Coachme

This is my client Ash in just under 13 weeks of body recomposition.

Ash always struggled for motivation. He said he’s “not a natural gym person”, and that he’d always been self-conscious.

He’d managed to get slim before, but he’d always struggled to build muscle and get stronger.

He was stuck in a cycle of undereating, thinking that was the right thing to do to look better. He’d used extreme diet approaches in the past which often resulted in him “falling off the wagon” and losing all of his progress.

He’d had personal trainers before, but said he used them as a crutch, just paying to do workouts without much focus on goals or progression.

He had a holiday to Gran Canaria coming up in just under 13 weeks. So, the goal was pretty straightforward.

I often work with clients on a medium to longer-term basis, because real results and habit change take time. But we didn’t have much of that here. So, I asked Ash to give me three months of solid commitment.

He trained with me three times per week so I could give massive focus to his exercise ex*****on, progressive overload, and nutrition.

After years of coasting, I wanted Ash to see tangible results.

In his words:

“I achieved the best shape of my life. I’m now the strongest I’ve ever been. I added almost 20kg to my bench press whilst still losing fat, which I’d never done before. There was a big improvement in my mental health that comes from the consistency of training now. I feel better, more confident, and more in control than before.”

This was an intensive period of PT with Ash. But in the long term, we’re reducing session frequency and focusing on improving his overall relationship with food, eating more food, and gaining weight gradually over time.

And recently, he’s already started making great progress with that.

If you’d like to train with more purpose and direction like Ash, just drop me a message 💪

My client Shania lost over 50 lbs. But that wasn’t the biggest win..

Before PT, Shania was battling body image issues, low confidence, and a history of extreme dieting. She’d rebounded and gained a lot of weight from these previous attempts.

The final straw was trying to find an outfit for a night out. Nothing fit. It caused a meltdown, and she realised she needed some help.

The goal wasn’t just “lose weight”.

It was:
Lose weight safely and realistically
Build strength
Stop punishing herself for having bad days
Feel comfortable in her own skin

Shania hasn’t just lost over 22kg. She went from never deadlifting to pulling 80kg for reps, squatting 75kg x8, benching 45kg x8, and hip thrusting 95kg for 6.

She’s lost over 20 inches across her body. Including six inches from her waist, two inches on both arms, and even an inch and a half from her neck.

She’s gone from hating her “stomach and arms being on show” to feeling comfortable working out in a sports bra and shorts.

But what I’m most happy about isn’t the numbers.

During PT she dealt with job changes, personal struggles, stress, and injury. Each time, she viewed them as obstacles to navigate rather than reasons to stop.

She doesn’t drive. So when I moved gyms last year, she’d get a lift in my car for my first Tuesday session, then walk an hour and a half home after I had more clients to train.

Crazy commitment.

Here’s what she said:

“Just a massive thank you to Michael for bringing the best out of me in every session. I’m so grateful for every catch-up, email, session, and all the tracking he often does in his own time. Thank you for helping me find the confidence to try new things, find genuine love for the gym, and for myself”.

Shania achieved what she came in for. She gained strength, confidence, and a better relationship with herself and with food.

Sometimes getting fit and losing the weight opens up new goals for people. Recently, she stepped away from PT to focus on other areas of her life that she’s ready to work on.

Many things are more important than weight loss. The goal isn’t to keep someone in coaching forever. It’s to reduce reliance over time so health and fitness are no longer in the way.

I can’t really do this guy justice in a Facebook post, but here goes!

Georgio started PT at a low point. Aside from low self-esteem and confidence, he was worried about feeling out of breath going up the stairs and having high blood pressure. He said he constantly felt crap, tired, anxious, and generally hated how big he felt.

Not ideal for a guy in his early twenties.

He had a goal of joining the Army one day, particularly in military intelligence or the tech side. But with the weight he’d need to lose and the fitness requirements, he saw it as either a pipe dream or something at least five years away.

We set an ambitious goal to look and feel a hell of a lot different within a year.

So in under one year of PT, Georgio lost 83 lbs (over 37 kg) and dropped over 15 inches from his waist.

But more importantly, in his words:

“The pictures only really tell half the story. Aside from the visual changes and vastly improved physical health, the internal validation of seeing my physical progress has boosted my confidence and self-esteem ten-fold. The value I’ve gotten out of personal training has been far more than what I paid. This has indefinitely changed my life.”

Toward the end of our training, he applied for the Army, drove up to Scotland and smashed the fitness requirements. Six months later he emailed me saying he was doing his dream job and loving it.

This was achieved purely through training, nutrition, and lifestyle change.

I used to share a lot of my clients’ progress. But among many things, one of the reasons I delayed posting Georgio and other client results is because I’ve been keeping case studies on how clients do after finishing PT, rather than focusing on just their initial results. Nobody talks about that stuff.

I’ve kept up with Georgio, and I’m looking forward to sharing how he’s been getting on!

If job satisfaction was a person, it would be him. He was a pleasure to work with.

If you’re interested in the type of PT that moves beyond small wins, gets you where you want to be, and has the aftercare to help you stay that way, then just drop me a message.

Can you believe this guy is 50 years old?! 🔥

Daz came to me to get in to the best shape of his life. He’s dropped 7.5 inches from his waistline, and lost nearly 30 lbs. Here’s some of his words:

“When I first approached Michael, my mental health was sub-zero, and therefore the comfort of food was taking over. I remember going for a nice dinner for a special occasion, and I put on an old suit and tie, but I couldn’t fit into it properly. My neck was too thick and stomach was too fat”

“I initially only intended to do PT for 3 months. But the results of working with Michael gave me a completely new outlook on fitness, and a huge boost in self-confidence. I feel stronger, I remember struggling in our first PT sessions to do 18kg dumbbells on the bench press, and now I can push 32kg in each hand for 8 reps.”

“Coaching has taken the fear out of eating excessively and socialising. It’s given me the ability to understand nutrition, and allowed me to enjoy myself whilst still continuing to make progress. My sleep, sense of self-esteem, and general positivity all improved”

“I went to another dining in night for the RAF reserves in October, wearing the suit that I was unable to fit in to back in April. I loved it, I got lots of compliments, and I fit back into my suit with ease.”

“One of the best things about coaching was the feeling of shared accountability. It was like me and Michael were in it together. I feel like Michael cares, and we were both working for the same goal, it was a team effort.”

“I definitely recommend Michael as a coach. I’d recommend to be honest, tell him your secrets. Chances are, he’s heard it all before, which is very comforting. Listen to what he says. He tells it like it is and you always know where you stand, and where you’re headed.”

“I ended up doing over 8 months of coaching, and Michael still gives me regular check-ups and support. We actually just grabbed a coffee the other morning!” ☕️

Daz’s full story and results will be on my website soon. For anyone interested in making a big change, I’d highly recommend checking Daz or other client stories out, to see if they resonate.

Congrats to Daz, well earned 😃🙏

A couple of updates!

First up, I’ve started University at 27! 👨🏻‍🦳🤣

Random but if you ask the people I’ve worked with over the years, or my old clients, they’d be able to tell you that I’ve always been interested in the therapy realm, corrective exercise, injury prevention, whatever you wanna call it. I suffered my own injuries in training when I was younger and I’ve also had chronic mid back pain for about 7 years now, which is why i’m studying sport & exercise therapy.

Ask any PT, 8 out of 10 general population clients that come to a coach for help, usually can’t squat or move that well at first, and many people have bigger problems than just fat loss nowadays.

I’m actually not studying to be a sports therapist necessarily.. I’m just looking to help clients more in other departments in future and further explore areas that i’ve always been interested in.

My preferred niche right now is still helping people lose weight and keep it off, since most people who come to me are looking for help in that department.

I’m still taking on clients, which leads me on to the next update..

I’ve started back at Pure Gym in Lincoln for training Clients in person.

The main reason I’m doing this is because it suits me more whilst I study (it’s a 2 minute walk from my flat). My main client demographic being in those types of gyms as well, as opposed to a performance style facility.

I thought about stopping in person PT and only training people online whilst i’m at uni, and I still might depending on the work load, but the reality is I still love training clients in person and I’m excited to be back in the Gym where it all started

So if you’re a beginner who wants to lose weight, get stronger, and gain the confidence to never feel “lost” again with how, or what to do with your training and nutrition, then let me know!

Pay attention to the Face/Neck area 👀 My client lost over 30lbs and a 3.5 inch waist reduction in the first few months doing PT starting February 2020. It was around 25 lbs in the photos shown. You never know where it will show, but the main visibility difference at this stage of fat loss seemed to show around Andrews face/jaw, which you can’t really get with the tape measure!

I’ve rarely had a client be so busy, and present so many obstacles to weight loss outside of our time together. This is why covid, and the initial lockdowns actually aided Andrew in prioritising his nutrition and consistently staying in a calorie deficit.

Andrew was studying a Masters at Uni, whilst working on an Ambulance doing his training as a paramedic.

Working shifts from 11am through to 2am with next to no breaks appeared to be pretty normal for Andrew, which presented problems with appetite, hunger, long periods of fasting, sleep, dietary choices, and a bunch of other stuff. Add the stress of workload to the equation and fat loss becomes really challenging.

So we looked more into Andrews lifestyle, dietary habits, work schedule.

We found tons of meals that he enjoyed, found the calorie/protein content, and started to structure these into certain days to fit Andrews lifestyle.

Day examples included weekends, work days on shift, and even “can’t be arsed” kinda days. No stone unturned.

We had Andrews hedonic foods in there as well, in his case he enjoyed crisps and Haribo now and then for satisfying that “food reward”.

When Andrew ran into a wall, it would have been easy for someone to say “he just didn’t want it badly enough”, but we dug deeper.

In Andrews words: “I’m no longer in that position where I didn’t know why the scales and the mirror reflected the way that it did. I’m able to analyse why the scales go up or down. My confidence has improved immensely and I can train with confidence in what I’ve learned. I’m no longer sat questioning my self image and self worth because I know where I am. The uncertainties with weight loss have been removed from the equation”

Andrews now moved to Edinburgh and is working for the Scottish Ambulance Service! 🚑

A few common mistakes I see people make when tracking calories 👌

A fair few years ago I used to have this “If you’re going to do something wrong, then do it right” mentality with food.

In other words, enjoy your life, if you’re out with friends, f**k it, go all in. Why sacrifice your happiness for the sake of looking a certain way?

I’ve noticed clients often have this mentality as well. They might be out with friends, a bit fed up of feeling “overly strict” with themselves, and they quickly throw caution to the wind, and eat the house. 🏠

But now after working with a lot of people, my views are pretty much the opposite.

There’s definitely a time and place for relinquishing pressure and just going all out.

But often, a clients biggest hurdle to staying in a calorie deficit consistently isn’t because of some overcomplicated process, it’s just because they consume an abundance of calories whilst socialising, eating out, or at the weekends.

Sometimes people need to learn what’s in food.

It’s so easy to lean towards the f**k it mentality or the all or nothing approach.

It’s easy to use self justification or disregard calories completely when socialising because you “want to live your life”.

When the reality is, if you’re actively trying to lose fat, you can still go out, go to restaurants, go to the cinema, drink with friends.

It just takes a little effort to know what’s on the menu, what you’re putting into your body, and then align that with your goals.

Nutrient dense food or “clean” food will keep people fuller for longer, but lack the pleasure impact of actually “liking” it, therefore it won’t stop someone eating.

Opposite end of the spectrum, a diet with next to no nutritional value yet high in highly palatable foods will do the same thing. Neither achieving what we want.

Strike somewhere in between 👌

The above recommendations from common guidelines and even from some respectable nutrition courses are usually not really up to date. These recommendations are primarily based on body requirements and the prevention of deficiency, rather than recovering from an excess of hard work or training related “breakdown”.

These lower recommendations for protein are also based on the idea that muscle maintenance revolves around a “positive nitrogen balance” within the body. Positive balance is associated with “making protein”, tissue repair, and growth.

The problem with basing protein recommendations on nitrogen balance is that it’s not a muscle tissue specific measurement. So it can’t truly be seen as an accurate measure when considering muscle loss or gain.

There can’t be a universal recommendation for protein because it’s individual. Just like calorie recommendations of 2500 for men and 2000 for women will be wrong for most.

We have guidelines, and guidelines are just a baseline to start from.

A person who’s already lean, very active, eating in a calorie deficit, and resistance training, will need a hell of a lot more protein than a person who’s overly fat, eating an abundance of sugary food, and living a sedentary lifestyle.

Literature supports that athletic populations or those seeking muscle gain should be looking at a baseline of 1.2-2.2 grams of protein per kg of bodyweight.

The international society of sports nutrition states that physically active people require 1.4 to 2 grams of protein per KG of bodyweight.

Helms et al, states that protein needs for resistance trained athletes are likely 2.3-3.1 grams per kg of LEAN body mass (you minus the fat).

The more body fat someone has, the less protein they require and vice versa. This is because an overweight person is more likely to use body fat for fuel as opposed to their muscle tissue.

Everything down to carb intake, body fat levels, activity levels, and lifestyle will dictate different people’s protein requirements.

Struggling with where to start with your nutrition? Drop me a message 👌

When people go to their jobs they get a guaranteed return in investment, money back for hours put in.

As shown in the picture, the calories that people need to consume on a day to day basis, just to maintain their current body weight, isn’t static, it changes every day. There’s no guaranteed return on investment for time put in.

No Trainer, fad, or dieting system can guarantee you a particular outcome, no matter how much they try.

People need to gauge, view, or feel the steps of progress or else they’ll likely fail. As failure goes up adherence goes down.

This is why success markers, progress tracking and measuring is so important. This is why clients need to be continuously made aware or updated on a week to week basis of why we’re doing what we’re doing, and what direction we’re trying to take them in over the coming weeks/months.

This is why training progress, progressive overload, body measurements, scale weight, food tracking and/or food modification from a baseline start point is so important.

We often focus on the long term outcomes that we want, but success and progression even on a day to day basis are two of the biggest factors in people staying on track towards their goals.

People are obsessed with time scale marketing offers, return on investment, and getting some “reward” for their efforts.

No one can guarantee you a set result.

The reality is if someone sticks to a small number of very basic daily tasks consistently, that align with their goals, then over the coming weeks/months they can make massive change.

Sadly the truth doesn’t sell too well 🤷‍♂️😂