Baker Strength and Conditioning

Last pretentious post about holiday. Pic with the main man for attention 👀

As you can see in the 2nd pic, Porto is VERY hilly city.

All the main sights and views were at the top of very steep climbs. The streets were cobbled and uneven to walk on.

Basically to put it bluntly, if you were overweight or not very fit you would of struggled.

I made a similar post a few weeks ago but the time there really enforced it.

If travelling, seeing places, being able to go and do the things you want to do are important to you and you want them to stay important to you, you need to look after yourself!

Some form of strength training even if it's just once or twice a week should be a non-negotiable part of your life no matter what age you are.

Right, pretentious holiday post over. Back to normal content from now on 💪

Porto ☀️ Port 🍷 Pastel de natas 🥧

Quality over quantity when it comes to strength. 💪

Ultimately if you’re trying to get stronger and you’re finishing one set and then able to go straight into the next one 30 seconds later, the reality is that your set isn’t hard enough and you’re wasting your time.

The amount of times I start training people who have alot of experience of gym classes and over those first few weeks they’re so surprised by the 1-2 mins they get between sets.

To the point I actually have to do a fair bit of reassurance that they’ll be grateful for it in a few weeks when weights have moved up!

Aim for 15-20 tough sets over the course of an hour with 1-2 mins inbetween so you can actually put your max into each set of your workout!

What's the best fat loss method for you?

Ultimately to drop bodyfat you need to be in a calorie deficit. No deficit. No fat loss.

BUT

How you achieve that calorie deficit depends on you.

All of the most popular weight loss diets have different methods but ultimately achieve the same thing.

Calorie tracking through Myfitnesspal is super accurate but super admin heavy.

Tracking and building daily habits is alot more easy to keep up with but less accurate.

All the stuff like intermittent fasting etc. is all the same and works for some people.

So ultimately you've got to think what works for you and what you can manage on a longer term basis.

There isn't one that's better or worse than the other. It's just what works for you.

So you want to tone up…Here’s what you need to do…

One of my clients (senga cough cough) told me she got a lovely compliment from a gym member about how toned her back is looking while she was doing seated rows the other day.

You know what Senga does? Lifts heavy and pushes herself (which you can see her doing in the 2nd pic here)

Toning up is about gaining muscle definition. That takes 2 things. Building muscle and dropping bodyfat.

This post is about the building muscle side.

You need to train like you’re trying to get strong AF.

Building muscle takes alot of effort and alot of protein, ESPECIALLY for women, which is why you need to train with intent.

You need to get over this fear of “getting bulky”. I’m a 29 year old bloke trying to get bulky and I still can’t do it!

Train with intent, move those weights up, don’t be scared to lift heavy.

Huge shoutout to these legends, and Alistair

Hitting some lovely deadlift PBs last week, both adding 5kg to their previous PBs!

Julie hitting 90kg here and Alistair moving up 130kg 💪🏻

Both of these 2 have been group training with me for almost 2 years now, coming from very little strength training outside of gym classes to pulling some fantastic numbers here!

Once I can get them to stop chatting to each other they can move some serious weight! 😅

Few examples of some wins from the team in this months monthly reviews!

Lovely to see and hear people making progress in all range of things from strength goals, to wearing clothes they've not worn for a long time to being able to go for a meal out with friends and not let binge eating take over after!

Super proud of everyone I work with through April 💪

Wholesome little weekend of exploring .edit in some glorious weather ☀️

We are into the last couple of days for entering the Strength Starter giveaway!

Women looking to get stronger and get confident with lifting safely and effectively while building sustainable nutritional habits, you have until midnight Sunday to enter and be in with a chance of winning £450 worth of coaching free!

DM me the word "STRENGTH or find the link in my bio to enter!

What Sarah has achieved on the Strength Starter program!

Sarah started at the beginning of February with the main aims of building her upper body strength to support her work as well as developing confidence in the gym as she had not been in years.

In that time Sarah has built strength across all areas and especially upper body wise has seen major increases on pull ups as well as the big highlight of going from never doing a full press up to now recently smashing out sets of 12!

In terms of gym confidence she's now in weights training 3 times a week confidently stepping into the weights area knowing she's got great form on all her exercises and can push herself to keep improving her strength!

She's managed this by hitting 1 group session per week where she can focus on form and technique in a welcoming environment and working through a program outside of that specifically for her to gently introduce her to the weights area and getting comfortable being there on her own.

Super proud of what she's achieved so far and can't wait to see how much further she can go with it!

If like Sarah you're looking to build your strength but maybe don't know where to start with it my giveaway competition for the next intake of the Strength Starter program is open till midnight Sunday! You can win a full 12 weeks of coaching worth £450!

To enter just drop me a message or find the link in my bio 💪

Great to have nutritionist coming in to speak to a bunch of the gang on all things menopause and nutrition 🥦

Massive thanks to Laura for taking time out of her Sunday to do this and I know it was super valuable for a bunch of the people there 💪🏻

Obviously I've been banging on about this topic alot this week but it's something that has a big impact on a lot of the people I train which is why it's so important to know what can and can't be controlled and what you can be doing to help yourself through it 🤯

This is a great example of how training with me is about more than me just stood there counting your reps once a week 😅

Once again big thanks to Laura for sharing her expertise with everyone 👏