My Before and After shots !!

Started off skinny and bulked up during my teens. Recently dieted for the Mens Health covermodel competition (black and white pic) Last pic is my most recent and im about 14 stone or just over - think that makes me obese according to the charts - woohoo - result !!

So you want to be a Personal Trainer ?

Check my tips on becoming a Personal Trainer - enjoy !














1 / Start training - There are plenty of trainers, or at least potential trainers, who dont even go to the gym - dont be one of them - teaching comes from your own experience - show me a chef who has never tasted food ?!?!?

2 / Get qualified - Although I dont rate courses that highly, they are the only way to get started in a gym. The most expensive courses are not necessarily the best - some will cover too many areas like sports therapy and circuits and leave you lacking any real depth in your teaching. Avoid becoming a Jack of all trades and master of none !

3 / Choosing courses - Phone your local gym and find out what they prefer to see on a CV. Choose a course which you can afford and which meets the needs of the employer - as above , the most expensive course isnt always the best.

4 / Self employed or on a wage ? - I advise against self employment, at least for the first few years. Personal training requires people skills aswell as gym knowledge. Working in a gym on a wage which will give you chance to deal with many different people from all walks of life and all with differing needs and wants. This gives you the time to develop your skills before making the leap to starting out on your own.

5 / Body shape - Your body is your uniform. A beer belly, bags under the eyes and curry stains on your t shirt do not make a good impression. You dont have to be Arnold with biceps like mountains but you do need to inspire your clients ! If my dentist had black teeth and bleeding gums id go to someone else :-) - yes i talked about this point already ( see number one ) but to me its important - Personal trainers should look like personal trainers.

6 / Dont be a fat / scrawny personal trainer - see points one and five

7 / Punctuality - Be on time - No one likes to be left waiting

8 / Treat each client like they are your only client - Forgetting about people or providing a mediocre experience or service will not help your reputation - People are paying you to help them - do your best to show them that you want them to succeed !

9 / Cardio machines - I dont use cardio machines outside of a warm up / cool down - they are a poor choice for fat loss and when people pay me money I want to give them the most bang for their buck. Sticking someone on a treadmill for an hour so I can watch the TV is not my idea of fun ! I enjoy teaching compound lifts and helping people get the most out of their sessions. As a personal trainer you need to be more than a button pusher on a piece of fitness equipment !

10 / People before profit - Look after people and you will always make a living - in a great job doing what you love most. Get obessed with money and soon your reputation will suffer - yes you will make money, but for how long ? Clients will soon see they dont look any different even though they see you on a daily basis ! Change how someone feels about themselves and they will recommend others. Use one client like a piggie bank and soon it will dry up. Your choice !


Hope that helps :-)

Hell !

I wake up in a cold sweat thinking about this.......

Zercher squat

One of my favourite exercises of late.








Front squats with a bar held across the collarbones can feel like its choking whereas the Zercher squat hits me in the quads and abs - Try these and it will feel like you are a strongman competitior during the 'stones' event.


Great variation

Kango aerobics ?

Just another aerobics class ???? NOPE !!

Here they wear springy things on their feet and punch the sky - sort of like a cross between Sly Stallone in Rocky and Neil Armstrongs moon walk.

Every day my eyes are opened - not always in a good way

Busta ryhmes ?

After 50 Cent hit our music channels with such force not so long ago...... Busta ryhmes must have realised that to be a succesful black rapper you need to be buff.





Yes muscle is good but posing trunks are not - come on Busta, at least buy a better colour........... and check your hotmail -there must be a thousand spam emails in there relating to penis extension - maybe you should follow them up ??

My job is at risk !

Who needs the help of an experienced and qualified personal trainer when all you really need is a state of the art stepping machine for cancelling out that lunchtime binge !

For advanced athletes (those who stand up on the device and dont use it while checking emails), you have the free dvd full of special workouts like the 'go fast then slow then fast' routine which helped get Julie for Texas into her old school uniform.

"Healthy eating and diets dont work for me. Ive tried everything but just found I put on weight. At 300kg I was not a pretty sight. Then I found Wonder Step 2000 ! Even while watching the shopping channel and spending more money on useless shit I was able to burn away calories - Thank you Wonder Step !! "

Julie , Texas

Note to self - dont go as strict with the diet next time

Things we can learn from this pic -

a) baywatch trunks belong on baywatch bodies

b) tattoos only work on big arms

c) dont upload your pic to the internet...... ever

d) knees should not be bigger than biceps - fact !

If this is you in the pic - check this link on' t- nation'

skinny guy mistakes

Dont sneak up behind people when they are squatting

Dont try his at home - especially if you have a home gym in the attic

This guy (Clarence Bass) is about 40 years older than me. Let that be a lesson to all the old farts I train who say " im too old for all this" !

You know who you are !! :-)

plan for getting in shape

1 / join a gym which preferably has a squat rack and plenty of free weights

2 / take measurements - neck , chest , arm , waist , hips , quad , calves

3 / take 'before' pics - digital cameras mean u can do this in the privacy of your own home without the chemist having to see them and thus giggle at your nakedness

4 / seek help from someone who knows ie - someone like me :-) who trains people for living AND actually trains themselves ! avoid the fat guy giving diet advice / the scrawny 'bulking up' expert / the fat chick with the bingo wings who advises toning exercises / the guy that believes training to failure means working out until something rips / shatters / tears or breaks

5 / set goals - some long term - some short term

6 / be around positive people

7 / dont get injured - for some people injuries are like medals - dont be one of these numpties who goes around saying how they can hardly walk due to the 20 mile road run they did wearing their dads boots just hours after that hard legs workout involving 900 sets of isolation exercises

8 / get a plan to suit you - preferably ask someone who knows (see number 4) training diarys will help show improvement and let you know what you are capable of and what you need to lift next time round

9 / the plan should cover all bodyparts in a mainly compound fashion but allow plenty of time for recovery - heavy cycles should be mixed with some lighter volume work

example of a not so good plan -

MON - run until shin splints kick in - chest and biceps
WED - run until shin splints kick in - chest and biceps
FRI - run until shin splints kick in - chest and biceps

10 / work the muscles you cant see

11 / read articles - personally i aim for at least one a day - at the end of the year you could know a lot more than you do now - imagine how much that extra learning could benefit how you look !

12 / read anything by arnie / muhamed ali / bruce lee etc etc - avoid chick flicks as they will only reduce your testosterone to that of a schoolgirl - watch braveheart / gladiator type films on a regular basis

13 / take a break - ok , so u have access to the weights and a plan of attack - you have been getting stronger and have stayed injury free. your arnie film collection and bruce lee posters have made a dent in the pocket money but all in all progress is good. - take a week off before burn out forces you to stay off (every 6 - 10 weeks have a breather from your training) not only will you feel mentally revived but physically you will be busting to pump some iron !

14 / remeasure and take photos. reached any goals yet ? if so set some new ones - if not - are your goals realistic ?

15 / enjoy the journey - training isnt all about the results - enjoy the workouts , the people you meet and the opportunity to better yourself - practise the art of kissing your 'guns' - remember boys - dumbbell curls gets u girls !!

E Sandow

This photo is of Eugene Sandow in 1901 -

As far as I know -

He didnt take steroids (these didnt appear until the 50's)

He has never seen a crosstrainer let alone a spin class / aerobics class / bodypump class etc etc



His abs werent created by a device that electrocutes his stomach

He never had to choose between a low carb diet or a low fat one

Cables and swiss balls did not make up the minority let alone majority of his workout


He probably did train hard with weights and eat natural foods with little or no processing involved - funny that these principles still apply today !!

Shane Stratton

This is a shout out to a guy I met while staying in Thailand - former Mr Universe and Mr Australasia - Shane Stratton- He brought me to Bangkok to meet the Thai National Bodybuilding Team a few years back and although he probably doesnt realise it - he has been a big influence on my training.

Dennis James trained in Shanes gym and I had met Dorian yates in the past but it was Shanes awesome knowledge and flawless physique that inspired me to learn everything I could about training and dieting.

Richard Simmons - one of the reasons I dont do cardio











Mike Mentzer - He spoke out against cardio and all things catabolic instead showing the important of weights and diet for body transformation



Who you gonna listen too ? :-)

workout

had been doing a heavy and light split

day one
heavy chest
light shoulders

day two
back - alternating between heavy and light exercises

day three
heavy quads

day four
heavy shoulders
light chest

day four
heavy hamstrings

day five
sometimes did an arms day for fun and pump more than anything


for the light stuff i aimed for 20 reps - heavy stuff varied between one rep / 2 rep / 3 rep maxes and basically anything under 8 reps


current lifts =

bench press 155kg x1 / 130 kg x 7
squat 180kg x2 / 140 kg x 8
deadlift 220kgx1 / 180 kg x 8

what i found ?

max lifts all went up as did volume stuff - for someone training 10 years i was able to get strength up and increased overall size

will split routine slightly different for next few weeks although i love training chest and shoulders together

Current workout

After dieting for a competition to get on the cover of Mens health magazine and unsucessfully making it through - I decided to put some size back on - I would try for the comp again next year as the dieting experience and ease of bulking after dieting is a great learning experience.


weight for comp - 81kg april / may

current weight - 91kg sept


And to think I was about 50kg when I started lifting weights ! only thing that has remained constant - my height - 176cm (5.9 1/2 although i round it up to 6.3 )


Ill post my current workout for those that may wish to try something similar

www.neilmct.com has just had the articles section updated - in the future I would like to link to this blog and also include some video clips of both myself demonstating technique and clients working out. Keep checking back as I will be adding more testimonials and pics as they come in.

Just recently I hit my max bench press of 150kg followed by two minutes of strutting about the gym kissing the 'guns'...................next on the list of things to do before im 30 ? action movies !

(archived photo of arnold s. - yes he was bigger than me..........but was he as strong ??)

ah , worked out how to create new post



( this is why I work in a gym and not in IT )

Welcome to my blog site !!

I hope to use this site in addition to my recently launched personal training site to promote training and all the benefits of pumping iron.




........now what do I write ?