The Fundamentals Make The Athlete

Back to basics

We all know those people who want to know the latest best exercise, or the new amazing supplement on the market. They are so focussed on the latest and greatest but have not taken the time to develop what matters most, and that is a strong foundation.

What makes up a strong base?

We all know that the best things in life are based of a few simple core principles. Apple products are great because they are so easy to use, this is the strong base they develop from. Costa produce some fantastic coffee variations and these all stem from top quality coffee beans. To be the best or to develop and grow you need a strong foundation to do it from. For the athlete this means perfect (or near to) technique on the main compound lifts, that’s squats, deadlifts and pressing varieties. It also requires a strong nutritional base, that’s your protein, carbs and fats, getting what you require by the end of the day, consistently. Developing these two aspects in the early stages of an athletes career pays massive dividends later on.

Stop looking for ‘training secrets’ & ‘magical supplements’
I know when I first started training I was far too concerned with the wrong things. Thinking if I took this shake and did this bicep tri-set routine I’d be cut and jacked in no time. I missed the bigger picture, and that was getting key basic principles correct. Any supplement or new training protocol is only ever going to be like the sprinkles on a cake. If you have a poor quality sponge, no matter how good those darn sprinkles are every bite will taste terrible. Just like no matter how good a supposed supplement or training method is meant to be, if you have poor technique on the main compounds or do not hit the your personal macro requirements by the end of the day, you will not see the results you desire. I know this first hand.

A coach can really help you get these aspects nailed, and keep you from straying too far from what matters. Not only do they keep you accountable for your nutrition, but if they are any good they know no matter how advanced you are as an athlete you can’t go wrong with a good squat, deadlift or pressing pattern. Making sure you are continually getting the basics right, each and every day.

Something Missing From Your Training? GPP

The missing element is…being ‘generally’ fit

So I was first introduce to this ‘generally’ fit concept when I read it in Supertraining by Yuri Verkhoshansky & Mel C. Siff (a terrific read, that you will have to re-read multiple times). However, I didn’t start using the principle until I was given it by my coach Greg Farris of Myobrain. Since doing it personally and knowing what it is about, I can really see why it holds such an important role. Simply stated, almost every athlete of any sport should be doing it to some extent.

What does it mean to be generally fit?
Verkhoshansky & Siff call this General Physical Preparedness or GPP for short, it is characterised by the progressive development of motor skills through a wide variety of non-specific exercises.

It’s role is to expose the athlete to a wide variety of physical fitness skills to enhance well rounded and healthy development. Exercises chosen are general in nature, but specific in function, allowing such improvements even though they are different than those of the desired sport type.

In essence you get fit to train, we are building and or maintaining a functional base for our sport.

Medvedyev describes the exclusive role GPP plays in the overall training programme:

1. The formation, strengthening or restoration of the habits which play an auxiliary, facilitatory role in sport perfection.
2. As a means of educating abilities, developed insufficiently by the selected type of sport, raising and or preserving the general work capacity.
3. As active rest, assisting the restoration process after significant, specific loading and counteracting the monotony of training.

When you combine Medvedyev’s three point description, with the above we come to some pretty awesome GPP prescriptions:

• It needs to be general in nature, but specific in function, using a wide range of different movements & modalities.
• It needs to be fun, different and non-exhausting.
• If the above two principles are met it will facilitate our sport, by enhancing our recovery and building general work capacity.

Exercise selection:
Exercises should consist of any means that elevates a certain trait required by the athlete, or found within the sport itself. They should be working on areas that are neglected by sport specific exercises.

So knowing the above would you wouldn’t give 2×5 clean and jerk to an Olympic weight lifter, but that may be suitable for a Powerlifter. Remember, the exercises chosen are general in nature but specific in function, so an Olympic Weightlifter clean and jerks all the time, so it is specific, but a Powerlifter would rarely perform such a movement, so it enhances their general fitness.

I think for GPP to build the best overall, all round general fitness it needs to be full body in nature, meaning the following movement patterns should be included:

• Squat
• Press
• Hinge
• Pull
• Bracing, Crawling, Jumping

This is because it is aimed at raising one’s fitness of many components of many tasks, and therefore should give all round physical development. We are looking to develop general endurance, strength, co-ordination and flexibility.

So you should look to alter load, duration, intensity, type of movement etc. However, remember it should enhance recovery and be fun.

What it might look like for a Powerlifter/Bodybuilder:

Exercise		Reps	Instructions
Push Up		1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10	Bodyweight Circuit- this should take 30 minutes to complete. You will do 1 rep on each exercise, supersetting, then 2, 3 until reaching 10 reps on each exercise, before moving onto the next superset/tri-set. Rest where needed.
Inverted Row
Squat		1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
Squat jump
KB Swing		1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
Goblet Squat
1 Arm Row		1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
1 Arm Press
Single leg glute bridge (right)		1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
Single leg glute bridge (left)
Glute bridge
DB straight legged deadlift		1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
Mountain Climbers

So what is missing from your training? General Fitness.

We are looking to improve the bodies functional capacity and therefore it’s general physical preparedness. We do this by incorporating exercises that enhance our sport, but are not specific to it. GPP needs to be fun, stress free and not take away from your recovery.

My athletes all seem to really enjoy GPP and there is no reason you won’t too, so go on, get fit!

Focus on the Process to get the Goal

Are you goal or process orientated? 

You may be wondering, what in heck is he on about? Process orientated…goal orientated…what are these concepts? So I guess it would be best to clarify what I mean by each:

Goal Orientated– you focus on the end product, this might be a certain body weight, an amount to be lifted or even a promotion. This is your key driver, it gets you out of bed each day.

Process Orientated– instead of looking at the end product you hope for, you focus on what needs to be done to get there. If you want to hit a certain bodyweight, you make sure to eat and exercise each day in a way that would take you there. If you want a promotion by the end of the year, each day you nail your work and go the extra mile. You look at what needs to be done to get you to your goal, this is your focus each day.

As you can see there is one KEY DIFFERENCE; one focusses on the END PRODUCT and the other on what NEEDS TO BE DONE TO GET THERE.

So what’s wrong about looking at the end goal all the time? I mean it’s good to set goals and have them drive us throughout life? Well yes, setting goals is brilliant, and they need to be there to give us purpose and direction. However, the problem with thinking about the end product all the time is that you want it now. Or if something goes a bit skew whiff one day you get very frustrated.

Take Bob, he wants to get to 165lbs for a natural bodybuilding competition. Now Bob has given himself 20 weeks to get there, which should be plenty of time as he is only weighing in at 185lbs. So Bob knows that if on average he loses a pound per week he will hit his goal. Bob isn’t an idiot and knows that at first he can expect weight to come off faster and it will gradually slow.

Each day Bob wakes up and weighs himself, always with the focus on the end weight. So he is setting himself up for disappointment every single day, because he is not yet at his goal weight. Imagine a situation where he is 10 weeks out, and his weight stalls, he loses nothing for a week, or even gains a pound. Bob being Bob is thinking that he will not hit his goal weight at this rate, he gets very anxious and decides to add cardio and drop his calorie intake.

Bob then loses a lot of weight the next week, and once the 20 weeks are up he is actually 5lbs lighter than his goal.

Now take Fred, he is going for the same show, so he also needs to get down to 165lbs. Like Bob, he is a smart guy, he knows how to get there. However, unlike Bob, Fred focusses on these processes, he looks at what macros and exercise needs to be done each day, and is satisfied each day as he gets this done. Fred’s weight also stalls one week, however, being process orientated Fred knows he has done everything right and cannot do anything more. So he sticks to his guns, and when the 20 weeks finish, he manages to also reach his goal, but is 5lbs heavier than Bob.

So whats the difference? Both Bob and Fred were able to get to their goal, but Bob actually overshot and lost more weight than he needed and aimed for. In this situation it meant that he actually lost lean muscle mass by making drastic changes to his diet and exercise. He therefore placed lower than Fred, who being process focussed, didn’t lose his head, and therefore kept a higher amount of lean mass.

This is just one example of how being too focussed on the end product can worsen the outcome. Life is not linear, we get peaks and troughs of good luck and bad luck. However, if you focus on what you are doing to get to your goal, rather than goal in question, you will be in a better place to consistently do what needs to be done. You won’t get disheartened along the way, and do something non-productive.

Be process orientated, not goal orientated, you’ll be surprised how much more you enjoy the each day and probably hit your goal sooner!

Having a coach really helps keep you focussed on the processes, they give you your training and nutrition, all you need to do is do it. Therefore, it directs your focus on the process, they can keep the goal in mind. Like the sound of that? Check out my success stories and if you think my coaching might suit you check out my services.

#REVIVESTRONGER

‘Honey Monster Puffs’ The New Health Food?

‘Honey Monster Puffs’

The new ‘health’ food?

So Sugar Puffs are re-branding themselves to Honey Monster Puffs because sales have been driven down by the sugar scare that is currently rife. Not only that but they are changing the recipe of our beloved sugar puffs to contain 20% more honey and less added sugar.

So they will now contain 8.6g sugar per 30g serving, from the original 9.3g. Big whoop. Critics rightly pointed out that once broken down by the body, honey will do the same thing as the added sugar would have. Furthermore, there are worse offenders out there such as Coco Pops and Frosties which contain 11g of sugar per portion. Thus, we can clearly see the change is a marketing ploy, removing sugar from their brand name and assigning a ‘health halo’ by adding that the product contains honey, which is seen as natural and therefore good for you. This frustrates the hell out of me, and highlights how ignorant the consumer is and why education is still the only way to help people make wiser choices.

Education , Education, Education

People need to understand that when it comes to their diet what makes it healthy vs. unhealthy are not individual food choices, but the overall macronutrient and micronutrient contents of their entire diet. However, because the majority of the population do not understand this, they get mis-guided by companies, the news and word of mouth.

Governing Bodies are clueless
Companies are now required to put nutritional traffic lights on their products, assigning different colours to a choice of dietary aspects of the food. Typically calories, sugar, fat, saturated fat and salt.

I have a two big problems with this. One the colours are referring to a guideline daily amount, this is a generic and completely unindividualised figure. Just think, a athlete needs a load more calories and therefore fat than an office worker who is sedentary.

Second, they are focussing on some of the wrong things. I am fine with the calories and overall fat being put there, but sugar, saturated fat and salt? The governing bodies are focussing on the wrong things, they would be better off providing a macronutrient breakdown of the product i.e. fat, protein and carbohydrates.

Sugar at the end of the day is the final form of any carb, and we are not really helping by pin pointing just sugar. Why saturated fat is on there I really don’t know, as no one is sure how much we should really be getting, what we do know is we need a balance of each type of fat and that saturated fat is essential for healthy hormone function. Finally salt, this has been highlighted and vilified by the nutrition press recently, and in my view wrongly. It’s been known for over 20 years that people with high blood pressure who don’t want to lower their salt intake can consume more potassium-containing foods. It is the balance between the two minerals that matters. So if they do have salt on their, surely the potassium content should also be provided?

Confused Consumers

I feel bad for calling the general population ignorant, because I don’t think it is largely their fault. As shown above the government are focussing on the wrong things, and do not provide adequate education. So consumers only have the news, media and branding to base their choices off. And there is the problem, the news often tout complete bull, governing bodies focus on the wrong things and companies are concerned about their bottom line, not our health.

People need to educate themselves, but they need to use legit resources and question everything. This is good daily practice that can be used throughout life. Be open minded but skeptical, base your opinion on facts and if something sounds fishy, question it.

MyFitnessPal is screwing you over

How could it be screwing you over?

I love myfitnesspal, if you have me as a friend on it you know I have a streak of over 600 days (to add me snhall1990). That literally means I have logged into and tracked foods for 600+ days. That consistency with my macronutrient intake is what has gotten me results, along with following a solid exercise regime. However, there are ways in which using myfitnesspal could be your downfall, and I want to touch on these today.

1) Using their calorie calculators

Myfitnesspal has it’s own inbuilt calorie calculator, which is great, it gives you an idea of how many calories you need to maintain your weight. Key in that sentence is idea, these calculators are just estimates, you cannot guarantee these to be right, and I have seen them really mess people around, being out by 100s of calories. Say it was out by 200 calories a day, you were eating this much to sustain your weight, a 200kcal surplus each day is 1400 calories by the end of the week. After a month that’s an extra 5600kcal for the month, which is 67200kcals extra for the year, which could lead to over 15lbs of unwanted fat gain.

I am certainly not against calorie calculators, but they must be used with caution. If you do use them, then make sure to keep an eye on your scale weight, and how you are looking, then adjust from there.

2) Applying a macronutrient Ratio to your diet
I HATE ratios, people asking whether a 40/40/20 split is superior to a 60/20/20 split etc. The problem is that these are extremely unspecific and not individualised. Everyone has a given amount of protein that they can successfully utilise, a general rule of thumb is 1g per lb. Next up is fat, it’s great, full of nutrients and makes food taste awesome, but again past our EFAs and getting a good mix of them all there is an upper limit of how much we want. Carbohydrates have the biggest individual variability, because they are our bodies ideal energy source, and therefore the amount we need is dictated by our personal energy expenditure.

Lets take a 40/40/20 split of carbs, protein and fat and apply that to two people weighing 180lbs, one who needs 2000 calories and another who needs 3000 calories. The 2000 calorie individual will consume 200g of protein and carbohydrates with 44g for fat. The other would get 300g of protein and carbs with 67g for fat. Now you can see both are getting too much protein, and for the person consuming 3000 calories it is getting really excessive. Blanket ratios are not specific at all, and are by all means useless and a waste of time. Every macronutrient serves it’s own purpose and each person requires different amounts of each.

3) Silly sugar recommendations
If you have a decent intake of fruit you will notice that you go over your sugar recommendations every single day. There is nothing wrong with sugar, especially that which is naturally occurring in foods, such as in fruit. I hate to think that people reduce their fruit intake because they feel they need to get below a recommendation made by myfitnesspal. If anything they could have an added sugar recommendation, but even then I think it’s best ignored.

4) Incorrect food entries
This is really frustrating, because on myfitnesspal anyone can enter the data for foods. So you could end up with the wrong numbers through human error. Furthermore, sometimes when you scan an item the numbers fed back are off. If you are not careful this could really mess with your totals by the end of the day. I have had it where someone didn’t bother entering the protein on items, and then over-consuming on protein to hit my totals. Doing this rarely is fine, but if it is done with any consistency it could really throw you and if you are in contest prep it could be really important to be as accurate as possible.

These are just some of the things to be aware of when using myfitnesspal. Nothing is perfect and myfitnesspal is actually a really really great thing. So don’t delete the app and ruin your streak, but be aware of the above, because it could be ruining your progress.

Not sure where to start with your macronutrients? Need someone to take away the guess work to allow you to start using myfitnesspal and eating a diet you love and getting results you want? Be sure to check out my online coaching services, you can see a few of my clients who have had terrific results here.

Powerbuilding

Powerlifting meets Bodybuilding, my new venture

So my natural bodybuilding contest season is over, my two shows are done and I can proudly say I got shredded and placed in both shows. Goal achieved, and I can be happy that it was a job well done. I didn’t enter because I thought I’d win, or had anything to prove, I decided to compete to experience a journey like no other, and use the lessons it provided to better enable me to coach my clients. However, I do not now want to compete for a good 3 years or so, because muscle building is slow and contest prep is very hard. Apart from building my business, spending time with family and friends and enjoying life you might wonder what my training goals are. I am firmly in love with bodybuilding, however I love lifting heavy things, and think powerlifting is pretty damn cool, so why not combine the two?

Defining Powerbuilding 
Powerbuilding can be defined as a set of principles applied to one’s training with the aim of producing muscle growth, through increasing strength in movements tested in powerlifting.

That means the bench press, back squat and deadlift, and is something I actually have been doing for years, but never really focussed heavily upon. It is all about focussing on getting strong in these movements, and that produces growth. Using the lessons learnt from the best powerlifters and bodybuilders, to get our desired result; a strong and muscular body.

Principles of Powerbuilding
As said it is about using the best techniques and approaches from bodybuilding and powerlifting and combing them to get a desired result. I will now go into these.

Progressive Overload– without this you will not improve in any desired aspect. It is the backbone of any successful strength or muscle building programme. Essentially, if you are not pushing more total volume, you are not going to get bigger or stronger. By volume I mean your weight x your reps, so you either need to be adding more to pounds to the bar or doing more reps.

Periodisation– simply put this is the method of varying training modules including but not limited to total volume, intensity and frequency. There are almost infinite ways to periodise a programme, but current evidence is showing that an undulating method is superior to linear. This means you do not have long focussed blocks focussing on either strength, hypertrophy or power. But you focus on all three in a much shorter time period, allowing you to progress on all of them.

Frequency- in this case we are talking about how often muscle groups are trained. It is becoming widely known that as natural athletes our protein synthesis post workout is up-regulated for 48 hours post workout. Therefore, it makes sense to train each muscle group every 48 hours or so, rather than once a week like the old school bodybuilders. So with Powerbuilding you will train muscle groups a minimum of twice per week, that means using either upper/lower, push/pull/lower or full body type splits. Higher frequency of exposure to good training stimuli means more potential opportunities for growth!

Calorie Surplus– we wanna grow muscles right? we want to get stronger don’t we? that requires energy. If we are not in a calorie surplus we are either less than our bodies need to sustain itself or just enough. How then are we meant to build more muscle? Simple enough, we can’t. So key to a successful Powerbuilding method is consuming enough food, but not too much, remember we still care about aesthetics, we’re bodybuilders too. Plus we know muscle takes a long time to come by. Therefore, look to gain around 0.5-3lbs a month, depending on your training age, less the longer you have been training.

So now you know what my training aims are this ‘offseason’ to get big and strong :D. Hopefully entering my first powerlifting competition next year in the under 82.5kg weight category. Not set myself a overall total kg’s lifted target yet, but I will be. Anyone want to join me in powerbuilding? bodybuilding or powerlifting? Be sure to check out my online coaching, in which I provide weekly guidance on nutrition and training, bespoke and personalised.

Catherine Nelson – ‘I was so impressed with the realistic and sustainable approach in helping me to achieve my goals’

Committed and consistent, two words that describe Cath. Without these two traits the results we have achieved together would have been far inferior, and I commend Cath for her hard work. She came to me with the goal of fat loss, while remaining strong and fit. Initially we had a set back, due to having previously dieted quite severely we needed to bring her calories back up, before bringing them down to achieve her desired goal of fat loss. I was so glad Cath trusted me with this, as you can imagine for someone who wants to lose fat, the idea of raising calories and reducing exercise sounds scary. In two weeks Cath was back up to eating 2000 calories and doing no cardio and maintaining weight. We then had two months to drop fat before her photoshoot. Even with a diet break for Christmas Cath managed some great results and looked incredible for her photoshoot, I am sure you will agree.

I have just completed a 3 month coaching block with Stephen Hall “Revive” and I couldn’t be happier. I am finally seeing the results I have not been able to achieve previously. I am feeling great in myself and I really feel I have my eating and mindset under control. I was so impressed with Stephen’s realistic and sustainable approach in helping me to achieve my goals, that I have signed on for another 3 months of coaching. I have always found Stephen to be approachable and answered any questions promptly. My program was so well suited to me that I was able to remain committed and never missed a session. I’m really excited to see what I can achieve during my next block with Stephen.

Cath is a perfect example of what can be achieved in a short period of time. In three months Cath managed to do the following:

• Brought her metabolism up
• Strength up over 15% (bench press up almost 40%)
• Body fat down 4%
• 4cm loss from both Hips and Waist

This was while enjoying a wide and varied diet, with NO food restrictions. Plus this was over the Christmas Holidays, and Cath was able to still enjoy this time and some extra food. That is because Cath followed a sustainable diet and training programme, that she incorporated to make up her lifestyle. Cath is now moving onwards and upwards, looking to slowly lean down further, while trying to gain strength & fitness. I know Cath will achieve her goals. Interested in online coaching? you can check out what I have to offer here.

Steve Tagg- ‘what pleasantly surprised me is how sustainable it is’

Steve was an avid runner, but wanted to switch it up. He approached me and I introduced him to the main compound lifts; deadlifts, squats, bench press. We worked one on one for a number of weeks before Steve felt confident enough to do everything online.

Steve is a family man, who runs his own business and therefore is fairly time poor. I made sure to give him an exercise programme that worked towards his goals but also fit his lifestyle. He has been on a full body split, training 3 times week while with me, each time he enters the gym he is starting with the Big Three. Each week he practices Power, Hypertrophy and Strength for each of these lifts, a Conjugated type of periodisation. Steve has seen great results, dropping fat and getting stronger. His physique speaks for itself:

I have been working with Steve since June. Initially I worked with him on weight training but, as I learned about his interest in nutrition and natural bodybuilding, I decided to give Revive a go. In 3 months I have hit a weight last seen nearly 14 years ago – when I got married. Further, I am more toned than I have ever been (according to my wife), and have more energy.

The other aspect of Revive that has pleasantly surprised me is how sustainable it is – I have a real weakness for wine, and a bit of a sweet tooth, but can honestly say that I have had to make very few sacrifices.  I have been amazed by my progress and would recommend Revive to everyone.

I have thoroughly enjoyed working with Steve, and he is a great example of how easy it can be to get results if you put the work in consistently. We are now going to enter a Strength focussed Meso-Cyle and progress this linearly. Currently Steve is enjoyed a much deserved and needed diet break, before going onto drop a few more pounds of fat!

Losing Fat is Hard

Mindset & Fat loss

Fitness professionals like to make out how easy losing fat is, I mean it’s just moving more and eating less right? Well yeah it kinda is just that, producing a calorie deficit by using more energy than you take in. Yet, what isn’t spoken much about it how hard it is to actually achieve this. Here I am going to touch on some of the areas people struggle with and create a bit of a troubleshoot, to hopefully help some of you guys drop fat. I’m not an expert but I’ve been consistently losing weight for the past 7 months, coming from just over 190lbs to now under 170lbs.

So what’s so hard?

Making sure you’re in a calorie deficit.

This is really the start of your fat loss journey, and to be frank it can make or break the entire process. Why? Because most people plunge deep into a diet, they drop calories too fast and add in cardio too quickly. End result is a short term loss in weight, followed by a rebound binge or complete stall. Either way you are not going to be losing fat for long. So you have to find out how to create a deficit, and make it sustainable.

When fat loss stalls, what to do?

Now if you have created a deficit there is going to come a point where you stall out, because our bodies adapt down to burn less energy. This is inevitable and predictable, and will happen. So whatever amount of calories and exercise you previously did now no longer produces a caloric deficit. This can be a real sticking point, especially if you are already doing a lot and not eating a lot. And like I said above, how hard this sticking point is depends on how well you initially set up, but regardless of that each stall gets harder and harder to get over.

When are refeeds/diet breaks appropriate?

Many people will have heard about refeeds, and probably know that they can be a very useful tool in fat loss. However, many have no clue how to go about them successfully. So people decide to wing it, and many use these days as an excuse to have a cheat meal. These can really damage your progress if you are not careful, because typically cheat meals consist of a lot of food, high in fat and therefore high in calories. They are un-calculated and can get right out of control, doing the opposite to what we want them to do.

When social occasions arise, what to do?

This is a biggy, because our social environment really impacts our diet. Say you work in an office and someone brings in treats from their holiday. Or it is someones birthday and you are invited to have some cake. Or god forbid someone invites you out for a drink or meal. These can be approached successfully but are often not, they are often seen as an opporunity to break their diet. People see having a treat as failure, and once you have failed you may as well eat your heart out right. One slice of cake turns into two, plus a cookie and maybe a tub of ice cream later. Just like a cheat meal, this can undo a tonne of hard work.

Keeping motivated for training.

When you are in a deficit you obviously have less energy, as you get leaner this energy deficit gets harder and harder. You go to the gym and cannot hit the weights you used to, progress just doesn’t come. There are no personal records being made, your 1 rep maxes are falling. Not only do you get weaker but just getting through your workouts and recovering takes a lot longer. A session that used to take an hour to complete takes two. This makes training very unappealing.

Find foods that keep you satiated.

The food you once ate becomes less and less filling. You seem to be constantly hungry, even after porridge and egg white omelettes you are searching for food. You hit your macros by midday and try and get through the rest of the day. This might build for days, leading an inevitable diet break, and for some a full on binge, that might last days.

Cravings, making you want to break your diet.

You have a meal plan and want to stick to it, you’re sticking to the 10 foods that burn the fat. Or maybe you just eat clean, and that means nothing processed, you are restricted. There are no no foods, you’re not allowed. And like anything you are told you can’t have you want it more. Your cravings grow and grow, until you snap and what comes next? You guessed it a binge.

Low energy levels.

It’s common sense that when you are trying to burn more than you eat you are going to be low on energy. Especially because so many either drop calories very fast and particularly carbohydrates, our bodies main fuel supply. This makes training hard, let alone life in general. Personally being a full time personal trainer having low energy levels is hard to deal with. Many eventually give in to this, again either binging or dropping their NEAT (non energy activity thermogensis) so low that fat loss stalls.There are many more factors making losing fat hard, but there are so many easy and simple things you can do to make things a hell of a lot easier. As you can see there is a recurring theme here, not setting up the diet right and restriction, causing problems and leading to an inevitable binge and a fat loss journey ruined.

Next week I am going to give you some very simple approaches to help with your fat loss quest.

Harry Holland- ‘Having a knowledgeable coach to be accountable to each week makes all the difference’

We all know the best body transformations come from fat loss, going from podgy to lean. However, for those to look good you need to have a solid foundation to cut down from, that means muscle. Everyone therefore must go about adding weight to their body, trying to minimise fat and maximise muscle. Harry is a perfect example about how to go about it, and you can read more about how to go about it here. Harry has been very consistent, compliant and a joy to work with, below is his testimonial.

“I’ve known Steve for some time now from around our local gym – he’s always been happy to help out and give advice ever since we met. Even before he went professional I couldn’t fault Steve on his evidence based approach to nutrition and training.Since July this year Steve has been putting me through my paces, setting my nutrition and training goals each week, updating me via email. At university I row and  Steve  accounts for this change in lifestyle, adjusting my nutrition and training regime accordingly.

I came back from University before summer feeling pretty weak, having focused heavily on my rowing. Now I am stronger than I’ve ever been, and have gained around 4lb’s of lean mass.

Some lift increases for you..

July:
Squat – 80kg x 5
Deadlift – 120kg x 5
Bench – 70kg x 5Total: 1350kg

October:
Squat – 110kg x 4
Deadlift – 160kg x 4
Bench – 85kg x 5

Total: 1505kg

That’s an increase of over 10% in 3 months!

Regardless of whether you’re new to weight training, experienced, or even looking to step on stage I would highly recommend Steve’s services. Having a knowledgeable coach to be accountable to each week makes all the difference. No foods are off limits, and none are put on a pedestal (clean/dirty foods..) it’s all totally flexible within reason.

I couldn’t be happier with my training with Steve. His science based approach, passion for health & fitness, and drive to constantly be learning more are second to none.”

Harry has enjoyed great results, eating and training to preference. His results are down to being consistent and flexible at the same time, as if he wasn’t given the flexibility to enjoy University to the full he wouldn’t follow the training or nutritional protocols. Managing this is what has led to Harry’s success, and if that sounds appealing to you, then please be sure to contact me about my online coaching services at snhall90@gmail.com and you can see my services here.