Absolute Fitness

🚨 Mistakes In The Gym - Part 10 More cardio is not automatically better.

Cardio is great. Better heart health. Better fitness. Burn a few calories. Better Mental health. No Doubt.
If you can get to the point where you can comfortably run for 20–60 minutes with no headphones. I defy you to stay in a bad headspace for long.

But I regularly see people trying to solve every problem by just adding MORE cardio.

Want to lose weight?
More cardio.
Had a bad weekend?
More cardio.
Not progressing?
MORE cardio.

Unless your goal is specifically to get better at cardio, it's likely you're throwing in a conflicting goal.

Because more cardio can also mean:
😴 more fatigue
🍔 more hunger
🦵 worse recovery
🏋️ poorer gym sessions

Turning every week into a marathon training plan might not be helping as much as you think 😂

If you're already tired, already struggling to recover, then suddenly decide:
“You know what I need? a 5k!.”

A plan you can recover from beats the “all in” approach 👍

Muscles don’t grow while you’re training. They grow while recovering from training. So if your muscles are already tired and trying to recover, then you keep adding MORE stimulus through extra cardio, especially lots of running or cycling, you’re often just slowing recovery down.

You can’t keep interrupting recovery and then wonder why things aren’t progressing.

❓ We’re writing an Absolute Fitness Handbook and we need your help.

Harrison and I are putting together a handbook to help everyone better understand what they’re doing and why.

For example, today I told someone:

👉 If you’re doing 1 warm-up set, around 66% of your working weight is often a good place to start.

👉 If you’re doing 2 warm-up sets, around 50% then 75% usually works well.

Simple stuff… but we realized there are loads of little things like this people often aren’t fully sure on.

So…

What questions do you have?

Nothing is too basic or too silly.

Nutrition, training, progression, the app, warm-ups, soreness, gym confidence, why we do certain things, literally anything.

If you’ve ever thought:

💭 “I probably should know this by now…”

Ask it 👇
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1REuJadFkj-YfNz2qJIvaGLTI1ZifStIrMiawnzw6HdE/

There’s a good chance others are wondering the same thing.

Some of the best questions will likely also turn into posts to help others outside the gym too 💪

Freedom earned through good habits 🍺

People often assume staying in shape means constantly being “good”.

Most of the time my diet is pretty dialed in. Lots of protein (shock), yogurt, whey, steak and eggs. Mostly whole foods, rarely takeaway, lots of fruit, a bit or veg. Generally good habits.

So when events like stags happen.. couldn't care less 👶🍺

If I want drinks, I have drinks.
Holiday? Enjoy it.
Big meal out? Great.

I don’t go on holiday and force myself into the gym either. I REST

No guilt.
No punishment cardio.
No trying to “make up for it”.

Very occasionally I’ll think “fair enough… probably rein it in a little this week” if I’ve gone particularly hard. But usually this just happens rather than a need for conscious effort.

The goal is to build habits good enough that you don’t need to think about it all the time.
Once you've created good habits, counting calories becomes unnecessary.

You absolutely can have a lifestyle where you do what you want some of the time, if the foundations are dialed in.

(Though admittedly… most people’s 20% probably doesn’t involve a nappy 😅)

www.absolute-fitness.je

🚨 Mistakes In The Gym - Part 9: Half Reps

👉 If you're not feeling a decent stretch during your exercises, you're likely leaving progress on the table

Following on from yesterday’s post about ego sneaking into training. Squats getting shallower, Chin ups missing the bottom 5-10% and Tricep extensions not going passed a right angle.

To be clear, there are times and a places for shortened reps. But if you don't know specifically why. You're almost certainly not supposed to be doing it.
🩹 injuries
🤕 pain
🏃 sport specific goals
💪 certain strength goals

But for most people trying to:
➡️ build muscle
➡️ move better
➡️ feel stronger
➡️ stay healthy

Range of motion matters A LOT.

Muscles generally respond really well to a deep stretch under load.

Think:
🏋️ deep squats
🏋️ full chest press
🏋️ proper stretch on an RDL
🏋️ letting the shoulder blade move fully on rows
If you're not feeling a decent stretch during your exercises, you're likely leaving progress on the table.

Unsurprisingly this helps mobility too. Because getting stronger in stretched positions is often FAR more useful than just sitting on the floor stretching.

You’re teaching your body “We’re strong and safe here.”

That can mean:
💪 better muscle growth
🦵 better mobility
🩹 happier joints
🏃 better movement

The body doesn’t care what number is written on the dumbbell.

It only knows:
“How much tension am I getting?”

Sometimes slightly less weight and better reps gives you WAY more from an exercise 👍

🚨 Mistakes In The Gym - Part 8

👉 You are NOT going to PB every session for the rest of your life: How ego sneaks into training without people noticing.

When you think “ego lifting” you think some bloke screaming while half repping 180kg in the squat rack.. Sometimes yes😂

More often the ego lifting I see is much quieter than that.
😅 It's someone only going 80% of the way down on their bench press because they feel they HAVE to hit the target reps or the session somehow becomes pointless.

Or someone rushing all of their reps because deep down they know:
“If I slow these down properly... this weight is probably too heavy.”

Or:
“I got 12 reps last week so I HAVE to beat that.”

Or:
“I normally use this weight, I can’t possibly go lighter today.”

The funny thing is, a lot of people who say:
“I don’t have an ego”

They absolutely do. It’s just disguised.
📉 Squats slowly get higher
🏋️ Rows become more momentum than muscle
💨 Reps get quicker and quicker
🛡️ Technique slowly changes to protect the number
People stop training the muscle, and start chasing the number.

Some days you'll be stronger. Some days you'll be weaker. That’s normal. You are not going to PB every session for the rest of your life.

If you let your ego get between you and correct form, you'll "progress" for a while, but inevitably something is going to go wrong, and you won't end up where you had planned.

😕 Know you should probably start the gym… but not sure where to begin?

You aren't lazy. Most people simply want:

🎯 To train with confidence, knowing they are doing the right things
🛡️ To avoid injuries or setbacks from getting it wrong
⏱️ To make the most of their time and actually get results
🤝 Someone helping keep them accountable when life gets busy
📋 A plan built around THEM, not a generic workout

That is exactly why people use Personal Trainers.

In Jersey, 1:1 PT is often around £50–£60 per session for 45–60 minutes.

For many people, that level of commitment is more than they’re after when just getting started.

💪 That is why we introduced PT-Led Training.

You get everything you need when getting started:

✅ A personalised program built around YOU
✅ PT support every session
✅ 1 full hour of coached training
✅ Someone making sure you are doing things properly
✅ Accountability, structure and progression
✅ A welcoming environment where you never feel left on your own

👥 Everyone follows their own personalised program, this is not a class.

Other benefits from PT-Led Training include:

👥 A supportive environment with other normal people also working on themselves
😌 Less pressure than constant one-to-one training
💬 A more relaxed atmosphere, with camaraderie rather than forced conversation
🙌 Extra encouragement from seeing others show up and make progress
📈 A structure that feels realistic enough to actually stick to

💷 What does PT-Led Training cost?

1 x per week
🕒 Perfect if time is tight
✅ £44 per coached session
(£175 per month)

⭐ Most popular when getting started

2 x per week
📈 Great for building momentum and confidence
✅ £34 per coached session
(£275 per month)

3 x per week
🔥 For those wanting faster progress and maximum support
✅ £31 per coached session
(£375 per month)

🧠 For roughly the price of a single PT session elsewhere, you could train with PT support twice per week at Absolute Fitness.

Because when you are starting out, success is not about finding the perfect program.

It is about finding something that gives enough support, enough accountability, and feels realistic enough to actually stick to.

📍 Absolute Fitness Jersey
🌐 www.absolute-fitness.je
Sign up with: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1IHQ1T8iL8bBWKwDhMnaT10dvZCIOCRiMbhuau0JxxdI

🤔 Hearing conflicting advice everywhere? You could ask AI. But would it help?

A lot of what you see online has grains of truth to it, but just because it's correct in some sense doesn't mean it's right for you. Unless you understand the nuances of fitness, most of the info you get will seem conflicting, and that's before we get into the fact some people aren't actually trying to help!

We are in the process of writing a handbook for our clients and would like to get extra feedback from our followers. Most of the questions will also be turned into posts so we can share the answers with everyone.
❌ “Lift heavy”
❌ “Do more cardio”
❌ “Eat less”
❌ “Train harder”

And half the time people aren’t even sure why they’re doing what they’re doing.

For example, someone asked us today about warm-up sets.

A general rule of thumb:

👉 If you’re doing 1 warm-up set, around 60–70% of your working weight is often a good starting point.

👉 If you’re doing 2 warm-up sets, around 50% then 70–80% often works well.

Small things like that can make training feel a lot less overwhelming.

So we're and I are putting together an AF Playbook, a growing bank of answers, guidance and explanations to help people better understand training, recovery, nutrition and getting results without overcomplicating things.

We’d love your help 👇

We’ve created a short survey to find out:
💭 What confuses people
💭 What questions people wish they could ask
💭 What would actually help people stay more consistent

Some of the best questions will likely turn into future posts and videos too.

Survey link https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1REuJadFkj-YfNz2qJIvaGLTI1ZifStIrMiawnzw6HdE

🤔 Reframing exercise.

More of us would exercise consistently if we stopped viewing fitness as:

❌ vanity
❌ punishment
❌ “getting shredded”
❌ trying to look like an influencer

And started viewing it more as:

✅ maintaining capability
✅ protecting quality of life
✅ staying physically independent
✅ having energy for the people around you
✅ making sure your body still does what you want it to do in 10-20 years time

Most people don’t actually need:

veiny arms
extreme fitness
brutal workouts
“beast mode”

Most of us would settle for:
💪 feel stronger
😴 have more energy
🩹 hurt less
🏃 move better
👨‍👩‍👧 keep up with life a bit easier

Fitness becomes much easier to stick to when we stop viewing it as punishment and start viewing it as maintenance.

A bit like brushing your teeth.

Not exciting every day.
But very important long term 👍

🤔 Life happens to the best of us.

A follow up rant to yesterdays post.

People who end up significantly out of shape rarely saw it coming. They didn't wake up one day and think "Time to slowly lose my fitness, gain weight, feel older and become less capable.”

I'll start to look after myself tomorrow, becomes an undefined location in the future. Everyone still has good intentions the whole way through.

➡️ Most people fully intend to get back into shape soon, "I'll start next month" maybe "sort themselves out after Christmas" and "focus on themselves again once life settles down"

But life moves very quickly.

We blink and suddenly:
📉 we're more tired than we used to be
🩹 things ache that never used to ache
😅 stairs feel steeper
🏃 fitness disappears
📸 we avoid photos
👕 clothes fit differently

And the scary part is it usually happens gradually enough that people barely notice it happening in real time.

That’s why I think people should stop viewing fitness as:
❌ vanity
❌ punishment
❌ “getting shredded”

And start viewing it more as:
✅ maintaining capability
✅ protecting quality of life
✅ staying physically independent
✅ keeping energy for the people around you

You don’t need to become obsessed with fitness.

But I do think most people benefit from having SOME level of physical maintenance built into their life 👍

🤔 A lot of people spend so long waiting for the “perfect time” to start that they accidentally make the whole thing harder.

Please stop me when you've filled out your particular bingo card 😂
People tell themselves they'll start when:
📅 work calms down
😌 stress drops
🔥 motivation returns
💪 they feel more confident
🏖 they get back from holiday
👶 their child gets a bit older
👨‍👩‍👧 a family member no longer needs as much support
💰 finances improve
🩹 an old injury fully settles down
⏰ they “have more time”
⚖️ they lose a bit of weight first
😅 they feel less embarrassed about starting

And to be fair sometimes that DOES make sense. There are definitely periods in life where surviving is the priority. The problem is for most peoples, life rarely suddenly becomes perfectly organised and stress free for long.

And while we're waiting, things don't stand still. They slowly (hopefully it's slowly) drift the wrong way instead.

😴 Energy drops a bit.
🏃 Fitness declines slightly.
🩹 Little aches and pains creep in.
📉 Confidence slowly gets worse because the gap between where they are and where they want to be keeps growing.

Start small. 1 hour a week.

Once people start moving more:
😴 Sleep improves a bit.
🥗 Food choices improve slightly.
💪 They feel more capable again.
📈 Momentum slowly starts building.

I'm also not a huge fan of people trying to “prepare to start”.

At some point you usually just need to begin. Even if conditions aren't perfect. Even if work is stressful. Even if realistically you can only currently manage 1 session a week.

👍 Doing something consistently while life is imperfect usually beats waiting forever for the perfect opportunity.