Reviews
HAVE YOU GOT A MISSING LINK? . We MUST have a mindset that wants to achieve what we say we want to achieve. . So, want to grow muscle? Why do you want to grow muscle?... . Understanding your vision is essential… . Is it because you hate the skinny identity associated to you? . Is it because you hate how clothes hang off you? . Is it because you are weak? . Is it because you want more right swipes on Tinder? . Is there a celebrity or “influencer” who’s body you aspire to have (FYI, that’s cool) . For me, it was all the above, apart from tinder 👀. . Once you have that reason, that underlining reason to achieve that dream physique, it all clicks. . The next obstacle is knowledge and experience, but you can overcome that with a quality coach or following the right people who are out to genuinely help people. . Other than knowledge, relentless mindset to grow and repeating the necessary actions daily. . What else do you need? . TIME. . Be Patient . Remember KET . Knowledge, Experience and Time. . Left picture 60(ish)kg right picture 81kg . Don’t forget you can pick up a copy of my FREE skinny to muscle guide by heading to the LINK IN MY BIO. . If you feel you need more accountability and someone to take control of your training, nutrition and learn to balance training with your lifestyle. Same link IN MY BIO and apply for 1-1 coaching. . #team24j
See More
I don't know about you but I've always wanted bigger arms. they're less small now and I'll explain exactly how I've done it and how you can too. . Watch and find out how to go from spaghetti 🍜 arms to swans 🦢 👀 . No stupid finishers... No stupid supersets No muscle confusion . just straight up proper methods to get bigger biceps. . If you want to get a bigger all round physique, download my skinny to muscle guide LINK IN BIO.
See More
THE NUTRITION TRICK . I know, man got skills 🤙 . I say trick, it's not so much a trick, it's just never really spoken about in terms of application.... . Anyway, "the trick" . Aka planning but that's still too vague. . Let's break it down even further. . 1. Work out macros (feel free to DM if you want help with this) . 2. Meal frequency per day . 3. Food timing - When can you actually eat and what is doable / convenient. . 4. Nutrition blueprint . Point 4, takes a bit of time / planning. It's as follows, you want to have a plan A, B, C and maybe D for every meal you consume. . For example, you have 4 go to breakfast meals that all hit your goals and tally up to similar macros. . Have this setup for each meal. . Before the day starts choose your meals. . Stick to the plan above. . Why does this work? . You dont require a decision everytime you come to eat. These usual decisions are a battle of what needs to be included in those meals to hit your goals. This drains your willpower. . But if you've spent some time doing this so you know what selection of meals you have the decision making is all but gone. . But what about socials? . This is easy, you know roughly how many calories per meal you have. Skip one of your meals and add the extra food available onto the evening meal / social you have planned. . Job done. . #team24j
See More
ARE YOU THE PROBLEM? . We are very good at focussing on the things we don’t like. . We always focus on the negatives.... . It’s in our nature. . For example, when you’re booking a hotel, you always look through the negative reviews before the positive ones. . Despite there being thousands of positive reviews, you focus on the 10 negative ones. . I’m guilty of this and after having a chat with someone today they are too. . Thing is, I had no idea about what he termed his “problem area” and he had no idea about mine. . I also went on to tell them that no one in the gym would know about it and believe me everyone associates them with having a fantastic physique, he has your typical V taper physique competitor look. . So, the message I’m trying to get across here is, yes, I’m sure there are parts of your physique you might not be happy with. . But focus on the positives and use your strengths to improve your physique. . Put it this way, if someone came to me to help them look their best in a limited time, I wouldn’t waste loads of time with the areas that are lagging but further improve the areas that aren’t which draws the attention away from lagging body parts. . Use your strengths to your advantage. . Instead of me asking what you don’t like about your physique, what DO you like about your physique?
See More
🔵 Spend more time with friends and family 🔵 Play sport 🔵 Day dream about lifting weights 🔵 Consume more fats and less carbs 🔵 Do 30 minutes light cardio (120-140BPM)... 🔵 Mobility work 🔵 Ab exercises 🔵 Take a break from caffeine . Just an FYI, these are things you could do not what you have to do. All can benefit, some more than others and depends on the person’s life and commitments away from the gym. . Also make sure you have at least one full day of rest from weights. . What do you implement on a rest day?
See More
SHARING FROM MY PERSONAL PAGE
Been holding this one in for a while...
And the caption below.
... If you know someone who is in the process of losing weight and they have lost weight and are looking visibly leaner.
Telling them they don't need to lose anymore is NOT a positive comment and when heard on a frequent basis can really mess with someone's head.
The person losing weight is not doing it solely to look good naked, there are much deeper things going on which are positively impacting their life.
Hearing comments such as this makes an already mentally tough journey even harder. Dieting gets harder the leaner you get...
Let them carry on and succeeding their goal.
If you want to say something positive, say something that is positive and does not include negatives such as "you DON'T need to lose anymore weight".
The only outcome from this statement is for the person to stop losing weight when they clearly want to... How is that positive?
BTW, it says a lot more about the person saying you don't need to lose anymore than it does about the person actioning and doing something really f-ing positive with their life.
To my bro's and sister's going places with their physique, crack on an keep doing an amazing job!
As you were.
See More
HERE'S A RIDDLE FOR YA . What doesn't directly make you grow muscle but is needed for you to grow muscle? . Have you got it yet..?... . ⬇️The answer⬇️ . DELOAD. . Whenever we train we accumulate fatigue. . Similar to that of work. You go long periods of working, stress and a hatred for your colleagues increases and just before things turn proper sinister you take time off and go on holiday to relax and feel human again (and less murderous). . Same sort of concept. . You'll just likely have more deloads than holidays. . Anyway, as I said over the course of your training phase you accumulate fatigue. . This will build up to the point where you can no longer recover from your training and see diminishing returns for your hard efforts. . This is where you implement a deload. . Other signs of needing a deload are: 🔵 Hating the gym 🔵 Sleep taken a turn for the worse 🔵 Stress is sky high 🔵 Extra aches and pains . Match 2 or more? You need to deload. (Usually every 4-12 weeks) . I took that checklist from the muscle and strength pyramid, btw. . Now you know when you need one, how do you apply one? . I personally prefer the approach of slashing volume in half and leaving a few extra reps in the tank per set but leaving the weights lifted the same. . The main thing here is, it's better to do too little than too much. This isn't the time for PB's . After a deload week, start your next training phase. . Rinse and repeat. . #team24j
See More
GETTING LEAN WITHOUT MYFITNESSPAL . Over the course of these pictures I lost 10kg (79kg down to 69kg). . I used 2 different methods to lose fat during the process and neither were myfitnesspal.... . I'm a big fan of tracking food as it educates you to understand how much energy (calories) foods have. . However, it does come with it's flaws. . Tracking can become a numbers game and as a result we start looking at food as numbers and not as food. This means we no longer rely on internal cues from the body. . Internal cues is probably the method we all want to eventually use other than when extreme low body fat levels are needed. Learning this method can also ditract you from losing your head with numbers. . So, how did I get lean without myfitnesspal? . I set myself structure and rules. . The first 4 months my rules were: ➡️ Eat 4 meals per day (because I wanted to not because it was special) ➡️ Only 2 of those meals contained carbs (this helped my control overall calories without counting them) ➡️ No snacking (this provided the structure of only eating 4 meals) ➡️ 40g of protein with every meal (MPS, satiety, TEF) . During this time I kept socials to a minimum but didn't stop them completely and was mindful when eating "fun" foods. . Then the photo prep diet started. . I tracked my macros but did so solely using a good ol' pen and pad. . The rules: ➡️ Eat 6 times a day (to avoid extreme periods of hunger) ➡️ Combine protein fats for 2 meals and protein carbs for 4 meals (helped control overall calories) ➡️ No liquid calories ➡️ No fun food other than when in situations out of my control (I went away for 4 days, 2 birthdays, a wedding and a tough mudder where I was sensible but had more "fun" types of food ➡️ There were two methods of maintaining the deficit and countering metabolic adaptation. Either lower food or increase output but never both for the same week. This meant 4 overall food reductions and 4 output increases over the course of the diet. . Structure beats everything, everyday I knew what my meals were and when I was eating them. . My clients are the same. They plan their day /week and understand how to reach their targets. . #team24j
See More
Basics before the minutiae
If you dont know why you would implement something, don't.
Disclaimer: You can build a tip top physique without matching resistance and strength profiles.
Beating the log book is the goal for muscle growth and optimising body composition.
However, not always possible.
Read 👇
DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE FAT LOSS FUNNEL? . The funnel, fantastic for pre workouts, they make quite a fun drinking game and every marketer on IG will talk about the leads funnel. . So, I've decided to borrow the concept but shove calories in it instead.... . A good place to setup your diet once you've worked out your dieting calories is with an 80:20 single ingredient to flexible food ratio. . The more calories you have, the more flexible foods you can fit within those calories (that's how percentages work). . This would mean someone on 2500 calories has 500 calories of flexible food to utilise and someone on 1600 has 320 calories. . The only thing here is these flexible foods may detract you from hitting certain micro nutrients and make the diet a lot less satiating. . This makes it harder to stick to and the non-negotiable to losing body fat is a calorie deficit closely followed by a high protein intake. . That might make the 20% unrealistic and 10% more realistic to allow for adherence. . Don't make an already hard process mission impossible. You're not Ethan Hunt. . Be smart, add structure, be a little repetitive, add flexibility when needed more than when you want and achieve your goals. . #team24j
See More
Are you dieting?
Are you aware of the advanced methods used to maximise fat loss and maintain muscle?
Here's one of them...
... All you need to know about diet breaks
See More
ARE YOU CHOOSING THE RIGHT EXERCISES? . Let's keep this short as it's Saturday. . One of the main things for someone to be successful with physique development is their consistency and adherence to their training and nutrition.... . Obvs, you've got to stick to the principles of gaining muscle. . But, the number one way to adhere to a plan is to enjoy it. . For this very reason include movements you enjoy. . Just because the flavour of the month is X doesn't mean Y won't work and doesn't add value to your training progression. . I'm Shoulder pressing in the VT. Not masses of value to this exercise when all things considered and how I currently setup my training. . But ya know what, I like it. So, I'm doing it. . Only 2 sets, but it scratches the itch. . I find the best way for my clients to stick to the plan is add the element of enjoyment, works everytime 👌 . Remember, adherence and consistency is how you achieve long term goals so you're gonna need to enjoy this sh*t to succeed. . What's your controversial exercise / movement? . #team24j
See More
ARE YOU MAKING ALL THE MISTAKES I USED TO? . I know I know, same selfie in 3 posts this week... I'll retire it after this post. . Anyway.... . I’ve been thinking back a bit from when I was in my early 20’s and thinking of the struggles I had with developing my own physique. . One thing I was very quick to conclude was that I was a hard gainer 🙄 . NAH! . I was just an absolute bell end, more so than I am now. . Why? . Cause I was doing all the wrong things to gain muscle and very naive about it. . Ignoring the fastest and best route as it didn't make sense to me and listened to the dishonest pr*cks in our industry making bank from those vulnerable and in need. . This was partially fuelled from suffering with body dysmorphia. . Mainly telling myself I was fat. . So, I was constantly trying to simultaneously lose fat and gain muscle. . As a result, I got “toned”, alright alright, I was just super skinny with a rat pack. . I cycled everywhere, demonised dietary fat, ate very little for the amount of activity I did. . I would struggle to get stronger in the gym and was obsessed with getting abs and a bigger chest. . Let's put it this way, when I was pressing 22.5kg in each hand for 5 I was shakin' Steven's. . That last point is something a lot of my younger clients tend to relate to (chest, abs and arms of course 😉). . This meant I thought I had really sh*t genetics. . Your stereotypical hard gainer. . But, that really wasn’t it. . I was just doing the wrong things. . And as you can see from the image, my genetics aren’t terrible and was clearly a case of not building my physique the right way. . So, why am I telling you this? . It took me a lot of wasted years trying to figure it all out. . It’s been a frustrating journey and an unnecessary one. . I wish I invested into reliable sources sooner! . If you’re like I was, think you’re destined to remain the way you do with no hope of change. Look no further as there is hope and with the correctly adopted plan, relentless consistency and an achieve at all costs mindset you will achieve your dream physique. . If you're serious about this, go to the LINK IN MY BIO and let's see if I can help you. . #team24j
See More
Different day but the relentless actions to achieve my goal still remain the same.
Adding a little extra to my porridge lately 👌
DO YOU OVERTHINK EVERYTHING? . A wise man once said you can build a well rounded physique in 18 movements. . That wise man was the one and only, Dr Eric Helms.... . This is absolute gold because it allows us to reign the f*ck in. . There is a lot, and I mean a lot of noise. . Some has merit and genuinely helps, whereas others just over complicates an already complicated topic and adds nothing. . When you're selecting exercises / movements, pick the ones you get the best feel from, the movements you can make strength gains with, movements that fit your mechanics, movements you can stabilise and the movements that train the muscle in it's full active range (whether that be broken down or in one). . Form is your priority with intensity second. . Main muscle groups in the body: Chest Shoulder Triceps Back (upper mid lower) Biceps Glutes Quads Hams Calfs . 18 total movements = 2 movements per muscle group... . I do believe the more advanced you get the more movements you will need but I'd rarely have more than 4 at an absolute push 5 movements per muscle group in any single meso cycle. . #team24j
See More
DO YOU UNDERSTAND YOUR TRAINING PROGRAMME?
it's not uncommon for many to search for the holy grail of training programmes. it's a breath of fresh air to hear more and more lifters both seasoned and new to the game adopting the approach of training muscle groups at least 2 times per week. . However, like everything we can take things too far to make things sound sexy and we focus on the sexy and not the actual underling principles of a successful training programme.... . watch and listen to be fully clued up on the pros and cons to certain training protocols and what all successful programmes have in common. . I'm genuinely intrigued to hear your thoughts on this topic. comments or DM's. surprise me, I dare you.
See More
YOU MUST DO THIS TO GROW MUSCLE. . Read up gents, as this is something you MUST do to gain muscle. . Not gonna lie, there are a few things but when it comes to training there is one thing that you MUST do.... . You MUST lift heavier over time. . This phenomenon is called, PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD (PO). . Simply put, this is the ability to do more reps or weight. However, weight lifted must be increasing in time. . Other shorter and long term methods of PO include, improved mind muscle connection, improved execution (similar to MMC but a little different) and additional sets (increased overall volume). . NEWBIES - This should come fairly easy to you and you'll find you can increase the load you lift on a weekly basis. This tends to last for the first 6 months of lifting. You'll be able to add 5kg most weeks on the big lifts and the closer you get to your 6 month lifting birthday you'll find you can only add 2.5-1.25kg. . INTERMEDIATES - Training still doesn't need to be made overally complicated or too advanced. Your first 3 years are as easy as a girl 4 gins in (contraversial). However, you will get to a point of plateauing using the newbie approach so, I'm going to give an intermediate progression method... . LINEAR PERIODISATION. Simply put, each week you increase the weight but reduce the reps by 1. E.G. week 1 100kg for 10 reps, week 2 102.5kg for 9 reps. Keep going until you deload (let's say you deload week 5). After the deload you complete week 2 weight with week 1 reps (102.5kg for 10 reps) voila, progress made. . I like this method as the volume progression occurs every 5 weeks, this is needed for intermediate lifters as they can't make progressions week to week like a newbie can. . I'll talk about other progression models and methods later in the week so you can put this method to good work. . Remember, the fundamental principle to increasing muscle size, ➡️ PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD ⬅️ If you're not getting stronger you ain't getting bigger. . I'll quickly add that this method is best applied to compound (multi joint) lifts, like squats, RDL's, Bench press, etc and isolation will require a different approach. . Are you stronger than your were 2, 4, 6 months ago?
See More