this one hits hard .. 🤯
Harry Purvis • 25 February 2024
You know what THE best tip for being in shape is?
The number one thing.
That will guarantee you stay in tip-top physical condition.
Mostly forever
Which actually ..
Maybe gives you one of the biggest bang for your buck returns on life quality.
When you actually think about it.
Maybe more than more money.
After you’ve had your basic needs met.
Going to be pretty honest here ..
The tip ..
is not getting out of shape in the first place
Yup.
Brutal isn’t it 😂
If you’re reading this & you’re out of shape.
Then you can’t do Plan A.
It’ll have to be Plan B.
Exactly the conversation I had with someone this week.
If you never allow yourself to get out of shape ..
You’ll never have to experience the difficult journey to get back to fitness.
Which is tough.
And it’s such a difficult pill to swallow.
We can’t turn back time 😩
>>
How often do you see young fat kids out & about?
Quite a few times no?
Especially now.
20 or so years ago.
Probably not as much.
But if my local KFC is anything to go by ..
uffffff.
And damn ..
Those kids will have it tough.
If they ever want to be in great physical shape.
They’ll have to work pretty damn hard later on in life to get back to it.
(not very PG of me of course..)
But it’s the parents’ fault, not the kids.
>>
And look.
It’s not easy staying in shape either.
It requires effort, willpower, determination ..
You name it.
But it’s a HELL of a lot easier staying in shape.
Then trying to get back into shape.
Happy Sunday ✌️
Harry
uffff rustled a few feathers on the weekend with my email. And subsequent IG video 😂 (the whole ‘don’t get fat in the first place’ thing) People didn’t like it .. Because bad habits are difficult to undo. Right? By their very nature/definition.. ‘habit’ It’s part of your lifestyle. You’re better off not adopting them in the first place. Best tip to stop smoking? Don’t start in the first place. Want to NOT be hooked on drugs? Don’t take them initially. Best way to be in shape? Don’t get fat in the first place. See what I mean? >> But our relationship with food is a complicated one .. It’s far from straightforward. We eat when we’re happy (celebrating) We eat when we’re sad (comfort food) When we’re stressed (stress eating) When we’re bored (mindlessly going through a big pack of milk chocolate digestives) 😂 It’s complicated. >> but the solution is straightforward << And that’s where a lot of us go wrong. Nutrition is so simple & straightforward. Sometimes .. I honestly don’t even know how nutritionists are even a thing. As Piers Morgan famously said: (the best way to lose weight is ..) “Eat less food & do more exercise” Happy Tuesday 😂✌️ Harry
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So there’s a guy that comes to the gym atm. And from what I can see .. (I could be wrong here btw) It looks like he literally comes in for 5 minutes. Does 1 or 2 sets of pull-ups 2 sets of pec dec Something like that. Then leaves. No exaggeration. He doesn’t put his bag in the changing room. So I literally see him coming in & out of the gym in 5 or so mins. And it’s an interesting one Which I want your opinion on. (reply to this and let me know) Are we team “Something is better than nothing .. even doing a 2-minute workout is better than nothing at all” in which case this guy’s ‘workout’ is sensible, justified, on the right lines etc Or Are we team “C’mon .. if you can only spare 5 minutes each day for your training .. you need to reassess your priorities a bit” because what can you honestly get done in 5 minutes ..? I spend more time picking the playlist I want to listen to 😂 >> It’s a tricky one for me. I’m tempted to go with the latter. Although I do agree with the former too. .. there is a relatively high FIXED cost in coming to the gym anyway .. Right? You get a lot of the faffing involved whether you’re doing a 5-minute workout. Or a 2-hour workout. So you MAY as well make it an efficient use of time. And train for at least .. what .. 30 minutes as a minimum? Hell .. it takes me 5 minutes to just warm up / get my head in the zone for training. I know it does for my clients too. Instead of leaving the gym straight after you’ve got ready for training. Hit me up with your thoughts pls 👋👋 Have a great Monday too. Harry
People do crazy things for attention these days. Especially online. We’re in the middle of the whole “do anything to get views” era. And it makes it difficult to figure out what is actually real. And what is just staged/set up for the video. Like those “I surprised my husband/wife/friend” type videos. We’ve all seen. Which, most of the time. Are hilarious. But then you realise. There are multiple cameras in the same room rolling 😂 With the perfect lighting & setup. And you realise it’s just staged. But it’s been liked by 3m+ people. So they’re winning. >> You know what else falls into this category? Workouts The ones you see on Instagram / YouTube. The more different Out there Funky The exercises are .. The more attention it gets. You know what doesn’t get anywhere near as much attention? The bread & butter basics .. Consistency doing the same exercises week in week out Progressive overload Rotating through the same 2-4 movements for each body part That sh*t doesn’t look sexy on Instagram. It doesn’t get the cray attention. Unlike some of the other stuff you see on there. >> And you know what the funny thing is .. Fate loves irony. And the mega fit / in-shape people doing these stupid workouts. For views. Actually got their physique in the first place by doing the boring stuff they would never post about because it doesn’t get any traction (read that again) 😂😂 Mad when you think about it like that. Anyhow - off to the gym. Cya ✌️ Harry
What seems completely unattainable for some .. Is easily attainable for others. In many facets of life. Not always. But often the time. Let me give you an example. Body composition related of course .. So whenever I post some sort of half-naked ‘physique update’ on my Instagram. I always get the same comments. (from ONLY guys obviously .. those memes are 100% true😂) Things like: “how do you stay that lean all the time” “was this an old photo or recently?!” “that’s too lean, you need to eat something” no capping here btw. I do genuinely get comments like this on almost all of them. And yeah sure .. Some of it comes down to good lighting Me knowing my best angles Some flexing But you know what? Given my lifestyle My job Where I am all-day The habits I have ingrained into my daily routine .. it’s actually not too difficult to maintain a lean-ish physique (with abs) year-round. Right? I mean .. If I didn’t maintain a decent level of body fat condition. Then I’m in the wrong industry. Whereas if I had an office-based job .. Wasn’t in the gym all-day Had 2 young kids Wasn’t able to go to bed at 9 pm most nights Had to eat & drink out to ‘entertain clients’ etc Then I’d probably find it impossible to maintain this level of condition. Maybe only getting there for a week or so after a prolonged period of dieting. Who knows. Maybe that’ll happen to me in the future 😂 >> So moral of the story. Don’t let others drag you down to their level ✌️✌️ Harry
Had to get this one off my chest this morning. Because I see it so often. Almost every day. Some PTs stiiiiiil putting their clients on the treadmill. For the first 5-10 minutes of a paid session. Client parts ways with hard-earned net cash .. .. Just for the trainer to spend a good chunk of session time % Walking on a treadmill. And get this .. Those same clients. Probably took longer to walk to the gym from the office And probably at a faster pace too. Everyone walks fast in London. Especially when you have places to be. So technically .. The 5-minute moderate walk on the treadmill is most likely. A cool-down rather than a warm-up 😂 I mean c’mon. The fitness industry has moved on from 2011 .. Hasn’t it? >> I get all my clients to do a warm-up. Sure. Everyone needs to do one. Myself included. But it’s not on the treadmill. They’re exercise-specific isometric contractions Which hugely IMPROVE how your body/muscles work before training. More range of movement More stability Better contractions etc You don’t get any of that from walking on a treadmill. Especially if you walked 5 minutes to get to the gym in the first place. Rant over 🤭😅 Harry
So this is just a thought. Something to throw out there. While we’re about to attack Wednesday. I think one of the reasons IF seems to work ‘well’ for fat loss. Thinking about it from a logical/practical perspective. Is that going for relatively long periods without eating at all is a good thing. Snacking/grazing is the calorie deficit destroyer For a number of reasons It’s usually uncontrolled It’s usually done unintentionally / almost subconsciously The food choices are energy-dense You can’t even remember what you’ve eaten half the time Even I’ve done it before. Demolished a whole pack of ‘something’ whilst watching a movie at 10 pm. Without even thinking about it. Just mindlessly grazing. .. So eliminating that to a large extent. Is going to make it a lot EASIER for you to stick to a deficit. Difficult to eat in a big surplus consistently. If you’re only having 2x clean-ish meals a day. With no snacking in between. As opposed to 2x main meals. With about 9 snacks in between them. See what I mean? >> I don’t personally do IF. But if you look at the timing of my meals each day. I spend a large portion of the day/night.. not eating 4.30 am breakfast 7.5h gap 12ish lunch 6h gap 6ish dinner 10.5h gap So I’m doing 3x meals. But they’re pretty spread out. It’s sort of like doing a semi-IF. Because I just don’t snack that much. Food for thought ✌️ Harry
So have an interesting story for you this morning. Happened last week. There’s this ’new guy’ at the gym. Who trains either on his own. Or with one of his mates. Sort of in shape Not super lean You know those tradesmen / manual labourers who clearly have a lot of muscle. And are pretty strong. But don’t have the shape of like a Mens Physique Bodybuilder. You know the kinda person I’m talking about? He trains pretty hard Makes a LOT of noise Attracts attention to himself Sweats a ton etc Does his WHOLE workout on the Smith machine basically. Or in and around it. >< Again .. nothing unusual about any of this tbh. This isn’t the main bit of the story .. The funny thing. He had other members coming up to him afterwards 😂 In the changing room. Asking for his workout routine How long he’s been training for How great it looks How difficult it was etc I was walking past like 🤭🤭 And for me .. It’s such an interesting thing to observe. / establish why people were so intrigued. I rarely / ever get people coming up to me and asking for my routine. But I probably train the opposite to this guy. My conclusion is: Us humans are attracted to new, shiny, fancy objects. That potentially offer us something better than what we’re used to. And this guy’s training style .. Represented that. Rightly or wrongly. What are your thoughts? Would you have asked him for his training routine?! 😅 Let me know. Harry
I wasn’t feeling 100% up for training hard yesterday. Something just didn’t feel right .. You know when you get that feeling? Had a cr*p night's sleep Ate lots of ‘bad’ food the day before Just didn’t feel like I usually do But I was going into the gym anyway for clients .. Had an hour to spare. So I thought I might as well do something. (seems such a waste not to train if you go to the gym IMHO) .. and I usually hate this expression. It’s overused & doesn’t make much sense. BUT I’d probably call what I did a ‘recovery’ session. Nothing taxing at all No big compounds Only small muscle groups I actually used it as an opportunity to do some of these exercises .. That are usually difficult to fit into a regular training program. Things like Lateral flexion A side bend on the cable machine, basically Works the obliques External/internal rotation With a cable again Both ways (in & out) Spine extension I sometimes tag this at the end of my pull sessions when I have time Basically inverse crunch on the back extension machine And you know what? A - it felt really good doing these .. Wasn’t that difficult overall But was able to train these smaller muscles well These smaller muscle groups play a big role in how your body functions Injury prevention etc And B - woke up this morning all good .. Much better than yesterday .. Until I had to start clearing up the dog’s ‘accident’ at 6 am 🤯 Which involved plenty of scrubbing .. Good job I did those internal/external rotations yesterday at the gym .. 😂 Hope you’re having a great Sunday Harry