Neil Gallagher Training

What an amazing day at my first ever strongman comp.

Amazing field of competitors and I couldn't have asked for better support from friends!

And I came away with a trophy! 🥈

Swipe to see the best tee-shirt in the comp 👀

Today is the last day of my .

I might share some reflections another day, but to be honest, it came about a little by accident. Dry January extended into the spring, then the summer and by that stage, why not continue.

Big positives are being able to go on a night out, and then jump in my car to go home! No hangovers is also a huuuuge appeal.

The pic is some 0.0% Asahi! It's delicious, so if anyone needs any recommendations for nice alcohol free drinks, drop me a message, I've sampled some absolute delights this year!

I'll continue into next year, and though I'm sure I'll enjoy a few actual beers sometime. Not yet

How .motherhood.project.uk managed to get these amazing shots on the most humid evening of the year is beyond me!

Love all the images and I can't wait to embarrass the boys when they're older with the kissing pics!

What a night!

Charity gym rave for

Over £1000 raised so far!

Huge thanks for an amazing night to:












TINYURL.COM/PYRAMIDPERFORMANCE to donate!

Happy Father's Day Dad!

You're the best

Keep it simple.

Getting fitter doesn't have to be complicated. All I needed today were my boots for the wet grass, some cones and a stopwatch.

Keep it simple.

What a weekend ♥.

Climbed trees with them in Tatton Park 🌳.

Swimming lessons with them 🏊.

Climbed Mam Tor with them 🗻. (Only had to carry them a little bit)

Took them to the gym for a fun family class 🏋️.

Then off to the park with them to play on the slides 🛝.

Grateful for the body that allows me to do all this! (bloody tired though)

"I've no time"

Honestly, finding time is hard. You've got to try and make time!

Get productive with your available time too and try this super quick session.

I was trying to review my year, and I stumbled across this old pic from a few years ago.

Anytime I see it, I have to repost it 😂. For the uninitiated, this is Walt. He's about 2/3rds of his way through eating a sofa here.

This was the day and I decided that we'd crate train him!!

Is your phone a useful tool or a soul sucking rectangle?

Consistency doesn't mean perfection.

Tuesday mornings are usually a big admin block for me. I drop the boys at nursery, then I'm at home with a coffee doing session plans and reviewing client progress until it's time to go into the gym.

Not today though. Poor Conor has been ill all weekend, so this morning has been all about snuggling on the sofa watching Bluey (yay) and Peppa Pig (not so yay) whilst Ruairí is at nursery.

Did I get any work done.... Not a bit, didn't even try.

Am I worried? Not really, I know that most of the time, I'm doing the right things. This will probably make the next day or two a little tricky, but I'll be back on track in no time.

The same applies to nutrition. And training. And can be applied to any fitness goal.

Big goals, small steps!

High performance habits aren't just for elite athletes.

If you're chasing progress, look at the long game as well as the here and now. Build habits that will last a lifetime, not just for a two week detox!!

Because why not post a pic of the best boy...

It's easy for coaches to add add and add some more but eventually you'll run out of space in your timetable, out of mental bandwidth and out of options!

We should be showing people the easiest roads to where they want to be. That doesn't mean it's going to be easy....just no harder than it needs to be!

Being a day late to this is very on brand for me.

I've been MIA on social media a little over the last few weeks as the negative sides of Instagram and Twitter in particular were getting to me.

Yesterday was a good day though. I spent some time being proactive online. I unfollowed and blocked accounts that were making me feel worse and I searched and followed accounts that spread positivity and are responsible with their coaching and as a result, I feel like I'm in a more positive space.

I'm very lucky to have a good support network of family and friends around me who I could confide in and share with. My DM's are always open if you need someone to share with too

What a week. Spending a week in Ireland with family, celebrating the new Mr and Mrs McCrossan!

Now and me just need a holiday to recover from a holiday with twin toddlers.

There's a statistic out there that 95% of diets fail, but I'd wager that a lot of those diets *couldn't* succeed.

Everyone is set-up different. Genetically, socially, physically, so why would a "Generic Named Diet"™ work for everyone?

Look at the good things in your current set-up. Make small consistent improvements. Win.

What a brilliant day celebrating Pride with and protesting the trans ban enacted by and .

Someone once asked me "wasn't I worried I'd raise my sons to be gay?" I immediately told them that no, I wasn't.

I sometimes think about what I wished I'd said. and I are doing our best to raise R+C to be good people. I want them to know that no matter what, whether they are straight, gay, trans (or any other part of the alphabet) that we'll love them just the same.

"I have been training with Neil for a number of years. He is an excellent listener, able to identify goals and overcome challenges. He is extremely supportive, experienced and knowledgeable, identifying training needs to achieve any goal. He is very creative, ensuring sessions are always fun, interesting and challenging....and motivates me when I’m being pathetic!! He has given me the the motivation and devised plans to achieve specific goals e.g body weight bench press, chin ups and various other strength targets, also giving nutrition advice to support the training.

As well as pushing me to the limits when I’m fit and well, I consider his main strength to be his overall focus on health and wellbeing. Having been ill and requiring multiple surgeries Neil has devised and implemented rehab plans to regain movement and rebuild strength. He also helped with stress and sleep management.

Neil is genuinely passionate about helping people to become fitter, stronger and healthier. PT sessions with him have been the best investment I could ever have made for my health. I would strongly recommend him and I intend to continue to train with him for years to come."

Thanks

This is a bikini body.

Too often there's pressure to look a certain way to be accepted in fitness, in a bikini, and in your own skin.

Whilst there's nothing wrong with training to look good (I spend large parts of my life helping people do just that) it's important to remember that your body is so much more than what it looks like.

To steal a phrase off

"Wear the fu***ng shorts"

"Be water"

How much should you be eating? That depends...

Do you want to lose body fat?
Do you want to gain muscle?
Do you want to maintain your current physique?
Are you aiming for peak performance?
Are you active day to day?
Are you hungry?

Even though there's scores of different calorie calculators out there, they all provide a rough estimate.

Find your starting point, and adjust from there based on your individual goals!

With my parents still living in Ireland I don't get to see them as often as I'd like to.

But it's so special to see them with R+C when they can visit. ♥

Huge thanks to Karla Telford for this lovely review.

"I have been training with Neil at Pyramid Performance for about 20 months now and more recently have taken up one-to-one PT sessions with him to improve my strength & fitness since giving birth to my little girl last summer.

With Neil's support and expert advice & guidance, I was able to train throughout my pregnancy and found myself back in the gym with my daughter at 6 weeks old!

As a new mum, getting back to the gym and having some time to focus on my physical and mental health & fitness has been really important to me. Neil has always been so accommodating when I've brought my training partner (aka baby Elouise!) with me, and has rocked, held and entertained her during our sessions so that I've never had to compromise on my training.

In addition to the regular fitness classes that I had been attending, I was keen to start doing more strength work in the gym with particular focus on improving my core strength. For our PT sessions, Neil devised a programme that built in a variety of different exercises and workouts which worked my core without it being obvious or boring. One thing I was really keen not to do was to have to spend an hour a week on the floor doing sit-ups and crunches!

During our sessions we took it back to basics with a number of exercises that I had done before but training with Neil gave me the opportunity to really work on improving my technique and building strong foundations to enable me to increase the weight used or up the intensity of my workouts as time went on.

Outside of the gym I also play netball and have definitely noticed a huge improvement in my fitness levels and strength of play on the court since training with Neil. He has also been great at adapting my workouts not just to avoid but to assist with improving some longstanding aches & pains I suffer with plus some new niggles which I've found myself having to contend with since becoming a mum!... "

It's not always gym and rugby here!

Had a brilliant evening shooting my wife and friends in the face.

The gym should be a place where anyone can come and try to improve their health and fitness.

I try to do my part in making people feel comfortable in a gym environment but what can you do, to help yourself?

I missed the first session of pre-season training for , but as you can see, I got some reps in for hunting down scrum-halves whilst on our holidays!

What is remote coaching?

I'm not a hologram there beside you in the gym. I'm not there to count reps for you.

So what do I do?

I'll help you take control of your own training. We will work together to give you a sustainable set of guidelines to get you to your goal!

Sound good? Get in touch