Top Tips for Improving Your Fitness
Getting fit is high on everybody’s list, particularly after this over-indulgent month we’re in at the moment. Whether you’re looking to shape up at home or just want to improve your performance at the gym, there’s always plenty of room for improvement and questions that need answering. Well, we caught up with one of the best personal trainers in the fitness industry, Scott Laidler, to answer some of the questions that are most commonly asked and find out about his revolutionary online workout programs.
What three exercises would you suggest for building muscles without weights? Why?
A significant amount of muscle mass can be gained purely from bodyweight exercises if the correct exercises and training protocols are selected. The top three exercises I would suggest are:
Press-ups. Press-ups are great for building your chest, back and shoulders as well as strengthening your core. Try setting a 10 minute timer and seeing how many press-ups you can do in that time; by the end you will be grinding out one at a time.
Pull-ups. Pull-ups are classic exercises for developing upper body strength. They will help you develop width through your back and stimulate muscle growth in your biceps.
Track sprints. 100m track sprints, whilst technically cardio, are actually intense enough to be anabolic. Sprinting will help you develop muscle through your lower body and abs.
Take the guesswork out of your nutrition. If your goal is to lose weight, you should have an accurate idea of what calorie intake, macro-nutrient split and meals you will need to achieve your goal. Failing to prepare this information ahead will mean bad choices (through snacking and quick-fixes due to availability) and a far longer road to success.
Lift weights. Never avoid resistance training when pursuing weight loss. Resistance training is great for your metabolism and overall daily calorie burn, but the most important aspect is that it preserves muscle, which should actually be your biggest priority when seeking weight loss. The more muscle mass you have, the more calories your body will require to function at rest and this will help to create a larger calorie deficit throughout the day, leading to faster results.
Avoid dieting. Avoid doing anything drastic with your calorie intake or meal choices. Most of the weight you lose when dieting is muscle and water, and it usually finds its way back soon after it’s lost. If you lose weight by developing a healthy lifestyle you’ll be far more likely to keep that weight off for good.
Start early. Give yourself enough time to achieve your goal. Don’t wait until you only have 2 weeks before a holiday or a wedding for example. Give yourself between 12-24 weeks and you can completely transform your body.
Avoid thermogenics. Many people make the mistake of relying on thermogenic fat burners. If you have to resort to raising your heart rate and body temperature to vastly uncomfortable degrees something has gone wrong in your preparation.
A lot of people will be worrying about their Christmas weight gain and beer bellies. Is there any food that can aid a better metabolism in this season of overindulgence?Maintaining an efficient metabolism is better sought through exercise and rest than any particular food source. What I would suggest during this carb heavy time of year is to start with meals high in protein and fats; this will help satiate you and you will find the simplesugars (that actually lead to fat gain) far less appealing.
Making your muscles appear more ripped just requires that you lose the body fat currently surrounding your muscle. This is best achieved through a combination of targeted cardio, heavy lifting and a weekly calorie deficit.
The biggest mistake I see people making in the gym is following workout programs and advice that just isn’t right for their body type. Natural athletes who were already in great shape when they created their programs made most popular workout regimes. This means that much of the journey from starting out to getting in shape is lost. Not only that, most men need to eat, rest and train in a way that is specific to their own body type, goals and lifestyle. This is why so many people are frustrated with poor results despite following a popular workout regime. Ask a personal trainer at your gym to formulate a workout program for you, that’s specific to your goals. Then, monitor your progress, and as time revise the programme to ensure that you keep seeing results.
I’ve found the best motivator to be results. Exercise doesn’t have to have bells and whistles on it to get results. Classic exercises and healthy eating get results and that keeps people in the gym. Alongside this I suggest a new training focus each 6 weeks, this stops exercise from feeling tedious.
Online training involves a client coming to me either to push through a current training plateau or embark on an entire body transformation. Following a comprehensive consultation, I will deliver a comprehensive workout program with a meal planner, supplement recommendations and a macronutrient split. I also monitor each clients progress and make any necessary changes to the program to ensure that they see results and achieve their goals. The workout is completely tailored to each individual’s training experience, body type and goal.
I offered this service initially because my film industry work was taking me to LA reasonably frequently and I did not want my UK clients to be without direction whilst I was away. As my exposure grew I started getting requests from around the world and I concluded that online training was a great way to reach the maximum number of people.
The main difference is that online training can fit around a person’s schedule, and offer comprehensive guidance toward their health and fitness goals at a fraction of the cost of in person training.
Regarding what is better, that really depends on the personality of the client. Some people will always need the accountability and motivation inherent in one-on-one training; whereas, some will benefit more from the removal of all guesswork and will be able to follow a tailor made program to a tee, these are the individuals who will benefit most from online personal training.