Guest Post by Sophie Thomas.

It’s a truth universally acknowledged that people who haven’t watched - or, perhaps more unfathomably, dislike - classical Simpsons episodes, are a class of people not knowing.
As for myself? I consider it a moral duty to uphold the shining, golden medallions of entertainment, set forth by seasons 1-13.
Hell, it’s even had an influence in how I train myself, and how I cue clients into movement. And I’m about to tell you how.
In The Simpsons episode King-Size Homer, our favourite, bumbling cartoon protagonist Homer embarks upon a ‘bulk cycle’ of sorts - but instead of having aesthetic goals, his main objective is becoming too physically resigned to partake in the Nuclear Power Plant’s exercise regime for its employees.
Soon after, Homer starts living the entrepreneurial dream, and works from home.
Of course, the life of a lackadaisical, button-pressing safety inspector can be tiring - so Homer instils a little help from his newfound buddy, a drinking bird, to press “Y” on his keyboard to keep things ticking over for a while.
Of course, this doesn’t go to plan - but what does run smoothly is the bird’s flawless attention to detail in the way it hip hinges.

When coaching a movement pattern like the hip hinge - which can appear alien to sedentary clients, at first glance - it’s important to give them a form of visual feedback so they have a vague idea as to what the hell is going on with their body.
That’s not to say the drinking bird is the perfect analogy for performing a hip hinge or Romanian deadlift - you still want the weight driving through your feet, rather than pushing the centre of gravity over your toes or out right in front of you. Nevertheless, the image hits a nice little trifecta of cues which many people find troublesome to perform correctly.
Hips drawing back? Tick.
Nice, flat back? Tick.
Avoiding too much movement going into the knees? Tick, tick, tick.

To hinge (the movement pattern - not the dating app ) is an undeniably important part of muscular development, sports specific training, and preventing imbalances or injury.
For starters, newbies or office workers are liable to suffer from tighter hip flexors, weaker glute muscles, and dominant quads from longer hours sitting. Invariably, this can throw the body off kilter - with anterior pelvic tilt, often leading to lower back pain. Strengthening the hip hinging muscles of the posterior chain (glute muscles, hamstrings, etc.) can restore balance to the lower body and help prevent pain and injury from occurring, making it a fundamental part of your programming.
But what for the well-trained? To a bodybuilder looking for bigger quads, the movement seems facile and blasé; a powerlifter may express scepticism at anything other than bench, squat, or deadlift. In reality, the hinge can help any kind of athlete - especially if their sport prioritises quad use over hamstring involvement.

Homer loved that little drinking bird of his - but, no doubt if he tried employing the hinge movement pattern to his everyday training, he may not have much success.
At his weight, there are conditions at play here - mobility issues, movement restrictions - and yes, perhaps even confidence.
Sometimes, as coaches we are limited in the resources we can give our clients - or even when training ourselves. Sure, external cues are great at facilitating a learning environment for somebody; but sometimes there are variables out of our control, and we must come to accept this - Marcus Aurelius style.
If there’s something greater at play than simply needed a drinking bird for hinge inspiration, it’s a wise move for us to refer out - to physiotherapists, doctors, or even counsellors - rather than draw all of our knowledge from a beloved 90’s cartoon. Oh, and science and physics and shit like that.

It’s more than just gains. Throughout a full powerlifting plan you will go through various blocks (hypertrophy, intensity, strength, peaking, etc) and the level and intensity of fatigue you feel at each point will differ massively.  As well as this, there is the idea of why you should do what the plan says, what to expect from assistance and auxiliary movements and rest and recovery.
 
Principles.
Whether you’re a coach or someone starting out on a powerlifting plan for the first time, its always a good idea to have a rudimentary understanding of the principles behind programming. Mainly,  volume, intensity and frequency.  These three largely intertwine, especially as you go along, and they also weave into fatigue and the effect that that can have on your training. 

​Volume
 
Volume is a decisive factor in your training, particularly in relation to improving strength and size. Volume incorporates - 
 

• Weight lifted

• The repetitions of an exercise performed

 
 
Intensity
 
While volume is the quantitative variable, intensity is the qualitative one. The more work that you do within a single session, then the more intense it becomes. The intensity depends on the load, speed of performance and variation of rest between sets/reps. A factor often overlooked about intensity is the psychological effect it can have on a person.
 
In the case of strength gains intensity would depend mainly upon the load utilised in a workout. For example reps at 80% would be a lot more intense than singles at 70%.
 
Relationship between Volume and Intensity. 
 
As the volume increases in a workout the intensity should decrease, and vice versa. Whichever variable you’re focusing on will have a different effect upon your body's adaptation. Finding the optimal balance of both is a tricky task – a point we will come back to later.
 
Frequency
 
The main thing is to organise your volume into a reasonable schedule. As you get more advanced you will need more and more volume. Frequency becomes more important here as you can organise the extra volume in such a way for you to recover. 

​Recovery
 
If you get to a point in your training where you are recovering fine but not progressing then you have plateaued. The way around this is generally to add more volume (you would reduce volume if you were plateaued and not recovering) and in order to do this you might need to add another day of training.
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You should always be training so that you have recovered adequately for the next session, week of training. If you aren’t recovering properly then it is likely that you are doing too much volume, or resting too little. On the other hand, you won’t be feeling 100% refreshed, especially if you are quite far into a training block.

So, basically the more advanced you are the more days you will be training. Beginners may progress with a full body plan performed twice a week, whereas a more advanced lifter might have an upper/lower split or even different body parts on different days. A common mistake with beginners is that they try to run before they can walk.
 
 
Blocks.

Let’s say you have a competition in 12 weeks time. How do you organise it? Each block normally lasts about 4 weeks.  For the sake of the 12 week example, we’ll have each block as 3 weeks of work followed by a 1 week deload.

Hypertrophy.

 Nearly every programme will start with a hypertrophy cycle. This is for a number of reasons, mainly to build some muscle beforehand.

An aside on muscle size, a bigger muscle isn’t necessarily stronger but it has more potential for strength. If you’re struggling to get stronger, try getting bigger then get stronger.

Another reason is that hypertrophy is normally high reps and high sets which means more goes at each movement, which means more practice. Don’t forget that each exercise is a skill that needs to be perfected.

The more keen eyed amongst you will notice that the hypertrophy phase will coincide nicely with the volume phase I mentioned earlier. Your body will reach a point where the volume has been accumulated and needs to be dropped with the intensity needing to be raised. It is here that the next block comes in. After a deload, of course. 

Intensity/Strength.

By this point of your training you should have mastered the general movement patterns of the squat, bench press and deadlift, as well as the assistance work added. Depending upon how sensitive you are to hypertrophy (this is dependent upon a number of factors) you should have added on at least a little bit of muscle in this time. You will have at least a few lovely rep PBs to throw up on your social media.
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Its through this stage where the intensity of lifting weights will take over from the sheer volume of them. Towards the end of your volume/hypertrophy cycle you should have gone through a slight reduction of volume and a gradual increase of intensity anyway, but now these changes will be accelerated.

This block is basically a stepping stone to the next block, but that does not mean it can be ignored. Without including this part your body will struggle to adapt to the shift from high reps/low weights to the technical master required for low reps/high weight.

Peaking.

This is it. This is when you really ramp up those weights and get into competition mode. It’s at this point where you take your proficiency at each exercise, the new found muscle and, the raw strength you have created in the previous blocks and really fine tune it into a biomechanical masterpiece worthy of PBs on the powerlifting platform.

This point is basically just a continuation of lowering the volume and increasing the intensity. However, the focus now is purely powerlifting specific. It isn’t unheard of for there to be next to no assistance or auxiliary work at this point, as all of your effort is aimed towards getting those 9 lifts you do on the platform as perfect and as heavy as possible.
 
The Taper/Deload.

This isn’t necessarily just a week off. I mentioned earlier how volume/intensity/frequency all coincide and result in fatigue. By this point that fatigue should have reached a head and you should feel absolutely knackered. You may even have aches and pains. At this point you will go through a drastic reduction in volume/intensity and frequency.

The idea behind this is that your body has gone through a long phase of recovering you from such a battered state that it is used to recovering you by this much. So if you were to suddenly reduce this amount of fatigue your body will over recover and you will, in theory, recover to a position of about 105% rather than 100%. 

Fatigue.

Fatigue is important to understand. Beyond the bit mentioned above about manipulating it in order to over-recover (or super-compensate) you will also need to realise that it is a totally normal part of a training block, particularly just before either a taper or a deload.

Overtraining.

It’s at this point that you might suffer some of the nastier physical side effects of training. You might find that the volume and intensity builds up so much that you might succumb to various physical, or mental, symptoms. These can include –

• Poor performance
• General fatigue, dehydration or just a lack of energy
• Joint pain 
• Sleep irregularity 
• Headaches
• Depression
• Loss of appetite
• Loss of enthusiasm for training
• Suppression of immune system (constantly getting colds, etc)
• Altering of physiological stats – e.g. change in heart rate or lung function

 
Once you start feeling one or more of these symptoms, monitor them to be sure its from training and not other life factors but then talk to your coach or check your programme for the nearest deload.
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The fatigue needs to be carefully manipulated in order to achieve the right amount of fatigue at the right time. Which is why following the weights, or RPE levels, is important, which we will come to next.

Why you’re doing the Weights You’re Told to Do.

As a coach, this is one of those points that is most frustrating when it comes to powerlifters. Powerlifting will always be about shifting the most weight possible, there is no getting around that. However, it is a bout shifting the most weight possible when on the platform. This last bit is crucial to remember.

If your coach or plan has you working up to a single -whether it be an RPE 8 or 9, a last warm up, an opener or a second attempt – they will have considered all of the factors mentioned earlier here. If you’ve read this properly you will see how important it is to manipulate the factors of volume and intensity in order to have the lifter fatigue the right amount at the right time.

So if you do your single that looks like an opener, your coach knows you can recover from it and finish that workout and the next ones in that week. If you decide to go for a new 1RM and fatigue yourself to the point where the rest of the session or the rest of the week is sub-par, then you have damaged up to a quarter of your training block just for an ego boost.

Trust your coach or your plan, do what your told and you will hit big PBs consistently where it matters, that is, on the platform.
 
Assistance and Auxiliary Movements.

These are the ones you probably just leave out when no one’s looking. We’re all on to you for doing it, don’t worry.

However, they do have their place. More so if you have a coach, your plan will have exercises in there to improve certain aspects of your movement. You might be doing front squats because your quads give in on a regular squat. You might be doing flyes because your chest lacks the necessary mass to improve. The reasons for these are varied but again, they all have their place. It is very rare for a coach or plan to have an exercise in there if its not needed.

As a corollary to this, just adding exercises in willy-nilly could have a detrimental effect on your training and your overall programme.
 
Gains.

This is the main thing you should expect from a powerlifting programme. Otherwise, what is the point in doing one?

Obviously, during the time you’ll learn how to do them to a technical standard as well. You may also find that your general movement is better, as is your posture. Your general health and outlook on life may also improve, particularly if you’re new to exercise in general.

So, yes, the main thing to expect is gains. Physically, mentally, emotionally and in terms of your total. However, you should also fully expect to go through some pain in terms of muscle and joints, as well as mental stress. 

So, writing sounds like something you want to get better at? Well, here are some tips that I’ve found extremely helpful.

Tip #1.

Write How You Speak.

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This can be quite awkward for some people. What if you swear a lot? What if you say “erm,” and “uhm,” a lot. Both are fine, obviously don’t write the hesitating “err,”s but swearing is okay if it suits your audience.
The best way to understand something is to imagine teaching it to someone else and, I’m assuming if you are writing you are an expert or able to explain your chosen subject. Take how you would teach it and write it like that.
If you talk using a lot of alliteration, this is fine.If this means you write in short, succinct sentences then that’s fine, or if you are someone who is very verbose and like to fully express your vernacular, then by all means write as you would speak, verbatim.
See what I did there?

​Tip #2

Write How You Speak pt II - Just dial it up to 11.

When you’re talking to someone in person it would be very rude of them to just get up mid-sentence and leave. I know it does happen, but it’s rare as people are simply too polite. However, when reading something you can very easily just close the page and move on, if it’s not grabbing you then why should you waste time on it?
This is why you want to take the best elements of your talking/teaching style and raise it by 10%, it makes you more interesting and more engaging.
Tip #3

Positioning.

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I briefly explained my positioning above, although that was more as a benefit for those of you who don’t know me. The majority of the people reading this will know me and my background. They’ll already be aware of why I’m qualified to say what I’m saying.
This is almost like a ‘needing experience to get work’ kind of issue but if you ensure you are very good at something then people will listen, you just need to find a way to show how good you are and writing can offer you even more positioning. Not everyone can do it and even fewer are any good.

Tip #4

Have Something to Say.

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This one sounds quite obvious, but if you’re committing to focusing on your writing then you need ideas. It can be hard to generate good ideas as it could just lead to you writing in an almost Kanye/Trump stream of consciousness style of Twitter. Which is fine for some light entertainment but no one really takes it seriously.
It’s similar to selling, if you can think of a solution to a problem then those people with the problem will come find you. Solve some problems for people and you’ll have plenty of content.

Tip #5

Make it Actionable.

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Most importantly you should give people something that they can go “hey, I can really use this new knowledge now.”
Whether it be fitness, how to write or anything you’re good at helping people with you should lay out easy to follow steps for the reader to easily apply to their life immediately.


To sum up, writing can be hard but having some skill in it can help you in terms of explaining, selling and sometimes just venting. It really helps your content stand out in an age where anyone can take a nice filtered picture.

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A lot of people wonder how long their workouts should be. Personally, when it comes to training I have never really set an allotted amount of time to my training. I go in with a plan and it takes as long as it takes. However, this plan has a set amount of volume and intensity which I need to hit in order to make my required progress. A set training plan is a fantastic way to train, it not only ensures further progression for me, but also ensures that I do not overdo it in the gym. A good plan factors in rest and recovery as well as the required volume and intensity to encourage progressive overload. Training harder and for longer is not necessarily better, training and recovering smartly is key to progress.
There are still various pockets of the world (often the internet) that would insist that overtraining does not exist and that it is either under recovering or under eating. However, all of these things should be managed in a good plan. Sufficient training, recovery and diet will always lead to greater gains than pure blood and guts hard work.

Over Reaching

Now, if you are into any sort of competitive sport or events you may be familiar with the idea of over training. This is where your plan will accumulate the volume of your exercise and workouts to the point of near overtraining. The reason for this is to elicit the ‘compensation’ effect.

Compensation –
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When your body becomes used to a particular amount of training volume it begins to recover to that amount. If some of this volume is removed then, for a short time, your body will still recover by the same amount as before. Meaning that if the body is used to being broken down to 70% and then recovering up to 100%, you could all of a sudden train so that you are only dropping to 75% and your body will still recover by the previous 30%, putting you, for a short time, at roughly 105%. This, however, will only last for a short time as your body yearns for homeostasis and will then start to recover to your regular 100%.
This is why ‘over reaching’ is utilised in sports such as powerlifting. The athlete will be trained to a point close to over training in order to take advantage of the compensation effect. Meaning that, if planned correctly, a powerlifter could turn up on meet day at something resembling 105%.

There are obvious issues with this, as it is difficult to monitor a person or athlete to a point where they are just hovering over the point of over training. Rest and recovery need to be perfect. This state of optimal awesomeness can only be maintained for around 7-10 days and it should be quickly followed by a phase of rest and then back into training.

​In this state you would be functioning as close to perfectly as possible, your functional capacities, mental arousal, as well as your neuro-muscular coordination would be perfect. Training to reach a level where you can fully accommodate all of your functions and movements sounds very inviting, but it makes sense to aim for this state after increasing these capacities as greatly as you can over a span of training. In other words, before attempting to reach this stage of training you should possess a good foundation of training, i.e – a high level of physical preparation, as well as all the biomotor abilities required for your particular area. The higher your level of training before embarking on this, the higher your effectiveness will be in this training state.
 
Periodisation –
Periodisation is where you put yourself, or your athlete/clients, through a variety of training phases geared towards reaching the goal of compensation.  The different training phases involve an increasing and decreasing of both the volume and intensity. As the volume in your routine goes up, the intensity should go down, and vice versa.
 
Volume is the amount of work done throughout a workout or programme, it covers –
-the time or duration of a workout
-the loads used or distance covered
- the repetitions of an exercise performed. 

Intensity is the difficulty of the work, it is the qualitative aspect of a routine as opposed to the quantitative volume. A high intensity workout might involve lifting weights of 85% or more of your one repetition maximum or practising a particularly advanced and difficult skill.
 
The way in which you would periodise your own routine depends upon your goals and sport. I am from a powerlifting background so for someone like myself it is likely to follow a high volume phase at first, including some heavy work. This might only be heavy singles or doubles. Throughout this initial phase the volume is likely to slowly increase until a point just below overtraining. At this point I would take a deload week where I still train the movements but the volume is drastically cut down, and the intensity is kept moderate.  Following this would be a strength phase, which would focus more upon the heavy weights and less upon the volume in the previous phase. This would be done in line with a competition phase, where I would likely take the week before the competition easy. By this point I will have acquired the essential training benefits, such as the improved functional capacities and neuro muscular coordination, and they would be difficult to improve further in a week’s time. So this energy would be saved for competition day. 
 
 
Overtraining
As you can see from the above over reaching is where you integrate a gradual increase of training and training volume in a controlled manner so as to result in a fantastic competitive edge over a short period of time. Overtraining would imply that a similar increase in your workload will occur but in a manner that is uncontrolled or unplanned. Without a sufficient recovery phase or a planned deload, an increase in training will lead to, at best, a slower rate of improvement and, at worst, a higher chance of an injury being incurred.
When it comes to training, an athlete or gym goer will suffer from acute fatigue, and hopefully avoid chronic fatigue. Acute fatigue is simply tiredness incurred from that workout which can be recovered with sleep, rest or diet. Chronic fatigue, however, is where a person stays in the overreaching phase for too long.  I’ve highlighted the benefits of going into a planned overreached phase but if you do it by accident or for too long you will suffer. Entering into a phase of chronic fatigue will be the result, and the continuation of, accumulated stress and will affect you both mentally and physically.

The symptoms of overtraining include –

• Poor performance
• General fatigue, dehydration or just a lack of energy
• Joint pain
• Sleep irregularity
• Headaches
• Depression
• Loss of appetite
• Loss of enthusiasm for training
• Suppression of immune system (constantly gettings colds, etc)
• Altering of physiological stats – eg change in heart rate or lung function

 
Over training can come from any kind of training, whether it be strength training, cardiovascular training or technique training. Regardless of what it is it can put stress on both your mind and body and both of these need looking after.
A large portion of this has focused upon the idea of a general training phase leading to overtraining but similar effects can happen in a shorter period. For example, training past the point of tiredness in one session will lead to your movement patterns being sloppy which in turn negatively correlates to skill acquisition as well as increasing your change of an injury occurring.
 
To Sum Up –
Work smart, work hard but also rest smart and rest hard. Without planned rest, or even the occasional spontaneous rest, you will not progress in your fitness journey. Rest is vital to avoiding physical and mental pitfalls. If you find yourself constantly feeling ill, sore or even depressed then maybe you need to re-evaluate your training, take a step back or a day/week off and then come back to it recharged.
Overreaching can be utilised to reap great rewards via compensation. Overtraining, however, should be avoided for your overall health.
 
 
References –
https://tudorbompainstitute.wordpress.com/2014/08/10/759/
Periodisation – Tudor O. Bompa
Pictures –
http://www.theairlinepilots.com/forumarchive/hp/arousal.jpg
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When it comes to the world of S&C coaching, we are incredibly fortunate to have such tremendous access to all of the latest science, research and information, which can help both trainer and client alike. Currently, no stone is being left unturned for those in the know, on a mission to educate the general population on lifting and its benefits; gone are the days of ladies fearing the ‘bulk’, and now, the demand for evidence-based fitness has never been higher. Scam-laden companies, promoting magical potions and adhering to wacky claims of detoxes and body transformation shakes, are finally being called out by leading figures in the industry in a way that was never being done before. In short, the industry is changing – for the better, with a focus on ethics, science, and helping people to become the best versions of themselves.
 
As someone in the industry who prides themselves on being science-based, examining the evidence, and changing my mind whenever the facts present a contrary idea, this is music to my ears. Education equals empowerment; and when armed with the latter, I truly believe that people become confident enough to form their own destiny, both inside and outside of the gym.  From my experience, both with myself and with my clients, it’s not only physical strength which is gained from consistent training and discipline in one’s routine – it’s mental fortitude, too.

                                                                                                   

The subject of mental health and mindset can sometimes be overlooked in favour of marble-slab abs or rounded gluteal muscles, but it is something so pivotal in one’s fitness journey – both in its application, and its endpoint.
 
In the same way that you wouldn’t start building a house on sand (Biblical reference unintended) without a solid foundation to support its bricks, there’s no feasibility in trying to get fitter, change your physique, or improve your health for the long-term, without the appropriate mindset and mental attitude.
​At the epicenter of every fitness routine lies the potential for human folly; to shirk responsibility, get lazy, eschew discipline, and allow negativity to cloud one’s thoughts. All of these can get in the way of our fitness goals in one way or another – be it through changing eating habits, reducing activity levels, or in general, blurring the focus of the initial long-term goal. It is no coincidence that athletes continuously have counseling or life-coaching to supplement (man, I really am rocking the puns in this article) their hard training; the concept of visualization, manifestation, and self-belief are incredibly powerful tools in the context of pushing yourself past physical limits and imagining the victory of an ever-coveted medal place. 

Taking a quick scan at your standard coaching program, you’ll see the hard science is all there: the periodised lifts over weeks and months, tailored perfectly to fit the client’s lifestyle and needs; an immaculately-calculated macro spread, explaining the intricate details of carbohydrate timing and the importance of protein; and an array of well-researched literature all compiled into easy-to-understand summaries for your average fitness newbie. While at first glance this may seem like the best thing since sliced bread (full of delicious, delivishly mischievous gluten, as luck would have it), there is one aspect missing – one aspect, that, if not supplemented with the hard science, could mean that all this coach’s hard work and detail put into this program goes to waste.
 
Mindset and mental wellbeing of a client are two huge factors when it comes to training, as mentioned previously. Not only does it entail how an individual will see the plan and their fitness journey, but it will – hopefully – mark the beginning of a new mental transformation in the way that they see themselves; that is, transcendent of physical vanities. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that exercise in of itself, independent of holistic factors, has been shown to correlate to alleviated symptoms of depression, in some mild cases even proving to be as effective as some forms of medication.  And for many people, this improvement in their lifestyle transcends that of their original aesthetic goals.

​The mindset of sticking to an actual routine is also cumbersome to so many who have been conditioned to society to ‘accept what will be will be’ in their lives, and thus being encouraged by a good coach to change their attitude and outlook to life is something that will prove invaluable to the – not only in the perspective of their program, but also in relation to the way they live their lives, personally and professionally. When the going gets rough, the client can’t just refer to their weekly lifting schedule and think ‘all is well’ – they require a holistic, quasi-therapeutic approach. So many habits, for instance, whether they are diet or fitness based, are borne from psychological tendencies, emotional ties and associations in the brain, which can help or hinder us with our goals.

 A good coach should know all of this, and seek to help either tighten those knots in the good habits, so they stay firmly in place – or seek to loosen those ties, and replace them with new neural connections for each new habit; something more life-affirming and positive for the individual.
 
Indeed, the mindset of an individual before embarking upon a new routine is of the utmost importance, and sets the tone for their attitude not only to their fitness routine, but also to their entire life in general. For instance, a person who tends to be interested in physical self-improvement and setting their own fitness goals also tends to be attracted to certain schools of thought surrounding mental and emotional self-development and life coaching a la Tony Robbins, (or Gary Vaynerchuk from a business perspective) or even fields like Eastern philosophy for the more obscure approaches. This in turn will mean that instead of binge-watching Netflix for hours on end, an individual who falls into this category will tend to be more productive, have a better attitude towards life in general, and see working hard as a means to a greater, more satisfying reward rather than the instantaneous gratification one gets from less stimulating activities.
This same principal can be applied towards leading a fit lifestyle; the better the mindset, the less likely an individual will veer towards this ‘instant gratification’ of short term pleasure and happiness, i.e. bingeing on junk food or sitting on the sofa watching the TV for hours on end.

Beyond the scope of self-development and life coaching comes the more serious topic of mental health as a whole. It is firmly my belief not only from my own experience, but something that is also indicated by various studies, that fitness can help an individual improve their mental health vastly – and not just give them a nice set of abs.
This necessity for an examination of our mental wellbeing has never been more urgent. In Europe, it is estimated that around 83 million individuals suffer from a mental health issue of some sort.

Couple that with busy, modern day stress and inactivity, this new rise in mental health issues can only end in disaster if left unchecked. Some studies have even signaled, for instance, the correlation between increased physical exercise and reduced symptoms in depression. Surely, if we are to be good coaches and inspire our clients to be healthy, it cannot just be on the basis of physical health alone? Indeed, if we are to be the figureheads for leading a good example to live a healthy life, the mind cannot be left untouched; it forms part of our entire centre of wellbeing, in addition to our body fat percentage.
​It might not be the most thrilling of topics to talk about, but it is an important one – and one that the fitness industry seems to be neglecting as of late.

New Ebook.The above is a screenshot of the cover of a short ebook I have written and made available over at my Facebook. It's only short, 8 pages or so I think. I wanted to offer a quick explanation for things like - 

• Calories
• Macronutrients
• Micronutrients
• Food Groups
• Meal Timing
• Sustainability 

While it does go over how every diet needs to be individualised it won't tell you how to work out your macros or calories, if you want that you can message me directly and we'll set it up. 

Please give it a read, maybe give me a review too? 

P.S - It's free. 

Whether you’re a new trainer to a gym, or a gym goer who has just hired a trainer.

• What can you offer clients?
•  What should you expect from your trainer?

 The main things – empowerment and accountability.

One of the first pieces of advice I was given as a personal trainer was to “never give a client something they can do without you.” I hated this idea. If they see me once a week but need to train by themselves 2-3x a week then how could I expect them to get results if they could only train optimally with me breathing down their neck? God help them if they were online clients! To answer this I decided to go a different path. I wanted to offer every client the confidence and the accountability to train efficiently.

I always went into a session, whether that be with a new client or an old one, with the idea of giving them the power and the confidence to continue in the gym with or without me.

Some people in my position would assume that the more sessions they can have a client do with them per week the better, however, the majority of people can’t afford this. The way around this is to train them, either in how to do the movement, increase their confidence in the gym, or both, to a level where they can walk into a gym and be comfortable enough to workout with the same efficiency as if you were there with them. What we offer then, is more than just our knowledge, it is the double edged sword of empowerment and accountability.

I believe that there is almost of a scale of how much accountability a client needs as opposed to empowerment. A confident gym goer might just need someone to keep them in check, a shy gym goer might need someone to really raise their self-esteem to the point that they feel that they belong in a gym.
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Accountability

Imagine doing your first powerlifting competition and really enjoying it. You can’t wait for your second. Then it happens, and it’s the worst one you’ve ever done. The build-up was terrible, you barely slept or trained. You felt weak and unfocused on the day. Worst of all, you failed four out of the nine lifts and did not beat any of your own gym personal bests. Something had to change.

Embarking upon a new plan, or trying to incorporate a new habit into your life is a difficult venture. To do it alone you will need a great amount of determination and commitment. To be fair, many people do just fine by going it alone.
​However, a lot of people benefit from an external source of accountability. A good coach can offer various sources of accountability, and they can be one in themselves. Having someone else look after your training means there is someone else there to keep you in check, they may also introduce you to other clients who will provide you with a sense of community. In some cases they may use a variety of systems or apps to keep on top of you.  

My own uses of Accountability –

You might know most of this already if you follow my site and social media but I’ll go over it again. I have been training people since 2013 and I’ve been competing in powerlifting since late 2014.

 I’d always managed my own training myself but in the space of time between September 2014 and June 2015 I was working two jobs, going to college and training for competitions. I got to a point where I knew something had to give.

In 2015 I was training towards a competition in May, and this coincided with exams and coursework deadlines in college. Time was low and my energy levels were lower. About a month away from the competition my training was going really well in the gym as I had hit a squat personal best of 190kg, a bench press best of 130kg and a deadlift personal best of 240kg. All appeared to be going well, I had gotten stronger and still had a month of work left to get a little bit stronger and work on a few technical issues here and there.

However, in the weeks leading up to the competition my workload had gotten to the point where I could only train two, at best three, times a week. As opposed to the five times a week previously. The increasing workload also led to me losing sleep and getting migraines. So when it got to the competition I was burnt out. 

​The Competition Itself –

I don’t like talking about this competition as it was the worst one I’ve experienced, and it was only my second. I failed my first squat (twice, don’t ask) on depth and then by the time I had gotten to my second my head was gone and I lost all concentration and stepped forward before the judge said “rack.” On the third I took a risk and went up 12.5kg and got it as I knew I was my own worst enemy there.

On bench, I realised how different the warmup bar was to the competition one and failed my opener. Then adjusted my grip and the second flew so I added a conservative 5kg to it and failed it completely.

Deadlifts went well, but I still got less than my gym personal best (I hit 237.5kg) just to make sure I got the qualifying total for the British Championships.

In hindsight, I got a competition squat, deadlift and total personal best at the time but my preparation and management of the day was horrendous.

What had to give -

This experience made me realise that maybe I could get some help with some elements of my training. As well as this I quit one of my jobs, which was a massive risk as it left me purely self-employed while paying an extortionate rent in a commercial gym.

I realised that one of the main reasons for me allowing the build-up get so out of hand was that I was letting myself get in my own way. I decided to contact a coach and let them deal with me. I remember my first message to him being – “I’ve qualified for British and do not want to embarrass myself.”

My results –

The benefits were shown when I next competed 5 months later with a total increase of 35kgs. As well as this, I also managed to be more confident in all of my lifts to the point where I could open on a squat personal best. As well as the obvious strength and confidence increases, having someone tell me exactly what to do and not allowing myself to mess around with the training was a major difference in my training. It gave me less to worry about as any concerns in my training were just passed off to him in trust. This allowed for me to use training as a break again, I could just switch off and follow the plan. 

Empowerment –

In terms of empowerment, my own case is a little different. I was already confident in a gym setting, I just found that I could not be objective over my own training and any adjustments I’d need to make. The majority of clients that a coach will deal with would not have my background.

 I take this into account when dealing with a new client, in that I assess what their confidence level within a gym setting is and take it from there. A client who feels under-confident in the gym would need more empowerment and less accountability and vice versa for a confident client.  

I feel that this emotional aspect of training is one that is hard to teach, easy to miss and often underappreciated in the fitness industry. We can read e-books on anatomy, nutrition and aspects of business but this skill is rare. Coaches and trainers who connect with their clients on an emotional level like this will find that they form long and prosperous relationships to the point that its common to have clients stay with them for years at a time.

How to do it –

You can tell a lot by how confident the client is in general, such as by how comfortable they are with you or when the gym is crowded. Granted, the better you are at reading people, the better. We can’t all be a Derren Brown or a Sherlock Holmes, but learning to pick up on certain cues will work wonders here.

You will need to be receptive, and maybe even a bit manipulative. Not quite Machiavellian, but knowing how and when to push buttons will help you encourage your client and their gym bravado. Treating every client the same won’t work. Of course, they’ll all get the same level of treatment but the finer points will vary.

The gym goer who has just started with a trainer should be with a trainer they trust to make these decisions. A lot of this will be trial and error too, so in regards to this relationship of client/trainer, make sure you give each other a break occasionally. You’re only after the best for the other. 



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Ben is the final lifter for this series this week. Big, blond, looks a bit like Hunter from Gladiators. 
I know Ben through Charles. He was one of Charles's students in his martial arts class and was interested in powerlifting, and so the connection was made. 

Luckily, Ben hasn't had the injury issues that the other two guys have had. Which means that our training has basically been focused on just getting him stronger. 
So far, Ben has competed at the North West Bench Competition, where he got a 132.5kg bench press and a silver medal. Following this, he competed at the North West Novice and Masters with Charles and Karen where he got: a squat of 137.5kg, a bench of 132.5kg and a 200kg deadlift.
The video above shows Ben tripling 135kg on squat, 120kg on bench and 185kg and deadlift. All of this is positive and he's definitely on course for some personal bests this Sunday. 

I hope you've enjoyed the Lifter series of the client round up. I may return with some other clients. 

Now for the 'Girl' of '2 Guys, a Girl and a Gym' - we have Karen. While Karen is now a powerlifter she has come a long way. She came to me with bad pain in both of her knees and she's now on her way to doing her second powerlifting competition. So if you have an injury, or have had a few niggles over the years, this maybe a good one for you to read.

The problem that Karen had was that she had pain in the knees of both legs but was given next to no advice on how to improve it. This meant that she would struggle to deal with the pain from simple acts such as walking. One physio going as far as to tell her that she should "see walking as a leisure habit, rather than an every day thing." 
She decided to try the gym to see if that would help her, however, she did not have a good experience at first.  Her first experience with a personal trainer was one who didn't listen to her issues and only compounded the problem. - 

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We spent a long time working purely with machines so that we could strengthen her thighs without putting undue pressure on her knees. It was after doing this for a while that Karen enquired about starting powerlifting and she hasn't looked back since.
We still have the occasional issue with her being worried about her knees mid squat, but the improvement has been massive this far.  However, with some care, a lot of hard work (both from her and myself, at times) and some self belief she has improved massively and the knee issues are largely a thing of the past. 

If you want to know more about this or get into the team training sessions, why not send me a message at - [email protected]. 

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Sunday the 19th of February is the North West Team Challenge. In which, I am competing along with my 3 clients who are in a team of their own, namely - '2 Guys, a Girl, and a Gym.' 
In the build up to it I decided to do a few clients profiles so that you could see who the lifters are and how far they've come in their training and in powerlifting in general. 

So, first up we have Charles Jupiter - 

I first met Charles in 2003 when we used to do Wing Tchun together in a small hall in Wavertree. We lost touch for years and then I started working in LA Fitness (later became Sports Direct Fitness) in 2013. It was only after he was telling me a story about when girls were first allowed into Blue Coat School that I realised I'd heard the story before, and it was him who had told me it a decade previous. 

Charles was already fairly strong at this point, squatting around 140kg, benching around 75kg and deadlifting 165kg. After the first few months of training he got upto a 205kg deadlift. 

He entered the Lancashire and Cheshire Powerlifting Competition in May of 2015 but then had to pull out due to injury. He was then set to enter the Novice Competition that year but ended up having to stay in Japan with his martial arts class.
It was October of this year that he succumbed to a severe back injury, which negatively affected his training for months. It wasn't until the June of 2016 that he tried his hand at lifting again where he managed a 140kg squat and a 160kg deadlift in one of my team sessions.  It was from this stage that we built up towards the Novice and Masters Competition of 2016. 

He managed to improve upon his comeback in June with a 165kg squat, 90kg bench press and a 200kg deadlift. His performance is part of this video here - 

In the buildup to this competition he has had another little injury which has affected his shoulder. So bench has had to take a little bit of a back burner but the squat and deadlift are coming a long really nicely! 

You can see his performance at today's team training below. He managed 160kg x 3 on squat, and 185kg  x 3 on deadlift. Both of these weights are around his second attempt at his previous competition, so he's in a fantastic position to get some personal bests! 

If you have any questions or coaching enquiries message me via email at [email protected].