and well-designed routines, only to go home and blow it in the kitchen and at the dining table. We’ll try to steer clear of that two-steps-forward, two-steps-back approach. We’ll also take a good look at sleep & rest, and how it’s vital to recovery, fostering progress from the recent training stimulus, and in maintaining a healthy immune system. As far as nutritional supplementation goes: look no further as you’ve come to the right source for formulations that are on the cutting-edge of science that you can be sure contain exactly what’s on the label. We’ll be going into detail on the proper amounts and also very importantly, the timing of your intakes to coincide with the food you’re eating. Last, but certainly not least, I’ll be detailing out the workouts that took me to four national titles in the past three years, but more importantly, how I’m still fine-tuning my workouts into the weekly training load I mentioned earlier, with an eye toward achieving some future goals I’ll share with you that I’ve set for myself in this fitness lifestyle and industry we all love so much.

Well thanks for checking out to my initial blog. I’ll end by saying that I’m sure there are going to be questions along the way, and I look forward to hearing them all and talking with you further on how we can achieve your best body to-date.

Wishing you all well,

Tim Taylor

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