Fitness Academy
A reference library on training, recovery, nutrition, supplements, measurement and the business of coaching — 130 articles across 8 categories, each with a direct answer first, the reasoning second, and the sources at the bottom.
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All 130 articles are published. Browse the full library by category below.
Gym etiquette nobody explains
The unwritten rules, written down. Most of it reduces to putting things back, not blocking people, and not being loud — but the specifics are genuinely useful to know in advance.
How to use a squat rack
The piece of equipment beginners avoid longest, and the one worth learning first. Hook height, safety bars, loading, and how to bail if a rep goes wrong.
Building the habit before building the physique
The people who succeed are not the ones who trained hardest in January. They are the ones still training in November. Here is how to optimise for that instead.
Training with limited time
Twenty minutes three times a week is enough to get meaningfully stronger. Here is how to structure short sessions so almost nothing is lost.
Training at home with almost no equipment
You can build real strength at home. Bodyweight training has a ceiling, and two adjustable dumbbells raise it enormously for less than a few months of gym membership.
How to choose a personal trainer
Qualifications and insurance are the minimum, not the differentiator. The questions that actually predict a good coach are about process, scope and how they track progress.
What to expect from your first coaching session
What happens, what you will be asked, what to bring and what a good first session looks like — so you can tell whether you are getting one.
Common beginner mistakes
Twelve errors that cost beginners months. Most are not about training badly — they are about changing too often, expecting too much too soon, and measuring the wrong things.
Reference libraries
Exercise guides
Ten full technique guides — muscles worked, setup, common mistakes, coaching cues, progression and beginner alternatives.
Workout programmes
Ten complete templates from first-month beginner to powerbuilding, with schedules, rep ranges and progression rules.
Training fundamentals · 20 articles · 20 published
The mechanics of getting stronger. Written for people who want to know why a programme is shaped the way it is.
- Progressive overload: the only rule that mattersRead
- How many sets per muscle group per weekRead
- Volume versus intensity, and when to prioritise eachRead
- Choosing a training split that survives your scheduleRead
- How long should a workout actually takeRead
- Reps in reserve and training to failureRead
- Rest times: what the research says versus what people doRead
- Tempo training and when it is worth the troubleRead
- Full body versus split routines for beginnersRead
- How to warm up without wasting thirty minutesRead
- Deloads: when, how often, and how much to dropRead
- Training frequency: is twice a week per muscle betterRead
- Compound versus isolation exercisesRead
- Free weights versus machinesRead
- How to structure a training blockRead
- Periodisation explained without the jargonRead
- What to do when a lift stallsRead
- Training around a minor injuryRead
- How long until you see resultsRead
- Why your first six months are the most valuableRead
Recovery · 14 articles · 14 published
The half of training that happens outside the gym.
- How many rest days you actually needRead
- Signs you are overtraining, and what to doRead
- Sleep and strength: the dose-response relationshipRead
- Active recovery: useful or a mythRead
- Delayed onset muscle soreness, explainedRead
- Stretching before or after trainingRead
- Foam rolling: what it does and does not doRead
- Managing training when you are illRead
- Recovery in a calorie deficitRead
- Stress, cortisol and stalled progressRead
- How to train shift workRead
- Ice baths and contrast therapyRead
- Rest between sets versus rest between sessionsRead
- When to take a full week offRead
Nutrition · 23 articles · 23 published
Practical, non-dogmatic, and focused on what changes outcomes.
- How much protein you actually needRead
- Calories: how to estimate your maintenanceRead
- Building a calorie deficit you can sustainRead
- Eating for muscle gain without excess fatRead
- Meal timing: does it matterRead
- Protein distribution across the dayRead
- Carbohydrates around trainingRead
- Dietary fat and hormonesRead
- Fibre and why lifters under-eat itRead
- Hydration and performanceRead
- Alcohol and training adaptationRead
- Eating out while trackingRead
- Reading a nutrition label properlyRead
- Tracking calories without becoming obsessiveRead
- Diet breaks and refeedsRead
- Reverse dieting after a cutRead
- Fat loss myths that will not dieRead
- Why the scale lies day to dayRead
- Setting up your first cutRead
- Setting up your first bulkRead
- Maintenance: the phase nobody plansRead
- Vegetarian and vegan protein strategiesRead
- Eating enough when you have no appetiteRead
Supplements · 10 articles · 10 published
What has evidence, what does not, and what is simply unnecessary.
Measurement and progress · 10 articles · 10 published
How to know whether it is working.
- Why circumference measurements beat the scale aloneRead
- How to measure your waist consistentlyRead
- Taking measurements: a repeatable protocolRead
- Understanding body-fat estimates and their error barsRead
- Photos, measurements and the scale: using all threeRead
- Weekly averages versus daily weigh-insRead
- What a plateau actually looks like in the dataRead
- Setting a goal you can measureRead
- Tracking strength progress over monthsRead
- When to change the plan versus stay the courseRead
Exercise technique · 25 articles · 25 published
Setup, execution, the faults that actually matter, and how to fix each one.
- Bench pressRead
- Back squatRead
- DeadliftRead
- Pull-upRead
- Overhead pressRead
- Romanian deadliftRead
- Hip thrustRead
- Leg pressRead
- Barbell rowRead
- LungeRead
- Front squatRead
- Incline pressRead
- Dumbbell rowRead
- Lat pulldownRead
- Face pullRead
- Bulgarian split squatRead
- Leg curlRead
- Calf raiseRead
- PlankRead
- Farmer's carryRead
- Chin-upRead
- DipRead
- Lateral raiseRead
- Cable flyRead
- Good morningRead
Coaching business · 18 articles · 18 published
For trainers running the business side alone.
- How to keep clients accountable without naggingRead
- Onboarding a new client in the first two weeksRead
- Setting your rates as a personal trainerRead
- Moving from in-person to online coachingRead
- Managing twenty online clients without burning outRead
- Writing programmes that clients actually followRead
- How to run a check-in that produces informationRead
- Handling a client who keeps missing sessionsRead
- Cancellation policies that are fair to both sidesRead
- Getting reviews and referralsRead
- Group training: pricing and logisticsRead
- What to do when a client wants a plan you disagree withRead
- Building a waiting listRead
- Retention: why clients leave and what precedes itRead
- Communicating progress when the scale has not movedRead
- Scope of practice: nutrition advice and where the line isRead
- Insurance, qualifications and the paperworkRead
- Running a bootcamp with mixed abilitiesRead
Getting started · 10 articles · 10 published
For people who have never trained before.
- Your first month in a gymRead
- What to bring and what to wearRead
- Gym etiquette nobody explainsRead
- How to use a squat rackRead
- Building the habit before building the physiqueRead
- Training with limited timeRead
- Training at home with almost no equipmentRead
- How to choose a personal trainerRead
- What to expect from your first coaching sessionRead
- Common beginner mistakesRead
How this library is written
Structure of each article
A direct answer in the first box, then the reasoning, then the practical application, then the questions people actually ask. Readers who want the short answer get it without scrolling; readers who want the detail keep going. Every article ends with its sources.
Where the evidence is unsettled, we say so
Several of these topics have genuinely conflicting research — dietary fat and testosterone has two meta-analyses that disagree, and the strength effects of cold water immersion are less clear than the hypertrophy effects. Presenting either as settled would be easier to read and worse to rely on.
Where the common advice is wrong, we say that too
- The 20–30 g per meal protein ceiling came from studies that stopped measuring too early. Twelve-hour data found no upper limit.
- Restricting your knees from travelling past your toes shifts load onto the lumbar spine rather than removing it.
- Cold water immersion after lifting blunts the adaptation you trained for.
- Metabolic adaptation after weight loss is around 38 kcal a day once weight stabilises — not a broken metabolism.
- A 2025 randomised trial tested the creatine hair-loss claim directly and found no effect on DHT, testosterone or any hair outcome.
Internal linking
- Every article links sideways to two or three genuinely related pieces, and back up to its category.
- Exercise guides link to the programmes that use them, and every programme links to the guide for each of its exercises.
- Articles link to a product page only where it actually answers the question — a piece on tracking measurements can reasonably point at the client app; a piece on protein cannot.
- The build fails if any internal link points at a page that does not exist, which is why none of them do.
What is not here
No meal plans, no supplement shop, no advice on medical conditions or performance-enhancing drugs. Those are outside what a coaching platform should be writing about — see scope of practice for where the line sits and why.