Hey folks! How are we? I hope you are all well. 

In this one I want to talk about how to structure your meals and snacks throughout the day to help you...

• Improve athletic/gym performance
• Lose that stubborn body fat
• Improve your lean muscle tone and size
• To ensure you are feeling full throughout the day
• To help you have more energy
• To help you become less injury prone
• To generally improve your overall health (physical and mental)

LUNCHES AND DINNERS

So for this one you will probably notice a bit of theme occurring. Again, protein is your friend. Base you lunch choices around a good protein source. Protein should fill up a third of your plate, then a combination of a good carb choice like brown rice, quinoa, buck wheat, sweet potato, rye or sourdough bread, beans (not baked), chick peas etc. coupled with vegetables should make up around 50% of your plate. the other 15-20% should be made up of good fats, which include avocado, seeds, nuts, olive oil, feta cheese etc.

So I was talking to the ladies in the group conditioning program about this last night and the topic of why men lose weight more easily than women came up.

Now as you probably heard, it is biologically a little easier for men to lose weight, bigger muscle mass, slightly faster metabolism etc. These differences however are not that significant and for me, this is not the real reason why men tend to lose weight or see differences faster than women on a weight loss program. 

The Real Reasons Are To Do With Mindset And Their Approach 

This really applies to ladies who are mums and wives and your in-built need or sense of responsibility to put everyone else first. In my 15 plus years of experience of being a PT, coaching both men and women, the clients who have been more consistent and got the better results have always been the men.

• ​They are more consistent at turning up to training
• They are able to follow a nutrition program a lot more easily
• They are more autonomous and consistent at training on their own and following a program

​Now don't get me wrong, I am definitely generalising a bit here and there are exceptions to the rule on both sides but I am seeing it day after day, week after week.

So why are men generally more successful than women with weight loss and making changes to their health?

Men Are More Selfish Than Women

Its really simple, they are able to switch focus onto themselves much more easily and prioritise their training and eating over other responsibilities they have.

Even if they are dads and husbands, they are still able to adopt more of a "me first attitude", we simply don't have as much of a desire to please and care for the needs of everyone else around us first, we find it easier to say no people if we don't want to do something and we don't generally have as much of an emotional connection to foods or other people's activities etc.

Mindset Is The Real Key To Getting Results

So here are my top 5 tips to help you prioritise you more and think more like a man and get results with your training and weight loss efforts

1. Learn to say NO! You cannot be everywhere at once and I promise the world will not fall down if you say no to someone. 

2. Prioritise your training: Your gym sessions are your time for you, to do something for yourself. You are always doing things for others so you deserve a bit of time to focus on you and what you want. For 3 hours per week everyone else can F$£K OFF!

Your family will still love you even though you are not at their beckon call every minute of the day. Your husband is well capable of cooking a meal or putting a wash on. Trust me, I am a moron and even I can do it. Your house will not fall down and the kids won't starve or die if you come to the gym por spend an hour looking after yourself

"Think of it like this, if you had a dentist, solicitors or a doctors appointment would you still drop those to help your family out or would you say no I have to go to this appointment? The simple fact of the matter is this...

"If you want to be successful then your training sessions should carry the same amount of importance to you as any of these. If you do not show that you are prioritising these appointments your family and friends will treat them with contempt and not see them as important to you either". 

3. You deserve to feel good about yourself, you should not worry about what others think of you. Their opinion does not matter at all. 

4. Shit can wait! Don't sweat the little things. Even if you haven't finished a task, if you got a training session booked in, GO TRAINING! 

5. Food is n, chocolate has absolutely zeroot your friend, it is not a comfort chocolate has absolutely zero benefits to your long term happiness as a human being. Neither does cakes or pastries.They will not solve your problems but they will make them worse. 

This is a really big one and mindset shift that really needs to be made to be successful.

When you start a training program, you become an athlete. You might not think you are but I believe that you are and so does every other trainer in the world.  So you need to believe it too. Now as an athlete you should be looking at food as a fuel,because folks that is all it is and your mindset should be fixed on how I can fuel myself most effectively for my workouts. 

So don't get hung up on the weight loss thing think about performance, because if you are fueling your body to perform well in training then you are fueling it to be healthy...

"And excessive levels of body fat have no place on an efficient healthy body"

With Christmas just around the corner, the mindset of almost everyone in the UK and the Western World is this...

"One last blow out for Christmas, then I'm gonna hit it hard in January, get fit and lose weight".

I bet at least 8 out of every 10 of you reading this blog are thinking exactly that. I would also be willing to put my house on this not being the first year you have thought like this. I bet the same thoughts have been going through your head this time of year for pretty much the entirety of your adult life.

​ If I'm honest, I'm starting to wind my training down too and my diet over the past week or two is certainly not what it has been over the past few months. Being smack bang in the middle of party season, a bit more alcohol and a few more treats have been allowed to creep in. That's OK though, nobody is expecting you to be robots and any really sustainable nutrition program can adjust or allow for this. 

Fortunately though, this blog post is not about nutrition (well at least not entirely). It's more about making the right decision when January comes around so you can break the cycle this year and find a health and fitness regime that you can sustain, be consistent with and ultimately GET RESULTS!

So here we go, here are my top 10 reasons why joining a commercial gym this January for what feels like the millionth time is definitely a BAD idea.

1. You probably won't get the help and support you need to get where you want to be

Gyms get crazy crowded this time of year and most commercial gyms have also done away with regular fitness instructors in place of personal trainers who do free work in place of paying rent. As a result, your gym membership cost aint going to include a program that's worth a damn or be updated and monitored regularly enough to actually get you anywhere.

2. 80-90% of all people who try to get fit this way quit by February

Bad statistic that isn't it, well its true and if you have ever been determined enough to stick it out until mid February you will have experienced how much easier it is to get into that class or get on to the piece of kit you want. 

There are many reasons for this but boredom is a big one. You start with what you think will be a great program, do it religiously for 3-4 weeks and maybe even get results at first. Unfortunately though, a program has to be updated around every 4 weeks to keep it fresh and stop your body adjusting to its demands. Here lies the problem, your bored of your current program, your results stop and you don't have a clue how to change it up to keep those results coming. 

So just like last year and the year before, you get frustrated and give up. Never mind though, there is always next year you think. There is only one problem with that mentality however. Next year you are probably going to be fatter, more unfit and more unhappy with yourself, making it much, much harder to get those results and make those long term changes you crave every year.

3. You will get pretty much zero nutrition support or guidance

Everybody has heard the saying "You can't out-train a bad diet". Unfortunately, I wish you could but you just can't. So even in the unlikely event that your fitness instructor at the gym does set you up with a kick ass program that does actually help you get fitter, stronger and move better, unfortunately you are still fat. That's because you are missing the main ingredient in the equation, which is getting your nutrition right and learning how to fuel yourself in the right way. Unfortunately, the only way to get that is by shelling out an extra £120-£500 per month on a personal trainer on top of that gym membership you are already paying for.

Even then, most of your training is still done on your own as you can probably only afford 1-2 sessions per week with your trainer. Sounds like an expensive solution to me...

4. You will have nobody to help you set goals or be accountable to. 

Goal setting is really important as it helps you define what exactly you want to achieve as well as the reasons for wanting to achieve it. Unfortunately though, this is what most of you get caught up in. Your focus is on your long-term goal, you define your progress solely on how much weight you lose or what you look like in the mirror from one week to the next. 

Now trust me! I have been in this game for more than 15 years and this is a recipe for disaster. So instead of maintaining that long term focus, put your ultimate goal to the back of your mind and focus on the little things.

The small things that will help you get there like...

• making sure you attend every gym session
• planning your meals and filling out a food log
• drinking enough water
• finding time to de-stress and sleep

The list could go on but you get the picture, right? Unfortunately, training on your own at a commercial gym means there is nobody to help you set these little goals, nobody to hold you accountable and no-one to help you set achievable long term goals either. There is nobody to keep you on track and help you to see the value in the other ways you are progressing like improvements in your fitness, your body changing shape or how much more confident you have gotten now that you are a bad ass in the gym.

So please try not to solely focus on your weight, get the little things right, day in day out, celebrate your successes and learn from your failures and I promise the weight will take care of itself. 

5. Training in a gym can be a lonely endeavor 

These days in a gym, everyone wears ear phones, listens to their own music and are in their own little world. There is no banter, no support when it gets tough and nobody to bounce off and be inspired by. Now don't get me wrong, I love training on my own, it's my solace and my bit of "me time" every day. Like me, there are other weird people who are like this. The difference between me and those other people compared to the general population however, is that we know exactly what we a re doing, we are intrinsically self motivated, we know how to plan and execute workouts and we have a sadistic ability to push ourselves through a lot of suffering for no reward other than the satisfaction of having done it. 

​Now I think I am only like this because I am a trainer and I am coaching other people all day and I have a very social job, so I like the remoteness it gives me just for an hour per day. For most people this is a recipe for failure as they struggle to find motivation and support that they would otherwise get from a trainer or even better, a small group personal training program. 

6. For a lot of people, a gym is not a pleasant place to be

This is something I hear a lot, especially in my "ladies only group program". Statements like...

"I never liked training in a gym I always felt uncomfortable"

"I feel like everyone is looking at me"

"I feel like I don't know what I am doing"

Now I can assure you, nobody is staring at you, in fact, most people won't even acknowledge the fact that you are there unless you are doing something really cool or really loud and ridiculous or you are on the machine they want.

Either way, trying to force yourself to be somewhere that you really don't feel comfortable in is probably not a recipe for long-term success. So instead of going down this route yet again, why don't you try something else, like a place with other ladies and gents in the same situation, who are there to support you and help motivate, somewhere away from all those grunting meat heads who walk around like they are carrying carpets and leave sweat over everything they touch.

7. You have no idea if you are performing the exercises correctly

So like a few of the other points before, unless you are forking out that extra couple of hundred quid a month on a trainer, you have zero idea if your technique is good. Now sure you can watch a few Youtube clips to help but there is nobody there to give you cues or help you adjust the little things to ensure you are getting the bang for your buck from every movement

Now stuff like deadlifting with curved spine is probably not as dangerous as we originally thought it was but it certainly isn't the best way to go for muscle development of fat loss, so having someone who can help refine your technique to ensure you are getting the best from it is essential to keep you motivated and to help you develop in the way you want.

8. The gyms are full of useless machines that are of no use to anyone

Seriously, when I was a tutor, travelling around the country teaching other trainers, I used to look around the gyms I visited and think "WOW! There is probably over 1/2 million pounds worth of useless kit in here".

Now you have probably heard an instructor or some other complete moron tell you that the machines are great for beginners. No they are not, not at all,
​

• they are restrictive
  
• they give you no assistance in helping you learn how your body is supposed to move
  
• They don't teach you balance, co-ordination or any other useful skill that will carry over into sport or your other everyday tasks.
  
• They are designed for body builders to isolate and scult individual muscle groups and that is pretty much it.
  

Training on these machines means 2 things.

a). Your training program is going to take absolutely ages as you would need to use about 4 different machines to get the same benefit that you would get from an exercise like a kettle bell swing.

b). They are rubbish for muscle building and fat loss. Because you are sat down and working small muscle groups, you are not getting out of breath, increasing your testosterone levels or hitting the intensity you need to really build muscle mass, lose fat or actually get fit. 

So I beg you. Stop training on these pathetic bits of wasted metal, time and money. Pick up a barbell, kettle bell or a dumbbell and FFS learn to move and be functional in your training so it actually has a purpose.

9. There is no one to slow you down and make sure you don't burn out or get injured

Now this is actually a biggie, especially in January and especially for those who start a HIIT  class from scratch or start running. 

​In January, you git the bug, you are determined to smash it so you train as hard as you can every day. After a couple of weeks though, because of the impact, you start picking up niggles, which turn into an injury a stop you training. Guess what happens to most people then? Yep, they quit because they are frustrated, de-motivated and annoyed. 

So my advice on this one, to start slow, you don't have to kill yourself every time and please, don't train every day. You need recovery time to allow your muscles, bones, joints, cells and brain to heal and get refreshed. 3 days per week is plenty, in fact, if you are training right, 3 days per week is all you need to become a badass and develop some serious fitness. 

Even top level Olympic athletes don't train every day, so please do not think that you need to.

​10. The gyms don't want you there

​Now this one, very few people believe when I tell them. Its a well know fact in the fitness industry that a commercial gym's business plan is based around 80% of their members not attending but still paying the monthly fee. 

Now back when I worked for a commercial gym, which shall remain nameless (Serco, Manchester council) Lol! Our sales training went like this. If someone is an active member then email them with motivational info, workout tips etc. If however someone didn't attend the gym in 8-10 weeks we told to stop contacting them so we don't remind them they had a gym membership. That way they would not take up any space and we would still get the membership fee every month. 

Now that is true of every commercial gym all around the world. Not very ethical or caring is it? So instead of going somewhere that really only wants your money, why not go somewhere you are valued, where people know your name and who you are. Where the trainers actually want to help you be the best you can be and the other people you train with become your mates, help motivate and keep you on track even when you want to give up. 

So maybe somewhere that doesn't cost hundreds of pounds per month to get awesome coaching, high quality nutrition advice, mindset coaching to help you set and stick to goals and an environment that leaves you feeling nothing but supported and motivated. 

I just wish there was somewhere like that in HD8 that we could go to so 2020 could be the year where you actually followed things through, stuck it out and achieved the goals you set out for yourself all those years ago. 

Want to get January kicked off with a bang?

Our brand new small group coaching program will help you do just that. You can train for £59/month, giving you up to 12 training sessions a whole host of other amazing options.

Here is what you get on the program

• 🎯 Bespoke Small Group Fitness (only 8 spaces available)
• 🎯 Train Up To 3 Sessions Per Week
• 🎯 Home Mobility Program
• 🎯 Nutrition Resources and full coaching
• 🎯 Access to our unique and supportive group training community

We have had some amazing results on our guys and girls program over the past year or so, with everyone making huge improvements to their strength, fitness, bodies and minds. Our evening programs are operating very near to capacity and that's why I have decided to launch this brand new program with an unbelievable special offer, saving you over 60% of the price of the same program on our current evening programs. 

This really is the most complete training package available anywhere in the whole of HD8 and will give you everything you need to kick start your training goals in 2020.

So this is another very honest and frank blog post that will almost certainly annoy other personal trainers and coaches and cause a bit of debate. From around 16 years in the fitness and rehab industry it is just my brutally honest opinion and what I have found from all of my experience. 

This will be a really good article to read if you are looking for a change in your personal training or you are thinking of investing in a trainer or group training program. I will be bearing all  and talking very honestly and bluntly from my experiences and from the experiences of my clients over the years.

So there are going to be a few controversial things in this email but this one is the one that will get me in the most trouble so I thought, I may as well get it out there early. 

1:1 training is often marketed using words or phrases like bespoke, individual, your needs, specialised, tailored and/or anything else that helps us make you think that what you are getting is truly unique. In reality, the chances of you actually getting this are not really that high. There are  a lot of trainers that use template programs that are slightly adjusted by just tweaking sets, reps and weights. In reality, most trainer don't know how to proper;y assess your fitness or ability levels to do this to any great degree anyway, so they couldn't do it even if they wanted to. 

​ You think you are the only person who is receiving that "tailored" nutrition plan too? Sorry but all their other clients are probably getting the exact same one. 

Now here is the thing, this is not necessarily a terrible thing. If the training plan is good, you are still gonna benefit from it. Same with the nutrition plan too. It is also important to say too that not all trainers do this, there are some exceptions who can properly assess your fitness, how you move and create bespoke plans accordingly. 

So what am I really saying here then? Well it is pretty simple and it is this:

"If you do not have a current injury or specific needs in the form of a disability or condition then you will probably be coached just as well and just as specifically in a group training setting as you would be in a 1:1 personal training setting".

This is exactly what I tell my clients too in the consultation.  If they have no injuries, if they have no specific condition that requires bespoke coaching  and if they are confident enough to train in a group, then I always tell them to choose the groups, because I can coach them equally as well there as I can in the much more expensive 1:1 environment.

So my group training is a bit less than 1/3 of the price of my 1:1 training costs. On the current program, you even get the exact same nutrition resources and coaching strategy as all of my 1:1 clients, so if money is a bit of an  issue, then it is a no-brainer. 

All of my group training packages com in less than £15 per hour compared to £35 per hour for 1:1 training, The most cost effective packages are around £10-£12 per hour training in group sizes of no more than 8 people. For some trainer it will be even cheaper than that but be careful of going too cheap, because like most things in life, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
​

I'm gonna start this one with a bit of a revelation. 

"As a trainer and coach, I do not know everything". 

​Now, for those of you who are amazed by my knowledge, skill and just general coolness on a daily basis, this will come as a shock to you. It is however very true. I may also not be the right person to really light a fire in someone that gets them to realise their potential. For me, this is what is probably the coolest thing about the group PT programs I run. I have realised that I don't have  to know everything or motivate everyone.

Quite often the group  can answer some questions better than me and sometimes provide the motivation a client needs to achieve their goals. So as the coach, my job is to create the environment, to create the support network and to provide the little push it needs to build and flourish and continue. 

So in 1:1 personal training it is just me who is responsible for providing you with all the motivation you need, planning all the workouts, coaching you through the entire process and keeping you on track. In a group coaching program however, you still get all of that from me as the coach but you also  get help and support from a load of others, people you can relate to who are facing similar challenges as you, your team mates who will help you push harder and be your own personal cheerleaders. 

So for me it is very simple... "Why settle for one coach when you can 5, 6 or 7"?

This has helped us create an awesome atmosphere at Faster Fitness Solutions where everyone feels comfortable, takes the piss out of each other a little bit and has a whale of a time doing so. Having 2 young children means I am often flagging by 5.30pm. Feeling tired and bit sorry for myself, the group atmosphere really lifts me up though and gives the energy I need for the rest of the evening. The guys and girls on the program never fail to bring an awesome energy to the room which is hugely helpful for me as a coach and makes the sessions fly by. 

This is without doubt, my favorite aspect of group coaching compared to 1:1 training. While i really do love building that close relationship with 1:1 clients, the group training programs are simply an awesome laugh. Always great fun and I am almost always absolutely buzzing, leaving the building at the end of the night. I am pretty sure that this is what my clients find the most valuable and keeps everyone coming back.

I am looking forward to the Christmas socials this year and really looking forward to the whole gym social I have planned in the new year. This really is an awesome opportunity for you to meet new people and make great new friends. 

The type of training we do is hard, I am not going to lie and tell you it isn't. You see your team mates at their best  and sometimes at their lowest. I tell you what though, you get to find out a lot about yourself doing this type of training as well as the people you are training with and for me... "Nothing helps you build bonds like the motivation you get from pushing yourself to your limits and having others in the group willing you on to do the same thing". 

For those of you who have played team sports, you know exactly what I mean and for the guys and girls who haven't, they are discovering how cool a thing that can be. 

So in this one I want to talk honestly and openly about a few things I have realised over the year or so having dealt with a few mental demons myself and having worked with and helped a lot of people with a variety of issues start to enjoy exercise again, get over some of their fears and improve their physical appearance. 

So for this one, I am going to start with an admission which has been hard for me to admit to especially as it meant that over the past 12-14 years working as a fitness and exercise coach I have got it wrong, and I mean really fucking wrong. Sorry for swearing but I just wanted you to understand how shitty a job I have been doing and I have been thinking about this a lot for the last 6 months or so and it has taken me until now to write it down. 

"So I am really sorry, mainly to all the past clients that I wasn't able to change, I used to think you were wrong but really it was probably my fault. I wasn't really getting it from your point of view and I really couldn't understand why you were unable to follow my advice with regards to exercise and nutrition etc."

​That's really where I was going wrong, exercise and nutrition, when I now know that it has absolutely nothing to do with that at all so as promised that is the last I mention it in this article. So I will not be droning on about crappy boring stuff like

❌ Calorie counting
❌Nutrient Density
❌ HIIT Training
❌ Cardio V Weight Training
❌ Portion Control
❌Or cutting out certain types of foods

Instead, this is all about you, how we can help you stop the limiting beliefs that keep you from getting to where you want to be. 

So here we go...

This has been a real break through for me and has taken me from a place where I was mentally struggling to now being in a pretty good place and ready for new challenges. 

Social media is a nightmare for this but it has been around way before that. I see it much more training the ladies I train compared to the men, that's not me being sexist, its just what I have experienced over the past few years.

We tend to put way too much value in other people's opinion of us, when really what we should be focusing on how we feel about ourselves. Ladies, you have a tougher job than most guys because it is in-built in you to care for everyone other than yourselves and you worry a lot about what people will think if you put yourself first for a change. 

Well! I am now here to tell you this: "Fuck em"! You deserve to be happy with yourself and you deserve to feel good about yourself, even if it does mean saying no to someone every once in a while and doing your own thing because that is what makes you happy. 

This is another part of my job I have made a pigs ear of over the years. Instead of helping you do this, I have probably ended up putting you under more pressure by focusing on your weight loss or measurement results instead of helping you improve the way you feel about yourself.

Now I realise that this has to be my main priority and I need to get you focused on you more, by giving you the confidence in yourself to achieve more and do things for you. 

​I think my favourite ever movie quote epitomises this exactly.

This is something I am seeing a lot of, especially with the ladies I train at the moment. They are putting undue pressure on themselves by focusing only on what the tape measure or scales say. So here is my advice on this one, focus on how training and being fitter and stronger makes you feel, focus on how good you feel when you hit that deadlift PB or you get a new PB time in your fitness test, focus on being able to do things today that you couldn't do a few weeks or months ago. 

"TRY TO ENJOY THE JOURNEY, DON'T WORRY ABOUT THE RESULTS RIGHT AWAY BECAUSE GETTING THE PROCESSES RIGHT MEANS THE OTHER STUFF TAKES CARE OF ITSELF". 

I am also going to let you into a little secret the fitness industry doesn't really want you to know either, mainly because its not that sexy a notion and it doesn't really drive loads of sales. "It's not your weight that is the biggest indicator of poor health, it is your lack of movement or fitness". So you can absolutely be overweight and healthy as long as you are strong, and you feel good".

The real reason your trainer is not telling you that is because it doesn't get them more social media likes or one of those awesome before and after photos that everyone likes to see. 

So as I said earlier, focus on the journey, celebrate every success, lift more, move faster and push yourself onto new boundaries and FFS try to enjoy it because your training and fitness regime should not ever be something that makes you feel worse about yourself than you already do. 

Fact for you! Nobody ever got ripped in 28 days, nobody ever got a 6 pack doing nothing but an abs routine and hardly anyone has achieved long term weight loss on a diet.

So please stop looking for quick fixes, fast results and schemes that are marketed to get you this much weight loss in this amount of time. I have been guilty of this in the past myself and up until very recently have marketed programs on these promises. 

In all honesty, its actually pretty simple to put a meal plan in place and a workout regime together that will get someone dropping a stone per month. The problem lies in that doing this will almost certainly result in short term success but unfortunately these programs are unsustainable and don't really fit in with life. The real kicker though, is that doing these over a long period of time, going from one scheme or quick fix to another gives you a pretty unhealthy relationship to food, makes you yo, yo in weight and usually leads to you getting fatter and more depressed. 

So if you really want to make changes to your body shape by losing weight, then do it slowly, take your time and make small changes one by one that will add up to a better and healthier relationship with food and exercise. 

So ban the word "DIET", eliminate it from your vocabulary and focus on the small things that you can enjoy and do consistently in order to create long term change. 

OK folks, this one is a big one and something I have to talk people out of doing all the time. People on a fitness, weight loss or any other type of journey always give themselves a hard time if they make a mistake. I promise you now that if your goal is to lose weight and get in shape, AT SOME POINT ALONG THE WAY YOU WILL FUCK IT UP!

This could come in the form of a weekend bender followed by a 3am kebab and chips, followed by a whole day of hungover junk food. We have all been there and guess what, those days are probably still not over, it gonna happen again. The important thing in this situation is to not be too hard on yourself and use it as an excuse to give up. The truth is you are not perfect and neither is your coach. No diet or fitness regime should expect you be either. Yes us fitness gurus mess our stuff up sometimes too. So don't let it consume you, instead learn from it and maybe next time, try not to go so crazy with the hungover food perhaps. 

Even if you do it all the same again don't worry, its in the past you cannot change it. So focus your thoughts back  into the present and the future and getting to yourself back on track. 

Listen! It takes 3-4 weeks for a change to start to feel natural part of your routine and around 6 months for that change to become a lifetime habit, so in that time you will make mistakes but don't give up. The important thing is that you give yourself time and be patient with yourself because real change does not happen over night.

I have been a trainer and coach now for around 15 years. Over the past year or so I have learned a lot. I usually pride myself on being a quick learner but this one has take a while to sink in. You can probably tell from reading this that not only has it been written to help you get started stay on course with your fitness and weight loss efforts, it has also been a bit of therapy for me and a way of unburdening myself by admitting past mistakes and hopefully wiping my slate clean and starting again, better than before. 

I have finally learnt that my role is not to provide you with weight loss information in the way of diet and exercise and to push you to lose weight, it is really to get you to feel good about yourself, to help you feel supported and ultimately to get you to believe in yourself as much as I believe in you.

So the phrase "I can't" is now banned from the gym or anywhere in my presence. That shit needs to be replace with "I can", "I will" or "I am gonna" and don't let anyone tell you differently.

In the video below I talk about a discussion I had with a few of my clients on my running boot camp. The conversation was about how they believed that if you run you just need to put up with niggles and injuries and par for the course.

Unfortunately, stats show that they are right, at least 50% of all runners will get at least 1 injury per year that prevents them from running for a period of time. 

In my mind, this is simply not acceptable. Why on earth does a sport that has no outside interference from other participants, involves almost zero rapid direction changes and has so much money invested in shoes and equipment to prevent injury have such a huge incidents of injury?

Well it's simple, in my mind there are 4 reasons. Check out the video below for my top 4 ways to avoid running injury so you can train with more consistency, get stronger and faster.

If you would like some help with your running technique and you would like to learn strength and conditioning techniques that will help prevent injury and turn you into a more efficient runner, then why not hit the button below to find out more about my Faster Running Boot Camp.

In the video below I take you through a couple of common squatting myths and help you to make some slight functional tweaks that will allow you to squat deeper, safer and stronger.

I hope you enjoy the video. Please let me know how you get on in the comments section below.

This is my signature transformation program just for men who are struggling to make gains in the gym and want to drop unwanted fat, build muscle, move better and get fitter and stronger. 

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So this is something that seems to be a bit of a hot topic in the weight loss and nutrition industry right now. Its in the early stages of research but the results look pretty promising so far.
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So a an industry, we have known that your gut bacteria profile can play an important role in the health of your digestive system but up until now, we weren’t really sure that it had any significant effect on weight loss.

We are still not quite sure about the mechanisms that makes a poor bacteria profile inhibit weight loss but we do know that improving the balance of good bacteria in your gut can help you kick start the process and speed a few things up in your weight loss process.

From what we know so far the specific strains of bacteria that helps you boost your weight loss potential are “LACTOBACILLUS” and “BIFIDOBACTERIUM”. These help you top up your good bacteria, that aid the digestive process, allowing you to absorb nutrients better from your small intestine.

So how do we get this into our diets to help speed up weight loss and improve our health?
Well, there are specific foods that are rich in these strains of bacteria and are also rich in other minerals that will help you achieve good overall health.

Top 5 Foods To Improve Gut Health

1. Organic Natural Greek Yoghurt

A nice summer breakfast could be
 
2 spoons of natural Greek yoghurt
2 heaped tbs of raw porridge oats
Handful of mixed berries
Handful of mixed nuts
 
Mix em all up in a bowl and enjoy.
 
You could also add a large tbs to your morning protein smoothie too.
 
2. High Quality Dark Chocolate 

Chocolate itself doesn’t contain probiotics, but it was found to be a very effective carrier for probiotics. Chocolate helps them survive the extreme pHs of the digestive tract to make it to the colon. Because of this protective ability probiotics can be added to high-quality dark chocolate.
 
3. Micro Algae
 
Supplementing with wheat grass and spirulina would be a good way to improve gut health as it will naturally nourish the good bacteria already in your gut, helping them grow and multiply
 
4. Sauerkraut
 
Made from fermented cabbage. It is naturally high in live bacteria cultures as well as being high in vitamins A,B,C and K
 
5. Miso Soup
 
Makes a great little snack, along with some chicken to help with the protein intake. Has great traditional healing properties and has been proven to be rich in a huge variety of nutrients.

Add these into your current nutrition regime to help boost healthy live bacteria that will certainly help you improve your digestive health and could go a long way towards helping you to finally get rid of that unwanted body fat.

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Getting runners and endurance athletes to understand that they need to be doing strength training in order to run or perform their sport more efficiently and avoid injury is an ongoing personal crusade of mine. I am determined to convince the runners, triathletes and cycling fanatics of Yorkshire that strength training will not only stop them getting injured on a regular basis but also make them more energy efficient in their chosen sport and help them get faster.

When I talk about this with clients, I get the same old things popping up.

“I don’t want to get bulky as it will make me heavy and slow”

“If I spend time strength training I will have to give up a run or a cycling session which will stop me progressing”

“It’s just running, I don’t need to be strong to run”

So, I deal a lot with recreational running injuries and the simple fact of the matter is this…

“About 90% of all injuries I see are a direct result of the athlete not being strong enough to to control ground reaction forces over a significant period”.

Therefore, almost all of my running based rehab is more like low level strength conditioning, as opposed to soft tissue work and flexibility training.

Let’s Look At The Facts

1. Running is a relatively dangerous sport

50% of all recreational runners WILL pick up at least one injury on an annual basis. Meaning that if you take up running as a sport or hobby you basically have a 1 in 2 chance  of getting injured at least once per year (Van Gent et al 2007).
 
2. What Causes of Running Injury?

The study by Van Gent above sights the main cause of running injury as overuse. Basically, running too often and covering too many miles. This is backed up by a study by Messier et al in 2008 who went on to add that accumulation of forces greater than the stress capabilities of muscle and joint structures also play a part. So basically every time your foot hits the ground, it does so with 1.5 to 3 times your body weight. Over the period of a run or race your muscles and joints are having to deal with literally tonnes of force. Other factors such as poor hip biomechanics, specifically poor hamstring flexibility and load tolerance were also found to be significant.

In a 2010 study Powers found that abnormal hip mechanics and in particular poor glute and hip abduction strength were an important indicator in knee injury among runners and as result a lot of the strengthening work done for runners should focus on improving the functional strength of the muscles in this area. (glute med and max, TFL, lateral hamstring).
 
3. Do training shoes make much difference?

There are some pretty impressive claims made by shoe manufacturers in relation to the performance and injury outcome you can expect by wearing their shoes. When we look at proper, peer reviewed studies (ones that have no interest in lying to you to sell trainers), we find that running shoe prescription has little or no benefit on injury risk (Knapik et al 2014, Richards, Magin and Callister, 2007). These are just 2 highlighted studies, there are hundreds more saying the exact same thing.
 
4. What are the benefits of strength training?

Well in short, the benefits of strength training are:

• Better overall endurance
• Better running efficiency
• Faster run times
• Reduced risk of injury due to improvements in running mechanics.

Please don’t just take my word for it however, all of the following studies have found these benefits when using a variety of strength training protocols to investigate their effects on running performance (Ronnestad and Mujika, 2013; Sato et al, 2009; Storen et al, 2008; Ronald et al, 1997; Taipale et al, 2013; Saunders et al, 2006)

5. What type of training is best?

Well the studies quoted above identified a variety of different training options. They looked at high rep and low weight, high intensity training (heavy weight and low reps) and power based training (plyometrics including hoping, and jumping etc). Believe it or not, it was the heavy stuff that came out on top, with power based training coming a close second.

So from this we can pretty much determine that to get the most benefit from any strength training protocol, we should be looking at combining high weight and low rep strength training with power based training to strengthen the hips and legs (with an emphasis on the glutes and hamstrings) and the core muscles such as the abs, obliques and lower back.

WARNING! Don’t start your strength training program by jumping straight into plyometrics. Start by adding simple strength exercises like squatting, lunging, split squats and deadlifts into your routine. Nail the technique of these with just your body weight then start to add additional weight. Only when you can exhibit confident control of these movements with some extra weight should you then progress to power and plyometric activities.

Starting a strength training program in this way will help prevent you from picking up injury performing the training that is supposed to prevent you from picking up injuries in the first place.
 
6. Will strength training make me bulky?

In short, NO. the type and volume of strength training, combined with your running endurance training will not make you bulky. It takes a lot of time and dedication to put on weight through muscle mass. As a runner or endurance athlete you will simply not be doing it in the volume required or consuming the volume of protein required to build muscle at a rate that will hamper your running performance.

In fact, the study by Ronald et al (1997) found that female distance runners who took part in the study were able to significantly improve their running efficiency and performance by increasing their overall body strength. During which time, there was no change to their overall body composition as a result of the resistance training.

In Conclusion

So after reading all of this, I am now hoping that you might be convinced to start a strength training program to give you more longevity, avoid the disappointment of injury and run a bit faster and get more PB’s.

In fact, I am sure that staring a good running strength program will revolutionise the way you run and think about training. It will make you feel stronger, more toned, more athletic and more excited about what is happening with your running training because you are getting faster all of the time.

If you would like to start a strength and conditioning program that is designed specifically to enhance running performance then you need to get on board with my Faster Running Boot Camp.This is a monthly program designed specifically for runners and is guaranteed to make you:

• Stronger
• More powerful
• More flexible
• More efficient

Not only will you be working on specific running conditioning drills, you will also be shown how to improve your running gait so you can transfer your newfound strength into a faster and more efficient running style.

Hit the button below to apply for a space on the program