muscle gain – Page 3 – Never Give Up PT

The Piano Stairs

If the only piece of equipment available to me in the gym was a treadmill I probably wouldn’t go. I don’t particularly enjoy running on a tready. I like training, but I certainly don’t like absolutely everything it involves.

With the closure of gyms during the first lockdown I had to find alternative ways to exercise. But I found that I were skipping sessions and not fully focussing on my training. I simply didn’t have the equipment available to me that really makes me happy. Jogging became a regular activity and I went walking with the family daily of course, but it wasn’t fulfilling my hypertrophy goals and the more sedentary period of my life didn’t help my weight maintenance. I craved a bench press, weight plates to deadlift with and decent dumbbells. That is the sort of workout I enjoy. It makes me happy. I like the results and I keep going back. That is my Piano Stairs.

In Stockholm, Sweden an experiment was conducted on how people’s behaviour can be changed for the better by making a boring everyday task more fun. Musical piano steps were installed in a subway instead of regular steps to see if more people would use the steps instead of the escalator. Results showed that 66% more people used the stairs than usual that day. If more proof was needed that people are more likely to engage in a fun activity than stuck to the mundane then that was it.

Yet when it comes to our health I don’t find it conclusive when I talk to the gym members. Walking on musical stairs for an amusing short period of time instead of standing still on an escalator makes sense, but put the same person in a gym and there’s a good chance that they will choose something safe and uninspiring. It’s important for me to point out that just because I don’t like the tready doesn’t mean that everyone else doesn’t either. If that is what excites a person and motivates them into going to the gym then that is what a large part of their training should involve.

Almost every day I will hear,”I get bored on the treadmill.” Or “I hate deadlifts.”

So why do they use a treadmill or perform deadlifts? There are literally thousands of exercises to do inside or outside of the gym. If there’s exercises that you don’t like, don’t do it!

There has to be a draw to keep going back to the gym. Yes, of course, you have your goals which might include feeling fitter and looking your best, but if you’re going to spend your time absolutely hating the process there’s a good chance that you won’t stick it out, whatever your goals.

I usually get a programme right when I send it to my trainees. However,during feedback if they tell me that there’s something that they do not enjoy I will change that particular exercise. There’s plenty more. We just need to find the right ones that make my trainee want to complete it and keep going back to it. That will give them a better chance of succeeding in reaching their goals.

So, I’ve found my Piano Stairs and I’m sure that my trainees have found theirs. What’s your favourite bits of equipment and exercises that keep you going back for more?

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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!

60 Day Dad Challenge!

MacGuffin Reps

It’s a long standing joke between me and my trainees that I’m a rubbish counter. I’ll often say 6 and, whilst under stress, the trainee will shout ‘That was seven!’

The truth is I don’t particularly care what number rep it is.

When asked about how many sit ups he did each day, Muhammad Ali said,”I don’t know because I don’t count until it starts hurting.”

My job is to give my client a target, for example a 12 rep set, with a weight that they will begin to ‘struggle’ at about rep 8/9. If they start to struggle from rep one, we’ve gone too heavy or not allowed enough rest period from the previous set. Having a number in mind what you would like to achieve is good as far as having a target, but it isn’t essential to your overall goals.

In my own training I call my reps a MacGuffin. Within the film industry this term is used to describe a character or an object that keeps a plot in motion without having any significance in the outcome of the movie. Think about the briefcase in Pulp Fiction and, even the much loved character in Star Wars, R2D2 was called a MacGuffin by George Lucas. Neither had a bearing on the outcome of the movies that they were in, yet were present throughout their films that they appeared in.

To follow the plot, the viewer thinks that they must pay attention to the object or the character. Indeed, as I train, I recognize that my MacGuffinesque reps won’t define the outcome of my workout, rather the weight and quality of those reps will. Yet I understand the need to to have them there. And if I do as an experienced trainer, most of my clients will need their MacGuffin too.

The important thing to remember is that the weight and the quality of your reps is what will get the best results. During your programming you should go through a variety of reps, sets, weights and rest periods anyway. This can help in avoiding a plateau. But one rep is going to better than 10 rushed reps with poor technique. The reason for poor technique is that you have not perfected your first rep at the correct weight. Get that wrong and the rest of your set is not going to get you the results that you want and in some circumstances will cause injury.

I have mentioned in a previous post about an older gent gym goer that generally trains at the same time as me. I’ve called him Hannibal because he is strapped up like Dr Lecter as they wheel him out of his prison cell. The only thing that is missing is the muzzle. The strappings, I’m concluding from experience, is because of his previous injuries. He will pick up the heaviest weights and quarter rep twenty times. Had he performed at a sensible weight and completed 8 perfect reps then I would imagine that he would have swerved many of his injuries.

But perfect reps aren’t sexy or cool. R2R2 isn’t sexy, it is just a character that provides a platform for the heroes. Harrison Ford was the eye candy. The briefcase in Pulp Fiction wasn’t cool but it was written into the plot for very little purpose. Samuel L Jackson was cool.

Not sexy (but my Henry hoover has a thing for R2D2)

The weight that I choose and the time I have my muscle under tension with that weight is my leading actor. My leading actor will play a significant part in the climax of the movie. Without the leading actor the movie could not have a satisfactory ending. The reps count just happens to be a part of the script and, if you’ve got the star cast in place, won’t have any bearing to the final scene.

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An Apple A Day…

I wasn’t really encouraged greatly to eat my fruit and veg as a kid. It was often there on my plate but there were never any reason to eat it. The chips and sausages or ice cream for dessert was always much more appealing.

But during the 80’s the information that we received was very different to what we get now. And although we can still get incredibly misleading information these days, one thing that is a fact according to just about every piece of research that has been done on the subject, is that fruit and vegetables are extremely good for us.

And yet a recent survey of England said that just 28% of adults were eating the recommended fruit and veg a day, which is 5 a day in the UK and in many other European countries this has gone up to 8 a day. Even more depressing to me is that the survey came back with just 18% of children aged between 5 and 15 were eating 5 portions a day in England. The survey was done in 2018 by the NHS. With an increase in the cost of living and families struggling to feed their kids in the UK today, I can’t imagine that those figures have improved.

Indeed, with the meals that are on offer at my kids school which, I must add is an otherwise fantastic school, I know that they’re going without one portion of fruit or veg for at least 6 hours of the day on most days. Outside caterers are in charge of this and, like with most privatisation, I don’t have faith in a person centred approach.

But then we can blame school caterers, restaurants, supermarkets, media, the government or whoever else influence ours and our kids diets, but fundamentally it is our choice. Certainly for most families in the UK, despite the increase in the cost of living, we choose whether we eat our 5 a day or not.

If you have read my previous articles you might have gathered that I’m not a regular PT. Or at least I’m not like the influencers that want you to eat chicken and broccoli three times a day ‘for those gainz bruh!’ and I’m not in the gym training myself for hours or weighing out my rice from my Tupperware box.

I like kebabs, Greggs sausage rolls, wine, gin and tonic, takeaways and cheese. I have kids who like crisps, chocolate and chicken dippers. My wife and I enjoy meals out without looking at the calories column before ordering the main course. We are busy getting our kids ready for school while making breakfast, preparing our work schedules and picking up dirty undies and socks to go into the wash before we leave the house. That is real life. I’m lucky if I finish my coffee on a morning.

And that, I expect, is what most of my trainees do in their lives too. Life can be chaotic. Counting how many pieces of fruit and veg you’ve had might not even enter your head. And that was me. For years I didn’t really give it much thought. The token spoonful of peas would gatecrash onto my plate from time to time and I’d eat the odd banana. But being mindful of my diet was not a concern of mine. I trained hard so, in my eyes, what I saw in the mirror was all that mattered.

A few changing points happened to me which made me think very hard about my nutrition. Firstly, I met my wife. She is an excellent cook and cooking together became a part of our evenings. This I would suggest to anybody. Learn to love cooking. We don’t have to be Jamie Oliver. Just spend a bit of time in the kitchen with the food you’re about to eat.

Then I went on my PT course to be a Fitness Instructor and Personal Trainer. The course itself was fairly basic in all honesty, but it gave me a thirst for knowledge. I wanted to know how our bodies moved and what each muscle was called and what it did. I wanted to understand how our bodies function and survive and I studied our bodies need for the right nutrition. I still do. I don’t know it all. I never will. A good PT will sometimes tell you that they don’t know, but will find out when you ask them a question. A poor one will feed you any old shit for them to look clever and gain a new client.

Lastly, I noticed a difference in my performance. Obviously in the gym, where I began lifting heavier and training for longer without having to stop. My PB’s went through the roof at 35 and they’re still going up at 43. But also, outside of the gym my mood was lifted, I became a better person and I had more energy for my kids. My body was feeling fuelled on good food. This alone made me like the foods that I had previously ignored.

But that didn’t stop me from enjoying the foods I liked before. I still like kebabs, Greggs sausage rolls, drink wine and gin and tonic, takeaways and I’m a sucker for stilton on a cream cracker. I have just become more mindful of how much of it I consume. I never banned these foods from my life. Had I done that I suspect that I would have resented the nutritious foods.

My youngest is a fruit and veg dodger. As a toddler we had concerns about his eating and the health visitor suggested that we feed him cake or basically anything that he would eat! His weight was low and we just had to try anything at all for him to get to a reasonable weight. It was a stressful time and even now he is extremely fussy. Our eldest will eat pretty much anything. For our youngest, however, each mealtime is like a bush tucker trial. We keep introducing new fruit and veg along with his favourite cheese wrap and now at almost 6 he is understanding the need to eat vegetables with his meals. He is still a small eater but he is doing much better. As long as he gets his cheese wrap he’s happy to eat the carrot sticks.

You shouldn’t underestimate how important nutritional food is, but that doesn’t mean that you have to ditch the Pringles either! Just find that balance and be more mindful with your food. The positive fuel is almost instant. Imagine what a consistent balanced plate can do for you?

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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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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!

Hannibal Lecter

Because I don’t know anyone’s specific goals in the gym I don’t randomly start telling them what to do. Even as a PT in the gym where I train and I suspect poor form or an alternative exercise might be useful I don’t approach a gym member and start telling them what to do.

If I get into conversation with somebody and we talk about training then I might offer advice if they want it. But otherwise I don’t intrude on their workout. Perhaps that’s bad practice for a PT who runs his business by people joining him for PT. My first day as a PT at Pure Gym I remember being told to go around and correct people’s form to get business. That lasted 5 minutes. I’m not a salesman. And anybody who trains in such gyms will probably know what I mean. You’re on the tready, earphones in trying to get a PB and Todd (that’s what his name badge says) tells you to go incline to work your quads. Todd, who needs to move around in the shower to get wet, can do one. When you’ve achieved your PB, go up to him and ask him what the names of the quadriceps are called. See if he knows.

Today, I didn’t have Todd approach me. He wasn’t even a PT. He was an old school weight lifter of about 70 years old. He had obviously lifted for a number of years but his body fat percentage meant that I couldn’t see his hard work. That’s fine. That’s what he does. He does what he does and I do what I do. So why did he want to disrupt my workout?

I had just finished a dumbbell press and he asked me how many reps I had just done.

“Ten” I replied. He laughed and told me that I should do double that amount. I laughed back and explained that I am currently staying in a specific weight and rep range for a few weeks. He then proceeded to lift something very heavy for a few half reps, barking and seething with each one.

His shoulders, wrists, knees and elbows were heavily strapped and he had a very tight lifting belt on. Had he been wheeled in with a muzzle he would’ve reminded me of Hannibal Lecter.

In the hour and half that I trained he hobbled over to at least ten different people and tried to instruct on their form, give advice or make quips on their previous set. Yet, without meaning any offence, Hannibal was pretty crocked. The straps give me the impression that there’s joint issues and wearing a belt during lat raises tells me his lower back must be weak and in pain. He might have lifted for many years and I hope he enjoys his workouts, but he didn’t inspire me to follow in his footsteps.

If I’m strapped up in 20 years time then I’ve not been training correctly for the past 20 years. But the old school training was a ‘lift heavy or go home’ sort of attitude. Rep ranges, splits, time under tension and nutrition isn’t really something associated with old school training.

I hadn’t seen Hannibal before. Perhaps his gym had closed, which isn’t unusual these days. The spit and sawdust gyms are being priced out by cheaper national gyms offering not just a gym, but swimming pools, fitness classes and in some cases squash courts, saunas and steam rooms. And the past two years has seen lots of small businesses suffer. The old school trainers are slowly making their way into the mainstream gyms.

Todd approaches people because he is trying to earn a living and build a career. Hannibal is doing it because he thinks he knows more than you from talking to some bodybuilder in 1970. I’m sure there will be a Todd or a Hannibal in your gym. You might have spotted them already. Todd will give up eventually and as for Hannibal, just throw him some fava beans and a nice Chianti and he’ll be on his way.