Premium support isn’t about waiting for you to struggle; it’s about anticipating challenges before they happen. That starts from day one, during your consultation. A trainer who offers genuine support will take the time to deeply understand your habits, lifestyle, and potential blockers. They won’t just hand you a standardised plan – they’ll tailor their approach to ensure you’re set up for long-term success. It’s also about tailoring how they communicate with you, to get the best from you.

One key factor of great support? Quality over quantity. A trainer who takes on too many clients simply doesn’t have the bandwidth to provide this level of detail. Instead of spreading themselves thin, a premium trainer limits their client list so they can dedicate the time and attention needed to truly know you and your needs.

In reality, a lot of what you’re paying for with a personal training package is, or should be, the support. Real change sadly doesn’t happen from just one hour of training a week; that’s only 0.6% of your week… let that sink in! The support helps you navigate the other 99.4% – the moments when you’re making decisions about food, activity levels, and habits that determine your success. It’s during this time that a high level of support ensures you’re staying on track, overcoming obstacles, and maintaining discipline.

Many trainers provide cookie-cutter guidance, often directing clients to generic apps or pre-written advice. While there’s nothing wrong with self-education, true learning happens when information is researched for your situation. My approach focuses on structured learning – helping clients understand the ‘why’ behind certain training and nutrition choices, so they can make informed decisions that last a lifetime.

Rather than spending a significant chunk of my time creating generic content for the masses on social media, I channel my energy into crafting well-researched, personalised advice and resources for my clients. Every piece of advice I offer is based on their specific needs, struggles, and goals… not on fleeting trends.

Here’s how my hands-on, personalised approach makes a real difference:

• Navigating social situations: One client has a packed social calendar and eats out frequently. Instead of leaving them to guess, I help them plan ahead. We review restaurant menus together to find choices that align with their goals, still allowing them to enjoy their nights out.
• Problem solving nutrition struggles: A client increasing their protein intake for the first time found themselves feeling constipated. After reviewing their habits, we pinpointed a lack of fibre and hydration as the culprits. With a few small tweaks, the issue was resolved.
• Providing specially designed lessons, tools and activities: These ensure clients learn impactful, lifelong lessons so their success lasts way beyond our time working together.
• Refining form for better results: Another client was struggling with certain exercises. Because I tailor programmes and follow up consistently, I caught issues with their technique early. A small adjustment to their positioning led to an instant improvement in their lifts and eliminated discomfort.
• Adapting training for medical conditions: I take considerable time to research clients’ health conditions to ensure their training is safe and effective. For example, I wouldn’t train someone with arthritis in the knees the same way I would someone who is overweight but has no joint issues. Thoughtful modifications are essential.
• Going the extra mile to help a client succeed: A client mentioned they loved boxing, so I invested in boxing gear and learned from an expert, so I could incorporate it into their training. Not only does this make workouts more enjoyable, but it also ensures they’re getting effective cardio in a way that excites them.

The truth is, premium support isn’t just about answering questions, it’s about knowing you well enough to anticipate them. It’s about a level of care, attention, and expertise that generic plans and high-volume trainers simply can’t offer.

When you invest in high-quality personal training, you’re not just paying for workouts. You’re paying for a tailored, proactive, and educational experience that ensures lasting results. If that sounds like the kind of support you need, let’s talk about how I can help you achieve your goals.

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Especially come January, up pops all the aggressive adverts on socials, promoting discounted gym memberships and faddy exercise products that do not work. Family, friends and colleagues begin incessantly dwelling on how they ‘need’ to exercise and ‘detox’, that they’ve put on weight or they feel unhappy in their body. 

My bug-bear are the ‘fitness influencers’ in full swing, slashing prices on their cookie-cutter fitness app or exercise programme which hasn’t been created by them. It’s important to remember a lot of these people lost weight, got fit, but then capitalised on their following by getting someone else to write a gym programme which they can palm off as their own. Their figure is not representative of what you will gain from following their programme, and most of these people are not qualified. For many influencers, it’s their life to be fit and healthy which is hardly comparable to your average working mum or dad of 3 children who sleeps 5 hours a night.

Bearing this in mind, I’ve put together a list of some Instagram ‘influencers’ you should follow in 2025; not all ‘influencers’ are made equal. My focus is on suggesting accounts which provide fact-based information, be it in different forms, so you can be educated, rather than be demoralised or made to feel unhappy about yourself. Here we go…!

1. Ben Carpenter: @bdccarpenter. Ben is extremely knowledgeable on all things fat-loss, having written well-researched books on this. He is kind, extremely empathetic, funny and the information and theories he shares are detail-dense but easy to understand. He always cites studies, is notorious for his balanced viewpoint and is highly credible in the online fitness space. I would always recommend following Ben for honest, factual and myth-busting health and fitness advice. He wants every person to feel comfortable and able to move more. Ben weightlifts and lives with Crohn’s disease.
2. Graeme Tomlinson: @thefitnesschef_. Graeme is Scottish, has a dry sense of humor and his videos probably aren’t to everyone’s taste. However, his message is important and it comes through strongly in everything he does: ‘anything in moderation’. He highlights calorific similarities/differences in commonly perceived ‘good’ and ‘bad’ foods, showing that everything can be fit into your diet if it’s factored in. There are always the same comments on his posts from people missing the point of his content – e.g. ‘but of course eating Maccies isn’t as good for you as eating an avocado on toast, regardless of whether the avocado has higher calories!!!!’. He is correctly highlighting that just because something is nutrient dense does not mean it necessarily has less calories (which is what matters on a weight-loss journey). He is a nutritionist and also an author.
3. James Smith: @jamessmith. Much like Graeme, James has a no-bulls*** approach to weight loss and health, and for the longest time has preached about the calorie deficit in a way people will understand. He is good with analogies and making information clear for the masses. If you want to easily understand key principles for weight loss and getting fit, he’s a good person to follow… if you can handle lots of swearing! James has written multiple books. James used to weightlift, but now primarily does JuJitsu.
4. Sohee Lee: @soheefit. Sohee is just wonderful! She is down to earth, seems sweet as anything and is now married to Ben Carpenter. She has a PhD and is extremely knowledgeable about health and fitness. Her content is often geared towards women and the tribulations we often come up against. Her content is non-patronising and clear, while also feeling reassuring. Sohee has a PhD and is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist with Distinction. Sohee runs and weightlifts.
5. Layne Norton: @biolayne. Layne is credible in the fitness industry, holding a PhD in Nutritional Sciences. His content is often focused on calling out false information on social media, always citing references and studies, as he is determined to make sure the masses don’t get sucked into believing non-truths. His content can include lots of yelling, which can be intense, but his messages are valuable as he stresses the importance of human randomised control trials. His content tends to be most relevant for those on a health and weightlifting journey. Layne is a competitive weightlifter, so knows a lot about building muscle and strength, and has published books and papers.
6. Bret Contreras: @bretcontreras1. Bret is universally known as the ‘glute guy’ – the man who invented the hip thrust. He’s now got a line of glute machines he designed based on studies and on his work in his ‘glute lab’. He used to post more about his opinions based on facts/science/studies, whereas now he’s turned a bit more to calling out false glute information on social media. His knowledge on the anatomy of the body, particularly the glues, is mind blowing and he definitely knows his stuff. Bret has a PhD and is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist with Distinction. He has written books and papers.
7. Tyna Moore: @drtyna. Tyna is focused on hormones, building and maintaining muscle and metabolic health. She works with peptides – GLP-1s are her specialty – and focuses on holistic medicine and microdosing as is appropriate for each individual. Her podcast ‘Doctor Tyna Show’ is great, but the details and topics can be complex. Tyna is an author and weightlifts as she is extremely consistent in her message that building and retaining muscle mass is vital for sound metabolic health and a longer life, as is consistent with the studies.
8. Mind Pump: @mindpumpmedia. This is a coaching business and the #1 health and fitness podcast run by three men with copious amounts of weightlifting experience (bodybuilding, college football etc.). Their podcasts are long, with about 1 hour being a general chat which often includes some health/fitness topics but it can be anything. The gem of their podcasts are the talks on studies and the speaker questions/phone-ins from those needing help. Sal, the main man, is worth following on social media (@mindpumpdistefano) as his knowledge of human anatomy and physiology, nutrition, health and medicine is outstanding. He has written multiple well-respected books. He respects data and science and brings this nicely into the podcast. Anyone who is into health and fitness, particularly weightlifting, and listens to podcasts should listen to this! Their gym programmes are evidence-based and I’ve seen people achieve amazing results from them.
9. Jazz Hennessy: @Jazz.fitness_. Jazz is an English online fitness coach. Jazz is technically less qualified than my other recommendations, but the way she puts facts and useful information into very relatable and easy to digest forms is valuable. Often I watch her videos and feel she describes theories or elements of health and fitness very similarly to how I would. She often does videos explaining how to do exercises properly, alongside videos on nutrition. 

If you’re interested in personal training with me, get in touch and we can chat about what I can do for you.

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In exercise theory, there are multiple components to good exercise programming. The FITT principle* covers the key areas that should be taken into account:

• Frequency (how frequently is the exercise being done?)
• Intensity (how intense is the exercise?)
• Time (how long is the exercise being done for?)
• Type (what exercise is being done?)

As you can see, intensity is important when it comes to short and long term programming. So, the question remains – how do you increase intensity without increasing weight?

Increase the sets

If you’re only doing 2 sets of an exercise each, you may be best to slowly increase the amount of sets, so the same muscle is being worked harder. This is more likely to lead to fatigue and even going until failure, which is positive!

Increase the reps (repetitions)

This is an easy win for beginners. Keep the weight the same that is hard, and increase reps. Eventually you’ll get to a point where the weight that was once heavy is lighter work, that’s where you go back to the reps you were doing prior, but with a heavier weight. For example, if you’ve been doing 4 reps of an exercise, you may up the reps to 6 now with the same weight.

For reference, these are the categories of rep ranges:

• Strength: 1 – 4
• Hypertrophy (muscle building): 4 – 12
• Endurance: 12 – 20/25

So, do note, if you’re already doing 12 – 20/25 reps, this is high and going much above this won’t be achieving you results – you are doing cardio, not weight lifting. You should definitely be increasing your weight if you want to build any muscle!

Going until failure

Working a muscle until failure is a common tactic used by bodybuilders and amateur weightlifters alike. It involves doing one exercise for a few reps off being burned out for the first set, the second set is similar, and so on until your last set, where you go until you can’t lift the weight any more or your form breaks down enough that you are not doing the move properly. You may find that with each set you are lifting less as your muscle is more worked – that’s good!

Structured tempo work

This is in an incredibly underrated way to seriously increase intensity, and focus on form! This involves slowing an exercise right down to a structured timing pattern. For example, if you were doing squats, you may adopt a 4:1:1 pattern, meaning 4 seconds to go right down, 1 second pause at the bottom and 1 second to shoot up. As you can see, within this method, there’s also room for growth by extending the number of seconds at any given stage (or all)!

Unilateral exercises or training

Unilateral, like tempo work, is another underutilised way to increase the intensity of a workout. Unilateral means exercises only using one limb at a time. It’s also an absolutely brilliant way to work on bodily imbalances – which everyone has – so if you don’t have at least a few unilateral exercises in your workout, change that today! Some great examples are front or reverse lunges, Bulgarian split squats and single arm chest press.

Specific body part days e.g. ‘leg day’, or even harder still, a ‘glutes day’

A common workout structure is a full body. This is a brilliant option for those with less time, or an inability to commit to a certain number of sessions per week. However, it can mean each muscle isn’t being worked as much as it could. Try splitting your workouts up into ‘upper’ and ‘lower’ body days, or further still, you could do ‘back, biceps and triceps’ and ‘glutes and hamstrings’ for example.

Generally slowing down and focusing on form

Taking time to slow down and focus on form is likely to increase intensity. When you remove power, momentum and ‘bounce’ out of the eccentric and concentric parts of a movement, the muscle has to work harder to complete the movement. For example, if you biceps curl quickly and you do not brace your core, you may find the rest of your body takes over and helps swing your arm up and down, making it easier. If you were to instead stand against a wall and slow the movement down, focus on keeping your elbows tucked and the form great, the exercise will categorically be much harder and the target muscle worked more!

Incorporating more balance work e.g. balance boards

This may be worth considering if you have been lifting weights for a little bit of time. This will help you engage more of your body and core to keep you tight and the working muscle (agonist) will have to contract more and more frequently, while also recruiting more ‘stabiliser’ muscles to keep it steady.
Women, take note! If you are on your period, or just before, it is a common symptom to temporarily lose your balance. Be wary of doing any balance-heavy movements, as to not injure yourself.

Change up your exercises

It’s important to remember, your body adapts incredibly well to exercise(s). Muscle memory is recruited and what was once hard gets easier with practice, more flexibility and time. Consider giving your body a shake up and introducing new exercises. This will trigger muscle stimulation and growth. But note, don’t change exercises too frequently if you want to see muscle building results, as your body does need a certain amount of repeated stimulus to develop muscle. Beware of DOMS with this (delayed onset muscle soreness) – this is just a good sign to you that your body has been shocked and is learning to use your muscles differently!

1. To begin with, focus on only changing one or two of these factors at a time, so you have more in your pocket ready to utilise when you need another intensity boost.
2. Later, you can combine elements from above and change up the combinations, too.
3. Lastly, when all else has been truly exhausted, you may be at a stage where you need to consider purchasing more weights, or accessing a gym occasionally.

If you’re interested in at-home personal training with me, book a complimentary consultation and trial session today and I look forward to meeting you!

*developed by exercise physiologist Dr. Ken Hutchins.

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