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. 

As well as world class training, you will also receive full nutrition support and as much help and guidance as you need every single step of the way. 

​Hit the button below to find out more...

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.
​
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.

These are simply my signature conditioning programs that will give you all the tools to help you succeed in your weight loss journey. 

If you are struggling to get results with your current gym program or you are need a little help and guidance with your nutrition, then these programs offer a comprehensive a nd cost effective way to get amazing results in your training. 

Hit the buttons below to find out more about the programs and apply for one the exclusive places, so I can help you get amazing results in your training.

​

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

How to get your glutes fired up to improve your running efficiency
 
As I have mentioned before, our glutes are really important, in that they help us stabilise and control our hip, knee, ankle, foot and even our lower back. They don’t do this by themselves however so for best results we need to understand how they do this and how to train them effectively to improve your running function
 
Figure of 8 Relationship
 
This is a big one and is often missed by a lot of trainers and therapists. It relates to the relationship between the muscles at the front of your hip on one leg and the muscles at the back of your hip on the other.
In layman’s terms, your hip flexors, adductors and quads of your back leg should help your glutes and hamstrings of your front leg. So if one of these muscles groups at the front of your hips is tight and weak on one leg it will affect how the muscles at the back of your hip function during running on the other leg.
Because of this, we need to think about how we move when we run and try to replicate that to some extent in the exercise choices we choose to help us improve how we run and move.
 
Integrate Instead of Isolate

Instead of using exercises like clams or donkey kicks that only work the glutes, we should instead focus on more integrated exercises that will help this figure of 8 relationship improve and get better. So we can still target the glutes as well as improving what the other muscles do around them. This will stimulate your nervous system better and have a far more effective carry over into your running.
 
So ditch the clams and those other lying down Jayne Fonda type exercises and give these a go instead. I promise you, your glutes will thank you for it.

Launches Wednesday May 2nd 7:15pm. 
First session is FREE
This is not like other running programs, its not just turn up, go for a run and pick up an injury. Instead, this is a focused program that will help you improve your running technique, get stronger and become more energy efficient.

FACT! At least 1 in every 2 runners will get injured at least once per year. I see injured runners at the clinic on a daily basis, they all have a couple of things in common.

1. They are not sure how to program their running training 
2. They are not strong enough in their hips and core to control the ground reaction forces in running
3. There are flaws in their running gait directly associated with their pain or injury.

On this camp I help you highlight and fix common gait deficiencies that are associated with injury, put together a balanced and manageable training program for you and show you how to warm up properly and improve your functional strength to make you a more efficient runner. Helping you get faster and avoid injury.

If you would like to find out more about the program, or book a free session hit the button below and apply now!

5 spaces have already gone, even before I have started to advertise. There are only 10 left and I don't expect them to last long.
​
I look forward to hearing from you.

As promised a little while ago, here is part 2 in my "Functional Calf Care Series". In this edition we take a look at the biggest muscle in our calves and the one that is most visible, the Gastrocnemeus.

In the video below I take you through the role of the gastroc in during running and share some really cool foam rolling and dynamic mobility drills that will help you keep this and the other muscles in your calves healthy. Not only will it help you avoid injury but also help improve your running efficiency too. Click Here to check out Part 1 and click on the video below to view the latest installment in my Functional Calf Care Series...

WEDNESDAYS 7:15PM @ Faster Fitness Solutions, Unit 5 Denby Dale Industrial Park, HD8 8QH
£25/Month (FIRST SESSION IS FREE)

Boot Camp designed specifically for runners to help them avoid injury and become more fluid and efficient when running.

On the camp you will learn:
- The real factors that contribute to running injury
- How to Warm up effectively for running
- Why strength training will make you a better runner
- How to integrate strength training into your training schedule
- 3 key running technique cues that will transform your running gait

There are just 10 spaces available on the camp so please book quickly to avoid disappointment.

As well as the weekly coached sessions you will also be provided with comprehensive training videos to help you improve your technique and work through strength and  conditioning drills that are guaranteed to make you a better runner.
​
Hit the link below to find out more and get in touch to book your free session

These are for men and women who are tired of going round in circles and want a proven strategy to lose weight and transform their body image.

My 14 day program gives you the chance train with me for 14 days so you can see what I do and find out how I get great results with all my clients. By training in small, focused groups (max 4 people) I can give you all the help and support you would get in really expensive 1:1 training packages. Plus you get a load of comprehensive nutrition resources and a whole host of other cool stuff that will guarantee you get results

Hit the button below to find out more....

So this is something I see a lot in the fitness industry. Planks being performed incorrectly, even when taught by personal trainers. People's posture is all wrong, either their ass is too high in the air, meaning they get very little benefit from the movement or their hips are sagging in the middle, putting a great deal of pressure on the lumbar spine.
In the video I share with you a great little adjustment, where you can really target your abs and improve your strength and stability in the plank position.
WARNING! THIS WILL CAUSE YOUR ABS TO WORK VERY HARD