I spent my whole life at a desk or table, first studying in Monasteries and Universities, and then being a “happiness coach” in Manchester UK, until my very acrimonious divorce.
I didn’t see my three kids for close to a year, I was homeless, living in my car, friends sofas, spare bedrooms for years. But I knew that at least in theory, going to the gym was probably a good idea. So started my fitness journey aged 40. I didn’t have a clue what i was doing, and fitness YouTube influences weren’t as popular as they are today. I made a lot of mistakes, and even really caused myself serious harm to my shoulder , which I still have to adjust my training around, because I was ego lifting without proper form.
Almost ten years in, I’ve had personal trainers, strong man trainers, and built my physique and strength. But even without injury, i’m not genetically blessed to grow muscle, get strong or lose fat unfortunately. I am what they call a ‘hard gainer’, and nothing seemed to help me grow muscle easily or get rid of my body fat.
But with a lot of trial and error, getting my genes sequenced for health markers, i discovered what needed to change, and i implemented a new systems approach tailored to my genes, age and lifestyle.
I originally thought that i was simply not eating enough food to gain muscle, which was kind of true, but all that happened when i started a ‘bulk phase’ was me gaining a lot of fat and a negligible amount of muscle. I was training a lot, and relatively hard, but I was eating the wrong things, doing the wrong type of training, not necessarily unhealthy foods, but just not the right foods for me and definitely eating them in the wrong way and my body was not happy, my body was spending it’s energy fighting the inflammation my eating was causing rather than putting that energy into creating new muscle.
The continuous stress of the divorce, the intermittent and unstable housing situation, no guarantee of seeing my kids caused me so much stress that i rarely slept well if at all. I was systemically fatigued by the stress, lack of sleep, by my new training high intensity cardio training self punishment addiction. No wonder i wasn’t gaining muscle, just gaining stress related body fat.
But eventually things managed to settle down, I got to see my kids, my housing situation improved and i was able to dial-in my sleep and stress to some extent.
And this is what has worked for me:
- Intermittent Fasting – 18/20 hours a day
- Training to Failure – 1 set to warm up, then aiming for close to failure x 5 and failure
- Prioritising Sleep – getting into bed before 11pm and a taking a natural sleep aid
- High Protein Intake – at least 2g of protein per Kg of your body weight daily
- Stress Reduction – implementing life coaching stress reduction ideas, meditation etc
- Body Brushing – Lymphatic drainage before a hot and cold shower daily if possible
- Hormonal Balance – taking hormonal supportive vitamins and supplements
