Quantum Coaching

It’s been a long time since I was in London but Anita invited me to join her after the course she was on finished.

Needless to say I jumped at the chance!

We share birthdays this week 3 days apart so this seemed a perfect opportunity!

She booked Hamilton as a surprise because she knows I love it and she does too now! If you haven’t seen it, you should… live is best, Disney is pretty damn good to!!

Today she took me to Little Venice and Maida Vale, if I have a spare £25million I think I could live there.

The thing that got me the most was how quiet and peaceful it was. Like being in the countryside in the middle of London.

Think it’s my new favourite place!

Anita lived in the area for many years and she showed me London through the eyes of someone who lives there and not a tourist.

I can see the attraction now… it only took me nearly 43yrs to see it.

Thank you for a wonderful weekend ❤️❤️❤️

Can’t bench 100kg?? The landmark number so many crave but few achieve??

Been going to the gym for a while now and still aren’t lifting the numbers you should be for the amount of effort and time you’ve dedicated?

Still feel you’re pretty weak at this game despite your best efforts?

Sucks, doesn’t it?

I know how you feel… I remember being in my mid 20s just getting into lifting and watching the old skool lifters throwing weights around like they were full of helium.

I’m trying to press a 60kg barbell, my little arms shaking, abysmal range, and ego shattered!!

Wayyyy back then we didn’t have the info that is abundant today.

Strength work was a bodypump class and bodybuilders were frowned upon for their freakish size and fondness for anabolic steroids.

But what I learned was lifting is a skill, just like playing the piano or playing a sport.

Repetition of the basics done well over time. That’s how you improve your game in anything.

Once you master them then we can look at the fancy stuff like Olympic Lifting.

Inevitably, you will do the Olympics alongside the basics because the basics should never leave you!

I’m 20yrs in and my sessions are still 90% the basics. What does that tell you about how you should train?

Take Andy, my client, he’s struggled with size and strength for years and within weeks we’d gone from a 60kg leg press to 200kg plus.

We had a few things to address such as calories and training intensity but if you’ve never had anyone to show you how to train to a high level, how do you know you’re doing it right?

Most people don’t like to feel uncomfortable and unfortunately that’s where the stimulus for progress lies. You need someone to coach you into pushing harder than you ever imagined you can yourself!

If you don’t want to be one of the people who have never pressed 100kg and don’t want to be intimidated by the strong people anymore we should talk.

Don’t hope you’ll get there one day, maybe you will, maybe you won’t but I can guarantee with my help you definitely will…

I have a proven track record in this stuff!!

If you’re not making progress! Aren’t where you want to be! DM me ‘COACHING’ and let’s talk!!

It’s January 2025, you’re raring to go with the new year resolutions and BOOMMM…

You’re struck down like a thunderbolt from Zeus himself.

Sore throat start creeping in and after a few days it takes hold.

You spend the next 36hrs in bed sleeping, freezing, sweating, shivering…

Crying for your Mum… you know the drill.

Then it clears a bit.

A few days more and you’ll be right…

The first day you feel human you go back to the gym.

And it sucks… weak as a kitten, the lung capacity of a 95yr old asthmatic with one lung.

Shaking after a few sets.

You retreat home and think, I’ll give it a few more days.

Truth is, you need to give it another week or so.

When your body takes ill, you aren’t just fighting fatigue, your immune system is in overdrive.

It doesn’t need the dude in charge making things worse, taking energy to train when it needs it for recovery.

When my clients take ill, the first thing I tell them to do is rest.

Take as much time as you need.

Why?

Because you’re human, and you aren’t going for the Olympics next week!

Your goals will still be there when you’re recovered.

And trust me, when I say your body will recover much quicker with rest than it will pushing through.

I’ve been there many times and I’ve sent clients home because they were ill.

See how good it is to have a coach who has your best interest at heart and not a 12 week before and after picture.

Working with me means you get the absolute best service for your situation 24/7.

And all you have to do is DM ‘COACHING’ and we have the chat.

If you’re reading this right now it’s for one of two reasons.

1. Like me, you’ve hit your 40s, maybe left them behind, and you feel that little bit stiffer.

2. You’re heading to your 40s and you don’t want to feel older than you already do right now.

Either way, I’m going to assume you’re past the ‘let’s get jacked’ era of your life and now you’re thinking you need to prolong your health.

Maybe, you’ve picked up a ni**le or two, maybe you’ve screwed your back completely, and the good news?

You don’t have to feel like an 88yr old grandad with spine mobility of a 2x4”

Training as you get that little bit older needs to change, yes you can still focus on your guns but you need to focus hard on the bits you’ve neglected to date.

Train the spine in all motions and train the muscles around it with heavy weight!

Like you would any other body part!!

And if you’ve a disc problem, don’t be scared to train deadlifts or bend to the side…

Start low, build big…

There is no evidence to correlate deadlifts with back injury.

In fact they’ll probably correct the very thing you’re protecting!!

Don’t be fragile!!

In fact we need to be Anti-fragile!

Join me and others in the anti-fragile lifting club!!

You’re don’t realise how close to a stroke you are!

This is not an event sectioned off for the elderly anymore… young people are being hit by this disastrous condition.

You may think you’re a little on the heavy side but really, you’re way past that!

You think cardio is the devil because you’ve listened to the sh!tfluencers on social medial and now it’s tough so you don’t bother.

You were adamant that ‘special diet’ was the way forward… insert carnivore/keto/paleo

Alcohol, and maybe more, dulls the pain of life.

And your blood pressure is sky high!!

You’re a ticking time bomb!

Working in the stroke ward of the hospital I was helping people who the day before had been walking around as normal with full function.

Then, in the blink of an eye, their life is changed forever.

🧨 No use of an arm or leg
🧨 Can’t get their words out and become upset
🧨 Aren’t able to go to the toilet themselves
🧨 Some don’t even realise there’s a left or a right anymore.

It is catastrophic for these people and you’re on the same path.

Yet, this is one of the easiest things to avoid (taking away genetic factors)

Changing the course of your life is going to be daunting but it’s a damn site better than the alternative.

Forget, six-packs, forget the industry “look ripped on the beach”

Think, “I want to see my kids grow up”… “I want to be there for my partner always”… “I want to set an example”…

We live in a world of opportunity, if you’re living in the west that is, and you’re throwing it away because you feel sorry for yourself.

Your health matters more than a six pack.

Your family depends on you!

Are you going to be the person they need for a long time or the person they have to care for as an added pressure?

It’s time to turn things around!!

I DON’T…

Why? I hear you ask… and it’s a very good question.

1) I bust my balls all year round and I like to take Christmas a bit slower. If I train, great. If I don’t, great.

2) I like to spend time with my family over Christmas. My sister and brother bring their clans north and why waste time I could have with them in the gym, especially when I see them very little during the year.

3) I’m a rebel and won’t conform to the industry BS about staying on track and making progress even in December.

Having 20 something pts saying things like…

“Make sure you track your calories, ok you can have a day off on Christmas Day but other than that you must track your food”.

“I know it’s Christmas but you can offset the calories by going for a walk! You can still do 10,000 steps”.

“You need to train to stay insulin sensitive and use all that sugar”.

Ohhhh f**k off…

First off people don’t understand physiology and how long it actually takes to reverse your hard work.

Maybe having down time when the country relaxes is just the time to let you catch up on sleep, relaxing, taking it easy for once.

I have another 11months and three weeks to work my ass off in the gym/bjj/padel/uni/coaching and anything else I can add to my hectic lifestyle.

Don’t get me wrong, I will train but it won’t be crazy and it won’t be set in stone.

I love training, I’m just not demented enough to start circling the house, weighing my turkey, and zoning out of conversations with thoughts of PR’ing my bench, if I don’t make a few sessions.

However, that doesn’t mean you should follow my lead on this one if you feel you need to stay ‘on it’.

Don’t let some dude off the internet tell you what is right or wrong for you.

You’re a grown ass adult capable of making your own decisions.

Whatever you choose to do…. enjoy it!!!

#

I will keep banging the drum on this!!

A six-pack is not a marker of health or fitness. It’s a marker of low body fat levels.

Whilst some you will argue that blood markers for disease will be down there will be others that will argue for disordered eating, health anxiety, body dysmorphia etc…

It’s certainly not a marker of fitness, being lean doesn’t automatically make you fit or strong.

Now that’s off my chest…

What should we celebrate??

How about:

Being strong?
Having good amounts of muscle?
Being powerful?
Having good levels of cardio?
Doing things that you couldn’t last year?
Being in a good place mentally?
Having low blood pressure?
Having low risk mortality?

These are the things you should be thinking about over having a six-pack.

Being in your 30s, 40s and 50s should mean you view your health in a different light.

Being able to experience the struggles people go through in later life because they neglected their health when they were younger puts me in a very good position to bang my drum even louder!!

Trust me when I say you need to re-educate yourself if you think training is just about biceps and six-packs!!

Andy has been with me for just over a year and what a busy man he has been…

Andy is a Dad, he moved in with his partner, he leads a team in a well known technology company

He came to me a little sick of being pushed around physically in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, lacking size on his upper body and generally what all men want, to look masculine.

On top of these life goals he had some pretty good sporting goals too!

And boy he did well!!

He took bronze in his first Brazilian Jiu Jitsu competition

He ran his first marathon in Amsterdam

And he’s up 8kg of lean tissue.

It’s difficult to attain all three as they all require very different methods of training, strength, explosiveness, hypertrophy and of course endurance.

Our biggest focus was on fuelling all the activities he was doing on a daily basis.

At one point we were heading to 5000kcals per day. That’s a lot of food.

All made harder by being vegan so his choices are limited in comparison to a non vegan.

It wasn’t plain sailing, he’s taken a few knocks along the way.

An existing knee injury held up his marathon training from time to time.

But man, he did amazingly well and we’re looking forward to the next six months that we have planned out already!

Instagram isn’t playing nice tonight so I’ll explain all here!!

Training only the conventional moves in the gym, deadlifts, squats, bench etc are going to leave you stiff and not enjoying life in your later years.

Whilst you still need to do them, I’d suggest bringing in moves that challenge the body in many different ways.

Move your spine in as many directions as possible.

Jump as much as possible… single leg, double leg, side to side.

You will thank me for it in the long run!!

Short and sweet today.

Take away, don’t be a gym bro all your life. Start thinking athlete and do what they need for peak performance!

Trust me when I say, you do not want to end up in the stroke ward in hospital.

I’ve been privileged to work with some simply amazing people with the hearts of lions suffering with stroke these past four weeks.

And truly, all the staff are amazing people who want to see their patients back home and functioning.

But the sad reality for many is they’ll never regain normal function.

The loss of use of an arm, a leg or both.

Sometimes, totally unresponsive physically and mentally.

These people were all functioning just like you and I are right now and by the time it takes you to read the rest of this post.

Their lives had changed forever. It’s that quick.

“So what! It won’t happen to me”… just like the smokers who don’t exponentially increase their risk of mouth, throat and lung cancer.

But for your purpose many of these people could have altered the course of their health and reduced their risk of stroke through lifestyle.

Imagine being able to control your future somewhat with something readily available and at your fingertips.

What are the risk factors that lead to stroke?

☠️ Smoking
☠️ Alcohol intake
☠️ High Blood pressure
☠️ Obesity
☠️ Diabetes
☠️ High Cholesterol
☠️ High stress

There is a genetic element and family history to take into account but you can heavily weight the odds in your favour by changing your lifestyle.

✅ Weight train/Sprint work - improve insulin sensitivity
✅ Cardio training - improve well your cardiovascular health.
✅ Go for a balanced diet like the Mediterranean one. Not the extremes and keep saturated fats low.
✅ Reduce your stress load - meditate, yoga, martial arts.
✅ Improve your sleep - aids recovery, reduces stress, helps insulin sensitivity.
✅ Reduce alcohol intake to a bare minimum or better zero alcohol.
✅ The same with smoking… get rid. No va**ng either. It’s just idiotic at best.

I wish you could all have first hand experience of the patients suffering with this life changing condition.

You’d quickly think about what you’re doing to your future self!!

Can we talk about not wanting to train?

Unlike all the fitness bunnies and drug filled kids making you feel sh!tty for not training 6 days per week and prepping a gargantuan level of food…

I’m not going to make it a thing. In fact quite the opposite.

It’s entirely normal to want to just chill out and not go to the gym.

Hell, 90% of the time it’s a fight for me to get over the door I have so much going on.

And that’s the difference between your 30s, 40s and 50s compared to being in your 20s.

Family commitments
Work stress
Travel
Pets
Social commitments
Keeping your partner happy

All the things kids living with their parents don’t have to consider.

That’s why we need to play the averages. Of course there are going to be times when you pull back.

Conversely, there will be times you’re smashing it and can’t wait to go.

As long as we’re having more ‘on weeks’ than ‘off weeks’ you’re going to be just fine.

And things why the 12 week shred is bull sh!t… it teaches you nothing about training around real life.

But that’s a story for another day!!

The point: When you feel like you just need to skip a day, don’t feel bad as long as you’re playing the averages!

Normalise having a busy life and accepting doing what you can is enough most of the time!

Having said all that, don’t take the p!as and have weeks on end sat in the sofa! 😉