Week 1: Laying the foundations

I’VE been coaching the Amazing 12 Chichester now for several years. You get all types on the program. Their starting condition and shape are different. Their goals are different. How they adapt and cope with the training is different. Their mindsets are different. What they find easy and struggle with is always different. That’s part of what makes my job interesting.

This week at Core Results I kicked off another wave, over eight weeks. I couldn’t have two more contrasting starters.

Reg, with his George Foremanesque stature, hasn’t done any form of physical training in three years and has a lot of weight and body fat to shift. Catriona is slender, a runner and no stranger to cardio classes, but has never done any weight-training before.

While Reg is naturally strong, he’s huffed and puffed his way through the first week when dealing with any kind of aerobic activity whereas Catriona is looking to increase her strength to go with the staying power (aerobic capacity) she already has. She likes the long, steady-type workouts.

Sometimes, when I tell her to rest/recover between sets, Catriona gives me that look of ‘really? What am I supposed to do?’

Runners, typically, just keep going. They’re not used to the weight-lifting and strength-building protocol. So it’s all going to be a learning experience.

It’s taken Catriona years, literally, to step into a weights gym. But she’s here now. She overcame one hurdle to begin this program. She will overcome many more before she is finished.

Learning that more isn’t necessarily better and that recovery is where the growth and change happens is another important lesson.

For Reg it’s a case of getting moving again. He’s a dentist, works hard and, aside from being a fairly low handicap golfer, doesn’t do much in the form of exercise. His diet hasn’t been great. Up to two litres a day of Pepsi Max has taken its toll.

Reg, who turned 49 this week, knew he had to take action. This is the first step. He’s eating cleanly, drinking water instead of the fizzy stuff and now lifting weights. The process will take time. You don’t spend years getting out of shape and reverse the process overnight.

It’s about changing habits – living habits, training habits, thinking habits.

When these habits work against us, they begin to weigh us down. But it’s not always instantly noticeable. That’s why we continue…until we can’t.

As Samuel Johnson once wrote, “The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.”

But Reg is determined. He has accomplished a lot in life. So I have faith in him. He’s a big, hearty man with a personality to match. He weighs around 25st, but the immediate goal is to get down to 20st.

Reg is under no illusions that’s going to take patience, perseverance and, perhaps most importantly, adherence to healthy eating choices. He’s only doing eight weeks, but admits it’s going to take much longer. This is just the beginning. I hope he can last the distance. I keep reminding him that it’s a long process.

This first week calls for some readjustment to lifestyle and eating habits. It’s about laying the foundations. Reg has his family behind him for support. He gets up early (before 6am) to do some extra cardio I have assigned him. He’s working on getting his meals for the week prepared in advance.

But the extra pounds in bodyweight come at a cost. Reg’s already-suspect Achilles tendons and a knee started to ache and he had to sit out one workout this week. I thought it better he take a rest than push through with a sensitive injury of that type (I ruptured my Achilles many years ago).

In fairness to Reg, instead of crying off hurt, he still came into the gym to see if we could find a way around it.

Reg knows the weight doesn’t help him. He also knows that when the bulk comes off he’s going to probably feel and move much better. Plus his golf will probably improve.

Already there have been signs of progress. Put it this way: I had him crawl a short distance when we started. He could barely go forwards and not at all backwards. It left him exasperated.

“I’m going to beat this thing,” he said with determination as the sweat dripped off his head. By the last day this week he was going back and forth far easier. I could see the amazement on his face.

Catriona is all too knowledgeable about the effects of poor lifestyle choices. She’s been a doctor for over 20 years. Most of it [the illness] is self-inflicted.

Being a doctor who knows what’s best for her is partly what shoved Catriona into finally opting to lift weights. She runs a lot, but doesn’t want to be scrawny.

At 50, she’s already in great shape. But she wants the strength to go with it and to learn how to lift properly and safely.  

Prior to starting the program, I gave Catriona a few taster sessions. When we did the squat and deadlift, she could barely do either very effectively. In a short time, she has already made progress. Her deadlift technique is 100% better.

She’s a quick learner, maybe because she dislikes not being good at something.

If you listened to Reg training, though, you’d think he was in a torture chamber, but that’s just how he is. The extra size gets in the way of him being able to move how he should. But I’m already noticing positive changes. We’re taking small steps towards a big goal.

It did make me laugh seeing him pick up the slam ball from the floor with one hand as though it were just a tennis ball. And I thought the ball was going to explode when he drove it into the ground. No wonder he can belt a golf ball!

The first week is now under their belts. It’s the primer before we apply the paint. Remember, the Amazing 12 is progressive. It’s an intelligent program design. No-one gets thrown in at the deep end.

Stay tuned to see how this pair continue. And in two weeks I have another pair starting on a 12-week program to join Catriona and Reg.

I’m now taking applications for my September wave of the Amazing 12. For more details send an email to Claude@intelligentstrength.co.uk.