• Will Foden

Client Journey - Why the long game always wins.......

Now more than any other time I can remember, people are looking to take the shortcuts towards their health and fitness goals. But these are the ones who are digging themselves a hole when it comes to their progression, overstepping the mark and totally missing the point.

Covid-19, the circuit breaker and lockdown periods in the UK are no excuses when it comes to getting your act together and committing to a long term plan.

Meet my online client Chris. Chris is a Farrier by trade, and as you can imagine he is super busy all day on his feet and working long hours.

Years of malnutrition, poor diet habits, and a lack of control when it came down to drinking lead Chris's health the spiral out of control.

The action plan was simple, to build from the base up, aim to improve strength, improve his health through nutrition and use time to our advantage.

Here's what he had to say:

"I reached out to Will for help with training because I wasn’t getting the results I wanted for my performance and weight loss so wanted some education and support from somebody who knows.

I achieved a decent weight loss (currently 12kg) and built a decent strength and performance base and knowledge on types of training and also recovery and nutrition and how to change all to suit how my body was feeling. Obviously, the aesthetic and health change was huge as well as being a lot fitter was the highlight of the program.

As a busy farrier, the main things I learnt were the aspects of recovery, as well as sometimes less is more. Will also got me to eat more, which was a learning curve in itself.

If someone was thinking about coaching what would you say?

I would say it was a good idea to give you a starting point or to improve your fitness goals it’s good to have someone who knows what they are talking about. The next target its to keep improving and get stronger and fitter to perform in my hobbies.

If a businessman or woman was to consider getting their health and performance on track, what would you encourage them to do to start targeting first?

Firstly I would recommend getting their nutrition in order and learn a basic understanding of why? Then get them work on their cardio as this totally changed how I felt from a health perspective so I would get them to do this before starting with lifting weights.

The reason I decided on coaching was to get some help and knowledge. I had been training and working out for a while and was stuck in a vicious circle I’d lose weight and then burn out and then end up putting it back on again. I also had a bad stomach from excessive alcohol consumption, which caused me lots of lof bloating and discomfort with certain foods.

I knew Will from training BJJ and asked him for his help. After giving Will all my input he sorted out a macro and supplement plan to help with my stomach issues and showed me I wasn’t eating enough for training and for my job which is manual labor. The training plan cycled to work on both strength and conditioning. There was consistent communication with Will and my program would be changed around to how my body was reacting to each phase of training.

During my time coaching with Will I learnt a lot, he explained everything and why with each phase so I understood. It was good to have a 3rd party there also for a bit of reassurance and help.

Working with Will felt more like a team effort which I enjoyed, and think this approach to coaching is better than someone telling you what to do without an understanding of why.

I would highly recommend Will for a coach he’s a decent guy full of knowledge and loves what he does."

When Chris came to me his nutrition was sporadic and sub-optimal meaning that he didn't have enough fuel in the tank to actually get his metabolism to kick into gear, take the pressure off and allow his body to use fat as a fuel source. So we bumped him up to 2800-3500 from 1500 to give him the energy for his metabolism to recover, reduce inflammation and really start to speed his metabolism up in the long run. Remember starving yourself won't get you anywhere in the long run, fuelling to adapt will allow you to thrive long term.

Success leaves clues and make no bones about it Chris is super hard working, a weapon of a fighter as well as someone who will keep on pushing when the time was right. But taking the health first approach unlocked his potential, gave his body the ability to respond, calmed down, become nourished and now he really has the base to drive the adaptation he wants.

This was all a system, a process and let's make it clear that everyone is different.

If you are struggling with your health and fitness goals and need some guidance on where to turn or some reasoning then book in for a consult and let's see what we can do?

Stay Strong

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