How to Skin a Cat - Where to Start With Training?

As a qualified PT and someone with multi sport experience that goes back 25 years since I was old enough to run, or kick a ball or catch one I like to think I have a good understanding of most training systems, and ways and means of getting people to their desired goals. 

Whether that be weight loss? Well we would look at energy balance, or I would. To lose weight you need to be in a caloric deficit, now dependent on the clients health and situation would I put them in a caloric deficit via less food or would I look at energy output, i.e. What we do in the gym, to create that deficit?

Weight gain / muscle gain - Now we are looking at caloric surplus plus training methods. Some stimuli (exercises) work for some due to their biomechanics, some don't. Some people respond to higher rep ranges, some respond better to lower rep ranges. Then when you get to the nutritional side of things, for me I can gain eating at 5% surplus of my maintenance cals due to my training style, and also the macro breakdown would be completely different to that of someone else who would want to gain weight. They may need a bigger surplus to see any movement of scales. 

Marathon runners - I've trained people to run half and full marathons without actually getting them out on a track or road, and purely based their training on weights and plyo work. Most people would scoff at the idea that no running was done to train a marathon runner, but it has and was the case. 

Without going on and rambling, this brief blog post was to show that whilst there are certain rules we all have to adehere to when training, there are a dozen ways to skin a cat, and even within that there is even more variables.  

My blog posts will be based around my experience as a trainer of people, my training and my own research and knowledge. They will be purely advisory, not instructional, if you choose to give my methods a go and they work for you then fantastic. If not, like I said, what works for some, doesn't always work for others. 

Anyway, peace out guys, I'm off to PT a client. Have a cracking day. 

Paul.