“Building muscle is hard” damn right it is hard…it’s one of the harder goals in reality….especially as 99% of people want to do it at the same time as losing fat and gaining a six pack.

Building muscle is about pushing your body to a place it doesn’t want to go, it’s about progression: constantly coming in and doing more than you did last time.

Just showing up is not enough. Going through the motions will not do it.

It’s about eating the right foods every day, for months and years to nourish and grow your body as you would a new crop in a field.

It’s about pushing away the extra pint, that extra bottle of wine. Saying no to the late night and yes to the extra hour of sleep to help recovery and reduce stress levels.

Half hearted attempts will yield awful results. transformations must be attacked, taken on full speed with an obsessive mindset.

Only when you have achieved your goal can you relax and cruise along for maintaining is so much easier than achieving.

And just why should I care about building muscle you ask?

Because it’s the number one cause of metabolism slowing, why you are losing the shape of your youth and the number one cause for falls in older folk, of which you will be one sooner than you care to realise.

Muscle is the most useful and overlooked tissue in your arsenal against fat gain and ageing….if you aren’t building it, you’re losing it and losing it means higher body fat percentages and more likelihood of death through weakness.

Building muscle is hard, yes, but it is simple:

work your arse to do more than you did last time, every time and eat to support this with meat, fish, vegetables, fruits, dairy and the occasional treat. Drink water. Sleep 8 hours a night and smile for life is short, beautiful, cruel and strange.