Strength For Health

21/02/2026

When I was a school (oh so many years ago now...) and reluctantly learning about biology (I found chemistry and physics so much more interesting in those days) I remember being taught about the organs of the human body. The surprise revelation was that skin was an organ! But nobody mentioned muscle or bone in that context. An organ is a part of the body that has a bio-chemical effect on other systems within the body and back then it seemed that the chemical contribution of muscle and bone was considered relatively inconsequential. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Unless you are very overweight, your muscles are the largest organ of your body.

In terms of immediate and short-term survival, we absolutely need our brain, heart, lungs and other internal organs to be functioning right now. But for long-term health, scientists are becoming increasingly aware of the impact the muscle and bone have one preserving and enhancing the function of other organs, not least, the brain.

For most of my life, the focus has been on cardiovascular exercise to try and increase cardiovascular health because heart disease still is the number one cause of death (though it only accounts for a little over 1/4 of all deaths). Strength training and muscle building barely got a mention. But science moves on and recent studies are showing that building muscle and using muscle (i.e. contracting that muscle hard by pushing and pulling against heavy resistance) has profound effects on all systems within the human body, the cardiovascular system included.

I am very happy with the name of my project, but there are times I think I should have called it 'Muscle for Health' instead. Nobody needs to be built like a bodybuilder to improve their health but we all need to understand that muscle is far more important to our health and well-being than being able to move our bodies around.

21/02/2026

Do you think you are too old to begin to lift weights?

21/02/2026

My clients know that I like to talk about nutrition, a lot. Well, I like to talk nutrition with those clients who appear to want to talk about nutrition anyway... Maybe I overshare sometimes - I do have a tendency to download my brain to anyone who appears willing to listen! - but I don't think I force information onto anyone who isn't interested.

Periodically someone mentions 'Blue Zones' as examples of where people live and eat the best way and live the longest. The trouble is that the Blue Zones are not quite what they are made out to be (this is very true of many, many claims made in the field of nutrition and health). These slides give such a nice explanation that I don't have to.

21/02/2026

Who would have thought that curling at the highest level requires serious strength training?

The reality is that many recreational athletes could be a lot better at their sports if they were a bit stronger. But the fear of becoming too big, too heavy, too bulky, too stiff (etc. etc.) is firmly embedded in many people who base their training plans on what they pick up from their peers. These were the prevailing beliefs in elite sport 20-30 years ago but sports science has moved on a long, long way since then.

If you want to become better at playing badminton at your local community centre, get a faster time in a 5k or 10k 'fun run' or walk longer in the hills you will probably find that an hour or two in the gym every week will stand you in much better stead than spending the same time practicing your skills or pounding the pavement.

04/02/2026

With the apparently never-ending month of January now behind us, it is time to start properly focusing on the year ahead. Maybe one of the things you want to work on is your long-term health & wellbeing. Life can throw a lot at us & often we have little control over what we have to deal with on a day-to-day basis. But there are three things we can all focus on that can really help make life better:

Sleep, food & exercise.

You probably know if you are getting enough sleep & you probably know what to do if you aren't. So please, just do what you need to do to get enough sleep. So many things in life get so much better with enough sleep.

Food is a little bit more complicated because there is so much conflicting advice out there & we are all somewhat individual & unique in how our bodies respond to different foods. I've had to learn a lot about nutrition to fix my own health problems so maybe I can help you get to grips with this subject too.

Exercise is also surrounded by conflicting advice. How much is enough? How much is too much? Are you doing it right or are you doing it wrong? What does any of that mean anyway? My advice is simple: first, Get Strong & Stay Strong; and move on a daily basis. That means, lift weights once or twice a week & go for a walk most days. If you can do more vigorous activities than that, then please do so but recognise that is icing on the cake. And first you’ve got to bake the cake...

If you want to learn how to get stronger then I would be delighted to show you how. I have a handful of training times available – currently Monday, Tuesday & Thursday afternoons – so why don't you make an appointment to come see me for a no-obligation chat & we can decide if we want to work together. I generally work 1:1 or 1:2 but might be able to accommodate up to four people training together, depending on circumstances.

I look forward to hearing from you.

28/01/2026

Strength for Health goes from strength to strength!

Three years after I opened my doors I am delighted to say that I must be doing something right because I'm busier than ever! Thank you to all my clients - past & present - who have supported me over these past few years. This is, by far, the best job I've ever had & that is almost entirely down to the people I'm lucky enough to work for. (Though the boss isn't too bad, most of the time, either...)

Edited: I have a handful of vacant times Monday, Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. And I keep a few aside for shift workers who need a bit of flexibility week to week.

I offer private training to individuals, pairs or maybe small groups (up to four depending on circumstances) & focus on building strength & improving health.

So if you are interested in becoming a fitter, stronger version of yourself, please get in touch & arrange to come & have a no-obligation chat with me.

20/01/2026

This guy is my favourite nutrition nerd. He has a PhD in neurology & then decided to get his MD purely to allow him to speak with more authority on human health. He makes these videos to catch attention but the science behind them is sound.

Here he shows that (for him at least) eating huge quantities of saturated fat doesn't increase so-called 'bad cholesterol'. Previously he showed that he could drastically lower his LDL by eating Oreo cookies! (Do not try this at home, folks.)

17/01/2026

16/01/2026

Strength for Health is not a bodybuilding gym but I'd be foolish to ignore the lessons offered by the sport of bodybuilding. And one of those lessons is illustrated here:

Sometimes less is more.

If you train hard enough you need to recover just as hard. That primarily means eating & sleeping well but it also means not training too often.

Personally I like to train in the gym twice a week if I get the chance but very often I only get the opportunity to train once. But it works. And it works very well for all of my clients too.

The world of sports science & academic research says we should all be in the gym more often. Yet some of the most successful athletes & coaches in different forms of strength sport find that training less often can bring better results.

If you've only got time to go to the gym once a week & therefore think it isn't worth your while (I had a lecturer at university tell me just that) then I'm glad to tell you that it definitely is.

Get strong, stay strong.

Mike Mentzer explained that many of his clients trained consistently—three times per week—yet still fell short of their true potential. He realized the problem wasn’t undertraining, but overtraining. Even when he reduced workouts to once every 72 hours, results improved only slightly.

The real breakthrough came in 1995, when Mentzer cut training frequency to once every four to seven days. With extended recovery, clients finally began achieving the dramatic muscle gains he always believed were possible. What had once been rare—gaining 10–20 pounds in a month or 30–40 pounds in a few months—became the norm.

Mentzer’s conclusion was clear: muscle growth depends less on how often you train and more on allowing the body enough time to recover and grow.

15/01/2026

Beginner’s Barbell Coaching Sessions

Do you train for strength in the gym? Are you considering doing so? Are you unsure of what you are doing and want to learn more? But is hiring a coach or personal trainer on a regular basis just a bit more than you can afford? Maybe a one-off coaching session or a short series of workshops will help you gain some useful knowledge and confidence without breaking the bank.

On Wednesdays 21st & 28th January and 4th February two of my lucky, lucky clients are away on holiday getting some winter sun (I am so jealous…) and their evening training time – 7-9pm – is available. So, for the next three weeks only, Strength For Health is offering the opportunity to learn the basics of barbell strength training.

You can attend one, two or three of these training sessions and they will all take more or less the same format. But those who can attend all three will get the most benefit and I will prioritise them in the application process. I aim to primarily focus on the Back Squat and Deadlift and add in Overhead Press and Bench Press as time permits. But I will tailor each session to those who attend and nothing is set in stone so please be prepared to be flexible.

The cost is £25 per person per session and I will be asking for payment in advance to secure your place.

Please be aware that these are not private training sessions and you may end up working alongside people you don’t know and with different people on different nights if you attend more than one. You may be working with people who are older or younger than you with more or less experience and I will be aiming my coaching at the lowest skill level present (while aiming to give everyone equal time and attention). If you are already an experienced lifter you might benefit from a separate workshop so please inquire directly with me.

I have two lifting stations and can train two people per station if they are the same height (within an inch or so of each other) so I am able to train between one and four people.

If you would like to attend one or more of these coaching sessions then please complete an application form. Applications are open until midday on Sunday 18th January (though I will consider applications received after this time if I haven’t filled all the spaces) and after that time I will try to match and invite attendees to provide the best coaching experience I can.

Please us this link to apply https://forms.gle/hGoCeN3WMVcSNTrA7

For all other enquiries please contact me via Messenger or WhatsApp.

14/01/2026

12/01/2026

Watching this might be the most important 20 minutes you spend in 2026.

My clients will no doubt see echoes of their own experiences here but even they might not have really considered whether their elderly parents, relatives and friends might benefit from strength training. Most certainly they will benefit enormously.

I am sharing this - and asking you to do the same - to spread the word. It is not about me trying to drum up business for myself (I only have a couple of training spaces left at the moment) but to encourage people to seek out gyms and trainers and create a demand for strength training. This video references an organisation called Starting Strength - The Aasgaard Company and they are the inspiration for what I do. I believe we need more trainers and coaches to be using their methods and similar (I use a modified version of the SS method myself) because so much of what is sold to older people is just inadequate to meet their needs. Worse than that, the advice often given by medical specialists is woefully poor if not downright wrong.

Being older does not mean that it is unsafe for you to work very hard in the gym or that you won't benefit from it if you do. If you can walk at all - however poorly - you can walk into a gym and begin your transformation into a stronger version of yourself.

In this one-year-update of Rebuilding Mum & Dad, we document the remarkable progress my parents have made in their 80s through strength training and the tang...