One recent study looked at the relationship between cortisol levels, insulin sensitivity, and visceral belly fat in men. Men with more belly fat produced far more cortisol throughout the day and had decreased insulin sensitivity than those with less belly fat. Interestingly, subcutaneous fat—the jiggly kind that’s right below the skin—was not related to insulin or cortisol levels. Researchers suggest both external stress and internal physiological stress (in the form of chronic inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract) are the cause of the elevated cortisol.

Problems with the gastrointestinal tract result in altered neurotransmitter production, which makes you feel tired, unmotivated, and depressed. It can also elevate anxiety, making you over-responsive to stress. At the same time, poor gut health will produce chronic inflammation in the intestines, putting stress on them and raising cortisol. The combination means chronically high cortisol and persistent strain on the body from multiple sources. If you have any experience with fat loss, you know that the body is most agreeable about giving up its fat stores when it is calm and not stressed or overly stimulated.

Trout tartare with pea dressing
Ingredients

· 1 trout fillet, finely chopped

· ½ lemon, juice only

· ½ lime, juice only

· 1 tomato, diced

· salt and freshly ground black pepper

· paprika

· lemon slices

For the dressing

· 55g peas, pre-cooked

· 2 tbsp olive oil

· ½ lemon, juice only

· 1 tsp chives, chopped

· salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preparation method

Mix the trout and lemon and lime juice in a bowl. Leave to marinate for 8-10 minutes. Layer the tomatoes in the bottom of a chefs’ ring. Put the trout on top. Season, remove the ring and top with paprika and lemon slices. Add all the dressing ingredients to a bowl and mix thoroughly. Drizzle around the trout.

Tomato salad with chicken livers
Ingredients
· 3 chicken livers, trimmed
· 1 tbsp vegetable oil
· salt and freshly ground black pepper
· 3 thick slices beef tomato
· 1 tbsp olive oil
· 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
· fresh parsley leaf, to garnish
Preparation method
Rub the chicken livers with the vegetable oil and season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Place the livers into a hot frying pan and cook for 1-2 minutes on each side, or until completely cooked through. Arrange the three slices of tomato onto a plate. Drizzle over the olive oil and balsamic vinegar, then season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper. To serve, place a cooked chicken liver on each tomato slice.

Avocado, spinach and cherry tomato salad
Ingredients
· 1 ripe avocado, skin and stone removed
· 100g/3½oz baby spinach
· 125g/4½ oz cherry tomatoes, quartered
· 2 tbsp chopped fresh chervil
· 2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
· 1 lemon, juice only
· 3 tbsp olive oil
· salt and freshly ground black pepper
Preparation method
Slice the avocado and arrange around the edges of a plate. Place the spinach in the centre of the plate. Scatter the cherry tomatoes on top of the avocado and sprinkle over the herbs. Mix the lemon juice and oil together and drizzle over the salad. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and serve.

Scrambled free-range eggs with avocado
Ingredients
· 2 eggs
· salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
· small bunch dill, chopped
· 1 ripe avocado
· spinach, wilted, to garnish
Preparation method
Break the eggs into a large bowl, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and whisk together well. Heat some olive oil in the pan before adding the whisked eggs. Cook slowly, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, until cooked to your liking. Add the chopped dill and stir in. Peel and cut up the avocado into slices. Once cooked to your liking, put the scrambled egg on a plate and serve alongside chopped avocado, sprinkle some roughly chopped dill on top, drizzle with olive oil

Avocado

Ingredients
For the venison
· 125g/4½oz venison fillet
· 1 tbsp olive oil
· freshly ground black pepper
For the redcurrant dressing
· 85g/3oz redcurrants, plus extra sprig, to serve
· 2 tbsp olive oil
· salt and freshly ground black pepper
· handful fresh basil leaves, to serve
Preparation method
For the venison, rub the meat with the oil and season with freshly ground black pepper. Heat a frying pan over a medium heat, add the seasoned venison and fry for 2-3 minutes on each side, or until golden-brown on both sides and cooked to your liking. Remove from the pan, cover and set aside on a warm plate to rest. For the redcurrant dressing, blend all of the redcurrant dressing ingredients in a food processor until smooth. To serve, sprinkle the basil leaves into the centre of a serving plate and place the fried venison on top. Spoon the redcurrant sauce around the edge of the plate. Garnish with the sprig of redcurrants.

A lovely piece of perfectly coked vension!

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As previously discussed when talking about squatting using a smith machine, hamstring recruitment is necessary for knee joint stability. For starters, a squat generates twice as much hamstring activity as a leg extension. Given what a crucial joint the knee is, it makes sense to look after it and this is best done with integration exercises as opposed to fully stabilized isolated machine exercise. When doing a squat or a lunge, you’re entire body is working to either perform or stabilize the motion, something which you just cannot achieve on a machine

During a leg extension, the anterior cruciate ligament is under constant tension which can lead to unnecessary knee pain and injuries. Machine leg extensions are potentially harmful because when only the shin is in motion, this exercise draws back the patella onto the femur increasing compression forces in such a crucial joint, this can lead to damage of the connective tissue and the ligaments supporting the knee joint. The anterior cruciate ligament is under constant tension which can ultimately lead to pain and injuries that are unwelcome and fully avoidable.

If you want to work your quadriceps in a far safer and more effective way, try barbell or TRX squats and lunges! Stay off the machines if you like painless knees!

I see a lot of people pounding the treadmill for hours on end, doing a fast ‘power’ walk with a steep incline. Unfortunately the majority of the time, they are gripping on to the TV on the treadmill for dear life as if there was an angry crocodile at the other end of the treadmill! Not only will you not be doing nearly as much of the workout that you think you are, you’ll also be wrecking your posture by adopting such poor hunched over form!

Rather than boring yourself with a long steep march to the physio, think about trying interval training, you will dramatically cut you workout time on the dreadmill and you will see some great results!

Keep an eye out; I’ll be posting more about time efficient, effective cardio workouts soon!

There is a delusion that surrounds this machine and other similar machines, that you’ll get the abs you have always desired, but unfortunately, you are more likely to end up with the chronic back pain that you have always dreaded.

So many people spend so much of their time in a hunched over position with their hips flexed, causing all sorts of postural problems and muscular imbalances, so to then go into the gym and adopt that same poor position and then add weight to it is just madness

Not only are these machines dangerous and damaging to your posture, they are also very ineffective in your quest for perfect abs. Being in a seated position, only the top layer of abdominal muscles are targeted which prevents involvement of deep lying muscles that are vital to core strength. With movement through such a small range of motion, just like the smith machine, there is no functional transfer to daily activities and you are just shortening the hip flexors, which will almost certainly already be tight.

What you must remember in order to be able to get the abdominal muscles that you desire, you must lower your body fat percentage through total body resistance training, interval work & good diet, just simply sitting on the ‘posture buster’ won’t do it!

A great alternative is the plank; this exercise works the entire core musculature in a safe and far more effective way. If you avoid the machines in the gym when doing resistance work, you’ll work your abdominals far harder than on a machine, even when you’re working different areas of the body!