Jo Humphreys - Coach

You stress over 3 sets vs. 4, 8 reps vs 10, 140g vs.
150g of protein..

While ignoring the most important thing: the quality of what you’re doing.

The quality of what you do determines how effective your efforts are.

Hitting 12 reps is meaningless if they’re all sloppy.

You might hit your protein or calorie goal every day, but if you’re dragging yourself through the day, feeling like crap because you’re cramming in food with little nutritional value, what’s the point?

None of that matters when your energy, mood, and performance are in the bin.

You don’t get stronger because your plan says “4x10.” You get stronger by putting in the effort, refining your technique, and staying consistent.

So, start asking yourself:

What do my sets look like?
Are my reps actually challenging?
Is my technique improving?
Is my diet truly fueling me?
Am I training hard enough?
Am I consistent, or just showing up when it’s convenient?

You won’t know what works for you until you actually start.

Stop looking for the ‘perfect’ number and start focusing on executing with quality and consistency. The results will tell you everything you need to know

Ahhh man… I hate to break it to you

But let’s go through a couple of bits..

Stretching doesn’t warm up muscles.. it’s a bit like stretching a chicken breast from both ends and expecting it to heat up.

In my honest opinion, weight training is a long-term solution to most of the reasons people stretch in the first place. It’s essentially loaded stretching anyway… just more effective.

It also won’t prevent DOMS or stop you from getting injured.

And tbh most people stretch waaay more than they need to… if at all.

So, what actually works?

If you feel tight/stiff or sore, try this instead:

Adopt more positions throughout the day… you’re not a tree (so move) don’t staying one position too long.
Change positions. Walk, squat, hang, twist...have a little dance

Read this 3 times , and again tomorrow
“The best posture is your next posture.”

I want to get this clear though.., don’t FEAR sitting, standing, AND even slouching. Just don’t live there, you know. Don’t stay there for hours on end.. kinda common sense, kinda not. Needed to be said..

Strength train through a full range of motion. Stick to what feels good and you can control. Get stronger in the positions where you feel restricted. Simple.

Need to warm up?

Do lighter sets of the actual exercise you’re about to do.
Build up until you’re near your working weight.
Gauge it.. do your muscles feel warmer?.. cool. You’ll be good.

What about for relaxation?

If stretching feels good, cool.. do it for that reason. Just know it’s not fixing anything magical.

There are plenty of ways to relax that don’t involve contorting your body and (often) doing more harm than good.

Psst… most of the time, you’re stretching connective tissue, not muscle. And guess what? Connective tissue doesn’t really like that.

The Bottom Line:

Stretch if you love it.
Don’t stretch if you hate it.
But don’t pretend it’s doing something it’s not. 😘

The ‘functional’ training world loves to sell you the idea that if an exercise doesn’t mimic daily life, it’s not worth doing.

But is that true?

Take bicep curls. Not functional? We don’t need strong elbow flexors to carry bags, hold a child, or pick up a box?

Barbell squats are ‘superior’ to the leg press? Cool, but they both work the same quads and glutes. You’re just standing up/challenging balance for one, sitting down for the other.

Leg extensions aren’t functional...right? But we bend our knees every day. Stronger quads make climbing stairs or getting up from a chair easier.

The truth is, lifting weights, even if it doesn’t mimic real life, still strengthens muscles/improves stability and coordination.

Muscles don’t go, “This movement isn’t functional, I’ll just chill.” they respond to stimuli by contracting, adapting, and getting stronger.

I hear this a lot: ‘But you’re not challenging your stabiliser muscles.” Like they can only be targeted with big functional movements or specifically with bands/drills etc..

It’s not pointless, but it’s not the full picture.

Every muscle can act as a stabiliser, depending on the movement. Every time you pick up a weight, muscles are either stabilising or moving the joint.

In a lateral raise, your delts work hard, but your rotator cuff muscles are stabilising to stop your shoulder being ripped out its socket. Do we need some separate fancy band work or rotator cuff drills to train them? Not really.

In a lat pull-down, your lats pull, but your chest and upper back are stabilising.

Whether it’s curls, leg extensions, or planks, stabiliser muscles are firing. Which ones stabilise or move depends on the movement.

But instead of focusing on getting stronger, people are balancing on Bosu balls with a kettlebell, thinking it’s magic.

If you want to improve skill or balance, train them directly.

But don’t believe lifting weights ‘normally’ is less functional. IMO… most people would see great progress if they focused on getting stronger, staying consistent and aligning training with their goals.

Of course though, the basics are not easy to sell.

I used to rely too much on “feeling,” the problem with that was it ended in me choosing exercises that didn’t actually target the muscle well.

Another thing to consider.. exercises hit muscles at different lengths, so chasing sensation can be misleading.

Here’s an example: think of a leg curl machine vs an RDL. The leg curl targets the hamstrings in a shortened position, so it feels intense, but the RDL works the hamstrings in a more lengthened position, which doesn’t feel as “squeezed.”

Shortened position exercises can feel more intense (or like the squeeze at the top of a hip thrust), but that doesn’t mean they’re better..

Questions?

1️⃣For any exercise to be effective/comfortable, the direction of resistance needs to align with how your joints naturally move. This applies to all exercises.

Lateral raises (middle delt): The middle delts’ job is to pull your arm outward. So, the resistance needs to try pulling your arm inward, toward your midline. This is why most feel their traps in traditional standing DB raises (which is the traps job btw, not a default)

Lat Pulldown: Your lats pull your shoulder girdle down (think pulling your elbows down and in). If your grip is too wide or you’re leaning too far back, you’ll shift tension away from your lats.

Seated Chest Press: Your pecs pull your arms inward. If the handles aren’t aligned with your elbows and wrists, you’ll likely shift some of the load to your shoulders, which probably won’t feel good.

2️⃣If an exercise doesn’t feel right, fix it (take the example previously) It may be you need to adjust things with the machine and/or body. Usually it’s dialing in the setup and ex*****on to make it feel solid.
3️⃣ Ask yourself: are you controlling the forces in the exercise, or are they controlling you? Example, in a lat pulldown, is your lower body locked in place, or are you sliding around, fighting to stay seated? In a seated leg curl, are your hips/spine stable or shifting because the thigh pad isn’t locking your quads down enough? Stability is about keeping the parts of your body that shouldn’t move locked in so the target muscle can be stressed the most.
4️⃣/5️⃣Can you keep progressing an exercise over time, or are there limiting factors holding you back? Take a barbell bent-over row: If your goal is to train your upper back, you need to manage balance, grip, and fatigue from other muscles like quads/erectors. Even cardio can be a limiting factor if you’re out of breath before finishing your reps. The point is, if you don’t consider these factors, how are you going to keep progressing? Maybe Margaret at the gym told you RDLs are great for glutes, but if you can’t stand them, how you gonna stick with it? You want things to work long term realise all of these factors matter, and none exist in isolation

Listen..

1. Having a plan that you can follow/makes sense for your goals, and that you enjoy is a no brainer. Without it, you’ll wander around the gym, wasting time and energy. The plan needs to suit you.. it should allow you to make progress/tweak when necessary.

2. If you’re doing exercises you hate/think you should do, why would you keep going? You won’t. Find movements you enjoy, feel good doing/can accomplish the same task and can keep repeating.

3. You fear being judged. Everyone feels this way when they start. It’s normal. Confidence comes from repetition (pun intended). The more you do it, the less intimidating it becomes. Plus, having these variables in place helps massively.

4. Ask yourself: how many times can you/want to go to the gym per week? How much time do you have? What exercises do you enjoy? Start small, stay consistent, as you can also build from there.

5. Progress will come when you have these variables in place. Fix the foundation, and everything else will follow.

You also don’t want to be the person who never progresses because you’re overly obsessed with perfecting every aspect of your form, fearing injury or pain and trying to feel every tiny contraction.

Here’s the thing

Of course, balance is key here.

If your technique are dialed in each week.. or at least you’re working toward that consistency you’ll get stronger, your muscles will grow, and you’ll be able to add more load or reps over time, all while targeting the intended muscle.

But if you constantly rely on momentum or lifting with your ego just to see the numbers go up, chances are you’re not even using the muscle you’re trying to grow anyway.

So, what’s the point?

Train with effort but not at the cost of your technique breaking down

I’ll be honest..

I fell into this trap for a long time. I thought I had to fix every “issue” before I could train. I wasted hours on drills, foam rolling, etc., instead of actually training.

It didn’t help. It made me hyper-fixate on problems, pulling me further from what really mattered.

I also don’t believe that those pushing these ideas are all money-hungry. Many are genuinely indoctrinated into these systems and methods… they believe what they’re saying

The truth is, the body is naturally wonky. None of us are perfectly symmetrical.. that’s NORMAL.

What’s not normal is creating labels and making claims about the body with no evidence.

The body is incredibly resilient and it gets stronger through challenge, not by nursing some made-up “upper cross syndrome” with 3 sets of Supermans.

Progress comes from training, it comes from the boring stuff you can’t sell well.

Stop attributing pain/discomfort to a particular cause and start training with some effort and consistency.

Maybe clean up some bad habits

Then assess how you feel