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The latest blog posts, fitness news and events from Andy Vincent PT.

Andy Vincent Personal Trainer Online

What’s The Difference Between RPE, RIR And 1 Rep Max?

As much as the mechanisms for hypertrophy (mechanical tension, molecular signalling and muscle protein synthesis) are the same between the sexes, there are some unique differences.

December 2, 2022 No Comments

Woman doing weight lifting

Master the Basics – Overload

Progressive overload is the focus of layering a slight incremental increase in training stress one on top of the other session after session, week after week so you continue to improve at a given task.

November 27, 2022 No Comments

Andy Vincent Personal Trainer Online

Do Men And Women Need The Same Training To Build Muscle And Strength?

As much as the mechanisms for hypertrophy (mechanical tension, molecular signalling and muscle protein synthesis) are the same between the sexes, there are some unique differences.

November 25, 2022 No Comments

Buddy training, workout

Master the Basics – Neutral Spine

Neutral Spine refers to the natural curves of the spine including a slight kyphotic curve to the upper back, with curves in the opposite direction.

November 13, 2022 No Comments

A blonde woman working out at the gym

Master the Basics – Mind to Muscle Connection (MMC)

The ability to consciously connect to a target muscle to ‘feel’ it working is a feature of resistance training.

October 30, 2022 No Comments

woman in yoga lunge pose at sunset

Master the Basics – Lunges

You haven’t got to look too far in the gym to find a trainee or trainer saying you “shouldn’t lunge” or you “shouldn’t take your knee past your toe” because it causes knee pain.

October 16, 2022 No Comments

woman doing sit up

Master the Basics – Kinematics and Kinetics

Kinematics and Kinetics are areas of study in physics that can better help us understand how humans move (human biomechanics).

October 2, 2022 No Comments

man jumping from bench

Master the Basics – Jumping

Incorporating jumping exercises into your training could be the single most important thing you could do.

September 18, 2022 No Comments

Kettle bell on floor

Master the Basics – Intensity

Training goals can be helpful, but equally, they can be detrimental to progress and motivation. It all depends on the person setting the goal.

September 4, 2022 No Comments

Two women working out squat on boxes

Master the Basics – High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

Training goals can be helpful, but equally, they can be detrimental to progress and motivation. It all depends on the person setting the goal.

August 21, 2022 No Comments

goals flat lay

Master the Basics – Goals

Training goals can be helpful, but equally, they can be detrimental to progress and motivation. It all depends on the person setting the goal.

August 7, 2022 No Comments

women stretching

Master the Basics – Flexibility & Mobility

First of all these are not the same thing, and there is an important distinction between the two.

July 24, 2022 No Comments

Categories

NEWSLETTER

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An interesting fact: people’s rate of progress d

An interesting fact: people’s rate of progress during their first year of training has more to do with learning the skill than actual strength improvements.

This is also true during the first one to six weeks of a new training phase when an exercise is new, or you’re re-familiarizing yourself with it. After this period, you’ll notice a plateauing of the progression curve with load.

This plateau does not mean something is wrong. It’s exactly where you need to be. At this point, you’re working hard, close to your limit, creating a stimulus for your body to lay down new muscle fibres.

For those beyond their first year of training, it’s essential to get comfortable with a slower rate of progress.
Avoid changing your workouts just because you’ve reached a plateau in progression. Constantly swapping exercises means you’re always re-familiarizing yourself with new movements and never actually getting stronger.

Practice and patience are key to long-term progress.

📍 @lisbonstrong

This one of for all my fellow coaches who listen t

This one of for all my fellow coaches who listen to my podcast.

🎧 Subscribe and Listen wherever you get your podcasts
📺 Or watch the episode on my YouTube Channel

#AndyVincentPT #SmarterStrengthTraining #trainsmart #podcast #fitnesspodcast #strengthtrainingpodcast #avpt #onlinepersonaltraining #fitnessobsessed #FitnessGoals #StrengthRetention #CheatDay #CheatMeal

It’s important to recognise that step-downs and

It’s important to recognise that step-downs and step-ups are slightly different exercises. A step-up starts with both feet on the floor. You step onto the box, typically with a moment where your weight fully transitions onto the floor. In contrast, a step-down is more like a single-leg squat off a box. You reach down to the floor, touch it gently, and then return to the starting position.

Key Points to Consider:

1️⃣ Control the lowering phase: To avoid “falling” during the descent, lean forward slightly, take the exercise slowly, and use a box height suitable for your current strength level.
2️⃣ Avoid bouncing off the back foot: The goal is to delicately touch the floor without using the back foot to push off. To help with this, slide your foot down the box and point the toe upward, touching the heel to the floor first.
3️⃣ Be cautious when loading: While loading this exercise is common, I often see the movement “butchered” when people load it, especially with bars, causing the back leg to take over the work. Instead, I recommend focusing on the range of motion and gradually building up the step height over the weeks.

Increasing the step height provides greater tension stimulus and allows for better mobility expression during the workout.

As mentioned in the video, this is undoubtedly one of the best single-leg squat pattern variations. I strongly recommend programming it into your workouts for both strength and mobility benefits.

📍@lisbonstrong

#StrengthTraining
#MobilityMatters
#RangeOfMotion
#JointHealth
#FunctionalStrength
#FullBodyWorkout
#MovementQuality
#FitnessTips
#MobilityTraining
#TrainSmart
#BodyweightTraining
#InjuryPrevention
#PushUps
#PullUps
#FlexibilityTraining
#StrongerEveryDay
#FitnessGoals
#GymEfficiency
#WorkoutInspiration

You’ve probably heard it before: when strength t

You’ve probably heard it before: when strength training, you need to focus on progressive overload. This simple piece of advice can completely revolutionize your training but can also lead to some common issues. One of the biggest problems is that, in the pursuit of progression, people often compromise their form. When you lose form, you’re essentially shifting the focus of the load onto other muscle groups as your body compensates.

Here’s how to ensure your progression is doing what you think it’s doing:

1. Standardise Your Movement
Your first rep and your last rep should look the same, with minimal deviation in movement as you push through the final reps. This is particularly important when you’re aiming to build muscle. For example, if you’re performing a dumbbell chest press and trying to overload your chest, but during the last two reps, you shrug your neck to squeeze them out, the overload is now being shifted to your traps and anterior delts rather than your pecs. Standardized movement ensures the intended muscle is being targeted.

2. Have a Clear Strategy for Progression
Without a strategy, it’s easy to feel lost week to week. While tracking your reps and loads in a workout log is helpful, it’s equally important to record details like how hard your sets are (e.g., RPE or RIR) and have a plan for how you’ll progress. As much as the focus is to increase load or reps, you also need to think about how many sets you might do on that top weight. Should you back off more on the first set to allow the attempt to go heavier? What if your form broke down on the third set last week? A bit of strategy can go a long way.

#AndyVincentPT #SmarterStrengthTraining #trainsmart #avpt #onlinepersonaltraining #fitnessobsessed #FitnessGoals #healthyhabits #consistencyiskey

Had people telling you to lift heavy for 2-4 reps,

Had people telling you to lift heavy for 2-4 reps, rather than your usual 12? Well, lets clear this up!

#AndyVincentPT #SmarterStrengthTraining #trainsmart #avpt #onlinepersonaltraining #fitnessobsessed #FitnessGoals #healthyhabits #consistencyiskey

On top of your sessions, try to find time to inclu

On top of your sessions, try to find time to include a little bit more day-to-day activity too. You don’t need to put too much pressure on yourself to make huge changes here. Fifteen minutes every day adds up to 7.5 hours of extra activity a month. Small changes can accumulate, creating a platform to build on from there.

Working out is great. Setting aside three hours a week of purposeful activity to increase strength, improve flexibility, or enhance your cardio is essential to mitigate the negative effects of our increasingly sedentary lifestyles.

But make no mistake—your three, or even five, workouts per week are not enough, on their own, to do everything you need to improve your health and maintain your body weight if the rest of the week is spent sitting down.

We need to try and stay as active as possible outside of the gym too, which is a lot harder in the winter when it’s cold and wet. You’ve heard it before, but taking the stairs and parking further away from the shops all adds up if you can stick to it as much as possible.

I often wonder if fitness industry messaging will

I often wonder if fitness industry messaging will ever change. Moving away from six-packs and summer shreds, and focusing on what really matters: long-term health. Training should literally be for life. It’s not something you pick up and put down every time you’re looking to lose fat or get ready for summer. It’s something we should all just consistently do.

It doesn’t have to be overly Instagram-worthy. Not everyone who works out is training to have a six-pack.

Personally, I find it much more impressive to see older adults who have trained for their lifetime or who have picked up exercise later in life and are getting stronger, fitter, and more flexible, while above all improving their quality of life.

And a shout out to both my in-laws for training hard and proving that you don't stop because you get older. You get older because you stop!

@atomichealthandfitness
@breezehill4
@sueoz19

Diet Breaks > Cheat Meals 🎧 Subscribe and List

Diet Breaks > Cheat Meals

🎧 Subscribe and Listen wherever you get your podcasts
📺 Or watch the episode on my YouTube Channel

#AndyVincentPT #SmarterStrengthTraining #trainsmart #podcast #fitnesspodcast #strengthtrainingpodcast #avpt #onlinepersonaltraining #fitnessobsessed #FitnessGoals #StrengthRetention #CheatDay #CheatMeal

Single-leg squats are a fantastic strength exercis

Single-leg squats are a fantastic strength exercise and a great way to challenge your mobility. However, they can often feel like a significant jump in difficulty, which is why it’s important to have regressions that provide a step-by-step approach to building up to them. In this video, I walk you through how I like to progress my clients toward mastering the single-leg squat.

Note: This video does not cover supplementary mobility work for areas like the ankles and hips, which can be an excellent complement to this training protocol.

📲 SAVE - to try using these in the gym
👍🏼 FOLLOW - for more exercise tutorials
🏷 TAG - your training buddy who needs to start using these

📍@lisbonstrong

#StrengthTraining
#MobilityMatters
#RangeOfMotion
#JointHealth
#FunctionalStrength
#FullBodyWorkout
#MovementQuality
#FitnessTips
#MobilityTraining
#TrainSmart
#BodyweightTraining
#InjuryPrevention
#PushUps
#PullUps
#FlexibilityTraining
#StrongerEveryDay
#FitnessGoals
#GymEfficiency
#WorkoutInspiration

The barbell, when paired with a landmine attachmen

The barbell, when paired with a landmine attachment, opens up a world of exercise variations. But what if your gym doesn’t have a landmine attachment, the landmine is already in use, or it’s attached to a rack that’s occupied? In this video, I’ll walk you through some of my favorite alternative setups for the barbell, so you can perform all the exercises you love without relying on a landmine attachment.

📲 SAVE - to try using these in the gym
👍🏼 FOLLOW - for more exercise tutorials
🏷 TAG - your training buddy who needs to start using these

📍@lisbonstrong

#StrengthTraining
#MobilityMatters
#RangeOfMotion
#JointHealth
#FunctionalStrength
#FullBodyWorkout
#MovementQuality
#FitnessTips
#MobilityTraining
#TrainSmart
#BodyweightTraining
#InjuryPrevention
#PushUps
#PullUps
#FlexibilityTraining
#StrongerEveryDay
#FitnessGoals
#GymEfficiency
#WorkoutInspiration

A good few of you asked this in my recent weekly Q

A good few of you asked this in my recent weekly Q&A, so here is my guidance on what to do about your fitness over the festive break.

#AndyVincentPT #SmarterStrengthTraining #trainsmart #avpt #onlinepersonaltraining #fitnessobsessed #FitnessGoals #healthyhabits #consistencyiskey

It baffles me that the narrative around resistance

It baffles me that the narrative around resistance training increasing injury risk still circulates.

First of all, injuries occur in almost all sporting activities. Injury rates in running are higher than in resistance training, and when you look at sports like football, rugby, and tennis, injury rates are significantly higher. And maybe check out the injury rates in skiing 🤯

Strength training is about increasing the amount of force your tissues: muscles, tendons, and connective tissue, can tolerate. Of course, doing daft things in the weights room can lead to injury, but that’s true of anything.

The rate at which you progress load and volume is the key consideration when it comes to injury risk. Slow, progressive increases focusing on movement quality and understanding proper form are essential. It’s also important to respect that some exercises, like RDLs, deadlifts, and back squats, involve axial loading on the spine and should, therefore be progressed slower.

But, If you’ve never exposed your joints to forces greater than a light weight, what happens when you slip on ice or catch an edge while skiing? Your chances of avoiding injury in these situations are far greater if you’re a weaker individual.

So, can we please stop perpetuating the idea that strength training leads to injuries? The total opposite is true.

You’re far more likely to get injured if you’re weak and frail.

@lisbonstrong