Train. Eat. Think. Episode 12 - Why your "Bulk" keeps failing?

This episode features insights from coaches Francis Melia and Benjamin Yeezus on mistakes made in the muscle building phase, avoiding these common mistakes, setting realistic expectations, and maintaining routine amidst busy lives. 

Listen in and learn how to structure your improvement season for maximum gains and longevity.

Don't let your next cut have no results to show!

For online 121 coaching enquiries/information

Please contact Francis on X/Instagram @coachfhm or email fmeliacoaching@gmail.com 

Contact Ben on X/Instagram @benjaminyeezus or email ben@yeezuscrew.com  

Thanks for listening. See you next week :D 

Transcript

Introduction and Episode Overview

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Train, eat, think. Episode number twelve. Mistakes people make with bulking. Thanks for joining us, everyone. In this episode, we're going to talk around the mistakes people make with their calories and the bulk or improvement phase. How there should be a focus on food quality. How we want to set realistic expectations. And also want to get the most out of our training and strength that's going to come from this block. I'm excited about this one, Francis.

SPEAKER_00 0:33

100%,

Why the Improvement Season is More Important Than Dieting

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Mita. I think this is even more important than the dire phase. I really do. I I've I I've always said this and I've had the same sentiments as you with this one. The improvement season or building phase, bulk, what whatever you want to call it, this is this is the most important phase. And I I actually posted something on Twitter before and everything. If I look at the last 16 years of my training career, I've spent the majority of my time in an improvement season or building phase. The majority of my lifting experiences being in this phase, the diet shouldn't be the majority of your lifting phase. The diets are there to take off some body fat and reveal all of the hard work or the hard muscle tissue that you've you've laid down in these phases. And I think people get it backwards. People spend too much time dieting and not enough time in these improvement seasons. So yeah, and I I don't know about you, mate. I think there's a lot more mistakes that people have in this phase, and it catches them out more so than the diet phase.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

As long as we don't call it main gaining, I'm I'm quite happy.

Setting Realistic Expectations for Muscle Growth

SPEAKER_00 1:46

Yeah, what a load of bollocks that is.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

But you're you're absolutely right. You know, that there's a lot of mistakes made in this phase. The the structure that comes from the cut, um, you know, the the the laser focus, all of this needs to come in to the improvement phase, getting your calories up, whatever you want to call it. And it's very, very interesting that I was just a couple of weeks ago trying to find the exact tweet that I'd made, just again to echo your sentiments. I think I worked out I've spent something around 30 weeks and almost 13 years shredded, and the rest of that time has been spent trying to grow you know and having that focus because the whole point, if we take a step back for a moment, what's the point of this phase is to get muscle tissue on and as good quality tissue as we can get, that's gonna come from our strength, and I'm sure we're gonna dig um deeper into a lot of the different aspects. But what we're saying here right from the off is the importance and thinking about things like delaying gratification so that when you get to the end of the phase and it's time to cut again, you'll look good. So we're gonna go through all the mistakes and try and help people avoid and and give our experience with not only just ourselves, our own journeys, but what we see out there and uh with our clients and just in the space in general.

The Goldilocks Surplus: Finding the Right Calorie Intake

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Absolutely, mate. I think you touch on there about the setting expectations up front. I think that has got to be one of the biggest mistakes up front is that people have the wrong expectations before you even start talking about calories and training and physique, what's gonna happen? They have a skewed perception or expectations of what this phase is. So if you have that wrong up front, whatever you do with everything else, it's gonna be skewed right away. For me, I think it's very, very important that a person, whether you know it's the clients we work with or anyone listening to this, ready to go on their own building face soon, you've got to set your the the right expectations up front of what this phase is all about. This is a golden opportunity for you to build muscle tissue. This is not a uh a chance to eat everything in sight. Go down the the the supermarket buying all sorts of boxes of cereals and cakes, and you know, not that there's anything wrong with cereal, but you know what I mean. Just just the seafood diet where you just eat everything in sight. That's not what a building phase is, and that is the classic, you know, oh we've got we've got to eat big to get big, brah, you know, all that sorts of stuff. It's it's it's it's bodybuilding meme stuff. You've got to set the expectation of look, this is all about this phase is all about trying to put on as much quality tissue as I can and minimize fat gain. There is going to be some fat gain, right? Again, that is where it comes in with the expectation setting that up front. You're not going to stay shredded and lean year-round. You are going to accumulate some fat. And I I've got to digress, some fat, not 30-40 kilo of fat, some fat, right? That's the difference. We want to accumulate as much quality muscle tissue as we can, and there will be a little bit of body fat that will come along for the ride. So it's just setting those right expectations up front of what's to come. And I'm sure you'd agree, mate. I think that that is again up front, people don't set that up front. They just they come out of a diet and they just go all guns blazing, calories too high too fast, eating everything in sight, and they blow the runway right away. And I'm sure you've seen that.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

I

Common Mistakes: Eating Recklessly and Impatience

SPEAKER_01 5:17

mean, a great tagline, I think we've spoken about in an earlier episode that it's very apt again here. Your improvement phase, your bulking phase, is just your cut with more chicken and rice. You know, classic. But it really does fit, you know, exactly as you're saying, Francis, it's not an excuse to eat recklessly. A lot of the mistakes come from and and I've made them myself from impatience, the structure going out the window, thinking that you're invincible, because one of the things that will happen is you're eating and you're getting the calories in, and it's like, this is brilliant. I look better, and I look better, and I look even better until one day you wake up and you look worse and you've blown up. Um, you know, a a a well-done phase like this, if we assume that you've come from you know a very good cutting phase, you've got a long runway here. And with that runway, when you get to the end, the goal is going to be productive tissue, but manageable fat gain. Because the thing to remember is as well if you go too low, you're not going to get the muscle tissue on that you want. You know, again, we kind of joked about main gaining, but if you think about it like that, muscle tissue is expensive, so you need to get the food in to allow it to grow, but you need to find that sweet spot in the middle that's not too little. Going to sound like Goldilocks here and the three bells. It's not too little and it's not too much, but it's somewhere in the middle that fits for you. Because again, you're going to come through this phase, you're going to spend a lot of time in it, you're going to spend a lot of effort. And what you want to really do here is get it right so that when it comes the time, and it's exactly like you say, you are going to put on a little bit of fat, you're not going to stay shredded, don't listen and watch too much on social media. I've been guilty of it myself. I don't share enough improvement season photos. I've now fixed it. And we we need to do it. We need to, if we want the the the goal, we need to commit to it, and we need to watch that we're not going overboard because what we've got is diminishing returns and we don't get the rate of gain, and basically we don't have a successful improvement phase.

SPEAKER_00 7:31

The Goldilocks

The Power of Routine and Consistency

SPEAKER_00 7:32

analogy, mate, it's perfect. I I've used that a few times, and it it's it couldn't be more fitting for this. It is, it's it's just enough of a surplus to make sure we are growing and we're putting on as much quality tissue as we can, we're supporting that environment for good productive training and recovery. You know, that's one of the big things of it. And you know, when you step back, and we we know we're we're very, very big on that bird's eye view of things. If you go through a year of a building phase and you accumulate a little bit of body fat, and you know, obviously muscle tissue and strength that comes along with with what we're doing, that body fat that you accumulated maybe over the course of 12 months, you could whip that off within 10 to 12 weeks and you're left with the muscle tissue if you do it correctly. So you're looking at you what you're probably looking for, what I always class good improvement seasons or these phases, you you want to have it in favour of around a four to one ratio of of building to dieting. So if you look over the course of a year, if you spent nine months building and three months dieting, you look at that over two years, right? That could be 18 months in a surplus, six months in a diet phase. Can you see? You know, you start stacking that up over ten years, you're spending the majority of your time growing. And that if you do it right and you're not reckless with your calories, you you will spend the majority of let's say the next decade, you will spend the majority of that slowly growing and actually giving your body what it wants to have muscle tissue. So, yeah, I think it is it it's it's setting those expectations up front, not being scared to accumulate a little bit of body fat, but then not just coming out the gate, going home and eating everything inside. It is that Goldilocks just right approach.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

I think you make a good point there when you say slow, slow growth. You know, muscle growth for 90-95% of the population is going to be slow, it's gonna feel even slower when when you're in it. But again, it's one of those phases that you need to go through and just understand. We we mentioned about setting expectation. Even with the most perfect execution, you know, your nutrition's aligned, you're training hard, you're getting stronger. You can still only build so much muscle at a time. The more carbs and fats and protein that you add in doesn't necessarily mean that it's just automatically going to become muscle tissue and you can just eat forever. You know, we need to be aware of of just how how much and and how controlled it is when we are pushing up. And then things like consistency needs to come to the fore. You know, once the goal drops out of the cut, it's very easy to be like, Oh, I'll just have I don't know, some toast or whatever, toast and butter as as an example, and you skip the protein in that meal. You know, that's you lost a feeding opportunity, uh a protein opportunity. And I don't say that to be like scaremongering or be like, oh, you need to be absolutely perfect of every single day of every year. Obviously, that would help the more accurate it can be. But the point I'm trying to make there is you need to be getting your proteins in with your with your foods and making sure that the quality's there, that your meal distribution is still there. Um, another thing we can touch on is is you know managing appetite in an improvement phase because something that some people you know will find that they go ham and then they they don't have, they can't get any more food in. So there's just a few things there about you know keeping that focus and making sure that you're setting yourself up for it for an excellent phase.

Managing Appetite and Digestion in the Building Phase

SPEAKER_00 11:06

I think one of the first things you you can do to sort of avoid the seafood diet and eating everything in sight and getting fat too quickly. I think one of the best things people can do is is is set a legitimate timeline up front. Map out a rate of gain that you want to have over you know the whether you want to do a weekly rate of gain or a monthly rate of gain, and you set some numbers and you try and stick to that as closely as you can. Like them, there may be a little bit of variance on some weeks, some months, of course. Body weight fluctuates, we know that. But if you set yourself some targets, look, I'm gonna I'm gonna aim to build no more than one percent of body weight per month, that tends to be a nice range for a lot of people in that one percent per month. So if you map out the timeline, you map out the next nine, ten months, and you've got your numbers in there. Uh you know, we know it's not just all about numbers, of course, which we spoke about in detail about the scale weight and the visuals, we know that. But just having something there as some sort of guardrails anyway, having a sort of this is the timeline, this is a sort of weight cap or a maximum weight cap that I'm gonna get to before I have a real good assessment piece. Because if you put a maximum, let's just say, like I'm gonna get to 200 pounds, and you get to 200 pounds and you look sloppy, well, it probably doesn't make sense to keep it going. Well, you get to 200 pounds and you look really good. We thought that we might not look as good at 200 pounds, okay, perfect. Digestion and everything's in a good spot, we're feeling good, we're not we haven't accumulated too much body fat. So that 200 pound marker that you set, okay, we can go past that. But having these sort of guardrails and checkpoints intact and trying to stick to this rate of gain, that keeps you in a good a good spot versus someone just comes out of a diaphase and just goes, Right, I'm bulking now, and let's let's just see what happens because that that's when that's when chaos and that's when all hell breaks loose, and that's what you don't want.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

Yeah, the the the the gloves are off, and um yeah, see how many Oreos you can slam in your face in a morning when you used to eat steak and egg. And and the great thing about this is you and I, Francis, have have been around the houses. We we've made the mistakes, so a lot of the things we talk about here is exactly the the whole purpose of this podcast. Not only the mistakes that we've made, but the the things that we see people doing online, and and and you do see it where you know someone is like, Well, I'm eating this, but they're talking about having a productive um improvement phase, and you can see them going right off the bat where they're up 20-25 pounds in in like a few weeks, and the thing you run into there is you run out of runway because the the the the the longer that you can delay the gratification, you are gonna be hungry, assuming you've just come out of the cut. But if you can put your brakes on that and be like, right, I've got a plan here, exactly as you said, Francis, you're setting those sort of limits that you don't want too much too soon that's gonna show on the scales. You might get away with it, and the visuals that we've mentioned, you know, oh I I feel I look better. There'll be a point where you're shoveling and you just wake up and and look worse. And another thing as well that starts to happen when we're talking about the you know, the structure goes to the wayside, cardio goes, you know, all of that cardio focus that there was and and the cut, individuals just stop, you know. I I didn't get my cardio today because, and it's seen as like an extra. You know, we we know about steps as well on top of cardio, and then you're losing things like your digestion because you're not moving as much or efficiently as as you once were, to the best markers you've got for energy out, which is important in this phase. Yes, we want to grow, but we want that efficiency in the system's nutrient partitioning. We want to try and keep insulin sensitivity as high as we can. We want to actually fight for condition. And these are these are some of the points that we need to hold on to, and again, just more mistakes that we see happening when people transition into improvement phase.

Training Performance and Progressive Overload

SPEAKER_00 15:16

I think the big thing with that transition, uh as you say there, mate, is you've got to you've got to you've got to set the new goal now. You've got to have you've got to set your focus and the blinkers on something else. It's not body fat loss now, as we say, it's it's training performance, right? Once once we get our we we raise our calories up and we set our timelines out as an example, you know. I I think there's only so much you can think about with food before with the with the building phase. What is the powerful catalyst? It's the training stimulus, it's what happens on the gym floor. This is where like people lose sight of this and they just focus so much on food, they focus so much on what calories do I need, mate? What what should I do with my meal time? And like, yeah, that's all important. We're not saying it isn't, but if your training is shit, if that is not on point, all of this other stuff doesn't matter. The training is the that is the match that sparks the signal for muscle growth. So now all this stuff that we're talking here about with having your calories, your timeline, fantastic, great, we need that, but now all of that leads you to being being able to perform to the best of your ability inside the gym, and this is what you've got to obsess over now. If you want new muscle tissue, you've got to be obsessed with your training, and this is a mistake people make is that they they just think of training as an afterthought. Training, oh yeah, I'm bulking, it's just there to just go in the gym today. Well, no, you should be obsessing over there. Should be personal bests, personal records should be coming through quite often on a building phase. Now it won't happen every week. We know that when we we know we don't rush through things with shit technique. We're big proponents of that. But if you want to have new muscle tissue, you're gonna have to be moving some loads with legitimate form that you've never done before for sets and reps over time. Like progressive overload happens over time. If you want a bigger muscle, we're gonna have to get stronger, you know, even better form at the same load as an example. There needs to be progression happening, right? And this is the building phase, is this is the golden opportunity to make it happen. So you need to start, you know, maybe on on the way down, you might have just been maintaining and hanging on to lifts because you were at the arse end of a deficit, which you know that's normal, that's fine. But now, food's in, boom, training performance that's got to be the number one focus because that is what will drive the physique forward, and it's getting people into that mindset. And I'm always towards the end of a diet phase when I'm with clients, I'm always planting that seed of luck. This is what we've got to come. Wait until we raise calories, you your training performance is gonna fly up. New sets and new new new new PRs are gonna be coming in, you'll be hitting new weights for sets and reps, everything like a bag of feathers, a bag of pillows. So you're setting that mindset, you're planting the seeds for the trail for them to start thinking, right, this is what's to come, because you need to set that expectation up front. It's not just about plowing food, and yeah, we want to get the food up, but the training performance is is absolutely vital. And I think people miss that piece. That that's one of the biggest mistakes I'd say.

SPEAKER_01 18:15

You made a great point where you said, you know, there should be an improvement in the execution of your lifts. You know, we're looking at progressive overload. You're gonna feel stronger, you're gonna recover probably better as well. So we want to turn that hard training and making sure that we're keeping the focus and not just whacking things onto the bar just to move something from A to B. Remembering that, and and we can speak very well on this because Francis is an ex-power lifter, we're not powerlifting. You know, you're you're using the foot, you're using the recovery, uh, you're using your training now to make sure that you're actually getting muscle on. So get your muscle under tension, push it towards the end of your rip ranges, and if you get to the end of your rip range and and it was good, then you can add, and that's your start adding adding the weights on for the next time that you're on that training rotation. So, one of the things you want to do, you know, is don't introduce junk volume just because you feel again, I feel on top of the world, I'm I'm stronger than ever. They're still in this phase of recovery debt as well. You know, you don't want to just be like absolutely hammering one session because you felt great and everything just moved. So it's stuck in supersets here and uh drop sets this and whatever. There still needs to be again that providing the stimulus for the muscle to grow, but not annihilating yourself in a single session.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

It comes back to our classic the stimulus recovery adaptation piece. We we always talk on that because that will always come up. That'll be coming up for years because that that's a fundamental of training. You can't you cannot talk about getting bigger and stronger without talking about the stimulus recovery adaptation cycle. You've got to get that right. So now in the building phase, your stimulus is on point, your recovery is only heightened, which allows your adaptations to stack even more, which is a lot harder to do in a deficit. You know, right now I'm I'm in prep, it's very, very hard for me to see noticeable improvements in strength because I just don't have the same recovery there. The the building blocks for to make the adaptations. I'm fighting to hold on to performance as much as possible. That's what happens in the diet phase. But in a building phase, you've got the extra calories are coming in, your recovery abilities are heightened. So stimulus and that recovery now from the stimulus is so powerful, it's heightened, so you stack the adaptations.

Stimulus, Recovery, and Adaptation in Building Phases

SPEAKER_00 20:38

So that's why it's just it's the best phase, the best phase ever, because like you just you feel strong as a bull, your food is high, coming in the gym, you just everything just feels light. And why would you want to why would you want to squander this phase? Uh it it's never made sense to me. You know, when you when we you know we just you you look at it from a bird's eye view again and go, like, if you're trying to get jacked, right? Why would you get sloppy on this phase? Why would you piss this away, piss this up the wall after spending all that time in a die phase? Now you've got this opportunity. Why why would you get sloppy?

SPEAKER_01 21:14

It's just it makes no sense. It's another nod, I think, as well. I know that we've already sort of mentioned it, but it's another nod to keep moving and keep your cardio in in this phase for every reason that you've just said there, Francis. If we want to move heavyweight and get stronger, there's no point in you going to do a deadlift, for example, or whatever it is, a squat, a big compound movement that's going to take a lot, it's going to take a lot of strength, it's going to take a lot of power, but also it's going to take fitness. Again, the the points that we're covering say why do we we don't want to waste anything in this phase. So if you're blown because your steps are down, your cardio's down. And you've stuck on, let's say, again, £25 in a few weeks, you're going to feel that. And I'm going to say how I know you're going to feel that is because I've done it myself. Again, a lot of the things we talk about on the episodes are things that we've gone through ourselves, mistakes again that we've made. And I did make that mistake, and I felt it. And I immediately had to bring back my cardio because I couldn't walk, in essence, 500 yards, because I thought I was the cookie monster and I was invincible. Again, mistakes that I've made, I put my hands up to them and I've learned from them. But what you don't want to be doing is in essence missing a rep, missing a set because of something that fell apart. Drive, you've got that laser focus that's in the cut for getting your steps in. And you know, if you miss it one day, most people, you know, you get a little bit aggravated, even angry at yourself because, well, why have I missed that? That should be the same here. There's no missing, you know, things because you're going to spend a lot of time here, and the fitter you can be in this phase, it's going to translate to all of the good things like nutrient partitioning, keeping you fit, which then gets you plus ones. You know, Francis said you're not going to go up every single week that much is true. You know, we we need to fight for even half reps here and there at a point. But maybe that could be the difference between that being a half rep and a full rep because you had a little bit more gas.

SPEAKER_00 23:34

I think a lot of it comes down to routine, mate. As you touched on there, people in the diet phase, they have the routine locked in, the same sleep and wait times, the same meal time, and they get the cardio and the steps in at the same time. And because they're seeing that instant gratification again of the physique changing week to week, it keeps them in the game because that's what the focus is on. That's the visual. I'm getting leaner, I'm in a diet phase, I can't mess this up. So you need that same mentality of routine.

The Role of Routine, Sleep, and Meal Timing

SPEAKER_00 24:04

It needs to be exactly the same on the building phase, same sleep and wait times, set your circadian rhythm. And another thing with your slame, there's the same sleep and wait times, is it it affects your meal time. And if you're getting sloppy with your sleep and wait times and you're trying to you've got extra food to try and shovel in now, again, it's the food that you take on, we've touched on this in the past, it's only as good as what your body can actually digest and take on. So if you're going to bed two, three hours later because you're getting sloppy with your routine, you're waking up later, you're behind on meals now, you're behind on hydration. How is your body going to be digesting all this extra food that's coming in? You didn't do that on your diet phase. So why are you doing it now in your building phase when you've got more food coming in? It all comes down to routine, setting your routine, same sleep, wait times, your meal time and your training time and your cardio time and keeping everything the same and being as laser focused, if not more, and more laser focused from the end of the diet phase. You need to be just as laser focused in your building phase. And that is what will that is what will give you the best and productive building phase is like hands down. It's not even up for debate, it's just it's so it's so critical.

SPEAKER_01 25:16

Including the weekend as well, Francis.

SPEAKER_00 25:19

Absolutely, absolutely including the weekends, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:22

I mean personally, my my week is just that it's a seven-day week, you know. I get up at the same times, I pretty much go to the bed, uh go to bed at the same same time. And I know that everybody won't be able to fall into that, maybe they're doing shift patterns or whatever. But what we're saying here is we're trying to lay down the framework to say what you've done and the drive that you had when you were in the cut. Even though, for example, you know, you might have set the goal 52 weeks down the line, every week counts towards those 52 weeks. I've had goals in the past where I knew I was competing in two years' time. Now that's a great goal to have, but what you're doing is getting caught up in the process and focusing on it on the daily, because everything that I do, even the wee 1% silly stuff like making sure my hydration's good, you know, salting my meals so that I've got good good energy when I go into the gym in terms of you know um getting the the lifts, getting the lifts in that I'm not cramping up and all that sort of good stuff. All of these small things as tiny as they appear for a goal that's fifty-two weeks away, everything should be designed towards making all of those 0.01% things add up. Because if you multiply them and compound them over a calendar year and you've checked off all your boxes for the week, and you don't get loose or you don't get, you know, manana, then you you're setting yourself up for complete success and to get what you want from that, which is when it's time to go into the cut again, you've actually got some muscle tissue, and it's going to be easier as well. Something worth mentioning. The more muscle tissue you can get on, the easier a diet becomes. I used to diet on like close to 1500 calories, and when you start to get more muscle tissue on, I now diet on nearly 3,000 calories, so it just shows you how much you can actually get, and and that's again as Francis mentioned, we're going through the phases where we've been lean, we push up, we've been lean, then we push up. So we're spending enough time pushing up, pushing new body weight, and then coming back in so that we keep more muscle tissue each time. So if we're stacking whatever four four pounds of muscle, which doesn't sound like a lot, if you put four pounds of muscle down on a table, you know, four pounds of steak and strap it on yourself, you'll see actually how much four pounds is, if it's six pounds, whatever it may be. Obviously, the longer you you've been training, um, if your training is a bit longer, that might be a bit slower for you. But again, it doesn't matter how slow it is, it's something you you need to respect in terms of the process.

Handling Social Occasions and Off-Plan Meals

SPEAKER_00 28:03

I've got a good one for you, eh? Mate, but I I I can't focus on these small mana details. I can't go to bed when I need to. I've got kids. I travel for work, I'm busy. Me and you both got kids, you know. We've both got little fellas who are just over two. You know, we've been going through that. We're busy, busy jobs, busy client loads. And I know you you you travelled, you've done many bodybuilding preps while you were travelling for work up and down the country. This is a common, common critique. Because I'm just sitting here thinking when when we're talking about you know same sleep and wake times and meal time, and there's always someone, there's always someone who'll be sitting there going, oh yeah, but I bet I bet they haven't got kids. We fucking have. We have, we're just we're just normal like everybody else, got busy jobs, you know, we we're living a normal life like a lot of other people. And we again it all comes down to you you make that commitment. So you if you want to you set your goal, you make your commitments and you do what is necessary. Is it always easy? No, it requires organization, structure, a little bit of sacrifice on some things. But I just I wanted to get that in there because I don't want people to just be listening to us here and think all we do is just bodybuild and we've got no other responsibilities, because that is it's easy for people like that to talk about that. If you are just a bodybuilder, you've got no kids, no commitments, like you can do all mad stuff. We're we are normal fellas, families, jobs, busy, and we're still we're we're still finding the time to do all this stuff and micromanaging things because why? Because we want to do it, like we want it enough. We that our goal, it means that much to us that we're willing to do all this small stuff. So yeah, I wanted to get that out there, mate, because I know there's other always comments on that.

SPEAKER_01 29:49

How much do you want it? Is is basically what it comes down to. And again, you're you're completely right. You know, that there's a lot of responsibilities that we have. Um being caregivers, there'll be there'll be lots of people in that situation as well. It's so easy these days, the the hit the shops make it easy for you to find uh find a framework. One of the things I always think is you're gonna go to the shops anyway, or you're gonna order online. But you could have a repetitive basket, you know, that makes suggestions to you when when you're ordering. So if you're gonna eat, I mean it's it's easy for me to say now because I'm like twelve years in. I just wake up in the morning and I and I know what's happening. Four of my meals I've already got, I put them into my fitness pile anyway. But the only thing that will really change for me is my dinner. But that's because I've built that out. Yes, there's times where you get challenged for for time or something crops up and you need to go somewhere or you need to do something, and that's fine. What you do is you learn to pivot. Again, Francis, you've said we've we've we've got the we men, you know, um for translation that that's kids, um, young boys. Um, you know, we we've had to you know take that in our stride. We we've had to find ways, whether that's you know, going out and doing cardio before he wakes up, a lot of people train before the kids wake up. Some people go to the gym when they've gone to bed or do their cardio or whatever it may be. It's about finding those opportunities and also prioritizing yourself because it brings to the table your goals are important. Just because you've become a father or you know you're you're working hard, one thing to remember, and this is I don't normally you know hate on like the corporate thing or whatever, but I think one thing to to really remember and it is important if you were to die, your job would be advertised in 72 hours to somebody else. Now I'm not for a second saying don't work hard. I'm not I'm not what I'm saying is we need to remember that nobody's gonna come and and pull you away and save you because you you did an extra however many hours and you got a thanks very much for doing that. It's it's nice, we need to do our jobs. Again, I'm not saying that, but what we need to be aware of is nobody's gonna come and prioritise you. We want the years that we've got here to be long, we want the years to be you know fruitful. There's no point in just sort of hanging about, is there? Let's be honest. But if we can do things now where we're eating good, the some of the markers for for longevity in life and living longer, being strong, having more muscle, there's literally no downside to it.

SPEAKER_00 32:41

You make a great point there, mate, about like, you know, you you if someone was to die, they'd be replaced within 72 hours with a with a job. And as harsh as that sounds to people, that is the reality, that is life. So you need to take care of yourself. You again you've got to water your own flowers before you start taking care of you know other people's gardens. I think I've got that right, that's saying. But it's so true. You know what I'm saying? If you've got kids and you've got um um a family, they need you functioning at your very best, and that will that will always come from you being in the best possible shape that you you can be, you know, monitoring your food intake, training hard, growth cardio and and you and you're lifting weights, like everything that we're touching on here, and finding the time to do that. And I know it's hard, I know it's hard with kids. You know, I know for myself, I I'm up two hours before the the baby and the missus are even up. I'm up, got work, some work boxed off. I've already got some steps in. I've already started the day on the front foot. My day is it's blocked out. I do the same, the same things, same time every day. And that is all organised uh around the schedule of the little man and what he needs from me and what the missus needs. It's all it's all scheduled around and make it happen. So again, it all comes down to where there's a will, there's a way. If you want to make it happen, you will, but you've got to don't don't give that nonsense about oh it's easy for you because you haven't got kids. We both have, we're both, it's the same for us, but we you you just make it happen, and that's it.

SPEAKER_01 34:11

I think it's really important as well. Probably just the last uh one on this before we we we we can maybe jump into like food quality. But it's really important for for you to be happy. Lifting makes us happy, doesn't it, Francis? It's it's kind of in us, you know. Don't get me wrong, if I I've got a week off or time off, it's absolutely fine. I've got no problem with that. I I get four or five days a week and have done for you know a decade plus. I'm all good with that. So when the time off comes, I I welcome it. But it it makes you happy to to go and it gives you that that time for for yourself, it gives you great mental capacity and structure because you you can go and take some time away not thinking about work, all you're thinking about is the next rep, hopefully, and you're you're not on your phone in the gym. But I know in all seriousness, you know, it's something that you really want for you, and what happens then is if you're in a good spot, you're in a better spot to help other people. The the great analogy is the old um airplane mask, you know, when the when the mask comes down, put your mask on first that you can then help others. And I don't think it's selfish to say that because when you're happier in yourself and you've got an outlet that you enjoy, some people enjoy going to the pub multiple times a week. That's up to them, that's their choice, fair play. Some people enjoy going to the football, be that in other countries, whatever it is, the World Cup just now is a great example. If that's what makes you happy and it's the gym that makes you happy, then your family get a bump from that because they've got you energized, you're in a good spot, and all of that sort of good stuff.

SPEAKER_00 35:49

I think it's it was important to touch on this, mate, because building phases, because they last a long time, you've got to enjoy the process and focus on the process of it. And so it it is so encompassing with your meal time and your organization, your sleep, your training time, your cardio. There is a lot, so that's why we're saying you've got to have that mindset of I can do this, it only helps my other areas of of our life better. So we haven't just gone off on a tangent just talking about something random. This this is very important to again to set the expectations of what you need for a successful gaming phase because I've always like uh I'm lucky to have the missus who's on board with what I do. She trains herself, she's well into it, we're well into uh feeding the little fella good food as well. But we're we're all into it, and having the family on board with what you're doing, it's it's it's so so important, and it just makes for a happy life though, because again you can focus on the process knowing you feed into the the other other areas with positivity. So that's why we're touching on that because I know there will be you know there may be some busy fellas out there who got they've got kids, busy jobs, and they're wondering how how can I make this work, and we just want to tell you that you absolutely can again if you want to make it happen.

SPEAKER_01 37:02

A happy life, you know, a healthy life, as we've touched on, you know, longevity, being around for it for as long as you can and having a fruitful life. And a lot of that comes as well, you know, from from micronutrients. We hear about macros often in the space, how much protein, how much carbs, how much fat, how many calories, you know. And I actually made a decent tweet, I think, um, the other day on this very point. You know, we're putting micronutrients, especially when we're in an improvement phase. It's not just about how much food you know we can shovel down our throats. There needs to be, again, a structure around what we're bringing in. We're covering all the bases because we're asking a lot from our bodies, we're asking it to grow. So, what are we going to give back to our bodies if we want it to give us what we're looking for, which is you know, increased size, improved performance. We need to be looking after it and getting all the vitamins and minerals in. Fibre, you know, might be a little a little lower as as you go through your your improvement season because digestion, you know, is something that you you want to um keep on top of. And that's again where you know that movement and the cardio comes in. Because if you're keeping, and this is another tweet I made the other day, if you're keeping yourself in a little edge on your hunger, Francis, and you'll you'll you'll be well versed in this and speaking to this, almost like the hungrier that you can be in an improvement phase is a really good thing because you're then knowing that digestion's good, your blood glucose is stable because your body's looking to feed, you're probably getting stronger, so your body's looking for food to grow, your energy levels stay high, you're getting good sleep because again, we're talking about the structure, and we're putting basically all of the ingredients are going into the mixer, you know, and we're pressing the button to turn it on, and we're making a good blend.

SPEAKER_00 38:57

That's what ruins so many building phases, mate. It's it's appetite and digestion. That's one of the first things to go. So, again, like you're so right there. We're having that if you can keep that edge of hunger for as long as you possibly can through a building phase, that's a great spot to be in. If you're growing, you're firing on all cylinders in the gym, and you're still slightly hungry. That's that's like that's that that's an immaculate building phase because you're not walking around sluggish and bloated, you're not having to pull back on the build phase and start a mini cup because you've just wrecked your appetite, you've wrecked your digestion, you're walking around, your ass is like a leaky gas pipe you can't stop fatting. You're just like the Michelin man extended out with your gut. You know, you don't want to be like that in a building phase. You you want to feel again fine on all cylinders, like your body is just absolutely burning through the fuel that you're giving it, you're performing like an animal inside the gym, and you're just utilising everything that you're taking on, and that comes from again using high-quality foods that digest well for you. Good dose of micronutrients. Again, we we we touched on off air about our carbohydrates and your different sources, like the the digestibility of things, you know. There's a is it there's a difference between having a big bag of rice and maybe white potatoes in the building phase when you're when your intake is coming up because of the fibre content that you touched on. So it's getting that right, it's getting the play of okay, what foods digest well for me when calories are higher, making sure we've got enough micronutrients in there. Because as I touched on before, you what you're eating in your building phases and just in general, it's it's only as good as what your body can digest and utilise. And if you're walking around bloated, not digesting the food, even though you might be hitting the same macros, this is where the if it fits your macros, piece can fall down for some people because you're missing a big piece of the picture of like micronutrients and digestion. So it's about trying, you've got to piece that together and get that right. So yeah, it's it's massive mate, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 40:56

I mean, the the one of the best ways to sum it up is good quality in equals good quality out. Now, we're not suggesting here that you need to, you know, live like a saint, you know, it needs to be a clean bulk, bruh, you know, where you never get to enjoy anything. You know, obviously the social aspect comes into it. And and what we say is don't make the mistake of going to the restaurant and ordering seven double cheeseburgers and five milkshakes and the super duper loaded fries. Those hyper-palatable foods are going to make you um push past your calories, you're making the surplus and the control of it harder because you're eating then foods that don't have a lot of fibre, don't have a lot of nutrient content. But similarly, what we are saying is if you've got an event coming up, it's absolutely fine, you know, go out and sort of enjoy yourself, maybe just don't blow out. But I guess really what we're trying to say is it's about finding that that middle ground and that sweet spot that gives you progress, enjoyment, but not losing sight of what the what the end goal is. So there is an element of structure all along the way, there's a good element of enjoyment at the end of the day, there's something that we want to get. And again, we spoke about this in the in the past, Francis, about how we enjoy be our training, we enjoy what we eat. Food's a very social thing nowadays, but we don't want it to be you you had a great word at the start of the podcast, mate, chaos. Chaos rules, you know, when when it's there, and it's something that that you don't want. You know, you you you need to have some sort of of guardrails and boundaries to say, okay, that's fine, but nobody's expecting you to just eat clean for for an entire you know phase.

SPEAKER_00 42:40

I

Balancing Enjoyment and Structure in Nutrition

SPEAKER_00 42:41

think you probably agree as well. I mean, I think you you you get to a point with with your food, and I've had this conversation with a lot of other people as well. Like you get to a point when your food is a little bit higher and you are eating a lot of good food, like you, you know, your rice, you know, your potato, steak, your chicken breast, all your fruits and veggies. You don't really want to eat any sort of bullshit because sometimes it throws you off your rhythm. You you're not craving you're not craving a bit greasy kebab or a greasy pizza. Like it's it's it's very rare, you know, when you when you are eating a lot when you when your body's well fed, when you when you're giving it all the food that it needs anyway, you're in such a good groove where you're digesting, you your training's going great. There's no real like, oh, I've got to have this pizza or this kebab. Do you know what I mean? It's a and you get to a point with many years of doing this where you know you you don't really crave all that stuff, and there's nothing wrong if you do go out and have something like that, you know, a pizza on a Saturday every now and then. If you want to bring that into your gaining phase and that works, you fine. But I do I do think you get to a point where it the the the the draw for all that stuff, it's just it it's it it drops off the longer that you do it. W would you agree?

SPEAKER_01 43:51

Yeah, I mean I I think if for anyone that's got a family and and maybe even married or whatever, you might want to have that that one meal a week. where you you enjoy it. Again, as we've said sort of earlier, don't don't use it as an excuse to go off the rails. Using myself as an example, every Friday I'll have a curry. But I'm having boiled rice and it's literally just some fried chicken because it's coming from from the place. But the rest of the time, you know, I'm I'm quite happy. Spaghetti bologna all of the good things, obviously chicken and rice is in there, rice and chicken, um, and and all that sort of good stuff. So you don't feel robbed with the food that you're eating because you get to a point where it's like this is what I enjoy. I I wouldn't thank you for a kebab on on any realms to be honest. We had a a get together at the weekend um and I had a slice of pizza and a a chicken wrap. But you know what I'd say I enjoyed it and that was it. I just got on with it. Went and trained legs um after it one wee slice of pizza isn't going to do anything. When you start to play the percentage games you know one of the mistakes that you don't want to make is have your food going too much to one side. You know you made a great a great point Francis about if it fits your macros if it fits your macros becomes a yeah I can have a McDonald's because it's only I don't know a thousand calories for example. And that much is true in isolation. But what you don't want to turn your improvement phase is into a McBulk we spoke about micronutrients we need to be giving the body the platform for what we're taking away from it and that that comes from you know good quality food getting that in there getting the recovery getting the sleep so that you can go back in and um get some get some some gains basically like what you said there you you get up when you don't feel robbed of food and that's what we're after.

SPEAKER_00 45:54

Like you want to get to that spot with your diet where like I I can take or leave that like that big pizza or whatever I just I just don't care like because the diet that I eat all the time is just I just enjoy it so much. It's not a chore to eat this and that doesn't mean every meal has to be chicken and rice chicken and rice like the old classic you've got lots of variability that you that you can have with your diet you've just got to find what works for you make it tasty it digest well fuels performance recovery good to go and then that again there's nothing wrong with an off plan meal every now and then there really isn't but that will lead me in to another mistake another big mistake great segue there off plan meals and how people make the mistake of they they they they do look at like a free for all and they just again the word chaos all chaos breaks loose I've had to I've had this conversation with multiple clients over the years where you know six days out of the week we're on point with food it's it's really good spot on meal timing and there's always that one day and it always tends to be Saturday or Sunday and it's always family gathering related or something with the family there's something and I understand it the calories blow over excessively that one day a week and and we're talking you know it could be an extra 1001 over on that that just singular day alone and what that does that just that just blows your surplus like we we want a surplus of here you know let's say a couple of hundred calories across the week whatever it just blows it up here to your 2000s over. So now you you're starting to calories are coming up too high as a weekly average you're going to start to accrue too much body fat and it's all coming from those consistent big blowouts on off plan meals. So that's where they can become problematic if you don't organise you you you know you have the control when you go out or you you're eating a little bit less throughout the day to save calories for that. So you know I'm sure we can we can touch on this Macy've I'm sure you've seen this loads of times.

SPEAKER_01 48:06

Yeah I mean a a good way to control it is if if you're going out somewhere is to try and get a hold of the menu and and try and see or even try and control where it is that you're going. Always keeping the the the goal that you have in your mind even if you are in in a productive improvement phase you know if it's good quality food that's on offer fantastic try and find places where you can go for that another good tip is even have something to eat immediately before you go. We were talking off air Francis about how much you enjoy your oats a bowl of oats a s even a small bowl of oats it doesn't need to be massive oats in whey before you go out will really blunt how much you can overeat for for most people I'm thinking of Jonathan right now. But um yeah you know most people will eat something like that and then when you go to the restaurant you don't blow it. And the other thing as well that you can you can um chuck in there rather than having the dessert maybe share the dessert for example or set yourself before you go to say I'm going to have a starter and I'm going to have a main course so the starter could be you know some soup maybe you know some small chicken bites and salad I don't know you know depending on the restaurant you would go to and from there you've always got an element then of control because it's like right I've I've seen what's on the menu I know where we're going and this is what I'm going to order. So even though your goal is is is a way down the line again everything that we're doing is leading to a good point.

SPEAKER_00 49:40

You're still out you're still being social nobody's judging then what you're eating because you're still having a a a starter or you're having would you like to share a dessert with me and I I I don't like the term damage I I think it's it's not great but again you you're out there we are with your people we've said that food's a social thing now more than ever and it's just some ways that you can you know sort of ride that wave when when you need to go out

The Importance of Support and Coaching

SPEAKER_00 50:08

yeah it's it it comes back to the all or nothing approach again mate we we touch on we touch on that all the time with the with with social occasions I think that's the big thing isn't it it's people get it is they get wrapped up in this all or nothing I'm going out to eat I've got to read everything on the menu I can't say no to anything that's a psychological barrier that a lot of people have they they feel as if um they're offending people by saying no you sure you don't want a piece of cake you say no that's fine that that's going to hurt them more than it's actually hurting you you you're happy with what you're doing if that's just them trying to force that on you. So you know you could you can try and explain to them go look I I'm I'm fine I really don't want a piece of cake I'm good to go and you know and just just try and explain it to them in in that way. You don't have to take it personally but yeah it's it's it is just avoid the all or nothing approach go out and go out to these restaurants you know every every place I've ever been has always had a sort of uh a decent high protein starter of some sort whether it be a carpaccio ceviche whatever some sort of meat whatever it might be there's always something there right and a main course there's always a decent main course you can always get some sort of steak and chicken breast some potatoes and rice there's there's always something decent you can have and again one one of the best things you can do is before you go out is is as you mentioned there maybe eat something a little bit higher protein before you go out or just graze on you know protein and veggies throughout the day and save a fair amount of calories for when you actually go out and you pick the best choices and you've got a little bit of leeway you've got a little bit of wiggle room for when you go out so that way you're not just blowing over everything and causing chaos and then the disruption to digestion that comes off that because that's the other thing that we we need to touch on is that you know if you if you're going out and you're going out to this big fried greasy Mexican gaff full of tacos and and geladas or whatever cooked in all sorts of oils and whatever and you're blowing 2000 calories of that shite your stomach in the toilet is not going to be happy the next morning and that and that wreaks havoc on your your intake of food and how your body can digest your nutrients for you know up to 48 hours after after that meal so that one meal is just blowing your next couple of days of digestion and your ass is like a leaky gas pipe off the Mexican so you know you've got to be careful. I mean I know I say often you've hit the nail on the head but honestly Francis you m I must say that so many times on on a weekly basis you know I I've been out wherever it's been and they're cook cooking in oils that maybe you're not used to and the bloat comes in a little bit of regret as well because you've broke the seal you kind of get caught up in the moment effort you know whatever one of the things in the conversations I've had with some clients over over the years is trying to help people understand bodybuilding or even just you know hobby building as we call it you know kind of eating in general to ask for support I don't think is is is a bad thing at all you know explain to somebody this is what I do you know this is the phase I'm in at the moment I'm employing a coach my gym membership all that sort of good stuff you know it's it's a it's a business where you're putting a lot of money and effort and time and you want to get rewarded again we're not talking about if there's a a really special occasion family birthday go out and enjoy yourself but just try not to eat crazily but most of the other times just anchor to your goal and be like you know this this is what I'm what I'm gonna do this is what I do again this is what makes me happy this is what I enjoy I'm not avoiding I'm not saying no because I'm scared to eat I'm here I'm having something I'm enjoying it I'm enjoying myself and then just maybe even trying to get the focus away from what it is that you're doing and what's on your plate and back into whatever whatever the occasion may be I think it's a it's a good segue to giving an example myself of how I uh I used to work my off plan meals when I was in the building phase we spoke on this in the spaces in the past but it probably hasn't been on the podcast with people so just giving someone an example you know me and the missus you know again I've got a wife there I'm not just this this single fella who just sits in his house eating chicken and rice I've got a wife again got a family um so you know we I I have to communicate with the wife and she she's on board with what I'm doing bodybuilding wise she she gets it you know there's there's no friction with that but you know even when I'm in a a a building phase we like to go out and have a a date night every couple of weeks um you know and our favourite was we used to we used to go out for sushi so you know again sushi for the most part it's it's it's rice and and raw fish and whatever it's not too bad anyway but the way I we would we I would sort of handle that would be I remember I I used to have around 4,000 calories or whatever to play with that's what I was playing with when I was in peak improvement season. So you know it was on a training day it was a Saturday I'd train early in the day that I'd buy us a good load of carbs around me training but then the meals after would be quite small I'd just graze on protein and veggies. So by the time I was going out to the sushi restaurant I'd only ate 2000 and I I still had 2000 calories left to play with I knew the menu I know the restaurant because we're we've we've we've been regulars and familiars there for years so I know what I know what to order I know what's in the sort of realms of ballpark calories macros got an idea go out fit into the structure enjoy the time with the missus enjoy some good food something that we enjoy to eat no issues with digestion job done right back to regular diet the next day so that's a just an example of of of how you can bring it in and I would recommend to a lot of people you know who might be sitting here in the same boat try and find restaurants that you know work for you if you if you want to go out on regular date nights with the missus or your girlfriend whatever it is and you want to bring this into you know even taking the kids out of a Sunday afternoon or you you want to go out to the family try and find like three to five restaurants that you know have got good menus or got good options and you can work into your sort of macros and your your your structure as as best as you can you know all the foods that you're gonna eat at these places are not going to wreak havoc on your digestion. They've got a decent menu and if you can do that there's a perfect way to you know bring bodybuilding or hobby building into your life and and not cause friction.

SPEAKER_01 56:43

So it's about the the plan and the execution with it it happened with Rury and I when I took him out a couple weeks ago kind of just looking for something to do and I was like we'll jump into Tim Hortons first. We had some food shopping to do uh ended up getting him his first baby chino um and they they sold an omelette was a double omelet and a and a plain bagel and some cheese on the side that you could sort of dip into and we'd we just jumped into that so there are things out there that you can get and and be of the moment and still be in control. So nice bit of um protein and fat still coming obviously from from the omelet. Bagel as we mentioned you know I think it was offer I can't remember if we talked about during the podcast but you know bagel's fantastic food we split that and um we got a hash brown as well I gave him a little bit of the hash brown and he really liked it he really liked it and I was like yeah you're not getting any more of that so you know these are the things that you can you can manipulate for for your own and we enjoyed it so much we went back uh last week as well so he was um enjoying his baby chino on that but like you say you know it's it's about getting out there and and you can make those choices and see where it is that that that you want to take it without you know I could have ordered the full English on a roll basically and I was like no it's alright I'll just even though myself I'm back in improvement phase it's like well just a 500 calories or whatever minus obviously what what Ruriet from the from the plate.

SPEAKER_00 58:17

Well there you go you could have just gone there I'm bulking it doesn't matter now I'm just gonna roll the full English fuck it.

SPEAKER_01 58:25

You could have easily done that could have easily done that but it would have set you back and you know you you might have made that mistake maybe 10 years ago I mean yeah I I definitely did that I remember one of the refeeds I got from from Jordan one time um yeah and and I I pushed it a little bit to the point that yeah I looked like eight months pregnant and I needed buscatan and I was in tremendous amounts of pain. So it's again it's something really worth you know mentioning whether you're transitioning out of the cut you know you think that you're gonna get I'm gonna eat all this food and I'm gonna really slam it. What you tend to end up finding is your eyes aren't as big um as your belly thinks that that you are um and you'll really struggle to try and put that away so it's really important you know just to anchor and have that structure. You know one of the things we want when when we're in our Balkan phase as as we've said right from the off here is to improve your physique. It's not just about getting body weight up one of the the points that Francis made in the middle of the podcast 200 pounds might look tidy on you depending on how much it is that you've pushed up and just using the 200 pounds as an example it could be 175. You might look tidy at 175.

SPEAKER_00 59:40

Let's keep going a a productive gaining phase needs that let's see what happens but again if you're giving your body what it needs you're controlling and and just steadily coming up you know the best bulks are probably the ones that are the least dramatic we mentioned again structure staying in um the same patterns getting up at the same time eating the same meals you know that structure is going to see you and actually get you more food net than it would having it all here and then again another mistake that we see Francis I need to cut again because you've gone too much and when you're doing too much you aren't getting more tissue by doing that you're just getting more body weight on which then means you need to do the cut to get you back into the bulk and then you're in this yo-yo and then another one would be not comparing yourself to others on social media seeing how how how much food he's eating how he looks at a certain body weight because his gain phase and his genetics and his digestion is different than yours. You see all these calorie eating challenges of I'm bulking on five six thousand calories you're not them if you do that things like that it's it's that sort of shit that's going to make you look like the Michelin man within three months you don't want that. Again you've got to what we said at the start of the podcast you've got to eat to your needs eat to your digestion what you need to put you in that surplus where you're at in your at your stage of your lifting journey again we've we've said before don't compare your sort of year one to somebody else's year 15 again because you mentioned before the more muscle tissue you have you're gonna be able to eat more food yes that's why as when I'm giving my example that I was I was building on 4,000 calories that's with 15 years 16 years training experience I've got to that point you likely listen to this you're probably not going to be at uh need that amount of calories so don't look at that and go Francis said 4000 calories I need 4000 calories you're likely not going to need that and again comparing to on social media so you have to find your your boundaries and your guardrails to get you for the amount of food and calories you need for your rate of gain and stick to it don't get distracted by uh social media and some some some somebody else's process I've got a good bee strap line just as we we bring episode is it 13? Is it is it 13 episode 12 episode so anybody can gain weight but building quality tissue staying healthy and structurally balanced is the skill here and that's something that you really want to unlock the more successful improvement phases bulking phases whatever you want to call them the more success you can have in

Summary and Final Tips for Successful Building Phases

SPEAKER_00 1:02:30

that is the more success when you're gonna pivot into the cut and just more success in general absolutely mate again the fitter that you can stay as well you made a great point before the fitter that you stay the better your your improvement season will go because you're not going to be blowing out your ass on sets you're gonna digest your food a lot better you're just gonna stay at a better better composition so yeah all these does these small little details and just again needing your process there's no point blowing when you've rolled out of bed in the morning and trying to put your socks on that's yeah that's that that that that's when you know I've I've had it in the past I remember like trying to walk up flights of stairs I've been close to 120 you know at some point maybe we're talking the powerlifting days and it was a struggle to walk up some of the stairs and it's like you know I was struggling to do like I I always know I used to know myself when I couldn't do 10 bodyweight pull-ups when I was blowing and struggling to do 10 pull-ups I was that heavy I was like nah some something needs to give there so I think we all have our own little sort of uh metrics for when we've we we've pushed it too far. Absolutely you know and I I've been in that spot as well especially early kind of pushups and I went as heavy as 240 um I'm 5'11 give or take so you really feel that I was walking up a hill once and I was like oh this feels different because obviously for me you know I've I've been so light at one point I was 143 pounds and and running about you know the football field or whatever and you really feel the difference at that point the more you do it you know the more refined that you get and as we've said tonight we're trying to help people move away from past mistakes the the industry's moved on and stuff like that we've learned as we say the whole point of us doing the podcast is to get better to become better coaches to become you know better at speaking about you know things that we've experienced and and just been another great episode mate to be honest I'd just like to finish off on the point mate I think for me when it comes to these improvement phases this is where I really think the benefits of a good coach it shines through I think diet phases the people find them easier that's not not that you don't have a benefit of with a coaching a diet of course you do I find the building phases because they are longer they require you know keeping your head in the game blinkers on for a longer time frame and having that support network of checking in with someone week to week who understands you and your process it helps keep people on the line a lot more than a diet phase and that that's just something I think it's important to get across as well and I'd like to say if you've worked with a coach and you've you've gone through a diaphase with them stick with them through the building phase as well you'll only be rewarded don't work with a coach on a dire phase and think the work's done and then you get one month into the building phase and right see you later mate that this it's all easy now I'll take the reins from here if you if you trust your coach and you go through the whole process you will be rewarded down the line so I I just I I wanted to touch on that I think there's been more field improvement phases than there have been cuts out there because for everything that we've we've said tonight you know that delayed gratification you you don't see things happening on that week to week but that's again because you need to switch up and look at different prof performance metrics or you need to look at the performance metrics rather than you know the aesthetics you know the aesthetics and the cut as we know we we spoke about you know you see it daily or whatever but that long haul and and having somebody there that's in your ear and helping you and helping you map that out you know a second to none and having been coached through it I can say you know it's absolutely it's fantastic and you know that one of the things for me I would just say having had a coach for for nearly seven years you pretty much know that you're guaranteed success at the end of it as long as obviously you're you're pulling your weight and part of the pun.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:40

You've always got to get a terrible pun in and but as long as you're pulling your weight and you're doing what you need to do having that accountability and and having that support as well at a point where you know for whatever reason something might happen you know you're struggling a little bit or whatever having that um on tap where you can just drop a message and you know you're gonna get good feedback or you're gonna get a good tip because again you're talking then to people that have been around the houses not just once or twice not just 20 year olds you know you you need to be 24-7 on the grind you're getting real life advice from people that need to pivot from people that understand responsibilities and and different levels of people's experiences as well yeah nails at me absolutely invaluable I think when you're when you when you have someone in your corner like that who's just uh being through it all walk the walk talk the talk got a t-shirt for it everything so if anybody is interested in coaching obviously message yourself at Benjamin Years on X I'm at coach FHM but yeah another great episode everybody and uh again we uh we thank everybody for the support it's been great we're coming off to close to 1300 downloads now in total plus our YouTube and again we're gonna keep it going so we uh we appreciate the support everybody yeah it's going great and a lot of people sending us messages um complicated I can't even speak now giving us really nice feedback basically um complimenting us is what I was trying to say um and it's really appreciated you know getting those messages it just drives Francis and I who we already look forward we talk during the week can't wait for Monday mate can't wait to catch up we love doing them and you know just to say thanks for the continued support really and we're gonna keep them coming aren't we so no stopping us no slow ones on gas pedals on just left my prep next Monday speak to you in the next one if you want to thank you everyone chat soon cheers Francis