Tag Archives: mindset

I’m Not A Grinch… Honest!

I have typed out this first sentence a dozen times. I know what I want to say, but there’s nothing I can begin with that makes it sound sincere. So I’ll type it and you can judge…

I like Christmas, I really do.

…are you buying that? Ok, so the truth is I could probably go without the bloody fuss this year. Or any year really. But I know that this ‘bloody fuss’ I call Christmas is the highlight of my kids year and my wife was putting the tree up in November so I guess I’m strapped in and ready to go.

So much time has been lost. My kids schooling, money lost through lockdowns and my mental and physical health has taken a battering over the past 2 years, I just wanted a period of normal. But Christmas isn’t normal. The look on my kids faces on Christmas morning and the smile on my wife’s face as we sit down for our lunch will brush all of my anxieties away. I know how lucky I am. But just because we are lucky or privileged it doesn’t mean anybody should feel ashamed about feeling anxious sometimes. I’m a PT. I motivate people. But I would rather motivate people through honesty rather than an abs selfy on Insta everyday.

Christmas can be a wierd time for most people. Although I lost my mum to cancer in February a few years ago, I knew that my visit to her at Christmas would be one of the last times that I would see her. I’m not sure she would have remembered any of my visits after that. So this time of year, like for so many, can be an emotional time.

Being a PT for me was never about just shouting at people in a gym. I do that pretty well too! But I also appreciate talking to people and finding out what makes them tick. This talking to people thing is powerful, y’know? That’s what really helps me find their goals and how to achieve reaching them, not how good their squat is. A person trains for one hour of the day, but it’s the other 23 hours that make us.

I’m bracing myself for the kids breaking up, eating and drinking too much and not training enough. I have a strong family and I know that we’ll have fun. Even if it is at my expense as they watch me ice skate for the very first time.

But, and this is the absolute truth…deep down I really do love Christmas. Every bit of it.

The Importance of Reps

When I was starting out in the gym at 18 I would usually go with 3 or 4 friends. We all had one thing in mind…to grow muscle. We were young lads wanting to be as attractive to the opposite sex as possible, but really we had no idea on how to do it. Looking back, we probably looked like The Inbetweeners.

I stand by the notion that muscle, or defined, toned physiques on men are generally seen as an attractive attribute, but I was wrong that it is all that I needed. A personality, a sense of humour, being kind and driven are things that I had in patches when I were a teenager, but it was mixed in with the cocky little prick that I probably came across as. I was always East 17 rather than Take That. Oasis not Blur. Anyway, back to my point.

So as each member of the group of friends waited for their turn, one thing became embarrassingly obvious. We would always try and ‘outlift’ the previous person. ‘They pressed 85k, I’ll go 90’, was my mindset. But it is only through training regularly in my later years, talking to professionals, researching and reading numerous articles on the subject that I realized that repping a ridiculous weight a few times would never get me my goals. I lost out on reaching years of training targets from lifting heavy to gain muscle. Now I follow the science and I look like I wanted to look at 25…and I feel fitter too at 43.

Higher weights with less reps will get you stronger. No doubt. Think of the world’s strongest men competition. Huge guys lifting giant bolders. If that is what you want then that is what you should do! But most people who I talk to want to look lean and feel good in their clothes, but then proceed to break their back with a one rep deadlift. It’s known as an ego lift, but it won’t trigger much muscle growth. Muscle needs repetitive movement. Lots of repetitive movement. I mean, like, years and years of repeating the same things for a muscle to grow back bigger. And most trainees are pissing in the wind when they try.

What most people will find after a workout is a pump in the muscles. This is sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. Fluid has pumped into the muscle and it’s a great photo opportunity in the gym changing rooms. But myofibrilic hypertrophy comes from wearing the muscle fibres down, they repair and they grow back bigger as the muscle adapts to the workload that it has been put under. But, like I say, this comes with lots of dedicated hard work to cause this adaptation.

And something else happens with the correct rep range. With a complete programme schedule you will use up more energy. Energy=Calories. Your body becomes a fat burning furnace long after your workout. 24 to 48 hours to be exact. Lose the fat and the muscle becomes even more visible. We use terms like toned, ripped, difined. Whatever, it means that you are doing something right!

For hypertrophy or muscle growth that gives you a lean, fit physique, think about your reps, weight and sets. This, along with a balanced nutritious diet, could be the key to your gym goals.

To Train or Not To Train?

Firstly, I need to make this clear. I became a PT because I trained often. I don’t train because my job says I need to. My mental health and my fitness goals along with the usual aesthetic appeal that training brings told me that I had to. So hopefully there won’t be any doubters saying ‘but you’re a PT’ from now.

Also before I continue I should define what training is to me. How I define this to my clients is a set time where we dedicate to moving. It doesn’t need a gym. It doesn’t need equipment at home. You just need to move. Everybody will have goals in mind that will then determine the best sorts of movement, but training is just moving in a set period of time.

Making positive decisions on your health, lifestyle, gym goals or nutrition can seem like a difficult task. It can be daunting. But it is important to realise that making the right decisions is still easier than making the wrong decisions. Training should be challenging yet rewarding. Training isn’t meant to be easy. The human body was ‘designed’ to be tested, both physically and mentally. But it should be YOU who decides what those challenges are. Not friends or family, not your boss, not a cover of fitness magazine, not a government and not a God. Making decisions for yourself is empowering and instead of thinking that it is selfish, try taking the view that a healthier, empowered you becomes a much nicer son or daughter, mum or dad, friend or work colleague, husband or wife.

To Train or not to train isn’t even a question. Not when we define training as positive movement in a dedicated time frame. You don’t have time? Yes you do. You are lying to yourself. You don’t have energy? Then your diet is not balanced. You need to change what is stopping you from finding just 20 minutes a day dedicated to moving. Watch the binge programmes, play Xbox, enjoy a pizza now and again. Do all the things that you enjoy! But don’t tell yourself that you haven’t got any time to exercise. Tell yourself this often enough and you will believe it.

So, I have had messages a couple of hours before a PT appointment saying that a client feels a little under the weather. They don’t want to come to their session. (Covid guidelines aside) I will encourage them to meet me still and get them to do something once their session begins. Nobody has ever left their session feeling worse, in fact it is very much the opposite. It’s like saying that you won’t bother going to the trouble of making a tasty nutritious meal because you won’t be able to taste it with a heavy cold. You are giving up the one thing that can help you feel a little better.

Small steps is all you need. I’m not saying you need to start with 100 Burpees a day and let someone scrape you from the gym floor. I’m saying that you can park your car further away from the gym entrance, take the stairs, go for a walk, squat or lunge during the adverts, stretch or yoga. You need to start telling yourself that you will train, rather than looking at the excuses of why you can’t. I guarantee that you will feel so much better for it.