An Intelligent Approach To Fitness: How Father & Business-Owner Got Better Results

Adil wasn’t happy with his fitness levels. He was training frequently, but seemed to be picking up lots of little injuries and not getting results.

This was not a surprise to me. When we sat down and talked about what was going on he told me he had a 3 year old son, he ran his own business, and his diet and exercise routines, albeit well intended, were a little erratic.

He’s got a fair bit of fitness experience from lifting weights to running half marathons, but had failed to adapt this to his current lifestyle - having young children and running a business is tough.

Adil had a 12 week goal to get in shape for a family holiday in September. He was frustrated with his fitness and his body shape. He’d been putting in the time and effort, but his body didn’t seem to be responding.

This is normal for many of the guys I train. In fact, I’ve only got 6 male PT clients (I’ve got 20 female) - all of them run their own business, all of them have children and all of them were in a similar position when they started.

I knew with a guy like Adil I had to give him good rationale because he wanted to see results quickly, I encouraged him to be patient because when I got him moving I could tell why he was getting injured.

He had movement restrictions through his ankles, hips and shoulders. His upper back strength was weak relative to his chest and arms and we couldn’t load his lower body because he was weak through his lower back. This quickly improved.

The reason Adil made quick progress is because from the initial consultation he gave himself fully to the programme.

We spent lots of time developing his mobility and flexibility during his warm up using a foam roller, a lacrosse ball and a simple bodyweight sequence - this made him feel ten-times better. This is an essential element for men with businesses who’ve been sat at a desk for years.

We introduced some remedial core exercises to do before we lift a weight in every session. By mastering a plank and dead ant Adil has managed to stabilise his spine meaning were able to load him up in the gym with less risk of injury. All to often I see people making core exercises too complex - in my experience a few basics done really well get the best results.

With our strength-training sessions we took on a series of full body routines which saw him squat, deadlift, lunge, push and pull in every session. By doing this we challenged him to move through a full range of motion to improve his strength and flexibility.

And we introduce metabolic finishers... to complete every session we spent 10 minutes on a variety of pulse raising challenges. To start off with Adil found these really tough. But he clearly did what we agreed between sessions and now takes it in his stride.

From bike sprints to the team rower challenge he recognises his heart is a muscle and there’s no point being strong and supple if you’ve got no work capacity.

The best thing about Adil (and the reason he has succeeded) is he committed himself to the process. Given his motivation it would’ve been easier to put him on a strict diet from the outset and give him a shortsighted training routine which would’ve not addressed his injuries, movement limitations, lifestyle or eating habits.

I could’ve got him in better shape aesthetically quicker, but I challenged him to take a longer term approach. I could’ve calculated his calories and macros, given him a meal plan with exactly what to eat and he’d be in great shape for his holiday. That’s akin to getting a buckled bike wheel and rather than ironing out the kinks reinforcing it and carrying on. But I felt it would be doing him a huge disservice.

I’ve got young kids, I run my own business and I know what it takes to work around old injuries when you’re stressed, tired and ambitious, so implored him to take a more progressive approach - and he’s totally done it. We’ve kept his calories relatively high whilst giving him a little more freedom to enjoy a beer or two at the weekend. I’ve given him simple practical info like recipes from The Hot Body Project.

We’ve made small adjustments week-to-week so it’s been a manageable change which is sustainable and it’s been great to talk to him about how we can keep progressing after his holidays and beyond.

This is just the start for Adil. He’s got a great attitude. He can see how taking a more structured and personal approach to fitness can serve him and going forward with a new baby on the way I can tell you he’ll continue to get great results.