Personal Trainer – Make A Choice!

September 4th, 2011

Have quite a powerful message for you today.

 

But first I want to let you in on a little secret about investing in YOURSELF.

investing in yourself

I have paid a lot of people in the last couple of years to be really honest.

 

I have paid DCU (Dublin City University) paid for dozens of conferences, workshops and business masterminds to educate myself on training, nutrition and marketing.

 

Stayed up until 3 am and got up at 6 am for months on end to get stuff done.

 

I invested time and money in my education to get where I wanted to be…

 

One something is paid for I take the time to give it a fair go.

 

How much did all this cost…? Over the last 3 years alone I’ve spent in the region of €25,000 on information. Cool eh? :-)

 

It’s a lot of investment… and a lot of learning and a lot of RISK you might say…?

 

Nahh there was no risk.

 

I never once said to myself:

 

‘What if this doesn’t work out? I will have wasted all this money’

 

Because I knew it would work if I put my mind to it.

 

It’s the same if you want to lose weight, gain muscle or just look better naked.

 

You see the difference between success and failure, in anything, comes down to one simple thing.

 

Choice.

 

You have to CHOOSE to get stuck in and give it a fair shot.

 

Your situation right now is the sum of the *choices* you have made in the present moment.

You chose not to go to the gym… you chose to eat that cake.

 

You chose to watch coronation street instead of go for a walk.

 

If you are doing things all wrong in the gym and messing things up, its YOUR FAULT because you didn’t ask for help.

 

If your skinny and think your trying everythin but ‘its just not working’ ITS YOUR FAULT because you didn’t ask.

 

If you are over weight and your trying your best to lose it but ‘its just not working’ ITS YOUR FAULT because you didn’t ask.

 

It IS you fault… to a certain extent anyway.

 

You try by yourself, get nowhere and then succumb to the false realisation that you are just ‘naturally’ skinny/fat/big/small/whatever.

 

Ehhhh… stop making excuses and get your finger out.

 

 

Not ‘when the economy gets better’.

 

Not ‘when I have more free time’.

 

No ‘if only I was naturally thinner.’

 

No ‘if only I was bigger’.

 

No ‘if only I was whatever’.

 

Everthing (within reason) is a *choice*.

 

The only difference between you and the people you want to be like is simple:

 

They’re not afraid to make a choice…Why not?

 

They decided who they wanted to be.

 

They didn’t make the choice in some undefined ‘later’.

 

Or ‘tomorrow‘. Those things don’t exist.

 

 

They never will. They will never arrive.

 

Ever.

 

I could have said ‘I don’t have a business degree’ and then not started The ABS Gym and settled in a public gym cleaning machines or working in some lab somewhere wanting to jump out the window every minute of every day but I CHOSE to set up my own business.

 

Why? Because I knew it was going to work.

 

Are you afraid you ‘cant do it’?

 

My buddy (and now personal trainer) John Weldon made a CHOICE to come see me 2 years ago. At a hefty 140kg he was very overweight and in need of change.

 

He could have said ‘im naturally big’ or ‘im big boned’ or whatever but he decided he wasn’t going to roll over and accept it.

 

Now he’s <10% bodyfat and working in The ABS Gym in Dublin as a Personal Trainer.

 

He could have said ‘Personal training is expensive and I can’t afford it’ i.nstead he made the INVESTMENT

 

Ignore people who try to sabotage your efforts (and there are many).

 

Does ‘your just fine the way you are’ ring a bell ?

 

Does ‘why bother, life is short’ resonate with you?

 

Who said this to you and take a close look at them…? They either 1. look the way you want to look or 2. they are in the same boat as you but too lazy to get up off their arse and do something about it.

 

Alwyn Cosgrove who is a buddy of mine, personal trainer and all round great guy inspired this post and I’m also stealing this video on him :-)

 

PS. Alwyn beat stage IV cancer twice, bone marrow transplants, the works and still owns and operates the most profitable gym in the US.

 

No excuses :-)

 

The video is about hard work and dedication. If you are willing to put in the work you will get what you want…

 

There is no such thing as ‘The Secret’… No short-cuts… get stuck in… Call me on 0861238633 or email bryan[at]athleticbodysystem.com to get started

 

 
—- > Will Smith on Youtube

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Personal Trainer? Do You REALLY Need One?

July 22nd, 2011

Personal Trainer? Do You REALLY Need One?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am writing this on a Friday evening purely because I couldn’t wait. I had a personal training consultation today with a guy who started training with weights about 6 months ago for aesthetic reasons (he wanted to look better naked) but he hasn’t seen ANY difference after the first couple of weeks.

 

It hit me like a train…

That’s what EVERYONE says when they come in looking for personal training.

Well nearly everyone…

Here’s the TOP 5 reasons people get personal training in Dublin. Ill bet you fit into one of these categories. Here it goes :-)

1. They’ve never EVER been in a public gym and it intimidates them.

I completely understand this one. To be completely honest I trained myself and was personal training dozens of people from my shed for YEARS before I joined/ started working in a big public gym. When I started in the public gym I was wondering if people were looking at me. The weights were different so I couldn’t add them up properly etc. :-) I was intimidated too. Only a little though of course :-) And I was a trainer myself!

2. They have been a member of a public gym for the last 3+ years but make it to the gym maybe twice/ month because they’re lazy.

To tell the truth you’re not lazy, you’re NORMAL.

 

You see turning up to the gym when you haven’t got an appointment or a purpose to go is HARD. Hell, even I have to organise training with one of the other trainers in the ABS Gym or the ABS Conditioning Centre to keep myself motivated. Having an appointment with a trainer is almost impossible to sneak away from… we’re watching you! :-)

3. They have been jogging or just doing mind numbing cardio for the last 6 months in the gym and not only are they seeing no results. They are actually regressing and even going backwards. Getting fitter but PUTTING ON WEIGHT.

Cardio? Nah. Why do you need a trainer to press buttons on you tread mill or stairmaster and shout stupid slogans at you?

 

I don’t!

You shouldn’t! a REAL personal trainer will write up a conditioning programme using suitable weights and fat burning exercises so that you are never bored and constantly getting results and staying motivated. Not running on a treadmill like a hamster in a wheel.

4. They have been following a programme they were given in a Gym in Dublin and realized after a week or two that this was just a generic piece of nonsense that the fitness instructor gave them. Not a personalised programme. Can you blame the guy? They don’t get paid extra, they don’t have to get results, and they get paid the same either way.

On the other hand if a personal trainer doesn’t get results, he doesn’t get paid! Simple as that.

Our sole purpose in life is to get people the results they deserve. Think about that one…

5. They tried some other personal trainer/ fad/ gym that forces supplements on you the second you step through the door.

I’m not mentioning any names because that wouldn’t be cool :-) I will say that there are a lot of gimmicks out there. Celebrity diet, alli diet pill and certain gyms/personal trainers pushing supplements on you isn’t fair. Plain and simple. You don’t need that stuff. It DOESN’T help, it just makes them money to sell it to you.

Not cool at all.

Well there you have it. The top 5 reasons why people get personal training and my take on it…

Thanks for reading

Bryan Kavanagh BSc CSCS

 

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Are you afraid of getting get too big…

June 18th, 2010

There is a misconception that resistance training (weights) automatically make you BIG…

If it were as easy as lifting a few weights and you automatically got huge the gyms wouldn’t be packed with underweight men in their early 20’s trying to bulk up by lifting weights and guzzling down 1000 kcal weight gain shakes.

So I guess this article is going to go down two routes…

1. If you want to get bigger, You cannot expect to take a pill or drink some stupid powder and think you can get huge…

It doesn’t work like that…

A protein powder is a supplement… an addition to your current nutrition plan… you don’t compensate for eating crap foods and no protein all day by guzzling down protein shakes!

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You sort your nutrition out, eat enough CLEAN calories and then in addition to that and then use protein powder as a convenience on occasion… not as a cure.

2. If you don’t want to be ‘too’ big… do the same as above because you aren’t going to get ‘too big’ any time soon… it takes years of dedication, education and hard training to get BIG, you can get lean reasonably fast and look ‘muscular’…

Problem with getting lean when you haven’t got an appreciable amount of muscle mass is you will probably weigh a hefty 140 lbs and fall over on a windy day…

You see weights are a tool, it depends how you use them and what you eat with them… you wont get big if you don’t eat enough…you will lose weight…and that is some peoples goal…

You can’t naturally get TOO big… do you think it happens by accident… or with very little effort… one morning you just wake up and you look like Ronnie coleman?

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It doesn’t happen like that…

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On the flip side I get people pointing at the cover of a fitness magazine saying

‘I don’t want to get too big…maybe just as big as that guy’

As if it were a simple task…sometimes cover models and physique athletes are treated if they are lesser beings because they don’t weigh 300lbs…

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‘That guy’ is 185lb and shredded at about 4% bodyfat… years of dedication and hard work…not a physique you can just develop overnight…

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On a final note…I got an email the other day from somebody saying…

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‘I didn’t expect the ‘Athlete physique’ training system to be so difficult… I was actually looking for one of those ‘sissy’ 20 minutes 3 days/ week programmes that you take the piss out of in the athlete physique manual…’

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That’s why I take the piss out of them… because they don’t work!

Think about this one…

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Two people on the EXACT same training programme one with excess calories and restrict the other persons calories and PRESTO!!

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One will gain muscle and the other will lose fat it… Weights are a tool and can be used for fat loss or muscle gain but it depends on a number of factors…

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This is a theory I like to call ‘Micro bulking’ and ‘Micro Cutting’ and is one of the principles Ian used to build muscle and burn fat at the same time.

Check it out here >>> http://athletephysique.com

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Go to the gym twice per day?

June 15th, 2010

A lot of people train twice a day and it sounds ‘hardcore’…

But in reality they are just TRYING to be hardcore…they want to be able to SAY they trained twice… either that or they THINK they are actually going to benefit from it.

With the exception of elite level athletes, or highly experienced gym goers, training twice a day is a load of nonsense… Athletes may have to perform a technical or team based session and a conditioning or strength session in one day but the certainly don’t train maximally twice per day. But for someone to perform a training session before work, say legs or ‘quads’ and then go and training hamstrings in the evening or likewise training back in the morning and benching in the evening… I call BS.

Let me explain…

Any big compound exercise i.e. bench press, squat, deadlift…anything that more than one joint is moving. Utilises a lot more muscle than the primary one.

I.e. whether you like it or not you are going to be even a little fatigued from the first session and the second session will suffer. Or even better you may ‘save yourself’ for the evening session and train submaximally in session the first one.

Ive also heard… ‘ill just do a little metabolic work this morning’

The little metabolic work would consist of max effort jumps, bodyweight exercises and sprints… or even steady state cardio…

The problem with this is two fold.

If you even devote half your effort to the session in the AM then the PM session is going to be effected…

The result: Two half arsed sessions…and over training… over train and you will get nowhere…

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One max effort session will always beat two half arsed ones.

If it were the other way around it wouldn’t be as bad, but it is still nowhere near optimal.

Truth is, the calories you burn during your training session are negligible.

It’s the calories that are burned after the training session while you are sitting on your arse on the couch that make all the difference.

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Likewise, nobody ever got bigger or put on muscle inside the gym. You damage the muscle and get weaker in the gym. You grow and develop when you are eating, sitting and recovering!

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Get it out of your head that in order to achieve any fat loss/ muscle building goals you need to spend an eternity in the gym.

You don’t…

You need to recover adequately, eat smart and in recovery periods you will either grow or lose fat… depending on you food intake…

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I repeat… training twice is stupid… eat less and leave the metabolic work out or…

End each training session with a specific workouts finisher that will burn fat for hours after you are finished training like in ‘Athletic Body System’.

Or add in a muscle building ‘gunshow’ or lagging bodypart pairing like in or the more advanced muscle building programme ‘Athlete Physique’

Thanks for reading…

——————————–

Bryan Kavanagh BSc CSCS

Co-author of

Athletic Body System and

Athlete Physique training systems.

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How much protein?

June 3rd, 2010

So how much protein do you need?



I love when this topic comes up because I get the opportunity to really vent.

Here’s something I read the other day which made me laugh…

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‘Most Americans get all the protein needed in a day without even trying’

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Wait a second. That sounds like the advice being given is that you should refrain from eating more protein.

So every one is being told that they are getting enough protein in their diet by eating bread adn crap every day. 

This is possible but they get plenty of fat and carbs too.

So everyone should be eating more carbs and fat, instead eating more protein?

NO

Eating too much protein will not make you fat as easily as eating too much carbs, so it makes sense that if you are going to eat too much of anything then it might as well be protein.

Plus, I doubt eating too many chicken breasts the reason a ridiculously high % of the population are obese.

Fact of the matter is, protein can’t be stored in the body like fat and carbohydrates, we need to replenish the supply daily. Your body can make some of it but this process is far from optimal.

 

Protein is essential for the repair/ growth of just about every cell in the human body, from muscle, hair, nails to the function of homones.

It is true that the human body may not need to take in 100’s of grams of protein everyday. Maybe you don’t have to take in protein with every meal.

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But…

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Why not?

This garbage I hear about the human body only being able to take in 20 grams of protein with every meal…. That’s 80 kcals.

How does that work out for Lions and other carnivores. are they restricted to taking in 80 calorie meals at a time. I don’t know about that, somehow I think there are more than 20 grams of protein in a gazelle or a buffalo, but I’m just guessing.

I can’t even imagine who came up with that nonsense.

 

 

Probably a hippy or this guy…or both…

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I know what your thinking, but animals are different… don’t worry your body will not waste the protein…

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And even if it did… SO WHAT!

The protein is going to make you feel full, satisfied and keep you away from the cake.

The last place its going is to your fat stores. Your body has so many other uses for it that it will UTILIZE most of it and then, and only then will it store it as fat.

On the other hand…Carbohydrate is a fuel and unless you are exercising or recovering from exercise…your body has no other use whatsoever for carbohydrate.

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I.E.

It gets stored as fat. It’s akin to having a full tank of gas/petrol and trying to fill it up again…if there’s no room its going to spill out all over the place…just like your waistline.

Long story short unless:

1. You are about to do something really strenuous,

2. Have just finished something really strenuous or

3. You want to be a fatty

Limit carbohydrate intake on days you aren’t training or doing something strenuous and increase protein intake in general.

Simple as that.

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Monte Carlo Gym Session

March 28th, 2010

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Vegas and Gym Nonsense

March 26th, 2010

There is a quick intermission here in the seminar I’m at so I said I’d throw this up real quick.

I’m a clown and I didn’t book my connect flight before I left and I ended up stranded in Chicago for a couple hours which was interesting. But I did get an EPIC chicken fillet and vegetable dish…mushroom sauce and all for $12.

WIN

Got to Vegas early Thursday morning and wandered about for a while and went to do a training session in the Planet Hollywood ‘Timeshare’ building…It’s a new building and I sincerely hope the gym is just not finished because it was ridiculously under equipped.

Ended up just making do with what was there and doing the following:

A1: Heavy pulldowns,

B1: High rep push ups (Trying to fatigue the muscle so that the measly 50lb dumbbells might feel heavier… it didn’t work)

A2: Pulldown strip set (200lbs, 180, 160, 140, 100 all reps to failure)

B2: Push Ups decending metabolic pairing (10, 8, 6, 4, 2,)

Attempted to do some Dumbbell Incline chest press…DB’s were way too light so I had to do the unthinkable and use the MACHINES….<insert horror music here>

A3: Machine chest press

B3: Chest supported row … with silly 50’s again

Then I took the piss and done a set of every machine in the gym and started being a jackass and recording stuff…Nuisance isn’t the word…

Forgot to mention…client and good friend/famous guy I helped lose nearly 100 lbs in the last couple of months came with me to the gym…

We were in PURE night club Thursday Night night in Caesars palace and the new club ‘Vanity’ last night good laugh and I’m paying the price now, 3 hours total sleep in 2 days and then trying to concentrate doesn’t mix

:-)

We’re getting back to work here so I gotta go…

We are headed to a VIP Party in ‘Haze’ nightclub in ARIA nightclub later tonight…

We’ll train first I swear!

Snoop dog is playing a set which is going to be EPIC … Photos to come

:-)

I’ll keep you posted..

B

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Body Building Show and Bench Press Competition

March 22nd, 2010

I was supposed to be competing in the best shape personal trainer class in the show but because of lack of entries I ended up just eating chocolate and deciding to do a bench press competition after Marc O Neill OWNED the first timers section of the Bodybuilding section.

FAIR PLAY to Marc, I called him THAT DAY and asked him if he wanted to compete…

The competition started at 730pm and we arrived at 731pm…

No preperation, wearing his girlfriends tan, he looked AWESOME and owned the category..

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Then he OWNED me at the bench press competition too!! As you can hear from the video above…

‘i let him win’

:-)

GOOD MAN ROCKY! :-)

http://athletephysique.com

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Getting R-I-P-P-E-D With Athlete Physique!

March 11th, 2010

11 days ago I started on the Athlete Physique Training programme.

For those of you who are not familiar, it is the Training programme that Ian performed last year on the run up to his 1st and 2nd physique contests last year.

Ian in January 2009 and April 2009

Admittedly I was not starting from scratch and I have been lifting heavy and consistently all year so I took up on week 9 and let the pain begin :-)

I am currently on day 4 of Week 10 and lets just say I feel like Bambi…On Ice…

The glute-ham raises are the most fun!


I can’t believe Ian actually went through this program, then again, looking at his pictures I guess he did…yes Ian that’s the one and ONLY time you will half get a compliment off me.

Seriously though its fun…it’s the first time I have followed a ‘program’ in years…Yes my training is structured but there has not been a set program and I guess my physique was suffering.

Besides that I have been getting comments from people saying that they can see the fat loss. I was surprised because in general I walk around at approximately 8% bodyfat so I didn’t think the 1.4 kg I have lost in 11 days would be that noticeable.

Sunday 28th February I was 82.6 kg and today I weighed in at 81.2

The structure of the programme allows you to hit multiple bodyparts in each session and then hit each bodypart numerous times in the week.

I know there are skeptics out there thinking that training each body-part once per week and isolating the crap out of it works well…good for you… it doesn’t work for most people, including me.

I have crap genetics and I am a naturally thin guy but going from 73 kg in September to 81.2 staying at the same or similar bodyfat % tells me I’m doing something right…

So screw the skeptics.

I usually preach to people that they need to ‘Earn the right to isolate’…

I.e. If you can only bench half your bodyweight, barely manage push ups and cannot do a single chin up then maybe…JUST MAYBE… you shouldn’t be farting around with little sissy dumbbells doing bicep curls and tricep kickbacks.

I have the luxury of being kind of strong (for my size) and i have been lifting heavy all year so it is okay for me to start throwing in some of the exercises in the ‘Gunshow’ manual.

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My arms grew almost immediately. Not necessarily because I isolated them with the supersets outlined in the manual but because i had built up strength doing big, compound lifts like the bench press, chin ups and deadlifts for months. I have literally done NO isolation exercises in the last 18 months, and in 3 weeks my arms have grew… I guess what I’m trying to explain is I could have done curls and extensions until the cows came home and nothing would have happened

OR

Build strength on the big lifts so that when I do isolate my arms and do curls and extensions, it actually works…

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I only really started tightening up on my nutrition since Sunday. Maybe that’s a bit late but I was willing to take the risk…

The athlete physique meal plans are simple enough to follow and are giving me a structure to follow… Can’t wait for my omelette in the morning.

Training-wise I have not done much conditioning stuff until the last few weeks so for a couple of days last week the workout finishers were proving a little challenging…

I will be blogging my skinfolds and picture updates here on the run up to  a competition I am doing in the Olympia Theatre on the 21st March…

There is a ‘Best Shape Personal Trainer’ category that I am going to enter for the craic.

:-)

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Make sure you sign up on http://athletephysique.com and check out the free videos and there will be a whole new video series coming in the next couple of days.

Keep your eye out for them…

Thanks for reading…

Bryan Kavanagh BSc. CSCS

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NUTRITION TIPS

February 22nd, 2010
Being a personal trainer you tend to have to repeat yourself alot…

‘When should I eat carbs?’
‘How much protein do I need’
‘are apples good for you’

The list goes on…

Here at the ABS personal training studio we have all this material in handy little print outs that we give to our clients but there was one missing… Simple everyday nutrition tips…
Ian threw this together the other day to hand out to our personal training clients in the ABS gym here in Dublin along with the rest of the introductory material our clients get.

I gotta hand it to him he was listening to my ramblings because he nailed it!
  1. Aim to eat 3 meals plus 2 – 4 small snacks per day depending on your goals (fat loss, muscle gain, etc). This will take planning on your behalf.
  2. Spread those feedings out every 2.5 – 4.0 hours… Making sure to keep fat out of your pre and post workout feedings. Fat will slow down digestion and in turn effect recovery speed.
  3. Aim to consume a source of protein at every feeding… and do your best to consume meals/snacks of either protein and fats or carbs and proteins. Just try to avoid having a meal/snack that contains sugars and fats together… it’s okay to have fiberous carbs, such as green veggies with proten and fat as the insulin response/ storage will be minimal.
  4. If fat loss is the goal then go low carb, not no carb. Any carbs consumed should be earned (via intense training) and be rich in fibre.
  5. Limit fruit… to 1-2 servings max per day, sticking to low GI fruits such as apples, berries and grapefruit. It is a massive misconception that you can just nail endless amounts of fruit… it is sugar at the end of the day. ‘Natural sugar’ or not its still sugar and its fate will more than likely be fat storage.
  6. Eat your higher carbohydrate content meals/snacks before 6pm and time them around your training sessions. The amount of carbs you should consume will depend on your goals and tolerance to carbohydrates. Consult with your trainer about your carb intake allowance/requirements.
  7. After 6pm focus on consuming meals/snacks that contain protein only or protein and fat. Again fiberous carbs such as veggies are okay after 6pm, but avoid sugars and wheat… including fruits and biscuits
  8. Drink plenty of water throughout the day and during your training sessions
  9. Don’t drink your calories… no soft drinks, fruit juices and limit milk intake.
  10. Refer to the abs shopping list for best food sources and supplements.

Bonus Tip

After a strength training session then follow the above table. Nutrient timing pre and post workout is completely dependent on your training goal.

Hope this helps… Go get RIPPED

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:-)

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http://athleticbodysystem.com

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