 As we are now coming out of (hopefully our last) lockdown I am going to take this opportunity to go back and reflect how this Pandemic has affected my business and my clients’ fitness.
Back in March 2020 I was caught completely off guard. I would have never dreamed that there would ever come a time where I wasn’t allowed to train my clients. I sort of sensed that indoor training was going to be restricted. As a matter of fact I don’t even use my Personal training studio much during the summer so there I was jet washing my garden, getting ready to use the outdoors. Next thing it was announced that we need to stay at home and that we are only allowed one our of exercise a day and only by yourself or with other members of your household. That essentially meant that not only my livelihood was taken away from me but also my clients’ fitness and wellbeing. Going into the lockdown I was fully booked and I had clients getting amazing results. What was I to do? I came up with a plan. I decided to start training my clients on video calls. I am not gonna lie. I was clearly out of my comfort zone. The first few sessions I did I was actually so nervous that my knees were shaking. Things got better with time and as we came out of the first lockdown and I was allowed to train clients in person the zoom classes continued. Some people actually believed that it’s really convenient to get fit in their own living rooms or gardens. Also back in March 2020 I lost a few clients who weren’t willing to try video calls but since then I have had lots more clients joining me and I am now in a situation where I am so heavily booked that I cannot really take on any more clients. This winter has been tough. I was only allowed to train clients on on one in public places in the outdoors. We have had some really cold and wet mornings in the local parks but I believe that it’s all been good for morale. Really if you can go out and work on your fitness at 5AM in a muddy and dark park then nothing can stop you. The video calls are still going on. Now the outdoor bootcamps are also there as well as private gardens and in a few days I will be allowed to use my studio again. That might be handy on a rainy day.
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 If you have got eagle eyes you might actually spot that I am actually holding my hat in my left hand in the photo.
John Hardy is the man on the left. What about Neural notching? Now you ask yourself and so did I; what is Neural notching.It doesn’t even exist on google According to Mr Hardy it is a made up term. In case you have never heard of Mr John Hardy. He runs a company called Faster Global which is an education provider for the fitness industry. So why would anyone want to attend a 2 day course about Neural notching? It sounds really nerdy. All I could think of is that it must have something to do with the brain. Well I got the email from Faster Global about the course and it had a short video of a female tennis player and some drills that she did to make her move better. Really? Is this course gonna help me in anyway? On top of that, the course was being held in Fulham. I have never even been to Fulham before. Over the years I have attended a number workshops and courses taught by Mr Hardy and i know that he is a highly intelligent man. I think the first time I came across John Hardy was in FITPRO back in 2009. I attended 2 of his workshops and we were doing press ups with different hand positions and squats with your feet pointing inwards and outwards. Basically everything that John Hardy has taught me over the years has completely blown my mind and the end product is that it has always given me an edge to my coaching skills. Hard to explain why I always come back for more. I have also made great use of some exercise videos that Mr John Hardy has generously shared on Youtube. Especially some suspension trainer videos and dumbbell workouts. These videos have really boasted my programmes that I give my clients. As a matter of fact there was a time that I had really ran out of ideas on the TRX after teaching it for years. I went through Mr Hardy’s videos and I was a reformed coach. Now Mr Hardy has over recent years spent most of his time in the US and him teaching a course in the UK is rarity so that is the main reason I decided to attend this course. I said to myself, even if Neural notching sounds totally nerdy if I spend 2 days with Mr Hardy at least some of his genius must rub off on me. So I signed up for the course. Some of the stuff Mr Hardy taught us I could relate to straight away and apply already the next day. The exercise generator was brilliant. In a way it is nothing new. I use something similar whenever I make a new programme. The Neural nothing course just organised the process a bit more with skills and variables in a table. The fatigue management wasn’t anything new. All personal trainers know this and we always try to get that little extra out of our clients even when they are fatigued. On the course it was just told in a different way. To be truthful it did actually take at least 2 weeks for all the rest of the knowledge that I gained to click in my head. He taught us about skill clusters and variables. He even taught us that squats are actually called vertical displacements down. Doesn’t that sound nerdy? As I said it did take some time before everything that I had learned came into place. I was in the boxing gym with highly skilled boxer and I was teaching him how to deliver an excellent left hook and boom there it was, skill cluster and in the end I was guiding him through the movement with my hands. It is not like the guy didn’t know how to throw a left hook before this but I felt like I had just taken him to another level by breaking down the whole movement and then putting it all together again. In the end I was actually steering him through the whole movement. When we did the “hands on” thing on the course I was actually very doubtful. Would I really wanna be doing this hands on guiding my clients’ bones through motions? By now I have started using skill clusters in my everyday personal training on different skills such as squats, sorry vertical placement down. My clients don’t know what is going on but I can assure you that they are performing and moving much better and it is all down to neural notching. Complete genius. Mr John Hardy I take my hat off for you, my 2 days in Fulham were well spent and I have now taken my coaching to another level. Sorry I meant to say I have taken my coaching skills to another notch in the belt, another neural notch. It is true.
Fat bellies grow in your comfort zone. We live in an era of instant gratification. We want everything to be easy and we want results, instantly. Without having to work for it. We all want to be fit and healthy but we don’t want to get out of our comfort zones. How nice it would be if there would be a pill that you just took that would make you fit. Or, how about a shaky vibration machine that you could use without any effort and in no time? Guess what? I wake up 4 a.m. most mornings to go and train clients who have come out of their comfort zones. They have sacrificed an hour’s sleep for their health and fitness. The thing is; being fit and healthy is a life time commitment. To sign up for personal training for 6 weeks is not gonna do it for you. Then what? Do all the training on your own? Do you really think that you can learn everything I know about fitness in 6 weeks? I have got a lifetime in fitness and along the way I have been fortunate to be educated by some of the best coaches in the world Or do you believe that you can get fit in 6 weeks and then stay fit for the rest of your life? I have a client who has been truing with me twice a week for 11 years. Now you wonder, 11 years is he not fit yet? Well, he is a very busy man. Does lots of traveling and has got no time to go to a gym. Going to a gym is time consuming. You have to get there, get changed do your workout shower and then drive home. This doesn’t include waiting to use equipment in the gym. That is about 2-3 hours for each workout. When he trains with me twice a week it takes him 2 hours and that is the complete fitness package. Back to the subject. We were talking about comfort zones. At one point during the recession when I was really short of clients, someone suggested that I go out on Loughton High road and hand out leaflets, to promote Always in your corner. I never got around to doing that. Somehow, I feel that , this would have looked like I was really desperate. When I think of handing out leaflets in the high road what comes to mind is pizza delivery, 2 for the price of 1. Not a professional service. One thing is certain, handing out leaflets in the high road would have really taken me out of my comfort zone. The point I am trying to make here is that if you ever want to achieve anything you are going to have to come out of your comfort zone and that applies to every aspect of life. Remember, nothing grows in your comfort zone. Only your fat belly. Would you like to have a free consultation? Give me a call or drop me an email. I am a very nice guy but there will come a time when I will take you out of your comfort zone. By Abdi-Karim Berleen/Personal trainer in Loughton Ramadan 2021 is almost upon us. For those of you who don’t know Ramadan is determined by the sighting of the moon. So the fast begins when the new moon is sighted. This means that the month of Ramadan comes about 10-11 days earlier every year. So for the past few years the fasting, especially in the northern hemisphere has been quite difficult as the hours have been long and at times we have had hot days. At one point we were actually fasting for 19 hours and that can be challenging as Ramadan is a dry fast meaning you are not only abstaining from food but you are also not drinking any liquids. So for the next few years the fast is going to be a lot easier as we will be fasting in the spring season and a few years down the line in the winter season. The fasting in Ramadan commences shortly before sunrise and ends just after sunset so this means that it will be considerably easier to fast in the years to come. So how do you stay fit and healthy? The important thing is to try and stay in habit of doing some exercise and perhaps to retain a bit of fitness. A couple of years ago when the hours were really long this was very challenging but staying in habit is ever so important. So what I used to do is about half an hour of exercise right before sunset and sometimes the same a couple of hours after sunrise. What is important is to go easy on yourself, when you go without food and drink for 19 hours it’s not really a time to try for any personal bests. Cardio is probably the best option as cardiovascular fitness is the first to go when you take a break. When it comes to weight bearing exercises a month’s break can actually be good. You can restart and rebuild and actually come back stronger. If you really want to continue the weights then just cut down of volume and intensity. Just do one or two sets of each exercise bearing in mind that weight bearing exercises are metabolic which means you are going to feel hungry afterwards/day after. In all fairness, when we get to December/January when we will only be fasting about 10 hours then all training can go on as usual. When it comes to nutrition it is ever so important to eat the best ever diet in Ramadan. This means “try and stay away from the sambuzas when you break your fast”. You can easily eat twice your daily calories in 10 minutes if you go for the treats when you are starving. Lots of vegetables, fibre and real foods is what will be most beneficial when fasting ramadan. What I have done in recent years is breaking my fast with a smoothie(mixed fruits and vegetables) and only eating a very light meal. Then I have been getting up right before sunrise to have my main meal. At one point I believe I had to set my alarm at 2PM to get up for a big meal. At the time of breaking the fast I have actually drank a minimum of 2 litres of fluids and added another litre with my pre sunrise meal. This is obviously because I have been getting dehydrated on hot days with a physical job. In essence if a person is sedentary then a light training session is a very good option. This could be at a time that suits you.In the morning when you have digested the pre sunrise meal or in the evening just before sunset, whichever works best for you. If you have a physical job and get dehydrated during the day maybe not but if you feel that you will get out of habit then try to stick to your routine but be very kind to yourself. By:Abdi-Karim Berleen/Personal trainer in Loughton Ramadan 2021 is almost upon us.
For those of you who don’t know Ramadan is determined by the sighting of the moon. So the fast begins when the new moon is sighted. This means that the month of Ramadan comes about 10-11 days earlier every year. So for the past few years the fasting, especially in the northern hemisphere has been quite difficult as the hours have been long and at times we have had hot days. At one point we were actually fasting for 19 hours and that can be challenging as Ramadan is a dry fast meaning you are not only abstaining from food but you are also not drinking any liquids. So for the next few years the fast is going to be a lot easier as we will be fasting in the spring season and a few years down the line in the winter season. The fasting in Ramadan commences shortly before sunrise and ends just after sunset so this means that it will be considerably easier to fast in the years to come. So how do you stay fit and healthy? The important thing is to try and stay in habit of doing some exercise and perhaps to retain a bit of fitness. A couple of years ago when the hours were really long this was very challenging but staying in habit is ever so important. So what I used to do is about half an hour of exercise right before sunset and sometimes the same a couple of hours after sunrise. What is important is to go easy on yourself, when you go without food and drink for 19 hours it’s not really a time to try for any personal bests. Cardio is probably the best option as cardiovascular fitness is the first to go when you take a break. When it comes to weight bearing exercises a month’s break can actually be good. You can restart and rebuild and actually come back stronger. If you really want to continue the weights then just cut down of volume and intensity. Just do one or two sets of each exercise bearing in mind that weight bearing exercises are metabolic which means you are going to feel hungry afterwards/day after. In all fairness, when we get to December/January when we will only be fasting about 10 hours then all training can go on as usual. When it comes to nutrition it is ever so important to eat the best ever diet in Ramadan. This means “try and stay away from the sambuzas when you break your fast”. You can easily eat twice your daily calories in 10 minutes if you go for the treats when you are starving. Lots of vegetables, fibre and real foods is what will be most beneficial when fasting ramadan. What I have done in recent years is breaking my fast with a smoothie(mixed fruits and vegetables) and only eating a very light meal. Then I have been getting up right before sunrise to have my main meal. At one point I believe I had to set my alarm at 2PM to get up for a big meal. At the time of breaking the fast I have actually drank a minimum of 2 litres of fluids and added another litre with my pre sunrise meal. This is obviously because I have been getting dehydrated on hot days with a physical job. In essence if a person is sedentary then a light training session is a very good option. This could be at a time that suits you.In the morning when you have digested the pre sunrise meal or in the evening just before sunset, whichever works best for you. If you have a physical job and get dehydrated during the day maybe not but if you feel that you will get out of habit then try to stick to your routine but be very kind to yourself. By:Abdi-Karim Berleen/Personal trainer in Loughton  The first time I ever saw a TRX was in 2008 at Lougborough University. There used to be an annual fitness convention called FITPRO.
So I thought to myself what a cool piece of equipment for a mobile personal trainer. When you go visit people’s house and use the outdoors you don’t really wanna be carrying an olympic set. Getting hold of a TRX in those days proved to be very difficult. I had to order my first TRX from the US and it came with an instruction DVD. A few weeks after I received the TRX I was using it not only myself but also with my clients and they all loved it. So the TRX was actually invented by the American Navy Seals and the original TRX was actually a parachute that was converted to a home gym. Since then it has been a long journey for me. When the first qualification course became available in the UK I jumped straight on it. This was back in 2012 and I actually re qualified in 2020.(I did a 2 day course on Zoom, going all the way back to basics). Over the years I have also attended various workshops with many of the TRX master trainers and that has really given me the edge I feel. The reason I love the TRX is because it works at all levels. I go into care homes and train people who cannot get up from seated and after a few weeks, guess what? They can get up from seated. The cool thing is the TRX also works really well with professional athletes. Yes I actually do train professional athletes as well. It’s really about how you position yourself with the TRX and that is the reason it’s so versatile. Do I need to mention that I have never had a client who has told me they don’t like the TRX? Everyone loves a bit of TRX and we always get the results. By:Abdi-Karim Berleen/Personal trainer in Loughton.  You might think that I am bitter and jealous when you read this but the fact is everyone is on their own journey and this floppy haired boy wonder has done something that I would have never done. I would have rather be dead in a ditch.
Joe Wicks may not be an evil person and I am quite sure he came into our industry with good intensions. I believe he was a PE teacher and an actor before. Somewhere he did go off track, however and he got involved with some shrewd businessmen who saw the potential in this good looking “front man”. I had seriously never heard of Joe Wicks until it came to my attention that there was a PT advertising on buses and billboards using a slogan “Eat more, exercise less and lose fat”. Really? This is when Joe Wicks sold his soul to the devil. He had gotten involved with a famous PR company called Carver. This PR company maybe really good at marketing for all I know but they probably don’t have much knowledge about weight loss for the obese. We have an obesity crisis in this country. In fact our NHS spends 6.1 billion on obesity. Now do you really want to exploit this and mislead people and cash in on this? This is exactly what Joe Wicks did, his program/cookbook made him rich. He endorsed this madness as a frontman. He should really have known better. He obviously holds some kind of a nutrition qualification and he must have known that whatever he was endorsing was no good. His programme had a 90% dropout rate. That is obviously after he had been paid and got wealthy. 90% dropout/failure rate is pretty good damned high. I have been in this industry for over 20 years now and I do have a dropout rate but mine is in the single digits.I don’t tell people who I am trying to help that they can eat more, exercise less and lose fat. Carver is a very sophisticated PR company. They have turned the villain into a hero. He is now the good guy proving workouts out of his living room and raising money for charity. Floppy haired boy wonder was even awarded an MBE so he is now Sir floppy haired boy wonder. I haven’t blogged for a very long time but I had to share this. By:Abdi-Karim Berleen/Personal trainer in Loughton |
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