To most people a coach and a personal trainer are the same thing. The terms are used interchangeably to mean the same thing - namely someone who works in a gym and helps other people do workouts. This shallow understanding misses a great deal of detail and it is my hope in this piece to convey that detail to you, my dear reader, and in so doing impress upon you the very real and very significant difference between coaches and personal trainers. Training vs exercise - The fun

I made bread for the very first time at the weekend. It was, if I do say so myself, excellent. The loaf came out of the oven on Saturday afternoon and did not live to see the sun rise on Monday morning. The whole thing was gone in a day, along with half a block of Shirgar salted butter (the best butter going, if you ask me). About an hour after it was done, I had several slices, still warm, with generous slabs of butter on top. The next morning, I had a few thick pieces of to

Starting Strength means many things to many people. In simple terms, Starting Strength is a beginner strength training system built around barbell exercises, straightforward programming, and measurable progression designed to help ordinary people become dramatically stronger in the shortest realistic amount of time. The brand has a number of distinctive characteristics that people recognise as being uniquely “Starting Strength”, from the way we perform certain exercises, to t

If you’re looking for a strength coach in Cardiff, elsewhere in Wales, or online then it’s likely that you have made two important and intelligent decisions. The first is that you recognise the value and importance of strength and have decided to pursue a serious training plan to help you build the transformative strength that you desire. The second is that you recognise the value and importance of coaching, especially for the beginner strength trainee, and you want to hire a

I outline the ways in which lazy coaches and trainers can cut corners to make life easier for themselves, but at the expense of progress for their clients. This article was first published on StartingStrength.com, you can read it here.

I deconstruct a popular line of argument used by lifter and trainers alike to avoid the deadlift in favour of the RDL. This article was first published on StartingStrength.com, you can read it here.

Chin ups are a core part of the basic Starting Strength programme. Though they are classed as an ancillary lift in the blue book, they are really on par with the other main lifts for strength development in my opinion. Whenever the topic of chins comes up there is always the inevitable question, “what about pullups?”. Well, what about them? Why do I prefer the chin up to the pull up as a general strength training tool? When evaluating the usefulness of exercises for general s

This article was first published on StartingStrength.com Strongman is a rapidly growing sport in the strength world and as someone who has a lot of love for strongman, I thought I’d try to offer a little guide for anyone interested in having a go at this most entertaining of strength sports. Here are my humble thoughts on how best to prepare yourself for your first strongman contest. Build your foundation The first thing you need to do is to actually be strong (it is in the n

This article was first published on StartingStrength.com Let me tell you a tale of two lifters: Bob and Kelly. Bob is an accountant, he’s in his mid-thirties, he’s married to a stay-at-home mum, and he has two kids and a dog. Kelly is a project manager in a tech company, she’s also in her mid-thirties, she’s married to a soldier who’s often away for long stretches, and she has one child. On the face of it these two people live quite similar lives. They’re both in high-paying

My favourite thing about this time of year is the blackberry harvest. Late summer in this country brings forth a glorious harvest of...

When COVID travel restrictions from the UK to the US were finally lifted in 2023 I decided I would make the trip to beautiful downtown...