Where do I even start!?!?!

If I think back to my early gym days, they were mainly focused on physio and rehabilitation for reconstructive knee surgery that I had at the tender age of 17 following a ruptured ACL!

This meant lots of work to strengthen the muscles surrounding the knee joint - the quads, hamstrings and calves predominantly. Starting very light and gradually increasing the resistance as I regained the lost muscle tissue that had wasted away through weeks of inactivity, as well as gaining some new tissue as I progressed.

Seeing this new found size and strength triggered something inside me to want to do this more and more and thus, a love for the gym evolved, relatively quickly.

But with my enthusiasm came a lot of bad habits!

I became a little too absorbed with what the guys I was aspiring to be like were doing, the weights they were lifting, the products they were promoting and I tried EVERYTHING (legal)!

The internet is both amazing and confusing! The vastness of information available at the click of a button is truly mindboggling, and for the young, enthusiastic and impressionable mind like mine, an absolute minefield!

My first few months were a whirlwind of new training plans, none lasting much more than a week or two until the newest thing came out. A hunger for ALL the products - mass gainers, protein bars/cookies - supplements I had never heard of before, all because they are very cleverly marketed by my lifting idols!

And because I was new to this lifting game, I was seeing results. The earlier in your lifting life you are, the more responsive and adaptive your body is to new stimuli, and therefore changes occur that much quicker!

So what did I do?

Like anyone seeing results I continued to apply these methods. New plans on the regular, training more frequently, latest supplements purchased and consumed…but progress stalling!

At this point I was starting to gain weight in places I didn’t want it, mainly around my stomach, my strength just felt like it was going backwards, and my motivation was dwindling!

I needed to reassess where I was and what I was doing so I began reading up. My go to source of info was www.bodybuilding.com, a well-known website for all things bodybuilding! And when I could I would also pick up copies of Men’s Health and Muscle & Fitness to see what these magazines had to offer.

These sources of information gave me some valuable advice regarding training, in particular…a training plan needed to be constructed over a period of 4-6 weeks before being changed. This allows your body to make progressive steps over those weeks, whilst not becoming too accustomed to certain movements where it no longer wants to adapt and grow!

I also looked to these magazines and articles for help on nutrition, a hugely overlooked part of most people’s thought process – “I go to the gym so I can eat what I want” doesn’t cut it if you want continued progress! That’s not to say you have to be completely restrictive but we will save that for another time.

So I also learned that structuring my diet was going to further enhance my progress and optimise my results…so the obvious next step was to simply find out what my bodybuilding heroes were eating and do exactly what they were doing!

Cut to me mass preparing chicken and rice (and little else) without really measuring anything out or knowing why I was eating this stuff, but all bodybuilders eat is chicken and rice isn’t it?? Oh and lots of cheat meals, because those too are always posted about on social media platforms or in magazines!

Not only did I end up hugely falling out with chicken and rice but my progress still wasn’t where I wanted it to be! 

But why??

Well, again, what it takes time to understand is that it is imperative that a diet plan is tailored to your individual goals and needs. You can often find general advice on how to structure a diet online and that’s how I began macro counting. Working out the quantities of protein, fats and carbohydrates that I believed my body needed based upon my weight, activity levels and the figures quoted in these articles.



And bam! Progress again…for a while! 

Now what?!?!?!

I’m following the plans to the letter, my training is structured around 4-6 week plans, my diet is based upon more science than luck, and yet, my progress is stalling again!

Aaaaaaaarrrrrrggggghhhhhh

Keep in mind that I am now talking about a process over the course of several years, probably around 10 years actually, trial and error, learning what does and doesn’t work.

At this point I’m completely bemused. I feel like I’m doing everything my information sources are telling me, eating right, training right, supplementing right….”is it all steroids?” running through my mind…”Is that what it is going to take!”

No, I have always said, and I stand by my decision, that anabolic steroids are not for me. I simply wouldn’t get the same satisfaction of achieving my goal physique, even if they did work!

So what next!? Where do I turn now?

It was around this time I had started to notice more and more online PTs, a concept that intrigued me. I obviously knew of the in-person PTs in the gyms I had been to and believe they can be of huge value to their clients but I had also seen those in-person PTs as mainly motivators for those people who may not enjoy going to the gym but feel more of a sense of duty when they have paid for that 1-2-1 service and have that PT with them every step of the way! There is a lot more to their job, let me just add. A good in-person PT will be far more than simply a motivator, they will be there to educate their clients on form, technique, good practice and much more, subject to their qualifications and experience and they have a huge place in the industry!

But I didn’t need motivating, I loved going to the gym, as often as I could! Investing in an online PT seemed like the most logical option for me so I started looking around for someone. I knew of people using online PTs so I reached out to them first, was given some names and recommendations and I went out and enlisted the help of my first online PT. I had an initial email conversation, liked what I was told, and paid my money for a 12 week package…and then I waited, and waited, and chased, and chased…and about 3 weeks after having paid my money, received my plans with a slightly disgruntled message from said PT. OK, not the best start but I was excited to get going. Lots of different exercises and a proper nutrition plan, tailored to my requirements, followed to the letter! Progress was being made, I checked in weekly as required, but wouldn’t always get a weekly response. Sometimes it might be fortnightly or more, a few changes made to the plans and I’d go again. Checked-in, waited for a response, go again. A cycle that repeated several times and I was getting frustrated…the only saving grace, if you can call it that, being that this particular PT can’t have been great at admin as I must have got about 6 months’ worth of plans from him having only paid for 12 weeks!

But he soon realised, and the relationship came to an end.

I then enlisted the help of another online PT following a few more recommendations and, unfortunately, the experience was very similar. Replies were late, updates not being made when they really should have been and that relationship also came to an end rather abruptly!

As you can imagine, I was becoming a little disheartened with the process by this point but also very determined to find the right approach for me.

During this time I had moved house and found a new gym and in return for some financial advice (I was an accountant in my former life, FYI), I was offered 10 free PT sessions with one of the club’s in-house trainers. And, despite my reservations mentioned above, found this to be very helpful. The PT in question was a competitive powerlifter and gave me some very useful advice on form for those major lifts, bench, squat, deadlift, as well as being very knowledgeable about training the accessory muscle groups too and much more.

So, was this the way forward? I couldn’t help but think it was quite an ineffective solution for me as I didn’t really ‘need’ someone standing next to me telling me what to do.

I also really like training alone, it’s my time to zone out, crank the music up, and just enjoy being in the gym doing what I love! So having that in-person PT just felt a little awkward at time - complete personal preference there!

So back to the drawing board (or social media board as is more appropriate, these days)! 

I can’t recall exactly how I came to follow Adam Bates, but I think it was on Twitter, a social media platform that I had used the least actually. I was seeing some amazing transformations happening, some great testimonials and Adam himself in remarkable shape, the kind of physique that I aspired to have! So, I reached out, explained my previous experiences with online coaches and my reservations and he quickly put me at ease and explained that his clients are his number one priority, their success is his success, which is a truly amazing mantra!

And that as they say, is history! 5 years later I have never looked back. The changes I have seen in my progress since working with Adam have been insane and I’m looking forward to competing later this year for the first time under Adam’s watchful eye!

To sum up, and thank you if you’ve read this far as I appreciate it is a fairly lengthy read, online coaching is an amazing opportunity to work with someone incredibly closely, who is knowledgeable in many areas, and much more available.

It may not be the most appropriate option for everyone, but it has definitely been the right approach for me! 

Which is why I am now offering my services as an online coach, too. All of the years’ experience and knowledge mentioned previously, combined with 5 years of guidance from one of, if not the best online coach in the business, means I am ideally placed to provide the highest level of service and support to you guys!