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Category: Training for Females

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Personal Trainers Tips for Overcoming the Obstacles to Achieving Your Physique Goals

Achieving the desired physique requires dedication, effort, and a strategic approach to training and nutrition. As a personal trainer, I have noticed several common key areas that often hinder individuals from reaching their physique goals. In this article, we will address these obstacles and provide practical solutions to help you overcome them and transform your physique.

Insufficient Effort:

One of the primary reasons individuals fail to achieve their desired physique is the lack of effort. Wanting it badly enough is crucial for success. It’s essential to set clear goals, why do you want to achieve those goals, what would it mean to you? Create a plan, and commit yourself wholeheartedly to the process. Embrace the mindset that hard work and consistency are necessary for real progress. Without putting in the right amount of effort consistently you will continue to fail to achieve the physique that you desire

Lack of Belief:

Individuals fail to progress because they do not believe it is possible, if this is you go an look at some real before and after photos and see the true powerful potential of what consistent training, nutrition and positive lifestyle changes can create. Look at the Paralympic competitors do you think they lack self belief, these individuals are a true inspiration and we should look at them and use it to increase our belief to the power of what is possible. Our unconscious beliefs can often hold us back, I am personally a strong believer in daily action towards your goals will help dispel any unconscious beliefs you may have about your ability, absolutely anything is possible when you take persistent action even if you stumble shake your boots off and carry on. The old Japanese saying ‘fall down seven times, get up eight.’ Believe me your going to make mistakes and progress will never be linear but if we can address our mistakes when they occur and implement strategies to overcome them once the stimulus for them reoccur on our path then that is only going to help us grow.

Neglecting Resistance Training:

While cardio and HIIT workouts are beneficial for overall fitness, neglecting resistance training can hinder your progress. To achieve a well-rounded and aesthetically pleasing physique, it’s crucial to work on all muscle groups. Resistance training helps build muscle, increase metabolism, and improve overall body composition. Your body will always look better with more muscle mass on your skeleton, we always get clients telling us within our personal training facility that they haven’t lost much scale weight but their clothes now fit and waist size has reduced, body composition is not the same as weight loss and weight loss will not always help you achieve and aesthetic physique. Get serious about using your muscles under resistance and watch your body transform.  

Weekend Setbacks:

Many individuals find it challenging to maintain discipline and healthy habits during social gatherings or weekends. It’s common for one day off to turn into a week of unhealthy choices. Avoid this trap by planning ahead and making conscious decisions about your food and drink intake. Moderation is key, and occasional treats are fine, but ensure they don’t derail your progress.

Allowing Bad Habits to Persist:

To achieve your goals, it’s essential to address and eliminate bad habits that counteract your efforts. Be mindful of your choices throughout the day, including nutrition, hydration, and overall lifestyle. Consistency and commitment outside of training sessions are just as important as the work you put in at the gym.

Focusing on Load over Quality Reps:

As a personal trainers, when we are coaching our clients through movements, the first thing we are there to do is quality control. It’s not about how much weight you lift; it’s about the execution of each exercise how stable are you in certain ranges of the movement, can you access the full range of the movement are you intently using the muscles required for the movement or are you mindlessly just moving through space. Focus on proper form, tempo, and muscle contraction to maximise results. Quality movements lead to better muscle recruitment, a more effective workout and more importantly you will see massive changes in your physique. I cannot tell you how many times I see individuals throwing weights around in the gym even individuals that are been coached by personal trainers, swinging, bouncing and using momentum to move a weight around uses minimal muscle recruitment, if your goal is to build a physique then this is a major NO from me my friends. 

Underestimating the Importance of Nutrition:

Transforming your physique requires a comprehensive approach that includes proper nutrition. Two to three sessions per week with a personal trainer alone won’t be sufficient if you neglect your diet. Pay attention to your calorie intake, macronutrient balance, and the quality of your food choices. As personal trainers we tend to to develop a personalised nutrition plan based on what your needs are and also based on what you can do consistently for a long period of time. Find a starting point that you can keep consistent and read the first point on insufficient effort because this is the area that most individuals fail with. If you find that you cannot keep your nutrition under control then I strongly recommend that you hire a meal prep company to prep your meals for the week so they can take the effort of preparing your meals from you.     

Fear of Bulking:

The misconception that resistance training will make you bulky is prevalent among both males and females. In my personal training career I cannot tell you how many times I have been told by both males and female clients that they do not want to become to bulky, I wish it was that easy! It’s important to understand that achieving a muscular physique requires specific training protocols, a nutritional surplus of calories over time, a small amount of genetics and also all bodybuilders male and female who have large amounts of muscle mass are on a lot of hormones and drugs to achieve that and it is impossible to achieve those levels of muscle mass without these enhancements . Resistance training is essential for sculpting and toning your body, improving overall strength, and boosting your metabolism to create a good looking physique. 

Insufficient Intensity in Training:

To progress and break through plateaus, you need to continually challenge your body. Applying progressive overload using the combination of mechanical tension and metabolic stress as a means to increase the intensity of your workouts. Incorporate techniques like drop sets, rest-pause sets, or supersets to push your limits and prolong your sets. Work with a personal trainer to develop a well-structured program that gradually increases intensity over time when they can qualify your quality to ensure you can progress loads in a safe manner. If your coasting through your workouts its likely you need a kick up the back side to increase your intensity and progress your physique. 

To achieve the physique you desire, it’s crucial to address and overcome the obstacles that stand in your way. Embrace the mindset of hard work, commit to a well-rounded training program that includes resistance training, prioritise nutrition, and maintain consistency and discipline both in and outside of the gym and more importantly put in tons of effort. Remember, transforming your physique is a journey that requires dedication, but the results are well worth it. Believe in yourself and put the effort in and you will reap what you sow!!

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Navigating the Female Menstrual Cycle

 

As a personal trainer, I’ve had the privilege of working closely with numerous female clients, witnessing the impact of hormonal phases on their fitness journeys. Understanding and adapting to these fluctuations is key to achieving long-term habits the lead to success. In this article, I’ll share my experiences as a personal trainer and provide guidance on how to understand your body and navigate each menstrual cycle with a strategic approach.

 

Understanding Your Body:

 

The first step in successfully navigating hormonal phases is understanding your body and recognising the unique patterns and challenges it presents throughout the menstrual cycle. Take note of how you feel during each phase, such as changes in energy levels, mood, and physical sensations. By gaining insight into your body’s signals, you can make informed decisions regarding your training and nutrition and develop a strategy that can work for you and your goals.

 

Developing a Strategic Approach:

 

Once you’ve familiarised yourself with your body’s patterns, it’s time to develop a strategic approach to optimise your training and overcome potential obstacles. Here are some key strategies to consider for each phase of the menstrual cycle:

 

Follicular Phase:

 

During the follicular phase (right after menstruation), energy levels tend to be higher. Capitalise on this by scheduling more challenging workouts around this phase and set more ambitious goals. Use this time to focus on building strength and pushing yourself through your sets, as your body more geared up for progress and tougher workouts.

 

Ovulatory Phase:

 

The ovulatory phase is characterised by an increase in estrogen levels, which can enhance mood and motivation. Take advantage of this phase to push yourself further, both mentally and physically. Incorporate more high-intensity workouts, advanced sets like drop sets and rest pause technique’s, and include the more challenging exercises that you may find difficult like a pendulum squat for example and capitalise on your peak performance.

 

Luteal Phase:

 

The luteal phase, which precedes menstruation, may come with increased cravings and mood swings. Combat cravings and emotional eating by prioritising balanced meals, including plenty of protein, healthy fats, and complex carbohydrates. Opt for smaller, more frequent meals to help stabilise blood sugar levels and manage hunger levels. Engaging in stress-reducing activities such as breath work or meditation can also support emotional well-being. Low intensity cardio with nasal breaths can be a great way to assit with recovery and reduce stress. Reduce the intensity within your resistance training, use more controlled tempos with your reps and don’t try and break any PBs.

 

Menstrual Phase:

 

During the menstrual phase, listen to your body and prioritise self-care. While some women may find that exercise helps alleviate menstrual discomfort, others may benefit from gentler activities like restorative yoga or light walks. Give yourself permission to adjust your training intensity and focus on recovery. Adequate sleep, hydration, and nutrient-dense foods will aid in replenishing your energy levels. Be kind to your partners they do still love you!

 

Strategic Check-ins and Weight-ins:

 

To monitor progress effectively and align with the hormonal phases, consider scheduling check-ins and weight-ins strategically. Aim to schedule weight-ins during the early follicular phase to minimise the impact of bloating and water retention. When I was a younger personal trainer I made the mistake of keeping the check ins and weight ins consistent which made matters worse for my clients as the combination of emotions and seeing scale weight creep up slightly was doing them more harm to their progress than good.

 

Navigating hormonal phases requires understanding your body, developing a strategic approach, and optimising your training and nutrition accordingly. By recognising the unique challenges and strengths of each phase, you can adapt your approach to maximise progress and overcome obstacles. Remember, your journey is personal and may vary from others, so listen to your body, be kind to yourself and your partners, and consult with your personal trainer if needed. With a strategic approach, you won’t allow your menstrual cycle to get the better of you and hinder your progress, it’s important to accept it and stick to the plan you make to get through each stage.

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Benefits of a protein rich diet

When people think about high protein diets, the only thought that may come to mind are your typical huge men in the free weights section walking round with a shaker cup and a stringer top. However, the benefits of a high protein diet go way beyond aiding muscle growth. This article will explore several reasons why a high protein diet can be beneficial for everybody.

 

Firstly, having adequate protein intake will elevate muscle protein synthesis. The benefits of this do include muscle growth for those wanting hypertrophy.

However, it’s also particularly important for anyone over 35 years old. This is because once we reach 35 years old we experience sarcopenia. This can be defined as a natural loss of muscle mass by amount 1% per year. This can be combatted by adequate protein intake and regular resistance training. Starting a high protein diet and regular resistance training younger can have huge benefits in later life. Having a larger amount of muscle mass in old age can help someone keep their independence by allowing them walk without a zimmer frame, climb stairs without a stair lift, and go to the toilet unassisted by a carer. Furthermore, elevated levels of muscle protein synthesis are going to aid the recovery process of any form of physical activity. A common myth is that endurance athletes won’t massively benefit from a high protein diet. However, adequate protein intake helps recovery from all forms of exercise. This is because proteins are the building blocks of muscle tissue. Therefore, stimulating their production (muscle protein synthesis) is going to drastically enhance their recovery.

 

Another benefit of a high protein diet is for bone health. There’s a myth that high protein intake can lead to losses of calcium, and therefore bone density. However, this is not the case as high protein diets have actually been shown to increase bone density. This is going to have benefits to everyone. However, the two populations that will benefit most from this will be the elderly and athletes who participate in impact sports. The elderly is more prone to falls, this means having good bone density is going to be essential in ensuring any injury that is caused is not something which is going to be long term, and something that can contribute to a loss of independence for the rest of their life. This particularly holds true for breaks in the pelvis, as its common for elderly people to not fully recover from this, making walking painful. As a result, they only walk when they absolutely have to, drastically reducing their physical activity levels which, in turn, takes years off their life via accelerated decline of their cardiovascular health.

 

Alternatively, athletes who participate in impact sports are going to have to have bones that can withstand high levels of contact in order to stay injury free. The higher the level of competitor, the more important this will be as higher-level athletes will train more and therefore have to withstand impact more often. Furthermore, higher level athletes may also get paid for performing, meaning that any injury is going to affect their earnings throughout their career. However, if the athlete is already injured, a high protein diet can help accelerate the recovery of the injured tissue. Meaning, that a high protein diet has its place in the prevention and rehabilitation of injuries in sport. It’s also suitable for an injured athlete to replace a given amount of carbohydrates with some more protein, as they will be training less so energy demand is lower.

 

A high protein diet is also essential for anyone trying to lose body fat. Firstly, due to its effects on muscle growth/retention mentioned above, which enhances fat loss in a calorie deficit. Secondly, it provides a higher level of satiety compared with the two other macronutrients (carbohydrates and fats). This will result in less cravings for snacks between meals, making it much easier to achieve a consistent calorie deficit on a daily basis. Lastly, digesting food requires the use of calories, this is called the Thermic Effect of Food (TEF). Protein has a higher level of TEF compared with the two other macronutrients, providing a further benefit to help one achieve a calorie deficit.

 

Overall, I hope these reasons show you how a high protein diet can provide a whole host of benefits to anyone from any sub-section of the population, from the most sedentary of individuals right up to elite athletes. Also, from young children, right up to adults in their elderly years. The ideal way to ensure you are getting enough protein would be to base your meals around a varying your protein source. Some common examples would be eggs for breakfast, chicken for lunch and fish for tea. Each protein source is going to differ in calories so it’s important that you track protein alongside your caloric intake so that your nutrition is in line with your goals.

 

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Journey of a 50kg weight loss transformation by Coach Jonny Molloy.

Celeste is a mum of 3 children. Her alarm goes off at 4:00am daily to begin her day. Her occupation is quite high stress as a highly successful manager at a supermarket. Celeste had never stepped foot in a gym in her life prior to this transformation.

 

Celeste had a consultation with Coach Jonny and discussed seeking help on improving her health and well-being, her main goal was to drive weight loss and some guidance and support on what program to focus on and how to begin her program as a complete stranger to the gym.

 

When most embark on a fitness journey a lot of the focus is on what the client needs to start doing but without the guidance and coaching of what the client needs to stop doing in order to achieve sustainable lasting results. A coach can help you navigate through all of this along your journey and provide you with the correct tools to stay on track with your goals.

 

Jonny believes that anyone can achieve life changing results as long they are willing to change and have trust in the process that their coach plans out for them.

 

Some people want to change but are you willing to change you?

 

Jonny’s coaching style strips back the shiny stuff and helps clients understand the fundamentals of what is required to lose weight and build lean muscle mass.

 

“It isn’t about what I can do for the client. The process is about what we can achieve when we work together as a team. When that clicks, anything is possible just like how Celeste has turned her life around by us working together.”

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Personal Training Tips | Resistance Training Benefits for Females

What is Resistance Training?

Resistance Training can be defined as a form of exercise, whereby external weights provide progressive overload to skeletal muscles in order to make them stronger and often result in hypertrophy (growth in overall size of muscle cells) (Alix-Fages et. al, 2022; Phillips and Winett, 2010), which can lead to several benefits.

Mental Health:

Firstly, Ramirez and Kravitz (2012) looked into the benefits of regular resistance training and found that it has been shown to improve numerous aspects of mental health including: lessened anxiety, depression, chronic fatigue, self-esteem, memory and cognition. The way in which resistance training helps achieve this is not yet clear, but the benefits to mental health could well be consequences of the physical benefits that resistance training provides. For example, when we start training regularly, our sleep may improve. In turn, we see a reduction in stress hormones (Maggio et. al, 2013), which then can have a positive effect on our level of anxiety.

Fat Loss:

When wanting to lose weight, we need to be in a calorie deficit. When in this calorie deficit, weight can be lost via losing body fat, water, and muscle tissue. Regular resistance training helps preserve muscle mass when in a calorie deficit (Miller et. al, 2018). This, in turn, results in more of the weight lost being from body fat tissue, as opposed to muscle tissue. It is important to note that protein intake and sleep must also be sufficient to maximise muscle preservation, and therefore fat loss, in a calorie deficit. (Nedeltcheva et. al, 2010; Stokes et. al, 2018)

Frailty and Functionality:

As we age past the age of 35, we experience a gradual loss of muscle mass of around 1-2% per year, this is known as sarcopenia (Cruz-Jentoft and Sayer, 2019). Once we reach our 60’s and older, sarcopenia may contribute to a loss of functionality in daily tasks such as climbing stairs with ease, or playing with grandchildren.

Resistance training in elderly populations has been shown to increase their ability to go from sitting to standing with less postural sway and more proprioception, which is linked to more functional ability and lower risk of falls. (Faigenbaum and Myer, 2010)

‘I Don’t Want to Look Bulky’:

This is a common worry with female clients. Fortunately, there is about as much chance as accidentally adding significant amounts of muscle mass accidentally as there is as taking driving lessons and accidentally ending up in the Monaco Grand Prix.

Putting on significant amounts of muscle mass requires consistent training on a hypertrophy focussed plan, being in a calorie surplus, and consumption of adequate protein for a number of months before noticeable increases are seen. Overall, resistance training can be used as an excellent tool to improve one’s quality of life, regardless of age or goals.

Reference List:

  • Alix-Fages, C., Del Vecchio, A., Baz-Valle, E., Santos-Concejero, J., & Balsalobre-Fernández, C. (2022). The role of the neural stimulus in regulating skeletal muscle hypertrophy. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 1-18.
  • Cruz-Jentoft, A. J., & Sayer, A. A. (2019). Sarcopenia. The Lancet, 393(10191), 2636-2646.
  • Faigenbaum, A. D., & Myer, G. D. (2010). Pediatric resistance training: benefits, concerns, and program design considerations. Current sports medicine reports, 9(3), 161-168.
  • Maggio, M., Colizzi, E., Fisichella, A., Valenti, G., Ceresini, G., Dall’Aglio, E., … & Ceda, G. P. (2013). Stress hormones, sleep deprivation and cognition in older adults. Maturitas, 76(1), 22-44.
  • Miller, T., Mull, S., Aragon, A. A., Krieger, J., & Schoenfeld, B. J. (2018). Resistance training combined with diet decreases body fat while preserving lean mass independent of resting metabolic rate: a randomized trial. International journal of sport nutrition and exercise metabolism, 28(1), 46-54.
  • Nedeltcheva, A. V., Kilkus, J. M., Imperial, J., Schoeller, D. A., & Penev, P. D. (2010). Insufficient sleep undermines dietary efforts to reduce adiposity. Annals of internal medicine, 153(7), 435–441. https://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-153-7-201010050-00006
  • Phillips, S. M., & Winett, R. A. (2010). Uncomplicated resistance training and health-related outcomes: evidence for a public health mandate. Current sports medicine reports, 9(4), 208.
  • Ramirez, A., & Kravitz, L. (2012). Resistance training improves mental health. IDEA Fitness Journal, 9(1), 20-22.
  • Stokes, T., Hector, A. J., Morton, R. W., McGlory, C., & Phillips, S. M. (2018). Recent perspectives regarding the role of dietary protein for the promotion of muscle hypertrophy with resistance exercise training. Nutrients, 10(2), 180.

 

 

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PERSONAL TRAINING CLIENT TESTIMONIAL – DAKOTA DITCHEVA

Dakota Ditcheva has been coming to us for her strength and conditioning at Soma Fitness since she was an amateur athlete. She came to Soma for our personal training services to improve her athletic ability and sporting performance. Dakota is a tremendous athlete and in the time she has been training with our coaches here at Soma she has picked up an MMA title and landed a contract with the PFL, we have been a massive part of her journey to enter the PFL which is a major organisation in the sport of mixed martial arts!

Have a look what she had to say about her experience with our coaches at Soma Fitness.

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HOME PERSONAL TRAINING – DAY 2 – CORE & CARDIO

CORE & CONDITIONING – Tabata Intervals

WORK20:10REST x 6 sets

A1) V-UPS 20 SECONDS

REST 10 SECONDS

A2) HIGH KNEE RUN 20 SECONDS

REST 10 SECONDS

A3) RUSSIAN TWIST 20 SECONDS

REST 10 SECONDS

REPEAT X 6 SETS

REST 2 MINS

B1) HALLOW HOLDS 20 SECONDS

REST 10 SECONDS

B2) BURPEES 20 SECONDS

REST 10 SECONDS

B3) SIDE PLANK 20 SECONDS

REST 10 SECONDS

REPEAT X 6 SETS

REST 2 MINS

C1) SIT THROUGHS 20 SECONDS

REST 10 SECONDS

REPEAT X 6 SETS

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FULL WORKOUT INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEO