Doctors said he'd never compete again.

In this episode, we interview Stewart Brooke, an International Protein Sponsored Athlete. 
He bounced between powerlifting and bodybuilding. He trains professional athletes, he's 143 kilos of pure muscle, his arms are literally bigger than my legs and he was told he'd never lift again so he's got a pretty darn cool story!

• Powerlifting & Bodybuilding
• Stewart's diet & program
• "If it works, keep doing it!"
• Career highlights 

If you want your own questions answered on our podcast, then join our private Facebook group and share your ideas,  https://www.facebook.com/groups/muscletalk

If you'd like to learn more about International Protein, visit https://www.international-protein.com/






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A Thinkroom production - www.thinkroom.com

Transcript

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Ash Horton:
Welcome to Muscle Talk where you'll get world champion advice about nutrition and stacking on muscle. Our host, Christine Envall, she's a three-time world champion bodybuilder, and IFBB professional, a food scientist, and a founding co-owner of our podcast sponsor, International Protein.

Ash Horton:
In this episode, we interview Stuart Brooke, an International Protein sponsored athlete. He's bounced between powerlifting and bodybuilding. He trains professional athletes. He's 140 kilos of pure muscle. His arms are literally bigger than my legs and he was told he'd never lift again, so he's got a pretty darn cool story.

Ash Horton:
All right, today, so we've got Stuart Brooke. He's one of International Protein's sponsored athletes. Stuart, it'd be really interesting to get an understanding of your career, your highlights, your lowlights, those sorts of things. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Stuart Brooke:
Well, my name is Stuart Brooke. I am 30 years old. I have competed in both powerlifting and bodybuilding at a national level over the last five to six years. My study background is exercise and sport science degree, and I have been coaching athletes, both physique sports and powerlifting, for roughly the same amount of time. Really since I started doing my uni degree and that's what I do now. So, coaching athletes, and obviously what I do as an athlete myself.

Ash Horton:
So is that what got you into competing with the degree that you did? Or were you already into powerlifting before that? Because I know you kind of went from powerlifting into bodybuilding, would that be correct?

Stuart Brooke:
Well, truth be told, I first joined a gym 12, 13 years ago. And it was just bodybuilding. I did that for a long time. And then I realized that I had to try and get strong. So a lot of people will do powerlifting first and then go to bodybuilding. I did it a bit back to front. I got quite heavy and I had to actually figure out how to utilize my muscles properly with all the big lifts, and so I took that on as another challenge.

Stuart Brooke:
And definitely, back then, or it might've been 2013 starting university, I got to learn a lot of the science behind it. A lot of the physiology, the anatomy, and it definitely helped me. Yeah, I did bodybuilding and then back to powerlifting and then back to bodybuilding. I love both of them. I just found that I've settled on bodybuilding now just as far as longevity. I seem to avoid the injuries now with bodybuilding, so I can just be a lot more consistent with them.

Ash Horton:
So you said you got quite heavy. Just to put it into context, what weight are you now? Because I feel like a midget standing next to you.

Stuart Brooke:
I've been eating a pretty good paddock at the moment. So I'm about 143 in the morning.

Ash Horton:
Right.

Stuart Brooke:
Yeah.

Ash Horton:
In the morning.

Christine Envall:
So that's what, twice your weight, Ash?

Ash Horton:
Almost, yeah.

Christine Envall:
Yeah.

Stuart Brooke:
Yeah. So I mean, I'm a little bit under 6'4". So putting it in perspective, that's probably where an extra 20 to 30 kilos come from, is my height. But yeah, it's about the heaviest weight I like to get to in off-season. Hopefully get 20 kilos lighter or so for competing later in the year, so.

Ash Horton:
Awesome.

Christine Envall:
And what about with the powerlifting? Was it weight classes that you were competing in then? Or what kind of weight were you competing in?

Stuart Brooke:
Yeah. Yeah. And that's where it comes back to me. I think I got to 130 kilos in a few years of training. I grew really quickly eating too much food and there was never an ability for me to compete in the lighter weight classes and progress up as I got stronger. So, my first sanctioned comp was GPC States. I think that was 2016. I was in the 140 kilo class. Which, just to some people, it's extreme body weight. To me, that's just how much I weigh unless I'm dieting down for the bodybuilding stage.

Christine Envall:
Yeah. So just, it's obviously that kind of weight, as you said, for you it's natural on your frame because of your frame. But, you obviously have to eat a certain way to maintain that as well. Because obviously, you don't want to drop down too low when you are trying to build muscle and be stronger. So, can you talk a little bit about what your diet and supps might look like?

Stuart Brooke:
At that body weight?

Christine Envall:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Stuart Brooke:
I generally find that the appetite cues are not there as regularly as if I was a low body weight. You're really eating a lot more frequently. So, in an off-season, it'll be usually things like half a dozen eggs and toast for breakfast. Generally it's a lot of staples, but you'll add in extra calories. So you might add in literally orange juice or apple juice, maybe some olive oil spread on the bread. And that's an extra 800 calories.

Stuart Brooke:
During the day it's usually about a kilo to 1.5 kilos of meat, which I get cooked like chicken breast or something like that. And I'll divide that over four meals and it'll be maybe two and a half to three cups of rice with each of those meals. Around training, as you're probably seen me training at Powerhouse, I've always had my aminos and my extreme carbs and my water bottle. So that's an extra 500 calories during training. And it's generally protein shakes. I always, whether I use the mass gainers that we sell, whether I use just protein, I'll have some type of protein supplementation, usually around training. If it's not eggs for breakfast, it's always going to be Protein Synergy with oats and things like that. But that's those main meals are pretty much a staple, 90% of my diet.

Christine Envall:
Yeah. I lost count, counting up there, but that's a heck of a lot of [inaudible 00:05:49] to prep and do all that.

Stuart Brooke:
I've always just eaten regularly. I might have mates who are 30, 40 kilos lighter than me and they could sit down and eat a lot more in one go. I've never really done that, but I'll just eat consistently throughout the day those larger-than-average meals. I suppose it's progressive overloading for food, but you just get better at it over time. And the hardest thing is, for a bodybuilder, is everyone can eat pizza. Everyone can eat a tub of ice cream, but it's getting good quality protein foods for recovery and growth. That's the hard part. No one wants to eat more protein all the time. Definitely having shakes helps, but I will have that around my animal proteins and my eggs and stuff. So that's the least enjoyable part.

Christine Envall:
Yeah. But I think the key there that you're talking about is that consistency and that it's not always fun. It's sometimes a bit of a chore, but like training, it has to have a system. The eating has to have a system as well.

Stuart Brooke:
Absolutely. And I'll tell clients, once they kind of, we're working together quite regularly and the communication's there, I'll explain to them that they'll get a feel for their training, get a feel for the nutrition advice. And I need to explain that your training isn't going to change an extreme amount if your goal's the same. So building muscle. The goal in training is not going to change that much if it's maintaining muscle and burning fat in a dieting down phase. It's the nutrition that changes, the amounts. Your training's going to be able to stay really the same. Your nutrition is going to stay the same as regular training, preference for high quality proteins, [inaudible 00:07:32] carbohydrates, healthy fats. And it's just, the sizes are different, but it's that consistency over time, yeah.

Christine Envall:
A hundred percent. Back early days there was on-season training and off-season training. And I think I tried that once and realized that pretty much lost all my muscle.

Stuart Brooke:
I remember all the old Flex magazines I inherited and five super-sets of triceps to get this horseshoe out. And leg extensions for detail of feathering the quads. And it's all these higher rep, and that went back from the '90s, that went back to the referencing the Arnie days. You know, so.

Christine Envall:
Yeah, but obviously having your exercise science background, you know the fact from what's just to sell a magazine and what actually works.

Stuart Brooke:
Yeah, I mean, I'm always in two camps. I could either really explain the physiology underlying science behind it, or I can just look at somebody and say, "Look, dance with the one who brought ya. If it works, keep doing that." And they go, "Oh, it's really simple." It's like, "Yeah, I know."

Stuart Brooke:
There's all the science behind it, just like you explain to someone how a car works. You're, "Well, this is the gas, this is the brake, that's the indicator." It's like-

Christine Envall:
Exactly. I don't need to know how the rest of it works as long as it's working. But if people, if your clients do have an interest in that, do you actually go to that detail with them?

Stuart Brooke:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Usually I'll go down the rabbit hole with them, depending on what they're asking. And where I can, I'll provide external links and even more, better write ups. I can write my own 3000 word explanation or something, but I'll find them references and that. Even if it's down to real specific things.

Ash Horton:
I've got a dying question. You're wearing an International Protein T-shirt. Is that just because you came here today or are you just that International Protein focused?

Stuart Brooke:
I'll wear them a lot.

Ash Horton:
Good for you.

Stuart Brooke:
I usually train in them and because it's black, I know I'm not going to get dirty, so.

Ash Horton:
Yep, good.

Stuart Brooke:
I've got one-

Christine Envall:
He's wearing his International last night.

Stuart Brooke:
Yeah, I've got three or four of them.

Christine Envall:
What size is it?

Stuart Brooke:
This one's a two. So it's, yeah. I've hassled to get some larger ones before and I've got some very big, red, five XL ones. I think they were for Rongo, the strongman.

Christine Envall:
Yes.

Stuart Brooke:
Though somehow I got them. So yeah, they're a bit too big.

Christine Envall:
Or is that aspirations?

Stuart Brooke:
Yes. That's the goal. Next year, hopefully, I can make [inaudible 00:09:48].

Ash Horton:
Hey, so just going back to switching between power lifting versus bodybuilding, did you find that you really missed one when you were sort of alternating?

Stuart Brooke:
Yeah. So, what I've noticed the most is, so the last two to four weeks before a bodybuilding show, I just want to eat a lot of food.

Ash Horton:
Right.

Stuart Brooke:
And I want to feel strong in the gym.

Ash Horton:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Stuart Brooke:
Because that's usually when you definitely don't get a lot of food and your energy is quite low. Conversely, coming into the last few weeks for a powerlifting competition, you may be lifting heaviest. Of the whole prep, it's very minimal, a few. You will just do your top score sets that day for a session. It's very, very low volume training. So, all you want to do is get in there and do leg press and do walking lunges and do a big leg session and go back to that high volume bodybuilding training.

Ash Horton:
So they're almost direct opposites?

Stuart Brooke:
Yeah, it's kind of you're missing what you're not getting. So, with my train would generally be about 50/50 between both. You kind of when you miss out one of them, you want to get more of the other one, and vice versa. So, that's when you say, I miss one of them. Close to a competition for a bodybuilding show, I just want to do heavy bench presses again, or heavy squats near a path to me. I want to train some biceps.

Ash Horton:
Yep, interesting.

Christine Envall:
Yeah, I mean, it's that thing of, yeah. You miss what you don't have, but when you get it back again, you're like, ah, that's okay.

Stuart Brooke:
It's like as well as dieting. So, someone might be on a calorie restriction where they're doing predominantly more fats and low carbohydrates. They'll tend to crave sweet things. They'll tend to really crave carbohydrates. Conversely, if you give someone a very low fat competition diets, so the old school, like low fat, moderate carb, high protein, they'll just like, they'll crave fatty steaks and they'll crave peanut butter and things that have high fat contents and you're missing what you're not getting.

Christine Envall:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Stuart Brooke:
And the more you miss it, the more you want it. And it's like that with different types of training as well.

Ash Horton:
So what were your career highlights?

Stuart Brooke:
As far as competing? I think I went relatively well with powerlifting given the amount of time I tried specifically for it. So, that first proper comp, I won my class. I'm in the 140 kilo division. And problem was, two weeks out from, that was a state competition, two weeks out from the nationals, I managed to tear my bicep deadlifting. The last, single deadlift of the call prep. And I did myself an injury. And the doctors, I had to get reattached with the a bolt and tie it back on and that. And they said, "Yeah, you're never going to really do much again with the gym. Go take up another sport. And so that was not great. And I just rehabbed the hell out of it and kept training. And I ended up getting to compete at [inaudible 00:12:48] down the Arnold classic nine months later.

Stuart Brooke:
I definitely didn't win from that international invite. They often comp, but for me to be able to come back in, I got paid based on what my bench press, my squats in that competition. That was a bit of a wallet for me. So then from there, I think another six months later, I was competing in the IFBB at states in the national side. Yeah, it was a really good year. And I was definitely wanting to compete again the last year, but definitely not with the Corona stuff happening. So, I've done enough to be really itching to compete again.

Ash Horton:
Awesome.

Christine Envall:
And what is on the table?

Stuart Brooke:
Definitely, definitely season B. I know work. Christina and I, and Randon once proposed that I could possibly do classic physique. Even then I think I was my previous lowest weight in my prior comps or probably preps. I was like five kilos over the limit.

Christine Envall:
How much you put on since then? Like muscle-wise do you think?

Stuart Brooke:
Well, probably another three to five or more kilos. It's just not feasible. Perhaps the prior, with the pro classic as the weight limit is close to like 117 to 119.

Christine Envall:
Yeah. I think that's the biggest challenge with the way that they've set it up to have a five kilo weight differential between, to get amateur classic physique status and then to go into the pros. So there's five kilos of muscle is a lot of muscle if you're at that point of being able to be competitive as a pro and compete at that body weight, because three kilos isn't much to drop down on top of obviously everything else, but to drop three kilos, to drop eight is quite a challenge. And then they're putting you behind the eight ball by basically making you catch that high kilos back up once you have your pro card. I don't understand the rationale behind that at all. So Tony Doherty, if you are listening, we'd love an explanation as to why they have made that difference.

Stuart Brooke:
Just modify this guy off five kilos for minimum weight. Yeah, yeah, because I think at a certain level that five kilos, that's like a standing progress, a professional bodybuilder, amateur bodybuilder may make between competitions. Like kilos of well-placed muscle mass and well-conditioned, so it's a bit of a tricky thing for someone who's over that weight limit. And it's regardless of what class, what division they're doing in physics sports. Try have to drop it, and then to try and put it back on if they were to be successful. So, I think that's probably off the table for me as far as classic physique. And just be continuous in the heavyweight class. I think unique for me, because super heavyweights is over a hundred kilos. I'll generally walk on stage at 120. So even then, I'm two weight classes above the outer Kilo. Because it's usually 10 kilo incremency divisions. So, yeah, I stand out a bit on stage being tall up. See how I go this year.

Christine Envall:
Which is always that challenge. People think that to be the biggest in terms of physical frame and everything is the advantage. But sometimes, there's a point where above a certain height, it becomes a bit of a disadvantage because you've got, I guess relatively shorter when I say relative, I mean like 5'11" as opposed to 6'4". So, who in height is comparable to you in the pro scene?

Stuart Brooke:
Professionally? There's very few bodybuilders who are above. Maybe, give you the context ,The Beak, big bodybuilders like Ronnie Coleman, Dennis Wolf, they're all about 5'10" to 5'11". And then they're considered quite tall. From there, there's only a few that are above 6' and it would be people like Jamie Johal in England is 6'5". I think Morgan Aste is about 6'5" as well. So-

Christine Envall:
So those are people that you tend to look towards what they're doing-

Stuart Brooke:
Yeah.

Christine Envall:
...for you to model against or-

Stuart Brooke:
It probably comes out of the finer details. So, how they program their training to limit or negate issues that usually a lot of tall people have. All back issues, knees issues, things like that. Just to have that longevity, we see a training. So they approach training, I know Jamie tries to, approaches his training a little bit different to a lot of other people who just go in and squat or go in and deadlift.

Stuart Brooke:
So it's modifications to training. And they might have an area which was really needed to bring up. So they might have a back they had to grow or their hamstrings have to grow. And they might train differently than someone who's shorter. So, it's just the finer details. Obviously they've just got to eat a lot more. They're bigger. They can diet on a lot more.

Christine Envall:
Although that's all still relative, isn't it?

Stuart Brooke:
Yeah.

Christine Envall:
Like, it might be more food, but it's still less-

Stuart Brooke:
Yeah. Yeah. [crosstalk 00:17:36] I think the lowest calories I ever got prepping was about 2,400 calories a day. And that's like peak off-season for some females and like the 80 kilo around there. And how am I home starving? And then just looking at all this food and it's comparatively-

Ash Horton:
I've got to wonder about how quickly do you bin through your shoes doing squats? Is it one pair a month?

Christine Envall:
The things that Ash thinks of.

Stuart Brooke:
Usually it's pretty good. Yeah. They're pretty good with them. The old Connies being burned out again, you said. They're my squat shoes.

Ash Horton:
I just remember Christine saying how it was so important to wear a particular kind of shoes on squat days.

Christine Envall:
Yeah. Well, I noticed that you said you were in an old air of Converse.

Stuart Brooke:
Yeah. Yeah. I usually always for my leg training, it will be my black Converse. Yeah.

Christine Envall:
I've actually just moved it. I'm always into a very, very flat, solid shoe. No, you can't have any flex in that sole. And I found a pair of, yeah, same thing, a pair of Converse that had a mark on the toe, they're rubber toe.

Stuart Brooke:
Yeah.

Christine Envall:
For people who aren't shoe people that probably doesn't mean anything, but Stuart's nodding. He knows what I'm talking about. And I had a big, black stain across the toe and I couldn't get it off. And I'm well, okay, these aren't going to be worn outside. These are definitely going to be gym shoes. And honestly, it's improved my squat no end.

Stuart Brooke:
Yeah.

Christine Envall:
Really, really in practice.

Stuart Brooke:
Yeah. Well, I think the angel I talked about, was powerlifting. I had the one pair of Reebok CrossFits, which are basically like a wide, soft version of the Connie and have a steel horseshoe shape in the heels-

Christine Envall:
Yes.

Stuart Brooke:
...that make it rigid.

Christine Envall:
Yes.

Stuart Brooke:
They stopped making them. They're a collector's item and they're extremely, yeah, extremely well-prized and power thing, and because of their stability. Then likewise with Connie, it was just as a hard sole, you got direct contact with force production that you make with your body straight through to the floor below. So that's getting kind of nerdy about it. You can feel it. If you walk back the heavy squat bar with a pair of padded running shoes, you may as well be squatting on a kid's mattress, like a bed mattress. It's that unstable.

Ash Horton:
Right.

Stuart Brooke:
We tend to get a bit particular about our specific clothes, certain days and special shoes, so.

Ash Horton:
Because I can imagine some of the weights that you're squatting and you'd need that stability.

Stuart Brooke:
Yeah. Make sure you tie your shoelaces up, things like that. I'm lucky because of support from Harris Stability Systems over the years. I've got like multiple belts I can use and that equipment when I need it. So I can go between using my knees as easily as I can go between using knee wraps and things like, and be as particular as I want to be while still being practical. It definitely, definitely helps. And like Christine said, even it comes in a pair of shoes. You have people who I've told to put out supports in their shoes and their knee pain magically disappears. Because it had the torsion force on the inside of their knee when they're bending it. Yeah, little things like that go a long way. And you can imagine, if you're doing that improvement, five years down the track, you're probably going to have better knee joints.

Ash Horton:
Yeah. For sure. So what are the lowest parts or points of your career?

Stuart Brooke:
Yeah, just tearing my bicep off. That sucked, because I think at the time-

Ash Horton:
So you used it as an excuse to get one of your highest points in your career. Yeah.

Stuart Brooke:
Yeah, yeah, well-

Ash Horton:
As a driver, not an excuse-

Stuart Brooke:
Yeah, a bit it more determined, I think. My issue with it, it will be fine. But the doctor's, "No, it's not going to be good. Could be a bit tricky one to reattach and stuff." So, what happened? Stumbling, just kept doing what I wanted to do before it happened. And yeah, I made the most of it. Funny enough, that's the bigger arm now, the injured one. And my arms have grown since, so. It also helped me think about how I was training. That actually helped me grow my back better because I wasn't doing heavy Dumbo rows and pulling with my arms and stuff. So I half remember having a couple of sessions with Dr. Andrew Locke. Afterwards, he definitely helped me with my rehab. It opened up, unfortunately, it happened, but opened up one of doorways to get smarter about how I trained. How I rehab things, how I rest and recover. So it was actually a huge benefit looking back. Because it doesn't limit me at all now, so. That was a low point just because I know things they got so much better once I focused on improving it afterwards.

Ash Horton:
Awesome. And just looking at your size now, I reckon that bigger, well bigger than that biggest part of my club, well thicker-

Christine Envall:
We don't have to show a photo of Ash because we keep trying to tell him that he's not super huge, but he doesn't believe it. So when he, when he-

Stuart Brooke:
[crosstalk 00:22:15] Maybe let the podcast, because just the picture of my arm next to his quarters-

Ash Horton:
Yeah, yeah.

Christine Envall:
Put it in context then. [crosstalk 00:22:25] We do tend to pick on him a little bit, but he can take it. So it's all right.

Ash Horton:
Off the air more than on the air, too. To be fair.

Christine Envall:
But I wanted to talk about your training because we haven't obviously talked about that and obviously that's, we would love to know what your split is, how you split up your body parts. How many times a week you do them, rep range, all that type of thing.

Stuart Brooke:
Yeah. So I wouldn't say it's always changing. Some positive change because it made be progressing with other things being focused on. The last few weeks, I've been exclusively training every second day. It's basically push, pull, legs. So, I bench press chest, shoulders, triceps will be a push day. A pull day will generally be way-back muscles and locking your biceps. And then obviously legs is the lower body. If I am doing my general training, so I guess I'm going back to what I was doing, probably a little, that much recent little deload. Deloads is where you go back to the intensity or the frequency of your training all the volume of sets that you do each workout, so. Probably a week or so from now, it'll go back to doing two leg days a week.

Stuart Brooke:
So, a very long time ago, I realized that your training needs to be dictated by recovery. So very early on, I figured out if going to do a back day and you're bending over the barbell rows, there probably needs to be at least as far away as it can be in the week before you then do squats and deloads with your lower back.

Stuart Brooke:
Likewise, if you're going to be training your chest, it needs to be as far away as you can from when you train your shoulders because you're giving the recovery of your shoulder joint safe. I'll still, 10 years later, follow that program. So, for example, it will be legs on a Monday where it's a lot of core work and some hamstrings. So it'd be squatting movements and not much hip hinging. So the hamstrings would be curls and that. The next day, we'll either be probably the back and biceps.

Stuart Brooke:
That's usually supported stuff. So all the rowing is usually supported rows and that type of thing. To say, the lower back it's being just over 6'4", intend they get a lot of lower back rolling. The next day will be, yep, so chest, shoulders, and triceps. A little bit of [inaudible 00:24:42] on me. So I don't have to do as much for them. Have a day off, come back in, and be another late stay, loaded, stiff-legged deadlift hamstrings. And they might do some flex, single-leg presses for the quads afterwards. Last day of the week will be just a back day. So I just back. Some abdominals, so more like chin-ups and pull downs and things like that. So that's a full week of training. That's prioritizing when you're, I suppose a tall person, and you never want to have small legs.

Stuart Brooke:
That was always what I pride myself on as being 6'4" and having a decent legs. And then, I prioritize my back development. Those two body parts that just need to have a lot of work done to be big. I mean there's no way around it. So they get the high preferences and everything else kind of just falls where it does. Yeah. I would never train more than five days a week. If I do, those sessions aren't very hard.

Stuart Brooke:
It's as simple as that. If you divide the effort by five days a week or you divided by seven, you're not going to get more effort because you're doing seven days a week. So that's why I always tell people, start off training, try four days a week. Try it every second day. You'll find that you need to learn how your body recovers before you can assess how much more you can train. How much more of you you can train. Because you started out with the six days split. As Christine would know, a lot of people get into it and they go "All right, six days a week," and they don't know they're run down. They think that being rundown is just part of it. But it's so far from being optimal.

Christine Envall:
Yes. So this is actually something we were just talking about offline before. It was kind of related to cardio, but that same thing. It's like, how do you start something kind of at a very, very high level? You need to work up and know what you need to do.

Stuart Brooke:
Yeah, yeah.

Christine Envall:
And you need to give yourself room to move. Because what happens when you do need that sixth day for a specific thing, you might want to single out hamstring and you might want to separate it from the core day. And you need that extra day of the week. Where do you go when you're already blocked into six days and you're starting right up there. And as you say, you're starting out and you're already fatigued and you're not getting the results because you're doing too much. You need to build up to that.

Stuart Brooke:
Yeah-

Christine Envall:
You need to build up the fitness for that.

Stuart Brooke:
I try, usually use a little of an analogies. So, I'm not busting out all the scientific stuff to clients. And I'll tell them, look, you starting off and you're learning as you go. I said, if you somehow go to call a helicopter to the top of a mountain called The Oscar, you're not really learning how to be a mountain climber. You're not going to really learn watching on the way up. If you're trying to start at the top, and not because you just win a pro cup, you compete or anything. But if you try to start at the top, as far as your training, you're taking on a higher level of training. You're not going to learn what you need to know as an athlete or lift up on the way there.

Stuart Brooke:
Because if you just give someone a six-day-a-week training program, they won't know. Okay, well, that's the important exercise of this session. That's the fluff I can count that out, one-a-month. My fatigue is too high. They wouldn't learn how to lift weights. If they come straight to a client, six to eight week attorney program.

Christine Envall:
I think for retention as well. I think if people have come from not training and now all of a sudden you're pushing them to, or they do six days a week, they might be all motivated about it at the start. But because of that fatigue setting in, it suddenly becomes a chore.

Stuart Brooke:
Yeah. 100%.

Christine Envall:
Whereas, yeah, I remember starting out in three days and then it was oh, but I want to train four. And then you do four and then you're like, but I want to train five. But you have to reach that point of now I'm ready for it. If someone had given me a six day week program, I probably would have been, oh, this is a big commitment like this. This is a lot to do. So it's got to be at that point of you're ready and wanting that step.

Stuart Brooke:
What's better than being given a six day program is developing the ability to complete a six day program. And that will take time and you will learn along the way. And that's ideal for me as a coach; it's ideal for anyone as a lifter and as an athlete.

Christine Envall:
Cool. Cool. Is there anything else that you want to say? Obviously, you train people. Like your business, what is your business name? Is it, what's your name and where do people find you?

Stuart Brooke:
People will generally contacted me through social media with Instagram or Facebook. But I do find that I do-

Christine Envall:
And what is that? What is your social media?

Stuart Brooke:
So, my social media is simply Stuart Brooke Coaching. My coaching business is called Empower A [inaudible 00:29:04]. I've had that for, I think it will be six years next week. So-

Christine Envall:
Congratulations.

Stuart Brooke:
Thank you. So I've been doing that whilst I completed my uni studies; whilst doing other work. Initially it started years earlier. I was asked to help people with their training. The people I was training in gyms. And I was out walking, if could do it online for you if I'm not in here. And I can email you programming in that. And it just grew from there. I was look guys, actually what need. So, I was in Central Queensland until 2015. There was obviously a need up there.

Ash Horton:
There was no one around-

Christine Envall:
Wow. To have an actual qualified exercise physiologist in an area that's not a main central area-

Stuart Brooke:
Yeah. Back then I was attending university to get my university degree. So I was helping mostly body builders and that as well. But, it was definitely something that was needed up there. I was into social media. He coaches in the same city as you or anything like that.

Stuart Brooke:
But I do so far, a lot of clients from word of mouth. So a client will refer their friend or somebody who's, do have similar aspirations. And having success with me as a client, they will obviously talk highly of me to their friends or colleagues and refer them to me as well. So, that's usually good. I don't have to put a lot into marketing to strangers and that I find that the reputation carries a lot of weight, which was great. I liked that about it. I like to work in-depth with clients as opposed to the more gen pop or large people who like 12 week transformations in groups and stuff.

Stuart Brooke:
I really liked to work individually. So, someone in an off-season will working with me the same way, then we might prepare them for a competition. Quite often, my clients aren't looking to compete, but they're challenging themselves. That's sometimes better than competing for external validation that people just want to make a good go of it in itself. But I love working with people on that. And they might be parents, younger people, it might be literally like young versions of myself. That's always really cool. To give them a hand. Say all types of people who came to train and learn how to heat that up. That's my wheelhouse. Yeah.

Christine Envall:
Cool.

Ash Horton:
Stuart, this has been really interesting. It's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you very much for coming on the show.

Stuart Brooke:
You're welcome. Thank you very much for having me.

Ash Horton:
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