"So firstly a little bit background, I’m just knocking on the door of 50, and for the last three or four years I’ve had acute attacks of gout which have taken an awful long time to diagnose, to get medication right and to finally get it under control. Turns out it was all related to stress, and now that I am finally able to go back to some exercise it was serendipity that Sam contacted me through LinkedIn and offered me his expertise and support

 

Prior to having gout, I used to go to hit classes 4 or 5 times a week and engage in a variety of different physical activities including running, swimming and golf etc.

 

When Sam got in touch, I was ready to get back to exercise but hadn’t really considered lifting weights as I’ve always been of the view that exercise = high hear rate. I’m one of the many people who purchased home exercise equipment during lockdown so when Sam explained the program I was left with no excuses. 

 

Sam offered me a four week intensive program with transformational potential but having been out of exercise for so long I took my time building up to the four week block. In the first week I did nothing but learn to understand the exercises and go through the reps with very little weight at all, and did nothing to failure. The second week I built up more of the weight, the third week I built up even more and did a few bits to failure, and at the same time during this period began cycling the ashwagandha and creatine supplements that Sam had recommended. All of these things led me to the point where, following a brief holiday Portugal for some awful golf, I was able to start the program in earnest.

 

I am an exec coach as part of my role and I helped a coaching session with myself (gave myself a great review) looking for any barriers about why is was going this, how I was going to fit everything in and what things needed to be in place for the program to be a success. This was really important as I have a full time job (and then some!) and family to balance alongside this new added time pressure.

 

There were several things that I did that made following the program and tracking the weights easier. Firstly, I transferred all the sessions into TrainHeroic which is a free app. Unfortunately you can’t share the sessions unless you pay but I built the sessions for myself which allowed me to have everything on my phone to record the number of reps and the weight and be able to see my progress week to week.

 

I also slightly adjusted the cycles of the creatine and ashwagandha, so they were together meaning I had four weeks on two supplements and four weeks off any.

 

In terms of the diet, I use the MyFitnessPal app and track my food and macros. I quickly found that I wasn’t quite eating enough protein and could tell that both in the gym and threw the feedback in the app I began to eat a lot more eggs and basically stuck to the same diet every day. Apart from my evening meal which was mainly HelloFresh, my diet was four eggs in the morning, a protein shake, two tuna wraps with some fruit and yoghurt at lunchtime, and then six mini eggs and a decaf coffee as a treat!

 

Sticking to the diet and the supplements were the biggest routines that I had to work on. Getting up in the morning and going straight to the gym was actually a relatively good and easy routine to stick to because everything was arranged for me through the app when I went in. I didn’t have to do too much thinking and just had to work hard which I really enjoyed, and that feeling of enjoyment and success increased the more I went through the program.

 

There are probably some unseen benefits, which, when you look at the body transformation programs that are out there aren’t necessarily the things that are promoted, but Sam was really good at digging to the bottom of my issues and making sure that these things were referred back to when we had our mini coaching sessions. For me, I’m not a particularly vain person, I’m already loved as I am, and therefore transforming the size of my biceps or trying to find my six pack under years of crisps wasn’t the motivation. However, as I approach my 50’s I’m starting to think about longevity of life and what kind of things I need to do to ensure I am still healthy into my later years is really important. One of the things I’d read recently was around the importance of grip strength and being able to carry and lift heavyweights is a key indicator of longevity. 

 

There were other mini wins which occurred to me as I went through the program. One of the wins was around being able to do things with my kids. My daughter is now 21 and a regular climber and for a long time I haven’t been able to join in with the activity but by the end of the second week I felt like I was able to go and spend time with her doing something she loves.Another benefit is my lower back pain which had been there for a number of years has gone and I genuinely believe this is down to the developments in my core strength alongside all of the other exercises in the program.

 

For me, the weight didn’t come off very quickly but that wasn’t too much of an issue as I could feel and see my changing body shape meaning I was building more muscle and losing body fat which is something that I’ve been trying to do for several years through HIIT training, and which never had an impact unless I was starving myself at the same time, and was never sustained. The difference with this program is that I now feel I have found a good routine around accessing exercise. I have some quality exercises to do in that routine and some really great guidelines around eating consistently well, without feeling like I’m starving myself and finally taking a couple of supplements, which help with a whole range of things, including lowering stress, which is something that I struggle with in my day-to-day life.

 

Another slightly random win for me was that as I train on my own in a shed at the bottom of the garden, I’m able to do all sorts of thinking about work and I’ve learned to use the dictate option on my phone to dictate emails, newsletters and thoughts to myself etc (such as this blog!) which has freed up an awful lot of brain space to go into work and tackle the day ahead. I found this really really useful and something that I don’t think I could do in a gym but it was definitely something that was an unexpected benefit from training on my own - I thought it would be a lonely process rather than a useful one.

 

I’m now several months in and I’m still using the programme, diet macros and supplements and I have to say I’ve never felt better. Because this is a long time habit change I’m happy for progress to be slow and incremental so increase and decrease intensity as time allows, with some specifics push periods built in when I know I have the capacity. 

 

The final thing I’d reflect on is that feedback is essential and so is accountability. Sam has made the process of sharing data, visuals and praise really effective and has probably been the most important part of making this a success. He has an an uncanny knack of messaging just as my will power runs out and that responsibility to train for someone else is way more powerful than will power.

 

I’ve spent time thinking about this to try and codify why it’s worked so it might be helpful to others, and I hope it is. I can wholeheartedly recommend working with Sam and will be forever grateful for the support he has offered me."