Milo of Croton 6th Century BC

Following this principle it then comes down to how you want to progressively overload your body towards your goal.

If you want to get stronger or bigger then you need to supply your muscles with resistance.

Whether that be bodyweight exercises, machines, or free weights it doesn’t matter.

Figure out what works for you and your body. What you enjoy doing. What equipment you have available. Then do it.

The same thing applies to cardio.

You want to get faster, more endurance, more energy?

Put your body through workouts where these factors come into play.

Whether it be hiking, jogging, biking, boxing, etc.

Me unapologetically flexing at the stadium of the first olympic games in Athens Greece.

Whatever method your doing (as long as you do it sufficiently) it will force your body to recover and then adapt.

For this recovery and adaptation to happen you need to supply your body with food that will fuel this recovery while resting long enough for your body to work it’s magic.

Keep on repeating the cycle over and over again inexorably.

This may sound strange but to me the physical side of fitness is the easiest part.

To me the hardest part is the psychological side of training.

Hence outside of your physical limitations and equipment limitations it’s what I program around.

For my Doctorate I studied the psychological factors behind social engineering in cybersecurity for my dissertation.

So while I’m NOT a qualified mental health professional I have published peer reviewed academic research in psychology. (So I’d like to think I know a thing or two).

The key for fitness is consistency. Full stop. An inexorable push over the long term will beat inconsistent short term effort.

My published research, feel free to Google it yourself and/or read it (if you need help falling asleep).

Now I pose a question for your consideration. Why are you considering personal training?

Presumably because there’s something you want to change about yourself or a goal you’re chasing.

This is your internal or intrinsic motivation.

Whatever your goal is it doesn’t matter. Whether it be you want to be able to play with your grandkids, hit 300 yard drives, look good on the beach, or just wake up feeling healthy. This is what will drive you.

Now to be perfectly frank with you there are multiple different ways, exercises, workout plans, etc. that can get you to each one of these.

The trick is finding the one that will get you there. If something isn’t compatible with your body but it’s “optimal” by science it won’t get you there. For instance with my back injuries I can’t load up my spine anymore with weight. So I used bodyweight (pull ups felt amazing with traction on my back) and machine movements that didn’t load the spine to get over 18 inch arms.

So from the pool of possible methods you have to select what you’re physically able to do safely.

From this pool the question becomes simple. What do I enjoy the most that will work?

I have a confession to make. I hate running. I’ve never liked running for the sake of running in my entire life.

But for the overwhelming majority of my life up until my back wouldn’t allow me to run I’ve been pretty fast.

I only ran a little bit to get fast. My preferred forms of cardio were martial arts, some HIIT training, and other forms of cardio I found enjoyable.

Why did I do this? Because I actually enjoyed these things, ergo I was able to do them consistently.

Couple exercises you actually somewhat enjoy and inexorably sticking to a goal and your chances of success are astronomically high.

Driving a green on a par 4

Even if you don’t decide to train to me hopefully you got something out of that explanation. If you want proof or more information about what brought me this philosophy feel free to read the about me page.

This explanation was a bit of an oversimplification however, I believe it gives you the necessary background theory. Whatever I’ve taught (cybersecurity, fitness, avionics, etc.) I’ve always believed in distilling down the core concepts into the simplest possible terms. There are more details that go into this however, I believe everyone should be able to understand the core concepts. It is our jobs as researchers, coaches, teachers, trainers, etc. to figure out these details for you and deliver what actually matters to you.

I use time tested methods that have well, stood the test of time…... You don’t need supplements, drugs, or fancy training methods. Your injuries and life limitations are just things that you need to plan around. They are obstacles but they are not road blocks. You need the methods that work around them and an inexorable drive. This drive comes from sticking to your goals and finding a workout plan that works for you. These are both things that I believe I can help you with. I believe that my education, teaching experience, leadership/motivation experience, and over 20 years in fitness can help you.