Conversations with clean eating / industry morons

I'll go on record as saying that I utterly fucking despise about 90% of this stinking industry, the people in it and all that they stand for.

That is... not so much the local trainers taking people to the park or the gym or whatever for a work out. I mightn't think someone's approach to training is the best and most efficient but if they're well intentioned, getting people into some healthy activity, making it enjoyable and keeping it safe all power to them. Personally... I got my own way of doing things that I believe in, but I'd never say it's the ONLY thing that will work or that anyone else is obliged to do the same.

I'm talking about the self branded "diet and exercise" guru types all over the internet. I hate that the majority of the exercise business is more about "what'll people sign up for?" than "what do people actually need to do to meet their goals?" as well... which is why there's a new dance based fitness craze every couple of years that makes some people a fuck tonne of money but delivers nothing in terms of physical results to clients. It explains why gym chains in the US ban any serious types of lifts and market on the basis that they're NOT for people serious about health, fitness or training for any sort of result or goal.

I fucken hate all of that shit but most of all I hate the aforementioned gurus on the internet and their disciples in the business spreading their disordered, damaging, unfounded bullshit fkn ideas to the unsuspecting public at large. What I believe happens is that new people with good intentions go out and get a certification and set up business as a trainer. Usually, they come out of the certification process still bewildered about how to help people, which is a whole other issue I should write a post about soon as well. So, with the best of intentions they join some networking group to learn from people who are already in the business and BOOM that's when it happens, they're easy pickings for jerkoffs marketing some special dieting system or other based on a bunch of half truths, bro-science or flat out eating disorder based "logic".

You can go through the testimonials on my various websites, the comments on my facebook and so on... and you'll see that in almost every case I have coached my clients to success based on INCREASING their calorific intake and DITCHING any restrictive notions they had about "good" or "bad" foods. You can see messages I've got from people who have finally achieved their goal figure, stopped feeling guilty or ashamed about eating, and stopped hating themselves for failing to meet some impossible standard of "clean eating" that was never necessary in the first place. You don't see so many of the messages from people who tell me that reading my free program has helped them beat the binge eating disorder they developed by trying to follow ridiculous "clean eating" protocols created either by scam artists or by orthorexic trainers trying to normalise their own disordered way of thinking by spreading it to other people. I keep that shit private.

And yet despite all of that, cretins in the industry want to argue with me that you can't be successful in weight loss and body composition goals with a flexible approach to dieting (IIFYM). I've proven it a dozen times over as have the other 10% or so of knowledgeable, ethical & empathic trainers who use a similar approach.

Read More

It's time for ME to get back into shape for Spring and Summer

Did I mention I've started my own fat loss campaign last week after (strategically) gaining 8kg over the course of the year so far? My long term goal is to be a bit bigger than I am now, but also lean. So, in trying to build up over the winter you accept that you're likely to gain some fat in the process, which you trim off again in the spring with the goal of being as lean as last summer, but 4 or 5kg heavier.

This year I was coasting along not too worried about how much fat I put on because "hey, have a look at the ladies I coach and judge me on that... not on what I look like while in a bulking phase", right? Well... that's all well and good up to a point, but as of the week before last I decided it was time to dial in some tighter nutrition targets and exercise a little self control in the kitchen until I look a bit more like a trainer again.

This is quite standard practice for males and some females with the goal of increasing size. Now, some people at a highly advanced level will have it down to such a fine art (or should I say science?) that they can gain a significant amount of muscle without gaining a significant amount of fat... but for the most of us, well... the fat and bloat comes off quite quickly and easily as soon as the time comes to dial in a nutrition plan and perhaps make some necessary adjustments to training. For the record I haven't changed my training routine yet but I may do so in the future if I'm not satisfied with my progress back towards an appropriate physique for pool season.

This isn't really a post about my own progress and goals though. It's a little eye opener into some deceptive marketing tactics other trainers may use, and why you should be sceptical of trainers posting their own before and after "transformation" photos.

You've no double seem them before, along with the "I got so busy helping other people, I forgot to look after myself and suddenly realised I'd gotten quite badly out of shape" and maybe also "after trying different strategies for years I finally found the one method for amazing results in half the time"... some top secret thing only known to them and their fitness guru who learned it from the ghost of Bruce Lee while astral travelling or some shit no doubt. And then there's the photos of them starting out looking like your average out of shape office worker, and ending up looking like a pro athlete 6 weeks later.

And you're supposed to think "wow, I could look like that in 6 weeks too then!", right? What a load of bollocks.

That muscular physique they're showing in the "after" picture was already there, just hidden a little under some excess fat, some bloat and fluid retention. Maybe the lighting in the first picture was less flattering as well, and they're standing with slouched posture too. This stuff makes a big difference!

Now, the position I'm in right now and these other guys would be in is that you've been training a long time, and are able to perform at a level far above the capabilities of the average client, especially a new one. Having trained hard and eating at a surplus all year so far, the body is trained to build as much muscle as possible and use all of this to fuel, recover and adapt to training. What little it can't find a use for ends up stored as fat... but the point is, it wants to build muscle. Now, come spring time we reduce calories to an amount suitable to drop whatever weight we have added in fat stores... the body still wants to build muscle, still wants to use everything we give it to fuel, recover and adapt to training... BOOM, that little bit of fat is going to come off relatively quickly, not to mention any food bloat and fluid retention will drop off within the first week or two in my experience.

So... that's what's going on in most of those photos you may see from trainers marketing online. It is quite deceptive to imply that there is anything "special" going on because of how magical their program is, and very deceptive to imply that the average deconditioned new client will achieve the same sort of transformation in a similar amount of time.

You guys know by now that I don't go in for any of that sort of chicanery, so in other words; no new photos until I'm back in shape.

Read More

I got some broscience theories of my own though

Broscience aint all bad. I mean... it's bad when people come up with a load of crap about "this is the only way you can do it because science, bro" and especially when it's relation to restrictive eating plans they're selling to vulnerable clients or (worse) to well intentioned trainers who think they're learning something that'll help their clients, but is actually just overcomplicating things and making it harder for people to succeed.

On the other hand though... we've all got different ways we prefer to do things, and if it's working - good. You don't necessarily need to be able to reference 16 different studies that confirm that it works. So sometimes it's more like "well I like to do it this way, and it seems to me that [this] is what's happening... anyway it is producing results so whatever that's the main thing".

So I came up with this broscience theory that's good enough for me, about my own training program. Some of you are familiar with my Power, Precision and Pump program which is a movement based program split into pushing movements one day, pulling movements the next, and then repeat with a different choice of exercises and so on. Also you've got both upper body and lower body movements each day.

Now, I've upgraded this and called it Ultimate Power, Precision & Pump and there's a new Push / Legs / Pull section early in the week. So the schedule now looks like this:

Day One: Push Day (upper body)
Day Two: Legs Day
Day Three: Pull Day (upper body)
Day Four: Push Day (full body, more upper body stuff with some legs in the middle)
Day Five: Pull Day (full body, more upper body stuff with some hip flexion & hamstrings in the middle)
Day Six: Push Day (big legs day with a little incline press or something in the middle)
Day Seven: Pull Day (deadlifts, a little upper back or traps stuff and then more hamstrings)

So to start with, it seemed like the first three days were going to the hard ones, since it's just smashing the same body parts over and over again. There's actually more exercises on those days as well. But I will tell you what, I am actually finding my traditional, full body PPP days harder to get through.

So.... and yep this is total broscience I admit... it feels like from Day Four onward, the body is used to just doing one section in a session, and when I switch from upper body to lower body half way through (and then back again) there's this confusion with the body trying to decide where it's supposed to send resources for recovery and refuelling before the next set or exercise.

Now that may or may not be a load of nonsense, but I like how it is working out so far so I'm gonna stick with it. Different amounts of work for each section per session, different angles of movements, different choices of apparatus, different rep ranges, different amounts of time between sets, different amounts of days between hitting the same body parts again... I believe all of this stuff contributes to an effective program. At the very least, it keeps it a bit more interesting than just going in and doing the same stuff every second or third day.

Read More