Absolute Fitness

26/09/2026

WE’RE LOOKING TO EXPAND OUR TRAINING HOURS

Demand for PT-Led Training at our private gym in St Brelade is growing, so we're looking at expanding our timetable towards:

MONDAY–FRIDAY 6AM–7:30PM

SATURDAY 7AM–12PM

There are no set start times, you can start your training at a time that works for you within our available hours.

We don't currently offer every hour above. We'll introduce additional hours as demand for them grows.

WHAT TIMES WOULD YOU LIKE TO TRAIN?

Comment below with the times you'd be most likely to use.

And if you know someone who would benefit from what we do, tag them below.

EXPERIENCE PT-LED TRAINING FOR A MONTH — FREE

We could give you one free session.

But we don't think that's enough time to properly experience what we do.

So we're currently giving new clients a full month of PT-Led Training, with up to 3 sessions per week.

You'll get your own personalised programme, ongoing support from our Personal Trainers, and an InBody scan at the beginning and end so you can see what's actually changed — including body fat, muscle mass and visceral fat.

All we ask in return is an honest Google review of your experience.

WHAT IS PT-LED TRAINING?

It's not a class, and you're not left to figure things out by yourself.

You follow your own programme, built around your goals and ability, while our PTs are there to coach your technique, help select appropriate weights, progress your training and make adjustments when needed.

It's designed to give you much of the guidance and accountability of Personal Training, with greater flexibility.

Come and experience it for yourself.

Apply for your free month

Personal information

17/09/2026

Weight training doesn’t build muscle. It sends the signal to build muscle.

When you lift weights, you’re essentially telling your body:

“We need more muscle to deal with this.”

But sending the signal is only the first step.

Your body still needs the resources — and the opportunity — to respond.

Not enough protein?
You’re limiting the building blocks needed to repair and build muscle.

Not enough sleep?
You’re compromising recovery, performance and the processes involved in adapting to training.

Too much alcohol?
Large amounts can reduce muscle protein synthesis, while also interfering with sleep and recovery.

Finish your weights and immediately go for a hard run?
Running isn’t bad. But if building muscle is the priority, piling substantial endurance work on top of your strength training adds fatigue and can create competing adaptations — particularly when you do a lot of it.

Jump in the sea afterwards?
Again, context matters. An ordinary sea swim isn't going to erase your workout. But frequent cold-water immersion immediately after resistance training may blunt some of the adaptations we're trying to create when muscle growth is the goal.

More exercise isn't always more results.

You can have a great programme and train incredibly hard, but the session itself is only the stimulus.

The other 23 hours matter.

Train hard. Eat enough protein. Sleep properly. Keep alcohol sensible. And stop assuming that adding more physical stress after every workout must make the workout better.

Send a strong signal — then give your body the chance to respond to it.

14/09/2026

🫣 Protein before or after training? 🍗

There’s been a bit of discussion recently about whether women should have protein before training, particularly as they get older.

I don’t think the recommendation is wrong. I think the distinction is between what’s important and what’s optimising.

Protein before and after training could potentially be beneficial for everyone. And as we get older, there are good reasons to pay more attention to protein intake because our muscles become somewhat less responsive to smaller amounts of protein.

Where I think the importance can get inflated is around the timing itself.

For both men and women, getting enough protein across the whole day is far more important than precisely when you have it.

If your total protein intake is inadequate, worrying about pre- and post-workout protein is majoring in the minors.

If you’re already getting roughly 1.6–2.0g/kg per day, spread across 3–5 decent servings, then paying closer attention to protein around training becomes a smaller additional optimisation.

One situation where I’d pay more attention is early-morning training.

If you’re training at 6 or 7am, you may have gone 8–12+ hours without eating. In that situation, having some protein before training makes more sense than it does for someone training later in the day who has already eaten several protein-containing meals.

This may become increasingly relevant as we get older because of anabolic resistance.

Even then, I wouldn’t say you need protein immediately before and immediately after training.

Have 25–40g of good-quality protein before training? Great.

Prefer training without eating and having a protein-rich breakfast afterwards? Also perfectly reasonable.

I’d look at the priorities like this:

Total daily protein → spreading protein across the day → protein around early-morning training → worrying about precise timing.

The further you’ve already optimised the basics, the more worthwhile these smaller details become.

But they’re still optimisations rather than requirements.

12/09/2026

Training doesn’t build muscle.

Training sends the signal to build muscle.

When you lift weights, you’re giving your body a reason to adapt. You’re effectively telling it:

“We need to be stronger than this next time.”

But what happens after training matters.

Your body needs enough protein and calories to provide the building blocks. It needs enough recovery to actually make the adaptation. And it needs a clear, repeated reason to prioritise getting stronger and building muscle.

This is also why constantly switching training modalities can work against you.

If you finish a hard strength session and then shortly afterwards go for a hard run, you’re asking your body to adapt to two different demands.

One signal says: get stronger, build muscle and become better at producing force.

The other says: become more efficient at endurance work.

You can absolutely be strong, muscular and fit. You don’t have to choose one or the other. But if maximising muscle or strength is the priority, how you organise your training matters. Separating demanding strength and endurance work where possible gives your body a clearer job to do.

Sleep matters for the same reason.

Poor sleep doesn’t suddenly cancel your workout, but consistently poor sleep makes recovery harder. It can reduce training performance, impair muscle recovery and make it harder to progress.

So don’t think of your workout as the thing that produces the result.

It starts the process.

Send the signal.
Give your body the resources to respond.
Give it the time to recover.
Then send the signal again.

That’s how adaptation happens.

10/09/2026

Training on holiday is never an automatic yes for me.

It depends on a few things. Is there a gym available? How much time do I have? But the biggest one is what do I actually need from that holiday?

Sometimes the answer is to switch off completely and not train. If that’s the case, I’m not going to beat myself up for missing a week.

This time was different.

Before going away, I’d only been back training for four weeks after already taking a week off. So I wanted to keep some training ticking over.

The gym having a view like this certainly didn’t hurt.

But I also didn’t want training to interfere with the holiday or take time away from the people I was there with.

So: 4 × 30-minute sessions, first thing in the morning.

Nothing complicated. Three exercises, three sets of each. One push, one pull, one lower-body movement. Alternating between two sessions:

Workout A
Chin-ups
Cable reverse lunges
Shoulder press

Workout B
Cable seated chest press
Cable seated single-arm wide row
Single-leg Romanian deadlift

That was it.

Enough to keep training consistent. Not enough to make the holiday revolve around the gym.

Sometimes training hard is the right call. Sometimes taking the week off is. Sometimes 30 minutes before everyone else is properly up is the perfect middle ground.

09/09/2026

If your training is inconsistent, almost every other conversation about how you train is pointless.

How many reps should you do?

How many sets?

Which exercises are best?

What’s the perfect split?

How long should you rest?

All useful questions — once you’re actually training consistently.

The best programme in the world won’t do much if you train twice one week, miss the next, train once the week after and then start again with a new plan.

You don’t need to optimise training you’re not doing.

Get consistent first.

Then worry about making it better.

Consistency gives everything else a chance to work.

Confidence in motion.

27/08/2026

GLP-1s can be a very effective tool for weight loss.

But eating less of a bad diet isn't the same as eating a better diet.

If your appetite drops dramatically but the quality of your food doesn't improve, you're likely getting even less protein, vitamins, minerals and other nutrients your body needs.

And without enough protein and strength training, you're likely to lose muscle as well as fat.

Less muscle means a less metabolically active body — you burn fewer calories each day.

So if the medication stops and your appetite returns, you've potentially got a bad combination:

More hunger + less muscle + lower calorie requirements.

GLP-1s can help you lose weight. But use the opportunity to improve your diet, eat enough protein and maintain or build muscle.

26/08/2026

I've had about 6 creatine conversations this week, so to try stopping me pulling out what little hair I have left, here's the short version.

Creatine isn’t just for people trying to get bigger.

It’s one of the most researched supplements available, and the benefits are pretty extensive:

Increased strength and power
Improved performance during repeated high-intensity exercise
Greater muscle gain from resistance training
Helps maintain muscle as we age
Potential benefits for memory and cognitive performance
Particularly interesting research around maintaining cognitive performance when sleep deprived

Creatine works by increasing phosphocreatine stores in your muscles and brain, helping your body regenerate ATP. Essentially, readily available energy for your cells.

And you don’t need anything fancy.

3–5g of creatine monohydrate per day is enough for most people. You don't need to cycle it, and timing isn't particularly important.

24/08/2026

Training isn't the end goal.

Being strong enough to keep doing the things you enjoy is.

Walking the dog. Exploring. Playing with your kids. Travelling. Getting outside without worrying about whether your body can handle it.

The work you do in the gym should make life outside it better.

That's the point.

23/08/2026

Getting stronger isn’t about lifting the heaviest weight in the gym.

It’s about lifting a little more than you could before.

For one person, progress might be their first deadlift.

For someone else, it might be adding 5kg to the bar, doing two more reps, or moving with better control.

The numbers will be different for everyone. The principle stays the same:

Start where you are. Then build from there.