Fitness Simplified with Anthony Trebble Training #6

I know I know I'm a bit late with this but hear me out, life and illness has got in the way and is that not just a representation of how things can go in your fitness journey. Now I have two options, still get it done albeit a little bit late knowing this is a long term plan or give up completely?

It's easy to get bogged down by the bad days or even weeks when it comes to fitness, maybe not seeing or feeling the progress or life is just getting in the way but hopefully you have years and years of fitness ahead of you so treat it that way, accept that it is not going to always be plain sailing and embrace the challenges as it is how you respond to challenges that matters most.

This newsletter will be a bit of a shorter one as this illness has left me with the brain capacity of a fish on land.

Gym Jargon Part Deux

We're back making sense of what can definitely look like nonsense and we'll dive straight in..

AMRAP - As Many Rounds/Reps As Possible. This is something you'll often see in classes or crossfit but is also a great way to set up a finisher for your own sessions. Get 2-5 exercises, set a number of reps for each exercise and decide on a length of time. An example could look like this:

7 min AMRAP - 200m row, 10 box jumps, 10 kettlebell swings.

EMOM - Every Minute On the Minute - again this is something you might see in classes or crossfit but can be a great way to add variety to your sessions. It is simply deciding an exercise or exercises to do with a recurring timer. It can be EMOM or E2MOM (every 2 mins) or any number really. I've used this in the past and enjoyed it. A favourite of mine previously has been using it for deadlifts.

3 reps every minute for 10 mins.

Now if you are looking to build muscle having a longer rest period would be more ideal but I like to set up sessions for myself which offer variety, fitness is a hobby as well as a necessity so it is important to enjoy it!

Compound exercises - These are exercises that hit multiple muscle groups. For example a deadlift is going to be hitting your hamstrings predominently but you'll also be working your glutes, abs and middle of the back and hip flexors. I'd usually put these exercises first as they can be more fatiguing and therefore need maximum energy reserves to perform correctly. Other examples are squats, any kind of rows, hip thrusts and many more!

Isolation exercises - This follows on from the last one and is the opposite. This is where we are isolating a muscle for the work. Bicep curls, tricep extensions, hamstring curls, leg extensions are all great examples of this. These can usually come after the compound movements in your session as they are less taxing on the body however if your main goal is to get bigger arms you would do your curls and extensions first to put maximum load on the muscle

Smart watches - necessity or fad?!

In short... neither.

Sometimes things align quite nicely. A few weeks ago my brain lit up as it normally does of a night time and I started looking in to smart watches. In particular the accuracy of them and the results are mixed so therefore the necessity of a watch depends entirely in what you are using them for. Then this week I have had 3 people ask me about smart watches.

If you're a runner looking to improve times a watch is extremely helpful way of tracking time, pace and distance and because watches use GPS they are pretty accurate (I say pretty because any runner has been on Garmin saying 5k but Strava says 4.99km)

But watches are also used for other things like steps, sleep, calories burnt in a workout and heart rate.

So in my vortex I particularly looked at the calorie side of things and I was shocked at the inaccuracy. I wasn't expecting them to be exact but many of the main smart watches showed up to 60% variability on calories!

I also had a Whoop! recently, I was intrigued so done their trial and I won't lie it is pretty interesting and one of the few that I have been able to sleep in due to it's comfort but one thing I did not like is I would wake up, feel great, see that it said my sleep was rubbish and almost like a switch I was tired again and therein lies the problem, all the technology is great but I found I lost how I ACTUALLY felt. This goes for the calories burned in a workout, you think you've had a great workout, check your watch stats and it's less than last time or not as good as your friend and then you feel rubbish not knowing that theres a chance it could be 60% inaccurate.

So here's my take on it, if it encourages you to move more or you're needing it to track distances or time then great go for it! But if it starts to dictate your life, how you feel and what you do I'd probably say no.. you'd be much better of learning to listen to your body and figuring out how you feel.

Hybrid coaching

This is something that has always been in the long term plan however I wanted to gain at least a couple years experience first.

So what is hybrid coaching..

It is a mixture of 1-2-1 and online coaching, with maybe 1 or 2 1-2-1 sessions a month and then online coaching for the rest of the month to help keep you accountable, have your plans for the week ahead and be available for any questions.

Well this is coming, I'm hoping to have this set up by April/May time and it's going to be alongside 2 new package options that will be built for people just beginning, lacking confidence in the gym or just needing a helping hand to get on track.

Package 1 - 3 months total. 1st month with 4 1-2-1 sessions to work on the basics and give you the key knowledge in the gym and 2 months of hybrid coaching

Package 2 - Same as above but double it. 6 months to set you on your way to a lifetime of fitness and hitting goal after goal.

If you want to be the first to know more details and when this is going live drop me a message and I will put you on the priority list!

Got any questions you want answered? Feel free to ask away and I’ll get them in the next newsletter