Building muscle and getting strong do go hand in hand, but they are not mutually exclusive.,
but there are some differences. Will you build muscle by lifting heavy weights for low reps?
Yes. Will you build muscle when lifting low weights with high reps? Yes, but you may not
get the strength benefits. In order to get strong, you must lift heavy. As the saying goes,
“Wanna get strong? Lift heavy and lift often”.

Specificity is important when you have any fitness goals. The law of specificity overrules all
other laws when it comes to program design. It is pretty obvious that, to get better at any
activity, you must precisely practice the skill you wish to develop. You are training for a half
marathon; this goal is specific. How do you prepare? Running is the obvious answer and
people know this. Yet, when it comes to other specific goals, people become more general
(rather than specific). You wouldn’t train for a half marathon on a rower machine and assume
that just because you’re working the whole body (heart and lungs included), that you will be
fit for a 21km run. This is what I mean by general. You can generally train your body to be fit
(both cardiovascular and physical), but if you have a goal you must become more specific.
Yes, rowing can benefit your running, but it is still only a complimentary exercise rather than
a substitute. So it is important to know, what is strength to you? Is it squatting 1.5 times your
bodyweight, deadlifting 2 times you bodyweight or even benching your bodyweight? These
are general metrics used but strength for one person will be different for another. Be specific
at what you want to get strong at. Once you have that down, you can begin to train

Practice technique as you can always aim to perfect it. Stick within 70% and 90% of you’re
on rep max, this way you are still working with heavy weights and can still drill your
technique, as anything lighter than 70% will build muscle but not practice strength and
anything above 90% may result in a breakdown of technique. Increase your work capacity
through a variety of workouts. Keep the main lifts in and focus on building them, but use
accessory lifts as a tool to improve the main ones. Avoid injury where possible, this involves
leaving your ego at the door and being intelligent in your lifts. Add muscle mass, the
strongest athletes are generally the biggest ones too. A study by W.F Brechue and T. Abe was
published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology in 2015. They looked at the role of
fat free mass accumulation and skeletal muscle architecture in powerlifting performance, they
found that muscle thickness was strongly correlated to elite power lifters performance in their
squat, bench and deadlifts. There are many ways to build muscle, mechanical tension is
useful here as you practice lifting heavy things here, metabolic stress is working near failure
and muscle damage which is a variety of movements.

Rep ranges are important for getting strong; of course you should lift using different weights
(60-95% of your one rep max). But in order to get strong, utilise the main lifts within a 70%-
90% ratio as explained above. Let’s explain how many reps are generally done at each
percentage.
70%= 12 reps
75%=10 reps
80%=8 reps
85%=6 reps
90%=4 reps

I cannot speak about getting stronger without mentioning nutrition, as well as lifting yourself
strong, you must eat yourself strong. This is where a lot of people fall. More often than not,
over-training or burning out is a result of under eating as opposed to actually ‘over-training’.
You must eat above maintenance and eat in a surplus with nutrient dense foods. Calories are
important here and you must consistently eat in a surplus to maximise your strength.
Remember, what gets measured get managed.

We all love a good treat meal. And if we’re working hard, training often and eating well we’re entitled to have them 😊 But we can find lower calorie options which will satisfy both your belly and your goals. It’s not about deprivation but education. We can still enjoy some of our favourite foods but for a fraction of the price and calories.
 
Pizza Wrap

• Wholegrain Wrap
• Tbsp. Tomato Puree
• Garlic Granules
• Oregano
• Low fat cheese
• Toppings of your choice (e.g veg, chicken, pepperoni)

Method
Squirt the tomato puree on wrap and spread evenly. Sprinkle garlic and oregano. Top with cheese and toppings. Put in the oven for 15-20 mins at 200 degrees.

​Taco Fries

• Turkey mince
• Passata
• Peppers
• Onions
• Sweet potato fries
• Low fat cheese

Method
 Dry fry vegetables and mince in a pan until brown. Add passata and simmer for 20 mins. At the same time cook sweet potato fries in the oven. Top the fries with the mix and add cheese 😊

​Garlic Dip

• 3 tbsp. Greek yogurt
• Garlic granules
• Mixed Herbs

Sprinkle garlic and mixed herbs into Greek yogurt and use as a lower calorie alternative 😊

When you think about strength training, muscles spring to mind and everyone is quick to talk about the advantages of muscle, and there are many, but let’s not forget about those important ligaments and tendons. Ligaments and tendons are connective tissues, ligaments are responsible is responsible for attaching bone to bone while tendons attach muscle to bone. Resistance training makes our muscles contract, and in turn our ligaments and tendons grow stronger and thicker. These tissues take much longer than muscles to grow. After 10 weeks (for general population), you can expect about a 20% increase in strength and thickness of your ligaments and tendons with regular training. This goes a long way when it comes to becoming more active without having to worry about injuries around the corner.
 
 
Damaged tendons heal slowly and rarely retain the structural integrity and mechanical strength of a healthy tendon, which often lead to clinical challenges (2017, Fan Wu), as stated in his paper “Tendon injuries: Basic Science and new repair proposals”. This is important as it clearly shows us, prevention is once again, better than the cure. The American Journal of Sports Medicine conducted a study in 2005 which looked at the effectiveness of neuromuscular training in preventing ACL injuries in female athletes (this was a 2 year follow up study). In 2000, they gathered a group of young soccer players over 51 teams, which is a large sample size of 1041 female athletes all between the ages of 14-18. They simply implemented a certain warm up, resistance training, plyometrics and other simple measures. The results found were overwhelming as there was an 88% decrease in ACL injuries in the first year of the study.
 
The benefits of stronger ligaments and tendons go beyond tears and sports injuries, you may think that it only applies to ‘athletes’, but it is important for everyone and those who are else active, one they begin moving, they may be more susceptible to these injuries as their running mechanics are not as seasoned as that of an athletes. Mechanical factors and a sedentary lifestyle play a massive role in the pathology of ankle injuries (tendons in the Achilles). If you don’t use it, you lose it. By performing some form of resistance training, you will improve overall flexibility, your range of motion and strength of the ligament/tendon, in turn you can reduce the risk of muscular injuries or ‘pulling’ muscles as strong muscles, ligaments and tendons all take the slack of any stress or stimuli you put on the body.
 
Yet another reason for you to strength train, so what are you waiting for? 

We’re in January now and it’s pre-season for most GAA heads. A question I get asked quite often is should nutrition be different pre-season and during season. The answer is yes. You should not be consuming the same calories in pre-season as you do during championship.

Think about it though. Preseason is usually gym based with maybe one pitch session so activity levels are not as high. Compare that to full on championship mode, you may be on the pitch 3 times a week with one gym session. And this only takes one sport into consideration. You may have multiple sports.
If activity levels increase so too should calories and vice versa. If we are in a period of lowered activity, calories should therefore be lower. Overall calories are determined by gender, weight, activity level and goals.

Macronutrient requirements will also be different. Protein requirements will be high in both cases as the need for recovery will be high i.e post gym session or post-match both require high protein. Protein targets are usually 1.8-2.2g per kg BW. We get protein from meat, fish, eggs, beans, peas, nuts and seeds.
Fats are also important for recovery and to reduce inflammation. These should be approximately 20% of our overall calorie intake. Healthy fats like polyunsaturated oils, nuts, seeds, dark chocolate and oily fish are an essential part of a balanced diet.
​
Carbohydrate is our main energy source during sport. Pre season however, requires less carbohydrate intake. We are focused on more short bursts of energy like Gym work or sprints which use a different energy system to matches. We don’t need to consume carbohydrate with every meal during pre-season and while our calorie requirements are also lower here might be a good place to start. We could substitute our complex carbohydrate rice with a lower calorie cauliflower rice or breakfast could focus more on a larger omelette with extra veggies rather than 2 slices of bread? These are just options of how to reduce calories but keep bulk and not feel like you are depriving yourself.   
 
It is important to understand that these are two different periods of an athlete’s schedule. Just like your training is cycled, your diet too should be cycled. I will continue this topic when we come into season 😊

I remember searching the internet for hours when I couldn’t physically lift heavier weights after
weeks, months and even years of training for it (bench, squat and deadlift, especially). There was
even a time where I got worse the harder I was trying. I wanted to know how to break the plateau, but the internet gave me so much conflicting information. In this piece I hope to provide clarity on how to overcome this difficulty in simple, yet effective steps.
 
Nailing these basics alone can have positive knock on effects before you go changing your program.
 
1) Sleep
In order for us to perform, we need to be fully charged and well rested; this is where sleep
takes over. It is vital that you are getting at least 7 hours sleep on average during the week.
More often than not, the reason training isn’t going to plan is due to something as simple as
not getting enough rest.  A minimum of 6 hours sleep alone has so many benefits. A study
showed us that muscular function improved in Basketball players from Stanford University
when nothing but their sleep was changed (increasing sprint times). The same study showed
us increased sleep impacted their cognitive function allowing these athletes to increase over
9% in their shooting accuracy. The quality of your sleep is more important than the duration
of sleep. You can find a post on my page about optimising sleep.
 
2) Recovery and stress management
Recovery can be defined in many ways; from sleeping, taking a rest day (or a de-load week),
active recovery (swimming, stretching, rehab, sauna) mobility work (hip stretches, Thoracic
spine stretches). Aligned with recovery is stress management. This is what people find very
hard to understand but your central nervous system does not know the difference between the
physical stimulation caused by weights and stimulation caused by emotional stress (be it
financial stress, relationship problems or even family feuds). These are the variables that lead
to over-training. Imagine a cup that holds all your stress, both physical and emotional. If
you are having a tough day/week and you come into the gym, this ‘’stress cup’’ may be 90%
full. If you are going to train, toning it down is the smarter idea as once you overfill this
cup, problems will arise with performance.
 
3) Nutrition and water intake
Are you drinking 2-3 litres of water a day, sipping throughout the day so a constant supply is
being given? Water improves cardiac output, endurance, gives your heart rate a less
pronounced increase and helps maintain temperature. All of these variables link directly to
performance. Without water, we cannot perform optimally. Effects of dehydration range from
decreased ability to sweat, reduced blood flow to kidneys, decreased in muscle glycogen (this
is where we store energy). Nutrition is a massive part of recovery and every goal you have
physically should be aligned with proper nutrition. Are you eating enough? Are you eating too much? Are you eating healthy foods 80% of the time? By healthy I mean non-processed
food which carry vitamins and minerals (micro-nutrients) as well as enough protein. Processed
foods are anything that is made for a long shelf life. Slight changes in the quality of food can
help your digestive system, sleep and recovery.
 
Once you have a good grasp of this, have a look at these training tips
 
1) Overload
Make sure you aren’t doing the same workouts and not progressing. Change the sets reps and
weights to increase the volume. For example if one week one I bench 50kg for 3 sets and 8
reps (50x3x8=1200). The next week, make sure that volume on the bench is over 1200. This
can be as simple as 50kg for 4 sets of 7 reps (50x4x7=1400). This small change with 4 extra
reps overall add 200kg of volume to a session).
 
2) Frequency
Do more of the specific exercise. If your goal is to get a one rep max lift in the bench at 80kg,
but you keep failing at 80kg every time you try; it may be as simple as benching more often.
Most people have one assigned day for a body part/movement. If you are benching once a
week and on an 8-week program, after 8 weeks you have only benched 8 times. By adding in
the bench press to another day in your program, you will double the volume.
 
3) Variation/Accessories
By using other exercises such as chest press, shoulder press or even triceps can help with
your bench press. Simply by progressing these lifts, your bench will improve. Pick
appropriate exercises to compliment your goals.
 
4) Time under tension
Keep the tempo of the movement slow and under control. For example, when you have the
bar up and arms extended, bring the bar down to your chest slowly and under control in 3
seconds, hold for 1 second and raise the bar up for 3 seconds and again, holding at the top for
1 second also. This mean the muscle is under tension for a lot longer than regular sets,
meaning they contract more and cause more damage. This stimulus is very effect for muscle
and strength building.
 
5) Exercise order
This is a simple trick where you move the exercise to a different part of the session. If you
usually perform the bench press as your first exercise, then move it to your 3rd selected
exercise. By doing this, you will be performing the bench press under fatigue, continue this
for a few weeks. When you are confident once again, move this exercise to the beginning of
your session and you will be able to perform it better due to lack of fatigue. I don’t
recommend training big compound movements under fatigue but this is an effective method.
 
6)Momentum
This is frowned upon but has its place. If you have hit a plateau on the overhead press (for
example) and cannot finish your reps, I would recommend using momentum. If you are
failing on the 6th rep of the final set of 10 reps, use the knees to bounce the weight overhead
for the final four reps. If you use this method, continue using it until they become 10 strict
overhead presses with no need for momentum.
 
I hope this piece gives some more clarity on overcoming a plateau. Remember to go
through the first three tips first before changing the whole training plan. Small changes can cause BIG results. Stick with it and be consistent. Results will show.

​So you think you’ve blown all your hard work over the festive period. You feel like a beached whale and you’re willing to do anything to beat the bloat. Well all is not lost, a lot of what you are experiencing is due to water retention due to high sodium and alcohol intake as well as an excess in carbohydrate storage. Try use these simple tips to get back to feeling yourself as soon as possible. What should you do?

5. Increase your NEAT activity (Non Exercise Activity Thermogenisis) This is your activity on a daily basis just walking, doing house work, working etc. The more you move daily, the more this will increase. Having a high NEAT will help increase your BMR before you’ve even done any strenuous activity. Take the stairs, cycle or walk to work (where possible) or park further away so you need to increase your steps. 
​
6.Make SMART goals.Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time Specific
E.g I would like to lose 1 pound a week until the end of March. This will be a total of 12lbs.
This is specific as we are giving an exact weight loss goal. It is measurable on a weighing scales.It is achievable and realistic. There is also a time it has to be achieved by making it time specific.
‘I want to lose weight’ would not be a smart goal.

Jim Wendler, who is a well-known power lifter, came up with a great and simple training method you can apply to your own training. It is known as 5-3-1 (some people do 5-3-2) and you can easily find this online. Although I found most pieces I saw on this are extremely difficult to understand so I just want to talk about it here and simplify this method. I did this before on Instagram but the word count doesn’t allow me to go into as much depth, so here we are again.
 
This program is divided into 4 week blocks; it includes specificity, progressive overload and frequency can easily be introduced into the days. This program focuses mostly on big compound lifts and for the example given here, we are going to talk about a putting it into a 4 day program. The 4 compound lifts I will use as an example is deadlift, squat, bench and military press divided into each of the 4 days. You could substitute these 4 lifts for any other big compound lifts also. Before you begin, you need to get your one rep max (1RM) in each compound lift. Work your way up and max out on the compound lifts you plan to increase. For example, you have spent quite some time getting a strong bench press. You test this movement and get 100kg as your 1RM. With this 5-3-1 method we don’t work off of failure, we work off of technical failure which is 90-95% of your 1RM. So your technical max is now 90-95kg, depending on which you pick. This trains us to never go to failure. Once you finish your compound movement, work on accessories for those lifts and always keep reps between 10-20 reps. When you complete phase 1 (first 4 weeks), it is easy to progress to phase 2. Wash and repeat, just go 2% heavier from week 1- week 4. If you ever get stuck on a week or begin to plateau, repeat the week/phase if needs be.
 
Here is an example of a phase using the percentages from Jim Wendlers program.
We will just be focusing on the first compound movement, as I stated, fill in accessory work thereafter for yourself. For example, on the back squat days, you would then begin to break up the muscle groups used in the squat, such as calves, hamstrings, glutes, quads, core, and posterior chain etc. If your main compound is a bench press, you are primarily using the pectoralis major, shoulders and triceps for the most part. So you would perform exercises to aid those muscles individually after your compound. After I type the example, I will go through the benefits of this.
 
Week 1
3 sets in compound
Set 1- 65% X 5 reps
Set 2- 75% X 5 reps
Set 3- 85% X 5 reps (minimum)
This overall will give you 15 reps at an average of 75% of your technical 1RM (90-95% of 1RM)
 
Week 2
3 sets in compound
Set 1- 70% X 3 reps
Set 2- 80% X 3 reps
Set 3- 90% X 3 reps (minimum)
This overall will give you 9 reps at an average of 80% of your technical 1RM (90-95% of 1RM)
 
Week 3
3 sets in compound
Set 1- 75% X 5 reps
Set 2- 85% X 3 reps
Set 3- 95% X 1 rep (minimum)
This overall will give you 9 reps at an average of 85% of your technical 1RM (90-95% of 1RM)
 
Week 4-Deload week
3 sets in compound
Set 1- 40% X 5 reps
Set 2- 50% X 5 reps
Set 3- 60% X 5 reps (minimum)
This overall will give you 15 reps at an average of 50% of your technical 1RM (90-95% of 1RM). If you don’t need to deload this much you could easily go with 60% for all 3 sets.
 
This method is technically smart, measured easily and simple to manage. Let’s assume again your 1RM in the tester was 100kg. Your training max is now 95kg (95% of your 1RM). So here are some examples of how it will work.
60% of 95kg is 57kg
75% of 95kg is 71.25kg
90% of 95kg is 85.5kg
 
Week 1 notes:                                                                        Week 2 notes:           
Reps: 15 minimum                                                      Reps: 9 minimum
Average percentage: 75%                                           Average percentage: 80%
Volume (reps X percentage) = 1125                          Volume (reps X percentage) = 720
 
Week 3 notes:                                                                        Week 4 notes:
Reps: 9 minimum                                                        Reps: 15 minimum
Average percentage: 85%                                           Average percentage: 50%
Volume (reps X percentage) = 765                            Volume (reps X percentage) = 750
 
Volume is jumping around, but for good reason. Starting light and progressing slowly will see continued gains throughout the phases. People have been using this in 16 week cycles themselves for a long time, and by not jumping up the ladder too soon, they see more gain as they build a solid foundation over time. Volume starts high as you can see with 1125, and then the next week it drops to 720. This is so we get some endurance in and make sure we hit percentages before climbing up the weights; week 1 is sort of a test and foundation for week 2 and week 3. Week 3 it climbs slowly to 765 showing a jump in volume. The deload week can be manipulated here as stated above, but it is important to note that I would recommend keeping volume below week 3, just as shown above with 750. This gives you a break and allows you to up the weight by a few kg before jumping into week 1 on phase 2.
 
I am sure you have noticed the 3rd set in each week has minimum written in brackets. This is simple, if you have more in the tank; go for it on your last set. The goal is always to have a minimum so you can measure accordingly. We often see programs having a max, but having a minimum is easier to track and safer also. Accessory work has been done a lot of different ways, if you really want to get better at the lifts, people often stick to 5 sets of 10 reps at a lighter weight of the same exercises (on bench day, once you finish your 3 sets of Wendler, you then continue to do 5 sets of 10 reps on bench). IF you want, you can pick 3-5 other exercises to do that target weaknesses or are muscles that aid that lift, and perform them. The days you aren’t feeling it or if you’re having an off day, all you have to do is show up and perform the compound at the minimum to keep on track. You can also perform 5-3-2 here and change the minimum of one rep, to a minimum of 2 reps as a lot of others do.