AG Coaching

Proud to announce the launch of my corporate health & fitness challenge.

The goal with this is simple..

To help people look, feel and perform their best in every area of life as effortlessly as possible.

Not to mention we’ve got some awesome prizes up for grabs along the way, so it’s all to play for 🎁

Super excited to see everyone start their journey.

Let’s go 🚀

How big should your surplus be?

It's possible to gain muscle while losing weight, especially if you are overweight and untrained.
But it's much less likely in lean people with training experience.

I think it's more effective in the long term to have dedicated phases of bulking up, followed by fat loss phases.

Gaining some body fat is inevitable if you do this, but the good news is that maintaining new muscle is pretty easy, so you can keep the muscle you built and cut down the fat later if you want to.

Since we want to minimise fat gains, Slater et al (2019) suggest an increase of ~360 - 480 kcal per day as a general guideline. But this figure won't be ideal for everyone (that's why I recommend tracking your weight).

This is because when you eat more, you burn more. Especially if you train harder to build new muscle and maintain it.

So eating an extra 360 calories might not end up being a SURPLUS of 360 calories.

Changes in NEAT also have an effect.

The range of NEAT-related changes in calorie expenditure was between -98 kcal to +692 kcal per day!

This means changes in NEAT can reduce your surplus significantly in some people, while others can actually move less.

I've found some of my clients need a really large surplus above their 'maintenance' intake to consistently gain bodyweight. One guy I coached needed about 700 kcal above his original maintenance!

I recommend starting with a conservative surplus and tracking changes in bodyweight. Take your weight regularly and work out the weekly and monthly averages.

On average, you want to gain about 1-3% of your total bodyweight per month. Bear in mind that this might not be a linear increase.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

You can use RPE to identify progress even if reps and load stay the same.

You probably know that progressive overload is important. It's how we make sure training stays challenging over time.
It keeps your training effective as you get bigger and stronger.

We usually measure progressive overload in two ways:

Either by doing more reps with the same weight, or by increasing the weight for the same number of reps.

But there's also another way you can identify progress: with
RPE (rate of perceived exertion).

RPE is a way of measuring how close to failure you get on each set.

Side note: RPE and RIR - reps in reserve - are the same thing.

In both systems, you're estimating how many more reps you could have done in a set.

For example, 3 sets x 8 reps @ RPE7 (keep 3 reps in reserve).

From here you can warm up and figure out what weight lets you hit 8 reps @ RPE7.

But even if you don't use RPE to program load, you can still use it to track progress.

In week 1, you might do 3 x 10 for 100kg @ RPE 9.

By week 6, you might manage the same 3 x 10 for 100kg, but this time @ RPE 7.

Same load, same reps...if you weren't using RPE, you might incorrectly assume your program isn't working.

But using RPE shows that you've still made progress.

So you don't have to use it to program, but recording it might be useful.

Forget everything else for a second. This
is the one thing you MUST do if you want long term muscle growth.

Progressive overload means training must stay challenging over time. It guarantees your training will stay effective as you get bigger and stronger.

Why? Because it maintains the number of stimulating reps in each set as your progress. The reps closer to failure are the most stimulating to muscle growth.

As you approach failure on a set, your brain recruits more and more muscle fibres to keep lifting the weight.

The brain keeps the largest groups of fibres in reserve until last. Which means the last few reps are stimulating the most muscle fibres and making them grow.

But unless you add reps, load or volume over time, you'll start losing these reps.

It's easiest to illustrate this with an example.
Let's say you start a training phase doing 3 sets of 10 with 100kg.

It's tough; you end up 1-2 reps shy of failure on each set. You pick up plenty of those stimulating reps, and you get bigger and stronger.

By week 6, you're still doing 3 sets of 10 with 100kg. Now you're more like 4-5 reps away from failure. It's still challenging, it's still growing “some” muscle - but your workouts are easier.

Now you're getting fewer maximally-effective reps. To keep getting the same number of those super stimulating reps, you'd need to either:

- Increase the weight
- Increase the reps
- Add more volume
- Or a combination of all three

All situations mean doing more reps within range of failure. This is applying the principle of progressive overload.

If you don't apply progressive overload, your workouts will contain fewer of the most stimulating reps over time. That means the muscle-building stimulus will get smaller and smaller.

From the day we starting working together, Laurence’s goal was to get in the best shape of his life and ultimately gain back his self confidence.

In order to achieve this, we used a periodised and progressive approach to training, whilst keeping things flexible with his nutrition, which allowed him to enjoy life.

“This process has taught me how important nutrition really is to getting in shape. Flexible dieting is definitely something I’ve enjoyed and will continue to use to help sustain my results long term.”

In our time working together, he’s lost an impressive 15kg (33lbs), improved his gym performance and built muscle in all the right areas.

It wasn’t all plain sailing either. There were trips away with friends, a lower back injury to work around and plenty of social events on the weekends.

But regardless of everything that stood in his way, he always showed up and gave it 100% both in and out of the gym and the results speak for themselves!

He’s now off on holiday and can walk down the beach with his shirt off feeling the best he’s ever felt.













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As you’re probably aware I’ve recently just got back into fishing.

On one of my sessions as I gazed out into the open sea, it popped into my head about how fishing can teach us some valuable lessons when it comes to growing muscle.

So here they are:

1️⃣ You need the right tools. If I went fishing without the right hooks, bait, lures and rods et cetera, I wouldn’t catch anything. The same goes for building muscle. You need the right tools, such as a program, appropriate exercise selection, intensity and stimulus in order for you to grow. If you just turn up and wing it half arsed then you’re setting yourself up for failure.

2️⃣ Growing muscle needs consistency. If I only went fishing when I felt like it or when the weather was in my favour, my chances of catching something would be slim to none. Muscle growth is no different. You can’t expect to gym it sporadically whenever you’re “in the right mood”. Turn up and do the work when and where you need too. No questions.

3️⃣ Muscle growth takes patience, a lot like fishing. You don’t expect to catch a fish with every single cast, you have to keep at it. Just like you don’t go to the gym for one session and expect to turn into Arnold Schwarzenegger. Give it time.

4️⃣ Growing muscle can be frustrating at times. A bit like fishing. Some days you catch something and some days you don’t. So if you around waiting for the planets to aline and life to be perfect to build your dream physique, then you’ll have a long wait my friend.

So there you go, that’s my two cents on what fishing can teach us about muscle growth.

Tight lines 🎣

With the goal of getting in shape for his upcoming holiday, Pierce is now worlds apart from where he was - lighter, leaner and on top of his game.

“I’ve worked with online coaches in the past, but never managed to get this cut before. I’ve really enjoyed this process and the end result.”

With just 3-4 hours of training per week, we managed to create enough structure to create the perfect environment for his body to change.

Utilising a variety of training methods and nutrition strategies we commonly use here at AG Coaching, Pierce lost 10kg (22lbs) and achieved his best physique to date.

We only had 10 weeks to make this happen, so things needed to be aggressive and precise, with no room for error.

Right from the get go he gave it 110% and the results speak for themselves.

Pierce is proof that you don't have to let a lack of time stop you from getting in shape. If you have 3-4 hours a week to invest in yourself, you’ll be amazed at what can happen.

How many of us have joined the gym with the best intentions to get in shape for summer?

I know I have.

Unfortunately many fail. Not for lack of desire or motivation, but a lack of understanding on how to train the body effectively is why most people fail to achieve their goals in the gym.

So here’s my top 3 tips to get you going ready for summer.

1️⃣ You need to follow a well structured plan.

Don’t randomly put exercises together and hope to get the results you want. Once you have established your goal, you need to train for that goal.

It’s a common sight, especially in commercial gyms where people will put exercises together that don’t make sense or follow a specific goal or target.

“But I’m exhausted and covered in sweat afterwards, that means I worked hard, right?” Sorry, but that won’t cut it.

2️⃣ Train, don’t just exercise.

What is the difference, you may ask? Exercising is mindlessly moving from exercise to exercise, from machine to machine with no goal, no purpose and no intensity to your training.

You may see these people in your gym. They have their set routine doing the same training over and over again, using the same equipment but not really challenging themselves.

Training, on the other hand, is focusing your time and effort in the gym that creates a more goal-specific, intense training environment that will get you results.

3️⃣ Use progressive overload.

Progressive overload is the gradual increase of stress placed upon the body during training.

This can be done by increasing the resistance used, the amount of sets and reps you do, reducing your rest times and even by altering the tempo of your movements.

The principle is quite simple in its application, as it just requires you to do more than your previous workout.

To sum up:

All these three tips are connected in some way – You need to train harder with intent while following a structured plan and in doing so, you will progressive ✌🏼

Now I’ll ask you again… are you ready for summer? 🫣