Hey TEAM,

Now I think I’d be correct in saying most of us want to get strong yeah? I mean I am not saying it’s the sole focus for all of us ALL but I am sure if I asked any of you if you wanted to get slightly stronger than what you are right now I’d doubt any of you would say no.

So, what that being said this is the topic and reason behind today’s helpful email. Lately, I have been making some great progress to my overall strength so I would like to pass on some tips that I have learnt first-hand along the way because I want you (my SQ FITNESS email family) to win also.

Now, I don’t want this email to be about the basics because of course let’s be honest we all know what we need to do to get stronger. We lift weights and as a result we get stronger this we of course know already. I want to delve a little deeper……

1. OK – first we need to discuss calories. Hands down without question the number 1 most important thing when wanting to increase our overall strength is to ensure we get enough calories in each day to fuel the heavy lifts. In order to get strong, the body needs the right fuel. It’s the same as a car for it to go fast and function correctly the right fuel is required. You simply aren’t going to get stronger if you’re not eating correctly. As a rule, to get keep progressing with your strength you need to be eating roughly 300 – 400 calories ABOVE your maintenance (aka baseline calories to main weight).
2. Now, still on the topic of food we also need to be eating enough protein each day. Protein is the building block for adding lean muscle and building your overall strength. If you’re not eating enough protein you will for sure plateau with your strength. I always advise my clients to eat around 2 – 3g per kg of body weight. An example of this is if I weigh 100kgs then I would be aiming to eat around 300g or protein each day made up of chicken, fish, steak, protein powder etc.
3. My next dot point is related to training itself. The quickest and most effective way to get strong is to be following a structured training program that allows you to progress. Each week you need to be writing down your weights, recording them each week and making sure you are bettering them. You can’t guarantee you’re getting stronger if you aren’t following a structured program which allows you to track your weights. This is key!
4. My next piece of advice is again related to training. I have learnt in my 15+ years’ experience in this game that in order to get strong it is not wise to go to failure EVERY single set. Think of it like this. If you keep going to failure every single set all you are really doing is fatiguing yourself. Does this allow your body to recover in order to get stronger each week? Definitely NOT! By going to absolute failure each set you aren’t allowing the body to recover quickly therefore your strength will plateau at some point – it has to. I personally only go to complete failure maybe 4-5 times MAX each session. Let’s say my program reads “3 sets of 6 – 8 reps”, my goal here is to stop at the lower rep target on the first two sets even if I can do more, I am breaking down the muscle with the 6 reps but saving it. My goal then is to go ALL out until complete failure on the third and final set and wherever possible, progress. So basically, if I hit the upper rep target on the third and final set the weight gets bumped up the following week by 5-10%. If you don’t hit the upper rep count on the last set, then the weight stays the same the next week until you hit it. Make sense? I only go to actual failure on that last working set. This ensure we are progressing, building muscle and allowing the body to recover enough each week in order to keep getting stronger. This plays a massive role in getting them strength gainz.
5. My last tip is related to recovery. I just recently turned 33 a week ago and now more so than ever I am taking my rest and recovery seriously. I make sure I stretch for 30 minutes a day, I get at least 6 hours sleep a night, I warm up properly before each working set (I might do 5-6 warm up sets before the actual main working sets) and I also get a lot of soft tissue massage and once a week I also get cryotherapy where I freeze my body for 3 minutes which helps recover from those grueling weights sessions.

Recovering the body plays a huge factor in getting strong and ensuring you keep progressing, so this last dot point is an important one.

I hope these tips help legends I think one of the greatest things in this game is when you lift a weight that you couldn’t lift the week before. There is something so riveting and addictive about it so adopt my 5 tips and let me know how you guys progress these next few months.

Chat more soon TEAM!