hypertrophy – Page 2 – Never Give Up PT

The Cable Machine Appreciation Society

Does anyone remember when they were a kid and they’d find a lonely exercise bike in the corner of their parents spare room? Dust would gather on the bits that wasn’t used to hang the clothes on to dry.

Perhaps you have felt a bit nostalgic and got yourself an exercise bike too. And just like mum and dads it dries clothes really well.

I remember my parents having a rowing machine too but its awkward frame didn’t lend itself to being much of a clothes dryer. Although I do recall that it made a good battle ground for my He-Man and Skeletor action figures.

There are lots of home gym equipment that seem to get tossed to one side or used for something completely different. Our 4kg kettlebell makes for a fantastic door stopper. A couple of dumbbells in the garden are great footy posts for the kids and the battle rope in the garage seems to provide perfect chewing material for the mice.

Yet if anyone said to me that their Cable Machine multi gym was left unused I would gasp in horror. It is almost perfect and this is my case for it to be one of your go-to pieces of kit whether it be at home or in the gym…

It is versatile. There isn’t one muscle group that cannot be trained on a cable machine. If it has all of its attachments then a full workout can be done on it.

It is non-linear. Don’t be fooled by the ‘machine’ in its title. The cables provide a non-linea movement unlike its weight machine buddies. Non-linea movement can heal old injuries and avoid new ones, it allows better mind to muscle connection as you have to think about the movement much more and it keeps your core engaged.

More time under tension. There is no resting position on a cable. Think of performing cable flyes. At the top of the concentric movement, the cable wants to pull your arms back which means that your muscles are continuously engaged as you apply force against it. Don’t fib now! You’ve found a resting point using dumbbells right?!

A great way to finish a workout. Ok, despite my appeals for an appreciation of the cable machine, free weights are still the king of resistance training. But if free weights are Super Mario, then the cables are a very respectable Luigi. And you can burn out on free weights. Your muscles need a selection of different stimulus to grown lean and strong. So when you think that your muscle can’t perform another rep with a free weight, replicate the movement on the cable and rep out until exhaustion.

I hope I’ve put forward a good case for the cable multi gym machine. Thanks for reading!

Question…What’s your favourite piece of equipment that deserves a shout out?!

Use Your Toolkit

If you’re a handy person who is good around the house at fixing things and doing a few home improvements then you probably have a tool kit. Your kit will provide you with lots of tools to get a specific job done.

American soldiers in World War 2 had their own little handy tool which became very useful during their time away on duty. The Offiziersmesser, or Swiss Army Knife as they called it, had scissors, saw blade, assortment of screwdrivers, bottle and can openers attached to a spearpoint blade.

When you enter the gym you open your very own handy tool box. Every piece of equipment is a tool to provide you with the ability to reach your goal.

Or at home, if you have invested in equipment for your home workouts, you can have a good selection of tools in which to achieve your fitness objectives.

Even in the outdoors you can use different gradients and an assortment of training methods to meet targets.

And you carry a great tool around with you all day. Body weight exercise is an excellent way to stay active.

And yet in a recent survey (yougov) in the UK it was found that 37% of adults do not even meet at least one hour of physical activity a week. The Department Of Health And Human Services in the US reported that only 22% of adults complete 150 minutes of moderate exercise each week. Interestingly in Europe, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Austria are the most physically active with half of their adult population engaging in the recommended amount of exercise according to WHO.

We have all of these tools but not enough people willing to use them. The top 5 reasons that I am given on why they don’t exercise are…

1. “I did but got bored and gave up.”

Solution…An exercise routine should not be boring. If it is then change it immediately. Join a different fitness class, change your goals to more achievable ones, find out more about the variety of equipment and never be aftaid to enter the free weight area of a gym.

2. “It is too expensive.”

Solution…walking, running, bodyweight home workouts are free. My fitness app is free on entry with regular workout ideas. There are budget gyms in most major towns and cities and equipment can be sourced on selling sites.

3. “I don’t have the time.”

Solution…If you work at the right intensity a 20 minute workout can be done daily to good effect. It doesn’t need a journey to and from the gym and an elaborate routine. Just small tweaks in your lifestyle should be able to accommodate some sort of physical activity each day.

4. “I don’t know what to do”.

Solution…Ask a friend who goes to the gym, plays a sport or enjoys running and walking if you could go along too. Also, a good PT will show you what to do and will add accountability.

5. “I’m injured.”

Solution…You can still exercise with an injury. In fact, gentle physical activity can help the healing process. Just find out from a professional what the best activities for your injury would be.

You have a box with lots of different tools to help you improve your physical and mental health. You just need to open it up.

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Knowledge Is Power

When I first started training I wasn’t interested in the finer details such as my diet, muscle groups, recovery and time under tension. I just wanted to get into the gym, throw some weights around and get out. I spent years of my 20’s doing this.

I had some positive results, of course. I kept myself ‘in shape’ and my mental health began to improve. But I also had lots of time out due to injuries and disillusionment. There were something missing. Through ignorance and perhaps the arrogance of youth I didn’t think that I needed to know how to perform in the gym.

It’s like wanting to bake a cake without knowing its ingredients or baking times. You can call it a cake. It comes out of the oven resembling something of a cake. But had you followed a recipe and understood the procedure if could have been so much better.

I never followed a recipe until my PT friend started training with me. He was perplexed at how disorganized my method was. My first mistake was that I couldn’t give him a logical answer on my goals. I wanted size and strength, but I also wanted definition and to lose some belly fat. I would lift heavy not just because I thought that I would get laughed at by my gym peers if I didn’t, but because I thought that this would give me bigger looking muscle.

I gave him an idea of my daily calorie consumption which was generally at a deficit due to me wanting to lose the belly fat.

“But you’re confusing your body.” My friend said. “You ask it to grow in the gym but don’t provide it with the right amount of calories, protein or nutrients to do so outside of the gym.”

This was a lightbulb moment. Immediately I dropped the weight that I was trying to lift. My form improved in the first week. I remained at a slight calorie deficit but increased my protein intake. He explained different training splits such as push/pull and upper/lower. He described the periodization process and how I can achieve muscle hypertrophy, strength, power and be confident in maintaining a 16-18% body fat.

This would take time. I began to appreciate all of this would take time. But because my time away from the gym had reduced due to ego injuries and a lack of knowledge I progressed well. It wasn’t just about how I felt or looked anymore. I wanted to know what muscle performed which function rather than keep my focus on aesthetics. As I became more experienced in my routine and worked through each period of my programme I became fitter. I moved better in my everyday life. I ran faster. I jumped higher. I slept better. I focussed on tasks at work easier. I wanted to learn even more. I realized that knowledge was power. My life was improving and, without even noticing, my physique was too.

You don’t have to be an expert, but you should acquire knowledge from those who know not just gym form and techniques, but who also know you. After all, the ripped dude on his YouTube channel sounds like he knows what he is talking about, but he doesn’t know you, your needs, your goals, your likes or dislikes.

When you start learning the basics you’ll find that it’s a piece of cake.

10,000 Kicks

It’s coming up to 50 years since the release of the Bruce Lee movie Enter The Dragon. It was one of my all time favourite films growing up. I’d watch it many times with my dad and it sparks good memories when I watch it now to this day. Bruce Lee was a hero of mine growing up. His quotes resonated with me too. These are some of my favourites…

“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times”

This can be used as an analogy for many different circumstances in our lives. In fitness, I see this as the biggest stumbling block to people’s goals. We try to be good at everything, but in doing so, we often end up being good at nothing. We give up as we see failure as a conclusion rather than a pathway. We chop and change our routines until our bodies are confused about what we are asking it to do.

“Defeat is a state of mind. No-one is ever defeated until defeat has been accepted as reality.”

If you have found what activities that you enjoy then stick to it. Practice 10,000 times and more. Do you think that every one of your kicks will be perfect? Do you think that by quitting you will reach your goals? Practicing is hard. Quitting is hard. Choose your hard.

Keep practicing your kick and you will sometimes fail. Stop practicing your kick and you have always failed.

Your last kick is neither your best kick nor your worst kick. It just provides a platform for your next kick. Practice dealing with the good efforts and the failures. Both will see you hit your goals in time.

“It is like a finger pointing away to the moon. Don’t concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory.”

I have talked about your ‘why’ previously. Your why is what gets you out of bed each day and enables you to focus. Your why is the moon. Your ultimate goal. The finger merely provides an instant direction. From there you just have to focus on your goal and be certain of your path towards it. Focus on the finger for too long and you lose your goal. It is just a finger. The moon cannot be observed anymore.

Don’t forget the focus on your why.

A Habit Loop

Although you can take a Habit Loop situation into any aspect of your life, seeing as I am a fitness coach I will apply this to your fitness journey for the sake of this article. A Habit Loop consists of a Cue, Routine and Reward.

But before we get to your fitness journey, I will initially point out an of example of a habit loop in my recent experience.

My 8 year old son is learning a set of 10 words each week at school for a spelling test. Studies show that he will have to read out these words around 30 times before each word will stay with him.

Cue… We encourage that he reads and writes these words for just a short time each day, usually after dinner.

Routine… He acknowledges that this will happen every day and he is prepared for this task.

Reward… He is encouraged by his spelling test results at the end of each week. By Monday, with a new set of words, he will be happy to begin the loop again.

But it is important to note. He might not get 10/10 in his test. He sometimes gets 8 or 9. It is his job and that of his parents and teachers to focus on the 8 new words he has learnt rather than the two he got wrong. He needs to praise and reward himself for his achievements, as does his guardians. This will connect the loop much easier.

We have to be able to accept that we will not always be perfect in what we set out to achieve. 10/10 will happen often, but it is the 8’s and 9’s that can make us stronger if we channel it into our loop correctly.

A Habit Loop must be formed when you are committing to a fitness goal. Ask yourself, ‘what is my cue?’

Your cue needs to be that first step. Joining a gym, buying the trainers and joggers, finding nutritious recipes to try, dusting off the kettlebells if your cue is to exercise at home, employing a coach or asking a friend to join you. These are all really good starting points.

Once you have taken that first step you need to develope your routine and plan when and where you will carry this out. Meeting a friend for a jog every Tuesday and Friday, booking gym sessions in advance or setting aside 30 minutes each evening to cook a nutritious meal are examples of your routine beginning to take shape.

Then you need to reflect on your work. You can do this daily or at the end of each week. How has your cue and your new routine made you feel? You might feel a little lighter and fitter, more energised, confident and pleased with yourself. Focus on your wins. Any failures don’t matter. Once you start the loop again you have many opportunities to put them right.

Forming new habits is difficult. In doing so, you are trying break old habits that aren’t working for you. And these old habits might have been festering for years. I ask my clients to reward themselves after a workout or at the end of each week. This doesn’t have to be anything materialistic or indulgent. It could be just reflecting on their performance and being proud of themselves.

Think about how to start your loop today. What will your cue be?

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About My Online PT Challenges

Kudos to the Personal Trainers out there that had to change their entire business plans and jump on the Online PT idea when the first lockdown hit in 2020.

I’m late to the party and, as always, I’m going to be totally honest as to why I was late…and explain why I have no regrets.

When the gyms closed due to the first lockdown, PT’s had to make a decision if they wanted to remain in the profession. They could continue via zoom video calls, use a fitness platform or freeze their clients payments until they could see see their clients in person again.

I didn’t want to do zoom and here is my brutal honesty. I saw lots of videos online of PT’s doing exercise routines and the links weren’t great, the sound was unclear and they looked uncomfortable, which was understandable, they wanted to keep earning money and had to leave their comfort zone. I didn’t do it because my house is where I was home schooling and entertaining the kids and there was somebody doing it better than anybody for free on YouTube. Joe Wicks smashed it during the first lockdown.

I had a fitness app long before the first lockdown, but I was never happy or confident with it. I’m not great with technology, but it felt clunky and bland to me. It would’ve been a poor replacement for my 1-1 clients had I put them on the app.

So I decided to freeze their payments and wait until we were able to meet in a park or on the beach. I stayed in touch through regular messages and phone calls if necessary, but I took no payments until I could meet them in person again. There were times where my wife and I worried as our savings dwindled down, but we didn’t really care about that. Our children needed us to guide them through the craziest of times and we needed to keep our heads in the game too if we were to succeed in giving them a positive experience. So I have no regrets about my decision.

Rather than rushing into becoming an online coach I dipped my toe into the world of technology and try out a few different fitness platforms on trial periods over the course of a few months. I knew that, to develop my business and be able to reach out to more people I had to go online. My previous gym that I trained at, based in the centre of Leeds, had 6,000 members. But when we moved to Scarborough the biggest gym had 2,500 members which is where I began training. It has been clear for some time that my reach had to be much greater and I love training people! I want a hundred happy people training with me at affordable prices rather than just a few who can afford it. I needed to give the masses a challenge!

I have currently got a number of challenges set on my fitness app that are being enjoyed by my clients. My newest one, which I have developed this month, is one that I know all about from my own experience. I’ve called it the 60 Day Dad Challenge.

I understand that having residence in a gym might give me an advantage in enabling me to work out and ‘keep fit’. After all, I’m not booked solid with back to back appointments. I have gaps in which to train myself. Most people don’t have that luxury. This is why I can develop any type of workout for any particular goals. This can be done at home, in an office or at the park and time needn’t be an issue. A workout can last just 20 minutes a day if it is designed and executed correctly.

Our lives don’t suddenly get any easier or slow down and when we become parents our one year old learning to walk is suddenly scoring top bins in his under 8’s football team. Where did that time go? It’s easy to forget that you have your own life too. I became daddy. I wasn’t a PT at the time and my own fitness was the last thing on my mind. I just wanted a decent nights sleep and, to make our lives easier, a takeaway for tea. I had always been active. From being a teenager I would regularly go to the gym. My physique and mental health massively improved because of it. But becoming a dad at 34 made me forget about myself and my own needs. It was fine for the most part. Hearing their first laugh and just cherishing their every move makes up for any sacrifices we make as parents.

But, for me, there was a moment of panic. My jeans started to not fit so well. I hated passing a mirror and if I did I’d breathe in. Getting up and down the stairs seemed a little tougher. My worry was that, if this is me now when my kids are toddlers, what will my fitness be like when they start school, become teenagers or become adults? It started to get me down.

I guess it scared me so much that it prompted me to not only get to the gym but become a Personal Trainer too! Obviously not all dads will take my path, but I designed a 60 day challenge so they don’t have to. He can work hard, give his love and support to his partner and children and feel great about himself without it having to take over his life. Dads can have support too. Dads can look good. Dads don’t have to worry about playing football in the park with their kids. Dads can be fitter and stronger than they were before they were dads, not just from when they were knackered being up half the night with baby.

I enjoy meeting my clients face to face, but I have come to love my online work equally. I still see their results. We can celebrate the wins and tweak the bits that need to change just the same as working with them 1-1.

Let the new challenge commence!

The Test

My eldest came out of the school gates looking very pleased with himself. He ran towards me waving a piece of paper shouting “Daddy daddy, I got 10 out of 10!”

At the beginning of the week he had been given ten words to learn for a spelling test today. As well as my wife and I going through these words daily and his teacher teaching them he was well prepared for a test.

Schools, higher education and any learning environment have a similar system. We learn, practice and revise until we are tested on the subject. When you leave education, however, I find it a very different experience. Life gives you the test first, and then you learn the lesson.

Imagine my son having the test first and then learning the words after? It seems unfair, right? Ah, and yet our experiences in life are full of these examples.

What I try to provide as a Personal Trainer is a platform in which to learn, develop and achieve. An individual’s fitness journey has, admittedly, moments of enduring the test before knowing the lesson. In some ways that helps us deal with the challenges of success and failure. If we knew how to do it we’d already be doing it, so learning from life’s tests is a part of the process. And the process isn’t a smooth, linear path.

My job is not just to bask in the glory of a trainee’s goal being achieved like a PB or a weight loss target, but it is to navigate us through the difficult times. That’s not easy to do on your own. It’s doubly difficult when, even though you’ve put the hours in and worked with a plan in place, things still don’t go smoothly. Yes, you get given the words, you revise like mad, and you don’t always get full marks in your exam.

The problem is when you get given the words to learn, you revise like mad, don’t pass the exam and you give up. A few months pass by and again you get given the words, work hard and study but still don’t quite make the grade. Before you know it you are a year older and you are still stumbling through the tests, quitting, starting again…the cycle continues.

This, for me, is where the role of a coach is vital. There’s plenty of people that will count your reps on a rocking ab machine. But a coach will provide knowledge, technique, expertise, experience and the ability to get you to your goals. Even when the test becomes tough, they know what to do to get you through to the other side.

My son might only get 9 out of 10 next week, even if he works hard in his revision. But that in itself is a lesson. How I react to it and how he dusts the disappointment off is the difference between his future success and failure. If he learns how to deal with that disappointment it becomes even more important than learning the word he got wrong.

Life is ironic. It takes depression to know happiness. It takes stress to understand calm. It takes failure to recognise success.

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Negative Reps

In an earlier article I discussed the three types of muscle contractions during exercise. Of course, all three have a huge bearing on how well we progress in our training goals of strength, hypertrophy, fat loss or endurance. But when it comes to those exercises that just seem to be a little too tough to master, I may have a solution…

…the negative rep AKA eccentrics.

Eccentric movement is the lengthening of the muscle. This is commonly seen as the lowering of a load such as bringing the bar to your chest in a bench press. Performed by experienced resistance trainers to work through a plateau or to challenge their muscle fibres, negatives can be a great inclusion in your training programme, especially for the exercises that you just can’t seem to master.

Pull Ups

Because the pull up is one of the most common exercises that I hear people say is one that they find extra difficult, I’m going to use this as my example. Pulling your own body weight up can be one of the most difficult exercises to do. A mistake that I see regularly with a pull up is the lack of core engagement. To an extent, you can get away with poor core engagement on many exercises. You won’t get the results that you want and injuries are much more prevalent in those who do not engage their core during exercise, but moving a weight from A to B is still possible. Performing pull ups, however, requires full engagement of your core to be able to do it. The best way to practice this is through negative reps.

Core Engagement

Your core can be described as everything but your arms and legs.

Some of the most common ways that I have heard in how to engage the core is to brace yourself as though you are expecting a blow to the abdomen. Another is to imagine squeezing an orange under your arm pit. And for your glutes, you just need to squeeze the hell outta those butt cheeks! Try them now… no-one is looking!

Negative Rep Pull Up

Standing on a box below a pull up bar, grip the bar and get into a flex hang position as pictured below. You should breath in at the point of your flex.

Hold this position for a few seconds (each practice you want to be able to hold for a little longer) and slowly lower yourself into a dead hang position (arms fully extended) whilst breathing in.

Legs can be controlled easier if your feet are locked together, as above. Flailing legs can distract you from your core brace, grip and breathing.

Once you have completed one rep you can come down from your dead hang and repeat the process. Practicing these negative reps will create grip strength, core stability, confidence and time under tension which will all contribute to your progression onto full pull ups. The only thing that will make you fail will be your lack of patience, so don’t allow it.

A pull up is a classic gym exercise that not only looks impressive it confirms your technical skills and your strength, but to get there sometimes we have to put in the hard yards. So my advice?

Stay positive, go negative!

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Understanding Muscle Contractions

Understanding muscle contractions are important if you are on a fitness journey that includes muscle growth, strength, fat loss, mobility and sports specific training. Once you understand the basics of muscle contraction I am convinced that you will speed up your ability to meet your goals. And I say basics because you don’t need to be a fit pro, a scientist or professional athlete to know your own body. Hopefully a little bit of reading of articles that leave out the jargon can help you to understand. So let’s jump straight in!

Your muscles perform three types of contractions when you exercise.

* Concentric

* Eccentric

* Isometric

A concentric movement shortens the muscle to force an object to move. Think of the bicep curl. As you force the weight towards your shoulder your bicep shortens to create a squeeze.

An eccentric movement lengthens the muscle and stretches the muscle fibres. Imagine the lowering of the weight during a bicep curl or the squatting part of a squat or leg press. This phase of the rep is regarded as the part that induces the most muscle growth as the muscle fibres are fully activated in lowering a weight under control. This is where delayed onset of muscle soreness (DOMS) are most like to occure and specific eccentric training is a popular training phase for many athletes.

An isometric movement is a contraction that does not require muscle to lengthen or shorten. Think of a plank or wall sit. There are no reps that use concentric or eccentric movement. These are particularly useful when sparing the joints from discomfort or injury but still strengthening the muscle.

Developing an understanding of these muscle contractions will give you a greater appreciation of time under tension (TUT). Powering through 12 reps in 15 seconds is fairly straightforward. However, this is not the best way to train. Once you imagine the muscle lengthening and shortening through repeated exposure to the load of the weight then you can create a clear ‘mind to muscle’ pathway. You begin to think about each rep rather than just move a weight from A to B and it might need you to cut out the ego lift and go lighter. Just because you’re benching 100k doesn’t mean your muscle has gotten much out of the process. If you aren’t in control of your muscle contractions then your target muscle is unlikely to feel the need to change.

I ask my online trainees what their rate of perceived exertion (RPE) is after each exercise. As I’m not physically stood next to these clients I cannot see how easy or difficult they found the activity. If they are rating their workout at around 5/10 I would ask them to slow the tempo of each rep before adding more load in an attempt to challenge them to a high exertion level.

TUT and muscle hypertrophy

Earlier I mentioned time under tension as a significant factor in muscle development. Longer TUT will create a more challenging experience and much more rewarding for muscle hypertrophy. If I were to learn French for ten minutes a day I would get much less knowledge of the language than if I were to learn French for 30 minutes.

So, if I were to complete a set in ten seconds I would get much less chance to elicit muscle growth than if I were to complete a set in 30 seconds. Every rep and set is an opportunity for muscle growth. Moving a heavy object is easy. Thinking about it requires muscle engagement.

I hope that this article helps. I have tried to remove unnecessary jargon as I believe that resistance training should be enjoyed by everyone and we shouldn’t need a physiology degree to do it. And not just do it, but do it to ensure you get the benefits from it!

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Repeat, Repeat, Repeat

My eldest must think I’m obsessed. At 8 he has certainly got a natural talent for football and he is always keen to have a kick about in the garden in-between matches and team training. He will often just want to take shots at me which is fine as I firmly believe that doing the bits that you enjoy the most is what keeps us interested. But I do try to get him to do the bits that aren’t really coached yet at his age.

Throw ins at under 8’s is a classic example. A throw in is usually a foul throw (which the ref allows due to their age), the length of the throw is week due to poor technique and the decision making in who to throw it to is questionable.

Passing is another example. Instead of trying to ‘Messi’ it past 5 opposing players in his own penalty area (8 year olds don’t like to pass) I want him to make good, confident decisions on when to pass and create openings.

To master these he needs coaching and, although I’m not an FA coach, I do know how to coach.

One piece of advice that I can take into any type of coaching, expert at it or not, is to repeat the process over, and over, and over, and over, and over again. And when you think you’ve mastered it, repeat it again.

We move on too quickly. Either because we think something is accomplished or because we haven’t discovered a purpose for continuing.

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My eldest also brings home words to learn for a spelling test at the end of each week. It’s the same process. Tying his own show laces, eating foods that are nutritious but he doesn’t yet like the taste of, crossing a road, learning French all need repeating to be good at it. Despite some freakish ability by some people to have a natural talent at something, the rest of us have to work bloody hard to be good at it. And even then, don’t think that those with a natural talent don’t practice hard at what they do. They do, but what they do is just their knack. Their ‘thing’. We’ve all got a ‘thing’, we just need to find it. But if we are to persue different interests or to progress in certain areas then the chances are you will need to practice like mad to be any good at it. My son has a tendency to move on too quickly. Perhaps most kids do. Just because he has read his ten words for his spelling test doesn’t mean that he knows them.

I’d love to play guitar. I’ve even bought a couple in the past that look great as ornaments. Actually playing it will require time, patience, practice and repeating. I don’t do that. My excuses are time, my natural abilities aren’t good enough and getting blisters on my fingers. I know that I would be able to play a little if I stopped with the excuses. Maybe I’d never be Ed Sheeran, but I would learn the chords and be able to enjoy playing the guitar and far quicker if I hired a teacher.

My excuses for not playing guitar are exactly the same excuses that I hear on a daily basis in the gym.

Time, not good enough and injuries.

But me playing guitar or not isn’t affecting my health. Learning the chords won’t help my body fat percentage go down. Breaking into the intro to Smells like Teen Spirit won’t make me look and feel better in my clothes and my mental health won’t be any clearer if I can play the theme tune to Coranation Street. So I haven’t found my ‘why’. I haven’t found my purpose to playing guitar, therefore my motivation for doing it, as great as it would be, just isn’t there.

Passing a football through cones isn’t as exciting as smashing a ball into the top bins past his dad, but my son will develop and understand the game much quicker. And if he sees his work pay off on the pitch in a game then he will want to practice even more. He will want to repeat the process that allowed him to make the pass, shot, dribble or throw that won the game. Hopefully he discovers his reason for playing football. It might make him feel good. He might enjoy being part of a team. He might enjoy the buzz and excitement on match day or he might know how important exercise is to his physical and mental health. As long as he knows why he keeps going back for more he will keep progressing.

For best results I can’t help repeating certain movements for my clients to perform. Yet despite the repatition it is important to keep the reason for doing it fresh in their minds and also creating new challenges.

Yes you can squat, now can you squat deeper?

That is a good bench press, now create a slower eccentric movement for time under tension.

You can perform 10 reps, now do 12 reps.

Exactly the same for my eldest at football. You scored with your left foot, now can you kick the ball with you right foot. It is still football. It is still repeating the process, but now we have a new challenge to consider. And it will take time. Practice and time. Lots of it.

Remember your reasons for doing something. If it is so important to you then you will continue the process and you must repeat, repeat, repeat until your body and mind knows exactly what it is that you are wanting from it.

If it’s important enough to you then you will achieve it. You’ll never give up!