Just a small note to say best of luck to one of my long time clients Lisa Fitzpatrick as she launches her new book today. The book will cover every part of fashion and style you can imagine and will touch on her amazing weight loss.
Lisa Looking Great with the Westlife crew
I am sure the book will be a massive success and it’s now available in all good book shops and it would be a great buy for all those mums, sisters and daughters out there.
As I mentioned in a previous post (warren’s testimonial) I received another success story. This one came from Joanne who has already been kind enough to send on a testimonial about her and her husbands progress some months ago which is here .
This was a bit of a surprise for me as I had both Joanne and her husband Maurice up for a review last saturday and both were making excellent progress but I was delighted to find the following in my inbox on monday morning -
+++++++++++
“It’s been a year now since I started with you, and I wanted to write to let you know the difference it has made to me.
I have lost just over 25kgs, and have gone down a couple of dress sizes. What amazes me is not only the weight loss, but the confidence I have gained in that time as well.
Over a year ago, if I had a wedding coming up or any occasion, I would spend endless hours trying on clothes, spending lots of money on something I didn’t feel great in, and my confidence would always be low.
I went on a hen night last night, and felt absolutely fantastic about myself. I felt I looked great, and I had an amazing time, because I could be myself. I wasn’t holding myself back because of my size. I didn’t feel self conscious at all, and it made such a difference.
You see the bottom line is, when you feel good about yourself, everything else falls into place. I am really looking forward to the next year, and I know I will get to my ideal weight, because of you.
The weight is only one aspect of this process for me. I always thought I needed to lose weight, but I never had the proper tools to do it. I never imagined even losing this much weight would make such a huge difference. I am more confident, have way more energy and am enjoying life so much more. I feel everything is possible now. I also feel that you need to know that you have made this possible. You have a fantastic approach to training, and you have never made me feel that anything was impossible for me, and having Maurice (her husband) encouraging me every step of the way has also been invaluable. We look forward to our training sessions with you, and we always feel motivated and positive afterwards (and sore!).
So after one year of training, thank you Dominic!
Joanne
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I have not edited that in any way and it was such a nice mail that I know there are many many people that could benefit from reading it. Please keep in mind that Joanne feels that she is half way there and is planning on making more progress over the next year so stay tuned. I might also add that her husband Maurice has made great progress and now not only maintains a sub-ten percent body fat but has improved his strength, flexibility and fitness in a massive way. They come up from Limerick to see me once every 6-8 weeks and as I have mentioned before it’s not more education they benefited from it was more understanding that made those life changes permanent.
Joanne was kind enough to provide a photo of where she was and where she has gotten to and I love the fact that the after shot has kettlebells in it!
The before and after - 25kg lighter in a year
You too can make these changes with the right attitude and consistent application. I recommend you read my fat loss 101 article here and as Joanne mentioned “get the right tools to lose weight now”.
It’s been a few weeks since I have posted a nice testimonial from one of my clients so I was delighted to find my inbox with two when I checked it this morning.
Here is one of them and the other I will post up later in the week.
This is from Warren who I have been training for about 4-5months now (comes to me once every 6-7 weeks for a new program) and is such a delight to work with as he has a great attitude to both his traning and diet which have seen him make dramatic changes. I will let his words do the talking and hope you are inspired to make even just some of the positive changes he has made.
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“Injury after injury after injury followed by brutally poor advice and even worse direction from so called professionals. That is the only way to describe the journey I have been on for the last 20 months. After being injury free for the majority of my sporting life I ran into an injury associated with my pelvis/hip.
So when I first went to Dominic I was probably at one of the lowest points of my life sports wise. I went to Dominic more in hope than anything else, I had read his blog, seen his posts on boards etc but after the first session with him I knew if this guy couldn’t help me get back on track nobody could.
Dominic assessed my flexibility, base strength and fitness in the first session and not to my surprise he noted I had some major flexibility issues. In the first session, he laid out for me how he would get me back to where I wanted to be- playing and training competitively.
The program along with the stretching, foam rolling and trigger point release seemed to be working. I was pretty shocked after a couple of weeks that I hadn’t fallen back into my injured state again, but this time the muscles that were weak or tight were now getting more flexible and strong versus at previous stages where I was simply training myself into the ground with little or no stretching and foam rolling to recover.
(you need to foam roll more? Do all of this)
I was beginning to feel better and was simply enjoying being back training. I gave up drinking alcohol for the first 10 weeks of my training with Dominic once I realised I was starting to progress. Along with the advice Dominic provided around my diet led to reducing my body fat by half, enabling me to begin to compete at competitive level in my sport once again.
After four months with Dominic I have made dramatic progress far beyond where I expected I would get to in such a short time frame. I think the key thing for me was the process Dominic provided, as with any process you can cut corners which will reduce the quality of the output/results. The process means making changes and simply adapting, I found you have to want to make changes for yourself and the reason you are making these changes is to meet your goals!
I have got to say Dominic has adapted too, in the form of excellent METCONs and home work outs for them days you just can’t make the gym.
(here is an example of one of those home based type sessions)
Another key item was treating the gym session like a training session with my team, at training with my team the aim is to train hard for the duration of the session and get out of there, the key thing Dominic has thought me is to bring intensity to everything I do as this is what will really bring you on.
As I sit here and type this I am also reading the goals which I first set when I went to see Dominic first, I am very happy to say I have met each and every one of them goals and now it’s time to raise the bar again!
I can safely say that without the guidance, advice and motivation provided by Dominic I would still be stuck in the same injured cycle wondering where ever am I going wrong.
Thanks Dominic!
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Thanks again Warren and I know you will continue to make progress for the future with the guidance and consistency in both your training and diet
I have no idea where the title of this article comes from but I liked it as I am a father to an almost 2yr old daughter and know how true this is for my wife and I.
Today I thought I would share a video I took of two of my clients – a mother and daughter tag team. The mum has been my client for a few months now and has made lots of progress dropping over 8kg so far and month on month continues to drop weight, have increased energy and having to buy new smaller fitting clothes. Her daughter has only come to the sessions recently but is showing great determination and super natural ability.
The mum always asks me when we are going to use the girly weights and my response is always, “these are the girly weights”. She of course is referring to her normal deadlift of 50kg and plenty of other notable impressive exercises she has mastered. It also stikes me as funny the way some parents are worried about their teenage kids doing weights. Yes it’s not a good idea to do them unsupervised but for the love of God please get them doing some press ups, squats, lunges, chin ups etc. You can see in the video that both work as hard as they can (the daughter gets 8 rounds in 15mins) and they focus on working movements in the session rather than me pandering to mickey mouse exercises like triceps kickbacks and mulitple inner thigh exercises and 20mins of ‘core’ exercises.
In the video they both do a 15mins as many rounds as possible of 200m run(walk if needed), 5 deadlifts (30kg) and 10 press ups. I like to get most of my one to one weekly clients do a workout of the week to test themselves and this is the worrkout for this week however the higher level clients did 10 deadlifts and not 5.
I like to catch clients doing stuff that I think is worth sharing and I hope you like it also as if it encourages one more person to get up off their ass and move more, hit the weights and stop pretending they are ‘fit’ just becuase they go for a walk 3-4 times a week then it’s worth it. I only put that last part in because this is exactly what another client of mine said after doing the exact same workout yesterday. She figured that a bit of walking was not working for shifting the increasing belly flab she was experiencing so came to me for assistance last week. It’s funny how some people can associate being able to walk a bit or even jog that you are automatically seen as ‘fit’. Well fitness for me, getting my clients strong, lean, flexible, mobile, dynamic and yes have good cardiovascular fitness but it’s the whole package that’s going to make you look/feel your best.
I see plenty of people that run or walk regularly but I would not admire their physique or consider them ‘fit’ just because they can pound the pavement.
Have you got good enough ’fitness’ to do the above workout? If not then give it a go and take small steps every day to become truly fit.
It frequently amazes me when a new female client starts to work with me or questions are posted on forums by women wanting to get much more toned and fit. Many of them have such crazy misconceptions about how and what to do when using weights.
No you are not going to get big and bulky and no you are not going to be lifting girly pink dumbbells because your handbag is heavier than that!!!
With all of this in mind I decided to post up a few videos of a few of my female clients that would put many many guys to shame and they are a total inspiration. I find this will get the point across quicker than just blabbing on about why women should do proper weights and get trained without resorting to treating them like little girls. They will all possibly kill me for posting these but hey I think they need to be seen as I am sure there are a few people out there that need some convincing.
First up is Trish who will possibly kill me for posting this so you will have to support me on this as she looks fab, has increased her shrength massively and lost a whopping 10kg since January this year. Every 6 weeks she comes back to me and in every group session she does (saturdays at 9.30am) she gets stronger and drops more weight. Trish you look great and are a joy to work with -
Next up is Anna who I do not see any more than twice a year as she is based in London and again she works so hard on the weights and always pushes for progress with her fitness, body fat and strength. Here she is doing a few easy deadlifts and some pull ups. Anna I only wish you were living in Dublin so you could kick butt in my group sessions.
Next is Kimella who is just a workout killer!! Every session she completely knocks it out, has superb conditioning and her strength goes up week on week. I really hope she goes in for the next crossfit invite. Here she just powers up an easy 80kg deadlift (needs some technique work but a great lift all the same) -
Last up is Elaine, mother of three kids and again a total dream client. She has fantastic conditioning, a good strength base and I have never done a session I did not enjoy taking her for.
Here she blasts out 9mins on a really tough workout ladder metcon (please try this any girls reading, hell any guys that get 9mins on this(using a 16-24kg kettlebell) I would be impressed) -
And here she hits it hard in a workout complex done before the above metcon, showing her great improvement on her press ups -
Finally, I have to say that my wife hits it hard with sessions at home using very limited equipment a few days a week and does this as out daughter tries to join in throughout!
It does not take long to stay in great shape and having a husband as a trainer does not matter a dam as I can’t lift the weights for her as she puts in the hard work all the time. I must also add that her cooking skills are the primary reason I can keep my diet in order.
All these women are a total inspiration and all show that here are NO accidents on how to look fab and feel great. They train hard, eat really well and enjoy the sessions. If you are flabby, tired much of the time and walking/running is not getting the results you are looking for then you reall need to start training like these amzing women and stop making excuses.
In September 2009 I began working with two sisters that heard me on Today FM and after some debate on choosing me over the motivation weight loss clinic they came to Dublin for a session.
One of the sisters dropped off after 3 months (the door is always open) but the other has stayed the distance and pulled her husband into the mix with great success.
They kindly emailed me the following recently and I really do hope you read their story and please keep in mind that when they come for their sessions they travel from Limerick for a 8.30-9am appointment on a saturday! Funny how people in Dublin moan about the distance to travel for expert advice.
Enough of that and Joanne and Maurice you are a delight to work with and really hope that others will read this and be inspired to make the necessary changes to their life also.
Joanne
On my way to work one morning back in August, feeling my usual disgust at my lack of energy, poor fitness level, and my inability to lose weight consistently, I heard an interview with Dominic on Today FM. Listening to the interview I thought Dominic put his points on diet and exercise across really well, and I liked his approach. That morning was a turning point for me. Memorising the website address, I went straight up to my office and got Dominic’s details, contacted him and we arranged our first meeting. I live in Limerick, but distance did not pose a problem. He suggested a 6 week program and a review with him after this, and that is how it has continued. My main goal is to lose weight and to get fit and healthy.
After 8 months following Dominic’s training and diet advice, I have never felt better. I have dropped 17kgs to date, and have more energy than when I was in my 20’s. (I am 39). Believe me when I say, I have tried almost all the fad diets out there, and put the weight back on plus an extra helping for good measure! I have never stuck with anything for this long, while getting results continually. I have dropped 2 dress sizes, and have “shape” now. I can see that I am getting more toned, though I still have more weight to lose. When I lose that weight, I won’t stop there. Why? Because this is my life now, and I want to keep feeling this good about myself.
Dominic continually changes my program every 6 weeks. It is always challenging, but always achievable. No excuses about lack of time, as most of the workouts only take 20-30mins!!
I find Dominic’s blog a tremendous motivational tool, and read it every day, and learn from it. I love the videos and the diet advice and tips.
Got to love the walking lunges
Eight months ago if someone had told me I’d be doing walking lunges up and down my kitchen with a weight held over my head I’d have edged nervously towards the nearest exit but you know what, now that I’m doing it, it makes sense, and I enjoy it!
Seeing how hard Dominic works at his own training gives me the motivation to do my workouts, and is proof of his commitment to health and fitness. Dominic has a wealth of experience and knowledge. He can motivate without judging, and he gets results. He has definitely changed my life and that of my family. Because of Dominic, I truly believe now that I can get to where I want to be.
Maurice
I’ve been training with Dominic for about 7 months. I made my first appointment after seeing a program he put together for my wife. It made a big impression on me! After reading a couple of A4 pages I’d say I learned more about diet and exercise in 10 minutes than I had in the previous 10 years.
At the time I was weary of trying to maintain a steady weight and a very basic level of fitness that would not improve on a regime of low fat and lots of cardio. Joanne’s program had so much variety compared to what I was doing. I wanted one too!
Since then I’ve had 7 months of continuous improvement. I’ve never had that before.
Still quite a long way to go of course 
but it’s a lot easier to keep going when you are getting results.
I’ve lost body fat, gotten fitter, faster, stronger and more flexible. But the real benefit is the energy this has given me to do other things in my life.
Dominic is listening!!
Dominic listens to what you are looking for, assesses where you are and every time comes up with a program that pushes you but it’s achievable and most of all it’s enjoyable.
Dominic is a true professional with a vast amount of experience and knowledge and a passion for what he does. Following his programs and reading his blog have been an education and have given me a renewed interest in fitness and nutrition. Working with him has made eating properly and exercising regularly a normal part of life for all our family.
Thanks again and I know I will be seeing you both in a few weeks for new challenges.
On a final point, Joanne and Maurice have gotten amazing results because they did what I asked of them. Are you doing what I asked of you? If so then keep up the great work. If not then get your butt back in gear and stop making excuses on how to avoid fun, challenging and varied workouts.
A client and good friend of mine is off to London to begin a new career tomorrow so I thought I would post up a testimonial he gave to me some time ago that I was saving.
Marco Francosi
“I first met Dominic in February of 2009. Having always been into sports throughout my life, I had found it extremely difficult coping with my fitness and health during the previous 6-7 years as I had damaged ankle ligaments, had glandular fever and had two knee operations for damage to the cartilage and a full cruciate ligament tear. Going from practicing sports five to six times a week, I went through prolonged periods of no sports and exercise, and this not only manifested itself physically, but also affected my confidence and everyday energy levels. Once my knee had healed medically back in 2005, I started going to the gym, something I never had really done prior to the knee injury. By taking ”advice” from so called experts and winging it myself I never saw any particular improvement in my fitness or health, and if anything noticed that the weight exercises I was doing only led to me looking “pumped” or heavy, as opposed to healthy and not helping me improve athletically.
Your choice - red or blue?
Dominic laughs when I compare meeting him and doing that first session, to taking the red pill in the matrix. My whole philosphy regarding exercise, was immediately changed forever. Even though I could barely get out of bed the next two days, I could not wait for that next session the following week, and that has never changed. What I always had was a desire to get fitter and to be improving athletically, not only to get back to how I was prior to the illness and injuries, but to make the improvements I never did even then. Coupling that with the knowledge and enthusiasm that Dominic manages to install in each session, was a recipe for success.
I wont go into the numbers too much as they wont mean a lot to too many people, and everyone has different goals, but a few examples of how Dominic’s training methods helped me will highlight the importance of meeting and learning from someone like him. I generally weigh around 73 or 74 Kg. Due to the serious knee injury I had, my knee was unstable due to the fact that my thigh had around 30% less muscle mass than my right thigh, and due to the lack of sports, it was not as if my ”good” leg was strong. The last time I tried a max deadlift was in December of 2009. I hit 158kg with not too much of an effort, weighing 73kg that day. Chin ups went from struggling to do 10 in a row to a max of 38, or a single with 40kg around my waist. For those interested in body fat percentages, when I met Dominic mine was about 13-14%. Within three months, with my weight going up by 2kg, my body fat had shrunk to 6.2%. Forget the whole looking “ripped” thing, where the benefit was felt most was in the energy department. I had not felt this much energy since I was 18.
Marco doing core work -
If I had to specify the single most important aspect regarding health and fitness that I have learned from Dominic, it would be the importance of the twenty minute exercise session and how to do that correctly. Unless I am playing a sport I will never be in a fitness/sports centre for more than 40 minutes, including showering and changing. This is important because you learn that there is NO excuse for not training. A short metcon can be done in your bedroom or in your back garden. This is something that will aide me in my future training no matter how many hours I work, or where I am in the world.
I can’t ever remember doing the same session with Dominic twice in a month. Even now 4 out of every 5 times we meet, something new is on the menu. No doubt there will be many more new challenges from Dominic in the days, months and years to come.
If you are an aspiring athlete, and you wanted to improve your physical performances, I would urge you to contact Dominic. Thanks to Dominic, I have competed in a triathlon, ski races and a number of other competitions in the last year. Every drop of sweet has been more than worth it.
Marco carving up the slopes
Thanks again Marco and keep in mind the best teacher is the one who suggests rather than dogmatizes, and inspires his listener with the wish to teach himself. Marco made these great changes and got results because he took action and did all that was asked of him without question. I hope you will do the same
I was away for a few days in Spain last week which I really enjoyed. However, it is funny that when people find out what I do the question of how do I (insert goal here..) drop fat, lose the belly, have more energy etc eventually comes up.
I do not mind these questions at all but what I have discovered over the years is that some people REALLY want to know and others are just asking. What I mean by this is that the ones who really want to know usually ask and then follow up on that with an email or just book in for a training session asap whereas with the ones that were just asking the conversation ends there. I get emails on a daily basis from potential clients looking for personal training and assistance with their program and when I send a reply some were just asking and others really want to know.
Even with some clients that I do work with I find it almost impossible to know which ones are going to have massive success and others fall by the wayside. I have lost count of the number of clients that have come to me super enthusiastic yet over the weeks of training they return to the old lazy ways or back to doing their walks/runs and use a nutrition approach that is not right for them. These failure clients can sometimes look for help with another trainer or alternative weight loss approaches (back to weight watchers, vibrating plates and special fat loss products!) but invariably ignore all the info that I gave to them that would work if they stuck to the program. What I find really counts is consistency in your training and diet day after day and week after week – these clients see huge improvements.
This family needs to TAKE ACTION and stop kidding themselves
The people that are just asking can also end up asking too many questions and it’s like they are never satisfied with the answers becuase they prefer to keep asking questions rather than getting down to the business of putting in good hard training sessions and being way more honest with their diet. For example, do not ask me about whether to use low fat milk in your tea if you insist on eating bread twice a day, biscuits daily and just can’t give up the latte a day habit. Come on work on whats going to make a true difference! Less talk and more action please.
The clients I work with that do get and continue to get great results are the ones who REALLY want to know and not just know for knowledge sake but because they want to apply the info asap. They never feel there is no more to learn, they enjoy the challenge of a new program and can’t see their life without regular exercise and a clean diet. They love the feeling exercise gives them and they value the time it takes to exercise because they do not want to end up like some people who moan about their excess fat and being tired all the time but never do anything about it.
I never get tired of answering questions on training, nutrition and health but sometimes I have to ask myself does this person REALLY want to know or are they just asking. If you really want to know you NEVER make excuses and you get the job done. If you are just asking then that’s ok and maybe one day you will get the push you need to stop asking and take action.
With all this in mind I leave you with a video of one of my long time clients Noel (a superb chef I might add) who did this as part of his review yesterday.
Deadlifts (body weight) and pull ups 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1reps
Noel does not ask too many questions, he just gets on with the job and lets his training do the talking. Highly impressive work for a guy in his mid-forties with type 1 diabetes. How many people do you think, that are in their mid-forties, could complete even 1-2 rounds of this? Hell how many people in their twenties could do this? I do not know many and Noel’s ability to get in there and do the work listed always impresses me. He is an inspiration to all those that lay down and roll over when they reach their forties and pile on the fat.
Great job Noel and keep up the super work.
Remember I post these videos of clients not to impress you but to impress upon you that getting in great shape and feeling healthy can be done at all levels, ages and abilities. I hope you enjoy them.
One of my long time clients, Kathy, was kind enough to comment on a recent post regarding Ruth’s success story and I liked it so much I thought it really deserved it’s own post.
I have trained Kathy for well over 5 years now and she will probably tell me it’s been longer. Kathy does her own sessions from home (like Ruth) as well as doing weekly sessions (work permitting) with me. She also comes to my group class on saturdays at 10am and you will have seen her in some of the videos that I have taken of the class.
So here are Kathy’s kind words -
“As another long time client of Dominic’s, I would like to say that I have reaped huge benefits from the training I have been doing. While skiing in France/ Switzerland last week, I was amazed at my increased stamina and the strength in my legs on black runs. I never felt tired and was able to pole for long distances due to my arm strength”.
“As long as I stretched my calves and hamstrings before and after the day, I was good to go the next day.Well worth the effort of squats, arm exercises and reverse curls! thanks Dominic!”
Thanks again Kathy and here is Kathy (wearing balck top and long white bottoms) working hard on a chief (type) workout
If you have a success story you want to share with me and other readers then please send it on.
One of my long time clients, Ruth, was kind enough so mail me the following yesterday -
Ruth Egar, (36yrs, graphic design and Mum of two)
Ruth comes to see me for a new program roughly every 6-8 weeks and trains at home for the most part. I keep the programs varied all the time and it again shows how little you need to get in great shape while training at home. Many trainers baffle clients with science, I like to keep it simple as hard work, correct nutrition and consistency will beat complicated programming all the time. Ruth values her health and having optimal energy levels and these positive vlaues will be passed on to her children. What values are you passing on to your children or friends?
Ruth is an inspiration to all mothers out there who do not want to accept getting fat and out of shape as they get older and want to have bundles of energy and be able to fit into the clothes they feel best in.
So thanks again Ruth and here are two videos of Ruth doing workouts in her local park during the summer.
