The Uneducated PT Podcast - Ep. 149 Why You're Not Making Progress In The Gym

Episode Date: April 15, 2026

In this episode, Karl Ger and Rob dive into some of the most common (and frustrating) questions people have around training, fat loss, and making real progress. They unpack why so many people feel like they’re putting in the work but not seeing results — and what’s actually going wrong beneath the surface. From understanding progressive overload to the difference between training with intention vs just getting a sweat, this conversation breaks down what truly drives progress in the gym. They also tackle a big practical question: how many days a week do you actually need to train? Whether you’re trying to balance a busy life or wondering if you’re doing enough, Karl and Rob explain the concept of the “minimum effective dose” and why consistency always beats doing more. Finally, they get into one of the most relatable topics — can you still lose fat and have a social life? From alcohol and calories to weekends derailing progress, they share honest, real-world advice on how to enjoy yourself without undoing your results. This episode is all about cutting through the noise and helping you train smarter, not just harder.

Jer, Rob is now working in a gym. I know, it's fantastic, isn't it? I haven't actually started yet. They've offered me it. I need to go and chat to the lady and she need... But basically, I'm just going to be covering a weekend a month. Okay, so what are you covering? Are you covering classes?

Are you covering one-to-one sessions? Are you covering the, like, desk? Are you doing admin? What are you doing? All of the above minus the admin. So basically, it's a weekend, the weekend sessions. and they start, I think it's like seven till one so I'll be on shift the whole thing

I'll take the couple of classes that are in the morning What kind of classes are they? They varies The Saturday morning one's kind of like A bit of a challenging one I guess Like where it's cardio and group fitness and stuff The Sunday one's a bit more strength There's a few, there's a couple of classes each day

And then There's a bit of hit What are the type of clients? members like are they general public are they you know um what are they so it's a rugby it's a local rugby club gem um it's generally people from the local area or um kids or adults from the rugby club or people from five miles away that come over because they know they like the coaches and stuff um but they also do there's a thing called sasp which is somerset activity and sport partnership, I think, where they get young kids that aren't in school law that struggle with

activity in general and they try and get them in. They have young mums groups and stuff as well, which is quite good. Young mums, you love that? Oh, I need. I regretted saying as soon as it came out my mouth. Here's a question for you. So we're obviously going to do a podcast all on training because we never got through all our questions the other week. And then obviously we had Joshua as our guest what's your opinion on classes

versus following your own structured program in the gym? I don't think they should be a versus. Very good. Well that's that fucking conversation doing it,

isn't it? Where do you think that classes benefit an individual versus a specific program, Chair? I support from other people because

like you can be as supportive as you want as a coach but you know yourself carl in big groups that like I find some people get a little bit more from the person suffering beside them than the fucker who's just pointing at them telling them to do more yeah

yeah there's no better than it's the same when you're training in a team environment you push yourself harder than if you were to train by yourself on the pitch yeah because like you can you also I think you can encourage people as coach so much and having someone else there you can literally see someone buckled beside you and that's that's the person you'll rally behind as well yeah but there's also then right you can

have the flip side of things right where because obviously you see it a lot where like especially when I worked in my first job in a gym and you'd have people come in and they would do the classes and you might have a couple of L ones there and um they get so used to doing the classes and they never really progress after a certain point because I don't know there's only so much like it's like they they always go for the same weights and you know they're always uh you know when you're doing like a one-to-one session with someone and you can really kind of expose where they're weak positions are or you can you know you can really look at them at the end of a set of like 10 reps versus you know everyone's doing 90 seconds of this and you can really tell if you know

they're pushing themselves close to failure or not, where it can sometimes be a little bit harder in a class. It depends on the type of class, obviously, because you can have a class full of absolute lunatics. You are all just like going home. And the type of person as well, because like I find with, even though like a lot of,

I find a lot of my clients are more casual. They're here, Joe, just to get stronger, get a bit fitter. It's not the whole, I want to be a fucking athlete. You know, they don't have that. but they'll throw each under under the bus as well in the middle of a class.

They'll be like, you can do more weight. You know, I was like, that was too fucking easy for you. And it's, I enjoy that. But I find then they're slowly moving towards the other side. So I think you're saying, what do you mean the other size? Driving themselves on as well. Because like when you try to watch, when you try to watch anywhere over like a group of, John, 6, 8, 10 plus, it does get that little bit harder to mind.

monitor each rep of everything that someone does. So it's harder to gauge if they're like, oh, I'm just pretending to struggle here a little bit. You like, you have to say reading facial expressions and everything like that. Yeah, exactly. And that's what I mean. When I'm doing like a one-to-one session with someone, I can tell, like I can be so like, concentrated on that one person that we know that they're going to get close to, you know, three reps close to failure or whatever it is.

But when you're in a class, even if it's six, eight, 10, 12, you know, you're turning your back to one person. that person's finished at their set and like you know you don't really know if they're really like and i know you're not you don't need to push yourself balls to the walls every single session anyway otherwise like you're not going to have the motivation to go because you're going to be pulling yourself to the gym but um you also want to be able to have a little bit of you know trying an experience and figure out where your actual potential or your capabilities are in that set or that exercise yeah well i think it i think everyone it depends where you are on your journey doing it.

That like you'll get to that point. I know. You hate saying that, don't you? I felt sick. I felt sick saying it's such a, it's such a coach personal trial or word. That's an awful word.

You say so much and then you're sick of it. Yeah. I look back at like when we were, when we were training together in, in Bali, like there was different parts of every workout where someone was egging someone on

more for something. Yeah, well that's where I think that's where I think having training experience and then go back to classes is really helpful. I think that's great. You probably notice it a good bit

with some of your clients that have come back now to some of the group sessions. They're almost the ones that like could help coach someone else. 100%. Through an exercise. And like I had that with a lot of clients

who've gone online now or who've gone on their own and like I would have been able to walk away from someone else knowing that they could help them with an RDL or be like I think we can do a bit more than that. Yeah, yeah 100%. It's really helpful. Especially when you have someone, let's say you've trained for ages

you've done like one to one PT with them and then you throw them in a class environment and you know that like they're going to know all the techniques and they're going to be able to kind of help someone else as well and it's just especially if it's a busy class just to be able to have that little bit of extra support is really important. What about you, Rob? What's your opinion on classes versus doing your own thing?

So when I said at the start, there shouldn't be a versus. It's mainly because, I mean, I think everyone should do a combination, if they can, if they have the time to, because there's so many benefits of both. Like, I started off training at uni but didn't stick to it because it was just going in every now and then doing a bit of a session, not really knowing where I was going, not really having any accountability going home,

maybe being injured because I hadn't been directed. I didn't get any PT or anything. Just went in and did my own thing. Then I started when I came down to Cornwall, or went down to Cornwall, I started training at a gym just for a bit of community, went to their classes to start off with. Joined in, got competitive,

met people that didn't really know much good technique. Luckily, that gym was actually quite good. the coaches were really like on it when they actually kept an eye on your technique and stuff so I learned a lot from them but then I was just mainly doing hit classes and things like that and maybe overdoing the gym and needed a bit of time to myself so then went and trained by myself for a bit focus on that a lot and then missed the community aspect but now I'm kind of doing a little bit of both where it's I'll do classes every now and then get a bit of a social buzz um So this is for me personally, but for people training in general, I think it's a combination of what you guys have just said. Like classes, it's hard to keep an eye on everyone's technique, but it gives them the social side and gives them a bit of egging on. Whereas when you're one-to-one, you can focus more on technique.

And then in the next class, they've got a bit more of an idea of what they can do technique-wise. When do you think it's the right decision for someone to go from, right, I've been doing this on my own for a while. I'm going to go do a class. Or when's it right for them to be like, right, I've done a couple of classes. And now I need to focus on a specific program.

When you have to focus on a specific program. Yeah. If you have weaknesses in areas that you have to do more work on, like you have to focus on more squats or heavier glute training or even if it's sprint work or anything like that. you can't just go to a random class and expect a tailored program for you. It's all,

it would be, you'd start to look at classes then as like your accessory to your program. Yeah. You might do three heavy days a week and then your fun session because you need that extra little bit of activity. That's your class where you just show up,

get told to do something that you can fuck around and have a bit of fun with. Yeah. Here's how I'm seeing it in my brain. Okay. So you start off, um, not knowing what you're,

doing and you have no training experience and you start in a class and you're now focusing on health seeking behaviors, you're training, you're feeling good, you're moving your body, you're introducing yourself to weight even if they're like small kettlebells and dumbbells or whatever it is. And then you get to a certain point where you've, you've obviously mastered that ability to be consistently training every week. And then you go into like a specific training program where you're, you know, more technical in regards to doing the same exercises week in, week out. You're logging in your lifts. You're focusing on progressive overload.

You're building loads of strength and muscle. You're getting loads of training experience. But then you've been training for so long by yourself that you're starting to get bored. And you need like that community aspect and actually enjoying your training a little bit more and having a little bit more atmosphere. So now you're going back into a class. but you know your ability to lift heavy weights so you can have that kind of class environment

around other people while also having great technique and actually pushing your sets close to failure. Yeah. That's a pretty good route to go, isn't it? Yeah, like I think I'm at a period now where I need to train with people. Yeah.

Because I think that one gym we went to just after Rob left. Remember the kind of the bro bodybuilding kind of gym. Yeah. I realized being inside and I was like, I fucking hate this now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was like, yeah, it was terrible. And like, I have a couple of different people that I'll train with. They'll come into the gym here.

And I love those sessions. Yeah. Because you might be doing a little bit of coaching as well with them and helping like, someone doing their technique. But like, you also have that person beside you, egging you on in your lift. Yeah. Whereas the walls can close in in you when you've been on your own for too long,

especially like I'm in my own gym. You know, I do enjoy going to public gyms now and training around. Like I hate training where I work. Oh, I hate it. I love going to. That's why I love popping into block when I'm up, when I'm up around Bray. Or I've gone up to Galway and stuff for doing different gym sessions.

I think I'm going to start bringing it in now, like, at least once a month where I'm just going to go off on a Friday. and a Friday evening find a gym somewhere in some other city and go get like lunch and stuff afterwards because as much as I love my gym

it's you that community thing is missing when I'm on my own obviously yeah you gotta make the gym you gotta make it

like that you're actually excited to go to the gym like I remember when I had because I there's two sides to this kind right because there's

all right if you're allowed to say a busy person with a hectic schedule, you need to make your as less friction as possible for you to actually get to the gym. So convenience is going to be really important, right? So the closer the gym is to you or like on route in your schedule, maybe like you leave the office and like the gym is right beside you. Like that's, that's great. So like convenience is really important. But also you have the other side of it where like I remember during COVID, I made a home gym in the place that

I was renting at the time. And I'd say in two years I used it five, five. times max hate a train at home because i associated home with a place where i would work or where i would relax so i loved kind of going somewhere out of the way to a gym to train where like i felt like all right now i'm actually in a gym environment and i'm like i can i can go here and enjoy my training and and not think about other aspects of life yeah like again if i go to a public gym now it's it's like a kid in a playgrounds. Like you have all the different machines. I could end up being in there for two hours. You're absolutely crippled by the end of it. But there is that extra level of excitement to train. It's easy for me here. But my office is there. I live over there. The gym is right behind me here.

And as easy as it is, as you said, with your home gym, that it's right there on my doorstep. Yeah. I know every dot on the wall inside in that place. There's times where like, especially when you're doing a huge amount of face-to-face clients, like you're in there for, you're in there for a minimum sometimes of eight hours a day anyway. So the last thing you want to do after doing eight hours is being there for another hour plus. Yeah. Add it on to the day. You want to just get out of it.

Well, let's talk about, let's talk less about our own training and then let's talk about a little bit, about for the people listening. So I wanted to start this with basically like the big arching question of why am I not seeing progress in the gym? And I suppose there's loads of different angles we can take on this and obviously it's context dependent for the person. So we'll just give kind of broad suggestions as to why people aren't making progress in the gym. So one thing you can think about is obviously like are you training with intensity? Another thing would be like are you, you know, just focusing on sweating versus actually like a train in the muscle group and using progressive overload. Another thing would be maybe like exercise selection or maybe, you know, outside of the gym, recovery and sleep, all that stuff. So in your own opinion and maybe kind of give some examples of like why or what you see in people who aren't making progress in the gym and are scratching their heads,

whether why is this not working or you know why hasn't my body changed the way I wanted to before we go into specifics with that um the first thing that pop into my head was sometimes we're just looking too close so you're not seeing the progress it's happening but you're not seeing it because you're expecting something specific and you're not keeping your eyes open to everything that's happening um in that regard right so let's say that's kind of so you're not seeing progress um maybe because you're looking too closely at it so if you took a broader step out you would see that you're making progress how can someone um create clarity in their mind that they're actually seeing progress like what are some things that they should be looking out

for i i i've so i've sometimes with clients got them to do their the first ever session they ever did that i've recorded and just to just so they can clearly see how far they've come along. Like I found, I think I did a session with someone before and they were done in 25 minutes. And I was like, that's it now. I was like, you've obviously made no progress. What took you an hour before and was difficult is now easy and taking you 25 minutes. So you have another 35 minutes in the tank.

What if this is someone who doesn't have a coach to just kind of go into the gym and doing their own thing? What if they're doing, what if they're doing the same? workout every every day. Well, doing the same workout every day is the issue there. You need to switch it up. You need to hit different muscle groups, do something different. Stick to something for a couple of weeks, move on to something else for another four to six weeks, if not eight weeks.

Would that not feel a little bit like program hopping then? Not program hopping when you stick to something for eight weeks. So the question then becomes if this person is saying that, oh, I don't, why am I not seeing progress in the gym? And then Rob says that you, well, you need to take a broader, broader look at what you're doing. So, and I know what you, you were correcting what you're saying is like, all right, I'm doing a training, a training session that I did months ago. I've did it now and it feels really easy. Well, that would suggest then that you obviously tracked that first training session and to where you are now to be able to look back on that.

So do you think one of the things that, if you're, if you feel like you're not seeing progress, maybe you're not measuring what progress is. Yeah, maybe you're not tracking different things. Like if you don't, how can you tell you've progressed or made no progress if you have no data to look at as simple as a notebook and writing down the numbers you hit? Whether it's all three sets of 10 and certain, certain weight, you have to write it down. Yeah. I've got, I don't know how many photos of the whiteboard I have.

inside there are different clients workouts I have thousands of them like and it's the only way to monitor how they're progressing otherwise I'd be guessing I think I think also even if it's not written down because that then leads I'm not saying there's any issue with what you've said but if you just focus on the numbers that are down that's when you kind of go start going back to what does my weight say this like just looking for the numbers rather than the quality of life if you speak to people around you maybe and go, like, just talk about your fitness and that. And they might go, I have noticed you walk up the stairs without getting out of breath quite so much, or you're able to walk around the block a bit easier, or carrying shopping isn't as difficult. Like, focusing on how

that training is actually impacting your life as well as how it's impacting what you're doing in the gym. I think that gives a bit of a broader. It's got to do, it's got to do both. Yeah. I got a message from a client that said they started rock climbing, I don't know, maybe six, seven months back, when they had started here. And they find rock climbing so much easier now. And I was like, while I'll always say is that is the point. You know, like it's a little bit different when you're looking at the numbers. If you're training for something specific, like a race, a competition or something of that, you probably need to look at the numbers a little bit more than carrying the shopping. But for Gen Pop training, how you're getting it.

around the place, you know, the fact that you can walk further and not be out of breath, the fact that you feel, just feel better. Like, there are all the other things. I think a client is talking about. That's exactly what I was touching on in terms of Rob's point of having a broader perspective of progress. Because when someone says, why am I not seeing progress in the gym? What they're really probably saying is, why do I look the same?

Why do I not look leaner or more toned or why haven't I lost weight? And I think both of you have alluded to that is like, okay, well, you probably are making progress. You're just too narrow in regards to what you deem progress. And progress might look like, oh my God, look, my squat has gone from, you know, a 5KG dumbbell to now I'm doing 30KG on the barbell. Or, you know, I before I used to get out of breath climbing the stairs and now I'm leaping up the stairs and not really thinking about it. or I'm able to, you know, chase my kids around the garden without getting out of breath, or I'm able to climb a mountain that I wasn't able to climb before. And that's like quality of life plus, like, quantitative measurement of progress and strength.

Yeah, agreed. Yeah. I think also with the physical aspect, like, yeah, completely agree with everything you've said there. That's kind of what I was losing to. In terms of the physical aspect, you can do that as well, though, can't you? Like, you might be looking at your stomach and just thinking it's not going. You're looking at, it's like painting a picture. You might keep going with it and you just think it looks crap

because you're constantly staring at this. Like you were saying, Joe, with the walls, like you know every spot on the wall. If that spot stays there, you don't feel like you've made progress. But actually, the rest of the gym has developed around that spot and you're just not paying attention to the good stuff that has happened. If that makes any sense. Sorry, go ahead, Joe.

No, I was disagreeing with him. another another thing that I wanted to another angle to why I'm not seeing progress in the gym which probably this probably alludes back to very the very beginning of training when we were talking about when to go into classes when to focus on a specific program so why do my workouts feel hard but my my body looks the same that was a question that someone had and I presume why do my workouts feel hard versus but my body looks the same. I suppose you could take that angle in regards to a lot of people when they start training, they confuse training, making training really difficult to making training really productive.

And I suppose you can look at that in regards to like, I'm just going to go into the gym and I'm just going to do a lot of things that make me sweat and, you know, make my muscles burn. And if I'm leaving the gym exhausted, that's a productive workout versus following maybe a structured plan where, you know, I have these couple of exercises and I'm repeating them. But I'm also tracking data so that my lifts are actually going up. And I might not feel sore all the time. I might not feel exhausted all the time leaving the gym. But I'm seeing progress.

And now I'm starting to take shape because I emphasized a track. training program and being specific with the basics and focus on on progressive overload. When you do that, it allows you to take that step back from aesthetic. And then after the eight week program, you look back. I'm not sure where I stand with progress pictures myself personally. But if you take them at the beginning and the end, but you just focus on the numbers of your training in between. And then you look, where did I start?

Where am I now? A lot of the time, if you've been good with your program, and probably like eating all right as well you will see that physical progress and I think that's what a lot of people confuse gym progress with as well as literally how much body fat you have on you rather than I think the biggest mistake that kind of

or one of the biggest mistakes people make in regards to when they're looking to change their physique and they're coming in completely new to the gym is the difference between exercise and training, right? And training is like, there's intent to my training. I'm picking these couple of exercises and I'm getting better at them every week. So there's structure, there's progression, and it's consistent versus exercises. I'm just going to go in and I'm just going to jump on the spin bike and go as hard as I can and then I'm going to jump on, do this exercise

and do this exercise. And, you know, it's quite random, isn't it? I think it comes from the whole no pain, no gain kind of mentality. If you're not dripping in sweat or I haven't done 20 exercises in a session, I'm not working hard enough. You can hop up and down for an hour and it's going to be shit and you're going to be sweaty. It doesn't mean it's going to help you do anything.

It might help you, John, a bit feckin' stability in your ankles. That's about it. But it's not going to do much for you. So you can do three exercises heavy inside in a gym with huge intensity and it'll get your results. you can go off and do 15 exercises and you mightn't get anything out of it.

It is having a structured program and like I also then it's the it's a time it's an expectation thing as well like how long have you been doing this for versus how long you haven't been doing it for? It's it's why eight to 12 weeks shreds sell online because everyone thinks it'll all be good after eight to 12 weeks.

it might take you eight to 12 weeks to get used to doing something might take you a couple of years to get to a certain point and once you get to that certain point you also have to stay there yeah I like the thing about the

I know like eight week and six week and 12 week shreds and marketing like that I know it gets a lot of bad press from personal trainers but at least there's a structure to it oh yeah so if you're going in just doing your own thing

willy nilly and you're just going in and just absolutely putting your body through torture thinking that because you've sweated a lot and because your muscles really burnt and because you feel really sore the next day it was a productive workout. Like that's

you know you're just going to burn out after two weeks and then you're going to give up your notions of going to the gym in shape. Those eight to 12 weeks shred things they have a place for certain people and I think it's the fact that it's just called a shred is probably the issue there

like having that eight to 12 weeks of utter intensity has its place. It doesn't mean you'll be able to do it long term. And I think that's where like people who are new into the gym or new and trend, that's where they fall down as they think like, right, I'll do this for eight to 12 weeks. It'll get me so far and hopefully I'll be able to keep doing it. And you can't.

You know this yourself. It's the reason why you have like an intense six week program. You'll do it for six weeks. Your body won't do more than six weeks. Jesus. Another angle that I wanted to look at is, all right, so why am I not seeing progress in the gym? I suppose you can look at it from three different perspectives. Is it, am I under training, am I over training, or am I just inconsistent?

And I suppose that's a conversation you have to have with someone when they ask you that question as well. is like, you know, I know you can go to the gym once a week and, you know, someone might be able to make progress if, you know, everything they're doing outside of the gym is on point and dependent on their starting point. But, you know, it might be, and in regards to under-training, it might not just be the frequency that they're going to the gym, but it also might be the intensity when they're in the gym. so they're just not pushing themselves hard enough. Like they're going in and they're doing their three sets of 12 and looking at their phone and they're ready to go again in 20 seconds, 30 seconds, because they haven't pushed their sets hard enough. So like that's the under-training aspect of it.

The overtraining aspect of it is, you know, they're doing their exercise selection is they're doing 15 exercises for one muscle group in one session and then going home and, you know, under-eating and, you know, their sleep is shit and they're not recovering from them sessions. And then the inconsistency is like, yeah, I was in the gym five times last week and once this week. So there's all these other different components that you'd have to, I suppose, look at to say, all right, you know, these could be the reasons that you're not seeing the progress that you want to see.

What do you think? With that five and one thing, I feel like with my training, just to make it about me, I'm that person I will go five times one week I'll go once the next week I'll do maybe overdo it a week after

and then I'll do a couple the next for me right now because I don't really have a goal with my training I'm happy with that because it keeps me just consistent I'm not judging

the fact that I'm not doing much training this week because I maybe I'll feel it and then I'll go for a walk or something I'll keep back to yeah but you're inconsistent with the

with the frequency of your sessions, but you're consistently training every week. That's the difference. Yeah, but even if I miss a session the week after, like, I look at the consistency for mine personally at the minute as I'm still going to the gym in my life. I haven't, like, cut it out because of that. Yeah.

But you're not saying, you're not saying to yourself, you're not saying to yourself, oh, I'm gone to the gym, but I'm not seeing progress. No, exactly. So I'm not actually, I'm not looking for a particular, outcome from my training at the moment. It's just general fitness. I suppose the outcome you're looking for is that you feel better when you go to the gym.

Exactly. Yeah. But if I start then judging myself for inconsistency, I'll probably start looking at the negatives, whereas I'm in a fortunate position with that. But would you say, right, let's say someone who is in seeing the progress that they want in the gym and, all right, if we look at it, Dave, they're in the gym five times. times one week, then they didn't show up for a month, and then they were in, you know, two weeks in a row, and then, you know, they went missing again.

Like, realistically, you have to have this honest conversation with yourself and saying, well, you are inconsistent with you're training. No, that's, it's, that's the word you said there. It's honestly, like, Robb's talk about his trend. He knows if he's not going to the structured level he's done before, he's probably not going to reach the results he wants, but he's also not beating himself up for it. Yeah. like you have to you have to be honest

my training right now is dog shit outside of running which is sad I'm fucking hate but like it's it's it's but I'm not going to sit at home and be like oh well it's shit I feel like this I'm not doing it here's a question for you Jaredan

you can use this in the aspect of running or training as well so just for the people who are listening and I think you're always going to have that conversation it's the people who are overtraining and think that they're not doing enough and the people who are under-trained

and think that they are doing enough and that's the kind of the conversation that you have to try to tell the line way. If somebody is overtrained and how are they going to know that they're overtraining? Well, you'll stall making progress as well as a big one. Everything will feel, like depending on what you're doing, whether it's, I don't know, running or...

Let's use the gym example. Yes, okay. You won't make progress in the gym. Everything will continue to feel heavy. and things that we're feeling lighter will start to feel heavy than as well. You'll have no recovery. You'll always be tired inside there.

Your light lifts will start to feel heavy and you won't have increased any level of intensity or weight in a certain amount of weeks. Yeah, I agree. You'll stall with your progress. You actually won't have them. You'll be asking yourself, why do I not have the motivation to go to the gym?

It's because you're sore all the time. You'll feel fatigued, the likelihood of you getting injured, starts to increase. So what are some solutions do you think for someone who is overtraining? You have to sit down and look at the track, like just literally write down if you haven't wrote it down already, what you're doing. Like if you're doing five days a week, bring it down to three.

If you're doing a certain amount, let's say you're doing eight exercises every day you go to the gym, bring it down to six. You know, you just have to literally just cut back. It sounds simple. when you look at it is you just start reducing you know if you're like i had a client yesterday say to me he's tired and he's not really feeling the gym and he's laid out his week now he's he's got soccer twice a week he's got a football game he wanted to get the gym in three times just do the gym twice or even do the other like matches because it's a huge amount of cardio

he has to do and do maybe one and a half sessions on the thursday when you've had a bit more go heavy on the Thursday and he knows he has a few days off after that anyway. There's a great, someone said a great line to me before I was a coach and he was like, there's no such thing as over-trained and there's just under-fueling. And I think that's right as well because you can have people who will train five days a week. You'll have people who will train seven days a week, but they have build up enough train and volume to be able to handle that. But then they also eat enough calories, eat enough protein and their sleep is on point.

like at least train every single day, but they also go for a nap every single day. They're also really well fed in terms of their nutrition. So I think if you do feel like you're sore all the time and you feel like your body feels heavy and you feel you're just, you're not, your performance is dipping in the gym.

One thing that I would definitely look at is, okay, well, for the amount, I'm, for the amount that I'm training at the moment, because if someone's over training, and they're probably,

realistically, they're probably training every day. because that's a mistake that people make anyway but are you consuming enough calories to sustain that train? Are you waking up the next morning and you know, your body's well rested? I think all them things need to be taken

into consideration as well. If you want to train like an athlete you have to act like an athlete. Like you said, they eat well. Most of their meals are structured. They take naps during the day. They get a full night's sleep. They also look at their recovery,

whether it's no massage therapy sonnas ice bats all that stuff they're getting like stretching their mobility work all of that all of that stuff yeah trying to reduce their stress in life like you could be have a absolutely hectic job where cortisol levels are through the roof you're stressed you have you know at deadlines to hear and you know you have your average athlete who's going home to have a nap and watch tell you or play play PlayStation before they do their next trace before they go to bed like yeah before they do their next uh training session so like yeah i think over training and it's yeah it's to do with obviously maybe the amount of volume you're doing in the gym the amount of exercises you're doing the amount of time you're spending there the amount of frequency how many days you're going there but also then if you're taking the consideration that and okay

you've decided because you want to lose weight now you're also eating barely any calories you're under-fueling, you know, your sleep is shit, your work life is stressful, your family life is stressful, well, like, that's all going to create a combination of you, you know,

getting injured or your performance dipping in the gym. Yeah, I think what you just mentioned there in terms of how work and how family life is feeling, that's also a good indicator of whether you're over-training or not, or under-fueling for sure. Like, if you're in, if you're normally,

before you started training, if you were relatively pleasant to people and then your mood started switching quite a lot when you started training you're overdoing something and underdoing something else. That's why I'm just a bastard to people. It's because I'm overtraining. So you're such a dick-ed.

Look at him wearing his fucking half marathon. I'm glad you came to that conclusion yourself without me having to say. You know, that's what I'm going to say now to all my failed situationships is I'm sorry I'm such a cunt I'm just over-training. I'm an athlete. This is why I'm a dick-ed. This is what an athlete looks like.

okay what else did I want to touch on in terms of why I'm not seeing progress in the gym you don't go okay let's let's talk about minimum minimum effect of dose

so how many days a week do you need to train do you think depends what you're training for like if if you're if you're Gen Pop I would say a max of

depending on how you're training like three heavy gym sessions if you're doing classes you could up it maybe four but then it depends are you doing cardio outside of those sessions or classes are you active

on in the hours outside of that hour because like you tend to find a lot of times people say they go to the gym four or five days a week for an hour they're not seeing any progress they go from like an office job

to sitting down inside in the gym not doing too much movement so like I think it varies from person to person depends on your lifestyle outside of designated exercise I think it depends on how much of a gap

between sessions is likely to lead you to not go back again like if one day off you're then like oh I need to go back the day after because now I'm like if you took that second day off and you go oh can't be bothered anymore

you probably need to go every other day. That's such a good point, right? Because research suggests that if we're just using like a gen pop client or, you know, an older adult, that you could resistance train once a week, a full body session to be able to maintain muscle mass. So like the minimum effect of those for maintaining muscle mass would be maybe one session a week. But realistically, who does one session a week and can say consistent with that? Like I found that, you know, if I'm going to be consistent with the gym going,

maybe two or three times a week so I stay in a routine with it is a lot easier than going once a week. Yeah. Does that make sense? Three I've always found is the sweet number. Yeah. I think, I don't know why I just thought of this in terms of like a metaphor in my head.

I used to, when I was teaching, I used to shave my beard right at the start of the week. Yeah. And I couldn't be bothered to do it the rest of the week and it would just grow back. Like, I felt tidy at the start of the week and then I let it go. Even though I'm the same person,

I've probably progressed in loads of, of different ways. Physically, I see myself as like this scruffy person now, and I'm like, it's too much effort to now get back in to make myself tidy because I always look messy. That's such a good point because I find with people, when they don't go to the gym for a week, the difficulty of them getting in the door to do it again,

they just feel like shit and then they're like, oh, well, I couldn't be bothered now. It's not working versus someone who's regularly going to get them endorphins and they just continue to go. Like once you get into it, it's very easy to. to stay in it, but once you're, once you take a couple of days off, it's very difficult to get back at it. Because you feel good after you've got that pump.

You feel like your muscles are actually working. They've inflamed. They feel strong. By the time you get back to the gym the next week, you feel fluffy and a bit softer and you don't feel as strong. So you're more likely to go, ah, I don't benefit from that. Yeah. I think that's, I think there's a lot to be said for, like, if someone's just starting out

their, um, their training journey, it's like, go in as often as you can. I know people say that I don't train too much and stuff like that, but if you want to make something a habit, doing it frequently is the way to go about it. That doesn't mean you need to go into the gym and go balls to the walls with every session and overtrain and, you know, be dragging yourself to the gym. But if like little and often, there's a lot to be said for that as well. Yeah.

Because if you did one day and then the day after you were like, I've got half an hour ago now. Yeah. You never know later down the week when you have. have the session planned in, that half an hour might then disappear. So making the most of the time while you've got it is probably the best. Yeah, good approach. Yeah, because you're at that start point, you're essentially trying to build a habit.

But I suppose how many days a week should I train is going to be context dependent to, well, how many days free do you have? I mean, if you only have two days a week that you can fit in your training sessions, well, then you're going to have to train two days a week. And yes, you can see progress with them too. sessions. Is it ideal? Probably not. You could probably do three or four and probably get better results, but it's what you can only work with because you have a job and you have kids and these are the only two days that you have time or you have the babysitter. And then it becomes, all right, well,

you're doing two full body sessions on a Tuesday and a Thursday. And then what you do outside of the gym is really going to impact the quality of them sessions. You know, am I getting enough protein? Am I getting the right nutrients? Am I getting my steps in? Am I active outside of the gym? am I sleeping well? Am I reducing my alcohol? Am I, you know, getting, you know, enough vitamins and minerals in my diet? Like all these other things outside of the gym can really impact the progress that you make. So it's not always one or loss by the amount of gym sessions you get in.

But of course, you know, more than one, two is going to be probably better than one and three is probably better than two. Yeah, well, there's always up to a certain point, it's always going to be better. Like, I think a lot of my face-to-face clients are two a week, but then it's the activity levels they have outside. It's what they're monitoring with their food. I have online clients that are three to four a week. You know, it depends on, I find a lot of the online clients tend to go a little bit more. And then a lot of the face-to-face I have, it's the they only want to gym twice a week.

they would prefer to be outside and be active that way. So whether it's hiking or going for walks or going for swims, that's the way they want to be active as well. They don't want to live in a gym. Here's a question for you from Reddit. Do I need to train more to make up for bad habits? My quick answer is no. Yeah. Why?

Because it's not addressing the issue. It's trying to cover it up with something else or cancel out the issue. I think a lot of the ways you make progress with habits, is you accept them and you work on improving those habits. You don't try and replace them with something else. Yeah. I would imagine when they say bad habits, they're probably saying,

oh, I eat chocolate or I eat too much sugar or, oh, I have wine during the week after work. And if your mindset is that, oh, I had a glass of wine or I had three Easter eggs and now I need to go to the gym an extra day to burn that off, well that is not going to first it's an unhealthy relationship but exercise it's an unhealthy relationship with food it's not really a productive way to look at your training and it's just unhelpful in all regards yeah whereas i would i would if i could eat normal chocolate eggs now like

i would maybe have a little bit of a chocolate egg before a gym session and be like i can put this extra effort in because i had that egg not I now need to put more effort in because I ate it, if that makes sense. Yeah, there's a difference between, all right, I'm, this nutrition is going to fuel me versus I need to burn off this food that I had through the punishment of exercise. Yeah, I get to use this rather than I'm trying to get rid of it kind of thing. Is this why you train so hard care left at the session? I, no, I, I train, well, like, at the same time, sometimes I enjoy punishment.

So even if I'm saying like I'm going to punish myself, there's also a degree of I get satisfaction out of this. I feel better for doing it. So it's kind of a it's kind of a complicated relationship. It's a complicated relationship. Yeah, yeah. A little bit like myself, a little bit complicated. Do as I say, not as I do. Yeah.

Like I actually like the thing with me is that like all exercise because I feel better. So therefore it's a healthy relationship with exercise. But therefore I'll also run myself. into the ground because I'm not well in the head. It sounds like there's that as well. That was the argument I had with someone about drinking pints and running

because I think they said you only do it so you can go drinking and I was like, no, I'm doing the exercise so my head feels better. And I'm going for a pint because I quite enjoy having a pint. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not going to go running off fucking a night of a pint.

There's also a point to make on this because I know especially with the kind of relationship with food and body image and exercise side of the internet I think this goes over their head a little bit at times where it's okay to use your suffering and pain and insecurities to get you to do something that is productive and going to benefit you like exercise like realistically the the reason most people get into the gym is because they don't like how they look, they might hate how they look, you know, they might have went through a breakup and they feel lonely or they feel rejected or, you know, they lack self-esteem or they lack self-confidence. And I think you're allowed to use

that fuel to drive you into something productive like training. The only thing is that that has a short lifespan and like eventually there has to be something greater to continue to get you to train. It has to go from like I've I did this because I hated how I look versus now I do this because I like the person who I am when I train. So there's nothing wrong with using kind of insecurities and even self-hatred

to a degree to do something important but you just don't want it to destroy yourself. Long term happiness or enjoyment around training isn't going to come from just hating yourself. Yeah. It's a great, it is a great initiative. Because you are right.

That's why most people start. They want to improve on something, or they got rejected and want to feel better. But it is, it's a, that'll work for a certain period until you're not maybe getting to a goal that you've set because it may not happen.

Well, hopefully it just changes your, oh, hopefully over time, through your actions of doing something positive, even if there was a negative intent towards it, or not intent, but negative reaction to yourself. Like, if you start to feel better and you start to, you know, change how you feel about yourself, then, you know, it's a positive outcome at the end of the day.

Yeah. Like you were saying, Jay, about getting rejected and getting into the gym. Like, if you go into the gym thinking, I'm going to, I've seen people be successful because they've got these muscles, they do this, whatever. If you go in with that, like, a bitter attitude towards the person that rejected you and then start training and then look really good,

you may be at risk of like, if that's the only reason you've gone and that's the only A to B that you've seen, you run the risk of being an asshole to people that you're trying to date and actually doesn't work at all. Whereas if you go in and you train with the knowledge, that you're going to train as like the first domino to get to this end point, but there's multiple dominoes in between that actually get you there. Like training will lead you to feeling better, potentially.

You get stronger, you can then do this. You may get endorphins. You can treat other people better. You can do work better. You've got better self-esteem. You socialize more. All of those things are what work together to then make you a better person to date rather than just, I'm going to go at the gym, get jacked, girls are going to want me.

That makes sense. So being a bit more aware of how you get from A to B rather than just expecting A to B. Yeah, but a lot of it's subconscious, isn't it? It's like you're not, you weren't conscious. You're not aware of your motives to why you're doing the thing of training. Yeah, and sometimes actually being unconscious of it is better. It's actually better because as soon as you start being conscious of it and questioning it, you put energy into analyzing it

and then the energy you've got for doing it is depleted a little bit so sometimes it's just good to just go with it. Be conscious of things. I will I will throw a side note on that that I do understand that

that's self hatred towards yourself to motivate yourself to go to the gym. I know that can obviously go the opposite way as well where it turns into you know body dysmorphia or you know disorder eating eating disorders and then it goes all right i'm i'm

overtraining myself to a point where you know i've lost my fucking period or you know i'm in a you know i have to go to uh hospital now because i've you know put my body through so much stress because i haven't dealt with the emotions in my the height of my eating disorder was that. Yeah. That's where it all came from. And like, it was,

it was after hitting that low point that that's when I went to therapy and stuff, which made going to the gym being about more enjoyment, using my body to do things that it's, well, bad at sometimes, but good at. Like, I'm good at being active,

even if some things are tough, like running or something like, I've played sports my entire life, you know, training and stuff. It's, it's been something I've been doing since, I'm small and it does give my brain peace.

Going in there for nothing but changing how my body look led to a lot of mental and physical health issues. Which can, like people need to be aware. People need to be aware of that. If that is your only motivation to just change how you look, then you do also have to look inside as well because that's something you also need to work on. Yeah. Okay, next question. Can I still lose fat if I drink alcohol or have a social life?

Yes. Yeah. Do I have to become boring to get results? Depending on what level of results you want. Because I think sometimes there's a lot, there is a lot of coaching out there that's like, oh, you can have a great time and, you know, get the results you want. And it's like, you can, but like it all depends on how hard you're training, how controlled your, Monday to Friday is

are you just going out once on a Saturday night or are you going out three nights and eating takeaways during the week? So there's so many factors. And it depends on your start point too are we talking about? And what do you define as fun? What do you define as being boring?

Like if it's black and white it's party and versus not party and which one is boring, which one is fun, which one is good for you your social life? like that's all contextual like going out is great for some people it's actually really bad for others like on a night out drinking and stuff so yeah this is these are the kind of questions that people probably or these are this is the mindset people probably have when they do start the

gym they say things like you know can i still enjoy myself and not real progress and i suppose you're you're having someone come into you with this all or nothing mindset around either health and fitness and you know socializing and um you know fun fields etc etc um and then i suppose it's trying to find where that balance is for people um that okay well if you're someone who's being eating takeways and drinking seven nights a week then you know yeah yeah training and moving and maybe having one or two days where you make a home-cooked meal, probably still kind of make progress.

Yeah, like if you obviously reduce something or like we all have worked with people and like, I have clients to go out every weekend but like it's the choices they make afterwards. You know, the next day, are they back in the gym on Monday? Or is that weekend that you've gone off the rails having a knock on effect

that you don't go training Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday the following week you've changed what you're eating to a couple of extra takeaways during the week and you've changed your routine completely. If you can keep a routine and

eat normally and have a night out then there's no ficking problem with us. I think if you if you're drinking all the time to have fun actually training, starting to socialise a bit more in a sober way and an all that kind of stuff, if it's more likely to allow you to have more fun later down the line,

because you're actually going to feel a bit more confidence, self-esteem might be up, and you'll actually appreciate little things more than just going, I'm soulless throughout the week, I need to get pissed to be a fool on a weekend and have fun. Some of us just like the sauce wrap. But if you actually genuinely enjoy it, that's where the context comes in. But if you're doing it, because that's the only way you can, relaxed to have fun. Oh yeah. And also also we have to remember like the question is can I can I still lose body fat if I drink alcohol and you also have to kind of have the conversation of well

have you been drinking alcohol every single weekend? Yes I have. Have you lost way in the last six weeks even though you've been trying? No I haven't well realistically you having that one night out or them two nights out is probably throwing you off for the rest of the weekend as well and maybe leading into the Monday. And, you know, realistically, you're probably not recovering. Your sleep's not grey.

You're probably having takeaways the next day because, you know, you have all these cravings. You might miss the gym on a Monday. You might not be kind of back to normal until Tuesday or Wednesday. Yeah, all them things are probably kind of, contribute into you not getting the results you want if we're going to be honest about it. You have to be a certain level of dedicated and prepped that like I don't get hangover so I can go off

and do something the next day. I can I can choose what I want to eat. I can go out and do something active the next day. But I know other people that like they'll plan around that night out. They'll have food that they want to eat Monday to Thursday the following week. It's prepped. So it's in the freezer. It's ready to go. They've decided that they're going to have

a takeaway the next night. They're not getting one on the night out. They're drinking certain drinks. So they're more tactical about their night out. Yeah. And I think that that really speaks to like okay, if you're going on, if you're trying

to lose body fat and you have a night out and you want to go on that night out. Well, then it's really about like damage limitation without obsession. If you're obsessed about it, it's like, well, we probably have bigger things to work on in terms of your mindset around alcohol and food and lifestyle. But if you're just focusing on damage and limitations, it's like, well, I'm making sure that I'm hitting all my training sessions. I'm hitting all my protein target. I'm going to get up the next day and I'm going to get some steps in and clear my head. instead of having, you know, the drinks that I usually have that are really high in calories, I've decided to go for, you know, a gin and tonic or whatever it is.

All right, well, they're making little decisions that are probably going to contribute to you see in progress over time because you're making decisions, conscious decisions, now that you weren't making before. You're making little changes that, you know, will all compound over time to get you the results you want. But if you're over obsessing about it as well, it's like that, well, now you're just sacrificing you actually having a life and you're sacrificing all the enjoyment in your life

for one specific goal that, you know, once you achieve it, you might not feel any happier anyway. Yeah, it's a double-edged sword, like, no matter what way you look at it, it's you could go out and not have a good night out, or you go out and go fucking off the rails and it'll stall your progress. And this all comes back to that all or nothing mindset then

and focusing on imperfect action rather than than what people try to do. Yeah. So like it's it always comes back to the honesty thing. It's what do you actually want? So is the goal you've set yourself more important than getting absolutely smashed and drooling over a cabab at 2 o'clock in the morning?

Or can you don't take this night off and just be like, this is a night off grand. it doesn't matter, I'll just get back into my routine and you get back into your routine. I think that's the biggest lie people tell themselves because I do get a lot of stick for not getting a hangover, but I watch people and I'm like, if I got hangovers to the level people can't move the next day

or they're fucked for a couple of days afters, I wouldn't drink. Yeah, we also have to look at the timeline that you've given yourself as well. So like if you're someone who says you want to lose body fat, but you want to lose body fat in six weeks, time for a wedding or you want to get them to a dress size. Well, you're probably going to have to limit the, like you're going to have to be more restrictive in them six weeks versus if you give yourself a year because it's not that you have a certain goal and a certain timeline, but you just want to, you just want to feel better overall. You need to shed a few pounds and you want to be a little

bit lighter on your feet and you want to improve your health markers. Well, like, you can have, you can pick and choose them nights out and like, because you're, you're deciding that you're going to do this for the next year or for the rest of your life, then there is no rush to get the results and you can go and enjoy. You can pick and choose the nights out that you want to go and enjoy. If you're someone who has decided, right, well, I need to get this done now. It's like, unfortunately, you're going to have to be a bit aggressive in your dieting and you are going to have to be very regimental and be like, well, I'm going to have to fucking stay in this weekend, unfortunately. So if you target all your calories towards the alcohol and the, like, how

processed food or stuff that just doesn't have nutrition in it, basically. You're not going to go into that wedding because you're going to have eight weeks of diet and you're going to lose the weight, but you're going to be ill. So like you really need to cancel out, you need to prioritize those things that are going to help keep you feeling good along that journey. And if that means cutting out alcohol, no, you can't drink alcohol and lose that weight. But it depends. It's always the answer, isn't it?

Yeah. Okay. last question then what is your best piece of advice for someone who has just started out in the gym and wants to be able to stay on track and get results? I'm going to go for speak to people in the gym, develop, make it a community, give yourself a reason to go to that gym. I've been training at Pure Gym and the gym that's in my local village and I was going to Pure Gym because I was like, there's people here, like there's the environment.

and then I was there for a few weeks. I'm like, I'm not speaking to anyone. I feel like I could be in a gym by myself. And then yesterday, a couple of lads asked if I was done with something. I said they could jump in. We had a conversation. Someone walked into the machine I was using at the time. They apologized.

We chatted in Costa after. Like, now I feel more motivation to go back to that gym, regardless of whether it's to train to exhaustion or, do progressive overload, I now want to go back to that gym because I might see nice people again. So communicate with others is probably the first stepping point for me anyway. Gerr, what's your piece of advice? Right. Well, he's taking the building a community thing.

So I'm going to go on the other side and just be honestly managed. They're right. Yeah, roids. Nothing but roids. Take them on. But I manage, honestly manage your expectations. So like those people you'll end up talking to in the gym Like if you're impressed by someone inside the gym

Getting talking to them so you can find out how long they've been doing it for Like because we will say this ourselves How many years you've been training So it takes time to get to a lot I think someone said to me before it was It takes a lot of effort to be mediocre at something Do you know it takes a lot of showing up to just be okay at something so I would say

be like the whole be nice to yourself but like be nice it does take a lot of time and if you're if you don't beat yourself up every time you're not hitting a certain goal within a week or two of being there it will get easier you're doing

you're doing this for the rest of your life mine is going to be create accountability by making an investment that hurts So I don't care what your budget is, whether like it's a hundred quid a month that really kind of breaks the bank for you or for someone it might be five grand a month that breaks the bank for them. But it has to be a financial investment that by you not doing the thing, it's painful. And I think like a lot of people don't leverage that to their advantage that if you have a financial investment,

the pain of losing that money is greater than, you know, sometimes the pain of you or the, the rewards of you getting the result. Because a lot of time people have the greatest intent to go to the gym and make it a habit and get the result they want. But life gets in the way and even though they had motivation to do at the start, you know, things get in the way and then they kind of just fall to the weight side and then they don't have any accountability. But you've decided right i haven't i've never stuck to the gym for longer than a month but i'm going to make this financial investment with a coach not that i'm biased or anything like that to get paid but if i make that link yeah yeah yeah yeah um i'll send you my stripe account

that is but if you make that financial investment that are i'm going to commit to this for the next year with this person and this person has promised to keep me accountable and i know by me not going to that gym three times a week that i am just waiting for you wasting money that I do not I cannot afford to to lose there's nothing that's going to get you to tick off the boxes easier than that and I can say that from the perspective of being a coach and also having a coach as well as that like I tick off all my boxes because I don't want to fucking waste my money I think you add in the coaching aspect that answers the question I was or responds addresses what I was going to bring up as a concern if you're just paying 150 quid

to a gym per month yeah and not getting anything it's just a really good gym maybe and has classes and stuff. I feel like that might create more negativity around the gym because you're like, oh, fuck. Yeah, that's why I added the accountability. Where is the code? Yeah, because then you've got someone,

another human being that's checking in. They're like, you haven't been for two sessions. One, you're not making the progress you want to, you're wasting your own money. And like, if you're an honest coach, you're going to be saying that. You're like, you're giving me money and you're not getting anything from it.

Come on, let's do something about it. And that's why I also said, financial investment has to sting because I've had clients who have had the money and paid for coaching and because the investment didn't sting them well I can just you know this person trying to keep me accountable but I'm just going to ignore them because it doesn't really matter yeah it's it's it's and it's obviously context dependent to that person what what what what what's going to sting them but it has to sting them it's why those it's why those new years uh gym deals uh do so well for gyms.

Don't like the three month discount rate. Because like they know majority of people might show up for a couple of weeks. Mightn't show up at all. But like they're making huge. I know a few gym like big gym owners and they make a pile of money off selling those. Well their business plan is for you to is to sell a lot of memberships and not have a high turn up rate. Yeah. Whereas what you want is.

Oh, you know. You want the opposite. Yeah. You want the opposite. You want your, you want your, the people that you're. working with to show up. And to do that, then the pinch needs to be enough to, it's the carrot and the stick, right?

It's like the stick is, you know, not losing your money. And then the carrot at the end of that is actually getting the results that you want. Yeah. All right. We'll leave it there. Well done, folks. Appreciate it. I will see you next week and we'll have a special guest.