What's new?
Not a whole lot to be perfectly honest.
Let's recap ...
Head of S&C at Eastbourne College since September 2016.
Left Esher Rugby in November because the travel commitments were becoming too much and I didn't have enough time for it, plus a small increase of hours at the college.
Still coaching classes at Underground Gym and also several clients.
Training wise ... see my other blog because there's too much to share twice.
"Broadening my horizons"
I've been trying to be more proactive lately in seeking out new information. I made a goal at New Year to read/audible one book per month and I have stuck to that.
I have also been trying to just get more information about different things that can help benefit what I do; including training, diet, supplementation, recovery methods etc etc.
A few things that I've really been tying to implement are:
1) Positivity.
I'm trying to spend less time stressed, angry and negative and put an upbeat message into everything I do. I really hate when people turn everything negative, but I found myself doing it so often that it made me annoyed.
I listened to a podcast by Barbell Shrugged, or "The Shrugged Collective" as it's now called, with Ryan Fischer of CrossFit Chalk. He spoke about getting buy in from clients and how to make them feel part of it; things as simple as a high five at the end of the session, or just listening to the small things they say rather than blanking it out and waiting for the end of the session.
This hit home to me a lot and is something that I have taken on board as a big work on.
2) Self trial.
Talking about trying new things for training, diet, recovery etc I have taken it upon myself to give things a go.
I'm not at a point now where I am training hard for a high level competition, so there is little risk to me playing around with different stimulus or stimulants.
Training has changed a fair bit, especially from a year ago. I am doing a bigger mix of stuff and really enjoying some tough conditioning that is challenging physically and mentally. I'm also doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu which is a cool change and hard challenge.
I have become an ambassador at The Float Spa in Hove, where I am able to offer a £20 discount off your first float (use code Rob20). This is because I have found floatation tank therapy to be HUGELY beneficial mentally and physically and something that I need to be doing regularly to stay where I need to be.
I have also been taking CBD oil before bed and in the mornings, and created a link with a plant-based supplements company; Raw Sport (20% off with RawSport20), and bought some more Onnit products such as the amazing Alpha Brain. This is a nootropic product designed to stimulate the brain and increase mental efficiency. I fucking love it. Mostly for word recollection and memory focus, it is great but a bit pricey.
The newest thing that I have been adding back in is cannabis. Yep, I said it. Cannabis ... marijuana ... weed ... whatever else you want to call it. So following on from the success of using CBD, having booked a holiday to Amsterdam where I intend to take in "the culture", and reading multiple studies on the benefits of using it I have decided to start using it. I'm a complete NOOB with it to be honest, but I am getting there. I can roll now, and I smoke it without any tobacco because I don't want the nicotine effect (or after-effect of long-term damage), and have had a friend of mine hook me up with a vape pen thing with both a THC free CBD oil extract, and a regular CBD without the THC.
For those that don't know, THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol) is the psychoactive element of cannabis a.k.a. the part that gets you high. So by taking that out you get all the benefits of cannabis; anti-inflammation, improved sleep, cognitive function, immune system health etc etc, without getting high or risking any failed drugs tests etc.
I also listened to a book called "Own the day, own your life" by Aubrey Marcus. Aubrey is the owner of Onnit, and is a big believer in holistic medicine and using exercise, diet and lifestyle to improve your wellbeing.
Albeit some of the information is a little crazy and things that I won't be planning to implement, some of it I will be and have been.
Lemon juice and pink himalayan sea salt in some water in the morning to replace electrolytes lost during sleep, intermittent fasting (16 hours off, 8 hours on), CBD/Cannabis, and just trying to not let things get to me as much.
Also; I'm trying to connect more with the people closest to me. Even if only friends, I don't want things to be lost in the wilderness. It's a real cliche, but I don't want to waste any of my time so every one who I hold close to me I want to know that, and feel appreciated. I want to spend not just time with people, but QUALITY time. This is too easy not to do nowadays with the constant distraction of phones and social media.
I've definitely lived up to the title of Rob's Ramblings on this one guys! Shit!
Overall the message is that things are changing for the better. No more social pressure to do what others feel is right but do my own version, try things out for myself rather than relying on the word of others, embrace those closest to me, and overall live a better life. What more do we have?
Friday 22 June 2018
Wednesday 12 October 2016
Taking it online
With my new role at Eastbourne College, alongside my other role at Esher Rugby, it has severely cut down the amount of time that I will be able to spend doing personal training in a one-to-one basis.
Beforehand it was an easy set-up because I was at Reach Fitness, and I was doing relatively well there. Not as well as the other trainers because I was still living away from London so it was difficult to fit as many clients in the mornings or later evenings. Plus I was giving up two evenings a week to go to Esher.
The decision to take the Eastbourne job is because I 100% see it as progression within the career. As much as I love personal training, I feel like it will always be there. This job came up totally out of the blue and has too much potential further down the line to not take the risk.
Now that I'm a month in, I'm more settled with my work time-table, and also finding when and where to fit my own training in.
So the decision has been made that for the time being I won't be doing any more one-to-one personal training. Reasons:
1 - I'm not sure I really have the time to be able to dedicate to it, which then isn't fair on clients.
2 - Rachael and I are looking into buying our first home. So with not knowing how much longer I'll be living in East Grinstead, I don't want the hassle of setting up somewhere to train clients to then have to can it all anyway.
--
So I am now going to be dedicating more of my time to Online Coaching.
I currently have a decent amount of clients on my online coaching roster, including a whole american football team (Colchester Gladiators), but I will be looking for this to build over the coming months.
I've signed up to Train Heroic also. This is an app where as the coach I can input all the programming for athletes, and then they have access to it all via an app, and can input all their weights etc using that. It has video demonstrations of exercises, and then for the coach it produces leaderboards and all kinds of data to look over.
It seems really cool - so I'm on a trial with it and see what happens. I'm hoping that once I get to grips with it, it will be a really cool resource for online clients.
So anyway - check out the online stuff!
www.thebendingbarbell.co.uk
The team is constantly growing between John, Kelly and myself and we want to see it continue to do so.
Until next time.
Beforehand it was an easy set-up because I was at Reach Fitness, and I was doing relatively well there. Not as well as the other trainers because I was still living away from London so it was difficult to fit as many clients in the mornings or later evenings. Plus I was giving up two evenings a week to go to Esher.
The decision to take the Eastbourne job is because I 100% see it as progression within the career. As much as I love personal training, I feel like it will always be there. This job came up totally out of the blue and has too much potential further down the line to not take the risk.
Now that I'm a month in, I'm more settled with my work time-table, and also finding when and where to fit my own training in.
So the decision has been made that for the time being I won't be doing any more one-to-one personal training. Reasons:
1 - I'm not sure I really have the time to be able to dedicate to it, which then isn't fair on clients.
2 - Rachael and I are looking into buying our first home. So with not knowing how much longer I'll be living in East Grinstead, I don't want the hassle of setting up somewhere to train clients to then have to can it all anyway.
--
So I am now going to be dedicating more of my time to Online Coaching.
I currently have a decent amount of clients on my online coaching roster, including a whole american football team (Colchester Gladiators), but I will be looking for this to build over the coming months.
I've signed up to Train Heroic also. This is an app where as the coach I can input all the programming for athletes, and then they have access to it all via an app, and can input all their weights etc using that. It has video demonstrations of exercises, and then for the coach it produces leaderboards and all kinds of data to look over.
It seems really cool - so I'm on a trial with it and see what happens. I'm hoping that once I get to grips with it, it will be a really cool resource for online clients.
So anyway - check out the online stuff!
www.thebendingbarbell.co.uk
The team is constantly growing between John, Kelly and myself and we want to see it continue to do so.
Until next time.
Sunday 25 September 2016
Life updates
So the training blog has now been empty since July ... and it is September 25th ... my bad.
And I haven't updated this one or my articles in a while either! Poor from me. Explanation time ...
For those of you who know me or follow me on social you'll know that I've been working a lot. Firstly in between Reach and Esher, and then adding in Eastbourne College to that over the last month or so.
My training recently has been very inconsistent - before last week I had gone 3 weeks without doing ANY barbell movements whatsoever just because I had been so busy with work that my only exercise were 20 minute AMRAPs just to get something done.
This has now changed. I'm working a steady schedule with pretty much the same timetable week to week - so I should be able to train 5-6x a week, at the same times week to week. So I'm hoping for a big push on with my lifting.
I've been having those normal Rob Nitman training doubts in my head a little recently too not knowing how much my focus will be on weightlifting, if I want to do a bit more of this or that.
I am still committed to chasing weightlifting. I really enjoy it, it gives me something to focus on, and I think once I become more consistent with the movements, and my mobility improves, then the lifts will start moving upwards at a rate of knots.
I will however be adding in some additional work more for pleasure than anything else. I want to get back into bench press, just because I somehow have found myself missing it. So I will bench once a week, and I will also be adding in more upper body pulling; chins, pull ups, barbell rows, DB Rows etc, and some other things like pressing, dips, biceps and triceps etc along with some low level cardio to improve my work capacity and recovery between sessions.
Work wise I am now settled in with Esher Rugby and Eastbourne College. I have left Reach (again); this was a tough decision to make because I really enjoy working there, all the staff and clients are awesome and that is what I will miss the most - the environment I worked in.
But this new role at Eastbourne College is one that will hopefully turn into a career job rather than just a new role. Excited about what it could develop in to.
My role is Head of Strength and Conditioning, and within this role I am in charge of developing and delivering all the performance programming for essentially the whole school! We have year 9 through to year 13, so ages 13-18, and a whole range of sports including Rugby, Hockey, Cricket and all sorts of others.
So it's a big but exciting challenge and I'm really enjoying it.
So there we go - all up to date.
Keep up to date on all the social media and I'll update soon.
And I haven't updated this one or my articles in a while either! Poor from me. Explanation time ...
For those of you who know me or follow me on social you'll know that I've been working a lot. Firstly in between Reach and Esher, and then adding in Eastbourne College to that over the last month or so.
My training recently has been very inconsistent - before last week I had gone 3 weeks without doing ANY barbell movements whatsoever just because I had been so busy with work that my only exercise were 20 minute AMRAPs just to get something done.
This has now changed. I'm working a steady schedule with pretty much the same timetable week to week - so I should be able to train 5-6x a week, at the same times week to week. So I'm hoping for a big push on with my lifting.
I've been having those normal Rob Nitman training doubts in my head a little recently too not knowing how much my focus will be on weightlifting, if I want to do a bit more of this or that.
I am still committed to chasing weightlifting. I really enjoy it, it gives me something to focus on, and I think once I become more consistent with the movements, and my mobility improves, then the lifts will start moving upwards at a rate of knots.
I will however be adding in some additional work more for pleasure than anything else. I want to get back into bench press, just because I somehow have found myself missing it. So I will bench once a week, and I will also be adding in more upper body pulling; chins, pull ups, barbell rows, DB Rows etc, and some other things like pressing, dips, biceps and triceps etc along with some low level cardio to improve my work capacity and recovery between sessions.
Work wise I am now settled in with Esher Rugby and Eastbourne College. I have left Reach (again); this was a tough decision to make because I really enjoy working there, all the staff and clients are awesome and that is what I will miss the most - the environment I worked in.
But this new role at Eastbourne College is one that will hopefully turn into a career job rather than just a new role. Excited about what it could develop in to.
My role is Head of Strength and Conditioning, and within this role I am in charge of developing and delivering all the performance programming for essentially the whole school! We have year 9 through to year 13, so ages 13-18, and a whole range of sports including Rugby, Hockey, Cricket and all sorts of others.
So it's a big but exciting challenge and I'm really enjoying it.
So there we go - all up to date.
Keep up to date on all the social media and I'll update soon.
Saturday 11 June 2016
Comp & Esher update
Competition done.
I made 95 in the snatch - failed 100 behind and 102 in front.
I made 120 and 126 in the clean and jerk - failed 130 on a press out (I'll definitely take it as a training make).
On to the next one - big training cycle ahead to push on and make some major progress now.
Esher started up this week - we had an open training session this morning. It went well - we had 18 players train and it was just some basic conditioning games and touch rugby nothing major. Good to learn a few names and get familiar with the facilities etc.
Really looking forward to getting in more this week, doing more coaching and start putting some things in to place.
I made 95 in the snatch - failed 100 behind and 102 in front.
I made 120 and 126 in the clean and jerk - failed 130 on a press out (I'll definitely take it as a training make).
On to the next one - big training cycle ahead to push on and make some major progress now.
Esher started up this week - we had an open training session this morning. It went well - we had 18 players train and it was just some basic conditioning games and touch rugby nothing major. Good to learn a few names and get familiar with the facilities etc.
Really looking forward to getting in more this week, doing more coaching and start putting some things in to place.
Friday 20 May 2016
New blog - first post
So here we go!
We're starting fresh ... again!
I've ditched the last blog page because I wanted to start from the beginning and create something new. So this blog page will now be for my general ramblings - a bit of stuff about personal life, work, and whatever I feel like chatting about without it being too specific (not an article or training diary essentially).
So since I last posted anything on any of my pages a lot has changed.
East Grinstead RFC is no more. Well the club exists, but I think in 2 more years that won't be so. Gavin has left, taking everything G-Force with him including the gym kit and my contract.
So now I am back working at Reach Fitness London and loving it. Picking up new clients and coaching classes again.
I am also currently awaiting my contract to become Head of S&C for Esher Rugby! This I am really excited about and really can't wait to get started, it's going to be absolutely immense and a huge challenge for me but one that I really want to get into and smash it! Having the chance to program my own entire pre-season and in-season is what I've wanted to do for a long time now so I finally have that opportunity.
Outside of that things are also going well. Rachael and I are living together in East Grinstead in a lovely one bed flat, we've got a holiday planned and things are going good.
I am also continuing the Weightlifting journey, with my first competition set to be on my 27th Birthday, the 4th of June, at Bethnal Green Weightlifting Club. This is not a BWL sanctioned meet but still has those same rules so I have ordered a singlet etc.
Last Friday (13th May) I hit 3 PBs in one session; 180kg front squat, 100kg snatch & 123kg clean and jerk. So things are progressing nicely. I am now also down to a lighter weight of 107kg and holding which is where I want to be so that I can compete at 105kg category.
So yeah - things are good and looking up. Big things on the horizon and looking forward to what's in store.
Over and out.
We're starting fresh ... again!
I've ditched the last blog page because I wanted to start from the beginning and create something new. So this blog page will now be for my general ramblings - a bit of stuff about personal life, work, and whatever I feel like chatting about without it being too specific (not an article or training diary essentially).
So since I last posted anything on any of my pages a lot has changed.
East Grinstead RFC is no more. Well the club exists, but I think in 2 more years that won't be so. Gavin has left, taking everything G-Force with him including the gym kit and my contract.
So now I am back working at Reach Fitness London and loving it. Picking up new clients and coaching classes again.
I am also currently awaiting my contract to become Head of S&C for Esher Rugby! This I am really excited about and really can't wait to get started, it's going to be absolutely immense and a huge challenge for me but one that I really want to get into and smash it! Having the chance to program my own entire pre-season and in-season is what I've wanted to do for a long time now so I finally have that opportunity.
Outside of that things are also going well. Rachael and I are living together in East Grinstead in a lovely one bed flat, we've got a holiday planned and things are going good.
I am also continuing the Weightlifting journey, with my first competition set to be on my 27th Birthday, the 4th of June, at Bethnal Green Weightlifting Club. This is not a BWL sanctioned meet but still has those same rules so I have ordered a singlet etc.
Last Friday (13th May) I hit 3 PBs in one session; 180kg front squat, 100kg snatch & 123kg clean and jerk. So things are progressing nicely. I am now also down to a lighter weight of 107kg and holding which is where I want to be so that I can compete at 105kg category.
So yeah - things are good and looking up. Big things on the horizon and looking forward to what's in store.
Over and out.
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