Blinco Built personal training

Blog

  • Looking to clean up your nutrition? Start here

    Looking to clean up your nutrition? Start here

    Just started planning our first nutrition challenge in the new gym and I thought it would be a good time to share the nutrition philosophy we follow here at Blinco Built

    It’s simple, but crazy effective

    1) Eat whole foods
    2) Prioritise protein
    3) Veggies with every meal
    4) Slow down
    5) Fats are not the enemy
    6) Eat with intention, not emotion

    Breaking that down a little

    1) Make sure 80% of your calorie intake is from unprocessed foods

    That ensures you are eating nutrient dense foods that will be more filling and have less calories than processed varieties and it also gives you enough to leeway to enjoy a meal out with friends, or the odd bit of toast, pasta etc

    2) Protein is important!

    It helps maintain muscle mass, which keeps metabolism up while losing weight and is also really filling, think eating a steak vs eating a bowl of pasta, one is easy to overeat, one is not

    3) Food quality!

    This one’s simple, at least 1 fist of veggies with breakfast lunch and dinner, 2 fists for professionals 👊

    4) Eat slowly!

    It takes around 15 minutes for the signals to go from your stomach to brain to tell you that you’re full, if you finish your meal in 5, go back for seconds and finish that…

    You can see why that’s a problem, you want to stop at satisfied, 80% full and not 100% full for most meals

    5) Fats don’t make you fat!

    They are essential for a huge list of functions, prioritise less processed fats such as olive oil, avocados, nuts and coconut oil

    6) Foods aren’t good or bad

    They either move you towards, or away from your goals, it’s that simple

    Using foods to make yourself feel better is a slippery slope, it’s better not to start doing that

    However, if you have a poor relationship with food already it’s definitely advisable to seek help with that

    It doesn’t have to be anything major, but changing the conversation from how food makes you feel emotionally to how it makes you feel physically can be really helpful

    Eating with the intention of fuelling the body I.e “will this give me energy and vitality or make me sluggish” rather than eating to feel less sad

     

    Book your free initial phone consult to see if you qualify for our 28 Day Kickstarter!

    https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=17216574&appointmentType=13896304

     

  • How to find a sustainable routine

    It’s not the what you do that makes the difference, it’s the why and then how you do it

    At this point you could see research on people trying the same exercise and diet routines and getting results or not getting results based on their opinion on whether those exercise and diet routines would work (yup, if you think it won’t work, it won’t work 🤯)

    Let’s go deeper though, because this applies to so much more

    What about depression and learned hopelessness?

    Having suffered through depression a couple of times in my life, and with a genetic predisposition on all sides with that condition it has been a large part of my learning


    It’s through my study, self experimentation and hard lessons, that I’ve come to realise you can do all the things (the “what”) and it doesn’t help at all, unless you start with the “why” and that guides you to the “how”

    The things work (mediation, gratitude, purpose, exercise, social support etc), but only if they themselves are meaningful

    Why is it important for you to be your best self? Not just for you, but for those you care about, who does your best self help?

    I meditate because I am more patient and caring and kind when I do, to my partner and my son, my members, my family, all the people I care about, I show up more focused and more fun when I practice gratitude

    You may think that doing it for others puts you at risk of other people’s whims, I say it keeps you on track

    If you are doing it for those people that truly matter to you, then when it works you’ll see more love, kindness and fulfilment in your life

    If the ones that love you aren’t too impressed with how you’re acting, it’s probably a good indication to evaluate how you’re acting, you won’t always get it right after all

    Start with your why, then figure out your how, and then implement the what’s, you won’t get it right the first time, it will an iterative process, but it’s worth it, for you and for everyone you care about

    Need help with increasing your self-confidence, moving pain free and enjoying life outside of the gym? We can help, just follow the link below to book your free phone consult now:

    https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=17216574&appointmentType=13896304

     

     

  • Are you trying to be perfect?

    Wabi Sabi. 
    Acceptance of the imperfection and the incompleteness of nature, even our human nature
    It’s a beautiful concept, in a world where machine learning and mass production are becoming more and more pronounced, there is something beautiful about the concept of imperfection
    Think about the power of accepting yourself, as imperfect as you are, and then the power of celebrating that imperfection

     

    Those steps would give you so much more hope when you tackle hard things

     

    Too often when we try something new we have an image of perfection in our minds
    “I’m going to do this transformation and I’m going to train 5 days a week, and I’m going to going to follow this meal plan 100% of the time for the next 6 or 8 weeks and it’s going to be amazing!”

    If that does happen, it won’t happen every time, and the expectation of perfection from yourself is more likely to set up a fall that you won’t have seen coming, no matter how many times it’s happened before

     

    Now, this isn’t to say you shouldn’t try your hardest, or that you shouldn’t set your sights high, it’s the idea that in the pursuit of great, you will fall, you will stumble, you won’t be perfect, and how good is that? 

     

    Even better, the journey never stops

     

    It’s beautiful, because it makes it interesting, it makes it worthwhile, if anyone could do it, there’d be no reason to pursue it at all 

     

    Embrace Wabi Sabi
  • Are you playing the infinite game?

    Are you playing the infinite game?

    Are you playing the infinite game or the finite game? 

    Hopefully your answer is: it depends

    Finite games have their place, these are the games you can play to win, like Monopoly (imagine the horror of playing Monopoly forever…) 

    Infinite games cannot be won, hopefully you are playing a finite game with your relationships, or your health

    You don’t want to play a finite game with your health

    This isn’t to say that finite games can’t be included in your infinite game of health

    Workouts should be finite

    Anyone that’s done a 5km row will know that sometimes it can feel infinite

    However, too often people take a finite view of their health, you may have done this yourself, I know I have

    “Oh I’ll start in January”

    As if your health doesn’t matter for months at a time

    “I just need to go 100% for the next 3 weeks”

    That sounds quite finite

    “I need to feel like I’m absolutely wrecked after a workout, otherwise I don’t feel like I’ve done anything”

    Sounds like you might need a properly planned program that includes regular testing to show your progress

    Health doesn’t stop, you can’t tell your body to ignore what you do to it for periods of time and hope it doesn’t matter, it all matters

    Which might sound depressing, or it might sound empowering

    Depends on whether you’re playing a finite or infinite game 😉

    A good way to move your view on this is to think about meeting your grandchild for the first time, are you going to be able to get on the floor and play with them?

    Will you be able to play with them when they’re 5 or 6 years old?

    Will you see them have their own kids?

    If that’s the case, it’s time to start playing the infinite game, because there probably won’t come a time when your health isn’t important

  • Walking into a new gym can be SCARY!

    Walking into a new gym may be the scariest thing you have to do

    It’s a foreign environment, you have no idea what to expect, there are people in there that know each other really well (if the gym has a great community), which is great!

    Except they don’t know you so you immediately feel like an outsider

    Even if you’ve tried many gyms in the past, you can feel this anxiety when starting somewhere new

    This is why we meet with everyone 1on1 before you start, then you at least have a friendly face

    You can go through you can be confident that your coach has your best interests at heart, because we find out what matters to you and make sure we can deliver on that

    Also, we treat you the same way we would if you were coming to our house for the first time, make sure you are seen, you are not just a number and you are made to feel at home

    That’s important, if this place is become a safe space for you to become a better version of yourself

    You need to trust that this is a place that it is safe to push yourself and to become part of a community of people that are all striving to live life more fully outside of the gym

    The gym doesn’t have to be scary, it can be the start of an incredible journey to being more self confident, a more energetic parent, and a fitter and stronger human

    Take the first step and we’ll meet you half way

  • You need problems

    You need problems.

    The idea of any sort of improvement isn’t to eliminate all your problems, it’s to get rid of the boring, annoying problems and replace them with meaningful, joyful problems, the kind of problems you’d love to have

    Problems like, should you kick the footy with your kids or go for a run, ride or swim with them? Instead of worrying about whether your back will give out while picking the laundry basket up

    Not worrying about whether your body will hold to basic tasks vs being able to live life fully outside of the gym

    Problems like, should you have pasta or steak for dinner? Instead of worrying about how you are going to stop putting on weight

    Not knowing whether you should cut carbs, try keto or start fasting vs having a plan that allows for you to enjoy the foods you love in the portions that will make you feel great and get the results you want

    There are good problems, the ones that are new and interesting and fun to solve, the ones you upgrade to, and there are the bad problems, the ones you have tried and failed to solve over and over again

    The way to get better problems? Increase knowledge, skills and get someone or something thing you are accountable to that will guide you along the way

    What problems do you have that you’d like to upgrade?

     

  • Everything is a skill, why you should treat weight loss like a new job

    Everything is a skill. Once upon a time you didn’t know how to tie your shoelaces, what about your job? Did you walk on and know everything you know now and do the same quality of work you do now?

    Of course not

    Training and nutrition are not different. You can’t expect to try once and be incredible, no one has ever performed anything of difficulty well the first time they tried

    You will have to try and fail, like you did when you started your job, and deal with mistakes, like you still have to do with your job, with time and help you will get better

    It helps to get someone to show you the ropes, imagine starting a job where no one tells you anything, not even what you do, and you’ve just got to scrawl through google and instagram to find out how to do everything

    You probably wouldn’t stay for long

    Find someone to help you on the journey, someone to show you the ropes, the common downfalls and what needs to be achieved. Sure, you’ll put your own spin on things, but it helps to have support and guidance

    Take on your health journey as if learning a new skill and you’ll be better able to see failure as learning and mistakes as growth

  • Why we lift weights, and you should too

    Why do we lift weights? It’s a good question, why not just do aerobic cardiovascular work all the time? There are certainly some huge benefits to being aerobically fit, like there are to being strong, our stance is, why not both? 

     

    “Strong people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general” – Mark Rippetoe 

     

    Aside from being a funny quote, there’s definitely some truth to it, increased muscle mass does lead to lower rates of all-cause mortality (harder to kill), for reasons related to metabolic benefits, more muscle mass generally makes it easier to keep body fat levels down and makes activities easier to do, if things like running and going to the gym are easier to do people are more likely to do them, making them stronger, and creating a self perpetuating cycle of better health

     

    Not sure about the useful part, although physical health makes mental and emotional health a lot easier to obtain, and certainly if you are chronically sick it is much harder to perform at your usual level, so maybe it’s just a harsh truth.. 

     

    In any case, strength is critical to living an optimal life, it also makes going to the gym a lot more fun when you can feel yourself getting stronger 

     

    The way we build strength is also important, it is arguably ‘safer’ to build strength using machines that control the direction of the weight and sit you in a nice comfortable seat, however that kind of defeats the purpose, if we want to be able to play with our kids, pick up boxes from the floor, elbow people out the way for the last 48 pack of toilet roll at the start of a lockdown, then we need to be strong in a dynamic environment. We need to be able to transmit force from the floor through our legs, our trunk and into our shoulders and arms, particularly when fighting for toilet paper

     

    We also need to practice (remember, everything is a skill) the functional patterns that pop up in human life over and over again, these are:

     

    1. Squat
    2. Hinge
    3. Pull
    4. Push
    5. Lunge
    6. Carry

     

    People don’t go to nursing homes because they’re sick, they go because they can no longer perform those movements, so they need someone to do it for them 

     

    Doing these movements with skill, and then with force is critical to living a full life, a life where you are not sitting on the sidelines

     

    We practice at least 3 of these movements in every session, across a range of sets and reps schemes. Sets (groups of reps) and reps (actual amount of times you perform the movement before resting) determine the focus of our strength training

     

    Generally, higher reps equate to lower weight and a more muscle building (hypertrophy) focus and can also be used to really learn the skill, while lower reps equate to more max strength focus as we can increase the weight due to fatigue being less of a factor. The amount of sets will control the overall volume of the weight being lifted during the session, and will vary depending on the focus of the session 

     

    We also manipulate rest periods accordingly, generally less rest during hypertrophy phases and more rest during strength phases. What we love to do is to add accessory work (work not going to fatigue you from your main lifts, life core work or shoulder work etc) in the rest periods during strength phases to keep classes a bit more interesting 

     

    We need to swing between both hypertrophy and strength phases as the body will become used to each phase over the course of 3-6 weeks and our returns will diminish, so by changing between these phases we can keep the gains coming at a good rate

     

    There is also more metabolic and muscular fatigue associated with hypertrophy phases, whereas strength phases fatigue the central nervous system more, so these do need a rest from time to time as well

     

    The challenge to a great strength program is to vary the amount in the right way so that we are walking the line between enough stimulus to create change in the muscles, but not too much so that it causes injury. This is where art meets science, particularly when training groups. Stress, sleep and nutrition also play into this mix and so generally we will do less max strength work over Christmas as stress is often higher, sleep is lower and nutrition is…. Well we know where nutrition is over Christmas 

     

    I hope these gives you a little insight into why we do what we do at Blinco Built and gives you a greater understanding of how your training fits into the context of leading a healthy life.

  • An Easy Method to Supercharge Your RESULTS!

    When’s the last time you counted how fast you perform a squat? Sure you count the reps, the weight and the sets, but tempo? What the hell is that about anyway?

    Tempo is the time you take to go down, how long you stay in the bottom (stretched position), how long you take to go up, and how you stay at the top (shortened position)

    It’s represented by four numbers:

    4020

    This would be 4 seconds down, 0 pause, 2 seconds up, 0 pause

    This is a great tempo for teaching the movement, taking movements slowly forces you to focus on each part of the movement, it also prioritises the stabilising muscles as you are less able to use your tendons to just bounce out of movements. This also means it’s great for preventing injuries like back pain in squats and deadlifts

    The other great benefit is the tension it puts the muscles under means you get greater growth and expend more energy

    Lastly, by manipulating tempo you can change the effect of your training thereby giving you another way to avoid plateauing with your strength and your results

    If you aren’t using tempo you are leaving a HUGE amount of progress on the table, try it in your next workout and you will feel the difference, during the workout and the next day

  • Principles vs Strategies

    Principles vs Strategies

    What are principles vs strategies and why should you even care? 

     

    If you’re like everyone else, you’ve probably banged your head against the wall chasing different strategies to get the results you want without a clue what the principles are and wondered why you never get the result and if you do happen to luck out and get a result you quickly lose it

     

    It’s why losing weight and keeping it off is so hard for most, not because studies show it is statistically unlikely, but because most approaches worry about strategies and fail to teach people the principles

     

    Principles cannot be broken, they are natural law. You know they are true because if you reverse a principle it seems ridiculous, the classic, to lose weight you have to eat less calories than you use, the opposite is to eat as much calorie dense foods as you can and move as little as possible, obviously that won’t work

     

    Principles are the territory. Strategies are the techniques you can use to get through the territory. The method you use to climb over the mountain. Strategies are situation specific, principles never change

     

    Once you know the principle, you can find the strategy that will work for you, and if a strategy doesn’t work you’ll be able to figure out why

     

    Went keto and didn’t lose weight? Knowing that keto didn’t help you eat less calories means you move onto a different strategy that might help you feel fuller and less likely to overeat

    Working to principles is empowering. If you stick to the principles then failure is less disheartening and becomes more of informative process, it’s not that you are a failure, it’s that you need to find the right strategy for your situation

    If you need help finding the principle for certain areas then it helps to find professionals that can help, and is also a good test for those professionals as well

    Stay tuned for some important nutrition and training principles you can apply for awesome results!