The Perspective From A Trainer

When Ed first stepped into Innate, it was for a free session I offered since he was introduced by an existing member. I ran him through a full body session to see how he moved and how he settled into the environment. He joined on a Bronze membership, which meant he got his first programme and a PT session for free. Right from the start I could see he had a lot of potential. He already had a defined, lean frame, but he was tall and fairly slight. With the right structure and consistency, there was clearly room for major progress.

His first proper programme was an upper–lower split, four days a week: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. It sounds like a lot for a beginner, but Ed wasn’t really starting from zero. He’d been going to commercial gyms but wanted proper structure and guidance. Some exercises he picked up quicker than others, but from day one he was patient and attentive, which makes all the difference. It meant the learning curve was smoother and the programme actually worked as intended.

Within the first three months we moved some of his back work over to bodyweight pull ups. He could only manage about five or six reps at first, and the form wasn’t great, he was using a fair bit of knee drive to get himself up. I wasn’t bothered. Early on, the priority is exposure and confidence. I told him we’d tidy it up once the strength was there, and that’s exactly what happened. As he improved, we could tighten the form and increase the tension on the right muscles.

Around the three-month mark something clicked. He understood the basic cycle of resistance training, using the appropriate weights, working in a solid rep range and manipulating the core variables, being weight, repetitions, range of motion, tempo and intensity of effort. I could adjust most of those for him during PT sessions, but intensity is always down to the individual. You can show someone how hard they can push, but you can’t force them to do it. Ed didn’t need pushing. He came in ready to work every single session. His effort level is one of the things that sets him apart.

By month six his aesthetic progress was obvious. Strength improvements are great, but when someone starts to visibly change shape, that’s a different type of motivation. It wasn’t some magical six-month transformation. It was six months of doing the work properly applying good consistent training. As the strength goes up with the right mechanics, muscle growth usually follows.

Around that time he hit his first setback, which was knee pain from the leg extension. The issue wasn’t the machine itself but how quickly he was progressing the load. His quads were developing faster than his tendons could adapt, and he was generating so much force that he was actually catching the arm of the machine on the way down, which placed extra stress on the knee joint. It happens. With monthly PT sessions I can catch a lot, but I can’t see everything between sessions.

Instead of taking legs out entirely, we trained around it. I swapped his squats for a Smith machine hack-squat variation that kept his torso supported and controlled the joint angle. As long as he didn’t break ninety degrees, the movement felt fine. We stripped the weight back, built him up steadily and let the tendon catch up with the muscle. It worked, and once his knee had settled we returned to his original programme.

The only other setback was a shoulder issue he picked up outside the gym. He saw a physio who gave him strengthening work, and my job was to build his training around the injury in the meantime. We adapted a lot of pressing movements, worked within pain-free ranges and took our time. It wasn’t perfectly linear, but he recovered fully and is stronger than ever now.

After a year at Innate, Ed had put on somewhere around eight to ten kilos. Yes, some of that was fat, as it always is when someone increases calories, but the vast majority was muscle. His body composition changed massively. We adjusted his programme throughout the year, mostly to bring up weaker areas like his biceps, but around the one-year mark we moved from upper–lower to an Upper / Lower / Push / Pull rotation. His legs had grown so well that we needed to push the upper body harder to keep him aesthetically balanced. And if you’re wondering whether his pull ups ever improved, they definitely have. He’s now performing them clean, controlled and weighted. Considering he’s put on eight to ten kilos and then adds extra load on top, it’s genuinely impressive, and I have to say.

Ed is genuinely one of the strongest success stories I’ve had so far, but I’m always mindful that success looks different for everyone who walks through the door. Age, injuries, experience, confidence, lifestyle and goals all shape what progress looks like. For Ed, the timing was perfect for a big aesthetic shift, and he’s genetically gifted as well, you could see the potential from the start. But none of that replaces the consistency he’s shown. He’s missed barely any sessions which you could probably count his absences on two hands.

For others, success might be being pain-free, feeling stronger day to day or simply finding their rhythm again. I measure progress by the person, not by a single standard. For Ed, the aesthetic and strength changes have been exceptional. I’m not sure he ever imagined getting this far, but he’s earned every bit of it. He should be proud. It’s been brilliant working with someone so diligent and persistent, and I’m looking forward to seeing how far we can take his training from here.