I’ve always been into health and fitness, my wife would probably say I’m a bit obsessed, but I guess there are worse obsessions to have!
I was always an active kid, I’d always be, as my mum described it, “kicking a bag of wind about” and when I started work it was obvious that this skinny weedy kid needed to get stronger, so using my dad’s old dumbbells and weights and using the Rocky films as training plans I went about trying to get stronger… The beauty about being young is you can throw weight around, grow a bit of muscle, not hurt yourself and do it again the next day because your young body adapts so quickly. Not like now…. When I’m working out I’m mostly working out which muscles will give me jip for the following week! Answer is it’s usually my hips and calves!
So, there I was at 18, peak physical fitness, Michealangelo’s David took pictures of me… He lies!! I thought that was it, I’ve achieved it, I’m fit, strong enough and look alright, there is nothing more I can do… How wrong I was, turns out you must keep doing this stuff!! I was so annoyed when after a few months of doing nothing I went for a run and found I couldn’t do it! Turns out my theory of everlasting fitness without the work was wrong, so very wrong! So, that was it, I had to start over, and running was the most efficient and economical way of doing it…
I’d run every other day, mostly through our local woods and trails, I used to love it, gave me some real headspace, however, I messed up… I broke and tore the ligaments in my ankle, putting me out of action for months. I’d like to say I did it in some heroic stunt, but I didn’t… I fell hard after doing a jumping windmill of my air guitar to ‘I would do anything for love’ by Meatloaf… Anyway, after months of waiting for it to get better I had to have an operation and then receive a load of physio.
I absolutely loved the physio part, the process of slowly working to rebuild the strength in my leg fascinated me and ultimately led me to join a gym, where I discovered weights again.
I’ll admit, I thought that if I threw some weights around, I’d end up looking like Henry Cavill, sadly it isn’t as easy as that, it was plain to see, I was greener than green and didn’t have a single clue. In those early day’s I didn’t know how calories worked and what progressive overload was let alone correct form and tempo! I was on a highway to poor results and injury!
I’m ashamed to admit this but on the build up to a holiday I took part in a “crash diet” thing, you know the sort… Nothing but lettuce and tap water for a fortnight. Daft I know… but after 2 weeks of fatigue and low mood I went on holiday and ate bad food and drank beer which undid everything, which let’s face it was muscle wastage rather than fat loss. Deciding enough was enough I decided I should learn, I’m kind of ashamed to say I feel bad about asking people for advice/help when it comes to these sorts of things. I tend to muddle on alone and figure it out for myself, but this time a friend said that James Haskell (the now ex England Rugby player) had a fitness book out called Perfect Fit… So, I bought it and read it cover to cover in a week!
Armed with his fitness plan I hit the gym for a 12-week German Volume Training (GVT) style plan. Basically, GVT is high volume weight training, 10 sets of 10 on your main lifts and super sets on accessories. It’s an absolute killer, but, if you have the time it works! I saw serious results and completed the 12 weeks feeling accomplished.
After completing the 12-week plan I was hungry for more, so the book ‘Bigger Leaner Stronger’ by Mike Matthews was recommended to me. This broke down everything into easy-to-understand absorbable info. How calories in and out works, the role macro nutrients play a part in muscle building and the necessity of progressive overload. This book along with ‘Starting Strength’ by Mark Ripetoe became my bible and I still refer to them now.
I was making great progress, enjoying my training routine, making friends whilst doing so, but then Covid hit and the gym’s closed. This was a huge blow for a lot of people, all of them frantically searching in their garages for old weights and anything that can be used to at least maintain some strength. Along came the Instagram influencers with training plans instructing you how to bench press your sofa and row your dining room table, this continued right up until the popularity of resistance bands hit!
During this time, I focused a lot on yoga and loved it, but when it was time to go back to the gym I went back and couldn’t really get to grips with all the restrictions, I just couldn’t do what I needed to do, so I decided to build my own gym…
Getting inspiration from Pinterest I built what is known as a power cage, I built it from 4×4 fence posts and incorporated racks for a barbell and loops for resistance bands, it even had a bar for pull ups, I capitalised on people going back to the gym and selling the weights they bought during lock down.
You’ve probably heard of Muscle Beach…. Well, this was Muscle Forest TM! My own gym down the garden under the trees! Perfect… Except when it rained… I needed a better solution. Along came Muscle Forest TM Mk 2! A fully covered fitness suite. The main gym has all the equipment I need to not only maintain but build my strength and fitness with squat rack, bench press, pull up bars, dip bars, dumb and bar bells and even a cable machine. I’m very proud of it and I am open for membership. You will have to sign a disclaimer to say you don’t mind being cold in winter and bit to death by bugs in summer!
It’s true I get eaten alive, but performing sets of squats with the citronella candle burning is slightly romantic! The winter months are ahead of us; this will be my 6th winter I must endure and I’m stronger after every winter. It’s not the most comfortable place but we’re not supposed to be comfortable, we’re there to grow and we grow under stress!
Being a dad, it’s tough to find the time to work out, but having Muscle Forest TM Mk. 2 is invaluable, I can just pop down the garden, bust out a few sets of something and pop back, it’s brilliant. Maybe one day I’ll have the time again where I don’t have to get up at the crack of dawn (who’s Dawn?) to get my session in, but maybe I won’t and that’s fine because I’ve got Muscle Forest TM Mk. 2
Keep Pumping
TM
