Eat smart, build muscle

You’ve finally got your mind in a fit state, you’ve been training several times a week and even ditched the escalators at the tube station for the stairs, but for some reason you’re still not seeing the results you want. Reason? You’ve not yet mastered the art of eating smart.

As frustrating as this can be, nutrition and exercise go hand in hand and a healthy diet is key to building strong muscles. But sometimes putting this into practice is a lot easier said than done.

Samsung have teamed up with personal trainer Matt Roberts to help you get fit through the S4 a Day challenge, part of a month long programme called Get Fit For Life Month Crunch.

With Matt’s tips and fitness tools, such as the S Health app on the Samsung GALAXY S4, getting fit over the next four weeks couldn’t be easier. The app will keep tabs on your meals and help you keep track of how much you consume as well as monitor your progress through the weeks.

By the end of the month, you will notice a marked improvement in your strength, energy levels, concentration and well-being.

Episode 3: Nutrition

The last two weeks focused on exercise and lifestyle. This week Matt shows us how to use nutrition to improve strength. Surprisingly, you can still enjoy alcohol and lean meats as part of the challenge… result!

Training For Strength

Now that you’ve got to grips with doing regular exercise, the next step is to improve your strength. When increasing weights one of the most important things is to not sacrifice technique which can result in potential injury. Using drills throughout your session will help to maintain mobility and flexibility creating a more balanced body. However, don’t go exercise crazy and train hard every day. You’re likely to do more damage than good. Make the most of rest and lighter recovery days as each week will be more demanding than the last.

The exercises shown here are some of the main exercises of Week 3’s programme, click here to follow Matt’s carefully designed S4 a Day Programme updated daily on Twitter #S4aDay

Matt’s Top Four

REVERSE FLY

This helps to strengthen your shoulder muscles and improve posture

• With a straight back, hold a dumbbell in both hands and lean forward to a 45 degree angle holding the dumbbells fully extended in front of the body

• Keep your elbows soft and raise your arms from below your chest to level with your shoulders, squeezing the shoulder blades together at the top point of the movement being careful not to shrug the weight

• Return to starting position

OBLIQUE RAISE

Helps you get ripped abs

• Lie on your side and elevate the body supporting your weight between your forearm and feet

• Keep your body straight with your hips off of the floor, your neck and back in alignment

• Dip your hip down towards the floor without touching and then raise yourself back up again into the starting posture

GOBLET SQUAT

A lower body training exercise that targets the upper legs and glute muscles

• Standing upright with feet sounder width apart and holding the dumbbell at one end in both hands (around chest height)

• Bend the knees, breaking at the hips and pushing your bum backwards. Maintain weight into your heels and keep your back straight. Lower until your knees are at a 90 degree angle if possible

• Push back up to the start position

CARDIO DRILLS

These types of exercises are a simple way of working the body under resistance without using more than your bodyweight. They demand a lot of postural control, however the Drama Shot featured on the Samsumg GALAXY S4 can help with this allowing you to take a series of actions in one cut. It is a good way to check your posture and exercise form. With core strength and coordination needed to complete these exercises well - control and technique are the main skills required to achieve the greatest gains. This style of training is commonly used by athletes and sports people as a way of warming up, and creating good "multi-directional" strength and awareness of your body.

S Health – Your perfect fitness workout partner

Keep Tabs on Mealtime with Food Tracker

A key part of your fitness and well-being is the food you eat. By monitoring your calorie intake you can stay in control of your input (how many calories you consume) vs output (how many calories you burn). The Samsung GALAXY S4 S Health app analyses your meals and calculates how many calories you've consumed on a daily basis. Just tap the icon for each mealtime—breakfast, lunch, dinner and other snacks—and add the information for everything you ate. If that burger at lunch is too good to resist, Food Tracker will give you an idea of what you need to do to get back on track for dinner.

To see the full range of features of S Health and find out how it can improve your fitness by clicking here.

Click here to start shaping up today

Follow on Twitter @exerciseMatt #S4aDay and facebook

Matt’s Top Tips

1. Eat lean protein with EVERY meal. This includes breakfast e.g. eggs (boiled, poached, scrambled) salmon, mackerel

2. Take a multivitamin and Omega 3 oil supplement (3grams EPA/DHA) every day at breakfast to ensure micronutrient and healthy fat intake

3. Eat fresh vegetables and or fruit with EVERY meal. 4 one cup servings per day is a good measure

4. Only consume zero calories beverages. Herbal teas, black coffee and water all fit in to this rule. One alcoholic drink a night is fine

And see below to be in with a chance of winning your own personal training session with Matt.