Here is the simplest way to build real fitness.
And also one of the most important things to understand if you want to burn fat.
Breath through your nose.
When I’m doing cardio, nasal breathing is how I know I’m in heart rate Zone 2.
That’s the zone where you build endurance, train your body to burn fat more efficiently, and recover faster.
But here’s the thing most people miss — Zone 2 isn’t just about heart rate.
It’s about how well your body can clear lactate.
You know when you get a stitch in your side when exercising.
That’s often a sign lactate is building up faster than your body can clear it.
You’re pushing too hard and you’ll need to stop unless you slow down
Another sign that you’re generating a lot of lactate is needing to breathe through your mouth.
And at this point your body starts to rely more on glucose instead of burning fat as energy, and cardio becomes harder to sustain.
Now, breathing through your nose, signals that you’re clearing lactate as fast as you’re making it and your body will be burning mainly fat as energy and you’ll be able to keep going for longer.
And this is exactly where you want to be if improving fitness and teaching your body to burn fat is the goal.
But here’s the thing - if you’re untrained.
You’ll probably need to slow right down.
Maybe even to a walk.
Train below the pace that forces you to breathe.
And accept that at first…
Zone 2 might feel way too easy.
But that’s how you build fitness and teach your body to become better at burning fat.
Over time?
Your lactate threshold rises.
Nasal breathing gets easier.
And your Zone 2 pace gets faster — with less effort.
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Focusing on calories burned during a workout isn’t just unhelpful.
And for many, it’s misleading.
Fitness trackers can overestimate by 20 to 40%.
That often leads to eating more than your body needs.
Instead, shift the focus.
Train to improve how your body performs.
Build strength to raise metabolism.
Condition your body to burn more fat.
And calories in vs calories out.
Because when your body performs better - it looks, feels, and functions better too.
It can be difficult to find time to exercise, but the more you understand your routine, the easiest it becomes.
This is true with exercise, our diet and how we recover.
20/05/2022
My first bit of advice to someone who wants to lose weight is to keep a food diary.
But I’ve lost count of the amount of people that say they don’t like doing it.
I get that it’s not easy and does require some time and effort.
But it’s a lot easier than cutting carbs, only eating between 12-8 or drastically restricting calorie intake.
And they seem to be the most popular approaches.
The most effective way to change our eating habits is learn about them.
The only way to do that is to keep a food diary and identify what is good and what needs improving.
By doing so you’ll be able to make educated changes.
It’s not easy but it is easier than most other options.
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20/04/2022
Here is why you shouldn’t follow the ’no pain, no gain’ approach.
If you've ever woken up after a hard resistance workout and felt stiff and sore, you're experiencing the delayed onset of muscular soreness (DOMS).
A little bit of DOMS is entirely expected, but when in too much severity can be counterproductive, requiring a longer period of recovering before you can train again.
This can undo a lot of the good work from your previous workout.
We experience DOMS mainly when we try new exercises or start a new training plan.
Pushing yourself to the limit in those sessions will be counterproductive as you’ll be overly sore and tired for a few days.
The problem comes when exercise novices or some returning to exercise after a hiatus pushes too hard
They can’t move the next day and are generally wiped out.
This can put people off training altogether, and if they do manage to keep going, they probably won’t enjoy it and significantly increase their chances of injury.
I prefer to train smart, feel good and see great results.
If you’re with me, here’s what to do.
- Follow the same training plan for four to six weeks. This will prevent aching from consistently performing new exercises.
You’ll also be able to implement progressive overload, which is to progress the workouts each week; this is one of the key drivers behind becoming stronger, fitter and increasing lean muscle.
- When you begin a new training phase, leave 3-4 reps in the tank.
It will reduce the severity of your DOMS.
Then in all following workouts, stop 1-2 reps short of complete failure.
- If you are returning to training after a hiatus, start slowly for the first month. Focus more on remaining consistent over the intensity of your workout.
Getting the correct workout intensity is pivotal to your progress and the likelihood of remaining consistent.
If you want some guidance with the best approach – DM me ‘blueprint’, and I’ll send you my nutrition and exercise blueprint
Do you need to train to failure to make significant strength gains?
No but knowing what failure feels like helps.
Most people underestimate what muscular failure is, especially if they’ve never been near failure before.
Muscular failure is when you cannot physically move the weight with proper form.
You don’t need to push to that level to increase strength.
You should leave 1-2 reps in the tank, but that is still training extremely hard.
The aim is to add load each week - 3-5% is a good marker but that won’t be every week.
Only add more when you can perform the exercise with good form.
Your reps should be clean and powerful, if you begin to ‘cheat’ when lifting the weight you've gone too heavy.
Just remember: increasing strength is a slow process.
The rate your strength will increase is dependent on many factors, including your training age.
At the start of training, strength will increase quickly, and as we become more experienced, progress slows.
That is when focus turns to incremental improvements.
But by then, you will have the lifting bug.
Train hard but train smart.
One of the big mistake I see people make when trying to lose weight is being too restrictive.
They try to remove all treat food and be 100% compliant with their diet.
It makes the process hard and unsustainable.
Aim for a 80/20 split of real, while food and 20% of calories left for treats.
That way you can still enjoy treats, socialise and achieve your goals.
22/03/2022
Losing weight is only sustainable if you change your habits.
That requires creating a strategy that works within your life and learning as you go.
That is why my advice to anyone who is struggling to lose weight or is stuck in a yo-yo between losing and regaining weight is to:
Give it a full year.
There isn’t a quick fix to lose weight and keep it off
It takes time and requires building new habits.
How do you build those habits?
Well, I have created new manual that will take you through the steps we use with our clients to achieve sustainable weight loss and it’s free.
DM me ‘sustainable’ to get your free copy
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05/03/2022
Weight regain is common.
It’s arguably as hard to keep weight off as it is to lose it in the first place.
These are some of the reason weight regain happens:
1️⃣ decrease in lean muscle. This is common when calories are reduced too quick
☑️ do resistance training while in a calorie deficit and don’t cut calories too quickly
2️⃣ unconsciously moving less as lose weight so burn less calories
☑️ set a step count target and track it each day to ensure adherence
3️⃣ calorie intake can gradually increase
☑️ keep tracking your food and be aware of snacking and increased portion size
4️⃣ as we lose weight our metabolism will slow down meaning we need to consume less calories to maintain fat loss
☑️ reduce calories to match energy expenditure
5️⃣ returning to old habits is a common reason for weight regain
☑️ keep tracking and reduce the frequency of tracking until you ingrain new eating habits.
If you found this helpful, let me know in the comments and share it with anyone you think could benefit from this advice.
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