Want to know the best fitness weight loss hack?

It’s not a supplement.

It’s not cardio.

The best weight loss tool is… 

Building muscle.

Yep. Muscle. 

It’s also the best way to future proof your body.

The thing that actually keeps you feeling, looking and moving your most fabulous for decades.

Muscle doesn’t just change how you look.

It changes how your entire body functions - from your metabolism and blood sugar…to your brain and even how well you sleep.

And yet this is the thing so many people fail to focus on in their training and even their fueling.

Instead they focus on:

Burning more calories…

Doing more cardio…

Eating less…

Not prioritsing protein…

Or just trying to weigh less.

But if your goal is to be at a lower weight, look good when you get there, feel strong, energised and confident in your body for decades to come…

Muscle has to be the priority.

And no, you don’t even need a gym full of equipment to build muscle and see results.

But challenging yourself with progression is the secret to feeling like your leanest, strongest self.

Whether you’re:

Trying to finally feel leaner and more defined

Wondering why fat suddenly seems easier to gain (and harder to lose)

Wanting better energy, sleep and recovery

Or simply wanting a body that stays strong, capable...

You need muscle!

Which is why any training you do, and even how you fuel your body, should support building and maintaining lean muscle.

Whether you’re on a diet…

Want to achieve that six pack…

Or simply want to chase after your grandkids…

Here are 4 reasons why you should care so much about strength training and those muscle gains:

1️⃣Muscle helps you look leaner.

If you’ve ever felt like you lose weight but don’t see any more definition and even just look skinny but soft, it’s because you’re not focusing on building muscle as you lose fat.

You may even be sabotaging yourself from looking more toned by seeking to lose faster on the scale. 

Because when we look to lose weight faster, we often do so at the cost of losing muscle.

And muscle is what helps us see that definition and look more toned. 

2️⃣Muscle helps you KEEP the fat off.

Ever lost weight to feel like it just creeps back on? 

Getting older and feeling like your metabolism has slowed down?

This is often due to the fact that we’ve lost muscle!

And in losing muscle, we aren’t burning as many calories at rest. Not to mention resistance training also increases our metabolic rate.

3️⃣Muscle improves your blood sugar levels.

Muscle helps increase insulin sensitivity.

Basically through resistance training and building muscle, you are then better able to handle carbs and move sugar into your muscles for storage.

4️⃣More muscle means a longer, healthier, better life! 

If your goal is…

Losing weight and keeping it off…

Conquering any physical challenges you set for yourself…

Moving well…

Avoiding illness, injury or disease…

Or even simply feeling more energized, healthier and happier…

Focus on that strength work to feel your most fabulous!

"Yes Rick, I get it but what does that actually look like"

OK, well...

Are you training or exercising?

If you’re a gym member, do you avoid the weights area because you find it intimidating or you’re not sure what to do? 

Getting past feeling like a complete twat in the gym as a beginner can feel impossible.

Nobody shows you what to do once you've set up your membership.

The diagrams on the machines look like something from your GCSE science books.

You stand there reading, but it’s obvious to the world you haven’t got a clue what you’re doing. 

Then you spend so long adjusting the seat up and down to find the right height, you look like you’re on a space hopper.

Until someone comes over and asks how long you’ve got left. 

So, you let the next person in line go on it instead.

You panic and go back to the only place you know you feel safe.

On the cross-trainer to burn away the next 45 minutes.

Do you have a master plan in place? 

Do you simply use the machines that are free at the time?

Are you frustrated that you don’t look like you work out?

There comes a point where you have to ask yourself: 

Am I training or exercising? 

Because there’s a difference.

Training is following a structured progression-based programme that supports you to achieve your desired outcome.

Exercising is haphazardly throwing a bunch of movements together in a bid to tire yourself out and feel like you’ve done something. 

Muscle growth happens when you send your body a clear signal to respond to a regular stimulus in order to be better prepared and stronger next time. I provide my clients with 2 or 3 structured workout plans to be repeated each week. Why? Because you want your body to learn the movements, so you can have good form and technique and once your skill level is dialled in you can start increasing the intensity and making it more challenging, this tells your muscles that it’s time to grow, which is progressive overload. 

This is achieved through training, not exercising.

But consistent training is hard because you don’t see the results immediately.

So, how can we maximise what we do with the time available? 

How can we maintain momentum and see regular progress?

Irrespective of the environment in which you exercise, whether that’s at a gym or at home?

Here’s how…

Next - Lift heavy…BUT…