Directional Strength in Alphington, Victoria | Alternative & holistic health service

Directional Strength

Locality: Alphington, Victoria

Phone: +61 425 801 743

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• Medical and health
• Alternative & holistic health service
• Fitness trainer
• Nutritionist

25.01.2022 Cronometer is by far my favorite way to review my nutrition, and there are benefits here you won't find anywhere else, outside of potentially a dietetics office. One of the two main things that bothers me about My Fitness Pal is 1. Anyone can input data ... So it can be rife with errors and poor entries, whereas Cronometer has listings from international government and regulatory bodies, and you cannot input data without uploading the product barcode and packaging for reference. And most importantly 2. It doesn't tell you about the QUALITY of your diet, only the QUANTITY. Cronometer shows you how much nutrient density there is in your diet, and this is extremely valuable information during all kinds of nutritional programming and dieting styles. If I am training heavy, I know I need not just more carbohydrates, but magnesium, potassium, iron, B vitamins, zinc and calcium. All this shit is INTEGRAL to your ability to create energy within cells and to create the electrical impulses that fire up muscle fibres, and to stave off fatigue. I can see which specific nutrients I'm potentially deficient in, and which supplements are the best for my needs. I can save money by isolating which specific vitamins and minerals I need most. If I'm in a caloric deficit, it reminds me that my nutrient density can potentially be very low, and helps me make more filling, high nutrition choices so that I'm not adversely impairing recovery. It even suggests specific food for you to eat based on what important shit you're not getting. It's not going to be great for everyone, sometimes there are circumstances and people for which this doesn't help or may hinder, but for a lot of people this information would be positive reinforcement towards being more aware of not just how much you eat, but how well your diet might be serving your health or sports specific needs. My blog, "Eat Your Damn Vegetables" goes into more detail about the importance of a high nutrient density diet: https://directionalstrength.com/eatyourdamnvegetables/

25.01.2022 Further to this, training is also a form of stress. When you are able to recover, it's eustress - a positive, beneficial stimulus from which we can grow and adapt. If your training intensity, duration or volume is only further compounding your recovery capacity - it's time to look at more moderate forms.... If you come in for a PT session on very little sleep, feeling shit and overworked - we will do a technical session, work on deep belly breathing and stretching, and strategically choose exercises to improve postural or mobility concerns. Not every session has to be brutal.

24.01.2022 Probably the widest researched blog I ever wrote, and The most fucking important one. Discover "One cool trick" to reduce your likelihood of disease, reduce your bodyfat, stabilise mood, reduce blood pressure, reduce stress levels, improve digestion, increase performance and strength and improve your overall quality of life.

24.01.2022 This is going to come across as an SJW-esque post, but I believe it needs to be said and heard. Other people's weight is none of your business. Be cautious about complimenting people on their weight loss post quarantine, or commenting on your or anyone else's weight gain. ...Continue reading

23.01.2022 We all know, or have been, that person that slashes their calories (and carbs) stupidly low overnight, then embarks on hours of cardio every day, with lifting on top. For the first couple of weeks you might feel good (hello adrenalin!), see dramatic fat loss and believe you're on the fast track to looking jacked and lean for life. Then all of a sudden, you're farting like Satan is inside your anus and he's trying to escape.... You can't eat anything without blowing up and looking 6 months pregnant. You can't sleep longer than two hours at a time, and you feel your most alert when you should be asleep. You rely on caffeiene to keep yourself alert, and you can't focus on anything. You have dropped a lot of scale weight but you don't look any leaner, and you can't get a pump if your life depended on it, and As soon as you start eating normally again, you seem to accumulate bodyfat and weight overnight. All of the above can be prevented by knowing the signs your body will give you. Your body will TELL YOU when this kind of approach is a bad idea. If only you knew how to listen? This will be the most important post I've ever written, as I'll show you exactly what you need to know in order to make better decisions for your performance, training approach, fat loss and health. If you take my advice on board, you'll be able to coach yourself FOR LIFE, and know in advance when your approach isn't working for you. https://directionalstrength.com/biofeedback/

22.01.2022 Brenda and Beverley are the most wonderful, vivacious women I've ever met I get so many people say to me they love seeing their training videos, and why wouldn't you? Strong is any age.... Any size. Any place in life. These two inspire the absolute hell out of me

22.01.2022 Had this great question from my online coaching group, and I wanted to expand on my answer a little bit because I think it's relevant to almost everyone Q: Should I keep track of calories burned through exercise? A: No....Continue reading

21.01.2022 A staggering 85% of people with a past or current eating disorder have had their symptoms worsened by COVID. (Link in comments.) And I can attest, as I've had struggles with eating habits and my relationship with my body return recently that I thought I'd left in the past. When I was at my lowest point with ED, I would binge and purge daily. I would engage in body checking ritualistically, I would assess my sense of worth solely based on how lean I was in the mirror. At my ...Continue reading

19.01.2022 My motivation is highest when I'm getting results. But when I'm getting results - it's not because I'm motivated - it's because I'm consistent. Motivation, like any other emotional state - wavers constantly. It's fleeting, temporary and rarely produces any long term, meaningful change. Motivation is at it's strongest only AFTER we see progress. So,... How about instead of fucking about and procrastinating, or wasting time finding "the best" way to act, we just act? If I skip workouts or avoid eating well because I'm not motivated, I'm skipping the hours of practice, the hours of stimulus, the hours of self efficacy and skill acquisition that I need to get better, fitter, leaner, bigger or stronger. How I feel about my session or my food doesn't matter. Doing it is what matters. Do it anyway, get excited later when you see how your consistency has paid off.

19.01.2022 The perception of many people in regards to hiring a coach is outdated, and there is a huge difference between a coach and a PT. A coach is not just there to count your reps and shout orders or to force you to train, but we have a number of tools on our belt that can dramatically change your life for the better. ... Every session involves looking at aspects of your entire well-being, from what you eat, to how you move, to deciphering the best course of action to get you from where you are now to where you want to be. All done without judgement, without guilt or shame and with your best interests in mind. Over the past 11 years I've never once stopped learning, studying or adapting because I strongly believe that investment in my own knowledge and experience can vastly fast track results for those who have just started right through to amateur athletes. I've made many mistakes so that you don't have to. If you're feeling uncomfortable in your body after a long period of inactivity, but have been skeptical of personal trainers - it's having a session with a coach just to get an idea of how much faster you can progress, and how much better it can be when you have someone in your corner who's job is to make you stronger in every sense of the word.

18.01.2022 TW: I refer to eating disorders & body dysmorphia briefly in this post. I also swear alot - but fuck it - you should be used to that by now. * * * * A client and very good friend of mine suggested that the topic of shame is more important to illuminate now than ever. (Fucking right on, too!) ...Continue reading

17.01.2022 My gorgeous client Pippa has been going from strength to strength these past few months and her hard work is paying off nicely! We started working on structural balance for our first training phase, spending about 6 weeks improving her hip stability and glute recruitment, and getting more mobility to her upper body by stretching through her thoracic spine and targeting her rhomboids and lower traps. After the first two weeks of training, Pippa's body responded so well she st...opped getting weekly massages and hasn't had to see her chiro nearly as often. Since then we've done another 2 phases, getting some hypertrophy, muscular endurance and cardio fitness, in preparation for Pippa to do a full bodyweight chin up. Even though we haven't been looking at body fat loss or any specific sculpting goals, Pippa's body shape has changed and she's sporting some mad guns and wings and a 6 pack. I am really blown away by some of the strong, successful women I'm lucky enough to train and Pippa has been such a delight.

17.01.2022 I've heard a few clients this week express their concern that by losing weight / bodyfat they will get weaker. Others have also mentioned that you need to drop weight first, then add muscle later. NOTHING COULD BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH The most effective diet and training strategy for fat loss is one that will PREVENT muscle tissue loss and manages overtraining and recovery. ... Keepto these three guidelines and you'll be fine; DIET - Eat at a moderate calorie deficit most of the time, with only short term or limited amounts of dramatic deficits. A moderate deficit might be around 20-25% less calories than your maintenance (taking activity into account). A stricter deficit could be up to 50% but you MUST monitor this closely and know when to pull back.If you have a lot of body fat to lose, you're far less likely to lose muscle mass and can diet harder because your body has more stored energy. Most people underestimate how long it will take them to get to their goal weight, and will push crash diets upon themselves until they inevitably fail. Starving yourself then binging is a good way to lose muscle and perpetually lose and gain the same 5kgs. Play the long game, and if you're gonna diet hard, do it smart and do it for a shorter period of time. TRAINING - Train each muscle group twice or more per week, with a variety of rep ranges from around 6-25. If you have a lot of fat to lose, cardio is your friend. It promotes the growth of mitochondria in the muscle which are the "engines" of the cells, helping to boost your cellular health and ability to burn energy. It also reduces blood pressure and resting heart rate, and can help with sleep quality and quantity and helps you recover faster. Remember, your DIET governs the vast majority of body fat loss. Use training to retain muscle tissue and to keep your systems healthy, not to burn calories. (Which it's remarkably poor at, to be honest.) RECOVERY - Keep an eye on your strength and track changes to things like your sleep, any tendon and joint pain or stiffness and a bunch of other biofeedback that can tell you when you need to pull back. MORE TRAINING IS NOT BETTER. If you're training more, EAT MORE. Avoid dropping calories and increasing volume at the same time if you want to stay strong. Periods of NOT dieting can go a long way to keeping you mentally sane, physically fit and robust. The closer you get to your goal weight, the more you may need to establish diet breaks, refeeds and tapers in training volume. This is where biofeedback and a long term plan can come in handy. I've written a couple of blogs if you need more info on things like establishing a reasonable deficit, as well as how to track biofeedback and what changes to those variables can indicate. Links are in the comments.

16.01.2022 One of the most common nutrition questions I receive are enquiries related to a specific style of eating or dieting. Ie what do I think about keto / IF / low carb etc. There are MANY different ways to skin a cat. If a particular style of eating works for you in that it is preferable, sustainable and is supportive of your health, performance and fitness goals - then go nuts. ... Problems do arise however, when a couple of key tennants of eating aren't adhered to. We know that - eating a high protein diet and engaging in regular activity, particularly resistance training, helps preserve lean muscle tissue. - a higher fibre diet will support fat loss by way of helping us adhere to a calorie deficit, and high fibre diets are synonymous with a high nutrient density and more fruit and vegetable consumption. - flexibility with your eating habits is more successful long term than rigid, set-in-stone concepts of what is "good" and "bad" food. - a calorie deficit will reduce inflammation, increase insulin sensitivity and result in fat mass being lost provided that the above factors are met. Intermittent fasting for example, may help us to eat less food. But if you're not eating high protein, high fibre and sustaining a calorie deficit - it's defunct. The same can be said for keto, low fat or any other of the hundreds of diet approaches that have been circulating of late and that come in and out of fashion. Avoid black or white thinking when it comes to your choice of diet, feel free to be flexible with your approach and choose something that aligns with your lifestyle and personal preference. Beyond the above factors, THERE IS NO "ONE" BEST APPROACH. And what may work for a few months will not work forever. For example, if you're more sedentary a very low carb diet can be beneficial - but if you're trying to train 4-6x a week with any measure of intensity, you'd be a fool to think that this would be advantageous. Stop assuming that weight loss on the scale is a marker of success independent of other vital information that may show your efforts to be counterproductive; "Focusing just on weight loss may lead one to assume benefit when there could be harm, says Weiss. The lean mass example is a good one. Losing 1 kg (2.2 lb) of mass =/= a kg of fat. Indeed, if one loses 0.65 kg (1.4 lb) of lean mass and only 0.35 kg (0.8 lb) fat mass, that is an intervention I’d probably pass on.

13.01.2022 I was asked a question today that I wanted to share with you guys, as it's a commonly asked one and something I think might help us in iso to develop some better strengths that will pay off when we can finally return to the gym later. Can you / should you train your abs every day? Yes, you can. But whether or not you *should* will be individual. ...Continue reading

12.01.2022 Gyms open back up today and all I can say is.... THANK F*CK FOR THAT Not being able to work and all the associated trouble that brings aside, I REALLY miss heavy lifting. ...Continue reading

12.01.2022 YOUR BODY IS NOT A PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED From my early twenties up until my 30s, I was unable to look at myself in the mirror without criticising everything. Too big, not big enough, too fat, too much shape here, not enough there etc. The thing is that even at my leanest, when I was about 13% bodyfat and 57kg, I was my most critical. My happiness had nothing to do with how my body actually looked, but it was a dumping ground for my anxieties and any worthiness and confidence ...issues I was having. Bodybuilding and figure contests only further exacerbated those issues and I was at the height of my eating disorder for most of my competitive experience. I'm happy to say that I am now completely at ease with my body. I have no desire to lose weight, add muscle or change my shape. I'm happy just to train hard, get stronger and eat to perform. The way my body looks is not something I think of very often anymore, whereas it used to be constant, unrelenting background noise. There's no part I want to change, because I know that how my body looks doesn't change my worth. This has also affected my coaching style. I don't care if my clients don't lose weight. When they bring up things they don't like about their bodies, or mention that they want to change their shape in some way - I listen, but I don't comment. I make sure they know I heard them, but then I change the subject. I ask about how they slept. I take their blood pressure and resting heart rate. I ask them about their food choices and what struggles they've had. I ask them to make sure they're adding weight to the bar, getting enough rest, having good quality time with friends and if they are taking time out for themselves daily. I ask about their poops. All of the above are measures of health and fitness. They tell me how much stress you are under, where we can improve your quality of life, and how we might manipulate your nutrition and programming to enhance your PERFORMANCE. This focus on performance is what brought me out of a very long and intense, toxic relationship with my body that lasted for over a decade. Getting stronger, fitter, sleeping better, being happier - this all positively influences your body composition at the same time as improving your quality of life. So instead of chasing fat loss and tearing yourself apart for not looking a certain way, get stronger. Sleep better. Eat to fuel and not to punish yourself. Move because you love it, and do whatever exercise makes you happy. If you don't want to eat carbs, don't. If you want to eat carbs, do. There's no magic formula excepting the fact that you need to be able to stick to it and there is always tbe right tools for certain jobs. Stop thinking you'll be happier when you look a certain way. Start focusing on performance, you'll feel more confident and strong mentally and physically, and your body will change for the better as a fringe benefit - without the stress of hating it.

11.01.2022 I'm reposting a rant I wrote earlier this year as I believe it's even more important now than it was then. Gyms are opening back up next week and I am starting to get a lot of enquiries from new clients who want help with weight loss. Remember that you have just experienced a fucking PANDEMIC. Our coping mechanisms have come to the fore and we've all learned both good and bad things about ourselves and how we act under pressure. Everyone has experienced this slightly diffe...Continue reading

10.01.2022 Amid the current clusterfuck of limited basic food and essentials, cancelled gigs, holidays and people working from home - your training doesn't have to suffer. If your gym is closed or is likely to close, get yourself the following equipment: - a heavy KB or set of DBs, I'd recommend at least 10-12kg for training your legs and back... - a long, looped resistance band, light and medium will have you covered, and - a small looped band for your butt and for external rotation work If you have a chin up bar, that's fucking ace. If not, the above already has you covered for every muscle group. You may need to adapt your training modality but you don't need to stop making fitness or muscle gains. Metabolic, cardio and higher intensity work will be very effective for you if you want to use the opportunity to shred or increase your muscular endurance. Unfortunately, much like so many other industries my PT work is going to go to shit and has already dropped by over 50%. To keep myself in baked beans, and to keep you fit, I'm currently creating some online coaching programs and options which are cost effective and flexible. I'll be posting more about these in the coming days, in between mourning the loss of local metal gigs, international holidays and pub shenanigans.

10.01.2022 This blog series was inspired by a client who is doing the Michelle Bridges 12WBT and was on 1200 calories. I instantly knew this was not enough for her and have advised she eat more. If you are under the impression that "Women need 1200 calories to lose weight and men need 1500," or you're doing a non-tailored, non individualised diet, fasting or doing anything that may drop your calories very low - then please take the time to understand how it may affect your health and y...our performance. Check out part 1 of a 2 part series aimed to help you understand how your body responds to a diet. This part covers what occurs on a hormonal and physical level when you implement a deficit that is unnecessarily high, persistent or mismatched to your energy output. Part 2 will then cover some easily implementable strategies to prevent you from taking your diet too far for too long. Click the link below to get stuck into Part 1! https://directionalstrength.com/dietpart1/

09.01.2022 Dieting is pretty fucked. We often start out excited and motivated to see change, and begin altering our daily inake with gusto. But after awhile, you just can't be bothered anymore.... Especially for those who have a lot of weight to lose, the idea that you have to spend months in calorie deficit can be overwhelming. One of my clients has lost a significant amount of weight in iso, over 15kg. Chatting to him this morning I was reminded that he has spent such a long time dieting that it's time that he took a break. Tomorrow I'm going to send him an update to his nutrition plan which will take him out of a deficit and a fat loss state for at least two weeks. Every so often, it's imperative that you stop dieting. Stop tracking food. Stop actively trying to lose fat and increase your calories. Diet breaks are an essential part of mitigating the lack of mental energy and enthusiasm for dieting, and can give you a bit of breathing space. Often, knowing that you have periodic phases of eating more can help you to diet harder and more consistently during your fat loss phases. Of course, there are physiological benefits to this too. Eating in a deficit for a prolonged period will increase stress hormones, impair sleep quality, potentially affect your digestion, increase muscle loss and drive you into a sympathetic state. By eating at maintenance you can not just get a mental break but you can effectively reset your nervous system and potentiate more lean muscle. Often, those who are highly strung and psychologically driven to achieve a specific look will avoid doing this even though they know that they need to. In truth, losing weight can be easier than maintenance. Most people can lose, but most people cannot maintain what they have lost, so spending time living at your new lowered weight is probably more important than the dieting phase. Just remember that fat loss is a marathon and not a sprint, and your food intake should be manipulated in the same manner as your training - sometimes you go harder, sometimes you rest.

07.01.2022 I am so excited to be back in the gym and to have old clients come back to hit some of the goals that we all put on hold during iso! Ryan is a Viking reenactor and competes in axe and sword battles as well as Viking wrestling or "Glima." We're aiming to get him strong as hell for his show fights and competitions next year, as well as to rehabilitate a few back issues which have raised their head again during the months at home. We finished our session today with a kettlebell and a macebell complex - 20 reps KB swings and then 10 each side of a macebell halo / 360. The macebell is only 6kg but feels like a tonne because the weight is all distributed at the end of the handle. It's perfect for core work, shoulder rehabilitation and mobility and really gets your heart rate up.

07.01.2022 One of my Facebook memories popped up the other day from when I was bodybuilding and doing extreme dieting and training. At the peak of my craziness, I was eating only 750 calories, no carbs and doing two training sessions and over 3 hours of training a day. In addition, I was studying a business degree part time and then spending 2 hours a day travelling to a corporate job in the city. The post said; "All I've eaten is chicken breast and veggies, and my stomach has swollen ...so bad I look 6 months pregnant. What the hell?" This actually went on for years after I finished the diet. I went to different doctors, had a colonoscopy, went to a gastroenterologist and even after they stuffed a camera up my bum - they couldn't find anything. That's because they never once asked me about my diet (scary right!). They never once asked me what I was doing with my exercise. They never asked me if I was sleeping properly, if I was stressed, if I was overdoing it. Gut issues are NOT NORMAL. If you are burning the candles at both ends, you can expect to get bloated, to have indigestion, to get the runs or constipation or to have protein farts so bad you could kill a small child. Funny story about that actually, I farted in a toy store once when my gut health was at it's poorest, and a mother asked her infant if he had "gone poos." Your gut health is directly related to your recovery. If the stress levels you are either experiencing OR submitting yourself to because you don't know any better, or you're dieting chronically and training too hard are beyond your capacity to recover - then YOU are causing these gut issues and the only thing you can do to resolve it, is to lower your stress levels. When your stress levels are too high, you will be constantly in a sympathetic state, which reduces blood flow to your stomach, reduces your immunity, drives up your blood sugar levels and prevents food from being adequately digested. The junctions within your intestines which should allow for small amounts of your digested food to enter will widen, and allow for larger fragments to enter the bloodstream. Further to this, high levels of stress can affect the amount of saliva and gastric juices you produce. We also tend to eat too fast and chew our food too little - and eating when you're stressed, chronically overtraining and undereating is only going to further compound this issue. If you still look like ET after you have eaten your gluten, dairy, wheat, egg and nut free, eliminate-everything diet - you need to work on reducing your STRESS. Without this, you won't improve. Your training and diet is likely CONTRIBUTING to your issues and doing more of it is only going to perpetuate the stress load. Since addressing my sleeping patterns, workload and training recovery and integrating a WIDER amount of food in my diet - I can fart knowing I won't make people vomit.

07.01.2022 I started my career as a PT over a decade ago coaching bodybuilders. After years of eating disorders and body dyamorphia I shifted my focus to getting strong and just feeling happier in my body. Now I have more of a powerlifting and sports performance angle, particularly when it comes to understanding how to both prevent and rehabilitate injuries. The common key with all of these training modalities is structural balance.... Structural balance is the concept that every muscle, every joint is in equipoise - no one part of the body is stronger, bigger or disproportionate to another. Obviously this is a concept and typically never completely achieved, but it's pursuit is important. What's the point of having a massive chest if your back isn't equally strong? This is a factor for shoulder dysfunction and upper body injury. What's the point of training your glutes constantly if you haven't addressed how it will affect how your body moves and your hips are sitting? Maybe your giant ass is actually a pelvic tilt that will keep grinding on your lower back and make deadlifting painful as hell. Giving equal consideration to all muscle groups is not just a matter of aesthetics, but also functionality and performance. Your muscles will pull on your joints and skeletal structure, so overdoing one particular movement pattern can affect the firing of entire muscle groups and kinetic chains. Consider your programming, posture and mobility carefully, and try to address your specific structural weaknesses. Stop using other people's programs, or only doing the things you're already strong and good at, or favouring muscles which are already dominant. If you do crossfit, F45 or any other training structure non specific to your individual structure, consider doing extra work outside those sessions to address potential issues.

06.01.2022 PT RESUMES NEXT MONTH! So happy to say that due to changes to restrictions, I can resume business as normal as of the 22nd of June :) I am now taking bookings / popping clients back into my schedule, (although please note available times may have changed).... To book, please email me at [email protected]

06.01.2022 If you're a regular gym-goer who is lamenting the lack of heavy weights available - it might be time to change your perspective. This is the perfect opportunity for us to work on the aspects of our fitness which we'd previously neglected. Yep - cardio.... Doing reps higher than 5, aerobic training, circuits or metabolic work can be a HUGE advantage for your training later. It may even mean that you come back to the gym with potential to be stronger, leaner, better recovered and more capable of nailing hard, high volume training than you ever were before. https://directionalstrength.com/cardiohacks/

05.01.2022 Logan came to see me a few weeks ago for regular sessions to pimp his deadlift - and I am more than happy to oblige! The deadlift is mechanically a really simple movement pattern - but like anything it can be overthought and easily messed up with a few little mistakes. So what are we looking at with a deadlift - what is it that we need to refine in order to make it work?... Here's a couple of simple concepts we need to cover if your deadlift is going to improve, and I'll be using this photo of Logan in the perfect setup position to reinforce the reasons why we need to adapt these technical cues; 1. The bar path is over the middle of the foot and shoulder or the scapula This enables the bar to move in a perfectly straight line up and down, which is the most efficient way to lift. It makes the weight feel lighter by utilising all of the posterior chain muscles to maximum effect. 2. The bar path does not change once the bar comes off the floor Any movement of the bar away from you, particularly away from your legs, is a loss of potential energy and signifies that the wrong muscles are moving when they should not be. 3. The knees do NOT come forward Ugh. This one. This cue is CONSTANTLY messed up and it does take a long time to get. You will feel like you're going to fall over, you will feel like you have no balance initially, but this is where you learn to drive your knees OUT into your elbows. This creates tension both front and back, and left to right, which enables you to recruit your entire glute and hip extensor complex. When your knees come forward, you're messing up cues #1 and #2, and you're trying to squat the weight off the floor. This is not only inefficient, but has the potential to cause serious lower back issues. 4. Your core and lats help to keep your spine neutral They do this by sustaining constant tension. So bracing and knowing how to isometrically contract (to squeeze a muscle without moving it) is essential. Just learning to brace can have a dramatic effect upon both your strength and your lower back integrity. If you are not sure if your deadlift technique is correct, ask yourself 3 simple quesitons; 1 - When I start from the floor, is the bar over the midline of the foot and below the midline of the shoulders and my knees behind the bar? 2 - When the bar moves, do I lose tension anywhere / are there any muscles that change position from the time the bar leaves the floor to the time I lock out? 3 - Are the HIPS the prime movers in the the lift? Take a video from side on, and use these tips to analyse your progress. It may feel weird to begin with, but over time you'll notice HUGE differences to your deadlift technique, strength and lower back safety.

03.01.2022 In light of COVID, I think we have all been doing some suboptimal shit. Not sleeping enough or too much, eating too little or too much, moving too little (rarely too much) and not getting enough healthy food in - and I include myself in this picture too. As a result, I've had a few clients ask me a question along the lines of; "If I do X suboptimal thing every so often, how bad is it?"...Continue reading

01.01.2022 I had a client a few years ago who broke my heart. After three months of working together, she'd gotten fitter, stronger and leaner and was looking happy. Everytime I saw her for the initial phase of our training, she was healthier and more at ease within herself. Then something happened. She started going backwards - she began putting weight back on, her work was a huge stressor, her family life was also incredibly demanding and she wasn't sleeping. All the hard work we pu...Continue reading

01.01.2022 This used to be me :/ And I was coaching people at the time. I shudder now to think of what behaviors and mindsets I might have passed on to my clients, especially when I was a bodybuilding coach, and was struggling with bulimia, binge-purge cycles, chronic overtraining and chronic undereating. ... Now I'm not saying that you should never seek to improve your diet or your body composition, or work on building muscle. In many circumstances this will have a drastic improvement on your overall health and longevity. I am saying that there are more important things that need to be worked on first, and changes to your body should never come at the expense of your mental health and well-being. If you are using food to cover childhood or past trauma, relationship issues, stress or other critical mental health factors - "dieting" is only going to further enhance your food fixation, because dieting will involve taking away your coping strategy. Emotional eating as an adult has been linked to adversity in our younger years (reference in comments) and it may take some time to work through. It WON'T happen overnight, so don't force it. It will take some time and a lot of emotional work to build a new self-identity. For me, that process involved changing from a fixation on how I looked, to an appreciation of what I could DO. If you need a referral to a trusted, licensed clinical psychologist who can help - please send me a DM.

01.01.2022 There is a saying in business which is essentially, "adapt - or die." So I'm going to make the best of a bad situation and implement a new way of doing business that allows everyone, no matter what equipment they have available, to keep training during quarantine. Starting today, Apocalypse Shredding begins.... Twice daily, 6 days per week I will post two workouts to the closed, members only group, geared predominantly towards improving cardio, core strength and muscular endurance. A bodyweight only workout will be posted live before 12 each day, and then one using a DB/KB and resistance bands before 6pm. Any questions on nutrition will be answered for no extra cost, and if you need a tailored diet plan or training program they are going to be half price until all this shit blows over. Send me a DM if you want further details. Let's use this opportunity to nail some goals and keep ourselves healthy.