Fit with Amin

Client spotlight: Alex

Alex came to me earlier in the year with a clear and defined goal to lose weight. Since we started, whatever the prescription, Alex trusted the reasoning for it and executed it at the next available opportunity. My favourite example of this was offering to run errands for colleagues when her step count needed to be bumped up.

Although Alex is most impressed with the 7kg she lost across 12 weeks training with me, the metric I’m most proud of is that the amount of complaints per session progressively decreased even as the intensity of our sessions together went the other way. Truthfully, I’ve never met anyone who vocalised their dislike of exercise more than Alex, which was a challenge for me to pick my battles and get creative with strategies to keep her on track with her goals and ensure she was mentally engaged and focused when I wasn't around. Fast forward 12 weeks from when we started, she’s showing up to sessions flaunting the activewear she probably never thought she’d get excited about wearing and is actually using a gym membership she didn’t even have a little over three months ago.

Alex - I hope you've learned to assign an appropriate level of importance to the number on the scales and to take a holistic view of your overall wellbeing and fitness. I'm confident you know that even if it doesn't align with expectations, the net can still be positive depending on what you're doing with the other 23-odd hours of your day. Reading testimonials like this remind me of why I started doing this in the first place and you should know you've played your role in making me a better coach to other clients I come into contact with. Thank you for trusting me and also noticing my nice arms.

This guy is saved as ‘Eric The Healer’ in my phone. I was very lucky to have met him years ago and ever since, he’s been treating me for a wide range of issues from general check ups to posture assessments to MCL tear rehab. His depth of knowledge, genuine care and understanding of the importance for me to move freely ASAP is something I admire a lot about him.

For anyone in Northwest Sydney struggling with any niggles, Eric is your guy - and if you’re not from around there, he’s worth the trip.

I first met Chris over 20 years ago when we were both playing football for the same club and getting ready for the new season was his main motivation for coming to me and asking me to train him - specifically improving his speed and agility.

I think it should be a given that any health practitioner should aspire to help their clients reach a point of autonomy whereby they're educated and armed with the tools to keep improving their health without them. In Chris' case, I am very confident the trajectory he's on now is only leading him to a better version of himself and I know he has so much more potential to fulfil.

The lessons haven't been one-way either. I've learned so much myself and am a better coach as a result of my time with Chris. The chance to put some of my knowledge of a game I love so much to use when programming his sessions was something I really enjoyed and I'm sure I’ll explore this more in the future.

Onto the next...

Much like guidance on how much sleep we should all be getting, hydration is another topic to which the default position is to refer to general rules like 8-glasses a day or for some a calculation based on body weight. If you are active though, there is more you can do to learn about your own hydration needs i.e. calculating your 'sweat rate'.

It is worth noting that the formula defined here doesn't account for all variables which change body weight during the course of exercise (e.g. glycogen stores which are utilised) but is nonetheless an effective way of getting more scientific with your approach to hydration.

As you'll see, calculating your sweat rate will involve weighing yourself both prior to and after exercise. If you do happen to go to the toilet between those two weights being recorded, I'd suggest scrapping it for the day and trying another time rather than trying to estimate the weight of your bladder/bowel movements.

Another point to add is that it's not just how much your sweating but what you're losing through your sweat which should feed into your recovery strategies. However, unless you're an athlete you're probably not going to run off and get the sodium concentration of your sweat measured, so revert to the basics of not just drinking but also eating clean and you'll more than likely be replacing key minerals and nutrients you sweated out.

Blame it on the rain
Blame it on COVID
Blame it on your genetics
Blame it on your family history
Blame it on the media
Blame it on the cabal
Blame it on gluten
Blame it on lactose

Blame it on whatever you want...

The truth is that some people are dealt bad hands in this world, but most people aren’t.

Let this be the last year you blame and realise all the answers are within.

Also, use the latest mandate from our nanny state tonight to realise who you’re spending time with/attracting into your life. It’s one of the clearest and most reliable windows into your future there is.

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Final FightPit (boxing) class for the year done. Hats off to this crew and everyone else continuing their training during the holidays.

2021, we go again 🥊

That’s a wrap! Project PR by WHOOP (an 8-week running program for members) came to an end today with the final test a 5km time trial. Sub-20min was the goal for me when I started but truth be told, when I woke up this morning I really didn’t feel like I was up for it despite logging approx 30-35km running every week on top of my usual exercise since Oct.

The key takeaways:

1. Set your goals, break down the steps between where you are and the end objective and adjust accordingly through the process
2. Coaches can be coached - as much as I love paying attention to the details of my own programming, it was nice to have at least part of my training handed to me - I’ll forever be a student
3. The mind will always want to quit well before the body is actually at its limit. If I’d listened to the limiting beliefs in my mind earlier today, I’d have lost the opportunity to ingrain another layer of resilience which serves as a stepping stone for the next/more difficult goal being reached

Average speed = 17km/hr

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It is a great pleasure to officially welcome Amin to the PitFit family. Amin started off as a client with us to change up his training routine and from the beginning has been extremely passionate about Fitness & HEALTH learning and developing in every way possible. As he was studying for his qualifications he did all of his experience hours in our facility and it was obvious from the first day that he would be an amazing fit into our values, culture & community.
➕ Amin will be taking our Tuesday Morning FIGHT PIT sessions as well as Saturday LIFT PIT
learn more about your new Coach👇🏻

A big sweat + a big smile + a bigger brain than you started with = mission accomplished

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FYI anyone on insta can follow me on there too

I never truly appreciated the value of a coach until I was a client myself. I have used coaches in the past at different times for very, very different reasons. Whether it was simply to provide me structure in the aftermath of grieving the loss of a family member or to work up close with someone I respected to learn how they deliver their training, I’ve always come out the other end better off.

Here’s 5 reasons I think are most important. What are your experiences? Have I missed any that you want to share? 👇

So I’ve been spending more time working on the back end of how I will run my PT business recently. Part of the on-boarding process for my clients will include a pre-exercise screening questionnaire. I thought I’d do some beta testing with some friends before it went live. As expected, they all took it very seriously 🤣 enjoy

Very pleased to announce that I have officially completed my studies and am now a certified Personal Trainer! This adds to my Group Exercise Instructor certification that I completed earlier in the year and marks the beginning of a new chapter in my life that I'm very excited for.

Those closest to me will know that I have always strived to turn any pain in my life into some form of purpose and this is no different. I know I can help people avoid unnecessary suffering from poor lifestyle habits and that is exactly what I am going to do.

Special mention to Bass and Nigel for all their guidance and insights during my work placement at PitFit in North Ryde over these last few months. I've had a great time getting to know you guys and your members and get a taste of what's to come.

Time and time again I see discussions online about weight management being boiled down to one thing - calories in (i.e. consumed) VS calories out (i.e. expended). Not only does that oversimplify the topic and totally dismiss a raft of other important factors, but by solely focusing on these numbers, this then cascades into a disproportionate focus on the reading on a set of bathroom scales. In doing so, the opportunity to take other metrics into consideration and take a holistic view of overall health and wellbeing is lost.

Irrespective of whether you're someone trying to lose weight (i.e. trying to achieve a calorie deficit) or someone looking to gain weight (i.e. calorie surplus), the fact is that if you're still regularly consuming excessive saturated and trans fats, refined sugars and processed foods in general, you may have out-trained your calorie intake but this doesn't automatically imply that your overall health is technically improved. The net outcome of your own calories in VS calories out calculations may be promising, but what you haven't done (and cannot do) is reverse the damage done to things like your gut microbiome, the spike in insulin levels, the hardening of the arteries, inflammation that was caused - the list goes on.

To put it metaphorically, think of it like standing over a fire and pouring water on it from one side and petrol on the other. Managing weight in a sustainable way that can be a lifelong norm really is more complex than simply looking at a number on a set of bathroom scales and measuring success/failure on that metric alone - context is essential.

Since transitioning to a plant-based diet in 2018, I've scoured all over Sydney to find the best places to eat all the vegan equivalents of the cuisines I enjoy eating the most. This list is by no means exhaustive, but should give you plenty of options if you're curious about sampling some vegan food next time you're looking for a new spot to check out.

Also worth noting that not all of the restaurants/cafes I've listed are exclusively plant-based, which means if you're going with others that want to stick to eating what they normally would, it keeps everyone happy. Tap the bottom left of the second slide for links to each of restaurant/cafes insta page.

I'm always on the hunt for more places to try, so if I've left any of your favourites off my list, please let me know.

Too often in life, we wait until the pain of our current life situations to exceed the fear of the unknown before making a change. This pattern reveals itself in all sorts of contexts. The foods we shouldn't be eating, the exercise we know we should be doing, the relationship we should walk away from, the job we should change - the list goes on. We may not consciously think about it in this manner, but ultimately, every decision we make in life is rooted in either love or fear.

Eventually, there's a tipping point. When it comes to your health, educating yourself to understand that prioritising it in the decisions you make on a daily basis has the potential to help you excel in every other facet of your life - from how you perform your job, to being a better friend or partner to someone you care for or becoming a more refined version of yourself that embodies a growth mindset in everything you do.

The toned arms, the 6-pack, the ass that's won't fit through the door - whatever it is you're trying to attain, the result you see is no more than what's visible on the surface. The truth is they're all bi-products of learned behaviours that are transferable and will make you more resilient and able to perform at your potential outside the gym as much as in it.

Don't become another statistic - act now before you and the people who care about you suffer more than is necessary. I've seen it first hand and it fu***ng hurts. A lot more than any workout ever has.

If you’re reading this, chances are you are undertaking some form of exercise or have at some point in the past. Whether your goal is or has been to build muscle, improve endurance or lose weight, you’ve probably experimented with nutrition and different types of workouts to varying degrees of success - but how much time have you committed to your rest and recovery as a means of reaching those goals? If the answer is nothing or not much, you’re not alone. In fact, if sleep is a subject you’re only beginning to learn more about, I suggest going back and reading an earlier post I did on ‘Understanding the Stages of Sleep’ first as it will help the ideas shared here make more sense.

For anyone interested in tracking their sleep, I personally use a strap which can be relied on given this wearable has been independently validated against data collected using the gold standard test for tracking sleep i.e. Polysomnography or PSG to be within a few per cent accuracy across all stages of sleep. It is one of the more expensive ones on the market, but well worth it in my opinion if you’re serious about taking your fitness and overall health to the next level.

If you have any of your own tips on how you've improved sleep that I haven't covered, I’d love to know what they are 😴

The term 'functional' in the context of exercise is up there as probably one of the most misused terms of the 21st century. When we think of structuring a functional training program, at its core, exercise selection should be driven by those patterns that recur most in day to day life.

Like most things when it comes health and fitness, the motivation to scale businesses and appeal to the masses means that for the girl working in the childcare centre and the guy driving forklifts, each of whom are executing very different movements throughout their day, functional training should look different but rarely does.

Want to know if you've got any gaps to diagnose in your training? My suggestion is for the next week or two, make a list of all the exercises you perform as you would have planned in the absence of seeing this post. Similar to when you may have prepared a food diary, you want the results to be a genuine reflection of your current habits.

Once that's done, label each of your exercises based on what movement pattern they fall under and make corrections there on wherever necessary.

In this next instalment of "Things we should have been taught in school" I shine a light on nutrient and health claims.

Having your wits about you when shopping for food is important to avoid being sucked into your decisions being influenced by flashy packaging, signage and clever marketing tactics like nutrient and health claims.

As I prepared this post, I couldn't help but at least be grateful for the fact I don't live in the US after coming across a pretty horrific example of the system clearly failing the interests of the consumer.

So it turns out the liquid from the a**l gland of a beaver is often used to create the "natural" raspberry flavour in food and beverages there. Why would anyone in their right mind still consume such a thing? Well, it turns out the Food and Drug Administration is ok with products with this ingredient to be labelled "natural" because it is from a non-chemical source...

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For those who saw my previous post, you would have noticed that the recipe for my go-to berry smoothie sometimes includes ground avocado seed. Not the most common of ingredients, so I thought it was worth a separate post to unpack exactly why I include it and the science behind its health benefits.

Avocado seeds are a great source of polyphenols which are found in plant-based foods and are very high in antioxidants. It’s well established in the scientific community that consuming foods high in antioxidants can reduce and prevent excess inflammation in the body, which is an ever-present marker of people suffering from a whole range of diseases and illnesses plaguing western society e.g. diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease.

The next time you slice or smash some avo, make sure not to throw the seed out. Here’s what to do next…

- Pre-heat oven to 120 degrees
- Rinse the seed to remove any leftover avocado and place in the oven for two hours
- After that’s done, throw it in a blender and grind into a powder
- Store in a container and put them alongside all your other seeds (e.g. chia, h**p, flax)

If all this is too hard, feel free to flick me a DM and I’ll gladly come and collect the seeds because I won’t let those babies go to waste.

**SAVE THIS POST**

The first thing I consume each day almost without fail is a smoothie. Why? For me personally, I’m not the type to really crave fruit as they day progresses and once I get to lunch and dinner time, I know my priority is firstly fueling my body for the workout I’ll generally do after work and then knocking off the macro and micro nutrients I haven’t hit for the day when it comes to dinner. That means that in order for me to get my recommended intake of fruit (5 servings i.e. 400g), I’ve got to find a way to consume them early in the day and a smoothie for breakfast does exactly that. I’ll be sharing more of my go-to smoothies over time but will start with my favorite which I like to call “Purple DRANK”.

I've made a special point of including the fiber value for this smoothie which you’ll see in the nutrient summary. Too often we get obsessed with hitting macros in a day without paying enough attention to fiber which forms the foundation for a healthy gut. This smoothie will give men close to 50 per cent of their recommended intake of fiber for a day and 64 per cent for women, so if you're having it early in the day you're well on your way to consistently hitting those targets.

I don’t list it in the ingredients, but when I do have it handy I will also add in a teaspoon of ground avocado seed (yes, you should stop throwing them out!). They’re loaded with a powerhouse micronutrient called ‘polyphenols’ which I’ll cover in another post soon.

This recipe also works great with a plant-based milk instead of coconut water (oat and almond are my favourites).

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photography

When we think of the various “levers” we can pull to influence our health and fitness, exercise and nutrition are topics most of the general population would feel they have a reasonable understanding of. Recovery and in particular sleep is easily the one which isn’t optimised for many people and often forgotten as a mechanism to influence fitness and overall health. There’s simply way too much info to cover in one post, so let’s get the fundamentals in place first by defining the various stages of sleep.

Light sleep: this is the physiological process that is a precursor to deep sleep and the phase you will enter first once you fall asleep. As the name would suggest, you are more susceptible to be affected by your external environment during this phase of sleep (e.g. light, noise). Some research around this suggests we are biologically programmed this way because once upon a time, our ancestors would need to be aware of threats which they could respond to quickly.

Deep/Slow Wave Sleep: 95 per cent of the growth hormones we produce are released during this phase of sleep, making it critical for multiple reasons. In the context of exercise and reaching your fitness goals, ensuring you’re getting sufficient deep sleep is paramount to the muscle damage that you may have suffered in the process of physical activity is repaired and thus preparing your body for the next time you undertake a physical activity.

Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep: this is known as the mentally restorative phase of sleep which impacts the most on memory and cognitive function. It is during REM sleep that short-term memories are converted to long-term ones and is most compromised by our digital lifestyles.

Wake: you may query why this is listed as a phase of sleep, but it’s actually very common for the average person to lose approx. 1 hour of sleep during the night without being conscious of it. This becomes a relevant consideration when planning what time to go to sleep and wake up because by dismissing this, there is every chance you are consistently accumulating a sleep debt you’re not aware of.

My coaching style will be empathetic but I will also provide reality checks when necessary. I put my name in the business for a reason - this is me.

When it comes to clarity around what is shaving years off the lives of most in the developed western world, ignorance is a choice and accessibility to everything you need to be healthy is of little or no concern. It’s time to put down the cookie and get moving.

Here we are in the middle of winter in Australia - what a perfect time to enlighten people on the benefits of cold showers…said no one ever, except me…

I am a big advocate for exposure to the cold. I will go out on a limb here and say that if I was to be asked what the single most effective, accessible and cheapest way to improve health is, it would be incorporating cold showers into your routine (level with getting sufficient quality sleep which I’ll be posting about soon). I’ve converted a few of my close circle of friends to cold showers and not one of them has looked back since. You too can realise your mind and body are capable of not only tolerating the cold, but learning to embrace the feeling in a positive light.

Some of the benefits associated with regular exposure to the cold include:

- Boost immunity through the production of more white blood cells and B-lymphocyte cells (these up-regulate in the presence of an infection to help the body fight it)
- Improve speed of recovery by flushing the body of damaged/weak cells
- Increased energy levels through the activation of brown fat (white fat stores energy, while brown fat releases it to heat the body)
- Reduce inflammatory proteins/markers
- Improved mood through the release of endorphins (a “happy hormone”)
- Boost of confidence and self-belief

The inspiration for me personally beginning to explore this about 18 months ago rests solely with . If you haven’t heard of this guy, I would almost insist on listening to what this man (holder of 26 Guinness World Records) has to teach. As a starting point, I always suggest listening to his interviews on and to get a taste of his philosophy around exposure to the cold and the role of breath in our health and wellbeing. He’s also featured twice on the Podcast which if you have the time (nearly 6-hours combined) is also worth a watch. I say watch and not listen intentionally because he demonstrates the breathing techniques which are fundamental to his methods on the show and you’ll learn more by watching it as opposed to listening.

Depending on how we met, most of you will know me as that aviation consultant guy and/or dj. You’ve probably also noticed that I prioritise my health and fitness and the passion that drives those behaviours has set me on a path to officially enter the fitness industry as a Personal Trainer. In anticipation of me completing my studies this year, I am starting this page to share information that I believe if understood and executed consistently, has the potential to improve health outcomes through means you previously may not have realised.

The overarching philosophy which drives everything I will be communicating when it comes to fitness will become apparent through the content shared here. My intention is for this page to be a genuine, reliable resource of information for anyone looking to establish the habits and discipline that will improve their health, quality of life and general wellbeing.

To put it simply, the topics discussed here will have as much (if not more) to do with the 23-odd hours of the day you aren't exercising as the time you are. By taking this step to go beyond my immediate circle to help others, I aim to empower and educate anyone I come into contact with (even if only in a digital sense) such that they will have the tools necessary to add the years back to their life they may not even be aware they're losing through current lifestyle habits.

I have observed and studied at great lengths in preparation for this moment. When it comes to health and fitness, social media is saturated with content that is communicating flawed advice and I vow here and now that my contribution to this space will be anything but that. We live in an era where the number of followers someone has is directly correlated with the potential influence they exhibit and that google rankings are assumed to be in descending order of truth. As a health care professional who is sharing content, I have a responsibility as the creator to share information that if applied, is safe and evidence based - not simply a means of trying to “be different”. I will take this responsibility seriously.

I also promise that not all my posts will be this long.