Bullshit, Brawn and Business

So you started hitting the gym. You start going consistently. You start making progress and begin to see some changes. And then all of a sudden… They Stop! As frustrating as they are unfortunately plateaus in performance and rate of visual change are completely normal and happen to everyone at some point in time. Some people manage to break through the plateau however for others it becomes an unbreakable wall, which they ultimately succumb to. It would be easy for me to sit here and analyse why many people succumb when a plateau in performance hits but instead I am going to highlight the factors which helped me when I hit a performance plateau earlier this year. It was Mid-June, I was 11 months into my ‘bulking’ phase, which after a mini-cut (for 2 weeks) prior to a holiday in May I was quite happy with the way things had gone. I was clearly more muscular in appearance and stronger in terms of performance than when I had started the mass-bulking phase in the previous July....

Today I just want to drop a quick post on having realistic expectations about the adaptations that you can expect your body to make when you are training and dieting. Time and time again I speak to people who tell me that they're struggling because they're either a 'hardgainer' and can't build muscle or that they have a 'slow metabolism' and that they can't lose weight, usually after following or reading a programme set out by a media outlet such as 'Pack On 5kg of Muscle in 6 Weeks' or 'Lose A Stone in a Month'. Well I have news for you... YOU ARE NOT A HARDGAINER NOR DO YOU HAVE A SLOW METABOLISM! You simply aren't giving your body the time and consistency it needs to adapt. When I first started training I was as short-sighted as anyone when it came to my expectations regarding the rate at which I expected to change. I was under the impression that I could turn up to the gym, throw a few weights around, eat reasonably 'he...

After eating and drinking myself silly over the Christmas period I decided to go on a bit of a cut in the lead up to Easter in order to lose a bit of fat. When I say a 'bit of a cut' I mean I dropped my calories into a deficit of 200 under maintenance. This was the first time that I'd ever purposefully put myself into a calorie deficient for a prolonged period of time and upon reflection it taught me a few things, which I will outline for you below. 1. Meal Timings - Naively when I started out on the cut I thought I'd be able to eat like I had previously when bulking i.e. have a massive breakfast containing around 1200 calories, a decent lunch of around 700 calories, and then a 900 calorie evening meal. However, what I quickly found out when cutting was that eating this way and having the traditional three meals a day caused periods of extreme hunger and massive energy lags. After a number of weeks I realised that instead of having three meals a day at an average of...

When I talk to people about my training, the thing that seems to startle people most is that I train first thing in the morning. What I'm going to do in this article is attempt to explain why I do this. Historically I have never been a morning person, I was the person who would get out of bed at the latest possible moment in order to get somewhere on time but in January 2013 I realised that I was using the excuse 'I don't have time' too often not only in terms of keeping fit but with my work as well. I was right I didn't have time to work out and complete all of my work to a high standard because I would spend the first 3-4 hours of the day procrastinating, thinking about how tired I was and therefore made a change to my lifestyle in order to become more productive. The change was getting my arse up in the morning and train! What I quickly found out is that the hardest part of training in the morning is actually turning up. The 10 seconds between my alarm going ...

Many people work their abs tirelessly, yet never get that ripped six-pack look that they crave and they are often left confused as to why this is. Almost certainly the first thing they'll believe is that its their 'poor genetics' which occasionally up to a point it is, but thats not the most fundamental reason why they can't see their abs. The thing is everyone has abs, I have abs, you have abs, your parents have abs but we all have different levels of fat covering those abs. Genetically some people may have a thicker layer of fat than others but EVERYONE can still get ripped abs, all you have to do is burn that layer of fat. The massive misconception that is partly due to the media is the idea that doing loads and loads of sit ups, leg raises etc will get you that ripped six pack that you desire. However, this is not the case! Performing sit-ups, crunches, leg raises and whatever else you may be whacked out will indeed help tone your abs BUT it will not help burn t...

Whilst smashing out a legs and abs session this morning I happened to overhear a conversation between a Personal Trainer (PT) and a what appeared to be a new client. The conversation went as follows: PT: "What are you looking to gain from these sessions, are you looking to lose weight, gain size or..." Client: "I want to add some size in time ready for my summer holiday." Now there's nothing out of the ordinary about this conversation. However, what was out of the ordinary was the fact that the client was a muscular guy who pretty much double the size of his PT in terms of muscle mass and I couldn't help thinking that the client is wasting his money by employing this PT if he wants to bulk up. Now I'm obviously making a lot of assumptions here about both the client and the PT, but from to the outsider it looked as though the client was employing an ectomorph of a PT who had a very similar physique to that of Mo Farah in order to help him turn into...

Being fit is a concept that comes naturally to some people, it even gives them enjoyment. Whilst others struggle to grasp the concept of a training and couldn't think of anything worse than getting up at the crack of dawn to head down to the testosterone fuelled gym to sweat your nuts off and to hear 'Big Al' telling just about anybody who'll listen that he's just set a new bench press PB. But whether you like it or not sooner or later the likelihood is you are going to be told by your partner/friend/doctor that you need to get a little bit fitter; and that thought probably scares the life out of you! Now, the HARDEST part of getting fit is STARTING! This piece of advice can be applied to anything from starting your own business to starting training in order to get fit. The problem with us humans is we live in fear. We fear uncertainty, we fear failure, and therefore we fear trying! I also have a passion for business and I've lost count of the amount of peopl...