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and healthy recipes from Equation Training

Jun 02
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Why Eat a High Protein Diet!

By Nutrition

Everyone knows they need a high protein diet to get a banging body, but no one seems to understand why?

Protein is one of the most important macro nutrient for a person trying to maintain muscle while reducing body fat, or for a person trying to gain muscle.

It is also the macro nutrient which most people don’t eat enough of!

Here are some reasons why you should eat more protein:

Reduce Body Fat

Research has proven that consuming a high protein diet will reduce body fat significantly more than when eating a high carb diet. This is because carbs cause a insulin response which puts your body in fat storage mode. Increasing protein intake will increase lean body mass which in turn increases your metabolism. This means your body will burn more calories!! Yay for protein

Better Skin, Hair and Nails

Protein responsible for growth and repair. Not only for your muscles but for all the cells in the body. Your body is constantly replacing old cells using the protein you eat as building blocks. Protein is essential for healthy hair, nails and skin. If the body doesn’t get enough protein it won’t be able to replenish the cells leaving you with flabby legs, weak hair and a wrinkly face. gross…

Better Immune System

Protein helps to create antibodies which are responsible for getting rid of bad bacteria and viruses which enter the body. Having a enough protein in your diet ensures you make plenty of antibodies to fight off disease and infection.

Solid Muscle Tone

Protein is muscle sparing meaning it will help you maintain your muscle while you try to loose weight. This will prevent you from becoming a fat/skinny… (you know when your skinny but flabby with no muscle). Having a high protein diet will ensure your muscles recover from your training sessions, building you a beautiful toned bod!

Keep You Fuller For Longer

There is nothing worse, when trying to loose weight, than being hungry ALL the time. Research has proven that eating a high protein meal will keep you fuller for longer than having a high carbohydrate or fat meal! This means less hunger pains and more weight loss!

‘How Much?’ You Say

As a general rule, a good starting point is 1g per lb of body weight. Everyone is different so it will completly change from person to person

You can get more protein in your diet from meat, fish, eggs, and diary products like cottage cheese. Nuts and nut butters have protein in them, but to get enough protein you would end up consuming way too much fat! How ever much I would like to sit and eat tubs of cashew butter, it won’t get you a lean bod 🙁

Apr 15
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Tina’s Testimonial

By Transformations

Tina – Business Owner and Keen Gym Goer

Charlie takes an intelligent approach to fitness. In PT the workouts are interesting and varied but appropriate to age and fitness level. She has an intuitive grasp of how far to push and is always positive and encouraging. Yet for one who is adept across a variety of disciplines: weight training: yoga: cardio to mention a few: her knowledge is considerable.

I would not hesitate to recommend Charlie as a Fitness practitioner.  With such an incredible work ethic and her sunny personable approach , I have no doubt that she will go far.

Feb 21
Love2

Why Sleep is Important for Fitness

By News

Sleep is vital for recovery and hormone balance such as reducing cortisol levels. With out optimal sleep we can say good bye to fat loss and muscle gain..

The 8 hour rule of sleep is just a random number thrown about for how much sleep we need. We actually need 90 minutes to get through a full sleep cycle. That included stages of light and deep sleep which are critical for recovery of an athlete.

You should aim for 5 sleep cycles every 24 hours which totals 7.5 hours a day. This is usually enough for the average person. A high level athlete might add another sleep cycle a day to aid recovery.

These 5 sleep cycles would ideally be taken through the night, although that is not essential. You could have 4 through the night and an extra 90 minute nap in the day if thats more convenient for you.

This totals 35 sleep cycles a week. If you don’t feel better after a week of 35 cycles. Increase to 6 cycles a day. Or if 5 feels too much. Decrease to 4 cycles a day. Everyone is different!

Feb 21
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Eating Less Doesn’t Cause Fat Loss

By Diets, Nutrition

Yes, thats right..Eating less doesn’t cause fat loss. Diets do not work!

Want to know why?

Eating lower calories than your body needs to survive will more often than not start to burn into your muscle tissue rather than fat. Do you really want to use up your muscle which you have slaved away in the gym to build?

Why does your body burn muscle?

Well..When you go on a calorie restrictive diet, your body will think it is starving and begin to change its hormones to ensure fat stores stay as high as possible for survival. High muscle mass is not actually essential so your body will use your muscle tissue as energy.

When eating less, your body wants to HOLD onto fat.

What else do we know about muscle? Muscle tissue burns lots of calories which makes you have a high metabolism, which means you can eat more. Soooooo this means when you reduce your calories and your body thinks it needs to survive, whats the first thing its going to get rid of? Muscle tissue, because it is ‘expensive’ to maintain. This means your muscle mass will slowly reduce, so you can say good bye to strong legs and toned glutes 🙁 It also means you will have a lower metabolism so will have to eat less and less calories to maintain your weight.

2 years later, I still pose exactly the same. ?

A post shared by Charlie Francis (@charliefrancisfitness) on

So in the long term, as soon as we decide to stop starving our self and go back to eating a ‘normal diet’, this is now seen to our body as over eating and we will begin to pile on body fat.

The adverts for weight loss programmes never tell you that their diet will not work unless you stay on their unmaintainable starvation diet forever and maintain in a chronically food deprived state for the rest of your life. They don’t tell you if you do go back to your ‘normal diet’ you will gain even more weight back than when you started.. This is because they are bullshit money making scams which will ruin your life. Continually taking money from you while actually making you fatter in the long run.

So actually going on a low calorie diet is worse than doing nothing!!!

After we have been starved for a period of time the number one goal is to get any lost fat back in our fat stores so that if we starve again we don’t die. Just incase, our bodies make sure we store some extra fat for emergencies. This is called ‘Fat Super Accumulation’. Fat super accumulation after a restrictive calorie diet is one of the main causes for obesity. What is awful about this is that it doesn’t even require us to eat loads. You only have to go back to a normal diet to gain a load of fat.

Going on a low calorie diet will not only cause you to be fat in the long run.. It will effect your hormone levels. You will be cranky all the time. You won’t sleep because your grumbly tummy will keep you awake at night. Work will make you grumpy and you will be unproductive. You will be shit in bed. Yes thats right… Your sex drive will be non-existent. Your performance in the gym will be shocking. Loading up the barbell is a workout in its self, let along lifting the damn thing. Every simple life activity the hardest task in the world with the extreme lack of energy.

At roughly 10% body fat, I vividly remember thinking getting up to change the channel on the TV was too much effort. I ended up watching antique road show for hours on end because I couldn’t be bothered to move basically.

Diets don’t make you lean and lovely. They make you ill, sad, fat and slow.

How do I know this? Because this has all happened to me. It has happened to probably most of you reading this post and we all know dieting doesn’t work. You ruin relationships. Your a fucking bitch all the time. You fall out with your family. You are unhappy and at the end of it all you end up fat with no friends, severely sleep deprived and malnourished. Dieting is bad for your health both physically and mentally.

The ONLY way to get a healthy and banging body is to eat a nutritious, realistic and maintainable diet supported with a MAINTAINABLE exercise routine. You must eat enough calories to support life and normal hormone function but not support fat storage. If your body is in a happy healthy state, hormones will be held at a level where fat can be lost at a SLOW rate but fat loss will be able to be maintained in the long run. The ultimate goal is to keep a high metabolism throughout the process to ensure you can eat a normal diet while performing well in the gym. There is no set amount of calories anyone should eat, everyone is SO different so when looking for a personal trainer/nutrition coach, check they have experience in the area and that they don’t make their clients eat 800 calories a day and perform hours of cardio.

Jan 26
Love0

Laura’s Before and After Transformation

By Transformations

BEFORE

AFTER

Laura Dickson – Teacher

My fitness journey with Charlie has been fantastic and I can’t recommend her enough!

I’d never put on weight until I suffered a knee injury, which ended me playing any type of sport. Consequently, I quickly gained weight and lost any shape that I had. I felt horrid and my confidence suffered! I was still able to train at the gym and did a ton of cardio but annoyingly couldn’t budge the weight. Often, I’d see Charlie training her clients and could see the huge changes in their bodies. I decided it was my turn to ask for help and change my body which was the best decision I’ve made!

Charlie analysed my diet (which was the main problem) and taught me how to train effectively in the gym to achieve my body goals. My diet wasn’t nutritious in the slightest and I was eating SO much sugar, a lot of it being hidden in yoghurt and other foods I didn’t think contained much sugar. I now track my diet and follow a higher protein diet which is also flexible so I can still eat the foods I enjoy. Charlie is full of nutritional knowledge and teaches you about the effect different foods have on your body- for me this was mainly the sugar. The food I eat now is healthy, delicious and gives me much more energy throughout the day.
Charlie’s PT sessions are fantastic and I always looked forward to them. She’s extremely encouraging and pushes you to train to your best. When training legs, Charlie took my injured knee into consideration and we often did single leg exercises so my good leg wouldn’t take over.

Charlie is a passionate, friendly personal trainer and treats each client’s individual needs. You can tell she loves her job as she gets just as excited as I do when I lose the weight! My only regret is that I didn’t start training with Charlie sooner.  I’ve lost nearly a stone and feeling great for it! She gives you the knowledge on how to lead a better lifestyle.  A better body, clearer skin, more energy and more confidence!!

THANK YOU CHARLIE!

Jan 12
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Natasha’s Before and After Transformation

By Transformations

BEFORE

AFTER

Natasha – Mum of 4

I first heard about Charlie’s work from friends. I had previously enjoyed training for a running event and then discovered swimming but I’d never set foot inside a gym and hadn’t considered doing so. However, my first discussion with Charlie was so inspiring (and I learnt that it’s 80% nutrition and 20% fitness) that it transformed my attitude towards achieving a balanced healthy active lifestyle.

I started one of Charlie’s nutrition and fitness programmes and quickly became hooked by her methods of training, nutritional advice and constant enthusiastic support. She is highly professional and has built a wide range of knowledge and is always happy to recommend further information available from websites or books.

I was so pleased with the early results for myself that I asked Charlie to create a programme to include my family which has been a lot of fun and improved the nutritional quality of our family meals and enabled my teenagers to discover a love of yoga.

I always look forward to my sessions with Charlie who inspires me to complete the toughest of workouts with the words “push through, push through…”

Jan 12
Love0

Max’s Before and After Transformation

By News

BEFORE

AFTER

Wednesday 15th July 2015 – 8 weeks ago….an unfit, unmotivated 55 year old plonked herself into Charlie’s hands. I wasn’t really a gym fan I actually hated going to the gym, pulling and pushing bits of machinery or jumping on and off a treadmill or cross trainer was my idea of hell. Unfortunately or I suppose fortunately a rickety back and an endless list of aches and pains made me realise I needed to make big changes. That’s when Charlie came to my rescue, she set out a food and nutritional plan which made me look at making healthier choices with my diet. Along with the food plan she set out an exercise/fitness program that I could easily use both at home and at the gym, her famous butt busting squats, stretches and lifting an Olympic bar, I can’t believe that I’m now the very proud owner of my own bar!
After only 8 weeks I find myself using gym equipment that I would never ever have gone near before let alone use. I feel fitter and healthier with so much more energy and no more aches and pains, Charlie always finds something new and exciting for you to try she’s tough on you, that’s why she’s really good at her job. I still find every session hard and tomorrow my feeble arms will be aching like mad unlike before I now enjoy, and when you hear her say “I want 10 more of those” …. you could cry …… this girl knows her stuff….. a brilliant motivator and mentor….she gets her 10 more ……and that’s such a good feeling.

Thank you Charlie you have brought the love of exercise back into my life x

Jan 12
Love0

Kato’s Before and After Transformation

By Transformations

BEFORE

AFTER

Kato – Mum of 2

There’s only so long you can think about doing something before taking action… I must have spent a year, at least, looking at transformation pictures and reading testimonials before I decided it was time to take control. I’ve never been particularly over weight but I have never been fit either. I chose to do the 12 week program with Charlie as I needed to fully commit in order to stick with it. The thing that surprised me was how enjoyable the training sessions are. I’ve never used weights and resistance machines to any extent in the past, mainly focussing on the dreaded cardio. At first it seems too easy, why aren’t I puffing and panting? But Charlie takes the time to explain why and how training muscle groups works so well for calorie burning and re shaping your body. Plus the aches and pains in your legs and arms after a good train is all the proof you need that you’re working hard enough! I also learnt a lot about eating correctly and the massive difference this can make to not only your physical appearance but also to so many other aspects of life, from moods, to sleep patterns…. And the fact that having a game of football with the kids no longer made me feel unfit and unhealthy. So after the 12 weeks I dropped from a loose skinned 10st 11 to under 9 and a half stone. My waist has dropped 5 inches and I have muscles! Real muscles! Abs, triceps, quads!

I never thought that at 40 I could be in the best shape of my life. I’m beyond grateful to Charlie for taking me on and giving way the tools to maintain a healthy balanced life. Yes, I am that girl who drinks protein shakes and sometimes has to forfeit things so as not to miss a gym session but it’s the smallest price to pay to have a physique that I never considered could be mine.

Jan 12
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Izzy’s Before and After Transformation

By Transformations

BEFORE

AFTER

Izzy Smith

When I first came to Charlie I was the biggest I had ever been. I was a classic “yo yo” dieter with my weight fluctuating about 10 pounds between dieting and binging phases. I constantly felt bloated and tired and had decided that I couldn’t bear to wear a bikini ever again.

Charlie is supportive and extremely patient. I started off as a bit of a nightmare client – forgetful, ditzy and pretty clueless. Her level of knowledge in fitness and nutrition are second to none. I felt like I could ask her anything and I trusted her every word. I was never made to feel like an idiot (even when, week after week, I couldn’t remember the difference between my glutes and my hamstrings!!)

Charlie’s focus, combined with her encouraging and friendly attitude is incredible and perfect for a PT. Whether you’re feeling tired or unmotivated, have slipped up on your diet or even want some life advice(!), Charlie is kind, understanding and full of encouragement.

Charlie is also a flexible and hands-on trainer; if my diet required a shake up, I wanted to change a training date; needed a recipe or advice on what to order on a menu, Charlie was always there to help.

Since training with Charlie I have learnt to listen to my body. Charlie has taught me the importance of superfoods, good nutrition and that calorie counting isn’t everything. I now know what food I am less tolerant to, and equally what gives me energy, shiny hair and glowing skin. I feel stronger and healthier than I ever have before.

In the last 5 months I have lost over a stone and gained a tonne of confidence (and muscle!) I have a new attitude towards my body, a new mindset towards weight lifting and nutrition, and a new found love for bikinis!

Whatever you do, book with Charlie, you won’t regret it!

Jan 09
Love0

Rachael’s Before and After Transformation

By Transformations

BEFORE

AFTER

Rachel – Prepping for her first Fitness Modelling Comp

If your looking for a trainer to help you achieve your fitness goals Charlie Francis is your girl! Charlie prepared me for my first INBA competition. In the time I trained with her my body was transformed! In addition, Charlie’s training sessions pushed me to perform at my optimal level and with plenty of variety so I didn’t get bored. Training with Charlie was a truly amazing experience and I couldn’t imagine preparing for my first show with anyone else.

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