Wickedbodz Health and Fitness

Mark Mathie Wickedbodz PT opinion on new weight loss drugs & damage to industry.

Weight loss drugs are going to change the fitness industry 💯 already have in my opinion.
I’m not bagging weight loss drugs.
I actually think Ozempic, Mounjaro, Reta and the other drugs coming through are fantastic when used correctly and have education explained when prescribed.
But I reckon there’s something already happening that not many people in the fitness industry are talking about or seeing.
Gyms are going to get quieter and you are going to see more franchises shut down due to it.
Think about it. There are people who have been going to the gym 2 or 3 days a week for YEARS.
They haven’t really followed a correct diet plan. Their food hasn’t been in check. They’ve trained but haven’t really changed much physically or lost much weight. (Can’t out train a Poor diet)
So what’s going to be blamed?
The gym, “I’ve been training for 5 years and haven’t lost weight.”

“The gym doesn’t work for me, I’ve been trying so hard but just not losing weight ( diet issue )
now suddenly they start taking one of these drugs. Their appetite disappears, they’re eating half of what they were eating and the scales finally start moving. Without changing a lot other than now they are not hungry anymore.
1kg down, another kg, 10kg gone.
I see it all the time now, some of our members that have trained their arse off for years but didn’t have the will power to follow a food plan now shifting weight easy and fast.
Why the f**k am I getting out of bed at 5am when it’s freezing to go to the gym when I can take an injection, lay in my nice warm bed and still lose weight? 😂🤷🏽‍♂️
And you know what? I can actually understand why they’re thinking that, wish we could think that waking up at 4am to come set up and take a class just for people to be taking option B. 🤦🏽‍♂️😜
But here’s where the problem starts.
Losing weight and being healthy aren’t the same f**king thing.
The injection has helped control the thing they probably never controlled properly in the first place… their food.
It hasn’t replaced strength training, yet anyhow. It hasn’t replaced muscle. It hasn’t replaced cardiovascular fitness. It hasn’t replaced bone density, stability, mobility, core strength or the mental health ( most importantly) benefits people get from training.

And when you’re dropping significant amounts of weight, maintaining muscle becomes MORE important, not less.
That’s where I think we need far more education around these drugs.
Not trainers carrying on saying they’re cheating and trying to hang on to their clients they have been winging it with for years. The drugs are here to stay and to be honest this is only the start of a new wave of peptides and with technology they are only going to get better.
They’re here. They work. And they’re not going anywhere.
So educate people how to use them alongside exercise.
Because I genuinely think they’re going to change the fitness industry & not for the better commercially.
If someone’s main reason for going to the gym was simply to lose weight and now they’re losing more weight sitting on their arse than they ever did training… what’s the first thing they’re going to stop doing?
Going to the gym.
And maybe that’s also exposing something we’ve got wrong in the fitness industry for years.
We’ve sold the gym as a place you go to lose weight when really it’s the kitchen combined with the gym.
Maybe we’ve done a s**t job explaining all the other reasons you need to train other then just weight loss or muscle gain.
And I know AI is doing exactly that to online coaching.
If your entire coaching business is sending someone a generic food plan, shopping list and an 8 week training program, people are quickly realising they can ask ChatGPT and have the whole f**king thing in 30 seconds if your still paying online coach these days your either really rich and love wasting money or haven’t worked it out yet.
Good coaches with experience, knowledge, accountability and the ability to actually COACH will always have value. Same with good gyms.
But the industry is changing and changing fast.
Fat loss drugs aren’t going to make exercise unnecessary.
The scales going down doesn’t mean you’re fit. It doesn’t mean you’re strong. And it certainly doesn’t mean you’re healthy.
That’s the education that needs to come with all these new drugs.
The industry I have lived and breathed for so many years is changing and wil never be the same and it not on its own.

Personal training will steam roll back around now.

Mark Mathie Wickedbodz PT take on protein.

Legend here’s my take on protein powders, it’s funny how protein doesn’t really get talked anymore. Hasn’t got the clout for the insta flops like peptides or creatine has these days.

Every second week on social media there’s another powder, pill or supplement that’s going to change your life in 8 weeks. We should really get more adventurous with some marketing of our WB protein powders😂
Meanwhile boring old protein just sits there doing its job like it always has.

All my time in this circus of a industry if someone asked me what my number 1 supplement is…
It would be protein. 👌🏼
Not because it’s magic. It’s definitely not, but our bodies actually f**king need it. Whether your into the other supps- peptides and the like you still NEED to be hitting your protein levels.

When you train, you’re constantly breaking down muscle tissue and your body needs protein and the amino acids from it to repair and maintain that muscle.
That’s not Rocket science or bio hacking (as the insta flops like to call it these days). Just facts.
But one thing I still hear after all these years…

“I don’t want to take protein because I don’t want to get too big or muscly.” 🤦🏽‍♂️😂 you’re confusing that with steroids or peptides.

Trust me. If drinking a protein shake made you big, every bloke or girl walking around the gym carrying their shaker with the XL travel bag with their creatine and rice crackers with banana and peanut butter in that huge bag would look like Mr Olympia. 🤷🏽‍♂️

Building a decent amount of muscle is f**king hard, and I mean real hard. Especially if you’re a female.
It takes years of training, progressive overload, enough food, enough protein, genetics, consistency and a s**tload of hard work.
And I most cases “testosterone” 💉

You don’t accidentally wake up jacked because you had an extra scoop of whey after training.

And women especially need to stop being scared of protein because someone told them it will make them “bulky”. Thats the chocolate bars and healthy Acai’s etc doing that.
If anything, protein becomes even more important when you’re trying to lose body fat.

It should be helping you eat less calories, training hard and trying to hold onto as much lean muscle as possible, this is exactly when getting enough protein matters.

Protein powder isn’t some magical muscle building drug, it’s a supplement.

It’s food, Chicken has protein.
Eggs have protein.
Fish has protein.
Beef has protein.
Greek yoghurt has protein.

A protein shake is just a convenient way of getting more of it into your diet without eating so much volume of food per day.

Do you NEED protein powder absolutely not
If you can get enough protein and hit your personal required level from your food every day, f**king perfect.

But if you’re training hard, working all day and trying to consistently hit your protein intake & struggling with the amount of food, having a shake is easy and being the dinosaur in the industry I am, I’ve seen it all come and disappear, come back again with a new label and suddenly become the next “game changer” not protein. Only thing that changed with it is many years ago they made them take the pictures of muscly guys and girls off as it’s was false advertising as such. That was before the instaflop days when people had to be honest. Those days are well gone.

You don’t see many influencers anymore telling you they took a scoop this morning and suddenly felt 6% smarter, s*x drive is frothing and the rest. Cause it’s just boring old protein !

It’s not going to magically put 10kg of muscle on you.
Instagram just made everyone think they need something more complicated in fancy tub or in a gummy.
Eat clean , hit you protein
Levels. Actually turn up at the gym THEN have a f**king decent crack 💪🏽

Excuses or results - can’t have em both 🤜🏻🤛🏾:::

WINER WINNER 🥇

Congratulations to our girl Louise 'The Irish Bull' Creaven on her dominating win tonight.

To fit, to strong!

Onto the next in Ireland. 🇮🇪

Thank you to the Wickedbodz Fitness Centre & Boxing Gym crew for coming out tonight and always supporting our little family. 💙

We love you Louise 'The Irish Bull' Creaven 💙

Q. Mark Mathie Wickedbodz PT gets asked a lot, his take on creatine. Here’s his honest (as usual 😝) answer

CREATINE IS NOT A FU***NG “GAME CHANGER”
Before everyone loses their mind — I’m NOT saying creatine doesn’t work at all .

It’s probably one of the most researched supplements on the planet and there’s evidence it CAN improve strength, power and repeated high-intensity performance.

What I’m calling bulls**t on is the ridiculous exaggeration around it.
Apparently now you take 5 grams of creatine and you’re stronger, bigger, recovering faster, sleeping better, thinking clearer and suddenly f**king smarter.

PLEASE stop 🙏🏻.
I’ve been in this industry nearly 30 years and I’ve watched the creatine craze come and go over and over again.

I’ve personally taken it countless times and never once thought:

“F**k me, I can really feel this creatine working.”

Does that mean it does nothing?
NO.
It means there’s a massive difference between something potentially giving you a SMALL performance advantage and calling it a GAME CHANGER.

And here’s my biggest problem with all this hype.
Someone starts creatine while at the same changing their training, diet, calories, protein, trying to get more sleep, recovery and taking five other supplements — sometimes legal, sometimes not. 🤷🏽‍♂️

Eight weeks later they’re 5% stronger. ( how they measure that I’m not really sure )

“CREATINE WORKS!!!” Use this code and get $5 off says the uneducated influencer that’s just photoshopped a picture of them holding some gummies or a tub.

How the f**k do you know the creatine gave you the said 5%?

You don’t.
Controlled research can attempt to isolate variables.
Real life can’t.
The research supports creatine having a VERY small average benefit, with the actual effect varying depending on the person, exercise and circumstances.

Great.
Take it.
Chase every 1%, 2% or 3% if performance matters to you. That even if you are doing everything else right with it, which less face it many aren’t.

But call it what it is.
A MARGINAL GAIN.
Not some miracle powder that suddenly transforms your body, brain, sleep and performance.

*Training consistently for years is a game changer.

*Eating properly is a game changer.

*Discipline is a game changer.

*Showing up when you don’t f**king feel like it is a game changer. Which many don’t ✅

Creatine?
Useful tool.
Potential small advantage at BEST !!

GAME CHANGER?

No sorry it’s not.
And just wait for it … As I’m bringing out soon a NEW creatine called …

FASTED CREATINE… discount codes coming soon 😂

Danger ⚠️ taking advice from the uneducated

Earned. Not Given

Happy day of birth boofhead.

Love from all the Wickedbodz family 💙

Jai Opetaia