Tom and I worked together to achieve multiple aesthetic and performance goals. Tom very kindly documented his journey so that it could be shared with others considering signing up for a similar online personal training program, so I’ll let him tell the story in his own words:
“I’ve done this sort of thing before and think the ‘body transformation’ approach just doesn’t work for me”.
That’s what I said to my personal trainer Scott Laidler on our first meeting back in February. And it was true. I’ve enjoyed exercising, playing different sports for my whole life and at several points in my late teens and early 20s had attempted the intense, regimented meal plan along with hours and hours in the gym that promised to create a new ‘you’.
But for whatever reason, it never lived up to expectation. I wasted a good chunk of time, mental energy and cash on those few occasions when I spent months on a training regime. And in the last 5 years or so I’ve been much happier exercising and eating regularly, enjoying a few glasses of wine and some nice meals out.
So when Scott approached me to do a similar thing and write about fitting training around a busy and ever-changing work schedule as a presenter at Sky News, I was sceptical.
But I decided to do things differently, and I think it provided a different challenge for Scott too. He has a hugely varied client list – including the likes of Hollywood Actors – but one thing he was clearly excellent at was training someone up for a specific goal, whether that be performance-based or for a major Hollywood movie and the no-doubt rigid requirements of a producer.
I was about to say no to the offer of 12 weeks of training with Scott due to my previous experience of draconian eating demands on these sort of programmes, but when I realised I could work towards a particular event, raising money for charity at the same time, it was a no-brainer to team up with Scott.
My fiancée Rachel and I love swimming, and we did out first open water swim in London’s Serpentine Lake in 2017. It was a 2-mile race, and I did a decent amount of training by myself for it, but without focusing on nutrition and with no specific swim plan in the run-up.
So for 2018, and with the fortune of having Scott at my disposal, I signed up for a 5k swim in Ireland. That’s just over 3 miles, so a greater distance than last year. But most importantly, I wanted to swim faster, swim stronger, and raise plenty of money for the UK’s leading brain injury charity, Headway UK.
During our first meeting, I told Scott that I wasn’t looking for a “get ripped in 12 weeks” body transformation. Even if I did manage a staggering aesthetic conversion, I’m not someone who would enjoy sustaining it by weighing my food and spending day after day in the gym.
It was explained to me though that in order to get the most out of the 12 weeks, I would of course have to follow a meal plan, which I expected. I wasn’t envisioning that burgers and wine were going to be part of any effective training programme!
After our first chat, we decided on goals:
- Swim the 5k at a faster pace than I did in the Serpentine last year.
- When in the gym, focus on exercises to improve my swim strength.
- Hope those two things together produce a change in body composition for some half-decent before and after photos.
Scott set out a gym and swim plan. Two days a week in the pool, two in the gym. The swims would increase in distance over the 12 weeks. The gym routine was changed up every 3-4 weeks to keep my body guessing and put it under new stress to make sure I was getting stronger. The programme involved increasing weight every time you walked through the gym doors so it was a fresh challenge each day. And I was only in there two days a week, which was welcome after regimens in the past where you spend four or five days each week lifting weights.
My main concern however, was the eating plan. Primarily fitting it in around an often-changing shift schedule, but also whether it was going to be bland and a bit tasteless. There were also some key rules, mainly no junk food and no booze – which I’m pleased to say (apart from 1 or 2 VERY small glasses of wine) I stuck to!
Meal prep is just one of those things you have to sign up for if you decide to work towards a particular fitness goal. There’s no getting around it. I had to carve out some time, whether mornings before work or evenings after, to do some bulk cooking. But Scott had designed the plan in such a way that I could make meals in bulk – a massive help. We had talked about my work pattern at Sky News, the fact that I would be working a lot of weekends, through a lot of lunch breaks, occasionally home very late or up very early. Providing me with recipes and meals that could be made up in bulk was crucial to me sticking to the plan.
And they were delicious, so my second fear was averted. Scott has really dedicated a lot of time to creating his meals for clients and it shows. Rachel and I ended up eating the meals together a lot of the time and we’ll be keeping the recipes to enjoy going forward too.
I’ve got a sweet tooth but that was well-catered for in lovely fruit smoothies, snacks of apple and peanut butter, tasty homemade flapjacks and plenty more. And the savoury meals didn’t feel restrictive at all. Lots of healthy and filling stews, salads and curries which overall made it easy to stay on track and avoid a sneaky pizza when feeling a bit tired.
And I started noticing progress very early. Looking back, I’d say the first 3 weeks actually produced the most obvious physical change when I looked in the mirror. My stomach flattened down a bit, I shifted some weight from around my waist and my shoulders and arms were looking bigger and stronger. I thought I was starting to look a bit like a swimmer.
By week five and six, the challenge became fitting in the long swims on working days. I’m lucky enough to live near a 50m (unheated) outdoor pool but due to our extended winter (remember when it was snowing towards the end of March?!) it was both difficult to do hour-long swims – because my hands started clawing up in the cold – and to carve out that time around limited pool opening hours and going to work.
There was, however, a real positive about fitting the training around being on-air at Sky. And that is that you come in and prep the show for a 3-4 hours, you’re in front of the camera for another 3-4 hours, but then you can go home. Some colleagues don’t get to clock off as easily and head off to the pool or gym. So I was lucky in that respect and made the training and eating work around what can nevertheless be a busy schedule.
In the end, I didn’t miss any sessions of gym or swim. If I needed to, I postponed them to a later day that week, but always crammed them in. Having a specific goal and a race date to work towards, I think, really helps you drag yourself in to the pool or gym and get the exercise done.
Scott’s plan worked perfectly in the lead up to race day. The swim training he’d devised had me peak at a good time – I was swimming the full 5k distance in practise 10 days before the race itself and feeling good.
Scott kept in touch in the few days right before the race, giving advice on the best pre-swim nutrition and making sure I took things easy exercise-wise. I felt in great shape as I squirmed in to my wetsuit on the banks of Lough Cutra in Ireland.
It was just as well I did, because it proved to be a challenging race. Water temperature had been my main concern beforehand, but the lake had warmed up nicely due to a few days of sun in the run-up. The wind, and resulting choppiness of the water, provided a tough test. One of the staff would tell me afterwards that due to the level of wind, it was more likely we had swum 5 ½ or even 6k!
By the final kilometre my body was feeling a bit battered around by the waves, but I pushed through to finish the race in 5th place, which I was really pleased with. There’s no doubt in my mind that the training programme and nutrition support Scott provided helped me finish that high in the field.
Because of the wind level at the lake, race time became less of an indicating factor in my performance. The week before, I’d swum the distance in around 1 hour and 20 minutes. The water conditions in Ireland meant I was swimming for around half an hour longer, finishing in a time of 1 hour 47 minutes. The extra carbs Scott advised in the few days before the race were definitely needed.
I’ll be glad to ease back from the eating plan a bit now that the race is done and dusted, but the meals Scott provided will now make up a good chunk of my admittedly limited culinary expertise. His style of gym routine has been thoroughly enjoyable too so I am continuing that over the summer. I felt the training was so beneficial that I’ve signed up to do another 5k later this year, and I know sticking to a lot of Scott’s advice will stand me in good stead for that.
