This Christmas social media was filled with images and videos of people training in the gym…including Christmas day. On the front of it I don’t have any problem with this whatsoever, but it should be known that for many, mainly those within the industry, fitness and strength training is a career aswell as a hobby.
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Yes, fitness professionals actually enjoy working out, they put a huge priority on their training and nutrition, with many seemingly defining themselves by gym prowess, numbers on the bar, or the amount of ab veins they have, and not shy about flaunting it on social media as a highlight reel of pictures and video.

We’re almost into another January…a time where we all make that confident public promise – THIS is the year we’re going to finally get into shape.

The statistics unfortunately show that fervour has all but disappeared, even as early as February…in fact some gyms count on that.

This article will attempt to help you from becoming one of those statistics. The real key to changing your body composition is consistency and that means making it well past February, and these are our 3 things that we think de-rail that and what to do instead.

So we’ve talked about technique, now it’s time to see what exercises to apply that to. This is going to be a difficult section to write for as there are an almost endless amount of movements to choose from. Physical education stretches back a long time and really the fundamentals haven’t changed that much over time, like with nutrition though fads have come and gone with the advent of marketing.

There’s only a select few people who actually enjoy spending time in gyms, so we’re going to concentrate on the minimum effective dose here, in that what is the maximum benefit in the shortest amount of time or the biggest bang for your buck!

Enter compound movements, and to explain that term it means movements that move more than one joint. As an example think of a squat movement vs a leg extension. The primary joints moving in the squat are your ankle, knee and hip, this consequently means there are also more muscles acting upon those joints to produce that movement.

Though this series is entitled ‘basics’ and aimed primarily at those who’d like to start weight training, each of these are also applicable to the average trainee too, even those who might consider themselves intermediate or advanced.

If the foundations aren’t right, then there’s little point in building on top of that and we believe that proper technique should be your base for a few solid reasons. The main objectives being…
To limit your risk of injury
To build efficiency into your lifts
To ensure you use a full range of motion
To help maintain constant tension
To ensure the correct joints and muscles are bearing the load

This originally started as a single blog post but as with anything we do, in order to make it as understandable as possible we thought it better to break it down into a few manageable posts. It also means you can go off and work on these individually and by the end of the series you’ll have pretty much everything you need to get you results.
Though we’ve done similar posts before, we’re going to delve a little deeper into each subject in this mini-series.

Firstly, there’s been a wave of change over the last few years towards weight training for fat loss, and away from endless plugging away on treadmills and cross trainers, and for good reason. People are realising that there’s a difference between fat loss and weight loss, and strength training plays an important role in that. This is not to discredit cardio work at all, that’s still an important element of health, but from a fat loss perspective and time:reward ratios there’s a more efficient way of changing your body shape.

If your goal is fat loss then your primary objective ought to be reducing your bodyfat % while maintaining your current level of muscle, or in some beginner cases even increasing it.

When programming your training there are endless routines and variables to consider, which can make choosing the right one a daunting experience for most people. There is a phrase  ‘The best programme is the one you’re not doing’, which tends to lead to programme hopping and consequently stagnation in progress. It is important to note that as with nutrition there is no singular ‘best’ approach for everyone so over time we’ll take a look at some of the most popular choices.

First up it’s Body part splits which focus on targeting individual muscle groups on different days, rather than working the whole body. Each of the exercises are grouped by body part ie (chest/back/legs), and in general when doing this you would follow up with some accessory exercises that would complement the compound of choice whether it be bench/squat or even deadlift.

​Foam rollers offer many of the same benefits as a sports massage without the big price tag.

The foam roller not only stretches muscles and tendons but it also breaks down soft tissue adhesions and scar tissue. By using your own body weight and a cylindrical foam roller you can perform a self-massage or myofascial release, break up trigger points, and soothe tight fascia while increasing blood flow and circulation to the soft tissues.

How it works
The superficial fascia is a soft connective tissue located just below the skin. It wraps and connects the muscles, bones, nerves and blood vessels of the body. Together, muscle and fascia make up what is called the myofascia system. For various reasons including disuse, not enough stretching, or injuries, the fascia and the underlying muscle tissue can become stuck together. This is called an adhesion and it results in restricted muscle movement. It also causes pain, soreness and reduced movement.

Myofascial release is a body work technique in which a practitioner uses gentle, sustained pressure on the soft tissues while applying traction to the fascia. This technique results in softening and lengthening (release) of the fascia and breaking down scar tissue or adhesions between skin, muscles and bones.

Myofascial release has also been shown to relieve various muscle and joint pains such as IT band syndrome and shin splints as well as improving flexibility and range of motion.

Foam rollers are inexpensive and with a bit of experimentation you can target just about any muscle group. The latest style of foam roller, the Grid foam roller, has a unique design and construction that provides a more targeted trigger point self massage.