Meal Frequency – Part 1

Optimal No. of Meals?

You read right, Dwayne Johnson, otherwise known as The Rock, consumes 7 meals a day! We ain’t talking salads either, we are talking proper meals, meat, vegetables and potatoes. Just check out his diet below:

 

Dwayne Johnson’s Diet	Meal 1 10 oz cod 2 whole eggs 2 cups oatmeal	Meal 2 8 oz cod 12 oz sweet potato 1 cup veggies
Meal 3 8 oz chicken 2 cups white rice 1 cup veggies	Meal 4 8 oz cod 2 cups rice 1 cup veggies 1 tbsp fish oil	Meal 5 8 oz steak 12 oz baked potato spinach salad
Meal 6 10 oz cod 2 cups rice salad	Meal 7 30 grams casein protein 10 egg-white omelet 1 cup veggies (onions, peppers, mushrooms) 1 tbsp omega-3 fish oil

 

This is his so called ‘muscle-building’ diet. No doubt it has worked for him, the man has some muscle! But, remember how I said we should question everything? I know it seems we have a winning formula, 1) The Rock is hench 2) The Rock eats 7 meals a day. So put two and two together and we should all be eating 7 meals a day to get hench?

Too often it is acceptable to have an idea of why something works, and then use this to sell it without any testing or proof. There is no experiment that asserts validity. And thus many of the accepted truths in the nutrition and training field fall within this, and they persist due to habit. I think that is ludicrous, I think times are changing and I want to push this change. In reality you should provide proof that the idea is based on facts, and testing to ensure it works.

 

Trouble is it seems kinda logical to have many meals in the day if building muscle is our goal. And traditionally bodybuilders have been under a strict eat every 2-3 hours rule, to ensure constant supply of nutrients to our muscles. By eating more often you not only provide our muscles with fuel, you stoke the metabolic fire and avoid spikes in our blood sugar levels amongst other benefits. While that all sounds great, and on the surface I see the potential logic, but often the premise is flawed, lets look at each claim in further detail.

 

Yo Bro

“Eating more often spikes your metabolism”

 

OK so where does this claim come from, because every claim has a source. When we eat we do in fact increase our metabolism, through something called The Thermic Effect of Food (TEF). TEF equates to the energy burnt to digest the food, yup, we don’t ingest something and get 100% of the energy, some gets lost in digestion (around 10%). So the thought was by eating more often, we are stimulating more TEF, thus increasing our metabolism. Mini-meals ftw.

 

However, TEF is directly proportional to the amount you’re eating. This is where the above argument losing its standing. When two people consume identical diets, no matter how many meals they eat, the amount burnt in TEF is the same. So when diets are matched studies have shown no differences in expenditure between nibbling and gorging. It becomes another one of those situations where people miss the forest for the trees, because when you focus on the bigger picture, the entire diet over the long term, there is no difference.

Hang on, I heard if you skip breakfast you don’t ignite your metabolism, and if you don’t do that you’ll burn less. Intermittent fasting, in which you go through periods of typically 16 hours of no food has destroyed this argument. Our metabolism doesn’t operate that quickly, we do not impose some sort of starvation response by missing a meal.

 

Whether you eat 3 meals, 11 meals or Dwayne’s 7 meals, when diets are matched, there is no difference in metabolic rate. Any effects of meal pattern on the regulation of our body weight are mediated through effects on the food intake side of the energy balance equation. Increasing the number of meals in hope of boosting your metabolic rate is a total waste of time.

 

But Bro

“What about your blood sugar, it’ll crash”

 

This claim again on surface seems very logical, that if we want to keep stable energy levels, we need to be grazing constantly. Feeding our bodies little and often, to keep a nice flow of energy coming in. Further to that, surely eating frequently means we avoid getting hungry too. Again, that all makes sense on the surface, so lets delve into it.

Contrary to the above, our bodies actually regulate our blood sugar levels incredibly well. You know what our bodies love? Homeostasis. Whether it’s our body fat, temperature or blood sugar levels, our body is extremely well adept at keeping them tightly bound to a strict range. Assuming you are perfectly healthy we don’t see our levels climb and sink like a crazy yoyo. In fact more recent studies done on younger fit and healthy subjects have shown them to have greater blood sugar control on 3 as opposed to 6 meals, go figure.

 

But Bro

“You’ll go catabolic if you don’t keep feeding your muscles protein”

 

So we know our blood sugar levels do just fine without frequent feeding, and it doesn’t magically jack up our metabolism. But surely if we want to maintain or grow muscle, and protein is the key to this, we need a constant supply of it. If we go for hours without, won’t our bodies start eating away at our hard earned muscle?

 

Right so the thinking is we are better off having say 30g of protein split into 6 meals as opposed to 60g split into 3 meals. Because, we want a constant supply of aminos to not lose muscle. This misses something quite important, and that is digestion speed. You eat more, it takes longer to digest. After a high protein meal amino acids are released slowly into your bloodstream. A typical meal takes 5-6 hours to get digested, so even if you are having 3 larger meals, you’re still digesting and using the last one!

 

The only time meal frequency shows to make any difference with this is when protein intake is inadequate. In cases where the person isn’t getting enough protein (1g per pound or so) a higher frequency of feedings can help spare lean body mass.

So the body does not trigger a hormonal cascade to signal starvation if it goes without food for hours, in fact it copes well with this. The only time a ‘starvation response’ really kicks in is after 3-4 days of very low calories.

 

But Bro

“Your body cannot digest loads of protein at once”

 

The thought is that our bodies can only digest a certain amount of grams of protein at once, the rest gets wasted. Thus we are better off eating smaller amounts more frequently. I mean it isn’t like we are masses of meat in one sitting in the past is it…oh wait. Therefore, lets look deeper into this.

 

So we know our ancestors were hunter gatherers, they went through times of feast and famine. They certainly had no problem eating a tonne of meat at once. When you eat more protein, it takes longer to digest and be used. That is about as complex as it gets. a standard meal is still being digested 5 hours later, that means amino acids are still being released into the bloodstream and absorbed by our muscles.

 

From E.M. Forster

“Spoon feeding in the long run teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon.”

 

Just as the point Forster is making, stop abiding by so called ‘theories’ that people have repeated enough times so they become ‘facts’. If you allow others to give you orders, you do not learn, instead question everything and come to your own conclusions and #ReviveStronger

 

In part 2 I am going to look deeper into why eating frequently can actually be a bad thing for some, and then in the final part I will finish with some practical application. It isn’t as cut and dry as eat whenever you want…

 

Further Reading:

• Learn more about intermittant fasting: http://www.leangains.com/
• Lyle McDonald on meal timing and energy balance: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/research-review/meal-frequency-and-energy-balance-research-review.html/
• [NEW] The Coach & Client Connection Episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82CHJbe00no
• [NEW] Blog Post for Physiqu Apparel: http://www.physiqapparel.com/blog/can-we-outwork-our-genetics/

Cameron Mitchell – ‘ensured that my training would fit around my university work’

Cameron, what were your goals when signing up with me?

Drop body fat & maintain muscle mass & strength.

What reservations if any did you have before we started working together?

First I was unsure whether I believed that I’d be able to achieve similar results to your other clients. Secondly I was unsure whether I’d cope on a student budget, with the food & supplements required etc. Finally I had exams during this time, and wasn’t sure I’d be able to give enough time to the programme to see results.

How was I able to help you with your reservations?

There was constant guidance from the beginning with every aspect of training. Steve ensured that my training would fit around my university work, and that I wouldn’t have to spend hundreds on various supplements. We also developed a good connection, which helped ensure we understood one another.

In point form, can you list your achievements training with me thus far?

• Dropped over a stone in a month.
• Deadlift 1RM up 50kg.
• Squat 1RM up 45kg.
• Bench 1RM up 20kg.
• Confidence inside and outside the gym has never been better.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

To anyone looking to train with Steve; he will go above and beyond what you expect. His coaching alongside the flexible dieting approach has been a game changer, half the time I didn’t even feel like I was dieting. The fat kept coming off and strength kept increasing. I am more than happy with my results.

Cameron came to me lacking confidence, and I really wanted to help. So we got him nailing the main compound lifts and dropping some unwanted fat. His consistency and dedication throughout the process were the difference between no results and his results. I am so proud of Cameron and cannot wait to see where we can go from here.

Interested in online coaching? You can check out what I have to offer here.

Apples are Bad for you!

Everything you eat is bad for you!

The above statement isn’t quite true, it should read everything you eat CAN be bad for you. But, in the same way it can be bad for you, it can also be good for you. That’s right! EVERYTHING you eat can be good for you.

What’s good and what’s bad? 
To answer this you don’t look at the micronutrients the food provides, nor do you look at the macronutrients, you don’t even consider whether it is homemade or not. The key feature to making a food good or bad is looking at it within the context of the entire diet. 

Without context you cannot say something is healthy, unhealthy, good or bad. So if you ask me, ‘is this a good thing to eat?’ I will say, ‘it depends on the rest of your diet’. It seems annoying at first, can’t their just be good and bad foods. Those good foods cannot make us fat, they make us big, strong, lean, toned and all that great stuff we want. This simply isn’t the case.

Take an apple, apples are good right? They’re high in fibre, micro dense and contain few calories.

How an Apple can be bad for you
That’s right, I am going to tell you how an apple can be bad for you, yes an Apple! Right so to make this qualification you know what we need? Context.

Take Alex, he is looking to drop some fat before his holiday. Alex likes apples and he has been told they are good for him, so he grabs one whenever hungry.

In Alex’s eyes apples are always good, they can’t stop his progress. Well that is where Alex thought wrong. Sure maybe 1 or 2 apples were fine, but if Alex ate enough they would take him out of a calorie deficit and even take him into a surplus.

If Alex did this consistently apples could literally be stopping him losing weight, and could even make him gain fat, and in that case for Alex’s goals those apples were bad.

Apples can stop you losing fat and even make you gain it.

How Ice Cream can be good for you
No way, ice cream, processed, full of sugar and fat, ice cream can never be classified as good for you? Wrong. It can, given the right context. This is where what at first seemed annoying, is actually a blessing.

Take Michelle, she is also trying to drop weight. Michelle knows that she needs to be in a calorie deficit to do this. Michelle also knows that micronutrition is important, she makes sure to eat mainly wholesome, nutritious food. 80% of her diet consists of that typically ‘good’ stuff.

Michelle also knows that if she restricts herself from certain foods, she ends up breaking her diet and binging. Michelle has a sweet tooth and loves ice cream. Each day she consumes a small bowl of ice cream with berries, enough to satisfy her sweet tooth, but not so much to take her out of calorie deficit or deprive her of micronutrition. That ice cream is good!

Ice cream allows Michelle to be consistent, and is in the context of a calorie deficit and micronutrient dense diet. Ice cream can allow you to drop fat.

The Bigger Picture
Don’t miss the entire diet and lifestyle for the one off meal choices or foods. Or in other words, don’t miss the forest for the trees. That means look at the bigger picture and this means viewing these things in context. Given the right context any food can be described as good or bad, as shown above.

The Bottom Line
To make sure you are eating only foods that are good, you need to make sure they are taking you towards your goals. Everyone should be seeking to be healthy, that means you want to get in sufficient micronutrient dense foods. Once you have eaten enough of these, so long as you remain within your overall nutritional limits for your goals, you can eat anything you like.

To get a better idea about how much your body needs and what exactly each macronutrient does for you be sure to check out my articles Need to know nutritionPart 1 and Part 2.

How to [Eat Pizza Daily] & Stay Lean

Achieving Adaptability

The person who can eat anything they like, and often does, without any problems, can consume the most amazing food combinations without any issues.

This individual must have amazing metabolic health and adaptability. Everyone has this ability (bar those rare few with dietary misfortunes) to eat everything and anything, yet remain healthier than ever.

Achieving Amazing Metabolic Health

Your metabolism is a wonderful thing, it is incredibly adaptable and will change according to what it is given. It’s simply the total sum of energy burnt by our bodies. Whether it be brushing your teeth, digesting food, lifting weights or keeping you warm, all of these things add up to be your metabolism.
So how do we make our metabolisms amazing, so we can eat pizza daily? The most important thing you can do is to not restrict food intake needlessly. If you are constantly eating less than your body needs, your metabolism, being the adaptable bugger it is, will adjust downwards, meaning you will burn less total energy. So make sure to eat well, and by well I mean do not needlessly restrict intake.

Another simple addition to the above can be to move. It doesn’t need to be a load, but please avoid being sedentary for long periods of time. The largest component of our metabolic burn is our Non Exercise Activity Thermogensis or NEAT. This is the energy used for all movement outside of formal exercise, so it is the walking to the shops, cleaning our rooms and getting down in the bed room. That stuff really adds up! Stop laughing…

To take it a step further you can further ramp your metabolic rate up by implementing a few dietary changes. Protein out of all the macronutrients takes the most energy to be digested. So by changing the macro composition of our diet we can increase our metabolic rate. Also make sure you’re eating in a balanced way, that means not restricting any foods unnecessarily. Our body loves carbs, they provide the best fuel for us to perform exercise. You should be eating them if you want to get the most from your training.

And finally there is exercise, most people think that this has a dramatic impact on our total energy burn, but as I said previously NEAT is the biggest factor. However, it is an important aspect of having amazing metabolic health. I am going to start with the exercise to avoid, and that is slow, utterly boring, steady state cardio. That stuff really aint going to to do much for your metabolism. Our bodies will adapt to it in a jiffy, one month you might be burning 300 calories doing an incline walk for 30 minutes at 5mph, the next month you will definitely be burning less.

You want to be purposely increasing the intensity, volume and or distance of your chosen exercise. This way your body is continually adapting upwards, and you’ll be getting stronger and fitter. However, this is where the catch 22 comes in, now you’re fitter and stronger, that means you’ll burn less energy doing day to day activities. BUT, you can now perform at higher intensities, recover faster and handle more work all of which leads to burning more calories. Don’t over think it, do exercise, make sure to get outside of your comfort zone. 

So now you have the knowledge of how to get amazing metabolic health, how do you go about achieving amazing adaptability?

Amazing Adaptability

Remember how I said our bodies are incredibly adaptable? This can work against us, I am going to show you how. If you eat an all vegetable diet, you will adapt to that, if you eat an all meat diet, you’ll adapt to that. If you eat an all raw food diet, you will get sick if you consume cooked food. If you want to consume wonderful worldly combinations of any food and remain healthy, you need to adapt to the modern food environment and be able to handle pretty much anything.

Do you really want to feel like crap when you eat out, or go to a friends for dinner because you’re not eating your special diet food? On the other hand, do you want to get stomach ache when you eat any sort of vegetable, due to only being used to eating processed food? No of course not. You want to be healthy, and have it all.The number of people who can eat whatever they want without becoming fat or ill doesn’t need to be just a ‘lucky’ few.

How do we get to that point? It really is simple; be sure to eat a diet that is varied, that means it includes processed foods, high fibre foods, calorie dense foods, low GI carbs, high GI carbs, you get the picture.

Now You are an Adaptable Metabolic Animal

If you follow the above, you will have the digestive and metabolic machinery to annihilate anything. You want to do your best to feed yourself well, be active and eat a varied diet that consists of mainly wholesome nutritious foods but with the occasional meal out, bowl of ice cream and take away pizza.

Go eat some great food, get out of breath, enjoy life and #ReviveStronger

Further Reading:

• Body Fat set point – fact or fiction?
• 2 Rules to a getting a 6 pack
• Why we suck in the short term

Hannah Davies – ‘adapted things to suit me’

Hannah, what were your goals when signing up with me?

I wanted to gain control over my eating habits and go onto a productive training programme.

What reservations if any did you have before we started working together?

I was worried that I may become obsessed with my eating and feel stressed by this. Furthermore, due to handing over control of my training, which I love I was worried I would enjoy it less.

How was I able to help you with your reservations?

Initially when we started I began tracking macro’s, however this brought out feelings of obsession and stressed me out. You were able to produce a system that stopped me stressing and kept my nutrition on point.

Also when developing my training programme you discussed with me your suggestions and allowed me to have my own input. I could then incorporate some of the exercises I love.

In point form, can you list your achievements training with me thus far?

• Control over my eating.
• Furthered my education in regards to nutrition.
• Faster progress in the gym, seeing positive strength increases.

I have really enjoyed working with Hannah, she presented new challenges that I had not encountered before. We got round these challenges together by developing a method of nutrition that she could understand, do easily and still be accountable towards. Furthermore, we made sure that her training was productive but also importantly something she would enjoy doing. I have seen Hannah become more and more confident in both aspects and I am very proud of what we have achieved to date.

Interested in online coaching? You can check out what I have to offer here.

The Powerlifting Newb Series – Part 2 – Picking your attempts

So in Part 1 you got to see how the day went and some key lessons I learnt; make a plan, know the process and stay composed. I am going to touch on each of these in more detail to help the new powerlifter out.

First things first, I want you to have a plan of what numbers you are going to attempt for each lift. The only numbers set in stone are the openers, all the others can change on the day, but we will have a plan for that too. Using the below you will a guide that will get you a 100% success rate and give you the best chance of doing well in your meet.

What Weight?

Right, so you have been training with a meet in mind for many weeks or months. All the hard work you have put in is being put to the test on this one day. Hopefully you have been increasing your intensity slowly and have built up a good amount of volume prior to the meet. The last few weeks should have got you pretty well prepared for shifting heavy weights.

In the video below you can see how I recorded my main lifts and noted down how each set was feeling, information and footage like this is very helpful when picking your lifts.

Using your training notes you can look over the sort of weights you were achieving for a given number of reps, you can use these to look at what you estimated 1 rep maxes might look like. This will give you a good idea of what you 1 rep max on the day might be.

Rep Max Calculator

This gives you your starting point, you have your estimated 1 rep maxes. They give you a range to work from, you can set yourself a minimum and maximum for each lift. That way you know if you’re feeling crummy on the day you have a minimum you can hit and if you’re feeling super you have a maximum to aim for.

Picking Your Opener

The way I see it is that your opener is just an extension of your warm up. So this should definitely be something sub-maximal and shouldn’t take away from your next attempts. This is the only lift you have to hand in before you start, so you cannot judge how your warm up is going to give you an indication of how this lift might go. Therefore, it makes even more sense to pick something you can hit any day of the week come rain or shine. 

This should be a weight you could hit hungover wearing the clothes you had on during your night out. That means no belt, no lifting shoes, no chalk, you get the picture; no chance of failure. Furthermore, because it will be easy it will give you confidence for your next lifts going forward.

So because everyone likes rules of thumb;

• Your opener should be 80% of your final attempt (1 Rep Maximum).
• A piece of pie, whether hungover or not.

Picking Your Second Attempt

So after killing your first opener you’re ready for your second attempt. Again, we are going in with the mindset of hitting every single lift. Because, a missed attempt is as good as wiping your ass with cling film. Messy, uncomfortable, embarrassing and an all round epic fail. So 9/9 is our aim, therefore the second attempt is again something we are confident about hitting.

However, you have the first attempt to help guide you here. My advise is to have a couple of options before you get to your meet, have a feeling shitty option and a feeling good option. If your opener felt a bit slow, then opt for the feeling shitty second attempt, if it felt like it should, easy, then go for the feeling good option. Too many options will only leave you second guessing, if things are going to plan, you should be feeling good, it will be pretty clear if things aren’t.

Either way this lift again should be a no-brainer, not dead easy but not hard either. Something you could hit for a 2-3 rep max on a good day and hit for a single when you feel like utter crap.

Right so how do you go about picking these two?

• Feeling shitty 85% of your final attempt (1 Rep Maximum).
• Feeling good 90% of your final attempt (1 Rep Maximum).
• Something you could hit for a triple on a good day.

Picking Your Final Attempt

Right so now you are in a great position, whether you’re feeling good or not, you will have so far succeeded in getting every attempt, 6/6, good job! So using the 1 rep max calculator and your lifting history you have an idea of what you should be able to hit. Again I suggest having a feeling crummy attempt and a feeling good number.

As a rule of thumb set your final attempt at:

• 100 – 102.5% of your estimated 1RM.

Remember, we are going for 9/9, and especially because this is written for the powerlifting newb we are assuming a lack of meet experience. Therefore, you do not know whether you bloom under the competitive environment or crumble. It’s like those kids who know all the answers to the questions in lessons, and do well on their course work, but when it comes to exam conditions they suck. We therefore have little meet history to go off, so we are going to be conservative. As said before, a missed lift is useless, so we don’t want any second guessing.

The Take Home Message

If it wasn’t clear by now the take home from the above is that you want to avoid missing lifts. As someone new to powerlifting you want to be especially conservative, and learn from the process. Having a plan allows you to have better focus on the day, plus by having a minimum and a maximum you have a great way of selecting weights on the day, because who knows how you might be feeling.

In the parts to follow I will talk more about each lift, nutrition, weighing in and all the details of the meet day.

One Shocking Reason You’re Not Losing Weight!

One small blip, that can blunt fat loss…

This was inspired by one of my online clients, we have been working together for 2 months. She was new to counting macronutrients and dieting flexibly. So initially as expected there was a break-in period before she was getting within her programmed macro ranges. However, even with this she should have still been in a calorie deficit, given her activity and overall intake. But, she was not losing weight. Sound familiar? Frustrating right?

Even with small manipulations downwards of her overall intake and incremental additions of cardio, her weight still didn’t budge. Of course weight is not always entirely accurate, but her waist wasn’t moving much and she expressed that her body had not changed in composition. We had no reason to believe her metabolism was low, she didn’t have a history of excess exercise in comparison to total calories. So building her metabolic rate up (like I have had to do for many female clients) didn’t seem like the answer.

So logic was clearly failing me as a coach, she was tracking her macro intake, she was completing her exercise and these two things should have resulted in positive changes to her body composition. And this ladies and gentlemen is where I am going to let you in on the ONE SHOCKING reason she was not losing weight. It is so simple but so so very essential to a successful diet.
So what did I do, well I asked a few of my fellow coaches, told them about the above situation. We had lengthy discussions and came to the conclusion that she may beunderreporting her food intake. But, how do you really assess such a thing? I couldn’t accuse my client of not tracking everything, as she certainly thought she was. So I asked for access to her myfitnesspal, and this is where I found my answer.

She was underreporting, but not on purpose. How do you underreport by accident? Well the below video by one of my favourite fitness pros, Leigh Peele, shows you how here. Watched it? Did you really watch it? Good because I think it is a good reminder for everyone. If you didn’t watch it I am going to recap it here anyway, because it is really so darn simple but an easy trap to fall into.

Instead of using a scale to measure out her oats, vegetables and sauces, she was using cups, and spoon measures. These are MUCH less accurate, especially for someone who is new to tracking their macros. If you watched the video you can see how the inaccuracies can really add up and in this case stop you losing fat. However, if you were using them to maintain weight, they could easily lead to fat gain. On top of this my client was also using very generic measures, such as half a banana, think about that for a second. How big is this banana? They can really vary in length, and so to be really precise we are better off weighing this out.

Think, a 200 calorie discrepancy in a day could lead to 1400 calories not accounted for by the end of the week, and over a month that is 5600 calories. If that individual was trying to maintain weight, and we assume 3500 calories is equal to a pound of fat, they would gain just over 1 and a half pounds of fat. Over the course of the year, this could lead to close to 20 pounds of extra weight gained. Told you it was shocking, not just the fact it is such a simple mistake, but how easily it adds up!

You might now be thinking, ‘does this mean I have to weigh every little thing!?!…that isn’t very flexible’ and well you’d be right, you do and although flexible in food choice, you do need to be precise about things. However, there is part of the learning curve, at first you are a newb, you don’t know what 100g of oats looks like, or what 150g of apple looks like. But soon enough, after weighing these things out, you will get to know, and here is where the real flexibility and lifestyle change comes. You graduate to guestimation, this may take some people a few weeks, for others it might take months. But you’ll get there. I will note there are times when you probably shouldn’t guestimate, but that is a small % of the population, those trying to get to extreme levels of conditioning. For those just looking to drop some extra fat, you’ll be able to guestimate, and it becomes a life skill.

So if you track your macros, or even just your calories and have never used a scale for everything, you might want to try it out, it may well SHOCK you into losing fat 😉 #REVIVESTRONGER

Your Fat Torching Guide by Revive

Should you autoregulate your training?

To autoregulate your training you essentially go to the gym and do ‘what feels good’. That might mean your legs are feeling strong, and you want to work in a low rep range for some squats. Or maybe you did a lot of walking during the day, so you’re better off hitting your upper body, but you don’t feel like going heavy, so you go for some higher rep pulls and presses. You get the picture, you let your body decide on the day how to hit the weights. 

A problem with the above approach is that there is no structure, and what if you just decide not to train your lower body during the week, that’s just not on. So we need to create a programme as without an idea of what needs to be done we won’t progress. Therefore, better is to have at least an idea that you are going to squat, bench and deadlift heavy and for reps at some point in the week, but then choose when you do each. The amount of structure you provide can vary, there are whole training programmes such as Mike Tuchscherer’s Reactive Training Systems. 

A problem with that approach is that if you are new to training you might not really know what weights you should be using for each of these. Or maybe by not having knowing when you are meant to be hitting it hard and taking it easy, you never actually hit it all that hard. That also might lead you to not progressing. If you are a more advanced lifter you might actually be able to select a weight to hit an appropriate Rate of Perceived Exertion (to learn more about the RPE scale click here). You know how certain weights feel, so if you are warming up you can identify whether you should shoot for that PR or hold back and just go through the movement with a lighter weight.

My suggestion? if you are completely new to training I think you would be better suited to stick to a programme, using %’s based off your estimated 1 rep maxes. This is because you lack the experience with the weights to autoregulate and we want you to be progressing each week. I often will guide my clients alongside with an RPE, but they know the weight they are aiming for.

However, if you are a seasoned lifter, and are progressing at a monthly or more basis then I think a combination of RPE and % may be a better suited. What might this mean in practice? Say you know you are squatting today, it is a heavy day. You want to do 5 reps for a given number of sets. I suggest looking at what %’s of your 1 rep max you would like to achieve. For this case, lets say it is 75%, I would then create a range, say 5% above and 5% below this. Then you can work up to this range and then depending how you feel on the day, autoregulate the weight from this range. You’d do this during your warm up sets, if they feel slow you know to go lower within the range, if they are springy and smooth then push for higher. That is one approach I have seen to be very successful with my clients and it gives another reason why warming up is required. DO NOT JUST GO AND START ON YOUR WORKING WEIGHTS, that is reckless and could easily lead to an injury.

There are many other approaches that are definitely worth trying, such as using %’s for the main lifts and then hitting RPE’s for the assistance lifts. Or going for a rep max for the day and then backing off until you hit a certain RPE. The way you eventually choose to programme will be very individual. This is just a brief look into autoregulation and there is a lot more to be said about it, but lets leave that for another time.

Hope this helps you and your training #REVIVESTRONGER

Ted Hill – ‘in 4 months I got into the best shape of my life and was the strongest I’ve ever been’

Ted, what were your goals when signing up with me?

Gain lean muscle mass and become significantly stronger, especially on the squat, bench and deadlift. Also help in rehabilitating my rowing back injury, preventing me squatting and deadlifting.

What reservations if any did you have before we started working together?

I was slightly concerned about how flexible my life at university would be, especially with regards to eating meals prepared by my housemates, and going on nights out whilst drinking.

How was I able to help you with your reservations?

The IIFYM approach was clearly broken down to me be Steve and by understanding the method of dieting I felt confident enough to undertake the new lifestyle. Even when I got it wrong in the early stages Steve went about informing me and explaining how to improve next time – Like how to go about incorporating alcohol into my diet.

In point form, can you list your achievements training with me thus far?

• Gained lean muscle mass
• Increased strength
• Fully recovered from previous injuries
• Prepped successfully for a cat walk
• In 4 months my total on the big three went up 142.5kg or a 49% increase.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Steve has genuinely transformed my approach to gym and dieting. I have never seen such continual progress in the gym! Having accountability and someone who knows how to set up correct training and macro split is essential.

I have thoroughly enjoyed coaching Ted, it hasn’t always been easy with his lagging injuries and competitive rowing and living the student lifestyle, all competing with not only his training but also nutrition. Ted has done tremendously well in balancing everything in his life, and the progress he has made is outstanding. I look forward to working with Ted again in the future, he has a great future ahead of him.

Interested in online coaching? You can check out what I have to offer here.