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Welcome to ASCND FITNESS - Where You Will Learn How to Achieve Your Fitness Goals!

04/02/2026

4 fitness truths I wish I learned sooner:

1. Micronutrient targets are more important than protein targets
Protein is important, but most people don’t need to obsess over it. Instead track your average intake of vitamins and minerals, I guarantee you are more likely to be deficient in those than protein.

2. Joint health and mobility is just as important as general strength training.
After experiencing certain injuries and general joint pain in recent years, I decided to do more direct connective tissue training and mobility work. I can confidently say that the difference in how I feel now is night and day. For anyone that is highly active, and deals with regular aches and pains, it is 100% worth the time commitment to specifically train your mobility and improve your tendon health.

3. If you are starving yourself for abs, you are doing it wrong.
Obviously you need to be in a calorie deficit to lower your body fat percentage. But If you are eating low calorie dense foods you will not feel like you are starving yourself, and the volume of food you can eat while losing weight is insane if you make smart choices.

4. Chasing “optimal” in fitness does more harm than good.
Fitness culture loves the idea that there’s one optimal way to train and eat, but there isn’t.
What’s called “optimal” will change depending on who you ask. The reality is there’s more than one way to train effectively and to have a healthy diet.
So stop looking for the most “optimal” way to do things, and start looking at the fundamental principles that all effective methods abide by, then choose which methods best aline with your individual preferences and needs. Everyone focuses on such small details thinking it will give them some massive leap in progress, but it really won’t. Cover the basics, and stay consistent that’s what actually works.

28/12/2025

Rules to live by if you want a SIX PACK but refuse to REMOVE FOODS.

1.
Follow the 80/20 rule. If 80% of the time you consume nutrient-dense whole foods, then you can save the other 20% for enjoyment without messing up anything. This will also help with diet adherence.

2.
Don’t ignore craving, answer them smartly
Completely Ignoring cravings will cause you to binge eat later down the line.
Either have the thing in moderation or make a macro-friendly version.
Control > restriction.

3.
Don’t skip social events, plan for them.
Fat loss should fit around your life not the other way round. That’s how you make a diet sustainable. You can do this pretty easily if you plan ahead by reducing calories days prior, and swapping certain food or drink options during the occasion. But if you have been consistent with your diet, occasionally having an off plan meal will not harm your progress.
Sustainability > perfection

4.
Don’t think of a diet as removing foods, think of it as building better habits, systems, and food awareness.
You don’t need to ban all “unhealthy foods”
You need a plan so you can be healthy and enjoy your diet.
If you planned your diet the same way you planned your finances, scheduled your meals the way you schedule your week, you would find it can be quite easy to have a healthy diet, lose weight and still eat foods you like.
Proper planning > will power.

If you want to take control of your diet in 2026, DM me the word “READY”. We can schedule a consultation and make a plan of action that works for you.

11/12/2025

A lot of people new to the gym believe you have to train super intensely to get results.

And while that is true in part, as you need to take working sets to muscular failure or a few reps shy in order to create an effective stimulus, that’s all that is needed. “Going beyond failure” with intensity techniques like drop sets or supersets of the same muscle group is not going to make the training more effective. Neither is making the workout harder by mixing in cardio, burpees, or 100s of push ups.

if you want to do this style of training simply for the mental challenge then that’s fair enough. But if you want to see substantial results and avoid wasted time for strength training or conditioning, you are best to train these separately.

06/12/2025

if you are struggling with squat mobility here’s what to do: First, start squatting more frequently, the more often you hold this position, the more comfortable you will get. If you can’t currently hold the bottom of the squat because of mobility or balance, you can hold onto something for assistance or elevate your heels to make it easier.Regularly stretch problem areas like the ankle with Calve and Soleus stretches. The hips, with the horse stance and weighted hip openers, and lastly the lying Y raise for the thoracic spine.Along with regular squat training if you are holding each of these stretches for 15-30s, and doing 2-3 sets a couple times a week, your squat mobility will improve in no time.

01/12/2025

You don’t need to hit a rigid calorie target every day to lose weight.

Learn how to manipulate your weekly calorie intake around your training, lifestyle, and preferences. This ability will allow you to save your calories for when you are most hungry, or for special occasions like meals or nights out.

Remember, If you want your diet work, it needs to be flexible and sustainable or you won’t be able to stick with it long term, but if you plan ahead you can achieve amazing results without sacrificing foods you love or a social life.

17/11/2025

Why you should do full body workouts over splits if you want to maximise results in as little time as possible.

1. They are more time efficient. If you are following a split like push, pull, legs for example, you will need more weekly sessions to effectively train each muscle group. Whereas, you could do as little as 2-3 full body sessions a week and hit everything effectively.

Full body training, also allows you to structure your workouts in a way that requires less rest time to recover fully. As if you organise exercises from lower to upper or vice versa. The muscle groups targeted will not affect one another the same as if you were doing all lower or upper body movements in one session, meaning less rest time is needed between exercises, and supersets can be implemented more effectively.

2. You don’t need to stick to a rigid training schedule. If you miss a workout while following a split, it messes up your whole plan, whereas if you miss a full body workout, it’s no big deal, you trained everything already and will again in the next session. It’s also easy to change which days you train on from week to week.

3. They are less mentally daunting. Splits where you are doing lots of sets and different exercises for one muscle group can be mentally draining, cause more local fatigue and muscle soreness. Meaning you will be less likely to push yourself as hard for every set you do.

The most important thing is that you enjoy your training, so all splits can work, but from my experience full body training is the best option for busy people that want to get the most bang for their buck.

16/11/2025

No your low calorie, zero fat, zero carb recipe is not good, just let me eat a normal muffin bro.

13/11/2025

Is skipping breakfast ruining your diet?

Well…it depends.

However 1 thing that will ruin your diet for sure, is a lack of structure.

If you are skipping breakfast unintentionally and have no plan on what you’re eating later in the day, then yes you will be more likely to binge eat and struggle to stick to a calorie deficit.

However, for some people like myself, fasting or simply skipping breakfast can be a practical way to manage calorie intake, and regulate hunger.

So if you are naturally less hungry early in the day, structuring your diet accordingly can be very practical and beneficial.

So whether you choose to skip breakfast or not it really doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is that you find a way of structuring your diet in a way that you can stick to long term.

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