TheFitDog on training partners

TheFitDog on… training partners

Hi guys! It’s been a while since I last blogged but I am a dog of action so I thought, time to put claws to the keyboard and give you a few more words of wisdom out of my massive square head.

I’m really glad so many of you enjoyed my blog post on the important topic of BALLS. I was a little worried that you might not share my passion but it seems that many of you realise the serious nature of balls. Do you know, I even got a piece of fan mail! Well it was an email but it still counts. Here is a snippet from it:

“I love Office Dog’s blogs – I had to nip out of my office as I was giggling so hard at the blog on balls!”

I am thinking of printing it out and framing it above my bed.

Anyhow, this rainy weather is not much good for ball games (too much skidding) and it’s not much good for sitting outside in the sun, either. So I thought I’d write you a blog post on the topic of training partners.

Recently I met a fine lady by the name of PEPPER. She is brown and stripey like myself so I knew we would hit it off. Now, it can be tricky finding the right training partner, sometimes they are too slow, sometimes they are too quick, sometimes they prefer to use different equipment (balls vs sticks for example) and sometimes their bum smells bad. (Usually bad is good but sometimes bad is just bad!) Pepper and I really hit it off, which might be because we are a similar breed (probably; the jury’s still out on my parentage) or might be because we have similar humans (Pepper’s owners are both into bodybuilding, too).

Here are a few pictures of us enjoying a great workout. This is what we did:

- warm up of walking
- pre-exhaust of jumping in and out of a stinking river
- main session of long sprints
- some stick work
- cool down (walk) and stretching
- PWO meal of water

Do you have a training partner? This is what I look for in a good training partner (like Pepper) and I think you should probably take my advice on this (like most things):

- Are they a similar breed? I mean, are you both big and muscley, or both thin and fast? Just take a look at their breed and build, you will get a fair idea of whether or not you want the same things out of your training session
- Does it make you feel good to be around them? I am pretty positive about things, on the whole. I don’t want a training partner who’s always going on about their sore paw, or their mange. Make sure your temperaments are about the same (but recognise that everyone has bad days)
- Are they likely to turn vicious and bite you? Best avoid these types (unless that’s your thing, of course!)
- Are they hygienically acceptable? I don’t mind a bit of mud and spit but I like to keep myself quite clean. Again, this is your call. For instance, my friend HARVEY is great but gosh he smells. (Sorry Harvey if you are reading this, but you do!) I think he maybe needs a bath. Or his glands seeing to.
- Have they got decent kit and are they willing to share? It’s all very well getting a training partner and thinking “wow, ace ball collection!” but what if they’re all sniffy and precious about the balls? No fun!
- Are they willing to train as hard (or not) as you and as frequently? You don’t want to get attached to them and then find out they only want to train once a month or something boring like that!

I hope this little checklist helps you out so you can find a training partner who can help you meet your goals.

I’m off to eat a fish oil capsule! Nic’s been adding them to my food and, once I worked out how to eat the damn things, I have to say they’re very good. Kind of… fishy! Bye!

TheFitDog on training partners is a post from the Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.

20 minute cardio

This morning’s cardio session was just 20 minutes long (well, 30 if you count five minutes warm up and five minutes walking on the treadmill after). Want to try it? Here’s how it went down:

What you need
One staircase (sturdy) with area at the top
One kettlebell, two dumbbells (or two kettlebells of the same weight)
A bleepy stop watch (or a friend with a watch)

What you do
60-seconds: running up and down the stairs (careful – mind you if I can do this and not fall on my face then I’m sure you can too)
60-seconds: exercise (see below)

Do this pairing five times (all the exercises), then have a 60-second rest. Then go again.

a) kettlebell swings
b) squats (I did goblet squats)
c) press ups
d) walking lunges (with the two DBs or two KBs)
e) burpees (HATE)

Total work time: 20 minutes.

Done, and done.

Needless to say, because you’re not working for very long, you need to work very hard. Max effort on the runs up the stairs, gently does it (active recovery) on the way down, max effort on all the exercises. Yes, even the burpees, sorry. You can, of course, change the exercises to suit your ability, your needs and your sport. Enjoy!

20 minute cardio is a post from The Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.

Guest post over on Girl on the River

Hi all, happy Friday: we made it! *wipes brow*

This is very quick post to let you know that I have an interview/guest post over on Girl On The River’s blog: go and take a look. As a bonus, you get to see a bee-yoo-tiful picture of my “muscley fat” Channel swimmer’s back (with a pretty sensational swimming tan!)

GOTR has been doing a fascinating blog series about whether it’s possible to get leaner and stronger at the same time. She’s a journo, like me, so her posts are full of interviews and great Q&As with really interesting people (I don’t mean me! I mean people like Paul Mattick, double World Rowing Champion!)

I hope you like her blog – have a look around – she’s a rower and tackles some interesting issues, tells some funny stories and gives a good glimpse into the crazy world of rowing.

You can follow Girl On The River on Twitter here and Facebook here.

Thanks for the opportunity, GOTR!

Guest post over on Girl on the River is a post from the Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.

TheFitDog on ball games

In his most recent blog post, Frankie the office dog promised a future post on the topic of balls. He is a dog of his word, so here is that post.

Hi again guys! I said I’d blog about BALLS and that’s what I’m going to do!

BALLS are really important. Most humans don’t give them enough thought. Unless you a footballer, cricketer or golfer I bet you haven’t even played with a ball in ages! More fool you. Balls are really important. If you ask me (or any dog), it’s no coincidence that the world itself is shaped like a ball.

Think about that for a second.

I am here to tell you all about balls and to inspire you to maybe run after a ball or two this week. So I thought you would probably love it if I went through my BALL collection with you and told you a bit about how I got the ball, what I use it for and why I’d recommend it. Let’s go!

1) Oldest ball

This is the first ball I ever found. What a day that was! Good times. It’s leather based and a bit tatty but that’s probably why someone threw it away. I don’t care. It’s like an old friend. Every once in a while I will dig this one out and have a play, but only if it’s a fine day with no mud underfoot. Plus it doesn’t kick very well. This ball is special!

2) Patchy ball

This was the second ball I found over the park. Are you getting a theme here? Again, it’s a fine leather ball, no real reason to get rid of it, but sadly some people discard their balls once they get a bit old. This one is great for chewing.

3) White ball

Now we are on to the actual workout type balls. This is what you’d call a workhorse kind of a ball, an every day ball which you can rely on to kick really well. It’s more a plastic vinyl type material. It skids really well on dew and snow. When Mark kicks it, it goes miles! When Nic kicks it, it doesn’t go so far. Sometimes it doesn’t go anywhere. Nic isn’t very good at kicking. My favourite thing to do with this ball is to wait til it bounces then jump up and catch it mid-air!

4) Blue ball

This is the third ball I found. Can you believe there are so many unwanted balls out there been discarded by their owners? Blue ball used to be my everyday ball but it’s a bit deflated now. But it’s great to have a blue ball because sometimes I fancy a change of colours.

5) Rugby ball

This ball is stupid. When it bounces, it goes off in another direction?! Mark says this is the whole point. I find it very frustrating and I feel sorry for rugby players. They must spend their whole time wondering what the hell is going on! I don’t really like playing with this ball, but Mark does, so sometimes we have a quick kickabout. Plus it’s actually Mark’s ball anyway and he doesn’t like me to chew it. Are you a rugby player? Does the weird ball annoy you?

6) Orange ball

There is a great story behind this ball! I was on a normal everyday walk with Nic when I saw a garden full of old balls. I was transfixed and I just stopped in my tracks and stared, wagging my tail. Seeing all those balls just made me feel so happy inside! Then a lady came out of the house and Nic thought maybe she’d be cross so she explained that I love balls and was just having a look. The lady said “well my kids leave them all over the garden and I think your dog would appreciate them more anyway” and gave me one of the balls! It’s a brilliant ball because it’s a totally different size to all my other balls, and it’s bright orange, and it was a gift. The greatest gift of all, you might say! Anyway on a related note, that whole walk is a great example of why you should always be optimistic in life. On paper, it was going to be a boring weekday evening walk in the dark. In reality it turned out to be a walk where I got given an orange ball by a stranger! Stay positive guys and remember that sometimes the most ordinary things turn out to be the most amazing!

7) Golf ball

This isn’t really a ball I play with but it’s a fun one to add to my collection. Nic found it once whilst we were walking. The funniest thing about it is that the golf course it comes from is like five miles away! That person must be a really good golfer! Please note this ball is no good for bouncing or chewing. It is OK to push around the carpet and chase for a bit.

8) Comic Relief ball

This ball is a blast from the past. When I first came to live here, Mark and Nic used to bounce it at me because it makes these freaky laughing sounds. I went a bit mad to be honest with you and Mark and Nic took it off me. But they only put it on top of my crate: I might have been a puppy but I wasn’t born yesterday! I found it again straight away. It now lives in a drawer in the kitchen. I might ask for it this evening and have a laugh.

Gosh I didn’t know I had so many balls! It’s ironic, really, because I don’t have any *you know what* balls. This man who is called a vet stole them from me whilst I was having a nap at his place. I’ve asked around locally and it seems this man has done this a lot to many, many dogs (and even some cats). No-one has intervened and to this day he is still carrying on with this practice. What a greedy man! How many balls do you need? I mean, I know I’ve just listed eight but he must have loads more than that now. And what does he do with them? They’re no good for chasing!

Bye, guys! Have fun doing a kickabout or ball-chasing session this week! Just make sure you drink tons of water after.

EDIT 08/03/12 Since writing this post, we have discovered another “white ball” and also a tennis ball in Frankie’s collection

TheFitDog on ball games is a post from the Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.

29 reasons to lift weights (audience participation post)

Happy Feb 29th! In honour of this extra added bonus day of the year, I thought I’d come up with 29 reasons to lift weights.

It’s a bit of audience participation: you get to fill the leap-year inspired bonus spot with the top reason of your own.

Lifting weights…

1. Builds lean mass, which is healthy, metabolically active, and looks good.
2. Will make you look better than if you don’t lift weights.
3. Helps build a stable, injury-free structure (so you’ll be able to get up out of a chair in old age without going “oof”)
4. Makes you feel awesome (at the time, afterwards, or both!)
5. Turns you into a bona-fide badass.
6. Can transform your physique, whether you feel you’re overweight, carrying too much fat, too skinny or not shapely enough for your liking.
7. Teaches you new things (not something we encounter often as adults)
8. Helps you reach sport and fitness goals, whether that’s to compete in bodybuilding or get better at endurance or team sports.
9. Helps you learn about how your own body works and what its limits are (or aren’t!)
10. Might surprise you: you’re capable of a lot, you know!
11. Is sociable: there are a lot of local folk down at the gym and they’re there most days. They’re nice!
12. Enables you set goals… then smash them to bits.
13. Cranks up your metabolism so you can enjoy more of the food you like.
14. Gives you an excuse to buy new gym kit, clothing and gadgets.
15. Improves your posture.
16. Gives you a pert round booteh, smaller waist, perkier “pecs”.
17. Boosts testosterone, giving you more energy and focus.
18. Helps you sleep better.
19. Gives you an incredible sense of achievement.
20. Builds and enforces mental toughness which you can carry over into other areas of your life.
21. Proves to you just how strong you are – not just in the gym.
22. Helps with body composition (in other words, gives you a helping hand in the battle against excess body fat)
23. Improves self-esteem (you just lifted *how much*? Look at you!)
24. Shakes up your training routine.
25. Has been proven to help offset diabetes, arthritis and osteoporosis.
26. Makes your clothes fit better (as well as making you look better without them on).
27. Gives you a great conversation starter (“This is Sarah, she likes making her own jam, and this is Amanda, she likes deadlifting her own bodyweight…”)
28. Gives you a quick-blast option for raising the heart rate, burning calories and blasting body fat, even when time is tight.

And 29….what’s your reason for lifting weights? Let me know in the comments!

29 reasons to lift weights (audience participation post) is a post from The Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.

TheFitDog on diet

I regularly get Tweets, Facebook requests and direct messages asking for more blog posts from my dog. Yes, really. The thing about Frankie is, he’s not that great at typing. He has lots of ideas, but then he forgets them. And if there’s food around, forget it (forget what?!) But we can not deny the repeated requests of such a strong fanbase.

Here are his posts thus far:
Advice for a happy life
Offers to answer your training questions
Then answers your fitness questions

And here is the latest blog post from my dog.

Hi guys! Today I thought I’d focus on DIET. Diet means food! And food is brilliant.

I wanted to talk about FOOD for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I haven’t been doing much training, just cardio really: long walks and then HIIT chasing after my football (blog post to come on my collection of balls, how I came about them all and how I select a ball depending on what I want to achieve out of my session).

Secondly, Nic recently posted the picture below on her Facebook wall, and I know most of you are probably thinking “wow, how did he get that ripped and muscular? What is his diet?” So I am going to talk you through what I eat, what I like to eat, what I wish I could eat and maybe even some of my favourite products.

By the way, for all you bodybuilders out there who wish you could do such a great rear-lat spread, here’s my top tip. It will never fail you. Just turn around and imagine there’s a CAT in the GARDEN! Honestly, it will make you so puffed up and enraged your lats will flare like mad and you will look massive. Top tip right there, guys!

Obviously I mostly eat actual dog food, but that’s by far the most boring part of my diet, so that’s all I’m going to say about that. As well as dog food, I eat:

- vegetables, mainly cruciferous.
I love the crunch!
Favourites: cauliflower (only the outside leaves), brocolli (only the stalks), cabbage (red or white), brussels sprouts (bit tricky to get a purchase on, can fall out of the mouth and roll around), cucumber. Once, I stole availed myself of a whole entire cauliflower, but I only ate the leaves. Another time I stole caught (as it was falling off the kitchen surface) a red cabbage. I ate the whole thing! Then I was sick a bit on the carpet (which is cream coloured).

- meat! Sometimes I am lucky enough to get odds and ends of whatever Nic is cooking. Here is me taking a look at what she’s got out of the freezer for the week, just so I know what might be coming my way.

When Nic makes something in the slow-cooker, I get to eat my dinner out of the slow-cooker bowl once it’s empty! This is probably my favourite meal of the week.

Nic gets her meat from various places but, in my expert opinion (I am a dog, after all), the best ones are:
- Athleat (I even made it onto their website! OMG! Look – can you spot me?) Nic says put “nicolamillichip” in at checkout you’’ll get 10% off your order. My favourite product is their grass-fed mince, Nic’s is their chicken breast.

Westin Gourmet – I love their sausages (Nic loves their chicken and turkey) and on the topic of sausages, if you go to here, you’ll get free sausages on your order! Whooo-ha!

Nic also cooks quite a lot of “exotic” meat as her treats, I just asked her where she gets it from and she said Osgrow and Kezie. She also gets her fish from Regal Fish Supplies, but I can’t give a personal recommendation on these items as I have never once been allowed to sample any

- Coconut oil.
I just can’t get enough of this. Here are a few pictures of me with an empty tub, and even a video. I just wanted to show you all how much I love it. Nic gives me about a tsp of the oil (it’s solid) on her hand every morning and I go crazy when I see the tub. I think it gives my ears a nice shine; what do you think? Shiny ears are very important. Nic got this tub from myprotein but you can get it other places, too.

Here’s a video of me and an empty tub

- Water!
The only thing I drink is water and I honestly believe it is a big factor in my all-round awesomeness. I’ve tried tea; don’t like it. I don’t fancy coffee and I’ve never been tempted by booze. One thing I would say – from experience – don’t fall asleep of an evening and then wake up really thirsty so you end up drinking a ton of water just before bed. You’ll only need to bark to be let out for a wee in the night!

Anyway, I hope that answers some of your questions about how I manage to be so muscly and shiny. If there’s anything else you’d like to know, feel free to drop Nic a line and she will pass the message on to me. My next blog post will be about BALLS!

TheFitDog on diet is a post from the Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.

Treadmill training to try

I used to turn my nose up at the treadmill, preferring to head off on road or trail to pound out mile after mile of same-pace stuff, with the odd track session or set of hill reps thrown in. Sport-specific, innit: I used to take part in running races and triathlons, and I needed to train that way.

These days, I do very little cardio, and the cardio I do needs to be short and sharp, stripping away body fat but preserving precious muscle (yep, it’s a good trick if you can do it). These days, I’m on first name terms with the treadmill (Chris), cross-trainer (Lesley) and rowing machine (Simon).

It dawned on me this morning, as I slid home from the gym on icy pavements (I’m still doing cardio during deload week), that even my triathlete and running pals might be getting familiar with a treadmill in this weather. And, why not. Sure, treadmill running isn’t as picturesque as a few glorious miles across hill and dale (unless the person on the treddie in front of yours possesses a particularly pleasing derriere…) but it does the job. And, actually, for the endurance folk amongst you, a short sharp treadmill session could deliver measurable benefits which are quite different to your longer, slower outdoor runs. So this post is for you, too!

I don’t (currently) do anything longer than 30 minutes of cardio in one go, and I prefer to do 20 minutes of “work” with a warm up and down. But the work does need to be work! Got 30 minutes? Then here are three treadmill sessions to try today (not all in one day, obvs). They’re my current “favourites”:

11/11/11
I’ve written about this before. This was given to me by a PT called Ben Lauder-Dykes. It’s a true delight. Really, just try it. And if you think it’s too easy, well that’s great, because you can also do 12/12/12 or whatever you like. You’re only limited by the % to which your treadmill will incline.

How to do it:
- get on the treadmill, warm up (walk/jog) for 4 mins
- set the treadmill to 11kph, 11% incline
- start running and run for 15 seconds
- jump to the side of the treadmill (so you’re straddling the belt) and rest for 15 seconds
- keep doing this 15s on/15s off for 11 minutes (if it all gets a bit much, just remember you’re looking for “15:00″ on the display)
- hit that speed button and decrease it slowly for 5 minutes til you’re walking to cool down
There. 20 minutes out of your day=boosted metabolism, fat burning, speed work, incline training, glutey-bootay greatness

Hill intervals
I did this today. How to do it:
- walk/jog for 5 minutes on an incline of 0.5% (only because completely flat feels weird)
- run at a sustainable pace (read the full session to guess at what this might be for you) for 2 minutes
- increase incline to 2% for 2 minutes
- down to 0.5% for 2 minutes
- increase incline to 4% for 2 minutes
- down to 0.5% for 2 minutes
- increase incline to 6% for 2 minutes
- down to 0.5% for 2 minutes
- increase incline to 8% for 2 minutes
- down to 0.5% for 2 minutes
- increase incline to 10% for 2 minutes
- hit that decline button, bring the incline down, and start to bring the speed down too so you jog/walk for a 5 minute cool down
There. 30 minutes of deceptive, increasingly heart-pounding work which will leave your metabolism ramped up for hours and do you much more good than just running at the same pace and the same incline for 30 minutes.

Flat intervals
How to do it:
- 5 mins warm up until you’re running at a sustainable pace (somewhere between 5 mile and 10K race pace I’d say)
- alternate 1 minute at this pace with 1 minute recovery (jog not walk) pace. Try not to bring the speed down too much, simply because then part of your next minute’s effort will be spent getting the treadmill back up to speed
- do 20 minutes of 1 min on/1 min off
- decrease the speed for a 5 minute jog/walk cool down

Do one session per week (or, if you dare, do all of these in one week) and tell me how you feel and how it’s affected your body recomposition and/or fitness goals. Don’t underestimate them, though. I’m always hugely hungry and very tired for a day or so after doing one of these sessions; a sure sign that they work the body hard.

Treadmill training to try is a post from The Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.

Leg training with Helen Stack

I’ve said before that I believe in the law of attraction. Remember when I wanted to interview Kelly Rennie, then ended up sitting next to her boyfriend (now fiancee: congrats, guys) at a conference, without knowing who he was? Yes, I do believe that if you put requests “out there”, sometimes they get answered.

So, I wasn’t altogether surprised to find myself training legs last weekend with WNBF Pro Helen Stack: former NPA overall champion, INBF World Champion and WPF Miss Universe.

You see, when I started to get focused on my own 2012 goals, I put together my mood board thingy for the kitchen. It comprises a slightly tongue-in-cheek, slightly disturbing mathematical equation, played out in picture form:

(A x B) + C = X, where A is Helen Stack, B is Patricia Beckman and C is me. X is unknown outcome.

It’s highly doubtful I’ll ever train legs (or anything else for that matter) with Patricia, what with her living in America and everything. But the law of attraction (and…er…the fact that she lives locally) meant that, a few days into 2012, I found myself training with Helen.

And what a session it was! Want to know what we did? OK.

- Box squats (new to me – sitting back and down onto a low box which is placed within the squat rack). I think I did 2 warm up sets and 7 working sets (ay caramba).
- Vertical leg press – single legs and both legs. Helen did immensely more weight than me, I can’t even remember what she did but it was crazy. I did 5 sets.
- Leg extension (machine) – single legs and both legs, with a horrible “pulse and hold” thing dreamed up by Helen in the depths of her Pro-bodybuildery brain. I ended up covering my eyes and kind of screaming during these. 4 sets.
- Standing hamstring curls, 6 sets
- Lying hamstring curls, 4 sets
- Donkey calf raises, 3 sets

Helen doesn’t often train at Castle Gym but, from time to time, she pops in, and hopefully we’ll get to train again soon. I’m absolutely loving training there! The kit, atmosphere and other people are really motivating.

Which athlete from your chosen sport would you like to train with? From my “other life”, I’d love to swim in the sea with Lynne Cox (and some seals).

Leg training with Helen Stack is a post from The Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.

Blind date training

Happy new year! I’m away at the moment in Wales, staying with friends to celebrate the New Year. This time last year, I blogged with a few ideas for training in the house whilst you’re away and can’t get to a gym. This year, too, I’m keeping the training going. But this year, I’ve gone one better.

Some time ago, I started chatting with first-time Figure competitor Amie Lloyd over Twitter (she’s friends with Kenny Mudoola, who won the BNBF Welsh qualifier with me and Lucy last year). By coincidence, I happen to be staying about 10 minutes from Amie at the moment. Once we realised this, we decided to train together. Amie kindly sorted me out several guest passes for her local gym, and we’ve been training together every morning. It’s been great!

Yesterday, we got stuck in straightaway with a hefty quads and calves session: sumo squats, regular squats with the Olympic bar, split squats, leg press, calves and then a nasty finisher (I think I blogged about it here). Then some abs (Amie’s abs are to die for and I was hoping some of it would rub off on me!)

Today, we went to town on our chest and delts: some mobilisation work, then bench presses (50kgs for me – yay!), incline dumbbell flys, shoulder supersets, some sneaky things Kenny told Amie (and, with shoulders like his, who’s going to argue?), chest press machine superset with reverse fly machine then some shoulder finishers. Ouch!

Tomorrow we’re going to meet one final time to work whatever we feel needs working! Possibly glutes and hamstrings, possibly biceps and triceps, maybe back. It’s great to have someone here with whom I can train hard, chat about prep and talk through all the feelings, joys and fears of competing. Amie is hoping to compete in the Figure class at the BNBF Welsh this coming July. I think she’s going to do brilliantly. She has a beautiful shape with the tiniest waist, and she’s tall and elegant. She’s overcome some challenges to put on an impressive amount of muscle, and she works damn hard, so she’ll no doubt put on a bit more yet. I’m so pleased we got to train together! Thank you, Amie!

Blind date training is a post from The Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.

Training at Castle gym

Christmas came early for me today. I was invited to go and train at an independent gym run by bodybuilders and, when I got there, they offered me free membership. You realise what this means. I can now train at a gym which has things like a squat rack, and more than one Olympic bar. :-O

Today was the best training session I’ve had in a long time, and I am very grateful to the guys at Castle for offering me membership. To say that it will benefit my bodybuilding training is an understatement. Training in that environment, with other bodybuilders and competitors, and with all that kit and equipment, will transform things for me. I’ll be able to do more, I’ll always have someone to spot me, and the atmosphere will be hugely motivating.

Look, there’s a squat rack! And a hack squat machine! And a vertical leg press machine! And… and… I was like a kid in a sweet shop, just looking round and beaming (and wondering what half of the stuff was).

As if free training at a proper bodybuilding gym wasn’t enough for one day, I ended up being coached by the guy who coaches one of the women who inspires me most in this sport (in fact, her picture is on my kitchen wall this year). As Castle’s owner Jason Joyce (no relation, but a fun co-incidence!) showed me round, he introduced me to Jerry. I recognised Jerry immediately as powerlifter Jerry Fox, the partner and coach of Helen Stack, former NPA overall women’s Champion, INBF World Champion and now WNBF Pro.

Jerry kindly ended up giving me some coaching points and helping me through a few sets of squats (in an actual squat rack! ) and his advice was so helpful (and his encouragement greatly appreciated).

I ended up doing a fantastic leg session, and could have stayed there all day – but there’s this thing called Christmas Day coming up soon, and we have a fair few things left to do.

You may thinks it’s a bit sad that I’m so excited about training at an independent bodybuilding gym, but you have to understand that my regular gym is not equipped for (nor populated by) bodybuilders. It’s a great gym, I love it there, and will continue to train there too, but I often wish I had access to various bits of kit, a spotter, or the company of other bodybuilders. I now have all of those things.

If you’re in the Windsor area, I really encourage you to go along to Castle Gym. It’s fantastic. I’ll see you there.

Jason, thank you so much for inviting me to your facility, and for your kind offer of membership. It was a fantastic surprise and an amazing opportunity which I’m delighted to take up!

Training at Castle gym is a post from The Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.