Most Googled Health & Fitness Questions... Answered By A Real PT

 

So, although I haven’t & don’t train with a PT, I have utter respect for them. They’re doing the job I wish I had the time to retrain to do. But hey, I mean it can’t be easy motivating people, keeping them on track when things don’t always go to plan, running a business & finding time to practice what they preach. They have to become a muse; someone that encompasses inspiration, trust and belief in creating a vision that only you have. They have to know the ins & outs of nutrition and what exercise routine is best, based entirely on you. They’re the experts in getting it done. The Wise Ones of the fitness world (in my opinion)!

So I decided to find the most Googled questions about health and fitness and put them to a real PT to answer. Now, I know quite a few PT’s- all of them amazing at what they do. However, I’ve known of Olly’s business for a good long while, so he seemed the perfect candidate. Olly’s the hubby of an old school friend of mine (hey Rachel ) & runs his own PT business; Patterns Fitness. He kindly offered to put forward his expert knowledge to answer these common questions.

What are the ten best exercises?

If you're short on time - the trap bar deadlift and dumbbell push press between them hit every single muscle in the body, both train athleticism, both train balance, both train coordination and both train explosivity. Although both are hard to recover from (CNS fatigue the next day).

If you have more time then you will want to train each muscle (group) individually which is more optimal. You want exercises that are easy to recover from (so avoiding heavy barbell work that compresses the spine), you want exercises that you can easily do progressive overload with, and exercises that stabilise the body. Because when the muscle group is stabilised, you can recruit more motor units and make better progress. For example, a chest supported row where the body is stabilised against a bench allows the upper back to be fully isolated and maximum motor units recruited.  Whereas a classical bent over barbell row you have core strength, grip, and your glutes all to stabilise and will probably give out before your upper back (the target muscle group) is fully worked.

So if you are short on time, athletic, heavy explosive movements like trap bar deadlifts, barbell squats, heavy push presses, pull ups, barbell bench press and barbell bent over row to hit as many muscles as possible for big sharp shock. If you have more time, then stable exercises such as machine hack squats, leg presses, lat pulldowns, and pad/bench supported cable work are fantastic choices. Also a well made machine cannot be beaten for really isolating muscle groups.

Why does exercise matter?

I think in the modern world we live in, where almost everything is done for you and convenience is everywhere, if you don’t exercise you’re almost certainly going to end up in very bad physical (and therefor mental) shape. Modern life has made exercise obligatory. And it’s well understood now that movement triggers endorphins.

Exercise also provides people with a goal to aim for. The aimless person is a depressed person. People must have targets to aspire to otherwise they become mentally stagnant and regress.

Where do I begin with exercise?

If you currently do nothing then start with walking, and time yourself either how far you can walk in ten or fifteen minutes, or pick a destination and time how long it takes you to walk there and then next time beat that time. You need to have some measure of progress so you can beat your last attempt. And then gradually move from walking to jogging, and then running.

If you are at the stage where you have joined a gym, then pick one leg exercises, one pushing exercise and one pulling exercise and work at getting stronger with just those three for a while.

If you want to create a mini starter programme for yourself, divided your gym days into workout A (any squat variation, any bench press variation, any row variation) and workout B (any deadlift variation, any shoulder press variation, any lat pulldown variation). This is super simple yet extremely effective and will honestly work fine for at least your first twelve months in the gym, if not longer. Work with 3 sets of 10 reps and once you get all the sets and reps, add 2.5kg and start over.

How does exercise help mental health?

Self confidence. If you take the average person who cannot even squat the empty barbell (quite common) and over 12, 18 or 24 months get them squatting 60kg’s, 100kg’s, 140kg’s, then I promise you, you now have a completely different person in front of you. That is not an over exaggeration. Self accomplishment, drilling in good habits, and developing physical strength do not leave much space for anxiety and/or depression. Problems come and go but 100kilos is always 100kilos.

We mustn’t over simplify mental health, and growing up with narcissistic parents, enduring an abusive relationship, having your heart broken etc, is beyond the scope of this Q&A. But what I have seen time and time again, is when you massively change your body for the better, the traits that you had to learn to enable yourself to reach those goals (consistency, determination, sacrifice) will develop your mindset in such a way that allows you to process, and make space for situations in your past. This finally gives people the space, mentally, to let them move on to bigger and better things in all other areas of their lives. I am not saying that a set of tricep pushdowns is going to allow you to forgive your past, but a stronger body and mind, gives you the tools you need to outgrow it.

Do you need protein for exercise?

Absolutely! There is a huge problem in our society with a lack of protein. Anyone who’s worked in an office will see the typical Tesco’s meal deal lunch of ham sandwich, orange juice, packet of crisps. That is sugar, on sugar, on sugar……..with a thin sliver of (processed) protein. My first meal is usually a shake that contains around 70grams of protein in the first meal.

If you’re wanting to lose weight, protein is the most satiating macro nutrient and so makes it easier. If you’re wanting to be more athletic, run faster, build muscle, then that isn’t made out of crisps and orange juice. It’s made out of protein.

We also have a sarcopenia epidemic in the elderly due to the government’s woeful protein recommendations. Human beings are vicious predators that sit at the top of the food chain, but we don’t eat like it, and we’re suffering the consequences.

Which exercises help with weight loss?

The best exercises for weight loss are the exercises that build the most muscle. By far the quickest way to lose weight is to ramp your metabolism up by gaining as much muscle tissue as you possibly can. Muscle is extremely metabolically expensive for the body to run (this is why it doesn’t like building it). Once you are close to your genetic limit for the amount of muscle you can add (achievable with 3-4 years of good training) then it’s almost impossible to keep weight on without over feeding yourself.

There are no exercises that specially make you lose weight. The most efficient way to lose weight is to get stronger, as by getting stronger you are essentially upgrading your engine. And then you lose weight by getting into a calorie deficit, which will be a lot easier when you’re strong.

Which exercises help with weight gain?

No exercise is going to help you gain weight, you just need to follow a balanced programme and eat a lot of food. If you are too lean and you want to add muscle and can’t, always the answer is up your carbs (presuming you are following a somewhat sensible diet!). You need to up your carbs to put you into a calorie surplus.

Is there a difference in exercise for women and exercise for men (genetically speaking)?

No. What is certainly true is women recover faster between sets. Have to be careful with your typos there. Women will always be ready to go after about one minute. Whereas men need three to four minutes minimum. (Seems to follow a trend here!). Physiologically speaking, that is the only difference insofar as how to approach your workouts.

There is of course a difference in power output for men, especially in the upper body, but that doesn’t mean men and women should train differently.

Mentally there are differences insofar as women will often produce immaculate form, to the point of not making progress because they don’t want to ruin their perfect form. Whereas men will have form that is very often completely reckless, again to the point of not making progress!

So psychologically a coach would need to approach men and women differently in order to address those issues, but physiologically we’re all humans with the same biomechanics.

How many days per week do I need to work out?

If you are doing nothing, then you need to do one day week, because progress is progress. I’ve had people make fantastic progress on one day per week as long as they turn up every week. But if one a week is good, then twice a week is twice as good.

If you are talking optimal for a well train individual, then the science right now is pointing towards four times a week, with two upper and two lower body sessions. The logic behind this is this means each muscle group is trained twice a week, and if the muscle building process takes 48-72 hours to complete, then twice a week is perfect for each muscle to be hit within 7 days. This also gives good recovery time – because you are only as strong or fast as what you can recover from.

But then if you are doing intense cardio then that would of course need to be tailored back to address that. The more advanced you are, the more you need an individualised programme.

How do you incorporate fun into sessions?

By making progress. Everything is always fun when you are winning. Once progress stalls, that’s when it becomes ‘boring.’ So the key is to plan your exercise correctly, building in sufficient recovery, and eating according to your activity levels and goals so that constant (however small) progress can be made.

Ideally whatever form of exercise you choose should be fun to you in and of itself. There is something for everyone whether it be a team sport, solo activity, cardio, strength training. Pick what you’re good at or enjoy the most and as long as your programming is good then you’ll make progress and it’ll always be enjoyable.

What classes would you recommend in addition to Personal Training sessions?

I always recommend that people go and do fitness classes, if that’s something they enjoy, in addition to their personal training session. The PT is there to coach, guide people through their programme, motivate and offer support (plus lots more!). I never understood why your PT would stand over you whilst you done steady state cardio. I would say get the most out of your PT and then join fitness classes to be sociable, and have fun getting fit if that is something you would benefit from.

How will I know I’m making progress? How should I track progress?

I firmly believe in tracking progress. What can be measured can be improved and all that! I don’t record every exercise everyone does, but I definitely do track progress meticulously on the big major multi-joint exercises that we are trying to improve upon and are at the beginning of the session.

You will know if you are making progress because your numbers will improve! But you have to be careful to isolate other variables! So of course your barbell squat will go down if you decided to randomly do 3 sets of leg extensions beforehand. Or your 100m time will suffer if you only had 3 hours sleep last night. So be sensible and look for variables but on the whole track your numbers and use them to measure your progress.

In the gym I would suggest in your first year or two of training, 2.5kg increases per week are possible, in year 3 or 4 of training, 2.5kg increases per month are possible, and in year 5 and onwards of training, 2.5kg increases per year are acceptable!!

When it comes to weight loss, I don’t ever use scales. They can be a guide or tool in the toolbox, but most people’s transformations have some very strange scale results. The key is clothes. Pick some clothes and try them on every three months, that is the real way to measure body changes!!

What happens if I’m not seeing the progress I’d expected?

This is quite a complicated topic but I will address some of main issues.

Eating – most people ether overeat, or they don’t eat enough. And people think they eat a lot, when they really do not. And people also think they don’t eat much, when they really do! I am not massive on tracking calories because it can lead to obsessiveness but if there are any doubts insofar as over or under eating, then it’s worth tracking calories for a week to give yourself data to work with.

Sleep – sleeping is absolutely critical. I take my sleep, very, very seriously. As serious as the workouts themselves. If I don’t get 8 hours, I will try and nap in the day. Obviously this isn’t always possible due to life factors but work with what you have and treat it as a priority.

Stress – everyone has stress, some more than most, some think they have more than most, but whether you can avoid it or not, we have to accept that it’s a factor. Everyone’s life is different and to answer this in a paragraph is too complicated, but excess cortisol will make progress virtually impossible.

Effort – In my experience most people just aren’t willing to put themselves through excruciating pain. I personally quite like it (!) because I like the mental challenge of pushing the boundaries of what I am capable of. But if your progress isn’t what you’d hoped, find a seasoned training partner in what ever exercise you choose and compare your efforts to their efforts to see if you are putting in as much as you could.

Lastly I would also question the reason and motivation behind what you are doing. To make a life changing transformation you will need some fire. Some of the best result I’ve seen come from people who’ve been through hell and have the burning desire to prove to themselves what they are capable of achieving. Doing a few bicep curls in April because you want to look good for summer doesn’t work 100% of the time.

What should I eat before a workout?

This is quite an individual thing and depends on if you’re working out first thing or not. Most people can’t eat a lot too early. What I would say is always eat first when you are starting out as your blood sugars may be unstable. But over time you will get to know your body and what you are capable of doing or certain amounts and types of food.

It comes down to differently nuanced personalities too. Those who are the anxious type, if they don’t eat before a workout then they will produce cortisol to mobilise stored sugar and that is the last thing that person needs. Those that overeat and eat too much before a workout, will have a blood sugar crash 15 minutes in.

What I suggest is if you’re trying to get into good shape, just eat a healthy diet, keep it simple, and learn how your body reacts over time. This is one of those areas where the old skool advice of eat a good meal 60 minutes before you train is actually solid. Once you are a bit more advanced you can start experimenting with different strategies for the eating window before exercises such as high carb, low carb, fasted etc.

What supplements do you recommend?

If you live in the UK or north of the equator then a high quality D3 supplement is essential. There’s evidence that humans shouldn’t live this far north of the equator and we certainly don’t get enough sun from September to May. This is something where it’s worth paying the extra bit of money if you can afford to buy a high quality brand. I like Nordic Naturals.

Creatine is of course the most research supplement out there and is cheap, safe and helps with energy production plus a host of other benefits. I personally don’t see much of a difference when I use it but experiment for yourself (which is always key with everything!).

And this is not something you hear many people say but I like organ supplements. Liver, kidney, brain, bones, spleen, heart, marrow. There are some great brands such as Ancestral Supplements and Nordic Kings who put out freeze dried organs in the form of capsules that are full of goodness! Of course it would be better if we still ate nose to tail but that is out of fashion now. These organs are fantastic for us for general health, plus they make your nails and hair super shiny and you can’t go wrong with that!

What protein drinks/ snacks are good for after a workout?

For protein powder I only recommend a natural protein powder – ie just whey and nothing else! I don’t recommend birthday cake, or key lime pie flavour! I use a natural protein powder and my go to shake is a few raw eggs, full fat milk, natural protein powder, frozen banana, cacao, peanut butter. This gives me 70 grams of protein (for my quantities) and is full of vitamins and minerals.

I don’t recommend protein snacks if they are processed food ie those soy bars or anything with a grenade the front (?!). I like everyone I train to try to eat whole foods wherever possible, or 80-90% of the time.

I don’t really like people to snack at all, I prefer them to eat good sized meals with plenty of meat for protein and fat for energy to see them to their next one, and the shakes I make or recommend to others, I just consider a decent meal.  

What the worst piece of health & fitness advice & why?

Oh Jesus…there’s so much! The ‘3 reps for strength, 8 to 10 for general fitness, 10 to 15 for toning’ rep range advice is probably the worst from an exercise science stand point. We now know that just one hard set to failure is the muscle exhausted, and that’s it! It doesn’t matter whether you do 5 reps, 10 reps, or 20 reps, the muscle goes to failure and you’re done.

There is however a difference in recovery. A 1 rep max squat attempt is very very hard to recover from. And also a 20 rep max squat attempt is also very very hard to recover from. So there is a sweet spot of 5-7 reps on all muscle groups, on almost all exercises. This is where the latest trends in programming are going, a short, sharp shock in the 5 – 7 rep range on exercises that are stable, easily progressed and easy to recover from.

Stretching helps with mobility is a big one that is now finally being shown to be incorrect. Also small muscles recover faster than big muscles (it’s the other way around), squats are the best for leg development (how can they be when your core gives out first, surely a leg press is better?!).

There’s too many, and all of those are just ‘not optimal’ whereas the bad advice in the dietary world is not only sub-optimal but has harmed people’s health. For example saturated fat is bad, eat multiple servings of bread a day. As health and fitness develops and our information improves so many of the tenets  of fitness that were prevalent in the last century have turned out to be completely wrong.

What’s the best piece of h&f advice & why?

Why did the last question get abbreviated? You got bored didn’t you? haha! Poor last question  haha maybe edit this line out lol.*

Just bloody start!!!! That’s the best advice.

A massive, massive thank you to Olly for taking so much time in answering these questions, with so much detail and information. Hopefully that helps anyone out there wanting some insider invaluable knowledge on how to improve, or had any burning questions for Google (which definitely can't always be relied upon). 

If you're interested in contacting Olly for some PT advice or to start training with him, check out his website www.patternsfitness.com 

Ciao, 

Gigi

*I left this in because it made me laugh big time!