Matt Powell Training

Choosing the right weight training split can make all the difference in your fitness journey!

Here's a look at some popular weight training splits and their pros/cons:

1. Full Body:
Pros - Efficient, hits all muscle groups in one session, great for beginners.
Cons - Less volume per muscle group, can be challenging to recover from intense sessions.

2. Upper/Lower Split:
Pros - Balances upper and lower body workouts, allows for more volume per muscle group.
Cons - Requires more days in the gym, may not provide enough recovery time for some individuals.

3. Push/Pull/Legs:
Pros - Targets specific muscle groups with each session, good for intermediate/advanced lifters.
Cons - Can require training up to 6 days a week (if you want to train each muscle group 2x a week) can be time-consuming.

4. Bro-Split / One Muscle Group per Day:
Pros - Allows for maximum focus on each muscle group, popular for bodybuilders.
Cons - May lead to overtraining, less frequency per muscle group per week.

Ultimately, the best split depends on your goals, schedule, and personal preference! Experiment to find what works best for you. 💪 "

Join myself and Niamh for Pretty Muddy 2024 to raise money in memory of Chrissie Carroll and Chris Powell. 💛🩷

3 mistakes people make when tracking calories to lose weight

- not tracking everything - tracking calories requires you to be 100% accurate about what you're eating and drinking, if you forget to or don't track everything this can lead to inaccurate counting and hinder your weight loss.

- not tracking calories from drinks and condiments - drinks such as coffee, fizzy drinks and sports drinks have calories in them don't be fooled that just because you aren't eating there aren't any calories! Same with sauces, butter, jams etc

- only counting calories - not all calories are created equally and only relying on the calorie count and not the nutritional content of food can harm your overall health and hinder weight loss. Focus on choosing nutrient dense food, instead of empty calories from junk food will support your weight loss journey.

For more weight loss / fitness advice keep following or send me a DM and I will help you 😊

What is DOMS?

You may have heard people mention they have DOMS or say "I have really bad DOMS after that workout"

So what is it and have you had DOMS?

DOMS or to give it its full title is Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness is the pain/stiffness that you feel after a tough workout or a new exercise/workout you haven't done. This is completely normal and will generally last for a couple of days and begin to ease off after the first 24 hours.

3 ways you can help ease DOMS

- Rest, avoid any strenuous exercise on the area that DOMS is affecting, for example if you have DOMS in your legs, avoid any strenuous leg exercises for a few days and train other muscle groups.

- Hydrate, keeping well hydrated will help your muscles recover as dehydration will can make your muscles feel more stiff and sore.

- Stretches, gentle stretches on the area can help ease stiffness and increase flexibility.

My top 3 strategies to break through plateaus!

Plateaus are a natural part of the fitness journey, this can be frustrating as your working really hard and then not seeing results you deserve. Below are 3 strategies to break through these plateaus.

- Try different exercises

Swapping out old exercises for new ones may make your body respond differently. This will make your body respond differently to help encourage progress.

- Change your routine

Changing your routine stops your body becoming too used to what it is doing and shock your body into progress.

- Get enough rest

Make sure you are allowing your body enough time to rest and recover. Getting proper sleep, hydration, nutrition and incorporating stretching help promote better rest and recovery.

When you are measuring your progress don't just rely on the number on the scales, this is just the number of your total weight and does not tell you the whole story! (It doesn't tell you how much lean muscle mass or fat mass you have)

It is more beneficial to measure yourself, as this will tell you if you are losing fat and/or gaining muscle mass.

The main sites to measure are your waist, hips, chest, arms and thighs. If you weigh the same on the scales but have lost around your waist, this mean you have lost fat, and that is progress!

Other ways you can measure progress are how your clothes fit and feel, if the pair of jeans you were struggling to get into suddenly become easier to get on thats weight loss, if the t-shirt sleeves you have been trying to fill out start getting filled then your arms are growing!

Remember along the way to celebrate the small wins, running further, faster, lifting heavier or more reps with the same weight.

If you were to start weight training and you have never done any sort of strength training before, these are the 5 exercises I would recommend you start with to build a good foundation of strength

- Chest Press - use dumbbells or machine - good for building up the chest/front delts/tricep muscles.

- Seated/Bent Over Row - use dumbbells or machine - good for building up back/rear delt/bicep muscles

- Squats/Leg Press Machine - use dumbbells or machine - builds strength in lower body, glutes/quads/calf muscles

- Leg Extension Machine - builds muscles in the quads, strengthens knee joint and squatting movement

Leg Curl Machine - builds muscles in the hamstrings, helping balance your leg development complimenting squats/leg presses/leg extensions and also strengthening the knee joint.

A simple workout for you as a beginner to try would look like this

Chest Press - 3 sets of 15
Seated Row - 3 sets of 15
Leg Press - 3 sets of 15
Leg Extensions - 3 sets of 15
Leg Curls 3 sets of 15

If you would like to know more about strength training feel free to PM me.

I also offer a free taster session, if you are interested please PM me for more details!

How do you spread your calories out through out the day?

I was talking to someone in the gym last night and they said they were coming home from work and felt so hungry that they were having a head battle about going to pick up something convenient/fast food, or getting something healthier when they get home.

Ultimately they went for something convenient/fast food.

A bit further into the conversation they mentioned that they had only eaten 600 calories to that point in the day (7am - 5pm) meaning they still had 1000+ calories left to eat in the day (5pm - bed time).

So my advice was to eat more calories before 5pm and have less calories to eat after 5pm.

The reasons for this are

- You should have the bulk of your calories through the work day as this is where you need your energy for the work day

- In the evening you don't need so many calories as even if you go to the gym you won't be quite as active.

- Eating fewer calories through the bulk of your day will make you hungrier, increasing the chance of going for something fast/convenient and unhealthy and indulging. This means you are more likely to put weight on, have poorer sleep quality and potentially increase risk of physical and mental health problems.

If we look at it more visually if you eat 600 calories between 7 am - 5pm (10 hours) that's 60 calories an hour and the 1000 calories between 5 pm and 10 pm (5 hours) this more than triples to 200 calories per hour.

There is a clear difference between calories per hour, if we flip it and have 1000 calories in the first 10 hour period we have 100 calories an hour and 600 calories in the last 5 hours we have 120 calories per hour, this is a much more even spread of calories over the day, and hopefully will reduce those hunger pangs between finishing work and getting home.

- prepare some more food to take with you and have this on the way home, this could even just be a protein shake to help curb cravings.

- have accessible healthy snacks such as fruit or nuts and seeds for example to eat throughout the day.

Each person is slightly different and this is based on a more standard 9 - 5 job if you work shifts/nights this needs to be adjusted so you're having more calories when you are more active/working.

Have a think about how your calories are spread out throughout the day and see if you might benefit from changing how you spread your calories through the day!

If you want to know more, don't hesitate to message 😊

Have a good day everyone! 💛

Not got much time for a workout tonight? Grab a barbell (10kg / 15kg / 20kg) and try this full body complex - remember don't put the bar down between exercises, only when you have finished all 10! 👹

Complete 10 reps of each exercise and complete 5 rounds

Exercises

- Clean and Press
- Upright Row
- Lunge (R)
- Lunge (L)
- Barbell Curl
- Bent over Row
- Squat
- Straight Leg Deadlift
- Shoulder Press
- Overhead Tricep Extension

Good luck!

Quick reminder of what I offer!

- I am currently running a 8lb in 8 week weight loss programme, this includes 8 weeks of personal training sessions once a week, nutrition tracking and support from me 7 days a week.

- I also offer 1 - 1 sessions are available these are personalised to your goals and abilities. Main areas of focus are strength training, HIIT and weight loss.

- I also run classes at Victoria Leisure gym, I teach Spin class, Body Shape and Boxercise, these can be booked with your membership or are £7 per class as a non member.

For all enquiries please message me and I will be happy to answer any questions! 💪

Hi everyone, I know it has been a little while due to personal circumstances, but thank you all for being patient with me.💛

I am going to start post regular content again, let me know if there is anything you would like to see! 💪