Are we preaching to the choir or do you need a gentle nudge?

Never miss another workout again with these top 20 reminders of why it’s important you get to the gym today. We’ve gone around and asked our trainers

“Fat Loss aside, why should clients exercise?”

1. Decrease risk of heart disease, diabetes and cancers (let’s get the really serious stuff out of the way first)
2. Better posture
3. Build strength
4. Look better naked
5. Look better in clothes
6. If points 5 & 6 are on point, then here’s to better sex life
7. Improvements in your mood
8. You can make some great friends
9. Better bloodwork – cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar (OK, that’s another serious one and important)
10. Better movement and mobility
11. Decrease falls risk as we age
12. Improve confidence & self esteem
13. Reduce back pain
14. Reduce knee pain
15. It’s an anti-depressant
16. Improve bone strength
17. To balance out sitting on your butt all day at work
18. To build up your own self belief & worth
19. Be fit enough to keep up with the kids
20. Improved your sleep/manage fatigue

We know we said top 20, but clients always say us coaches can’t count, so here are another 5 reasons just in case the ones above haven’t done enough to convince you yet.

21. Better cognitive function
22. Clearer skin
23. To set a good example to your kids (or other loved ones)
24. Strength training holds onto your muscle
25. Once you feel good you make better choices in other areas of your life….

Oh wait we forgot the most important

Because you owe it to yourself to be the best version of you!

And this was just what we got from a quick 5 second chat with our team! What have we missed? Weight loss aside, there are so many reasons to get moving and to make training a part of your lifestyle.

You’ve got a big event coming up. It’s going to be the most important day of your life and so the preparation begins. Everything needs to be spot on, especially the cake.

Where do you start? How do you pick?

If I told you to go to the Sara Lee factory and buy a slab what would your response be? Don’t get me wrong, Sara Lee cakes are great, quick kid’s parties they certainly do the trick. They are quick, easy, convenient and that’s what you pay for.

It’s not tailored to what you want.

You haven’t sat down and discussed your theme for the event and designed a cake that will reflect your theme or personality.

It’s not necessarily your favourite flavour, ganache, or colour.

Simply put, it’s a lot of cake. Generic, plain, rectangular cake.

Anyone thinking yet, what the hell does this cake have to do with personal training?

You’ve got this big event coming up (birthday, wedding, holiday, LIFE) and you need to prepare (get healthy, lose fat, build strength, whatever your goal is). You want it all to be spot on and by that we mean you want results.

So what do you do and where do you start on this search for results?

Personal training is like the personally designed cake. You’ve sat down, had a good talk with your trainer about your goals and from there a training and lifestyle plan is put into place to get you there. THIS IS YOUR CAKE!! Your favourite colours, flavours, design, ganache, maybe even a sculpted cake that is a direct reflection of you.

It’s not a bootcamp or some big massive group session that has one massive broad stroke at everyone’s goals and ability, what cake would that be? Yep you guessed it, that’s the frozen Sara Lee slab available with zero personalization. This group session might still be exercise, but you get where we are coming from? The two can’t really be compared at all.

Why are we pointing this out? It’s not to dis the group sessions that exist within our community. The purpose to all of this is to help many understand that Personal Training carries with it a higher price tag for a reason. It’s not something you can pull off the shelf and put in your trolley. Each client in front of us takes a lot of time, consideration, effort and rightly so, they pay for it.

Don’t get confused about what you want, and when you are looking for a Personal Trainer do your research. If you are looking for a group training environment, again do your research. There’s such a massive scope out there in what is offered and when you go to compare, make sure you are comparing two of the SAME SERVICE. If you want a personal approach with tailored exercise, nutrition advice, programs supplied to do on your own time, then find someone who gives you that service. Find someone who will make you your very own cake…. and then you can eat it too.

“You’re too old to be doing that!”

We’ve all heard, said, or been on the receiving end of that statement, but do we really believe it and should you let it define you in the gym?

On any given day, between our PT sessions and our SQUAD group training, our membership age would span decades! Our youngest being in their teens, our eldest 70. One day within the same STRONG squad session we had an 18 year old through to a 48 year old. Can you ever say then, that you would be too old to train?

HELL NO!

You are never too old to start training, what you might be however is too young (yes YOUNG) in training years to do certain exercises. Let me explain.

Some of our hardest working clients are those who are experienced in training years. They put in the ground work to learn how to move correctly, build their strength and increase their fitness and work capacity to cope with the session. As a result, as the years go on (i.e they get older) they become more capable to withstand the tough sessions.

If you were to look at two people of identical age, say 50, but one had been in the gym for 5 years, the other had never set foot inside a gym, they would both be very capable of training. As trainers, we would put them through vastly different programs. Lets take it a step further and use a real life client as an example. Caroline has recently celebrated her 49^thbirthday. She also shared photos of her at 40 and compared them to her now. I bet if you asked 40 year old Caroline if she would be doing a pull up, she’d have laughed at you and told you that you were mad! She’s turned back the clock, so too can you.

So to anyone out there who says they are too old, maybe reading this has convinced you that you are not! With so many exercise options out there, if you find the right trainer who is respectful of where you are at physically and who has the knowledge and ability to support you, you’ll get over that age barrier and actually start to turn wind the clock right back and just like a good wine, you’ll get better with every passing year.

Eating out and staying on track with your fat loss goals can be tough! But it’s not impossible….

I find that you can lump most people that struggle with social events, and their effect on training results into one of these three categories:

1. The Anxious and Nervous Type – “I don’t know how I’m going to manage this! What am I going to eat? Maybe I just won’t go”
2. The Passive Aggressive Type – “Screw it man! I’m done with this diet! I’m going to eat my weight in hotdogs tonight! I don’t really care anyway (but I kinda really do. At least I know I will come Monday…..)
3. The ‘I totally deserve this’ type – “You know what man, I’ve worked hard all week! As if I don’t deserve a couple (or 15 beers this weekend)! Did you even see my leg session? To be honest, it will probably do me good, I think I’m overtrained anyway”

Safe to say that all of the above groups really aren’t an ideal place to be. The avoidance, negligence or any type of non-participative type behaviours related to celebration and social occasions is a warning sign of disordered eating. If you feel that is you, reaching out to a mental health professional that specializes in this area would be a great place to start improving your relationship with food moving forward. What I aim to share with you today is a technique that I’ve used personally when it comes to managing my own social calendar. If you feel it could help you out, feel free to give it a try!

Before I get to the good stuff, we must share the #1 ingredient for any fat loss equation.

ACHIEVING A CALORIE DEFICIT! When you’re in a state in which you’re using (movement, body maintenance, recovery) more than you’re eating and drinking, this is what we call a calorie deficit. The bodies systems require energy to work. Stored energy is released to make up what you’re diet isn’t providing. Because of this breakdown of body tissues, a calorie deficit will always result in body weight loss.  If you’ve ever gained weight, it was from being in a surplus. If you’ve lost, it was a deficit. Full stop, no return……..

So now that we have that out of the way, let’s paint a picture. Meet our example client….

Sally Socialite
Goal – Fat Loss
Average Daily Calorie Target – 1800 calories per day (12,600 calories per week)

Sally is GREAT throughout the week (Monday to Thursday anyway). She trains hard, eats well, but this past weekend she had a little celebration of wine and crackers on Friday (because you know, she deserved it…), and on Saturday she had her work Christmas Partay!!! Here’s what happened…

 

 

Unfortunately for Sally, she’s ended up in what looks like a 3500 calorie surplus for the week! Obviously this past weekends antics have thrown a spanner in the works for Sal’s fat loss goals. So how could Sally have perhaps made this work a little better.

Check this out!

 

Let me explain what we did here. First, we’ve reduced Sally’s intake by 180 calories across 5 of the days in her week (this is about 10% of her daily allotment). We’ve kept Friday the same (can’t take that glass of wine away), but added those additional calories kept from earlier into Saturday to allow a little more room for a little Christmas Party fun! And the end result from the week….. We kept that calorie deficit!

When we compare the two situations, outside of the effect on our body composition I don’t think we can underestimate the positive effect this can also have on our mental state. By taking a smarter approach, we still get to enjoy ourselves and never have to miss a party, but also feel in control and in charge of our progress and training goals.

Now as simple as this looks on paper, there are a few “best practice” tools and tips you should aim to adhere to throughout your week leading up to an event, on the day of the event, and at the event itself. Check it out!

The Lead Up

• Aim to eat MOSTLY foods you’ve cooked and prepared yourself. I personally aim for at least 70% of my meals to be prepared by me.

On The Day/s

• Eat as per normal right up to the event. If you’re doing something in the evening, don’t eat like crap a breakfast!
• Where possible, eat mostly low carb and low fat meals on the day. Think lean meats/proteins with fruits and veggies. Chances are you’ll make up those calories later in the evening.
• Get a training session in! You’ll feel better for it, not to mention the physiological effects it has on your body.
• Drink plenty of water
• Look for fibre dense foods (again fruits and veggies will help with this)

At The Event

• Remember, you still have goals and this is not a free for all. Don’t eat like an asshole!
• Celebrations are more than food and drink. Spend time with people you care about and have fun.

Now one final note before you head out all liberated and ready to do this. Know that you will be heavier come Monday! Weight on the scales is reflective of your body weight at that point in time. Think about this for me, if you’ve just been out on the weekend at a party, chances are you ate and drank things that:

• Have lots of salt (more than you’re used to)
• Are cooked in lots of fat (because fats make things taste good, and that’s the job of a restaurant!)
• Have a lot of carbs (because we all love carbs)
• Are REALY hard to accurately track and manage.

Mix those things together and you’ll have a short term weight bump (want to know more that magic number on the scales and what it means watch this chat). Most of which has likely come from water retention. RREEEELLLLAAAAXXX Man…. Short term adjustments in the scales mean squat! Its the longer term numbers (monthly average is a good comparison) that count.

And finally, remember no matter what happens, get right back on that horse once you’re done. Don’t concern yourself with matters that you can’t do anything about (like the past), focus on the present and how you’ll impact your future.

Let’s get it team!

There’s some really stupid sayings that float around the gym, amongst them”No Pain No Gain”. What does this mean? That every time we train we should be in “pain” and what is pain anyway?

Mitchell Gibbs has spent many hours studying pain and deciphering what it means and as a Coach, he loves finding ways to help people train while managing or alleviating their pain.

He shared some great info at a recent talk, and if you missed it, here it is again! Watch, and you’ll understand:

1. why pain is more of a well meaning mum who cares  not annoyance that’s trying to bring you unstuck!! Often the pain you feel is your bodies warning sign. Proceed along in this way and something might happen (injury) or listen now! The warning signs are there so lets fix what’s wrong and then get past it
2. when to ditch the weight or ditch the exercise. This can be a tough one for the long term gym goer, dropping weight doesn’t mean a drop in your strength. Most of the time it might enable you to adjust or fix your technique and then when this is done, you can push beyond pain free!!
3. if its your feelings and fears getting in the way. Is this pain real, and that doesn’t mean its in your head, sometimes the association of previous injury or pain can during a certain movement can hold you back. There’s more of a perceived risk that what is actually present.

👇 Hit the link below to get the full story and make sure you hang in there till the end, some of the questions and examples from the crowd are well worth a listen!

👉 Understanding Pain – Presentation by Mitch Gibbs

 

GET REAL with exercise.

“How much should I exercise to reach my goals?”

The answer to this is easier than you might think. How much time can you REALISTICALLY give it a week.

We don’t deny, science, text books and the like will point you in the direction of 5 -6 times a week but the problem with that is we don’t live a text book life.

Let’s stay in the real world a little longer and factor work, family and your general must do duties, take them away from the week. From there ask the honest question “what’s left for me to put towards exercise?”.

If you are starting out and super keen for big results and have determined you can give your training 5hrs a week, try committing to 4 as a starting point.

WHY??? Because you want to know that your commitment is sustainable. You want to set up successful habits, you want to mentally and physically be winning as many weeks as possible so that you can keep building on that positivity.

Let’s look at the opposite, you say you’ll do 5 sessions and most weeks only make 4, that mentally can crush you and you’re on the back foot. Doubt, failure and other negative emotions about your effort/ability set in and that’s not where you want to live.

So here’s 3 tips to help you work out how much exercise is right for you:

1. HONESTLY assess your diary across the week and weekly commitments. This is an opportunity to maybe clean up some habits that are eating into your precious time. This is your one shot at becoming smart and efficient with the time you have so reorganise and purge if you need to.
2. Determine a REALISTIC commitment and go for it!
3. Find time for an extra session, BONUS! Do it and jump on that feel good shit!! It’s contagious and before you know it you’ve hit your goals and setting some new ones.

👇Want to know Sean’s take, click below 👇

 

What am I in for:

• 5 – 10 minute read on how to destroy the “dadbod“
• Programming examples and tips
• Solutions and ideas to solve your training schedule problem

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Having a family is no excuse to put off or avoid getting in shape.

Show me a 40+ year old dude with a dad-bod and excuses, and I’ll show you one that’s busier than he is, and getting shit done!

Sure, if you’re 40 with kids, you’re not going to be able to train with the same schedule or intensity as you did when you were 20 and single, but with the right approach you can still make shit happen!

News flash! It’s going to be tougher fitting it in, and at times, you may even miss a workout! But hey, that’s life now! Time to move on with it.

Having ‘No Time’ is the number 1 excuse that we hear when it comes to skipping your training. If you’re sick of hearing your own shit, and want to make a change, here’s 15 tips on how you can Destroy Your Dad-Bod and train hard on a tight schedule.

1.Give up the bro split

If you’re like most busier individuals, 3-4 sessions per week is likely your training cap. Rather than training 1-2 muscle group per session, use smarter training splits.

 

For the 3 per week guy, full body might be your best choice. This way you’ll hit most muscles 2-3 x per week, which we know is ideal for muscle growth. Less than that and you’re likely wasting time we know you don’t have.

2. Train in higher rep ranges

You don’t want to limit yourself to higher rep ranges forever, but if you’re going through a busier time period with work or family, bumping up into the higher rep brackets (like 10-15 reps or more) is a great way to speed up your workouts. Higher rep sets generally require less rest than their lower rep counterparts.

3. Have priority lifts

In your profession, you probably have priority tasks or jobs you aim to knock out first thing daily. Knowing that if you only tackle those tasks, but they are done well, you’ll still have a good day.

Your workouts are no different.

When you head into the gym on a time-budget, know your priorities. Go in hard, put your energy into those, and if you have time remaining, work in your filler stuff.

4. Use alternate muscle group supersets

You’ve likely used supersets before, but have you tried alternate muscle group supersets? This is where you pair two muscle groups that oppose each other and train them in a superset.

For example:

A1. Flat DB Press
A2. Seated Row
Rest 60sec and repeat

As you train the first movement, the second movement gets a rest (and vice versa). After a short break, you’ll be ready to kick off again. This is a great way to stick in more training volume (work), while minimising rest in your session.

5. Time your rest intervals

Easy one! Don’t waste time guessing. Time your rest intervals and stay focused on the task.

6. Speed up your warm ups

No doubt like most 30+ year old guys, injuries, aches and pains leave you needing a decent warm up if you really want to get moving. If you don’t have 20mins to dedicate, stick your mobility work in between your warm up sets. Warm ups are too important to miss, so this is a great happy medium for most.

7. Eat your dinner, then you can have dessert!

We get it, training arms is fun! Unfortunately, if you’re on a time-budget you’re going to have to leave the smaller stuff to the end of your workout, and put your bigger lifts upfront. Make sure that around 80% of your training is spent using lifts that target multiple muscle groups and joints. For example, you’re going to get more work in doing chin ups over bicep curls

8. Have a good playlist

Studies have shown that good music can increase your training efforts. Sort yourself out with a decent playlist of music that gets you pumped, then go in there and tear it up!

9. Don’t procrastinate

Procrastinating about “should I go to the gym today, or should I just wait a little longer and get (Insert Task Here) done?”, is wasting time! Even writing about it NOW is wasting MY time! Pull up your big boy pants, grab your gym bag and do what you told yourself you were going to do.

10. Use a program

You need to know what the plan is prior to rocking up. Walking around and guessing your way through is not only a waste of time, its unproductive training. Have a plan and execute it.

11. Do a class

If you don’t like the idea of hitting the gym floor, or perhaps you just want to do something different try jumping in on a class. Most gyms now offer group training options that aren’t step aerobics and body pump, so you’ll likely have a meat-head friendly option.

12. Turn your phone on flight mode

Taking phone calls, replying to texts or taking selfies is time-wasting when it comes to your workouts. Stay focused on the task by turning your phone on flight mode while you train. Trust me, those texts will be there when you’re done, and if it’s important they’ll leave you a voice mail.

13. Use interval training

Maintaining your cardiovascular fitness is an essential part of a complete program. Although longer, slower cardio sessions are great, they are time costly. If you’re looking to stay fit and healthy (and you should be), bang out some short burst intervals to get it done. Studies have shown that as little as 1 MINUTE of cardiovascular work (example short burst protocol below) has been shown to have similar benefits to a 30min steady state workout! No shit!

 

14. Use a ‘busy gym’ circuits

Think of a ‘busy gym’ circuit as a plan you can execute on the spot, with limited equipment. Jump in the rack with a barbell, grab a bench and some dumbbells and go to town. Here’s an example of a great ‘busy gym’ circuit that uses minimal equipment.

 

15. Have a coach

Probably the ultimate combo of all the points above. Having a coach take you through and create your workouts removes the guess work from training. A good coach will keep you to task, create workouts that work for you and your schedule, and will maximize your time in the gym.

Where to now? Pick 1 or 2 of these and get started. Work your way through the list ticking off the points that speak to you the most and watch your health, physique and fitness change. Dad-bods aren’t cool guys!

If you want to make a change, or would like to know how we might be able to help you, contact us, and we’ll be in touch.

 

 

 

 

In today’s ‘info-at-your-finger-tip’ society, everyone’s a health and nutrition expert! We’re overwhelmed with information about weight loss and nutrition, and most of the general public really isn’t equipped with the knowledge to know the difference between quality advice and absolute B.S!

Lucky for you, you’re smart enough to do your research (like reading our blog 😉). We want to set the record straight on a few of the big ones. Read on below as we break down 5 things that we wish you would stop doing with your nutrition!

We wish you’d stop………

Skipping Meals

Look, we know people get busy. Life happens, work gets in the way, or you just flat out couldn’t be stuffed. But there are a few issues with this dodgy habit.

When our clients start out at PPT, one thing we get everyone to do is complete a dietary recall. This gives us a little clarity on the client’s nutrition knowledge, habits and areas for improvement. Commonly we’ll see people bringing in recalls with skipped meals and super low calorie days. And many of those times, this is coming from clients who are looking to drop a few kilos and weight to loose.

We know that eating less calories than you burn daily is the #1 determining factor for fat loss, so at first glance, skipping a meal may actually work to create that calorie deficit. Unfortunately, that isn’t usually what happens.

When you skip meals in the real world, you get hungry. You may be able to hold this hunger off for a while, but eventually you’re going to need to eat. If you hold it off long enough, now you’re starving and you’ll eat the quickest, easiest thing you can get your hands on. And don’t fool yourself into thinking this is going to be a chicken breast and veggies! No, no, no! Think chocolate bars, lollies and drive thru!

In short; skipping meals can lead to binging and over-eating things you don’t want to over-eat. Don’t skip meals!

We wish you’d stop………

Not eating Fruit because “it makes you fat”

Really….. How many people have you met, that were overweight from eating too much fruit?

I mean, think about this for a second. Do you really think we have an obesity epidemic due to excessive consumption of bananas??

People will avoid eating fruit due to the fructose content, and they’re kind of right. Excessive fructose has been linked to obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease (to name a few). Where they have it wrong is the belief that fruit contains enough fructose for this to be a problem.

The average piece of fruit contains around 5-15g of fructose per serve.

A 600ml Coke contains around 40g. Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see which ones REALLY creating a problem.

For the average adult, even one that’s trying to lose weight, eating a couple serves of fruit per day isn’t going to be a problem. If anything it’s actually going to be beneficial! Fruit contains fiber, vitamins, antioxidants, and will keep you feeling fuller for longer!

Eat it!

We wish you’d stop………

Avoiding Carbs

Carbo-phobia is something that’s been around for decades! Whether it’s Keto, Atkins, the Paleo diet, there ‘s MANY diets that encourage the user to limit carb intake in the fear that they’ll get fat.

A lot of this thought has been built off the idea that carbs spike insulin, and insulin in turn will down-regulate our bodies ability to ‘burn fat’ for energy. For the most part, there is some truth to this. The issue with this argument is that HORMONES aren’t the primary driver of weight loss, an ENERGY deficit is!

What is an energy deficit? Put simply its eating less calories than you burn across a given time period (like a day). There have been MANY, high quality scientific studies (read more about this here) that have shown us that when compared to each other, the ratio of macronutrients in your diet don’t really matter, it’s your calorie intake.

Unless you’re suffering from a metabolic disease (like insulin resistance), there’s really no good reason to limit carbohydrates in your diet. If anything, limiting carbs could be HURTING your results, as they’re easily the preferred source of energy for your body, which in turn limits your ability to focus and train hard!

Long-term consistency is key in any weight loss, gain or body composition goal.

Quit looking for magical reasons (like carbs make me fat) for your weight loss woes, and stick with a plan that works for you!

We wish you’d stop………

Taking advice from (INSERT INSTAFAMOUS MODEL HERE)

Just because someone has a six-pack doesn’t make them a credible source for advice. Don’t get me wrong, as a trainer you must practice what you preach, but abs don’t make you an expert.  When someone sells you a program through a killer insta shot, what you’re not seeing are things like; their superior genetics, how their lifestyle differs to yours, and the sad fact that MANY of your insta-physique hero’s could likely be receiving a little ‘pharmaceutical assistance’ (and that means drugs people).

There are a ton of great people in this industry, just remember to do your research. Just because they’re in shape themselves, doesn’t mean they can get you in shape! Your training and diet plan should never be a one-size-fits-all approach. Things like injury history, your structure and shape, your lifestyle and training/dieting experience are just a few of the things that could make your program different from the next person.

We wish you’d stop………

Over-Restricting and Avoiding Social Occasions

Any good body composition goal will require a little ‘restriction’. There will come a time that you’ll need to pull up your big boy/girl pants and say NO to that doughnut!

When this becomes an issue is when you get so food focused and obsessed about dieting that you end up worrying about or avoiding social occasions and events just because of your diet. If you’re working with a decent coach or professional, you should be able to manage most of these things. Getting educated on making better choices whilst out, and managing your calories should be a foundation of your diet if you wish to do it long-term.

Completely avoiding foods and important events will eventually lead to a crash and binge. If you start to recognize any of these signs within yourself, it may be time to re-consider your approach before you end up crashing too.

And on top of all this, life’s too short to not eat gelato! You just have to make it count!

We could go on for days here but there are a few of the big ones. If you find yourself in any of the situations above we hope we’ve been able to help!

The next PPT 8 CHALLENGE is around the corner. If you think you need help to kick some of these habits, or to create some better new ones, then we want to hear from you. Pre-register here for more information.

Most people that join the gym with the aspiration of growing some muscle are down right delusional when it comes to how much they expect to gain.

Here’s the thing though, can you really blame them? We’re in a world where you’re promised these kind of results everywhere you look. Whether it’s some insta-famous bodybuilder selling you their seemingly magical 12 week program  promising you the world, or some supplement company *guaranteeing* you rapid transformations when you jump on their stuff.

*results not actually guaranteed*

The reality is, growing muscle takes time. For the average Joe with intermediate training experience (call it around a year or so decent training), you’re lucky if you’re gaining around 0.5-0.9kg per month! And that’s on a good program and diet! Imagine a shitty one!

The time and effort that goes into actually building muscle is huge. It’s a gritty, tough process, but when you get it right, a super rewarding one as well. There are a few key things you could do RIGHT AWAY to better your chances at success.

So where are most people getting it wrong? Save yourself some time, don’t make the mistakes others have, and check out our top 6 reasons you could be fu*^%ng up your growth.

#1 – You’re too fat

Firstly, lets assume you’re training program is solid and you’re eating plenty of good food. If you’re doing things right SOME of the weight gain while on a muscle building diet WILL BE BODYFAT. This is totally normal! The ratio of fat mass to muscle mass gained will typically depend on how fat you are at the start of the diet. Leaner individuals will gain higher amounts of lean mass and less fat, while fatter individuals get it the other way with more fat mass gained with each kilo!

As a good rule of thumb, aim not to exceed more than 20-22% body fat on your mass phase because beyond that, those extra kilos you’re gaining now are just kilos of body fat you’ll need to work off later! If you’re just starting out, and think you may be on the upper end of that percentage it might be a good idea to put those muscle gain aspirations on the back burner for a little bit and drop some fat first.

 

#2 – You’re not training hard enough

Incase somebody hasn’t told you already, gaining muscle is HARD. The more you gain, the closer you get to your genetic potential, the HARDER it gets!

One guiding training principle that everyone interested in gaining muscle should be aware of is the principle of PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD. As you train, you’re body has this amazing ability to adapt to the stress you’ve thrown at it.

Imagine, you put yourself through an awesome chest workout and your pecs go

“What the FUCK was that! Time to get bigger and stronger and make sure I don’t go through that shit anytime again in the future.”

Time goes on, and your body adapts more and more to the training you throw at it. As a result, you then need to step it up, and one-up your bodies adaptive processes through more weight, work and effort. Overtime these adaptations build on each other and BOOM, we build some appreciable muscle tissue!

If you want to grow, understand this principle and each time you step in the gym aim for some kind of progression. It’s things like adding kilos to a movement, adding a rep where you can, or even adding more work sets within a given training week. Whatever the route you’ve chosen, if you want to grow you must progressively overload!

#3 – You’re training split sucks

Ever worked through a training split where you train a single muscle group per session? I know I have! Ever had a training split where you only hit each muscle group directly once per week? Yep, me too!

Unfortunately I’ve wasted a ton of workouts and programs making these mistakes. If you have too, or perhaps your new and don’t want to make the same mistakes, here’s a little advice that will change the hypertrophy game for you moving forward.

The best training programs are designed around hitting each muscle group a minimum two times per week (or more!). This can be achieved through:

• Hitting the same lift again in the week – like hitting the quads through squats on Monday and Thursday
• Training a different lift for the same muscle group – like Squats for quads on Monday and hitting quads again through the Leg Press on Thursday
• Indirectly training a muscle group through other lifts – like Squatting on Monday and Deadlifting on Thursday. Although it’s not another direct hit to the quads like squatting, the quads will contribute in some ways to the lift and get a little stimulus in the process.

No matter the option you pick, splitting up your week to allow a second workout will go a long way to strength and growth in the future.

#4 – You don’t eat enough

New muscle isn’t built from thin air. If you’re looking to lay down some new tissues, you sure as hell better be prepared to have the raw material to do it!

People are usually really surprised when they hear how much you truly have to eat on a consistent basis to grow. Put it this way, if you’re on a massing diet (diet built to help you gain muscle), don’t expect to EVER feel hungry! If you do, you can be sure you’re doing it wrong.

Great place to start for most people kicking off a massing diet is around 40-45 calories per kilogram of lean mass.

So lets say you’re a male with 70kg of lean mass (basically what your muscle and bone weighs), you should start out eating around 3150 calories per day. Do it each and every day, train your ass off and keep an eye on your body weight.

Lift big, eat big bitches!

#5 – You don’t recover

In a world were the ‘hustle’ is rewarded, it’s easy to believe that simply ‘doing more work’ is the key to gaining more muscle and strength. Unfortunately this isn’t the case. Ensuring that you’re giving your body every chance it can to repair and prepare for more training should be a key focus in your overall training plan.

The backbone of your recovery protocol is your sleep. Sleeping is where your bodies primary recovery processes are taking place. New tissue is laid down, anabolic hormones are at their peak, and your bodies restorative processes are in full effect, preparing you for your next session.

If you consider yourself a hard training individual, and you want to get the absolute best out of your training plan, make sure that you get yourself between 7-9 quality hours of sleep each night. Your biceps will thank you for it!

#6 – You don’t listen

 Ryan Listened…..

Most guys really struggle to listen to the advice of others when it comes to lifting and the gym. It’s like for some reason, by virtue of the fact that we’re male, we’re supposed to be born knowing how to navigate our way around the gym. Spend 10mins in a commercial gym watching how people train and you’ll know that’s not the case.

No matter whether it’s sport, business or education, the best in the world in all endeavors have coaches. If you’re that keen on building some muscle, find yourself a reputable coach or mentor with a proven track record of results and listen to them. Do what they say and don’t fuck with the recipe. Having an objective voice telling you what to do and guide you through your training and nutrition can save you YEARS of wasted workouts guessing on your own.

 

Obviously there are a ton of reasons why you could not be building muscle, but hopefully but now you’re starting to get the picture. Read through our list above, pick out the roadblock that most applies to you and nail it moving forward.

Want more information on how our team at Performance Personal Training can help you achieve your goals, contact us and we’ll be in touch.