Glenside Power Gym

What's the hardest part about losing weight/ getting in shape?? For most people its not the training🏋‍♂️, its not the extra 2000 steps per day🚶‍♂️...its the diet and the eating!🍝

Think of getting in shape as a triangle. You have three corners.
1- Strength training/weight training
2- Cardiovascular training (i.e walks/swims/cycles)
3- Food. What to eat, when to eat, how much to eat
If you want to be the healthiest you can be, all three of these corners have to be hit.

Thats not to say you cannot get in shape or get fitter by only doing 1-2 of these things! However if you want to maximise your advantages, moving more, eating slightly less and eating better is the way forward!

Don't automatically think "I need to starve myself" or "Im going to try this diet or that diet". Think instead "How can I slightly change my routine or current eating habits to suit my life better".
Maybe that means turkey mince instead of beef mince, egg whites instead of whole eggs, smaller portions, maybe you start fasting until midday before you consume your meal prepped overnight oats?!?

I am not a qualified nutritionist. So I cannot give out a dedicated meal plan that you follow. However I have lost weight, gained weight, and made weigh-ins multiple times, so I can give you advice and help, in order to help you set up your own healthy menu and help complete your own triangle! 😁

Below are the three staple meals/ingredients i am eating on a daily basis to drop excess weight/keep muscle before the second half of my competitive season.

Northern Ireland Judo Tournament 2026 2nd Place 🥈

Its been a busy 3 weeks 🤣
2 Competitions
2 Different disciplines/sports 🏋‍♂️🥋
2 Individual Cuts/weigh ins 😵‍💫

This was my first Tournament in Judo since I was 12, so I wasn't really sure what to expect going in. Weigh in went perfect, even though i had to go into the weight class higher(my luck strikes again).
Made a few mistakes that was more nerves than anything that cost me the Gold but every experience can be learned from!
The wins that I did achieve, I can happily say i was fairly dominate in all points especially when on the ground.

(FIGHT CLIPS WILL BE POSTED IN THE COMMENTS)

So with that done, part 1 of the 2026 competitive season is finished for me. I will be taking 15 weeks offseason to stick to a strict (but very tasty) diet and training regime that will be aiming to drop a few natural kilograms of bodyweight and get my strength and fitness back up to peak before we compete again!

I will be back pushing clients hard while Im not competing. Aiming on perfecting form, building useful muscle for the summer season, as well as helping you all get in shape for running after the kids on the summer holidays 🤣!
Don't wait for the next week to start, start now. Get on, get it done, and leave knowing you have smashed it!
For coaching enquires or general questions, comment on any post or message the page directly 😁

9th Strongest man in the UK at 70kg.

This time last week I was only back from a one in a lifetime opportunity of competing in the Shetlands at Uk's Strongest Under70kg.

I didnt know what to expect coming into this competition as mentally I wasn't invested 100% and I had a few niggles in the body. So to come 9th in the UK and put in some of the best performances I have done, to say im happy is a understatement.

I have returned a more motivated person to get some propwr training in as well as become as physically fit across the board as I can be! The rest of 2026 will be fun 😈

The Shetlands are an amazing place, and the fact that I travelled entirely by myself, saw some amazing scenery/culture and competed with some of the best in the UK just made it a weekend to remember!

Personal Training/Circuit classes are now back up and running from today. So let's get stuck in, get some awesome training done and get a big push into the summer 🖤

*Disclaimer i also took a Atlas stone to the face which I will post in the comments 🤣🤣*

Happy Monday to all the Glenside Power Gym family.

A little update for you all. From Thursday Morning I will be travelling from little maghaberry all the way to the Shetlands in order to compete in UK's Strongman under70kg. This was not just a huge opportunity to compete but also to go and tick off a big travel location off my bucket list!

I have been training hard for this competition, getting as strong as possible, but also increasing my cardiovascular fitness through jiu jitsu and judo, so at least I can knock people out if I dont win 🤣

I have a great set of events I am really looking forward to such as the car deadlift and the duckwalk, as well as a opportunity to go for a world record atlas stone🤯.

If you want to follow along, it all takes place on Saturday afternoon at 3pm. A traditional viking/shetland opening ceremony is taking place, as well as full media coverage and interviews with yourselves truely and the other athletes. The link to the YouTube livestream is

https://youtube.com/?si=FxV6OjTIRU_fmHjc

As more updates/media comes along I will keep everyone up to date as much as possible 😄. Other than that, keep training, keep getting fitter and just because im away...doesn't mean I can't see you having a extra chinese 👀

HOW DOES YOUR HIT SESSION WORK

Not knowing what your in for can sometimes be the scariest part of personal training or getting fitter with a coach in general. So this week I'm going to break down and show you all in the simplest terms how a regular 30min session at Glenside Power Gym works!

◾️TABATA WARMUP
A Tabata warmup has the pure goal of getting the heartrate rate and getting the body moving. All of the movements are either bodyweight or very lightweight, focusing on creating movement amd mobility throughout the body and warming up muscles that we are focusing on in the upcoming session. And I take part in them as well!!

◾️MAIN CIRCUIT/MOVEMENT
This is your big focus of the session. It could be a upper body or lower body circuit that focuses on using a range of different exercises and weights in order to build up and certain areas of focus. This could be as wide a focus as general fitness or upper body specific exercises or it can be as specific as footwork drills for football or building up the quads to support a knee injury. Occasionally we may just focus on one key compound movements, such a clean and a press or a deadlift to help build strength amd confidencein technique. Every session will be different!

◾️FINISHER/BURNOUT
The best way to end a workout is to tired the body/ or a set of muscles so that you leave the gym knowing you are going to be sore 🤣. A finisher can be a fast paced circuit with little rest or it can be the heaviest weight you can lift in a set amount of time. Depending on the previous main movement and how nasty I am feeling, the finishers can be nice or nasty 😈

◾️LIGHT MOVEMENT COOLDOWN/ STRETCHES
At the end of hard session, I like to leave 2-3 minutes to throw in some light mobility drills or movement stretches to help free up and release any hard worked areas that took punishment during the session.
This helps to slightly reduce fatigue over the next few days as well as slowing down the heart and breathing rate naturally.

WHAT CARDIO SHOULD YOU DO AND WHEN TO DO IT?? 👟🫁

When it comes to getting fitter and becoming healthier, you cannot unfortunately just lift weights and clean up your diet. You have to do CARDIO! But how you approach the subject can be the difference on how effective and enjoyable it is.

Cardiovascular training is not about going for 3 hours runs, or 100km bike rides. The aim is to build up and strengthen how effective your cardiovascular system and muscles work within your body. This includes the lungs, the heart and improving circulation throughout the body.

Simple and effective cardio can make or break a fitness journey. Taking the dog for a 30minute walk, cycling with the kids to school, or going for a active lunch break can all aid towards becoming a healthier you.

A good rule to go by is, if you are slightly out of breathe, but can still hold a conversation, your into a good zone for building up your cardio. Obviously the harder you push the intensity, the more benefit you will get! But that doesn't mean you have to go flat out on every session!

My daily/weekly routine of cardio looks something like this.... remember this is my routine yours can look whatever way you wish, just make it enjoyable!

◾️Daily dog walks (usually around 15-18k steps daily)
◾️Skipping rope sessions (6min 2-3x per day)
◾️Spin bike (up to 40min a day)
◾️Judo/Jiu Jitsu (3x per week)

A very common complaint and I get from people I train is that a lot of the time the first thing that hurts when they lift weights isn't necessarily their muscles, but more their hands and wrists!
This is more common than you think. When you consider what muscles you train on a weekly basis, how many times to you focus on strengthening your hands and your wrists?!?

Making your hands tougher and wrists more durable will not only reduce any pain or discomfort you may have, but also increase how much weight you can lift/hold and may open up new areas for new exercises/movements!
Here is a few tips for building stronger wrists and hands that I myself use weekly

◾️Wrist Stretches against a wall
Putting your arms out straight against a wall or even the floor and then pushing your hand straight/flush is a great way to increase your range of motion in your wrists. This will aid flexibility and reduce how quickly your wrists flair up when doing press-ups/ planks etc

◾️Thick Grip attachments
Any sort of weight that is awkward to hold or slightly thicker than normal is a great builder of the forearms/ wrists and hands. Fat Grip barbells, weighted skipping ropes, all of these simple movements help to strengthen the softer areas of our hands. And as a bonus all of these are available to use at my gym 😉

◾️Mace/Kettlebell work
My favourite method of building my grip focused muscles is simply by using kettlebells and my macebells. Due to the constant squeezing of the muscles onto the handles, this builds tremendous grip and hands strength, while only needing very minimal equipment!! If your forearms are not pumped at the end of a set, you didnt squeeze hand enough!

◾️Not using gripaids such as chalk/gloves
Despite what people say, you do not need gloves or straps to lift heavy weights! You just need to condition your hands to become used to the weights! Use chalk and grip aids when you really need them but don't rely on them from minute 1 of your workout! Think of chalk and straps etc as a umbrella🌂, its great when you need it when it's raining, but you don't use it everyday when its sunny!