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We all know that a lot of people have tried and failed to go consistently to the gym.

One of the main reasons is due to a lack of motivation.

It’s understandable – there is only so much you can change in your routine at the gym, eventually leading to people simply getting bored and not being interested in improving their body anymore.

So how do I learn to love going to the gym?

The key lies in progression.

If you are going to the gym doing a typical bodybuilding routine of 4 different exercises of 3 sets and 8-12 reps, you will likely not see much progression in the short term: you may have not been able to increase the weight you have used for the past few workouts, and you have not noticed your biceps getting any bigger – this is demotivating as fuck.

Not knowing you are progressing ruins your motivation and discipline to stay in the gym, as you do not know if you are improving or not.

To fix this, I propose something simple:

Focus on increasing your strength.

At the moment I am doing low reps and focusing on increasing strength – and I love it!

I love it because almost everyday I feel myself slowly getting stronger, and can see it too.
Seeing yourself actually improve drives you to go to the gym, because you will want to carry on being better than yourself.

This is why my UNIGAINS program focuses on the three big lifts to ensure that you are making and seeing strength gains, then supplements this with higher rep accessory work to get that pump which we all love. This allows you to benefit from the motivational impact of seeing progress in the gym, whilst doing the core fundamentals to get bigger and stronger.

It’s all about finding a way to see progress in the gym, because unfortunately you will not see changes in your body every week – it takes months… and not many people have enough trust in themselves to stay committed to something when we are not seeing tangible results.

If you’re feeling bored at the gym, switch to a program which focuses on strength gains and helps you consistently hit new PR’s.

Remember, strength leads to size: if you’re eating right and getting stronger you will get bigger.

-Mike

Want go get on my strength program? Click Here
Got a questions? Email me at mike@unigains.com

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The media and fitness industry have somehow made us believe that fitness requires insane amounts of hard work, dedication, and commitment.
They give us the impression that we have to sacrifice so much time and effort into becoming fitter, stronger, and better-looking.

I disagree.

We are not looking at becoming athletes; we do not need to dedicate our lives to maximize every tiny little bit of progression – we just need 90% of it… and we can get that with a fraction of the effort.

Want to lose weight? Do not focus on cutting out fats, giving up chocolate, and running every day – Just find a way to eat a bit less.

Want to build muscle? Do not worry about what supplements you need to take or start going gym 7 days a week – Just focus on getting stronger. I left these answers vague as everyone is different – what works for me may not work for you.
However the principle is the same – focus on a few things which have a major impact.

When I’m losing weight, I don’t stop eating chocolate or replace all the food I have for ‘healthy’ alternatives… I eat less and maintain my protein consumption.

When I’m trying to gain muscle, I don’t start downing mass-gainer shakes and eating 6 meals a day… I make sure I’m eating in a surplus and focus on increasing my strength in my major lifts.

I believe that we can transform ourselves significantly with a fraction of the effort that we are taught to believe.. and we can learn to enjoy and love the process too.

Fitness is simple. Do not let anyone tell you otherwise.

-Mike

Questions? Want online coaching? Email me at mike@unigains.com

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This is the very humbling and annoying story of how I gained close to no muscle in 11 months.

Now this wasn’t because I was lazy or was not working hard in the gym – I was working my socks off.

What on earth happened?

First, let me explain to you what my target was: I wanted to cut to below 10% bodyfat then lean bulk for as long as I could – sounds ideal right?

When I started in January I weighed about 73kg at 13% body fat, and I began to cut – woo!
I managed to successfully cut and drop quite a bit of weight until the end of February where I got down to 69kg at 11% bodyfat.

Now at this point I thought I was lean enough; I had abs, and I figured that now was a good time to make some lean muscle gains.
I calculated my the calories and protein I was meant to eat, and trained hard – here are where the problems began.

My obsession with staying lean whilst bulking got the better of me.

I was constantly obsessed with keeping my six-pack whilst bulking, so whenever I saw the littlest bit of fat, I overthought it and reduced my calories. After a few days I would be like ‘Oh my calories are too low!’ and would increase them again to try and gain muscle faster.

Even the slightest bit of belly, even from being bloated after dinner, resulted in me becoming so self-conscious and thinking that I was putting on too much fat.
This resulted in me going through many little cutting and bulking phases which gave me no progresss.

If you look at the ‘lifts’ section of my the spreadsheet I made here you will see my variation in weight.

You can see my dodgy phase from the end of February until the end of March where I kept bulking and cutting – this resulted in me gaining very little muscle mass as I was not in a consistent state for my body to thrive in.

Instead, I just kept on shocking my body and giving it no time to really settle down and be efficient in either losing fat or building muscle, which led to me building very little.

At the end of April I was a bit more decisive and stuck to my bulk a bit better, putting on about 3kg (6lbs) of weight over 6 months – this is around the time I benched 100kg!

However, I was still obsessed with getting abs and being lean so I decided to cut again – this is the worst mistake I have made in my fitness journey.

I should have continued bulking; I was really getting into my stride, and could have really made some amazing strength and size gains.
Instead, I decided to go on a long-ass cut all the way back to 68kg – because I wanted to be ripped… and I wasn’t even happy with the result.

Why wasn’t I happy? Because there is no point looking lean if you do not have the muscle to back it up; you just end up looking skinny – the exact opposite of what I wanted.

So yeah, that basically sums up my interesting 11-month journey.
I finally sorted myself over the past two months and have gone on a serious bulk; I intend to go on it until I say goodbye to my abs and to a point where I am satsified with my gains.

Any plus sides to my adventure?

HELL YES!

Somehow my lifts were going up wonderfully!
My bench went from 90kg to 105kg
My squat went from 104kg to 145kg
My Deadlift went from 160kg to 200kg

I would consider these pretty impressive strength gains considering the circumstances, and I believe that these increased strength gains will help me put on more mass during the bulk (I have no science to back this up – just a feeling)

Also, I have learnt that overthinking often does more harm than good.
It led to me developing an unhealthy relationship with fitness where I got obsessed with all the tiny details surrounding it – I would have actually done better and felt happier if I just focused on the wider picture and sticking to the fundamentals.

This is exactly why I created UNIGAINS, to help keep fitness simple and straightforward for you, to help you enjoy it and stop you from making the same mistakes I did.

Hope this helps!

-Mike

Want to ask me more questions? Email me at mike@unigains.com or @unigains on Twitter

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Yeah – I injured myself…

I did not workout at all over Christmas because I was lazy, didn’t have access to a gym (no car), and was too busy eating food.

When I got back into things, I really wanted to get stronger and bigger – fast. Therefore I decided to hop on to my UNIGAINS program and really go for it to make some Unigains!

All was going well at the start; I was getting my strength back, and was feeling strong and powerful – Good! However, me being me, I decided to add even more volume to my program, not take any days off, and had a few days of poor sleep (5-6 hours).. not a good mix.

This toxic mix led to me getting a little injury in the chest, meaning that I will not be able to bench press for at least a week.

It was stupid by me, but I know a lot of you out there may be facing the same issue as me – you just want to build muscle fast! However we keep on forgetting that more volume, more intensity, and more frequency does not necessarily mean more size; it’s all about finding the perfect mix that your body can handle.

The way I see it, you need to find your limit of how much you can push your muscles in a workout which will allow you to recover for your next session.

If I was training chest once a week, I could always go until failure as I would definitely recover by next chest session. However for my program, I train chest 2 to 3 times a week, and so going till maximum fatigue would not let me recover in time, which would not be too smart as my muscles will not be recovering or growing.

The reason my program works each muscles 2 to 3 times a week is because I have found this to be the optimal frequency for training muscle groups when the correct volume is chosen. For me, doing 3 chest sessions of 6 sets each is far more productive than 1 session of 18 sets, and most likely is for you too.

Please learn from my mistakes (that’s what I’m here for); when I felt like I was not coming back to the gym as strong I should have dialled back the volume a little, in order to fully recover for my next session, instead of trying to plough through it. In my case, I could have done with taking more a day off, as that would have given me the necessary break from a pretty hectic week.

If you are on a program and you are finding that on average you feel that you are getting more mentally fatigued over 10 days or so, you may need to consider getting more sleep,or reducing the sets performed in order to allow your muscles to fully recover for when you work them again.

The same applies to my program; one size does not fit all! Your friend could be fine going 6 days a week, but you may only be able to handle 4 – that’s fine! You will be consistently making progress as long as you are pushing yourself whilst being able to recover well for your next workout (make sure your diet is on point too).

Remember that muscle is built outside the gym, and sometimes less is more!

-Mike

Got any questions? Comments? Email me at mike@unigains.com or @Unigains