Lifestyle & Change

Building things that last

Lots of interesting stuff going on for me right now, one of which was the return to regular training of two ladies who had trained with me for one and three years. Both had had ‘real world stuff’ happen that meant that the had to stop training with me, but now after a break of six months and one year respectively, they were able to return to training.

We shall call them Taylor Swift and Dr Who respectively (you know who you are!). Taylor Swift had trained with me for just under a year and then broke her ankle, Dr Who had trained for about three years and had to take a year off (life, children, house move).

At this point let’s take a diversion. I was recently in Italy for the Plan Strong seminar with Pavel Tsatsouline and Fabio Zonin. Whilst I was in Italy for 4 days, I only managed two hours of site seeing whilst killing time for my flight home. It was then that I realised that ‘back in Roman days’ they built stuff to last.

Sight seeing in Verona

July 13, 2015/by admin

Lifestyle & Change

Strong is more important than calories

Big engines burn more fuel. And by engines I mean muscles. And by fuel I mean calories. If you want to get ripped and look lean for the summer, there is a simple progression.

Move well
Get strong
Rest hard!
Do inefficient exercise (which you can do at a greater level than before now, because you are stronger!)
Rest hard some more
Some kind of caloric control
Drink water
Look awesome!

That’s it.

Seriously.

Ok, it may get a wee bit more difficult ‘towards the end’, but that is the jist of how to look hot for the summer beach season. Read more

June 15, 2015/by admin

Lifestyle & Change

Defining Strong

Recently it came to my attention that many people think that I hate anything that isn’t lifting heavy things and, preferably, sticking them over my head. They seem to think that I ‘only’ make people stronger.

Being stronger does have some terrible side effects:

Easier to pick up stuff
Increased muscle mass
Live longer
Look hotter

Being ‘strong’ is the entry point to doing whatever else it is you want to do, whether that is to look better for the beach, perform better in your sport or live a better quality of life.

But what is ‘strong’? What do I mean when I say things are easier when you are stronger? Read more

June 9, 2015/by admin

Lifestyle & Change, Planning

The importance of Easy Days

As a PT your process applied to clients should hopefully look something like this:

Assess clients goal (the real goal, not that one they tell you)
Assess clients starting point
Teach client good technique (possibly ‘fixing client’ at the same time)
Creating a plan for client
Helping them work the plan
Adusting the plan (as life is never simple)
High fiving client when the goal is achieved

You could argue all day which is most important, but those are the processes and that is the order in which they need to be performed.

In points (4) and (5), create the plan and then walk the plan, there needs to be a combination of light, medium and heavy types of training. The science of athletic performance and the art of fatloss workouts show us that the best results come from some form of undulating training where intensity (how hard it is), volume (how much of it) and density (how quickly you’re doing it) are varied. There are peaks and troughs in a successful training system.

Unfortunately the media surrounding fitness seems to have created the idea that we have to smash our faces into the wall with every workout we do. This is a modern phenomena. Looking at the historical physical systems we see the idea of yin/yang, soft/hard and relaxation/tension is a foundational tenant. Oldtime strongmen ‘practiced’ and only ever performed extreme feats either rarely (and in private) to test their limit or if they were pursuing a new record. The gladiators of ancient Rome would wake up, train, eat, and then take a nap for several hours, maximising recovery.

The only sensible way to measure success!

June 1, 2015/by admin

Lifestyle & Change

Confidence and Self-Belief

What is it you want from your training and diet? Is it 8% bodyfat and a sculpted body that turns heads? Is it the ability to lift twice your bodyweight from the floor on demand? Or the capacity to run for six miles without having to breathe like an asthmatic jackhammer? We all want to look better, feel better, BE better. But what is it that this ‘better’ gives us?

This ‘better me’ can generally be wrapped up as possessing more of two things than we have right this moment, and those are confidence and self-belief. This ‘better me’ has the confidence to walk into a room and tell people what they think (and boy do people listen, because this guy/gal exudes confidence!). This ‘better me’ doesn’t worry about whether these jeans make their butt look big (or skinny), they don’t worry about looking foolish because they are comfortable in themselves and have believe in their own abilities.