Sam Murphys IIFYL, Mairangi Bay (2025)

15/04/2023

🗣️Q: What supplements should I take for full performance?

🗣️A: I’m assuming the full performance you are trying to achieve is for your athletic endeavours.

First of all, supplements, as the name eludes to, are to be supplementary to your training, nutrition and lifestyle habits.

Here is a very short list of sports supplements that may benefit you:

1. Creatine Monohydrate: Creatine can improve strength and power output which can lead to a better game and gym performance.

Dosage: Somewhere between 2-10grams p/day depending on your size (Around 5grams will be good for you Sam)

1. Caffeine: Caffeine can improve strength and power, muscular endurance and mental alertness.

Dosage: 4-6mg per KG of BW. (For strength and power benefits, dosages on the higher end seem to have the biggest impact)

There are a handful of other supplements like Fish oils, Whey protein and vitamins etc but that is out of my area of expertise and impossible to provide advice for without context.

03/04/2023

16 months and 15kgs between these two pictures ➡️

I have spent the last year and a bit eating in a calorie surplus most of the time and training pretty damn hard (once again, most of the time)

Letting go of my all year round leanness was more of a mental battle than I thought it would be, I assume being in the fitness industry is a bit of subconscious driver for my desire to stay lean.

Focusing on the positives helped me massively. My performance in the gym is better, I fill out my shirts more and I have had less injuries.

I have another year before I do a proper cut and get to see what 2 years of surplus did for my physique.

20/03/2023

No amount of theory results in change without action.

We can over-complicate things, myself included 💁‍♀️

Sitting down and creating a picture-perfect plan that will take you straight to your goal is comforting, exciting and generally a great thing to do.

BUT...

You still have to execute it.

I think utilising the best evidence-backed information we have available is a great thing, just remember the magic happens after the action is taken 🤌

27/11/2022

Your thoughts about things are far worse than the things themselves. (This is me majorly butchering a quote by Seneca)

You build the steps of your fitness journey up in your head to be these unfathomably large tasks that you, a mere mortal, could never complete.

The reality is far less dramatic than that.

When you are actually in the middle of your “healthy” meal or training session you realise that you were a little OTT with the emotion you had attached to the actions.

The hard part is calling yourself out on it and re-writing the narrative to something more helpful.

20/11/2022

There is no specific rep range for hypertrophy.

Waaay back there was an idea floating about that 1-6 reps were for strength, 8-12 reps were for hypertrophy and 12-15 reps were for toning.

Full on smh 🤦🏻‍♂️ at the toning rep range because toning = being leaner and having more muscle.

To make things crazier, 7 rep sets apparently opened a secret door to a hidden realm where no progress is ever made. The neverland of building muscle.

Annnnywho. This theory/concept/quackery is a little far from the truth.

You can actually build muscle with 1-35 ish rep sets providing you are taking the sets pretty close to failure.

So now it comes down to practicality.

If you’re trying to build muscle doing exclusively single rep sets you will be using heavy ass loads that will cause a bunch of fatigue and put a lot of stress on your connective tissue (plus it would take AGES)

If you’re trying to build muscle doing exclusively 30+ reps sets of a compound like squats you are going to be limited by your cardiovascular fitness before you effectively fatigue your targeted muscle.

Your best bet? Do the majority of your work between the 5-15 rep range. Kee most of your heavy compounds in slightly lower rep ranges and generally lean towards higher rep sets for your isolation movements.

14/11/2022

Exercise science is a forever-evolving field and new research is constantly being put out that either confirms what we already thought or changes our perspective on things.

This ^ is great and when applied can be useful but it no amount of knowledge you amass on the subject will negate the fact that you need to train hard and be consistent.

You can vary the tempo, adjust training frequency and utilise exercises that train the muscle at different lengths all you want but none of it will do anything if you’re not getting close enough to failure.

It’s kind of like worrying more about adding spice to your meal without ever cooking it.

Train smart but also, train hard!

11/11/2022

HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) or LISS (Low Intensity Steady State) for fat loss?

HIIT example: (Spin Bike)
30 seconds high effort
30 seconds low effort
X 15

LISS: (Outdoor walk)
45 Minute walk along the coastline.

You already know I’m going to say “it depends” because it does lol. Let’s just have a look at the pros and cons of each.

HIIT:
Pros:
- Shorter duration
- Feel good endorphins
- Improve Cardio vascular fitness
- Caloric Expenditure

Cons:
- Higher effort level
- May impact recovery from strength training

LISS:
Pros:
- Lower effort level
- Can become a family activity
- Caloric Expenditure

Cons:
- Longer duration
- Smaller impact on Cardio vascular fitness

I have clients that incorporate one or the other, clients that incorporate both and clients that don’t do either.

26/10/2022

The goal is to make an exercise as easy as possible to perform so that you can train with intensity.

Not to make an exercise as hard as possible to perform so that you can’t train with any intensity.

That’s why doing Bosu ball *anything* is a waste of time if you are trying to achieve anything other than improving proprioception.

Your muscles respond best to hard, progressive training. If your ability to train hard is hindered by the fact you are about to fall over then it's probably not a good exercise choice.

Keep it simple and make the exercise hard via intensity 🥵

18/10/2022

I got humbled by an old man’s sport. (Sorry Dez)

I hit at least fifty balls and not one of them would have landed me in the PGA.

So while I’ll probably be hanging up the clubs for another 40 years after the confidence shattering shame I endured, the experience did remind me of how I felt doing my first gym session.

Weak as hell and no clue how to lift, what to lift or where to lift. If it wasn’t for my unwavering desire to look like a hybrid of Zyzz and Goku I would probably would have stopped going and continued to sponsor a gym for the next 3 years like many of you do.

The learning curve when you start something new can be pretty steep and the idea of being a complete newb at anything daunting. Sucking at something sucks.

Equally, a steep learning curve can mean rapid progress and this rings true for resistance training.

When you first start training you have the opportunity to make the biggest improvements in muscle mass and strength you will ever be given.

It’s kind of like having the barriers up when you go bowling. Sure you may be crap but as long as you put in some effort you are bound to do alright.

14/09/2022

Let’s pretend for a second that you genuinely have underdeveloped abs and not just too much body fat to see them.

You are commencing operation Ab-domination! You have one mission, growing a chiselled 6 pack.

Do you:

A) Throw all training logic out of the window and perform a zillion reps of random core exercises that have a terrible range of motion and then proceed to perform a further zillion reps of different ab exercises without ever going close to failure or increasing the load/reps from session to session.

OR!

B) Follow standard training principles as you would with any other muscle group by training with a full range of motion, taking sets close to failure and progressing weekly with load/reps.

(HINT: THE ANSWER IS B)

The 6 pack you so badly want to see is a muscle called re**us abdomis and its controls flexion of the lumbar and thoracic spine. Like any other skeletal muscle, it responds best to hard, progressive training.

Ditch the 60-minute ab workouts, pick a couple of exercises that take your re**us abdomis through a full range of motion and work hard on progressing them.

13/09/2022

Weight training improves:

✅ Longevity
✅ Strength
✅ Cardiovascular health
✅ Bone density
✅ Confidence
✅ Muscles mass
✅ Energy levels
✅ Sleep Quality
✅ Blood sugar regulation
✅ Mobility
✅ Body composition

If that ^ was all listed on an aesthetically pleasing label, thrown in a pill bottle, laced with organic Goji berries and promoted by your favourite influencer with a discount code you would be all over it.

But that's none of my business.

10/09/2022

5 things personal trainers don’t want you to know! ( 🤫Shhhh!)

1. Confusing the muscles to improve growth is a load of BS.

- Getting stronger at a handful of different movements over several weeks/months is 👑 for growing your muscles.

2. Deadlifts have a pretty poor “risk: reward” ratio for hypertrophy.

- Deadlifting is badass but it's a complex lift with heavy loads. There are better options for both your hamstrings and your back.

3. There is no singular perfect training program.

- Unless you all share the same: lifestyle, training experience, physical structure, past injuries and goals then you will benefit from something specific to you.

4. Free weights aren’t necessarily superior to machines for building muscle.

- Did a post on this a while back but yea. Both are great tools that have their pros and cons.

5. You can improve the musculature of your abs but the majority of the time your lack of definition is due to excess body fat.

- Underneath a layer of fat we all have a set of abs ready to see the world! Sure you can improve them but if you want to see them asap you’re best off reducing your calorie intake.

03/09/2022

Adapted bro-science advice:

💪🏼 YoU goTtA eAt 6x MeAlS pEr dAy.

🤓Having more frequent feedings of protein is likely to have a positive effect on muscle growth/retention.

💪🏼CaRbS mAkE yOu FaT.

🤓Many carbs sources are hyper- palatable and therefore, easy to over eat.

💪🏼 CaRdIO KiLlS yOuR gAiNz.

🤓 Extremely long bouts of moderate intensity cardio may have a negative impact on muscle growth.

💪🏼 1-5 rEps FoR StReNgTH, 6-12 rEps FoR sIzE, 12+ RePs FoR tOnInG.

🤓 Training with a variety of rep ranges has benefits. Working with lighter loads for isolation movements puts less stress on the connective tissue and allows you to maintain good form. Heavier loads for compound movements allows you generate more volume without gassing out.

💪🏼MoRe lIfTiNg = mOrE gAiNz.

🤓 There is correlation between increasing volume and hypertrophy. Obviously there is a point of diminishing returns so make sure you are able to recover adequately.

30/08/2022

You don’t have to look like this ^ to train safely.

Weight training looks like a pretty dangerous game to play from the outside You are picking up heavy objects and throwing them around to the point where you can barely do anymore.

And it is! In 2021 “Fitness/Gym” had the most ACC claims for “individual sports”. (43911 claims!)

This was over 10,000 more claims than its closest rival, cycling.

Now there isn’t a whole lot you can take from that data as there are a number of factors at play. Nevertheless, there is a lot of work that can be done to improve safety in the gym and here’s a little list for you.

1. Sleep! Less sleep = higher injury risk.

1. Load regulation. Choose a load you can perform good quality reps with. Respect weight training before it makes you respect it.

1. Don’t overdo it with the volume. More is not always better, give your connective tissue and muscles a break.

4. Don’t spend all your time dieting. Dieting decreases your body's ability to recover and this leads to greater injury risk.

1. Exercise selection. There is no “must do” exercise, we are all built a little differently and therefore exercise selection should vary from person to person.

TL;DR?
Want to avoid injuries? Sleep heaps, use a weight you can handle and a total amount of sets that you can recover from. Eat enough food to aid with recovery and choose exercises that work for you.

Sam Murphys IIFYL