Giannino Terilli Coaching

25/09/2026

Everything sounds better when the pre-workout kicks in 🤪

Do you agree?

24/09/2026

If you're spotting someone in the gym, ask yourself this:

"Am I helping them, or am I taking away from the stimulus for muscle growth?"

Most people make one of two mistakes when spotting, usually because they don't understand what actually drives hypertrophy.

To build muscle, a lifter needs to train close to muscular failure. As you train closer to failure, reps slow down unintentionally and the body is forced to recruit more high-threshold motor units to keep producing force. This increases tension across a greater number of muscle fibres, which is one of the key drivers of muscle growth.

With that in mind, here are the two biggest spotting mistakes:

1. Helping too early
The moment you start lifting the bar for them, you're taking tension away from the muscles doing the work.

Less tension = less muscular effort.

If the lifter can still complete the rep on their own, let them work. Your job is to be ready, not to turn their set into a team exercise.
2. Turning every set into forced reps
Once a lifter has reached failure or is very close to it, forcing out extra reps with significant assistance doesn't automatically mean more growth.

In many cases it just creates more fatigue, more muscle damage, more soreness, and can negatively impact performance on the rest of the session or even the next training day.

The stimulus has already been achieved by training close to failure. More fatigue doesn't always mean more results.

So how should you spot?

Stay close enough that you can intervene if needed.

Keep your hands hovering over the bar or, as I like to say, give it a "baby's touch".

Only assist when the lifter is genuinely failing and the rep is moving backwards. Your role is to keep them safe, not make the set easier or accumulate more 'junk volume'.

It's the same reason good powerlifting spotters don't touch the bar unless they absolutely have to. The lifter earns the rep themselves.

Next time you're spotting someone, remember:
The goal isn't to help them lift the weight. The goal is to help them get the stimulus they're chasing with certainty they wont hurt themselfs.

22/09/2026

What most people don't understand about rows is that your arm path can bias different areas of your back.

Once you understand where muscles originate and insert, it becomes much easier to understand what's doing the majority of the work in an exercise.

Take the upper back muscles for example.

The rear delts originate from the spine of the scapula and insert into the upper arm (humerus).

The middle traps originate along the upper thoracic spine and insert into the scapula.

The rhomboids originate from the cervical and upper thoracic spine and insert into the inner border of the scapula.

Because of this, rows where you drive your elbows out and back behind your torso tend to place more emphasis on the upper back, as these muscles help pull the shoulder blades together (retraction) and move the arm backwards behind the body (shoulder extension/transverse extension).

Now compare that to the lats.

The lats originate from the mid and lower back, pelvis and thoracolumbar fascia, then insert into the upper arm.

Their primary role is to pull the upper arm down and back towards the body.

This is why rows where you keep your elbows closer to your sides and drive them down towards your hips will generally bias the lats more.

Every row will involve multiple muscles of the back.

The difference is that changing your arm path can shift more of the tension towards one area over another.

Need help with your training, programming and nutrition to get better results in the gym?

Comment or DM me BUILD to learn how tailored 1:1 coaching can help you build muscle, get stronger and achieve your goals faster.

21/09/2026

16/09/2026

Huge shout out to my client Mim Lift | Physique Mastery Method for an incredible result over the weekend at the FMG New Zealand show, taking home 3rd Place in Open Bikini along with 3 Gold Medals. 🏅🏅🏅

Mim first came to me in September 2025 for face-to-face training sessions with the goal of bringing an improved package to the stage.

This has been a collaborative coaching effort, with Mim training face-to-face with myself and Richard Collins for nutrition,cardio and guidance throughout her competition prep.

The results are a reflection of the hard work she's put in over the past year. What makes it even more impressive is that she's done it while running her own coaching business, helping her own athletes prepare for the stage, and balancing life as a full-time mum of two and a wife.

The progress she's made since we started has been huge considering she was dealing with hip pain issues which made it hard for her to train (prior to coaching) to progressing every session and training with high intensity pain free which helped her not just build quality muscle mass but helped her bring an outstanding package to the stage this weekend. The medals are simply the reward for all the work that went into getting there.

Congratulations Mim! You should be incredibly proud of what you've achieved. I can't wait to see what the rest of the season has in store for you.

15/09/2026

Most people focus on foot placement to target more quads or more glutes...

But that's only half the story.

Your seat position matters too.

The lower the seat angle, the more knee flexion you'll achieve at the bottom of the movement, especially when combined with a lower foot position. This generally places more emphasis on the quadriceps.

The more upright the seat, combined with a higher foot position, the more hip flexion you'll create at the bottom. This generally shifts more of the demand toward the glutes.

So if changing your foot position isn't giving you the muscle bias you're after, try adjusting the seat angle as well.

A small change in setup can completely change how an exercise feels and where it places the most tension.

Need help with your program design?

Comment or DM "BUILD" to learn how 1-on-1 coaching tailored to your goals, gym, and lifestyle can help you get better results.

14/09/2026

WNBF Melbourne ✅️ Another weekend, Another podium visit. Walking away with 2x Silver Medals in Open Classic Physique and Open Bodybuilding at my 4th bodybuilding show in 10 weeks. Not a bad result for my first season on stage.

What I'm most proud of isn't the placings though. This was the best package I've brought to stage so far. Better conditioning, better posing, fuller, and a better overall look than my previous shows.

It wasn't without challenges. Less than 2 weeks out I got sick and developed digestive issues which made me question whether I should even do the show. Thankfully, by show day I was able to get on top of the virus, improve my digestion, reduce fatigue, and make some big improvements to my physique in the final week.

The WNBF experience itself was great. My third trip to Melbourne this year, polygraph done, tan applied, check-ins complete, backstage organisation, their own pump up equipment and everything ran smoothly. The professionalism backstage definitely stood out.

One thing I learned the hard way though... 😅
After my Classic Physique class, several officials, coaches and competitors pointed out that I had stepped on stage with no oil on my skin, something I didn't even realise at the time.
The tanning team did all of my touch-ups before I went on stage but I wasn't oiled up? However with prior experiences with other tanning companies they apply touch ups & oil right before you jump on stage (without asking) marking you off, this didn't happen. Whether it was a misunderstanding on my end or simply missed during the process, I'm not sure but it didn't give me that 'pop' to my physique like others did (in the photos). luckily had oil which I applied prior to opens bodybuilding.

Either way, it doesn't take away from what was an awesome WNBF experience, the other competitors epic physiques, the improvements I brought to stage, and how much I enjoyed the different Classic Physique mandatory poses 💪 Hopefully they bring a WNBF show to SYD in the future 👀

A lot of lessons learned, a lot of memories made, and another great experience added to the books.

10/09/2026

If your goal is to hold on to as much muscle as possible while dieting, it's actually pretty simple...

The stimulus that built the muscle is the stimulus you need to maintain.

One of the easiest ways to do that is by keeping your training variables as consistent as possible.

If you're constantly changing exercises, especially during a calorie deficit, it becomes harder to know whether strength improvements are coming from getting better at a new movement or from actually maintaining muscle.

A new machine or exercise might feel exciting, but can you be sure it's providing the same level of tension that helped build that muscle in the first place?

When calories are low, recovery is limited. The last thing you want is to swap movements and end up using loads that are too light or no longer challenge the target muscle in the same way.

Remember, muscle is built and maintained through mechanical tension. The best indicator you're creating enough tension is when reps start to slow down as you approach failure. That's what creates the forces that signal the body to keep muscle around.

Keep it simple.

Keep the movements the same.

Train hard.

Give your body a reason to keep the muscle.

Use it or lose it. 💪🏻

Need help with a program you can actually stick to?

Comment or DM me "BUILD" to learn how my tailored 1-on-1 coaching can help you build muscle, lose body fat, and get results that last. 💪🏻

09/09/2026