Team ForNever Lean

Somebody asked me if I’d ever consider tattooing my right arm, and my answer is simple…

No.

My first tattoo was to cover some SH scars that I was ashamed of, thinking that perhaps it would prevent me from doing it again.

Unsurprisingly, I just did it elsewhere instead.

For many years, I had a lot of shame associated with them, and I hated the idea of people seeing them and knowing what they were.

Some years (and many scars) later, I feel no shame or embarrassment when people see them.

Am I proud of what I’ve done to myself? Absolutely not.

But, I’m proud of the fact that I’m still here, despite not wanting to be for many years.

At this point, they serve as a reminder of what was once my present, that is now my past.

I think it’s all too easy to get caught up in negative reflection.

But why dwell on what I’ve done to myself?

When I can instead appreciate the fact that I made it out the other side.

I’ve always stated that one of the best means of encouraging the hard conversation many of us are afraid to have, is to simply start it yourself.

And as time goes on, I hope I’m met with less:

“Why did you do that to yourself?”

And more:

“Seeing you not hide yours, makes me feel less ashamed of mine”.

📸 Taylor Marsham
🏋️‍♂️ UltraFlex Gym West London
👖 Trinity
👕 Vanquish Fitness

I preach it regularly, but training effort is going to be one of the lowest hanging fruits when it comes to making progress.

So, why do I need to tell you that?

Because it’s one of the most common things that people get wrong.

How exactly?

By not putting enough effort in, to be honest.

I’ll often call clients out for stopping at mild discomfort, instead of actually pushing to (or close to) failure.

But what does failure actually mean?

That’s simple…

Failure to complete the task at hand.

Let’s take the lateral raise for example…

My task is to get my elbows from point A (the bottom), to point B (the top of the rep).

Once I can no longer get my elbows to point B, I have failed to complete the task.

By definition?

Reached failure.

My additional partial reps, technically beyond failure, were simply for safe measure.

Because I’d rather try too hard, than not hard enough 🤷‍♂️

I didn’t even try to colour coordinate, it just happened 🤷‍♂️

🏋️‍♂️ UltraFlex Gym West London
📸 Taylor Marsham

Somebody was asked me what I do, and when I told them I was a coach, they responded with:

“So you tell people how to workout and what to eat?”.

But to me, or at least with how I work, coaching is so much more than that.

The eating and lifting might actually be the easy part for some people.

What’s not easy?

Navigating s**t life throws at you, whilst working, whilst still trying to achieve the goal(s) that are important to you.

And what’s my job in that scenario?

Helping you.

- Be that supporting you through a tough time.
- Helping manage your mental health.
- Changing things to make your training and food more manageable.
- Keeping you accountable so you continue showing up when things get hard.
- Or sometimes just being the voice in your ear to remind you that all will be okay, and we’re still taking steps in the right direction.

This is why I always say that relationships matter and I’m thankful to have such a good relationship with the clients I work with…