Tired of feeling like I should be in better shape, I teamed up with a couple of experts — Maxinutrition and their nutritionist Gareth Nicholas and personal trainer Ronan Finn Phillips of FLYEfit gym Baggot Street — and set out a number of goals to be achieved over an eight-week period (it was later extended to 10 to bring me up to a holiday booked for early August).
They were to 1) gain the knowledge needed to feel comfortable working out in the gym, 2) improve my diet by cutting back on unhealthy foods and increasing my protein intake and 3) show signs of progress which would (hopefully) motive me to stick to with the routine afterwards.
Going to the gym
The nature of working in the media means daily shifts can start any time between 8.30am and 3pm, so training times varied greatly. After the first week or so, I quickly learned when was best to work out and what times you should make it your business to avoid.
For instance, between the hours of 1pm-2pm on weekdays, the place was jam-packed full of people squeezing a session in during their lunch hour. Similarly, from 5pm to around 7.30pm, it was a battle to get your own working space.
As a results of this summer’s World Cup, my work days tended to start late in June and July meaning I could mosey on in around mid-morning and have my pick of machines, weights and training areas.
I’ve heard it said before, but the energising feeling you get after a work-out sets you right up for whatever the day is planning to throw at you. Contrastingly, I found it a struggle to motivate myself to go after a 10-hour shift when all I wanted was an evening on the couch.
Thankfully, Ronan was always extremely flexible… which was handy given that my poor timekeeping meant I showed up a half-hour late on a few occasions!
If I’m being totally honest, I walked away from those first few sessions feeling utterly demoralised and completely out of my depth.
My lack of upper body strength in the beginning meant I had difficulty lifting the bar, never mind the weights on it! Seriously though, it was tough early on, particularly when it came to free weights.
There were plenty of times I felt like one Mario Rosenstock’s characters as I desperately invited Ronan to ‘spot me’ for the remaining reps. He also had to constantly remind me the names of the exercises and what, for instance, the difference is between a flat dumbbell press and a flat dumbbell fly.
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Although the weights continued to increase as the weeks moved on, I did slowly begin to feel like I was getting a better grasp on things and by the end was happy enough to do sessions on my own having been left a programme to follow.
Ronan explains how the training progressed:
“After our initial few sessions with Ben, it was time to step it up a gear and ensure continued progressive overload on the body. To build on strength, we implemented a five sets of five reps approach to Ben’s compound lifts. This was to primarily build on strength that we could carry over to hypertrophy specific training later on.
“We also opted to go for some eccentric training in the program. This is where the muscle contracts, under load, but is elongated through the exercises. For example in a bicep curl, this action would be the lowering of the dumbbell slowly and controlled.
“For our cardio sessions, we went for some high intensity metabolic training. We did this through intense interval training with large compound exercises — kettle bells, rowing machines, the prowler and anything we could get our hands on.
“Our aim was to keep it as anaerobic as possible, limit the rest periods and make sure we had Ben getting a good sweat up.”
Diet
Given my love of takeaways and, in particular, chips, improving my diet didn’t take a huge amount of work initially. Having spoken to Gareth, we agreed that I needed to stop eating the wrong type of foods but, instead of simply cutting back, I would have to replace them with healthy alternatives.
So the fridge was stocked up with high protein meats like chicken fillets, steak and turkey breasts while I made a big effort to replace white rice and pasta with brown and get more vegetables into meals.
Breakfast was never something I gave too much thought to in the past. At best, I would grab a banana on the way out the door. At worst, it would be lunch time before I eat and then a sandwich would normally be accompanied by a chocolate bar, crisps and a bottle of Lucozade.
In that regard, Maxinutrition’s Cyclone protein shakes were the perfect supplement. Now, I was starting the day with porridge or Weetabix and fruit before a banana was added to a strawberry shake to make a pretty decent smoothie.
Admittedly, I did have the occasional ‘cheat meal’ by allowing myself the odd Asian or burrito but overall, there was a significant shift in what I ate. However, I’m not going to pretend I lived like a monk for 10 weeks and I did enjoy pints while attending the odd festival and a work night out or two.
The results
Here’s the science bit. My skinfold measurements read:
A drop in skindfold measurements of 9.1mm
A 11.1% drop in sum of skinfolds
A reduction in body fat %, down to 8.7% body fat
A reduction in all eight skinfold sites
3.5cm increase in upper arm girth
3.5cm decrease in waist girth
3.5cm decrease in gluteal girth
1.5cm increase in calf girth
And here’s how the weights went up:
Seated row : 18kg – 39kg
Chest press DBs: 6kgs – 20kgs
Lat pull : 22kg – 52kg
Bench press : 20kg – 47.5kg
Leg press : 35kg – 85kg
A summary from Gareth:
“Looking at the results you can only admire and applaud what Ben has achieved. At the beginning Ben’s goal was to be healthy with the start of a six pack. It’s fair to say that Ben started in a good place and a lot further along than many others but Ben’s goal was more than just shifting body fat and trimming down, Ben wanted to improve his muscular size and definition.
“The pictures speak for themselves but this is only confirmed in the results. A drop in skinfolds and body fat but with an increase in arm and calf girth with a reduction in those fat storage areas of around the abdomen.
“The change in Ben looks amazing but it’s not a miracle it’s down to eating right and hard work in the gym. Many will testify that building muscle can be a lot harder than losing body fat and Ben was no different. The start which is true in many cases was changing his mind set so that we were feeding that growth.
For Ben and for anyone looking to lose body fat whilst building muscle three key points are my ingredients to success:
A calorie excess diet to feed muscle growth along with provide the energy to train hard
Portion control – spread those calories in a manageable five-six meals throughout the day
Protein power – meeting your daily protein requirement to help you muscle rebuild and grow
The dreaded before and after pic (including recently-acquired facial hair):
Ronan’s thoughts:
I thoroughly enjoyed working with Ben and Maximuscle on this challenge. Having a client who is hardworking and dedicated is all you can hope for as a personal trainer.
Ben was extremely easy to work with and his genuine interest to better his physique motivated me to motivate him. Thus, it was mutually-rewarding to see the great results he achieved as a result of his determination.
Not only was it his physical determination that helped him achieve his results but it was his understanding that results were achieved from training knowledge as well as physical training.
This was why after building a good foundation of strength and lifting techniques, I felt it was important to try out a variety of advanced and complex resistance training techniques throughout the later stages of the programme. From supersets to drop sets and concentric training to eccentric training, we tried it!
It was important to set him up, not only with training programmes, but with the thought processes behind the training regimes in order to allow him to continue his training in the future with maximum results, as changing a resistance training regime regularly is critical to achieving continuous results.
Keeping it up
Before a dumbbell was lifted, I was extremely sceptical about catching the ‘fitness bug’. So I’m pleasantly surprised that, two weeks after the programme ended, I am genuinely dying to get back training after my holiday.
Now that I’m familiar with the gym and what type of work I should be doing, the plan is to stick with FLYEfit and continue to learn from Ronan having taken the first step.
Finally, I’d just like to thank Maxinutrition and nutritionist Gareth Nicholas, FLYEfit and my personal trainer Ronan Finn and David Foster from Wilson Hartnell PR for organising the whole thing.
How our writer fared on his 10-week fitness challenge
BACK IN JUNE, I reluctantly agreed to take part in a fitness transformation programme with the aim of gearing myself towards a healthier lifestyle.
Tired of feeling like I should be in better shape, I teamed up with a couple of experts — Maxinutrition and their nutritionist Gareth Nicholas and personal trainer Ronan Finn Phillips of FLYEfit gym Baggot Street — and set out a number of goals to be achieved over an eight-week period (it was later extended to 10 to bring me up to a holiday booked for early August).
They were to 1) gain the knowledge needed to feel comfortable working out in the gym, 2) improve my diet by cutting back on unhealthy foods and increasing my protein intake and 3) show signs of progress which would (hopefully) motive me to stick to with the routine afterwards.
Going to the gym
The nature of working in the media means daily shifts can start any time between 8.30am and 3pm, so training times varied greatly. After the first week or so, I quickly learned when was best to work out and what times you should make it your business to avoid.
For instance, between the hours of 1pm-2pm on weekdays, the place was jam-packed full of people squeezing a session in during their lunch hour. Similarly, from 5pm to around 7.30pm, it was a battle to get your own working space.
As a results of this summer’s World Cup, my work days tended to start late in June and July meaning I could mosey on in around mid-morning and have my pick of machines, weights and training areas.
I’ve heard it said before, but the energising feeling you get after a work-out sets you right up for whatever the day is planning to throw at you. Contrastingly, I found it a struggle to motivate myself to go after a 10-hour shift when all I wanted was an evening on the couch.
Thankfully, Ronan was always extremely flexible… which was handy given that my poor timekeeping meant I showed up a half-hour late on a few occasions!
Training
If I’m being totally honest, I walked away from those first few sessions feeling utterly demoralised and completely out of my depth.
My lack of upper body strength in the beginning meant I had difficulty lifting the bar, never mind the weights on it! Seriously though, it was tough early on, particularly when it came to free weights.
There were plenty of times I felt like one Mario Rosenstock’s characters as I desperately invited Ronan to ‘spot me’ for the remaining reps. He also had to constantly remind me the names of the exercises and what, for instance, the difference is between a flat dumbbell press and a flat dumbbell fly.
Although the weights continued to increase as the weeks moved on, I did slowly begin to feel like I was getting a better grasp on things and by the end was happy enough to do sessions on my own having been left a programme to follow.
Ronan explains how the training progressed:
“After our initial few sessions with Ben, it was time to step it up a gear and ensure continued progressive overload on the body. To build on strength, we implemented a five sets of five reps approach to Ben’s compound lifts. This was to primarily build on strength that we could carry over to hypertrophy specific training later on.
“We also opted to go for some eccentric training in the program. This is where the muscle contracts, under load, but is elongated through the exercises. For example in a bicep curl, this action would be the lowering of the dumbbell slowly and controlled.
“For our cardio sessions, we went for some high intensity metabolic training. We did this through intense interval training with large compound exercises — kettle bells, rowing machines, the prowler and anything we could get our hands on.
“Our aim was to keep it as anaerobic as possible, limit the rest periods and make sure we had Ben getting a good sweat up.”
Diet
Given my love of takeaways and, in particular, chips, improving my diet didn’t take a huge amount of work initially. Having spoken to Gareth, we agreed that I needed to stop eating the wrong type of foods but, instead of simply cutting back, I would have to replace them with healthy alternatives.
So the fridge was stocked up with high protein meats like chicken fillets, steak and turkey breasts while I made a big effort to replace white rice and pasta with brown and get more vegetables into meals.
Breakfast was never something I gave too much thought to in the past. At best, I would grab a banana on the way out the door. At worst, it would be lunch time before I eat and then a sandwich would normally be accompanied by a chocolate bar, crisps and a bottle of Lucozade.
In that regard, Maxinutrition’s Cyclone protein shakes were the perfect supplement. Now, I was starting the day with porridge or Weetabix and fruit before a banana was added to a strawberry shake to make a pretty decent smoothie.
Admittedly, I did have the occasional ‘cheat meal’ by allowing myself the odd Asian or burrito but overall, there was a significant shift in what I ate. However, I’m not going to pretend I lived like a monk for 10 weeks and I did enjoy pints while attending the odd festival and a work night out or two.
The results
Here’s the science bit. My skinfold measurements read:
And here’s how the weights went up:
A summary from Gareth:
“Looking at the results you can only admire and applaud what Ben has achieved. At the beginning Ben’s goal was to be healthy with the start of a six pack. It’s fair to say that Ben started in a good place and a lot further along than many others but Ben’s goal was more than just shifting body fat and trimming down, Ben wanted to improve his muscular size and definition.
“The pictures speak for themselves but this is only confirmed in the results. A drop in skinfolds and body fat but with an increase in arm and calf girth with a reduction in those fat storage areas of around the abdomen.
“The change in Ben looks amazing but it’s not a miracle it’s down to eating right and hard work in the gym. Many will testify that building muscle can be a lot harder than losing body fat and Ben was no different. The start which is true in many cases was changing his mind set so that we were feeding that growth.
For Ben and for anyone looking to lose body fat whilst building muscle three key points are my ingredients to success:
The dreaded before and after pic (including recently-acquired facial hair):
Ronan’s thoughts:
I thoroughly enjoyed working with Ben and Maximuscle on this challenge. Having a client who is hardworking and dedicated is all you can hope for as a personal trainer.
Ben was extremely easy to work with and his genuine interest to better his physique motivated me to motivate him. Thus, it was mutually-rewarding to see the great results he achieved as a result of his determination.
Not only was it his physical determination that helped him achieve his results but it was his understanding that results were achieved from training knowledge as well as physical training.
This was why after building a good foundation of strength and lifting techniques, I felt it was important to try out a variety of advanced and complex resistance training techniques throughout the later stages of the programme. From supersets to drop sets and concentric training to eccentric training, we tried it!
It was important to set him up, not only with training programmes, but with the thought processes behind the training regimes in order to allow him to continue his training in the future with maximum results, as changing a resistance training regime regularly is critical to achieving continuous results.
Keeping it up
Before a dumbbell was lifted, I was extremely sceptical about catching the ‘fitness bug’. So I’m pleasantly surprised that, two weeks after the programme ended, I am genuinely dying to get back training after my holiday.
Now that I’m familiar with the gym and what type of work I should be doing, the plan is to stick with FLYEfit and continue to learn from Ronan having taken the first step.
Finally, I’d just like to thank Maxinutrition and nutritionist Gareth Nicholas, FLYEfit and my personal trainer Ronan Finn and David Foster from Wilson Hartnell PR for organising the whole thing.
You can contact here for personal training: Ronan Finn Phillips. Email: Info@finn-fitness.com. Phone: 087 3876952 Website: www.finn-fitness.com
One of our writers has been given an 8-week challenge to get in shape
6 steps to getting your deadlift down
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