Tonight on The Biggest Loser it’s Masterclass night again, hooray!

Tips on getting a good night’s sleep, tips on exercising while carrying an injury, Janella’s going to teach us to cook a healthy burger?!
And Laurie Lawrence drops by for a chat. He’s only ever been a coach so he can certainly talk the talk even if he can’t walk the walk!

First part of Masterclass today is outside in The Yard again. Hayley’s there in a really pretty blue top.

Shannan’s come in by himself first. Talking about chesty things.
Benchpress! It works your pecs, chest, shoulders and so on. And the benchpress isn’t just for people wanting to show off their muscles, anything that requires a pushing movement in your day to day life can benefit from this.
Benchpress is also a “compound” exercise, one which uses more than one joint and thus uses quite a few different muscles as a result.

Shannan lies down on the bench part and says you want your feet to be touching the ground comfortably, not coming up off the ground. If your feet are coming up a bit you put a step box or something under your feet, just to help lift your hips up a bit,
Hands a bit wider than shoulder width. Lift the bar up, lower it down while breathing in. Only go down to a few inches above your chest, you don’t need to go all the way down and if you do you risk injuring your shoulders. Which you obviously don’t want to do!
Joe gets to be the guinea pig demonstrating while Shannan instructs him on the proper form.

Once he’s got that down, Shannan loads up the bar with 20kg weights on either side which apparently brings the total to 60kg?
Shannan spots for him during this bit. Joe’s always saying he’s really strong but you can tell he’s having to really work at it.

Shannan says the chest muscle starts in the middle then goes all the way across to link the muscle up to your arm. So even though you feel the workout across your shoulders it’s actually the combination of all the muscles working that brings on the burn.

Next up is an isolation exercise – working one joint at a time. This one is lying down on a bench as well, lifting weights up from beside your body and up in front of your body.
Lisa’s the guinea pig this time. She’s bending her elbows a bit too much so Shannan’s correcting that. Lisa asks if she should be going faster and Shannan says definitely not – you’ve all been in plenty of Masterclasses now, what do you risk by going faster? Injury!

Shannan’s finishing up with a total body workout for the chest. Pushups!
It’s all fairly standard stuff for pushups. Jarna’s the guinea pig and she struggles through a couple of them. Then Shannan shows her how to do slightly easier ones on an incline. He says he prefers people to do full pushups rather than doing them with your knees on the ground. Doing them with knees off the ground helps improve your core strength which they’ve shown to be so important previously.

Now it’s time for Dr Swan and his chat about getting a good night’s sleep. Hayley tells us there’s a strong correlation between sleep disorders and obesity.

Dr Swan asks them how many are having trouble sleeping and how many were having trouble beforehand. Lots of them raise their hands.
There’s apparently evidence that if you don’t get enough sleep you tend to eat more.

Caitlin says she used to have trouble getting to sleep before coming on the show, lying there 3 or so hours and then sleep late after getting to sleep. And now she’s absolutely exhausted when she goes to bed so she goes to sleep pretty quickly.
Rick’s still snoring a lot. Caitlin laughs a lot at that. Hmmm.
Phil says Rick and David both snore a lot and Rick sounds like maybe he’s stopping breathing. Caitlin can hear Rick through her wall, apparently.

Suuure.

Shannon had sleep apnea before coming on the show due to him occasionally stopping breathing while sleeping.
The usual treatment is exercise – the problem is too much tissue around your neck which goes floppy while sleeping and blocks your airway intermittently.
The other treatment is an Australian invention. It’s a mask you put on over your nose that puts positive air pressure on your respiratory system or something like that. It has a humidifier in it to help keep your airway moist.
There’s some other treatments Dr Swan says, but most aren’t as effective as the mask thing. And the surgical options haven’t shown a lot of good results so far.

But what Dr Swan wants to teach them about is how to get a good night’s sleep in general.
The bedroom is for only two things: One is sleeping. The other he’s leaving to our imagination. You need heavy curtains so it’s nice and dark, the temperature should be comfortable. Don’t drink caffeine after mid day. Mid day! Crikey.
Don’t exercise just before bed, do it a couple of hours earlier, like just before dinner. It raises your body temperature which can help.
As can a warm shower or warm bath, before dinner. Light meals in the evening, not heavy ones.

Sleep is like surfing, it comes in waves, Dr Swan says. One of the secrets of good sleep is learning to when the wave is about to hit and catching it.
If you’re not getting to sleep you should get up and go to the lounge and read a book – not TV, even boring TV is too stimulating. You’ll realise when the wave is starting to hit because your eyelids will start getting droopy. Close the book, go to bed!
If you’re really struggling to get to sleep, go to bed later and later and later, but get up at the same time. The mistake people make is staying in bed later to compensate.

Today Janella’s going to talk about the classic Aussie BBQ. Joe’s usually drinking a stubby of beer and grazes on the various snacks, Phil’s a big fan of the chips and dips while drinking a few beers.
Shannon’s always cooking his meat on the BBQ. Stunning revelation there, that was worth asking him Janella!

Janella points out that if you’re constantly grazing before you even sit down to the main meal. Lots of pasta dishes and maybe a green salad… that’s drenched in a pre-made dressing full of sugar and salt and refined oils.
And a french breadstick made out of white processed carbs, of course.

But what people don’t know is if you cook meat till it goes black it creates a chemical called hetrocyclic acid. Which is carcinogenic compound – cancer causing.
But I thought charcoal was good for me? :-(

And Lisa gets to help today!
They’re going to make some spicy prawns and an asparagus salad on the BBQ.
First they’re going to demonstrate pulling a prawn apart. Lisa’s quite comfortable peeling prawns. They’re leaving the tails on today. Meh, take them off!

The best way to boil an egg is to put the egg in the water while it’s cold and then by the time the water is boiling you leave it boiling for about 4 minutes, then take it off.

The asparagus is going straight on the BBQ. No need to cut the ends of, just snap the woody end bits off.

Then it’s time to get the gross gizzard-y bits out of the prawns. Slice them down the back and pull the digestive tract out and you’re done.

One tablespoon of tumeric and one of paprika. Which you then put on a plate but because it’s a bit windy Janella’s not doing that yet.
The skewers for the prawns are being soaked in water because they’re made out of wood and if you put them on the BBQ without soaking them, they burn!
If you’re using metal skewers you don’t need to soak those…

Leaving the tails on is a thing to make you eat a bit slower. Janella says if you take the tails off before cooking, after cooking you just end up gulping them all down like Scooby Snacks. Nom!
Having to take the tails off as you eat them slows you down.

Mix the spices then place the prawns on on the plate full of spices then squash the spices into the prawns. Mmmmm!

Then they grate an egg over the top of the asparagus. That’s a bit weird! Lisa says her kids would like that.
Some capers over the top, some lemon zest. Looks foul but Janella says it looks great. Strange lady.
A little bit of balsamic vinegar and cracked black pepper and some lemon and you’re done!

After an ad break it’s time for more dishes!

They’re making snapper and a green bean salad next. David’s assisting now and he still doesn’t like fish!
David takes off the tops of the beans for Janella while she preps the snapper. She’s using some miso paste on it, which is fermented soy beans, which is really good for you, Janella tells us.
Janella then adds some kind of fermented rice vinegar thing to sweeten up the sauce a bit. You can find “Mirren”? At your supermarket. If someone spells it in the comments for us, that would probably help us to find it in our supermarkets!

The fish and the various condiments will be wrapped in aluminium foil to cook on the BBQ. Not particularly unusual.
One of the condiments being orange instead of lemon is quite unusual, however!

Janella slathers the fish with the miso paste mix. About a tablespoon on each side of the fish to help it marinate in the juice of it all.
No pepper, no salt, some ginger over the top, fold the foil up nicely so it’s bundled up.
The tin foil is to help it steam it’s way to being cooked. It’s the same as using Phil’s – … Bali Hut, Janella! – Bali Hut! Keeps all the moisture in, cooks it nicely.

Some red onion and tomato for the green bean salad now the fish is all prepped up.
The beans meanwhile have been cooking away in some water in a pan on the BBQ.
Some other random sauces go on top of the beans then the onion and tomato bits go on top, toss the salad and put it in a plate!

Hayley’s not a huge fan of beans, could you use snowpeas instead? Sure! Or broccolini or various other things. But not potato!

After an ad break Janella has a bit of Skippy Steak as the contestants call it. They’ve all tried it, apparently.
The contestants are eating a lot of chicken breast at the moment. But kangaroo steak has fewer calories, heaps of iron and protein. And it’s tasty!
Rick is called up to help this time.

Now they’re going to start their healthy burger.

Rick is asked to slice some onions, but he’s scared. And asks if you have to take the skin off…
Janella rolls her eyes a little and takes the onion off him to peel it.
Rick says he’s 20, what do you expect? “A little bit more…” Everyone has a good giggle.

One whole onion for two burgers, apparently. Slice it up nice and thin.

Apparently the kangaroo steaks will only take about a minute on the BBQ?!
Some mushrooms for the burger? Mushrooms? On a burger? Strange lady.

Joe asks if you can put water on the onions while they cook. Usually he puts some beer on them. Janella’s put some olive oil on the BBQ but sure, if you want, put water on them!
The mushrooms go on the BBQ alongside the onions. You can put water on the mushrooms as well, if you want.

Beetroot! Yum!
Apparently you can eat the beetroot greens as well because they’re quite good for you.
One beetroot between two burgers.
They’re grating up the beetroot. Janella says you could make fritters out of the beetroot if you want to, add some other bits and pieces to it.

The burger rolls Janella wants to toast for a bit. Hayley asks if you could have a sourdough roll instead, Janella says you can, or flat bread… wholemeal, of course!

Lettuce. Any lettuce. Fancy lettuce or plain old iceberg. It’s all good.

Rick’s a bit scared of mustard, too. Janella’s slathering it all over the bread rolls they’ve toasted up. Looks very seedy.

Janella cracks some pepper over the kangaroo steak. Then Rick gets to move the onions and mushroom around a bit. Then it’s time to put the kangaroo on the BBQ. Sear it on one side, don’t touch it, just leave it.

Mushrooms and onions come off the BBQ and the prawns go on.

Another 30 seconds of cooking for the kangaroo on the other side.
It looks really, really pink still. Janella insists it’ll keep cooking once you take it off. Looks ready to get up and hop away to me. I guess she knows what she’s talking about though.

Janella says the burgers look really big but there’s only 400 calories in the entire burger.
Hardly any fat, wholemeal burger so it’s all lovely.

The prawns look lovely. I would eat them. Rick doesn’t like prawns but he says they look good nonetheless!
Janella opens up the fish finally, which apparently looks really good but we can’t see it yet.

It probably still looks like fish, though. Blech!

Fish has about 200 calories, asparagus salad about 60, same for green bean salad, 200 calories for 10 prawns and the burgers are about 400 calories.

Really nice smorgasboard to share with everyone.
Then it’s time to tuck into it all and the fatties crowd around to tuck in.

As they all sit back down for a chat about the food we see a shot of a kookaburra sitting in a tree.
Shortly followed by a kookaburra swooping in on Janella and grabbing a chunk of kangaroo to carry away for himself. Cheeky bugger!

After an ad break, Hayley wants to introduce them to a good friend of her’s.
Many coaches dream of having one Olympic Athlete and this man has had nearly 30. He was never her personal coach and in fact she was usually trying to beat the girls he was coaching!

Introducing Laurie Lawrence!

Hayley lays out the situation for Laurie, saying they’ve all lost a bunch of weight but now they’re all starting to think like they want to go home, especially Rick who has a pregnant girlfriend at home.
Laurie says he’d be thinking the same way but he knows he’d need to be looking at the bigger picture.
They need to look at what they committed to when they came into the house. Did they come for 6 weeks? No, they said they’d come in for as long as it takes.
And then he’d think about his kids seeing him on TV, would they be proud of him? You’ve got to use that to give you a reason to keep pushing.

Laurie talks to Lisa first. Lisa’s lost 32kg, but she knows she needs to lose more and her kids want her to be there.

Laurie asks them to stand up if they’re not satisfied with what they’ve done now. Stand up if you are. 100%. Shocking!
Remain standing if that’s where you want to stay. Everyone but Rick sits down. Good man!

Laurie says he knows Rick wants to go home but don’t waste this chance.
Rick says he’s not going back to where he was. He was a wreck but he’s strong mentally now. Laurie says if you’re going to go back then you’ve got to be strong!

Hayley says to Laurie that he wasn’t her coach, Laurie says he wishes he was! Hayley says she knows but it’s too late now. Michelle starts nudging her in the ribs and suggesting she could still do it. No, she’s not going back!

Hayley says Laurie used to say that just because that other person is more talented but only puts in 85% while you put in 110%, there’s no reason you can’t beat them.
People with talent who pay the price become extraordinary. But he’s seen people with less talent beat people with more talent because they’re prepared to pay the price.

Phil walks 10km on his own around the parade ground and Laurie congratulates him on that, because he’s getting out there and being positive.
Laurie says the others shouldn’t be saying “Oh shit, he’s going to win the $400,000” they should be saying good job, Phil!

Caitlin says she’s “just” going. And she’s not happy with what she’s done. Laurie asks her why she stood up before to say she’s happy with her results and Caitlin says she knows she could do better. Laurie says she’s not done yet.
When she came in she had a lot of determination on the first day. Laurie says the determination can’t disappear. You just need to recapture it.

When you go back home you need team support. At Camp you’ve got everything you need, diet people, people shopping for them. When you get out in the real world you need to build a team to help you on the outside. And that support needs to be positive support.

Time to wrap up. Any parting advice? Enjoy what you do. If you enjoy it, it’s no trouble to be doing it.

Yeah, he was totally worth getting in. Provided advice so much different to what Michelle and Shannan do all the time…

After another ad break the Masterclass Challenge is being held at FitnessFirst.
Shannan and Hayley are there, as is a FitnessFirst physio, Todd.

Today they’re going to be talking about dealing with injuries.
They’re often used as an excuse to do nothing but there’s always ways to stay on track.

They’ll be divided into groups of 3 and given an injury… so to speak.
The first team will have to work with a hamstring strain. As Lisa has had dodgy hamstrings in the past she’ll be the leader of the hamstring team, along with Phil and Shannon who’ve also had a lot of lower body injuries.

David’s had some issues with his shoulder so he’ll be doing the rotator cuff injury workout. Joe and Rick will be in his team, too.

Caitlin’s nursing a rolled ankle, so she’s teamed up with Jarna and Phoebe.

Their mission is to devise a workout plan while keeping their injuries out of harms way. They need to have at least 3 exercises in their plans. They’ll be judged on how effective their exercises are.

The entire gym is at their disposal for this and they have 5 minutes to devise their plan, 10 minutes to demonstrate them.

But before they start they’ll make the injuries stand out by wrapping the affected parts with some red bandages.

Time starts now!

Caitlin finds it easy to plan a workout because she’s got her own injury to work around. They’re figuring on doing a fair bit of upper body, as are the hamstring group.

The shoulder team are doing plenty of lower body stuff, obviously. Cardio intervals on the cross trainer. And some squats, maybe.

Heaps of equipment being demoed and talked about. But what will they actually choose to use?

And now time’s up! Time to see the workouts. Efficent and effective workouts in the safest manner possible will be the judging criteria.

Starting out with some boxing and crunches for the ankle team. Second station is spinbike which is very low impact on the ankles. And finishing up with various weights stations for the upper body.

Shoulder team start out with a minute on the cross trainer, then crunches, then leg presses followed by squats with a medicine ball. Then some leg curls.

Hamstring team do some pull downs and chest presses to work some upper body, then this “grinder” machine that’s like a spinbike for your upper body. Very good for cardio. And some boxing at the end.

And then time’s up!

They’ve all got a good workout in by the end, sweats all round!

The physio says the hamstring team did well though Shannan says they missed out on so many possible upper body exercises.

Physio says the shoulder team’s workout was good, though holding onto the medicine ball with an “injured” shoulder was a little concerning.

Ankle team worried the physio guy. High resistance on the spin bikes is a really bad idea so it has to be very low resistance to be okay. Which the girls had already thought of and where doing it on the lowest resistance.
And their upper body component was very smartly organised and very effective at working out the upper body muscles.

Judging time!
Hamstring group played it the safest, no strain on the hamstrings but the workout wasn’t all it could have been.
Shoulder group did really well but they lost points due to the medicine ball. Was very comprehensive a routine though.

So the winners are the rolled ankle group! They’re all thrilled to be winners!

And that brings another Masterclass to an end. Back to the regular game. Weigh-in is coming up and you’ll have to pull out all the stops to beat your head to head opponent.

Last Chance Training will be the Haves and the Have-Nots as the people who lost the head to head challenges on Thursday have no use of of the gym equipment or trainers.
But they’re going to do the ghetto equipment thing and create their own with cooler bags and bottles of water and various steps around the compound.
And the weigh-in will be a series of head to head matchups. Who’ll be in the four below the Yellow Line?
Ooooooh, drama!