Joseph van der Merwe - Damage Control Training

There are always easy answers.

You can’t force genuine relaxation.

But you can manage the mind through the body.

Get daylight
Move and train
Focus on quality and quantity of food
Spend time with family.
Turn off your phone completely.
Sleep 7+ hours per night

Workers are always going to pull at the reins.

We can do that from a recovered state or we can do that from a chronically stressed state.

One of those has longevity over decades.

One does not.

Consistency and Repeatability must be defended at all costs.

I guarantee I can find a way to make you consistent.

Most people would look at that and think it’s not enough. Those same people have missed 3 sessions a week for the last decade.

If you are really rammed. Do one exercise with high intent and leave.

Pretty sure I stole this from

Bit blunt.

Does cognitive moderation work? Yes it does for some.

Does hand portioning and focusing on more nutrient dense higher volume foods work. Yes it does for some.

Reality check.

If you are 15-40kg overweight or more and have been for a long time. You will most likely need something more direct.

Progress > Perfection.

You will undoubtably make mistakes and fail along the way. But that is an unavoidable part of growth in any endeavour.

Having better body composition is a key part of all round athletic development. The aim is to be as muscular and lean as possible whilst maintaining very high energy and outputs in training. That will look a little different for everyone…

But don’t kid yourself either.

1/ Never stop training.

2/ 3 kids is a lot

3/ Leaner, Stronger & fitter is highly achievable when you put your mind to it. Even if you have a demanding job and kids.

4/ Zoolander is the movie if you wondered. If you haven’t seen it unfollow.

5/ I meant to say Low 20 mins not High.

You can easily find out calories from using a Harris Benedict formula online. Use overall bodyweight, age, height and gender.

That’s your baseline to start.

Protein 2.2-5g per kg of BW
Carbs circa 3-4g per kg BW
Fat 0.5g per kg etc.

You are looking for a 10-20% deficit per day.

Take BW daily IMO. That gives you a weekly average. Then look to reduce BW by circa 1% or average BW per week.

That is the mechanics of it.

The behaviour and emotional side of it is a different process.

But having a clear eye on the realities of what must happen provides real clarity and cannot be bargained with.

Something is coming 👀

You need to build a program around your current level of ability, your environment, what gym equipment you have access to

It needs to be minimal, robust, repeatable, and have everything in there needs to have a specific purpose as to why it is there.

You also need to know how to adapt that session if and when needed so that you can still train and get things done when life stress inevitable raises its head.

Equally, inside my app, I’ve built a break glass in case of emergency section with very, very simple body weight and home dumbbell equipment that you can do at home if you can’t even get to the gym on that day, so that you can still get a training stimulus in and not lose momentum regardless of whatever life throws at you.

If you haven’t made progress in the last 6 months and don’t want to end the year in the same place shoot me a DM and let’s talk. 👊