Did you know that you don’t have to be going 100mph your whole dieting phase? Do you think you needed to always be pushing more cardio or eating less food?

Are you a female who’s always struggled to get lean glutes? Do you find yourself feeling that it is impossible?

Have you got to a point where fat loss has stalled? You’ve tried everything but you just can’t seem to get leaner, right? In truth, it is simply that your body has adapted to its current input and output; as such, staying there is no longer creating enough of a negative energy balance (calorie deficit) to continue to lose fat.

Have you ever heard someone say they’ve just completed their ‘recomp’ and you have no idea what they are talking about? Are you confused as to why you would complete one if the goal was to add more muscle mass?

Instagram might make dieting look cool and give you the impression that it is very easy; however, in reality, this is far from the truth.

If you follow competitors on Instagram, you may see that – on the odd occasion, whilst they are dieting – they will have a day in which they consume a lot of food. This is known as a refeed.

If it is your first time dieting for a show/shoot, or even just a holiday, it can feel a little overwhelming to know where to begin. There is so much information out there telling you about “This is the best diet ever”, or that “Keto is King”, it’s easy to get confused when you don’t quite know what you’re looking for.

As I write this (Aug 2021), I am currently in the process of doing 4 shows in a twenty-day period! It’s the first time in my competitive career that I’ve ever done something like this. In 2017 I only did one show; then in 2020 I did one show before lockdown hit, and therefore I had never truly experienced what it feels like to do back-to-back shows or multiple shows over a short period of time.

If you have dieted in the past, you will have no doubt hit a point where fat loss either slows down or completely stalls. This can be incredibly frustrating if you are already doing a lot of output (cardio and steps) and not eating very much. This is usually when people give up and say, “this just isn’t for me”, when in fact it is, it’s just about knowing what to do to continue to elicit more fat loss.

Although many things have changed over the years with bodybuilding, there are two things that have remained consistent: the rate at which you add muscle mass and the rate at which you lose body fat. The only thing that has changed over the years is our patience with each of those goals.

A high day(s) is a simply a strategic increase in calories that is used during prolonged dieting phases, to aid with fat loss. It used to be more frequently referred to as a ‘refeed day’, but the terminology has changed, along with its practice and how its implemented.

In some cases, yes. If you’re a beginner or an assisted individual (anabolic steroids) you’ll be able to grow muscle mass whilst dropping body fat. The physiological reason being that is the mechanism which builds muscle tissue are at such a heightened level, even in a calorie deficit.⁣

Now we all know progressive overload is one of the biggest driving forces in muscle growth along with nutrition/calories but that being said getting greedy with progression won’t help you.

It’s actually the important stuff, the stuff people miss, ignore and avoid but it’s the stuff that helps us achieve results. Training and nutrition are the easy things we all know how to do them.

Are you frustrated with the lack of size on your glutes? Are you confused by all the different opinions on what you should or shouldn’t do to grow them?

Are you frustrated that your physique isn’t changing? Have you been lifting the same weights for a long period of time? Here’s the thing – in order for you to gain muscle mass, there are three key things that MUST increase and change over time:

Would you like to add more muscle to the top portion of your chest? Are you spending hours doing incline work, but it only seems like the lower portion of your chest is growing?

Do you find yourself frustrated with your progress (or lack of!) in certain muscle groups? Are the same muscle groups lagging behind other areas that are growing quicker?

Do you want that V taper back? Do you struggle to add mass to it? Of course you do. Why? Because the wider your back is, the smaller your waist appears.

If you look at men and women with amazing size and shape to their quads, there a few common traits amongst them. The first is that they all train very hard. The second is that they are all strategic in their programming and incorporate the fundamental aspects of training to continually add muscle.